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Edgar Ætheling

Edgar Ætheling or Edgar II (c. 1052 - 1125 or after) was the last male member of the royal house of Cerdic of Wessex. He was elected King of England by the Witan in 1066 but never crowned.

Family and early life
Edgar was born in the Kingdom of Hungary, where his father Edward the Exile, son of Edmund Ironside, had spent most of his life, having been sent into exile after Edmund's death and the conquest of England by the Danish king Cnut the Great in 1016. His grandfather Edmund, great-grandfather Æthelred the Unready, and great-great-grandfather Edgar the Peaceful were all kings of England before Cnut the Great took the crown. Edgar's mother was Agatha, who was described as a relative of the Holy Roman Emperor or a descendant of Saint Stephen of Hungary, but her exact identity is unknown. He was his parents' only son but had two sisters, Margaret and Cristina.

In 1057, Edward the Exile arrived in England with his family but died almost immediately. Edgar, a child, was left as the only surviving male member of the royal dynasty apart from the king. However, the latter made no recorded effort to entrench his great-nephew's position as heir to a throne that was being eyed by a range of powerful potential contenders, including England's leading aristocrat Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, and the foreign rulers William II of Normandy, Sweyn II of Denmark and Harald III of Norway.

Succession struggle
When King Edward the Confessor died in January 1066, Edgar was still in his early teens, considered too young to be an effective military leader. This had not been an insurmountable obstacle in the succession of previous kings. However, the avaricious ambitions that had been aroused across north-western Europe by the Confessor's lack of an heir prior to 1057, and by the king's failure thereafter to prepare the way for Edgar to succeed him, removed any prospect of a peaceful hereditary succession. War was clearly inevitable and Edgar was in no position to fight it, as he was without powerful adult relatives that could champion his cause. Accordingly, the Witenagemot elected Harold Godwinson to succeed Edward, as he was the man best placed to defend the country against foreign claimants to the throne.

Following Harold's death at the Battle of Hastings against the invading Normans in October, some of the Anglo-Saxon leaders decided to back young Edgar's claim to the throne. The new regime thus established was dominated by the most powerful surviving members of the English ruling class: Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, Ealdred, Archbishop of York, and the brothers Edwin, Earl of Mercia and Morcar, Earl of Northumbria. The commitment of these men to Edgar's cause, men who had so recently passed over his claim to the throne without apparent demur, must have been doubtful from the start. The strength of their resolve to continue the struggle against William of Normandy was questionable, and the military response they organised to the continuing Norman advance was ineffectual. When William crossed the Thames at Wallingford, he was met by Stigand, who now abandoned Edgar and submitted to the invader. As the Normans closed in on London, Edgar's key supporters in the city began negotiating with William. In early December, the remaining members of the Witan in London met and resolved to take the young uncrowned king out to meet William to submit to him at Berkhamsted, quietly setting aside Edgar's election. Edgar, alongside other lords, paid homage to King William at his coronation in December.

Exile and war against the Normans
William kept Edgar in his custody and took him, along with other English leaders, to his court in Normandy in 1067, before returning with them to England. Edgar might have been involved in the abortive rebellion of the Earls Edwin and Morcar in 1068, or he might have been attempting to return to Hungary with his family and been blown off course; in any case, in that year he arrived with his mother and sisters at the court of King Malcolm III of Scotland. Malcolm married Edgar's sister Margaret, and agreed to support Edgar in his attempt to reclaim the English throne. When the rebellion that resulted in the Harrying of the North broke out in Northumbria at the beginning of 1069, Edgar returned to England with other rebels who had fled to Scotland, to become the leader, or at least the figurehead, of the revolt. However, after early successes the rebels were defeated by William at York and Edgar again sought refuge with Malcolm who happily allowed him asylum for his loyalty. In late summer that year, the arrival of a fleet sent by King Sweyn of Denmark triggered a fresh wave of English uprisings in various parts of the country. Edgar and the other exiles sailed to the Humber, where they linked up with Northumbrian rebels and the Danes. Their combined forces overwhelmed the Normans at York and took control of Northumbria, but a small seaborne raid which Edgar led into the former Kingdom of Lindsey ended in disaster, and he escaped with only a handful of followers to rejoin the main army. Late in the year, William fought his way into Northumbria and occupied York, buying off the Danes and devastating the surrounding country. Early in 1070, he moved against Edgar and other English leaders who had taken refuge with their remaining followers in a marshy region, perhaps Holderness or the Isle of Ely, and put them to flight. Edgar returned to Scotland.

He remained there until 1072, when William invaded Scotland and forced King Malcolm to submit to his overlordship. The terms of the agreement between them included the expulsion of Edgar. He therefore took up residence in Flanders, whose count, Robert the Frisian, was hostile to the Normans. However, he was able to return to Scotland in 1074. Shortly after his arrival there, he received an offer from Philip I, King of France, who was also at odds with William, of a castle and lands near the borders of Normandy from where he would be able to raid his enemies' homeland. He embarked with his followers for France, but a storm wrecked their ships on the English coast. Many of Edgar's men were hunted down by the Normans, though he managed to escape with the remainder to Scotland by land. Following this disaster, he was persuaded by Malcolm to make peace with William and return to England as his subject, abandoning any ambition of regaining his ancestral throne.

Italian venture
Disappointed at the level of recompense and respect he received from William, in 1086 Edgar renounced his allegiance to the Conqueror and moved with a retinue of men to Norman Apulia. The Domesday Book, compiled that year, records Edgar's ownership of only two small estates (Barkway and Hermead) in Hertfordshire. This is probably because Edgar had given up his English properties when he left for Italy, not intending to return. In that case, the recording of the Hertfordshire estates under his name is likely to be an anomaly, reflecting a situation which had recently ceased to apply. The venture in the Mediterranean was evidently not a success; within a few years Edgar returned to England.

Norman and Scottish dynastic strife
After King William's death in 1087, Edgar supported William's eldest son Robert Curthose, who succeeded him as Duke of Normandy, against his second son, William Rufus, who received the throne of England as William II. Edgar was one of Robert's three principal advisers at this time. The war waged by Robert and his allies to overthrow William ended in defeat in 1091. As part of the resulting settlement between the brothers, Edgar was deprived of lands which he had been granted by Robert. These were presumably former possessions of William and his supporters in Normandy, confiscated by Robert and distributed to his own followers, including Edgar, but restored to their previous owners by the terms of the peace agreement. The disgruntled Edgar travelled once again to Scotland, where Malcolm was preparing for war with William. When William marched north and the two armies confronted one another, the kings opted to talk rather than fight. The negotiations were conducted by Edgar on behalf of Malcolm, and the newly reconciled Robert Curthose on behalf of William. The resulting agreement included a reconciliation between William and Edgar. However, within months Robert left England, unhappy with William's failure to fulfil the pact between them, and Edgar went with him to Normandy.

Having returned to England, Edgar went to Scotland again in 1093, on a diplomatic mission for William to negotiate with Malcolm, who was dissatisfied with the Norman failure to implement in full the terms of the 1091 treaty. This dispute led to war, and within the year Malcolm had invaded England and had been killed along with his designated heir Edward, eldest of his sons by Margaret, in the Battle of Alnwick. Malcolm's successor, his brother Donald Bán, drove out the English and French retainers who had risen high in Malcolm's service and had thus aroused the jealousy of the existing Scottish aristocracy. This purge brought him into conflict with the Anglo-Norman monarchy, whose influence in Scotland had diminished. William helped Malcolm's eldest son Duncan, who had spent many years as a hostage at William I's court and remained there when set at liberty by William II, to overthrow his uncle, but Donald soon regained the throne and Duncan was killed. Another effort to restore the Anglo-Norman interest through sponsorship of Malcolm's sons was launched in 1097, and Edgar made yet another journey to Scotland, this time in command of an invading army. Donald was ousted, and Edgar installed his nephew and namesake, Malcolm and Margaret's son Edgar, on the Scottish throne.

First Crusade
According to Orderic, Edgar was the commander of an English fleet which operated off the coast of the region of Syria in support of the First Crusade, whose crews eventually burned their dilapidated ships and joined the advance by land to Jerusalem. This is doubtful, for this fleet is known to have arrived off the Syrian coast by March 1098; since Edgar invaded Scotland late in 1097, he could not have made the voyage in the time available. It may be though that he travelled overland to the Mediterranean and joined the fleet en route; this is the view taken by Runciman. William of Malmesbury recorded that Edgar made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1102, and it may be that Orderic's report is the product of confusion, conflating the expedition of the English fleet with Edgar's later journey. Some modern historians have suggested that at some point during these years Edgar served in the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine Empire, a unit which was at that time composed primarily of English emigrants, but this is unsupported by evidence. William of Malmesbury stated that on his way back from Jerusalem Edgar was given rich gifts by both the Byzantine and the German emperors, each of whom offered him an honoured place at court, but that he insisted on returning home instead.

Later life
Back in Europe, Edgar again took the side of Robert Curthose in the internal struggles of the Norman dynasty, this time against Robert's youngest brother, who was now Henry I, King of England. He was taken prisoner in the final defeat at the Battle of Tinchebray in 1106, which resulted in Robert being imprisoned for the rest of his life. Edgar was more fortunate: having been taken back to England, he was pardoned and released by King Henry. His niece Edith (renamed Matilda), daughter of Malcolm III and Margaret, had married Henry in 1100. Edgar is believed to have travelled to Scotland once more late in life, perhaps around the year 1120. He lived to see the death at sea in November 1120 of William Adelin, the son of his niece Edith and heir to Henry I. Edgar was still alive in 1125, according to William of Malmesbury, who wrote at the time that Edgar "now grows old in the country in privacy and quiet". Edgar died some time after this contemporary reference, but the exact date and the location of his grave are not known.

According to a 1291 Huntingdon Priory Chronicle, Edgar had one child, Margaret Lovel, who was the wife of firstly Ralph Lovel II, of Castle Cary and secondly of Robert de Londres, both of whom had estates in southern Scotland.

There are two references to an "Edgar Adeling" found in the Magnus Rotulus Pipae Northumberland (Pipe rolls) for the years 1158 and 1167. Historian Edward Freeman, writing in The History of the Norman Conquest of England, says that this was the same Edgar (aged over 100), a son of his, or some other person known by the title Ætheling.

title: Edgar Ætheling


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H. L. Mencken

Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes Trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also gained him attention. The term Menckenian has entered multiple dictionaries to describe anything of or pertaining to Mencken, including his combative rhetorical and prose style.

As a scholar, Mencken is known for The American Language, a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States. As an admirer of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, he was an outspoken opponent of organized religion, theism, censorship, populism, and representative democracy, the last of which he viewed as a system in which inferior men dominated their superiors. Mencken was a supporter of scientific progress and was critical of osteopathy and chiropractic. He was also an open critic of economics.

Mencken opposed the American entry into World War I and World War II. Some of the opinions in his private diary entries have been described by some researchers as racist and antisemitic, although this characterization has been disputed. Larry S. Gibson argued that Mencken's views on race changed significantly between his early and later private writings which started when he was 50, and that it was more accurate to describe Mencken as elitist rather than racist. He seemed to show a genuine enthusiasm for militarism but never in its American form. "War is a good thing," he wrote, "because it is honest; it admits the central fact of human nature... A nation too long at peace becomes a sort of gigantic old maid."

His longtime home in the Union Square neighborhood of West Baltimore was turned into a city museum, the H. L. Mencken House. His papers were distributed among various city and university libraries, with the largest collection held in the Mencken Room at the central branch of Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Early life and education
Mencken was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 12, 1880. He was the son of Anna Margaret (Abhau) and August Mencken Sr., a cigar factory owner. He was of German ancestry and spoke German in his childhood. When Henry was three, his family moved into a new home at 1524 Hollins Street facing Union Square park in the Union Square neighborhood of old West Baltimore. Apart from five years residing elsewhere during the marriage that left him a widower in middle age, Mencken would stay there for the rest of his life.

In his bestselling memoir Happy Days, he described his childhood in Baltimore as "placid, secure, uneventful and happy".

When he was nine years old, he read Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, which he later described as "the most stupendous event in my life". He became determined to become a writer and read voraciously. In one winter while in high school he read William Makepeace Thackeray and then "proceeded backward to Addison, Steele, Pope, Swift, Johnson and the other magnificos of the Eighteenth century". He read the entire canon of Shakespeare and became an ardent fan of Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Huxley. As a boy, Mencken also had practical interests, photography and chemistry in particular, and eventually had a home chemistry laboratory in which he performed experiments of his own design, some of them inadvertently dangerous.

He began his primary education in the mid-1880s at Professor Knapp's School on the east side of Holliday Street between East Lexington and Fayette Streets, next to the Holliday Street Theatre and across from the newly constructed Baltimore City Hall. The site today is the War Memorial and City Hall Plaza laid out in 1926 in memory of World War I dead. At 15, in June 1896, he graduated as valedictorian from the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, at the time a males-only mathematics, technical and science-oriented public high school.

He worked for three years in his father's cigar factory. He disliked the work, especially the sales aspect of it, and resolved to leave, with or without his father's blessing. In early 1898 he took a writing class at the Cosmopolitan University, a free correspondence school. This was to be the entirety of Mencken's formal post-secondary education in journalism, or in any other subject. Upon his father's death a few days after Christmas in the same year, the business passed to his uncle, and Mencken was free to pursue his career in journalism. He applied in February 1899 to the Morning Herald newspaper (which became the Baltimore Morning Herald in 1900) and was hired part-time, but still kept his position at the factory for a few months. In June he was hired as a full-time reporter.

Career
Mencken served as a reporter at the Herald for six years. Less than two-and-a-half years after the Great Baltimore Fire, the paper was purchased in June 1906 by Charles H. Grasty, the owner and editor of The News since 1892 and competing owner and publisher Gen. Felix Agnus, of the town's oldest (since 1773) and largest daily, The Baltimore American. They proceeded to divide the staff, assets and resources of The Herald between them. Mencken then moved to The Baltimore Sun, where he worked for Charles H. Grasty. He continued to contribute to The Sun, The Evening Sun (founded 1910) and The Sunday Sun full-time until 1948, when he stopped writing after suffering a stroke.

Mencken began writing the editorials and opinion pieces that made his name at The Sun. On the side, he wrote short stories, a novel, and even poetry, which he later revealed. In 1908, he became a literary critic for The Smart Set magazine, and in 1924 he and George Jean Nathan founded and edited The American Mercury, published by Alfred A. Knopf. It soon developed a national circulation and became highly influential on college campuses across America. In 1933, Mencken resigned as editor.

Marriage
On August 27, 1930, Mencken married Sara Haardt, a German American professor of English at Goucher College in Baltimore and an author eighteen years his junior. Haardt had led an unsuccessful effort in Alabama to ratify the 19th Amendment. The two met in 1923, after Mencken delivered a lecture at Goucher; a seven-year courtship ensued. The marriage made national headlines, and many were surprised that Mencken, who once called marriage "the end of hope" and who was well known for mocking relations between the sexes, had gone to the altar. "The Holy Spirit informed and inspired me," Mencken said. "Like all other infidels, I am superstitious and always follow hunches: this one seemed to be a superb one." Even more startling, he was marrying an Alabama native, despite his having written scathing essays about the American South. Haardt was in poor health from tuberculosis throughout their marriage and died in 1935 of meningitis, leaving Mencken grief-stricken. He had always championed her writing, and after her death, had a collection of her short stories published under the title Southern Album. Haardt's childhood friend, Alabama author Sara Mayfield wrote extensively about Haardt and Mencken in her 1968 book The Constant Circle: H.L. Mencken and His Friends.

Great Depression, war, and afterward
During the Great Depression, Mencken did not support the New Deal, which cost him popularity, as did his strong reservations regarding U.S. participation in World War II, and his overt contempt for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He ceased writing for The Baltimore Sun for several years, focusing on his memoirs and other projects as editor while he served as an adviser for the paper that had been his home for nearly his entire career. In 1948, he briefly returned to the political scene to cover the presidential election in which President Harry S. Truman faced Republican Thomas Dewey and Henry A. Wallace of the Progressive Party. His later work consisted of humorous, anecdotal, and nostalgic essays that were first published in The New Yorker and then collected in the books Happy Days, Newspaper Days, and Heathen Days.

Last years
On November 23, 1948, Mencken suffered a stroke, which left him aware and fully conscious but nearly unable to read or write and able to speak only with difficulty. After his stroke, Mencken enjoyed listening to classical music, and after some recovery of his ability to speak, talking with friends, but he sometimes referred to himself in the past tense, as if he were already dead. During the last year of his life, his friend and biographer William Manchester read to him daily.

Death
Mencken died in his sleep on January 29, 1956. He was interred in Baltimore's Loudon Park Cemetery.

Although it does not appear on his tombstone, Mencken, during his Smart Set days, wrote a joking epitaph for himself:

"If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl."

A very small, short, and private service was held, in accordance with Mencken's wishes.

Beliefs
In his capacity as editor, Mencken became close friends with the leading literary figures of his time, including Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joseph Hergesheimer, Anita Loos, Ben Hecht, Sinclair Lewis, James Branch Cabell, and Alfred Knopf, as well as a mentor to several young reporters, including Alistair Cooke. He also championed artists whose works he considered worthy. For example, he asserted that books such as ''Caught Short! A Saga of Wailing Wall Street'' (1929), by Eddie Cantor (ghostwritten by David Freedman) did more to pull America out of the Great Depression than all government measures combined. He also mentored John Fante. Thomas Hart Benton illustrated an edition of Mencken's book Europe After 8:15.

Mencken also published many works under various pseudonyms, including Owen Hatteras, John H Brownell, William Drayham, WLD Bell, and Charles Angoff. As a ghostwriter for the physician Leonard K. Hirshberg, he wrote a series of articles, and in 1910, most of a book about the care of babies.

Mencken admired the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (he was the first writer to provide a scholarly analysis in English of Nietzsche's views and writings) and Joseph Conrad. His humor and satire owed much to Ambrose Bierce and Mark Twain. He did much to defend Dreiser despite freely admitting his faults, including stating forthrightly that Dreiser often wrote badly and was gullible. Mencken expressed his appreciation for William Graham Sumner in a 1941 collection of Sumner's essays and regretted never having known Sumner personally. In contrast, Mencken was scathing in his criticism of the German philosopher Hans Vaihinger, whom Mencken described as "an extremely dull author" and whose famous book Philosophy of 'As If' he dismissed as an unimportant "foot-note to all existing systems".

Mencken recommended for publication philosopher and author Ayn Rand's first novel, We the Living and called it "a really excellent piece of work". Shortly afterward, Rand addressed him in correspondence as "the greatest representative of a philosophy" to which she wanted to dedicate her life, "individualism" and later listed him as her favorite columnist.

For Mencken, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was the finest work of American literature. He particularly relished Mark Twain's depiction of a succession of gullible and ignorant townspeople, "boobs", as Mencken referred to them, who are repeatedly gulled by a pair of colorful con men: the deliberately pathetic "Duke" and "Dauphin", with whom Huck and Jim travel down the Mississippi River. For Mencken, the depiction epitomizes the hilarious dark side of America, where democracy, as defined by Mencken, is "the worship of jackals by jackasses".

Such turns of phrase evoked the erudite cynicism and rapier sharpness of language displayed by Ambrose Bierce in his darkly satiric The Devil's Dictionary. A noted curmudgeon, democratic in subjects attacked, Mencken savaged politics, hypocrisy, and social convention. A master of English, he was given to bombast and once disdained the lowly hot dog bun's descent into "the soggy rolls prevailing today, of ground acorns, plaster of Paris, flecks of bath sponge and atmospheric air all compact".

Defining Puritanism as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy", Mencken believed that the U.S. had not cast aside the Puritans' influence. He opined that American culture, unlike its European counterparts, had not attained intellectual freedom, and judged literature by moral orthodoxy and not by artistic merit. His most outspoken essay was "Puritanism as a Literary Force" from his 1917 collection of essays A Book of Prefaces:

"The Puritan's utter lack of aesthetic sense, his distrust of all romantic emotion, his unmatchable intolerance of opposition, his unbreakable belief in his own bleak and narrow views, his savage cruelty of attack, his lust for relentless and barbarous persecution – these things have put an almost unbearable burden up on the exchange of ideas in the United States."

As a nationally syndicated columnist and book author, he commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians and contemporary movements, such as the temperance movement. Mencken was a keen cheerleader of scientific progress, skeptical of economic theories and strongly opposed to osteopathic/chiropractic medicine. He also debunked the idea of objective news reporting since "truth is a commodity that the masses of undifferentiated men cannot be induced to buy" and added a humorous description of how "Homo Boobus", like "higher mammalia", is moved by "whatever gratifies his prevailing yearnings".

As a frank admirer of Nietzsche, Mencken was a detractor of representative democracy, which he believed was a system in which inferior men dominated their superiors. Also, like Nietzche, Mencken lambasted religious belief and the very concept of God, as he was an unflinching atheist. He was particularly hostile to Christian fundamentalism, Christian Science and creationism, and towards the "Booboisie", his word for the ignorant middle classes. In the summer of 1925 he attended the famous Scopes "Monkey Trial" in Dayton, Tennessee, and wrote scathing columns for the Baltimore Sun (these widely syndicated) and American Mercury mocking the anti-evolution fundamentalists (especially William Jennings Bryan). The play Inherit the Wind is a fictionalized version of the trial, and as noted above the cynical reporter E.K. Hornbeck is based on Mencken. In 1926, he deliberately had himself arrested for selling an issue of The American Mercury, which was banned in Boston by the Comstock laws. Mencken heaped scorn not only on the public officials he disliked but also on the state of American elective politics itself.

In the summer of 1926, Mencken followed with great interest the Los Angeles grand jury inquiry into the famous Canadian American evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. She was accused of faking her reported kidnapping and the case attracted national attention. There was every expectation that Mencken would continue his previous pattern of anti-fundamentalist articles, this time with a searing critique of McPherson. Unexpectedly, he came to her defense by identifying various local religious and civic groups that were using the case as an opportunity to pursue their respective ideological agendas against the embattled Pentecostal minister. He spent several weeks in Hollywood, California, and wrote many scathing and satirical columns on the movie industry and Southern California culture. After all charges had been dropped against McPherson, Mencken revisited the case in 1930 with a sarcastic and observant article. He wrote that since many of that town's residents had acquired their ideas "of the true, the good and the beautiful" from the movies and newspapers, "Los Angeles will remember the testimony against her long after it forgets the testimony that cleared her".

In 1931, the Arkansas legislature passed a motion to pray for Mencken's soul after he had called the state the "apex of moronia".

In the mid-1930s, Mencken feared Roosevelt and his New Deal liberalism as a powerful force. Mencken, says Charles A. Fecher, was "deeply conservative, resentful of change, looking back upon the 'happy days' of a bygone time, wanted no part of the world that the New Deal promised to bring in".

Race and elitism
In addition to his identification of races with castes, Mencken had views about the superior individual within communities. He believed that every community produced a few people of clear superiority. He considered groupings on a par with hierarchies, which led to a kind of natural elitism and natural aristocracy. "Superior" individuals, in Mencken's view, were those wrongly oppressed and disdained by their own communities but nevertheless distinguished by their will and personal achievement, not by race or birth.

In 1989, per his instructions, Alfred A. Knopf published Mencken's "secret diary" as The Diary of H. L. Mencken. According to an Associated Press story, Mencken's views shocked even the "sympathetic scholar who edited it", Charles Fecher of Baltimore. A club in Baltimore, the Maryland Club, had one Jewish member. When that member died, Mencken said, "There is no other Jew in Baltimore who seems suitable." The diary also quoted him as saying of blacks, in September 1943, that "it is impossible to talk anything resembling discretion or judgment to a colored woman. They are all essentially child-like, and even hard experience does not teach them anything".

Mencken opposed lynching. In 1935, he testified before Congress in support of the Costigan–Wagner Bill. While he had previously written negatively about lynchings during the 1910s and 1920s, the lynchings of Matthew Williams and George Armwood caused him to write in support of the bill and give political advice to Walter White on how to maximize the likelihood of the bill's passing. The two lynchings in his home state made the issue directly relevant to him. His arguments against lynching were influenced by his interpretation of civilization, as he believed that a civilized society would not tolerate it.

In a review of The Skeptic: A Life of H. L. Mencken, by Terry Teachout, journalist Christopher Hitchens described Mencken as a German nationalist, "an antihumanist as much as an atheist", who was "prone to the hyperbole and sensationalism he distrusted in others". Hitchens also criticized Mencken for writing a scathing critique of Franklin Delano Roosevelt but nothing equally negative of Adolf Hitler.

Larry S. Gibson argued that Mencken's views on race changed significantly between his early and later writings, attributing some of the changes in Mencken's views to his personal experiences of being treated as an outsider due to his German heritage during World War I. Gibson speculated that much of Mencken's language was intended to lure in readers by suggesting a shared negative view of other races, and then writing about their positive aspects. Describing Mencken as elitist rather than racist, he says Mencken ultimately believed that humans consisted of a small group of those of superior intelligence and a mass of inferior people, regardless of race.

Mencken scholar Marion Elizabeth Rodgers has argued that, despite the racial slurs and ethnic slang in the diaries, Mencken rebelled against "the Aryan imbecilities of Hitler" and stated: "To me personally, race prejudice is one of the most preposterous of all the imbecilities of mankind. There are so few people on earth worth knowing that I hate to think of any man I like as a German or a Frenchman, a gentile or a Jew, Negro or a white man."

Anglo-Saxons
Mencken countered the arguments for Anglo-Saxon superiority prevalent in his time in a 1923 essay entitled "The Anglo-Saxon", which argued that if there was such a thing as a pure "Anglo-Saxon" race, it was defined by its inferiority and cowardice: "The normal American of the 'pure-blooded' majority goes to rest every night with an uneasy feeling that there is a burglar under the bed and he gets up every morning with a sickening fear that his underwear has been stolen."

Jews
Chaz Bufe, an admirer of Mencken, wrote that Mencken's various anti-Semitic statements should be understood in the context that Mencken made bombastic and over-the-top denunciations of almost any national, religious, and ethnic group. That said, Bufe still wrote that some of Mencken's statements were "odious", such as his claim in his 1918 introduction to Nietzsche's The Anti-Christ that "The case against the Jews is long and damning; it would justify ten thousand times as many pogroms as now go on in the world".

Science and mathematics
Mencken defended the evolutionary views of Charles Darwin but spoke unfavorably of many prominent physicists and had little regard for pure mathematics. Regarding theoretical physics, he said to longtime editor Charles Angoff, "Imagine measuring infinity! That's a laugh." Elsewhere, he dismissed higher mathematics and probability theory as "nonsense", after he read Angoff's article for Charles Sanders Peirce in the American Mercury: "So you believe in that garbage, too—theories of knowledge, infinity, laws of probability. I can make no sense of it, and I don't believe you can either, and I don't think your god Peirce knew what he was talking about."

Mencken repeatedly identified mathematics with metaphysics and theology. According to Mencken, mathematics is necessarily infected with metaphysics. Mathematicians tend to engage in metaphysical speculation. In a review of Alfred North Whitehead's The Aims of Education, Mencken remarked that, although he agreed with Whitehead's thesis and admired his writing style, "Now and then he falls into mathematical jargon and pollutes his discourse with equations", and "[T]here are moments when he seems to be following some of his mathematical colleagues into the gaudy metaphysics which now entertains them". For Mencken, theology was characterized by the fact that it uses correct reasoning from false premises. Mencken uses the term "theology" more generally to refer to the use of logic in science or any field of knowledge. In a review of Arthur Eddington's The Nature of the Physical World and Joseph Needham's Man a Machine, Mencken ridiculed the use of reasoning to establish any fact in science.

Mencken wrote a review of Sir James Jeans's book, The Mysterious Universe, in which Mencken wrote that mathematics is not necessary for physics. Instead of mathematical "speculation" (such as quantum theory), Mencken believed physicists should directly look at individual facts in the laboratory, as do chemists.

In the same article, which he re-printed in the Mencken Chrestomathy, Mencken primarily contrasts what real scientists do, which is to simply directly look at the existence of "shapes and forces" confronting them instead of (such as in statistics) attempting to speculate and use mathematical models. Physicists and especially astronomers are consequently not real scientists, because when looking at shapes or forces, they do not simply "patiently wait for further light", but resort to mathematical theory. There is no need for statistics in scientific physics, since one should simply look at the facts while statistics attempts to construct mathematical models. On the other hand, the really competent physicists do not bother with the "theology" or reasoning of mathematical theories (such as in quantum mechanics)

Mencken ridiculed Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, believing that "in the long run his curved space may be classed with the psychosomatic bumps of Gall and Spurzheim".

Home
Mencken's home at 1524 Hollins Street in Baltimore's Union Square neighborhood, where he lived for 67 years, was bequeathed to the University of Maryland, Baltimore on the death of his younger brother, August, in 1967. The City of Baltimore acquired the property in 1983, and the H. L. Mencken House became part of the City Life Museums. It has been closed to general admission since 1997, but is opened for special events and group visits by arrangement.

Papers
Shortly after World War II, Mencken expressed his intention of bequeathing his books and papers to Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library. At his death, it was in possession of most of the present large collection. As a result, his papers as well as much of his personal library, which includes many books inscribed by major authors, are held in the Library's Central Branch on Cathedral Street in Baltimore. The original third floor H. L. Mencken Room and Collection housing this collection was dedicated on April 17, 1956. The new Mencken Room, on the first floor of the Library's Annex, was opened in November 2003.

The collection contains Mencken's typescripts, newspaper and magazine contributions, published books, family documents and memorabilia, clipping books, large collection of presentation volumes, file of correspondence with prominent Marylanders, and the extensive material he collected while he was preparing The American Language.

Other Mencken related collections of note are at Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, and Yale University. In 2007, Johns Hopkins acquired "nearly 6,000 books, photographs and letters by and about Mencken" from "the estate of an Ohio accountant".

The Sara Haardt Mencken collection at Goucher College includes letters exchanged between Haardt and Mencken and condolences written after her death. Some of Mencken's vast literary correspondence is held at the New York Public Library. "Gift of HL Mencken 1929" is stamped on The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Luce 1906 edition of William Blake, which shows up from the Library of Congress online version for reading. Mencken's letters to Louise (Lou) Wylie, a reporter and feature writer for New Orleans's The Times-Picayune newspaper, are archived at Loyola University New Orleans.

Books

 * George Bernard Shaw: His Plays (1905)
 * The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1908)
 * The Gist of Nietzsche (1910)
 * What You Ought to Know about your Baby (Ghostwriter for Leonard K. Hirshberg; 1910)
 * Men versus the Man: a Correspondence between Robert Rives La Monte, Socialist and H. L. Mencken, Individualist (1910)
 * Europe After 8:15 (1914)
 * A Book of Burlesques (1916)
 * A Little Book in C Major (1916)
 * A Book of Prefaces (1917)
 * In Defense of Women (1918)
 * Damn! A Book of Calumny (1918)
 * The American Language (1919)
 * Prejudices (1919–27)
 * First Series (1919)
 * Second Series (1920)
 * Third Series (1922)
 * Fourth Series (1924)
 * Fifth Series (1926)
 * Sixth Series (1927)
 * Selected Prejudices (1927)
 * Heliogabalus (A Buffoonery in Three Acts) (1920)
 * The American Credo (1920)
 * Notes on Democracy (1926)
 * Menckeneana: A Schimpflexikon (1928) – Editor
 * Treatise on the Gods (1930)
 * Making a President (1932)
 * Treatise on Right and Wrong (1934)
 * Happy Days, 1880–1892 (1940)
 * Newspaper Days, 1899–1906 (1941)
 * A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1942)
 * Heathen Days, 1890–1936 (1943)
 * Christmas Story (1944)
 * The American Language, Supplement I (1945)
 * The American Language, Supplement II (1948)
 * A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949) (edited by H.L. Mencken)

Posthumous collections
 * Minority Report (1956)
 * On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe (1956)
 * The Bathtub Hoax and Other Blasts and Bravos from the Chicago Tribune (1958)
 * A Second Mencken Chrestomathy (1994) (edited by Terry Teachout)
 * Thirty-five Years of Newspaper Work (1996)
 * A Second Mencken Chrestomathy (1994) (edited by Terry Teachout)
 * Thirty-five Years of Newspaper Work (1996)
 * A Second Mencken Chrestomathy (1994) (edited by Terry Teachout)
 * Thirty-five Years of Newspaper Work (1996)

Chapbooks, pamphlets, and notable essays

 * Ventures into Verse (1903)
 * The Artist: A Drama Without Words (1912)
 * The Creed of a Novelist (1916)
 * Pistols for Two (1917)
 * The Sahara of the Bozart  (1920)
 * Gamalielese (1921)
 * "The Hills of Zion" (1925)
 * The Libido for the Ugly (1927)
 * The Penalty of Death

Translations (excerpt)

 * Friedrich Nietzsches: The Antichrist – Translated and Introduced by H. L. Mencken, Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1918 (Project Gutenberg EBook of The Antichrist)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: H. L. Mencken


text:
462

Year 462 (CDLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Leo (or, less frequently, year 1215 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 462 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Roman Empire

 * September 1 – Possible start of the first Byzantine indiction cycle.
 * Vandal War (461-468): After negotiations Emperor Leo I pays a large ransom for Licinia Eudoxia and Placidia. They return after seven years of captivity in Carthage.
 * The Monastery of Stoudios is founded in Constantinople.

Asia

 * The Daming calendar is introduced in China by mathematician Zu Chongzhi (approximate date).

Births

 * Anicia Juliana, daughter of Olybrius
 * Muryeong, king of Baekje (Korea)

Deaths

 * Lóegaire mac Néill, High King of Ireland

title: 462


text:
Grand Prix motorcycle racing

Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the highest class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start of the twentieth century and large national events were often given the title Grand Prix. The foundation of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme as the international governing body for motorcycle sport in 1949 provided the opportunity to coordinate rules and regulations in order that selected events could count towards official World Championships. It is the oldest established motorsport world championship.

Grand Prix motorcycles are purpose-built racing machines that are unavailable for purchase by the general public and unable to be ridden legally on public roads. This contrasts with the various production-based categories of racing, such as the Superbike World Championship and the Isle of Man TT Races that feature modified versions of road-going motorcycles available to the public. The current top division is known as MotoGP since, when the four-stroke era began. Prior to that, the largest class was 500cc, both of which form a historical continuum as the official World Championship, although all classes have official status.

The championship is currently divided into four classes: the eponymous MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3 and MotoE. The first three classes use four-stroke engines, while the MotoE class uses electric motorcycles.

The most successful rider in Grand Prix history is Giacomo Agostini with 15 titles and 122 race wins. In the top-flight series, Agostini holds the title record with eight, followed by Valentino Rossi with seven and active rider Marc Márquez with six. As of 2023, Rossi holds the record for most top-flight race wins with 89.

History
An FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix was first organized by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme in 1949. The commercial rights are now owned by Dorna Sports, with the FIM remaining as the sport sanctioning body. Teams are represented by the International Road Racing Teams Association (IRTA) and manufacturers by the Motorcycle Sport Manufacturers Association (MSMA). Rules and changes to regulations are decided between the four entities, with Dorna casting a tie-breaking vote. In cases of technical modifications, the MSMA can unilaterally enact or veto changes by unanimous vote among its members. These four entities compose the Grand Prix Commission.

There have traditionally been several races at each event for various classes of motorcycles, based on engine size, and one class for sidecars. Classes for 50cc, 80cc, 125cc, 250cc, 350cc, 500cc, and 750cc solo machines have existed at some time, and 350cc and 500cc sidecars. Up through the 1950s and most of the 1960s, four-stroke engines dominated all classes. In the 1960s, due to advances in engine design and technology, two-stroke engines began to take root in the smaller classes.

In 1969, the FIM—citing high development costs for non-works teams due to rules which allowed a multiplicity of cylinders (meaning smaller pistons, producing higher revs) and a multiplicity of gears (giving narrower power bands, affording higher states of tune)—brought in new rules restricting all classes to six gears and most to two cylinders (four cylinders in the case of the 350cc and 500cc classes). This led to a mass walk-out of the sport by the previously highly successful Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha manufacturer teams, skewing the results tables for the next several years, with MV Agusta effectively the only works team left in the sport until Yamaha (1973) and Suzuki (1974) returned with new two-stroke designs. By this time, two-strokes completely eclipsed the four-strokes in all classes. In 1979, Honda, on its return to GP racing, made an attempt to return the four-stroke to the top class with the NR500, but this project failed, and, in 1983, even Honda was winning with a two-stroke 500.

Previously, the championship featured a 50cc class from 1962 to 1983, later changed to an 80cc class from 1984 to 1989. The class was dropped for the 1990 season, after being dominated primarily by Spanish and Italian makes. It also featured a 350cc class from 1949 to 1982, and a 750cc class from 1977 to 1979. Sidecars were dropped from world championship events in the 1990s (see Sidecar World Championship).

From the mid-1970s through to 2001, the top class of GP racing allowed 500cc displacement with a maximum of four cylinders, regardless of whether the engine was a two-stroke or four-stroke. This is unlike TT Formula or motocross, where two and four strokes had different engine size limits in the same class to provide similar performance. Consequently, all machines were two-strokes, since they produce power with every rotation of the crank, whereas four-stroke engines produce power only every second rotation. Some two- and three-cylinder two-stroke 500s were seen, but though they had a minimum-weight advantage under the rules, typically attained higher corner speed and could qualify well, they lacked the power of the four-cylinder machines.

In 2002, rule changes were introduced to facilitate the phasing out of the 500cc two-strokes. The premier class was rebranded MotoGP, as manufacturers were to choose between running two-stroke engines up to 500cc or four-strokes up to 990cc or less. Manufacturers were also permitted to employ their choice of engine configuration. Despite the increased costs of the new four-stroke engines, they were soon able to dominate their two-stroke rivals. As a result, by 2003 no two-stroke machines remained in the MotoGP field. The 125cc and 250cc classes still consisted exclusively of two-stroke machines.

In 2007, the MotoGP class had its maximum engine displacement capacity reduced to 800cc for a minimum of five years. As a result of the 2008–2009 financial crisis, MotoGP underwent changes in an effort to cut costs. Among them are reducing Friday practice sessions and testing sessions, extending the lifespan of engines, switching to a single tyre manufacturer, and banning qualifying tyres, active suspension, launch control and ceramic composite brakes. For the 2010 season, carbon brake discs were banned.

For the 2012 season, the MotoGP engine capacity was increased again to 1,000cc. It also saw the introduction of Claiming Rule Teams (CRT), which were given more engines per season and larger fuel tanks than factory teams, but were subject to a factory team buying ("claiming") their rival's powertrain for a fixed price. The sport's governing body received applications from sixteen new teams looking to join the MotoGP class. For the 2014 season, the CRT subclass was rebranded Open, as the claiming rule was removed. Also, all entries adopted a standard engine control unit, with factory teams being allowed to run any software, and Open entries using a standard software. For the 2016 season, the Open subclass was dropped, and factory entries switched to a standard engine control unit software.

In 2010, the 250cc two-stroke class was replaced by the new Moto2 600cc four-stroke class. In 2012, the 125cc two-stroke class was replaced by the Moto3 250cc four-stroke class with a weight limit of 65 kg with fuel. For the 2019 season Moto2 introduced the 3-cylinder, 765cc Triumph production engine, while Moto3 and MotoGP still use prototype engines.

Pre-MotoGP era

 * 1949: Start of the world championship in Grand Prix motorcycle racing for five separate categories, 125cc, 250cc, 350cc, 500cc and sidecars. Harold Daniell won the first ever 500cc Grand Prix race held at the Isle of Man TT.
 * 1951: Sidecars reduced in engine capacity from 600cc to 500cc
 * 1952: Ken Kavanagh wins the 1952 350cc Ulster Grand Prix to become the first Australian competitor to win a world championship Grand Prix race. Ray Amm wins the 1952 350cc Nations Grand Prix to become the first African competitor to win a world championship Grand Prix race.
 * 1957: Gilera, Mondial and Moto Guzzi withdraw at the end of the season citing increasing costs. Bob McIntyre wins the longest ever Grand Prix race of 301.84 miles, held over 8 laps of the Isle of Man.
 * 1958: MV Agusta win the constructors' and riders' championships in all four solo classes, a feat the team repeat in 1959 and 1960.
 * 1959: Honda enters the Isle of Man TT for the first time.
 * 1961: The 1961 Argentine Grand Prix is the first world championship race held outside of Europe. Kunimitsu Takahashi wins the 1961 250cc German Grand Prix to become the first Asian competitor to win a world championship Grand Prix race.
 * 1963: The 1963 Japanese Grand Prix is the first world championship race held in Asia.
 * 1964: The 1964 United States Grand Prix is the first world championship race held in North America.
 * 1966: Honda wins the constructors' championship in all five solo classes. Jim Redman wins Honda's first ever 500cc Grand Prix at Hockenheim, also the first win for a Japanese factory in the premier class.
 * 1967: Final year of unrestricted numbers of cylinders and gears. Honda withdraws in protest.
 * 1968: Giacomo Agostini (MV Agusta) wins both the 350cc and 500cc titles.
 * 1969: Godfrey Nash riding a Norton Manx becomes the last rider to win a 500cc Grand Prix riding a single-cylinder machine.
 * 1971: Jack Findlay rides a Suzuki TR500 to the first ever win in the 500cc class for a two-stroke machine.
 * 1972: as 1968. The death of Gilberto Parlotti at the Isle of Man TT causes multiple world champion Giacomo Agostini and other riders to boycott the next four events on grounds of safety.
 * 1972: Last year of 500cc sidecars.
 * 1972: Giacomo Agostini wins his seventh consecutive 500cc championship, all with MV Agusta.
 * 1973: Deaths of Jarno Saarinen and Renzo Pasolini at the Italian round at Monza and cancelled.
 * 1974: The Suzuki RG 500 is the first square-four in the 500cc class. The constructors' title is won by a Japanese brand and a two-stroke for the first time (Yamaha).
 * 1975: Giacomo Agostini (Yamaha) wins the 500cc class, making Yamaha the first non European brand to the riders' championship in the premier class with two stroke engine.
 * 1976: Barry Sheene wins the first 500cc championship for Suzuki. After the 1976 Isle of Man TT, the FIM gives in to the riders' boycott and removes the event from the Grand Prix calendar.
 * 1977: Formula 750 becomes a world championship for 750cc machines. Barry Sheene wins the 500cc class. The British Grand Prix moves from the Isle of Man to the Silverstone Circuit on the British mainland.
 * 1978: Kenny Roberts (Yamaha) wins the 500cc class, the first American to do so.
 * 1979: Kenny Roberts leads a rider revolt by threatening to form a race series to compete against the FIM world championship, breaking the FIM hegemony and increased the political clout of Grand Prix racers, which subsequently led to improved safety standards and a new era of professionalism in the sport.
 * 1979: Last year of the Formula 750 class.
 * 1982: Antonio Cobas develops a stronger and lighter aluminum twin-beam chassis to replace the steel backbone frame used since the 1950s, and by the 1990s, all the major racing teams in Grand Prix competition used the aluminum frame design.
 * 1982: Last year of the 350cc class.
 * 1983: Freddie Spencer (Honda) wins the 500cc class. Spencer and Kenny Roberts win all 500cc races of the season between them.
 * 1984: Michelin introduces radial tyres in GPs.
 * 1984: 50cc class replaced by 80cc.
 * 1985: Freddie Spencer (Honda) wins both the 250cc and 500cc titles.
 * 1987: Push starts are eliminated.
 * 1987: Wayne Gardner (Honda) wins the 500cc class, the first Australian to do so.
 * 1988: Wayne Rainey wins the first 500cc race using carbon brakes, at the British GP.
 * 1989: Last year of the 80cc class.
 * 1990: The 500cc class grid switches from five to four bikes per row.
 * 1992: Honda introduces the NSR500 with a big bang engine.
 * 1993: Shinichi Ito and his fuel-injected NSR500 break the 200 mi/h barrier during the German GP on Hockenheimring.
 * 1998: the 500cc class switches to unleaded fuel.
 * 1998: Mick Doohan wins his fifth consecutive 500cc title, all with Honda.
 * 1999: Àlex Crivillé (Honda) wins the 500cc class, the first Spaniard to do so.
 * 2000: Kenny Roberts Jr. (Suzuki) wins the 500cc class, he joins his father Kenny Roberts to claim the championship and thus making them the only father and son to have won the 500cc championship.
 * 2001: Valentino Rossi wins his first premier class title and becomes the final two-stroke champion in the premium class.

2000s

 * 2002: MotoGP replaces the 500cc class; four-strokes are re-introduced and receive a displacement increase to 990cc. Two-strokes of 500cc capacity remain compliable for independent teams for the transitional period.
 * 2003: Ducati makes its Grand Prix debut in the new four-stroke MotoGP class.
 * 2003: Daijiro Kato is killed during his home Japanese Grand Prix in the MotoGP class on the Suzuka Circuit when he hits the barrier at 130R just before the final chicane.
 * 2003: The last start of a two-stroke bike in MotoGP occurs at the Czech Grand Prix.
 * 2004: MotoGP grid switches from four to three bikes per row while the 250cc and 125cc classes remain four bikes per row.
 * 2004: Makoto Tamada earns Bridgestone their first MotoGP victory at the Brazilian GP.
 * 2005: MotoGP adopts flag-to-flag rule, allowing riders to pit and switch to bikes fitted with wet-weather tyres and continue if rain begins to fall mid-race.
 * 2005: Valentino Rossi wins his fifth consecutive MotoGP title.
 * 2007: MotoGP engine capacity is restricted to 800cc four-stroke.
 * 2007: Ducati wins the riders' championship with Casey Stoner and also the constructors' title, becoming the first European brand to do so in the premier class in 30 years. Stoner won 10 out of 17 races during the season.
 * 2008: MotoGP runs its first night race in Qatar.
 * 2008: Dunlop drops out of MotoGP.
 * 2009: Michelin drops out of MotoGP and Bridgestone becomes the sole tyre provider.
 * 2009: Kawasaki ran a single bike as Hayate Racing Team after the factory team announced their withdrawal from the series.
 * 2009: Valentino Rossi wins his seventh and last MotoGP title at the age of 30.

2010s

 * 2010: Moto2 replaces the 250cc class. All engines are built for Moto2 by Honda and are four-stroke 600cc (36.6 cu in) in-line four-cylinder based on the CBR600RR road bike, producing around 140 bhp as of 2015 (125 whp).
 * 2010: Moto2 rider Shoya Tomizawa is killed at Misano.
 * 2010: For the first time, Spain hosts four Grands Prix in a year.
 * 2010: ”Rookie rule” introduced, preventing any newcomer to the MotoGP championship from riding for a factory team, unless said manufacturer lack a satellite team.
 * 2010: Kawasaki announces its retirement due to negotiations with Dorna, stating that it will continue racing activities using mass-produced motorcycles as well as supporting general race-oriented consumers.
 * 2011: MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli is killed at Sepang.
 * 2011: Suzuki suspend their MotoGP participation at the end of the season.
 * 2012: The new Moto3 250cc (15.2 cu in) four-stroke single-cylinder class replaces the 125cc two-stroke class.
 * 2012: MotoGP raises the maximum engine capacity to 1,000cc (61 cu in) and introduces claiming rule teams.
 * 2012: Aprilia rejoins the MotoGP class as a claiming rule team (CRT).
 * 2012: After ending a five-year Honda title drought the previous season, two-time world champion Casey Stoner retires from the sport at the age of 27, being replaced by teenager Marc Márquez at the team.
 * 2013: Knockout qualifying format is introduced.
 * 2013: The ”rookie rule” introduced for the 2010 season is rescinded.
 * 2013: Marc Márquez becomes the first rookie to win the championship in the MotoGP era, and the youngest ever premier class world champion.
 * 2014: Removal of the claiming rule teams and introduction of the Open Class category. Marc Márquez dominates the season by winning the first 10 races of the season.
 * 2015: Suzuki returns to MotoGP as a constructor after a four-year hiatus.
 * 2015: Aprilia returns with a full factory team, run by Gresini Racing.
 * 2015: Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo comes from seven points adrift to defeat team colleague Valentino Rossi to win his third and final MotoGP title by five points. This was after Rossi received a heavy grid penalty for the final round after having been adjudged to taking Marc Márquez out at the penultimate round.
 * 2016: Michelin returns as tyre supplier after Bridgestone's withdrawal.
 * 2016: Luis Salom is killed during Moto2 practice at the Catalan Grand Prix after a high-speed impact with his own stricken bike.
 * 2017: KTM joins the premier class with a factory-supported team for the first time.
 * 2018: For the first time in MotoGP, certain satellite teams like Pramac Ducati and LCR Honda gain access to up-to-date factory bikes.
 * 2019: Triumph Motorcycles replace Honda as sole Moto2 engine supplier. The new engines are 765cc (46.7 cu in) triples based on the Street Triple RS 765.
 * 2019: Both Moto2 and Moto3 adopt the qualifying format used by MotoGP.
 * 2019: The MotoE class is introduced using electric motorcycles (introduced as a ”World Cup”).
 * 2019: A new penalty named the ”Long Lap” penalty is introduced for riders exceeding track limits during races and is also used as a penalty for moderate reckless riding.
 * 2019: Marc Márquez wins his sixth MotoGP title at the age of 26, becoming the youngest rider and the first non-Italian rider to do so.
 * 2019: Seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi becomes the first rider to contest his 400th Grand Prix at the age of 40.

2020s

 * 2020: The first half of the season is postponed or cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 * 2020: Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira become the first riders to win a premier class Grand Prix for their respective nations; South Africa and Portugal. They also achieved the first wins for KTM and Tech3 in the MotoGP class.
 * 2020: Joan Mir wins the World Championship and its the first time for Suzuki since 2000.
 * 2021: Moto3 rider Jason Dupasquier is killed after an accident during the second qualifying session at the Italian Grand Prix on the Mugello Circuit.
 * 2021: Valentino Rossi, who confirmed his retirement before the Austrian round, was the last rider to have competed in the 500cc class to participate in a MotoGP race.
 * 2021: Fabio Quartararo became the 2021 World Champion, becoming the first French rider to win a premier class championship.
 * 2022: Suzuki suspended their MotoGP participation at the end of the season.
 * 2022: Francesco Bagnaia became the 2022 World Champion, becoming the first Italian rider to win a premier class championship since Valentino Rossi in 2009.
 * 2023: MotoGP visited 17 different countries with India as a new addition to the calendar.
 * 2023: Sprint races were introduced at all Grands Prix in the MotoGP class.
 * 2023: MotoE class gained World Championship status.
 * 2023: At the 2023 Italian motorcycle Grand Prix, Brad Binder reached 366.1 km/h on his KTM RC16, the new top speed record in the premier class.
 * 2024: Pirelli became the official tyre supplier for Moto2 and Moto3 classes.
 * 2024: MotoGP is bought by Liberty Media, owner of Formula One.

Event format
The starting grid is composed of three columns and contains approximately 20 riders. Grid positions are decided in descending order of qualifying speed, with the fastest on the pole or first position. Races last approximately 45 minutes, each race is a sprint from start to finish without pitting for fuel or tires.

In 2005, a flag-to-flag rule for MotoGP was introduced. Previously, if a race started dry and rain fell, officials could red-flag (stop) the race and either restart or resume on 'wet' tyres. Now, when rain falls, a white flag is shown, indicating that riders can pit to swap the motorcycle on which they started the race for an identical one, as long as the tyres are different (that is, intermediates or wets instead of slicks). Besides different tyres, the wet-weather bikes have steel brake rotors and different brake pads instead of the carbon discs and pads used on the 'dry' bikes. This is because the carbon brakes need to be very hot to function properly, and the water cools them too much. The suspension is also 'softened' up somewhat for the wet weather.

When a rider crashes, track marshals up the track from the incident wave yellow flags, prohibiting overtaking in that area; one corner farther up the track, a stationary yellow flag is shown. If a fallen rider cannot be evacuated safely from the track, the race is red-flagged. Motorcycle crashes are usually one of two types: lowside, when the bike loses either front or rear tire grip and slides out on the "low" side, and the more dangerous highside, when the tires do not completely slide out, but instead grip the track surface, flipping the bike over to the "high side", usually catapulting the rider over the top. Increased use of traction control has made highsides much less frequent.

2023 saw the introduction of 'Sprint' race events; these races take place on the Saturday of the race weekend with the traditional Grand Prix taking place on the Sunday. The 'Sprint' races are shorter - approximately half the length of a Grand Prix. Riders score approximately half the points in these races.

Champions
The Riders' World Championship is awarded to the most successful rider over a season, as determined by a points system based on Grand Prix results.

Giacomo Agostini is the most successful champion in Grand Prix history, with 15 titles to his name (8 in the 500cc class and 7 in the 350cc class). The most dominant rider of all time was Mike Hailwood, winning 10 out of 12 (83%) races, in the 250cc class, in the 1966 season. Mick Doohan, who won 12 out of 15 (80%) of the 500cc races in the 1997 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season also deserves an honourable mention. Valentino Rossi is the most successful contemporary rider, having won nine titles including seven 500cc/MotoGP titles (2001–2005, 2008–2009), and one each at 250cc and 125cc levels. The current champion is Italian rider Francesco Bagnaia.

Circuits
The 2024 MotoGP World Championship consists of 19 circuits.

 * 🇶🇦, Lusail, Lusail International Circuit
 * , Portimão, Algarve International Circuit
 * 🇺🇸, Austin, Circuit of the Americas
 * 🇪🇸, Jerez de la Frontera, Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto
 * 🇫🇷, Le Mans, Bugatti Circuit
 * 🇪🇸, Montmeló, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
 * 🇮🇹, Scarperia e San Piero, Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello
 * , Assen, TT Circuit Assen
 * 🇩🇪, Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Sachsenring
 * 🇬🇧, Silverstone, Silverstone Circuit
 * 🇦🇹, Spielberg, Red Bull Ring
 * 🇪🇸, Alcañiz, MotorLand Aragón
 * 🇮🇹, Misano Adriatico, Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli
 * 🇮🇩, Central Lombok, Pertamina Mandalika International Street Circuit
 * 🇯🇵, Motegi, Mobility Resort Motegi
 * 🇦🇺, Phillip Island, Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit
 * 🇹🇭, Buriram, Chang International Circuit
 * 🇲🇾, Sepang, Petronas Sepang International Circuit
 * 🇪🇸, Valencia, Circuit Ricardo Tormo

Technical regulations
The following shows the key technical regulations for each class. It was also introduced for the 2005 year, that under rule 2.10.5: 'No fuel on the motorcycle may be more than 15 °C below ambient temperature. The use of any device on the motorcycle to artificially decrease the temperature of the fuel below ambient temperature is forbidden. No motorcycle may include such a device.' This stops an artificial "boost" gained from increasing fuel density by cooling it.

MotoGP class
At the beginning of the new MotoGP era in 2002, 500cc two-stroke or 990cc four-stroke bikes were specified to race. The enormous power advantage of the twice as large displacement four-stroke engine over the half the size two-stroke meant that by the following season, no two-stroke bikes were racing. In 2007, the maximum engine capacity was reduced to 800cc without reducing the existing weight restriction. MotoGP-class motorcycles are not restricted to any specific engine configuration. However, the number of cylinders employed in the engine determines the motorcycle's permitted minimum weight; the weight of the extra cylinders acts as a form of handicap. This is necessary because, for a given capacity, an engine with more cylinders is capable of producing more power. If comparable bore to stroke ratios are employed, an engine with more cylinders will have a greater piston area and a shorter stroke. The increased piston area permits an increase in the total valve area, allowing more air and fuel to be drawn into the engine, and the shorter stroke permits higher revs at the same piston speed, allowing the engine to pump still more air and fuel with the potential to produce more power, but with more fuel consumption too. In 2004 motorcycles were entered with three-, four-and five-cylinder configurations. A six-cylinder engine was proposed by Blata, but it did not reach the MotoGP grids. Presently four-cylinder engines appear to offer the best compromise between weight, power, and fuel consumption as all competitors in the 2009 series used this solution in either 'V' or in-line configuration.

In 2002, the FIM became concerned about the advances in design and engineering that resulted in higher speeds around the race track; regulation changes related to weight, amount of available fuel and engine capacity were introduced. The amended rules reduced engine capacity to 800cc from 990cc and restricted the amount of available fuel for race distance from 26 L in year 2004 to 21 L in year 2007 and onwards. In addition, the minimum weight of four-cylinder bikes used by all participating teams was increased by 3 kg.

The highest speed for a MotoGP motorcycle in 125cc category is 249.76 km/h by Valentino Rossi in 1996 for Aprilia and the top speed in the history of MotoGP is 366.1 km/h, set by Brad Binder during the 'Sprint' race of 2023 Italian Grand Prix with a KTM RC16.

On 11 December 2009, the Grand Prix Commission announced that the MotoGP class would switch to the 1,000cc motor limit starting in the 2012 season. Maximum displacement was limited to 1,000cc, maximum cylinders were limited to four, and maximum bore was capped at 81 mm. Carmelo Ezpeleta, the CEO of Dorna Sports, indicated that the projected changes were received by the teams favorably.

From 2012, teams not entered by one of the major manufacturers could seek "claiming rule team" (CRT) status. Claiming rule team were intended to allow independent teams to be competitive at a lower cost and increase the number of entries in MotoGP. Claiming rule teams benefitted from less restrictive rules on the number of engines that could be used in a season, and with larger fuel allowances during the races. Under the claiming rule, CRTs agree to allow up to four of their engines per season to be claimed, after a race, by one of the major manufacturer teams at a cost of €20,000 each including transmission, or €15,000 each for the engine alone. From the 2014 season, the CRT class was dropped in favour of an "Open Class" specification - allowing teams using the control ECU hardware and software certain benefits to increase their competitiveness.

From 2023, front ride height – or holeshot – devices were banned. These devices have been common place in MotoGP since the back-end of 2018, when Ducati first introduced a system that could lower the rear of its bike to help with acceleration off the line for race starts.

Moto2 class
Moto2 was initially a 600cc four-stroke class introduced in 2010 to replace the traditional 250cc two-stroke class. Engines were supplied exclusively by Honda, tires by Dunlop and electronics are limited and supplied only by FIM-sanctioned producers. Carbon brake discs are banned, only steel brake discs are allowed. However, there are no chassis limitations. Until 2019, only 600cc four-stroke Moto2 machines were allowed.

In 2019 Triumph replaced Honda as the sole supplier of Moto2 engines. The Triumph's engine configuration is 765cc displacement with three cylinders, contrasting with the previous Honda's 600cc in-line four. In 2024 Pirelli became the sole tire supplier in Moto2 and Moto3, replacing Dunlop.

Moto3 class
The 125cc class was replaced in 2012 by the Moto3 class. This class is restricted to single-cylinder 250cc four-stroke engines with a maximum bore of 81 mm. The minimum total weight for motorcycle and rider is 148 kg. Traditionally, the age limits for Moto3 were 16-28, with an upper limit of 25 for new contracted riders participating for the first time and wild-cards. A change of rules was introduced in 2014, allowing under-age FIM CEV Repsol Moto3 (junior) champions to participate in a subsequent Moto3 series at World Championship level. The first beneficiary of this rule-change was double (2013 and 2014) CEV champion Fabio Quartararo. However, after a rash of incidents involving young rider fatalities in lower classes, the FIM set a minimum age of 18 starting in the 2023 season.

MotoE class
The MotoE World Cup was introduced in 2019 and features all-electric motorcycles. The series uses a spec Energica Ego Corsa motorcycle, manufactured by Energica Motor Company. The first season was contested over 6 rounds (at 4 Grand Prix weekends).

The MotoE class gained World Championship status in 2023, and also switched to Ducati bikes.

Weights

 * In 2005, fuel tank capacity was increased from 20 L to 24 L
 * In 2006, fuel tank capacity was reduced slightly from 24 litres to 22 L
 * From 2007 onwards, and for a minimum period of five years, FIM has regulated in MotoGP class that two-stroke bikes will no longer be allowed. The maximum fuel capacity is to be 21 L.
 * From 2007 to 2011, engines were limited to 800cc four-strokes
 * In 2012 engine displacement was increased to 1000cc
 * For the 2013 season minimum weight was increased to 160 kg
 * For the 2015 season minimum weight was decreased to 158 kg

Tyres
Tyre selection is critical, usually done by the individual rider based on bike 'feel' during practice, qualifying and the pre-race warm-up laps on the morning of the race, as well as the predicted weather. The typical compromise is between grip and longevity—softer compound tyres have more traction, but wear out more quickly; harder compound tyres have less traction, but are more likely to last the entire race. Conserving rubber throughout a race is a specific skill winning riders acquire. Special 'Q' or qualifying tyres of extreme softness and grip were typically used during grid-qualifying sessions until their use was discontinued at the end of the 2008 season, but they lasted typically no longer than one or two laps, though they could deliver higher qualifying speeds. In wet conditions, special tires ('wets') with full treads are used, but they suffer extreme wear if the track dries out.

In 2007 new MotoGP regulations limited the number of tires any rider could use over the practice and qualifying period, and the race itself, to a maximum of 31 tyres (14 fronts and 17 rears) per rider. This introduced a problem of tire choice versus weather (among other factors) that challenges riders and teams to optimize their performance on race day. This factor was greeted with varying degrees of enthusiasm by participants. Bridgestone had dominated in 2007 and Michelin riders Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden, Dani Pedrosa, and Colin Edwards all acknowledged shortcomings in Michelin's race tires relative to Bridgestone. Rossi, disappointed with and critical of the performance of his Michelin tires, switched to Bridgestones for 2008 and won the world championship in dominant fashion. Pedrosa controversially switched to Bridgestones during the 2008 season.

In 2008, the rules were amended to allow more tires per race weekend—18 fronts and 22 rears for a total of 40 tires. The lower number of tires per weekend was considered a handicap to Michelin riders. The only MotoGP team using Dunlop tires in 2007, Yamaha Tech 3, did not use them in 2008 but switched to Michelin.

For 2009, 2010 and 2011, a 'spec' tyre supplier, Bridgestone, was appointed by the FIM (with Michelin no longer supplying any tyres to MotoGP and returning to the category in 2016). For the whole season Bridgestone provided four specifications of front tyre, six of rear, and a single wet specification—with no qualifying specification. For each round Bridgestone provided only two specifications for front and rear. Tyres are assigned to riders randomly to assure impartiality. Jorge Lorenzo has publicly supported the mono tyre rule.

At the end of the 2015 season, Bridgestone withdrew as tyre supplier of MotoGP. Following a formal tender, French tyre manufacturer Michelin became the official supplier for the 2016 season, marking their return to the series and testing began in Aragon immediately after the end of the 2015 season.

In media

 * Hitting the Apex, a documentary film about MotoGP, was released in 2015 and is now available on DVD.
 * Faster, a documentary film about MotoGP, was released in 2003 and is now available on DVD.
 * Fastest, a documentary film about MotoGP, was released in 2011 and is now available on DVD.
 * MotoGP Unlimited, a documentary film about MotoGP, was released in 2022.

Video games
Early Grand Prix video games include Grand Prix 500cc (1987), Cycles: International GP Racing (1989), Grand Prix 500 2 (1991) and GP-1 (1993). The first simulator was GP 500, launched in 1999. In the early 2000s, THQ published five video games for Windows and Xbox platforms, whereas Namco published five video games for PlayStation platforms. In 2007, Capcom became the new PlayStation publisher. In 2008, THQ lost the MotoGP licence and Capcom became the exclusive publisher.

MotoGP 2010, an iOS game made in 2010 by I-Play, released on 3 September 2010 and was not received well by critics after having a 43% rating on Metacritic. MotoGP 10/11 was released by Capcom on 15 March 2011, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Metacritic gave the game a rating of 72%.

As of 2013, Milestone srl have had the license for MotoGP video games, a contract that will now last until at least 2026. The first game in this run of their contract was MotoGP 13, which was released on 21 June 2013 on PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The game received mixed reviews and scored 73%.

title: Grand Prix motorcycle racing