title: Korea

text: Ssireum competitions are traditionally held twice a year, during the Dano Festival (the 5th day of the fifth lunar month) and Chuseok (the 15th day of the 8th lunar month). Competitions are also held throughout the year as a part of festivals and other events.


title: Korea

text: Taekkyon is a traditional martial art, considered the oldest form of fighting technique of Korea. Practiced for centuries and especially popular during the Joseon dynasty, two forms co-existed: one for practical use, the other for sport. This form was usually practised alongside Ssireum during festivals and competitions between villages. Nonetheless, Taekkyon almost disappeared during the Japanese Occupation and the Korean War.


title: Korea

text: Though lost in North Korea, Taekkyon has enjoyed a spectacular revival from the 1980s in South Korea. It is the only martial art in the world (with Ssireum) recognised as a National Treasure of South Korea and a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Christian Dannemann Eriksen (born 14 February 1992) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Manchester United and the Denmark national team. Eriksen is renowned for his vision, technique, passing, and free kick ability.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Eriksen began his senior club career at age 18 in 2010, playing for Ajax, where he won three Eredivisie titles and the KNVB Cup. In 2013, Eriksen signed for Tottenham Hotspur in a transfer worth £11 million (€12.45 million), where he was twice named the club's Player of the Year, was voted into the 2017–18 PFA Team of the Year, and later also reached the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final. In 2020, Eriksen joined Inter Milan in a transfer worth €19.7 million (£16.9 million), and won a Serie A title prior to the mutual termination of his contract in 2021. Eriksen returned to the Premier League in 2022 with a move to Brentford.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Eriksen made his senior international debut for Denmark in 2010 at age 18, and has since earned 120 caps, including appearing in five major tournaments; he was also the youngest player at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Eriksen is his country's fifth highest all-time goalscorer, and was named Danish Football Player of the Year a record five times. During a UEFA Euro 2020 match on 12 June 2021, Eriksen collapsed on the pitch after suffering a cardiac arrest due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM); he was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation and was later fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, and returned to football eight months later, eventually playing with Manchester United.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Born in Middelfart, Denmark, Eriksen followed in the footsteps of his father Thomas when he started playing football in the academy of local side, Middelfart G&BK. Eriksen's father was also one of the coaches at the time and in 2004 they helped the youth side finish unbeaten in the local youth championship for the third time in a period of four years. The following year, he joined Odense Boldklub who competed in the Danish youth championships and within a year had helped the club to an age-group title. It was at OB that Eriksen first began showing signs of his technical ability, with his dribbling and free-kick techniques lauded by then-coach, Tonny Hermansen. His form at youth level attracted the attention of a number of major European clubs, including the likes of Chelsea and Barcelona. Eriksen ultimately underwent trials with both clubs as well as Real Madrid, Manchester United and Milan, but finally decided to move to Ajax, stating, "My first step should not be too big. I knew that playing in the Netherlands would be very good for my development. Then Ajax arrived and that was a fantastic option."


title: Christian Eriksen

text: On 17 October 2008, Eriksen signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with Amsterdam-based club, Ajax. The transfer fee received by OB was estimated at €1 million (£847,199) while Middelfart also received a sum of €35 000 which they later used to construct a football pitch. He worked his way through the youth teams at Ajax and was promoted to the first team squad in January 2010, where he was given the number 51 shirt. Later that month, he made his first team debut in a 1–1 Eredivisie with NAC Breda. He scored his first goal for Ajax on 25 March in a 6–0 win over Go Ahead Eagles in the Dutch Cup and extended his contract with the club the following month. On 6 May, he played in the second match of the final of the 2009–10 Dutch Cup as Ajax beat Feyenoord 4–1, prevailing 6–1 on aggregate. At the end of his first professional season with the club, Eriksen had played 21 competitive matches, scoring one goal, and had made his international debut for Denmark. Eriksen's form throughout the campaign earned praise from manager Martin Jol who compared him to former youth products Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart as well as Danish legend, Michael Laudrup for his reading of the game in the traditional number 10 role.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Eriksen took the number eight jersey ahead of the following campaign and began the 2010–11 season well, scoring his first Ajax league goal on 29 August 2010 in an away victory over De Graafschap. Over the course of the next few months, he scored his first home goal at the Amsterdam Arena, in a 3–0 Cup victory over BV Veendam, and his first European goal, in a 3–0 UEFA Europa League win over Anderlecht. In between the milestone goals, Eriksen was also named Danish Talent of the Year. His growing capabilities as the team's playmaker saw him become an undisputed starter in the side and he helped Ajax to their first Eredivisie title in seven years. At the end of the season he was named Ajax's Talent of the Year. His form throughout the campaign also earned him the Dutch Football Talent of the Year award which saw him become only the second Danish player to win the award since Jon Dahl Tomasson in 1996. Johan Cruyff, whose panel selected Eriksen for the award, described Eriksen as a typical product of the Danish school and added to previous comparisons between him and Brian and Michael Laudrup."


title: Christian Eriksen

text: On 18 October 2011, Eriksen scored his first goal in the UEFA Champions League when Ajax beat Dinamo Zagreb 2–0 in the group stage. In the return fixture the following month, he provided assists to teammates Gregory van der Wiel and Siem de Jong as Ajax recorded a 4–0 victory. Five days later he was named Danish Football Player of the Year in recognition of his role in helping Ajax to the league title the season before and in Denmark's successful UEFA Euro 2012 qualification campaign. Eriksen continued to impress for Ajax and his strong contribution, both in terms of goal and assist returns, helped the club to a second consecutive league title.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Eriksen and Ajax repeated the feat in the 2012–13 season following which he opted not to renew his contract with the club. With only one year remaining on his current contract, Eriksen was permitted to search for a new club and he agreed terms with Tottenham Hotspur in England. Eriksen departed Ajax having made 162 appearances across all competitions and scored 32 goals. Along with his league success, he had also featured in three consecutive editions of the Johan Cruyff Shield, which Ajax won once.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: On 30 August 2013, Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur announced that they had completed the transfer of Eriksen from Ajax in a deal believed to be worth £11 million (€12.45 million). Eriksen joined the club on the same day as Erik Lamela, who joined from Roma, and Vlad Chiricheș, who joined from Steaua București, and took the club's total spending for the 2013 summer transfer window to £109.5 million. He made his league debut against Norwich City on 14 September and provided an assist for Gylfi Sigurðsson in a 2–0 victory. After the match, Spurs manager André Villas-Boas commented, "It was a great debut for Christian, he is a pure number 10, a creative player and his individual quality made all the difference."


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Five days later, Eriksen "clipped a wonderful dipping shot" over the goalkeeper to score his first Tottenham goal and complete a 3–0 win over Tromsø IL in the Europa League. He added to his Tottenham goal tally with a goal from a free kick in a 1–1 draw against West Bromwich Albion on Boxing Day 2013, and the second goal in Spurs' 1–2 away win against Manchester United on 1 January 2014. On 23 March and two goals down against Southampton at White Hart Lane, Eriksen scored twice to level the score and then assisted Sigurðsson to score the winning goal. He continued his goalscoring form on 12 April when he scored a stoppage-time equaliser to help Tottenham come from 3–0 down to draw 3–3 at West Brom. By the end of the season, he had scored 10 goals and registered 13 assists across all competitions, won the Danish Football Player of the Year award and was named Tottenham's Player of the Season.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Ahead of the 2014–15 campaign, Tottenham appointed Mauricio Pochettino as new club manager after the unsuccessful period under Villas-Boas and interim-manager Tim Sherwood. Between November and December 2014, Eriksen scored late winners against Aston Villa, Hull City and Swansea City which he credited to the Argentine manager for raising the team's fitness levels. By the end of the calendar year, Eriksen had scored 12 goals from open play – more than any other player in England – and was soon after awarded his second consecutive Danish Footballer of the Year award. On 28 January 2015, Eriksen scored twice in a 2–2 (3–2 aggregate) win over Sheffield United to send Tottenham into the League Cup Final. His first goal, a 30-yard curling free kick, was later lauded by former professionals Michael Owen and Gary Neville. The final, played against London rivals Chelsea, took place on 1 March and ended in a 2–0 defeat for Tottenham. Eriksen completed the 2014–15 campaign having featured in every Premier League game for Mauricio Pochettino, starting all-but one match, and scored 12 goals across all competitions.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: On 9 June 2015, amid speculation that he would be joining Manchester United, Eriksen confirmed to Danish media whilst on international duty that he would stay at Tottenham for the foreseeable future and was quoted as saying, "I feel right at home at Tottenham and I haven't thought about leaving yet." He did in fact remain with the club and scored his first goals of the season in October, netting from two free-kicks in a 2–2 draw with Swansea. In January 2016, Eriksen was once again named Danish Footballer of the Year. In doing so he became the first ever player to win the award in three consecutive years. He ultimately scored 6 goals and registered 13 assists as Tottenham ended the league season in third place, thereby qualifying for the following season's Champions League campaign.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Ahead of the following season, Eriksen signed a new long-term contract with Tottenham and starred once again for the club, scoring eight goals and assisting a further 15 as the club ended the league campaign as runners-up to champions Chelsea. Eriksen's tally of assists was bettered only by Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne who set up 18 goals for the season. Eriksen also recorded the joint-most assists in the FA Cup and later won the Tottenham Player of the Season award, claiming the award for the second time after previously winning it in his debut season with the club.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Eriksen broke the record for the most goals scored by a Danish player in the Premier League when he scored his 33rd goal in a 3–2 win over West Ham United on 23 September 2017, surpassing the record previously held by Nicklas Bendtner. On 9 December, he made his 200th appearance for Tottenham and marked the occasion by scoring in a 5–1 league win over Stoke City. The following month, he scored his 50th goal for the club when he scored after just 11 seconds in the 2–0 league win over Manchester United. Eriksen's goal was the third-fastest goal ever scored in the Premier League, bettered only by Alan Shearer and former Spurs captain Ledley King. On 17 March 2018, Eriksen scored twice in an FA Cup match against Swansea to send Spurs to the semi-final for the second season running. On 1 April, Eriksen scored a 25-yard goal in the away match against Chelsea, helping Tottenham to their first win in 28 years at Stamford Bridge in a match that finished 3–1. Later that month, in the reverse fixture against Stoke, Eriksen scored twice to earn Tottenham a 2–1 win. Following the match, teammate Harry Kane, who was challenging for the season's Golden Boot award, claimed to have made the last touch on the ball for the second goal. Tottenham appealed to the Premier League panel who agreed that the ball touched Kane's shoulder and awarded him the goal. On 14 April, Eriksen was named in the PFA Team of the Year for the first time, alongside teammates Kane and Jan Vertonghen.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: In the 2018–19 season, Eriksen scored his first goal of the season in a Champions League away match against Inter Milan. The match ended in a 2–1 loss for Tottenham, but in the home game against Inter, Eriksen scored again in the only goal of the game, giving Tottenham a 1–0 victory. He scored his first Premier League goal of the season on 15 December 2018 in the home match against Burnley, a late goal that earned Tottenham a 1–0 win. On 31 March, during a 2–1 defeat to Liverpool, he became only the second player after David Beckham to record 10+ assists in four successive Premier League seasons. Three days later, on the occasion of his 200th Premier League appearance, he assisted Son Heung-min for the first ever goal at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before scoring a goal of his own in a 2–0 win over Crystal Palace. On 23 April, he scored the winning goal in a 1–0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion. Later on, Eriksen played in the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final, which resulted a 2–0 defeat for Tottenham against Liverpool.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: On 28 January 2020, with his contract at Tottenham set to expire in six months, Eriksen signed a four-and-a-half-year deal with Serie A club Inter Milan that would earn him €10 million per season. He made his club debut the following day, coming on as a second-half substitute for Alexis Sánchez in 2–1 home win over Fiorentina in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals. On 20 February, Eriksen scored his first goal for the club, netting the opener in a 2–0 away victory over Ludogorets Razgrad in the Europa League. He scored his first Serie A goal on 1 July, in a 6–0 win against Brescia. On 21 August, Eriksen played in Inter's 2–3 loss against Sevilla in the 2020 Europa League Final, becoming the first player to lose two consecutive finals in the two current major UEFA competitions; he had lost the 2019 Champions League Final with Tottenham the previous year.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: In December 2020, Giuseppe Marotta confirmed that Eriksen had been added to the transfer list for 2021; however, his teammate Romelu Lukaku had previously hinted that Eriksen's struggles at the Italian club were due to the language barrier. On 26 January 2021, in the final minutes of Inter's Coppa Italia quarter-final match against rivals Milan, Eriksen was subbed on with the score at 1–1. In the seventh minute of stoppage time and with the game seemingly headed for extra time, he scored his first goal of the season from a direct free kick to win the match for Inter and send them through to the semi-finals. Following the match, Inter manager Antonio Conte said that Eriksen would remain with the club, despite being linked with a winter departure. On 1 May, he scored Inter's first goal in an important 2–0 away win over Crotone, bringing the club closer to their first league title since 2009–10. Inter were confirmed as league champions the following day, after closest challengers Atalanta failed to win their match against Sassuolo. It ended Juventus's nine-year grasp on the Serie A title.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: On 29 October 2021, it was announced that Eriksen was not permitted to play in the Serie A due to the presence of an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator he had implanted after suffering a cardiac arrest during a game at Euro 2020. Close to half a year after his cardiac arrest, Eriksen began individual training at the facilities of his youth academy team OB in Odense in preparation for a possible comeback to football. On 17 December 2021, Inter confirmed they had terminated their contract with Eriksen.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: On 31 January 2022, Eriksen signed for Premier League club Brentford on a six-month contract. On 26 February 2022, his first appearance was as a substitute in a 2–0 defeat to Newcastle United - he replaced Mathias Jensen, who came on in Eriksen's place in the game in which he suffered a cardiac arrest. He recorded his first assist since his cardiac arrest in a 2–0 win over Burnley on 12 March. He scored his first goal back in the Premier League in a 4–1 away win against West London rivals Chelsea on 2 April, helping the Bees secure their first victory over Chelsea since 1939. Between the date of Eriksen's Brentford debut and the end of the season only Kevin De Bruyne and Martin Ødegaard created more chances in the Premier League.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: On 15 July 2022, Manchester United announced they had reached an agreement to sign Eriksen on a three-year deal. On 28 July 2022, it was confirmed that he would wear the number 14 shirt. On 7 August, Eriksen made his club debut in 2–1 home loss against Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League. He made his first assist for the club in a 3–1 home league victory over rivals Arsenal when he assisted Marcus Rashford's second goal.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Eriksen was called up to the Denmark national under-17 football team in July 2007, and impressed in his debut for the team on 31 July. In 2008, he scored eight goals in 16 games for the U-17s, and was named Danish U-17 Talent of the Year by the Danish FA. He was also one of four nominees for the 2008 Danish Talent of the Year award, which was won by Mathias Jørgensen. He played 27 games for the under-17 team until February 2009. He played a total of eight games for the Denmark U-18 and Denmark U-19 teams during 2009. Eriksen was also called up for the Danish U-21 squad to the European championship in Denmark in 2011, the Danish team only participated in the group stage and Eriksen scored a goal against Belarus.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Eriksen received his first senior Denmark call-up in February 2010, making his debut in Denmark's friendly match against Austria in March, to become Denmark's fourth youngest full international, being the youngest debutant since Michael Laudrup.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: On 28 May 2010, Denmark coach Morten Olsen announced that Eriksen would be part of the final squad of 23 participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. He was the youngest player participating in the tournament. At the World Cup, Eriksen played two matches, against the Netherlands and Japan, but Denmark were unable to progress beyond the group stage.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: On 9 February 2011, in a 2–1 friendly loss at home against England, Eriksen was named man of the match, and was praised for his performance by a number of prominent footballing figures, including Chelsea star Frank Lampard, Man Utd star Rio Ferdinand (on Twitter), manager Morten Olsen and several media experts in Denmark and England. On 4 June 2011, Eriksen scored his first national team goal to give Denmark a 2–0 lead over Iceland in their Euro 2012 qualifier. In doing so, he became the youngest Danish player ever to score a goal in European qualification, being nine days younger than Michael Laudrup when he scored his first goal in 1983.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: In the build-up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Denmark were drawn in UEFA Group E alongside the likes of Poland and Romania. Eriksen played a key-role during the nation's qualification campaign during which time he scored eight goals to earn Denmark a play-off against the Republic of Ireland. The first leg of the play-off ended in a 0–0 home draw before Eriksen netted a hat-trick in Dublin's Aviva Stadium in a 5–1 win to earn Denmark a spot at the World Cup. Eriksen's treble took his tally to 11 goals for the qualification campaign, bettered only by Poland's Robert Lewandowski (16) and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo (15) in Europe, and earned the praise of national team manager Åge Hareide who stated that Eriksen was one of the top 10 players in the world.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: In Denmark's opening match at the tournament, Eriksen assisted Yussuf Poulsen for the only goal in a 1–0 win over Peru before scoring his first goal for the tournament in the 1–1 draw with Australia the following week. Denmark ultimately progressed from their group after which they were drawn with Croatia in the Round of 16. There they were defeated after a penalty shoot-out, with Eriksen being one of three players to have his spot-kick saved by Croatia goalkeeper Danijel Subašić.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: On 9 September 2018, Eriksen scored twice in a 2–0 win over Wales to lead Denmark to victory in the nation's inaugural 2018–19 UEFA Nations League B match. On 14 October 2020, Eriksen played his 100th match for Denmark, in which he scored a penalty in a 1–0 away win against England in the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Eriksen was included in Denmark's squad for UEFA Euro 2020 on 25 May 2021. On 12 June, while playing in Denmark's opening group stage match against Finland at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Eriksen collapsed in the 42nd minute as he was about to receive a throw-in. Urgent medical assistance arrived immediately, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation were performed on the field before Eriksen was taken off the pitch on a stretcher and the match was suspended. Around an hour after the incident, UEFA and Danish Football Association (DBU) officials confirmed from the Rigshospitalet Hospital that Eriksen had been stabilised and was awake. The match continued later that evening, resulting in a 1–0 victory for Finland, with Eriksen chosen by UEFA as the man of the match. Denmark manager Kasper Hjulmand and team doctor Morten Boesen both later expressed regret at the match's continuation, although Eriksen's teammate Martin Braithwaite said that the decision to do so was the "least bad one". The decision to continue the match was also criticised by Peter Schmeichel, father of Denmark's keeper Kasper, who said that UEFA had threatened the team with a 3–0 loss if they refused to finish the match later on that day or the following day at noon, leaving the players with "no choice" but to continue.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: The next day, Boesen confirmed Eriksen had suffered a cardiac arrest. The incident itself drew comparisons to Fabrice Muamba and Abdelhak Nouri, two professional footballers who also collapsed during play in similar circumstances. Muambe was forced to retire, and Nouri suffered permanent brain damage. On 15 June, Eriksen posted a picture of himself in the hospital on his social media along with a brief statement, stating that he was "fine under the circumstances". The following day, it was announced that he would be fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator device, a decision described by Boesen as "necessary due to rhythm disturbances" following his cardiac arrest. On 18 June, the DBU declared that Eriksen had undergone a successful operation and was discharged from Rigshospitalet. After his discharge, he visited his Danish teammates in Helsingør before returning home to his family. The Danish team later dedicated their 4–1 win over Russia in their final group match to Eriksen; the result allowed them to advance to the round of 16. They later went on to reach the semi-finals of the tournament, where they were eliminated following a 2–1 extra-time loss to England at Wembley Stadium, on 7 July.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Eriksen returned to international football on 26 March 2022, coming on at half-time in a 4–2 loss against the Netherlands, scoring two minutes into his return.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Described as a "classic number ten" in the media, Eriksen's favoured position is in a free role in the centre of the pitch as an attacking midfielder behind the forwards; however, he is a tactically versatile player, who is also capable of playing as a central midfielder or mezzala in a 4–3–3 system (as was the case during his first years with Ajax), and as a right winger in a 4–2–3–1 formation. He has also been used on the left flank on occasion, or as a second striker.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Possessing significant vision, passing range, crossing accuracy, set-piece delivery, creativity, technical skills, movement, and an ability to read the game, as well as good balance and co-ordination, Eriksen is highly regarded by pundits for his ability to orchestrate attacking moves for his team with his distribution, create or exploit spaces with his runs, and provide assists to his teammates; his range of skills make him an effective playmaker and creator of chances. In addition to his talent, he is also known for his work-rate and intelligence on the pitch. He is also known for his eye for goal from midfield, and for his ability to strike the ball with power and accuracy with either foot, despite being naturally right-footed, in particular from distance; moreover, he has also established himself as a free kick specialist.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Due to his playing style, nationality, and role, pundits have compared him to his compatriots Michael and Brian Laudrup, who were two of his major influences in his youth, as well as Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart; Eriksen has also cited Francesco Totti as an inspiration.


title: Christian Eriksen

text: Eriksen lives with his girlfriend Sabrina Kvist Jensen. They have two children, a son and a daughter. His younger sister Louise Eriksen also plays football and is the captain for KoldingQ in the Elitedivisionen.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Michelle Suzanne Dockery (born 15 December 1981) is an English television and film actress. She is best known for her leading performance as Lady Mary Crawley in the ITV television period drama series "Downton Abbey" (2010–2015), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and three consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Dockery made her professional stage debut in "His Dark Materials" in 2004. For her role as Eliza Doolittle in the 2007 London revival of "Pygmalion", she was nominated for the Evening Standard Award. For her role in the 2009 play "Burnt by the Sun", she earned an Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Dockery has appeared in the films "Hanna" (2011), "Anna Karenina" (2012), "Non-Stop" (2014), and "The Gentlemen" (2019). On television, Dockery has also played lead roles on the drama series "Good Behavior" and the Netflix miniseries "Godless", for which she received her fourth Emmy nomination, and the drama miniseries "Defending Jacob" (2020). She played Kate Woodcroft in Netflix's anthology drama miniseries "Anatomy of a Scandal" (2022).


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Dockery is the daughter of Lorraine, a care home assistant from Stepney, England, and Michael Dockery a surveyor from Athlone, Ireland. She grew up in Romford in London and she still has traces of an Estuary accent.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Dockery has two older sisters, Louise and Joanne. She was educated first at Chadwell Heath Academy, and later at the Finch Stage School.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: After her A Levels, she enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she was awarded the gold medal for Drama at her graduation in 2004.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Dockery was a member of the National Youth Theatre. She made her professional debut in "His Dark Materials" at the Royal National Theatre in 2004. In 2006, she was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award for her performance as Dina Dorf in "Pillars of the Community" at the National Theatre. She appeared in "Burnt by the Sun" at the National Theatre, for which she received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: She won second prize at the Ian Charleson Awards for her performance as Eliza Doolittle in Peter Hall's production of "Pygmalion" at the Theatre Royal, Bath, which toured the UK and transferred to The Old Vic in 2008, and for the same production was nominated Best Newcomer at the Evening Standard Awards 2008.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: In 2006, Dockery starred as Susan Sto Helit in a two-part adaptation of Terry Pratchett's novel "Hogfather". In 2008, she played Kathryn in Channel 4's "The Red Riding Trilogy" and played the guest lead of tormented rape victim Gemma Morrison in BBC's "Waking the Dead". In 2009, she appeared in the two-part "Cranford" Christmas special for the BBC, and she also starred as the lead character, as the young governess, in a modernised BBC adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw" with her future "Downton Abbey" co-star Dan Stevens, in the role of her psychiatrist.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Dockery came to public prominence in 2010 when she played Lady Mary Crawley in Julian Fellowes' series "Downton Abbey". "Downton Abbey" was filmed from February–August 2010–15. The series was broadcast on ITV September–November, with a special Christmas night episode for Series 2–6 in 2011–15, with a later airing schedule in the U.S. for PBS.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: For her role as Lady Mary Crawley in the "Downton Abbey" series, Dockery received three consecutive Emmy Award nominations in the category for Outstanding Lead Actress In Drama Series – 2012, 2013, and 2014. She also earned a Golden Globe nomination in 2013.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Dockery's first big screen role was as False Marissa in "Hanna" (2011). In 2012, she appeared as Princess Myagkaya in the film adaptation of "Anna Karenina" and starred with Charlotte Rampling in a two-part dramatisation of William Boyd's spy thriller "Restless" on BBC One. In January 2014, she appeared in the action thriller feature film "Non-Stop" alongside co-stars Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, and Lupita Nyong'o.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: In 2014, Dockery was made Fellow of the Guildhall School in recognition of her achievements in television. In 2014, Dockery was listed in "The Sunday Times Britain's 500 Most Influential People", which is a compilation of the most significant individuals in the UK who have demonstrated outstanding qualities of influence, achievement and inspiration.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: A departure from her portrayal as Lady Mary in "Downton Abbey", Dockery advanced her Hollywood career with a 2015 performance in sci-fi thriller feature film "Self/less" with Ryan Reynolds.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Beginning in November 2016, Dockery starred in the lead role of Letty Raines in "Good Behavior", an American drama series based on the novella series by Blake Crouch. Letty is a drug-addicted thief and con-artist who, released early from prison on good behaviour, is attempting to get her life under control. This is complicated by a chance meeting and subsequent entanglement with a charismatic hitman, played by Juan Diego Botto. The 10-episode first season, airing on U.S. basic-cable network TNT, was filmed in and around Wilmington, North Carolina. In January 2017, the show was picked up for a second season. In November 2018, the series was cancelled after two seasons.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: In 2017, Dockery starred alongside Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, and Emily Mortimer in the British film "The Sense of an Ending" from CBS Films, based on the Booker-winning novel of the same name by Julian Barnes. She plays Susie Webster, the daughter of Tony Webster (Jim Broadbent), a man who lives in quiet unquestioning solitude until he confronts secrets of his past. "The film is a beautiful adaptation of the book which I love. And I jumped at the chance to work with director Ritesh Batra, who also filmed "The Lunchbox" (2013)", explains Dockery.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Later that year, Dockery played a lead role in the Netflix western miniseries "Godless". In 2019, Dockery reprised her lead role as Lady Mary Crawley in the "Downton Abbey" film, alongside Hugh Bonneville and Maggie Smith. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was a major financial success, grossing $192 million. Later in 2019, Dockery starred in the Guy Ritchie directed "The Gentlemen", as the wife of a drug baron played by Matthew McConaughey. The film, which opened in wide release in 2020, was met with mixed to positive reviews, though Dockery's performance as Ros was praised, and has grossed over $100 million worldwide.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Dockery is a trained singer. She sang at the 50th Anniversary of Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London and has occasionally sung with Sadie and the Hotheads, a band formed by Elizabeth McGovern, who played her mother in "Downton Abbey". In February 2022, it was announced that Dockery and her Downton Abbey co-star Michael C. Fox has signed a record deal with Decca Records as the duo Michelle and Michael.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: On World Humanitarian Day 2014, Oxfam announced Dockery as its first ever Humanitarian Ambassador. Dockery is also a patron of Changing Faces, as well as other charities.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: In 2014, Dockery was one of nine British celebrities featured in a short film promoting Stand Up to Cancer UK.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Dockery began a relationship with John Dineen, from Waterfall, Ireland, in 2013. The actress had been introduced to Dineen, then a public relations director at FTI Consulting in London, by Irish actor Allen Leech, who appeared alongside Dockery in "Downton Abbey". The couple were first pictured together when they were on holiday in Venice, Italy, during the 2013 Venice International Film Festival. In 2015, it was reported that they were engaged, with Dockery showing off a diamond ring to her co-stars during screen tests.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Dineen died from a rare form of cancer on 13 December 2015, at age 34, in Marymount Hospice in Cork, with Dockery at his bedside.


title: Michelle Dockery

text: Dockery has been in a relationship with Jasper Waller-Bridge, brother of "Fleabag" creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge and composer Isobel Waller-Bridge, since 2019. They announced their engagement in January 2022.


title: Maggie Q

text: Margaret Denise Quigley (Vietnamese: Lý Mỹ Kỳ; born May 22, 1979), professionally known as Maggie Q, is an American actress, activist, and model.


title: Maggie Q

text: She began her professional career in Hong Kong, with starring roles in the action films "Gen-Y Cops" (2000) and "Naked Weapon" (2002), before appearing in the American productions "" (2006), "Live Free or Die Hard" (2007), "Priest" (2011) and "The Protégé" (2021). She portrayed Tori Wu in the dystopian science-fiction action film "Divergent" (2014), and reprised her role in the sequels, "" (2015) and "" (2016).


title: Maggie Q

text: Q starred in the title role on The CW action-thriller series "Nikita" (2010–2013), and also had a main role as FBI Special Agent Hannah Wells in the political thriller series "Designated Survivor" (2016–19). She provided the voice of Wonder Woman on the animated series "Young Justice" (2012–19).


title: Maggie Q

text: Q was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her father is of Irish and Polish descent and her mother is a Vietnamese immigrant. Her parents met while her father was stationed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. She has four siblings, was raised Catholic and attends church.


title: Maggie Q

text: She attended Mililani Waena Elementary School and Wheeler Intermediate School. She then attended Mililani High School, where she was on the cross country, track and field, and swim teams. She won the title of "Best Body" senior year, and graduated in 1997. She won an athletics scholarship to a private university and intended to study veterinary science; however, her family was unable to assist her financially. She left Hawaii at the end of one school year in hopes of earning enough money to resume at the beginning of the next one.


title: Maggie Q

text: At a friend's suggestion, Q began modeling in Tokyo, Japan at the age of 17, before making an unsuccessful move to Taipei, Taiwan. She tried again in Hong Kong, where she began using the stage name Maggie Q because the locals could not pronounce Quigley properly. She has said it was not easy for her: "I had twenty bucks in my pocket. I mean, I literally did the same thing that my mother did when she left Vietnam... didn't speak the language... had no money." But in Hong Kong she became a protégé of Jackie Chan, who saw in her a potential action star. His intensive training taught her the importance of professionalism and always doing her own stunts. She later said, "I had never done a day of martial arts in my life when I started in the business. I couldn't even touch my toes."


title: Maggie Q

text: In 1998, she started her acting career in the TV drama "House of the Dragon", which was a huge hit in Asia. In 2000, she made her film debut as Anna in the horror film "Model from Hell", and went on to star as FBI agent Jane Quigley in the action thriller "Gen-Y Cops" that year. Her appearance in "Gen-Y Cops" impressed Chan so much that he cast her in his films "Manhattan Midnight" and "Rush Hour 2".


title: Maggie Q

text: In 2002, she starred as martial artist assassin Charlene Ching in the action film "Naked Weapon". In 2004 she co-starred with Kelly Hu, Russell Wong and other Asian-American actors in a 30-second PSA produced by Mark Allen for CAUSE USA (Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment), "The Least Likely", encouraging Asian and Pacific Islander Americans to register and vote. In 2005, she played Harmony in the German-Singaporean TV mini-series "House of Harmony", opposite Fann Wong, and co-produced the animal treatment documentary "Earthlings" narrated by Joaquin Phoenix.


title: Maggie Q

text: In 2006, Q made her Hollywood breakthrough as co-star in "" alongside Tom Cruise. She played Zhen, the only female member of the IMF team. In 2007, she appeared as Mai Linh in the Bruce Willis movie "Live Free or Die Hard", the fourth film in the "Die Hard" series, and as Maggie in "Balls of Fury". In 2008, she played fictional Cao Ying, a granddaughter of the warlord Cao Cao in "", her first ancient Chinese costume performance. That year, she also appeared in the drama/thriller movie "Deception" starring Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackman, as Tina, an investment banker who introduces Jackman's character to an exclusive anonymous sex club list. She also stars in the video game "" as the seductive lead character, federal agent Chase Linh, the player's only contact to the Tri-City Police.


title: Maggie Q

text: In 2010, Q became the lead character, an assassin gone rogue, on the CW series "Nikita", based on the 1990 French film of the same name. Since its premiere, she has been incorrectly described as the first Asian American series lead in an American television drama. (Actress Anna May Wong was the first Asian American series lead of an American television series with her show "The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong," which aired in 1951.) Q received mostly positive reviews for her role in the series. Her character was included in "TV Guide"s lists of "TV's Sexiest Crime Fighters" and "TV's Toughest Ladies".


title: Maggie Q

text: In 2014, Q played the role of Dauntless faction member Tori Wu, in the film "Divergent", the adaptation of the same-titled novel. Q reprised her role in the sequel to "Divergent", "", which began filming on May 27, 2014, and was released on March 20, 2015. She also starred in the CBS drama series "Stalker" by Kevin Williamson as Detective Beth Davis along with Dylan McDermott and Mariana Klaveno. The series premiered on October 1, 2014, for the 2014–15 fall television season. The series was ordered for a full season on October 27, 2014. The series however was canceled after one season, leaving the show on a cliffhanger. In October 2013, Q started filming for "The Crash", starring alongside Frank Grillo, AnnaSophia Robb, Dianna Agron, John Leguizamo, Ed Westwick, Mary McCormack, Christopher McDonald and Minnie Driver. The film was directed by Aram Rappaport and produced by Hilary Shor, Atit Shah and Aaron Becker. "The Crash" had a direct-to-VOD and limited release on January 13, 2017, in North America.


title: Maggie Q

text: She reprised her role in "", the third installment of the "Divergent" series, which was released on March 18, 2016. In February 2016, it was announced that she would co-star opposite Kiefer Sutherland in the ABC drama series "Designated Survivor" as Hannah Wells, a leading FBI agent. The show was renewed by Netflix for a third and final season, which was released on June 7, 2019. However, her character was killed off early in the final season.


title: Maggie Q

text: She starred as an assassin in "The Protégé", an action film featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Keaton, which was released to theaters August 20, 2021.


title: Maggie Q

text: After meeting her "Stalker" co-star Dylan McDermott on-set in early 2014, their engagement was announced on January 14, 2015. They stated in 2017 that they were not in any rush to be married. They ended their relationship in February 2019.


title: Maggie Q

text: Q has five tattoos: a cross on her right forearm; Tibetan script and a little triangle on her left forearm; a Zulu proverb on her side—"umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu", which means "a person's character is made by the collective"; and one of a phoenix on her left hip, which she has had to conceal for most of her roles except "Nikita". She suffered temporary hearing loss in her right ear after her eardrum was damaged during an explosive stunt in 2010.


title: Maggie Q

text: Q is outspoken on the subject of animal rights and has taken part in PETA Asia's campaigns promoting vegetarianism. A vegetarian for many years, she has said that giving up meat was one of the most rewarding decisions she has ever made. "I feel better, I have more energy, on and off the set, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that I'm doing something to help stop animal suffering." In 2008, she was named PETA Asia-Pacific's Person of the Year, and PETA listed her as one of the Best-Dressed Celebrities of 2008. She has since taken the step to cut all animal products from her diet by becoming a vegan. PETA named her one of their three Sexiest Vegans of 2017. She is currently an ambassador for Animals Asia Foundation.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: Jane Seymour (born Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg; 15 February 1951) is an English actress. After making her screen debut as an uncredited extra in the 1969 musical comedy "Oh! What a Lovely War", Seymour transitioned to leading roles in film and television, including a leading role in the television series "The Onedin Line" (1972–1973) and the role of psychic Bond girl Solitaire in the James Bond film "Live and Let Die" (1973).


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: Critical acclaim followed with a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for "Captains and the Kings" (1976). In 1982, Seymour won her first Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film for the miniseries "East of Eden" (1981). She received additional Golden Globe nominations in the same category for the television film "The Woman He Loved" (1988), in which she portrayed Wallis Simpson, and the miniseries "War and Remembrance" (1988-1989), for which she was nominated twice consecutively in addition to receiving another Emmy nomination. By this time, Seymour had won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for "" (1988), in which she played Maria Callas. In 1993, Seymour was cast as Dr. Michaela Quinn in the television series "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman", a medical drama set in the Wild West which ran for 6 seasons and resulted in a further two Emmy nominations and four Golden Globe nominations, including one win. Seymour was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and, in 2000, was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: Seymour's other film roles include "Somewhere in Time" (1980), "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (1982), "La Révolution française" (1989), "Wedding Crashers" (2005), "Love, Wedding, Marriage" (2011), "Little Italy" (2018), "The War with Grandpa" (2020) and "Friendsgiving" (2020).


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In addition to her acting career, Seymour is the founder of the Open Hearts Foundation as well as an author, having (co-)written several children's books and self-help books. Under the Jane Seymour Designs label, she has created jewellery, scarves, furniture, rugs, handbags, paintings and sculptures.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg was born on 15 February 1951 in Uxbridge, Middlesex (now part of Greater London), England, to Mieke van Tricht (1914–2007), a nurse, and Benjamin John Frankenberg FRCOG (19141990), a distinguished gynaecologist and obstetrician. Her father was Jewish; he was born in England, to a family from Nowe Trzepowo, a village in Poland. Her mother was a Dutch Protestant (with family from Deventer) who was a prisoner of war during World War II and had lived in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Seymour has stated she learned Dutch from her mother and her fellow survivors from the Japanese internment camp, who frequently spent holidays together in the Netherlands when she was a child. Encouraged by her parents (who sent her to live with family friends in Geneva to practise her languages), she learned to speak fluent French.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: Seymour's paternal grandfather Lee Grahame had come to live in the East End of London after escaping the Czarist pogroms when he was 14. He is listed in the 1911 census as living in Bethnal Green working as a hairdresser and went on to establish his own company. Seymour's father Benjamin qualified at the UCL Medical School in 1938. He joined the medical branch of the RAFVR after the outbreak of war, serving in England, Belgium, Italy and South Africa, ending his service as a squadron leader with a mention in despatches. After the war, Frankenberg continued his career at various London hospitals, including St Leonard's Hospital, Hackney, the East End Maternity Hospital, the City of London Maternity Hospital and finally Hillingdon Hospital, for which he designed the maternity unit. A close associate of Patrick Steptoe, he assisted in pioneering discussions on in-vitro fertilisation and published papers on adolescent and teenage sexual behaviours.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: Seymour was educated at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire. She chose the screen name Jane Seymour, after the English queen Jane Seymour, because it seemed more saleable. One of Seymour's notable features is heterochromia, making her right eye brown and her left eye green.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In 1969, Seymour appeared uncredited in her first film, Richard Attenborough's "Oh! What a Lovely War". In 1970, Seymour appeared in her first major film role in the war drama "The Only Way". She played Lillian Stein, a Jewish woman seeking shelter from Nazi persecution. In 1973, she gained her first major television role as Emma Callon in the successful 1970s series "The Onedin Line". During this time, she appeared as female lead Prima in the two part television miniseries "Frankenstein: The True Story". She appeared as Winston Churchill's girlfriend Pamela Plowden in "Young Winston", produced by her father-in-law Richard Attenborough.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In 1973, Seymour achieved international fame in her role as Bond girl Solitaire in the James Bond film "Live and Let Die". IGN ranked her as 10th in a Top 10 Bond Babes list. In 1975, Seymour was cast as Princess Farah in "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger", the third part of Ray Harryhausen's "Sinbad" trilogy. The film was not released until its stop motion animation sequences had been completed in 1977. In 1978, she appeared as Serina in the "Battlestar Galactica" film and in the first five episodes of the television series. Seymour returned to the big screen in the comedy "Oh Heavenly Dog" opposite Chevy Chase.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In 1980, Seymour played the role on stage of Constanze in Peter Shaffer's play "Amadeus", opposite Ian McKellen as Salieri and Tim Curry as Mozart. The play premiered on Broadway in 1980, ran for 1,181 performances and was nominated for seven Tony Awards, of which it won five.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: Also in 1980, Seymour was given the role of young theatre actress Elise McKenna in the period romance "Somewhere in Time". Though the film was made with a markedly limited budget, the role enticed Seymour with a character she felt she knew. The effort was a decided break from her earlier work, and marked the start of her friendship with co-star Christopher Reeve.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In 1981, she appeared in the television film "East of Eden", based on the novel by John Steinbeck. Her portrayal of main antagonist Cathy Ames won her a Golden Globe. In 1982, she appeared in "The Scarlet Pimpernel" with Anthony Andrews and her "Amadeus" costar Ian McKellen. In 1984, Seymour appeared nude in the film "Lassiter", co-starring Tom Selleck, but the film was a box office flop. In 1987, Seymour was the subject of a pictorial in "Playboy" magazine, although she did not pose nude.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In 1988, Seymour got the female lead in the twelve part television miniseries "War and Remembrance", the continued story from the miniseries "The Winds of War". She played Natalie Henry, an American Jewish woman trapped in Europe during World War II. That same year, she won an Emmy Award for playing Maria Callas in the television movie "".


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In 1989, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, Seymour appeared in the television film "La révolution française", filmed in both French and English. Seymour appeared as the doomed French queen, Marie Antoinette; Seymour's two children, Katherine and Sean, appeared as the queen's children.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In the 1990s, Seymour earned popular and critical praise for her role as Dr. Michaela "Mike" Quinn in the television series "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" and its television sequels (1993–2001). Her work on the series earned her a second Golden Globe Award. While working on the series "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman", she met her fourth husband, actor director James Keach.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In the 2000s, Seymour continued to work primarily in television. In 2004 and 2005, she made six guest appearances in The WB series "Smallville", playing Genevieve Teague, the wealthy, scheming mother of Jason Teague (Jensen Ackles). In 2005, Seymour returned to the big screen in the comedy "Wedding Crashers", playing Kathleen Cleary, wife of fictional United States Secretary of the Treasury William Cleary, played by Christopher Walken. In spring 2006, she appeared in the short lived The WB series "Modern Men". Later that year, Seymour guest-starred as a law-school-professor on an episode of the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" and as a wealthy client on the Fox legal drama "Justice". In 2007, she guest-starred in the ABC sitcom "In Case of Emergency". She also appeared in ITV's "Marple: Ordeal By Innocence", based on the Agatha Christie novel. She was a contestant on season five of the US reality show "Dancing with the Stars"; she finished in sixth place, along with her partner Tony Dovolani. Seymour guest starred in "One Life to Lose", a soap opera-themed episode of the ABC crime-dramedy "Castle".


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: Seymour appeared in the Hallmark Channel film "Dear Prudence" (2008); the romantic comedy "Love, Wedding, Marriage" (2011); and the Hallmark Movie Channel film "Lake Effects" (2012).


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In April 2016, she starred as Florence Lancaster in Noël Coward's play "The Vortex", presented in Singapore by the British Theatre Playhouse. In 2022, Seymour became the leading character and executive producer in the Irish TV series "Harry Wild".


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: Seymour has been married and divorced four times. Her first marriage, to Michael Attenborough, the son of film actor and director Richard Attenborough, was from 1971 to 1973. She was then briefly married to Attenborough's friend Geoffrey Planer from 1977 to 1978.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In 1981, Seymour married David Flynn. The marriage produced two children: Katherine Flynn (born on 7 February 1982) and Sean Flynn (born on 31 July 1985). Flynn had involved her in the housing market, an involvement which left her "completely beyond bankrupt". They divorced in 1992. The following year, Seymour married actor James Keach. Together they had twins, John Stacy and Kristopher Steven, born 30 November 1995, and named after family friends Johnny Cash and Christopher Reeve and James's brother, actor Stacy Keach.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: Seymour is a celebrity ambassador for Childhelp, a national nonprofit organisation dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect. In 2007, she sponsored a children's Art Pillow contest as part of the Jane Seymour Collection, with the proceeds going to Childhelp.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: On 12 April 2013, it was announced that Seymour was divorcing Keach. The divorce was finalized in December 2015.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In February 2018, she posed for "Playboy" for a third time, becoming at the age of 67 the oldest woman to be photographed for the magazine. In the "Playboy" interview, Seymour revealed that she briefly quit acting after being sexually harassed by an unnamed film producer in the early 1970s.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In the 1980s, Seymour began a parallel career as a writer of self-help and inspirational books, including "Jane Seymour's Guide to Romantic Living" (1986), "Two at a Time: Having Twins" (2002), "Remarkable Changes" (2003) and "Among Angels" (2010). She also co-wrote several children's books, with her then husband James Keach, for the "This One 'N That One" series.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In 1985, Seymour appeared at Fashion Aid, a one time fashion show fundraiser held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. An event organised by Bob Geldof to raise funds for the ongoing Ethiopian famine, the finale of the show saw her partake in a fake marriage with Freddie Mercury. Seymour wore a white lace wedding dress that was designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel – who had previously created Princess Diana's wedding gown.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: In 2008, Seymour replaced Selina Scott as the new face of fashion label CC (formerly known as Country Casuals) under the Austin Reed banner of retailers.


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: Likewise in 2008, Seymour teamed up with and designed the "Open Heart Collection" for Kay Jewelers, which promoted it with the advice, "Keep your heart open and love will "always" find its way in." Beginning that year, she saw to it that she would always be wearing one of the collection's necklaces whenever seen in public while not in character for any of her acting performances. In the same year, Seymour also wrote and published the books "Open Hearts: If Your Heart Is Open, love Will Always Find Its Way In" and "Open Hearts Family."


title: Jane Seymour (actress)

text: A 2.08-carat cushion-cut fancy vivid blue diamond in an 18-karat rose-gold-plated platinum setting was named "The Jane Seymour" in her honour by World of Diamonds Group, which had mined it in Russia, cut and set it. The ring was presented to Seymour in April 2016 in Singapore while she was there to star in "The Vortex".


title: Tennessee

text: Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 16th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, Arkansas to the southwest, and Missouri to the northwest. Tennessee is geographically, culturally, and legally divided into three Grand Divisions of East, Middle, and West Tennessee. Nashville is the state's capital and largest city, and anchors its largest metropolitan area. Other major cities include Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Clarksville. Tennessee's population as of the 2020 United States census is approximately 6.9 million.


title: Tennessee

text: Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachian Mountains. Its name derives from "Tanasi", a Cherokee town in the eastern part of the state that existed before the first European American settlement. Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later the Southwest Territory, before its admission to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. It earned the nickname "The Volunteer State" early in its history due to a strong tradition of military service. A slave state until the American Civil War, Tennessee was politically divided, with its western and middle parts supporting the Confederacy and the eastern region harboring pro-Union sentiment. As a result, Tennessee was the last state to secede and the first readmitted to the Union after the war.


title: Tennessee

text: During the 20th century, Tennessee transitioned from a predominantly agrarian society to a more diversified economy. This was aided in part by massive federal investment in the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the city of Oak Ridge, which was established during World War II to house the Manhattan Project's uranium enrichment facilities for the construction of the world's first atomic bombs. After the war, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory became a key center of scientific research. In 2016, the element tennessine was named for the state, largely in recognition of the roles played by Oak Ridge, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Tennessee in its discovery. Tennessee has also played a major role in the development of many forms of popular music, including country, blues, rock and roll, soul, and gospel.


title: Tennessee

text: Tennessee has diverse terrain and landforms, and from east to west, contains a mix of cultural features characteristic of Appalachia, the Upland South, and the Deep South. The Blue Ridge Mountains along the eastern border reach some of the highest elevations in eastern North America, and the Cumberland Plateau contains many scenic valleys and waterfalls. The central part of the state is marked by cavernous bedrock and irregular rolling hills, and level, fertile plains define West Tennessee. The state is twice bisected by the Tennessee River, and the Mississippi River forms its western border. Its economy is dominated by the health care, music, finance, automotive, chemical, electronics, and tourism sectors, and cattle, soybeans, corn, poultry, and cotton are its primary agricultural products. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the nation's most visited national park, is in eastern Tennessee.


title: Tennessee

text: Tennessee derives its name most directly from the Cherokee town of Tanasi (or "Tanase", in syllabary: ᏔᎾᏏ) in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee, on the Tanasi River, now known as the Little Tennessee River. This town appeared on British maps as early as 1725. In 1567, Spanish explorer Captain Juan Pardo and his men encountered a Native American village named "Tanasqui" in the area while traveling inland from modern-day South Carolina; however, it is unknown if this was the same settlement as Tanasi. Recent research suggests that the Cherokees adapted the name from the Yuchi word "Tana-tsee-dgee", meaning "brother-waters-place" or "where-the-waters-meet". The modern spelling, "Tennessee", is attributed to Governor James Glen of South Carolina, who used this spelling in his official correspondence during the 1750s. In 1788, North Carolina created "Tennessee County", and in 1796, a constitutional convention, organizing the new state out of the Southwest Territory, adopted "Tennessee" as the state's name.


title: Tennessee

text: The first inhabitants of Tennessee were Paleo-Indians who arrived about 12,000 years ago at the end of the Last Glacial Period. Archaeological excavations indicate that the lower Tennessee Valley was heavily populated by Ice Age hunter-gatherers, and Middle Tennessee is believed to have been rich with game animals such as mastodons. The names of the cultural groups who inhabited the area before European contact are unknown, but archaeologists have named several distinct cultural phases, including the Archaic (8000–1000 BC), Woodland (1000 BC–1000 AD), and Mississippian (1000–1600 AD) periods. The Archaic peoples first domesticated dogs, and plants such as squash, corn, gourds, and sunflowers were first grown in Tennessee during the Woodland period. Later generations of Woodland peoples constructed the first mounds. Rapid civilizational development occurred during the Mississippian period, when Indigenous peoples developed organized chiefdoms and constructed numerous ceremonial structures throughout the state.


title: Tennessee

text: Spanish conquistadors who explored the region in the 16th century encountered some of the Mississippian peoples, including the Muscogee Creek, Yuchi, and Shawnee. By the early 18th century, most Natives in Tennessee had disappeared, most likely wiped out by diseases introduced by the Spaniards. The Cherokee began migrating into what is now eastern Tennessee from what is now Virginia in the latter 17th century, possibly to escape expanding European settlement and diseases in the north. They forced the Creek, Yuchi, and Shawnee out of the state in the early 18th century. The Chickasaw remained confined to West Tennessee, and the middle part of the state contained few Native Americans, although both the Cherokee and the Shawnee claimed the region as their hunting ground. Cherokee peoples in Tennessee were known by European settlers as the Overhill Cherokee because they lived west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Overhill settlements grew along the rivers in East Tennessee in the early 18th century.


title: Tennessee

text: The first recorded European expeditions into what is now Tennessee were led by Spanish explorers Hernando de Soto in 1540–1541, Tristan de Luna in 1559, and Juan Pardo in 1566–1567. In 1673, English fur trader Abraham Wood sent an expedition from the Colony of Virginia into Overhill Cherokee territory in modern-day northeastern Tennessee. That same year, a French expedition led by missionary Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explored the Mississippi River and became the first Europeans to map the Mississippi Valley. In 1682, an expedition led by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle constructed Fort Prudhomme on the Chickasaw Bluffs in West Tennessee. By the late 17th century, French traders began to explore the Cumberland River valley, and in 1714, under Charles Charleville's command, established French Lick, a fur trading settlement at the present location of Nashville near the Cumberland River. In 1739, the French constructed Fort Assumption under Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville on the Mississippi River at the present location of Memphis, which they used as a base against the Chickasaw during the 1739 Campaign of the Chickasaw Wars.


title: Tennessee

text: In the 1750s and 1760s, longhunters from Virginia explored much of East and Middle Tennessee. Settlers from the Colony of South Carolina built Fort Loudoun on the Little Tennessee River in 1756, the first British settlement in what is now Tennessee and the westernmost British outpost to that date. Hostilities erupted between the British and the Cherokees into an armed conflict, and a siege of the fort ended with its surrender in 1760. After the French and Indian War, Britain issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which forbade settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains in an effort to mitigate conflicts with the Natives. But migration across the mountains continued, and the first permanent European settlers began arriving in northeastern Tennessee in the late 1760s. Most of them were English, but nearly 20% were Scotch-Irish. They formed the Watauga Association in 1772, a semi-autonomous representative government, and three years later reorganized themselves into the Washington District to support the cause of the American Revolutionary War. The next year, after an unsuccessful petition to Virginia, North Carolina agreed to annex the Washington District to provide protection from Native American attacks.


title: Tennessee

text: In 1775, Richard Henderson negotiated a series of treaties with the Cherokee to sell the lands of the Watauga settlements at Sycamore Shoals on the banks of the Watauga River. An agreement to sell land for the Transylvania Colony, which included the territory in Tennessee north of the Cumberland River, was also signed. Later that year, Daniel Boone, under Henderson's employment, blazed a trail from Fort Chiswell in Virginia through the Cumberland Gap, which became part of the Wilderness Road, a major thoroughfare into Tennessee and Kentucky. The Chickamauga, a Cherokee faction loyal to the British led by Dragging Canoe, opposed the settling of the Washington District and Transylvania Colony, and in 1776 attacked Fort Watauga at Sycamore Shoals. The warnings of Dragging Canoe's cousin Nancy Ward spared many settlers' lives from the initial attacks. In 1779, James Robertson and John Donelson led two groups of settlers from the Washington District to the French Lick. These settlers constructed Fort Nashborough, which they named for Francis Nash, a brigadier general of the Continental Army. The next year, the settlers signed the Cumberland Compact, which established a representative government for the colony called the Cumberland Association. This settlement later grew into the city of Nashville. That same year John Sevier led a group of Overmountain Men from Fort Watauga to the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina, where they defeated the British.


title: Tennessee

text: Three counties of the Washington District broke off from North Carolina in 1784 and formed the State of Franklin. Efforts to obtain admission to the Union failed, and the counties, now numbering eight, rejoined North Carolina by 1788. North Carolina ceded the area to the federal government in 1790, after which it was organized into the Southwest Territory on May 26 of that year. The act allowed the territory to petition for statehood once the population reached 60,000. Administration of the territory was divided between the Washington District and the Mero District, the latter of which consisted of the Cumberland Association and was named for Spanish territorial governor Esteban Rodríguez Miró. President George Washington appointed William Blount as territorial governor. The Southwest Territory recorded a population of 35,691 in the first United States census that year, including 3,417 slaves.


title: Tennessee

text: As support for statehood grew among the settlers, Governor Blount called for elections, which were held in December 1793. The 13-member territorial House of Representatives first convened in Knoxville on February 24, 1794, to select ten members for the legislature's upper house, the council. The full legislature convened on August 25, 1794. In June 1795, the legislature conducted a census of the territory, which recorded a population of 77,263, including 10,613 slaves, and a poll that showed 6,504 in favor of statehood and 2,562 opposed. Elections for a constitutional convention were held in December 1795, and the delegates convened in Knoxville on January 17, 1796, to begin drafting a state constitution. During this convention, the name Tennessee was chosen for the new state. The constitution was completed on February 6, which authorized elections for the state's new legislature, the Tennessee General Assembly. The legislature convened on March 28, 1796, and the next day, John Sevier was announced as the state's first governor. Tennessee was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state and the first created from federal territory.


title: Tennessee

text: Tennessee reportedly earned the nickname "The Volunteer State" during the War of 1812, when 3,500 men enthusiastically answered a recruitment call by the General Assembly for the war effort. These soldiers, under Andrew Jackson's command, played a major role in the American victory at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, the last major battle of the war. Several Tennesseans took part in the Texas Revolution of 1835–36, including Governor Sam Houston and Congressman and frontiersman Davy Crockett, who was killed at the Battle of the Alamo. The state's nickname was solidified during the Mexican–American War when President James K. Polk of Tennessee issued a call for 2,800 soldiers from the state, and more than 30,000 volunteered.


title: Tennessee

text: Between the 1790s and 1820s, additional land cessions were negotiated with the Cherokee, who had established a national government modeled on the U.S. Constitution. In 1818, Jackson and Kentucky governor Isaac Shelby reached an agreement with the Chickasaw to sell the land between the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers to the United States, which included all of West Tennessee and became known as the "Jackson Purchase". The Cherokee moved their capital from Georgia to the Red Clay Council Grounds in southeastern Tennessee in 1832, due to new laws forcing them from their previous capital at New Echota. In 1838 and 1839, U.S. troops forcibly removed thousands of Cherokees and their black slaves from their homes in southeastern Tennessee and forced them to march to Indian Territory in modern-day Oklahoma. This event is known as the Trail of Tears, and an estimated 4,000 died along the way.


title: Tennessee

text: As settlers pushed west of the Cumberland Plateau, a slavery-based agrarian economy took hold in these regions. Cotton planters used extensive slave labor on large plantation complexes in West Tennessee's fertile and flat terrain after the Jackson Purchase. Cotton also took hold in the Nashville Basin during this time. Entrepreneurs such as Montgomery Bell used slaves in the production of iron in the Western Highland Rim, and slaves also cultivated such crops as tobacco and corn throughout the Highland Rim. East Tennessee's geography did not allow for large plantations as in the middle and western parts of the state, and as a result, slavery became increasingly rare in the region. A strong abolition movement developed in East Tennessee, beginning as early as 1797, and in 1819, Elihu Embree of Jonesborough began publishing the "Manumission Intelligencier" (later "The Emancipator"), the nation's first exclusively anti-slavery newspaper.


title: Tennessee

text: At the onset of the American Civil War, most Middle and West Tennesseans favored efforts to preserve their slavery-based economies, but many Middle Tennesseans were initially skeptical of secession. In East Tennessee, most people favored remaining in the Union. In 1860, slaves composed about 25% of Tennessee's population, the lowest share among the states that joined the Confederacy. Tennessee provided more Union troops than any other Confederate state, and the second-highest number of Confederate troops, behind Virginia. Due to its central location, Tennessee was a crucial state during the war and saw more military engagements than any state except Virginia.


title: Tennessee

text: After Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, secessionists in the state government led by Governor Isham Harris sought voter approval to sever ties with the United States, which was rejected in a referendum by a 54–46% margin in February 1861. After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in April and Lincoln's call for troops in response, the legislature ratified an agreement to enter a military league with the Confederacy on May 7, 1861. On June 8, with Middle Tennesseans having significantly changed their position, voters approved a second referendum on secession by a 69–31% margin, becoming the last state to secede. In response, East Tennessee Unionists organized a convention in Knoxville with the goal of splitting the region to form a new state loyal to the Union. In the fall of 1861, Unionist guerrillas in East Tennessee burned bridges and attacked Confederate sympathizers, leading the Confederacy to invoke martial law in parts of the region. In March 1862, Lincoln appointed native Tennessean and War Democrat Andrew Johnson as military governor of the state.


title: Tennessee

text: General Ulysses S. Grant and the U.S. Navy captured the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers in February 1862 at the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. Grant then proceeded south to Pittsburg Landing and held off a Confederate counterattack at Shiloh in April in what was at the time the bloodiest battle of the war. Memphis fell to the Union in June after a naval battle on the Mississippi River. Union strength in Middle Tennessee was tested in a series of Confederate offensives beginning in the summer of 1862, which culminated in General William Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland routing General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee at Stones River, another one of the war's costliest engagements. The next summer, Rosecrans's Tullahoma campaign forced Bragg's remaining troops in Middle Tennessee to retreat to Chattanooga with little fighting.


title: Tennessee

text: During the Chattanooga campaign, Confederates attempted to besiege the Army of the Cumberland into surrendering, but reinforcements from the Army of the Tennessee under the command of Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Joseph Hooker arrived. The Confederates were driven from the city at the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge in November 1863. Despite Unionist sentiment in East Tennessee, Confederates held the area for most of the war. A few days after the fall of Chattanooga, Confederates led by James Longstreet unsuccessfully campaigned to take control of Knoxville by attacking Union General Ambrose Burnside's Fort Sanders. The capture of Chattanooga allowed Sherman to launch the Atlanta campaign from the city in May 1864. The last major battles in the state came when Army of Tennessee regiments under John Bell Hood invaded Middle Tennessee in the fall of 1864 in an effort to draw Sherman back. They were checked by John Schofield at Franklin in November and completely dispersed by George Thomas at Nashville in December. On April 27, 1865, the worst maritime disaster in American history occurred when the "Sultana" steamboat, which was transporting freed Union prisoners, exploded in the Mississippi River north of Memphis, killing 1,168 people.


title: Tennessee

text: When the Emancipation Proclamation was announced, Tennessee was largely held by Union forces and thus not among the states enumerated, so it freed no slaves there. Andrew Johnson declared all slaves in Tennessee free on October 24, 1864. On February 22, 1865, the legislature approved an amendment to the state constitution prohibiting slavery, which was approved by voters the following month, making Tennessee the only Southern state to abolish slavery. Tennessee ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery in every state, on April 7, 1865, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship and equal protection under the law to former slaves, on July 18, 1866. Johnson became vice president when Lincoln was reelected, and president after Lincoln's assassination in May 1865. On July 24, 1866, Tennessee became the first Confederate state to have its elected members readmitted to Congress.


title: Tennessee

text: The years after the Civil War were characterized by tension and unrest between blacks and former Confederates, the worst of which occurred in Memphis in 1866. Because Tennessee had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment before its readmission to the Union, it was the only former secessionist state that did not have a military governor during Reconstruction. The Radical Republicans seized control of the state government toward the end of the war, and appointed William G. "Parson" Brownlow governor. Under Brownlow's administration from 1865 to 1869, the legislature allowed African American men to vote, disenfranchised former Confederates, and took action against the Ku Klux Klan, which was founded in December 1865 in Pulaski as a vigilante group to advance former Confederates' interests. In 1870, Southern Democrats regained control of the state legislature, and over the next two decades, passed Jim Crow laws to enforce racial segregation.


title: Tennessee

text: A number of epidemics swept through Tennessee in the years after the Civil War, including cholera in 1873, which devastated the Nashville area, and yellow fever in 1878, which killed more than one-tenth of Memphis's residents. Reformers worked to modernize Tennessee into a "New South" economy during this time. With the help of Northern investors, Chattanooga became one of the first industrialized cities in the South. Memphis became known as the "Cotton Capital of the World" during the late 19th century, and Nashville, Knoxville, and several smaller cities saw modest industrialization. Northerners also began exploiting the coalfields and mineral resources in the Appalachian Mountains. To pay off debts and alleviate overcrowded prisons, the state turned to convict leasing, providing prisoners to mining companies as strikebreakers, which was protested by miners forced to compete with the system. An armed uprising in the Cumberland Mountains known as the Coal Creek War in 1891 and 1892 resulted in the state ending convict leasing.


title: Tennessee

text: Despite New South promoters' efforts, agriculture continued to dominate Tennessee's economy. The majority of freed slaves were forced into sharecropping during the latter 19th century, and many others worked as agricultural wage laborers. In 1897, Tennessee celebrated its statehood centennial one year late with the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition in Nashville. A full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Athens was designed by architect William Crawford Smith and constructed for the celebration, owing to the city's reputation as the "Athens of the South."


title: Tennessee

text: Due to increasing racial segregation and poor standards of living, many black Tennesseans fled to industrial cities in the Northeast and Midwest as part of the first wave of the Great Migration between 1915 and 1930. Many residents of rural parts of Tennessee relocated to larger cities during this time for more lucrative employment opportunities. As part of the Temperance movement, Tennessee became the first state in the nation to effectively ban the sale, transportation, and production of alcohol in a series of laws passed between 1907 and 1917. During Prohibition, illicit production of moonshine became extremely common in East Tennessee, particularly in the mountains, and continued for many decades afterward.


title: Tennessee

text: Sgt. Alvin C. York of Fentress County became one of the most famous and honored American soldiers of World War I. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor for single-handedly capturing an entire German machine gun regiment during the Meuse–Argonne offensive. On July 9, 1918, Tennessee suffered the worst rail accident in U.S. history when two passenger trains collided head on in Nashville, killing 101 and injuring 171. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th and final state necessary to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. In 1925, John T. Scopes, a high school teacher in Dayton, was tried and convicted for teaching evolution in violation of the state's recently passed Butler Act. Scopes was prosecuted by former Secretary of State and presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan and defended by attorney Clarence Darrow. The case was intentionally publicized, and highlighted the creationism-evolution controversy among religious groups. In 1926, Congress authorized the establishment of a national park in the Great Smoky Mountains, which was officially established in 1934 and dedicated in 1940.


title: Tennessee

text: When the Great Depression struck in 1929, much of Tennessee was severely impoverished even by national standards. As part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was created in 1933 to provide electricity, jobs, flood control, improved waterway navigation, agricultural development, and economic modernization to the Tennessee River Valley. The TVA built several hydroelectric dams in the state in the 1930s and 1940s, which inundated communities and thousands of farmland acreage, and forcibly displaced families via eminent domain. The agency quickly grew into the country's largest electric utility and initiated a period of dramatic economic growth and transformation that brought many new industries and employment opportunities to the state.


title: Tennessee

text: During World War II, East Tennessee was chosen for the production of weapons-grade fissile enriched uranium as part of the Manhattan Project, a research and development undertaking led by the U.S. to produce the world's first atomic bombs. The planned community of Oak Ridge was built to provide accommodations for the facilities and workers; the site was chosen due to the abundance of TVA electric power, its low population density, and its inland geography and topography, which allowed for the natural separation of the facilities and a low vulnerability to attack. The Clinton Engineer Works was established as the production arm of the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, which enriched uranium at three major facilities for use in atomic bombs. The first of the bombs was detonated in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in a test code-named Trinity, and the second, nicknamed "Little Boy", was dropped on Imperial Japan at the end of World War II. After the war, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory became an institution for scientific and technological research.


title: Tennessee

text: After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional in "Brown v. Board of Education" in 1954, Oak Ridge High School in 1955 became the first school in Tennessee to be integrated. The next year, nearby Clinton High School was integrated, and Tennessee National Guard troops were sent in after pro-segregationists threatened violence. Between February and May 1960, a series of sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville organized by the Nashville Student Movement resulted in the desegregation of facilities in the city. On April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis. King had traveled there to support striking African American sanitation workers.


title: Tennessee

text: The 1962 U.S. Supreme Court case "Baker v. Carr" arose out of a challenge to the longstanding rural bias of apportionment of seats in the Tennessee legislature and established the principle of "one man, one vote". The construction of Interstate 40 through Memphis became a national talking point on the issue of eminent domain and grassroots lobbying when the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) attempted to construct the highway through the city's Overton Park. A local activist group spent many years contesting the project, and in 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the group and established the framework for judicial review of government agencies in the landmark case of "Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe". TVA's construction of the Tellico Dam in Loudon County became the subject of national controversy in the 1970s when the endangered snail darter fish was reported to be affected by the project. After lawsuits by environmental groups, the debate was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court case "Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill" in 1978, leading to amendments of the Endangered Species Act.


title: Tennessee

text: The 1982 World's Fair was held in Knoxville. Also known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition, the fair's theme was "Energy Turns the World". The exposition was one of the most successful, and the most recent world's fair to be held in the U.S. In 1986, Tennessee held a yearlong celebration of the state's heritage and culture called "Homecoming '86". Tennessee celebrated its bicentennial in 1996 with a yearlong celebration called "Tennessee 200". A new state park that traces the state's history, Bicentennial Mall, was opened at the foot of Capitol Hill in Nashville. The same year, the whitewater slalom events at the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games were held on the Ocoee River in Polk County.


title: Tennessee

text: In 2002, Tennessee amended its constitution to establish a lottery. In 2006, the state constitution was amended to outlaw same-sex marriage. This amendment was invalidated by the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case "Obergefell v. Hodges". On December 23, 2008, the largest industrial waste spill in United States history occurred at TVA's Kingston Fossil Plant when more than 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash slurry was accidentally released into the Emory and Clinch Rivers. The cleanup cost more than $1 billion and lasted until 2015.


title: Tennessee

text: Tennessee is in the Southeastern United States. Culturally, most of the state is considered part of the Upland South, and the eastern third is part of Appalachia. Tennessee covers roughly , of which , or 2.2%, is water. It is the 16th smallest state in land area. The state is about long from east to west and wide from north to south. Tennessee is geographically, culturally, economically, and legally divided into three Grand Divisions: East Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, and West Tennessee. It borders eight other states: Kentucky and Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi on the south, and Arkansas and Missouri on the west. It is tied with Missouri as the state bordering the most other states. Tennessee is trisected by the Tennessee River, and its geographical center is in Murfreesboro. Nearly three–fourths of the state is in the Central Time Zone, with most of East Tennessee on Eastern Time. The Tennessee River forms most of the division between Middle and West Tennessee.


title: Tennessee

text: Tennessee's eastern boundary roughly follows the highest crests of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the Mississippi River forms its western boundary. Due to flooding of the Mississippi that has changed its path, the state's western boundary deviates from the river in some places. The northern border was originally defined as 36°30′ north latitude and the Royal Colonial Boundary of 1665, but due to faulty surveys, begins north of this line in the east, and to the west, gradually veers north before shifting south onto the actual 36°30′ parallel at the Tennessee River in West Tennessee. Uncertainties in the latter 19th century over the location of the state's border with Virginia culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court settling the matter in 1893, which resulted in the division of Bristol between the two states. An 1818 survey erroneously placed Tennessee's southern border south of the 35th parallel; Georgia legislators continue to dispute this placement, as it prevents Georgia from accessing the Tennessee River.


title: Tennessee

text: Marked by a diversity of landforms and topographies, Tennessee features six principal physiographic provinces, from east to west, which are part of three larger regions: the Blue Ridge Mountains, Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, and Cumberland Plateau, part of the Appalachian Mountains; the Highland Rim and Nashville Basin, part of the Interior Low Plateaus of the Interior Plains; and the East Gulf Coastal Plain, part of the Atlantic Plains. Other regions include the southern tip of the Cumberland Mountains, the Western Tennessee Valley, and the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The state's highest point, which is also the third-highest peak in eastern North America, is Clingmans Dome, at above sea level. Its lowest point, , is on the Mississippi River at the Mississippi state line in Memphis. Tennessee has the most caves in the United States, with more than 10,000 documented.


title: Tennessee

text: Geological formations in Tennessee largely correspond with the state's topographic features, and, in general, decrease in age from east to west. The state's oldest rocks are igneous strata more than 1 billion years old found in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the youngest deposits in Tennessee are sands and silts in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain and river valleys that drain into the Mississippi River. Tennessee is considered seismically active and contains two major seismic zones, although destructive earthquakes rarely occur there. The Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone spans the entirety of East Tennessee from northwestern Alabama to southwestern Virginia, and is considered one of the most active zones in the Southeastern United States, frequently producing low-magnitude earthquakes. The New Madrid Seismic Zone in the northwestern part of the state produced a series of devastating earthquakes between December 1811 and February 1812 that formed Reelfoot Lake near Tiptonville.


title: Tennessee

text: The southwestern Blue Ridge Mountains lie within Tennessee's eastern edge, and are divided into several subranges, namely the Great Smoky Mountains, Bald Mountains, Unicoi Mountains, Unaka Mountains, and Iron Mountains. These mountains, which average above sea level in Tennessee, contain some of the highest elevations in eastern North America. The state's border with North Carolina roughly follows the highest peaks of this range, including Clingmans Dome. Most of the Blue Ridge area is protected by the Cherokee National Forest, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and several federal wilderness areas and state parks. The Appalachian Trail roughly follows the North Carolina state line before shifting westward into Tennessee.


title: Tennessee

text: Stretching west from the Blue Ridge Mountains for about are the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also known as the Tennessee Valley or Great Valley of East Tennessee. This area consists of linear parallel ridges separated by valleys that trend northeast to southwest, the general direction of the entire Appalachian range. Most of these ridges are low, but some of the higher ones are commonly called mountains. Numerous tributaries join to form the Tennessee River in the Ridge and Valley region.


title: Tennessee

text: The Cumberland Plateau rises to the west of the Tennessee Valley, with an average elevation of . This landform is part of the larger Appalachian Plateau and consists mostly of flat-topped tablelands. The plateau's eastern edge is relatively distinct, but the western escarpment is irregular, containing several long, crooked stream valleys separated by rocky cliffs with numerous waterfalls. The Cumberland Mountains, with peaks above , comprise the northeastern part of the Appalachian Plateau in Tennessee, and the southeastern part of the Cumberland Plateau is divided by the Sequatchie Valley. The Cumberland Trail traverses the eastern escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau and Cumberland Mountains.


title: Tennessee

text: West of the Cumberland Plateau is the Highland Rim, an elevated plain that surrounds the Nashville Basin, a geological dome. Both of these physiographic provinces are part of the Interior Low Plateaus of the larger Interior Plains. The Highland Rim is Tennessee's largest geographic region, and is often split into eastern and western halves. The Eastern Highland Rim is characterized by relatively level plains dotted by rolling hills, and the Western Highland Rim and western Nashville Basin are covered with uneven rounded knobs with steep ravines separated by meandering streams. The Nashville Basin has rich, fertile farmland, and porous limestone bedrock very close to the surface underlies both the Nashville Basin and Eastern Highland Rim. This results in karst that forms numerous caves, sinkholes, depressions, and underground streams.


title: Tennessee

text: West of the Highland Rim is the Western Tennessee Valley, which consists of about in width of hilly land along the banks of the Tennessee River. West of this is the Gulf Coastal Plain, a broad feature that begins at the Gulf of Mexico and extends northward into southern Illinois. The plain begins in the east with low rolling hills and wide stream valleys, known as the West Tennessee Highlands, and gradually levels out to the west. It ends at steep loess bluffs overlooking the Mississippi embayment, the westernmost physiographic division of Tennessee, which is part of the larger Mississippi Alluvial Plain. This flat wide strip is commonly known as the Mississippi Bottoms, and contains lowlands, floodplains, and swamps.


title: Tennessee

text: Tennessee is drained by three major rivers, the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Mississippi. The Tennessee River begins at the juncture of the Holston and French Broad rivers in Knoxville, flows southwest to Chattanooga, and exits into Alabama before reemerging in the western part of the state and flowing north into Kentucky. Its major tributaries include the Clinch, Little Tennessee, Hiwassee, Sequatchie, Elk, Beech, Buffalo, Duck, and Big Sandy rivers. The Cumberland River flows through the north-central part of the state, emerging in the northeastern Highland Rim, passing through Nashville, turning northwest to Clarksville, and entering Kentucky east of the Tennessee River. Its principal branches in Tennessee are the Obey, Caney Fork, Stones, Harpeth, and Red rivers. The Mississippi River drains nearly all of West Tennessee. Its tributaries are the Obion, Forked Deer, Hatchie, Loosahatchie, and Wolf rivers. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operate many hydroelectric dams on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers and their tributaries, which form large reservoirs throughout the state.


title: Tennessee

text: About half the state's land area is in the Tennessee Valley drainage basin of the Tennessee River. The Cumberland River basin covers the northern half of Middle Tennessee and a small portion of East Tennessee. A small part of north-central Tennessee is in the Green River watershed. All three of these basins are tributaries of the Ohio River watershed. Most of West Tennessee is in the Lower Mississippi River watershed. The entirety of the state is in the Mississippi River watershed, except for a small sliver near the southeastern corner traversed by the Conasauga River, which is part of the Mobile Bay watershed.


title: Tennessee

text: Tennessee is within a temperate deciduous forest biome commonly known as the Eastern Deciduous Forest. It has eight ecoregions: the Blue Ridge, Ridge and Valley, Central Appalachian, Southwestern Appalachian, Interior Low Plateaus, Southeastern Plains, Mississippi Valley Loess Plains, and Mississippi Alluvial Plain regions. Tennessee is the most biodiverse inland state, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most biodiverse national park, and the Duck River is the most biologically diverse waterway in North America. The Nashville Basin is renowned for its diversity of flora and fauna. Tennessee is home to 340 species of birds, 325 freshwater fish species, 89 mammals, 77 amphibians, and 61 reptiles.


title: Tennessee

text: Forests cover about 52% of Tennessee's land area, with oak–hickory the dominant type. Appalachian oak–pine and cove hardwood forests are found in the Blue Ridge Mountains and Cumberland Plateau, and bottomland hardwood forests are common throughout the Gulf Coastal Plain. Pine forests are also found throughout the state. The Southern Appalachian spruce–fir forest in the highest elevations of the Blue Ridge Mountains is considered the second-most endangered ecosystem in the country. Some of the last remaining large American chestnut trees grow in the Nashville Basin and are being used to help breed blight-resistant trees. Middle Tennessee is home to many unusual and rare ecosystems known as cedar glades, which occur in areas with shallow limestone bedrock that is largely barren of overlying soil and contain many endemic plant species.


title: Tennessee

text: Common mammals found throughout Tennessee include white-tailed deer, red and gray foxes, coyotes, raccoons, opossums, wild turkeys, rabbits, and squirrels. Black bears are found in the Blue Ridge Mountains and on the Cumberland Plateau. Tennessee has the third-highest number of amphibian species, with the Great Smoky Mountains home to the most salamander species in the world. The state ranks second in the nation for the diversity of its freshwater fish species.


title: Tennessee

text: Most of Tennessee has a humid subtropical climate, with the exception of some of the higher elevations in the Appalachians, which are classified as a cooler mountain temperate or humid continental climate. The Gulf of Mexico is the dominant factor in Tennessee's climate, with winds from the south responsible for most of the state's annual precipitation. Generally, the state has hot summers and mild to cool winters with generous precipitation throughout the year. The highest average monthly precipitation usually occurs between December and April. The driest months, on average, are August to October. The state receives an average of of precipitation annually. Snowfall ranges from in West Tennessee to over in East Tennessee's highest mountains.