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Rockstar Games

Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Founding members of the company were Terry Donovan, Gary Foreman, Dan and Sam Houser, and Jamie King, who worked for Take-Two at the time, and of which the Houser brothers were previously executives at BMG Interactive. Sam Houser heads the studio as president.

Since 1999, several companies acquired by or established under Take-Two have become part of Rockstar Games, such as Rockstar Canada (later renamed Rockstar Toronto) becoming the first one in 1999, and Rockstar Dundee the most recent in 2020. All companies organized under Rockstar Games bear the "Rockstar" name and logo. In this context, Rockstar Games is sometimes also referred to as Rockstar New York, Rockstar NY or Rockstar NYC. Rockstar Games also sports a motion capture studio in Bethpage, New York.

Rockstar Games predominantly publishes games in the action-adventure genre, while racing games also saw success for the company. One of such action-adventure game franchises is Grand Theft Auto, which Rockstar Games took over from BMG Interactive, which published the series' original 1997 entry. The most recent main game in the series, Grand Theft Auto V, has sold over 200 million copies since its release in September 2013, making it the second-best-selling video game of all time. Other popular franchises published by Rockstar Games are Red Dead, Midnight Club, Max Payne, and Manhunt.

History

On March 12, 1998, Take-Two Interactive announced its acquisition of the assets of dormant British video game publisher BMG Interactive from BMG Entertainment (a unit of Bertelsmann). In exchange, Take-Two was to issue 1.85 million shares (around 16%) of its common stock to BMG Entertainment. Through this acquisition, Take-Two obtained several of BMG Interactive's former intellectual properties, including DMA Design's Grand Theft Auto and Space Station Silicon Valley. The deal was announced to have closed on March 25. Three BMG Interactive executives—Dan Houser, Sam Houser, and Jamie King—as well as Gary Foreman of BMG Interactive and Terry Donovan of BMG Entertainment's Arista Records record label, subsequently moved to New York City to work for Take-Two Interactive. In a restructuring announced that April, Sam Houser was appointed as Take-Two's "vice president of worldwide product development". In December 1998, the Houser brothers, Donovan and King established Rockstar Games as the "high-end" publishing label of Take-Two. The formation was formally announced on January 22, 1999.

In January 2007, Take-Two announced that Donovan, until then managing director for Rockstar Games, had left the company following a four-month leave of absence. He was succeeded by Gary Dale, who became chief operating officer. Dale previously worked with the Houser brothers and King at BMG Interactive, but left the company when it was acquired by Take-Two Interactive, and joined Capcom's European operations as managing director in 2003.

As of February 2014, Rockstar Games titles have shipped more than 250 million copies, the largest franchise being the Grand Theft Auto series, which alone has shipments of at least 250 million as of November 2016. Grand Theft Auto V shipped the highest number of units within the series' and the company's history, with over 170 million copies, making it the second best-selling video game of all time.

At the 10th British Academy Games Awards in March 2014, Rockstar Games was honored with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award for "creating intricately layered interactive worlds that have kept the company at the forefront of the gaming industry for over a decade, both critically and commercially". Jennifer Kolbe, who started at the front desk of Take-Two, acts as Rockstar Games' head of publishing and oversees all development studios. Simon Ramsey is the company's head of PR and communications.

In May 2019, Rockstar Games announced that they were acquiring Dhruva Interactive from Starbreeze Studios for US$7.9 million, with the sale being finalized later that month and the Dhruva team merged into Rockstar India.

In September 2019, Rockstar Games announced that they had released their own game launcher, a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications service. After having taken an extended break following the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 in early 2019, Dan Houser left Rockstar Games on March 11, 2020.

The company acquired the Scottish studio Ruffian Games in October 2020, rebranding the studio as Rockstar Dundee.

In September 2022, Rockstar was the target of a data breach in which 90 videos from the development of Grand Theft Auto VI were leaked. Rockstar described the leak as a "network intrusion", and noted that it was "extremely disappointed" by the manner in which the game was first demonstrated, but that it did not anticipate long-term effects on development.

In August 2023, Rockstar acquired Cfx.re (CitizenFX), the team behind the modding platforms FiveM and RedM for Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 respectively. Michael Unsworth, vice president of writing, departed the company in 2023 after sixteen years.

Company philosophy
In October 2011, Dan Houser told Famitsu that Rockstar Games was intentionally avoiding developing games in the first-person shooter genre, because "it is in our DNA to avoid doing what other companies are doing ... the goalpoint of Rockstar is to have the players really feel what we're trying to do." Houser went on to say "Our games up to now have been different from any genre that existed at the time; we made new genres by ourselves with games like the GTA series. We didn't rely on testimonials in a business textbook to do what we've done. ... If we make the sort of games we want to play, then we believe people are going to buy them."

The company has been involved with charitable work ranging from supporting Movember and offering appearances in games as a raffle prize, to charity live streams.

Rockstar Loft
In 1999, Donovan and Sam Houser cooperated with John Davis to establish the Rockstar Loft club night. Davis had co-founded and been the promoter for Body & Soul, a "no-guestlist, no velvet rope party" held weekly at Tribeca's Club Vinyl. When Rockstar Games' founder originally arrived in New York City, former DJ Donovan was particularly impressed with Body & Soul, and they became close with the club night's team, including Davis and its other founder, DJ François K. Davis had sought to establish further such events, while Donovan and Houser wanted to get publicity for the young Rockstar Games, thus they established Rockstar Loft. According to Donovan, the event was to serve as an alternative those that were overly expensive or had attendees "bulldozed by security". He precluded video game installations at the venue to focus on the music and highlight the artists.

As it could not afford frequent television advertisements, Rockstar Games resorted to guerrilla marketing teams distributing fly posters and stickers. Tickets for Rockstar Loft were originally not sold in advance. Instead, potential guests were to call a phone number and face seven questions regarding their personality. If answered to the liking of the operator, the caller would receive their entry ticket in the mail. The first Rockstar Loft was held in western Chelsea, Manhattan, on October 30, 1999, with Andi Hanley (a regular of Body & Soul), Bob Sinclar, and Dimitri from Paris as headlining DJs. Thereafter, it was held "every few months", with one happening on February 19, 2000. Later that year, Rockstar Loft was wound down.

Films
Kirk Ewing—a friend of the Houser brothers who had worked with Rockstar Games on State of Emergency—stated that, around the release of Grand Theft Auto III in 2001, Rockstar Games had been offered US$5 million for a film based on the Grand Theft Auto franchise. He had received a phone call from a producer in Los Angeles requesting the rights for a film to be directed by Tony Scott of Top Gun and starring rapper Eminem. When he relayed this proposal to Sam Houser, Houser said that he was not interested. In 2004, Rockstar Games produced the sports drama film The Football Factory. Based on the book of the same name by John King, the film revolves around organized football hooliganism in the United Kingdom. The company also produced Sunday Driver, a documentary about the Majestics Lowrider Club in Compton, California, and The Introduction, an animated film that details the events leading up to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Both were bundled with the game's special edition released in 2005.

CircoLoco Records
In May 2021, Rockstar Games launched the record label CircoLoco Records in collaboration with Circoloco, an Ibiza-based dance party. The collaboration grew from a friendship between Sam Houser and Circoloco's promoter, Antonio Carbonaro. According to Nick Benedetti, the party's manager, Rockstar Games and Circoloco intended to "contribute something new and meaningful" to the dance music scene, which had faced hardships because of the lockdowns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. CircoLoco Records' first release, Monday Dreamin', was released as a series of extended plays starting in June 2021.

Studios
Outside of its New York City headquarters, Rockstar Games operates nine subsidiary studios. All studios use the Rockstar Games logo with individual colors. As of 2018, the company employs more than 2,000 people across all offices. The studios frequently collaborate and were collectively credited as Rockstar Studios in Max Payne 3, and simply as Rockstar Games in Red Dead Redemption 2.

RAGE
Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) is a game engine developed by the Rockstar San Diego-internal RAGE Technology Group, created to facilitate game development on all platforms since 2006. RAGE is used in most of Rockstar Games's titles for personal computers and consoles, including Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto IV, Max Payne 3, Grand Theft Auto V, and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Rockstar Games Social Club
Rockstar Games Social Club is an online gaming service created by Rockstar Games for authentication and multiplayer applications within their games. Most branding relating to Social Club was removed from Rockstar's website by November 2023.

Rockstar Games Launcher
Rockstar Games released its own games launcher for Windows on September 17, 2019. The launcher integrates with the user's Social Club account, allowing them to download and buy games that they have previously purchased through Rockstar's store, as well as launch Rockstar games available from other services, like Steam, from the launcher.

title: Rockstar Games


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Barking, London

Barking is a riverside town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It is 9.3 mi east of Charing Cross. The total population of Barking was 59,068 at the 2011 census. In addition to an extensive and fairly low-density residential area, the town centre forms a large retail and commercial district, currently a focus for regeneration. The former industrial lands to the south are being redeveloped as Barking Riverside.

Toponymy
The name Barking came from Anglo-Saxon Berecingas, meaning either "the settlement of the followers or descendants of a man called Bereca" or "the settlement by the birch trees". In AD 735 the area was Berecingum and was known to mean "dwellers among the birch trees". By AD 1086, it had become Berchingae as evidenced by the manor's entry in the Domesday Book of that year.

Manor of Barking
Barking was a huge Manor (landholding), first mentioned in a charter in 735 AD (though the Abbey is believed to have been founded in 666 AD). The Manor covered the areas now known as Barking, Dagenham and Ilford. The Manor was held by the Nunnery of Barking.

The Fanshawes were a prominent local family who were lords of the manor of Barking from 1628 to 1857. They owned and lived in a number of manor houses in the borough, including Valence House, Jenkins, Parsloes and Faulks, and gifted the Leet House to the residents of Barking.

Parishes
The Parishes of England were, with a few exceptions, fixed for around 700 years from the late 12th century onwards. The huge Manor of Barking was served by two Ancient Parishes, Barking and Dagenham. This reversed the usual situation (for smaller, and even quite large Manors) where a parish would serve one or more manors. As with other manors, the area held by the declined over time, but the parish boundaries based on its former extent remained constant.

The Parish of Barking covered the areas now known as Barking and Ilford. Barking was a large ancient parish of 12307 acre in the Becontree hundred of Essex. It was divided into the wards of Chadwell, Ilford, Ripple and Town. A local board was formed for Town ward in 1882 and it was extended to cover Ripple ward in 1885. In 1888 Ilford and Chadwell were split off as a new parish of Ilford, leaving a residual parish of 3814 acre.

Modern local government
The parish became Barking Town Urban District in 1894 and the local board became an urban district council. The urban district was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Barking in 1931. It was abolished in 1965 and split, with the majority merged with the former area of the Municipal Borough of Dagenham to form the London Borough of Barking. The part west of the River Roding, which included part of Beckton, became part of the London Borough of Newham. In 1980 the borough was renamed Barking and Dagenham.

History
Historically, Barking was an ancient parish that straddled the River Roding in the Becontree Hundred and historic county of Essex. It underwent a shift from fishing and farming to market gardening and industrial development on the River Thames. Barking railway station opened in 1854 and has been served by the London Underground since 1908. As part of the suburban growth of London in the 20th century, The Urban District of Barking significantly expanded and increased in population, primarily due to the development of the London County Council estate at Becontree in the 1920s, and became a municipal borough in 1931, and part of Greater London in 1965.

Abbey
The manor of Barking was the site of Barking Abbey, a nunnery founded in 666 by Eorcenwald, Bishop of London, destroyed by the Danes and reconstructed in 970 by King Edgar. The celebrated writer Marie de France may have been abbess of the nunnery in the late 12th century. At the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536, Barking Abbey was demolished; the parish church of St Margaret, some walling and foundations are all that remain. The parish church is an example of Norman architecture; Captain James Cook married Elizabeth Batts of Shadwell there in 1762, and it is the burial place of many members of the Fanshawe family of Parsloes Manor.

Market
A charter issued between 1175 and 1179 confirms the ancient market right. The market declined in the 18th century but has since been revived.

Architecture: historic buildings
St Margaret's Church is a grade I listed building in the Abbey Green area of the Town Centre, dating back to the 13th century. It is built within the grounds of Barking Abbey, a former royal monastery, whose ruins are recognisable for its partially restored Grade-II* Listed Curfew Tower, which features on the coat of arms of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

Eastbury Manor House in Barking is a Grade I listed 16th century Elizabethan manor house and museum run by the National Trust.

Fishing
Fishing was the most important industry from the 14th until the mid-19th centuries. Salt water fishing began before 1320, when too fine nets were seized by City authorities, but expanded greatly from the 16th century. Fisher Street (now the southern part of Abbey Road) was named after the fishing community there. From about 1775 welled and dry smacks were used, mostly as cod boats, and rigged as gaff cutters. Fishermen sailed as far as Iceland in the summer. They served Billingsgate Fish Market in the City of London, and moored in Barking Pool. Scymgeour Hewett, born on 7 December 1797, founded the Short Blue Fleet (England's biggest fishing fleet) based in Barking, using smacks out of Barking and east coast ports. Around 1870 this fleet changed to gaff ketches that stayed out at sea for months; to preserve the fish they used ice produced by flooding local fields in winter. Fleeting involved fish being ferried from fishing smacks to gaff cutters by little wooden ferry-boats. The rowers had to stand, as the boats were piled high with fish boxes. Rowers refused to wear their bulky cork lifejackets because it slowed down their rowing. At first the fast 50-foot gaff cutters with great booms projecting beyond the sterns raced the fish to port to get the best prices.

Until about 1870 the trade was mostly in live fish, using welled smacks in which the central section of the hull, between two watertight bulkheads, was pierced to create a 'well' in which seawater could circulate. Cod caught live were lowered into this well, with their swim bladders pierced, and remained alive until the vessel returned to port, when they were transferred to semi-submerged 'chests', effectively cages, which kept them alive until they were ready for sale. At this point they were pulled out and killed with a blow on the head before being despatched to market, where because of their freshness they commanded a high price. People who practised this method of fishing were known as 'codbangers'.

By 1850 there some 220 smacks, employing some 1,370 men and boys. The boats were typically 75 ft long carrying up to 50 tons. During the wars of the 17th and 18th centuries they were often used as fleet auxiliaries by the Royal Navy, based at nearby Chatham Dockyard. The opening of rail links between the North Sea ports and London meant it was quicker to transport fish by train straight to the capital rather than waiting for ships to take the longer route down the east coast and up the River Thames. By the 1850s the Thames was so severely polluted that fish kept in chests quickly died. Consequently, the fishery slipped into decline in the second half of the 19th century. The decline was hastened by a storm in December 1863, off the Dutch coast, which caused the deaths of 60 men and damage estimated at £6000–7000. Many of its leading figures, including Hewett & Co, moved to Great Yarmouth and Grimsby. By 1900 Barking had ceased to be a fishing port, leaving only street and pub names as a reminder. A large modern steel sculpture entitled "The Catch" is another reminder. The sculpture is on the roundabout at the end of Fanshawe Avenue. The local fishing heritage is recorded at Valence House Museum.

Economic development
Boat building has a long history, being used for the repair of some royal ships of Henry VIII. In 1848, 5 shipwrights, 4 rope- and line-makers, 6 sail-makers and 4 mast-, pump-, and block-makers are listed in a local trade directory. Hewett & Co continued in boat building and repair until 1899. Other industries replaced the nautical trades, including jute spinning, paint and chemicals manufacture. By 1878 Daniel de Pass had opened the Barking Guano Works (later de Pass Fertilisers Ltd, part of Fisons) at Creekmouth. Creekmouth was also the site of the major Barking Power Station from 1925 until the 1970s, burning coal shipped in by river; the current station known as Barking is further east near Dagenham Dock. In the 20th century new industrial estates were established, and many local residents came to be employed in the car plant at Dagenham.

Thames disaster
On 3 September 1878 the iron ship Bywell Castle ran into the pleasure steamer SS Princess Alice (1865) in Gallions Reach, downstream of Barking Creek. The paddle steamer was returning from the coast via Sheerness and Gravesend with nearly 800 day-trippers. She broke in two and sank immediately, with the loss of more than 600 lives, the highest single loss of civilian lives in UK territorial waters. At that time there was no official body responsible for marine safety in the Thames; but the official enquiry resolved that the Marine Police Force based at Wapping be equipped with steam launches to replace their rowing boats to help them perform rescues.

Historical pageant
To mark the incorporation of Barking as a municipal borough, a historical pageant featuring over 2000 performers took place in October 1931. Made of ten acts, the Elizabethan section was performed in part by the local Women's Citizens League.

Economy
Vicarage Field Shopping Centre is located on Ripple Road in Barking town centre. It was opened in November 1990.

Geography
Barking is located 9.3 miles (15 km) east of Charing Cross in Central London. It is bordered by Ilford to the north, Dagenham to the east and East Ham to the west.

Town centre
Barking Town Centre is being regenerated through a number of schemes. It is one of the most deprived areas of Barking. The Abbey and Gascoigne wards in the town centre are ranked 823rd and 554th respectively - within the 10% most deprived wards in the country.

The regeneration aims to achieve a more sustainable economy by investing in new quality retail outlets and creating a business centre; and to widen employment prospects, mainly by creating new "retail and business accommodation", to increase the income of both existing and new residents. The regeneration also aims to improve people's skills. This is mainly achieved through the Barking Learning Centre, which aims to improve literacy, numeracy and other basic skills people may be lacking due to a previous lack of educational development. It currently acts as a borough-based learning facility. It was officially opened on 10 June 2008 by John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

The town centre development intends to improve the quality and range of housing, aiming to create 4,000 new homes: 25% will be intermediate housing, affordable for local residents to buy. There will be 4,000 socially rented homes, making it easier for first-time buyers and people with low incomes to rent a property. To help make the development more sustainable, all private sector homes were to meet the Government's decency standards by 2010.

Plans for the new town square were unveiled in September 2007. The development is part of the Mayor of London's 100 Public Spaces, and it was completed in 2008, designed by muf architecture/art and Allford Hall Monaghan and Morris. It won the European Prize for Urban Public Space.

Roding Riverside
Roding Riverside is a name given to an area of Barking comprising the stretch of Abbey Road south of St Pauls Road, which runs parallel to the River Roding / Barking Creek and the area between. The quarter is post-industrial. Many buildings are late 20th century or early 21st century residential and commercial buildings, but some are Victorian industrial buildings adapted for use in arts and leisure fields, including a contemporary art gallery (the Laura I Gallery), with a view to regenerating the area in part by drawing out the industrial heritage architecture.

One such Victorian building is a former Malthouse. Adjacent to this building stands a cluster of buildings together styled the Ice House Quarter, which includes a former Ice House and a former Boat House

A new building, Ice House Court references the old Ice House and provides more artist studio space.

Barking Riverside
The Barking Riverside development is part of the London Riverside project, which aims to regenerate the Thames riverside area of East London through new homes, jobs, and services. Barking Riverside consists of 350 acre of brownfield land and therefore needs site clearance and the removal of overhead power lines before it can go ahead. Construction began in 2008, with completion due around 2025. 10,000 homes are to be built, housing around 25,000 people. New transport links will be provided, including East London Transit and the extension of the Docklands Light Railway at Barking Riverside DLR station, and the extension of the Gospel Oak to Barking line of the London Overground from Barking railway station to Barking Riverside, completed in 2022.

Barking and Dagenham Council has said that it does not believe the 10,800-home brownfield development to be viable without improved transport connections, and expects that the Treasury is likely to confirm funding in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Autumn 2013 statement. The development will also provide new public facilities, creating "a variety of living, working, leisure and cultural amenities". Two new primary schools and one secondary school will be built, and the public will have access to two kilometres of Thames river front. The Rivergate Centre, designed by van Heyningen and Haward Architects, provides the civic facilities for the initial phase of Barking Riverside, while a new square and 3FE primary school, which includes embedded community facilities, a nursery, church, flexible office suites for the PCT and Community Development Trust, as well as a MUGA and sports pitches are also planned. As yet unbuilt, the second phase provides 90 flats, local shops and a neighbourhood police post.

Demography
In recent years, as a result of increased levels of immigration, Barking's population has become more multicultural and ethnically diverse, with growing South Asian and African communities forming a significant proportion of the local population. Between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, the White British population in the local borough fell by 38.75 per cent. Local businesses and places of worship reflect Barking's diversity, with churches of various Christian denominations, mosques and gurdwaras serving as major community hubs.

In the 2011 census, the largest ethnic group in Abbey ward (which covers Barking town centre) was Pakistani at 17%, followed by 16% White British, 15% Black African, 13% Indian and 11% Other White. Gascoigne ward (southern Barking) was 26% White British, 26% Black African and 13% Other White. Longbridge ward (eastern Barking) was 35% White British, 18% Bangladeshi and 11% Pakistani.

Barking's population grew steadily after urbanisation began in the late 19th century. Barking's population (if defined as approximating to the Abbey, Eastbury, Gascoigne and Longbridge wards) was 48,340 in 2011.

Education
Primary schools include Northbury Primary School, Eastbury Primary School, St Margaret's Church of England and St Joseph's Roman Catholic.

Secondary schools include Barking Abbey School. Lady Aisha Academy is an independent Muslim Girls Secondary School which opened in September 2011 on Victoria Road.

Transport
The town is situated mostly north of the A13 road and east of the River Roding near its confluence with the River Thames in east London. The Thames View Estate, Barking Reach (a small housing estate) and Barking Riverside are south of the A13. The South Woodford to Barking Relief Road (part of the A406 North Circular Road) runs through the Roding Valley, and access to the town centre is by its junction with the A124, which until the late 1920s was the main route to and from London. Barking station is a local transport hub and is served by the London Underground, London Overground, c2c and London Bus and East London Transit routes. The east of Barking is served by Upney Underground station and the area south of the A13 is served by Barking Riverside railway station. The East London Transit bus rapid transit has a station beside the Vicarage Field Shopping Centre. The western end of the Yiwu-London railway line from China to the UK is located in Barking at the DB Eurohub. It ran its first service in January 2017.

Music
Neil Young recorded two tracks for his classic album Harvest, "A Man Needs a Maid" and "There's a World" with the London Symphony Orchestra at Barking Assembly Hall (now the Broadway theatre), released in 1972.

Electronic band Underworld named their 2010 album Barking after the town. The band are associated with nearby Romford. The artist Ramz wrote a song called "Barking" in 2017.

Local media
Bedrock is the local hospital radio service available online to the local area and broadcasting a range of health-related information focused on the local King George Hospital in Goodmayes and Queen's Hospital in Romford.

The Barking & Dagenham Post provides local news in print and online.

Sport
Barking F.C. are a non-league side. The team merged with East Ham F.C. to form Barking & East Ham United in 2001. This club later struggled and went out of business, but Barking F.C. was later reformed once again. Barking RFC are the town's rugby union team. Cricket, basketball and hockey are also popular sports in the area. A Parkrun takes place in Barking Park.

Public art works
Barking Town Centre has a number of recently commissioned sculptures and public art works.

In 2007, two small stones from remains of the medieval London Bridge were joined in a sculpture in front of St Margaret's church facing the Barking Abbey ruins as part of several public artworks placed in Barking Town Centre by artist Joost Van Santen.

Notable people
Notable footballers from Barking include former England captains and defenders Bobby Moore and John Terry. The successful racing driver Scott Malvern who has won British and European Championships in Formula Ford and Formula Renault was born in Barking Hospital. Jason Leonard, who won 119 caps as a rugby union prop forward, was born in Barking and began his club career at Barking RFC.

The singer-songwriter and activist Billy Bragg was born in Barking, as was U2 guitarist The Edge, and singer Megan McKenna.

Actor Danny Lee Wynter was born in Barking.

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

title: Barking, London


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Audley's Cross

Audley's Cross is a cross sited in Blore Heath, Staffordshire to mark the spot on which James Touchet, Lord Audley was killed at the battle of Blore Heath in 1459.

A cross was erected on the spot where Audley was reported to have been killed after the battle, and replaced with the current stone cross in 1765, which was renovated in 1959 on the 500th anniversary of the battle.

The inscription on the cross reads:

''On this spot was fought the Battle of Blore Heath 1459. Lord Audley, who commanded the Lancastrian forces was defeated and slain. This monument was restored by Tyrley Parish Council to mark the 500th anniversary of the battle''

title: Audley's Cross


text:
Makarios III

Makarios III (Μακάριος Γ΄; born Michael Christodoulou Mouskos [Μιχαήλ Χριστοδούλου Μούσκος]; 13 August 1913 – 3 August 1977) was a Greek Cypriot archbishop, primate, statesman and politician, who served as the first President of Cyprus between 1960 and July 1974, with a second term between December 1974 and 1977. He was also the Archbishop of the autocephalous Church of Cyprus from 1950 to 1977.

He is widely regarded as the founding father, or "Ethnarch", of the Republic of Cyprus, leading its transition from British colonial rule.

Early life, studies and Church career (1913–1950)
Michael Christodoulou Mouskos was born in Panayia village in the Paphos District. In 1926, aged 13, he was admitted to Kykkos Monastery as a novice. At age 20 he was sent to the Pancyprian Gymnasium in Nicosia where he completed his secondary education in 1936. He studied theology and law at the University of Athens during World War II, graduating in 1942. He took up the duties of a priest in the Cypriot Orthodox Church while sustaining an interest in academic theology; he received a World Council of Churches scholarship to undertake further study at Boston University in Massachusetts.

In 1948, while still studying at Boston, he was elected Bishop of Kition against his will. Mouskos adopted, as his clerical name, an old Greek given name Makários (Μακάριος) meaning "happy, fortunate, blessed". He then returned to Cyprus. Like many public figures in the Greek Cypriot community in Cyprus, in the 1940s and 1950s he was an active supporter of enosis, the union of Cyprus with Greece.

Enosis and EOKA (1950–1955)
On 18 September 1950, Makarios, only 37 years old, was elected Archbishop of Cyprus. In this role he was not only the official head of the Orthodox Church in Cyprus, but became the Ethnarch, de facto national leader of Cypriots. This highly influential position put Makarios at the centre of Cypriot politics.

During the 1950s, Makarios embraced his dual role as Archbishop and Ethnarch with enthusiasm and became a very popular figure among Greek Cypriots. He soon became a leading advocate for enosis (the unification of Cyprus with Greece), and during the early part of the decade he maintained close links with the Greek government. In August 1954, partly at Makarios' instigation, Greece began to raise the question of Cyprus at the United Nations, arguing for the principle of self-determination to be applied to Cyprus. This was viewed by advocates of enosis as likely to result in the voluntary union of Cyprus with Greece following a public referendum.

However, the British government was reluctant to decolonise the island which had become their new headquarters for the Middle East. In 1955, a pro-enosis organization was formed under the banner of Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (National Organization of Cypriot Fighters), or EOKA. This was a typical independence movement of the period. Makarios undoubtedly had common political ground with EOKA and was acquainted with its leader, the Greek-Cypriot soldier and politician George Grivas, but the extent of his involvement is unclear and disputed. In later life he categorically denied any involvement in the violent resistance undertaken by EOKA.

Exile, escalation and Taksim (1955–1960)
On 20 August 1955, Greece submitted a petition to the United Nations requesting the application of the principle of self-determination to the people of Cyprus. After that, the colonial government of Cyprus enforced the anti-sedition laws for the purpose of preventing or suppressing demonstrations in favor of union with Greece; but the archbishop defied them and continued demanding self-determination for Cyprus.

In October 1955, with the security situation deteriorating, the British governor, Sir John Harding, opened talks on the island's future. By this stage, Makarios had become closely identified with the insurgency, and talks broke up without any agreement in early 1956. Makarios, vilified in the British press and viewed with suspicion by the British authorities, was abducted by Special Branch officers while attempting to board a flight at Nicosia airport. The joint police/military plan, codenamed Operation Apollo, saw Makarios exiled to Mahe Island in the Seychelles on 9 March 1956, as a 'guest' of Sir William Addis, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Seychelles. The Archbishop and his staff were flown to Aden and then on to Mombasa. At the Kenyan port the party were embarked in the East African Naval Vessel Rosalind, escorted by the frigate HMS Loch Fada. The flotilla arrived in Port Victoria on 14 March.

In the latter years of the 1950s, the Turkish Cypriot community first began to float the idea of Taksim or partition, as a counterweight to the Greek ideal of enosis or union. Advocates of Taksim felt that the Turkish Cypriot community would be persecuted in a Greek Cyprus, and that only by keeping part of the island under either British or Turkish sovereignty could the safety of the Turkish Cypriots be guaranteed. In this way the Cyprus dispute became increasingly polarized between two communities with opposing visions of the future of the island.

Makarios was released from exile after a year, although he was still forbidden to return to Cyprus. He went instead to Athens, where he was rapturously received. Basing himself in the Greek capital, he continued to work for enosis. During the following two years he attended the General Assembly of the United Nations where the Cyprus question was discussed; and he worked hard to achieve union with Greece.

Under the premiership of Constantine Karamanlis in Greece, the goal of enosis was gradually abandoned in favour of Cypriot independence. Negotiations in 1958 generated the Zurich Agreement as a basis for a deal on independence, and Makarios was invited to London in 1959 to fine-tune the plan. Makarios at first refused to accept the plan. The reversal of his self-determination or enosis stance, and his eventual agreement to sign the conditions for the independence of Cyprus, have been attributed to blackmail on behalf of the Greek and British governments.

A 1965 article in the Western Political Quarterly described the constitution as "wobbly", and attributed the civil conflict of 1963 to this quality.

On 1 March 1959, the archbishop returned to Cyprus to an unprecedented reception in Nicosia, where almost two-thirds of the adult Greek Cypriot population turned out to welcome him. Presidential elections were held on 13 December 1959, in which Makarios defeated his rival, lawyer Ioannis Klerides, father of future president and Makarios ally Glafkos Klerides, receiving two-thirds of the vote. Makarios was to become the political leader of all Cyprus as well as the communal leader of the Greek Cypriots.

Primacy and presidency (1960–1963)

After his election Makarios, together with the vice-president-elect, Fazıl Küçük, continued to draw up plans for Cyprus's future. By now, Makarios had accepted that enosis was not to be, and that the only outcome which could secure harmony in Cyprus was robust independence. Taking office on 16 August 1960, the day the Union Flag was lowered in Nicosia, Makarios moved towards the moderate centre of Cypriot politics and now pursued a policy of non-alignment, cultivating good relations with Turkey as well as Greece and becoming a high-profile member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

In March 1961, Cyprus was admitted as a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations and Makarios represented the island at the 1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference. He attended the 1st Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade in September 1961, and troubled the governments in London and Washington, D.C. with his lukewarm policy towards the West. During his stay in Belgrade, alongside the conference he also led the liturgical celebration at the St. Michael's Cathedral of the Serbian Orthodox Church. This was seen in the U.S. as demonstrating a tendency towards communism; Makarios was now being vilified in the American press as the "Castro of the Mediterranean" although he had by now been rehabilitated in the British press and was affectionately nicknamed "Black Mak" on account of his clerical garb.

But the idea of an independent path for Cyprus had not taken root among the general public at home. There was increasing acrimony between Turkish and Greek Cypriots about the workings of the constitution, and Makarios was forced to act to salvage the machinery of state from imminent collapse. In November 1963, Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the Constitution, which would free many public offices from the ethnic restrictions agreed in London and Zurich. This, he argued, would allow the government to operate more efficiently, and bring together the communities by dissolving rigid inter-ethnic legal boundaries. However, the amendments were seen by many Turkish Cypriots as threatening constitutional protections against domination by the majority Greek Cypriots.

In response to Makarios' proposals, most Turkish Cypriots in public office, including Vice-President Küçük, resigned; large numbers of Turkish Cypriots moved out of ethnically mixed areas into villages and towns where the population was already largely Turkish Cypriot. There is still dispute over the motives for this, some arguing that it was made necessary by the intimidation of the Turkish Cypriots by the Greek Cypriots; others suggest that the Turkish community was sabotaging the Cypriot settlement and already preparing for partition by Turkey. By the end of 1963, intercommunal violence had broken out once again.

Makarios and the Cyprus problem (1964–1977)
The political landscape in Cyprus remained intractable. UN peacekeeping operations (UNFICYP) commenced in 1964 and helped to soothe, but not solve, the situation. Makarios continued his high-profile neutrality, but ultimately failed either to reassure the Turkish Cypriots that they were safe in an independent Cyprus, or to convince the Greek Cypriots that independence was a satisfactory alternative to assimilation within a Greater Greece.

President Makarios, seeking a fresh mandate from his constituency, announced in January 1968 that elections would be held during February. Makarios received 220,911 votes (about 96 percent), and his opponent, Takis Evdokas, who ran on a platform for unification with Greece, received 8,577 votes. Even though there were 16,215 abstentions, Makarios' overwhelming victory was seen as a massive endorsement of his personal leadership and of an independent Cyprus. At his investiture, the president stated that the Cyprus problem could not be solved by force, but had to be worked out within the framework of the UN. He also said that he and his followers wanted to live peacefully in a unitary state where all citizens enjoyed equal rights. Some Cypriots opposed Makarios' conciliatory stance (and there was an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate him in 1970).

In 1967, a military junta seized power in Athens, and the relationship between the regime and Makarios was tense. Makarios held that the regime undermined his authority by supporting paramilitary organizations committed to enosis.

During the summer of 1971, tension built up between the two Cypriot communities, and incidents became more numerous. Sometime in the late summer or early autumn, Grivas (who had attacked Makarios as a traitor in an Athens newspaper) returned secretly to the island and began to rebuild his guerrilla organization, which became known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B, aka EOKA B). Three new newspapers advocating enosis were also established; all of these activities were funded by the military junta in Greece.

The junta probably would have agreed to some form of partition similar to the Acheson Plan to settle the Cyprus question, but it faced rejection by Makarios. The overthrow of Makarios became the primary objective, and the junta backed Grivas toward that end. From hiding, Grivas directed terrorist attacks and propaganda assaults that shook the Makarios government, but the president remained both a powerful and popular leader.

Relations between Nicosia and Athens were so bad that the colonels of the Greek junta, recognizing that they had Makarios in a perilous position, issued an ultimatum to him. They demanded that he purge his government of ministers who had been critical of the junta. Mass demonstrations proved that Makarios had the people behind him. In the end, however, Makarios bowed to Greek pressure and reshuffled the cabinet.

Another element working against Makarios was the fact that most officers of the Cypriot National Guard were Greek regulars who supported the junta, and they embraced its desire to remove him from office and achieve some degree of enosis. The veteran Grivas also continued to be a threat to the archbishop. He remained powerful and to some extent was independent of the junta that had permitted his return to Cyprus. While the Greek colonels were at times prepared to make a deal with Turkey about Cyprus, Grivas was ferociously opposed to any arrangement that did not lead to complete enosis.

In the spring of 1972, Makarios faced an attack from another quarter. The three bishops of the Church of Cyprus demanded that he resign as president, stating that his temporal duties violated canon law. Makarios foiled the three bishops and had them defrocked in the summer of 1973. Before choosing their replacements, he increased the number of bishops to five, thereby reducing the power of individual bishops.

As time progressed Grivas' pursuit of enosis through guerrilla tactics with the use of the EOKA-B's paramilitary organisation failed to force Makarios to follow the policy of self-determination-union with Greece and led to a period of armed civil war in Cyprus among the Greek-Cypriot community. By the end of 1973 Makarios forces had won the civil struggle and Grivas was in a desperate position. In November 1973, Dimitrios Ioannidis, the hardliner nationalist brigadier, overthrew Georgios Papadopoulos (Greece's President since 1967) and established the Second Junta, with himself as the "invisible dictator". Grivas tried to contact the new regime in Greece in the end of 1973; but Ioannidis refused to give any immediate indication as to what his intentions in Cyprus were. On 27 January 1974, Grivas died of a heart attack, uncertain to the end of Ioannidis' plans.

Meanwhile Makarios took advantage of Grivas' demise by granting an amnesty to the dead leader's followers. He hoped and believed that with Grivas gone, EOKA-B would disappear as a guerrilla force and could be politically tamed. Numerous EOKA-B members did actually accept the amnesty's terms, but this merely increased the hardliners' influence within the remainder of the movement. Ioannidis finally disclosed his aims: he imposed on the organisation a secret memorandum, by which EOKA-B would be committed to deposing Makarios.

Deposition and return
On 3 May 1974, Makarios sent the Greek government a letter that identified certain Greek military officers stationed in Cyprus as undermining the Cypriot government. The Greek regime responded that it would withdraw the officers in question. In the second half of June 1974, Makarios decided to take the initiative and challenge Athens directly. He believed that he could eliminate the junta's control of Cyprus by forcing the Cypriot National Guard to remain loyal to himself. On 2 July 1974 he wrote to the Athens colonels a letter which demanded that all Greek officers depart from the island within 19 days. Greek Foreign Minister Spyridon Tetenes suggested, as a compromise, that Makarios personally select the substitute officers from a roster of Greek officers; however Makarios refused this. On 11 July, Glafkos Klerides (by this stage the speaker of the Cypriot parliament) visited Makarios in an unsuccessful attempt to promote a solution.

Four days later, Ioannidis took Makarios by surprise by organizing a coup d'état in Nicosia at 8.15 am, when Makarios's forces were off guard. Makarios escaped to Paphos and was rescued by a British helicopter. He fled Cyprus when the pro-Greek forces took control of the whole of the island; at first there were false reports that he had been slain (cf. The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 July 1974, p. 1). Nikos Sampson, a Nicosia-based newspaper editor and parliamentarian with a long-standing commitment to enosis, was installed as president in Makarios' stead.

Speaking to the UN Security Council on 19 July, Makarios denounced the coup as an "invasion", engineered by the Greek military junta, which "violated the internal peace of Cyprus". Five hours after Makarios' address to the Security Council, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus began, taking Ioannidis by surprise. Under the terms of the Treaty of Guarantee, Britain, Greece and Turkey were entitled to co-operate in order to intervene with the purpose of restoring the constitution of the island.

At this time the Greek junta was imploding, and the British government (led since February 1974 by Harold Wilson) was facing the constitutional uncertainty of a hung parliament; moreover, according to the Greek diplomat Ange Vlachos, while in London Makarios lobbied for the British military not to intervene as a guarantor power. The testimony of Vlachos is not supported by the confidential minutes of the meeting of Makarios and Prime Minister Wilson on 17 July 1974. According to the minutes, Makarios urged Wilson to convey to the Turkish Prime Minister, Bülent Ecevit, "what practical measures can be taken. It is against the Turkish interests for Cyprus to become part of Greece."

The Turkish invasion of Cyprus occurred on 20 July, five days after the coup. As of 2023 Northern Cyprus remains occupied by the Turkish Army, despite the constitution and presidency having been restored. To Turks and some Turkish Cypriots the invasion is still known as a "peace operation", designed to protect the Turkish Cypriot community. Although, according to the case of Cyprus v Turkey in the European Court of Human Rights, the "peace operation" amounted to armed conflict (as modern international law refrains from using the word war ) between the Greek-Cypriot population of the island and Turkey.

Sampson's presidency was short-lived, because the regime of Ioannidis in Athens collapsed only a few days after the Turkish invasion. It was noted at the time that Turkey threatened to invade Greece, and that the colonels suddenly had to concentrate on trying to defend the country, rather than staying in power. The regime's failure to predict or prevent the Turkish intervention severely weakened its legitimacy and authority. Unsupported, Sampson resigned on 23 July and the presidency passed to Glafkos Klerides. Makarios remained in London for five months; then, having succeeded in securing international recognition that his administration was the rightful government of the whole island, he returned to Cyprus and with the focus of restoring Cypriot territory. He was not successful, and Turkey has remained as an occupying power ever since, with the political, military and diplomatic status of the island unresolved.

Death
Makarios III died of a heart attack on 3 August 1977, having experienced heart problems earlier that year, likely associated with many years of heavy smoking. Makarios' heart was removed during an autopsy, and has since been preserved in his former bedroom in the Archbishop's Palace. He is buried in a tomb on Mount Throni, as per his wishes. The tomb is near Kykkos Monastery, where he was a novice in the 1920s and 1930s.

At his funeral in Saint John's Cathedral outside the Archbishopric in Nicosia, 182 dignitaries from 52 countries attended while an estimated 250,000 mourners—about half the Greek Cypriot population of the island—filed past his coffin.

To commemorate his life, an imposing bronze statue of Makarios was erected outside the Archbishop's Palace in Nicosia; in 2008 the statue was moved to Kykkos Monastery and replaced by a life-size marble statue of Makarios.

Honours

 * Grand Cordon of the Order of the Nile
 * Special class of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
 * Grand Master of the Order of Orthodox Hospitallers

title: Makarios III


text:
Talk:Westland Whirlwind (helicopter)

On your page for the Westland Whirlwind helicopter you sometimes include a space in the type designation and sometimes not. I wanted to make this consistent but didn't want to make this consistently wrong; which should it be? --Morven 18:59, 6 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * Truly I have no idea. I checked, and the RAF Museum has both uses on the same page, so I'm guessing it isn't important. Feel free to pick one. DJ Clayworth 19:03, 6 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Infobox mistake?
Introduced 1950, maiden flight 1953? If the earlier dat erefers to the Sikorsky H-19, isn't this still incorrect as British built versions of Sikorsky products usually differed somewhat? Douglasnicol (talk) 21:38, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I have changed introduced to 1954 when the first Whirlwind HAR1s were delivered to the RN. MilborneOne (talk) 22:03, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Whirlwind?
Is this a Whirlwind?
 * Yes.Nigel Ish (talk) 23:36, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Operators
Did France really operated the westland variant ? I read that was built locally by Sud-Est --Jor70 (talk) 00:07, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

 * I have a S-55 Srs 1 registered 1953 as G-AMYN and then to the French Navy in April 1954. And I believe also operated by the Air Force and the Army, at least one image of an Army operated is on the internet - http://www.paulnann.com/Country.asp?Country=France&Make=Westland&Family=Whirlwind&ImageRef=pn_w4593.jpg MilborneOne (talk) 14:39, 23 April 2009 (UTC)
 * You seem to be right! just curious how they ended there. Perhaps sud-est get a sublicence from Westland ? like Westland did with agusta's bell 47 ?--Jor70 (talk) 15:12, 23 April 2009 (UTC)
 * 37 Whirlwind HAR.2s were delivered to the French Navy during 1954-56 according to Westland Aircraft since 1915, with one WS-55-1 ex G-AMYN to the French Navy and a further six WS-55-1s to France (with no operator stated) I suspect that there must be some double counting going on here to make the production figures add up. And according to Jane's 1953-54, Sud Est did have a license to build the S.55.  Curious...Nigel Ish (talk) 17:26, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

HAR.9 question
The article states: HAR.9 6 conversions of HAS.7 with a Bristol Siddeley Gnome gas turbine replacing the Leonides Major engine, RN service I have personally flown 10 different airframes. I cannot say whether they were conversions or new builds. The aircraft referred to are: XN258,XL875, XN311, XN306, XN309, XL389,, XN384, XN298, XN294, XN387 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.114.45.128 (talk) 10:39, 26 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Their were 12 conversions from HAS.7's:
 * XL839, XL800 XL875, XL880 & XL898 from original contract 6/Acft/18221/CB.9(b)
 * XM666 from original contact 6/Acft/15633/CB.9(b)
 * XN298, XN306, XN309, XN310, XN311 & XN357 from original contract KF/2N/015/CB25(a)
 * Apparently there were 16 conversion altogether according to the same book.
 * The serials you provided:
 * XL389 = Conversion from HAS.7 - original contract 6/Acft/18221/CB.9(b)
 * XL875 = Conversion from HAS.7 - date unknown - original contract 6/Acft/18221/CB.9(b)
 * XN258 = Conversion from HAS.7 - 1966
 * XN298 = Conversion from HAS.7 - date unknown - original contract KF/2N/015/CB25(a)
 * XN306 = Conversion from HAS.7 - date unknown - original contract KF/2N/015/CB25(a)
 * XN309 = Conversion from HAS.7 - 1965? - original contract KF/2N/015/CB25(a)
 * XN311 = Conversion from HAS.7 - date unknown - original contract KF/2N/015/CB25(a)
 * XN384 = Conversion from HAS.7 - date unknown
 * XN387 = Conversion from HAS.7 - date unknown

Gavbadger (talk) 16:22, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

Just to add: That makes 17! MilborneOne (talk) 19:16, 26 March 2015 (UTC)
 * 1) HAS7 XL839 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 19 November 1965
 * 2) HAS7 XL875 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 16 March 1966
 * 3) HAS7 XL880 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 9 November 1966
 * 4) HAS7 XL898 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 8 March 1966
 * 5) HAS7 XL899 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 4 February 1966
 * 6) HAS7 XL900 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 26 August 1966
 * 7) HAS7 XM666 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 27 September 1966
 * 8) HAS7 XN258 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 7 February 1966
 * 9) HAS7 XN298 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 5 July 1966
 * 10) HAS7 XN306 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 4 April 1966
 * 11) HAS7 XN309 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 10 May 1966
 * 12) HAS7 XN310 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 15 October 1965
 * 13) HAS7 XN311 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 22 April 1966
 * 14) HAS7 XN359 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 21 December 1965
 * 15) HAS7 XN384 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 3 December 1965
 * 16) HAS7 XN386 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 22 July 1966
 * 17) HAS7 XN387 was converted at Weston-super-Mare under Contract KK/K/66/CB.25(a) and first flown 27 May 1966

More specs?
Would anybody happen to have specs on any of the planes upgrade to the Gnome turboprop engine? Kamnet (talk) 05:07, 9 June 2016 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
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Missing Aircraft
Is The Whirlwind HAR2 helicopter XJ436 still at the bottom of the sea. My father was on the rescue mission that gave up on it's recovery. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mariegriffiths (talk • contribs) 15:43, 30 June 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Westland Whirlwind (helicopter)


text:
Talk:Mast

I'm pulling this from the list of disambiguation pages. This is really just a dictionary entry. There is no content behind the discussion of either type of "mast" for us to disambiguate the links to. However, I know that content grows over time, so in case we ever have enough to create pages for Mast (support) and Mast (harvest), I'll leave the disambiguation text below so it can be easily pasted back. Rossami 19:09, 6 Nov 2003 (UTC)

''This is a disambiguation page; that is, one that just points to other pages that might otherwise have the same name. If you followed a link here, you might want to go back and fix that link to point to the appropriate specific page.''

Removed dicdefs
I removed some dicdefs, maybe someone would like to incorporate them into Wiktionary etc.
 * In post-sail naval ships, a mast is a tall structure which may carriy (depending on the era) pennants, lookout posts, radar antennas, flags, and lights.
 * In botany, a mast is a crop of fruit or nuts (wild or cultivated) that ripen at the same time (examples are Beech mast and the fruit of the Rimu tree)
 * Meher Baba used the word mast (pronounced like 'must') to denote those who he said were "God intoxicated," i.e. caught in a trance of spiritual experiences and ecstasies.
 * In popular parlance in India, "mast" now means "chill out". Thus you may find people saying "be mast".--Commander Keane 07:54, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

I personally think the improvement is great. Chris 18:49, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Mast


text:
Mucklestone

Mucklestone is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Loggerheads, in the Newcastle-under-Lyme district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is about nine miles (14 km) northwest of Eccleshall, and four and a half miles northeast of Market Drayton in Shropshire. In 1961 the parish had a population of 409. On 1 April 1984 the parish was abolished to form Loggerheads. It is notable for its associations with the Battle of Blore Heath. According to legend, Queen Margaret of Anjou is said to have watched the defeat of her forces from the church tower, before fleeing on horse-back. It is said that Margaret employed the local blacksmith, William Skelhorn, to reverse the shoes on her horse to disguise her getaway. An anvil said to have belonged to Skelhorn stands in the churchyard to commemorate the event.

The ancient parish of Mucklestone was about six miles (10 km) in length, and from one to two miles (3 km) in breadth, extending along the borders of the counties of Shropshire and Staffordshire. Five of traditional townships, Aston, Knighton, Mucklestone, Oakley and Winnington are in Staffordshire and the other four, Bearstone, Dorrington, Gravenhunger and Woore, are in Shropshire.

This parish originally comprised 8120 acre, of which 4362 acre were in Staffordshire. Mucklestone township contains about 1100 acre. Aston, a village and township, three and a half miles north-east of Mucklestone, and eight miles (13 km) south-west of Newcastle-under-Lyme, contains 912 acre. Knighton is a small township, one mile (1.6 km) south-west of Aston, bounded on three sides by Shropshire. Oakley township at the south end of the parish, two miles (3 km) south-west of Mucklestone, contains Oakley Hall, in a beautiful park of 300 acre, on the east bank of the River Tern, which locally divides Staffordshire from Shropshire. Winnington township, has a small village one mile (1.6 km) north of Mucklestone.

The church of Saint Mary at Mucklestone, which originally served the whole of the ancient parish, is in the decorated style. Except for the tower, it was rebuilt according to church records in 1789 and again in 1883 by Lynam and Rickman in keeping with the surviving medieval tower. It contains stained glass windows, designed by Charles Kempe in the 19th century including commemorations of the Battle of Blore Heath.

Other local structures of merit include a Georgian Folly; an important house of earlier date known as Willoughbridge Lodge; warm springs (discovered in the 17th century) and known, together with the ruined bath house c1682, as Willoughbridge wells; and also Oakley Hall built about 1710.

A neolithic monument sits along the western perimeter of the great park of Oakley Hall at Mucklestone. Possibly the remains of a burial-mound, it comprises two big stones. One is round with a 20 in hole in the middle. The other is six feet tall and slender. Locally the stones are known as the "devil's ring and finger".

title: Mucklestone


text:
Talk:Sakamoto Ryōma

Intro
I added a first installment of information about Sakamoto Ryoma. I've read much about him and i agree with many historians that he was a Renaissance Samurai whose help in modernizing and unifying Japan was absolutely necesary. Without his help i venture to presume that Japan's fate would have been that of the rest of Asia. I have some volumes at myparents house which i need to check with before i add anymore biographical information. But the information i just added is very accurate. but PLEASE, i look forward to any updates or changes that someone else might make. Perhaps i'll learn something i didn't know already :) -jkorath 14:28, 6 November 2003

Thank you for this information about Sakamoto Ryoma. It is very concise and accurate I think. One suggestion I have is that you could add that according to the lunar calendar his date of birth and death were the same, November 15th. When I first read the article I thought your dates were wrong as many Japanese people told me his date of birth and death were November 15th. Japan was using the lunar calendar at the time of his birth and death. Even though thet use the solar calendar now they still say he died on the day he was born. I won't change the article as I'm not sure how important this is. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.254.165.193 (talk • contribs) 01:15, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Date of birth
It differs from Find-A-Grave. Lincher 21:33, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

 * The date of Sakamoto Ryoma's birth is essentially unknown. It is subject to a wide range of opinions, ranging from October 1835 to November 1836.--MChew 15:51, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Question About Family Name Sequence
Can someone please fill me in on the reasoning behind transcribing the name 'last-name first'? Traditionally, the Japanese have followed the English sequence when transcribing in an English context. Does Wikipedia have a recommended standard?

DrZin 06:11, 15 May 2006

 * Yes, the official Wikipedia policy is that Japanese people born prior to the start of the Meiji era are listed as family name, then given name. People born after the start of the Meiji period are listed in western order. --MChew 15:49, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Research references
Could you let me know some of the texts you've used? I'm looking at doing a research paper on Sakamoto Ryoma, and I'm curious about what may not be at my local libraries.

SigurdCole 01:05, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Alexpappas01 18:34, 4 December 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alexpappas01 (talk • contribs) 15:23, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Conspiracies
Ryoma's assassination likely remains among the most talked about mysteries of Japanese history. Numerous books, manga, TV programs make reference to it, suggesting various possibilities, some more probable than others. I don't know much about it, or else I would add to this article myself. But I do think it'd be great if someone more knowledgeable than myself on the subject could add a section (or a whole article) on the question of who killed Ryoma. Was it the Shinsengumi? Agents of Satsuma? The Freemasons? LordAmeth (talk) 14:13, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

 * Here are some of the Japanese articles on the assassination of Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro. Most historians seem to agree that it was most likely done by a group of security guards called Kyoto Mimawarigumi ja:京都見廻組 controlled by Matsudaira Katamori who served as Kyoto Shugoshoku though this article ja:近江屋事件 does mention the Shinsengumi and agents of Satsuma. The manslayers were patrolling around Kyoto Gosho and Nijo Castle.

 * See also ja:船中八策 for his political views, now seen as the blueprint for the Meiji government.

 * Shinkansen Fan (talk) 18:07, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

POV
This whole article reads like propaganda! The Meiji restoration was more modern than the Tokugawa bakufu in only minor ways. It was also more xenophobic and imperialist, unlike the bakufu which dealt with foreigners and didn't, well, invade other countries (and it wouldn't have, after Korea, it became increasingly more concerned with Japan only). But I would like to know how Ryōma was a visionary who envisioned a Japan without any feudal trappings when he supported a god Emperor and I do not know how he was inspired by the example of the United States where "all men are created equal" with a slogan like ‘revere the Emperor and expel the barbarians; it also reads as propaganda of the US which had slaves, segregation and prejudice a lot longer than most civilised nations. Also the article lacks sources.

Look at the more neutral article for Kondo Isami, who was murdered without a fair trial by the anti-bakufu forces. Nakamura Mondo (talk) 09:33, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

On first name terms with Sakamoto Ryoma?
Sakamoto Ryoma is referred to as "Ryoma". Surely it is not Wikipedia's policy to refer to people born before the Meiji era by their given name?RoniGlaser (talk) 19:30, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * It is policy on English Wikipedia to refer to people by whatever the most common name is in English language sources (see WP:COMMONNAME), regardless of how other languages work. No English Wikipedia article on persons should feature -san, -sama, or any other honorific unless the English language sources invariably refer to that person with that title (per WP:Honorifics and WP:COMMONNAME).  Otherwise, we have to retitle all articles to include "Mr," "Mrs," "Ms," "Dr," "Sir," "Dame," "Prophet," "Guru," "Swami," "Father," "Bishop," etc...  If this were the Japanese Wikipedia, you might have a point, but in English, using both a person's first and last name is enough of a formality when the purpose is to identify rather than flatter.  Ian.thomson (talk) 21:36, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

 * And actually, I think it is WP: Japan policy to use given names. I don't completely agree with it, so I won't revert if someone goes changing all the Ryoma's to Sakamoto's, but someone other editor probably would. Boneyard90 (talk) 23:08, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
 * If it's not de jure policy, it's de facto policy: Tokugawa Ieyasu, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Miyamoto Musashi use their given names. Ian.thomson (talk) 23:55, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Good references

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Curly Turkey (talk • contribs) 22:57, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

First name is read"Ryuuma" in japanese. Why is it shown as Ryoma?
Hi, I'm half Japanese and have learned Japanese history/watched many period movies on this guy. But I'm not a scholar so maybe I'm missing something. Why is his name listed with an "o" pronunciation instead of "u"? Thanks, 98.169.164.190 (talk) 07:37, 3 December 2014 (UTC)Eileen
 * Where did you hear that? It's definitely Ryōma. Curly Turkey ¡gobble! 07:58, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Agree with CT. Never heard it spelled or pronounced with a "u". Ah, while it is true that the first kanji 龍 (dragon) of his name is ordinarily pronounced "ryu", established alternate pronunciations include ryo and rou, especially used in given names. - Boneyard90 (talk) 13:38, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Hey thanks for the replies, guys. I just remembered to check back for replies today (a full month later! duh).  In any case, spurred by your comments, I went back and did some simple Japanese google searches, and it seems that in Tokyo and locales east they said "ryu".  In areas west of Tokyo (as in Kansai, etc) they said "ryou".  Also, the "ryou" is the original pronunciation while "ryu" is a later bastardization.   Thanks again.  I had no idea!!!!98.169.164.190 (talk) 00:42, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

Fate/Grand Order
So basically I was playing Fate/Grand Order and a question was promopty by the character Sakamoto Ryōma in-game if I knew him. Out of curiosity I searched his Wikipedia to understand he was part responsible for the Meiji Restoration. Scrolling down the article, something caught my eye: the "In popular culture" subheading. I wanted to quickly see if it was written that he is present within the game known as Fate/Grand Order and saw nothing there relating to it. Immediately, I sprang to action to document his existance in Fate/Grand Order and went on to publish my revisioned edit with citation. However, I went to look at the history of revisions to find that previous documentations of his existance in Fate/Grand Order have been deleted. And some of those undos is due to the content being deemed unnecessary? On a side note: surely it can't be deemed as an insignificant addition to the article. Afterall, it is an appearance in popular culture. And, I did source/cite it. If my revision does get deleted. Could I just ask why? Cheers. Mixsmirai (talk) 13:54, 14 June 2020 (UTC)

 * The Popular Culture sections tend to get over-burdened with every slightest mention or allusion to historical figure among thousands of manga, anime, and video games. These descriptions are often filled with unexplained details and in-universe language and other jargon, and the current listing about this "Fate/Grand Order" is no exception (i.e., what is a "four star rider-class servant"? What is a "sprite"? Why are they important and why should a reader care?). Unless it's a significant work, seen by a significant portion of the population (and not just the anime- or video game-loving population), or it's some kind of "first" or has had a significant impact on the culture, then why should it be included? It is generally enough to say a historical figure "has been included in many games, etc." A detailed list of all pop culture references would ideally have an article of its own, like the article People of the Sengoku period in popular culture. Currently there is no page for non-Sengoku figures, and when I went to start a page like that, I found it had been deleted in 2015. I have made inquiries on why it was deleted, and if it were feasible to resurrect it. In the meantime, even though I don't see any significance in the "Fate/Grand Order" mention, it is sourced, so I won't move it. If I can make a dedicated pop culture article, do you have any objection to moving the "Fate/Grand Order" paragraph there? The Cultural References section in this article would then begin with a "Main article" template, directing the reader to the pop culture article. - Boneyard90 (talk) 20:10, 15 June 2020 (UTC)

 * Fair comment. Descriptions like "four star rider-class servant" can be rather cryptic to a person who does not know specific gaming terminology about that. On the other hand, a 'sprite' is a type of computer graphic. Within the game of Fate/Grand Order, Sakamoto Ryōma is not merely mentioned or allusioned to, but actually appearing as a character within the franchise. Unfortunately, as I play the game based off the North American version (which is up to 2 years behind due to translation/localisation) – and not the Japanese version – I do not know how much the character Sakamoto Ryōma actually has on the primary storyline beyond the event listed. If possible, I will maybe attempt to revise the current paragraph to provide a safer and more understandable description on his place within the game Fate/Grand Order. If you make a dedicated pop culture article for non-Sengoku era figures, I should have zero objections if my paragraph being moved there. ^^ Cheers. - Mixsmirai (talk) 09:25, 16 June 2020 (UTC)

 * I would also advise you incorporate your paragraph in with the other paragraph on video games. In cultural references sections, it generally goes from literature to film, then music, and then manga, anime, and video games. Even if it doesn't strictly follow that order, similar topics should be kept together. -Boneyard90 (talk) 20:45, 16 June 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Sakamoto Ryōma


text:
Fritz Reiner

Frederick Martin Reiner (Reiner Frigyes; December 19, 1888 – November 15, 1963) was an American conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century. Hungarian born and trained, he emigrated to the United States in 1922, where he rose to prominence as a conductor with several orchestras. He reached the pinnacle of his career while music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Life and career
Reiner was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary into a secular Jewish family that resided in the Pest area of the city. After preliminary studies in law at his father's urging, Reiner instead decided to pursue the study of piano, piano pedagogy, and composition at the Franz Liszt Academy. Between 1903 and 1905 he studied the piano with István Thomán. From 1905 to 1908 he was a member of the composition class of Hans Koessler. From 1907 until 1909 he studied piano pedagogy with Kálmán Chován. During his last two years there, his piano teacher was the young Béla Bartók.

After early engagements at opera houses in Budapest and Dresden (June 1914 to November 1921), where he worked closely with Richard Strauss, he moved to the United States in 1922 to take the post of Principal Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He remained in this position until 1931. He became a naturalized citizen in 1928 and began to teach at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Some of his pupils included Leonard Bernstein, Lukas Foss, Max Goberman, Boris Goldovsky, Walter Hendl, Sylvan Levin, Henry Mazer, Howard Mitchell, Vincent Persichetti, Ezra Rachlin, Nino Rota, Felix Slatkin, and Hugo Weisgall. Reiner dismissed composer Samuel Barber from his class. He would resign from his teaching position at Curtis in 1941.

He conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 1938-1948 and made a few recordings with them for Columbia Records. He then spent several years at the Metropolitan Opera, where he conducted a historic production of Richard Strauss's Salome in 1949, with the Bulgarian soprano Ljuba Welitsch in the title role, and the American premiere of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress in 1951.

He also conducted and made a recording of the famous 1952 Metropolitan Opera production of Bizet's Carmen, starring Risë Stevens. The production was telecast on closed circuit television that year. At the time of his death (in November 1963) he was preparing the Met's new production of Wagner's Götterdämmerung.

In 1947, Reiner appeared on camera in the film Carnegie Hall, in which he conducted the New York Philharmonic as they accompanied violinist Jascha Heifetz in an abbreviated version of the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. Ten years later, Heifetz and Reiner recorded the full Tchaikovsky concerto in stereo for RCA Victor in Chicago.

Reiner's music-making had been largely American-focused since his arrival in Cincinnati. But after the Second World War he began increasing his European activity. When he became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1953 he was internationally recognised.

By common consent, the ten years that he spent in Chicago marked the height of his career, and are best-remembered today through the many recordings he made in Chicago's Orchestra Hall for RCA Victor from 1954 to 1963. The first of these — of Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben — occurred on March 6, 1954 and was among RCA's first to use stereophonic sound. His last concerts in Chicago took place in the spring of 1963.

One of his last recordings, released in a special Reader's Digest boxed set, was a performance of Brahms' Symphony No. 4, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in October 1962 in London's Kingsway Hall. This recording was later reissued on LP by Quintessence and on CD by Chesky.

On September 13 and 16, 1963, Reiner conducted a group of New York musicians in Haydn's Symphony No. 101 in D major; this was followed by September 18 and 20, 1963, sessions devoted to Haydn's Symphony No. 95 in C minor.

He also appeared with members of the Chicago Symphony in a series of telecasts on Chicago's WGN-TV in 1953–54, and a later series of nationally syndicated programs called Music From Chicago. Some of these performances have been issued on DVD. The videos clearly show his stern, disciplined demeanor, but at the conclusion of a piece, Reiner would turn to the audience and smile at them as he bowed.

Personal life
Reiner was married three times (one of them to a daughter of Etelka Gerster) and had three daughters. His health deteriorated after a heart attack in October 1960. On November 11, 1963, while preparing for performances of Götterdämmerung at the Metropolitan Opera, Reiner became afflicted by bronchitis, which developed into pneumonia. He died in Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on November 15, 1963, at the age of 74.

Repertoire and style
Reiner was especially noted as an interpreter of Richard Strauss and Bartók and was often seen as a modernist in his musical taste; he and his compatriot Joseph Szigeti convinced Serge Koussevitzky to commission the Concerto for Orchestra from Bartók. In reality, he had a very wide repertory and was known to admire Mozart's music above all else.

Reiner's conducting technique was noted for its precision and economy, in the manner of Arthur Nikisch and Arturo Toscanini. It typically employed quite small gestures — it has been said that the beat indicated by the tip of his baton could be contained in the area of a postage stamp — although from the perspective of the players it was extremely expressive.

The response he drew from orchestras was one of astonishing richness, brilliance, and clarity of texture. Igor Stravinsky called the Chicago Symphony under Reiner "the most precise and flexible orchestra in the world"; it was more often than not achieved with tactics that bordered on the personally abusive, as Kenneth Morgan documents in 2005 biography of the conductor. Chicago musicians have spoken of Reiner's autocratic methods; trumpeter Adolph Herseth told National Public Radio that Reiner often tested him and other musicians.

title: Fritz Reiner


text:
Harlow Shapley

Harlow Shapley (November 2, 1885 – October 20, 1972) was an American scientist, head of the Harvard College Observatory (1921–1952), and political activist during the latter New Deal and Fair Deal.

Shapley used Cepheid variable stars to estimate the size of the Milky Way Galaxy and the Sun's position within it. In 1953 he proposed his "liquid water belt" theory, now known as the concept of a habitable zone.

Background
Shapley was born on a farm five miles outside Nashville, Missouri, to Willis and Sarah (née Stowell) Shapley. He went to school in Jasper, Missouri, but not beyond elementary school. He worked as a journalist after studying at home and covering crime stories as a newspaper reporter for the Daily Sun in Chanute, Kansas, and intermittently for the Times of Joplin, Missouri. In Chanute, he found a Carnegie library and started reading and studying on his own. Shapley returned to complete a six-year high school program in 1.5 years, graduating as class valedictorian.

In 1907, Shapley went to the University of Missouri to study journalism. When he learned that the opening of the School of Journalism had been postponed for a year, he decided to study the first subject he came across in the course directory. Rejecting Archaeology, which Shapley later claimed he could not pronounce, he chose the next subject, Astronomy.

Early years
After graduation, Shapley received a fellowship to Princeton University for graduate work, where he studied under Henry Norris Russell and used the period-luminosity relation for Cepheid variable stars (discovered by Henrietta Swan Leavitt) to determine distances to globular clusters. He was instrumental in moving astronomy away from the idea that Cepheids were spectroscopic binaries, and toward the concept that they were pulsators.

He realized that the Milky Way Galaxy was far larger than previously believed, and that the Sun's place in the galaxy was in a nondescript location. This discovery supports the Copernican principle, according to which the Earth is not at the center of our Solar System, our galaxy, nor our Universe.

The Great Debate of 1920
Shapley participated in the "Great Debate" with Heber D. Curtis on the nature of nebulae and galaxies and the size of the Universe. The debate took place on April 26, 1920, in the hall of the United States National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC. Shapley took the side that spiral nebulae (what are now called galaxies) are inside our Milky Way, while Curtis took the side that the spiral nebulae are "island universes" far outside our own Milky Way and comparable in size and nature to our own Milky Way. This issue and debate are the start of extragalactic astronomy, while the detailed arguments and data, often with ambiguities, appeared together in 1921.

Characteristic issues were whether Adriaan van Maanen had measured rotation in a spiral nebula, the nature and luminosity of the exploding novae and supernovae seen in spiral galaxies, and the size of our own Milky Way. However, Shapley's actual talk and argument given during the Great Debate were completely different from the published paper. Historian Michael Hoskin says "His decision was to treat the National Academy of Sciences to an address so elementary that much of it was necessarily uncontroversial", with Shapley's motivation being only to impress a delegation from Harvard who were interviewing him for a possible offer as the next Director of Harvard College Observatory. With the default by Shapley, Curtis won the debate. The astronomical issues were soon resolved in favor of Curtis' position when Edwin Hubble discovered Cepheid variable stars in the Andromeda Galaxy.

At the time of the debate, Shapley was working at the Mount Wilson Observatory, where he had been hired by George Ellery Hale. After the debate, however, he was hired to replace the recently deceased Edward Charles Pickering as director of the Harvard College Observatory (HCO).

Conversion to Hubble's ideas
He is also known to have opposed Edwin Hubble's observations that there are additional galaxies in the universe other than the Milky Way. Shapley fiercely critiqued Hubble and regarded his work as junk science. However, after he received a letter from Hubble showing Hubble's observed light curve of V1, a Cepheid variable star in the Andromeda galaxy, he withdrew his criticism. He reportedly told a colleague, "Here is the letter that destroyed my universe." He also encouraged Hubble to write a paper for a joint meeting of the American Astronomical Society and American Association for the Advancement of Science. Hubble's findings went on to fundamentally reshape the scientific view of the universe.

Despite having earlier argued strongly against the idea of galaxies other than our Milky Way, Shapley went on to make significant progress in the research of the distribution of galaxies, working between 1925 and 1932. In this time period, with the Harvard College Observatory, he worked to map 76,000 galaxies. One of the first astronomers to believe in the existence of galaxy superclusters, Shapley later discovered a large and distant example, which was later named the Shapley Supercluster. He estimated the distance to this supercluster at 231 Mpc, which is within 15% of the currently accepted value.

Harvard College Observatory
He served as director of the HCO from 1921 to 1952. During this time, he hired Cecilia Payne, who, in 1925, became the first person to earn a doctorate at Radcliffe College in the field of astronomy, for work done at Harvard College Observatory.

From 1941 he was on the original standing committee of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles. He also served on the board of trustees of Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public, from 1935 to 1971.

Activism
In the 1940s, Shapley helped found government funded scientific associations, including the National Science Foundation. He shares credit with British biochemist Joseph Needham for the addition of the "S" in UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

On November 14, 1946, Shapley appeared under subpoena by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA) in his role as member of the Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (ICCASP), which HCUA described as a "major political arm of the Russophile left". It had opposed re-election of U.S. Representative Joseph William Martin Jr. during mid-term elections that year and was asked to answer questions about the ICCASP's Massachusetts' chapter. HCUA committee chairman John E. Rankin commented about Shapley's attitude, "I have never seen a witness treat a committee with more contempt" and considered contempt of Congress charges. Shapley accused HCUA of "Gestapo methods" and advocated for its abolition, saying that it had made "civic cowards of many citizens" by pursuing the "bogey of political radicalism."

A few weeks later, in early 1947, Shapley became president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). At the time, the AAAS's choice appeared to be a "rebuke" of HCUA and a positive championing of scientists. In his inaugural address, Shapley referred to the danger of the "genius maniac" and proposed the elimination of "all primates that show any evidence or signs of genius or even talent". Other global threats he listed were: drugs that suppressed the desire for sex; boredom; world war with weapons of mass destruction; a plague epidemic.

In March 1949, Shapley chaired the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. It was sponsored by the National Council of Arts, Sciences and Professions. Arch-conservative William F. Buckley, Jr., authored a 1951 book, God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom," wherein, in the eve of McCarthyism, he attacked liberalism at Yale and academia in general. In the book, Buckley cited Shapley's participation and averred that event was "Communist-inspired" and "Russian-dominated."

In 1950, Shapley was instrumental in organizing a campaign in academia against Worlds in Collision by Russian expatriate psychiatrist Immanuel Velikovsky. Scientists generally considered this controversial US bestseller to be pseudoscience.

Global policy
He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution. As a result, for the first time in human history, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.

Personal life
Shapley married Martha Betz (1890–1981) in April 1914, whom he had met in Missouri. She assisted her husband in astronomical research both at Mount Wilson and at Harvard Observatory. She wrote numerous articles on eclipsing stars and other astronomical objects.

They had one daughter, editor and writer Mildred Shapley Matthews; and four sons. These included Lloyd Shapley, a mathematician and economist who won a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2012, and Willis Shapley, who became a Senior Executive Service leader at NASA. His eldest granddaughter, June Lorraine Matthews, became a physicist.

Although Shapley was an agnostic, he was greatly interested in religion.

Shapley died in a nursing home in Boulder, Colorado on October 20, 1972, shortly before his 87th birthday.

Awards and honors

 * Elected Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1920)
 * Elected Member of the American Philosophical Society (1922)
 * Elected Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1924)
 * Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences (1926)
 * Prix Jules Janssen of the Société astronomique de France (French Astronomical Society) (1933)
 * Rumford Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1933)
 * Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1934)
 * Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1939)
 * Janssen Medal from the French Academy of Sciences (1940)
 * Pius XI Medal (1941)
 * Franklin Medal (1945)
 * Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society (1950)

Legacy
Named after him are:
 * The crater Shapley on the Moon
 * Asteroid 1123 Shapleya
 * Shapley Supercluster
 * Harlow Shapley Visiting Lectureships In Astronomy, American Astronomical Society

Before the anti-communist phrase "Better Dead Than Red" became popular during McCarthyism in the 1950s, Shapley said in a 1947 speech entitled "Peace or Pieces" that "A slave world is not worth preserving. Better be lifeless like the cold moon, or primitively vegetal like desolate Mars, than be a planet populated by social robots."

Works
Shapley wrote many books on astronomy and the sciences. Among these was  Source Book in Astronomy (New York: McGraw–Hill, 1929, co-written with Helen E. Howarth, also on the staff of the Harvard College Observatory), the first of the publisher's series of source books in the history of the sciences.

In 1953, he wrote the "Liquid Water Belt" which gave scientific credence to the ecosphere theory of Hubertus Strughold.

In his 1957 book "Of Stars and Men", Shapley proposed the term Metagalaxies for what are now called superclusters.

Shapley attended Institute on Religion in an Age of Science conferences at Star Island and was the editor of the book Science Ponders Religion (1960).

title: Harlow Shapley