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Operation Ouch - Digestion | Biology for Kids

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This Is What Life In Alcatraz Was Really Like

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https://mbaction.com/the-greatest-riders-in-mountain-bike-history/

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Nino Schurter is the most successful XC racer in history, with eight Elite Men's UCI World Championship titles and seven World Cup series titles, along with three Olympic medals (one gold, one silver, one bronze). While working on this feature, we asked John Tomac, "Who do you think is the greatest mountain bike racer in history?" He replied, "Nino Schurter." Photo by Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool
Who are the greatest riders in mountain bike history? That's a tough question, but it's one that we thought would be fun to consider.

We have to warn you, though, it's entirely possible that we'll fail to mention someone who deserves to be included in this group. If that's the case, please feel free to send us an e-mail. Tell us who you think should be added to this group, and we'll see if we can do a follow-up in a later issue to include anybody we might have missed.
THE EARLY DAYS
Some names come to mind immediately from the early days of our sport. When mountain bike racing began in October 1976 with the first Repack downhill races on Mt. Tamalpais, Joe Breeze and Gary Fisher were the top racers.

As the sport grew in the 1980s, riders like Joe Murray and Ned Overend rose to prominence, along with many others. Prior to the first UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in 1990, there had been other races billed as "World Championships" that were held in both the U.S. and Europe. Ned Overend won three of those races-two in 1987 (one in Europe and one at Mammoth Mountain in the U.S.) and another one in 1989-so he was already, arguably, the top rider in the world by the time he won the men's cross-country title at the inaugural UCI Mountain Bike World Championship held in Durango, Colorado, in 1990.

Then came John Tomac. "The Tomes" was the first rider to be widely recognized as the best all-around rider in the world. Many people consider Tomac to be the best rider in mountain bike history. Besides winning numerous national titles in the United States in both cross-country and downhill, he was also one of America's top riders in dual slalom and trials, winning national-level events in both of those disciplines, too. When Tomac started racing World Cup events in the 1990s, he became one of only two male riders to win both cross-country and downhill World Cup events at the elite level.

The only other male rider to win both XC and DH World Cup races was Rune Hoydahl, who won several XC World Cups and one downhill. Tomac was the true standout, though. He won the 1991 World Cup XC title in the same year that he won the XC category at the World Championships. On top of that, he also took second at the Worlds in the downhill in '91 and '97. Though Tomac never won a world downhill title, he did win multiple World Cup races in both cross-country and downhill.

Perhaps even more notable in the record books was America's top female racer, Juli Furtado. Besides winning three World Cup cross-country titles in the 1990s, Juli also won UCI World Championship titles in both cross-country (1990) and downhill (1992), a feat that could let her challenge Tomac's position as the best all-around mountain bike racer in history.
CHANGING TIMES
As the 1990s unfolded, the sport changed. The advances in full-suspension downhill bikes ended the days when the top racers could use their rigid XC bikes in both cross-country and downhill competitions. Can you imagine the top riders of today racing their 35-pound downhill bikes in the cross-country ranks in the World Cup series? They would be laughed off the mountain. Or, how about today's XC racers taking their 21-pound bikes on modern-day World Cup downhill courses? They'd have to walk their bikes down long sections of the race courses or risk snapping the frames in two. While some riders in the early 1990s used to take both XC and downhill bikes to the races, the hassles of transporting two bikes and racing both classes soon forced the top riders to choose one category and stick to it at the World Cup level.
WOMEN'S XC WORLD CHAMPIONS
The women's XC list of UCI world champions reads like a who's who of cross-country stars. The woman who won the most XC titles is Norway's Gunn-Rita Dahle (Flesja), who won the title four times. After her, Canada's Alison Sydor and Spain's Margarita Fullana each won the title three times. Five women won the title twice: Italy's Paola Pezzo, Russia's Irina Kalentieva, France's Julie Bresset, Canada's Catharine Pendrel and France's Pauline Ferrand-Prevot. Four American women have won the title once: Juli Furtado (1990), Ruthie Matthes (1991), Alison Dunlap (2001) and Kate Courtney (2018).
MEN'S XC WORLD CHAMPIONS
In the men's ranks, Switzerland's Nino Schurter is the undisputed king of XC racing. He's won the UCI World Championship in the Elite Men's ranks eight times, and his career isn't over yet. France's Julien Absalon comes next with five Worlds titles, while Denmark's Henrik Djernis has three and Canada's Roland Green has two. Twelve more riders have one UCI World Championship XC title each, including two Americans, Ned Overend (1990) and John Tomac (1991).
WOMEN'S DOWNHILL WORLD CHAMPIONS
In the downhill ranks, France's Anne-Caroline Chausson stands head and shoulders above all the other women. She won nine Elite Women's Downhill World Championships. The next most successful rider in this category is Great Britain's Rachel Atherton, who has won five such titles. Three other women have won two titles each: France's Sabrina Jonnier and Emmeline Ragot, along with Italy's Giovanna Bonazzi. Only three Americans have won the Elite Women's Downhill title at the Worlds: Juli Furtado (1992), Missy Giove (1994), and Leigh Donovan (1995).
MEN'S DOWNHILL WORLD CHAMPIONS
In the men's ranks, France's Nicolas Vouilloz has the record with seven gold medals in the Elite Men's downhill category. Fellow Frenchman Loic Bruni is next with four, while South Africa's Greg Minnaar and Australia's Sam Hill each have three. Only four Americans have won the downhill world title: Greg Herbold (1990), Dave Cullinan (1992), Mike King (1993), and Myles Rockwell (2001). Myles was the only racer to break Vouilloz's streak, as Nico won every other World Championship in the Elite Men's downhill category from 1995 to 2002. When it comes to the most medals, though, Greg Minnaar holds the record with a total of 10, thanks to his three gold medals, four silver and three bronze.
WOMEN'S WORLD CUP XC CHAMPIONS
In the Women's World Cup XC ranks, Norway's Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesja won the series four times in a row, from 2003 through 2006. Juli Furtado, Alison Sydor, Catharine Pendrel and Jolanda Neff have each won the title three times. Americans Sara Ballantyne (1990), Ruthie Matthes (1992), Alison Dunlap (2002) and Kate Courtney are the only U.S. women besides Furtado to win the World Cup XC title, with each taking it once.
MEN'S WORLD CUP XC CHAMPIONS
Among the men, France's Julien Absalon and Switzerland's Nino Schurter hold the most titles with seven apiece. Absalon scored his in 2003, 2006-2009, 2014 and 2016. Nino scored his in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017-2019. Nobody else comes close to their records. Absalon also has two Olympic gold medals to Nino's one gold, one silver and one bronze medal at the Olympics.

Switzerland's Thomas Frischknecht won three World Cup XC titles in the 1990s. He also picked up a belated World Championship from 1996 after France's Jerome Chiotti confessed to having used performance-enhancing drugs to win the title. Upon admitting his wrongdoing, Chiotti presented his gold medal to Frischknecht, who had deserved the title.

France's Miguel Martinez, Australia's Cadel Evans and South Africa's Christoph Sauser all won the Elite Men's XC World Cup Series title twice. Cadel Evans deserves extra credit for his status, as he won the Tour de France in 2011 after retiring from mountain biking.
WOMENS' WORLD CUP DOWNHILL CHAMPS
Great Britain's Rachel Atherton is the most successful woman in World Cup downhill racing so far. She has won six World Cup titles to date, spread out between 2008 and 2018; what's more, she hasn't retired yet. Two other women have won five titles each. France's Anne-Caroline Chausson won every title from 1998 to 2002, while France's Sabrina Jonnier won the series title in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010. Only two American women have won the title: Kim Sonier won it in 1994, while America's Missy Giove won the title twice in 1996 and 1997.
MEN'S WORLD CUP DOWNHILL STARS
France's Nico Vouilloz and America's Aaron Gwin are tied for the most World Cup downhill titles in the Elite Men's category with five each. Greg Minnaar is next with three titles, two second-place finishes at the end of the series and four third-place finishes at year's end. By the end of 2020, Minnaar was holding the record for the most World Cup downhill wins with 22 so far. To top it off, he also won a dual-slalom race on the World Cup circuit in 2003, upping his total gold-medal count.
OTHER EVENTS
Of course, there's more to racing than cross-country and downhill. There have also been titles in dual-slalom and four-cross racing. In those categories, America's Brian Lopes seems to be the top rider among the men, winning six World Cup titles split evenly between the two categories. He won three more gold medals in men's four-cross in the World Championships, as well as a gold medal in the men's "dual," which was held at the World Championships in 2000 and 2001, where two racers raced each other down the same course at the same time. Dual was replaced the next year by four-cross, with four racers racing down the same course.

In the women's ranks, Anneke Beerten holds the record for the most World Cup four-cross titles, with four such crowns.

Anne-Caroline Chausson won the women's "dual" title at the World Championships both years those races were held. Anne-Caroline also won the four-cross title the following two years at the World Championships.

Australia's Caroline Buchanan won five four-cross World Championship titles, while Anneke Beerten and America's Jill Kintner each won three.

When you consider all those combinations, it seems clear that Anne-Caroline Chausson is the top women's gravity racer in mountain biking, with 13 gold medals in the World Championships and seven more in the World Cup series. It might be worth mentioning that she also won an Olympic gold medal racing BMX.

In the men's overall medal ranking, the results aren't quite as clear. Nicolas Vouilloz probably has the best claim to being the top gravity racer to date, since downhill seems to carry a lot more significance and prestige on the international circuit than dual, dual-slalom or four-cross.
WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER TYPES OF COMPETITION?
We didn't even mention enduro racing up until now. That's another area where some of the top downhill riders have proven their ability to win in multiple disciplines. Sam Hill is probably the most impressive among the men, since he's won three World Championships and two World Cup titles in downhill, as well as three Enduro World Series titles. Among the women, France's Cecile Ravenel has been the top enduro rider, winning three series titles in a row-2016, 2017 and 2018.
WHAT ELSE IS THERE?
There's also the Red Bull Rampage. The top riders in that freeride event have been Canadians Kurt Sorge and Brandon Semenuk, each winning the event three times. Sorge also won a silver medal once, while Semenuk once took a bronze, so Sorge holds a slight advantage.

Gee Atherton placed second in the Red Bull Rampage twice (2004 and 2010), which, combined with his two wins in the downhill category of the UCI World Championships, gives him some bragging rights for multiple-discipline success.

There's also endurance racing, such as the 24-Hour World Championships and the Cape Epic stage race. Ned Overend pointed us to the success of Christoph Sauser, who won two XC titles at the UCI World Championships and also won the Cape Epic four times. Nino Schurter has won two Cape Epic titles, further cementing his status.

There are also people like Danny MacAskill and Fabio Wibmer, who produce some of the most popular video content in mountain biking. Could they win events at a World Championship level? We don't know, but we wouldn't want to bet against them.

Is there any one mountain biker who's the best rider in history? It's hard to say.

John Tomac was probably the closest to being the best XC and DH rider in history at the same time, but he only won one UCI World Championship XC title and one World Cup XC title, plus two silver medals in downhill at the Worlds.

Juli Furtado, on the other hand, won both the cross-country and downhill UCI World Championship titles, along with three World Cup XC titles, all in the 1990s, so she's a definite contender.

Nino Schurter has won the most international XC titles of any man, so he could very well be ranked as the top mountain biker of all time; however, Anne-Caroline Chausson probably has the most world titles of any mountain bike racer, so she's also a viable candidate for the "greatest-ever" title. After those four riders, it's hard to pick any one rider who can top their claims to being the best in the world.

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The Greatest Riders in Mountain Bike History

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Nino Schurter is the most successful XC racer in history, with eight Elite Men's UCI World Championship titles and seven World Cup series titles, along with three Olympic medals (one gold, one silver, one bronze). While working on this feature, we asked John Tomac, "Who do you think is the greatest mountain bike racer in history?"

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Many people think they know the story of Helen Keller, the girl who suffered from being blind and deaf. What many don't know is that without Anne Sullivan's patience, guidance, and friendship, Helen Keller never would have been transformed into the woman and success story she became. Keller was born completely healthy, but was robbed of her vision and hearing at just 19 months old. She had no idea how to understand the world around her and communicate her wants and needs. This is when and why her tantrums and behavior problems started and made her family desperate for help from an experienced teacher. That teacher was Anne Sullivan.

Much like Keller, Anne Sullivan contracted an eye disease when she was just five years old, leaving her blind and scared. Abandoned by her father at a young age, Sullivan was sent to live in an overcrowded, underfunded group home for much of her young adult life. Eventually, she began to capture the attention of others and, with help, underwent an eye surgery to help improve her condition. She then made leaps and bounds and was entered into the renowned Perkins Institution; where she ultimately became the best candidate to teach seven-year-old Keller, who so desperately needed guidance in her sheltered and secluded world.

All great teachers know that in order to get a challenging student to learn, you sometimes have to break away from rules and must never be limited by them. After trying formal lessons and adhering to a strict schedule with Keller, Sullivan knew it was time to shift the focus of her teaching. After all, she knew what it was like to live in the dark world that was also a silent world to Keller.

Sullivan broke into Helen's word by making it a point to be attentive to her interests and to truly understand her activities to add language and vocabulary into her realm. Sullivan did this by doing a lot of finger spelling , as well as lots of other unconventional exercises, for her to make a physical connection between an object and its identity. The key to teaching Helen was to use a firm but tender approach, much like a parent.

Much like any student would, Helen responded to Sullivan's creative approach to teaching. In just six months, Keller learned 575 words, the Braille system, and her multiplication facts! Later in her life, Sullivan was able to help Keller learn French, German, Greek, and even Latin. She even wrote an autobiography titled, The Story of My Life; and became the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Anne Sullivan was so thrilled with Keller's successes so she continuously studied other subjects to teach Helen. Sullivan wanted to make sure Keller had numerous opportunities and her thirst for knowledge was quenched. Despite doctors' warnings; Sullivan read dozens of books that contained information she felt would be beneficial for Keller, despite the rest and care that her own impaired eyes much needed.

Helen Keller has said that the most significant day she remembered in her life is the one in which her teacher, Anne Sullivan came to her. Up to her dying day, she was filled with wonder when she considered the "immeasurable contrast between the two lives which became connected."

Later in life, when Anne Sullivan became ill, her grateful and beloved student was present at her bedside, holding her hand as she passed away. Sullivan was not just a teacher to Keller, but a role model, mentor, friend, and a mother figure; because she helped Keller grow into a mature and selfless person. Keller followed in her mentor's footsteps and became a compassionate adult who decided to work for the blind and deaf, as well as other less fortunate people.

In fact, many teachers measure their professional success not by test scores alone, but with how they have touched their students' lives in some way and have made them into a better human being. Anne Sullivan did this for Helen Keller.

Photo: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHelen_Keller_with_Anne_Sullivan_in_July_1888.jpg, By Family member of Thaxter P. Spencer, now part of the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, at the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

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The Story of the Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller Friendship

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Many people think they know the story of Helen Keller, the girl who suffered from being blind and deaf. What many don't know is that without Anne Sullivan's patience, guidance, and friendship, Helen Keller never would have been transformed into the woman and success story she became.

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 Fun Facts About the Golden Gate BridgeThe bridge is actually not golden at all! It's a bright red-orange.It was named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.It took four years to build.There are approximately 600,000 rivets in each of the bridge's towers.It's the most photographed bridge in the world.

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 Fun Facts About the Golden Gate BridgeThe bridge is actually not golden at all! It's a bright red-orange.It was named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.It took four years to build.There are approximately 600,000 rivets in each of the bridge's towers.It's the most photographed bridge in the world.

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Cricketlab- Richard Pybus Online Cricket Coaching Tips, How To Play Cricket

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Cricket history is particularly murky and vague as to the exact origins of the game, it is believed to have been born in England in the late middle ages.

Edward III banned a game similar to cricket in 1369, 'pila baculorea' or 'club ball' as it was known, as he saw it as being a distraction to his war effort.

Derek Birley in his wonderful book, 'A Social History of English Cricket' suggests the game came to England with the French during the time of the Norman Invasion, that their word 'criquet' was the dialect name for a variation of club ball, the game Edward the III had sought to eradicate.

There is record of the word 'creag' as a derivative of the word creaget in 1299-1300 in the Royal Wardrobe Accounts, for the then Prince Edward the II to play 'creag' and other games.

There is no evidence that creag was the same as criquet, the links are too tenuous and games rarely appear in any records of this time unless the aristocracy were playing them or trying to have them eradicated as being morally degenerate.

Cricket is first recorded as a game played by schoolboys in Guildford in the sixteenth century and is found recorded in an Italian -English dictionary in 1598.

Gambling, the Aristocracy and Working Classes

The game by 1611 was being played by adults, it is recorded that two men were prosecuted for playing cricket instead of attending church.

On a similar theme, in 1628 ten men were fined for playing cricket rather than attending church service, they also had to make a confession to the congregation as way of penance.

As the game continued to evolve amongst the working classes and the aristocracy, gambling became central to its growth.

The aristocracy in particular, had seen in it, a game with the obvious attributes to bet on its outcomes. Teams were assembled under the patronage of Aristocrats and purses were put up for 'great matches'.

In 1696, ' a great match at Cricket was played in Sussex, they were eleven of a side, and they played for fifty guineas apiece'.

The game had been growing both within the english upper classes and as a genuine recreational past time for rural workers in the southern counties of England.

The composite teams that were beginning to be assembled for 'great matches' during this period of the early 1700's, were crossing the class divides; as the purses played for encouraged the nobility that were patronizing the teams, to employ the best players that could be found.

Thus, rural workers who had become adept at the game were being employed to play as 'hands' for the aristocracy and were travelling for their employ.

At this time London, particularly North London, can lay claim to being the cradle of the game as matches staged in Islington at White Conduit Field had a 'field keeper' for cricket and the Angel Inn as part of its amenities.

In 1718 a match at White Conduit Field brought cricket into the law courts after a dispute between the two teams.

The other area to lay claim to the 'Cradle of Cricket' was Hambledon in Hampshire, where the matches staged at the Broad Down of Halfpenny were where cricket began to ' assume that truly skilful and scientific character which it now possesses.'

The men of Hambledon were immortalised in the writing of John Nyren, who captured the spirit of the club, its segregation between the classes and its rich and varied club life.

The game continued to spread through England as the provincial towns grew with industrialization, with the first recorded game in Yorkshire played in the 1750's.
The Laws of the Game
By 1744 the Laws of Cricket had been codified and in 1788 the laws were revised by the Marylebone Cricket Club, they covered the length of the pitch, the distance between creases, wicket size, and ball weight.

After 1760 the game saw the evolution of over arm bowling, replacing under arm bowling as the main way to deliver the ball. The game began to see the use of various lengths utilised by bowlers and the development of the craft of batting, as batters sought to respond to new bowling techniques.

The 'Straight Bat' was introduced as part of this counter to new bowling techniques, the old bent 'hockey stick' style of bat went out of fashion.

See the pictures here from a display at the Lords Museum that show the bats evolution

The Global Spread of Cricket

Cricket began to spread with Britains' Imperialist ambitions, the Navy and Army were instrumental in its spread into the Colonies, with games being recorded in North America in the 1700's.

In the 1800's cricket had reached the West Indies and India, by 1788 at the inception of colonization in Australia the game was played and in the 19th century cricket had reached and was being played in South Africaand New Zealand.

The first International match was staged in New York in 1844 between Canada and the United States. In 1868 an Australian Aboriginal side toured England and by 1877 England played their first match against Australia to begin the games oldest rivalry.

In 1882 England lost to Australia, a mock obituary was written for English cricket and two Melbourne ladies burnt a bail and presented it to the England cricket captain in an urn.

Thus began the Ashes,the games longest running saga as the two sides play off every two years for the fabled urn.

In 1889 South Africa became the third test nation.

In 1900 cricket made its one and only appearance at the Olympics, England played France and won. Although interestingly, it looks as if cricket may be re-admitted to the Olympics in its shortest form, 20 20 cricket.

By 1909 the Imperial Cricket Conference was formed to administrate the game, primarily from an English perspective, with England, South Africa and Australia being its founder members.

India, the West Indies and New Zealand saw them become Test playing nations before the second WW, Pakistan joining after.

Affiliate nations like Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, Zimababwe and Bangladesh have become Test playing nations toward the end of the twentieth century.

Crises in Cricket

The Twentieth Century saw major crises in cricket, initially in the bodyline series in 1932 -33 between Australia and England.

Englands' method of countering the genius of Don Bradman lead them to bowl to a leg side field with short pitched bowling. The Australians deemed this 'not cricket' and against the spirit of the game. It was an event of such proportions that Australia threatened to take political action they were so disturbed by it.

Then in the 1970's the D'Oliveira Affair blew South Africa from the international cricket stage for over twenty years, as they refused to receive the England team with the Cape Coloured Basil D'Oliveira in it.

Its racist policies saw it cast into the wilderness only to return after the release of Nelson Mandela and the institution of multi racial cricket.

The 1960's and 70's saw the introduction of single innings games, with the first class sides in England playing limited over cricket, these proved hugely popular and cricket saw its first One Day International in 1971 between England and Australia.

In the mid 1970's an Australian Media Mogul, Kerry Packer, bought up the worlds best cricketers and set up World Series Cricket, the players played in coloured clothing. Packer took on the cricket establishment in a legal battle for the right to host and televise games and won.

World Series Cricket went a long way to professionalising the game in the 1970's and allowing the players a living wage from their profession.

Technology: Innovation or Invasion

As the One Day game developed it brought with it some of the innovations from Tennis and American football, the use of technology to bring better decision making for umpires and to highlight areas of interest for the TV audience.

Beginning with slow motion replays and specialist camera angles for Umpires, the game now has space age technology with 'Stump Cams','Hot Spots' and 'Hawk Eye', technology derived from modern warfare.

Whether technology has improved the decison making of Umpires remains to be seen, there have been breakdowns in the application of technology and its lack of uniform roll out across all international games undermines its credibility.

T20 Cricket: Rebirth or the Death of Cricket As We Know it?

Twenty Twenty Cricket was born in England in the early 2000's, it literally exploded into new market places in cricket, it brought with it a new audience and target market.

It was spectacularly seized upon by the BCCI after the 2007 Twenty Twenty World Cup as they set up the Indian Premier League with the worlds best players, modelled on the English Premier League Football Competition.

It is now the worlds second biggest sporting event, second only to the Olympics, because of India's vast population and sub-continent marketplace.

How it grows will remain to be seen, whether it consumes itself with overkill or goes on to be the biggest growth area in cricket in the 21st century, only time will tell.

Go To The Ashes Go To Key Dates In Cricket History

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Cricket history is particularly murky and vague as to the exact origins of the game, it is believed to have been born in England in the late middle ages. Edward III banned a game similar to cricket in 1369, 'pila baculorea' or 'club ball' as it was known, as he saw it as being a distraction to his war effort.

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polar bears stemmed from the brown bears about 1 million year ago according to DNA findings. Consider about 130 000 years ago.

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The largest living bears are polar bears. Their impressive white coats help camouflage them and aid in stalking ringed and bearded seals, their main prey. Dense fur and thick body fat provide insulation from cold air and water in their circum-Arctic, coastal habitat.

Polar bears stemmed from brown bears ( Ursus arctos) about 1 million years ago, according to DNA findings. Fossils are rare. The oldest fossil known is a well-preserved jaw from Svalbard (islands north of Norway). It is considered to be of the last interglacial age (about 130 000 years old). A skull from a Scottish cave dates to about 19 000 years ago-the cold peak of the last ice age.

Perhaps a painting of two tear-drop shaped bears on a wall in the Paleolithic cave of Ekain near the northern coast of Spain depicts young polar bears that landed on the coast some 17 000 to 12 000 years ago. Later fossils, between about 11 000 and 8 000 years old, are from Scandinavia and Russia. The early inhabitants of a Mesolithic site (approximately 9000 to 8000 years ago) on Zhokov Island in Siberia evidently relied heavily on polar bears for subsistence.

Learn about modern populations.

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Polar Bear (Prehistoric): Natural History Notebooks

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The largest living bears are polar bears. Their impressive white coats help camouflage them and aid in stalking ringed and bearded seals, their main prey. Dense fur and thick body fat provide insulation from cold air and water in their circum-Arctic, coastal habitat.

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History of California | The Animated Californian History In a Nutshell

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History of California | The Animated Californian History In a Nutshell

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History of California | The Animated Californian History In a Nutshell

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facts

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sjRCzRrPac

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Klunkerz: a film about mountain biking TRAILER

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Can Youth Lacrosse be both Fun and Competitive? - Halo Lax

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The key to making youth lacrosse enjoyable, is simply not taking away from the game. Lacrosse is naturally fun and competitive, keep it that way!

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Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds.

There is a consensus of expert opinion that cricket may have been invented during Saxon or Norman times by children living in the Weald, an area of dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England.

How many players in cricket team

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which country invented cricket - Google Search

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Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds. There is a consensus of expert opinion that cricket may have been invented during Saxon or Norman times by children living in the Weald, an area of dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England.

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SFGATE89 years ago, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge2 days ago

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SFGATE89 years ago, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge2 days ago

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27 Things California is Known and Famous For

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27 Things California is Known and Famous For

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27 Things California is Known and Famous For

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What is California known for? The Golden State is famous for the Hollywood film industry, the Golden Gate Bridge, and a legion of other exciting things.

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27 Things California is Known and Famous For

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Michelle Obama is a lawyer, writer, and the wife of former U.S. President Barack Obama. Prior to her role as first lady, she was a lawyer, Chicago city administrator, and community outreach worker.

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Nickname(s)

Men in Blue, Team India

Test status acquired

1931

ICC status

Full Member (1926)

World Cup appearances

12 ( first in 1975)

Best result

Champions ( 1983, 2011)

T20 World Cup appearances

6 ( first in 2007)

As of 28 March 2021

The India men's national cricket team, also known as Team India and Men in Blue, is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One-Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status.

Cricket was introduced to India by British sailors in the 18th century, and the first cricket club was established in 1792. India's national cricket team did not play its first Test match until 25 June 1932 at Lord's, becoming the sixth team to be granted test cricket status. From 1932 India had to wait until 1952, almost 20 years for its first Test victory. In its first fifty years of international cricket, India was one of the weaker teams, winning only 35 of the first 196 Test matches it played. The team, however, gained strength in the 1970s with the emergence of players such as batsmen Gavaskar, Viswanath, Kapil Dev, and the Indian spin quartet.

Traditionally much stronger at home than abroad, the Indian team has improved its overseas form, especially in limited-overs cricket, since the start of the 21st century, winning Test matches in Australia, England and South Africa. It is second cricket team to win World Cup after West Indies. It has won the Cricket World Cup twice - in 1983 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev and in 2011 under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. After winning the 2011 World Cup, India became only the third team after West Indies and Australia to have won the World Cup more than once, and the first cricket team to win the World Cup at home. It also won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. It was also the joint champions of 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, along with Sri Lanka. The team has also won the Asian Cup seven times, making them one of the most successful cricket team in both Asia and the world. They are also one of the only four teams to win all major ICC tournaments. India have also won the ICC Test Championship, ICC ODI Championship , ICC T20I Championship and the World Championship of Cricket in 1985.

The Indian cricket team has rivalries with other Test-playing nations, most notably with Pakistan, the political arch-rival of India. However, in recent times, rivalries with nations like Australia, South Africa and England have also gained prominence.

As of 10 March 2021, India is ranked first in Tests, second in both ODIs and T20Is by the ICC. Virat Kohli is the current captain of the team across all formats, while the head coach is Ravi Shastri.

Early history (1700s-1918)

The British brought cricket to India in the early 1700s, with the first cricket match played in 1721. In 1848, the Parsi community in Bombay formed the Oriental Cricket Club, the first cricket club to be established by Indians. After slow beginnings, the Europeans eventually invited the Parsis to play a match in 1877. By 1912, the Parsis, Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims of Bombay played a quadrangular tournament with the Europeans every year. In the early 1900s, some Indians went on to play for the England cricket team. Some of these, such as Ranjitsinhji and KS Duleepsinhji were greatly appreciated by the British and their names went on to be used for the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy - two major first-class tournaments in India. In 1911, an Indian team went on their first official tour of the British Isles, but only played English county teams and not the England cricket team.

Test match status (1918-1970)

India was invited to The Imperial Cricket Council in 1926, and made their debut as a Test playing nation in England in 1932, led by CK Nayudu, who was considered as the best Indian batsman at the time. The one-off Test match between the two sides was played at Lord's in London. The team was not strong in their batting at this point and went on to lose by 158 runs. India hosted its first Test series in the year 1933. England was the visiting team that played 2 Tests in Bombay (now Mumbai) and Calcutta (now Kolkata). The visitors won the series 2-0. The Indian team continued to improve throughout the 1930s and '40s but did not achieve an international victory during this period. In the early 1940s, India didn't play any Test cricket due to the Second World War. The team's first series as an independent country was in late 1947 against Sir Donald Bradman's Invincibles (a name given to the Australia national cricket team of that time). It was also the first Test series India played which was not against England. Australia won the five-match series 4-0, with Bradman tormenting the Indian bowling in his final Australian summer. India subsequently played their first Test series at home not against England, but against the West Indies in 1948. West Indies won the 5-Test series 1-0.

India recorded their first Test victory, in their 24th match, against England at Madras in 1952. Later in the same year, they won their first Test series, which was against Pakistan. They continued their improvement throughout the early 1950s with a series win against New Zealand in 1956. However, they did not win again in the remainder of the decade and lost badly to strong Australian and English sides. On 24 August 1959, India lost by an innings in the Test to complete the only 5-0 whitewash ever inflicted by England. The next decade saw India's reputation develop as a team with a strong record at home. They won their first Test series against England at home in 1961-62 and also won a home series against New Zealand. They managed to draw home series against Pakistan and Australia and another series against England. In this same period, India also won its first series outside the subcontinent, against New Zealand in 1967-68.

The key to India's bowling in the 1970s were the Indian spin quartet - Bishen Bedi, E.A.S. Prasanna, BS Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan. This period also saw the emergence of two of India's best ever batsmen, Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath. Indian pitches have had the tendency to support spin and the spin quartet exploited this to create collapses in opposing batting line-ups. These players were responsible for the back-to-back series wins in 1971 in the West Indies and in England, under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar. Gavaskar scored 774 runs in the West Indian series while Dilip Sardesai's 112 played a big part in their one Test win.

One-day cricket and ICC Cricket World Cup success (1970-1985)

The advent of One Day International (ODI) cricket in 1971 created a new dimension in the cricket world. However, India was not considered strong in ODIs at this point and batsmen such as the captain Gavaskar were known for their defensive approach to batting. India began as a weak team in ODIs and did not qualify for the second round in the first two editions of the Cricket World Cup. Gavaskar infamously blocked his way to 36 not out off 174 balls against England in the first World Cup in 1975, India scored just 132 for 3 and lost by 202 runs.

In contrast, India fielded a strong team in Test matches and was particularly strong at home, where their combination of stylish batsmen and beguiling spinners were at their best. India set a then Test record in the third Test against the West Indies at Port-of-Spain in 1976, when they chased 403 to win, thanks to 112 from Viswanath. This West Indian defeat is considered to be a watershed in the history of their cricket because it led to captain Clive Lloyd dispensing with spin altogether and relying entirely on a four-man pace attack instead. In November 1976, the team established another record by scoring 524 for 9 declared against New Zealand at Kanpur without any individual batsman scoring a century. There were six fifties, the highest being 70 by Mohinder Amarnath. This innings was only the eighth instance in Test cricket where all eleven batsmen reached double figures.

During the 1980s, India developed a more attack-minded batting line-up with stroke makers such as the wristy Mohammed Azharuddin, Dilip Vengsarkar and all-rounders Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri. India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983, defeating the favourites and the two-time defending champions West Indies in the final at Lords, owing to a strong bowling performance. In spite of this, the team performed poorly in the Test arena, including 28 consecutive Test matches without a victory. In 1984, India won the Asia Cup and in 1985, won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia. Apart from this, India remained a weak team outside the Indian subcontinent. India's Test series victory in 1986 against England remained the last Test series win by India outside the subcontinent for the next 19 years. The 1980s saw Gavaskar and Kapil Dev (India's best all-rounder to date) at the pinnacle of their careers. Gavaskar made a Test record 34 centuries as he became the first man to reach the 10,000 run mark. Kapil Dev later became the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket with 434 wickets. The period was also marked by an unstable leadership, with Gavaskar and Kapil exchanging the captaincy several times.

Late 20th century (1985-2000)

The addition of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble to the national side in 1989 and 1990 further improved the team. The following year, Javagal Srinath, India's fastest bowler since Amar Singh made his debut. Despite this, during the 1990s, India did not win any of its 33 Tests outside the subcontinent while it won 17 out of its 30 Tests at home. After being eliminated by neighbours Sri Lanka on home soil at the 1996 Cricket World Cup semifinal, the team underwent a year of change as Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, later to become captains of the team, made their debut in the same Test at Lord's. Tendulkar replaced Azharuddin as captain in late 1996, but after a personal and team form slump, Tendulkar relinquished the captaincy and Azharuddin was reinstated at the beginning of 1998. With the captaincy burden removed, Tendulkar was the world's leading run-scorer in both Tests and ODIs, as India enjoyed a home Test series win over Australia, the best-ranked team in the world.

After failing to reach the semifinals at the 1999 Cricket World Cup, Tendulkar was again made captain, and had another poor run, losing 3-0 on a tour of Australia and then 2-0 at home to South Africa. Tendulkar resigned, vowing never to captain the team again. Ganguly was appointed the new captain and the team was further damaged in 2000 when former captain Azharuddin and fellow batsman Ajay Jadeja were implicated in a match-fixing scandal and given life and five years bans respectively. This period was described by the BBC as "the Indian cricket's worst hour". However, the new core - Tendulkar, Dravid, Kumble and Ganguly - swore not to let this happen to them again, and lead Indian cricket out of the dark times. And the first three put aside personal ambitions to let Ganguly lead them into a new era.

21st century

The Indian team underwent major improvements under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly and guidance of John Wright, India's first foreign coach. India maintained their unbeaten home record against Australia in Test series after victory in 2001. The series was famous for the Kolkata Test match, in which India became only the third team in the history of Test cricket to win a Test match after following on. Australian captain Steve Waugh labelled India as the "Final Frontier" because of his side's inability to win a Test series in India. Victory in 2001 against the Australians marked the beginning of a dream run for India under their captain Sourav Ganguly, winning Test matches in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, West Indies and England. The England series is also known for India's highest ODI run-chase of 325 runs at Lord's, which came in the Natwest ODI Series final against England. In the same year, India were joint-winners of the ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka and then went to the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa, where they reached the final, only to be beaten by Australia. The 2003-04 season also saw India play out a Test series in Australia, where they drew 1-1 with the world champions, and then win a Test and ODI series in Pakistan.

From the 2004 season, India suffered from lack of form and fitness from its older players. A defeat in a home Test series against Australia was followed by an ODI home series defeat against Pakistan followed by a Test series levelled 1-1. Greg Chappell took over from John Wright as the coach of the Indian cricket team following the series, but his methods proved controversial and led to a falling out with Ganguly, resulting in Rahul Dravid being made captain. This triggered a revival in the team's fortunes with the emergence of such players as MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina, and the coming of age of Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh. A thumping home series victory over Sri Lanka in 2005 and a drawn series with South Africa put India at second place in the ICC ODI rankings. Dravid, Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were selected to play for the ICC World XI in the 2005 " SuperTest" against Australia. A convincing ODI series win in Pakistan in early 2006, following a loss in the Test series, gave India the world record of 17 successive ODI victories while batting second.

However, a 4-1 series loss in the West Indies in 2006 prompted a slump in India's ODI form, while they achieved a 1-0 victory in the Test series that followed, giving them their first Test series victory in the Caribbean since 1971. India's ODI form slumped further with a disappointing performance in the 2006 Champions Trophy and a drubbing in the ODI series in South Africa. This was followed yet again by an initial good performance in the Tests, giving India its first Test match win in South Africa, although they went on to lose the series 2-1. This Test series was marked by Ganguly's comeback to the Indian team.

In December 2006, India played and won its first Twenty20 international in South Africa, becoming the most recent Test team to play Twenty20 cricket. The beginning of 2007 had seen a revival in the Indian team's ODI fortunes before the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Series victories against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, marked by the comeback of Ganguly and strong form by Tendulkar, as well as the emergence of young players like Robin Uthappa persuaded many pundits to tip India as a contender to win the 2007 Cricket World Cup. However, defeats to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka saw India fail to reach the second round.

Success under Dhoni

After winning the Test series against England in August 2007, Dravid stepped down as captain and Dhoni was made captain of the Twenty20 and ODI team. In September 2007, India won the first-ever Twenty20 World Cup held in South Africa, beating Pakistan by 5 runs in the final. In 2007-08, they toured Australia where India lost the highly controversial home Test series 2-1 but managed to win the CB series the following month with a whitewash of Australia.

In April 2009, India secured their first Test series win in New Zealand in 41 years. After beating Sri Lanka 2-0 in December 2009, India became the No. 1 Test team in the world. They retained the ranking by drawing series against South Africa and Sri Lanka. In October 2010, India whitewashed Australia 2-0 in the home test series, giving them back-to-back series wins against them. Later that year, India managed to draw the Test series in South Africa at 1-1.

On 2 April 2011, India won the 2011 Cricket World Cup by defeating Sri Lanka in the final, thus becoming the third team after West Indies and Australia to win the World Cup twice. India also became the first team to win the World Cup on home soil.

India were whitewashed 4-0 in an away Test series in England in August 2011, which resulted in England replacing India as the No. 1 ranked Test team. This was followed by another 4-0 whitewash January 2012 in Australia. The disastrous whitewashes saw the retirement of Dravid and VVS Laxman from Test cricket in 2012. Tendulkar retired in November 2013 after his 200th Test match. With Ganguly retired in 2008, this period signalled the end of the fabled middle-order batting line-up India had for over a decade. In 2012, India continued to face a tough transition period as they were beaten 2-1 in a home Test series by England. This was the first time India had been beaten by England at home since 1984-85. This was followed by a 2-1 loss in the ODI series against Pakistan at home. India were then knocked out in the second round of the 2012 ICC World Twenty20. India also failed to qualify for the 2012 Asia Cup final, which closed out a disappointing year for India. However, 2013 saw a resurgence in Indian cricket.

Worldwide limited-overs success

In early 2013, India returned the favor to Australia and whitewashed them 4-0 at home in a Test series. India then beat the Aussies 3-2 in the seven-match ODI series and won the one-off T20I. However, India lost heavily against New Zealand and South Africa away from home, leading to heavy criticism of Indian cricketers for not being able to perform overseas. India defeated England in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy final and Dhoni became the first captain in history to win the three major ICC trophies, namely the ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC World Twenty20 and ICC Champions Trophy. This was followed by a victory in the West Indies Triangular Series in 2013 consisting of India, West Indies, and Sri Lanka. In 2014, India toured Bangladesh and England. Although they beat the former 2-0 in three ODIs, India was beaten 3-1 in five Test matches by England. This series included a famous win for the Indian team in the second match of the series at Lord's. The Test series was followed by a 3-1 win for the Indians in a five-match ODI series and a loss in a one-off T20 against England.

India again failed to reach the final of the Asia Cup in 2014. In the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 hosted in Bangladesh, India narrowly missed out on another ICC trophy by losing to Sri Lanka in the final. This tournament saw the rise of Virat Kohli as one of the best-limited overs batsmen in world cricket, as he was adjudged the man of the series. India soon comprehensively beat Sri Lanka and West Indies in the ODI series to cement their position at the top of the ODI rankings. India toured Australia towards the end of 2014 for a 4-match Test series, which is remembered for MS Dhoni's sudden retirement from Test cricket after the end of the second Test. Virat Kohli was appointed as the captain of Team India in Test matches but he was unable to turn the series around and India lost 2-0. Kohli's first series win as captain came away from home in a three-match Test series vs Sri Lanka, which signaled the beginning of an unbeaten Test series run for India.

India began to dominate at home in Test matches under new captain Virat Kohli after they comprehensively beat South Africa in 2015. This series was the beginning of an unbeaten streak of 19 Test matches. This series also saw the emergence of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja as two of the best spinners and all-rounders. This was followed by limited-overs victories over Australia and Sri Lanka away from home. India was knocked out of the 2015 World Cup in the semi-final to eventual winners Australia. India began 2016 by winning the 2016 Asia Cup, remaining unbeaten throughout the tournament. India were favorites to win the 2016 ICC World Twenty20, which was being held at home, but lost in the semi-final to eventual champions West Indies.

In 2016, "The Grand Home Season" began for India, including series at home against New Zealand, England, Bangladesh, and Australia. India whitewashed New Zealand to regain the number one ranking in Test cricket after almost 10 years. Before the series against England, MS Dhoni resigned as captain in limited-overs, thus handing the captaincy to Virat Kohli across all formats. India beat England across all three formats, with a notable 4-0 win in the Test series. This was followed by Test series wins against Bangladesh and Australia, which meant India reclaimed the Border Gavaskar Trophy. In the process, India became the third team (after South Africa and Australia) to have won their most recent Test series against all the other Test-playing nations. India holds an unbeaten streak of 8 consecutive Test series wins as of 19 August 2017.

India defeated Pakistan in their first game of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy but lost to the same opponents in the final, the first time they had met at this stage of a tournament since 2007.

India beat the West Indies 3-1 in a five-match ODI series in the Caribbean in July 2017, but lost to the same opposition in a one-off T20I. India then toured Sri Lanka and won a three-match Test series 3-0: the first time India had whitewashed a team away from home in a Test series with three games or more.

The next year saw mixed results in Tests for India: they lost away series in both South Africa and England but won their away series against Australia; the first time they had won a series there. In-home Tests, they defeated West Indies. They won the ODI leg of the South African tour, followed by the tri-series with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. They lost 2-1 in the ODI series in England, followed by a win at home to West Indies and away to both Australia and New Zealand. At the start of 2019, Australia won a T20I series 2-0, marking Virat Kohli's first home defeat in a T20I series. Australia also won the ODI series 3-2. The Indian team next played 2019 Cricket World Cup where the team finished first in the group stage with 7 wins and only 1 loss which came against host nation England. They made the semis but lost to New Zealand by 18 runs. Rohit Sharma was the highest run-scorer for the team with 648 runs. India next toured West Indies, whitewashing them in T20I, one day Internationals and Test with a record 3-0,2-0 in both ODIS and Tests. Then, India played their matches at home: the first one against South Africa in September-October 2019. The T20I series was drawn and meanwhile, the Test series was won by India. Their next home series was against Bangladesh. India played three T20IS and won against Bangladesh 2-1. The third T20I saw Deepak Chahar taking the best bowling figures in T20 internationals and the best bowling figures by an Indian. Next, India played two tests and won easily. The second test was a grand one, hosting India"s first Day-Night Test with Pink Ball in Eden Gardens in Kolkata,and India won the match by 46 runs and the series. This win also made India the first team to get consecutive four victories by an innings. They played their last series of 2019 against West Indies and they won the T20I and ODI and series by 2-1 and 3-1.

India played its first T201 series of 2020 against Sri Lanka and won easily by a margin of 2-0, next they played three ODIS against Australia and won by 2-0. After Australia, India played its first away series against New Zealand and won a T20I series in New Zealand for the first time by 5-0, but they lost the 3 ODIS. They played the Tests as well but lost the series.

Governing body

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the governing body for the Indian cricket team and first-class cricket in India. The Board has been operating since 1929 and represents India at the International Cricket Council. It is amongst the richest sporting organisations in the world. It sold media rights for India's matches from 2006-2010 for US$612,000,000. It manages the Indian team's sponsorships, its future tours and team selection.

The International Cricket Council determines India's upcoming matches through its future tours program. However, the BCCI, with its influential financial position in the cricketing world, has often challenged the ICC's program and called for more series between India, Australia and England which are more likely to earn more revenue as opposed to tours with Bangladesh or Zimbabwe. In the past, the BCCI has also come into conflict with the ICC regarding sponsorships and the legitimacy of the ICC Champions Trophy.

Selection committee

Selection for the Indian cricket team occurs through the BCCI's zonal selection policy, where each of the five zones is represented with one selector and one of the members nominated by BCCI as the Chairman of the selection committee. This has sometimes led to controversy as to whether these selectors are biased towards their zones.

The current chairman of the selection committee is Sunil Joshi. Devang Gandhi, Sarandeep Singh, Jatin Paranjpe, and Harvinder Singh are the other members of the selection committee from 4 March 2020.

Team colours

First-class

Cricket whites have been traditionally used by the team when playing first-class cricket. In addition to their whites, Indian fielders wear a dark blue cap or a white wide-brimmed sun hat, with the BCCI logo in the center. Helmets are also dark blue. Some players sport the Indian flag on their helmet.

The branding is minimal for whites; the BCCI logo is placed on the left chest while the team sponsor's logo is present on the middle/center chest. The kit manufacturer's logo is printed on the right chest of the players, with players names printed occasionally on the players back.

Limited overs

Since colours have made their way into international cricket, the Indian cricket team has chosen blue as their primary colour. The blue colour of the uniform has earned them the nickname of 'Men in Blue' for the Indian cricket team. The secondary colour has changed over the years while yellow and orange have been dominant. With the inception of the World Series Cup in 1979, each team had to don a primary and secondary colour on their uniforms and the Indian team elected to wear light blue as their primary colour and yellow as their secondary colour. The team has worn different shades of blue since then. For the 1992 World Cup ( Benson & Hedges World Cup), the team's colours were changed to navy-blue by ISC, the common kit manufacturer for the tournament. A light shade of blue with yellow as secondary colour and a strip with 10 different colours (representing different nations) was adapted on the uniform for the 1996 World Cup ( Wills World Cup) while an even lighter shade of blue and a dominant yellow was used by ASICS, the common kit manufacturer for the 1999 World Cup. The ICC no longer appoints a common kit manufacturer for its tournaments.

Different designs were adopted on the playing jerseys over the years and the most predominant one has been 'India' text written in yellow over a diagonal splash of the tricolour. Nike acquired the kit manufacturing rights for the team in 2005 and designed new jerseys for the 2007 World Cup with the lightest shade of blue used by the team till date and golden yellow as the secondary colour. A new tricolour accent was implemented on the right side of the jersey. The colour was changed to a darker feroza blue in 2009 with orange replacing yellow as the secondary colour.

A new jersey was unveiled by Nike with a bolder ultramarine blue shade and a new tricolour accent placed on both sides of the jersey in 2010. A reddish-orange shade was used as the secondary colour on this uniform. In 2014, new kits were released with a slightly darker shade of blue and a minimal accent design over the shoulders. Nike released new kits once again in 2015 with a similar shade of blue and no accents. In March 2019 before the World Cup, a new design was unveiled by Nike with a prominent two-tone blue colour. The front of the jersey sported a similar shade of blue as with the previous versions while the sides, arms and back were given a lighter shade of blue. A minimal orange accent was also incorporated on the sides. During the ICC World Cup 2019, for a match against England, as mandated by the ICC, an alternate jersey with orange acquiring the back and shoulders and navy blue at the front was introduced. This was the first time a different colour and not blue had become a dominant colour on the India jersey. The match against England was also a special match, called #OneDay4Children, organised by the ICC between the top 2 ranked ODI teams in 2019. Also, this happens to be the only occasion where the alternate jersey was used by India till date.

Since international teams started using different kits for T20s and ODIs, Nike released the first T20 kit for the team in 2016 with a similar shade and a contemporary design. Multiple thin strips of orange and green were included on upper right and lower left sides of the jersey respectively. A new ODI jersey was unveiled by Nike in 2017 with a similar shade of blue for the body and a darker shade of blue for the sleeves. The tricolour accent made a return to the uniform as a single thin strip on either sides of upper chest. During the recent series against Australia and England, India wore the 1992 version of their jersey with the new kit sponsors.

In addition to the blue uniforms, the caps worn by the players are similar to the design of uniforms. The wide-brimmed sun hats are usually white while the helmets used by the players are of darker blue.

Similar to the first-class kits, BCCI logo is placed on the left chest while the logo of the kit manufacturer sits on the right chest. The official team sponsor's logo is present on the central part of the jersey usually above "INDIA" text as well as the sleeve of the players' leading arms. For T20 kits, in addition to these, the sponsor's logo is also present on the back, below the players' numbers. However, for ICC tournaments, the tournament logo is placed on the right chest and the sponsor's logo is allowed only on the sleeve of the players' leading arms. The kit manufacturer's logo in such cases will be printed on the sleeve of the players' non-leading arms. The name and jersey number of the players are printed on the back. As per the agreement with ICC until July 2021, the sponsor logos will be enlarged and more prominent so as to help recoup the losses boards and sponsors had due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

The current sponsor of the team is BYJU's. OPPO's sponsorship was to run from 2017 until 2022, but was handed over to BYJU's on 5 September 2019. Previously, the Indian team was sponsored by Star India from 2014 to 2017, Sahara India Pariwar from 2002 to 2013 and ITC Limited (with Wills and ITC Hotels brands) from 1993 to 2002.

Nike had been a long time kit supplier to team India having acquired the contract in 2005, with two extensions for a period of five years each time; in 2011 and 2016 respectively. Nike ended its contract in September 2020 and MPL Sports Apparel & Accessories, a subsidiary of online gaming platform Mobile Premier League replaced Nike as the kit manufacturer in October 2020.

On 30 August 2019, following the conclusion of the Expression of Interest process for Official Partners' Rights, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that Sporta Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Dream11), LafargeHolcim (ACC Cement and Ambuja Cement) and Hyundai Motor India Ltd. have acquired the Official Partners' Rights for the BCCI International and Domestic matches during 2019-23.

Paytm acquired the title sponsorship for all matches played by the team within India in 2015 and extended the same in 2019 until 2023. Star India and Airtel have been title sponsors previously.

Star Sports Network is the official broadcaster until 2023 for all matches the team plays in India.

International grounds

There are numerous world-renowned cricket stadiums located in India. Most grounds are under the administration of various state cricket boards as opposed to being under the control of the BCCI. The Bombay Gymkhana was the first ground in India to host a full-scale cricket match featuring an Indian cricket team. This was between the Parsis and the Europeans in 1877. The first stadium to host a Test match in India was also the Gymkhana Ground in Bombay in 1933, the only Test it ever hosted. The second and third Tests in the 1933 series were hosted at Eden Gardens and Chepauk. The Feroz Shah Kotla Ground in Delhi was the first stadium to host a Test match after independence, a draw against the West Indies in 1948, the first of a 5-Test series. 21 stadiums in India have hosted at least one official Test match. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of world-class cricket stadiums in India, with multiple Test venues in Nagpur, Mohali, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Indore, Rajkot, Ranchi, Pune, and Dharamshala.

India has now the world's largest cricket stadium. The Motera Stadium, is a cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Eden Gardens in Kolkata has hosted the most Tests, and also has the second-largest seating capacity of any cricket stadium in the world, being capable of holding more than 1,10,000 spectators. Founded in 1864, it is one of the most historical stadiums in India, having hosted numerous historical and controversial matches. Other major stadiums in India include the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground, which was established in 1883 and hosted memorable matches including Anil Kumble's ten wickets in an innings haul against Pakistan. For the last two years, the ground has been undergoing renovation.

The Bombay Gymkhana hosted the first Test match in India which is the only Test it has hosted to date. Wankhede Stadium, established in 1974, has a capacity to hold 33,000 spectators and is currently the most popular venue in the city. It has hosted 24 Test matches. It was the unofficial successor of the Brabourne Stadium, which is also located in Mumbai. Mumbai is often considered the cricketing capital of India because of its fans and the talent it produces (see Mumbai cricket team) and thus the stadium regularly hosts major Test matches. The M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk is also considered to be an important historical Indian cricket ground, established in the early 1900s, and it was the site of India's first Test victory.

List of venues

Thirty-three men have captained the Indian cricket team in at least one Test match, although only six have led the team in more than 25 matches, and six have captained the team in ODIs but not Tests. India's first captain was CK Nayudu, who led the team in four matches against England: one in England in 1932 and a series of three matches at home in 1933-34. Lala Amarnath, India's fourth captain, led the team in its first Test match after Indian independence. He also captained the side to its first Test victory and first series win, both in a three-match series at home against Pakistan in 1952-53. From 1952 until 1961-62, India had a number of captains such as Vijay Hazare, Polly Umrigar and Nari Contractor.

The Nawab of Pataudi, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, was the team's captain for 36 Test matches from 1961-62 to 1969-70, returning for another four matches against West Indies in 1974-75. In the early years of his captaincy tenure, the team was whitewashed in the West Indies, England and Australia. However, in 1967-68, Pataudi led India on its maiden New Zealand tour, which ended in India winning the Test series 3-1. In 1970-71, Ajit Wadekar took over the captaincy from Pataudi. Under Wadekar's captaincy, India registered its first Test series win in the West Indies and England. India played its first ODI in 1974, also under his captaincy. India won its first ODI under the captaincy of Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan in the 1975 Cricket World Cup, against East Africa. Between 1975-76 and 1978-79, Bishen Singh Bedi captained the team in 22 Tests and 4 ODIs, winning 6 Tests and one ODI.

Sunil Gavaskar took over as Test and ODI captain in 1978-79, leading India in 47 Test matches and 37 ODIs, winning 9 Tests and 14 ODIs. He was succeeded by Kapil Dev in the 1980s, who captained for 34 Test matches, including 4 victories. Kapil Dev led India to victory in 39 of his 74 ODIs in charge, including the 1983 Cricket World Cup. Kapil Dev also captained India's 2-0 Test series victory in England in 1986. Between 1987-88 and 1989-90, India had three captains in Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri and Krishnamachari Srikkanth. Vengsarkar took over the captaincy from Kapil Dev after the 1987 Cricket World Cup. Although he started with two centuries in his first series as captain, his captaincy period was turbulent[citation needed ] and he lost the job following a disastrous tour of the West Indies in early-1989 and a stand-off with the Indian cricket board (BCCI).

India has had six regular Test captains since Mohammad Azharuddin took charge in 1989. Azharuddin led the team in 47 Test matches from 1989-90 to 1998-99, winning 14, and in 174 ODIs, winning 90. He was followed by Sachin Tendulkar, who captained the team in 25 Test matches and 73 ODIs in the late 1990s; Tendulkar was relatively unsuccessful as a captain, winning only 4 Test matches and 23 ODIs. He was replaced as ODI captain by Ajay Jadeja and then by Sourav Ganguly.

Ganguly became the regular captain of the team in both Tests and ODIs in 2000. He remained captain until 2005-06 and became the then most successful Indian captain, winning 21 of his 49 Test matches in charge and 76 of his 146 ODIs. Under his captaincy, India became the joint-winners of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka, and the runners-up of the 2003 Cricket World Cup. India lost only three Tests at home under Ganguly and managed to draw Test series in England and Australia. Rahul Dravid took over as Test captain in 2005. In 2006, he led India to its first Test series victory in the West Indies in more than 30 years.

In September 2007, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was named as the new captain of the ODI and T20I teams, after Dravid stepped down from the post. Soon after taking up the captaincy, Dhoni led the team to the inaugural World Twenty20 title. Anil Kumble was appointed Test captain in November 2007, but retired from international cricket in November 2008 after captaining in 14 Tests. Dhoni succeeded him as the Test captain, making him the captain in all formats. Under the captaincy of Dhoni, the Indian team held the number one position in the Test rankings for 21 months (from November 2009 to August 2011), and set a national record for most back-to-back ODI wins (nine straight wins). Dhoni also led the team to victory in 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. Thus, Dhoni became the first captain in history to win all three major ICC trophies, namely- ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011, ICC World Twenty20 in 2007 and ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. However, the team performed poorly in away Tests from 2011 to 2014 and Dhoni retired from Test cricket in December 2014, with Virat Kohli being named as the new Test captain. Dhoni resigned as captain of the ODI and T20 teams in January 2017 and Kohli succeeded him at the position.

Under Kohli's captaincy, India was unbeaten in 19 Test matches, starting from a 3-0 series win over New Zealand and ending with a 2-1 series win over Australia. India has an unbeaten streak of winning 9 consecutive Test series as of Dec 2017, starting with a 2-1 series win over Sri Lanka. India also became only the third team after Australia and South Africa to have won their most recent Test series simultaneously against all the other Test playing nations. As per winning percentage in Test matches, Kohli is India's most successful test captain, having won more than 61% of Test matches (at least 2 games).

This lists all the players who have played for India in the past 12 months and the formats in which they have played as of 2021. In April 2021, BCCI published a new contract list which will be valid from October 2020 till September 2021.

C/G

Contract grade with BCCI

S/N

Shirt number of the player in all formats

Format

Denotes the player recently played in which particular format, not his entire career

The BCCI awards central contracts to its players, its pay graded according to the importance of the player. Players' salaries are as follows:

Players also receive a match fee of (US$21,000) per Test match, (US$8,400) per ODI, and (US$4,200) per T20I.

Coaching and support staff

Position

Name

Physio

Nitin Patel, Yogesh Parmar

Trainer

Nick Webb, Soham Desai

Throwdown specialists

Raghavindraa, Dayanand Garani, Nuwan Seneviratne

Video analyst

Hari Prasad Mohan

Massage therapist

Arun Kanade, Rajeev Kumar

Tournament history

Individual records

Sachin Tendulkar, who began playing for India as a 16-year-old in 1989 and has since become the most prolific run-scorer in the history of both Test and ODI cricket, holds a large number of national batting records. He holds the record of most appearances in both Tests and ODIs, most runs in both Tests and ODIs and most centuries in Tests and ODIs. The highest score by an Indian is the 319 scored by Virender Sehwag in Chennai. It is the second triple century in Test cricket by an Indian, the first being a 309 also made by Sehwag although against Pakistan. The team's highest ever score was a 759/7 against England at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai in 2016, while its lowest score was 36 against Australia in 2020. In ODIs, the team's highest score is 418/5 against West Indies at Indore in 2011-12. India score 413-5 in a match against Bermuda in 2007 World Cup which is the highest score ever in Cricket World Cup history. In the same match, India set a world record of the highest winning margin in an ODI match of 257 runs.

India has also had some very strong bowling figures, with spin bowler Anil Kumble being a member of the elite group of 3 bowlers who have taken 600 Test wickets. In 1999, Anil Kumble emulated Jim Laker to become the second bowler to take all ten wickets in a Test match innings when he took 10 wickets for 74 runs against Pakistan at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi.

Many of the Indian cricket team's records are also world records, for example Sachin Tendulkar's century tally (in Tests and ODIs) and run tally (also in both Tests and ODIs). Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 183 not out against Sri Lanka in 2005 is the world record score by a wicketkeeper in ODIs. The Indian cricket team also holds the record sequence of 17 successful run-chases in ODIs, which ended in a dramatic match against the West Indies in May 2006, which India lost by just 1 run when Yuvraj Singh was bowled by Dwayne Bravo's full toss.

Sachin Tendulkar was the first batsman to score 200 runs (he was unbeaten on 200 from 147 deliveries including 25x4 and 3x6) in a single ODI innings, on 24 February 2010 against South Africa in Gwalior. On 8 December 2011, this achievement was eclipsed by compatriot Virender Sehwag, who scored 219 runs from 149 deliveries (25x4 | 7x6) versus West Indies in Indore. On 13 November 2014 the record was broken by another Indian opening batsmen, Rohit Sharma, who scored 264 runs from 173 deliveries (33x4 | 9x6) against Sri Lanka in Kolkata. In 2013, MS Dhoni became the first captain in history to win all three major ICC trophies- ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011, ICC World Twenty20 in 2007 and ICC Champions Trophy in 2013.

In 2014, Virat Kohli became the first cricketer to win back-to-back man of the series awards in the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and 2016 ICC World Twenty20. In 2017, Ravichandran Ashwin became the fastest cricketer in history to reach 250 wickets. He and Ravindra Jadeja are considered to be the best bowlers in Test cricket and occupy the top two spots in the rankings for Test bowlers as of May 2017. Virat Kohli became the first captain in history to score double tons in three consecutive series, against New Zealand, England and Bangladesh in 2017.

Statistics

Test record versus other nations

One-Day Internationals

ODI record versus other nations

Twenty20 Internationals

T20I record versus other nations

Players in bold text are still active with India.

Fan following

Due to the massive Indian diaspora in nations like Australia, England and South Africa, a large Indian fan turnout is expected whenever India plays in each of these nations.

There have been a number of official fan groups that have been formed over the years, including the Swami Army or Bharat Army, the Indian equivalent of the Barmy Army, that were very active in their support when India toured Australia in 2003/2004. They are known to attribute a number of popular Indian songs to the cricket team.

Fan rivalry and cross-border tension has created a strong rivalry between the Indian and the Pakistani cricket teams. In tours between these two nations, cricket visas are often employed to accommodate for the tens of thousands of fans wishing to cross the border to watch cricket. This intense fan dedication is one of the major causes of the BCCI's financial success.

However, there are downsides to having such a cricket-loving population. Many Indians hold cricket very close to their hearts and losses are not received well by the Indian population. In some cases, particularly after losses to Pakistan or after a long string of weak performances, there have been reports of player effigies being burnt in the streets and vandalism of player homes. In many cases, players have come under intense attention from the media for negative reasons, this has been considered as one of the reasons for Sourav Ganguly being left out of the Indian team. At times, when a match is surrounded by controversy, it has resulted in a debacle. For example, when India slid to defeat against Australia at Brabourne Stadium in 1969, fans began throwing stones and bottles onto the field as well as setting fire to the stands, before laying siege to the Australian dressing rooms. During the same tour, a stampede occurred at Eden Gardens when tickets were oversold and India fell to another loss; the Australian team bus was later stoned with bricks. A similar event occurred during the 1996 Cricket World Cup, where India were losing the semi-final to Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens. In this case, the fan behaviour was directed at the Indian team in disappointment at their lacklustre performance. An armed guard had to be placed at the home of captain Mohammad Azharuddin to ensure his safety. Indian fans have also been passionate in their following of Sachin Tendulkar, who has been commonly thought of as one of the best batsmen in the world. Glorified for the bulk of his career, a riot occurred in early 1999 in a Test against Pakistan at Eden Gardens after a collision with Pakistani paceman Shoaib Akhtar saw him run out, forcing police to eject spectators and the game to be played in an empty stadium. Although in 2006, a string of low scores resulted in Tendulkar being booed by the Mumbai crowd when he got out against England

Often, fans engage in protests regarding players if they believe that regionalism has affected selection, or because of regional partisan support for local players. In 2005, when Sourav Ganguly was dropped from the team, Ganguly's home town Kolkata erupted in protests. India later played a match against South Africa in Kolkata, West Bengal. The Indian team was booed by the crowd who supported South Africa instead of India in response to Ganguly's dropping.[citation needed ] Similar regional divisions in India regarding selection have also caused protests against the team, with political activists from the regional Kalinga Kamgar Sena party in Odisha disrupting the arrival of the team in Cuttack for an ODI over the lack of a local player in the team, with one activist manhandling coach Greg Chappell. Similar treatment was handed to Sunil Gavaskar in the 1987 World Cup Semi Finals by crowds at Wankhede Stadium when he got bowled by Philip DeFreitas.

A successful string of results, victories against arch-rivals Pakistan or victory in major tournaments such as the World Cup are greeted with particular ecstasy from the Indian fans.

Forthcoming Fixtures

References

Further reading

Majumdar, Boria (2018). Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians: The On and Off the Field Story of Cricket in India and Beyond. New Delhi: Simon & Schuster India. ISBN 9789386797186.

External links

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Nickname(s) Men in Blue, Team India Test status acquired 1931 ICC status Full Member (1926) World Cup appearances 12 ( first in 1975 ) Best result Champions ( 1983, 2011) T20 World Cup appearances 6 ( first in 2007 ) As of 28 March 2021 The India men's national cricket team, also known as Team India and Men in Blue, is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One-Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status.

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Players in cricket uniforms.

Cricket is believed to have been invented in South England. Some researchers claim that the game was played from as early as the 13th century. In the early days, cricket was played by children in the countryside. A stone was used in the place of a ball, and the players used a simple bat shaped from a branch. A tree stump or a wooden stool acted as the wicket. As time passed the game developed and the tools used during matches evolved as well. The game's popularity grew throughout England and later spread to other parts of the world.

Origin Of Cricket

The earliest form of a cricket game is said to have been a children's game in parts of England. The game may have derived its name from an old English word 'cryce' which meant a crutch or rod. It could also have borrowed the Dutch term - krick(-e) which means a stick. Other researchers suspect the name could have been derived from a French word 'criquet' which translates to 'wooden post.' English, Dutch, and French were the popular languages spoken in Southern England in the 15th century.

History Of Cricket

The game of cricket evolved from a simple game whereby a player bowled a ball at a tree stump or wicket gate, and another player stopped the ball with a simple bat. A variety of similar games were played in England between the 13th century and 16th century. The earliest bats used in matches were like hockey sticks, which were long and heavy. The ball was bowled along the ground in the early stages of the game, unlike today where it is tossed in the air. The earliest cricket match ever recorded took place at Kent in 1646. The basic rules of the game were modified and recorded in 1744. The game of cricket grew in popularity in many parts of England in the 17th and 18th centuries. Major cricket clubs were formed in London, Dartford, Slindon, Hadlow, and Bromley. Cricket advanced in the 19th century with the mode of playing being modified several times. It also reached other countries such as the United States, Australia, and South Africa.

International Cricket Matches

The first international cricket game was played in 1844 in New York. The players were teams from the US and Canada. Afterward, different nations developed their cricket by having local competitions between counties. Countries that held national cricket competitions in the late 19th century include England, South Africa, India, New Zealand, and Australia. The Imperial Cricket Conference - cricket's first international organization, was created in 1909. Its members were; England, Australia, and South Africa. The cricket body was re-branded to International Cricket Conference in 1965 and currently goes by the name; International Cricket Council. The Cricket organization has twelve member states and many more associate members.

Modern-day Cricket

The International Cricket Council has heavily invested in popularizing cricket around the world. The organization has development programs aimed at growing national teams in Africa, Asia, and the United States. Cricket's latest innovation is the twenty20 Cricket tournament. The new game is so popular among cricket fans. England and India are among the leading nations in the world of Cricket matches.

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World Facts

Which Country Invented Cricket?

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Cricket is believed to have been invented in South England. Some researchers claim that the game was played from as early as the 13th century. In the early days, cricket was played by children in the countryside. A stone was used in the place of a ball, and the players used a simple bat shaped from a branch.

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NBA on ESPN - Scores, Stats and Highlights

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Visit ESPN for NBA live scores, video highlights and latest news. Stream games on ESPN and play Fantasy Basketball.

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This exoplanet encyclopedia — continuously updated, with more than 5,600 entries — combines interactive 3D models and detailed data on all confirmed exoplanets.

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First Lady Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is a lawyer, writer, and the wife of the 44th and current President, Barack Obama. She is the first African-American First Lady of the United States. Through her four main initiatives, she has become a role model for women and an advocate for healthy famil…

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Oprah Winfrey interview of Michelle Obama   

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Oprah Winfrey interview of Michelle Obama   

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Oprah's 2020 Vision Tour Visionaries: Michelle Obama Interview

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Cricket | Definition, Origin, History, Equipment, Rules, & Facts

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Cricket, England’s national summer sport, which is now played throughout the world, particularly in Australia, India, Pakistan, the West Indies, and the British Isles. It is played with a bat and ball and involves two competing sides (teams) of 11 players. Learn more about cricket, including its rul…

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Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.

Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not utilize a standardized playing area, and coping with the varied terrains encountered on different courses is a key part of the game. The game at the usual level is played on a course with an arranged progression of 18 holes, though recreational courses can be smaller, often having nine holes. Each hole on the course must contain a teeing ground to start from, and a putting green containing the actual hole or cup inches (11 cm) in diameter. There are other standard forms of terrain in between, such as the fairway, rough (long grass), bunkers (or "sand traps"), and various hazards (water, rocks) but each hole on a course is unique in its specific layout and arrangement.

Golf is played for the lowest number of strokes by an individual, known as stroke play, or the lowest score on the most individual holes in a complete round by an individual or team, known as match play. Stroke play is the most commonly seen format at all levels, but most especially at the elite level.

The modern game of golf originated in 15th century Scotland. The 18-hole round was created at the Old Course at St Andrews in 1764. Golf's first major, and the world's oldest tournament in existence, is The Open Championship, also known as the British Open, which was first played in 1860 at the Prestwick Golf Club in Ayrshire, Scotland. This is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, the other three being played in the United States: The Masters, the U.S. Open, and the PGA Championship.

Origin and history

While the modern game of golf originated in 15th-century Scotland, the game's ancient origins are unclear and much debated.

Some historians trace the sport back to the Roman game of paganica, in which participants used a bent stick to hit a stuffed leather ball. One theory asserts that paganica spread throughout Europe as the Romans conquered most of the continent, during the first century BC, and eventually evolved into the modern game.

Others cite chuiwan (捶丸; "chui" means striking and "wan" means small ball) as the progenitor, a Chinese game played between the eighth and fourteenth centuries. A Ming Dynasty scroll by the artist Youqiu dating back to 1368 entitled "The Autumn Banquet" shows a member of the Chinese Imperial court swinging what appears to be a golf club at a small ball with the aim of sinking it into a hole. The game is thought to have been introduced into Europe during the Middle Ages.

Another early game that resembled modern golf was known as cambuca in England and chambot in France. The Persian game chowkan is another possible ancient origin, albeit being more polo-like. In addition, kolven (a game involving a ball and curved bats) was played annually in Loenen, Netherlands, beginning in 1297, to commemorate the capture of the assassin of Floris V, a year earlier.

The modern game originated in Scotland, where the first written record of golf is James II's banning of the game in 1457, as an unwelcome distraction to learning archery. James IV lifted the ban in 1502 when he became a golfer himself, with golf clubs first recorded in 1503-1504: "For golf clubbes and balles to the King that he playit with". To many golfers, the Old Course at St Andrews, a links course dating to before 1574, is considered to be a site of pilgrimage. In 1764, the standard 18-hole golf course was created at St Andrews when members modified the course from 22 to 18 holes. Golf is documented as being played on Musselburgh Links, East Lothian, Scotland as early as 2 March 1672, which is certified as the oldest golf course in the world by Guinness World Records. The oldest surviving rules of golf were compiled in March 1744 for the Company of Gentlemen Golfers, later renamed The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which was played at Leith, Scotland. The world's oldest golf tournament in existence, and golf's first major, is The Open Championship, which was first played on 17 October 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club, in Ayrshire, Scotland, with Scottish golfers winning the earliest majors. Two Scotsmen from Dunfermline, John Reid and Robert Lockhart, first demonstrated golf in the U.S. by setting up a hole in an orchard in 1888, with Reid setting up America's first golf club the same year, Saint Andrew's Golf Club in Yonkers, New York.

Golf course

A golf course consists of either 9 or 18 holes, each with a teeing ground or "tee box" that is set off by two markers showing the bounds of the legal tee area, fairway, rough and other hazards, and the putting green surrounded by the fringe with the pin (normally a flagstick) and cup.

The levels of grass are varied to increase difficulty, or to allow for putting in the case of the green. While many holes are designed with a direct line-of-sight from the teeing area to the green, some holes may bend either to the left or to the right. This is commonly called a "dogleg", in reference to a dog's knee. The hole is called a "dogleg left" if the hole angles leftwards and "dogleg right" if it bends right. Sometimes, a hole's direction may bend twice; this is called a "double dogleg".

A regular golf course consists of 18 holes, but nine-hole courses are common and can be played twice through for a full round of 18 holes.

Early Scottish golf courses were primarily laid out on links land, soil-covered sand dunes directly inland from beaches. The word "links" derives from the Scots language and the Old English word hlinc ("rising ground, ridge"): traditionally these are coastal sand dunes but sometimes open parkland. This gave rise to the term "golf links", particularly applied to seaside courses and those built on naturally sandy soil inland.

Play of the game

Every round of golf is based on playing a number of holes in a given order. A "round" typically consists of 18 holes that are played in the order determined by the course layout. Each hole is played once in the round on a standard course of 18 holes. The game can be played by any number of people, although a typical group playing will have 1-4 people playing the round. The typical amount of time required for pace of play for a 9-hole round is two hours and four hours for an 18-hole round.

Playing a hole on a golf course is initiated by putting a ball into play by striking it with a club on the teeing ground (also called the tee box, or simply the tee). For this first shot on each hole, it is allowed but not required for the golfer to place the ball on a tee prior to striking it. A tee is a small peg that can be used to elevate the ball slightly above the ground up to a few centimetres high. Tees are commonly made of wood but may be constructed of any material, including plastic. Traditionally, golfers used mounds of sand to elevate the ball, and containers of sand were provided for the purpose. A few courses still require sand to be used instead of peg tees, to reduce litter and reduce damage to the teeing ground. Tees help reduce the interference of the ground or grass on the movement of the club making the ball easier to hit, and also places the ball in the very centre of the striking face of the club (the "sweet spot") for better distance.

When the initial shot on a hole is intended to move the ball a long distance, typically more than 225 yards (210 m), the shot is commonly called a "drive" and is generally made with a long-shafted, large-headed wood club called a "driver". Shorter holes may be initiated with other clubs, such as higher-numbered woods or irons. Once the ball comes to rest, the golfer strikes it again as many times as necessary using shots that are variously known as a "lay-up", an "approach", a "pitch", or a " chip", until the ball reaches the green, where he or she then " putts" the ball into the hole (commonly called "sinking the putt" or "holing out"). The goal of getting the ball into the hole ("holing" the ball) in as few strokes as possible may be impeded by obstacles such as areas of longer grass called "rough" (usually found alongside fairways), which both slows any ball that contacts it and makes it harder to advance a ball that has stopped on it; "doglegs", which are changes in the direction of the fairway that often require shorter shots to play around them; bunkers (or sand traps); and water hazards such as ponds or streams.

In stroke play competitions played according to strict rules, each player plays their ball until it is holed no matter how many strokes that may take. In match play it is acceptable to simply pick up one's ball and "surrender the hole" after enough strokes have been made by a player that it is mathematically impossible for the player to win the hole. It is also acceptable in informal stroke play to surrender the hole after hitting three strokes more than the "par" rating of the hole (a "triple bogey" - see below); while technically a violation of Rule 3-2, this practice speeds play as a courtesy to others, and avoids "runaway scores", excessive frustration and injuries caused by overexertion.

The total distance from the first teeing ground to the 18th green can be quite long; total yardages "through the green" can be in excess of 7,000 yards (6.4 km), and when adding in the travel distance between the green of one hole and the tee of the next, even skilled players may easily travel five miles (8 km) or more during a round. At some courses, electric golf carts are used to travel between shots, which can speed-up play and allows participation by individuals unable to walk a whole round. On other courses players generally walk the course, either carrying their bag using a shoulder strap or using a "golf trolley" for their bag. These trolleys may or may not be battery assisted. At many amateur tournaments including U.S. high school and college play, players are required to walk and to carry their own bags, but at the professional and top amateur level, as well as at high-level private clubs, players may be accompanied by caddies, who carry and manage the players' equipment and who are allowed by the rules to give advice on the play of the course. A caddie's advice can only be given to the player or players for whom the caddie is working, and not to other competing players.

Rules and regulations

The rules of golf are internationally standardised and are jointly governed by The R&A, spun off in 2004 from The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (founded 1754), and the United States Golf Association (USGA). With the aim of simplifying the rules, in 2017 the USGA and R&A undertook a complete rewrite. The new rule book came into effect in January 2019.

The underlying principle of the rules is fairness. As stated on the back cover of the official rule book:

Play the ball as it lies, play the course as you find it, and if you cannot do either, do what is fair.

There are strict regulations regarding the amateur status of golfers. Essentially, anybody who has ever received payment or compensation for giving instruction, or played golf for money, is not considered an amateur and may not participate in competitions limited solely to amateurs. However, amateur golfers may receive expenses that comply with strict guidelines and they may accept non-cash prizes within the limits established by the Rules of Amateur Status.

In addition to the officially printed rules, golfers also abide by a set of guidelines called golf etiquette. Etiquette guidelines cover matters such as safety, fairness, pace of play, and a player's obligation to contribute to the care of the course. Though there are no penalties for breach of etiquette rules, players generally follow the rules of golf etiquette in an effort to improve everyone's playing experience.

Penalty strokes are incurred in certain situations and are counted towards a player's score as if there were extra swing(s) at the ball. Either one or two strokes are added for most rule infractions or for taking relief from various situations, with the "general penalty" defined as two-strokes, and disqualification for severe or repeated rule breaches. Examples include:

A lost ball or a ball hit out of bounds (OB) results in a penalty of one stroke and distance (Rule 18.2).

With the exception of certain circumstances, a one-stroke penalty is assessed if a player causes their ball to move (Rule 9.4).

A one-stroke penalty is assessed if a player elects to take relief when their ball comes to rest within a red or yellow penalty area (Rule 17), or from an unplayable lie (Rule 19).

A two-stroke penalty is incurred for making a stroke at the wrong ball (Rule 6.3c).

A two-stroke penalty is incurred for hitting a fellow player's ball if both balls lay on the green prior to the stroke (Rule 11.1a).

Disqualification can result from cheating, signing for a lower score, or failing to adhere to one or more rules that lead to improper play.

Golf clubs are used to hit the golf ball. Each club is composed of a shaft with a lance (or "grip") on the top end and a club head on the bottom. Long clubs, which have a lower amount of degree loft, are those meant to propel the ball a comparatively longer distance, and short clubs a higher degree of loft and a comparatively shorter distance. The actual physical length of each club is longer or shorter, depending on the distance the club is intended to propel the ball.

Golf clubs have traditionally been arranged into three basic types. Woods are large-headed, long-shafted clubs meant to propel the ball a long distance from relatively "open" lies, such as the teeing ground and fairway. Of particular importance is the driver or "1-wood", which is the lowest lofted wood club, and in modern times has become highly specialized for making extremely long-distance tee shots, up to 300 yards (270 m), or more, in a professional golfer's hands. Traditionally these clubs had heads made of a hardwood, hence the name, but virtually all modern woods are now made of metal such as titanium, or of composite materials. Irons are shorter-shafted clubs with a metal head primarily consisting of a flat, angled striking face. Traditionally the clubhead was forged from iron; modern iron clubheads are investment-cast from a steel alloy. Irons of varying loft are used for a variety of shots from virtually anywhere on the course, but most often for shorter-distance shots approaching the green, or to get the ball out of tricky lies such as sand traps. The third class is the putter, which evolved from the irons to create a low-lofted, balanced club designed to roll the ball along the green and into the hole. Putters are virtually always used on the green or in the surrounding rough/fringe. A fourth class, called hybrids, evolved as a cross between woods and irons, and are typically seen replacing the low-lofted irons with a club that provides similar distance, but a higher launch angle and a more forgiving nature.

A maximum of 14 clubs is allowed in a player's bag at one time during a stipulated round. The choice of clubs is at the golfer's discretion, although every club must be constructed in accordance with parameters outlined in the rules. (Clubs that meet these parameters are usually called "conforming".) Violation of these rules can result in disqualification.

The exact shot hit at any given time on a golf course, and which club is used to accomplish the shot, are always completely at the discretion of the golfer; in other words, there is no restriction whatsoever on which club a golfer may or may not use at any time for any shot.

A tee is allowed only for the first stroke on each hole, unless the player must hit a provisional tee shot or replay their first shot from the tee.

Many golfers wear golf shoes with metal or plastic spikes designed to increase traction, thus allowing for longer and more accurate shots.

A golf bag is used to transport golf clubs and the player's other or personal equipment. Golf bags have several pockets designed for carrying equipment and supplies such as tees, balls, and gloves. Golf bags can be carried, pulled on a trolley or harnessed to a motorized golf cart during play. Golf bags usually have both a hand strap and shoulder strap for carrying, others may be carried over both shoulders like a backpack, and often bags have retractable legs that allow the bag to stand upright when at rest.

Stroke mechanics

The golf swing is outwardly similar to many other motions involving swinging a tool or playing implement, such as an axe or a baseball bat. However, unlike many of these motions, the result of the swing is highly dependent on several sub-motions being properly aligned and timed. These ensure that the club travels up to the ball in line with the desired path; that the clubface is in line with the swing path; and that the ball hits the centre or "sweet spot" of the clubface. The ability to do this consistently, across a complete set of clubs with a wide range of shaft lengths and clubface areas, is a key skill for any golfer, and takes a significant effort to achieve.

Stance refers to how the golfer positions themselves in order to play a stroke; it is fundamentally important in being able to play a stroke effectively. The stance adopted is determined by what stroke is being played. All stances involve a slight crouch. This allows for a more efficient striking posture whilst also isometrically preloading the muscles of the legs and core; this allows the stroke to be played more dynamically and with a greater level of overall control. When adopting their stance golfers start with the non-dominant side of the body facing the target (for a right-hander, the target is to their left). Setting the stance in regard to the position of the ball, and placing the clubhead behind the ball, is known as being at address; when in this position the player's body and the centerline of the club face are positioned parallel to the desired line of travel, with the feet either perpendicular to that line or slightly splayed outward. The feet are commonly shoulder-width apart for middle irons and putters, narrower for short irons and wider for long irons and woods. The ball is typically positioned more to the "front" of the player's stance (closer to the leading foot) for lower-lofted clubs, with the usual ball position for a drive being just behind the arch of the leading foot. The ball is placed further "back" in the player's stance (toward the trailing foot) as the loft of the club to be used increases. Most iron shots and putts are made with the ball roughly centered in the stance, while a few mid- and short-iron shots are made with the ball slightly behind the centre of the stance to ensure consistent contact between the ball and clubface, so the ball is on its way before the club continues down into the turf.

The golfer chooses a golf club, grip, and stroke appropriate to the distance:

The "drive" or "full swing" is used on the teeing ground and fairway, typically with a wood or long iron, to produce the maximum distance capable with the club. In the extreme, the windup can end with the shaft of the club parallel to the ground above the player's shoulders.

The "approach" or "3/4 swing" is used in medium- and long-distance situations where an exact distance and good accuracy is preferable to maximum possible distance, such as to place the ball on the green or "lay up" in front of a hazard. The windup or "backswing" of such a shot typically ends up with the shaft of the club pointing straight upwards or slightly towards the player.

The "chip" or "half-swing" is used for relatively short-distance shots near the green, with high-lofted irons and wedges. The goal of the chip is to land the ball safely on the green, allowing it to roll out towards the hole. It can also be used from other places to accurately position the ball into a more advantageous lie. The backswing typically ends with the head of the club between hip and head height.

The "putt" is used in short-distance shots on or near the green, typically made with the eponymous "putter", although similar strokes can be made with medium to high-numbered irons to carry a short distance in the air and then roll (a "bump and run"). The backswing and follow-through of the putt are both abbreviated compared to other strokes, with the head of the club rarely rising above the knee. The goal of the putt is usually to put the ball in the hole, although a long-distance putt may be called a "lag" and is made with the primary intention of simply closing distance to the hole or otherwise placing the ball advantageously.

Having chosen a club and stroke to produce the desired distance, the player addresses the ball by taking their stance to the side of it and (except when the ball lies in a hazard) grounding the club behind the ball. The golfer then takes their backswing, rotating the club, their arms and their upper body away from the ball, and then begins their swing, bringing the clubhead back down and around to hit the ball. A proper golf swing is a complex combination of motions, and slight variations in posture or positioning can make a great deal of difference in how well the ball is hit and how straight it travels. The general goal of a player making a full swing is to propel the clubhead as fast as possible while maintaining a single "plane" of motion of the club and clubhead, to send the clubhead into the ball along the desired path of travel and with the clubhead also pointing that direction.

Accuracy and consistency are typically stressed over pure distance. A player with a straight drive that travels only 220 yards (200 m) will nevertheless be able to accurately place the ball into a favourable lie on the fairway, and can make up for the lesser distance of any given club by simply using "more club" (a lower loft) on their tee shot or on subsequent fairway and approach shots. However, a golfer with a drive that may go 280 yards (260 m) but often does not fly straight will be less able to position their ball advantageously; the ball may "hook", "pull", "draw", "fade", "push" or "slice" off the intended line and land out of bounds or in the rough or hazards, and thus the player will require many more strokes to hole out.

Musculature

A golf stroke uses the muscles of the core (especially erector spinae muscles and latissimus dorsi muscle when turning), hamstring, shoulder, and wrist. Stronger muscles in the wrist can prevent them from being twisted during swings, whilst stronger shoulders increase the turning force. Weak wrists can also transmit the force to elbows and even neck and lead to injury. (When a muscle contracts, it pulls equally from both ends and, to have movement at only one end of the muscle, other muscles must come into play to stabilize the bone to which the other end of the muscle is attached.) Golf is a unilateral exercise that can break body balances, requiring exercises to keep the balance in muscles.

Types of putting

Putting is considered to be the most important component of the game of golf. As the game of golf has evolved, there have been many different putting techniques and grips that have been devised to give golfers the best chance to make putts. When the game originated, golfers would putt with their dominant hand on the bottom of the grip and their weak hand on top of the grip. This grip and putting style is known as "conventional". There are many variations of conventional including overlap, where the golfer overlaps the off hand index finger onto off the dominant pinky; interlock, where the offhand index finger interlocks with the dominant pinky and ring finger; double or triple overlap and so on. Recently, "cross handed" putting has become a popular trend amongst professional golfers and amateurs. Cross handed putting is the idea that the dominant hand is on top of the grip where the weak hand is on the bottom. This grip restricts the motion in your dominant hand and eliminates the possibility of wrist breakdowns through the putting stroke.

Other notable putting styles include "the claw", a style that has the grip directly in between the thumb and index finger of the dominant hand while the palm faces the target. The weak hand placed normally on the putter. Anchored putting, a style that requires a longer putter shaft that can be anchored into the player's stomach or below the chin; the idea is to stabilize one end of the putter thus creating a more consistent pendulum stroke. This style has been banned on professional circuits since 2016.

Scoring and handicapping

A hole is classified by its par, which gives an indication of the number of strokes a skilled golfer may be expected to need to complete play of the hole. The primary factor for classifying the par of a relatively straight, hazard-free hole is the distance from the tee to the green, and calculates the number of strokes a skilled golfer is expected to require to reach the green with an additional allowance of 2 putts. As such, the minimum par of any hole is 3; one stroke for the tee shot and two putts. Par 3, 4 and 5 holes are commonplace on golf courses; far more rarely, courses may feature par-6 and even par-7 holes.

Getting the ball onto the green in two strokes less than par, and hence meeting the par calculation criteria, is called making "green in regulation" or GIR. Missing a GIR does not necessarily mean a golfer will not make par, but it does make doing so more difficult as it reduces the number of putts available; conversely, making a GIR does not guarantee a par, as the player might require three or more putts to "hole out". Professional golfers typically make between 60% and 70% of greens in regulation.

Basic forms of golf

There are two basic forms of golf play, match play and stroke play. Stroke play is more popular.

Stroke play

The score achieved for each and every hole of the round or tournament is added to produce the total score, and the player with the lowest score wins in stroke play. Stroke play is the game most commonly played by professional golfers. If there is a tie after the regulation number of holes in a professional tournament, a playoff takes place between all tied players. Playoffs either are sudden death or employ a pre-determined number of holes, anywhere from three to a full 18. In sudden death, a player who scores lower on a hole than all of their opponents wins the match. If at least two players remain tied after such a playoff using a pre-determined number of holes, then play continues in sudden death format, where the first player to win a hole wins the tournament.

Other formats of play

There are many variations in scoring and playing formats in the game of golf, some officially defined in the Rules of Golf. Variations include the popular Stableford scoring system, and various team formats. Some common and popular examples are listed below.

There are also variations on the usual starting procedure where everyone begins from the first tee and plays all holes in order, though to the eighteenth. In large field tournaments, especially on professional tours, a two tee start is commonplace, where the field will be split between starting on the first tee and the tenth tee (sometimes the eighth or eleventh depending on proximity to the clubhouse). Shotgun starts are mainly used for amateur tournament or society play. In this variant, each of the groups playing starts their game on a different hole, allowing for all players to start and end their round at roughly the same time. For example, a group starting on hole 5 will play through to the 18th hole and continue with hole 1, ending their round on hole 4.

Bogey or Par competition

A bogey or par competition is a scoring format sometimes seen in informal tournaments. Its scoring is similar to match play, except each player compares their hole score to the hole's par rating instead of the score of another player. The player "wins" the hole if they score a birdie or better, they "lose" the hole if they score a bogey or worse, and they "halve" the hole by scoring par. By recording only this simple win-loss-halve score on the sheet, a player can shrug off a very poorly-played hole with a simple "-" mark and move on. As used in competitions, the player or pair with the best win-loss "differential" wins the competition.

Stableford

The Stableford system is a simplification of stroke play that awards players points based on their score relative to the hole's par; the score for a hole is calculated by taking the par score, adding 2, then subtracting the player's hole score, making the result zero if negative. Alternately stated, a double bogey or worse is zero points, a bogey is worth one point, par is two, a birdie three, an eagle four, and so on. The advantages of this system over stroke play are a more natural "higher is better" scoring, the ability to compare Stableford scores between plays on courses with different total par scores (scoring an "even" in stroke play will always give a Stableford score of 36), discouraging the tendency to abandon the entire game after playing a particularly bad hole (a novice playing by strict rules may score as high as an 8 or 10 on a single difficult hole; their Stableford score for the hole would be zero, which puts them only two points behind par no matter how badly they played), and the ability to simply pick up one's ball once it is impossible to score any points for the hole, which speeds play.

The USGA and R&A sanction a "Modified Stableford" system for scratch players, which makes par worth zero, a birdie worth 2, eagle 5 and double-eagle 8, while a bogey is a penalty of −1 and a double-bogey or worse −3. As with the original system, the highest score wins the game, and terrible scores on one or two holes will not ruin a player's overall score, but this system rewards "bogey-birdie" play more than the original, encouraging golfers to try to make riskier birdie putt or eagle chipshots instead of simply parring each hole.

Basic pairs formats

Foursomes (also known as Alternate Shot): defined in Rule 22, this is played in pairs, in which each team has only one ball and players alternate playing it. For example, if players "A" and "B" form a team, "A" tees off on the first hole, "B" will play the second shot, "A" the third, and so on until the hole is finished. On the second hole, "B" will tee off (regardless who played the last putt on the first hole), then "A" plays the second shot, and so on. Foursomes can be played as match play or stroke play.
Greensomes (also known as Scotch Foursomes): also called modified alternate shot, this is played in pairs; both players tee off, and then pick the best shot. The player who did not shoot the best first shot plays the second shot. The play then alternates as in a foursome. A variant of greensome is sometimes played where the opposing team chooses which of their opponent's tee shots the opponents should use.

Four-ball: defined in Rules 23, this is also played in pairs, but every each plays their own ball and for each team, the lower score on each hole counts. Four-ball can be played as match play or stroke play.

Team formats

Scramble: also known as ambrose or best-shot; each player in a team tees off on each hole, and the players decide which shot was best. Every player then plays their second shot from within a clublength of where the best shot has come to rest (and no closer to the hole), and the procedure is repeated until the hole is finished. This system is very common at informal tournaments such as for charity, as it speeds play (due to the reduced number of shots taken from bad lies), allows teams of varying sizes, and allows players of widely varying skill levels to participate without profoundly affecting team score.

Best-ball: like four-ball, each player plays the hole as normal, but the lowest score of all the players on the team counts as the team's score for the hole. There are many variations on this format, which count a different number of scores on each hole.

Handicap systems

A handicap is a numerical measure of a golfer's potential scoring ability over 18 holes. It is used to enable players of widely varying abilities to compete against one another. Better players are those with the lowest handicaps, and someone with a handicap of 0 or less is often referred to as a scratch golfer. Handicap systems vary throughout the world and use different methods to assess courses and calculate handicaps. In order to address difficulties in translating between these systems the USGA and The R&A, working with the various existing handicapping authorities, devised a new World Handicap System which is set to be introduced globally starting in 2020.

Golf courses are assessed and rated according to the average good score of a scratch golfer, taking into account a multitude of factors affecting play, such as length, obstacles, undulations, etc. A player's handicap gives an indication of the number of strokes above this course rating that the player will make over the course of an "average best" round of golf, i.e. scoring near their potential, above average. Lower handicap players are generally the most consistent, so can be expected to play to this standard or better more often than higher handicappers. Some handicap systems also account for differences in scoring difficulty between low and high handicap golfer. They do this by means of assessing and rating courses according to the average good score of a "bogey golfer", a player with a handicap of around 20. This is used with the course rating to calculate a slope rating, which is used to adjust golfer's handicap to produce a playing handicap for the course and set of tees being used.

Handicap systems have potential for abuse by players who may intentionally play badly to increase their handicap ( sandbagging) before playing to their potential at an important event with a valuable prize. For this reason, handicaps are not used in professional golf, but they can still be calculated and used along with other criteria to determine the relative strengths of various professional players. Touring professionals, being the best of the best, have negative handicaps; they can be expected, more often than not, to score lower than the Course Rating on any course.

Popularity

In 2005 Golf Digest calculated that the countries with most golf courses per capita, in order, were: Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Canada, Wales, United States, Sweden, and England (countries with fewer than 500,000 people were excluded).

The number of courses in other territories has increased, an example of this being the expansion of golf in China. The first golf course in China opened in 1984, but by the end of 2009 there were roughly 600 in the country. For much of the 21st century, development of new golf courses in China has been officially banned (with the exception of the island province of Hainan), but the number of courses had nonetheless tripled from 2004 to 2009; the "ban" has been evaded with the government's tacit approval simply by not mentioning golf in any development plans.

In the United States, the number of people who play golf twenty-five times or more per year decreased from 6.9 million in 2000 to 4.6 million in 2005, according to the National Golf Foundation. The NGF reported that the number who played golf at all decreased from 30 to 26 million over the same period.

In February 1971, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first person to golf anywhere other than Earth. He smuggled a golf club and two golf balls on board Apollo 14 with the intent to golf on the Moon. He attempted two drives. He shanked the first attempt, but it is estimated his second went more than 200 yards (180 m).

Golf courses worldwide

Below are the top 20 countries that have the most golf courses as of 2019.

Professional golf

The majority of professional golfers work as club or teaching professionals ("pros"), and only compete in local competitions. A small elite of professional golfers are "tournament pros" who compete full-time on international "tours". Many club and teaching professionals working in the golf industry start as caddies or with a general interest in the game, finding employment at golf courses and eventually moving on to certifications in their chosen profession. These programs include independent institutions and universities, and those that eventually lead to a Class A golf professional certification. Touring professionals typically start as amateur players, who attain their "pro" status after success in major tournaments that win them either prize money and/or notice from corporate sponsors. Jack Nicklaus, for example, gained widespread notice by finishing second in the 1960 U.S. Open to champion Arnold Palmer, with a 72-hole score of 282 (the best score to date in that tournament by an amateur). He played one more amateur year in 1961, winning that year's U.S. Amateur Championship, before turning pro in 1962.

Instruction

Golf instruction involves the teaching and learning of the game of golf. Proficiency in teaching golf instruction requires not only technical and physical ability but also knowledge of the rules and etiquette of the game. In some countries, golf instruction is best performed by teachers certified by the Professional Golfers Association. Some top instructors who work with professional golfers have become quite well known in their own right. Professional golf instructors can use physical conditioning, mental visualization, classroom sessions, club fitting, driving range instruction, on-course play under real conditions, and review of videotaped swings in slow motion to teach golf to prepare the golfer for the course.

There are at least twenty professional golf tours, each run by a PGA or an independent tour organization, which is responsible for arranging events, finding sponsors, and regulating the tour. Typically a tour has "members" who are entitled to compete in most of its events, and also invites non-members to compete in some of them. Gaining membership of an elite tour is highly competitive, and most professional golfers never achieve it.

Perhaps the most widely known tour is the PGA Tour, which tends to attract the strongest fields, outside the four Majors and the four World Golf Championships events. This is due mostly to the fact that most PGA Tour events have a first prize of at least 800,000 USD. The European Tour, which attracts a substantial number of top golfers from outside North America, ranks second to the PGA Tour in worldwide prestige. Some top professionals from outside North America play enough tournaments to maintain membership on both the PGA Tour and European Tour. Since 2010, both tours' money titles have been claimed by the same individual three times, with Luke Donald doing so in 2011 and Rory McIlroy in 2012 and 2014. In 2013, Henrik Stenson won the FedEx Cup points race on the PGA Tour and the European Tour money title, but did not top the PGA Tour money list (that honour going to Tiger Woods).

The other leading men's tours include the Japan Golf Tour, the Asian Tour (Asia outside Japan), the PGA Tour of Australasia, and the Sunshine Tour (for southern Africa, primarily South Africa). The Japan, Australasian, Sunshine, PGA, and European Tours are the charter members of the trade body of the world's main tours, the International Federation of PGA Tours, founded in 1996. The Asian Tour became a full member in 1999. The Canadian Tour became an associate member of the Federation in 2000, and the Tour de las Américas (Latin America) became an associate member of the Federation in 2007. The Federation underwent a major expansion in 2009 that saw eleven new tours become full members - the Canadian Tour, Tour de las Américas, China Golf Association, the Korea Professional Golfers' Association, Professional Golf Tour of India, and the operators of all six major women's tours worldwide. The OneAsia Tour, founded in 2009, is not a member of the Federation, but was founded as a joint venture of the Australasia, China, Japan, and Korean tours. In 2011, the Tour de las Américas was effectively taken over by the PGA Tour, and in 2012 was folded into the new PGA Tour Latinoamérica. Also in 2012, the Canadian Tour was renamed PGA Tour Canada after it agreed to be taken over by the PGA Tour. All men's tours that are Federation members, except the India tour, offer points in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) to players who place sufficiently high in their events. The OneAsia Tour also offers ranking points.

Golf is unique in having lucrative competition for older players. There are several senior tours for men aged fifty and over, arguably the best known of which is the U.S.-based PGA Tour Champions.

There are six principal tours for women, each based in a different country or continent. The most prestigious of these is the United States-based LPGA Tour. All of the principal tours offer points in the Women's World Golf Rankings for high finishers in their events.

All of the leading professional tours for under-50 players have an official developmental tour, in which the leading players at the end of the season will earn a tour card on the main tour for the following season. Examples include the Web.com Tour, which feeds to the PGA Tour, and the Challenge Tour, which is the developmental tour of the European Tour. The Web.com and Challenge Tours also offer OWGR points.

Men's major championships

The major championships are the four most prestigious men's tournaments of the year. In chronological order they are: The Masters, the U.S. Open, The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open) and the PGA Championship.

The fields for these events include the top several dozen golfers from all over the world. The Masters has been played at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, since its inception in 1934. It is the only major championship that is played at the same course each year. The U.S. Open and PGA Championship are played at courses around the United States, while the Open Championship is played at courses around the United Kingdom.

Prior to the advent of the PGA Championship and The Masters, the four Majors were the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur, the Open Championship, and the British Amateur.

Women's major championships

Women's golf does not have a globally agreed set of majors. The list of majors recognised by the dominant women's tour, the LPGA Tour in the U.S., has changed several times over the years, with the most recent changes occurring in 2001 and 2013. Like the PGA Tour, the (U.S.) LPGA tour long had four majors, but now has five: the ANA Inspiration (previously known by several other names, most recently the Kraft Nabisco Championship), the Women's PGA Championship (previously known as the LPGA Championship), the U.S. Women's Open, the Women's British Open (which replaced the du Maurier Classic as a major in 2001) and The Evian Championship (added as the fifth major in 2013). Only the last two are also recognised as majors by the Ladies European Tour. However, the significance of this is limited, as the LPGA is far more dominant in women's golf than the PGA Tour is in mainstream men's golf. For example, the BBC has been known to use the U.S. definition of "women's majors" without qualifying it. Also, the Ladies' Golf Union, the governing body for women's golf in Great Britain and Ireland, stated on its official website that the Women's British Open was "the only Women's Major to be played outside the U.S." (this was before the elevation of The Evian Championship to major status).

For many years, the Ladies European Tour tacitly acknowledged the dominance of the LPGA Tour by not scheduling any of its own events to conflict with the three LPGA majors played in the U.S., but that changed beginning in 2008, when the LET scheduled an event opposite the LPGA Championship. The second-richest women's tour, the LPGA of Japan Tour, does not recognise any of the U.S. LPGA or European majors as it has its own set of majors (historically three, since 2008 four). However, these events attract little notice outside Japan.

Senior major championships

Senior (aged fifty and over) men's golf does not have a globally agreed set of majors. The list of senior majors on the U.S.-based PGA Tour Champions has changed over the years, but always by expansion. PGA Tour Champions now recognises five majors: the Senior PGA Championship, The Tradition, the Senior Players Championship, the United States Senior Open, and The Senior (British) Open Championship.

Of the five events, the Senior PGA is by far the oldest, having been founded in 1937. The other events all date from the 1980s, when senior golf became a commercial success as the first golf stars of the television era, such as Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, reached the relevant age. The Senior Open Championship was not recognised as a major by PGA Tour Champions until 2003. The European Senior Tour recognises only the Senior PGA and the two Senior Opens as majors. However, PGA Tour Champions is arguably more dominant in global senior golf than the U.S. LPGA is in global women's golf.

Olympic Games

After a 112-year absence from the Olympic Games, golf returned for the 2016 Rio Games. 41 different countries were represented by 120 athletes.

It was not until 1552 that the first woman golfer played the game. Mary Queen of Scots commissioned St. Andrew's Links. However, it was not until the 20th century that women were taken seriously and eventually broke the "Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden" rule. Many men saw women as unfit to play the sport due to their supposed lack of strength and ability.

In 1891 the newly built Shinnecock Hills nine-hole course in Southampton, New York became the first club to offer membership to women golfers. Four years later, in 1895, The U.S. Golf Association held the first Women's Amateur Championship tournament.

Just like professional golfer Bobby Jones, Joyce Wethered was considered to be a star in the 1920s. Jones praised Wethered in 1930 after they had played an exhibition against each other. He doubted that there had ever been a better golfer, man or woman. However, Bobby Jones' comment was not enough for others to change their views on women golfers.

The Royal Liverpool's club refused entry of Sir Henry Cotton's wife into the clubhouse in the late 1940s. The secretary of the club released a statement saying, "No woman ever has entered the clubhouse and, praise God, no woman ever will." However, American golfer and all-around athlete Babe Zaharias did not have to enter the clubhouse. She was able to prove herself on the course, going on to become the first American to win the British Women's Amateur title in 1947. The following year she became the first woman to attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open, but her application was rejected by the USGA. They stated that the event was intended to be open to men only.

The Ladies Professional Golf Association was formed in 1950 as a way to popularize the sport and provide competitive opportunities for golfers. The competitions were not the same for the men and women. It was not until 1972 that U.S. Congress passed the Title IX of the Education Amendments. "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any education program or activities receiving Federal financial assistance." American Renee Powell moved to the UK in the 1970s to further her career, and became the first woman to play in a British men's tournament in 1977.

As of 2016,[needs update ] women golfers were still fighting to have the same opportunities as male golfers. There is still a significant pay gap in the USGA. The USGA has a long history of writing bigger checks to winners of the men's U.S. Open than the U.S. Women's Open.

International events

References

External links

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Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not utilize a standardized playing area, and coping with the varied terrains encountered on different courses is a key part of the game.

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wikipedea pyramids

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A view of the Giza pyramid complex from the plateau to the south of the complex. From left to right, the three largest are: the Pyramid of Menkaure, the Pyramid of Khafre and the Great Pyramid of Giza. The three smaller pyramids in the foreground are subsidiary structures associated with Menkaure's pyramid.

The Egyptian pyramids are ancient masonry structures located in Egypt. Sources cite at least 118 identified "Egyptian" pyramids. Approximately 80 pyramids were built within the Kingdom of Kush, now located in the modern country of Sudan. Of those located in modern Egypt, most were built as tombs for the country's pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods.

The earliest known Egyptian pyramids are found at Saqqara, northwest of Memphis, although at least one step-pyramid-like structure has been found at Saqqara, dating to the First Dynasty: Mastaba 3808, which has been attributed to the reign of Pharaoh Anedjib, with inscriptions, and other archaeological remains of the period, suggesting there may have been others. The otherwise earliest among these is the Pyramid of Djoser built c. 2630-2610 BCE during the Third Dynasty. This pyramid and its surrounding complex are generally considered to be the world's oldest monumental structures constructed of dressed masonry.

The most famous Egyptian pyramids are those found at Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo. Several of the Giza pyramids are counted among the largest structures ever built. The Pyramid of Khufu is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence, despite its being the oldest wonder by about 2,000 years.

The name for a pyramid in Egyptian is myr, written with symbol 𓉴 ( in the Gardner Sign List). Myr is preceded by three other signs used as phonetics. The meaning of myr is unclear, as it only self-references the built object itself. By contrast architecture of similar function like 'temple', per-ka, is a compound of 'house' and 'soul'. It has been speculated myr belongs to a class of words like djed and ankh, which refer to objects already in existence when the Egyptian language split off from afroasiatic.[citation needed ] A typical translation of myr is given as 'High Place'. By graphical analysis, myr uses the same sign, O24, as . The benben is the mound of existence that rose of out of the abyss, nun, in the Egyptian creation myth. The relationship between myr and benben is further linked by the capstone architectural element of pyramids and obelisks, which was named benbenet, the feminine form of benben.

Historical development

Preceded by assumed earlier sites in the Eastern Sahara, tumuli with megalithic monuments developed as early as 4700 BCE in the Saharan region of Niger. Fekri Hassan (2002) indicates that the megalithic monuments in the Saharan region of Niger and the Eastern Sahara may have served as antecedents for the mastabas and pyramids of ancient Egypt. During Predynastic Egypt, tumuli were present at various locations (e.g., Naqada, Helwan).

From the time of the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150-2686 BCE), Egyptians with sufficient means were buried in bench-like structures known as mastabas. At Saqqara, Mastaba 3808, dating from the latter part of the 1st Dynasty, was discovered to contain a large, independently built step-pyramid-like structure enclosed within the outer palace facade mastaba. Archaeological remains and inscriptions suggest there may have been other similar structures dating to this period.

The first historically documented Egyptian pyramid is attributed by Egyptologists to the 3rd Dynasty pharaoh Djoser. Although Egyptologists often credit his vizier Imhotep as its architect, the dynastic Egyptians themselves, contemporaneously or in numerous later dynastic writings about the character, did not credit him with either designing Djoser's pyramid or the invention of stone architecture. The Pyramid of Djoser was first built as a square mastaba-like structure, which as a rule were known to otherwise be rectangular, and was expanded several times by way of a series of accretion layers, to produce the stepped pyramid structure we see today. Egyptologists believe this design served as a gigantic stairway by which the soul of the deceased pharaoh could ascend to the heavens.

Though other pyramids were attempted in the 3rd Dynasty after Djoser, it was the 4th Dynasty, transitioning from the step pyramid to true pyramid shape, which gave rise to the great pyramids of Meidum, Dahshur, and Giza. The last pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty, Shepseskaf, did not build a pyramid and beginning in the 5th Dynasty; for various reasons, the massive scale and precision of construction decreased significantly leaving these later pyramids smaller, less well-built, and often hastily constructed. By the end of the 6th Dynasty, pyramid building had largely ended and it was not until the Middle Kingdom that large pyramids were built again, though instead of stone, mudbrick was the main construction material.

Long after the end of Egypt's own pyramid-building period, a burst of pyramid-building occurred in what is present-day Sudan, after much of Egypt came under the rule of the Kingdom of Kush, which was then based at Napata. Napatan rule, known as the 25th Dynasty, lasted from 750 BCE to 664 BCE. The Meroitic period of Kushite history, when the kingdom was centered on Meroë, (approximately in the period between 300 BCE and 300 CE), experienced a full-blown pyramid-building revival, which saw about 180 Egyptian-inspired indigenous royal pyramid-tombs constructed in the vicinity of the kingdom's capital cities.

Al-Aziz Uthman (1171-1198), the second Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt, tried to destroy the Giza pyramid complex. He gave up after only damaging the Pyramid of Menkaure because the task proved too large.

Pyramid symbolism

Diagram of the interior structures of the Great Pyramid. The inner line indicates the pyramid's present profile, the outer line indicates the original profile.

The shape of Egyptian pyramids is thought to represent the primordial mound from which the Egyptians believed the earth was created. The shape of a pyramid is also thought to be representative of the descending rays of the sun, and most pyramids were faced with polished, highly reflective white limestone, in order to give them a brilliant appearance when viewed from a distance. Pyramids were often also named in ways that referred to solar luminescence. For example, the formal name of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur was The Southern Shining Pyramid, and that of Senusret II at El Lahun was Senusret Shines.

While it is generally agreed that pyramids were burial monuments, there is continued disagreement on the particular theological principles that might have given rise to them. One suggestion is that they were designed as a type of "resurrection machine."

The Egyptians believed the dark area of the night sky around which the stars appear to revolve was the physical gateway into the heavens. One of the narrow shafts that extend from the main burial chamber through the entire body of the Great Pyramid points directly towards the center of this part of the sky. This suggests the pyramid may have been designed to serve as a means to magically launch the deceased pharaoh's soul directly into the abode of the gods.

All Egyptian pyramids were built on the west bank of the Nile, which, as the site of the setting sun, was associated with the realm of the dead in Egyptian mythology.

Number and location of pyramids

In 1842, Karl Richard Lepsius produced the first modern list of pyramids-now known as the Lepsius list of pyramids-in which he counted 67. A great many more have since been discovered. At least 118 Egyptian pyramids have been identified. The location of Pyramid 29 which Lepsius called the "Headless Pyramid", was lost for a second time when the structure was buried by desert sands after Lepsius's survey. It was found again only during an archaeological dig conducted in 2008.

Many pyramids are in a poor state of preservation or buried by desert sands. If visible at all, they may appear as little more than mounds of rubble. As a consequence, archaeologists are continuing to identify and study previously unknown pyramid structures.

The most recent pyramid to be discovered was that of Neith, a wife of Teti.

All of Egypt's pyramids, except the small Third Dynasty pyramid at Zawyet el-Maiyitin, are sited on the west bank of the Nile, and most are grouped together in a number of pyramid fields. The most important of these are listed geographically, from north to south, below.

Abu Rawash is the site of Egypt's most northerly pyramid (other than the ruins of Lepsius pyramid number one),[citation needed ] the mostly ruined Pyramid of Djedefre, son and successor of Khufu. Originally it was thought that this pyramid had never been completed, but the current archaeological consensus is that not only was it completed, but that it was originally about the same size as the Pyramid of Menkaure, which would have placed it among the half-dozen or so largest pyramids in Egypt.[citation needed ]

Its location adjacent to a major crossroads made it an easy source of stone. Quarrying, which began in Roman times, has left little apart from about fifteen courses of stone superimposed upon the natural hillock that formed part of the pyramid's core. A small adjacent satellite pyramid is in a better state of preservation.

Aerial view of the Giza pyramid complex

The Giza pyramid complex has been a popular tourist destination since antiquity and was popularized in Hellenistic times when the Great Pyramid was listed by Antipater of Sidon as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Today it is the only one of those wonders still in existence.

Zawyet el-Aryan

There are a total of fourteen pyramids at this site, which served as the main royal necropolis during the Fifth Dynasty. The quality of construction of the Abusir pyramids is inferior to those of the Fourth Dynasty-perhaps signaling a decrease in royal power or a less vibrant economy. They are smaller than their predecessors and are built of low-quality local limestone.

Major pyramids located here include the Pyramid of Djoser-generally identified as the world's oldest substantial monumental structure to be built of dressed stone-the Pyramid of Userkaf, the Pyramid of Teti and the Pyramid of Merikare, dating to the First Intermediate Period of Egypt. Also at Saqqara is the Pyramid of Unas, which retains a pyramid causeway that is one of the best-preserved in Egypt. Together with the pyramid of Userkaf, this pyramid was the subject of one of the earliest known restoration attempts, conducted by Khaemweset, a son of Ramesses II. Saqqara is also the location of the incomplete step pyramid of Djoser's successor Sekhemkhet, known as the Buried Pyramid. Archaeologists believe that had this pyramid been completed, it would have been larger than Djoser's.

The Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Shepseskaf either did not share an interest in or have the capacity to undertake pyramid construction like his predecessors. His tomb, which is also sited at south Saqqara, was instead built as an unusually large mastaba and offering temple complex. It is commonly known as the Mastabat al-Fir'aun.

A previously unknown pyramid was discovered in north Saqqara in late 2008. Believed to be the tomb of Teti's mother, it currently stands approximately 5 m (16 ft) high, although the original height was closer to 14 m (46 ft).

This area is arguably the most important pyramid field in Egypt outside Giza and Saqqara, although until 1996 the site was inaccessible due to its location within a military base and was relatively unknown outside archaeological circles.

The southern Pyramid of Sneferu, commonly known as the Bent Pyramid, is believed to be the first Egyptian pyramid intended by its builders to be a "true" smooth-sided pyramid from the outset; the earlier pyramid at Meidum had smooth sides in its finished state, but it was conceived and built as a step pyramid, before having its steps filled in and concealed beneath a smooth outer casing of dressed stone. As a true smooth-sided structure, the Bent Pyramid was only a partial success-albeit a unique, visually imposing one; it is also the only major Egyptian pyramid to retain a significant proportion of its original smooth outer limestone casing intact. As such it serves as the best contemporary example of how the ancient Egyptians intended their pyramids to look. Several kilometres to the north of the Bent Pyramid is the last-and most successful-of the three pyramids constructed during the reign of Sneferu; the Red Pyramid is the world's first successfully completed smooth-sided pyramid. The structure is also the third-largest pyramid in Egypt, after the pyramids of Khufu and Khafra at Giza.

Also at Dahshur is one of two pyramids built by Amenemhat III, known as the Black Pyramid, as well as a number of small, mostly ruined subsidiary pyramids.

Located to the south of Dahshur, several mudbrick pyramids were built in this area in the late Middle Kingdom, perhaps for Amenemhat IV and Sobekneferu.

Two major pyramids are known to have been built at Lisht: those of Amenemhat I and his son, Senusret I. The latter is surrounded by the ruins of ten smaller subsidiary pyramids. One of these subsidiary pyramids is known to be that of Amenemhat's cousin, Khaba II. The site which is in the vicinity of the oasis of the Faiyum, midway between Dahshur and Meidum, and about 100 kilometres south of Cairo, is believed to be in the vicinity of the ancient city of Itjtawy (the precise location of which remains unknown), which served as the capital of Egypt during the Twelfth Dynasty.

The pyramid at Meidum is one of three constructed during the reign of Sneferu, and is believed by some to have been started by that pharaoh's father and predecessor, Huni. However, that attribution is uncertain, as no record of Huni's name has been found at the site. It was constructed as a step pyramid and then later converted into the first "true" smooth-sided pyramid, when the steps were filled in and an outer casing added. The pyramid suffered several catastrophic collapses in ancient and medieval times. Medieval Arab writers described it as having seven steps, although today only the three uppermost of these remain, giving the structure its odd, tower-like appearance. The hill on which the pyramid is situated is not a natural landscape feature, it is the small mountain of debris created when the lower courses and outer casing of the pyramid gave way.

Amenemhat III was the last powerful ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty, and the pyramid he built at Hawara, near the Faiyum, is believed to post-date the so-called " Black Pyramid" built by the same ruler at Dahshur. It is the Hawara pyramid that is believed to have been Amenemhet's final resting place.

The Pyramid of Senusret II at El Lahun is the southernmost royal-tomb pyramid structure in Egypt. Its builders reduced the amount of work necessary to construct it by using as its foundation and core a 12-meter-high natural limestone hill.

Piye, the king of Kush who became the first ruler of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, built a pyramid at El-Kurru. He was the first Egyptian pharaoh to be buried in a pyramid in centuries.

Taharqa, a Kushite ruler of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, built his pyramid at Nuri. It was the largest in the area (North Sudan).

The following table lays out the chronology of the construction of most of the major pyramids mentioned here. Each pyramid is identified through the pharaoh who ordered it built, his approximate reign, and its location.

Construction techniques

Drawing showing transportation of a colossus. The water poured in the path of the sledge, long dismissed by Egyptologists as ritual, but now confirmed as feasible, served to increase the stiffness of the sand, and likely reduced by 50% the force needed to move the statue.[28]

Constructing the pyramids involved moving huge quantities of stone. While most blocks came from nearby quarries, special stones were transported on great barges from distant locations, for instance white limestone from Tura and granite from Aswan.

In 2013, papyri, named Diary of Merer, were discovered at an ancient Egyptian harbor at the Red Sea coast. They are logbooks written over 4,500 years ago by an official with the title inspector, who documented the transport of white limestone from the Tura quarries, along the Nile River, to the Great Pyramid of Giza, the tomb of the Pharaoh Khufu.

It is possible that quarried blocks were then transported to the construction site by wooden sleds, with sand in front of the sled wetted to reduce friction. Droplets of water created bridges between the grains of sand, helping them stick together. Workers cut the stones close to the construction site, as indicated by the numerous finds of cutting tools. The finished blocks were placed on the pre-prepared foundations. The foundations were levelled using a rough square level, water trenches and experienced surveyors.

References

Bibliography

External links

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The Egyptian pyramids are ancient masonry structures located in Egypt. Sources cite at least 118 identified "Egyptian" pyramids. Approximately 80 pyramids were built within the Kingdom of Kush, now located in the modern country of Sudan. Of those located in modern Egypt, most were built as tombs for the country's pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods.

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THE FOOD THEY ATE. (IDK WHY ITS THIS PHOTO)

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THE FOOD THEY ATE. (IDK WHY ITS THIS PHOTO)

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Alcatraz Dining Hall, often referred to as the Mess Hall, is the dining hall of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary where the prisoners and staff ate their meals. It is a long wing on the west end of the Main Cellhouse of Alcatraz, situated in the center of the island. It is connected to the block by a corridor known as "Times Square", as it passes beneath a large clock approaching the entrance way to the dining hall. This wing includes the dining hall and the kitchen beyond it.

Dining hall protocol was a scripted process, including a whistle system to indicate which block and tier of men would move into and out of the hall at any given time, who sat where, where to place hands, and when to start eating. Prisoners would be awakened at 6:30, and sent to breakfast at 6:55.

The original daily menu, established in 1934, included oatmeal, milk, fried bologna sausage, cottage fried potatoes, toast, oleomargarine, and coffee for breakfast. Dinner contained bean soup, roast beef, gravy, string-less beans, mashed potatoes, and coffee. Supper was a meal that had pork and beans, cornbread, potato salad, apricots, bread, oleomargarine, and coffee.

A breakfast menu is still preserved on the hallway board, dated 21 March 1963. The breakfast menu included assorted dry cereals, steamed whole wheat, a scrambled egg, milk, stewed fruit, toast, bread, and butter. Lunch was served in the dining hall at 11:20, followed by a 30-minute rest in the cell, before returning to work until 16:15.

Dinner was served at 16:25 and the prisoners would then retire to their cells at 16:50 to be locked in for the night. Inmates were permitted to eat as much as they liked within 20 minutes, provided they left no waste. Waste would be reported and may make the prisoner subject to removal of privileges if they made a habit of it.

At the end of each 20 minute meal, the forks, spoons and knives were laid out on the table and carefully counted to ensure that nothing had been taken as a potential weapon. Prisoners were forbidden from talking while eating, although many would do so discreetly; escape plans were often put forward this way. Each dining table had benches which held up to six men, although smaller tables and chairs later replaced these which seated four.

All of the prison population, including the guards and officials would dine together, thus seating over 250 people. The food served at Alcatraz was reportedly the best in the United States prison system. On the second floor was an auditorium, which was where movies were screened to the inmates at weekends.

The gun gallery was situated in the Recreation Yard and mounted on one of the dining hall's exterior walls. There was a metal detector outside of the hall for security purposes. The dining hall had tear-gas canisters attached to the rafters of the ceiling which could be activated by remote control, should prisoners riot or attempt to escape.

The first warden, James A. Johnston, always entered the dining hall alone and unarmed, due to heavy guarding around him. Several riots did break out in the dining hall during Alcatraz's history. Those prisoners who were not involved in the fighting hid under the dining hall tables to escape possible retribution.

The dining hall in Alcatraz has appeared as a scene in numerous films, television programs and novels, often where criminals hatch plots to escape or crimes to commit upon escaping. It has appeared in films such as Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood's Escape from Alcatraz (1979), and Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994), which has a scene spoofing the dining room scenes of the 1979 film.

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Alcatraz Dining Hall, often referred to as the Mess Hall, is the dining hall of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary where the prisoners and staff ate their meals. It is a long wing on the west end of the Main Cellhouse of Alcatraz, situated in the center of the island.

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World Trade Center

On September 11, 2001, at 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors.

As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767-United Airlines Flight 175-appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center and sliced into the south tower near the 60th floor.

The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and onto the streets below. It immediately became clear that America was under attack.

Osama bin Laden

The hijackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. Reportedly financed by the al Qaeda terrorist organization of Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden, they were allegedly acting in retaliation for America's support of Israel, its involvement in the Persian Gulf War and its continued military presence in the Middle East.

Some of the terrorists had lived in the United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American commercial flight schools. Others had slipped into the country in the months before September 11 and acted as the "muscle" in the operation.

Where Did the 9/11 Planes Take Off From?

The 19 terrorists smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports-Logan International Airport in Boston, Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. and Newark International Airport in New Jersey-and boarded four early-morning flights bound for California, chosen because the planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls, transforming ordinary passenger jets into guided missiles.

Pentagon Attack

As millions watched the events unfolding in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington, D.C., before crashing into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters at 9:45 a.m.

Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating inferno that led to the structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete building, which is the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense.

All told, 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon, along with all 64 people aboard the airliner.

Twin Towers Collapse

Less than 15 minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S. military, the horror in New York took a catastrophic turn when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke.

The structural steel of the skyscraper, built to withstand winds in excess of 200 miles per hour and a large conventional fire, could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by the burning jet fuel.

At 10:30 a.m., the north building of the twin towers collapsed. Only 18 people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of the collapse survived. Most were with a group of FDNY firefighters in the North Tower's Stairwell B, which remained intact. One woman survived after the stairs she was rushing down disintegrated around her. Almost 10,000 others were treated for injuries, many severe.

Flight 93

Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane- United Flight 93-was hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airfone calls to the ground.

Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an insurrection.

One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr., told his wife over the phone that "I know we're all going to die. There's three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey." Another passenger-Todd Beamer-was heard saying "Are you guys ready? Let's roll" over an open line.

Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were "Everyone's running to first class. I've got to go. Bye."

The passengers fought the four hijackers and are suspected to have attacked the cockpit with a fire extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards of 500 miles per hour, crashing in a rural field near Shanksville in western Pennsylvania at 10:10 a.m.

All 44 people aboard were killed. Its intended target is not known, but theories include the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland or one of several nuclear power plants along the eastern seaboard.

How Many People Died in the 9/11 Attacks?

A total of 2,996 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks, including the 19 terrorist hijackers aboard the four airplanes. Citizens of 78 countries died in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

At the World Trade Center, 2,763 died after the two planes slammed into the twin towers. That figure includes 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors.

At the Pentagon, 189 people were killed, including 64 on American Airlines Flight 77, the airliner that struck the building. On Flight 93, 44 people died when the plane crash-landed in Pennsylvania.

America Responds to the Attacks

At 7 p.m., President George W. Bush, who was in Florida at the time of the attacks and had spent the day being shuttled around the country because of security concerns, returned to the White House.

At 9 p.m., he delivered a televised address from the Oval Office, declaring, "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve."

In a reference to the eventual U.S. military response he declared, "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."

Operation Enduring Freedom, the American-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Laden's terrorist network based there, began on October 7. Within two months, U.S. forces had effectively removed the Taliban from operational power, but the war continued, as U.S. and coalition forces attempted to defeat a Taliban insurgency campaign based in neighboring Pakistan.

Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11th attacks, remained at large until May 2, 2011, when he was finally tracked down and killed by U.S. forces at a hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In June 2011, then-President Barack Obama announced the beginning of large-scale troop withdrawals from Afghanistan; it took until August 2021 for all U.S. forces to withdraw.

Department of Homeland Security Is Created

In the wake of security fears raised by 9/11 and the mailing of letters containing anthrax that killed two and infected 17, The Homeland Security Act of 2002 created the Department of Homeland Security. It was signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 25, 2002. Today, the Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet responsible for preventing terror attacks, border security, immigrations and customs and disaster relief and prevention.

The act was followed two days later by the formation of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. The bipartisan " 9/11 Commission," as it came to be known, was charged with investigating the events that lead up to September 11th. The 9/11 Commission Report was released on July 22, 2004. It named Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind behind 9/11, "the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks."

Mohammed led propaganda operations for al Qaeda from 1999-2001. He was captured on March 1, 2003 by the Central Intelligence Agency and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and interrogated before being imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay detention camp with four other accused terrorists charged with 9/11-related war crimes. The use of torture, including waterboarding, during Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's interrogation has received international attention. In August 2019, a U.S. military court judge in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba set a trial date for Mohammed and the other four men charged with plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks to begin in 2021; it was later postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economic Impact of 9/11

The 9/11 attacks had an immediate negative effect on the U.S. economy. Many Wall Street institutions, including the New York Stock Exchange, were evacuated during the attacks. On the first day of trading after the attacks, the market fell 7.1 percent, or 684 points. New York City's economy alone lost 143,000 jobs a month and $2.8 billion wages in the first three months. The heaviest losses were in finance and air transportation, which accounted for 60 percent of lost jobs. The estimated cost of the World Trade Center damage is $60 billion. The cost to clean the debris at Ground Zero was $750 million.

Victim Compensation Fund

Thousands of first responders and people working and living in lower Manhattan near Ground Zero were exposed to toxic fumes and particles emanating from the towers as they burned and fell. By 2018, 10,000 people were diagnosed with 9/11-related cancer.

From 2001 to 2004, over $7 billion dollars in compensation was given to families of the 9/11 victims and the 2,680 people injured in the attacks. Funding was renewed on January 2, 2011, when President Barack Obama signed The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act into law. Named for James Zadroga, a New York City Police officer who died of respiratory disease he contracted after rescuing people from the rubble at Ground Zero, the law continued health monitoring and compensation for 9/11 first responders and survivors.

In 2015, funding for the treatment of 9/11-related illness was renewed for five more years at a total of $7.4 billion. The Victim Compensation Fund was set to stop accepting claims in December 2020.

On July 29, 2019, then-President Trump signed a law authorizing support for the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund through 2092. Previously, administrators had cut benefits by up to 70 percent as the $7.4 billion fund depleted. Vocal lobbyists for the fund included Jon Stewart, 9/11 first responder John Feal and retired New York Police Department detective and 9/11 responder Luis Alvarez, who died of cancer 18 days after testifying before Congress.

Anniversary and Memorial

On December 18, 2001, Congress approved naming September 11 "Patriot Day" to commemorate the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In 2009, Congress named September 11 a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

The first memorials to September 11 came in the immediate wake of the attacks, with candlelight vigils and flower tributes at U.S. embassies around the world. In Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth sang the American national anthem during the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Rio de Janeiro put up billboards showing the city's Christ the Redeemer statue embracing the New York City skyline.

For the first anniversary of the attacks in New York City in 2002, two bright columns of light were shot up into the sky from where the Twin Towers once stood. The "Tribute in Light" then became an annual installation run by the Municipal Art Society of New York. On clear nights, the beams are visible from over 60 miles away.

A World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was held to select an appropriate permanent memorial to the victims of 9/11. The winning design by Michael Arad, "Reflecting Absence," now sits outside the museum in an eight-acre park. It consists of two reflecting pools with waterfalls rushing down where the Twin Towers once rose into the sky.

The names of all 2,983 victims are engraved on the 152 bronze panels surrounding the pools, arranged by where individuals were on the day of the attacks, so coworkers and people on the same flight are memorialized together. The site was opened to the public on September 11, 2011, to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum followed, opening on the original World Trade Center site in May 2014. The Freedom Tower, also on the original World Trade Center site, opened in November 2014.

Sources

"Study Confirms 9/11 Impact on New York City Economy." The New York Times
"September 11: nearly 10,000 people affected by 'cesspool of cancer.'" The Guardian.
"Congress passes 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund extension championed by Jon Stewart." CNN.com
The Encyclopedia of 9/11. New York Magazine.
FAQ About 9/11. 9/11 Memorial.
September 11th Terror Attacks Fast Facts. CNN.
9/11 Death Statistics. StatisticBrain.com.

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September 11 Attacks: Facts, Background & Impact

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On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

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List of military equipment used in the Korean War - Wikipedia

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This is a list of military equipment used in the Korean War .

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https://theprokit.com/posts/athlete-feature-gary-fisher-mountain-bike-pioneer/

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From light shows for the Grateful Dead and decorating the Jefferson Airplane mansion to becoming one of the pioneers of mountain biking, Gary Fisher has seen a lot. And he remembers it all. Gary was born in 1950, and raced bikes until being suspended in 1968 for long hair. Fast forward to the 1970s and early 1980s, Gary is not only back on his bike, but starting a movement with $600 with his partners Charlie Kelly and frame builder, Tom Ritchey. By 1983, Gary was on to his own company, Gary Fisher Bikes, which was acquired years later by Trek Bikes.

I could barely keep up with Gary's take on the past, present and future of bikes and society. He gets into it all: Growing up in Guam, Beverly Hills and the Bay Area; what's needed to get more kids on bikes; bike shares, electric scooters and cities; the state of pro sponsorships; his views on nutrition and training; and a lot of fun.

As Gary says, "It's not the nuts and bolts. The nuts and bolts are the carrier. It's the places you go, the people you meet, the stuff you do. That's what makes it a great adventure."

Our conversation has been edited for clarity. You'll have to listen to the podcast for the history and color from Gary. Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | .

GROWING UP: THE LUCKIEST MAN ON EARTH
David Swain: Let's start with growing up and your influences.
Gary Fisher: I call myself the luckiest man on earth a lot of the time. Nobody gets to decide where they're going to be born.

I was born in Oakland, Oak Knoll Naval Hospital. Right after I was born they tore that place down and rebuilt another one. Now, about five years ago, they tore that one down, so I've outlasted a hospital. It's a miracle. I think about all these bikes I've broken, but the body heals. I still get to function. I can still ride a bike.

My father was in the Navy, and when I was six months old, we took a boat to Guam. My mother says I got tremendously seasick. My mother liked to sing, and sang in the nightclubs there. She was something. I mean, she went to Beverly Hills High School. On her 80th birthday, she pulls out these old headshots, and all the kids, we died, all these different hairdos, different makeup, different clothing and everything. Her father, Fred Applegate, was in the movie business. He worked for Warner Bros. for 40 years. He developed a job called a script director.

When I was a small boy, my mother made such a scene in Guam. My father went crazy, and my mother and I wound up going back to Beverly Hills and living with my grandparents. My grandfather was an open water swimmer and ran in the park. To sit at his table was a magnificent experience indeed. He was into health food, as were a number of people in the 30s in Hollywood. We'd go to the Los Angeles farmer's market.

To sit out there as a kid, I was four and half years old. He'd bring actors to the house all the time, and he had a tweed suitcase with a camera with flashbulbs and a tripod. He'd subject us kids to these half hour sessions of, "we're going to take some photos now, and they're going to be good. This is what you're going to do."
Is that where you got your interest in healthy food and exercise?
Whatever it was, I got into eating well. Later on, we moved from Beverly Hills to the Sunset District in San Francisco. My mother met another man, and she married him. He turned out to be an architect and a hell of a good one. My best friend lived around the corner and was Japanese, so I got into Japanese food when I was about 5 as a lot of kids did growing up around here eating different types of food and everything. But the big thing was being an athlete.
So what about the bike, and getting your start?
It was going out and doing things big and crazy. When I was a kid, 12 - 13, it was Belmont Bike Club. The old guy, Larry Walpole, he was an East Londoner, mechanic for Pan American. He was hilarious, telling jokes all the time, and he'd drag me out on 80 mile rides, and make sure I'd make it back. I weighed 89 pounds. It was crazy. He'd push me up the hill sometimes. One time he got a piece of fence wire, wrapped it around my head tube, wrapped it around a seat post, and haul me northward into a big headwind on Highway 1 until we got up to Half Moon Bay. We went to Pete's, and there was this old Italian there. He'd always feed the bike riders for free. I'd eat some food at Pete's, and get back over the hill, Half Moon Bay Hill.

It was just the beauty of the machine. You could do this all human-powered, make all this distance, go all this way. Kids like to feel like Superman, and sometimes you feel like Superman when you're on a bike. You feel like you're flying, definitely. I still do. Even my weakened state, my old state, I still feel like I'm flying sometimes, just completely.
So then come the 1960s. Walk us through it.
Then the '60s, I ran away from home. I quit the bike scene. My hair was too long - it was over my ears. I had met a band named the Grateful Dead and the Quicksilver Messenger Service. Can you imagine? They played in Pescadero, California three nights in a row and attracted less than 100 people over the three night span because they weren't popular, but they're all into health food.

I worked for a company called Grand Ultimate Steward Company or better known as GUS, and we used to cater to the Grateful Dead. We did the Carousel Ballroom, which later became the Fillmore West. Man, I painted Bill Graham's offices one time. We decorated the Jefferson Airplane Mansion. That was rather fantastic, that one on Fulton Street.

This was in '66, '67, '68, '69. Sixty-nine came, December, The Rolling Stones to San Francisco and they wanted to play in Golden Gate Park. We held a meeting, Sam Cutler from the Rolling Stones, Sonny Barger from the Hells Angels, Bill Thompson from the Jefferson Airplane, and Ron Rakow. It was at Ron Rakow's house on Sacramento Street. I was a kid cleaning the place up and taking care of things, and this meeting's all going down.

The event didn't work out in Golden Gate Park, and ended up at Sears Point Raceway. Someone at Sears Point figured out The Rolling Stones were going to do a film, and they had other vested interests. The deal was off. The last-minute, we went to this god awful place called Altamont. We had a disaster, and at that moment, that scene ended, and I said, "I'm getting back into bikes." I was 19 and was right there at ground zero watching that whole scene.

You've been part of some real cultural change... much more so than just the bike.
Yeah, definitely. This weekend is 50th anniversary of people that have anything to do with the Whole Earth Catalog. It's Stewart Brand and that whole group that put together this catalog that was a catalog of catalogs, which is a precursor to the internet in a way. It's a bunch of old people. It's going to be a reunion in Fort Mason, the San Francisco Art Institute of all things, my goodness gracious. That'll be a blast from the past to go there and see that, see those folks.

GARY FISHER's ON THE MOUNTAIN BIKE MOVEMENT
Fast forward a decade into the birth of the mountain bike.
Charlie Kelly and I started that company with $600, nothing. I was working for Bicycling Magazine, and that helps like crazy. You get to know everybody in the business. We did a presentation on the mountain bike in 1981 at the New York Show at the bequest of Bicycling, and we had practiced it really well. I mean, Charlie was another rock and roll victim. Another roadie for a band called Sons of Champlin.

The guy he'd be on the road a lot with, Howie Hammerman, was the sound guy and happened to be George Lucas's third employee. We used to practice this whole slideshow in George's screening room about once a month. We got out to New York, and we had this thing wired. We had all these incredible photos from five years previous of the Repack races (PHOTO) in Fairfax, California, Sierra Nevada's, Crested Butte, and just years of these meticulous photos by Wendy and Larry Cragg (Larry is the steel guitarist for Neil Young). Those are the circles we were running in.

The mountain bike thing would cut across all lines. I mean, Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, they got drafted by a guy named Tom Preuss. Tom Preuss was in our club, Belmont Bicycle Club, and he was just a crazy guy. I mean, he was crazy. He had a record studio and everything in the 60s, and Tom lost it. Tom was found on Bridgeway in Sausalito shooting a car, a .45 caliber revolver, and that's the last I've heard of him.

When I was a kid, we were living in Burlingame, and we'd go on rides with the Belmont Bicycle Club. We go through La Honda, and a lot of times we'd stop at Ken Kesey's place down here. Then the Hells Angels, they'd see us. We'd be San Gregorio, Pescadero, little cities out there by the Coast. They'd be looking at us, and we'd be looking at them. We'd just go, "freaks," smile a little bit, and everything was cool. It was alright.
Why don't we go back to the roots and progression of the mountain bike?
It's not the nuts and bolts. The nuts and bolts are the carrier. It's the places you go, the people you meet, the stuff you do. That's what makes it a great adventure.

We're just rolling around on these wheels and things and finding different places to do it, and what made the mountain bike scene so attractive was all that space was really open. When we started doing this, there were very few people even out hiking. It wasn't a very popular sport. And all of a sudden, here's all this stuff that's car free. You don't have the cars, the cops, the concrete. We used to joke about that all the time.

Literally, that was it. You felt free. You could do anything you wanted to, so that was a huge attractant. The reality is, when bicycles first came along, got popular 120 years ago, there were very, very few paved roads. Everything was off-road. This whole notion of purposely trying to go fast down hills and be acrobatic and everything, well, that was something for circus freaks, and then this became something more of reality.

If you go back to a YouTube video of Crested Butte 1980, you'll come up with a video that shows some really early riding there in 1980-81. You'll notice people trying to get across a creek, and only about a third of them make it all the way through. It's really pathetic, and that was the nature of the beast. Even in Colorado, the riders weren't that great. The big phenomena in the last 20 years is, man, people get air. They do crazy stuff, and it works. The bikes have gotten better.

The riders now are incredibly better because they have video. They can watch each other do this stuff, and have ways of practicing. They started by jumping in bodies of water and then at foam pits, and now it's airbags. You can practice over and over again, and not hurt yourself. These guys have it wired.

And then the trails themselves. Back then, the trails used for the World Cup and all the world championships were just found things, and there was very little work put on them. The basic physics of it really wasn't well understood compared to now.

Actually, if you want to get into the bicycle business right now, you might consider trail building. It's one of the best paying parts of the bike business. It's completely outdoors, and it has a lot of manual labor going for it. Really, it pays well because a really well-built trail makes you feel like a genius rider and makes everything really work. All those things is finally starting to click.
So back in the 70s you just found old 1930s Schwinn's, re-built them and pushed them to their limits on the trails?

It was found objects. I mean, nobody had money to make anything in the beginning. Actually, the mountain bike craze up here that really was taking off up in Northern California got helped by the guys from Southern California, the BMX guys. They had a cruiser class. They used the same size wheel, so that's where the rims, the good alloy rims, came from. Then guys like the Cook Bros. and Bullseye and there are all these makers down there that they got it right away. They said, oh, we know what you're trying to do. We'll help you.

The big thing was getting the Japanese supply chain, to work. I went after the bigger numbers. I wanted to go after the Japanese because they showed a lot of interest. They really got the whole aesthetics and everything. They were just showing up like crazy at our doorstep, and they wanted to do stuff. I did the show, the presentation in New York with Charlie, and we killed it. They loved it. After that, I said I'm going to come over there.

I go to Chinatown over in San Francisco. Buy a ticket roundtrip to Japan, 400 bucks. You'd go on a couple of days, boom, boom. I'd show up and say, hey, I'm here. Let's do bike stuff. I will show you how to make this stuff, and what I want from you is give me first delivery, the best price, and I want terms.

There was a whole group on the SunTour side. There was Sugino, Dia-Compe, Sansin, all those, and Ishiwata tubing. Then on the Shimano side was Rio Maruti and his Trading Company. It was Shimano, Takagi, and a number of guys, Tioga, all those brands. There was two competing groups of bicycle parts makers and makers over in Japan, and I worked with all of them.

It wound up the Japanese government gave me a nice loan, and we took a lot of equipment and got complete bikes done. It was fantastic - a great thing for everybody involved. Domestically, we were making a lot of bikes. It was amazing how many bikes we could put together ourselves, but man, it was nothing compared to what those guys could do with good assembly lines and everything.
Negotiating terms, going to Japan to work with some of the biggest manufactures on the planet. You had worked as a bike mechanic, and at Bicycling Magazine, and next thing you're sitting across the table negotiating terms and setting up this company. Talk about the entrepreneurship learnings for you.
That's a funny thing. I can remember in the beginning thinking, well, what's the laws against doing it? What do you have to do to become an importer? It took me about an hour to think there's no laws. You just go do it. You go make it happen. I saw people do it with other stuff. I mean, the way my father thought, the way that other people I'd meet that thought they'd go and do crazy stuff.

I did light shows in the 60s, and that was a really cool thing. We had ten people in our show. We were 16, 17, 18. We'd charge $1,000 a night. That's what we wanted, and Bill Graham wanted to pay 100 bucks a night, which would pay for our bulbs, that was it. I've always been able to scale it up, make it work.

I watched Bill Graham take over the Carousel Ballroom and turn it into Fillmore West. It was Janis Joplin and her manager, and they wanted the money, man. He steps up and says I got to take over this place. Nobody stopped him. He had the money, and he took it over, boom-ba-dee-boom-ba-dee-boom-ba-dee-boom. It's like he'd just step in and say here's who I am. Here's what I do. I can guarantee this. You know it's going to work, and they'd say okay.

You see that photo right over there? That's me. I'm on a horseback. You see? There's a little rat hole park in Hollywood, and I'm 4½. My mother would bring me there. The Disney's would be there, Walt Disney and his family, and he'd be going off on, well, I'm going to build this place that's great for the family. We wind up going to the opening day at Disneyland. I'm almost 5, and I go with my best friend, Arthur Robbins. The next day, we go, and we build a miniature Disneyland in his backyard. My mom knows somebody in the LA Times. She calls him up and says, hey, I got a story for you.

I got in the LA Times when I was under 5 years old. That was my first major exposure and stuff. I've sort of been, I say, the luckiest man on earth. I had a tremendous amount of opportunity come towards me. Thank God for my grandfather to train me right, and my great-grandfather, he is famous for doing speeches. You got to take everything you can and amplify it really hard to get any kind of a notice these days. And at the same time, make it delicious. It has to be delicious and taste so great.

STATE OF BIKES: CITIES AND KIDS
Talking about cities, I've heard you speak about what you've seen from around the world where bikes are better integrated into society as a form of transportation. Talk about signs of progress, or ingredients that work.
I see it in places that aren't here. We aren't taking it very seriously at this moment in San Francisco. It's dangerous. It's not the place you want to raise your kid, and that's really a bad measure. I mean, there's some things that Mayor Breed is has brought along, and I think she's got a new transportation administer. But we've yet to see what they'll do. I mean, the bike coalition, which I've been a member of and I pay my dues, 45 years, it's one of the oldest bike coalitions in the United States. Man, there've been some really crazy battles and, and the state of it is rotten.

I know there are ten cities in Germany that are going to zero pollution. There will not be a single combustion engine inside those cities, and it's over a ten-year period they're doing this. Those places, I feel like I could raise a kid there, and it's a good thing.

It's nuts what we've done. I mean, my father made a tremendous amount of money off of Orange County. He designed a big portion of it. The suburbs were a great boon, but now, the whole thing, it's become a mess. Marin County is built out that way. Our transit now is the world's most expensive. It's called 1.3 passengers in an automobile. It's so broken. In San Francisco, we thought, well, the rideshare thing will help. No, it put 40 to 50,000 extra vehicles in a city a day, so that's a big mess.

I like the scooters. I like the scooter people. I like the electric bike share. I do JUMP. It's geo-fenced off to not enough of the city. There are not enough of the bikes in the city. It's the classic thing. The way you kill a transit system is you make it lame. I don't know who's in charge of this one. This is stupid.

We've had something that's been building up for the last 50 years. That's right here, Marin County, the birthplace of low growth. It was 50 years ago that the developers from L.A. came up and said, hey, we want to take the population to 1.4 million. The population was 200,000 at the time. Today, the population is at 265,000, and it's typical of all of California. I mean, I love being able to go out. All the open space we got and everything, it's so great, but at the same time, it's like, man, we made a mess. How are we going to get out of this one?
You've talked about the Belmont Bike Club and the Larkspur Gang and what they meant for you as a kid. What are the aspects of community that drew you in then, and what do we need to do to create an environment for kids now that helps get them outside?
We need to build things. I was talking to the guys at Red Bull last week, and they have a Red Bull Pump Track Championships down in Arkansas.

We need a lot more venues. NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling Association) wants to have a bike track, a place, a space in every neighborhood - just like a baseball field. It doesn't have to mountain bike 100%. It's got to be bike, and it's got to be something the kids like. That's all. The magic thing about this whole program is kids really like to ride bikes of all forms. It's amazing. The scooter too, the scooter thing is happening. The two-wheel revolution is going through the kids.

We're putting our money in the kids programs. We're putting over a million dollars a year in it right now on that NICA side. Starting at middle school and then through all the high schools. Then we'll do whatever discipline really works for the kids.

Our overseas guys, they have different versions. You'd be surprised at how many of them have their own kids' versions, have had it for a long time.

I remember Czech Republic. Ten years ago I'm there, and I went to an event after a big marathon mountain bike race. The next day was for kids. The youngest were a year and a half old, and they're going about 50 meters with their parents. They're all on these little four-wheel things, and they go up every age group to 14. They have races for all of them, and they have a scene going on with it. You look at how many good riders they have and think, well, what have they been doing?

Europe's the hotbed. The sports are more established. They spend more money per head on sport. They have better coaches, all that, but they work it harder. They just got more kids to start. You go to countries, Asia and a lot of places, no, this doesn't exist there. In the States, it's a new thing and we're bound and determined we want to be in every single high school in the United States. That's 179,000 high schools, and I know we're going to do it. Kids like it too much.
What states are really taking off?
Some of the ones you expect like Minnesota and Wisconsin, and then there's a lot in the southeast. I think it's 25 states right now. It's right around half, and it's almost doubling every year. The amount of riders, the amount of kids that actually do it overall is almost doubling. It's still got a number of years to go to be something really big, but it's getting there. I think, in ten years, it's going to be one of the major kid sports for sure.
What do you think about making the bikes and the gear accessible more? There's still an intimidation factor when you walk into a bike shop.
That's one of the things. If we're going to make this a thing for all the kids in the nation, there's a lot of places where there's got to be a limit on what the bike is.

There are three ways. We've spoken with Schwinn and Shimano and our suppliers and say, hey, we want to make a special model. We want it to be cheap and good and long-lasting. The second aspect is putting a limit on what the bike is (we have all these fancy bikes here in Marin). Then the third will be subsidy. We go to a lot of the people that provide healthcare. They're into it. They know that a third of our 10-year-olds are pre-diabetic, and this is a program to keep kids away from diabetes and really help them lifelong.

GARY FISHER's KIT: NUTRITION, TRAINING AND THE FUTURE
We've got some of your bikes sitting right behind you here. What's your riding of choice or preference these days? How has that evolved?
I've been riding a road bike a lot. It's the easiest for fitness in a way. You can take your effort and just make it what you want. Go as hard as you want to go. Then I got a mountain bike over here. Then an electric bike that's sitting outside today waiting, and that's the shopper bike. That's one you take on the ferry, and go to the city, and go get stuff done really quickly. It's super-efficient.
How have you thought about nutrition and health over the years?
You got to get rid of this notion of food is entertainment. Go back to, well, this is nutrition, and this is medicine and all that. At the same time, be very, very careful what your habits are. That's what you do every day. You can't have dessert every day. That's a bad habit, but man, don't get rid of desserts. If you space them out, they become a bigger celebration every time.

It's all those things that we humans are - if we don't have this stuff, there's nothing worth living for, right? There's the stuff you have to have, those goals. Today, I was just saying I got to ride a race in a month called the Iceman, and it's always a lot of fun up in Michigan. Oh, they have fun, but man, I'm thinking I got to get my ass in shape.

Goals work. It's got to be a challenge but a chance.

As you've gotten older, what works for you for staying in shape and getting out?
It's hard to keep weight off; easy to put weight on, harder to put out just absolute horsepower like I would before so longer rides, easier rides.
What about diet? What's your go-to for consistency?
I don't keep things away 100%. I'll eat beef but just tiny amounts. It's just a little essence of this and that. I eat a lot of fish, but it's simple. A air amount of veggies because they fill you up and make you feel good.

Lately, I've been cooking for my wife, and I learned to cook from her father and Greek diners. That gets into too much comfort food. You want me to make you a leg of lamb? You want me to make you some feta meatballs or all this stuff, oh, man, but that's dangerous. It's good to just have a program - I'll just go out and ride two or three hours a day. If I do that every day and I watch my diet, hey, the weight comes right off.

It's like my brother. He's six years younger than me. He says to me, "I gained a pound a year. That's been the average over the last 15 years." I say, "Rick, that's ten calories a day too much. Ten calories, that's all you got to cut out." It's impossible. You know what I'm saying?

I take a totally different approach. It's like, yeah, yeah, it's creeping up. It's creeping up. It's creeping up. Okay, on the campaign, a month, two months of the campaign, the campaign is burn an extra so-called 1,000 calories day, and then I can eat. I can eat better, but I can't go crazy.

It seems like your appetite goes up first before you start burning off calories. I won't eat a whole lot when I'm out on the road. If you're digesting properly and you absorb well and you're really healthy, you can absorb about 200 calories an hour, right?

You're in really good shape. You're young. You can be burning 1,000 calories an hour. You're in crummy shape, you're 35, you're burning 250, 300 calories an hour. That's it. That's all you can burn. You get in good shape and you're between 35-65, you burn, 400-600 calories an hour.

That's it, and you're never going to produce more than 200 calories an hour from all the sugary stuff. You eat more than 200 calories, and you're just putting it on the storage area. You aren't even using it.

Part of the whole thing is getting into the state of where lot of your energy comes from the anaerobic. An untrained individual will take only 30% of their energy from the anaerobic, and the rest is by breathing hard. Somebody that's well trained, you'll take 70% from your anaerobic, and that's why you'll say, hey, the dude wasn't even breathing hard. He just rode away from me.

I can still get to that place. I don't have the horsepower I had. I can't put out 800 watts for a minute and a half. I can put out 300 watts for a minute and a half. It sounds so pathetic, but you go pretty fast. If I get in really good shape, if I can get back to that anaerobic state where I can fly. I could ride 100 miles right from here to Santa Cruz, and just feel faster in the last hour than the first hour.

I can still get to that place - just can't get there as fast. It used to be I train hard for five weeks. At the end of five weeks, oh, man, I'd be flying, and nothing would hurt me. Now, it takes four months, and I don't do it all the time. I don't think you should go at something that hard all the time. I'll train hard like that, and then I won't train that hard for a year and a half. I'd spend another six months, eight months training really hard. Get back in shape.
How has the role of coaches, nutritionists, and the community of support around athletes evolved?
I've ignored it a lot, too much, I think. I pay a lot of attention to what happens, what's coming down in the papers on nutrition and things. I haven't used a lot of personal coaches; they didn't exist in my day so much. I had the old guy, Larry Walpole, for a while. I had a guy, Fritz Liedel, who was an Austrian, and he was a really good road racer - won Austrian nationals one year.

I look at what I did in my road racing career, and I made a lot of stupid mistakes with training somewhat but especially in strategy and tactics in the event itself. Racing competition is one-third being a nomad, one-third being an athlete, and one-third dealing with the bullshit. You've got to have all that stuff together.

Racing bikes was the thing I wanted to do more than anything. I think that it's one of the most fun things. When you got it all together and you're in one of those big packs with all that energy, it's incredible and how fast everybody is as a group. It is a truly amazing sport when you get close to it. That desire never leaves. It's like to have that kind of horsepower and those cards to deal and everything, it's like you feel like Superman. It's nuts how great the whole thing can feel.

Gary Fisher with his unique carrying style. Mill Valley Cyclocross. December 1, 1974. © Hermann Schmidtke

What about the sponsorships and the funding going to the athletes?
Oh, the whole thing's a mess. They don't get a cut of the TV stuff. They don't have a good union. They've got a union that's just a face; they don't negotiate. It's the saddest thing.

The saddest fact is, some of the best women racers in the world, they've got to quit racing, and go out and find a real job. They've gone to the top of what you can make as a woman racer professionally, and that's not nearly enough. It's a mess. You google top 100 athletic contracts in the world and 80 of them are American baseball contracts. It'll be from five to ten years long mostly, and a lot of bike contracts are notorious for being one or two years. To me, that's crazy for the sponsor as well as the sponsee. You've got an identity with a rider and everything, and then it's all over. There's not a healthy relationship.

The basis of the problem is that there is no riders union and that the riders don't demand enough out of the number one group, which is the Tour de France. The Tour de France guys don't want to share it, and they have no responsibility to want to share it. I mean, people will say, "Oh, they should do this. They should do that." This is their business. They're going to do whatever they're going to do. Come on, grow up kid.

That's the thing. There's no strong riders union. That's the only thing that could get them to cooperate. It's not only riders that don't get the shares. It's the other events, truly. There's no competition for them, so it's like we've gotten ourselves into that thing. The Tour De France gets 100 times more exposure worldwide than the second biggest race, and that's a real issue.
Do you think social media can have a role in elevating what TV is not doing?
Yeah, you bet. You've got to have pushes, power, a position. It's like you can push against - it's like the Japanese know this. I mean, the whole - the wrestler thing, it's like it's all about what you're anchored against. You can push all you want, and if you're not anchored correctly, you're not pushing. Nothing's going to move.

The only leverage they have is, well, who's the entertainer here? Who's providing the entertainment, and what kind of a deal do they have? The deal they have is such a ridiculous third-party deal. It's like they have to deal with their own sponsors, not with the television program at all. They are what sells the TV program, but then there's nothing there. That's the missing link.

Look at the other big worldwide sports, and all of them have and have had a union of some type for the athletes (the people providing the entertainment). Until the sport gets that - and there's some riders that have been talking about that, but it hasn't formed up, I don't see anything on the horizon that's going to change it. It needs that like crazy. Right now, it's just the sponsors taking care of the thing. They can come, and they can go, and they do. They come and go too quickly.

On the woman's side, some things are starting to loosen up and improve. When they get real equality, and that means that they've got to give not just equal prize money but equal time out there. It's ridiculous. Look at the Tokyo Olympics. The time trial for women, it's half the distance. That's an insult right there. It's ridiculous. It's a big statement. It says the women athletes aren't as good as the men athletes. It says it very loud and clear. It's not the way you want to go. It's not the modern world at all. Cycling, especially in an older practice, it's really behind. Mountain bike, I will say they do give a lot more equity, equality in the racing.
Stepping out of the pro world and just into future of biking and just outdoor sports in general, what do you see coming down the road that you're excited about?
Events where people are having fun. A few weeks ago I was at a trail builders conference in Switzerland. A guy from Denmark was talking about their kids program. It's like their kids racing has got a handicap system. You start out the day by doing all these little tricks, little skinnies and little things, technical stuff, and you get 20 seconds to dab. Some kids get a head start, and some kids got to start behind. It puts a completely different element into the thing, which I think is great. Especially for kids in those age groups, they come in a lot of different horsepower ranges, different sizes.

That's always been a thing with the bike is we say it's a great equalizer. It doesn't matter what size you are so much as you find a way. It's just more interesting events like that that's for kids, and then for grownups, I mean, there's all these events for different aspects. It's not just about horsepower or about total skill but combinations thereof. And things that are more fun; they've got good music, good food. People want to have a good time in every category.
Anything I missed? There's so many stories we could go through.
You've got time. We'll talk to you after another five or ten years.

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From light shows for the Grateful Dead and decorating the Jefferson Airplane mansion to becoming one of the pioneers of mountain biking, Gary Fisher has seen a lot. And he remembers it all. Gary was born in 1950, and raced bikes until being suspended in 1968 for long hair.

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Sutter's Mill

On January 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter originally from New Jersey, found flakes of gold in the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Coloma, California.

At the time, Marshall was working to build a water-powered sawmill owned by John Sutter, a German-born Swiss citizen and founder of a colony of Nueva Helvetia (New Switzerland, which would later become the city of Sacramento). As Marshall later recalled of his historic discovery: "It made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold."

Did you know? Miners extracted more than 750,000 pounds of gold during the California Gold Rush.

Days after Marshall's discovery at Sutter's Mill, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican-American War and leaving California in the hands of the United States-a remarkable twist of fate with important ramifications for an America eager for westward expansion.

At the time, the population of the territory consisted of 6,500 Californios (people of Spanish or Mexican descent); 700 foreigners (primarily Americans); and 150,000 Native Americans (barely half the number that had been there when Spanish settlers arrived in 1769).

Sutter, in fact, had enslaved hundreds of Native Americans and used them as a free source of labor and makeshift militia to defend his territory and expand his empire.

Gold Fever Strikes

Though Marshall and Sutter tried to keep news of the discovery under wraps, word got out, and by mid-March at least one newspaper was reporting that large quantities of gold were being turned up at Sutter's Mill. Though the initial reaction in San Francisco was disbelief, storekeeper Sam Brannan set off a frenzy when he paraded through town displaying a vial of gold obtained from Sutter's Creek.

By mid-June, shops and businesses stood empty, as some three-quarters of the male population of San Francisco had abandoned the city for the gold mines, and the number of miners in the area ballooned to some 4,000 by August.

As news reports-many wildly overblown-of the easy fortunes being made in California spread worldwide, some of the first migrants to arrive were those from lands accessible by boat, such as Oregon, the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii), Mexico, Chile, Peru and China.

Polk Spreads Gold Fever

When the news reached the East Coast, press reports were initially skeptical. Gold fever kicked off nationwide in earnest, however, after December 1848, when President James K. Polk announced the positive results of a report made by Colonel Richard Mason, California's military governor, in his inaugural address.

As Polk wrote, "The accounts of abundance of gold are of such an extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by the authentic reports of officers in the public service."

The '49ers Come to California

Throughout 1849, people around the United States (mostly men) with gold fever borrowed money, mortgaged their property or spent their life savings to make the arduous journey to California. In pursuit of the kind of wealth they had never dreamed of, they left their families and hometowns. In turn, women left behind took on new responsibilities such as running farms or businesses and caring for their children alone.

Thousands of would-be gold miners, known as 49ers for the year they arrived, traveled overland across the mountains or by sea, sailing to Panama or even around Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America.

By the end of the year, the non-native population of California was estimated at 100,000, (as compared with 20,000 at the end of 1848 and around 800 in March 1848). To accommodate the needs of the 49ers, gold mining towns had sprung up all over the region, complete with shops, saloons, brothels and other businesses seeking to make their own Gold Rush fortune.

The overcrowded chaos of the mining camps and towns grew ever more lawless, including rampant banditry, gambling, alcoholism, prostitution and violence. San Francisco, for its part, developed a bustling economy and became the central metropolis of the new frontier.

Gold Rush Politics

The Gold Rush undoubtedly sped up California's admission to the Union as the 31st state. In late 1849, California applied to enter the Union with a constitution that barred the Southern system of racial slavery, provoking a crisis in Congress between proponents of slavery and anti-slavery politicians.

According to the Compromise of 1850, proposed by Kentucky's Senator Henry Clay, California was allowed to enter as a free state, while the territories of Utah and New Mexico were left to decide the legal status of slavery for themselves.

California's Mines

After 1850, the surface gold in California largely disappeared, even as miners continued to arrive. Mining had always been difficult and dangerous labor, and striking it rich required good luck as much as skill and hard work. Moreover, the average daily take for an independent miner working with his pick and shovel had by then sharply decreased from what it had been in 1848.

As gold became more and more difficult to reach, the growing industrialization of mining drove more and more miners from independence into wage labor. The new technique of hydraulic mining, developed in 1853, brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region's landscape.

Though gold mining continued throughout the 1850s, it had reached its peak by 1852, when some $81 million was pulled from the ground. After that year, the total take declined gradually, leveling off to around $45 million per year by 1857. Settlement in California continued, however, and by the end of the decade the state's population was 380,000.

Impact of the Gold Rush

New mining methods and the population boom in the wake of the California Gold Rush permanently altered the landscape of California. The technique of hydraulic mining brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region's landscape.

Dams designed to supply water to mine sites in summer altered the course of rivers away from farmland, while sediment from mines clogged others. The logging industry in the area was born from the need to construct extensive canals and feed boilers at mines, further consuming natural resources.

In 1884, hydraulic mining was outlawed by court order, and soon agriculture became the dominant industry in California, and it remains so today. While a few mines and Gold Rush towns remain, much of the heritage of that era is preserved at places such as Bodie State Historic Park, a decaying ghost town, and at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, where Sutter's Mill once stood.

Sources

Environmental Impact of the Gold Rush. Calisphere.org.
After the Gold Rush. National Geographic.

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Gold Rush: California, Date & Sutter's Mill - HISTORY

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The Gold Rush in California started in 1848 after gold was found at Sutter's Mill. Within a year, hundreds of thousands of 49ers seeking fortune poured into the state.

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Michelle Obama's Best Advice For Students | How To Succeed In Life

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facts and history

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Built during a time when Egypt was one of the richest and most powerful civilizations in the world, the pyramids-especially the Great Pyramids of Giza-are some of the most magnificent man-made structures in history. Their massive scale reflects the unique role that the pharaoh, or king, played in ancient Egyptian society. Though pyramids were built from the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the close of the Ptolemaic period in the fourth century A.D., the peak of pyramid building began with the late third dynasty and continued until roughly the sixth (c. 2325 B.C.). More than 4,000 years later, the Egyptian pyramids still retain much of their majesty, providing a glimpse into the country's rich and glorious past.

The Pharaoh in Egyptian Society

During the third and fourth dynasties of the Old Kingdom, Egypt enjoyed tremendous economic prosperity and stability. Kings held a unique position in Egyptian society. Somewhere in between human and divine, they were believed to have been chosen by the gods themselves to serve as their mediators on earth. Because of this, it was in everyone's interest to keep the king's majesty intact even after his death, when he was believed to become Osiris, god of the dead. The new pharaoh, in turn, became Horus, the falcon-god who served as protector of the sun god, Ra.

Did you know? The pyramid's smooth, angled sides symbolized the rays of the sun and were designed to help the king's soul ascend to heaven and join the gods, particularly the sun god Ra.

Ancient Egyptians believed that when the king died, part of his spirit (known as "ka") remained with his body. To properly care for his spirit, the corpse was mummified, and everything the king would need in the afterlife was buried with him, including gold vessels, food, furniture and other offerings. The pyramids became the focus of a cult of the dead king that was supposed to continue well after his death. Their riches would provide not only for him, but also for the relatives, officials and priests who were buried near him.

The Early Pyramids

From the beginning of the Dynastic Era (2950 B.C.), royal tombs were carved into rock and covered with flat-roofed rectangular structures known as "mastabas," which were precursors to the pyramids. The oldest known pyramid in Egypt was built around 2630 B.C. at Saqqara, for the third dynasty's King Djoser. Known as the Step Pyramid, it began as a traditional mastaba but grew into something much more ambitious. As the story goes, the pyramid's architect was Imhotep, a priest and healer who some 1,400 years later would be deified as the patron saint of scribes and physicians. Over the course of Djoser's nearly 20-year reign, pyramid builders assembled six stepped layers of stone (as opposed to mud-brick, like most earlier tombs) that eventually reached a height of 204 feet (62 meters); it was the tallest building of its time. The Step Pyramid was surrounded by a complex of courtyards, temples and shrines where Djoser could enjoy his afterlife.

After Djoser, the stepped pyramid became the norm for royal burials, although none of those planned by his dynastic successors were completed (probably due to their relatively short reigns). The earliest tomb constructed as a "true" (smooth-sided, not stepped) pyramid was the Red Pyramid at Dahshur, one of three burial structures built for the first king of the fourth dynasty, Sneferu (2613-2589 B.C.) It was named for the color of the limestone blocks used to construct the pyramid's core.

The Great Pyramids of Giza

No pyramids are more celebrated than the Great Pyramids of Giza, located on a plateau on the west bank of the Nile River, on the outskirts of modern-day Cairo. The oldest and largest of the three pyramids at Giza, known as the Great Pyramid, is the only surviving structure out of the famed Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was built for Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops, in Greek), Sneferu's successor and the second of the eight kings of the fourth dynasty. Though Khufu reigned for 23 years (2589-2566 B.C.), relatively little is known of his reign beyond the grandeur of his pyramid. The sides of the pyramid's base average 755.75 feet (230 meters), and its original height was 481.4 feet (147 meters), making it the largest pyramid in the world. Three small pyramids built for Khufu's queens are lined up next to the Great Pyramid, and a tomb was found nearby containing the empty sarcophagus of his mother, Queen Hetepheres. Like other pyramids, Khufu's is surrounded by rows of mastabas, where relatives or officials of the king were buried to accompany and support him in the afterlife.

The middle pyramid at Giza was built for Khufu's son Pharaoh Khafre (2558-2532 B.C). The Pyramid of Khafre is the second tallest pyramid at Giza and contains Pharaoh Khafre's tomb. A unique feature built inside Khafre's pyramid complex was the Great Sphinx, a guardian statue carved in limestone with the head of a man and the body of a lion. It was the largest statue in the ancient world, measuring 240 feet long and 66 feet high. In the 18th dynasty (c. 1500 B.C.) the Great Sphinx would come to be worshiped itself, as the image of a local form of the god Horus. The southernmost pyramid at Giza was built for Khafre's son Menkaure (2532-2503 B.C.). It is the shortest of the three pyramids (218 feet) and is a precursor of the smaller pyramids that would be constructed during the fifth and sixth dynasties.

Who Built The Pyramids?

Though some popular versions of history held that the pyramids were built by slaves or foreigners forced into labor, skeletons excavated from the area show that the workers were probably native Egyptian agricultural laborers who worked on the pyramids during the time of year when the Nile River flooded much of the land nearby. Approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone (averaging about 2.5 tons each) had to be cut, transported and assembled to build Khufu's Great Pyramid. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that it took 20 years to build and required the labor of 100,000 men, but later archaeological evidence suggests that the workforce might actually have been around 20,000.

The End of the Pyramid Era

Pyramids continued to be built throughout the fifth and sixth dynasties, but the general quality and scale of their construction declined over this period, along with the power and wealth of the kings themselves. In the later Old Kingdom pyramids, beginning with that of King Unas (2375-2345 B.C), pyramid builders began to inscribe written accounts of events in the king's reign on the walls of the burial chamber and the rest of the pyramid's interior. Known as pyramid texts, these are the earliest significant religious compositions known from ancient Egypt.

The last of the great pyramid builders was Pepy II (2278-2184 B.C.), the second king of the sixth dynasty, who came to power as a young boy and ruled for 94 years. By the time of his rule, Old Kingdom prosperity was dwindling, and the pharaoh had lost some of his quasi-divine status as the power of non-royal administrative officials grew. Pepy II's pyramid, built at Saqqara and completed some 30 years into his reign, was much shorter (172 feet) than others of the Old Kingdom. With Pepy's death, the kingdom and strong central government virtually collapsed, and Egypt entered a turbulent phase known as the First Intermediate Period. Later kings, of the 12th dynasty, would return to pyramid building during the so-called Middle Kingdom phase, but it was never on the same scale as the Great Pyramids.

The Pyramids Today

Tomb robbers and other vandals in both ancient and modern times removed most of the bodies and funeral goods from Egypt's pyramids and plundered their exteriors as well. Stripped of most of their smooth white limestone coverings, the Great Pyramids no longer reach their original heights; Khufu's, for example, measures only 451 feet high. Nonetheless, millions of people continue to visit the pyramids each year, drawn by their towering grandeur and the enduring allure of Egypt's rich and glorious past.

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Egyptian Pyramids - Facts, Use & Construction

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Built during a time when Egypt was one of the richest and most powerful civilizations in the world, the pyramids-especially the Great Pyramids of Giza-are some of the most magnificent man-made structures in history.

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Exoplanets are planets beyond our own solar system. Thousands have been discovered in the past two decades, mostly with NASA's Kepler Space Telescope.

These worlds come in a huge variety of sizes and orbits. Some are gigantic planets hugging close to their parent stars; others are icy, some rocky. NASA and other agencies are looking for a special kind of planet: one that's the same size as Earth, orbiting a sun-like star in the habitable zone.

The habitable zone is the range of distances from a star where a planet's temperature allows liquid water oceans, critical for life on Earth. The earliest definition of the zone was based on simple thermal equilibrium, but current calculations of the habitable zone include many other factors, including the greenhouse effect of a planet's atmosphere. This makes the boundaries of a habitable zone "fuzzy."

Related: 15 places on Earth that look exoplanetary

Astronomers announced in August 2016 that they might have found such a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri. The newfound world, known as Proxima b, is about 1.3 times more massive than Earth, which suggests that the exoplanet is a rocky world, researchers said. The planet is also in the star's habitable zone, just 4.7 million miles (7.5 million kilometers) from its host star. It completes one orbit every 11.2 Earth-days. As a result, it's likely that the exoplanet is tidally locked, meaning it always shows the same face to its host star, just as the moon shows only one face (the near side) to Earth.

Most exoplanets have been discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope, an observatory that began work in 2009 and is expected to finish its mission in 2018, once it runs out of fuel. As of mid-March 2018, Kepler has discovered 2,342 confirmed exoplanets and revealed the existence of perhaps 2,245 others. The total number of planets discovered by all observatories is 3,706.

Early discoveries

While exoplanets were not confirmed until the 1990s, for years beforehand astronomers were convinced they were out there. That wasn't just wishful thinking, but because of how slowly our own sun and other stars like it spin, University of British Columbia astrophysicist Jaymie Matthews told Space.com. Matthews, the mission scientist of occasional exoplanet telescope observer MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of STars), was involved in some of the early exoplanet discoveries.

Astronomers had an origin story for our solar system. Simply put, a spinning cloud of gas and dust (called the protosolar nebula) collapsed under its own gravity and formed the sun and planets. As the cloud collapsed, conservation of angular momentum meant the soon-to-be-sun should have spun faster and faster. But, while the sun contains 99.8 percent of the solar system's mass, the planets have 96 percent of the angular momentum. Astronomers asked themselves why the sun rotates so slowly.

The young sun would have had a very strong magnetic field, whose lines of force reached out into the disk of swirling gas from which the planets would form. These field lines connected with the charged particles in the gas, and acted like anchors, slowing down the spin of the forming sun and spinning up the gas that would eventually turn into the planets. Most stars like the sun rotate slowly, so astronomers inferred that the same "magnetic braking" occurred for them, meaning that planet formation must have occurred for them. The implication: Planets must be common around sun-like stars.

For this reason and others, astronomers at first restricted their search for exoplanets to stars similar to the sun, but the first two discoveries were around a pulsar (rapidly spinning corpse of a star that died as a supernova) called PSR 1257+12, in 1992. The first confirmed discovery of a world orbiting a sun-like star, in 1995, was 51 Pegasi b - a Jupiter-mass planet 20 times closer to its sun than we are to ours. That was a surprise. But another oddity popped up seven years earlier that hinted at the wealth of exoplanets to come.

A Canadian team discovered a Jupiter-size planet around Gamma Cephei in 1988, but because its orbit was much smaller than Jupiter's, the scientists did not claim a definitive planet detection. "We weren't expecting planets like that. It was different enough from a planet in our own solar system that they were cautious," Matthews said.

Most of the first exoplanet discoveries were huge Jupiter-size (or larger) gas giants orbiting close to their parent stars. That's because astronomers were relying on the radial velocity technique, which measures how much a star "wobbles" when a planet or planets orbit it. These large planets close in produce a correspondingly big effect on their parent star, causing an easier-to-detect wobble.

Before the era of exoplanet discoveries, instruments could only measure stellar motions down to a kilometer per second, too imprecise to detect a wobble due to a planet. Now, some instruments can measure velocities as low as a centimeter per second, according to Matthews. "Partly due to better instrumentation, but also because astronomers are now more experienced in teasing subtle signals out of the data."

Kepler, TESS and other observatories

Kepler launched in 2009 on a prime mission to observe a region in the Cygnus constellation. Kepler performed that mission for four years - double its initial mission lifetime - until most of its reaction wheels (pointing devices) failed. NASA then put Kepler on a new mission called K2, in which Kepler uses the pressure of the solar wind to maintain position in space. The observatory periodically switches its field of view to avoid the sun's glare. Kepler's pace of planetary discovery slowed after switching to K2, but it is still found hundreds of exoplanets using the new method. Its latest data release, in February 2018, contained 95 new planets.

(Image credit: Space.com Store)

Kepler has revealed a cornucopia of different types of planets. Besides gas giants and terrestrial planets, it has helped define a whole new class known as " super-Earths": planets that are between the size of Earth and Neptune. Some of these are in the habitable zones of their stars, but astrobiologists are going back to the drawing board to consider how life might develop on such worlds. Kepler's observations showed that super-Earths are abundant in our universe. (Oddly, our solar system doesn't appear to contain a planet of that size, although some believe a large planet nicknamed " Planet Nine" may be lurking in the outer reaches of the solar system.)

Kepler's primary method of searching for planets is the "transit" method. Kepler monitors a star's light. If the light dims at regular and predictable intervals, that suggests a planet is passing across the face of the star. In 2014, Kepler astronomers (including Matthews' former student Jason Rowe) unveiled a new "verification by multiplicity" method that increased the rate at which astronomers promote candidate planets to confirmed planets. The technique is based on orbital stability - many transits of a star occurring with short periods can only be due to planets in small orbits, since multiply eclipsing stars that might mimic would gravitationally eject each other from the system in just a few million years.

As Kepler wraps up its mission, a new observatory called the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is expected to launch in spring 2018. TESS will orbit the Earth every 13.7 days and will perform an all-sky survey over two years. It will survey the Southern Hemisphere in its first year, and the Northern Hemisphere (which includes the original Kepler field) in its second. The observatory is expected to reveal many more exoplanets, including at least 50 that are around the size of Earth.

Other prominent planet-hunting observatories (past and present) include:

The HARPS spectograph on the European Southern Observatory's La Silla 3.6-meter telescope in Chile, whose first light was in 2003. The instrument is designed to look at the wobbles that a planet induces in a star's rotation. HARPS has found well over 100 exoplanets itself, and is regularly used to confirm observations from Kepler and other observatories.

The Canadian Microvariability and Oscillations of STars (MOST) telescope, which started observations in 2003. MOST is designed to observe a star's astroseismology, or starquakes. But it also has participated in exoplanet discoveries, such as finding the exoplanet 55 Cancri e.

The French Space Agency's CoRoT (COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits), which operated between 2006 and 2012. It found a few dozen confirmed planets, including COROT-7b - the first exoplanet that had a predominantly rock or metal composition.

The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble and NASA Spitzer space telescopes, which periodically observe planets in visible or infrared wavelengths, respectively. (More information about a planet's atmosphere is available in infrared.)

The European CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS), which is expected to be ready for launch in 2018. The mission is designed to calculate the diameters of planets accurately, particularly those planets that fall between super-Earth and Neptune masses.

The NASA James Webb Space Telescope, which is expected to launch in 2020. It is specialized to observe in infrared wavelengths. The powerful observatory is expected to reveal more about the habitability of certain exoplanets' atmospheres.

The European Space Agency's PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) telescope, which is expected to launch in 2024. It is designed to learn how planets form and which conditions, if any, could be favorable for life.

The ESA ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey) mission, which will launch in mid-2028. It is expected to observe 1,000 exoplanets and also do a survey of the chemical compositions of their atmospheres.

(Image credit: NASA/Tim Pyle)

Notable exoplanets

With thousands to choose from, it's hard to narrow down a few. Small solid planets in the habitable zone are automatically standouts, but Matthews singled out five other exoplanets that have expanded our perspective on how planets form and evolve:

51 Pegasi b: As mentioned earlier, this was the first planet to be confirmed around a sun-like star. Half the mass of Jupiter, it orbits around its sun at roughly the distance of Mercury from our Sun. 51 Pegasi b is so close to its parent star that it is likely tidally locked, meaning one side always faces the star.

HD 209458 b: This was the first planet found (in 1999) to transit its star (although it was discovered by the Doppler wobble technique) and in subsequent years more discoveries piled up. It was the first planet outside the solar system for which we could determine aspects of its atmosphere, including temperature profile and the lack of clouds. (Matthews participated in some of the observations using MOST.)

55 Cancri e: This super-Earth orbits a star that is bright enough to see by eye, meaning astronomers can study the system in more detail than almost any other. Its "year" is only 17 hours and 41 minutes long (recognized when MOST gazed at the system for two weeks in 2011). Theorists speculate that the planet may be carbon-rich, with a diamond core.

HD 80606 b: At the time of its discovery in 2001, it held the record as the most eccentric exoplanet ever discovered. It is possible that its odd orbit (which is similar to Halley's Comet around the sun) may be due to the influence of another star. Its extreme orbit would make the planet's environment extremely variable.

WASP-33b: This planet was discovered in 2011 and has a sort of "sunscreen" layer - a stratosphere - that absorbs some of the visible and ultraviolet light from its parent star. Not only does this planet orbit its star "backward," but it also triggers vibrations in the star, seen by the MOST satellite.

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Exoplanets: Worlds Beyond Our Solar System

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Astronomers have discovered thousands of extrasolar planets. Researchers hope to find a habitable planet someday.

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The History Of Cricket. Where Cricket Started.

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Is This How Cricket Was Started? Get the Fact on How Cricket was Created They say you have to be born into cricket. Me, I love it. An American friend once described it as "baseball on Valium." The origins of the game of cricket are lost in the mists of time.

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Anne Frank (1929-1945), a young Jewish girl, her sister, and her parents moved to the Netherlands from Germany after Adolf Hitler and the Nazis came to power

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Harriet Tubman, née Araminta Ross, (born c. 1820, Dorchester county, Maryland, U.S.-died March 10, 1913, Auburn, New York), American bondwoman who escaped from slavery in the South to become a leading abolitionist before the American Civil War. She led dozens of enslaved people to freedom in the North along the route of the Underground Railroad-an elaborate secret network of safe houses organized for that purpose.

Born into slavery, Araminta Ross later adopted her mother's first name, Harriet. At about age five she was first hired out to work, initially serving as a nursemaid and later as a field hand, a cook, and a woodcutter. When she was about 12 years old she reportedly refused to help an overseer punish another enslaved person, and she suffered a severe head injury when he threw an iron weight that accidentally struck her; she subsequently suffered seizures throughout her life. About 1844 she married John Tubman, a free Black man.

In 1849, on the strength of rumours that she was about to be sold, Tubman fled to Philadelphia, leaving behind her husband (who refused to leave), parents, and siblings. In December 1850 she made her way to Baltimore, Maryland, whence she led her sister and two children to freedom. That journey was the first of some 13 increasingly dangerous forays into Maryland in which, over the next decade, she conducted about 70 fugitive enslaved people along the Underground Railroad to Canada.(Owing to exaggerated figures in Sara Bradford's 1868 biography of Tubman, it was long held that Tubman had made about 19 journeys into Maryland and guided upward of 300 people out of enslavement.) Tubman displayed extraordinary courage, persistence, and iron discipline, which she enforced upon her charges. If anyone decided to turn back-thereby endangering the mission-she reportedly threatened them with a gun and said, "You'll be free or die." She also was inventive, devising various strategies to better ensure success. One such example was escaping on Saturday nights, since it would not appear in newspapers until Monday. The railroad's most famous conductor, Tubman became known as the "Moses of her people." It has been said that she never lost a fugitive she was leading to freedom.

Rewards were offered by slaveholders for Tubman's capture, while Abolitionists celebrated her courage. John Brown, who consulted her about his own plans to organize an antislavery raid of a federal armoury in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now in West Virginia), referred to her as "General" Tubman. About 1858 she bought a small farm near Auburn, New York, where she placed her aged parents (she had brought them out of Maryland in June 1857) and herself lived thereafter. From 1862 to 1865 she served as a scout, as well as nurse and laundress, for Union forces in South Carolina during the Civil War. For the Second Carolina Volunteers, under the command of Col. James Montgomery, Tubman spied on Confederate territory. When she returned with information about the locations of warehouses and ammunition, Montgomery's troops were able to make carefully planned attacks. For her wartime service Tubman was paid so little that she had to support herself by selling homemade baked goods.

After the Civil War Tubman settled in Auburn and began taking in orphans and the elderly, a practice that eventuated in the Harriet Tubman Home for Indigent Aged Negroes. The home later attracted the support of former abolitionist comrades and the citizens of Auburn, and it continued in existence for some years after her death. Tubman also became involved in various other causes, including women's suffrage. In the late 1860s and again in the late '90s she applied for a federal pension for her work during the Civil War. Some 30 years after her service a private bill providing for $20 monthly was passed by Congress.

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Harriet Tubman | Biography, Facts, & Underground Railroad

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Harriet Tubman, American bondwoman who escaped from slavery in the South to become a leading abolitionist before the American Civil War. She led dozens of enslaved people to freedom in the North along the route of the Underground Railroad. Learn more about Tubman's life.

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Watch first lady Michelle Obama’s full speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention

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California | Flag, Facts, Maps, Capital, Cities, & Destinations - History

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California - History: When Spanish navigator Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo became the first European to sight the region that is present-day California in 1542, there were about 130,000 Native Americans inhabiting the area. The territory was neglected by Spain for more than two centuries (until 1769) because of reports of the region's poverty and a general slowdown of Spanish exploration.

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golf was made in the 15th century Scotland 

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golf was made in the 15th century Scotland 

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http://www.otisguycycles.com

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bicycles are hand built under the shadow of Mt. Tamalpais by . Based out of Marin County, California - widely regarded as the birthplace of mountain biking - has been racing for more than forty years and building bikes for thirty eight years. As a former Category 1 road racer, a Pro mountain bike racer, and a Mountain Bike Hall of Famer, ' experience is far reaching.

' frames are hand built by himself, using the best steel tubing from True Temper, Columbus and others manufacturers. Depending on the use and profile of the rider, mixes the most efficient combination of tubing and brazing. All frames are fully fillet brazed. Depending on the amount of orders, frames are completed in six to eight weeks.

Frame prices without forks are $2500 for road, mountain or cyclocross/adventure frames. I use Enve forks for road/cross/adventure. I do not supply MTB forks and will need to know which fork you are going to use. Stems are available by quote.

All frames are built one at a time. I need riders specifications with fitting done by customer (at preferred bike shop or bike fitting service and then consulted by both of us before designing frame.

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bicycles are hand built under the shadow of Mt. Tamalpais by . Based out of Marin County, California - widely regarded as the birthplace of mountain biking - has been racing for more than forty years and building bikes for thirty eight years.

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When Was Harriet Tubman Born?

Harriet Tubman was born around 1820 on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her parents, Harriet ("Rit") Green and Benjamin Ross, named her Araminta Ross and called her "Minty."

Rit worked as a cook in the plantation's "big house," and Benjamin was a timber worker. Araminta later changed her first name to Harriet in honor of her mother.

Harriet had eight brothers and sisters, but the realities of slavery eventually forced many of them apart, despite Rit's attempts to keep the family together. When Harriet was five years old, she was rented out as a nursemaid where she was whipped when the baby cried, leaving her with permanent emotional and physical scars.

Around age seven Harriet was rented out to a planter to set muskrat traps and was later rented out as a field hand. She later said she preferred physical plantation work to indoor domestic chores.

A Good Deed Gone Bad

Harriet's desire for justice became apparent at age 12 when she spotted an overseer about to throw a heavy weight at a fugitive. Harriet stepped between the enslaved person and the overseer-the weight struck her head.

She later said about the incident, "The weight broke my skull ... They carried me to the house all bleeding and fainting. I had no bed, no place to lie down on at all, and they laid me on the seat of the loom, and I stayed there all day and the next."

Harriet's good deed left her with headaches and narcolepsy the rest of her life, causing her to fall into a deep sleep at random. She also started having vivid dreams and hallucinations which she often claimed were religious visions (she was a staunch Christian). Her infirmity made her unattractive to potential slave buyers and renters.

Escape from Slavery

In 1840, Harriet's father was set free and Harriet learned that Rit's owner's last will had set Rit and her children, including Harriet, free. But Rit's new owner refused to recognize the will and kept Rit, Harriet and the rest of her children in bondage.

Around 1844, Harriet married John Tubman, a free Black man, and changed her last name from Ross to Tubman. The marriage was not good, and the knowledge that two of her brothers-Ben and Henry-were about to be sold provoked Harriet to plan an escape.

Harriet Tubman: Underground Railroad

On September 17, 1849, Harriet, Ben and Henry escaped their Maryland plantation. The brothers, however, changed their minds and went back. With the help of the Underground Railroad, Harriet persevered and traveled 90 miles north to Pennsylvania and freedom.

Tubman found work as a housekeeper in Philadelphia, but she wasn't satisfied living free on her own-she wanted freedom for her loved ones and friends, too.

She soon returned to the south to lead her niece and her niece's children to Philadelphia via the Underground Railroad. At one point, she tried to bring her husband John north, but he'd remarried and chose to stay in Maryland with his new wife.

Fugitive Slave Act

The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act allowed fugitive and freed workers in the north to be captured and enslaved. This made Harriet's role as an Underground Railroad conductor much harder and forced her to lead enslaved people further north to Canada, traveling at night, usually in the spring or fall when the days were shorter.

She carried a gun for both her own protection and to "encourage" her charges who might be having second thoughts. She often drugged babies and young children to prevent slave catchers from hearing their cries.

Over the next 10 years, Harriet befriended other abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, Thomas Garrett and Martha Coffin Wright, and established her own Underground Railroad network. It's widely reported she emancipated 300 enslaved people; however, those numbers may have been estimated and exaggerated by her biographer Sarah Bradford, since Harriet herself claimed the numbers were much lower.

Nevertheless, it's believed Harriet personally led at least 70 enslaved people to freedom, including her elderly parents, and instructed dozens of others on how to escape on their own. She claimed, "I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."

Harriet Tubman's Civil War Service

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Harriet found new ways to fight slavery. She was recruited to assist fugitive enslaved people at Fort Monroe and worked as a nurse, cook and laundress. Harriet used her knowledge of herbal medicines to help treat sick soldiers and fugitive enslaved people.

In 1863, Harriet became head of an espionage and scout network for the Union Army. She provided crucial intelligence to Union commanders about Confederate Army supply routes and troops and helped liberate enslaved people to form Black Union regiments.

Though just over five feet tall, she was a force to be reckoned with, although it took over three decades for the government to recognize her military contributions and award her financially.

Harriet Tubman's Later Years

After the Civil War, Harriet settled with family and friends on land she owned in Auburn, New York. She married former enslaved man and Civil War veteran Nelson Davis in 1869 (her husband John had died 1867) and they adopted a little girl named Gertie a few years later.

Harriet had an open-door policy for anyone in need. She supported her philanthropy efforts by selling her home-grown produce, raising pigs and accepting donations and loans from friends. She remained illiterate yet toured parts of the northeast speaking on behalf of the women's suffrage movement and worked with noted suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony.

In 1896, Harriet purchased land adjacent to her home and opened the Harriet Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Colored People. The head injury she suffered in her youth continued to plague her and she endured brain surgery to help relieve her symptoms. But her health continued to deteriorate and eventually forced her to move into her namesake rest home in 1911.

Pneumonia took Harriet Tubman's life on March 10, 1913, but her legacy lives on. Schools and museums bear her name and her story has been revisited in books, movies and documentaries.

Harriet Tubman: $20 Bill

Tubman even had a World War II Liberty ship named after her, the SS Harriet Tubman.

In 2016, the United States Treasury announced that Harriet's image will replace that of former President and slaveowner Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (who served under President Trump) later announced the new bill would be delayed until at least 2026. In January 2021, President Biden's administration announced it would speed up the design process to mint the bills honoring Tubman's legacy.

Sources

Early Life. Harriet Tubman Historical Society.

General Tubman: Female Abolitionist was Also a Secret Military Weapon. Military Times.

Harriet Tubman Biography. Biography.

Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, Residence, and Thompson AME Zion Church. National Park Service.

Harriet Tubman Myths and Facts. Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman Portrait of An American Hero by Kate Clifford Larson, Ph.D.

Harriet Tubman. National Park Service.

Harriet Tubman. National Women's History Museum.

Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People. Harriet Tubman Historical Society.

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad. National Park Service.

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Harriet Tubman: Facts, Underground Railroad & Legacy | HISTORY

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Harriet Tubman was an escaped enslaved woman who became a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, leading enslaved people to freedom before the Civil War. She was also a nurse, a Union spy and a women's suffrage supporter.

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List of National Basketball Association awards - Wikipedia

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“NBA awards” redirects here. For the awards show, see NBA Awards.

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about a problem in ancient Egyptian

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CAIRO - 4 January 2022: Ancient Egypt's Middle Kingdom witnessed a period of great prosperity. The Middle Kingdom comprises the 11th,12th, and 13th Dynasties.

Although the Eleventh Dynasty had its origins from the First Intermediate Period, the last kings of this era, most importantly king Nebhepetre 2055 - 2004 BC, succeeded in uniting Egypt, thus began the Middle Kingdom.

The Middle Kingdom represented an important shift in the history of ancient Egyptian culture, as it provided great contributions to the ancient Egyptian language and literature.

New language combinations emerged and many new literary texts were written, many of which remained popular for more than a thousand years.

The language used to write these texts with its grammatical rules is called Middle Egyptian, which would be the language of official texts until the Ptolemaic period (332-30 BC) and the Roman era 30 BC - 395 AD.

The Eleventh Dynasty came from Thebes (now Luxor), which was not an important city during that period, but it will become one of the most prominent and important cities in Egypt during the rest of ancient Egyptian history.

Because of his Theban origins, Nebhepetre was buried on the western mainland in Thebes in the Deir el-Bahari region. His tomb included a temple for his funeral rites. The tomb was partially cut into a cliff, while part of it was built in the form of a balcony that includes a middle ascending slope, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

This temple apparently served as a partial inspiration for the adjacent and more famous temple of Queen Hatshepsut to its immediate left.

Little is known about Mentuhotep III and IV, who were the last rulers of the Eleventh Dynasty. Amenemhat I (1985-1955 BC) was the first king of the Twelfth Dynasty (1985-1795 BC), who was probably the vizier of Mentuhotep IV.

The kings of this hugely successful dynasty consolidated the power of the central government all over Egypt. During this period, the powerful provincial governors were restrained. They also carried out construction projects all over the country, strengthened its borders, sent mining expeditions, and encouraged trade expeditions.

The chain of forts served not only as defensive forts, but also for the movement of incoming Nubian merchants, as well as bases for mining and military operations.

The reign of Kings Senusret III (1874-1855 BC) and Amenemhat III (1850-1808 BC) were particularly prosperous. Huge agricultural projects were implemented during that period, especially in the Fayoum region in Central Egypt, where canals were dug, part of the lake was dredged and the resulting lands were reclaimed for agriculture.

The kings of the Twelfth Dynasty were buried in this area in huge pyramids near the new capital founded by Amenemhat I. Its exact location is still unknown.

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Ancient Egypt's Middle Kingdom: An era when the ancient Egyptian language & literature flourished

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CAIRO - 4 January 2022: Ancient Egypt's Middle Kingdom witnessed a period of great prosperity. The Middle Kingdom comprises the 11th,12th, and 13th Dynasties. Although the Eleventh Dynasty had its origins from the First Intermediate Period, the last kings of this era, most importantly king Nebhepetre 2055 - 2004 BC, succeeded in uniting Egypt, thus began the Middle Kingdom.

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Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond our Solar System

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Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond our Solar System

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NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program, the search for planets and life beyond our solar system.

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Spoons are good for... Escaping from jail?

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Spoons are good for... Escaping from jail?

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It was one of the most ingenious prison breaks of all time-if it worked. In 1962, inmates and bank robbers Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin vanished from Alcatraz, the federal island penitentiary off the coast of San Francisco. They had used sharpened spoons to bore through the prison walls, left papier-maché dummies in their beds and floated away on a raft made from 50 raincoats.

But what happened next has stumped historians for decades. Their bodies were never recovered, leaving many wondering whether they perished in the choppy San Francisco Bay or made it to shore-and freedom.

In the years since, nearly six decades of silence from the men led many to conclude that the escape had met a watery end. The FBI closed its case in 1979, concluding that the escapees were unlikely to have survived a treacherous swim of more than a mile of frigid waters to the mainland. But in January of 2018, CBS San Francisco published an extract of a letter addressed to the FBI that told an altogether different story-and claimed that the criminals had been at large since the 1960s. "My name is John Anglin," it read. "I escape[d] from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. I'm 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer. Yes we all made it that night but barely!"

The letter was sent to the San Francisco Police Department's Richmond station in 2013, the broadcaster reported, but had been kept under wraps during a long investigation. An FBI laboratory examined the letter for fingerprints and DNA, and analyzed the handwriting within, but the results were inconclusive. "So that means yes, and it means no, so this leaves everything in limbo," security analyst Jeff Harp told CBS.

In the letter, the writer explained that he was the last living member of the trio, with his co-conspirators dying in 2005 and 2008. He offered a deal: If authorities announced on television that he would receive a single one-year jail sentence, in which he could have the medical treatment he needed, "I will write back to let you know exactly where I am. This is no joke..." The FBI did no such thing, and instead repressed the letter.

Though this is the first time anyone purporting to be one of the men has contacted authorities, it isn't the first piece of evidence that suggests they might have made it out in one piece. Robert Checchi, an officer with the San Francisco police, reported seeing what he described as a "pristine white boat" out in the Bay on the night of the men's disappearance. It had no lights on, but appeared to have someone on board shining a flashlight into the water. Police followed up on the sighting, but couldn't find the owner of this strange boat-or where it went next.

More recently, a 2015 HISTORY special showed an alleged photograph of the brothers, taken in Brazil some 13 years after their disappearance. Family members of the men have also reported strange experiences that suggest there may be more to the story than many believe. "It's always been talked about through the family," David Widner, a nephew of John and Clarence Anglin, told CBS. "My grandmother received roses for several years after the escape." If Anglin is still alive today, he would be nearly 90. He has not been heard from since.

Widner expressed dismay that authorities had not contacted the family about his relative's alleged illness. "For him to say he had cancer and was dying, I feel like they should have at least reached out to the family and let them know [the letter] existed," he said.

But federal authorities have been quick to quash any rumors of a successful great escape. In an interview with CBS San Francisco, the U.S. Marshals investigating the case told the broadcaster they considered the lead closed with no merit, and a simple hoax from someone hoping to scam and embarrass federal and local authorities. "The Federal Bureau of Prisons say that they drowned once they got off of Alcatraz and their bodies were swept out to the Pacific Ocean-end of story," National Park Service Ranger John Cantwell said.

The prison was closed permanently in 1963, a year after the men vanished. Today, it plays host to more than a million tourists each year, often drawn to the site by the story of the Anglin brothers, which was adapted for the screen in the 1979 film Escape From Alcatraz. John Anglin's cell, where the men made their exit, is a popular attraction. It's preserved almost perfectly, with the same gaping hole in its teal-painted wall-but even the scene of the crime offers few answers as to where these great escapees wound up.

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Was the Escape from Alcatraz Successful? Exploring New Evidence

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It was one of the most ingenious prison breaks of all time-if it worked. In 1962, inmates and bank robbers Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin vanished from Alcatraz, the federal island penitentiary off the coast of San Francisco.

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Nickname(s)

Men in Blue, Team India

Test status acquired

1931

ICC status

Full Member (1926)

World Cup appearances

12 ( first in 1975)

Best result

Champions ( 1983, 2011)

T20 World Cup appearances

6 ( first in 2007)

As of 28 March 2021

The India men's national cricket team, also known as Team India and Men in Blue, is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One-Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status.

Cricket was introduced to India by British sailors in the 18th century, and the first cricket club was established in 1792. India's national cricket team did not play its first Test match until 25 June 1932 at Lord's, becoming the sixth team to be granted test cricket status. From 1932 India had to wait until 1952, almost 20 years for its first Test victory. In its first fifty years of international cricket, India was one of the weaker teams, winning only 35 of the first 196 Test matches it played. The team, however, gained strength in the 1970s with the emergence of players such as batsmen Gavaskar, Viswanath, Kapil Dev, and the Indian spin quartet.

Traditionally much stronger at home than abroad, the Indian team has improved its overseas form, especially in limited-overs cricket, since the start of the 21st century, winning Test matches in Australia, England and South Africa. It is second cricket team to win World Cup after West Indies. It has won the Cricket World Cup twice - in 1983 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev and in 2011 under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. After winning the 2011 World Cup, India became only the third team after West Indies and Australia to have won the World Cup more than once, and the first cricket team to win the World Cup at home. It also won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. It was also the joint champions of 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, along with Sri Lanka. The team has also won the Asian Cup seven times, making them one of the most successful cricket team in both Asia and the world. They are also one of the only four teams to win all major ICC tournaments. India have also won the ICC Test Championship, ICC ODI Championship , ICC T20I Championship and the World Championship of Cricket in 1985.

The Indian cricket team has rivalries with other Test-playing nations, most notably with Pakistan, the political arch-rival of India. However, in recent times, rivalries with nations like Australia, South Africa and England have also gained prominence.

As of 10 March 2021, India is ranked first in Tests, second in both ODIs and T20Is by the ICC. Virat Kohli is the current captain of the team across all formats, while the head coach is Ravi Shastri.

Early history (1700s-1918)

The British brought cricket to India in the early 1700s, with the first cricket match played in 1721. In 1848, the Parsi community in Bombay formed the Oriental Cricket Club, the first cricket club to be established by Indians. After slow beginnings, the Europeans eventually invited the Parsis to play a match in 1877. By 1912, the Parsis, Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims of Bombay played a quadrangular tournament with the Europeans every year. In the early 1900s, some Indians went on to play for the England cricket team. Some of these, such as Ranjitsinhji and KS Duleepsinhji were greatly appreciated by the British and their names went on to be used for the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy - two major first-class tournaments in India. In 1911, an Indian team went on their first official tour of the British Isles, but only played English county teams and not the England cricket team.

Test match status (1918-1970)

India was invited to The Imperial Cricket Council in 1926, and made their debut as a Test playing nation in England in 1932, led by CK Nayudu, who was considered as the best Indian batsman at the time. The one-off Test match between the two sides was played at Lord's in London. The team was not strong in their batting at this point and went on to lose by 158 runs. India hosted its first Test series in the year 1933. England was the visiting team that played 2 Tests in Bombay (now Mumbai) and Calcutta (now Kolkata). The visitors won the series 2-0. The Indian team continued to improve throughout the 1930s and '40s but did not achieve an international victory during this period. In the early 1940s, India didn't play any Test cricket due to the Second World War. The team's first series as an independent country was in late 1947 against Sir Donald Bradman's Invincibles (a name given to the Australia national cricket team of that time). It was also the first Test series India played which was not against England. Australia won the five-match series 4-0, with Bradman tormenting the Indian bowling in his final Australian summer. India subsequently played their first Test series at home not against England, but against the West Indies in 1948. West Indies won the 5-Test series 1-0.

India recorded their first Test victory, in their 24th match, against England at Madras in 1952. Later in the same year, they won their first Test series, which was against Pakistan. They continued their improvement throughout the early 1950s with a series win against New Zealand in 1956. However, they did not win again in the remainder of the decade and lost badly to strong Australian and English sides. On 24 August 1959, India lost by an innings in the Test to complete the only 5-0 whitewash ever inflicted by England. The next decade saw India's reputation develop as a team with a strong record at home. They won their first Test series against England at home in 1961-62 and also won a home series against New Zealand. They managed to draw home series against Pakistan and Australia and another series against England. In this same period, India also won its first series outside the subcontinent, against New Zealand in 1967-68.

The key to India's bowling in the 1970s were the Indian spin quartet - Bishen Bedi, E.A.S. Prasanna, BS Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan. This period also saw the emergence of two of India's best ever batsmen, Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath. Indian pitches have had the tendency to support spin and the spin quartet exploited this to create collapses in opposing batting line-ups. These players were responsible for the back-to-back series wins in 1971 in the West Indies and in England, under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar. Gavaskar scored 774 runs in the West Indian series while Dilip Sardesai's 112 played a big part in their one Test win.

One-day cricket and ICC Cricket World Cup success (1970-1985)

The advent of One Day International (ODI) cricket in 1971 created a new dimension in the cricket world. However, India was not considered strong in ODIs at this point and batsmen such as the captain Gavaskar were known for their defensive approach to batting. India began as a weak team in ODIs and did not qualify for the second round in the first two editions of the Cricket World Cup. Gavaskar infamously blocked his way to 36 not out off 174 balls against England in the first World Cup in 1975, India scored just 132 for 3 and lost by 202 runs.

In contrast, India fielded a strong team in Test matches and was particularly strong at home, where their combination of stylish batsmen and beguiling spinners were at their best. India set a then Test record in the third Test against the West Indies at Port-of-Spain in 1976, when they chased 403 to win, thanks to 112 from Viswanath. This West Indian defeat is considered to be a watershed in the history of their cricket because it led to captain Clive Lloyd dispensing with spin altogether and relying entirely on a four-man pace attack instead. In November 1976, the team established another record by scoring 524 for 9 declared against New Zealand at Kanpur without any individual batsman scoring a century. There were six fifties, the highest being 70 by Mohinder Amarnath. This innings was only the eighth instance in Test cricket where all eleven batsmen reached double figures.

During the 1980s, India developed a more attack-minded batting line-up with stroke makers such as the wristy Mohammed Azharuddin, Dilip Vengsarkar and all-rounders Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri. India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983, defeating the favourites and the two-time defending champions West Indies in the final at Lords, owing to a strong bowling performance. In spite of this, the team performed poorly in the Test arena, including 28 consecutive Test matches without a victory. In 1984, India won the Asia Cup and in 1985, won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia. Apart from this, India remained a weak team outside the Indian subcontinent. India's Test series victory in 1986 against England remained the last Test series win by India outside the subcontinent for the next 19 years. The 1980s saw Gavaskar and Kapil Dev (India's best all-rounder to date) at the pinnacle of their careers. Gavaskar made a Test record 34 centuries as he became the first man to reach the 10,000 run mark. Kapil Dev later became the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket with 434 wickets. The period was also marked by an unstable leadership, with Gavaskar and Kapil exchanging the captaincy several times.

Late 20th century (1985-2000)

The addition of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble to the national side in 1989 and 1990 further improved the team. The following year, Javagal Srinath, India's fastest bowler since Amar Singh made his debut. Despite this, during the 1990s, India did not win any of its 33 Tests outside the subcontinent while it won 17 out of its 30 Tests at home. After being eliminated by neighbours Sri Lanka on home soil at the 1996 Cricket World Cup semifinal, the team underwent a year of change as Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, later to become captains of the team, made their debut in the same Test at Lord's. Tendulkar replaced Azharuddin as captain in late 1996, but after a personal and team form slump, Tendulkar relinquished the captaincy and Azharuddin was reinstated at the beginning of 1998. With the captaincy burden removed, Tendulkar was the world's leading run-scorer in both Tests and ODIs, as India enjoyed a home Test series win over Australia, the best-ranked team in the world.

After failing to reach the semifinals at the 1999 Cricket World Cup, Tendulkar was again made captain, and had another poor run, losing 3-0 on a tour of Australia and then 2-0 at home to South Africa. Tendulkar resigned, vowing never to captain the team again. Ganguly was appointed the new captain and the team was further damaged in 2000 when former captain Azharuddin and fellow batsman Ajay Jadeja were implicated in a match-fixing scandal and given life and five years bans respectively. This period was described by the BBC as "the Indian cricket's worst hour". However, the new core - Tendulkar, Dravid, Kumble and Ganguly - swore not to let this happen to them again, and lead Indian cricket out of the dark times. And the first three put aside personal ambitions to let Ganguly lead them into a new era.

21st century

The Indian team underwent major improvements under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly and guidance of John Wright, India's first foreign coach. India maintained their unbeaten home record against Australia in Test series after victory in 2001. The series was famous for the Kolkata Test match, in which India became only the third team in the history of Test cricket to win a Test match after following on. Australian captain Steve Waugh labelled India as the "Final Frontier" because of his side's inability to win a Test series in India. Victory in 2001 against the Australians marked the beginning of a dream run for India under their captain Sourav Ganguly, winning Test matches in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, West Indies and England. The England series is also known for India's highest ODI run-chase of 325 runs at Lord's, which came in the Natwest ODI Series final against England. In the same year, India were joint-winners of the ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka and then went to the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa, where they reached the final, only to be beaten by Australia. The 2003-04 season also saw India play out a Test series in Australia, where they drew 1-1 with the world champions, and then win a Test and ODI series in Pakistan.

From the 2004 season, India suffered from lack of form and fitness from its older players. A defeat in a home Test series against Australia was followed by an ODI home series defeat against Pakistan followed by a Test series levelled 1-1. Greg Chappell took over from John Wright as the coach of the Indian cricket team following the series, but his methods proved controversial and led to a falling out with Ganguly, resulting in Rahul Dravid being made captain. This triggered a revival in the team's fortunes with the emergence of such players as MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina, and the coming of age of Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh. A thumping home series victory over Sri Lanka in 2005 and a drawn series with South Africa put India at second place in the ICC ODI rankings. Dravid, Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were selected to play for the ICC World XI in the 2005 " SuperTest" against Australia. A convincing ODI series win in Pakistan in early 2006, following a loss in the Test series, gave India the world record of 17 successive ODI victories while batting second.

However, a 4-1 series loss in the West Indies in 2006 prompted a slump in India's ODI form, while they achieved a 1-0 victory in the Test series that followed, giving them their first Test series victory in the Caribbean since 1971. India's ODI form slumped further with a disappointing performance in the 2006 Champions Trophy and a drubbing in the ODI series in South Africa. This was followed yet again by an initial good performance in the Tests, giving India its first Test match win in South Africa, although they went on to lose the series 2-1. This Test series was marked by Ganguly's comeback to the Indian team.

In December 2006, India played and won its first Twenty20 international in South Africa, becoming the most recent Test team to play Twenty20 cricket. The beginning of 2007 had seen a revival in the Indian team's ODI fortunes before the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Series victories against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, marked by the comeback of Ganguly and strong form by Tendulkar, as well as the emergence of young players like Robin Uthappa persuaded many pundits to tip India as a contender to win the 2007 Cricket World Cup. However, defeats to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka saw India fail to reach the second round.

Success under Dhoni

After winning the Test series against England in August 2007, Dravid stepped down as captain and Dhoni was made captain of the Twenty20 and ODI team. In September 2007, India won the first-ever Twenty20 World Cup held in South Africa, beating Pakistan by 5 runs in the final. In 2007-08, they toured Australia where India lost the highly controversial home Test series 2-1 but managed to win the CB series the following month with a whitewash of Australia.

In April 2009, India secured their first Test series win in New Zealand in 41 years. After beating Sri Lanka 2-0 in December 2009, India became the No. 1 Test team in the world. They retained the ranking by drawing series against South Africa and Sri Lanka. In October 2010, India whitewashed Australia 2-0 in the home test series, giving them back-to-back series wins against them. Later that year, India managed to draw the Test series in South Africa at 1-1.

On 2 April 2011, India won the 2011 Cricket World Cup by defeating Sri Lanka in the final, thus becoming the third team after West Indies and Australia to win the World Cup twice. India also became the first team to win the World Cup on home soil.

India were whitewashed 4-0 in an away Test series in England in August 2011, which resulted in England replacing India as the No. 1 ranked Test team. This was followed by another 4-0 whitewash January 2012 in Australia. The disastrous whitewashes saw the retirement of Dravid and VVS Laxman from Test cricket in 2012. Tendulkar retired in November 2013 after his 200th Test match. With Ganguly retired in 2008, this period signalled the end of the fabled middle-order batting line-up India had for over a decade. In 2012, India continued to face a tough transition period as they were beaten 2-1 in a home Test series by England. This was the first time India had been beaten by England at home since 1984-85. This was followed by a 2-1 loss in the ODI series against Pakistan at home. India were then knocked out in the second round of the 2012 ICC World Twenty20. India also failed to qualify for the 2012 Asia Cup final, which closed out a disappointing year for India. However, 2013 saw a resurgence in Indian cricket.

Worldwide limited-overs success

In early 2013, India returned the favor to Australia and whitewashed them 4-0 at home in a Test series. India then beat the Aussies 3-2 in the seven-match ODI series and won the one-off T20I. However, India lost heavily against New Zealand and South Africa away from home, leading to heavy criticism of Indian cricketers for not being able to perform overseas. India defeated England in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy final and Dhoni became the first captain in history to win the three major ICC trophies, namely the ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC World Twenty20 and ICC Champions Trophy. This was followed by a victory in the West Indies Triangular Series in 2013 consisting of India, West Indies, and Sri Lanka. In 2014, India toured Bangladesh and England. Although they beat the former 2-0 in three ODIs, India was beaten 3-1 in five Test matches by England. This series included a famous win for the Indian team in the second match of the series at Lord's. The Test series was followed by a 3-1 win for the Indians in a five-match ODI series and a loss in a one-off T20 against England.

India again failed to reach the final of the Asia Cup in 2014. In the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 hosted in Bangladesh, India narrowly missed out on another ICC trophy by losing to Sri Lanka in the final. This tournament saw the rise of Virat Kohli as one of the best-limited overs batsmen in world cricket, as he was adjudged the man of the series. India soon comprehensively beat Sri Lanka and West Indies in the ODI series to cement their position at the top of the ODI rankings. India toured Australia towards the end of 2014 for a 4-match Test series, which is remembered for MS Dhoni's sudden retirement from Test cricket after the end of the second Test. Virat Kohli was appointed as the captain of Team India in Test matches but he was unable to turn the series around and India lost 2-0. Kohli's first series win as captain came away from home in a three-match Test series vs Sri Lanka, which signaled the beginning of an unbeaten Test series run for India.

India began to dominate at home in Test matches under new captain Virat Kohli after they comprehensively beat South Africa in 2015. This series was the beginning of an unbeaten streak of 19 Test matches. This series also saw the emergence of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja as two of the best spinners and all-rounders. This was followed by limited-overs victories over Australia and Sri Lanka away from home. India was knocked out of the 2015 World Cup in the semi-final to eventual winners Australia. India began 2016 by winning the 2016 Asia Cup, remaining unbeaten throughout the tournament. India were favorites to win the 2016 ICC World Twenty20, which was being held at home, but lost in the semi-final to eventual champions West Indies.

In 2016, "The Grand Home Season" began for India, including series at home against New Zealand, England, Bangladesh, and Australia. India whitewashed New Zealand to regain the number one ranking in Test cricket after almost 10 years. Before the series against England, MS Dhoni resigned as captain in limited-overs, thus handing the captaincy to Virat Kohli across all formats. India beat England across all three formats, with a notable 4-0 win in the Test series. This was followed by Test series wins against Bangladesh and Australia, which meant India reclaimed the Border Gavaskar Trophy. In the process, India became the third team (after South Africa and Australia) to have won their most recent Test series against all the other Test-playing nations. India holds an unbeaten streak of 8 consecutive Test series wins as of 19 August 2017.

India defeated Pakistan in their first game of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy but lost to the same opponents in the final, the first time they had met at this stage of a tournament since 2007.

India beat the West Indies 3-1 in a five-match ODI series in the Caribbean in July 2017, but lost to the same opposition in a one-off T20I. India then toured Sri Lanka and won a three-match Test series 3-0: the first time India had whitewashed a team away from home in a Test series with three games or more.

The next year saw mixed results in Tests for India: they lost away series in both South Africa and England but won their away series against Australia; the first time they had won a series there. In-home Tests, they defeated West Indies. They won the ODI leg of the South African tour, followed by the tri-series with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. They lost 2-1 in the ODI series in England, followed by a win at home to West Indies and away to both Australia and New Zealand. At the start of 2019, Australia won a T20I series 2-0, marking Virat Kohli's first home defeat in a T20I series. Australia also won the ODI series 3-2. The Indian team next played 2019 Cricket World Cup where the team finished first in the group stage with 7 wins and only 1 loss which came against host nation England. They made the semis but lost to New Zealand by 18 runs. Rohit Sharma was the highest run-scorer for the team with 648 runs. India next toured West Indies, whitewashing them in T20I, one day Internationals and Test with a record 3-0,2-0 in both ODIS and Tests. Then, India played their matches at home: the first one against South Africa in September-October 2019. The T20I series was drawn and meanwhile, the Test series was won by India. Their next home series was against Bangladesh. India played three T20IS and won against Bangladesh 2-1. The third T20I saw Deepak Chahar taking the best bowling figures in T20 internationals and the best bowling figures by an Indian. Next, India played two tests and won easily. The second test was a grand one, hosting India"s first Day-Night Test with Pink Ball in Eden Gardens in Kolkata,and India won the match by 46 runs and the series. This win also made India the first team to get consecutive four victories by an innings. They played their last series of 2019 against West Indies and they won the T20I and ODI and series by 2-1 and 3-1.

India played its first T201 series of 2020 against Sri Lanka and won easily by a margin of 2-0, next they played three ODIS against Australia and won by 2-0. After Australia, India played its first away series against New Zealand and won a T20I series in New Zealand for the first time by 5-0, but they lost the 3 ODIS. They played the Tests as well but lost the series.

Governing body

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the governing body for the Indian cricket team and first-class cricket in India. The Board has been operating since 1929 and represents India at the International Cricket Council. It is amongst the richest sporting organisations in the world. It sold media rights for India's matches from 2006-2010 for US$612,000,000. It manages the Indian team's sponsorships, its future tours and team selection.

The International Cricket Council determines India's upcoming matches through its future tours program. However, the BCCI, with its influential financial position in the cricketing world, has often challenged the ICC's program and called for more series between India, Australia and England which are more likely to earn more revenue as opposed to tours with Bangladesh or Zimbabwe. In the past, the BCCI has also come into conflict with the ICC regarding sponsorships and the legitimacy of the ICC Champions Trophy.

Selection committee

Selection for the Indian cricket team occurs through the BCCI's zonal selection policy, where each of the five zones is represented with one selector and one of the members nominated by BCCI as the Chairman of the selection committee. This has sometimes led to controversy as to whether these selectors are biased towards their zones.

The current chairman of the selection committee is Sunil Joshi. Devang Gandhi, Sarandeep Singh, Jatin Paranjpe, and Harvinder Singh are the other members of the selection committee from 4 March 2020.

Team colours

First-class

Cricket whites have been traditionally used by the team when playing first-class cricket. In addition to their whites, Indian fielders wear a dark blue cap or a white wide-brimmed sun hat, with the BCCI logo in the center. Helmets are also dark blue. Some players sport the Indian flag on their helmet.

The branding is minimal for whites; the BCCI logo is placed on the left chest while the team sponsor's logo is present on the middle/center chest. The kit manufacturer's logo is printed on the right chest of the players, with players names printed occasionally on the players back.

Limited overs

Since colours have made their way into international cricket, the Indian cricket team has chosen blue as their primary colour. The blue colour of the uniform has earned them the nickname of 'Men in Blue' for the Indian cricket team. The secondary colour has changed over the years while yellow and orange have been dominant. With the inception of the World Series Cup in 1979, each team had to don a primary and secondary colour on their uniforms and the Indian team elected to wear light blue as their primary colour and yellow as their secondary colour. The team has worn different shades of blue since then. For the 1992 World Cup ( Benson & Hedges World Cup), the team's colours were changed to navy-blue by ISC, the common kit manufacturer for the tournament. A light shade of blue with yellow as secondary colour and a strip with 10 different colours (representing different nations) was adapted on the uniform for the 1996 World Cup ( Wills World Cup) while an even lighter shade of blue and a dominant yellow was used by ASICS, the common kit manufacturer for the 1999 World Cup. The ICC no longer appoints a common kit manufacturer for its tournaments.

Different designs were adopted on the playing jerseys over the years and the most predominant one has been 'India' text written in yellow over a diagonal splash of the tricolour. Nike acquired the kit manufacturing rights for the team in 2005 and designed new jerseys for the 2007 World Cup with the lightest shade of blue used by the team till date and golden yellow as the secondary colour. A new tricolour accent was implemented on the right side of the jersey. The colour was changed to a darker feroza blue in 2009 with orange replacing yellow as the secondary colour.

A new jersey was unveiled by Nike with a bolder ultramarine blue shade and a new tricolour accent placed on both sides of the jersey in 2010. A reddish-orange shade was used as the secondary colour on this uniform. In 2014, new kits were released with a slightly darker shade of blue and a minimal accent design over the shoulders. Nike released new kits once again in 2015 with a similar shade of blue and no accents. In March 2019 before the World Cup, a new design was unveiled by Nike with a prominent two-tone blue colour. The front of the jersey sported a similar shade of blue as with the previous versions while the sides, arms and back were given a lighter shade of blue. A minimal orange accent was also incorporated on the sides. During the ICC World Cup 2019, for a match against England, as mandated by the ICC, an alternate jersey with orange acquiring the back and shoulders and navy blue at the front was introduced. This was the first time a different colour and not blue had become a dominant colour on the India jersey. The match against England was also a special match, called #OneDay4Children, organised by the ICC between the top 2 ranked ODI teams in 2019. Also, this happens to be the only occasion where the alternate jersey was used by India till date.

Since international teams started using different kits for T20s and ODIs, Nike released the first T20 kit for the team in 2016 with a similar shade and a contemporary design. Multiple thin strips of orange and green were included on upper right and lower left sides of the jersey respectively. A new ODI jersey was unveiled by Nike in 2017 with a similar shade of blue for the body and a darker shade of blue for the sleeves. The tricolour accent made a return to the uniform as a single thin strip on either sides of upper chest. During the recent series against Australia and England, India wore the 1992 version of their jersey with the new kit sponsors.

In addition to the blue uniforms, the caps worn by the players are similar to the design of uniforms. The wide-brimmed sun hats are usually white while the helmets used by the players are of darker blue.

Similar to the first-class kits, BCCI logo is placed on the left chest while the logo of the kit manufacturer sits on the right chest. The official team sponsor's logo is present on the central part of the jersey usually above "INDIA" text as well as the sleeve of the players' leading arms. For T20 kits, in addition to these, the sponsor's logo is also present on the back, below the players' numbers. However, for ICC tournaments, the tournament logo is placed on the right chest and the sponsor's logo is allowed only on the sleeve of the players' leading arms. The kit manufacturer's logo in such cases will be printed on the sleeve of the players' non-leading arms. The name and jersey number of the players are printed on the back. As per the agreement with ICC until July 2021, the sponsor logos will be enlarged and more prominent so as to help recoup the losses boards and sponsors had due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

The current sponsor of the team is BYJU's. OPPO's sponsorship was to run from 2017 until 2022, but was handed over to BYJU's on 5 September 2019. Previously, the Indian team was sponsored by Star India from 2014 to 2017, Sahara India Pariwar from 2002 to 2013 and ITC Limited (with Wills and ITC Hotels brands) from 1993 to 2002.

Nike had been a long time kit supplier to team India having acquired the contract in 2005, with two extensions for a period of five years each time; in 2011 and 2016 respectively. Nike ended its contract in September 2020 and MPL Sports Apparel & Accessories, a subsidiary of online gaming platform Mobile Premier League replaced Nike as the kit manufacturer in October 2020.

On 30 August 2019, following the conclusion of the Expression of Interest process for Official Partners' Rights, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that Sporta Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Dream11), LafargeHolcim (ACC Cement and Ambuja Cement) and Hyundai Motor India Ltd. have acquired the Official Partners' Rights for the BCCI International and Domestic matches during 2019-23.

Paytm acquired the title sponsorship for all matches played by the team within India in 2015 and extended the same in 2019 until 2023. Star India and Airtel have been title sponsors previously.

Star Sports Network is the official broadcaster until 2023 for all matches the team plays in India.

International grounds

There are numerous world-renowned cricket stadiums located in India. Most grounds are under the administration of various state cricket boards as opposed to being under the control of the BCCI. The Bombay Gymkhana was the first ground in India to host a full-scale cricket match featuring an Indian cricket team. This was between the Parsis and the Europeans in 1877. The first stadium to host a Test match in India was also the Gymkhana Ground in Bombay in 1933, the only Test it ever hosted. The second and third Tests in the 1933 series were hosted at Eden Gardens and Chepauk. The Feroz Shah Kotla Ground in Delhi was the first stadium to host a Test match after independence, a draw against the West Indies in 1948, the first of a 5-Test series. 21 stadiums in India have hosted at least one official Test match. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of world-class cricket stadiums in India, with multiple Test venues in Nagpur, Mohali, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Indore, Rajkot, Ranchi, Pune, and Dharamshala.

India has now the world's largest cricket stadium. The Motera Stadium, is a cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Eden Gardens in Kolkata has hosted the most Tests, and also has the second-largest seating capacity of any cricket stadium in the world, being capable of holding more than 1,10,000 spectators. Founded in 1864, it is one of the most historical stadiums in India, having hosted numerous historical and controversial matches. Other major stadiums in India include the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground, which was established in 1883 and hosted memorable matches including Anil Kumble's ten wickets in an innings haul against Pakistan. For the last two years, the ground has been undergoing renovation.

The Bombay Gymkhana hosted the first Test match in India which is the only Test it has hosted to date. Wankhede Stadium, established in 1974, has a capacity to hold 33,000 spectators and is currently the most popular venue in the city. It has hosted 24 Test matches. It was the unofficial successor of the Brabourne Stadium, which is also located in Mumbai. Mumbai is often considered the cricketing capital of India because of its fans and the talent it produces (see Mumbai cricket team) and thus the stadium regularly hosts major Test matches. The M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk is also considered to be an important historical Indian cricket ground, established in the early 1900s, and it was the site of India's first Test victory.

List of venues

Thirty-three men have captained the Indian cricket team in at least one Test match, although only six have led the team in more than 25 matches, and six have captained the team in ODIs but not Tests. India's first captain was CK Nayudu, who led the team in four matches against England: one in England in 1932 and a series of three matches at home in 1933-34. Lala Amarnath, India's fourth captain, led the team in its first Test match after Indian independence. He also captained the side to its first Test victory and first series win, both in a three-match series at home against Pakistan in 1952-53. From 1952 until 1961-62, India had a number of captains such as Vijay Hazare, Polly Umrigar and Nari Contractor.

The Nawab of Pataudi, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, was the team's captain for 36 Test matches from 1961-62 to 1969-70, returning for another four matches against West Indies in 1974-75. In the early years of his captaincy tenure, the team was whitewashed in the West Indies, England and Australia. However, in 1967-68, Pataudi led India on its maiden New Zealand tour, which ended in India winning the Test series 3-1. In 1970-71, Ajit Wadekar took over the captaincy from Pataudi. Under Wadekar's captaincy, India registered its first Test series win in the West Indies and England. India played its first ODI in 1974, also under his captaincy. India won its first ODI under the captaincy of Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan in the 1975 Cricket World Cup, against East Africa. Between 1975-76 and 1978-79, Bishen Singh Bedi captained the team in 22 Tests and 4 ODIs, winning 6 Tests and one ODI.

Sunil Gavaskar took over as Test and ODI captain in 1978-79, leading India in 47 Test matches and 37 ODIs, winning 9 Tests and 14 ODIs. He was succeeded by Kapil Dev in the 1980s, who captained for 34 Test matches, including 4 victories. Kapil Dev led India to victory in 39 of his 74 ODIs in charge, including the 1983 Cricket World Cup. Kapil Dev also captained India's 2-0 Test series victory in England in 1986. Between 1987-88 and 1989-90, India had three captains in Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri and Krishnamachari Srikkanth. Vengsarkar took over the captaincy from Kapil Dev after the 1987 Cricket World Cup. Although he started with two centuries in his first series as captain, his captaincy period was turbulent[citation needed ] and he lost the job following a disastrous tour of the West Indies in early-1989 and a stand-off with the Indian cricket board (BCCI).

India has had six regular Test captains since Mohammad Azharuddin took charge in 1989. Azharuddin led the team in 47 Test matches from 1989-90 to 1998-99, winning 14, and in 174 ODIs, winning 90. He was followed by Sachin Tendulkar, who captained the team in 25 Test matches and 73 ODIs in the late 1990s; Tendulkar was relatively unsuccessful as a captain, winning only 4 Test matches and 23 ODIs. He was replaced as ODI captain by Ajay Jadeja and then by Sourav Ganguly.

Ganguly became the regular captain of the team in both Tests and ODIs in 2000. He remained captain until 2005-06 and became the then most successful Indian captain, winning 21 of his 49 Test matches in charge and 76 of his 146 ODIs. Under his captaincy, India became the joint-winners of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka, and the runners-up of the 2003 Cricket World Cup. India lost only three Tests at home under Ganguly and managed to draw Test series in England and Australia. Rahul Dravid took over as Test captain in 2005. In 2006, he led India to its first Test series victory in the West Indies in more than 30 years.

In September 2007, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was named as the new captain of the ODI and T20I teams, after Dravid stepped down from the post. Soon after taking up the captaincy, Dhoni led the team to the inaugural World Twenty20 title. Anil Kumble was appointed Test captain in November 2007, but retired from international cricket in November 2008 after captaining in 14 Tests. Dhoni succeeded him as the Test captain, making him the captain in all formats. Under the captaincy of Dhoni, the Indian team held the number one position in the Test rankings for 21 months (from November 2009 to August 2011), and set a national record for most back-to-back ODI wins (nine straight wins). Dhoni also led the team to victory in 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. Thus, Dhoni became the first captain in history to win all three major ICC trophies, namely- ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011, ICC World Twenty20 in 2007 and ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. However, the team performed poorly in away Tests from 2011 to 2014 and Dhoni retired from Test cricket in December 2014, with Virat Kohli being named as the new Test captain. Dhoni resigned as captain of the ODI and T20 teams in January 2017 and Kohli succeeded him at the position.

Under Kohli's captaincy, India was unbeaten in 19 Test matches, starting from a 3-0 series win over New Zealand and ending with a 2-1 series win over Australia. India has an unbeaten streak of winning 9 consecutive Test series as of Dec 2017, starting with a 2-1 series win over Sri Lanka. India also became only the third team after Australia and South Africa to have won their most recent Test series simultaneously against all the other Test playing nations. As per winning percentage in Test matches, Kohli is India's most successful test captain, having won more than 61% of Test matches (at least 2 games).

This lists all the players who have played for India in the past 12 months and the formats in which they have played as of 2021. In April 2021, BCCI published a new contract list which will be valid from October 2020 till September 2021.

C/G

Contract grade with BCCI

S/N

Shirt number of the player in all formats

Format

Denotes the player recently played in which particular format, not his entire career

The BCCI awards central contracts to its players, its pay graded according to the importance of the player. Players' salaries are as follows:

Players also receive a match fee of (US$21,000) per Test match, (US$8,400) per ODI, and (US$4,200) per T20I.

Coaching and support staff

Position

Name

Physio

Nitin Patel, Yogesh Parmar

Trainer

Nick Webb, Soham Desai

Throwdown specialists

Raghavindraa, Dayanand Garani, Nuwan Seneviratne

Video analyst

Hari Prasad Mohan

Massage therapist

Arun Kanade, Rajeev Kumar

Tournament history

Individual records

Sachin Tendulkar, who began playing for India as a 16-year-old in 1989 and has since become the most prolific run-scorer in the history of both Test and ODI cricket, holds a large number of national batting records. He holds the record of most appearances in both Tests and ODIs, most runs in both Tests and ODIs and most centuries in Tests and ODIs. The highest score by an Indian is the 319 scored by Virender Sehwag in Chennai. It is the second triple century in Test cricket by an Indian, the first being a 309 also made by Sehwag although against Pakistan. The team's highest ever score was a 759/7 against England at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai in 2016, while its lowest score was 36 against Australia in 2020. In ODIs, the team's highest score is 418/5 against West Indies at Indore in 2011-12. India score 413-5 in a match against Bermuda in 2007 World Cup which is the highest score ever in Cricket World Cup history. In the same match, India set a world record of the highest winning margin in an ODI match of 257 runs.

India has also had some very strong bowling figures, with spin bowler Anil Kumble being a member of the elite group of 3 bowlers who have taken 600 Test wickets. In 1999, Anil Kumble emulated Jim Laker to become the second bowler to take all ten wickets in a Test match innings when he took 10 wickets for 74 runs against Pakistan at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi.

Many of the Indian cricket team's records are also world records, for example Sachin Tendulkar's century tally (in Tests and ODIs) and run tally (also in both Tests and ODIs). Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 183 not out against Sri Lanka in 2005 is the world record score by a wicketkeeper in ODIs. The Indian cricket team also holds the record sequence of 17 successful run-chases in ODIs, which ended in a dramatic match against the West Indies in May 2006, which India lost by just 1 run when Yuvraj Singh was bowled by Dwayne Bravo's full toss.

Sachin Tendulkar was the first batsman to score 200 runs (he was unbeaten on 200 from 147 deliveries including 25x4 and 3x6) in a single ODI innings, on 24 February 2010 against South Africa in Gwalior. On 8 December 2011, this achievement was eclipsed by compatriot Virender Sehwag, who scored 219 runs from 149 deliveries (25x4 | 7x6) versus West Indies in Indore. On 13 November 2014 the record was broken by another Indian opening batsmen, Rohit Sharma, who scored 264 runs from 173 deliveries (33x4 | 9x6) against Sri Lanka in Kolkata. In 2013, MS Dhoni became the first captain in history to win all three major ICC trophies- ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011, ICC World Twenty20 in 2007 and ICC Champions Trophy in 2013.

In 2014, Virat Kohli became the first cricketer to win back-to-back man of the series awards in the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and 2016 ICC World Twenty20. In 2017, Ravichandran Ashwin became the fastest cricketer in history to reach 250 wickets. He and Ravindra Jadeja are considered to be the best bowlers in Test cricket and occupy the top two spots in the rankings for Test bowlers as of May 2017. Virat Kohli became the first captain in history to score double tons in three consecutive series, against New Zealand, England and Bangladesh in 2017.

Statistics

Test record versus other nations

One-Day Internationals

ODI record versus other nations

Twenty20 Internationals

T20I record versus other nations

Players in bold text are still active with India.

Fan following

Due to the massive Indian diaspora in nations like Australia, England and South Africa, a large Indian fan turnout is expected whenever India plays in each of these nations.

There have been a number of official fan groups that have been formed over the years, including the Swami Army or Bharat Army, the Indian equivalent of the Barmy Army, that were very active in their support when India toured Australia in 2003/2004. They are known to attribute a number of popular Indian songs to the cricket team.

Fan rivalry and cross-border tension has created a strong rivalry between the Indian and the Pakistani cricket teams. In tours between these two nations, cricket visas are often employed to accommodate for the tens of thousands of fans wishing to cross the border to watch cricket. This intense fan dedication is one of the major causes of the BCCI's financial success.

However, there are downsides to having such a cricket-loving population. Many Indians hold cricket very close to their hearts and losses are not received well by the Indian population. In some cases, particularly after losses to Pakistan or after a long string of weak performances, there have been reports of player effigies being burnt in the streets and vandalism of player homes. In many cases, players have come under intense attention from the media for negative reasons, this has been considered as one of the reasons for Sourav Ganguly being left out of the Indian team. At times, when a match is surrounded by controversy, it has resulted in a debacle. For example, when India slid to defeat against Australia at Brabourne Stadium in 1969, fans began throwing stones and bottles onto the field as well as setting fire to the stands, before laying siege to the Australian dressing rooms. During the same tour, a stampede occurred at Eden Gardens when tickets were oversold and India fell to another loss; the Australian team bus was later stoned with bricks. A similar event occurred during the 1996 Cricket World Cup, where India were losing the semi-final to Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens. In this case, the fan behaviour was directed at the Indian team in disappointment at their lacklustre performance. An armed guard had to be placed at the home of captain Mohammad Azharuddin to ensure his safety. Indian fans have also been passionate in their following of Sachin Tendulkar, who has been commonly thought of as one of the best batsmen in the world. Glorified for the bulk of his career, a riot occurred in early 1999 in a Test against Pakistan at Eden Gardens after a collision with Pakistani paceman Shoaib Akhtar saw him run out, forcing police to eject spectators and the game to be played in an empty stadium. Although in 2006, a string of low scores resulted in Tendulkar being booed by the Mumbai crowd when he got out against England

Often, fans engage in protests regarding players if they believe that regionalism has affected selection, or because of regional partisan support for local players. In 2005, when Sourav Ganguly was dropped from the team, Ganguly's home town Kolkata erupted in protests. India later played a match against South Africa in Kolkata, West Bengal. The Indian team was booed by the crowd who supported South Africa instead of India in response to Ganguly's dropping.[citation needed ] Similar regional divisions in India regarding selection have also caused protests against the team, with political activists from the regional Kalinga Kamgar Sena party in Odisha disrupting the arrival of the team in Cuttack for an ODI over the lack of a local player in the team, with one activist manhandling coach Greg Chappell. Similar treatment was handed to Sunil Gavaskar in the 1987 World Cup Semi Finals by crowds at Wankhede Stadium when he got bowled by Philip DeFreitas.

A successful string of results, victories against arch-rivals Pakistan or victory in major tournaments such as the World Cup are greeted with particular ecstasy from the Indian fans.

Forthcoming Fixtures

References

Further reading

Majumdar, Boria (2018). Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians: The On and Off the Field Story of Cricket in India and Beyond. New Delhi: Simon & Schuster India. ISBN 9789386797186.

External links

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Nickname(s) Men in Blue, Team India Test status acquired 1931 ICC status Full Member (1926) World Cup appearances 12 ( first in 1975 ) Best result Champions ( 1983, 2011) T20 World Cup appearances 6 ( first in 2007 ) As of 28 March 2021 The India men's national cricket team, also known as Team India and Men in Blue, is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One-Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status.

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Overview

Structure of the Digestive System

What is the digestive system?

Your digestive system is made up of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and your liver, pancreas and gallbladder. The GI tract is a series of hollow organs that are connected to each other from your mouth to your anus. The organs that make up your GI tract, in the order that they are connected, include your mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine and anus.

What does the digestive system do?

Your digestive system is uniquely constructed to do its job of turning your food into the nutrients and energy you need to survive. And when it's done with that, it handily packages your solid waste, or stool, for disposal when you have a bowel movement.

Why is digestion important?

Digestion is important because your body needs nutrients from the food you eat and the liquids you drink in order to stay healthy and function properly. Nutrients include carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and water. Your digestive system breaks down and absorbs nutrients from the food and liquids you consume to use for important things like energy, growth and repairing cells.

Anatomy

What organs make up the digestive system?

The main organs that make up the digestive system (in order of their function) are the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, rectum and anus. Helping them along the way are the pancreas, gall bladder and liver.

Here's how these organs work together in your digestive system.

Mouth

The mouth is the beginning of the digestive tract. In fact, digestion starts before you even take a bite. Your salivary glands get active as you see and smell that pasta dish or warm bread. After you start eating, you chew your food into pieces that are more easily digested. Your saliva mixes with the food to begin to break it down into a form your body can absorb and use. When you swallow, your tongue passes the food into your throat and into your esophagus.

Esophagus

Located in your throat near your trachea (windpipe), the esophagus receives food from your mouth when you swallow. The epiglottis is a small flap that folds over your windpipe as you swallow to prevent you from choking (when food goes into your windpipe). A series of muscular contractions within the esophagus called peristalsis delivers food to your stomach.

But first a ring-like muscle at the bottom of your esophagus called the lower esophageal sphincter has to relax to let the food in. The sphincter then contracts and prevents the contents of the stomach from flowing back into the esophagus. (When it doesn't and these contents flow back into the esophagus, you may experience acid reflux or heartburn.)

Stomach

The stomach is a hollow organ, or "container," that holds food while it is being mixed with stomach enzymes. These enzymes continue the process of breaking down food into a usable form. Cells in the lining of your stomach secrete a strong acid and powerful enzymes that are responsible for the breakdown process. When the contents of the stomach are processed enough, they're released into the small intestine.

Small intestine

Made up of three segments - the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum - the small intestine is a 22-foot long muscular tube that breaks down food using enzymes released by the pancreas and bile from the liver. Peristalsis also works in this organ, moving food through and mixing it with digestive juices from the pancreas and liver.

The duodenum is the first segment of the small intestine. It's largely responsible for the continuous breaking-down process. The jejunum and ileum lower in the intestine are mainly responsible for the absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream.

Contents of the small intestine start out semi-solid and end in a liquid form after passing through the organ. Water, bile, enzymes and mucus contribute to the change in consistency. Once the nutrients have been absorbed and the leftover-food residue liquid has passed through the small intestine, it then moves on to the large intestine (colon).

Pancreas

The pancreas secretes digestive enzymes into the duodenum that break down protein, fats and carbohydrates. The pancreas also makes insulin, passing it directly into the bloodstream. Insulin is the chief hormone in your body for metabolizing sugar.

Liver

The liver has many functions, but its main job within the digestive system is to process the nutrients absorbed from the small intestine. Bile from the liver secreted into the small intestine also plays an important role in digesting fat and some vitamins.

The liver is your body's chemical "factory." It takes the raw materials absorbed by the intestine and makes all the various chemicals your body needs to function.

The liver also detoxifies potentially harmful chemicals. It breaks down and secretes many drugs that can be toxic to your body.

Gallbladder

The gallbladder stores and concentrates bile from the liver, and then releases it into the duodenum in the small intestine to help absorb and digest fats.

Colon

The colon is responsible for processing waste so that emptying your bowels is easy and convenient. It's a 6-foot long muscular tube that connects the small intestine to the rectum.

The colon is made up of the cecum, the ascending (right) colon, the transverse (across) colon, the descending (left) colon, and the sigmoid colon, which connects to the rectum.

Stool, or waste left over from the digestive process, is passed through the colon by means of peristalsis, first in a liquid state and ultimately in a solid form. As stool passes through the colon, water is removed. Stool is stored in the sigmoid (S-shaped) colon until a "mass movement" empties it into the rectum once or twice a day.

It normally takes about 36 hours for stool to get through the colon. The stool itself is mostly food debris and bacteria. These "good" bacteria perform several useful functions, such as synthesizing various vitamins, processing waste products and food particles and protecting against harmful bacteria. When the descending colon becomes full of stool, or feces, it empties its contents into the rectum to begin the process of elimination (a bowel movement).

Rectum

The rectum is a straight, 8-inch chamber that connects the colon to the anus. The rectum's job is to receive stool from the colon, let you know that there is stool to be evacuated (pooped out) and to hold the stool until evacuation happens. When anything (gas or stool) comes into the rectum, sensors send a message to the brain. The brain then decides if the rectal contents can be released or not.

If they can, the sphincters relax and the rectum contracts, disposing its contents. If the contents cannot be disposed, the sphincter contracts and the rectum accommodates so that the sensation temporarily goes away.

Anus

The anus is the last part of the digestive tract. It is a 2-inch long canal consisting of the pelvic floor muscles and the two anal sphincters (internal and external). The lining of the upper anus is able to detect rectal contents. It lets you know whether the contents are liquid, gas or solid.

The anus is surrounded by sphincter muscles that are important in allowing control of stool. The pelvic floor muscle creates an angle between the rectum and the anus that stops stool from coming out when it's not supposed to. The internal sphincter is always tight, except when stool enters the rectum. This keeps us continent (prevents us from pooping involuntarily) when we are asleep or otherwise unaware of the presence of stool.

When we get an urge to go to the bathroom, we rely on our external sphincter to hold the stool until reaching a toilet, where it then relaxes to release the contents.

Conditions and Disorders

What are some common conditions that affect the digestive system?

There are temporary conditions and long-term, or chronic, diseases and disorders that affect the digestive system. It's common to have conditions such as constipation, diarrhea or heartburn from time to time. If you are experiencing digestive issues like these frequently, be sure to contact your healthcare professional. It could be a sign of a more serious disorder that needs medical attention and treatment.

Short-term or temporary conditions that affect the digestive system include:

Constipation: Constipation generally happens when you go poop (have a bowel movement) less frequently than you normally do. When you're constipated, your poop is often dry and hard and it's difficult and painful for your poop to pass.

Diarrhea: Diarrhea is when you have loose or watery poop. Diarrhea can be caused by many things, including bacteria, but sometimes the cause is unknown.

Heartburn: Although it has "heart" in its name, heartburn is actually a digestive issue. Heartburn is an uncomfortable burning feeling in your chest that can move up your neck and throat. It happens when acidic digestive juices from your stomach go back up your esophagus.

Hemorrhoids: Hemorrhoids are swollen, enlarged veins that form inside and outside of your anus and rectum. They can be painful, uncomfortable and cause rectal bleeding.

Stomach flu (gastroenteritis): The stomach flu is an infection of the stomach and upper part of the small intestine usually caused by a virus. It usually lasts less than a week. Millions of people get the stomach flu every year.

Ulcers: An ulcer is a sore that develops on the lining of the esophagus, stomach or small intestine. The most common causes of ulcers are infection with a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and long-term use of anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen.

Gallstones: Gallstones are small pieces of solid material formed from digestive fluid that form in your gallbladder, a small organ under your liver.

Common digestive system diseases ( gastrointestinal diseases) and disorders include:

GERD (chronic acid reflux): GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease, or chronic acid reflux) is a condition in which acid-containing contents in your stomach frequently leak back up into your esophagus.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS): IBS is a condition in which your colon muscle contracts more or less often than normal. People with IBS experience excessive gas, abdominal pain and cramps.

Lactose intolerance: People with lactose intolerance are unable to digest lactose, the sugar primarily found in milk and dairy products.

Diverticulosis and diverticulitis: Diverticulosis and diverticulitis are two conditions that occur in your large intestine (also called your colon). Both share the common feature of diverticula, which are pockets or bulges that form in the wall of your colon.

Cancer: Cancers that affect tissues and organs in the digestive system are called gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. There are multiple kinds of GI cancers. The most common digestive system cancers include esophageal cancer, gastric (stomach) cancer, colon and rectal (colorectal) cancer, pancreatic cancer and liver cancer.

Crohn's disease: Crohn's disease is a lifelong form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The condition irritates the digestive tract.

Celiac disease: Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that can damage your small intestine. The damage happens when a person with celiac disease consumes gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.

Care

How can I keep my digestive system healthy?

If you have a medical condition, always ask your healthcare provider what you should do and eat to stay healthy and manage your condition. In general, the following are ways to keep your digestive system healthy:

Drink water often: Water helps the food you eat flow more easily through your digestive system. Low amounts of water in your body (dehydration) is a common cause of constipation.

Include fiber in your diet: Fiber is beneficial to digestion and helps your body have regular bowel movements. Be sure to incorporate both soluble and insoluble fiber into your diet.

Eat a balanced diet: Be sure to eat several servings of fruit and vegetables every day. Choose whole grains over processed grains and try to avoid processed foods in general. Choose poultry and fish more often than red meat and limit all deli (processed) meats. Limit the amount of sugar you consume.

Eat foods with probiotics or take probiotic supplements: Probiotics are good bacteria that help fight off the bad bacteria in your gut. They also make healthy substances that nourish your gut. It can be especially helpful to consume probiotics after you have taken an antibiotic because antibiotics often kill both bad and good bacteria in your gut.

Eat mindfully and chew your food: Eating slowly gives your body time to digest your food properly. It also allows your body to send you cues that it is full. It is important to chew your food thoroughly because it helps to ensure your body has enough saliva (spit) for digestion. Chewing your food fully also makes it easier for your digestive system to absorb the nutrients in the food.

Exercise: Physical activity and gravity help move food through your digestive system. Taking a walk, for example, after you eat a meal can help your body digest the food more easily.

Avoid alcohol and smoking: Alcohol can increase the amount of acid in your stomach and can cause heartburn, acid reflux and stomach ulcers. Smoking almost doubles your risk of having acid reflux. Research has shown that people who have digestive issues that quit smoking have improved symptoms.

Manage your stress: Stress is associated with digestive issues such as constipation, diarrhea and IBS.

Contact your healthcare provider if you are experiencing frequent symptoms such as constipation, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain or cramps, excessive gas (farting), or heartburn. While most people experience these conditions every once in a while, if you experience them often, it could be a sign of a more serious digestive system issue.

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Digestive System: Function, Organs & Anatomy

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Your digestive system is made up of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and your liver, pancreas and gallbladder. The GI tract is a series of hollow organs that are connected to each other from your mouth to your anus.

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As the governing body of lacrosse in the U.S., USA Lacrosse inspires participation, enriches the athlete experience, and supports the growth of the sport.

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The early years

In the early years the number of players on a team varied according to the number in the class and the size of the playing area. In 1894 teams began to play with five on a side when the playing area was less than 1,800 square feet (167.2 square metres); the number rose to seven when the gymnasium measured from 1,800 to 3,600 square feet (334.5 square metres) and up to nine when the playing area exceeded that. In 1895 the number was occasionally set at five by mutual consent; the rules stipulated five players two years later, and this number has remained ever since.

Since Naismith and five of his original players were Canadians, it is not surprising that Canada was the first country outside the United States to play the game. Basketball was introduced in France in 1893, in England in 1894, in Australia, China, and India soon thereafter, and in Japan in 1900.

While basketball helped swell the membership of YMCAs because of the availability of their gyms, within five years the game was outlawed by various associations because gyms that had been occupied by classes of 50 or 60 members were now monopolized by only 10 to 18 players. The banishment of the game induced many members to terminate their YMCA membership and to hire halls to play the game, thus paving the way to the professionalization of the sport.

Originally, players wore one of three styles of uniforms: knee-length football trousers; jersey tights, as commonly worn by wrestlers; or short padded pants, forerunners of today's uniforms, plus knee guards. The courts often were of irregular shape with occasional obstructions such as pillars, stairways, or offices that interfered with play. In 1903 it was ruled that all boundary lines must be straight. In 1893 the Narragansett Machinery Co. of Providence, Rhode Island, marketed a hoop of iron with a hammock style of basket. Originally a ladder, then a pole, and finally a chain fastened to the bottom of the net was used to retrieve a ball after a goal had been scored. Nets open at the bottom were adopted in 1912-13. In 1895-96 the points for making a basket (goal, or field goal) were reduced from three to two, and the points for making a free throw (shot uncontested from a line in front of the basket after a foul had been committed) were reduced from three to one.

Baskets were frequently attached to balconies, making it easy for spectators behind a basket to lean over the railings and deflect the ball to favour one side and hinder the other; in 1895 teams were urged to provide a 4-by-6-foot (1.2-by-1.8-metre) screen for the purpose of eliminating interference. Soon after, wooden backboards proved more suitable. Glass backboards were legalized by the professionals in 1908-09 and by colleges in 1909-10. In 1920-21 the backboards were moved 2 feet (0.6 metre), and in 1939-40 4 feet, in from the end lines to reduce frequent stepping out-of-bounds. Fan-shaped backboards were made legal in 1940-41.

A soccer ball (football) was used for the first two years. In 1894 the first basketball was marketed. It was laced, measured close to 32 inches (81 cm), or about 4 inches (10 cm) larger than the soccer ball, in circumference, and weighed less than 20 ounces (567 grams). By 1948-49, when the laceless molded ball was made official, the size had been set at 30 inches (76 cm).

The first college to play the game was either Geneva College (Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania) or the University of Iowa. C.O. Bemis heard about the new sport at Springfield and tried it out with his students at Geneva in 1892. At Iowa, H.F. Kallenberg, who had attended Springfield in 1890, wrote Naismith for a copy of the rules and also presented the game to his students. At Springfield, Kallenberg met Amos Alonzo Stagg, who became athletic director at the new University of Chicago in 1892. The first college basketball game with five on a side was played between the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa in Iowa City on January 18, 1896. The University of Chicago won, 15-12, with neither team using a substitute. Kallenberg refereed that game-a common practice in that era-and some of the spectators took exception to some of his decisions.

The colleges formed their own rules committee in 1905, and by 1913 there were at least five sets of rules: collegiate, YMCA-Amateur Athletic Union, those used by state militia groups, and two varieties of professional rules. Teams often agreed to play under a different set for each half of a game. To establish some measure of uniformity, the colleges, Amateur Athletic Union, and YMCA formed the Joint Rules Committee in 1915. This group was renamed the National Basketball Committee (NBC) of the United States and Canada in 1936 and until 1979 served as the game's sole amateur rule-making body. In that year, however, the colleges broke away to form their own rules committee, and during the same year the National Federation of State High School Associations likewise assumed the task of establishing separate playing rules for the high schools. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Rules Committee for men is a 12-member board representing all three NCAA divisions. It has six members from Division I schools and three each from Divisions II and III. It has jurisdiction over colleges, junior colleges, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), and Armed Forces basketball. There is a similar body for women's play.

Growth of the game

Basketball grew steadily but slowly in popularity and importance in the United States and internationally in the first three decades after World War II. Interest in the game deepened as a result of television exposure, but with the advent of cable television, especially during the 1980s, the game's popularity exploded at all levels. Given a timely mix of spectacular players-such as Earvin ("Magic") Johnson, Julius Erving ("Dr. J"), Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan-and the greatly increased exposure, basketball moved quickly to the forefront of the American sporting scene, alongside such traditional leaders as baseball and football. Four areas of the game developed during this period: U.S. high school and college basketball, professional basketball, women's basketball, and international basketball.

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Basketball | Definition, History, Rules, Court, Players, & Facts

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Basketball, game played between two teams of five players each on a rectangular court, usually indoors. Each team tries to score by tossing the ball through the opponent's goal, an elevated horizontal hoop and net called a basket. It is the only major sport strictly of U.S. origin.

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Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. March 1822 - March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including her family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known collectively as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women's suffrage.

Born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was beaten and whipped by enslavers as a child. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate overseer threw a heavy metal weight, intending to hit another slave, but hit her instead. The injury caused dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia, which occurred throughout her life. After her injury, Tubman began experiencing strange visions and vivid dreams, which she ascribed to premonitions from God. These experiences, combined with her Methodist upbringing, led her to become devoutly religious.

In 1849, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, only to return to Maryland to rescue her family soon after. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought relatives with her out of the state, and eventually guided dozens of other enslaved people to freedom. Traveling by night and in extreme secrecy, Tubman (or " Moses", as she was called) "never lost a passenger". After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, she helped guide escapees farther north into British North America (Canada), and helped newly freed people find work. Tubman met John Brown in 1858, and helped him plan and recruit supporters for his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry.

When the Civil War began, Tubman worked for the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, and then as an armed scout and spy. For her guidance of the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than 700 enslaved people, she is widely credited as first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war. After the war, she retired to the family home on property she had purchased in 1859 in Auburn, New York, where she cared for her aging parents. She was active in the women's suffrage movement until illness overtook her, and she had to be admitted to a home for elderly African Americans that she had helped to establish years earlier. She became an icon of courage and freedom.

Birth and family

Map of key locations in Tubman's life

Tubman was born Araminta "Minty" Ross to enslaved parents, Harriet ("Rit") Green and Ben Ross. Rit was enslaved by Mary Pattison Brodess (and later her son Edward). Ben was enslaved by Anthony Thompson, who became Mary Brodess's second husband, and who ran a large plantation near the Blackwater River in the Madison area of Dorchester County, Maryland.

As with many enslaved people in the United States, neither the exact year nor place of Tubman's birth is known. Tubman reported the year of her birth as 1825, while her death certificate lists 1815 and her gravestone lists 1820. Historian Kate Larson's 2004 biography of Tubman records the year as 1822, based on a midwife payment and several other historical documents, including her runaway advertisement. Based on Larson's work, more recent biographies have accepted March 1822 as the most likely timing of Tubman's birth.

Tubman's maternal grandmother, Modesty, arrived in the U.S. on a slave ship from Africa; no information is available about her other ancestors. As a child, Tubman was told that she seemed like an Ashanti person because of her character traits, though no evidence has been found to confirm or deny this lineage. Her mother, Rit (who may have had a white father), was a cook for the Brodess family. Her father, Ben, was a skilled woodsman who managed the timber work on Thompson's plantation. They married around 1808 and, according to court records, had nine children together: Linah, Mariah Ritty, Soph, Robert, Minty (Harriet), Ben, Rachel, Henry, and Moses.

Rit struggled to keep her family together as slavery threatened to tear it apart. Edward Brodess sold three of her daughters (Linah, Mariah Ritty, and Soph), separating them from the family forever. When a trader from Georgia approached Brodess about buying Rit's youngest son, Moses, she hid him for a month, aided by other enslaved people and freedmen in the community. At one point she confronted Brodess about the sale. Finally, Brodess and "the Georgia man" came toward the slave quarters to seize the child, where Rit told them, "You are after my son; but the first man that comes into my house, I will split his head open." Brodess backed away and abandoned the sale. Tubman's biographers agree that stories told about this event within the family influenced her belief in the possibilities of resistance.

Tubman's mother was assigned to "the big house" and had scarce time for her own family; consequently, as a child Tubman took care of a younger brother and baby, as was typical in large families. When she was five or six years old, Brodess hired her out as a nursemaid to a woman named "Miss Susan". Tubman was ordered to care for the baby and rock the cradle as it slept; when the baby woke up and cried, Tubman was whipped. She later recounted a particular day when she was lashed five times before breakfast. She carried the scars for the rest of her life. She found ways to resist, such as running away for five days, wearing layers of clothing as protection against beatings, and fighting back.

Also in her childhood, Tubman was sent to work for a planter named James Cook. She had to check his muskrat traps in nearby marshes, even after contracting measles. She became so ill that Cook sent her back to Brodess, where her mother nursed her back to health. Brodess then hired her out again. She spoke later of her acute childhood homesickness, comparing herself to "the boy on the Swanee River", an allusion to Stephen Foster's song " Old Folks at Home". As she grew older and stronger, she was assigned to field and forest work, driving oxen, plowing, and hauling logs.

As an adolescent, Tubman suffered a severe head injury when an overseer threw a two-pound (1 kg) metal weight at another slave who was attempting to flee. The weight struck Tubman instead, which she said: "broke my skull". Bleeding and unconscious, she was returned to her enslaver's house and laid on the seat of a loom, where she remained without medical care for two days. After this incident, Tubman frequently experienced extremely painful headaches. She also began having seizures and would seemingly fall unconscious, although she claimed to be aware of her surroundings while appearing to be asleep. Larson suggests she may have had temporal lobe epilepsy, possibly as a result of brain injury; Clinton suggests her condition may have been narcolepsy or cataplexy. A definitive diagnosis is not possible due to lack of contemporary medical evidence, but this condition remained with her for the rest of her life.

After her injury, Tubman began experiencing visions and vivid dreams, which she interpreted as revelations from God. These spiritual experiences had a profound effect on Tubman's personality and she acquired a passionate faith in God. Although Tubman was illiterate, she was told Bible stories by her mother and likely attended a Methodist church with her family. She rejected the teachings of white preachers who urged enslaved people to be passive and obedient victims to those who trafficked and enslaved them; instead she found guidance in the Old Testament tales of deliverance. This religious perspective informed her actions throughout her life.

Family and marriage

Anthony Thompson promised to manumit Tubman's father at age 45. After Thompson died, his son followed through with that promise in 1840. Tubman's father continued working as a timber estimator and foreman for the Thompson family. Later in the 1840s, Tubman paid a white attorney five dollars (equivalent to $160 in 2022) to investigate the legal status of her mother, Rit. The lawyer discovered that Atthow Pattison, the grandfather of Mary Brodess, indicated in his will that Rit and any of her children would be manumitted at age 45, and that any children born after she reached age 45 would be freeborn. The Pattison and Brodess families ignored this stipulation when they inherited the enslaved family, but taking legal action to enforce it was an impossible task for Tubman.

Around 1844, she married a free black man named John Tubman. Although little is known about him or their time together, the union was complicated because of her enslaved status. The mother's status dictated that of children, and any children born to Harriet and John would be enslaved. Such blended marriages - free people of color marrying enslaved people - were not uncommon on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where by this time, half the black population was free. Most African-American families had both free and enslaved members. Larson suggests that they might have planned to buy Tubman's freedom.

Tubman changed her name from Araminta to Harriet soon after her marriage, though the exact timing is unclear. Larson suggests this happened right after the wedding, and Clinton suggests that it coincided with Tubman's plans to escape from slavery. She adopted her mother's name, possibly as part of a religious conversion, or to honor another relative.

Escape from slavery

Notice offering a reward of US$100 (equivalent to $3,520 in 2022) for the capture and return of "Minty" (Harriet Tubman) and her brothers Henry and Ben

In 1849, Tubman became ill again, which diminished her value to slave traders. Edward Brodess tried to sell her, but could not find a buyer. Angry at him for trying to sell her and for continuing to enslave her relatives, Tubman began to pray for God to make Brodess change his ways. She said later: "I prayed all night long for my master till the first of March; and all the time he was bringing people to look at me, and trying to sell me." When it appeared as though a sale was being concluded, Tubman changed her prayer: "First of March I began to pray, 'Oh Lord, if you ain't never going to change that man's heart, kill him, Lord, and take him out of the way'." A week later, Brodess died, and Tubman expressed regret for her earlier sentiments.

As in many estate settlements, Brodess's death increased the likelihood that Tubman would be sold and her family broken apart. His widow, Eliza, began working to sell the family's enslaved people. Tubman refused to wait for the Brodess family to decide her fate, despite her husband's efforts to dissuade her. "[T]here was one of two things I had a right to", she explained later, "liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other".

Tubman and her brothers, Ben and Henry, escaped from slavery on September 17, 1849. Tubman had been hired out to Anthony Thompson (the son of her father's former owner), who owned a large plantation in an area called Poplar Neck in neighboring Caroline County; it is likely her brothers labored for Thompson as well. Because they were hired out, Eliza Brodess probably did not recognize their absence as an escape attempt for some time. Two weeks later, she posted a runaway notice in the Cambridge Democrat, offering a reward of up to US$100 each (equivalent to $3,520 in 2022) for their capture and return to slavery. Once they had left, Tubman's brothers had second thoughts. Ben may have regretted leaving his wife and children. The two men went back, forcing Tubman to return with them.

Sometime in October or November, Tubman escaped again, this time without her brothers. Before leaving she sang a farewell song to hint at her intentions, which she hoped would be understood by Mary, a trusted fellow slave: "I'll meet you in the morning", she intoned, "I'm bound for the promised land." While her exact route is unknown, Tubman made use of the network known as the Underground Railroad. This informal system was composed of free and enslaved black people, white abolitionists, and other activists. Most prominent among the latter in Maryland at the time were Quakers (members of the Religious Society of Friends). The Preston area near Poplar Neck contained a substantial Quaker community and was probably an important first stop during Tubman's escape. From there, she probably took a common route for people fleeing slavery - northeast along the Choptank River, through Delaware, and then north into Pennsylvania. A journey of nearly 90 miles (145 km) by foot would have taken between five days and three weeks.

Tubman had to travel by night, guided by the North Star and trying to avoid slave catchers eager to collect rewards for fugitive slaves. The "conductors" in the Underground Railroad used deceptions for protection. At an early stop, the lady of the house instructed Tubman to sweep the yard so as to seem to be working for the family. When night fell, the family hid her in a cart and took her to the next friendly house. Given her familiarity with the woods and marshes of the region, Tubman likely hid in these locales during the day. The particulars of her first journey are unknown; because other escapees from slavery used the routes, Tubman did not discuss them until later in life. She crossed into Pennsylvania with a feeling of relief and awe, and recalled the experience years later:

When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.

Nicknamed "Moses"

Tubman sitting (1868 or 1869)

After reaching Philadelphia, Tubman thought of her family. "I was a stranger in a strange land," she said later. "[M]y father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were [in Maryland]. But I was free, and they should be free." While Tubman saved money from working odd jobs in Philadelphia and Cape May, New Jersey, the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which forced law enforcement officials to assist in the capture of escaped slaves - even in states that had outlawed slavery - and heavily punished abetting escape. The law increased risks for those who had escaped slavery, more of whom therefore sought refuge in Southern Ontario, where slavery had been abolished. Racial tensions were also increasing in Philadelphia as poor Irish immigrants competed with free blacks for work.

In December 1850, Tubman was warned that her niece Kessiah and Kessiah's children would soon be sold in Cambridge. Tubman went to Baltimore, where her brother-in-law Tom Tubman hid her until the sale. Kessiah's husband, a free black man named John Bowley, made the winning bid for his wife. While the auctioneer stepped away to have lunch, John, Kessiah and their children escaped to a nearby safe house. When night fell, Bowley sailed the family on a log canoe 60 miles (97 kilometres) to Baltimore, where they met with Tubman, who brought the family to Philadelphia.

Early next year she returned to Maryland to guide away other family members. During her second trip, she recovered her youngest brother, Moses, along with two other men. Word of her exploits had encouraged her family, and she became more confident with each trip to Maryland.

In late 1851, Tubman returned to Dorchester County for the first time since her escape, this time to find her husband John. When she arrived there, she learned that John had married another woman named Caroline. Tubman sent word that he should join her, but he insisted that he was happy where he was. Suppressing her anger, she found some enslaved people who wanted to escape and led them to Philadelphia.

Frederick Douglass worked for slavery's abolition alongside Tubman.

Because the Fugitive Slave Law had made the northern United States a more dangerous place for those escaping slavery to remain, many escapees began migrating to Southern Ontario. In December 1851, Tubman guided an unidentified group of 11 escapees, possibly including the Bowleys and several others she had helped rescue earlier, northward. There is evidence to suggest that Tubman and her group stopped at the home of abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass. Douglass and Tubman admired one another greatly as they both struggled against slavery. Years later he contrasted his efforts with hers, writing:

Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day - you in the night. ... The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism. Excepting John Brown - of sacred memory - I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have.

From 1851 to 1862, Tubman returned repeatedly to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, rescuing some 70 slaves in about 13 expeditions, including her other brothers, Henry, Ben, and Robert, their wives and some of their children. She also provided specific instructions to 50 to 60 additional enslaved people who escaped. Because of her efforts, she was nicknamed "Moses", alluding to the biblical prophet who led the Hebrews to freedom from Egypt. One of her last missions into Maryland was to retrieve her aging parents. Her father purchased her mother from Eliza Brodess in 1855, but even when they were both free, the area was hostile. In 1857, Tubman received word that her father was at risk of arrest for harboring a group of eight people escaping slavery. She led her parents north to St. Catharines, Canada, where a community of formerly enslaved people, including other relatives and friends of Tubman, had gathered.

Routes and methods

Tubman's dangerous work required ingenuity. She usually worked during winter, when long nights and cold weather minimized the chance of being seen. She would start the escapes on Saturday evenings, since newspapers would not print runaway notices until Monday morning. She used subterfuges to avoid detection. Tubman once disguised herself with a bonnet and carried two live chickens to give the appearance of running errands. Suddenly finding herself walking toward a former enslaver, she yanked the strings holding the birds' legs, and their agitation allowed her to avoid eye contact. Later she recognized a fellow train passenger as a former enslaver; she snatched a nearby newspaper and pretended to read. Tubman was known to be illiterate, and the man ignored her.

In an 1897 interview with historian Wilbur Siebert, Tubman named some people who helped her and places she stayed along the Underground Railroad. She stayed with Sam Green, a free black minister living in East New Market, Maryland; she also hid near her parents' home at Poplar Neck. She would travel from there northeast to Sandtown and Willow Grove, Delaware, and to the Camden area where free black agents, William and Nat Brinkley and Abraham Gibbs, guided her north past Dover, Smyrna, and Blackbird, where other agents would take her across the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to New Castle and Wilmington. In Wilmington, Quaker Thomas Garrett would secure transportation to William Still's office or the homes of other Underground Railroad operators in the greater Philadelphia area. Still is credited with helping hundreds escape to safer places in New York, New England, and Southern Ontario.

Tubman's faith was another important resource as she ventured repeatedly into Maryland. The visions from her childhood head injury continued, and she saw them as divine premonitions. She spoke of "consulting with God", and trusted that He would keep her safe. Garrett once said of her, "I never met with any person of any color who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul." Her faith also provided immediate assistance. She used spirituals as coded messages, warning fellow travelers of danger or to signal a clear path. She sang versions of " Go Down Moses" and changed the lyrics to indicate that it was either safe or too dangerous to proceed. As she led escapees across the border, she would call out, "Glory to God and Jesus, too. One more soul is safe!"

She carried a revolver as protection from slave catchers and their dogs. Tubman also threatened to shoot anyone who tried to turn back since that would risk the safety of the remaining group, as well as anyone who helped them on the way. Tubman spoke of one man who insisted he was going to go back to the plantation. She pointed the gun at his head and said, "Go on or die." Several days later, the man who wavered crossed into Canada with the rest of the group.

By the late 1850s, Eastern Shore slaveholders were holding public meetings about the large number of escapes in the area; they cast suspicion on free blacks and white abolitionists. They did not know that "Minty", the petite, disabled woman who had run away years before, was responsible for freeing so many enslaved people. Though a popular legend persists about a reward of $40,000 (equivalent to $1,303,000 in 2022) for Tubman's capture, this is a manufactured figure: in 1867, in support of Tubman's claim for a military pension, an abolitionist named Sallie Holley wrote that $40,000 "was not too great a reward for Maryland slaveholders to offer for her". If it were real, such a high reward would have garnered national attention. A reward of $12,000 has also been claimed, though no documentation has been found for either figure.

Tubman and the fugitives she assisted were never captured. Years later, she told an audience: "I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say - I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."

John Brown and Harpers Ferry

Tubman helped John Brown plan and recruit for the raid at Harpers Ferry.

In April 1858, Tubman was introduced to the abolitionist John Brown, an insurgent who advocated the use of violence to destroy slavery in the United States. Although she was not previously involved in armed insurrection, she agreed with his course of direct action and supported his goals. Like Tubman, he spoke of being called by God, and trusted the divine to protect him from the wrath of slavers. She, meanwhile, claimed to have had a prophetic vision of meeting Brown before their encounter.

Thus, as he began recruiting supporters for an attack on slaveholders, Brown was joined by "General Tubman", as he called her. Her knowledge of support networks and resources in the border states of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware was invaluable to Brown and his planners. Although other abolitionists like Douglass did not endorse his tactics, Brown dreamed of fighting to create a new state for those freed from slavery, and made preparations for military action. He believed that after he began the first battle, the enslaved would rise up and carry out a rebellion across the slave states. He asked Tubman to gather former slaves then living in Southern Ontario who might be willing to join his fighting force, which she did.

On May 8, 1858, Brown held a meeting in Chatham, Canada, where he unveiled his plan for a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. When word of the plan was leaked to the government, Brown put the scheme on hold and began raising funds for its eventual resumption. Tubman aided him in this effort and with more detailed plans for the assault.

Tubman was busy during this time, giving talks to abolitionist audiences and tending to her relatives. In early October 1859, as Brown and his men prepared to launch the attack, Tubman was ill in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It is not known whether she still intended to join Brown's raid or if she had become skeptical of the plan, but when the raid on Harpers Ferry took place on October 16, Tubman had recovered from her illness and was in New York City.

The raid failed; Brown was convicted of treason, murder, and inciting a rebellion, and he was hanged on December 2. His actions were seen by many abolitionists as a symbol of proud resistance, carried out by a noble martyr. Tubman herself was effusive with praise. She later told a friend: "[H]e done more in dying, than 100 men would in living."

Auburn and Margaret

In early 1859, Frances Adeline Seward, the wife of abolitionist Republican U.S. Senator William H. Seward, sold Tubman a seven-acre (2.8 ha) farm in Fleming, New York, for $1,200 (equivalent to $42,200 in 2022). The adjacent city of Auburn was a hotbed of antislavery activism, and Tubman took the opportunity to move her parents from Canada back to the U.S. Her farmstead became a haven for Tubman's family and friends. For years, she took in relatives and boarders, offering a safe place for black Americans seeking a better life in the north.

Shortly after acquiring the farm, Tubman went back to Maryland and returned with an eight-year-old light-skinned black girl named Margaret, who Tubman said was her niece. She also indicated the girl's parents were free blacks. According to Margaret's daughter Alice, Margaret later described her childhood home as prosperous and said that she left behind a twin brother. These descriptions conflict with what is known about the families of Tubman's siblings, which created uncertainty among historians about the relationship and Tubman's motivations. Alice called Tubman's actions a "kidnapping", saying, "she had taken the child from a sheltered good home to a place where there was nobody to care for her". After speculating in her 2004 biography of Tubman that Margaret might have been Tubman's own secret daughter, Kate Larson found evidence that Margaret was the daughter of Isaac and Mary Woolford, a free black couple who were neighbors of Tubman's parents in Maryland and who had twins named James and Margaret.

In November 1860, Tubman conducted her last rescue mission. Throughout the 1850s, Tubman had been unable to effect the escape of her sister Rachel, and Rachel's two children Ben and Angerine. Upon returning to Dorchester County, Tubman discovered that Rachel had died, and the children could be rescued only if she could pay a bribe of $30 (equivalent to $980 in 2022). She did not have the money, so the children remained enslaved. Their fates remain unknown. Never one to waste a trip, Tubman gathered another group, including the Ennalls family, ready and willing to take the risks of the journey north. It took them weeks to get away safely because of slave catchers forcing them to hide out longer than expected. The weather was unseasonably cold and they had little food. The Ennalls' infant child was quieted with paregoric while slave patrols rode by. They safely reached the home of David and Martha Wright in Auburn on December 28, 1860.

American Civil War

A woodcut of Tubman in her Civil War clothing

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Tubman had a vision that the war would soon lead to the abolition of slavery. More immediately, enslaved people near Union positions began began escaping in large numbers. General Benjamin Butler declared these escapees to be " contraband" - property seized by northern forces - and put them to work, initially without pay, at Fort Monroe in Virginia. The number of "contrabands" encamped at Fort Monroe and other Union positions rapidly increased. In January 1862, Tubman volunteered to support the Union cause and began helping refugees in the camps, particularly in Port Royal, South Carolina.

In South Carolina, Tubman met General David Hunter, a strong supporter of abolition. He declared all of the "contrabands" in the Port Royal district free, and began gathering formerly enslaved people for a regiment of black soldiers. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was not yet prepared to enforce emancipation on the southern states and reprimanded Hunter for his actions. Tubman condemned Lincoln's response and his general unwillingness to consider ending slavery in the U.S., for both moral and practical reasons:

God won't let master Lincoln beat the South till he does the right thing. Master Lincoln, he's a great man, and I am a poor negro; but the negro can tell master Lincoln how to save the money and the young men. He can do it by setting the negro free.

Tubman served as a nurse in Port Royal, preparing remedies from local plants and aiding soldiers suffering from dysentery and infectious diseases. At first, she received government rations for her work, but to dispel a perception that she was getting special treatment, she gave up her right to these supplies and made money selling pies and root beer, which she made in the evenings.

Scouting and the Combahee River Raid

When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Tubman considered it a positive but incomplete step toward the goal of liberating all black people from slavery. She turned her own efforts towards more direct actions to defeat the Confederacy. In early 1863, Tubman used her knowledge of covert travel and subterfuge to lead a band of scouts through the land around Port Royal. Her group, working under the orders of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, mapped the unfamiliar terrain and reconnoitered its inhabitants. She later worked alongside Colonel James Montgomery, and provided him with key intelligence that aided in the capture of Jacksonville, Florida.

Illustration of the Combahee River Raid from Harper's Weekly

Later that year, Tubman's intelligence gathering played a key role in the raid at Combahee Ferry. She guided three steamboats with black soldiers under Montgomery's command past mines on the Combahee River to assault several plantations. Once ashore, the Union troops set fire to the plantations, destroying infrastructure and seizing thousands of dollars worth of food and supplies. Forewarned of the raid by Tubman's spy network, enslaved people throughout the area heard steamboats' whistles and understood that they were being liberated. Tubman watched as those fleeing slavery stampeded toward the boats; she later described a scene of chaos with women carrying still-steaming pots of rice, pigs squealing in bags slung over shoulders, and babies hanging around their parents' necks. Armed overseers tried to stop the mass escape, but their efforts were nearly useless in the tumult. As Confederate troops raced to the scene, the steamboats took off toward Beaufort with more than 750 formerly enslaved people.

Newspapers heralded Tubman's "patriotism, sagacity, energy, [and] ability" in the raid, and she was praised for her recruiting efforts - more than 100 of the newly liberated men joined the Union army. Reports about her involvement in the raid led to a revival of the "General Tubman" appellation previously given to her by John Brown. Although her contributions have sometimes been exaggerated, her role in the raid led to her being widely credited as the first woman to lead U.S. troops in an armed assault.

In July 1863, Tubman worked with Colonel Robert Gould Shaw at the assault on Fort Wagner, reportedly serving him his last meal. She later described the battle to historian Albert Bushnell Hart:

And then we saw the lightning, and that was the guns; and then we heard the thunder, and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling, and that was the drops of blood falling; and when we came to get the crops, it was dead men that we reaped.

For two more years, Tubman worked for the Union forces, tending to newly liberated people, scouting into Confederate territory, and nursing wounded soldiers in Virginia, a task she continued for several months after the Confederacy surrendered in April 1865.

Formal portrait of Tubman taken after the Civil War and circulated as a carte de visite

Tubman had received little pay for her Union military service. She was not a regular soldier and was only occasionally compensated for her work as a spy and scout; her work as a nurse was entirely unpaid. For over three years of service, she received a total of $200 (equivalent to $3,820 in 2022). Her unofficial status caused great difficulty in documenting her service, and the U.S. government was slow in recognizing its debt to her. Meanwhile, her humanitarian work for her family and the formerly enslaved kept her in a state of constant poverty.

When a promised appointment to an official military nursing position fell through in July 1865, Tubman decided to return to her home in New York. During a train ride to New York in October 1865, Tubman traveled on a half-fare ticket provided to her because of her service. A conductor told her to move from a regular passenger car into the less-desirable smoking car. When she refused, he cursed at her and grabbed her. She resisted, and he summoned additional men for help. They muscled her into the smoking car, injuring her in the process. As these events transpired, white passengers cursed Tubman and told the conductor to kick her off the train.

Tubman spent her remaining years in Auburn, tending to her family and other people in need. In addition to managing her farm, she took in boarders and worked various jobs to pay the bills and support her elderly parents. One of the people Tubman took in was a farmer named Nelson Davis. Born enslaved in North Carolina, he had served as a private in the 8th United States Colored Infantry Regiment from September 1863 to November 1865. He began working in Auburn as a bricklayer, and they soon fell in love. Though he was 22 years younger than she was, on March 18, 1869, they were married at the Central Presbyterian Church. They adopted a baby girl named Gertie in 1874.

Tubman in 1887 (far left), with her husband Davis (seated, with cane), their adopted daughter Gertie (beside Tubman), Lee Cheney, John "Pop" Alexander, Walter Green, "Blind Aunty" Sarah Parker, and her great-niece Dora Stewart at Tubman's home in Auburn, New York

Tubman's friends and supporters from the days of abolition, meanwhile, raised funds to support her. One admirer, Sarah Hopkins Bradford, wrote an authorized biography entitled Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. The 132-page volume was published in 1869 and brought Tubman some $1,200 in income (equivalent to $26,400 in 2022). Even with this assistance, paying off the mortgage on her farm in May 1873 exhausted Tubman's savings. That October, she fell prey to swindlers. Two black men claimed to know a former slave who had a trunk of gold coins smuggled out of South Carolina, which they would sell for cash at less than half the coins' value. She knew white people in the South had buried valuables when Union forces threatened the region, and black men were frequently assigned to digging duties, so the claim seemed plausible to her. She borrowed money from a wealthy friend and arranged to receive the gold late one night. Once the men had lured her into the woods, they knocked her out with chloroform and stole her purse. Tubman was found dazed and injured; the trunk was filled with rocks.

The crime brought new attention from local leaders to Tubman's precarious financial state and spurred renewed efforts to get compensation for her Civil War service. In 1874, Representatives Clinton D. MacDougall of New York and Gerry W. Hazelton of Wisconsin introduced a bill to pay Tubman a $2,000 (~$51,729 in 2022) lump sum "for services rendered by her to the Union Army as scout, nurse, and spy", but it was defeated in the Senate. In February 1880, Tubman's wood-framed house burned down, but with the help of her supporters it was quickly replaced with a new brick home.

Nelson Davis died of tuberculosis on October 14, 1888. The Dependent and Disability Pension Act of 1890 made Tubman eligible for a pension as his widow. After she documented her marriage and her husband's service record to the satisfaction of the Bureau of Pensions, in 1895 Tubman was granted a monthly widow's pension of $8 (equivalent to $281 in 2022), plus a lump sum of $500 to cover the five-year delay in approval. In December 1897, New York Congressman Sereno E. Payne introduced a bill to grant Tubman a soldier's monthly pension of $25 (~$879.00 in 2022). Although Congress received documents and letters to support Tubman's claims, some members objected to a woman being paid a full soldier's pension. In February 1899, Congress approved a compromise amount of $20 per (~$704.00 in 2022) month (the $8 from her widow's pension plus $12 for her service as a nurse), but did not acknowledge her as a scout and spy.

Suffragist activism

Tubman in 1911

In her later years, Tubman worked to promote the cause of women's suffrage. A white woman once asked Tubman whether she believed women ought to have the vote, and received the reply: "I suffered enough to believe it." Tubman began attending meetings of suffragist organizations, and was soon working alongside women such as Susan B. Anthony and Emily Howland.

Tubman traveled to New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. to speak in favor of women's voting rights. She described her actions during and after the Civil War, and used the sacrifices of countless women throughout modern history as evidence of women's equality to men. When the National Federation of Afro-American Women was founded in 1896, Tubman was the keynote speaker at its first meeting.

This wave of activism kindled a new wave of admiration for Tubman among the press in the United States. A publication called The Woman's Era launched a series of articles on "Eminent Women" with a profile of Tubman. An 1897 suffragist newspaper reported a series of receptions in Boston honoring Tubman and her lifetime of service to the nation. However, her endless contributions to others had left her in poverty, and she had to sell a cow to buy a train ticket to these celebrations.

Church, illness, and death

In the 1870s, Tubman became active in the Thompson Memorial African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church in Auburn. In 1895, she began discussions with AME Zion leaders and others to create a Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged that would care for "indigent colored people". Despite her financial limitations, in 1896 Tubman bid $1215 (~$42,739 in 2022) at auction for a 25-acre (10 ha) farm adjacent to the one she already owned, to use for the new facility. She designated one of the farm's buildings as its primary residence and named it "John Brown Hall" to honor her late abolitionist ally. However, raising funds for the project was difficult, and attempts to donate the property were complicated by the multiple mortgage loans used to pay for it. After Tubman almost lost the property due her financial difficulties, AME Zion agreed to take it over in 1903.

The home did not open for another five years, and Tubman was dismayed when the church ordered residents to pay a $100 entrance fee (equivalent to $3,260 in 2022). She said: "[T]hey make a rule that nobody should come in without they have a hundred dollars. Now I wanted to make a rule that nobody should come in unless they didn't have no money at all." She was frustrated by the new rule but was the guest of honor nonetheless when the home celebrated its opening on June 23, 1908.

As Tubman aged, her childhood head trauma continued to trouble her. Unable to sleep because of pain and "buzzing" in her head, in the late 1890s she asked a doctor at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital to operate. In her words, he "sawed open my skull, and raised it up, and now it feels more comfortable". She reportedly received no anesthesia and instead bit down on a bullet, as she had seen Civil War soldiers do when their limbs were amputated.

By 1911, Tubman's body was so frail that she was admitted into the rest home named in her honor. A New York newspaper described her as "ill and penniless", prompting supporters to offer a new round of donations. Surrounded by friends and family members, she died of pneumonia on March 10, 1913. Just before she died, she quoted the Gospel of John to those in the room: "I go away to prepare a place for you." Tubman was buried with semi-military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn.

Tubman's great-niece, Eva Stewart Northrup, launching the SS Harriet Tubman

Widely known and well-respected while she was alive, Tubman became an American icon in the years after she died. By the 1980s, Tubman was one of American history's most famous figures. She inspired generations of African Americans struggling for equality and civil rights; she was praised by leaders across the political spectrum.

Parks, monuments and historical sites

National parks and national monuments related to Tubman in the United States are the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park, both in Maryland, and the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Auburn. The Salem Chapel in St. Catharines, where Tubman worshipped, is a National Historic Site of Canada.

The city of Auburn has several historical sites related to Tubman, including her gravesite. Other state and local historical sites about Tubman include a state park and memorial garden in Maryland, and a museum in New Jersey.

Artistic portrayals

Tubman is the subject of many works of art. Musicians including Woody Guthrie, Wynton Marsalis, and Walter Robinson have written songs celebrating her. She is the subject of operas by Thea Musgrave, Nkeiru Okoye, and Hilda Paredes, as well as plays by Carolyn Gage and a collaboration of May Miller and Willis Richardson. Tubman is the focus of novels by Elizabeth Cobbs, Marcy Heidish, and Anne Parrish, and is a character in novels by Terry Bisson, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and James McBride.

Since Tubman's life was first dramatized on television in a 1963 episode of the series The Great Adventure, she has been portrayed in TV productions such as The Good Lord Bird, , Underground, and A Woman Called Moses. Cynthia Erivo received an Academy Award nomination for portraying Tubman in the 2019 theatrical film .

Artists including Fern Cunningham, Jane DeDecker, Nina Cooke John, and Alison Saar have presented Tubman in sculptures. She has been drawn or painted by numerous artists, including Romare Bearden, Aaron Douglas, William Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, and Faith Ringgold.

Other honors and commemorations

Official $20 bill prototype

In 1978, Tubman became the first African-American woman honored on a U.S. postage stamp; she appeared on a second stamp in 1995. Beginning in 2016, there have been plans to add a portrait of Tubman to the front of the twenty-dollar bill, moving the portrait of President Andrew Jackson, a slaveholder, to the back of the bill.

Dozens of schools, streets and highways, church groups, social organizations, and government agencies have been named after Tubman. In 1944, the United States Maritime Commission launched the SS Harriet Tubman, its first Liberty ship named for a black woman.

Historiography

Tubman hoped to become literate and write her own memoirs, but she never did. Instead, Sarah Hopkins Bradford combined Tubman's personal recollections, journalistic accounts, and letters from Tubman's friends and supporters to create Scenes from the Life of Harriet Tubman in 1868. Criticized by modern biographers for its artistic license and highly subjective point of view, the book nevertheless provides insight into Tubman's own view of her experiences. In 1886, Bradford released a re-written volume called Harriet, the Moses of her People. In both volumes Harriet Tubman is hailed as a latter-day Joan of Arc. The revision took a more moralistic and literary tone than the prior work, including changes of many event descriptions from first to third person. A final revision in 1901 added an appendix with more stories about Tubman's life.

The first full biography of Tubman to be published after Bradford's was Earl Conrad's Harriet Tubman (1943). Conrad experienced great difficulty in finding a publisher - the search took four years - and endured disdain and contempt for his efforts to construct a more objective, detailed account of Tubman's life for adults. Several highly dramatized versions of Tubman's life had been written for children, and many more came later, but Conrad wrote in an academic style. Though she was a popular historical figure, another book-length biography based on original scholarship did not appear for 60 years, when Jean Humez published a close reading of Tubman's life stories in 2003. Larson and Clinton both published their biographies soon after in 2004. Historian Milton Sernett's 2007 book Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History discusses the major biographies of Tubman up to that time.

References

Clinton, Catherine (2004). Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-14492-6 - via Open Library.

"Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800-". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Franklin, Jonathan (March 13, 2023). "A Monument of Harriet Tubman Now Replaces a Statue of Christopher Columbus in Newark". . Archived from the original on June 15, 2023.

Gaige, Amity (August 23, 2013). "The Good Lord Bird, by James McBride". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on July 25, 2019.

Gibson, Chantal N. & Silverman, Monique (2005). "Sur/Rendering Her Image: The Unknowable Harriet Tubman". Canadian Art Review. 30 (1): 25-38. JSTOR 42630711.

Hobson, Janell (2022). When God Lost Her Tongue: Historical Consciousness and the Black Feminist Imagination. Subversive Histories, Feminist Futures series. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780429243554. ISBN 978-0-429-24355-4. S2CID 240990028.

Humez, Jean M. (Summer 1993). "In Search of Harriet Tubman's Spiritual Autobiography". NWSA Journal. 5 (2): 162-182. JSTOR 4316258.

Humez, Jean (2003). Harriet Tubman: The Life and Life Stories. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-19120-7 - via Open Library.

Kaufman, Rachel (May 13, 2018). "Pilot, Thinker, Soldier, Spy: The Epic Timeless Season Finale Twofer". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020.

Larson, Kate Clifford (2004). Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-45627-4 - via Open Library.

Oertel, Kristen T. (2015). Harriet Tubman: Slavery, the Civil War, and Civil Rights in the Nineteenth-century America. Routledge Historical Americans series. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-94897-9.

Portelli, Alessandro (Fall 1988). "Fire on the Mountain". Review. Appalachian Journal. 16 (1): 87-90. JSTOR 40933404.

Roma, Catherine (2001). "Contemporary British Composers". In Pendle, Karin (ed.). Women and Music: A History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 227-251. ISBN 978-0-253-11503-4 - via Open Library.

Rosenberg, Amy S. (September 17, 2020). "The Harriet Tubman Museum in Cape May Marked Its Opening. Here's What's Inside, and Why It's in Cape May". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020.

Sacks, Sam (May 17, 2019). "Fiction: Tales of History and Imagination". Books & Arts in Review. The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on July 25, 2019.

Vargas, Ángel (October 17, 2018). "La gesta de Harriet Tubman llega al Cervantino en forma de ópera" [The deeds of Harriet Tubman arrive at the Cervantino in the form of an opera]. (in Spanish). Archived from the original on April 17, 2021.

Further reading

External links

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Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. March 1822 - March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including her family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known collectively as the Underground Railroad.

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There is a consensus of expert opinion that cricket may have been invented during Saxon or Norman times by children living in the Weald, an area of dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England. The first reference to cricket being played as an adult sport was in 1611, and in the same year, a dictionary defined cricket as a boys' game. There is also the thought that cricket may have derived from bowls, by the intervention of a batsman trying to stop the ball from reaching its target by hitting it away.

Village cricket had developed by the middle of the 17th century and the first English "county teams" were formed in the second half of the century, as "local experts" from village cricket were employed as the earliest professionals. The first known game in which the teams use county names is in 1709.

In the first half of the 18th Century cricket established itself as a leading sport in London and the south-eastern counties of England. Its spread was limited by the constraints of travel, but it was slowly gaining popularity in other parts of England and Women's Cricket dates back to the 1745, when the first known match was played in Surrey.

In 1744, the first Laws of Cricket were written and subsequently amended in 1774, when innovations such as lbw, a 3rd stump, - the middle stump and a maximum bat width were added. The codes were drawn up by the "Star and Garter Club" whose members ultimately founded the famous Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's in 1787. MCC immediately became the custodian of the Laws and has made revisions ever since then to the current day.

Rolling the ball along the ground was superseded sometime after 1760 when bowlers began to pitch the ball and in response to that innovation the straight bat replaced the old "hockey-stick" style of bat. The Hambledon Club in Hampshire was the focal point of the game for about thirty years until the formation of MCC and the opening of Lord's Cricket Ground in 1787.

Cricket was introduced to North America via the English colonies as early as the 17th century, and in the 18th century it arrived in other parts of the globe. It was introduced to the West Indies by colonists and to India by British East India Company mariners. It arrived in Australia almost as soon as colonisation began in 1788 and the sport reached New Zealand and South Africa in the early years of the 19th century.

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There is a consensus of expert opinion that cricket may have been invented during Saxon or Norman times by children living in the Weald, an area of dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England. The first reference to cricket being played as an adult sport was in 1611, and in the same year, a dictionary defined cricket as a boys' game.

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First Lady Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is a lawyer, writer, and the wife of the 44th President, Barack Obama. She is the first African-American First Lady of the United States. Through her four main initiatives, she became a role model for women and an advocate for healthy families, service members and their families, higher education, and international adolescent girls education.

Each of us also comes here tonight," Michelle Obama told the Democratic National Convention in 2008, "by way of our own improbable journey" and "driven by a simple belief that . . . we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be." Michelle Obama's journey began in the South Side of Chicago, where Fraser and Marian Robinson instilled in their daughter a heartfelt commitment to family, hard work, and education.

Her father was a pump operator for the Chicago Water Department, while her mother stayed at home to care for Michelle and her older brother Craig. As she watched her father refuse to give in to multiple sclerosis, use two canes to get to his job, and save money to send her to college, she learned that "the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them."

Michelle earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School. In 1988, she returned to Chicago to join the firm of Sidley Austin. It was there that she met Barack Obama, a summer associate she was assigned to advise. They were married in 1992.

By that time Michelle had turned her energies to public service. She was assistant commissioner of planning and development in Chicago's City Hall before becoming the founding executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that prepares young people for public service. In 1996, she joined the University of Chicago as associate dean of student services, where she developed the university's first community service program. In 2002, she went to work for the University of Chicago Medical Center, where in 2005 she became the vice president of community and external affairs. During these years the Obamas' daughters Malia and Sasha were born.

As first lady, Michelle Obama initiated Let's Move! a program aiming to end childhood obesity within a generation. Through it, elected officials, business leaders, educators, parents, and faith leaders worked together to provide more nutritious food in schools, bring healthy and affordable food into underserved communities, plant vegetable gardens across America, and provide new opportunities for kids to be more active. Each year local schoolchildren helped plant and harvest the garden she started on the White House South Lawn. Its vegetables and fruits were served at the White House and donated to soup kitchens and food banks.

During Barack Obama's second term Michelle spearheaded the Reach Higher Initiative to help students understand job opportunities and the education and skills they need for those jobs. She encouraged young people to continue their education past high school in technical schools and community colleges as well as at colleges and universities. Worldwide, she championed the education of girls and women. In a commencement address at the City College of New York she told graduates, "Never view your challenges as obstacles." It is a lesson she has embodied all her life. Throughout her time in the White House Mrs. Obama worked to support veterans and military families. She also focused her energies on what she calls her most important role: MominChief to her daughters, who grew into accomplished young women during their eight years in the White House.
The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from "The Presidents of the United States of America," by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey.
Learn more about Michelle Obama's spouse, Barack Obama.

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First Lady Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is a lawyer, writer, and the wife of the 44th President, Barack Obama. She is the first African-American First Lady of the United States. Through her four main initiatives, she became a role model for women and an advocate for healthy families, service members and their families, higher education, and international adolescent girls education.

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https://www.wired.com/2016/06/history-mountain-bike-unsurprisingly-badass/

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About 40-odd years ago, a bunch of young California misfits changed the world with new technology. Oh, you've heard this before? Well, it wasn't a computer. It was bikes.

Mountain bikes, to be exact. Now, it's true that people have been riding on rough roads and dusty paths from the earliest days of cycling. But a perfect mix of competition, rapid technology development, and marketing strategy propelled what mountain bike pioneer Charlie Kelly calls a "goofy hobby" into global phenomenon and a new Olympic sport.

Those athletes will roll up to the starting line in Rio astride the latest ultra-light carbon fiber machines with precision shifting, powerful disc brakes, and responsive suspension. And their bikes will look nothing like what the world's first mountain bikers rode on Mount Tamalpais just north of San Francisco in Marin County, California.

In the early 1970s, cyclists in and around Marin County started assembling "clunkers" using salvaged paper-boy bikes from the 1930s and '40s and bombing down Tam's paths and fire roads. In the video above, Kelly and fellow innovator Joe Breeze of Breezer Bikes describe those early days, and how the mountain bike evolved from junkyard dogs to purebred rock- and rut-eating rigs with full suspension and prices that can reach well into five figures.

Now, when it comes to mountain biking, it isn't enough to ride. As Kelly explains, someone eventually claims to be the fastest, and there's only one way to settle an assertion like that.

In the fall of 1976, Kelly organized the first of a series of downhill races he and his crew called "Repack," named for the maintenance required after skidding through 52 turns on a coaster brake. "By the time you got to the bottom, the grease would have burnt into a contrail of smoke," Breeze says. "You'd have to go home and re-pack the hub."

Brakes weren't the only thing that took a beating. Kelly broke so many frames that he eventually asked Breeze to build him something stronger. "I wanted a secret weapon," he says. In 1977, Breeze built the first of 10 frames inspired by his 1941 Schwinn's dimensions. He used steel alloy tubing, and strengthened them with distinctive twin lateral tubes running diagonally across the frames. Then he outfitted them with new parts, creating the world's first new, purpose-built mountain bikes.

Breeze's first frame, which he rode to victory in a Repack race, sits in the Smithsonian Institute. Breezer No. 2, which Kelly rode, is part of the collection at the Marin Bicycle Museum and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame not far from Mt. Tam.

The museum is a shrine to the days before Lycra, helmets, and sick GoPro edits. " It was team Levi's " says Breeze, pointing to a photo of him at the museum dressed head to toe in denim. The bikes were heavy, too-Kelly's first rides weighed 38 pounds, nearly twice the weight of a modern cross-country racer.

Still, Repack, which Kelly chronicles in Fat-Tire Flyer: Repack and the Birth of Mountain Biking, pushed the tech forward. Then a TV crew documented a Repack race. Clunking subculture soon spread, and demand for bikes spiked.

Mountain biking really spawned a lot more interest in city riding and the utility of bicycling.

Joe Breeze

The museum features beautiful examples of steel-framed machines from early craftsmen like Tom Ritchey, Mert Lawwill and the Koskis as well as early aluminum frames built by Charlie Cunningham, who also designed many early off-road-specific parts.

By the early 1980s, Specialized Bicycles was mass-producing its Stumpjumper mountain bike. Others responded with MTB-specific components and tires. By the end of the decade, many offered bikes with motorcycle-like suspension; disc brakes weren't far behind. In 1996, 20 years after the first Repack, mountain biking debuted at the Atlanta Olympic Games.

Racing still pushes technology and design. Earlier this year, Sea Otter 2016 hosted the first electric mountain bike race. But the lasting impact of the mountain bike, with its cushy tires, upright handlebars and sturdy frame, Breeze says, may be the millions who took to them, not for hopping rocks, but for commuting and running errands around town.

"It really spawned a lot more interest in city riding and the utility of bicycling for everyday," he says.

For Kelly it was all about Repack, which is hallowed ground, as far as he's concerned. "The racing started us on this journey that we're still on," he says. This fall, on the 40th anniversary of the first Repack, a group of cyclists will gather at the top to celebrate just how far their goofy hobby has come.

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The Roots of Dirt: How Mountain Bikes Went From Clunkers to Global Phenomenon

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About 40-odd years ago, a bunch of young California misfits changed the world with new technology. Oh, you've heard this before? Well, it wasn't a computer. It was bikes. Mountain bikes, to be exact. Now, it's true that people have been riding on rough roads and dusty paths from the earliest days of cycling.

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Alcatraz prison is often called one of the most haunted places in the world, but why?

Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, and Arthur "Doc" Barker all spent time in Alcatraz, as did many other notorious criminals of their time.

Want to know who still haunts the empty cells of Alcatraz and where you should go to meet their restless spirits? Keep reading.

Why is Alcatraz Haunted?

Alcatraz was built to break the spirits of even the most rebellious criminals.

In 1933, the US government decided to open a maximum-security, minimum-privilege prison to deal with the worst criminals of all time.

Inmates who broke one the prison's many rules would be punished by being sent to what was known as the "strip cell."

Before entering the strip cell, the prisoners were stripped naked.

The cell had no mattress, no sink, and no lights, of course.

The only toilet? A hole in the ground.

The dark steel room removed what was left of hope and humanity in the criminals who earned a stay there.

Therefore, it's no surprise some of their spirits can't move on from the experience and from the Alcatraz Island itself.

Could one of their ghosts still be hanging around there, too?

How to Meet The Ghosts of Alcatraz

The best way to learn about the haunted history of a place is to jump right in and see it for yourself, right?

1. Visit Cell 14D

Cell 14D is one of the cells that prisoners were sent to as punishment.

Visitors often report feeling raw coldness enveloping the room, like more than one spirit is still present there.

In the 1940s, a man actually died in cell 14D.

The guards found him strangled on the floor of his room.

Rumor has it, the night before his death, he kept screaming that a creature with glowing eyes was trying to kill him.

If that doesn't scare you, go ahead and explore the cell yourself!

2. Take a walk through Cell Blocks A, B, and C

This is where Alcatraz visitors frequently hear crying and moaning.

In addition to that, a psychic reported encountering a malevolent spirit named Butcher here.

Want to guess what the prison records show? A man nicknamed Butcher was assassinated here back in the 1940s.

3. Listen for banjo music in the showers

Al Capone, the infamous American gangster, spent his last years in Alcatraz strumming along with the prison's banjo band.

Due to fearing that he would be killed if he dared to play the banjo out in the open, he resolved to practice it in the showers.

Some say they can still hear the banjo music playing there on occasion... Can you?

The Wild SF Experience

Alcatraz Island will certainly give you the chills, but it's not the only creepy place in San Francisco.

Did you know San Francisco is actually one of the most haunted cities in the United States?

In our Haunted San Francisco Ghost Tour, we take you on an unforgettable journey through the streets of San Francisco to show you why.

Our haunted tour has been known to stir up some restless spirits, so if you are in the mood for a ghostly encounter, come join us!
Ready to discover the dark side of San Francisco?
Book a tour now.

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The Dark Side of San Francisco: Why is Alcatraz So Haunted?

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Alcatraz prison is often called one of the most haunted places in the world, but why? Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, and Arthur "Doc" Barker all spent time in Alcatraz, as did many other notorious criminals of their time.

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Modern Marvels: How Ice Cream is Made (S14, E18) | Full Episode | History

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Hot summers end extreme heat waves always pushed people to find some salvation and way to cool themselves. This quest enabled creation of many innovative technical devices and traditions, but only one item of them all managed to capture our imagination and wishes, giving everyone time to enjoy their moments in the sun and cool themselves like never before. This is a story of ice cream.

Brief History of Ice Cream

First ice creams appeared in ancient Persia, some 2500 years ago, and in those early times they were all based on the sweetened water that was iced, grinded into little pieces and then decorated with various tasting toppings and fruits. This tradition of ice cream production slowly reached Greek and Roman empires, where ice creams were welcomed with opened hands and used liberally by Roman nobility and royalty who had necessary money to fund very expensive process of production. Sadly, after the fall of the Roman Empire, organized ice transport from mountains to the cities below stopped, and ice cream continued to be even more expensive product. Little changed in the 1000 years following the fall of Rome, and only after the Europe started exiting Dark Ages did ice cream managed to resurface in Renaissance Italy.

During 13th and 14th century, Italy was center of the trade with the Middle East and Asia, and their contact with new and innovative recipes of ice cream enabled this summertime treat to slowly spread across entire Europe. This expansion of ice cream was not an easy one, and it happened only after Italian noblewoman Catherine de'Medici went to France to marry Duke de Orleans (future king of France) in 1533. There she introduced nobility of continental Europe with the wonders of the east - eating utensils, high heeled shoes and off course, ice cream. With nobility fueling its production, innovators, technicians and cooks all put their best efforts into developing the rise of ice cream popularity and availability across the world. North American street vendors started selling ice cream only few decades after France and England, and industrial revolution slowly but surely started working on elevating problems of continuous refrigeration.

Solution to that problem came only in 1926, when continuous refrigeration finally became reality with electrical freezers. This enabled industrial manufacturers to start producing very large quantities of this frozen treat, which slashed ice creams price to the acceptable levels for everyone. Large popularity of ice cream in United States (especially during prohibition and market crash of 1930s) did not shifted to Europe until the start of the World War II. After WW2, ice cream industry received massive expansion, enabling creation of countless ice cream flavors, artificial ingredients and accessible price. Today, ice cream industry earns dozens of billions of dollars each year, with United States being the largest consumer of this phenomenal summertime treat.

Interesting Facts about Ice Cream

Roman Emperor Nero adored ice cream. He established large chain of runners who brought fresh ice from the mountain to Rome biggest cities.

Marco Polo introduced Europe to the milk based ice cream in late 13th century.

One ice cream cone can be finished with 50 licks.

United States is largest producer and consumer of ice cream in the world.

90% of American households eats ice cream.

The most famous types of ice cream are Gelato, Neapolitan, Sorbet, stick and cone.

First ice cream cone was created during 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.

Legends say that Charles I of England ordered beheading of his chef, who was blamed for releasing into public secret recipe of King's favorite ice cream.

12 gallons of milk can produce only 1 gallon of ice cream.

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Hot summers end extreme heat waves always pushed people to find some salvation and way to cool themselves. This quest enabled creation of many innovative technical devices and traditions, but only one item of them all managed to capture our imagination and wishes, giving everyone time to enjoy their moments in the sun and cool themselves like never before.

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On her website ToriAvey.com, Tori Avey explores the story behind the food – why we eat what we eat, how the recipes of different cultures have evolved, and how yesterday's recipes can inspire us in the kitchen today. Learn more about Tori and The History Kitchen.
If you grew up in America, odds are you know this little foodie rhyme:

"You scream! I scream! We all scream for ice cream!"

For most Americans, the phrase "ice cream" conjures up memories of summer, like slurping melted cones, banana splits, hot fudge sundaes, root beer floats, and buying a scoop from the drug store when it only cost a dime. Ice cream is the ultimate old fashioned treat. This dessert has a very worldly history that stretches all around the globe. In India, there's kulfi. In Italy, gelato. In Japan, mochi. It seems every country has its own spin on the delicious frozen confection we Americans call ice cream. This sweet stuff gets around! So where exactly did it come from?

There are several myths about the origin of ice cream. Some say Marco Polo brought it back from his travels to the Far East. Others say that Catherine de Medici introduced it to France when she relocated to marry King Henry II. Neither tale is likely to be true, though both are romantic. In fact, ice cream has a much more ancient history. Its earliest form holds very little resemblance to the ice cream we eat today. Biblical passages refer to King Solomon enjoying cooling iced drinks during harvest season. Alexander the Great of ancient Greece loved to indulge in icy drinks flavored with honey or wine. During Nero's reign of Rome from 54 – 68 BC, ice was harvested from nearby mountains and held in "ice houses"—deep pits covered with straw. This practice of keeping ice in lieu of refrigeration would be common for centuries to come.

The emperors of the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 AD) are believed to have been the first to eat "a frozen milk-like confection." This version was made with cow, goat or buffalo milk that was heated with flour. Camphor, an aromatic substance harvested from evergreen trees, was added to enhance the texture and flavor. The mixture was then placed into metal tubes and lowered into an ice pool until frozen. This process is similar to the way Indians made kulfi prior to refrigeration.

In medieval times, Arabs drank an icy refreshment called sherbet, or sharabt in Arabic. These chilled drinks were often flavored with cherry, pomegranate, or quince. Over time, the drinks became popular with the European aristocracy. Italians are said to have mastered this drink-making technique, with the French following suit shortly after.

The 17th century saw ice drinks being made into frozen desserts. With the addition of sugar, sorbetto was created—or, as we more commonly know it, sorbet. Antonio Latini (1642–1692), a man working for a Spanish Viceroy in Naples, is credited with being the first person to write down a recipe for sorbetto. He is also responsible for creating a milk-based sorbet, which most culinary historians consider the first "official" ice cream.

In 1686, a Sicilian named Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli opened Paris' first café, Il Procope. The establishment became a meeting place for many famous intellectuals, including Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo and Napoleon. The café introduced gelato, the Italian version of sorbet, to the French public. It was served in small porcelain bowls resembling egg cups. Procopio became known as the "Father of Italian Gelato."

Around the same time, the French began experimenting with a frozen dessert called fromage. French confectioner Nicolas Audiger, in his book "La maison reglée," describes several fromage recipes made from ices flavored with fruit. One early recipe includes cream, sugar and orange flower water. Audiger also suggests stirring ices during the freezing process to introduce air and create a fluffier texture. Despite the dessert's name, fromage was not made from cheese. It's not completely clear why they called it fromage. The word may refer to the cheese molds that were used to freeze the ice cream, or it may simply be a lax French term for any compressed or molded edible substance. Whatever the reason, during the 18th century frozen fromage became quite popular throughout France.

It is impossible to say how exactly ice cream reached America, but it likely arrived with European settlers in the early 1700's. By this time, several books on confectionery had been produced and included recipes for ices and ice cream. Housewives would serve these treats to guests in the shape of vegetables, fruits and animals, thanks to special ice cream molds. In 1790, the first ice cream parlor opened in New York. During the summer of the same year, our first president, George Washington, is said to have spent $200 to satisfy his craving for the refreshing treat. Inventory records of his Mt. Vernon home also indicate that he owned several ice cream pots made from tin and pewter. Thomas Jefferson is said to have kept several ice houses, able to hold up to 62 wagonloads of ice, along with copious amounts of ice cream. Even the Lincolns had a taste for the cold stuff. Before and during his presidency, Abraham Lincoln's wife Mary Todd frequently hosted "strawberry parties" for friends in both Springfield, Illinois and Washington to celebrate berry season. Fresh ripe strawberries were served with cake and... you guessed it... ice cream.

Though its history spans worldwide and over centuries, ice cream has made itself quite comfortable in America, becoming one of the most popular desserts in the country. A staggering 9% of American cow's milk production is dedicated to ice cream. Apple pie might be the most traditionally American dessert, but what is served as its most popular sidekick? Vanilla ice cream, of course! This creamy iced treat has firmly planted itself in the hearts of foodies across America.

What's your favorite way to eat ice cream? Here are five delectable frozen recipes that will have you screaming for more!

Herbst, Ron and Sharon Tyler (2009). The Deluxe Food Lover's Companion. Barron's Educational Series, Inc., Hauppauge, NY.

Powell, Marilyn (2005). Ice Cream: The Delicious History. The Overlook Press, New York, NY.

Weiss, Laura B. (2011). Ice Cream: A Global History. Reaktion Books Ltd, London, UK.

Quinzio, Jeri (2009). Of Sugar and Snow – A History of Ice Cream Making. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

McCreary, Donna D (2008). Lincoln's Table: A President's Culinary Journey from Cabin to Cosmopolitan. Lincoln Presentations, Charlestown, Indiana.
You can uncover more fascinating food history on Tori's website: The History Kitchen. Tori Avey is a food writer, recipe developer, and the creator of ToriAvey.com. She explores the story behind the food – why we eat what we eat, how the foods of different cultures have evolved, and how yesterday's food can inspire us in the kitchen today. Tori's food writing and photography have appeared on the websites of CNN, Bon Appetit, Zabar's, Williams-Sonoma, Yahoo Shine, LA Weekly and The Huffington Post. Follow Tori on Facebook: Tori Avey, Twitter: @toriavey, or Google+.
Was Ice Cream the Founding Fathers' Favorite Dessert?
Many former presidents had a hand in bringing this Summer treat over from Europe. Even Dolley Madison was an ice cream fanatic!

What Are the Best Ice Cream Shops in America?
PBS employees share their favorite spots from across the country. What are your top picks?

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Explore the History of Ice Cream | The History Kitchen | PBS Food

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On her website ToriAvey.com, Tori Avey explores the story behind the food - why we eat what we eat, how the recipes of different cultures have evolved, and how yesterday's recipes can inspire us in the kitchen today. Learn more about Tori and The History Kitchen.