title: Chaka Khan

text: Khan was invited to sing the National Anthem at the 2020 NBA All-Star Game. Her rendition was heavily criticized on Twitter, drawing comparisons to Fergie's rendition in 2018.


title: Chaka Khan

text: In May 2021, Khan appeared at the season 19 "American Idol" finale, where she performed a medley of her hits alongside the contestants. In June 2021, Khan joined YouTuber and performer Todrick Hall on his album "Femuline" for the song "Fabulosity". In November 2021, Khan participated in a Verzuz battle with singer Stephanie Mills, at which both singers performed hits from their discography.


title: Chaka Khan

text: Khan has been married twice and is the mother of two, daughter Indira Milini and son Damien Holland. Her first marriage was to Hassan Khan, in 1970, when she was 17, which ended in divorce a short time later. Milini's birth was the result of a relationship between Chaka Khan and Rahsaan Morris. Khan married her second husband, Richard Holland, in 1976. The marriage reportedly caused a rift between Khan and several members of Rufus, in particular, Andre Fischer. Holland wanted her to tone down her sexy stage image, but she refused. Following their split in 1979, Khan spent time in the studio with Ike Turner who she said was a "real inspiration and a catalyst emotionally and in other ways as well" during that difficult time. Holland filed for divorce in 1980, citing "irreconcilable differences". Khan dated a Chicago-area schoolteacher in the mid-1980s in the middle of her solo stardom. Following their separation, Khan moved to Europe, first settling in London, later buying a residence in Germany. She lived in Germany for a while "in a little village in the Rhine Valley" and also in Mannheim.


title: Chaka Khan

text: Khan is vegan, saying she adopted the diet to lose weight and combat high blood pressure and Type-2 diabetes. In the past, Khan struggled with drug abuse and alcoholism. Her drug use, which at times included cocaine and heroin, ended in the early 1990s. Khan had an on-and-off struggle with alcoholism until 2005, declaring herself sober.


title: Chaka Khan

text: In 2006, her son Damien Holland was accused of murder after 17-year-old Christopher Bailey was shot dead. Khan testified on her son's behalf. Holland claimed the shooting was an accident. He was acquitted in the criminal trial and found liable in the civil suit.


title: Chaka Khan

text: Though she sang at both the 2000 Democratic and Republican conventions, Khan says that she is more of a "Democratic-minded person".


title: Chaka Khan

text: Khan was featured in a 2013 episode of "Celebrity Ghost Stories" where she told the story of a shadow man who followed her on tour for years, until she met a guardian angel who admonished her to change her life or die.


title: Chaka Khan

text: To date, Khan has won ten Grammy Awards, including two as a member of Rufus. She has received 22 Grammy Award nominations, including three as a member of Rufus.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Robert Michael Nesmith or Mike Nesmith, (December 30, 1942 – December 10, 2021) was an American musician, songwriter, and actor. He was best known as a member of the pop rock band the Monkees and co-star of the TV series "The Monkees" (1966–1968). His songwriting credits include "Different Drum," which became a hit for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: After the break-up of the Monkees, Nesmith continued his successful songwriting and performing career, first with the seminal country rock group the First National Band, with whom he had a top-40 hit, "Joanne", and then as a solo artist. He often played a custom-built Gretsch 12-string electric with the Monkees and afterwards.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith founded Pacific Arts, a multimedia production and distribution company, in 1974, through which he helped pioneer the music video format. He created one of the first American television programs dedicated to music videos, "PopClips", which aired on Nickelodeon in 1980. He was asked to help produce and create MTV, but had prior commitments with his production company. In 1981, he won the first Grammy Award for Video of the Year for his hour-long television show, "Elephant Parts".


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith was born in Houston in 1942. He was an only child; his parents, Warren and Bette Nesmith (née McMurray), divorced when he was four. His mother married Robert Graham in 1962, and they remained married until 1975. Nesmith and his mother moved to Dallas to be closer to her family. She took temporary jobs ranging from clerical work to graphic design, eventually attaining the position of executive secretary at Texas Bank and Trust. When Nesmith was 13, his mother invented the typewriter correction fluid later known commercially as Liquid Paper. Over the next 25 years, she built the Liquid Paper Corporation into an international company, which she sold to Gillette in 1979 for $48 million. She died a few months later at the age of 56.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas, where he participated in choral and drama activities, but enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1960 before graduating. He completed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, was trained as an aircraft mechanic at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, and was permanently stationed at Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base near Burns Flat, Oklahoma. He obtained a GED certificate and was honorably discharged in 1962.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: After Nesmith’s tour of duty in the Air Force, his mother and stepfather gave him a guitar for Christmas. Learning as he went, he played solo and in a series of working bands, performing folk, country, and occasionally rock and roll. He enrolled in San Antonio College, where he met John London and began a musical collaboration. They won the first San Antonio College talent award, performing a mixture of standard folk songs and a few of Nesmith's original songs. Nesmith began to write more songs and poetry, then he moved to Los Angeles and began singing in folk clubs around the city. He served as the "Hootmaster" for the Monday night hootenanny at The Troubadour, a West Hollywood nightclub that featured new artists.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Randy Sparks from the New Christy Minstrels offered Nesmith a publishing deal for his songs. Nesmith began his recording career in 1963 by releasing a single on the Highness label. He followed this in 1965 with a one-off single released on Edan Records followed by two more recorded singles; one was titled "The New Recruit" under the name "Michael Blessing", released on Colpix Records, coincidentally also the label of Davy Jones, though they did not meet until the Monkees formed.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Barry Freedman told him about upcoming auditions for a new TV series called "The Monkees". In October 1965, Nesmith landed the role as the wool hat-wearing guitar player "Mike" in the show, which required real-life musical talent for writing, instrument playing, singing, and performing in live concerts as part of the Monkees band.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith's "Mary, Mary" was recorded by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Monkees themselves on their second LP in 1967 and then reworked by rap group Run DMC in the mid 1980s, while "Different Drum" and "Some of Shelly's Blues" were later recorded by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys in 1967 and 1968, respectively. "Pretty Little Princess", written in 1965, was recorded by Frankie Laine and released as a single in 1968 on ABC Records. Later, "Some of Shelly's Blues" and "Propinquity (I've Just Begun to Care)" were made popular by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their 1970 album "Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy".


title: Michael Nesmith

text: From 1965 to early 1970, Nesmith was a member of the television pop-rock band the Monkees, created for the television situation comedy of the same name. Nesmith won his role largely by appearing nonchalant when he auditioned. He rode his motorcycle to the audition, and wore a wool hat to keep his hair out of his eyes; producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider remembered the "wool hat guy" and called Nesmith back.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Once he was cast, Screen Gems bought his songs so they could be used in the show. Many of the songs Nesmith wrote for the Monkees, such as "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", "Mary, Mary", and "Listen to the Band" became minor hits. One song he wrote, "You Just May Be the One", is in mixed meter, interspersing 5/4 bars into an otherwise 4/4 structure.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Even before Colgems and Don Kirshner's surreptitious release of the Monkees 2nd LP, without the 4 musician-actors knowledge or consent, they came to be frustrated by their studio-manufactured "bubblegum" image. Within weeks of the release of "More of the Monkees", Nesmith lobbied successfully with the group's creators, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, that the Monkees be allowed to play their instruments on future records.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: During a group meeting with Kirshner and Colgems lawyer Herb Moelis, in a suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel, each actor received a $250k royalties check, yet Nesmith still threatened to quit. Moelis rebuked him, "You'd better read your contract". Nesmith defiantly punched a hole in the wall, declaring to Moelis, "That could have been your face, motherfucker!" Weeks later, due to a breach of (verbal) agreement over the next single release, which was promised to Nesmith by Rafelson & Schneider, Nesmith led the charge in completely ousting musical supervisor Don Kirshner, effectively giving the 4 youths complete artistic and production control of their output, and the group finally worked as a true 4-man rock group on 1967's "Headquarters", despite Jones & Dolenz having very limited instrumental skills, studio time being pricey and retakes costly.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: During the band's first independent press conference, Nesmith called their 2nd LP, "More of the Monkees" "probably the worst record in the history of the world", partly due to rushed, shoddy studio engineering. The band took a hit to its artistic credibility when fans learned the four had not played all the instruments on the first 2 LPs. But still sales continued to be profitable. "Headquarters" sold 2 million copies, down 2 million units from its predecessor, but still reached the number 1 spot on Billboard, falling only to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" a week later and remaining #2 all through the entire 1967 Summer of Love.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: For the remaining five Monkees LPs, ironically, the original Kirshner formula of hired studio musicians & songwriters again became the norm, although Nesmith, Tork, Dolenz and Jones contributed about 50% of the original compositions, Nesmith the majority of those.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: By the end of the Monkees run, Nesmith was withholding many of his original song ideas from Monkees albums, planning to release them in his post-Monkees solo career.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith's last contractual Monkees commitment was a commercial for Kool-Aid and Nerf balls in April 1970 (fittingly, the spot ends with Nesmith frowning and saying, "Enerf's enerf!"). As the band's sales declined, Nesmith asked to be released from his contract, despite it costing him: "I had three years left ... at $150,000 [equivalent to $980,940 in 2018] a year." He remained in a financial bind until 1980, when he received his inheritance from his mother's estate. In a 1980 interview with "Playboy", he said of that time: "I had to start telling little tales to the tax man while they were putting tags on the furniture."


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith did not participate in the Monkees' 20th anniversary reunion, due to contractual obligations with his production company, but he did appear during an encore with the 3 other Monkees at the Greek Theatre on September 7, 1986. In a 1987 interview for Nick Rocks, Nesmith stated, "When Peter called up and said 'we're going to go out, do you want to go?' I was booked. But, if you get to L.A., I'll play."


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith next joined his fellow Monkees for the 1986 "Monkees Christmas Medley" video for MTV appearing throughout dressed/disguised as Santa Claus until the finale, when he revealed his identity - and participation - to all.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith appeared again in 1989 with the other members of the Monkees, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones. Prior to the official kickoff of The Monkees '89 tour (on July 1 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) all 4 Monkees gathered in Los Angeles, California, making two live radio appearances (KLOS-FM: "The Mark and Brian Show" on June 28 and KIIS Radio on June 30) to promote their reunion concert at the Universal Amphitheatre where they appeared together as a foursome live on stage on July 9. The following day (July 10th) all four band members were in attendance as the Monkees received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In 1995, Nesmith was again reunited with the Monkees to record their studio album (and first to feature all four since "Head"), titled "Justus", released in 1996. He also wrote and directed a Monkees television special, "Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees". To support the reunion, Nesmith, Jones, Dolenz, and Tork briefly toured the UK in 1997. The UK tour was the last appearance of all four Monkees performing together.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In 2012, 2013, and 2014, after Jones's death, Nesmith reunited with Dolenz and Tork to perform concerts throughout the United States. Backed with a seven-piece band that included Nesmith's son, Christian, the trio performed 27 songs from The Monkees discography ("Daydream Believer" was sung by the audience). When asked why he had decided to return to the Monkees, Nesmith stated, "I never really left. It is a part of my youth that is always active in my thoughts and part of my overall work as an artist. It stays in a special place."


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In 2016, Nesmith contributed vocally and instrumentally to the Monkees' 50th anniversary album "Good Times!". He additionally contributed a song, "I Know What I Know", and was reportedly "thrilled" at the outcome of the album. Despite not touring with Dolenz and Tork for the majority of the Monkees' 50th-anniversary reunion in 2016, Nesmith did twice fill in for the ailing Peter Tork and appeared for the final show of the tour, which featured the three surviving band members (the last show to do so). At the end of the final show, Nesmith announced his retirement from the Monkees, never to tour again.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In 2018, Nesmith and Dolenz toured together as a duo for the first time under the banner "The Monkees Present: The Mike and Micky Show". The tour was cut short four dates out due to Nesmith having health issues (he was flown back home and proceeded to have quadruple bypass surgery). He contributed two songs to the Monkees' 13th studio album, "Christmas Party" (the group's first Christmas album), released on October 12, 2018.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In 2019, Nesmith and Dolenz reunited again to make up the cancelled dates of the tour and adding several more dates, including a planned tour of Australia and New Zealand. Nesmith and Dolenz announced a follow-up tour, "An Evening with the Monkees", to begin in early 2020. The tour was delayed, however, due the COVID-19 pandemic. It was announced by Nesmith and Dolenz on May 4, 2021, that the Monkees would disband following a farewell tour. Dubbed "The Monkees Farewell Tour", the tour consisted of over 40 dates in the United States from September to November. However, because of restrictions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they were not able to play shows in Canada, the UK or Australia. The final date of the tour was held on November 14, 2021, at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: As he prepared for his exit from The Monkees, Nesmith was approached by John Ware of The Corvettes, a band that featured Nesmith's Texas band mate and close friend John London. London played on some of the earliest pre-Monkees, Nesmith 45s, as well as numerous Monkees sessions, and had 45s produced by Nesmith for the Dot label in 1969. Ware wanted Nesmith to put together a band. Nesmith's interest hinged on noted pedal steel player Orville "Red" Rhodes; their musical partnership continued until Rhodes's death in 1995. The new band was christened Michael Nesmith and the First National Band and recorded three albums for RCA Records, the first two being released in 1970 with the third seeing release in 1971.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith's First National Band is now considered a pioneer of country-rock music. Nesmith wrote most of the songs for the band and he, himself, is considered one of the trailblazers of country rock. He also had moderate commercial success with the First National Band. Their second single, "Joanne", hit number 21 on the "Billboard" chart, number 17 on Cashbox, and number four in Canada, with the follow-up "Silver Moon" making number 42 "Billboard", number 28 Cashbox, and number 13 in Canada. Two more singles charted ("Nevada Fighter" made number 70 "Billboard", number 73 Cashbox, and number 67 Canada, and "Propinquity" reached number 95 Cashbox), and the first two LPs charted in the lower regions of the" Billboard" album chart. No clear answer has ever been given for the band's breakup.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith followed up with The Second National Band, which consisted of Nesmith (vocals and guitar), Michael Cohen (keyboards and Moog), Johnny Meeks (of The Strangers) (bass), jazzer Jack Ranelli (drums), and Orville Rhodes (pedal steel), as well as an appearance by singer, musician, and songwriter José Feliciano on congas. The album, "Tantamount to Treason Vol. 1", was a commercial and critical disaster. Nesmith then recorded "And the Hits Just Keep on Comin'", featuring only him on guitar and Red Rhodes on pedal steel.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith then became more heavily involved in producing, working on Iain Matthews's album "Valley Hi" and Bert Jansch's "L.A. Turnaround". Nesmith was given a label of his own, Countryside, through Elektra Records, as Elektra Records's Jac Holzman was a fan of Nesmith's. It featured a number of artists produced by Nesmith, including Garland Frady and Red Rhodes. The staff band at Countryside also helped Nesmith on his next, and last, RCA album, "Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash". Countryside folded when David Geffen replaced Holzman, as Countryside was unnecessary in Geffen's eyes.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In the mid-1970s, Nesmith briefly collaborated as a songwriter with Linda Hargrove, resulting in the tune "I've Never Loved Anyone More", a hit for Lynn Anderson and recorded by many others, as well as the songs "Winonah" and "If You Will Walk With Me", both of which were recorded by Hargrove. Of these songs, only "Winonah" was recorded by Nesmith himself. During this same period, Nesmith started his multimedia company Pacific Arts, which initially put out audio records, eight-track tapes, and cassettes, followed in 1981 with "video records". Nesmith recorded a number of LPs for his label, and had a moderate worldwide hit in 1977 with his song "Rio", the single taken from the album "From a Radio Engine to the Photon Wing". In 1979, Nesmith released the single Cruisin', also known as "Lucy and Ramona and Sunset Sam", which was popular on AOR rock stations and in New Zealand. In 1983, Nesmith produced the music video for the Lionel Richie single "All Night Long". In 1987, he produced the music video for the Michael Jackson single "The Way You Make Me Feel".


title: Michael Nesmith

text: During this time, Nesmith created a video clip for "Rio", which helped spur Nesmith's creation of a television program called "PopClips" for the Nickelodeon cable network. In 1980, "PopClips" was sold to the Time Warner/Amex consortium. Time Warner/Amex developed "PopClips" into the MTV network.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith won the first Grammy Award given for (long-form) Music Video in 1982 for his hour-long "Elephant Parts". He also had a short-lived series (1984-5) on NBC inspired by the video called "Michael Nesmith in Television Parts". "Television Parts" included many other artists who were unknown at the time, but went on to become major stars in their own right: Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling, Whoopi Goldberg, and Arsenio Hall. The concept of the show was to have comics render their stand-up routines into short comedy films much like the ones in "Elephant Parts". Nesmith assembled writers Jack Handey, William Martin, John Levenstein, and Michael Kaplan, along with directors William Dear (who had directed "Elephant Parts") and Alan Myerson, as well as producer Ward Sylvester to create the show. The half-hour show ran for eight episodes in the summer of 1985 on NBC Thursday nights in prime time.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith formed the Pacific Arts Corporation, Inc. in 1974 to manage and develop media projects. Pacific Arts Video became a pioneer in the home video market, producing and distributing a wide variety of videotaped programs, although the company eventually ceased operations after an acrimonious contract dispute with PBS over home video licensing rights and payments for several series, including Ken Burns' "The Civil War". The dispute escalated into a lawsuit that went to jury trial in federal court in Los Angeles. On February 3, 1999, a jury awarded Nesmith and his company Pacific Arts $48.875 million in compensatory and punitive damages, prompting his widely quoted comment, "It's like finding your grandmother stealing your stereo. You're happy to get your stereo back, but it's sad to find out your grandmother is a thief." PBS appealed the ruling, but the appeal never reached court and a settlement was reached, with the amount paid to Pacific Arts and Nesmith kept confidential.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith's most recent Pacific Arts project was Videoranch 3D, a virtual environment on the internet that hosted live performances at various virtual venues inside the ranch. He performed live inside Videoranch 3D on May 25, 2009.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith was the executive producer for the films "Repo Man", "Tapeheads", and "", as well as his own solo recording and film projects.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In 1998, Nesmith published his first novel, "The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora". It was developed originally as an online project and was later published as a hardcover book by St Martin's Press. Nesmith's second novel, "The America Gene", was released in July 2009 as an online download from Videoranch.com.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In the early 1980s, Nesmith teamed with satirist P. J. O'Rourke to ride his vehicle "Timerider" in the annual Baja 1000 off-road race. This is chronicled in O'Rourke's 2009 book "Driving Like Crazy".


title: Michael Nesmith

text: During the 1990s, Nesmith, as trustee and president of the Gihon Foundation, hosted the Council on Ideas, a gathering of intellectuals from different fields who were asked to identify the most important issues of their day and publish the result. The foundation ceased the program in 2000 and started a new program for the performing arts. Nesmith also spent a decade as a board of trustees member, nominating member and vice-chair of the American Film Institute.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In 1992, Nesmith undertook a concert tour of North America to promote the CD release of his RCA solo albums (although he included the song "Rio" from the album "From a Radio Engine to the Photon Wing"). The concert tour ended at the Britt Festival in Oregon. A video and CD, both entitled "Live at the Britt Festival", were released capturing the 1992 concert.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith continued to record and release his own music. His final album, "Rays", was released in 2006. In 2011, he returned to producing, working with blues singer and guitarist Carolyn Wonderland. Nesmith produced Wonderland's version of Robert Johnson's "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" on her album "Peace Meal". Wonderland married writer-comedian A. Whitney Brown on March 4, 2011, in a ceremony officiated by Nesmith.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In 2012, Nesmith briefly toured Europe prior to rejoining the Monkees for their tours of the United States. Intermixing the Monkees concerts, Nesmith also launched solo tours of the U.S. Unlike his 1992 U.S. tour, which predominantly featured music from his RCA recordings, Nesmith stated that his 2013 tour would feature songs he considers "thematic, chronological and most often requested by fans". Chris Scruggs, grandson of Earl Scruggs, replaced the late Red Rhodes on the steel guitar. The tour was captured on a live album, "Movies Of The Mind".


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In 2014, he guest-starred in season four, episode nine, of the IFC comedy series "Portlandia" in the fictitious role of the father of the mayor of Portland, Oregon.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In 2017, he released a memoir and companion "soundtrack" album titled "Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff".


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In 2018, he announced that he would be doing a five-date tour of California with a revamped version of The First National Band, including a date at The Troubadour, where he performed before The Monkees. On February 20, a tour was announced as "The Monkees Present: The Mike and Micky Show", their first tour as a duo. The pair would play Monkees music and promote the tour under the Monkees banner, but Nesmith stated, "there's no pretense there about Micky and I [sic] being the Monkees. We're not." The tour was cut short in June 2018, with four shows left unplayed, due to Nesmith having a "minor health issue"; Dolenz and he rescheduled the unplayed concerts plus adding several other including an Australian tour in 2019.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: After recovering from his health scare, Michael Nesmith and the First National Band Redux went on a tour of the U.S., with mostly the same lineup and setlist as the southern California shows.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: In 2019, Nesmith toured in a two-piece configuration with pedal steel player Pete Finney, focusing on his 1972 album, "And the Hits Just Keep on Comin'". This was the first time Nesmith had performed in this format since 1974 with Red Rhodes. Nesmith was also joined by special guests Ben Gibbard and Scott McCaughey on opening night in Seattle.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: He met his first wife, Phyllis Ann Barbour, in 1964, while at San Antonio College. Together, they had three children: Christian, born in 1965; Jonathan, born in 1968; and Jessica, born in 1970. Nesmith and Barbour divorced in 1972.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith also had a son, Jason, born in August 1968 to Nurit Wilde, whom he met while working on "The Monkees".


title: Michael Nesmith

text: When the Monkees' TV series ended in 1968, Nesmith enrolled part-time at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied American history and music history. In 1973, Nesmith founded the Countryside Records label with Jac Holzman, the founder of Elektra Records. In 1974, Nesmith started Pacific Arts Records and released what he called "a book with a soundtrack", titled "The Prison", as the company's first release.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith was forced to cancel the last four dates of his 2018 tour with Micky Dolenz due to a "minor health scare." In an interview with "Rolling Stone" published on July 26 of that year, Nesmith said he had undergone quadruple bypass heart surgery, and had been hospitalized for over a month.


title: Michael Nesmith

text: Nesmith died from heart failure at his home in Carmel Valley, California, on December 10, 2021, at the age of 78. Dolenz memorialized Nesmith as "a dear friend and partner."


title: Albert Brooks

text: He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for 1987's "Broadcast News" and was widely praised for his performance as a ruthless Jewish mobster in the 2011 action drama film "Drive". Brooks has also played in "Taxi Driver" (1976), "Private Benjamin" (1980), "Unfaithfully Yours" (1984), and "My First Mister" (2001). He has written, directed, and starred in several comedy films, such as "Modern Romance" (1981), "Lost in America" (1985), and "Defending Your Life" (1991). He is also the author of "2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America" (2011).


title: Albert Brooks

text: His voice acting credits include Marlin in "Finding Nemo" (2003) and "Finding Dory" (2016), Tiberius in "The Secret Life of Pets" (2016), and several one-time characters in "The Simpsons", including Hank Scorpio in "You Only Move Twice" (1996) and Russ Cargill in "The Simpsons Movie" (2007).


title: Albert Brooks

text: Brooks was born Albert Lawrence Einstein on July 22, 1947 into a Jewish show business family in Beverly Hills, California, to Thelma Leeds (née Goodman), an actress, and Harry Einstein, a radio comedian who performed on Eddie Cantor's radio program and was known as "Parkyakarkus". He is the youngest of three sons. His older brothers are the late comedic actor Bob Einstein (1942–2019), better known as a character he created named "Super Dave Osborne", who had a recurring role in "Curb Your Enthusiasm"; and Clifford Einstein (b. 1939), a partner and longtime chief creative officer at Los Angeles advertising agency Dailey & Associates. His older half-brother was Charles Einstein (1926–2007), a writer for such television programs as "Playhouse 90" and "Lou Grant". His grandparents emigrated from Austria and Russia. He grew up among show business families in southern California, attending Beverly Hills High School with Richard Dreyfuss and Rob Reiner.


title: Albert Brooks

text: Brooks attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, but dropped out after one year to focus on his comedy career. By the age of 19, he had changed his professional name to Albert Brooks, joking that "the real Albert Einstein changed his name to sound more intelligent". He quickly became a regular on variety and talk shows during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Brooks led a new generation of self-reflective baby-boomer comics appearing on NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson". His on-stage persona, that of an egotistical, narcissistic, nervous comic, an ironic showbiz insider who punctured himself before an audience by disassembling his mastery of comedic stagecraft, influenced other '70s post-modern comedians, including Steve Martin, Martin Mull, and Andy Kaufman.


title: Albert Brooks

text: After two successful comedy albums, "Comedy Minus One" (1973) and the Grammy Award–nominated "A Star Is Bought" (1975), Brooks left the stand-up circuit to try his hand as a filmmaker. He had already made his first short film, "The Famous Comedians School", a satiric short and an early example of the mockumentary subgenre that was aired in 1972 on the PBS show "The Great American Dream Machine".


title: Albert Brooks

text: In 1975, Brooks directed six short films for the first season of NBC's "Saturday Night Live". In 1976, he appeared in his first mainstream film role, in Martin Scorsese's landmark "Taxi Driver"; Scorsese allowed Brooks to improvise much of his dialogue. Brooks had landed the role after moving to Los Angeles to enter the film business.


title: Albert Brooks

text: Brooks directed his first feature film, "Real Life", in 1979. The film, in which Brooks (playing a version of himself) films a typical suburban family in an effort to win both an Oscar and a Nobel Prize, was a sendup of PBS's "An American Family" documentary. It has also been viewed as foretelling the future emergence of reality television. Brooks also made a cameo appearance in the film "Private Benjamin" (1980), starring Goldie Hawn.


title: Albert Brooks

text: Through the 1980s and 1990s, Brooks co-wrote (with long-time collaborator Monica Johnson), directed and starred in a series of well-received comedies, playing variants on his standard neurotic and self-obsessed character. These include 1981's "Modern Romance", where Brooks played a film editor desperate to win back his ex-girlfriend (Kathryn Harrold). The film received a limited release and ultimately grossed under $3 million domestically. It was well received by critics, with one reviewer commenting that the film was "not Brooks at his best, but still amusing". His best-received film, "Lost in America" (1985), featured Brooks and Julie Hagerty as a couple who leave their yuppie lifestyle and drop out of society to live in a motor home as they have always dreamed of doing, meeting disappointment.


title: Albert Brooks

text: Brooks' "Defending Your Life" (1991) placed his lead character in the afterlife, put on trial to justify his human fears and determine his cosmic fate. Critics responded to the off-beat premise and the chemistry between Brooks and Meryl Streep, as his post-death love interest. His later efforts did not find large audiences, but still retained Brooks' touch as a filmmaker. He garnered positive reviews for "Mother" (1996), which starred Brooks as a middle-aged writer moving back home to resolve tensions between himself and his mother (Debbie Reynolds). 1999's "The Muse" featured Brooks as a Hollywood screenwriter who has "lost his edge", using the services of an authentic muse (Sharon Stone) for inspiration. In an interview with Brooks with regards to "The Muse", Gavin Smith wrote, "Brooks's distinctive film making style is remarkably discreet and unemphatic; he has a light, deft touch, with a classical precision and economy, shooting and cutting his scenes in smooth, seamless successions of medium shots, with clean, high-key lighting."


title: Albert Brooks

text: Brooks has appeared as a guest voice on "The Simpsons" seven times during its run (always under the name "A. Brooks"). He is described as the best guest star in the show's history by IGN, particularly for his role as supervillain Hank Scorpio in the episode "You Only Move Twice".


title: Albert Brooks

text: Brooks also acted in other writers' and directors' films during the 1980s and 1990s. He had a cameo in the opening scene of "", playing a driver whose passenger (Dan Aykroyd) has a shocking secret. In James L. Brooks's hit "Broadcast News" (1987), Albert Brooks was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing an insecure, supremely ethical network TV reporter, who offers the rhetorical question, "Wouldn't this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive?" He also won positive notices for his role in 1998's "Out of Sight", playing an untrustworthy banker and ex-convict.


title: Albert Brooks

text: Brooks received positive reviews for his portrayal of a dying retail store owner who befriends a disillusioned teenager (played by Leelee Sobieski) in "My First Mister" (2001). Brooks continued his voiceover work in Pixar's "Finding Nemo" (2003), as the voice of Marlin, one of the film's protagonists.


title: Albert Brooks

text: In 2005, his film "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" was dropped by Sony Pictures due to their desire to change the title. Warner Independent Pictures purchased the film and gave it a limited release in January 2006; the film received mixed reviews and a low box office gross. As with "Real Life", Brooks plays a fictionalized "Albert Brooks", a filmmaker ostensibly commissioned by the U.S. government to see what makes the Muslim people laugh, and sending him on a tour of India and Pakistan.


title: Albert Brooks

text: In 2006 he appeared in the documentary film "Wanderlust" as David Howard from "Lost in America". The documentary included many other well-known people. In 2007, he continued his long-term collaboration with "The Simpsons" by voicing Russ Cargill, the central antagonist of "The Simpsons Movie".


title: Albert Brooks

text: He has played Lenny Botwin, Nancy Botwin's estranged father-in-law, on Showtime's television series "Weeds". St. Martin's Press published his first novel, "2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America", on May 10, 2011.


title: Albert Brooks

text: In 2011, Brooks co-starred as the vicious gangster Bernie Rose, the main antagonist in the film "Drive", alongside Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. His performance received much critical praise and positive reviews, with several critics proclaiming Brooks' performance as one of the film's best aspects. After receiving awards and nominations from several film festivals and critic groups, but not an Academy Award nomination, Brooks responded humorously on Twitter, "And to the Academy: ‘You don't like me. You really don't like me’."


title: Albert Brooks

text: In 2016, Brooks voiced Tiberius, a curmudgeonly red-tailed hawk, in "The Secret Life of Pets", and reprised the role of Marlin from "Finding Nemo" in the 2016 sequel "Finding Dory".


title: Albert Brooks

text: In 1997, Brooks married artist Kimberly Shlain, daughter of surgeon and writer Leonard Shlain. They have two children, Jacob and Claire.


title: My Policeman (film)

text: My Policeman is a 2022 American romantic drama film based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Bethan Roberts and directed by Michael Grandage. The film stars Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, Gina McKee, Linus Roache, David Dawson, and Rupert Everett.


title: My Policeman (film)

text: "My Policeman" had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2022 and is scheduled to be released in the United States on 21 October 2022 by Amazon Studios before its streaming release on 4 November 2022 by Prime Video. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Dawson's performance but criticised the direction and the screenplay.


title: My Policeman (film)

text: Retirees Marion and Tom live in the English seaside town of Peacehaven. After learning that their former friend, Patrick, from decades past, has suffered a debilitating stroke, Marion agrees to take him into their home and becomes his caregiver. Tom resents Marion for allowing him back into their lives and refuses to acknowledge Patrick's existence in the house. While sorting through Patrick's belongings, she comes across his journal from the late 1950's, which reflects on his past relationship with Tom.


title: My Policeman (film)

text: In 1957 Brighton, museum curator Patrick Hazelwood meets policeman Tom Burgess after reporting an accident. Patrick leaves Tom his business card, and Tom visits him at the museum he works at. Patrick invites Tom to his flat one night to draw him. The two have drinks, and Tom initiates physical touch, and they engage in oral sex. Afterward, a shaken Tom abruptly leaves. Patrick later visits a gay bar one night and begins having sex with a stranger in an alley before they are caught by the police. Patrick manages to run away and finds Tom waiting for him at his flat. Tom admits his feelings, and the two have sex, resulting in a passionate romance.


title: My Policeman (film)

text: Due to legal penalties against homosexuality, as well as Tom's fear of jeopardizing his job at the police force, they carry on their relationship in secret. Tom meets schoolteacher Marion Taylor and begins courting her. He introduces her to Patrick, and they become fast friends, bonding over their shared interest in the arts. Soon, the three of them become inseparable. Tom later proposes to Marion, and they marry, but his relationship with Patrick continues. When he visits Tom and Marion at their home, she discovers the two of them in an affectionate embrace, triggering her underlying suspicions of Tom's sexuality. Marion feels angered and betrayed, which is exacerbated when Patrick invites Tom to accompany him on a business trip to Venice as his assistant. Shortly after their return, Patrick is arrested by Brighton police due to an anonymous report accusing him of homosexual activities. The case goes to trial, where Marion testifies on his behalf, but Patrick's journal entries, detailing his romantic and sexual relationship with Tom, are brought into evidence, resulting in his conviction. Patrick is sentenced to two years in prison, and Tom is fired from the police force. As Tom and Marion try to move on with their lives, he professes his love for her and vows they never speak of Patrick again.


title: My Policeman (film)

text: In the present, Marion confesses to Tom that she is the one who reported Patrick, as a last effort to win him back, and has been living with guilt ever since. She challenges him into realizing their marriage has been based on lies and that Patrick has always been his true love. She tells him she is leaving him and asks that he take care of Patrick and love him. After Marion's departure, Tom visits Patrick in his room, and they lovingly embrace each other.


title: My Policeman (film)

text: It was announced in September 2020 that Amazon Studios would produce the film. Michael Grandage was set to direct a screenplay written by Ron Nyswaner, with Harry Styles and Lily James entering negotiations to star. James would exit negotiations by February 2021, with Emma Corrin replacing her. In March 2021, David Dawson, Linus Roache and Rupert Everett joined the cast of the film. In June 2021, Kadiff Kirwan joined the cast of the film.


title: My Policeman (film)

text: Principal photography began in April 2021. Filming took place in London and Brighton and Hove. In Hove, filming took place at The Regency Town House in Brunswick Square for a wedding scene.


title: My Policeman (film)

text: "My Policeman" had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2022. It screened at the from 19 October, before it had a limited theatrical release in the United States on 21 October 2022, and streamed on Prime Video from 4 November 2022.


title: My Policeman (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 44% based on 135 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Mildly arresting in its best moments, "My Policeman" tends toward the tedious despite the respectable efforts of a capable cast." Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 50 out of 100 based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."


title: My Policeman (film)

text: In a review for "The Hollywood Reporter", David Rooney wrote that the adaptation "does little to show that celebrated theater director Michael Grandage can translate his stage skills to the screen", that Grandage "gives the material so little edge" and that Nyswaner "never digs deep into his characters' psychology." He wrote that "Corrin is fine" and "as for Styles, he's not terrible, but he leaves a hole in the movie where a more multidimensional character with an inner life is needed most," while complimenting Dawson's performance, writing that the actor "plays the breezy sophisticate more convincingly than the lovelorn man inside." Gregory Ellwood of "The Playlist" gave the film a positive review, writing that Grandage's direction was "sublime" while complimenting the performances of Dawson and Styles, the latter of whom he says is "night and day here compared to his work in that other fall release." He continued by adding that Corrin "steals the show" while complimenting the historical accuracy. Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com opined that the film "is surface-level queer representation lacking in visual imagination and begging for better performances", while giving negative opinions regarding the performances of Styles and Corrin. Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire wrote that the film is "often very good, but the best scenes involve Dawson's rapier-witted and dandyish Patrick or Corrin's Marion" but felt that Styles' performance was "a blank beyond inscrutable gazes and sappy breakdowns," and that the role "requires levels of complexity and conveying inner turmoil that Styles can't provide." He continued to praise Dawson, writing "the movie is anchored, elevated, and very often knocked completely out of the park by Dawson, who is at turns sexy, mysterious, wise, naive, overflowingly open, vulnerable, and strong."


title: My Policeman (film)

text: In a review for "Vanity Fair", Richard Lawson proclaimed the film is "studied and plodding in its period-piece solemnity, a dirge of a movie about reckless people that is never warmed by their implied inner fire." He complimented the performances of Dawson and Corrin but was more mixed regarding Styles, writing that he "projects a glow of decency throughout the film, which means he’s not unwelcome in any given scene, but you ache for him every time a bit of dialogue thuds." Writing for "The Guardian", Benjamin Lee stated that the film "isn't exactly a washout but it's not exactly much of anything, a disappointingly drab and stridently straightforward love triangle saga ... underpowered by a blank lead performance" and that "Grandage struggles to pull our heartstrings, an easy target easily missed," where Styles is "all construct and no conviction, a performer as unsure of his ability as we are", while also adding that "Corrin and Dawson are easily more effective than Styles but still a little too mannered to pierce through." Writing for "Variety", Peter Debruge wrote that Nysaner "shapes this mystery somewhat strangely" while opining that "a more meaningful version of this story would have involved less time reading alone and more talking together." He added that Corrin "could do this role in their sleep, while Styles has "the tricky task of making Tom's betrayal feel tragic for all involved," while also commenting on Styles "fully embracing the ambiguity of his queerbaiting brand." Regarding Styles, David Jenkins of Little White Lies writes that "There's an understatement and simple clarity to his line delivery and body language that works well in the context of a man driven by primal desires." Tom Charity of "The Times" criticised the film's plot but wrote that Styles "outshines this plodding love triangle".


title: My Policeman (film)

text: Leah Greenblatt of "Entertainment Weekly" opined that the film "is fevered, lovely to look at, and at times deeply silly" while writing that Dawson is "quietly affecting" whereas "Styles' style is more remote. His Tom often feels like a cipher, thoughtful and charming one moment and heedlessly cruel and manipulative the next." She added that the film "mostly feels like a movie we've seen many times before: a pleasantly escapist two hours with pretty people in pretty clothes, madly sublimating their feelings until the final, luminous frame." Luke Hearfield of the "Evening Standard" wrote that "Dawson's nuanced performance is the highlight of this film" and that "Styles tries but neither he nor his co-stars are helped by this plodding script," ending his review by writing "the real crime of this film is how painfully average it is." Nick Schwager of "The Daily Beast" wrote that "Styles and Dawson share no sparks" while criticising the direction of Grandage and Nysanner. Amber Dowling of "Consequence" wrote that "Emma Corrin and David Dawson breathe life into an otherwise lengthy sentence of a film" and that "Styles continues to make a name for himself in the acting space," but felt that there was a "lack of depth" throughout the film, specifically in regards to the character of Tom. Tim Grierson of "Screen International" felt that the film "is so reserved as to feel mannered" and that Dawson and Styles "have an elegant rapport" but that "neither character succeeds in being particularly complicated or tormented," adding that "the film's strong point may be Corrin". He ended his review by writing "tragic stories are worth telling, but "My Policeman" is ultimately too genteel for the task".


title: My Policeman (film)

text: Gary Goldestein of the "Los Angeles Times" dubbed the film an "absorbing, resonant, deeply wistful adaptation" and opined that Styles "carries the day here" while also complimenting the musical score and the performances of Dawson, Corrin, McKee, and Everett. Jocelyn Noveck of "Associated Press" criticised Grandage's and Nyswaner's characteriziation of Tom, writing that "his character is very underdeveloped" and that it appears as if they chose to "mute the confident pop-star magnetism, in service of the story". Writing for "Houston Chronicle", A.A. Dowd felt that Styles "isn’t quite up to the acting challenges" and named him the "weak link". He added that Grandage and Nyswaner "handle the helixed relationships of their borrowed material with sensitivity and compassion" but felt like "Grandage mutes the conflicts" while praising Dawson's performance. Wendy Ide of "The Guardian" gave the film a negative review, writing that "the best that can be said about Styles is that his is not the worst performance in Michael Grandage’s uninspired plodder, but that’s not much of an endorsement, given the half-hearted work from most of the cast". Richard Roeper of "Chicago Sun-Times" named the film "a borderline dull affair" and felt as if it "never really resonates". G. Allen Johnson of "San Francisco Chronicle" called the film "a simple, well-told story" and complimented Grandage's direction and Styles' performance, writing that "after two films as a leading man, it’s clear that Styles is more than a handsome face." Writing for "BBC", Caryn James opined that Styles "is far more convincing and has a much fuller, more grounded role in "My Policeman"" when compared to his performance in "Don't Worry Darling" but criticised the screenplay, feeling that it "could have explored much more". Kimberly Jones of "The Austin Chronicle" wrote that "the plot elements are all there for something emotional wrecking, but Grandage and his cast approach it with such enormous restraint, the oxygen is cut off completely. This is bloodless filmmaking". Thomas Floyd of "The Washington Post" named the film an "uninspired depiction of mid-century homophobia, forbidden love and long-simmering resentment" and called Styles' performance "flat" but praised the musical score and Dawson's performance, writing he plays his character with a "blend of yearning and pain".


title: My Policeman (film)

text: The main cast members were announced as the collective winners of an acting award at TIFF's Tribute Awards, the first time that an award in that category was ever presented to an ensemble cast rather than an individual.


title: Electric chair

text: An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, conceived in 1881 by a Buffalo, New York dentist named Alfred P. Southwick, was developed throughout the 1880s as a supposed humane alternative to hanging, and first used in 1890. The electric chair has been used in the United States and, for several decades, in the Philippines. While death was originally theorized to result from damage to the brain, it was shown in 1899 that it primarily results from ventricular fibrillation and eventual cardiac arrest.


title: Electric chair

text: Although the electric chair has long been a symbol of the death penalty in the United States, its use is in decline due to the rise of lethal injection, which is widely believed to be a more humane method of execution. While some states still maintain electrocution as a legal method of execution, today it is only maintained as a secondary method that may be chosen over lethal injection at the request of the prisoner, except in Tennessee and South Carolina, where it may be used without input from the prisoner if the drugs for lethal injection are not available. , electrocution is an optional form of execution in the states of Alabama and Florida, both of which allow the prisoner to choose lethal injection as an alternative method. In the state of Kentucky, the electric chair has been retired, except for those who were sentenced to death for an offense committed prior to March 31, 1998, and who choose electrocution; inmates who do not choose electrocution and inmates sentenced to death for crimes committed after that date are executed by lethal injection. Electrocution is also authorized in Kentucky in case lethal injection is found unconstitutional by a court. The electric chair is an alternate form of execution approved for potential use in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma if other forms of execution are found unconstitutional in the state at the time of execution.


title: Electric chair

text: On February 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that execution by electric chair was a "cruel and unusual punishment" under the state's constitution. This brought executions by this method to an end in Nebraska, which had been the last remaining state to retain electrocution as its sole method of execution.


title: Electric chair

text: In the late 1870s to early 1880s, the spread of arc lighting, a type of brilliant outdoor street lighting that required high voltages in the range of 3000–6000 volts, was followed by one story after another in newspapers about how the high voltages used were killing people, usually unwary linemen; it was a strange new phenomenon that seemed to instantaneously strike a victim dead without leaving a mark. One of these accidents, in Buffalo, New York, on August 7, 1881, led to the inception of the electric chair. That evening a drunken dock worker named George Lemuel Smith, looking for the thrill of a tingling sensation he had noticed when grabbing the guard rail in a Brush Electric Company arc lighting power house, managed to sneak his way back into the plant at night and grabbed the brush and ground of a large electric dynamo. He died instantly. The coroner who investigated the case brought it up that year at a local Buffalo scientific society. Another member attending that lecture, Alfred P. Southwick, a dentist who had a technical background, thought some application could be found for the curious phenomenon.


title: Electric chair

text: Southwick joined physician George E. Fell and the head of the Buffalo ASPCA in a series of experiments electrocuting hundreds of stray dogs. They ran trials with the dog in water and out of water, and varied the electrode type and placement until they came up with a repeatable method to euthanize animals using electricity. Southwick went on in the early 1880s to advocate that this method be used as a more humane replacement for hanging in capital cases, coming to national attention when he published his ideas in scientific journals in 1882 and 1883. He worked out calculations based on the dog experiments, trying to develop a scaled-up method that would work on humans. Early on in his designs he adopted a modified version of the dental chair as a way to restrain the condemned, a device that from then on would be called the "electric chair".


title: Electric chair

text: After a series of botched hangings in the United States, there was mounting criticism of that form of capital punishment and the death penalty in general. In 1886, newly elected New York State governor David B. Hill set up a three-member death penalty commission, which was chaired by the human rights advocate and reformer Elbridge Thomas Gerry and included New York lawyer and politician Matthew Hale and Southwick, to investigate a more humane means of execution.


title: Electric chair

text: The commission members surveyed the history of execution and sent out a fact-finding questionnaire to government officials, lawyers, and medical experts all around the state asking for their opinion. A slight majority of respondents recommended hanging over electrocution, with a few instead recommending the abolition of capital punishment. The commission also contacted electrical experts, including Thomson-Houston Electric Company's Elihu Thomson (who recommended high voltage AC connected to the head and the spine) and the inventor Thomas Edison (who also recommended AC, as well as using a Westinghouse generator). They also attended electrocutions of dogs by George Fell who had worked with Southwick in the early 1880s experiments. Fell was conducting further experiments, electrocuting anesthetized vivisected dogs trying to discern exactly how electricity killed a subject.


title: Electric chair

text: In 1888, the Commission recommended electrocution using Southwick's electric chair idea with metal conductors attached to the condemned person's head and feet. They further recommended that executions be handled by the state instead of the individual counties with three electric chairs set up at Auburn, Clinton, and Sing Sing prisons. A bill following these recommendations passed the legislature and was signed by Governor Hill on June 4, 1888, set to go into effect on January 1, 1889.


title: Electric chair

text: The bill itself contained no details on the type or amount of electricity that should be used and the New York Medico-Legal Society, an informal society composed of doctors and lawyers, was given the task of determining these factors. In September 1888, a committee was formed and recommended 3000 volts, although the type of electricity, direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC), was not determined, and since tests up to that point had been done on animals smaller than a human (dogs), some members were unsure that the lethality of AC had been conclusively proven.


title: Electric chair

text: At this point the state's efforts to design the electric chair became intermixed with what has come to be known as the war of the currents, a competition between Thomas Edison's direct current power system and George Westinghouse's alternating current based system. The two companies had been competing commercially since 1886 and a series of events had turned it into an all-out media war in 1888. The committee head, neurologist Frederick Peterson, enlisted the services of Harold P. Brown as a consultant. Brown had been on his own crusade against alternating current after the shoddy installation of pole-mounted AC arc lighting lines in New York City had caused several deaths in early 1888. Peterson had been an assistant at Brown's July 1888 public electrocution of dogs with AC at Columbia College, an attempt by Brown to prove AC was more deadly than DC. Technical assistance in these demonstrations was provided by Thomas Edison's West Orange laboratory and there grew to be some form of collusion between Edison Electric and Brown. Back at West Orange on December 5, 1888, Brown set up an experiment with members of the press, members of the Medico-Legal Society including Elbridge Gerry who was also chairman of the death penalty commission, and Thomas Edison looking on. Brown used alternating current for all of his tests on animals larger than a human, including 4 calves and a lame horse, all dispatched with 750 volts of AC. Based on these results the Medico-Legal Society recommended the use of 1000–1500 volts of alternating current for executions and newspapers noted the AC used was half the voltage used in the power lines over the streets of American cities. Westinghouse criticized these tests as a skewed self-serving demonstration designed to be a direct attack on alternating current and accused Brown of being in the employ of Edison.


title: Electric chair

text: At the request of death penalty commission chairman Gerry, Medico-Legal Society members; electrotherapy expert Alphonse David Rockwell, Carlos Frederick MacDonald, and Columbia College professor Louis H. Laudy, were given the task of working out the details of electrode placement. They again turned to Brown to supply the technical assistance. Brown asked Edison Electric Light to supply equipment for the tests and treasurer Francis S. Hastings (who seemed to be one of the primary movers at the company trying to portray Westinghouse as a peddler of death dealing AC current) tried to obtain a Westinghouse AC generator for the test but found none could be acquired. They ended up using Edison's West Orange laboratory for the animal tests they conducted in mid-March 1889. Superintendent of Prisons Austin E. Lathrop asked Brown to design the chair, but Brown turned down the offer. Dr. George Fell drew up the final designs for a simple oak chair and went against the Medico-Legal Society recommendations, changing the position of the electrodes to the head and the middle of the back. Brown did take on the job of finding the generators needed to power the chair. He managed to surreptitiously acquire three Westinghouse AC generators that were being decommissioned with the help of Edison and Westinghouse's chief AC rival, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, a move that made sure that Westinghouse's equipment would be associated with the first execution. The electric chair was built by Edwin F. Davis, the first "state electrician" (executioner) for the State of New York.


title: Electric chair

text: The first person in line to die under New York's new electrocution law was Joseph Chapleau, convicted for beating his neighbor to death with a sled stake, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. The next person scheduled to be executed was William Kemmler, convicted of murdering his wife with a hatchet. An appeal on Kemmler's behalf was made to the New York Court of Appeals on the grounds that use of electricity as a means of execution constituted a "cruel and unusual punishment" and was thus contrary to the constitutions of the United States and the state of New York. On December 30, 1889, the writ of "habeas corpus" sworn out on Kemmler's behalf was denied by the court, with Judge Dwight writing in a lengthy ruling:


title: Electric chair

text: We have no doubt that if the Legislature of this State should undertake to proscribe for any offense against its laws the punishment of burning at the stake, breaking at the wheel, etc., it would be the duty of the courts to pronounce upon such attempt the condemnation of the Constitution. The question now to be answered is whether the legislative act here assailed is subject to the same condemnation. Certainly, it is not so on its face, for, although the mode of death described is conceded to be unusual, there is no common knowledge or consent that it is cruel; it is a question of fact whether an electric current of sufficient intensity and skillfully applied will produce death without unnecessary suffering.


title: Electric chair

text: Kemmler was executed in New York's Auburn Prison on August 6, 1890; the "state electrician" was Edwin F. Davis. The first 17-second passage of 1,000 volts AC of current through Kemmler caused unconsciousness, but failed to stop his heart and breathing. The attending physicians, Edward Charles Spitzka and Carlos Frederick MacDonald, came forward to examine Kemmler. After confirming Kemmler was still alive, Spitzka reportedly called out, "Have the current turned on again, quick, no delay." The generator needed time to re-charge, however. In the second attempt, Kemmler received a 2,000 volt AC shock. Blood vessels under the skin ruptured and bled, and the areas around the electrodes singed. The entire execution took about eight minutes. George Westinghouse later commented that, "They would have done better using an axe", and the New York Times ran the headline: "Far worse than hanging".


title: Electric chair

text: The electric chair was adopted by Ohio (1897), Massachusetts (1900), New Jersey (1906) and Virginia (1908), and soon became the prevalent method of execution in the United States, replacing hanging. Twenty six US States, the District of Columbia, the Federal government, and the US Military either had death by electrocution on the books or actively executed criminals using the method. The electric chair remained the most prominent execution method until the mid-1980s when lethal injection became widely accepted for conducting judicial executions.


title: Electric chair

text: Other countries appear to have contemplated using the method, sometimes for special reasons. The Philippines also adopted the electric chair from 1926 to 1987. A well-publicized triple execution took place there in May 1972, when Jaime Jose, Basilio Pineda and Edgardo Aquino were electrocuted for the 1967 abduction and gang-rape of the young actress Maggie de la Riva. The last electric chair execution in the Philippines was in 1976 and was later replaced with lethal injection when executions resumed in that country.


title: Electric chair

text: Ethiopia had, according to some sources, attempted to adopt the electric chair as a method of executing criminals. The emperor Menelik II is said to have acquired three electric chairs in 1896 at the behest of a missionary, but could not make the devices work as his nation did not have a reliable source of electric power available at that time. Two of the chairs were either used as garden furniture or given to friends and Menelik II is said to have used the third electric chair as a throne.


title: Electric chair

text: The United Kingdom considered replacing hanging with the electric chair (as well as considering the gas chamber, shooting, the guillotine and lethal injection) during the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, the findings of which were published in 1953. The Commission concluded that the electric chair had no particular advantages over hanging. Capital punishment in the United Kingdom was abolished for most crimes in 1965.


title: Electric chair

text: Serial killer Lizzie Halliday was the first woman sentenced to die in the electric chair, in 1894, but governor Roswell P. Flower commuted her sentence to life in a mental institution after a medical commission declared her insane. A second woman sentenced to death in 1895, Maria Barbella, was acquitted the next year. Martha M. Place became the first woman executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on March 20, 1899, for the murder of her 17-year-old stepdaughter, Ida Place.


title: Electric chair

text: The first photograph of an execution by electric chair was of housewife Ruth Snyder at Sing Sing on the evening of January 12, 1928, for the March 1927 murder of her husband. It was photographed for a front-page story on "New York Daily News" the following morning by news photographer Tom Howard who had smuggled a camera into the death chamber and photographed her in the electric chair as the current was turned on. It remains one of the best-known examples of photojournalism.


title: Electric chair

text: A record was set on July 13, 1928, when seven men were executed consecutively in the electric chair at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, Kentucky.


title: Electric chair

text: On June 16, 1944, an African-American teenager, 14-year-old George Stinney, became the youngest person ever executed in the electric chair when he was electrocuted at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina. His conviction was overturned in 2014 after a circuit court judge vacated his sentence on the grounds that Stinney did not receive a fair trial. The judge determined that Stinney's legal counsel was inadequate, thus violating his rights under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.


title: Electric chair

text: On May 25, 1979, John Spenkelink became the first person to be electrocuted after the "Gregg v. Georgia" decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1976. He was the first person to be executed in the United States in this manner since 1966.


title: Electric chair

text: The last person to be executed by electric chair without the choice of an alternative method was Lynda Lyon Block on May 10, 2002, in Alabama.


title: Electric chair

text: The condemned inmate’s head and legs are shaved on the day of the execution. After the condemned inmate is escorted to and seated in the chair, their arms and legs are tightly strapped with leather belts to restrict movement or resistance. A cap with a brine or saltwater soaked sponge is affixed to the inmate’s head and electrodes are attached to the inmate’s shaved legs. The inmate is typically hooded or blindfolded.


title: Electric chair

text: After the inmate is read the order of execution and permitted to make a final statement, the execution commences. Various cycles (changes in voltage and duration) of alternating current are passed through the individual's body in order to cause fatal damage to the internal organs. The first, more powerful jolt (between 2000 and 2,500 volts) of electric current is intended to cause immediate unconsciousness, ventricular fibrillation, and eventual cardiac arrest. The second, less powerful jolt (500–1,500 volts) is intended to cause fatal damage to the vital organs.


title: Electric chair

text: In 1999, Allen Lee Davis was the last person executed in Florida's electric chair. Up to 10 Amperes of electric current were applied for 38 seconds.


title: Electric chair

text: After the cycles are completed, a doctor checks the inmate for any signs of life. If none is present, the doctor reports and records the time of death, and prison officials will wait for the body to cool down before removing it to prepare for autopsy. If the inmate exhibits signs of life, the doctor notifies the warden, who usually will order another round of electric current or (rarely) postpone the execution such as with Willie Francis.


title: Electric chair

text: Critics of the electric chair dispute whether the first jolt of electricity reliably induces immediate unconsciousness as proponents often claim. Witness testimony, botched electrocutions (see Willie Francis and Allen Lee Davis), and post-mortem examinations suggest that execution by electric chair is often painful.


title: Electric chair

text: The electric chair has been criticized because of several instances in which the subjects were killed only after being subjected to multiple electric shocks. This led to a call for ending of the practice, as being a "cruel and unusual punishment". Trying to address such concerns, Nebraska introduced a new electrocution protocol in 2004, which called for the administration of a 15-second application of current at 2,450 volts; after a 15-minute wait, an official then checks for signs of life. In April 2007, new concerns raised regarding the 2004 protocol resulted in the ushering in of the current Nebraska protocol, calling for a 20-second application of current at 2,450 volts. Prior to the 2004 protocol change, an initial eight-second application of current at 2,450 volts was administered, followed by a one-second pause, then a 22-second application at 480 volts. After a 20-second break, the cycle was repeated three more times.


title: Electric chair

text: In 1946, the electric chair failed to kill Willie Francis, who reportedly shrieked, "Take it off! Let me breathe!", after the current was applied. It turned out that the portable electric chair had been improperly set up by an intoxicated prison guard and inmate. A case was brought before the U.S. Supreme Court "(Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber)", with lawyers for the condemned arguing that although Francis did not die, he had, in fact, been executed. The argument was rejected on the basis that re-execution did not violate the double jeopardy clause of the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution, and Francis was returned to the electric chair and executed in 1947.


title: Electric chair

text: In Florida, on July 8, 1999, Allen Lee Davis, convicted of murder, was executed in the Florida electric chair "Old Sparky". Davis' face was bloodied, and photographs were taken, which were later posted on the Internet. An investigation concluded that Davis had begun bleeding before the electricity was applied and that the chair had functioned as intended. Florida's Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair did not constitute "cruel and unusual punishment". The 1997 execution of Pedro Medina in Florida created controversy when flames burst from his head. An autopsy found that Medina had died instantly when the first surge of electricity had destroyed his brain and brain stem. A judge ruled that the incident arose from "unintentional human error" rather than any faults in the "apparatus, equipment, and electrical circuitry" of Florida's electric chair.


title: Electric chair

text: The use of the electric chair has declined since the 1979 advent of lethal injection, which is now the default method in all U.S. jurisdictions that authorize capital punishment.


title: Electric chair

text: As of 2022, the only places that still reserve the electric chair as an option for execution are the U.S. states of Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Arkansas and Oklahoma laws provide for its use should lethal injection ever be held to be unconstitutional. Inmates in the other states must select either it or lethal injection. In Kentucky, only inmates sentenced before a certain date can choose to be executed by electric chair. Electrocution is also authorized in Kentucky in case lethal injection is found unconstitutional by a court. Tennessee was among the states that provided inmates with a choice of the electric chair or lethal injection; in May 2014, however, the state passed a law allowing the use of the electric chair if lethal injection drugs were unavailable or made unconstitutional.


title: Electric chair

text: On February 15, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court declared execution by electrocution to be "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the Nebraska Constitution.


title: Electric chair

text: The last judicial electrocution in the U.S. prior to "Furman v. Georgia" took place in Oklahoma in 1966. The electric chair was used quite frequently in post-"Gregg v Georgia" executions during the 1980s, but its use in the United States gradually declined in the 1990s due to the widespread adoption of lethal injection. A number of states still allow the condemned person to choose between electrocution and lethal injection, with the most recent U.S. electrocution, of Nicholas Todd Sutton, taking place in February 2020 in Tennessee.


title: Micronesia

text: Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and Melanesia to the south—as well as with the wider community of Austronesian peoples.


title: Micronesia

text: The region has a tropical marine climate and is part of the Oceanian realm. It includes four main archipelagos—the Caroline Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the Mariana Islands, and the Marshall Islands—as well as numerous islands that are not part of any archipelago.


title: Micronesia

text: Political control of areas within Micronesia varies depending on the island, and is distributed among six sovereign nations. Some of the Caroline Islands are part of the Republic of Palau and some are part of the Federated States of Micronesia (often shortened to "FSM" or "Micronesia"—not to be confused with the identical name for the overall region). The Gilbert Islands (along with the Phoenix Islands and the Line Islands in Polynesia) comprise the Republic of Kiribati. The Mariana Islands are affiliated with the United States; some of them belong to the U.S. Territory of Guam and the rest belong to the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The island of Nauru is its own sovereign nation. The Marshall Islands all belong to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The sovereignty of Wake Island is contested: it is claimed both by the United States and by the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The United States has actual possession of Wake Island, which is under the immediate administration of the United States Air Force.


title: Micronesia

text: Human settlement of Micronesia began several millennia ago. The Micronesian people are considered, by linguistic, archaeological, and human genetic evidence, a subset of the sea-migrating Austronesian people, who include the Polynesian people and the Melanesian people. Based on the current scientific consensus, the Austronesian peoples originated from a prehistoric seaborne migration, known as the Austronesian expansion, from pre-Han Taiwan, at around 3000 to 1500 BCE. Austronesians reached the northernmost Philippines, specifically the Batanes Islands, by around 2200 BCE. Austronesians were the first people to invent oceangoing sailing technologies (notably catamarans, outrigger boats, lashed-lug boat building, and the crab claw sail), which enabled their rapid dispersal into the islands of the Indo-Pacific. From 2000 BCE they assimilated (or were assimilated by) the earlier populations on the islands in their migration pathway.


title: Micronesia

text: The earliest known contact of Europeans with Micronesia was in 1521, when Spanish ships landed in the Marianas. Jules Dumont d'Urville is usually credited with coining the term "Micronesia" in 1832, but in fact, Domeny de Rienzi used the term a year earlier.


title: Micronesia

text: Micronesia is a region in Oceania that includes approximately 2100 islands, with a total land area of , the largest of which is Guam, which covers . The total ocean area within the perimeter of the islands is .


title: Micronesia

text: This does not include the separate island nation of Nauru, along with other distinctly separate islands and smaller island groups.


title: Micronesia

text: The Caroline Islands are a widely scattered archipelago consisting of about 500 small coral islands, north of New Guinea and east of the Philippines. The Carolines consist of two republics: the Federated States of Micronesia, consisting of approximately 600 islands on the eastern side of the chain with Kosrae being the most eastern; and Palau consisting of 250 islands on the western side.


title: Micronesia

text: The Gilbert Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands, arranged in an approximate north-to-south line. In a geographical sense, the equator serves as the dividing line between the northern Gilbert Islands and the southern Gilbert Islands. The Republic of Kiribati contains all of the Gilberts, including the island of Tarawa, the site of the country's capital.


title: Micronesia

text: The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of fifteen volcanic mountains. The island chain arises as a result of the western edge of the Pacific Plate moving westward and plunging downward below the Mariana plate, a region that is the most volcanically active convergent plate boundary on Earth. The Marianas were politically divided in 1898, when the United States acquired title to Guam under the Treaty of Paris, 1898, which ended the Spanish–American War. Spain then sold the remaining northerly islands to Germany in 1899. Germany lost all of her colonies at the end of World War I and the Northern Mariana Islands became a League of Nations Mandate, with Japan as the mandatory. After World War II, the islands were transferred into the United Nations Trust Territory System, with the United States as Trustee. In 1976, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States entered into a covenant of political union under which commonwealth status was granted the Northern Mariana Islands and its residents received United States citizenship.


title: Micronesia

text: The Marshall Islands are located north of Nauru and Kiribati, east of the Federated States of Micronesia, and south of the U.S. territory of Wake Island. The islands consist of 29 low-lying atolls and 5 isolated islands, comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets. The atolls and islands form two groups: the Ratak Chain and the Ralik Chain (meaning "sunrise" and "sunset" chains). All the islands in the chain are part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, a presidential republic in free association with the United States. Having few natural resources, the islands' wealth is based on a service economy, as well as some fishing and agriculture. Of the 29 atolls, 24 of them are inhabited.


title: Micronesia

text: Bikini Atoll is an atoll in the Marshall Islands. There are 23 islands in the Bikini Atoll. The islands of Bokonijien, Aerokojlol and Nam were vaporized during nuclear tests that occurred there. The islands are composed of low coral limestone and sand. The average elevation is only about above low tide level.


title: Micronesia

text: Nauru is an oval-shaped island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, south of the Equator, listed as the world's smallest republic, covering just . With residents, it is the third least-populated country, after Vatican City and Tuvalu. The island is surrounded by a coral reef, which is exposed at low tide and dotted with pinnacles. The presence of the reef has prevented the establishment of a seaport, although channels in the reef allow small boats access to the island. A fertile coastal strip wide lies inland from the beach.


title: Micronesia

text: Wake Island is a coral atoll with a coastline of just north of the Marshall Islands. It is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States. Access to the island is restricted and all activities on the island are managed by the United States Air Force. While geographically adjacent, it is not ethnoculturally part of Micronesia, due to its historical lack of human inhabitation. Micronesians may have possibly visited Wake Island in prehistoric times to harvest fish, but there is nothing to suggest any kind of settlement.


title: Micronesia

text: The majority of the islands in the area are part of a coral atoll. Coral atolls begin as coral reefs that grow on the slopes of a central volcano. When the volcano sinks back down into the sea, the coral continues to grow, keeping the reef at or above water level. One exception is Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia, which still has the central volcano and coral reefs around it.


title: Micronesia

text: The Yap Islands host a number of endemic bird species, including the Yap monarch and the Olive white-eye, in addition to four other restricted-range bird species. The endangered Yap flying-fox, though often considered a subspecies of the Pelew flying fox or the Mariana fruit bat, is also endemic to Yap.


title: Micronesia

text: The region has a tropical marine climate moderated by seasonal northeast trade winds. There is little seasonal temperature variation. The dry season runs from December or January to June and the rainy season from July to November or December. Because of the location of some islands, the rainy season can sometimes include typhoons.


title: Micronesia

text: The Northern Marianas were the first islands in Oceania colonized by the Austronesian peoples. They were settled by the voyagers who sailed eastwards from the Philippines in approximately 1500 BCE. These populations gradually moved southwards until they reached the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands by 1300 BCE and reconnected with the Lapita culture of the southeast migration branch of Austronesians moving through coastal New Guinea and Island Melanesia. By 1200 BCE, they again began crossing open seas beyond inter-island visibility, reaching Vanuatu, Fiji, and New Caledonia; before continuing eastwards to become the ancestors of the Polynesian people.


title: Micronesia

text: Further migrations by other Austronesians also followed, likely from Sulawesi, settling Palau and Yap by around 1000 BCE. The details of this colonization, however, are not very well known. In 200 BCE, a loosely connected group of Lapita colonists from Island Melanesia also migrated back northwards, settling the islands of eastern Micronesia almost simultaneously. This region became the center of another wave of migrations radiating outwards, reconnecting them with other settled islands in western Micronesia.


title: Micronesia

text: Around 800 CE, a second wave of migrants from Southeast Asia arrived in the Marianas, beginning what is now known as the Latte period. These new settlers built large structures with distinctive capped stone pillars known as "haligi". They also reintroduced rice (which did not survive earlier voyages), making the Northern Marianas the only islands in Oceania where rice was grown prior to European contact. However, it was considered a high-status crop and only used in rituals. It did not become a staple until after Spanish colonization.


title: Micronesia

text: Construction of Nan Madol, a megalithic complex made from basalt lava logs in Pohnpei, began in around 1180 CE. This was followed by the construction of the Leluh complex in Kosrae in around 1200 CE.


title: Micronesia

text: The earliest known contact with Europeans occurred in 1521, when a Spanish expedition under Ferdinand Magellan reached the Marianas. This contact is recorded in Antonio Pigafetta's chronicle of Magellan's voyage, in which he recounts that the Chamorro people had no apparent knowledge of people outside of their island group. A Portuguese account of the same voyage suggests that the Chamorro people who greeted the travellers did so "without any shyness as if they were good acquaintances".


title: Micronesia

text: Further contact was made during the sixteenth century, although often initial encounters were very brief. Documents relating to the 1525 voyage of Diogo da Rocha suggest that he made the first European contact with inhabitants of the Caroline Islands, possibly staying on the Ulithi atoll for four months and encountering Yap. Marshall Islanders were encountered by the expedition of Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón in 1529. Other contact with the Yap islands occurred in 1625.


title: Micronesia

text: In the early 17th century Spain colonized Guam, the Northern Marianas and the Caroline Islands (what would later become the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau), creating the Spanish East Indies, which was governed from the Spanish Philippines.


title: Micronesia

text: In 1819, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions—a Protestant group—brought their Puritan ways to Polynesia. Soon after, the Hawaiian Missionary Society was founded and sent missionaries into Micronesia. Conversion was not met with as much opposition, as the local religions were less developed (at least according to Western ethnographic accounts). In contrast, it took until the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries for missionaries to fully convert the inhabitants of Melanesia; however, a comparison of the cultural contrast must take into account the fact that Melanesia has always had deadly strains of malaria present in various degrees and distributions throughout its history (see De Rays Expedition) and up to the present; conversely, Micronesia does not have—and never seems to have had—any malarial mosquitos nor pathogens on any of its islands in the past.


title: Micronesia

text: In the Spanish–American War, Spain lost many of its remaining colonies. In the Pacific, the United States took possession of the Spanish Philippines and Guam. On 17 January 1899, the United States also took possession of unclaimed and uninhabited Wake Island. This left Spain with the remainder of the Spanish East Indies, about 6,000 tiny islands that were sparsely populated and not very productive. These islands were ungovernable after the loss of the administrative center of Manila and indefensible after the loss of two Spanish fleets in the war. The Spanish government therefore decided to sell the remaining islands to a new colonial power: the German Empire.


title: Micronesia

text: The treaty, which was signed by Spanish Prime Minister Francisco Silvela on 12 February 1899, transferred the Caroline Islands, the Mariana Islands, Palau and other possessions to Germany. Under German control, the islands became a protectorate and were administered from German New Guinea. Nauru had already been annexed and claimed as a colony by Germany in 1888.


title: Micronesia

text: During World War I, Germany's Pacific island territories were seized and became League of Nations mandates in 1923. Nauru became an Australian mandate, while Germany's other territories in Micronesia were given as a mandate to Japan and were named the South Seas Mandate. During World War II, Nauru and Ocean Island were occupied by Japanese troops, with also an occupation of some of the Gilbert Islands and were bypassed by the Allied advance across the Pacific. Following Japan's defeat in World War II its mandate became a United Nations Trusteeship administered by the United States as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Nauru became independent in 1968.


title: Micronesia

text: Today, most of Micronesia are independent states, except for the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and Wake Island, which are U.S. territories.


title: Micronesia

text: The Pacific Community (SPC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation whose membership includes both nations and territories in the Pacific Ocean and their metropolitan powers.


title: Micronesia

text: Nationally, the primary income is the sale of fishing rights to foreign nations that harvest tuna using huge purse seiners. A few Japanese long liners still ply the waters. The crews aboard fishing fleets contribute little to the local economy since their ships typically set sail loaded with stores and provisions that are cheaper than local goods. Additional money comes in from government grants, mostly from the United States and the $150 million the US paid into a trust fund for reparations of residents of Bikini Atoll that had to move after nuclear testing. Few mineral deposits worth exploiting exist, except for some high-grade phosphate, especially on Nauru.


title: Micronesia

text: Most residents of Micronesia can freely move to and work within, the United States. Relatives working in the US that send money home to relatives represent the primary source of individual income. Additional individual income comes mainly from government jobs and work within shops and restaurants.


title: Micronesia

text: The tourist industry consists mainly of scuba divers that come to see the coral reefs, do wall dives and visit sunken ships from WWII. Major stops for scuba divers in approximate order are Palau, Chuuk, Yap and Pohnpei. Some private yacht owners visit the area for months or years at a time. However, they tend to stay mainly at ports of entry and are too few in number to be counted as a major source of income.


title: Micronesia

text: Copra production used to be a more significant source of income, however, world prices have dropped in part to large palm plantations that are now planted in places like Borneo.


title: Micronesia

text: The people today form many ethnicities, but all are descended from and belong to the Micronesian culture. The Micronesian culture was one of the last native cultures of the region to develop. It developed from a mixture of Melanesians and Filipinos.


title: Micronesia

text: Because of this mixture of descent, many of the ethnicities of Micronesia feel closer to some groups in Melanesia, or the Philippines. A good example of this are the Yapese people who are related to Austronesian tribes in the northern Philippines. A 2011 survey found that 93.1% of Micronesian are Christians. Genetics also show a significant number of Micronesian have Japanese paternal ancestry: 9.5% of males from Micronesia as well as 0.2% in East Timor carry the Haplogroup D-M55.


title: Micronesia

text: There are also substantial Asian communities found across the region, most notably in the Northern Mariana Islands where they form the majority and smaller communities of Europeans who have migrated from the United States or are descendants of settlers during European colonial rule in Micronesia.


title: Micronesia

text: Though they are all geographically part of the same region, they all have very different colonial histories. The US-administered areas of Micronesia have a unique experience that sets them apart from the rest of the Pacific. Micronesia has great economic dependency on its former or current motherlands, something only comparable to the French Pacific. Sometimes, the term "American Micronesia" is used to acknowledge the difference in cultural heritage.


title: Micronesia

text: It is thought that ancestors of the Carolinian people may have originally immigrated from the Asian mainland and Indonesia to Micronesia around 2,000 years ago. Their primary language is Carolinian, called "Refaluwasch" by native speakers, which has a total of about 5,700 speakers. The Carolinians have a matriarchal society in which respect is a very important factor in their daily lives, especially toward the matriarchs. Most Carolinians are of the Roman Catholic faith.


title: Micronesia

text: The immigration of Carolinians to Saipan began in the early 19th century, after the Spanish reduced the local population of Chamorro natives to just 3,700. They began to immigrate mostly sailing from small canoes from other islands, which a typhoon previously devastated. The Carolinians have a much darker complexion than the native Chamorros.


title: Micronesia

text: The Chamorro people are the indigenous peoples of the Mariana Islands, which are politically divided between the United States territory of Guam and the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Micronesia. The Chamorro are commonly believed to have come from Southeast Asia at around 2000 BC. They are most closely related to other Austronesian natives to the west in the Philippines and Taiwan, as well as the Carolines to the south.


title: Micronesia

text: The Chamorro language is included in the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian family. Because Guam was colonized by Spain for over 300 years, many words derive from the Spanish language. The traditional Chamorro number system was replaced by Spanish numbers.


title: Micronesia

text: The Chuukese people are an ethnic group in Oceania. They constitute 48% of the population of the Federated States of Micronesia. Their language is Chuukese. The home atoll of Chuuk is also known by the former name Truk.


title: Micronesia

text: The Nauruan people are an ethnicity inhabiting the Pacific island of Nauru. They are most likely a blend of other Pacific peoples.


title: Micronesia

text: The origin of the Nauruan people has not yet been finally determined. It can possibly be explained by the last Malayo-Pacific human migration (c. 1200). It was probably seafaring or shipwrecked Polynesians or Melanesians that established themselves in Nauru because there was not already an indigenous people present, whereas the Micronesians were already crossed with the Melanesians in this area.


title: Micronesia

text: The roughly 3000 residents of the Federated States of Micronesia that reside in Kapingamarangi, nicknamed 'Kapings', live in one of the most remote locations in both Micronesia and the world at large. Their home atoll is almost from the nearest point of immigration. There are no regular flights; the only reliable way to legally visit is to travel on a high-speed sailboat to the atoll. Owing to this difficulty, few sailors travelling the Pacific attempt to visit. The local language is the Kapingamarangi language. The children typically attend high school on Pohnpei where they stay with relatives in an enclave that is almost exclusively made up of Kapings.


title: Micronesia

text: There are large East, South and Southeast Asian communities found across certain Micronesian countries that are either immigrants, foreign workers or descendants of either one, most migrated to the islands during the 1800s and 1900s. According to the 2010 census results Guam was 26.3% Filipino, 2.2% Korean, 1.6% Chinese and 2% other Asian. The 2010 census showed the Northern Mariana Islands was 50% Asian of which 35.3% were Filipino, 6.8% Chinese, 4.2% Korean and 3.7% other Asian (mainly Japanese, Bangladeshi and Thai). The 2010 census for the Federated States of Micronesia showed 1.4% were Asian while statistics for Nauru showed 8% of Nauruans were Chinese. The 2005 census results for Palau showed 16.3% were Filipino, 1.6% Chinese, 1.6% Vietnamese and 3.4% other Asian (mostly Bangladeshi, Japanese and Korean).


title: Micronesia

text: Japanese rule in Micronesia also led to Japanese people settling the islands and marrying native spouses. Kessai Note, the former president of the Marshall Islands has partial Japanese ancestry by way of his paternal grandfather, and Emanuel Mori, the former president of the Federated States of Micronesia, is descended from one of the first settlers from Japan, Koben Mori.


title: Micronesia

text: A significant number of Micronesians were shown to have paternal genetic relations with Japanese Haplogroup D-M55. Genetic testing found that 9.5% of males from Micronesia as well as 0.2% in East Timor carry what is believed to reflect recent admixture from Japan. That is, D-M116.1 (D1b1) is generally believed to be a primary subclade of D-M64.1 (D1b), possibly as a result of the Japanese military occupation of Southeast Asia during World War II.


title: Micronesia

text: The 2010 census results of Guam showed 7.1% were white while the 2005 census for Palau showed 8% were European. Smaller numbers at 1.9% in Palau and 1.8% in the Northern Mariana Islands were recorded as "white". In conjunction to the European communities there are large amounts of mixed Micronesians, some of which have European ancestry.


title: Micronesia

text: The largest group of languages spoken in Micronesia are the Micronesian languages. They are in the family of Oceanic languages, part of the Austronesian language group. They descended from the Proto-Oceanic, which in turn descended via Proto-Malayo-Polynesian from Proto-Austronesian.


title: Micronesia

text: The languages in the Micronesian family are Marshallese, Gilbertese, Kosraean, Nauruan, as well as a large sub-family called the Chuukic–Pohnpeic languages containing 11 languages.


title: Micronesia

text: On the eastern edge of the Federated States of Micronesia, the languages Nukuoro and Kapingamarangi represent an extreme westward extension of the Polynesian branch of Oceanic.


title: Micronesia

text: Finally, there are two Malayo-Polynesian languages spoken in Micronesia that do not belong to the Oceanic languages: Chamorro in the Mariana Islands and Palauan in Palau.