title: Kerry Washington

text: Washington played the lead role in "Confirmation", an HBO movie directed by Rick Famuyiwa about Anita Hill's testimony during Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination, which aired in 2016. For her role in "Confirmation", Washington was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as the Critics' Choice Awards' equivalent the same year. "Confirmation" was also nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie at the Emmys. That same year, Washington launched Simpson Street, a production company, which has an overall deal with ABC Studios.


title: Kerry Washington

text: In 2018, Washington made her directorial debut on "Scandal", directing the tenth episode of the seventh season. She also appeared as Olivia Pope in two episodes of "How to Get Away with Murder", as part of a crossover with Scandal. Scandal concluded after seven seasons in April 2018. That same year, Washington starred in the Broadway play "American Son" written by Christopher Demos-Brown, following two parents arriving at a police station in the middle of the night looking for answers.


title: Kerry Washington

text: In 2019, Washington directed the seventh episode of the second season of Showtime's "SMILF". She then starred in "Live in Front of a Studio Audience" on ABC in a recreation of "The Jeffersons", portraying the role of Helen Willis. The same year, she reprised her role in the film adaptation of the Broadway play "American Son", which she also executive produced, for Netflix. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2019, and was released on November 1, 2019.


title: Kerry Washington

text: In 2020, Washington served as an executive producer on "The Fight", a documentary film revolving around legal battles lawyers for the ACLU face during the Trump administration, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 30, 2020. That same year, she served as an executive producer and starred alongside Reese Witherspoon in the Hulu miniseries "Little Fires Everywhere", an adaptation of Celeste Ng's 2017 novel of the same name. Washington directed the ninth episode of the fourth season of the HBO comedy series "Insecure".


title: Kerry Washington

text: In September 2020, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) as a producer of the television special "Live in Front of a Studio Audience". In December 2020, Washington starred in "The Prom", directed by Ryan Murphy for Netflix, as Mrs. Greene.


title: Kerry Washington

text: From 2022, Washington will star in the recurring role of fourth-grade teacher Ms. Peyton in "The Simpsons". She plays Professor Clarissa Dovey in the film adaptation of Soman Chainani's "The School for Good and Evil".


title: Kerry Washington

text: In November 2018, Washington was attached to star in, and executive produce, "24/7" directed by Eva Longoria for Universal Pictures. She will star in and produce action film "Shadow Force" directed by Joe Carnahan for Lionsgate.


title: Kerry Washington

text: In August 2021, Washington planned to produce and star in, an adaptation of Diane Cardwells memoir, for Netflix.<ref name="variety/1235033221"></ref>


title: Kerry Washington

text: Washington was engaged to actor David Moscow from October 2004 to March 2007. Washington married NFL player Nnamdi Asomugha on June 24, 2013 in Hailey, Idaho. They have a daughter and a son.


title: Kerry Washington

text: As a sort of souvenir or memento, she usually tries to keep something from every character that she plays, such as an item of wardrobe or a piece of furniture from the house the character lived in.


title: Kerry Washington

text: On May 19, 2013, she was the commencement speaker for her "alma mater", George Washington University. Before giving her commencement address she was presented with an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts.


title: Kerry Washington

text: In 2007, Washington and other celebrities joined for the 2007 Lee National Denim Day, supporting the Women's Cancer Programs of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. In September 2012, Washington spoke at the Democratic National Convention in favor of re-electing Barack Obama, with her speech focusing on addressing voter apathy. Washington has also used her celebrity to support voter registration drives and recently encouraged her Twitter followers to make sure they have the appropriate ID needed to vote by contacting VoteRiders, a voter ID education organization.


title: Kerry Washington

text: Washington is also a supporter of LGBT rights. In August 2013, she was named an honorary chairperson of the GLSEN Respect Awards; and she received the GLAAD Vanguard Award on March 21, 2015. In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting; in the video, Washington and others told the stories of the people killed there.


title: Kerry Washington

text: She is a member of the Creative Coalition; which is a board of actors, writers, musicians, and producers that explore issues that are at the forefront of national discourse. She is also a member of V-Day, a global movement that brings awareness to violence against women and girls. In March 2016, Washington and fellow ShondaLand colleagues, Ellen Pompeo, Viola Davis and Shonda Rhimes, appeared in a commercial endorsing Hillary Clinton for president.


title: Kerry Washington

text: Among her many accolades, Washington has received a Primetime Emmy Awards, five NAACP Image Awards, a Teen Choice Award, and nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. One of the most successful women on television, she has received recognized by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) with nine Emmy nominations, these being:


title: Birthstone

text: A birthstone is a gemstone that represents a person's period of birth that is usually the month or zodiac sign. Birthstones are often worn as jewelry or as a pendant necklace.


title: Birthstone

text: The first century historian Josephus believed there was a connection between the twelve stones in Aaron's breastplate (signifying the tribes of Israel, as described in the Book of Exodus), the twelve months of the year, and the twelve signs of the zodiac. Translations and interpretations of the passage in Exodus regarding the breastplate have varied widely, with Josephus himself giving two different lists for the twelve stones. George Frederick Kunz argues that Josephus saw the breastplate of the Second Temple, not the one described in Exodus. St. Jerome, referencing Josephus, said the Foundation Stones of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:19–20) would be appropriate for Christians to use.


title: Birthstone

text: In the eighth and ninth century, religious treatises associating a particular stone with an apostle were written, so that "their name would be inscribed on the Foundation Stones, and his virtue." Practice became to keep twelve stones and wear one a month. The custom of wearing a single birthstone is only a few centuries old, though modern authorities differ on dates. Kunz places the custom in eighteenth century Poland, while the Gemological Institute of America starts it in Germany in the 1560s.


title: Birthstone

text: Modern lists of birthstones have little to do with either the breastplate or the Foundation Stones of Christianity. Tastes, customs and confusing translations have distanced them from their historical origins, with one author calling the 1912 Kansas list (see below) "nothing but a piece of unfounded salesmanship."


title: Birthstone

text: There are poems that match each month of the Gregorian calendar with a birthstone. These are traditional stones of English-speaking societies. Tiffany & Co. published these poems "of unknown author" for the first time in a pamphlet in 1870.


title: Birthstone

text: In 1912, in an effort to standardize birthstones, the (American) National Association of Jewelers (now called Jewelers of America) met in Kansas and officially adopted a list. The Jewelry Industry Council of America updated the list in 1952 by adding Alexandrite for June, citrine for November and "pink" tourmaline for October. They also replaced December's lapis with zircon and switched the primary/alternative gems for March. The American Gem Trade Association added tanzanite as a December birthstone in 2002. In 2016, the American Gem Trade Association and Jewelers of America added spinel as an additional birthstone for August. Britain's National Association of Goldsmiths created their own standardized list of birthstones in 1937.


title: Birthstone

text: Eastern culture recognizes a similar range of gemstones associated with birth, though rather than associating a gem with a birth month, gemstones are associated with celestial bodies, and astrology is employed to determine the gemstones most closely associated with and beneficial to a particular individual. For example, in Hinduism there are nine gemstones associated with the "Navagraha" (celestial forces including the planets, the sun, and the moon), known in Sanskrit as "Navaratna" (nine gems). At birth, an astrological chart is calculated, and certain stones are recommended to be worn on the body to ward off potential problems based on the place of these forces in the sky at the exact place and time of birth.


title: Birthstone

text: While the term "birthday stone" is sometimes used as a synonym for birthstone, each day of the week is also assigned a unique gemstone and these assignments are distinct from the monthly assignments.


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: John Wick: Chapter 2 is a 2017 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Chad Stahelski and written by Derek Kolstad. The sequel to "John Wick" (2014), it is the second installment in the "John Wick" film series. It stars Keanu Reeves as the eponymous character, Common, Laurence Fishburne, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ruby Rose, John Leguizamo, and Ian McShane. The plot follows retired hitman John Wick, who is forced back into his old life to fulfill a blood oath to an Italian crime lord. Principal photography began on October 26, 2015, and filming took place in New York City, Rome, and Montreal.


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: "John Wick: Chapter 2" premiered in Los Angeles on January 30, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on February 10, by Lionsgate. The film grossed $171.5 million worldwide against its $40 million budget, twice the $86 million gross of the original film, and received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the action sequences, direction, editing, visual style, and the performances of the cast, particularly Reeves.


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: John Wick recovers his stolen Ford Mustang Mach 1 from Abram Tarasov, the late Viggo's brother. John dispatches Tarasov's men in a violent rampage that heavily damages the Mustang, but spares Tarasov under the promise of peace, and returns home. John is visited by the Camorra crime boss Santino D'Antonio, who reminds him that he helped John complete his "impossible task", which allowed John to retire and marry Helen. In return, John swore to a "marker", an unbreakable vow symbolized by a "blood oath" medallion. Santino presents the marker to demand services from John, who declines. Santino retaliates by destroying John's house with a grenade launcher. John survives and travels to the Continental Hotel in New York City where Winston reminds John that if he rejects the marker, he will be violating one of the two unbreakable rules of the underworld: no killing on Continental grounds, and honoring every marker. John reluctantly accepts his commitment and meets with Santino, who tasks him with assassinating his sister, Gianna, so he can claim her seat at the "High Table", a council of twelve high-level crime bosses. Santino sends Ares, his mute bodyguard, to observe John's mission.


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: In Rome, Italy, John infiltrates Gianna's coronation, confronting her in her dressing room. Faced with certain death, Gianna chooses to slit her wrists. As Gianna dies, John shoots her in the head, to end her suffering and to fulfill the marker. As John leaves, Gianna's bodyguard, Cassian, recognizes him, realizes that he was sent to kill Gianna, and attacks him. John flees to the catacombs, where he is double-crossed by Ares and Santino's henchmen, who intend to tie up "loose ends" by killing him. After killing most of the henchmen, John is again pursued by Cassian. Their fight leads them into the Rome Continental's reception area, in which, like the New York Continental, 'conducting business' is strictly forbidden. As the two share a drink, John explains his reason for killing Gianna. Nevertheless, Cassian promises John a quick and clean death as a sign of professional respect.


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: As John returns to New York City, Santino opens a contract for $7 million to kill John, ostensibly to avenge his sister, leading numerous assassins to unsuccessfully attack John. Cassian confronts John in the subway and, after a vicious fight, is left with a knife stuck in his aorta. The badly injured John seeks help from an underground crime boss known as the Bowery King, whose subordinates treat John's injuries. Intrigued by John's intent to kill a member of the High Table, the Bowery King sportingly gives him a gun with only seven bullets, one for each million of the contract, and directs John to an art museum where Santino holds a gala. John pursues Santino throughout the museum, killing his remaining henchmen, including Ares, who gives Santino enough time to escape to the Continental, where he intends to remain indefinitely in its sanctuary. Despite Winston's warnings, the exasperated John shoots and kills Santino in the Continental lounge.


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: The next day, Winston meets with John and explains that the Camorra has doubled the contract on John, offering it globally. Further, for 'conducting business' on Continental grounds, per the High Table's rules, Winston is forced to declare John "excommunicado", terminating all his access and privileges to underworld resources. However, Winston delays activating John's excommunication by one hour (giving him a head start) and provides him with a marker for future use. Before leaving, John advises Winston to warn every other High Table assassin that he will kill anyone who tries to hunt him. John departs with his dog as Winston makes a call enacting John's "excommunicado" to be activated in one hour. As news of the imminent contract disseminates, cellular phones begin to ring all around, and John begins to run.


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: In February 2015, directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch stated that a "John Wick" sequel had begun development. In the same month, Jon Feltheimer, CEO of Lionsgate, stated during a conference call that "We see "John Wick" as a multiple-title action franchise". Additionally, it was reported that Kolstad would return to write the screenplay. In May 2015, it was confirmed that a sequel was greenlit, and Lionsgate would be selling the film at the Cannes Film Festival. Reeves and Stahelski appeared in a 30-minute AOL BUILD interview in early February 2017 to discuss the development and casting of the film.


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: It was announced that Keanu Reeves, Leitch, and Stahelski would return, with filming set to begin in late 2015. In October 2015, Common joined the film to play the head of security for a female crime lord, and Ian McShane was confirmed to return as Winston, the owner of the Continental Hotel. In November 2015, Bridget Moynahan, John Leguizamo, Thomas Sadoski, and Lance Reddick were confirmed to return, while Ruby Rose, Riccardo Scamarcio, and Peter Stormare were added to the cast (due to Michael Nyqvist having health problems). In December 2015, it was announced that Laurence Fishburne would appear in a supporting role. Reeves was trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu by the Machado brothers for the role.


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: Principal photography on the film began on October 26, 2015, in New York City. At the end of first week, filming had taken place in Manhattan. Filming moved to Rome next and later resumed in Montreal on October 28, 2015. Studio shots were located in New Jersey.


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard returned to write and compose the film's soundtrack. Along with the return of Le Castle Vania and Ciscandra Nostalghia, the soundtrack has also featured Alice in Chains' guitarist and co-lead vocalist Jerry Cantrell in the song "A Job to Do", whose lyrics were written by Cantrell from the perspective of Keanu Reeves' character.


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: "John Wick: Chapter 2" premiered at Arclight Hollywood in Los Angeles on January 30, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on February 10, 2017, by Summit Entertainment. In the United Kingdom, the film was granted a 15 certificate by the British Board of Film Classification after 23 seconds of a suicide scene were removed to avoid an 18 rating. The film opened in UK cinemas on February 17, 2017, and was distributed by Warner Bros., with co-production from Lionsgate studio Summit Entertainment. Australia was one of the last major countries to receive the film, with a release on May 18.


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: "John Wick: Chapter 2" grossed $92 million in the United States and Canada and $79.5 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $171.5 million. The film grossed $90.5 million worldwide in its first nine days of release, surpassing the entire theatrical gross of the first film ($88.8 million).


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: In the United States and Canada, the film opened alongside two other sequels, "The Lego Batman Movie" and "Fifty Shades Darker", and was projected to gross around $20 million in its opening weekend. It earned $2.2 million from Thursday night previews at 2,400 theaters, an improvement over the $870,000 made by its predecessor. It made $11 million on its first day, nearly totaling the $14.4 million the first film made in its entire opening weekend. It went on to open to $30.4 million, more than double the opening weekend of the original film and finishing third at the box office behind "The Lego Batman Movie" ($53 million) and "Fifty Shades Darker" ($46.6 million). In its second weekend the film grossed $16.2 million (a drop of 46.7%), finishing 4th at the box office and making more in its second weekend than the original film made in its first.


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 89% based on 274 reviews and an average rating of 7.40/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""John Wick: Chapter 2" does what a sequel should—which in this case means doubling down on the non-stop, thrillingly choreographed action that made its predecessor so much fun." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on reviews from 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, an improvement from the "B" received by its predecessor, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 85% overall positive score and a 72% "definite recommend".


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: Scott Tobias of "Uproxx" said the film improved upon the original, writing: "For better or worse—though mostly for better—it's a full-scale assault on the senses, constantly pushing itself to greater feats of excess. At this rate, a third "John Wick" might trigger the apocalypse". Mike Rougeau of IGN gave the film an 8.5/10, stating that it "takes joy in expanding on the original's lore", and praised the film as a vast improvement of its predecessor in terms of action set pieces, fight choreography, cinematography, and writing. Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" called it "the real deal" and "pure cinema". Byron Lafayette in his review column Under The Lens gave the film 3/5 stars and said "John Wick: Chapter 2 is a fun time to be had, and one that is best seen with a group of friends on the big screen"


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: Writing for "Time" magazine in February Stephanie Zacharek stated: "The pleasures of "John Wick: Chapter 2" may be even greater than those of its predecessor—itself a symphonic achievement in scrappy, balls-out, action filmmaking—because in this one, there's no puppy murder to endure...it's lovers of humankind who are put to the test. "John Wick: Chapter 2" asks the classic pulp question—Are human beings worth saving?—and delivers, with the right proportions of joy and sorrow, the classic pulp answer: Sometimes, no".


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: Both Richard Brody writing for "The New Yorker" and Stephen M. Colbert writing for Screen Rant saw secret societies as a significant motif in the film. In his article "The World of John Wick Explained", Colbert stated: ""John Wick" introduced audiences to a dark, polished and sharply dressed, underground criminal society full of assassins who (mostly) abide by an unspoken code of conduct and two explicit rules. While the first movie told a more intimate story that only hinted at the larger world of this secret society, "John Wick: Chapter Two" takes the titular character through several of the corners of this complex underworld, revealing even more about the world of "John Wick". While very few of these customs are explicitly explained, there are still enough hints about the inner functionings of the various entities presented, giving us enough puzzle pieces to put together a loose sketch of this mysterious world of assassins".


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of "The A.V. Club" wrote that it "lacks the first film's domino-effect momentum". In part, he praised the action scenes as "entertainingly surreal". In an opinion piece, Jordan Hoffman of "The Guardian" called the film "a shameful example of Hollywood gun pornography" with a "hyperactive, blood-soaked, corpse-strewn video game aesthetic" but "only trace elements of a plot" and wondered "where the line of decency is as audience bloodlust continues to get chummed".


title: John Wick: Chapter 2

text: In October 2016, Stahelski stated that a third film, titled "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum", was in the works and in June 2017 it was reported that Kolstad would return to write the screenplay with the completed film subsequently released in 2019.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: Charles Michael Lorre (; born Charles Michael Levine; October 18, 1952) is an American film & television director, writer, producer, composer and actor.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: Called the "King of Sitcoms", he has created/co-created and produced sitcoms including "Grace Under Fire", "Cybill", "Dharma & Greg", "Two and a Half Men", "The Big Bang Theory", "Mike & Molly", "Mom", "Young Sheldon", "The Kominsky Method", "Disjointed", "Bob Hearts Abishola", "B Positive", "United States of Al", and "How to Be a Bookie". He also served as an executive producer of "Roseanne". He won Golden Globe Awards for "Roseanne" (1993) and "Cybill" (1996), and won the 2019 Golden Globe Award for "The Kominsky Method". In the 1990s, he founded Chuck Lorre Productions.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: Lorre was born in Plainview, New York to a Jewish family and given the Hebrew name Chaim. His father, Robert, opened a luncheonette that did poorly, which caused financial problems. After graduating from high school, Lorre attended State University of New York at Potsdam, dropping out after two years to pursue a career as a songwriter. During his two years at college he "majored in rock 'n' roll and pot and minored in LSD". In 2011, he admitted to drinking heavily in his past, telling "Entertainment Weekly" (EW) that he "led a dissolute youth until 47." He was in recovery at the time. Substance-related issues are also a recurring theme in his work.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: After leaving school, Lorre toured the United States as a guitarist and songwriter. He wrote the song "French Kissin' in the USA," which Deborah Harry later recorded for her 1986 "Rockbird" album and became a UK Top 10 hit. In the early 1980s he turned to writing scripts for animated shows; his first project was the DIC version of "Heathcliff". He co-wrote the soundtrack to the 1987 television series "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" with Dennis Challen Brown. In the late 1980s, he shifted into writing for sitcoms, and joined the writing staff of "Roseanne". Though he was fired over irreconcilable creative differences, Lorre's time on "Roseanne" impressed producers, and led to his creating his first show, "Frannie's Turn". It was cancelled after 5 weeks.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: Lorre's second show as creator, "Grace Under Fire", starred comedian Brett Butler. It premiered on ABC in 1993, and was nominated at the 52nd Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. His next show was "Cybill", starring Cybill Shepherd. It aired for four seasons on CBS and received critical acclaim, winning a Primetime Emmy Award in 1995 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for co-star Christine Baranski, and two Golden Globe Awards in 1996 for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and Best Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy for Cybill Shepherd. Lorre signed a deal with Carsey-Werner Productions in 1994. He then moved to 20th Century Fox in 1995 to create the next project.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: "Dharma & Greg" was the fourth show he created, in partnership with Dottie Zicklin (credited as Dottie Dartland), which premiered one year before the end of "Cybill" in 1997. (Lorre had left "Cybill" in season two.) It starred Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson as the title characters, whose personalities were complete opposites—Dharma's world view being more spiritual and 'free spirit'-style, instilled by "hippie" parents, contrasted with Greg's world view of structure, social status requirements, and "white collar duty" instilled by his generations of affluent parents/ancestors. The show received eight Golden Globe nominations, six Emmy Award nominations, and six Satellite Awards nominations, and Elfman won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in 1999. To move on to his next project, Lorre signed a long-term deal with Warner Bros. Television in 2000, a relationship that continues to this day.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: Lorre created his fifth show, "Two and a Half Men," with co-creator Lee Aronsohn. It focuses on two Harper brothers, Charlie and Alan. Charlie is a hedonistic, successful commercial jingles composer and womanizer who owns a beach house in Malibu. When Alan is thrown out of his house by his wife, he worms himself into Charlie's house. Alan also has a little son, Jake, the "half", who comes to visit him and Charlie on weekends. "Two and a Half Men" premiered on CBS in 2003 and became the highest-rated sitcom in America. In 2011, CBS put the show on hiatus following many incidents of production shutdowns due to Charlie Sheen's alleged problems related to drug and alcohol abuse and greed, which culminated to the verbal attacks directed at Lorre during a radio interview. Sheen was fired from the show and filed a $100 million lawsuit against Lorre and Warner Bros. Television for wrongful termination. Lorre killed off Sheen's character and hired Ashton Kutcher as his replacement for the show's later four seasons.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: Lorre's next show was "The Big Bang Theory" with co-creator Bill Prady. It follows two genius physicists with few social skills who befriend their neighbor, an attractive, outgoing young woman with average intelligence and no college education. The episodes usually focus primarily on the daily lives of the men and two of their brilliant but equally socially challenged friends, with a dose of absurdity from the relationship with their less educated but socially astute neighbor. The two main protagonists, Sheldon and Leonard, are named after actor and television producer Sheldon Leonard. The show premiered on CBS in 2007 and was the highest rated comedy series in the United States.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: Lorre was executive producer of "Mike & Molly", created by Mark Roberts, which premiered on CBS in September 2010. His seventh show, created with Gemma Baker and Eddie Gorodetsky, "Mom," premiered on CBS on September 23, 2013. On March 13, 2014, CBS announced the second season renewal of "Mom". It ran for eight seasons.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: Controversy surrounded "United States of Al", a show produced by Lorre for CBS. Released to mostly negative reviews, "United States of Al" and its makers were criticized for the show's humor, use of antiquated tropes, and in particular, the casting of a South-African-born Indian actor to play an Afghan lead and his use of an inauthentic accent.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: The unique vanity cards for Chuck Lorre Productions have become a "trademark" for Lorre, starting with "Dharma & Greg" and used for every one of his shows since. An Apple Macintosh computer was used for Lorre's production card on the earlier "Grace Under Fire" and "Cybill".


title: Chuck Lorre

text: Typically, on the end of every episode of his productions, Lorre includes a different message that usually reads like an editorial, essay, or observation on life. A typical card might include a range of topics as diverse as what the Bee Gees never learned, the cancellation of "Dharma & Greg", his support of Barack Obama, the competence of AOL Time Warner management, and the genesis of "Two and a Half Men".


title: Chuck Lorre

text: The card is shown for only a few seconds at most, so longer messages require the viewer to pause at the right spot, or visit Lorre's website where he posts the cards. CBS has censored Lorre's vanity cards on several occasions; Lorre posts both the censored and uncensored versions of the cards.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: During Charlie Sheen's controversial departure from "Two and a Half Men" in 2011, Lorre referenced Sheen in several cards. Lorre used the vanity card for the series finale, "Of Course He's Dead", to address the circumstances of Sheen's absence from the episode.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: Lorre published a compilation of his vanity cards in a coffee table book titled "What Doesn't Kill Us Makes Us Bitter", released on October 16, 2012. The book takes its title from Vanity Card #1, which first aired following the first episode of "Dharma & Greg" on September 24, 1997.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: During "The Big Bang Theory" episode titled "The Hook-Up Reverberation", Vanity Card #463 was displayed. It discussed Lorre's lost or matured angst along with the news that he would stop writing the vanity cards. Vanity card #464 was shown after the next episode, stating it was his last and that he felt like they would not be missed. However, he resumed the cards. Card #493 on March 5, 2015 was a tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy, who had guest-starred on the show as the voice of Sheldon's conscience three years earlier.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: On March 12, 2009, Lorre received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: Three months later, Lorre received an honorary degree from the State University of New York at Potsdam and gave a keynote address at the graduation.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: Lorre won Golden Globe Awards for "Roseanne" (1993), "Cybill" (1996), and "The Kominsky Method" (2019).


title: Chuck Lorre

text: Lorre was first married to his business partner Paula Smith in 1979. They ended both partnerships after 13 years and the births of their two children.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: He was married to actress and former Playboy Playmate Karen Witter for 10 years before their divorce in July 2010.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: From 2010 to 2011, he was in a relationship with Canadian actress and model Emmanuelle Vaugier, who appeared in 12 episodes of "Two and a Half Men" as a ballet teacher and the main character's love interest.


title: Chuck Lorre

text: He has publicly discussed his decades of struggle with the autoimmune disease ulcerative colitis, as well as depression, worry, and anger/rage. He stated in an interview, "Put me in paradise and I will focus on the one thing that will make me angry." In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", he said, "I am wired on some deep level to seek out something to be worried and obsess about."


title: Tree

text: In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. In wider definitions, the taller palms, tree ferns, bananas, and bamboos are also trees. Trees are not a taxonomic group but include a variety of plant species that have independently evolved a trunk and branches as a way to tower above other plants to compete for sunlight. The majority of tree species are angiosperms or hardwoods; of the rest, many are gymnosperms or softwoods. Trees tend to be long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old. Trees have been in existence for 370 million years. It is estimated that there are some three trillion mature trees in the world.


title: Tree

text: A tree typically has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground by the trunk. This trunk typically contains woody tissue for strength, and vascular tissue to carry materials from one part of the tree to another. For most trees it is surrounded by a layer of bark which serves as a protective barrier. Below the ground, the roots branch and spread out widely; they serve to anchor the tree and extract moisture and nutrients from the soil. Above ground, the branches divide into smaller branches and shoots. The shoots typically bear leaves, which capture light energy and convert it into sugars by photosynthesis, providing the food for the tree's growth and development.


title: Tree

text: Trees usually reproduce using seeds. Flowers and fruit may be present, but some trees, such as conifers, instead have pollen cones and seed cones. Palms, bananas, and bamboos also produce seeds, but tree ferns produce spores instead.


title: Tree

text: Trees play a significant role in reducing erosion and moderating the climate. They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store large quantities of carbon in their tissues. Trees and forests provide a habitat for many species of animals and plants. Tropical rainforests are among the most biodiverse habitats in the world. Trees provide shade and shelter, timber for construction, fuel for cooking and heating, and fruit for food as well as having many other uses. In parts of the world, forests are shrinking as trees are cleared to increase the amount of land available for agriculture. Because of their longevity and usefulness, trees have always been revered, with sacred groves in various cultures, and they play a role in many of the world's mythologies.


title: Tree

text: Although "tree" is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised precise definition of what a tree is, either botanically or in common language. In its broadest sense, a tree is any plant with the general form of an elongated stem, or trunk, which supports the photosynthetic leaves or branches at some distance above the ground. Trees are also typically defined by height, with smaller plants from being called shrubs, so the minimum height of a tree is only loosely defined. Large herbaceous plants such as papaya and bananas are trees in this broad sense.


title: Tree

text: A commonly applied narrower definition is that a tree has a woody trunk formed by secondary growth, meaning that the trunk thickens each year by growing outwards, in addition to the primary upwards growth from the growing tip. Under such a definition, herbaceous plants such as palms, bananas and papayas are not considered trees regardless of their height, growth form or stem girth. Certain monocots may be considered trees under a slightly looser definition; while the Joshua tree, bamboos and palms do not have secondary growth and never produce true wood with growth rings, they may produce "pseudo-wood" by lignifying cells formed by primary growth. Tree species in the genus "Dracaena", despite also being monocots, do have secondary growth caused by meristem in their trunk, but it is different from the thickening meristem found in dicotyledonous trees.


title: Tree

text: Aside from structural definitions, trees are commonly defined by use; for instance, as those plants which yield lumber.


title: Tree

text: The tree growth habit is an evolutionary adaptation found in different groups of plants: by growing taller, trees are able to compete better for sunlight. Trees tend to be tall and long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old. Several trees are among the oldest organisms now living. Trees have modified structures such as thicker stems composed of specialised cells that add structural strength and durability, allowing them to grow taller than many other plants and to spread out their foliage. They differ from shrubs, which have a similar growth form, by usually growing larger and having a single main stem; but there is no consistent distinction between a tree and a shrub, made more confusing by the fact that trees may be reduced in size under harsher environmental conditions such as on mountains and subarctic areas. The tree form has evolved separately in unrelated classes of plants in response to similar environmental challenges, making it a classic example of parallel evolution. With an estimated 60,000-100,000 species, the number of trees worldwide might total twenty-five per cent of all living plant species. The greatest number of these grow in tropical regions; many of these areas have not yet been fully surveyed by botanists, making tree diversity and ranges poorly known.


title: Tree

text: The majority of tree species are angiosperms or hardwoods. Of the rest, many are gymnosperms or softwood trees; these include conifers, cycads, ginkgophytes and gnetales, which produce seeds which are not enclosed in fruits, but in open structures such as pine cones, and many have tough waxy leaves, such as pine needles. Most angiosperm trees are eudicots, the "true dicotyledons", so named because the seeds contain two cotyledons or seed leaves. There are also some trees among the old lineages of flowering plants called basal angiosperms or paleodicots; these include "Amborella", "Magnolia", nutmeg and avocado, while trees such as bamboo, palms and bananas are monocots.


title: Tree

text: Wood gives structural strength to the trunk of most types of tree; this supports the plant as it grows larger. The vascular system of trees allows water, nutrients and other chemicals to be distributed around the plant, and without it trees would not be able to grow as large as they do. Trees, as relatively tall plants, need to draw water up the stem through the xylem from the roots by the suction produced as water evaporates from the leaves. If insufficient water is available the leaves will die. The three main parts of trees include the root, stem, and leaves; they are integral parts of the vascular system which interconnects all the living cells. In trees and other plants that develop wood, the vascular cambium allows the expansion of vascular tissue that produces woody growth. Because this growth ruptures the epidermis of the stem, woody plants also have a cork cambium that develops among the phloem. The cork cambium gives rise to thickened cork cells to protect the surface of the plant and reduce water loss. Both the production of wood and the production of cork are forms of secondary growth.


title: Tree

text: Trees are either evergreen, having foliage that persists and remains green throughout the year, or deciduous, shedding their leaves at the end of the growing season and then having a dormant period without foliage. Most conifers are evergreens, but larches ("Larix" and "Pseudolarix") are deciduous, dropping their needles each autumn, and some species of cypress ("Glyptostrobus", "Metasequoia" and "Taxodium") shed small leafy shoots annually in a process known as cladoptosis. The crown is the spreading top of a tree including the branches and leaves, while the uppermost layer in a forest, formed by the crowns of the trees, is known as the canopy. A sapling is a young tree.


title: Tree

text: Many tall palms are herbaceous monocots; these do not undergo secondary growth and never produce wood. In many tall palms, the terminal bud on the main stem is the only one to develop, so they have unbranched trunks with large spirally arranged leaves. Some of the tree ferns, order Cyatheales, have tall straight trunks, growing up to , but these are composed not of wood but of rhizomes which grow vertically and are covered by numerous adventitious roots.


title: Tree

text: The number of trees in the world, according to a 2015 estimate, is 3.04 trillion, of which 1.39 trillion (46%) are in the tropics or sub-tropics, 0.61 trillion (20%) in the temperate zones, and 0.74 trillion (24%) in the coniferous boreal forests. The estimate is about eight times higher than previous estimates, and is based on tree densities measured on over 400,000 plots. It remains subject to a wide margin of error, not least because the samples are mainly from Europe and North America. The estimate suggests that about 15 billion trees are cut down annually and about 5 billion are planted. In the 12,000 years since the start of human agriculture, the number of trees worldwide has decreased by 46%.


title: Tree

text: In suitable environments, such as the Daintree Rainforest in Queensland, or the mixed podocarp and broadleaf forest of Ulva Island, New Zealand, forest is the more-or-less stable climatic climax community at the end of a plant succession, where open areas such as grassland are colonised by taller plants, which in turn give way to trees that eventually form a forest canopy.


title: Tree

text: In cool temperate regions, conifers often predominate; a widely distributed climax community in the far north of the northern hemisphere is moist taiga or northern coniferous forest (also called boreal forest). Taiga is the world's largest land biome, forming 29% of the world's forest cover. The long cold winter of the far north is unsuitable for plant growth and trees must grow rapidly in the short summer season when the temperature rises and the days are long. Light is very limited under their dense cover and there may be little plant life on the forest floor, although fungi may abound. Similar woodland is found on mountains where the altitude causes the average temperature to be lower thus reducing the length of the growing season.


title: Tree

text: Where rainfall is relatively evenly spread across the seasons in temperate regions, temperate broadleaf and mixed forest typified by species like oak, beech, birch and maple is found. Temperate forest is also found in the southern hemisphere, as for example in the Eastern Australia temperate forest, characterised by "Eucalyptus" forest and open acacia woodland.


title: Tree

text: In tropical regions with a monsoon or monsoon-like climate, where a drier part of the year alternates with a wet period as in the Amazon rainforest, different species of broad-leaved trees dominate the forest, some of them being deciduous. In tropical regions with a drier savanna climate and insufficient rainfall to support dense forests, the canopy is not closed, and plenty of sunshine reaches the ground which is covered with grass and scrub. "Acacia" and baobab are well adapted to living in such areas.


title: Tree

text: The roots of a tree serve to anchor it to the ground and gather water and nutrients to transfer to all parts of the tree. They are also used for reproduction, defence, survival, energy storage and many other purposes. The radicle or embryonic root is the first part of a seedling to emerge from the seed during the process of germination. This develops into a taproot which goes straight downwards. Within a few weeks lateral roots branch out of the side of this and grow horizontally through the upper layers of the soil. In most trees, the taproot eventually withers away and the wide-spreading laterals remain. Near the tip of the finer roots are single cell root hairs. These are in immediate contact with the soil particles and can absorb water and nutrients such as potassium in solution. The roots require oxygen to respire and only a few species such as mangroves and the pond cypress ("Taxodium ascendens") can live in permanently waterlogged soil.


title: Tree

text: In the soil, the roots encounter the hyphae of fungi. Many of these are known as mycorrhiza and form a mutualistic relationship with the tree roots. Some are specific to a single tree species, which will not flourish in the absence of its mycorrhizal associate. Others are generalists and associate with many species. The tree acquires minerals such as phosphorus from the fungus, while the fungus obtains the carbohydrate products of photosynthesis from the tree. The hyphae of the fungus can link different trees and a network is formed, transferring nutrients and signals from one place to another. The fungus promotes growth of the roots and helps protect the trees against predators and pathogens. It can also limit damage done to a tree by pollution as the fungus accumulate heavy metals within its tissues. Fossil evidence shows that roots have been associated with mycorrhizal fungi since the early Paleozoic, four hundred million years ago, when the first vascular plants colonised dry land.


title: Tree

text: Some trees such as Alder ("Alnus" species) have a symbiotic relationship with "Frankia" species, a filamentous bacterium that can fix nitrogen from the air, converting it into ammonia. They have actinorhizal root nodules on their roots in which the bacteria live. This process enables the tree to live in low nitrogen habitats where they would otherwise be unable to thrive. The plant hormones called cytokinins initiate root nodule formation, in a process closely related to mycorrhizal association.


title: Tree

text: It has been demonstrated that some trees are interconnected through their root system, forming a colony. The interconnections are made by the inosculation process, a kind of natural grafting or welding of vegetal tissues. The tests to demonstrate this networking are performed by injecting chemicals, sometimes radioactive, into a tree, and then checking for its presence in neighbouring trees.


title: Tree

text: The roots are, generally, an underground part of the tree, but some tree species have evolved roots that are aerial. The common purposes for aerial roots may be of two kinds, to contribute to the mechanical stability of the tree, and to obtain oxygen from air. An instance of mechanical stability enhancement is the red mangrove that develops prop roots that loop out of the trunk and branches and descend vertically into the mud. A similar structure is developed by the Indian banyan. Many large trees have buttress roots which flare out from the lower part of the trunk. These brace the tree rather like angle brackets and provide stability, reducing sway in high winds. They are particularly prevalent in tropical rainforests where the soil is poor and the roots are close to the surface.


title: Tree

text: Some tree species have developed root extensions that pop out of soil, in order to get oxygen, when it is not available in the soil because of excess water. These root extensions are called pneumatophores, and are present, among others, in black mangrove and pond cypress.


title: Tree

text: The main purpose of the trunk is to raise the leaves above the ground, enabling the tree to overtop other plants and outcompete them for light. It also transports water and nutrients from the roots to the aerial parts of the tree, and distributes the food produced by the leaves to all other parts, including the roots.


title: Tree

text: In the case of angiosperms and gymnosperms, the outermost layer of the trunk is the bark, mostly composed of dead cells of phellem (cork). It provides a thick, waterproof covering to the living inner tissue. It protects the trunk against the elements, disease, animal attack and fire. It is perforated by a large number of fine breathing pores called lenticels, through which oxygen diffuses. Bark is continually replaced by a living layer of cells called the cork cambium or phellogen. The London plane ("Platanus × acerifolia") periodically sheds its bark in large flakes. Similarly, the bark of the silver birch ("Betula pendula") peels off in strips. As the tree's girth expands, newer layers of bark are larger in circumference, and the older layers develop fissures in many species. In some trees such as the pine ("Pinus" species) the bark exudes sticky resin which deters attackers whereas in rubber trees ("Hevea brasiliensis") it is a milky latex that oozes out. The quinine bark tree ("Cinchona officinalis") contains bitter substances to make the bark unpalatable. Large tree-like plants with lignified trunks in the Pteridophyta, Arecales, Cycadophyta and Poales such as the tree ferns, palms, cycads and bamboos have different structures and outer coverings.


title: Tree

text: Although the bark functions as a protective barrier, it is itself attacked by boring insects such as beetles. These lay their eggs in crevices and the larvae chew their way through the cellulose tissues leaving a gallery of tunnels. This may allow fungal spores to gain admittance and attack the tree. Dutch elm disease is caused by a fungus ("Ophiostoma" species) carried from one elm tree to another by various beetles. The tree reacts to the growth of the fungus by blocking off the xylem tissue carrying sap upwards and the branch above, and eventually the whole tree, is deprived of nourishment and dies. In Britain in the 1990s, 25 million elm trees were killed by this disease.


title: Tree

text: The innermost layer of bark is known as the phloem and this is involved in the transport of the sap containing the sugars made by photosynthesis to other parts of the tree. It is a soft spongy layer of living cells, some of which are arranged end to end to form tubes. These are supported by parenchyma cells which provide padding and include fibres for strengthening the tissue. Inside the phloem is a layer of undifferentiated cells one cell thick called the vascular cambium layer. The cells are continually dividing, creating phloem cells on the outside and wood cells known as xylem on the inside.


title: Tree

text: The newly created xylem is the sapwood. It is composed of water-conducting cells and associated cells which are often living, and is usually pale in colour. It transports water and minerals from the roots to the upper parts of the tree. The oldest, inner part of the sapwood is progressively converted into heartwood as new sapwood is formed at the cambium. The conductive cells of the heartwood are blocked in some species. Heartwood is usually darker in colour than the sapwood. It is the dense central core of the trunk giving it rigidity. Three quarters of the dry mass of the xylem is cellulose, a polysaccharide, and most of the remainder is lignin, a complex polymer. A transverse section through a tree trunk or a horizontal core will show concentric circles of lighter or darker wood – tree rings. These rings are the annual growth rings There may also be rays running at right angles to growth rings. These are vascular rays which are thin sheets of living tissue permeating the wood. Many older trees may become hollow but may still stand upright for many years.


title: Tree

text: Trees do not usually grow continuously throughout the year but mostly have spurts of active expansion followed by periods of rest. This pattern of growth is related to climatic conditions; growth normally ceases when conditions are either too cold or too dry. In readiness for the inactive period, trees form buds to protect the meristem, the zone of active growth. Before the period of dormancy, the last few leaves produced at the tip of a twig form scales. These are thick, small and closely wrapped and enclose the growing point in a waterproof sheath. Inside this bud there is a rudimentary stalk and neatly folded miniature leaves, ready to expand when the next growing season arrives. Buds also form in the axils of the leaves ready to produce new side shoots. A few trees, such as the eucalyptus, have "naked buds" with no protective scales and some conifers, such as the Lawson's cypress, have no buds but instead have little pockets of meristem concealed among the scale-like leaves.


title: Tree

text: When growing conditions improve, such as the arrival of warmer weather and the longer days associated with spring in temperate regions, growth starts again. The expanding shoot pushes its way out, shedding the scales in the process. These leave behind scars on the surface of the twig. The whole year's growth may take place in just a few weeks. The new stem is unlignified at first and may be green and downy. The Arecaceae (palms) have their leaves spirally arranged on an unbranched trunk. In some tree species in temperate climates, a second spurt of growth, a Lammas growth may occur which is believed to be a strategy to compensate for loss of early foliage to insect predators.


title: Tree

text: Primary growth is the elongation of the stems and roots. Secondary growth consists of a progressive thickening and strengthening of the tissues as the outer layer of the epidermis is converted into bark and the cambium layer creates new phloem and xylem cells. The bark is inelastic. Eventually the growth of a tree slows down and stops and it gets no taller. If damage occurs the tree may in time become hollow.


title: Tree

text: Leaves are structures specialised for photosynthesis and are arranged on the tree in such a way as to maximise their exposure to light without shading each other. They are an important investment by the tree and may be thorny or contain phytoliths, lignins, tannins or poisons to discourage herbivory. Trees have evolved leaves in a wide range of shapes and sizes, in response to environmental pressures including climate and predation. They can be broad or needle-like, simple or compound, lobed or entire, smooth or hairy, delicate or tough, deciduous or evergreen. The needles of coniferous trees are compact but are structurally similar to those of broad-leaved trees. They are adapted for life in environments where resources are low or water is scarce. Frozen ground may limit water availability and conifers are often found in colder places at higher altitudes and higher latitudes than broad leaved trees. In conifers such as fir trees, the branches hang down at an angle to the trunk, enabling them to shed snow. In contrast, broad leaved trees in temperate regions deal with winter weather by shedding their leaves. When the days get shorter and the temperature begins to decrease, the leaves no longer make new chlorophyll and the red and yellow pigments already present in the blades become apparent. Synthesis in the leaf of a plant hormone called auxin also ceases. This causes the cells at the junction of the petiole and the twig to weaken until the joint breaks and the leaf floats to the ground. In tropical and subtropical regions, many trees keep their leaves all year round. Individual leaves may fall intermittently and be replaced by new growth but most leaves remain intact for some time. Other tropical species and those in arid regions may shed all their leaves annually, such as at the start of the dry season. Many deciduous trees flower before the new leaves emerge. A few trees do not have true leaves but instead have structures with similar external appearance such as Phylloclades – modified stem structures – as seen in the genus "Phyllocladus".


title: Tree

text: Trees can be pollinated either by wind or by animals, mostly insects. Many angiosperm trees are insect pollinated. Wind pollination may take advantage of increased wind speeds high above the ground. Trees use a variety of methods of seed dispersal. Some rely on wind, with winged or plumed seeds. Others rely on animals, for example with edible fruits. Others again eject their seeds (ballistic dispersal), or use gravity so that seeds fall and sometimes roll.


title: Tree

text: Seeds are the primary way that trees reproduce and their seeds vary greatly in size and shape. Some of the largest seeds come from trees, but the largest tree, "Sequoiadendron giganteum", produces one of the smallest tree seeds. The great diversity in tree fruits and seeds reflects the many different ways that tree species have evolved to disperse their offspring.


title: Tree

text: For a tree seedling to grow into an adult tree it needs light. If seeds only fell straight to the ground, competition among the concentrated saplings and the shade of the parent would likely prevent it from flourishing. Many seeds such as birch are small and have papery wings to aid dispersal by the wind. Ash trees and maples have larger seeds with blade shaped wings which spiral down to the ground when released. The kapok tree has cottony threads to catch the breeze.


title: Tree

text: The seeds of conifers, the largest group of gymnosperms, are enclosed in a cone and most species have seeds that are light and papery that can be blown considerable distances once free from the cone. Sometimes the seed remains in the cone for years waiting for a trigger event to liberate it. Fire stimulates release and germination of seeds of the jack pine, and also enriches the forest floor with wood ash and removes competing vegetation. Similarly, a number of angiosperms including "Acacia cyclops" and "Acacia mangium" have seeds that germinate better after exposure to high temperatures.


title: Tree

text: The flame tree "Delonix regia" does not rely on fire but shoots its seeds through the air when the two sides of its long pods crack apart explosively on drying. The miniature cone-like catkins of alder trees produce seeds that contain small droplets of oil that help disperse the seeds on the surface of water. Mangroves often grow in water and some species have propagules, which are buoyant fruits with seeds that start germinating before becoming detached from the parent tree. These float on the water and may become lodged on emerging mudbanks and successfully take root.


title: Tree

text: Other seeds, such as apple pips and plum stones, have fleshy receptacles and smaller fruits like hawthorns have seeds enclosed in edible tissue; animals including mammals and birds eat the fruits and either discard the seeds, or swallow them so they pass through the gut to be deposited in the animal's droppings well away from the parent tree. The germination of some seeds is improved when they are processed in this way. Nuts may be gathered by animals such as squirrels that cache any not immediately consumed. Many of these caches are never revisited, the nut-casing softens with rain and frost, and the seed germinates in the spring. Pine cones may similarly be hoarded by red squirrels, and grizzly bears may help to disperse the seed by raiding squirrel caches.


title: Tree

text: The single extant species of Ginkgophyta ("Ginkgo biloba") has fleshy seeds produced at the ends of short branches on female trees, and "Gnetum", a tropical and subtropical group of gymnosperms produce seeds at the tip of a shoot axis.


title: Tree

text: The earliest trees were tree ferns, horsetails and lycophytes, which grew in forests in the Carboniferous period. The first tree may have been "Wattieza", fossils of which have been found in New York State in 2007 dating back to the Middle Devonian (about 385 million years ago). Prior to this discovery, "Archaeopteris" was the earliest known tree. Both of these reproduced by spores rather than seeds and are considered to be links between ferns and the gymnosperms which evolved in the Triassic period. The gymnosperms include conifers, cycads, gnetales and ginkgos and these may have appeared as a result of a whole genome duplication event which took place about 319 million years ago. Ginkgophyta was once a widespread diverse group of which the only survivor is the maidenhair tree "Ginkgo biloba". This is considered to be a living fossil because it is virtually unchanged from the fossilised specimens found in Triassic deposits.


title: Tree

text: During the Mesozoic (245 to 66 million years ago) the conifers flourished and became adapted to live in all the major terrestrial habitats. Subsequently, the tree forms of flowering plants evolved during the Cretaceous period. These began to displace the conifers during the Tertiary era (66 to 2 million years ago) when forests covered the globe. When the climate cooled 1.5 million years ago and the first of four ice ages occurred, the forests retreated as the ice advanced. In the interglacials, trees recolonised the land that had been covered by ice, only to be driven back again in the next ice age.


title: Tree

text: Trees are an important part of the terrestrial ecosystem, providing essential habitats including many kinds of forest for communities of organisms. Epiphytic plants such as ferns, some mosses, liverworts, orchids and some species of parasitic plants (e.g., mistletoe) hang from branches; these along with arboreal lichens, algae, and fungi provide micro-habitats for themselves and for other organisms, including animals. Leaves, flowers and fruits are seasonally available. On the ground underneath trees there is shade, and often there is undergrowth, leaf litter, and decaying wood that provide other habitat. Trees stabilise the soil, prevent rapid run-off of rain water, help prevent desertification, have a role in climate control and help in the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem balance.


title: Tree

text: Many species of tree support their own specialised invertebrates. In their natural habitats, 284 different species of insect have been found on the English oak ("Quercus robur") and 306 species of invertebrate on the Tasmanian oak ("Eucalyptus obliqua"). Non-native tree species provide a less biodiverse community, for example in the United Kingdom the sycamore ("Acer pseudoplatanus"), which originates from southern Europe, has few associated invertebrate species, though its bark supports a wide range of lichens, bryophytes and other epiphytes. Trees differ ecologically in the ease with which they can be found by herbivores. Tree apparency varies with a tree's size and semiochemical content, and with the extent to which it is concealed by nonhost neighbours from its insect pests.


title: Tree

text: In ecosystems such as mangrove swamps, trees play a role in developing the habitat, since the roots of the mangrove trees reduce the speed of flow of tidal currents and trap water-borne sediment, reducing the water depth and creating suitable conditions for further mangrove colonisation. Thus mangrove swamps tend to extend seawards in suitable locations. Mangrove swamps also provide an effective buffer against the more damaging effects of cyclones and tsunamis.


title: Tree

text: Trees are the source of many of the world's best known fleshy fruits. Apples, pears, plums, cherries and citrus are all grown commercially in temperate climates and a wide range of edible fruits are found in the tropics. Other commercially important fruit include dates, figs and olives. Palm oil is obtained from the fruits of the oil palm ("Elaeis guineensis"). The fruits of the cocoa tree ("Theobroma cacao") are used to make cocoa and chocolate and the berries of coffee trees, "Coffea arabica" and "Coffea canephora", are processed to extract the coffee beans. In many rural areas of the world, fruit is gathered from forest trees for consumption. Many trees bear edible nuts which can loosely be described as being large, oily kernels found inside a hard shell. These include coconuts ("Cocos nucifera"), Brazil nuts ("Bertholletia excelsa"), pecans ("Carya illinoinensis"), hazel nuts ("Corylus"), almonds ("Prunus dulcis"), walnuts ("Juglans regia"), pistachios ("Pistacia vera") and many others. They are high in nutritive value and contain high-quality protein, vitamins and minerals as well as dietary fibre. A variety of nut oils are extracted by pressing for culinary use; some such as walnut, pistachio and hazelnut oils are prized for their distinctive flavours, but they tend to spoil quickly.


title: Tree

text: In temperate climates there is a sudden movement of sap at the end of the winter as trees prepare to burst into growth. In North America, the sap of the sugar maple ("Acer saccharum") is most often used in the production of a sweet liquid, maple syrup. About 90% of the sap is water, the remaining 10% being a mixture of various sugars and certain minerals. The sap is harvested by drilling holes in the trunks of the trees and collecting the liquid that flows out of the inserted spigots. It is piped to a sugarhouse where it is heated to concentrate it and improve its flavour. Similarly in northern Europe the spring rise in the sap of the silver birch ("Betula pendula") is tapped and collected, either to be drunk fresh or fermented into an alcoholic drink. In Alaska, the sap of the sweet birch ("Betula lenta") is made into a syrup with a sugar content of 67%. Sweet birch sap is more dilute than maple sap; a hundred litres are required to make one litre of birch syrup.


title: Tree

text: Various parts of trees are used as spices. These include cinnamon, made from the bark of the cinnamon tree ("Cinnamomum zeylanicum") and allspice, the dried small fruits of the pimento tree ("Pimenta dioica"). Nutmeg is a seed found in the fleshy fruit of the nutmeg tree ("Myristica fragrans") and cloves are the unopened flower buds of the clove tree ("Syzygium aromaticum").


title: Tree

text: Many trees have flowers rich in nectar which are attractive to bees. The production of forest honey is an important industry in rural areas of the developing world where it is undertaken by small-scale beekeepers using traditional methods. The flowers of the elder ("Sambucus") are used to make elderflower cordial and petals of the plum ("Prunus spp.") can be candied. Sassafras oil is a flavouring obtained from distilling bark from the roots of the sassafras tree ("Sassafras albidum").


title: Tree

text: The leaves of trees are widely gathered as fodder for livestock and some can be eaten by humans but they tend to be high in tannins which makes them bitter. Leaves of the curry tree ("Murraya koenigii") are eaten, those of kaffir lime ("Citrus × hystrix") (in Thai food) and "Ailanthus" (in Korean dishes such as bugak) and those of the European bay tree ("Laurus nobilis") and the California bay tree ("Umbellularia californica") are used for flavouring food. "Camellia sinensis", the source of tea, is a small tree but seldom reaches its full height, being heavily pruned to make picking the leaves easier.


title: Tree

text: Wood smoke can be used to preserve food. In the hot smoking process the food is exposed to smoke and heat in a controlled environment. The food is ready to eat when the process is complete, having been tenderised and flavoured by the smoke it has absorbed. In the cold process, the temperature is not allowed to rise above . The flavour of the food is enhanced but raw food requires further cooking. If it is to be preserved, meat should be cured before cold smoking.


title: Tree

text: Wood has traditionally been used for fuel, especially in rural areas. In less developed nations it may be the only fuel available and collecting firewood is often a time-consuming task as it becomes necessary to travel further and further afield in the search for fuel. It is often burned inefficiently on an open fire. In more developed countries other fuels are available and burning wood is a choice rather than a necessity. Modern wood-burning stoves are very fuel efficient and new products such as wood pellets are available to burn.


title: Tree

text: Charcoal can be made by slow pyrolysis of wood by heating it in the absence of air in a kiln. The carefully stacked branches, often oak, are burned with a very limited amount of air. The process of converting them into charcoal takes about fifteen hours. Charcoal is used as a fuel in barbecues and by blacksmiths and has many industrial and other uses.


title: Tree

text: Timber, "trees that are grown in order to produce wood" is cut into lumber (sawn wood) for use in construction. Wood has been an important, easily available material for construction since humans started building shelters. Engineered wood products are available which bind the particles, fibres or veneers of wood together with adhesives to form composite materials. Plastics have taken over from wood for some traditional uses.


title: Tree

text: Wood is used in the construction of buildings, bridges, trackways, piles, poles for power lines, masts for boats, pit props, railway sleepers, fencing, hurdles, shuttering for concrete, pipes, scaffolding and pallets. In housebuilding it is used in joinery, for making joists, roof trusses, roofing shingles, thatching, staircases, doors, window frames, floor boards, parquet flooring, panelling and cladding.


title: Tree

text: Wood is used to construct carts, farm implements, boats, dugout canoes and in shipbuilding. It is used for making furniture, tool handles, boxes, ladders, musical instruments, bows, weapons, matches, clothes pegs, brooms, shoes, baskets, turnery, carving, toys, pencils, rollers, cogs, wooden screws, barrels, coffins, skittles, veneers, artificial limbs, oars, skis, wooden spoons, sports equipment and wooden balls.


title: Tree

text: Wood is pulped for paper and used in the manufacture of cardboard and made into engineered wood products for use in construction such as fibreboard, hardboard, chipboard and plywood. The wood of conifers is known as softwood while that of broad-leaved trees is hardwood.


title: Tree

text: Besides inspiring artists down the centuries, trees have been used to create art. Living trees have been used in bonsai and in tree shaping, and both living and dead specimens have been sculpted into sometimes fantastic shapes.


title: Tree

text: is the practice of "hòn non bộ" originated in China and spread to Japan more than a thousand years ago, there are similar practices in other cultures like the living miniature landscapes of Vietnam "hòn non bộ". The word "bonsai" is often used in English as an umbrella term for all miniature trees in containers or pots.


title: Tree

text: The purposes of bonsai are primarily contemplation (for the viewer) and the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity (for the grower). Bonsai practice focuses on long-term cultivation and shaping of one or more small trees growing in a container, beginning with a cutting, seedling, or small tree of a species suitable for bonsai development. Bonsai can be created from nearly any perennial woody-stemmed tree or shrub species that produces true branches and can be cultivated to remain small through pot confinement with crown and root pruning. Some species are popular as bonsai material because they have characteristics, such as small leaves or needles, that make them appropriate for the compact visual scope of bonsai and a miniature deciduous forest can even be created using such species as Japanese maple, Japanese zelkova or hornbeam.


title: Tree

text: Tree shaping is the practice of changing living trees and other woody plants into man made shapes for art and useful structures. There are a few different methods of shaping a tree. There is a gradual method and there is an instant method. The gradual method slowly guides the growing tip along predetermined pathways over time whereas the instant method bends and weaves saplings long into a shape that becomes more rigid as they thicken up. Most artists use grafting of living trunks, branches, and roots, for art or functional structures and there are plans to grow "living houses" with the branches of trees knitting together to give a solid, weatherproof exterior combined with an interior application of straw and clay to provide a stucco-like inner surface.


title: Tree

text: Tree shaping has been practised for at least several hundred years, the oldest known examples being the living root bridges built and maintained by the Khasi people of Meghalaya, India using the roots of the rubber tree ("Ficus elastica").


title: Tree

text: Cork is produced from the thick bark of the cork oak ("Quercus suber"). It is harvested from the living trees about once every ten years in an environmentally sustainable industry. More than half the world's cork comes from Portugal and is largely used to make stoppers for wine bottles. Other uses include floor tiles, bulletin boards, balls, footwear, cigarette tips, packaging, insulation and joints in woodwind instruments.


title: Tree

text: The bark of other varieties of oak has traditionally been used in Europe for the tanning of hides though bark from other species of tree has been used elsewhere. The active ingredient, tannin, is extracted and after various preliminary treatments, the skins are immersed in a series of vats containing solutions in increasing concentrations. The tannin causes the hide to become supple, less affected by water and more resistant to bacterial attack.


title: Tree

text: At least 120 drugs come from plant sources, many of them from the bark of trees. Quinine originates from the cinchona tree ("Cinchona") and was for a long time the remedy of choice for the treatment of malaria. Aspirin was synthesised to replace the sodium salicylate derived from the bark of willow trees ("Salix") which had unpleasant side effects. The anti-cancer drug Paclitaxel is derived from taxol, a substance found in the bark of the Pacific yew ("Taxus brevifolia"). Other tree based drugs come from the paw-paw ("Carica papaya"), the cassia ("Cassia" spp.), the cocoa tree ("Theobroma cacao"), the tree of life ("Camptotheca acuminata") and the downy birch ("Betula pubescens").


title: Tree

text: The papery bark of the white birch tree ("Betula papyrifera") was used extensively by Native Americans. Wigwams were covered by it and canoes were constructed from it. Other uses included food containers, hunting and fishing equipment, musical instruments, toys and sledges. Nowadays, bark chips, a by-product of the timber industry, are used as a mulch and as a growing medium for epiphytic plants that need a soil-free compost.


title: Tree

text: Trees create a visual impact in the same way as do other landscape features and give a sense of maturity and permanence to park and garden. They are grown for the beauty of their forms, their foliage, flowers, fruit and bark and their siting is of major importance in creating a landscape. They can be grouped informally, often surrounded by plantings of bulbs, laid out in stately avenues or used as specimen trees. As living things, their appearance changes with the season and from year to year.


title: Tree

text: Trees are often planted in town environments where they are known as street trees or amenity trees. They can provide shade and cooling through evapotranspiration, absorb greenhouse gases and pollutants, intercept rainfall, and reduce the risk of flooding. Scientific studies show that street trees help cities be more sustainable, and improve the physical and mental wellbeing of the citizens. It has been shown that they are beneficial to humans in creating a sense of well-being and reducing stress. Many towns have initiated tree-planting programmes. In London for example, there is an initiative to plant 20,000 new street trees and to have an increase in tree cover of 5% by 2025, equivalent to one tree for every resident.


title: Tree

text: Latex is a sticky defensive secretion that protects plants against herbivores. Many trees produce it when injured but the main source of the latex used to make natural rubber is the Pará rubber tree ("Hevea brasiliensis"). Originally used to create bouncy balls and for the waterproofing of cloth, natural rubber is now mainly used in tyres for which synthetic materials have proved less durable. The latex exuded by the balatá tree ("Manilkara bidentata") is used to make golf balls and is similar to gutta-percha, made from the latex of the "getah perca" tree "Palaquium". This is also used as an insulator, particularly of undersea cables, and in dentistry, walking sticks and gun butts. It has now largely been replaced by synthetic materials.


title: Tree

text: Resin is another plant exudate that may have a defensive purpose. It is a viscous liquid composed mainly of volatile terpenes and is produced mostly by coniferous trees. It is used in varnishes, for making small castings and in ten-pin bowling balls. When heated, the terpenes are driven off and the remaining product is called "rosin" and is used by stringed instrumentalists on their bows. Some resins contain essential oils and are used in incense and aromatherapy. Fossilised resin is known as amber and was mostly formed in the Cretaceous (145 to 66 million years ago) or more recently. The resin that oozed out of trees sometimes trapped insects or spiders and these are still visible in the interior of the amber.


title: Tree

text: The camphor tree ("Cinnamomum camphora") produces an essential oil and the eucalyptus tree ("Eucalyptus globulus") is the main source of eucalyptus oil which is used in medicine, as a fragrance and in industry.


title: Tree

text: Dead trees pose a safety risk, especially during high winds and severe storms, and removing dead trees involves a financial burden, whereas the presence of healthy trees can clean the air, increase property values, and reduce the temperature of the built environment and thereby reduce building cooling costs. During times of drought, trees can fall into water stress, which may cause a tree to become more susceptible to disease and insect problems, and ultimately may lead to a tree's death. Irrigating trees during dry periods can reduce the risk of water stress and death.


title: Tree

text: About a third of all tree species, some twenty thousand, are included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Of those, over eight thousand are globally threatened, including at least 1400 which are classed as "critically endangered".


title: Tree

text: Trees have been venerated since time immemorial. To the ancient Celts, certain trees, especially the oak, ash and thorn, held special significance as providing fuel, building materials, ornamental objects and weaponry. Other cultures have similarly revered trees, often linking the lives and fortunes of individuals to them or using them as oracles. In Greek mythology, dryads were believed to be shy nymphs who inhabited trees.


title: Tree

text: The Oubangui people of west Africa plant a tree when a child is born. As the tree flourishes, so does the child but if the tree fails to thrive, the health of the child is considered at risk. When it flowers it is time for marriage. Gifts are left at the tree periodically and when the individual dies, their spirit is believed to live on in the tree.


title: Tree

text: Trees have their roots in the ground and their trunk and branches extended towards the sky. This concept is found in many of the world's religions as a tree which links the underworld and the earth and holds up the heavens. In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is a central cosmic tree whose roots and branches extend to various worlds. Various creatures live on it. In India, Kalpavriksha is a wish-fulfilling tree, one of the nine jewels that emerged from the primitive ocean. Icons are placed beneath it to be worshipped, tree nymphs inhabit the branches and it grants favours to the devout who tie threads round the trunk. Democracy started in North America when the Great Peacemaker formed the Iroquois Confederacy, inspiring the warriors of the original five American nations to bury their weapons under the Tree of Peace, an eastern white pine ("Pinus strobus"). In the creation story in the Bible, the tree of life and the knowledge of good and evil was planted by God in the Garden of Eden.


title: Tree

text: Sacred groves exist in China, India, Africa and elsewhere. They are places where the deities live and where all the living things are either sacred or are companions of the gods. Folklore lays down the supernatural penalties that will result if desecration takes place for example by the felling of trees. Because of their protected status, sacred groves may be the only relicts of ancient forest and have a biodiversity much greater than the surrounding area.


title: Tree

text: Some Ancient Indian tree deities, such as Puliyidaivalaiyamman, the Tamil deity of the tamarind tree, or Kadambariyamman, associated with the kadamba tree were seen as manifestations of a goddess who offers her blessings by giving fruits in abundance.


title: Tree

text: Trees have a theoretical maximum height of , but the tallest known specimen on earth is believed to be a coast redwood ("Sequoia sempervirens") at Redwood National Park, California. It has been named Hyperion and is tall. In 2006, it was reported to be tall. The tallest known broad-leaved tree is a mountain ash ("Eucalyptus regnans") growing in Tasmania with a height of .


title: Tree

text: The largest tree by volume is believed to be a giant sequoia ("Sequoiadendron giganteum") known as the General Sherman Tree in the Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, California. Only the trunk is used in the calculation and the volume is estimated to be .


title: Tree

text: The oldest living tree with a verified age is also in California. It is a Great Basin bristlecone pine ("Pinus longaeva") growing in the White Mountains. It has been dated by drilling a core sample and counting the annual rings. It is estimated to currently be years old.


title: Tree

text: A little farther south, at Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico, is the tree with the broadest trunk. It is a Montezuma cypress ("Taxodium mucronatum") known as Árbol del Tule and its diameter at breast height is giving it a girth of . The tree's trunk is far from round and the exact dimensions may be misleading as the circumference includes much empty space between the large buttress roots.


The 1960 United States presidential election was the 44th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1960. In a closely contested election, Democratic United States Senator John F. Kennedy defeated the incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican Party nominee. This was the first election in which fifty states participated, and the last in which the District of Columbia did not, marking the first participation of Alaska and Hawaii. This made it the only presidential election where the threshold for victory was 269 electoral votes. It was also the first election in which an incumbent president was ineligible to run for a third term because of the term limits established by the 22nd Amendment. This is the most recent election in which three of the four major party nominees for President and Vice-President were eventually elected President of the United States. Kennedy won the election, but was murdered in 1963 and succeeded by Johnson, who won re-election in 1964. Then, Nixon won the 1968 election to succeed Johnson who decided not to run for re-election that year. Of the four candidates, only Vice Presidential nominee Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. failed to succeed to the presidency. The election saw the first time that a candidate won the presidency while carrying fewer states than the other candidate, something that would not occur again until 1976.


title: 1960 United States presidential election

text: Nixon faced little opposition in the Republican race to succeed popular incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower. Kennedy, a junior U.S. senator from Massachusetts, established himself as the Democratic front-runner with his strong performance in the 1960 Democratic primaries, including a key victory in West Virginia over Senator Hubert Humphrey. He defeated Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson on the first presidential ballot of the 1960 Democratic National Convention, and asked Johnson to serve as his running mate. The issue of the Cold War dominated the election, as tensions were high between the United States and the Soviet Union.


text: Kennedy won a 303 to 219 Electoral College victory, and he won the reported national popular vote by 112,827, a margin of 0.17 percent. Fourteen unpledged electors from Mississippi and Alabama cast their vote for Senator Harry F. Byrd, as did a faithless elector from Oklahoma. The 1960 presidential election was the closest election since 1916, and this closeness can be explained by a number of factors. Kennedy benefited from the economic recession of 1957–1958, which hurt the standing of the incumbent Republican Party, and he had the advantage of 17 million more registered Democrats than Republicans. Furthermore, the new votes that Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic president, gained among Catholics almost neutralized the new votes Nixon gained among Protestants. Nixon's advantages came from Eisenhower's popularity, as well as the economic prosperity of the past eight years. Kennedy's campaigning skills decisively outmatched Nixon's, who exhausted time and resources campaigning in all fifty states, while Kennedy focused on campaigning in populous swing states. Kennedy emphasized his youth, while Nixon focused heavily on his experience. Kennedy relied on Johnson to hold the South, and used television effectively. Despite this, Kennedy's popular vote margin was the second narrowest in presidential history, only surpassed by the 0.11% margin of the election of 1880.


text: The major candidates for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination were United States Senator John F. Kennedy from Massachusetts, Governor Pat Brown of California, Senator Stuart Symington from Missouri, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson from Texas, former nominee Adlai Stevenson, Senator Wayne Morse from Oregon, and Senator Hubert Humphrey from Minnesota. Several other candidates sought support in their home state or region as "favorite son" candidates, without any realistic chance of winning the nomination. Symington, Stevenson, and Johnson all declined to campaign in the presidential primaries. While this reduced their potential delegate count going into the Democratic National Convention, each of these three candidates hoped that the other leading contenders would stumble in the primaries, thus causing the convention's delegates to choose him as a "compromise" candidate acceptable to all factions of the party.


text: Kennedy was initially dogged by suggestions from some Democratic Party elders (such as former United States President Harry S. Truman, who was supporting Symington) that he was too youthful and inexperienced to be president; these critics suggested that he should agree to be the running mate for another Democrat. Realizing that this was a strategy touted by his opponents to keep the public from taking him seriously, Kennedy stated frankly, "I'm not running for vice president; I'm running for president."


text: The next step was the primaries. Kennedy's Roman Catholic religion was an issue. Kennedy first challenged Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey in the Wisconsin primary, and defeated him. Kennedy's sisters, brothers, and wife Jacqueline combed the state, looking for votes, leading Humphrey to complain that he "felt like an independent merchant competing against a chain store". However, some political experts argued that Kennedy's margin of victory had come almost entirely from Catholic areas, and, thus, Humphrey decided to continue the contest in the heavily Protestant state of West Virginia. The first televised debate of 1960 was held in West Virginia. Kennedy outperformed Humphrey and, in the days following, Kennedy made substantial gains over Humphrey in the polls. Humphrey's campaign was low on funds, and could not compete for advertising and other "get-out-the-vote" drives with Kennedy's well-financed and well-organized campaign. In the end, Kennedy defeated Humphrey with over 60% of the vote, and Humphrey ended his presidential campaign. West Virginia showed that Kennedy, a Catholic, could win in a heavily Protestant state. Although Kennedy had only competed in nine presidential primaries, Kennedy's rivals, Johnson and Symington, failed to campaign in any primaries. Even though Stevenson had twice been the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, and retained a loyal following of liberals, his two landslide defeats to Republican United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower led most party leaders and delegates to search for a "fresh face" who could win a national election. Following the primaries, Kennedy traveled around the nation, speaking to state delegations and their leaders. As the Democratic Convention opened, Kennedy was far in the lead, but was still seen as being just short of the delegate total he needed to win.


text: The 1960 Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles, California. In the week before the convention opened, Kennedy received two new challengers, when Lyndon B. Johnson, the powerful Senate Majority Leader, and Adlai Stevenson, the party's nominee in 1952 and 1956, officially announced their candidacies. However, neither Johnson nor Stevenson was a match for the talented and highly efficient Kennedy campaign team led by Robert F. Kennedy. Johnson challenged Kennedy to a televised debate before a joint meeting of the Texas and Massachusetts delegations, to which Kennedy accepted. Most observers believed that Kennedy won the debate, and Johnson was unable to expand his delegate support beyond the South. Stevenson's failure to launch his candidacy publicly until the week of the convention meant that many liberal delegates who might have supported him were already pledged to Kennedy, and Stevenson — despite the energetic support of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt — could not break their allegiance. Kennedy won the nomination on the first ballot.


text: Then, in a move that surprised many, Kennedy asked Johnson to be his running mate. He realized that he could not be elected without the support of traditional Southern Democrats, most of whom had backed Johnson. He offered Johnson the vice presidential nomination at the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel at 10:15 a.m. on July 14, 1960, the morning after being nominated for president. Robert F. Kennedy, who hated Johnson for his attacks on the Kennedy family, and who favored labor leader Walter Reuther, later said that his brother offered the position to Johnson as a courtesy and did not predict him to accept it. When he did accept Robert Kennedy tried to change Johnson's mind and failed.


text: Biographers Robert Caro and W. Marvin Watson offer a different perspective: They write that the Kennedy campaign was desperate to win what was forecast to be a very close race against Nixon and Lodge. Johnson was needed on the ticket to help carry votes from Texas and the Southern United States. Caro's research showed that on July 14, Kennedy started the process, while Johnson was still asleep. At 6:30 a.m., Kennedy asked his brother to prepare an estimate of upcoming electoral votes, "including Texas". Robert Kennedy called Pierre Salinger and Kenneth O'Donnell to assist him. Realizing the ramifications of counting Texas votes as their own, Salinger asked him whether he was considering a Kennedy-Johnson ticket, and Robert replied, "Yes". Between 9 and 10 a.m., John Kennedy called Pennsylvania governor David L. Lawrence, a Johnson backer, to request that Lawrence nominate Johnson for vice president if Johnson were to accept the role, and then went to Johnson's suite to discuss a mutual ticket at 10:15 a.m. John Kennedy then returned to his suite to announce the Kennedy-Johnson ticket to his closest supporters and Northern political bosses. He accepted the congratulations of Ohio Governor Michael DiSalle, Connecticut Governor Abraham A. Ribicoff, Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley, and New York City mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. Lawrence said that "Johnson has the strength where you need it most"; he then left to begin writing the nomination speech. O'Donnell remembers being angry at what he considered a betrayal by John Kennedy, who had previously cast Johnson as anti-labor and anti-liberal. Afterward, Robert Kennedy visited with labor leaders who were extremely unhappy with the choice of Johnson, and, after seeing the depth of labor opposition to Johnson, he ran messages between the hotel suites of his brother and Johnson, apparently trying to undermine the proposed ticket without John Kennedy's authorization and to get Johnson to agree to be the Democratic Party chairman, rather than vice president. Johnson refused to accept a change in plans, unless it came directly from John Kennedy. Despite his brother's interference, John Kennedy was firm that Johnson was who he wanted as running mate, and met with staffers such as Larry O'Brien, his national campaign manager, to say Johnson was to be vice president. O'Brien recalled later that John Kennedy's words were wholly unexpected, but that, after a brief consideration of the electoral vote situation, he thought "it was a stroke of genius".


text: With the ratification of the 22nd Amendment in 1951, President Dwight D. Eisenhower could not run for the office of president again; he had been elected in 1952 and 1956.


text: In 1959, it looked as if Vice President Richard Nixon might face a serious challenge for the Republican nomination from New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the leader of the Republican moderate-to-liberal wing. However, Rockefeller announced that he would not be a candidate for president, after a national tour revealed that the great majority of Republicans favored Nixon.


text: After Rockefeller's withdrawal, Nixon faced no significant opposition for the Republican nomination. At the 1960 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, Nixon was the overwhelming choice of the delegates, with conservative Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona receiving 10 votes from conservative delegates. In earning the nomination, Nixon became the first sitting vice president to run for president since John C. Breckinridge exactly a century prior. Nixon then chose former Massachusetts Senator and United Nations Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., as his vice presidential running mate. Nixon chose Lodge because his foreign-policy credentials fit into Nixon's strategy to campaign more on foreign policy than domestic policy, which he believed favored the Democrats. Nixon had previously sought Rockefeller as his running mate, but the governor had no ambitions to be vice president. However, he later served as Gerald Ford's vice president from 1974 to 1977.


text: During the campaign, Kennedy charged that under Eisenhower and the Republicans, the nation had fallen behind the Soviet Union in the Cold War, both militarily and economically, and that, as president, he would "get America moving again". The Eisenhower administration had established NASA in 1958, but Kennedy believed that the Republican Party had ignored the need to catch up to the Soviet Union in the Space Race. He promised that the new Democratic administration would fully appreciate the importance of space accomplishments for the national security and international prestige of the United States. Nixon responded that, if elected, he would continue the "peace and prosperity" that Eisenhower had brought the nation in the 1950s. Nixon also argued that, with the nation engaged in the Cold War with the Soviets, Kennedy was too young and inexperienced to be trusted with the presidency. Had Nixon been elected, at 48 years, 11 days, he would have been the fourth-youngest president at the date of inauguration. Kennedy, by contrast, was 43 years, 236 days, on the date of his inauguration; the second-youngest man to begin a Presidency. (At 42 Theodore Roosevelt, who assumed the Presidency upon the assassination of United States President William McKinley 60 years previously, was (and remains) the youngest.)


text: During Kennedy's campaign, he relied on his youth and promised to bring about change. Kennedy had a slogan emphasizing his youth, reading, "who's seasoned through and through/but not so dog-gone seasoned that he won't try something new". He was also endorsed by celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Henry Fonda, and Harry Belafonte. Nixon asserted that his experience in politics made him more qualified to hold the office of president. He wanted voters to know that he had the abilities to take on Communist threats.


text: Kennedy and Nixon both drew large and enthusiastic crowds throughout the campaign. In August 1960, most polls gave Nixon a slim lead over Kennedy, and many political pundits regarded him as the favorite to win. However, Nixon was plagued by bad luck throughout the fall campaign. In August, President Eisenhower, who had long been ambivalent about Nixon, held a televised press conference in which a reporter, Charles Mohr of "Time", mentioned Nixon's claims that he had been a valuable administration insider and adviser. Mohr asked Eisenhower if he could give an example of a major idea of Nixon's that he had heeded. Eisenhower responded with the flip comment, "If you give me a week, I might think of one." Although both Eisenhower and Nixon later claimed that he was merely joking with the reporter, the remark hurt Nixon, as it undercut his claims of having greater decision-making experience than Kennedy. The remark proved so damaging to Nixon that the Democrats turned Eisenhower's statement into a television commercial.


text: At the Republican National Convention, Nixon had pledged to campaign in all fifty states. This pledge backfired when, in August, Nixon injured his knee on a car door, while campaigning in North Carolina. The knee became infected, and Nixon had to cease campaigning for two weeks, while the infection was treated with antibiotics. When he left Walter Reed Hospital, Nixon refused to abandon his pledge to visit every state; he thus wound up wasting valuable time visiting states that he had no chance of winning, or that had few electoral votes and would be of little help at the election, or states that he would almost certainly win regardless. In his effort to visit all 50 states, Nixon spent the vital weekend before the election campaigning in Alaska, which had only three electoral votes, while Kennedy campaigned in more populous states such as New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.