text:
Robert A. Taft

Robert Alphonso Taft Sr. (September 8, 1889 – July 31, 1953) was an American politician, lawyer, and scion of the Republican Party's Taft family. Taft represented Ohio in the United States Senate, briefly served as Senate majority leader, and was a leader of the conservative coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats who blocked expansion of the New Deal. Often referred to as "Mr. Republican", he co-sponsored the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947, which banned closed shops, created the concept of right-to-work states, and regulated other labor practices.

The elder son of William Howard Taft, the 27th president of the United States and 10th chief justice of the United States, Robert Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He pursued a legal career in Cincinnati after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1913. With his brother Charles Phelps Taft II, he co-founded the law partnership of Taft Stettinius & Hollister. Taft served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1921 to 1931 and in the Ohio Senate from 1931 to 1933. Though he lost re-election in 1932, he remained a powerful force in state and local politics.

After winning election to the Senate in 1938 over incumbent Democrat Robert J. Bulkley, Taft repeatedly sought the Republican presidential nomination, often battling for control of the party with the moderate faction of Republicans led by Thomas E. Dewey. He also emerged as a prominent non-interventionist and opposed U.S. involvement in World War II prior to the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Taft's non-interventionist stances damaged his 1940 candidacy, and the 1940 Republican National Convention nominated Wendell Willkie. Taft sought the presidency again in 1948, but he lost to Dewey at the 1948 Republican National Convention. He opposed the creation of NATO and criticized President Harry Truman's handling of the Korean War.

Taft again sought the presidential nomination a third time in 1952, and was widely viewed as the front-runner. However, Dewey and other moderates convinced General Dwight D. Eisenhower to enter the race, and Eisenhower narrowly prevailed at the 1952 Republican National Convention and went on to win the 1952 presidential election. Taft was elected Senate majority leader in 1953 but died of a cerebral hemorrhage while being treated for pancreatic cancer later that year. A 1957 Senate committee named Taft as one of America's five greatest senators, along with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, and Robert M. La Follette Sr.—portraits of the "famous five" are displayed in the Senate Reception Room.

Family and education
Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, a product of one of America's most prominent political families. He was a grandson of Attorney General and Secretary of War Alphonso Taft, and the elder son of President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft and Helen Louise "Nellie" Herron. His younger brother Charles Phelps Taft II served as the mayor of Cincinnati and was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for Ohio Governor in 1952. As a boy Taft spent four years in the Philippines, where his father was Governor-General. He was first in his class at the Taft School (run by his uncle), at Yale College (1910), and at Harvard Law School (1913). He was a member of Psi Upsilon, his father's fraternity and Skull and Bones, and edited the Harvard Law Review. In 1913, Taft scored the highest in the state on the Ohio bar exam. He then practiced for four years with the firm of Maxwell and Ramsey (now Graydon Head & Ritchey LLP) in Cincinnati, his family's ancestral city. After a two-year stint in Washington working for the Food and Drug Administration, he returned to Cincinnati and opened his own law office. In 1924, he and his brother Charles helped form the law partnership Taft Stettinius & Hollister, with which Taft continued to be associated until his death and continues to carry his name today.

On October 17, 1914, he married Martha Wheaton Bowers (1889–1958), daughter of Lloyd Wheaton Bowers and Louisa Bennett Wilson. Taft himself appeared taciturn and coldly intellectual, characteristics that were offset by his gregarious wife, who served the same role his mother had for his father, as a confidante and powerful asset to her husband's political career. In May 1950, Martha suffered a severe stroke that left her an invalid, leaving her confined to a wheelchair, unable to take care of herself, and reliant upon her husband, children, and nurses for support. A biographer called his wife's stroke "the deepest personal blow of [Taft's] life ... there was no denying that he suffered." Following her stroke, Taft faithfully assisted his wife, called her every night when he was away on business, read stories to her at night when he was at home, "pushed her about in her wheelchair, lifted her in and out of cars ... tenderly did his best to make her feel comfortable and happy, and helped feed and take care of her at public functions" – facts which, his admirers noted, belied his public image as a cold and uncaring person.

They had four sons:

 * William Howard Taft III (1915–1991), who became ambassador to Ireland
 * Robert Alphonso Taft Jr. (1917–1993), who was also elected to the U.S. Senate
 * Lloyd Bowers Taft (1923–1985), who worked as an investment banker in Cincinnati,
 * Horace Dwight Taft (1925–1983), who became a professor of physics and dean at Yale.

Two of Robert and Martha's grandsons are Robert Alphonso "Bob" Taft III (born 1942), Governor of Ohio from 1999 to 2007, and William Howard Taft IV (born 1945), Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1984 to 1989.

In 1917, Taft and his wife bought a 46 acre farm in Indian Hill, a well-to-do suburb of Cincinnati. Called Sky Farm, it would serve as Taft's primary residence for the rest of his life. The Tafts gradually made extensive renovations that turned the small farmhouse into a sixteen-room mansion. On the farm Taft enjoyed growing strawberries, asparagus, and potatoes for profit. During the summer, Taft often vacationed with his wife and children at the Taft family's summer home at Murray Bay, in Quebec, Canada. Although he was nominally a member of the Episcopal church, his biographer James Patterson noted that Taft's "religious inclinations were weak" and that he was a "Sunday morning golfer, not a church-going Episcopalian". When reporters asked his wife Martha what church he attended, she jokingly replied, "I'd have to say the Burning Tree", an exclusive country club and golf course in suburban Washington.

Early public career
When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Taft attempted to join the army but was rejected due to his poor eyesight. Instead, he joined the legal staff of the Food and Drug Administration where he met Herbert Hoover, who became his idol. In 1918 and 1919, he was in Paris as legal adviser for the American Relief Administration, Hoover's agency to distribute food to wartorn Europe. He came to distrust governmental bureaucracy as inefficient and detrimental to the rights of the individual, a principle he promoted throughout his career. He urged membership in the League of Nations but generally distrusted European politicians. He endorsed the idea of a powerful world court to enforce international law, but no such idealized court ever existed during his lifetime. He returned to Cincinnati in late 1919, promoted Hoover for president in 1920, and opened a law firm with his brother, Charles Taft.

In 1920 he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, where he served as Republican floor leader and was Speaker of the House from January 1926 to January 1927. In 1930, he was elected to the Ohio Senate, but was defeated for re-election in 1932; it would be the only general election defeat of his career. He was an outspoken opponent of the Ku Klux Klan, and he did not support prohibition. In 1925 he voted against a bill, sponsored by Ohio state representatives who were members of the Ku Klux Klan, to outlaw dancing on Sundays, and he led the fight against a Klan-sponsored bill requiring all Ohio public school teachers to read at least ten verses of the Bible each day in class. In his speech opposing the bill, Taft stated that religion should be taught in churches, not public schools, and while the Bible was great literature, "in it religion overshadows all else." The bill passed the legislature over the opposition of Taft and his allies, but it was later vetoed by Ohio's governor.

Taft's period of service in the Ohio state legislature was most notable for his efforts to reform and modernize the state's antiquated tax laws. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Taft was a powerful figure in local and state political and legal circles, and he was known as a loyal Republican who never threatened to bolt the party. He confessed in 1922 that "while I have no difficulty talking, I don't know how to do any of the eloquence business which makes for enthusiasm or applause." A lackluster speaker who did not mix well or glad-hand supporters, Taft was still a tireless worker with a broad range of policy and political interests. His total grasp of the complex details of every issue impressed reporters and politicians. Democrats joked that "Taft has the best mind in Washington, until he makes it up." Taft's loyalty to the conservative politicians who controlled Ohio's Republican Party had a price, as it often caused conflict with his younger brother, Charles, who as a local politician in Cincinnati had gained a reputation as a party maverick and liberal; however, despite their occasional policy disagreements, Charles loyally supported all three of his brother's presidential bids.

US Senator
Taft was elected to the first of his three terms as US Senator in 1938. He first defeated Ohio Supreme Court justice Arthur H. Day in the Republican primary, and then defeated the Democratic incumbent, Robert Bulkley, in the general election. Taft engaged Bulkley in several debates and was generally regarded as the winner. He struggled in the earlier debates but later came out on top through assistance from his wife, Martha, who would be regarded as the most valuable asset in his campaign. As a result, Taft gained the upper hand against Bulkley, who had earlier been regarded as the frontrunner in the race, and won the election by nearly 171,000 votes, or 53.6% of the total vote. During his first two years as a Senator, the Tafts rented a home in Washington, but in 1941 they purchased a brick Victorian home, built in the 1880s, in the city's Georgetown neighborhood. The home – despite lacking "the grace and amenities of Sky Farm", their home in Ohio – remained their Washington residence until Taft's death in 1953.

Opposition to New Deal and political views
Co-operating with Conservative Democrats, he led the conservative coalition that opposed the New Deal. The Republican gains in the 1938 elections, combined with the creation of the conservative coalition, had stopped the expansion of the New Deal. However, Taft saw his mission as not only stopping the growth of the New Deal but also eliminating many of its government programs.

During his first term in the Senate, Taft criticized what he believed was the inefficiency and waste of many New Deal programs and of the need to let private enterprise and businesses restore the nation's economy instead of relying upon government programs to end the Great Depression. He condemned the New Deal as socialist and attacked deficit spending, high farm subsidies, governmental bureaucracy, the National Labor Relations Board, and nationalized health insurance. However, he did not always follow the ideology of the conservative coalition, supporting Social Security, subsidized loans for farmers and homeowners, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, public works projects, public housing, workers' right to strike and federal aid to public education, having sponsored the Housing Act of 1949. Taft was also willing to revise the Taft-Hartley Act in order to make it more balanced.

Taft set forward a conservative domestic program that promoted limited government spending, a balanced federal budget, low taxes, pro-business policies to spur economic growth, a limited number of social welfare programs (such as Social Security, a minimum wage, public housing and federal aid to public education), and an adequate national defense focused on strengthening the Navy and Air Force. In foreign policy, he advocated noninvolvement in European wars and military alliances. He also strongly opposed the military draft on the principle that it limited a young man's freedom of choice. Various historians have described Taft, in terms of political philosophy, as a libertarian; he opposed nearly all forms of governmental interference in both the national economy and in the private lives of citizens. Republican Party historian Geoffrey Kabaservice has described Taft as a politician who opposed bigness in labor, business and government. President Eisenhower found Taft "extraordinarily leftish" in some domestic positions.

On Independence Day 1945, Taft announced his intention to combat the Bretton Woods monetary agreement on the Senate floor, adding that his battle consisted of trying to add amendments to the bill through the Senate committee and that he wanted the agreement postponed until conditions had stabilized.

In January 1946, after President Truman delivered a radio address calling for Americans to pressure their representatives in Congress for legislation the president called "vital", Taft asserted that Truman had chosen to follow the economic views of the CIO-PAC and left the Democratic Party split and his legislative recommendations stalled despite the Democratic majority in Congress.

Opposition to World War II
Taft's greatest prominence during his first term came not from his fight against the New Deal but rather from his vigorous opposition to US involvement in the Second World War. A staunch non-interventionist, Taft believed that America should avoid any involvement in European or Asian wars and concentrate instead on solving its domestic problems. He believed that a strong military, combined with the natural geographic protection of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, would be adequate to protect America even if Germany overran all of Europe. Between the outbreak of war in September 1939, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Taft opposed nearly all attempts to aid countries fighting Germany. That brought him strong criticism from many liberal Republicans, such as 1940 presidential nominee Wendell Willkie, who felt that America could best protect itself by supporting the British and their allies. Although Taft fully supported the American war effort after Pearl Harbor, he continued to harbor a deep suspicion of American involvement in postwar military alliances, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Taft was the only representative to speak in opposition to Japanese-American internment.

1944 re-election
In 1944 Taft was nearly defeated in his bid for a second term in the Senate. His Democratic opponent, former Ohio Lt. Governor William G. Pickrel, received major support from Ohio's labor unions and internationalists, and lost by fewer than 18,000 votes out of nearly three million cast, or a margin of less than one percent. Taft lost Cleveland, the state's largest city, by 96,000 votes, and he trailed in most of Ohio's largest urban areas, but he ran strong in the state's rural regions and small towns, carried 71 of Ohio's 88 counties, and so avoided defeat. His near-defeat in 1944 "was ever to confound Taft's insistence that he was a potent vote getter", and played a role in his failure to win the Republican presidential nomination in 1948. Following his re-election, Taft became chairman of the Senate Republican Conference in 1944.

United Nations
In 1945, Taft was among the seven senators who opposed full United States entry into the United Nations.

Britain
In March 1946, after the Truman administration pushed for granting Britain a loan of $3.75 billion, Taft advocated for Britain receiving an "outright gift" in place of the loan and said it "would cause irritation" between the latter country and the United States for the next 50 years during his questioning of Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson as part of the Senate Banking committee. Taft asserted that the State Department had acted with "complete secrecy" in negotiating the loan, as no member of Congress had been consulted, and that the proposal would face opposition in Congress for this reason. Taft proposed that Britain could receive the funds it would have had from the loan by adding the US gift of $1 billion with an advance from the International Bank and the International Fund.

Education
In March 1946, Taft joined Senators Lister Hill and Elbert Thomas in introducing a version of the Hill-Thomas Federal Aid to Education bill. In 1948, Taft sponsored an education aid bill providing the poorest states with the most money. Despite Senate approval, the bill was rejected in the House.

Condemnation of Nuremberg Trials
Taft condemned the postwar Nuremberg Trials as victor's justice under ex post facto laws, in which the people who won the war were the prosecutors, the judges, and the alleged victims, all at the same time. Taft condemned the trials as a violation of the most basic principles of American justice and internationally accepted standards in favor of a politicized version of justice in which court proceedings became an excuse for vengeance against the defeated.

"I question whether the hanging of those, who, however despicable, were the leaders of the German people, will ever discourage the making of aggressive war, for no one makes aggressive war unless he expects to win. About this whole judgment there is the spirit of vengeance, and vengeance is seldom justice. The hanging of the eleven men convicted will be a blot on the American record, which we shall long regret."

His opposition to the trials was criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike, and it is sometimes given as a reason for his failure to secure the Republican nomination for president. Other observers, such as Senator John F. Kennedy (in Profiles in Courage), applauded Taft's principled stand even in the face of great bipartisan criticism.

Health care
Despite opposing President Harry Truman's proposal for a comprehensive, national health insurance plan, Taft expressed support for medical aid for poor and low-income people, and in 1947, he proposed a program in which states would receive federal aid from the government in order to provide health care for poor and low-income people. A similar program in Medicaid would eventually be signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965.

In his support of means-tested public health insurance programs, Taft said in 1949: "It has always been assumed in this country that those able to pay for medical care would buy their own medical service, just as under any system, except a socialistic system, they buy their own food, their own housing, their own clothing, and their own automobiles... Undoubtedly, in that system there are gaps... and we have a very definite interest in trying to fill the gaps."

1947 Taft–Hartley Labor Act
When the Republicans took control of Congress in 1947, he focused on labor-management relations as Chair of the Senate Labor Committee. Decrying the effect of the Wagner Act in tilting the balance toward labor unions, he wrote the 1947 Taft–Hartley Act, which remains the basic labor law. It bans "unfair" union practices, outlaws closed shops, and authorizes the President to seek federal court injunctions to impose an 80-day cooling-off period if a strike threatened the national interest. Taft displayed all of his parliamentary skills in getting the bill through Congress. When President Harry Truman vetoed it, Taft then convinced both houses of Congress to override the veto.

By early 1949, Elbert Thomas sponsored legislation sent to Congress by the Truman administration that would repeal the Taft–Hartley Act. Taft predicted that a majority of the Taft–Hartley Act would remain in law and began a week-long period of "one hard-pounding argument after another" defending the legislation. Later that month, Senators Wayne Morse and Irving Ives indicated interest in offering a new labor bill that would remove the section of the Taft–Hartley Act allowing the government to have 80-day injunctions to halt critical strikes, the two publicly stating their hope that Taft would back the legislation. In May, amid the Truman administration's attempts to repeal the Taft–Hartley Act through its own legislation, Taft joined fellow Republicans Howard Alexander Smith and Forrest C. Donnell in introducing legislation that Taft promoted as retaining "the best features of the Taft–Hartley law". In June, ahead of the Senate opening debate on labor legislation, Taft stated there would be a battle fought between his amended Taft–Hartley Act and President Truman's proposal for a repeal and confirmed to reporters he was "not contemplating any new concessions". When the Senate resumed debate on June 8, Taft responded to Elbert D. Thomas in a speech charging Democratic members of the Senate Labor Committee with playing partisan politics in their handling of the Truman administration's bill to repeal the Taft–Hartley Act.

Second term
From 1947 to 1949, when the Republicans controlled the Senate for the first time since 1931, Taft was his party's leading voice in domestic policy. He was reluctant to support farm subsidies, a position that hurt the GOP in rural areas (especially in the Midwest) in the 1948 elections. Taft engineered the passage of the Housing Act of 1949, which funded slum clearance and the construction of 810,000 units of low-income housing over a period of six years. It was one of the few Fair Deal proposals of Truman that he liked. In March 1947, Taft charged Senate Democrats with deliberately stalling legislation and threatened to continually request sessions for the purpose of forwarding the Republican legislative program. In January 1948, Taft delivered a speech responding to President Truman's State of the Union address in which he charged the legislative proposals of the Truman administration with leading the United States to bankruptcy and totalitarianism while pledging the Republican-controlled Congress would not allow them to pass, saying they followed the principle of the New Deal in "promising the people something for nothing." Taft added that the Republicans intended to introduce their own program to reduce expenses and cut both taxes and the tax burden. In turn, Truman Democrats labelled the GOP-controlled 80th congress the "Do Nothing Congress", and accused Taft and Republicans legislators of engaging in obstructionism for purely political purposes.

In February 1949, after losing control of the senate to Democrats in the 1948 election, Taft announced the Republican Party policy committee had agreed to support a motion by California Senator William Knowland aimed at changing the rules of curbing filibusters. In March 1949, the Senate Labor Committee approved the Truman administration's labor bill without changing a comma and while overriding Republican protests, Taft responding that the act was "the most heavy-handed procedure" he had seen since being in the Senate. That year, Taft supported a health program calling for federal outlays of $1.25 billion during the period of the next five years and stated no major health legislation would be passed during the current congressional session. In July 1950, as Senate tax writers gathered in Washington for the first time to discuss the tax reduction voted on by the House, Taft publicly admitted his lack of enthusiasm with a provision calling for the payment of corporate taxes to be sped up within the next five years. Taft stated that Republicans would support a general tax increase during the fall. The same month, during an effort by Republicans to suppress the report by Senate Democrats attacking the charges of Senator Joseph McCarthy, Taft joined Kenneth S. Wherry in predicting an effort to send the majority report back to the committee with an order calling for a bipartisan investigation of the loyalty program of the federal government.

In foreign policy, he was non-interventionist and did not see Stalin's Soviet Union as a major threat. However, he called David Lilienthal "soft on the subject of Communism". The true danger, he believed, was big government and runaway spending. He supported the Truman Doctrine and reluctantly approved the Marshall Plan but opposed NATO, as unnecessary and provocative to the Soviets. Consequently, in July 1949, Taft was one of thirteen senators to vote against the ratification of the NATO pact. However, Taft objected not to the treaty's objectives, but to its form and especially to its rearmament aspects. Taft was strongly for the principle of guaranteeing the integrity of Western Europe. He took the lead among Republicans in condemning Truman's handling of the Korean War and questioning the constitutionality of the war itself: "My conclusion, therefore, is that in the case of Korea, where a war was already under way, we had no right to send troops to a nation, with whom we had no treaty, to defend it against attack by another nation, no matter how unprincipled that aggression might be, unless the whole matter was submitted to Congress and a declaration of war or some other direct authority obtained." In April 1949, during a debate on renewal of the Marshall Plan bill, Taft stated the US could see either a tax increase or budget deficit in the event that foreign aid and other government spending were not reduced. Later that month, a compromise European Recovery Program passed both the House and Senate, within minutes of each other. Taft stated he was hopeful the Appropriations Committees would reduce the cash total by ten percent and led an unsuccessful attempt to trim the bill by the aforementioned amount. In June 1949, Taft indicated his support for reducing funding for the European Recovery Program, saying the Economic Corporation Administration could stand a 10 percent cut in the funding approved by the House. In August 1950, Taft stated the United States had invited the attack in Korea, adding that the real problem was whether the United States was going to "outfit the armed forces" or build up American forces in anticipation of a war against Russia in the following two years, and an all-out rearming of the US would lead to World War III.

Support of Israel
Taft was a leading supporter of the new state of Israel, called for an end to the arms embargo to the Middle East, and supported arms shipments and other military aid to the new country. According to historian Brian Kennedy:
 * Taft's actions towards Palestine seemed to violate many of his foremost principles. Despite being one of the foremost isolationists in the nation, Taft proposed the United States serve as the primary arbiter in the Middle East. Although publicly stating that the United States had no right to dictate policy towards Great Britain in regards to India, he consistently sought to influence British policy in Palestine. Meanwhile, even as he criticized the efforts to grant foreign aid to allied nations in Europe, Taft proposed $150 million in aid be given to Israel. Moreover, at a time when he was running against Truman for the presidency, and while he engaged in extremely contentious and partisan political struggles with the President, Taft surprisingly seemed to agree with the President on the issue of Israel.

1950 re-election
In 1950, Taft ran a more effective campaign for re-election to the Senate. Wooing factory workers, he visited 334 industrial plants and gave 873 speeches. He won a third term by 431,184 votes, the second largest victory margin in Ohio Senate election history until then. He benefited from a weak Democratic opponent – one observer reportedly said of "Jumping Joe" Ferguson, the State Auditor, "If the Democrats want to win, they should send Ferguson on a mission abroad" – but more importantly, Ohio's unions failed to effectively use the Taft–Hartley Act, which they denounced as a "slave labor law", against him. Additionally, Democratic Governor Frank Lausche did not endorse Ferguson and, according to journalist Samuel Lubell, almost openly supported Taft. In a post-election survey of voters, Lubell found that the overly aggressive, labor-backed anti-Taft campaign angered some Democrats. Even many union members reportedly voted Republican to express their opposition to local union leaders, to support Taft–Hartley's ban on the closed shop, or to prevent, as one told Lubell, "the Socialists from taking over the Democratic party."

By the start of his third Senate term, Taft had been given the nickname "Mr. Republican." He was the chief congressional ideologue and spokesman for the conservatism of the Republican Party and the acknowledged national leader of its conservative faction.

In a January 6, 1951 speech on the Senate floor, Taft criticized the Truman administration for plans to defend Western Europe with the U.S. Army. Taft said the NATO treaty did not commit the U.S. to send an American Army to Europe and wanted no American troops there at this time, being in favor instead of reliance on long-distance air and sea superiority to deter the Russians. Taft supported Congress reducing the number of American soldiers that could be dispatched to assist with the defenses of Western Europe, and accused the Truman administration of concealing the number of American troops and soldiers from other nations that would be furnished in the International Defense Army from Congress as well as the American people and advocated for the United States to supply a single division for every nine put up by European nations. In January 1953, Taft stated that the Truman administration's handling of foreign policy had left the incoming Eisenhower "with the most dangerous foreign problem this country has ever faced."

In August 1951, after President Truman delivered an address criticizing those "trying to create fear and suspicion among us by the use of slander, unproved accusations, and just plain lies", Taft told a reporter that he considered Truman hysterical and called for him to refer to a specific remark that was both false and alleged of him. That month, Taft announced his support for an Air Force increase but opposition to similar boosts for either the Army or Navy, telling a reporter of his concerns that military leaders would ask Congress for appropriations later in the year and that additional increases for other branches would retain deficits he did not believe the US could stand. In December, Taft delivered an address to the American Medical Association, asserting the federal government as attempting to take over all welfare programs through a scheme and stated that doctors were justified in their opposition as Socialists made moves to enact a federal system of socialized medicine. On January 31, 1953, Taft indicated the Eisenhower administration would allow the death of price controls on April 30 and voiced his opposition to the "legal recognition to the principle of controls".

Distrust by Old Right
While outsiders thought Taft was the epitome of conservative Republicanism, inside the party, he was repeatedly criticized by hardliners alarmed by his sponsorship of New Deal-like programs, especially federal housing for the poor. The real estate lobby was especially fearful about public housing. Senator Kenneth S. Wherry discerned a "touch of socialism" in Taft, and his Ohio colleague, Senator John Bricker, speculated that perhaps the "socialists have gotten to Bob Taft." The distrust on the right hurt Taft's 1948 presidential ambitions.

1940 and 1944
Taft first sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1940 but lost to Wendell Willkie. Taft was regarded as a strong contender, but his outspoken support of a non-interventionist foreign policy, and his opposition to the New Deal in domestic policy led many liberal Republicans to reject his candidacy. At the 1940 Republican Convention, Willkie, once a Democrat, and a corporate executive who had never run for political office, came from behind to beat Taft and several other candidates for the nomination. That year, Taft first clashed with Thomas E. Dewey, then a New York District Attorney, who had become nationally famous for successfully prosecuting several prominent organized-crime figures, especially New York mob boss "Lucky" Luciano. Taft felt that Dewey was not conservative or consistent enough in his principles for the Republican Party: "Tom Dewey has no real courage to stand up against the crowd that wants to smear any Republican who takes a forthright position against the New Deal ... there is only one way to beat the New Deal, and that is head on. You can't outdeal them." In other letters, Taft described Dewey as "very arrogant and bossy" and worried that "advisers will talk Dewey into too much internationalism ... he comes from New York and sees the group opinions there as a lot more important than they are."

In the 1944 presidential campaign Taft was not a candidate. He supported Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio, a fellow conservative, for the nomination. However, Bricker was defeated by Dewey, who had become the Governor of New York in 1943. Dewey named Bricker as his running mate; the ticket would go on to lose to Roosevelt in the general election.

1948 and 1952
In 1948, Taft made a second try for the nomination but again was defeated by his archrival, Dewey, who led the GOP's moderate/liberal wing. In the 1948 United States presidential election, Dewey was defeated by the Democratic presidential candidate, Harry S. Truman.

In August 1951, during a news conference, President Truman said Taft was his choice for the Republican nomination in the following year's presidential election, Taft responding by saying that he would let others comment on the remark. In January 1952, Taft stated those seeking the drafting of General Dwight Eisenhower had made the argument he could not win the general election and that he did not understand this perspective as the same argument was being made of Eisenhower's candidacy by his manager David S. Ingalls. On March 20, Taft announced his withdrawal from the New Jersey Republican primary, citing the endorsement of Eisenhower by Governor of New Jersey Alfred Driscoll and insisting the endorsement was part of a move by Driscoll to corrupt the primary's intent.

Taft sought to reach out to southern Democratic voters in his 1952 campaign. It was his third and final try for the nomination; it also proved to be his strongest effort. At the Republican State Convention in Little Rock, he declared:

"I believe a Republican could carry a number of southern states if he conducts the right kind of campaign. ... Whether we win or lose in the South, we cannot afford to ignore public opinion in the southern states, because it influences national public opinion, and that opinion finally decides the election. ... It is said that southern Democrats will not vote for a Republican candidate. They have frequently done so. They did so in Little Rock last November [1951] when they elected Pratt Remmel mayor. I refuse to admit that if the issues are clearly presented, the southern voters will not vote on the basis of principle. ..."

Taft had the solid backing of the party's conservative wing. Former US Representative Howard Buffett of Nebraska (father of billionaire Warren Buffett) served as one of his campaign managers. With Dewey no longer an active candidate, many political pundits regarded Taft as the frontrunner. However, the race changed when Dewey and other moderates were able to convince Dwight D. Eisenhower, the most popular general of World War II, to run for the nomination. Eisenhower ran because of his fear that Taft's non-interventionist views in foreign policy, especially his opposition to NATO, might benefit the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

The fight between Taft and Eisenhower for the nomination was one of the closest and most bitter in American political history. When the Republican Convention opened in Chicago in July 1952, Taft and Eisenhower were neck-and-neck in delegate votes. On the convention's first day, Eisenhower's managers complained that Taft's forces had unfairly denied Eisenhower supporters delegate slots in several Southern states, including Texas, where the state chairman, Orville Bullington, was committed to Taft. The Eisenhower partisans proposed to remove pro-Taft delegates in these states and replace them with pro-Eisenhower delegates; they called their proposal "Fair Play." Although Taft angrily denied having stolen any delegate votes, the convention voted to support Fair Play 658 to 548, and the Texans voted 33–5 for Eisenhower as a result. In addition, several uncommitted state delegations, such as Michigan and Pennsylvania, agreed to support Eisenhower.

The addition of the uncommitted state delegations, combined with Taft's loss of many Southern delegates by the Fair Play proposal, decided the nomination in Eisenhower's favor. Despite his bitterness at his narrow defeat and his belief that he had been unfairly ambushed by the Eisenhower forces (including Dewey), Taft issued a brief statement after the convention conveying his congratulations and support to Eisenhower. Thereafter, however, he brooded in silence at his summer home in Quebec, complaining, "Every Republican candidate for President since 1936 has been nominated by the Chase National Bank." As the weeks passed, Eisenhower's aides worried that Taft and his supporters would sit on their hands during the campaign and that as a result Eisenhower might lose the election. In September 1952, Taft finally agreed to meet with Eisenhower, at Morningside Heights in New York City. There, to gain Taft's support, Eisenhower promised that he would take no reprisals against Taft partisans, would cut federal spending, and would fight "creeping socialism in every domestic field." In fact, Eisenhower and Taft agreed on most domestic issues; their disagreements were primarily in foreign policy.

Eisenhower firmly believed in NATO and was committed to the US support of anticommunism in the Cold War.

Senate Majority Leader
Following Eisenhower's election and the Republican takeover of Congress, Taft served as Senate Majority Leader in 1953, and he strongly supported Eisenhower's domestic proposals. He worked hard to assist the inexperienced new officials of the administration. He even tried, with little success, to curb the excesses of red-baiting US Senator Joseph McCarthy. By April, Eisenhower and Taft were friends and golfing companions, and Taft was praising his former adversary. Defeat in 1952, it seemed, had softened Taft. No longer burdened by presidential ambitions, he had become less partisan, less abrasive, and more conciliatory; he was now widely regarded as the most powerful man in Congress.

On May 26, 1953, Taft delivered his final speech, in which he presciently warned of the dangers of America's emerging Cold War foreign policy, specifically against US military involvement in Southeast Asia, which would later become the Vietnam War:

"I have never felt that we should send American soldiers to the Continent of Asia, which, of course, included China proper and Indo-China, simply because we are so outnumbered in fighting a land war on the Continent of Asia that it would bring about complete exhaustion even if we were able to win. ... So today, as since 1947 in Europe and 1950 in Asia, we are really trying to arm the world against Communist Russia, or at least furnish all the assistance which can be of use to them in opposing Communism.

Is this policy of uniting the free world against Communism in time of peace going to be a practical long-term policy? I have always been a skeptic on the subject of the military practicability of NATO. ... I have always felt that we should not attempt to fight Russia on the ground on the Continent of Europe any more than we should attempt to fight China on the Continent of Asia."

Death and legacy
In April 1953, Taft checked into Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He had been suffering from pain in his hips for some time and had recently played a round of golf with President Eisenhower, which he was barely able to finish. Doctors there put the Senator through a battery of tests, but they were not conclusive; it was suspected that Taft may have been suffering from arthritis or perhaps had a tumor somewhere in his lower extremities.

On May 26, Taft returned to Cincinnati where he underwent another round of medical testing at Holmes Hospital. Biopsies were done on several nodules on his head and abdomen, which came back as malignant. On June 7, he entered New York Hospital for more tests and treatment; to keep the news that he might have cancer a secret he registered under the assumed name "Howard Roberts, Jr.". While it was agreed that Taft in fact had cancer, the physicians treating him were not in agreement on how to treat him, especially considering that none of them were aware where the primary tumor was (a postmortem examination discovered the tumor originated in the senator's pancreas). Some thought that surgery to remove the tumors would be the best option for Taft, while others felt the cancer had spread too far and thus palliative care, specifically X-ray therapy, was preferable. On June 10, 1953, Taft held a press conference in which he announced his illness and transferred his duties as Senate Majority Leader to Senator William F. Knowland of California. He did not resign his Senate seat and told reporters that he expected to recover and return to work.

However, Taft's condition continued to deteriorate and with the Senate in recess, he returned to New York Hospital for surgery on July 4. The surgery "did not take long, for the doctors discovered cancer everywhere ... there was no longer any doubt" that his condition was terminal. On July 31, Taft's wife paid him a visit in his hospital room. Several hours after she left, Taft suffered a brain hemorrhage and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. His body lay in state at the United States Capitol rotunda, where thousands of mourners offered their respects at his coffin. On August 3, 1953, a memorial service was held in the rotunda; in addition to his family the service was attended by Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, the cabinet, members of the Supreme Court, and Taft's congressional colleagues. Following the service his body was flown to Cincinnati, where he was buried in a private ceremony at Indian Hill Episcopal Church Cemetery.

In 1957, a committee led by Senator John F. Kennedy selected Taft as one of five great senators whose portraits would adorn the President's Room off the Senate floor. Kennedy would feature him in Profiles in Courage, and Taft continues to be regarded by historians as one of the most powerful senators of the 20th century.

Memorial
The Robert A. Taft Memorial, featuring a 10 ft statue by the sculptor Wheeler Williams and a bell tower, is located north of the Capitol on Constitution Avenue. The inscription on the tower face behind him reads:

"This Memorial to Robert A. Taft, presented by the people to the Congress of the United States, stands as a tribute to the honesty, indomitable courage, and high principles of free government symbolized by his life."

title: Robert A. Taft


text:
Method of complements

In mathematics and computing, the method of complements is a technique to encode a symmetric range of positive and negative integers in a way that they can use the same algorithm (or mechanism) for addition throughout the whole range. For a given number of places half of the possible representations of numbers encode the positive numbers, the other half represents their respective additive inverses. The pairs of mutually additive inverse numbers are called complements. Thus subtraction of any number is implemented by adding its complement. Changing the sign of any number is encoded by generating its complement, which can be done by a very simple and efficient algorithm. This method was commonly used in mechanical calculators and is still used in modern computers. The generalized concept of the radix complement (as described below) is also valuable in number theory, such as in Midy's theorem.

The nines' complement of a number given in decimal representation is formed by replacing each digit with nine minus that digit. To subtract a decimal number y (the subtrahend) from another number x (the minuend) two methods may be used:

In the first method, the nines' complement of x is added to y. Then the nines' complement of the result obtained is formed to produce the desired result. In the second method, the nines' complement of y is added to x and one is added to the sum. The leftmost digit '1' of the result is then discarded. Discarding the leftmost '1' is especially convenient on calculators or computers that use a fixed number of digits: there is nowhere for it to go so it is simply lost during the calculation. The nines' complement plus one is known as the tens' complement.

The method of complements can be extended to other number bases (radices); in particular, it is used on most digital computers to perform subtraction, represent negative numbers in base 2 or binary arithmetic and test underflow and overflow in calculation.

Numeric complements
The radix complement of an $$n$$-digit number $$y$$ in radix $$b$$ is defined as $$b^n - y$$. In practice, the radix complement is more easily obtained by adding 1 to the diminished radix complement, which is $$\left(b^n - 1\right) - y$$. While this seems equally difficult to calculate as the radix complement, it is actually simpler since $$\left(b^n - 1\right)$$ is simply the digit $$b - 1$$ repeated $$n$$ times. This is because $$b^n - 1 = (b - 1)\left(b^{n-1} + b^{n-2} + \cdots + b + 1\right) = (b - 1)b^{n-1} + \cdots + (b - 1)$$ (see also Geometric series Formula). Knowing this, the diminished radix complement of a number can be found by complementing each digit with respect to $$b - 1$$, i.e. subtracting each digit in $$y$$ from $$b - 1$$.

The subtraction of $$y$$ from $$x$$ using diminished radix complements may be performed as follows. Add the diminished radix complement of $$x$$ to $$y$$ to obtain $$b^n - 1 - x + y$$ or equivalently $$b^n - 1 - (x - y)$$, which is the diminished radix complement of $$x-y$$. Further taking the diminished radix complement of $$b^n - 1 - (x - y)$$ results in the desired answer of $$x - y$$.

Alternatively using the radix complement, $$x-y$$ may be obtained by adding the radix complement of $$y$$ to $$x$$ to obtain $$x + b^n - y$$ or $$x - y + b^n$$. Assuming $$y \leq x$$, the result will be greater or equal to $$b^n$$ and dropping the leading $$1$$ from the result is the same as subtracting $$b^n$$, making the result $$x - y + b^n - b^n$$ or just $$x - y$$, the desired result.

In the decimal numbering system, the radix complement is called the ten's complement and the diminished radix complement the nines' complement. In binary, the radix complement is called the two's complement and the diminished radix complement the ones' complement. The naming of complements in other bases is similar. Some people, notably Donald Knuth, recommend using the placement of the apostrophe to distinguish between the radix complement and the diminished radix complement. In this usage, the four's complement refers to the radix complement of a number in base four while fours' complement is the diminished radix complement of a number in base 5. However, the distinction is not important when the radix is apparent (nearly always), and the subtle difference in apostrophe placement is not common practice. Most writers use one's and nine's complement, and many style manuals leave out the apostrophe, recommending ones and nines complement.

Decimal example
The nines' complement of a decimal digit is the number that must be added to it to produce 9; the nines' complement of 3 is 6, the nines' complement of 7 is 2, and so on, see table. To form the nines' complement of a larger number, each digit is replaced by its nines' complement.

Consider the following subtraction problem:

873 [x, the minuend] - 218 [y, the subtrahend]

First method
Compute the nines' complement of the minuend, 873. Add that to the subtrahend 218, then calculate the nines' complement of the result.

126 [nines' complement of x = 999 - x] + 218  [y, the subtrahend] —————  344  [999 - x + y]

Now calculate the nines' complement of the result

344 [result] 655 [nines' complement of 344 = 999 - (999 - x + y) = x - y, the correct answer]

Second method
Compute the nines' complement of 218, which is 781. Because 218 is three digits long, this is the same as subtracting 218 from 999.

Next, the sum of $$x$$ and the nines' complement of $$y$$ is taken:

873 [x] + 781 [nines' complement of y = 999 - y] ————— 1654 [999 + x - y]

The leading "1" digit is then dropped, giving 654.

1654 -1000 [-(999 + 1)] —————   654  [-(999 + 1) + 999 + x - y]

This is not yet correct. In the first step, 999 was added to the equation. Then 1000 was subtracted when the leading 1 was dropped. So, the answer obtained (654) is one less than the correct answer $$x-y$$. To fix this, 1 is added to the answer:

654 +  1 —————   655  [x - y]

Adding a 1 gives 655, the correct answer to our original subtraction problem. The last step of adding 1 could be skipped if instead the ten's complement of y was used in the first step.

Magnitude of numbers
In the following example the result of the subtraction has fewer digits than $$x$$:

123410 [x, the minuend] - 123401 [y, the subtrahend]

Using the first method the sum of the nines' complement of $$x$$ and $$y$$ is

876589 [nines' complement of x] + 123401  [y] ————————  999990 The nines' complement of 999990 is 000009. Removing the leading zeros gives 9, the desired result.

If the subtrahend, $$y$$, has fewer digits than the minuend, $$x$$, leading zeros must be added in the second method. These zeros become leading nines when the complement is taken. For example:

48032 [x] -  391  [y]

can be rewritten

48032 [x] - 00391 [y with leading zeros]

Replacing 00391 with its nines' complement and adding 1 produces the sum:

48032 [x] + 99608 [nines' complement of y] +     1 ——————— 147641

Dropping the leading 1 gives the correct answer: 47641.

Binary method
The method of complements is especially useful in binary (radix 2) since the ones' complement is very easily obtained by inverting each bit (changing '0' to '1' and vice versa). Adding 1 to get the two's complement can be done by simulating a carry into the least significant bit. For example:

0110 0100 [x, equals decimal 100] - 0001 0110 [y, equals decimal 22]

becomes the sum:

0110 0100 [x] + 1110 1001 [ones' complement of y = 1111 1111 - y] +         1  [to get the two's complement = 1 0000 0000 - y] ——————————— 10100 1110 [x + 1 0000 0000 - y]

Dropping the initial "1" gives the answer: 0100 1110 (equals decimal 78)

Negative number representations
The method of complements normally assumes that the operands are positive and that y ≤ x, logical constraints given that adding and subtracting arbitrary integers is normally done by comparing signs, adding the two or subtracting the smaller from the larger, and giving the result the correct sign.

Let's see what happens if x < y. In that case, there will not be a "1" digit to cross out after the addition since $$x-y+b^n$$ will be less than $$b^n$$. For example, (in decimal):

185 [x] - 329 [y]

Complementing y and adding gives:

185 [x] + 670 [nines' complement of y] +   1 —————  856

At this point, there is no simple way to complete the calculation by subtracting $$b^n$$ (1000 in this case); one cannot simply ignore a leading 1. The expected answer is −144, which isn't as far off as it seems; 856 happens to be the ten's complement of 144. This issue can be addressed in a number of ways:
 * Ignore the issue. This is reasonable if a person is operating a calculating device that doesn't support negative numbers since comparing the two operands before the calculation so they can be entered in the proper order, and verifying that the result is reasonable, is easy for humans to do.
 * Use the same method to subtract 856 from 1000, and then add a negative sign to the result.
 * Represent negative numbers as radix complements of their positive counterparts. Numbers less than $$b^n/2$$ are considered positive; the rest are considered negative (and their magnitude can be obtained by taking the radix complement). This works best for even radices since the sign can be determined by looking at the first digit. For example, numbers in ten's complement notation are positive if the first digit is 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4, and negative if 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9. And it works very well in binary since the first bit can be considered a sign bit: the number is positive if the sign bit is 0 and negative if it is 1. Indeed, two's complement is used in most modern computers to represent signed numbers.
 * Complement the result if there is no carry out of the most significant digit (an indication that x was less than y). This is easier to implement with digital circuits than comparing and swapping the operands. But since taking the radix complement requires adding 1, it is difficult to do directly. Fortunately, a trick can be used to get around this addition: Instead of always setting a carry into the least significant digit when subtracting, the carry out of the most significant digit is used as the carry input into the least significant digit (an operation called an end-around carry). So if y ≤ x, the carry from the most significant digit that would normally be ignored is added, producing the correct result. And if not, the 1 is not added and the result is one less than the radix complement of the answer, or the diminished radix complement, which does not require an addition to obtain. This method is used by computers that use sign-and-magnitude to represent signed numbers.

Practical uses
The method of complements was used in many mechanical calculators as an alternative to running the gears backwards. For example:

 * Pascal's calculator had two sets of result digits, a black set displaying the normal result and a red set displaying the nines' complement of this. A horizontal slat was used to cover up one of these sets, exposing the other. To subtract, the red digits were exposed and set to 0. Then the nines' complement of the minuend was entered. On some machine this could be done by dialing in the minuend using inner wheels of complements (i.e. without having to mentally determine the nines' complement of the minuend). In displaying that data in the complement window (red set), the operator could see the nines' complement of the nines' complement of the minuend, that is the minuend. The slat was then moved to expose the black digits (which now displayed the nines' complement of the minuend) and the subtrahend was added by dialing it in. Finally, the operator had to move the slat again to read the correct answer.
 * The Comptometer had nines' complement digits printed in smaller type along with the normal digits on each key. To subtract, the operator was expected to mentally subtract 1 from the subtrahend and enter the result using the smaller digits. Since subtracting 1 before complementing is equivalent to adding 1 afterwards, the operator would thus effectively add the ten's complement of the subtrahend. The operator also needed to hold down the "subtraction cutoff tab" corresponding to the leftmost digit of the answer. This tab prevented the carry from being propagated past it, the Comptometer's method of dropping the initial 1 from the result.
 * The Curta calculator used the method of complements for subtraction, and managed to hide this from the user. Numbers were entered using digit input slides along the side of the device. The number on each slide was added to a result counter by a gearing mechanism which engaged cams on a rotating "echelon drum" (a.k.a. "step drum"). The drum was turned by use of a crank on the top of the instrument. The number of cams encountered by each digit as the crank turned was determined by the value of that digit. For example, if a slide is set to its "6" position, a row of 6 cams would be encountered around the drum corresponding to that position. For subtraction, the drum was shifted slightly before it was turned, which moved a different row of cams into position. This alternate row contained the nines' complement of the digits. Thus, the row of 6 cams that had been in position for addition now had a row with 3 cams. The shifted drum also engaged one extra cam which added 1 to the result (as required for the method of complements). The always present ten's complement "overflow 1" which carried out beyond the most significant digit of the results register was, in effect, discarded.

In computers
Use of the method of complements is ubiquitous in digital computers, regardless of the representation used for signed numbers. However, the circuitry required depends on the representation:

 * If two's complement representation is used, subtraction requires only inverting the bits of the subtrahend and setting a carry into the rightmost bit.
 * Using ones' complement representation requires inverting the bits of the subtrahend and connecting the carry out of the most significant bit to the carry in of the least significant bit (end-around carry).
 * Using sign-magnitude representation requires only complementing the sign bit of the subtrahend and adding, but the addition/subtraction logic needs to compare the sign bits, complement one of the inputs if they are different, implement an end-around carry, and complement the result if there was no carry from the most significant bit.

Manual uses
The method of complements was used to correct errors when accounting books were written by hand. To remove an entry from a column of numbers, the accountant could add a new entry with the ten's complement of the number to subtract. A bar was added over the digits of this entry to denote its special status. It was then possible to add the whole column of figures to obtain the corrected result.

Complementing the sum is handy for cashiers making change for a purchase from currency in a single denomination of 1 raised to an integer power of the currency's base. For decimal currencies that would be 10, 100, 1,000, etc., e.g. a $10.00 bill.

In grade school education
In grade schools, students are sometimes taught the method of complements as a shortcut useful in mental arithmetic. Subtraction is done by adding the ten's complement of the subtrahend, which is the nines' complement plus 1. The result of this addition is used when it is clear that the difference will be positive, otherwise the ten's complement of the addition's result is used with it marked as negative. The same technique works for subtracting on an adding machine.

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

title: Method of complements


text:
Talk:Method of complements

[Untitled]
I never really heard about Ten's complement, Nine's complement etc. until today, so I am probably not the one to tidy up this article. I found a decent brief explanation of them for anyone else who wants to try. Someone who's better at math, please give it a look. -- Wapcaplet 01:50, 7 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Part of the Nine's Complement section wasn't correct, so I posted a little note of what seems to be the solution. . . --Joeedh 08:56, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Thanks, though usually comments such as this (notes to other contributors) should not be visible in the article; to make such comments invisible in the article, yet visible in the edit window, you can surround them with HTML comment tags: . I'm having trouble understanding what you mean by this comment, though. You mention that 873-100 does not give a correct answer (did you mean 773?): 100 complemented is 899; 873 + 899 = 1772; drop the initial "1", giving 772; add 1, giving the correct answer 773. If you meant that subtracting a number smaller than 100 produces a wrong answer, I don't think that's true either; for example, for 873-50, complement 50 = 949; 873 + 949 = 1822; drop the "1" = 822; add 1 to get 823, the correct answer. The first digit in the intermediate result will always be "1" (unless x < y, which is a special case discussed in the next section) so I see no difference between subtracting 1 from it, or removing it altogether - and it should always be dropped. -- Wapcaplet 18:27, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * Must have been an error in my code implementation. I'm using it for a infinite-precision integer library for a C++ class.  Thanks for the tip.

Nine's vs. nines'
I don't think "nines' complement" is correct. The system works by finding the complement of each digit with respect to a value of nine, and there need not be multiple nines involved. The nine's complement of 3, for instance, is 6. It works similarly to two's complement, which works by finding each digit's complement with respect to the value 2. If there are no objections within a few days, I will revert. -- Wapcaplet 18:11, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)

 * I strongly agree. But I notice that nothing has happened since November of last year.  Do you want to do this or shall I? Rick Norwood 19:21, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

 * I think the text in the last paragraph of the Numeric Complements section is accurate. But I wrote it, so please correct it if not. I've only seen the topic addressed in one place, Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming (volume 2, section 4.1). See also Talk:Signed number representations. Logical as his argument seems to me, if another author has a different opinion, I'll consider it. Of course, language is what writers use, and a lot of them use nine's, whether Knuth agrees with it or not! --Rick Sidwell 01:49, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

 * Knuth is a man with strong opinions, some of them correct. Rick Norwood 14:32, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, I guess it makes sense to follow the normal rules of English grammar. Complement with 9 == nine's complement, complement with multiple 9s == nines' complement. -- Wapcaplet 03:04, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

It's an interesting issue. The most common use is to put the apostrophe before the 's', and I noted that in the paragraph about the issue. But it isn't really an important part of the overall topic, so I removed the references to it elsewhere in the article. (Besides, to me "Knuth's apostrophe convention" describes his method of `quoting' in TeX, not his preference for naming radix complements.) --Rick Sidwell 14:59, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

There shouldn't be an apostrophe at all. It should be nines complement. It is not the complement belonging to a nine or a number of nines. It is the complement with respect to a bunch of nines. Gnomon (talk) 18:07, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

Computers don't use two's complement for subtraction!
I removed the following statement:

 * One practical application of the method of complements is for performing subtraction in a computer microprocessor which uses the binary numeral system. Binary computers typically employ the two's complement for the operation of subtraction.

Computers do use two's complement for representing numbers; it makes addition and subtraction of signed integers a lot easier. But they don't subtract by complementing and adding as described in this article; they subtract using subtraction circuitry. --Rick Sidwell 03:20, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

@Rick Sidwell "they subtract using subtraction circuitry" A subtraction is performed by inverting the B inputs (making one's complement) before they reach the adder. In the adder the carry will add 1 (in effect turning the one's complement into two's complement for free. Thank you, carry). If there's was a borrow the carry would have been cleared at an earlier stage, in which case the addition of 1 would have been omitted. Neat, isn't it? :-) Maybe modern processors have added circuitry that's dedicated to subtraction, I don't know, but this is the way it was always done. SvenPB 14:14, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Makes sense. I've been meaning to rework this article for awhile, and included this in the new version. Please correct it if I got it wrong! It certainly still needs some work; I'd like to include a discussion of how mechanical calculators like the Pascaline and Curta made use of the method of complements. --Rick Sidwell 02:09, 18 August 2005 (UTC)
 * When building an adder, it is not a lot of work to add the XOR gates to invert one input. Also, since there is usually a carry-in line, one uses that for the add one, so it is then a two's complement subtractor. Note, though, that as noted above, in the case of ones complement it is somewhat usual to use subtract logic. If you use subtract logic, then as long as neither input is -0, the output won't be -0. Then you complement the second operand and you have an adder, again with no -0 as long as neither operand is -0. Make people happy not seeing -0 when not expected. Gah4 (talk) 05:47, 28 October 2023 (UTC)
 * When building an adder, it is not a lot of work to add the XOR gates to invert one input. Also, since there is usually a carry-in line, one uses that for the add one, so it is then a two's complement subtractor. Note, though, that as noted above, in the case of ones complement it is somewhat usual to use subtract logic. If you use subtract logic, then as long as neither input is -0, the output won't be -0. Then you complement the second operand and you have an adder, again with no -0 as long as neither operand is -0. Make people happy not seeing -0 when not expected. Gah4 (talk) 05:47, 28 October 2023 (UTC)

Deletion
I removed the following incorrect text:

 * The n's complement of m is n - m. For example, the ten's complement of 7 is 3; the one's complement of 1/3 is 2/3, the hundred's complement of 28 is 72.

It's true that the ten's complement of 7 is 3, and if you consider "28" a single digit in base 100, I suppose it's hundred's complement is "72". But the ten's complement of 28 is also 72, not -62, and the ten's complement of 007 is 993. And ones complement (no matter where you put the apostrophe) only makes sense in base 2; the example would be something like the ones' complement of 01/11 is 10/11, which may look like 1/3 and 2/3 converted to binary until you add more digits and get 0001/0011 and 1110/0011. --Rick Sidwell 00:41, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

 * What is going on here is that the same word, "complement", is used in two very different contexts, computer science and elementary education. I'll move the way the word is used in elementary education to the proper section.  Maybe we should split the article, and expand the education section with more examples of how complements are being used to teach subtraction. Rick Norwood 12:28, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

Borrowing complex
How exactly is borrowing any more complex than carrying (which you have to do in this method)? Plugwash

 * I can only say that schoolchildren find it so, especially when you have to borrow from a number several columns to the left. Apparently computers also find carrying easier than borrowing. Rick Norwood 20:49, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

 * I think i've realised why humans find borrowing tricky, its because adding two single digit numbers to produce a small two digit number is drummed into thier heads. whereas subtracting two single digit numbers in the same way isn't (negative numbers are normally done as sign-magnitute and aren't taught until later).

 * As for computers they do it that way because it allows them to have one set of cuircitry for addition and subtraction and it probablly seemed saner to do subtraction by additions and complements than addition by subtraction and complements. Plugwash 21:21, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

 * I would like some sources to back up the statement schoolchildren find it so. It's not that I don't believe it, but it would be good to have a justification. 171.16.2.2 13:41, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Sources would be nice, although I personally don't know where to look for them. But to answer the original question, borrowing is more complex than carrying in several ways. With carrying, you generate the carry after adding the digits in one column and immediately use it by adding it to the next column. With borrowing, you borrow before subtracting, and the common practice is to cross out the digit and write one less above it, with the special consideration when the digit is zero to write nine and repeat the borrowing process. A simpler way would be to just mark that 1 was borrowed and deal with it when subtracting that column and marking a borrow from the next column if it is needed (including the case when the digit is zero). That's how an electronic "full subtracter" would work, but it isn't very intuitive for a human doing a manual subtraction. --Rick Sidwell 21:56, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
 * For humans, and I suppose for other than binary computers, borrow might be more complicated. But in binary computers, borrow is exactly the opposite of carry. This is more obvious with computers that have "add with carry" and "subtract with borrow" instructions. Some reverse the logic for borrow, others don't. As for schoolchildren, I suspect that they have more practice with carry, so it seems easier. Gah4 (talk) 19:56, 9 September 2020 (UTC)
 * For humans, and I suppose for other than binary computers, borrow might be more complicated. But in binary computers, borrow is exactly the opposite of carry. This is more obvious with computers that have "add with carry" and "subtract with borrow" instructions. Some reverse the logic for borrow, others don't. As for schoolchildren, I suspect that they have more practice with carry, so it seems easier. Gah4 (talk) 19:56, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

End around carry in nines compliment
The article says "Fortunately, a trick can be used to get around this addition: Instead of always setting a carry into the least significant digit when subtracting, the carry out of the most significant digit is used as the carry input into the least significant digit (an operation called an end-around carry). So if y ≤ x, the carry from the most significant digit that would normally be ignored is added, producing the correct result. And if not, the 1 is not added and the result is one less than the radix complement of the answer, or the diminished radix complement, which does not require an addition to obtain."

I wish the author of this section could provide a numerical example. I am trying see this and how it works on pencil and paper, but somehow I am missing the method. Thanks. 192.80.95.242 (talk) 14:48, 12 June 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.80.95.242 (talk) 14:45, 12 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes this is the common way, at least for binary. A two's complement subtractor inverts the input bits and uses a carry-in of 1, ignoring overflow.  A ones' complement subtractor compliments the bits, and uses the carry-out as the carry-in.  That should work for nines' complement in the same way. Gah4 (talk) 20:04, 9 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes this is the common way, at least for binary. A two's complement subtractor inverts the input bits and uses a carry-in of 1, ignoring overflow.  A ones' complement subtractor compliments the bits, and uses the carry-out as the carry-in.  That should work for nines' complement in the same way. Gah4 (talk) 20:04, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

Proof Required
The article says, any number less than b/2 will be positive, so 0,1,2,3,4 will be positive & other's negative. But is there any proof for above statement. Also, I was doing following calculation - 1 - 999,

999, 10's complement will be 001, adding it to 1, makes it 002. Now the statment says, 0 should be positive, so the answer should be +002, which is wrong. Please let me know, in which step i did wrong calculation or assumption. Tushar39 (talk) 09:46, 31 October 2009 (UTC)

>The subtle difference in apostrophe placement is not common practice. Not to mention inaudible. 87.213.97.66 (talk) 12:01, 20 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Only half the number can be used, so 1 to 499 are positive, and 500 to 999 are negative. 999 is the representation of -1 or -2. Gah4 (talk) 20:06, 9 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Only half the number can be used, so 1 to 499 are positive, and 500 to 999 are negative. 999 is the representation of -1 or -2. Gah4 (talk) 20:06, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

Subtraction in paragraph "Negative number representations"
In order for the subtraction result to be -144 (which is right), the "+1" is not right because "856 happens to be the ten's complement of 144" isn't either. So why is it there? No explanation for the addition of 1 either. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.69.24.164 (talk) 16:14, 25 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, this is confusing. It should explain either nines' complement or ten's complement, and say which one it is doing. Gah4 (talk) 20:42, 9 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes, this is confusing. It should explain either nines' complement or ten's complement, and say which one it is doing. Gah4 (talk) 20:42, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

zero
The article never explains zero, and specifically negative zero. There are two solutions computers use for negative zero. One is to always compare equal to positive zero, and the other is not to generate one, given no inputs are negative zero. The latter case is easily done by building the logic of a ones' complement subtractor, and do addition by adding the complement. The article might mention this. Gah4 (talk) 20:45, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

ten's complement
The article mentions decimal, and then all the examples are nines' complement. Can we have a ten's complement example? I wanted to link to this one. Gah4 (talk) 05:50, 28 October 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Method of complements


text:
Talk:Enguera

Anyone have a suggestion for what to put in place of my somewhat nonsensical translation "although the complementary or secondary component of agriculture is evident"? The original Spanish of the article was "aunque el componente complementario o de segunda actividad de la agricultura es evidente." To me, this original passage makes little sense, so I resorted to word-for-word translation. It's possible that this phrase was nonsensical from the start and should be removed, or it's possible that I simply missed the author's point here. Magnificat 02:02, 7 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Yeah, I didn't understand it either. I'd say you should remove it. --Jeff Worthington 14:35, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Enguera. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110317024237/http://adene.es/inicio.aspx to http://adene.es/inicio.aspx

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 08:46, 21 September 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Enguera


text:
Talk:Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon

Untitled
John Kenney made an edit with the following summary: reverting - the word "British" in relation to "house of commons" has no need to be shown in the article.

I included the word "British" in the link since "House of Commons" links to a generic House of Commons page, while British House of Commons links to the specific House in which Edward Grey served. Failing any objection, I hope to include "British" in the link. Lord Emsworth 02:21, Nov 7, 2003 (UTC)
 * "British HoC" would be unnecessary, as he's already referred to as a "British politician" in the preceding paragraph. Andy Mabbett 07:52, 7 Nov 2003 (UTC)
 * Therefore, British appears in the link, but not in the article: ((British HOC|HOC)). Lord Emsworth 13:29, Nov 7, 2003 (UTC)

POV like crazy here... "tepid German response" and others. Sources on these?

The Charm of Birds
I have a book by Sir Edward Grey titled The Charm of Birds. I wouldn't know of an acceptable place to put this information. Ninetigerr 20:34, 8 August 2006 (UTC)ninetigerr

Dealings With The Germans
Grey was slow to tell the Germans in no uncertain terms that an invasion of Belgium (by the Germans) would mean war. But it may not have been completely his fault. Until the Germans actually invaded Belgium and the British public rallied behind the pro-war faction, he really didn't have much to threaten them with. And that's one of the catch-22s of parlimentary democracy.Cranston Lamont (talk) 17:10, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * This is essentially correct, but Grey's holding back did not materially affect the outcome. Germany was well-aware of what Britain would do, as Britain had warned Bismarck against invading Belgium during the Franco-Prussian War. The German General Staff anticipated that Britain would declare war once the Schlieffen Plan took Germany through Belgium, but calculated that a few divisions of British troops wouldn't prevent Germany from winning the war in a few weeks. Tuchman's The Guns of August and Massie's Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the coming of the Great War are good starting points from which you can track down any number of primary sources. Astro$01 (talk) 14:15, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

lights out all over Europe quotation
"in our time" or "in our lifetime"? the article is inconsistent. Kittybrewster  ☎  08:14, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Painting Caption
The caption for the painting "Lord Grey of Fallodon, c. 1935" presumably has the wrong date as he died in 1933 ? RGCorris (talk) 09:11, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Probably right but not impossible to have been painted in 2014. Graemp (talk) 09:54, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I am assuming the "c.1935" refers to his age as he appears in the portrait, not the date the portrait was painted - if it does refer to the latter then the caption should state as much. RGCorris (talk) 14:52, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
 * He died in 1933, therefore I think the "1935" refers to the date of painting.79.193.86.244 (talk) 13:11, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090327062139/http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS094.pdf to http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS094.pdf
 * Added tag to http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hw3d4t%3Bview%3D1up%3Bseq%3D13
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061001235943/http://www.eurunion.org/news/speeches/2003/030604gb.htm to http://www.eurunion.org/news/speeches/2003/030604gb.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080521100037/http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/oxford_people/key_university_officers/past_chancellors.html to http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/oxford_people/key_university_officers/past_chancellors.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 23:00, 17 September 2017 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 07:25, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon.jpg

Quotation from "Cottage Book" that has been tagged for verification
The text in question was introduced here. The year in the reference, 1985, would appear to be a typo for 1895, when the events described took place. William Avery (talk) 19:30, 2 January 2021 (UTC)
 * The ref also claims the Cottage Book was published in 1909 but it wasn't published until 1999. I would be much happier if the source were checked rather than we started guessing at typos. DuncanHill (talk) 19:40, 2 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I don't disagree with that. William Avery (talk) 19:47, 2 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I notice that the "Cottage Book" is also listed in the Works section, with a 1909 publication date. Clearly wrong. William Avery (talk)


text:
Binary asteroid

A binary asteroid is a system of two asteroids orbiting their common barycenter. The binary nature of 243 Ida was discovered when the Galileo spacecraft flew by the asteroid in 1993. Since then numerous binary asteroids and several triple asteroids have been detected.

The mass ratio of the two components – called the "primary" and "secondary" of a binary system – is an important characteristic. Most binary asteroids have a large mass ratio, i.e. a relatively small satellite in orbit around the main component. Systems with a small minor-planet moon – also called "companion" or simply "satellite" – include 87 Sylvia, 107 Camilla, 45 Eugenia, 121 Hermione, 130 Elektra, 22 Kalliope, 283 Emma, 379 Huenna, 243 Ida and 4337 Arecibo (in order of decreasing primary size). Some binary systems have a mass ratio near unity, i.e., two components of similar mass. They include 90 Antiope,, and 69230 Hermes, with average component diameters of 86, 1.8, 0.9 and 0.8 km, respectively.

Description
Several theories have been posited to explain the formation of binary-asteroid systems. Many systems have significant macro-porosity (a "rubble-pile" interior). The satellites orbiting large main-belt asteroids such as 22 Kalliope, 45 Eugenia or 87 Sylvia may have formed by disruption of a parent body after impact or fission after an oblique impact. Trans-Neptunian binaries may have formed during the formation of the Solar System by mutual capture or three-body interaction. Near-Earth asteroids, which orbit in the inner part of the Solar System, most likely form by spin-up and mass shedding, likely as a result of the YORP effect. Numerical simulations suggest that when solar energy spins a “rubble pile” asteroid to a sufficiently fast rate by the YORP effect, material is thrown from the asteroid's equator. This process also exposes fresh material at the poles of the asteroid.

title: Binary asteroid


text:
Stan Mikita

Stanley Mikita (born Stanislav Guoth; May 20, 1940 – August 7, 2018) was a Slovak-born Canadian ice hockey player for the Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League, generally regarded as the best centre of the 1960s. In 2017, he was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players. In 1961, he became the first Slovak-born player to win the Stanley Cup.

Early life
Mikita was born as Stanislav Guoth in Sokolče, Slovak Republic, during the brief period it came into existence as a client state of Nazi Germany. He was raised in a small farming community until 1948, when he moved to St. Catharines, Ontario. He was adopted by his aunt and uncle, Anna and Joe Mikita, who had emigrated from Slovakia to Canada 20 years earlier and were childless. They came to Slovakia to visit the Guoth family before Christmas in 1948 and took the 8-year-old Stan with them when they went back to Canada. His parents believed that there was a brighter future for him in Canada than in then Communist Czechoslovakia, whose borders (including the area of Slovakia) had been reinstated at the end of World War II. His aunt and uncle also gave him their surname, and he anglicized his first name to Stanley.

Stan considered himself Slovak, and mentioned in interviews how proud he was of his Slovak origin.

Playing career
After three starring junior seasons with the St. Catharines Teepees of the Ontario Hockey Association, Mikita was promoted to the parent Chicago Black Hawks in. In his second full year, in 1961, the Black Hawks won their third Stanley Cup. The young centre led the entire league in goals during the playoffs, scoring a total of six.

The following season was his breakout year. Mikita became a star as centre of the famed "Scooter Line", with right wing Ken Wharram and left wingers Ab McDonald and Doug Mohns. Combining skilled defense and a reputation as one of the game's best faceoff men using his innovative curved stick, Mikita led the league in scoring four times in the decade, tying Bobby Hull's year-old single-season scoring mark in with 97 points (a mark broken two years later by former teammate Phil Esposito and currently held by Wayne Gretzky). The season, an 87-point effort from Mikita, was the last year a Chicago player won the scoring title until Patrick Kane's 106-point  season.

In his early years, Mikita was among the most penalized players in the league, but he then decided to play a cleaner game and went on to win the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for particularly sportsmanlike conduct combined with excellence twice. Mikita's drastic change in behavior came after he returned home from a road trip. His wife told him that while their daughter, Meg, was watching the Black Hawks' last road game on television, she turned and said, "Mommy, why does Daddy spend so much time sitting down?" The camera had just shown Mikita in the penalty box again.

During his playing career, in 1973, Mikita teamed up with Chicago businessman Irv Tiahnybik to form the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association (AHIHA), to bring together deaf and hard-of-hearing hockey players from all over the country, and he founded the Stan Mikita School for the Hearing Impaired, inspired by a friend's deaf son who was an aspiring goalie. He also helped bring the Special Olympics to Chicago, bringing his family out to volunteer at races.

Internationally, Mikita played two games of the Summit Series in 1972 for Canada against Soviet Union, both of them in Canada, as well as two exhibition games also during the Summit Series, one against Sweden in Stockholm and one against Czechoslovakia in Prague. He also played several exhibition games for Czechoslovakia in summer 1967 when he came to his country of origin to visit his family.

Curved stick use
Mikita and teammate Bobby Hull were a well-known forward duo in the 1960s, gaining notoriety for using sticks with curved blades. Such sticks gave a comparative advantage to shooters versus goaltenders. As a result, the NHL limited blade curvature to ½" in 1970. Mikita reportedly began the practice after his standard stick got caught in a bench door, bending the blade before he hit the ice; he soon was borrowing a propane torch from team trainers to create a deliberate curve.

Mikita was also one of the first players to wear a helmet full-time, after a December 1967 game in which an errant shot tore a piece off one of his ears (it was stitched back on).

Retirement
Mikita's later years were marred by chronic back injuries, leading to his retirement as an active player on April 14, 1980. At that time, only Gordie Howe and Phil Esposito had scored more points in the NHL, and just six players had appeared in more games. Mikita was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, and into the Slovak Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002.

After retiring, Mikita became a golf pro at Kemper Lakes Golf Club. His other business interests, under Stan Mikita Enterprises, included making the small plastic sauce containers that accompany chicken nuggets at McDonald's. He owned Stan Mikita's Village Inn in the 1960s and 1970s, located in the Oakbrook Shopping Center, Oak Brook, Illinois.

Mikita provided the foreword to the children's book My Man Stan by Tim Wendel. Mikita is featured as a main character in the book.

He became a goodwill ambassador for the Blackhawks' organization, and in fall of 2011, the Blackhawks raised a statue honouring Mikita at Gate 3½ at Chicago's United Center. For three decades the Blackhawks Alumni Association has hosted an annual golf tournament named in Mikita's honour.

, Mikita ranks 15th in regular-season points scored in the history of the NHL, and just three other players (Steve Yzerman, Alex Delvecchio, and Nicklas Lidström) have appeared in more games while playing for only one team over their careers.

Mikita appeared as himself in a cameo role in the 1992 film Wayne's World, which featured a "Stan Mikita" doughnut shop, spoofing the Canadian doughnut chain Tim Hortons (co-founded by Hockey Hall of Fame member Tim Horton). A restaurant named "Stan Mikita's" and closely resembling the movie's version opened in 1994 at the Virginia amusement park Kings Dominion and at Paramount Carowinds in Charlotte.

Illness and death

On May 24, 2011, Mikita was diagnosed with oral cancer and began external beam radiation therapy. On January 30, 2015, the Chicago Tribune released this statement from his wife: "Stan has been diagnosed with suspected Lewy body dementia, a progressive disease, and was under the care of compassionate and understanding care givers". In June, 2015, it was stated that Mikita had no memory of his former life and was being cared for by his wife Jill.

Mikita died at the age of 78 on August 7, 2018. He was survived by his wife, four children and nine grandchildren. Mikita’s ashes are interred at Bronswood Cemetery in Oak Brook, Illinois. On September 14, 2019, it was reported by the Boston University CTE Center, that upon performing a posthumous study of Mikita's brain, it was found that he suffered from stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, at the time of his death. This marked Mikita as the first Hall of Famer to ever have been diagnosed with the disease.

Awards and accomplishments

 * Ranked 14th all-time in points, 18th in assists, 31st in goals, and 40th in games played (at end of 2017-18 NHL season)
 * Won the Hart Memorial Trophy as most valuable player in 1967 and 1968
 * Won the Art Ross Trophy as leading scorer in 1964, 1965, 1967, and 1968
 * Won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy in 1967 and 1968
 * Stanley Cup champion (1961)
 * Named to the NHL's First All-Star Team in 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, and 1968
 * Named to the NHL's Second All-Star Team in 1965 and 1970.
 * Played in NHL All-Star Game in 1964, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, and 1975
 * Won the Lester Patrick Trophy in 1976
 * The only player in NHL history to win the Hart, Art Ross, and Lady Byng trophies in the same season, doing so in consecutive seasons, in 1966–67 and 1967–68
 * Was named to Team Canada for the 1972 Summit Series, but only played two games due to injuries
 * In 1998, he was ranked number 17 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 greatest NHL players
 * Mikita's number 21 was retired by the Blackhawks on October 19, 1980; he was the first player to have his jersey number retired by the Blackhawks
 * Mikita was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983
 * Mikita was inducted into the Slovak Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002
 * The ice rink in Ružomberok, Slovakia, is named after him
 * In 2011, statues of Mikita and Bobby Hull were installed outside the United Center, where the Blackhawks currently play
 * The first player of Slovak origin who won the Stanley Cup

title: Stan Mikita


text:
2002 in video games

The year 2002 in video games saw the release of many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Madden NFL 2003, NBA Live 2003, NBA 2K3, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth, Final Fantasy XI, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Jet Set Radio Future, Metroid Prime, Onimusha 2, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Pro Evolution Soccer 2, Resident Evil and Zero, Super Mario Sunshine, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, along with new titles and franchises such as Battlefield, Dungeon Siege, Kingdom Hearts, Mafia, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper, SOCOM, and Splinter Cell. The year's best-selling video game was Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the PlayStation 2, while the year's most critically acclaimed titles were Metroid Prime and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for the GameCube.

Trends
The market research company NPD estimated that video game hardware, software, and accessories sold about US$10.3 billion in 2002. This was a 10% increase over the 2001 figure.

Video game consoles
The dominant video game consoles in 2002 were:
 * Nintendo's GameCube
 * Microsoft's Xbox
 * Sony's PlayStation
 * Sony's PlayStation 2
 * Nintendo's Game Boy Advance

Handheld game systems
The dominant handheld systems in 2002 were Nintendo's Game Boy Advance and Nintendo's Game Boy Color.

Famitsu
The following video game releases in 2002 entered Famitsu magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" and received Famitsu scores of at least 36 out of 40.

Metacritic and GameRankings
Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.

Events

 * Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts the 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Will Wright of Maxis to the AIAS Hall of Fame.
 * BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) holds 5th annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards for multimedia technologies; 10 of 21 awards go to video games; awards Ian Livingstone the BAFTA Interactive Special Award.
 * Big Fish Games is founded with Paul Thelen as the only employee.
 * Eidos Interactive selects Dutch model Jill De Jong as the new digitized Lara Croft character.
 * Gama Network hosts the 4th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF).
 * Game Developers Conference hosts the 2nd annual Game Developers Choice Awards.
 * SEGA establishes the Sega Mobile division to develop, produce, and distribute video games for mobile phones and PDAs; establishes the Sega.com Business Solutions division to service video game developers and publishers.
 * Rockstar Games embroiled in controversy for its Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City video games.
 * Early 2002 – Titus Software buys out Interplay Entertainment's European operations, owning the rights to publish their games in Europe and also owning 100% of Virgin Interactive. They also buy a majority stake in Interplay.
 * March 22 – The Sims overtakes Myst as all-time best-selling computer game, having sold 6.3 million units.
 * March 25 – GameTrailers, an American video gaming website is launched.
 * April 24 – G4 Media, LLC (subsidiary of Comcast Corporation) launches the G4 cable television video game network channel.
 * May 14 – Virgin Interactive España is split up from its parent Titus Software and renames to Virgin Play, becoming the first "100% Spanish" game distributor and publisher.
 * May 22–24 – 8th annual E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo); the 5th annual Game Critics Awards for the Best of E3.
 * July – IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) hosts 3rd annual Executive Summit.
 * July 29 – Greece passed Law 3037/2002 which outlawed electronic games being played in public in attempt to fight illegal gambling in the country. The controversial law was repealed in 2011.
 * September 24 – Microsoft purchases Rare for $375 million.
 * October 28-November 3 – The 2002 World Cyber Games are held.

title: 2002 in video games