MLP: Dating SiM
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I thought since it's the end of season 3, I would make an MLP dating SIM. I started this somewhere around when the whole "Alicorn Twilight" thing was announced. Please review and Rate. It's more like a meet n' fuck than a dating simulator. My little pony.
Season 1 (2009–10) [ edit ]
May 20, 2010 ( 2010-05-20 )
02010-10-04-0000 October 4, 2010
Fin and Reef trick Broseph into being a sponsor so they can get free free stuff, meanwhile Emma goes on a date with the human fart machine Ripper.
June 3, 2010 ( 2010-06-03 ) [ 8 ]
02010-10-07-0000 October 7, 2010
The episode begins with Lo and Fin doing their maid duties. Lo is trying to earn enough money to buy a new pair of bikinis in the hotel gift shop. She is interrupted by a phone call from Mr. Ridgemount, asking Lo to his office. He reveals that he should be nicer to his children, so he returns Mrs. Ridgemount's credit card, lets George have a golf cart (which he later crashes) and allowing Lo out of her hotel duties and back in the penthouse.
While trying attempting to paddleboard, Fin discovers several small islands led by Captain Ron, which are blocking the waves. She records a video, which she plays to everyone else. After losing interest in Emma, Lo calls on her old BFF who leaves very quickly. Reef devises a plan to destroy the islands, use jetskis to pull the islands apart. However they soon discover that it will cost a lot of money. Lo decides to use the credit card that Mr. Ridgemount had given back earlier. The plan succeeds but Lo gets kicked out of the penthouse once again due to the use of the credit card.
Below are some examples of introduction letters sent by Russian scammers. Check to see if you got the copy of the same crap. Hundreds of other men did. )
To save space I don't publish all headers, just the most important part: the last "receive: from" line (which is the one you need) and X-Mailer.
Quote:
Received: from [ 195.161.247.16 ] (16.247.dialup. mari-el. ru [195.161.247.16] (may be forged)) by aqua. relinfo. ru (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id k93Ln6mv023865 for <xxxx@yahoo. com>; Wed, 4 Oct 2006 01:49:06 +0400 (MSD) (envelope-from Shpanarulit777@yandex. ru)
I write to you the first letter. I have many photo which I shall send you. I hope, it will be what is it interesting. I shall say about me directly a little. I send you my pictures. I shall be pleased to see your new photos. I hope, that you understand mine " not such good " English language and all my words to you will be clear. I have learned it at school and at university. My name Irina. To me of 27 years. My birthday - on February, 27 1979. I have been given birth in Russia in city Volzhsk where I live now. Birthday - very happy holiday for me. This day I receive many gifts from my family and friends. When - your birthday? My growth of 168 centimeters, 58 kg of weight. I have light hair and blue eyes. I send you my photo. I hope, what is it will be pleasant for you. I have education Teachers, I work as the teacher in 1-3 classes You have what job? Where you work now? I live in republic Marij-El in Volzhsk. You live in what city? I am the Russian woman. What your relation to The Russian women? I have been never married, and I have no any children. I know many the Russian men. But they were not serious to the relation of family. Russian people also it is similar Alcohol, it is not so pleasant for me. I think, that you have no any such habit. I want to inform, that I do Do not smoke, and I do not use strong alcoholic drinks, but sometimes I Can drink a little in the good company, but it happens seldom. I have mum and the daddy, and the younger sister who studies in institute. They live separately from me in an apartment. Now I live one in a small apartment in the city center which I pay Independently. I have much from, likes. I very much like to sew, knit, prepare, read Various books. I like to go to cinema and to listen to various music. I like to travel, but I never leaved for limits of Russia. I want to have serious relations to find love and to Create happy family. I shall be very pleased, if you as will want it just as me. I want to inform you, that I write letters from the center of the Internet. Unfortunately I have no any computer and phone. I hope, whether will be, what is it a problem for our relations? I want to now more about you, your family. Now I finish my letter (I hope, what is it is not too big for the first letter). I shall wait your letter. I hope that this letter still that will not solve if I shall not like you you and write than you will simply cease to write to me.
Child labour
The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.
It refers to work that:
• is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and
• interferes with their schooling by:
• depriving them of the opportunity to attend school;
• obliging them to leave school prematurely; or
• requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.
Child labour, however, is the opposite of child work. Child labour hampers the normal physical, intellectual, emotional and moral development of a child. Children who are in the growing process can permanently distort or disable their bodies when they carry heavy loads or are forced to adopt unnatural positions at work for long hours. Children are less resistant to diseases and suffer more readily from chemical hazards and radiation than adults.
Child labour is a curse to our society and a crime against humanity. Children work when they are supposed to play or go to school. The sad thing is that they work under hazardous conditions. Though acute poverty is the main cause for child labour throughout the world, everybody – society, parents, government, individuals, low wages, unemployment, poor standard of living, deep social prejudices and backwardness are directly responsible for child labour in India.
In many developed countries, there is a move to boycott goods and products made by employing child labor. Child labor is a cruel practice. Childhood is a time to play and be carefree, enjoying the company of other children. A child is not equipped to work like an adult so this evil practice should be banned and the government should see that no child is deprived of an education because of poverty.
With universal schooling and the introduction of concepts like human rights and child rights, slowly child labor fell into disrepute. The first general laws against child labor, the Factory Acts, were passed in Britain in the first half of the 19th century. Children younger than nine were not allowed to work.
Poverty is the main reason why child labor exists. Children bring in additional income which is much needed and so parents send them to work. Child labor is common in poorer parts of the world. Children may work in factories, sweatshops, mines, fields, hotels, match factories, or in households. Some children work as guides for tourists and may end up getting sexually abused by them as happens in places like Goa and Kerala.
As many children work in the informal sector they manage to escape the scrutiny of the labor inspectors and the media. According to UNICEF, there are an estimated 158 million children aged 5 to 14 engaged in child labor worldwide. In 1999, the Global March against Child Labor, the movement, began. Thousands of people marched together to spread the message against child labor.
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (born 8 January 1947), known by his stage name David Bowie ( / ? b o? . i / BOH - ee ) [1]. is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. He is known for his distinctive voice as well as the intellectual depth and considerable eclecticism of his work.
Bowie first caught the eye and ear of the public in July 1969, when his song “Space Oddity ” reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart. After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single “Starman ” and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars . Bowie’s impact at that time, as described by biographer David Buckley, “challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day” and “created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture.” [2] The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona proved merely one facet of a career marked by continual reinvention, musical innovation and striking visual presentation.
In 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the number-one single “Fame ” and the hit album Young Americans . which the singer characterised as “plastic soul “. The sound constituted a radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees. He then confounded the expectations of both his record label and his American audiences by recording the minimalist album Low (1977)—the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno over the next two years. The so-called “Berlin Trilogy ” albums all reached the UK top five and garnered lasting critical praise.
After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 single “Ashes to Ashes “, its parent album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) . and “Under Pressure “, a 1981 collaboration with Queen. He then reached a new commercial peak in 1983 with Let’s Dance . which yielded several hit singles. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including blue-eyed soul. industrial. adult contemporary. and jungle. His last recorded album was Reality (2003), which was supported by the 2003–04 Reality Tour. He has not performed live since 2006.
Buckley says of Bowie: “His influence has been unique in popular culture—he has permeated and altered more lives than any comparable figure.” [2] In the BBC’s 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Bowie was placed at number 29. Throughout his career, he has sold an estimated 140 million albums. In the UK, he has been awarded nine Platinum album certifications, 11 Gold and eight Silver, and in the US, five Platinum and seven Gold certifications. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him 39th on their list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”, and 23rd on their list of the best singers of all-time.
1947–62: early years
David Bowie was born David Robert Jones in Brixton. London, on 8 January 1947. His mother, Margaret Mary “Peggy” (nee Burns) worked as a cinema usherette, while his father, Haywood Stenton “John” Jones was a promotions officer for Barnardo’s. The family lived at 40 Stansfield Road, located near the border of the south London areas of Brixton and Stockwell. A neighbour recalled that “London in the forties was the worst possible place, and the worst possible time for a child to grow up in.” Bowie attended Stockwell Infants School until he was six years old, acquiring a reputation as a gifted and single-minded child—and a defiant brawler. [3] [4]
In 1953 the family moved to the suburb of Bromley. where, two years later, Bowie progressed to Burnt Ash Junior School. His voice was considered “adequate” by the school choir, and his recorder playing judged to demonstrate above-average musical ability. [5] At the age of nine, his dancing during the newly introduced music and movement classes was strikingly imaginative: teachers called his interpretations “vividly artistic” and his poise “astonishing” for a child. [5] The same year, his interest in music was further stimulated when his father brought home a collection of American 45s by artists including Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. The Platters. Fats Domino. Elvis Presley and Little Richard. [6] [7] Upon listening to “Tutti Frutti “, Bowie would later say, “I had heard God”. [8] Presley’s impact on him was likewise emphatic: “I saw a cousin of mine dance to … ‘Hound Dog ‘ and I had never seen her get up and be moved so much by anything. It really impressed me, the power of the music. I started getting records immediately after that.” [7] By the end of the following year he had taken up the ukelele and tea-chest bass and begun to participate in skiffle sessions with friends, and had started to play the piano; meanwhile his stage presentation of numbers by both Presley and Chuck Berry — complete with gyrations in tribute to the original artists—to his local Wolf Cub group was described as “mesmerizing … like someone from another planet.” [7] Failing his eleven plus exam at the conclusion of his Burnt Ash Junior education, Bowie joined Bromley Technical High School. [9]
It was an unusual technical school, as biographer Christopher Sandford writes:
Despite its status it was, by the time David arrived in 1958, as rich in arcane ritual as any [English] public school. There were houses. named after eighteenth-century statesmen like Pitt and Wilberforce. There was a uniform, and an elaborate system of rewards and punishments. There was also an accent on languages, science and particularly design, where a collegiate atmosphere flourished under the tutorship of Owen Frampton. In David’s account, Frampton led through force of personality, not intellect; his colleagues at Bromley Tech were famous for neither, and yielded the school’s most gifted pupils to the arts, a regime so liberal that Frampton actively encouraged his own son, Peter. to pursue a musical career with David, a partnership briefly intact thirty years later. [9]
Bowie studied art, music, and design, including layout and typesetting. After Terry Burns, his half-brother, introduced him to modern jazz. his enthusiasm for players like Charles Mingus and John Coltrane led his mother to give him a plastic alto saxophone in 1961; he was soon receiving lessons from a local musician. [10] Bowie received a serious injury at school in 1962 when his friend George Underwood punched him in the left eye during a fight over a girl. Doctors feared he would become blind in that eye. After a series of operations during a four-month hospitalisation, [11] his doctors determined that the damage could not be fully repaired and Bowie was left with faulty depth perception and a permanently dilated pupil. The latter condition has misled some to believe that Bowie has different coloured eyes, when in reality both irises are the same blue colour. [12] Despite their altercation, Underwood and Bowie remained good friends, and Underwood went on to create the artwork for Bowie’s early albums. [13]
1962–68: the Konrads to the Riot Squad
Graduating from his plastic saxophone to a real instrument in 1962, Bowie formed his first band at the age of 15. Playing guitar-based rock and roll at local youth gatherings and weddings, the Konrads had a varying line-up of between four and eight members, Underwood among them. [14] When Bowie left the technical school the following year, he informed his parents of his intention to become a pop star. His mother promptly arranged his employment as an electrician’s mate. Frustrated by his band-mates’ limited aspirations, Bowie left the Konrads and joined another band, the King Bees. He wrote to the newly successful washing-machine entrepreneur John Bloom inviting him to “do for us what Brian Epstein has done for the Beatles—and make another million.” Bloom did not respond to the offer, but his referral to Dick James ‘s partner Leslie Conn led to Bowie’s first personal management contract. [15]
Conn quickly began to promote Bowie. The singer’s debut single, “Liza Jane “, credited to Davie Jones and the King Bees, had no commercial success. Dissatisfied with the King Bees and their repertoire of Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon blues numbers, Bowie quit the band less than a month later to join the Manish Boys, another blues outfit, who incorporated folk and soul — “I used to dream of being their Mick Jagger “, Bowie was to recall. [15] “I Pity the Fool ” was no more successful than “Liza Jane”, and Bowie soon moved on again to join the Lower Third, a blues trio strongly influenced by The Who. “You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving ” fared no better, signalling the end of Conn’s contract. Declaring that he would exit the pop world “to study mime at Sadler’s Wells “, Bowie nevertheless remained with the Lower Third. His new manager, Ralph Horton, later instrumental in his transition to solo artist, soon witnessed Bowie’s move to yet another group, the Buzz, yielding the singer’s fifth unsuccessful single release, “Do Anything You Say “. While with the Buzz, Bowie also joined the Riot Squad ; their recordings, which included a Bowie number and Velvet Underground material, went unreleased. Ken Pitt, introduced by Horton, took over as Bowie’s manager. [16]
Dissatisfied with his stage name as Davy (and Davie) Jones, which in the mid-1960s invited confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkees. Bowie renamed himself after the 19th century American frontiersman Jim Bowie and the knife he had popularised. [17] His April 1967 solo single, “The Laughing Gnome “, utilising sped-up thus high-pitched vocals, failed to chart. Released six weeks later, his album debut, David Bowie . an amalgam of pop, psychedelia. and music hall. met the same fate. It would be his last release for two years. [18]
Bowie’s fascination with the bizarre was fuelled when he met dancer Lindsay Kemp. “He lived on his emotions, he was a wonderful influence. His day-to-day life was the most theatrical thing I had ever seen, ever. It was everything I thought Bohemia probably was. I joined the circus.” [19] Kemp, for his part, recalled, “I didn’t really teach him to be a mime artiste but to be more of himself on the outside, … I enabled him to free the angel and demon that he is on the inside.” [19] Studying the dramatic arts under Kemp, from avant-garde theatre and mime to commedia dell’arte. Bowie became immersed in the creation of personae to present to the world. Satirising life in a British prison, meanwhile, the Bowie-penned “Over the Wall We Go” became a 1967 single for Oscar ; another Bowie composition, “Silly Boy Blue”, was released by Billy Fury the following year. [20] After Kemp cast Bowie with Hermione Farthingale for a poetic minuet, the pair began dating; they soon moved into a London flat together. Playing acoustic guitar, she formed a group with Bowie and bassist John Hutchinson; between September 1968 and early 1969, when Bowie and Farthingale broke up, the trio gave a small number of concerts combining folk, Merseybeat. poetry and mime. [21]
1969–73: psychedelic folk to glam rock
Because of his lack of commercial success, Bowie was forced to try to earn a living in different ways. He featured in a Lyons Maid ice cream commercial, but was rejected for another by Kit Kat. [22] Intended as a vehicle to promote the singer, a 30-minute film featuring performances from his repertoire, Love You till Tuesday . was made. Although not released until 1984, the filming sessions in January 1969 led to unexpected success when Bowie told the producers, “That film of yours—I’ve got a new song for it.” He then demoed the song that would provide his commercial breakthrough. “Space Oddity ” was released later in the year to coincide with the first moon landing. [22] Breaking up with Farthingale shortly after completion of the film, Bowie moved in with Mary Finnigan as her lodger. [23] Continuing the divergence from rock and roll and blues begun by his work with Farthingale, Bowie joined forces with Finnigan, Christina Ostrom and Barrie Jackson to run a folk club on Sunday nights at the Three Tuns pub in Beckenham High Street. [23] This soon morphed into the Beckenham Arts Lab, and became extremely popular. The Arts Lab hosted a free festival in a local park, later immortalised by Bowie in his song “Memory of a Free Festival “. [24] “Space Oddity” was released on 11 July, five days ahead of the Apollo 11 launch, to become a UK top five hit. Bowie’s second album, Space Oddity . followed in November; originally issued in the UK as David Bowie . it caused some confusion with its predecessor of the same name, and the early US release was instead titled Man of Words/Man of Music . Featuring philosophical post-hippie lyrics on peace, love and morality, its acoustic folk rock occasionally fortified by harder rock, the album was not a commercial success at the time of its release. [25]
Bowie met Angela Barnett in April 1969. They would marry within a year. Her impact on him was immediate, and her involvement in his career far-reaching, leaving Pitt with limited influence which he found frustrating. [26] Having established himself as a solo artist with “Space Oddity”, Bowie began to sense a lacking: “a full-time band for gigs and recording—people he could relate to personally”. [27] The shortcoming was underlined by his artistic rivalry with Marc Bolan. who was at the time acting as his session guitarist. [27] A band was duly assembled. John Cambridge, a drummer Bowie met at the Arts Lab, was joined by Tony Visconti on bass and Mick Ronson on electric guitar. Known as The Hype, the band members created characters for themselves and wore elaborate costumes that prefigured the glam style of The Spiders From Mars. After a disastrous opening gig at the London Roundhouse. they reverted to a configuration presenting Bowie as a solo artist. [27] [28] Their initial studio work was marred by a heated disagreement between Bowie and Cambridge over the latter’s drumming style; matters came to a head when Bowie, enraged, accused, “You’re fucking up my album.” Cambridge summarily quit and was replaced by Mick Woodmansey. [29] Not long after, in a move that would result in years of litigation, at the conclusion of which Bowie would be forced to pay Pitt compensation, the singer fired his manager, replacing him with Tony Defries. [29]
The studio sessions continued and resulted in Bowie’s third album, The Man Who Sold the World (1970). Characterised by the heavy rock sound of his new backing band, it was a marked departure from the acoustic guitar and folk rock style established by Space Oddity . To promote it in the United States, Mercury Records financed a coast-to-coast publicity tour in which Bowie, between January and February 1971, was interviewed by radio stations and the media. Exploiting his androgynous appearance, the original cover of the UK version unveiled two months later would depict the singer wearing a dress: taking the garment with him, he wore it during interviews—to the approval of critics, including Rolling Stone ‘s John Mendelsohn who described him as “ravishing, almost disconcertingly reminiscent of Lauren Bacall “—and in the street, to mixed reaction including laughter and, in the case of one male pedestrian, producing a gun and telling Bowie to “kiss my ass”. [30] [31] During the tour Bowie’s observation of two seminal American proto-punk artists led him to develop a concept that would eventually find form in the Ziggy Stardust character: a melding of the persona of Iggy Pop with the music of Lou Reed. producing “the ultimate pop idol”. [30] A girlfriend recalled his “scrawling notes on a cocktail napkin about a crazy rock star named Iggy or Ziggy”, and on his return to England he declared his intention to create a character “who looks like he’s landed from Mars”. [30]
Hunky Dory (1971) found Visconti, Bowie’s producer and bassist, supplanted in both roles, by Ken Scott and Trevor Bolder respectively. The album saw the partial return of the fey pop singer of “Space Oddity”, with light fare such as “Kooks “, a song written for his son, Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones. born on 30 May. [32] (His parents chose “his kooky name”—he would be known as Zowie for the next 12 years—after the Greek word zoe . life.) [33] Elsewhere, the album explored more serious themes, and found Bowie paying unusually direct homage to his influences with “Song for Bob Dylan “, “Andy Warhol “, and “Queen Bitch “, a Velvet Underground pastiche. It was not a significant commercial success at the time [34] but was ranked number 58 by voters on the All Time Top 1000 Albums list.
With his next venture, Bowie, in the words of biographer David Buckley, “challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day” and “created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture”. [2] Dressed in a striking costume, his hair dyed red, Bowie launched his Ziggy Stardust stage show with the Spiders from Mars — Ronson, Bolder and Woodmansey—at the Toby Jug pub in Tolworth on 10 February 1972. [35] The show was hugely popular, catapulting him to stardom as he toured the UK over the course of the next six months and creating, as described by Buckley, a “cult of Bowie” that was “unique—its influence lasted longer and has been more creative than perhaps almost any other force within pop fandom.” [35] The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), combining the hard rock elements of The Man Who Sold the World with the lighter experimental rock and pop of Hunky Dory . was released in June. “Starman “, issued as an April single ahead of the album, was to cement Bowie’s UK breakthrough: both single and album charted rapidly following his July Top of the Pops performance of the song. The album, which would remain in the chart for two years, was soon joined there by the six-month-old Hunky Dory . At the same time the non-album single “John, I’m Only Dancing “, and “All the Young Dudes “, a song he wrote and produced for Mott the Hoople. became UK hits. The Ziggy Stardust Tour continued to the United States. [36]
Bowie contributed backing vocals to Lou Reed’s 1972 solo breakthrough Transformer . co-producing the album with Mick Ronson. [37] His own Aladdin Sane (1973) topped the UK chart, his first number one album. Described by Bowie as “Ziggy goes to America”, it contained songs he wrote while travelling to and across the United States during the earlier part of the Ziggy tour, which now continued to Japan to promote the new album. Aladdin Sane spawned the UK top five singles “The Jean Genie ” and “Drive-In Saturday “. [38] [39]
Bowie’s love of acting led his total immersion in the characters he created for his music. “Offstage I’m a robot. Onstage I achieve emotion. It’s probably why I prefer dressing up as Ziggy to being David.” With satisfaction came severe personal difficulties: acting the same role over an extended period, it became impossible for him to separate Ziggy Stardust—and, later, the Thin White Duke—from his own character offstage. Ziggy, Bowie said, “wouldn’t leave me alone for years. That was when it all started to go sour … My whole personality was affected. It became very dangerous. I really did have doubts about my sanity.” [40] His later Ziggy shows, which included songs from both Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane . were ultra-theatrical affairs filled with shocking stage moments, such as Bowie stripping down to a sumo wrestling loincloth or simulating oral sex with Ronson’s guitar. [41] Bowie toured and gave press conferences as Ziggy before a dramatic and abrupt on-stage “retirement” at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on 3 July 1973. Footage from the final show was released in 1983 for the film Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars . [42]
After breaking up the Spiders from Mars, Bowie attempted to move on from his Ziggy persona. His back catalogue was now highly sought: The Man Who Sold the World had been re-released in 1972 along with Space Oddity . “Life on Mars? “, from Hunky Dory . was released in June 1973 and made number three in the UK singles chart. Entering the same chart in September, Bowie’s novelty record from 1967, “The Laughing Gnome “, would reach number four. [43] Pin Ups . a collection of covers of his 1960s favourites, followed in October, producing a UK number three hit in “Sorrow ” and itself peaking at number one, making David Bowie the best-selling act of 1973 in the UK. It brought the total number of Bowie albums currently in the UK chart to six. [44]
1974–76: soul, funk and the Thin White Duke
Bowie moved to the United States in 1974, initially staying in New York City before settling in Los Angeles. [45] Diamond Dogs (1974), parts of which found him heading towards soul and funk. was the product of two distinct ideas: a musical based on a wild future in a post-apocalyptic city, and setting George Orwell ‘s 1984 to music. [46] The album went to number one in the UK, spawning the hits “Rebel Rebel ” and “Diamond Dogs “, and number five in the US. To promote it, Bowie launched the Diamond Dogs Tour. visiting cities in North America between June and December 1974. Choreographed by Toni Basil. and lavishly produced with theatrical special effects, the high-budget stage production was filmed by Alan Yentob. The resulting documentary, Cracked Actor . featured a pasty and emaciated Bowie: the tour coincided with the singer’s slide from heavy cocaine use into addiction, producing severe physical debilitation, paranoia and emotional problems. [47] He later commented that the accompanying live album, David Live . ought to have been titled “David Bowie Is Alive and Well and Living Only In Theory”. David Live nevertheless solidified Bowie’s status as a superstar, charting at number two in the UK and number eight in the US. It also spawned a UK number ten hit in Bowie’s cover of “Knock on Wood “. After a break in Philadelphia. where Bowie recorded new material, the tour resumed with a new emphasis on soul. [48]
The fruit of the Philadelphia recording sessions was Young Americans (1975). Biographer Christopher Sandford writes, “Over the years, most British rockers had tried, one way or another, to become black-by-extension. Few had succeeded as Bowie did now.” [49] The album’s sound, which the singer identified as “plastic soul “, constituted a radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees. [50] Young Americans yielded Bowie’s first US number one, “Fame “, co-written with John Lennon. who contributed backing vocals, and Carlos Alomar. Lennon would call Bowie’s work as “great, but just rock and roll with lipstick on”. [51] Earning the distinction of being one of the first white artists to appear on the US variety show Soul Train . Bowie mimed “Fame”, as well as “Golden Years “, his November single, [52] that it was offered to Elvis Presley to perform, but Presley declined it. [52] Young Americans was a commercial success in both the US and the UK, and a re-issue of the 1969 single “Space Oddity” became Bowie’s first number one hit in the UK a few months after “Fame” achieved the same in the US. [53] Despite his by now well established superstardom, Bowie, in the words of biographer Christopher Sandford, “for all his record sales (over a million copies of Ziggy Stardust alone), existed essentially on loose change.” [54] In 1975, in a move echoing Ken Pitt’s acrimonious dismissal five years earlier, Bowie fired his manager. At the culmination of the ensuing months-long legal dispute, he watched, as described by Sandford, “millions of dollars of his future earnings being surrendered” in what were “uniquely generous terms for Defries”, then “shut himself up in West 20th Street, where for a week his howls could be heard through the locked attic door.” [54] Michael Lippman, Bowie’s lawyer during the negotiations, became his new manager; Lippman in turn would be awarded substantial compensation when Bowie fired him the following year. [55]
Station to Station (1976) introduced a new Bowie persona, the “Thin White Duke ” of its title track. Visually, the character was an extension of Thomas Jerome Newton, the extraterrestrial being he portrayed in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth the same year. [56] Developing the funk and soul of Young Americans . Station to Station also prefigured the Krautrock and synthesiser music of his next releases. The extent to which drug addiction was now affecting Bowie was made public when Russell Harty interviewed the singer for his London Weekend Television talk show in anticipation of the album’s supporting tour. Shortly before the satellite-linked interview was scheduled to commence, the death of the Spanish dictator General Franco was announced. Bowie was asked to relinquish the satellite booking, to allow the Spanish Government to put out a live newsfeed. This he refused to do, and his interview went ahead. In the ensuing conversation with Harty, as described by biographer David Buckley, “the singer made hardly any sense at all throughout what was quite an extensive interview. [. ] Bowie looked completely disconnected and was hardly able to utter a coherent sentence.” [57] His sanity—by his own later admission—had become twisted from cocaine; he overdosed several times during the year, and was withering physically to an alarming degree. [47] [58]
Station to Station ‘s January 1976 release was followed in February by a three-and-a-half-month concert tour of Europe and North America. Featuring a starkly lit set, the Isolar – 1976 Tour highlighted songs from the album, including the dramatic and lengthy title track. the ballads “Wild Is the Wind ” and “Word on a Wing “, and the funkier “TVC 15 ” and “Stay “. The core band that coalesced around this album and tour—rhythm guitarist Alomar, bassist George Murray. and drummer Dennis Davis — would continue as a stable unit for the remainder of the 1970s. The tour was highly successful but mired in political controversy. Bowie was quoted in Stockholm as saying that “Britain could benefit from a Fascist leader”, and was detained by customs on the Russian/Polish border for possessing Nazi paraphernalia. [59] Matters came to a head in London in May in what became known as the “Victoria Station incident”. Arriving in an open-top Mercedes convertible. the singer waved to the crowd in a gesture that some alleged was a Nazi salute, which was captured on camera and published in NME . Bowie said the photographer simply caught him in mid-wave. [60] He later blamed his pro-Fascism comments and his behaviour during the period on his addictions and the character of the Thin White Duke. [61] “I was out of my mind, totally crazed. The main thing I was functioning on was mythology … that whole thing about Hitler and Rightism … I’d discovered King Arthur …”. [58] According to playwright Alan Franks, writing later in The Times . “he was indeed ‘deranged’. He had some very bad experiences with hard drugs.” [62]
1976–79: the Berlin era
Bowie moved to Switzerland in 1976, purchasing a chalet in the hills to the north of Lake Geneva. In the new environment, his cocaine use increased; so too did his interest in pursuits outside his musical career. He took up painting, and produced a number of post-modernist pieces. When on tour, he took to sketching in a notebook, and photographing scenes for later reference. Visiting galleries in Geneva and the Brucke Museum in Berlin, Bowie became, in the words of biographer Christopher Sandford, “a prolific producer and collector of contemporary art. [. ] Not only did he become a well-known patron of expressionist art: locked in Clos des Mesanges he began an intensive self-improvement course in classical music and literature, and started work on an autobiography”. [63]
Before the end of 1976, Bowie’s interest in the burgeoning German music scene, as well as his drug addiction, prompted him to move to West Berlin to clean up and revitalise his career. Working with Brian Eno while sharing an apartment in Schoneberg with Iggy Pop, he began to focus on minimalist, ambient music for the first of three albums, co-produced with Tony Visconti, that would become known as his Berlin Trilogy. [64] During the same period, Iggy Pop, with Bowie as a co-writer and musician, completed his solo album debut, The Idiot . and its follow-up, Lust for Life . touring the UK, Europe, and the US in March and April 1977. [65] Low (1977), partly influenced by the Krautrock sound of Kraftwerk and Neu!. evidenced a move away from narration in Bowie’s songwriting to a more abstract musical form in which lyrics were sporadic and optional. It received considerable negative criticism upon its release—a release which RCA, anxious to maintain the established commercial momentum, did not welcome, and which Bowie’s ex-manager, Tony Defries, who still maintained a significant financial interest in the singer’s affairs, tried to prevent. Despite these forebodings, Low yielded the UK number three single “Sound and Vision “, and its own performance surpassed that of Station to Station in the UK chart, where it reached number two. Leading contemporary composer Philip Glass described Low as “a work of genius” in 1992, when he used it as the basis for his Symphony No. 1 “Low” ; subsequently, Glass used Bowie’s next album as the basis for his 1996 Symphony No. 4 “Heroes” . [66] [67] Glass has praised Bowie’s gift for creating “fairly complex pieces of music, masquerading as simple pieces”. [68]
Echoing Low ‘s minimalist, instrumental approach, the second of the trilogy, “Heroes” (1977), incorporated pop and rock to a greater extent, seeing Bowie joined by guitarist Robert Fripp. Like Low . “Heroes” evinced the zeitgeist of the Cold War, symbolised by the divided city of Berlin. [69] Incorporating ambient sounds from a variety of sources including white noise generators, synthesizers and koto. the album was another hit, reaching number three in the UK. Its title track. though only reaching number 24 in the UK singles chart, gained lasting popularity, and within months had been released in both German and French. [70] Towards the end of the year, Bowie performed the song for Marc Bolan’s television show Marc . and again two days later for Bing Crosby ‘s televised Christmas special, when he joined Crosby in “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy “, a version of “The Little Drummer Boy ” with a new, contrapuntal verse. Five years later, the duet would prove a worldwide seasonal hit, charting in the UK at number three on Christmas Day, 1982. [71]
After completing Low and “Heroes” . Bowie spent much of 1978 on the Isolar II world tour. bringing the music of the first two Berlin Trilogy albums to almost a million people during 70 concerts in 12 countries. By now he had broken his drug addiction; biographer David Buckley writes that Isolar II was “Bowie’s first tour for five years in which he had probably not anaesthetised himself with copious quantities of cocaine before taking the stage. [. ] Without the oblivion that drugs had brought, he was now in a healthy enough mental condition to want to make friends.” [72] Recordings from the tour made up the live album Stage . released the same year. [73]
The final piece in what Bowie called his “triptych “, Lodger (1979), eschewed the minimalist, ambient nature of the other two, making a partial return to the drum - and guitar-based rock and pop of his pre-Berlin era. The result was a complex mixture of New Wave and World Music. in places incorporating Hejaz non-Western scales. Some tracks were composed using Eno and Peter Schmidt ‘s Oblique Strategies cards: “Boys Keep Swinging” entailed band members swapping instruments, “Move On” used the chords from Bowie’s early composition “All the Young Dudes” played backwards, and “Red Money” took backing tracks from “Sister Midnight”, a piece previously composed with Iggy Pop. [74] The album was recorded in Switzerland. Ahead of its release, RCA’s Mel Ilberman stated, “It would be fair to call it Bowie’s Sergeant Pepper [. ] a concept album that portrays the Lodger as a homeless wanderer, shunned and victimized by life’s pressures and technology.” As described by biographer Christopher Sandford, “The record dashed such high hopes with dubious choices, and production that spelt the end—for fifteen years—of Bowie’s partnership with Eno.” Lodger reached number 4 in the UK and number 20 in the US, and yielded the UK hit singles “Boys Keep Swinging ” and “DJ “. [75] [76] Towards the end of the year, Bowie and Angela initiated divorce proceedings, and after months of court battles the marriage was ended in early 1980. [77]
1980–89: from superstar to megastar
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) produced the number one hit “Ashes to Ashes “, featuring the textural work of guitar-synthesist Chuck Hammer and revisiting the character of Major Tom from “Space Oddity”. The song gave international exposure to the underground New Romantic movement when Bowie visited the London club “Blitz”—the main New Romantic hangout—to recruit several of the regulars (including Steve Strange of the band Visage ) to act in the accompanying video, renowned as one of the most innovative of all time. [78] While Scary Monsters utilised principles established by the Berlin albums, it was considered by critics to be far more direct musically and lyrically. The album’s hard rock edge included conspicuous guitar contributions from Robert Fripp. Pete Townshend. Chuck Hammer and Tom Verlaine. [79] As “Ashes to Ashes” hit number one on the UK charts, Bowie opened a three-month run on Broadway on 24 September, starring in The Elephant Man . [80] The same year, he made a cameo appearance in the German film Christiane F. . a real-life story of teenage drug addiction in 1970s Berlin. The Christiane F. soundtrack album, which featured Bowie’s music prominently, was released a few months later.
Bowie paired with Queen in 1981 for a one-off single release, “Under Pressure “. The duet was a hit, becoming Bowie’s third UK number one single. Bowie was given the lead role in the BBC’s 1981 televised adaptation of Bertolt Brecht ‘s play Baal . Coinciding with its transmission, a five-track EP of songs from the play, recorded earlier in Berlin, was released as David Bowie in Bertolt Brecht’s Baal . In March 1982, the month before Paul Schrader ‘s film Cat People came out, Bowie’s title song, “Cat People (Putting Out Fire) “, was released as a single, becoming a minor US hit and entering the UK top 30. [81]
Bowie reached a new peak of popularity and commercial success in 1983 with Let’s Dance . Co-produced by Chic ‘s Nile Rodgers. the album went platinum in both the UK and the US. Its three singles became top twenty hits in both countries, where its title track reached number one. “Modern Love ” and “China Girl ” made number two in the UK, accompanied by a pair of acclaimed promotional videos that, as described by biographer David Buckley, “were totally absorbing and activated key archetypes in the pop world. ‘Let’s Dance’, with its little narrative surrounding the young Aborigine couple, targeted ‘youth’, and ‘China Girl’, with its bare-bummed (and later partially censored) beach lovemaking scene (a homage to the film From Here to Eternity ), was sufficiently sexually provocative to guarantee heavy rotation on MTV. By 1983, Bowie had emerged as one of the most important video artists of the day. Let’s Dance was followed by the Serious Moonlight Tour. during which Bowie was accompanied by guitarist Earl Slick and backing vocalists Frank and George Simms. The world tour lasted six months and was extremely popular. [82] Stevie Ray Vaughan was guest guitarist playing solo on “Let’s Dance”.
Tonight (1984), another dance-oriented album, found Bowie collaborating with Tina Turner and, once again, Iggy Pop. It included a number of cover songs, among them the 1966 Beach Boys hit “God Only Knows “. The album bore the transatlantic top ten hit “Blue Jean “, itself the inspiration for a short film that won Bowie a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video. “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean “. Bowie performed at Wembley in 1985 for Live Aid. a multi-venue benefit concert for Ethiopian famine relief. During the event, the video for a fundraising single was premiered, Bowie’s duet with Mick Jagger. “Dancing in the Street ” quickly went to number one on release. The same year, Bowie worked with the Pat Metheny Group to record “This Is Not America ” for the soundtrack of The Falcon and the Snowman . Released as a single, the song became a top 40 hit in the UK and US. [83]
Bowie was given a role in the 1986 film Absolute Beginners . It was poorly received by critics, but Bowie’s theme song rose to number two in the UK charts. He also appeared as Jareth. the Goblin King, in the 1986 Jim Henson film Labyrinth . for which he wrote five songs. His final solo album of the decade was 1987’s Never Let Me Down . where he ditched the light sound of his previous two albums, instead offering harder rock with an industrial /techno dance edge. Peaking at number six in the UK, the album yielded the hits “Day-In, Day-Out ” (his 60th single), “Time Will Crawl “, and “Never Let Me Down “. Bowie later described it as his “nadir”, calling it “an awful album”. [84] Supporting Never Let Me Down . and preceded by nine promotional press shows, the 86-concert Glass Spider Tour commenced on 30 May. Bowie’s backing band included Peter Frampton on lead guitar. Critics maligned the tour as overproduced, saying it pandered to the current stadium rock trends in its special effects and dancing. [85]
1989–91: Tin Machine
Bowie shelved his solo career in 1989, retreating to the relative anonymity of band membership for the first time since the early 1970s. A hard-rocking quartet, Tin Machine came into being after Bowie began to work experimentally with guitarist Reeves Gabrels. The line-up was completed by Tony and Hunt Sales. whom Bowie had known since the late 1970s for their contribution, on drums and bass respectively, to Iggy Pop’s 1977 album Lust For Life . [86]
Though he intended Tin Machine to operate as a democracy, Bowie dominated, both in songwriting and in decision-making. [87] The band’s album debut, Tin Machine (1989), was initially popular, though its politicised lyrics did not find universal approval: Bowie described one song as “a simplistic, naive, radical, laying-it-down about the emergence of neo-Nazis”; in the view of biographer Christopher Sandford, “It took nerve to denounce drugs, fascism and TV [. ] in terms that reached the literary level of a comic book.” [88] EMI complained of “lyrics that preach” as well as “repetitive tunes” and “minimalist or no production”. [89] The album nevertheless reached number three in the UK. [88] Tin Machine’s first world tour was a commercial success, but there was growing reluctance—among fans and critics alike—to accept Bowie’s presentation as merely a band member. [90] A series of Tin Machine singles failed to chart, and Bowie, after a disagreement with EMI, left the label. [91] Like his audience and his critics, Bowie himself became increasingly disaffected with his role as just one member of a band. [92] Tin Machine began work on a second album, but Bowie put the venture on hold and made a return to solo work. Performing his early hits during the seven-month Sound+Vision Tour. he found commercial success and acclaim once again. [93]
In October 1990, a decade after his divorce from Angela, Bowie and Somali - born supermodel Iman were introduced by a mutual friend. Bowie recalled, “I was naming the children the night we met … it was absolutely immediate.” They would marry in 1992. [94] Tin Machine resumed work the same month, but their audience and critics, ultimately left disappointed by the first album, showed little interest in a second. Tin Machine II ‘s arrival was marked by a widely publicised and ill-timed conflict over the cover art: after production had begun, the new record label, Victory, deemed the depiction of four ancient nude Kouroi statues, judged by Bowie to be “in exquisite taste”, “a show of wrong, obscene images”, requiring air-brushing and patching to render the figures sexless. [95] Tin Machine toured again, but after the live album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby failed commercially, the band drifted apart, and Bowie, though he continued to collaborate with Gabrels, resumed his solo career. [96]
1992–99: electronica
In April 1992 Bowie appeared at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. following the Queen frontman’s death the previous year. As well as performing “Heroes” and “All the Young Dudes”, he was joined on “Under Pressure” by Annie Lennox. who took Mercury’s vocal part. [97] Four days later, Bowie and Iman were married in Switzerland. Intending to move to Los Angeles, they flew in to search for a suitable property, but found themselves confined to their hotel, under curfew: the 1992 Los Angeles riots began the day they arrived. They settled in New York instead. [98]
1993 saw the release of Bowie’s first solo offering since his Tin Machine departure, the soul, jazz and hip-hop influenced Black Tie White Noise . Making prominent use of electronic instruments, the album, which reunited Bowie with Let’s Dance producer Nile Rodgers. confirmed Bowie’s return to popularity, hitting the number one spot on the UK charts and spawning three top 40 hits, including the top 10 song “Jump They Say “. [99] Bowie explored new directions on The Buddha of Suburbia (1993), a soundtrack album of incidental music composed for the TV series adaptation of Hanif Kureishi’s novel. It contained some of the new elements introduced in Black Tie White Noise . and also signalled a move towards alternative rock. The album was a critical success but received a low-key release and only made number 87 in the UK charts. [100]
Reuniting Bowie with Eno, the quasi-industrial Outside (1995) was originally conceived as the first volume in a non-linear narrative of art and murder. Featuring characters from a short story written by Bowie, the album achieved US and UK chart success, and yielded three top 40 UK singles. [101] In a move that provoked mixed reaction from both fans and critics, Bowie chose Nine Inch Nails as his tour partner for the Outside Tour. Visiting cities in Europe and North America between September 1995 and February the following year, the tour saw the return of Gabrels as Bowie’s guitarist. [102]
Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 17 January 1996. [103] Incorporating experiments in British jungle and drum ‘n’ bass. Earthling (1997) was a critical and commercial success in the UK and the US, and two singles from the album became UK top 40 hits. Bowie’s song “I’m Afraid of Americans ” from the Paul Verhoeven film Showgirls was re-recorded for the album, and remixed by Trent Reznor for a single release. The heavy rotation of the accompanying video, also featuring Reznor, contributed to the song’s 16-week stay in the US Billboard Hot 100. The Earthling Tour took in Europe and North America between June and November 1997. [104] Bowie reunited with Visconti in 1998 to record “(Safe in This) Sky Life” for The Rugrats Movie . Although the track was edited out of the final cut, it would later be re-recorded and released as “Safe” on the B-side of Bowie’s 2002 single “Everyone Says ‘Hi’ “. [105] The reunion led to other collaborations including a limited-edition single release version of Placebo’s track “Without You I’m Nothing “, co-produced by Visconti, with Bowie’s harmonised vocal added to the original recording. [106]
1999–present: neoclassicist Bowie
Bowie created the soundtrack for Omikron . a 1999 computer game in which he and Iman also appeared as characters. Released the same year and containing re-recorded tracks from Omikron, his album ‘Hours…’ featured a song with lyrics by the winner of his “Cyber Song Contest” Internet competition, Alex Grant. [107] Making extensive use of live instruments, the album was Bowie’s exit from heavy electronica. [108] Sessions for the planned album Toy . intended to feature new versions of some of Bowie’s earliest pieces as well as three new songs, commenced in 2000, but the album was never released. Bowie and Visconti continued their collaboration, producing a new album of completely original songs instead: the result of the sessions was the 2002 album Heathen . [109] Alexandria Zahra Jones, Bowie and Iman’s daughter, was born on 15 August. [110]
In October 2001, Bowie opened The Concert for New York City. a charity event to benefit the victims of the September 11 attacks. with a minimalist performance of Simon & Garfunkel ‘s “America “, followed by a full band performance of “Heroes”. [111] 2002 saw the release of Heathen . and, during the second half of the year, the Heathen Tour. Taking in Europe and North America, the tour opened at London’s annual Meltdown festival, for which Bowie was that year appointed artistic director. Among the acts he selected for the festival were Philip Glass. Television and The Dandy Warhols. As well as songs from the new album, the tour featured material from Bowie’s Low era. [112] Reality (2003) followed, and its accompanying world tour, the A Reality Tour. with an estimated attendance of 722,000, grossed more than any other in 2004. Onstage in Oslo, Norway, on 18 June, Bowie was hit in the eye with a lollipop thrown by a fan; a week later he suffered chest pain while performing at the Hurricane Festival in Schee? el. Germany. Originally thought to be a pinched nerve in his shoulder, the pain was later diagnosed as an acutely blocked artery, requiring an emergency angioplasty in Hamburg. The remaining 14 dates of the tour were cancelled. [113]
Since recuperating from the heart surgery, Bowie has reduced his musical output, making only one-off appearances on stage and in the studio. He sang in a duet of his 1972 song “Changes ” with Butterfly Boucher for the 2004 animated film Shrek 2 . [114] During a relatively quiet 2005, he recorded the vocals for the song “(She Can) Do That”, co-written with Brian Transeau, for the film Stealth . [115] He returned to the stage on 8 September 2005, appearing with Arcade Fire for the US nationally televised event Fashion Rocks, and performed with the Canadian band for the second time a week later during the CMJ Music Marathon. [116] He contributed back-up vocals on TV on the Radio ‘s song “Province” for their album Return to Cookie Mountain . [117] made a commercial with Snoop Dogg for XM Satellite Radio. [118] and joined with Lou Reed on Danish alt-rockers Kashmir’s 2005 album No Balance Palace . [119]
Bowie was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award on 8 February 2006. [120] In April, he announced, “I’m taking a year off—no touring, no albums.” [121] He made a surprise guest appearance at David Gilmour ‘s 29 May concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The event was recorded, and a selection of songs on which he had contributed joint vocals were subsequently released. [122] He performed again in November, alongside Alicia Keys. at the Black Ball, a New York benefit event for Keep a Child Alive. [123] a performance that marks the last time Bowie performed his music on stage. [124]
Bowie was chosen to curate the 2007 High Line Festival, selecting musicians and artists for the Manhattan event, [125] and performed on Scarlett Johansson ‘s 2008 album of Tom Waits covers, Anywhere I Lay My Head . [126] On the 40th anniversary of the July 1969 moon landing—and Bowie’s accompanying commercial breakthrough with “Space Oddity”—EMI released the individual tracks from the original eight-track studio recording of the song, in a 2009 contest inviting members of the public to create a remix. [127] A Reality Tour . a double album of live material from the 2003 concert tour, was released in January 2010. [128]
In late March 2011, Toy . Bowie’s previously unreleased album from 2001, was leaked onto the internet, containing material used for Heathen and most of its single B-sides, as well as unheard new versions of his early back catalogue. [129] [130]
Acting career
Biographer David Buckley writes, “The essence of Bowie’s contribution to popular music can be found in his outstanding ability to analyse and select ideas from outside the mainstream—from art, literature, theatre and film—and to bring them inside, so that the currency of pop is constantly being changed.” [131] Buckley says, “Just one person took glam rock to new rarefied heights and invented character-playing in pop, marrying theatre and popular music in one seamless, powerful whole.” [132] Bowie’s career has also been punctuated by various roles in film and theatre productions, earning him some acclaim as an actor in his own right.
The beginnings of his acting career predate his commercial breakthrough as a musician. Studying avant-garde theatre and mime under Lindsay Kemp. he was given the role of Cloud in Kemp’s 1967 theatrical production Pierrot in Turquoise (later made into the 1970 television film The Looking Glass Murders ). [133] In the black-and-white short The Image (1969), he played a ghostly boy who emerges from a troubled artist’s painting to haunt him. [134] The same year, the film of Leslie Thomas ‘s 1966 comic novel The Virgin Soldiers saw Bowie make a brief appearance as an extra. [134] In 1976 he earned acclaim for his first major film role, portraying Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien from a dying planet, in The Man Who Fell to Earth . directed by Nic Roeg. Just a Gigolo (1979), an Anglo-German co-production directed by David Hemmings. saw Bowie in the lead role as Prussian officer Paul von Przygodski, who, returning from World War I, is discovered by a Baroness (Marlene Dietrich ) and put into her Gigolo Stable.
Bowie took the title role in the Broadway theatre production The Elephant Man . earning high praise for an expressive performance. He played the part 157 times between 1980 and 1981. [80] Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo . a 1981 biographical film focusing on a young girl’s drug addiction in West Berlin. featured Bowie in a cameo appearance as himself at a concert in Germany. Its soundtrack album, Christiane F. (1981), featured much material from his Berlin Trilogy albums. [135] Bowie starred in The Hunger (1983), a revisionist vampire film, with Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon. In Nagisa Oshima ‘s film the same year, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence . based on Laurens van der Post ‘s novel The Seed and the Sower . Bowie played Major Jack Celliers, a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp. Bowie had a cameo in Yellowbeard . a 1983 pirate comedy created by Monty Python members, and a small part as Colin, the hitman in the 1985 film Into the Night . He declined to play the villain Max Zorin in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985). [136]
Absolute Beginners (1986), a rock musical based on Colin MacInnes ‘s 1959 novel about London life, featured Bowie’s music and presented him with a minor acting role. The same year, Jim Henson ‘s dark fantasy Labyrinth found him with the part of Jareth, the king of the goblins. [137] Two years later he played Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese ‘s 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ . Bowie portrayed a disgruntled restaurant employee opposite Rosanna Arquette in The Linguini Incident (1991), and the mysterious FBI agent Phillip Jeffries in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). He took a small but pivotal role as Andy Warhol in Basquiat . artist/director Julian Schnabel ‘s 1996 biopic of Jean-Michel Basquiat. and co-starred in Giovanni Veronesi ‘s Spaghetti Western Il Mio West (1998, released as Gunslinger’s Revenge in the US in 2005) as the most feared gunfighter in the region. [138] He played the ageing gangster Bernie in Andrew Goth’s Everybody Loves Sunshine (1999), and appeared in the TV horror serial of The Hunger . In Mr. Rice’s Secret (2000), he played the title role as the neighbour of a terminally ill twelve-year-old, and the following year appeared as himself in Zoolander .
Bowie portrayed physicist Nikola Tesla in the Christopher Nolan film, The Prestige (2006), which was about the bitter rivalry between two magicians in the late 19th century. He voice-acted in the animated film Arthur and the Invisibles as the powerful villain Maltazard, and lent his voice to the character Lord Royal Highness in the SpongeBob’s Atlantis SquarePantis television film. In the 2008 film August . directed by Austin Chick. he played a supporting role as Ogilvie, alongside Josh Hartnett and Rip Torn. with whom he had worked in 1976 for The Man Who Fell to Earth . [139] [140]
Sexual orientation
Buckley writes, “If Ziggy confused both his creator and his audience, a big part of that confusion centred on the topic of sexuality.” [141] Bowie declared himself gay in an interview with Michael Watts in the 22 January 1972 issue of Melody Maker . [142] a move which coincided with the first shots in his campaign for stardom as Ziggy Stardust. [41] In a September 1976 interview with Playboy . Bowie said: “It’s true—I am a bisexual. But I can’t deny that I’ve used that fact very well. I suppose it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.” [143]
In a 1983 interview with Rolling Stone . Bowie said his public declaration of bisexuality was “the biggest mistake I ever made” and “I was always a closet heterosexual”. [144] On other occasions, he said his interest in homosexual and bisexual culture had been more a product of the times and the situation in which he found himself than his own feelings; as described by Buckley, he said he had been driven more by “a compulsion to flout moral codes than a real biological and psychological state of being”. [145] [146]
Asked in 2002 by Blender whether he still believed his public declaration was the biggest mistake he ever made, he replied:
Interesting. [Long pause] I don’t think it was a mistake in Europe, but it was a lot tougher in America. I had no problem with people knowing I was bisexual. But I had no inclination to hold any banners nor be a representative of any group of people. I knew what I wanted to be, which was a songwriter and a performer, and I felt that bisexuality became my headline over here for so long. America is a very puritanical place, and I think it stood in the way of so much I wanted to do. [147]
Buckley’s view of the period is that Bowie, “a taboo-breaker and a dabbler … mined sexual intrigue for its ability to shock”, [148] and that “it is probably true that Bowie was never gay, nor even consistently actively bisexual … he did, from time to time, experiment, even if only out of a sense of curiosity and a genuine allegiance with the ‘transgressional’.” [149] Biographer Christopher Sandford says that according to Mary Finnigan, with whom Bowie had an affair in 1969, the singer and his first wife Angie “lived in a fantasy world [. ] and they created their bisexual fantasy.” [150] Sandford tells how, during the marriage, Bowie “made a positive fetish of repeating the quip that he and his wife had met while ‘fucking the same bloke’ [. ] Gay sex was always an anecdotal and laughing matter. That Bowie’s actual tastes swung the other way is clear from even a partial tally of his affairs with women.” [150]
From the time of his earliest recordings in the 1960s, Bowie has employed a wide variety of musical styles. His early compositions and performances were strongly influenced by not only rock and rollers like Little Richard and Elvis Presley but also the wider world of show business. He particularly strove to emulate the British musical theatre singer-songwriter and actor Anthony Newley. whose vocal style he frequently adopted, and made prominent use of for his 1967 debut release, David Bowie (to the disgust of Newley himself, who destroyed the copy he received from Bowie’s publisher). [18] [151] Bowie’s music hall fascination continued to surface sporadically alongside such diverse styles as hard rock and heavy metal, soul, psychedelic folk and pop. [152]
Musicologist James Perone observes Bowie’s use of octave switches for different repetitions of the same melody, exemplified in his commercial breakthrough single, “Space Oddity “, and later in the song “Heroes “, to dramatic effect; Perone notes that “in the lowest part of his vocal register [. ] his voice has an almost crooner-like richness.” [153]
Voice instructor Jo Thompson describes Bowie’s vocal vibrato technique as “particularly deliberate and distinctive”. [154] Schinder and Schwartz call him “a vocalist of extraordinary technical ability, able to pitch his singing to particular effect.” [155] Here, too, as in his stagecraft and songwriting, the singer’s chamaeleon-like nature is evident: historiographer Michael Campbell says that Bowie’s lyrics “arrest our ear, without question. But Bowie continually shifts from person to person as he delivers them [. ] His voice changes dramatically from section to section.” [156]
Bowie plays many instruments, among them electric, acoustic, and twelve-string guitar ; alto, tenor and baritone saxophone; keyboards including piano, synthesizers and Mellotron ; harmonica, Stylophone. xylophone. vibraphone. koto. drums and percussion, and string instruments including viola and cello. [157] [158] [159] [160]
Bowie’s innovative songs and stagecraft brought a new dimension to popular music in the early 1970s, strongly influencing both its immediate forms and its subsequent development. A pioneer of glam rock, Bowie, according to music historians Schinder and Schwartz, has joint responsibility with Marc Bolan for creating the genre. [161] At the same time, he inspired the innovators of the punk rock music movement—historian Michael Campbell calls him “one of punk’s seminal influences”. While punk musicians trashed the conventions of pop stardom, Bowie moved on again—into a more abstract style of music making that would in turn become a transforming influence. Biographer David Buckley writes, “At a time when punk rock was noisily reclaiming the three-minute pop song in a show of public defiance, Bowie almost completely abandoned traditional rock instrumentation.” [162] [163] Bowie’s record company sought to convey his unique status in popular music with the slogan, “There is old wave, there is new wave, and there is Bowie…” [164] Musicologist James Perone credits him with having “brought sophistication to rock music”, and critical reviews frequently acknowledge the intellectual depth of his work and influence. [161] [165] [166]
Buckley writes that, in an early 1970s pop world that was “Bloated, self-important, leather-clad, self-satisfied, … Bowie challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day.” As described by John Peel. “The one distinguishing feature about early-70s progressive rock was that it didn’t progress. Before Bowie came along, people didn’t want too much change.” Buckley says that Bowie “subverted the whole notion of what it was to be a rock star”, with the result that “After Bowie there has been no other pop icon of his stature, because the pop world that produces these rock gods doesn’t exist any more. … The fierce partisanship of the cult of Bowie was also unique—its influence lasted longer and has been more creative than perhaps almost any other force within pop fandom.” Buckley concludes that “Bowie is both star and icon. The vast body of work he has produced … has created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture. … His influence has been unique in popular culture—he has permeated and altered more lives than any comparable figure.” [2]
Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. [103] Through perpetual reinvention, he has seen his influence continue to broaden and extend: music reviewer Brad Filicky writes that over the decades, “Bowie has become known as a musical chameleon, changing and dictating trends as much as he has altered his style to fit, influencing fashion and pop culture.” [167] Biographer Thomas Forget adds, “Because he has succeeded in so many different styles of music, it is almost impossible to find a popular artist today that has not been influenced by David Bowie.” [168]
Personal life
Bowie married Mary Angela Barnett (also known as Angie Bowie ) on 19 March 1970 at Bromley Register Office in Beckenham Lane, London. They had a son together, Zowie Bowie (also known as Duncan Jones. film director), and divorced on 8 February 1980 in Switzerland. It has been suggested that the birth of his son was part of the inspiration behind the 1971 song “Kooks” on the album Hunky Dory . [169]
In 1992 Bowie married Somali-American model Iman. They have one daughter, Alexandria Zahra Jones, born 15 August 2000. [170] The couple resides primarily in Manhattan and London. [171]
Regarding his religion, in 2005 he said “Questioning my spiritual life has always been germane to what I was writing. Always.”, because he is “not quite an atheist and it bothers me.” [172] In the Esquire interview “What I’ve Learned”, he stated “I’m in awe of the universe, but I don’t necessarily believe there’s an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance. The incense is powerful and provocative, whether Buddhist or Catholic.” [173]
Awards and recognition
Bowie’s 1969 commercial breakthrough, the song “Space Oddity”, won him an Ivor Novello Special Award For Originality. [174] For his performance in the 1976 science fiction film The Man Who Fell to Earth . he won a Saturn Award for Best Actor. [175] In the ensuing decades he has been honoured with numerous awards for his music and its accompanying videos, receiving, among others, two Grammy Awards [176] [177] and two BRIT Awards. [178]
In 1999, Bowie was made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. [179] He received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music the same year. [180] He declined the royal honour of Commander of the British Empire in 2000, and turned down a knighthood in 2003, [181] stating: “I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. I seriously don’t know what it’s for. It’s not what I spent my life working for.” [182]
Throughout his career he has sold an estimated 140 million albums. [183] In the United Kingdom, he has been awarded 9 Platinum, 11 Gold and 8 Silver albums, and in the United States, 5 Platinum and 7 Gold. [184] [185] In the BBC’s 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. he was ranked 29. [183] In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 39th on their list of the 100 Greatest Rock Artists of All Time [186] and the 23rd best singer of all time. [187] Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 17 January 1996. [103]
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (play /?t??rlz? d?k? nz/; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic who is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period and the creator of some of the world’s most memorable fictional characters.[1] During his lifetime Dickens’s works enjoyed unprecedented popularity and fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was fully recognized by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to enjoy an enduring popularity among the general reading public.[2][3]
Born in Portsmouth, England, Dickens left school to work in a factory after his father was thrown into debtors’ prison. Though he had little formal education, his early impoverishment drove him to succeed. He edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels and hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children’s rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens rocketed to fame with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. Within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, celebrated for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication.[4][5] The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience’s reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback.[5] For example, when his wife’s chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her disabilities, Dickens went on to improve the character with positive lineaments.[6] Fagin in Oliver Twist apparently mirrors the famous fence, Ikey Solomon;[7] His caricature of Leigh Hunt in the figure of Mr Skimpole in Bleak House was likewise toned down on advice from some of his friends, as they read episodes.[8] In the same novel, both Lawrence Boythorne and Mooney the beadle are drawn from real life – Boythorne from Walter Savage Landor and Mooney from ‘Looney’, a beadle at Salisbury Square.[9] His plots were carefully constructed, and Dickens often wove in elements from topical events into his narratives.[10] Masses of the illiterate poor chipped in ha’pennies to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up and inspiring a new class of readers.[11]
Dickens was regarded as the ‘literary colossus’ of his age.[12] His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, is one of the most influential works ever written, and it remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. His creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to G. K. Chesterton and George Orwell—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand Oscar Wilde, Henry James and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism.
Life
Early years
Charles Dickens was born on 7 February 1812, at Landport in Portsea, the second of eight children to John and Elizabeth Dickens. His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office and was temporarily on duty in the district. Very soon after his birth the family moved to Norfolk Street, Bloomsbury, and then, when he was four, to Chatham, then in Kent, where he spent his formative years until the age of 11. His early years seem to have been idyllic, though he thought himself a “very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy”.[13]
Charles spent time outdoors, but also read voraciously, especially the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding. He retained poignant memories of childhood, helped by a near-photographic memory of people and events, which he used in his writing.[14] His father’s brief period as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office gave him a few years of private education, first at a dame-school, and then at a school run by William Giles, a dissenter, in Chatham.
This period came to an abrupt end when, because of financial difficulties, the Dickens family moved from Kent to Camden Town in London in 1822. Prone to living beyond his means,[17] John Dickens was imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtors’ prison in Southwark London in 1824. Shortly afterwards, his wife and the youngest children joined him there, as was the practice at the time. Charles, then 12 years old, was boarded with Elizabeth Roylance, a family friend, in Camden Town.[18] Roylance was “a reduced [impoverished] old lady, long known to our family”, whom Dickens later immortalised, “with a few alterations and embellishments”, as “Mrs. Pipchin”, in Dombey and Son. Later, he lived in a back-attic in the house of an agent for the Insolvent Court, Archibald Russell, “a fat, good-natured, kind old gentleman … with a quiet old wife” and lame son, in Lant Street in The Borough.[19] They provided the inspiration for the Garlands in The Old Curiosity Shop.[20]
On Sundays—with his sister Frances, free from her studies at the Royal Academy of Music—he spent the day at the Marshalsea.[21] Dickens would later use the prison as a setting in Little Dorrit. To pay for his board and to help his family, Dickens was forced to leave school and work ten-hour days at Warren’s Blacking Warehouse, on Hungerford Stairs, near the present Charing Cross railway station, where he earned six shillings a week pasting labels on pots of boot blacking. The strenuous and often cruel working conditions made a lasting impression on Dickens and later influenced his fiction and essays, becoming the foundation of his interest in the reform of socio-economic and labour conditions, the rigours of which he believed were unfairly borne by the poor. He later wrote that he wondered “how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age”.[22] As he recalled to John Forster (from The Life of Charles Dickens):
The blacking-warehouse was the last house on the left-hand side of the way, at old Hungerford Stairs. It was a crazy, tumble-down old house, abutting of course on the river, and literally overrun with rats. Its wainscoted rooms, and its rotten floors and staircase, and the old grey rats swarming down in the cellars, and the sound of their squeaking and scuffling coming up the stairs at all times, and the dirt and decay of the place, rise up visibly before me, as if I were there again. The counting-house was on the first floor, looking over the coal-barges and the river. There was a recess in it, in which I was to sit and work. My work was to cover the pots of paste-blacking; first with a piece of oil-paper, and then with a piece of blue paper; to tie them round with a string; and then to clip the paper close and neat, all round, until it looked as smart as a pot of ointment from an apothecary’s shop. When a certain number of grosses of pots had attained this pitch of perfection, I was to paste on each a printed label, and then go on again with more pots. Two or three other boys were kept at similar duty down-stairs on similar wages. One of them came up, in a ragged apron and a paper cap, on the first Monday morning, to show me the trick of using the string and tying the knot. His name was Bob Fagin; and I took the liberty of using his name, long afterwards, in Oliver Twist.
After a few months in Marshalsea, John Dickens’s paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Dickens, died and bequeathed him the sum of ?450. On the expectation of this legacy, Dickens was granted release from prison. Under the Insolvent Debtors Act, Dickens arranged for payment of his creditors, and he and his family left Marshalsea,[23] for the home of Mrs. Roylance.
Although Dickens eventually attended the Wellington House Academy in North London, his mother Elizabeth Dickens did not immediately remove him from the boot-blacking factory. The incident may have done much to confirm Dickens’s view that a father should rule the family, a mother find her proper sphere inside the home. “I never afterwards forgot, I never shall forget, I never can forget, that my mother was warm for my being sent back”. His mother’s failure to request his return was a factor in his dissatisfied attitude towards women.[24]
Righteous anger stemming from his own situation and the conditions under which working-class people lived became major themes of his works, and it was this unhappy period in his youth to which he alluded in his favourite, and most autobiographical, novel, David Copperfield:[25] “I had no advice, no counsel, no encouragement, no consolation, no assistance, no support, of any kind, from anyone, that I can call to mind, as I hope to go to heaven!” The Wellington House Academy was not a good school. “Much of the haphazard, desultory teaching, poor discipline punctuated by the headmaster’s sadistic brutality, the seedy ushers and general run-down atmosphere, are embodied in Mr. Creakle’s Establishment in David Copperfield.”[26]
Dickens worked at the law office of Ellis and Blackmore, attorneys, of Holborn Court, Gray’s Inn, as a junior clerk from May 1827 to November 1828. Then, having learned Gurney’s system of shorthand in his spare time, he left to become a freelance reporter. A distant relative, Thomas Charlton, was a freelance reporter at Doctors’ Commons, and Dickens was able to share his box there to report the legal proceedings for nearly four years.[27][28] This education was to inform works such as Nicholas Nickleby, Dombey and Son, and especially Bleak House—whose vivid portrayal of the machinations and bureaucracy of the legal system did much to enlighten the general public and served as a vehicle for dissemination of Dickens’s own views regarding, particularly, the heavy burden on the poor who were forced by circumstances to “go to law”.
In 1830, Dickens met his first love, Maria Beadnell, thought to have been the model for the character Dora in David Copperfield. Maria’s parents disapproved of the courtship and ended the relationship by sending her to school in Paris.[29]
Journalism and early novels
In 1832, at age 20, Dickens was energetic, full of good humour, enjoyed mimicry and popular entertainment, lacked a clear sense of what he wanted to become, yet knew he wanted to be famous. He was drawn to the theatre and landed an acting audition at Covent Garden, for which he prepared meticulously but which he missed because of a cold, ending his aspirations for a career on the stage. A year later he submitted his first story, “A Dinner at Poplar Walk” to the London periodical, Monthly Magazine.[30] He rented rooms at Furnival’s Inn becoming a political journalist, reporting on parliamentary debate and travelling across Britain to cover election campaigns for the Morning Chronicle. His journalism, in the form of sketches in periodicals, formed his first collection of pieces Sketches by Boz—Boz being a family nickname he employed as a pseudonym for some years—published in 1836.[31][32] Dickens apparently adopted it from the nickname Moses which he had given to his youngest brother Augustus Dickens, after a character in Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield. When pronounced by anyone with a headcold, ‘Moses’ became ‘Boses’, and was later shortened to Boz.[32][33] Dickens’s own name was considered “queer” by a contemporary critic, who wrote in 1849: “Mr Dickens, as if in revenge for his own queer name, does bestow still queerer ones upon his fictitious creations.” The name Dickens was used in interjective exclamations like “What the Dickens!” as a substitute for “devil”. It was recorded in the OED as originating from Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. It was also used in the phrase “to play the Dickens” in the meaning “to play havoc/mischief”.Bowen 2003, p. 37.|group=”nb”>> He continued to contribute to and edit journals throughout his literary career.[30]
Catherine Hogarth Dickens by Samuel Lawrence (1838)
The success of these sketches led to a proposal from publishers Chapman and Hall for Dickens to supply text to match Robert Seymour’s engraved illustrations in a monthly letterpress. Seymour committed suicide after the second instalment and Dickens, who wanted to write a connected series or sketches, hired “Phiz” to provide the engravings (which were reduced from four to two per instalment) for the story. The resulting story was the The Pickwick Papers with the final instalment selling 40,000 copies.[30]
In November 1836 Dickens accepted the job of editor of Bentley’s Miscellany, a position he held for three years, until he fell out with the owner.[34] In 1836 as he finished the last instalments of The Pickwick Papers he began writing the beginning instalments of Oliver Twist—writing as many as 90 pages a month—while continuing work on Bentley’s, writing four plays, the production of which he oversaw. Oliver Twist, published in 1838, became one of Dickens’s better known stories, with dialogue that transferred well to the stage (most likely because he was writing stage plays at the same time) and more importantly, it was the first Victorian novel with a child protagonist.[35]
An 1839 portrait of a young Charles Dickens by Daniel Maclise
On 2 April 1836, after a one year engagement during which he wrote The Pickwick Papers, he married Catherine Thomson Hogarth (1816–1879), the daughter of George Hogarth, editor of the Evening Chronicle.[36] After a brief honeymoon in Chalk, Kent, they returned to lodgings at Furnival’s Inn.[37] The first of ten children, Charley, was born in January 1837, and a few months later the family set up home in Bloomsbury at 48 Doughty Street, London, (on which Charles had a three-year lease at ?80 a year) from 25 March 1837 until December 1839.[36][38] Dickens’s younger brother Frederick and Catherine’s 17-year-old sister Mary moved in with them. Dickens became very attached to Mary, and she died in his arms after a brief illness in 1837. Dickens idealised her and is thought to have drawn on memories of her for his later descriptions of Rose Maylie, Little Nell and Florence Dombey.[39] His grief was so great that he was unable to make the deadline for the June instalment of Pickwick Papers and had to cancel the Oliver Twist instalment that month as well.[35]
At the same time, his success as a novelist continued, Nicholas Nickleby (1838–39), The Old Curiosity Shop and, finally, Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of ‘Eighty as part of the Master Humphrey’s Clock series (1840–41)—all published in monthly instalments before being made into books.[40]
First visit to the United States
In 1842, Dickens and his wife made their first trip to the United States and Canada. At this time Georgina Hogarth, another sister of Catherine, joined the Dickens household, now living at Devonshire Terrace, Marylebone, to care for the young family they had left behind.[41] She remained with them as housekeeper, organiser, adviser and friend until Dickens’s death in 1870.[42]
Sketch of Dickens in 1842 during American Tour. Sketch of Dickens’s sister Fanny, bottom left
He described his impressions in a travelogue, American Notes for General Circulation. Some of the episodes in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–44) also drew on these first-hand experiences. Dickens includes in Notes a powerful condemnation of slavery, which he had attacked as early as The Pickwick Papers, correlating the emancipation of the poor in England with the abolition of slavery abroad.[43] During his visit, Dickens spent a month in New York City, giving lectures and raising the question of international copyright laws and the pirating of his work in America.[44][45] He persuaded twenty five writers, headed by Washington Irving to sign a petition for him to take to congress, but the press were generally hostile to this saying that he should be grateful for his popularity and that it was mercenary to complain about his work being pirated.[46]
In the early 1840s Dickens showed an interest in Unitarian Christianity, although he never strayed from his attachment to popular lay Anglicanism.[47] Soon after his return to England, Dickens began work on the first of his Christmas stories, A Christmas Carol, written in 1843, which was followed by The Chimes in 1844 and The Cricket on the Hearth in 1845. Of these A Christmas Carol was most popular and, tapping in to an old tradition, did much promote a renewed enthusiasm for the joys of Christmas in Britain and America.[48] The seeds for the story were planted in Dickens’s mind during a trip to Manchester to witness conditions of the manufacturing workers there. This, along with scenes he had recently witnessed at the Field Lane Ragged School, caused Dickens to resolve to “strike a sledge hammer blow” for the poor. As the idea for the story took shape and the writing began in earnest, Dickens became engrossed in the book. He wrote that as the tale unfolded he “wept and laughed, and wept again” as he “walked about the black streets of London fifteen or twenty miles many a night when all sober folks had gone to bed.”[49]
After living briefly in Italy (1844) Dickens travelled to Switzerland (1846); it was here he began work on Dombey and Son (1846–48). This and David Copperfield (1849–50) mark a significant artistic break in Dickens’s career as his novels became more serious in theme and more carefully planned than his early works.
Philanthropy
In May 1846 Angela Burdett Coutts, heir to the Coutts banking fortune, approached Dickens about setting up a home for the redemption of fallen women from the working class. Coutts envisioned a home that would replace the punitive regimes of existing institutions with a reformative environment conducive to education and proficiency in domestic household chores. After initially resisting, Dickens eventually founded the home, named “Urania Cottage”, in the Lime Grove section of Shepherds Bush, which he was to manage for ten years,[50] setting the house rules and reviewing the accounts and interviewing prospective residents.[51] Emigration and marriage were central to Dickens’s agenda for the women on leaving Urania Cottage, from which it is estimated that about 100 women graduated between 1847 and 1859.[52]
Middle years
In late November 1851, Dickens moved into Tavistock House where he wrote Bleak House (1852–53), Hard Times (1854) and Little Dorrit (1857).[53] It was here he indulged in the amateur theatricals which are described in Forster’s “Life”.[54] In 1856, his income from writing allowed him to buy Gad’s Hill Place in Higham, Kent. As a child, Dickens had walked past the house and dreamed of living in it. The area was also the scene of some of the events of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1 and this literary connection pleased him.[55]
Ellen Ternan, 1858.
In 1857, Dickens hired professional actresses for the play The Frozen Deep, which he and his protege Wilkie Collins had written. Dickens fell deeply in love with one of the actresses, Ellen Ternan, which was to last the rest of his life.[56] Dickens was 45 and Ternan 18 when he made the decision, which went strongly against Victorian convention, to separate from his wife, Catherine, in 1858—divorce was still unthinkable for someone as famous as he was. When Catherine left, never to see her husband again, she took with her one child, leaving the other children to be raised by her sister Georgina who chose to stay at Gad’s Hill.[42]
During this period, whilst pondering about giving public readings for his own profit, Dickens was approached by Great Ormond Street Hospital to help it survive its first major financial crisis through a charitable appeal. His ‘Drooping Buds’ essay in Household Words earlier in 3 April 1852 was considered by the hospital’s founders to have been the catalyst for the hospital’s success.[57] Dickens, whose philanthropy was well-known, was asked by his friend, the hospital’s founder Charles West, to preside and he threw himself into the task, heart and soul.[58] Dickens’s public readings secured sufficient funds for an endowment to put the hospital on a sound financial footing — one of 9 February 1858 alone raised ?3,000.[59][60][61]
After separating from Catherine,[62] Dickens undertook a series of hugely popular and remunerative reading tours which, together with his journalism, were to absorb most of his creative energies for the next decade, in which he was to write only two more novels.[63] His first reading tour, lasting from April 1858 to February 1859, consisted of 129 appearances in 49 different towns throughout England, Scotland and Ireland.[64] Dickens’s continued fascination with the theatrical world was written into the theatre scenes in Nicholas Nickleby, but more importantly he found an outlet in public readings. In 1866, he undertook a series of public readings in England and Scotland, with more the following year in England and Ireland.
Major works, A Tale of Two Cities (1859); and Great Expectations (1861) soon followed and were resounding successes. During this time he was also the publisher and editor of, and a major contributor to, the journals Household Words (1850–1859) and All the Year Round (1858–1870).[65]
In early September 1860, in a field behind Gad’s Hill, Dickens made a great bonfire of almost his entire correspondence—only those letters on business matters were spared. Since Ellen Ternan also destroyed all of his letters to her,[66] the extent of the affair between the two remains speculative.[67] In the 1930s, Thomas Wright recounted that Ternan had unburdened herself with a Canon Benham, and gave currency to rumours they had been lovers.[68] That the two had a son who died in infancy was alleged by Dickens’s daughter, Kate Perugini, whom Gladys Storey had interviewed before her death in 1929, and published her account in Dickens and Daughter,[69][70] although no contemporary evidence exists. On his death, Dickens settled an annuity on Ternan which made her a financially independent woman. Claire Tomalin’s book, The Invisible Woman, argues that Ternan lived with Dickens secretly for the last 13 years of his life. The book was subsequently turned into a play, Little Nell, by Simon Gray.
Last years
On 9 June 1865, while returning from Paris with Ternan, Dickens was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash. The first seven carriages of the train plunged off a cast iron bridge under repair. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travelling. Before rescuers arrived, Dickens tended and comforted the wounded and the dying with a flask of brandy and a hat refreshed with water and saved some lives. Before leaving, he remembered the unfinished manuscript for Our Mutual Friend, and he returned to his carriage to retrieve it.[72] Dickens later used this experience as material for his short ghost story, “The Signal-Man”, in which the central character has a premonition of his own death in a rail crash. He also based the story on several previous rail accidents, such as the Clayton Tunnel rail crash of 1861.
Dickens managed to avoid an appearance at the inquest to avoid disclosing that he had been travelling with Ternan and her mother, which would have caused a scandal. Although physically unharmed, Dickens never really recovered from the trauma of the Staplehurst crash, and his normally prolific writing shrank to completing Our Mutual Friend and starting the unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
Second visit to the United States
On 9 November 1867, Dickens sailed from Liverpool for his second American reading tour. Landing at Boston, he devoted the rest of the month to a round of dinners with such notables as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his American publisher James Thomas Fields. In early December, the readings began—he was to perform 76 readings, netting ?19,000, from December 1867 to April 1868[73]—and Dickens spent the month shuttling between Boston and New York, where alone he gave 22 readings at Steinway Hall for this period. Although he had started to suffer from what he called the “true American catarrh”, he kept to a schedule that would have challenged a much younger man, even managing to squeeze in some sleighing in Central Park.
Poster promoting a reading by Dickens in Nottingham dated 4 February 1869, two months before he suffered a mild stroke.
During his travels, he saw a significant change in the people and the circumstances of America. His final appearance was at a banquet the American Press held in his honour at Delmonico’s on 18 April, when he promised never to denounce America again. By the end of the tour, the author could hardly manage solid food, subsisting on champagne and eggs beaten in sherry. On 23 April, he boarded his ship to return to Britain, barely escaping a Federal Tax Lien against the proceeds of his lecture tour.[74]
Farewell readings
Between 1868 and 1869, Dickens gave a series of “farewell readings” in England, Scotland, and Ireland, beginning on 6 October. He managed, of a contracted 100 readings, to deliver 75 in the provinces, with a further 12 in London.[73] As he pressed on he was affected by giddiness and fits of paralysis and collapsed on 22 April 1869, at Preston in Lancashire, and on doctor’s advice, the tour was cancelled.[75] After further provincial readings were cancelled, he began work on his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It was fashionable in the 1860s to ‘do the slums’ and, in company, Dickens visited opium dens in Shadwell, where he witnessed an elderly addict known as “Laskar Sal”, who formed the model for the “Opium Sal” subsequently featured in his mystery novel, Edwin Drood.[76]
When he had regained sufficient strength, Dickens arranged, with medical approval, for a final series of readings at least partially to make up to his sponsors what they had lost due to his illness. There were to be 12 performances, running between 11 January and 15 March 1870, the last taking place at 8:00 pm at St. James’s Hall in London. Although in grave health by this time, he read A Christmas Carol and The Trial from Pickwick. On 2 May, he made his last public appearance at a Royal Academy Banquet in the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, paying a special tribute on the death of his friend, illustrator Daniel Maclise.[77]
Death
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home, after a full day’s work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day, on 9 June, five years to the day after the Staplehurst rail crash, he died at Gad’s Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral “in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner,”[79] he was laid to rest in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: “To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England’s most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England’s greatest writers is lost to the world.”[80] His last words were: “On the ground”, in response to his daughter Georgina’s request that he lie down.[81][nb 1]
On Sunday, 19 June 1870, five days after Dickens was buried in the Abbey, Dean Arthur Penrhyn Stanley delivered a memorial elegy, lauding “the genial and loving humorist whom we now mourn”, for showing by his own example “that even in dealing with the darkest scenes and the most degraded characters, genius could still be clean, and mirth could be innocent.” Pointing to the fresh flowers that adorned the novelist’s grave, Stanley assured those present that “the spot would thenceforth be a sacred one with both the New World and the Old, as that of the representative of literature, not of this island only, but of all who speak our English tongue.”[82]
Literary style
Dickens loved the style of the 18th century picaresque novels which he found in abundance on his father’s shelves. According to Ackroyd, other than these, perhaps the most important literary influence on him was derived from the fables of The Arabian Nights.[83]
Dickens’ Dream by Robert William Buss, portraying Dickens at his desk at Gads Hill Place surrounded by many of his characters
His writing style is marked by a profuse linguistic creativity.[84] Satire, flourishing in his gift for caricature is his forte. An early reviewer compared him to Hogarth for his keen practical sense of the ludicrous side of life, though his acclaimed mastery of varieties of class idiom may in fact mirror the conventions of contemporary popular theatre.[85] Dickens worked intensively on developing arresting names for his characters that would reverberate with associations for his readers, and assist the development of motifs in the storyline, giving what one critic calls an “allegorical impetus” to the novels’ meanings.[84] To cite one of numerous examples, the name Mr. Murdstone in David Copperfield conjures up twin allusions to “murder” and stony coldness.[86] His literary style is also a mixture of fantasy and realism. His satires of British aristocratic snobbery—he calls one character the “Noble Refrigerator”—are often popular. Comparing orphans to stocks and shares, people to tug boats, or dinner-party guests to furniture are just some of Dickens’s acclaimed flights of fancy.
The author worked closely with his illustrators, supplying them with a summary of the work at the outset and thus ensuring that his characters and settings were exactly how he envisioned them. He would brief the illustrator on plans for each month’s instalment so that work could begin before he wrote them. Marcus Stone, illustrator of Our Mutual Friend, recalled that the author was always “ready to describe down to the minutest details the personal characteristics, and … life-history of the creations of his fancy.”[87]
Characters
Dickens’s biographer Claire Tomalin regards him as the greatest creator of character in English fiction after Shakespeare.[88] Dickensian characters, especially so because of their typically whimsical names, are amongst the most memorable in English literature. The likes of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit, Oliver Twist, The Artful Dodger, Fagin, Bill Sikes, Pip, Miss Havisham, Charles Darnay, David Copperfield, Mr. Micawber, Abel Magwitch, Daniel Quilp, Samuel Pickwick, Wackford Squeers, Uriah Heep are so well known as to be part and parcel of British culture, and in some cases have passed into ordinary language: a scrooge, for example, is a miser.
His characters were often so memorable that they took on a life of their own outside his books. Gamp became a slang expression for an umbrella from the character Mrs Gamp and Pickwickian, Pecksniffian, and Gradgrind all entered dictionaries due to Dickens’s original portraits of such characters who were quixotic, hypocritical, or vapidly factual. Many were drawn from real life: Mrs Nickleby is based on his mother, though she didn’t recognize herself in the portrait,[89] just as Mr Micawber is constructed from aspects of his father’s ‘rhetorical exuberance':[90] Harold Skimpole in Bleak House, is based on James Henry Leigh Hunt: his wife’s dwarfish chiropodist recognized herself in Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield.[91][92] Perhaps Dickens’s impressions on his meeting with Hans Christian Andersen informed the delineation of Uriah Heep.[93]
Virginia Woolf maintained that “we remodel our psychological geography when we read Dickens” as he produces “characters who exist not in detail, not accurately or exactly, but abundantly in a cluster of wild yet extraordinarily revealing remarks.”[94]
One “character” vividly drawn throughout his novels is London itself. From the coaching inns on the outskirts of the city to the lower reaches of the Thames, all aspects of the capital are described over the course of his body of work.
Autobiographical elements
Authors frequently draw their portraits of characters from people they have known in real life. David Copperfield is regarded as strongly autobiographical. The scenes in Bleak House of interminable court cases and legal arguments reflect Dickens’s experiences as law clerk and court reporter, and in particular his direct experience of the law’s procedural delay during 1844 when he sued publishers in Chancery for breach of copyright.[95] Dickens’s father was sent to prison for debt, and this became a common theme in many of his books, with the detailed depiction of life in the Marshalsea prison in Little Dorrit resulting from Dickens’s own experiences of the institution.[96] Lucy Stroughill, a childhood sweetheart may have affected several of Dickens’s portraits of girls such as Little Em’ly in David Copperfield and Lucie Manette in A Tale of Two Cities.[97][nb 2] Dickens may have drawn on his childhood experiences, but he was also ashamed of them and would not reveal that this was where he gathered his realistic accounts of squalor. Very few knew the details of his early life until six years after his death when John Forster published a biography on which Dickens had collaborated. Even figures based on real people can, at the same time, represent at the same time elements of the writer’s own personality. Though Skimpole brutally sends up Leigh Hunt, some critics have detected in his portrait features of Dickens’s own character, which he sought to exorcise by self-parody.[98]
Episodic writing
Most of Dickens’s major novels were first written in monthly or weekly instalments in journals such as Master Humphrey’s Clock and Household Words, later reprinted in book form. These instalments made the stories cheap, accessible and the series of regular cliff-hangers made each new episode widely anticipated. When The Old Curiosity Shop was being serialized, American fans even waited at the docks in New York, shouting out to the crew of an incoming ship, “Is little Nell dead?”[99] Part of Dickens’s great talent was to incorporate this episodic writing style but still end up with a coherent novel at the end.
Another important impact of Dickens’s episodic writing style resulted from his exposure to the opinions of his readers and friends. His friend Forster had a significant hand, reviewing his drafts, that went beyond matters of punctation. He toned down melodramatic and sensationalist exaggerations, cut long passages, (such as the episode of Quilp’s drowning in The Old Curiosity Shop), and made suggestions about plot and character. It was he who suggested that Charley Bates should be redeemed in Oliver Twist. Dickens had not thought of killing Little Nell, and it was Forster who advised him to entertain this possibility as necessary to his conception of the heroine.[100]
Social commentary
Dickens’s novels were, among other things, works of social commentary. He was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian society. In a New York address, he expressed his belief that, “Virtue shows quite as well in rags and patches as she does in purple and fine linen”.[101] Dickens’s second novel, Oliver Twist (1839), shocked readers with its images of poverty and crime: it destroyed middle class polemics about criminals, making any pretence to ignorance about what poverty entailed impossible.[102][103]
Literary techniques
Dickens is often described as using ‘idealised’ characters and highly sentimental scenes to contrast with his caricatures and the ugly social truths he reveals. The story of Nell Trent in The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) was received as extraordinarily moving by contemporary readers but viewed as ludicrously sentimental by Oscar Wilde. “You would need to have a heart of stone”, he declared in one of his famous witticisms, “not to laugh at the death of little Nell.”[104] G. K. Chesterton, stating that “It is not the death of little Nell, but the life of little Nell, that I object to”, argued that the maudlin effect of his description of her life owed much to the gregarious nature of Dickens’s grief, his ‘despotic’ use of people’s feelings to move them to tears in works like this.[105]
In Oliver Twist Dickens provides readers with an idealised portrait of a boy so inherently and unrealistically ‘good’ that his values are never subverted by either brutal orphanages or coerced involvement in a gang of young pickpockets. While later novels also centre on idealised characters (Esther Summerson in Bleak House and Amy Dorrit in Little Dorrit), this idealism serves only to highlight Dickens’s goal of poignant social commentary. Many of his novels are concerned with social realism, focusing on mechanisms of social control that direct people’s lives (for instance, factory networks in Hard Times and hypocritical exclusionary class codes in Our Mutual Friend).[citation needed] Dickens’s fiction, reflecting what he believed to be true of his own life, scintillates with coincidences.[106] Oliver Twist turns out to be the lost nephew of the upper-class family that randomly rescues him from the dangers of the pickpocket group. Such coincidences are a staple of 18th-century picaresque novels, such as Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones that Dickens enjoyed reading as a youth.[107]
Reception
Dickens was the most popular novelist of his time,[108] and remains one of the best known and most read of English authors. His works have never gone out of print,[109] and have been adapted continuously for the screen since the invention of cinema,[110] with at least 200 motion pictures and TV adaptations based on Dickens’s works documented.[111] Many of his works were adapted for the stage during his own lifetime and as early as 1913, a silent film of The Pickwick Papers was made.
Among fellow writers, Dickens has been both lionized and mocked. Leo Tolstoy, G. K. Chesterton and George Orwell praised his realism, comic voice, prose fluency, and genius for satiric caricature, as well as his passionate advocacy on behalf of children and the poor. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde generally disparaged his depiction of character, while admiring his gift for caricature;[112] His late contemporary William Wordsworth, by then Poet laureate, thought him a “very talkative, vulgar young person”, adding he had not read a line of his work; Dickens in return thought Wordsworth “a dreadful Old Ass”.[113] Henry James denied him a premier position, calling him, “the greatest of superficial novelists”: Dickens failed to endow his characters with psychological depth and the novels, “loose baggy monsters”[114] betrayed a “cavalier organisation”.[115] Virginia Woolf had a love-hate relationship with his works, finding his novels “mesmerizing” while reproving him for his sentimentalism and a commonplace style.[116]
It is likely that A Christmas Carol stands as his best-known story, with frequent new adaptations. It is also the most-filmed of Dickens’s stories, with many versions dating from the early years of cinema.[117] According to the historian Ronald Hutton, the current state of the observance of Christmas is largely the result of a mid-Victorian revival of the holiday spearheaded by A Christmas Carol. Dickens catalysed the emerging Christmas as a family-centred festival of generosity, in contrast to the dwindling community-based and church-centred observations, as new middle-class expectations arose.[118] Its archetypal figures (Scrooge, Tiny Tim, the Christmas ghosts) entered into Western cultural consciousness. A prominent phrase from the tale, ‘Merry Christmas’, was popularised following the appearance of the story.[119] The term Scrooge became a synonym for miser, and his dismissive put-down exclamation ‘Bah! Humbug!’ likewise gained currency as an idiom.[120] Novelist William Makepeace Thackeray called the book “a national benefit, and to every man and woman who reads it a personal kindness”.[117]
At a time when Britain was the major economic and political power of the world, Dickens highlighted the life of the forgotten poor and disadvantaged within society. Through his journalism he campaigned on specific issues—such as sanitation and the workhouse—but his fiction probably demonstrated its greatest prowess in changing public opinion in regard to class inequalities. He often depicted the exploitation and oppression of the poor and condemned the public officials and institutions that not only allowed such abuses to exist, but flourished as a result. His most strident indictment of this condition is in Hard Times (1854), Dickens’s only novel-length treatment of the industrial working class. In this work, he uses both vitriol and satire to illustrate how this marginalised social stratum was termed “Hands” by the factory owners; that is, not really “people” but rather only appendages of the machines that they operated. His writings inspired others, in particular journalists and political figures, to address such problems of class oppression. For example, the prison scenes in The Pickwick Papers are claimed to have been influential in having the Fleet Prison shut down. Karl Marx asserted that Dickens …”issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together”.[121] George Bernard Shaw even remarked that Great Expectations was more seditious than Marx’s own Das Kapital.[121] The exceptional popularity of his novels, even those with socially oppositional themes (Bleak House, 1853; Little Dorrit, 1857; Our Mutual Friend, 1865) underscored not only his almost preternatural ability to create compelling storylines and unforgettable characters, but also ensured that the Victorian public confronted issues of social justice that had commonly been ignored. It has been argued that his technique of flooding his narratives with an ‘unruly superfluity of material’ that, in the gradual denouement, yields up an unsuspected order, influenced the organisation of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.[122]
His fiction, with often vivid descriptions of life in 19th-century England, has inaccurately and anachronistically come to symbolise on a global level Victorian society (1837 – 1901) as uniformly “Dickensian”, when in fact, his novels’ time scope spanned from the 1770s to the 1860s. In the decade following his death in 1870, a more intense degree of socially and philosophically pessimistic perspectives invested British fiction; such themes stood in marked contrast to the religious faith that ultimately held together even the bleakest of Dickens’s novels. Dickens clearly influenced later Victorian novelists such as Thomas Hardy and George Gissing; their works display a greater willingness to confront and challenge the Victorian institution of religion. They also portray characters caught up by social forces (primarily via lower-class conditions), but they usually steered them to tragic ends beyond their control.
Influence and legacy
Museums and festivals celebrating Dickens’s life and works exist in many places with which Dickens was associated, such as the Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum in Portsmouth, the house in which he was born. The original manuscripts of many of his novels, as well as printers’ proofs, first editions, and illustrations from the collection of Dickens’s friend John Forster are held at the Victoria and Albert Museum.[123] Dickens’s will stipulated that no memorial be erected in his honour. The only life-size bronze statue of Dickens, cast in 1891 by Francis Edwin Elwell, can be found in Clark Park in the Spruce Hill neighbourhood of Philadelphia.
Dickens was commemorated on the Series E ?10 note issued by the Bank of England that was in circulation in the UK between 1992 and 2003. His portrait appeared on the reverse of the note accompanied by a scene from The Pickwick Papers. A theme park, Dickens World, standing in part on the site of the former naval dockyard where Dickens’s father once worked in the Navy Pay Office, opened in Chatham in 2007, and to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens in 2012, the Museum of London held the UK’s first major exhibition on the author in 40 years.[124] In the UK survey entitled The Big Read carried out by the BBC in 2003, five of Dickens’s books were named in the Top 100.
Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage, FRS (26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871)[1] was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer.[2] Considered a “father of the computer”,[3] Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs.
Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the London Science Museum. In 1991, a perfectly functioning difference engine was constructed from Babbage’s original plans. Built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, the success of the finished engine indicated that Babbage’s machine would have worked. Nine years later, the Science Museum completed the printer Babbage had designed for the difference engine.
Birth
Babbage’s birthplace is disputed, but he was most likely born at 44 Crosby Row, Walworth Road, London, England. A blue plaque on the junction of Larcom Street and Walworth Road commemorates the event.[6]
His date of birth was given in his obituary in The Times as 26 December 1792. However after the obituary appeared, a nephew wrote to say that Charles Babbage was born one year earlier, in 1791. The parish register of St. Mary’s Newington, London, shows that Babbage was baptised on 6 January 1792, supporting a birth year of 1791.[7][8][9]
Babbage’s father, Benjamin Babbage, was a banking partner of the Praeds who owned the Bitton Estate in Teignmouth. His mother was Betsy Plumleigh Teape. In 1808, the Babbage family moved into the old Rowdens house in East Teignmouth, and Benjamin Babbage became a warden of the nearby St. Michael’s Church.
Education
His father’s money allowed Charles to receive instruction from several schools and tutors during the course of his elementary education. Around the age of eight he was sent to a country school in Alphington near Exeter to recover from a life-threatening fever. His parents ordered that his “brain was not to be taxed too much ” and Babbage felt that “this great idleness may have led to some of my childish reasonings.” For a short time he attended King Edward VI Grammar School in Totnes, South Devon, but his health forced him back to private tutors for a time.[11] He then joined a 30-student Holmwood academy, in Baker Street, Enfield, Middlesex under the Reverend Stephen Freeman. The academy had a well-stocked library that prompted Babbage’s love of mathematics. He studied with two more private tutors after leaving the academy. Of the first, a clergyman near Cambridge, Babbage said, “I fear I did not derive from it all the advantages that I might have done.”[citation needed] The second was an Oxford tutor from whom Babbage learned enough of the Classics to be accepted to Cambridge.
Babbage arrived at Trinity College, Cambridge in October 1810.[12] He had read extensively in Leibniz, Joseph Louis Lagrange, Thomas Simpson, and Lacroix and was seriously disappointed in the mathematical instruction available at Cambridge. In response, he, John Herschel, George Peacock, and several other friends formed the Analytical Society in 1812. Babbage, Herschel, and Peacock were also close friends with future judge and patron of science Edward Ryan. Babbage and Ryan married two sisters.[13] As a student, Babbage was also a member of other societies such as the Ghost Club, concerned with investigating supernatural phenomena, and the Extractors Club, dedicated to liberating its members from the madhouse, should any be committed to one.[14][15]
In 1812 Babbage transferred to Peterhouse, Cambridge.[12] He was the top mathematician at Peterhouse, but did not graduate with honours. He instead received an honorary degree without examination in 1814.
Marriage, family, death
On 25 July 1814, Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore at St. Michael’s Church in Teignmouth, Devon. The couple lived at Dudmaston Hall,[16] Shropshire (where Babbage engineered the central heating system), before moving to 5 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, London.
Charles and Georgiana had eight children,[17] but only four — Benjamin Herschel, Georgiana Whitmore, Dugald Bromhead and Henry Prevost — survived childhood. Charles’ wife Georgiana died in Worcester on 1 September 1827, the same year as his father, their second son (also named Charles) and their newborn son Alexander. His subsequent decision to spend a year travelling on the Continent incurred a delay in his machines’ construction.
Babbage lived and worked for over 40 years at 1 Dorset Street, Marylebone, where he died at the age of 79 on 18 October 1871; he was buried in London’s Kensal Green Cemetery. According to Horsley, Babbage died “of renal inadequacy, secondary to cystitis.”[18] In 1983 the autopsy report for Charles Babbage was discovered and later published by his great-great-grandson.[19][20] A copy of the original is also available.[21] Half of Babbage’s brain is preserved at the Hunterian Museum in the Royal College of Surgeons in London.[22] The other half of Babbage’s brain is on display in the Science Museum, London.[23]
His youngest son, Henry Prevost Babbage (1824–1918), went on to create six working difference engines based on his father’s designs,[24] one of which was sent to Harvard University where it was later discovered by Howard H. Aiken, pioneer of the Harvard Mark I. Henry Prevost’s 1910 Analytical Engine Mill, previously on display at Dudmaston Hall, is now on display at the Science Museum.[25]
Design of computers
In 1812 he was sitting in his rooms in the Analytical Society looking at a table of logarithms, which he knew to be full of mistakes, when the idea occurred to him of computing all tabular functions by machinery. The French government had produced several tables by a new method. Three or four of their mathematicians decided how to compute the tables, half a dozen more broke down the operations into simple stages, and the work itself, which was restricted to addition and subtraction, was done by eighty [human] computers who knew only these two arithmetical processes. Here, for the first time, mass production was applied to arithmetic, and Babbage was seized by the idea that the labours of the unskilled computers could be taken over completely by machinery which would be quicker and more reliable.
Babbage’s machines were among the first mechanical computers, although they were not actually completed, largely because of funding problems and personality issues. He directed the building of some steam-powered machines that achieved some success, suggesting that calculations could be mechanised. Although Babbage’s machines were mechanical and unwieldy, their basic architecture was very similar to a modern computer. The data and program memory were separated, operation was instruction-based, the control unit could make conditional jumps, and the machine had a separate I/O unit. For more than ten years he received government funding for his project, which amounted to ?17,000.00, but eventually the Treasury lost confidence in Babbage.[26]
Difference engine
In Babbage’s time, numerical tables were calculated by humans who were called ‘computers’, meaning “one who computes”, much as a conductor is “one who conducts”. At Cambridge, he saw the high error-rate of this human-driven process and started his life’s work of trying to calculate the tables mechanically. He began in 1822 with what he called the difference engine, made to compute values of polynomial functions. Unlike similar efforts of the time, Babbage’s difference engine was created to calculate a series of values automatically. By using the method of finite differences, it was possible to avoid the need for multiplication and division.
At the beginning of the 1820s, Babbage worked on a prototype of his first difference engine. Some parts of it still survive in the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford.[27] This prototype evolved into the “first difference engine.” It remained unfinished and the finished portion is located at the Science Museum in London. This first difference engine would have been composed of around 25,000 parts, weigh fifteen tons (13,600 kg), and would have been 8 ft (2.4 m) tall. Although Babbage received ample funding for the project, it was never completed. He later designed an improved version,”Difference Engine No. 2″, which was not constructed until 1989–91, using his plans and 19th century manufacturing tolerances. It performed its first calculation at the London Science Museum returning results to 31 digits, far more than the average modern pocket calculator.
Completed models
The London Science Museum has constructed two Difference Engines according to Babbage’s plans for the Difference Engine No 2. One is owned by the museum. The other, owned by the technology multimillionaire Nathan Myhrvold, went on exhibition at the Computer History Museum[28] in Mountain View, California on 10 May 2008.[29] The two models that have been constructed are not replicas; Myhrvold’s engine is the first design by Babbage, and the London Science Museum’s is a later model.
Analytical Engine
Soon after the attempt at making the difference engine crumbled, Babbage started designing a different, more complex machine called the Analytical Engine. The engine is not a single physical machine but a succession of designs that he tinkered with until his death in 1871. The main difference between the two engines is that the Analytical Engine could be programmed using punched cards. He realised that programs could be put on these cards so the designer had only to create the program initially and then put the cards in the machine and let it run. The analytical engine would have used loops of Jacquard’s punched cards to control a mechanical calculator, which could formulate results based on the results of preceding computations. This machine was also intended to employ several features subsequently used in modern computers, including sequential control, branching and looping and would have been the first mechanical device to be Turing-complete.
Ada Lovelace, who corresponded with Babbage during his development of the Analytical Engine, is credited with developing an algorithm for the Analytical Engine to calculate a sequence of Bernoulli numbers. Although there is disagreement over how much of the ideas were Lovelace’s own, she is often described as the first computer programmer.[30]
In 2011, researchers in Britain embarked on a multimillion-pound project, “Plan 28″, to construct Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Since Babbage’s plans were continually being refined and were never completed, they will engage the public in the project and crowd-source the analysis of what should be built.[31] It would have the equivalent of 675 bytes of memory, and run at a clock speed of about 7 Hz. They hope to complete it by the 150th anniversary of Babbage’s death, in 2021.[32]
Modern adaptations
While the abacus and mechanical calculator have been replaced by electronic calculators using microchips, the recent advances in MEMs and nanotechnology have led to recent high-tech experiments in mechanical computation. The benefits suggested include operation in high radiation or high temperature environments.[33] These modern versions of mechanical computation were highlighted in the magazine The Economist in its special “end of the millennium” black cover issue in an article entitled “Babbage’s Last Laugh”.[34]
Other accomplishments
In 1824, Babbage won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society “for his invention of an engine for calculating mathematical and astronomical tables”. He was a founding member of the society and one of its oldest living members on his death in 1871.
From 1828 to 1839 Babbage was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. He contributed largely to several scientific periodicals, and was instrumental in founding the Astronomical Society in 1820 and the Statistical Society in 1834. However, he dreamt of designing mechanical calculating machines, later writing:
I was sitting in the rooms of the Analytical Society, at Cambridge, my head leaning forward on the table in a kind of dreamy mood, with a table of logarithms lying open before me. Another member, coming into the room, and seeing me half asleep, called out, “Well, Babbage, what are you dreaming about?” to which I replied “I am thinking that all these tables” (pointing to the logarithms) “might be calculated by machinery”.
Babbage was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1832.[35] In 1837, responding to the Bridgewater Treatises, of which there were eight, he published his Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation, putting forward the thesis that God had the omnipotence and foresight to create as a divine legislator, making laws (or programs) which then produced species at the appropriate times, rather than continually interfering with ad hoc miracles each time a new species was required. The book is a work of natural theology, and incorporates extracts from correspondence he had been having with John Herschel on the subject.
Babbage also achieved notable results in cryptography. He broke Vigenere’s autokey cipher as well as the much weaker cipher that is called Vigenere cipher today. The autokey cipher was generally called “the undecipherable cipher”, though owing to popular confusion, many thought that the weaker polyalphabetic cipher was the “undecipherable ” one. Babbage’s discovery was used to aid English military campaigns, and was not published until several years later; as a result, credit for the development was instead given to Friedrich Kasiski, a Prussian infantry officer, who made the same discovery some years after Babbage.[36]
In 1838, Babbage invented the pilot (also called a cow-catcher), the metal frame attached to the front of locomotives that clears the tracks of obstacles.[37] He also constructed a dynamometer car and performed several studies on Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway in about 1838.[38] Babbage’s eldest son, Benjamin Herschel Babbage, worked as an engineer for Brunel on the railways before emigrating to Australia in the 1850s.[39]
Babbage also invented an ophthalmoscope, but although he gave it to a physician for testing it was forgotten, and the device only came into use after being independently invented by Hermann von Helmholtz.[40]
Babbage twice stood for Parliament as a candidate for the borough of Finsbury. In 1832 he came in third among five candidates, but in 1834 he finished last among four.[41][42][43]
In On the Economy of Machine and Manufacture, Babbage described what is now called the Babbage principle, which describes certain advantages with division of labour. Babbage noted that highly skilled—and thus generally highly paid—workers spend parts of their job performing tasks that are “below” their skill level. If the labour process can be divided among several workers, it is possible to assign only high-skill tasks to high-skill and high-cost workers and leave other working tasks to less-skilled and lower-paid workers, thereby cutting labour costs. This principle was criticised by Karl Marx who argued that it caused labour segregation and contributed to alienation. The Babbage principle is an inherent assumption in Frederick Winslow Taylor’s scientific management.
Babbage made notable contributions in other areas as well. ‹The template Citation needed span is being considered for merging.› He assisted in establishing the modern postal system in England and compiled the first reliable actuarial tables.
Views
Babbage once counted all the broken panes of glass of a factory, publishing in 1857 a “Table of the Relative Frequency of the Causes of Breakage of Plate Glass Windows”: Of 464 broken panes, 14 were caused by “drunken men, women or boys”.
Babbage’s distaste for commoners (“the Mob”) included writing “Observations of Street Nuisances” in 1864, as well as tallying up 165 “nuisances” over a period of 80 days. He especially hated street music, and in particular the music of organ grinders, against whom he railed in various venues. The following quotation is typical:
It is difficult to estimate the misery inflicted upon thousands of persons, and the absolute pecuniary penalty imposed upon multitudes of intellectual workers by the loss of their time, destroyed by organ-grinders and other similar nuisances.[47]
In the 1860s, Babbage also took up the anti-hoop-rolling campaign. He blamed hoop-rolling boys for driving their iron hoops under horses’ legs, with the result that the rider is thrown and very often the horse breaks a leg.[48] Babbage achieved a certain notoriety in this matter, being denounced in debate in Commons in 1864 for “commencing a crusade against the popular game of tip-cat and the trundling of hoops.”[49]
Babbage had a habit of declining honors, and declined both a knighthood and baronetcy. He also argued against hereditary peerages, favoring life peerages instead.[50]
Supposed influence from Indian thought
The discoveries of Babbage (as to a lesser extent Herschel, de Morgan and George Boole) have been seen by some as being influenced by Indian thought, in particular Indian logic.[51] Mary Everest Boole claims that Babbage, along with Herschel was introduced to Indian thought in the 1820s by her uncle George Everest:
Some time about 1825, [Everest] came to England for two or three years, and made a fast and lifelong friendship with Herschel and with Babbage, who was then quite young. I would ask any fair-minded mathematician to read Babbage’s Ninth Bridgewater Treatise and compare it with the works of his contemporaries in England; and then ask himself whence came the peculiar conception of the nature of miracle which underlies Babbage’s ideas of Singular Points on Curves (Chap, viii) – from European Theology or Hindu Metaphysic? Oh! how the English clergy of that day hated Babbage’s book![52]
Mary Boole also states:
Think what must have been the effect of the intense Hinduizing of three such men as Babbage, De Morgan, and George Boole on the mathematical atmosphere of 1830–1865. What share had it in generating the Vector Analysis and the mathematics by which investigations in physical science are now conducted?
Ancient history
Ancient history is the study of the written past[1] from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC.[2] This is the beginning of history, as opposed to prehistory, according to the definition used by most historians.[3]
The term classical antiquity is often used to refer to history in the Old World from the beginning of recorded Greek history in 776 BC (First Olympiad). This roughly coincides with the traditional date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC, the beginning of the history of ancient Rome, and the beginning of the Archaic period in Ancient Greece. Although the ending date of ancient history is disputed, some Western scholars use the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD,[4][5] the closure of the Platonic Academy in 529 AD,[6] the death of the emperor Justinian I,[7] the coming of Islam[8] or the rise of Charlemagne[9] as the end of ancient and Classical European history.
In India, the period includes the early period of the Middle Kingdoms,[10][11][12] and, in China, the time up to the Qin Dynasty is included.[13][14]
Study
A fundamental difficulty of studying ancient history is that recorded histories cannot document the entirety of human events, and only a fraction of those documents have survived into the present day.[15] Furthermore, the reliability of the information obtained from these surviving records must be considered.[15][16] Few people were capable of writing histories, as literacy was not widespread in almost any culture until long after the end of ancient history.[17]
The Roman Empire was one of the ancient world’s most literate cultures,[18] but many works by its most widely read historians are lost. For example, Livy, a Roman historian who lived in the 1st century BC, wrote a history of Rome called Ab Urbe Condita (From the Founding of the City) in 144 volumes; only 35 volumes still exist, although short summaries of most of the rest do exist. Indeed, only a minority of the work of any major Roman historian has survived.
Historians have two major avenues which they take to better understand the ancient world: archaeology and the study of source texts. Primary sources are those sources closest to the origin of the information or idea under study.[19][20] Primary sources have been distinguished from secondary sources, which often cite, comment on, or build upon primary sources.[21]
Source text
Most of what is known of the ancient world comes from the accounts of antiquity’s own historians. Although it is important to take into account the bias of each ancient author, their accounts are the basis for our understanding of the ancient past. Some of the more notable ancient writers include Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, Sima Qian, Sallust, Livy, Josephus, Suetonius, and Tacitus.
The earliest known systematic historical thought emerged in ancient Greece, beginning with Herodotus of Halicarnassus (484 BC–ca.425 BC). Thucydides largely eliminated divine causality in his account of the war between Athens and Sparta,[34] establishing a rationalistic element which set a precedent for subsequent Western historical writings. He was also the first to distinguish between cause and immediate origins of an event.[34]
Chronology
Prehistory
Prehistory is a term often used to describe the period before written history. The early human migration[35] patterns in the Lower Paleolithic saw Homo erectus spread across Eurasia. The controlled use of fire occurred about 800 thousand years ago in the Middle Paleolithic. Near 250 thousand years ago, Homo sapiens (modern humans)emerged in Africa. Around 70–60 thousand years ago, homo sapiens migrated out of Africa along a coastal route to South and Southeast Asia and reached Australia. About 50 thousand years ago, modern humans spread from Asia to the Near East. Europe was first reached by modern humans about 40,000 years ago. Finally, about 15 thousand years ago in the Upper Paleolithic, the migration to the Americas occurred.
The 10th millennium BC is the earliest given date for the invention of agriculture and the beginning of the ancient era. Gobekli Tepe was erected by hunter-gatherers in the 10th millennium BC (c. 11,500 years ago), before the advent of sedentism. Together with Neval? Cori, it has revolutionized understanding of the Eurasian Neolithic. In the 7th millennium BC, Jiahu culture began in China. By the 5th millennium BC, the late Neolithic civilizations saw the invention of the wheel and the spread of proto-writing. In the 4th millennium BC, the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in the Ukraine-Moldova-Romania region develops. By 3400 BC, “proto-literate” cuneiform is spread in the Middle East.[36] The 30th century BC, referred to as the Early Bronze Age II, saw the beginning of the literate period in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. Around 27th century BC, the Old Kingdom of Egypt and the First Dynasty of Uruk are founded, according to the earliest reliable regnal eras.
Timeline of ancient history
Middle to Late Bronze Age
The Bronze Age forms part of the three-age system. In this system, it follows the Neolithic Age in some areas of the world. In the 24th century BC, the Akkadian Empire[37][38] was founded. The First Intermediate Period of Egypt (c. 22nd century BC) was followed by the Middle Kingdom of Egypt between the 21st to 17th centuries BC. The Sumerian Renaissance also developed c. 21st century BC. Around the 18th century BC, the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt began.
By 1600 BC, Mycenaean Greece developed, the beginning of the Shang Dynasty in China emerged and there was evidence of a fully developed Chinese writing system. Also around 1600 BC, the beginning of Hittite dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean region is seen. The time between the 16th to 11th centuries around the Nile is called the New Kingdom of Egypt. Between 1550 BC and 1292 BC, the Amarna Period developed.
Early Iron Age
The Iron Age is the last principal period in the three-age system, preceded by the Bronze Age. Its date and context vary depending on the country or geographical region. During the 13th to 12th centuries BC, the Ramesside Period occurred in Egypt. Around c. 1200 BC, the Trojan War was thought to have taken place.[39] By c. 1180 BC, the disintegration of the Hittite Empire was underway.
In 1046 BC, the Zhou force, led by King Wu of Zhou, overthrows the last king of the Shang Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty is established in China shortly thereafter. In 1000 BC, the Mannaeans Kingdom begins in Western Asia. Around the 10th to 7th centuries BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire forms in Mesopotamia. In 800 BC, the rise of Greek city-states begins. In 776 BC, the first recorded Olympic Games are held.
Classical Antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered around the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (9th century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD), ending in the dissolution of classical culture with the close of Late Antiquity.
Such a wide sampling of history and territory covers many rather disparate cultures and periods. “Classical antiquity” typically refers to an idealized vision of later people, of what was, in Edgar Allan Poe’s words, “the glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome!” In the 18th and 19th centuries AD reverence for classical antiquity was much greater in Europe and the United States than it is today. Respect for the ancients of Greece and Rome affected politics, philosophy, sculpture, literature, theatre, education, and even architecture and sexuality.
In politics, the presence of a Roman Emperor was felt to be desirable long after the empire fell. This tendency reached its peak when Charlemagne was crowned “Roman Emperor” in the year 800, an act which led to the formation of the Holy Roman Empire. The notion that an emperor is a monarch who outranks a mere king dates from this period. In this political ideal, there would always be a Roman Empire, a state whose jurisdiction extended to the entire civilized world.
Epic poetry in Latin continued to be written and circulated well into the 19th century. John Milton and even Arthur Rimbaud received their first poetic educations in Latin. Genres like epic poetry, pastoral verse, and the endless use of characters and themes from Greek mythology left a deep mark on Western literature.
In architecture, there have been several Greek Revivals, (though while apparently more inspired in retrospect by Roman architecture than Greek). Still, one needs only to look at Washington, DC to see a city filled with large marble buildings with facades made out to look like Roman temples, with columns constructed in the classical orders of architecture.
In philosophy, the efforts of St Thomas Aquinas were derived largely from the thought of Aristotle, despite the intervening change in religion from paganism to Christianity. Greek and Roman authorities such as Hippocrates and Galen formed the foundation of the practice of medicine even longer than Greek thought prevailed in philosophy. In the French theatre, tragedians such as Moliere and Racine wrote plays on mythological or classical historical subjects and subjected them to the strict rules of the classical unities derived from Aristotle’s Poetics. The desire to dance like a latter-day vision of how the ancient Greeks did it moved Isadora Duncan to create her brand of ballet. The Renaissance was partly caused by the rediscovery of classic antiquity.[40]
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is the site of some of the earliest known civilizations in the world. Early settlement of the alluvial plain lasted from the Ubaid period (late 6th millennium BC) through the Uruk period (4th millennium BC) and the Dynastic periods (3rd millennium BC) until the rise of Babylon in the early 2nd millennium BC. The surplus of storable foodstuffs created by this economy allowed the population to settle in one place instead of migrating after crops and herds. It also allowed for a much greater population density, and in turn required an extensive labor force and division of labor. This organization led to the necessity of record keeping and the development of writing (c. 3500 BC).
Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi (fl. c. 1728–1686 BC, according to the short chronology) created an empire out of the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad. The Amorites being a Semitic people, Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use; they retained the Sumerian language for religious use, which by that time was no longer a spoken language. The Akkadian and Sumerian cultures played a major role in later Babylonian culture, and the region would remain an important cultural center, even under outside rule. The earliest mention of the city of Babylon can be found in a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad, dating back to the 23rd century BC.
The Neo-Babylonian Empire, or Chaldea, was Babylonia under the rule of the 11th (“Chaldean”) dynasty, from the revolt of Nabopolassar in 626 BC until the invasion of Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. Notably, it included the reign of Nebuchadrezzar II who conquered Judah and Jerusalem.
Akkad was a city and its surrounding region in central Mesopotamia. Akkad also became the capital of the Akkadian Empire.[135] The city was probably situated on the west bank of the Euphrates, between Sippar and Kish (in present-day Iraq, about 50 km (31 mi) southwest of the center of Baghdad). Despite an extensive search, the precise site has never been found. Akkad reached the height of its power between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests of king Sargon of Akkad. Because of the policies of the Akkadian Empire toward linguistic assimilation, Akkad also gave its name to the predominant Semitic dialect: the Akkadian language, reflecting use of akkadu (“in the language of Akkad”) in the Old Babylonian period to denote the Semitic version of a Sumerian text.
Assyria was originally (in the Middle Bronze Age) a region on the Upper Tigris river, named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur. Later, as a nation and empire that came to control all of the Fertile Crescent, Egypt and much of Anatolia, the term “Assyria proper” referred to roughly the northern half of Mesopotamia (the southern half being Babylonia), with Nineveh as its capital. The Assyrian kings controlled a large kingdom at three different times in history. These are called the Old (20th to 15th c. BC), Middle (15th to 10th c. BC), and Neo-Assyrian (911–612 BC) kingdoms, or periods, of which the last is the most well known and best documented. Assyrians invented excavation to undermine city walls, battering rams to knock down gates, as well as the concept of a corps of engineers, who bridged rivers with pontoons or provided soldiers with inflatable skins for swimming.[136]
Mitanni was an Indo-Iranian[137] empire in northern Mesopotamia from c. 1500 BC. At the height of Mitanni power, during the 14th century BC, it encompassed what is today southeastern Turkey, northern Syria and northern Iraq, centered around its capital, Washukanni, whose precise location has not been determined by archaeologists.
Ancient Persia
Elam is the name of an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. Archaeological evidence associated with Elam has been dated to before 5000 BC. According to available written records, it is known to have existed beginning from around 3200 BC – making it among the world’s oldest historical civilizations – and to have endured up until 539 BC. Its culture played a crucial role in the Gutian Empire, especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it, when the Elamite language remained among those in official use. The Elamite period is considered a starting point for the history of Iran.
The Medes were an ancient Iranian people. The established their own empire by the 6th century BC, having defeated the Neo-Assyrian Empire with the Chaldeans. The Medes are credited with the foundation of the first Iranian empire, the largest of its day until Cyrus the Great established a unified Iranian empire of the Medes and Persian, often referred to as the Achaemenid Persian Empire, by defeating his grandfather and overlord, Astyages the king of Media.
The Achaemenid Empire was the first of the Persian Empires to rule over significant portions of Greater Persia, and followed the Median Empire as the second great empire of the Persian Peoples. It is noted in western history as the foe of the Greek city states in the Greco-Persian Wars, for freeing the Israelites from their Babylonian captivity, and for instituting Aramaic as the empire’s official language. Because of the Empire’s vast extent and long endurance, Persian influence upon the language, religion, architecture, philosophy, law and government of nations around the world lasts to this day. At the height of its power, the Achaemenid dynasty encompassed approximately 8.0 million square kilometers, held the greatest percentage of world population to date, and was territorially the largest empire of classical antiquity.
Geographical extent of Iranian influence in the 1st century BC. The Parthian Empire (mostly Western Iranian) is shown in red, other areas, dominated by Scythia (mostly Eastern Iranian), in orange.
Parthia was an Iranian civilization situated in the northeastern part of modern Iran. Their power was based on a combination of the guerrilla warfare of a mounted nomadic tribe, with organizational skills to build and administer a vast empire – even though it never matched in power and extent the Persian empires that preceded and followed it. The Parthian empire was led by the Arsacid dynasty, which reunited and ruled over the Iranian plateau, after defeating and disposing the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, beginning in the late 3rd century BC, and intermittently controlled Mesopotamia between 150 BC and 224 AD. It was the third native dynasty of ancient Iran (after the Median and the Achaemenid dynasties). Parthia had many wars with the Roman Empire.
The Sassanid Empire, lasting the length of the Late Antiquity period, is considered to be one of Iran’s most important and influential historical periods. In many ways the Sassanid period witnessed the highest achievement of Persian civilization, and constituted the last great Iranian Empire before the Muslim conquest and adoption of Islam.[citation needed] Persia influenced Roman civilization considerably during the Sassanids’ times,[145] and the Romans reserved for the Sassanid Persians alone the status of equals. Their cultural influence extended far beyond the empire’s territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe,[146] Africa,[147] China and India and played a role in the formation of both European and Asiatic medieval art.[148]
Armenia
The early history of the Hittite empire is known through tablets that may first have been written in the 17th century BC but survived only as copies made in the 14th and 13th centuries BC. These tablets, known collectively as the Anitta text,[149] begin by telling how Pithana the king of Kussara or Kussar (a small city-state yet to be identified by archaeologists) conquered the neighbouring city of Nesa (Kanesh). However, the real subject of these tablets is Pithana’s son Anitta, who conquered several neighbouring cities, including Hattusa and Zalpuwa (Zalpa).
Assyrian inscriptions of Shalmaneser I (c. 1270 BC) first mention Uruartri as one of the states of Nairi – a loose confederation of small kingdoms and tribal states in Armenian Highland in the 13th – 11th centuries BC. Uruartri itself was in the region around Lake Van. The Nairi states were repeatedly subjected to attacks by the Assyrians, especially under Tukulti-Ninurta I (c. 1240 BC), Tiglath-Pileser I (c. 1100 BC), Ashur-bel-kala (c. 1070 BC), Adad-nirari II (c. 900), Tukulti-Ninurta II (c. 890), and Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC).
The Kingdom of Armenia was an independent kingdom from 190 BC to 387 АD, and a client state of the Roman and Persian empires until 428. Between 95 BC – 55 BC under the rule of King Tigranes the Great, the kingdom of Armenia became a large and powerful empire stretching from the Caspian to the Mediterranean Seas. During this short time it was considered to be the most powerful state in the Roman East.[150][151]
Arabia
The history of Pre-Islamic Arabia before the rise of Islam in the 630s is not known in great detail. Archaeological exploration in the Arabian peninsula has been sparse; indigenous written sources are limited to the many inscriptions and coins from southern Arabia. Existing material consists primarily of written sources from other traditions (such as Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, etc.) and oral traditions later recorded by Islamic scholars.
The first known inscriptions of the Kingdom of Hadhramaut are known from the 8th century BC. It was first referenced by an outside civilization in an Old Sabaic inscription of Karab’il Watar from the early 7th century BC, in which the King of Hadramaut, Yada`’il, is mentioned as being one of his allies.
Dilmun appears first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the end of fourth millennium BC, found in the temple of goddess Inanna, in the city of Uruk. The adjective Dilmun is used to describe a type of axe and one specific official; in addition there are lists of rations of wool issued to people connected with Dilmun.[152]
The Sabaeans were an ancient people speaking an Old South Arabian language who lived in what is today Yemen, in south west Arabian Peninsula; from 2000 BC to the 8th century BC. Some Sabaeans also lived in D’mt, located in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, due to their hegemony over the Red Sea.[153] They lasted from the early 2nd millennium to the 1st century BC. In the 1st century BC it was conquered by the Himyarites, but after the disintegration of the first Himyarite empire of the Kings of Saba’ and dhu-Raydan the Middle Sabaean Kingdom reappeared in the early 2nd century. It was finally conquered by the Himyarites in the late 3rd century.
The ancient Kingdom of Awsan with a capital at Hagar Yahirr in the wadi Markha, to the south of the wadi Bayhan, is now marked by a tell or artificial mound, which is locally named Hagar Asfal. Once it was one of the most important small kingdoms of South Arabia. The city seems to have been destroyed in the 7th century BC by the king and mukarrib of Saba Karib’il Watar, according to a Sabaean text that reports the victory in terms that attest to its significance for the Sabaeans.
The Himyar was a state in ancient South Arabia dating from 110 BC. It conquered neighbouring Saba (Sheba) in c.25 BC, Qataban in c.200 AD and Hadramaut c.300 AD. Its political fortunes relative to Saba changed frequently until it finally conquered the Sabaean Kingdom around 280 CE.[154] It was the dominant state in Arabia until 525 AD. The economy was based on agriculture.
Foreign trade was based on the export of frankincense and myrrh. For many years it was also the major intermediary linking East Africa and the Mediterranean world. This trade largely consisted of exporting ivory from Africa to be sold in the Roman Empire. Ships from Himyar regularly traveled the East African coast, and the state also exerted a considerable amount of political control of the trading cities of East Africa.
The Nabataean origins remain obscure. On the similarity of sounds, Jerome suggested a connection with the tribe Nebaioth mentioned in Genesis, but modern historians are cautious about an early Nabatean history. The Babylonian captivity that began in 586 BC opened a power vacuum in Judah, and as Edomites moved into Judaean grazing lands, Nabataean inscriptions began to be left in Edomite territory (earlier than 312 BC, when they were attacked at Petra without success by Antigonus I). The first definite appearance was in 312 BC, when Hieronymus of Cardia, a Seleucid officer, mentioned the Nabateans in a battle report. In 50 BC, the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus cited Hieronymus in his report, and added the following: “Just as the Seleucids had tried to subdue them, so the Romans made several attempts to get their hands on that lucrative trade.”
Petra or Sela was the ancient capital of Edom; the Nabataeans must have occupied the old Edomite country, and succeeded to its commerce, after the Edomites took advantage of the Babylonian captivity to press forward into southern Judaea. This migration, the date of which cannot be determined, also made them masters of the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba and the important harbor of Elath. Here, according to Agatharchides, they were for a time very troublesome, as wreckers and pirates, to the reopened commerce between Egypt and the East, until they were chastised by the Ptolemaic rulers of Alexandria.
The Lakhmid Kingdom was founded by the Lakhum tribe that immigrated out of Yemen in the 2nd century and ruled by the Banu Lakhm, hence the name given it. It was formed of a group of Arab Christians who lived in Southern Iraq, and made al-Hirah their capital in (266). The founder of the dynasty was ‘Amr and the son Imru’ al-Qais converted to Christianity. Gradually the whole city converted to that faith. Imru’ al-Qais dreamt of a unified and independent Arab kingdom and, following that dream, he seized many cities in Arabia.
The Ghassanids were a group of South Arabian Christian tribes that emigrated in the early 3rd century from Yemen to the Hauran in southern Syria, Jordan and the Holy Land where they intermarried with Hellenized Roman settlers and Greek-speaking Early Christian communities. The Ghassanid emigration has been passed down in the rich oral tradition of southern Syria. It is said that the Ghassanids came from the city of Ma’rib in Yemen. There was a dam in this city, however one year there was so much rain that the dam was carried away by the ensuing flood. Thus the people there had to leave. The inhabitants emigrated seeking to live in less arid lands and became scattered far and wide. The proverb “They were scattered like the people of Saba” refers to that exodus in history. The emigrants were from the southern Arab tribe of Azd of the Kahlan branch of Qahtani tribes.
Levant
Though the Ugaritic site is thought to have been inhabited earlier, Neolithic Ugarit was already important enough to be fortified with a wall early on. The first written evidence mentioning the city comes from the nearby city of Ebla, c. 1800 BC. Ugarit passed into the sphere of influence of Egypt, which deeply influenced its art.
Concerning the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, the Book of Genesis traces the beginning of Israel to three patriarchs of the Jewish people, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the last also known as Israel from which the name of the land was subsequently derived. Jacob, called a “wandering Aramaean” (Deuteronomy 26:5), the grandson of Abraham, had travelled back to Harran, the home of his ancestors, to obtain a wife. Whilst returning from Haran to Canaan, he crossed the Jabbok, a tributary on the Arabian side of the Jordan River (Genesis 32:22-33). After having sent his family and servants away that night, he wrestled with a strange man at a place henceforth called Peniel, who in the morning asked him his name. As a result, he was renamed “Israel”, because he had “wrestled with God” and became, in time, the father of twelve sons by Leah and Rachel, (daughters of Laban), and their maidservants Bilhah and Zilpah. The twelve were considered the “Children of Israel”. These stories of the origins of the Israelites locate them first on the east bank of the Jordan. The stories of Israel move to the west bank with the story of the sacking of Shechem (Genesis 34:1-33), after which the hill area of Canaan is assumed to have been the historical core of the area of Israel.
Phoenicians
Phoenicia was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, Syria and Israel. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean between the period of 1550 BC to 300 BC.
A written reference, Herodotus’s account (written c. 440 BC) refers to a memory from 800 years earlier, which may be subject to question in the fullness of genetic results. (History, I:1). This is a legendary introduction to Herodotus’ brief retelling of some mythical Hellene-Phoenician interactions. Though few modern archaeologists would confuse this myth with history, a grain of truth may yet lie therein.
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (Swedish original name Carl Nilsson Linn? us, 23 May[note 1] 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement as About this sound Carl von Linne (help·info),[1] was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology. Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linn? us (after 1761 Carolus a Linne).
Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Smaland, in southern Sweden. Linnaeus received most of his higher education at Uppsala University, and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 60s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, and published several volumes. At the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe.
The Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message: “Tell him I know no greater man on earth.”[2] The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote: “With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, I know no one among the no longer living who has influenced me more strongly.”[2] Swedish author August Strindberg wrote: “Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist”.[3] Among other compliments, Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum (Prince of Botanists), “The Pliny of the North,” and “The Second Adam”.[4]
In botany, the author abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species’ names is L.[5] In 1959, Carl Linnaeus was designated as the lectotype for Homo sapiens,[6] which means that following the nomenclatural rules, Homo sapiens was validly defined as the animal species to which Linnaeus belonged.
Biography
Early life
Carl Linnaeus was born in the village of Rashult in Smaland, Sweden on 23 May 1707. He was the first child of Nils Ingemarsson Linnaeus and Christina Brodersonia. His father was the first in his ancestry to adopt a permanent surname. Before that, ancestors had used the patronymic naming system of Scandinavian countries: his father was named Ingemarsson after his father Ingemar Bengtsson. When Nils was admitted to the University of Lund, he had to take on a family name. He adopted the Latinate name Linn? us after a giant linden tree (or lime tree), lind in Swedish, that grew on the family homestead.[7] This name was spelled with the ? ligature. When Carl was born, he was named Carl Linn? us, with his father’s family name. The son also always spelled it with the ? ligature, both in handwritten documents and in publications.[8] Carl’s patronymic would have been Nilsson, as in Carl Nilsson Linn? us.
One of a long line of peasants and priests, Nils was an amateur botanist, a Lutheran minister, and the curate of the small village of Stenbrohult in Smaland. Christina was the daughter of the rector of Stenbrohult, Samuel Brodersonius. She subsequently gave birth to three daughters and another son, Samuel (who would eventually succeed their father as rector of Stenbrohult and write a manual on beekeeping).[7][9][10] A year after Linnaeus’ birth, his grandfather Samuel Brodersonius died, and his father Nils became the rector of Stenbrohult. The family moved into the rectory from the curate’s house.[8][11]
Even in his early years, Linnaeus seemed to have a liking for plants, flowers in particular. Whenever he was upset, he was given a flower, which immediately calmed him. Nils spent much time in his garden and often showed flowers to Linnaeus and told him their names. Soon Linnaeus was given his own patch of earth where he could grow plants.[12]
Early education
His father began teaching Linnaeus Latin, religion, and geography at an early age; one account says that due to family use of Latin for conversation, the boy learned Latin before he learned Swedish. When Linnaeus was seven, Nils decided to hire a tutor for him. The parents picked Johan Telander, a son of a local yeoman. Linnaeus did not like him, writing in his autobiography that Telander “was better calculated to extinguish a child’s talents than develop them.”[13] Two years after his tutoring had begun, he was sent to the Lower Grammar School at Vaxjo in 1717.[14] Linnaeus rarely studied, often going to the countryside to look for plants. He reached the last year of the Lower School when he was fifteen, which was taught by the headmaster, Daniel Lannerus, who was interested in botany. Lannerus noticed Linnaeus’ interest in botany and gave him the run of his garden. He also introduced him to Johan Rothman, the state doctor of Smaland and a teacher at Vaxjo Gymnasium. Also a botanist, Rothman broadened Linnaeus’ interest in botany and helped him develop an interest in medicine.[15][16]
Linnaeus entered the Vaxjo Gymnasium in 1724, where he studied mainly Greek, Hebrew, theology and mathematics, a curriculum designed for boys preparing for the priesthood.[17][18] In the last year at the gymnasium, Linnaeus’ father visited to ask the professors how his son’s studies were progressing; to his dismay, most said that the boy would never become a scholar. Rothman believed otherwise, suggesting Linnaeus could have a future in medicine. The doctor offered to have Linnaeus live with his family in Vaxjo and to teach him physiology and botany. Nils accepted this offer.[19][20]
University
Rothman showed Linnaeus that botany was a serious subject. He taught Linnaeus to classify plants according to Tournefort’s system. Linnaeus was also taught about sexuality of plants, according to Sebastien Vaillant.[19] In 1727, Linnaeus, age 21, enrolled in Lund University in Skane.[21][22] He was registered as Carolus Linn? us, the Latin form of his full name, which he also used later for his Latin publications.[1]
The local doctor Kilian Stobaeus offered Linnaeus tutoring and lodging, as well as the use of his library, which included many books about botany. He also gave the student free admission to his lectures.[23][24] In his spare time, Linnaeus explored the flora of Skane, together with students sharing the same interests.[25]
Uppsala
In August 1728, Linnaeus decided to attend Uppsala University on the advice of Rothman, who believed it would be a better choice if Linnaeus wanted to study both medicine and botany. Rothman based this recommendation on the two professors who taught at the medical faculty at Uppsala: Olof Rudbeck the Younger and Lars Roberg. Although Rudbeck and Roberg had undoubtedly been good professors, by then they were older and not so interested in teaching. Rudbeck no longer gave public lectures, and had others stand in for him. The botany, zoology, pharmacology and anatomy lectures were not in their best state.[26] In Uppsala, Linnaeus met a new benefactor, Olof Celsius, who was a professor of theology and an amateur botanist.[27] He received Linnaeus into his home and allowed him use of his library, which was one of the richest botanical libraries in Sweden.[28]
In 1729, Linnaeus wrote a thesis, Praeludia Sponsaliorum Plantarum on plant sexuality. This attracted the attention of Rudbeck; in May 1730, he selected Linnaeus to give lectures at the University although the young man was only a second-year student. His lectures were popular, and Linnaeus often addressed an audience of 300 people.[29] In June, Linnaeus moved from Celsius’ house to Rudbeck’s to become the tutor of the three youngest of his 24 children. His friendship with Celsius did not wane and they continued their botanical expeditions.[30] Over that winter, Linnaeus began to doubt Tournefort’s system of classification and decided to create one of his own. His plan was to divide the plants by the number of stamens and pistils. He began writing several books, which would later result in, for example, Genera Plantarum and Critica Botanica. He also produced a book on the plants grown in the Uppsala Botanical Garden, Adonis Uplandicus.[31]
Rudbeck’s former assistant, Nils Rosen, returned to the University in March 1731 with a degree in medicine. Rosen started giving anatomy lectures and tried to take over Linnaeus’ botany lectures, but Rudbeck prevented that. Until December, Rosen gave Linnaeus private tutoring in medicine. In December, Linnaeus had a “disagreement” with Rudbeck’s wife and had to move out of his mentor’s house; his relationship with Rudbeck did not appear to suffer. That Christmas, Linnaeus returned home to Stenbrohult to visit his parents for the first time in about three years. His mother had disapproved of his failing to become a priest, but she was pleased to learn he was teaching at the University.[31][32]
Expedition to Lapland
During a visit with his parents, Linnaeus told them about his plan to travel to Lapland; Rudbeck had made the journey in 1695, but the detailed results of his exploration were lost in a fire seven years afterwards. Linnaeus’ hope was to find new plants, animals and possibly valuable minerals. He was also curious about the customs of the native Sami people, reindeer-herding nomads who wandered Scandinavia’s vast tundras. In April 1732, Linnaeus was awarded a grant from the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala for his journey.[33][34]
Linnaeus began his expedition from Uppsala in May; he travelled on foot and horse, bringing with him his journal, botanical and ornithological manuscripts and sheets of paper for pressing plants. Near Gavle he found great quantities of Campanula serpyllifolia, later known as Linnaea borealis, the twinflower that would become his favourite.[35] He sometimes dismounted on the way to examine a flower or rock[36] and was particularly interested in mosses and lichens, the latter a main part of the diet of the reindeer, a common animal in Lapland.[37]
Linnaeus travelled clockwise around the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, making major inland incursions from Umea, Lulea and Tornio. He returned from his six-month long, over 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) expedition in October, having gathered and observed many plants, birds and rocks.[38][39][40] Although Lapland was a region with limited biodiversity, Linnaeus described about 100 previously unidentified plants. These became the basis of his book Flora Lapponica.[41][42]
In Flora Lapponica Linnaeus’ ideas about nomenclature and classification were first used in a practical way, making this the first proto-modern Flora.[43] The account covered 534 species, used the Linnaean classification system and included, for the described species, geographical distribution and taxonomic notes. It was Augustin Pyramus de Candolle who attributed Linnaeus with Flora Lapponica as the first example in the botanical genre of Flora writing. Botanical historian E. L. Greene described Flora Lapponica as “the most classic and delightful” of Linnaeus’s works.[43]
It was also during this expedition that Linnaeus had a flash of insight regarding the classification of mammals. Upon observing the lower jawbone of a horse at the side of a road he was traveling, Linnaeus remarked: “If I only knew how many teeth and of what kind every animal had, how many teats and where they were placed, I should perhaps be able to work out a perfectly natural system for the arrangement of all quadrupeds.”[44]
Dalarna
In 1734, Linnaeus led a small group of students to Dalarna. Funded by the Governor of Dalarna, the expedition was to catalogue known natural resources and discover new ones, but also to gather intelligence on Norwegian mining activities at Roros.[40]
European excursions
Cities where Linnaeus worked; those outside Sweden were only visited during 1735–1738.
Doctorate
Back in Uppsala, Linnaeus’ relations with Nils Rosen worsened, and thus he gladly accepted an invitation from the student Claes Sohlberg to spend the Christmas holiday in Falun with Sohlberg’s family. Sohlberg’s father was a mining inspector, and let Linnaeus visit the mines near Falun.[45] Sohland’s father suggested to Linnaeus he should bring Sohlberg to the Dutch Republic and continue to tutor him there for an annual salary. At that time, the Dutch Republic was one of the most revered places to study natural history and a common place for Swedes to take their doctoral degree; Linnaeus, who was interested in both of these, accepted.[46]
In April 1735, Linnaeus and Sohlberg set out for the Netherlands, with Linnaeus to take a doctoral degree in medicine at the University of Harderwijk.[47] On the way, they stopped in Hamburg, where they met the mayor, who proudly showed them a wonder of nature which he possessed: the taxidermied remains of a seven-headed hydra. Linnaeus quickly discovered it was a fake: jaws and clawed feet from weasels and skins from snakes had been glued together. The provenance of the hydra suggested to Linnaeus it had been manufactured by monks to represent the Beast of Revelation. As much as this may have upset the mayor, Linnaeus made his observations public and the mayor’s dreams of selling the hydra for an enormous sum were ruined. Fearing his wrath, Linnaeus and Sohlberg had to leave Hamburg quickly.[48][49]
The Hamburg Hydra, from the Thesaurus (1734) of Albertus Seba
When Linnaeus reached Harderwijk, he began working toward a degree immediately; at the time, Harderwijk was known for awarding “instant” degrees after as little as a week.[50] First he handed in a thesis on the cause of malaria he had written in Sweden, which he then defended in a public debate. The next step was to take an oral examination and to diagnose a patient. After less than two weeks, he took his degree and became a doctor, at the age of 28.[48][50] During the summer, Linnaeus met a friend from Uppsala, Peter Artedi. Before their departure from Uppsala, Artedi and Linnaeus had decided should one of them die, the survivor would finish the other’s work. Ten weeks later, Artedi drowned in one of the canals of Amsterdam, and his unfinished manuscript on the classification of fish was left to Linnaeus to complete.[51][52]
Publishing of Systema Naturae
One of the first scientists Linnaeus met in the Netherlands was Johan Frederik Gronovius to whom Linnaeus showed one of the several manuscripts he had brought with him from Sweden. The manuscript described a new system for classifying plants. When Gronovius saw it, he was very impressed, and offered to help pay for the printing. With an additional monetary contribution by the Scottish doctor Isaac Lawson, the manuscript was published as Systema Naturae.[53][54]
Linnaeus became acquainted with one of the most respected physicians and botanists in the Netherlands, Herman Boerhaave, who tried to convince Linnaeus to make a career there. Boerhaave offered him a journey to South Africa and America, but Linnaeus declined, stating he would not stand the heat. Instead, Boerhaave convinced Linnaeus that he should visit the botanist Johannes Burman. After his visit, Burman, impressed with his guest’s knowledge, decided Linnaeus should stay with him during the winter. During his stay, Linnaeus helped Burman with his Thesaurus Zeylanicus. Burman also helped Linnaeus with the books on which he was working: Fundamenta Botanica and Bibliotheca Botanica.[55]
George Clifford
In August, during Linnaeus’ stay with Burman, he met George Clifford III, a director of the Dutch East India Company and the owner of a rich botanical garden at the estate of Hartekamp in Heemstede. Clifford was very impressed with Linnaeus’ ability to classify plants, and invited him to become his physician and superintendent of his garden. Linnaeus had already agreed to stay with Burman over the winter, and could thus not accept immediately. However, Clifford offered to compensate Burman by offering him a copy of Sir Hans Sloane’s Natural History of Jamaica, a rare book, if he let Linnaeus stay with him, and Burman accepted.[56][57] On 24 September 1735, Linnaeus became the botanical curator and house physician at Hartekamp, free to buy any book or plant he wanted.
In July 1736, Linnaeus travelled to England, at Clifford’s expense.[58] He went to London to visit Sir Hans Sloane, a collector of natural history, and to see his cabinet,[59] as well as to visit the Chelsea Physic Garden and its keeper, Philip Miller. He taught Miller about his new system of subdividing plants, as described in Systema Naturae. Miller was impressed, and from then on started to arrange the garden according to Linnaeus’ system.[60] Linnaeus also traveled to Oxford University to visit the botanist Johann Jacob Dillenius. He failed, however, to make Dillenius publicly accept his new classification system. He then returned to Hartekamp, bringing with him many specimens of rare plants.[61] The next year, he published Genera Plantarum, in which he described 935 genera of plants, and shortly thereafter he supplemented it with Corollarium Generum Plantarum, with another sixty (sexaginta) genera.[62]
His work at Hartekamp led to another book, Hortus Cliffortianus, a catalogue of the botanical holdings in the herbarium and botanical garden of Hartekamp. He wrote it in nine months (completed in July 1737), but it was not published until 1738.[55] It contains the first use of the name Nepenthes, which Linnaeus used to describe a genus of pitcher plants.[63][note 2]
Linnaeus stayed with Clifford at Hartekamp until 18 October 1737 (new style), when he left the house to return to Sweden. Illness and the kindness of Dutch friends obliged him to stay some months longer in Holland. In May 1738, he set out for Sweden again. On the way home, he stayed in Paris for about a month, visiting botanists such as Antoine de Jussieu. After his return, Linnaeus never left Sweden again.[64][65]
Return to Sweden
Wedding portrait of Linnaeus
When Linnaeus returned to Sweden on 28 June 1738, he went to Falun, where he entered into an engagement to Sara Elisabeth Mor? a. Three months later, he moved to Stockholm to find employment as a physician, and thus to make it possible to support a family.[66][67] Once again, Linnaeus found a patron; he became acquainted with Count Carl Gustav Tessin, who helped him get work as a physician at the Admiralty.[68][69] During this time in Stockholm, Linnaeus helped found the Royal Swedish Academy of Science; he became the first Praeses in the academy by drawing of lots.[70]
Because his finances had improved and were now sufficient to support a family, he received permission to marry his fiancee, Sara Elisabeth Mor? a. Their wedding was held 26 June 1739. Seven months later, Sara gave birth to their first son, Carl. Two years later, a daughter, Elisabeth Christina, was born, and the subsequent year Sara gave birth to Sara Magdalena, who died 15 days old. Sara and Linnaeus would later have four other children: Lovisa, Sara Christina, Johannes and Sophia.[66][71]
The Linnaeus house in Uppsala
In May 1741, Linnaeus was appointed Professor of Medicine at Uppsala University, first with the responsibility of the medicine-related matters. Soon, he changed place with the other Professor of Medicine, Nils Rosen, and thus was responsible for the Botanical Garden (which he would thoroughly reconstruct and expand), botany and natural history, instead. In October that same year, his wife and nine-year-old son followed him to live in Uppsala.[72]
Further exploration of Sweden
Oland and Gotland
Ten days after he was appointed Professor, he undertook an expedition to the island provinces of Oland and Gotland with six students from the university, to look for plants useful in medicine. First, they travelled to Oland and stayed there until 21 June, when they sailed to Visby in Gotland. Linnaeus and the students stayed on Gotland for about a month, and then returned to Uppsala. During this expedition, they found 100 previously unrecorded plants. The observations from the expedition were later published in Olandska och Gothlandska Resa, written in Swedish. Like Flora Lapponica, it contained both zoological and botanical observations, as well as observations concerning the culture in Oland and Gotland.[73][74]
During the summer of 1745, Linnaeus published two more books: Flora Suecica and Fauna Suecica. Flora Suecica was a strictly botanical book, while Fauna Suecica was zoological.[66][75] Anders Celsius had created the temperature scale named after him in 1742. Celsius’ scale was inverted compared to today, the boiling point at 0 °C and freezing point at 100 °C. In 1745, Linnaeus inverted the scale to its present standard.[76]
Vastergotland
In the summer of 1746, Linnaeus was once again commissioned by the Government to carry out an expedition, this time to the Swedish province of Vastergotland. He set out from Uppsala on 12 June and returned on 11 August. On the expedition his primary companion was Erik Gustaf Lidbeck, a student who had accompanied him on his previous journey. Linnaeus described his findings from the expedition in the book Wastgota-Resa, published the next year.[73][77] After returning from the journey the Government decided Linnaeus should take on another expedition to the southernmost province Scania. This journey was postponed, as Linnaeus felt too busy.[66]
In 1747, Linnaeus was given the title archiater, or chief physician, by the Swedish king Adolf Frederick—a mark of great respect.[78] The same year he was elected member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin.[79]
Scania
In the spring of 1749, Linnaeus could finally journey to Scania, again commissioned by the Government. With him he brought his student, Olof Soderberg. On the way to Scania, he made his last visit to his brothers and sisters in Stenbrohult since his father had died the previous year. The expedition was similar to the previous journeys in most aspects, but this time he was also ordered to find the best place to grow walnut and Swedish whitebeam trees; these trees were used by the military to make rifles. The journey was successful, and Linnaeus’ observations were published the next year in Skanska Resa.[80][81]
Rector of Uppsala University
The Linnaeus summer home at his Hammarby estate
The Linnaean garden
In 1750, Linnaeus became rector of Uppsala University, starting a period where natural sciences were esteemed.[66] Perhaps the most important contribution he made during his time at Uppsala was to teach; many of his students travelled to various places in the world to collect botanical samples. Linnaeus called the best of these students his “apostles”.[82] His lectures were normally very popular and were often held in the Botanical Garden. He tried to teach the students to think for themselves and not trust anybody, not even him. Even more popular than the lectures were the botanical excursions made every Saturday during summer, where Linnaeus and his students explored the flora and fauna in the vicinity of Uppsala.[83]
Publishing of Philosophia Botanica
Linnaeus published Philosophia Botanica in 1751. The book contained a complete survey of the taxonomy system he had been using in his earlier works. It also contained information of how to keep a journal on travels and how to maintain a botanical garden.[84]
Publishing of Species Plantarum
Linnaeus published Species Plantarum, the work which is now internationally accepted as the starting point of modern botanical nomenclature, in 1753.[85] The first volume was issued on 24 May, the second volume followed on 16 August[86] of the same year.[note 3][87] The book contained 1,200 pages and was published in two volumes; it described over 7,300 species.[88][89] The same year the king dubbed him knight of the Order of the Polar Star, the first civilian in Sweden to become a knight in this order. He was then seldom seen not wearing the order.[90]
Ennoblement
Linnaeus felt Uppsala was too noisy and unhealthy, so he bought two farms in 1758: Hammarby and Savja. The next year, he bought a neighbouring farm, Edeby. He spent the summers with his family at Hammarby; initially it only had a small one-storey house, but in 1762 a new, larger main building was added.[81][91] In Hammarby, Linnaeus made a garden where he could grow plants that could not be grown in the Botanical Garden in Uppsala. He began constructing a museum on a hill behind Hammarby in 1766, where he moved his library and collection of plants. A fire that destroyed about one third of Uppsala and had threatened his residence there necessitated the move.[92]
Since the initial release of Systema Naturae in 1735, the book had been expanded and reprinted several times; the tenth edition was released in 1758. This edition established itself as the starting point for zoological nomenclature, the equivalent of Species Plantarum.[88][93]
The Swedish king Adolf Frederick granted Linnaeus nobility in 1757, but he was not ennobled until 1761. With his ennoblement, he took the name Carl von Linne (Latinized as Carolus a Linne), ‘Linne’ being a shortened and gallicised version of ‘Linn? us’, and the German title ‘von’ signifying his ennoblement.[1] The noble family’s coat of arms prominently features a twinflower, one of Linnaeus’ favourite plants; it was given the scientific name Linnaea borealis in his honour by Gronovius. The shield in the coat of arms is divided into thirds: red, black and green for the three kingdoms of nature (animal, mineral and vegetable) in Linnaean classification; in the center is an egg “to denote Nature, which is continued and perpetuated in ovo.” At the bottom is a phrase in Latin, borrowed from the Aeneid, which reads “Famam extendere factis”: we extend our fame by our deeds.[94][95][96]
After his ennoblement, Linnaeus continued teaching and writing. His reputation had spread over the world, and he corresponded with many different people. For example, Catherine II of Russia sent him seeds from her country.[97] He also corresponded with Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, “the Linnaeus of the Austrian Empire”, who was a doctor and a botanist in Idrija, Duchy of Carniola (nowadays Slovenia).[98] Scopoli communicated all of his research, findings, and descriptions (for example of the olm and the dormouse, two little animals hitherto unknown to Linnaeus). Linnaeus greatly respected him and showed great interest in his work. He named a solanaceous genus, Scopolia, the source of scopolamine, after him. Because of a great distance, they didn’t ever meet.[99][100]
Last years
Linnaeus was relieved of his duties in the Royal Swedish Academy of Science in 1763, but continued his work there as usual for more than ten years after.[66] He stepped down as rector at Uppsala University in December 1772, mostly due to his declining health.[65][101]
Linnaeus’ last years were troubled by illness. He had suffered from a disease called the Uppsala fever in 1764, but survived thanks to the care of Rosen. He developed sciatica in 1773, and the next year, he had a stroke which partially paralysed him.[102] He suffered a second stroke in 1776, losing the use of his right side and leaving him bereft of his memory; while still able to admire his own writings, he could not recognize himself as their author.[103][104]
In December 1777, he had another stroke which greatly weakened him, and eventually led to his death on 10 January 1778 in Hammarby.[101][105] Despite his desire to be buried in Hammarby, he was interred in Uppsala Cathedral on 22 January.[106][107]
His library and collections were left to his widow Sara and their children. Joseph Banks, an English botanist, wanted to buy the collection, but his son Carl refused and moved the collection to Uppsala. However, in 1783 Carl died and Sara inherited the collection, having outlived both her husband and son. She tried to sell it to Banks, but he was no longer interested; instead an acquaintance of his agreed to buy the collection. The acquaintance was a 24-year-old medical student, James Edward Smith, who bought the whole collection: 14,000 plants, 3,198 insects, 1,564 shells, about 3,000 letters and 1,600 books. Smith founded the Linnean Society of London five years later.[107][108]
The von Linne name ended with his son Carl, who never married.[3] His other son, Johannes, had died aged 3.[109] There are over two hundred descendants of Linnaeus through two of his daughters.[3]
Apostles
During Linnaeus’ time as Professor and Rector of Uppsala University, he taught many devoted students, 17 of whom he called “apostles”. They were the most promising, most committed students, and all of them made botanical expeditions to various places in the world, often with his help. The amount of this help varied; sometimes he used his influence as Rector to grant his apostles a scholarship or a place on an expedition.[110] To most of the apostles he gave instructions of what to look for on their journeys. Abroad, the apostles collected and organised new plants, animals and minerals according to Linnaeus’ system. Most of them also gave some of their collection to Linnaeus when their journey was finished.[111] Thanks to these students, the Linnaean system of taxonomy spread through the world without Linnaeus ever having to travel outside Sweden after his return from Holland.[112] The British botanist William T. Stearn notes without Linnaeus’ new system, it would not have been possible for the apostles to collect and organise so many new specimens.[113] Many of the apostles died during their expeditions.
Early expeditions
Christopher Tarnstrom, the first apostle and a 43-year-old pastor with a wife and children, made his journey in 1746. He boarded a Swedish East India Company ship headed for China. Tarnstrom never reached his destination, dying of a tropical fever on Con Son Island the same year. Tarnstrom’s widow blamed Linnaeus for making her children fatherless, causing Linnaeus to prefer sending out younger, unmarried students after Tarnstrom.[114] Six other apostles later died on their expeditions, including Pehr Forsskal and Pehr Lofling.[113]
Two years after Tarnstrom’s expedition, Finnish-born Pehr Kalm set out as the second apostle to North America. There he spent two-and-a-half years studying the flora and fauna of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Canada. Linnaeus was overjoyed when Kalm returned, bringing back with him many pressed flowers and seeds. At least 90 of the 700 North American species described in Species Plantarum had been brought back by Kalm.[115]
Cook expeditions and Japan
Apostle Daniel Solander (far left) with Joseph Banks (left, sitting) accompanied James Cook (centre) on his journey to Australia.
Daniel Solander was living in Linnaeus’ house during his time as a student in Uppsala. Linnaeus was very fond of him, promising Solander his oldest daughter’s hand in marriage. On Linnaeus’ recommendation, Solander travelled to England in 1760, where he met the English botanist Joseph Banks. With Banks, Solander joined James Cook on his expedition to Oceania on the Endeavour in 1768–71.[116][117] Solander was not the only apostle to journey with James Cook; Anders Sparrman followed on the Resolution in 1772–75 bound for, among other places, Oceania and South America. Sparrman made many other expeditions, one of them to South Africa.[118]
Perhaps the most famous and successful apostle was Carl Peter Thunberg, who embarked on a nine-year expedition in 1770. He stayed in South Africa for three years, then travelled to Japan. All foreigners in Japan were forced to stay on the island of Dejima outside Nagasaki, so it was thus hard for Thunberg to study the flora. He did, however, manage to persuade some of the translators to bring him different plants, and he also found plants in the gardens of Dejima. He returned to Sweden in 1779, one year after Linnaeus’ death.[119]
Major publications
Systema Naturae
The first edition of Systema Naturae was printed in the Netherlands in 1735. It was a twelve-page work.[120] By the time it reached its 10th edition in 1758, it classified 4,400 species of animals and 7,700 species of plants. In it, the unwieldy names mostly used at the time, such as “Physalis annua ramosissima, ramis angulosis glabris, foliis dentato-serratis”, were supplemented with concise and now familiar “binomials”, composed of the generic name, followed by a specific epithet – in the case given, Physalis angulata. These binomials could serve as a label to refer to the species. Higher taxa were constructed and arranged in a simple and orderly manner. Although the system, now known as binomial nomenclature, was partially developed by the Bauhin brothers (see Gaspard Bauhin and Johann Bauhin) almost 200 years earlier,[121] Linnaeus was the first to use it consistently throughout the work, including in monospecific genera, and may be said to have popularised it within the scientific community.
Species Plantarum
Species Plantarum (or, more fully, Species Plantarum, exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad genera relatas, cum differentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonymis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum systema sexuale digestas) was first published in 1753, as a two-volume work. Its prime importance is perhaps that it is the primary starting point of plant nomenclature as it exists today.[85]
In 1754, Linnaeus divided the plant Kingdom into 25 classes (Genera Plantarum 5th edition). One, Cryptogamia, included all the plants with concealed reproductive parts (algae, fungi, mosses and liverworts and ferns).[122]
Genera Plantarum
Genera plantarum: eorumque characteres naturales secundum numerum, figuram, situm, et proportionem omnium fructificationis partium was first published in 1737, delineating plant genera. Around 10 editions were published, not all of them by Linnaeus himself; the most important is the 1754 fifth edition.[123]
Philosophia Botanica
Philosophia Botanica (1751) was a summary of Linnaeus’ thinking on plant classification and nomenclature, and an elaboration of the work he had previously published in Fundamenta Botanica (1736) and Critica Botanica (1737). Other publications forming part of his plan to reform the foundations of botany include his Classes Plantarum and Bibliotheca Botanica: all were printed in Holland (as well as Genera Plantarum (1737) and Systema Naturae (1735)), the Philosophia being simultaneously released in Stockholm.[124]
Linnaean collections
At the end of his lifetime the Linnean collection in Uppsala was considered as one of the finest collections of natural history objects in Sweden. Next to his own collection he had also built up a museum for the university of Uppsala, which was supplied by material donated by Carl Gyllenborg (in 1744-1745), crown-prince Adolf Fredrik (in 1745), Erik Petreus (in 1746), Claes Grill (in 1746), Magnus Lagerstrom (in 1748 and 1750) and Jonas Alstromer (in 1749). The relation between the museum and the private collection was not formalized and the steady flow of material from Linnean pupils were incorporated to the private collection rather than to the museum.[125]
In April 1766 parts of the town were destroyed by a fire and the Linnean private collection was subsequently moved to a barn outside the town, and shortly afterwards to a single-room stone building close to his countryhouse at Hammarby near Uppsala. This resulted in a physical separation between the two collections, the museum collection remained in the botanical garden of the university. Some material which needed special care (alcohol specimens) or ample storage space was moved from the private collection to the museum.
In Hammarby the Linnean private collections suffered seriously from damp and the depredations by mice and insects. Carl von Linne’s son (Carl Linnaeus) inherited the collections in 1778 and retained them until his own death in 1783. Shortly after Carl von Linne’s death his son confirmed that mice had caused “horrible damage” to the plants and that also moths and mould had caused considerable damage.[126]He tried to rescue them from the neglect they had suffered during his father’s later years, and also added further specimens. This last activity however reduced rather than augmented the scientific value of the original material.
In 1784 the botanist James Edward Smith purchased from the inheritants (the widow and daughter of Carl Linnaeus) nearly all of the Linnean private scientific effects and transferred them to London.[127] Not all material in Linne’s private collection was transported to England. 33 fish specimens preserved in alcohol were not sent away and were later lost.
In London Smith tended to neglect the zoological parts of the collection, he added some specimens and also gave some specimens away.[128] In the following centuries the Linnean collection in London suffered enormously by scientists who studied the collection and distorted the original arrangement and labels, added specimens that did not belong to the original series and withdrew precious original type material.[129]
Much material which had been intensively studied by Linne in his scientific career belonged to the collection of Queen Lovisa Ulrika (1720-1782) (in the Linnean publications referred to as “Museum Ludovicae Ulricae” or “M. L. U.”). This collection was donated by his grandson King Gustav IV Adolf (1778-1837) to the museum in Uppsala in 1804. Another important collection in this respect was that of her husband King Adolf Fredrik (1710-1771) (in the Linnean sources known as “Museum Adolphi Friderici” or “Mus. Ad. Fr.”), the wet parts (alcohol collection) of which were later donated to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and is today housed in the Swedish Museum of Natural History at Stockholm. The dry material was transferred to Uppsala.[130]
Linnaean taxonomy
The establishment of universally accepted conventions for the naming of organisms was Linnaeus’ main contribution to taxonomy—his work marks the starting point of consistent use of binomial nomenclature.[131] During the 18th century expansion of natural history knowledge, Linnaeus also developed what became known as the Linnaean taxonomy; the system of scientific classification now widely used in the biological sciences.
The Linnaean system classified nature within a nested hierarchy, starting with three kingdoms. Kingdoms were divided into classes and they, in turn, into orders, and thence into genera (singular: genus), which were divided into Species (singular: species).[132] Below the rank of species he sometimes recognized taxa of a lower (unnamed) rank; these have since acquired standardised names such as variety in botany and subspecies in zoology. Modern taxonomy includes a rank of family between order and genus that was not present in Linnaeus’ original system.[133]
Linnaeus’ groupings were based upon shared physical characteristics, and not simply upon differences.[133] Of his higher groupings, only those for animals are still in use, and the groupings themselves have been significantly changed since their conception, as have the principles behind them. Nevertheless, Linnaeus is credited with establishing the idea of a hierarchical structure of classification which is based upon observable characteristics and intended to reflect natural relationships.[131][134] While the underlying details concerning what are considered to be scientifically valid “observable characteristics” have changed with expanding knowledge (for example, DNA sequencing, unavailable in Linnaeus’ time, has proven to be a tool of considerable utility for classifying living organisms and establishing their evolutionary relationships), the fundamental principle remains sound.
Views on mankind
According to German biologist Ernst Haeckel, the question of man’s origin began with Linnaeus. He helped future research in the natural history of man by describing humans just as he described any other plant or animal.[135] He was the first person to place humans in a system of biological classification.
Anthropomorpha
Linnaeus classified humans among the primates (as they were later called) beginning with the first edition of Systema Naturae. During his time at Hartekamp, he had the opportunity to examine several monkeys and noted similarities between them and man.[82] He pointed out both species basically have the same anatomy; except for speech, he found no other differences.[136][note 4] Thus he placed man and monkeys under the same category, Anthropomorpha, meaning “manlike.”[137] This classification received criticism from other biologists such as Johan Gottschalk Wallerius, Jacob Theodor Klein and Johann Georg Gmelin on the ground that it is illogical to describe a human as ‘like a man’.[138] In a letter to Gmelin from 1747, Linnaeus replied:[139][note 5]
It does not please [you] that I’ve placed Man among the Anthropomorpha, perhaps because of the term ‘with human form’,[note 6] but man learns to know himself. Let’s not quibble over words. It will be the same to me whatever name we apply. But I seek from you and from the whole world a generic difference between man and simian that [follows] from the principles of Natural History.[note 7] I absolutely know of none. If only someone might tell me a single one! If I would have called man a simian or vice versa, I would have brought together all the theologians against me. Perhaps I ought to have by virtue of the law of the discipline.
The theological concerns were twofold: first, putting man at the same level as monkeys or apes would lower the spiritually higher position that man was assumed to have in the great chain of being, and second, because the Bible says man was created in the image of God[140] (theomorphism), if monkeys/apes and humans were not distinctly and separately designed, that would mean monkeys and apes were created in the image of God as well. This was something many could not accept.[141] The conflict between worldviews based on science and theology that was caused by asserting man was a type of animal would simmer for a century until the much greater, and still ongoing, creation–evolution controversy began in earnest with the publication of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin in 1859.
After such criticism, Linnaeus felt he needed to explain himself more clearly. The 10th edition of Systema Naturae introduced new terms, including Mammalia and Primates, the latter of which would replace Anthropomorpha[142] as well as giving humans the full binomial Homo sapiens.[143] The new classification received less criticism, but many natural historians still believed he had demoted humans from their former place to rule over nature, not be a part of it. Linnaeus believed that man biologically belongs to the animal kingdom and had to be included in it.[144] In his book Dieta Naturalis, he said, “One should not vent one’s wrath on animals, Theology decree that man has a soul and that the animals are mere ‘aoutomata mechanica,’ but I believe they would be better advised that animals have a soul and that the difference is of nobility.”[145]
Strange people in distant lands
Anthropomorpha depicted in Hoppius’ Amoenitates Academicae (1763)
1. Troglodyta Bontii, 2. Lucifer Aldrovandi, 3. Satyrus Tulpii, 4. Pygmaeus Edwardi
Linnaeus added a second species to the genus Homo in Systema Naturae based on a figure and description by Jacobus Bontius from a 1658 publication: Homo troglodytes (“caveman”)[146][147] and published a third in 1771: Homo lar.[148] Swedish historian Gunnar Broberg states that the new human species Linnaeus described were actually simians or native people clad in skins to frighten colonial settlers, whose appearance had been exaggerated in accounts to Linnaeus.[149]
In early editions of Systema Naturae, many well-known legendary creatures were included such as the phoenix, dragon and manticore as well as cryptids like the satyrus,[150][note 8] which Linnaeus collected into the catch-all category Paradoxa. Broberg thought Linnaeus was trying to offer a natural explanation and demystify the world of superstition.[151] Linnaeus tried to debunk some of these creatures, as he had with the hydra; regarding the purported remains of dragons, Linnaeus wrote that they were either derived from lizards or rays.[152] For Homo troglodytes he asked the Swedish East India Company to search for one, but they did not find any signs of its existence.[153] Homo lar has since been reclassified as Hylobates lar, the lar gibbon.[154]
Four races
In the first edition of Systema Naturae, Linnaeus subdivided the human species into four varieties based on continent and skin colour: “Europ? us albus” (white European), “Americanus rubescens” (red American), “Asiaticus fuscus” (brown Asian) and “Africanus niger” (black African). In the tenth edition of Systema Naturae he further detailed stereotypical characteristics for each variety, based on the concept of the Four Temperaments from classical antiquity, and changed the description of Asians’ skin tone to “luridus” (yellow).[155][156][157][158][159] Additionally, Linnaeus created a wastebasket taxon “monstrosus” for “wild and monstrous humans, unknown groups, and more or less abnormal people”.[160]
Commemoration
Anniversaries of Linnaeus’ birth, especially in centennial years, have been marked by major celebrations.[161] Linnaeus has appeared on numerous Swedish postage stamps and banknotes.[161] There are numerous statues of Linnaeus in countries around the world. The Linnean Society of London has awarded the Linnean Medal for excellence in botany or zoology since 1888. Following approval by the Parliament of Sweden, Vaxjo University and Kalmar College merged on 1 January 2010 to become Linnaeus University.[162] Other things named after Linnaeus include the twinflower genus Linnaea, the crater Linne on the Earth’s moon and the cobalt sulfide mineral Linnaeite.
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (Listeni/b??r??k hu??se? n o??b??m?/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, running unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 2000.
Several events brought Obama to national attention during his campaign to represent the State of Illinois in the United States Senate in 2004, including his victory in the March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won the Senate election in November 2004, serving until his resignation following his 2008 presidential election victory. His presidential campaign began in February 2007, and after a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party’s nomination. In the 2008 presidential election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In April 2011, he announced that he would be running for re-election in 2012.
As president, Obama signed economic stimulus legislation in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 in response to the 2007–2009 recession in the United States. Other major domestic policy initiatives include the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010, and the Budget Control Act of 2011. In foreign policy, Obama ended US military involvement in the Iraq War, increased troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, ordered U. S. military involvement in Libya, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. In May 2012, he became the first sitting U. S. president to publicly support legalizing same-sex marriage.
Early life and career
Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapi? olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now Kapi? olani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii,[2][4][5] and is the first President to have been born in Hawaii.[6] His mother, Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas, and was of mostly English ancestry.[7] His father, Barack Obama, Sr. was a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Kenya. Obama’s parents met in 1960 in a Russian class at the University of Hawai? i at Manoa, where his father was a foreign student on scholarship.[8][9] The couple married in Wailuku on Maui on February 2, 1961,[10][11] separated when Obama’s mother moved with her newborn son to Seattle, Washington in late August 1961 to attend the University of Washington for one year, while Obama Sr. completed his undergraduate economics degree in Hawaii in June 1962 then left to attend graduate school at Harvard University on a scholarship. His parents divorced in March 1964.[12] Obama Sr. returned to Kenya in 1964 where he remarried; he visited Barack in Hawaii only once, in 1971.[13] He died in an automobile accident in 1982.[14]
In 1963, Dunham met Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian East–West Center graduate student in geography at the University of Hawaii, and the couple were married on Molokai on March 15, 1965.[15] After two one-year extensions of his J-1 visa, Lolo returned to Indonesia in 1966, followed sixteen months later by his wife and stepson in 1967, with the family initially living in a Menteng Dalam neighborhood in the Tebet subdistrict of south Jakarta, then from 1970 in a wealthier neighborhood in the Menteng subdistrict of central Jakarta.[16] From ages six to ten, Obama attended local Indonesian-language schools: St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School for two years and Besuki Public School from one and half years, supplemented by English-language Calvert School home schooling by his mother.[17] Obama went by the name Barry Soetoro during his time in Indonesia.
In 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, and with the aid of a scholarship attended Punahou School, a private college preparatory school, from fifth grade until his graduation from high school in 1979.[18] Obama lived with his mother and sister in Hawaii for three years from 1972 to 1975 while his mother was a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Hawaii.[19] Obama chose to stay in Hawaii with his grandparents for high school at Punahou when his mother and sister returned to Indonesia in 1975 to begin anthropology field work.[20] His mother spent most of the next two decades in Indonesia, divorcing Lolo in 1980 and earning a Ph. D. in 1992, before dying in 1995 in Hawaii following treatment for ovarian cancer and uterine cancer.[21]
Of his early childhood, Obama recalled, “That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind.”[9] He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage.[22] Reflecting later on his years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: “The opportunity that Hawaii offered—to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect—became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear.”[23] Obama has also written and talked about using alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to “push questions of who I was out of my mind”.[24] Obama was also member of the “choom gang”, a self named group of friends that spent time together and occasionally smoked marijuana.[25] At the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama expressed regret for his high-school drug use.[26]
Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend Occidental College. In February 1981, he made his first public speech, calling for Occidental to divest from South Africa in response to its policy of apartheid.[27] In mid-1981, Obama traveled to Indonesia to visit his mother and sister Maya, and visited the families of college friends in Pakistan and India for three weeks.[27] Later in 1981, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations[28] and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983. He worked for a year at the Business International Corporation,[29] then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.[30][31]
Chicago community organizer and Harvard Law School
Two years after graduating, Obama was hired in Chicago as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale on Chicago’s South Side. He worked there as a community organizer from June 1985 to May 1988.[31][32] He helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants’ rights organization in Altgeld Gardens.[33] Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute.[34] In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time in Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time.[35][36] He returned to Kenya in 1992 with his fiancee Michelle and his sister Auma.[35][37] He returned to Kenya in August 2006 for a visit to his father’s birthplace, a village near Kisumu in rural western Kenya.[38]
In late 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year,[39] and president of the journal in his second year.[33][40] During his summers, he returned to Chicago, where he worked as an associate at the law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.[41] After graduating with a J. D. magna cum laude[42] from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.[39] Obama’s election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention[33][40] and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations,[43] which evolved into a personal memoir. The manuscript was published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.[43]
University of Chicago Law School and civil rights attorney
In 1991, Obama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book.[43][44] He then taught at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years—as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004—teaching constitutional law.[45]
From April to October 1992, Obama directed Illinois’s Project Vote, a voter registration campaign with ten staffers and seven hundred volunteer registrars; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain’s Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of “40 under Forty” powers to be.[46]
In 1993, he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004. His law license became inactive in 2007.[47][48]
From 1994 to 2002, Obama served on the boards of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project; and of the Joyce Foundation.[31] He served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.[31]
Legislative career: 1997–2008
State Senator: 1997–2004
Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from Illinois’s 13th District, which at that time spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park – Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn.[49] Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation that reformed ethics and health care laws.[50] He sponsored a law that increased tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare.[51] In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan’s payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.[52]
Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah in the general election, and was reelected again in 2002.[53] In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary race for Illinois’s 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.[54]
In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority.[55] He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained, and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.[51][56] During his 2004 general election campaign for U. S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.[57] Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U. S. Senate.[58]
U. S. Senate campaign
Main article: United States Senate election in Illinois, 2004
County results of the 2004 U. S. Senate race in Illinois. Counties in blue were won by Obama.
In May 2002, Obama commissioned a poll to assess his prospects in a 2004 U. S. Senate race; he created a campaign committee, began raising funds, and lined up political media consultant David Axelrod by August 2002. Obama formally announced his candidacy in January 2003.[59]
Obama was an early opponent of the George W. Bush administration’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.[60] On October 2, 2002, the day President Bush and Congress agreed on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War,[61] Obama addressed the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq War rally,[62] and spoke out against the war.[63] He addressed another anti-war rally in March 2003 and told the crowd that “it’s not too late” to stop the war.[64]
Decisions by Republican incumbent Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor Carol Moseley Braun to not participate in the election resulted in wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving fifteen candidates.[65] In the March 2004 primary election, Obama won in an unexpected landslide—which overnight made him a rising star within the national Democratic Party, started speculation about a presidential future, and led to the reissue of his memoir, Dreams from My Father.[66] In July 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention,[67] seen by 9.1 million viewers. His speech was well received and elevated his status within the Democratic Party.[68]
Obama’s expected opponent in the general election, Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004.[69] Six weeks later, Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan.[70] In the November 2004 general election, Obama won with 70 percent of the vote.[71]
U. S. Senator: 2005–2008
Main article: United States Senate career of Barack Obama
Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 3, 2005,[72] becoming the only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus.[73] CQ Weekly characterized him as a “loyal Democrat” based on analysis of all Senate votes in 2005–2007. Obama announced on November 13, 2008, that he would resign his Senate seat on November 16, 2008, before the start of the lame-duck session, to focus on his transition period for the presidency.[74]
Legislation
See also: List of bills sponsored by Barack Obama in the United States Senate
Obama cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act.[75] He introduced two initiatives that bore his name: Lugar–Obama, which expanded the Nunn–Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons;[76] and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which authorized the establishment of USAspending. gov, a web search engine on federal spending.[77] On June 3, 2008, Senator Obama—along with Senators Tom Carper, Tom Coburn, and John McCain—introduced follow-up legislation: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008.[78]
Obama sponsored legislation that would have required nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks, but the bill failed to pass in the full Senate after being heavily modified in committee.[79] Regarding tort reform, Obama voted for the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which grants immunity from civil liability to telecommunications companies complicit with NSA warrantless wiretapping operations.[80]
In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor.[82] In January 2007, Obama and Senator Feingold introduced a corporate jet provision to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007.[83] Obama also introduced Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections,[84] and the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007,[85] neither of which was signed into law.
Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to add safeguards for personality-disorder military discharges.[86] This amendment passed the full Senate in the spring of 2008.[87] He sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran’s oil and gas industry, which has not passed committee; and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism.[88] Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.[89]
Committees
Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works, and Veterans’ Affairs through December 2006.[90] In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.[91] He also became Chairman of the Senate’s subcommittee on European Affairs.[92] As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. He met with Mahmoud Abbas before Abbas became President of the Palestinian National Authority, and gave a speech at the University of Nairobi in which he condemned corruption within the Kenyan government.[93]
Presidential campaigns
2008 presidential campaign
On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois.[94][95] The choice of the announcement site was viewed as symbolic because it was also where Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic “House Divided” speech in 1858.[94][96] Obama emphasized issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health care,[97] in a campaign that projected themes of “hope” and “change”.[98]
A large number of candidates entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries. The field narrowed to a duel between Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton after early contests, with the race remaining close throughout the primary process but with Obama gaining a steady lead in pledged delegates due to better long-range planning, superior fundraising, dominant organizing in caucus states, and better exploitation of delegate allocation rules.[99] On June 7, 2008, Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama.[100]
On August 23, Obama announced his selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate.[101] Biden was selected from a field speculated to include former Indiana Governor and Senator Evan Bayh and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.[102] At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Hillary Clinton called for her supporters to endorse Obama, and she and Bill Clinton gave convention speeches in his support.[103] Obama delivered his acceptance speech, not at the center where the Democratic National Convention was held, but at Invesco Field at Mile High to a crowd of over 75,000; the speech was viewed by over 38 million people worldwide.[104][105]
During both the primary process and the general election, Obama’s campaign set numerous fundraising records, particularly in the quantity of small donations.[106] On June 19, 2008, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976.[107]
John McCain was nominated as the Republican candidate and the two engaged in three presidential debates in September and October 2008.[108] On November 4, Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to 173 received by McCain.[109] Obama won 52.9% of the popular vote to McCain’s 45.7%.[110] He became the first African American to be elected president.[111] Obama delivered his victory speech before hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago’s Grant Park.[112]
2012 presidential campaign
Main articles: United States presidential election, 2012 and Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2012
On April 4, 2011, Obama announced his re-election campaign for 2012 in a video titled “It Begins with Us” that he posted on his website and filed election papers with the Federal Election Commission.[113][114][115] As the incumbent president he ran almost unopposed in the Democratic Party presidential primaries,[116] and on April 3, 2012, Obama had secured the 2778 convention delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.[117]
Presidency
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President took place on January 20, 2009. In his first few days in office, Obama issued executive orders and presidential memoranda directing the U. S. military to develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq.[118] He ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp,[119] but Congress prevented the closure by refusing to appropriate the required funds.[120][121][122] Obama reduced the secrecy given to presidential records,[123] and changed procedures to promote disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.[124] He also reversed George W. Bush’s ban on federal funding to foreign establishments that allow abortions.[125]
Domestic policy
Main article: Barack Obama social policy
The first bill signed into law by Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits.[126] Five days later, he signed the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an additional 4 million uninsured children.[127] In March 2009, Obama reversed a Bush-era policy which had limited funding of embryonic stem cell research and pledged to develop “strict guidelines” on the research.[128]
Obama speaking at Joint session of Congress with Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on February 24, 2009
Obama appointed two women to serve on the Supreme Court in the first two years of his Presidency. Sonia Sotomayor, nominated by Obama on May 26, 2009, to replace retiring Associate Justice David Souter, was confirmed on August 6, 2009,[129] becoming the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice.[130] Elena Kagan, nominated by Obama on May 10, 2010, to replace retiring Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, was confirmed on August 5, 2010, bringing the number of women sitting simultaneously on the Court to three, for the first time in American history.[131]
On September 30, 2009, the Obama administration proposed new regulations on power plants, factories and oil refineries in an attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to curb global warming.[132][133]
On October 8, 2009, Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a measure that expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.[134][135]
On March 30, 2010, Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, a reconciliation bill which ends the process of the federal government giving subsidies to private banks to give out federally insured loans, increases the Pell Grant scholarship award, and makes changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[136][137]
In a major space policy speech in April 2010, Obama announced a planned change in direction at NASA, the U. S. space agency. He ended plans for a return of human spaceflight to the moon and development of the Ares I rocket, Ares V rocket and Constellation program, in favor of funding Earth science projects, a new rocket type, and research and development for an eventual manned mission to Mars, and ongoing missions to the International Space Station.[138]
Obama meets with the Cabinet, November 23, 2009.
On December 22, 2010, Obama signed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010, fulfilling a key promise made in the 2008 presidential campaign[139][140] to end the Don’t ask, don’t tell policy of 1993 that had prevented gay and lesbian people from serving openly in the United States Armed Forces.[141]
President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address focused on themes of education and innovation, stressing the importance of innovation economics to make the United States more competitive globally. He spoke of a five-year freeze in domestic spending, eliminating tax breaks for oil companies and reversing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, banning congressional earmarks, and reducing healthcare costs. He promised that the United States would have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 and would be 80% reliant on “clean” electricity.[142][143]
As a candidate for the Illinois state senate Obama had said in 1996 that he favored legalizing same-sex marriage;[144] but by the time of his run for the U. S. senate in 2004, he said that while he supported civil unions and domestic partnerships for same-sex partners, for strategic reasons he opposed same-sex marriages.[145] On May 9, 2012, shortly after the official launch of his campaign for re-election as president, Obama said his views had evolved, and he publicly affirmed his personal support for the legalization of same-sex marriage, becoming the first sitting U. S. president to do so.[146][147]
Economic policy
On February 17, 2009, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening worldwide recession.[148] The act includes increased federal spending for health care, infrastructure, education, various tax breaks and incentives, and direct assistance to individuals,[149] which is being distributed over the course of several years.
In March, Obama’s Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, took further steps to manage the financial crisis, including introducing the Public-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets, which contains provisions for buying up to $2 trillion in depreciated real estate assets.[150] Obama intervened in the troubled automotive industry[151] in March 2009, renewing loans for General Motors and Chrysler to continue operations while reorganizing. Over the following months the White House set terms for both firms’ bankruptcies, including the sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat[152] and a reorganization of GM giving the U. S. government a temporary 60% equity stake in the company, with the Canadian government taking a 12% stake.[153] In June 2009, dissatisfied with the pace of economic stimulus, Obama called on his cabinet to accelerate the investment.[154] He signed into law the Car Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as “Cash for Clunkers”, that temporarily boosted the economy.[155][156][157]
Although spending and loan guarantees from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department authorized by the Bush and Obama administrations totaled about $11.5 trillion, only $3 trillion had been spent by the end of November 2009.[158] However, Obama and the Congressional Budget Office predicted that the 2010 budget deficit will be $1.5 trillion or 10.6% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the 2009 deficit of $1.4 trillion or 9.9% of GDP.[159][160] For 2011, the administration predicted the deficit will slightly shrink to $1.34 trillion, while the 10-year deficit will increase to $8.53 trillion or 90% of GDP.[161] The most recent increase in the U. S. debt ceiling to $16.4 trillion was signed into law on January 26, 2012.[162] On August 2, 2011, after a lengthy congressional debate over whether to raise the nation’s debt limit, Obama signed the bipartisan Budget Control Act of 2011. The legislation enforces limits on discretionary spending until 2021, establishes a procedure to increase the debt limit, creates a Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to propose further deficit reduction with a stated goal of achieving at least $1.5 trillion in budgetary savings over 10 years, and establishes automatic procedures for reducing spending by as much as $1.2 trillion if legislation originating with the new joint select committee does not achieve such savings.[163] By passing the legislation, Congress was able to prevent a U. S. government default on its obligations.[164]
Employment statistics (changes in unemployment rate and net jobs per month) during Obama’s tenure as U. S. President[165][166]
The unemployment rate rose in 2009, reaching a peak in October at 10.1% and averaging 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Following a decrease to 9.7% in the first quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate fell to 9.6% in the second quarter, where it remained for the rest of the year.[167] Between February and December 2010, employment rose by 0.8%, which was less than the average of 1.9% experienced during comparable periods in the past four employment recoveries.[168] GDP growth returned in the third quarter of 2009, expanding at a rate of 1.6%, followed by a 5.0% increase in the fourth quarter.[169] Growth continued in 2010, posting an increase of 3.7% in the first quarter, with lesser gains throughout the rest of the year.[169] In July 2010, the Federal Reserve expressed that although economic activity continued to increase, its pace had slowed, and Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that the economic outlook was “unusually uncertain.”[170] Overall, the economy expanded at a rate of 2.9% in 2010.[171]
The Congressional Budget Office and a broad range of economists credit Obama’s stimulus plan for economic growth.[172][173] The CBO released a report stating that the stimulus bill increased employment by 1–2.1 million,[173][174][175][176] while conceding that “It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package.”[172] Although an April 2010 survey of members of the National Association for Business Economics showed an increase in job creation (over a similar January survey) for the first time in two years, 73% of 68 respondents believed that the stimulus bill has had no impact on employment.[177]
Within a month of the 2010 midterm elections, Obama announced a compromise deal with the Congressional Republican leadership that included a temporary, two-year extension of the 2001 and 2003 income tax rates, a one-year payroll tax reduction, continuation of unemployment benefits, and a new rate and exemption amount for estate taxes.[178] The compromise overcame opposition from some in both parties, and the resulting $858 billion Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 passed with bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress before Obama signed it on December 17, 2010.[179]
Health care reform
Obama called for Congress to pass legislation reforming health care in the United States, a key campaign promise and a top legislative goal.[180] He proposed an expansion of health insurance coverage to cover the uninsured, to cap premium increases, and to allow people to retain their coverage when they leave or change jobs. His proposal was to spend $900 billion over 10 years and include a government insurance plan, also known as the public option, to compete with the corporate insurance sector as a main component to lowering costs and improving quality of health care. It would also make it illegal for insurers to drop sick people or deny them coverage for pre-existing conditions, and require every American carry health coverage. The plan also includes medical spending cuts and taxes on insurance companies that offer expensive plans.[181][182]
On July 14, 2009, House Democratic leaders introduced a 1,017-page plan for overhauling the U. S. health care system, which Obama wanted Congress to approve by the end of 2009.[180] After much public debate during the Congressional summer recess of 2009, Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9 where he addressed concerns over the proposals.[183] In March 2009, Obama lifted a ban on using federal funds for stem cell research.[184]
Maximum Out-of-Pocket Premium as Percentage of Family Income and federal poverty level, under Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, starting in 2014. (Source: CRS)
On November 7, 2009, a health care bill featuring the public option was passed in the House.[185][186] On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed its own bill—without a public option—on a party-line vote of 60–39.[187] On March 21, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by the Senate in December was passed in the House by a vote of 219 to 212.[188] Obama signed the bill into law on March 23, 2010.[189]
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes health-related provisions to take effect over four years, including expanding Medicaid eligibility for people making up to 133% of the federal poverty level (FPL) starting in 2014,[190] subsidizing insurance premiums for people making up to 400% of the FPL ($88,000 for family of four in 2010) so their maximum “out-of-pocket” payment for annual premiums will be from 2 to 9.5% of income,[191][192] providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits, prohibiting denial of coverage and denial of claims based on pre-existing conditions, establishing health insurance exchanges, prohibiting annual coverage caps, and support for medical research. According to White House and Congressional Budget Office figures, the maximum share of income that enrollees would have to pay would vary depending on their income relative to the federal poverty level.[191][193]
The costs of these provisions are offset by taxes, fees, and cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for those in high-income brackets, taxes on indoor tanning, cuts to the Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies;[194] there is also a tax penalty for those who do not obtain health insurance, unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons.[195] In March, 2010, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the net effect of both laws will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143 billion over the first decade.[196]
The law faced several legal challenges, primarily based on the argument that an individual mandate requiring Americans to buy health insurance was unconstitutional. On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5–4 vote in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius that the Commerce Clause does not allow the government to require people to buy health insurance, but the mandate was constitutional under the US Congress’s taxing authority.[197]
Gulf of Mexico oil spill
On April 20, 2010, an explosion destroyed an offshore drilling rig at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a major sustained oil leak. The well’s operator, BP, initiated a containment and cleanup plan, and began drilling two relief wells intended to stop the flow. Obama visited the Gulf on May 2 among visits by members of his cabinet, and again on May 28 and June 4. On May 22, he announced a federal investigation and formed a bipartisan commission to recommend new safety standards, after a review by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and concurrent Congressional hearings. On May 27, he announced a 6-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling permits and leases, pending regulatory review.[198] As multiple efforts by BP failed, some in the media and public expressed confusion and criticism over various aspects of the incident, and stated a desire for more involvement by Obama and the federal government.[199]
Foreign policy
In February and March, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made separate overseas trips to announce a “new era” in U. S. foreign relations with Russia and Europe, using the terms “break” and “reset” to signal major changes from the policies of the preceding administration.[200] Obama attempted to reach out to Arab leaders by granting his first interview to an Arab cable TV network, Al Arabiya.[201]
On March 19, Obama continued his outreach to the Muslim world, releasing a New Year’s video message to the people and government of Iran.[202] This attempt was rebuffed by the Iranian leadership.[203] In April, Obama gave a speech in Ankara, Turkey, which was well received by many Arab governments.[204] On June 4, 2009, Obama delivered a speech at Cairo University in Egypt calling for “a new beginning” in relations between the Islamic world and the United States and promoting Middle East peace.[205]
On June 26, 2009, in response to the Iranian government’s actions towards protesters following Iran’s 2009 presidential election, Obama said: “The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous. We see it and we condemn it.”[206] On July 7, while in Moscow, he responded to a Vice President Biden comment on a possible Israeli military strike on Iran by saying: “We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East.”[207]
On September 24, 2009, Obama became the first sitting U. S. president to preside over a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.[208]
In March 2010, Obama took a public stance against plans by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue building Jewish housing projects in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.[209][210] During the same month, an agreement was reached with the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by about one-third.[211] The New START treaty was signed by Obama and Medvedev in April 2010, and was ratified by the U. S. Senate in December 2010.[212]
On December 6, 2011, he instructed agencies to consider LGBT rights when issuing financial aid to foreign countries.[213]
Iraq War
On February 27, 2009, Obama declared that combat operations in Iraq would end within 18 months. His remarks were made to a group of Marines preparing for deployment to Afghanistan. Obama said, “Let me say this as plainly as I can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end.”[214] The Obama administration scheduled the withdrawal of combat troops to be completed by August 2010, decreasing troops levels from 142,000 while leaving a transitional force of 35,000 to 50,000 in Iraq until the end of 2011.[needs update] On August 19, 2010, the last United States combat brigade exited Iraq. Remaining troops transitioned from combat operations to counter-terrorism and the training, equipping, and advising of Iraqi security forces.[215][216] On August 31, 2010, Obama announced that the United States combat mission in Iraq was over.[217] On October 21, 2011 President Obama announced that all U. S. troops would leave Iraq in time to be “home for the holidays”.[218]
War in Afghanistan
Early in his presidency, Obama moved to bolster U. S. troop strength in Afghanistan.[219] He announced an increase to U. S. troop levels of 17,000 in February 2009 to “stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan”, an area he said had not received the “strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires”.[220] He replaced the military commander in Afghanistan, General David D. McKiernan, with former Special Forces commander Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal in May 2009, indicating that McChrystal’s Special Forces experience would facilitate the use of counterinsurgency tactics in the war.[221] On December 1, 2009, Obama announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 military personnel to Afghanistan.[222] He also proposed to begin troop withdrawals 18 months from that date.[223][needs update] McChrystal was replaced by David Petraeus in June 2010, after McChrystal’s staff criticized White House personnel in a magazine article.[224]
Israel
Obama meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres, 2009
During the initial years of the Obama administration, the U. S. increased military cooperation with Israel, including increased military aid, re-establishment of the U. S.-Israeli Joint Political Military Group and the Defense Policy Advisory Group, and an increase in visits among high-level military officials of both countries.[225]
In 2011, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, with the United States being the only nation to do so.[226] Obama supports the two-state solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict based on the 1967 borders with land swaps.[227]
War in Libya
Main article: 2011 military intervention in Libya
In March 2011, as forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi advanced on rebels across Libya, calls for a no-fly zone came from around the world, including Europe, the Arab League, and a resolution[228] passed unanimously by the U. S. Senate.[229] In response to the unanimous passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 on March 17, Gaddafi who had previously vowed to “show no mercy” to the rebels of Benghazi[230]—announced an immediate cessation of military activities,[231] yet reports came in that his forces continued shelling Misrata. The next day, on Obama’s orders, the U. S. military took a lead role in air strikes to destroy the Libyan government’s air defense capabilities to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly-zone,[232] including the use of Tomahawk missiles, B-2 Spirits, and fighter jets.[233][234][235] Six days later, on March 25, by unanimous vote of all of its 28 members, NATO took over leadership of the effort, dubbed Operation Unified Protector.[236] Some Representatives[237] questioned whether Obama had the constitutional authority to order military action in addition to questioning its cost, structure and aftermath.[238][239]
Osama bin Laden
Starting with information received in July 2010, intelligence developed by the CIA over the next several months determined what they believed to be the location of Osama bin Laden in a large compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a suburban area 35 miles from Islamabad.[240] CIA head Leon Panetta reported this intelligence to President Obama in March 2011.[240] Meeting with his national security advisers over the course of the next six weeks, Obama rejected a plan to bomb the compound, and authorized a “surgical raid” to be conducted by United States Navy SEALs.[240] The operation took place on May 1, 2011, resulting in the death of bin Laden and the seizure of papers, computer drives and disks from the compound.[241][242] Bin Laden’s body was identified through DNA testing,[243] and buried at sea several hours later.[244] Within minutes of the President’s announcement from Washington, DC, late in the evening on May 1, there were spontaneous celebrations around the country as crowds gathered outside the White House, and at New York City’s Ground Zero and Times Square.[241][245] Reaction to the announcement was positive across party lines, including from former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush,[246] and from many countries around the world.[247]
2010 midterm election
Obama called the November 2, 2010 election, where the Democratic Party lost 63 seats in, and control of, the House of Representatives,[248] “humbling” and a “shellacking”.[249] He said that the results came because not enough Americans had felt the effects of the economic recovery.[250]
Cultural and political image
Obama’s family history, upbringing, and Ivy League education differ markedly from those of African American politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through participation in the civil rights movement.[252] Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is “black enough”, Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists that “we’re still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong”.[253] Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign speech, saying: “I wouldn’t be here if, time and again, the torch had not been passed to a new generation.”[254]
Obama is frequently referred to as an exceptional orator.[255] During his pre-inauguration transition period and continuing into his presidency, Obama has delivered a series of weekly Internet video addresses.[256]
According to the Gallup Organization, Obama began his presidency with a 68% approval rating[257] before gradually declining for the rest of the year, and eventually bottoming out at 41% in August 2010,[258] a trend similar to Ronald Reagan’s and Bill Clinton’s first years in office.[259] He experienced a small poll bounce shortly after the death of Osama bin Laden, which lasted until around June 2011, when his approval numbers dropped back to where they were prior to the operation.[260][261][262] Polls show strong support for Obama in other countries,[263] and before being elected President he met with prominent foreign figures including British Prime Minister Tony Blair,[264] Italy’s Democratic Party leader and Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni,[265] and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.[266]
Obama talks with pub-goers as the First Lady draws a pint of stout at the Ollie Hayes pub in Moneygall, Ireland, in 2011
In a February 2009 poll conducted in Western Europe and the U. S. by Harris Interactive for France 24 and the International Herald Tribune, Obama was rated as the most respected world leader, as well as the most powerful.[267] In a similar poll conducted by Harris in May 2009, Obama was rated as the most popular world leader, as well as the one figure most people would pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of the economic downturn.[268][269]
Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for abridged audiobook versions of Dreams from My Father in February 2006 and for The Audacity of Hope in February 2008.[270] His concession speech after the New Hampshire primary was set to music by independent artists as the music video “Yes We Can”, which was viewed 10 million times on YouTube in its first month[271] and received a Daytime Emmy Award.[272] In December 2008, Time magazine named Obama as its Person of the Year for his historic candidacy and election, which it described as “the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments”.[273]
On October 9, 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.[274] Obama accepted this award in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 2009, with “deep gratitude and great humility.”[275] The award drew a mixture of praise and criticism from world leaders and media figures.[276][277] Obama is the fourth U. S. president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the third to become a Nobel laureate while in office.
Family and personal life
Obama posing in the Green Room of the White House with wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia in 2009
In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family: “It’s like a little mini-United Nations”, he said. “I’ve got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I’ve got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher.”[278] Obama has a half-sister with whom he was raised (Maya Soetoro-Ng, the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second husband) and seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father’s family – six of them living.[279] Obama’s mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham,[280] until her death on November 2, 2008,[281] two days before his election to the Presidency. Obama also has roots in Ireland; he met with his Irish cousins in Moneygall in May 2011.[282] In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother’s family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.[283]
Obama was known as “Barry” in his youth, but asked to be addressed with his given name during his college years.[284] Besides his native English, Obama speaks Indonesian at a conversational level, having learned the language during his four childhood years in Jakarta.[285] He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school’s varsity team[286] and he is left-handed.[287]
Obama about to take a shot while three other players look at him. One of those players is holding is arms up in an attempt to block Obama.
Obama taking a shot during a game on the White House basketball court, 2009
Obama is a supporter of the Chicago White Sox, and he threw out the first pitch at the 2005 ALCS when he was still a senator.[288] In 2009, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the all star game while wearing a White Sox jacket.[289] He is also primarily a Chicago Bears football fan in the NFL, but in his childhood and adolescence was a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and rooted for them ahead of their victory in Super Bowl XLIII 12 days after he took office as President.[290] In 2011, Obama invited the 1985 Chicago Bears to the White House; the team had not visited the White House after their Super Bowl win in 1986 due to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[291]
In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin.[292] Assigned for three months as Obama’s adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at group social functions, but declined his initial requests to date.[293] They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.[294] The couple’s first daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998,[295] followed by a second daughter, Natasha (“Sasha”), on June 10, 2001.[296] The Obama daughters attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to Washington, D. C. in January 2009, the girls started at the private Sidwell Friends School.[297] The Obamas have a Portuguese Water Dog named Bo, a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy.[298]
Applying the proceeds of a book deal, the family moved in 2005 from a Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to a $1.6 million house in neighboring Kenwood, Chicago.[299] The purchase of an adjacent lot—and sale of part of it to Obama by the wife of developer, campaign donor and friend Tony Rezko—attracted media attention because of Rezko’s subsequent indictment and conviction on political corruption charges that were unrelated to Obama.[300]
In December 2007, Money estimated the Obama family’s net worth at $1.3 million.[301] Their 2009 tax return showed a household income of $5.5 million—up from about $4.2 million in 2007 and $1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books.[302][303] On his 2010 income of $1.7 million, he gave 14% to non-profit organizations, including $131,000 to Fisher House Foundation, a charity assisting wounded veterans’ families, allowing them to reside near where the veteran is receiving medical treatments.[304][305] As per his 2012 financial disclosure, Obama may be worth as much as $10 million.[306]
Obama tried to quit smoking several times, sometimes using nicotine replacement therapy, and, in early 2010, Michelle Obama said that he had successfully quit smoking.[307][308]
Religious views
Obama is a Christian whose religious views developed in his adult life. He wrote in The Audacity of Hope that he “was not raised in a religious household”. He described his mother, raised by non-religious parents (who Obama has specified elsewhere as “non-practicing Methodists and Baptists”), to be detached from religion, yet “in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known”. He described his father as a “confirmed atheist” by the time his parents met, and his stepfather as “a man who saw religion as not particularly useful”. Obama explained how, through working with black churches as a community organizer while in his twenties, he came to understand “the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change”.[309]
In an interview with the evangelical periodical Christianity Today, Obama stated: “I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life.”[310] On September 27, 2010, Obama released a statement commenting on his religious views saying “I’m a Christian by choice. My family didn’t—frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn’t raise me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead—being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me.”[311][312]
Obama was baptized at the Trinity United Church of Christ in 1988, and was an active member there for two decades.[313] Obama resigned from Trinity during the Presidential campaign after controversial statements made by Rev. Jeremiah Wright became public.[314] After a prolonged effort to find a church to attend regularly in Washington, Obama announced in June 2009 that his primary place of worship would be the Evergreen Chapel at Camp David.[315]
Asteroids
Asteroids (from Greek ??????????? – asteroeides . “star-like”, [1] from ????? “star” and ????? “like, in form”) are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids . especially the larger ones. These terms have historically been applied to any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not show the disk of a planet and was not observed to have the characteristics of an active comet. but as small objects in the outer Solar System were discovered, their volatile - based surfaces were found to more closely resemble comets, and so were often distinguished from traditional asteroids. [2] Thus the term asteroid has come increasingly to refer specifically to the small bodies of the inner Solar System out to the orbit of Jupiter. which are usually rocky or metallic. They are grouped with the outer bodies—centaurs. Neptune trojans. and trans-Neptunian objects — as minor planets. which is the term preferred in astronomical circles. [3] This article will restrict the use of the term ‘asteroid’ to the minor planets of the inner Solar System.
Naming
A newly discovered asteroid is given a provisional designation (such as 2002 AT 4 ) consisting of the year of discovery and an alphanumeric code indicating the half-month of discovery and the sequence within that half-month. Once an asteroid’s orbit has been confirmed, it is given a number, and later may also be given a name (e. g. 433 Eros ). The formal naming convention uses parentheses around the number (e. g. (433) Eros), but dropping the parentheses is quite common. Informally, it is common to drop the number altogether, or to drop it after the first mention when a name is repeated in running text.
Discovery
The first asteroid to be discovered, Ceres. was found in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi. and was originally considered to be a new planet. [note 1] This was followed by the discovery of other similar bodies, which, with the equipment of the time, appeared to be points of light, like stars, showing little or no planetary disc, though readily distinguishable from stars due to their apparent motions. This prompted the astronomer Sir William Herschel to propose the term “asteroid”, from Greek ??????????? . asteroeides ‘star-like, star-shaped’, from ancient Greek ????? . aster ‘star, planet’. In the early second half of the nineteenth century, the terms “asteroid” and “planet” (not always qualified as “minor”) were still used interchangeably; for example, the Annual of Scientific Discovery for 1871 . page 316, reads “Professor J. Watson has been awarded by the Paris Academy of Sciences, the astronomical prize, Lalande foundation, for the discovery of eight new asteroids in one year. The planet Lydia (No. 110), discovered by M. Borelly at the Marseilles Observatory [. ] M. Borelly had previously discovered two planets bearing the numbers 91 and 99 in the system of asteroids revolving between Mars and Jupiter”.
Historical methods
Asteroid discovery methods have dramatically improved over the past two centuries.
In the last years of the 18th century, Baron Franz Xaver von Zach organized a group of 24 astronomers to search the sky for the missing planet predicted at about 2.8 AU from the Sun by the Titius-Bode law. partly because of the discovery, by Sir William Herschel in 1781, of the planet Uranus at the distance predicted by the law. This task required that hand-drawn sky charts be prepared for all stars in the zodiacal band down to an agreed-upon limit of faintness. On subsequent nights, the sky would be charted again and any moving object would, hopefully, be spotted. The expected motion of the missing planet was about 30 seconds of arc per hour, readily discernible by observers.
The first object, Ceres. was not discovered by a member of the group, but rather by accident in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi. director of the observatory of Palermo in Sicily. He discovered a new star-like object in Taurus and followed the displacement of this object during several nights. His colleague, Carl Friedrich Gauss. used these observations to find the exact distance from this unknown object to the Earth. Gauss’ calculations placed the object between the planets Mars and Jupiter. Piazzi named it after Ceres. the Roman goddess of agriculture.
Three other asteroids (2 Pallas. 3 Juno. and 4 Vesta ) were discovered over the next few years, with Vesta found in 1807. After eight more years of fruitless searches, most astronomers assumed that there were no more and abandoned any further searches.
In 1891, however, Max Wolf pioneered the use of astrophotography to detect asteroids, which appeared as short streaks on long-exposure photographic plates. This dramatically increased the rate of detection compared with earlier visual methods: Wolf alone discovered 248 asteroids, beginning with 323 Brucia. whereas only slightly more than 300 had been discovered up to that point. It was known that there were many more, but most astronomers did not bother with them [ citation needed ]. calling them “vermin of the skies”, a phrase due to Edmund Weiss. [12] Even a century later, only a few thousand asteroids were identified, numbered and named.
Manual methods of the 1900s and modern reporting
Until 1998, asteroids were discovered by a four-step process. First, a region of the sky was photographed by a wide-field telescope. or Astrograph. Pairs of photographs were taken, typically one hour apart. Multiple pairs could be taken over a series of days. Second, the two films or plates of the same region were viewed under a stereoscope. Any body in orbit around the Sun would move slightly between the pair of films. Under the stereoscope, the image of the body would seem to float slightly above the background of stars. Third, once a moving body was identified, its location would be measured precisely using a digitizing microscope. The location would be measured relative to known star locations. [13]
These first three steps do not constitute asteroid discovery: the observer has only found an apparition, which gets a provisional designation. made up of the year of discovery, a letter representing the half-month of discovery, and finally a letter and a number indicating the discovery’s sequential number (example: 1998 FJ 74 ).
The last step of discovery is to send the locations and time of observations to the Minor Planet Center. where computer programs determine whether an apparition ties together earlier apparitions into a single orbit. If so, the object receives a catalogue number and the observer of the first apparition with a calculated orbit is declared the discoverer, and granted the honor of naming the object subject to the approval of the International Astronomical Union .
Terminology
Traditionally, small bodies orbiting the Sun were classified as asteroids, comets or meteoroids. with anything smaller than ten metres across being called a meteoroid. [17] The term “asteroid” is ill-defined. It never had a formal definition, with the broader term minor planet being preferred by the International Astronomical Union from 1853 on. In 2006, the term “small Solar System body ” was introduced to cover both most minor planets and comets. [18] Other languages prefer “planetoid” (Greek for “planet-like”), and this term is occasionally used in English for the larger asteroids. The word “planetesimal ” has a similar meaning, but refers specifically to the small building blocks of the planets that existed when the Solar System was forming. The term “planetule” was coined by the geologist William Daniel Conybeare to describe minor planets, [19] but is not in common use. The three largest objects in the asteroid belt, Ceres. 2 Pallas. and 4 Vesta. grew to the stage of protoplanets. Ceres has been classified as a dwarf planet. the only one in the inner Solar System.
When found, asteroids were seen as a class of objects distinct from comets, and there was no unified term for the two until “small Solar System body” was coined in 2006. The main difference between an asteroid and a comet is that a comet shows a coma due to sublimation of near surface ices by solar radiation. A few objects have ended up being dual-listed because they were first classified as minor planets but later showed evidence of cometary activity. Conversely, some (perhaps all) comets are eventually depleted of their surface volatile ices and become asteroids. A further distinction is that comets typically have more eccentric orbits than most asteroids; most “asteroids” with notably eccentric orbits are probably dormant or extinct comets. [20]
For almost two centuries, from the discovery of Ceres in 1801 until the discovery of the first centaur. 2060 Chiron. in 1977, all known asteroids spent most of their time at or within the orbit of Jupiter, though a few such as 944 Hidalgo ventured far beyond Jupiter for part of their orbit. When astronomers started finding more small bodies that permanently resided further out than Jupiter, now called centaurs. they numbered them among the traditional asteroids, though there was debate over whether they should be classified as asteroids or as a new type of object. Then, when the first trans-Neptunian object. 1992 QB1. was discovered in 1992, and especially when large numbers of similar objects started turning up, new terms were invented to sidestep the issue: Kuiper-belt object. trans-Neptunian object. scattered-disc object. and so on. These inhabit the cold outer reaches of the Solar System where ices remain solid and comet-like bodies are not expected to exhibit much cometary activity; if centaurs or trans-Neptunian objects were to venture close to the Sun, their volatile ices would sublimate, and traditional approaches would classify them as comets and not asteroids.
The innermost of these are the Kuiper-belt objects. called “objects” partly to avoid the need to classify them as asteroids or comets. [21] They are believed to be predominantly comet-like in composition, though some may be more akin to asteroids. [22] Furthermore, most do not have the highly eccentric orbits associated with comets, and the ones so far discovered are larger than traditional comet nuclei. (The much more distant Oort cloud is hypothesized to be the main reservoir of dormant comets.) Other recent observations, such as the analysis of the cometary dust collected by the Stardust probe, are increasingly blurring the distinction between comets and asteroids, [23] suggesting “a continuum between asteroids and comets” rather than a sharp dividing line. [24]
The minor planets beyond Jupiter’s orbit are sometimes also called “asteroids”, especially in popular presentations. [25] However, it is becoming increasingly common for the term “asteroid” to be restricted to minor planets of the inner Solar System. [21] Therefore, this article will restrict itself for the most part to the classical asteroids: objects of the asteroid belt. Jupiter trojans. and near-Earth objects .
When the IAU introduced the class small Solar System bodies in 2006 to include most objects previously classified as minor planets and comets, they created the class of dwarf planets for the largest minor planets—those that have enough mass to have become ellipsoidal under their own gravity. According to the IAU, “the term ‘minor planet’ may still be used, but generally the term ‘Small Solar System Body’ will be preferred.” [26] Currently only the largest object in the asteroid belt, Ceres. at about 950 km (590 mi) across, has been placed in the dwarf planet category, although there are several large asteroids (Vesta. Pallas. and Hygiea ) that may be classified as dwarf planets when their shapes are better known. [27]
Formation
It is believed that planetesimals in the asteroid belt evolved much like the rest of the solar nebula until Jupiter neared its current mass, at which point excitation from orbital resonances with Jupiter ejected over 99% of planetesimals in the belt. Simulations and a discontinuity in spin rate and spectral properties suggest that asteroids larger than approximately 120 km (75 mi) in diameter accreted during that early era, whereas smaller bodies are fragments from collisions between asteroids during or after the Jovian disruption. [28] Ceres and Vesta grew large enough to melt and differentiate. with heavy metallic elements sinking to the core, leaving rocky minerals in the crust. [29]
In the Nice model. many Kuiper-belt objects are captured in the outer asteroid belt, at distances greater than 2.6 AU. Most were later ejected by Jupiter, but those that remained may be the D-type asteroids. and possibly include Ceres. [30]
Distribution within the Solar System
Various dynamical groups of asteroids have been discovered orbiting in the inner Solar System. Their orbits are perturbed by the gravity of other bodies in the Solar System and by the Yarkovsky effect. Significant populations include:
Asteroid belt
The majority of known asteroids orbit within the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. generally in relatively low-eccentricity (i. e. not very elongated) orbits. This belt is now estimated to contain between 1.1 and 1.9 million asteroids larger than 1 km (0.6 mi) in diameter, [31] and millions of smaller ones. [32] These asteroids may be remnants of the protoplanetary disk. and in this region the accretion of planetesimals into planets during the formative period of the Solar System was prevented by large gravitational perturbations by Jupiter .
Trojans
Trojan asteroids are a population that share an orbit with a larger planet or moon, but do not collide with it because they orbit in one of the two Lagrangian points of stability, L4 and L5. which lie 60° ahead of and behind the larger body.
The most significant population of Trojan asteroids are the Jupiter Trojans. Although fewer Jupiter Trojans have been discovered as of 2010, it is thought that they are as numerous as the asteroids in the asteroid belt.
A couple of trojans have also been found orbiting with Mars. [note 2]
Near-Earth asteroids
Near-Earth asteroids, or NEAs, are asteroids that have orbits that pass close to that of Earth. Asteroids that actually cross the Earth’s orbital path are known as Earth-crossers . As of May 2010, 7,075 near-Earth asteroids are known and the number over one kilometre in diameter is estimated to be 500–1,000.
Exploration
Until the age of space travel. objects in the asteroid belt were merely pinpricks of light in even the largest telescopes and their shapes and terrain remained a mystery. The best modern ground-based telescopes and the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope can resolve a small amount of detail on the surfaces of the largest asteroids, but even these mostly remain little more than fuzzy blobs. Limited information about the shapes and compositions of asteroids can be inferred from their light curves (their variation in brightness as they rotate) and their spectral properties, and asteroid sizes can be estimated by timing the lengths of star occulations (when an asteroid passes directly in front of a star). Radar imaging can yield good information about asteroid shapes and orbital and rotational parameters, especially for near-Earth asteroids. In terms of delta v and propellant requirements, NEOs are more easily accessible than the Moon. [60]
The first close-up photographs of asteroid-like objects were taken in 1971 when the Mariner 9 probe imaged Phobos and Deimos. the two small moons of Mars. which are probably captured asteroids. These images revealed the irregular, potato-like shapes of most asteroids, as did later images from the Voyager probes of the small moons of the gas giants .
The first true asteroid to be photographed in close-up was 951 Gaspra in 1991, followed in 1993 by 243 Ida and its moon Dactyl. all of which were imaged by the Galileo probe en route to Jupiter .
The first dedicated asteroid probe was NEAR Shoemaker. which photographed 253 Mathilde in 1997, before entering into orbit around 433 Eros. finally landing on its surface in 2001.
Other asteroids briefly visited by spacecraft en route to other destinations include 9969 Braille (by Deep Space 1 in 1999), and 5535 Annefrank (by Stardust in 2002).
In September 2005, the Japanese Hayabusa probe started studying 25143 Itokawa in detail and was plagued with difficulties, but returned samples of its surface to earth on June 13, 2010.
The European Rosetta probe (launched in 2004) flew by 2867 Steins in 2008 and 21 Lutetia. the second-largest asteroid visited to date, in 2010.
In September 2007, NASA launched the Dawn Mission. which orbited the protoplanet 4 Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012, and is planned to orbit 1 Ceres in 2015. 4 Vesta is the largest asteroid visited to date.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to launch around 2015 the improved Hayabusa 2 space probe and to return asteroid samples by 2020. Current target for the mission is the C-type asteroid (162173) 1999 JU 3 .
In May 2011, NASA announced the OSIRIS-REx sample return mission to asteroid 1999 RQ36. and is expected to launch in 2016.
It has been suggested that asteroids might be used as a source of materials that may be rare or exhausted on earth (asteroid mining ), or materials for constructing space habitats (see Colonization of the asteroids ). Materials that are heavy and expensive to launch from earth may someday be mined from asteroids and used for space manufacturing and construction.
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone.[N 1]
Bell’s father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell’s life’s work.[3] His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first US patent for the telephone in 1876.[N 2] In retrospect, Bell considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.[5][N 3]
Many other inventions marked Bell’s later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils and aeronautics. In 1888, Bell became one of the founding members of the National Geographic Society.[7] He has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history.[8]
Early life
Alexander Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 3, 1847.[9] The family home was at 16 South Charlotte Street, and has a stone inscription, marking it as Alexander Graham Bell’s birthplace. He had two brothers: Melville James Bell (1845–70) and Edward Charles Bell (1848–67). Both of his brothers died of tuberculosis.[10] His father was Professor Alexander Melville Bell, and his mother was Eliza Grace (nee Symonds).[N 4] Although he was born “Alexander”, at age 10, he made a plea to his father to have a middle name like his two brothers.[11][N 5] For his 11th birthday, his father acquiesced and allowed him to adopt the middle name “Graham”, chosen out of admiration for Alexander Graham, a Canadian being treated by his father and boarder who had become a family friend.[12] To close relatives and friends he remained “Aleck” which his father continued to call him into later life.[13]
First invention
As a child, young Alexander displayed a natural curiosity about his world, resulting in gathering botanical specimens as well as experimenting even at an early age. His best friend was Ben Herdman, a neighbor whose family operated a flour mill, the scene of many forays. Young Aleck asked what needed to be done at the mill. He was told wheat had to be dehusked through a laborious process and at the age of 12, Bell built a homemade device that combined rotating paddles with sets of nail brushes, creating a simple dehusking machine that was put into operation and used steadily for a number of years.[14] In return, John Herdman gave both boys the run of a small workshop in which to “invent”.[14]
From his early years, Bell showed a sensitive nature and a talent for art, poetry and music that was encouraged by his mother. With no formal training, he mastered the piano and became the family’s pianist.[15] Despite being normally quiet and introspective, he reveled in mimicry and “voice tricks” akin to ventriloquism that continually entertained family guests during their occasional visits.[15] Bell was also deeply affected by his mother’s gradual deafness, (she began to lose her hearing when he was 12) and learned a manual finger language so he could sit at her side and tap out silently the conversations swirling around the family parlour.[16] He also developed a technique of speaking in clear, modulated tones directly into his mother’s forehead wherein she would hear him with reasonable clarity.[17] Bell’s preoccupation with his mother’s deafness led him to study acoustics.
His family was long associated with the teaching of elocution: his grandfather, Alexander Bell, in London, his uncle in Dublin, and his father, in Edinburgh, were all elocutionists. His father published a variety of works on the subject, several of which are still well known, especially his The Standard Elocutionist (1860),[15] which appeared in Edinburgh in 1868. The Standard Elocutionist appeared in 168 British editions and sold over a quarter of a million copies in the United States alone. In this treatise, his father explains his methods of how to instruct deaf-mutes (as they were then known) to articulate words and read other people’s lip movements to decipher meaning. Aleck’s father taught him and his brothers not only to write Visible Speech but to identify any symbol and its accompanying sound.[18] Aleck became so proficient that he became a part of his father’s public demonstrations and astounded audiences with his abilities. He could decipher Visible Speech representing virtually every language, including Latin, Scottish Gaelic and even Sanskrit, accurately reciting written tracts without any prior knowledge of their pronunciation.[18]
Education
As a young child, Bell, like his brothers, received his early schooling at home from his father. At an early age, however, he was enrolled at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, Scotland, which he left at age 15, completing only the first four forms.[19] His school record was undistinguished, marked by absenteeism and lacklustre grades. His main interest remained in the sciences, especially biology, while he treated other school subjects with indifference, to the dismay of his demanding father.[20] Upon leaving school, Bell travelled to London to live with his grandfather, Alexander Bell. During the year he spent with his grandfather, a love of learning was born, with long hours spent in serious discussion and study. The elder Bell took great efforts to have his young pupil learn to speak clearly and with conviction, the attributes that his pupil would need to become a teacher himself.[21] At age 16, Bell secured a position as a “pupil-teacher” of elocution and music, in Weston House Academy, at Elgin, Moray, Scotland. Although he was enrolled as a student in Latin and Greek, he instructed classes himself in return for board and ?10 per session.[22] The following year, he attended the University of Edinburgh; joining his older brother Melville who had enrolled there the previous year. In 1868, not long before he departed for Canada with his family, Aleck completed his matriculation exams and was accepted for admission to the University of London.[23]
First experiments with sound
Bell’s father encouraged Aleck’s interest in speech and, in 1863, took his sons to see a unique automaton, developed by Sir Charles Wheatstone based on the earlier work of Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen.[24] The rudimentary “mechanical man” simulated a human voice. Aleck was fascinated by the machine and after he obtained a copy of von Kempelen’s book, published in German, and had laboriously translated it, he and his older brother Melville built their own automaton head. Their father, highly interested in their project, offered to pay for any supplies and spurred the boys on with the enticement of a “big prize” if they were successful.[24] While his brother constructed the throat and larynx, Aleck tackled the more difficult task of recreating a realistic skull. His efforts resulted in a remarkably lifelike head that could “speak”, albeit only a few words.[24] The boys would carefully adjust the “lips” and when a bellows forced air through the windpipe, a very recognizable “Mama” ensued, to the delight of neighbors who came to see the Bell invention.[25]
Intrigued by the results of the automaton, Bell continued to experiment with a live subject, the family’s Skye Terrier, “Trouve”.[26] After he taught it to growl continuously, Aleck would reach into its mouth and manipulate the dog’s lips and vocal cords to produce a crude-sounding “Ow ah oo ga ma ma”. With little convincing, visitors believed his dog could articulate “How are you grandma?” More indicative of his playful nature, his experiments convinced onlookers that they saw a “talking dog”.[27] However, these initial forays into experimentation with sound led Bell to undertake his first serious work on the transmission of sound, using tuning forks to explore resonance.
At the age of 19, he wrote a report on his work and sent it to philologist Alexander Ellis, a colleague of his father (who would later be portrayed as Professor Henry Higgins in Pygmalion).[27] Ellis immediately wrote back indicating that the experiments were similar to existing work in Germany, and also lent Aleck a copy of Hermann von Helmholtz’s work, The Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music.[28]
Dismayed to find that groundbreaking work had already been undertaken by Helmholtz who had conveyed vowel sounds by means of a similar tuning fork “contraption”, he pored over the German scientist’s book. Working from his own errant mistranslation of the original German edition, Aleck fortuitously then made a deduction that would be the underpinning of all his future work on transmitting sound, reporting: “Without knowing much about the subject, it seemed to me that if vowel sounds could be produced by electrical means, so could consonants, so could articulate speech.” He also later remarked: “I thought that Helmhotz had done it … and that my failure was due only to my ignorance of electricity. It was a valuable blunder … If I had been able to read German in those days, I might never have commenced my experiments!”[29][30][31]
Family tragedy
In 1865, when the Bell family moved to London,[32] Bell returned to Weston House as an assistant master and, in his spare hours, continued experiments on sound using a minimum of laboratory equipment. Bell concentrated on experimenting with electricity to convey sound and later installed a telegraph wire from his room in Somerset College to that of a friend.[33] Throughout late 1867, his health faltered mainly through exhaustion. His younger brother, Edward “Ted,” was similarly bed-ridden, suffering from tuberculosis. While Bell recovered (by then referring to himself in correspondence as “A. G. Bell”) and served the next year as an instructor at Somerset College, Bath, England, his brother’s condition deteriorated. Edward would never recover. Upon his brother’s death, Bell returned home in 1867. His older brother Melville had married and moved out. With aspirations to obtain a degree at the University College London, Bell considered his next years as preparation for the degree examinations, devoting his spare time at his family’s residence to studying.
Helping his father in Visible Speech demonstrations and lectures brought Bell to Susanna E. Hull’s private school for the deaf in South Kensington, London. His first two pupils were “deaf mute” girls who made remarkable progress under his tutelage. While his older brother seemed to achieve success on many fronts including opening his own elocution school, applying for a patent on an invention, and starting a family, Bell continued as a teacher. However, in May 1870, Melville died from complications due to tuberculosis, causing a family crisis. His father had also suffered a debilitating illness earlier in life and had been restored to health by a convalescence in Newfoundland. Bell’s parents embarked upon a long-planned move when they realized that their remaining son was also sickly. Acting decisively, Alexander Melville Bell asked Bell to arrange for the sale of all the family property,[34][N 6] conclude all of his brother’s affairs (Bell took over his last student, curing a pronounced lisp),[35] and join his father and mother in setting out for the “New World”.[36] Reluctantly, Bell also had to conclude a relationship with Marie Eccleston, who, he had surmised, was not prepared to leave England with him.[36]
Canada
In 1870, at age 23, Bell, his brother’s widow, Caroline (Margaret Ottaway),[37] and his parents travelled on the SS Nestorian to Canada.[38] After landing at Quebec City, the Bells boarded a train to Montreal and later to Paris, Ontario, to stay with the Reverend Thomas Henderson, a family friend. After a brief stay with the Hendersons, the Bell family purchased a farm of 10.5 acres (42,000 m2) at Tutelo Heights (now called Tutela Heights), near Brantford, Ontario. The property consisted of an orchard, large farm house, stable, pigsty, hen-house and a carriage house, which bordered the Grand River.[39][N 7]
At the homestead, Bell set up his own workshop in the converted carriage house[41] near to what he called his “dreaming place”, a large hollow nestled in trees at the back of the property above the river.[42] Despite his frail condition upon arriving in Canada, Bell found the climate and environs to his liking, and rapidly improved.[43][N 8] He continued his interest in the study of the human voice and when he discovered the Six Nations Reserve across the river at Onondaga, he learned the Mohawk language and translated its unwritten vocabulary into Visible Speech symbols. For his work, Bell was awarded the title of Honorary Chief and participated in a ceremony where he donned a Mohawk headdress and danced traditional dances.[44][N 9]
After setting up his workshop, Bell continued experiments based on Helmholtz’s work with electricity and sound.[41] He designed a piano, which, by means of electricity, could transmit its music at a distance. Once the family was settled in, both Bell and his father made plans to establish a teaching practice and in 1871, he accompanied his father to Montreal, where Melville was offered a position to teach his System of Visible Speech.
Work with the deaf
Bell’s father was invited by Sarah Fuller, principal of the Boston School for Deaf Mutes (which continues today as the public Horace Mann School for the Deaf),[45] in Boston, Massachusetts, to introduce the Visible Speech System by providing training for Fuller’s instructors, but he declined the post, in favor of his son. Traveling to Boston in April 1871, Bell proved successful in training the school’s instructors.[46] He was subsequently asked to repeat the program at the American Asylum for Deaf-mutes in Hartford, Connecticut, and the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Returning home to Brantford after six months abroad, Bell continued his experiments with his “harmonic telegraph”.[47][N 10] The basic concept behind his device was that messages could be sent through a single wire if each message was transmitted at a different pitch, but work on both the transmitter and receiver was needed.[48] Unsure of his future, he first contemplated returning to London to complete his studies, but decided to return to Boston as a teacher.[49] His father helped him set up his private practice by contacting Gardiner Greene Hubbard, the president of the Clarke School for the Deaf for a recommendation. Teaching his father’s system, in October 1872 Alexander Bell opened his “School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech” in Boston, which attracted a large number of deaf pupils with his first class numbering 30 students.[50][51] While he was working as a private tutor, one of his most famous pupils was Helen Keller, who came to him as a young child unable to see, hear, or speak. She was later to say that Bell dedicated his life to the penetration of that “inhuman silence which separates and estranges.”[52]
Several influential people of the time, including Bell, viewed deafness as something that ought to be eradicated, and also believed that with resources and effort they could teach the deaf to speak and avoid the use of sign language, thus enabling their integration within the wider society from which many were often being excluded.[53] However in several schools children were mistreated, for example by having their hands tied behind their backs so they could not communicate by signing—the only language they knew—and were therefore forced to attempt oral communication. Due to his efforts to suppress the teaching of sign language, Bell is often viewed negatively by those embracing deaf culture.[citation needed]
Continuing experimentation
In the following year, Bell became professor of Vocal Physiology and Elocution at the Boston University School of Oratory. During this period, he alternated between Boston and Brantford, spending summers in his Canadian home. At Boston University, Bell was “swept up” by the excitement engendered by the many scientists and inventors residing in the city. He continued his research in sound and endeavored to find a way to transmit musical notes and articulate speech, but although absorbed by his experiments, he found it difficult to devote enough time to experimentation. While days and evenings were occupied by his teaching and private classes, Bell began to stay awake late into the night, running experiment after experiment in rented facilities at his boarding house. Keeping up “night owl” hours, he worried that his work would be discovered and took great pains to lock up his notebooks and laboratory equipment. Bell had a specially made table where he could place his notes and equipment inside a locking cover.[54] Worse still, his health deteriorated as he suffered severe headaches.[48] Returning to Boston in fall 1873, Bell made a fateful decision to concentrate on his experiments in sound.
Deciding to give up his lucrative private Boston practice, Bell only retained two students, six-year old “Georgie” Sanders, deaf from birth and 15-year old Mabel Hubbard. Each pupil would serve to play an important role in the next developments. George’s father, Thomas Sanders, a wealthy businessman, offered Bell a place to stay at nearby Salem with Georgie’s grandmother, complete with a room to “experiment”. Although the offer was made by George’s mother and followed the year-long arrangement in 1872 where her son and his nurse had moved to quarters next to Bell’s boarding house, it was clear that Mr. Sanders was backing the proposal. The arrangement was for teacher and student to continue their work together with free room and board thrown in.[55] Mabel was a bright, attractive girl who was ten years his junior but became the object of Bell’s affection. Losing her hearing after a near-fatal bout of scarlet fever close to her fifth birthday,[56][57][N 11] she had learned to read lips but her father, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, Bell’s benefactor and personal friend, wanted her to work directly with her teacher.[58]
Telephone
By 1874, Bell’s initial work on the harmonic telegraph had entered a formative stage with progress it made both at his new Boston “laboratory” (a rented facility) as well as at his family home in Canada a big success.[N 12] While working that summer in Brantford, Bell experimented with a “phonautograph”, a pen-like machine that could draw shapes of sound waves on smoked glass by tracing their vibrations. Bell thought it might be possible to generate undulating electrical currents that corresponded to sound waves.[59] Bell also thought that multiple metal reeds tuned to different frequencies like a harp would be able to convert the undulating currents back into sound. But he had no working model to demonstrate the feasibility of these ideas.[60]
In 1874, telegraph message traffic was rapidly expanding and in the words of Western Union President William Orton, had become “the nervous system of commerce”. Orton had contracted with inventors Thomas Edison and Elisha Gray to find a way to send multiple telegraph messages on each telegraph line to avoid the great cost of constructing new lines.[61] When Bell mentioned to Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders that he was working on a method of sending multiple tones on a telegraph wire using a multi-reed device, the two wealthy patrons began to financially support Bell’s experiments.[62] Patent matters would be handled by Hubbard’s patent attorney, Anthony Pollok.[63]
In March 1875, Bell and Pollok visited the famous scientist Joseph Henry, who was then director of the Smithsonian Institution, and asked Henry’s advice on the electrical multi-reed apparatus that Bell hoped would transmit the human voice by telegraph. Henry replied that Bell had “the germ of a great invention”. When Bell said that he did not have the necessary knowledge, Henry replied, “Get it!” That declaration greatly encouraged Bell to keep trying, even though he did not have the equipment needed to continue his experiments, nor the ability to create a working model of his ideas. However, a chance meeting in 1874 between Bell and Thomas A. Watson, an experienced electrical designer and mechanic at the electrical machine shop of Charles Williams, changed all that.
With financial support from Sanders and Hubbard, Bell hired Thomas Watson as his assistant and the two of them experimented with acoustic telegraphy. On June 2, 1875, Watson accidentally plucked one of the reeds and Bell, at the receiving end of the wire, heard the overtones of the reed; overtones that would be necessary for transmitting speech. That demonstrated to Bell that only one reed or armature was necessary, not multiple reeds. This led to the “gallows” sound-powered telephone, which could transmit indistinct, voice-like sounds, but not clear speech.
The race to the patent office
Main article: Elisha Gray and Alexander Bell telephone controversy
In 1875, Bell developed an acoustic telegraph and drew up a patent application for it. Since he had agreed to share U. S. profits with his investors Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders, Bell requested that an associate in Ontario, George Brown, attempt to patent it in Britain, instructing his lawyers to apply for a patent in the U. S. only after they received word from Britain (Britain would issue patents only for discoveries not previously patented elsewhere).[64]
Meanwhile, Elisha Gray was also experimenting with acoustic telegraphy and thought of a way to transmit speech using a water transmitter. On February 14, 1876, Gray filed a caveat with the U. S. Patent Office for a telephone design that used a water transmitter. That same morning, Bell’s lawyer filed Bell’s application with the patent office. There is considerable debate about who arrived first and Gray later challenged the primacy of Bell’s patent. Bell was in Boston on February 14 and did not arrive in Washington until February 26.
Bell’s patent 174,465, was issued to Bell on March 7, 1876, by the U. S. Patent Office. Bell’s patent covered “the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically … by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound”[66] [N 13] Bell returned to Boston the same day and the next day resumed work, drawing in his notebook a diagram similar to that in Gray’s patent caveat.
On March 10, 1876, three days after his patent was issued, Bell succeeded in getting his telephone to work, using a liquid transmitter similar to Gray’s design. Vibration of the diaphragm caused a needle to vibrate in the water, varying the electrical resistance in the circuit. When Bell spoke the famous sentence “Mr Watson—Come here—I want to see you” into the liquid transmitter,[67] Watson, listening at the receiving end in an adjoining room, heard the words clearly.[68]
Although Bell was, and still is, accused of stealing the telephone from Gray,[69] Bell used Gray’s water transmitter design only after Bell’s patent was granted and only as a proof of concept scientific experiment[70] to prove to his own satisfaction that intelligible “articulate speech” (Bell’s words) could be electrically transmitted.[71] After March 1876, Bell focused on improving the electromagnetic telephone and never used Gray’s liquid transmitter in public demonstrations or commercial use.[72]
The question of priority for the variable resistance feature of the telephone was raised by the Examiner before he approved Bell’s patent application. He told Bell that his claim for the variable resistance feature was also described in Gray’s caveat. Bell pointed to a variable resistance device in Bell’s previous application in which Bell described a cup of mercury, not water. Bell had filed the mercury application at the patent office a year earlier on February 25, 1875, long before Elisha Gray described the water device. In addition, Gray abandoned his caveat, and because Gray did not contest Bell’s priority, the Examiner approved Bell’s patent on March 3, 1876. Gray had reinvented the variable resistance telephone, but Bell was the first to write down the idea and the first to test it in a telephone.[73]
The patent examiner, Zenas Fisk Wilber, later stated in a sworn affidavit[citation needed]that he was an alcoholic who was much in debt to Bell’s lawyer, Marcellus Bailey, with whom he had served in the Civil War. He claimed he showed Gray’s patent caveat to Bailey. Wilber also claimed (after Bell arrived in Washington D. C. from Boston) that he showed Gray’s caveat to Bell and that Bell paid him $100. Bell claimed they discussed the patent only in general terms, although in a letter to Gray, Bell admitted that he learned some of the technical details. Bell denied in a sworn affidavit that he ever gave Wilber any money.
Later developments
Continuing his experiments in Brantford, Bell brought home a working model of his telephone. On August 3, 1876, from the telegraph office in Mount Pleasant five miles (8 km) away from Brantford, Bell sent a tentative telegram indicating that he was ready. With curious onlookers packed into the office as witnesses, faint voices were heard replying. The following night, he amazed guests as well as his family when a message was received at the Bell home from Brantford, four miles (six km) distant along an improvised wire strung up along telegraph lines and fences, and laid through a tunnel. This time, guests at the household distinctly heard people in Brantford reading and singing. These experiments clearly proved that the telephone could work over long distances.[74]
Bell and his partners, Hubbard and Sanders, offered to sell the patent outright to Western Union for $100,000. The president of Western Union balked, countering that the telephone was nothing but a toy. Two years later, he told colleagues that if he could get the patent for $25 million he would consider it a bargain. By then, the Bell company no longer wanted to sell the patent.[75] Bell’s investors would become millionaires while he fared well from residuals and at one point had assets of nearly one million dollars.[76]
Bell began a series of public demonstrations and lectures to introduce the new invention to the scientific community as well as the general public. Only one day later, his demonstration of an early telephone prototype at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia made the telephone the featured headline worldwide.[77] Influential visitors to the exhibition included Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, and later Bell had the opportunity to demonstrate the invention personally to William Thomson, a renowned Scottish scientist. Later Bell demonstrated the invention to Queen Victoria who had requested a private audience at Osborne House, her Isle of Wight home. She called the demonstration “most extraordinary”. The enthusiasm surrounding Bell’s public displays laid the groundwork for universal acceptance of the revolutionary device.[78]
The Bell Telephone Company was created in 1877, and by 1886, more than 150,000 people in the U. S. owned telephones. Bell company engineers made numerous other improvements to the telephone, which emerged as one of the most successful products ever. In 1879, the Bell company acquired Edison’s patents for the carbon microphone from Western Union. This made the telephone practical for long distances and it was no longer necessary to shout to be heard at the receiving telephone.
In January 1915, Bell made the first ceremonial transcontinental telephone call. Calling from the AT&T head office at 15 Dey Street in New York City, Bell was heard by Thomas Watson at 333 Grant Avenue in San Francisco. The New York Times reported:
On October 9, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson talked by telephone to each other over a two-mile wire stretched between Cambridge and Boston. It was the first wire conversation ever held. Yesterday afternoon [on January 25, 1915] the same two men talked by telephone to each other over a 3,400-mile wire between New York and San Francisco. Dr. Bell, the veteran inventor of the telephone, was in New York, and Mr. Watson, his former associate, was on the other side of the continent. They heard each other much more distinctly than they did in their first talk thirty-eight years ago.[79]
Competitors
See also: Canadian Parliamentary Motion on Alexander Graham Bell
As is sometimes common in scientific discoveries, simultaneous developments can occur, as evidenced by a number of inventors who were at work on the telephone.[5] Over a period of 18 years, the Bell Telephone Company faced 587 court challenges to its patents, including five that went to the US Supreme Court,[80] but none was successful in establishing priority over the original Bell patent[81][82] and the Bell Telephone Company never lost a case that had proceeded to a final trial stage.[81] Bell’s laboratory notes and family letters were the key to establishing a long lineage to his experiments.[81] The Bell company lawyers successfully fought off myriad lawsuits generated initially around the challenges by Elisha Gray and Amos Dolbear. In personal correspondence to Bell, both Gray and Dolbear had acknowledged his prior work, which considerably weakened their later claims.[83]
On January 13, 1887, the US Government moved to annul the patent issued to Bell on the grounds of fraud and misrepresentation. After a series of decisions and reversals, the Bell company won a decision in the Supreme Court, though a couple of the original claims from the lower court cases were left undecided.[84][85] By the time that the trial wound its way through nine years of legal battles, the U. S. prosecuting attorney had died and the two Bell patents (No. 174,465 and dated March 7, 1876 and No. 186,787 dated January 30, 1877) were no longer in effect, although the presiding judges agreed to continue the proceedings due to the case’s importance as a “precedent”. With a change in administration and charges of conflict of interest (on both sides) arising from the original trial, the US Attorney General dropped the lawsuit on November 30, 1897 leaving several issues undecided on the merits.[86]
During a deposition filed for the 1887 trial, Italian inventor Antonio Meucci also claimed to have created the first working model of a telephone in Italy in 1834. In 1886, in the first of three cases in which he was involved, Meucci took the stand as a witness in the hopes of establishing his invention’s priority. Meucci’s evidence in this case was disputed due to a lack of material evidence for his inventions as his working models were purportedly lost at the laboratory of American District Telegraph (ADT) of New York, which was later incorporated as a subsidiary of Western Union in 1901.[87][88] Meucci’s work, like many other inventors of the period, was based on earlier acoustic principles and despite evidence of earlier experiments, the final case involving Meucci was eventually dropped upon Meucci’s death.[89] However, due to the efforts of Congressman Vito Fossella, the U. S. House of Representatives on June 11, 2002 stated that Meucci’s “work in the invention of the telephone should be acknowledged”, even though this did not put an end to a still contentious issue.[90][91] [N 14][92] Some modern scholars do not agree with the claims that Bell’s work on the telephone was influenced by Meucci’s inventions.[93] [N 15]
The value of the Bell patent was acknowledged throughout the world, and patent applications were made in most major countries, but when Bell had delayed the German patent application, the electrical firm of Siemens & Halske (S&H) managed to set up a rival manufacturer of Bell telephones under their own patent. The Siemens company produced near-identical copies of the Bell telephone without having to pay royalties.[94] The establishment of the International Bell Telephone Company in Brussels, Belgium in 1880, as well as a series of agreements in other countries eventually consolidated a global telephone operation. The strain put on Bell by his constant appearances in court, necessitated by the legal battles, eventually resulted in his resignation from the company.[95][N 16]
Family life
On July 11, 1877, a few days after the Bell Telephone Company was established, Bell married Mabel Hubbard (1857–1923) at the Hubbard estate in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His wedding present to his bride was to turn over 1,487 of his 1,497 shares in the newly formed Bell Telephone Company.[96] Shortly thereafter, the newlyweds embarked on a year-long honeymoon in Europe. During that excursion, Alec took a handmade model of his telephone with him, making it a “working holiday”. The courtship had begun years earlier; however, Alexander waited until he was more financially secure before marrying. Although the telephone appeared to be an “instant” success, it was not initially a profitable venture and Bell’s main sources of income were from lectures until after 1897.[97] One unusual request exacted by his fiancee was that he use “Alec” rather than the family’s earlier familiar name of “Aleck”. From 1876, he would sign his name “Alec Bell”.[98][N 17] They had four children: Elsie May Bell (1878–1964) who married Gilbert Grosvenor of National Geographic fame,[N 18][N 19][N 20] [N 21] Marian Hubbard Bell (1880–1962) who was referred to as “Daisy”,[N 22] and two sons who died in infancy. The Bell family home was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, until 1880 when Bell’s father-in-law bought a house in Washington, D. C. and later in 1882 bought a home in the same city for Bell’s family, so that they could be with him while he attended to the numerous court cases involving patent disputes.[99]
Bell was a British subject throughout his early life in Scotland and later in Canada until 1882, when he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In 1915, he characterized his status as: “I am not one of those hyphenated Americans who claim allegiance to two countries.”[100] Despite this declaration, Bell has been proudly claimed as a “native son” by all three countries he resided in: the United States, Canada and Scotland.[101]
By 1885, a new summer retreat was contemplated. That summer, the Bells had a vacation on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, spending time at the small village of Baddeck.[103] Returning in 1886, Bell started building an estate on a point across from Baddeck, overlooking Bras d’Or Lake.[104] By 1889, a large house, christened The Lodge was completed and two years later, a larger complex of buildings, including a new laboratory,[103] were begun that the Bells would name Beinn Bhreagh (Gaelic: beautiful mountain) after Alec’s ancestral Scottish highlands.[105] [N 23]Bell would spend his final, and some of his most productive, years in residence in both Washington, D. C. where he and his family initially resided for most of the year, and at Beinn Bhreagh.[106]
Until the end of his life, Bell and his family would alternate between the two homes, but Beinn Bhreagh would, over the next 30 years, become more than a summer home as Bell became so absorbed in his experiments that his annual stays lengthened. Both Mabel and Alec became immersed in the Baddeck community and were accepted by the villagers as “their own”.[103] The Bells were still in residence at Beinn Bhreagh when the Halifax Explosion occurred on December 6, 1917. Mabel and Alec mobilized the community to help victims in Halifax.[107]
Further information: Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia
Later inventions
Although Alexander Graham Bell is most often associated with the invention of the telephone, his interests were extremely varied. According to one of his biographers, Charlotte Gray, Bell’s work ranged “unfettered across the scientific landscape” and he often went to bed voraciously reading the Encyclop? dia Britannica, scouring it for new areas of interest.[108] The range of Bell’s inventive genius is represented only in part by the 18 patents granted in his name alone and the 12 he shared with his collaborators. These included 14 for the telephone and telegraph, four for the Photophone, one for the phonograph, five for aerial vehicles, four for “hydroairplanes” and two for selenium cells. Bell’s inventions spanned a wide range of interests and included a metal jacket to assist in breathing, the audiometer to detect minor hearing problems, a device to locate icebergs, investigations on how to separate salt from seawater, and work on finding alternative fuels.
Bell worked extensively in medical research and invented techniques for teaching speech to the deaf. During his Volta Laboratory period, Bell and his associates considered impressing a magnetic field on a record as a means of reproducing sound. Although the trio briefly experimented with the concept, they could not develop a workable prototype. They abandoned the idea, never realizing they had glimpsed a basic principle which would one day find its application in the tape recorder, the hard disc and floppy disc drive and other magnetic media.
Bell’s own home used a primitive form of air conditioning, in which fans blew currents of air across great blocks of ice. He also anticipated modern concerns with fuel shortages and industrial pollution. Methane gas, he reasoned, could be produced from the waste of farms and factories. At his Canadian estate in Nova Scotia, he experimented with composting toilets and devices to capture water from the atmosphere. In a magazine interview published shortly before his death, he reflected on the possibility of using solar panels to heat houses.
Metal detector
Bell is also credited with the invention of the metal detector in 1881. The device was quickly put together in an attempt to find the bullet in the body of US President James Garfield. The metal detector worked flawlessly in tests but did not find the assassin’s bullet partly because the metal bed frame on which the President was lying disturbed the instrument, resulting in static.[109] The president’s surgeons, who were skeptical of the device, ignored Bell’s requests to move the president to a bed not fitted with metal springs. Alternatively, although Bell had detected a slight sound on his first test, the bullet may have been lodged too deeply to be detected by the crude apparatus.[109] Bell gave a full account of his experiments in a paper read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in August 1882.
HydrofoilsThe March 1906 Scientific American article by American pioneer William E. Meacham explained the basic principle of hydrofoils and hydroplanes. Bell considered the invention of the hydroplane as a very significant achievement. Based on information gained from that article he began to sketch concepts of what is now called a hydrofoil boat. Bell and assistant Frederick W. “Casey” Baldwin began hydrofoil experimentation in the summer of 1908 as a possible aid to airplane takeoff from water. Baldwin studied the work of the Italian inventor Enrico Forlanini and began testing models. This led him and Bell to the development of practical hydrofoil watercraft.
During his world tour of 1910–11, Bell and Baldwin met with Forlanini in France. They had rides in the Forlanini hydrofoil boat over Lake Maggiore. Baldwin described it as being as smooth as flying. On returning to Baddeck, a number of initial concepts were built as experimental models, including the Dhonnas Beag, the first self-propelled Bell-Baldwin hydrofoil.[110] The experimental boats were essentially proof-of-concept prototypes that culminated in the more substantial HD-4, powered by Renault engines. A top speed of 54 miles per hour (87 km/h) was achieved, with the hydrofoil exhibiting rapid acceleration, good stability and steering along with the ability to take waves without difficulty.[111] In 1913, Dr. Bell hired Walter Pinaud, a Sydney yacht designer and builder as well as the proprietor of Pinaud’s Yacht Yard in Westmount, Nova Scotia to work on the pontoons of the HD-4. Pinaud soon took over the boatyard at Bell Laboratories on Beinn Bhreagh, Bell’s estate near Baddeck, Nova Scotia. Pinaud’s experience in boat-building enabled him to make useful design changes to the HD-4. After the First World War, work began again on the HD-4. Bell’s report to the U. S. Navy permitted him to obtain two 350 horsepower (260 kW) engines in July 1919. On September 9, 1919, the HD-4 set a world marine speed record of 70.86 miles per hour (114.04 km/h),[112] a record which stood for ten years.
Aeronautics
In 1891, Bell had begun experiments to develop motor-powered heavier-than-air aircraft. The AEA was first formed as Bell shared the vision to fly with his wife, who advised him to seek “young” help as Alexander was at the graceful age of 60.
In 1898, Bell experimented with tetrahedral box kites and wings constructed of multiple compound tetrahedral kites covered in maroon silk.[N 24] The tetrahedral wings were named Cygnet I, II and III, and were flown both unmanned and manned (Cygnet I crashed during a flight carrying Selfridge) in the period from 1907–1912. Some of Bell’s kites are on display at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site.[114]
Bell was a supporter of aerospace engineering research through the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), officially formed at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, in October 1907 at the suggestion of his wife Mabel and with her financial support after the sale of some of her real estate.[115] The AEA was headed by Bell and the founding members were four young men: American Glenn H. Curtiss, a motorcycle manufacturer at the time and who held the title “world’s fastest man”, having ridden his self-constructed motor bicycle around in the shortest time, and who was later awarded the Scientific American Trophy for the first official one-kilometre flight in the Western hemisphere, and who later became a world-renowned airplane manufacturer; Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, an official observer from the US Federal government and the only person in the army who believed aviation was the future; Frederick W. Baldwin, the first Canadian and first British subject to pilot a public flight in Hammondsport, New York, and J. A.D. McCurdy — Baldwin and McCurdy being new engineering graduates from the University of Toronto.
The AEA’s work progressed to heavier-than-air machines, applying their knowledge of kites to gliders. Moving to Hammondsport, the group then designed and built the Red Wing, framed in bamboo and covered in red silk and powered by a small air-cooled engine.[116] On March 12, 1908, over Keuka Lake, the biplane lifted off on the first public flight in North America.[N 25] [N 26] The innovations that were incorporated into this design included a cockpit enclosure and tail rudder (later variations on the original design would add ailerons as a means of control). One of the AEA’s inventions, the aileron, which was also created independently by Robert Esnault-Pelterie and several others, was to become a standard component on all airplanes. The White Wing and June Bug were to follow and by the end of 1908, over 150 flights without mishap had been accomplished. However, the AEA had depleted its initial reserves and only a $15,000 grant from Mrs. Bell allowed it to continue with experiments.[117]
Their final aircraft design, the Silver Dart embodied all of the advancements found in the earlier machines. On February 23, 1909, Bell was present as the Silver Dart flown by J. A.D. McCurdy from the frozen ice of Bras d’Or, made the first aircraft flight in Canada. Bell had worried that the flight was too dangerous and had arranged for a doctor to be on hand. With the successful flight, the AEA disbanded and the Silver Dart would revert to Baldwin and McCurdy who began the Canadian Aerodrome Company and would later demonstrate the aircraft to the Canadian Army.[118]
Eugenics
Bell was connected with the eugenics movement in the United States. In his lecture Memoir upon the formation of a deaf variety of the human race presented to the National Academy of Sciences on November 13, 1883 he noted that congenitally deaf parents were more likely to produce deaf children and tentatively suggested that couples where both parties were deaf should not marry.[119] However, it was his hobby of livestock breeding which led to his appointment to biologist David Starr Jordan’s Committee on Eugenics, under the auspices of the American Breeders Association. The committee unequivocally extended the principle to man.[120] From 1912 until 1918 he was the chairman of the board of scientific advisers to the Eugenics Record Office associated with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, and regularly attended meetings. In 1921, he was the honorary president of the Second International Congress of Eugenics held under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Organisations such as these advocated passing laws (with success in some states) that established the compulsory sterilization of people deemed to be, as Bell called them, a “defective variety of the human race”. By the late 1930s, about half the states in the U. S. had eugenics laws, and California’s compulsory sterilization law was used as a model for that of Nazi Germany.[121]
Legacy and honors
Honors and tributes flowed to Bell in increasing numbers as his most famous invention became ubiquitous and his personal fame grew. Bell received numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities, to the point that the requests almost became burdensome.[123] During his life he also received dozens of major awards, medals and other tributes. These included statuary monuments to both him and the new form of communication his telephone created, notably the Bell Telephone Memorial erected in his honor in Alexander Graham Bell Gardens in Brantford, Ontario, in 1917.[124]
A large number of Bell’s writings, personal correspondence, notebooks, papers and other documents[125] reside at both the United States Library of Congress Manuscript Division (as the Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers), and at the Alexander Graham Bell Institute], Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia; major portions of which are available for online viewing.
A number of historic sites and other marks commemorate Bell in North America and Europe, including the first telephone companies of the United States and Canada. Among the major sites are:
• The Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site, maintained by Parks Canada, which incorporates the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, close to the Bell estate Beinn Bhreagh[126]
• The Bell Homestead National Historic Site, also known as Melville House, overlooking Brantford, Ontario and the Grand River, which was the Bell family’s first home in North America;
• Canada’s first telephone company building, “the Henderson Home”, of the nascent 1877 Bell Telephone Company of Canada, which was carefully relocated in 1969 to the historic Bell Homestead. The Bell Homestead” and the “Bell Telephone Company Building” are both maintained by the Bell Homestead Society. in Brantford, Ontario[127]
• The Alexander Graham Bell Memorial Park, which features a broad neoclassical monument built in 1917 by public subscription. The monument graphically depicts mankind’s ability to span the globe through telecommunications;[128]
• The Alexander Graham Bell Museum (opened in 1956), part of the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site which was completed in 1978 in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. Many of the museum’s artifacts were donated by Bell’s daughters;
• n 1880, Bell received the Volta Prize with a purse of 50,000 francs (approximately US$250,000 in today’s dollars[129]) for the invention of the telephone from the Academie francaise, representing the French government. Among the luminaries who judged were Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas. The Volta Prize was conceived by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801, and named in honor of Alessandro Volta, with Bell receiving the third grand prize in its history.[130][131][132][133][134][135][136][137] Since Bell was becoming increasingly affluent, he used his prize money to create endowment funds (the ‘Volta Fund’) and institutions in and around the United States capital of Washington, D. C. These included the prestigious ‘Volta Laboratory Association’ (1880), also known as the Volta Laboratory and as the ‘Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory’, and which eventually led to the Volta Bureau (1887) as a center for studies on deafness which is still in operation in Georgetown, Washington, D. C. The Volta Laboratory became an experimental facility devoted to scientific discovery, and the very next year invented a wax phonograph cylinder that was later used by Thomas Edison;[138] The laboratory was also the site where he and his associate invented his ‘proudest achievement’, the Photophone, the optical telephone which presaged fibre optical telecommunications, while the Volta Bureau would later evolve into the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (the AG Bell), a leading center for the research and pedagogy of deafness.
In partnership with Gardiner Hubbard, Bell helped establish the publication Science during the early 1880s. In 1888, Bell was one of the founding members of the National Geographic Society and became its second president (1897–1904), and also became a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution (1898–1922). The French government conferred on him the decoration of the Legion d’honneur (Legion of Honor); the Royal Society of Arts in London awarded him the Albert Medal in 1902; and the University of Wurzburg, Bavaria, granted him a PhD He was awarded the Franklin Institute’s Elliott Cresson Medal in 1912. He was one of the founders of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1884, and served as its president from 1891–92. Bell was later awarded the AIEE’s Edison Medal in 1914 “For meritorious achievement in the invention of the telephone”.[139]
The bel (B) and the smaller decibel (dB) are units of measurement of sound intensity invented by Bell Labs and named after him.[140] [N 27][141] Since 1976 the IEEE’s Alexander Graham Bell Medal has been awarded to honor outstanding contributions in the field of telecommunications.
In 1940 the US Post Office issued a commemorative stamp honoring Bell in its ‘Famous Americans Series’. The First Day of Issue ceremony was held on October 28 in Boston, Massachusetts, the city where Bell spent considerable time on research and working with the deaf. The Bell stamp became very popular and sold out in little time. The stamp became, and remains to this day, the most valuable one of the series.[142]
The 150th anniversary of Bell’s birth in 1997 was marked by a special issue of commemorative ?1 banknotes from the Royal Bank of Scotland. The illustrations on the reverse of the note include Bell’s face in profile, his signature, and objects from Bell’s life and career: users of the telephone over the ages; an audio wave signal; a diagram of a telephone receiver; geometric shapes from engineering structures; representations of sign language and the phonetic alphabet; the geese which helped him to understand flight; and the sheep which he studied to understand genetics.[143] Additionally, the Government of Canada honored Bell in 1997 with a C$100 gold coin, in tribute also to the 150th anniversary of his birth,[144] and with a silver dollar coin in 2009 to honor of the 100th anniversary of flight in Canada. That first flight was made by an airplane designed under Dr. Bell’s tutelage, named the Silver Dart[145] Bell’s image, and also those of his many inventions have graced paper money, coinage and postal stamps in numerous countries worldwide for many dozens of years.
Bell’s name is widely known and still used as part of the names of dozens of educational institutes, corporate namesakes, street and place names around the world. Alexander Graham Bell was also ranked 57th among the 100 Greatest Britons (2002) in an official BBC nationwide poll, and among the Top Ten Greatest Canadians (2004), and the 100 Greatest Americans (2005).[146][147] In 2006, Bell was also named as one of the 10 greatest Scottish scientists in history after having been listed in the National Library of Scotland’s ‘Scottish Science Hall of Fame’.[148]
Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926)[note 1] is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states (known as the Commonwealth realms) and their territories and dependencies, as well as head of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations. She is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and, in some of her realms, carries the title Defender of the Faith as part of her full title.
On her accession on 6 February 1952, she became Head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon. Between 1956 and 1992, the number of her realms varied as territories gained independence and some realms became republics. Today, in addition to the first four aforementioned countries, Elizabeth is Queen of Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Her reign of 60 years is currently the second longest for a British monarch; only Queen Victoria has reigned longer at 63 years.
Elizabeth was born in London and educated privately at home. Her father acceded to the throne as George VI in 1936 on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, in which she served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In 1947, she married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, with whom she has four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward. Her coronation service took place in 1953 and was the first to be televised.
Her many historic visits and meetings include a state visit to the Republic of Ireland and reciprocal visits to and from the Pope. The Queen has seen major constitutional changes in her realms, such as devolution in the United Kingdom and the patriation of the Canadian constitution. Times of personal significance have included the births and marriages of her children, the births of her grandchildren, the investiture of the Prince of Wales, and the celebration of milestones such as her Silver, Golden, and Diamond Jubilees in 1977, 2002, and 2012, respectively.
Major events in the Queen’s reign have included the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Falklands War, wars with Iraq, and the War in Afghanistan. There have been times of personal sorrow for her which include the death of her father at 56, the assassination of Prince Philip’s uncle Lord Mountbatten, the breakdown of her children’s marriages in 1992 (a year deemed her annus horribilis), the death in 1997 of her daughter-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales, and the deaths of her mother and sister in 2002. The Queen has occasionally faced severe press criticism of the royal family and republican sentiments, but her personal popularity and support for the monarchy remains high.
Early life
Elizabeth was the first child of Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI), and his wife, Elizabeth. Her father was the second son of King George V and Queen Mary, and her mother was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. She was born by Caesarean section at 2.40 am (GMT) on 21 April 1926 at her maternal grandfather’s London house: 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair.[1] She was baptised by the Anglican Archbishop of York, Cosmo Gordon Lang, in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace on 29 May,[2][note 2] and named Elizabeth after her mother, Alexandra after George V’s mother, who had died six months earlier, and Mary after her paternal grandmother.[3] Her close family called her “Lilibet”.[4] George V cherished his granddaughter, and during his serious illness in 1929 her regular visits were credited in the popular press and by later biographers with raising his spirits and aiding his recovery.[5]
Elizabeth’s only sibling was Princess Margaret, born in 1930. The two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as “Crawfie”.[6] Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music.[7] To the dismay of the royal family,[8] in 1950 Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margaret’s childhood years entitled The Little Princesses. The book describes Elizabeth’s love of horses and dogs, her orderliness and her attitude of responsibility.[9] Others echoed such observations: Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as “a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant.”[10] Her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as “a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved”.[11]
Heiress presumptive
Princess Elizabeth aged 7, 1933
Painting by Philip de Laszlo
As a granddaughter of the monarch in the male line, Elizabeth’s full style at birth was Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth of York. She was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle, Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, as the Prince of Wales was still young and many assumed he would marry and have children of his own.[12] In 1936, when her grandfather, George V, died and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second in line to the throne after her father. Later that year, Edward abdicated after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis.[13] Elizabeth’s father became king and she became heiress presumptive, with the style Her Royal Highness The Princess Elizabeth.[14] If her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as heiress presumptive as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession.[15]
Elizabeth received private tuition in constitutional history from Henry Marten, Vice-Provost of Eton College,[16] and learned French from a succession of native-speaking governesses.[17] A Girl Guides company, the 1st Buckingham Palace Company, was formed specifically so she could socialise with girls her own age.[18] Later she was enrolled as a Sea Ranger.[17]
In 1939, Elizabeth’s parents toured Canada and visited the United States. As in 1927, when her parents had toured Australia and New Zealand, Elizabeth remained in Britain, as her father thought her too young to undertake public tours.[19] Elizabeth “looked tearful” as her parents departed.[20] They corresponded regularly and,[20] on 18 May, she and her parents made the first royal transatlantic telephone call.[19]
Second World War
In September 1939, Britain entered the Second World War, which lasted until 1945. During this period, when London was frequently subject to aerial bombardment, many of London’s children were evacuated. The suggestion by senior politician Lord Hailsham that the two princesses should be evacuated to Canada was rejected by Elizabeth’s mother, who declared, “The children won’t go without me. I won’t leave without the King. And the King will never leave.”[21] Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret stayed at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, until Christmas 1939, when they moved to Sandringham House, Norfolk.[22] From February to May 1940, they lived at Royal Lodge, Windsor, until moving to Windsor Castle, where they lived for most of the next five years.[23] At Windsor, the princesses staged pantomimes at Christmas in aid of the Queen’s Wool Fund, which bought yarn to knit into military garments.[24] In 1940, the 14-year-old Elizabeth made her first radio broadcast during the BBC’s Children’s Hour, addressing other children who had been evacuated from the cities.[25] She stated:
We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well.[25]
In 1943, at the age of 16, Elizabeth undertook her first solo public appearance on a visit to the Grenadier Guards, of which she had been appointed Colonel-in-Chief the previous year.[26] As she approached her 18th birthday, the law was changed so that she could act as one of five Counsellors of State in the event of her father’s incapacity or absence abroad, such as his visit to Italy in July 1944.[27] In February 1945, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, as an honorary Second Subaltern with the service number of 230873.[28] She trained as a driver and mechanic and was promoted to honorary Junior Commander five months later.[29][30]
At the end of the war in Europe, on Victory in Europe Day, the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret mingled anonymously with the celebratory crowds in the streets of London. Elizabeth later said in a rare interview, “We asked my parents if we could go out and see for ourselves. I remember we were terrified of being recognised … I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, all of us just swept along on a tide of happiness and relief.”[31]
During the war, several proposals were made within the government to quell Welsh nationalism by affiliating Elizabeth more closely with Wales.[32] The proposals included making the princess the Constable of Caernarvon Castle, a post that was held at the time by David Lloyd George. Home Secretary Herbert Morrison took forward another plan: for her to become patron of Urdd Gobaith Cymru (the Welsh League of Youth).[32] Welsh politicians proposed that Elizabeth be made Princess of Wales on her 18th birthday.[33] The ideas were all abandoned for various reasons, which included a fear of associating Elizabeth with conscientious objectors in the Urdd, at a time when Britain was at war.[32] In 1946, she was inducted into the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.[34]
In 1947 Princess Elizabeth made her first overseas tour, accompanying her parents through southern Africa. During the tour, in a broadcast to the British Commonwealth on her 21st birthday, she made the following pledge:
“I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”[35]
Marriage
Further information: Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh
Elizabeth met her future husband, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, in 1934 and 1937.[36] They are second cousins once removed through King Christian IX of Denmark and third cousins through Queen Victoria. After another meeting at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in July 1939, Elizabeth—though only 13 years old—said she fell in love with Philip and they began to exchange letters.[37] Their engagement was officially announced on 9 July 1947.[38]
The engagement was not without controversy: Philip had no financial standing, was foreign-born (though a British subject who had served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War), and had sisters who had married German noblemen with Nazi links.[39] Marion Crawford wrote, “Some of the King’s advisors did not think him good enough for her. He was a prince without a home or kingdom. Some of the papers played long and loud tunes on the string of Philip’s foreign origin.”[40] Elizabeth’s mother was reported, in later biographies, to have opposed the union initially, even dubbing Philip “The Hun”.[41] In later life, however, she told biographer Tim Heald that Philip was “an English gentleman”.[42]
Before the marriage, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles, converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, and adopted the style Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, taking the surname of his mother’s British family.[43] Just before the wedding, he was created Duke of Edinburgh and granted the style His Royal Highness.[44]
Elizabeth and Philip were married on 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey. They received 2500 wedding gifts from around the world.[45] Because Britain had not yet completely recovered from the devastation of the war, Elizabeth required ration coupons to buy the material for her gown, which was designed by Norman Hartnell.[46] In post-war Britain, it was not acceptable for the Duke of Edinburgh’s German relations, including his three surviving sisters, to be invited to the wedding.[47] The Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, was not invited.[48]
Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Prince Charles, on 14 November 1948. One month earlier, the King had issued letters patent allowing her children to use the style and title of a royal prince or princess, to which they otherwise would not have been entitled as their father was no longer a royal prince.[49] A second child, Princess Anne, was born in 1950.[50]
Following their wedding, the couple leased Windlesham Moor, near Windsor Castle, until 4 July 1949,[45] when they took up residence at Clarence House in London. At various times between 1949 and 1951, the Duke of Edinburgh was stationed in the British Protectorate of Malta as a serving Royal Navy officer. He and Elizabeth lived intermittently, for several months at a time, in the Maltese hamlet of Gwardamangia, at the Villa Gwardamangia, the rented home of Philip’s uncle, Lord Mountbatten. The children remained in Britain.[51]
Reign
Accession and coronation:
During 1951, George VI’s health declined and Elizabeth frequently stood in for him at public events. When she toured Canada and visited President Truman in Washington, D. C. in October 1951, her private secretary, Martin Charteris, carried a draft accession declaration for use if the King died while she was on tour.[52] In early 1952, Elizabeth and Philip set out for a tour of Australia and New Zealand by way of Kenya. On 6 February 1952, they had just returned to their Kenyan home, Sagana Lodge, after a night spent at Treetops Hotel, when word arrived of the death of the King. Philip broke the news to the new queen.[53] Martin Charteris asked her to choose a regnal name; she chose to remain Elizabeth, “of course”.[54] She was proclaimed queen throughout her realms and the royal party hastily returned to the United Kingdom.[55] She and the Duke of Edinburgh moved into Buckingham Palace.[56]
With Elizabeth’s accession, it seemed probable that the royal house would bear her husband’s name, becoming the House of Mountbatten, in line with the custom of a wife taking her husband’s surname on marriage. Elizabeth’s grandmother, Queen Mary, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill favoured the retention of the House of Windsor, and so Windsor it remained. The Duke complained, “I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children.”[57] In 1960, after the death of Queen Mary in 1953 and the resignation of Churchill in 1955, the surname Mountbatten-Windsor was adopted for Philip and Elizabeth’s male-line descendants who do not carry royal titles.[58]
Amid preparations for the coronation, Princess Margaret informed her sister that she wished to marry Peter Townsend, a divorcee 16 years Margaret’s senior, with two sons from his previous marriage. The Queen asked them to wait for a year; in the words of Martin Charteris, “the Queen was naturally sympathetic towards the Princess, but I think she thought—she hoped—given time, the affair would peter out.”[59] Senior politicians were against the match and the Church of England did not permit re-marriage after divorce. If Margaret contracted a civil marriage, she would be expected to renounce her right of succession.[60] Eventually, she decided to abandon her plans with Townsend.[61] In 1960, she married Antony Armstrong-Jones, who was created Earl of Snowdon the following year. They were divorced in 1978; she did not remarry.[62]
Despite the death of Queen Mary on 24 March, the coronation went ahead, as Mary had asked before she died, taking place as planned on 2 June 1953.[63] The ceremony in Westminster Abbey, with the exception of the anointing and communion, was televised for the first time.[64][note 3] Elizabeth’s coronation gown was commissioned from Norman Hartnell and embroidered on her instructions with the floral emblems of the Commonwealth countries:[65] English Tudor rose; Scots thistle; Welsh leek; Irish shamrock; Australian wattle; Canadian maple leaf; New Zealand silver fern; South African protea; lotus flowers for India and Ceylon; and Pakistan’s wheat, cotton, and jute.[66]
Continuing evolution of the Commonwealth
Elizabeth II and her Commonwealth Prime Ministers, at the 1960 Commonwealth Prime Minister’s Conference, Windsor Castle
The Queen witnessed, over her life, the ongoing transformation of the British Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations.[67] By the time of her accession in 1952, her role as head of multiple independent states was already established.[68] Spanning 1953–54, the Queen and her husband embarked on a six-month around-the-world tour. She became the first reigning monarch of Australia and New Zealand to visit those nations.[69] During the tour, crowds were immense; three-quarters of the population of Australia were estimated to have seen her.[70] Throughout her reign, the Queen has undertaken state visits to foreign countries and tours of Commonwealth ones and she is the most widely travelled head of state in history.[71]
In 1956, French Prime Minister Guy Mollet and British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden discussed the possibility of France joining the Commonwealth. The proposal was never accepted and the following year France signed the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community, the precursor of the European Union.[72] In November 1956, Britain and France invaded Egypt in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to capture the Suez Canal. Lord Mountbatten claimed the Queen was opposed to the invasion, though Eden denied it. Eden resigned two months later.[73]
The absence of a formal mechanism within the Conservative Party for choosing a leader meant that, following Eden’s resignation, it fell to the Queen to decide whom to commission to form a government. Eden recommended that she consult Lord Salisbury, the Lord President of the Council. Lord Salisbury and Lord Kilmuir, the Lord Chancellor, consulted the British Cabinet, Winston Churchill, and the Chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, as a result of which the Queen appointed their recommended candidate: Harold Macmillan.[74]
The Suez crisis and the choice of Eden’s successor led in 1957 to the first major personal criticism of the Queen. In a magazine, which he owned and edited,[75] Lord Altrincham accused her of being “out of touch”.[76] Altrincham was denounced by public figures and physically attacked by a member of the public appalled at his comments.[77] Six years later, in 1963, Macmillan resigned and advised the Queen to appoint the Earl of Home as prime minister, advice that she followed.[78] The Queen again came under criticism for appointing the prime minister on the advice of a small number of ministers or a single minister.[78] In 1965, the Conservatives adopted a formal mechanism for electing a leader, thus relieving her of involvement.[79]
In 1957, she made a state visit to the United States, where she addressed the United Nations General Assembly on behalf of the Commonwealth. On the same tour, she opened the 23rd Canadian Parliament, becoming the first monarch of Canada to open a parliamentary session.[80] Two years later, solely in her capacity as Queen of Canada, she revisited the United States and toured Canada,[80][81] despite learning upon landing at St. John’s, Newfoundland, that she was pregnant with her third child.[82] In 1961, she toured Cyprus, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Iran.[83] On a visit to Ghana the same year, she dismissed fears for her safety, even though her host, President Kwame Nkrumah, who had replaced her as head of state, was a target for assassins.[84] Harold Macmillan wrote, “The Queen has been absolutely determined all through … She is impatient of the attitude towards her to treat her as … a film star … She has indeed ‘the heart and stomach of a man’ … She loves her duty and means to be a Queen.”[84] Before her tour through parts of Quebec in 1964, the press reported that extremists within the Quebec separatist movement were plotting Elizabeth’s assassination.[85][86][87] No attempt was made, but a riot did break out while she was in Montreal; the Queen’s “calmness and courage in the face of the violence” was noted.[88]
Elizabeth’s pregnancies with Princes Andrew and Edward, in 1959 and 1963, mark the only times she has not performed the State Opening of the British parliament during her reign.[89] In addition to performing traditional ceremonies, she also instituted new practices. Her first royal walkabout, meeting ordinary members of the public, took place during a tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1970.[90]
The 1960s and 1970s saw an acceleration in the decolonisation of Africa and the Caribbean. Over 20 countries gained independence from Britain as part of a planned transition to self-government. In 1965, however, Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith, in opposition to moves toward majority rule, declared unilateral independence from Britain while still expressing “loyalty and devotion” to Elizabeth. Although the Queen dismissed him in a formal declaration, and the international community applied sanctions against Rhodesia, his regime survived for over a decade.[91]
In February 1974, British Prime Minister Edward Heath advised the Queen to call a general election in the middle of her tour of the Austronesian Pacific Rim, requiring her to fly back to Britain.[92] The election resulted in a hung parliament; Heath’s Conservatives were not the largest party, but could stay in office if they formed a coalition with the Liberals. Heath only resigned when discussions on forming a coalition government foundered, after which the Queen asked the Leader of the Opposition, Labour’s Harold Wilson, to form a government.[93]
A year later, at the height of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was dismissed from his post by Governor-General Sir John Kerr, after the Opposition-controlled Senate rejected Whitlam’s budget proposals.[94] As Whitlam had a majority in the House of Representatives, Speaker Gordon Scholes appealed to the Queen to reverse Kerr’s decision. She declined, stating that she would not interfere in decisions reserved by the Constitution of Australia for the governor-general.[95] The crisis fuelled Australian republicanism.[94]
Silver Jubilee
In 1977, Elizabeth marked the Silver Jubilee of her accession. Parties and events took place throughout the Commonwealth, many coinciding with her associated national and Commonwealth tours. The celebrations re-affirmed the Queen’s popularity, despite virtually coincident negative press coverage of Princess Margaret’s separation from her husband.[96] In 1978, the Queen endured a state visit to the United Kingdom by Romania’s communist dictator Nicolae Ceau? escu and his wife Elena,[97] though privately she thought they had “blood on their hands”.[98] The following year brought two blows: one was the unmasking of Anthony Blunt, former Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, as a communist spy; the other was the assassination of her relative and in-law Lord Mountbatten by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.[99]
According to Paul Martin, Sr. by the end of the 1970s the Queen was worried the Crown “had little meaning for” Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.[100] Tony Benn said that the Queen found Trudeau “rather disappointing”.[100] Trudeau’s supposed republicanism seemed to be confirmed by his antics, such as sliding down banisters at Buckingham Palace and pirouetting behind the Queen’s back in 1977, and the removal of various Canadian royal symbols during his term of office.[100] In 1980, Canadian politicians sent to London to discuss the patriation of the Canadian constitution found the Queen “better informed … than any of the British politicians or bureaucrats”.[100] She was particularly interested after the failure of Bill C-60, which would have affected her role as head of state.[100] Patriation removed the role of the British parliament from the Canadian constitution, but the monarchy was retained. Trudeau said in his memoirs that the Queen favoured his attempt to reform the Constitution and that he was impressed by “the grace she displayed in public” and “the wisdom she showed in private”[101]
1980s
During the 1981 Trooping the Colour ceremony and only six weeks before the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer, six shots were fired at the Queen from close range as she rode down The Mall on her horse, Burmese. Police later discovered that the shots were blanks. The 17-year-old assailant, Marcus Sarjeant, was sentenced to five years in prison and released after three.[102] The Queen’s composure and skill in controlling her mount were widely praised.[103] From April to September 1982, the Queen remained anxious[104] but proud[105] of her son, Prince Andrew, who was serving with British forces during the Falklands War. On 9 July, the Queen awoke in her bedroom at Buckingham Palace to find an intruder, Michael Fagan, in the room with her. Remaining calm and through two calls to the palace police switchboard, she spoke to Fagan while he sat at the foot of her bed until assistance arrived seven minutes later.[106] Though she hosted US President Ronald Reagan at Windsor Castle in 1982 and visited his Californian ranch in 1983, she was angered when his administration ordered the invasion of Grenada, one of her Caribbean realms, without informing her.[107]
Intense media interest in the opinions and private lives of the royal family during the 1980s led to a series of sensational stories in the press, not all of which were entirely true.[108] As Kelvin MacKenzie, editor of The Sun, told his staff: “Give me a Sunday for Monday splash on the Royals. Don’t worry if it’s not true—so long as there’s not too much of a fuss about it afterwards.”[109] Newspaper editor Donald Trelford wrote in The Observer of 21 September 1986: “The royal soap opera has now reached such a pitch of public interest that the boundary between fact and fiction has been lost sight of … it is not just that some papers don’t check their facts or accept denials: they don’t care if the stories are true or not.” It was reported, most notably in The Sunday Times of 20 July 1986, that the Queen was worried that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies fostered social divisions and was alarmed by high unemployment, a series of riots, the violence of a miners’ strike, and Thatcher’s refusal to apply sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa. The sources of the rumours included royal aide Michael Shea and Commonwealth Secretary-General Shridath Ramphal, but Shea claimed his remarks were taken out of context and embellished by speculation.[110] Thatcher reputedly said the Queen would vote for the Social Democratic Party—Thatcher’s political opponents.[111] Thatcher’s biographer John Campbell claimed “the report was a piece of journalistic mischief-making”.[112] Belying reports of acrimony between them, Thatcher later conveyed her personal admiration for the Queen and,[113] after Thatcher’s replacement as Prime Minister by John Major, the Queen gave two honours in her personal gift to Thatcher: appointment to the Order of Merit and the Order of the Garter.[114] Former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney said Elizabeth was a “behind the scenes force” in ending apartheid in South Africa.[115][116]
In 1987, in Canada, Elizabeth publicly pronounced her support for that country’s politically divisive Meech Lake Accord, prompting criticism from opponents of the constitutional amendments, including Pierre Trudeau.[115] The same year, the elected Fijian government was deposed in a military coup. Elizabeth, as monarch of Fiji, supported the attempts of the Governor-General, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, to assert executive power and negotiate a settlement. Coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka deposed Ganilau, and declared Fiji a republic.[117] By the start of 1991, republican feeling in Britain had risen because of press estimates of the Queen’s private wealth—which were contradicted by the palace—and reports of affairs and strained marriages among her extended family.[118] The involvement of the younger royals in the charity game show It’s a Royal Knockout was ridiculed,[119] and the Queen was the target of satire.[120]
1990s
In 1991, in the wake of victory in the Gulf War, the Queen became the first British monarch to address a joint session of the United States Congress.[121]
In a speech on 24 November 1992, to mark the 40th anniversary of her accession, the Queen called 1992 her annus horribilis, meaning horrible year.[122] In March, her second son Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and his wife Sarah, Duchess of York, separated; in April, her daughter Anne, Princess Royal, divorced her husband Captain Mark Phillips;[123] during a state visit to Germany in October, angry demonstrators in Dresden threw eggs at her;[124] and, in November, Windsor Castle suffered severe fire damage. The monarchy received increased criticism and public scrutiny.[125] In an unusually personal speech, the Queen said that any institution must expect criticism, but suggested it be done with “a touch of humour, gentleness and understanding”.[126] Two days later, Prime Minister John Major announced reforms of the royal finances that had been planned since the previous year, including the Queen paying income tax for the first time from 1993 and a reduction in the civil list.[127] In December, Charles, Prince of Wales and his wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, formally separated.[128] The year ended with a lawsuit as the Queen sued The Sun newspaper for breach of copyright when it published the text of her annual Christmas message two days before its broadcast. The newspaper was forced to pay her legal fees and donated ?200,000 to charity.[129]
In the ensuing years, public revelations on the state of Charles and Diana’s marriage continued.[130] Even though support for republicanism in Britain seemed higher than at any time in living memory, republicanism remained a minority viewpoint and the Queen herself had high approval ratings.[131] Criticism was focused on the institution of monarchy itself and the Queen’s wider family rather than the Queen’s own behaviour and actions.[132] In consultation with Prime Minister Major, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, her private secretary Robert Fellowes and her husband, she wrote to Charles and Diana at the end of December 1995, saying that a divorce was desirable.[133] A year after the divorce, which took place in 1996, Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997. The Queen was on holiday with her son and grandchildren at Balmoral. Diana’s two sons wanted to attend church and so the Queen and Prince Philip took them that morning.[134] After that single public appearance, for five days the Queen and the Duke shielded their grandsons from the intense press interest by keeping them at Balmoral where they could grieve in private,[135] but the royal family’s seclusion and a failure to fly a flag at half-mast over Buckingham Palace caused public dismay.[136][116] Pressured by the hostile reaction, the Queen agreed to a live broadcast to the world and returned to London to deliver it on 5 September, the day before Diana’s funeral.[137] In the broadcast, she expressed admiration for Diana and her feelings “as a grandmother” for Princes William and Harry.[138] As a result, much of the public hostility evaporated.[138]
Golden Jubilee
In 2002, Elizabeth marked her Golden Jubilee as queen. Her sister and mother died in February and March, respectively, and the media speculated as to whether the Jubilee would be a success or a failure.[139] She again undertook an extensive tour of her realms, which began in Jamaica in February, where she called the farewell banquet “memorable” after a power cut plunged the King’s House, the official residence of the Governor-General, into darkness.[140] As in 1977, there were street parties and commemorative events and monuments were named to honour the occasion. A million people attended each day of the three-day main Jubilee celebration in London,[141] and the enthusiasm shown by the public for the Queen was greater than many journalists had predicted.[142]
Though generally healthy throughout her life, in 2003 she had keyhole surgery on both knees. In October 2006, she missed the opening of the new Emirates Stadium because of a strained back muscle that had been troubling her since the summer.[143] Two months later, she was seen in public with a bandage on her right hand, which led to press speculation of ill health.[144] She had been bitten by one of her corgis while she was separating two that were fighting.[145]
In May 2007, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported claims from unnamed sources that the Queen was “exasperated and frustrated” by the policies of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, that she had shown concern that the British Armed Forces were overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that she had raised concerns over rural and countryside issues with Blair repeatedly.[146] She was, however, said to admire Blair’s efforts to achieve peace in Northern Ireland.[147] On 20 March 2008, at the Church of Ireland St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, the Queen attended the first Maundy service held outside England and Wales.[148] At the invitation of Irish President Mary McAleese, the Queen in May 2011 made the first state visit to the Republic of Ireland by a British monarch.[149]
The Queen addressed the United Nations for a second time in 2010, again in her capacity as queen of all her realms and Head of the Commonwealth.[150] UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon introduced her as “an anchor for our age”.[151] During her visit to New York, which followed a tour of Canada, she officially opened a memorial garden for the British victims of the 11 September attacks.[151] The Queen’s visit to Australia in October 2011, her 16th since 1954, was called her “farewell tour” in the press because of her age.[152]
Diamond Jubilee and beyond
Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 marks 60 years as queen, with celebrations throughout her realms, the wider Commonwealth, and beyond. In a message released on Accession Day, she stated: “In this special year, as I dedicate myself anew to your service, I hope we will all be reminded of the power of togetherness and the convening strength of family, friendship and good neighbourliness … I hope also that this Jubilee year will be a time to give thanks for the great advances that have been made since 1952 and to look forward to the future with clear head and warm heart”.[153] She and her husband undertook an extensive tour of the United Kingdom, while her children and grandchildren embarked on royal tours of other Commonwealth realms on her behalf.[154][155][156] On 4 June, jubilee beacons were lit around the world.[157]
She is the longest-lived and second-longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom and the second-longest-serving current head of state (after King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand). She does not intend to abdicate,[158] though the proportion of public duties performed by Prince Charles may increase as Elizabeth reduces her commitments.[159]
The Queen opened the 2012 Summer Olympics on 27 July and is scheduled to open the Paralympics on 29 August 2012 in London. She played herself in a short film as part of the opening ceremony, alongside Daniel Craig as James Bond.[160] Her father opened the 1948 London Olympics and her great-grandfather, Edward VII, opened the 1908 London Olympics. She also opened the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and Prince Philip opened the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.[161] She is the first head of state to open two Olympic Games in two different countries.[162]
Public perception and character
Since Elizabeth rarely gives interviews, little is known of her personal feelings. As a constitutional monarch, she has not expressed her own political opinions in a public forum. She does have a deep sense of religious and civic duty and takes her coronation oath seriously.[163] Aside from her official religious role as Supreme Governor of the established Church of England, she personally worships with that church and with the national Church of Scotland.[164] She has demonstrated support for inter-faith relations and has met with leaders of other religions, including three popes: John XXIII, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. A personal note about her faith often features in her annual Royal Christmas Message broadcast to the Commonwealth, such as in 2000, when she spoke about the theological significance of the millennium marking the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ:
To many of us, our beliefs are of fundamental importance. For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ’s words and example.[165]
She is the patron of over 600 organisations and charities.[166] Her main leisure interests include equestrianism and dogs, especially her Pembroke Welsh Corgis.[167] Scenes of a relaxed, informal home life have occasionally been witnessed; she and her family, from time to time, prepare a meal together and do the washing up afterwards.[168]
In the 1950s, as a young woman at the start of her reign, Elizabeth was depicted as a glamorous “fairytale Queen”.[169] After the trauma of the war, it was a time of hope, a period of progress and achievement heralding a “new Elizabethan age”.[170] Lord Altrincham’s accusation in 1957 that her speeches sounded like those of a “priggish schoolgirl” was an extremely rare criticism.[171] In the late 1960s, attempts to portray a more modern image of monarchy were made in the television documentary Royal Family and by televising Prince Charles’s investiture as Prince of Wales.[172] She took to wearing in public clothes that consist mostly of solid-colour overcoats and decorative hats, which allow her to be seen easily in a crowd.[173]
At her Silver Jubilee in 1977, the crowds and celebrations were genuinely enthusiastic,[174] but in the 1980s public criticism of the royal family increased, as the personal and working lives of Elizabeth’s children came under media scrutiny.[175] Elizabeth’s popularity sank to a low point in the 1990s. Under pressure from public opinion, she began to pay income tax for the first time and Buckingham Palace was opened to the public.[176] Discontent with the monarchy reached its peak on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, though Elizabeth’s personal popularity and support for the monarchy rebounded after her live broadcast to the world five days after Diana’s death.[177]
In November 1999, a referendum in Australia on the future of the Australian monarchy favoured its retention in preference to an indirectly elected head of state.[178] Polls in Britain in 2006 and 2007 revealed strong support for Elizabeth,[179] and referenda in Tuvalu in 2008 and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in 2009 both rejected proposals to become republics.[180]
Finances
Elizabeth’s personal fortune has been the subject of speculation for many years. Forbes magazine estimated her net worth at around US$450 million in 2010,[181] but official Buckingham Palace statements in 1993 called estimates of ?100 million “grossly overstated”.[182] Jock Colville, who was her former private secretary and a director of her bank, Coutts, estimated her wealth in 1971 at ?2 million (the equivalent of about ?21 million today[183]).[184][185] The Royal Collection, which includes artworks and the Crown Jewels, is not owned by the Queen personally and is held in trust,[186] as are the occupied palaces in the United Kingdom such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle,[187] and the Duchy of Lancaster, a property portfolio valued at ?383 million in 2011.[188] Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle are privately owned by the Queen.[187] The British Crown Estate – with holdings of ?7.3 billion in 2011[189] – is held in trust for the nation and cannot be sold or owned by Elizabeth in a private capacity.[190]
Detailed design features:
Tracing each item in the chain provides an overview of their functions and specific problems that can influence their design. The first common principle, though not inviolate, is that at either dead centre position of the crank the return crank and eccentric rod pair render the reverser unable to impart any motion to the valve throughout its full working range. This then sets the leads exactly equal once the valve is also set so. The leads cannot be set equal without this condition – attempts to set the valve to equal leads where the gear cannot support them simply destroys the equality of other events. Notice particularly that the lead function normally associated with the crosshead and combination lever can be readily influenced by the parts of the 90 o component – it is unwise to think of the two harmonic motions as separate entities.
The actual angular setting for the return crank and eccentric rod will now depend on the expansion link position and its tailpin. The expansion link must sit square to the radius rod in mid gear and the so-called backset of the tailpin theoretically lessens as the inclination of the eccentric rod increases, and in many inside gear arrangements where the eccentric diameter might be excessive the pin may be well up towards the expansion link trunnions and cause the backset to become positive. All this is largely relative to the production of equiangular swings, which may or may not be best for a particular design.
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I spend nearly all of my clothing budget here (frequently!) and in many ways it's one of my favorite stores. Your experience is always at the mercy of whatever stock they happen to have at the moment, but for the most part the buyers have their finger on the pulse of what's trending now. However, I had an experience here recently that has compelled me to write a review.
Let me preface this by saying I'm an extremely fashionable person. Yes, fashion is subjective, but nearly every time I leave the house I get compliments from total strangers on my outfit or asking where I bought my purse, or my shoes, or whatever. I've been photographed for street style blogs, I've worked as a stylist, and I've done wardrobe for films. And EVERY TIME I come into this store I get compliments from their employees on my wardrobe (to which I lovingly reply, 'I bought it here!').
My three stars are for the cute clothes they sell. What sucks about this store is this: DO NOT TRY TO SELL CLOTHES HERE. Seriously, you're better off using EBay. They literally will rip you off, blindly might I add, and sell your items for a lot higher. They tell you the percentages they use, but it's really ridiculous.
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