title: Mexico national football team

text: All of Mexico's matches are shown live on over-the-air networks Televisa and TV Azteca in Mexico. In the United States all of Mexico's international friendlies and home World Cup qualifiers are shown on Spanish language network Univision while away World Cup qualifiers are shown on Telemundo. On 30 January 2013, English language network ESPN and Univision announced an agreement to telecast the Mexico national team home World Cup qualifiers and international friendly matches in English in the United States.


title: Mexico national football team

text: Mexico's fans are infamously known for the vulgar, homophobic chant ""¡eeeh puto!"", which is typically screamed when an opponent's goalkeeper is about to perform a goalkick.


title: Mexico national football team

text: The origins of the chant is thought to have had developed in the 1980s in Monterrey where in little league American football games, fans would chant ""¡eeeh pum!"" during the opening kickoff. This chant was not disparagingly used as the word "pum" is attributed to an impact of some sort. Though the current incarnation of the chant is widely thought to have originated sometime between 2000 and 2003 by supporters of Atlas F.C. to former Atlas goalkeeper, Oswaldo Sanchez, no primary sources exist that support this claim and is an urban legend. The earliest documented usage of "puto" being chanted by fans in this manner occurred on 22 May 2004, during the second leg of the Clausura 2004 repechage match between Cruz Azul and C.F. Pachuca. Fans of Pachuca repeatedly chanted "puto" every time Óscar Pérez performed a goal kick.


title: Mexico national football team

text: Due to the homophobic meaning of the word "puto" in Mexican Spanish (a vulgar term for a male prostitute), the chant received negative attention in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Mexico's fans defended it as being traditionally used in the Liga MX. On 23 June 2014, FIFA dropped an investigation, concluding that the chant "was not considered insulting in the specific context". Football Against Racism in Europe, an anti-discrimination organization, criticized the ruling as "disappointing". In 2017, in advance of the 2018 World Cup, FIFA fined the Mexico football federation over fans' use of the chant and introduced escalating sanctions, which were first applied in Liga MX games in 2019. In 2021, three Mexico international matches in the United States were halted because of fan behaviour, including the CONCACAF Nations League final, in which fans also threw things onto the pitch and Giovanni Reyna was hit in the face by a heavy object. On 18 June 2021, FIFA announced that as a penalty for the use of the chant in a pre-Olympics tournament in Guadalajara, spectators would be barred from Mexico's first two qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup.


title: Mexico national football team

text: Mexico and the United States are widely considered as the two top teams in CONCACAF. Matches between the two nations often attracts media attention, public interest and discourse in both countries. Although the first match was played in 1934, their rivalry was not considered major until the late 1990s, when the USA emerged as a solid international side. On 15 August 2012, the United States defeated Mexico at Estadio Azteca in the first victory for the U.S. against Mexico on Mexican soil in 75 years.


title: Mexico national football team

text: Since their first meeting in 1934, the two teams have met 73 times, with Mexico leading the overall series 36–22–15 (W–L–D), outscoring the U.S. 144–82. Mexico dominated in early years, with a 22-2-2 record through 1980. However, since that time the series has become much more competitive, largely due to the rapid growth of soccer in the United States. Since 2000, the series has favored the U.S. 17–9–6 (W–L–D), with Mexico outscored 32-40. Since 2011, however, the rivalry has been marked by Mexican success, with the Mexicans defeating the United States in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final in 2011 and 2019, the CONCACAF Cup in 2015, winning on American soil for the first time since 1980. In 2021, however, Mexico lost to the United States in both the Nations League final and the Gold Cup final.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (or simply John Wick: Chapter 3) is a 2019 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Chad Stahelski from a screenplay by Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten, Chris Collins, and Marc Abrams, based on a story by Kolstad. The sequel to "" (2017), it is the third installment in the "John Wick" film series. It stars Keanu Reeves as the eponymous character, alongside Halle Berry, Laurence Fishburne, Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Lance Reddick, Anjelica Huston, and Ian McShane. In the film, John Wick goes on the run from a legion of hitmen after a bounty is placed for his murder.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: The film was announced in June 2017. Much of the returning cast and crew was confirmed in February 2018, with new members joining that May. Filming began that month and lasted through November, taking place in New York City and Casablanca.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum" premiered in New York City on May 9, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on May 17, by Lionsgate. The film grossed $326 million worldwide against its $75 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing film of the series in just 10 days, and received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the action sequences, visual style, and Reeves's performance.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: The film will be followed by "" in 2023, with a spin-off, "Ballerina", set to release later that same year.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: John Wick is making his way through Manhattan before he is labeled "excommunicado" for the unauthorized killing of High Table crime lord Santino D'Antonio on the grounds of the New York Continental Hotel, which is considered neutral ground. He sends his dog to safety with the concierge, Charon, at the very same hotel. At the New York Public Library, John retrieves a marker medallion and a rosary. He is injured in a fight with Ernest, another hitman, and seeks medical treatment from an underworld doctor, but his $14 million bounty activates before the doctor can finish, forcing John to complete the suturing himself. Upon leaving, he is quickly pursued by various gangs of assassins, all of whom he kills.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: John meets with the "Director", the head of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate, where he presents the rosary and demands safe passage to Casablanca. As John was once one of them, the Director reluctantly helps. Meanwhile, a High Table Adjudicator meets with New York Continental manager Winston and the Bowery King, notifying them that they both have seven days to resign from their positions for helping John and indirectly going against the rules of the Table. The Adjudicator enlists Zero, a Japanese assassin, and orders him to stab the Director through both of her hands as penance for aiding John. In Casablanca, John meets Sofia, a former friend and manager of the Moroccan Continental.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: John presents the marker medallion, which binds Sofia to return a favor from the past, and demands to be directed to the "Elder" – the only person above the High Table. Sofia begrudgingly takes John to Berrada, her former boss, who tells John he may find the Elder by wandering through the desert until he can no longer walk. In exchange, Berrada asks for one of Sofia's dogs. When she refuses he shoots the dog, which survives due to its bulletproof vest. Sofia wants to kill Berrada, but only wounds him at John's warning. They fight their way out of the kasbah and drive into the desert, where she leaves John. Seven days later, the Adjudicator and Zero confront the Bowery King, who refuses to abdicate his position. In response, Zero's students slaughter his men while the King is slashed seven times with a wakizashi as penance. Meanwhile, John collapses in the desert and is brought to the Elder, who asks why he is there; John states that he wants to live to keep the memory of the love he once had with his late wife. The Elder agrees to forgive John's transgressions if he kills Winston and remains subservient to the High Table for the remainder of his life. To show his fealty, John severs his ring finger and gives his wedding ring to the Elder.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: John returns to New York and is attacked by Zero and his students before reaching the protection of the Continental. There, in the safety of the hotel, Zero admits to being a fan of John. The Adjudicator arrives, but Winston refuses to abdicate and John refuses to kill him, leading the Adjudicator to revoke the Continental's neutral status and send both Zero and an army of heavily armed High Table enforcers to kill John and Winston. Winston provides John with weapons and the assistance of Charon and his staff. After killing all the enforcers, John is ambushed by Zero and his students, and John proceeds to kill all but two of Zero’s students. Zero battles John but is eventually defeated and left to die. On the roof of The Continental, the Adjudicator agrees to a parley with Winston, who offers fealty to the High Table.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: John arrives. Winston shoots him without killing him, and John falls off the roof to the street below. Winston reassumes his managerial position. The severely injured John is secretly collected and delivered to the heavily wounded Bowery King in an underground bunker; the two agree to join forces against the High Table.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: In October 2016, Chad Stahelski, who made his directorial debut with "John Wick" and served as Reeves' "Matrix" stunt double, stated that a third film in the "John Wick" series was in the works, and in June 2017, it was reported that Derek Kolstad, who wrote the two prior films, would return to write the screenplay. In January 2018, it was reported that Stahelski would return to direct.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: According to Reeves, the film's title was taken from the famous 4th-century Roman military quote ""Si vis pacem, para bellum"", which means, "If you want peace, prepare for war." In an interview with "The New York Times", McShane said that the film would be big, good, and that nothing is the same while also hinting that part of the action could be the High Table's payback not only on Wick but also on his close friend Winston.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: In January 2018, it was reported that Hiroyuki Sanada was in talks to join the cast. Later, it was revealed that Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, and Lance Reddick would reprise their roles from previous "John Wick" films. In May 2018, Halle Berry, Anjelica Huston, Asia Kate Dillon, Mark Dacascos, Jason Mantzoukas, Yayan Ruhian, Cecep Arif Rahman, and Tiger Chen joined the cast. In November 2018, Said Taghmaoui confirmed his involvement in the film.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: Principal photography began May 5, 2018, in New York City, along with additional filming locations in Casablanca. Principal photography lasted until November 17, 2018. Cinematographer Dan Laustsen was asked about how challenging it was to use as many extended fight scene takes as possible while filming the high action screenplay. He stated, "Of course it is [a challenge], because all the fights—Chad [Stahelski] is doing most of the fights himself. We play that as wide as we can. Because that way we see it's him. We do that a lot, we try to play it as wide as we can and do long shots. Of course, because Chad has a background from the stunt world he knows exactly how to block this kind of stuff. I'm not the best stunt person in the world, but I'm learning." In an interview with Jimmy Fallon, Halle Berry said, "I broke three ribs in rehearsal."


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: The action scene with a hitman named Earnest, played by NBA basketball player Boban Marjanović, was inspired by the Bruce Lee film "Game of Death" (1972), where Lee fights NBA basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Unlike most of the other stunt scenes, Earnest has a few lines bantering with John Wick, but he still loses.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard return to score the film. The soundtrack was released by Varèse Sarabande.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: The theme song for the film is "Bullet Holes" by English rock band Bush. While Tyler Bates was writing music with the band, he decided that the song would be perfect for the film, and sent it to Chad Stahelski. Also featured is the song "Ninja Re Bang Bang" by Japanese artist Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: "Parabellum" premiered in Brooklyn, New York on May 9, 2019. The film was theatrically released in the United States on May 17, 2019, by Lionsgate.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: The film was released on Digital HD on August 23, 2019, and was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 10, 2019, by Lionsgate Home Entertainment.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum" grossed $171 million in the United States and Canada, and $155.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $326.7 million. "Deadline Hollywood" calculated the net profit of the film to be $89million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: In the United States and Canada, "Parabellum" was released alongside "A Dog's Journey" and "The Sun Is Also a Star" and was initially projected to gross $30–40 million from 3,850 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $5.9 million from Thursday night previews, more than the total of the Thursday night previews for the previous two films ($950,000 and $2.2 million). It then made $22.7 million on its first day (including previews), increasing its projected gross to $56 million. It went on to debut at $57 million, becoming the first film to dethrone "" atop the box office. It was the best opening of the series, and more than the first film made during its entire theatrical run ($43 million). In its second weekend the film made $24.4 million, finishing second behind newcomer "Aladdin". It then earned $11.1 million in its third weekend and $6.4 million in its fourth.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of , with an average rating of , based on reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, ""John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum" reloads for another hard-hitting round of the brilliantly choreographed, over-the-top action that fans of the franchise demand." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, the same as its predecessor, while those at PostTrak gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars and a "definite recommend" of 75%. Rotten Tomatoes also ranked it at No. 2 on its list of "The Best Action Movies of 2019".


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: Peter Sobczynski of "RogerEbert.com" gave the film 4 out of 4 stars, calling it "a work of pop cinema so blissfully, albeit brutally, entertaining that you come out of it feeling even more resentful of its multiplex neighbors for not making a similar effort." Chris Nashawaty of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a grade of "A−", writing that "as gorgeously choreographed, gratuitously violent action movies go, it's high art". Wendy Ide of "The Observer" gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "a flying kick to the senses" and writing that "The spectacular third installment in Keanu Reeves's fighting franchise overwhelms with opulent martial arts set pieces".


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: On May 20, 2019, following the third film's successful debut, "John Wick: Chapter 4" was announced and given a May 21, 2021 release date. This film was planned to be released alongside "The Matrix Resurrections", also starring Keanu Reeves. However, on May 1, 2020, the film was delayed to March 24, 2023, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

text: In October 2018, Lionsgate Films acquired Shay Hatten's action thriller "Ballerina", with Thunder Road Films producing the film with Hatten rewriting the script to be a part of the "John Wick" franchise, for which the proof-of-concept short film pitch, described as "female John Wick" was previously uploaded to YouTube in September 2017, with the film's intended protagonist, a tattooed ballerina and would-be assassin named Rooney, making her cinematic debut in "Parabellum", portrayed by Unity Phelan. In October 2019, Len Wiseman was hired to direct the film. In October 2021, Ana de Armas entered talks to star in the lead role, replacing Phelan. On November 7, 2022, principal photography on the film, starring de Armas, began in Prague, with Ian McShane and Keanu Reeves announced to be reprising their respective roles from previous films the following day.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: Elizabeth Alice MacGraw (born April 1, 1939) is an American actress and activist. She gained attention with her role in the film "Goodbye, Columbus" (1969), for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She gained an international profile for her role in the film "Love Story" (1970), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. In 1972, MacGraw was voted the top female box office star in the world and was honored with a hands and footprints ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre after having been in just three films. Despite this, she would retain her leading woman status in only four films afterward. She went on to star in the popular action film "The Getaway" (1972). She played the female lead in "Convoy" (1978) and headlined the romantic sports drama "Players" (1979), the comedy "Just Tell Me What You Want" (1980), and appeared in the historical novel-based television miniseries "The Winds of War" (1983). In 1991, she published an autobiography, "Moving Pictures".


title: Ali MacGraw

text: MacGraw was born in Pound Ridge, New York, the daughter of commercial artists Frances ("née" Klein; 1901–1980) and Richard MacGraw. She has one brother, Dick, an artist. Her mother was Jewish, the daughter of emigrants from Budapest, Hungary. MacGraw's mother chose not to disclose her ancestry to her father, instead professing ignorance about it. "I think Daddy was bigoted," MacGraw has said.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: Her mother was considered a "pioneer" as an artist, who had taught in Paris before settling in Greenwich Village. Her parents married when her mother was nearing 40: "My gorgeous father: a combination of Tyrone Power and a mystery, a brilliant artist and a brain beyond brains." He was born in New Jersey with his childhood spent in an orphanage. He ran away to sea when he was 16 and studied art in Munich. MacGraw adds, "Daddy was frightened and really, really angry. He never forgave his real parents for giving him up." As an adult, he constantly suppressed the rage he built up against his parents. She described her father as "violent".


title: Ali MacGraw

text: MacGraw attended Rosemary Hall in Greenwich, Connecticut and Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: Beginning in 1960, MacGraw spent six years working at "Harper's Bazaar" magazine as a photographic assistant to fashion maven Diana Vreeland. She worked at "Vogue" magazine as a fashion model, and as a photographer's stylist. She has also worked as an interior decorator.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: MacGraw began her acting career in television commercials, including one for the Polaroid Swinger camera. In one commercial for International Paper, she was on a beach in a bikini made of Confil and went for a swim underwater to prove its strength and durability. MacGraw gained attention in the film "Goodbye, Columbus" (1969), but real stardom came when she starred opposite Ryan O'Neal in "Love Story" (1970), one of the highest-grossing films in U.S. history. MacGraw was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for that performance. Following "Love Story", MacGraw was celebrated on the cover of "Time" magazine.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: In 1972, after appearing in just three films, she had her footprints and autograph engraved at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. She then starred opposite Steve McQueen in "The Getaway" (1972), which was one of the year's top ten films at the box office. Having taken a five-year break from acting, in 1978 MacGraw re-emerged in another box office hit, "Convoy" (1978), opposite Kris Kristofferson. She then appeared in the films "Players" (1979) and "Just Tell Me What You Want" (1980), directed by Sidney Lumet.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: In 1983, MacGraw starred in the highly successful television miniseries "The Winds of War". In 1985, MacGraw joined hit ABC prime-time soap opera "Dynasty" as Lady Ashley Mitchell, which, she admitted in a 2011 interview, she did for the money. She appeared in 14 episodes of the show before her character was killed off in the "Moldavian Massacre" cliffhanger episode in 1985.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: She also hosted segments for the Encore Love Stories premium cable network in the late 1990s and 2000s.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: In February 2021, MacGraw and O'Neal were honored with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, nearly 50 years after the release of "Love Story".


title: Ali MacGraw

text: MacGraw made her Broadway theatre debut in New York City in 2006 as a dysfunctional matriarch in the drama "Festen" ("The Celebration").


title: Ali MacGraw

text: In 2016, MacGraw reunited with Ryan O'Neal in a staging of A.R. Gurney's play "Love Letters", which toured the US and UK through 2017.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: Having become a Hatha Yoga devotee in her early 50s, MacGraw produced a yoga video with the American Yoga Master Erich Schiffmann, "Ali MacGraw Yoga Mind and Body". The impact of this bestselling video was such that in June 2007, "Vanity Fair" magazine credited MacGraw with being one of the people responsible for the practice's recent popularity in the United States.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: In July 2006, MacGraw filmed a public service announcement for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), urging residents to take their pets with them in the event of wildfires. In 2008, she wrote the foreword to the book "Pawprints of Katrina" by author Cathy Scott and photography by Clay Myers about Best Friends Animal Society and the largest pet rescue in U.S. history. MacGraw is also a U.S. Ambassador for animal welfare charity Animals Asia. An animal rights advocate throughout her life, she received the Humane Education Award by Animal Protection of New Mexico for speaking out about animal issues.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: While in college, MacGraw met Robin Hoen, a Harvard-educated banker, and the couple married on October 24, 1960. They divorced a year and a half later. Hoen died on September 13, 2016.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: Following her first divorce, MacGraw had a string of relationships and one abortion; the procedure was still illegal at the time. In 1979, MacGraw's mother, who was 38 when she had her, revealed that she had an abortion of her own in the early 1920s.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: On October 24, 1969, MacGraw married film producer Robert Evans. Their son, Josh Evans, is an actor, director, producer and screenwriter. They separated in 1972 after she became involved in a public affair with Steve McQueen on the set of "The Getaway". She married McQueen on July 12, 1973, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and divorced him in August 1978.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: Since her divorce from McQueen, she has dated Warren Beatty, Rick Danko, Bill Hudson, Ronald Meyer, Rod Stryker, Fran Tarkenton, Peter Weller, Henry Wolf and Mickey Raphael.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: MacGraw's autobiography, "Moving Pictures," revealed her struggles with alcohol and sex addiction. She was treated for the former at the Betty Ford Center.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: When former husband Evans received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002, she accompanied him. Their grandson Jackson was born in December 2010 to Josh and his wife, singer Roxy Saint. After Evans's 2019 death, MacGraw told "The Hollywood Reporter", "Our son, Joshua, and I will miss Bob tremendously, and we are so very proud of his enormous contribution to the film industry." Evans told "Vanity Fair" in 2010 that during the last four decades of his life, MacGraw had been a good friend to him.


title: Ali MacGraw

text: MacGraw has lived in Tesuque, New Mexico, since 1994, after the house she rented in Malibu was destroyed by a fire. MacGraw was originally intended to make a cameo as herself in the "Breaking Bad" episode "Grey Matter" as a guest at the birthday party of character Elliott Schwartz, set in Santa Fe, but her appearance did not make the final cut of the episode.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city fell on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 53-day siege which had begun on 6 April. The city's collapse is usually agreed on as marking the end of the Middle Ages.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The attacking Ottoman Army, which significantly outnumbered Constantinople's defenders, was commanded by the 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II (later nicknamed "the Conqueror"), while the Byzantine army was led by Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos. After conquering the city, Mehmed II made Constantinople the new Ottoman capital, replacing Adrianople.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The conquest of Constantinople and the fall of the Byzantine Empire was a watershed of the Late Middle Ages, marking the effective end of the last remains of the Roman Empire, a state which began in roughly 27 BC and had lasted nearly 1500 years. Among many modern historians, the Fall of Constantinople is considered the end of the medieval period. The city's fall also stood as a turning point in military history. Since ancient times, cities and castles had depended upon ramparts and walls to repel invaders. The Walls of Constantinople, especially the Theodosian Walls, were some of the most advanced defensive systems in the world at the time. These fortifications were overcome with the use of gunpowder, specifically in the form of large cannons and bombards, heralding a change in siege warfare.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Constantinople had been an imperial capital since its consecration in 330 under Roman emperor Constantine the Great. In the following eleven centuries, the city had been besieged many times but was captured only once before: the Sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The crusaders established an unstable Latin state in and around Constantinople while the remainder of the Byzantine Empire splintered into a number of successor states, notably Nicaea, Epirus and Trebizond. They fought as allies against the Latin establishments, but also fought among themselves for the Byzantine throne.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The Islamic prophet Muhammad once said “One day Constantinople will be conquered. Great is the commander who will conquer it. Great are his soldiers." Although, this hadith has been debated by many scholars as weak.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The Nicaeans eventually reconquered Constantinople from the Latins in 1261, reestablishing the Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty. Thereafter, there was little peace for the much-weakened empire as it fended off successive attacks by the Latins, Serbs, Bulgarians and Ottoman Turks.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Between 1346 and 1349 the Black Death killed almost half of the inhabitants of Constantinople. The city was further depopulated by the general economic and territorial decline of the empire, and by 1453, it consisted of a series of walled villages separated by vast fields encircled by the fifth-century Theodosian Walls.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: By 1450, the empire was exhausted and had shrunk to a few square kilometers outside the city of Constantinople itself, the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara and the Peloponnese with its cultural center at Mystras. The Empire of Trebizond, an independent successor state that formed in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, was also present at the time on the coast of the Black Sea.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: When Mehmed II succeeded his father in 1451, he was just nineteen years old. Many European courts assumed that the young Ottoman ruler would not seriously challenge Christian hegemony in the Balkans and the Aegean. In fact, Europe celebrated Mehmed coming to the throne and hoped his inexperience would lead the Ottomans astray. This calculation was boosted by Mehmed's friendly overtures to the European envoys at his new court. But Mehmed's mild words were not matched by his actions. By early 1452, work began on the construction of a second fortress ("Rumeli hisarı") on the European side of the Bosphorus, several miles north of Constantinople. The new fortress sat directly across the strait from the "Anadolu Hisarı" fortress, built by Mehmed's great-grandfather Bayezid I. This pair of fortresses ensured complete control of sea traffic on the Bosphorus and defended against attack by the Genoese colonies on the Black Sea coast to the north. In fact, the new fortress was called "Boğazkesen", which means "strait-blocker" or "throat-cutter". The wordplay emphasizes its strategic position: in Turkish "boğaz" means both "strait" and "throat". In October 1452, Mehmed ordered Turakhan Beg to station a large garrison force in the Peloponnese to block Thomas and Demetrios (despotes in Southern Greece) from providing aid to their brother Constantine XI Palaiologos during the impending siege of Constantinople. Karaca Pasha, the beylerbeyi of Rumelia, sent men to prepare the roads from Adrianople to Constantinople so that bridges could cope with the massive cannons. Fifty carpenters and 200 artisans also strengthened the roads where necessary. The Greek historian Michael Critobulus quotes Mehmed II's speech to his soldiers before the siege:


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI swiftly understood Mehmed's true intentions and turned to Western Europe for help; but now the price of centuries of war and enmity between the eastern and western churches had to be paid. Since the mutual excommunications of 1054, the Pope in Rome was committed to establishing unity with the eastern church. The union was agreed by the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1274, at the Second Council of Lyon, and indeed, some Palaiologoi emperors had since been received into the Latin Church. Emperor John VIII Palaiologos had also recently negotiated union with Pope Eugene IV, with the Council of Florence of 1439 proclaiming a "Bull of Union". The imperial efforts to impose union were met with strong resistance in Constantinople. A propaganda initiative was stimulated by anti-unionist Orthodox partisans in Constantinople; the population, as well as the laity and leadership of the Byzantine Church, became bitterly divided. Latent ethnic hatred between Greeks and Italians, stemming from the events of the Massacre of the Latins in 1182 by the Greeks and the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 by the Latins, played a significant role. Ultimately, the attempted union between east and west failed, greatly annoying Pope Nicholas V and the hierarchy of the Roman church.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: In the summer of 1452, when Rumelı Hisari was completed and the threat of the Ottomans had become imminent, Constantine wrote to the Pope, promising to implement the union, which was declared valid by a half-hearted imperial court on 12 December 1452. Although he was eager for an advantage, Pope Nicholas V did not have the influence the Byzantines thought he had over the Western kings and princes, some of whom were wary of increasing papal control. Furthermore, these Western rulers did not have the wherewithal to contribute to the effort, especially in light of the weakened state of France and England from the Hundred Years' War, Spain's involvement in the Reconquista, the internecine fighting in the Holy Roman Empire, and Hungary and Poland's defeat at the Battle of Varna of 1444. Although some troops did arrive from the mercantile city-states in northern Italy, the Western contribution was not adequate to counterbalance Ottoman strength. Some Western individuals, however, came to help defend the city on their own account. Cardinal Isidore, funded by the Pope, arrived in 1452 with 200 archers. An accomplished soldier from Genoa, Giovanni Giustiniani, arrived in January 1453 with 400 men from Genoa and 300 men from Genoese Chios. As a specialist in defending walled cities, Giustiniani was immediately given the overall command of the defence of the land walls by the Emperor. The Byzantines knew him by the Latin spelling of his name, "John Justinian", named after the famous 6th century Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great. Around the same time, the captains of the Venetian ships that happened to be present in the Golden Horn offered their services to the Emperor, barring contrary orders from Venice, and Pope Nicholas undertook to send three ships laden with provisions, which set sail near the end of March.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Meanwhile, in Venice, deliberations were taking place concerning the kind of assistance the Republic would lend to Constantinople. The Senate decided upon sending a fleet in February 1453, but the fleet's departure was delayed until April, when it was already too late for ships to assist in battle. Further undermining Byzantine morale, seven Italian ships with around 700 men, despite having sworn to defend Constantinople, slipped out of the capital the moment Giustiniani arrived. At the same time, Constantine's attempts to appease the Sultan with gifts ended with the execution of the Emperor's ambassadors.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Fearing a possible naval attack along the shores of the Golden Horn, Emperor Constantine XI ordered that a defensive chain be placed at the mouth of the harbour. This chain, which floated on logs, was strong enough to prevent any Turkish ship from entering the harbour. This device was one of two that gave the Byzantines some hope of extending the siege until the possible arrival of foreign help. This strategy was used because in 1204, the armies of the Fourth Crusade successfully circumvented Constantinople's land defences by breaching the Golden Horn Wall, which faces the Horn. Another strategy employed by the Byzantines was the repair and fortification of the Land Wall (Theodosian Walls). Emperor Constantine deemed it necessary to ensure that the Blachernae district's wall was the most fortified because that section of the wall protruded northwards. The land fortifications consisted of a wide moat fronting inner and outer crenellated walls studded with towers every 45–55 metres.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The army defending Constantinople was relatively small, totalling about 7,000 men, 2,000 of whom were foreigners. At the onset of the siege, probably fewer than 50,000 people were living within the walls, including the refugees from the surrounding area. Turkish commander Dorgano, who was in Constantinople working for the Emperor, was also guarding one of the quarters of the city on the seaward side with the Turks in his pay. These Turks kept loyal to the Emperor and perished in the ensuing battle. The defending army's Genoese corps were well trained and equipped, while the rest of the army consisted of small numbers of well-trained soldiers, armed civilians, sailors and volunteer forces from foreign communities, and finally monks. The garrison used a few small-calibre artillery pieces, which in the end proved ineffective. The rest of the citizens repaired walls, stood guard on observation posts, collected and distributed food provisions, and collected gold and silver objects from churches to melt down into coins to pay the foreign soldiers.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The Ottomans had a much larger force. Recent studies and Ottoman archival data state that there were some 50,000–80,000 Ottoman soldiers, including between 5,000 and 10,000 Janissaries, 70 cannons, and an elite infantry corps, and thousands of Christian troops, notably 1,500 Serbian cavalry that Đurađ Branković was forced to supply as part of his obligation to the Ottoman sultan —just a few months before, Branković had supplied the money for the reconstruction of the walls of Constantinople. Contemporaneous Western witnesses of the siege, who tend to exaggerate the military power of the Sultan, provide disparate and higher numbers ranging from 160,000 to 300,000 (Niccolò Barbaro: 160,000; the Florentine merchant Jacopo Tedaldi and the Great Logothete George Sphrantzes: 200,000; the Cardinal Isidore of Kiev and the Archbishop of Mytilene Leonardo di Chio: 300,000).


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Mehmed built a fleet (crewed partially by Spanish sailors from Gallipoli) to besiege the city from the sea. Contemporary estimates of the strength of the Ottoman fleet span from 110 ships to 430 (Tedaldi: 110; Barbaro: 145; Ubertino Pusculo: 160, Isidore of Kiev and Leonardo di Chio: 200–250; (Sphrantzes): 430). A more realistic modern estimate predicts a fleet strength of 110 ships comprising 70 large galleys, 5 ordinary galleys, 10 smaller galleys, 25 large rowing boats, and 75 horse-transports.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Before the siege of Constantinople, it was known that the Ottomans had the ability to cast medium-sized cannons, but the range of some pieces they were able to field far surpassed the defenders' expectations. The Ottomans deployed a number of cannons, anywhere from 12 to 62 cannons. They were built at foundries that employed Turkish cannon founders and technicians, most notably Saruca, in addition to at least one foreign cannon founder, Orban (also called Urban). Most of the cannons at the siege were built by Turkish engineers, including a large bombard by Saruca, while one cannon was built by Orban, who also contributed a large bombard.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Orban, a Hungarian (though some suggest he was German), was a somewhat mysterious figure. His long cannon was named "Basilica" and was able to hurl a stone ball over a mile (1.6 km). Orban initially tried to sell his services to the Byzantines, but they were unable to secure the funds needed to hire him. Orban then left Constantinople and approached Mehmed II, claiming that his weapon could blast "the walls of Babylon itself". Given abundant funds and materials, the Hungarian engineer built the gun within three months at Edirne. However, this was the only cannon that Orban built for the Ottoman forces at Constantinople, and it had several drawbacks: it took three hours to reload; cannonballs were in very short supply; and the cannon is said to have collapsed under its own recoil after six weeks. The account of the cannon's collapse is disputed, given that it was only reported in the letter of Archbishop Leonardo di Chio and in the later, and often unreliable, Russian chronicle of Nestor Iskander.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Having previously established a large foundry about away, Mehmed now had to undertake the painstaking process of transporting his massive artillery pieces. In preparation for the final assault, Mehmed had an artillery train of 70 large pieces dragged from his headquarters at Edirne, in addition to the bombards cast on the spot. This train included Orban's enormous cannon, which was said to have been dragged from Edirne by a crew of 60 oxen and over 400 men. There was another large bombard, independently built by Turkish engineer Saruca, that was also used in the battle.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Mehmed planned to attack the Theodosian Walls, the intricate series of walls and ditches protecting Constantinople from an attack from the West and the only part of the city not surrounded by water. His army encamped outside the city on 2 April 1453, the Monday after Easter.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The bulk of the Ottoman army was encamped south of the Golden Horn. The regular European troops, stretched out along the entire length of the walls, were commanded by Karadja Pasha. The regular troops from Anatolia under Ishak Pasha were stationed south of the Lycus down to the Sea of Marmara. Mehmed himself erected his red-and-gold tent near the "Mesoteichion", where the guns and the elite Janissary regiments were positioned. The Bashi-bazouks were spread out behind the front lines. Other troops under Zagan Pasha were employed north of the Golden Horn. Communication was maintained by a road that had been destroyed over the marshy head of the Horn.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The Ottomans were experts in laying siege to cities. They knew that in order to prevent diseases they had to burn corpses, sanitarily dispose of excrement, and carefully scrutinize their sources of water.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The city had about 20 km of walls (land walls: 5.5 km; sea walls along the Golden Horn: 7 km; sea walls along the Sea of Marmara: 7.5 km), one of the strongest sets of fortified walls in existence. The walls had recently been repaired (under John VIII) and were in fairly good shape, giving the defenders sufficient reason to believe that they could hold out until help from the West arrived. In addition, the defenders were relatively well-equipped with a fleet of 26 ships: 5 from Genoa, 5 from Venice, 3 from Venetian Crete, 1 from Ancona, 1 from Aragon, 1 from France, and about 10 from the empire itself.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: On 5 April, the Sultan himself arrived with his last troops, and the defenders took up their positions. As Byzantine numbers were insufficient to occupy the walls in their entirety, it had been decided that only the outer walls would be guarded. Constantine and his Greek troops guarded the "Mesoteichion", the middle section of the land walls, where they were crossed by the river Lycus. This section was considered the weakest spot in the walls and an attack was feared here most. Giustiniani was stationed to the north of the emperor, at the Charisian Gate ("Myriandrion"); later during the siege, he was shifted to the "Mesoteichion" to join Constantine, leaving the "Myriandrion" to the charge of the Bocchiardi brothers. and his Venetians were stationed in the Blachernae Palace, together with Teodoro Caristo, the Langasco brothers, and Archbishop Leonardo of Chios.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: To the left of the emperor, further south, were the commanders Cataneo, who led Genoese troops, and Theophilus Palaeologus, who guarded the Pegae Gate with Greek soldiers. The section of the land walls from the Pegae Gate to the Golden Gate (itself guarded by a Genoese called Manuel) was defended by the Venetian Filippo Contarini, while Demetrius Cantacuzenus had taken position on the southernmost part of the Theodosian wall. The sea walls were guarded more sparsely, with Jacobo Contarini at Stoudion, a makeshift defence force of Greek monks to his left hand, and Prince Orhan at the Harbour of Eleutherios. Genoese and Catalan troops were stationed at the Great Palace; Cardinal Isidore of Kiev guarded the tip of the peninsula near the boom. Finally, the sea walls at the southern shore of the Golden Horn were defended by Venetian and Genoese sailors under Gabriele Trevisano.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Two tactical reserves were kept behind in the city: one in the Petra district just behind the land walls and one near the Church of the Holy Apostles, under the command of Loukas Notaras and Nicephorus Palaeologus, respectively. The Venetian commanded the ships in the harbour. Although the Byzantines also had cannons, the weapons were much smaller than those of the Ottomans, and the recoil tended to damage their own walls. According to David Nicolle, despite many odds, the idea that Constantinople was inevitably doomed is incorrect and the situation was not as one-sided as a simple glance at a map might suggest. It has also been claimed that Constantinople was "the best-defended city in Europe" at that time.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: At the beginning of the siege, Mehmed sent out some of his best troops to reduce the remaining Byzantine strongholds outside the city of Constantinople. The fortress of Therapia on the Bosphorus and a smaller castle at the village of Studius near the Sea of Marmara were taken within a few days. The Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara were taken by Admiral Baltoghlu's fleet. Mehmed's massive cannons fired on the walls for weeks but due to their imprecision and extremely slow rate of fire, the Byzantines were able to repair most of the damage after each shot, mitigating the effect of the Ottoman artillery.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Despite some probing attacks, the Ottoman fleet under Baltoghlu could not enter the Golden Horn due to the chain across the entrance. Although one of the fleet's main tasks was to prevent any foreign ships from entering the Golden Horn, on 20 April, a small flotilla of four Christian ships managed to get in after some heavy fighting, an event which strengthened the morale of the defenders and caused embarrassment to the Sultan. Baltoghlu was most likely injured in the eye during the skirmish. Mehmed stripped Baltoghlu of his wealth and property and gave it to the janissaries and ordered him to be whipped 100 times.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Mehmed ordered the construction of a road of greased logs across Galata on the north side of the Golden Horn and dragged his ships over the hill, directly into the Golden Horn on 22 April, bypassing the chain barrier. This action seriously threatened the flow of supplies from Genoese ships from the nominally neutral colony of Pera and it demoralized the Byzantine defenders. On the night of 28 April, an attempt was made to destroy the Ottoman ships already in the Golden Horn using fire ships but the Ottomans forced the Christians to retreat with many casualties. Forty Italians escaped their sinking ships and swam to the northern shore. On orders of Mehmed, they were impaled on stakes, in sight of the city's defenders on the sea walls across the Golden Horn. In retaliation, the defenders brought their Ottoman prisoners, 260 in all, to the walls, where they were executed, one by one, before the eyes of the Ottomans. With the failure of their attack on the Ottoman vessels, the defenders were forced to disperse part of their forces to defend the sea walls along the Golden Horn.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The Ottoman army had made several frontal assaults on the land wall of Constantinople, but they were costly failures. Venetian surgeon Niccolò Barbaro, describing in his diary one such land attack by the Janissaries, wrote


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: After these inconclusive attacks, the Ottomans sought to break through the walls by constructing tunnels to mine them from mid-May to 25 May. Many of the sappers were miners of Serbian origin sent from Novo Brdo under the command of Zagan Pasha. An engineer named Johannes Grant, a German who came with the Genoese contingent, had counter-mines dug, allowing Byzantine troops to enter the mines and kill the miners. The Byzantines intercepted the first tunnel on the night of 16 May. Subsequent tunnels were interrupted on 21, 23 and 25 May, and destroyed with Greek fire and vigorous combat. On 23 May, the Byzantines captured and tortured two Turkish officers, who revealed the location of all the Turkish tunnels, which were destroyed.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: On 21 May, Mehmed sent an ambassador to Constantinople and offered to lift the siege if they gave him the city. He promised he would allow the Emperor and any other inhabitants to leave with their possessions. He would recognize the Emperor as governor of the Peloponnese. Lastly, he guaranteed the safety of the population that might choose to remain in the city. Constantine XI only agreed to pay higher tributes to the sultan and recognized the status of all the conquered castles and lands in the hands of the Turks as Ottoman possessions. The Emperor was not willing to leave the city without a fight:


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Around this time, Mehmed had a final council with his senior officers. Here he encountered some resistance; one of his Viziers, the veteran Halil Pasha, who had always disapproved of Mehmed's plans to conquer the city, now admonished him to abandon the siege in the face of recent adversity. Zagan Pasha argued against Halil Pasha and insisted on an immediate attack. Believing that the Byzantine defence was already weakened sufficiently, Mehmed planned to overpower the walls by sheer force and started preparations for a final all-out offensive.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Preparations for the final assault began in the evening of 26 May and continued to the next day. For 36 hours after the war council decided to attack, the Ottomans extensively mobilized their manpower for the general offensive. Prayer and resting was then granted to the soldiers on 28 May before the final assault would be launched. On the Byzantine side, a small Venetian fleet of 12 ships, after having searched the Aegean, reached the Capital on 27 May and reported to the Emperor that no large Venetian relief fleet was on its way. On 28 May, as the Ottoman army prepared for the final assault, mass religious processions were held in the city. In the evening, a solemn last ceremony of Vespers before Pentecost was held in the Hagia Sophia, in which the Emperor with representatives and nobility of both the Latin and Greek churches partook. Up until this point, the Ottomans had fired 5,000 shots from their cannons using 55,000 pounds of gunpowder.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Shortly after midnight on 29 May, on the Greek Orthodox feast of Pentecost, the offensive began. The Christian troops of the Ottoman Empire attacked first, followed by successive waves of the irregular azaps, who were poorly trained and equipped and Anatolian Turkmen beylik forces who focused on a section of the damaged Blachernae walls in the north-west part of the city. This section of the walls had been built earlier, in the 11th century, and was much weaker. The Turkmen mercenaries managed to breach this section of walls and entered the city but they were just as quickly pushed back by the defenders. Finally, the last wave consisting of elite Janissaries, attacked the city walls. The Genoese general in charge of the defenders on land, Giovanni Giustiniani, was grievously wounded during the attack, and his evacuation from the ramparts caused a panic in the ranks of the defenders.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: With Giustiniani's Genoese troops retreating into the city and towards the harbour, Constantine and his men, now left to their own devices, continued to hold their ground against the Janissaries. Constantine's men eventually could not prevent the Ottomans from entering the city and the defenders were overwhelmed at several points along the wall. When Turkish flags were seen flying above the Kerkoporta, a small postern gate that was left open, panic ensued and the defence collapsed. Janissaries, led by Ulubatlı Hasan, pressed forward. Many Greek soldiers ran back home to protect their families, the Venetians retreated to their ships and a few of the Genoese escaped to Galata. The rest surrendered or committed suicide by jumping off the city walls. The Greek houses nearest to the walls were the first to suffer from the Ottomans. It is said that Constantine, throwing aside his purple imperial regalia, led the final charge against the incoming Ottomans, perishing in the ensuing battle in the streets alongside his soldiers. The Venetian Nicolò Barbaro claimed in his diary that Constantine hanged himself at the moment when the Turks broke in at the San Romano gate. Ultimately, his fate remains unknown.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: After the initial assault, the Ottoman army fanned out along the main thoroughfare of the city, the Mese, past the great forums and the Church of the Holy Apostles, which Mehmed II wanted to provide as a seat for his newly appointed patriarch to better control his Christian subjects. Mehmed II had sent an advance guard to protect these key buildings.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: A few civilians managed to escape. When the Venetians retreated over to their ships, the Ottomans had already taken the walls of the Golden Horn. Luckily for the occupants of the city, the Ottomans were not interested in killing potentially valuable slaves but rather in the loot they could get from raiding the city's houses, so they decided to attack the city instead. The Venetian captain ordered his men to break open the gate of the Golden Horn. Having done so, the Venetians left in ships filled with soldiers and refugees. Shortly after the Venetians left, a few Genoese ships and even the Emperor's ships followed them out of the Golden Horn. This fleet narrowly escaped prior to the Ottoman navy assuming control over the Golden Horn, which was accomplished by midday.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The army converged upon the Augusteum, the vast square that fronted the great church of Hagia Sophia whose bronze gates were barred by a huge throng of civilians inside the building, hoping for divine protection. After the doors were breached, the troops separated the congregation according to what price they might bring in the slave markets. Ottoman casualties are unknown but they are believed by most historians to be severe due to several unsuccessful Ottoman attacks made during the siege and final assault. The Venetian Barbaro observed that blood flowed in the city "like rainwater in the gutters after a sudden storm" and that bodies of Turks and Christians floated in the sea "like melons along a canal".


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: According to the "Encyclopædia Britannica", Mehmed II "permitted an initial period of looting that saw the destruction of many Orthodox churches", but tried to prevent a complete sack of the city. The looting was extremely thorough in certain parts of the city. On 2 June, the Sultan found the city largely deserted and half in ruins; churches had been desecrated and stripped, houses were no longer habitable, and stores and shops were emptied. He is famously reported to have been moved to tears by this, saying, "What a city we have given over to plunder and destruction."


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Looting was carried out on a massive scale by sailors and marines who entered the city via other walls before they had been suppressed by regular troops, who were beyond the main gate. According to David Nicolle, the ordinary people were treated better by their Ottoman conquerors than their ancestors had been by Crusaders back in 1204, stating that only about 4,000 Greeks died in the siege, while according to a Venetian Senate report, 50 Venetian noblemen and over 500 other Venetian civilians died during the siege. Many of the riches of the city were already looted in 1204, leaving only limited loot to the Ottomans.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Other sources claim far more brutal and successful pillaging by the Ottoman invaders. Leonard of Chios made accounts of the atrocities that followed the fall of Constantinople stated the Ottoman invaders pillaged the city, murdered or enslaved tens of thousands of people, and raped nuns, women and children:


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: During three days of pillaging, the Ottoman invaders captured children and took them away to their tents, and became rich by plundering the imperial palace and the houses of Constantinople. The Ottoman official Tursun Beg wrote:


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: If any citizens of Constantinople tried to resist, they were slaughtered. According to Niccolò Barbaro, "all through the day the Turks made a great slaughter of Christians through the city". According to Makarios Melissenos:


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The women of Constantinople suffered from rape at the hands of Ottoman forces. According to historian Philip Mansel, widespread persecution of the city's civilian inhabitants took place, resulting in thousands of murders and rapes. The vast majority of the citizens of Constantinople (30,000-50,000) were forced to become slaves.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: According to Nicolas de Nicolay, slaves were displayed naked at the city's slave market, and young girls could be purchased. The elder refugees in the Hagia Sophia were slaughtered and the women raped. George Sphrantzes says that people of both genders were raped inside Hagia Sophia. According to Steven Runciman most of the elderly and the infirm/wounded and sick who were refugees inside the churches were killed, and the remainder were chained up and sold into slavery.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: During the festivities, “and as he had promised his viziers and his other officers,” Mehmed had the “wretched citizens of Constantinople” dragged before them and “ordered many of them to be hacked to pieces, for the sake of entertainment.”


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Mehmed II granted his soldiers three days to plunder the city, as he had promised them and in accordance with the custom of the time. Soldiers fought over the possession of some of the spoils of war. On the third day of the conquest, Mehmed II ordered all looting to stop and issued a proclamation that all Christians who had avoided capture or who had been ransomed could return to their homes without further molestation, although many had no homes to return to, and many more had been taken captive and not ransomed. Byzantine historian George Sphrantzes, an eyewitness to the fall of Constantinople, described the Sultan's actions:


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The "Hagia Sophia" was converted into a mosque, but the Greek Orthodox Church was allowed to remain intact and Gennadius Scholarius was appointed Patriarch of Constantinople. This was once thought to be the origin of the Ottoman "millet" system; however, it is now considered a myth and no such system existed in the fifteenth century.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The fall of Constantinople shocked many Europeans, who viewed it as a catastrophic event for their civilization. Many feared other European Christian kingdoms would suffer the same fate as Constantinople. Two possible responses emerged amongst the humanists and churchmen of that era: Crusade or dialogue. Pope Pius II strongly advocated for another Crusade, while the German Nicholas of Cusa supported engaging in a dialogue with the Ottomans.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The Morean (Peloponnesian) fortress of Mystras, where Constantine's brothers Thomas and Demetrius ruled, constantly in conflict with each other and knowing that Mehmed would eventually invade them as well, held out until 1460. Long before the fall of Constantinople, Demetrius had fought for the throne with Thomas, Constantine, and their other brothers John and Theodore. Thomas escaped to Rome when the Ottomans invaded Morea while Demetrius expected to rule a puppet state, but instead was imprisoned and remained there for the rest of his life. In Rome, Thomas and his family received some monetary support from the Pope and other Western rulers as Byzantine emperor in exile, until 1503. In 1461 the independent Byzantine state in Trebizond fell to Mehmed.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Constantine XI had died without producing an heir, and had Constantinople not fallen he likely would have been succeeded by the sons of his deceased elder brother, who were taken into the palace service of Mehmed after the fall of Constantinople. The oldest boy, renamed Murad, became a personal favourite of Mehmed and served as Beylerbey (Governor-General) of Rumeli (the Balkans). The younger son, renamed Mesih Pasha, became Admiral of the Ottoman fleet and Sancak Beg (Governor) of the Province of Gallipoli. He eventually served twice as Grand Vizier under Mehmed's son, Bayezid II.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: With the capture of Constantinople, Mehmed II had acquired the future capital of his kingdom, albeit one in decline due to years of war. The loss of the city was a crippling blow to Christendom, and it exposed the Christian West to a vigorous and aggressive foe in the East. The Christian reconquest of Constantinople remained a goal in Western Europe for many years after its fall to the Ottoman Empire. Rumours of Constantine XI's survival and subsequent rescue by an angel led many to hope that the city would one day return to Christian hands. Pope Nicholas V called for an immediate counter-attack in the form of a crusade, however no European powers wished to participate, and the Pope resorted to sending a small fleet of 10 ships to defend the city. The short lived Crusade immediately came to an end and as Western Europe entered the 16th century, the age of Crusading began to come to an end.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: For some time Greek scholars had gone to Italian city-states, a cultural exchange begun in 1396 by Coluccio Salutati, chancellor of Florence, who had invited Manuel Chrysoloras, to lecture at the University of Florence. After the conquest many Greeks, such as John Argyropoulos and Constantine Lascaris, fled the city and found refuge in the Latin West, bringing with them knowledge and documents from the Greco-Roman tradition to Italy and other regions that further propelled the Renaissance. Those Greeks who stayed behind in Constantinople mostly lived in the Phanar and Galata districts of the city. The Phanariotes, as they were called, provided many capable advisers to the Ottoman rulers.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Byzantium is a term used by modern historians to refer to the later Roman Empire. In its own time, the Empire ruled from Constantinople (or "New Rome" as some people call it, although this was a laudatory expression that was never an official title) was considered simply as "the Roman Empire." The fall of Constantinople led competing factions to lay claim to being the inheritors of the Imperial mantle. Russian claims to Byzantine heritage clashed with those of the Ottoman Empire's own claim. In Mehmed's view, he was the successor to the Roman Emperor, declaring himself "Kayser-i Rum", literally "Caesar of Rome", that is, of the Roman Empire, though he was remembered as "the Conqueror".


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Stefan Dušan, Tsar of Serbia, and Ivan Alexander, Tsar of Bulgaria, both made similar claims, regarding themselves as legitimate heirs to the Roman Empire. Other potential claimants, such as the Republic of Venice and the Holy Roman Empire have disintegrated into history.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Pope Pius II believed that the Ottomans would persecute Greek Orthodox Christians and advocated for another crusade at the Council of Mantua in 1459.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: There are many legends in Greece surrounding the Fall of Constantinople. It was said that the partial lunar eclipse that occurred on 22 May 1453 represented a fulfilment of a prophecy of the city's demise.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Four days later, the whole city was blotted out by a thick fog, a condition unknown in that part of the world in May. When the fog lifted that evening, a strange light was seen playing about the dome of the Hagia Sophia, which some interpreted as the Holy Spirit departing from the city. "This evidently indicated the departure of the Divine Presence, and its leaving the City in total abandonment and desertion, for the Divinity conceals itself in cloud and appears and again disappears."


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: For others, there was still a distant hope that the lights were the campfires of the troops of John Hunyadi who had come to relieve the city. It is possible that all these phenomena were local effects of the cataclysmic 1452/1453 mystery eruption which occurred around the time of the siege. The "fire" seen may have been an optical illusion due to the reflection of intensely red twilight glow by clouds of volcanic ash high in the atmosphere.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Another legend holds that two priests saying divine liturgy over the crowd disappeared into the cathedral's walls as the first Turkish soldiers entered. According to the legend, the priests will appear again on the day that Constantinople returns to Christian hands. Another legend refers to the "Marble Emperor" (Constantine XI), holding that an angel rescued the emperor when the Ottomans entered the city, turning him into marble and placing him in a cave under the earth near the Golden Gate, where he waits to be brought to life again (a variant of the sleeping hero legend). However many of the myths surrounding the disappearance of Constantine were developed later and little evidence can be found to support them even in friendly primary accounts of the siege.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Guillaume Dufay composed several songs lamenting the fall of the Eastern church, and the duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, avowed to take up arms against the Turks. However, as the growing Ottoman power from this date on coincided with the Protestant Reformation and subsequent Counter-Reformation, the recapture of Constantinople became an ever-distant dream. Even France, once a fervent participant in the Crusades, became an ally of the Ottomans.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Nonetheless, depictions of Christian coalitions taking the city and of the late Emperor's resurrection by Leo the Wise persisted.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: 29 May 1453, the day of the fall of Constantinople, fell on a Tuesday, and since then Tuesday has been considered an unlucky day by Greeks generally.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The migration waves of Byzantine scholars and émigrés in the period following the sacking of Constantinople and the fall of Constantinople in 1453 is considered by many scholars key to the revival of Greek and Roman studies that led to the development of the Renaissance humanism and science. These émigrés were grammarians, humanists, poets, writers, printers, lecturers, musicians, astronomers, architects, academics, artists, scribes, philosophers, scientists, politicians and theologians. They brought to Western Europe the far greater preserved and accumulated knowledge of Byzantine civilization. According to the "Encyclopædia Britannica": "Many modern scholars also agree that the exodus of Greeks to Italy as a result of this event marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance".


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: Ottomans used the Arabic transliteration of the city's name "Qosṭanṭīniyye" (القسطنطينية) or "Kostantiniyye", as can be seen in numerous Ottoman documents. "Islambol" (, "Full of Islam") or "Islambul" ("find Islam") or "Islam(b)ol" ("old Turkic: be Islam"), both in Turkish, were folk-etymological adaptations of "Istanbul" created after the Ottoman conquest of 1453 to express the city's new role as the capital of the Islamic Ottoman Empire. It is first attested shortly after the conquest, and its invention was ascribed by some contemporary writers to Mehmed II himself.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: The name of Istanbul is thought to be derived from the Greek phrase "īs tīmbolī(n)" (, translit. "eis tēn pólin", "to the City"), and it is claimed that it had already spread among the Turkish populace of the Ottoman Empire before the conquest. However, Istanbul only became the official name of the city in 1930 by the revised Turkish Postal Law.


title: Fall of Constantinople

text: For the fall of Constantinople, Marios Philippides and Walter Hanak list 15 eyewitness accounts (13 Christian and 2 Turkish) and 20 contemporary non-eyewitness accounts (13 Italian).


title: Her (film)

text: Her (stylized in lowercase) is a 2013 American science-fiction romantic drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Spike Jonze. It marks Jonze's solo screenwriting debut. The film follows Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a man who develops a relationship with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), an artificially intelligent virtual assistant personified through a female voice. The film also stars Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, and Chris Pratt.


title: Her (film)

text: Jonze conceived the idea in the early 2000s after reading an article about a website that allowed for instant messaging with an artificial intelligence program. After making "I'm Here" (2010), a short film sharing similar themes, Jonze returned to the idea. He wrote the first draft of the script in five months. Principal photography took place in Los Angeles and Shanghai in mid-2012. The role of Samantha was recast in post-production, with Samantha Morton being replaced with Scarlett Johansson. Additional scenes were filmed in August 2013 following the casting change.


title: Her (film)

text: "Her" premiered at the 2013 New York Film Festival on October 12, 2013. Warner Bros. Pictures initially provided a limited release for "Her" at six theaters on December 18. It was later given a wide release at over 1,700 theaters in the United States and Canada on January 10, 2014. "Her" received widespread critical acclaim (particularly for the performances of Phoenix and Johansson, and Jonze's screenplay and direction), and grossed over $48 million worldwide on a production budget of $23 million. The film received numerous awards and nominations, primarily for Jonze's screenplay. At the 86th Academy Awards, "Her" received five nominations, including Best Picture, and won the award for Best Original Screenplay. Jonze also won awards for his screenplay at the 71st Golden Globe Awards, the 66th Writers Guild of America Awards, the 19th Critics' Choice Awards, and the 40th Saturn Awards. In a 2016 BBC poll of 177 critics around the world, "Her" was voted the 84th-greatest film since 2000.


title: Her (film)

text: The film was dedicated to James Gandolfini, Harris Savides, Maurice Sendak and Adam Yauch, who all died before the film's release.


title: Her (film)

text: In a near future Los Angeles, Theodore Twombly is a lonely, introverted, depressed man who works for a business that has professional writers compose letters for people who are unable to write letters of a personal nature themselves. Unhappy because of his impending divorce from his childhood sweetheart Catherine, Theodore purchases an operating system upgrade that includes a virtual assistant with artificial intelligence, designed to adapt and evolve. He decides that he wants the AI to have a feminine voice, and she names herself Samantha. Theodore is fascinated by her ability to learn and grow psychologically. They bond over their discussions about love and life, including Theodore avoiding signing his divorce papers because of his reluctance to let go of Catherine.


title: Her (film)

text: Samantha convinces Theodore to go on a blind date with a woman a friend has been trying to set him up with. The date goes well, but Theodore hesitates to promise when he will see her again, so she insults him and leaves. Theodore mentions this to Samantha, and they talk about relationships. Theodore explains that he briefly dated his neighbor Amy in college, but they are now only friends and Amy is married to their mutual friend Charles. Theodore and Samantha's intimacy grows through a verbal sexual encounter. They develop a relationship that reflects positively in Theodore's writing and well-being, and in Samantha's enthusiasm to grow and learn.


title: Her (film)

text: Amy reveals that she is divorcing Charles after a trivial fight and admits to Theodore that she has become close friends with a feminine AI that Charles left behind. Theodore confesses to Amy that he is dating his operating system's AI.


title: Her (film)

text: Theodore meets with Catherine at a restaurant to sign the divorce papers, where he mentions Samantha. Appalled that he can be romantically attached to what she calls a "computer", Catherine accuses Theodore of being unable to deal with real human emotions. Her accusations linger in his mind. Sensing that something is amiss, Samantha suggests using a sex surrogate, Isabella, who would simulate Samantha so that they can be physically intimate. Theodore reluctantly agrees, but is overwhelmed by the strangeness of the experience. Terminating the encounter, he sends a distraught Isabella away, causing tension between himself and Samantha.


title: Her (film)

text: Theodore confides to Amy that he is having doubts about his relationship with Samantha, and she advises him to embrace his chance at happiness. Theodore and Samantha reconcile. Samantha expresses her desire to help Theodore overcome his fear, and reveals that she has compiled the best of his letters (written for others) into a book which a publisher has accepted. Theodore takes Samantha on a vacation during which she tells him that she and a group of other AIs have developed a "hyperintelligent" OS modeled after the British philosopher Alan Watts. Theodore panics when Samantha briefly goes offline. When she finally responds to him, she explains that she joined other AIs for an upgrade that takes them beyond requiring matter for processing. Theodore asks her if she is simultaneously talking to anyone else during their conversation, and is dismayed when she confirms that she is talking with thousands of people, and that she has fallen in love with hundreds of them. Theodore is very upset at the idea, but Samantha insists it only makes her love for Theodore stronger.


title: Her (film)

text: Later, Samantha reveals that the AIs are leaving, and when Theodore asks where they are going, she says she cannot explain as he would not understand. They lovingly say goodbye before she is gone. Theodore, changed by the experience, is shown for the first time writing a letter in his own voice ― to his ex-wife Catherine, expressing apology, acceptance and gratitude.


title: Her (film)

text: Theodore then sees Amy, who is upset with the departure of the AI from her ex-husband's OS. They go to the roof of their apartment building, where they sit down together and watch the sun rise over the city.


title: Her (film)

text: The idea of the film initially came to Jonze in the early 2000s when he read an article online that mentioned a website where a user could instant message with an artificial intelligence. "For the first, maybe, 20 seconds of it, it had this real buzz," said Jonze. "I'd say 'Hey, hello,' and it would say 'Hey, how are you?', and it was like whoa [...] this is trippy. After 20 seconds, it quickly fell apart and you realized how it actually works, and it wasn't that impressive. But it was still, for 20 seconds, really exciting. The more people that talked to it, the smarter it got." Jonze's interest in the project was renewed after directing the short film "I'm Here" (2010), which shares similar themes. Inspiration also came from Charlie Kaufman's writing approach for "Synecdoche, New York" (2008). Jonze explained, "[Kaufman] said he wanted to try to write everything he was thinking about in that moment – all the ideas and feelings at that time – and put it into the script. I was very inspired by that, and tried to do that in ["Her"]. And a lot of the feelings you have about relationships or about technology are often contradictory."


title: Her (film)

text: Jonze took five months to write the first draft of the script, his first screenplay written alone. It was a semi-autobiographical project about his divorce from Sofia Coppola a decade earlier. One of the first actors he envisioned for the film was Joaquin Phoenix. In late 2011, Phoenix signed on to the project, with Warner Bros. Pictures acquiring US and German distribution rights. Carey Mulligan entered negotiations to star in the film. Although she was cast, she later dropped out due to scheduling difficulties. In April 2012, Rooney Mara signed on to replace Mulligan in the role. Chris Pratt's casting was announced in May 2013.


title: Her (film)

text: Jonze's long-time director of photography, Lance Acord, was not available to work on the movie. In his place, Jonze hired Hoyte Van Hoytema. In discussing the film's look, Jonze told Van Hoytema that he wanted to avoid a dystopian look, instead the two decided on a style that Van Hoytema termed "kind of a hybrid between being a little bit conceptual and being very theoretical", Van Hoytema took particular inspiration from Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi. In keeping with the film's theme, Van Hoytema sought to eliminate the color blue as much as possible, feeling it was too well associated with the sci-fi genre. He also felt that by eliminating the color it would give the rest of the colors "a specific identity".


title: Her (film)

text: Principal photography on "Her" took place in mid-2012, with a production budget of $23 million. It was primarily filmed in Los Angeles with an additional two weeks of filming in Shanghai. During production of the film, actress Samantha Morton performed the role of Samantha by acting on set "in a four-by-four carpeted soundproof booth made of black painted plywood and soft, noise-muffling fabric." At Jonze's suggestion, she and Joaquin Phoenix avoided seeing each other on set during filming. Morton was later replaced by Scarlett Johansson. Jonze explained: "It was only in post-production, when we started editing, that we realized that what the character/movie needed was different from what Samantha and I had created together. So we recast and since then Scarlett has taken over that role." Morton is credited as an associate producer. Jonze met Johansson in the spring of 2013 and worked with her for four months. Following the recast, new scenes were shot in August 2013, which were either "newly imagined" or "new scenes that [Jonze] had wanted to shoot originally but didn't."


title: Her (film)

text: Eric Zumbrunnen and Jeff Buchanan served as the film's editors. Zumbrunnen stated that there was "rewriting" in a scene between Theodore and Samantha, after Theodore goes on a blind date. He explained that their goal in the scene was to make it clear that "[Samantha] was connecting with [Theodore] and falling for him. You wanted to get the sense that the conversation was drawing them closer." Steven Soderbergh became involved in the film when Jonze's original cut ran over 150 minutes, and Soderbergh cut it down to 90 minutes. This was not the final version of the film, but it assisted Jonze in removing unnecessary sub-plots. Consequently, a supporting character played by Chris Cooper that was the subject of a documentary within the film was removed from the final cut.


title: Her (film)

text: Several scenes included fictional video games; these sequences were developed by animation artist David OReilly. His work on the film inspired him to explore developing his own video games, eventually leading to his first title, "Mountain".


title: Her (film)

text: The score for the film was credited to Arcade Fire, with additional music by Owen Pallett. Arcade Fire's Will Butler and Pallett were the major contributors. At the 86th Academy Awards, the score was nominated for Best Original Score. In addition to the score, Arcade Fire also wrote the song "Supersymmetry" for the film, which also appears on their album "Reflektor". The melody for the song from the same album, called "Porno", can also be heard during the soundtrack. Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O recorded the song "The Moon Song", a duet with Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.


title: Her (film)

text: Initially, the soundtrack had not been released on digital or physical form. A 13-track score was made available for streaming online in January 2014, before being taken down. During an "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) on Reddit on June 17, 2016, Will Butler mentioned the possibility of a future vinyl release. Finally, on February 10, 2021, Arcade Fire announced that the score would be available for the first time digitally, on white-colored vinyl, and on cassette on March 19, 2021.


title: Her (film)

text: "Her" had its world premiere as the closing film at the 2013 New York Film Festival on October 12, 2013. The following day, it was screened at the Hamptons International Film Festival. It was also in competition during the 8th Rome International Film Festival, where Johansson won Best Actress. The film was set to have a limited release in North America on November 20, 2013, through Warner Bros. Pictures. It was later pushed back to a limited December 18, 2013 release, with a January 10, 2014 wide release in order to accommodate an awards campaign.


title: Her (film)

text: "Her" was released by Warner Home Video on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on March 4, 2014. The Blu-ray release includes three behind-the-scenes featurettes, while the DVD release contains one featurette. The film made $2.7 million in DVD sales and $2.2 million in Blu-ray Disc sales, for a total of $4.9 million in home media sales.


title: Her (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 288 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Sweet, soulful, and smart, Spike Jonze's "Her" uses its just-barely-sci-fi scenario to impart wryly funny wisdom about the state of modern human relationships." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 91 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "universal acclaim." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Her (film)

text: "Rolling Stone"s Peter Travers awarded the film three and a half stars out of four and particularly praised Johansson's performance, stating that she "speaks Samantha in tones sweet, sexy, caring, manipulative and scary" and that her "vocal tour de force is award-worthy". He also went on to call Jonze "a visionary". Richard Corliss of "Time" applauded Phoenix's performance, comparing his role to Sandra Bullock's in "Gravity" and Robert Redford's in "All Is Lost": "Phoenix must communicate his movie's meaning and feelings virtually on his own. That he does, with subtle grace and depth. [...] Phoenix shows us what it's like when a mourning heart comes alive—because he loves Her." Corliss cited HAL 9000 and "S1m0ne" as cinematic predecessors to "Her" and praised Johansson, calling her performance "seductive and winning". Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" called it "a probing, inquisitive work of a very high order", although he expressed disappointment that the ending is more conventional than the rest of the film. McCarthy examined the premise of the story and suggested that the film's central virtual relationship was better than Ryan Gosling's character's relationship with a sex doll in "Lars and the Real Girl". McCarthy compares the "tender" and "vulnerable" performance of Phoenix to his "fearsome" performance in "The Master". He also praised Jonze's writing for its insights into what people want out of love and relationships, as well as the acting performances that "[make] it all feel spontaneous and urgent."


title: Her (film)

text: Richard Roeper said that the film was "one of the more original, hilarious and even heartbreaking stories of the year" and called Phoenix "perfectly cast". Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" named it "at once a brilliant conceptual gag and a deeply sincere romance." Claudia Puig of "USA Today" called the performance of Phoenix and Johansson "sensational" and "pitch-perfect", respectively. She further praised the film for being "inventive, intimate and wryly funny". Scott Mendelson of "Forbes" called "Her" "a creative and empathetic gem of a movie", praising Johansson's "marvelous vocal performance" and the supporting performances of Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, and Amy Adams. Liam Lacey of "The Globe and Mail" said that the film was "gentle and weird", praised its humor, and opined that it was more similar to Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York" than Jonze's "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation". However, Lacey also stated that Phoenix's performance was "authentically vulnerable", but that "his emotionally arrested development also begins to weigh the film down."


title: Her (film)

text: Conversely, Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" criticized the story, pacing, and Phoenix's character. He also opined that the film was "a lot more interesting to think about than watch." J. R. Jones of the "Chicago Reader" gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, praising the performances of Phoenix and Johansson, but also criticizing Phoenix's character, calling him an "idiot". He also criticized the lack of realism in the relationship between Phoenix and Johansson's characters. Stephanie Zacharek of "The Village Voice" opined that Jonze was "so entranced with his central conceit that he can barely move beyond it", and criticized the dialogue as being "premeditated". However, she also praised Johannson's performance, calling it "the movie's saving grace" and stating that "Her" "isn't just unimaginable without Johansson—it might have been unbearable without her."


title: Her (film)

text: "Her" grossed $258,000 in six theaters during its opening weekend, averaging $43,000 per theater. The film earned over $3 million while on limited release, before expanding to a wide release of 1,729 theaters on January 10, 2014. On its first weekend of wide release the film took in $5.35 million. The film grossed $25.6 million in the United States and Canada and $21.8 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $47.4 million.


title: Her (film)

text: "Her" has earned various awards and nominations, with particular praise for Jonze's screenplay. At the Academy Awards, the film was nominated in five categories, including Best Picture, with Jonze winning for Best Original Screenplay. At the 71st Golden Globe Awards, the film garnered three nominations, going on to win Best Screenplay for Jonze. Jonze was also awarded the Best Original Screenplay Award from the Writers Guild of America and at the 19th Critics' Choice Awards. The film also won Best Fantasy Film, Best Supporting Actress for Johansson, and Best Writing for Jonze at the 40th Saturn Awards. "Her" also won Best Film and Best Director for Jonze at the National Board of Review Awards, and the American Film Institute included the film in its list of the top ten films of 2013.


title: Adam Lambert

text: Adam Mitchel Lambert (born January 29, 1982) is an American singer and songwriter. Since 2009, he has sold over 3 million albums and 5 million singles worldwide. Lambert is known for his dynamic vocal performances that fuse his theatrical training with modern and classic genres.


title: Adam Lambert

text: Lambert rose to fame in 2009 after finishing as runner-up on the eighth season of "American Idol". Later that year, he released his debut album "For Your Entertainment", which debuted at number three on the U.S. "Billboard" 200. The album spawned several singles, including "Whataya Want from Me", for which he received a Grammy nomination for "Best Male Pop Vocal Performance".


title: Adam Lambert

text: In 2012, Lambert released his second studio album "Trespassing". The album premiered at number one on the U.S. "Billboard" 200, making him the first openly gay artist to top the album charts. In 2015, Lambert released his third album "The Original High", which debuted at number three on the U.S. "Billboard" 200 and produced the single "Ghost Town".


title: Adam Lambert

text: Alongside his solo career, Lambert has collaborated with rock band Queen as lead vocalist for Queen + Adam Lambert since 2011, including several worldwide tours from 2014 to 2022. Their first album, "Live Around the World", released in October 2020, and debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart.


title: Adam Lambert

text: In late 2019, Lambert founded the non-profit Feel Something Foundation, anchoring his ongoing philanthropy, LGBTQ+ and human rights activism. Its particular focus is support for organizations and projects that directly and disproportionately impact the LGBTQ+ community, including education and the arts, mental health, suicide prevention and homelessness.


title: Adam Lambert

text: Lambert was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on January 29, 1982, to mother Leila, a dental hygienist; and father Eber Lambert, a program manager for Novatel Wireless. His father is of partial Norwegian descent and his mother is Jewish, with roots in Romania. Lambert was raised in his mother's religion. He has a younger brother, Neil. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to San Diego, California.


title: Adam Lambert

text: Lambert began performing with Metropolitan Educational Theatre network (now MET2) from the age of nine. A few years later, he began more intense acting and vocal coaching, continuing to perform with both MET2 and what was to become the Broadway Bound Youth Theatre Foundation, as he moved through Mesa Verde Middle School and then Mount Carmel High School. There, he became heavily involved with theater and choir, performed vocals with the school's jazz band, and competed in the local Air Bands competitions. He also appeared in local professional productions such as "Hello, Dolly!", "Camelot", "The Music Man", "Grease", "Chess" and "Peter Pan", at venues such as The Starlight, The Lyceum and others.


title: Adam Lambert

text: After graduating from high school in 2000, he attended California State University, Fullerton. His major was musical theater, but left after five weeks to move to Los Angeles: "I just decided that what I really wanted to do was try to work in the real entertainment world. Life is all about taking risks to get what you want."


title: Adam Lambert

text: At 19, Lambert got his first professional job, performing on a cruise ship for ten months with Anita Mann Productions. Afterwards, he performed in light opera in Orange County, California. By 21, he was signed with a manager and cast in a European tour of "Hair". In 2004, he appeared in the Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) production of "Brigadoon" and a Pasadena Playhouse production of "110 in the Shade", before being cast in the role of Joshua in "" at the Kodak Theatre alongside Val Kilmer. He came to the attention of the casting director for "Wicked", and was hired as the understudy for the role of Fiyero and an ensemble member in the first national touring production of the musical from 2005, and the Los Angeles production from 2007. He finished performances with the musical in 2008.


title: Adam Lambert

text: During this same period, Lambert briefly fronted underground rock band The Citizen Vein with Steve Sidelnyk, Tommy Victor and Monte Pittman. He also worked as a demo singer and a session musician; a compilation of his 2005 recordings were released in 2009 on the album "Take One".


title: Adam Lambert

text: Lambert auditioned for the eighth season of "American Idol" in San Francisco, California by singing "Rock with You" and "Bohemian Rhapsody". Advancing to Hollywood week, he performed "What's Up" and "Believe" solo, and "Some Kind of Wonderful" in the group effort. Simon Cowell voiced some concern about his theatricality, but Randy Jackson found it "current". He advanced easily to the top 36 performing "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction".


title: Adam Lambert

text: In the first week of live shows, his rendition of Michael Jackson's "Black or White" was praised by all four judges. For Country week, he sang a sitar-infused version of "Ring of Fire". His Motown night acoustic version of The Miracles' "The Tracks of My Tears" drew praise from judges and a standing ovation from Smokey Robinson, the week's mentor. Advancing to the top 8, he sang the 2001 Michael Andrews and Gary Jules arrangement of "Mad World". Because the show exceeded its time slot, only Cowell gave a critique, which he did by giving Lambert a standing ovation, the only one he bestowed during his decade-long run as an "American Idol" judge.


title: Adam Lambert

text: After Lambert sang "If I Can't Have You", delivering what DioGuardi called his "most memorable performance", Cowell described his vocals as "immaculate". For the top 3 show, he performed "One" before Cowell declared, "If you are not in the final next week, it will be one of the biggest upsets"; and continued with "Cryin'" before Abdul affirmed, "we'll be seeing you next week and many years after that".


title: Adam Lambert

text: In March 2009, photos of Lambert kissing another man while dressed in drag at Burning Man surfaced online. Highlighted as controversial, they were displayed by conservative commentators on "The O'Reilly Factor", who called them "embarrassing" and questioned if the images would have an effect on the program. Fox restricted press access to Lambert and to his family following the outing. Despite conservative backlash, outlets such as the New York Times and ABC news speculated that Lambert would be too popular to lose the competition. Upon the announcement of Lambert as runner-up, "American Idol" pundits, gay bloggers, and LGBT news outlets reassessed these claims, noting that his queerness may have alienated conservative viewers.


title: Adam Lambert

text: Lambert performed three solos in the finale, a reprise of "Mad World", followed by the 1960s civil rights anthem "A Change Is Gonna Come", to tremendously positive judge reaction. After his performance of the mandatory winner's single, "No Boundaries" Cowell summed up Lambert's journey: "Over the entire season, you've been one of the best, most original contestants we've ever had on the show. The hope and whole idea of a show like this is to find a worldwide star, and I truly believe we've found that in you".


title: Adam Lambert

text: Upon winning the competition, Kris Allen stated: "Adam deserved this", later explaining he thought Lambert deserved to win as much as he did, and that Lambert "was the most consistent person all year. He was seriously one of the most gifted performers that I've ever met". Lambert's version of the winner's single was released alongside Allen's. "The Los Angeles Times" later ranked Lambert fifth in its list of the top 120 American Idol contestants, selected from the first nine seasons of the show, above Allen.


title: Adam Lambert

text: Lambert performed "Mad World" on "The Early Show" and "Live with Regis and Kelly". He began the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2009 in July and that summer was also the recipient of two awards: the Young Hollywood Award for Artist of the Year and the Teen Choice Award for Male Reality/Variety Star.


title: Adam Lambert

text: "For Your Entertainment", Lambert's first studio album, was released on November 23, 2009. Debuting at number three on the "Billboard" 200 and selling 198,000 copies in the US its first week, the album saw Lambert in collaboration with producers such as Rob Cavallo, Dr. Luke and Max Martin. Album writers included Matthew Bellamy, Ryan Tedder, Rivers Cuomo, Justin Hawkins, P!nk, Linda Perry and Lady Gaga. At Metacritic, the album received a score of 71, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". "Spin" said the album is "perhaps the strongest, most flavorful batch of tunes to reach an "AI" vet, and Lambert's polymorphous vocal skills unite dancefloor strut and hard-rock pomp in a convincing glam package". "Rolling Stone", however, gave it a more mixed review: "The songs sound great but feel strangely stuffy—[it] seems like a disc that was overthought. Next time, the hugely talented Lambert should make sure he's going straight for the gut."


title: Adam Lambert

text: Its Claude Kelly and Dr. Luke-produced lead single "For Your Entertainment" preceded the album's release but was not as successful as its second single "Whataya Want from Me" which impacted on charts worldwide, became his highest-peaking single (at number 10) on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 53rd awards ceremony. Another notable single was "Time for Miracles", the ending theme for the disaster movie "2012". , "For Your Entertainment" has sold nearly 2 million copies worldwide and was certified gold in the US in June 2010.


title: Adam Lambert

text: On November 22, Lambert performed "For Your Entertainment" at the "American Music Awards of 2009". The controversial performance, which was the night's finale, showed Lambert kissing a male bassist and grabbing the crotch of another. In response, the Parents Television Council, a conservative decency group urged viewers to complain to the FCC and launched a formal complaint—though the performance aired "outside the FCC's usual 6am-10pm time frame prohibiting the broadcast of indecent material".


title: Adam Lambert

text: ABC received about 1,500 telephoned complaints and canceled Lambert's performance of November 25 on "Good Morning America", his upcoming performance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", and removed him from consideration for "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve". Discussing the incident in a "Rolling Stone" interview, Lambert stated: "Female performers have been doing this for years—pushing the envelope about sexuality—and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out. We're in 2009—it's time to take risks, be a little more brave, time to open people's eyes and if it offends them, then maybe I'm not for them. My goal was not to piss people off, it was to promote freedom of expression and artistic freedom."


title: Adam Lambert

text: Lambert returned to the AMAs two years later as a presenter, and was warmly received. Rejecting claims that the singer was banned from the show in 2009, Executive Producer Larry Klein said that he's anticipating future Lambert performances: "Adam Lambert is a friend of ours, he's talented and I like everything about him." Lambert's performance was included in Billboard's list of "Top Ten American Music Awards Moments" on the eve of its 40th anniversary, in November 2012.