title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: For a time, "Arthur M. Anderson" directed "Edmund Fitzgerald" toward the relative safety of Whitefish Bay; then, at 4:39 p.m., McSorley contacted the USCG station in Grand Marais, Michigan, to inquire whether the Whitefish Point light and navigation beacon were operational. The USCG replied that their monitoring equipment indicated that both instruments were inactive. McSorley then hailed any ships in the Whitefish Point area to report the state of the navigational aids, receiving an answer from Captain Cedric Woodard of "Avafors" between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. that the Whitefish Point light was on but not the radio beacon. Woodard testified to the Marine Board that he overheard McSorley say, "Don't allow nobody on deck," as well as something about a vent that Woodard could not understand. Some time later, McSorley told Woodard, "I have a 'bad list', I have lost both radars, and am taking heavy seas over the deck in one of the worst seas I have ever been in."


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: By late in the afternoon of November 10, sustained winds of over were recorded by ships and observation points across eastern Lake Superior. "Arthur M. Anderson" logged sustained winds as high as at 4:52 p.m., while waves increased to as high as by 6:00 p.m. "Arthur M. Anderson" was also struck by gusts and rogue waves as high as .


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: At approximately 7:10 p.m., when "Arthur M. Anderson" notified "Edmund Fitzgerald" of an upbound ship and asked how she was doing, McSorley reported, "We are holding our own." She was never heard from again. No distress signal was received, and ten minutes later, "Arthur M. Anderson" lost the ability either to reach "Edmund Fitzgerald" by radio or to detect her on radar.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Captain Cooper of "Arthur M. Anderson" first called the USCG in Sault Ste. Marie at 7:39 p.m. on channel 16, the radio distress frequency. The USCG responders instructed him to call back on channel 12 because they wanted to keep their emergency channel open and they were having difficulty with their communication systems, including antennas blown down by the storm. Cooper then contacted the upbound saltwater vessel "Nanfri" and was told that she could not pick up "Edmund Fitzgerald" on her radar either. Despite repeated attempts to raise the USCG, Cooper was not successful until 7:54 p.m. when the officer on duty asked him to keep watch for a boat lost in the area. At about 8:25 p.m., Cooper again called the USCG to express his concern about "Edmund Fitzgerald" and at 9:03 p.m. reported her missing. Petty Officer Philip Branch later testified, "I considered it serious, but at the time it was not urgent."


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Lacking appropriate search-and-rescue vessels to respond to "Edmund Fitzgerald"s disaster, at approximately 9:00 p.m., the USCG asked "Arthur M. Anderson" to turn around and look for survivors. Around 10:30 p.m., the USCG asked all commercial vessels anchored in or near Whitefish Bay to assist in the search. The initial search for survivors was carried out by "Arthur M. Anderson", and a second freighter, . The efforts of a third freighter, the Toronto-registered , were foiled by the weather. The USCG sent a buoy tender, , from Duluth, Minnesota, but it took two and a half hours to launch and a day to travel to the search area. The Traverse City, Michigan, USCG station launched an HU-16 fixed-wing search aircraft that arrived on the scene at 10:53 p.m. while an HH-52 USCG helicopter with a 3.8-million-candlepower searchlight arrived at 1:00 a.m. on November 11. Canadian Coast Guard aircraft joined the three-day search and the Ontario Provincial Police established and maintained a beach patrol all along the eastern shore of Lake Superior.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Although the search recovered debris, including lifeboats and rafts, none of the crew were found. On her final voyage, "Edmund Fitzgerald"s crew of 29 consisted of the captain; the first, second, and third mates; five engineers; three oilers; a cook; a wiper; two maintenance men; three watchmen; three deckhands; three wheelsmen; two porters; a cadet; and a steward. Most of the crew were from Ohio and Wisconsin; their ages ranged from 20 (watchman Karl A. Peckol) to 63 (Captain McSorley).


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: "Edmund Fitzgerald" is among the largest and best-known vessels lost on the Great Lakes, but she is not alone on the Lake Superior seabed in that area. In the years between 1816, when "Invincible" was lost, and 1975, when "Edmund Fitzgerald" sank, the Whitefish Point area had claimed at least 240 ships.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft, piloted by Lt. George Conner and equipped to detect magnetic anomalies usually associated with submarines, found the wreck on November 14, 1975. "Edmund Fitzgerald" lay about west of Deadman's Cove, Ontario (about northwest of Pancake Bay Provincial Park), from the entrance to Whitefish Bay to the southeast, in Canadian waters close to the international boundary at a depth of . A further November 14–16 survey by the USCG using a side scan sonar revealed two large objects lying close together on the lake floor. The U.S. Navy also contracted Seaward, Inc., to conduct a second survey between November 22 and 25.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: From May 20 to 28, 1976, the U.S. Navy dived on the wreck using its unmanned submersible, CURV-III, and found "Edmund Fitzgerald" lying in two large pieces in of water. Navy estimates put the length of the bow section at and that of the stern section at . The bow section stood upright in the mud, some from the stern section that lay capsized at a 50-degree angle from the bow. In between the two broken sections lay a large mass of taconite pellets and scattered wreckage lying about, including hatch covers and hull plating.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: In 1980, during a Lake Superior research dive expedition, marine explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau, the son of Jacques Cousteau, sent two divers from in the first manned submersible dive to "Edmund Fitzgerald". The dive was brief, and although the dive team drew no final conclusions, they speculated that "Edmund Fitzgerald" had broken up on the surface.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The Michigan Sea Grant Program organized a three-day dive to survey "Edmund Fitzgerald" in 1989. The primary objective was to record 3-D videotape for use in museum educational programs and the production of documentaries. The expedition used a towed survey system (TSS Mk1) and a self-propelled, tethered, free-swimming remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV). The Mini Rover ROV was equipped with miniature stereoscopic cameras and wide-angle lenses in order to produce 3-D images. The towed survey system and the Mini Rover ROV were designed, built and operated by Chris Nicholson of Deep Sea Systems International, Inc. Participants included the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Geographic Society, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS), and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the latter providing RV "Grayling" as the support vessel for the ROV. The GLSHS used part of the five hours of video footage produced during the dives in a documentary and the National Geographic Society used a segment in a broadcast. Frederick Stonehouse, who wrote one of the first books on the "Edmund Fitzgerald" wreck, moderated a 1990 panel review of the video that drew no conclusions about the cause of "Edmund Fitzgerald"s sinking.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Canadian explorer Joseph B. MacInnis organized and led six publicly funded dives to "Edmund Fitzgerald" over a three-day period in 1994. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution provided "Edwin A. Link" as the support vessel, and their manned submersible, "Celia." The GLSHS paid $10,000 for three of its members to each join a dive and take still pictures. MacInnis concluded that the notes and video obtained during the dives did not provide an explanation why "Edmund Fitzgerald" sank. The same year, longtime sport diver Fred Shannon formed Deepquest Ltd., and organized a privately funded dive to the wreck of "Edmund Fitzgerald", using Delta Oceanographic's submersible, "Delta." Deepquest Ltd. conducted seven dives and took more than 42 hours of underwater video while Shannon set the record for the longest submersible dive to "Edmund Fitzgerald" at 211 minutes. Prior to conducting the dives, Shannon studied NOAA navigational charts and found that the international boundary had changed three times before its publication by NOAA in 1976. Shannon determined that based on GPS coordinates from the 1994 Deepquest expedition, "at least one-third of the two acres of immediate wreckage containing the two major portions of the vessel is in U.S. waters because of an error in the position of the U.S.–Canada boundary line shown on official lake charts."


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Shannon's group discovered the remains of a crew member partly dressed in coveralls and wearing a life jacket alongside the bow of the ship, indicating that at least one of the crew was aware of the possibility of sinking. The life jacket had deteriorated canvas and "what is thought to be six rectangular cork blocks ... clearly visible." Shannon concluded that "massive and advancing structural failure" caused "Edmund Fitzgerald" to break apart on the surface and sink.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: MacInnis led another series of dives in 1995 to salvage the bell from "Edmund Fitzgerald". The Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians backed the expedition by co-signing a loan in the amount of $250,000. Canadian engineer Phil Nuytten's atmospheric diving suit, known as the "Newtsuit," was used to retrieve the bell from the ship, replace it with a replica, and put a beer can in "Edmund Fitzgerald"s pilothouse. That same year, Terrence Tysall and Mike Zee set multiple records when they used trimix gas to scuba dive to "Edmund Fitzgerald". The pair are the only people known to have touched the "Edmund Fitzgerald" wreck. They also set records for the deepest scuba dive on the Great Lakes and the deepest shipwreck dive, and were the first divers to reach "Edmund Fitzgerald" without the aid of a submersible. It took six minutes to reach the wreck, six minutes to survey it, and three hours to resurface to avoid decompression sickness, also known as "the bends."


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Under the "Ontario Heritage Act", activities on registered archeological sites require a license. In March 2005, the Whitefish Point Preservation Society accused the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) of conducting an unauthorized dive to "Edmund Fitzgerald". Although the director of the GLSHS admitted to conducting a sonar scan of the wreck in 2002, he denied such a survey required a license at the time it was carried out.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: An April 2005 amendment to the "Ontario Heritage Act" allows the Ontario government to impose a license requirement on dives, the operation of submersibles, side scan sonars or underwater cameras within a designated radius around protected sites. Conducting any of those activities without a license would result in fines of up to . On the basis of the amended law, to protect wreck sites considered "watery graves", the Ontario government issued updated regulations in January 2006, including an area with a radius around "Edmund Fitzgerald" and other specifically designated marine archeological sites. In 2009, a further amendment to the "Ontario Heritage Act" imposed licensing requirements on any type of surveying device.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Extreme weather and sea conditions play a role in all of the published hypotheses regarding "Edmund Fitzgerald"s sinking, but they differ on the other causal factors.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: In 2005, NOAA and the NWS ran a computer simulation, including weather and wave conditions, covering the period from November 9, 1975, until the early morning of November 11. Analysis of the simulation showed that two separate areas of high wind appeared over Lake Superior at 4:00 p.m. on November 10. One had speeds in excess of and the other winds in excess of . The southeastern part of the lake, the direction in which "Edmund Fitzgerald" was heading, had the highest winds. Average wave heights increased to near by 7:00 p.m., November 10, and winds exceeded over most of southeastern Lake Superior.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: "Edmund Fitzgerald" sank at the eastern edge of the area of high wind where the long fetch, or distance that wind blows over water, produced significant waves averaging over by 7:00 p.m. and over at 8:00 p.m. The simulation also showed one in 100 waves reaching and one out of every 1,000 reaching . Since the ship was heading east-southeastward, it is likely that the waves caused "Edmund Fitzgerald" to roll heavily.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: At the time of the sinking, the ship "Arthur M. Anderson" reported northwest winds of , matching the simulation analysis result of . The analysis further showed that the maximum sustained winds reached near hurricane force of about with gusts to at the time and location where "Edmund Fitzgerald" sank.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: A group of three rogue waves, often called "three sisters," was reported in the vicinity of "Edmund Fitzgerald" at the time she sank. The "three sisters" phenomenon is said to occur on Lake Superior as a result of a sequence of three rogue waves forming that are one-third larger than normal waves. The first wave introduces an abnormally large amount of water onto the deck. This water is unable to fully drain away before the second wave strikes, adding to the surplus. The third incoming wave again adds to the two accumulated backwashes, quickly overloading the deck with too much water.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Captain Cooper of "Arthur M. Anderson" reported that his ship was "hit by two 30 to 35 foot seas about 6:30 p.m., one burying the aft cabins and damaging a lifeboat by pushing it right down onto the saddle. The second wave of this size, perhaps 35 foot, came over the bridge deck." Cooper went on to say that these two waves, possibly followed by a third, continued in the direction of "Edmund Fitzgerald" and would have struck about the time she sank. This hypothesis postulates that the "three sisters" compounded the twin problems of "Edmund Fitzgerald"s known list and her lower speed in heavy seas that already allowed water to remain on her deck for longer than usual.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The ""Edmund Fitzgerald"" episode of the 2010 television series "Dive Detectives" features the wave-generating tank of the National Research Council's Institute for Naval Technology in St. John's, and the tank's simulation of the effect of a rogue wave upon a scale model of "Edmund Fitzgerald". The simulation indicated such a rogue wave could almost completely submerge the bow or stern of the ship with water, at least temporarily.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The July 26, 1977, USCG Marine Casualty Report suggested that the accident was caused by ineffective hatch closures. The report concluded that these devices failed to prevent waves from inundating the cargo hold. The flooding occurred gradually and probably imperceptibly throughout the final day, finally resulting in a fatal loss of buoyancy and stability. As a result, "Edmund Fitzgerald" plummeted to the bottom without warning. Video footage of the wreck site showed that most of her hatch clamps were in perfect condition. The USCG Marine board concluded that the few damaged clamps were probably the only ones fastened. As a result, ineffective hatch closure caused "Edmund Fitzgerald" to flood and founder.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: From the beginning of the USCG inquiry, some of the crewmen's families and various labor organizations believed the USCG findings could be tainted because there were serious questions regarding their preparedness as well as licensing and rules changes. Paul Trimble, a retired USCG vice admiral and president of the Lake Carriers Association (LCA), wrote a letter to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on September 16, 1977, that included the following statements of objection to the USCG findings:


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: It was common practice for ore freighters, even in foul weather, to embark with not all cargo clamps locked in place on the hatch covers. Maritime author Wolff reported that depending on weather conditions, all the clamps were eventually set within one to two days. Captain Paquette of "Wilfred Sykes" was dismissive of suggestions that unlocked hatch clamps caused "Edmund Fitzgerald" to founder. He said that he commonly sailed in fine weather using the minimum number of clamps necessary to secure the hatch covers.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The May 4, 1978, NTSB findings differed from the USCG. The NTSB made the following observations based on the CURV-III survey:


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The NTSB conducted computer studies, testing and analysis to determine the forces necessary to collapse the hatch covers and concluded that "Edmund Fitzgerald" sank suddenly from flooding of the cargo hold "due to the collapse of one or more of the hatch covers under the weight of giant boarding seas" instead of flooding gradually due to ineffective hatch closures. The NTSB dissenting opinion held that "Edmund Fitzgerald" sank suddenly and unexpectedly from shoaling.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The LCA believed that instead of hatch cover leakage, the more probable cause of "Edmund Fitzgerald"s loss was shoaling or grounding in the Six Fathom Shoal northwest of Caribou Island when the vessel "unknowingly raked a reef" during the time the Whitefish Point light and radio beacon were not available as navigation aids. This hypothesis was supported by a 1976 Canadian hydrographic survey, which disclosed that an unknown shoal ran a mile farther east of Six Fathom Shoal than shown on the Canadian charts. Officers from "Arthur M. Anderson" observed that "Edmund Fitzgerald" sailed through this exact area. Conjecture by proponents of the Six Fathom Shoal hypothesis concluded that "Edmund Fitzgerald"s downed fence rail reported by McSorley could occur only if the ship "hogged" during shoaling, with the bow and stern bent downward and the midsection raised by the shoal, pulling the railing tight until the cables dislodged or tore under the strain. Divers searched the Six Fathom Shoal after the wreck occurred and found no evidence of "a recent collision or grounding anywhere." Maritime authors Bishop and Stonehouse wrote that the shoaling hypothesis was later challenged on the basis of the higher quality of detail in Shannon's 1994 photography that "explicitly show[s] the devastation of the "Edmund Fitzgerald"". Shannon's photography of "Edmund Fitzgerald"s overturned stern showed "no evidence on the bottom of the stern, the propeller or the rudder of the ship that would indicate the ship struck a shoal."


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Maritime author Stonehouse reasoned that "unlike the Lake Carriers, the Coast Guard had no vested interest in the outcome of their investigation." Author Bishop reported that Captain Paquette of "Wilfred Sykes" argued that through their support for the shoaling explanation, the LCA represented the shipping company's interests by advocating a hypothesis that held LCA member companies, the American Bureau of Shipping, and the U.S. Coast Guard Service blameless.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Paul Hainault, a retired professor of mechanical engineering from Michigan Technological University, promoted a hypothesis that began as a student class project. His hypothesis held that "Edmund Fitzgerald" grounded at 9:30 a.m. on November 10 on Superior Shoal. This shoal, charted in 1929, is an underwater mountain in the middle of Lake Superior about north of Copper Harbor, Michigan. It has sharp peaks that rise nearly to the lake surface with water depths ranging from , making it a menace to navigation. Discovery of the shoal resulted in a change in recommended shipping routes. A seiche, or standing wave, that occurred during the low-pressure system over Lake Superior on November 10, 1975, caused the lake to rise over the Soo Locks's gates to flood Portage Avenue in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, with of water. Hainault's hypothesis held that this seiche contributed to "Edmund Fitzgerald" shoaling of her hull on Superior Shoal, causing the hull to be punctured mid-body. The hypothesis contended that the wave action continued to damage the hull, until the middle third dropped out like a box, leaving the ship held together by the center deck. The stern section acted as an anchor and caused "Edmund Fitzgerald" to come to a full stop, causing everything to go forward. The ship broke apart on the surface within seconds. Compressed air pressure blew a hole in the starboard bow, which sank 18 degrees off course. The rear kept going forward with the engine still running, rolled to port and landed bottom up.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Another published hypothesis contends that an already weakened structure, and modification of "Edmund Fitzgerald"s winter load line (which allows heavier loading and travel lower in the water), made it possible for large waves to cause a stress fracture in the hull. This is based on the "regular" huge waves of the storm and does not necessarily involve rogue waves.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The USCG and NTSB investigated whether "Edmund Fitzgerald" broke apart due to structural failure of the hull and because the 1976 CURV III survey found "Edmund Fitzgerald"s sections were from each other, the USCG's formal casualty report of July 1977 concluded that she had separated upon hitting the lake floor. The NTSB came to the same conclusion as USCG because:


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Other authors have concluded that "Edmund Fitzgerald" most likely broke in two on the surface before sinking due to the intense waves, like the ore carriers and . After maritime historian Frederick Stonehouse moderated the panel reviewing the video footage from the 1989 ROV survey of "Edmund Fitzgerald", he concluded that the extent of taconite coverage over the wreck site showed that the stern had floated on the surface for a short time and spilled taconite into the forward section; thus the two sections of the wreck did not sink at the same time. The 1994 Shannon team found that the stern and the bow were apart, leading Shannon to conclude that "Edmund Fitzgerald" broke up on the surface. He said:


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The stress fracture hypothesis was supported by the testimony of former crewmen. Former Second Mate Richard Orgel, who served on "Edmund Fitzgerald" in 1972 and 1973, testified that "the ship had a tendency to bend and spring during storms 'like a diving board after somebody has jumped off. Orgel was quoted as saying that the loss of "Edmund Fitzgerald" was caused by hull failure, "pure and simple. I detected undue stress in the side tunnels by examining the white enamel paint, which will crack and splinter when submitted to severe stress." George H. "Red" Burgner, "Edmund Fitzgerald"s steward for ten seasons and winter ship-keeper for seven years, testified in a deposition that a "loose keel" contributed to the vessel's loss. Burgner further testified that "the keel and sister kelsons were only 'tack welded'" and that he had personally observed that many of the welds were broken. Burgner was not asked to testify before the Marine Board of Inquiry.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: When Bethlehem Steel Corporation permanently laid up "Edmund Fitzgerald"s sister ship, SS "Arthur B. Homer", just five years after going to considerable expense to lengthen her, questions were raised as to whether both ships had the same structural problems. The two vessels were built in the same shipyard using welded joints instead of the riveted joints used in older ore freighters. Riveted joints allow a ship to flex and work in heavy seas, while welded joints are more likely to break. Reports indicate that repairs to "Edmund Fitzgerald"s hull were delayed in 1975 due to plans to lengthen the ship during the upcoming winter layup. "Arthur B. Homer" was lengthened to and placed back in service by December 1975, not long after "Edmund Fitzgerald" foundered. In 1978, without explanation, Bethlehem Steel Corporation denied permission for the chairman of the NTSB to travel on "Arthur B. Homer". "Arthur B. Homer" was permanently laid up in 1980 and broken for scrap in 1987.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Retired GLEW naval architect Raymond Ramsay, one of the members of the design team that worked on the hull of "Edmund Fitzgerald", reviewed her increased load lines, maintenance history, along with the history of long ship hull failure and concluded that "Edmund Fitzgerald" was not seaworthy on November 10, 1975. He stated that planning "Edmund Fitzgerald" to be compatible with the constraints of the St. Lawrence Seaway had placed her hull design in a "." "Edmund Fitzgerald"s long-ship design was developed without the benefit of research, development, test, and evaluation principles while computerized analytical technology was not available at the time she was built. Ramsay noted that "Edmund Fitzgerald"s hull was built with an all-welded (instead of riveted) modular fabrication method, which was used for the first time in the GLEW shipyard. Ramsay concluded that increasing the hull length to resulted in an L/D slenderness ratio (the ratio of the length of the ship to the depth of her structure) that caused excessive multi-axial bending and springing of the hull, and that the hull should have been structurally reinforced to cope with her increased length.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The USCG cited topside damage as a reasonable alternative reason for "Edmund Fitzgerald" sinking and surmised that damage to the fence rail and vents was possibly caused by a heavy floating object such as a log. Historian and mariner Mark Thompson believes that something broke loose from "Edmund Fitzgerald"s deck. He theorized that the loss of the vents resulted in flooding of two ballast tanks or a ballast tank and a walking tunnel that caused the ship to list. Thompson further conjectured that damage more extensive than Captain McSorley could detect in the pilothouse let water flood the cargo hold. He concluded that the topside damage "Edmund Fitzgerald" experienced at 3:30 p.m. on November 10, compounded by the heavy seas, was the most obvious explanation for why she sank.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The USCG, NTSB, and proponents of alternative theories have all named multiple possible contributing factors to the foundering of "Edmund Fitzgerald".


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The NWS long-range forecast on November 9, 1975, predicted that a storm would pass just south of Lake Superior and over the Keweenaw Peninsula, extending into the Lake from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Captain Paquette of "Wilfred Sykes" had been following and charting the low-pressure system over Oklahoma since November 8 and concluded that a major storm would track across eastern Lake Superior. He therefore chose a route that gave "Wilfred Sykes" the most protection and took refuge in Thunder Bay, Ontario, during the worst of the storm. Based on the NWS forecast, "Arthur M. Anderson" and "Edmund Fitzgerald" instead started their trip across Lake Superior following the regular Lake Carriers Association route, which placed them in the path of the storm. The NTSB investigation concluded that the NWS failed to accurately predict wave heights on November 10. After running computer models in 2005 using actual meteorological data from November 10, 1975, Hultquist of the NWS said of "Edmund Fitzgerald"s position in the storm, "It ended in precisely the wrong place at the absolute worst time."


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: After reviewing testimony that "Edmund Fitzgerald" had passed near shoals north of Caribou Island, the USCG Marine Board examined the relevant navigational charts. They found that the Canadian 1973 navigational chart for the Six Fathom Shoal area was based on Canadian surveys from 1916 and 1919 and that the 1973 U.S. Lake Survey Chart No. 9 included the notation, "Canadian Areas. For data concerning Canadian areas, Canadian authorities have been consulted." Thereafter, at the request of the Marine Board and the Commander of the USCG Ninth District, the Canadian Hydrographic Service conducted a survey of the area surrounding Michipicoten Island and Caribou Island in 1976. The survey revealed that the shoal ran about farther east than shown on Canadian charts. The NTSB investigation concluded that, at the time of "Edmund Fitzgerald"s foundering, Lake Survey Chart No. 9 was not detailed enough to indicate Six Fathom Shoal as a hazard to navigation.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Mark Thompson, a merchant seaman and author of numerous books on Great Lakes shipping, stated that if her cargo holds had watertight subdivisions, "the "Edmund Fitzgerald" could have made it into Whitefish Bay." Frederick Stonehouse also held that the lack of watertight bulkheads caused "Edmund Fitzgerald" to sink. He said:


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Stonehouse called on ship designers and builders to design lake carriers more like ships rather than "motorized super-barges" making the following comparison:


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: After "Edmund Fitzgerald" foundered, Great Lakes shipping companies were accused of valuing cargo payloads more than human life, since the vessel's cargo hold of had been divided by two non-watertight traverse "screen" bulkheads. The NTSB "Edmund Fitzgerald" investigation concluded that Great Lakes freighters should be constructed with watertight bulkheads in their cargo holds.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The USCG had proposed rules for watertight bulkheads in Great Lakes vessels as early as the sinking of "Daniel J. Morrell" in 1966 and did so again after the sinking of "Edmund Fitzgerald", arguing that this would allow ships to make it to refuge or at least allow crew members to abandon ship in an orderly fashion. The LCA represented the Great Lakes fleet owners and was able to forestall watertight subdivision regulations by arguing that this would cause economic hardship for vessel operators. A few vessel operators have built Great Lakes ships with watertight subdivisions in the cargo holds since 1975, but most vessels operating on the lakes cannot prevent flooding of the entire cargo hold area.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: A fathometer was not required under USCG regulations, and "Edmund Fitzgerald" lacked one, even though fathometers were available at the time of her sinking. Instead, a hand line was the only method "Edmund Fitzgerald" had to take depth soundings. The hand line consisted of a piece of line knotted at measured intervals with a lead weight on the end. The line was thrown over the bow of the ship and the count of the knots measured the water depth. The NTSB investigation concluded that a fathometer would have provided "Edmund Fitzgerald" additional navigational data and made her less dependent on "Arthur M. Anderson" for navigational assistance.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: "Edmund Fitzgerald" had no system to monitor the presence or amount of water in her cargo hold, even though there was always some present. The intensity of the November 10 storm would have made it difficult, if not impossible, to access the hatches from the spar deck (deck over the cargo holds). The USCG Marine Board found that flooding of the hold could not have been assessed until the water reached the top of the taconite cargo. The NTSB investigation concluded that it would have been impossible to pump water from the hold when it was filled with bulk cargo. The Marine Board noted that because "Edmund Fitzgerald" lacked a draft-reading system, the crew had no way to determine whether the vessel had lost freeboard (the level of a ship's deck above the water).


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The USCG increased "Edmund Fitzgerald"s load line in 1969, 1971, and 1973 to allow less minimum freeboard than "Edmund Fitzgerald"s original design allowed in 1958. This meant that "Edmund Fitzgerald"s deck was only above the water when she faced waves during the November 10 storm. Captain Paquette of "Wilfred Sykes" noted that this change allowed loading to 4,000 tons more than what "Edmund Fitzgerald" was designed to carry.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Concerns regarding "Edmund Fitzgerald"s keel-welding problem surfaced during the time the USCG started increasing her load line. This increase and the resultant reduction in freeboard decreased the vessel's critical reserve buoyancy. Prior to the load-line increases she was said to be a "good riding ship" but afterwards "Edmund Fitzgerald" became a sluggish ship with slower response and recovery times. Captain McSorley said he did not like the action of a ship he described as a "wiggling thing" that scared him. "Edmund Fitzgerald"s bow hooked to one side or the other in heavy seas without recovering and made a groaning sound not heard on other ships.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: NTSB investigators noted that "Edmund Fitzgerald"s prior groundings could have caused undetected damage that led to major structural failure during the storm, since Great Lakes vessels were normally drydocked for inspection only once every five years. It was also alleged that when compared to "Edmund Fitzgerald"s previous captain (Peter Pulcer), McSorley did not keep up with routine maintenance and did not confront the mates about getting the requisite work done. After August B. Herbel Jr., president of the American Society for Testing and Materials, examined photographs of the welds on "Edmund Fitzgerald", he stated, "the hull was just being held together with patching plates." Other questions were raised as to why the USCG did not discover and take corrective action in its pre-November 1975 inspection of "Edmund Fitzgerald", given that her hatch coamings, gaskets, and clamps were poorly maintained.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: On the fateful evening of November 10, 1975, McSorley reported he had never seen bigger seas in his life. Paquette, master of "Wilfred Sykes," out in the same storm, said, "I'll tell anyone that it was a "monster" sea washing solid water over the deck of every vessel out there." The USCG did not broadcast that all ships should seek safe anchorage until after 3:35 p.m. on November 10, many hours after the weather was upgraded from a gale to a storm.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: McSorley was known as a "heavy weather captain" who beat hell' out of the "Edmund Fitzgerald" and 'very seldom ever hauled up for weather. Paquette held the opinion that negligence caused "Edmund Fitzgerald" to founder. He said, "in my opinion, all the subsequent events arose because (McSorley) kept pushing that ship and didn't have enough training in weather forecasting to use common sense and pick a route out of the worst of the wind and seas." Paquette's vessel was the first to reach a discharge port after the November 10 storm; she was met by company attorneys who came aboard "Sykes." He told them that "Edmund Fitzgerald"s foundering was caused by negligence. Paquette was never asked to testify during the USCG or NTSB investigations.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The NTSB investigation noted that Great Lakes cargo vessels could normally avoid severe storms and called for the establishment of a limiting sea state applicable to Great Lakes bulk cargo vessels. This would restrict the operation of vessels in sea states above the limiting value. One concern was that shipping companies pressured the captains to deliver cargo as quickly and cheaply as possible regardless of bad weather. At the time of "Edmund Fitzgerald"s foundering, there was no evidence that any governmental regulatory agency tried to control vessel movement in foul weather despite the historical record that hundreds of Great Lakes vessels had been wrecked in storms. The USCG took the position that only the captain could decide when it was safe to sail.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Mark Thompson countered that "the Coast Guard laid bare [its] own complacency" by blaming the sinking of "Edmund Fitzgerald" on industry-wide complacency since it had inspected "Edmund Fitzgerald" just two weeks before she sank. The loss of "Edmund Fitzgerald" also exposed the USCG's lack of rescue capability on Lake Superior. Thompson said that ongoing budget cuts had limited the USCG's ability to perform its historical functions. He further noted that USCG rescue vessels were unlikely to reach the scene of an incident on Lake Superior or Lake Huron within 6 to 12 hours of its occurrence.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Under maritime law, ships fall under the jurisdiction of the admiralty courts of their flag country. As "Edmund Fitzgerald" was sailing under the U.S. flag, even though she sank in foreign (Canadian) waters, she was subject to U.S. admiralty law. With a value of $24 million, "Edmund Fitzgerald"s financial loss was the greatest in Great Lakes sailing history. In addition to the crew, of taconite sank along with the vessel. Two widows of crewmen filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against "Edmund Fitzgerald"s owners, Northwestern Mutual, and its operators, Oglebay Norton Corporation, one week after she sank. An additional $2.1 million lawsuit was later filed. Oglebay Norton subsequently filed a petition in the U.S. District Court seeking to "limit their liability to $817,920 in connection with other suits filed by families of crew members." The company paid compensation to surviving families about 12 months in advance of official findings of the probable cause and on condition of imposed confidentiality agreements. Robert Hemming, a reporter and newspaper editor, reasoned in his book about "Edmund Fitzgerald" that the USCG's conclusions "were benign in placing blame on [n]either the company or the captain ... [and] saved the Oglebay Norton from very expensive lawsuits by the families of the lost crew."


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The USCG investigation of "Edmund Fitzgerald"s sinking resulted in 15 recommendations regarding load lines, weathertight integrity, search and rescue capability, lifesaving equipment, crew training, loading manuals, and providing information to masters of Great Lakes vessels. NTSB's investigation resulted in 19 recommendations for the USCG, four recommendations for the American Bureau of Shipping, and two recommendations for NOAA. Of the official recommendations, the following actions and USCG regulations were put in place:


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: Karl Bohnak, an Upper Peninsula meteorologist, covered the sinking and storm in a book on local weather history. In this book, Joe Warren, a deckhand on "Arthur M. Anderson" during the November 10, 1975, storm, said that the storm changed the way things were done. He stated, "After that, trust me, when a gale came up we dropped the hook [anchor]. We dropped the hook because they found out the big ones could sink." Mark Thompson wrote, "Since the loss of the "Fitz," some captains may be more prone to go to anchor, rather than venturing out in a severe storm, but there are still too many who like to portray themselves as 'heavy weather sailors.'"


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The day after the wreck, Mariners' Church in Detroit rang its bell 29 times; once for each life lost. The church continued to hold an annual memorial, reading the names of the crewmen and ringing the church bell, until 2006 when the church broadened its memorial ceremony to commemorate all lives lost on the Great Lakes.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The ship's bell was recovered from the wreck on July 4, 1995. A replica engraved with the names of the 29 sailors who lost their lives replaced the original on the wreck. A legal document signed by 46 relatives of the deceased, officials of the Mariners' Church of Detroit and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historic Society (GLSHS) "donated the custodian and conservatorship" of the bell to the GLSHS "to be incorporated in a permanent memorial at Whitefish Point, Michigan, to honor the memory of the 29 men of the SS "Edmund Fitzgerald."" The terms of the legal agreement made the GLSHS responsible for maintaining the bell, and forbade it from selling or moving the bell or using it for commercial purposes. It provided for transferring the bell to the Mariners' Church of Detroit if the terms were violated.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: An uproar occurred in 1995 when a maintenance worker in St. Ignace, Michigan, refurbished the bell by stripping the protective coating applied by Michigan State University experts. The controversy continued when the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum tried to use the bell as a touring exhibit in 1996. Relatives of the crew halted this move, objecting that the bell was being used as a "traveling trophy." , the bell is on display in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point near Paradise, Michigan.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: An anchor from "Edmund Fitzgerald" lost on an earlier trip was recovered from the Detroit River and is on display at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum in Detroit, Michigan. The Dossin Great Lakes Museum also hosts a Lost Mariners Remembrance event each year on the evening of November 10. Artifacts on display in the Steamship Valley Camp museum in Sault Ste. Marie, include two lifeboats, photos, a movie of "Edmund Fitzgerald" and commemorative models and paintings. Every November 10, the Split Rock Lighthouse near Silver Bay, Minnesota, emits a light in honor of "Edmund Fitzgerald."


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: On August 8, 2007, along a remote shore of Lake Superior on the Keweenaw Peninsula, a Michigan family discovered a lone life-saving ring that appeared to have come from "Edmund Fitzgerald". It bore markings different from those of rings found at the wreck site, and was thought to be a hoax. Later it was determined that the life ring was not from "Edmund Fitzgerald", but had been lost by the owner, whose father had made it as a personal memorial.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The Royal Canadian Mint commemorated "Edmund Fitzgerald" in 2015 with a colored silver collector coin, with a face value of $20.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: In 1976, Ontario singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot wrote, composed, and recorded the song "The Wreck of the "Edmund Fitzgerald"" for his album "Summertime Dream." On NPR's "Weekend Edition Saturday" on February 14, 2015, Gordon Lightfoot said he was inspired to write the song when he saw the name misspelled "Edmond" in "Newsweek" magazine two weeks after the sinking; Lightfoot said he felt that it dishonored the memory of the 29 who died. Lightfoot's popular ballad made the sinking of "Edmund Fitzgerald" one of the best-known disasters in the history of Great Lakes shipping. The original lyrics of the song show a degree of artistic license compared to the events of the actual sinking: it states the destination as Cleveland instead of Detroit. Also, in light of new evidence about what happened, Lightfoot has modified one line for live performances, the original stanza being:


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: In 1986, writer Steven Dietz and songwriter/lyricist Eric Peltoniemi wrote the musical "Ten November" in memory of "Edmund Fitzgerald"s sinking. In 2005, the play was re-edited into a concert version called "The Gales of November", which opened on the 30th anniversary of the sinking at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: A piano concerto titled "The" "Edmund Fitzgerald" was composed by American composer Geoffrey Peterson in 2002; it premiered by the Sault Symphony Orchestra in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in November 2005 as another 30th-anniversary commemoration.


title: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

text: The fame of "Edmund Fitzgerald"s image and historical narrative have made it public domain and subject to commercialization. A "cottage industry" has evolved across the Great Lakes region from Two Harbors, Minnesota, to Whitefish Point, the incident's "ground zero". Memorabilia on sale include Christmas ornaments, T-shirts, coffee mugs, "Edmund Fitzgerald" Porter, videos, and other items commemorating the vessel and its loss.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: Bar Refaeli (; born ) is an Israeli model, television host, businesswoman and actress. She is among the most internationally successful models to come from Israel, appearing on the cover of the 2009 "Sports Illustrated" Swimsuit Issue, and being voted No. 1 on "Maxim" magazine's Hot 100 list of 2012. As a television host, Refaeli has hosted "The X Factor Israel" since 2013 and co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: As a result of her modeling and investment careers, her net worth was estimated at US$20 million in 2015. She was the highest-paid model in Israel according to "Forbes" Israel in 2013.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: Refaeli was born and raised in Hod HaSharon, Israel, to a secular Jewish family. In Hebrew, her given name means "wild" (as in wilderness), and her surname literally means "my God heals" and is a derivative of the biblical angel Raphael. Rafaeli's parents were both born in Israel. Her grandparents immigrated from Italy, Lithuania and Poland. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Her father Refael "Rafi" Refaeli is a former horse stable owner, and her mother was a model in the 1970s under her maiden name Tzipora "Tzipi" Levine. Her younger brothers are entrepreneur Dor Refaeli and actor On Refaeli. She also has an older half-brother, Neil Ben-Porat, from her mother's first marriage to Israeli businessman Yehousha "Shuki" Ben-Porat.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: Refaeli began modeling at the age of eight months, when she first appeared in commercials. Orthodonture at 12 interrupted her modeling until she was 15, when an Israeli fashion awards ceremony awarded Refaeli "Model of the Year" (2000). She played prominently in campaigns for the fashion brands "Castro" and "Pilpel", and she starred in a Milky pudding commercial.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: She has appeared in editorials for French, American, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Ukrainian "Elle", Spanish "Vogue", British, Russian, Australian, and Vietnamese "Harper's Bazaar", "V", French and Dutch "L'Officiel", American, British, Italian, German, Spanish, and Indian "GQ", "i-D", and "Allure".


title: Bar Refaeli

text: She has appeared on the covers of French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Belgian, Danish, Swedish, Australian, Latvian, Norwegian, Polish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Slovenian, Croatian, and Turkish "Elle", French, Spanish, and Russian "Marie Claire", British, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Mexican "GQ", American, British, Australian, and Serbian "Maxim", and "Esquire".


title: Bar Refaeli

text: Refaeli has appeared in advertising campaigns for Chanel, Escada, Ralph Lauren, Desigual, Andrew Marc, Victoria's Secret, Marks and Spencer, Gap, Moët & Chandon, Hurley, Rampage, True Religion, Lucky Brand, Accessorize, Passionata, Fox, Reebok, Sears, Arrow, Besni, Marco Bicego, and Agua Bendita. She also has appeared in advertising-campaigns for non-fashion brands such as Garnier Fructis, Samsung, and Subaru.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: Refaeli became the second Israeli model to appear in "Sports Illustrated" magazine (after Michaela Bercu), in her 2007 debut in its Swimsuit Issue, where she posed with the rock band Aerosmith. Refaeli was the cover-model for the 2009 "Sports Illustrated" Swimsuit Issue. Southwest Airlines painted a bikini-clad Refaeli from that shoot on the side of its Boeing 737, which led some passengers to criticize the airline for what they regarded as prurient, and hence "offensive to families."


title: Bar Refaeli

text: Refaeli has modeled for Subaru, Accessorize, Brazilian clothing line Besni, Italian jewelry line Marco Bicego, and Rampage. In 2009, she modeled for Garnier International.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: On 5 March 2009, Refaeli received the World Style Award presented by the Women's World Awards for her "natural elegance, sense of style, and compassion." In October of the same year, Refaeli co-hosted Fashionable Istanbul's press conference, announced its October 2009 fashion event, and appeared in its advèrtisements. "FHM" voted Refaeli No. 42 in 2008, No. 57 in 2010, and No. 97 in 2011, in its lists of the "100 Sexiest Women."


title: Bar Refaeli

text: "Maxim" placed Refaeli at the very top of its Hot 100 list in 2012. In April 2012, "Shalom Life" ranked her fourth on its list of the "50 most talented, intelligent, funny, and gorgeous Jewish women in the world."


title: Bar Refaeli

text: According to "Forbes Israel", in 2013 she was the highest-paid model in Israel, ahead of the combined modelling income of such other Israeli models as Esti Ginzburg, Gal Gadot, and Shlomit Malka.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: As of March 2017, Refaeli was the second most influential person on Israeli Instagram, according to the Israeli Internet Association, behind Anna Zak, but ahead of Neta Alchimister.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: Refaeli co-starred in the Israeli TV drama series "Pick Up" in 2005. In October 2008, she co-hosted the Bravo special program "Tommy Hilfiger Presents Ironic Iconic America", based on the book "Ironic Iconic America" written by George Lois. She returned as a program host in 2009, this time for MTV's brief revival of "House of Style".


title: Bar Refaeli

text: In 2011, Refaeli starred in the American-Israeli film "Session", directed by Haim Bouzaglo. The film is a psychological thriller that tells the story of a manipulative psychiatrist who becomes obsessed with a new young patient. She also served as a guest judge on cycle four of "Germany's Next Topmodel" hosted by Heidi Klum. In November 2012 she started her own model casting show "Million Dollar Shootingstar" on German TV Channel Sat.1.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: In late 2012, she played the titular role in "Cinderella", a musical adaptation staged for Channukkah in Israel.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: In January 2013, Refaeli appeared in Go Daddy's Super Bowl XLVII commercial. In 2013, Refaeli also hosted the first season of "The X Factor Israel", which became the most popular music show in Israel, leading to them bringing her back in 2015 for season two. In 2018 Refaeli appeared in a music video of X Factor judge, Ivri Lider. In 2013, Refaeli played a starring role in the French-Israeli crime-caper film "Kidon", a comedy in which she stars as a Mossad assassin involved in liquidating a terrorist.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: Assi Azar reportedly wrote the hit Israeli TV series, "Beauty and the Baker" with Refaeli in mind for the lead role. Rotem Sela eventually played the role that Refaeli reportedly turned down.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: Refaeli hosted the main event of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv alongside Erez Tal, whereas Assi Azar and Lucy Ayoub hosted the Green Room (Artists' backstage).


title: Bar Refaeli

text: Refaeli has an ownership stake in a number of fashion companies, such as in the designer glasses manufacturer Carolina Lemke. In September 2018 it was announced that Kim Kardashian would be the face of the brand alongside Refaeli, with the two appearing in a promotional campaign together.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: In 2011, Refaeli and Dudi Balsar, an attorney and former male model, set up an E-commerce company called Under.me, to sell designer underwear. As well as being its investor, Refaeli runs business development for the venture. By November 2011, the company had raised $1 million in venture capital funds.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: In 2013, her startup 'Mika Look', which is an iPad app that allows users to purchase the items that models are wearing, raised $1.2 million in its first financing round.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: Refaeli is one of the main investors behind "MyCheck", which processes payments behind smart phones, and which raised $1.7 million in its first financing round. In its second financing round, it raised $4.2 million.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: In 2016, Refaeli lodged a police complaint for identity theft with the Israel Police after a news item in Calcalist linked her to suspicious money transfers involving Amir Bramly, based on leaked banking correspondence. Bramly sued the Calcalist reporter in relation to the media coverage.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: In late 2015, Refaeli was accused of concealing millions of shekels of annual income, despite an estimated net worth of US$20 million in 2015. It was revealed she had recently bought a NIS 15 million apartment in Tel Aviv, as well as a NIS 2.5 million apartment for her younger brother. On 16 December 2015, Israeli tax authorities in Tel Aviv detained her and her mother overnight for questioning related to potential tax evasion; she was accused of failing to pay income tax on two vehicles that she received as compensation for posing in pictures with the vehicles, and for evading taxes by disguising her Israeli residency by renting a luxury apartment in Tel Aviv through relatives.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: On 3 January 2019, it was announced that Refaeli was suspected of tax-evasion and was facing a possible indictment along with her parents. On 22 April 2019, her appeal was rejected and she was ordered to pay taxes on concealed income of $4.5 million which, according to a report in Haaretz, could amount to "tens of millions of shekels".


title: Bar Refaeli

text: In June 2020, as a result of a plea deal on tax-evasion charges, Refaeli was sentenced to 9 months community service, ordered to pay a fine of $720,000, as well as repaying back taxes of $2.3 million. Her mother was jailed for 16 months and also fined.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: Refaeli participated in a campaign to help reduce the use of plastic bags in Israel. In 2009, she led an unpaid campaign on behalf of the Israel Water Authority, to educate the public about water use and conservation.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: On 7 June 2013, Refaeli hosted a beach party in Tel Aviv for participants of Tel Aviv Pride, the city's gay pride parade. In November 2013, she spoke out in support of legislation for civil marriages in Israel, as part of a campaign for the proposed Knesset bill.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: As early as 2004, Refaeli received criticism in her country for avoiding its mandatory service in the army. At the time, fellow Israeli model Agam Rudberg said: "The way Bar Refaeli evaded army-service wasn't right. It's worth trying to serve in the army, and only if you don't feel good there to try to do something."


title: Bar Refaeli

text: In 2007, the YnetNews reported that Refaeli had evaded the draft by marrying family-acquaintance Arik Weinstein in 2003, and divorcing him soon afterwards. Military service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is mandatory in Israel for unmarried secular Jewish women over the age of 18.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: The Israeli Forum for the Promotion of Equal Share in the Burden threatened to boycott the Israeli fashion chain Fox if they hired her. The two sides reached a compromise in which Refaeli agreed to visit injured IDF soldiers whenever she was in Israel, and actively encourage army enlistment. Refaeli later said, "I don't regret not enlisting, because it paid off big time. That's just the way it is: celebrities have other needs. I hope my case has influenced the army." She also said: "Israel or Uganda, what difference does it make? It makes no difference to me. Why is it good to die for our country? What, isn't it better to live in New York? Why should 18-year-old kids have to die? It's dumb that people have to die so that I can live in Israel."


title: Bar Refaeli

text: In 2009, while speaking in support of enlisting, fellow Israeli model Esti Ginzburg also criticized Refaeli for evading military-service. Two years later, Refaeli was featured on the cover of Italian "GQ"s war-themed May 2011 issue. Refaeli's avoidance of military service was again raised in 2013, this time by IDF Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, who criticized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for casting her in a 2013 advertisement. Mordechai maintained that the use of Refaeli as an "official representative of Israel" sent a "negative message" to Israeli society.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: In 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, Refaeli frequently expressed solidarity and appreciation of Israeli citizens serving in the Israeli Army with postings on her social network accounts, and by posting selfies of her together with smiling Israeli soldiers.


title: Bar Refaeli

text: In November 2005, Refaeli began a relationship with American actor Leonardo DiCaprio after meeting him at a party in Las Vegas for members of U2. In the course of their trip to Israel in March 2007, the couple met Israeli President Shimon Peres and visited her hometown of Hod HaSharon. The relationship ended in June 2009. In 2010, numerous reports indicated that their romance had been rekindled, but in May 2011, it was reported that they had ended their romantic relationship and would remain friends. She married Israeli businessman Adi Ezra on 24 September 2015 in Israel. They have two daughters, born in 2016 and 2017, and a son born in 2020.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Joan Alexandra Molinsky (June 8, 1933 – September 4, 2014), known professionally as Joan Rivers, was an American comedian, actress, producer, writer and television host. She was noted for her blunt, often controversial comedic persona—heavily self-deprecating and acerbic, especially towards celebrities and politicians. She is considered a pioneer of women in comedy by many critics.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Rivers started her career in comedy clubs in Greenwich Village alongside her peers George Carlin, Woody Allen, and Richard Pryor. She then rose to prominence in 1965 as a guest on "The Tonight Show". Hosted by her mentor, Johnny Carson, the show established Rivers's comedic style. In 1986, with her own rival program, "The Late Show with Joan Rivers", Rivers became the first woman to host a late night network television talk show. She subsequently hosted "The Joan Rivers Show" (1989–1993), winning a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host. From the mid-1990s, she became known for her comedic red carpet awards show celebrity interviews. Rivers co-hosted the E! celebrity fashion show "Fashion Police" from 2010 to 2014 and starred in the reality series "" (2011–2014) with daughter Melissa Rivers.


title: Joan Rivers

text: In addition to marketing a line of jewelry and apparel on the QVC shopping channel, Rivers authored 12 best-selling books and three LP comedy albums under her own name: "Mr. Phyllis and Other Funny Stories" (Warner Bros 1965), "The Next to Last Joan Rivers Album" (Buddah 1969), and "What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most?" (Geffen 1983). She was nominated in 1984 for a Grammy Award for her album "What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most?" and was nominated in 1994 for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance of the title role in "Sally Marr ... and Her Escorts". In 2009, Rivers competed alongside her daughter Melissa on the second season of "The Celebrity Apprentice", ultimately winning the season. In 2015, Rivers posthumously received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for her book, "Diary of a Mad Diva".


title: Joan Rivers

text: In 1968, "The New York Times" television critic Jack Gould called Rivers "quite possibly the most intuitively funny woman alive". In 2017, "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked her sixth on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time, and in October the same year, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. She is the subject of the documentary "" (2010).


title: Joan Rivers

text: Joan Alexandra Molinsky was born on June 8, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian-Jewish immigrants Beatrice (née Grushman) and Meyer C. Molinsky, a doctor. She had an elder sister named Barbara Waxler. Rivers spent her early life in Prospect Heights and Crown Heights in Brooklyn. She attended the progressive and now-defunct Brooklyn Ethical Culture School and Adelphi Academy of Brooklyn, a college preparatory day school, where she was co-chairman of her school, due to her past experiences in theatrical activities. Within two years, she performed in the School Cavalcades, and in 1949, aged 16, she was vice president of the Dramatic Club. She graduated from the Adelphi Academy of Brooklyn, in 1951, at 18. In her adolescence, Rivers relocated with her family to Larchmont, north of New York City. Rivers stated in interviews that she was overweight throughout her childhood and adolescence and that it had a profound impact on her body image, which she struggled with throughout her life.


title: Joan Rivers

text: She attended Connecticut College for two years before transferring to Barnard College where she graduated in 1954 with a BA in English literature and anthropology. She repeatedly said, and it was reported, that she graduated "summa cum laude" and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa; however, her biographer found these were fabrications, as with other statements such as sharing a lesbian kiss in a play with Barbra Streisand (they did both appear in a play named "Driftwood", but were never on stage at the same time). Before entering show business, Rivers worked at various jobs such as a tour guide at Rockefeller Center, a writer/proofreader at an advertising agency and a fashion consultant at Bond Clothing Stores. During this period, agent Tony Rivers advised her to change her name, so she chose Joan Rivers as her stage name.


title: Joan Rivers

text: During the late 1950s, Rivers appeared in a short Off-Broadway run play, "Driftwood", in which Barbra Streisand was also a cast member. It ran for six weeks on playwright Maurice Tei Dunn's apartment on 49th Street, in NYC, according to an interview with "Adweek". Rivers performed in numerous comedy clubs in the Greenwich Village area of New York City in the early 1960s, including The Bitter End, The Gaslight Cafe and The Duplex. Rivers became friends with her fellow Greenwich Village comedians Woody Allen and George Carlin and often ate with them. She also describes working in the Village alongside noted musicians Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon and Simon and Garfunkel. Between 1963 and 1964, Rivers, along with Jim Connell and Jake Holmes, was in the cabaret act "Jim, Jake & Joan". A 1964 appearance at The Bitter End resulted in their appearance in the motion picture, "Once Upon A Coffee House", which was also Rivers' first big screen credit. The group parted ways shortly afterwards, on which member Holmes later recalled: "We were supposed to do this rally for Bobby Kennedy, who was running for New York senator in 1964. We were going to play at the rally. Joan showed up with a [Republican Senate nominee Kenneth] Keating button on. And Jim said take that off. She said no — she was sticking to her political guns. And Jim said, "Who needs you, anyway?" That was the end [of Jim, Jake & Joan] ...".


title: Joan Rivers

text: She also made an appearance as a guest on the television program "The Tonight Show" originating from New York, hosted at the time by Jack Paar. By 1965, Rivers had a stint on "Candid Camera" as a gag writer and participant; she was "the bait" to lure people into ridiculous situations for the show. After seven auditions during a period of three years, she made her first appearance on "The Tonight Show" with new host Johnny Carson, on February 17, 1965. Rivers credited this episode to be her breakthrough, as Carson said to her on the air "you're gonna be a star". Following this appearance, she became a frequent guest on the program and a close friend of Carson.


title: Joan Rivers

text: As her profile rose significantly in the subsequent years, she started to make guest-appearances in numerous popular shows, including "The Ed Sullivan Show", "The Mike Douglas Show", "The Dick Cavett Show" and "Girl Talk", with Virginia Graham. She also wrote material for the puppet mouse Topo Gigio. She had a brief role in the cult drama film "The Swimmer" (1968), starring Burt Lancaster, and at the time, she also had a short-lived syndicated daytime talk show, "That Show with Joan Rivers", which premiered on September 16, 1968. Each episode had a theme and Rivers did an opening monologue based on the day's topic, followed by celebrity interviews. The show also featured an expert on the subject and a celebrity guest; Johnny Carson was her first guest. In the middle of the 1960s, she released at least two comedy albums: "The Next to Last Joan Rivers Album" and "Rivers Presents Mr. Phyllis & Other Funny Stories".


title: Joan Rivers

text: By the 1970s, Rivers continued to be a prominent fixture on television. Along with her other guest-spots on the late-night circuit, she also made appearances in "The Carol Burnett Show", had a semi-regular stint on "Hollywood Squares" and guest-starred in "Here's Lucy". Rivers made her Broadway debut in the play "Fun City," which opened on January 2, 1972, and co-starred Gabriel Dell, Rose Marie and Paul Ford. It ran for only nine performances amid a negative critical reception. Though a "New York Times" reviewer criticized the production as "frenetic to the point of being frazzled," he praised Rivers as "a deft comedy writer" and "a very funny lady". From 1972 to 1976, she narrated "The Adventures of Letterman", an animated segment for "The Electric Company".


title: Joan Rivers

text: In 1973, Rivers co-wrote the made-for-television movie "The Girl Most Likely To...", a black comedy starring Stockard Channing as an ugly girl who becomes beautiful after undergoing plastic surgery, and takes revenge on people who previously mistreated her. The film, based on Rivers' story, became a ratings success and has been considered a "cult classic". She also wrote a thrice-weekly column for "The Chicago Tribune" from 1973 to 1976, and published her first book, "Having a Baby Can Be a Scream", in 1974; she described it as a "catalogue of gynaecological anxieties". In 1978, Rivers made her directorial debut with the comedy "Rabbit Test", which she also wrote and which starred her friend Billy Crystal in his film debut as the world's first pregnant man. The film flopped at the box office and was panned by critics. Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" concluded: "Miss Rivers has turned to directing without paying much heed to whether a whole movie constructed from one-liners is worth even the sum of its parts." During the same decade, she was the opening act for singers Helen Reddy, Robert Goulet, Paul Anka, Mac Davis, and Sergio Franchi on the Las Vegas Strip.


title: Joan Rivers

text: During the early and mid-1980s, Rivers found further success on stand-up and television, though the decade subsequently proved to be controversial for her. The year 1983, in particular, was very successful; she performed at Carnegie Hall in February, did the March stand-up special "An Audience with Joan Rivers", hosted the April 9 episode of "Saturday Night Live", and released the best-selling comedy album "What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most?", which reached No. 22 on the U.S. "Billboard" 200 and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. By August 1983, Carson established Rivers as his first permanent guest host on "The Tonight Show". At the time, she spoke of her primary "Tonight Show" life as having been "Johnny Carson's daughter", a reference to his longtime mentoring of her.


title: Joan Rivers

text: During the 1980s and 1990s, Rivers served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute. A friend of Nancy Reagan, Rivers attended a state dinner in 1983, and later performed at a luncheon at the 1984 Republican National Convention. In 1984, Rivers published a best-selling humor book, "The Life and Hard Times of Heidi Abramowitz", a mock memoir of her brassy, loose comedy character, which was mostly jokes about promiscuity – of a type that would have been considered unacceptable even in burlesque a generation earlier. A television special based on the character, a mock tribute called "Joan Rivers and Friends Salute Heidi Abramowitz: Tramp of the Century", later aired on Showtime. She later wrote her next book, "Enter Talking", which was released in 1986, and described her rise to stardom and the evolution of her comedic persona.


title: Joan Rivers

text: In 1986, the move came that ended Rivers' longtime friendship with Johnny Carson. The soon-to-launch Fox Television Network announced that it was giving her a late night talk show, "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers", making Rivers the first woman to have her own late-night talk show on a major network. The new network planned to broadcast the show 11 p.m. to midnight Eastern Time, making her a Carson competitor. Carson learned of the show from Fox and not from Rivers. In the documentary "Johnny Carson: King of Late Night", Rivers said that she only called Carson to discuss the matter after learning that he may have already heard about it and that he immediately hung up on her. In the same interview, she said that she later came to believe that maybe she should have asked for his blessing before taking the job. Rivers was banned from ever appearing on "The Tonight Show" for the rest of Carson's tenure and the entire runs of Carson's first two successors Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien out of respect for Carson. Rivers did not appear on "The Tonight Show" again until February 17, 2014, when she made a brief appearance on new host Jimmy Fallon's first episode. On March 27, 2014, Rivers returned to the show for an interview.


title: Joan Rivers

text: "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers" premiered on October 9, 1986, and soon turned out to be flecked with tragedy. When Rivers challenged Fox executives, who wanted to fire her husband Edgar Rosenberg as the show's producer, the network fired them both on May 15, 1987.


title: Joan Rivers

text: During this period, a published interview with Rivers, purported to have been written by “Ben Hacker”, suggested that Rosenberg had tried to drive Rivers insane during his final illness. Rivers was quoted as saying “I think things are about finished with Edgar”, while calling her former Fox boss “Barry (expletive) Diller”. Then, on August 14, 1987, Rosenberg committed suicide in Philadelphia; Rivers blamed the tragedy on his "humiliation" by Fox. A lawsuit would later be filed against “Hacker” over the article. Rivers credited Nancy Reagan with helping her after her husband's suicide. Fox attempted to continue the show with a new name ("The Late Show") and rotating guest hosts.


title: Joan Rivers

text: During the airing of her late-night show, she made the voice-over role of Dot Matrix in the science-fiction comedy "Spaceballs" (1987), a parody based (mainly) on "Star Wars". The film, directed and co-starring Mel Brooks, was a critical and commercial success, later becoming a "cult classic". After the Fox controversy, her career went into hiatus. Rivers subsequently appeared on various television shows, including the "Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special" in December 1989. She also appeared as one of the center square occupants on the 1986–89 version of "The Hollywood Squares", hosted by John Davidson. On September 5, 1989, "The Joan Rivers Show", her daytime television program, premiered in broadcast syndication. The show, which ran for five seasons, was a success and earned Rivers the Daytime Emmy in 1990 for Outstanding Talk Show Host. "Entertainment Weekly", in a September 1990 article, asserted: ""The Joan Rivers Show" is a better showcase for her funny edginess than her doomed 1988 Fox nighttime program was. The best thing about her daytime talker is that Rivers' stream-of-consciousness chattiness is allowed to guide the show — you never know where the conversation is going to go".


title: Joan Rivers

text: In addition to winning the Emmy for "The Joan Rivers Show", Rivers starred in the made-for-television comedy "How to Murder a Millionaire", which premiered in May 1990 on CBS. In the film, co-starring Alex Rocco and Telma Hopkins, she took on the role of a Beverly Hills matron possessed with the idea her husband is trying to kill her. Also in 1990, she started to design jewelry, clothing and beauty products for the shopping channel QVC. On this professional endeavor, Rivers said: "In those days, only dead celebrities went on [QVC]. My career was over. I had bills to pay. ... It also intrigued me at the beginning". The sales of Rivers' products exceeded $1 billion by 2014, making her one of the network's top sellers. In 1991, she wrote her next book, "Still Talking", which described the cancellation of her late-night show and her husband's suicide. Until 1993, she received five additional Emmy nominations for her daytime talk-show "The Joan Rivers Show" — two for Outstanding Writing – Special Class and three for Outstanding Talk Show Host.


title: Joan Rivers

text: In 1994, Rivers and daughter Melissa first hosted the E! Entertainment Television pre-awards show for the Golden Globe Awards and, beginning in 1995, E!'s annual Academy Awards pre-awards show as well. Rivers and her daughter quickly became credited for revolutionizing the red carpet as a space to showcase designers' work and celebrity interactions. "Joan and Melissa were the first people who came out and made it more of a true conversation between star and reporter", E!'s Senior Vice President of production, Gary Snegaroff, remarked to "Vanity Fair". "They asked about what [actresses] were wearing because that's what the magazines would cover after the fact, and turned it into a candid conversation on the carpet where anything could happen". Rivers and Melissa, at the time, both portrayed themselves in the made-for-television drama "Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story", which chronicled the aftermath of Rosenburg's suicide. It aired on NBC on May 15, 1994. The next year, she wrote her book "Jewelry by Joan Rivers".


title: Joan Rivers

text: Influenced by the stand-up comedy of Lenny Bruce, Rivers co-wrote and starred in a play about Bruce's mother Sally Marr, who was also a comic and influenced her son's development as a comic. After 27 previews, "Sally Marr ... and Her Escorts," a play "suggested by the life of Sally Marr" ran on Broadway for 50 performances in May and June 1994. The production received mixed reviews, but her performance was applauded by critics. "The Chicago Sun Times" found Rivers to be "compelling" as an actress while "The New York Times" wrote: "... [S]he is exuberant, fearless and inexhaustible. If you admire performers for taking risks, then you can't help but applaud her efforts". Rivers was nominated for a Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Actress in a Play and a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for playing Marr. Beginning in 1997, Rivers hosted her own radio show on WOR in New York City, and wrote three self-help books: "Bouncing Back: I've Survived Everything ... and I Mean Everything ... and You Can Too!" in 1997, "From Mother to Daughter: Thoughts and Advice on Life, Love and Marriage" in 1998, and "Don't Count the Candles: Just Keep the Fire Lit!", in 1999.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Rivers was a guest speaker at the opening of the American Operating Room Nurses' San Francisco Conference in 2000, and by the first part of the decade, she continued to host the awards' red carpet for the E! channel. Between 2002 and 2004, she embarked on tour with her one-person comedy show "Joan Rivers: Broke and Alone", which was presented in the United Kingdom (Edinburgh and London) and in the United States (Los Angeles, and Boston), to generally positive reviews. "The Telegraph" felt that her "hilarious assaults on fellow celebrities and tirades about the perils of ageing and plastic surgery are well worth the expense", while "The Guardian" remarked that "Rivers returned triumphant, a victorious heavyweight after a great fight, conscious that she is still the champion".


title: Joan Rivers

text: In 2003, Rivers left the network red-carpet show for a three-year contract (valued at $6–8 million) to cover award shows' red carpet events for the TV Guide Channel. Meanwhile, Rivers guest-starred as herself in several television series, including "Curb Your Enthusiasm", "Nip/Tuck", and "Boston Legal", and also voiced herself for a brief scene in the 2004 animated fantasy film "Shrek 2". In 2004, Rivers was part of the formal receiving party when Ronald Reagan was placed in state at the United States Capitol. On December 3, 2007, Rivers performed at the 79th Royal Variety Show at the Liverpool Empire Theatre, England, with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip present. She wrote and starred in the play "Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress", which was directed by Sean Foley, and presented through 2008 at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Leicester Square Theatre, to a mixed critical reception.


title: Joan Rivers

text: In 2008, Rivers was invited to take part in a comedy event celebrating Prince Charles' 60th Birthday titled, "We Are Most Amused". She was the only American alongside Robin Williams invited to take part in the event. Other comedians included, John Cleese, who served as the master of ceremonies, Eric Idle, Rowan Atkinson, and Bill Bailey. In attendance included Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Throughout the decade, Rivers often appeared in various television game shows, including "8 Out of 10 Cats", "", and "Celebrity Family Feud", in which she competed with her daughter against Ice-T and Coco. In 2009, Rivers and daughter Melissa were contestants on season eight of "Celebrity Apprentice". During the season, each celebrity raised money for a charity of his or her choice; Rivers selected God's Love We Deliver. After a falling out with poker player Annie Duke, following Melissa's on-air firing (elimination) by Donald Trump, Rivers left the green room telling Clint Black and Jesse James that she would not be in the next morning. Rivers later returned to the show and on May 3, 2009, she became a finalist in the series. The other finalist was Duke. On the season finale, which aired live on May 10, Rivers was announced the winner and hired to be the 2009 Celebrity Apprentice.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Also in 2009, Rivers was a special "pink-carpet" presenter for the broadcast of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade, was roasted in a Comedy Central special, and her reality show, "How'd You Get So Rich?", premiered on TV Land. The program, which ran for two seasons, followed Rivers traveling around the United States interviewing self-made millionaires. She also wrote two books in 2009: "Murder at the Academy Awards (R): A Red Carpet Murder Mystery" and "Men Are Stupid ... And They Like Big Boobs: A Woman's Guide to Beauty Through Plastic Surgery (with Valerie Frankel)".


title: Joan Rivers

text: The film follows Rivers for 14 months, mostly during the 76th year of her life, and made an effort to "[peel] away the mask" and expose the "struggles, sacrifices and joy of living life as a ground breaking female performer". The film was released in a limited release on June 11, 2010, and was acclaimed by critics for providing "an honest, behind-the-scenes look at [Rivers]' career — and at show business in general". Beginning on September 10, 2010, Rivers co-hosted the E! show "Fashion Police", along with Giuliana Rancic, Kelly Osbourne, and George Kotsiopoulos, commenting on celebrity fashion. The show started as a half-hour program but due to its success with viewers, it was expanded to one hour on March 9, 2012. The August 26, 2014 episode of "Fashion Police", about the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards and the 2014 MTV Movie Awards, was her last television appearance before her death.


title: Joan Rivers

text: In 2011, Rivers appeared in a commercial for Go Daddy, which debuted during the broadcast of Super Bowl XLV, and was featured as herself in the season two episode of Louis C.K.'s self-titled show "Louie" entitled "Joan", where she performed on stage and gave C.K. comedy advice. "The A.V. Club"s Nathan Rabin described the episode as a "funny and deeply moving exploration of the existential dilemma of the stand-up comic and a valentine to the artform." Also in 2011, Rivers and her daughter starred in the reality show "", which premiered on WE tv. The series follows her moving in with her daughter to California to be closer to her family. The show ran for four seasons until 2014. On the December 4, 2011 episode of "The Simpsons", "The Ten-Per-Cent Solution", Rivers took on the role of Annie Dubinsky, an agent trying to revive Krusty's career. Hayden Childs of "The A.V. Club" praised the choice of having Rivers guest star since she was able to "employ her trademark humor within the world of "The Simpsons" without hijacking the plot or satire". In 2012, she guest-starred in two episodes of two series: "Drop Dead Diva" and "Hot in Cleveland".


title: Joan Rivers

text: Rivers released her 11th book "I Hate Everyone...Starting with Me" on June 5, 2012. It received generally positive reviews and made "The New York Times" Best Seller list for several weeks. "The New York Times" remarked that there were "more punch lines per paragraph than any book I've read in years", and "Publishers Weekly" felt that "Rivers is equally passionate and opinionated on every subject she discusses. Hilarious and undeniably original". On August 7, 2012, Rivers showed up in Burbank, California to protest that the warehouse club Costco would not sell the book. She handcuffed herself to a shopping cart and shouted through a megaphone. The police were called to the scene and she left without incident; no arrests were made. On March 5, 2013, she launched the online talk show "In Bed with Joan" on YouTube. In it, Rivers invited a different guest to talk to her in bed about different things including their past, their love life and their career.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Rivers released her 12th book, "Diary of a Mad Diva", on July 1, 2014, which also made "The NY Times" Best Seller list. For the book, she posthumously won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 2015. Before her death, she filmed a part, along with other female comedians, for the documentary "MAKERS: Women in Comedy", which premiered on PBS in October 2014.


title: Joan Rivers

text: During her 55-year career as a comedian, her tough-talking style of satirical humor was both praised and criticized as truthful, yet too personal, too gossipy, and very often abrasive. Nonetheless, with her ability to "tell it like it is", she became a pioneer of contemporary stand-up comedy. Commenting about her style, she told biographer Gerald Nachman, "Maybe I started it. We're a very gossipy culture. All we want to know now is private lives." However, her style of humor, which often relied on making jokes about her own life and satirizing the lives of celebrities and public figures, was sometimes criticized as insensitive. Her jokes about Elizabeth Taylor and Adele's weight, for instance, were often commented on, although Rivers would never apologize for her humor.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Rivers, who was Jewish, was also criticized for making jokes about the Holocaust and later explained, "This is the way I remind people about the Holocaust. I do it through humor", adding, "my husband lost his entire family in the Holocaust." Her joke about the victims of the Ariel Castro kidnappings similarly came under criticism, but she again refused to apologize, stating, "I know what those girls went through. It was a little stupid joke." She received multiple death threats throughout her career. Rivers accepted such criticism as the price of using social satire as a form of humor: "I've learned to have absolutely no regrets about any jokes I've ever done ... You can tune me out, you can click me off, it's OK. I am not going to bow to political correctness. But you do have to learn, if you want to be a satirist, you can't be part of the party."


title: Joan Rivers

text: As an unknown stand-up comedian out of college, she struggled for many years before finding her comic style. She did stints in the Catskills and found that she disliked the older style of comedy at the time, such as Phyllis Diller's, who she nevertheless felt was a pioneer female comedian. Her breakthrough came at The Second City in Chicago in 1961, where she was dubbed "the best girl since Elaine May", who also got her start there. But May became her and fellow comedian Treva Silverman's role model, as Rivers saw her as "an assertive woman with a marvelous, fast mind and, at the same time, pretty and feminine". It was also there that she learned "self reliance", she said, "that I didn't have to talk down in my humor" and could still earn an income by making intelligent people laugh. "I was really born as a comedian at Second City. I owe it my career."


title: Joan Rivers

text: In early 1965, at the suggestion of comedian Bill Cosby, Johnny Carson gave Rivers, whom he billed as a comedy writer, her debut appearance on his show. Cosby, who knew Rivers from their early stand-up days, described her as "an intelligent girl without being a weirdo...a human being, not a kook." Sitting alongside Johnny after her monologue, she displayed an intimate, conversational style which he appreciated, and she was invited back eight more times that year. "Time" magazine compared her humor to that of Woody Allen, by expressing "how to be neurotic about practically everything", but noting that "her style and femininity make her something special." Rivers also compared herself to Allen, stating: "He was a writer, which I basically was...and talking about things that affected our generation that nobody else talked about." "The New York Times" critic Charles L. Mee likewise compared her to Allen, explaining that her "style was personal, an autobiographical stream-of-consciousness".


title: Joan Rivers

text: According to biographer Victoria Price, Rivers' humor was notable for taking aim at and overturning what had been considered acceptable female behavior. She broke through long-standing taboos in humor, which paved the way for other women, including Roseanne Barr, Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Rivers was one of only four Americans invited to the Wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles on April 9, 2005.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Rivers was licensed to carry a gun in New York City. She was threatened with the loss of the license after an altercation with a car rental clerk in 2002.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Rivers' first marriage was in 1956 to James Sanger, the son of a Bond Clothing Stores merchandise manager. The marriage lasted six months and was annulled on the basis that Sanger did not want children and had not informed Rivers before the wedding.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Rivers married Edgar Rosenberg on July 15, 1965. Their only child, Melissa Rivers, was born on January 20, 1968. Joan Rivers had one grandson, Cooper, born Edgar Cooper Endicott in 2000. Along with his mother and grandmother, Cooper was featured in the WE tv series "Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?" Rivers was married to Rosenberg until his suicide in 1987, four days after she asked him for a separation. She would later describe her marriage to Rosenberg as a "total sham", complaining bitterly about his treatment of her during their 22-year marriage. In a 2012 interview with Howard Stern, Rivers said she had several extramarital affairs when married to Rosenberg, including a one-night stand with actor Robert Mitchum in the 1960s and an affair with actor Gabriel Dell. In the 1990s, she was in an eight-year relationship with the commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks and Recreation, disabled World War II veteran Orin Lehman of the Lehman family.


title: Joan Rivers

text: In her book "Bouncing Back", Rivers described how she developed bulimia nervosa after Rosenberg's 1987 suicide, and the subsequent death of her psychologist, with whom she had developed a close friendship, of an AIDS related illness. Additionally, Rivers' relationship with her daughter had been strained at the time, as Melissa blamed her for her father's death. According to Rivers, the confluence of events resulted in her contemplating suicide in her California home. "I got the gun out, the whole thing," she recalled in a 2008 interview. "And [then] my dog came and sat in my lap...and that was a big turning point in my life. My little, stupid dog, a Yorkie, who I adored, literally came and sat on my lap. ...and literally, he saved my life. Truly saved my life." Rivers eventually recovered with counseling and the support of her family.


title: Joan Rivers

text: In a 2002 ITV biography, Rivers reveals that she is the great niece (on her mother's side) of singer Happy Fanny Fields. She says that, "(Fanny) was the star of the family; she came over to the United States and married very, very rich and became very grand. But, she was the one person Noël Coward wanted to meet when he hit the United States."


title: Joan Rivers

text: As a philanthropist, Rivers supported causes which included HIV/AIDS activism, and in May 1985, she appeared along with Nichols and May at a Comic Relief benefit for the new AIDS Medical Foundation in New York City, where tickets at the Shubert Theatre sold for as much as $500. She supported the Elton John AIDS Foundation and God's Love We Deliver, which delivers meals to HIV/AIDS patients in New York City. In 2008, she was commended by the City of San Diego, California for her philanthropic work on behalf of HIV/AIDS, where the HIV/AIDS community called her its "Joan of Arc".


title: Joan Rivers

text: Additionally, she served as an Honorary Director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. She also supported Guide Dogs for the Blind, a non-profit organization which provides guide dogs to blind people. She donated to Jewish charities, animal welfare efforts, and suicide prevention causes. Among the other non-profit organizations which she helped were Rosie's Theater Kids, Habitat for Humanity, Human Rights Campaign and the Boy Scouts of America.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Rivers was open about her multiple cosmetic surgeries and had been a patient of plastic surgeon Steven Hoefflin since 1983. She had her nose thinned while still at college; her next procedure, an eye lift, was performed in 1965 (when she was in her 30s) as an attempt to further her career. When promoting her book, "Men Are Stupid...And They Like Big Boobs: A Woman's Guide to Beauty Through Plastic Surgery", described by "The New York Times Magazine" as "a detailed and mostly serious guide to eye lifts, tummy tucks and other forms of plastic surgery", she quipped: "I've had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware."


title: Joan Rivers

text: On August 28, 2014, Rivers experienced serious complications and stopped breathing while undergoing what was scheduled to be a minor throat procedure at an outpatient clinic in Yorkville, Manhattan. Resuscitated an hour later, Rivers was transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital in East Harlem and later put on life support. She died on September 4 at Mount Sinai, never having awakened from a medically induced coma. The New York City Medical Examiner's Office said that she died from brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen.


title: Joan Rivers

text: After nearly two months of investigations, federal officials said on November 10 that the clinic made a number of mistakes both before and during the procedure. Among those were the clinic's failure to respond to Rivers' deteriorating vital signs, including a severe drop in her blood pressure, possibly administering an incorrect anesthetic dosage, performing a surgical procedure without her consent, and other medical-clinic irregularities.


title: Joan Rivers

text: On September 7, after the cremation of Rivers' body at Garden State Crematory in North Bergen, New Jersey, a private memorial service took place at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan. The service was attended by an estimated 1,500 people. The guest list included Rivers' many celebrity friends and public figures such as Howard Stern, Louis C.K., Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, Joy Behar, Michael Kors, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rosie O'Donnell, Kathy Griffin, and Donald Trump. The musical performances included Hugh Jackman singing "Quiet Please, There's a Lady On Stage", as well as the New York City Gay Men's Chorus singing old show tunes. Talk show host Howard Stern, who delivered the eulogy, described Rivers as "brassy in public [and] classy in private ... a troublemaker, trail blazer, pioneer for comics everywhere, ... [who] fought the stereotypes that women can't be funny." Daughter Melissa read a comedic note to her mother as part of her eulogy. Some of Rivers' ashes were scattered by her daughter in Wyoming.


title: Joan Rivers

text: On January 26, 2015, Melissa Rivers filed a malpractice lawsuit against the clinic and the doctors who performed surgery on her mother. The suit was settled for an undisclosed amount in May 2016, with the doctors accepting responsibility for Rivers' death.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Upon Rivers' death, friends, fans, family and celebrities paid tribute. Numerous comedians recognized Rivers' influence on their career, including Kathy Griffin, who considered Rivers her "mentor", noting, "She brought a fearlessness and a brand of humor into our homes that we really need." Chris Rock said "she was the hippest comedian from the time she started to the day she died". Describing her as a force in comedy, he added, "No man ever said, 'Yeah, I want to go on after Joan.' No, Joan Rivers closed the show every night." Other comedians recalled working with her on stage and television decades earlier: stand-up performer Don Rickles said "working with her and enjoying the fun times of life with her was special". Carol Burnett calls Rivers "the poster child for the Energizer Bunny".


title: Joan Rivers

text: Numerous talk show hosts, including David Muir, Graham Norton, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Oprah Winfrey, Sally Jessy Raphael, Wendy Williams, Geraldo Rivera, Regis Philbin, Arsenio Hall, Ellen DeGeneres, and David Letterman, paid tribute to Rivers, often including video clips of her appearances. Letterman called her a "real pioneer for other women looking for careers in stand-up comedy. And talk about guts." Conan O'Brien discussed Rivers' legacy with fellow comedian and lifelong friend Chris Hardwick on "Conan", while Seth Meyers recalled Rivers' appearance on his talk show, saying, "I have not sat next to anyone who told more jokes faster than Joan Rivers did when she was here." On "The Daily Show", host Jon Stewart noted her contributions to comedy: "There are very few people in my business that you can say are, or were, actually groundbreaking talents. Joan Rivers was one of them." Radio host Howard Stern, who delivered the eulogy at her funeral, devoted an entire one-hour show to Rivers. Stern sought help from comedian Louis C.K., another friend of Rivers', before giving the eulogy. When Stern spoke at the funeral, he began the eulogy with, "Joan Rivers had a dry vagina", a joke that was intended, and reportedly received by guests, as a humorous honoring of Rivers' comedic sensibility. Sarah Silverman paid tribute to Rivers while hosting "Saturday Night Live"; in one sketch, she portrayed Rivers in Heaven. Long-time friend, comedian, fellow talk show hostess and television personality Whoopi Goldberg tweeted: "My friend Joan Rivers has passed away". She said: "Once again to quote Billy Crystal...There are no words." Comedian Louis C.K. released a statement saying, "I looked up to her. I learned from her. I loved her. I liked her. And I already miss her very much. It really fucking sucks that she had to die all of a sudden.”


title: Joan Rivers

text: Amy Schumer, speaking at the 2014 "Glamour" magazine "Woman of the Year Awards" ceremony in Carnegie Hall, paid tribute to Rivers, calling her the bravest female comedian.


title: Joan Rivers

text: Political figures giving tribute to Rivers included former First Lady Nancy Reagan, who said she was one of the "funniest people I ever knew". Upon hearing of her death, Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and his wife Camilla said she was "utterly irreplaceable". Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted that besides bringing laughter to millions of people around the world, she was "proud of her Jewish heritage". Then-future U.S. President Donald Trump attended her funeral and tweeted that she "was an amazing woman and a great friend". After her mother's death, Melissa Rivers said she received a letter from President Barack Obama in which he wrote, despite being a frequent target of Rivers' jokes: "not only did she make us laugh, she made us think".


title: Joan Rivers

text: In a subsequent interview with "The Huffington Post", Melissa Rivers cited Courtney Love's public tribute to her mother as her favorite, adding: "I loved seeing that outpouring from these women, especially the ones who took the heat on "Fashion Police", because it meant they got it. It meant they loved her. It meant they saw the humor."


title: Joan Rivers

text: Joan Rivers was strongly influenced by Lenny Bruce. As a female comic, Rivers felt indebted to, but also very distinct from, other female standups and comedians including Phyllis Diller (a close friend and champion), Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, Pearl Williams, Belle Barth, Totie Fields, Jean Carroll, Minnie Pearl, Jackie "Moms" Mabley, Johnny Carson, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Bob Newhart, Woody Allen, Don Rickles, Imogene Coca, Elaine May, Carol Burnett, and Gracie Allen. Rivers's early comedy in particular was influenced by vaudeville, Borscht Belt, and proto-feminist comedy of the early-1900s.


title: Joan Rivers

text: In the 1960s and 1970s, Rivers was in a comedy circuit with Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, and Dick Cavett. Though she counted them as peers and friends, she never felt included due to sexist practices within the industry.