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Christopher Lambert

Christophe Guy Denis "Christopher" Lambert (born March 29, 1957) is a French actor. He started his career playing supporting parts in several French films, and became internationally famous for portraying Tarzan in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984). For his performance in the film Subway (1985), he received the César Award for Best Actor. His most famous role is Connor MacLeod in the adventure-fantasy film Highlander (1986) and the subsequent franchise of the same name.

Early life
Christophe Guy Denis Lambert was born in Great Neck, New York, on March 29, 1957, the son of Yolande Agnès Henriette (née de Caritat de Peruzzis), and Georges Lambert-Lamond, a French diplomat at the United Nations. His father was Jewish. Due to his father's work, Lambert moved with his parents to Switzerland at the age of two, and was raised in Geneva, where he attended the International School of Geneva and the Institut Florimont until his teenage years, when the family moved to France and settled in Paris. Lambert's debut in acting was in a school play age 12.

Career
Director Hugh Hudson and Warner Brothers sought out Lambert, wanting an unknown actor to play Tarzan, a human raised by apes in the jungle. Lambert got the role partly due to his myopia, because when he took off his glasses it seemed he was always looking into the distance. Released in 1984, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, was nominated for many awards. Also that year, Lambert starred opposite Catherine Deneuve in Love Songs.

He played the lead in Luc Besson's stylistic film Subway (1985), about a man being hunted in the underground subways of Paris. In 1986, Russell Mulcahy's Highlander premiered. In the film, Lambert starred as Connor MacLeod, an immortal warrior who could only be killed by decapitation. The film became a cult hit and was an international box-office success, rock group Queen composed and performed the soundtrack, and Lambert also appeared as MacLeod in the music video for Queen's "Princes of the Universe". In 1987, Lambert played the leading role of Salvatore Giuliano in The Sicilian, directed by Michael Cimino. In 1988, he starred in Agnieszka Holland's To Kill a Priest, in which he played a character based on Jerzy Popiełuszko and his murder under the Polish communist regime.

In 1991, Highlander II: The Quickening premiered, reuniting Lambert with director Russell Mulcahy and fellow actor Sean Connery. Shot in Argentina to reduce production costs; which was going through a financial crisis, much of the script was not filmed and the final result was a patchwork. It was said, Lambert threatened to walk out of the project when it was nearing fruition, However, due to contractual obligations, he did reconsider. In 1992, he appeared in three projects. He appeared in the first episode of the television show Highlander: The Series, passing on the lead role to actor Adrian Paul. He also appeared in the French crime thriller Max et Jérémie, co-starring Philippe Noiret and Jean-Pierre Marielle.

In 1993, Carl Schenkel's suspense thriller Knight Moves premiered, in which Lambert was both an executive producer and the lead. Lambert plays a chess grandmaster suspected of murder. Later that year, Stuart Gordon's science fiction film Fortress premiered, with Lambert playing the lead. The story takes place in a dystopian future where a man and his wife are sent to a maximum-security prison because they are expecting a second child, which is against the strict one-child policy.

1994 saw the release of two collaborations with actor Mario Van Peebles. They played the side by side leads in the action film Gunmen, and Van Peebles was the main villain in Highlander III: The Sorcerer. In this third installment of the franchise, Connor MacLeod is forced to face a new, dangerous enemy, a powerful sorcerer known as Kane who wants to gain world domination. Lambert also starred in the action film Roadflower. In France, he produced his second Patrick Braoudé film called Neuf mois, which was nominated for two Césars.

In 1995, he played the role of the thunder god Raiden in the Paul W. S. Anderson's movie adaptation of the popular video game series Mortal Kombat. The plot of the film follows the warrior monk Liu Kang, the actor Johnny Cage, and the soldier Sonya Blade, all three guided by the god Raiden, on their journey to combat the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung and his forces in a tournament to save Earth. Lambert later reprised the role in the MK Movie Skin Pack in the 2020 game Mortal Kombat 11. Also that year, he also starred in the American-Japanese martial arts action film The Hunted, directed by J. F. Lawton, with a cast that included John Lone, Joan Chen, Yoshio Harada, and Yoko Shimada, and produced Xavier Beauvois's Don't Forget You're Going to Die, which won the Special Jury Award at the Gijón International Film Festival, won the Prix Jean Vigo, won the Jury Prize and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Lambert was also an executive producer on Chris Columbus' Nine Months, an English-language remake of Neuf mois.

In 1996, Lambert was an executive producer and the lead in Nils Gaup's western film North Star, co-starring James Caan. The same year he was a producer of When Saturday Comes, a football sport drama starring Sean Bean. In 1997, he starred in Gabriele Salvatores' cyberpunk science fiction film Nirvana. The film tells the story of a virtual reality game designer, played by Lambert, who discovers that the main character of his game has achieved sentience due to an attack by a computer virus. The film was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The same year, he also co-lead with Ice-T in the action film Mean Guns, and starred in the French film Arlette by Claude Zidi.

In 1998, he produced and starred in Operation Splitsville, a remake of Génial, mes parents divorcent, which he produced several years earlier. The same year, he produced and played a man with a mental disability, who moved into a nursing home, in the film Gideon. In 1999, he produced and starred in Russell Mulcahy's Resurrection, where he plays a detective who is assigned to investigate the savage murder of a man who has bled to death from a severed arm. He also starred in science fantasy-action film Beowulf. In 2000, he played in the fourth installment of the Highlander franchise, Highlander: Endgame. The film reunited him with Adrian Paul, and would be last sequel Lambert appeared in. The same year, he was still on the run from authorities in the sequel Fortress 2: Re-Entry.

He also starred in John Glen's The Point Men, about a team of Israeli agents being killed off one-by-one after a botched anti-terrorist operation. In 2003, he played in Absolon, a post-apocalyptic science fiction thriller film. He was an executive producer on the film The Confessor (also known as The Good Shepherd) starring Christian Slater, Molly Parker, and Stephen Rea. In 2006, he was an executive producer and star on the film Day of Wrath. He also played a supporting role in Richard Kelly's Southland Tales.

In 2007, he starred in the vampire film Metamorphosis. He starred in the Sophie Marceau directed French film Trivial. In 2009, Lambert was a lead in Claire Denis' White Material; both the film and Lambert's performance received critical acclaim. The film stars Isabelle Huppert as a struggling French coffee producer in an unnamed French speaking African country, who decides to stay at her coffee plantation in spite of an erupting civil war. The film has appeared on a number of critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2010. That year, he also acted in Cartagena, with Sophie Marceau starring as a beautiful, free-spirited woman who becomes bedridden following a terrible accident. Against her better judgement, she hires a drunk middle-aged former boxer (Lambert) to cook and care for her. Although unqualified for the position, he is desperate for work, and slowly he wins the trust of the woman, who teaches him how to read. The film also won several awards in France.

In 2011, Lambert starred as the villainous head monk Methodius in the Ghost Rider sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, starring Nicolas Cage, in 2011. He underwent sword training for three months and shaved his head. The film made $132.6 million worldwide. Shortly afterwards, he got the role of Marcel Janvier (alias "The Chameleon"), a recurring villain in award-winning hit police crime TV drama NCIS: Los Angeles. His character was in six episodes from 2012 to 2013 – the two highest-rated seasons of the show.

In 2014, he played in the biographical crime drama film Electric Slide, about the Los Angeles-based bank robber Eddie Dodson. In 2015, he co-starred in Claude Lelouch's Un plus une, a French romantic comedy film. He also co-starred in the biographical film 10 Days in a Madhouse, about the experiences of undercover journalist Nellie Bly. In 2016 he co-starred in Hail, Caesar!, a comedy film written, produced, edited, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It is a fictional story that follows the real-life "fixer" Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) working in the Hollywood film industry in the 1950s, trying to discover what happened to a cast member who vanished during the filming of a biblical epic. That year, he cameoed as a French Army Captain in La folle histoire de Max et Léon, a French World War II comedy film. He also had a recurring role in the Russian-Portuguese biographical television show Mata Hari. That year, he also played the lead villain in the martial arts film Kickboxer: Retaliation.

Lambert plays the role of SS officer Karl Frenzel in the Russian film Sobibor by director Konstantin Khabensky, which was released in 2018. The film is a World War II drama about the only successful uprising in a Nazi death camp. It was selected as the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. Lambert received high praise for "an outstanding and nuanced performance; he is unrecognisable as Frenzel, a demonic, fractured character".

Lambert was part of the ensemble cast of Bel Canto from director Paul Weitz, an adaptation of the 2002 novel of the same name, by Ann Patchett. Lambert played the role of a French ambassador who was part of the Japanese embassy hostage crisis (also called the Lima Crisis) of 1996–1997 in Lima, Peru. Lambert received praise, along with the rest of the cast, for "performances [that] are uniformly excellent".

Other ventures
Lambert has written two novels: La fille porte-bonheur in 2011 and Le juge in 2015.

Along with owning a mineral water business and food processing plant, Lambert produces Côtes du Rhône wines with his business partner Eric Beaumard at a vineyard in Sainte-Cécile-les-Vignes. The label, Les Garrigues de Beaumard-Lambert, tops out at 4,000 cases and is sold mostly in Europe. Beaumard has primary creative control of the winery, but Lambert conducts barrel tests and monitors the various stages of the wine's evolution.

Personal life
Lambert was married to American actress Diane Lane from 1988 until their divorce in 1994. Their daughter was born in 1993. Lambert married American actress Jaimyse Haft in 1999, and they divorced in 2000. From 2007 to 2014, he dated French actress Sophie Marceau.

Lambert has profound myopia and cannot see without his glasses. He cannot wear contact lenses and often has to perform while virtually blind, which has led to injuries while performing his own stunts.

title: Christopher Lambert


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913

Year 913 (CMXIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * June 6 – Emperor Alexander III dies of exhaustion while playing the game tzykanion (Byzantine name for polo). He is succeeded by his 8-year-old nephew Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos ("born in the purple"), a son of the late emperor Leo VI (the Wise). The government is administered by a regency council composed of Constantine's mother, Empress Zoe Karbonopsina, Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos and his guardian John Eladas.
 * August – Byzantine–Bulgarian War: Simeon I (the Great), ruler (knyaz) of the Bulgarian Empire, launches a campaign at the head of a large Bulgarian army, and reaches Constantinople unopposed. The Bulgarians besiege the Byzantine capital and construct ditches from the Golden Horn to the Golden Gate at the Marmara Sea. After negotiations the siege is lifted and Simeon is recognised as emperor of the Bulgarians.
 * Summer – Constantine Doukas, a Byzantine general (magister militum), tries, unsuccessfully, with the support of several aristocrats to usurp the throne from the young Constantine VII. He is killed in a clash by the soldiers of the Hetaireia guard, assembled by John Eladas. His head is cut off and presented to Constantine.

Europe

 * Battle of the Inn: The Hungarians invade Bavaria, Swabia and Northern Burgundy. At their return they face the combined armies of Arnulf (duke of Bavaria), Erchanger and Burchard II (dukes of Swabia), who defeat them at Aschbach near the Inn River (modern Germany).

Britain

 * King Edward the Elder begins with the 'reconquest' of the Danelaw and occupies Essex. Death of High-Reeve Eadwulf II. He is succeeded by his son Ealdred I, who is almost immediately driven out by King Ragnall ua Ímair of Norse York. Ealdred flees to the court of King Constantine II of Scotland.

Arabian Empire

 * Caliph Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah of the Fatimid Caliphate replaces the unpopular governor Ibn Abi Khinzir with Ali ibn Umar al-Balawi. But the Sicilian lords find this unacceptable and decide to declare independence of Sicily. They acknowledge allegiance to the Abbasid caliph Al-Muqtadir and acclaim an Aghlabid prince, Ahmed ibn Khorob, as emir of Sicily. The Sicilians re-launch their conquest of Byzantine Calabria, while Ahmed ibn Khorob in Sicily leads a successful assault against the North African cities of Sfax and Tripoli.

Religion

 * Summer – Pope Anastasius III dies at Rome after a 2-year reign. He is succeeded by Lando as the 121st pope of the Catholic Church.
 * San Miguel de Escalada is built in León (Northern Spain) by orders of King García I (approximate date).

Births

 * al-Mansur bi-Nasr Allah, Fatimid caliph (d. 953)
 * Gerberga, Frankish queen and regent (approximate date)
 * Shabbethai Donnolo, Jewish physician (d. 982)
 * Theobald I, Frankish nobleman (d. 975)
 * Wu Hanyue, Chinese noblewoman (d. 952)

Deaths

 * March 27
 * Du Xiao, chancellor of Later Liang
 * Zhang, empress of Later Liang
 * May 15 – Hatto I, archbishop of Mainz
 * June 6 – Alexander III, Byzantine emperor (b. 870)
 * June/July – Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi, founder of the Qarmatian state in Bahrayn (assassinated)
 * August 21 – Tang Daoxi, Chinese general
 * Anastasius III, pope of the Catholic Church
 * Cheng Ji, Chinese general and strategist
 * Constantine Doukas, Byzantine general
 * Eadwulf II, ruler (high-reeve) of Northumbria
 * Li Yantu, ruler of Qian Prefecture
 * Torpaid mac Taicthech, Irish poet
 * Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah, Tahirid governor
 * Wang Yuanying, Chinese prince (b. 892)
 * Zhu Yougui, emperor of Later Liang

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

title: 913


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Cameron Diaz

Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress. Known for her work in both comedy and drama, her films have grossed over $3 billion in the U.S. box-office. Diaz established herself as a sex symbol and one of Hollywood's most bankable stars, and in 2013 she was named the highest-paid actress over 40. She has received various accolades, including nominations for a BAFTA Award and four Golden Globe Awards.

Born in San Diego, California, Diaz was raised in Long Beach. While still in high school, she signed a modeling contract with Elite Model Management. She made her film debut at age 21 opposite Jim Carrey in the comedy The Mask (1994). Following a supporting role in the romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), she starred as the titular character in the Farrelly brothers' comedy There's Something About Mary (1998), which brought her increased fame and her first Golden Globe nomination. Her following two projects—the sports drama Any Given Sunday and Spike Jonze's fantasy film Being John Malkovich (both 1999)—lent Diaz a reputation as a dramatic actress.

Diaz received praise for her supporting roles in Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky (2001) and Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002) and had greater commercial success in the action comedy Charlie's Angels (2000) and its 2003 sequel, as well as for voicing Princess Fiona in the Shrek franchise (2001–present). Her subsequent films include the comedies In Her Shoes (2005), The Holiday (2006), What Happens in Vegas (2008), Knight and Day (2010), The Green Hornet (2011), and Bad Teacher (2011). After starring in three successful comedies in 2014The Other Woman, Sex Tape and AnnieDiaz retired from acting to focus on her family, but made a return to the profession in 2022.

Diaz has also written two health books: The Body Book (2013), a New York Times bestseller, and The Longevity Book (2016). Her personal life has drawn media attention throughout the course of her career, mostly regarding her relationships and fashion choices. In 2015, she married Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden; they had a daughter via surrogate in 2019, and a second child in 2024.

Early life and education
Cameron Michelle Diaz was born August 30, 1972, in San Diego, California, to Billie (née Early), an import/export agent, and Emilio Diaz, a foreman of the California oil company Unocal. Diaz has an elder sister, Chimene. Her father's family is Cuban, and Diaz's ancestors had originally moved from Spain to Cuba. Later, they settled in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, before moving to the Los Angeles area, where her father was born. Her mother has predominantly English and German ancestry.

Diaz was raised in Long Beach and attended Los Cerritos Elementary School, and then Long Beach Polytechnic High School, where she was a schoolmate of Snoop Dogg. She recalled her upbringing as frugal, stating: "I had amazing parents, they were awesome. We weren't privileged—very much the opposite. My family would collect [soda] cans to turn in for extra money, because $20 meant something to us. But we were very happy."

While still attending high school, Diaz signed a modeling contract with Elite Model Management at age 16 and appeared in advertisements for Calvin Klein and Levi's. The following year, at age 17, she was featured on the cover of the July 1990 issue of Seventeen magazine. Diaz also modeled for 2 to 3 months in Australia and shot a commercial for Coca-Cola in Sydney in 1991.

Career
In May 1992, she was photographed and videotaped topless for an S&M leather fashion lingerie editorial by John Rutter, a professional photographer. The photographs and video were never released. Rutter approached Diaz in 2003, ahead of the release of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, offering to sell the pictures and video to her for $3.5million before attempting to sell them to prospective buyers. He stated that he was offering her first right of refusal to them; she saw it as attempted blackmail and sued him. In July 2004, the 30-minute video of the photo shoot, entitled She's No Angel, was released on a Russian website. Rutter denied releasing it. On September 16, 2005, Rutter was sentenced to more than three years in prison for attempted grand theft, forgery, and perjury.

1994–1998: Early films and rise to fame
At the age of 21, Diaz auditioned for The Mask, playing a jazz singer named Tina Carlyle, based on the recommendation of an agent for Elite, who met the film's producers while they were searching for the lead actress. Having no previous acting experience, she started acting lessons after being cast. The Mask became one of the top ten highest-grossing films of 1994 and launched Diaz as a sex symbol. During this period, Diaz dated video producer Carlos de la Torre.

Diaz subsequently starred in the independent black comedy The Last Supper (1995), playing one of several liberal graduate students who invite a group of extremist conservatives to a dinner in an attempt to murder them. Roger Ebert deemed the film "a brave effort in a timid time, a Swiftian attempt to slap us all in the face and get us to admit that our own freedoms depend precisely on those of our neighbors, our opponents and, yes, our enemies." She then had a lead role as an ex-stripper in the dramatic comedy Feeling Minnesota (1996), in which she co-starred opposite Keanu Reeves, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Courtney Love. Emanuel Levy of Variety noted: "Sadly, with the notable exception of the attractive Diaz, who's well cast as the sexual aggressor and romantic manipulator, there are no exciting performances in the film." The same year, she was cast opposite Jennifer Aniston in the Edward Burns-directed comedy She's the One (1996), followed by a starring role in Head Above Water (1996), a crime-comedy in which she played an unfaithful wife implicated in her ex-lover's murder.

She was scheduled to perform in the film Mortal Kombat, but had to resign after breaking her hand while training for the role. Besides a starring part in the little-seen A Life Less Ordinary, Diaz returned to mainstream in 1997 with the romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding. In it, she starred opposite Julia Roberts, playing the wealthy fiancée of a sportswriter who is the long-time friend of Roberts' character. The film was a global box-office hit and is considered one of the best romantic comedy films of all time.

In 1998, Diaz starred in There's Something About Mary, as the titular role of a woman living in Miami having several men vying for her affections. It was remarked in The Austin Chronicle: "As the Mary at the center of it all, Diaz certainly exudes that irresistible 'something' expressed in the title. In films such as My Best Friend's Wedding and A Life Less Ordinary, Diaz has shown herself to be a good comic sport who is game for just about anything. Here, it's no stretch to understand why, at the end of the movie, some half-dozen suitors have converged in her living room to throw themselves at her feet." The sleeper hit was the highest-grossing comedy of 1998 in North America as well as the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year; it made US$176million in the United States and US$369million worldwide. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category of Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. Diaz also starred in the critically panned comedy Very Bad Things (1998).

1999–2004: Dramatic roles and critical success
She starred in Spike Jonze's directorial debut Being John Malkovich (1999), portraying the pet-obsessed wife of an unemployed puppeteer who, through a portal, finds himself in the mind of actor John Malkovich. The film received widespread acclaim and was an arthouse success. Janet Maslin of The New York Times concluded that Diaz "does a hilarious turn" in her "frumpy wife" role, and Roger Ebert felt that the actress, "one of the best-looking women in movies, [...] here looks so dowdy we hardly recognize her [...] Diaz has fun with her talent by taking it incognito to strange places and making it work for a living". For her role, Diaz earned Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and SAG Awards, however, she was snubbed for the Oscar, which was met with backlash. Her next film release in 1999 was Oliver Stone's sports drama Any Given Sunday (1999), in which veteran coach Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino) has fallen out of favor with her character Christina Pagniacci, the young woman who owns the team. While critical response was mixed, the film made US$100million globally.

In the film adaptation Charlie's Angels (2000), Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu played the trio of investigators in Los Angeles. The film was one of the highest-grossing films of the year, grossing US$264.1million. In 2001, Diaz starred in the Sundance-premiered independent drama The Invisible Circus, as a young woman who commits suicide in Europe in the 1970s, and next in the year, she appeared in Vanilla Sky, as the former lover of a self-indulgent and vain publishing magnate (Tom Cruise). A wide critical response and commercial success greeted Vanilla Sky upon its release; Los Angeles Times called her "compelling as the embodiment of crazed sensuality" and The New York Times said she gives a "ferociously emotional" performance. San Francisco Chronicle similarly stated of the film, "most impressive is Cameron Diaz, whose fatal-attraction stalker is both heartbreaking and terrifying." She earned nominations for Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globe Awards, the SAG Awards, the Critics' Choice Awards, and the American Film Institute Awards for her performance in the film.

Also in 2001, she voiced Princess Fiona in the animated film Shrek. In the film, her character is plagued by a curse that transforms her into an ogress each and every sunset. Locked in a dragon-guarded castle for several years, she is rescued by the title character, whom she later comes to love. The film was a major commercial success, grossing US$484.4million worldwide and became the first movie to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In 2002, Diaz headlined the romantic comedy The Sweetest Thing, playing a single woman educating herself on wooing the opposite sex when she finally meets the man of her dreams. The film was a moderate commercial success with a global gross of US$68.6million.

After completing Shrek, Diaz starred in Martin Scorsese's epic period drama Gangs of New York, set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City; she took on the role of a pickpocket-grifter and the love interest of Leonardo DiCaprio's character. The film received positive reviews by critics and was a box office success, grossing a total of US$193million worldwide. A. O. Scott of The New York Times, agreeing with other top critics on co-star Daniel Day-Lewis's presence overshadowing Diaz and DiCaprio, felt that the actress "ends up with no outlet for her spitfire energies, since her character is more a structural necessity — the linchpin of male jealousy — than a fully imagined person. The limitations of her role point to a more serious lapse, which is the movie's lack of curiosity about what women's lives might have been like in Old New York". Diaz next reprised her roles in the commercially successful sequels Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), and Shrek 2 (2004).

2005–2011: Established actress
Diaz received substantial defamation damages from suing American Media Incorporated, after the National Enquirer posted an article and pictures with the headline "Cameron Caught Cheating" on their website in May 2005. The photos claimed to show Diaz cheating on her boyfriend at the time, Justin Timberlake, with the married MTV producer of her show Trippin', Shane Nickerson. After Diaz complained, the article and pictures were removed from the web and the hard copy did not contain any of the content. The magazine apologized to Diaz, Timberlake, Nickerson and his wife for the distress caused and said the story was untrue and the picture showed no more than a goodbye hug between friends.

In her following film, Diaz played opposite Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine in In Her Shoes (2005), a comedy-drama film based on the novel of the same name by Jennifer Weiner, which focuses on the relationship between two sisters and their grandmother. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, and Diaz garnered acclaim for her performance of a dyslectic wild child engaged in a love-hate struggle with her plain, sensible sister (Collette), with USA Today calling it "her best work" at the time. She followed In Her Shoes with a role in Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy The Holiday (2006), also starring Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Jack Black. In it she played Amanda, an American movie trailer producer who arranges a home exchange with a British woman (Winslet). The film became one of the biggest commercial successes of the year, grossing more than US$205million worldwide.

Diaz's only film of 2007 was Shrek the Third, the third installment in the Shrek franchise, which also featured Timberlake in a supporting role. Although the film was met with mixed reviews from critics, it grossed US$798million worldwide. The same year, Diaz also voiced Princess Fiona in a thirty-minute Christmas special, directed by Gary Trousdale. Diaz earned an estimated US$50 million during the period of a year ending June 2008, for her roles in the Shrek sequel and her next film What Happens in Vegas opposite Ashton Kutcher. A romantic comedy by Tom Vaughan, Diaz and Kutcher portrayed two strangers who awaken together to discover they have gotten married following a night in which they won a huge jackpot after playing the other's quarter. Critic reviews were negative but the film still grossed US$219million with a budget of US$35million.

In 2009, she starred in My Sister's Keeper and The Box. Based on Jodi Picoult's novel of the same name, My Sister's Keeper was released to mixed reviews in June 2009. In the drama, Diaz plays a former lawyer and mother of three, one of whom is dying of leukemia. A moderate commercial success, it grossed US$95million worldwide, mostly from its domestic run. Set in 1976, The Box, written and directed by Richard Kelly, stars Diaz and James Marsden as a couple who receive a box from a mysterious man who offers them one million dollars if they press the button sealed within the dome on top of a box, knowing that someone, somewhere, will die from it. Critical response towards the psychological horror film was mixed, and, though having grossed its budget back, was considered a financial disappointment.

In 2010, Forbes ranked Diaz as the richest female celebrity, ranking her number 60 among the wealthiest 100. Also that year, Diaz reprised her voice role of Princess Fiona in Shrek Forever After, the fourth installment in the Shrek series. Although the film opened to mixed reviews from critics, it grossed a worldwide total of over US$752million and became the fifth top-grossing film released that year. The same year, she also voiced Princess Fiona in a thirty-minute Halloween special. Also in 2010, Diaz reunited with her Vanilla Sky co-star Tom Cruise in the action comedy film Knight and Day. In it, Diaz plays a classic car restorer who unwittingly gets caught up with the eccentric secret agent Roy Miller, played by Cruise, who is on the run from the Secret Service. Knight and Day received mixed reviews, and while the comedy performed poorly at the box office in its debut, it became a sleeper hit at the box office with a worldwide gross of US$262million.

In 2011, Diaz was cast as Lenore Case, a journalist, in the remake of the 1940s film The Green Hornet. Directed by Michel Gondry, Diaz starred alongside Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, and Christoph Waltz in the superhero action comedy film. Released to mixed to negative reviews from critics, who called it an "overblown, interminable and unfunny update", the film ended its theatrical run on April 21, 2011, with a worldwide gross total of US$228million. The same year, she played opposite Timberlake and Jason Segel in Jake Kasdan's adult comedy Bad Teacher. In the film, Diaz plays an immoral, gold-digging Chicago-area middle school teacher at the fictional John Adams Middle School who curses at her students, drinks heavily, and smokes marijuana. Again, it received mostly negative reviews from critics who felt that "in spite of a promising concept and a charmingly brazen performance from Diaz, Bad Teacher is never as funny as it should be." A commercial hit however, the R-rated comedy grossed US$216million worldwide. Also in 2011, Diaz was listed among CEOWorld Magazine's Top Accomplished Women Entertainers.

2012–2014: Focus on comedies
In 2012 Diaz was cast in What to Expect When You're Expecting, directed by Kirk Jones and based on the pregnancy guide of the same name. Diaz, who filmed her scenes in a two-week period, portrays Jules Baxter, a contestant on a celebrity dance show and a host to a weight-loss fitness show, who becomes pregnant with her dance partner's baby. Upon release, the ensemble comedy received mostly negative reviews, but became a moderate commercial success with a worldwide gross of US$84.4million. Diaz's other film that year was Gambit, a remake of the 1966 film of the same name directed by Michael Hoffman and scripted by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film received overwhelmingly negative reviews, and performed poorly at the box office, grossing only US$10million internationally. Diaz also voiced Sigmund Freud in A Liar's Autobiography (2012), a British animated comedy film that is a (deliberately) completely inaccurate portrayal of the life of Monty Python alumnus Graham Chapman. Diaz's only film project of 2013 was Ridley Scott's The Counselor, co-starring Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, and Brad Pitt. In the thriller about greed, death, the primal instincts of humans and their consequences, Diaz plays a pathological liar and a sociopath, an immigrant who is now living the high-life after escaping a sordid past as an exotic dancer. While the film's reception was negative, her performance was praised as one of her best in recent years.

Diaz's first film of 2014 was the romantic revenge comedy The Other Woman opposite Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Leslie Mann, and Kate Upton. While The Other Woman received mostly negative reviews from critics, who felt that it settled for cheap laughs, it opened atop the US weekend box office with earnings of US$24.7million across the three days; it eventually made US$83.9million in North America and US$196.7million globally. Her next film release in 2014 was the comedy Sex Tape, in which she starred with Segel again as a married couple waking up to discover that a sex tape they had made went missing, leading to a frantic search for its whereabouts. It ultimately became a moderate commercial success with a worldwide gross of US$126million. The role required Diaz to perform multiple scenes of nudity. On her decision to appear nude, Diaz said: "People have seen my butt. I've shown the top of my butt, the bottom of my butt. I'm not opposed to doing nudity, as long as it's part of the story. I'll do whatever has to get done if it's the right thing."

Her final film that year was the film adaptation Annie, co-starring Quvenzhané Wallis, Jamie Foxx, and Rose Byrne. She took on the role of Miss Colleen Hannigan, the cruel control freak of the foster home where the titular character resides. Upon its December premiere, Annie made US$133million worldwide, with Diaz's performance garnering polarized reviews; critics praising her effort, but ultimately calling it too "vampy", as well as "strident and obnoxious". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone says that she "overacts the role to the point of hysteria". Diaz decided to take a break from acting following the release of Annie, stating in July 2017 that she became tired of traveling for filming, and confirmed her retirement the following March.

2014–present: Acting hiatus and return
In late 2013, she published a health book, The Body Book: Feed, Move, Understand and Love Your Amazing Body, co-written with Sandra Bark. It was no. 2 on The New York Times Best Seller list in March 2014. She then released The Longevity Book: The Science of Aging, the Biology of Strength, and the Privilege of Time in June 2016. She has since invested in health and biotech startups, including Seed Health and Modern Acupuncture. In May 2019, she was a keynote speaker at The Infatuation's annual food festival, EEEEEATSCON. In 2020, Diaz launched an organic wine brand, Avaline, with business partner Katherine Power.

In 2022, she appeared as a guest judge in the season opener episode of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 7, and stated she was a huge fan of the show. Contestant Trinity the Tuck stated, "Some judges that come on don't seem to be present, but she was very knowledgeable."

In June 2022, it was announced that Diaz would return to acting by starring alongside Foxx (their reunion since Annie) in the Netflix action-comedy Back in Action. In March 2024, Diaz was announced to be in talks to star in the Apple Original Film Outcome alongside her Feeling Minnesota co-star Keanu Reeves. Filming started for the project later that month. She will reprise her voice role as Princess Fiona in Shrek 5, scheduled for release on July 1, 2026.

Personal life
From 1990 to 1994, Diaz cohabited with video producer Carlos de la Torre, whom she met in Japan while filming an LA Gear ad. From January 1996 to September 1998, Diaz dated her There's Something About Mary co-star Matt Dillon. She was unofficially engaged to actor/singer Jared Leto between 1999 and 2003. From April 2003 to December 2006, she dated singer Justin Timberlake. From May 2010 to September 2011, Diaz dated former New York Yankees player Alex Rodriguez. Diaz married musician Benji Madden at her home in Beverly Hills, California, on January 5, 2015, in a Jewish ceremony. The couple had been introduced ten months earlier by her close friend Nicole Richie who is married to Madden's twin brother Joel. In December 2019, the couple welcomed their first child via surrogate pregnancy, a daughter. In March 2024, it was announced that the couple had welcomed their second child, a son.

Known for her environmental activism, she was an early adopter of the Toyota Prius hybrid and worked to promote Al Gore's Live Earth campaign, raising awareness of climate change. Diaz was also critical of the George W. Bush administration. She wore a T-shirt that read "I won't vote for a son of a Bush!" while making publicity visits for Charlie's Angels. Diaz has been involved with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the first and largest non-profit organization for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has spoken as an advocate for military families.

Acting credits and accolades
Diaz has received various accolades, including nominations for four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a British Academy Film Award. In 2016, IndieWire named her one of the greatest actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.

title: Cameron Diaz


text:
Homeland security

Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" to the "national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce the vulnerability of the U.S. to terrorism, and minimize the damage from attacks that do occur." According to an official work published by the Congressional Research Service in 2013, the "Homeland security" term's definition has varied over time.

Homeland security is not constrained to terrorist incidents. Terrorism is violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature. Within the US, an all-hazards approach exists regarding homeland security endeavors. In this sense, homeland security encompasses both natural disasters and man-made events. Thus, the domain of homeland security must accommodate a plethora of situations and scenarios, ranging from natural disasters (e.g., Hurricane Katrina, Irma) to acts of terrorism (e.g., Boston Marathon bombing, September 11 attacks).

The term came about following enactment of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and reorganization of many U.S. government civil agencies effective March 1, 2003, to form the United States Department of Homeland Security after the September 11 attacks, and may refer to the actions of that department, the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, or the United States House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security.

The term, "Homeland Security" is not to be confused with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In its February 15, 2001 report, the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century, said the United States must change how it operates in the area of homeland security. The report recommended the creation of what was ultimately called the Department of Homeland Security."

DHS was formed by the Homeland security Act of 2002. The term, homeland security, is not the same as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS is an executive branch agency. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Homeland Security are both legislative bodies, and thus are clearly distinct from the executive agency, DHS. The actions of these two legislative bodies are not the same as actions of DHS.

Homeland defense (HD) is the military protection of U.S. territory, sovereignty, domestic population, and critical infrastructure against external threats and aggression.

Definition
"Despite the [published] definition, mission statement, and vision [all of which have changed since 9/11], there is no consensus among practitioners and the public as to what the term Homeland Security actually means. Different groups view it differently. The extremes of opinion are represented, for the narrow view, by those who feel homeland security is only about terrorism. They believe focusing on anything additional dilutes, distracts, and weakens the homeland security mission."

Others say its focus is terrorism and natural disasters. Still others claim homeland security is about 'all hazards' (terrorism, man-made disasters, and natural disasters). To some, homeland security is focused on 'jurisdictional hazards' (i.e. homeland security means different things to different jurisdictions depending upon that jurisdiction's particular hazards, risks, and level of preparedness). Examples of some of the jurisdictional hazards include hurricanes, tornados, flooding, and earthquakes. At the other extreme, the broad view of homeland security advocates that homeland security is about everything – that it implicates almost every sector."

In the United States

Following the emergency response to Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992 policy makers in Washington publicly voiced their frustration. A number of reforms were initiated to improve the effectiveness of the disaster relief system in the United States. In the United States, the concept of "Homeland Security" extends and recombines responsibilities of government agencies and entities. According to Homeland security research, the U.S. federal Homeland Security and Homeland Defense includes 187 federal agencies and departments, including the National Guard of the United States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the United States Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the United States Secret Service, the Transportation Security Administration, the 14 agencies that constitute the U.S. intelligence community and Civil Air Patrol. Although many businesses now operate in the area of homeland security, it is overwhelmingly a government function.

The George W. Bush administration consolidated many of these activities under the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a new cabinet department established as a result of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. However, much of the nation's homeland security activity remains outside of DHS; for example, the FBI and CIA are not part of the Department, and other executive departments such as the Department of Defense and United States Department of Health and Human Services and they play a significant role in certain aspects of homeland security. Homeland security is coordinated at the White House by the Adviser to the President for National Security and the Adviser to the President for Terrorism and Homeland Security. The staff of the National Security Council manages policy integration of National Security and Homeland Security. Homeland security is officially defined by the National Strategy for Homeland Security as "a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur". Because the Department of Homeland Security includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency, it also has responsibility for preparedness, response, and recovery to natural disasters.

According to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and Homeland Security Research Corporation, DHS Homeland security funding constitutes about 20-21 percent of the consolidated U.S. Homeland Security - Homeland Defense funding, while approximately 40 percent of the DHS budget funds civil, non-security activities, such as the U.S. coast guard search and rescue operations and customs functions. The U.S. Homeland Security is the world's largest Homeland counter terror organization, having 40 percent of the global fiscal year homeland security funding.

The term Homeland security became prominent in the United States following the September 11 attacks. It had been used only in limited policy circles prior to these attacks. The phrase "security of the American homeland" appears in the 1998 report Catastrophic Terrorism: Elements of a National Policy by Ash Carter, John M. Deutch, and Philip D. Zelikow. Homeland security is also usually used to connote the civilian aspect of this effort. While homeland defense refers to its military component, led chiefly by the United States Northern Command, which is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The scope of homeland security includes:
 * Emergency preparedness and response (for both terrorism and natural disasters), including volunteer medical, police, emergency management, and fire personnel;
 * Domestic and International intelligence activities, largely today within the FBI;
 * Critical infrastructure, including physical/perimeter and cyber protection;
 * Investigation of people making and distributing child pornography;
 * Border control, including land, maritime and country borders (also known as Ports of Entry (PoEs). Border management has two key goals: facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and traveling, while ensuring legitimate immigration;
 * Transportation and logistics security, including aviation, maritime, and land transportation; As higher volumes of cargoes are processed at the borders each year, security risks also increase. In fact, illegitimate entities such as money laundering, drug trafficking, contraband and human trafficking cartels strategically select busy ports of entry and high traffic times, seeking to penetrate the borders;
 * Biodefense;
 * Detection of radioactive and radiological materials;
 * Research on next-generation security technologies.
 * Investigation on Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) involved in human trafficking, drug trafficking, contraband, money laundering, extortion;

Criticism
Conflicts exist between bodies of international law (ratified by the United States or not) and those applied under "homeland security". One example is the notion of an unlawful combatant. The United States government has created a new status that addresses prisoners captured by a military force who do not conform with the conditions of the Convention. While the United States has only been a signatory to portions of the Geneva Conventions, much international law is based upon it.

As a field of study
Shortly after the September 11 attacks, Homeland security also took off as an up-and-coming academic field with a number of schools in the United States offering Academic certificate and degree programs in Homeland Security. The field is often studied alongside emergency management due to their similar nature and purposes. With the relatively sudden growth of the field, the quality of the programs vary greatly from one to another along with their respective accreditation statuses (or lack thereof). In a partial effort to combat these variations, the International Association of Emergency Managers offers a scholarship program with the aim of nurturing, promoting and developing disaster preparedness and resistance by furthering the education of students studying the fields of emergency management, disaster management or related programs such as Homeland Security.

Homeland Security is often thought of as a specifically United States term referring to the role of the United States' reformed national security infrastructure beginning in 2003. However, neither the term nor the concept of Homeland Security are specific to the United States. Though terminology varies, an equivalent might be seen in Israel's Ministry of Public Security. Within Homeland Security as an academic field, Homeland Security is sometimes studied in a comparative context by scholars of comparative politics or criminal justice. For example, the British political scientist Paul Wilkinson edited and contributed to a textbook on Homeland Security policy and practice from a British perspective. The scholar Nadav Morag looks at a global perspective on homeland security management and strategies in the book Comparative Homeland Security: Global Lessons.

Professional Certification
Certified Homeland Protection Professional is a professional certification established by the National Sheriffs' Association in partnership with the National Domestic Preparedness Coalition, through the Global Center for Threat, Risk, and Vulnerability.

title: Homeland security


text:
Crossfire (film)

Crossfire is a 1947 American film noir drama film starring Robert Young, Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan which deals with the theme of antisemitism, as did that year's Academy Award for Best Picture winner, Gentleman's Agreement. The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk and the screenplay was written by John Paxton, based on the 1945 novel The Brick Foxhole by screenwriter and director Richard Brooks. The film's supporting cast features Gloria Grahame and Sam Levene. The picture received five Oscar nominations, including Ryan for Best Supporting Actor and Gloria Grahame for Best Supporting Actress. It was the first B movie to receive a Best Picture nomination.

Plot
In the opening scene, a man is half-seen beating a Jewish man named Joseph Samuels to death in a hotel room. After the police are called in to investigate his murder, Captain Finlay suspects that the murderer may be among a group of demobilized soldiers who had been with Samuels and his female companion at a hotel bar the night of his death.

"Monty" Montgomery, an ex-cop, explains his version of the story to investigator Finlay. He claims that he and his friend Floyd Bowers met Samuels at the hotel bar and went up to his apartment to find Samuels talking to Cpl. "Mitch" Mitchell. Soon upon their arrival, Mitch sick from heavy drinking, leaves Samuels’ apartment alone, then Monty and Floyd leave a minute or so later. According to Monty's story, that was the last time they saw Samuels alive.

Sergeant Keeley, concerned that Mitch may be the prime suspect, investigates the murder himself, hoping to clear his friend's name. After helping Mitch escape from police capture, Keeley meets him in a movie theater, where Mitch tells his version of the story. Although he was drunk, Mitch remembered Monty arguing with Samuels inside his apartment. After Mitch left, he spent part of the night with Ginny Tremaine, a working girl he met in a dance hall. When he wakes up the next morning in her apartment, Ginny is not there, but after hearing a knock at the door, he meets an odd man, who offers to make him coffee, and claims he was waiting for her too. While the man looks for some cigarettes, Mitch hastily leaves the apartment.

Meanwhile, Monty and Floyd meet in an apartment. Monty tells Floyd to stay out of sight and to keep their stories straight, that they had no argument with Samuels and left his apartment shortly after Mitch. Keeley knocks on their door and talks briefly with Floyd about the killing while Monty hides. After Keeley leaves, Monty – revealed to be the killer – berates Floyd for refusing to stay out of sight, beats and kills him, then stages a hanging suicide.

Escorted by Officer Finlay, Mitch's wife Mary visits Ginny at her apartment, and in an attempt to discover an alibi for her husband, asks Finlay to wait outside, as a cop might make Ginny clam up. If Ginny admits to spending the night with Mitch, it will prove he didn't kill Samuels. Ginny claims to have no knowledge of meeting Mitch, at which point Finlay enters the apartment to question her. Ginny recants and admits to knowing Mitch, but states that she never met him at her apartment. At this point, the odd man appears from a back room and tells Finlay that he remembers Mitch, thereby providing a partial alibi, but not for the estimated time of the murder.

Back at the police station, Finlay questions Monty a second time, hoping to uncover the motive for Samuels' murder, but sends him on his way. With Keeley in his office, Finlay suspects that antisemitism was the likely motive for Samuels' murder, because no person involved knew Samuels personally. Both suspect that Monty was responsible for killing both Samuels and Floyd since he's clearly antisemitic.

Finlay delivers a personal antiracist message to Keeley and a naive soldier named Leroy, who was in Monty's unit, by recalling the death of his Irish grandfather during earlier historical bigotry. Winning over Leroy, Finlay sets a trap to catch Monty. Leroy tells a surprised Monty that Floyd wants to meet him and shows him an address he wrote down where he can find Floyd. Monty shows up at the apartment where he killed Floyd, presumably to check if he's still alive, and encounters Finlay and another cop. Finlay tells Monty he gave himself away as the address on the piece of paper was actually to a different building, nevertheless he came to the right apartment, proving he had been there before when he killed Floyd. Monty tries to escape but is shot dead by Finlay.

After Monty is killed, Finlay and Keeley say their goodbyes. As Finlay drives away, Keeley looks to Leroy and replies, "Well, how about a cup of coffee, soldier?"

Production
The film's screenplay, written by John Paxton, was based on director and screenwriter Richard Brooks' 1945 novel The Brick Foxhole. Brooks wrote his novel while he was a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps making training films at Quantico, Virginia, and Camp Pendleton, California.

In the novel, the victim was a homosexual. As told in the film The Celluloid Closet, and in the documentary included on the DVD edition of the Crossfire film, the Hollywood Hays Code prohibited any mention of homosexuality because it was seen as a sexual perversion. Hence, the book's theme of homophobia was changed to one about racism and antisemitism. Nevertheless, the fast rapport which develops between the artistic soldier and the sensitive older man hints at the original subtext. Director Edward Dmytryk later said that the Code "had a very good effect because it made us think. If we wanted to get something across that was censorable... we had to do it deviously. We had to be clever. And it usually turned out to be much better than if we had done it straight."

The book was published while Brooks was serving in the Marine Corps. A fellow Marine, the politically-active actor Robert Ryan, met Brooks and told him he was determined to play in a version of the book on screen.

Premiere and U.S. military distribution notes
This was a prestige picture during Dore Schary's brief tenure as Head of Production at RKO. The film premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City on July 22, 1947.

A few months later the producer Adrian Scott and director were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), becoming part of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten.

The US Army showed the film only at its US bases. The US Navy would not exhibit the film at all.

Critical response
When first released, Variety magazine gave the film a positive review, writing, "Crossfire is a frank spotlight on antisemitism. Producer Dore Schary, in association with Adrian Scott, has pulled no punches. There is no skirting such relative fol-de-rol as intermarriage or clubs that exclude Jews. Here is a hard-hitting film [based on Richard Brooks' novel, The Brick Foxhole] whose whodunit aspects are fundamentally incidental to the overall thesis of bigotry and race prejudice... Director Edward Dmytryk has drawn gripping portraitures. The flashback technique is effective as it shades and colors the sundry attitudes of the heavy, as seen or recalled by the rest of the cast."

The New York Times film critic, Bosley Crowther, lauded the acting in the drama, and wrote, "Mr. Dmytryk has handled most excellently a superlative cast which plays the drama. Robert Ryan is frighteningly real as the hard, sinewy, loud-mouthed, intolerant and vicious murderer, and Robert Mitchum, Steve Brodie, and George Cooper are variously revealing as his pals. Robert Young gives a fine taut performance as the patiently questioning police lieutenant, whose mind and sensibilities are revolted—and eloquently expressed—by what he finds. Sam Levene is affectingly gentle in his brief bit as the Jewish victim, and Gloria Grahame is believably brazen and pathetic as a girl of the streets."

Critic Dennis Schwartz questioned the noir aspects of the film in 2000, and discussed the cinematography in his review. He wrote, "This is more of a message film than a noir thriller, but has been classified by most cinephiles in the noir category... J. Roy Hunt, the 70-year-old cinematographer, who goes back to the earliest days of Hollywood, shot the film using the style of low-key lighting, providing dark shots of Monty, contrasted with ghost-like shots of Mary Mitchell (Jacqueline White) as she angelically goes to help her troubled husband Arthur."

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 88% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 24 reviews.

Box office
The film made a profit of $1,270,000.

Awards
Wins
 * Cannes Film Festival: Award, Best Social Film (Prix du meilleur film social), 1947
 * Edgar Allan Poe Awards: Best Motion Picture, 1948

Nominations, 20th Academy Awards
 * Best Picture - Adrian Scott, producer
 * Best Director - Edward Dmytryk
 * Best Supporting Actor - Robert Ryan
 * Best Supporting Actress - Gloria Grahame
 * Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay - John Paxton

Other nominations
 * British Academy of Film and Television Arts: BAFTA Film Award, Best Film from Any Source, 1949

title: Crossfire (film)


text:
SS Eastland

SS Eastland was a passenger ship based in Chicago and used for tours. On 24 July 1915, the ship rolled over onto its side while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. In total, 844 passengers and crew were killed in what was the largest loss of life from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.

After the disaster, Eastland was salvaged and sold to the United States Navy. After restorations and modifications, Eastland was designated a gunboat and renamed USS Wilmette. She was used primarily as a training vessel on the Great Lakes, and was scrapped after World War II.

Construction
The ship was ordered during 1902 by the Michigan Steamship Company and built by the Jenks Ship Building Company of Port Huron, Michigan. The ship was named in May 1903, immediately before her inaugural voyage.

Early problems
On 27 July of her 1903 inaugural season, the ship struck the laid-up tugboat George W. Gardner, which sank at its dock at the Lake Street Bridge in Chicago. Eastland received only minor damage.

Mutiny on the Eastland
On 14 August 1903, while on a cruise from Chicago to South Haven, Michigan, six of the ship's firemen refused to stoke the fire for the ship's boiler, claiming that they had not received their potatoes for a meal. When they refused to return to the fire hole, Captain John Pereue arrested the six men at gunpoint. Firemen George Lippen and Benjamin Myers, who were not a part of the group of six, stoked the fires until the ship reached harbor. Upon the ship's arrival in South Haven, the six men were taken to the town jail and charged with mutiny. Shortly thereafter, Captain Pereue was replaced.

Speed modifications
Because the ship did not meet a targeted speed of 22 mph during her inaugural season and had a draft too deep for the Black River in South Haven, Michigan, where she was being loaded, the ship returned in September 1903 to Port Huron for modifications, including the addition of an air-conditioning system, an induced-draft system for the boilers to increase power, and repositioning of the ship's machinery to reduce the draft of the hull. Even though the modifications increased the ship's speed, the lesser hull draft and extra weight mounted up high reduced the metacentric height and inherent stability as originally designed.

Listing incidents
Upon her return to South Haven in May 1904, the ship handily won a race to Chicago against the City of South Haven. In the meantime, the Eastland was experiencing periodic problems with her stability while loading and unloading cargo and passengers, and nearly capsized on 17 July 1904 after leaving South Haven with about 3,000 passengers. Subsequently, her capacity was lowered to 2,800 passengers, cabins were removed, lifeboats were added and the hull was repaired. On 5 August 1906, another listing incident occurred, which resulted in complaints filed against the Chicago-South Haven Line that had purchased the ship earlier that year.

Before the 1907 season, the ship was sold to the Lake Shore Navigation Company and moved to Lake Erie. In 1909, the ship was sold again to the Eastland Navigation Company and continued running excursions between Cleveland and Cedar Point. After the 1909 season, the remaining 39 cabins were removed, and prior to the 1912 season, the top smokestack sections were removed to shorten her stack height. On 1 July 1912, another incident occurred when the Eastland experienced a severe listing of about 25° while loading passengers in Cleveland.

In June 1914, the Eastland was sold to the St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company and returned to Lake Michigan for St. Joseph, Michigan-to-Chicago service.

The Eastland disaster
On 24 July 1915, Eastland and four other Great Lakes passenger steamers—Theodore Roosevelt, Petoskey, Racine, and Rochester—were chartered to take employees from Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois to a picnic in Michigan City, Indiana.

The federal Seamen's Act had been passed in 1915 following the RMS Titanic disaster three years earlier. The law required retrofitting of a complete set of lifeboats on Eastland, as on many other passenger vessels. This additional weight may have made Eastland more dangerous by making her even more top-heavy. Some argued that other Great Lakes ships would suffer from the same problem, but the bill was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson. Eastland's owners could choose to either maintain a reduced capacity or add lifeboats to increase capacity, and they elected to add lifeboats to qualify for a license to increase the ship's capacity to 2,570 passengers. Eastland was already so top-heavy that she had special restrictions concerning the number of passengers that could be carried. In June 1914, Eastland had again changed ownership, this time bought by the St. Joseph and Chicago Steamship Company, with captain Harry Pederson appointed the ship's master. In 1914, the company removed the old hardwood flooring of the forward dining room on the cabin level and replaced it with 2 inches of concrete. It also added a layer of concrete near the aft gangway. This added 15–20 tons of weight.

On the morning of 24 July, passengers began boarding Eastland on the south bank of the Chicago River between Clark and LaSalle Streets at about 6:30 a.m., and by 7:10 a.m., the ship had reached her capacity of 2,572 passengers. Many passengers were standing on the open upper decks when the ship began to list slightly to the port side (away from the wharf). The crew attempted to stabilize the ship by admitting water into her ballast tanks, but to little avail. At 7:28 a.m., Eastland lurched sharply to port and then rolled completely onto her port side, coming to rest on the river bottom, only 20 feet below the surface; barely half of the vessel was submerged. Many passengers had already moved below decks on the cool and damp morning to warm themselves before the departure. Consequently, hundreds were trapped inside by the water and the sudden rollover, and some were crushed by heavy furniture, including pianos, bookcases and tables. The ship was only 20 ft from the wharf, and the crew of the nearby vessel Kenosha responded quickly by pulling alongside the hull to allow stranded passengers to leap to safety. However, 844 passengers and four crew members died. Many of the passengers on Eastland were immigrants, with large numbers from present-day Czech Republic, Poland, Norway, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Hungary, and Austria. Many of the Czech immigrants had settled in Cicero; of the Czech passengers aboard, 220 perished in the disaster.

The bodies were taken to various temporary morgues established in the area for identification; by afternoon, the remaining unidentified bodies were consolidated in the armory of the 2nd Regiment.

In the aftermath, the Western Electric Company provided $100,000 to relief and recovery efforts of the family members of the victims.

Among those scheduled to be on Eastland was 20-year-old football player George Halas, later the coach and owner of the Chicago Bears and a founding member of the National Football League, who was delayed leaving for the dock and arrived after the ship had overturned. Halas's name was listed on the list of deceased in newspapers, but he was later revealed to be unharmed. His friend and future Bears executive Ralph Brizzolara and his brother were on the Eastland when she capsized but escaped through portholes. Despite rumors to the contrary, entertainer Jack Benny was neither aboard Eastland nor scheduled for the excursion.

The first known film footage of the recovery efforts was discovered and released in 2015.

Marion Eichholz, the last known survivor, died on 24 November 2014 at the age of 102.

Media reports
Writer Jack Woodford witnessed the disaster and offered a first-hand account to the Herald and Examiner. In his autobiography, Woodford wrote:

"And then movement caught my eye. I looked across the river. As I watched in disoriented stupefaction a steamer large as an ocean liner slowly turned over on its side as though it were a whale going to take a nap. I didn't believe a huge steamer had done this before my eyes, lashed to a dock, in perfectly calm water, in excellent weather, with no explosion, no fire, nothing. I thought I had gone crazy."

Carl Sandburg, then known better as a journalist than as a poet, wrote an angry account for The International Socialist Review, accusing regulators of ignoring safety issues and claiming that many of the workers were aboard following company orders for a mandatory staged picnic. Sandburg also wrote a poem, "The Eastland", which contrasted the disaster with the mistreatment and poor health of the lower classes. Sandburg concluded the poem with a comparison: "I see a dozen Eastlands/Every morning on my way to work/And a dozen more going home at night." The poem was considered too harsh for publication when written, but was eventually published in a collection of poems in 1993.

Inquiry and indictments
A grand jury indicted the president and three other officers of the steamship company for manslaughter, and the ship's captain and engineer for criminal carelessness, and found that the disaster was caused by "conditions of instability" caused by overloading of passengers, mishandling of water ballast and the ship's faulty construction.

During hearings regarding the extradition of the men to Illinois for trial, principal witness Sidney Jenks, president of the company that built Eastland, testified that her first owners wanted a fast ship to transport fruit, and he designed one capable of reaching 20 mph and carrying 500 passengers. Defense counsel Clarence Darrow asked whether Jenks had ever concerned himself with the potential conversion of the ship into a passenger steamer with a capacity of 2,500 or more passengers. Jenks replied, "I had no way of knowing the quantity of its business after it left our yards ... No, I did not worry about the Eastland." Jenks testified that a stability test of the ship was never performed, and stated that after tilting to an angle of 45° at launching, "it righted itself as straight as a church, satisfactorily demonstrating its stability."

The court refused extradition, holding that the evidence was too weak, with "barely a scintilla of proof" to establish probable cause to find the six guilty. The court reasoned that the four company officers were not aboard the ship, and that every act charged against the captain and engineer was performed in the ordinary course of business, "more consistent with innocence than with guilt." The court also reasoned that Eastland "was operated for years and carried thousands safely", and therefore the accused were justified in believing the ship to be seaworthy.

Second life as USS Wilmette
After Eastland was raised on 14 August 1915, she was sold to the Illinois Naval Reserve and recommissioned as USS Wilmette, stationed at the Naval Station Great Lakes. She was converted to a gunboat, renamed Wilmette on 20 February 1918, and commissioned on 20 September 1918 under captain William B. Wells. Commissioned late in World War I, Wilmette did not experience combat. It trained sailors and experienced normal upkeep and repairs until placed in ordinary at Chicago on 9 July 1919, retaining a 10-man caretaker crew aboard. On 29 June 1920, the gunboat was returned to full commission.

On 7 June 1921, Wilmette was tasked with sinking UC-97, a German U-boat surrendered to the United States after World War I. The guns of Wilmette were manned by gunner's mate J. O. Sabin, who had fired the first American cannon of World War I, and gunner's mate A. F. Anderson, the man who fired the first American torpedo of the war.

For the remainder of her 25-year career, the gunboat served as a training ship for naval reservists of the 9th, 10th and 11th Naval Districts. It made voyages along the shores of the Great Lakes carrying trainees assigned to her from the Naval Station Great Lakes. Wilmette was placed "out of commission, in service" on 15 February 1940.

Given hull designation IX-29 on 17 February 1941, she resumed training duty at Chicago on 30 March 1942, preparing armed guard crews for duty manning the guns on armed merchantmen. That assignment continued until the end of World War II in Europe obviated measures to protect transatlantic merchant shipping from German U-boats.

During August 1943, Wilmette transported President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Admiral William D. Leahy, James F. Byrnes and Harry Hopkins on a 10-day fishing vacation in McGregor and Whitefish Bay.

On 9 April 1945, she was returned to full commission for a brief interval. Wilmette was decommissioned on 28 November 1945, and her name was deleted from the Navy list on 19 December 1945. During 1946, Wilmette was offered for sale, but on 31 October 1946, she was sold to the Hyman Michaels Company for scrapping, which was completed in 1947.

Memorials
A marker commemorating the accident was dedicated on 4 June 1989. This marker was reported stolen on 26 April 2000, and a replacement marker was installed and rededicated on 24 July 2003.

Plans exist for a permanent outdoor exhibit with a proposed name of "At The River's Edge". This exhibit would be located along the portion of the Chicago Riverwalk adjacent to the site of the disaster and is planned to consist of panels with text and images. On 12 July 2015, 100 years after the disaster, a memorial to the dead was dedicated at Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago.

In popular culture
The disaster was incorporated into the 1999 series premiere of the Disney Channel original series So Weird, in which teenage paranormal enthusiast Fiona Phillips encounters the ghost of a boy who drowned.

In 2012, Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre produced a musical entitled Eastland: A New Musical, written by Andy White and scored by Ben Collins-Sussman and Andre Pluess.

The Eastland disaster is also pivotal to the story of one family told in the play/musical Failure: A Love Story, written by Philip Dawkins, which premiered in Chicago in 2012 at Victory Gardens Theater. The play premiered in Los Angeles on 24 July 2015, the 100th anniversary of the tragedy. The play was again staged in Chicago at the Oil Lamp Theater and was nominated for multiple awards.

In 2024, Chicago's Neo-Futurists produced a puppetry show based on the disaster entitled Switchboard.

title: SS Eastland


text:
Kassel

Kassel (in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926 ) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, in central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name, and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020. The former capital of the state of Hesse-Kassel, it has many palaces and parks, including the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Kassel is also known for the documenta exhibitions of contemporary art. Kassel has a public university with 25,000 students (2018) and a multicultural population (39% of the citizens in 2017 had a migration background).

History

Kassel was first mentioned in 913 AD, as the place where two deeds were signed by King Conrad I. The place was called Chasella or Chassalla and was a fortification at a bridge crossing the Fulda river. There are several yet unproven assumptions about the name's origin. It could be derived from the ancient Castellum Cattorum, a castle of the Chatti, a German tribe that had lived in the area since Roman times. Another assumption is a portmanteau from Frankonian cas, meaning "valley or recess", and sali meaning "hall or service building", which can be interpreted as "(town) hall in a valley".

A deed from 1189 certifies that Cassel had city rights, but the date when they were granted is not known.

In 1567 the Landgraviate of Hesse, until then centered in Marburg, was divided among four sons, with Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) becoming one of its successor states. Kassel was its capital and became a centre of Calvinist Protestantism in Germany. Strong fortifications were built to protect the Protestant stronghold against Catholic enemies. Secret societies, such as Rosicrucianism flourished, with Christian Rosenkreutz's work Fama Fraternitatis first published in 1617. In 1685, Kassel became a refuge for 1,700 Huguenots who found shelter in the newly established borough of Oberneustadt. Landgrave Charles, who was responsible for this humanitarian act, also ordered the construction of the Oktogon (Hercules monument) and of the Orangerie. In the late 18th Century, Hesse-Kassel became infamous for selling mercenaries (Hessians) to the British crown to help suppress the American Revolution and to finance the construction of palaces and the Landgrave's opulent lifestyle.

In the early 19th century, the Brothers Grimm lived in Kassel. They collected and wrote most of their fairy tales there. At that time, around 1803, the Landgraviate was elevated to a Principality and its ruler to Prince-elector. Shortly after, it was annexed by Napoleon and in 1807 it became the capital of the short-lived Kingdom of Westphalia under Napoleon's brother Jérôme. The Electorate was restored in 1813.

Having sided with Austria in the Austro-Prussian War to gain supremacy in Germany, the principality was annexed by Prussia in 1866. The Prussian administration united Nassau, Frankfurt and Hesse-Kassel into the new Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau. Kassel ceased to be a princely residence but soon developed into a major industrial centre, as well as a major railway junction. Henschel & Son, the largest railway locomotive manufacturer in Germany at the end of the nineteenth century, was based in Kassel.

In 1870, after the Battle of Sedan, Napoleon III was sent as a prisoner to the Wilhelmshöhe Palace above the city. During World War I the German military headquarters were located in the Wilhelmshöhe Palace. In the late 1930s, Nazis destroyed Heinrich Hübsch's Kassel Synagogue.

During World War II Kassel was the headquarters for Germany's Wehrkreis IX, and a local subcamp of Dachau concentration camp provided forced labour for the Henschel facilities, which included tank production plants. There was also a camp for Sinti and Romani people (see Romani Holocaust). Allied prisoners of war from the Stalag IX-A POW camp were deployed to forced labour in the local arms industry in violation of the Geneva Conventions. The most severe bombing of Kassel in World War II destroyed 90% of the downtown area, and some 10,000 people were killed and 150,000 were made homeless. Most of the casualties were civilians or wounded soldiers recuperating in local hospitals, whereas factories survived the attack generally undamaged. Karl Gerland replaced the regional Gauleiter, Karl Weinrich, soon after the raid.

The Allied ground advance into Germany reached Kassel at the beginning of April 1945. The US 80th Infantry Division captured Kassel in bitter house-to-house fighting during 1–4 April 1945, which included numerous German panzer-grenadier counterattacks, and resulted in further widespread devastation to bombed and unbombed structures alike.

Post-war, most of the ancient buildings in the city centre were not restored, and large parts of the inner city area were completely rebuilt in the style of the 1950s. A few historic buildings, however, such as the Museum Fridericianum (see below), were restored. In 1949, the interim parliament ("Parlamentarischer Rat") eliminated Kassel in the first round as a city to become the provisional capital of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bonn won). In 1964, the town hosted the fourth Hessentag state festival (again in 2013). In 1972 the Chancellor of West Germany Willy Brandt and the prime minister of the German Democratic Republic Willy Stoph met in Wilhelmshöhe Palace for negotiations between the two German states. In 1991, the central rail station moved from "Hauptbahnhof" (main station) (today only used for regional trains) to "Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe". The city had a dynamic economic and social development in the recent years, reducing the unemployment rate by half and attracting many new citizens so that the population has grown constantly.

Economy
Several international operating companies have factories or headquarters in the city (Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, SMA, Wintershall, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, Rheinmetall, Bombardier). The city is home of several hospitals; the public Klinikum Kassel is one of the largest hospitals in the federal state, offering a wide range of health services.

Geography
Kassel is the largest city in the north of the federated state of Hesse in the south-western part of Germany, about 70 kilometers northwest of the geographic center of Germany.

It is located on both sides of the river Fulda. Kassel's deepest point is in the north-eastern Fulda valley at 132.9 m above sea level.

The urban area of Kassel is divided into 23 local districts, each of which has a local council with a local mayor as chairman. The local councils are elected every five years by the population of the local districts. The local advisory board can be heard on all important issues affecting the local district. However, the final decision on a measure rests with the Kassel city council.

Neighboring communities
Around Kassel is the administrative district (Landkreis) of Landkreis Kassel. The following cities and municipalities border the city of Kassel (starting clockwise in the north): Ahnatal, Vellmar, Fuldatal, Staufenberg, Niestetal, Kaufungen, Lohfelden, Fuldabrück, Baunatal, Schauenburg, Habichtswald. Of these, Vellmar and Fuldatal in the north, Kaufungen in the east, Lohfelden in the southeast and Baunatal in the south are growing ever closer to the urban area.

Culture
In 1558 the first German observatory was built in Kassel, and a later version from 1714 survives as the Bellevue Palace. The Ottoneum, the first permanent German theatre building, was built in 1604. The old building is today the Natural History Museum, and the now-called Staatstheater Kassel is located in a nearby building that was constructed in the 1950s. Since 1927 Kassel has been home to Bärenreiter, one of the world's most important music publishers.

Since 1955 the documenta, an international exhibition of modern and contemporary art, has been held regularly in Kassel. The documenta now takes place every five years. As a result of the documenta 6 (1977), Kassel became the first town in the world to be illuminated by laser beams at night (Laserscape, by artist Horst H. Baumann). This laser installation is nowadays still visible at weekends. Artworks from former editions of the documenta (mainly sculptures) can be found in many places in Kassel; among those are the "7000 Oaks", a work of land art by the German artist Joseph Beuys. The latest/current edition of the documenta, known as "documenta 15", runs from 18 June until 25 September 2022.

Climate
Kassel experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb) but not so far from marine climates, with a more notable continental influence than Berlin. Using the 1961–1990 normal and 0 °C isotherm, the city already had a humid continental climate (Dfb).

Demographics
Kassel has a population of about 200,000 and is the 3rd largest city in Hesse state and the only large city in the North Hesse region. Kassel is often called the city that located on the center of Germany, due to its position; however, the real center of Germany is not far away. Kassel first reached its first population peak of over 100,000 in 1899 and its second in 1943 with about 225,000. Kassel was destroyed during World War II and became an industrial city in 1950s. Today, Kassel is home to a few companies and universities.

Sights
The bombing raids of 1943 destroyed 90% of the city center. The city center was almost completely rebuilt during the 1950s and is a combination of renovated or reconstructed old buildings and architecture of the 1950s. Outside the city center, the suburbs are dominated by 19th-century architecture. Timber framed old towns are situated in suburbs like Harleshausen and Bad Wilhelmshöhe. The oldest monument is the Druselturm; the Brüderkirche and the Martinskirche are also, in part, of medieval origin. The towers of the Martinskirche are from the 1950s.

St. Martin, Kassel
The main Protestant church of Kassel, it was begun in 1364 and finished in 1462. Severely damaged by British bombing in 1943, it was later reconstructed in a more modern style between 1954 and 1958.

St. Bonifatius, Kassel
St. Bonifatius was designed and built in 1956 by Josef Bieling.

Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe
The complex includes Wilhelmshöhe Palace (with the Antiquities Collection and Old Masters), the Hercules monument, and the Lions Castle. Wilhelmshöhe Palace above the city was built in 1786, by landgrave Wilhelm IX of Hesse-Kassel. The palace is now a museum and houses an important collection of Graeco-Roman antiques and a fine gallery of paintings comprising the second largest collection of Rembrandts in Germany. It is surrounded by the beautiful Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe with many appealing sights. The complex was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013. The Hercules monument is a huge octagonal stone structure carrying a giant replica of Hercules "Farnese" (now at Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, Italy). From its base down to Wilhelmshöhe Palace runs a long set of artificial cascades which delight visitors during the summer months. Every Sunday and Wednesday afternoon at 14:30 (from May until October) the famous water features take place. They start at the Oktagon and during a one-hour walk through the park visitors can follow the water's way until they reach the lake of the Wilhelmshöhe Palace, where a fountain of about 50 m marks the end of the spectacle.

The Löwenburg ("Lions Castle") is a replica of a medieval castle, also built during the reign of Wilhelm IX. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 Napoléon III was imprisoned in Wilhelmshöhe. In 1918, Wilhelmshöhe became the seat of the German Army High Command (OHL): it was there that the military commanders Hindenburg and Ludendorff prepared the German capitulation.

Staatspark Karlsaue (Karlsaue Park)
Another large park and also part of the European Garden Heritage Network is the Karlsaue along the Fulda River. Established in the 16th century, it is famous for the Orangerie, a palace built in 1710 as a summer residence for the landgraves. Today, the Orangerie contains the Museum of Astronomy and Technology, with a scale model of the Solar System spanning the entire park and beyond. In addition, the Park Schönfeld contains a small, municipal botanical garden, the Botanischer Garten Kassel.

Art museums
Europe's first public museum, the Museum Fridericianum was founded in 1779. By the end of the 19th century the museum held one of the largest collections of watches and clocks in the world. Other art museums in Kassel include:
 * Wilhelmshöhe Palace (Antiquities Collection and Old Masters: Albrecht Dürer, Rubens, Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Anthony van Dyck)
 * New Gallery (Tischbein family, Joseph Beuys)
 * Hessisches Landesmuseum (with a world-famous wallpaper collection).

Other museums

 * Museum of Natural History (in the Ottoneum building)
 * Museum of physics and astronomy in the Orangerie
 * Marmorbad (marble bath) in the Orangerie
 * Caricatura (in the Hauptbahnhof Kassel)
 * Museum of Local History
 * Tram Museum Kassel
 * Technical Museum and Henschel Museum
 * Louis Spohr Museum (classical music composer)
 * Brothers Grimm Museum in the Bellevue Palace (closed)
 * Museum for Sepulchral Culture
 * Museum of the Brothers Grimm (known as Grimmwelt Kassel)
 * Museum of Modern Art (Neue Gallerie)
 * Gemäldegallerie Kassel in the Wilhelmshöhe Palace (Schloss Wilhelmshöhe)
 * Botanical Island (Insel Siebenbergen)

Sports
Hessen Kassel is the football club in the city, who plays in the Hessenliga after being relegated from the Regionalliga Südwest in the 2017/2018 season. The city's own football stadium, the Auestadion was built in 1953 and is able to hold 18,737 people. It is located in the south of Kassel at the quarter Südstadt, next to the Karlsaue.

Kassel has a long ice hockey tradition, but it was not until 1977 that the Kassel ice rink (Eissporthalle) opened on a private initiative. The Kassel Huskies were founding members of the DEL in 1994, belonging to the league from 1994 to 2006 and again from 2008 to 2010. In 1997, they were runners-up in the championship playoffs, losing to Adler Mannheim, and reached the semi-finals on three more occasions. The Huskies ran into financial difficulties and dissolved in 2010. The "Young Huskies", which is a junior and youth hockey club, decided to enter a men's team in the Hessenliga. This is the fifth division and the lowest men's competition in the state of Hesse. The new club was expecting no more than 3,000 supporters for the first home game in the Hessenliga. However, they had over 5,000 supporters come to watch.

Transport

Kassel has seven tram lines (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), with trams arriving usually every 15 minutes. The city also operates a light rail Stadtbahn network called RegioTram using Regio Citadis low-floor trams which run on both tram and main line railway tracks with three lines (RT1, RT4, RT5). Moreover, a number of low-floor buses complete the Kassel public transport system. The introduction of low-floor buses led to the development of the Kassel kerb which improves the accessibility at bus stops.

The city is connected to the national rail network at two stations, Kassel Central, and Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe. The traditional central station (Hauptbahnhof) has been reduced to the status of a regional station since the opening of the Hanover-Würzburg high-speed rail line in 1991 and its station (Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe) on the high-speed line at which the InterCityExpress (ICE) and InterCity services call as well as Nightjet and Flixtrain.

Kassel is connected to the motorways A 7, A 49 and A 44.

The city is served by Kassel Calden Airport.

Mayor
The current mayor of Kassel is Sven Schoeller of Alliance 90/The Greens, who was elected in March 2023. He succeeded Christian Geselle (SPD), who had been in office since 2017.

City council
The Kassel city council (Stadtverordnetenversammlung) governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 14 March 2021, and the results were as follows:

! colspan=2| Party ! Lead candidate ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- ! colspan=3| Valid votes ! 61,687 ! 95.7 ! ! ! ! colspan=3| Invalid votes ! 2,765 ! 4.3 ! ! ! ! colspan=3| Total ! 64,452 ! 100.0 ! ! 71 ! ±0 ! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout ! 147,462 ! 43.7 ! 0.9 ! !
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)
 * align=left| Awet Tesfaiesus
 * 1,201,167
 * 28.7
 * 10.7
 * 20
 * 7
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD)
 * align=left| Patrick Hartmann
 * 1,028,529
 * 24.6
 * 4.9
 * 17
 * 4
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
 * align=left| Michael von Rüden
 * 802,551
 * 19.2
 * 1.5
 * 14
 * 1
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Kasseler Left (Left)
 * align=left| Violetta Bock
 * 469,800
 * 11.2
 * 0.6
 * 8
 * 1
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Free Democratic Party (FDP)
 * align=left| Matthias Nölke
 * 236,057
 * 5.6
 * 0.0
 * 4
 * ±0
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Alternative for Germany (AfD)
 * align=left| Sven Dreyer
 * 233,609
 * 5.6
 * 5.4
 * 4
 * 4
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Free Voters (FW)
 * align=left| Christian Klobuczynski
 * 94,443
 * 2.3
 * 0.7
 * 2
 * ±0
 * align=left| Save the Bees
 * align=left| Bernd Hoppe
 * 77,703
 * 1.9
 * New
 * 1
 * New
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Die PARTEI (PARTEI)
 * align=left| Jennifer Rieger
 * 41,169
 * 1.0
 * New
 * 1
 * New
 * New
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Die PARTEI (PARTEI)
 * align=left| Jennifer Rieger
 * 41,169
 * 1.0
 * New
 * 1
 * New
 * New
 * colspan=8| Source: Statistics Hesse
 * }
 * }

University of Kassel
The University of Kassel is a public higher education institution and was founded in 1971 as a so-called reform university offering new and innovative models of teaching. It is the newest university in the state of Hessen and has an urban and lively inner-city campus between the city center and the Northern city district, a typical working-class area with a multicultural population. There were 25,000 students enrolled at the university in 2018, 3381 of them non-Germans. Two hundred and twenty-four students obtained their doctorate from the university in 2017.

The university offers a wide range of study programs from organic agriculture to social work. Furthermore, it offers several English master's programs as well as two short-term international programs, the Summer University and the Winter University. The Kunsthochschule Kassel (University of Fine Arts) is also part of the university with a satellite campus directly at the Karlsaue park in the Southern city district.

Other institutions

 * Kassel School of Medicine (KSM)
 * YMCA University of Applied Sciences (CVJM-Hochschule)
 * Fraunhofer-Institut für Windenergie und Energiesystemtechnik (IWES), the former Institut für Solare Energieversorgungstechnik (ISET)
 * Fraunhofer-Institut für Bauphysik (IBP) Projektgruppe Kassel
 * Forschungszentrum für Informationstechnik-Gestaltung (ITeG)
 * International Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD)
 * Internationales Zentrum für Hochschulforschung Kassel (INCHER)
 * Zentrum für Umweltbewusstes Bauen (ZUB)
 * Center for Interdisciplinary Nanostructure Science and Technology (CINSaT)
 * AG Friedensforschung

Associations

 * Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge German War Graves Commission
 * Gesellschaft für Christlich-Jüdische Zusammenarbeit Kassel
 * Spitzenverband der landwirtschaftlichen Sozialversicherung
 * Deutsche Rentenversicherung Hessen
 * Industrie- und Handelskammer Kassel (Chamber of Commerce Kassel)

Courts
Several courts are located in Kassel, including:

 * the Federal Social Court (Bundessozialgericht)
 * Hessischer Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Administration Court of Hesse)
 * Fiscal Court Hesse (Finanzgericht)
 * Sozialgericht Kassel (Social Court Kassel)
 * Arbeitsgericht Kassel (Employment Court Kassel)
 * Verwaltungsgericht Kassel
 * Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt/Main in Kassel
 * Landgericht Kassel (Regional Court Kassel)
 * Amtsgericht Kassel and Staatsanwaltschaft Kassel (Local Court Kassel)

Academia

 * Helmut Hasse (1898–1979), fundamental theorist in algebra and number theory
 * Dieter Koch-Weser (1916–2015), professor, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health
 * Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929), Jewish-German theologian, philosopher and translator
 * Georg Friedrich Sartorius (1765–1828), academia, research historian and economist

Actors and entertainment

 * Daniel Bandmann (1837–1905), actor-manager
 * Hubertus Meyer-Burckhardt (born 1956), television journalist and talk show host
 * F. W. Murnau (1888–1931), movie director in the silent era
 * Barbara Rudnik (1958–2009), actress
 * Otto Sander (1941–2013), actor
 * Meryem Sahra Uzerli (born 1983), Turkish-German actress

Artists and designers

 * Arnold Bode (1900–1977), architect, painter, designer, and founder of the documenta
 * Simon Louis du Ry (1726–1799), architect
 * Hugo Wilhelm Arthur Nahl (1833–1899), artist who designed the Seal of California
 * Albrecht Rosengarten (1809–1893), architect famous for synagogue buildings in Central Europe

Business

 * Georges Kugelmann (1809–1882), newspaper printer
 * Horst Paulmann (born 1935), German-Chilean billionaire entrepreneur. He is founder and chairman of Cencosud, the largest retail chain in Chile and the third largest in Latin America
 * Peter Gandert (1948–2016), Baker

Musicians

 * Franz Curti (1854–1898), opera composer
 * Andreas Dippel (1866–1932), operatic tenor
 * Chris Hülsbeck (born 1968), video game music composer
 * Gertrud Elisabeth Mara (1749–1833), operatic soprano
 * Israel Meyer Japhet (1818–1892) choral director in Frankfurt am Main
 * Louis Spohr (1784–1859), composer and violinist, commemorated by a museum in the city
 * Charlotte Sporleder (1836–1915), composer
 * Johannes von Soest (1448–1506), medieval musician, music theorist, poet, and composer.
 * Milky Chance (2013–present), band.

Politicians, military and civil servants

 * Holger Börner (1931–2006), politician
 * Hans Eichel (born 1941), politician
 * Philipp Scheidemann (1865–1939), briefly Germany's Chancellor after the First World War
 * Josias von Heeringen (1850–1926), general
 * Heinrich von Porbeck, major general, died at the Battle of Talavera (1809)
 * Johanna Vogt (1862–1944), suffragette and the first woman on the city council of Kassel starting in 1919
 * Kay-Achim Schönbach (born 1965), retired Vice Admiral of the German Navy and politician (Values Union)

Royalty and socialites

 * Jérôme Bonaparte (1784–1860), Prince, brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, lived in Kassel while he was king of Westphalia
 * Maria Amalia of Courland (1653–1711), noblewoman, participated in creation of park at Karlsaue
 * Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel (1744–1836)
 * Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel (1747–1837)
 * Princess and Landgravine Augusta of Hesse-Kassel (1797–1889), consort to Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge
 * Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel (1627–1686), noblewoman, member of the House of Hesse-Kassel
 * Louise of Hesse-Kassel (1817–1898), princess of Hesse-Kassel, later queen consort of King Christian IX of Denmark
 * William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (1532–1592), the first Landgrave of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel
 * Frederick I of Sweden (1676–1751), King of Sweden and also Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel.

Scientists and physicians

 * Valerius Cordus (1515–1544) physician and botanist, authored pharmacopoeias and herbals.
 * Friedrich Armand Strubberg (1806–1889), merchant, physician, colonist in North America, direct descendant of Frederick I of Sweden
 * Justus Carl Hasskarl (1809–1894), botanist specialising in Pteridophytes, Bryophytes, and Spermatophytes
 * Carl Friedrich Claus (1827–1900), chemist
 * Adolf Eugen Fick (1829–1901), physiologist
 * Jakob Stilling (1842–1915), ophthalmologist, son of Benedict Stilling, surgeon, and brother of Heinrich Stilling, pathologist
 * Carl Kaiserling (1869–1942), pathologist

Sports

 * Leni Junker (1905–1997), sprinter
 * Yunus Mallı (born 1992), Turkish footballer
 * Annika Mehlhorn (born 1983), butterfly and medley swimmer
 * Yona Melnik (born 1949), Israeli Olympic judoka
 * Carolin Simon (born 1992), footballer

Writers and journalists

 * The Brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections as Grimms' Fairy Tales
 * Helmut Kollars (born 1968), writer and illustrator
 * Rudolf Erich Raspe (1736–1794), University of Kassel librarian who fled to England after embezzling significant funds from Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and wrote (or compiled) The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchhausen
 * Paul Reuter (1816–1899), reporter, founder of the Reuters news agency
 * Lucien Scheler (1902–1999), French poet, writer, and publisher
 * Peter-Matthias Gaede (born 1951), journalist

Others

 * Herman Lamm (1890–1930), German-American bank robber
 * Norbert Trelle (born 1942), Roman Catholic German bishop
 * Nils Seethaler (born 1981), Ethnologist

Twin towns – sister cities
Kassel is twinned with:

 * Florence, Italy (1952)
 * Mitte (Berlin), Germany (1962)
 * Mulhouse, France (1965)
 * Rovaniemi, Finland (1972)
 * Västerås, Sweden (1972)
 * Yaroslavl, Russia (1988)
 * Arnstadt, Germany (1989)
 * Ramat Gan, Israel (1990)
 * Kocaeli, Turkey (1999)

title: Kassel