title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: In October 2012, "Star Wars" creator George Lucas sold his production company Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company. Disney announced a new trilogy of "Star Wars" films. J. J. Abrams was named director of the first episode in the trilogy, "The Force Awakens", in January 2013. In June 2014, director Rian Johnson was reported to be in talks to write and direct its sequel, "Episode VIII", and to write a treatment for the third film, "Episode IX", with Ram Bergman producing both films. Johnson confirmed in August that he would direct "Episode VIII".


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: In January 2015, Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that "Episode VIII" would be released in 2017. In December, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said that the film had not been mapped out and that Abrams was collaborating with Johnson, who would in turn work with (then) "Episode IX" director Colin Trevorrow to ensure a smooth transition. Additionally, Abrams served as an executive producer along with Tom Karnowski and Jason McGatlin. In January 2017, Lucasfilm announced the title for "Episode VIII" as "Star Wars: The Last Jedi".


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: The "Last Jedi" story begins immediately after "The Force Awakens". Johnson had his story group watch films such as "Twelve O'Clock High" (1949), "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957), "Gunga Din" (1939), "Three Outlaw Samurai" (1964), "Sahara" (1943), and "Letter Never Sent" (1960) for inspiration while developing ideas. He felt it was difficult to work on the film while "The Force Awakens" was being finished.


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: Johnson wrote the scene with the mirrored versions of Rey to symbolise her search for identity; when she asks for a vision of her parents, she sees only herself. Rey learns that her parents were "nobodies" as it would be "the hardest thing" she and the audience could hear; Johnson likened the scene to Luke Skywalker learning that Darth Vader is his father in "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980). During production, Hamill expressed disagreement with the direction of his character, Luke, feeling his character's disillusioned state was at odds with his character. Hamill later said he regretted making his initial misgivings public and compared his disagreements to his clashes with George Lucas during the filming of "Return of the Jedi" (1983).


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: In September 2015, Disney shortlisted the female cast members to Gina Rodriguez, Tatiana Maslany, and Olivia Cooke. That same month, Benicio del Toro confirmed his involvement in the film, but denied that he was playing a villain, and Mark Hamill was also confirmed. Joaquin Phoenix was also courted to portray the role of DJ, but would end up passing on the offer. In October 2015, Gugu Mbatha-Raw was rumored to have been cast in the film. In November, Kennedy announced at the London premiere of "The Force Awakens" that the entire cast would return for "Episode VIII", along with "a handful" of new cast members. In February 2016, at the start of filming, it was confirmed that Laura Dern and Kelly Marie Tran had been cast in undisclosed roles. In April 2017, at the "Star Wars" Celebration Orlando, Lucasfilm announced that Tran would play Resistance maintenance worker Rose Tico, which Johnson described as the film's largest new role. To keep Frank Oz's return as Yoda a secret, producers excluded Oz's name in the billing for the film's pre-release marketing and ensured that Oz stayed on set during filming.


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: Second unit photography began during pre-production at Skellig Michael in Ireland on September 14, 2015, due to the difficulties of filming at that location during other seasons. It would have lasted five days, but filming was canceled for the first day due to poor weather and rough conditions. In September 2015, del Toro revealed that principal photography would begin in March 2016. The production began work on the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios on November 15, 2015. Rick Heinrichs served as production designer.


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: In January 2016, production of "Episode VIII" was delayed until February due to script rewrites. Filming was in danger of being delayed further due to an upcoming strike between the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television and the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union. On February 10, 2016, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed that principal photography had begun under the working title "Space Bear". Additional filming took place in Dubrovnik, Croatia from March 9 to 16, as well as in Ireland in May. Malin Head in County Donegal and a mountain headland, Ceann Sibeal in County Kerry, served as additional filming locations. To increase the scenes' intimacy Driver and Ridley were both present when filming Kylo and Rey's Force visions. Location filming for the battle scenes on the planet Crait took place at the Salar de Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia. Additional filming took place in Mexico.


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: Principal photography wrapped on July 22, 2016, though as of early September, Nyong'o had not filmed her scenes. In February 2017, it was announced that sequences from the film were shot in IMAX. Production designer Rick Heinrichs said the original script called for 160 sets, double what might be expected, but that Johnson did some "trimming and cutting". Ultimately, 125 sets were created on 14 sound stages at Pinewood Studios.


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: According to creature designer Neal Scanlan, "The Last Jedi" has more practical effects than any "Star Wars" film, with 180 to 200 creatures created with practical effects, some cut from the final edit. For Yoda's appearance in the film as a Force ghost, the character was created using puppetry, as was done in the original "Star Wars" trilogy (as opposed to computer-generated imagery, which was used to create Yoda in most of the prequel trilogy). Rian Johnson explained the decision was because he felt a digital Yoda would not have been true to how Luke knew him in "The Empire Strikes Back".


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: In July 2013, Kennedy confirmed at the "Star Wars" Celebration Europe that John Williams would return to score the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy. Williams confirmed his assignment for "The Last Jedi" at a Tanglewood concert in August 2016, stating he would begin recording the score "off and on" in December 2016 until March or April 2017. On February 21, 2017, it was confirmed that recording was underway, with both Williams and William Ross conducting the sessions. In lieu of a traditional spotting session with Johnson, Williams was provided a temp track of music from his previous film scores as a reference for scoring "The Last Jedi". The official soundtrack album was released by Walt Disney Records on December 15, 2017.


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: On September 19, 2017, Australia Post released a set of stamp packs. On October 12, Royal Mail released a set of eight promotional postage stamps designed by Malcolm Tween. Several tie-in books were released on the same day as the film's release, including "The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary", and various children's reading and activity books. Related novelizations included the prequel book "Cobalt Squadron", and "Canto Bight", a collection of novellas about the Canto Bight Casino. As with "The Force Awakens", there is no official tie-in game for "The Last Jedi", in favor of integrating content from the film into other "Star Wars" video games, including "Star Wars Battlefront II", which introduced various content from the film, during the game's first "season".


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: The film had its world premiere at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on December 9, 2017, and was released in the United States on December 15, in IMAX and 3D. The film was originally scheduled to be released in the United States on May 26; however, it was pushed back to December to avoid competition with "" (2017).


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" digitally in HD and 4K via digital download and Movies Anywhere on March 13, 2018, with an Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD physical release on March 27. On March 31, 2020, a 27-disc Skywalker Saga box set was released, containing all nine films in the series, with each film receiving three discs, a Blu-ray version, a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and special features found on the 2011 release for the first six episodic films.


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: "Star Wars: The Last Jedi " grossed $620.2million in the United States and Canada, and $712.5million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.333billion. It had a worldwide opening of $450.8million, the eighth-biggest of all time, including $40.6million that was attributed to IMAX screenings, the second biggest for IMAX. It was estimated that the film would need to gross $800million worldwide to break even; On December 31, 2017, the film crossed the $1 billion mark, making it the third "Star Wars" film to do so. "Deadline Hollywood" calculated the net profit of the film to be $417.5 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs, with box office grosses, and ancillary revenues from home media, placing it first on their list of 2017's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: Pre-sale tickets went on sale in the United States on October 9, 2017, and as with "The Force Awakens" and "Rogue One", ticket service sites such as Fandango had their servers crash due to heavy traffic and demand. In the United States and Canada, industry tracking had "The Last Jedi" grossing around $200million from 4,232 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $45million from Thursday night previews, the second-highest amount ever (behind "The Force Awakens" $57million). It went on to make $104.8million on its first day (including previews), and $220million over the weekend, both the second-highest amounts of all time. The opening weekend figure included an IMAX opening-weekend of $25million, the biggest IMAX opening of the year, and the second biggest ever behind "The Force Awakens".


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: After dropping by 76% on its second Friday, the worst Friday-to-Friday drop in the series, the film fell by a total of 67% in its second weekend, grossing $71.7million. It was the largest second-weekend drop of the series, although it remained atop the box office. It made $52.4 million in its third weekend, again topping the box office. It also brought its domestic total to $517.1 million, overtaking the Disney film "Beauty and the Beast" (2017) as the highest of 2017. It grossed $23.6 million and was surpassed the following weekend by "" (2017) (which was in its third week) and "" (2018).


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: In its first two days of release the film made $60.8million from 48 markets. The top countries were the United Kingdom ($10.2million), Germany ($6.1million), France ($6million), Australia ($5.6million), and Brazil ($2.5million). By the end of the weekend, the film made $230million outside the United States and Canada. All-time opening weekend records were set in various countries, including France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, and Finland. On its second weekend, it grossed $76.1million outside the United States and Canada and became the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year in Europe. As of January 21, the largest markets outside of the United States and Canada are the United Kingdom ($109.3million), Germany ($79.8million), France ($63.5million), Japan ($60.8million), and Australia ($43.5million).


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: The film had a $28.7 million opening weekend in China. A week after its debut, China's movie exhibitors dropped the film's showtimes by 90%. The film grossed $910,000 in its third weekend, dropping to ninth place at the Chinese box office, overshadowed by new releases including Bollywood film "Secret Superstar" (2017), Hollywood films "Ferdinand" (2017) and "Wonder" (2017), and Chinese film "A Better Tomorrow 2018". "The Last Jedi" grossed $42.5million in China.


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: Metacritic analysis found the film was the 25th-most mentioned film on "best of the year" film rankings and the 22nd-most mentioned on "best of the decade" film rankings.


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: Matt Zoller Seitz of "RogerEbert.com" gave the film four stars out of four, praising the surprises and risks that it took, writing that "The movie works equally well as an earnest adventure full of passionate heroes and villains and a meditation on sequels and franchise properties", in which the film "includes multiple debates over whether one should replicate or reject the stories and symbols of the past." Writing for "Rolling Stone", Peter Travers gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, praising Johnson's direction and the cast performances, particularly Hamill's, and concluding that the film "ranks with the very best Star Wars epics (even the pinnacle that is The Empire Strikes Back)". Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, praising the action sequences and humor, and said that the film "doesn't pack quite the same emotional punch [as "The Force Awakens"] and it lags a bit in the second half, [but] this is still a worthy chapter in the "Star Wars" franchise", containing a few callbacks of "previous characters and iconic moments."


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: Will Gompertz, arts editor of BBC News, gave the film four stars out of five, writing "Rian Johnson [...] has not ruined your Christmas with a turkey. His gift to you is a cracker, a blockbuster movie packed with invention, wit, and action galore." The unpredictability of the plot was appreciated by reviewers such as Alex Leadbeater of "Screen Rant", who commented specifically that the death of Snoke was "the best movie twist in years". Creator of the franchise George Lucas, who was not involved with the film's production, described "The Last Jedi" as "beautifully made" shortly after its release. His reaction to "" was generally more negative.


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: Conversely, Richard Brody of "The New Yorker" wrote that the film "comes off as a work that's ironed out, flattened down, appallingly purified". Kate Taylor of "The Globe and Mail" gave the film two stars out of four, saying it suffered from too many new additions and adding, "as it seeks to uphold a giant cultural legacy, this unfolding trilogy struggles to maintain a balance that often seems just out of reach." Owen Gleiberman of "Variety" criticized the film for being too derivative of the past films, noting "it's now repeating things that have already been repeated", becoming "an official monument to nostalgia."


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: Audience reception measured by scientific polling methods was highly positive. Audiences polled by CinemaScore during the opening weekend gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, and those at PostTrak gave the film an 89% overall positive score, a 79% "definite recommend", and a rare five-star rating. SurveyMonkey determined that 89% of its polled audience graded the film positively.


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: User-generated scores at Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic received considerable coverage for being more negative. Audience scores on such sites require only registration and do not ensure that contributing voters have seen the film. Several reviewers speculated that coordinated vote brigading from internet groups and bots contributed to the low scores, including analysis provided by "Quartz" and Bleeding Cool. After initially rejecting tampering claims, Rotten Tomatoes later said in 2019 that "The Last Jedi" had been "seriously targeted" by a review-bombing campaign. Scott Mendelson of "Forbes" labeled the negative reaction "alleged", saying it was based on "easily trolled online user polls", and he criticized Disney for placating the "vocal minority" in its approach to the sequel, "".


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: "The Last Jedi" was also characterized by reviewers as divisive among audiences. Emily VanDerWerff of "Vox" found that dissatisfied fans saw the film as too progressive, disliked its humor, plot, or character arcs, or felt betrayed that it ignored fan theories. Other reviewers made similar observations. Particularly divisive was the reveal that Rey's parents are insignificant; many fans had expected her to be Luke's daughter or to share a lineage with another character from the original trilogy. There was also sentiment that Snoke's character was underdeveloped and that Luke's actions contradicted his previous heroic portrayal. Reviewers claimed that fan theories were held so strongly among some viewers that it was difficult for them to accept different stories, but they noted that other viewers appreciated the film's action, tone, and deviation from "Star Wars" tradition.


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: After facing sexist and racist abuse on Instagram for her role as Rose Tico, Kelly Marie Tran left social media. The incident highlighted the challenges faced by people of color who are in "Star Wars". Tran was the first woman of color to have a lead role in a "Star Wars" film, and similarly John Boyega faced the same type of abuse when he was cast in "The Force Awakens". After leaving social media "The Last Jedi's" director Rian Johnson and co-stars Mark Hamill and John Boyega defended Tran against the harassment she received.


title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

text: "The Rise of Skywalker", the final installment of the sequel trilogy, was released on December 20, 2019. Colin Trevorrow was expected to direct the film, but on September 5, 2017, Lucasfilm announced that he had stepped down. A week later, Lucasfilm announced that J. J. Abrams would return to direct the film and co-write it with Chris Terrio.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a Republican lawyer from New England who climbed up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, becoming the state's 48th governor. His response to the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight as a man of decisive action. Coolidge was elected the country's 29th vice president the next year, succeeding the presidency upon the sudden death of President Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924, Coolidge gained a reputation as a small-government conservative distinguished by a taciturn personality and dry sense of humor, receiving the nickname "Silent Cal." Though his widespread popularity enabled him to run for a third term, he chose not to run again in 1928, remarking that ten years as president was (at the time) "longer than any other man has had ittoo long!"


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Throughout his gubernatorial career, Coolidge ran on the record of fiscal conservatism, strong support for women's suffrage, and a vague opposition to Prohibition. During his presidency, he restored public confidence in the White House after the many scandals of the Harding administration. He signed into law the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which granted US citizenship to all Native Americans, and oversaw a period of rapid and expansive economic growth known as the "Roaring Twenties", leaving office with considerable popularity. He was known for his hands-off governing approach and pro-business stances. However, Coolidge did sign the Radio Act of 1927 into law that established the Federal Radio Commission (1927–1934), the equal-time rule for radio broadcasters in the United States, and restricted radio broadcasting licenses to stations that demonstrated that they served "the public interest, convenience, or necessity". As a Coolidge biographer wrote: "He embodied the spirit and hopes of the middle class, could interpret their longings and express their opinions. That he did represent the genius of the average is the most convincing proof of his strength."


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Scholars have ranked Coolidge in the lower half of U.S presidents. However, he gains almost universal praise for his stalwart support of racial equality during a period of heightened racial tension in the United States, and is highly praised by advocates of smaller government and "laissez-faire" economics, while supporters of an active central government generally view him far less favorably. His critics argue that he failed to use the country's economic boom to help struggling farmers and workers in other flailing industries, and there is still much debate among historians as to the extent to which Coolidge's economic policies contributed to the onset of the Great Depression. However, it is widely accepted—including by his own Presidential Foundation—that the Federal Reserve System during his administration was partly responsible for the stock market crash of 1929 that occurred soon after he left office, which signaled the beginning of the Depression. He is to date the only president in U.S. history to run for federal, state, and municipal office without ever losing an election.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: John Calvin Coolidge Jr. was born on July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont—the only U.S. president to be born on Independence Day. He was the elder of the two children of John Calvin Coolidge Sr. (1845–1926) and Victoria Josephine Moor (1846–1885). Although named for his father, John, from early childhood Coolidge was addressed by his middle name, Calvin. His middle name was selected in honor of John Calvin, a founder of the Congregational church in which Coolidge was raised and remained active throughout his life.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge Senior engaged in many occupations and developed a statewide reputation as a prosperous farmer, storekeeper, and public servant. He held various local offices, including justice of the peace and tax collector and served in the Vermont House of Representatives as well as the Vermont Senate. Coolidge's mother was the daughter of Hiram Dunlap Moor, a Plymouth Notch farmer and Abigail Franklin. She was chronically ill and died at the age of 39, perhaps from tuberculosis, when Coolidge was 12 years old. His younger sister, Abigail Grace Coolidge (1875–1890), died at the age of 15, probably of appendicitis, when Coolidge was 18. Coolidge's father married a Plymouth schoolteacher in 1891, and lived to the age of 80.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge's family had deep roots in New England. The earliest American ancestor, John Coolidge, emigrated from Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, England, around 1630 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. Coolidge's great-great-grandfather, also named John Coolidge, was an American military officer in the Revolutionary War and one of the first selectmen of the town of Plymouth. His grandfather Calvin Galusha Coolidge served in the Vermont House of Representatives. Coolidge was also a descendant of Samuel Appleton, who settled in Ipswich and led the Massachusetts Bay Colony during King Philip's War.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge attended Black River Academy and then St. Johnsbury Academy before enrolling at elite Amherst College, where he distinguished himself in the debating class. As a senior, he joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and graduated "cum laude". While at Amherst, Coolidge was profoundly influenced by philosophy professor Charles Edward Garman—a Congregational mystic who had a neo-Hegelian philosophy.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: [T]here is a standard of righteousness that might does not make right, that the end does not justify the means, and that expediency as a working principle is bound to fail. The only hope of perfecting human relationships is in accordance with the law of service under which men are not so solicitous about what they shall get as they are about what they shall give. Yet people are entitled to the rewards of their industry. What they earn is theirs, no matter how small or how great. But the possession of property carries the obligation to use it in a larger service...


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: At his father's urging after graduation, Coolidge moved to Northampton, Massachusetts to become a lawyer. Coolidge followed the common practice of apprenticing with a local law firm, Hammond & Field, and reading law with them. John C. Hammond and Henry P. Field, both Amherst graduates, introduced Coolidge to law practice in the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts. In 1897, Coolidge was admitted to the Massachusetts bar, becoming a country lawyer. With his savings and a small inheritance from his grandfather, Coolidge opened his own law office in Northampton in 1898. He practiced commercial law, believing that he served his clients best by staying out of court. As his reputation as a hard-working and diligent attorney grew, local banks and other businesses began to retain his services.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: In 1903, Coolidge met Grace Goodhue, a University of Vermont graduate and teacher at Northampton's Clarke School for the Deaf. They married on October 4, 1905, at 2:30 p.m. in a small ceremony which took place in the parlor of Grace's family's house, having overcome her mother's objections to the marriage. The newlyweds went on a honeymoon trip to Montreal, originally planned for two weeks but cut short by a week at Coolidge's request. After 25 years he wrote of Grace, "for almost a quarter of a century she has borne with my infirmities and I have rejoiced in her graces".


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: The Coolidges had two sons: John (1906–2000) and Calvin Jr. (1908–1924). On June 30, 1924, Calvin Jr. had played tennis with his brother on the White House tennis courts without putting on socks and developed a blister on one of his toes. The blister subsequently degenerated into sepsis. Calvin Jr. died a little over a week later at the age of 16. The President never forgave himself for Calvin Jr's death. His eldest son John said it "hurt [Coolidge] terribly", and psychiatric biographer Robert E. Gilbert, author of " The Tormented President: Calvin Coolidge, Death, and Clinical Depression", said that Coolidge "ceased to function as President after the death of his sixteen-year-old son". Gilbert explains in his book how Coolidge displayed all ten of the symptoms listed by the American Psychiatric Association as evidence of major depressive disorder following Calvin Jr.'s sudden death. John later became a railroad executive, helped to start the Coolidge Foundation, and was instrumental in creating the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge was frugal, and when it came to securing a home, he insisted upon renting. He and his wife attended Northampton's Edwards Congregational Church before and after his presidency.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: The Republican Party was dominant in New England at the time, and Coolidge followed the example of Hammond and Field by becoming active in local politics. In 1896, Coolidge campaigned for Republican presidential candidate William McKinley, and was selected to be a member of the Republican City Committee the next year. In 1898, he won election to the City Council of Northampton, placing second in a ward where the top three candidates were elected. The position offered no salary but provided Coolidge with valuable political experience. In 1899, he was chosen City Solicitor by the City Council. He was elected for a one-year term in 1900, and reelected in 1901. This position gave Coolidge more experience as a lawyer and paid a salary of $600 (). In 1902, the city council selected a Democrat for city solicitor, and Coolidge returned to private practice. Soon thereafter, however, the clerk of courts for the county died, and Coolidge was chosen to replace him. The position paid well, but it barred him from practicing law, so he remained at the job for only one year. In 1904, Coolidge suffered his sole defeat at the ballot box, losing an election to the Northampton school board. When told that some of his neighbors voted against him because he had no children in the schools he would govern, the recently married Coolidge replied, "Might give me time!"


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: In 1906, the local Republican committee nominated Coolidge for election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He won a close victory over the incumbent Democrat, and reported to Boston for the 1907 session of the Massachusetts General Court. In his freshman term, Coolidge served on minor committees and, although he usually voted with the party, was known as a Progressive Republican, voting in favor of such measures as women's suffrage and the direct election of Senators. While in Boston, Coolidge became an ally, and then a liegeman, of then U.S. Senator Winthrop Murray Crane who controlled the western faction of the Massachusetts Republican Party; Crane's party rival in the east of the commonwealth was U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. Coolidge forged another key strategic alliance with Guy Currier, who had served in both state houses and had the social distinction, wealth, personal charm and broad circle of friends which Coolidge lacked, and which would have a lasting impact on his political career. In 1907, he was elected to a second term, and in the 1908 session Coolidge was more outspoken, though not in a leadership position.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Instead of vying for another term in the State House, Coolidge returned home to his growing family and ran for mayor of Northampton when the incumbent Democrat retired. He was well liked in the town, and defeated his challenger by a vote of 1,597 to 1,409. During his first term (1910 to 1911), he increased teachers' salaries and retired some of the city's debt while still managing to effect a slight tax decrease. He was renominated in 1911, and defeated the same opponent by a slightly larger margin.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: In 1911, the State Senator for the Hampshire County area retired and successfully encouraged Coolidge to run for his seat for the 1912 session; Coolidge defeated his Democratic opponent by a large margin. At the start of that term, he became chairman of a committee to arbitrate the "Bread and Roses" strike by the workers of the American Woolen Company in Lawrence, Massachusetts. After two tense months, the company agreed to the workers' demands, in a settlement proposed by the committee. A major issue affecting Massachusetts Republicans that year was the party split between the progressive wing, which favored Theodore Roosevelt, and the conservative wing, which favored William Howard Taft. Although he favored some progressive measures, Coolidge refused to leave the Republican party. When the new Progressive Party declined to run a candidate in his state senate district, Coolidge won reelection against his Democratic opponent by an increased margin.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: In the 1913 session, Coolidge enjoyed renowned success in arduously navigating to passage the Western Trolley Act, which connected Northampton with a dozen similar industrial communities in western Massachusetts. Coolidge intended to retire after his second term as was the custom, but when the president of the state senate, Levi H. Greenwood, considered running for lieutenant governor, Coolidge decided to run again for the Senate in the hopes of being elected as its presiding officer. Although Greenwood later decided to run for reelection to the Senate, he was defeated primarily due to his opposition to women's suffrage; Coolidge was in favor of the women's vote, won his re-election, and with Crane's help, assumed the presidency of a closely divided Senate. After his election in January 1914, Coolidge delivered a published and frequently quoted speech entitled "Have Faith in Massachusetts", which summarized his philosophy of government.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge's speech was well received, and he attracted some admirers on its account; towards the end of the term, many of them were proposing his name for nomination to lieutenant governor. After winning reelection to the Senate by an increased margin in the 1914 elections, Coolidge was reelected unanimously to be President of the Senate. Coolidge's supporters, led by fellow Amherst alumnus Frank Stearns, encouraged him again to run for lieutenant governor. Stearns, an executive with the Boston department store R. H. Stearns, became another key ally, and began a publicity campaign on Coolidge's behalf before he announced his candidacy at the end of the 1915 legislative session.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge entered the primary election for lieutenant governor and was nominated to run alongside gubernatorial candidate Samuel W. McCall. Coolidge was the leading vote-getter in the Republican primary, and balanced the Republican ticket by adding a western presence to McCall's eastern base of support. McCall and Coolidge won the 1915 election to their respective one-year terms, with Coolidge defeating his opponent by more than 50,000 votes.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: In Massachusetts, the lieutenant governor does not preside over the state Senate, as is the case in many other states; nevertheless, as lieutenant governor, Coolidge was a deputy governor functioning as an administrative inspector and was a member of the governor's council. He was also chairman of the finance committee and the pardons committee. As a full-time elected official, Coolidge discontinued his law practice in 1916, though his family continued to live in Northampton. McCall and Coolidge were both reelected in 1916 and again in 1917. When McCall decided that he would not stand for a fourth term, Coolidge announced his intention to run for governor.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge was unopposed for the Republican nomination for Governor of Massachusetts in 1918. He and his running mate, Channing Cox, a Boston lawyer and Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, ran on the previous administration's record: fiscal conservatism, a vague opposition to Prohibition, support for women's suffrage, and support for American involvement in World War I. The issue of the war proved divisive, especially among Irish and German Americans. Coolidge was elected by a margin of 16,773 votes over his opponent, Richard H. Long, in the smallest margin of victory of any of his statewide campaigns.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: In 1919, in reaction to a plan of the policemen of the Boston Police Department to register with a union, Police Commissioner Edwin U. Curtis announced that such an act would not be tolerated. In August of that year, the American Federation of Labor issued a charter to the Boston Police Union. Curtis declared the union's leaders were guilty of insubordination and would be relieved of duty, but indicated he would cancel their suspension if the union was dissolved by September 4. The mayor of Boston, Andrew Peters, convinced Curtis to delay his action for a few days, but with no results, and Curtis suspended the union leaders on September 8. The following day, about three-quarters of the policemen in Boston went on strike. Coolidge, tacitly but fully in support of Curtis' position, closely monitored the situation but initially deferred to the local authorities. He anticipated that only a resulting measure of lawlessness could sufficiently prompt the public to understand and appreciate the controlling principlethat a policeman does not strike. That night and the next, there was sporadic violence and rioting in the unruly city. Peters, concerned about sympathy strikes by the firemen and others, called up some units of the Massachusetts National Guard stationed in the Boston area pursuant to an old and obscure legal authority, and relieved Curtis of duty.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge, sensing the severity of circumstances were then in need of his intervention, conferred with Crane's operative, William Butler, and then acted. He called up more units of the National Guard, restored Curtis to office, and took personal control of the police force. Curtis proclaimed that all of the strikers were fired from their jobs, and Coolidge called for a new police force to be recruited.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: That night Coolidge received a telegram from AFL leader Samuel Gompers. "Whatever disorder has occurred", Gompers wrote, "is due to Curtis's order in which the right of the policemen has been denied…" Coolidge publicly answered Gompers's telegram, denying any justification whatsoever for the strikeand his response launched him into the national consciousness. Newspapers across the nation picked up on Coolidge's statement and he became the newest hero to opponents of the strike. Amid of the First Red Scare, many Americans were terrified of the spread of communist revolutions, like those that had taken place in Russia, Hungary, and Germany. While Coolidge had lost some friends among organized labor, conservatives across the nation had seen a rising star. Although he usually acted with deliberation, the Boston police strike gave him a national reputation as a decisive leader, and as a strict enforcer of law and order.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge and Cox were renominated for their respective offices in 1919. By this time Coolidge's supporters (especially Stearns) had publicized his actions in the Police Strike around the state and the nation and some of Coolidge's speeches were published in book form. He faced the same opponent as in 1918, Richard Long, but this time Coolidge defeated him by 125,101 votes, more than seven times his margin of victory from a year earlier. His actions in the police strike, combined with the massive electoral victory, led to suggestions that Coolidge run for president in 1920.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: By the time Coolidge was inaugurated on January 2, 1919, the First World War had ended, and Coolidge pushed the legislature to give a $100 bonus () to Massachusetts veterans. He also signed a bill reducing the work week for women and children from fifty-four hours to forty-eight, saying, "We must humanize the industry, or the system will break down." He signed into law a budget that kept the tax rates the same, while trimming $4 million from expenditures, thus allowing the state to retire some of its debt.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge also wielded the veto pen as governor. His most publicized veto prevented an increase in legislators' pay by 50%. Although Coolidge was personally opposed to Prohibition, he vetoed a bill in May 1920 that would have allowed the sale of beer or wine of 2.75% alcohol or less, in Massachusetts in violation of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. "Opinions and instructions do not outmatch the Constitution," he said in his veto message. "Against it, they are void."


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: At the 1920 Republican National Convention, most of the delegates were selected by state party caucuses, not primaries. As such, the field was divided among many local favorites. Coolidge was one such candidate, and while he placed as high as sixth in the voting, the powerful party bosses running the convention, primarily the party's U.S. Senators, never considered him seriously. After ten ballots, the bosses and then the delegates settled on Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio as their nominee for president. When the time came to select a vice presidential nominee, the bosses also made and announced their decision on whom they wantedSen. Irvine Lenroot of Wisconsinand then prematurely departed after his name was put forth, relying on the rank and file to confirm their decision. A delegate from Oregon, Wallace McCamant, having read "Have Faith in Massachusetts", proposed Coolidge for vice president instead. The suggestion caught on quickly with the masses starving for an act of independence from the absent bosses, and Coolidge was unexpectedly nominated.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: The Democrats nominated another Ohioan, James M. Cox, for president and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, for vice president. The question of the United States joining the League of Nations was a major issue in the campaign, as was the unfinished legacy of Progressivism. Harding ran a "front-porch" campaign from his home in Marion, Ohio, but Coolidge took to the campaign trail in the Upper South, New York, and New Englandhis audiences carefully limited to those familiar with Coolidge and those placing a premium upon concise and short speeches. On November 2, 1920, Harding and Coolidge were victorious in a landslide, winning more than 60 percent of the popular vote, including every state outside the South. They also won in Tennessee, the first time a Republican ticket had won a Southern state since Reconstruction.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: The U.S. vice-presidency did not carry many official duties, but Coolidge was invited by President Harding to attend cabinet meetings, making him the first vice president to do so. He gave a number of unremarkable speeches around the country.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: As vice president, Coolidge and his vivacious wife Grace were invited to quite a few parties, where the legend of "Silent Cal" was born. It is from this time that most of the jokes and anecdotes involving Coolidge originate, such as Coolidge being "silent in five languages". Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker, in private he was a man of few words and was commonly referred to as "Silent Cal". An apocryphal story has it that a person seated next to him at a dinner said to him, "I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you." He replied, "You lose." However, on April 22, 1924, Coolidge himself said that the "You lose" quotation never occurred. The story about it was related by Frank B. Noyes, President of the Associated Press, to their membership at their annual luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, when toasting and introducing Coolidge, who was the invited speaker. After the introduction and before his prepared remarks, Coolidge said to the membership, "Your President [referring to Noyes] has given you a perfect example of one of those rumors now current in Washington which is without any foundation."


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge often seemed uncomfortable among fashionable Washington society; when asked why he continued to attend so many of their dinner parties, he replied, "Got to eat somewhere." Alice Roosevelt Longworth, a leading Republican wit, underscored Coolidge's silence and his dour personality: "When he wished he were elsewhere, he pursed his lips, folded his arms, and said nothing. He looked then precisely as though he had been weaned on a pickle." Coolidge and his wife, Grace, who was a great baseball fan, once attended a Washington Senators game and sat through all nine innings without saying a word, except once when he asked her the time.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: As president, Coolidge's reputation as a quiet man continued. "The words of a President have an enormous weight," he would later write, "and ought not to be used indiscriminately." Coolidge was aware of his stiff reputation; indeed, he cultivated it. "I think the American people want a solemn ass as a President," he once told Ethel Barrymore, "and I think I will go along with them." Some historians suggest that Coolidge's image was created deliberately as a campaign tactic, while others believe his withdrawn and quiet behavior to be natural, deepening after the death of his son in 1924. Dorothy Parker, upon learning that Coolidge had died, reportedly remarked, "How can they tell?"


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: On August 2, 1923, President Harding died unexpectedly from a heart attack in San Francisco while on a speaking tour of the western United States. Vice President Coolidge was in Vermont visiting his family home, which had neither electricity nor a telephone, when he received word by messenger of Harding's death. Coolidge dressed, said a prayer, and came downstairs to greet the reporters who had assembled. His father, a notary public and justice of the peace, administered the oath of office in the family's parlor by the light of a kerosene lamp at 2:47 a.m. on August 3, 1923, whereupon the new President of the United States returned to bed.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge returned to Washington the next day, and was sworn in again by Justice Adolph A. Hoehling Jr. of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, to forestall any questions about the authority of a state official to administer a federal oath. This second oath-taking remained a secret until it was revealed by Harry M. Daugherty in 1932, and confirmed by Hoehling. When Hoehling confirmed Daugherty's story, he indicated that Daugherty, then serving as United States Attorney General, asked him to administer the oath without fanfare at the Willard Hotel. According to Hoehling, he did not question Daugherty's reason for requesting a second oath-taking but assumed it was to resolve any doubt about whether the first swearing-in was valid.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: The nation initially did not know what to make of Coolidge, who had maintained a low profile in the Harding administration; many had even expected him to be replaced on the ballot in 1924. Coolidge believed that those of Harding's men under suspicion were entitled to every presumption of innocence, taking a methodical approach to the scandals, principally the Teapot Dome scandal, while others clamored for rapid punishment of those they presumed guilty. Coolidge thought the Senate investigations of the scandals would suffice; this was affirmed by the resulting resignations of those involved. He personally intervened in demanding the resignation of Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty after he refused to cooperate with the congressional probe. He then set about to confirm that no loose ends remained in the administration, arranging for a full briefing on the wrongdoing. Harry A. Slattery reviewed the facts with him, Harlan F. Stone analyzed the legal aspects for him and Senator William E. Borah assessed and presented the political factors.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge addressed Congress when it reconvened on December 6, 1923, giving a speech that supported many of Harding's policies, including Harding's formal budgeting process, the enforcement of immigration restrictions and arbitration of coal strikes ongoing in Pennsylvania. The address to Congress was the first presidential speech to be broadcast over the radio. The Washington Naval Treaty was proclaimed just one month into Coolidge's term, and was generally well received in the country. In May 1924, the World War I veterans' World War Adjusted Compensation Act or "Bonus Bill" was passed over his veto. Coolidge signed the Immigration Act later that year, which was aimed at restricting southern and eastern European immigration, but appended a signing statement expressing his unhappiness with the bill's specific exclusion of Japanese immigrants. Just before the Republican Convention began, Coolidge signed into law the Revenue Act of 1924, which reduced the top marginal tax rate from 58% to 46%, as well as personal income tax rates across the board, increased the estate tax and bolstered it with a new gift tax.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: On June 2, 1924, Coolidge signed the act granting citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States. By that time, two-thirds of them were already citizens, having gained it through marriage, military service (veterans of World War I were granted citizenship in 1919), or the land allotments that had earlier taken place.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: The Republican Convention was held on June 10–12, 1924, in Cleveland, Ohio; Coolidge was nominated on the first ballot. The convention nominated Frank Lowden of Illinois for vice president on the second ballot, but he declined; former Brigadier General Charles G. Dawes was nominated on the third ballot and accepted.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: The Democrats held their convention the next month in New York City. The convention soon deadlocked, and after 103 ballots, the delegates finally agreed on a compromise candidate, John W. Davis, with Charles W. Bryan nominated for vice president. The Democrats' hopes were buoyed when Robert M. La Follette, a Republican senator from Wisconsin, split from the GOP to form a new Progressive Party. Many believed that the split in the Republican party, like the one in 1912, would allow a Democrat to win the presidency.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: After the conventions and the death of his younger son Calvin, Coolidge became withdrawn; he later said that "when he [the son] died, the power and glory of the Presidency went with him." Even as he mourned, Coolidge ran his standard campaign, not mentioning his opponents by name or maligning them, and delivering speeches on his theory of government, including several that were broadcast over the radio. It was the most subdued campaign since 1896, partly because of Coolidge's grief, but also because of his naturally non-confrontational style. The other candidates campaigned in a more modern fashion, but despite the split in the Republican party, the results were similar to those of 1920. Coolidge and Dawes won every state outside the South except Wisconsin, La Follette's home state. Coolidge won the election with 382 electoral votes and the popular vote by 2.5 million over his opponents' combined total.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: During Coolidge's presidency, the United States experienced a period of rapid economic growth known as the "Roaring Twenties". He left the administration's industrial policy in the hands of his activist Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, who energetically used government auspices to promote business efficiency and develop airlines and radio. Coolidge disdained regulation and demonstrated this by appointing commissioners to the Federal Trade Commission and the Interstate Commerce Commission who did little to restrict the activities of businesses under their jurisdiction. The regulatory state under Coolidge was, as one biographer described it, "thin to the point of invisibility".


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Historian Robert Sobel offers some context of Coolidge's "laissez-faire" ideology, based on the prevailing understanding of federalism during his presidency: "As Governor of Massachusetts, Coolidge supported wages and hours legislation, opposed child labor, imposed economic controls during World War I, favored safety measures in factories, and even worker representation on corporate boards. Did he support these measures while president? No, because in the 1920s, such matters were considered the responsibilities of state and local governments."


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge adopted the taxation policies of his Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, who advocated "scientific taxation"the notion that lowering taxes will increase, rather than decrease, government receipts. Congress agreed, and tax rates were reduced in Coolidge's term. In addition to federal tax cuts, Coolidge proposed reductions in federal expenditures and retiring of the federal debt. Coolidge's ideas were shared by the Republicans in Congress, and in 1924, Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1924, which reduced income tax rates and eliminated all income taxation for some two million people. They reduced taxes again by passing the Revenue Acts of 1926 and 1928, all the while continuing to keep spending down so as to reduce the overall federal debt. By 1927, only the wealthiest 2% of taxpayers paid any federal income tax. Federal spending remained flat during Coolidge's administration, allowing one-fourth of the federal debt to be retired in total. State and local governments saw considerable growth, however, surpassing the federal budget in 1927. By 1929, after Coolidge's series of tax rate reductions had cut the tax rate to 24 percent on those making over $100,000, the federal government collected more than a billion dollars in income taxes, of which 65 percent was collected from those making over $100,000. In 1921, when the tax rate on people making over $100,000 a year was 73 percent, the federal government collected a little over $700 million in income taxes, of which 30 percent was paid by those making over $100,000.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Perhaps the most contentious issue of Coolidge's presidency was relief for farmers. Some in Congress proposed a bill designed to fight falling agricultural prices by allowing the federal government to purchase crops to sell abroad at lower prices. Agriculture Secretary Henry C. Wallace and other administration officials favored the bill when it was introduced in 1924, but rising prices convinced many in Congress that the bill was unnecessary, and it was defeated just before the elections that year. In 1926, with farm prices falling once more, Senator Charles L. McNary and Representative Gilbert N. Haugenboth Republicansproposed the McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill. The bill proposed a federal farm board that would purchase surplus production in high-yield years and hold it (when feasible) for later sale or sell it abroad. Coolidge opposed McNary-Haugen, declaring that agriculture must stand "on an independent business basis", and said that "government control cannot be divorced from political control." Instead of manipulating prices, he favored instead Herbert Hoover's proposal to increase profitability by modernizing agriculture. Secretary Mellon wrote a letter denouncing the McNary-Haugen measure as unsound and likely to cause inflation, and it was defeated.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: After McNary-Haugen's defeat, Coolidge supported a less radical measure, the Curtis-Crisp Act, which would have created a federal board to lend money to farm co-operatives in times of surplus; the bill did not pass. In February 1927, Congress took up the McNary-Haugen bill again, this time narrowly passing it, and Coolidge vetoed it. In his veto message, he expressed the belief that the bill would do nothing to help farmers, benefiting only exporters and expanding the federal bureaucracy. Congress did not override the veto, but it passed the bill again in May 1928 by an increased majority; again, Coolidge vetoed it. "Farmers never have made much money," said Coolidge, the Vermont farmer's son. "I do not believe we can do much about it."


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge has often been criticized for his actions during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the worst natural disaster to hit the Gulf Coast until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Although he did eventually name Secretary Hoover to a commission in charge of flood relief, scholars argue that Coolidge overall showed a lack of interest in federal flood control. Coolidge did not believe that personally visiting the region after the floods would accomplish anything, and that it would be seen as mere political grandstanding. He also did not want to incur the federal spending that flood control would require; he believed property owners should bear much of the cost. On the other hand, Congress wanted a bill that would place the federal government completely in charge of flood mitigation. When Congress passed a compromise measure in 1928, Coolidge declined to take credit for it and signed the bill in private on May 15.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: According to one biographer, Coolidge was "devoid of racial prejudice", but rarely took the lead on civil rights. Coolidge disliked the Ku Klux Klan and no Klansman is known to have received an appointment from him. In the 1924 presidential election his opponents (Robert La Follette and John Davis), and his running mate Charles Dawes, often attacked the Klan but Coolidge avoided the subject. During his administration, lynchings of African-Americans decreased and millions of people left the Ku Klux Klan.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge spoke in favor of the civil rights of African Americans, saying in his first State of the Union address that their rights were "just as sacred as those of any other citizen" under the U.S. Constitution and that it was a "public and a private duty to protect those rights."


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge repeatedly called for laws to make lynching a federal crime (it was already a state crime, though not always enforced). Congress refused to pass any such legislation. On June 2, 1924, Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans living on reservations. (Those off reservations had long been citizens.) On June 6, 1924, Coolidge delivered a commencement address at historically black, non-segregated Howard University, in which he thanked and commended African Americans for their rapid advances in education and their contributions to U.S. society over the years, as well as their eagerness to render their services as soldiers in the World War, all while being faced with discrimination and prejudices at home.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: In a speech in October 1924, Coolidge stressed tolerance of differences as an American value and thanked immigrants for their contributions to U.S. society, saying that they have "contributed much to making our country what it is." He stated that although the diversity of peoples was a detrimental source of conflict and tension in Europe, it was peculiar for the United States that it was a "harmonious" benefit for the country. Coolidge further stated the United States should assist and help immigrants who come to the country and urged immigrants to reject "race hatreds" and "prejudices".


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge was neither well versed nor very interested in world affairs. His focus was directed mainly at American business, especially pertaining to trade, and "Maintaining the Status Quo". Although not an isolationist, he was reluctant to enter into European involvements. While Coolidge believed strongly in a non-interventionist foreign policy, he did believe that the United States was exceptional.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge considered the 1920 Republican victory as a rejection of the Wilsonian position that the United States should join the League of Nations. Coolidge believed the League did not serve American interests. However, he spoke in favor of joining the Permanent Court of International Justice (World Court), provided that the nation would not be bound by advisory decisions. In 1926, the Senate eventually approved joining the Court (with reservations). The League of Nations accepted the reservations, but it suggested some modifications of its own. The Senate failed to act and so the United States did not join the World Court.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge authorized the Dawes Plan, a financial plan by Charles Dawes, to provide Germany partial relief from its reparations obligations from World War I. The plan initially provided stimulus for the German economy. Additionally, Coolidge attempted to pursue further curbs on naval strength following the early successes of Harding's Washington Naval Conference by sponsoring the Geneva Naval Conference in 1927, which failed owing to a French and Italian boycott and ultimate failure of Great Britain and the United States to agree on cruiser tonnages. As a result, the conference was a failure and Congress eventually authorized for increased American naval spending in 1928. The Kellogg–Briand Pact of 1928, named for Coolidge's Secretary of State, Frank B. Kellogg, and French foreign minister Aristide Briand, was also a key peacekeeping initiative. The treaty, ratified in 1929, committed signatoriesthe United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Japanto "renounce war, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another". The treaty did not achieve its intended resultthe outlawry of warbut it did provide the founding principle for international law after World War II. Coolidge also continued the previous administration's policy of withholding recognition of the Soviet Union.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Efforts were made to normalize ties with post-Revolution Mexico. Coolidge recognized Mexico's new governments under Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles, and continued American support for the elected Mexican government against the National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty during the Cristero War, lifting the arms embargo on that country; he also appointed Dwight Morrow as Ambassador to Mexico with the successful objective to avoid further American conflict with Mexico.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge's administration would see continuity in the occupation of Nicaragua and Haiti, and an end to the occupation of the Dominican Republic in 1924 as a result of withdrawal agreements finalized during Harding's administration. In 1925, Coolidge ordered the withdrawal of Marines stationed in Nicaragua following perceived stability after the 1924 Nicaraguan general election, but redeployed them there in January 1927 following failed attempts to peacefully resolve the rapid deterioration of political stability and avert the ensuing Constitutionalist War; Henry L. Stimson was later sent by Coolidge to mediate a peace deal that would end the civil war and extend American military presence in Nicaragua beyond Coolidge's term in office.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: To extend an olive branch to Latin American leaders embittered over America's interventionist policies in Central America and the Caribbean, Coolidge led the U.S. delegation to the Sixth International Conference of American States, January 15–17, 1928, in Havana, Cuba, the only international trip Coolidge made during his presidency. He would be the last sitting American president to visit Cuba until Barack Obama in 2016.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: For Canada, Coolidge authorized the St. Lawrence Seaway, a system of locks and canals that would provide large vessels passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Although a few of Harding's cabinet appointees were scandal-tarred, Coolidge initially retained all of them, out of an ardent conviction that as successor to a deceased elected president he was obligated to retain Harding's counselors and policies until the next election. He kept Harding's able speechwriter Judson T. Welliver; Stuart Crawford replaced Welliver in November 1925. Coolidge appointed C. Bascom Slemp, a Virginia Congressman and experienced federal politician, to work jointly with Edward T. Clark, a Massachusetts Republican organizer whom he retained from his vice-presidential staff, as Secretaries to the President (a position equivalent to the modern White House Chief of Staff).


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Perhaps the most powerful person in Coolidge's Cabinet was Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, who controlled the administration's financial policies and was regarded by many, including House Minority Leader John Nance Garner, as more powerful than Coolidge himself. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover also held a prominent place in Coolidge's Cabinet, in part because Coolidge found value in Hoover's ability to win positive publicity with his pro-business proposals. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes directed Coolidge's foreign policy until he resigned in 1925 following Coolidge's re-election. He was replaced by Frank B. Kellogg, who had previously served as a senator and as the ambassador to Great Britain. Coolidge made two other appointments following his re-election, with William M. Jardine taking the position of Secretary of Agriculture and John G. Sargent becoming Attorney General. Coolidge did not have a vice president during his first term, but Charles Dawes became vice president during Coolidge's second term, and Dawes and Coolidge clashed over farm policy and other issues.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge appointed one justice to the Supreme Court of the United States, Harlan F. Stone in 1925. Stone was Coolidge's fellow Amherst alumnus, a Wall Street lawyer and conservative Republican. Stone was serving as dean of Columbia Law School when Coolidge appointed him to be attorney general in 1924 to restore the reputation tarnished by Harding's Attorney General, Harry M. Daugherty. It does not appear that Coolidge considered appointing anyone other than Stone, although Stone himself had urged Coolidge to appoint Benjamin N. Cardozo. Stone proved to be a firm believer in judicial restraint and was regarded as one of the court's three liberal justices who would often vote to uphold New Deal legislation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt later appointed Stone to be chief justice.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge nominated 17 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals and 61 judges to the United States district courts. He appointed judges to various specialty courts as well, including Genevieve R. Cline, who became the first woman named to the federal judiciary when Coolidge placed her on the United States Customs Court in 1928. Coolidge also signed the Judiciary Act of 1925 into law, allowing the Supreme Court more discretion over its workload.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: In the summer of 1927, Coolidge vacationed in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where he engaged in horseback riding and fly fishing and attended rodeos. He made Custer State Park his "summer White House". While on vacation, Coolidge surprisingly issued a terse statement that he would not seek a second full term as president: "I do not choose to run for President in 1928." After allowing the reporters to take that in, Coolidge elaborated. "If I take another term, I will be in the White House till 1933 … Ten years in Washington is longer than any other man has had ittoo long!" In his memoirs, Coolidge explained his decision not to run: "The Presidential office takes a heavy toll of those who occupy it and those who are dear to them. While we should not refuse to spend and be spent in the service of our country, it is hazardous to attempt what we feel is beyond our strength to accomplish." After leaving office, he and Grace returned to Northampton, where he wrote his memoirs. The Republicans retained the White House in 1928 with a landslide by Herbert Hoover. Coolidge had been reluctant to endorse Hoover as his successor; on one occasion he remarked that "for six years that man has given me unsolicited adviceall of it bad." Even so, Coolidge had no desire to split the party by publicly opposing the nomination of the popular commerce secretary.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: After his presidency, Coolidge retired to a spacious home in Northampton, "The Beeches". He kept a Hacker runabout boat on the Connecticut River and was often observed on the water by local boating enthusiasts. During this period, he also served as chairman of the Non-Partisan Railroad Commission, an entity created by several banks and corporations to survey the country's long-term transportation needs and make recommendations for improvements. He was an honorary president of the American Foundation for the Blind, a director of New York Life Insurance Company, president of the American Antiquarian Society, and a trustee of Amherst College.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge published his autobiography in 1929 and wrote a syndicated newspaper column, "Calvin Coolidge Says", from 1930 to 1931. Faced with a Democratic landslide in the 1932 presidential election, some Republicans spoke of rejecting Hoover as their party's nominee, and instead drafting Coolidge to run. Coolidge made it clear that he was not interested in running again, and that he would publicly repudiate any effort to draft him. Hoover was renominated, and Coolidge made several radio addresses in support of him. Hoover then lost the general election to Coolidge's 1920 vice presidential Democratic opponent Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Coolidge died suddenly from coronary thrombosis at "The Beeches", at 12:45 p.m., January 5, 1933, at age 60. Shortly before his death, Coolidge confided to an old friend: "I feel I no longer fit in with these times." Coolidge is buried in Plymouth Notch Cemetery, Plymouth Notch, Vermont. The nearby family home is maintained as one of the original buildings on the Calvin Coolidge Homestead District site. The State of Vermont dedicated a new visitors' center nearby to mark Coolidge's 100th birthday on July 4, 1972.


title: Calvin Coolidge

text: Despite his reputation as a quiet and even reclusive politician, Coolidge made use of the new medium of radio and made radio history several times while president. He made himself available to reporters, giving 520 press conferences, meeting with reporters more regularly than any president before or since. Coolidge's second inauguration was the first presidential inauguration broadcast on radio. On December 6, 1923, his speech to Congress was broadcast on radio, the first presidential radio address. Coolidge signed the Radio Act of 1927, which assigned regulation of radio to the newly created Federal Radio Commission. On August 11, 1924, Theodore W. Case, using the Phonofilm sound-on-film process he developed for Lee de Forest, filmed Coolidge on the White House lawn, making "Silent Cal" the first president to appear in a sound film. The title of the DeForest film was "President Coolidge, Taken on the White House Grounds". When Charles Lindbergh arrived in Washington on a U.S. Navy ship after his celebrated 1927 trans-Atlantic flight, President Coolidge welcomed him back to the U.S. and presented him with the Medal of Honor; the event was captured on film.


title: Aaron Carter

text: Aaron Charles Carter (December 7, 1987November 5, 2022) was an American singer and rapper. He came to fame as a teen pop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among preteen and teenage audiences during the first years of the 21st century, with his four studio albums.


title: Aaron Carter

text: Carter began performing at age seven, after the formation of his brother Nick's group the Backstreet Boys, and released his self-titled debut album in 1997 at age nine, selling a million copies worldwide. His second album "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)" (2000) sold three million copies in the United States, and Carter began making guest appearances on Nickelodeon and touring with the Backstreet Boys shortly after the record's release. Carter's next album, "Oh Aaron", also went platinum, and in 2002 he released what would be his last studio album in over 15 years, "Another Earthquake!", followed by his 2003 "Most Requested Hits" collection.


title: Aaron Carter

text: Carter appeared on "Dancing with the Stars", and in the Broadway musical "Seussical" and the off-Broadway musical "The Fantasticks", and made several one-off performances. In 2014, he released a single featuring rapper Pat SoLo, "Ooh Wee". Carter released the single "Fool's Gold" in 2016, and an EP titled "Love" in 2017. His fifth studio album, also titled "Love", was released in 2018. A sixth and final album, "Blacklisted", was released two days after his death.


title: Aaron Carter

text: Aaron Charles Carter was born on December 7, 1987, in Tampa, Florida. His parents, Jane Elizabeth (née Spaulding) and Robert Gene Carter (1952–2017), ran a retirement home. He had an older brother, Nick, a member of the Backstreet Boys, and three sisters: his twin, Angel, a model; Bobbie Jean (BJ); and Leslie (1986–2012). The family was originally from Jamestown, New York. His parents divorced in 2004. Carter was told about the divorce an hour before he filmed his "MTV Cribs" episode.


title: Aaron Carter

text: Carter began his career as the lead singer of Dead End, a band formed after the members met at a Tampa rock school. He left the band after two years because he wanted to perform pop music, while the other members were interested in alternative rock.


title: Aaron Carter

text: Carter made his first solo appearance at age 9, singing The Jets' "Crush on You" when opening for the Backstreet Boys in Berlin in March 1997. The performance was followed by a record contract, and in the fall of 1997, he released his first single "Crush on You". Carter's self-titled debut studio album was released on December 1, 1997. The album achieved gold status in Norway, Spain, Denmark, Canada, and Germany, and was released in the United States on June 16, 1998.


title: Aaron Carter

text: Carter's second studio album, "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", was released in the United States on September 26, 2000, under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3× platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq", and "Bounce", all of which received airplay on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as the opening act in several concerts for the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again Tour.


title: Aaron Carter

text: In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series "Lizzie McGuire". That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM Studios live on Disney Channel, titled "Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert". Carter's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as "". In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in the musical "Seussical".


title: Aaron Carter

text: At the age of 13, Carter recorded his third studio album "Oh Aaron", which was released on August 7, 2001, and featured his first duet recording with his brother Nick, and a song with the group No Secrets. Play Along Toys created an Aaron Carter doll in conjunction with the album's release. "Oh Aaron" went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as "". His songs "Leave It Up to Me", "A.C.'s Alien Nation", and "Go Jimmy Jimmy" were used in the for the 2001 film "".


title: Aaron Carter

text: Carter's fourth studio album, "Another Earthquake!", was released on September 3, 2002, during the Rock, Rap and Retro Tour. The album featured the patriotic-themed "America A.O." and the ballad "Do You Remember". He guest-starred on three episodes of the Nickelodeon television series "All That" and also sang "Through My Own Eyes", the theme song to the PBS animated series "Liberty's Kids", alongside Kayla Hinkle.


title: Aaron Carter

text: In 2002, Carter's parents filed a lawsuit against his former manager Lou Pearlman, alleging failure to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties on Carter's 1998 album, which was released through Pearlman's label and production company Trans Continental. On March 13, 2003, Pearlman was declared in contempt of court for ignoring a court order to produce documents relating to royalty payments; however, the suit itself was settled out of court.


title: Aaron Carter

text: Carter's "Most Requested Hits", a collection including tracks from his last three albums as well as a new single, "One Better", was released on November 3, 2003.


title: Aaron Carter

text: "Saturday Night" was released on March 22, 2005, and promoted by Carter that summer. The song was released by Trans Continental label, with Lou Pearlman as executive producer. The single was also featured in the soundtrack of the film "Popstar", in which Carter starred. The direct-to-video film was based heavily on his own life as a performer. A real-life motocross racer, Carter also appeared in the 2005 film "Supercross".


title: Aaron Carter

text: On March 21, 2006, Trans Continental filed a lawsuit against Carter with the Los Angeles County Superior Court, citing that Carter reneged on a recording deal. Carter signed the contract on December 7, 2004, when he was 17; his attorney argued that Carter had the right to "cancel or void various agreements" that were signed when he was a minor.


title: Aaron Carter

text: Carter and his siblings starred in a reality show, "House of Carters", which ran from October to November 2006 on E!. The series featured all five Carter siblings reuniting to live in the same house.


title: Aaron Carter

text: In 2009, Carter joined season 9 of "Dancing with the Stars". He was partnered with Karina Smirnoff; they finished in fifth place. During this time he also released some music online, including the single "Dance with Me" featuring Flo Rida.


title: Aaron Carter

text: On January 23, 2011, Carter's manager Johnny Wright announced that Carter entered a treatment facility "to heal some emotional and spiritual issues he was dealing with." After entering the facility, Carter's first message to his fans was, "The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human." On February 10, 2011, it was announced that Carter had successfully completed a month of rehab at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California.


title: Aaron Carter

text: On November 7, 2011, Carter began starring in the off-Broadway production of the world's longest running musical, "The Fantasticks", at the Snapple Theater Center in New York City. Carter was cast in the role of Matt, the play's central character.


title: Aaron Carter

text: In January 2012, Carter was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series "". He was eliminated in the first episode.


title: Aaron Carter

text: In 2013, Carter kicked off his first tour in eight years, the After Party Tour. The tour ran from February to December 2013, and included over 150 shows in the United States and Canada.


title: Aaron Carter

text: In June 2014, Carter went on an 11-city Canadian tour during which he performed new songs from his upcoming album. Carter also announced that he would be embarking on a worldwide tour entitled the Wonderful World Tour, named for a song titled "Wonderful World" off of his upcoming album. The tour included 50 dates and ran from September 2014 until January 2015. In July, Carter appeared on "Good Day L.A.", where he performed "Ooh Wee", a single featuring Pat SoLo. In February 2015, Carter released an EP through SoundCloud titled "The Music Never Stopped".


title: Aaron Carter

text: On January 31, 2016, Carter released his music video for "Curious" under the name Kid Carter, co-directed by MDM Media's Michael D. Monroe, Ben Epstein, and himself.


title: Aaron Carter

text: In April 2016, Carter released the single "Fool's Gold". Another single, "Sooner or Later", was released in January 2017. Both songs appeared on the EP "Love", released in February 2017, written by Carter, Jon Asher, Melanie Fontana, Taylor "Lakestreet Louie" Helgeson, and Michel Schulz, produced and independently released by Carter on his new venture Rakkaus Records. An album of the same name was released as his fifth studio album on February 16, 2018.


title: Aaron Carter

text: As a teenager, Carter dated several high-profile celebrities, including Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan. On September 17, 2006, at age 18, Carter became engaged to former beauty queen and Playboy model Kari Ann Peniche; he proposed to her on stage while performing at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Carter broke off the engagement after six days, saying his decision to propose was impulsive. He began dating Madison Parker in 2016; they broke up in August 2017.


title: Aaron Carter

text: Carter came out as bisexual on August 5, 2017, through Twitter, and later that year on December 18, he made a guest appearance on the podcast "LGBTQ&A" to discuss both his career and sexuality. He reaffirmed his bisexuality publicly on at least one other occasion, but said all his past relationships were with women.


title: Aaron Carter

text: According to the California Child Actor's Bill, Carter's parents were supposed to have put 15% of his earnings into a Coogan Account. Per Carter, "I got, like, $2 million when I turned 18 years old. I should have had at least $20 million in my account." After he turned 18 in 2005, Carter learned that he owed $4 million in tax liens. On November 22, 2013, Carter filed a bankruptcy petition to shed more than $3.5 million in debt, mostly taxes owed from the money made at the height of his popularity when he was a minor. The petition states that Carter owed the Internal Revenue Service $1.3 million in back taxes from his income in 2003. Carter claimed that his earnings had helped his parents to purchase 15 houses and 30 cars; however, he did not get any portion of profits when his parents sold the properties. He also claimed that his father shot a .44 Magnum near his ear, which caused him to go 70% deaf in one ear, in order to coerce him into signing a $256,000 check. Carter settled all of his tax debt in 2014.


title: Aaron Carter

text: In March 2020, Carter set up an OnlyFans account, which is popular in the adult entertainment industry, to make money. Carter began charging $50 to $100 per nude photo, or $26 a month. "PinkNews" stated "the prices are steep and the content is bizarre", while "Queerty" stated "The reviews of Aaron Carter's OnlyFans page are in and they're not good."


title: Aaron Carter

text: In September 2017, Carter appeared on "The Doctors", a syndicated health-focused talk show, to discuss public attention generated by his gaunt appearance and drug-related arrests. A series of tests revealed Carter was not suffering from cancer or any sexually transmitted disease, but he did have a candida infection, which can be a sign of a weakened immune system. Carter tested negative for illegal drugs, but he tested positive for "a mixture of benzodiazepines with opiates", a potentially dangerous combination of prescription medications that Carter said he took for anxiety and sleep.


title: Aaron Carter

text: Carter was malnourished and underweight, at , and was advised to enter a drug rehabilitation program and remain under medical care; he later admitted himself to Alo House, a treatment center in Malibu, California. In February 2018, he reported improvement and that his weight was . In 2019, Carter and his mother, Jane, appeared in the We TV reality series "Marriage Bootcamp: Family Edition". The series focuses on attempting to repair strained relationships through unconventional therapy.


title: Aaron Carter

text: In a further appearance on "The Doctors" in 2019, Carter disclosed that he had been diagnosed with both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.


title: Aaron Carter

text: On February 21, 2008, Carter was arrested in Kimble County, Texas, when he was pulled over for speeding, and authorities found less than two ounces of marijuana in his car.


title: Aaron Carter

text: On July 15, 2017, Carter was arrested in Georgia on suspicion of driving under the influence and marijuana charges. On October 19, 2021, Carter agreed to plead no contest to reckless driving and was placed on probation and, among other conditions, was ordered to perform community service and pay $1,500 in court fees and fines.


title: Aaron Carter

text: On August 12, 2019, Carter was granted a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend, Russian model Lina Valentina, after she reportedly threatened to stab him. On March 29, 2020, Carter's girlfriend Melanie Martin was arrested in Los Angeles following an alleged domestic violence incident against him.


title: Aaron Carter

text: Carter had a tumultuous relationship with his siblings, and many of their feuds have played out on social media. In September 2019, Carter made allegations of sexual abuse against his sister Leslie, who died of a drug overdose in 2012, saying that the abuse began when he was ten years old and ended when he was 13, and occurred when Leslie would fail to take her prescribed medication for her bipolar disorder. He also accused his brother Nick of life-long abuse, and implied that Nick also abused a female family member. Nick's legal team denied the allegations, which came after Nick and their sister, Angel, sought restraining orders against Carter, who reportedly confessed that he had had thoughts of killing Nick's then-pregnant wife, Lauren Carter.


title: Aaron Carter

text: In January 2020, German artist Jonas Jödicke tweeted that Carter was making unauthorized use of Jödicke's copyrighted artwork to promote merchandise. Carter replied on Twitter that Jödicke "should've taken it as a compliment". Following the incident, Jödicke was interviewed by "Forbes", saying he was "absolutely amazed" at Carter's response. In June 2021, Carter agreed to pay Jödicke $12,500.


title: Aaron Carter

text: In August 2021, Carter was announced as a performer in the Las Vegas production of "Naked Boys Singing!". He was let go before the show's debut because he refused to be vaccinated for COVID-19.


title: Aaron Carter

text: On November 5, 2022, Carter died at his home in Lancaster, California, at age 34. His body was found in his bathtub by a housekeeper. An autopsy was performed but the cause of death was deferred, pending a toxicology report.


title: Aaron Carter

text: Carter was cremated on Wednesday, November 9, 2022. His ashes are being held by his twin sister, Angel. According to the death certificate, the first person to be notified of his death was his mother, Jane Schneck (formerly Carter).


title: Brian Jones

text: Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the founder, rhythm/lead guitarist, and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a guitarist, he went on to provide backing vocals and played a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones recordings and in concerts.


title: Brian Jones

text: After he founded the Rolling Stones as a British blues outfit in 1962, and gave the band its name, Jones' fellow band members Keith Richards and Mick Jagger began to take over the band's musical direction, especially after they became a successful songwriting team. Jones and fellow guitarist Richards also developed a unique style of guitar play that Richards refers to as the "ancient art of weaving" in which both players would play rhythm and lead parts together, which became a Rolling Stones trademark. Jones, however, did not get along with the band's manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, who pushed the band into a musical direction at odds with Jones' blues background, and with whom he got into many fights.


title: Brian Jones

text: When Jones developed alcohol and drug problems, his performance in the studio became increasingly unreliable, leading to a diminished role within the band he had founded. In June 1969, the Rolling Stones dismissed Jones; guitarist Mick Taylor took his place in the group. Less than a month later, Jones died by drowning in the swimming pool at his home at Cotchford Farm, East Sussex. His death was referenced in songs by many other pop bands, and Pete Townshend and Jim Morrison wrote poems about it. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Rolling Stones.


title: Brian Jones

text: Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones was born in the Park Nursing Home in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on 28 February 1942. An attack of croup at the age of four left Jones with asthma that lasted for the rest of his life. His middle-class parents, Lewis Blount Jones and Louisa Beatrice Jones ("née" Simmonds), were of Welsh descent. Brian had two sisters; Pamela, who was born on 3 October 1943 and died on 14 October 1945 of leukaemia; and Barbara, born on 22 August 1946.


title: Brian Jones

text: Jones attended local schools, including Dean Close School from September 1949 to July 1953; and Cheltenham Grammar School for Boys, (now Pate's Grammar School) which he entered in September 1953 after passing the eleven-plus exam. He enjoyed badminton and diving at school, and became first clarinet in the school orchestra. Jones reportedly obtained seven O-level passes in 1957, thence continuing into the sixth form and obtaining a further two O-levels. He passed A-levels in physics and chemistry, but failed biology.


title: Brian Jones

text: Jones was able to perform well in exams despite a lack of academic effort. However, he found school regimented, and disliked school uniforms and conformism in general; Jones himself said: "When I made the sixth form I found myself accepted by the older boys; suddenly I was in". His hostility to authority figures resulted in his suspension from school on two occasions. According to Dick Hattrell, a childhood friend: "He was a rebel without a cause, but when examinations came he was brilliant".


title: Brian Jones

text: Both Jones' parents were interested in music; his father was a piano teacher in addition to his job as an aeronautical engineer, and his mother played piano and organ and led the choir at the local church. Jones listened to classical music as a child but preferred blues, particularly Elmore James and Robert Johnson. In 1957 he first heard Cannonball Adderley's music and took an interest in jazz. Jones persuaded his parents to buy him a saxophone and two years later his parents gave him his first acoustic guitar as a 17th-birthday present. Jones began performing at local blues and jazz clubs, while busking and working odd jobs. He reportedly stole small amounts of money from work to pay for cigarettes, for which he was fired.


title: Brian Jones

text: In late summer 1959, when both were aged 17, Jones' girlfriend, a Cheltenham schoolgirl named Valerie Corbett, became pregnant. Although Jones is said to have encouraged her to have an abortion, she carried the child to term and placed the baby for adoption. Jones quit school in disgrace and left home, travelling for a summer through northern Europe. During this period, he lived a bohemian lifestyle, busking with his guitar on the streets for money and living off the charity of others. Eventually, he ran short of money and returned to England.


title: Brian Jones

text: In November 1959, Jones went to the Wooden Bridge Hotel in Guildford to see a band perform. He met a young married woman named Angeline, and the two had a one-night stand that resulted in her pregnancy. Angeline and her husband decided to raise the baby, Belinda, born on 4 August 1960. Jones never knew about the pregnancy or her birth.


title: Brian Jones

text: In 1961, Jones applied for a scholarship to Cheltenham Art College. He was initially accepted into the programme, but two days later the offer was withdrawn after an unidentified acquaintance wrote to the college, calling Jones an irresponsible drifter. Later that year, on 22 October, Jones' girlfriend Pat Andrews gave birth to his third child, Julian Mark Andrews. Jones moved in with them and sold his record collection to buy flowers for Andrews and clothes for the newborn.


title: Brian Jones

text: In a television interview in 1965, Andrews stated that in the early days of their relationship, although she and Jones were both working, his interest in the guitar meant he didn't have much money for buying food or anything beyond paying the rent. According to Andrews, Jones was initially proud of Julian Mark (called Mark), but when the Rolling Stones acquired a manager, Brian was instructed not to be seen with either mother or child. Jones, she said, agreed, telling her she'd have to "put up with it for a few months" until the band had had some success. However, once the Stones did become successful, she noted Jones "just seemed to drift away", becoming more interested in famous people he met, and that she "never received a penny from Brian at all". In the same interview, Pat also noted she felt sorry for Brian as "he just uses people".


title: Brian Jones

text: In early 1963, Jones began a relationship with Linda Lawrence. On 23 July 1964, Lawrence gave birth to Jones' fourth child, Julian Brian Lawrence. Lawrence later married Scottish folk/pop singer Donovan. They raised Julian together, changing his name to Julian Leitch. Two years later, while on tour, Jones met Italian-German model and actress Anita Pallenberg backstage and began a significant relationship with her. Jones became extremely abusive, at one point breaking his hand on Pallenberg's face. In 1967, Pallenberg left Jones for his bandmate Keith Richards, which added to tensions between Brian and Keith.


title: Brian Jones

text: Brian had subsequent relationships with English model Suki Potier and Swedish model Anna Wohlin, as well as a short relationship in 1968 with American model Donyale Luna, who appeared with him in the concert film "The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus" several months before his death. Wohlin was living with Jones in 1969 when he died, and has written two books about her time with him.


title: Brian Jones

text: In early October 1964, Jones' occasional girlfriend, Dawn Molloy, announced to Jones and the Rolling Stones' management that she was pregnant by him. She received a cheque for £700 () from group manager Andrew Loog Oldham. In return, she signed an agreement that the matter was now closed and that she would make no statement about Jones or the child to the public or the press. The undated statement was signed by Molloy and witnessed by Mick Jagger.


title: Brian Jones

text: Jones left Cheltenham and moved to London, where he became friends with fellow musicians Alexis Korner, future Manfred Mann singer Paul Jones, future Cream bassist Jack Bruce, and others who made up the small London rhythm and blues and jazz scene. He became a blues musician, for a brief time calling himself "Elmo Lewis" and playing slide guitar. He also started a group with Paul Jones called the Roosters. In January 1963, after both Jones and Paul left the group, Eric Clapton took over Brian's position as guitarist.


title: Brian Jones

text: Jones placed an advertisement in the 2 May 1962 edition of "Jazz News", a Soho club information sheet, inviting musicians to audition for a new R&B group at the Bricklayer's Arms pub; pianist Ian Stewart was the first to respond. Later, singer Mick Jagger also joined this band; Jagger and his childhood friend Keith Richards had met Jones when he and Paul were playing Elmore James' "Dust My Broom" with Korner's band at the Ealing Jazz Club. Jagger brought guitarist Richards to rehearsals; Richards then joined the band. Jones' and Stewart's acceptance of Richards and the Chuck Berry songs he wanted to play coincided with the departure of blues purists guitarist Geoff Bradford and singer Brian Knight, who had no tolerance for Chuck Berry.


title: Brian Jones

text: As Richards tells it, Jones came up with the name the "Rollin' Stones" (later with the 'g') while on the phone with a venue owner. "The voice on the other end of the line obviously said, 'What are you called?' Panic! "The Best of Muddy Waters" album was lying on the floor—and track five, side one was 'Rollin' Stone Blues'". The Rollin' Stones played their first gig on 12 July 1962 at the Marquee Club in London, with a line-up of Jagger, Richards, Jones, Stewart, bass player Dick Taylor (later of the Pretty Things) and drummer Tony Chapman.


title: Brian Jones

text: From September 1962 to September 1963, Jones, Jagger and Richards shared a flat (referred to by Richards as "a beautiful dump") at 102 Edith Grove, Chelsea, with James Phelge, a future photographer whose name was used in some of the group's early "Nanker/Phelge" writing credits. Jones and Richards spent day after day playing guitar while listening to blues records (notably Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Howlin' Wolf). During this time, Jones also taught Jagger how to play harmonica.


title: Brian Jones

text: The four Stones went searching for a bassist and drummer, finally settling on Bill Wyman on bass because he had a spare VOX AC30 guitar amplifier and always had cigarettes, as well as a bass guitar that he had built himself. After playing with Mick Avory, Tony Chapman and Carlo Little, in January 1963 they finally persuaded jazz-influenced Charlie Watts to join them. At the time, Watts was considered by fellow musicians to be one of the better drummers in London; he had played with (among others) Alexis Korner's group Blues Incorporated.


title: Brian Jones

text: Watts described Jones' role in these early days: "Brian was very instrumental in pushing the band at the beginning. Keith and I would look at him and say he was barmy. It was a crusade to him to get us on the stage in a club and be paid half-a-crown and to be billed as an R&B band".


title: Brian Jones

text: While acting as the band's business manager, Jones received £5 more than the other members (), which did not sit well with the rest of the band and created resentment. Richards has said that both he and Jagger were surprised to learn that Jones considered himself the leader and was receiving the extra £5, especially as other people, like Giorgio Gomelsky, appeared to be doing the booking.


title: Brian Jones

text: Jones was a gifted multi-instrumentalist, proficient on a wide variety of musical instruments. Prior to his dismissal from the Stones in 1969, Jones typically played all their instruments that varied from the drums, guitars, piano, and bass that were standard in rock. His ability to play a wide variety of instruments is most evident on the albums "Aftermath" (1966), "Between the Buttons" (1967) and "Their Satanic Majesties Request" (1967). As a guitarist, in the early days he favoured a white teardrop-shaped electric guitar produced by the Vox company, especially in live performances; he also played a wide variety of electric and acoustic guitars from companies such as Rickenbacker, Gibson, and Fender. As a slide guitarist, he favoured the open E and open G tunings.


title: Brian Jones

text: Examples of Jones' contributions are his slide guitar on "I Wanna Be Your Man" (1963), "I'm a King Bee", "Little Red Rooster" (1964), "I Can't Be Satisfied" (1964), "I'm Movin' On" (1965), "Doncha Bother Me" and "No Expectations". Jones can also be heard playing Bo Diddley-style rhythm guitar on "I Need You Baby", "Please Go Home", "19th Nervous Breakdown", and the guitar riff in "The Last Time"; sitar on "Street Fighting Man" and "Paint It Black"; organ on "Let's Spend the Night Together"; marimba on "Under My Thumb", "Out of Time" and "Yesterday's Papers"; recorder on "Ruby Tuesday" and "All Sold Out"; saxophone on "Child of the Moon" and "Citadel"; kazoo on "Cool, Calm & Collected"; Appalachian dulcimer on "I Am Waiting" and "Lady Jane", Mellotron on "She's a Rainbow", "We Love You", "Stray Cat Blues", "2000 Light Years from Home", and "Citadel"; and the autoharp on "Ride On, Baby" and (for his final recording as a Rolling Stone) on "You Got the Silver". He also played the oboe/soprano sax solo in "Dandelion".