text: Lee's resolution met with resistance in the ensuing debate. Opponents of the resolution conceded that reconciliation was unlikely with Great Britain, while arguing that declaring independence was premature, and that securing foreign aid should take priority. Advocates of the resolution countered that foreign governments would not intervene in an internal British struggle, and so a formal declaration of independence was needed before foreign aid was possible. All Congress needed to do, they insisted, was to "declare a fact which already exists". Delegates from Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and New York were still not yet authorized to vote for independence, however, and some of them threatened to leave Congress if the resolution were adopted. Congress, therefore, voted on June 10 to postpone further discussion of Lee's resolution for three weeks. Until then, Congress decided that a committee should prepare a document announcing and explaining independence in case Lee's resolution was approved when it was brought up again in July.


title: United States Declaration of Independence

text: Support for a Congressional declaration of independence was consolidated in the final weeks of June 1776. On June 14, the Connecticut Assembly instructed its delegates to propose independence and, the following day, the legislatures of New Hampshire and Delaware authorized their delegates to declare independence. In Pennsylvania, political struggles ended with the dissolution of the colonial assembly, and a new Conference of Committees under Thomas McKean authorized Pennsylvania's delegates to declare independence on June 18. The Provincial Congress of New Jersey had been governing the province since January 1776; they resolved on June 15 that Royal Governor William Franklin was "an enemy to the liberties of this country" and had him arrested. On June 21, they chose new delegates to Congress and empowered them to join in a declaration of independence.


text: Only Maryland and New York had yet to authorize independence toward the end of June. Previously, Maryland's delegates had walked out when the Continental Congress adopted Adams's radical May 15 preamble, and had sent to the Annapolis Convention for instructions. On May 20, the Annapolis Convention rejected Adams's preamble, instructing its delegates to remain against independence. But Samuel Chase went to Maryland and, thanks to local resolutions in favor of independence, was able to get the Annapolis Convention to change its mind on June 28. Only the New York delegates were unable to get revised instructions. When Congress had been considering the resolution of independence on June 8, the New York Provincial Congress told the delegates to wait. But on June 30, the Provincial Congress evacuated New York as British forces approached, and would not convene again until July 10. This meant that New York's delegates would not be authorized to declare independence until after Congress had made its decision.


text: Political maneuvering was setting the stage for an official declaration of independence even while a document was being written to explain the decision. On June 11, 1776, Congress appointed a "Committee of Five" to draft a declaration, consisting of John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut. The committee took no minutes, so there is some uncertainty about how the drafting process proceeded; contradictory accounts were written many years later by Jefferson and Adams, too many years to be regarded as entirely reliable—although their accounts are frequently cited. What is certain is that the committee discussed the general outline which the document should follow and decided that Jefferson would write the first draft. The committee in general, and Jefferson in particular, thought that Adams should write the document, but Adams persuaded them to choose Jefferson and promised to consult with him personally. Considering Congress's busy schedule, Jefferson probably had limited time for writing over the next 17 days, and he likely wrote the draft quickly. Examination of the text of the early Declaration drafts reflects Jefferson's reference to the ideas and writings of John Locke and Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense. He then consulted the other members of the Committee of Five who offered minor changes, and then produced another copy incorporating these alterations. The committee presented this copy to the Congress on June 28, 1776. The title of the document was "A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled."


text: Congress ordered that the draft "lie on the table" and then methodically edited Jefferson's primary document for the next two days, shortening it by a fourth, removing unnecessary wording, and improving sentence structure. They removed Jefferson's assertion that King George III had forced slavery onto the colonies, in order to moderate the document and appease those in South Carolina and Georgia, both states which had significant involvement in the slave trade. Jefferson later wrote in his autobiography that Northern states were also supportive towards the clauses removal, "for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others." Jefferson wrote that Congress had "mangled" his draft version, but the Declaration that was finally produced was "the majestic document that inspired both contemporaries and posterity", in the words of his biographer John Ferling.


text: Congress tabled the draft of the declaration on Monday, July 1 and resolved itself into a committee of the whole, with Benjamin Harrison of Virginia presiding, and they resumed debate on Lee's resolution of independence. John Dickinson made one last effort to delay the decision, arguing that Congress should not declare independence without first securing a foreign alliance and finalizing the Articles of Confederation. John Adams gave a speech in reply to Dickinson, restating the case for an immediate declaration.


text: A vote was taken after a long day of speeches, each colony casting a single vote, as always. The delegation for each colony numbered from two to seven members, and each delegation voted among themselves to determine the colony's vote. Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted against declaring independence. The New York delegation abstained, lacking permission to vote for independence. Delaware cast no vote because the delegation was split between Thomas McKean, who voted yes, and George Read, who voted no. The remaining nine delegations voted in favor of independence, which meant that the resolution had been approved by the committee of the whole. The next step was for the resolution to be voted upon by Congress itself. Edward Rutledge of South Carolina was opposed to Lee's resolution but desirous of unanimity, and he moved that the vote be postponed until the following day.


text: On July 2, South Carolina reversed its position and voted for independence. In the Pennsylvania delegation, Dickinson and Robert Morris abstained, allowing the delegation to vote three-to-two in favor of independence. The tie in the Delaware delegation was broken by the timely arrival of Caesar Rodney, who voted for independence. The New York delegation abstained once again since they were still not authorized to vote for independence, although they were allowed to do so a week later by the New York Provincial Congress. The resolution of independence was adopted with twelve affirmative votes and one abstention, and the colonies formally severed political ties with Great Britain. John Adams wrote to his wife on the following day and predicted that July 2 would become a great American holiday He thought that the vote for independence would be commemorated; he did not foresee that Americans would instead celebrate Independence Day on the date when the announcement of that act was finalized.


text: I am apt to believe that [Independence Day] will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.


text: Congress next turned its attention to the committee's draft of the declaration. They made a few changes in wording during several days of debate and deleted nearly a fourth of the text. The wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4, 1776, and sent to the printer for publication.


text: There is a distinct change in wording from this original broadside printing of the Declaration and the final official engrossed copy. The word "unanimous" was inserted as a result of a Congressional resolution passed on July 19, 1776: "Resolved, That the Declaration passed on the 4th, be fairly engrossed on parchment, with the title and stile of 'The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America,' and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress." Historian George Athan Billias says: "Independence amounted to a new status of interdependence: the United States was now a sovereign nation entitled to the privileges and responsibilities that came with that status. America thus became a member of the international community, which meant becoming a maker of treaties and alliances, a military ally in diplomacy, and a partner in foreign trade on a more equal basis."


text: The declaration is not divided into formal sections; but it is often discussed as consisting of five parts: "introduction", "preamble", "indictment" of King George III, "denunciation" of the British people, and "conclusion".


text: Historians have often sought to identify the sources that most influenced the words and political philosophy of the Declaration of Independence. By Jefferson's own admission, the Declaration contained no original ideas, but was instead a statement of sentiments widely shared by supporters of the American Revolution. As he explained in 1825:


text: Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion.


text: Jefferson's most immediate sources were two documents written in June 1776: his own draft of the preamble of the Constitution of Virginia, and George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Ideas and phrases from both of these documents appear in the Declaration of Independence. Mason's opening was:


text: Mason was, in turn, directly influenced by the 1689 English Declaration of Rights, which formally ended the reign of King James II. During the American Revolution, Jefferson and other Americans looked to the English Declaration of Rights as a model of how to end the reign of an unjust king. The Scottish Declaration of Arbroath (1320) and the Dutch Act of Abjuration (1581) have also been offered as models for Jefferson's Declaration, but these models are now accepted by few scholars. Maier found no evidence that the Dutch Act of Abjuration served as a model for the Declaration, and considers the argument "unpersuasive". Armitage discounts the influence of the Scottish and Dutch acts, and writes that neither was called "declarations of independence" until fairly recently. Stephen E. Lucas argued in favor of the influence of the Dutch act.


text: Jefferson wrote that a number of authors exerted a general influence on the words of the Declaration. English political theorist John Locke is usually cited as one of the primary influences, a man whom Jefferson called one of "the three greatest men that have ever lived". In 1922, historian Carl L. Becker wrote, "Most Americans had absorbed Locke's works as a kind of political gospel; and the Declaration, in its form, in its phraseology, follows closely certain sentences in Locke's second treatise on government." The extent of Locke's influence on the American Revolution has been questioned by some subsequent scholars, however. Historian Ray Forrest Harvey argued in 1937 for the dominant influence of Swiss jurist Jean Jacques Burlamaqui, declaring that Jefferson and Locke were at "two opposite poles" in their political philosophy, as evidenced by Jefferson's use in the Declaration of Independence of the phrase "pursuit of happiness" instead of "property". Other scholars emphasized the influence of republicanism rather than Locke's classical liberalism. Historian Garry Wills argued that Jefferson was influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment, particularly Francis Hutcheson, rather than Locke, an interpretation that has been strongly criticized.


text: Legal historian John Phillip Reid has written that the emphasis on the political philosophy of the Declaration has been misplaced. The Declaration is not a philosophical tract about natural rights, argues Reid, but is instead a legal document—an indictment against King George for violating the constitutional rights of the colonists. As such, it follows the process of the 1550 "Magdeburg Confession", which legitimized resistance against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in a multi-step legal formula now known as the doctrine of the lesser magistrate. Historian David Armitage has argued that the Declaration was strongly influenced by de Vattel's "The Law of Nations", the dominant international law treatise of the period, and a book that Benjamin Franklin said was "continually in the hands of the members of our Congress". Armitage writes, "Vattel made independence fundamental to his definition of statehood"; therefore, the primary purpose of the Declaration was "to express the international legal sovereignty of the United States". If the United States were to have any hope of being recognized by the European powers, the American revolutionaries first had to make it clear that they were no longer dependent on Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence does not have the force of law domestically, but nevertheless it may help to provide historical and legal clarity about the Constitution and other laws.


text: The Declaration became official when Congress recorded its vote adopting the document on July 4; it was transposed on paper and signed by John Hancock, President of the Congress, on that day. Signatures of the other delegates were not needed to further authenticate it. The signatures of fifty-six delegates are affixed to the Declaration, though the exact date when each person signed became debatable. Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams all wrote that the Declaration was signed by Congress on July 4. But in 1796, signer Thomas McKean disputed that, because some signers were not then present, including several who were not even elected to Congress until after that date. Historians have generally accepted McKean's version of events. History particularly shows most delegates signed on August 2, 1776, and those who were not then present added their names later.


text: In an 1811 letter to Adams, Benjamin Rush recounted the signing in stark fashion, describing it as a scene of "pensive and awful silence". Rush said the delegates were called up, one after another, and then filed forward somberly to subscribe what each thought was their ensuing death warrant. He related that the "gloom of the morning" was briefly interrupted when the rotund Benjamin Harrison of Virginia said to a diminutive Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, at the signing table, "I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes and be with the Angels, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead." According to Rush, Harrison’s remark "procured a transient smile, but it was soon succeeded by the Solemnity with which the whole business was conducted.”


text: The signatories include then future presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, though the most legendary signature is John Hancock’s. His large, flamboyant signature became iconic, and the term "John Hancock" emerged in the United States as a metaphor of "signature". A commonly circulated but apocryphal account claims that, after Hancock signed, the delegate from Massachusetts commented, "The British ministry can read that name without spectacles." Another report indicates that Hancock proudly declared, "There! I guess King George will be able to read that!"


text: A legend emerged years later about the signing of the Declaration, after the document had become an important national symbol. John Hancock is supposed to have said that Congress, having signed the Declaration, must now "all hang together", and Benjamin Franklin replied: "Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." That quotation first appeared in print in an 1837 London humor magazine.


text: The Syng inkstand used at the signing was also used at the signing of the United States Constitution in 1787.


text: After Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration on July 4, a handwritten copy was sent a few blocks away to the printing shop of John Dunlap. Through the night, Dunlap printed about 200 broadsides for distribution. The source copy used for this printing has been lost and may have been a copy in Thomas Jefferson's hand. It was read to audiences and reprinted in newspapers throughout the 13 states. The first formal public readings of the document took place on July 8, in Philadelphia (by John Nixon in the yard of Independence Hall), Trenton, New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania; the first newspaper to publish it was "The Pennsylvania Evening Post" on July 6. A German translation of the Declaration was published in Philadelphia by July 9.


text: President of Congress John Hancock sent a broadside to General George Washington, instructing him to have it proclaimed "at the Head of the Army in the way you shall think it most proper". Washington had the Declaration read to his troops in New York City on July 9, with thousands of British troops on ships in the harbor. Washington and Congress hoped that the Declaration would inspire the soldiers, and encourage others to join the army. After hearing the Declaration, crowds in many cities tore down and destroyed signs or statues representing royal authority. An equestrian statue of King George in New York City was pulled down and the lead used to make musket balls.


text: One of the first readings of the Declaration by the British is believed to have taken place at the Rose and Crown Tavern on Staten Island, New York in the presence of General Howe. British officials in North America sent copies of the Declaration to Great Britain. It was published in British newspapers beginning in mid-August, it had reached Florence and Warsaw by mid-September, and a German translation appeared in Switzerland by October. The first copy of the Declaration sent to France got lost, and the second copy arrived only in November 1776. It reached Portuguese America by Brazilian medical student "Vendek" José Joaquim Maia e Barbalho, who had met with Thomas Jefferson in Nîmes.


text: The Spanish-American authorities banned the circulation of the Declaration, but it was widely transmitted and translated: by Venezuelan Manuel García de Sena, by Colombian Miguel de Pombo, by Ecuadorian Vicente Rocafuerte, and by New Englanders Richard Cleveland and William Shaler, who distributed the Declaration and the United States Constitution among Creoles in Chile and Indians in Mexico in 1821. The North Ministry did not give an official answer to the Declaration, but instead secretly commissioned pamphleteer John Lind to publish a response entitled "Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress". British Tories denounced the signers of the Declaration for not applying the same principles of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" to African Americans. Thomas Hutchinson, the former royal governor of Massachusetts, also published a rebuttal. These pamphlets challenged various aspects of the Declaration. Hutchinson argued that the American Revolution was the work of a few conspirators who wanted independence from the outset, and who had finally achieved it by inducing otherwise loyal colonists to rebel. Lind's pamphlet had an anonymous attack on the concept of natural rights written by Jeremy Bentham, an argument that he repeated during the French Revolution. Both pamphlets questioned how the American slaveholders in Congress could proclaim that "all men are created equal" without freeing their own slaves.


text: William Whipple, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who had fought in the war, freed his slave Prince Whipple because of his revolutionary ideals. In the postwar decades, other slaveholders also freed their slaves; from 1790 to 1810, the percentage of free blacks in the Upper South increased to 8.3 percent from less than one percent of the black population. Northern states began abolishing slavery shortly after the war for Independence began, and all had abolished slavery by 1804.


text: Later in 1776, a group of 547 Loyalists, largely from New York, signed a Declaration of Dependence pledging their loyalty to the Crown.


text: The official copy of the Declaration of Independence was the one printed on July 4, 1776, under Jefferson's supervision. It was sent to the states and to the Army and was widely reprinted in newspapers. The slightly different "engrossed copy" (shown at the top of this article) was made later for members to sign. The engrossed version is the one widely distributed in the 21st century. Note that the opening lines differ between the two versions.


text: The copy of the Declaration that was signed by Congress is known as the engrossed or parchment copy. It was probably engrossed (that is, carefully handwritten) by clerk Timothy Matlack. A facsimile made in 1823 has become the basis of most modern reproductions rather than the original because of poor conservation of the engrossed copy through the 19th century. In 1921, custody of the engrossed copy of the Declaration was transferred from the State Department to the Library of Congress, along with the United States Constitution. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the documents were moved for safekeeping to the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox in Kentucky, where they were kept until 1944. In 1952, the engrossed Declaration was transferred to the National Archives and is now on permanent display at the National Archives in the "Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom".


text: The document signed by Congress and enshrined in the National Archives is usually regarded as "the" Declaration of Independence, but historian Julian P. Boyd argued that the Declaration, like Magna Carta, is not a single document. Boyd considered the printed broadsides ordered by Congress to be official texts, as well. The Declaration was first published as a broadside that was printed the night of July 4 by John Dunlap of Philadelphia. Dunlap printed about 200 broadsides, of which 26 are known to survive. The 26th copy was discovered in The National Archives in England in 2009.


text: In 1777, Congress commissioned Mary Katherine Goddard to print that listed the signers of the Declaration, unlike the Dunlap broadside. Nine copies of the Goddard broadside are known to still exist. A variety of broadsides printed by the states are also extant, including seven copies of the Solomon Southwick broadside, one of which was acquired by Washington University in St. Louis in 2015.


text: Several early handwritten copies and drafts of the Declaration have also been preserved. Jefferson kept a four-page draft that late in life he called the "original Rough draught". Historians now understand that Jefferson's Rough draft was one in a series of drafts used by the Committee of Five before being submitted to Congress for deliberation. According to Boyd, the first, "original" handwritten draft of the Declaration of Independence that predated Jefferson's Rough draft, was lost or destroyed during the drafting process. It is not known how many drafts Jefferson wrote prior to this one, and how much of the text was contributed by other committee members. In 1947, Boyd discovered a fragment of an earlier draft in Jefferson's handwriting that predates Jefferson's Rough draft. In 2018, the Thomas Paine National Historical Association published findings on an additional early handwritten draft of the Declaration, referred to as the "Sherman Copy", that John Adams copied from the lost "original draft" for Committee of Five members Roger Sherman and Benjamin Franklin's initial review. An inscription on the document noting "A beginning perhaps...", the early state of the text, and the manner in which this document was hastily taken, appears to chronologically place this draft earlier than both the fair Adams copy held in the Massachusetts Historical Society collection and the Jefferson "rough draft". After the text was finalized by Congress as a whole, Jefferson and Adams sent copies of the rough draft to friends, with variations noted from the original drafts.


text: During the writing process, Jefferson showed the rough draft to Adams and Franklin, and perhaps to other members of the drafting committee, who made a few more changes. Franklin, for example, may have been responsible for changing Jefferson's original phrase "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" to "We hold these truths to be self-evident". Jefferson incorporated these changes into a copy that was submitted to Congress in the name of the committee. The copy that was submitted to Congress on June 28 has been lost and was perhaps destroyed in the printing process, or destroyed during the debates in accordance with .


text: On April 21, 2017, it was announced that a second engrossed copy had been discovered in the archives at West Sussex County Council in Chichester, England. Named by its finders the "Sussex Declaration", it differs from the National Archives copy (which the finders refer to as the "Matlack Declaration") in that the signatures on it are not grouped by States. How it came to be in England is not yet known, but the finders believe that the randomness of the signatures points to an origin with signatory James Wilson, who had argued strongly that the Declaration was made not by the States but by the whole people.


text: Years of exposure to damaging lighting resulted in the original Declaration of Independence document having much of its ink fade by 1876.


text: The Declaration was given little attention in the years immediately following the American Revolution, having served its original purpose in announcing the independence of the United States. Early celebrations of Independence Day largely ignored the Declaration, as did early histories of the Revolution. The "act" of declaring independence was considered important, whereas the "text" announcing that act attracted little attention. The Declaration was rarely mentioned during the debates about the United States Constitution, and its language was not incorporated into that document. George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights was more influential, and its language was echoed in state constitutions and state bills of rights more often than Jefferson's words. "In none of these documents," wrote Pauline Maier, "is there any evidence whatsoever that the Declaration of Independence lived in men's minds as a classic statement of American political principles."


text: According to Pauline Maier, many leaders of the French Revolution admired the Declaration of Independence but were also interested in the new American state constitutions. The inspiration and content of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) emerged largely from the ideals of the American Revolution. Lafayette prepared its key drafts, working closely in Paris with his friend Thomas Jefferson. It also borrowed language from George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights. The declaration also influenced the Russian Empire, and it had a particular impact on the Decembrist revolt and other Russian thinkers.


text: According to historian David Armitage, the Declaration of Independence did prove to be internationally influential, but not as a statement of human rights. Armitage argues that the Declaration was the first in a new genre of declarations of independence which announced the creation of new states. Other French leaders were directly influenced by the text of the Declaration of Independence itself. The "Manifesto of the Province of Flanders" (1790) was the first foreign derivation of the Declaration; others include the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence (1811), the Liberian Declaration of Independence (1847), the declarations of secession by the Confederate States of America (1860–61), and the Vietnamese Proclamation of Independence (1945). These declarations echoed the United States Declaration of Independence in announcing the independence of a new state, without necessarily endorsing the political philosophy of the original.


text: Other countries have used the Declaration as inspiration or have directly copied sections from it. These include the Haitian declaration of January 1, 1804 during the Haitian Revolution, the United Provinces of New Granada in 1811, the Argentine Declaration of Independence in 1816, the Chilean Declaration of Independence in 1818, Costa Rica in 1821, El Salvador in 1821, Guatemala in 1821, Honduras in 1821, Mexico in 1821, Nicaragua in 1821, Peru in 1821, Bolivian War of Independence in 1825, Uruguay in 1825, Ecuador in 1830, Colombia in 1831, Paraguay in 1842, Dominican Republic in 1844, Texas Declaration of Independence in March 1836, California Republic in November 1836, Hungarian Declaration of Independence in 1849, Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand in 1835, and the Czechoslovak declaration of independence from 1918 drafted in Washington D.C. with Gutzon Borglum among the drafters. The Rhodesian declaration of independence is based on the American one, as well, ratified in November 1965, although it omits the phrases "all men are created equal" and "the consent of the governed". The from December 1860 also mentions the U.S. Declaration of Independence, though it omits references to "all men are created equal" and "consent of the governed".


text: Interest in the Declaration was revived in the 1790s with the emergence of the United States's first political parties. Throughout the 1780s, few Americans knew or cared who wrote the Declaration. But in the next decade, Jeffersonian Republicans sought political advantage over their rival Federalists by promoting both the importance of the Declaration and Jefferson as its author. Federalists responded by casting doubt on Jefferson's authorship or originality, and by emphasizing that independence was declared by the whole Congress, with Jefferson as just one member of the drafting committee. Federalists insisted that Congress's act of declaring independence, in which Federalist John Adams had played a major role, was more important than the document announcing it. But this view faded away, like the Federalist Party itself, and, before long, the act of declaring independence became synonymous with the document.


text: A less partisan appreciation for the Declaration emerged in the years following the War of 1812, thanks to a growing American nationalism and a renewed interest in the history of the Revolution. In 1817, Congress commissioned John Trumbull's famous painting of the signers, which was exhibited to large crowds before being installed in the Capitol. The earliest commemorative printings of the Declaration also appeared at this time, offering many Americans their first view of the signed document. Collective biographies of the signers were first published in the 1820s, giving birth to what Garry Wills called the "cult of the signers". In the years that followed, many stories about the writing and signing of the document were published for the first time.


text: When interest in the Declaration was revived, the sections that were most important in 1776 were no longer relevant: the announcement of the independence of the United States and the grievances against King George. But the second paragraph was applicable long after the war had ended, with its talk of self-evident truths and unalienable rights. The identity of natural law since the 18th century has seen increasing ascendancy towards political and moral norms versus the law of nature, God, or human nature as seen in the past. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights lacked sweeping statements about rights and equality, and advocates of groups with grievances turned to the Declaration for support. Starting in the 1820s, variations of the Declaration were issued to proclaim the rights of workers, farmers, women, and others. In 1848, for example, the Seneca Falls Convention of women's rights advocates declared that "all men and women are created equal".


text: John Trumbull's painting "Declaration of Independence" has played a significant role in popular conceptions of the Declaration of Independence. The painting is in size and was commissioned by the United States Congress in 1817; it has hung in the United States Capitol Rotunda since 1826. It is sometimes described as the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but it actually shows the Committee of Five presenting their draft of the Declaration to the Second Continental Congress on June 28, 1776, and not the signing of the document, which took place later.


text: Trumbull painted the figures from life whenever possible, but some had died and images could not be located; hence, the painting does not include all the signers of the Declaration. One figure had participated in the drafting but did not sign the final document; another refused to sign. In fact, the membership of the Second Continental Congress changed as time passed, and the figures in the painting were never in the same room at the same time. It is, however, an accurate depiction of the room in Independence Hall, the centerpiece of the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


text: Trumbull's painting has been depicted multiple times on U.S. currency and postage stamps. Its first use was on the reverse side of the $100 National Bank Note issued in 1863. A few years later, the steel engraving used in printing the bank notes was used to produce a 24-cent stamp, issued as part of the 1869 Pictorial Issue. An engraving of the signing scene has been featured on the reverse side of the United States two-dollar bill since 1976.


text: The apparent contradiction between the claim that "all men are created equal" and the existence of slavery in the United States attracted comment when the Declaration was first published. Many of the founders understood the incompatibility of the statement of natural equality with the institution of slavery, but continued to enjoy the “Rights of Man”. Jefferson had included a paragraph in his initial rough vigorously condemning the evil of the slave trade, and condemning King George III for forcing it onto the colonies, but this was deleted from the final version.


text: He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemispere, or to incure miserable death in their transportation hither. this piratical warfare, the opprobium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce determining to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he had deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.


text: Jefferson himself was a prominent Virginia slaveowner, owning six hundred enslaved Africans on his Monticello plantation. Referring to this contradiction, English abolitionist Thomas Day wrote in a 1776 letter, "If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves." The African-American writer Lemuel Haynes expressed similar viewpoints in his essay "Liberty Further Extended", where he wrote that "Liberty is Equally as pre[c]ious to a Black man, as it is to a white one".


text: In the 19th century, the Declaration took on a special significance for the abolitionist movement. Historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown wrote that "abolitionists tended to interpret the Declaration of Independence as a theological as well as a political document". Abolitionist leaders Benjamin Lundy and William Lloyd Garrison adopted the "twin rocks" of "the Bible and the Declaration of Independence" as the basis for their philosophies. He wrote, "As long as there remains a single copy of the Declaration of Independence, or of the Bible, in our land, we will not despair." For radical abolitionists such as Garrison, the most important part of the Declaration was its assertion of the right of revolution. Garrison called for the destruction of the government under the Constitution, and the creation of a new state dedicated to the principles of the Declaration.


text: On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech asking the question, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?".


text: The controversial question of whether to allow additional slave states into the United States coincided with the growing stature of the Declaration. The first major public debate about slavery and the Declaration took place during the Missouri controversy of 1819 to 1821. Anti-slavery Congressmen argued that the language of the Declaration indicated that the Founding Fathers of the United States had been opposed to slavery in principle, and so new slave states should not be added to the country. Pro-slavery Congressmen led by Senator Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina argued that the Declaration was not a part of the Constitution and therefore had no relevance to the question.


text: With the abolitionist movement gaining momentum, defenders of slavery such as John Randolph and John C. Calhoun found it necessary to argue that the Declaration's assertion that "all men are created equal" was false, or at least that it did not apply to black people. During the debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1853, for example, Senator John Pettit of Indiana argued that the statement "all men are created equal" was not a "self-evident truth" but a "self-evident lie". Opponents of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, including Salmon P. Chase and Benjamin Wade, defended the Declaration and what they saw as its antislavery principles.


text: In preparing for his raid on Harpers Ferry, said by Frederick Douglass to be the beginning of the end of slavery in the United States, abolitionist John Brown had many copies printed of a Provisional Constitution. (When the seceding states created the Confederate States of America 16 months later, they operated for over a year under a Provisional Constitution.) It outlines the three branches of government in the quasi-country he hoped to set up in the Appalachian Mountains. It was widely reproduced in the press, and in full in the Select Senate Committee report on John Brown's insurrection (the Mason Report).


text: Much less known, as Brown did not have it printed, is his Declaration of Liberty, dated July 4, 1859, found among his papers at the Kennedy Farm. It was written out on sheets of paper attached to fabric, to allow it to be rolled, and it was rolled when found. The hand is that of Owen Brown, who often served as his father's amanuensis.


text: Imitating the vocabulary, punctuation, and capitalization of the 73-year-old U.S. Declaration, the 2000-word document begins:


text: The document was apparently intended to be read aloud, but so far as is known Brown never did so, even though he read the Provisional Constitution aloud the day the raid on Harpers Ferry began. Very much aware of the history of the American Revolution, he would have read the Declaration aloud after the revolt had started. The document was not published until 1894, and by someone who did not realize its importance and buried it in an appendix of documents. It is missing from most but not all studies of John Brown.


text: The Declaration's relationship to slavery was taken up in 1854 by Abraham Lincoln, a little-known former Congressman who idolized the Founding Fathers. Lincoln thought that the Declaration of Independence expressed the highest principles of the American Revolution, and that the Founding Fathers had tolerated slavery with the expectation that it would ultimately wither away. For the United States to legitimize the expansion of slavery in the Kansas–Nebraska Act, thought Lincoln, was to repudiate the principles of the Revolution. In his October 1854 Peoria speech, Lincoln said:


text: The meaning of the Declaration was a recurring topic in the famed debates between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1858. Douglas argued that the phrase "all men are created equal" in the Declaration referred to white men only. The purpose of the Declaration, he said, had simply been to justify the independence of the United States, and not to proclaim the equality of any "inferior or degraded race". Lincoln, however, thought that the language of the Declaration was deliberately universal, setting a high moral standard to which the American republic should aspire. "I had thought the Declaration contemplated the progressive improvement in the condition of all men everywhere", he said. During the seventh and last joint debate with Steven Douglas at Alton, Illinois, on October 15, 1858, Lincoln said about the declaration:


text: According to Pauline Maier, Douglas's interpretation was more historically accurate, but Lincoln's view ultimately prevailed. "In Lincoln's hands," wrote Maier, "the Declaration of Independence became first and foremost a living document" with "a set of goals to be realized over time".


text: Like Daniel Webster, James Wilson, and Joseph Story before him, Lincoln argued that the Declaration of Independence was a founding document of the United States, and that this had important implications for interpreting the Constitution, which had been ratified more than a decade after the Declaration. The Constitution did not use the word "equality", yet Lincoln believed that the concept that "all men are created equal" remained a part of the nation's founding principles. He famously expressed this belief, referencing the year 1776, in the opening sentence of his 1863 Gettysburg Address: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."


text: Lincoln's view of the Declaration became influential, seeing it as a moral guide to interpreting the Constitution. "For most people now," wrote Garry Wills in 1992, "the Declaration means what Lincoln told us it means, as a way of correcting the Constitution itself without overthrowing it." Admirers of Lincoln such as Harry V. Jaffa praised this development. Critics of Lincoln, notably Willmoore Kendall and Mel Bradford, argued that Lincoln dangerously expanded the scope of the national government and violated states' rights by reading the Declaration into the Constitution.


text: In July 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York, the first women's rights convention. It was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann McClintock, and Jane Hunt. They patterned their "Declaration of Sentiments" on the Declaration of Independence, in which they demanded social and political equality for women. Their motto was that "All men "and women" are created equal", and they demanded the right to vote.


text: Excerpt from "Declaration of Sentiments": “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal”-The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments 1848


text: 1963, in Washington DC at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. This speech was meant to inspire the nation, to take up the causes of the Civil Rights Movement. Luther uses quotations from the Declaration of Independence to encourage equal treatment of all persons regardless of race.


text: Excerpt from Luther's speech: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'” –Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. 1963


text: In 1978, at the Gay Pride Celebration in San Francisco, California, activist and later politician, Harvey Milk delivered a speech. Milk alluded to the Declaration of Independence, emphasizing that the inalienable rights established by Declaration apply to all persons and cannot be hindered because of one’s sexual orientation.


text: Excerpt from Milk's speech: “All men are created equal and they are endowed with certain inalienable rights…that’s what America is. No matter how hard you try, you cannot erase those words from the Declaration of Independence.” -Harvey Milk 1978


text: The Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence was dedicated in 1984 in Constitution Gardens on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where the signatures of all the original signers are carved in stone with their names, places of residence, and occupations.


text: The new One World Trade Center building in New York City (2014) is 1776 feet high to symbolize the year that the Declaration of Independence was signed.


text: The adoption of the Declaration of Independence was dramatized in the 1969 Tony Award–winning musical "1776" and the 1972 film version, as well as in the 2008 television miniseries "John Adams". In 1970, The 5th Dimension recorded the opening of the Declaration on their album "Portrait" in the song "Declaration". It was first performed on the "Ed Sullivan Show" on December 7, 1969, and it was taken as a song of protest against the Vietnam War. The Declaration of Independence is a plot device in the 2004 American film "National Treasure". After the 2009 death of radio broadcaster Paul Harvey, Focus Today aired a "clip" of Harvey speaking about the lives of all the signers of the Declaration of Independence.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Raheem Shaquille Sterling (born 8 December 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger and attacking midfielder for club Chelsea and the England national team.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Born in Jamaica to Jamaican parents, Sterling moved to London at the age of five. He began his career at Queens Park Rangers before signing for Liverpool in 2010. He was awarded the Golden Boy award in 2014. In July 2015, following a lengthy dispute over a new contract, he was signed by Manchester City in a transfer potentially worth £49 million, the highest transfer fee ever paid for an English player at the time. He went on to help Manchester City win back-to-back Premier League titles in the 2017–18 and 2018–19 seasons. In the 2018–19 season, he was named to the PFA Premier League Team of the Year and won the PFA Young Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling made his senior debut for England in November 2012 after previously being capped by England youth teams at under-16, under-17, under-19 and under-21 levels. He was chosen in England's squads for the FIFA World Cup in 2014, 2018 and 2022, and the UEFA European Championship in 2016 and 2020.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling was born in a Christian family in Kingston, Jamaica, and spent his early years there. His mother, Nadine Clarke, was previously a competitive athlete in the Jamaican national athletics team; Sterling credits her for his unique running style. His father was murdered in Jamaica when Sterling was two years old. At the age of five, he moved to Neasden, London, with his mother, and attended Copland School in Wembley, north-west London. Due to behavioural problems, Sterling spent three years at Vernon House, a specialist school in Neasden.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling spent four years with local youth team Alpha & Omega before signing for Queens Park Rangers, at age 10, as a winger. Sterling was subsequently scouted by the academies of Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Liverpool and Manchester City. However, he was encouraged by his mother not to choose clubs in the locality in order to escape the hostile gang culture in London.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling was signed by Liverpool from the academy at Queens Park Rangers in February 2010 by then academy director Frank McParland and Rafael Benítez, for an initial fee of £450,000, with the possibility of rising up to £2 million depending on how many appearances he made for the first team.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: He initially played in the club's youth team, making his debut in an Under-18s derby match against Everton. Sterling scored his first goal for Liverpool in a friendly match against Hibernian, which ended in a 2–2 draw. His first Premier Academy League match was a 2–2 draw against Aston Villa, with his first win coming at home to Bristol City a week later. On 15 December, he scored in the FA Youth Cup in a 4–0 win over Notts County. On 14 February 2011, Sterling scored five goals in a 9–0 win over Southend United.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 24 March 2012, Sterling made his senior Liverpool debut as a substitute in a league match against Wigan Athletic, aged 17 years and 107 days, becoming the third-youngest player to play for the club. He made two more appearances over the remainder of the campaign, again as a substitute.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: In August 2012, he made his European debut for the club, coming on as a substitute in a UEFA Europa League qualifying match against Gomel, replacing Joe Cole in a 1–0 away win. The following week, Sterling scored his first goal for the senior team with a first-half strike in a friendly against Bayer Leverkusen. On 23 August 2012, he started his first match for Liverpool in a Europa League qualifying match away to Hearts in a 1–0 win. He was given his first start in the league three days later in a 2–2 draw at Anfield to Manchester City. He played the full 90 minutes in the loss to Arsenal on 2 September, and the draw with Sunderland on 15 September, where he registered one assist and was named man of the match. On 19 September, Sterling was one of the group of teenagers that travelled to Switzerland to play Young Boys in a UEFA Europa League group match. He replaced Stewart Downing in the second half as Liverpool won 5–3. On 20 October, Sterling scored his first senior competitive goal for Liverpool in the 29th minute of a 1–0 league win against Reading with a strike from the edge of the box. As a result, he became the second-youngest player to score in a competitive fixture for Liverpool, behind only Michael Owen.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 21 December 2012, Sterling signed a contract extension, committing his future to Liverpool. He scored his second league goal for the club on 2 January 2013, opening the scoring in a 3–0 win against Sunderland with a lob over goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 27 August 2013, Sterling scored his first goal of the 2013–14 season, the opening goal against Notts County in a 4–2 win in the League Cup. On 4 December, Sterling scored his first Premier League goal of the season for Liverpool in a 5–1 win over Norwich City. His form in December saw him score two further goals in wins against Tottenham Hotspur (5–0) and Cardiff City (3–1). On 8 February 2014, he scored twice in a 5–1 win against Arsenal at Anfield. On 13 April, he scored Liverpool's opening goal in a 3–2 win over Manchester City. A week later, he scored two goals and assisted another as Liverpool won 3–2 against Norwich City at Carrow Road.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 18 April 2014, Sterling was named as one of the six players on the shortlist for the PFA Young Player of the Year award. He was named Liverpool Chartered Player of the Month for April. At the end of the season, he was named Liverpool's Young Player of the Year.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 17 August 2014, Sterling scored to help Liverpool to win their opening match of the 2014–15 season, a 2–1 win at home to Southampton. On 31 August, Sterling scored the opening goal in a 3–0 league win against Tottenham at White Hart Lane and was named man of the match. Sterling was named the Liverpool Player of the Month for August.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 16 September, Sterling made his UEFA Champions League debut in a 2–1 victory over Bulgarian champions Ludogorets Razgrad at Anfield. On 14 December 2014, he made his 100th appearance for Liverpool in a match against Manchester United at Old Trafford. On 17 December, Sterling scored a brace in a 3–1 victory over Bournemouth at Dean Court in the League Cup quarter-final.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 20 December, Sterling was named as the recipient of the 2014 Golden Boy award. "It's down to hard work. I'm really happy that people are recognising that I'm trying to work hard and do my best for this football club. I'm really grateful for this award," he stated upon receiving the award. Sterling was officially excused from Liverpool's FA Cup match against AFC Wimbledon in January 2015, with manager Brendan Rodgers aiming to prevent the player becoming exhausted. He used the time off to holiday in Jamaica.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 20 January 2015, Sterling scored a fine solo goal against Chelsea in a 1–1 draw in the League Cup semi-final first leg at Anfield, going past Nemanja Matić and Gary Cahill before beating Thibaut Courtois to find the net. On 31 January, Sterling scored the opening goal in a 2–0 win over West Ham United. On 4 February, Sterling scored the equaliser against Bolton Wanderers at the Macron Stadium in a 2–1 away win for Liverpool. On 22 February, he scored the second goal for Liverpool in a 2–0 win over Southampton.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 13 April, Sterling opened the scoring in a 2–0 win over Newcastle United. He was named the team's Young Player of the Season on 19 May for the second consecutive year in a row, and when receiving the award was booed by fans due to his rejection of a new contract; he was also booed on 7 June, while playing for England in Dublin. On 16 April 2015, for the second consecutive year, he was named as one of the six players on the shortlist for the PFA Young Player of the Year award.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 9 February 2015, Brendan Rodgers said that Sterling had been offered "an incredible deal" to stay at Liverpool, rumoured to be a new contract worth £100,000 a week, but he also stated Liverpool were "certainly not a club that is going to give way, way above what a player is worth at a certain time in their career." However, on 20 March, Rodgers said Sterling's contract situation would not be resolved until the summer at least.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 1 April, Sterling gave an unsanctioned interview with the BBC, where he confirmed he had turned down a new deal, but denied that this was for reasons of money. He had two years of a £35,000 per week contract remaining and said that he would not negotiate a new contract until the end of the season. Four days later, Brendan Rodgers criticised Sterling's advisors (Aidy Ward) for the interview, saying: "You are not a 20-year-old boy and you pick up the phone and ask to speak to the BBC. You don't do it. Him in particular. But, of course, if he is asked to do that by other parties then that is what he'll do."


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 21 May, amid rumours that Sterling intended to leave the club, his agent, Ward, gave an interview to the "London Evening Standard" saying: "I don't care about the PR of the club and the club situation... He is definitely not signing. He's not signing for £700, £800, £900 thousand a week."


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 11 June, Liverpool reportedly rejected an initial bid of £30 million from Manchester City. One week later, they reportedly rejected a second bid from City for £40 million, with Liverpool valuing Sterling at £50 million. Sterling reportedly later asked to be left out of Liverpool's preseason tour to Asia, and missed two days of training through illness, which was met with widespread criticism from former Liverpool players, including Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Graeme Souness.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 12 July 2015, a deal was agreed for his transfer to Manchester City for an initial £44 million, with a further potential £5 million in add-ons, subject to personal terms and a medical, which would make him the most expensive English player of all time. On 14 July, Sterling officially joined Manchester City, signing a five-year contract. His debut came on 10 August, starting as City began the season with a 3–0 win away to West Bromwich Albion. Nineteen days later, Sterling scored his first competitive goal for Manchester City in a 2–0 win against Watford at the City of Manchester Stadium. Sterling scored his first career hat-trick as City beat Bournemouth 5–1 on 17 October.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 3 November, Sterling scored his first UEFA Champions League goal in a 3–1 win away to Sevilla. On 8 December, he scored twice in the final ten minutes of City's last group stage fixture against Borussia Mönchengladbach, helping turn a 2–1 deficit into a 4–2 win and ensuring City overtook Juventus in the final group standings. On 20 March 2016, he suffered a groin injury in a 1–0 loss to rivals Manchester United, and was ruled out for eight weeks. Sterling eventually lost his place in the starting line-up.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling appeared regularly for Manchester City under Pep Guardiola for the opening matches of the 2016–17 season. He was Premier League Player of the Month for August 2016 after he scored two goals and provided one assist in three games. On 21 February 2017, Sterling scored the opener before setting up a goal for Sergio Agüero in a 5–3 home win against Monaco in the Champions League.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 26 August 2017, Sterling scored the winner in a 2–1 away win away to AFC Bournemouth in stoppage time. He was sent off by Mike Dean with a second yellow after he celebrated among travelling supporters that had run onto the pitch. On 29 November 2017, Sterling scored a 96th-minute winner against Southampton in a 2–1 home win. He scored his eighteenth and final league goal of the season during a 5–0 victory at Swansea City on 22 April 2018, his most ever at this point in his career.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Following England's World Cup campaign, Sterling made an immediate return to the Manchester City starting line-up. On 12 August 2018, less than a month after starting in England's 2–0 loss against Belgium in the third place play-off, Sterling scored the opening goal in Manchester City's 2–0 away win against Arsenal. The strike was Sterling's 50th Premier League goal. On 4 November 2018, Sterling scored twice and made two assists in a 6–1 win against Southampton at home, scoring his 50th goal for Manchester City in all competitions in the process. In November 2018, he signed a three-year extension to keep him at City until 2023.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: In December 2018, Sterling alleged that sections of the media served to "fuel racism" with their portrayal of young black footballers. The comments emerged after Sterling was subjected to alleged racist abuse during City's 2–0 defeat at Chelsea.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: He began 2019 with a 2–1 win against Liverpool, where he assisted Leroy Sané's winning goal. On 6 January 2019, he scored a goal and assisted one in a 7–0 win against Rotherham, which booked their place in the fourth round. On 20 January 2019, he headed a goal to help City win 3–0 over Huddersfield Town. On 3 February 2019, he helped assist two of Sergio Agüero's goal to beat Arsenal 3–1, which helped City move 2 points behind Liverpool. On 10 February 2019, he scored two goals to beat Chelsea 6–0 at the Etihad. On 20 February 2019, in a first leg match of the Champions League against Schalke, he scored the winning goal in the 90th minute in a 3–2 win. In the EFL Cup Final on 24 February 2019, he scored the winning penalty in the penalty shootout to win the cup. The following month, he scored a hat-trick for the first time since 2015 within the space of 13 minutes – the fastest hat-trick of the season – to secure a 3–1 victory over Watford. He scored again in the return leg of Man City's Champions League clash with Schalke to help the club record a 7–0 (10–2) victory and equal the record for the largest winning margin in the knockout-phase of the competition. On 17 April 2019, Sterling scored two in Manchester City's 4–3 win over Tottenham Hotspur in their UEFA Champions League quarter-final second-leg; however, they were knocked out on away goals after losing 1–0 in the first leg. On 18 May 2019, Sterling scored twice as Manchester City defeated Watford 6–0 in the 2019 FA Cup Final to clinch a domestic treble.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: In the 2018–19 season, he was named to the PFA Premier League Team of the Year and won the PFA Young Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: In the 2019 FA Community Shield against Liverpool on 4 August, Sterling scored the opening goal of the match in an eventual 1–1 draw; Manchester City ultimately won the title 5–4 on penalties. In Manchester City's opening game of the 2019–20 Premier League, Sterling scored a second-half hat-trick – his third of the calendar year – in a 5–0 away win over West Ham, which put them top of the table on goal difference after one game. On 22 October 2019, Sterling scored his first UEFA Champions League hat-trick in a 5–1 win over Atalanta in the group stages of the 2019–20 season.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: In February 2020, during an interview with "Diario AS", Sterling was asked whether he would one day like to play for Real Madrid. In reply, Sterling explained that "No one knows what the future will hold. I am a player and I am always open to challenges but right now my challenge is at City and I'm really happy".


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 11 July 2020, Sterling scored his third hat-trick of the season in a 5–0 away thrashing of Brighton. He scored another three goals in the last three league games of the season, ending with a total of 20 goals, his best ever tally in the Premier League.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 7 August 2020, he scored the opening goal in a 2–1 home victory against Real Madrid, knocking them out of the Champions League in the Round of 16. It was his 100th goal for City in all competitions, becoming the first Englishman to reach this figure for the club since Dennis Tueart in 1981. On 15 August 2020, Manchester City lost 3–1 against Lyon in the Champions League quarter-finals, in which Sterling missed an open goal chance to level the score, as it was 2–1 for Lyon.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 7 February 2021, Sterling scored a goal in a 4–1 away win over his former team Liverpool, to reach his 100th goal with Manchester City under Pep Guardiola in all competitions. On 29 May, he played in the 2021 UEFA Champions League Final, where Manchester City lost 1–0 against Chelsea.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling scored his 100th Premier League goal, a penalty, scoring the only goal of the game in the 1–0 home win over Wolves on 11 December 2021. Sterling was later bestowed with the Premier League Player of the Month award for December 2021.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: With his goal in a 5–0 UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg away win against Sporting CP, Sterling entered into the top ten of all-time Manchester City goalscorers.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 13 July 2022, Sterling signed for Chelsea on a five-year contract for a fee of £47.5 million. On 6 August 2022, he made his club debut in a 1–0 away win against Everton. On 27 August 2022, Sterling scored his first goals for the club, a brace, in a 2–1 win over Leicester City.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling's international career coincided with the introduction of the "home nations agreement." It was not until September 2009 that FIFA agreed to the proposals by the English, Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh Football Associations to update the agreement, allowing players who were educated in their nation for five years or more to become eligible for their national team. Sterling first represented England at under-16 level in November 2009 in a match against Northern Ireland. When speaking of the possibility of playing for Jamaica, Sterling said, "When it comes to that decision, that is when I will decide, but if Jamaica calls for me, why not?"


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling was selected to play for England for the 2011 U-17 World Cup. He scored a long-range goal in England's opening 2–0 win against Rwanda in Pachuca. He also scored against Argentina in the second round in a match where England won 4–2 on penalties. On 10 September 2012, Sterling was called up to the senior England squad for the first time for a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Ukraine, where he was an unused substitute. In early October he was called up for the first time to the England under-21 squad and made his debut as a substitute during a match against Serbia on 16 October. He scored his first goal for England U21 on 13 August 2013, in a 6–0 win against Scotland.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling made his senior debut for England on 14 November 2012, starting in a friendly away to Sweden. On 5 March 2014, Sterling earned his second cap and was named man of the match as England beat Denmark 1–0 in a friendly match at Wembley Stadium.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 12 May 2014, Sterling was named in England's 23-man squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. In a pre-tournament friendly on 4 June, against Ecuador in Miami on his fourth cap, Sterling slid into Antonio Valencia, who reacted by grabbing Sterling's neck; both received red cards for their actions. Valencia later apologised for his reaction. On 14 June, Sterling started in England's opening group match, a 2–1 loss to Italy in Manaus, and was rated as the team's best performing player by the BBC.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 27 March 2015, Sterling scored his first senior goal for England in a 4–0 UEFA Euro 2016 qualifier against Lithuania at Wembley Stadium. On 9 October 2015, Sterling scored his second goal of the qualifying campaign in a 2–0 victory against Estonia, by which point the team were already qualified. He was one of 23 players chosen for the final tournament.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: After a run of 27 games without a goal for England, Sterling scored twice in a UEFA Nations League group game against Spain on 15 October 2018. England went on to win the match 3–2.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling scored his first hat-trick for England on 22 March 2019 in a 5–0 win over the Czech Republic at Wembley Stadium in a UEFA Euro 2020 qualifier.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: In October 2019, Sterling scored a brace in a 6–0 defeat of Bulgaria. Sterling's first goal in the game meant that he equalled a record held jointly by Eric Brook and Francis Lee of the most England goals scored by a Manchester City player (10). Sterling's second goal in the game meant that he became the sole record holder in this respect (although his second goal in the game was his twelfth England goal overall, it was his eleventh as a Manchester City player).


title: Raheem Sterling

text: In November 2019, Sterling was dropped from the England team after clashing with international teammate but club rival Joe Gomez.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 13 June 2021, Sterling scored the only goal against Croatia to kick off England's UEFA Euro 2020 campaign with a winning start. On 22 June, he also scored the only goal in a 1–0 win over the Czech Republic to help England finish top of Group D. On 29 June, he scored the first goal against Germany in the round of 16. England won the game 2–0 and progressed to the quarter finals. On 7 July, during England's semi-final game against Denmark, Sterling won a penalty in extra-time when the score was 1–1. He was accused of diving in this incident by ex-Liverpool/Manchester City player Dietmar Hamann and on social media. The penalty was saved, but the rebound was scored by Harry Kane, for England to progress to the final.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 21 November 2022, Sterling scored England's third goal in the opening game for England at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in a 6–2 win against Iran. On 4 December, Sterling left the England World Cup squad in Qatar to return to London after armed intruders broke into his home while his family were in.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling plays as a winger, attacking midfielder or striker, though he is more comfortable as a natural winger. Sterling has been praised for his adaptability and ability to play wide, at the tip of a midfield diamond and centrally, offering flexibility. Known for his pace, low centre of gravity, and dribbling skills, Sterling has been compared to Alexis Sánchez by his former manager Brendan Rodgers. Rodgers has also praised him for offering a "real threat," his use of pace with composure and his maturity. Despite his small stature, he also possesses considerable upper-body strength, which aids him in withstanding challenges, and retaining possession.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Former Barcelona midfielder Xavi said in November 2014 that Sterling is good enough to play for the La Liga club, praising his physical and technical qualities. In April 2015, "BBC Sport" columnist Phil McNulty wrote that Sterling was "very good with the potential to be outstanding" but remained a "work in progress" due to inconsistent performances. He also wrote, "He is blessed with natural pace that makes even the best defences and defenders take a step back."


title: Raheem Sterling

text: In 2013, citing the influence of his mother, Sterling was quoted as saying he was "not 100 per cent religious but my belief is strong. When the time is right, I will fully be Christian." He added that he put his faith in God and that he prays regularly. He has one daughter, Melody Rose, born in 2012 after a brief relationship. His middle-name Shaquille comes from his grandmother, who was living in America at the time and wanted to name him after Shaquille O'Neal.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 8 August 2013, Sterling was arrested for an alleged common assault on his former girlfriend, a model. He was found not guilty at Liverpool Magistrates Court on 20 September, when the complainant was unable to offer consistent evidence. A few months earlier, on 20 May 2013, a charge of common assault on a different woman was dropped after a witness failed to attend court.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: In April 2015, Sterling was photographed by the "Sunday Mirror" allegedly smoking a shisha pipe, and by "The Sun" allegedly inhaling nitrous oxide for recreational purposes. Manager Brendan Rodgers said, "I don't think it is something you should be doing, it's as simple as that...Young players make mistakes. As long as they learn from them, that is what is important."


title: Raheem Sterling

text: In June 2017, following the Grenfell Tower fire in which 71 people died, Sterling made a "substantial" donation to those affected by the fire.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: On 16 December 2017, Sterling was attacked outside Manchester City's training ground by a man who used racist language towards him. Four days later, 29-year-old Karl Anderson, a convicted football hooligan, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated common assault and was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison and a £100 fine. "The Guardian" praised Sterling's resilience and courage in deciding to play only four hours afterwards.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling has an M16 rifle tattooed on his leg for which he received criticism from anti-violence groups; in response Sterling said that the tattoo had deeper meaning and referred to his father who was killed when Sterling was two years old. There has been criticism of how the British tabloid media, such as "The Sun", cover and treat Sterling with articles being deemed unfair and racist by pundits including Ian Wright.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling has been named as one of the 100 most influential Black Britons, with his inclusion in the annual "Powerlist" in both the 2020 and 2021 editions.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to racial equality in sport.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: In November 2021, Sterling launched his own charitable foundation at the Ark Elvin Academy, his former school. The Raheem Sterling Foundation will 'educate, empower and inspire young people to become better prepared for the future and to embrace opportunities to achieve greater social mobility.' Speaking at the launch, Sterling said: "My foundation is built on my experiences, successes and the many challenges I overcame, I now want to help young people achieve and be the best they can be.”


title: Raheem Sterling

text: Sterling lives in a £6 million gated property in Leatherhead, Surrey. During the Qatar World Cup Sterling's house was burgled. This was discovered by his fiancée and children when they returned from being with him in Qatar. As a result of the burglary, Sterling flew home, while the FIFA World Cup was still underway. He later re-joined the team for training.


title: Raheem Sterling

text: In 2012, Sterling signed a sponsorship deal with American sportswear and equipment supplier, Nike. He appeared in an advertisement for the new Nike Green Speed II alongside Mario Götze, Theo Walcott, Eden Hazard, Christian Eriksen and Stephan El Shaarawy in November 2012. In January 2013, he modelled the new Nike Mercurial Vapor IX. Starting in 2020, Sterling became an ambassador for Gillette, appearing in UK adverts for the brand. In May 2021 he announced that he signed multi-year deal with New Balance, he will be wearing the Furon v6+ boots.


title: Yash (actor)

text: Naveen Kumar Gowda (born 8 January 1986), better known by his stage name Yash, is an Indian actor who works in Kannada films. He is the recipient of three Filmfare Awards South.


title: Yash (actor)

text: Yash began his career with appearances in several television series in the 2000s. He made his film debut in 2007 with "Jambada Hudugi". The 2008 romantic drama "Moggina Manasu", for which he received the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor, proved to be a breakthrough for Yash. His first film in a leading role, "Rocky" (2008), was poorly received critically and a box office flop. He followed it up with a series of romance films that were commercial successes, and received his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor nomination for "Drama" in 2012.


title: Yash (actor)

text: Yash went on to establish himself as a leading actor of Kannada cinema with the college romance "Googly" (2013), comedy-drama "Raja Huli" (2013), fantasy action "Gajakesari" (2014), romantic comedy "Mr. and Mrs. Ramachari" (2014), action film "Masterpiece" (2015) and action romance "Santhu Straight Forward" (2016). "Mr. and Mrs. Ramachari" ranks among the highest-grossing Kannada releases and gave Yash his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor. The pan-India success of Prashanth Neel's 2018 period action film "", which became the highest-grossing Kannada film, helped Yash attain nationwide recognition in India and win his second Filmfare Award for Best Actor. He won further praise for his performance in the sequel, "" (2022), which ranks as the third highest-grossing Indian film.


title: Yash (actor)

text: Yash promotes various social and philanthropic causes through the YashoMarga Foundation. He is married to actress Radhika Pandit and have two children.


title: Yash (actor)

text: Yash was born on 8 January 1986 in Boovanahalli, a village in Hassan, Karnataka. He was given two names: Naveen, legally, and his mother's side of the family, named him Yashwanth. Yashwanth was chosen, as they believed that his time of birth astrologically necessitated a name beginning with the letter ಯ (ya). In keeping with Hindu traditions of giving children a deity's epithet, Yash was described as "Nanjundeshwara" ("poison-drinker god", referring to Shiva). Before starting his acting career, he was advised by others in the industry to adopt a stage name. Desiring to stand out with a name that was unique for an actor in Karnataka, he shortened Yashwanth to Yash.


title: Yash (actor)

text: Yash's father, Arun Kumar Gowda, was a driver for the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and later the, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation. His mother, Pushpa, is a homemaker. He has a younger sister, Nandini, who is married to a computer engineer. Yash aspired to be an actor from a young age and actively participated in theatre and dance competitions at his school in Mysore. When he was young, his family also ran a provision store, where he would help out regularly. Yash wanted to quit school and pursue full-time acting, after completing grade 10. However, he had to complete senior school on the demand of his parents. He studied at the Mahajana Education Society for all his school years. His parents initially disapproved of his acting ambitions, and his father wanted him to be a government officer. In 2003, they relented and allowed him to move to Bangalore, at the age of 16, to work on a film as an assistant director, but stated that he would not be allowed to go back if he returned. The project was cancelled after only two days of filming, but Yash decided to stay back in Bangalore. He has stated he had with him at the time.


title: Yash (actor)

text: He joined a theatre group, the Benaka drama troupe, which was formed by dramatist B. V. Karanth. He worked as a backstage worker and was paid per day.


title: Yash (actor)

text: Yash eventually became a backup actor, and in 2004, portrayed Balarama in the lead role for a play. While still working in theatre, he completed his Bachelor of Arts at Bangalore's K.L.E. College, with psychology and journalism among optional subjects. He made his television debut the same year with the teleserial "Uttarayana". In 2005, he was offered a role in the teleserial "Nanda Gokula", where he starred alongside Radhika Pandit. He went on to appear in several other teleserials such as T. N. Seetharam's "Male Billu" and "Preeti Illada Mele". Once Yash had secured a stable income, his parents moved in with him to Bangalore. During this time, he was offered roles in seven films, but his insistence on having the script for each film made available to him was viewed as "arrogance from a newcomer" and often refused.


title: Yash (actor)

text: Yash debuted in 2007 with a supporting role in Priya Hassan's "Jambada Hudugi", which saw him play a man whose infertile wife seeks uterus transplantation. He next played the romantic interest of his "Nanda Gokula" co-actor Radhika Pandit's character in the teen drama "Moggina Manasu" (2008), directed by Shashank, which follows the love lives of four girls who become friends in college. He was cast in a last-minute decision after Shashank's initial choice for the role fractured their leg and required rest for six months. Shashank then happened to see Yash in an episode of "Preeti Illada Mele" and was impressed by his performance. Yash was sporting a beard for "Preeti Illada Mele" but Shashank reached out to him and convinced him to shave clean for the role. R.G. Vijayasarathy of "Rediff.com" found the film to work despite its screenplay and highlighted Yash's performance among the male cast as impressive. The role won him the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in Kannada at the 56th Filmfare Awards South. The film is considered to be Yash's breakthrough project.


title: Yash (actor)

text: Yash then starred in the title role in the romance "Rocky" (2008) opposite Bianca Desai, playing a college student who has a troubled relationship with his parents. Rocky emerged to be a critical and commercial failure; Vijayasarathy, who found him promising in "Jambada Hudugi" and "Moggina Manasu", wrote that "he looks uncomfortable here, as the role lacks clarity." In the first of his two releases in 2009, the Sumana Kittur-directed action drama "Kallara Santhe", he played Somu, a post-graduate student and later auto rickshaw driver who is driven to consider suicide by events in his life. To promote the film, he drove the winners of a local contest around Bangalore in an auto rickshaw, an event that attracted media attention. Writing for "The New Indian Express", a critic was not impressed with the screenplay and wrote, "Though this film showcases contemporary issues such as extra-marital affairs, corruption and nepotism among politicians, the director has not succeeded in presenting them very well." The second release, Prakash's family drama "Gokula", featured an ensemble cast including Vijay Raghavendra and Pooja Gandhi; A critic for "The Times of India" found the film to be restricted to only "those who love sentimental stories celebrating the bond between mothers and sons," but appreciated all the starring performances, including Yash. Both "Kallara Santhe" and "Gokula" failed to do well commercially.


title: Yash (actor)

text: In 2010, Yash starred in the romantic comedy "Modalasala", alongside Bhama. Sunayana Suresh of "Daily News and Analysis" felt the film had "its funny moments and occasionally, an overdose of sentimental scenes" and highlighted Yash's prowess as a dancer, calling him "easily one of the best we have in Sandalwood." The film was a commercial success, becoming Yash's first solo box office hit. His next release was the crime action "Rajadhani" (2011), about a group of friends who commit a murder for money and go on the run from a cop played by Prakash Raj. The film failed to meet both critical and commercial expectations, with Shruti Indira Lakshminarayana of "Rediff.com" feeling that its promising messages were lost in consumerism, but found Yash to be the best performer among the cast, writing, "He puts up a restrained performance and gets to play more than a motor-mouth lover boy." The same year, he appeared in "Kirataka", a remake of the Tamil-language romantic comedy "Kalavani" (2010), playing a wayward student who falls in love with his batchmate, played by Oviya. It was the 3000th film to be released from the Kannada-language film industry. Lakshminarayana was appreciative of the film and wrote, "Yash is easily Kannada industry's best brat. The film gives him scope to exhibit his dance moves and at the same time brings out his acting talent." With earnings of 30 million domestically, "Kirataka" was one of the top-grossing Kannada films of 2011.


title: Yash (actor)

text: Yash had three film releases in 2012. The romantic comedy "Lucky" saw him play Lucky, an aspiring commercial director who gets an unrecognisable makeover and changes his name to Vicky. Vicky tried to woo Gowri (played by Ramya), a radio jockey, but finds that she loves Lucky. Srikanth Srinivasa of "Rediff.com" commended the "relaxing, feel-good movie," writing, "Yash looks dashing in the second half as the well-behaved Vicky but he is also equally at ease in his earlier avatar as Lucky." In contrast, a critic for the Indo-Asian News Service felt it was dragged down by being "predictable, inconsistent and illogical" and stated Yash "scores well as a dancer," but disliked his chemistry with Ramya. The action romance "Jaanu", directed by Preetham Gubbi, followed a hotel owner who must overcome familial pressure to unite with his lover. A critic for the Indo-Asian News Service stated the film was "good for a one-time watch" and appreciated the fight sequences involving Yash. Both "Lucky" and "Jaanu" were fairly successful commercially. His final release of the year was Yograj Bhat's romantic comedy "Drama", starring opposite Radhika Pandit. Shruti I.L. of "Daily News and Analysis" found the pair to be "a cute on screen couple" and felt they "liven[ed] up the screen with their effortless performances." It was one of the highest-grossing Kannada films of 2012.


title: Yash (actor)

text: Yash first appeared on-screen in 2013 in the Kannada-Tamil bilingual "Chandra", with a cameo appearance in the song "Tasse Otthu" (Kannada)/"Raaja Raajan" (Tamil). He then starred in "Googly", a college romance directed by Pavan Wadeyar, playing Sharath, a misogynist university student who dates Swathi (played by Kriti Kharbanda), but breaks up with her after being convinced that she is cheating on him. Years later, he becomes a successful businessman and encounters her. Intent on moving away from village-centric roles as in "Kirataka" and "Drama", Yash saw "Googly" as a means to reinvent himself and adopted a different hairstyle for a "young and charming look". The film performed well and was one of the year's highest-grossing Kannada films. "The Times of India" noted that the success of "Googly" contributed to Yash's increasing stardom and put him on the path to becoming one of the leading stars of the industry. A critic writing for the newspaper found that Wadeyar "infused life into the story with excellent making" and granted "full marks" to Yash, highlighting his performance in the "sentimental sequences". "Googly" was followed by a series of hero-centric films whose primary selling point was Yash's screen presence, establishing him as a "mass hero". His final release of the year was Guru Deshpande's comedy-drama "Raja Huli", a remake of the Tamil-language "Sundarapandian" (2012), which emerged to be a commercial success. Shyam Prasad S. of "Bangalore Mirror" called the film "a perfect blend of entertainment and drama" and noted, "Despite a hero-glorifying title, the film is not an action adventure."


title: Yash (actor)

text: In 2014, he starred in "Gajakesari", which was directed by Krishna, and became commercially successful at the box office. A critic for Sify found it to carry "a neatly sketched story and a well executed script with good visuals" and appreciated his performance, suggesting that "nobody could have done this better than him."


title: Yash (actor)

text: His next film "Mr. and Mrs. Ramachari" opposite Radhika Pandit had its theatrical release on 25 December 2014, and opened to positive reviews and collected an estimated 50 crore, and went on to become one of the highest grossing Kannada cinema.


title: Yash (actor)

text: In 2015, he acted in "Masterpiece", which emerged as a commercial hit at the box office. Archana Nathan of "The Hindu" disliked the film for its contrived parallel of the main character with Bhagat Singh and wrote of Yash, "His dialogue delivery is high-pitched and monotonous as is his acting." In 2016, he starred in "Santhu Straight Forward" which performed fairly well at the box office by collecting ₹30 crore.


title: Yash (actor)

text: In 2018, Yash starred in the first instalment of the two-part Prashanth Neel-directed K.G.F series, "", which was released in Kannada along with dubbed versions in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam. Produced on a budget of 800 million, it was the most-expensive Kannada film at the time, and emerged as the highest-grossing Kannada film during its theatrical run. Yash grew out his beard for the role. "K.G.F: Chapter 1" emerged to be a pan-Indian film, earning him nationwide recognition. The sequel, "" (2022), which also starred Sanjay Dutt and Raveena Tandon, became the third highest-grossing Indian film ever with earnings over 10 billion. His performance in the series as Rocky, an assassin and gold kingpin who takes over the Kolar Gold Fields, received praise. A critic writing for the "Hindustan Times" opined he was "just unmissable." Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com was critical of the film but felt that Yash's "sly humour and unbridled ferocity hits all the right notes."


title: Yash (actor)

text: Yash met Radhika Pandit on the sets of "Nanda Gokula" in 2007. They became close friends after working together in films and eventually began dating, but kept their relationship private for years. Media speculation regarding the nature of their relationship intensified after "Mr. and Mrs. Ramachari", their third film working together. They were engaged in Goa on 12 August 2016 at a private event with close friends and family. After week-long rituals leading up to the wedding day, they married on 9 December 2016 in Bangalore in a ceremony that saw prominent celebrities and politicians from Karnataka attending. Two separate wedding receptions were organised: one for friends and family, and another for fans at Bangalore Palace, for which attendance was open to every person in Karnataka. They have a daughter, Ayra (born December 2018), and a son, Yatharv Yash (born October 2019).


title: Yash (actor)

text: In 2017, Yash, along with Pandit, founded the YashoMarga Foundation, a social welfare non-profit organisation. In their first mission, the foundation addressed a water crisis in Karnataka's Koppal district by investing 40 million towards desilting lakes and providing pure drinking water to 40 villages in the region. That year, he sought protection from the police owing to death threats. Yash has campaigned for S. R. Mahesh of Janata Dal (Secular) in Krishnarajanagara and S. A. Ramdas of Bharatiya Janata Party in Krishnaraja constituency in the 2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly elections. In 2019, he endorsed independent candidate Sumalatha, wife of Ambareesh, in Mandya constituency. He has stated that he is open to entering politics if the situation arises. Yash has collaborated with the Bangalore Police for a campaign against drunk driving in 2019, in the days leading up to New Year's Day. 50 days before his 34th birthday, his fans organised an environmental campaign to plant trees and save water. In 2021, he donated 5000 each to 3000 workers in the Kannada film fraternity to ease their financial burden after the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Yash (actor)

text: After the release of "Moggina Manasu" in 2009, Yash was considered a "wonder boy" in the media for his appearance, mannerisms and "ability to dance to any tune." Later films would see him play characters falling into the "mass hero" trope. He is sometimes credited as "Rocking Star Yash", a name that is stated to have originated among his fans for his image of "a rugged idol who follows no rules but his own." Another news outlet attributed the nickname to the "rocking" back-to-back commercial success of his films.


title: Yash (actor)

text: Yash acquired pan-Indian stardom following the success of the "K.G.F" films, and is cited in the media among the few South Indian actors with an audience in North India. He has stated that while his success in the Kannada industry felt gradual and over the years, the later nationwide recognition was an "overnight" phenomenon. Writing for "India Today" in 2022, Janani K. called him the "poster boy of Kannada cinema" for being the most recognisable person working in that industry across India. In 2019, he became the first Kannada actor to be featured on the cover of "Forbes India". "Forbes India" further ranked him third on their list of most influential celebrities on Instagram from South India in October 2021. Yash debuted on "The Times of India"s Bangalore Times Most Desirable Men list in 2012 at 11th place. He has since appeared on the list several times, and was ranked first in 2013, 2017 and 2020. In 2019, he was included by "GQ India" in their list of 50 most influential young Indians.


title: Yash (actor)

text: Yash has been described in sources as the highest-paid actor in the Kannada film industry, and one of the highest in South Indian cinema in general. In addition to being an active celebrity endorser for several brands (including Nestron, Celkon Mobiles and Ramraj Cotton), he partnered with Marico's grooming brand Beardo in 2020 to create a lifestyle label "Villain", which includes perfumes and clothing. He and his wife are joint ambassadors for Freedom Refined Sunflower Oil. Yash is a representative for Bengaluru Bulls in the Pro Kabaddi League.


title: Liberalism

text: Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various views depending on their understanding of these principles. However, they generally support private property, market economies, individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. Liberalism is frequently cited as the dominant ideology of modern times.


title: Liberalism

text: Liberalism became a distinct movement in the Age of Enlightenment, gaining popularity among Western philosophers and economists. Liberalism sought to replace the norms of hereditary privilege, state religion, absolute monarchy, the divine right of kings and traditional conservatism with representative democracy and the rule of law. Liberals also ended mercantilist policies, royal monopolies and other trade barriers, instead promoting free trade and marketization. Philosopher John Locke is often credited with founding liberalism as a distinct tradition based on the "social contract", arguing that each man has a natural right to life, liberty and property, and governments must not violate these rights. While the British liberal tradition has emphasized expanding democracy, French liberalism has emphasized rejecting authoritarianism and is linked to nation-building.


title: Liberalism

text: Leaders in the British Glorious Revolution of 1688, the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789 used liberal philosophy to justify the armed overthrow of royal sovereignty. The 19th century saw liberal governments established in Europe and South America, and it was well-established alongside Republicanism in the United States. In Victorian Britain, it was used to critique the political establishment, appealing to science and reason on behalf of the people.


title: Liberalism

text: During the 19th and early 20th centuries, liberalism in the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East influenced periods of reform such as the Tanzimat and Al-Nahda and the rise of constitutionalism, nationalism and secularism. These changes, along with other factors, helped to create a sense of crisis within Islam, which continues to this day, leading to Islamic revivalism.


title: Liberalism

text: Before 1920, the main ideological opponents of liberalism were communism, conservatism and socialism, but liberalism then faced major ideological challenges from fascism and Marxism–Leninism as new opponents. During the 20th century, liberal ideas spread even further, especially in Western Europe, as liberal democracies found themselves as the winners in both world wars.


title: Liberalism

text: In Europe and North America, the establishment of social liberalism (often called simply "liberalism" in the United States) became a key component in expanding the welfare state. Today, liberal parties continue to wield power and influence throughout the world. The fundamental elements of contemporary society have liberal roots. The early waves of liberalism popularised economic individualism while expanding constitutional government and parliamentary authority.


title: Liberalism

text: Liberals sought and established a constitutional order that prized important individual freedoms, such as freedom of speech and freedom of association; an independent judiciary and public trial by jury; and the abolition of aristocratic privileges. Later waves of modern liberal thought and struggle were strongly influenced by the need to expand civil rights. Liberals have advocated gender and racial equality in their drive to promote civil rights and a global civil rights movement in the 20th century achieved several objectives towards both goals. Other goals often accepted by liberals include universal suffrage and universal access to education.


title: Liberalism

text: Words such as "liberal", "liberty", "libertarian" and "libertine" all trace their etymology to the Latin root "liber", which means "free". One of the first recorded instances of the word "liberal" occurred in 1375 when it was used to describe the liberal arts in the context of an education desirable for a free-born man. The word's early connection with the classical education of a medieval university soon gave way to a proliferation of different denotations and connotations. "Liberal" could refer to "free in bestowing" as early as 1387, "made without stint" in 1433, "freely permitted" in 1530 and "free from restraint"—often as a pejorative remark—in the 16th and the 17th centuries. In the 16th century England, "liberal" could have positive or negative attributes in referring to someone's generosity or indiscretion. In "Much Ado About Nothing", William Shakespeare wrote of "a liberal villaine" who "hath ... confest his vile encounters". With the rise of the Enlightenment, the word acquired decisively more positive undertones, defined as "free from narrow prejudice" in 1781 and "free from bigotry" in 1823. In 1815, the first use of the word "liberalism" appeared in English. In Spain, the "liberales", the first group to use the liberal label in a political context, fought for decades to implement the 1812 Constitution. From 1820 to 1823, during the "Trienio Liberal", King Ferdinand VII was compelled by the "liberales" to swear to uphold the Constitution. By the middle of the 19th century, "liberal" was used as a politicised term for parties and movements worldwide.