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Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Joanna Aniston (born February 11, 1969) is an American actress. She rose to international fame for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends from 1994 to 2004, which earned her Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards. Since her career progressed in the 1990s, Aniston has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses, as of 2023.

The daughter of actors John Aniston and Nancy Dow, she began working as an actress at an early age with an uncredited role in the 1988 film Mac and Me. Her first major film role came in the 1993 horror comedy Leprechaun. She has since starred in a string of successful comedy films such as Office Space (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), Just Go with It (2011), Horrible Bosses (2011), We're the Millers (2013), Dumplin' (2018), and Murder Mystery (2019). Aniston also starred in the acclaimed independent films The Good Girl (2002), Friends with Money (2006), and Cake (2014). She returned to television in 2019, producing and starring in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show, for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Aniston has been included in numerous magazines' lists of the world's most beautiful women. Her net worth is estimated as $300 million, and her box office gross is over $1.6 billion worldwide. She is the recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is the co-founder of the production company Echo Films, established in 2008.

Early life
Aniston was born on February 11, 1969, in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles to Greek-born actor John Aniston and actress Nancy Dow. One of her maternal great-grandfathers, Louis Grieco, was from Italy. Her mother's other ancestry includes English, Irish, Scottish, and a small amount of Greek. Her father's ancestry is from the Greek island of Crete. Aniston has two half-brothers: John Melick, her older maternal half-brother; and Alex Aniston, her younger paternal half-brother. Her godfather was actor Telly Savalas, one of her father's best friends.

Her family moved to New York City when she was a child. Despite her father's television career, she was discouraged from watching television, though she found ways around the prohibition. When she was six, she began attending a Waldorf school. Her parents divorced when she was nine.

Having discovered acting at age 11 at the Waldorf school, Aniston enrolled in Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she joined the school's drama society, and where Anthony Abeson was her drama teacher. She performed in The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window by Lorraine Hansberry and Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov.

1988–1993: Beginnings
Aniston first worked in off-Broadway productions such as For Dear Life and Dancing on Checker's Grave, and supported herself with part-time jobs including work as a telemarketer, waitress and bike messenger. In 1988, she had an uncredited minor role in the critically panned sci-fi adventure film Mac and Me. The next year, she appeared on The Howard Stern Show as a spokesmodel for Nutrisystem, and moved back to Los Angeles.

She obtained her first regular television role on Molloy in 1990 and appeared in Ferris Bueller, a television adaptation of the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off; both series were quickly canceled. She starred as a teenager going to summer camp in the made-for-television film Camp Cucamonga (1990), and as a spoiled daughter followed by a vengeful leprechaun in the horror film Leprechaun (1993). A 2014 retrospective from Entertainment Weekly identified Leprechaun as her worst role, and Aniston herself has expressed embarrassment over it.

Aniston also appeared in the two failed television comedy series The Edge and Muddling Through, and guest-starred in Quantum Leap, Herman's Head and Burke's Law.

1994–2004: Friends and worldwide recognition
Depressed over her four unsuccessful television shows, Aniston approached Warren Littlefield at a Los Angeles gas station asking for reassurance. As the head of NBC entertainment, he encouraged her to continue acting, and a few months later helped cast her in Friends, a sitcom set to debut on NBC's 1994–1995 fall lineup. The producer wanted Aniston to audition for the role of Monica Geller, but Courteney Cox was deemed more suitable, and Aniston was cast as Rachel Green. She was also offered a spot as a featured player on Saturday Night Live, but turned it down in favor of Friends. She played Rachel until the show ended in 2004, when Aniston took a 15-year hiatus from television save for occasional guest roles.

The program was a massive hit and Aniston, along with her co-stars, gained worldwide recognition. Her character was especially popular. She received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations (two for Supporting Actress, three for Lead Actress), and won for Lead Actress. She was also nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and won in 2003 as Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Aniston (along with her female co-stars) became the highest-paid television actress of all time with her $1 million-per-episode paycheck during the final season of Friends. Her character's relationship with Ross Geller, portrayed by David Schwimmer, was widely popular among audiences; they were frequently voted television's favorite couple in polls and magazines.

After a four-year hiatus, Aniston returned to film work in 1996, when she performed in the ensemble cast of romantic comedy She's the One. Her first starring film vehicle was Picture Perfect (1997), where she played a struggling young advertising executive opposite Kevin Bacon and Jay Mohr. It received mixed reviews and was only a moderate commercial success; but Aniston's performance was more warmly received, with many critics suggesting that she had screen presence. In 1998, she appeared as a woman who falls for a gay man (played by Paul Rudd) in the romantic comedy The Object of My Affection, and the next year she starred as a restaurant waitress in the cult film Office Space.

Aniston appeared in the dramedy Rock Star (2001) opposite Mark Wahlberg and Dominic West. She starred in the independent dramedy The Good Girl (2002) as an unglamorous cashier who cheats on her husband. The film was a commercial success in limited release, taking in over $14 million in North America. Film critic Roger Ebert declared it her breakthrough: "After languishing in a series of overlooked movies that ranged from the entertaining Office Space to the disposable Picture Perfect, Jennifer Aniston has at last decisively broken with her Friends image in an independent film of satiric fire and emotional turmoil. It will no longer be possible to consider her in the same way."

Aniston's biggest commercial success in film has been the comedy Bruce Almighty (2003), where she played the girlfriend of a television field reporter (Jim Carrey) offered the chance to be God for one week. With a worldwide box office gross of $484 million, it was the fifth-highest-grossing feature film of the year. Aniston next starred as the old classmate of a tightly wound newlywed in the romantic comedy Along Came Polly (2004) opposite Ben Stiller, which placed number one at the North American box office, earning $27.7 million in its opening weekend; it eventually made $172 million worldwide.

2005–2013: Continued film success
In 2005, Aniston appeared as an alluring woman having an affair with an advertising executive in the thriller Derailed, and as an obituary and wedding announcement writer in the romantic comedy Rumor Has It. Both films were moderate box office hits. Aniston took on the role of a single, cash-strapped woman working as a maid in the independent drama Friends with Money (2006), which received a limited release.

Her next film was the romantic comedy The Break-Up (2006), alongside Vince Vaughn, in which she starred as one half of a couple having a complicated split when both refuse to move out of the pair's recently purchased home. It received mixed reviews but grossed approximately $39.17 million during its opening weekend and $204 million worldwide. The A.V. Club's Keith Phipps gave the film a negative review, stating, "It's like watching the 'we were on a break' episode of Friends stretched to feature length, and without the blessed relief of commercial breaks or the promise of Seinfeld around the corner." CinemaBlend gave the film a positive review stating, "In an era of formulaic romantic movies that bear no resemblance to reality, The Break-Up offers a refreshing flipside."

In 2006, Aniston directed the short film Room 10, set in a hospital emergency room and starring Robin Wright and Kris Kristofferson, as part of Glamour's Reel Moments film series. She noted that she was inspired to direct by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who also directed a short film that year. In 2007, Aniston guest-starred in an episode of Dirt—playing the rival of Courteney Cox's character —and in an episode of 30 Rock, playing a woman who stalks Jack Donaghy. For the latter she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.

The 2008 comedy drama Marley & Me, starring Aniston and Owen Wilson as the owners of the titular dog, set a record for the largest Christmas Day box office sales ever with $14.75 million. It earned a total of $51.7 million over the four-day weekend and placed number one at the box office, a position it maintained for two weeks. The total worldwide gross was $242.7 million. Her next film in wide release, the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You (2009), in which she starred opposite Ben Affleck, grossed $178.8 million globally and ranked number one at the United States box office for its opening weekend. While it received mixed reviews, Aniston, along with Affleck, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Jennifer Connelly, were praised by critics as standouts in the film.

Aniston appeared as the former wife of a bounty hunter (Gerard Butler) in the romantic comedy action film The Bounty Hunter (2010). The film was panned by critics, with The Hollywood Reporter writing that "the mishmash ends up as a thoroughly unfunny adult cartoon." Nevertheless, it was a box office success, garnering over $130 million worldwide. A lukewarm box office reception greeted her next film, the romantic comedy The Switch (2010), in which she starred with Jason Bateman as a 30-something single woman who decides to have a child using a sperm bank. The film's opening weekend drew what The Hollywood Reporter dubbed "a dispiriting $8.4 million". The film received generally mixed reviews, with review site Metacritic showing 13 out of 30 critics delivering a positive verdict.

In 2010, Aniston was also a guest star on the season two premiere of ABC's sitcom Cougar Town, playing a psychiatrist. Her announcement that she would appear on Cougar Town garnered excitement and was dubbed her return to television. The A.V. Club wrote, "[her role] is a funny bit, and it highlights just how much Jennifer Aniston is built to be a TV star." In 2011, she starred opposite Adam Sandler as an office manager posing as the wife of a plastic surgeon in the romantic comedy Just Go with It,  and played a sexually aggressive dentist in Horrible Bosses. Just Go with It and Horrible Bosses both made over $100 million in North America and $200 million worldwide.

Aniston appeared in the comedy Wanderlust (2012) with Paul Rudd, with whom she acted in The Object of My Affection and also Friends, as a married couple who join a commune after losing their money and deciding modern life is not for them. The script for Wanderlust, bought by Universal Pictures, was produced by Judd Apatow. Wanderlust received positive reviews but was a box office failure, grossing only $21 million worldwide, against a production budget of $35 million. Aniston starred as a struggling stripper who agrees to pose as a wife for a drug deal, with Jason Sudeikis, in We're the Millers (2013). The film received mixed reviews from critics, but was a financial success, grossing $269 million against a budget of $37 million.

2014–present: film roles and return to television
Aniston played the role of a stoic socialite who becomes the target of an ill-planned kidnapping plot in Life of Crime (2014), a film adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1978 novel The Switch. The film was released in limited theaters, to positive reviews. Catherine Shoard of The Guardian described her performance as "endearingly comic" and Eric Kohn of IndieWire wrote that "Aniston tops any of her recent performances with a spirited turn that harkens back to her neurotic days on Friends." She also reprised her role for Horrible Bosses 2 (2014).

In Cake (2014), Aniston starred as an astringent woman named Claire Simmons who struggles with chronic pain. The film received mixed reviews; nonetheless, Aniston's performance was acclaimed, dubbed by some critics as "Oscar-worthy". The Toronto International Film Festival called her performance "heartbreakingly good", Gregory Ellwood of HitFix stated, "It's really on most people's radar for being a rare dramatic turn for Jennifer Aniston, and she doesn't disappoint." He further stated, "Aniston makes you believe in Claire's pain. She makes you believe this character is at her lowest point and only she can pull herself out of it. ... It's a complete performance from beginning to end and she deserves the appropriate accolades for it." For her performance, Aniston was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, and Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress. She was also nominated multiple nominations for its latter seasons.

In 2015, Aniston starred as a reluctant therapist in the screwball comedy She's Funny That Way, which received mixed reviews and found a limited release in theaters, but her performance was once again noticed. Wesley Morris of Grantland called her "one of the great screen comedians. ... Most of her scenes here are extraneous, but her vulgarity and tartness are so sharp that the movie needs them. ... This isn't just Aniston having the best stuff. It's her having the most fun with her talent. She's funny in every way."

Aniston starred as the recently divorced mother of two children in the romantic comedy Mother's Day (2016), directed by Garry Marshall, and opposite Julia Roberts and Kate Hudson. The film was panned by critics and a moderate commercial success. In 2016, she voiced a workaholic and overprotective mother in the animated film Storks, alongside Andy Samberg and Kelsey Grammer, which was released to mostly positive reviews; it grossed over $183.4 million against a $70 million budget. Her last 2016 film role was that of a frigidly cold head honcho of a company in the comedy Office Christmas Party, directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon and opposite Jason Bateman and Kate McKinnon. It grossed $114.5 million worldwide.

In The Yellow Birds, a war drama directed by Alexandre Moors, Aniston portrays the mother of a deceased soldier, alongside Alden Ehrenreich, Tye Sheridan, Jack Huston, and Toni Collette. While she said she does not "normally gravitate toward being in war films", she made an exception because the film was "written so beautifully and in such a way [she] had never experienced". The film, first presented at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, received a VOD release in June 2018. The Los Angeles Times wrote in its review: "Toni Collette and Jennifer Aniston as the soldiers' quite different but equally concerned mothers, deliver uniformly naturalistic performances".

In December 2018, Netflix released the musical comedy Dumplin', with Aniston as executive producer and star—marking her first project for a streaming service. That year, she began work on another Netflix project, Murder Mystery, a comedy that reunited her with Adam Sandler, which premiered on June 14, 2019. The two of them reunited for the sequel Murder Mystery 2, which premiered on March 31, 2023.

Aniston made her return to television on November 1, 2019, producing and starring alongside Reese Witherspoon in the Apple TV+ drama The Morning Show. It was her first main television role since the conclusion of Friends in 2004. For its first season, Aniston won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and Best Television Series – Drama as a producer. The series' latter seasons earned her multiple additional nominations at Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy and SAG awards.

She reunited with her Friends cast mates for an HBO Max unscripted television special titled Friends: The Reunion in May 2021. The special earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) for her producing credit.

Wealth
Aniston is one of the world's highest-paid actresses. She has been on the Forbes Top Earning Actresses list for 15 years, every year since 2001—and since then also on its Celebrity 100 list (based on "earnings and fame"), topping it in 2003. According to Forbes, in October 2007, Aniston was the best-selling celebrity face of the entertainment industry.

The magazine estimated her net worth at $110 million in 2007, and $200 million in 2017. It listed her earnings as $19.5 million in 2018.

Public image

The media nicknamed Aniston "America's sweetheart" while the actress was starring on Friends. In 2019, Rachel Simon of NBCNews.com said Aniston "has filled the role of our most beloved celebrity for nearly two and a half decades now, and there are no signs of her being replaced anytime soon", arguing that few celebrities have maintained the "America's sweetheart" title for as long as she has. Aniston has been included in various magazine lists of the world's most beautiful women. In 2005, she became the first GQ Woman of the Year. She has frequently appeared on People magazine's annual list of Most Beautiful Women, topping the ranking in 2004 and 2016. She also topped the magazine's Best Dressed List in 2006. She has been a regular on FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World list since 1996, most recently ranking at number 79 in 2012. A survey of their patients by two Hollywood plastic surgeons, reported in 2011 by The Daily Telegraph, identified her (alongside Gisele Bündchen and Penélope Cruz) as having one of the most sought-after body shapes. In the same year, readers of Men's Health voted her as the Sexiest Woman of All Time. Men's Health also included her on its 100 Hottest Sex Symbols of All Time list, explaining that "Her down-to-earth persona makes her seem attainable, and anyone who's seen her in Office Space has to admit she makes even pieces of flair look good. She rarely plays the airhead, and she seldom overplays a role: she's funny in a quiet, refreshingly human way. And her all-too-human love life off screen inspires sympathy that not even a string of bland romantic comedies can diminish. Other sex symbols drift toward one-dimensionality, becoming flat icons in the process, but throughout her career Aniston has remained sexy, funny, and unmistakably real." Although Aniston disliked the hairstyle she wore during her first two years on Friends, "The Rachel" became very popular.

She received a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 22, 2012, located at 6270 Hollywood Boulevard. She was ranked third on Forbes' list of the 100 Most Powerful Actresses in Hollywood in 2013.

In July 2016, amidst media speculation over whether she was pregnant, Aniston penned an essay for The Huffington Post condemning the "objectification and scrutiny we put women through". She asserted: "We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. [...] We don't need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own 'happily ever after' for ourselves." The piece was supported by many celebrities and widely covered in the media.

After years of aversion to social media, Aniston joined Instagram on October 15, 2019, causing the app to "break" (for hours the "follow" button became inoperable due to an overload of web traffic to her account) with the first picture of the planned Friends cast reunion for HBO Max (whose release was delayed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Within five hours and sixteen minutes, she broke the Guinness World Record for fastest time to reach one million followers on the platform. The record was broken in September 2020, by Sir David Attenborough, who achieved the same feat in 44 minutes.

Personal life
Aniston practices Hatha yoga and Budokan karate. In 2014, she spoke of her Transcendental Meditation practice. The following year, she revealed she has dyslexia, which had affected her education and self-esteem, and that after being diagnosed in her twenties, her outlook toward life changed. She stated, "I thought I wasn't smart. I just couldn't retain anything. Now I had this great discovery. I felt like all of my childhood trauma-dies, tragedies, dramas were explained."

Aniston donated to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and took part in a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign. She endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Aniston does not have any children. In July 2016, she wrote an op-ed piece for the HuffPost titled "For the Record", where she criticized the media for the focus on her body and speculation over potential pregnancies. She wrote, "The objectification and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing." In November 2022, she appeared on the cover of Allure for their final print issue. In the accompanying interview, Aniston said she had undergone IVF to try and have children when she was in her thirties and forties, but the attempts did not result in any pregnancies. She said, "All the years and years and years of speculation... It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it." In 2023, she disclosed that Adam Sandler's family sends her flowers every year on Mother's Day.

Relationships
Aniston met Brad Pitt in 1998, and their relationship was highly publicized. She married Pitt, after two years of dating, on July 29, 2000, in a lavish Malibu wedding. For a few years, their marriage was considered a rare Hollywood success. On January 7, 2005, they announced their separation, and finalized their divorce on October 2. During their divorce proceedings, news media speculated that Pitt had been unfaithful to Aniston with his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star Angelina Jolie, with whom he began a relationship soon after the split. In the months following, the public's reaction towards the divorce was reported in the press, and "Team Aniston" and "Team Jolie" T-shirts appeared throughout the country. Aniston commented on the divorce in a January 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, stating, "Nobody did anything wrong... It was just like, sometimes things [happen]."

In 2005, amid reports that their divorce was due to Aniston's refusal to have children with Pitt, Aniston said, "I've never in my life said I didn't want to have children. I did and I do and I will! ... I would never give up that experience for a career." Aniston said the divorce prompted her to reach out to her mother, Nancy, from whom she had been estranged for nearly a decade. Nancy had talked about her daughter on a television show and written From Mother and Daughter to Friends: A Memoir (1999). Aniston said she had been devastated by the death of her longtime therapist, whom she credited for helping make her separation from Pitt easier. She said she did not regret her relationship with Pitt, describing it as "very intense" and "a beautiful, complicated relationship".

Aniston began a relationship with actor, director, and screenwriter Justin Theroux in May 2011. The following January, they purchased a home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles for roughly $22 million. They became engaged on August 10, 2012 and were married on August 5, 2015, at their estate. They separated at the end of 2017.

Other ventures
Aniston has appeared in commercials and music videos throughout her career. After starting on Friends, Aniston and her co-star Matthew Perry shot a 60-minute instructional video for the release of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. The next year she appeared in commercials for L'Oréal hair products.

Under a contract with Elizabeth Arden, Inc., Aniston worked for over a year on her first perfume, which was released in July 2010. Original plans called for the perfume to be named "Lolavie by Jennifer Aniston", but to avoid confusion with a similarly named perfume, the name was changed to simply "Jennifer Aniston". In 2014, she launched her second perfume, named J, followed by Near Dusk (2015), Beachscape (2016), Luxe & Chapter One (both in 2017), Chapter Two (2018), Silver & Solstice Bloom (both in 2020). In 2021, Aniston launched the LolaVie haircare company.

Since 2007, she has worked in a publicity campaign for the drink SmartWater; on March 7, 2011, she released a YouTube video for SmartWater, Jennifer Aniston Goes Viral, which tripled online interest in the product within 24 hours of its release. In 2012, Aniston co-founded hair care brand Living Proof and also became its spokeswoman. She left when the company was sold to Unilever in 2016. In January 2013, she became the new spokeswoman of Aveeno Skincare. She replaced Daniella van Graas as Aveeno's spokesmodel and became its new "face". Reportedly, Aniston is paid "eight figures" for her endorsement. She became the new face of Emirates airline in 2015, which was reportedly a success. For pharmaceutical company Shire, she appeared in a 2016 campaign raising awareness about chronic dry eye.

She appeared in the 1996 Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers music video for "Walls", and in 2001, in Melissa Etheridge's music video for "I Want to Be in Love". She also appeared in a Heineken commercial.

Along with Brad Pitt and Brad Grey, CEO of Paramount Pictures, Aniston founded the film production company Plan B Entertainment in 2002, although she and Grey withdrew in 2005. In 2008, she and producer Kristin Hahn formed Echo Films.

Philanthropy
Aniston has been a celebrity advocate for numerous charities and received attention for her own donations. She has appeared in television commercials for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, and hosted September 2008's Stand Up to Cancer show. In the "It Can't Wait" campaign to free Burma, Aniston directed and starred in a video. She is a supporter of Friends of El Faro, a nonprofit organization that helps raise money for Casa Hogar Sion, an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico.

On April 14, 2007, Aniston received GLAAD's Vanguard Award for her contributions to increased visibility and understanding of the LGBT community. In 2013, she was named the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) ambassador for the Saks Fifth Avenue Key to the Cure campaign, which raises funds for the EIF Women's Cancer Research Fund. In 2015, she supported the Comic Relief, Inc. charity. Other charities that Aniston has publicly supported include Clothes Off Our Back, Feeding America, EB Medical Research Foundation, Project A.L.S., OmniPeace, and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.

Aniston donated $500,000 to Doctors Without Borders, Haitian health care provider Partners in Health and AmeriCares, and also participated in the Hope for Haiti Now telethon. She donated $500,000 to the Red Cross and another $500,000 to the Ricky Martin Foundation in 2017 to help victims of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

After being honored by SmartWater in 2016 for her ongoing philanthropic work for St. Jude's, Aniston spoke of the importance of philanthropy in her life to InStyle magazine: "We live an extremely beautiful, fortunate life being able to do what we get to do for a living. And so it's a way of being able to be in a position to do something for people who are less able. It's something that makes my heart smile."

Acting credits and awards
Aniston received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, two Golden Globe Award nominations, and nine SAG Award nominations for her role in Friends. From these, she won one of each. She also garnered a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her guest appearance in 30 Rock, while her performance in Cake earned her nominations at the Golden Globe and SAG awards. Aniston additionally won a SAG Award and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the first season of The Morning Show, and earned multiple nominations at Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy and SAG awards for its latter seasons. As a producer, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.

According to review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and the box-office site Box Office Mojo, Aniston's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful films are Office Space (1999), The Good Girl (2002), Bruce Almighty (2003), Friends with Money (2006), The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), Just Go with It (2011), Horrible Bosses (2011), We're the Millers (2013), and Dumplin' (2018).

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History of Malta

Malta has been inhabited since 5900 BC. The first inhabitants were farmers; their agricultural methods degraded the soil until the islands became uninhabitable. The islands were repopulated around 3850 BC by a civilization that at its peak built the Megalithic Temples, which today are among the oldest surviving buildings in the world. Their civilization collapsed in around 2350 BC; the islands were repopulated by Bronze Age warriors soon afterwards.

Malta's prehistory ends in around 700 BC, when the islands were colonized by the Phoenicians. They ruled the islands until they fell in 218 BC to the Roman Republic. The island was acquired by the Eastern Romans or Byzantines in the 6th century AD, who were expelled by Aghlabids following a siege in 870 AD. Malta may have been sparsely populated for a few centuries until being repopulated by Arabs in the 11th century. The islands were invaded by the Norman County of Sicily in 1091, and a gradual Christianization of the islands followed. At this point, the islands became part of the Kingdom of Sicily and were dominated by successive feudal rulers, including the Swabians, the Aragonese, and eventually the Spanish. The islands were given to the Order of St. John in 1530, which ruled them as a vassal state of Sicily. In 1565, the Ottoman Empire attempted to take the islands in the Great Siege of Malta, but the invasion was repelled. The Order continued to rule Malta for over two centuries, and this period was characterized by a flourishing of the arts and architecture and an overall improvement in the social order [citation needed]. The Order was expelled after the French First Republic invaded the islands in 1798, marking the beginning of the French occupation of Malta.

After a few months of French rule, the Maltese rebelled and the French were expelled in 1800. Malta became a British protectorate, becoming a de facto colony in 1813. The islands became an important naval base for the British, serving as the headquarters of the Mediterranean Fleet. During the last quarter of the 19th century, there were advancements in technology and finance. In subsequent years, the Anglo-Egyptian Bank was established in 1882 and the Malta Railway began operating in 1883. In 1921, London granted self-government to Malta. This resulted in the establishment of a bicameral parliament consisting of a Senate (which was later eliminated in 1949) and an elected Legislative Assembly. The Crown Colony of Malta was self-governing in 1921–1933, 1947–1958, and 1962–1964.

During World War II British forces in Malta were heavily attacked by Italian and German air power, but the British held firm. In 1942 the island was awarded the George Cross, which today appears on Malta's flag and coat of arms.

In 1964 Malta became an independent Commonwealth realm known as the State of Malta, and in 1974 it became a republic while remaining in the Commonwealth. Since 2004 the country has been a member state of the European Union.

Geology
Malta stands on an underwater ridge that extends from North Africa to Sicily. At some time in the distant past, Malta was submerged, as shown by marine fossils embedded in rock in the highest points of Malta. As the ridge was pushed up and the Strait of Gibraltar closed through tectonic activity, the sea level was lower, and Malta was on a bridge of dry land that extended between the two continents, surrounded by large lakes. Some caverns in Malta have revealed bones of elephants, hippopotamuses, and other large animals now found in Africa, while others have revealed animals native to Europe.

Neolithic (5900 BC–3850 BC)
While until recently, it was believed that Malta's first inhabitants arrived in the islands in 5700 BC, it has now been established that this occurred around 5900 BC, as is evidenced by studies of ancient soils. These first Neolithic people have generally been assumed to have arrived from Sicily (about 80 km north), but DNA analysis shows that they originated from different parts of the Mediterranean, including both Europe and Africa.

They were mainly farming and fishing communities, with some evidence of hunting activities. They apparently lived in caves and open dwellings. During the centuries that followed there is evidence of further contacts with other cultures, which left their influence on the local communities, evidenced by their pottery designs and colours. The farming methods degraded the soil; at the same time prolonged drought set in, and the islands became too dry to sustain agricultural practices. This occurred partly due to climate change and drought, and the islands were uninhabited for about a millennium.

Research carried out as part of the FRAGSUS project, comprising analysis of soil cores from valleys, which contained ancient pollen and animal evidence from past environments, revealed that "climate change fluctuations made Malta uninhabitable in some periods of prehistory. There was a substantial break of around 1,000 years between the first settlers and the next group who settled permanently on the Maltese islands and eventually built the megalithic temples."

Temple period (3850 BC–2350 BC)

A second wave of colonization arrived from Sicily in around 3850 BC. Prof. Caroline Malone has said: "Given the restricted land space of Malta, it is remarkable that the second colonisation survived for 1,500 years. This sort of settlement stability is unheard of in Europe and is impressive in terms of how they were able to live on an ever-degrading land for such a period of time."

One of the most notable periods of Malta's history is the temple period, starting around 3600 BC. The Ġgantija Temple in Gozo is one of the oldest free-standing buildings in the world. The name of the complex stems from the Maltese word ġgant, which reflects the magnitude of the temple's size. Many of the temples are in the form of five semicircular rooms connected at the centre. It has been suggested that these might have represented the head, arms, and legs of a deity, since one of the commonest kinds of statue found in these temples comprises obese human figures, popularly termed "fat ladies" despite their ambiguity of gender, and often considered to represent fertility.

The civilization which built the temples lasted for about 1,500 years until about 2350 BC, at which point the culture seems to have disappeared. There is speculation about what might have happened and whether they were completely wiped out or assimilated, but it is thought that the collapse occurred due to climate conditions and drought.

Prof. Malone has stated: "We can learn a lot from the mistakes made by the first Maltese. The lack of water, coupled with the destruction of soil that takes centuries to form, can cause the failure of a civilisation. The second group of inhabitants to Malta in 3850–2350 BC managed their resources adequately and harnessed soil and food for over 1,500 years. It was only when climate conditions and drought became so extreme that they failed."

Between 2600 and 2400 BC. e. on the island of Malta there was a huge infant mortality - about 50%.

Bronze Age (2350 BC–700 BC)
After the Temple period came the Bronze Age. From this period there are remains of a number of settlements and villages, as well as dolmens — altar-like structures made out of very large slabs of stone. They are claimed to belong to a population certainly different from that which built the previous megalithic temples.

It is presumed the population arrived from Sicily because of the similarity to the constructions found in the largest island of the Mediterranean sea.

One surviving menhir, which was used to build temples, still stands at Kirkop; it is one of the few still in good condition.

Among the most interesting and mysterious remnants of this era are the so-called cart ruts as they can be seen at a place on Malta called Misraħ Għar il-Kbir (informally known as Clapham Junction). These are pairs of parallel channels cut into the surface of the rock, and extending for considerable distances, often in an exactly straight line. Their exact use is unknown. One suggestion is that beasts of burden used to pull carts along, and these channels would guide the carts and prevent the animals from straying. The society that built these structures eventually died out or at any rate disappeared.

Between 1400 BC and 1200 BC there was a Mycaenaean influence on the Malta, which is evidenced by presence of Mycaenaean artefacts.

Phoenicians and Carthage
Phoenicians—possibly from Tyre—began to colonize the islands around the early 8th century BC, using it as an outpost from which they expanded sea exploration and trade in the Mediterranean. They called the principal island Ann. Necropolises have been found at Rabat on Malta and Rabat on Gozo, suggesting the main settlements were at present-day Mdina on Malta and Cittadella on Gozo. The former settlement was also known as Ann, suggesting it served as the colony's seat of government. The principal port, meanwhile, was at Cospicua on the Grand Harbor. Known simply as Maleth (𐤌𐤋𐤈,, "The Port"), it was probably the namesake of the Greeks' and Romans' names for the entire island.

The Maltese Islands fell under the hegemony of Carthage around the middle of 6th century BC, along with most other Phoenician colonies in the western Mediterranean. By the late 4th century BC, Malta had become a trading post linking southern Italy and Sicily to Tripolitania. This resulted in the introduction of Hellenistic features in architecture and pottery. It is not known if Malta was settled like a traditional Greek, so some support that Malta was never a Greek colony. Hellenistic architectural features can be seen in the Punic temple at Tas-Silġ and a tower in Żurrieq. The Greek language also began to be used in Malta, as shown in the bilingual Phoenician and Greek inscriptions found on the Cippi of Melqart. In the 18th century, French scholar Jean-Jacques Barthélemy deciphered the extinct Phoenician alphabet using the inscriptions on these cippi.

In 255 BC, the Romans raided Malta during the First Punic War, devastating much of the island.

Roman rule

According to Latin historian Livy, the Maltese Islands passed into the hands of the Romans at the start of the Second Punic War in the year 218 BC. Livy reports the commander of the Punic garrison on the Island surrendered without resistance to Tiberius Sempronius Longus, one of the two consuls for that year, who was on his way to North Africa. The archipelago—known to the Romans as Melita or Melite—became part of the province of Sicily, but by the 1st century it had its own local senate and people's assembly. By this time, both Malta and Gozo minted distinctive coins based on Roman weight measurements.

Serving as the administrative hub of the islands, Mdina also became known as Melita. Its size grew to its maximum extent, occupying the entire area of present-day Mdina and large parts of Rabat, extending to what is now St Paul's Church. Remains show that the city was surrounded by thick defensive walls and was also protected by a protective ditch that ran along the same line of St Rita Street, which was built directly above it. Remains hint that a religious centre with a number of temples was built on the highest part of the promontory. The remains of one impressive residence known as the Domus Romana have been excavated, revealing well-preserved Pompeian style mosaics. This domus seems to have been the residence of a rich Roman aristocrat, and it is believed to have been built in the 1st century BC and abandoned in the 2nd century AD.

The islands prospered under Roman rule, and were eventually distinguished as a Municipium and a Foederata Civitas. Many Roman antiquities still exist, testifying to the close link between the Maltese inhabitants and Sicily. Throughout the period of Roman rule, Latin became Malta's official language, and Roman religion was introduced in the islands. Despite this, the local Punic-Hellenistic culture and language is thought to have survived until at least the 1st century AD.

In AD 60, the Acts of the Apostles records that Saint Paul was shipwrecked on an island named Melite, which many Bible scholars and Maltese conflate with Malta; there is a tradition that the shipwreck took place on the shores of the aptly named "St. Paul's Bay". In Acts 28, Saint Paul is welcomed by the islanders who build him a fire. As Paul is gathering wood for the fire, a poisonous viper in the wood is driven out by the heat and bites Paul. Paul is unaffected by the bite, leading the people of Malta to believe he is a god. This assumption allows Paul the opportunity to introduce the Gospel to the island.

Malta remained part of the Roman Empire until the early 6th century. The Vandals and later the Ostrogoths might have briefly occupied the islands in the 5th century, but there is no archaeological evidence to support this.

Byzantine rule

In 533, Byzantine general Belisarius may have landed at Malta while on his way from Sicily to North Africa, and by 535, the islands were integrated into the Byzantine province of Sicily. During the Byzantine period, the main settlements remained the city of Melite on mainland Malta and the Citadel on Gozo, while Marsaxlokk, Marsaskala, Marsa and Xlendi are believed to have served as harbours. The relatively high quantity of Byzantine ceramics found in Malta suggests that the island might have had an important strategic role within the empire from the 6th to 8th centuries.

From the late 7th century onward, the Mediterranean was being threatened by Muslim expansion. At this point, the Byzantines probably improved the defences of Malta, as can be seen by defensive walls built around the basilica at Tas-Silġ around the 8th century. The Byzantines might have also built the retrenchment which reduced Melite to one-third of its original size.

Arab period

In 870 AD, Malta was occupied by Muslims from North Africa. According to Al-Himyarī, Aghlabids led by Halaf al-Hādim besieged the Byzantine city of Melite, which was ruled by governor Amros (probably Ambrosios). Al-Hādim was killed in the fighting, and Sawāda Ibn Muḥammad was sent from Sicily to continue the siege following his death. The duration of the siege is unknown, but it probably lasted for some weeks or months. After Melite fell to the invaders, the inhabitants were massacred, the city was destroyed and its churches were looted. Marble from Melite's churches was used to build the castle of Sousse. According to Al-Himyarī, Malta remained almost uninhabited until it was resettled in around 1048 or 1049 by a Muslim community and their slaves, who rebuilt the city of Melite as Medina, making it "a finer place than it was before". However, archaeological evidence suggests that Melite/Medina was already a thriving Muslim settlement by the beginning of the 11th century, so Al-Himyarī's account might be unreliable. In 1053–54, the Byzantines besieged Medina but they were repelled by its defenders. Although their rule was relatively short, the Arabs left a significant impact on Malta. In addition to their language, Siculo-Arabic, cotton, oranges and lemons and many new techniques in irrigation were introduced. Some of these, like the noria (waterwheel), are still used, unchanged, today. Many place names in Malta date to this period.

A long historiographic controversy loomed over Medieval Muslim Malta. According to the "Christian continuity thesis", spearheaded by Giovanni Francesco Abela and still most present in popular narratives, the Maltese population continuously inhabited the islands from the early Christian Era up to today, and a Christian community persisted even during Muslim times. This was contested in the 1970s by the medieval historian Godfrey Wettinger, who claimed that nothing indicated the continuity of Christianity from the late 9th to the 11th century on the Maltese Islands – the Maltese must have integrated into the new Arab Islamic society. The Christian continuity thesis had a revival in 2010 following the publication of Tristia ex Melitogaudo by Stanley Fiorini, Horatio Vella and Joseph Brincat, who challenged Wettinger's interpretation based on a line of a Byzantine poem (which later appeared to have been mistranslated). Wettinger subsequently reaffirmed his thesis, based on sources from the Arab historians and geographers Al Baqri, Al-Himyarī, Ibn Hauqal, Qazwini, who all seemed to be in agreement that "the island of Malta remained after that a ruin without inhabitants" – thus ruling out any continuity whatsoever between the Maltese prior to 870 and after. This is also consistent with Joseph Brincat’s finding of no further substrata beyond Arabic in the Maltese language, a very rare occurrence which may only be explained by a drastic lapse between one period and the following. To the contrary, the few Byzantine words in Maltese language can be traced to the 400 Rhodians coming with the knights in 1530, as well as to the influx of Greek rite Christians from Sicily.

Norman Kingdom of Sicily rule

Malta returned to Christian rule with the Norman conquest. It was, with Noto on the southern tip of Sicily, the last Arab stronghold in the region to be retaken by the resurgent Christians. In 1091, Count Roger I of Sicily, invaded Malta and turned the island's Muslim rulers into his vassals. In 1127, his son Roger II of Sicily fully established Norman rule in Malta, paving the way for the islands' Christianization.

Malta was part of the Kingdom of Sicily for nearly 440 years. During this period, Malta was sold and resold to various feudal lords and barons and was dominated successively by the rulers of Swabia, Anjou, the Crown of Aragon, the Crown of Castile and Spain. Eventually, the Crown of Aragon, which then ruled Malta, joined with Castile in 1479, and Malta became part of the Spanish Empire. Meanwhile, Malta's administration fell in the hands of local nobility who formed a governing body called the Università.

The islands remained largely Muslim-inhabited long after the end of Arab rule. The Arab administration was also kept in place and Muslims were allowed to practise their religion freely until the 13th century. Muslims continued to demographically and economically dominate Malta for at least another 150 years after the Christian conquest.

In 1122, Malta experienced a Muslim uprising and in 1127 Roger II of Sicily reconquered the islands.

Even in 1175, Burchard, bishop of Strasbourg, an envoy of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, had the impression, based upon his brief visit to Malta, that it was exclusively or mainly inhabited by Muslims.

In 1192, Tancred of Sicily appointed Margaritus of Brindisi the first Count of Malta, perhaps for his unexpected success in capturing Empress Constance contender to the throne. Between 1194 and 1530, the Kingdom of Sicily ruled the Maltese islands and a process of full latinisation started in Malta. The conquest of the Normans would lead to the gradual Romanization and Latinization and subsequent firm establishment of Roman Catholicism in Malta, after previous Islamic domination.

In 1224, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, sent an expedition against Malta to establish royal control and prevent its Muslim population from helping a Muslim rebellion in the Kingdom of Sicily.

After the Norman conquest, the population of the Maltese islands kept growing mainly through immigration from the north (Sicily and Italy), with the exile to Malta of the entire male population of the town of Celano (Italy) in 1223, the stationing of a Norman and Sicilian garrison on Malta in 1240 and the settlement in Malta of noble families from Sicily between 1372 and 1450. As a consequence of this, Capelli et al. found in 2005 that "the contemporary males of Malta most likely originated from Southern Italy, including Sicily and up to Calabria."

According to a report in 1240 or 1241 by Gililberto Abbate, who was the royal governor of Frederick II of Sicily during the Genoese Period of the County of Malta, in that year the islands of Malta and Gozo had 836 Muslim families, 250 Christian families and 33 Jewish families.

Around 1249, some Maltese Muslims were sent to the Italian colony of Lucera, established for Sicilian Muslims. For some historians, including Godfrey Wettinger, who follow on this Ibn Khaldun, this event marked the end of Islam in Malta. According to Wettinger, "there is no doubt that by the beginning of Angevin times [i.e. shortly after 1249] no professed Muslim Maltese remained either as free persons or even as serfs on the island." The Maltese language nevertheless survived – an indication that either a large number of Christians already spoke Maltese, or that many Muslims converted and remained behind.

In 1266, Malta was turned over in fiefdom to Charles of Anjou, brother of France's King Louis IX, who retained it in ownership until 1283. Eventually, during Charles's rule religious coexistence became precarious in Malta, since he had a genuine intolerance of religions other than Roman Catholicism. However, Malta's links with Africa would still remain strong until the beginning of Aragonese and Spanish rule in 1283, following the War of the Sicilian Vespers.

In September 1429, Hafsid Saracens attempted to capture Malta but were repelled by the Maltese. The invaders pillaged the countryside and took about 3,000 inhabitants as slaves.

By the end of the 15th century, all Maltese Muslims would be forced to convert to Christianity and had to find ways to disguise their previous identities by Latinizing or adopting new surnames.

Hospitaller rule (1530–1798)

Malta was ruled by the Order of Saint John as a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1530 to 1798.

Early years

In the early 16th century, the Ottoman Empire started spreading over the region, reaching South East Europe. The Spanish king Charles V feared that if Rome fell to the Turks, it would be the end of Christian Europe. In 1522, Suleiman I drove the Knights Hospitaller of St. John out of Rhodes. They dispersed to their commanderies in Europe. Wanting to protect Rome from invasion from the south, in 1530, Charles V handed over the island to these knights.

For the next 275 years, the "Knights of Malta" made the island their domain and made the Italian language official. They built towns, palaces, churches, gardens, and fortifications, they embellished the island with numerous works of art, and enhanced cultural heritage.

The order of the Knights of St. John was originally established to set up outposts along the route to the Holy Land, to assist pilgrims going in either direction. Owing to the many confrontations that took place, one of their main tasks was to provide medical assistance, and even today the eight-pointed cross is still in wide use in ambulances and first aid organisations. In return for the many lives they saved, the Order received many newly conquered territories that had to be defended. Together with the need to defend the pilgrims in their care, this gave rise to the strong military wing of the knights. Over time, the Order became strong and rich. From hospitallers first and military second, these priorities reversed. Since much of the territory they covered was around the Mediterranean region, they became notable seamen.

From Malta the knights resumed their seaborne attacks of Ottoman shipping, and before long the Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent ordered a final attack on the Order. By this time the Knights had occupied the city of Birgu, which had excellent harbours to house their fleet. Birgu was one of the two major urban places at that time, the other most urban place being Mdina the old capital city of Malta. The defences around Birgu were enhanced and new fortifications built on the other point where now there is Senglea. A small fort was built at the tip of the peninsula where the city of Valletta now stands and was named Fort Saint Elmo.

Great Siege
On 18 May 1565, Suleiman the Magnificent laid siege to Malta. By the time the Ottoman fleet arrived the Knights were as ready as they could be. First, the Ottomans attacked the newly built fort of St. Elmo and after a whole month of fighting the fort was in rubble and the soldiers kept fighting until they were wiped out. After this the Turks started attacking Birgu and the fortifications at Senglea but to no gain.

After a protracted siege ended on 8 September of the same year, which became known in history as Great Siege of Malta, the Ottoman Empire conceded defeat as the approaching winter storms threatened to prevent them from leaving. The Ottoman Empire had expected an easy victory within weeks. They had 40,000 men arrayed against the Knights' 9,000, most of them Maltese soldiers and simple citizens bearing arms. Their loss of thousands of men was very demoralising. The Ottomans made no further attempts to conquer Malta and the Sultan died in the next year.

After the siege
The year after, the Order started work on a new city with fortifications like no other, on the Sciberras Peninsula which the Ottomans had used as a base during the siege. It was named Valletta after Jean Parisot de Valette, the Grand Master who had seen the Order through its victory. Since the Ottoman Empire never attacked again, the fortifications were never put to the test, and today remain one of the best-preserved fortifications of this period.

Unlike other rulers of the island, the Order of St. John did not have a "home country" outside the island. The island became their home, so they invested in it more heavily than any other power. Besides, its members came from noble families, and the Order had amassed considerable fortunes due to its services to those en route to the Holy Land. The architectural and artistic remains of this period remain among the greatest of Malta's history, especially in their "prize jewel" — the city of Valletta.

However, as their main raison d'être had ceased to exist, the Order's glory days were over. In the last three decades of the eighteenth century, the Order experienced a steady decline. This was a result of a number of factors, including the bankruptcy that was a result of some lavish rule of the last Grand Masters, which drained the finances of the Order. Due to this, the Order also became unpopular with the Maltese.

Indeed, in 1775, a revolt known as the Rising of the Priests occurred. Rebels managed to capture Fort St Elmo and Saint James Cavalier, but the revolt was suppressed and some of the leaders were executed while others were imprisoned or exiled.

French occupation (1798–1800)

Over the years, the power of the knights declined; their reign ended in 1798 when Napoleon Bonaparte's expeditionary fleet stopped off there en route to his Egyptian expedition. Napoleon asked for safe harbour to resupply his ships, and when they refused to supply him with water, Napoleon Bonaparte sent a division to scale the hills of Valletta. Grand Master Hompesch capitulated on 11 June. The following day a treaty was signed by which the order handed over sovereignty of the island of Malta to the French Republic. In return the French Republic agreed to "employ all its credit at the congress of Rastatt to procure a principality for the Grand Master, equivalent to the one he gives up".

During his very short stay (six days), Napoleon accomplished quite a number of reforms, notably the creation of a new administration with a Government Commission, the creation of twelve municipalities, the setting up of a public finance administration, the abolition of all feudal rights and privileges, the abolition of slavery and the granting of freedom to all Turkish slaves (2000 in all). On the judicial level, a family code was framed and twelve judges were nominated. Public education was organised along principles laid down by Bonaparte himself, providing for primary and secondary education. Fifteen primary schools were founded and the university was replaced by an ’Ecole centrale’ in which there were eight chairs, all very scientific in outlook: notably, arithmetic and stereometry, algebra and stereotomy, geometry and astronomy, mechanics and physics, navigation, chemistry, etc.

He then sailed for Egypt leaving a substantial garrison in Malta. Since the Order had also been growing unpopular with the local Maltese, the latter initially viewed the French with optimism. This illusion did not last long. Within months the French were closing convents and seizing church treasures, most notably the sword of Jean de Valette which has since been returned to Malta in 2017, after a century in Paris, and for many years exhibited at the Louvre, in Paris. The Maltese people rebelled, and the French garrison of General Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois retreated into Valletta. After several failed attempts by the locals to retake Valletta, the British were asked for their assistance. Rear Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson decided on a total blockade in 1799. The French garrison surrendered in 1800.

British Malta in the 19th and early 20th centuries
In 1800, Malta voluntarily became part of the British Empire as a protectorate. Under the terms of the 1802 Treaty of Amiens with France, Britain was supposed to evacuate the island, but failed to keep this obligation – one of several mutual cases of non-adherence to the treaty, which eventually led to its collapse and the resumption of war between the two countries.

Although initially the island was not given much importance, its excellent harbours became a prized asset for the British, especially after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The island became a military and naval fortress, the headquarters of the British Mediterranean fleet.

Home rule was refused to the Maltese until 1921 although a partly elected legislative council was created as early as 1849 (the first Council of Government under British rule had been held in 1835), and the locals sometimes suffered considerable poverty. This was due to the island being overpopulated and largely dependent on British military expenditure which varied with the demands of war. Throughout the 19th century, the British administration instituted several liberal constitutional reforms which were generally resisted by the Church and the Maltese elite who preferred to cling to their feudal privileges. Political organisations, like the Nationalist Party, were created or had as one of their aims, the protection of the Italian language in Malta.

In 1813 Malta was granted the Bathurst Constitution; in 1814 it was declared free of the plague, while the 1815 Congress of Vienna reaffirmed the British rule under the 1814 Treaty of Paris. In 1819, the local Italian-speaking Università was dissolved.

The year 1828 saw the revocation of the right of sanctuary, following the Vatican Church-State proclamation. Three years later, the See of Malta was made independent of the See of Palermo. In 1839, press censorship was abolished, and the construction of St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral began.

Following the 1846 Carnival riots, in 1849 a Council of Government with elected members under British rule was set up. In 1870 a referendum was held on ecclesiastics serving on Council of Government, and in 1881 an Executive Council under British rule was created; in 1887, the Council of Government was entrusted with "dual control" under British rule. A backlash came in 1903, with the return to the 1849 form of Council of Government under British rule.

The last quarter of the century saw technical and financial progress in line with the Belle Époque: The following years saw the foundation of the Anglo-Egyptian Bank (1882) and the beginning of operation of the Malta Railway (1883); the first definitive postage stamps were issued in 1885, and in 1904 tram service began. In 1886 Surgeon Major David Bruce discovered the microbe causing the Malta Fever, and in 1905 Themistocles Zammit discovered the fever's sources. Finally, in 1912, Dun Karm Psaila wrote his first poem in Maltese.

Between 1915 and 1918, during World War I, Malta became known as the Nurse of the Mediterranean due to the large number of wounded soldiers who were accommodated in Malta.

Malta in the Interwar period

In 1919, the Sette Giugno (7 June) riots over the excessive price of bread led to greater autonomy for the locals during the 1920s. After Filippo Sciberras had convened a National Assembly, in 1921 self-government was granted under British rule. Malta obtained a bicameral parliament with a Senate (later abolished in 1949) and an elected Legislative Assembly. Joseph Howard was named Prime Minister. In 1923 the Innu Malti was played for the first time in public, and the same year Francisco Buhagiar became Prime Minister, followed in 1924 by Sir Ugo Pasquale Mifsud and in 1927 by Sir Gerald Strickland.

The 1930s saw a period of instability in the relations between the Maltese political elite, the Maltese Catholic church, and the British authorities; the 1921 Constitution was suspended twice. First in 1930–1932, when British authorities assumed that a free and fair election would not be possible following a clash between the governing Constitutional Party and the Church and the latter's subsequent imposition of mortal sin on voters of the party and its allies, thus making a free and fair election impossible. Again, in 1933 the Constitution was withdrawn over the Government's budgetary vote for the teaching of Italian in elementary schools, after just 13 months of a Nationalist administration. Malta thus reverted to the Crown Colony status it held in 1813.

Before the arrival of the British, the official language since 1530 (and the one of the handful of educated elite) had been Italian, but this was downgraded by the increased use of English. In 1934 Maltese was declared an official language, which brought the number up to three. Two years later, the Letters Patent of the 1936 constitution declared that Maltese and English were the only official languages, thereby legally settling the long-standing 'Language Question' that had dominated Maltese politics for over half a century. In 1934, only about 15% of the population could speak Italian fluently. This meant that out of 58,000 males qualified by age to be jurors, only 767 could qualify by language, as only Italian had until then been used in the courts.

In 1936 the Constitution was revised to provide for the nomination of members to Executive Council under British rule (similar to the 1835 constitution) and in 1939 to provide again for a partly elected Council of Government under British rule.

British Malta during the Second World War

Before World War II, Valletta was the location of the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet's headquarters. However, despite Winston Churchill's objections, the command was moved to Alexandria, Egypt, in April 1937 fearing it was too susceptible to air attacks from Europe. At the time of the Italian declaration of war (10 June 1940), Malta had a garrison of less than four thousand soldiers and about five weeks of food supplies for the population of about three hundred thousand. In addition, Malta's air defences consisted of about forty-two anti-aircraft guns (thirty-four "heavy" and eight "light") and four Gloster Gladiators, for which three pilots were available.

Being a British colony, situated close to Sicily and the Axis shipping lanes, Malta was bombarded by the Italian and German air forces. Malta was used by the British to launch attacks on the Italian navy and had a submarine base. It was also used as a listening post, reading German radio messages including Enigma traffic.

The first air raids against Malta occurred on 11 June 1940; there were six attacks that day. The island's biplanes ability to defend the island was limited due to the Luqa Airfield being unfinished; however, the airfield was ready by the seventh attack. Initially, the Italians would fly at about 5,500 m, then they dropped down to three thousand metres (in order to improve the accuracy of their bomb-aiming). Journalist Mabel Strickland spoke of the Italian bombing efforts as such: "The Italians decided they didn't like [the Gladiators and AA guns], so they dropped their bombs twenty miles off Malta and went back." Despite these words, the accuracy of Italian bombers improved after repeated attempts, causing a great deal of devastation to both military and civilian infrastructure in Malta. However, these raids proved ineffective to the Axis siege efforts, as any damage incurred was eventually repaired before a new wave of bombers could launch bombing runs over the islands.

By the end of August, the Gladiators were reinforced by twelve Hawker Hurricanes which had arrived via HMS Argus. During the first five months of combat, the island's aircraft destroyed or damaged about thirty-seven Italian aircraft, while suffering even greater losses than the Italians. Italian fighter pilot Francisco Cavalera observed, "Malta was really a big problem for us—very well-defended.". Nevertheless, the Italian bombing campaign was causing serious damage to the island's infrastructure and the ability of the Royal Navy to operate effectively in the Mediterranean.

On Malta, 330 people had been killed and 297 were seriously wounded from the war's inception until December 1941. In January 1941, the German X. Fliegerkorps arrived in Sicily as the Afrika Korps arrived in Libya. Over the next four months 820 people were killed and 915 seriously wounded.

On 15 April 1942, King George VI awarded the George Cross (the highest civilian award for gallantry) "to the island fortress of Malta — its people and defenders". Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived on 8 December 1943, and presented a United States Presidential Citation to the people of Malta on behalf of the people of United States. He presented the scroll on 8 December but dated it 7 December for symbolic reasons. In part it read: "Under repeated fire from the skies, Malta stood alone and unafraid in the centre of the sea, one tiny bright flame in the darkness – a beacon of hope for the clearer days which have come." (The complete citation now stands on a plaque on the wall of the Grand Master's Palace on Republic Street, in the town square of Valletta. )

In 1942, a convoy code-named Operation Pedestal was sent to relieve Malta. Five ships, including the tanker SS Ohio, managed to arrive in the Grand Harbour, with enough supplies for Malta to survive. In the following year Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill visited Malta. George VI also arrived in Grand Harbour for a visit.

During the Second World War, Ugo Mifsud and George Borg Olivier were the only remaining Nationalist members of parliament of Malta. Mifsud fainted after delivering a very passionate defence against the deportation to concentration camps in Uganda of Enrico Mizzi and 49 other Italian Maltese accused of pro-Italian political activities. He died a few days later.

In 1943, the Allies coordinated the invasion of Sicily from the Lascaris War Rooms in Valletta. Following the Armistice of Cassibile later in 1943, a large part of the Italian Navy surrendered to the British in Malta.

The Malta Conference was held in 1945, in which Churchill and Roosevelt met prior to the Yalta Conference with Joseph Stalin.

The 1946 National Assembly resulted in a new constitution in 1947. This restored Malta's self-government, with Paul Boffa as Prime Minister. On 5 September 1947, universal suffrage for women in Malta was granted. That year, Agatha Barbara was the first woman elected as a Maltese Member of Parliament.

From home rule to independence
After the Second World War, the islands achieved self-rule, with the Malta Labour Party (MLP) of Dom Mintoff seeking either full integration with the UK or else "self-determination" (independence) and the Partit Nazzjonalista (PN) of George Borg Olivier favouring independence, with the same "dominion status" that Canada, Australia and New Zealand enjoyed.

The 1953 Coronation incident (where, initially, no invitation was sent for a Maltese delegation to attend the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II), temporarily united Maltese politicians. After the MLP's electoral victory in 1955, in December Round Table Talks were held in London, on the future of Malta, namely the Integration proposal put forward by Mintoff. It was attended by the new Prime Minister Dom Mintoff, Borg Olivier, and other Maltese politicians, along with the British Colonial Secretary, Alan Lennox-Boyd. The British government agreed to offer the islands their own representation in British Parliament, with three seats in the House of Commons, with the Home Office taking over responsibility for Maltese affairs from the Colonial Office. Under the proposals, the Maltese Parliament would retain authority over all affairs except defence, foreign policy, and taxation. The Maltese were also to have social and economic parity with the UK, to be guaranteed by the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) the islands' main source of employment.

A UK integration referendum was held on 11 and 12 February 1956, in which 77.02% of voters were in favour of the proposal, but owing to a boycott by the Nationalist Party and the Church, only 59.1% of the electorate voted, thereby rendering the result inconclusive.

There were also concerns expressed by British MPs that the representation of Malta at Westminster would set a precedent for other colonies, and influence the outcome of general elections.

In addition, the decreasing strategic importance of Malta to the Royal Navy meant that the British government was increasingly reluctant to maintain the naval dockyards. Following a decision by the Admiralty to dismiss 40 workers at the dockyard, Mintoff declared that "representatives of the Maltese people in Parliament declare that they are no longer bound by agreements and obligations toward the British government" (the 1958 Caravaggio incident). In response, the Colonial Secretary sent a cable to Mintoff, stating that he had "recklessly hazarded" the whole integration plan.

Under protest, Dom Mintoff resigned as Prime Minister along with all the MLP deputies on 21 April 1958. Georgio Borg Olivier was offered to form an alternative government by Governor Laycock but refused. This led to the Governor declaring a state of emergency thus suspending the constitution and Malta was placed under direct colonial administration from London. The MLP had now fully abandoned support for integration (when Mintoff's demands for financial guarantees were not accepted) and now advocated full independence from Britain. In 1959, an Interim Constitution provided for an Executive Council under British rule.

While France had implemented a similar policy in its colonies, some of which became overseas departments, the status offered to Malta from Britain constituted a unique exception. Malta was the only British colony where integration with the UK was seriously considered, and subsequent British governments have ruled out integration for remaining overseas territories, such as Gibraltar.

From 1959 Malta's British governor started to pursue a plan of economic development based on promoting tourism and tax competition, offering very low tax rates on pensions, royalties and dividends to attract British (referred to as ‘sixpenny settlers’) and former colonial pensioners. Malta saw a large influx of Britons from Rhodesia after 1967.

In 1961, the Blood Commission provided for a new constitution allowing for a measure of self-government and recognising the "State" of Malta. Giorgio Borg Olivier became Prime Minister the following year, when the Stolper report was delivered.

Nationalist governments (1964–1971)

Following the passage of the Malta Independence Act 1964 (c. 86) by the British Parliament and the approval of a new Maltese constitution by 54.5% of voters in a referendum, the State of Malta (Stat ta’ Malta) was formed on 21 September 1964 as an independent constitutional monarchy, with Elizabeth II as Queen of Malta and head of state. The date continues to be celebrated annually as Independence Day (Jum l-Indipendenza), a national holiday in Malta. On 1 December 1964, Malta was admitted to the United Nations.

In the first two post-independence electoral rounds, in 1962 and 1966 the Nationalist Party emerged as the largest party, gaining a majority of the Parliamentary seats. In these years, relations with Italy were of the utmost importance to secure independence and establish linkages with continental Europe. Malta signed four cooperation agreements with Italy in 1967, during a visit of Aldo Moro to the island.

In 1965 Malta joined the Council of Europe, and in 1970, Malta signed an Association Treaty with the European Economic Community.

Labour governments (1971–1987)

The elections of 1971 saw the Labour Party (MLP) under Dom Mintoff win by just over 4,000 votes. The Labour government immediately set out to re-negotiate the post-Independence military and financial agreements with the United Kingdom. The government also undertook nationalization programmes and the expansion of the public sector and the welfare state. Employment laws were updated with gender equality being introduced in salary pay. Concerning civil law, civil marriage was introduced and homosexuality and adultery were decriminalised (1973); capital punishment for murder was abolished in 1971. The following year, Malta entered into a Military Base Agreement with the United Kingdom and other NATO countries, after mediation by Italy's Aldo Moro.

Through a package of constitutional reforms, Malta became a republic on 13 December 1974, with the last Governor-General, Sir Anthony Mamo, as its first President. The Ġieħ ir-Repubblika Act, promulgated the following year, abolished all titles of nobility in Malta and mandated that they cease to be recognised.

The Party was confirmed in office in the 1976 elections. Between 1976 and 1981 Malta went through difficult times and the Labour government demanded that the Maltese tighten their belts in order to overcome the difficulties Malta was facing. There were shortages of essential items; water and electricity supplies were systematically suspended for two or three days a week. Political tensions increased, notably on Black Monday, when following an attempted assassination of the Prime Minister, the premises of the Times of Malta were burned and the house of the Leader of Opposition was attacked.

The end of British presence and shaky relations with Libya and Italy

On 1 April 1979 the last British forces left the island after the end of the economic pact to stabilise the Maltese economy. This is celebrated as Freedom Day (Jum Il-Ħelsien) on 31 March. Celebrations start with a ceremony in Floriana near the War Memorial. A popular event on this memorable day is the traditional regatta. The regatta is held at the Grand Harbour and the teams taking part in it give it their best shot to win the much coveted aggregate Regatta Shield.

Under Mintoff's premiership, Malta began establishing close cultural and economic ties with Muammar Gaddafi's Libya, as well as diplomatic and military ties with North Korea.

During the Mintoff years, Libya had loaned several million dollars to Malta to make up for the loss of rental income which followed the closure of British military bases in Malta. These closer ties with Libya meant a dramatic new (but short-lived) development in Maltese foreign policy: Western media reported that Malta appeared to be turning its back on NATO, the UK, and Europe generally. History books were published that began to spread the idea of a disconnection between the Italian and Catholic populations, and instead tried to promote the theory of closer cultural and ethnic ties with North Africa. This new development was noted by Boissevain in 1991: "The Labour government broke off relations with NATO and sought links with the Arab world. After 900 years of being linked to Europe, Malta began to look southward. Muslims, still remembered in folklore for savage pirate attacks, were redefined as blood brothers".

Malta and Libya had entered into a Friendship and Cooperation Treaty, in response to repeated overtures by Gaddafi for a closer, more formal union between the two countries; and, for a brief period, Arabic had become a compulsory subject in Maltese secondary schools. In 1984 the Mariam Al-Batool Mosque was officially opened by Muammar Gaddafi in Malta, two years after its completion.

In 1980 an oil rig of the Italian company Saipem commissioned by Texaco to drill on behalf of the Maltese government 68 nautical miles south-east of Malta had to stop operations after being threatened by a Libyan gunboat. Both Malta and Libya claimed economic rights to the area and this incident raised tensions. The matter was referred to the International Court of Justice in 1982 but the court's ruling in 1985 dealt only with the delineation of a small part of the contested territory.

In 1980, Malta signed a neutrality agreement with Italy, under which Malta agreed not to enter into any alliance and Italy agreed to guarantee Malta's neutrality. Malta's relations with Italy have been described as "generally excellent".

Constitutional crisis in the 1980s
The 1981 general elections saw the Nationalist Party (NP) gaining an absolute majority of votes, yet the Labour winning the majority of parliamentary seats under the Single Transferable Vote and Mintoff remained Prime Minister, leading to a political crisis. The Nationalists, now led by Eddie Fenech Adami, refused to accept the electoral result and also refused to take their seats in Parliament for the first years of the legislature, mounting a campaign demanding that Parliament should reflect the democratic will of the people. Despite this, the Labour government remained in power for the full five-year term. Mintoff resigned as Prime Minister and Party leader and appointed Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici as his successor in 1984.

The Mifsud Bonnici years were characterised by political tensions and violence. After a five-year debate, Fenech Adami, through the intervention of Dom Mintoff, reached an agreement with Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici to improve the constitution. Constitutional amendments were made voted and made effective in January 1987 which guaranteed that the party with an absolute majority of votes would be given a majority of parliamentary seats in order to govern. This paved the way for the return of the Nationalist Party to government later that year.

The accession process to the European Union (1987–2004)
The general elections that followed in 1987 saw the Nationalist Party achieve such a majority of votes. The new Nationalist administration of Edward Fenech Adami sought to improve Malta's ties with Western Europe and the United States. The Nationalist Party advocated Malta's membership in the European Union presenting an application on 16 July 1990. This became a divisive issue, with Labour opposing membership.

A wide-ranging programme of liberalisation and public investments meant the confirmation in office of the Nationalists with a larger majority in the 1992 elections. In 1993, local councils were re-established in Malta.

General elections were held in Malta on 26 October 1996; although Labour received the most votes, the Nationalists won the most seats. The 1987 constitutional amendments had to be used for the second time, and the Labour Party was awarded an additional four seats to ensure they had a majority in Parliament. Malta's EU application was subsequently frozen. A split in the Labour Party in 1998, between the PM Sant and the former PM Mintoff (died in 2012) resulted in the government losing the majority. Notwithstanding the President of the Republic's preference for a negotiated solution, all attempts proved futile, and he had no other option but to accept Sant and his government's resignation and a call for early elections.

On being returned to office in the 1998 elections with a wide 13,000 vote margin, the Nationalist Party reactivated the EU membership application. Malta was formally accepted as a candidate country at the Helsinki European Council of December 1999. In 2000, capital punishment was abolished also from the military code of Malta.

EU accession negotiations were concluded late in 2002 and a referendum on membership in 2003 saw 90.86% casting a valid vote of which 53.65% were "yes" votes. Labour stated that it would not be bound by this result were it returned to power in the following general election that year. In the circumstances, elections were called and the Nationalist Party, led by Prime minister Fenech Adami, won another mandate, In April 2004, Eddie Fenech Adami was sworn in as President of Malta. Lawrence Gonzi succeeded him as Prime Minister and the leader of the Nationalist Party. The accession treaty was signed and ratified and Malta joined the EU on 1 May 2004. A consensus on membership was subsequently achieved with Labour saying it would respect this result. Joe Borg was appointed as first Maltese European commissioner in the first Barroso Commission.

Malta in the European Union (2004–present)
Malta's accession to the European Union in 2004 had important implications for the state's foreign policy. Notably, Malta was required to withdraw from the Non-Aligned Movement of which the state had been an active member since 1971.

In the context of EU membership, Malta joined the Eurozone on 1 January 2008; the 2008 election confirmed Gonzi in the premiership, while in 2009 George Abela became President of Malta.

On 28 May 2011, the Maltese voted 'yes' in the consultative divorce referendum. At that time, Malta was one of only three countries in the world, along with the Philippines and the Vatican City, in which divorce was not permitted. As a consequence of the referendum outcome, a law allowing divorce under certain conditions was enacted in the same year.

Following a corruption scandal John Dalli had to resign and was replaced by Tonio Borg as Maltese commissioner in 2012. A snap election was called for March 2013 after the Gonzi government lost the Parliamentary majority. The Nationalist Party lost the election after having governed Malta more than 15 years since 1987 (except for a period from 1996 to 1998). Labour Party leader Joseph Muscat was elected as Prime Minister.

In April 2019, the parliament elected George Vella as the 10th President of the Republic of Malta to succeed Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.

On 16 October 2017, Maltese journalist and anti-corruption activist Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated in a car bomb near her residence in Bidnija. Her murder caused an uproar of criticism for the Labour government and the judicial system on the islands. Following evidence of implication between Joseph Muscat's close circle and the arrest of Yorgen Fenech, a long series of protests on the islands and international criticism precipitated the 2019–2020 political crisis. This resulted in the resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Minister Konrad Mizzi, and Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Keith Schembri. An internal election on 11 January 2020 within the Maltese Labour party elected Robert Abela, son of former president George Abela, as party leader, and Prime Minister of Malta.

Malta became the first country in the European Union to legalize recreational use of cannabis on 14 December 2021.

In March 2022, the ruling Labour party, led by Prime Minister Robert Abela, won its third successive election. It gained even bigger victory than in 2013 and in 2017.

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

title: History of Malta