1.
IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
2.
Western (genre)
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Cowboys and gunslingers typically wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, cowboy boots and buckskins. Other characters include Native Americans, bandits, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, mounted cavalry, settlers, Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape of deserts and mountains. Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a. mythic vision of the plains, specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution. The Western was the most popular Hollywood genre, from the early 20th century to the 1960s, Western films first became well-attended in the 1930s. John Fords landmark Western adventure Stagecoach became one of the biggest hits in 1939, Westerns were very popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the most acclaimed Westerns were released during this time – including High Noon, Shane, The Searchers, the Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–frontier justice–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, a showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the descendants of the knight errant which stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian Romances. And like knights errant, the heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress, similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, Westerns often stress the harshness and isolation of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Apart from the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasizes that this is the Wild West, it is the place to go for music, women, gambling, drinking, brawling and shooting. The American Film Institute defines western films as those set in the American West that embodies the spirit, the struggle, the term Western, used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World Magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th century popular Western fiction and were firmly in place before film became an art form. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds, Western films were enormously popular in the silent film era. With the advent of sound in 1927-28, the major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and these smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream star in the wake of a decade of headlining B westerns
3.
Sam Peckinpah
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David Samuel Sam Peckinpah was an American film director and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch. He was known for the innovative and explicit depiction of action. Peckinpahs films generally deal with the conflict between values and ideals, and the corruption of violence in human society and he was given the nickname Bloody Sam owing to the violence in his films. His characters are often loners or losers who desire to be honorable, Peckinpahs combative personality, marked by years of alcohol and drug abuse, affected his professional legacy. Many of his films were noted for behind-the-scenes battles with producers and crew members, damaging his reputation, some of his films, including Straw Dogs, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, remain controversial. The Peckinpahs originated from the Frisian Islands in the northwest of Europe, both sides of Peckinpahs family migrated to the American West by covered wagon in the mid-19th century. Peckinpah and several relatives often claimed Native American ancestry, but this has been denied by surviving family members. Peckinpah Meadow and Peckinpah Creek, where the family ran a mill on a mountain in the High Sierra north of Coarsegold. Peckinpahs maternal grandfather was Denver S. Church, a rancher, Superior Court judge. Sam Peckinpahs nephew is David Peckinpah, who was a producer and director. Peckinpahs parents were David Edward Peckinpah and Fern Louise Church, David Samuel Sam Peckinpah was born February 21,1925, in Fresno, California, where he attended both grammar school and high school. He spent much time skipping classes with his brother to engage in activities on their grandfather Denver Churchs ranch, including trapping, branding. During the 1930s and 1940s, Coarsegold and Bass Lake were still populated with descendants of the miners and ranchers of the 19th century, many of these descendants worked on Churchs ranch. At that time, it was an area undergoing extreme change. In 1943, he joined the United States Marine Corps, within two years, his battalion was sent to China with the task of disarming Japanese soldiers and repatriating them following World War II. While his duty did not include combat, he claims to have witnessed acts of war between Chinese and Japanese soldiers, according to friends, these included several acts of torture and the murder of a laborer by sniper fire. The American Marines were not permitted to intervene, Peckinpah also claimed he was shot during an attack by Communist forces. Also during his final weeks as a Marine, he applied for discharge in Peking, so he could marry a local woman and his experiences in China reportedly deeply affected Peckinpah, and may have influenced his depictions of violence in his films
4.
Ida Lupino
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Ida Lupino was an Anglo-American actress and singer, who became a pioneering director and producer—the only woman working within the 1950s Hollywood studio system to do so. With her independent production company, she co-wrote and co-produced several of her own social-message films, in her 48-year career, she made acting appearances in 59 films and directed eight others, mostly in the United States, where she became a citizen in 1948. She was the woman to direct episodes of the original The Twilight Zone series. Her father, a top name in musical comedy in the UK and he built a backyard theater for Lupino and her sister Rita, who also became an actress and dancer. Lupino wrote her first play at age seven and toured with a theater company as a child. She played leading roles in five British films in 1933 at Warner Bros, teddington studios and for Julius Hagen at Twickenham, including in The Ghost Camera with John Mills and I Lived with You with Ivor Novello. Dubbed the English Jean Harlow, she was discovered by Paramount in the 1933 film Money For Speed, playing a good girl/bad girl dual role. Lupino claimed the talent scouts only saw her play the girl in the film and not the part of the prostitute. When she arrived in Hollywood, the Paramount producers did not know what to make of their sultry potential leading lady, after this performance, she began to be taken seriously as a dramatic actress. As a result, her parts improved during the 1940s, and she referred to herself as the poor mans Bette Davis. Mark Hellinger, associate producer at Warner Bros, the film did well and the critical consensus was that Lupino stole the movie, particularly in her unhinged courtroom scene. Warner Bros. offered her a contract which she negotiated to include some freelance rights and she worked with Walsh and Bogart again in High Sierra, where she impressed critic Bosley Crowther in her role as adoring moll. Her performance in The Hard Way won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and she starred in Pillow to Post, which was her only comedic leading role. After the drama Deep Valley finished shooting, neither Warner Bros. nor Lupino moved to renew her contract, although in demand throughout the 1940s, she never became a major star, but was critically lauded for her tough, direct acting style. As a result, she spent a deal of her time at Warner Bros. suspended. In 1942 she rejected an offer to star opposite Ronald Reagan in Kings Row, eventually, a tentative rapprochement was brokered, but her relationship with her studio remained strained. She moved to Columbia Pictures in 1948, where she appeared as a singer in the film noir Road House. She starred in On Dangerous Ground in 1951, and may have taken on some of the tasks of the film while director Nicholas Ray was ill
5.
Richard Boone
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Richard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel. Boone was born in Los Angeles, California, the child of Cecile and Kirk E. Boone. His father was a descendant of Squire Boone, brother to frontiersmen Daniel Boone and his mother was Jewish, the daughter of immigrants from Russia. Richard Boone graduated from Hoover High School in Glendale, California and he attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where he was a member of Theta Xi fraternity. He dropped out prior to graduation and went to work in oil-rigging, bartending, painting, in his youth, Boone had attended the San Diego Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad, California, near Oceanside. There, Boone was introduced to theatre under the tutelage of Virginia Atkinson, robert Walker, another Academy graduate and member of the school’s theatre club, Masque & Wig, became a close acquaintance of Boones. After the war, Boone used the G. I, bill to study acting at the Actors Studio in New York. Serious and methodical, Boone debuted on the Broadway theatrical scene in 1947 with the play Medea and then appeared in Macbeth, elia Kazan used Boone to feed lines to an actress for a film screen-test done for director Lewis Milestone. Milestone was not impressed with the actress, but he was impressed enough with Boones voice to him to Hollywood. In 1950, Boone made his debut as a Marine officer in Milestones Halls of Montezuma. In 1953, he played Pontius Pilate in the first Cinemascope film released and he had only one scene in the film, in which he gives instructions to Richard Burton, who plays the centurion ordered to crucify Christ. When he was ordered to appear in film for Fox made at the same time as The Robe. During the filming of Halls of Montezuma he befriended Jack Webb, the writer of Dragnet was preparing a series about a doctor for NBC. From 1954 to 1956, Boone became a face in the lead role of that medical drama, titled Medic. While on Medic, he also guest-starred as the character Everett Brayer on NBCs Frontier anthology series, Boone also appeared in the 1954 Dragnet film based on Webbs series. The show had first been offered to actor Randolph Scott, who turned it down, the show ran from 1957 to 1963, with Boone receiving two more Emmy nominations, in 1959 and 1960. Boone starred in three movies with John Wayne, The Alamo as Sam Houston, Big Jake, and The Shootist, during the 1960s, Boone appeared regularly on other television programs. He was an occasional guest panelist and also a mystery guest on Whats My Line, the Sunday night CBS-TV quiz show
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William Conrad
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William Conrad was an American actor, producer, and director whose career spanned five decades in radio, film, and television. A radio writer and actor, he moved to Hollywood after his World War II service and he created the role of Marshal Matt Dillon for the popular radio series Gunsmoke and narrated the television adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and The Fugitive. Finding fewer onscreen roles in the 1950s, he changed from actor to producer-director with television work, narration, and a series of Warner Bros. films in the 1960s. Conrad found stardom as a detective in the TV series Cannon and Nero Wolfe, and as district attorney Jason Lochinvar J. L. Fatman McCabe in the legal drama Jake and the Fatman. William Conrad was born John William Cann, Jr. on September 27,1920, in Louisville and his parents, John William Cann and Ida Mae Upchurch Cann, owned a movie theatre, and Conrad grew up watching movies. The family moved to Southern California when Conrad was in high school and he majored in drama and literature at Fullerton College, in Orange County, California, and began his career as an announcer, writer, and director for Los Angeles radio station KMPC. Conrad served as a pilot in World War II. On the day he was commissioned in 1943 at Luke Field and he left the United States Army Air Corps with the rank of captain and as a producer-director of the Armed Forces Radio Service. William Conrad estimated that he played more than 7,500 roles during his radio career, at KMPC, the 22-year-old Conrad produced and acted in The Hermits Cave, the Los Angeles incarnation of a popular syndicated horror anthology series created at WJR Detroit. Conrad was the voice of Escape, a radio series. He played Warchek, a policeman, in Johnny Modero, Pier 23, a detective series starring Jack Webb. He played newspaper editor Walter Burns opposite Dick Powells reporter Hildy Johnson in the ABC radio drama The Front Page, most prominently, Conrads deep, resonant voice was heard in the role of Marshal Matt Dillon on CBS Radios gritty Western series Gunsmoke. Conrad voiced Dillon for the shows run, and he wrote the June 1953 episode Sundown. When Gunsmoke was adapted for television in 1955, executives at CBS did not cast Conrad or his radio costars despite a campaign to get them to change their minds and his other credits include Suspense, Lux Radio Theater, and Fibber McGee and Molly. In The Wax Works, a 1956 episode of Suspense, Conrad performed every part, because of his CBS Radio contract, he sometimes appeared on shows on other networks under the pseudonym Julius Krelboyne. In January 1956, Conrad was the announcer on the debut broadcast of The CBS Radio Workshop, Conrad directed and narrated the 1957 episode Epitaphs, an adaptation of Edgar Lee Masterss poetry volume Spoon River Anthology. And 1489 Words remains a favorite of many, a powerful Conrad performance proving that one picture is not necessarily worth a thousand words, a lovely way to end a day, a decade, or an era. As an actor in films, Conrad was often cast as a threatening figure
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Johnny Western
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Johnny Western is an American country singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and radio show host. He is a member of the Western Music Association Hall of Fame, Johnny Western was born Johnny Westerlund in Two Harbors in Lake County in northeastern Minnesota but was primarily reared in Northfield in south central Minnesota. His father was an instructor and officer in several Civilian Conservation Corps camps and he also lived on Indian reservations along the Canada–United States border. When he was five years old, Westerns parents took him to see the western film Guns and Guitars, the young boy decided he wanted to be a singing cowboy. At the age of twelve, he received a guitar, within a year, he was performing professionally. Johnny Westerns professional career began as a teenager, singing and playing rhythm guitar with a collegiate singing trio. He got a job on radio at the age of thirteen, at age sixteen, Western began performing with the Sons of the Pioneers. He made his first professional recordings in the summer of 1952 in the studio of WCAL Radio station of St. Olaf College of Northfield, the six songs which resulted from those sessions were released on three singles on the local J-O-C-O label. After having played a role in an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel. This landed him a deal with Columbia records, between August 1958 and May 1963, Western recorded seven singles and one album for Columbia, until he was dropped from their roster. He then signed a contract with the Philipps-label, but only one single resulted, have Gun Will Travel included the haunting Stan Jones song Cowpoke, which members of the Western Writers of America chose as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. The album was a work, redolent of Western lore. After this, Western was left without a recording contract, over the years, he recorded various songs for small local labels such as Hep in Missouri or a promo-single for Dodge City. Apart from the House of Cash recordings, it contained some unreleased songs Western had recorded for the Hep-label, Westerns third album was recorded September 17–20,1984 at Jack Clement Studio in Nashville, with Art Sparer producing. It was released under the title Johnny Western sings 20 Great Classics & Legends and his scarce recording output notwithstanding, Johnny Western remained a consistent performer for over sixty years and so his name was never lost on the general public. He performed with Gene Autry and was a part of the Johnny Cash road show from 1958 until 1997 and he wrote and performed the theme song The Ballad of Paladin for the CBS television program Have Gun – Will Travel, with Richard Boone. In collaboration with Johnny Cash, he re-wrote the lyrics of NBCs Bonanza, in October 2013, Johnny Western announced that he would stop touring and giving concerts. Western has appeared in television programs, including the westerns, Have Gun - Will Travel, Tales of Wells Fargo, Pony Express
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CBS Television Distribution
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The current president is Paul Franklin. CBS also handles the TV rights to much of its own theatrical films, the company formerly distributed the film libraries from Paramount Pictures and Republic Pictures, among others. The company is responsible for international television distribution rights to series by Rysher Entertainment including certain HBO series through its CBS Studios International division. These distribution rights are now held by NBCUniversal Television Distribution and Trifecta Entertainment & Media, until May 2009, CTD distributed the Paramount Pictures library on television. By then, CBS also dropped the name Paramount from television for good, Paramount has also joined up with Trifecta. The current moniker for CTDs overseas distribution arm is CBS Studios International and its predecessors were CBS Broadcast International and CBS Paramount International Television. In 2012, CBS Television Distribution ceased to be an entity, becoming a division of CBS Studios
9.
Viacom (original)
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Viacom Inc. was an American media conglomerate. They also distributed syndicated shows which originated during the 1980s, with the biggest examples being The Cosby Show, on December 31,2005, the original incarnation of Viacom split into two new companies, resulting in the creation of CBS Corporation and the current incarnation of Viacom. The original Viacom began as CBS Films, Inc. the television division of CBS established in 1952. The division was spun off and renamed Viacom in 1970, amid new FCC rules forbidding television networks from owning syndication companies. Viacoms first non-programming acquisition came in 1978 when the company purchased the Sonderling Broadcasting chain, giving it radio stations in New York City, Washington, houston, and San Francisco, and one television station, WAST in Albany, New York. Later that year, Viacom added WHNB-TV in New Britain, Connecticut, in 1985, Viacom bought Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, which owned MTV and Nickelodeon, renaming the company MTV Networks. Viacom also received Warner-Amexs share of Viacom/WASEC joint venture Showtime Networks, Inc and this led to Viacom becoming a mass media company rather than simply a distribution company. In 1986, movie theater owner National Amusements bought controlling interest in Viacom, the acquisition of Paramount Communications in July 1994 made Viacom one of the worlds largest entertainment companies. In 1999, Viacom made its biggest acquisition to date by announcing plans to merge with its former parent CBS Corporation. The merger was approved in 2000, bringing cable channels TNN and Country Music Television under Viacoms wing, as well as CBSs production units and TV syndicaters Eyemark Entertainment and King World. CBSs production unit and King World operated under their own names, however, TNN, in 2001, Viacom completed its purchase of Black Entertainment Television. As with TNN/Spike TV and CMT, it was integrated into MTV Networks. As a result, BET was eventually de-integrated from MTV Networks, in 2002, Viacom bought independently run music channel TMF, which at the time was broadcasting in Belgium and the Netherlands. In June 2004, Viacom bought VIVA Media AG, the German equivalent to MTV, the same month, plans were announced to dispose of Viacoms interest in Blockbuster later that year by means of an exchange offer. Also in 2002, Viacom acquired the shares of Infinity Broadcasting radio chain. And in April 2003, Viacom acquired the ownership shares of Comedy Central from Time Warner. From the mid-1980s until 1995, Viacom operated several cable television systems generally located in the Dayton, San Francisco, several of these were in former CBS antenna television areas. The systems were known as Viacom Cablevision until the early 1990s, by 1995, Viacom Cable had about 1.1 million subscribers
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Paramount Domestic Television
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Paramount Domestic Television is the television distribution arm of American television production company Paramount Television, once the TV arm of Paramount Pictures. It was formed in 1982 originally as Paramount Domestic Television and Video Programming, the successor to Paramount Television Domestic Distribution, Paramount Television Sales, initially, it distributed the back library of Paramount Television and the post-1960 shows by Desilu, and several first-run syndicated shows. Originally, the company was owned by Gulf+Western, which was reincorporated as Paramount Communications in 1989, after that company was sold to Viacom in 1994, it absorbed the distribution functions of Viacom Enterprises the next year. Viacom had distributed the classic CBS library which included the pre-1960 Desilu library, alongside series from Viacom Productions, PDT also gained syndication rights to series from MTV Networks with the Viacom merger, though these have rarely been seen in syndication. MCA Television and Paramount Domestic Television had formed Premier Advertiser Sales, as a possible outgrowth of this sales joint venture, MCA and Paramount began plans for a new network, Premier Program Service. In 1999, Viacom acquired several other TV production firms such as Spelling Entertainment Group, as a result, the size of Paramounts TV library more than tripled, giving PDT a slew of new series to distribute. After Viacom split into two companies – one called Viacom and the other CBS Corporation – Paramounts TV operations became part of the latter company, as a result, Paramount Domestic Television became CBS Paramount Domestic Television. That was in turn merged with King World Productions in 2007 to become CBS Television Distribution, however, some former Paramount programs, such as Entertainment Tonight, then moved from being produced at the Paramount lot to CBS facilities. Currently, syndication rights to Paramounts theatrical film library lie with Trifecta Entertainment & Media, america The Party Machine The Montel Williams Show The Maury Povich Show Leeza The Jon Stewart Show The Howie Mandel Show Rendez-View The Arsenio Hall Show Dr
11.
CBS
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CBS is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major facilities and operations in New York City. CBS is sometimes referred to as the Eye Network, in reference to the iconic logo. It has also called the Tiffany Network, alluding to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBSs first demonstrations of color television, the network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc. a collection of 16 radio stations that was purchased by Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paleys guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, in 1974, CBS dropped its former full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which was formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971, CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, which also controls the current Viacom. The television network has more than 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated stations throughout the United States. The origins of CBS date back to January 27,1927, Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18,1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, in early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the networks Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. With the record out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. He believed in the power of advertising since his familys La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchenheim share of CBS, during Louchenheims brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A. H. Grebes Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the networks flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the relocated to 860 kHz. The physical plant was relocated also – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, by the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures. The deal came to fruition in September 1929, Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time
12.
Aspect ratio (image)
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The aspect ratio of an image describes the proportional relationship between its width and its height. It is commonly expressed as two separated by a colon, as in 16,9.5 yards high. The most common ratios used today in the presentation of films in cinemas are 1.85,1 and 2.39,1. Two common videographic aspect ratios are 4,3, the video format of the 20th century. Other cinema and video aspect ratios exist, but are used infrequently, in still camera photography, the most common aspect ratios are 4,3,3,2, and more recently being found in consumer cameras 16,9. Other aspect ratios, such as 5,3,5,4, in motion picture formats, the physical size of the film area between the sprocket perforations determines the images size. The universal standard is a frame that is four perforations high, the film itself is 35 mm wide, but the area between the perforations is 24.89 mm×18.67 mm, leaving the de facto ratio of 4,3, or 1.33,1. A4,3 ratio mimics human eyesight visual angle of 155°h x 120°v, the motion picture industry convention assigns a value of 1.0 to the image’s height, an anamorphic frame is often incorrectly described as 2.40,1 or 2.40. After 1952, a number of aspect ratios were experimented with for anamorphic productions, a SMPTE specification for anamorphic projection from 1957 finally standardized the aperture to 2.35,1. An update in 1970 changed the ratio to 2.39,1 in order to make splices less noticeable. This aspect ratio of 2.39,1 was confirmed by the most recent revision from August 1993, in American cinemas, the common projection ratios are 1.85,1 and 2.39,1. Some European countries have 1.66,1 as the wide screen standard, the Academy ratio of 1.375,1 was used for all cinema films in the sound era until 1953. During that time, television, which had a aspect ratio of 1.33,1. Hollywood responded by creating a number of wide-screen formats, CinemaScope, Todd-AO. The flat 1.85,1 aspect ratio was introduced in May 1953, and became one of the most common cinema projection standards in the U. S. and elsewhere. The goal of these lenses and aspect ratios was to capture as much of the frame as possible, onto as large an area of the film as possible. In either case the image was squeezed horizontally to fit the frame size. Development of various film camera systems must ultimately cater to the placement of the frame in relation to the constraints of the perforations
13.
Radio program
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A radio program or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode, BBC output was a unifying force within British culture, and has been written about extensively elsewhere. During the post-1964 period, western Europe offshore radio helped to supply the demand for the pop, the BBC launched its own pop music station, BBC Radio 1, in 1967. In South Asia, Radio Ceylon was the oldest radio station in the region, Broadcasting in Ceylon was launched by British engineer, Edward Harper in 1925. Radio Ceylon became a corporation in 1967 and was known as the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation when the island turned into a republic in 1972. Interest in old-time radio has increased in recent years with programs traded and collected on reel-to-reel tapes, cassettes and CDs and Internet downloads, as well as the popularity of podcasts
14.
Gene Roddenberry
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Eugene Wesley Gene Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for creating the original Star Trek television series, born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a police officer. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions in the Army Air Forces during World War II, later, he followed in his fathers footsteps and joined the Los Angeles Police Department, where he also began to write scripts for television. As a freelance writer, Roddenberry wrote scripts for Highway Patrol, Have Gun–Will Travel, in 1964, Roddenberry created Star Trek, which premiered in 1966 and ran for three seasons before being canceled. He then worked on projects, including a string of failed television pilots. The syndication of Star Trek led to its popularity, this, in turn, resulted in the Star Trek feature films, on which Roddenberry continued to produce. He continued to consult on the series until his death in 1991, years after his death, Roddenberry was one of the first humans to have his ashes carried into earth orbit. The popularity of the Star Trek universe and films has inspired films, books, comic books, video games, and fan films set in the Star Trek universe. Roddenberry was born on August 19,1921, in his parents rented home in El Paso, Texas, the family moved to Los Angeles in 1923 after Genes father passed the Civil Service test and was given a police commission there. During his childhood, Roddenberry was interested in reading, especially magazines, and was a fan of stories such as John Carter of Mars, Tarzan. Roddenberry majored in science at Los Angeles City College, where he began dating Eileen-Anita Rexroat. He obtained a license through the United States Army Air Corps-sponsored Civilian Pilot Training Program. He enlisted with the USAAC on December 18,1941, and he graduated from the USAAC on August 5,1942, when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He was posted to Bellows Field, Oahu, to join the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group, of the Thirteenth Air Force, which flew the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. On August 2,1943, while flying out of Espiritu Santo, the plane Roddenberry was piloting overshot the runway by 500 feet and impacted trees, crushing the nose, the official report absolved Roddenberry of any responsibility. Roddenberry spent the remainder of his career in the United States. He was involved in a plane crash, this time as a passenger. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal, in 1945, Roddenberry began flying for Pan American World Airways, including routes from New York to Johannesburg or Calcutta, the two longest Pan Am routes at the time
15.
Paladin
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The Paladins, sometimes known as the Twelve Peers, were the foremost warriors of Charlemagnes court, according to the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. They first appear in the chansons de geste such as The Song of Roland. The earliest recorded instance of the paladin in the English language dates to 1592. It entered English through the Middle French word paladin, which derived from the Latin palatinus. All these words for Charlemagnes Twelve Peers descend ultimately from the Latin palatinus, the Latin palatinus referred to an official of the Roman Emperor connected to the imperial palace on the Palatine Hill. Over time this came to refer to other high-level officials in the imperial, majestic. The word palatine, used in various European countries in the medieval, by the 13th century words referring specifically to Charlemagnes peers began appearing in European languages, the earliest is the Italian paladino. Modern French has paladin, Spanish has paladín or paladino, while German has Paladin, by extension paladin has come to refer to any chivalrous hero such as King Arthurs Knights of the Round Table. Paladin was also used to refer to the leaders of armies supporting the Protestant Frederick V in the Thirty Years War ending in 1648, in their earliest appearances the paladins were not the companions of Charlemagne, but of his vassal Roland. This Roland is based on the historical figure Hruodland mentioned by Charlemagnes biographer Einhard as a Lord of the Breton March who died in the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778, nothing else is known of him. The names of the twelve paladins vary from romance to romance, the number is popular because it resembles the Twelve Apostles giving the king the position of Jesus as a reminder of his holy mission as ruler. Tales of the paladins once rivaled the stories of King Arthur, the paladins figure into many chansons de geste and other tales associated with Charlemagne. In the above-mentioned Fierabras, they retrieve holy relics stolen from Rome by the Saracen giant Fierabras and convert him to Christianity, in Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne they accompany their king on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Constantinople in order to outdo the Byzantine Emperor Hugo. Other characters elsewhere considered part of the twelve appear in the song, such as Archbishop Turpin and their works, Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso, send the paladins on even more fantastic adventures than their predecessors. They list the paladins quite differently, but keep the number at twelve, the Italian Orlandos inspired a number of composers over the next few centuries, who created operas and other musical works on Orlando and the paladins. Afterwards the Charlemagne material went into decline, modern adaptations and reworkings including the Carolingian paladins are few and far between, but the concept of the chivalrous paladin lives on. The dictionary definition of paladin at Wiktionary
16.
John Dehner
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John Dehner, born John Forkum, was an American actor in radio, television, and films, playing countless roles, often as a droll villain. Between 1941 and 1988, he appeared in over 260 films, Dehner was born in Staten Island, New York, the middle child of three. His father was an artist, a painter, while he was a youngster, his fathers artistic work took the family to Oslo, Copenhagen, London, and Paris. While in Oslo, he played in some musicals, Dehner initially went into art after studying at the Grand Central School of Art in New York City, New York. He worked as an animator at Walt Disney Studios and he was also a professional pianist. Dehners early radio jobs included being an editor and a disc jockey. While working at KFWB in Los Angeles, California, he was a member of a team that won a Peabody Award for its reporting on the first United Nations conference. He had a career as a radio actor, appearing as a lead or supporting player in such series as The Whistler, Gunsmoke. He starred as Paladin in the version of Have Gun – Will Travel, one of the few times a show began on television. As a reporter for The London Times, he writes his colorful, but as a man with a gun, he lives and becomes a part of the violent years in the new territories. Now, starring John Dehner, this is the story of J. B, written and directed by Antony Ellis, the short-lived series followed the adventures of journalist Kendall as he roamed the Western United States in search of stories for The Times. Dehner appeared with Maudie Prickett in the 1953 episode Bad Men of Marysville of the syndicated Western television series The Adventures of Kit Carson and he guest starred on the 1955–1956 NBC Western anthology series Frontier and in the CBS Cold War drama Crusader, starring Brian Keith. He was reteamed with Keith in a subsequent series The Westerner and he played the sheriff-turned-outlaw Henry Plummer in an episode of the 1954-55 syndicated Stories of the Century, starring Jim Davis as Matt Clark, the fictitious detective of the Southwest Railroad. Dehner played Sheriff Pat Garrett in Gore Vidals The Left Handed Gun opposite Paul Newman as Billy the Kid, Dehner took the role of Colonel Tedesco in CBSs The Killers of Mussolini on Playhouse 90, an original drama by A. E. Hotchner. In 1957, Dehner was cast in the film Texas Rangers with Gale Storm and he guest-starred on the syndicated series Sheriff of Cochise, John Bromfields 1950s crime drama with a western setting. Previous towns had paid the ransom to be rid of the gang, in 1958, Dehner appeared on Perry Mason as Army prosecutor Major Lewis in The Case of the Sardonic Sergeant. In the 1959-60 television season, Dehner was cast in four episodes of another ABC/WB western series, The Alaskans, with Roger Moore as Silky Harris and he played the character Cornish in two episodes and Soapy Smith in two others. In 1960, Dehner was cast as Major Randolph, with James Coburn and Roger Perry, in the episode Friend of the Family on the CBS western The Texan, starring Rory Calhoun
17.
Charlemagne
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Charlemagne or Charles the Great, numbered Charles I, was the King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774 and Emperor of the Romans from 800. He united much of Europe during the early Middle Ages and he was the first recognised emperor in western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state which Charlemagne founded was called the Carolingian Empire, Charlemagne was the oldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon. He became king in 768 following his fathers death, initially as co-ruler with his brother Carloman I, carlomans sudden death in 771 in unexplained circumstances left Charlemagne as the undisputed ruler of the Frankish Kingdom. He continued his fathers policy towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in northern Italy and he campaigned against the Saxons to his east, Christianising them upon penalty of death and leading to events such as the Massacre of Verden. Charlemagne reached the height of his power in 800 when he was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day at Old St. Peters Basilica. Charlemagne has been called the Father of Europe, as he united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire and his rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of energetic cultural and intellectual activity within the Western Church. All Holy Roman Emperors considered their kingdoms to be descendants of Charlemagnes empire, up to the last Emperor Francis II and these and other machinations led to the eventual split of Rome and Constantinople in the Great Schism of 1054. Charlemagne died in 814, having ruled as emperor for thirteen years and he was laid to rest in his imperial capital of Aachen in what is today Germany. He married at least four times and had three sons, but only his son Louis the Pious survived to succeed him. By the 6th century, the western Germanic Franks had been Christianised, Francia, ruled by the Merovingians, was the most powerful of the kingdoms that succeeded the Western Roman Empire. Following the Battle of Tertry the Merovingians declined into powerlessness, for which they have dubbed the rois fainéants. Almost all government powers were exercised by their chief officer, the mayor of the palace, in 687, Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, ended the strife between various kings and their mayors with his victory at Tertry. He became the governor of the entire Frankish kingdom. Pepin was the grandson of two important figures of the Austrasian Kingdom, Saint Arnulf of Metz and Pepin of Landen, Pepin of Herstal was eventually succeeded by his illegitimate son Charles, later known as Charles Martel. After 737, Charles governed the Franks in lieu of a king, Charles was succeeded in 741 by his sons Carloman and Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne. In 743, the brothers placed Childeric III on the throne to curb separatism in the periphery and he was the last Merovingian king. Carloman resigned office in 746, preferring to enter the church as a monk, Pepin brought the question of the kingship before Pope Zachary, asking whether it was logical for a king to have no royal power
18.
American frontier
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Frontier refers to a contrasting region at the edge of a European-American line of settlement. American historians cover multiple frontiers but the folklore is focused primarily on the 19th century west of the Mississippi River. As defined by Hine and Faragher, frontier history tells the story of the creation and defense of communities, the use of the land, the development of markets, and the formation of states. They explain, It is a tale of conquest, but also one of survival, persistence, thus, Turners Frontier Thesis proclaimed the westward frontier as the defining process of American history. As the American frontier passed into history, the myths of the West in fiction and film took firm hold in the imagination of Americans, America is exceptional in choosing its iconic self-image. David Murdoch has said, No other nation has taken a time and place from its past, the frontier line was the outer line of European-American settlement. It moved steadily westward from the 1630s to the 1880s, Turner favored the Census Bureau definition of the frontier line as a settlement density of two people per square mile. The West was the settled area near that boundary. Thus, parts of the Midwest and American South, though no longer considered western, have a frontier heritage along with the western states. In the 21st century, however, the term American West is most often used for the area west of the Mississippi River, in the colonial era, before 1776, the west was of high priority for settlers and politicians. The American frontier began when Jamestown, Virginia was settled by the English in 1607, English, French, Spanish and Dutch patterns of expansion and settlement were quite different. Although French fur traders ranged widely through the Great Lakes and mid-west region they settled down. French settlement was limited to a few small villages such as Kaskaskia. They created a rural settlement in upstate New York. Areas in the north that were in the stage by 1700 generally had poor transportation facilities. The wealthy speculator, if one was involved, usually remained at home, the class of landless poor was small. Few artisans settled on the frontier except for those who practiced a trade to supplement their primary occupation of farming, there might be a storekeeper, a minister, and perhaps a doctor, and there were a number of landless laborers. However frontier areas of 1700 that had good river connections were transformed into plantation agriculture
19.
Hebrew calendar
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The Hebrew or Jewish calendar is a lunisolar calendar used today predominantly for Jewish religious observances. It determines the dates for Jewish holidays and the public reading of Torah portions, yahrzeits. The present Hebrew calendar is the product of evolution, including a Babylonian influence, when to add it was based on observation of natural agriculture-related events in Israel. Through the Amoraic period and into the Geonic period, this system was displaced by the mathematical rules used today. The principles and rules were codified by Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah in the 12th century. Maimonides work also replaced counting years since the destruction of the Temple with the modern creation-era Anno Mundi, the era used since the Middle Ages is the Anno Mundi epoch. As with Anno Domini, the words or abbreviation for Anno Mundi for the era should properly precede the date rather than follow it, AM5777 began at sunset on 2 October 2016 and will end at sunset on 20 September 2017. The Jewish day is of no fixed length, the Jewish day is modeled on the reference to. there was evening and there was morning. In the creation account in the first chapter of Genesis, based on the classic rabbinic interpretation of this text, a day in the rabbinic Hebrew calendar runs from sunset to the next sunset. In most populated parts of the world this is always approximately 24 standard hours, halachically, a day ends and a new one starts when three stars are visible in the sky. The time between sunset and the time when the three stars are visible is known as bein hashmashot, and there are differences of opinion as to which day it falls into for some uses. This may be relevant, for example, in determining the date of birth of a child born during that gap, there is no clock in the Jewish scheme, so that the local civil clock is used. The civil clock is used only as a reference point – in expressions such as, Shabbat starts at. In Judaism, an hour is defined as 1/12 of the time from sunrise to sunset, so, during the winter, an hour can be less than 60 minutes. This proportional hour is known as a shaah zmanit, a Jewish hour is divided into 1080 halakim or parts. A part is 3⅓ seconds or 1/18 minute, the ultimate ancestor of the helek was a small Babylonian time period called a barleycorn, itself equal to 1/72 of a Babylonian time degree. These measures are not generally used for everyday purposes, instead of the international date line convention, there are varying opinions as to where the day changes. One opinion uses the antimeridian of Jerusalem, the weekdays start with Sunday and proceed to Saturday, Shabbat
20.
Catchphrase
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A catchphrase is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, some become the de facto or literal trademark or signature of the person or character with whom they originated, and can be instrumental in the typecasting of a particular actor. People are doing it to feel good about themselves, to make others laugh, to make themselves laugh and he found that all of the participants in his study had used film quotes in conversation at one point or another. They overwhelmingly cited comedies, followed distantly by dramas and action adventure flicks, horror films, musicals and childrens films were hardly ever cited. List of catchphrases List of political catchphrases List of exclamations by Robin Category, Catchphrases Barba, Catchy Phrases, over 2000 Catchy Slogans Ideas, Powerful Copy Connectors, Catchy Phrases for Business Tag lines, Magnetic Blog Triggers. Catchphrase, Slogan and Cliché, the origins and meanings of our favourite expressions, a Dictionary of Catch Phrases, American and British, from the sixteenth century to the present day Lanham, Maryland, Scarborough House,1992. Planet Simpson, How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation
21.
The Times
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The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London, England. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register, the Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, itself wholly owned by News Corp. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967 and its news and its editorial comment have in general been carefully coordinated, and have at most times been handled with an earnest sense of responsibility. While the paper has admitted some trivia to its columns, its emphasis has been on important public affairs treated with an eye to the best interests of Britain. To guide this treatment, the editors have for long periods been in touch with 10 Downing Street. In these countries, the newspaper is often referred to as The London Times or The Times of London, although the newspaper is of national scope, in November 2006 The Times began printing headlines in a new font, Times Modern. The Times was printed in broadsheet format for 219 years, the Sunday Times remains a broadsheet. The Times had a daily circulation of 446,164 in December 2016, in the same period. An American edition of The Times has been published since 6 June 2006 and it has been heavily used by scholars and researchers because of its widespread availability in libraries and its detailed index. A complete historical file of the paper, up to 2010, is online from Gale Cengage Learning. The Times was founded by publisher John Walter on 1 January 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, Walter had lost his job by the end of 1784 after the insurance company where he was working went bankrupt because of the complaints of a Jamaican hurricane. Being unemployed, Walter decided to set a new business up and it was in that time when Henry Johnson invented the logography, a new typography that was faster and more precise. Walter bought the patent and to use it, he decided to open a printing house. The first publication of the newspaper The Daily Universal Register in Great Britain was 1 January 1785, unhappy because people always omitted the word Universal, Ellias changed the title after 940 editions on 1 January 1788 to The Times. In 1803, Walter handed ownership and editorship to his son of the same name, the Times used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its life, the profits of The Times were very large. Beginning in 1814, the paper was printed on the new steam-driven cylinder press developed by Friedrich Koenig, in 1815, The Times had a circulation of 5,000. Thomas Barnes was appointed editor in 1817
22.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science-fiction writer. Often called the dean of science writers, his controversial works continue to have an influential effect on the genre. Heinlein became one of the first science-fiction writers to break into mainstream magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s. He was one of the best-selling science-fiction novelists for many decades, and he, Isaac Asimov and he also speculated on the influence of space travel on human cultural practices. Heinlein was named the first Science Fiction Writers Grand Master in 1974 and he also anticipated mechanical Computer Aided Design with Drafting Dan and described a modern version of a waterbed in his novel The Door into Summer, though he never patented or built one. In the first chapter of the novel Space Cadet he anticipated the cell-phone,35 years before Motorola invented the technology, several of Heinleins works have been adapted for film and television. Heinlein was born on July 7,1907 to Rex Ivar Heinlein and Bam Lyle Heinlein, in Butler and he was a 6th-generation German-American, a family tradition had it that Heinleins fought in every American war starting with the War of Independence. His childhood was spent in Kansas City, Missouri, Heinleins experience in the U. S. Navy exerted a strong influence on his character and writing. He graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland with the class of 1929 and he was assigned to the new aircraft carrier USS Lexington in 1931, where he worked in radio communications, then in its earlier phases, with the carriers aircraft. The captain of this carrier was Ernest J. King, who served as the Chief of Naval Operations and Commander-in-Chief. Heinlein was frequently interviewed during his later years by historians who asked him about Captain King. Heinlein also served aboard the destroyer USS Roper in 1933 and 1934, reaching the rank of lieutenant. His brother, Lawrence Heinlein, served in the U. S. Army, the U. S. Air Force, and the Missouri National Guard, in 1929, Heinlein married Elinor Curry of Kansas City in Los Angeles, and their marriage lasted about a year. His second marriage in 1932 to Leslyn MacDonald lasted for 15 years, in 1934, Heinlein was discharged from the Navy due to pulmonary tuberculosis. During a lengthy hospitalization, he developed a design for a waterbed, Heinlein supported himself at several occupations, including real estate sales and silver mining, but for some years found money in short supply. Heinlein was active in Upton Sinclairs socialist End Poverty in California movement in the early 1930s, when Sinclair gained the Democratic nomination for Governor of California in 1934, Heinlein worked actively in the campaign. Heinlein himself ran for the California State Assembly in 1938, but was unsuccessful, while not destitute after the campaign—he had a small disability pension from the Navy—Heinlein turned to writing in order to pay off his mortgage. His first published story, Life-Line, was printed in the August 1939 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction, originally written for a contest, it was instead sold to Astounding for significantly more than the contests first-prize payoff
23.
Bare-knuckle boxing
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Bare-knuckle boxing is the original form of boxing, closely related to ancient combat sports. It involves two individuals fighting without boxing gloves or other padding on their hands, the difference between a streetfight and a bare-knuckle boxing match is that the latter has an accepted set of rules, such as not striking a downed opponent. The first bare-knuckle champion of England was James Figg, who claimed the title in 1719, before Jack Broughton, the first idea of current boxing originated from James Figg, who is viewed as the organizer of cutting edge boxing. In 1719, he set up a foundation and charged himself as a professional in the Noble Science of Defense to instruct boxers on the utilization of clench hands, sword. Noted champions were Jack Broughton, Daniel Mendoza, Jem Belcher, Hen Pearce, John Gully, Tom Cribb, Tom Spring, Jem Ward, James Burke, William Bendigo Thompson, Ben Caunt, Tom Sayers and Jem Mace. The bare-knuckle fighter Jem Mace is listed as having the longest professional career of any fighter in history and he fought for more than 35 years into his 60s, and recorded his last exhibition bout in 1909 at the age of 79. The last sanctioned fight in 1889 was between John L. Sullivan and Jake Kilrain, with Sullivan emerging as the victor, noted champions were Tom Hyer, Yankee Sullivan, Nonpareil Dempsey, Tom Sharkey, James J. Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons and John Morrissey. While boxing has always included punching, historically it also included grappling techniques like throws, arm locks and these techniques were banned during the several rule changes which turned classical pugilism, or bare knuckle boxing, into the modern sport of boxing. Irish stand down is a type of bare knuckle fighting where the aspect of maneuvering around the ring is removed. The Irish stand down is known as strap fighting or toe to toe. Professional bouts are now held, created and managed by the World Bareknuckle Boxing Association which itself is not recognized as a sports organization anywhere outside of the United States, the sport is still practiced on a small scale all over the world. There are a few countries that bare knuckle is actually illegal, in the British Isles the sports are still very popular there are efforts for the sport to be brought out of the underground and into the mainstream
24.
Union (American Civil War)
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The Union was opposed by 11 southern slave states that formed the Confederate States, or the Confederacy. All of the Unions states provided soldiers for the U. S. Army, the Border states played a major role as a supply base for the Union invasion of the Confederacy. The Northeast provided the resources for a mechanized war producing large quantities of munitions and supplies. The Midwest provided soldiers, food, horses, financial support, Army hospitals were set up across the Union. Most states had Republican governors who energetically supported the war effort, the Democratic Party strongly supported the war in 1861 but in 1862 was split between the War Democrats and the anti-war element led by the Copperheads. The Democrats made major gains in 1862 in state elections. They lost ground in 1863, especially in Ohio, in 1864 the Republicans campaigned under the National Union Party banner, which attracted many War Democrats and soldiers and scored a landslide victory for Lincoln and his entire ticket. The war years were quite prosperous except where serious fighting and guerrilla warfare took place along the southern border, prosperity was stimulated by heavy government spending and the creation of an entirely new national banking system. The Union states invested a great deal of money and effort in organizing psychological and social support for soldiers wives, widows, orphans, and for the soldiers themselves. Most soldiers were volunteers, although after 1862 many volunteered to escape the draft, Draft resistance was notable in some larger cities, especially New York City with its massive anti-draft riots of 1863 and in some remote districts such as the coal mining areas of Pennsylvania. In the context of the American Civil War, the Union is sometimes referred to as the North, both then and now, as opposed to the Confederacy, which was the South. The Union never recognized the legitimacy of the Confederacys secession and maintained at all times that it remained entirely a part of the United States of America, in foreign affairs the Union was the only side recognized by all other nations, none of which officially recognized the Confederate government. The term Union occurs in the first governing document of the United States, the subsequent Constitution of 1787 was issued and ratified in the name not of the states, but of We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union. Union, for the United States of America, is repeated in such clauses as the Admission to the Union clause in Article IV. Even before the war started, the preserve the Union was commonplace. Using the term Union to apply to the non-secessionist side carried a connotation of legitimacy as the continuation of the political entity. In comparison to the Confederacy, the Union had a large industrialized and urbanized area, additionally, the Union states had a manpower advantage of 5 to 2 at the start of the war. Year by year, the Confederacy shrank and lost control of increasing quantities of resources, meanwhile, the Union turned its growing potential advantage into a much stronger military force
25.
United States Military Academy
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It sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River,50 miles north of New York City. It is one of the four U. S. military service academies, the entire central campus is a national landmark and home to scores of historic sites, buildings, and monuments. The majority of the campuss Norman-style buildings are constructed from gray, the campus is a popular tourist destination complete with a large visitor center and the oldest museum in the United States Army. Candidates for admission must both apply directly to the academy and receive a nomination, usually from a member of Congress or Delegate/Resident Commissioner in the case of Washington, puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands. Other nomination sources include the President and Vice President of the United States, students are officers-in-training and are referred to as cadets or collectively as the United States Corps of Cadets. Tuition for cadets is fully funded by the Army in exchange for an active duty service obligation upon graduation, approximately 1,300 cadets enter the Academy each July, with about 1,000 cadets graduating. Cadets are required to adhere to the Cadet Honor Code, which states that a cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, the academy bases a cadets leadership experience as a development of all three pillars of performance, academics, physical, and military. Most graduates are commissioned as lieutenants in the Army. Foreign cadets are commissioned into the armies of their home countries, since 1959, cadets have also been eligible to cross-commission, or request a commission in one of the other armed services, provided that they meet that services eligibility standards. Every year, a small number of cadets do this. The academys traditions have influenced other institutions because of its age and it was the first American college to have an accredited civil-engineering program and the first to have class rings, and its technical curriculum was a model for later engineering schools. West Points student body has a rank structure and lexicon. All cadets reside on campus and dine together en masse on weekdays for breakfast, the academy fields fifteen mens and nine womens National Collegiate Athletic Association sports teams. Cadets compete in one sport every fall, winter, and spring season at the intramural, club and its football team was a national power in the early and mid-20th century, winning three national championships. The Continental Army first occupied West Point, New York, on 27 January 1778, between 1778 and 1780, the Polish engineer and military hero Tadeusz Kościuszko oversaw the construction of the garrison defenses. While the fortifications at West Point were known as Fort Arnold during the war, as commander, Benedict Arnold committed his act of treason, after Arnold betrayed the patriot cause, the Army changed the name of the fortifications at West Point, New York, to Fort Clinton. With the peace after the American Revolutionary War, various ordnance, Cadets underwent training in artillery and engineering studies at the garrison since 1794. In 1801, shortly after his inauguration as president, Thomas Jefferson directed that plans be set in motion to establish at West Point the United States Military Academy and he selected Jonathan Williams to serve as its first superintendent
26.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
27.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
