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Wikipedia:Testimonials

This page is intended for collecting quotations about Wikipedia. Such quotations can be useful for press releases, discussions etc. Like any good marketing page, it should primarily list positive opinions, although criticism can of course be part of such opinions. Please do not add "made up" testimonials to this page; instead, only add testimonials from other pages, comments, articles and so on, and always provide the source with the quote.

Awards should be collected in the Trophy box on Meta. For the opposite viewpoint, see the Criticisms page, quoting critics who will (hopefully) be proven wrong.

Published articles
John C. Dvorak, "Why Wikipedia Just Gets Better" PC Magazine (February 1, 2008):
 * You don't think I'm here as a Wikipedia booster without some deeper commentary, do you? There has to be something wrong with it, since the idea is utopian, and utopian ideas are bound to fail in the long term.

Dan Tynan. "Winners and Losers of 2005". ''Tech Tuesday - Yahoo! News''. (December 16 2005). Rated as both the "Winner" and "Loser of the Year".
 * You can't do a Web search on any major topic without this wiki popping up near the top of the results page. Heavily linked, authoritative, and constantly updated, the world's largest interactive encyclopedia came into its own this year[...] Popular, yes. Accurate? Not necessarily. Because its entries can be edited by anyone, the Wikipedia can be the source of dubious or biased information. [ ...(citing the Swiftboat controversy and Seigenthaler Incident)... ] [W]ith more than 800,000 articles in English and well over 1 million in 15 other languages, foolproof policing is well nigh impossible.

Crispin Sartwell, "See 'Information,' 'Amazing,' 'Anarchy'", Los Angeles Times p. B15 (4 May 2005).
 * So is it to be trusted? Does it have the credibility of Britannica? Well, I have monitored over a decent period a number of entries on matters about which I know something and have found them almost invariably accurate. And I have watched some of them grow, becoming ever more elaborate and interlinked.

Wynn Quon, "Wikipedia: The new know-it-all", National Post, p. FP19 (26 Feb. 2005).
 * Are traditional encyclopedia publishers aware of Wikipedia's threat? Here's a clue: Try looking for the "Wikipedia" article in the online version of Britannica. You won't find it. Nor will you find it in any of the half a dozen or so mainstream encyclopedias currently on the market. These folks should be busy brainstorming a survival strategy. Instead, the range of reaction has run in a comically limited range from denial to derision. Even Britannica, with its prestigious reputation, needs to figure out how it will thrive in what will increasingly be a Wikipedia world. In the final analysis, Wikipedia is more than just the raising of a new barn. It's the tearing down of the old ones.

Simon Waldman, "Who knows?", The Guardian (Oct. 26, 2004):
 * It has no editors, no fact checkers and anyone can contribute an entry - or delete one. It should have been a recipe for disaster, but instead Wikipedia became one of the internet's most inspiring success stories.

"Open source", The Economist print edition, (June 10th 2004)
 * Wikipedia... [is a] ...force for good.

Bill Thompson, "A question of trust online", BBC News Online, (Apr. 23, 2004)
 * And there is the Wikipedia, a community-written encyclopedia that has evolved over the years [...] into one of the most reliably useful sources of information around, on or off-line.

Bill Bailey, "Big Night In", The Times, (Feb. 21, 2004)
 * If I'm writing a show I spend a lot of time researching it on the net. I use Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) a lot. It's a brilliant online encyclopaedia, invaluable for historical stuff, and probably the most accurate of all those sites.

Sean Carroll, "Site of the Week", PC Magazine (Jun. 6, 2003):
 * This may sound like a recipe for disaster, but the results are impressive. While many of the site's 130,000-plus articles are definitely works in progress, many are rich, concise, and polished. [...] Surprisingly, our time spent on Wikipedia turned up no junk entries and no defacements. [...] A few of the articles seemed a bit dated, and we came across many red links or blue links that led to single-sentence placeholders. But for the most part, the items were useful and thoughtful. And the typos and awkward constructions we found? As editors, we plan to return to those pages, on the subjects we care about, and tweak them a bit.

Ben Hammersley, "Common Knowledge", Guardian (Jan. 30, 2003):
 * The Wikipedia [is] perhaps one of the greatest testaments to the generosity on the web [...] What makes the Wikipedia so compelling—and this article so hard to finish—is the way everything is so massively linked. You read one entry, and before you know it, you're reading up on Anne Boleyn or Italian greyhounds.

John Jerney, "The Wikipedia: The encyclopedia for the rest of us", The Daily Yomiuri (Oct. 22, 2002):
 * In particular, the goal of the Wikipedia is to produce the best encyclopedia encapsulating the sum total of human knowledge. And a quick run through some of the articles shows that this community based approach can indeed work. [...] The Wikipedia, and hopefully other services similar to it, offers the possibility of everything being written into history, with all of mankind sharing knowledge and information in a way that enables everyone to profit from it.

Mary Ellen Quinn, "Wikipedia", Booklist Magazine (Sep. 15, 2002):
 * What about authority and reliability and all the other things we've been taught to look for in an encyclopedia? We were prepared to hate Wikipedia, but were disarmed when we got to the section Our Replies to Our Critics, which answered all these questions and more. [...] [Wikipedians] believe that their process of continuous editing means that articles can only improve. Bad content will be edited out, and good content will rise to the top, like cream: As further edits accumulate, the quality of the article moves asymptomatically towards perfection, and likewise the quality of the encyclopedia as a whole. Maybe. We'll keep an open mind.

Steven Johnson, "Populist Editing", New York Times (Dec. 9, 2001):
 * But an intriguing new subgenre of sites, called WikiWikiWebs, really are interactive: users can both read and write. [...]  The most ambitious Wiki project to date applies this governing principle to the encyclopedia, that Enlightenment-era icon of human intelligence.  [...]  With a total of 16,000 articles in the database, the Wikipedia is already large enough to be a source of generally reliable information, though stronger in some areas ("Star Trek" spinoffs) than others (the novels of Charles Dickens).

Use by Facebook
To combat the problem of "fake news" on its site, Facebook announced in 2018 that it is using Wikipedia as a tool.

Notable blog mentions
Tim Bray of Sun Microsystems, "Wikipedia", Ongoing weblog (Aug. 31, 2004):

 * Maybe the Wikipedia is a short-lived fad, maybe it'll get better, maybe it'll get worse, but I was surprised that nobody pointed this out: The Wikipedia is beautiful. It's an unexpected and unexplainable triumph of collective creativity and of order over entropy. I hope it lasts a long time, and those who criticize it Just Don't Get It.

Wikipedia user comments
This is excellent stuff from WIKI. Great work to you all. KUDOS.. - Manoj(INDIA)

Two16, from User talk:Ed Poor (spelling corrected):

 * "I've never posted to a usenet group because nothing I wanted to say was worth the overhead of learning the interface. It is a big commitment for me to learn any new interface. This killer app called, email, everyone around me has been chattering about for 17 years, doesn't provide me incentive to learn a very simple interface, how the hell could a usenet group? The killer app called wiki wiki has caused me to learn a mark up language , learn to keyboard, learn to compose text while touch typing and learn NPOV cold. I came here because a project under development needed a back end content manager and I was asked to take a quick look so I could provide an expert opinion on its suitability as the project's interface. Boy does it ever work. I've declared wiki wiki to be the killer app of the world wide web."

AngelikaDagmar, from an anonymous talk page:

 * "I am amazed not to have discovered Wikipedia until now. I am so moved by its richness and intellectual value that I actually shed tears. What a wonderful endeavor!"

From the Talk:Israeli-Palestinian conflict page:

 * Editor,

 * I have studied the issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades. I also lived in the middle east for 10 years.  I must tell you that yours is one of the most non-biased, fact-based articles I've every seen on the topic.  I appreciate your objectivity; I wish more people were like that.

 * Sincerely,

 * E. Davidson
 * Atlanta

Stan Shebs's personal page:
 * Dumping my life's accumulated factoids into Wikipedia seems like a fun thing to do, we'll see how it goes. Two weeks later, it seems more like being an ADD-afflicted magpie in a bottle cap factory!

Kingturtle's personal page:
 * The discovery [of Wikipedia] matched love-at-first-sight. For years, I've been collecting old almanacs and encyclopedia. I bandied about different ideas regarding sharing and documenting the information revealed in these discarded sources. To stumble on a thriving community devoted to sharing information gave me a tremendous thrill and a curious sense of relief. Thank heavens you're all out there!

User:Aarchiba on User talk:Aarchiba:
 * I must say, Wikipedia has made tremendous progress since I last fiddled with it; it's astonishingly compendious, and the quality is just amazing.

Musichastherighttochildren on Village pump :

 * I am a newcomer to wikipedia; although I have been aware of it and used it on occasion for quite a while, I have only recently realised the depth of this resource, and discovered the mechanics behind it.

 * this project is fantastic! the number of articles and the amount of information in them is truly amazing, even articles on topics so obscure I thought there would be no chance they would exist. the band biographies, for example, seem to have more detailed information and useful links than any official band website I have seen.

 * also, the articles are articulately written and unbiased, and the links between articles are very well done (though perhaps I have whiled away too many hours in school reading article after article as a consequence of this). wikipedia has become the primary internet resource for me (with the possible exception of news websites), and I really think that it is a credit to everyone who works on it, and indeed to human nature itself! this may seem like a sweeping statement, but it is hard to believe that something so incredible could be produced entirely voluntarily by people in their spare time. and, at the same time, would-be spoilers are repelled; I have never seen an incorrect piece of information or any 'graffiti'. good show!

 * anyway, I'm sure plenty of people have said this before, but just thought I would congratulate everyone who works on here, and say hi. I'm jack by the way, and I live in north wales. I shall try to contibute as much as possible (so far all I have done is added a sentence about john peel going to school in colwyn bay)!

Anonymous, from Village pump:

 * Wow. Just wow. As I cruised around the Pump, I noticed talks about how old people were. As a 16 year old, I'm supposed to be jaded on the world, but the fact that there are kids younger than myself gives me an unexplicable  [sic] hope. Wikipedia has the greatest minds on the internet, and I look forward to working with them. I haven't even written my first article yet, but when I do, expect me to look to younger users for advice.

Anonymous, from Talk:Main Page :

 * Thank you Wikipedia. This is one of the best things to ever happen to me. An infinite amount of knowledge all integrated into one website. I love this thing! You need to know about something? Just type it in. You need to know about something relating to it, just click on one of the links in its explanation. I could go on for hours on this thing just learning! I love it! Thanks a lot!

title: Wikipedia:Testimonials


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Theodora Goes Wild

Theodora Goes Wild is a 1936 American screwball comedy film that tells the story of the residents in a small town who are incensed by a risqué novel, unaware that the book was written under a pseudonym by a member of the town's leading family. It stars Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas and was directed by Richard Boleslawski. The film was written by Mary McCarthy and Sidney Buchman. Dunne was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress in a Leading Role and the movie was also nominated for the Best Film Editing.

Before this film, Dunne had been cast in dramatic films. Theodora Goes Wild was her first comedy, and this extremely popular film proved to be the beginning of a new phase in her film career as a screen comedienne.

Plot
Theodora Lynn (Irene Dunne) is a Sunday school teacher and former church organist in Lynnfield, Connecticut, raised by two spinster aunts, Mary (Elisabeth Risdon) and Elsie Lynn (Margaret McWade). She also happens to be, under the pen name Caroline Adams, the secret author of a sensational, bestselling book replete with sexual innuendo that has the straight-laced all-female Lynnfield Literary Circle in an uproar. The book is serialized in the local newspaper, and the Literary Circle, led by outraged busybody Rebecca Perry (Spring Byington), forces the newspaper's owner Jed Waterbury (Thomas Mitchell) to stop printing the salacious installments.

Theodora travels to New York City on the pretext of visiting her black sheep Uncle John (Robert Greig), but actually goes to see her publisher Arthur Stevenson (Thurston Hall). Though Stevenson reassures an anxious Theodora that only he and his secretary know her identity, his wife Ethel (Nana Bryant) pressures him into an introduction, which the book's illustrator Michael Grant (Melvyn Douglas) overhears. Intrigued, Michael invites himself to a sumptuous dinner with the Stevensons and Theodora. Theodora becomes annoyed when Michael smugly assumes that she is a teetotaler, so she orders a whiskey. As the night goes on, she becomes drunk. So does Ethel, forcing Arthur to take her home and leaving Theodora alone with Michael in the posh restaurant. When he brings her to his apartment and then makes a pass at her, she panics and flees, much to his amusement.

Michael tracks her to her hometown, and his whistling is immediately noticed outside her house. Because she technically is not supposed to know anyone outside of Lynnfield, he coerces her into hiring him as a gardener, thus scandalizing her aunts and providing Rebecca Perry with ample information for gossip. Michael declares that he is going to break Theodora out of her confining routine, ignoring her protests that she likes her life just the way it is. Despite herself, she enjoys herself when Michael makes her go berry-picking and fishing with him. Finally, she finds the nerve to tell the disapproving women of the Literary Circle that she loves him. When she tells Michael what she has done, however, he is less than thrilled.

The next morning, Theodora finds that he has gone back to New York and left her. She tracks him to his Park Avenue apartment. He admits he loves her, but then his father (Henry Kolker), the lieutenant governor, shows up, followed by Michael's estranged wife Agnes (Leona Maricle). Lt. Gov. Grant tells his son Michael that he and Agnes must remain married to avoid causing a political scandal for him. Michael is unable to stand up to his father.

Theodora determines to free Michael from his father, just as he had done for her. He wants her to hold off until his father's term ends in two years, but she is unwilling to wait that long. She courts publicity by revealing herself as the true Caroline Adams. She stays in Michael's New York apartment, even though he has moved out to get away from her, and she tells the press of her intention to publish a new book that details finding romance in her small town and searching for someone who will call her "baby" – a story that depicts her relationship with Michael. Meanwhile, Michael denies to the press that he has even met Theodora. She finally crashes the governor's ball and arranges for reporters to photograph her embracing Michael. Agnes seeks a divorce from Michael to save face.

Theodora returns to Lynnfield and is warmly welcomed as a celebrity, even by her now-supportive aunts. She causes further talk when she brings a newborn baby with her. When Michael, now divorced, sees the child, he tries to flee, but then Theodora reveals that the baby belongs to Rebecca Perry's own secretly married daughter, and not to her.

Cast

 * Irene Dunne as Theodora Lynn / Caroline Adams
 * Melvyn Douglas as Michael Grant
 * Thomas Mitchell as Jed Waterbury
 * Thurston Hall as Arthur Stevenson
 * Rosalind Keith as Adelaide Perry
 * Elisabeth Risdon as Mary Lynn
 * Margaret McWade as Elsie Lynn
 * Spring Byington as Rebecca Perry
 * Robert Greig as John Lynn
 * Nana Bryant as Ethel Stevenson
 * Henry Kolker as Henry Grant
 * Leona Maricle as Agnes Grant
 * William 'Billy' Benedict as Henry (uncredited)

Reception
Writing for The Spectator in 1937, Graham Greene gave the film a good review, comparing the film's light comedy to Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and commenting that Dunne's acting had been "regroomed" and improved considerably since her earlier films and that she now "appears as one of the best comedians on the screen".

Radio adaptations
Orson Welles adapted the story for his Mercury Theatre players for a January 14, 1940 episode of The Campbell Playhouse, with Loretta Young as Theodora.

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

title: Theodora Goes Wild


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Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (Иван Сергеевич Тургенев; 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, translator and popularizer of Russian literature in the West.

His first major publication, a short story collection titled A Sportsman's Sketches (1852), was a milestone of Russian realism. His novel Fathers and Sons (1862) is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction.

Life

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was born in Oryol (modern-day Oryol Oblast, Russia) to noble Russian parents Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev (1793–1834), a colonel in the Russian cavalry who took part in the Patriotic War of 1812, and Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva (née Lutovinova; 1787–1850). His father belonged to an old, but impoverished Turgenev family of Tula aristocracy that traces its history to the 15th century when a Tatar Mirza Lev Turgen (Ivan Turgenev after baptizing) left the Golden Horde to serve Vasily II of Moscow. Ivan's mother came from a wealthy noble Lutovinov house of the Oryol Governorate. She spent an unhappy childhood under her tyrannical stepfather and left his house after her mother's death to live with her uncle. At age 26, she inherited a huge fortune from him. In 1816, she married Turgenev.

Ivan and his brothers Nikolai and Sergei were raised by their mother, an educated, authoritarian woman. Their residence was the Spasskoye-Lutovinovo family estate that was granted to their ancestor Ivan Ivanovich Lutovinov by Ivan the Terrible. Varvara Turgeneva later served as an inspiration for the landlady from Turgenev's Mumu. The brothers had foreign governesses; Ivan became fluent in French, German, and English. The family members used French in everyday life, including prayers. Their father spent little time with the family. Although he was not hostile toward them, his absence hurt Ivan's feelings. Their relations are described in the autobiographical novel First Love. When Ivan was four years old, the family journeyed through Germany and France. In 1827, the Turgenevs relocated to Moscow to enable the children to have a proper education.

After the standard schooling for a son of a gentleman, Turgenev studied for one year at the University of Moscow and then moved to the University of Saint Petersburg from 1834 to 1837, focusing on Classics, Russian literature, and philology. During that time his father died from kidney stone disease, followed by his younger brother Sergei who died from epilepsy. From 1838 until 1841, he studied philosophy, particularly Hegel, and history at the University of Berlin. He returned to Saint Petersburg to complete his master's examination.

Turgenev was impressed with German society and returned home believing that Russia could best improve itself by incorporating ideas from the Age of Enlightenment. Like many of his educated contemporaries, he was particularly opposed to serfdom. In 1841, Turgenev started his career in the Russian civil service and spent two years working for the Ministry of Interior (1843–1845).

When Turgenev was a child, a family serf had read to him verses from the Rossiad of Mikhail Kheraskov, a celebrated poet of the 18th century. Turgenev's early attempts in literature, poems, and sketches gave indications of genius and were favorably spoken of by Vissarion Belinsky, then the leading Russian literary critic. During the latter part of his life, Turgenev did not reside much in Russia: he lived either at Baden-Baden or Paris, often in proximity to the family of the celebrated opera singer Pauline Viardot, with whom he had a lifelong affair.

Turgenev never married, but he had some affairs with his family's serfs, one of which resulted in the birth of his illegitimate daughter, Paulinette. He was tall and broad-shouldered, but was timid, restrained, and soft-spoken. When Turgenev was 19, while traveling on a steamboat in Germany, the boat caught fire. According to rumours by Turgenev's enemies, he reacted in a cowardly manner. He denied such accounts, but these rumours circulated in Russia and followed him for his entire career, providing the basis for his story "A Fire at Sea". His closest literary friend was Gustave Flaubert, with whom he shared similar social and aesthetic ideas. Both rejected extremist right and left political views, and carried a nonjudgmental, although rather pessimistic, view of the world. His relations with Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky were often strained, as the two were, for various reasons, dismayed by Turgenev's seeming preference for Western Europe.

Unlike Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, Turgenev lacked religious motives in his writings, representing the more social aspect to the reform movement. He was considered to be an agnostic. Tolstoy, more than Dostoyevsky, at first anyway, rather despised Turgenev. While traveling together in Paris, Tolstoy wrote in his diary, "Turgenev is a bore." His rocky friendship with Tolstoy in 1861 wrought such animosity that Tolstoy challenged Turgenev to a duel, afterwards apologizing. The two did not speak for 17 years, but never broke family ties. Dostoyevsky parodies Turgenev in his novel The Devils (1872) through the character of the vain novelist Karmazinov, who is anxious to ingratiate himself with the radical youth. However, in 1880, Dostoevsky's Pushkin Speech at the unveiling of the Alexander Pushkin monument brought about a reconciliation of sorts with Turgenev, who, like many in the audience, was moved to tears by his rival's eloquent tribute to the Russian spirit.

Turgenev occasionally visited England, and in 1879 the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law was conferred upon him by the University of Oxford.

Turgenev's health declined during his later years. In January 1883, an aggressive malignant tumor (liposarcoma) was removed from his suprapubic region, but by then the tumor had metastasized in his upper spinal cord, causing him intense pain during the final months of his life. On 3 September 1883, Turgenev died of a spinal abscess, a complication of the metastatic liposarcoma, in his house at Bougival near Paris. His remains were taken to Russia and buried in Volkovo Cemetery in St. Petersburg. On his deathbed, he pleaded with Tolstoy: "My friend, return to literature!" After this, Tolstoy wrote such works as The Death of Ivan Ilyich and The Kreutzer Sonata.

Ivan Turgenev's brain was found to be one of the largest on record for neurotypical individuals, weighing 2,012 g.

Work
Turgenev first made his name with A Sportsman's Sketches (Записки охотника), also known as Sketches from a Hunter's Album or Notes of a Hunter, a collection of short stories, based on his observations of peasant life and nature, while hunting in the forests around his mother's estate of Spasskoye. Most of the stories were published in a single volume in 1852, with others being added in later editions. The book is credited with having influenced public opinion in favour of the abolition of serfdom in 1861. Turgenev himself considered the book to be his most important contribution to Russian literature; it is reported that Pravda, and Tolstoy, among others, agreed wholeheartedly, adding that Turgenev's evocations of nature in these stories were unsurpassed. One of the stories in A Sportsman's Sketches, known as "Bezhin Lea" or "Byezhin Prairie", was later to become the basis for the controversial film Bezhin Meadow (1937), directed by Sergei Eisenstein.

In 1852, when his first major novels of Russian society were still to come, Turgenev wrote an obituary for Nikolai Gogol, intended for publication in the Saint Petersburg Gazette. The key passage reads: "Gogol is dead!... What Russian heart is not shaken by those three words?... He is gone, that man whom we now have the right (the bitter right, given to us by death) to call great." The censor of Saint Petersburg did not approve of this and banned publication, but the Moscow censor allowed it to be published in a newspaper in that city. The censor was dismissed; but Turgenev was held responsible for the incident, imprisoned for a month, and then exiled to his country estate for nearly two years. It was during this time that Turgenev wrote his short story Mumu ("Муму") in 1854. The story tells a tale of a deaf and mute peasant who is forced to drown the only thing in the world which brings him happiness, his dog Mumu. Like his A Sportsman's Sketches (Записки охотника), this work takes aim at the cruelties of a serf society. This work was later applauded by John Galsworthy who claimed, "no more stirring protest against tyrannical cruelty was ever penned in terms of art."

While he was still in Russia in the early 1850s, Turgenev wrote several novellas (povesti in Russian): The Diary of a Superfluous Man ("Дневник лишнего человека"), Faust ("Фауст"), The Lull ("Затишье"), expressing the anxieties and hopes of Russians of his generation.

In the 1840s and early 1850s, during the rule of Tsar Nicholas I, the political climate in Russia was stifling for many writers. This is evident in the despair and subsequent death of Gogol, and the oppression, persecution, and arrests of artists, scientists, and writers. During this time, thousands of Russian intellectuals, members of the intelligentsia, emigrated to Europe. Among them were Alexander Herzen and Turgenev himself, who moved to Western Europe in 1854, although this decision probably had more to do with his fateful love for Pauline Viardot than anything else.

The following years produced the novel Rudin ("Рудин"), the story of a man in his thirties who is unable to put his talents and idealism to any use in the Russia of Nicholas I. Rudin is also full of nostalgia for the idealistic student circles of the 1840s.

Following the thoughts of the influential critic Vissarion Belinsky, Turgenev abandoned Romantic idealism for a more realistic style. Belinsky defended sociological realism in literature; Turgenev portrayed him in Yakov Pasinkov (1855). During the period of 1853–62 Turgenev wrote some of his finest stories as well as the first four of his novels: Rudin ("Рудин") (1856), A Nest of the Gentry ("Дворянское гнездо") (1859), On the Eve ("Накануне") (1860) and Fathers and Sons ("Отцы и дети") (1862). Some themes involved in these works include the beauty of early love, failure to reach one's dreams, and frustrated love. Great influences on these works are derived from his love of Pauline and his experiences with his mother, who controlled over 500 serfs with the same strict demeanor in which she raised him.

In 1858 Turgenev wrote the novel A Nest of the Gentry ("Дворянское гнездо"), also full of nostalgia for the irretrievable past and of love for the Russian countryside. It contains one of his most memorable female characters, Liza, whom Dostoyevsky paid tribute to in his Pushkin speech of 1880, alongside Tatiana and Tolstoy's Natasha Rostova.

Alexander II ascended the Russian throne in 1855, and the political climate became more relaxed. In 1859, inspired by reports of positive social changes, Turgenev wrote the novel On the Eve ("Накануне") (published 1860), portraying the Bulgarian revolutionary Insarov.

The following year saw the publication of one of his finest novellas, First Love ("Первая любовь"), which was based on bitter-sweet childhood memories, and the delivery of his speech ("Hamlet and Don Quixote", at a public reading in Saint Petersburg) in aid of writers and scholars suffering hardship. The vision presented therein of man torn between the self-centered skepticism of Hamlet and the idealistic generosity of Don Quixote is one that can be said to pervade Turgenev's own works. It is worth noting that Dostoyevsky, who had just returned from exile in Siberia, was present at this speech, for eight years later he was to write The Idiot, a novel whose tragic hero, Prince Myshkin, resembles Don Quixote in many respects. Turgenev, whose knowledge of Spanish, thanks to his contact with Pauline Viardot and her family, was good enough for him to have considered translating Cervantes's novel into Russian, played an important role in introducing this immortal figure of world literature into the Russian context.

Fathers and Sons ("Отцы и дети"), Turgenev's most famous and enduring novel, appeared in 1862. Its leading character, Eugene Bazarov, considered the "first Bolshevik" in Russian literature, was in turn heralded and reviled as either a glorification or a parody of the 'new men' of the 1860s. The novel examined the conflict between the older generation, reluctant to accept reforms, and the nihilistic youth. In the central character, Bazarov, Turgenev drew a classical portrait of the mid-nineteenth-century nihilist. Fathers and Sons was set during the six-year period of social ferment, from Russia's defeat in the Crimean War to the Emancipation of the Serfs. Hostile reaction to Fathers and Sons ("Отцы и дети") prompted Turgenev's decision to leave Russia. As a consequence he also lost the majority of his readers. Many radical critics at the time (with the notable exception of Dimitri Pisarev) did not take Fathers and Sons seriously; and, after the relative critical failure of his masterpiece, Turgenev was disillusioned and started to write less.

Turgenev's next novel, Smoke ("Дым"), was published in 1867 and was again received less than enthusiastically in his native country, as well as triggering a quarrel with Dostoyevsky in Baden-Baden.

His last substantial work attempting to do justice to the problems of contemporary Russian society, Virgin Soil ("Новь"), was published in 1877.

Stories of a more personal nature, such as Torrents of Spring ("Вешние воды"), King Lear of the Steppes ("Степной король Лир"), and The Song of Triumphant Love ("Песнь торжествующей любви"), were also written in these autumnal years of his life. Other last works included the Poems in Prose and "Clara Milich" ("After Death"), which appeared in the journal European Messenger.

Legacy

Turgenev's artistic purity made him a favorite of like-minded novelists of the next generation, such as Henry James and Joseph Conrad, both of whom greatly preferred Turgenev to Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. James, who wrote no fewer than five critical essays on Turgenev's work, claimed that "his merit of form is of the first order" (1873) and praised his "exquisite delicacy", which "makes too many of his rivals appear to hold us, in comparison, by violent means, and introduce us, in comparison, to vulgar things" (1896). Vladimir Nabokov, notorious for his casual dismissal of many great writers, praised Turgenev's "plastic musical flowing prose", but criticized his "labored epilogues" and "banal handling of plots". Nabokov stated that Turgenev "is not a great writer, though a pleasant one", and ranked him fourth among nineteenth-century Russian prose writers, behind Tolstoy, Gogol, and Anton Chekhov, but ahead of Dostoyevsky. His idealistic ideas about love, specifically the devotion a wife should show her husband, were cynically referred to by characters in Chekhov's "An Anonymous Story". Isaiah Berlin acclaimed Turgenev's commitment to humanism, pluralism, and gradual reform over violent revolution as representing the best aspects of Russian liberalism.

Antisemitism
Turgenev was known for his venomous descriptions of the Jewish figure, for example in his story "The Jew" (1847). (The story's title in Russian, "жид" (zhyd), is a pejorative.) The story describes a "zhyd" named Hirschel as short and thin, with yellow hair, red eyes that he blinks constantly, and a long and crooked nose. He pursues his greed to the point of prostituting his daughter, and is quoted as saying that "money is a good thing, you can get anything with it". Hirschel is described as heartbroken, and in the description of his trial on charges of espionage, he is sentenced to death. Turgenev describes him as shaking with his whole body, shouting and meowing, "until he involuntarily brought a smile to our faces." In a similar way, the beating of another Jew and the attempt to kill him is described as being met with laughter from the audience.

Novels

 * 1857: Rudin
 * 1859: Home of the Gentry (Дворянское гнездо), also translated as A Nest of Gentlefolk, A House of Gentlefolk and Liza
 * 1860: On the Eve (Накануне)
 * 1862: Fathers and Sons (Отцы и дети), also translated as Fathers and Children
 * 1867: Smoke (Дым)
 * 1872: Torrents of Spring (Вешние воды)
 * 1877: Virgin Soil (Новь)

Selected shorter fiction

 * 1850: Dnevnik lishnevo cheloveka (Дневник лишнего человека); novella, English translation: The Diary of a Superfluous Man
 * 1852: Zapiski okhotnika (Записки охотника); collection of stories, English translations: A Sportsman's Sketches, The Hunter's Sketches, A Sportsman's Notebook
 * 1854: Mumu (Муму); short story, English translation: Mumu
 * 1855: Yakov Pasynkov (Яков Пасынков); novella
 * 1856: Faust (Фауст); novella
 * 1858: Asya (Ася); novella, English translation: Asya or Annouchka
 * 1860: Pervaya lyubov (Первая любовь); novella, English translation: First Love
 * 1870: Stepnoy korol Lir (Степной король Лир); novella, English translation: King Lear of the Steppes
 * 1881: Pesn torzhestvuyushchey lyubvi (Песнь торжествующей любви); novella, English translation: The Song of Triumphant Love
 * 1883: Klara Milich (Клара Милич); novella, English translation: The Mysterious Tales

Plays

 * 1843: A Rash Thing to Do (Неосторожность)
 * 1847: It Tears Where It Is Thin (Где тонко, там и рвётся)
 * 1849/1856: Breakfast at the Chief's (Завтрак у предводителя)
 * 1850/1851: A Conversation on the Highway (Разговор на большой дороге)
 * 1846/1852: Lack of Money (Безденежье)
 * 1851: A Provincial Lady (Провинциалка)
 * 1857/1862: Fortune's Fool (Нахлебник), also translated as The Hanger-On and The Family Charge
 * 1855/1872: A Month in the Country (Месяц в деревне)
 * 1882: An Evening in Sorrento (Вечер в Сорренто)

Other

 * 1877–1882: Poems in Prose (Стихотворения в прозе)

title: Ivan Turgenev


text:
Gladys George

Gladys George (born Gladys Clare Evans; September 13, 1904 – December 8, 1954) was an American actress of stage and screen. Though nominated for an Academy Award for her leading role in Valiant Is the Word for Carrie (1936), she spent most of her career in supporting roles in films such as Marie Antoinette (1938), The Roaring Twenties (1939), The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Flamingo Road (1949).

Early life
George was born on September 13, 1904 in Patten, Maine to British parents, Sir Arthur Evans Clare, a "noted Shakespearean actor", and his wife, Lady Alice. Another source indicated "Gladys was born in a little town in Missouri, where the troupe her parents belonged to happened to be stranded at the time."

Career
George went on the stage at the age of 3 and toured the United States, appearing with her parents, who were British actors. She starred onstage in the 1920s, and she had made several films during the early part of that decade. For her role in the film Valiant Is the Word for Carrie (1936), she received a Best Actress nomination at the 9th Academy Awards.

Other roles were in Madame X (1937), Marie Antoinette (1938), The Roaring Twenties (1939), The Way of All Flesh (1940), The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Hard Way (1943), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), He Ran All the Way (1951), Detective Story (1951), and Lullaby of Broadway (1951).

George's Broadway credits include The Distant City, Lady in Waiting, and The Betrothal.

Personal life
Gladys George was married and divorced four times. All of the unions were childless.
 * On March 31, 1922, she and actor Ben Erway eloped and were married by a judge in Oakland, California. "They were remarried in San Luis Obispo August 3 of the same year. They separated September 14, 1930." The couple divorced in October 1930.
 * Her second husband was millionaire paper manufacturer Edward Fowler, who walked out in 1933 after finding the actress in the arms of her leading man Leonard Penn. At the time, George was playing a nymphomaniacal star in the Broadway hit Personal Appearance.
 * George and actor Leonard Penn were married in a probate court in New Haven, Connecticut, September 19, 1935.
 * Her last husband Kenneth Bradley, whom she married when she was 41, was a hotel bellboy 20 years her junior.

Illnesses and death
George was afflicted with numerous ailments, including throat cancer, heart disease, and cirrhosis of the liver. She died from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1954 in Los Angeles, California, aged 50, and was interred in the Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in Burbank, California.

title: Gladys George


text:
Prince of Asturias

Prince or Princess of Asturias (Príncipe/Princesa de Asturias) is the main substantive title used by the heir apparent, or heir presumptive to the Spanish Crown. According to the Spanish Constitution of 1978:

"Article 57.2: The Crown Prince, from the time of his birth or the event conferring this position upon him, shall hold the title of Prince of Asturias and the other titles traditionally held by the heir to the Crown of Spain."

The title originated in 1388, when King John I of Castile granted the dignity – which included jurisdiction over the territory of Asturias – to his first-born son Henry. In an attempt to end the dynastic struggle between the heirs of Kings Peter I and Henry II of Castile, the principality was chosen as the highest jurisdictional lordship the King could grant that had not yet been granted to anyone. The custom of granting unique titles to royal heirs had already been in use in the Crown of Aragon (Prince of Girona) and the kingdoms of England (Prince of Wales), and France (Dauphin of Viennois). The title, therefore, had two purposes: to serve as a generic title to name the heir apparent or heir presumptive, and as a specific title to apply to the prince who was first in the line of succession when the King transmitted to him the territory of the principality, with its government and its income.

After the formation of the dynastic union between the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Monarchs, the title was favoured by the Spanish King, who by custom applied it in the same way, i.e. to his heir apparent. For generations the kingdom's crown prince accumulated the titles "Prince of Asturias, Girona, Spain and the New World", modifying those of the earlier regnant Habsburgs: "Prince of these Kingdoms, Prince of the Spains and the New World" (Príncipe de estos Reynos, príncipe de las Españas y del Nuevo Mundo).

When the Bourbons acceded to the Spanish throne in 1705, the title was retained following the decisive help of Castile to the house in the War of the Spanish Succession. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Spanish Constitution of 1812 (European year of revolutions) with consent of its counterparties ascribed the title to the heir of the Crown. The Constitutions within the following decades temporarily removed the synonymy between the title and position as heir to the Crown; before being reinstated and recited in the second half of the 19th century, first half of the 20th century, and on the restoration of the monarchy (under parliamentary predominance) in 1978.

History
The jurisdictional lordships, forms of government – not of ownership or possession, which were consolidated in the 14th and 15th centuries – were subrogations of the royal power for the administration of towns, usually those with geographical or structural difficulties that generated income. From King Alfonso XI the rulers created these lordships to give to their allies a proper way to maintain their position and to be able to govern and administer areas that were otherwise difficult to take care of with the traditional channels of the monarchy. From its origins, there have been buying and selling operations.

Origins: Counties of Noreña and Gijón
The origins of the Principality of Asturias can be traced to the counties of Noreña and Gijón – located in the ancient Asturias de Oviedo – territories with seignorial jurisdiction that belonged to Rodrigo Álvarez, who was called "of the Asturias". These lordships were unique: they were territories that in remote times formed the Kingdom of Asturias, the one identified with the origins of the monarchy.

When Rodrigo died without an heir in 1333, he bequeathed his domains to Henry, Count of Trastámara and illegitimate half-brother of King Peter I, during whose reign a "true civil war" – in the words of Luis Suárez Fernández – took place in Asturias de Oviedo because a group of knights settled in small dominions believed that the consolidation of the "states" that were being occupied by the Count of Trastámara (in a civil war against the King), would affect their power. Henry, once King, ceded the counties to his illegitimate son Alfonso Enríquez. During the reign of his half brother King John I, the Count of Noreña and Gijón revolted against him several times; for this reason, the King decided to confiscate the counties and incorporate them to the Crown, promising in a document dated 18July 1383 that they would always remain part of the royal demesne.

Creation of the Principality
After the assassination of King Peter I in 1369, there began a series of disputes and long rivalries between John, Duke of Lancaster (who claimed the Castilian throne as the husband of Constance, eldest surviving daughter of King PeterI and his mistress María de Padilla but recognized as legitimate and in line of succession by the Cortes of 1362), and the two successive Trastámara claimants, HenryII and his son JohnI. After two decades of conflicts of varying intensity, the parties arrived at a compromise through means of the marriage between Prince Henry (son and heir of King JohnI) and Catherine of Lancaster (only surviving child of John and Constance).

On 8 July 1388 the Treaty of Bayonne was signed between John of Lancaster and King JohnI of Castile, establishing the final dynastic reconciliation after the assassination of King PeterI. By this treaty, the Duke of Lancaster and his wife Constance renounced all their rights over the Castilian throne on behalf of the marriage of their daughter Catherine to the first-born son of King JuanI of Castile, the future HenryIII, who was granted as heir the dignity of Prince of Asturias. The title was granted with a ceremony.

The premature death of John I and the minority of HenryIII prevented the institutional and juridical conformation of the principality while Alfonso Enríquez rebelled again after obtaining his freedom by royal decree. Besieged by the King's troops, he submitted to the arbitration of King Charles VI of France, who imposed on the count the return of the territories he held in Asturias. The territory was subdued, and his royal status was confirmed.

In the early days of its creation, the title of Prince of Asturias was not just a simple honorific title, as it included control of the territory of Asturias. The Prince ruled it in representation of the King and was able to appoint judges, mayors, etc. King JohnII by decree dated in Tordesillas on 3March 1444 declared the conversion of the principality into a jurisdictional lordship, linking the cities, towns, and places of Asturias deOviedo with their rents and jurisdictions to the Majorat of the heirs of the Crown; however, this document was in some case disobeyed and ignored by the Asturian towns as it went against their traditional fueros. On 31May of that same year the future HenryIV tried to make the Majorat effective and remember Oviedo and the twenty-one principal Asturian villages that rightfully belonged to his lordship even though he had not "executed or used [the principality] because of my minority and the great debates and scandals that have taken place in these kingdoms".

With the legal conformation, the duality principality–lordship was recovered and would last under the jurisdiction of the Prince until the time of Catholic Monarchs, who limited the scope of the title, making it merely honorary; this decision was upheld by the members of the House of Habsburg and the House of Bourbon until the present day. Although all the heirs of the Crown of Castile have traditionally been considered Princes of Asturias, not all had a formal act by which the jurisdictional lordship was granted; strictly speaking, the only Princes of Asturias were Henry, during 1388–1390, Enrique, during 1444–1453, Isabella during 1468–1474, and John, briefly during 1496–1497. In the periods in which no prince was proclaimed, the Principality did not disappear but was directly governed by the monarch, to whose treasury were sent the jurisdictional rents.

With the Catholic Monarchs, there began a policy of reintegration of the royal patrimony that gave rise to a long fight with the principality, lasting from 1483 to 1490, with the signing of an agreement by which the House of Quiñones handed over to the Crown the districts of Cangas, Tineo, Llanes, and Ribadesella in exchange for five million maravedis and the Leonese Babias. In 1496 there was an attempt to revive the principality by Royal Letter dated 20May, in which the monarchs, "wishing to observe the ancient custom" of their Kingdoms – an allusion to Aragon – gave to Prince John the rents and jurisdictions of the Asturian places that had previously reverted to the Crown, reserving to them the majority of the judges and the condition of not alienating his patrimony.

Decadence under the Habsburgs
With Prince John the title was added to a list of titles used by the Hispanic monarchy, the heir adding the titles of Prince of Asturias, Girona (1496), Spain, and the New World. The imperialist aspirations are observed in the new title of the heir of the Catholic Monarchs: "Prince of these Kingdoms, Prince of the Spains and the New World" (Príncipe de estos Reynos, Príncipe de las Españas y del Nuevo Mundo). The title lives from that moment a time of partial decadence with the establishment of the House of Habsburg on the Spanish throne; for example, PhilipII was educated to take on the functions of Regent during the absences of his father, not like a Prince of Asturias. The 16th and 17th centuries were characterized by various conflicts between the King and the principality because of the titles and dignities granted and referring to the territory. Only during the reign of PhilipIV was a proper ceremony introduced for the Prince's oath as heir.

Absolutism under the Bourbons
With the arrival of the House of Bourbon to the Spanish throne after the War of the Spanish Succession begins a new period for the Principality of Asturias, whose population looked upon the new dynasty with hope. The new royal house promoted an identification of the Principality with the Spanish heir following the aid given by the Crown of Castile during the war, and the Principality of Asturias, which until then had been held by the heir of Castile, tended to be considered properly Spanish.

19th century Constitutions
Another period for the title began at the beginning of the 19th century with the arrival of the constitutional regime. For Agustín Argüelles, an Asturian deputy in the Cortes of Cádiz, the draft of the Constitution of 1812 preserved more by "custom than by utility or precision" the title of Prince of Asturias to the heir of the Crown. The commission responsible for the writing of the new constitution, equating the Crown Prince with the Prince of Asturias, proposed that the Cortes should recognize him immediately after announcing his birth and that upon reaching the age of 14, the prince should swear before the Cortes the defence of the Catholic faith, the preservation of the Constitution, and obedience to the King. During discussions, some deputies proposed that the Prince should be renamed of the Spains and not of Asturias, while others wanted him to use the dignity only after his oath and not from his birth. Besides Argüelles, the Asturians Pedro Inguanzo Rivero and Alonso Cañedo Vigil, each with opposing ideologies, defended, respectively, a title of honor or a title that was purely nominal, without royal rights but consecrated by history. The project remained unchanged and was finally approved.

The synonymy of the title "Prince of Asturias" with the heir of the throne was eliminated in the constitutions of 1837 and 1845, instead referring to the "immediate heir to the crown" (Article20 of the Constitution of 1837) and "immediate successor to the Crown", " immediate successor, "and" first-born son of the King " (articles 39, 47, and 61 of the Constitution of 1845).

The royal decree of 30May 1850 attributes to the "immediate successors to the Crown", according to the Constitution of the Monarchy, without distinction of men or women," the continued use of "Prince of Asturias". Queen Isabella II gave birth to a daughter, Isabella, on 20 December 1851 and as a result of this decree, the newborn received the title of "Princess of Asturias". Isabella would lose this title with the birth of her brother, the future Alfonso XII, in 1857.

The Constitution of 1869 kept the traditional denomination of Prince of Asturias due to the influence of the Asturian politician José Posada Herrera. Alfonso XII ascended the throne in 1874 following the end of the brief First Spanish Republic and as the infanta Isabella was the immediate heir to the Crown after her brother Alfonso, she once again became "Princess of Asturias" by royal order of 25March 1875, applying the doctrine of 1850 by granting the title of Princess without distinguishing between male or female successor. The subsequent Constitution of 1876 omitted the title again from its provisions, similar to the constitutions of 1837 and 1845.

Alfonso's wife, Maria Christina of Austria, was expecting a child with many hoping for a male heir. A new decree dated 1August 1880, established the ceremony for the presentation of the "Prince or Infanta" as Maria Christina was close to giving birth; the decision to formally establish the title was immediately appealed by a commission of the Provincial Delegation of Oviedo, which asked for the return of the title based on the validity of the decree of 1850. The decree establishing the ceremony for the presentation of the child was published in the Gazette of Madrid of 1September 1880, in which the heir was referred to as Prince of Asturias.

The royal decree of 22 August 1880 tried to clarify all the confusion and established the titles and honors of the Prince and Infantes. It was preceded by a statement of reasons in which the head of government Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, who was also a historian, sought to establish the true profile of the institution, arguing that there was an "unnecessary and inaccurate" confusion between the right of succession and the title of Prince of Asturias, that the Castilian investiture of the Principality of Asturias should not be confused with the succession to the Spanish Crown, that the single denomination of "Prince" or "Prince of these Kingdoms" be reserved, and that the legislators of Cádiz had exceeded their functions, sowing confusion in the constitutional articles. The decree established that the title had not been a creation of the Cortes, but of the King's will, and restored the "secular uses", maintaining the title of Prince for the first-born sons of the monarch, using the denomination of Asturias. The decree stated that any other immediate successor, male or female, had to be granted the title.

Maria Christina gave birth to a girl on 11 September 1880, to much disappointment, and the infant was initially treated only as an infanta. Cánovas, who wanted the crown to pass to a male, ignored the baby. After considerable criticism, the new liberal government of Práxedes Mateo Sagasta was limited to restoring the principles of the decree of 1850, granting the title of Princess of Asturias to Infanta María de las Mercedes in a royal decree dated 10March 1881.

Current democracy
With the restoration of the monarchy in 1975, the Royal Decree of 21January 1977, supported by the Provincial Delegation of Oviedo, ordered that the son of King Juan Carlos I, Prince Felipe, bear the title of Prince of Asturias, in addition to those titles traditionally appertaining to the heir of the throne. The process culminated in the promulgation of the Constitution of 1978, whose article57 says that the Crown Prince will be Prince of Asturias and can use the other titles linked to his person, symbolically embodying the Spanish dynastic union.

Titles and functions
The Prince of Asturias, as crown prince, is the first in the Line of succession to the Spanish throne, receives the treatment of Royal Highness by Royal Decree 1368/1987 and holds the titles inherent to that position, recognized in the article57.1 of the Constitution, and which symbolize the Spanish dynastic union. In addition to the principal of Prince of Asturias (as heir of the Crown of Castile), the heir also has the following titles:

 * Prince of Girona, Duke of Montblanc, Count of Cervera, and Lord of Balaguer as the heir of the Crown of Aragon, with origins in 1351, 1387, 1353, and 1418, respectively.
 * Prince of Viana, as the heir of Kingdom of Navarre, with origin in 1424.

He also presides over the Princess of Asturias and Princess de Girona Foundations, named Prince of Asturias and Prince of Girona when the heir is male.

Upon reaching the age of majority, she or he must take an oath before the Cortes Generales to faithfully carry out her duties, to keep and enforce the Constitution and laws, and to respect the rights of citizens and autonomous communities, as well as show fidelity to the King, according to Article61 of the constitution. This procedure was introduced in 1978 since, before the promulgation of this constitution, the Princes of Asturias had to receive the oath of allegiance from the Cortes. The current titular of the Principality is Leonor, who took that dignity on 19June 2014, when her father, King Felipe VI, ascended to the throne following the abdication of her grandfather Juan Carlos I.

List
Following is a list of the Princes of Asturias from the creation of the title in 1388, as dignity of the heir of the Crown of Castile, until today, when it has been incorporated to the set of titles historically linked to the crown prince of Spain as the main one of them:

title: Prince of Asturias


text:
1908 Summer Olympics

The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, United Kingdom, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome, but were relocated on financial grounds following the violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906, which claimed over 100 lives; Rome eventually hosted the Games in 1960.

These were the fourth chronological modern Summer Olympics in keeping with the now-accepted four-year cycle as opposed to the alternate four-year cycle of the proposed Intercalated Games. The IOC president for these Games was Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

Lasting a total of 187 days (six months and four days), these were the longest Games in modern Olympics history.

Background
There were four bids for the 1908 Summer Olympics. Rome was selected ahead of London, Berlin and Milan. The selection was made at the 6th IOC Session in London in 1904.

Italian authorities were preparing to stage the games when Mount Vesuvius erupted on 7 April 1906, devastating the city of Naples. Funds were diverted to the reconstruction of Naples, so a new host country was required. London was selected for the first time to hold the Games which were held at White City alongside the Franco-British Exhibition, at the time the more noteworthy event.

The White City Stadium, built in short time for the Games, held 68,000 people, with full crowds turning up to watch the events. The stadium track was three laps to the mile (536.448 metres), as the current standard of 400 metres did not exist until 1962, with a pool (for swimming and diving events) and platforms (for wrestling and gymnastics) in the center field.

The distance from the start of the marathon to the finish at the stadium was established at these Games: the original distance of 25 miles was changed to 26 miles so the marathon could start at Windsor Castle and then changed again at the request of Princess Mary so the start would be beneath the windows of the Royal Nursery. To ensure that the race would finish in front of the King, the finish line was moved by British officials who "felt compelled to restore the importance of the monarchy." As a result of these changes, the marathon covered a distance of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km), which became the standard length starting with the 1924 Summer Olympics.

The Games
There were controversies at the games. On the opening day, following the practice introduced at the Intercalated Games of 1906, teams paraded behind national flags. However, the arrangement caused complications:
 * Since Finland was part of the Russian Empire, members of the Finnish team were expected to march under the Russian rather than Finnish flag, so many chose to march without a flag at all.
 * The Swedish flag had not been displayed above the stadium, so the members of the Swedish team decided not to take part in the ceremony.

 * The United States' flag bearer, Ralph Rose, refused to dip the flag to King-Emperor Edward VII in the royal box. His fellow athlete Martin Sheridan allegedly declared that "this flag dips to no earthly King." The quote is held as an example of Irish and American defiance of the British monarchy, though its historicity is disputed.

Events
The 1908 Olympics also prompted establishment of standard rules for sports, and selection of judges from different countries rather than just the host. One reason was the 400 metre race, in which a US runner, John Carpenter, was accused by the British officials of interfering with a British runner. Part of the problem was the different definition of interference under British and international rules (the events were held under British rules by the decision of the Organising Committee). The officials decided to disqualify Carpenter and ordered a second final race without him. British Halswelle was to face the other two finalists. These athletes, William Robbins and John Taylor, were both Americans and decided not to participate in the repeat of the final to protest against the judges' decision. Halswelle was thus the only medallist in the 400 metres.

The most famous incident of the games came at the end of the marathon. Dorando Pietri, Italy, began his race at a rather slow pace, but in the second half of the course began a powerful surge moving him into second position by the 32 km mark, 4 minutes behind South African Charles Hefferon. When he knew that Hefferon was in crisis, Pietri further increased his pace, overtaking him at the 39 km mark.

The effort took its toll and with only two kilometres to go, Pietri began to feel the effects of extreme fatigue and dehydration. When he entered the stadium, he took the wrong path and when umpires redirected him, he fell down for the first time. He got up with their help, in front of 75,000 spectators.

He fell four more times, and each time the umpires helped him up. In the end, though totally exhausted, he managed to finish the race in first place. Of his total time of 2h 54min 46s, ten minutes were needed for that last 340 metres. Second was American Johnny Hayes. The American team immediately lodged a complaint against the help Pietri received from the umpires. The complaint was accepted and Pietri was disqualified and removed from the final standings of the race. Since he had not been responsible for his disqualification, Queen Alexandra awarded him a gilded silver cup the next day.

These Games were the first to include winter events, as had originally been proposed for the Games. There were four figure skating events, although held on 28 and 29 October, months after most of the other events.

Oscar Swahn from Sweden, who won the gold medal for running deer shooting, became the oldest Olympic champion of all time, and set another age record by being 72 years and 279 days old during his triumph at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. One of the more unusual shooting events in 1908 was Olympic dueling. The discipline, which was an associate event (i.e. not official), was performed by facing opponents wearing protective clothing and masks and firing wax bullets.

American John Taylor was a member of the winning medley relay team, making him the first African-American athlete to win an Olympic gold medal. Times for the winning team were United States (3:29.4): William Hamilton-200 metres (22.0), Nathaniel Cartmell-200 metres (22.2), John Taylor-400 metres (49.8), and Melvin Sheppard-800 metres (1:55.4).

Less than five months after returning from the Olympic Games in London, Taylor died of typhoid fever on 2 December 1908 at the age of 26.

The budget of the organising committee showed a cost of £15,000; over one-third was labelled "entertainment expense". Donations were the major source of revenue; only 28% of income derived from ticket sales. Total receipts of £21,378 resulted in organisers claiming a profit. Construction of the White City Stadium, which cost the government about £60,000, was not counted.

Sports
22 sports, representing 110 events in 25 sporting disciplines, were contested. A golf tournament had also been planned but it was cancelled a few days before it was scheduled to start. Swimming, diving and water polo are considered three disciplines of the same sport, aquatics. At the time, tug-of-war was part of athletics and the two different football codes (association and rugby (union)) were listed together. The International Olympic Committee now considers tug-of-war a separate sport, as well as referring to association football as simply "football" and to rugby union as "rugby". In one of seven cycling events (cycling sprint) no medals were awarded. The sailing program was open for a total of five sailing classes, but actually only four sailing events were contested. The number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses.

• Aquatics

• *

• *

• *

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

• *Wrestling Freestyle (5)

• *Wrestling Greco-Roman (4)

Cycle polo, glima and pistol dueling were demonstration sports.

Venues
Thirteen sports venues were used for the 1908 Summer Olympics. The first winter sports took place at Prince's Skating Club in Knightsbridge. White City Stadium served as a precursor to modern stadiums. The figure skating events were not held at the next Olympics in Stockholm, but returned for the 1920 Games in Antwerp, heralding the first Winter Olympics that took place in Chamonix in 1924. White City was the main venue for the 1934 British Empire Games (known as the Commonwealth Games since 1978) and, before its demolition in 1985, also served as a venue for the 1966 FIFA World Cup. The All England Lawn Tennis Club continues to host the Wimbledon championships and is the only venue of the 1908 Games that was used for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Bisley and Henley served as venues in the 1948 Games when the Olympics returned to London forty years later.

Participating nations

The 1908 Games featured athletes representing 22 National Olympic Committees. Finland, Turkey and New Zealand (as part of the team from Australasia) made their first appearance at the Olympic Games. The fact that the United Kingdom competed as a single team was upsetting to some Irish competitors, who felt that Ireland should compete on its own, despite being part of the UK at the time. They relied on the precedent set by Finland, which while being a part of the Russian Empire, competed in London as a separate country. Fearing an Irish boycott, the authorities changed the name of the team to Great Britain/Ireland, and in two sports, field hockey and polo, Ireland participated as a separate country, winning silver medals in both, although their medals counted towards the UK's tally. Irish athletes in the United States were not affected by this controversy, and many Irish immigrants to the United States competed for the U.S. Olympic team as members of the Irish American Athletic Club. Members of the Irish American Athletic Club won ten of the U.S. Olympic team's total 23 gold medals, or as many as the nations of France, Germany and Italy combined.

Britain had more than a quarter of competitors in their team, with 676, compared to 112 on the American team which placed second in the medal standings.

Medal count

These are the top ten nations that won medals at the 1908 Games.

title: 1908 Summer Olympics


text:
Valiant Is the Word for Carrie

Valiant Is the Word for Carrie is a 1936 American drama film directed by Wesley Ruggles and written by Claude Binyon, based on the 1935 novel of the same name by Barry Benefield. The film stars Gladys George, Arline Judge, John Howard, Dudley Digges, Harry Carey, and Isabel Jewell.

Valiant Is the Word for Carrie was theatrically released in the United States on October 2, 1936, by Paramount Pictures. The film earned George her first and only Academy Award nomination in her career for her portrayal of the title character.

Plot
Carrie Snyder (Gladys George) is a prostitute who is forced out of the fictional southern town of Crebillon after forming a friendship with a young boy named Paul (Jackie Moran), whose dying mother (Janet Young) is unable to stop her son from visiting such a woman. After Carrie leaves town, Paul runs away from his abusive father (John Wray) and meets a girl named Lady (Charlene Wyatt) who has run away from a burning trainwreck, not wanting to go back to the people she was with. Carrie comes back for Paul and ends up taking Paul and Lady to New York with her. Carrie gets an apartment and starts a successful chain of laundry stores. Eventually they become rich and Lady (Arline Judge) becomes attracted to Paul (John Howard). Paul, however, feels obligated to take care of a young woman named Lili (Isabel Jewell) whose brother's death he caused (the brother had been pushing Paul to try to get on the train, but when Paul pushed back, the train door closed with the brother on the outside with his coat stuck in the train door, causing him to get dragged along with the train and his legs to be run over). Lilli pretends to love Paul because he is rich, which Carrie is able to see, but which Paul does not. She devises a plan to make Lilli leave. She tells Lilli that if she will leave Paul, she will help get Lilli's true love out of jail. They attempt to break the man out of jail, but are caught. Lilli is fatally shot and Carrie is sent to jail. An old lawyer friend (Harry Carey) vows to fight for her freedom, but Carrie decides to plead guilty because she doesn't want Lady to know about her past as a prostitute. She also fears it would tarnish the reputation of the children. The lawyer ends by remarking to Paul's employer (Dudley Digges) that "valiant is the word for Carrie".

Cast

 * Gladys George as Carrie Snyder
 * Arline Judge as Lady
 * John Howard as Paul Darnley
 * Dudley Digges as Dennis Ringrose
 * Harry Carey as Phil Yonne
 * Isabel Jewell as Lilli Eipper, sister of Franz Eipper
 * Jackie Moran as Paul Darnley as a child
 * Charlene Wyatt as Lady as a child
 * John Wray as George Darnley, Paul Darnley's father
 * William Collier, Sr. as Ed Moresby, a town councilman who convinces Carrie to leave town before she is forced out
 * Hattie McDaniel as Ellen Belle, the Darnleys' servant
 * Lew Payton as Lon Olds, a horse-and-buggy driver in Crebillon
 * Maude Eburne as Maggie Devlin, works with Paul
 * Grady Sutton as Mat Burdon, a man Lady meets and hastily marries
 * Janet Young as Mrs. Darnley, Paul Darnley's dying mother
 * Adrienne D'Ambricourt as Madame Odette Desolles, owner of the original Desolles laundry shop that Carrie buys
 * Helen Lowell as Mrs. Wadsworth, a town councilwoman in Crebillon
 * Bernard Suss as Franz Eipper
 * George "Gabby" Hayes as Bearded Man (as George F. Hayes)
 * Irving Bacon as Drug Store Clerk
 * Olive Hatch as Girl
 * Nick Lukats as Boy
 * Don Zelaya as Nick Dorapopolos

Literary antecedents
The film was preceded by two literary versions by Barry Benefield: a short story and later a novel based on it.

Short story
Benefield's original short story, titled "With Banners Blowing", was published in the Woman's Home Companion, and later appeared in two collections under the title "Carrie Snyder".

The original story focused entirely on events in the (fictional) town of Crebillion, Louisiana. Carrie Snyder is 31 years old, lives in a cottage at the edge of town and maintains herself as a prostitute, having a circle of regular customers. She has plenty of free time to cultivate her beloved flower garden, and is content with this life. However, though rather fond of such customers as U.S. Marshall Phil Yonne, who behave "like gentlemen", she has never felt love for anybody until the seven-year-old Paul comes in to ask for a drink of water.

Carrie becomes instantly and deeply attached to the clever, sensitive, warm-hearted boy who comes again and again on secret visits, deposits with her his box of "treasures" which his father tried to confiscate and lets her take care of wounded creatures which he found—a tomcat and an owl. The African-American taxi driver Lon is Carrie and Paul's friend and confidant, keeping their secret. (Strangely for modern sensibilities, the word "nigger" is repeatedly used for this highly positive and sympathetic character, clearly without any hint of pejorative intent.)

Deeply jealous of Paul's mother, who can have him every day, Carrie is aware that this friendship would not last, and that the town's established society would cut it off once discovered. And so indeed it does come to pass, and even worse than Carrie feared. Hearing that Paul was severely beaten by his father, and witnessing him being chased and cruelly teased and hazed by a gang of other boys, Carrie realizes that for Paul's sake she must leave the town, let her beloved garden deteriorate, and never come back. The original story ends poignantly with Carrie going into a self-imposed exile, with the clear implication that she would never see Paul again.

Novel
Barry Benefield later took up the story and made a revised version of it the first chapter of what became the 1936 novel Valiant Is the Word for Carrie.

Bar minor differences, the film's plot, as described above, followed the novel's plot up to the moment of the attempted jail break. From that point on, however, novel and film drastically diverge. In the original novel, the jailbreak succeeded without a hitch, and Lili and her lover were able to escape to Canada and start a new life there. Carrie returned unscathed to New York, her part in the jail break completely unknown. Later, Lady divorced the Baltimore millionaire Mat Burdon whom she married to spite Paul; Lady and Paul then married and lived happily ever after; and at the end of the novel Carrie, who managed to pull her laundry business through the slump of 1929, is prepared to play loving foster grandmother to their first child.

However, the germ of the film's ending - with the jail break going wrong and Carrie being arrested and facing trial - is present in the novel as a conversation about "what might have been" and "how things might have gone wrong".

Reception
Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times called the film "more moral and uplifting than Pollyanna" and "irresistibly attractive". He criticized the running time for being almost two hours. He concluded that "The misfortune is that 'valiant' is only one of the words for Carrie; another would be 'disproportionate.' The picture takes too long, although doing it well, to introduce a little which is not well done at all."

Cultural references
In 1938, the Three Stooges made a short titled Violent Is the Word for Curly, a takeoff on the name of this then-popular film.

title: Valiant Is the Word for Carrie


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1936 Winter Olympics

The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games (IV. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 (Garmasch-Partakurch 1936), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 16 February 1936 in the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The country also hosted the 1936 Summer Olympics, which were held in Berlin. It was the last year in which the Summer and Winter Games both took place in the same country (the cancelled 1940 Olympics would have been held in Japan, with Tokyo hosting the Summer Games and Sapporo hosting the Winter Games).

The 1936 Winter Games were organized on behalf of the German League of the Reich for Physical Exercise (DRL) by Karl Ritter von Halt, who had been named president of the committee for the organization of the Fourth Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen by Reichssportführer Hans von Tschammer und Osten.

Organization and politics
While the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin months later have attracted extensive examination for the Nazi Party's spectacles and the accompanying racial controversies – including the exclusion of most Jewish athletes and Jesse Owens's achievements – the Winter Games took place five months earlier and saw some of the same efforts by Adolf Hitler's propaganda machine.

Globally, there had been efforts to initiate boycotts from different countries, and a number of Jewish athletes faced pressure not to participate in an event held in a nation ruled by a blatantly antisemitic regime.

The Nazis took steps to soften the appearance of their harsher policies before visitors from other nations arrived, such as removing antisemitic signage that was common in Germany, and – under pressure from a potential American boycott and Olympic officials – allowing the Jewish athlete Rudi Ball to play on Germany's ice hockey team.

A few weeks before the Games began, William L. Shirer, the Berlin correspondent for the Universal wire service, wrote a series of articles describing preparations for the competition. "I had written... that the Nazis at Garmisch had pulled down all the signs saying that Jews are unwanted (they're all over Germany) and that the Olympic visitors would thus be spared any signs of the kind of treatment meted out to Jews in this country."

None of the member nations boycotted the Winter Games, and 49 in all participated, the greatest number at that time. The Games were completed with a minimum of political controversy, although the Canadian skiing team raised their arms in what appeared to be a Nazi salute as they entered the opening ceremonies. The German crowd erupted in applause at the salute, which was later explained as the "Olympic Salute" that was identical to the Nazi version but with the arm extended laterally instead of forward.

However, even Shirer was impressed by the effectiveness of the Nazis' efforts, writing:

Twelve days after the Games closed, Hitler sent German troops to remilitarize the Rhineland, his first territorial violation of the Treaty of Versailles and a critical test of European resolve to resist Germany's military expansion. None of the Western powers lifted a finger and Europe's first steps towards World War Two were taken.

Highlights

 * German skier Willy Bogner took the Olympic oath during the opening ceremonies.
 * Alpine skiing made its first appearance in the Winter Olympics as the combined, which added a skier's results in both the downhill and slalom. German athletes Franz Pfnür won men's alpine and Christl Cranz won the women's alpine event.
 * Ivar Ballangrud won three out of the four speed skating races.
 * Sonja Henie won her third consecutive gold medal in woman's figure skating.
 * Switzerland won the four-man bobsled competition with a time of 5:19.85.
 * Great Britain upset 1932 gold medalists Canada in ice hockey when Edgar Brenchley scored the winning goal within the last 90 seconds.
 * Norway won the overall games with a total of seven gold medals, five silver medals and three bronze medals.
 * The 1936 Winter Olympics presented the largest and heaviest medals ever awarded to athletes: 100 mm diameter, 4 mm thick and weighing 324 g.

Sports
Medals were awarded in 17 events contested in four sports (eight disciplines).
 * Skating
 * Skiing
 * Skating
 * Skiing
 * Skiing
 * Skiing

Demonstration sports

 * Military patrol
 * Ice stock sport

Venues

 * Große Olympiaschanze – Cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and Ski Jumping.
 * Gudiberg – Alpine skiing (combined – slalom)
 * Kreuzjoch – Alpine skiing (combined – downhill)
 * Kreuzeck – Alpine skiing (downhill finish line)
 * Olympia-Kunsteisstadion – Figure skating and Ice hockey
 * Riessersee and surrounding areas – Bobsleigh, Ice hockey, and Speed skating

Participating nations
A total of 28 nations sent athletes to compete in Germany. Australia, Bulgaria, Greece, Liechtenstein, Spain and Turkey all made their Winter Olympics debut, and Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Yugoslavia returned after having missed the 1932 Winter Olympics.

title: 1936 Winter Olympics


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Calf roping

Calf roping, also known as tie-down roping, is a rodeo event that features a calf and a rider mounted on a horse. The goal of this timed event is for the rider to catch the calf by throwing a loop of rope from a lariat around its neck, dismount from the horse, run to the calf, and restrain it by tying three legs together, in as short a time as possible. A variant on the sport, with fewer animal welfare controversies, is breakaway roping, where the calf is roped, but not tied.

Origin
The event derives from the duties of actual working cowboys, which often required catching and restraining calves for branding or medical treatment. Ranch hands took pride in the speed with which they could rope and tie calves which soon turned their work into informal contests.

Modern event
The calves are lined up in a row and moved through narrow runways leading to a chute with spring-loaded doors. When a calf enters the chute, a door is closed behind it and a lightweight 28 ft rope, attached to a trip lever, is fastened around the calf's neck. The lever holds a taut cord or "barrier" that runs across a large pen or "box" at one side of the calf chute, where the horse and rider wait. The barrier is used to ensure that the calf gets a head start. When the roper is ready, he or she calls for the calf, and the chute operator pulls a lever opening the chute doors and releasing the calf. The calf runs out in a straight line. When the calf reaches the end of the rope, that trips the lever, the rope falls off the calf, and the barrier for the horse is released, starting the clock and allowing horse and rider to chase the calf.

Timing is critical. From a standstill, a rider will put his horse into a gallop from the box shortly after the calf leaves the chute, so that the horse saves valuable seconds by being at near-full speed the moment the barrier releases. However, if the rider mistimes his cue to the horse and the horse breaks the barrier before it releases, a 10-second penalty will be added to his time. This is sometimes referred to as a "Cowboy Speeding Ticket."

The rider must lasso the calf from horseback by throwing a loop of the lariat around the calf's neck. Once the rope is around the calf's neck, the roper signals the horse to stop quickly while he dismounts and runs to the calf. The calf must be stopped by the rope but cannot be thrown to the ground by the rope. If the calf falls, the roper loses seconds because he must allow the calf to get back on its feet. When the roper reaches the calf, he picks it up and flips it onto its side. Once the calf is on the ground, the roper ties three of the calf's legs together with a short rope known as a tie-down rope or "piggin' string". A half hitch knot is used, sometimes referred to colloquially as "two wraps and a hooey" or a "wrap and a slap". The piggin' string is often carried between the roper's teeth until he uses it. The horse is trained to assist the roper by slowly backing away from the calf to maintain a steady tension on the rope.

When the tie is complete, the roper throws his hands in the air to signal "time" and stop the clock. The roper then returns to his horse, mounts, and moves the horse forward to relax the tension on the rope. The timer waits for six seconds, during which the calf must stay tied before an official time is recorded. After the six seconds, two officials then tend to the calf by untying it and letting it exit the arena. Top professional calf ropers will rope and tie a calf in seven seconds. The world record is just over six seconds.

Organizations and regulations
The event is recognized by most rodeo organizations, including the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) and the International Professional Rodeo Association. In the United States, there are two organizations that promote calf roping alone: the United States Calf Ropers Association (USCRA) and Ultimate Calf Roping (UCR). Other timed rodeo events that use cattle include breakaway roping, where the rider ropes but does not throw the calf; steer wrestling; and team roping, which uses adult cattle.

In PRCA events, the calf must weigh between 220 and 280 pounds. Calves must be strong and healthy; sick or injured livestock cannot be used. According to the PRCA, "Most calves do not compete more than a few dozen times in their lives because of weight and usage restrictions and the fact that calves grow so rapidly."

Animal welfare issues
There are concerns over the welfare of the calves used in professional rodeo, and the industry itself polices events closely, penalizing competitors who "jerk down" a calf with the rope or flip it over backwards. In 1994, a survey of 28 sanctioned rodeos was conducted by on-site independent veterinarians. Reviewing 33,991 animal runs, the injury rate was documented at 0.047%, or less than five-hundredths of one percent.

A study of rodeo animals in Australia found a similar injury rate. Basic injuries occurred at a rate of 0.072 percent, or one in 1405, with injuries requiring veterinary attention at 0.036 percent, or one injury in every 2810 times the animal was used, and transport, yarding and competition were all included in the study.

A later PRCA survey of 60,971 animal performances at 198 rodeo performances and 73 sections of "slack" indicated 27 animals were injured, again approximately five-hundredths of 1 percent – 0.0004.

Animal rights proponents claim, however, that examples of injuries caused by calf roping include paralysis from spinal cord injuries, severed tracheas, as well as broken backs, necks, and legs. Tie-down calf roping is not permitted in the state of Rhode Island or in the city of Baltimore.

Tie-down calf roping is also not allowed in some localities in Australia, Brazil and Canada and banned nationally in the United Kingdom, Germany and The Netherlands.

The ASPCA, an animal rights organization, notes that practice sessions are often the occasion of more severe abuses than competitions.

A 2016 study indicated that the process of calf roping, including being herded in the arena and into the roping chutes, was stressful on the animals as evidenced by eye movement when roped and increases in blood cortisol, epinephrine and nor-epinephrine. Novice calves just herded into the chutes and across the arena also demonstrated stress responses, experiencing slightly higher stress than experienced ones. However, cortisol responses did not continue for long. The researchers hypothesized that professionals at the highest level were less stressful on the animals than inexperienced ropers.

title: Calf roping


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Craig Breedlove

Craig Breedlove (March 23, 1937 – April 4, 2023) was an American professional race car driver and a five-time world land speed record holder. He was the first person in history to reach 500 mi/h, and 600 mi/h, using several turbojet-powered vehicles, all named Spirit of America.

Land vehicle speed records
In 1962, he made his first attempt, in a freewheeling tricycle (ignoring FIA rules requiring four wheels, at least two driven; in the event, FIM happily accepted it) powered by a General Electric J47 turbojet engine. On August 5, 1963, this first Spirit made its first record attempt, using just 90% of available thrust to reach 388.47 mph over the measured mile. The return pass, on 95% power, turned up a two-way average of 407.45 mph. Spirit of America was so light on the ground that it did not even need to change tires afterward.

For 1964, Breedlove faced competition from Walt Arfons' Wingfoot Express (piloted by Tom Green), as well as from brother Art Arfons in his four-wheel, FIA-legal Green Monster. With more engine power, Breedlove upped the record to 468.72 mph "[w]ith almost insolent ease", then to 526.28 mph, making him the first man to exceed 500 mph. This pass was not without incident, however, for one of his drogue parachute's shroud lines parted, and Spirit of America ran on for 5 mi before hitting a telegraph pole and coming to rest in a lake. This record stood all of twelve days before Green Monster broke it, recording a two-run average of 536.71 mph.

In response, Breedlove built an FIA-legal four-wheeler, Sonic I, powered by a 15000 lbf J79 turbojet. November 2, 1965, Breedlove entered the FIA record book with a two-run average of 555.483 mph. This lasted even less time than before, for Green Monster came back five days later at 576.553 mph. On November 15, Breedlove responded with a 600.601 mph record (after turning in an amazing 608.201 mph return pass), which held until 1970. (It would be broken by Gary Gabelich's Blue Flame, which reached 630.388 mph.) To take the record back, Breedlove planned a supersonic rocket car, "complete with ejector seat." Also in 1965, Breedlove's wife, Lee Breedlove, took the seat in Sonic 1, making four passes and achieving 308.506 mph, making her the fastest woman alive, and making them the fastest couple, which they remain. According to the author Rachel Kushner, Craig had talked Lee into taking the car out for a record attempt to monopolize the salt flats for the day and block one of his competitors from making a record attempt.

During 1968, Lynn Garrison, President of Craig Breedlove & Associates, started to package a deal that saw Utah's Governor, Calvin Rampton, provide a hangar facility for the construction of a supersonic car. Bill Lear, of Learjet fame, was to provide support, along with his friend Art Linkletter. Playboy magazine hoped to have the car painted black, with a white bunny on the rudder. TRW was supplying a lunar lander rocket motor. A change in public interest saw the concept shelved for some time. They also negotiated for the use of the late Donald Campbell's wheel-driven Bluebird CN7 record-breaker.

After a lengthy break from world records and making his name as a real estate agent, Breedlove began work on a new Spirit in 1992, eventually named Spirit of America Formula Shell LSRV. The vehicle is 44 ft. 10 in. long, 8 ft. 4 in. wide, and 5 ft. 10 in. high (13.67 m by 2.54 m by 1.78 m) and weighs 9000 lb, construction is on a steel tube or space frame with an aluminium skin body. The engine is the same as in the second Spirit, a J79, but it is modified to burn unleaded gasoline and generates a maximum thrust of 22,650 lbf (100.75 kN).

The second run of the vehicle on October 28, 1996, in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, ended in a crash at around 675 mi/h. Returning in 1997, the vehicle badly damaged the engine on an early run and when the British ThrustSSC managed over 700 mi/h, the re-engined Spirit could do no better than 676 mi/h. Breedlove believed the vehicle was capable of exceeding 800 mi/h, but was never tested.

In late 2006, Breedlove sold the car to Steve Fossett, who planned to attempt the land speed record in 2007. Fossett died in a plane crash in 2007, and the car was put up for sale. Breedlove's vehicle, renamed the "Sonic Arrow", was rolled out on the Black Rock Desert for a photo opportunity on October 15, 2007. The car is now on permanent display in the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum.

Endurance and speed records for AMC

Breedlove was put on the payroll at American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1968 to prepare the automaker's pony and high-performance cars, the Javelin and the AMX, for speed and endurance records.

In January 1968, one month before the official introduction of the AMX model, Breedlove, his wife Lee, and Ron Dykes, established fourteen United States Automobile Club (USAC) and Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) certified speed records for cars of any engine size, and 106 national and international speed and endurance records for cars with less than 488 CID.

Two cars were prepared for the endurance speed runs on a five-mile banked track in Texas. The shattered records included a Class C AMX (the No. 2 Lee Breedlove car) with the standard 290 CID AMC V8 engine (bored to 304 cubic inches) with a 4-speed manual transmission, achieving a 24-hour average of 140.79 mi/h that was set by Craig and his wife Lee. New records in a Class B AMX (the No. 1 Craig Breedlove car) using the optional 390 CID "AMX" V8 (397 cubic inches) with a 3-speed automatic transmission, that included a 75 mi distance with a flying start at 174.295 mi/h, as well as a 173.044 mi/h over a 100 mi distance from a standing start.

After the cars were displayed at the Chicago Auto Show in February 1968, Breedlove took the AMX to Bonneville. He established a USAC sanctioned record of 189 mph as well as an unofficial run of over 200 mph.

Later in the year, American Motors entered three similarly equipped Javelins with 343 CID AMC V8 engines in the C/Production class at Bonneville. The racing class limits modifications to aerodynamics, but requires changes for safety and also allows engine modifications. The cars included Edelbrock cross-ram "STR-11" intake manifolds with two Holley carburetors, special cylinder heads that were modified by Joe Mondello (an engine builder who became known for Oldsmobile engines) as well as "Doug's" exhaust manifolds, and "Crower" camshafts. During November 1968, the "Speed Spectacular Javelin" run by Breedlove was the fastest, reaching 161.73 mi/h establishing a speed record that stood for several years.

Death
Breedlove died on April 4, 2023, at the age of 86, at home in Rio Vista, California. The cause of death was cancer, his wife, Yadira Breedlove, said.

Awards and legacy
In 1993 Breedlove was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America and in 2000 into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. In 2009, he was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.

The Beach Boys' song "Spirit of America" was "inspired by Breedlove's land speed record, set in 1963."

Land vehicle speed records

 * August 5, 1963 – Breedlove reached 407.45 mi/h in Spirit of America at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, thus earning him the land speed record.
 * October 13, 1964 – Breedlove reached 468.719 mi/h in Spirit of America at Bonneville, reclaiming the record from Art Arfons.
 * October 15, 1964 – Just two days later, Breedlove broke his own record and breached the 500 mph barrier at 526.277 mi/h, in Spirit of America at Bonneville.
 * November 2, 1965 – Breedlove reached 555.483 mi/h in Spirit of America Sonic I at Bonneville, reclaiming the record from Art Arfons.
 * November 15, 1965 – Thirteen days later, Breedlove breached the 600 mph barrier at 600.601 mi/h in Spirit of America Sonic I at Bonneville.

title: Craig Breedlove