title: Cruella de Vil

text: In 1996, the BBC adapted Dodie Smith's Novel into a full-cast musical audio dramatization, starring Patricia Hodge as Cruella. This version is primarily faithful to the source material, but still has some differences from the original. Cruella's husband argues with her more than in the novel, and Cruella's love of heat is at one point attributed to her simply being cold all the time, whereas in the book it is just a characteristic, among many, indicating she may not be fully human. Cruella and her husband do not leave England at the end of the story, and their fate is left unknown. Furthermore, the Dearlys never figure out that Cruella is behind the theft of the dogs. This version, however, is currently the only adapted version which includes Cruella's husband, her love of heat and pepper, her cat, her zebra-striped car, and the fact her hair changes color at the end of the story.


title: Cruella de Vil

text: In this version, Cruella and the Baduns are given their own song, "It's Their Furs", which they sing together when Cruella orders the brothers to kill the pups. During the song, Cruella dictates the furs are to be labeled "Hers and Hers" instead of "His and Hers", implying that her husband will not get this first batch. It is later revealed that there is still the risk Mr. de Vil will sell Dalmatian furs down the line, prompting the Dalmatians and the White Persian Cat to destroy Mr. de Vil's fur stocks, as in the novel. Amazon Audible later released this production as an audiobook, available for streaming online or through the app.


title: Cruella de Vil

text: Cruella appears as the main antagonist in the "101 Dalmatians" franchise video games "" (1997) and "" (2000).


title: Cruella de Vil

text: Cruella first appears in "Power Play", the fourth book of the young-adult book series by Ridley Pearson, "Kingdom Keepers", as a member of the Overtakers, a group of Disney Villains. She is valuable to them since she knows the ways of the modern world. Cruella works with the Evil Queen to free Maleficent and Chernabog, while making sure the Keepers stay off their trail. Using DHI technology, she and the Queen head for the power facility and shut down the electricity, allowing Maleficent and Chernabog to escape their cells.


title: Cruella de Vil

text: In the following book "Shell Game", she assists the Queen and Maleficent in stealing Walt's original notes on Chernabog from the Archives. She then boards the "Dream" for the two-week cruise, along with the rest of the Overtakers. She commands the "Lion King"' hyenas, Happy and Howley, having them patrol the ship to keep the Keepers from finding Chernabog.


title: Cruella de Vil

text: In the seventh book "The Insider", Cruella joins Tia Dalma, the Queen and Judge Doom's group in Toontown; she calls an army of animals to the area with a simple command, only to be knocked out by Amanda's telekinesis. Finn later discovers Cruella had been living in a luxurious decommissioned train compartment and tries strangling her to death. She flees in terror, but has a wrench tossed at her. She is last seen slumped on the ground, bleeding.


title: Cruella de Vil

text: In the seventh book of the Villains series by Serena Valentino, Cruella De Vil tells her story in the first person starting with her childhood. She describes herself growing up, with her father dying at an early age after gifting her daughter a pair of jade earrings that were said to have been cursed by the Odd Sisters, figures in the fairy tale books Cruella loved to read as a child. Her mother is a self-absorbed socialite, hardly ever seeing her daughter and giving her gifts, which Cruella equates to her mother loving her. The only two people that truly care about her are her governess, Miss Pricket, and her friend Anita who comes from a lower-class family.


title: Cruella de Vil

text: When they attend school together, Cruella defends Anita from the bullies, and after school intends for Anita and her to travel around the world together. When Cruella puts on her jade earrings, she experiences a surge of power and becomes bossy and mean. She wears them when confronting the school headmistress at Anita's treatment. During the holidays following their first year at school, Cruella decides to have the staff's holiday dinner celebration downstairs, but her mother arrives in horror, and forbids Cruella from going back to school and is determined to find her a husband, as well as banning her from seeing Anita.


title: Cruella de Vil

text: On Cruella's next birthday, her father's lawyer delivers a female Dalmatian puppy named Perdita, which apparently had been set up by her father prior to his death. After her birthday celebration, she is confronted by her mother about having a puppy, and her mother jokes to Cruella about having the puppy turned into a muff. A horrified Cruella is calmed when Anita arrives from school. At a dinner, Anita reveals she is going to typing school, which leaves Cruella feeling alone. Later, the two fight while Cruella is wearing the earrings, and Perdita urinates on Cruella's fur coat, which leads to her throwing Anita and Perdita out of the house.


title: Cruella de Vil

text: Cruella eventually marries a man named Jack and confident in their future together, signs over her fortune to her mother. At 25 Jack dies in a fire, supposedly of suicide after seeing the massive amount of debt he had. With just the clothes on her back, Cruella goes to an old mansion called Hell Hall which her father had set aside from her in the case of an emergency. She then goes to meet with Anita, whom she has kept in touch with supposedly for updates on Perdita, and finds herself furious with Anita. She then vows to herself to get back at her, and decides to do so by taking Perdita's coming litter of puppies and turning them into a coat for her mother.


title: Cruella de Vil

text: When Cruella reveals the plan to her mother, her mother is horrified and demands she return to Hell Hall. Cruella goes ahead with her plan and rounds up not only Perdita's litter, but all the Dalmatian puppies from miles around. Before she can kill them though, the puppies escape. Cruella then descends further into madness, rambling about another grand scheme to get those puppies. The novel ends with a note from Serena Valentino, saying she visited Hell Hall to take down Cruella's story and that she still wears the jade earrings to this day.


title: Cruella de Vil

text: In the fourth volume of the Disney Chills series by Vera Strange, Delia is a girl at a private school who yearns to be the highest influence in fashion at her private school. The House of De Vil is a popular fashion house that all the girls strive to wear. One day, Delia finds a fur coat in an alley and talks herself into taking it. Delia is soon tormented by the unseen phantom of Cruella De Vil, who claims it is her coat.


title: Cruella de Vil

text: Cruella de Vil has become one of the most recognizable literary and film villains, and as such as featured prominently in popular culture:


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Army; it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the French Air Force. On 10 September 2020, it assumed its current name, the French Air and Space Force, to reflect an "evolution of its mission" into the area of outer space.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The number of aircraft in service with the French Air and Space Force varies depending on the source; the Ministry of Armed Forces gives a figure of 658 aircraft in 2014. According to 2018 data, this figure includes 210 combat aircraft: 115 Dassault Mirage 2000 and 95 Dassault Rafale. As of 2021, the French Air and Space Force employs a total of 40,500 regular personnel, with a reserve element of 5,187 in 2014.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The Chief of Staff of the French Air and Space Force (CEMAAE) is a direct subordinate of the Chief of the Defence Staff (CEMA), a high-ranking military officer who in turn answers to the civilian Minister of the Armed Forces.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The founding of the began in 1909, when the French War Minister approved the purchase of a Wright Biplane. The following year, another Wright biplane, a Bleriot, and two Farmans were added to the lone acquisition. On 22 October 1910, General Pierre Roques was appointed Inspector General of what was becoming referred to as the Cinquieme Arme, or Fifth Service.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: In March 1912, the French parliament enacted legislation to establish the air arm. It was projected to consist of three distinct branches based on aircraft missions—reconnaissance, bombing, or countering other aircraft.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: France was one of the first states to start building aircraft. At the beginning of World War I, France had a total of 148 planes (eight from French Naval Aviation ()) and 15 airships.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: In August 1914, as France entered World War I, French airpower consisted of 24 squadrons () supporting ground forces, including three squadrons assigned to cavalry units. By 8 October, expansion to 65 squadrons was being planned. By December, the plans called for 70 new squadrons.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Meanwhile, even as procurement efforts scaled up, inventive airmen were trying to use various light weapons against opposing airplanes. Roland Garros invented a crude method of firing a machine gun through the propeller arc by cladding his propeller with metal wedges deflecting any errant bullets. After destroying three German airplane, Garros came down behind enemy lines on 18 April 1915. His secret weapon was thus exposed, and Anthony Fokker came up with the synchronization gear that by July 1, 1915, that turned airplanes into flying gun platforms.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: On 21 February 1916, the Verdun Offensive began. New weapons demand new tactics. Commandant Charles de Tricornet de Rose was the original French pilot, having learned to fly in March 1911. This experienced flier was given a free hand to select pilots and airplanes for a new unit tasked with keeping German observation craft from over the French lines. The ad hoc unit commandeered all available Morane-Saulniers and Nieuport 11s, as well as the 15 best pilots regardless of posting. This ad hoc unit patrolling the skies over Verdun was the first French . The was successful despite Tricornet's death in a mishap. Under the leadership of new commander Captain Auguste de Reverand, such flying aces as Georges Guynemer, Charles Nungesser, and Albert Deullin began their careers.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Encouraged by the success of their original , the French massed several squadrons for the Battle of the Somme. The burgeoning French aircraft inventory afforded the formation of under Captain Felix Brocard. The was formed on 1 July 1916 with a posting of four Nieuport squadrons: Squadron N.3, N.26, N.73, and N.103. Three other squadrons--Squadron N.37, N.62, and N.65 were temporarily attached at various times.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: On 19 October 1916, three fixed were established, each to consist of four squadron. Numbered 11, 12, and 13, they were only the first three .


title: French Air and Space Force

text: During March 1917, and were formed. Again, each new was assigned four Nieuport fighter squadrons; again, each was sent to support a different French field army.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: On 10 January 1918, was formed from four SPAD squadrons. In February, five more were founded from SPAD squadrons: number 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21. The various Nieuport models were now being phased out as the new SPADs filled the inventories of the French.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: With the success, the French were encouraged to amass airpower into still larger tactical units. On 4 February 1918, was created out of , , and . It was followed by , formed on the 27th from , , and . Each would be stocked with 72 fighters.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The were not the end of the French accumulation of air power. On 14 May 1918, they were grouped into the . As bombing aircraft were also being concentrated into larger units, the new division would also contain and . The bombing units were both equipped with 45 Breguet 14 bombers. The last addition to the new division was five protection squadrons, operating 75 Caudron R.11 gunships to fly escort for the Breguets.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: On 25 June 1918, was founded. followed soon thereafter. A couple of night bombardment were also founded.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Then, on 15 July 1918, the Division was committed to the Second Battle of the Marne. From then on, whether in whole or in part, the fought until war's end. By the time of the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, the French could commit 27 fighter squadrons to the effort, along with reconnaissance and bombing squadrons. The 1,137 airplanes dedicated to the battle were the most numerous used in a World War I battle.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: When the 11 November 1918 armistice came, French air power had expanded to 336 squadrons, 74 of which were SPAD fighter squadrons. France had 3,608 planes in service. Confirmed claims of 2,049 destroyed enemy airplanes included 307 that had been brought down within French lines. French airmen had also destroyed 357 observation balloons. However, 5,500 pilots and observers were killed out of the 17,300 engaged in the conflict, amounting to 31%. A 1919 newspaper article reported that the French Air Force had suffered losses of 61%.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Military aeronautics was established as a "special arm" by the law of 8 December 1922. It remained under the auspices of the French Army. It was not until 2 July 1934, that the "special arm" became an independent service and was totally independent.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The initial air arm was the cradle of French military parachuting, responsible for the first formation of the Air Infantry Groups () in the 1930s, out of which the Air Parachute Commandos () descended.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The French Air Force maintained a continuous presence across the French colonial empire, particularly from the 1920s to 1943.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The French Air Force played an important role in WWII, most notably during the Battle of France in 1940. The Vichy French Air Force had later a significant presence in the French Levant.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The engagement of the Free French Air Forces from 1940 to 1943, and then the engagement of the aviators of the French Liberation Army, were also important episodes in the history of the French Air Force. The sacrifices of Commandant René Mouchotte and Lieutenant Marcel Beau illustrated their devotion.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: After 1945, France rebuilt its aircraft industry. The French Air Force participated in several colonial wars during the Empire such as French Indochina after the Second World War. Since 1945, the French Air Force was notably engaged in Indochina (1945–1954).


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The French Air Force was active in Algeria from 1952 until 1962 and Suez (1956), later Mauritania and Chad, the Persian Gulf (1990–1991), ex-Yugoslavia and more recently in Afghanistan, Mali and Iraq.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: From 1964 until 1971 the French Air Force had the unique responsibility for the French nuclear arm via Dassault Mirage IV or ballistic missiles of Air Base 200 Apt-Saint-Christol on the Plateau d'Albion.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Accordingly, from 1962, the French political leadership shifted its military emphasis to nuclear deterrence, implementing a complete reorganisation of the Air Force, with the creation of four air regions and seven major specialised commands, among which were the Strategic Air Forces Command, COTAM, the Air Command of Aerial Defense Forces (, CAFDA), and the (FATac). In 1964, the Second Tactical Air Command was created in Nancy to take command of air units stationed in France but not assigned to NATO. The Military Air Transport Command had previously been formed in February 1962 from the . Also created in 1964 was the (EFCA), seemingly grouping all FCA units. The Dassault Mirage IV, the principal French strategic bomber, was designed to strike Soviet positions as part of the French nuclear triad.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: In 1985, the Air Force had four major flying commands, the Strategic Air Forces Command, the Tactical Air Forces Command, the Military Air Transport Command, and CAFDA (air defence).


title: French Air and Space Force

text: CFAS had two squadrons of S2 and S-3 IRBMs at the Plateau d'Albion, six squadrons of Mirage IVAs (at Mont de Marsan, Cazaux, Orange, Istres, St Dizier, and EB 3/94 at Luxeuil - Saint-Sauveur Air Base), and three squadrons of C-135F, as well as a training/reconnaissance unit, CIFAS 328, at Bordeaux. The tactical air command included wings EC 3, EC 4, EC 7, EC 11, EC 13, and ER 33, with a total of 19 squadrons of Mirage III, Jaguars, two squadrons flying the Mirage 5F (EC 2/13 and EC 3/13, both at Colmar), and a squadron flying the Mirage F.1CR. CoTAM counted 28 squadrons, of which ten were fixed-wing transport squadrons, and the remainder helicopter and liaison squadrons, at least five of which were overseas. CAFDA numbered 14 squadrons mostly flying the Mirage F.1C. Two other commands had flying units, the Air Force Training Command, and the Air Force Transmissions Command, with four squadrons and three trials units.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Dassault Aviation led the way mainly with delta-wing designs, which formed the basis for the Dassault Mirage III series of fighter jets. The Mirage demonstrated its abilities in the Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, Falklands War, and Gulf War, becoming one of the most popular jet fighters of its day and being widely sold.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The French Air Force entered a phase of inventory replacement and expansion. The Air Force ordered the Airbus A400M military transport aircraft, then in development. By November 2016, 11 had already been delivered to ET00.061 at Orleans-Bricy, and integration of the new Dassault Rafale multi-role jet fighter was underway; the first 20-aircraft squadron became operational in 2006 at Saint-Dizier.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: In 2009, France rejoined the NATO Military Command Structure, having been absent since 1966. France was a leading nation, alongside the United States, Great Britain and Italy in implementing the UN sponsored no-fly zone in Libya (NATO Operation Unified Protector), deploying 20 fighter aircraft to Benghazi in defense of rebel-held positions and the civilian population.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The last remaining squadron of Dassault Mirage F1s retired the aircraft in July 2014 and replaced them with Dassault Rafales.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: On 13 July 2019, President Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of a space command, which would come into being within the French Air Force by September 2019, and the transformation of the French Air Force into the French Air and Space Force. According to Defense Minister Florence Parly, France reserves the right to arm French satellites with lasers for defensive purposes.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The official renaming occurred on 24 July 2020, with the new Air and Space Force logo unveiled on 11 September 2020.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The Chief of Staff of the French Air and Space Force (CEMAAE) determines French Air and Space Force doctrines application and advises the Chief of the Defence Staff (CEMA) on the deployment, manner, and use of the Air and Space Force. They are responsible for the preparation and logistic support of the French Air and Space Force. The CEMAA is assisted by a Deputy Chief, the . Finally, the CEMAA is assisted by the Inspectorate of the French Air and Space Force (IAA) and by the French Air and Space Force Health Service Inspection (ISSAA).


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The Air and Space Force is organized in accordance with Chapter 4, Title II, Book II of the Third Part of the French Defense Code (), which replaced decree n° 91-672 dated 14 July 1991.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Under the authority of the Chief of Staff of the French Air and Space Force (CEMAAE) in Paris, the Air and Space Force includes:


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The Air and Space Force headquarters, employing 150 personnel, are located alongside the Chief of the Defence Staff's offices (EMA) and the Army and Navy headquarters at the Balard armed forces complex in Paris. The new site replaced the former Paris Air Base (BA 117) which served as air staff headquarters until 25 June 2015.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The French Air and Space Force has had three commands: two grand operational commands (CDAOA and CFAS) and one organic command (CFA).


title: French Air and Space Force

text: These last two brigades belonged until 2013 to the Air Force Support Command (CSFA), which maintained the arms systems, equipment, information and communication systems (SIC) as well as infrastructure. The CSFA supported the human element, the military logistics (supply and transport), wherever, previously, forces of the French Air and Space Force operated or trained. These two brigades are now subordinate to the CFA.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The official designation of the service was changed in July 2019 from Air Army () to Air and Space Army (), when the previous joint Inter-Service Space Command ( ("CIE")) under the French General Staff was transformed into the Space Command ( ("CDE")) and absorbed into the Air and Space Force as its fourth command.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: All air regions were disestablished on 1 January 2008. In the 1960s, there were five air regions (RA). The number was then reduced to four by a decree of 30 June 1962 with the disestablishment of the 5th Aerial Region (French North Africa). The decree of 14 July 1991 reduced the air regions to three: « RA Atlantic », « RA Mediterranean » and « RA North-East ». On 1 July 2000 was placed into effect an organization consisting of « RA North » (RAN) and « RA South » (RAS). The territorial division was abolished by decree n°2007-601 of 26 April 2007.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: From 2008 to 2010 the French Air Force underwent the "Air 2010" streamlining process. The main targets of this project were to simplify the command structure, to regroup all military and civil air force functions and to rationalise and optimise all air force units. Five major commands, were formed, instead of the former 13, and several commands and units were disbanded.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The Directorate of Human Resources of the Air and Space Force (DRH-AAE) recruits, trains, manages, administers, and converts personnel of the Air and Space Force. Since January 2008, the DRH-AAE groups the former Air Force directorate of military personnel (DPMMA) and some tasks of the former Air Force Training Command. The directorate is responsible for Air and Space Force recruitment via the recruiting bureau.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Commanded by a Lieutenant-colonel or Colonel, the is a formation that assembles various units and personnel dedicated to the same mission. In 1932, the "regiment" designation was replaced with "Escadre", which until 1994 was a unit consisting of the following:


title: French Air and Space Force

text: In the second phase, the French Air Force announced in August 2015 the creation of six additional wings:


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The French Air and Space Force announced in August 2015 that unit numbering, moves of affected aircraft, and the transfer of historic material (flags, traditions and names) would be completed in 2016.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Commanded by a lieutenant-colonel, the Escadron is the basic operational unit. This term replaced that of Group as of 1949 with the aim to standardize usage with the allies of NATO who were using the term 'squadron'. However, the term Group did not entirely disappear: the term was retained for the Aerial Group 56 Mix Vaucluse, specialized in Special Operations or Group – Groupe de Ravitaillement en Vol 02.091 Bretagne () which is still carrying the same designation since 2004.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: A fighter squadron () can number some twenty machines, spread in general in three Escadrilles. A Transport Escadron () can theoretically count a dozen Transall C-160, however, numbers are usually much less for heavier aircraft (three Airbus A310-300 and two Airbus A340-200 for the Transport Escadron 3/60 Estérel ()).


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The squadrons have retained the designations of the former Escadres disbanded during the 1990s. For instance: Transport Escadron 1/64 Béarn () (more specifically Transport Escadron 01.064 Béarn), which belonged to the 64th Transport Escadre () during the dissolution of the later (recreated in August 2015). Not all escadrons (Squadrons) are necessarily attached to an Escadre.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The Escadrille (flight) has both an administrative and operational function, even of the essential operational control is done at the level of the Esacdron. A pilot is assigned to the Escadrille, however the equipment and material devices, on the other hand, are assigned to the Escadron. Since the ESTA (Aeronautic Technical Support Escadrons) came into being, material devices and the mechanics have been assigned directly to the base then put at disposition of the based Escadrons.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The Escadrilles adopted the traditions of the prestigious units out of which most (SPA and SAL), are those traditions of the First World War.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Protection Squadrons protect airbases inside and outside the national territory, and in exterior operations as well.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: The CPAs carry out common missions, as well as specialized tasks including intervention and reinforcement of protection at the profit of sensible points " air " inside and outside the national territory.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Flying activity in France is carried out by a network of bases, platforms and French air and space defence radar systems. It is supported by bases, which are supervised and maintained by staff, operational centres, warehouses, workshops, and schools. Both in France and abroad, bases have similar infrastructure to provide standardised support.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Some French airbases house radar units (e.g. Lyon, Mont-Verdun, Drachenbronn, Cinq-Mars-la-Pile, Nice, Mont-Agel) to carry out air defence radar surveillance and air traffic control. Others house material warehouses or command posts. Temporary and semi-permanent foreign deployments include transport aircraft at Dushanbe (Tajikistan, Operation Héraclès), and fighter aircraft in N'Djamena (Tchad, Opération Épervier), among others.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: As swift as the French Air and Space Force operates, the closure of aerial bases is more constant and immediate, having known a strong acceleration since the 1950s. An air base commander has authority over all units stationed on their base. Depending on the units' tasks, this means that they are responsible for approximately 600 to 2500 personnel.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: On average, a base, made up of about 1500 personnel (nearly 3500 people including family), provides a yearly economic boost to its area of about 60 million euros. Consequently, determining the sites for air bases constitutes a major part of regional planning.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: More than ten bases have been closed since 2009. Doullens Air Base (BA 922) was a former command and reporting centre; Toulouse - Francazal Air Base (BA 101), was closed on 1 September 2009; Colmar-Meyenheim Air Base (BA 132) was closed on 16 June 2010; Metz-Frescaty Air Base (BA 128) was closed on 30 June 2011; Brétigny-sur-Orge Air Base (BA 217), closed 26 June 2012; Cambrai - Épinoy Air Base (BA 103), was closed on 28 June 2012; Reims – Champagne Air Base (June 2012); Drachenbronn Air Base (BA 901) closed on 17 July 2015; Dijon Air Base (BA 102), was vacated on 30 June 2016; Creil Air Base (BA 110) vacated on 31 August 2016; and Taverny Air Base (DA 921), the former Strategic Air Forces Command headquarters.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Since the end of the Algerian War, the French Air and Space Force has comprised about 17 to 19% of the French Armed Forces. In 1990, at the end of the Cold War, numbers reached 56,400 military personnel under contract, out of which 36,300 were part of conscription and 5,400 civilians.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: In 2008, forecasts for personnel of the French Air Force were expected to number 50,000 out of which 44,000 aviators on the horizon in 2014.


title: French Air and Space Force

text: In 2010, the number personnel of the French Air Force was reduced to 51,100 men and women (20%) out of which: 13% officers; 55% sous-officier; 29% air military technicians (MTA); 3% volunteers of national service and aspirant volunteers; 6,500 civilians (14%). They form several functions:


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Non-navigating personnel of the French Air and Space Force include and are not limited to : Systems Aerial Mechanics (), Aerial Controllers (), Meteorologists (), Administrative Personnel, Air Parachute Commandos (), in Informatics, in Infrastructures, in Intelligence, Commissioner of the Armies () (Administrator Task).


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Pilots, Mechanical Navigating Officer (), Navigating Arms Systems Officer () (NOSA), Combat Air Medic () (CVA).


title: French Air and Space Force

text: Military Air Technicians () having been trained until 1 July 2015 at the Center of Elementary Military Formation () of the Technical Instruction School of the French Air and Space Force () of Saintes. Since 1 July 2015, training has taken place at Orange-Caritat Air Base, within the " Operational Combatant Preparation Center of the Air Force " ().


title: Berniece Baker Miracle

text: Berniece Inez Gladys Miracle (née Baker; July 30, 1919 – May 25, 2014) was an American writer, known for her memoir "My Sister Marilyn" (1994) about her half-sister, actress Marilyn Monroe.


title: Berniece Baker Miracle

text: Berniece Baker was born in Venice, California on July 30, 1919. Her parents, Gladys Pearl Monroe and Jasper Newton "Jap" Baker (1886–1951), were married in 1917. Following their divorce in 1921, Jasper kidnapped Berniece and her brother, Robert Kermit, and raised them in his native Kentucky. Gladys soon remarried and gave birth to a third child, Norma Jean Baker.


title: Berniece Baker Miracle

text: In 1933, Robert Baker died from kidney failure. Two years later, Berniece Baker began attending Pineville High School. She married Paris Miracle (1918–1990) in 1938. Their only child, Mona Rae Miracle, was born on July 18, 1939, twelve days before Miracle's 20th birthday.


title: Berniece Baker Miracle

text: During the pregnancy, Miracle received a letter from her mother, informing her that she had a sister, Norma Jean. The half-sisters met in 1944 after exchanging letters and pictures. At the same time, Norma Jean began a modeling career and became an actress under the stage name Marilyn Monroe. She remained in contact with her sister, who visited her in 1961 in her New York home after Monroe had divorced her third husband, Arthur Miller, and had undergone surgery for her cholecystectomy.


title: Berniece Baker Miracle

text: Monroe died a year later and left Miracle $10,000 in her final will. Along with Monroe's second husband, Joe DiMaggio, and her business manager, Inez Melson, Miracle arranged the funeral, choosing the casket and dress. In an interview with "ina.fr", she stated:


title: Berniece Baker Miracle

text: Throughout her life, Miracle avoided the media and worked as a manufacturing inspector, bookkeeper and costume designer. Miracle died in Asheville, North Carolina, on 25 May 2014, at the age of 94.


title: Berniece Baker Miracle

text: "My Sister Marilyn: A Memoir of Marilyn Monroe" was published on June 1, 1994 (on Monroe's birthday and 50 years after the half-sisters first met). Miracle co-authored the book with her daughter Mona; it tells the story of her rare meet-ups with Monroe, up until the latter's death.


title: Berniece Baker Miracle

text: It also addresses the mental issues of their mother, Gladys, and the sisters' consequently troubling childhoods, both lacking a mother figure:


title: Berniece Baker Miracle

text: The memoir features exclusive photographs and received positive reviews by outlets such as "Entertainment Weekly", which wrote that "this portrait of Marilyn is irreplaceable." It remains the only authorized biography of Monroe's family.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: The Siege of Sarajevo () was a prolonged blockade of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War. After it was initially besieged by the forces of the Yugoslav People's Army, the city was then besieged by the Army of Republika Srpska from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996 (1,425 days). It lasted three times longer than the Battle of Stalingrad, more than a year longer than the siege of Leningrad, and was the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia after the 1992 Bosnian independence referendum, the Bosnian Serbs—whose strategic goal was to create a new Bosnian Serb state of Republika Srpska (RS) that would include Bosniak-majority areas—encircled Sarajevo with a siege force of 13,000 stationed in the surrounding hills. From there they assaulted the city with artillery, tanks, and small arms. From 2 May 1992, the Serbs blockaded the city. The Bosnian government defence forces (ARBiH) inside the besieged city, approximately 70,000 troops, were poorly equipped and unable to break the siege.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: A total of 13,952 people were killed during the siege, including 5,434 civilians. The ARBiH sustained 6,137 fatalities, while Bosnian Serb military casualties numbered 2,241 killed soldiers. The 1991 census indicates that before the siege, the city and its surrounding areas had a total population of 525,980. According to some estimates, the total population of the city proper prior to the siege was 435,000. Estimates of the population of Sarajevo after the siege ranged from 300,000 to 380,000. Sarajevo's population endured up to six months without gas, electricity or water supply during certain stages of the siege.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: After the war, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted four Serb officials for numerous counts of crimes against humanity which they committed during the siege, including terrorism. Stanislav Galić and Dragomir Milošević were sentenced to life imprisonment and 29 years imprisonment respectively. Their superiors, Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, were also convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: From its establishment after World War II until its breakup in 1991 and 1992, the government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia suppressed the nationalist sentiments which existed among the many ethnic and religious groups which comprised the population of the country, a policy which prevented the occurrence of chaos and the breakup of the state. When Yugoslavia's longtime leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito died in 1980, this policy of containment underwent a dramatic reversal. Nationalism experienced a renaissance in the following decade after violence erupted in Kosovo. While the goal of Serbian nationalists was the centralization of a Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, other nationalities in Yugoslavia aspired to federalization and the decentralization of the state.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 18 November 1990, the first multi-party parliamentary elections were held in Bosnia and Herzegovina (with a second round on 25 November). They resulted in a national assembly dominated by three ethnically based parties, which had formed a loose coalition to oust the communists from power. Croatia and Slovenia's subsequent declarations of independence and the warfare that ensued placed Bosnia and Herzegovina and its three constituent peoples in an awkward position. A significant split soon developed on the issue of whether to stay with the Yugoslav federation (overwhelmingly favoured among Serbs) or to seek independence (overwhelmingly favoured among Bosniaks and Croats).


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: The Serb members of parliament, consisting mainly of Serb Democratic Party (SDP) members, abandoned the central parliament in Sarajevo, and formed the Assembly of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 24 October 1991, which marked the end of the tri-ethnic coalition that governed after the 1990 elections. This Assembly established the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 9 January 1992, which became the Republika Srpska in August 1992.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: Throughout 1990, the RAM Plan was developed by the State Security Administration (SDB or SDS) and a group of selected Serb officers of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) with the purpose of organizing Serbs outside Serbia, consolidating control of the fledgling SDP, and the prepositioning of arms and ammunition. The plan was meant to prepare the framework for a third Yugoslavia in which all Serbs with their territories would live together in the same state. Alarmed, the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia on 15 October 1991, shortly followed by the establishment of the Serbian National Assembly by Bosnian Serbs.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: The declaration of Bosnian sovereignty was followed by a referendum for independence on 29 February and 1 March 1992, which was boycotted by the vast majority of Serbs. The turnout in the referendum was 63.4% with 99.7% of voters choosing independence.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: Violence broke out in many places during and after the referendum. On 1 March, a gunman opened fire at a Bosnian Serb wedding procession in Baščaršija, Sarajevo's historical centre and a Bosniak section of the city. The guests were carrying and waving Serbian flags, an act which the Bosniaks, who mostly supported independence, interpreted as a deliberate provocation. The groom's father was killed, and an Orthodox priest was wounded. Some of the witnesses identified the shooter as Ramiz Delalić, a Bosniak gangster who had become increasingly brazen since the collapse of communism. Arrest warrants were issued for him and another assailant, but little effort was made by the Sarajevo police to apprehend them. The killing was denounced by the SDS, who charged that the SDA or the government was complicit in the shooting, as evidenced by their failure to arrest the suspects. An SDS spokesman claimed the wedding attack was evidence of the mortal danger Serbs would be subject to in an independent Bosnia. This statement was rejected by the founder of the Patriotic League, Sefer Halilović, who stated that the procession was not a wedding but was in fact intended as a provocation.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 2 March, Serb paramilitaries set up barricades and positioned snipers near Sarajevo's parliament building, but their "coup d'état" was thwarted by thousands of Sarajevo citizens who took to the streets and placed themselves in front of the snipers. Armed Bosniaks known as "Green Berets" also erected barricades in and around Sarajevo. More barricades appeared near Banja Luka, and a motorist was killed by armed Serbs in Doboj. By the end of the day, twelve people had been killed in the fighting. Following Bosnia and Herzegovina's official declaration of independence from Yugoslavia on 3 March 1992, sporadic fighting broke out between Serbs and government forces all across the territory. It continued through the run-up to Bosnia and Herzegovina's recognition as an independent state.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 3 March, Bosnia's Bosniak President Alija Izetbegović claimed that Serbs from Pale were marching on Sarajevo. Fighting soon broke out in the town of Bosanski Brod. Eleven Serbs were killed in the village of Sijekovac outside of Brod on 26 March, and the SDS claimed they were massacred by a Croat-Bosniak militia. The town was besieged and shelled by the JNA and Serbian paramilitaries on 29 March. There were further clashes in Bijeljina, which was attacked by a Serb force led by Serb Volunteer Guard. On 4 April, as the information of the killings in Bijeljina came to light, the Bosnian government announced a general mobilisation call. The SDS responded that this call brought Sarajevo one step closer to war.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 4 April 1992, when Izetbegović ordered all reservists and police in Sarajevo to mobilize, and the SDS called for evacuation of the city's Serbs, there came the "definite rupture between the Bosnian government and Serbs". The following day, ethnic Serb policemen attacked police stations and an Interior Ministry training school. The attack killed two officers and one civilian. The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared a state of emergency the following day. Later that day, Serb paramilitaries in Sarajevo repeated their action of the previous month. A crowd of peace marchers, between 50,000 and 100,000 comprising all ethnic groups, rallied in protest. When a huge crowd approached a barricade, a demonstrator was killed by Serb forces. Six Serb snipers were arrested, but were exchanged when the Serbs threatened to kill the commandant of the Bosnian police academy arrested the previous day with the takeover of the academy.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: Bosnia and Herzegovina received international recognition on 6 April 1992. The most common view is that the war started that day.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 6 April, Serb forces began shelling Sarajevo, and in the next two days crossed the Drina from Serbia proper and besieged Bosniak-majority Zvornik, Višegrad and Foča. All of Bosnia was engulfed in war by mid-April. There were some efforts to halt violence. On 27 April, the Bosnian government ordered the JNA to be put under civilian control or expelled, which was followed by a series of conflicts in early May between the two. On 2 May, the Green Berets and local gang members fought back a disorganized Serb attack aimed at cutting Sarajevo in two. On 3 May, Izetbegović was kidnapped at Sarajevo Airport by JNA officers, and used to gain safe passage of JNA troops from downtown Sarajevo. However, Bosniak forces dishonoured the agreement and ambushed the departing JNA convoy, which embittered all sides. A ceasefire and agreement on evacuation of the JNA was signed on 18 May, while on 20 May the Bosnian presidency declared the JNA an occupation force.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: The JNA attacked the Ministry of Training Academy in Vraca, the central tramway depot, and the Old Town district with mortars, artillery and tank fire. The Bosnian government had expected the international community to deploy a peacekeeping force following recognition, but it did not materialize in time to prevent war from breaking out across the country.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: Bosnian Serb and JNA troops overwhelmed the poorly equipped and unprepared Bosnian security forces to take control of large areas of Bosnian territory, beginning with attacks on Bosniak civilians in the east. Serb military, police and paramilitary forces attacked towns and villages and then, sometimes assisted by local Serb residents, applied what soon became their standard operating procedure: Bosniak houses and apartments were systematically ransacked or burned; civilians were rounded up, some beaten or killed; and men were separated from the women. Many of the men were forcibly removed to prison camps. The women were incarcerated in detention centres in extremely unhygienic conditions and suffered numerous severe abuses. Many were repeatedly raped. Survivors testified that Serb soldiers and police would visit the detention centres, select one or more women, take them out and rape them.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 22 April, a peace rally in front of the Republic Assembly building was broken up by shots that came from the nearby Holiday Inn. By the end of April, the form of the siege was largely established. The Serb-inhabited Sarajevan suburb of Ilidža saw heavy fighting between the local Serb forces on one side and various Bosniak forces on the other. The local Serbs soon formed the Ilidža Brigade, which became a part of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the VRS.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: In the months leading up to the war, JNA forces in the region began to mobilize in the hills surrounding Sarajevo. Artillery, together with other ordnance and equipment that would prove key in the coming siege of the city, was deployed at this time. In April 1992, the Bosnian government under President Alija Izetbegović demanded that the Yugoslav government remove these forces. Slobodan Milošević, the president of Serbia, agreed only to withdraw individuals who originated from outside Bosnia's borders, an insignificant number. JNA soldiers who were ethnic Serbs from Bosnia were transferred to the VRS under the command of General Ratko Mladić, with the VRS having rescinded its allegiance to Bosnia a few days after Bosnia seceded from Yugoslavia.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: In May 1992, units of the JNA stationed in Sarajevo found themselves repeatedly under attack. On 2 May, Bosniak forces consisting of the Green Berets and the Patriotic League, opened fire on a column of eight JNA MEDEVAC vehicles in Vojvode Stepe street. This attack caused the JNA to retreat to Serb-held positions in Lukavica district.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 2 May 1992, Bosnian Serb forces established a total blockade of the city. They blocked the major access roads, cutting supplies of food and medicine, and also cut off the city's utilities (e.g., water, electricity and heating). Although they possessed superior weaponry, they were greatly outnumbered by ARBiH soldiers who were defending the city. After numerous JNA armored columns failed to take the city, the Serbs began to concentrate their efforts on weakening it by using continual bombardment from at least 200 reinforced positions and bunkers in the surrounding hills.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 3 May 1992, members of the ARBiH attacked a convoy of withdrawing JNA soldiers on Dobrovoljačka Street in Sarajevo. The attack is thought to have been in retaliation for the arrest of Izetbegović, who was detained at Sarajevo Airport by Yugoslav police the previous day. The attack started with the convoy being separated when a car was driven into it. Then sporadic and disorganized fighting took place for several minutes in and around the convoy. 6–42 soldiers were killed in the incident. General Milutin Kukanjac, the commander of the JNA in Sarajevo, confirmed that just in Dobrovoljačka street alone 4 officers, one soldier and one civilian were killed in the attack. General Lewis MacKenzie, the UN peacekeeper in Sarajevo and who was in the convoy described what he saw: "I could see the Territorial Defense soldiers push the rifles through the windows of civilians' cars, which were part of the convoy, and shoot [...] I saw blood flow down the windshields. It was definitely the worst day of my life." In the Documentary "The Death of Yugoslavia" Lewis MacKenzie described how the convoy split in half: "I believe a red Volkswaggen took off and driven across the intersection and blocked and split the convoy in two." General Jovan Divijak, a commander for the ARBiH in Sarajevo, tried to stop the shooting and calm things down.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: The Army of Republika Srpska was newly established, put under the command of General Ratko Mladić, in a new phase of the war. Shellings on Sarajevo on 24, 26, 28 and 29 May were attributed to Mladić by Boutros-Ghali. Civilian casualties of a 27 May shelling of the city led to Western intervention, in the form of sanctions imposed on 30 May through United Nations Security Council Resolution 757. That same day Bosnian forces attacked the JNA barracks in the city, which was followed by heavy shelling. On 5 and 6 June the last JNA personnel left the city during heavy street fighting and shelling. The 20 June cease-fire, executed to allow the UN takeover of Sarajevo Airport for humanitarian flights, was broken as both sides battled for control of the territory between the city and airport. The airport crisis led to Boutros-Ghali's ultimatum on 26 June, that the Serbs stop attacks on the city, allow the UN to take control of the airport, and place their heavy weapons under UN supervision. Meanwhile, media reported that Bush considered the use of force in Bosnia. French President Mitterrand visited Sarajevo on 28–29 June. Undramatically, the Serbs handed over the airport to UNPROFOR on 29 June. World public opinion was 'decisively and permanently against the Serbs' following media reports on the sniping and shelling.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: From 25 to 26 August, under command of Colonel Tomislav Šipčić, the Sarajevo City Hall was burned down by cannon fire from Serb positions.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 30 August 1992, an artillery shell crashed into a crowded marketplace on the western edge of Sarajevo. The resulting explosion killed 15 people and wounded 100 others.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 8 January 1993, Hakija Turajlić, the Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb soldier. Turajlić, who had gone to Sarajevo Airport to greet a Turkish delegation, was returning to the city in a United Nations armored vehicle that had taken him there when a force of two tanks and 40–50 Bosnian Serb soldiers blockaded the road. The Serbs, acting on radioed information from a Serbian military liaison officer at the airport that "Turkish fighters" were on their way to reinforce the Bosnian defenders, accused the three French soldiers manning the armored vehicle of transporting "Turkish mujahedeen". After a Serbian military liaison officer identified the passenger as Turajlić, the Serbs ordered the UN soldiers to hand him over. The rear door was opened, and one of the Serbs fired seven shots at Turajlić from an automatic weapon. Six bullets struck him in the chest and arms, killing him instantly. A Bosnian Serb soldier, Goran Vasić, was eventually charged with Turajlić's murder but was ultimately acquitted of that charge in 2002.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 6 May 1993, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 824 declared that Sarajevo be a UN Safe Area (along with Žepa, Goražde, Tuzla, and Bihać). These cities and territories were placed under the protection of the UN peacekeeping units UNPROFOR


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 5 February 1994 at 12:10–12:15, a 120-millimeter mortar shell landed in the center of the crowded marketplace and killed 68 and injured 144. The perpetrators were the Army of Republika Srpska. In December 2003, the ICTY convicted Bosnian Serb General Stanislav Galić, concluded that the Serb forces around Sarajevo committed the massacre.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: In February 1994 (when air strikes were originally threatened), NATO had created a heavy weapons exclusion zone around Sarajevo, and collected weapons at a number of sites. On 5 August, the VRS seized several weapons from the Illidža Weapons Collection site in clear violation of the exclusion zone agreement. During the seizure, Serb forces injured a Ukrainian UNPROFOR peacekeeper. In response to the attack, the UN once again requested NATO air support. Two U.S. A-10 aircraft repeatedly strafed Serb targets, and the Serbs returned the seized weapons to the collection site.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 22 September, UNPROFOR again requested NATO air support in the Sarajevo area after Serb forces attacked a French armored personnel carrier. In response, two British SEPECAT Jaguar aircraft struck near a Serb tank, destroying it.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: From the 15 June to the 22 June, the ARBiH would launch an offensive into the Sarajevo Region to try to recapture lost territories from the Serbs. In the north, the 16th Division/1st Corps attacked Cemerska Hills and recaptured it. The Serbs would attack and capture Cemerska hills from the ARBiH. From the center, the 12th Division/1st Crops attacked Serb position of Debelo Brdo. In the south, the 14 Division/1st managed to push the Serbs back to Route Viper and captured the most land from the offensive.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 28 August 1995 at around 11:00 (Central European Time), 5 shells were fired onto the Markale Market, causing the 2nd Marklae massacre. Casualties were fewer however, and only 43 died and 73 wounded. But just several hours prior to the attack, Bosnian Serb authorities tentatively expressed their will to accept Richard Holbrooke's peace plan. Again the perpetrator was the Army of Republika Srpska.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 5 April 1992, a unit of the Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA) seized the airport of Sarajevo. It was under the direct control of Belgrade. For the president to pass, he would need UN protection. UN general Lewis MacKenzie sent an officer to deal with the situation. François Mitterrand, then the president of France, went to Sarajevo airport due to it being under control by the UN after it was taken on 28 June 1992.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: UNPROFOR launched its humanitarian airlift operations, providing Sarajevo with much-needed supplies from mid-1992 to the beginning of 1995. More than 13,000 flights were made over the course of more than three years. It was the most airlifts to a capital city since the Berlin airlifts. While capitalizing on the fact that the airport was under the control of UNPROFOR, defenders of Sarajevo began digging a tunnel beneath the runway that ran between the Sarajevo neighborhoods of Dobrinja and Butmir. It would be known as the "Sarajevo Tunnel".


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: Over the course of the next three years, it would become the only land-based link besieged Sarajevo had with the rest of the world. Several hundred people died while running across the airstrip, which was the only way in or out of besieged Sarajevo before the Sarajevo War Tunnel was dug.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: The second half of 1992 and the first half of 1993 were the height of the siege of Sarajevo, and atrocities were committed during heavy fighting. Serb forces outside the city continuously shelled the government defenders. Inside the city, the Serbs controlled most of the major military positions and the supply of arms. With snipers taking up positions in the city, signs reading "Pazite, Snajper!" ("Beware, Sniper!") became commonplace and certain particularly dangerous streets, most notably Ulica Zmaja od Bosne, the main street which eventually leads to the airport, were known as "sniper alleys". The sniper killings of Admira Ismić and Boško Brkić, a mixed Bosnian-Serbian couple who tried to cross the lines, became a symbol of the suffering in the city and the basis of "Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo", but it is unknown from which side the snipers opened fire.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: Within Bosniak-held areas of Sarajevo, public services quickly collapsed and the crime rate skyrocketed. During the first year of the siege, the 10th Mountain Division of the ARBiH, led by a rogue commander, Mušan Topalović, engaged in a campaign of mass executions of Serb civilians who still lived within the Bosniak-held areas. Many of the victims were transported to the Kazani pit near Sarajevo, where they were executed and buried in a mass grave.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: Bosnian Serb offensives were mounted to take over some neighbourhoods, especially in Novo Sarajevo. To counterbalance the siege, on 30 May 1992 the Security Council demanded Sarajevo Airport be included in a Sarajevo security zone, which was opened to UN airlifts in late June; Sarajevo's survival became strongly dependent on them. Compared with the siege force, the Bosnian government forces were very poorly armed. Bosnian black market criminals who joined the army at the outset of the war illegally smuggled arms into the city through Serb lines, and raids on Serb-held positions within the city yielded more.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: The Sarajevo National Library (now the Sarajevo City Hall) was burned down in a Serb attack; about ~2 million books were lost.The attack was conducted by Colonel Tomislav Šipčić. It took about 20 years to repair the library.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: The Sarajevo Tunnel, completed in mid-1993, was a major asset in bypassing the international arms embargo (applied to all parties to the Bosnian conflict, including the defenders of Sarajevo). It helped supplies and weaponry reach the city's defenders, and enabled some inhabitants to leave.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: Reports indicated an average of approximately 329 shell impacts per day during the course of the siege, with a maximum of 3,777 on 22 July 1993. This urbicide by shellfire extensively damaged the city's structures, both residential and cultural. By September 1993 it was estimated that virtually all the buildings in Sarajevo had suffered some degree of damage, and 35,000 were completely destroyed. Among buildings targeted and destroyed were hospitals and medical complexes, media and communication centres, industrial complexes, government buildings and military and UN facilities. Other significant buildings damaged or destroyed included the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the National Library, which was set on fire and burned to the ground, destroying over 1,500,000 volumes and 600,000 serials.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: The shelling took a heavy toll on residents. Mass killings of civilians, primarily by mortar attacks, made headline news in the West. On 1 June 1993, 11 people were killed and 133 were wounded in an attack on a football game. On 12 July, twelve people were killed while waiting in line for water.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: The biggest single loss of life was the first Markale marketplace massacre on 5 February 1994, in which 68 civilians were killed and 200 were wounded. Medical facilities were overwhelmed by the scale of the civilian casualties, and only a small number of the wounded benefited from medical evacuation programmes like 1993's Operation Irma.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 6 February 1994, a day after the first Markale marketplace massacre, UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali formally requested NATO's confirmation that air strikes would be carried out immediately. On 9 February 1994, agreeing to the request of the UN, the North Atlantic Council of NATO authorized the Commander of Allied Forces Southern Europe (CINCSOUTH), U.S. Admiral Jeremy Boorda, to launch air strikes against artillery and mortar positions in and around Sarajevo that were determined by UNPROFOR to be responsible for attacks against civilian targets. Only Greece failed to support the use of airstrikes, but did not veto the proposal. The council also issued an ultimatum at the 9 February meeting to the Bosnian Serbs demanding that they remove heavy weapons around Sarajevo by midnight of 20–21 February or face air strikes. There was some confusion surrounding compliance with the ultimatum, and Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Boross announced that his country's air space would be closed to NATO aircraft in the event of airstrikes. On 12 February 1994, Sarajevo enjoyed its first casualty-free day in 22 months (since April 1992).


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 5 August, the VRS seized several weapons from the Illidža Weapons Collection site in clear violation of the exclusion zone agreement. During the seizure, the Serbs injured a Ukrainian UNPROFOR peacekeeper. In response to the attack, the UN once again requested NATO air support. Two U.S. A-10 aircraft repeatedly strafed Serb targets, prompting the Serbs to return the seized weapons to the collection site.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 22 September, UNPROFOR again requested NATO air support in the Sarajevo area after Serb forces attacked a French armored personnel carrier. In response, two British SEPECAT Jaguar aircraft struck and destroyed a Serb tank.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: As the fighting gradually widened in 1995, Bosnian Muslim forces launched a large-scale offensive in the area of Sarajevo. In response to the attack, the Bosnian Serbs seized heavy weapons from a UN-guarded depot, and began shelling targets. As a retaliation for these actions, the UN commander, Lt. General Rupert Smith, requested NATO air strikes. NATO honored the request on 25 May and 26 May 1995 by bombing a Serb ammunition dump near Pale. The mission was carried out by USAF F-16s and Spanish Air Force EF-18A Hornets armed with laser-guided bombs. The Serbs then seized 377 UNPROFOR hostages and used them as human shields for a variety of targets in Bosnia, forcing NATO to end its strikes.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 27 May 1995, Serb soldiers posing as French troops captured two UN observation posts at either end of the front-line Vrbanja bridge without firing a shot. They wore French uniforms, flak jackets and helmets, were armed with French weapons and drove a French armoured personnel carrier (APC) – all stolen from UN troops detained outside the city. The soldiers disarmed the 12 peacekeepers at gunpoint. Ten were taken to an unknown destination while two remained on the bridge as human shields. The French responded by sending 30 troops, backed by six light tanks, to storm the northern end of the bridge. Two French soldiers were killed in the clash and five were wounded, while four Serb soldiers were killed and four were taken prisoner. At the end of the day, the Serbs remained in control of the southern portion of the bridge, while the French occupied the northern portion. The Serbs later abandoned the southern portion of the bridge.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: In 1995, the international forces firmly turned against the besiegers after the second Markale massacre of 28 August, in which 37 people were killed and 90 wounded. On 30 August, the Secretary General of NATO announced the start of air strikes, supported by UNPROFOR rapid reaction force artillery attacks. On that same day, a French Mirage 2000 was downed by a Bosnian Serb shoulder-fired SAM near Pale.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 1 September, NATO and the UN demanded the lifting of the siege, removal of heavy weapons from the heavy weapons exclusion zone around Sarajevo, and complete security of other UN safe areas. The Bosnian Serb leaders were given a deadline of 4 September, and the Operation Deliberate Force bombing campaign was suspended. Heavy weapons had not been removed when the deadline passed. On 5 September, air strikes resumed on Bosnian Serb positions around Sarajevo and near the Bosnian Serb headquarters at Pale.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 14 September, they were again suspended, this time to allow the implementation of an agreement with the Bosnian Serbs which included the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the exclusion zone. Finally, on 20 September 1995, French General Bernard Janvier (Commander of UNPROFOR) and U.S. Admiral Leighton W. Smith Jr. (CINCSOUTH) agreed that it was not necessary to resume the strikes as the Bosnian Serbs had complied with the UN's conditions. Operation Deliberate Force was terminated.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: Fighting escalated on the ground as joint Bosnian and Croatian forces went on the offensive. The Serbs were slowly driven back in Sarajevo and elsewhere, which eventually allowed the city's heating, electricity and water supplies to be restored. A ceasefire was reached in October 1995. On 14 December, the Dayton Agreement brought peace to the country and led to stabilization.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: One of the last acts of hostility of the siege occurred at around 6 pm on 9 January 1996, when a single rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a tram running down the main street of Sarajevo, killing a 55-year-old woman, Mirsada Durić, and wounding 19 others. The grenade was fired from the neighbourhood of Grbavica, which was held by the Serbs at the time. After the attack, French troops from the Implementation Force (IFOR) searched the building from which the grenade was launched but did not capture the perpetrator(s). No person has ever been arrested for the attack.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: The Bosnian government officially declared an end to the siege of Sarajevo on 29 February 1996, when Bosnian Serb forces left positions in and around the city. More than 70,000 Sarajevan Serbs subsequently left the Muslim-controlled districts of the city and moved to the Republika Srpska, taking all of their belongings with them.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: The besieged population comprised not only Bosniaks and Croats, but also Serbs that had remained in the town and who were killed by fire from the besieging VRS forces. The 1991 census indicates that before the siege the city and its surrounding areas had a population of 525,980. There are estimates that prior to the siege the population in the city proper was 435,000. Estimates of the current population range between 300,000 and 380,000. In 1994, a report filed on the total number of deaths over a span of 315 days concluded that 2,474 people died, with an average of approximately eight killed in the city per day. A report on the total number of wounded over a span of 306 days concluded that 13,472 were wounded, an average of approximately 44 per day. This same report estimated the number of people killed or missing in the city to be nearly 10,000, including over 1,500 children. An additional 56,000 people were wounded, including nearly 15,000 children. A report produced by the ICTY after the war put the death toll of the siege at 4,548 ARBiH soldiers and 4,954 Sarajevan civilians killed. The Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo (RDC) found that the siege left a total of 13,952 people dead: 9,429 Bosniaks, 3,573 Serbs, 810 Croats and 140 others. Of these, 6,137 were ARBiH soldiers and 2,241 were soldiers fighting either for the JNA or the VRS. Of the ARBiH soldiers killed, 235 were Serbs, 328 were Croats and the rest were Bosniaks. Sixty percent of all people killed in Sarajevo during the siege were soldiers. In particular, 44 percent of all fatalities were ARBiH personnel. A total of 5,434 civilians were killed during the siege, including 3,855 Bosniaks, 1,097 Serbs and 482 Croats. More than 66 percent of those killed during the siege were Bosniaks, 25.6 percent were Serbs, 5.8 percent were Croats and 1 percent were others. About 14.5 percent of all Bosnian War fatalities occurred in besieged Sarajevo. Officials of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina have estimated that at least 150 Sarajevan Serb civilians were killed by government forces, while some nationalistic groups among Serbs and Republika Srpska officials have put the number at "many thousands". However, efforts to substantiate Bosnian Serb claims have been unconvincing.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: UNICEF reported that of the estimated 65,000 to 80,000 children in the city, at least 40% had been directly shot at by snipers; 51% had seen someone killed; 39% had seen one or more family members killed; 19% had witnessed a massacre; 48% had their home occupied by someone else; 73% had their home attacked or shelled; and 89% had lived in underground shelters. It is probable that the psychological trauma suffered during the siege will bear heavily on the lives of these children in the years to come. As a result of the high number of casualties and the wartime conditions, there are makeshift cemeteries throughout Sarajevo and its surrounding areas. Parks, athletic fields and other open spaces were utilized as graveyards. One such site is the sports complex built for the 1984 Winter Olympics. A 1994 report stated that "the siege has also had a profound effect on the psyche and future of the city's population. The Bosnian Government has reported a soaring suicide rate by Sarajevans, a near doubling of abortions and a 50% drop in births since the siege began."


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: A memorial with the names of 521 children killed during the siege was unveiled on 9 May 2010. The cases of another 500 children are being verified.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: The structural and property damage in Sarajevo as a result of the siege included specifically protected targets such as hospitals and medical complexes, medical facilities (including ambulances) and medical personnel, as well as cultural property, such as the manuscript collection of the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo, one of the richest collections of Oriental manuscripts in the world. For foreigners, an event that defined the besiegers' cultural objectives occurred during the night of 25 August 1992. This was the bombardment – with incendiary shells – that resulted in the total destruction of the irreplaceable National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the central repository of Bosnian written culture and a major cultural center for all the Balkans. Among the losses were about 700 manuscripts and incunabula, and a unique collection of Bosnian serial publications, some from the middle of the 19th-century Bosnian cultural revival. Libraries all over the world cooperated afterwards to restore some of the lost heritage, through donations and e-texts, rebuilding the Library in cyberspace.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: Also unjustified by any military necessity, and equally prohibited, were the attacks on civilian property. The Bosnian government estimated that shelling destroyed over 10,000 apartments and damaged over 100,000 others. Of the other buildings in the city, 23% were reported as seriously damaged, 64% as partially damaged and 10% as slightly damaged. In its report, the Council of Europe's Committee on Culture and Education commented on the structural damage in the city. The Committee stated:


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: Sarajevo's population endured up to six months without gas, electricity or water supply during certain stages of the siege. Sarajevo has made a substantial recovery in terms of the number of buildings that have been fully restored and reoccupied. However, as of 2017, many buildings remained heavily damaged and scarred.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: Although the city had been a model for inter-ethnic relations, the siege brought dramatic population shifts. In addition to the thousands of refugees who left the city, many Sarajevo Serbs left for the Republika Srpska, and the percentage of Serbs in Sarajevo decreased from more than 30% in 1991 to slightly over 10% in 2002. Regions of Novo Sarajevo that are now part of the Republika Srpska have formed East Sarajevo, where much of the prewar Serbian population lives today.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: New construction projects and foreign capital investment have made Sarajevo perhaps the fastest-growing city in the former Yugoslavia. The population grew to 401,000 in 2002, which is 20,000 fewer than the pre-1991 census estimate.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: On 5 December 2003, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted the first commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, General Stanislav Galić, of the shelling and sniper terror campaign against Sarajevo, including the first Markale massacre. Galić was sentenced to life imprisonment for the crimes against humanity during the siege.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: In 2007, General Dragomir Milošević, who replaced Galić as commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, was found guilty of the shelling and sniper terror campaign against Sarajevo and its citizens from August 1994 to late 1995, including the second Markale massacre. He was sentenced to 29 years in prison. The ICTY concluded that the Markale town market was hit on 28 August 1995 by a 120 mm mortar shell fired from Sarajevo-Romanija Corps positions.


title: Siege of Sarajevo

text: In 2011, the former Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, General Momčilo Perišić, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for aiding and abetting murder because the Yugoslav army under his supervision provided "large-scale logistic support in ammunition, fuel and spare parts" as well as "necessary expert assistance" to the VRS during the siege. According to an estimate of the Main Staff from 1994, the VRS received about 25 million bullets and over 7,500 shells from the Yugoslav army to wage the war in Bosnia. However, the judges ruled that Perišić did not have effective control over the VRS officers, who largely fought independently of his instructions yet still received payment and benefits from Belgrade. In 2013, Perišić's conviction was overturned and he was released from prison.


title: Sam Houston

text: Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played an important role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two individuals to represent Texas in the United States Senate. He also served as the sixth governor of Tennessee and the seventh governor of Texas, the only individual to be elected governor of two different states in the United States.


title: Sam Houston

text: Born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, Houston and his family migrated to Maryville, Tennessee, when Houston was a teenager. Houston later ran away from home and spent about three years living with the Cherokee, becoming known as Raven. He served under General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812, and after the war, he presided over the removal of many Cherokee from Tennessee. With the support of Jackson and others, Houston won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1823. He strongly supported Jackson's presidential candidacies, and in 1827, Houston was elected as the governor of Tennessee. In 1829, after divorcing his first wife, Houston resigned from office, and moved to Arkansas Territory.


title: Sam Houston

text: Houston settled in Texas in 1832. After the Battle of Gonzales, he helped organize Texas's provisional government and was selected as the top-ranking official in the Texian Army. He led the Texan Army to victory at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle in Texas's war for independence against Mexico. After the war, Houston won election in the 1836 Texas presidential election. He left office due to term limits in 1838 but won election to another term in the 1841 Texas presidential election. Houston played a key role in the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845, and in 1846, he was elected to represent Texas in the United States Senate. He joined the Democratic Party and supported President James K. Polk's prosecution of the Mexican–American War.


title: Sam Houston

text: North and South. He voted for the Compromise of 1850, which settled many of the territorial issues left over from the Mexican–American War and the annexation of Texas. He later voted against the Kansas–Nebraska Act because he believed it would lead to increased sectional tensions over slavery, and his opposition to that act led him to leave the Democratic Party. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidential nomination of the American Party in the 1856 presidential election and the Constitutional Union Party in the 1860 presidential election. In 1859, Houston won election as the governor of Texas. In this role, he opposed secession and unsuccessfully sought to keep Texas out of the Confederate States of America. He was forced out of office in 1861 and died in 1863. Houston's name has been honored in numerous ways, and he is the eponym of the city of Houston, the fourth most populous city in the United States.


title: Sam Houston

text: Samuel Houston was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on March 2, 1793, to Samuel Houston and Elizabeth Paxton. Both of Houston's parents were descended from Scottish and Irish immigrants who had settled in Colonial America in the 1730s, including his great-grandfather John Houston. Houston's father was descended from Ulster Scots people. Samuel inherited the Timber Ridge plantation and mansion in Rockbridge County, Virginia that was worked by enslaved African Americans. During the American Revolutionary War, Captain Houston served in Morgan's Rifle Brigade as a paymaster. He served in the Virginia militia, which required him to pay his own expenses and to be away from his family for long periods of time. The plantation and the family's finances suffered as a result.


title: Sam Houston

text: He had five brothers and three sisters: Paxton, Robert, James who married Patience Bills, John, William who married Mary Ball, Isabella, Mary who married Matthew Wallace and then his nephew Williams Wallace, and Eliza who married Samuel Moore.


title: Sam Houston

text: His father, Samuel, planned to sell Timber Ridge and move west to Tennessee, where land was less expensive, but he died in 1806. Elizabeth, his mother, followed through on those plans and settled the family near Maryville, the seat of Blount County, Tennessee. At this time, Tennessee was on the American frontier, and even larger towns like Nashville were vigilant against Native American raids. He had dozens of cousins who lived in the surrounding area of east-central Tennessee. When they arrived, Elizabeth cleared the land, built a house, and planted crops. Her oldest children, Paxton, Isabella, and Robert died within a few years after they arrived in Tennessee. Elizabeth relied on James and John to run the store in Maryville, operate the farm, and watch over the younger children.


title: Sam Houston

text: He had a care-free disposition, however, and liked to escape to explore the frontier. He was at odds with concepts of hell and damnation of his mother's religion, Presbyterianism, and he was not interested schooling. He did take an interest in his father's library, reading works by classical authors like Virgil as well as more recent works by authors such as Jedidiah Morse.


title: Sam Houston

text: Not interested in farming and working in the family store, at the age of 16, he left his family to live with a Cherokee tribe led by Chief John Jolly (Cherokee name: "Ahuludegi", also spelled "Oolooteka") on Hiwassee Island. Houston formed a close relationship with Jolly and learned the Cherokee language, becoming known as Raven. According to James L. Haley, he appreciated the "free and unsophisticated spiritual expression of the Native Americans". He left the tribe to return to Maryville in 1812, and he was hired at age 19 for a term as the schoolmaster of a one-room schoolhouse. He attended Porter Academy, where he was taught by Rev. Isaac L. Anderson (founder of Maryville College).


title: Sam Houston

text: According to biographer John Hoyt Williams, Houston was not close with his siblings or his parents, and he rarely spoke of them in his later life. Haley states that he was interested in his younger brother's and his sisters' welfare when he lived on Hiwassee Island. He felt used by the rest of the family.


title: Sam Houston

text: In 1812, Houston enlisted in the United States Army, which then was engaged in the War of 1812 against Britain and Britain's Native American allies. He quickly impressed the commander of the 39th Infantry Regiment, Thomas Hart Benton, and by the end of 1813, Houston had risen to the rank of the third lieutenant. In early 1814, the 39th Infantry Regiment became a part of the force commanded by General Andrew Jackson, who was charged with putting an end to raids by a faction of the Muscogee (or "Creek") tribe in the Old Southwest. Houston was wounded badly in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the decisive battle in the Creek War. Although army doctors expected him to die of his wounds, Houston survived and convalesced in Maryville and other locations. While many other officers lost their positions after the end of the War of 1812 due to military cutbacks, Houston retained his commission with the help of Congressman John Rhea. During that time he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.


title: Sam Houston

text: Sometime in early 1817, Sam Houston was assigned to a clerical position in Nashville, serving under the adjutant general for the army's Southern Division. Later in the year, Jackson appointed Houston as a sub-agent to handle the removal of Cherokee from East Tennessee. In February 1818, he received a strong reprimand from Secretary of War John C. Calhoun after he wore Native American dress to a meeting between Calhoun and Cherokee leaders, beginning an enmity that lasted until Calhoun's death in 1850. Angry over the incident with Calhoun and an investigation into his activities, Houston resigned from the army in 1818. He continued to act as a government liaison with the Cherokee, and in 1818, he helped some of the Cherokee resettle in Arkansas Territory.


title: Sam Houston

text: After leaving government service, Houston began an apprenticeship with Judge James Trimble in Nashville. He quickly won admission to the state bar and opened a legal practice in Lebanon, Tennessee. With the aid of Governor Joseph McMinn, Houston won election as the district attorney for Nashville in 1819. He was also appointed as a major general of the Tennessee militia. Like his mentors, Houston was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, which dominated state and national politics in the decade following the War of 1812. Tennessee gained three seats in the United States House of Representatives after the 1820 United States Census, and, with the support of Jackson and McMinn, Houston ran unopposed in the 1823 election for Tennessee's 9th congressional district. In his first major speech in Congress, Houston advocated for the recognition of Greece, which was fighting a war of independence against the Ottoman Empire.


title: Sam Houston

text: Houston strongly supported Jackson's candidacy in the 1824 presidential election, which saw four major candidates, all from the Democratic-Republican Party, run for president. As no candidate won a majority of the vote, the House of Representatives held a contingent election, which was won by John Quincy Adams. Supporters of Jackson eventually coalesced into the Democratic Party, and those who favored Adams became known as National Republicans. With Jackson's backing, Houston won election as governor of Tennessee in 1827. Governor Houston advocated the construction of internal improvements such as canals, and sought to lower the price of land for homesteaders living on public domain. He also aided Jackson's successful campaign in the 1828 presidential election.


title: Sam Houston

text: In January 1829, Houston married Eliza Allen, the daughter of wealthy plantation owner John Allen of Gallatin, Tennessee. The marriage quickly fell apart possibly because Eliza loved another man. In April 1829, following the collapse of his marriage, Houston resigned as governor of Tennessee. Shortly after leaving office, he traveled to Arkansas Territory to rejoin the Cherokee.


title: Sam Houston

text: Houston was reunited with Ahuludegi's group of Cherokee in mid-1829. Because of Houston's experience in government and his connections with President Jackson, several local Native American tribes asked Houston to mediate disputes and communicate their needs to the Jackson administration. In late 1829, the Cherokee accorded Houston tribal membership and dispatched him to Washington to negotiate several issues. In anticipation of the removal of the remaining Cherokee east of the Mississippi River, Houston made an unsuccessful bid to supply rations to the Native Americans during their journey. When Houston returned to Washington in 1832, Congressman William Stanbery alleged that Houston had placed a fraudulent bid in 1830 in collusion with the Jackson administration. On April 13, 1832, after Stanbery refused to answer Houston's letters regarding the incident, Houston beat Stanbery with a cane. After the beating, the House of Representatives brought Houston to trial. By a vote of 106 to 89, the House convicted Houston, and Speaker of the House Andrew Stevenson formally reprimanded Houston. A federal court also required Houston to pay $500 in damages.


title: Sam Houston

text: In mid-1832, Houston's friends William H. Wharton and John Austin Wharton wrote to convince him to travel to the Mexican possession of Texas, where unrest among the American settlers was growing. The Mexican government had invited Americans to settle the sparsely populated region of Texas, but many of the settlers, including the Whartons, disliked Mexican rule. Houston crossed into Texas in December 1832, and shortly thereafter, he was granted land in Texas. Houston was elected to represent Nacogdoches, Texas at the Convention of 1833, which was called to petition Mexico for statehood (at the time, Texas was part of the state of Coahuila y Tejas). Houston strongly supported statehood, and he chaired a committee that drew a proposed state constitution. After the convention, Texan leader Stephen F. Austin petitioned the Mexican government for statehood, but he was unable to come to an agreement with President Valentín Gómez Farías. In 1834, Antonio López de Santa Anna assumed the presidency, took on new powers, and arrested Austin. In October 1835, the Texas Revolution broke out with the Battle of Gonzales, a skirmish between Texan forces and the Mexican Army. Shortly after the battle, Houston was elected to the Consultation, a congregation of Texas leaders.


title: Sam Houston

text: Along with Austin and others, Houston helped organize the Consultation into a provisional government for Texas. In November, Houston joined with most other delegates in voting for a measure that demanded Texas statehood and the restoration of the 1824 Constitution of Mexico. The Consultation appointed Houston as a major general and the highest-ranking officer of the Texian Army, though the appointment did not give him effective control of the militia units that constituted the Texian Army. Houston helped organize the Convention of 1836, where the Republic of Texas declared independence from Mexico, and appointed him as Commander-in-Chief of the Texas Army. Shortly after the declaration, the convention received a plea for assistance from William B. Travis, who commanded Texan forces under siege by Santa Anna at the Alamo. The convention confirmed Houston's command of the Texian Army and dispatched him to lead a relief of Travis's force, but the Alamo fell before Houston could organize his forces at Gonzales, Texas. Seeking to intimidate Texan forces into surrender, the Mexican army killed every defender at the Alamo; news of the defeat outraged many Texans and caused desertions in Houston's ranks. Commanding a force of about 350 men that numerically was inferior to that of Santa Anna, Houston retreated east across the Colorado River.


title: Sam Houston

text: Though the provisional government, as well as many of his own subordinates, urged him to attack the Mexican army, Houston continued the retreat east, informing his soldiers that they constituted "the only army in Texas now present ... There are but a few of us, and if we are beaten, the fate of Texas is sealed." Santa Anna divided his forces and finally caught up to Houston in mid-April 1836. Santa Anna's force of about 1,350 soldiers trapped Houston's force of 783 men in a marsh; rather than pressing the attack, Santa Anna ordered his soldiers to make camp. On April 21, Houston ordered an attack on the Mexican army, beginning the Battle of San Jacinto. The Texans quickly routed Santa Anna's force, though Houston's horse was shot out under him and his ankle was shattered by a stray bullet. In the aftermath of the Battle of San Jacinto, a detachment of Texans captured Santa Anna. Santa Anna was forced to sign the Treaty of Velasco, granting Texas its independence. Houston stayed briefly for negotiations, then returned to the United States for treatment of his ankle wound.


title: Sam Houston

text: Victory in the Battle of San Jacinto made Houston a hero to many Texans, and he won the 1836 Texas presidential election, defeating Stephen F. Austin, another former governor who would also receive the honor of having the city of Austin named after him, and Henry Smith. Houston took office on October 22, 1836, after interim president David G. Burnet resigned. During the presidential election, the voters of Texas overwhelmingly indicated their desire for Texas to be annexed by the United States. Houston, meanwhile, faced the challenge of assembling a new government, putting the country's finances in order, and handling relations with Mexico. He selected Thomas Jefferson Rusk as secretary of war, Smith as secretary of the treasury, Samuel Rhoads Fisher as secretary of the navy, James Collinsworth as attorney general, and Austin as secretary of state. Houston sought normalized relations with Mexico, and despite some resistance from the legislature, arranged the release of Santa Anna. Concerned about upsetting the balance between slave states and free states, U.S. President Andrew Jackson refused to push for the annexation of Texas, but in his last official act in office he granted Texas diplomatic recognition. With the United States unwilling to annex Texas, Houston began courting British support; as part of this effort, he urged the end of the importation of slaves into Texas.


title: Sam Houston

text: In early 1837, the government moved to a new capital, the city of Houston, named after him as the country's first president. In 1838, Houston frequently clashed with Congress over issues such as a treaty with the Cherokee and a land-office act and was forced to put down the Córdova Rebellion, a plot to allow Mexico to reclaim Texas with aid from the Kickapoo Indians. The Texas constitution barred presidents from seeking a second term, so Houston did not stand for re-election in the 1838 election and left office in late 1838. He was succeeded by Mirabeau B. Lamar, who, along with Burnet, led a faction of Texas politicians opposed to Houston. The Lamar administration removed many of Houston's appointees, launched a , and established a new capital at Austin, Texas. Meanwhile, Houston opened a legal practice and co-founded a land company with the intent of developing the town of Sabine City. In 1839, he was elected to represent San Augustine County in the Texas House of Representatives.


title: Sam Houston

text: Houston defeated Burnet in the 1841 Texas presidential election, winning a large majority of the vote. Houston appointed Anson Jones as secretary of state, Asa Brigham as secretary of the treasury, George Washington Hockley as secretary of war, and George Whitfield Terrell as attorney general. The republic faced a difficult financial situation; at one point, Houston commandeered an American brig used to transport Texas soldiers because the government could not afford to pay the brig's captain. The Santa Fe Expedition and other initiatives pursued by Lamar had stirred tensions with Mexico, and rumors frequently raised fears that Santa Anna would launch an invasion of Texas. Houston continued to curry favor with Britain and France, partly in the hope that British and French influence in Texas would encourage the United States to annex Texas. The Tyler administration made the annexation of Texas its chief foreign policy priority, and in April 1844, Texas and the United States signed an annexation treaty. Annexation did not have sufficient support in Congress, and the United States Senate rejected the treaty in June.


title: Sam Houston

text: Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren, the respective front-runners for the Whig and Democratic nominations in the 1844 presidential election, both opposed the annexation of Texas. However, Van Buren's opposition to annexation damaged his candidacy, and he was defeated by James K. Polk, an acolyte of Jackson and an old friend of Houston, at the 1844 Democratic National Convention. Polk defeated Clay in the general election, giving backers of annexation an electoral mandate. Meanwhile, Houston's term ended in December 1844, and he was succeeded by Anson Jones, his secretary of state. In the waning days of his own presidency, Tyler used Polk's victory to convince Congress to approve of the annexation of Texas. Seeking Texas's immediate acceptance of annexation, Tyler made Texas a generous offer that allowed the state to retain control of its public lands, though it would be required to keep its public debt. A Texas convention approved of the offer of annexation in July 1845, and Texas officially became the 28th U.S. state on December 29, 1845.


title: Sam Houston

text: In February 1846, the Texas legislature elected Houston and Thomas Jefferson Rusk as Texas's two inaugural U.S. senators. Houston chose to align with the Democratic Party, which contained many of his old political allies, including President Polk. As a former president of Texas, Houston is the only former foreign head of state to have served in the U.S. Congress. He was the first person to serve as the governor of a state and then be elected to the U.S. Senate by another state. In 2018, Mitt Romney became the second.


title: Sam Houston

text: Breaking with the Senate tradition that held that freshman senators were not to address the Senate, Houston strongly advocated in early 1846 for the annexation of Oregon Country. In the Oregon Treaty, reached later in 1846, Britain and the United States agreed to split Oregon Country. Meanwhile, Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to lead a U.S. army to the Rio Grande, which had been set as the Texas-Mexico border under the Treaty of Velasco; Mexico claimed the Nueces River constituted the true border. After a skirmish between Taylor's unit and the Mexican army, the Mexican–American War broke out in April 1846. Houston initially supported Polk's prosecution of the war, but differences between the two men emerged in 1847. After two years of fighting, the United States defeated Mexico and, through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, acquired the Mexican Cession. Mexico also agreed to recognize the Rio Grande as the border between Mexico and Texas.


title: Sam Houston

text: After the war, disputes over the extension of slavery into the territories raised sectional tensions. Unlike most of his Southern colleagues, Houston voted for the Oregon Bill of 1848, which organized Oregon Territory as a free territory. Defending his vote to create a territory that excluded slavery, Houston stated "I would be the last man to wish to do anything injurious to the South, but I do not think that on all occasions we are justified in agitating [slavery]." He criticized both Northern abolitionists and Democratic followers of Calhoun as extremists who sought to undermine the union. He supported the Compromise of 1850, a sectional compromise on slavery on the territories. Under the compromise, California was admitted as a free state, the slave trade was prohibited in the District of Columbia, a more stringent fugitive slave law was passed, and Utah Territory and New Mexico Territory were established. Texas gave up some of its claims on New Mexico, but it retained El Paso, Texas, and the United States assumed Texas's large public debt. Houston sought the Democratic nomination in the 1852 presidential election, but he was unable to consolidate support outside of his home state. The 1852 Democratic National Convention ultimately nominated Franklin Pierce, a compromise nominee, who went on to win the election.


title: Sam Houston

text: In 1854, Senator Stephen A. Douglas led the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which organized Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory. The act also repealed the Missouri Compromise, an act that had banned slavery in territories north of parallel 36°30′ north. Houston voted against the act, in part because he believed that Native Americans would lose much of their land as a result of the act. He also perceived that it would lead to increased sectional tensions over slavery. Houston's opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act led to his departure from the Democratic Party. In 1855, Houston began to be associated publicly with the American Party, the political wing of the nativist and unionist Know Nothing movement. The Whig Party had collapsed after the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and the Know Nothings and the anti-slavery Republican Party had both emerged as major political movements. Houston's affiliation with the party stemmed in part from his fear of the growing influence of Catholic voters; though he opposed barring Catholics from holding office, he wanted to extend the naturalization period for immigrants to 21 years. He was attracted to the Know Nothing's support for a Native American state as well the party's unionist stance.