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Nicholas Biddle

Nicholas Biddle (January 8, 1786 –February 27, 1844) was an American financier who served as the third and last president of the Second Bank of the United States (chartered 1816–1836). Throughout his life Biddle worked as an editor, diplomat, author, and politician who served in both houses of the Pennsylvania state legislature. He is best known as the chief opponent of Andrew Jackson in the Bank War.

Born into the Biddle family of Philadelphia, young Nicholas worked for a number of prominent officials, including John Armstrong Jr. and James Monroe. In the Pennsylvania state legislature, he defended the utility of a national bank in the face of Jeffersonian criticisms. From 1823 to 1836, Biddle served as president of the Second Bank, during which time he exercised power over the nation's money supply and interest rates, seeking to prevent economic crises.

With prodding from Henry Clay and the Bank's major stockholders, Biddle engineered a bill in Congress to renew the Bank's federal charter in 1832. The bill passed Congress and headed to President Andrew Jackson's desk. Jackson, who expressed deep hostility to most banks, vetoed the measure, ratcheting up tensions in a major political controversy known as the Bank War. When Jackson transferred the federal government's deposits from the Second Bank to several state banks, Biddle raised interest rates, causing a mild economic recession. The federal charter expired in 1836, before the Panic of 1837, but the bank continued to operate with a Pennsylvania state charter until its ultimate collapse in 1841.

Ancestry and early life
Nicholas Biddle was born into a prominent family in Philadelphia, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, on January 8, 1786. Ancestors of the Biddle family had immigrated to the Pennsylvania colony along with the famous Quaker proprietor, William Penn, and subsequently fought in the pre-Revolutionary colonial struggles. Young Nicholas's preparatory education was received at an academy in Philadelphia, where his progress was so rapid that he entered the class of 1799 at the University of Pennsylvania. At thirteen years old, Biddle had completed his coursework, but was not allowed to graduate due to his age. His parents accordingly sent him to Princeton (then the “College of New Jersey”) where he entered the sophomore class, and graduated in 1801 as valedictorian, dividing the first honor of the class with his only rival.

Biddle was offered an official position before he had even finished his law studies. As secretary to former Revolutionary War officer and delegate to the Continental Congress, John Armstrong Jr., he went abroad in 1804 and was in Paris when Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned as emperor of the new French Empire. Afterwards he participated in an audit related to the Louisiana Purchase, acquiring his first experience in financial affairs. Biddle traveled extensively through Europe as secretary for James Monroe, who was then serving as the United States minister to the Court of St. James. In Great Britain, Biddle took part in a conversation with Cambridge University professors involving comparisons between the modern Greek dialect and that of Homer; a conversation that captured Monroe's attention.

In 1807, Biddle returned home to Philadelphia. He practiced law and wrote, contributing papers to different publications on various subjects, but chiefly in the fine arts. He became associate editor of a literary magazine called Port-Folio, which was published from 1806 to 1823. When editor Joseph Dennie died in 1812, Biddle took over the magazine and lived on 7th Street, near Spruce Street. That same year, Biddle was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.

Lewis and Clark
Biddle also edited the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He encouraged President Thomas Jefferson to write an introductory memoir of his former aide and private secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809). Biddle's work would be published as a book in 1814 and would become the standard account of the expedition for more than a century. But because he had been elected to the Pennsylvania state legislature, Biddle was compelled to hand over editorial responsibilities to Paul Allen (1775–1826), who supervised the project until its completion and appeared in print as the book's official editor.

Pennsylvania General Assembly
Biddle was elected as a Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1810, and then in the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 1st district from 1813 to 1815. He originated a bill favoring a free system of public schools—available to all Pennsylvanians regardless of their economic class—almost a quarter of a century in advance of the times. Though the bill was initially defeated, it resurfaced repeatedly in different forms until, in 1836, the Pennsylvania "common-school" system was inaugurated as an indirect result of his efforts.

Early years
After Biddle moved to the Pennsylvania State Senate, he lobbied for the rechartering of the First Bank of the United States. It was on this subject that he made his first major speech, which attracted general attention at the time, and was warmly commended by Chief Justice John Marshall and other leaders of public opinion.

The First Bank had been established in 1791 under the administration of President George Washington. Congress opted not to renew its twenty-year charter in 1811, and as a result, the First Bank closed its doors. After economic hardships, monetary pressures, and problems financing the federal government during the War of 1812, Congress and the president granted a new twenty-year charter to the Second Bank of the United States in 1816. The Second Bank was in many ways a revived and reorganized version of the First Bank. President James Monroe subsequently appointed Biddle as a government director. When Bank President Langdon Cheves resigned in 1822, Biddle became the institution's new president. During his association with the Bank, President Monroe, under authority from Congress, directed him to prepare a "Commercial Digest" of the laws and trade regulations of the world and the various nations. For many years after, this Digest was regarded as an authority on the subject.

In late 1818, $4 million of interest payments on the bonds previously sold in 1803 to pay for the Louisiana Purchase were due, in either gold or silver, to European investors. The Treasury Department, therefore, had to acquire additional amounts of specie. As the federal government's chief fiscal agent, the Bank was obligated to make these payments on behalf of the Treasury. The Bank demanded that private and state-chartered commercial banks, many of which had loaned excessively and previously served as fiscal agents during the War of 1812, now pay the Second Bank in specie, which was then sent to Europe to pay the federal government's creditors. This rather sudden contraction of the country's monetary base after three years of speculation helped contribute to the financial Panic of 1819.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, military hero and future presidential candidate Andrew Jackson was hard-pressed to pay his debts during this period. He developed a lifelong hostility to all banks that were not completely backed by gold or silver deposits. This meant, above all, hostility to the new Second Bank of the United States.

As a banker, Biddle promulgated a nationalistic vision with an emphasis on regulation and flexibility. He was also innovative. Biddle occasionally engaged in the relatively new techniques of central banking–-controlling the nation's money supply, regulating interest rates, lending to state banks, and acting as the Treasury Department's chief fiscal agent. When state banks became excessive in their lending practices, Biddle's Bank acted as a restraint. In a few instances, he even rescued state banks to prevent the risk of "contagion" spreading.

In 1823, Biddle started concentrating the Bank's facilities in the West, Southwest, and South to meet the demands for credit generated by the expansion of land, cotton, and slavery. He did this by directing his branch officers to circulate large quantities of branch drafts and by buying and selling millions of dollars of bills of exchange. As cotton moved downriver in the winter and spring months, merchants drew up bills of exchange representing the value of cotton exports, presenting them to the Bank's southern branches. Using its interregional network of branch offices and the transportation improvements then under way, the Bank would ship these bills to the Northeast where merchants could use them to pay for imported manufactured goods arriving from Great Britain in the summer and fall. The result was that Biddle helped provide an economic infrastructure that facilitated long-distance trade, propagated a relatively stable and uniform currency, and played a major role in integrating and consolidating fiscal operations at the federal level. Indeed, Biddle won praise for the Bank by making steady payments to reduce the country's public debt, by preventing a potentially harmful recession in the winter of 1825–1826, and more generally, by smoothing out variations in prices and trade.

He was also important in the 1833 establishment of Girard College, an early free private school for poor orphaned boys in Philadelphia, under the provisions of the will of his friend and former legal client, Stephen Girard (1750–1831), one of the wealthiest men in America. Girard had been the original promoter of the revival and reorganization of the Second Bank and its largest investor.

Bank War
The Bank War began when President Jackson started criticizing the Bank early in his first term. Beyond the long list of personal and ideological objections that Jackson maintained toward the Bank, there were rumors that Bank officers at some of the branch offices had interfered in the presidential contest of 1828 by providing financial assistance to the National Republican candidate, John Quincy Adams. Although Biddle traveled to the branch offices to examine the veracity of these claims in person, and denied them unequivocally, Jackson continued to believe that they were true. In January 1832, Biddle submitted an application to Congress for a renewal of the Bank's twenty-year charter, four years before the current charter was due to expire. Henry Clay and other Bank supporters hoped to force Jackson into making an unpopular decision that might cost him during an election year, but there were also pressures for an early application emanating from the Bank's stockholders and board of directors. President Jackson vetoed the bill in a stunning move that carried significant consequences for the relationship between Congress and the executive branch. The reasons for Jackson's veto were legion and included concerns over the Bank's monopoly power and concentrated wealth, constitutional scruples, states' rights, the Bank's foreign stockholders and ability to foreclose on large parcels of land, sectional animosity toward eastern financiers, and political patronage. An additional factor was Jackson's personality. The president was well known for his stubbornness and continued to harbor resentment toward Clay from the earlier "Corrupt Bargain" accusation following the presidential election of 1824.

At Biddle's direction, the Bank poured tens of thousands of dollars into a campaign to defeat Jackson in the presidential election of 1832. This was a continuation of a strategy that one historian has referred to as one of the earliest examples in the country's history of an interregional corporate lobby and public relations campaign. Articles, stockholders' reports, editorials, essays, philosophical treatises, petitions, pamphlets, and copies of congressional speeches were among the diverse forms of media that Biddle transmitted to various sections of the country through loans and Bank expenditures. Reports of unusually generous loans to pro-BUS politicians and even small bribes to sympathetic newspaper editors, the details of which came to light in a congressional report published in April 1832, helped convince hard-line Jacksonians that the corrupt "Monster Bank" must be destroyed. Biddle was told that such vigorous campaign spending would only give credence to Jackson's theory that the Bank interfered in the American political process, but chose to dismiss the warning. Ultimately, Clay's strategy failed, and in November he lost handily to Jackson, who was reelected to a second term.

In early 1833, Jackson, despite opposition from some members of his cabinet, decided to withdraw the Treasury Department's public (or federal) deposits from the Bank. The incumbent secretary of the treasury, Louis McLane, a member of Jackson's Cabinet, professed moderate support for the Bank. He therefore refused to withdraw the federal deposits directed by the president and would not resign, so Jackson then transferred him to the State Department. McLane's successor, William J. Duane, was also opposed to the Bank, but would not carry out Jackson's orders either. After waiting four months, President Jackson summarily dismissed Duane, replacing him with Attorney General Roger B. Taney as a recess appointment when Congress was out of session. In September 1833, Taney helped transfer the public deposits from the Bank to seven state-chartered banks. Faced with the loss of the federal deposits, Biddle decided to raise interest rates. A mild financial panic ensued from late 1833 to mid-1834. Intended to force Jackson into a compromise and demonstrate the utility of a national bank for the nation's economy, the move had the opposite effect of increasing anti-Bank sentiment. Meanwhile, Biddle and other Bank supporters attempted to renew the Bank's charter on numerous occasions. All their attempts failed because they did not have the two-thirds majorities in Congress to overcome a presidential veto.

Demise of the bank
The Second Bank's twenty-year charter expired in April 1836, but Biddle worked with the Pennsylvania state legislature to prolong the institution as a state-chartered bank, the United States Bank of Pennsylvania (BUSP). The BUSP remained open for several more years. It was in the later years of his career that Biddle began to invest significant financial resources not only in internal improvement projects, but also in the booming expansion of land, cotton, and slavery in the Old Southwest.

In 1837 and 1838, Biddle secretively dispatched agents into the South to buy up several million dollars worth of cotton with the notes of state-chartered banks, all in an effort to restore the nation's credit and pay off foreign debts owed to British merchant bankers. Critics called this an example of illegal cotton speculation and noted that the Bank's charter forbid the institution from purchasing commodities. Biddle also invested in and bailed out several state-chartered banks in the South whose capital was derived partially from slave mortgages. Some of these banks, including the Union Bank of Mississippi, financed the dispossession of Native Americans. Indeed, post-notes issued by the BUSP helped conclude one of the treaties that removed the Cherokee from their ancestral lands. In addition, Biddle purchased bonds in the Republic of Texas, opposed territorial expansion into Oregon, and denounced abolitionists.

Meanwhile, in the absence of any regulatory oversight provided by a central bank, state-chartered banks in the West and South relaxed their lending standards, took greater on risks, maintained unsafe reserve ratios, and contributed to a credit bubble that eventually burst with the Panic of 1837. In 1839, after seeing his investment in cotton speculation backfire, Biddle resigned from his post as bank president, and in 1841, with the nation still reeling from depression, the Bank finally collapsed. Because the BUSP had issued loans to financial institutions and individual actors who pledged slave mortgages as collateral, the BUSP tragically became one of the largest owners of plantations, slaves, and slave-grown products in Mississippi as debtors rushed to repay creditors during the economic downturn of the early 1840s.

Biddle and a few of his colleagues had borrowed tens of thousands of dollars of cash from the BUSP on their own account without going through the normal lending process and without informing the Bank's board, and as a result, a grand jury indicted Biddle on charges of fraud in December 1841. Biddle was arrested and forced to pay compensation to creditors using the remainder of his personal fortune. The charges were later dismissed. On February 27, 1844, at the age of fifty-eight, Biddle died at the Andalusia estate from complications related to bronchitis and edema. Funds from his wife's family supported the ongoing civil lawsuits that plagued Biddle toward the end of his life.

Family
Nicholas's father, Charles, was noteworthy for his devotion to the cause of American independence and served alongside Benjamin Franklin on the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. His paternal uncle and namesake, Nicholas Biddle (1750–1778), was a naval hero who died during the American Revolutionary War. Another uncle, Edward Biddle, was a member of the First Continental Congress of 1774.

In 1811, Biddle married Jane Margaret Craig (1793–1856). The couple had six children, including Charles John Biddle, who served in the U.S. Army and in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Edward C. Biddle (1815–1872), with whom Nicholas worked in the international cotton trade during the late 1830s.

Nicholas had a younger brother, Thomas Biddle, a War of 1812 veteran who became a federal pension agent and director at the Second Bank's branch office in St. Louis, Missouri. On August 26, 1831, Thomas participated in a duel with U.S. Representative Spencer Pettis of Missouri. The duel took place on "Bloody Island", in the middle of the Mississippi River, near St. Louis. Because Thomas was nearsighted, the two exchanged shots from a perilously close distance of five feet. Pettis died within hours while Thomas succumbed to his wounds three days later. The origins of the duel can be traced to Pettis's criticism of Nicholas's management of the Bank, which Thomas defended. After an exchange of letters to the editor of a newspaper, Biddle accosted an ill Pettis in his hotel room. Pettis recovered and then challenged Thomas to a duel. Thomas Biddle should not be confused with his second cousin, Thomas Biddle of Philadelphia, one of the city's leading exchange brokers.

Nicholas Biddle Estate
The Nicholas Biddle Estate in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania, also known as "Andalusia", is a National Historic Landmark, registered with the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

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Dark fibre

A dark fibre or unlit fibre is an unused optical fibre, available for use in fibre-optic communication. Dark fibre may be leased from a network service provider.

Dark fibre originally referred to the potential network capacity of telecommunication infrastructure. Because the marginal cost of installing additional fibre optic cables is very low once a trench has been dug or conduit laid, a great excess of fibre was installed in the US during the telecom boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. This excess capacity was later referred to as dark fibre following the dot-com crash of the early 2000s that briefly reduced demand for high-speed data transmission.

These unused fibre optic cables later created a new market for unique private services that could not be accommodated on lit fibre cables (i.e., cables used in traditional long-distance communication).

Motivations
Much of the cost of installing cables is in the civil engineering work required. This includes planning and routing, obtaining permissions, creating ducts and channels for the cables, and finally installation and connection. This work usually accounts for most of the cost of developing fibre networks. For example, in Amsterdam's citywide installation of a fibre network, roughly 80% of the costs involved were labour, with only 10% being fibre. It therefore makes sense to plan for, and install, significantly more fibre than is needed for current demand, to provide for future expansion and provide for network redundancy in case any of the cables fail. Many fibre-optic cable owners such as railroads and power utilities have always included additional fibres with the intention to lease these to other carriers.

During the dot-com bubble, a large number of telephone companies built optical-fibre networks, each with the business plan of cornering the market in telecommunications by providing a network with sufficient capacity to take all existing and forecast traffic for the entire region served. This was based on the assumption that telecoms traffic, particularly data traffic, would continue to grow exponentially for the foreseeable future. The advent of wavelength-division multiplexing reduced the demand for fibre by increasing the capacity of a single fibre by a factor of as much as 100. According to Gerry Butters, the former head of Lucent's Optical Networking Group at Bell Labs, the amount of data that could be carried by an optical fibre was doubling every nine months at the time. This progress in the ability to carry data over fibre reduced the need for more fibres. As a result, the wholesale price for data communications collapsed and a number of these companies filed for bankruptcy protection. Global Crossing and Worldcom are two high-profile examples in the United States.

Similar to the Railway Mania, the misfortune of one market sector became the good fortune of another, and this overcapacity created a new telecommunications sector.

Market
For many years incumbent local exchange carriers would not sell dark fibre to end users, because they believed selling access to this core asset would cannibalize their other, more lucrative services. Incumbent carriers in the United States were required to sell dark fibre to competitive local exchange carriers as unbundled network elements (UNE), but they have successfully lobbied to reduce these provisions for existing fibre, and eliminated it completely for new fibre placed for fibre to the premises (FTTP) deployments.

Fibre swaps between competitive carriers are quite common. This increases the reach of their networks in places where their competitor has a presence, in exchange for the provision of fibre capacity in places where that competitor has no presence. This is a practice known in the industry as "coopetition".

Meanwhile, other companies arose specializing as dark fibre providers. Dark fibre became more available when there was enormous overcapacity after the telecoms boom years of the late 1990s through 2001. The market for dark fibre tightened up with the return of capital investment to light up existing fibre, and with mergers and acquisitions resulting in a consolidation of dark fibre providers.

Networks
Dark fibre can be used to create a privately operated optical fibre network that is run directly by its operator over dark fibre leased or purchased from another supplier. This is opposed to purchasing bandwidth or leased line capacity on an existing network. Dark fibre networks may be used for private networking, or as Internet access or Internet infrastructure networking.

Dark fibre networks may be point-to-point, or use star, self-healing ring, or mesh topologies.

Because both ends of the link are controlled by the same organization, dark fibre networks can operate using the latest optical protocols using wavelength division multiplexing to add capacity where needed, and to provide an upgrade path between technologies. Many dark fibre metropolitan area networks use cheap Gigabit Ethernet equipment over CWDM, rather than expensive SONET ring systems.

They offer very high price-performance for network users who require high performance, such as Google, which has dark network capacities for video and search data, or wish to operate their own network for security or other commercial reasons.

However, dark fibre networks are generally only available in high-population-density areas where fibre has already been laid, as the civil engineering costs of installing fibre to new locations is often prohibitive. For these reasons, dark fibre networks are typically run between data centres and other places with existing fibre infrastructure.

Variations
Managed dark fibre is a form of wavelength-division multiplexed access to otherwise dark fibre where a pilot signal is beamed into the fibre by the fibre provider for management purposes using a transponder tuned to an assigned wavelength.

Virtual dark fibre using wavelength multiplexing allows a service provider to offer individual wavelengths. Other wavelengths on the same fibre are leased to other customers or used for other purposes. This is typically done using coarse wavelength division multiplexing CWDM because the wider 20 nm spacing of the wavebands makes these systems much less susceptible to interference.

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

title: Dark fibre


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User talk:RichardHolmes

I'd like to welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. If you need pointers on how we title pages visit Naming conventions or how to format them visit our manual of style. If you have any other questions about the project then check out Help or add a question to the Village pump. Mintguy 12:36, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Not the military historian Richard Holmes oft seen on the BBC by any chance?

 * Alas, he is the grand usurper of my name! It was actually funny to see that a person with my name is an authority on Military history as the 20th July bomb plot (and I guess the German war effort in general) is one of my eternal fascinations.  Is it karmic?  Who knows... RichardHolmes

You may have noticed that another user has redirected the pages you created at Hauptmann and Leutnant to the English language equivalent for which articles already exist. This is normal practise on Wikipedia. It is in no way a reflection on the quality of your contribution on Claus von Stauffenberg which I think is excellent. We're not aiming to be a dictionary and so like terms are redirected to an article where the concept can be explored in detail. Regards Mintguy 12:36, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

 * I am totally cool with that - I actually was just flailing around and copying what I thought were precedents. Will have to look into the redirects etc when I next add some info.  Thanks for the kind comments too! Cheers, RichardHolmes

title: User talk:RichardHolmes


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Vuelta a España

The Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the race was first organised in 1935. The race was prevented from being run by the Spanish Civil War and World War II in the early years of its existence; however, the race has been held annually since 1955. As the Vuelta gained prestige and popularity the race was lengthened and its reach began to extend all around the globe. Since 1979, the event has been staged and managed by Unipublic, until in 2014, when the Amaury Sport Organisation acquired control. Since then, they have been working together. The peloton expanded from a primarily Spanish participation to include riders from all over the world. The Vuelta is a UCI World Tour event, which means that the teams that compete in the race are mostly UCI WorldTeams, with the exception of the wild card teams that the organizers can invite.

Along with the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, the Vuelta is one of cycling's prestigious Grand Tours. First held in 1935 and annually since 1955, the Vuelta runs for three weeks in a changing route across Spain. While the route changes each year, the format of the race stays the same, with the appearance of at least two time trials, the passage through the mountain chain of the Pyrenees or the Cantabrian Mountains, and the finish in the Spanish capital Madrid. The modern editions of the Vuelta a España consist of 21 day-long stages over a 23-day period that includes 2 rest days.

It was originally held in the spring, usually late April, with a few editions held in June in the 1940s. In 1995, however, the race moved to September to avoid direct competition with the Giro d'Italia, held in May. As a result, the Vuelta is now often seen as an important preparation for the World Championships, which moved to October the same year. However, starting in 2023 this is no longer the case as every fourth year the Worlds will now be held in August. A Vuelta was also organized in August and September 1950. The race now usually starts in late August, but the 2020 race started in October due to a delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

All of the stages are timed to the finish; after finishing, the riders' times are compounded with their previous stage times. The rider with the lowest aggregate time is the leader of the race and gets to don the red jersey. While the general classification garners the most attention, there are other contests held within the Vuelta: the points classification for the sprinters, the mountains classification for the climbers, the combination classification for the all-round riders, and the team classification for the competing teams.

La Vuelta Femenina, a women's edition of the race, was first held in 2023, part of the UCI Women's World Tour. This follows smaller races staged in conjunction with the Vuelta between 2015 and 2022.

Origins
The first races in Spain were run at the national level and were promoted by the bicycle manufacturers from Eibar. Consequently, the tour was Eibar – Madrid – Eibar, and called the Grand Prix of the Republic.

1935–1960
In early 1935, former cyclist Clemente López Doriga, in collaboration with Juan Pujol, director of the daily newspaper Informaciones, organized the Vuelta a España, The inaugural event saw 50 entrants face a 3,411 km (2,119 mi.) course over only 14 stages, averaging over 240 km (149 mi.) per stage. It was inspired by the success of the Tours in France and Italy, and the boost they brought to the circulations of their sponsoring newspapers (L'Auto and La Gazzetta dello Sport respectively); Pujol of instigated the race to increase Informaciones's circulation.

The first stage took the riders from Madrid to Valladolid. That year saw the first great duel in the history of the Vuelta, between Belgium's Gustaaf Deloor, who ultimately won, and Mariano Cañardo, Spanish runner-up.

The second edition of the Vuelta, finally held despite the delicate political situation, was also marked by the Deeloor repeat, who this time held the lead from the first day to the last. The 1936 edition remains the longest winning finish time of the Vuelta in 150:07:54, the race consisted of 22 stages with a total length of 4,407 km. Gustaaf finished first and his older brother Alfons finished second overall. After the first two editions, the Spanish race suffered a hiatus because of the Spanish Civil War.

In 1941, the Vuelta resumed competition with an almost entirely Spanish peloton and very little foreign representation. That year the first time trial was held in the Vuelta. Julián Berrendero was proclaimed the winner, and he recaptured the title the next year. In addition, Berrendero was King of the Mountains for three consecutive years.

With World War II and the precarious economic situation, there was another break in the running of the Vuelta a España.

In 1945, the Journal took over organization of the race and competition resumed, although again with few foreign competitors in the peloton. On this occasion, Delio Rodríguez took the final victory. That year also introduced the points classification, but this was not stable until 1955. Four editions were run until 1950.

Subsequently, there was no Vuelta until 1955, when it was organized by the Basque newspaper El Correo Español-El Pueblo Vasco. Since then, the Vuelta a España has been run annually. At this time, the Vuelta is run routinely in August and September, but it was previously run in April and May. Another difference was the number of participants. Previously, there were very few, but the number doubled, with more internationally recognized competitors.

1960–1970
The prestige of the Vuelta increased, with more stars from the international cycling scene. During the late 1950s came the first successes in the overall standings of Italian and French riders. In the 1960s, they would also be joined by German and Dutch riders. In 1963, Jacques Anquetil won the general classification, establishing himself as the first rider to win all three Grand Tours. Five years later, in 1968, Felice Gimondi would do the same. Eddy Merckx (1973), Bernard Hinault (1978, 1983), Alberto Contador (2008), Vincenzo Nibali (2010) and Chris Froome (2017) later accomplished the same treble.

Antonio Karmany dominated the mountain classification for three consecutive years, then was replaced by Julio Jiménez, who won it for another three years.

In 1965, Rik Van Looy became the first rider to repeat victory in the points classification. Jan Janssen in 1968 and 1974 Domingo Perurena would do the same, winning this classification twice.

During mid 60's the organizer of the Vuelta, El Correo Español-El Pueblo Vasco, went through some financial problems that endangered the running of the competition. However, during that time all editions ended normally. In 1968, the Vuelta was hit by a terrorist attack and other events, having to cancel the 15th stage. There were no fatalities.

1970–1980
The '70s began with the triumph of Luis Ocaña, who was already established in the international squad as one of the greats of cycling.

José Manuel Fuente, with victories in 1972 and 1974, became the third rider to win two Tours of Spain. A few years later, Bernard Hinault repeated the feat, which was also achieved by Pedro Delgado during the 1980s.

In 1973, Eddy Merckx won the Vuelta by a landslide, winning six stages and all individual classifications with the exception of the mountains competition: he finished second.

Freddy Maertens in 1977 echoed a similar domination to that demonstrated by Merckx a few years earlier, by winning thirteen stages and all individual classifications except the mountain.

In the mid-1970s, Andrés Oliva managed to earn the King of the Mountains title in three editions of the Vuelta.

Frenchman Bernard Hinault emerged in 1978 as an international cycling star. The same year, Hinault won his first Tour de France. The last stage of that edition also had to be suspended because of riots and barricades that prevented the normal course of it.

When 1979 El Correo Español-El Pueblo Vasco left as a sponsor of the race, the Vuelta was once again endangered. However, the company Unipublic took charge of the competition. This, coupled with increased advertising and the beginning of the broadcasts via television, further grew revenue and interest in the Vuelta.

1980–1990
In the early 1980s, two names stood out in the secondary classifications: José Luis Laguía, who won the mountain classification five times, and Sean Kelly, who won four times in the points classification.

In 1982 came the first case of disqualification of the winner for doping. Two days after the end of the competition, Ángel Arroyo and a few other riders were disqualified, and Arroyo lost his victory to Marino Lejarreta. Arroyo appealed for a B test of his sample, which again tested positive. Arroyo was given a ten-minute penalty, and ultimately ended up placing thirteenth in the general classification.

Next year's edition was the first appearance of the Lagos de Covadonga as a final stage, an ascent that would become, over the years, the most iconic climb of the Vuelta a España. In 1984 it played the issue in a race that ended with the smallest difference between the first and second place. Éric Caritoux, a complete unknown until then, managed to win the Vuelta with only six seconds ahead of Alberto Fernández in second place.

The end of the 80s was marked by the rise of Colombian cycling, which presented a strong challenge particularly in the mountain stages. Names such as Lucho Herrera (winner in 1987) or Fabio Parra (2nd in 1989) appeared in the last editions of the decade. One of the rulers at that time was also Pedro Delgado, with two victories (1985 and 1989), a second place, and two third-place finishes. In the 1988 edition, the start took place in the Canary Islands with 3 stages. The race was won by Irishman Sean Kelly, his only overall victory in a Grand Tour.

1990–2000
The first half of the 1990s was marked by the dominance of Swiss rider Tony Rominger, the first rider to win three times and win the race consecutively between 1992 and 1994.

The fiftieth edition of the Vuelta, which was held in 1995, coincided with the change of dates. The Vuelta a España came to be held in September, and near the end of the season as the last of the three Grand Tours of the year. This was done to attract more high-profile riders, who before had preferred to ride the Giro d'Italia or the Tour de France, which both took place very closely to the Vuelta's timeslot. That year Laurent Jalabert won all classifications, the second time this happened in the Vuelta (Rominger had done so in 1993). The Frenchman was also a four-time winner of the points classification, matching the previous record set by Sean Kelly in the '80s.

In 1997, the tour started for the first time in a foreign country. They began in Lisbon, on the occasion of Expo '98.

The ascent of the Alto de L'Angliru was part of a stage for the first time in 1999, with the victory of José María Jiménez, four-time winner of the mountains classification. The reputation of the climb grew rapidly because of its demanding nature.

2000–2010

The first editions of the 2000s were marked by the dominance of Roberto Heras, who achieved victory on three occasions, and in 2005 did it for the fourth time. However, as happened with Ángel Arroyo in 1982, Heras was disqualified days after the end of the competition after testing positive in a doping test, this time for use of EPO. This positive development was later ratified by the counter-analysis and Heras was stripped of his title, benefiting the Russian cyclist Denis Menchov until 2012, when the Spanish Courts overturned the positive test and re-awarded the win to Heras. In 2006 Alexander Vinokourov won after a struggle with the then leader of the UCI Pro Tour, Alejandro Valverde. In the 2007 edition Denis Menchov again clinched the overall victory by more than three minutes over the Spanish cyclists Carlos Sastre and Samuel Sánchez. In June 2008, French company Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), who organize the Tour de France, announced it had bought 49% of Unipublic. In 2008, the winner was the Spaniard Alberto Contador, who also won that year's Giro d'Italia, and became the first Spaniard to win all three Grand Tours. In 2009, the Vuelta began in Drenthe, Netherlands, continuing through Belgium and Germany. The final winner was Alejandro Valverde, who adopted a conservative stance without winning any stage and sprinting in the final meters to achieve bonuses. His main rivals were Samuel Sánchez (second place), Cadel Evans (third), Ivan Basso, Robert Gesink and Ezequiel Mosquera. All of them suffered critical falls or punctures such as Evans in Monachil.

2010–2018
Vincenzo Nibali won the 2010 edition without winning a stage, thanks to consistent high placings on summit stage finishes and the race's two time trials. He had inherited the race lead after Igor Antón was forced to abandon after crashing on stage 14. Though Nibali lost the race lead to Joaquim Rodríguez, he later regained it on the final time trial. This marked his first grand tour victory.

The 2011 Vuelta was the 66th edition of the race and was the first Vuelta in 33 years that visited the Basque Country. The 33-year absence from the region was due to fear of political protests. The victory was originally awarded to Juan José Cobo who had a race-winning margin of just 13 seconds over Briton Chris Froome. Neither rider had been marked as a pre-race favourite, and both had gone to the Vuelta as domestiques for their team leaders: Cobo for Denis Menchov, and Froome for Bradley Wiggins; their team leaders originally finished 5th and 3rd respectively. The race was the first time that two Britons had stood on the podium of a Grand Tour, and Froome's second-place finish equalled the highest placing by a British rider in a Grand tour, Pippa York finishing second in the race in 1985 and 1986, until Wiggins won the Tour de France the following year. In 2019 Cobo's win was annulled for doping violations, and the race awarded to Froome.

In 2012, the race was won for the second time by Alberto Contador of, taking his first overall victory since returning from a doping suspension. Contador, who won the seventeenth stage of the race after a solo attack, won the general classification by 1' 16" over runner-up Alejandro Valverde of the team. Completing an all-Spanish podium, Joaquim Rodríguez finished the race third overall, 21 seconds behind Valverde and 1' 37" behind Contador, having led the race for 13 days between the fourth and sixteenth stages. Rodríguez also achieved three stage victories.

The 2013 Vuelta a España saw another shock result when the 41-year-old American Chris Horner defeated Vincenzo Nibali, Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodríguez to become the first North American to win the Vuelta and the oldest rider to win a grand tour. In addition Horner clinched the race's combination classification. The race was also notable for Tony Martin's all-day solo break on stage 6, when he broke away at the start and led for nearly the entire stage before being caught 20 metres from the finish line, placing seventh behind stage winner Michael Mørkøv.

In March 2014, ASO acquired full control of Unipublic, with both working together with the running of the race.

The 2014 race featured a field described as the strongest in a grand tour in recent memory, as a range of accomplished riders entered the race after suffering injuries or health problems earlier in the season. Contador claimed his third Vuelta, Contador went into the race uncertain of his form after crashing out of the Tour de France on the 10th stage, breaking his tibia. However, Contador found his form in the race earlier than expected, taking the red jersey on the 10th stage individual time trial and taking two key mountain stage wins on his way to victory. He won the race by 1' 10" over runner-up, Chris Froome. Like Contador, Froome also went into the race uncertain of his form after he crashed three times in two days during the Tour, leading to his withdrawal. However, Froome came to life during the third week, finishing second in three key mountain stages and taking time to move into second place overall. Alejandro Valverde completed the podium, finishing 40 seconds behind Froome and 1 minute and 50 seconds behind Contador.

The 2015 edition saw another strong field contest the race, including the top four finishers at the 2015 Tour de France (Froome, Valverde, Nibali and Nairo Quintana) and two of the podium finishers from the 2015 Giro d'Italia in the form of Nibali's teammates Fabio Aru and Mikel Landa. The early leaders of the race were Esteban Chaves and Tom Dumoulin, who exchanged the leader's red jersey several times during the first ten days of racing, with both riders winning summit finishes in the first week. With the withdrawals of Chris Froome and the disqualification of Vincenzo Nibali, Nibali's team mate Fabio Aru took over the race lead following the mountainous Stage 11, which took place entirely within Andorra. He kept his lead for five stages as the race entered the mountains of northern Spain, but lost it to Rodríguez on Stage 16. Dumoulin took the lead back on Stage 17 – the race's only individual time trial – with Aru three seconds behind in second place. Aru attacked throughout the final stages and, on the penultimate day, finally dropped Dumoulin, who fell to sixth place overall. Aru therefore took the first Grand Tour victory of his career.

Nairo Quintana won the 2016 edition ahead of Froome, with the Colombian Esteban Chaves finishing third. Quintana had gained over $2 1/2$ minutes over Froome on Stage 15 when he and Contador attacked together from 10 km into the stage and blew the race apart, isolating Froome from his teammates. Whilst Froome fought back and managed to gain back nearly all he had lost in a dominant victory on the stage 19 individual time trial to Calp, Quintana was able to follow several attacks by Froome on Stage 20, the final mountain stage to Alto de Aitana, to secure overall victory by 1:23 over Froome. By doing so, Quintana became the second Colombian after Luis Herrera in 1987 to win the Vuelta.

The 2017 edition started in Nîmes, France. It was the first time the race has started in France and only the third time it has started outside Spain, after 1997 (Portugal) and 2009 (Netherlands). The general classification was won by 2017 Tour de France champion Chris Froome from, ahead of Vincenzo Nibali of. Froome became the third rider to win the Tour-Vuelta double after Jacques Anquetil (1963) and Bernard Hinault (1978), and the first to do so since the Vuelta was moved to its current calendar position. Froome also won the points and combination classifications, becoming the first rider to win three jerseys in a single Vuelta since Denis Menchov in 2007.

In 2018, it was another British rider who won the race, in Simon Yates, riding for the Mitchelton–Scott. Aged 26 this was Yates' first grand tour win, and meant that for the first time all three grand tours in a year had been won by three different riders from the same country, after Froome won the 2018 Giro d'Italia and Geraint Thomas won the 2018 Tour de France.

2019–present
The 2019 Vuelta was won by Primož Roglič, who became the first Slovenian cyclist to win a Grand Tour.

The 2020 Vuelta a España was originally scheduled to be held from 14 August to 6 September 2020. In April 2020, the 2020 Tour de France was rescheduled to run between the 29 August and 20 September, having been postponed in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 15 April, UCI announced that both the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta would take place in autumn after the 2020 UCI Road World Championships. On 5 May, UCI announced that the postponed Giro and the Vuelta would run between 3 and 25 October and between 20 October and 8 November, respectively. For the first time since 1985, the race was not 21 stages long; instead, it was held in a reduced format over 18 stages. Roglic defended his title in a hard-fought race with Richard Carapaz which was among the closest Vueltas in history with the winning margin being only +0:24. The 2020 Vuelta had the smallest margin of victory since the 1984 Vuelta a España, which was the smallest margin of victory of any grand tour in cycling history. Roglic returned in the 2021 Vuelta a España and this time dominated the field to take his third consecutive victory in the race. He became only the third rider to win the race in three successive years. He won by 4' 42", the largest margin of victory since Alex Zülle won by 5' 07" in 1997.

The 2022 Vuelta a España was won by the UCI World Road Race champion, Belgian Remco Evenepoel after starting in Utrecht, Netherlands.

Classifications
The overall leader at present wears a red jersey— the Spanish counterpart to the yellow jersey of the Tour de France. Other jerseys honor the best climber (King of the Mountains, awarded a blue-on-white polka dot jersey) and leader of the points competition (for many years awarded a blue with yellow fish jersey sponsored by Spain's fishing and marine industry, but more recently given a green jersey).

Since the 1950 Vuelta, the leaders of the other race classifications have been permitted to wear identifying jerseys (previously, there was an official mountain classification, but no identifying jersey). For a long time, a blue jersey identified the leader of the points classification, green the leader of the mountain classification, and white the leader of the combination classification (until it ended in 2018). Recently, these other classifications have used jerseys more like those used at the Tour de France, with the points leader using a green jersey, the King of the Mountains using a polka dot jersey (albeit blue-on-white rather than red-on-white as at the Tour) and the best young rider a white jersey.

Usually, other cycling jerseys are awarded, such as for points leaders in the "Metas Volantes" (intermediate sprints) and for the combination category (a point system that honors the best rider with the combined total points in the best overall, points and mountains classifications).

General Classification
The leader of the general classification is permitted to wear a jersey of a particular colour signifying the lead (maillot rojo or red jersey), as in the Tour de France (maillot jaune or yellow jersey) and the Giro d'Italia (maglia rosa or pink jersey).

The colour of the leader's jersey of the Vuelta a España has changed several times since the original tour. The organizers who revived the Vuelta following its multiple suspensions since 1936 usually changed the color of the jersey. The leader's jersey began as orange in 1935, became white in 1941, then back to orange in 1942. It was white with a horizontal red stripe from 1945 to 1950.

In 1955, when El Correo resurrected the Vuelta, yellow became the colour of the leader's jersey, the same color as in the Tour de France (known as the "Maillot amarillo").

Except for the 1977 Vuelta, when the jersey was orange, a yellow jersey was worn until 1998, when the color was deepened to a gold hue ("Jersey de Oro").

However, for the 2010 edition, the colour of the leader's jersey was changed to red.

The record for most wins is held by Roberto Heras of Spain, winner in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005. Spaniards have dominated, winning 30 of the 66 runnings of the Vuelta. France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Colombia, Ireland, Russia, Kazakhstan, the United States and Great Britain have also had first-place finishers.

Mountains Classification

The mountains classification in the Vuelta a España is a secondary classification in the Vuelta a España. For this classification, points are given to the cyclists who cross the mountain peaks first. The classification was established in 1935, when it was won by Italian Edoardo Molinar, and until 2005 the leader in the mountain classification wore a green jersey. In 2006, it became an orange jersey, and in 2010 it became white with blue dots.

Spaniard José Luis Laguía has won this classification a record five times, including three consecutive. Other cyclists who have won this ranking for three consecutive times were Antonio Karmany, Julio Jiménez, José María Jiménez, all Spaniards. Overall, the Spaniards have dominated this classification by 47 out of 68 times. In 2010, David Moncoutié considered retirement, but remained a professional cyclist to try to win his third consecutive mountains classification. In 2011, he became the first rider ever to win this award in four consecutive years.

As of 2010, the leader of the mountains classification is awarded a white jersey with blue dots. The mountains jersey is third in the rankings of jerseys, behind the jersey for the general classification and points classification in the Vuelta a España but before the combination classification; this means that if a cyclists leads both the general classification and the mountains classification, he wears the jersey for the general classification, and the mountains jersey is passed on to the second cyclist in that ranking.

The organisation of the Vuelta designates which climbs are given points, and in which category they fall. As of 2010, there are 5 categories: most points are scored on the Top Alberto Fernández, the highest point of the Vuelta.

If two or more cyclists have the same number of points, the cyclist who was first on the 'Top Alberto Fernandez' gets the higher ranking. If that does not solve the problem, the cyclists with the most high climb finishes wins gets the higher ranking. If that does not solve it, the cyclists with the most first category wins, and so on. If after the third category there is still a tie, the order in the general classification is used.

Points Classification

The points classification in the Vuelta a España is a secondary classification, in which the cyclists are ranked in a points classification, based on the finish of each rider every stage.

For the first time, a points classification was calculated in 1945, sponsored by Pirelli. It was calculated as follows:
 * The winner of a stage received 100 points, the second 99, and so on. If cyclists arrived in a group that was given the same time, they all received the same number of points.
 * The first five cyclists in a stage received 12 points for every minute that they arrived ahead of the number six of the stage.
 * For every point scored for the mountains classification, two points were given for this points classification.
 * On intermediate sprints, points could be won: 8 for the winner, 6 for the second, 4 and 2 for the next.

Although the sponsor said that the classification was a great success, it did not return the next edition.

The next time that a points classification was calculated, was in 1955. Then it used the method of adding the stage ranks, in the same way as the points classification in the Tour de France did then; just like in the Tour de France, the leader of the points classification (with the fewest points) wore a green jersey. In 1963, the points system changed such that from now on points were given to the first cyclists to reach the finish, and the cyclist with the most points was the leader.

Seán Kelly, Laurent Jalabert and Alejandro Valverde, with 4 titles each, share the record of victories.

Young rider classification
The young rider classification is awarded based on the young rider with the lowest cumulative time (the same methodology as the general classification). The jersey is also awarded alongside the points and mountains classifications.

In the 2017 and the 2018 editions, the winner only wore a red number bib as the white jersey was awarded to the winner of the Combination classification.

Team classification
The team classification has been awarded since the race's inception in 1935.

Defunct classifications
The combination classification was calculated by adding the numeral ranks of each cyclist in the general, points, and mountains classifications (a rider must have had a score in all classifications possible to qualify for the combination classification), with the lowest cumulative total signifying the leader of this competition.

From 2006 to 2018, the leader of the classification wore a white jersey; in 2005 it was a golden-green jersey.

The award strongly favoured top riders in the competition. Since its re-introduction in 2002, it was only won by someone other than the race's overall winner four times: in 2002, 2003, 2012, and 2015. On all four of those occasions, the winning cyclist was placed either second or third in the overall classification.

The combination classification was discontinued in 2019. Now, the white jersey is worn by the best young rider.

The Vuelta was the last major race to feature a combination classification.

The race route and stages
Typically, the course includes up to three time trials, and a number of mountain stages. Since 1994, and often before (such as in the inaugural edition), the Vuelta finished in the Spanish capital, Madrid, although Bilbao (in the 1950s) and San Sebastián (in the 1970s) were long both recurring finish cities. Behind Madrid, three cities share second place for the most Vuelta departures: Gijón, Bilbao, and one time finish city Jerez de la Frontera. In 1997, the Vuelta started abroad for the first time, in Lisbon, Portugal. The first ever Vuelta to start outside the Iberian Peninsula took place in 2009, when the Dutch city of Assen hosted the prologue of the 64th Vuelta.

Lagos de Covadonga is one of the most important climb in the modern history of the Vuelta. The road that leads to the lakes starts at Covadonga and is 12.6 kilometres long at an average gradient of 7.3% (height gain: 1056 m). The most demanding section is La Huesera, 7 kilometres from the top of the climb, with an average gradient of 15% during 800 meters. It was featured for the first time in 1983 with the victory of Marino Lejarreta, who was in a fierce battle with Bernard Hinault for overall victory. This was the same Vuelta that saw Hinault, Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon all riding on the same team. Stage 7 of the 2023 La Vuelta Femenina ended at Lagos de Covadonga, with Dutch cyclist Demi Vollering placing first. In 1999, for the first time, the course crossed the Alto de L'Angliru in Asturias, which climbs 1,573 meters (5,160 feet) over 12.9 km (8 mi.) with grades as steep as 23.6 percent (at Cueña-les-Cabres), making it one of the steepest climbs in Europe. Credit for the discovery of this climb and its addition to the Vuelta goes to Miguel Prieto.

Start and finish of the Vuelta

 * Starts

 * Finishes

Starts abroad
Most stages are in mainland Spain, although since the mid-1990s it has become common to visit nearby countries: Portugal, Andorra and France. It has also taken place in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Four editions of the Vuelta so far have started outside Spain. A start abroad in Utrecht, Netherlands was planned for the 2020 edition, however this was cancelled in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain and a revised route starting in Irun was used in 2020. Instead, the 2022 Vuelta a España started in Utrecht.

Stage wins per rider
17 riders have won 10 or more individual stages.

active riders are in bold

Records

 * Most Vuelta a España victories: Roberto Heras, 4
 * Most Vuelta a España Stage wins: Delio Rodríguez, 39
 * Most stage wins in one edition: Freddy Maertens in 1977, 13
 * Most individual time trial wins: Abraham Olano, Alex Zülle, and Tony Rominger, 6
 * Most number of victories by country: Spain, 32
 * Most days as leader: Alex Zülle, 48
 * Most mountains classification victories: José Luis Laguía, 5
 * Most points classification victories: Sean Kelly, Laurent Jalabert and Alejandro Valverde, 4
 * Most number of intermediate sprints classification victories: Miguel Ángel Iglesias, 5
 * Largest margin of victory: Delio Rodríguez over Julián Berrendero in 1945, 30' 8"
 * Smallest margin of victory: Éric Caritoux over Alberto Fernández in 1984, 6 seconds
 * Most participations: Íñigo Cuesta, 17 (1994–2010).
 * Most consecutive participations: Íñigo Cuesta, 17 (1994–2010).
 * Most Vueltas finished: Federico Echave, 14 (1982–1995), and Íñigo Cuesta, 14 (1994, 1996–99, 2001–03 and 2005–10)
 * Most consecutive Vueltas finished: Federico Echave, 14 (1982–1995).
 * Fewest participants: 1941, 32
 * Greatest number of participants: 2002, 207
 * Fastest average speed: 2001, 42.534 km/h
 * Slowest average speed: 1941, 26.262 km/h
 * Longest edition: 1941, 4,442 km
 * Shortest edition: 1963, 2,419 km
 * Youngest general classification winner: Angelino Soler in 1961, age 21 years, 173 days
 * Oldest general classification winner: Chris Horner in 2013, age 41 years, 338 days

Related events
Between 2015 and 2022, a women's race (Challenge by La Vuelta) was held in conjunction with the final day(s) of the Vuelta as part of the UCI Women's World Tour. Initially a one day race, it became a stage race from 2018 onwards, with the 2022 edition featuring 5 stages. The race was criticised for its lack of difficulty, with winner Annemiek van Vleuten stating "if you look at the [2022] course you can conclude that the Vuelta (sic) is not yet ready to call itself a grand tour".

From 2023, La Vuelta Femenina – a 7-day stage race in the UCI Women's World Tour – was held in May.

title: Vuelta a España


text:
Leutnant

Leutnant is the lowest Junior officer rank in the armed forces of Germany (Bundeswehr), the Austrian Armed Forces, and the military of Switzerland.

History
The German noun (with the meaning "Stellvertreter" (in English "deputy") from Middle High German «locum tenens» Platzhalter (in English "place holder") was derived from the French word Lieutenant about 1500. In most German-speaking armies it is the lowest officer rank (in German-speaking navies Leutnant zur See (English "Lieutenant at sea")). In the German Bundeswehr the ranks Leutnant and Oberleutnant belong to the Leutnant rank group. In some other armed forces (such as the former National People's Army) there is the lower grade of Unterleutnant.

From about 1500 until the middle of the 17th century the designation of Leutnant was commonly used for any deputy to a commanding officer. So at the army level there was the appointment of General-Leutnant (English "lieutenant-general"), at the regimental level there was that of Oberst-Leutnant (English "lieutenant-colonel"), and at the company level the Leutnant was deputy to a Hauptmann (English "captain").

With the formation of standing armies in the second half of the 17th century, the term commonly came to designate the rank of the least senior commissioned officer.

In the 18th and 19th century, at the unit level several Leutnants served as platoon leaders. At that time the ranks of Premier-Lieutenant and Seconde-Lieutenant came into existence. With effect from January 1, 1899, in the German Empire these ranks were renamed as Oberleutnant and Leutnant.

Austria
In Austria the Leutnant (short: Lt) is the second lowest CO rank. Mandatory to be promoted to that rank is a six terms course of high school studies (until August 2008 eight terms) with 180 ECTS points on the Theresian Military Academy in the Wiener Neustadt. The studies are focused on "Military Command and Control" (C2) and the academy-leaver graduate to Bachelor.

The career in the Militia is structured in a different way. Here the modular education comprises the so-called one-year volunteer year (de: Einjährig-Freiwilliger [EF] ) as well as several courses, seminars, and exercises with a final aptitude test. After an overall service time of five years the promotion to «Leutnant» is possible.

Moreover, the appointment designation Leutnant is possible for leading officials (E1) of the Austrian executive, e.g. the Austrian Federal Police (ge: Bundespolizei) and prison authority personnel (de: Justizwache).

Austro-Hungarian Army
Until 1918 Leutnant (Hadnagy) was in the Austria-Hungarian Army the lowest CO-rank as well, equivalent to Assistenz-Arzt and Leutnant-Rechnungsführer.

Germany
The rank of Leutnant has been used in the German armed forces since 1899.

Bundeswehr
In the Bundeswehr today, a Leutnant will be normally appointed as platoon leader. However, the rank of Leutnant might also be held while a junior officer is studying at the University of the German Federal Armed Forces or at another training or education establishment. The Leutnant of the Bundeswehr belongs to the "Leutnant's rank group" (also: subaltern officer rank group).

Rank
In Germany, Leutnant (short.: Lt / on lists also: L) is the designation of a soldier of the lowest officer rank. The equivalent in the German Navy (Deutsche Marine) is the Leutnant zur See.

Soldiers with that particular rank, are mandated and authorized to provide military orders as to the so-called Superior-subordinate relations to private ranks (de: Mannschaften), NCOs without port épée (de: Unteroffiziere ohne port épée), as well as to Senior NCOs with port épée (de: Unteroffizier mit port épée).

National People's Army
In the GDR National People's Army (NPA) the rank Leutnant was the second lowest commissioned offer (CO) rank until 1990. This was in reference to Soviet military doctrine and in line with other armed forces of the Warsaw Pact.

The equivalent rank of the Volksmarine (en: GDR Navy) was the Leutnant zur See, often called simply Leutnant for short. In reference to the Soviet armed forces and to other armed forces of the Warsaw pact Leutnant was the second lowest officer rank until 1990.

Nazi Germany
In Nazi Germany, within the SS and Waffen-SS, the rank of SS-Untersturmführer was considered to be the equivalent of an Leutnant in the German Army. However, in the SA the equivalent to Leutnant was SA-Sturmführer.

Switzerland
In the military of Switzerland the Leutnant (Lieutenant, Tenente) is the lowest commissioned officer rank. Promotion to the next highest rank, Oberleutnant, occurs after three refresher courses (contingent upon good performance) or automatically after six years' service.

For missions outside of Switzerland, the rank Leutnant will be designated in English as Second lieutenant.

title: Leutnant


text:
Richard Biddle

Richard Biddle (March 25, 1796 – July 6, 1847) was an American author, politician and lawyer. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1837 until 1840.

Biography
Biddle was born on March 25, 1796, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the brother of financier Nicholas Biddle, nephew of Congressman Edward Biddle and uncle of Congressman Charles John Biddle. He received a classical education, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1811, and was admitted to the bar, practicing law in Pittsburgh.

He went to England in 1827, and remained three years, publishing while there a critical Review of Captain Basil Hall's Travels in North America. He also published A Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, with a Review of the History of Maritime Discovery (London, 1831).

Biddle was twice elected to Congress, as an Anti-Mason, serving from March 4, 1837, until his resignation on July 21, 1840.

Biddle died on July 6, 1847, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

title: Richard Biddle


text:
NCO

NCO may refer to:

 * NCO Group, an international corporation
 * National Children's Orchestra of Great Britain
 * Net capital outflow, an economic metric
 * NetCDF Operators, software
 * Network-centric operations, a theory of war in the information age
 * Non-commissioned officer, a category of military rank
 * Numerically controlled oscillator, a digital signal generator
 * Nuova Camorra Organizzata, a defunct Italian criminal organization
 * Isocyanate, a functional group of atoms –N=C=O
 * Indian National Congress (Organisation), a former Political Party in India formally referred as NCO by the Election Commission of India.
 * Nevada–California–Oregon Railway, a defunct railway in the western United States

title: NCO


text:
Custer's Revenge

Custer's Revenge (also known as Mystique Presents Swedish Erotica: Custer's Revenge) is an adult action game published by American Multiple Industries for the Atari 2600, first released in November 1982. The game gained notoriety owing to its goal of raping a Native American woman who is tied to a post.

The titular player character is based on Lieutenant Colonel and Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer, a famous American cavalry commander who is most well known for his major defeat and death at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Following the Christmas season of 1982, the rights to American Multiple Industries' games, including Custer's Revenge, were sold off to the adult video game company PlayAround. Under PlayAround's parent company, Castlespring Enterprises, Custer's Revenge was re-branded as Westward Ho for the European market and given slight modifications to its original gameplay. These alterations included simple aesthetic changes such as the darkening in color of the Native American woman's skin tone. PlayAround also made a gender-reversed version of Custer's Revenge named General Retreat.

The game was universally panned by critics and has been described as one of the worst video games ever made.

Gameplay
Custer's Revenge is an action video game in which the player controls General Custer, who must advance through the playing field and avoid arrows in order to rape the Native American woman Revenge, who is tied to a pole on the other side. The game consists of four numbered modes of play; modes 1 and 3 are single-player campaigns, while modes 2 and 4 are hotseat multiplayer modes. In modes 1 and 2, the player(s) must only avoid arrows, while in modes 3 and 4, cacti that appear and disappear at random intervals are added as obstacles. Custer can move left or right if the joystick is moved in those directions, while shifting the joystick up or down will cause Custer to stop.

Custer begins the game with three lives, which are represented by small cacti on a black stripe at the bottom of the screen. If an arrow touches Custer's hat or if Custer comes into contact with a cactus, he loses a life to the tune of "Taps". It is possible for Custer to stand in between two arrows and not get hit. If Custer successfully reaches Revenge, the player must repeatedly press the fire button for Custer to rape her, which occurs to the "Charge" fanfare. Each penetration awards one point, and the player earns an extra life for every 50 points. The player(s) can accumulate no more than six lives at any given time. For every 50 points scored, Custer returns to his original position on the field, and the speed of the arrows increases. The arrow speed can also be increased by flipping the difficulty switch on the Atari console.

Development and release
Custer's Revenge was developed as part of the "Swedish Erotica" series to capitalize on the lack of pornography available in the medium of video games. The development was deliberately sloppy and rushed because quality did not matter—they only needed a product on store shelves. The overtly racist and sexist themes were chosen to maximize outrage and generate free publicity.

Custer's Revenge quickly gained notoriety upon its release. Sold in a sealed package labeled "NOT FOR SALE TO MINORS" and selling for $49.95, it acknowledged that children might nonetheless see the game. The game's literature stated "if the kids catch you and should ask, tell them Custer and the maiden are just dancing." The makers elected to preview the game for women's and Native American groups, an act that many thought was a publicity stunt.

Women's rights groups such as the National Organization for Women criticized the game as "degrading, offensive and a blatant statement of racism and sexism [...] NOW cannot ignore any company which seeks to so blatantly portray acts of violence against women as a form of entertainment." Native Americans also protested the game, with the executive director of the Tulsa Native American Coalition saying "It is very degrading to the Indian woman as well as all women in general," and "There's no other way we can take it other than a racial slur." Other groups that opposed the game included the Native American Political Action Committee, United National Indian Youth Inc., the Oklahoma Human Rights Commission, the American Indian Training and Employment Program, the NAACP, the Urban League, and the YWCA. American Multiple Industries president Stuart Keston responded to criticism of the game by saying "There is a sexual act, but it is not rape. It never has been."

Los Angeles County voted 3–1 to ban Custer's Revenge alongside American Multiple Industries' other adult-only games Bachelor Party and Beat 'Em & Eat 'Em. Suffolk County, New York voted to ban all "X-rated" games within their jurisdiction. Multiple Industries subsequently pursued an $11 million lawsuit against Suffolk County and legislator Philip Nolan "because of a resolution authorizing the county executive to take action to halt sales and distribution" of the game. Oklahoma City, home to a large Native American population, also unanimously passed a resolution condemning the game as "distasteful" and "not in the best interests of the community". While both Ward 1 Councilman Bob McCoy and city attorney Walter Powell sought to block distribution within the city, and Multiple Industries did briefly halt distribution there, it was never officially banned by the city as is sometimes erroneously reported.

Nevertheless, the focused media attention generated publicity for the game and it sold approximately 80,000 copies, twice as many as Bachelor Party and Beat 'Em & Eat 'Em. Atari received numerous complaints about the game however and responded by trying to sue the game's makers. Stuart Kesten, President of American Multiple Industries, stated "our object is not to arouse, our object is to entertain [...] When people play our games, we want them smiling, we want them laughing." The game's designer, Joel Martin, said Custer was "seducing" the maiden and that she was a "willing participant". By April 1983, the game was withdrawn from circulation.

Reception
In 1988, computer gaming magazine Ahoy! called Custer's Revenge "an [affront] to common decency", in contrast to more modern and 'tasteful' adult games. Electronic Gaming Monthly's Seanbaby placed it as number 9 in his "20 worst games of all time" feature.

In 2008, the University of Calgary professor Tom Keenan cited "the hideous Custer's Revenge game", 26 years after its release, in an op-ed piece about current video game violence issues for the Calgary Herald. That same year, the game was credited by Australian PC Magazine as being one of the worst games ever made, while Games.net ranked Custer's victim as fifth on the list of top ten "disturbingly sexual" game characters. In 2010, Custer placed eighth on machinima.com's list of the top perverts in gaming. UGO.com ranked it as tenth on the list of the most racist video games in history in 2010, also ranking the game's General Custer as the second most unsexy video game character of all time in 2012.

title: Custer's Revenge


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Charles John Biddle

Charles John Biddle (April 30, 1819 – September 28, 1873) was an American soldier, lawyer, congressman, and newspaper editor.

Biography
Biddle was born and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Nicholas Biddle, president of the Second Bank of the United States, and nephew of Congressman Richard Biddle. Charles Biddle graduated from Princeton in 1837, where he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. Biddle served in the Mexican–American War, serving as captain and company commander in the Regiment of Voltigeurs and Foot Riflemen. He was brevetted to the rank of major for gallantry in the Battle of Chapultepec. At the close of the war, he returned to Philadelphia to practice law.

In May 1861, following the outbreak of the American Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln's call to arms, he was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the Pennsylvania Reserves, rising in May to the rank of colonel in command of the 42nd Pennsylvania Volunteers Infantry (13th Reserves), also known as the 1st Pennsylvania Rifles. In October of that year he was elected to the Thirty-seventh United States Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Edward J. Morris. He was tendered a commission as a brigadier general, but declined it, and then resigned from the army in February 1862. After the war, he became one of the proprietors and editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia Age, and retained that position for the remainder of his life. His literary work was confined mainly to editorial contributions to the columns of this journal. His only separate publication was The Case of Major André, a carefully prepared essay read before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, which vindicated the action of George Washington. The immediate occasion was a passage in Lord Mahon's History of England that denounced the execution of André as the greatest blot upon Washington's record. By an authority so high as the London Critic, this essay was subsequently pronounced a fair refutation of Lord Mahon's charge.

authors: Михаил Филин

title: Charles John Biddle


text:
Michael Tiemann

Michael Tiemann is an American software developer and executive, serving as vice president of open source affairs at Red Hat, Inc., and former President of the Open Source Initiative.

Biography
He earned a bachelor's degree from the Moore School of Electrical Engineering in 1986 at the University of Pennsylvania.

He co-founded Cygnus Solutions in 1989. His programming contributions to free software include authorship of the GNU C++ compiler and work on the GNU C compiler and the GNU Debugger. Tiemann is featured in the 2001 documentary Revolution OS. Opensource.com profiled him in 2014, calling him one of "open source's great explainers."

He was the chief technical officer of Red Hat. He served on a number of boards, including the Embedded Linux Consortium, the GNOME Foundation advisory board, and the board of directors of ActiveState Tool Corp.

title: Michael Tiemann


text:
Kenny MacAskill

Kenneth Wright MacAskill (born 28 April 1958) is a Scottish politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for East Lothian from 2019 to 2024. He previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Justice from 2007 to 2014 and was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from 1999 to 2016. A former member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), he defected to the Alba Party in 2021 and currently serves as the party's depute leader.

Born in Edinburgh and educated at Linlithgow Academy, MacAskill studied law at the University of Edinburgh and was a senior partner in a law firm in Glasgow. He was a long-standing member of the SNP's National Executive Committee and served as treasurer and vice convener of policy, before being elected at the 1999 Scottish Parliament election. He was convener of the Scottish Parliament Subordinate Legislation Committee from 1999 to 2001.

Following the SNP's victory in 2007, MacAskill was appointed as Cabinet Secretary for Justice in the Scottish Government. In this role, he oversaw the controversial transfer of convicted terrorist Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to his native Libya. MacAskill left office in November 2014 in the Cabinet reshuffle which followed the appointment of Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister of Scotland and stood down from the Scottish Parliament at the 2016 election.

After standing down from the Scottish Parliament, MacAskill was elected to the House of Commons as MP for East Lothian at the 2019 general election, gaining the previously Labour-held seat from Martin Whitfield. In March 2021, MacAskill defected from the SNP to the Alba Party. At the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, he stood on the Alba Party's Lothian regional list but neither he nor his party succeeded in gaining a seat.

At the 2024 general election MacAskill stood in the Alloa and Grangemouth seat. He received 1.5% of the vote share with 638 votes.

Background, early life and career
MacAskill was born in Edinburgh and was educated at Linlithgow Academy before studying law at the University of Edinburgh, gaining an LLB (Hons) degree. After completing his training at a firm in Glasgow, he set up Erskine MacAskill.

He came to prominence inside the SNP through his activities in the left wing 79 Group and became a party office bearer. In the 1980s he led the "Can't Pay, Won't Pay" campaign in opposition to the Poll Tax. It was widely known that he often disagreed politically with Alex Salmond, leader of the SNP through the 1990s, and he was at one stage viewed as belonging to the SNP Fundamentalist camp, being perceived to be allied to figures such as Jim Sillars and Alex Neil within the party.

Member of the Scottish Parliament (1999–2016)
After MacAskill became an MSP in 1999 upon the establishment of the Scottish Parliament as a regional list member for the Lothians he moderated his political position, seeing the development of the Scottish Parliament as the most achievable route for Scotland to become an independent nation state. In this respect he was regarded as having adopted a gradualist approach to Scottish independence in place of his previous fundamentalist position. He was one of former SNP leader John Swinney's closest supporters.

In 1999 MacAskill was detained in London before the Euro 2000 second leg play-off match between Scotland and England on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly. As he was not charged with any crime the incident did not affect his position within the SNP and he won re-election at the 2003 election.

In 2004, after John Swinney stood down as SNP party leader, Kenny MacAskill backed the joint leadership ticket of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. He had initially intended to stand for deputy leader himself on a joint ticket with Nicola Sturgeon, who would have sought the leadership. He gave way when Salmond reconsidered his earlier decision not to seek re-election to the leadership. Upon their election as leader and deputy leader respectively, MacAskill was selected to be Deputy Leader of the SNP in the Scottish Parliament. He served in the SNP Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning from 2001 to 2003, Shadow Minister for Transport and Telecommunications from 2003 to 2004 and Shadow Minister for Justice from 2004 to 2007.

MacAskill authored a book, Building a Nation – Post Devolution Nationalism in Scotland, which was launched at the SNP's 2004 annual conference in Inverness. He has since edited another book Agenda for a New Scotland – Visions of Scotland 2020, and has co-authored Global Scots – Voices From Afar with former First Minister Henry McLeish.

Cabinet Secretary for Justice (2007–2014)
For the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, MacAskill was top of the SNP's party list for the Lothians region. He stood in the Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency, winning that seat from Scottish Labour with a 13.3% swing to give a majority of 1,382. This was the first time the SNP had ever won a parliamentary seat in Edinburgh. After the SNP's victory at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, MacAskill became the Cabinet Secretary for Justice.

One of MacAskill's first acts as a cabinet secretary was to lift the ban on alcohol sales at international rugby union games held at Murrayfield Stadium.

MacAskill also said that the 2007 terror attack on Glasgow Airport was not committed by 'home-grown' terrorists, in that the suspects were not "born or bred" in Scotland but had merely lived in the country for a "period of time".

MacAskill won election to a redrawn constituency of Edinburgh Eastern in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election. Despite notionally facing a deficit of 550 votes, MacAskill won by over 2,000 votes.

Pan Am Flight 103
On 19 August 2009, MacAskill rejected an application by Libya to transfer to their custody Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, convicted of the Pan Am Flight 103 bomb that killed 270 people, acknowledging that "the American families and Government had an expectation or were led to believe that there would be no prisoner transfer." The following day, on 20 August, MacAskill authorised al-Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds. Megrahi had served 8½ years of a life sentence, but had developed terminal prostate cancer. The Justice Secretary has discretionary authority to order such a release, and MacAskill took sole responsibility for the decision. Megrahi died on 20 May 2012.

In the United States, where 180 of the 270 victims came from, the decision met with broad hostility. Political figures including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke out against it, and families of the victims expressed indignation over the decision. FBI director Robert Mueller, who had been a lead investigator in the 1988 bombing, wrote a highly critical open letter to MacAskill. Former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish was critical of Mueller's attack on the decision.

In Britain, reaction was divided. Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray, former First Minister Jack McConnell, and former Scottish Office minister Brian Wilson criticised the decision,    while Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, former Labour MP Tam Dalyell and former British ambassador to Libya Richard Dalton publicly supported it. Ian Galloway and Mario Conti, representatives of the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church respectively, also spoke in favour of the release.

John Mosey, a priest who lost a daughter on Pan Am Flight 103, expressed his disappointment that halting Megrahi's appeal before it went to court meant that the public would never hear "this important evidence — the six separate grounds for appeal that the SCCRC felt were important enough to put forward, that could show that there’s been a miscarriage of justice." Saif al-Islam Gaddafi reiterated his belief in Megrahi's innocence commenting that the Justice Secretary had "made the right decision" and that history would prove this to be the case. A letter in support of MacAskill's decision was sent to the Scottish Government on behalf of former South African President Nelson Mandela.

The Scottish Parliament was recalled from its summer break, for the third time since its creation, to receive a statement from and question MacAskill. The opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament passed amendments criticising the decision and the way it was made, but no motions of confidence in MacAskill or the Scottish Government were tabled.

After MacAskill won re-election to the Scottish Parliament in 2011, an SNP supporter said that the decision had been mentioned by very few voters during the election campaign.

Member of Parliament (2019-2024)
MacAskill was chosen as the SNP candidate for East Lothian at the 2019 UK general election. He was subsequently elected, overturning a 3,083 majority and defeating Labour's Martin Whitfield.

In April 2020, MacAskill called for the office of Lord Advocate to be split – similarly to the English and Welsh system of Attorney General for England and Wales and Director of Public Prosecutions – in a response to the trial of former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

In February 2020, MacAskill authored Radical Scotland – Uncovering Scotland's radical history – from the French Revolutionary era to the 1820 Rising, published by Biteback.

Following the launch of the Alba Party in March 2021, in advance of the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, MacAskill announced that he was leaving the SNP to join Alba, making him their first sitting representative. He was reported as planning to stand for election to Holyrood in a regional list seat. The SNP called on him to resign and trigger a by-election, describing his defection as "somewhat of a relief". In the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, he stood on Alba's Lothian regional list but neither he nor his party succeeded in gaining any seats. Later that year, at the party's inaugural conference, he was elected as depute leader.

On 13 July 2022, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle ejected MacAskill and his Alba colleague Neale Hanvey (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath) from the House of Commons for disrupting the start of Prime Minister's Questions. The two had been protesting about the refusal to grant consent for a second referendum on Scottish independence. As both Members were named by the Speaker, by convention MacAskill and Hanvey were handed five-day suspensions from the House of Commons.

At the 2024 general election, MacAskill switched constituencies to instead stand for the new Alloa and Grangemouth seat, which was won by Brian Leishman of the Labour Party, amidst a large swing towards Labour across Scotland. MacAskill received 638 votes, 1.5% of the votes cast.

Personal life
MacAskill lives in Moray, where he has a house, and he also maintains a flat in East Lothian. He has two sons.

title: Kenny MacAskill


text:
Roseanna Cunningham

Roseanna Cunningham (born 27 July 1951) is a retired Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform from 2016 to 2021. She was previously Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training from 2014 until 2016.

She served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Perth from 1999 to 2011, and then for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire from 2011 to 2021. She was formerly Member of Parliament (MP) for Perth and Kinross from 1995 to 1997, then for Perth from 1997 to 2001.

Early life, education and legal practice
Cunningham was born on 27 July 1951 in Glasgow to Catherine and Hugh Cunningham, and spent her early years living in East Lothian and Edinburgh. In 1960, she emigrated with her family to Perth in Australia, and completed her schooling at John Curtin High School in Fremantle. As a teenager she became interested in politics, and in 1969 joined the SNP as an overseas member. In 1975 Cunningham graduated from the University of Western Australia with a BA Hons in politics. She returned to Scotland in 1976.

She worked as a research assistant at SNP headquarters from 1977 to 1979, and was a member of the left-wing 79 Group inside the SNP during the early 1980s, but avoided expulsion as she was not a member of its steering committee (future SNP leader Alex Salmond by contrast who served on the 79 Group committee was expelled, while Margo MacDonald resigned from the party in protest before she could be expelled).

Cunningham returned to university in 1980, graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 1982 with a Bachelor of Laws degree, followed in 1983 by a Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Aberdeen. She worked as a solicitor for Dumbarton District Council and Glasgow District Council. After a brief period in private practice, she was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1990.

Political career
At the 1992 general election Cunningham stood in the Perth and Kinross constituency, losing by around 2,000 votes.

In 1995 she gained the seat in the Perth and Kinross by-election, succeeding the recently deceased Conservative MP, Sir Nicholas Fairbairn. She had initially been omitted from the SNP's candidate shortlist over her brief relationship in the 1970s with Donald Bain, the then husband of SNP MP Margaret Ewing, on the grounds that the issue could prove an embarrassment to the party. Cunningham said the affair had begun after Bain and Ewing had separated. She was put back in contention following an intervention by the then party leader Alex Salmond, and after Ewing made clear she had no objection to Cunningham's candidature. In the 1997 election, she stood for the Perth constituency and was elected.

In 1999 she became the MSP for Perth. In 2000, she was elected the SNP Senior Vice-Convener (depute leader). Also in that year, she helped establish the Scottish Left Review publication. She stood down as an MP in 2001, to concentrate on the Scottish Parliament.

John Swinney announced his resignation as leader of the SNP on 22 June 2004, and on the same day, Cunningham announced that she would be a candidate in the subsequent election for the party leadership. In the early stages of the campaign, she appeared to be the clear front-runner, but former leader Alex Salmond entered the race just before nominations closed and Cunningham finished a distant second.

In December 2006, she led an unsuccessful attempt to prevent same-sex couples from gaining the right to adopt children, despite having previously been named ScotsGay Parliamentarian of the Year in 1998. When legislation to introduce same-sex marriage in Scotland was passed by the Scottish Parliament in February 2014, she voted against the bill.

In the first reshuffle of the SNP Government in February 2009, Cunningham was appointed as Minister for the Environment. In December 2010, she also took on portfolio responsibility for climate change, becoming Minister for the Environment and Climate Change. After the 2011 election, which saw an SNP landslide, she was appointed Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs with special responsibility for tackling sectarianism.

In Nicola Sturgeon's first reshuffle in November 2014, she was promoted to Cabinet as Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training.

She announced on 21 August 2020 that she would step down as an MSP in the 2021 Scottish election.

title: Roseanna Cunningham