Bruce Bochy managed the Padres for 12 consecutive seasons.🚨

Bud Black was the manager of the Padres from 2007 through June 2015"🚨Who was the san diego padres first manager?

July 26, 2015🚨The second season of the animated television series Rick and Morty originally aired in the United States on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim, which premiered on July 26, 2015 with "A Rickle in Time", and concluded on October 4 with "The Wedding Squanchers". This season aired a total of ten episodes. The actors and actresses listed below lend their voices to the corresponding animated characters. Other cast members of the season, who each have voiced one or more characters, include: Jay Johnson, Tom Kenny, Jill Talley, Paul F. Tompkins, Scott Chernoff, Ryan Elder, Will Jennings, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, Ryan Ridley, Kari Wahlgren, John Kassir, Dawnn Lewis, Nolan North, Rob Paulsen, Gary Anthony Williams, Tony Barbieri, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jevin Smith, Tara Strong, Dan Benson, Dan Harmon, Jess Harnell, Phil Hendrie, William Holmes, Cassie Steele, Mike McCaffery, Brandon Johnson, James Atkinson, Rob Schrab and Arin Hanson. Continuing from "Ricksy Business", Rick, Morty and Summer spend six months repairing the house and screwing around with time frozen. After unfreezing it, the trio ends up in a decaying dimension. They split into separate timelines whenever they are uncertain about something. Rick becomes paranoid, thinking that his duplicates want to kill him, but eventually he calms down. A monster attempts to arrest them because Rick stole the time-freezing crystal. Rick, Morty, and Summer show uncertainty on purpose and split into sixty-four timelines, and they simultaneously beat the same monster. They successfully integrate all the timelines by wearing collars brought by the monster. In one timeline, Rick attempts to sacrifice himself and let Morty live by giving him his collar, but ultimately he survives too. Meanwhile, Beth and Jerry hit a deer, and bring it to an animal hospital. A hunter claims the deer for his own because he shot it before the accident. Beth is able to save the deer's life and release it. Rick takes Morty on a trip to teach him how to pilot the flying car. When Rick realizes that Jerry has followed them without being noticed in the back seat, he leaves him in a daycare specifically designed for Jerries from alternate realities. Jerry socializes with other Jerries, some of them left there indefinitely because their Rick and Morty never returned. Rick sells an antimatter gun to Krombopulous Michael, an alien assassin who intends to use it to eliminate Fart, a gaseous being that is held captive by alien authorities. Rick plans to spend the day at the "Blips & Chitz" video arcade, but Morty decides to stop the assassin. After Rick and Morty release Fart, they are chased by the authorities. Fart uses telepathic powers to kill the authorities, which also leads to civilian casualties. Eventually, Morty learns that Fart wants to eliminate all carbon-based life forms and kills him using the antimatter gun. Rick and Morty return to pick up their Jerry, but it is left unclear whether they got the right one. Rick attempts to loot a damaged spaceship with Morty and Summer. They find Unity, a female hive mind and Rick's ex-lover. She plans to eventually assimilate the whole universe. Beta 7 is a male hive mind who has a crush on Unity, which she rejects. In a planet completely assimilated by Unity, she and Rick have parties, have sex, and drink and use drugs together. In light of all the revelry, she loses control and the planet is left messy and untended. Summer finds the assimilation unethical, until she and Morty witness some inhabitants regain their identities and start a race war. Eventually, Unity decides to leave Rick for her own good. Meanwhile, Beth and Jerry find a secret underground room with a slug-like monster. The couple has an argument where Jerry makes accusations against Rick and Beth tries to defend her father. The monster reveals that they are both correct in their own ways. Rick attempts to commit suicide but fails because he passes out. Alien parasites plant fake memories in the minds of Rick, Morty, Beth, Jerry and Summer and pretend they are friends and family members. Every time the family reminisces about the past, the aliens reproduce. The family can't distinguish real people from aliens, so eventually they can't even trust each other. To prevent further spread, Rick locks down the house. At first, the only alien present is the fake "Uncle Steve"; they are soon joined by other aliens including Cousin Nicky, Sleepy Gary (who poses as Beth's husband and Jerry's lover), the family butler Mr. Beauregard, Frankenstein's Monster, a talking pencil named Pencilvester, Tinkles the Fairy Lamb, etc. Mr. Poopybutthole is an unusual yellow creature who did not appear in any previous episode but appears to be a longtime friend. Eventually, Morty discovers that the parasites can only create positive memories, allowing the Smith family to confirm one another's existence and kill all the aliens. Beth mistakes Mr. Poopybutthole for a parasite and shoots him. A massive alien head (a "Cromulon") appears over Earth, demanding to hear an original song, so Rick and Morty improvise "Get Schwifty". The whole planet is abducted and forced to participate in a musical talent show, where the losers' planets are obliterated. Morty steals Rick's portal gun and leaves him by himself, but Birdperson persuades him to come back. Ice-T is an ice alien who does not initially care about Earth, but he later changes his mind and saves the planet. Rick, Morty, and the US president win the competition by improvising "Head Bent Over". Meanwhile, Jerry, Beth, and Summer enter a religious cult based on an incorrect interpretation of the message from Cromulons. The movement quickly disbands after realizing it was all a musical talent show. Rick's flying car won't start, so he investigates the problem. The car's battery contains a miniature universe, from which Rick has been stealing electricity. Inside it, Zeep created a second universe for the same purpose. Rick, Morty and Zeep are left stranded in a third miniature universe, as the pilot commits suicide and destroys his ship. Rick and Zeep constantly fight, except Morty becomes a native chief and forces them to work together to escape. Rick reveals that Morty can turn into a car if needed. Ultimately, Rick and Morty leave the battery, trapping Zeep. Meanwhile, Summer awaits in the flying car. It uses violence to protect her from strangers, while she protests. However, it's effectively pardoned once it prepares a peace treaty, ending the human-spider war that has existed in this alternate reality. As a result, ice cream becomes served with bugs to appeal to spiders. Rick becomes "Tiny Rick" by transferring his mind to a teenager clone of himself in order to kill a vampire in Morty and Summer's school. Tiny Rick is outgoing and popular, but subconsciously cries for help in song lyrics and drawings. Much to the disdain of her classmates, Summer deliberately gets him expelled by denouncing him as the killer of Coach Feratu, the vampire. Morty and Summer eventually persuade Rick to return to his body. Meanwhile, Jerry and Beth experience couple therapy on an alien planet. Two manifestations of the partners' perceptions of one another are created: Jerry's Beth is embodied as a towering, hostile Xenomorph-like insectoid, and Beth's Jerry is a servile worm. The insectoid Beth goes on a rampage with the help of the worm Jerry, killing several couples and employees. Eventually, Jerry acts in a brave way, causing Beth to envision a strong Jerry, which in turn causes Jerry to envision a goddess-like Beth, who destroys the insectoid monster. Jerry is treated in an alien hospital after unknowingly ingesting some bacteria stored by Rick, while his family is in the waiting room, watching an assortment of TV channels from alternate realities. Jerry is asked by doctors to donate his penis, to be converted into a replacement heart to save the life of civil rights activist Shrimply Pibbles. Jerry complies, but publicly tries to talk his way out of it nonetheless. This causes Jerry to be hated by the public, but also raises awareness as well as money to buy a synthetic heart for Pibbles. Eventually, Jerry changes his mind and holds the doctors hostage, demanding that they go through with the transplant procedure, but the security stops him. Rick and Morty visit another planet and witness "The Festival", an annual event where the local populace commits crimes for one night without consequence. Rick compares it to The Purge movies. Morty forces Rick to rescue Arthricia, a young alien girl. She betrays them and steals Rick's gun and spaceship, leaving Rick and Morty to fend for themselves. Rick calls Summer and has her send advanced power armor suits for Rick and Morty's protection. Morty goes on a killing rampage until Rick knocks him out. Rick allows Arthricia to use Morty's suit and helps her to kill the corrupt nobility who implemented the Festival in the first place. The planet's inhabitants decide to create a new society from the ground up, however, rioting breaks out over disagreements about it. One of them suggests keeping the Festival. Morty feels guilty over all the aliens he's killed, but Rick wrongly blames a candy bar that Morty has eaten, thus appeasing him. Rick and his family attend the wedding of Birdperson and Tammy, whose guest list includes seventeen of the Federation's most wanted including Rick and Birdperson himself. At the wedding reception, Tammy reveals herself to be a Federation agent and seemingly kills Birdperson. Numerous agents invade the building, starting a battle against the guests. Rick gets his family out of the wedding safely, but they are unable to return home as the Federation would be looking for them there, so Rick and his family decides to live on a very small Earth-like planet. Rick overhears Jerry proposing to turn Rick in and return to Earth, then Rick allows himself to be arrested. His family returns to Earth, which has joined the Federation and is crowded by alien tourists. Jerry is assigned a job by the Federation. In January 2014, the series was renewed for a second season that began on July 26, 2015.[19] Wes Archer, Dominic Polcino, Bryan Newton and Juan Meza-Le܇n served as directors, while series co-creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, Matt Roller, David Phillips, Ryan Ridley, Mike McMahan, Tom Kauffman, Dan Guterman and Alex Rubens served as writers. All episodes in the first season originally aired in the United States on Adult Swim. All episodes are rated TV-14, with the exception of "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate", which was rated TV-MA. The second season was released on DVD (Region 1) and Blu-ray on June 7, 2016.

Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel🚨Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel is a 1987 Canadian television miniseries film. It is a sequel to Anne of Green Gables, and the second of a tetralogy of films. The miniseries dramatizes material from several books in the eight-novel "Anne" series by Lucy Maud Montgomery; they are Anne of Avonlea (Book Two), Anne of the Island (Book Three) and Anne of Windy Poplars (Book Four). As well, the TV film introduces several characters and issues not present in the books. The miniseries aired in four hour-long installments, in May and June 1987, on the Disney Channel as Anne of Avonlea: The Continuing Story of Anne of Green Gables, and in two 150-minute installments, in December 1987 on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and in March 1988 on PBS, as Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel.[1] The film was also shown theatrically in Israel, Japan, and Europe as Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel and has been released on DVD under that title. Finally, in 2017, the miniseries was officially retitled Anne of Avonlea for its North American Blu-ray Disc release by Sullivan Films, as part of the Anne of Green Gables Collector's Set. The film resumes the story of Anne Shirley, who at 16 had chosen to study for her college degree by correspondence in order to remain at Green Gables to help an aging Marilla, who has eyesight problems, look after the house and farm. Anne now holds a Teacher's License after completing the two-year post-secondary course at Charlottetown's Queens Academy in only one year. Anne begins to teach at Avonlea School and has dreams of becoming a writer, but her story "Averil's Atonement" is rejected by a magazine. Leaving the post office one day, Anne runs into Gilbert Blythe, who tells her that her best friend Diana Barry is engaged to Fred Wright. Anne is initially bewildered by Diana's decision, calling it impulsive. Meanwhile, in the last two years, Marilla's eyesight has greatly improved. Having regained her independence, Marilla encourages Anne to resume her old ambition of attending college. At the clambake celebrating Fred and Diana's engagement, Anne and Gilbert wander off to a bridge, where Gilbert proposes. Anne rejects his offer, convinced that their marriage would be unhappy and unsuccessful. She runs off. At Diana's wedding, Anne sees Gilbert with a young woman named Christine Stuart. Gilbert tells Anne that he and Christine are just friends, then offers to wait for her if there is any hope of them getting together. Anne rejects him again, and Gilbert suspects that there is someone else, despite Anne's assertion there is no person she cares about more than him. Anne returns to Green Gables and decides to look into the job her former teacher Miss Muriel Stacey offered her. Eventually, Anne decides to take this job as an English teacher at Kingsport, Nova Scotia Ladies College in the hope that it will inspire her and give her something to write about. Initially, Anne finds her new job to be difficult. A member of the local community and member of the powerful Pringle family had also tried for Anne's post and was rejected, causing resentment. However, Anne gradually earns the respect of her students, their families and her colleagues, including the severe and critical Katherine Brooke and the Pringle family. Anne organizes a play to raise money for the college, which is greatly appreciated. While teaching at the Ladies' College, Anne grows close to one student, Emmeline Harris, at whose house she is boarding along with the stern, controlling grandmother Harris and her repressed daughter Pauline who is a virtual prisoner in the house. Anne is able to convince the grandmother, a hypochondriac, to leave the house and go to a community picnic, and to let Pauline attend a friend's wedding overnight in another town, where she strikes up a romance. Her dream of being published is also finally achieved after she writes a series of short stories based on Avonlea inspired by a suggestion from Gilbert. Anne also succeeds in getting the spinster teacher Katherine Brooke to spend a badly-needed summer vacation at Avonlea, where she opens up her feelings to Anne. Emmeline's widowed father Morgan Harris, a well-to-do traveling businessman, also proposes marriage to Anne, after Anne and Emmeline had visited his spacious house in Boston. Anne declines Morgan Harris' proposal and returns to Green Gables, where she learns that Gilbert is ill nearby with scarlet fever, having returned home from Halifax Medical School. Anne finally realizes her true feelings for Gilbert, and goes to visit him. After Gilbert regains his health, he proposes once more, and Anne accepts him with a kiss, declaring, "I don't want diamond sunbursts, or marble halls. I just want you." Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story was released in 2000, and followed Anne Shirley as she embarked on a new journey, taking her from her home in Prince Edward Island to New York City, London, and into war-ravaged Europe. Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning was released in fall 2008, and serves as a prequel to the previous films in the Anne movie trilogy. Set between two different time periods, Anne Shirley, now in her fifties, looks back on her early childhood before arriving at Green Gables only to uncover answers to questions that have plagued her throughout her life. Road to Avonlea is a television series which was first broadcast in Canada and the United States between 1990 and 1996. It was inspired by a series of short stories and two novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables, which Sullivan had previously adapted as Anne of Green Gables in 1985 and Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel in 1987. Many of the actors in the Anne of Green Gables movies also appear in storylines crossing over into the long-running Emmy award-winning series. Several actors from the first two Anne films can be seen in both Road to Avonlea and the Anne of Green Gables, including Rosemary Dunsmore, Patricia Hamilton, Colleen Dewhurst, Jonathan Crombie, Jackie Burroughs, Cedric Smith, Mag Ruffman, Marilyn Lightstone, James O'Regan and David Fox. When Kevin Sullivan was commissioned by CBC, PBS and The Disney Channel to create a sequel he started by combining many different elements of Montgomery's three later books: Anne of Avonlea (1909), Anne of the Island (1915), and Anne of Windy Poplars (1936) into a cohesive screen story. Sullivan invented his own plotline relying on several of Montgomery's episodic storylines spread across the three sequels, He also looked at numerous other nineteenth century female authors for inspiration in fleshing out the screen story. The film succeeded in re-popularizing Megan Follows and Colleen Dewhurst in their original roles. Sullivan also cast British veteran actress and Oscar winner, Wendy Hiller, in the role of the impossible Mrs. Harris, a character Sullivan specifically invented for the storyline, based on a composite of several matriarchs found in the series of novels. In Canada, the film became the highest rated drama to air on network television in Canadian broadcasting history. This Sequel became known as Anne of Green Gables - The Sequel when shown around the world and as Anne of Avonlea - the Continuing Story of Anne of Green Gables when it premiered on The Disney Channel. Megan Follows was nominated for an ACE Award in 1988 by the National Academy of Cable Programing in the Ninth Annual System Awards for Cable Excellence for Disney's "Anne of Avonlea".[2] Home Box Office led with 112 nominations for the ACE Award, or Award for Cable Excellence. Showtime got 48, Arts & Entertainment 33, and the Disney Channel and Cable News Network 10 each. 30 categories of the 174 ACE Awards were presented on a live broadcast on HBO on January 24, 1988. The other categories were presented at a non-televised dinner in Las Vegas on Jan. 22, 1988. The ACE awards were established after cable programs and performers were excluded from the Emmy Awards. The National Academy of Cable Programming[3] was established in March 1985 to promote excellence in cable television programming.[2]

7.6 billion🚨In demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently living, and was estimated to have reached 7.6 billion as of March 2018.[1] World population has experienced continuous growth since the end of the Great Famine of 1315ÿ17 and the Black Death in 1350, when it was near 370?million.[2] The highest population growth rates ÿ global population increases above 1.8% per year ÿ occurred between 1955 and 1975, peaking to 2.06% between 1965 and 1970.[3] The growth rate has declined to 1.18% between 2010 and 2015 and is projected to decline further in the course of the 21st century.[3] Total annual births were highest in the late 1980s at about 139?million,[4] and as of 2011 were expected to remain essentially constant at a level of 135?million,[5] while deaths numbered 56?million per year and were expected to increase to 80?million per year by 2040.[6] The median age of the world's population was estimated to be 30.1 years in 2016.[7] Six of the Earth's seven continents are permanently inhabited on a large scale. Asia is the most populous continent, with its 4.3 billion inhabitants accounting for 60% of the world population. The world's two most populated countries, China and India, together constitute about 37% of the world's population. Africa is the second most populated continent, with around 1 billion people, or 15% of the world's population. Europe's 733 million people make up 12% of the world's population as of 2012, while the Latin American and Caribbean regions are home to around 600 million (9%). Northern America, primarily consisting of the United States and Canada, has a population of around 352 million (5%), and Oceania, the least-populated region, has about 35 million inhabitants (0.5%).[9] Though it is not permanently inhabited by any fixed population, Antarctica has a small, fluctuating international population based mainly in polar science stations. This population tends to rise in the summer months and decrease significantly in winter, as visiting researchers return to their home countries.[10] Estimates of world population by their nature are an aspect of modernity, possible only since the Age of Discovery. Early estimates for the population of the world[11] date to the 17th century: William Petty in 1682 estimated world population at 320 million (modern estimates ranging close to twice this number); by the late 18th century, estimates ranged close to one billion (consistent with modern estimates).[12] More refined estimates, broken down by continents, were published in the first half of the 19th century, at 600 to 1000 million in the early 1800s and at 800 to 1000 million in the 1840s.[13] Estimates of the population of the world at the time agriculture emerged in around 10,000 BC have ranged between 1 million and 15 million.[14][15] Even earlier, genetic evidence suggests humans may have gone through a population bottleneck of between 1,000 and 10,000 people about 70,000 BC, according to the Toba catastrophe theory. By contrast, it is estimated that around 50ÿ60 million people lived in the combined eastern and western Roman Empire in the 4th century AD.[16] The Plague of Justinian, which first emerged during the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian, caused Europe's population to drop by around 50% between the 6th and 8th centuries AD.[17] The population of Europe was more than 70 million in 1340.[18] The Black Death pandemic of the 14th century may have reduced the world's population from an estimated 450 million in 1340 to between 350 and 375 million in 1400;[19] it took 200 years for population figures to recover.[20] The population of China decreased from 123 million in 1200 to 65 million in 1393,[21] presumably due to a combination of Mongol invasions, famine, and plague.[22] Starting in AD 2, the Han Dynasty of ancient China kept consistent family registers in order to properly assess the poll taxes and labor service duties of each household.[23] In that year, the population of Western Han was recorded as 57,671,400 individuals in 12,366,470 households, decreasing to 47,566,772 individuals in 9,348,227 households by AD 146, towards the End of the Han Dynasty.[23] At the founding of the Ming Dynasty in 1368, China's population was reported to be close to 60 million; toward the end of the dynasty in 1644, it may have approached 150 million.[24] England's population reached an estimated 5.6 million in 1650, up from an estimated 2.6 million in 1500.[25] New crops that were brought to Asia and Europe from the Americas by Portuguese and Spanish colonists in the 16th century are believed to have contributed to population growth.[26][27][28] Since their introduction to Africa by Portuguese traders in the 16th century,[29] maize and cassava have similarly replaced traditional African crops as the most important staple food crops grown on the continent.[30] The pre-Columbian North American population probably numbered somewhere between 2 million and 18 million.[31] Encounters between European explorers and populations in the rest of the world often introduced local epidemics of extraordinary virulence.[32] According to the most extreme scholarly claims, as many as 90% of the Native American population of the New World died due to Old World diseases such as smallpox, measles and influenza.[33] Over the centuries, the Europeans had developed high degrees of immunity to these diseases, while the indigenous peoples had no such immunity.[34] During the European Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions, the life expectancy of children increased dramatically.[37] The percentage of the children born in London who died before the age of five decreased from 74.5% in 1730ÿ1749 to 31.8% in 1810ÿ1829.[38][39] Between 1700 and 1900, Europes population increased from about 100 million to over 400 million.[40] Altogether, the areas populated by people of European descent comprised 36% of the world's population in 1900.[41] Population growth in the West became more rapid after the introduction of vaccination and other improvements in medicine and sanitation.[42] Improved material conditions led to the population of Britain increasing from 10 million to 40 million in the 19th century.[43] The population of the United Kingdom reached 60 million in 2006.[44] The United States saw its population grow from around 5.3 million in 1800 to 106 million in 1920, exceeding 307 million in 2010.[45] The first half of the 20th century in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union was marked by a succession of major wars, famines and other disasters which caused large-scale population losses (approximately 60 million excess deaths).[46][47] After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's population declined significantly ÿ from 150 million in 1991 to 143 million in 2012[48] ÿ but by 2013 this decline appeared to have halted.[49] Many countries in the developing world have experienced extremely rapid population growth since the early 20th century, due to economic development and improvements in public health. China's population rose from approximately 430 million in 1850 to 580 million in 1953,[50] and now stands at over 1.3 billion. The population of the Indian subcontinent, which was about 125 million in 1750, increased to 389 million in 1941;[51] today, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are collectively home to about 1.63 billion people.[52] Java had about 5 million inhabitants in 1815; its present-day successor, Indonesia, now has a population of over 140 million.[53] In just one hundred years, the population of Brazil decupled (x10), from about 17 million in 1900, or about 1% of the world population in that year, to about 176 million in 2000, or almost 3% of the global population in the very early 21st century. Mexico's population grew from 13.6 million in 1900 to about 112 million in 2010.[54][55] Between the 1920s and 2000s, Kenya's population grew from 2.9 million to 37 million.[56] It is estimated that the world population reached one billion for the first time in 1804. It was another 123 years before it reached two billion in 1927, but it took only 33 years to reach three billion in 1960.[57] Thereafter, the global population reached four billion in 1974, five billion in 1987, six billion in 1999 and, according to the United States Census Bureau, seven billion in March 2012.[58] The United Nations, however, estimated that the world population reached seven billion in October 2011.[59][60][61] According to current projections, the global population will reach eight billion by 2024, and will likely reach around nine billion by 2042. Alternative scenarios for 2050 range from a low of 7.4 billion to a high of more than 10.6 billion.[62] Projected figures vary depending on underlying statistical assumptions and the variables used in projection calculations, especially the fertility variable. Long-range predictions to 2150 range from a population decline to 3.2 billion in the "low scenario", to "high scenarios" of 24.8 billion.[62] One extreme scenario predicted a massive increase to 256 billion by 2150, assuming the global fertility rate remained at its 1995 level of 3.04 children per woman; however, by 2010 the global fertility rate had declined to 2.52.[63][64] There is no estimation for the exact day or month the world's population surpassed one or two billion. The points at which it reached three and four billion were not officially noted, but the International Database of the United States Census Bureau placed them in July 1959 and April 1974 respectively. The United Nations did determine, and commemorate, the "Day of 5 Billion" on July 11, 1987, and the "Day of 6 Billion" on October 12, 1999. The Population Division of the United Nations declared the "Day of 7 Billion" to be October 31, 2011.[65] As of 2012, the global sex ratio is approximately 1.01 males to 1 female. The greater number of men is possibly due to the significant sex imbalances evident in the Indian and Chinese populations.[67][68] Approximately 26.3% of the global population is aged under 15, while 65.9% is aged 15ÿ64 and 7.9% is aged 65 or over.[67] The median age of the world's population was estimated to be 29.7 years in 2014,[69] and is expected to rise to 37.9 years by 2050.[70] According to the World Health Organization, the global average life expectancy is 70.5 years as of 2012, with women living an average of 73 years and men approximately 68 years.[66] In 2010, the global fertility rate was estimated at 2.52 children per woman.[64] In June 2012, British researchers calculated the total weight of Earth's human population as approximately 287 million tonnes, with the average person weighing around 62 kilograms (137?lb).[71] The CIA estimated nominal 2013 gross world product at US$74.31 trillion, giving an annual global per capita figure of around US$10,500.[72] Around 1.29 billion people (18.4% of the world population) live in extreme poverty, subsisting on less than US$1.25 per day;[73] approximately 870 million people (12.25%) are undernourished.[74] 83% of the world's over-15s are considered literate.[67] In June 2014, there were around 3.03 billion global Internet users, constituting 42.3% of the world population.[75] The Han Chinese are the world's largest single ethnic group, constituting over 19% of the global population in 2011.[76] The world's most-spoken first languages are Mandarin Chinese (spoken by 12.44% of the world's population), Spanish (4.85%), English (4.83%), Arabic (3.25%) and Hindustani (2.68%).[67] The world's largest religion is Christianity, whose adherents account for 31% of the global population; Islam is the second-largest religion, accounting for 24.1%, and Hinduism the third, accounting for 13.78%.[67] In 2005, around 16% of the global population were reported to be non-religious.[77] Approximately 4.3 billion people live in these ten countries, representing around 58% of the world's population as of March 2016. Approximately 3.7 billion people, or half of the world population, live in the six most populous countries.[88] The tables below list the world's most densely populated countries, both in absolute terms and in comparison to their total populations. Population size fluctuates at differing rates in differing regions. Nonetheless, population growth is the long-standing trend on all inhabited continents, as well as in most individual states. During the 20th century, the global population saw its greatest increase in known history, rising from about 1.6 billion in 1900 to over 6 billion in 2000. A number of factors contributed to this increase, including the lessening of the mortality rate in many countries by improved sanitation and medical advances, and a massive increase in agricultural productivity attributed to the Green Revolution.[90][91][92] In 2000, the United Nations estimated that the world's population was growing at an annual rate of 1.14% (equivalent to around 75 million people),[93] down from a peak of 88 million per year in 1989. By 2000, there were approximately ten times as many people on Earth as there had been in 1700. Globally, the population growth rate has been steadily declining from its peak of 2.19% in 1963, but growth remains high in Latin America, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa.[94] During the 2010s, Japan and some countries in Europe began to encounter negative population growth (i.e. a net decrease in population over time), due to sub-replacement fertility rates.[89] In 2006, the United Nations stated that the rate of population growth was visibly diminishing due to the ongoing global demographic transition. If this trend continues, the rate of growth may diminish to zero by 2050, concurrent with a world population plateau of 9.2 billion.[95] However, this is only one of many estimates published by the UN; in 2009, UN population projections for 2050 ranged between around 8 billion and 10.5 billion.[96] An alternative scenario is given by the statistician Jorgen Randers, who argues that traditional projections insufficiently take into account the downward impact of global urbanization on fertility. Randers' "most likely scenario" reveals a peak in the world population in the early 2040s at about 8.1 billion people, followed by decline.[97] Adrian Raftery, a University of Washington professor of statistics and of sociology, states that "theres a 70 percent probability the world population will not stabilize this century. Population, which had sort of fallen off the worlds agenda, remains a very important issue."[98] Estimated world population figures, 10,000?BCÿAD 2000 Estimated world population figures, 10,000?BCÿAD 2000 (in log y scale) World population figures, 1950ÿ2000 Estimated global growth rates, 1950ÿ2050 Estimated and projected populations of the world and its continents (except Antarctica) from 1950 to 2100. The shaded regions correspond to the range of projections by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The table below shows historical and predicted regional population figures in millions.[99][100][101] The availability of historical population figures varies by region. The following table gives estimates, in millions, of population in the past. The data for 1750 to 1900 are from the UN report "The World at Six Billion"[105] whereas the data from 1950 to 2015 are from a UN data sheet.[8] Using the above figures, the change in population from 2010 to 2015 was: Long-term global population growth is difficult to predict. The United Nations and the US Census Bureau both give different estimates ÿ according to the UN, the world population reached seven billion in late 2011,[99] while the USCB asserted that this occurred in March 2012.[110] The UN has issued multiple projections of future world population, based on different assumptions. From 2000 to 2005, the UN consistently revised these projections downward, until the 2006 revision, issued on March 14, 2007, revised the 2050 mid-range estimate upwards by 273 million. Average global birth rates are declining fast, but vary greatly between developed countries (where birth rates are often at or below replacement levels) and developing countries (where birth rates typically remain high). Different ethnicities also display varying birth rates. Death rates can change rapidly due to disease epidemics, wars and other mass catastrophes, or advances in medicine. 2012 United projections show a continued increase in population in the near future with a steady decline in population growth rate; the global population is expected to reach between 8.3?and 10.9?billion by 2050.[111][112] 2003 UN Population Division population projections for the year 2150 range between 3.2 and 24.8 billion.[63] One of many independent mathematical models supports the lower estimate,[113] while a 2014 estimate forecasts between 9.3 and 12.6 billion in 2100, and continued growth thereafter.[114][115] Some analysts have questioned the sustainability of further world population growth, highlighting the growing pressures on the environment, global food supplies, and energy resources.[116][117][118] In 1975, Sebastian von Hoerner proposed a formula for population growth which represented hyperbolic growth with an infinite population in 2025.[121] The hyperbolic growth of the world population observed until the 1970s was later correlated to a non-linear second order positive feedback between demographic growth and technological development. This feedback can be described as follows: technological advance L increase in the carrying capacity of land for people L demographic growth L more people L more potential inventors L acceleration of technological advance L accelerating growth of the carrying capacity L faster population growth L accelerating growth of the number of potential inventors L faster technological advance L hence, the faster growth of the Earth's carrying capacity for people, and so on.[122] The transition from hyperbolic growth to slower rates of growth is related to the demographic transition. According to the Russian demographer Sergey Kapitsa,[123] the world population grew between 67,000 BC and 1965 according to the following formula: where According to linear interpolation and extrapolation of UNDESA population estimates, the world population has doubled, or will double, in the years listed in the tables below (with two different starting points). During the 2nd millennium, each doubling took roughly half as long as the previous doubling, fitting the hyperbolic growth model mentioned above. However, after 2024, it is unlikely that there will be another doubling of the global population in the 21st century.[124] In his 1798 work An Essay on the Principle of Population, the British scholar Thomas Malthus incorrectly predicted that continued population growth would exhaust the global food supply by the mid-19th century. Malthus wrote the essay to refute what he considered the unattainable utopian ideas of William Godwin and Marquis de Condorcet, as presented in Political Justice and The Future Progress of the Human Mind. In 1968, Paul R. Ehrlich reprised Malthus' argument in The Population Bomb, predicting that mass global famine would occur in the 1970s and 1980s.[126] The predictions of Ehrlich and other neo-Malthusians were vigorously challenged by a number of economists, notably Julian Lincoln Simon, and advances in agriculture, collectively known as the Green Revolution, forestalled any potential global famine in the late 20th century. Between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture around the world, grain production increased by over 250%.[127] The world population has grown by over four billion since the beginning of the Green Revolution, but food production has so far kept pace with population growth. Most scholars believe that, without the Revolution, there would be greater levels of famine and malnutrition than the UN presently documents.[128] However, neo-Malthusians point out that fossil fuels provided the energy for the Green Revolution, in the form of natural gas-derived fertilizers, oil-derived pesticides, and hydrocarbon-fueled irrigation, and that many crops have become so genetically uniform that a crop failure in any one country could potentially have global repercussions.[129] In 2004, a meta-analysis of 70 quantitative studies estimating a sustainable limit to the world population generated a meta-estimate of 7.7 billion people.[130] In May 2008, the price of grain was pushed up severely by the increased cultivation of biofuels, the increase of world oil prices to over $140 per barrel ($880/m3),[131] global population growth,[132] the effects of climate change,[133] the loss of agricultural land to residential and industrial development,[134][135] and growing consumer demand in the population centres of China and India.[136][137] Food riots subsequently occurred in some countries.[138][139] However, oil prices then fell sharply. Resource demands are expected to ease as population growth declines, but it is unclear whether mass food wastage and rising living standards in developing countries will once again create resource shortages.[140][141] David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell University, estimates that the sustainable agricultural carrying capacity for the United States is about 200 million people; its population as of 2015 is over 300 million.[142] In 2009, the UK government's chief scientific advisor, Professor John Beddington, warned that growing populations, falling energy reserves and food shortages would create a "perfect storm" of shortages of food, water, and energy by 2030.[125][143] According to a 2009 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the world will have to produce 70% more food by 2050 to feed a projected extra 2.3 billion people.[144] The observed figures for 2007 showed an actual increase in absolute numbers of undernourished people in the world, with 923 million undernourished in 2007, versus 832 million in 1995.[145] The 2009 FAO estimates showed an even more dramatic increase, to 1.02 billion.[146] A number of scientists have argued that the current global population expansion and accompanying increase in resource consumption threatens the world's ecosystem.[147][148] The InterAcademy Panel Statement on Population Growth, which was ratified by 58 member national academies in 1994, states that "unprecedented" population growth aggravates many environmental problems, including rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, global warming, and pollution.[149] Indeed, some analysts claim that overpopulation's most serious impact is its effect on the environment.[117] The situation has continued to worsen, as at the time of the 1994 IAP statement, the world population stood at 5.5 billion and lower-bound scenarios predicted a peak of 7.8 billion by 2050, a number that current estimates state will be reached in the late 2020s. Scientists contend that human overpopulation, continued human population growth and overconsumption, particularly by the wealthy, are the primary drivers of mass species extinction.[150][151][152][153] By 2050 population growth, along with profligate consumption, could result in oceans containing more plastic than fish by weight.[152] In November 2017, a statement by 15,364 scientists from 184 countries asserted that rapid human population growth is the "primary driver behind many ecological and even societal threats."[154] A July 2017 study published in Environmental Research Letters argued that the most significant way individuals could mitigate their own carbon footprint is to have fewer children, followed by living without a vehicle, forgoing air travel and adopting a plant-based diet.[155] Human population control is the practice of intervening to alter the rate of population growth. Historically, human population control has been implemented by limiting a region's birth rate, by voluntary contraception or by government mandate. It has been undertaken as a response to factors including high or increasing levels of poverty, environmental concerns, and religious reasons. The use of abortion in some population control strategies has caused controversy,[156] with religious organizations such as the Roman Catholic Church explicitly opposing any intervention in the human reproductive process.[157] The University of Nebraska publication Green Illusions argues that population control to alleviate environmental pressures need not be coercive. It states that "Women who are educated, economically engaged, and in control of their own bodies can enjoy the freedom of bearing children at their own pace, which happens to be a rate that is appropriate for the aggregate ecological endowment of our planet."[158] The book Fatal Misconception by Matthew Connelly similarly points to the importance of supporting the rights of women in bringing population levels down over time.[159] The Population Research Institute (PRI), an anti-abortion, anti-contraception advocacy group, has criticised predictions of overpopulation and attendant resource scarcity, with some describing overpopulation as a "myth".[160] The PRI argues that advances in agricultural, medical, and industrial technology have allowed global economic productivity to keep pace with rising populations despite Malthusian predictions to the contrary. PRI further says that family sizes are naturally declining worldwide due to higher living standards, increased availability of contraception and better economic opportunities for women. However, other commentators have described PRI's arguments on overpopulation as deceptive.[161][162][163] Lists: Historical: Further reading Organizations Statistics and maps Population clocks

Carnival Corporation & plc.🚨Holland America Line is a British/American-owned cruise line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc. Originating in the Netherlands, the company is now based in Seattle, United States. From 1873 to 1989, it was a Dutch shipping line, a passenger line, a cargo line and a cruise line operating primarily between the Netherlands and North America. As part of this rich legacy, it was instrumental in the transport of many hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the Netherlands to North America. Holland America Line was founded in 1893 as the Nederlandsche-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij (Dutch-American Steamship Company), a shipping and passenger line.[1] It was headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and provided service to the Americas. The company was formed as a result of the reorganization of an earlier company, Plate, Reuchlin & Co. The company's first ship was the original Rotterdam, which sailed its 15-day maiden voyage from the Netherlands to New York City on October 15, 1872. Other services were started to other new world ports, including Hoboken, Baltimore and South America. Cargo service to New York started in 1809. During the first 25 years the company carried 400,000 people from Europe to the Americas. Other North American ports were added during the early 20th century. Though transportation and shipping were the primary sources of revenue, in 1895 HAL offered its first vacation cruise. Its second vacation cruise, from New York to Palestine, was first offered in 1910. One notable ship was the elegant 36,000 gross ton SS?Nieuw Amsterdam of 1937, it and RMS?Queen Mary being the only two liners built in the 1930s to make a profit. At the start of the Second World War, HAL had 25 ships; nine remained at war's end. At the beginning of the war, the Westernland acquired from the Red Star Line in 1939, berthed at Falmouth, England, became the seat of the Dutch government.[2] The Nieuw Amsterdam sailed half a million miles transporting 400,000 military personnel. After the war, the cruise line was instrumental in transporting a massive wave of immigrants from the Netherlands to Canada and elsewhere. Another notable ship during the post-war period was the SS?Rotterdam of 1959, one of the first North Atlantic ships equipped for two-class transatlantic crossing and one-class luxury cruising. By the late 1960s, the golden era of transatlantic passenger ships had been ended by the introduction of transatlantic jet air travel. HAL ended transatlantic service during the early 1970s, leaving the North Atlantic passenger trade for Cunard's RMS?Queen Elizabeth 2. In 1973 it sold its cargo shipping division. It ceased operating as a Dutch line in 1989, when it was purchased by Carnival for 1.2 billion guilders (?530 million). The proceeds were put into an investment company (HAL Investments), the majority of which is owned by the van der Vorm family. This is the category of Holland America Line Ships that left service or sank before 1989. The ones that had left service after 1989 are at the bottom of the page at the other category. In 1989, the Holland America Line was purchased by Carnival Corp, thus becoming an American owned cruise line headquartered in Seattle in the United States.[13] In 2003, Holland America announced its "Signature of Excellence" program. The ongoing program has focused on upgrading existing ships. The first phase included adding the Pinnacle Grill specialty restaurant, the Neptune Lounge (for suite guests), the Culinary Arts Center with demonstration kitchen, expanded childrens and teens facilities, enhanced stateroom amenities, and improved dining and enrichment offerings. The second phase of improvements (announced in 2008) added a new bar lounge area called Mix, the Showroom at Sea show lounge/nightclub, the Retreat resort pool area with pizzeria and LED screen and the Canaletto Italian specialty restaurant among other enhancements.[citation needed] In the summer of 2011, MS?Rotterdam did two transatlantic crossings, the first traditional transatlantic runs made by the line in more than 40 years.[citation needed] Since September 2012, Rotterdam has been based year-round out of Rotterdam, sailing to Europe, the Caribbean, as well as Asia.[citation needed] MS?Prinsendam and MS?Amsterdam make annual "Grand Voyages" lasting more than 60 days, exploring more exotic destinations in South America and Africa; the MS?Amsterdam also make annual World Voyages, sailing around the world, usually ranging from January to March/April/May.[citation needed] The line currently operates five different classes of ship: the smaller and older S class vessels; the mid range R class; the Vista class; the newest and largest Signature class and the small 793-passenger Prinsendam (originally Royal Viking Sun, then Seabourn Sun until HAL's purchase in 2002).[citation needed] All HAL ships have a dark blue hull with white superstructure, with the company's logo featured prominently on the functional smoke stacks.[citation needed] Holland America also owns the following: On October 26, 2012, it was announced that a memorandum of agreement had been signed with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri for the construction of a 2,660-passenger ship for Holland America Line scheduled for delivery in spring 2016. The MS Koningsdam, which will be a new class of vessel for the line (The Pinnacle Class), will enter service five years after the last Holland America ship, the MS?Nieuw Amsterdam, delivered in 2010. Also noted was that the addition of new ships would maintain passenger capacity if some of the older Carnival Corporation ships are sold.[15] The Holland America Group of HAL and Princess Cruises have a letter of understanding to buy the Yukon White Pass Railways from Skagway to the US Cadaian border. The purchase will close July 31, 2018. The two S class ships Statendam and Maasdam began life as virtually identical vessels except for dcor. They were the first new HAL cruise ships to incorporate features like the atrium, the two-deck main dining room and show lounge, and the Lido pool with retractable roof. These vessels are currently undergoing a series of major refits.[citation needed] All S class ships received the first phase of Signature of Excellence upgrades (detailed above) between 2004 and 2006.[citation needed] It was announced on May 19, 2014 that both the Statendam & Ryndam will transfer to P&O Cruises Australia fleet; with more details to come.[16] Unlike the vessels of the S class, Holland America Line's R class ships did not all start out identical. Rotterdam, the first of the four, was similar to the S class, but slightly longer and wider, with a third set of passenger stairs/elevators, twin funnels, and some new facilities. The twins Volendam and Zaandam followed, similar to Rotterdam, but with a different (single) funnel and larger because the aft pool was moved up one deck to the Lido level, creating more space for passenger accommodations below. The final R class ship, Amsterdam, like a hybrid of Rotterdam and Volendam/Zaandam, incorporates Rotterdam's twin funnels as well as the Lido deck aft pool. Together, Rotterdam and Amsterdam were considered HAL's flagships.[citation needed] All R class ships received the first phase of Signature of Excellence upgrades (detailed above) between 2005 and 2009.[citation needed] HAL's four Vista class ships are named for the points of the compass in Dutch. Noord for north, Zuid for south, Oost for east and West for West. These ships were designed mainly for shorter (less than two weeks) cruises in the Caribbean, Alaska and Europe. These ships are notable because of the exceptionally great number of oceanview and verandah staterooms - more than 85% and 67% respectively. The first three Vista class vessels were built as identical triplets. Noordam incorporated a few design changes, including a more vertical aft profile, which makes her larger, with a slightly greater passenger capacity. The success of Noordam's revised design caused HAL to modify the other three Vista class ships with aft expansions to mimic Noordam.[citation needed] In 2006, the Vista class cruise ships were awarded the 2006 Green Planet Award for outstanding environmental standards by Kuoni Switzerland.[17] Zuiderdam, Oosterdam and Westerdam received the first phase of Signature of Excellence upgrades (detailed above) between 2005 and 2006, while Noordam was built to SOE1 standards.[citation needed] The Signature class ships are essentially an enhanced Vista class design. The main difference is the addition of a deck between the Lido and Observation decks. This allows for more cabins (mostly spa accommodations) and some additional facilities including the specialty restaurant Tamarind and the Silk Den lounge.[citation needed] Both Signature class ships were built to Signature of Excellence (first phase) standards (detailed above).[citation needed] Constructed at the Fincantieri shipyards, Koningsdam is the largest ship to be built for Holland-America, and is the size of the ex-Ryndam and ex-Statendam joined together.[15] The new vessel has a beam of 35 metres, complying with the New Panamax dimensions and allowing it to cruise through the new wider locks currently under construction at the Panama Canal. It was launched on February 15, 2016.[18] All Pinnacle class ships were built to Signature of Excellence (first phase) standards (detailed above). Currently the smallest and oldest HAL ship, Prinsendam is in a class by herself. The only Holland America Line ship currently not built for the line, Prinsendam had a career with Royal Viking Line, Cunard Line and Seabourn Cruise Line before joining the HAL fleet after an extensive refit in 2002. Prinsendam does not have a two-deck main dining room or main lounge, an indoor/outdoor pool, or dedicated children's facilities like other HAL vessels.[citation needed] Prinsendam received the first phase of Signature of Excellence upgrades (detailed above) in 2005.[citation needed] Prinsendam will leave the fleet on July 1, 2019.[19] Holland America's parent company Carnival currently owns 3 ships operated by Thomson Cruises, all of which are ex Holland America Ships. Both the Thomson Celebration and Thomson Spirit sailed for Holland America as the Noordam (1984) and Nieuw Amsterdam (1983) before being transferred to the Thomson fleet in 2005 and 2003. Thomson Spirit is operated by Louis Cruises under sub charter to Thomson but the Thomson Celebration remains under the operation of Carnival. The Thomson Dream was built as Homeric in 1986 before moving to Holland America as Westerdam in 1988. After Carnival took over Costa Cruises in 2000 this ship was then transferred to the Costa fleet as Costa Europa in 2002. It has been chartered to Thomson since 2010.[citation needed] It was announced on May 19, 2014 that both the Statendam and Ryndam will transfer to P&O Cruises Australia fleet; with more details to come.[16]

beans🚨

in London, England🚨Harrison is a common patronymic surname of English origin.[2] It may also be spelled Harrisson, Harryson or Harrysson. Harrison means "son of Harry". Early records suggest that the surnames Harrison and Harris were used interchangeably by some families. Harrison is the 42nd most common surname in England and 123rd most common in the United States.[1] The surname was first recorded in 1355, in London, England.[3] It is also a masculine given name derived from the surname, of fairly recent origin.[4] Notable people with the surname Harrison include:

white cedar🚨La Santa Mara de la Inmaculada Concepci܇n (Spanish for: The Holy Mary of the Immaculate Conception), or La Santa Mara, originally La Gallega,[1] was the largest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage. Her master and owner was Juan de la Cosa. Santa Mara was built in Pontevedra, Galicia, in Spain's north-west region.[2][3] Santa Mara was probably a medium-sized nau (carrack), about 58?ft (17.7?m) long on deck, and according to Juan Escalante de Mendoza in 1575, Santa Maria was "very little larger than 100 toneladas" (about 100 tons, or tuns) burthen, or burden,[4][5][6] and was used as the flagship for the expedition. Santa Mara had a single deck and three small masts. The other ships of the Columbus expedition were the smaller caravel-type ships Santa Clara, remembered as La Ni?a ("The Girl"), and La Pinta ("The Painted"). All these ships were second-hand (if not third- or more) and were not intended for exploration. Ni?a, Pinta, and the Santa Mara were modest-sized merchant vessels comparable in size to a modern cruising yacht. The exact measurements of length and width of the three ships have not survived, but good estimates of their burden capacity can be judged from contemporary anecdotes written down by one or more of Columbus's crew members, and contemporary Spanish and Portuguese shipwrecks from the late 15th and early 16th centuries which are comparable in size to that of Santa Mara. These include the ballast piles and keel lengths of the Molasses Reef Wreck and Highborn Cay Wreck in the Bahamas. Both were caravel vessels 19?m (62?ft) in length overall, 12.6?m (41?ft) keel length and 5 to 5.7?m (16 to 19?ft) in width, and rated between 100 and 150 tons burden.[7] Santa Mara, being Columbus' largest ship, was only about this size, and Ni?a and Pinta were smaller, at only 50 to 75 tons burden and perhaps 15 to 18 metres (49 to 59?ft) on deck[4] (updated dimensional estimates are discussed below in the section entitled Replicas). With three masts, Santa Mara was the slowest of Columbus' vessels but performed well in the Atlantic Ocean crossing. Then on the return trip, on 24 December (1492), not having slept for two days, Columbus decided at 11:00?p.m. to lie down to sleep. The night being calm, the steersman also decided to sleep, leaving only a cabin boy to steer the ship, a practice which the admiral had always strictly forbidden. With the boy at the helm, the currents carried the ship onto a sandbank, running her aground off the present-day site of Cap-Ha?tien, Haiti. It sank the next day.[8][9][10] Realizing that the ship was beyond repair, Columbus ordered his men to strip the timbers from the ship. The timbers were later used to build a fort which Columbus called La Navidad (Christmas) because the wreck occurred on Christmas Day, north from the modern town of Limonade[11][12] (see map, and the photograph). Santa Mara carried several anchors, possibly six.[13] One of the anchors now rests in the Muse du Panthon National Ha?tien (MUPANAH), in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.[14] On 13 May 2014, underwater archaeological explorer Barry Clifford claimed that his team had found the wreck of Santa Mara.[15][16] In the following October, UNESCO's expert team published their final report, concluding that the wreck could not be Columbus's vessel. Fastenings used in the hull and possible copper sheathing dated it to the 17th or 18th century.[17][18][19] Columbus' crew was not composed of criminals as is widely believed.[20] Many were experienced seamen from the port of Palos in Andalusia and its surrounding countryside, as well as from the region of Galicia in northwest Spain. It is true, however, that the Spanish sovereigns offered an amnesty to convicts who signed up for the voyage; still, only four men took up the offer: one who had killed a man in a fight, and three friends of his who had then helped him escape from jail.[20] Despite the romantic legend that the Queen of Spain had used a necklace that she had received from her husband the king as collateral for a loan,[citation needed] the voyage was principally financed by a syndicate of seven noble Genovese bankers resident in Seville (the group was linked to Amerigo Vespucci and funds belonging to Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de Medici). Hence, all the accounting and recording of the voyage was kept in Seville. This also applies to the second voyage, even though the syndicate had by then disbanded.[citation needed] The crew of Santa Mara is well-known,[21] albeit in many cases, there are no surnames and the crewman's place of origin was used to differentiate him from others with the same given name. Santa Maria de Colombo, built by craftsmen from Camara de Lobos, Madeira 1892 replica Replica in West Edmonton Mall Replica in Columbus, Ohio 1998 replica in Madeira Replica in Wharf of the Caravels, Palos de la Frontera, Spain Little is definitively known about the actual dimensions of Santa Mara, since no documentation or illustration has survived from that era. Since the 19th century, various notable replicas have been publicly commissioned or privately constructed. Interest in reconstructing Santa Mara started in Spain at around 1890 for the 400th anniversary of Columbus's voyage. An 1892 reconstruction by the Spanish government depicted the ship as a nau.[22] A replica was built during Expo 86 and anchored in "Deep Sea Adventure Lake" at West Edmonton Mall. Built at False Creek in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ship was hand-carved and hand-painted, and then transported by flatbed trucks across the Rocky Mountains to Edmonton, Alberta.[23] A replica, depicted as a Carrack, was commissioned by the city of Columbus, Ohio.[24] It was built by the Scarano Brothers Boat Building Company in Albany, New York, who later cut the ship in half and transported it by truck to the Scioto River. The replica cost about 1.2 million dollars. The ship was constructed out of white cedar as opposed to an oak wood used on the original to give the ship a long life in the Scioto River and to reduce cost. The main mast was carved out of a single douglas fir tree and was equipped with a top sail (since removed). The ship was built using power tools, with a hull length of 29.6?m (97?ft), keel length 16.1?m (53?ft), beam 7.9?m (26?ft), depth 3.2?m (10?ft) and load 223.8?metric tons?of?displacement. The foremast is 9.7?m (32?ft) high, the mainmast is 15.9?m (52?ft) and mizzen mast is 10.4?m (34?ft). The replica was declared by Jose Maria Martinez-Hidalgo, a Spanish marine historian, to be the most authentic replica of the Santa Mara in the world during the ship's coronation on 12 October 1991.[25] Dana Rinehart, the 50th mayor of Columbus, christened the ship as part of the 500th anniversary of its voyage. The ship was removed from its moorings in 2014, cut into 10 pieces, and stored in a lot south of the city, pending funding to do repairs and restorations. As of early 2016, the plans for restoration have stalled. Its parts can be seen via satellite view on Google Maps [2]. A functional replica was built on the island of Madeira, between July 1997 and July 1998, in the fishing village of Camara de Lobos. The ship is 22?m (72?ft) long and 7?m (23?ft) wide. In 1998 Santa Mara represented the Madeira Wine Expo 98 in Lisbon, where she was visited by over 97,000 people in 25 days. Since then thousands more have sailed and continue to sail aboard that Santa Mara replica which is located in Funchal.[26]

Roger Sherman and Robert Morris🚨

originally found in County Tipperary🚨 O'Sullivan (Irish: ܇ S~illeabhin), also known as simply Sullivan, is an Irish Gaelic clan based most prominently in what is today County Cork and County Kerry. The surname is associated with the southwestern part of Ireland and was originally found in County Tipperary before the Anglo-Norman invasion. It is the third most numerous surname in Ireland. Due to emigration, it is also common in Australia, North America, Britain and the rest of the world. The O'Sullivans according to traditional genealogy were descended from the ancient E܇ganacht Chaisil sept of Cenl Fngin, the founder of the clan being placed in the 9th century, eight generations removed from Fngen mac edo Duib, king of Cashel or Munster from 601 to 618. Later they became the chief princes underneath their close kinsmen the MacCarthy dynasty in the small but powerful Kingdom of Desmond, successor of Cashel/Munster. The last independent ruler of the clan was Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare, defeated in the Nine Years' War of 1594ÿ1603. ܇ S~illeabhin consists of the ܇ prefix (Old Irish ~a) and the genitive of S~ileabhn, viz. "descendant of S~ileabhn". The etymology of the given name is uncertain. Edward MacLysaght states in The Surnames of Ireland that "while there is no doubt that the basic word is s~il (eye) there is a disagreement as to the meaning of the last part of the name." It is interpreted as s~ildubhn "little dark-eyed one" by Woulfe in Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall, from s~il "eye", dub "dark" and combined with the diminutive suffix -n. Other suggested etymologies include "one-eyed" and "hawk eyed".[citation needed] The original bearer of the name, one Suilebhan mac Maolura, is recorded in legendary Irish genealogy as belonging to the 8th generation after Fngen mac edo Duib and placed in the 9th century.[1] MacLysaght lists Mac Criomhthain (MacCrohan) and Mac Giolla Chuda (MacGillycuddy) as notable branches of the S~ileabhnaigh in County Kerry. O'Sullivan is the regular anglicization of the Irish name. Less common spelling variants of the name include Sullavan, Sullivant, Sillivant, Silliphant, and Sillifant. Some O'Sullivans in the midlands and south Ulster were originally (O) Sullahan (from ܇ S~ileachin, probably from s~ileach, quick eyed, according to MacLysaght). This surname has now almost entirely changed to Sullivan. According to the genealogy recorded in the 17th-century Leabhar na nGenealach, the O'Sullivan clan claimed descent from the E܇ganachta dynasty of the Kings of Munster (and via them, ultimately, from Milesius, Fnius Farsaid and Adam). The legendary founder of the clan, Suilebhan mac Maolura is recorded as born in 862[citation needed] as a descendant from the line of the kings of Munster, of the E܇ganachta dynasty, eight generations after Fngen mac edo Duib (d. 618).[1] Following the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169ÿ71, Norman incursions into Munster were made in the 1180s. The O'Sullivan clan was forced from their original homeland in County Tipperary by the Normans in 1193.[citation needed] Dunlong son of Giolla Mochoda in 1196 from Tipperary to County Kerry.[citation needed] They divided into several branches and the two main ones are: The cadet branch of the O'Sullivan M܇r dynasty is McGillycuddy of the Reeks (Mac Giolla Mochuda). Of the O'Sullivans Beare the cadet branch was the sept Mac Fineen Duff (Mac Fghin D~ibh), now thought to be defunct. The "Beare" suffix came from the Beara peninsula that was named for the Spanish princess Bera, the wife of the first King of Munster. They continued to be harassed by the Normans and so allied themselves with the McCarthys and the O'Donoghues.[citation needed] The three clans defeated the Normans in 1261 at the battle of Caisglin near Kilgarvan, just north of Kenmare. They were again victorious the following year. These two battles settled the boundaries between the Normans of north Kerry (the FitzGeralds) and the three Gaelic families of south Kerry and west Cork.[citation needed] The O'Sullivan Beare clan was further divided in 1592. When D܇nal O'Sullivan, the chieftain, was slain in 1563 his son of the same name was but a child two years of age. The Irish laws of Tanistry required that the title of chieftain be passed on to the most capable of the dead chief's family. As a result, the clan decided that Owen, one of the brothers of the dead chief, would take over control of the clan and become Lord of Beare and Bantry. Owen acknowledged the English crown and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth. In 1587 D܇nal, now twenty-six years old, decided to claim leadership of the clan. He petitioned the authorities in Dublin, using primogeniture as the basis for his claim, whereby the oldest son should inherit his father's title regardless of his age at the time of his father's death. The English Commission in Dublin was receptive to his argument since they would prefer to have the English procedure followed throughout Ireland. In addition Sir Owen had lost influence in Dublin due to implication in the Desmond Rebellion. The Commission found in favor of D܇nal, who was now The O'Sullivan Beare. Sir Owen had to be content with Whiddy island and part of Bantry. He died the following year and was succeeded by his son, another Sir Owen. The O'Sullivans and other clans provided shelter to 12-year-old Gerald FitzGerald when troops sought to capture him, being the last heir to the Earlship of Desmond. In the late 1590s, it was the Sullivan Mor clan and their close allies the McSweenys that bore the brunt of the fighting with the English forces.[citation needed] Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare, now chieftain of the O'Sullivan Beare clan, held back from the fighting until the O'Donnells and O'Neills of Ulster entered the campaign. By the year 1600 all of Munster was in a turmoil. As retribution for their support of the Desmond rebellion the Munster clans lost over 500,000 acres (2,000?km2) of their land to English settlers. When the Earl of Clancarty died in 1596 his lands were parceled out as well to settlers. King Philip III of Spain agreed to send help to his co-religionists in Ireland under the command of Don Juan D'Aquilla. Rather than landing in Ulster, as suggested by O'Neill, the Spanish forces landed at Kinsale in County Cork to avoid encountering the English warships in the Irish Sea. The war weary and decimated Munster clans had difficulty mustering an army to join the Ulster and Spanish forces. Donal O'Sullivan Beare was given command of the Munster forces which consisted mainly of soldiers of his clan and those of the O'Driscolls, McSweeneys, and O'Connor Kerry. Daniel O'Sullivan Mor could only contribute token support because of the losses he sustained in the previous years. The Spanish soldiers were given the responsibility of forming the garrisons for the castles of the O'Driscolls and the O'Sullivans so as to free the Irish troops for the battles to come. The rest of the four thousand Spanish soldiers remained at Kinsale to await the arrival of the Ulster forces. D܇nal marched to Kinsale with an army of one thousand men. He sent a letter to King Philip swearing allegiance to him as his sovereign. The letter was intercepted by English agents and was later used as reason for denying him pardon. On 24 December 1601 at the coming of dawn the battle began. It was over in a matter of hours. It was a resounding defeat for the Irish forces. This was due in large part to the reluctance of the Spanish troops to leave the protection of the walled city of Kinsale and join the battle until it was over. O'Neill retreated back to Tyrone with his battered troops. O'Donnell handed over command of his soldiers to his brother and embarked for Spain to plead for more help from King Philip. General Aquila sued for peace and Lord Mountjoy, commander of the English, was only too happy to accept his request. Aquila agreed to surrender the castles his troops were defending. This meant that the O'Sullivans and the O'Driscolls had to fight the Spanish to regain their castles. Donal O'Sullivan wrote to King Philip complaining about the behavior of Aquila. When Aquila returned to Spain he was held in contempt by King Philip and put under house arrest. Many of the O'Sullivan clan's non-combatants were sent to the island of Dursey to keep them out of harms way. An English force led by a John Bostock attacked the small garrison guarding the island. They butchered the entire population of the island, women, children, and the garrison. They cast their bodies, some while they were still alive, onto the rocks below the cliff overlooking the sea. The O'Sullivan Beare principal fortress, Dunboy Castle, was destroyed in the Siege of Dunboy in 1602 and its garrison was put to death by hanging D܇nal O'Sullivan and approximately one thousand followers consisting of four hundred soldiers and the rest civilians began a journey to Leitrim to the castle of his friend ܇ Ruairc (O'Rourke). He believed that he could hold out longer amongst his northern allies, the O'Donnells and O'Neills. Carew declared them outlaws and decreed that anyone that aided them would be dealt with as outlaws as well. Throughout the 300-mile (480?km) trek they were attacked by English forces and Irish that were loyal to Elizabeth. The countryside had been ravaged by war and famine; the people along the way were trying to stay alive themselves. They could ill afford to provide any aid or food. They began the march on 31 December 1602. A detailed account of the march is provided by Philip O'Sullivan Beare, a nephew of D܇nal O'Sullivan.[year?needed]

secessionists of the Confederate States of America🚨

fennec fox🚨The Sahara (UK: /s??h?r?/, /s??h?r?/; Arabic: ??????? ???????, a?-?a?r? al-kubr, 'the Great Desert') is the largest hot desert and the third largest desert in the world after Antarctica and the Arctic.[1] Its area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000?sq?mi)[2] is comparable to the area of China or the United States. The name 'Sahara' is derived from dialectal Arabic word for "desert", ?a?ra (???? /?s?a?ra/).[3][4][5][6] The desert comprises much of North Africa, excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb, and the Nile Valley in Egypt and Sudan. It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, where the landscape gradually changes from desert to coastal plains. To the south, it is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna around the Niger River valley and the Sudan Region of Sub-Saharan Africa. The Sahara can be divided into several regions including: the western Sahara, the central Ahaggar Mountains, the Tibesti Mountains, the A?r Mountains, the Tnr desert, and the Libyan Desert. For several hundred thousand years, the Sahara has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 41,000 year cycle caused by changes ("precession") in the Earth's axis as it rotates around the sun, which change the location of the North African Monsoon. It is next expected to become green in about 15,000 years (17,000 AD). The Sahara covers large parts of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia. It covers 9?million square kilometres (3,500,000?sq?mi), amounting to 31% of Africa. If all areas with a mean annual precipitation of less than 250?mm were included, the Sahara would be 11?million square kilometres (4,200,000?sq?mi). It is one of three distinct physiographic provinces of the African massive physiographic division. The Sahara is mainly rocky hamada (stone plateaus), Ergs (sand seas - large areas covered with sand dunes) form only a minor part, but many of the sand dunes are over 180 metres (590?ft) high.[7] Wind or rare rainfall shape the desert features: sand dunes, dune fields, sand seas, stone plateaus, gravel plains (reg), dry valleys (wadi), dry lakes (oued), and salt flats (shatt or chott).[8] Unusual landforms include the Richat Structure in Mauritania. Several deeply dissected mountains, many volcanic, rise from the desert, including the A?r Mountains, Ahaggar Mountains, Saharan Atlas, Tibesti Mountains, Adrar des Iforas, and the Red Sea hills. The highest peak in the Sahara is Emi Koussi, a shield volcano in the Tibesti range of northern Chad. The central Sahara is hyperarid, with sparse vegetation. The northern and southern reaches of the desert, along with the highlands, have areas of sparse grassland and desert shrub, with trees and taller shrubs in wadis, where moisture collects. In the central, hyperarid region, there are many subdivisions of the great desert: Tanezrouft, the Tnr, the Libyan Desert, the Eastern Desert, the Nubian Desert and others. These extremely arid areas often receive no rain for years. To the north, the Sahara skirts the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt and portions of Libya, but in Cyrenaica and the Maghreb, the Sahara borders the Mediterranean forest, woodland, and scrub eco-regions of northern Africa, all of which have a Mediterranean climate characterized by hot summers and cool and rainy winters. According to the botanical criteria of Frank White[9] and geographer Robert Capot-Rey,[10][11] the northern limit of the Sahara corresponds to the northern limit of date palm cultivation and the southern limit of the range of esparto, a grass typical of the Mediterranean climate portion of the Maghreb and Iberia. The northern limit also corresponds to the 100?mm (3.9?in) isohyet of annual precipitation.[12] To the south, the Sahara is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of dry tropical savanna with a summer rainy season that extends across Africa from east to west. The southern limit of the Sahara is indicated botanically by the southern limit of Cornulaca monacantha (a drought-tolerant member of the Chenopodiaceae), or northern limit of Cenchrus biflorus, a grass typical of the Sahel.[10][11] According to climatic criteria, the southern limit of the Sahara corresponds to the 150?mm (5.9?in) isohyet of annual precipitation (this is a long-term average, since precipitation varies annually).[12] Important cities located in the Sahara include Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania; Tamanrasset, Ouargla, Bchar, Hassi Messaoud, Gharda?a, and El Oued in Algeria; Timbuktu in Mali; Agadez in Niger; Ghat in Libya; and Faya-Largeau in Chad. The Sahara is the world's largest low-latitude hot desert. The area is located in the horse latitudes under the subtropical ridge, a significant belt of semi-permanent subtropical warm-core high pressure where the air from upper levels of the troposphere tends to sink towards the ground. This steady descending airflow causes a warming and a drying effect in the upper troposphere. The sinking air prevents evaporating water from rising and, therefore, prevents the adiabatic cooling, which makes cloud formation extremely difficult to nearly impossible.[13] The permanent dissolution of clouds allows unhindered light and thermal radiation. The stability of the atmosphere above the desert prevents any convective overturning, thus making rainfall virtually non-existent. As a consequence, the weather tends to be sunny, dry and stable with a minimal risk of rainfall. Subsiding, diverging, dry air masses associated with subtropical high-pressure systems are extremely unfavorable for the development of convectional showers. The subtropical ridge is the predominant factor that explains the hot desert climate (K?ppen climate classification BWh) of this vast region. The lowering of air is the strongest and the most effective over the eastern part of the Great Desert, in the Libyan Desert which is the sunniest, driest and the most nearly "rain-less" place on the planet rivaling the Atacama Desert, lying in Chile and Peru. The rainfall inhibition and the dissipation of cloud cover are most accentuated over the eastern section of the Sahara rather than the western. The prevailing air mass lying above the Sahara is the continental tropical (cT) air mass, which is hot and dry. Hot, dry air masses primarily form over the North-African desert from the heating of the vast continental land area, and it affects the whole desert during most of the year. Because of this extreme heating process, a thermal low is usually noticed near the surface, and is the strongest and the most developed during the summertime. The Sahara High represents the eastern continental extension of the Azores High,[citation needed] centered over the North Atlantic Ocean. The subsidence of the Sahara High nearly reaches the ground during the coolest part of the year while it is confined to the upper troposphere during the hottest periods. The effects of local surface low pressure are extremely limited because upper-level subsidence still continues to block any form of air ascent. Also, to be protected against rain-bearing weather systems by the atmospheric circulation itself, the desert is made even drier by his geographical configuration and location. Indeed, the extreme aridity of the Sahara can not be only explained by the subtropical high pressure. The Atlas Mountains, found in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia also help to enhance the aridity of the northern part of the desert. These major mountain ranges act as a barrier causing a strong rain shadow effect on the leeward side by dropping much of the humidity brought by atmospheric disturbances along the polar front which affects the surrounding Mediterranean climates. The primary source of rain in the Sahara is the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a continuous belt of low-pressure systems near the equator which bring the brief, short and irregular rainy season to the Sahel and southern Sahara. Rainfall in this giant desert has to overcome the physical and atmospheric barriers that normally prevent the production of precipitation. The harsh climate of the Sahara is characterized by: extremely low, unreliable, highly erratic rainfall; extremely high sunshine duration values; high temperatures year-round; negligible rates of relative humidity; a significant diurnal temperature variation; and extremely high levels of potential evaporation which are the highest recorded worldwide.[14] The sky is usually clear above the desert and the sunshine duration is extremely high everywhere in the Sahara. Most of the desert has more than 3,600 h of bright sunshine annually or over 82% of the time, and a wide area in the eastern part experiences in excess of 4,000 h of bright sunshine a year or over 91% of the time. The highest values are very close to the theoretical maximum value. A value of 4,300 h or 98% of the time would be recorded in Upper Egypt (Aswan, Luxor) and in the Nubian Desert (Wadi Halfa).[15] The annual average direct solar irradiation is around 2,800 kWh/(m2 year) in the Great Desert. The Sahara has a huge potential for solar energy production. The constantly high position of the sun, the extremely low relative humidity, and the lack of vegetation and rainfall make the Great Desert the hottest continuously large area worldwide, and the hottest place on Earth during summer in some spots. The average high temperature exceeds 38 to 40?C or 100.4 to 104.0?F during the hottest month nearly everywhere in the desert except at very high altitudes. The highest officially recorded average high temperature[clarification needed] was 47?C or 116.6?F in a remote desert town in the Algerian Desert called Bou Bernous with an elevation of 378 metres (1,240?ft) meters above sea level.[15] It is the worlds highest recorded average high temperature[clarification needed] and only Death Valley, California rivals it.[16] Other hot spots in Algeria such as Adrar, Timimoun, In Salah, Ouallene, Aoulef, Reggane with an elevation between 200 and 400 metres (660 and 1,310?ft) above sea level get slightly lower summer average highs around 46?C or 114.8?F during the hottest months of the year. Salah, well known in Algeria for its extreme heat, has average high temperatures of 43.8?C or 110.8?F, 46.4?C or 115.5?F, 45.5?C or 113.9?F and 41.9?C or 107.4?F in June, July, August and September respectively. There are even hotter spots in the Sahara, but they are located in extremely remote areas, especially in the Azalai, lying in northern Mali. The major part of the desert experiences around three to five months when the average high strictly exceeds 40?C or 104?F. The southern central part of the desert experiences up to six or seven months when the average high temperature strictly exceeds 40?C or 104?F which shows the constancy and the length of the really hot season in the Sahara. Some examples of this are: Bilma, Niger and Faya-Largeau, Chad. The annual average daily temperature exceeds 20?C or 68?F everywhere and can approach 30?C or 86?F in the hottest regions year-round. However, most of the desert has a value in excess of 25?C or 77?F. Sand and ground temperatures are even more extreme. During daytime, the sand temperature is extremely high as it can easily reach 80?C or 176?F or more.[17] A sand temperature of 83.5?C (182.3?F) has been recorded in Port Sudan.[17] Ground temperatures of 72?C or 161.6?F have been recorded in the Adrar of Mauritania and a value of 75?C (167?F) has been measured in Borkou, northern Chad.[17] Due to lack of cloud cover and very low humidity, the desert usually features high diurnal temperature variations between days and nights. However, it is a myth that the nights are cold after extremely hot days in the Sahara. The average diurnal temperature range is typically between 13 and 20?C or 23.4 and 36.0?F. The lowest values are found along the coastal regions due to high humidity and are often even lower than 10?C or 18?F, while the highest values are found in inland desert areas where the humidity is the lowest, mainly in the southern Sahara. Still, it is true that winter nights can be cold as it can drop to the freezing point and even below, especially in high-elevation areas. The frequency of subfreezing winter nights in the Sahara is strongly influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), with warmer winter temperatures during negative NAO events and cooler winters with more frosts when the NAO is positive.[18] This is because the weaker clockwise flow around the eastern side of the subtropical anticyclone during negative NAO winters, although too dry to produce more than negligible precipitation, does reduce the flow of dry, cold air from higher latitudes of Eurasia into the Sahara significantly.[19] The average annual rainfall ranges from very low in the northern and southern fringes of the desert to nearly non-existent over the central and the eastern part. The thin northern fringe of the desert receives more winter cloudiness and rainfall due to the arrival of low pressure systems over the Mediterranean Sea along the polar front, although very attenuated by the rain shadow effects of the mountains and the annual average rainfall ranges from 100 millimetres (4?in) to 250 millimetres (10?in). For example, Biskra, Algeria and Ouarzazate, Morocco are found in this zone. The southern fringe of the desert along the border with the Sahel receives summer cloudiness and rainfall due to the arrival of the Intertropical Convergence Zone from the south and the annual average rainfall ranges from 100 millimetres (4?in) to 250 millimetres (10?in). For example, Timbuktu, Mali and Agadez, Niger are found in this zone. The vast central hyper-arid core of the desert is virtually never affected by northerly or southerly atmospheric disturbances and permanently remains under the influence of the strongest anticyclonic weather regime, and the annual average rainfall can drop to less than 1 millimetre (0.04?in). In fact, most of the Sahara receives less than 20 millimetres (0.8?in). Of the 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000?sq?mi) of desert land in the Sahara, an area of about 2,800,000 square kilometres (1,100,000?sq?mi) (about 31% of the total area) receives an annual average rainfall amount of 10 millimetres (0.4?in) or less, while some 1,500,000 square kilometres (580,000?sq?mi) (about 17% of the total area) receives an average of 5 millimetres (0.2?in) or less.[20] The annual average rainfall is virtually zero over a wide area of some 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000?sq?mi) in the eastern Sahara comprising deserts of: Libya, Egypt and Sudan (Tazirbu, Kufra, Dakhla, Kharga, Farafra, Siwa, Asyut, Sohag, Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Wadi Halfa) where the long-term mean approximates 0.5 millimetres (0.02?in) per year.[20] Rainfall is very unreliable and erratic in the Sahara as it may vary considerably year by year. In full contrast to the negligible annual rainfall amounts, the annual rates of potential evaporation are extraordinarily high, roughly ranging from 2,500 millimetres (100?in) per year to more than 6,000 millimetres (240?in) per year in the whole desert.[21] Nowhere else on Earth has air been found as dry and evaporative as in the Sahara region. However, at least two instances of snowfall have been recorded in Sahara, in February 1979 and December 2016, both in the town of Ain Sefra.[22] The climate of the Sahara has undergone enormous variations between wet and dry over the last few hundred thousand years,[23] believed to be caused by long-term changes in the North African climate cycle that alters the path of the North African Monsoon - usually southward. The cycle is caused by a 41000-year cycle in which the tilt of the earth changes between 22 and 24.5.[20] At present (2000 AD), we are in a dry period, but it is expected that the Sahara will become green again in 15000 years (17000 AD). When the North African monsoon is at its strongest annual precipitation and subsequent vegetation in the Sahara region increase, resulting in conditions commonly referred to as the "green Sahara". For a relatively weak North African monsoon, the opposite is true, with decreased annual precipitation and less vegetation resulting in a phase of the Sahara climate cycle known as the "desert Sahara".[24] The idea that changes in insolation (solar heating) caused by long-term changes in the Earth's orbit are a controlling factor for the long-term variations in the strength of monsoon patterns across the globe was first suggested by Rudolf Spitaler in the late nineteenth century,[25] The hypothesis was later formally proposed and tested by the meteorologist John Kutzbach in 1981.[26] Kutzbach's ideas about the impacts of insolation on global monsoonal patterns have become widely accepted today as the underlying driver of long term monsoonal cycles. Kutzbach never formally named his hypothesis and as such it is referred to here as the "Orbital Monsoon Hypothesis" as suggested by Ruddiman in 2001.[25] During the last glacial period, the Sahara was much larger than it is today, extending south beyond its current boundaries.[27] The end of the glacial period brought more rain to the Sahara, from about 8000 BC to 6000 BC, perhaps because of low pressure areas over the collapsing ice sheets to the north.[28] Once the ice sheets were gone, the northern Sahara dried out. In the southern Sahara, the drying trend was initially counteracted by the monsoon, which brought rain further north than it does today. By around 4200 BC, however, the monsoon retreated south to approximately where it is today,[29] leading to the gradual desertification of the Sahara.[30] The Sahara is now as dry as it was about 13,000 years ago.[23] The Sahara pump theory describes this cycle. During periods of a wet or "Green Sahara", the Sahara becomes a savanna grassland and various flora and fauna become more common. Following inter-pluvial arid periods, the Sahara area then reverts to desert conditions and the flora and fauna are forced to retreat northwards to the Atlas Mountains, southwards into West Africa, or eastwards into the Nile Valley. This separates populations of some of the species in areas with different climates, forcing them to adapt, possibly giving rise to allopatric speciation. It is also proposed that humans accelerated the drying out period from 6,000ÿ2,500 BC by pastoralists overgrazing available grassland.[31] The growth of speleothems (which requires rainwater) was detected in Hol-Zakh, Ashalim, Even-Sid, Ma'ale-ha-Meyshar, Ktora Cracks, Nagev Tzavoa Cave, and elsewhere, and has allowing tracking of prehistoric rainfall. The Red Sea coastal route was extremely arid before 140 and after 115 kya. Slightly wetter conditions appear at 90ÿ87 kya, but it still was just one tenth the rainfall around 125 kya. In the southern Negev Desert speleothems did not grow between 185ÿ140 kya (MIS 6), 110ÿ90 (MIS 5.4ÿ5.2), nor after 85 kya nor during most of the interglacial period (MIS 5.1), the glacial period and Holocene. This suggests that the southern Negev was arid to hyper-arid in these periods.[32] During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) the Sahara desert was more extensive than it is now with the extent of the tropical forests being greatly reduced,[33] and the lower temperatures reduced the strength of the Hadley Cell. This is a climate cell which causes rising tropical air of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to bring rain to the tropics, while dry descending air, at about 20 degrees north, flows back to the equator and brings desert conditions to this region. It is associated with high rates of wind-blown mineral dust, and these dust levels are found as expected in marine cores from the north tropical Atlantic. But around 12,500 BC the amount of dust in the cores in the B?lling/Aller?d phase suddenly plummets and shows a period of much wetter conditions in the Sahara, indicating a Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) event (a sudden warming followed by a slower cooling of the climate). The moister Saharan conditions had begun about 12,500 BC, with the extension of the ITCZ northward in the northern hemisphere summer, bringing moist wet conditions and a savanna climate to the Sahara, which (apart from a short dry spell associated with the Younger Dryas) peaked during the Holocene thermal maximum climatic phase at 4000 BC when mid-latitude temperatures seem to have been between 2 and 3 degrees warmer than in the recent past. Analysis of Nile River deposited sediments in the delta also shows this period had a higher proportion of sediments coming from the Blue Nile, suggesting higher rainfall also in the Ethiopian Highlands. This was caused principally by a stronger monsoonal circulation throughout the sub-tropical regions, affecting India, Arabia and the Sahara.[citation needed] Lake Victoria only recently became the source of the White Nile and dried out almost completely around 15 kya.[34] The sudden subsequent movement of the ITCZ southwards with a Heinrich event (a sudden cooling followed by a slower warming), linked to changes with the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation cycle, led to a rapid drying out of the Saharan and Arabian regions, which quickly became desert. This is linked to a marked decline in the scale of the Nile floods between 2700 and 2100 BC.[35] The Sahara comprises several distinct ecoregions. With their variations in temperature, rainfall, elevation, and soil, these regions harbor distinct communities of plants and animals. The Atlantic coastal desert is a narrow strip along the Atlantic coast where fog generated offshore by the cool Canary Current provides sufficient moisture to sustain a variety of lichens, succulents, and shrubs. It covers an area of 39,900 square kilometers (15,400?sq?mi) in the south of Morocco and Mauritania.[36] The North Saharan steppe and woodlands is along the northern desert, next to the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregions of the northern Maghreb and Cyrenaica. Winter rains sustain shrublands and dry woodlands that form a transition between the Mediterranean climate regions to the north and the hyper-arid Sahara proper to the south. It covers 1,675,300 square kilometers (646,840?sq?mi) in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.[37] The Sahara Desert ecoregion covers the hyper-arid central portion of the Sahara where rainfall is minimal and sporadic. Vegetation is rare, and this ecoregion consists mostly of sand dunes (erg, chech, raoui), stone plateaus (hamadas), gravel plains (reg), dry valleys (wadis), and salt flats. It covers 4,639,900 square kilometres (1,791,500?sq?mi) of: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Sudan.[8] The South Saharan steppe and woodlands ecoregion is a narrow band running east and west between the hyper-arid Sahara and the Sahel savannas to the south. Movements of the equatorial Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) bring summer rains during July and August which average 100 to 200?mm (4 to 8?in) but vary greatly from year to year. These rains sustain summer pastures of grasses and herbs, with dry woodlands and shrublands along seasonal watercourses. This ecoregion covers 1,101,700 square kilometres (425,400?sq?mi) in Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Sudan.[38] In the West Saharan montane xeric woodlands, several volcanic highlands provide a cooler, moister environment that supports Saharo-Mediterranean woodlands and shrublands. The ecoregion covers 258,100 square kilometres (99,650?sq?mi), mostly in the Tassili n'Ajjer of Algeria, with smaller enclaves in the A?r of Niger, the Dhar Adrar of Mauritania, and the Adrar des Iforas of Mali and Algeria.[39] The Tibesti-Jebel Uweinat montane xeric woodlands ecoregion consists of the Tibesti and Jebel Uweinat highlands. Higher and more regular rainfall and cooler temperatures support woodlands and shrublands of Date palm, acacias, myrtle, oleander, tamarix, and several rare and endemic plants. The ecoregion covers 82,200 square kilometres (31,700?sq?mi) in the Tibesti of Chad and Libya, and Jebel Uweinat on the border of Egypt, Libya, and Sudan.[40] The Saharan halophytics is an area of seasonally flooded saline depressions which is home to halophytic (salt-adapted) plant communities. The Saharan halophytics cover 54,000 square kilometres (21,000?sq?mi) including: the Qattara and Siwa depressions in northern Egypt, the Tunisian salt lakes of central Tunisia, Chott Melghir in Algeria, and smaller areas of Algeria, Mauritania, and the southern part of Morocco.[41] The Tanezrouft is one of the harshest regions on Earth as well as one of the hottest and driest parts of the Sahara, with no vegetation and very little life. It is along the borders of Algeria, Niger]] and Mali, west of the Hoggar mountains. The flora of the Sahara is highly diversified based on the bio-geographical characteristics of this vast desert. Floristically, the Sahara has three zones based on the amount of rainfall received ÿ the Northern (Mediterranean), Central and Southern Zones. There are two transitional zones ÿ the Mediterranean-Sahara transition and the Sahel transition zone.[42] The Saharan flora comprises around 2800 species of vascular plants. Approximately a quarter of these are endemic. About half of these species are common to the flora of the Arabian deserts.[43] The central Sahara is estimated to include five hundred species of plants, which is extremely low considering the huge extent of the area. Plants such as acacia trees, palms, succulents, spiny shrubs, and grasses have adapted to the arid conditions, by growing lower to avoid water loss by strong winds, by storing water in their thick stems to use it in dry periods, by having long roots that travel horizontally to reach the maximum area of water and to find any surface moisture, and by having small thick leaves or needles to prevent water loss by evapotranspiration. Plant leaves may dry out totally and then recover. Several species of fox live in the Sahara including: the fennec fox, pale fox and Rppell's fox. The addax, a large white antelope, can go nearly a year in the desert without drinking. The dorcas gazelle is a north African gazelle that can also go for a long time without water. Other notable gazelles include the rhim gazelle and dama gazelle. The Saharan cheetah (northwest African cheetah) lives in Algeria, Togo, Niger, Mali, Benin, and Burkina Faso. There remain fewer than 250 mature cheetahs, which are very cautious, fleeing any human presence. The cheetah avoids the sun from April to October, seeking the shelter of shrubs such as balanites and acacias. They are unusually pale.[44][45] The other cheetah subspecies (northeast African cheetah) lives in Chad, Sudan and the eastern region of Niger. However, it is currently extinct in the wild in Egypt and Libya. There are approximately 2000 mature individuals left in the wild. Other animals include the monitor lizards, hyrax, sand vipers, and small populations of African wild dog,[46] in perhaps only 14 countries[47] and red-necked ostrich. Other animals exist in the Sahara (birds in particular) such as African silverbill and black-faced firefinch, among others. There are also small desert crocodiles in Mauritania and the Ennedi Plateau of Chad.[48] The deathstalker scorpion can be 10?cm (3.9?in) long. Its venom contains large amounts of agitoxin and scyllatoxin and is very dangerous; however, a sting from this scorpion rarely kills a healthy adult. The Saharan silver ant is unique in that due to the extreme high temperatures of their habitat, and the threat of predators, the ants are active outside their nest for only about ten minutes per day.[49] Dromedary camels and goats are the domesticated animals most commonly found in the Sahara. Because of its qualities of endurance and speed, the dromedary is the favourite animal used by nomads. Human activities are more likely to affect the habitat in areas of permanent water (oases) or where water comes close to the surface. Here, the local pressure on natural resources can be intense. The remaining populations of large mammals have been greatly reduced by hunting for food and recreation. In recent years development projects have started in the deserts of Algeria and Tunisia using irrigated water pumped from underground aquifers. These schemes often lead to soil degradation and salinization. Researchers from Hacettepe University (Ycekutlu, N. et al., 2011) have reported that Saharan soil may have bio-available iron and also some essential macro and micro nutrient elements suitable for use as fertilizer for growing wheat.[50] People lived on the edge of the desert thousands of years ago[51] since the end of the last glacial period. The Sahara was then a much wetter place than it is today. Over 30,000 petroglyphs of river animals such as crocodiles[52] survive, with half found in the Tassili n'Ajjer in southeast Algeria. Fossils of dinosaurs, including Afrovenator, Jobaria and Ouranosaurus, have also been found here. The modern Sahara, though, is not lush in vegetation, except in the Nile Valley, at a few oases, and in the northern highlands, where Mediterranean plants such as the olive tree are found to grow. It was long believed that the region had been this way since about 1600 BCE, after shifts in the Earth's axis increased temperatures and decreased precipitation, which led to the abrupt desertification of North Africa about 5,400 years ago.[29] However, this theory has recently been called into dispute, when samples taken from several 7 million year old sand deposits led scientists to reconsider the timeline for desertification.[53] The Kiffian culture is a prehistoric industry, or domain, that existed between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago in the Sahara, during the Neolithic Subpluvial. Human remains from this culture were found in 2000 at a site known as Gobero, located in Niger in the Tnr Desert.[54] The site is known as the largest and earliest grave of Stone Age people in the Sahara desert.[55] The Kiffians were skilled hunters. Bones of many large savannah animals that were discovered in the same area suggest that they lived on the shores of a lake that was present during the Holocene Wet Phase, a period when the Sahara was verdant and wet.[55] The Kiffian people were tall, standing over six feet in height.[54] Craniometric analysis indicates that this early Holocene population was closely related to the Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians and early Holocene Capsians of the Maghreb, as well as mid-Holocene Mechta groups.[56] Traces of the Kiffian culture do not exist after 8,000 years ago, as the Sahara went through a dry period for the next thousand years.[57] After this time, the Tenerian culture colonized the area. Gobero was discovered in 2000 during an archaeological expedition led by Paul Sereno, which sought dinosaur remains. Two distinct prehistoric cultures were discovered at the site: the early Holocene Kiffian culture, and the middle Holocene Tenerian culture. The Kiffians were a prehistoric people who preceded the Tenerians and vanished approximately 8000 years ago, when the desert became very dry. The desiccation lasted until around 4600 BC, when the earliest artefacts associated with the Tenerians have been dated to. Some 200 skeletons have been discovered at Gobero. The Tenerians were considerably shorter in height and less robust than the earlier Kiffians. Craniometric analysis also indicates that they were osteologically distinct. The Kiffian skulls are akin to those of the Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians, early Holocene Capsians, and mid-Holocene Mechta groups, whereas the Tenerian crania are more like those of Mediterranean groups.[58][59] Graves show that the Tenerians observed spiritual traditions, as they were buried with artifacts such as jewelry made of hippo tusks and clay pots. The most interesting find is a triple burial, dated to 5300 years ago, of an adult female and two children, estimated through their teeth as being five and eight years old, hugging each other. Pollen residue indicates they were buried on a bed of flowers. The three are assumed to have died within 24 hours of each other, but as their skeletons hold no apparent trauma (they did not die violently) and they have been buried so elaborately - unlikely if they had died of a plague - the cause of their deaths is a mystery. Uan Muhuggiag appears to have been inhabited from at least the 6th millennium BC to about 2700 BC, although not necessarily continuously.[60] The most noteworthy find at Uan Muhuggiag is the well-preserved mummy of a young boy of approximately 2 1/2 years old. The child was in a fetal position, then embalmed, then placed in a sack made of antelope skin, which was insulated by a layer of leaves.[61] The boy's organs were removed, as evidenced by incisions in his stomach and thorax, and an organic preservative was inserted to stop his body from decomposing.[62] An ostrich eggshell necklace was also found around his neck.[60] Radiocarbon dating determined the age of the mummy to be approximately 5600 years old, which makes it about 1000 years older than the earliest previously recorded mummy in ancient Egypt.[63] In 1958-1959, an archaeological expedition led by Antonio Ascenzi conducted anthropological, radiological, histological and chemical analyses on the Uan Muhuggiag mummy. The specimen was determined to be that of a 30-month old child of uncertain sex, who possessed Negroid features. A long incision on the specimen's abdominal wall also indicated that the body had been initially mummified by evisceration and later underwent natural desiccation.[64] One other individual, an adult, was found at Uan Muhuggiag, buried in a crouched position.[60] However, the body showed no evidence of evisceration or any other method of preservation. The body was estimated to date from about 7500 BP.[65] During the Neolithic Era, before the onset of desertification around 9500 BCE, the central Sudan had been a rich environment supporting a large population ranging across what is now barren desert, like the Wadi el-Qa'ab. By the 5th millennium BCE, the people who inhabited what is now called Nubia, were full participants in the "agricultural revolution", living a settled lifestyle with domesticated plants and animals. Saharan rock art of cattle and herdsmen suggests the presence of a cattle cult like those found in Sudan and other pastoral societies in Africa today.[66] Megaliths found at Nabta Playa are overt examples of probably the world's first known archaeoastronomy devices, predating Stonehenge by some 2,000 years.[67] This complexity, as observed at Nabta Playa, and as expressed by different levels of authority within the society there, likely formed the basis for the structure of both the Neolithic society at Nabta and the Old Kingdom of Egypt.[68] By 6000 BCE predynastic Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and constructing large buildings. Subsistence in organized and permanent settlements in predynastic Egypt by the middle of the 6th millennium BCE centered predominantly on cereal and animal agriculture: cattle, goats, pigs and sheep. Metal objects replaced prior ones of stone. Tanning of animal skins, pottery and weaving were commonplace in this era also. There are indications of seasonal or only temporary occupation of the Al Fayyum in the 6th millennium BCE, with food activities centering on fishing, hunting and food-gathering. Stone arrowheads, knives and scrapers from the era are commonly found.[69] Burial items included pottery, jewelry, farming and hunting equipment, and assorted foods including dried meat and fruit. Burial in desert environments appears to enhance Egyptian preservation rites, and the dead were buried facing due west.[70] By 3400 BCE, the Sahara was as dry as it is today, due to reduced precipitation and higher temperatures resulting from a shift in the Earth's orbit.[29] As a result of this aridification, it became a largely impenetrable barrier to humans, with the remaining settlements mainly being concentrated around the numerous oases that dot the landscape. Little trade or commerce is known to have passed through the interior in subsequent periods, the only major exception being the Nile Valley. The Nile, however, was impassable at several cataracts, making trade and contact by boat difficult. The people of Phoenicia, who flourished from 1200ÿ800 BCE, created a confederation of kingdoms across the entire Sahara to Egypt. They generally settled along the Mediterranean coast, as well as the Sahara, among the people of ancient Libya, who were the ancestors of people who speak Berber languages in North Africa and the Sahara today, including the Tuareg of the central Sahara. The Phoenician alphabet seems to have been adopted by the ancient Libyans of north Africa, and Tifinagh is still used today by Berber-speaking Tuareg camel herders of the central Sahara. Sometime between 633 BCE and 530 BCE, Hanno the Navigator either established or reinforced Phoenician colonies in Western Sahara, but all ancient remains have vanished with virtually no trace. By 500 BCE, Greeks arrived in the desert. Greek traders spread along the eastern coast of the desert, establishing trading colonies along the Red Sea. The Carthaginians explored the Atlantic coast of the desert, but the turbulence of the waters and the lack of markets caused a lack of presence further south than modern Morocco. Centralized states thus surrounded the desert on the north and east; it remained outside the control of these states. Raids from the nomadic Berber people of the desert were of constant concern to those living on the edge of the desert. An urban civilization, the Garamantes, arose around 500 BCE in the heart of the Sahara, in a valley that is now called the Wadi al-Ajal in Fezzan, Libya.[23] The Garamantes achieved this development by digging tunnels far into the mountains flanking the valley to tap fossil water and bring it to their fields. The Garamantes grew populous and strong, conquering their neighbors and capturing many slaves (who were put to work extending the tunnels). The ancient Greeks and the Romans knew of the Garamantes and regarded them as uncivilized nomads. However, they traded with them, and a Roman bath has been found in the Garamantes' capital of Garama. Archaeologists have found eight major towns and many other important settlements in the Garamantes' territory. The Garamantes' civilization eventually collapsed after they had depleted available water in the aquifers and could no longer sustain the effort to extend the tunnels further into the mountains.[71] The Berber people occupied (and still occupy) much of the Sahara. The Garamantes Berbers built a prosperous empire in the heart of the desert.[72] The Tuareg nomads continue to inhabit and move across wide Sahara surfaces to the present day. The Byzantine Empire ruled the northern shores of the Sahara from the 5th to the 7th centuries. After the Muslim conquest of Arabia, specifically the Arabian peninsula, the Muslim conquest of North Africa began in the mid-7th to early 8th centuries and Islamic influence expanded rapidly on the Sahara. By the end of 641 all of Egypt was in Muslim hands. Trade across the desert intensified, and a significant slave trade crossed the desert. It has been estimated that from the 10th to 19th centuries some 6,000 to 7,000 slaves were transported north each year.[73] In the 16th century the northern fringe of the Sahara, such as coastal regencies in present-day Algeria and Tunisia, as well as some parts of present-day Libya, together with the semi-autonomous kingdom of Egypt, were occupied by the Ottoman Empire. From 1517 Egypt was a valued part of the Ottoman Empire, ownership of which provided the Ottomans with control over the Nile Valley, the east Mediterranean and North Africa. The benefit of the Ottoman Empire was the freedom of movement for citizens and goods. Traders exploited the Ottoman land routes to handle the spices, gold and silk from the East, manufactured goods from Europe, and the slave and gold traffic from Africa. Arabic continued as the local language and Islamic culture was much reinforced. The Sahel and southern Sahara regions were home to several independent states or to roaming Tuareg clans. European colonialism in the Sahara began in the 19th century. France conquered the regency of Algiers from the Ottomans in 1830, and French rule spread south from Algeria and eastwards from Senegal into the upper Niger to include present-day Algeria, Chad, Mali then French Sudan including Timbuktu, Mauritania, Morocco (1912), Niger, and Tunisia (1881). By the beginning of the 20th century, the trans-Saharan trade had clearly declined because goods were moved through more modern and efficient means, such as airplanes, rather than across the desert.[74] The French Colonial Empire was the dominant presence in the Sahara. It established regular air links from Toulouse (HQ of famed Aropostale), to Oran and over the Hoggar to Timbuktu and West to Bamako and Dakar, as well as trans-Sahara bus services run by La Companie Transsaharienne (est. 1927).[75] A remarkable film shot by famous aviator Captain Ren Wauthier documents the first crossing by a large truck convoy from Algiers to Tchad, across the Sahara.[76] Egypt, under Muhammad Ali and his successors, conquered Nubia in 1820ÿ22, founded Khartoum in 1823, and conquered Darfur in 1874. Egypt, including the Sudan, became a British protectorate in 1882. Egypt and Britain lost control of the Sudan from 1882 to 1898 as a result of the Mahdist War. After its capture by British troops in 1898, the Sudan became an Anglo-Egyptian condominium. Spain captured present-day Western Sahara after 1874, although Rio del Oro remained largely under Sahrawi influence. In 1912, Italy captured parts of what was to be named Libya from the Ottomans. To promote the Roman Catholic religion in the desert, Pope Pius IX appointed a delegate Apostolic of the Sahara and the Sudan in 1868; later in the 19th century his jurisdiction was reorganized into the Vicariate Apostolic of Sahara. Egypt became independent of Britain in 1936, although the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 allowed Britain to keep troops in Egypt and to maintain the British-Egyptian condominium in the Sudan. British military forces were withdrawn in 1954. Most of the Saharan states achieved independence after World War II: Libya in 1951; Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia in 1956; Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger in 1960; and Algeria in 1962. Spain withdrew from Western Sahara in 1975, and it was partitioned between Mauritania and Morocco. Mauritania withdrew in 1979; Morocco continues to hold the territory. In the post-World War II era, several mines and communities have developed to utilize the desert's natural resources. These include large deposits of oil and natural gas in Algeria and Libya, and large deposits of phosphates in Morocco and Western Sahara. A number of Trans-African highways have been proposed across the Sahara, including the CairoÿDakar Highway along the Atlantic coast, the Trans-Sahara Highway from Algiers on the Mediterranean to Kano in Nigeria, the Tripoli ÿ Cape Town Highway from Tripoli in Libya to N'Djamena in Chad, and the Cairo ÿ Cape Town Highway which follows the Nile. Each of these highways is partially complete, with significant gaps and unpaved sections. The people of the Sahara are of various origins. Among them the Amazi? including the Turq, various Arabized Amazi? groups such as the Hassaniya-speaking Sahrawis, whose populations include the Znaga, a tribe whose name is a remnant of the pre-historic Zenaga language. Other major groups of people include the: Toubou, Nubians, Zaghawa, Kanuri, Hausa, Songhai, Beja, and Fula/Fulani (French: Peul; Fula: Ful?e). Arabic dialects are the most widely spoken languages in the Sahara. Arabic, Berber and its variants now regrouped under the term Amazigh (which includes the Guanche language spoken by the original Berber inhabitants of the Canary Islands) and Beja languages are part of the Afro-Asiatic or Hamito-Semitic family.[citation needed] Unlike neighboring West Africa and the central governments of the states that comprise the Sahara, the French language bears little relevance to inter-personal discourse and commerce within the region, its people retaining staunch ethnic and political affiliations with Tuareg and Berber leaders and culture.[77] The legacy of the French colonial era administration is primarily manifested in the territorial reorganization enacted by the Third and Fourth republics, which engendered artificial political divisions within a hitherto isolated and porous region.[78] Diplomacy with local clients was conducted primarily in Arabic, which was the traditional language of bureaucratic affairs. Mediation of disputes and inter-agency communication was served by interpreters contracted by the French government, who, according to Keenan, "documented a space of intercultural mediation," contributing much to preserving the indigenous cultural identities in the region.[79] Coordinates: 23N 13E? / ?23N 13E? / 23; 13

drought🚨A drought in the Western Cape province of South Africa began in 2015 and is resulting in a severe water shortage in the region, most notably affecting the city of Cape Town. With dam levels predicted to decline to critically low levels, the city announced plans for "Day Zero", when the municipal water supply will largely be shut off, potentially making Cape Town the first major city to run out of water.[1][2][3] Through water saving measures and water supply augmentation, by March 2018 the City had reduced its daily water consumption by more than half to around 500 million litres per day, resulting in the initial prediction of Day Zero in April 2018 being pushed back to 2019. The situation however remains severe, particularly if the run of record dry winters continues through 2018. The Cape Town region experiences a Mediterranean climate with warm, dry summers and winter rainfall. Water is supplied largely from the six major dams of the Western Cape Water Supply System in mountainous areas close to the city.[4] The dams are recharged by rain falling in their catchment areas, largely during the cooler winter months of May to August, and dam levels decline during the dry summer months of December to February during which urban and agricultural water use increases. Cape Town's population has grown from 2.4 million residents in 1995 to an estimated 4.3 million by 2018, representing a 79 percent population increase in 23 years whereas dam water storage only increased by 15 percent in the same period.[5] In 2016/2017, 64.5% of the city's water supply went to formal residential users, while 3.6 percent went to informal settlements.[6] The possibility of the city exceeding its water supply was highlighted as early as 1990.[7] From 1950 to 1999, the city's consumption of treated water grew at 4% per year in line with the city's population growth. Water consumption peaked in 1999 at 335 million cubic metres (335 gigalitres) per year. Periods of low winter rainfall in 2000/2001 and 2003/2004 resulted in water restrictions being imposed.[8][9] In 2007, the city implemented a 10-year water demand management strategy, which has successfully kept the annual consumption at or below the 1999 level despite ongoing population growth.[8] In 2009, the storage capacity of the dams supplying Cape Town was increased by 17 percent from 768 to 898 million cubic metres through the completion of the Berg River Dam.[10] Despite the increased storage capacity, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry predicted that the growing demand from the city would exceed supply by 2013 without water conservation and demand management measures by the city, and that even with those measures, further water sources would be required by 2019.[11] There was is a plan of action developed in 2000 called Africa Water Vision 2025 that was aimed at equitable and sustainable use of water for socioeconomic development. This article evaluated South Africas progress on the objectives laid out in the plan. [12] The cause of water loss in Cape Town has been debated. ?While drought is a factor in the citys water scarcity, the degree of drought has been questioned. ?It is believed water scarcity, caused by the drought, is being exacerbated by population growth, potentially unreported agriculture use, invasive species, and poor planning of water management. Cape Town particularly has grown by 50 percent in the last decade.[13] While rainfall tends to undulate at stations monitoring rainfall where water is stored for Cape Town, there has been a clear, significant drop in 2016. ? A study conducted by the Climate System Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town ran statistical analyses to determine that rainfall between the years 2015 and 2017 was very rare and severe.[14] Some scientists believe this once in a millennium drought is being exacerbated by climate change with a one degree celsius increase in temperature over the past century. ?Models predict Cape Town will increase another 0.25 degrees celsius in the next ten years, which would increase drought likelihood by up to seven times. Previous climate modeling suggested a likely decrease in rainfall due to climate change, and this is likely some of the first evidence supporting the model. ?There is additional concern that several other cities will follow suit behind Cape Town in water scarcity.[15] A major problem with Cape Towns water dependence is that their water systems were built on the stable climate of previous years. ?Climate change has changed precipitation patterns in the area, leading to less stable sources of water and a quicker rate of water loss than previously expected. Another large cause of water scarcity is agriculture use, which consumes 80 to 90 percent of the area's water. ?In 2016, Cape Town exported 113 million gallons of wine to Europe and the US. For each gallon of wine, between 666 and 1,357 gallons of water is used. One third of the water exported through the wine industry could be used for the 7 million people without access to water in South Africa. In addition, Cape Town exported roughly 231,000 tons of citrus fruits in 2017, resulting in an additional exportation of roughly 30 billion gallons of the areas water.[16] After good rains in 2013 and 2014, the city of Cape Town began experiencing a drought in 2015, the first of three consecutive years of dry winters brought on by the El Ni?o weather pattern and climate change.[18] Water levels in the city's dams declined from 71.9 percent in 2014 to 50.1 percent in 2015.[5] Water restrictions, in place at "Level 1" since 2005, were increased to Level 2 on 1 January 2016 and to Level 3 on 1 November 2016. Significant droughts in other parts of South Africa ended in August 2016 through heavy rain and flooding in the interior of the country,[19] but the drought in the Western Cape remained. Water restrictions were increased to Level 3B on 1 February 2017. By the end of the dry season in May 2017, the drought was declared the city's worst in a century, with dams having less than 10 percent of their usable capacity.[20] Level 4 water restrictions were imposed, limiting the consumption of water to 100 litres per person per day.[21] In June 2017 a significant storm hit the area, dropping up to 50 mm of rain, but not enough to break the drought.[22] Overall rainfall in 2017 was the lowest since 1933.[23] With the dry summer season approaching, the city increased its existing water restrictions to Level 4B on 1 July 2017, and to Level 5 on 3 September 2017, banning most outdoor and non-essential use of water, encouraging the use of greywater for toilet flushing, and aiming to limit the per capita water consumption to 87 litres per day, for a total of 500 million litres per day.[24] By early October 2017, following a low rainfall winter, Cape Town had an estimated five months before water levels would be depleted.[25] In the same month, the City of Cape Town issued an emergency water plan to be rolled-out in multiple phases depending on the severity of the water shortage. Phase 1 was "water rationing through extreme pressure reduction" which involved temporary water cuts and rationing. Phase 1 was implemented immediately with unannounced water cuts to a number of outlying neighbourhoods. In Phase 2 water will be shut off to most of the system except to places of key water access. Phase 3 is the point at which the city can no longer draw water from surface dams in the Western Cape Water Supply System and there is a limited period of time before the water supply system fails.[26] In mid-October 2017 the City was criticised by water desalination companies for the slow pace of contract negotiations, high level of bureaucracy, lack of urgency, and the inadequate scale of the proposed water supply projects.[27] On 26 October 2017 it was announced that the Cape Town city manager would be given special powers to take drought-related actions that would not have to follow the city's normal decision making and approval process. This announcement came after a review of the city's decision making processes that found "certain aspects of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, the Municipal Finance Management Act and Supply Chain Management regulations, as well as the council's own Supply Chain Management Policy, failed to adequately provide for the City of Cape Town to 'deal effectively and timeously' with the disaster."[28] Level 6 restrictions were imposed on 1 January 2018, and Level 6B on 1 February 2018, limiting consumption to 50 litres per person per day. On 24 January 2018, the Western Cape provincial cabinet stated that it was the responsibility of the national government to fund the expansion of the water system as the "provision of bulk water supply is a national government mandate." The provincial cabinet also announced that it was drawing up plans with the South African Police Service for a strategy to deploy officers at water distribution points across the city after day zero.[29] In mid-January 2018, Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille announced that the city would be forced to shut off most of the municipal water supply if conditions do not change. "Day Zero" would be declared when the water level of the city's major dams reached 13.5%, and Level 7 would be declared, with municipal water supplies largely switched off, and residents relying on 149 water collection points around the city to collect a daily ration of 25 litres of water per person.[30][31] This would further affect Cape Town's economy, because of employees having "to take time off from work to wait in line for water".[32] Water supply would be maintained in the city's CBD, in informal settlements (where water is already collected from central locations) and essential services such as hospitals. At the time of the announcement, Day Zero was projected to take place on 22 April 2018, shortly afterwards revised forward to 12 April.[33][34][35] The Day Zero date is projected based on the fortnightly change in dam storage levels, assuming that this rate will continue unchanged, with no further rainfall or change in water demand.[36] In February 2018, the Groenland Water Users' Association (a representative body for farmers in the Elgin and Grabouw agricultural areas around Cape Town) began releasing an additional 10 billion litres of water into the Steenbras Dam.[37] Residential water usage declined significantly under the 6B restrictions to a low of 511 million litres on March 12, the closest yet to the recommended level of 450 million litres per day. Agricultural use also declined significantly. As these reductions took effect and as water transferred from the Groenland Water Users' Association reached the city's water supply, Day Zero was moved back in stages from April to August,[38][39][40][41][36][3] and then postponed indefinitely.[42] Research on long-term weather data done by the University of Cape Town found that the period from 2015-2017 has been the driest 3-year period since 1933, and 2017 was the driest year since 1933, and possibly earlier, since comparable data before 1933 was not available. It also found that a drought of this severity will statistically occur only once every 311 years.[23] Modelling by Aurecon found that the drought was approximately a 1 in 400 year event.[43] Once lush city parks and golf courses have withered, and public restrooms now urge visitors to flush only when absolutely necessary.[32] Cafes began using plastic and paper cups and plates to reduce dishwashing loads. Analysts estimate that the water crisis will cost some 300,000 jobs in agriculture and tens of thousands more in the service, hospitality and food sectors. [32] In response to the water shortage, the agricultural sector reduced water consumption by 50 percent, contributing to the loss of 37,000 jobs in the sector nationally, and leading to an estimated 50,000 being pushed below the poverty line due to job losses and inflation due to increases in the price of food.[25] By February 2018 the agricultural sector had incurred R14 billion (US$1.17 billion) in losses due to the water shortage.[44] In office buildings and many public places throughout Cape Town, water was removed from toilets to prevent flushing and aid in water conservation. Rainwater was directed to be added to the tank if the toilet needed flushing. However, residents have been directed not to flush the toilet if only urinating but use a disinfectant/scented spray afterwards. If defecating residents have been directed to use rainwater or greywater to flush. Hand sanitizer has also been provided in offices and public buildings to use instead of conventional handwashing to conserve water. The city is urging residents to stock up on emergency drinking water. But the task is proving to be more difficult than residents thought. Stores are selling out of water the minute it is delivered and shopkeepers are uncertain when more will arrive. Residents can go to a natural spring to collect water but this means waiting in line for hours on end to fill their allotment. [32] Residents of Cape Town have been restricted to only 50 litres of water per person per day, and are encouraged to flush toilets less often and only using non-potable water, and to reduce the length and frequency of showers. This has led public health professionals to raise concerns of diseases spread via faecal-oral contamination as a result of less hand-washing. Inadequate sanitation is a leading cause of diarrhoeal diseases, which kill 2.2 million every year, with most deaths occurring among children younger than 5 years of age. With a population around 3.81 million and a population density of around 1530 per square kilometer, diseases like cholera and others could spread rapidly without proper sanitation, especially in impoverished neighborhoods in Cape Town. ?Without clean water the public health consequences continue as insects are attracted and reproduce in dirty waters, further spreading disease. The problem continues to snowball as standing water will bacteria and parasites start to grow.[45] The Western Cape of South Africa has seen a the second-highest incidence of listeriosis in South Africa.[46] As a whole, South Africa has been victim to the largest outbreak of the disease on record. According to the Western Cape Health Department, 29 people have died of the disease since last year of 115 cases reported. Listeriosis can particularly threatens newborns as it can spread through lack of or inadequate hand-washing and failure to rinse vegetables, fruits, and other raw foods thoroughly. Officials warn that water-borne illnesses such as cholera, hepatitis A and typhoid fever likely will become more prevalent as residents begin storing water in contaminated containers. Public health companies, research centres and health providers also worry about the impact the water crisis will have on health services. Some are thinking ahead to the impact of employees being unable to come into work because they are waiting in lines for water which are becoming longer and longer.[46] Emergency shower and eyewash stations are an essential part of workplace safety for many laboratories and factories. ?A steady supply of water is necessary in the event of harmful chemical exposure. Many Occupational Health and Safety requirements suggest that all emergency showers be able to pump 75 litres per minute for a minimum of 15 minutes.[47] This would use approximately three weeks of water. If these wash stations are banned or limited, workers who handle highly corrosive chemicals would be vulnerable. ? Fire risk increases as environment and infrastructure become increasingly dry. This is epically significant for large industrial sites and warehousing as fire on one site can spread more easily to other buildings in close proximity. Fire suppression system may also fail due to reduced water pressure in high-use areas.[48] In homes and orphanages, children are one of the most vulnerable populations in Cape Town to suffer from health effects of water scarcity. The feeding, washing, and sterilization of items required to care for children is water intensive.[49] Furthermore, If schools in the Western Cape have their taps turned off on Day Zero, 1.1 million children could be left stranded without water.[50] The agriculture industry is one of the largest consumers of water. The wine industry in and surrounding Cape Town is a major tourist draw and is a significant aspect of the economy, employing 300,000 workers. The wineries drew 1.5 million tourists in 2017 and at the same time used a third of the water.[51] Depending on the region, a vineyard needs between 10 and 24 inches of rain to survive. South Africas wineries have received on average half as much precipitation in the past year. The stress is being felt by industry where less water is causing smaller berries and therefore smaller yield. The industry also has a disproportionate profit with only about 1% return on investment despite producing some of the most popular wines in the world. ?The grape yield for 2018 could fall an estimated 20% from the 1.4 million tons produced in 2017, resulting in a 9% decrease in the volume of wine sold.[52] The water crisis impacts organizations and industries that are not reliant on large volumes of water frothier core operations as well such as corporate offices. The World Economic Forums Global Risk Report 2015 [53] ranked the risk of a water crisis as the top risk in terms of impact. The cost of doing business in a drought affected area increases significantly. ?As workers move away or are evacuated from drought-affected areas the local economies suffer. Hydrologic poverty tends to trap their people as they cannot afford to purchase food or water necessary for their society to become more affluent. An analyst estimates that with the current water crisis 300,000 jobs could be lost in agriculture and tens of thousands more in the service, hospitality and food sectors [29]. In Cape Town it is illegal to sell water from wells or rivers but people can still profit from the transport and labor. One resident who had been stockpiling water was charging $350 for a barrel of water. This is further alienating the more impoverished neighborhoods and citizens of getting necessary clean water. Those who are using over the allocated daily water are being fined between $41-$248 [29]. Yet this impact is further cementing the gap because the fine is likely insignificant for the wealthy and can be crippling for less affluent residents. Increases in hydrological poverty, by the reduction of available water, could increase deaths in Cape Town by 25 to 33 percent. [54] Cape Town is governed by Mmusi Maimane, the leader of South Africas opposition party, the Democratic Alliance. Cape Town and Western Cape are the only province not run by the African National Congress (ANC) which has been in power since 1994. The tensions are high concerning many of the ANC would love to see the Democratic Alliance fail at the significant test ahead concerning the water crisis. Accusations of who has failed to act are being thrown by both sides [13] but it is clear both parties underestimated the magnitude of the problem. By taking control of the water crisis Maimane has pushed aside many constitutional structures set to separate party and state, complicating the situation and any reactions put in place. [55] The Water Act of 1998 puts the national government as the public trustee of the nations water resources and must ensure that water is protected, used, developed, conserved, managed and controlled in a sustainable and equitable manner, for the benefit of all persons. It says: The National Government, acting through the Minister, has the power to regulate the use, flow and control of all water in the Republic.[56] With this both the local, provincial and national governments are responsible, yet with the unrest, working together has proved difficult. This water crisis has increased research and investment in alternative water systems, which may ultimately help prevent other cities from falling into the same degree of water scarcity. ?As climate change continues and the population grows, moving into urban areas, other cities will also face severe drought and will need to assess alternative methods for obtaining water.[57] The potential for a culture change in water usage is also a positive result of this crisis. The city of Cape Town is currently working on constructing four new desalination plants as well as building new water wells and an effluent recycler. By January 2018, these projects were half way through completion. In addition, the city has been working on educating the public on reducing water consumption. This has lead to successful drop in water consumption by 50 percent from 2015 to early 2018.[58] In addition, Cape Town is working on producing produce that accommodates the water availability of the region. ?This means they will be producing less rice and cotton, which are very water demanding.[16]

seven🚨The Big Dipper (US) or the Plough (UK)[1][2] is an asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major;[3][4][5][6] six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (Ѵ), of third magnitude. Four define a "bowl" or "body" and three define a "handle" or "head". It is recognized as a distinct grouping in many cultures. The North Star (Polaris), the current northern pole star and the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper (Little Bear), can be located by extending an imaginary line through the front two stars of the asterism, Merak () and Dubhe (ϫ). This makes it useful in celestial navigation. The constellation of Ursa Major has been seen as a bear, a wagon, or a ladle. The "bear" tradition is Greek, but apparently the name "bear" has parallels in Siberian or North American traditions.[7][8][9] The name "Bear" is Homeric, and apparently native to Greece, while the "Wain" tradition is Mesopotamian. Book XVIII of Homer's Iliad mentions it as "the Bear, which men also call the Wain".[10] In Latin, these seven stars were known as the "Seven Oxen" (septentriones, from septem trins).[11] The classical mythographer identified the "Bear" as the nymph Callisto, changed into a she-bear by Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus. In Ireland and the United Kingdom, this pattern is known as the Plough. The symbol of the Starry Plough has been used as a political symbol by Irish Republican and left wing movements. Former names include the Great Wain (i.e., wagon) or Butcher's Cleaver. The terms Charles's Wain and Charles his Wain are derived from the still older Carlsw?n.[12] A folk etymology holds that this derived from Charlemagne, but the name is common to all the Germanic languages and intended the churls' wagon (i.e., "the men's wagon"), in contrast with the women's wagon (the Little Dipper).[13][14] An older "Odin's Wain" may have preceded these Nordic designations.[12] In German, it is known as the "Great Wagon" (Gro?er Wagen) and, less often, the "Great Bear" (Gro?er B?r). In Scandinavia, it is known by variations of "Charles's Wagon" (Karlavagnen, Karlsvogna, or Karlsvognen), but also the "Great Bear" (Stora Bj?rn). In Dutch, its official name is the "Great Bear" (Grote Beer), but it is popularly known as the "Saucepan" (Steelpannetje). In Italian, too, it is called the "Great Wagon" (Grande Carro). In Romanian and most Slavic languages, it is known as the "Great Wagon" as well, but, in Hungarian, it is commonly called "G?nc?l's Wagon" (G?nc?lszekr) or, less often, "Big G?nc?l" (Nagy G?nc?l) after a tltos (shaman) in Hungarian mythology who carried medicine that could cure any disease. In Finnish, the figure is known as Otava with established etymology in the archaic meaning 'salmon net', although other uses of the word refer to 'bear' and 'wheel'.[15] The bear relation is claimed to stem from the animal's resemblance toand mythical origin fromthe asterism rather than vice versa.[16][17] In the Lithuanian language, the stars of Ursa Major are known as Didieji Gr??ulo Ratai ("Stars of the Riding Hall's Wheels"). Other names for the constellation include Perkno Ratai ("Wheels of Perknas"), Kau?as ("Bucket"), Ve?imas ("Carriage"), and Samtis ("Summit"). In traditional Chinese astronomy, which continues to be used throughout East Asia (e.g., in astrology), these stars are generally considered to compose the Right Wall of the Purple Forbidden Enclosure which surrounds the Northern Celestial Pole, although numerous other groupings and names have been made over the centuries. Similarly, each star has a distinct name, which likewise has varied over time and depending upon the asterism being constructed.[18] The Western asterism is now known as the "Northern Dipper" () or the "Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper" (Chinese and Japanese: 횤x; pinyin: Bidu Qؐxؐng; Cantonese Yale: Bak1-dau2 Cat1-sing1; rmaji: Hokut Shichisei; Korean: ????; romaja: Bukdu Chilseong; Vietnamese: Sao B?c ??u). The personification of the Big Dipper itself is also known as "Doumu" (d) in Chinese folk religion and Taoism, and Marici in Buddhism. In Shinto, the seven largest stars of Ursa Major belong to Amenominakanushi, the oldest and most powerful of all kami. In North Korea, the constellation is featured on the flag of the country's special forces.[citation needed] In South Korea, the constellation is referred to as "the seven stars of the north". In the related myth, a widow with seven sons found comfort with a widower, but to get to his house required crossing a stream. The seven sons, sympathetic to their mother, placed stepping stones in the river. Their mother, not knowing who put the stones in place, blessed them and, when they died, they became the constellation.[citation needed] In Malaysian, it is known as the "Dipper Stars" (Buruj Biduk); in Indonesian, as the "Canoe Stars" (Bintang Biduk).[19] In Burmese, these stars are known as Pucwan Tr (?????? ????, pronounced "bazun taya"). Pucwan (??????) is a general term for a crustacean, such as prawn, shrimp, crab, lobster, etc.[citation needed] In Javanese, as known as "Bintang Kartika". This name comes from Sanskrit which refers "krttik?" the same star cluster. In ancient Javanese this brightest seven stars are known as Lintang Wuluh, literally means "seven stars". This star cluster is so popular because its emergence into the sky signals the time marker for planting.[citation needed] In Hindu astronomy, it is referred to as the "Collection of Seven Great Sages" (Saptarshi Mandala), as each star is named after a mythical Hindu sage.[citation needed] An Arabian story has the four stars of the Plough's bowl as a coffin, with the three stars in the handle as mourners, following it.[citation needed] In Mongolian, it is known as the "Seven Gods" (񶶾 ).[citation needed] In Kazakh, they are known as the Jetiqaraqshi (A???) and, in Kyrgyz, as the Jetigen (A̿).[citation needed] Within Ursa Major the stars of the Big Dipper have Bayer designations in consecutive Greek alphabetical order from the bowl to the handle. In the same line of sight as Mizar, but about one light-year beyond it, is the star Alcor (80 UMa). Together they are known as the "Horse and Rider". At fourth magnitude, Alcor would normally be relatively easy to see with the unaided eye, but its proximity to Mizar renders it more difficult to resolve, and it has served as a traditional test of sight. Mizar itself has four components and thus enjoys the distinction of being part of an optical binary as well as being the first-discovered telescopic binary (1617) and the first-discovered spectroscopic binary (1889). Five of the stars of the Big Dipper are at the core of the Ursa Major Moving Group. The two at the ends, Dubhe and Alkaid, are not part of the swarm, and are moving in the opposite direction. Relative to the central five, they are moving down and to the right in the map. This will slowly change the Dipper's shape, with the bowl opening up and the handle becoming more bent. In 50,000 years the Dipper will no longer exist as we know it, but be re-formed into a new Dipper facing the opposite way. The stars Alkaid to Phecda will then constitute the bowl, while Phecda, Merak, and Dubhe will be the handle. Not only are the stars in the Big Dipper easily found themselves, they may also be used as guides to yet other stars. Thus it is often the starting point for introducing Northern Hemisphere beginners to the night sky: Additionally, the Dipper may be used as a guide to telescopic objects: The "Seven Stars" referenced in the Bible's Book of Amos[20] may refer to these stars or, more likely, to the Pleiades. In addition, the constellation has also been used in corporate logos[21] and the Alaska flag. The seven stars on a red background of the Flag of the Community of Madrid, Spain, are the stars of the Big Dipper Asterism. It can be said the same thing about the seven stars pictured in the bordure azure of the Coat of arms of Madrid, capital of Spain.[citation needed]

Robert Lamm🚨 Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois, calling themselves the Chicago Transit Authority in 1968 before shortening the name in 1969. The self-described rock and roll band with horns began writing politically charged rock music, and later moved to a softer sound, generating several hit ballads. The group had a steady stream of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Since at least 2008, Billboard has shown Chicago to be one of the "greatest of all time" American bands in singles chart success,[1][2][3] and since 2015, the "greatest of all time" American band in album chart success as well.[4] Chicago is one of the longest-running and most successful rock groups, and one of the world's best-selling groups of all time, having sold more than 100 million records.[5][6] In 1971, Chicago was the first rock act to sell out Carnegie Hall for a week.[7] To date, Chicago has sold over 40 million units in the U.S., with 23 gold, 18 platinum, and 8 multi-platinum albums.[8][9][10] They have had five consecutive number-one albums on the Billboard 200[11] and 20 top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100.[12] They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.[13] In 2017, original band members Peter Cetera, Robert Lamm, and James Pankow were elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame for their songwriting efforts as members of the music group.[14][15] The group now known as Chicago began on February 15, 1967, at a meeting involving saxophonist Walter Parazaider, guitarist Terry Kath, drummer Danny Seraphine, trombonist James Pankow, trumpet player Lee Loughnane, and keyboardist/singer Robert Lamm. Kath, Parazaider, and Seraphine had played together previously in two other groups Jimmy Ford and the Executives, and the Missing Links.[16]:29-49 Parazaider, Pankow and Loughnane met as students at DePaul University.[16]:48-49 Lamm who was a student at Roosevelt University,[17] was recruited from his group, Bobby Charles and the Wanderers.[16]:49 The group of six called themselves the Big Thing, and like most other groups playing in Chicago nightclubs, played Top 40 hits. Realizing the need for both a tenor to complement baritones Lamm and Kath, and a bass player because Lamm's use of organ bass pedals did not provide "adequate bass sound", local tenor and bassist Peter Cetera was invited to join the Big Thing in late 1967.[18][16]:58-59 While gaining some success as a cover band, the group began working on original songs. In June 1968, at manager James William Guercio's request, the Big Thing moved to Los Angeles, California, signed with Columbia Records and changed its name to Chicago Transit Authority.[5] It was while performing on a regular basis at the Whisky a Go Go nightclub in West Hollywood that the band got exposure to more famous musical artists of the time. Subsequently, they were the opening act for Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.[16]:77ÿ78,106ÿ107[19] As related to group biographer, William James Ruhlmann, by Walt Parazaider, Jimi Hendrix once told Parazaider, "'Jeez, your horn players are like one set of lungs and your guitar player is better than me.'"[19] Their first record (April 1969), Chicago Transit Authority, is a double album, which is rare for a band's first release. The album made it to No. 17 on the Billboard 200 album chart,[11] sold over one million copies by 1970, and was awarded a platinum disc.[20] The album included a number of pop-rock songs ÿ "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?", "Beginnings", "Questions 67 and 68", and "I'm a Man" ÿ which were later released as singles. For this inaugural recording effort the group was nominated for a Grammy Award for 1969 Best New Artist of the Year.[21] According to Cetera, the band was booked to perform at Woodstock in 1969, but promoter Bill Graham, with whom they had a contract, exercised his right to reschedule them to play at the Fillmore West on a date of his choosing, and he scheduled them for the Woodstock dates. Santana, which Graham also managed, took Chicago's place at Woodstock,[22] and that performance is considered to be Santana's "breakthrough" gig.[23] A year later, in 1970, when he needed to replace headliner Joe Cocker, and then Cocker's intended replacement, Jimi Hendrix, Graham booked Chicago to perform at Tanglewood which is considered by some to be a "pinnacle" performance.[24] After the release of their first album, the band's name was shortened to Chicago to avoid legal action being threatened by the actual mass-transit company of the same name.[19] The band released a second album, titled Chicago (retroactively known as Chicago II), which is another double-LP. The album's centerpiece track is a seven-part, 13-minute suite composed by Pankow called "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon". The suite yielded two top ten hits: "Make Me Smile" (No.?9 U.S.) and "Colour My World",[12] both sung by Kath. Among the other tracks on the album: Lamm's dynamic but cryptic "25 or 6 to 4" (Chicago's first Top 5 hit),[12] which is a reference to a songwriter trying to write at 25 or 26 minutes before 4 o'clock in the morning,[25][16]:109[26] and was sung by Cetera with Terry Kath on guitar; the lengthy war-protest song "It Better End Soon"; and, at the end, Cetera's 1969 moon landing-inspired "Where Do We Go from Here?"[27] The double-LP album's inner cover includes the playlist, the entire lyrics to "It Better End Soon", and two declarations: "This endeavor should be experienced sequentially", and, "With this album, we dedicate ourselves, our futures and our energies to the people of the revolution. And the revolution in all of its forms."[28] The album was a commercial success, rising to number four on the Billboard 200,[11] and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1970, and platinum in 1991.[29] The band was nominated for two Grammy Awards as a result of this album, Album of the Year, and Best Contemporary Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus.[21] Chicago III, another double LP, was released in 1971 and charted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.[11] Two singles were released from it: "Free" from Lamm's "Travel Suite", which charted at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100;[12] and "Lowdown", written by Cetera and Seraphine, which made it to No. 40.[12] The album was certified gold by the RIAA in February, 1971, and platinum in November 1986.[29] The band released LPs at a rate of at least one album per year from their third album in 1971 on through the 1970s. During this period, the group's album titles primarily consisted of the band's name followed by a Roman numeral, indicating the album's sequence in their canon. The exceptions to this scheme were the band's fourth album, a live boxed set entitled Chicago at Carnegie Hall, their twelfth album Hot Streets, and the Arabic-numbered Chicago 13. While the live album itself did not bear a number, the four discs within the set were numbered Volumes I through IV. In 1971, the band released Chicago at Carnegie Hall Volumes I, II, III, and IV, a quadruple LP, consisting of live performances, mostly of music from their first three albums, from a week-long run at Carnegie Hall. Chicago was the first rock act to sell out a week at Carnegie Hall and the live recording was made to chronicle that milestone.[7] Along with the four vinyl discs, the packaging contained some strident political messaging about how "We [youth] can change The System", including wall posters and voter registration information.[30][31] The album went gold "out of the box" and on to multi-platinum status.[7] William James Ruhlmann says Chicago at Carnegie Hall was "perhaps" the best-selling box set by a rock act and held that record for 15 years.[7] In recognition of setting Carnegie Hall records and the ensuing four LP live recordings, the group was awarded a Billboard 1972 Trendsetter Award.[32] Drummer Danny Seraphine attributes the fact that none of Chicago's first four albums were issued on single LPs to the productive creativity of this period and the length of the jazz-rock pieces.[33] In 1972 the band released its first single-disc release, Chicago V, which reached No. 1 on both the Billboard pop[11] and jazz album charts.[citation needed] It features "Saturday in the Park", written by Robert Lamm, which mixes everyday life and political yearning in a more subtle way. It peaked at No.?3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1972.[34][35] The second single released from the album was the Lamm-composed "Dialogue (Part I & II)", which featured a musical "debate" between a political activist (sung by Kath) and a blas college student (sung by Cetera). It peaked at No. 24 on the Hot 100 chart.[12] Other albums and singles followed in each of the succeeding years. 1973's Chicago VI was the first of several albums to include Brazilian jazz percussionist Laudir de Oliveira[36] and saw Cetera emerge as the main lead singer. According to William James Ruhlmann, de Oliveira was a "sideman" on Chicago VI, and became an official member of the group in 1974.[36] Chicago VI featured two top ten singles,[12] "Just You 'n' Me", written by Pankow, and "Feelin' Stronger Every Day", written by Pankow and Cetera. Chicago VII was the band's double-disc 1974 release. Three singles were released from this album: "(I've Been) Searchin' So Long", written by Pankow, and "Call On Me", written by Loughnane, which both made it into the top ten;[12] and the Beach Boys-infused "Wishing You Were Here", written by Cetera, which peaked at number eleven.[12] Their 1975 release, Chicago VIII, featured the political allegory "Harry Truman" (No. 13, Top 100 chart) and the nostalgic Pankow-composed "Old Days" (No. 5, Top 100 chart).[37][38] That summer also saw a joint tour across America with the Beach Boys,[36] with the two acts performing separately, then coming together for a finale.[39] Chicago VI, VII and VIII all made it to No. 1 on the Billboard 200,[11] all were certified gold the years they were released, and all have since been certified platinum. Chicago VI was certified two times multi-platinum in 1986.[40] Chicago IX: Chicago's Greatest Hits was released in 1975 and became the band's fifth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard 200.[11] 1976's Chicago X features Cetera's ballad "If You Leave Me Now", which held the top spot in the U.S. charts for two weeks[41] and the UK charts for three weeks.[42] It was the group's first No. 1 single,[36] and won Chicago their only Grammy Award to date,[43] the 1976 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus, at the 19th Annual Grammy Awards held on February 19, 1977.[44] The single was certified gold by the RIAA the same year of its release.[45] The song almost did not make the cut for the album.[36] "If You Leave Me Now" was recorded at the very last minute. The success of the song, according to William James Ruhlmann, foreshadowed a later reliance on ballads.[36] The album was commercially successful. It reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200,[11] was certified both gold and platinum by the RIAA the same year of its release and two times multi-platinum since,[46] and was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.[21] 1976 was the first year that albums were certified platinum by the RIAA.[47] Chicago X was the first platinum album for Columbia Records, which awarded the group a 25-pound bar of pure platinum, made by Cartier, to mark the event.[48] (Billboard magazine reported it as a 30-pound bar.)[49] At the 4th Annual American Music Awards, a fan-voted awards show,[50] held January 31, 1977, Chicago won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group, the group's first of two American Music Awards they have received.[51] The group's 1977 release, Chicago XI, includes Cetera's ballad "Baby, What a Big Surprise", a No. 4 U.S. hit which became the group's last top 10 hit of the decade.[12] Chicago XI performed well commercially, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard 200,[11] and reaching platinum status during the year of its release.[40] Besides recording and touring, during the busy 1970s Chicago also made time for a movie appearance and several television appearances of note. In 1972, Guercio produced and directed Electra Glide in Blue, a film about an Arizona motorcycle policeman. Released in 1973, the film stars Robert Blake and features Cetera, Kath, Loughnane, and Parazaider in supporting roles.[52] The group also appears prominently on the film's soundtrack. Chicago made its "television variety debut" in February 1973 when they were the only rock musicians invited to appear on a television special honoring Duke Ellington, "Duke Ellington ... We Love You Madly," which aired on CBS. They performed the Ellington composition, "Jump for Joy."[53][54][55] In July 1973 the group starred in a half-hour television special produced by Dick Clark, Chicago in the Rockies, which aired in prime time on ABC. The show was filmed on location at Caribou Ranch, the 3,000 acre ranch-turned-recording studio located outside of Boulder, Colorado, owned by Chicago's producer, James William Guercio. The only musical guest on the show was Al Green, who was rated the number-one male vocalist of 1972, and whom Rolling Stone magazine named "Rock and Roll Star of the Year."[56] That special was followed by a second hour-long special the next year, Chicago ... Meanwhile Back at the Ranch, which aired in prime time on ABC in August 1974. Chicago ... Meanwhile Back at the Ranch was again shot on location at Caribou Ranch and was again produced by Dick Clark. Singer Anne Murray and country music star Charlie Rich were guests on the show.[57] Clark produced a third television special starring Chicago, Chicago's New Year's Rockin' Eve 1975, which aired on ABC on December 31, 1974. Musical guests on the ?1?1?2-hour-long show included the Beach Boys, the Doobie Brothers, Olivia Newton-John, and Herbie Hancock. It was the third "Rockin' Eve" Clark had produced, and it competed with Guy Lombardo's traditional New Year's Eve television show which aired on a different network and was in its 45th consecutive year of broadcast. Clark hoped the "Rockin' Eve" format would become an "annual TV custom".[58] The year 1978 began with a split with Guercio.[36] Chicago had recorded its last five studio albums Chicago VI, VII, VIII, X, and XI,[59] and had made two television specials at Guercio's Caribou Ranch. In later years, band members would cite Guercio's purchase of Caribou Ranch, more particularly their realization that Guercio had enough money to purchase Caribou Ranch, as a contributing factor to their disillusionment with him as a producer. They felt he had taken advantage of them financially.[16]:131[60] Then on January 23 of that same year, Kath died of an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound from a gun he thought was unloaded.[61][62] Doc Severinsen, who was the bandleader for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson at the time and a friend of the group, visited them after Kath's funeral and encouraged them to continue. According to writer Jim Jerome, the visit "snapped them back" and helped them make the decision to carry on.[63] After auditioning over 30 potential replacements for Kath, Chicago decided upon guitarist and singer-songwriter Donnie Dacus.[63][61] While filming for the musical Hair, he joined the band in April 1978 just in time for the Hot Streets album.[63] Its energetic lead-off single, "Alive Again", brought Chicago back to the Top 15;[12] Pankow wrote it "originally as a love song but ultimately as recognition of Kath's guiding spirit shining down from above."[64] The 1978 album Hot Streets was produced by Phil Ramone.[63][61] It was Chicago's first album with a title rather than a number; and was the band's first LP to have a picture of the band (shot by photographer Norman Seeff)[65] featured prominently on the cover (with the ubiquitous logo downsized).[63][61] These two moves were seen by many as indications that the band had changed following Kath's death.[63] To a degree, the band returned to the old naming scheme on its subsequent releases, although most titles would now bear Arabic numerals rather than Roman numerals. Hot Streets, the band's 12th album, peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard charts;[11] it was Chicago's first release since their debut to fail to make the Top 10. The release also marked a move somewhat away from the jazz-rock direction favored by Kath and towards more pop songs and ballads. Dacus stayed with the band through the 1979 album Chicago 13,[61] and is also featured in a promotional video on the DVD included in the Rhino Records Chicago box set from 2003. Again produced by Ramone, it was the group's first studio album not to contain a Top 40 hit. Dacus departed from the band following the conclusion of the concert tour in support of Chicago 13, in 1980.[66] Chicago XIV (1980), produced by Tom Dowd, relegated the horn section to the background on a number of tracks, and the album's two singles failed to make the Top 40. Chris Pinnick joined the band to play guitar and remained through 1985,[61] and the band were also augmented by saxophone player Marty Grebb on the subsequent tour.[67] Marty Grebb had formerly been with the Buckinghams, and before that had been Cetera's bandmate in a local Chicago area cover band called the Exceptions.[68] The album peaked at No. 71 on the Billboard 200,[11] and failed to reach gold certification by the RIAA.[40] Believing the band to no longer be commercially viable, Columbia Records dropped them from its roster in 1981 and released a second "Greatest Hits" volume (also known as Chicago XV) later that year to fulfill its contractual obligation.[61] In late 1981, the band had a new producer (David Foster),[61] a new label (Warner Bros. Records),[61] and the addition of keyboardist, guitarist, and singer Bill Champlin (Sons of Champlin).[69] Percussionist Laudir de Oliveira and Marty Grebb departed from the band. During Foster's stewardship, less of an emphasis was placed on the band's horn-based sound, being replaced by lush power ballads, which became Chicago's style during the 1980s. The new sound brought more singles success to the band. For the 1982 album Chicago 16, the band worked with composers from outside the group for the first time, and Foster brought in studio musicians for some tracks (including the core members of Toto),[69] and used new technology (such as synthesizers) to "update" and streamline the sound, further pushing back the horn section, and in some cases not even using them at all. The band did return to the charts with the Cetera-sung ballad "Hard to Say I'm Sorry/Get Away", which is featured in the soundtrack of the Daryl Hannah film Summer Lovers.[70] Co-written by Cetera and David Foster, "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" was the group's second single to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart[12] and brought them a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.[21] Chicago 16 reached both gold and platinum status during the year of its release,[40] and went to No. 9 on the Billboard 200 album chart.[11] 1984's Chicago 17 became the biggest selling album in the band's history, certified by the RIAA in 1997 as six times multi-platinum.[71] The album produced two more Top Ten (both No. 3) singles,[72] "You're the Inspiration", written by Cetera and David Foster, and "Hard Habit to Break", written by?Steve Kipner?and John Lewis Parker. The single, "Hard Habit to Break", brought two more Grammy Award nominations for the band, for Record of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.[21] The album included two other singles: "Stay the Night" (No. 16),[12] another composition by Cetera and Foster; and "Along Comes a Woman" (No. 14),[12] written by Cetera and Mark Goldenberg. Peter's brother, Kenny Cetera, who had provided background vocals on the Chicago 17 album,[73] was brought into the group for the 17 tour to add percussion and high harmony vocals.[74] By 1985, the band was embracing the newest medium, the music video channel MTV, by releasing music videos for four songs. They featured a track titled "Good for Nothing" on the 1985 global activist album, We Are the World.[75] As contributors to the album, along with all other artists who were on the album, the band received its last nomination for a Grammy Award, for Album of the Year.[21] At the 13th Annual American Music Awards, held January 27, 1986, Chicago won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group for the second time.[51] It is the last American Music Award the band has received. Concurrently with Chicago's existing career, lead vocalist Peter Cetera had begun a solo career. He proposed an arrangement with the band where they would take hiatuses after tours to let him focus on solo work (mirroring that of Phil Collins and Genesis), but the band declined. Cetera ultimately left Chicago in the summer of 1985. He soon topped the charts with "Glory of Love" (the theme song of the film The Karate Kid Part II), and with "The Next Time I Fall" (a duet with Amy Grant). Two more songs reached the Top Ten: a 1988 solo hit called "One Good Woman" (No. 4 U.S.), and a 1989 duet with Cher called "After All" (No. 6 U.S.). In 1992, Cetera released his fourth studio album, World Falling Down, which earned him three hits on the Adult Contemporary charts, including the single "Restless Heart". Cetera's former position was filled by bassist and singer-songwriter Jason Scheff, son of Elvis Presley's bassist Jerry Scheff.[76] Guitarist Chris Pinnick also left the group prior to the recording of the band's next album. For the final Foster-produced album, Chicago 18, the band filled Pinnick's spot with several session guitarists, none of whom became band members. The album was released on September 29, 1986,[77] and included the No. 3 single "Will You Still Love Me?", and Top 20 Pop song "If She Would Have Been Faithful...", in addition to an updated version of "25 or 6 to 4" with a video that got airplay on MTV. Soon after the album was recorded, the band hired guitarist Dawayne Bailey,[78][79] formerly of Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band.[80] Bailey and Scheff had previously played in bands together, so Scheff introduced Bailey to the band in time for the Chicago 18 tour. For the 1988 release, Chicago 19, the band had replaced producer Foster with co-producers Ron Nevison, who had recently produced two albums for Heart, and Chas Sanford, who had worked with Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks.[81] They topped the charts again with the Diane Warren-composed single "Look Away". It was the third and last Chicago single to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart.[12] The song ultimately was named as the "Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 Song of the Year" for 1989.[82] The album also yielded two more Top 10 hits, "I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love" and "You're Not Alone",[12] both with Champlin singing solo lead for the first time, and the Scheff-sung No. 55 single, "We Can Last Forever," in addition to including the original version of a Top 5 single titled "What Kind Of Man Would I Be?". The latter, also sung by Scheff, was remixed for inclusion on the band's forthcoming greatest hits record (and 20th album), Greatest Hits 1982ÿ1989, and it was this version that became a hit. The beginning of the 1990s brought yet another departure. Original drummer Danny Seraphine was dismissed from the band in May 1990.[83] Seraphine was succeeded by Tris Imboden,[83] a longtime drummer with Kenny Loggins[84] and former session drummer with Peter Cetera.[85] Imboden made his first appearance on the 1991 album Twenty 1 with a fragment of band's logo, which yielded an eleven-week stretch on the Billboard 200, a peak at No. 66,[86] and the song "Chasin' the Wind" which peaked at No. 39. Twenty 1 would be their last released album of original music for fifteen years. The band was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 23, 1992.[87] In 1993, Chicago wrote and recorded their 22nd album Stone of Sisyphus.[88] This album was to have marked their return to their traditional composition of the 1970s, emphasizing major horn accompaniment.[89] However, following a reorganization of the record company, the new executives at Reprise Records (now part of the newly formed Warner Music Group) rejected the completed album. It remained unpublished for fifteen years, aside from bootleg tapes and Internet files.[88] This contributed to the parting of the band from the record label. The band was dismayed by the failure of the label. Upset with the shelving of the album, Dawayne Bailey voiced his objections and his annual contract was not renewed by the band in late 1994. And in the years that followed there were many debates and conjecture about the events surrounding the recordings. It was also suggested some years later that the band's management was negotiating with the label regarding a licensing of the extensive Chicago back catalog, and when those talks stalled, the label apparently retaliated by scrapping the project.[89] The album eventually saw an expanded release on Rhino Records in June 2008 to favorable reviews from both fans and critics and made it to No. 122 on the album charts.[11] After finishing their 1994 tour, and after signing with the Warner Bros. Records' imprint label Giant Records, they released their 1995 album Night & Day: Big Band,[90] consisting of covers of songs originally recorded by Sarah Vaughan, Glenn Miller, and Duke Ellington. Guitarist Bruce Gaitsch stepped in and joined the band to handle the album's guitar work.[91][92][93] The album featured guest appearances by Paul Shaffer of David Letterman fame, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, and The Gipsy Kings.[94] Walter Parazaider cited the group's participation in the 1973 television special honoring Duke Ellington, "Duke Ellington ... We Love You Madly", as key in their decision to record this album.[95] In early 1995 Keith Howland, who had been a studio musician and stage hand based in Los Angeles, was recruited as Chicago's new permanent guitarist.[96] In 1998, Chicago released Chicago XXV: The Christmas Album and a live album in 1999, Chicago XXVI. In 2000, the band licensed their entire recorded output to Rhino Records, after having recorded it at Columbia Records and Warner Bros. Records. In 2002, Rhino released a two-disc compilation, The Very Best of Chicago: Only The Beginning, which spanned the band's career. The compilation made the Top 40 and sold over 2 million copies in the U.S. Rhino also began releasing remastered versions of all of the band's Columbia-era albums. The American cable music channel VH1 featured the band in an episode of its Behind the Music series, "Chicago: Behind the Music," season 1, episode 133. The episode first aired on October 15, 2000.[97] In 2004, 2005 and 2009, Chicago toured with Earth, Wind & Fire.[98] On March 21, 2006, their first all-new studio album since Twenty 1 arrived with Chicago XXX. It was produced by Jay DeMarcus, bassist/vocalist with the country trio Rascal Flatts,[99] who was a long-time fan of Chicago and had cited the group as an influence on him as a musician in a previous fan letter to Jason Scheff.[100] It also marked the first time the band's music was available as a digital download. The album peaked at No. 41 in the U.S.,[11] spawning two minor adult contemporary hits: "Feel" and "Love Will Come Back". Two songs from this album, "Feel" and "Caroline", were performed live during Chicago's fall 2005 tour. Chicago made multi-week appearances at the MGM Grand Las Vegas in March, May and October 2006.[99][101] In July 2006, the band made a series of U.S. appearances with Huey Lewis and the News.[102] On October 2, 2007, Rhino Records released the two-disc The Best of Chicago: 40th Anniversary Edition (Chicago XXXI), a new greatest hits compilation spanning their entire forty years, similar to The Very Best of: Only the Beginning, released four years earlier. In 2008, Stone of Sisyphus ÿ once known as the aborted Chicago XXII, now listed officially as Chicago XXXII ÿ was released with an expanded format.[88][89] Drew Hester, who was the percussionist and drummer for the Foo Fighters, joined the band in January 2009 to temporarily fill in for an ill Imboden,[103] and continued with the band as a percussionist upon Imboden's return later in the year.[104] In August 2009, Champlin was fired from the band.[105] He was replaced by Grammy-nominated keyboardist Lou Pardini, who had worked with Stevie Wonder and Santana.[106] In 2010 (just as they had already done in 1999 and 2008) Chicago toured with the Doobie Brothers (and would do so again in 2017).[107] A 2011 performance in Chicago became a video for the HDNet cable channel that featured the Doobie Brothers joining Chicago for three encore tunes.[108] The band also appeared on the season nine finale of American Idol.[109] On July 24, 2011, the band performed at Red Rocks in Colorado, accompanied by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.[110] With Chicago XXXIII: O Christmas Three, the band re-teamed with producer Ramone (he had previously released the new tracks for the expanded Christmas re-release What's It Gonna Be, Santa?) to record a new Christmas album.[111] Dolly Parton was a guest artist on the album,[111] which was released in October 2011. In the meantime, Rhino released Chicago XXXIV: Live in '75, a two-disc set containing two hours of previously unreleased performances recorded June 24ÿ26, 1975 at the Capital Centre in Largo, Maryland, featuring the original members of Chicago performing some of their greatest hits up to that point. In 2012, Chicago and the Doobie Brothers held another joint tour.[112] That same year, Hester left the group shortly before the tour,[104] and was succeeded, first by percussionist Daniel de los Reyes,[113][114] then by Daniel's brother and former long-term Santana member, Walfredo Reyes Jr.[113][115][116] In 2013 Robert Lamm, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, and Walter Parazaider appeared in the HBO movie Clear History as the band Chicago.[117] In late 2013, the band began releasing singles for a new album, starting with "Somethin' Comin', I Know" in August, "America" in September, "Crazy Happy" in December 2013, and "Naked in the Garden of Allah" in January 2014. The album, titled Chicago XXXVI: Now, was released on July 4, 2014.[118] In 2015, Chicago was listed among the nominees for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[119] The original lineup was inducted at the 31st annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on April 8, 2016 along with N.W.A., Deep Purple, Steve Miller, and Cheap Trick.[120] In February 2016, it was announced that original drummer Danny Seraphine would join the current lineup of Chicago for the first time in over 25 years for the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.[121] Peter Cetera chose not to attend.[122] Terry Kath's daughter Michelle accepted her father's award.[122] In July 2016, Chicago performed on ABC's Greatest Hits.[123][124] After taking a temporary leave in May 2016, citing "family health reasons",[125][126] it was announced on October 25, 2016 that Jason Scheff had left Chicago after 31 years.[125][127] Bassist/vocalist Jeff Coffey, who had been filling in for Scheff during his absence, was promoted to a full-time member.[128] Saxophonist Ray Herrmann, who had previously filled in for Walter Parazaider on various tour dates since 2005, also became an official member at this time after Parazaider retired permanently from the road.[129] In January 2017, CNN Films aired a 2-hour biographical documentary film on the group titled Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago.[130] The film was directed and edited by Peter Pardini, nephew of band member Lou Pardini, and produced by the band, Chicago.[131] The film was the highest rated program in its premiere in the 25-54 demographic and has a 7.1 rating on IMDB.[132] The film won the 2016 "Best of the Fest" Audience Choice Award at the Sedona International Film Festival.[133] At the 10th Annual Fort Myers Beach Film Festival in 2016, it won the "People's Choice" award and Peter Pardini won the "Rising Star Award" as director and filmmaker.[134] On February 22, 2017 it was announced that Peter Cetera, Robert Lamm, and James Pankow are among the 2017 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees for their songwriting efforts as members of the music group, Chicago.[14][15] The induction event was held Thursday, June 15 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.[14] Chicago's website stated that in 2017, the band was working on a new album, Chicago XXXVII.[135] On September 17, 2017, former percussionist Laudir de Oliveira died of a heart attack while performing onstage in his native Rio de Janeiro.[136][137] Chicago began their 2018 touring schedule on Saturday, January 13 by performing the grand opening concert at the new Xcite Center in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.[138] On Wednesday, January 17, 2018, drummer Tris Imboden announced he was leaving the band after 27 years to spend more time with his family.[139] On Friday, January 19, 2018, bassist and vocalist Jeff Coffey announced on his Facebook page that he was also departing from the band due to its heavy touring schedule.[139] Chicago announced that percussionist Walfredo Reyes, Jr. was moving over to drums, replacing Imboden.[140] Vocalist Neil Donell, of Chicago tribute band Brass Transit, was chosen as the band's new lead singer and session musician Brett Simons also joined the band as their new bassist.[141][142] Daniel de los Reyes' return to the percussion position was announced, filling the vacancy left by his brother's move to the drumset.[143][144] On April 6, 2018, Chicago released Chicago: VI Decades Live (This is What We Do), a box set chronicling the band's live performances throughout their history.[145] In May 2018, it was revealed that percussionist Daniel de los Reyes was departing Chicago to go back to his other group, the Zac Brown Band.[146] On Thursday, May 17, 2018, Chicago announced on their official Facebook page and on their Twitter account that "Ray" Ramon Yslas had joined the band on percussion. In July 2018 the band updated its official web site, and no longer listed Walter Parazaider as a member of the band.[147] Instead he is included on the band's "Tribute to Founding Members."[148] Parazaider had retired from touring previously.[129][149][150] Upon being renamed from Chicago Transit Authority to Chicago, the band sported a new logo. Its inspiration was found in the design of the Coca-Cola logo,[151][152][153] in the attitude of the city of Chicago itself,[154] and in the desire to visually transcend the individual identities of the band's members.[151] It was designed[154] by the Art Director of Columbia/CBS Records, John Berg,[151][152][153] with each album's graphic art work being done by Nick Fasciano.[155][156] Berg said, "The Chicago logo...was fashioned for me by Nick Fasciano from my sketch."[151] The logo would serve as the band's chief visual icon from Chicago II, onward. In various artistic forms and visual similes, it has been the subject of every subsequent album cover, except the fifteenth album, Greatest Hits, Volume II. For example, it appeared as an American flag on III, a piece of wood on V, a U.S. dollar bill on VI, a leather relief on VII, an embroidered patch on VIII, a chocolate bar on X, a map on XI, a building on 13, a fingerprint on XIV, a computer silicon chip on 16, a parcel on 17, a mosaic on 18, and an aquarelle on 19. Chicago IX's incarnation was a caricature of the band itself, in the shape of the logo. The album cover series has endured as a cataloged work of art in its own right, described by Paul Nini of the American Institute of Graphic Arts as a "real landmark in record cover design".[151] In 2013, the iconic status of Chicago's album art was featured in a New York art museum exhibit, which centered upon ninety-five album covers completely selected from John Berg's career portfolio of hundreds. Having overseen the design of approximately fourteen Chicago album covers across more than twenty years, Berg stated that this artistic success resulted from the combination of Chicago's "unique situation" and his position in "the best possible job at the best possible time to have that job, at the center of the graphic universe".[152] Berg won the 1976 Grammy Award for Best Album Package for Chicago X, one of four Grammy Awards he won in his lifetime.[157] The book titled Type and Image: The Language of Graphic Design described the logo as "a warm vernacular form, executed in thick script letters with Victorian swashes in the tradition of sports teams and orange crate labels." The book mentions the cultural and material background of the city of Chicago as inspiration for the logo; for example, describing the leather embossing of Chicago VII as representative of the great fire and the stockades. The author connects the album art to the atmosphere of the band's namesake city, quoting the band's original manager, James William Guercio: "The printed word can never aspire to document a truly musical experience, so if you must call them something, speak of the city where all save one were born; where all of them were schooled and bred, and where all of this incredible music went down barely noticed; call them CHICAGO."[154] As of July 2018, the three remaining original members of Chicago are Robert Lamm, Lee Loughnane, and James Pankow.[147] Billboard awards Playboy awards Other honors

the Roman Empire🚨The history of Egypt has been long and rich, due to the flow of the Nile river, with its fertile banks and delta. Its rich history also comes from its native inhabitants and outside influence. Much of Egypt's ancient history was a mystery until the secrets of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered with the discovery and help of the Rosetta Stone. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. The Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the other Seven Wonders, is gone. The Library of Alexandria was the only one of its kind for centuries. Human settlement in Egypt dates back to at least 40,000 BC with Aterian tool manufacturing.[citation needed] Ancient Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh of the First Dynasty, Narmer. Predominately native Egyptian rule lasted until the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the sixth century BC. In 332 BC, Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great conquered Egypt as he toppled the Achaemenids and established the Hellenistic Ptolemaic Kingdom, whose first ruler was one of Alexander's former generals, Ptolemy I Soter. The Ptolemies had to fight native rebellions and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its final annexation by Rome. The death of Cleopatra ended the nominal independence of Egypt resulting in Egypt becoming one of the provinces of the Roman Empire.[citation needed] Roman rule in Egypt (including Byzantine) lasted from 30 BC to 641 AD, with a brief interlude of control by the Sasanian Empire between 619-629, known as Sasanian Egypt.[citation needed] After the Muslim conquest of Egypt, parts of Egypt became provinces of successive Caliphates and other Muslim dynasties: Rashidun Caliphate (632-661), Umayyad Caliphate (661ÿ750), Abbasid Caliphate (750-909), Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171), Ayyubid Sultanate (1171ÿ1260), and the Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517). In 1517, Ottoman sultan Selim I captured Cairo, absorbing Egypt into the Ottoman Empire.[citation needed] Egypt remained entirely Ottoman until 1867, except during French occupation from 1798 to 1801.[citation needed] Starting in 1867, Egypt became a nominally autonomous tributary state called the Khedivate of Egypt. However, Khedivate Egypt fell under British control in 1882 following the Anglo-Egyptian War. After the end of World War I and following the Egyptian revolution of 1919, the Kingdom of Egypt was established. While a de jure independent state, the United Kingdom retained control over foreign affairs, defense, and other matters. British occupation lasted until 1954, with the Anglo-Egyptian agreement of 1954. The modern Republic of Egypt was founded in 1953, and with the complete withdrawal of British forces from the Suez Canal in 1956, it marked the first time in 2300 years that Egypt was both fully independent and ruled by native Egyptians.[citation needed] President Gamal Abdel Nasser (president from 1956 to 1970) introduced many reforms and created the short-lived United Arab Republic (with Syria). His terms also saw the Six-Day War and the creation of the international Non-Aligned Movement. His successor, Anwar Sadat (president from 1970 to 1981) changed Egypt's trajectory, departing from many of the political, and economic tenets of Nasserism, re-instituting a multi-party system, and launching the Infitah economic policy. He led Egypt in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to regain Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967. This later led to the EgyptÿIsrael Peace Treaty. Recent Egyptian history has been dominated by events following nearly thirty years of rule by former president Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian revolution of 2011 deposed Mubarak and resulted in the first democratically elected president in Egyptian history, Mohamed Morsi. Unrest after the 2011 revolution and related disputes led to the 2013 Egyptian coup d'tat. There is evidence of petroglyphs along the Nile terraces and in desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishermen was replaced by a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 6000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River, where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society.[1] By about 6000 BC, a Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley.[2] During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badari culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to dynastic Egypt. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining culturally distinct, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC.[3] A unified kingdom was founded 3150 BC by King Menes, leading to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c. 2700ÿ2200 BC., which constructed many pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids. The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years.[4] Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic-speaking Hyksos. The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes. The New Kingdom, c. 1550ÿ1070 BC, began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Tombos in Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first historically attested expression of monotheism came during this period as Atenism. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later invaded and conquered by Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native Egyptians eventually drove them out and regained control of their country.[5] A team lead by Johannes Krause managed the first reliable sequencing of the genomes of 90 mummified individuals in 2017. Whilst not conclusive, because of the non-exhaustive time frame and restricted location that the mummies represent, their study nevertheless showed that these Ancient Egyptians "closely resembled ancient and modern Near Eastern populations, especially those in the Levant, and had almost no DNA from sub-Saharan Africa. What's more, the genetics of the mummies remained remarkably consistent even as different powersincluding Nubians, Greeks, and Romansconquered the empire."[6] In the sixth century BC, the Achaemenid Empire conquered Egypt.[citation needed] The entire Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt, from 525 BC to 402 BC, save for Petubastis III, was an entirely Persian-ruled period, with the Achaemenid kings being granted the title of pharaoh.[citation needed] The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch.[citation needed] It fell to the Persians again in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle.[citation needed] The Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt, also known as the Second Egyptian Satrapy, was effectively a short-living province of the Achaemenid Empire between 343 BC to 332 BC.[citation needed] After an interval of independence, during which three indigenous dynasties reigned (the 28th, 29th and 30th dynasty), Artaxerxes III (358ÿ338 BC) reconquered the Nile valley for a brief second period (343ÿ332 BC), which is called the Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt, thus starting another period of pharaohs of Persian origin.[citation needed] The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state extending from southern Syria in the east, to Cyrene to the west, and south to the frontier with Nubia. Alexandria became the capital city and a center of Greek culture and trade. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves as the successors to the Pharaohs. The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life.[7][8] The last ruler from the Ptolemaic dynasty was Cleopatra, who committed suicide following the burial of her lover Mark Antony, who had died in her arms (from a self-inflicted stab wound) after Augustus had captured Alexandria and her mercenary forces had fled. The Ptolemies faced rebellions of native Egyptians, often caused by an unwanted regime, and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its annexation by Rome. Nevertheless, Hellenistic culture continued to thrive in Egypt well after the Muslim conquest. The native Egyptian/Coptic culture continued to exist as well (the Coptic language itself was Egypt's most widely spoken language until at least the 10th century). Egypt quickly became the Empire's breadbasket supplying the greater portion of the Empire's grain in addition to flax, papyrus, glass, and many other finished goods. The city of Alexandria became a key trading outpost for the Roman Empire (by some accounts, the most important for a time). Shipping from Egypt regularly reached India and Ethiopia among other international destinations.[9] It was also a leading (perhaps the leading) scientific and technological center of the Empire. Scholars such as Ptolemy, Hypatia, and Heron broke new ground in astronomy, mathematics, and other disciplines. Culturally, the city of Alexandria at times rivaled Rome in its importance.[10] Christianity reached Egypt relatively early in the evangelist period of the first century (traditionally credited to Mark the Evangelist).[11] Alexandria, Egypt and Antioch, Syria quickly became the leading centers of Christianity.[12] Diocletian's reign marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established.[13] Sasanian Egypt (known in Middle Persian sources as Agiptus) refers to the brief rule of Egypt and parts of Libya by the Sasanian Empire, which lasted from 619 to 629,[citation needed] until the Sasanian rebel Shahrbaraz made an alliance with the Byzantine emperor Heraclius and had control over Egypt returned to him.[citation needed] The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Persian invasion early in the 7th century, until 639ÿ42, when Egypt was invaded and conquered by the Arab Islamic Empire. The final loss of Egypt was of incalculable significance to the Byzantine Empire, which had relied on Egypt for many agricultural and manufactured goods. When they defeated the Byzantine Armies in Egypt, the Arabs brought Sunni Islam to the country. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with their Christian traditions as well as other indigenous beliefs and practices, leading to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day.[11] These earlier rites had survived the period of Coptic Christianity.[14] Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, with Cairo as the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. By the late 13th century, Egypt linked the Red Sea, India, Malaya, and East Indies.[15] The Greek and Coptic languages and cultures went into a steep decline in favor of Arabic culture (though Coptic managed to last as a spoken language until the 17th century and remains a liturgical language today). The Mamluks continued to govern the country until the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, after which it became a province of the Ottoman Empire. The mid-14th-century Black Death killed about 40% of the country's population.[16] After the 15th century, the Ottoman invasion pushed the Egyptian system into decline. The defensive militarization damaged its civil society and economic institutions.[15] The weakening of the economic system combined with the effects of plague left Egypt vulnerable to foreign invasion. Portuguese traders took over their trade.[15] Egypt suffered six famines between 1687 and 1731.[17] The 1784 famine cost it roughly one-sixth of its population.[18] The brief French invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte began in 1798. The expulsion of the French in 1801 by Ottoman, Mamluk, and British forces was followed by four years of anarchy in which Ottomans, Mamluks, and Albanians who were nominally in the service of the Ottomans ÿ wrestled for power. Out of this chaos, the commander of the Albanian regiment, Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) emerged as a dominant figure and in 1805 was acknowledged by the Sultan in Istanbul as his viceroy in Egypt; the title implied subordination to the Sultan but this was in fact a polite fiction: Ottoman power in Egypt was finished and Muhammad Ali, an ambitious and able leader, established a dynasty that was to rule Egypt until the revolution of 1952. In later years, the dynasty became a British puppet.[19] His primary focus was military: he annexed Northern Sudan (1820ÿ1824), Syria (1833), and parts of Arabia and Anatolia; but in 1841 the European powers, fearful lest he topple the Ottoman Empire itself, forced him to return most of his conquests to the Ottomans, but he kept the Sudan and his title to Egypt was made hereditary. A more lasting result of his military ambition is that it required him to modernize the country. Eager to adopt the military (and therefore industrial) techniques of the great powers, he sent students to the West and invited training missions to Egypt. He built industries, a system of canals for irrigation and transport, and reformed the civil service.[19] The introduction in 1820 of long-staple cotton, the Egyptian variety of which became notable, transformed its agriculture into a cash-crop monoculture before the end of the century. The social effects of this were enormous: land ownership became concentrated and many foreigners arrived, shifting production towards international markets.[19] British indirect rule lasted from 1882, when the British succeeded in defeating the Egyptian Army at Tel el-Kebir in September and took control of the country, to the 1952 Egyptian revolution which made Egypt a republic and when British advisers were expelled. Muhammad Ali was succeeded briefly by his son Ibrahim (in September 1848), then by a grandson Abbas I (in November 1848), then by Said (in 1854), and Isma'il (in 1863). Abbas I was cautious. Said and Ismail were ambitious developers, but they spent beyond their means. The Suez Canal, built in partnership with the French, was completed in 1869. The cost of this and other projects had two effects: it led to enormous debt to European banks, and caused popular discontent because of the onerous taxation it required. In 1875 Ismail was forced to sell Egypt's share in the canal to the British Government. Within three years this led to the imposition of British and French controllers who sat in the Egyptian cabinet, and, "with the financial power of the bondholders behind them, were the real power in the Government."[20] Local dissatisfaction with Ismail and with European intrusion led to the formation of the first nationalist groupings in 1879, with Ahmad Urabi a prominent figure. In 1882 he became head of a nationalist-dominated ministry committed to democratic reforms including parliamentary control of the budget. Fearing a reduction of their control, Britain and France intervened militarily, bombarding Alexandria and crushing the Egyptian army at the battle of Tel el-Kebir.[21] They reinstalled Ismail's son Tewfik as figurehead of a de facto British protectorate.[22] In 1914, the Protectorate was made official, and the title of the head of state, which in 1867 had changed from pasha to khedive, was changed again to sultan, to repudiate the vestigial suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan, who was backing the Central powers in the First World War. Abbas II was deposed as khedive and replaced by his uncle, Hussein Kamel, as sultan.[23] In 1906, the Dinshaway Incident prompted many neutral Egyptians to join the nationalist movement. After the First World War, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement to a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on 8 March 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution. The revolt led the UK government to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on 22 February 1922.[24] The new government drafted and implemented a constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936, the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability due to remaining British influence and increasing political involvement by the king led to the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d'tat known as the 1952 Revolution. The Free Officers Movement forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad. British military presence in Egypt lasted until 1954.[25] On 18 June 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser?ÿ the real architect of the 1952 movement?ÿ and was later put under house arrest. Nasser assumed power as President in June 1956. British forces completed their withdrawal from the occupied Suez Canal Zone on 13 June 1956. He nationalized the Suez Canal on 26 July 1956, prompting the 1956 Suez Crisis. In 1958, Egypt and Syria formed a sovereign union known as the United Arab Republic. The union was short-lived, ending in 1961 when Syria seceded, thus ending the union. During most of its existence, the United Arab Republic was also in a loose confederation with North Yemen (formerly the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen) known as the United Arab States. In the 1967 Six Day War, Israel invaded and occupied Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, which Egypt had occupied since the 1948 ArabÿIsraeli War. Three years later (1970), President Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972. He launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while clamping down on religious and secular opposition. In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the October War, a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. It was an attempt to regain part of the Sinai territory that Israel had captured six years earlier. Sadat hoped to seize some territory through military force, and then regain the rest of the peninsula by diplomacy. The conflict sparked an international crisis between the US and the USSR, both of whom intervened. The second UN-mandated ceasefire halted military action. While the war ended with a military stalemate, it presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to regain the Sinai in return for peace with Israel.[26] Sadat made a historic visit to Israel in 1977, which led to the 1979 peace treaty in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League, but it was supported by most Egyptians.[27][dubious ÿ discuss] On 6 October 1981, Sadat and six diplomats were assassinated while observing a military parade commemorating the eighth anniversary of the October 1973 War. He was succeeded by Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak started many projects such as Cairo International Airport and the Cairo metro. Mubarak made many new cities including: In 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, terrorist attacks in Egypt became numerous and severe, and began to target Copts and foreign tourists as well as government officials.[28] Some scholars and authors have credited Islamist writer Sayyid Qutb, who was executed in 1967, as the inspiration for the new wave of attacks.[29][30] The 1990s saw an Islamist group, al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, engage in an extended campaign of violence, from the murders and attempted murders of prominent writers and intellectuals, to the repeated targeting of tourists and foreigners. Serious damage was done to the largest sector of Egypt's economytourism[31]and in turn to the government, but it also devastated the livelihoods of many of the people on whom the group depended for support.[32] Victims of the campaign against the Egyptian state from 1992-1997 exceeded 1,200[33] and included the head of the counter-terrorism police (Major General Raouf Khayrat), a speaker of parliament (Rifaat el-Mahgoub), dozens of European tourists and Egyptian bystanders, and over 100 Egyptian police.[34] At times, travel by foreigners in parts of Upper Egypt was severely restricted and dangerous.[35] On 17 November 1997, 62 people, mostly tourists, were killed near Luxor. The assailants trapped the people in the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. During this period, Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya was given support by the governments of Iran and Sudan, as well as al-Qaeda.[36] The Egyptian government received support during that time from the United States.[36] In 2003, the Kefaya ("Egyptian Movement for Change"), was launched to oppose the Mubarak regime and to establish democratic reforms and greater civil liberties. On 25 January 2011, widespread protests began against Mubarak's government. The objective of the protest was the removal of Mubarak from power. These took the form of an intensive campaign of civil resistance supported by a very large number of people and mainly consisting of continuous mass demonstrations. By 29 January, it was becoming clear that Mubarak's government had lost control when a curfew order was ignored, and the army took a semi-neutral stance on enforcing the curfew decree. Some protesters, a very small minority in Cairo, expressed views against what they deemed was foreign interference, highlighted by the then-held view that the U.S. administration had failed to take sides[clarification needed], as well as linking the administration with Israel.[37] On 11 February 2011, Mubarak resigned and fled Cairo. Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had stepped down and that the Egyptian military would assume control of the nation's affairs in the short term.[38][39] Jubilant celebrations broke out in Tahrir Square at the news.[40] Mubarak may have left Cairo for Sharm el-Sheikh the previous night, before or shortly after the airing of a taped speech in which Mubarak vowed he would not step down or leave.[41] On 13 February 2011, the high level military command of Egypt announced that both the constitution and the parliament of Egypt had been dissolved. The parliamentary election was to be held in September.[42] A constitutional referendum was held on 19 March 2011. On 28 November 2011, Egypt held its first parliamentary election since the previous regime had been in power. Turnout was high and there were no reports of violence, although members of some parties broke the ban on campaigning at polling places by handing out pamphlets and banners.[43] There were however complaints of irregularities.[44] The first round of a presidential election was held in Egypt on 23 and 24 May 2012. Mohamed Morsi won 25% of the vote and Ahmed Shafik, the last prime minister under deposed leader Hosni Mubarak, 24%. A second round was held on 16 and 17 June. On 24 June 2012, the election commission announced that Mohamed Morsi had won the election, making him the first democratically elected president of Egypt. According to official results, Morsi took 51.7 percent of the vote while Shafik received 48.3 percent. On 8 July 2012, Egypt's new president Mohamed Morsi announced he was overriding the military edict that dissolved the country's elected parliament and he called lawmakers back into session.[45] On 10 July 2012, the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt negated the decision by Morsi to call the nation's parliament back into session.[46] On 2 August 2012, Egypt's Prime Minister Hisham Qandil announced his 35-member cabinet comprising 28 newcomers including four from the influential Muslim Brotherhood, six others and the former military ruler Mohamed Hussein Tantawi as the Defence Minister from the previous Government.[47] On 22 November 2012, Morsi issued a declaration immunizing his decrees from challenge and seeking to protect the work of the constituent assembly drafting the new constitution.[48] The declaration also requires a retrial of those accused in the Mubarak-era killings of protesters, who had been acquitted, and extends the mandate of the constituent assembly by two months. Additionally, the declaration authorizes Morsi to take any measures necessary to protect the revolution. Liberal and secular groups previously walked out of the constitutional constituent assembly because they believed that it would impose strict Islamic practices, while Muslim Brotherhood backers threw their support behind Morsi.[49] The move was criticized by Mohamed ElBaradei, the leader of Egypt's Constitution Party, who stated "Morsi today usurped all state powers & appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh" on his Twitter feed.[50][51] The move led to massive protests and violent action throughout Egypt.[52] On 5 December 2012, Tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of Egypt's president clashed, hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails and brawling in Cairo's streets, in what was described as the largest violent battle between Islamists and their foes since the country's revolution.[53] Six senior advisors and three other officials resigned from the government and the country's leading Islamic institution called on Morsi to stem his powers. Protesters also clamored from coastal cities to desert towns.[54] Morsi offered a "national dialogue" with opposition leaders but refused to cancel a 15 December vote on a draft constitution written by an Islamist-dominated assembly that has ignited two weeks of political unrest.[54] A constitutional referendum was held in two rounds on 15 and 22 December 2012, with 64% support, and 33% against. It was signed into law by a presidential decree issued by Morsi on 26 December 2012. On 3 July 2013, the constitution was suspended by order of the Egyptian army. On 30 June 2013, on the first anniversary of the election of Morsi, millions of protesters across Egypt took to the streets and demanded the immediate resignation of the president. On 1 July, the Egyptian Armed Forces issued a 48-hour ultimatum that gave the country's political parties until 3 July to meet the demands of the Egyptian people. The presidency rejected the Egyptian Army's 48-hour ultimatum, vowing that the president would pursue his own plans for national reconciliation to resolve the political crisis. On 3 July, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, announced that he had removed Morsi from power, suspended the constitution and would be calling new presidential and Shura Council elections and named Supreme Constitutional Court's leader, Adly Mansour as acting president. Mansour was sworn in on 4 July 2013. During the months after the coup d'tat, a new constitution was prepared, which took effect on 18 January 2014. After that, presidential and parliamentary elections have to be held in June 2014. On 24 March 2014, 529 Morsi's supporters were sentenced to death, while the trial of Morsi himself was still ongoing.[55] Having delivered a final judgement, 492 sentences were commuted to life imprisonment with "only" 37 death sentences being upheld. On 28 April, another mass trial took place with 683 Morsi supporters sentenced to death for killing 1 police officer.[56] In 2015, Egypt participated in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[57] In the elections of June 2014 El-Sisi won with a percentage of 96.1. Under President el-Sisi, Egypt has implemented a rigorous policy of controlling the border to the Gaza Strip, including the dismantling of tunnels between the Gaza strip and Sinai.

Sugarloaf Mountain🚨Sugarloaf Mountain is the fifth-highest named point in the U.S. state of Florida. At 312 feet (95 meters) above sea level it is also the highest point on the geographic Florida Peninsula.[1] The mountain is in Lake County, near the town of Clermont. Comparatively, Florida's highest point, Britton Hill, rises to 345 feet (105?m) above sea level in the Florida Panhandle. However, Sugarloaf Mountain is the most prominent point in the entire state.[3] Sugarloaf Mountain, located along the western shore of Lake Apopka in Lake County, Florida, is the northernmost named upland associated with the Lake Wales Ridge, a series of sand hills running south to Highlands County. The mountain, really a ridge with rolling dome-like peaks, rises abruptly from the surrounding flat terrain. Its prominence is thought to be 245 feet (75?m),[1] with its highest peak having a local prominence of approximately 200 feet (61?m) relative to the surrounding ridge.[4] Despite not being the highest point in Florida (which is Britton Hill near the Alabama border, the lowest high point of any U.S. state), Sugarloaf Mountain's summit is the most prominent peak in the state, and in a national ranking, is more prominent than the most prominent hills in both Louisiana and Delaware.[3] Prior to the 20th century, Sugarloaf Mountain was a wilderness dominated by sandhill and flatwood pine forests. By the 1920s, logging had stripped the mountain of its hardwood vegetation, permanently altering its native environment. Scrub began to grow on the mountain's slopes, in addition to grapes, which were planted mostly to the south of the mountain for a decade or so.[5][6] By the 1940s, grape farming had declined due to fungal diseases, and it was replaced by citrus farming. Citrus plantations flourished on the flanks of Sugarloaf Mountain, providing the basis for the local economy until the 1980s, when freezes began to systematically devastate local groves. As the citrus industry faded, property on the mountain was rezoned for residential development, with value seen in the mountain's panoramic views of the surrounding area.[5][7] Other lands abutting the mountain, primarily along Lake Apopka, were preserved with the intention of restoring long absent ecologies.[5][8][9] Only a few citrus plantations and vineyards managed to persist to the present day. Sugarloaf Mountains geology is tied to the formation of Floridas sand ridges, specifically the Lake Wales Ridge. The mountain consists of relict sand ridges and dunes formed in a marine shoreline environment approximately 2 million years ago during the Pleistocene epoch.[6] Since the Pleistocene, the sands comprising the mountain have probably been uplifted due to isostatic rebound of the crust beneath the Florida Platform. The uplift is attributed to the karstification/erosion of the platform, which is reducing the weight on the underlying basement rock, triggering a process similar to post glacial rebound.[10] Sugarloaf Mountain was recently recognized for its scenic, cultural, and historic value. The state of Florida designated the Green Mountain Scenic Byway, which primarily traverses the eastern side of the mountain. The route offers rare panoramic views of the surrounding landscape and access to newly acquired ecological preserves and historic sites. Biking along the Byway as well as on other roads on the mountain has become popular, due to the challenge imposed by the relatively rugged terrain of the mountain compared to the surrounding area.[5] Sugarloaf Mountain also featured a golf course designed by the firm of Coore & Crenshaw. The course, part of the proposed private Sugarloaf Mountain Golf Club residential development, was somewhat unusual in Florida, and took advantage of the relatively prominent topography.[11] The golf course was closed in 2012 due to low turnout and the inability for the planned development to take hold following the 2008 housing bubble and has remained abandoned since. Media related to Sugarloaf Mountain (Florida) at Wikimedia Commons

season 11🚨Derek Christopher Shepherd,[1] M.D., also referred to as "McDreamy", is a fictional surgeon from the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy, portrayed by actor Patrick Dempsey. He made his first appearance in the pilot episode, "A Hard Day's Night", which was broadcast on March 27, 2005. Derek was married to Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) for 12 years, before their divorce in 2006. Before his death in 2015, Derek was happily married to his longtime girlfriend and wife Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo). The couple have three children together. Shepherd was formerly the Chief of Surgery at Seattle Grace Mercy West (now known as Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital), but abruptly resigned as chief in season 7 following the shooting. For his portrayal of Shepherd, Dempsey was nominated in 2006 and 2007 Golden Globe for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series Drama for the role, and the 2006 SAG Award for the Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Drama Series. Derek arrives at Seattle Grace Hospital as the new Head of Neurosurgery from New York City. He is a Bowdoin College graduate[2] and attended Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons alongside his childhood best friend Mark Sloan and ex-wife Addison Montgomery and Private Practice characters Naomi Bennett and Sam Bennett. Derek was a student of Dr. Richard Webber and was enticed to come with an "offer he couldnt refuse"[3]?ÿ the position of Chief of Surgery, which he eventually turned down. He specializes in highly complex tumors and conditions of the brain and spine[4][5][6] and came to Seattle Grace with a reputation for taking on "lost causes" and "impossible" cases[7] that most of his peers would turn down. As an attending he is both well-liked and feared well-liked by patients and his scrub nurses for his compassion and gentlemanly bedside manner and feared by interns and residents who are intimidated by his reputation and high standards.[4][8] He is passionate about his job and has been known to expel staff or remove interns and residents (or at least threaten them) from his service for being disrespectful about patients or if he deems their attitude to be detrimental to his patient's well-being.[9][10][11][8] Derek first meets Meredith Grey at a bar, and soon finds out that she is an intern at Seattle Grace. They begin to have feelings for one another and it causes some awkwardness at work, particularly after her supervising resident Dr. Miranda Bailey discovers their relationship. Meredith's housemates and fellow interns George O'Malley and Izzie Stevens both antagonized her for some time as they felt she was using her relationship with Derek to further her career. He generally tolerated them despite his dislike of sharing his living space with the interns who worked under him. While most of his family members accepted Meredith, his sister, Nancy, particularly disliked her and repeatedly called her "the slutty intern";[12] as of season nine she still refuses to speak to Meredith or acknowledge her as her sister-in-law.[13] His mother Carolyn approved as she felt Meredith's gray perspective of life complemented Derek's tendency to see everything in black and white.[14] Derek's background was generally a mystery for the first season and source of speculation amongst his colleagues due to his sudden departure from an established and highly respected practice in New York. In the season one finale, his past eventually catches up with him when his estranged wife Addison moves to Seattle and is offered a position by Dr. Webber. Shortly thereafter, his childhood best friend Mark joins Seattle Grace as the new head of plastic surgery. Derek and Addison attempt to repair their marriage but attempts were futile. Since their divorce they have remained on amicable terms, with Addison even admonishing Meredith for breaking up with Derek in season three. In the Private Practice episode "Ex-Life" Derek finally tells Addison that his mother never liked her in the first place. He admits to Meredith that Addison cheating on him with Mark was partly his fault as an absentee husband.[15] Addison eventually leaves Seattle for a private practice in Los Angeles, spawning the spin-off Private Practice. In the season eight episode "If/Then", Meredith dreams of an alternate universe where her mother never had Alzheimer's; Derek and Addison are still married but their strained relationship and Shepherd's disillusionment causes his career to stagnate, earning him the nicknames "Bad Shepherd" and "McDreary". When Derek is offered the Chief of Surgery position for the second time, he persuades the board to keep Dr. Webber on the staff. During the merger of Seattle Grace with Mercy West their relationship sours when Derek disagreed with Richard's handling of the merger and Richard begins to display uncharacteristic behavior, not unnoticed by his fellow surgeons. Derek learns from Meredith that Richard has since resumed drinking and feels forced to have him removed as Chief of Surgery. With mixed feelings, Derek offers him an ultimatum: go into rehab and possibly pick up where he left off after, or quit completely. In seasons three and four, Meredith and Derek's relationship becomes rocky and they each take time to date other people. Derek's plans to propose were ruined by a series of unfortunate events in season five. In the season finale, they decide to give their planned wedding to Alex and Izzie. Due to their tight schedule, they instead informally marry and Derek writes down their "promises" on a post-it note. They legalize their marriage in season seven in order to adopt Zola, a young African orphan treated for spina bifida.[16] They briefly separate after Meredith tampers with their Alzheimer's trial, jeopardizing her career and tarnishing Derek's reputation. Zola is taken away from Meredith after a social worker finds out she and Derek are living separately. In later seasons, Derek often griped about how his subsequent interns and residents ÿ mainly Lexie Grey, Shane Ross and Heather Brooks ÿ did not quite measure up to Meredith.[4][10] The social worker comes back and announces they are the official parents of Zola. As Meredith nears the end of her fifth year of residency, she and Derek are torn between staying at Seattle Grace Mercy West or leaving for Boston where Derek would work at Harvard while Meredith would be at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Following his rescue from the plane crash that killed Mark and Lexie, Derek learns that he may only regain 80 percent of his hand's function. He comes to terms with the fact that his career as a surgeon may be over and is grateful that he is alive. When Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez), head of orthopedic surgery, tells him a more risky surgery could give him back full function of his hand or reduce its function if it goes wrong, he agrees, accepting the possibility of never again holding a scalpel. Derek recovers well and Callie clears him to return to work, but it is still weeks later that he feels ready to operate. Derek, Callie and fellow resident Jackson Avery decide to do nerve transplant for his hand. Meredith, newly pregnant with their second child, goes behind his back and calls his sisters so they can donate a nerve to him. Lizzie (Neve Campbell), Derek's younger sister, agrees to donate a nerve and the surgery is a success. Derek and Meredith's marriage is strained after he accepted an invitation from the President to participate in the Brain-Mapping Initiative. He went back on his promise to her that he would not add to his current workload in order to devote time to their two young children and allow her the chance to establish her career as a full-fledged attending. Eventually he was offered a position at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C., but Meredith puts her foot down and refuses to leave her hometown and uproot their young family. His youngest sister Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) takes over his position at Grey Sloan. Meanwhile, he and Meredith fight bitterly on and off over whether they should move. After a bad argument, he accepts the job in the heat of the moment and leaves for Washington. While there, he and Meredith talk things out over the phone and come to a mutual conclusion that they both did not want to end their marriage. He tells her that just being with her, raising their children and operating on patients was more satisfying than "saving the world". In season 11, Derek is involved in a fatal car accident while driving to the airport for his final trip to Washington. He is able to hear and process auditory input, but unable to speak. He is recognized by Winnie, one of the victims of a crash he assisted in earlier, who tells the surgeons that their patient's name is Derek and that he is a surgeon as well. The hospital he was taken to was understaffed and his head injury was not detected quickly enough by the interns on duty that night. Although the neurosurgeon on call is paged multiple times, he takes too long to arrive and Derek is declared brain dead. Police arrive at Meredith's door and take her to see Derek, where she consents to removing him from life support. At the time of his death, Meredith was pregnant with their third child. She gives birth to a daughter whom she names Ellis after her mother. Derek was mentioned or referenced to a number of times in season 12 as the other characters struggle to cope with his sudden death. In the episode "My Next Life", Meredith had a flashback of their first ever surgery together when a patient named Katie Bryce was admitted to the hospital with a brain aneurysm. Amelia took his death especially hard as he was the sibling she was closest to. At the end of the season, prior to her wedding to Derek's long-time colleague Owen Hunt, Amelia goes on a nervous rant about how Derek was supposed to be the one to give her away, him having given away their three other sisters at their weddings. When Patrick Dempsey auditioned for the role of Derek Shepherd, he was afraid that he was not going to get the part. Creator Shonda Rhimes' first reaction was: "The very first time I met him, I was absolutely sure that he was my guy. Reading the lines of Derek Shepherd, Patrick had a vulnerable charm that I just fell for. And he had amazing chemistry with Ellen Pompeo." Rhimes admitted that Dempsey's dyslexia threw her at first, particularly at the first few table readings: "I did not know about Patrick's dyslexia in the beginning. I actually thought that he didn't like the scripts from the way he approached the readings. When I found out, I completely understood his hesitation. Now that we all know, if he is struggling with a word, the other actors are quick to step up and help him out. Everyone is very respectful."[citation needed] Isaiah Washington also auditioned for the part and when he did not get it, he said his reaction was like "I'd been kicked in the stomach by 14 mules." Washington was, however, later cast as Preston Burke.[17] Rob Lowe was also considered to portray Shepherd but turned the role down.[18] Some of the character's medical cases were inspired by real-life patients of Steve Giannotta, Chair of Neurological Surgery at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, whom Rhimes had consulted in writing for Shepherd's storylines and patients.[19] In January 2014, Dempsey signed a two-year contract to remain on Grey's Anatomy (then in its tenth season) that would ensure his presence for potential 11th and 12th seasons.[20] However, in April 2015, Dempsey's character was killed off[21] while his contract was not over yet. Dempsey explained: "it just sort of evolved. Its just kind of happened. It really was something that was kind of surprising that unfolded, and it just naturally came to be. Which was pretty good. I like the way it has all played out."[22] In August 2015, Rhimes commented: The character was later written to be a graduate of Bowdoin College, a liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine, after an alumnus led a petition signed by over 450 students to "adopt" the character as an alumnus.[24] Dempsey is from Lewiston, about 18 miles (29?km) away from Brunswick, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Bowdoin in 2013.[2] Rhimes describes Shepherd as typical "Prince Charming". He was planned to be a doctor who doesn't really care about anything, who lives in his "own" universe and has a big sex appeal. A man who is charming, devilishly handsome and the type of guy every girl dreams of, and a man that often makes the wrong decisions, and is often known as a jerk or the ultimate heartbreaker. Rhimes planned to have this kind of character from the beginning, because he was the kind of guy whom girls fall in love with and a character whose storylines could easily be changed.[citation needed] USA Today writer Robert Bianco said: "Derek could, at times, seem like two people, warm and funny one minute, cold and self-involved the next. Dempsey's gift was in making those two sides seem like part of the same person, while keeping us rooting for that person as a whole."[25] With the show concluding its second season, Robert Bianco of USA Today said that Emmy voters could consider him because of the "seemingly effortless way he humanizes Derek's 'dreamy' appeal with ego and vanity".[26] In the third season, Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger wrote that "the attempt to give the moral high ground back to McDreamy was bad. Dude, whatever happened in New York ceased to count in any kind of grievance tally once you agreed to take Addison back and give things another try. You're the dick who cheated on her, you're the one who knew that she found the panties, and still you act like her getting back together with Mark justifies what you did? Wow. I didn't think it was possible for me to dislike anyone on this show more than Meredith, but congratulations, big guy."[27] Debbie Chang of BuddyTV noted the character's immaturity in the fourth season, saying: "The only character who did not make me love him was Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey). How this character is still Shonda's golden child is beyond me. Yes, we get it. He's tormented by his love for Meredith, but that does not give him the right to lash out at her when his clinical trial patients are dying. If things don't go absolutely the way he wants them to, then he refuses to cooperate. How immature can this man possibly be? No amount of heavily styled hair or blue-blue-blue eyes is going to make me warm up to him unless he admits to being the needy, desperate one in the relationship."[28] Entertainment Weekly placed Shepherd in its list of the "30 Great TV Doctors and Nurses".[29] The character was also listed in Wetpaint's "10 Hottest Male Doctors on TV" and in BuzzFeed's "16 Hottest Doctors On Television".[30][31] His relationship with Meredith was included in TV Guide's list of "The Best TV Couples of All Time".[32] Victor Balta of Today listed Shepherd and Sloan's friendship in its "TV's best bromances". He called them "the most exciting couple on Greys," explaining "theyve demonstrated an easy chemistry that makes for some of the great comic relief around Seattle Grace Hospital with their banter, sage wisdom on each others lives, and locker room-style teasing."[33] Their bromance was furthermore included in lists by About.com, BuddyTV, Cosmopolitan, Wetpaint.[34][35][36][37] However, following the announcement of Dane's upcoming departure from the show, Mark Perigard of the Boston Herald felt he and Derek "never clicked like youd expect friends would. Any scene they had together ranged from uncomfortable to forced."[38]

38 games🚨 The Premier League is the top level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football League (EFL). The Premier League is a corporation in which the member clubs act as shareholders. Seasons run from August to May with each team playing 38 matches (playing each other home and away).[1] Most games are played on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. It is often known outside England as the English Premier League (EPL). The competition was formed as the FA Premier League on 20 February 1992 following the decision of clubs in the Football League First Division to break away from the Football League, founded in 1888, and take advantage of a lucrative television rights deal.[2] The deal was worth S1?billion a year domestically as of 2013ÿ14, with BSkyB and BT Group securing the domestic rights to broadcast 116 and 38 games respectively.[3] The league generates ?2.2?billion per year in domestic and international television rights.[4] In 2014ÿ15, teams were apportioned revenues of S1.6?billion,[5] rising sharply to S2.4?billion in 2016ÿ17.[6] The Premier League is the most-watched sports league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to 643?million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7?billion people.[7] In the 2014ÿ15 season, the average Premier League match attendance exceeded 36,000,[8] second highest of any professional football league behind the Bundesliga's 43,500.[9] Most stadium occupancies are near capacity.[10] The Premier League ranks third in the UEFA coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the past five seasons, as of 2016.[11] Forty-nine clubs have competed since the inception of the Premier League in 1992. Six of them have won the title: Manchester United (13), Chelsea (5), Arsenal (3), Manchester City (3), Blackburn Rovers (1), and Leicester City (1). Following the 2003ÿ04 season, Arsenal acquired the nickname "The Invincibles" as they became, and still remain, the only club to complete a Premier League campaign without losing a single game. The record of most points in a season is 100 by Manchester City in 2017ÿ18. Despite significant European success in the 1970s and early 1980s, the late '80s marked a low point for English football. Stadiums were crumbling, supporters endured poor facilities, hooliganism was rife, and English clubs were banned from European competition for five years following the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985.[12] The Football League First Division, the top level of English football since 1888, was behind leagues such as Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga in attendances and revenues, and several top English players had moved abroad.[13] By the turn of the 1990s the downward trend was starting to reverse: at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, England reached the semi-finals; UEFA, European football's governing body, lifted the five-year ban on English clubs playing in European competitions in 1990, resulting in Manchester United lifting the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1991, and the Taylor Report on stadium safety standards, which proposed expensive upgrades to create all-seater stadiums in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster, was published in January of that year.[14] The 1980s also saw the major English clubs, led by the likes of Martin Edwards of Manchester United, Irving Scholar of Tottenham Hotspur and David Dein of Arsenal, beginning to be transformed into business ventures that applied commercial principles to the running of the clubs, which led to the increasing power of the elite clubs. By threatening to break away, the top clubs from Division One managed to increase their voting power, and took 50% share of all television and sponsorship income in 1986.[15] Revenue from television also became more important: the Football League received S6.3?million for a two-year agreement in 1986, but by 1988, in a deal agreed with ITV, the price rose to S44?million over four years with the leading clubs taking 75% of the cash.[16][17] The 1988 negotiations were conducted under the threat of ten clubs leaving to form a "super league", but were eventually persuaded to stay with the top clubs taking the lion share of the deal.[16][18][19] As stadiums improved and match attendance and revenues rose, the country's top teams again considered leaving the Football League in order to capitalise on the influx of money into the sport.[19] In 1990, the managing director of London Weekend Television (LWT), Greg Dyke, met with the representatives of the "big five" football clubs in England (Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Everton and Arsenal) over a dinner.[20] The meeting was to pave the way for a break away from The Football League. Dyke believed that it would be more lucrative for LWT if only the larger clubs in the country were featured on national television and wanted to establish whether the clubs would be interested in a larger share of television rights money.[21] The five clubs decided it was a good idea and decided to press ahead with it; however, the league would have no credibility without the backing of The Football Association and so David Dein of Arsenal held talks to see whether the FA were receptive to the idea. The FA did not enjoy an amicable relationship with the Football League at the time and considered it as a way to weaken the Football League's position.[22] At the close of the 1991 season, a proposal was tabled for the establishment of a new league that would bring more money into the game overall. The Founder Members Agreement, signed on 17 July 1991 by the game's top-flight clubs, established the basic principles for setting up the FA Premier League.[23] The newly formed top division would have commercial independence from The Football Association and the Football League, giving the FA Premier League licence to negotiate its own broadcast and sponsorship agreements. The argument given at the time was that the extra income would allow English clubs to compete with teams across Europe.[13] Although Dyke played a significant role in the creation of the Premier League, Dyke and ITV would lose out in the bidding for broadcast rights as BSkyB won with a bid of S304?million over five years with the BBC awarded the highlights package broadcast on Match of the Day.[20][21] In 1992, the First Division clubs resigned from the Football League en masse and on 27 May 1992 the FA Premier League was formed as a limited company working out of an office at the Football Association's then headquarters in Lancaster Gate.[13] This meant a break-up of the 104-year-old Football League that had operated until then with four divisions; the Premier League would operate with a single division and the Football League with three. There was no change in competition format; the same number of teams competed in the top flight, and promotion and relegation between the Premier League and the new First Division remained the same as the old First and Second Divisions with three teams relegated from the league and three promoted.[19] The league held its first season in 1992ÿ93. It was composed of 22 clubs for that season. The first Premier League goal was scored by Brian Deane of Sheffield United in a 2ÿ1 win against Manchester United.[24] The 22 inaugural members of the new Premier League were Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Everton, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, and Wimbledon.[25] Luton Town, Notts County, and West Ham United were the three teams relegated from the old first division at the end of the 1991ÿ92 season, and did not take part in the inaugural Premier League season.[26] One significant feature of the Premier League in the mid-2000s was the dominance of the so-called "Top Four" clubs: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United.[27][28] During this decade, they dominated the top four spots, which came with UEFA Champions League qualification, taking all top-four places in 5 out of 6 seasons from 2003ÿ04 to 2008ÿ09 inclusive, while every season during the 2000s saw the "Big Four" always qualifying for European competition. Arsenal went as far as winning the league without losing a single game in 2003ÿ04, the only time it has ever happened in the Premier League.[29] During the 2000s, only four sides outside the "Top Four" managed to qualify for the Champions League: Leeds United (1999ÿ2000), Newcastle United (2001ÿ02 and 2002ÿ03), Everton (2004ÿ05) and Tottenham Hotspur (2009ÿ10) ÿ each occupying the final Champions League spot, with the exception of Newcastle in the 2002ÿ03 season, who finished third. In May 2008 Kevin Keegan stated that "Top Four" dominance threatened the division, "This league is in danger of becoming one of the most boring but great leagues in the world."[30] Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said in defence: "There are a lot of different tussles that go on in the Premier League depending on whether you're at the top, in the middle or at the bottom that make it interesting."[31] Between 2005 and 2012, there was a Premier League representative in seven of the eight Champions League finals, with only "Top Four" clubs reaching that stage. Liverpool (2005), Manchester United (2008) and Chelsea (2012) won the competition during this period, with Arsenal (2006), Liverpool (2007), Chelsea (2008) and Manchester United (2009 and 2011) all losing Champions League finals.[32] Leeds United were the only non-"Top Four" side to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League, in the 2000ÿ01 season. Additionally, between the 1999ÿ2000 and 2009ÿ10 seasons, four Premier League sides reached UEFA Cup or Europa League finals, with only Liverpool managing to win the competition in 2001. Arsenal (2000), Middlesbrough (2006) and Fulham (2010) all lost their finals.[33] The years following 2009 marked a shift in the structure of the "Top Four" with Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City both breaking into the top four places on a regular basis, turning the "Big Four" into the "Big Six".[34] In the 2009ÿ10 season, Tottenham finished fourth and became the first team to break the top four since Everton five years prior.[35] Criticism of the gap between an elite group of "super clubs" and the majority of the Premier League has continued, nevertheless, due to their increasing ability to spend more than the other Premier League clubs.[36] Since the continued presence of Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur at the top end of the table, no side has won consecutive Premier League titles. Manchester City won the title in the 2011ÿ12 season, becoming the first club outside the "Big Four" to win since Blackburn Rovers in the 1994ÿ95 season. That season also saw two of the "Big Four" (Chelsea and Liverpool) finish outside the top four places for the first time since that season.[34] With only four UEFA Champions League qualifying places available in the league, greater competition for qualification now exists, albeit from a narrow base of six clubs. In the following five seasons after the 2011ÿ12 campaign, Manchester United and Liverpool both found themselves outside of the top four three times while Chelsea finished 10th in the 2015ÿ16 season. Arsenal finished 5th in 2016ÿ17, ending their record of 20 consecutive top-four finishes.[37] In the 2015ÿ16 season, the top four was breached by a non-Big Six side for the first time since Everton in 2005. Leicester City were the surprise winners of the league, qualifying for the Champions League as a result.[38] Off the pitch, the "Big Six" wield financial power and influence, with these clubs arguing that they should be entitled to a greater share of revenue due to the greater stature of their clubs globally and the attractive football they aim to play.[39] Objectors argue that the egalitarian revenue structure in the Premier League helps to maintain a competitive league which is vital for its future success.[40] The 2016ÿ17 Deloitte Football Money League report showed the financial disparity between the "Big Six" and the rest of the division. All of the "Big Six" had revenues greater than ?350?million, with Manchester United having the largest revenue in the league at ?676.3?million. Leicester City was the closest club to the "Big Six" in terms of revenue, recording a figure of ?271.1?million for that season ÿ helped by participation in the Champions League. The eighth largest revenue generator West Ham, who didn't play in European competition, had revenues of ?213.3?million, nearly half of the fifth largest club, Liverpool (?424.2?million).[41] The number of clubs was reduced to 20, down from 22, in 1995 when four teams were relegated from the league and only two teams promoted.[42][43] The top flight had only been expanded to 22 teams at the start of the 1991ÿ92 season ÿ the year prior to the formation of the Premier League.[43] On 8 June 2006, FIFA requested that all major European leagues, including Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga, be reduced to 18 teams by the start of the 2007ÿ08 season. The Premier League responded by announcing their intention to resist such a reduction.[44] Ultimately, the 2007ÿ08 season kicked off again with 20 teams.[45] The league changed its name from the FA Premier League to simply the Premier League in 2007.[46] The Football Association Premier League Ltd (FAPL)[47][48][49] is operated as a corporation and is owned by the 20 member clubs. Each club is a shareholder, with one vote each on issues such as rule changes and contracts. The clubs elect a chairman, chief executive, and board of directors to oversee the daily operations of the league.[50] The Football Association is not directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the Premier League, but has veto power as a special shareholder during the election of the chairman and chief executive and when new rules are adopted by the league.[51] The current chairman is Sir Dave Richards, who was appointed in April 1999, and the chief executive is Richard Scudamore, appointed in November 1999.[52] The former chairman and chief executive, John Quinton and Peter Leaver, were forced to resign in March 1999 after awarding consultancy contracts to former Sky executives Sam Chisholm and David Chance.[53] Rick Parry was the league's first chief executive.[54] The Premier League sends representatives to UEFA's European Club Association, the number of clubs and the clubs themselves chosen according to UEFA coefficients. For the 2012ÿ13 season the Premier League has 10 representatives in the Association: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Fulham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur.[55] The European Club Association is responsible for electing three members to UEFA's Club Competitions Committee, which is involved in the operations of UEFA competitions such as the Champions League and UEFA Europa League.[56] There are 20 clubs in the Premier League. During the course of a season (from August to May) each club plays the others twice (a double round-robin system), once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents', for a total of 38 games. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then goal difference, and then goals scored. If still equal, teams are deemed to occupy the same position. If there is a tie for the championship, for relegation, or for qualification to other competitions, a play-off match at a neutral venue decides rank.[57] The three lowest placed teams are relegated into the EFL Championship, and the top two teams from the Championship, together with the winner of play-offs involving the third to sixth placed Championship clubs, are promoted in their place.[58] As of the 2009ÿ10 season qualification for the UEFA Champions League changed, the top four teams in the Premier League qualify for the UEFA Champions League, with the top three teams directly entering the group stage. Previously only the top two teams qualified automatically. The fourth-placed team enters the Champions League at the play-off round for non-champions and must win a two-legged knockout tie in order to enter the group stage.[59] The team placed fifth in the Premier League automatically qualifies for the UEFA Europa League, and the sixth and seventh-placed teams can also qualify, depending on the winners of the two domestic cup competitions i.e. the FA Cup and the EFL Cup. Two Europa League places are reserved for the winners of each tournament; if the winner of either the FA Cup or EFL Cup qualifies for the Champions League, then that place will go to the next-best placed finisher in the Premier League.[60][61] An exception to the usual European qualification system happened in 2005, after Liverpool won the Champions League the year before, but did not finish in a Champions League qualification place in the Premier League that season. UEFA gave special dispensation for Liverpool to enter the Champions League, giving England five qualifiers.[62] UEFA subsequently ruled that the defending champions qualify for the competition the following year regardless of their domestic league placing. However, for those leagues with four entrants in the Champions League, this meant that if the Champions League winner finished outside the top four in its domestic league, it would qualify at the expense of the fourth-placed team in the league. At that time, no association could have more than four entrants in the Champions League.[63] This occurred in 2012, when Chelsea ÿ who had won the Champions League that summer, but finished sixth in the league ÿ qualified for the Champions League in place of Tottenham Hotspur, who went into the Europa League.[64] Starting with the 2015ÿ16 season, the Europa League champion automatically qualifies for the following season's Champions League, and the maximum number of Champions League places for any single association has increased to five. An association with four Champions League places, such as The FA, will only earn a fifth place if a club from that association that does not qualify for the Champions League through its league wins either the Champions League or Europa League.[65] In 2007, the Premier League became the highest ranking European League based on the performances of English teams in European competitions over a five-year period. This broke the eight-year dominance of the Spanish league, La Liga.[66] Between the 1992ÿ93 and the 2017ÿ18 seasons, Premier League clubs won the UEFA Champions League four times (and had six runners-up), behind Spain's La Liga with eleven wins, and Italy's Serie A with five wins; ahead of, among others, Germany's Bundesliga with three wins.[32] The FIFA Club World Cup (originally called the FIFA Club World Championship) has been won once by a Premier League club (Manchester United in 2008),[67] with two runners-up (Liverpool in 2005, Chelsea in 2012),[68][69] behind Spain's La Liga with six wins,[70] Brazil's Brasileir?o with four wins,[68][69][71][72] and Italy's Serie A with two wins.[73][74] A system of promotion and relegation exists between the Premier League and the EFL Championship. The three lowest placed teams in the Premier League are relegated to the Championship, and the top two teams from the Championship promoted to the Premier League,[75] with an additional team promoted after a series of play-offs involving the third, fourth, fifth and sixth placed clubs. The Premier League had 22 teams when it began in 1992, but this was reduced to the present 20-team format in 1995. A total of 49 clubs have played in the Premier League from its inception in 1992, up to and including the 2018ÿ19 season.[76] The following 20 clubs will compete in the Premier League during the 2018ÿ19 season. a: Founding member of the Premier League b: Never been relegated from Premier League c: One of the original 12 Football League teams d: Club based in Wales In 2011, a Welsh club participated in the Premier League for the first time after Swansea City gained promotion.[77][78] The first Premier League match to be played outside England was Swansea City's home match at the Liberty Stadium against Wigan Athletic on 20 August 2011.[79] In 2012ÿ13, Swansea qualified for the Europa League by winning the League Cup.[80] The number of Welsh clubs in the Premier League increased to two for the first time in 2013ÿ14, as Cardiff City gained promotion,[81] but they were relegated after their maiden season.[82] Cardiff were promoted again in 2017-18 but the number of Welsh clubs will remain the same as Swansea City were relegated from the Premier League in the same season.[83] Because they are members of the Football Association of Wales (FAW), the question of whether clubs like Swansea should represent England or Wales in European competitions has caused long-running discussions in UEFA. Swansea took one of England's three available places in the Europa League in 2013ÿ14 by winning the League Cup in 2012ÿ13. The right of Welsh clubs to take up such English places was in doubt until UEFA clarified the matter in March 2012, allowing them to participate.[84] Participation in the Premier League by some Scottish or Irish clubs has sometimes been discussed, but without result. The idea came closest to reality in 1998, when Wimbledon received Premier League approval to relocate to Dublin, Ireland, but the move was blocked by the Football Association of Ireland.[85][86][87][88] Additionally, the media occasionally discusses the idea that Scotland's two biggest teams, Celtic and Rangers, should or will take part in the Premier League, but nothing has come of these discussions.[89] From 1993 to 2016, the Premier League had title sponsorship rights sold to two companies, which were Carling Brewery and Barclays Bank PLC; Barclays was the most recent title sponsor, having sponsored the Premier League from 2001 through 2016 (until 2004, the title sponsorship was held through its Barclaycard brand before shifting to its main banking brand in 2004).[90] Barclays' deal with the Premier League expired at the end of the 2015ÿ16 season. The FA announced on 4 June 2015 that it would not pursue any further title sponsorship deals for the Premier League, arguing that they wanted to build a "clean" brand for the competition more in line with those of major U.S. sports leagues.[92] As well as sponsorship for the league itself, the Premier League has a number of official partners and suppliers.[93] The official ball supplier for the league is Nike who have had the contract since the 2000ÿ01 season when they took over from Mitre.[94] The Premier League has the highest revenue of any football league in the world, with total club revenues of ?2.48?billion in 2009ÿ10.[95][96] In 2013ÿ14, due to improved television revenues and cost controls, the Premier League had net profits in excess of S78?million, exceeding all other football leagues.[97] In 2010 the Premier League was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category for its outstanding contribution to international trade and the value it brings to English football and the United Kingdom's broadcasting industry.[98] The Premier League includes some of the richest football clubs in the world. Deloitte's "Football Money League" listed seven Premier League clubs in the top 20 for the 2009ÿ10 season,[99] and all 20 clubs were in the top 40 globally by the end of the 2013ÿ14 season, largely as a result of increased broadcasting revenue.[100] From 2013, the league generates ?2.2?billion per year in domestic and international television rights.[4] Premier League clubs agreed in principle in December 2012, to radical new cost controls. The two proposals consist of a break-even rule and a cap on the amount clubs can increase their wage bill by each season. With the new television deals on the horizon, momentum has been growing to find ways of preventing the majority of the cash going straight to players and agents.[101] Central payments for the 2016ÿ17 season amounted to S2,398,515,773 across the 20 clubs, with each team receiving a flat participation fee of S35,301,989 and additional payments for TV broadcasts (S1,016,690 for general UK rights to match highlights, S1,136,083 for each live UK broadcast of their games and S39,090,596 for all overseas rights), commercial rights (a flat fee of S4,759,404) and a notional measure of "merit" which was based upon final league position.[6] The merit component was a nominal sum of S1,941,609 multiplied by each finishing place, counted from the foot of the table (e.g., Burnley finished 16th in May 2017, five places counting upwards, and received 5 G S1,941,609 = S9,708,045 merit payment).[6] Television has played a major role in the history of the Premier League. The League's decision to assign broadcasting rights to BSkyB in 1992 was at the time a radical decision, but one that has paid off. At the time pay television was an almost untested proposition in the UK market, as was charging fans to watch live televised football. However, a combination of Sky's strategy, the quality of Premier League football and the public's appetite for the game has seen the value of the Premier League's TV rights soar.[17] The Premier League sells its television rights on a collective basis. This is in contrast to some other European Leagues, including La Liga, in which each club sells its rights individually, leading to a much higher share of the total income going to the top few clubs.[102] The money is divided into three parts:[103] half is divided equally between the clubs; one quarter is awarded on a merit basis based on final league position, the top club getting twenty times as much as the bottom club, and equal steps all the way down the table; the final quarter is paid out as facilities fees for games that are shown on television, with the top clubs generally receiving the largest shares of this. The income from overseas rights is divided equally between the twenty clubs.[104] The first Sky television rights agreement was worth S304?million over five seasons.[105] The next contract, negotiated to start from the 1997ÿ98 season, rose to S670?million over four seasons.[105] The third contract was a S1.024?billion deal with BSkyB for the three seasons from 2001ÿ02 to 2003ÿ04. The league brought in S320?million from the sale of its international rights for the three-year period from 2004ÿ05 to 2006ÿ07. It sold the rights itself on a territory-by-territory basis.[106] Sky's monopoly was broken from August 2006 when Setanta Sports was awarded rights to show two out of the six packages of matches available. This occurred following an insistence by the European Commission that exclusive rights should not be sold to one television company. Sky and Setanta paid a total of S1.7?billion, a two-thirds increase which took many commentators by surprise as it had been widely assumed that the value of the rights had levelled off following many years of rapid growth. Setanta also hold rights to a live 3?pm match solely for Irish viewers. The BBC has retained the rights to show highlights for the same three seasons (on Match of the Day) for S171.6?million, a 63?per?cent increase on the S105?million it paid for the previous three-year period.[107] Sky and BT have agreed to jointly pay S84.3?million for delayed television rights to 242 games (that is the right to broadcast them in full on television and over the internet) in most cases for a period of 50 hours after 10?pm on matchday.[108] Overseas television rights fetched S625?million, nearly double the previous contract.[109] The total raised from these deals is more than S2.7?billion, giving Premier League clubs an average media income from league games of around S40?million-a-year from 2007 to 2010.[110] The TV rights agreement between the Premier League and Sky has faced accusations of being a cartel, and a number of court cases have arisen as a result.[111] An investigation by the Office of Fair Trading in 2002 found BSkyB to be dominant within the pay TV sports market, but concluded that there were insufficient grounds for the claim that BSkyB had abused its dominant position.[112] In July 1999 the Premier League's method of selling rights collectively for all member clubs was investigated by the UK Restrictive Practices Court, who concluded that the agreement was not contrary to the public interest.[113] The BBC's highlights package on Saturday and Sunday nights, as well as other evenings when fixtures justify, will run until 2016.[114] Television rights alone for the period 2010 to 2013 have been purchased for S1.782?billion.[115] On 22 June 2009, due to troubles encountered by Setanta Sports after it failed to meet a final deadline over a S30?million payment to the Premier League, ESPN was awarded two packages of UK rights containing a total of 46 matches that were available for the 2009ÿ10 season as well as a package of 23 matches per season from 2010ÿ11 to 2012ÿ13.[116] On 13 June 2012, the Premier League announced that BT had been awarded 38 games a season for the 2013ÿ14 through 2015ÿ16 seasons at S246?million-a-year. The remaining 116 games were retained by Sky who paid S760?million-a-year. The total domestic rights have raised S3.018?billion, an increase of 70.2% over the 2010ÿ11 to 2012ÿ13 rights.[117] The value of the licensing deal rose by another 70.2% in 2015, when Sky and BT paid a total of S5.136?billion to renew their contracts with the Premier League for another three years up to the 2018ÿ19 season.[118] UK highlights Between the 1998ÿ99 season and the 2012ÿ13 season, RT broadcast highlights on Premier Soccer Saturday and occasionally Premier Soccer Sunday. During then between the 2004ÿ05 season and the 2006ÿ07 season, RT broadcast 15 live matches on a Saturday afternoon with each match being called Premiership Live. In August 2016, it was announced that the BBC would be creating a new magazine-style show for the Premier League entitled The Premier League Show.[119] The Premier League is the most-watched football league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to 643?million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7?billion people,[7]. The Premier League's production arm, Premier League Productions, is operated by IMG Productions and produces all content for its international television partners. The Premier League is particularly popular in Asia, where it is the most widely distributed sports programme.[120] In Australia, Optus telecommunications holds exclusive rights to the Premier League, providing live broadcasts and online access (Fox Sports formerly held rights).[121] In India, the matches are broadcast live on STAR Sports. In China, the broadcast rights were awarded to Super Sports in a six-year agreement that began in the 2013ÿ14 season.[122] As of the 2013ÿ14 season, Canadian broadcast rights to the Premier League are jointly owned by Sportsnet and TSN, with both rival networks holding rights to 190 matches per season.[123] The Premier League is broadcast in the United States through NBC Sports.[124] Premier League viewership has increased rapidly, with NBC and NBCSN averaging a record 479,000 viewers in the 2014ÿ15 season, up 118% from 2012ÿ13 when coverage still aired on Fox Soccer and ESPN/ESPN2 (220,000 viewers),[125] and NBC Sports has been widely praised for its coverage.[125][126][127] NBC Sports reached a six-year extension with the Premier League in 2015 to broadcast the league through the 2021ÿ22 season in a deal valued at $1?billion (S640?million).[128][129] There has been an increasing gulf between the Premier League and the Football League. Since its split with the Football League, many established clubs in the Premier League have managed to distance themselves from their counterparts in lower leagues. Owing in large part to the disparity in revenue from television rights between the leagues,[130] many newly promoted teams have found it difficult to avoid relegation in their first season in the Premier League. In every season except 2001ÿ02, 2011ÿ12 and 2017-18, at least one Premier League newcomer has been relegated back to the Football League. In 1997ÿ98 all three promoted clubs were relegated at the end of the season.[131] The Premier League distributes a portion of its television revenue to clubs that are relegated from the league in the form of "parachute payments". Starting with the 2013ÿ14 season, these payments are in excess of S60?million over four seasons.[132] Though designed to help teams adjust to the loss of television revenues (the average Premier League team receives S55?million[133] while the average Football League Championship club receives S2?million),[134] critics maintain that the payments actually widen the gap between teams that have reached the Premier League and those that have not,[135] leading to the common occurrence of teams "bouncing back" soon after their relegation. For some clubs who have failed to win immediate promotion back to the Premier League, financial problems, including in some cases administration or even liquidation have followed. Further relegations down the footballing ladder have ensued for several clubs unable to cope with the gap.[136][137] As of the 2017ÿ18 season, Premier League football has been played in 58 stadiums since the formation of the division.[138] The Hillsborough disaster in 1989 and the subsequent Taylor Report saw a recommendation that standing terraces should be abolished; as a result all stadiums in the Premier League are all-seater.[139][140] Since the formation of the Premier League, football grounds in England have seen constant improvements to capacity and facilities, with some clubs moving to new-build stadiums.[141] Nine stadiums that have seen Premier League football have now been demolished. The stadiums for the 2017ÿ18 season show a large disparity in capacity: Wembley Stadium, the temporary home of Tottenham Hotspur, has a capacity of 90,000 with Dean Court, the home of Bournemouth, having a capacity of 11,360.[142][143] The combined total capacity of the Premier League in the 2017ÿ18 season is 806,033 with an average capacity of 40,302.[142] Stadium attendances are a significant source of regular income for Premier League clubs.[144] For the 2016ÿ17 season, average attendances across the league clubs were 35,838 for Premier League matches with a total aggregate attendance figure of 13,618,596.[145] This represents an increase of 14,712 from the average attendance of 21,126 recorded in the league's first season (1992ÿ93).[146] However, during the 1992ÿ93 season the capacities of most stadiums were reduced as clubs replaced terraces with seats in order to meet the Taylor Report's 1994ÿ95 deadline for all-seater stadiums.[147][148] The Premier League's record average attendance of 36,144 was set during the 2007ÿ08 season.[149] This record was then beaten in the 2013ÿ14 season recording an average attendance of 36,695 with a total attendance of just under 14 million, the highest average in England's top flight since 1950.[150] Managers in the Premier League are involved in the day-to-day running of the team, including the training, team selection, and player acquisition. Their influence varies from club-to-club and is related to the ownership of the club and the relationship of the manager with fans.[151] Managers are required to have a UEFA Pro Licence which is the final coaching qualification available, and follows the completion of the UEFA 'B' and 'A' Licences.[152] The UEFA Pro Licence is required by every person who wishes to manage a club in the Premier League on a permanent basis (i.e. more than 12 weeks ÿ the amount of time an unqualified caretaker manager is allowed to take control).[153] Caretaker appointments are managers that fill the gap between a managerial departure and a new appointment. Several caretaker managers have gone on to secure a permanent managerial post after performing well as a caretaker; examples include Paul Hart at Portsmouth and David Pleat at Tottenham Hotspur. The league's longest-serving manager was Alex Ferguson, who was in charge of Manchester United from November 1986 until his retirement at the end of the 2012ÿ13 season, meaning that he was manager for all of the first 21 seasons of the Premier League. Arsne Wenger is the league's longest-serving current manager, having been in charge of Arsenal in the Premier League since 1996.[154] In the 2017ÿ18 season, 11 managers were sacked, the most recent being Alan Pardew of West Bromwich Albion.[155] There have been several studies into the reasoning behind, and effects of, managerial sackings. Most famously, Professor Sue Bridgewater of the University of Liverpool and Dr. Bas ter Weel of the University of Amsterdam, performed two separate studies which helped to explain the statistics behind managerial sackings. Bridgewater's study found that clubs generally sack their managers upon dropping below an average of 1 point-per-game.[156] At the inception of the Premier League in 1992ÿ93, just eleven players named in the starting line-ups for the first round of matches hailed from outside of the United Kingdom or Ireland.[158] By 2000ÿ01, the number of foreign players participating in the Premier League was 36?per?cent of the total. In the 2004ÿ05 season the figure had increased to 45?per?cent. On 26 December 1999, Chelsea became the first Premier League side to field an entirely foreign starting line-up,[159] and on 14 February 2005 Arsenal were the first to name a completely foreign 16-man squad for a match.[160] By 2009, under 40% of the players in the Premier League were English.[161] In response to concerns that clubs were increasingly passing over young English players in favour of foreign players, in 1999, the Home Office tightened its rules for granting work permits to players from countries outside of the European Union.[162] A non-EU player applying for the permit must have played for his country in at least 75?per?cent of its competitive 'A' team matches for which he was available for selection during the previous two years, and his country must have averaged at least 70th place in the official FIFA world rankings over the previous two years. If a player does not meet those criteria, the club wishing to sign him may appeal.[163] Players may only be transferred during transfer windows that are set by the Football Association. The two transfer windows run from the last day of the season to 31 August and from 31 December to 31 January. Player registrations cannot be exchanged outside these windows except under specific licence from the FA, usually on an emergency basis.[164] As of the 2010ÿ11 season, the Premier League introduced new rules mandating that each club must register a maximum 25-man squad of players aged over 21, with the squad list only allowed to be changed in transfer windows or in exceptional circumstances.[165][166] This was to enable the 'home grown' rule to be enacted, whereby the League would also from 2010 require at least 8 of the named 25 man squad to be made up of 'home-grown players'.[165] There is no team or individual salary cap in the Premier League. As a result of the increasingly lucrative television deals, player wages rose sharply following the formation of the Premier League when the average player wage was S75,000 per year.[167] The average salary stands at S1.1?million as of the 2008ÿ09 season.[168] As of 2015, average salaries in the Premier League are higher than for any other football league in the world.[169] The record transfer fee for a Premier League player has risen steadily over the lifetime of the competition. Prior to the start of the first Premier League season Alan Shearer became the first British player to command a transfer fee of more than S3?million.[170] The record rose steadily in the Premier League's first few seasons, until Alan Shearer made a record breaking S15?million move to Newcastle United in 1996.[170] All three of the most expensive transfers in the sport's history had a Premier League club on the selling or buying end, with Juventus selling Paul Pogba to Manchester United in August 2016 for a fee of S89?million, Tottenham Hotspur selling Gareth Bale to Real Madrid for S85?million in 2013,[171] Manchester United's sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid for S80?million in 2009,[172] and Liverpool selling Luis Surez to Barcelona for S75?million in 2014.[173] Italics denotes players still playing professional football,Bold denotes players still playing in the Premier League. The Golden Boot is awarded to the top Premier League scorer at the end of each season. Former Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer holds the record for most Premier League goals with 260.[175] Twenty-five players have reached the 100-goal mark.[176] Since the first Premier League season in 1992ÿ93, 14 players from 10 clubs have won or shared the top scorers title.[177] Thierry Henry won his fourth overall scoring title by scoring 27 goals in the 2005ÿ06 season. Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer hold the record for most goals in a season (34) ÿ for Newcastle and Blackburn respectively.[178] Ryan Giggs of Manchester United holds the record for scoring goals in consecutive seasons, having scored in the first 21 seasons of the league.[179] The Premier League maintains two trophies ÿ the genuine trophy (held by the reigning champions) and a spare replica. Two trophies are held in the event that two clubs could win the League on the final day of the season.[180] In the rare event that more than two clubs are vying for the title on the final day of the season ÿ then a replica won by a previous club is used.[181] The current Premier League trophy was created by Royal Jewellers Asprey of London. It consists of a trophy with a golden crown and a malachite plinth base. The plinth weighs 33 pounds (15?kg) and the trophy weighs 22 pounds (10.0?kg).[182] The trophy and plinth are 76?cm (30?in) tall, 43?cm (17?in) wide and 25?cm (9.8?in) deep.[183] Its main body is solid sterling silver and silver gilt, while its plinth is made of malachite, a semi-precious stone. The plinth has a silver band around its circumference, upon which the names of the title-winning clubs are listed. Malachite's green colour is also representative of the green field of play.[183] The design of the trophy is based on the heraldry of Three Lions that is associated with English football. Two of the lions are found above the handles on either side of the trophy ÿ the third is symbolised by the captain of the title-winning team as he raises the trophy, and its gold crown, above his head at the end of the season.[184] The ribbons that drape the handles are presented in the team colours of the league champions that year. In 2004, a special gold version of the trophy was commissioned to commemorate Arsenal winning the title without a single defeat.[185] In addition to the winner's trophy and the individual winner's medals awarded to players who win the title, the Premier League also issues other awards throughout the season. A man of the match award is awarded to the player who has the greatest impact in an individual match. Monthly awards are also given for the Manager of the Month, Player of the Month and Goal of the Month[186] . These are also issued annually for Manager of the Season[187], Player of the Season.[188] and Goal of the Season. The Golden Boot award is given to the top goalscorer of every season, The Playmaker of the Season award is given to the player who make the most assists of every season[189] and the Golden Glove award is given to the goalkeeper with the most clean sheets at the end of the season[190]. From the 2017ÿ18 season, players also receive a milestone award for 100 appearances and every century there after and also players who score 50 goals and multiples thereof. Each player to reach these milestones will receive a presentation box from the Premier League containing a special medallion and a plaque commemorating their achievement[191]. In 2012, the Premier League celebrated its second decade by holding the 20 Seasons Awards:[192]