title: Assumption of Mary

text: In the dogmatic declaration by Pope Pius XII, the phrase "having completed the course of her earthly life", leaves open the question of whether the Virgin Mary died before her assumption or not. Mary's assumption is said to have been a divine gift to her as the Mother of God. Ludwig Ott's view is that, as Mary completed her life as a shining example to the human race, the perspective of the gift of assumption is offered to the whole human race.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: Ott writes in his book "Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma" that "the fact of her death is almost generally accepted by the Fathers and Theologians, and is expressly affirmed in the Liturgy of the Church", to which he adds a number of citations. He concludes: "for Mary, death, in consequence of her freedom from original sin and from personal sin, was not a consequence of punishment of sin. However, it seems fitting that Mary's body, which was by nature mortal, should be, in conformity with that of her Divine Son, subject to the general law of death".


title: Assumption of Mary

text: The manner in which Mary's earthly life ended has not been infallibly defined by any pope. Many Catholics believe that she did not die at all, but was assumed directly into Heaven. The dogmatic definition in the apostolic constitution "Munificentissimus Deus" which, according to Roman Catholic dogma, infallibly proclaims the doctrine of the Assumption, leaves open the question of whether, in connection with the ending of her earthly life, Mary underwent bodily death. The dogma does not attempt to answer or define this question, as indicated by the words "having completed the course of her earthly life".


title: Assumption of Mary

text: Pope Pius, in promulgating "Munificentissimus Deus", stated that "All these proofs and considerations of the holy Fathers and the theologians are based upon the Sacred Writings as their ultimate foundation." The pope did not advance any specific text as proof of the doctrine, but one senior advisor, Father Jugie, expressed the view that Revelation 12:1–2 was the chief scriptural witness to the assumption:


title: Assumption of Mary

text: The symbolism of this verse is based on the Old Testament, where the sun, moon, and eleven stars represent the patriarch Jacob, his wife, and eleven of the twelve tribes of Israel, who bow down before the twelfth star and tribe, Joseph, and verses 2–6 reveal that the woman is an image of the faithful community. The possibility that it might be a reference to Mary's immortality was tentatively proposed by Epiphanius in the 4th century, but while Epiphanius made clear his uncertainty and did not advocate the view, many later scholars did not share his caution and its reading as a representation of Mary became popular with certain Roman Catholic theologians.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: Many of the bishops cited , in which God is addressing the serpent in the Garden of Eden, as the primary confirmation of Mary's assumption:


title: Assumption of Mary

text: The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms that the account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, and that the fall of mankind, by the seductive voice of the snake in the bible, represents the fallen angel, Satan. Similarly, the great dragon in Revelation is a representation of Satan, identified with the serpent from the garden who has enmity with the woman. Though the woman in revelation represents the people of God, faithful Israel and the Church, Mary is considered the Mother of the Church. Therefore, in Catholic thought there is an association between this heavenly woman and Mary's Assumption.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: Some scholars conclude that no messianic prophecy was originally intended, that in the Hebrew Bible the serpent is not satanic, and the verse is simply a record of the enmity between humans and snakes (although a memory of the ancient Canaanite myth of a primordial sea-serpent may stand behind them, albeit at a distance). But although the verse speaks literally about mankind's relationship with snakes, there is also a metaphorical overtone: a door has been opened to a dark power and there is no promise of victory, but rather a warning of ongoing conflict.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: Some Catholics believe that Mary died before being assumed, but they believe that she was miraculously resurrected before being assumed. Others believe she was assumed bodily into Heaven without first dying. Either understanding may be legitimately held by Catholics, with Eastern Catholics observing the Feast as the Dormition.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: Many theologians note by way of comparison that in the Catholic Church the Assumption is dogmatically defined, whilst in the Eastern Orthodox tradition the Dormition is less dogmatically than liturgically and mystically defined. Such differences spring from a larger pattern in the two traditions, wherein Catholic teachings are often dogmatically and authoritatively defined – in part because of the more centralized structure of the Catholic Church – whilst in Eastern Orthodoxy many doctrines are less authoritative.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: The Latin Catholic Feast of the Assumption is celebrated on 15 August and the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God (or Dormition of the Theotokos, the falling asleep of the Mother of God) on the same date, preceded by a 14-day fast period. Eastern Christians believe that Mary died a natural death, that her soul was received by Christ upon death, that her body was resurrected after her death and that she was taken up into heaven bodily in anticipation of the general resurrection.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: Views differ within Protestantism, with those with a theology closer to Catholicism sometimes believing in a bodily assumption whilst most Protestants do not.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: The Feast of the Assumption of Mary was retained by the Lutheran Church after the Reformation. Evangelical Lutheran Worship designates August 15 as a lesser festival named "Mary, Mother of Our Lord" while the current Lutheran Service Book formally calls it "St. Mary, Mother of our Lord".


title: Assumption of Mary

text: Within Anglican doctrine the Assumption of Mary is either rejected or regarded as adiaphora ("a thing indifferent"); it therefore disappeared from Anglican worship in 1549, partially returning in some branches of Anglicanism during the 20th century under different names. A Marian feast on 15 August is celebrated by the Church of England as a non-specific feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a feast called by the Scottish Episcopal Church simply "Mary the Virgin", and in the US-based Episcopal Church it is observed as the feast of "Saint Mary the Virgin: Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ",


title: Assumption of Mary

text: while other Anglican provinces have a feast of the Dormition – the Anglican Church of Canada for instance marks the day as the "Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary".


title: Assumption of Mary

text: The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, which seeks to identify common ground between the two communions, released in 2004 a non-authoritative declaration meant for study and evaluation, the "Seattle Statement"; this "agreed statement" concludes that "the teaching about Mary in the two definitions of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, understood within the biblical pattern of the economy of hope and grace, can be said to be consonant with the teaching of the Scriptures and the ancient common traditions".


title: Assumption of Mary

text: The Protestant reformer Heinrich Bullinger believed in the assumption of Mary. His 1539 polemical treatise against idolatry expressed his belief that Mary's "sacrosanctum corpus" ("sacrosanct body") had been assumed into heaven by angels:


title: Assumption of Mary

text: Orthodox Christians fast fifteen days prior to the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, including abstinence from sexual relations. Fasting in the Orthodox tradition refers to not consuming a meal until evening.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: The Assumption is important to many Christians, especially Catholics and Orthodox, as well as many Lutherans and Anglicans, as the Virgin Mary's heavenly birthday (the day that Mary was received into Heaven). Belief about her acceptance into the glory of Heaven is seen by some Christians as the symbol of the promise made by Jesus to all enduring Christians that they too will be received into paradise. The Assumption of Mary is symbolised in the Fleur-de-lys Madonna.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: The present Italian name of the holiday, ""Ferragosto"", may derive from the Latin name, "Feriae Augusti" ("Holidays of the Emperor Augustus"), since the month of August took its name from the emperor. The feast was introduced by Bishop Cyril of Alexandria in the 5th century. In the course of Christianization, he put it on August 15. In the middle of August, Augustus celebrated his victories over Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra at Actium and Alexandria with a three-day triumph. The anniversaries and later only August 15 were public holidays from then on throughout the Roman Empire.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: The Solemnity of the Assumption on 15 August was celebrated in the Eastern Church from the 6th century. The Western Church adopted this date as a Holy Day of Obligation to commemorate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a reference to the belief in a real, physical elevation of her sinless soul and incorrupt body into Heaven.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: Assumption Day on 15 August is a nationwide public holiday in Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chile, Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, East Timor, France, Gabon, Greece, Georgia, Republic of Guinea, Haiti, Italy, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic of North Macedonia, Madagascar, Malta, Mauritius, Republic of Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro (Albanian Catholics), Paraguay, Poland (coinciding with Polish Army Day), Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tahiti, Togo, and Vanuatu; and was also in Hungary until 1948.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: It is also a public holiday in parts of Germany (parts of Bavaria and Saarland) and Switzerland (in 14 of the 26 cantons). In Guatemala, it is observed in Guatemala City and in the town of Santa Maria Nebaj, both of which claim her as their patron saint. Also, this day is combined with Mother's Day in Costa Rica and parts of Belgium.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: Prominent Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox countries in which Assumption Day is an important festival but is not recognized by the state as a public holiday include the Czech Republic, Ireland, Mexico, the Philippines and Russia. In Bulgaria, the Feast of the Assumption is the biggest Eastern Orthodox Christian celebration of the Holy Virgin. Celebrations include liturgies and votive offerings. In Varna, the day is celebrated with a procession of a holy icon, and with concerts and regattas.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: In many places, religious parades and popular festivals are held to celebrate this day. In Canada, Assumption Day is the Fête Nationale of the Acadians, of whom she is the patron saint. Some businesses close on that day in heavily francophone parts of New Brunswick, Canada. The Virgin Assumed in Heaven is also patroness of the Maltese Islands and her feast, celebrated on 15 August, apart from being a public holiday in Malta is also celebrated with great solemnity in the local churches especially in the seven localities known as the Seba' Santa Marijiet. The Maltese localities which celebrate the Assumption of Our Lady are: Il-Mosta, Il-Qrendi, Ħal Kirkop, Ħal Għaxaq, Il-Gudja, Ħ'Attard, L-Imqabba and Victoria. The hamlet of Praha, Texas holds a festival during which its population swells from approximately 25 to 5,000 people.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: In Anglicanism and Lutheranism, the feast is now often kept, but without official use of the word "Assumption". In Eastern Orthodox churches following the Julian Calendar, the feast day of Assumption of Mary falls on 28 August.


title: Assumption of Mary

text: The earliest known use of the Dormition is found on a sarcophagus in the crypt of a church in Zaragoza in Spain dated c. 330. The Assumption became a popular subject in Western Christian art, especially from the 12th century, and especially after the Reformation, when it was used to refute the Protestants and their downplaying of Mary's role in salvation. Angels commonly carry her heavenward where she is to be crowned by Christ, while the Apostles below surround her empty tomb as they stare up in awe. Caravaggio, the "father" of the Baroque movement, caused a stir by depicting her as a decaying corpse, quite contrary to the doctrine promoted by the church; more orthodox examples include works by El Greco, Rubens, Annibale Caracci, and Nicolas Poussin, the last replacing the Apostles with putti throwing flowers into the tomb.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: The Rocketeer (released internationally as The Adventures of the Rocketeer) is a 1991 American period superhero film from Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures. It was produced by Charles Gordon, Lawrence Gordon, and Lloyd Levin, directed by Joe Johnston, and stars Bill Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin, Timothy Dalton, Paul Sorvino, and Tiny Ron Taylor. It is based on the character of the same name created by comic book artist and writer Dave Stevens.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Set in 1938 Los Angeles, California, "The Rocketeer" tells the story of stunt pilot, Cliff Secord, who discovers a hidden rocket pack that he thereafter uses to fly without the need of an aircraft. His heroic deeds soon attract the attention of Howard Hughes and the FBI, who are hunting for the missing rocket pack, as well as the Nazi operatives that stole it from Hughes.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Development for "The Rocketeer" started as far back as 1983, when Stevens sold the film rights to the character. Steve Miner and William Dear considered directing "The Rocketeer" before Johnston signed on. Screenwriters Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo had creative differences with Disney, causing the film to languish in development hell. The studio also intended to change the trademark helmet design; Disney CEO Michael Eisner wanted a straight NASA-type helmet, but Johnston convinced the studio otherwise. Johnston also had to convince Disney to let him cast actor Billy Campbell in the lead role. Filming for "The Rocketeer" lasted from September 19, 1990, to January 22, 1991. The visual effects sequences were created and designed by Industrial Light & Magic and supervised by animation director Wes Takahashi.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: The film was released on June 21, 1991, and received positive reviews from critics. Plans for "Rocketeer" sequels were abandoned after the film underperformed at the box office, grossing only $46 million on a $35 million budget. However, a television series based on the film, with Campbell reprising his role, premiered on Disney Junior in November 2019. In early 1991, Toy Biz had the rights to a massive Rocketeer toy line, including different versions of Cliff; this was akin to the Kenner Products Batman toy lines. Several prototypes were made, but the toy line was promptly shut down; Disney pulled the license from Toy Biz leaving only Just Toys having the rights.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: In 1938 Los Angeles, gangsters from Eddie Valentine's gang steal a prototype rocket pack from aviation magnate Howard Hughes. During their escape from the pursuing police, the getaway driver quickly stops and hides the rocket pack in a biplane at an airfield. As the chase continues, stunt pilot Cliff Secord's yellow and black Gee Bee monoplane is wrecked, ending his air-racing career. Valentine's gang has been hired by film star Neville Sinclair to steal the rocket pack, and he now sends his monstrous henchman Lothar to question the injured getaway driver as to device's location before Lothar kills him. Meanwhile, Cliff and his airplane mechanic, Peevy, find the hidden rocket pack and begin testing it.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Cliff's girlfriend is aspiring actress Jenny Blake, who has a small part in Sinclair's latest film; recent events are now driving a wedge in their relationship. Sinclair overhears Cliff attempting to tell Jenny about the rocket pack, so he invites her to dinner. Afterward, at a local air show, Cliff uses the rocket pack to rescue his elderly friend Malcolm, who is piloting an aging Curtiss JN Jenny biplane in order to save Cliff's job. This makes Cliff an immediate flying sensation, but also sets Sinclair and the FBI on his trail.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Sinclair sends Lothar to Cliff and Peevy's home to find the rocket pack. The FBI arrives soon after, but Cliff and Peevy escape while Lothar steals a schematic drawn up by Peevy. Later, at the airfield diner, Cliff and Peevy are trapped by several Valentine mobsters; they learn about Jenny's date with Sinclair and the actor's involvement in the hunt for the rocket pack. The diner patrons overpower the gangsters, but a stray fired bullet punctures the rocket's fuel tank, which Peevy temporarily patches with Cliff's chewing gum. Cliff proceeds to fly to the South Seas Club, where he tells Jenny about his new Rocketeer alter ego. The Valentine gang arrives, and in the ensuing melée, Sinclair kidnaps Jenny.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: At Sinclair's home, Jenny knocks him out and discovers that he is a spy for Nazi Germany. She is quickly recaptured and forced to tell Cliff to bring the rocket pack to the Griffith Observatory in exchange for her life. Shortly thereafter, Cliff is arrested by the FBI and taken to Howard Hughes, who explains that his rocket pack is a prototype similar to one Nazi scientists have been unsuccessful in developing; he also shows him a horrifying Nazi propaganda film depicting an army of Third Reich flying commandos using rocket packs to invade the United States. He also mentions that the FBI are trying to locate a Nazi spy in Hollywood employing Valentine's gang, whom Cliff realizes is Sinclair. When Hughes and the FBI demand the return of the rocket pack, Cliff escapes, but inadvertently leaves behind a clue to where he is headed.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Cliff flies to the rendezvous, where Sinclair demands that Cliff handover the rocket pack. Cliff divulges to Eddie that the actor is a Nazi spy, and the infuriated Valentine gang turns their weapons on Sinclair. However, Sinclair summons a hidden troop of heavily armed Nazi S.A., as the German airship "Luxembourg" appears overhead to evacuate Sinclair and the troops. The FBI, who have secretly followed Cliff, suddenly announce their presence, and they and the mobsters join forces and battle the Nazis. Sinclair and Lothar escape, dragging Jenny aboard the airship.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Cliff flies to and boards "Luxembourg", but during the ensuing showdown, Jenny accidentally starts a fire with a flare gun on the airship's bridge. Sinclair holds Jenny hostage, forcing Cliff to give him the rocket pack, but not before Cliff covertly removes the chewing gum patching the fuel leak. Sinclair dons the rocket pack and flies off, but the leaking fuel causes the rocket to catch on fire, causing Sinclair to plummet to a fiery death. Lothar is killed as "Luxembourg" explodes, but Cliff and Jenny are rescued just in time by Howard Hughes and Peevy flying a Pitcairn PCA-2 autogiro.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Hughes later presents Cliff with a brand-new Gee Bee air racer, now in Hughes black and white colors, also with a fresh pack of Beemans gum. As Hughes leaves, Jenny returns Peevy's rocket pack blueprints, which she found in Sinclair's home; Peevy decides that, with some modifications, he can build an even better rocket pack.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Comic book writer/artist Dave Stevens created the Rocketeer in 1982 and immediately viewed the character as an ideal protagonist for a film adaptation. Steve Miner purchased the film rights from Stevens in 1983, but he strayed too far from the original concept and the rights reverted to Stevens. In 1985 Stevens gave writers Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo a free option on "The Rocketeer" rights. Stevens liked that "their ideas for "The Rocketeer" were heartfelt and affectionate tributes to the 1930s movie serials with all the right dialogue and atmosphere. Most people would approach my characters contemporarily, but Danny and Paul saw them as pre-war mugs".


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Stevens, Bilson and De Meo began to consider making "The Rocketeer" as a low-budget film, shot in black-and-white and funded by independent investors. Their plan was to make the film a complete homage to Republic's "Commando Cody" rocket man serials, and use a cast largely associated with character actors. However, that same year, the trio approached William Dear to direct/co-write "The Rocketeer", and they eventually dropped the low-budget idea. Bilson, De Meo, and Dear kept the comic book's basic plot intact, but fleshed it out to include a Hollywood setting and a climactic battle against a Nazi Zeppelin. They also tweaked Cliff's girlfriend to avoid comparisons to Bettie Page (Stevens' original inspiration), changing her name from Betty to Jenny and her profession from nude model to Hollywood extra (a change also made to make the film more Disney family-friendly). Dear proceeded to transform the climax from a submarine into a Zeppelin setpiece.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Stevens, Bilson, De Meo, and Dear began to pitch "The Rocketeer" in 1986 to the major film studios but were turned down. "This was 1986, long before "Batman" or "Dick Tracy" or anything similar", Stevens explained. "In those days, no studio was interested at all in an expensive comic book movie. We got there about three years too early for our own good!" Walt Disney Studios eventually accepted "The Rocketeer" because they believed the film had toyetic potential and appeal for merchandising. "The Rocketeer" was set to be released through the studio's Touchstone Pictures label; Stevens, Bilson, De Meo, and Dear all signed a contract which would permit them to make a trilogy of "Rocketeer" films. However, Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg switched the film to a Walt Disney Pictures release. According to Stevens, "immediately, Betty and anything else 'adult' went right out with the bathwater. They really tried to shoehorn it into a kiddie property so they could sell toys. All they really wanted at the end of the day, was the name".


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Bilson and DeMeo then submitted their seven-page film treatment to Disney, but the studio put their script through an endless series of revisions. Over five years, Disney fired and rehired Bilson and DeMeo three times. DeMeo explained that "Disney felt that they needed a different approach to the script, which meant bringing in someone else. But those scripts were thrown out and we were always brought back on". They found the studio's constant tinkering with the screenplay to be a frustrating process as "executives would like previously excised dialogue three months later. Scenes that had been thrown out two years ago were put back in. What was the point"? DeMeo said. One of Bilson and De Meo's significant revisions to the script over the years was to make Cliff and Jenny's romance more believable and avoid cliché aspects that would stereotype Jenny as a damsel in distress. The numerous project delays forced Dear to drop out as director. Joe Johnston, a fan of the comic book, immediately offered his services as director when he found out Disney owned the film rights. Johnston was quickly hired and pre-production started in early 1990. After Bilson and De Meo's third major rewrite, Disney finally greenlit "The Rocketeer".


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: The characterization of Neville Sinclair was inspired by movie star Errol Flynn. The film's Neville Sinclair is, like biographer Charles Higham's Flynn, a movie star known for his work in swashbuckler roles who is secretly a Nazi spy. Because Higham's biography of Flynn was not refuted until the late 1980s, the image of Flynn as a closet Nazi remained current all through the arduous process of writing and re-writing the script. The other real-life characterization was of Howard Hughes.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Casting the lead role of Cliff Secord was a struggle for the filmmakers. Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg even had one of the studio's then-staff writers, Karey Kirkpatrick, audition for the part. Kevin Costner and Matthew Modine were the first actors considered for the role. When they both proved to be unavailable, Dennis Quaid, Kurt Russell, Bill Paxton and Emilio Estevez auditioned for the part. Johnny Depp was Disney's favorite choice, while Paxton commented he came "really close" to getting the lead. Vincent D'Onofrio turned down the role and the filmmakers were forced to continue their search.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: The decision to cast Billy Campbell as Cliff Secord caused mixed emotions among Disney executives. Director Joe Johnston and creator Dave Stevens believed Campbell was perfect for the role, but Disney wanted an A-list actor. Johnston eventually convinced Disney otherwise. Campbell was not familiar with the comic book when he got the part but quickly read it, in addition to books on aviation. He also prepared by listening to 1940s period music. The actor had a fear of flying but overcame it with the help of the film's aerial coordinator, Craig Hosking. To ensure his safety, Campbell was doubled for almost all of the flying sequences in conventional aircraft. Ultimately, a scale model devised by ILM puppeteer Tom St. Amand was used for all the rocket pack scenes.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: For the female lead of Cliff's girlfriend Jenny, Sherilyn Fenn, Kelly Preston, Diane Lane and Elizabeth McGovern were considered before Jennifer Connelly was eventually cast. Campbell and Connelly's working relationship eventually led to a romantic coupling, which Johnston found to be a technique for method acting that helped with their on-screen chemistry. For Secord's sidekick, Peevy, Dave Stevens hoped that Lloyd Bridges would play the part, but Bridges turned it down and Alan Arkin was cast. The part of Neville Sinclair was offered to Jeremy Irons and Charles Dance before Timothy Dalton accepted the role. Lastly, the part of Eddie Valentine was written with Joe Pesci in mind, but he turned down the part, which went to Paul Sorvino.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Remaining cast members included Tiny Ron Taylor as Lothar, Terry O'Quinn as Howard Hughes, Jon Polito as Otis Bigelow, Ed Lauter as Agent Fitch, Eddie Jones as Malcolm the Mechanic and Robert Miranda as Spanish Johnny. "Rocketeer" creator Dave Stevens has a cameo as the German test pilot who is killed when the Nazis' version of a rocket backpack explodes during the takeoff sequence.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Principal photography for "The Rocketeer" lasted from September 19, 1990, to January 22, 1991. Filming at the Griffith Observatory took place in November 1990. The film ended up going 50 days over schedule due to weather and mechanical problems. "Rocketeer" creator Dave Stevens allied himself with director Joe Johnston and production manager Ian Bryce in an effort to be as heavily involved in the production process as possible and to try and secure as much artistic control as he could from Disney. Disney, in particular, was not enthusiastic with Stevens' involvement. "I was on the set day and night", Stevens reflected, "from pre-production till post-production! And initially, I had to fight to prove that I was there for the benefit of the film, and not for my own ego".


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: The original production budget was set at $25 million, but rose to $35 million. This happened after Disney became impressed with the dailies; "they realized this was a bigger movie than they were anticipating", Johnston explained, "and they approved overages. It never got completely out of control". An abandoned World War II runway at the Santa Maria, California airport set the scene for the fictional Chaplin Air Field. Additional scenes were shot at Bakersfield. For the air circus scene, 700 Santa Maria extras and 25 vintage aircraft were employed. Aerial coordinator Craig Hosking remarked in an interview, "What makes "The Rocketeer" so unique was having several one-of-a-kind planes that hadn't flown in years", including a 1916 Standard biplane and a Gee Bee Model Z racer. The sequence where Cliff rescues Malcolm was adapted shot-for-shot from Stevens' comic book.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Stevens gave the film's production designer Jim Bissell and his two art directors his entire reference library pertaining to the "Rocketeer" at that time period, including blueprints for hangars and bleachers, schematics for building the autogyro, photos and drawings of the Bulldog Cafe, the uniforms for the air circus staff, and contacts for locating the vintage aircraft that were to be used. Stevens remembers that they "literally just took the reference and built the sets". Disney originally intended to change the Rocketeer's trademark helmet design completely. President Michael Eisner wanted a straight NASA-type helmet but director Johnston threatened to quit production on "The Rocketeer". Disney relented, but only after creating a number of prototype designs that were ultimately rejected by the filmmakers. Stevens asked Johnston for one week to produce a good helmet design. He proceeded to work with a sculptor he knew, made a cast of the film's main stunt man's head and brainstormed ideas with the help of his sketches. They produced a helmet that the filmmakers agreed looked appropriate from all angles; in most respects it was identical to the helmet design Stevens had used for his comics series.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Rick Baker designed the Rondo Hatton-inspired prosthetic makeup designs for the Lothar character, portrayed by Tiny Ron Taylor.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: The visual effects were designed and created by George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) with Ken Ralston ("Who Framed Roger Rabbit", Sony Pictures Imageworks founder) serving as the VFX supervisor. "Rocketeer" director Joe Johnston previously worked as an art director/model maker at ILM before his film directing career took off. Johnston's insistence on a realistic flying rocketman led ILM to devise a lifelike Cliff Secord model that was filmed in Stop motion coupled with an 18" figurine that was manipulated by hand and in "go-motion" to create "motion-blur." Speed-up Moviola effects were also used to advantage in the air circus sequence where a combination of live action and stop-motion animation was also employed.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: The Rocketeer's attack on the Nazi Zeppelin was filmed over four months near Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park in Valencia, California, through pick-ups. Remaining visual effects footage took place at ILM's headquarters in San Rafael and Hamilton Air Force Base. There, they constructed a scale model of the Zeppelin, which was photographed against matte paintings that resembled 1938 Los Angeles for intercutting purposes. The Zeppelin explosion special effect alone cost $400,000.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: The music for "The Rocketeer" was composed and conducted by James Horner. The soundtrack received positive reviews and is often mentioned as being one of the film's stronger elements. The soundtrack was released by Hollywood Records and features nearly an hour of music with eight tracks of score and two vocal tracks performed by actress/singer Melora Hardin. An expanded edition was issued in 2016 by Intrada Records. The two songs were arranged by Billy May, who had collaborated with Horner several times in the past.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: To promote "The Rocketeer", Disney made tie-in endorsements with Pizza Hut and M&M's/Mars candies. An extensive product line followed of computer games, toys, posters, trading cards, pins, patches, buttons, T-shirts, and children's clothing, licensed to coincide with the film's opening. The studio also spent a further $19 million on TV advertising alone. A television special documentary, titled "The Rocketeer: Excitement in the Air", was broadcast on the Disney Channel in June 1991. That same month, a young adult novelization written by Peter David was published by Bantam Books, while a similar novelization by Ron Fontes, for younger readers, was published by Scholastic Books for Disney Press.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: "The Rocketeer" had its premiere at the 1,100 seat El Capitan Theatre on June 19, 1991. This was the first premiere to take place at the El Capitan in more than two years, after a restoration project by Disney.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: When released on the home video market in 1991–1992 in both LaserDisc and VHS/Beta videotape formats, "The Rocketeer "earned an additional $23.18 million in rentals. The film's musical score, compiled and produced by James Horner, was released in both audio cassette and CD variants. "The Rocketeer "was released on Region 1 DVD by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment in August 1999. No special features were included on the later DVD release although the 1991 LaserDisc (#1239 as) had included the original theatrical trailer. A 20th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Disc was released on December 13, 2011.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: "The Rocketeer" was released in the United States on June 21, 1991, earning $9.6 million in its opening weekend in 1,616 theaters. Dick Cook, president of Disney's Buena Vista Distribution unit said "We've got to be pleased with the way it’s performed, especially since it’s not a sequel and has no big-time stars". The film opened #4 behind "", "City Slickers" and "Dying Young" and eventually grossed only $46.6 million in US box office, making it a commercial disappointment. Outside the US and Canada, the film was released through Disney's Touchstone Pictures label, in an attempt to attract the teenage audience it did not reach in North America.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: "Rocketeer"'s original Art Deco poster, artistically similar to a famous Yuri Gagarin monument, was changed because it failed to draw attention to the cast, including then-current James Bond, Timothy Dalton. A new poster was designed to feature Dalton, Billy Campbell, and Jennifer Connelly prominently. The film also failed in Britain, grossing just over £1 million in its first two weeks at just under 250 screens. The new advertising campaign was being designed while the British promotional campaign for the film was already under way and some theaters still had the stylized United States film poster.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, 66% of 65 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 6.20/10. The site's consensus states: "An action-packed, if anachronistic, look back at pulp matinee serials, "The Rocketeer" may ring hollow with viewers expecting more than simple fun and gee-whiz special effects." Metacritic gave the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A− on scale of A to F.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Roger Ebert enjoyed the film, noting its homages to the film serials of the 1930s–1950s. Although Ebert cited the visual effects as being state of the art, he described them "as charmingly direct as those rockets in the "Flash Gordon" serials—the ones with sparklers hidden inside of them, which were pulled on wires in front of papier-mâché mountains". Leonard Maltin wrote that the "film captures the look of the '30s, as well as the gee-whiz innocence of Saturday matinée serials, but it's talky and takes too much time to get where it's going. Dalton has fun as a villain patterned after Errol Flynn". Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" magazine also gave a positive review. ""The Rocketeer" is more than one of the best films of the summer; it's the kind of movie magic that we don't see much anymore", he continued, "the kind that charms us, rather than bullying us, into suspending disbelief".


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Internet reviewer James Berardinelli commented that ""The Rocketeer" may not be perfect, but it's an excellent example of how to adapt a comic book to the screen". Janet Maslin from "The New York Times" gave a mixed review. She called "The Rocketeer" "a benign adventure saga that has attractive stars, elaborate gimmicks and nice production values—everything it needs except a personality of its own". Maslin believed that by setting the story in 1938, the filmmakers were more interested in the Art Deco production design and visual effects instead of imbuing the storyline with "inspiration, which may be why it finally feels flat". Hal Hinson, writing in "The Washington Post", felt the film was too concerned with family-friendliness. Jonathan Rosenbaum of "Chicago Reader" believed both the editing and the storyline were not well balanced and felt "The Rocketeer" ripped-off elements of "Indiana Jones" and "Back to the Future". Rosenbaum also cited the casting decision of character actors as being too practical. "The whole thing is good-natured enough", he explained, "but increasingly mechanical".


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens acknowledged he was "satisfied with 70% of the film" and highly praised Joe Johnston's direction. "The overall spirit and sweetness of the series is still there, intact", Stevens remembers. "We lost some good character stuff in editing for time, but the tone of it is still what I was trying to project in the comic pages. I also thought Joe's casting choices were excellent. To his credit, Joe did not fill out the cast with a bunch of "Beverly Hills, 90210" Barbie and Ken-type kids". Stevens found Billy Campbell to be "a good-looking guy, but he also happens to be Cliff! I would never have cast him based on good looks alone, but he came into the audition and just nailed it shut. He was made for it. The part was his".


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: "The Rocketeer" was nominated for both the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film, but lost both categories to "". Costume designer Marilyn Vance won the Saturn Award for Best Costumes, while Jennifer Connelly (Best Supporting Actress) and VFX supervisor Ken Ralston (Best Special Effects) also received nominations.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: A TV series based on the movie premiered on Disney Junior on November 8, 2019. It focuses on Kit Secord, the seven-year-old great-granddaughter of Cliff who receives the rocket pack and becomes the new Rocketeer. Despite positive reviews, the series was cancelled after one season.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: The series features numerous references to the film. Billy Campbell, who portrayed Cliff Secord, voices Kit's father Dave in the series. Cliff is seen throughout the series via flashback where it is established that he acted as the Rocketeer in the past. However the series retcons the setting of Los Angeles to the fictional Hughesville, in reference to Howard Hughes, and to give the series a more childlike innocence. In the episode "Scarlett's Search", Cliff's plane is found which features a photo of Jenny Blake, his love interest from the film. The episode "Rocketeer Day" features a recreation of the climax of the film, and Kit mentions the Rocketeer's battle with Lothar.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: From the beginning of the process of making "The Rocketeer", creator Dave Stevens and screenwriters Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo envisioned it as the first entry of a trilogy. Disney, in particular, hoped the film would carry a vein similar to the "Indiana Jones" franchise. Both Campbell and Connelly were contracted for sequels, Campbell for two more and Connelly for only one. However, with the film's disappointing box office performance, plans for a sequel were halted in July 1991. "[Unfortunately] the movie didn't make as much money as Disney had hoped", Campbell reflected in a January 2008 interview with "MTV News". "And that coupled with the acrimonious relationship that the director [Joe Johnston] and the studio had, contributed to them not even considering it".


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: Although the calls for a sequel remain unrequited, as with many films of this genre, the film has built up a cult following in both the United States and Japan. In 2008, Medicom, a Japanese toy manufacturer, issued two versions of 12" poseable action figures and replica helmets based on the film. The original Dave Stevens comics are still in demand and movie memorabilia continues to have a ready audience. In addition, Johnston's work on this film led to him being hired 20 years later to direct another period superhero film, "" in 2011.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: , Disney was reported to be developing a remake of "The Rocketeer". "Saw" series creator James Wan has talked about directing the film.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: In July 2016, it was confirmed that Walt Disney Pictures will be rebooting "The Rocketeer", titled "The Rocketeers", with the film being written by Max Winkler and Matt Spicer. Brigham Taylor is producing the film, as is Blake Griffin of the Brooklyn Nets and Ryan Kalil of the Carolina Panthers. It was reported that "The Rocketeers" will be a "reboot sequel" that takes place six years after the original film with a black female pilot in the lead role. The film's plot sees the lead take on the mantle of The Rocketeer after Cliff Secord has gone missing while fighting the Nazis. The new Rocketeer goes on a mission to stop a corrupt scientist from stealing rocket pack technology and shifting the balance of the Cold War. Peter Ramsey expressed interest in directing the sequel and also suggested several other directors like Gina Prince-Bythewood, Darnell Martin and Amma Asante for the project, as well. In April 2016, Taylor confirmed that the film will be a sequel.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: By January 2020, it was announced that Azia Squire had written a new draft for the sequel. J. D. Dillard was set to direct. In August 2021, the title "The Return of the Rocketeer" was announced. Ed Ricourt was hired to write a new draft of the screenplay, with David Oyelowo and his wife Jessica serving as producers, while David may also star as the title role. The plot will center on a former Tuskegee Airman who inherits the rocket pack suit and the heroic mantle.


title: The Rocketeer (film)

text: In November 2022, Dillard announced that he was no longer attached to direct as he wanted to take "a breather from period aviation" after having made "Devotion".


title: Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte

text: The "Landkreuzer" P. 1000 "Ratte" (English: "Land Cruiser P. 1000 "Rat"") was a design for a 1000-ton tank to be used by Nazi Germany during World War II which may have been proposed by Krupp director Edward Grotte in June 1942, who had already named it ""Landkreuzer"". Submitted designs and drawings of the vehicle went under the names "OKH Auftrag Nr. 30404" and "E-30404/1", which were presented in December 1942. The tank was planned to be 1000 tonnes, being far heavier than the Panzer VIII "Maus", the heaviest tank ever built (weighing 188 tonnes). The project gained the approval of Adolf Hitler, who had expressed interest in the development of the tank, but was cancelled by Minister of Armaments Albert Speer in early 1943.


title: Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte

text: The development history of the Ratte originated with a 1941 strategic study of Soviet heavy tanks conducted by Krupp, the study also giving birth to the Panzer VIII "Maus" super-heavy tank. The study led to a suggestion from Krupp's director (Grotte), a special officer for submarine construction, who, on 23 June 1942, proposed to Adolf Hitler a 1,000-tonne self-propelled gun which he named ""Landkreuzer"" ("Land Cruiser"). It consisted of a fully tracked chassis carrying one of the surplus main gun turrets left over from the planned refitting of the "Scharnhorst"-class battleships. To protect this immense economic investment, the hull of the vehicle was to carry armour up to thick, and several anti-aircraft guns were to be installed on the vehicle's engine deck to fend off Allied ground-attack aircraft.


title: Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte

text: Hitler became enamoured with Grotte's concept and ordered Krupp to begin development of it in 1942. As of December 29, 1942 a few preliminary drawings had been completed, by which time the concept had been named ""Ratte"" These submitted designs went under the titles "OKH "Auftrag" Nr. 30404" and "E-30404/1". Albert Speer saw no reasonable use of the tank and canceled the project in 1943 before any prototype could be manufactured, although this did lead to the concept of the "Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster" self-propelled siege gun, which would have been heavier than the "Ratte". The general idea for such a big tank was summed up by Heinz Guderian, saying that: "Hitler's fantasies sometimes shift into the gigantic".


title: Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte

text: Not all historians are convinced that the P.1000 even got as far as an outline design. Although it is generally accepted that Hitler asked for a feasibility study into a 1000-ton tank in 1942, there is much doubt around the specifics of the plan to use the guns or spare turrets from the battleship . The turrets alone weighed approximately 750 tons and required a five-storey structure to house the associated handling rooms and rotating machinery. Such weapons would also require separate magazines and shell rooms as well as handling machinery for the ammunition, all of which required space and power well beyond the scope of what would be possible in a 1000-ton tracked vehicle. Accordingly, some historians believe the P.1000 "Ratte" diagram to be either a hoax, or alternatively a speculative engineer's sketch made for personal amusement.


title: Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte

text: The "Ratte"s proposed size was enormous: it would have weighed , more than five times the weight of the Panzer VIII "Maus", the largest tank ever constructed by Nazi Germany. The weight of the "Ratte" was made up of 300 tonnes of armament (the total weight of the guns themselves was 100 tonnes, so turret armour would have weighed 200 tonnes), 200 tonnes of armour and frame, and 100 tonnes of track and automotive components, with other features making up the remainder. It was planned to be long ( when including naval guns), high, and wide. This immense weight was to be distributed across the ground by six wide and long treads, together forming two composite treads with a width of each. This would help stability and weight distribution, but the vehicle's sheer mass would have destroyed roads and rendered bridge crossings next to impossible. It was expected that its height, and its ground clearance of , would have allowed it to ford most rivers with relative ease, thus eliminating the need for bridge crossings.


title: Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte

text: Planned propulsion was by two MAN V12Z32/44 24-cylinder marine diesel engines of each (as used in U-boats) or eight Daimler-Benz MB 501 20-cylinder marine diesel engines of each (as used in E-boats) to achieve the needed to move the tank. The engines were to be provided with snorkels, also like those used by German submarines. The snorkels were designed to provide a way for oxygen to reach the engine, even during amphibious operations while passing through deep water.


title: Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte

text: The "Ratte"′s primary weapon would have been a dual 28 cm SK C/34 naval gun turret. This was the same turret that was used on the German battleship but with one gun and its associated loading mechanism. removed. This allowed extra accommodation of ammunition, and reduced the total weight of the tank by 50 tonnes. The guns used for the "Ratte" would have fired ammunition developed for other naval guns. It also included armour-piercing rounds with of explosive filler, and high-explosive rounds with of explosive filler.


title: Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte

text: Further armament was to consist of a 128 mm anti-tank gun of the type used in the "Jagdtiger" or "Maus", two 15 mm Mauser MG 151/15 autocannons, and eight 20 mm Flak 38 anti-aircraft guns, probably with at least four of them as a "Flakvierling" quadruple mounts. The 128 mm anti-tank gun's precise location on the "Ratte" is a point of contention among historians, most believing that it would have been mounted within the primary turret, with some others thinking a smaller secondary turret at the rear of the "Ratte" more logical. Some concept drawings exist to suggest a flexible mount on the glacis plate. The tank was to be provided with a vehicle bay that could hold two BMW R12 motorcycles for scouting, and several smaller storage rooms, a compact infirmary area, and a self-contained lavatory system.


title: Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte

text: The large size and weight would have rendered the tank unable to cross bridges at the risk of collapsing them, and travelling on roads would quickly destroy them. Though its top intended speed was , its huge size and high visibility would have made it extremely vulnerable to aerial bombardment and artillery fire. Its great size would also have meant that once built the vehicle's strategic, operational, and tactical mobility would be entirely dependent on its own drivetrain, for there were no other realistic means of moving it from one firing position to another. No existing railway or train car could bear its weight and its width was too great for existing tunnels.


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: Matthew David Lewis (born 27 June 1989) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Neville Longbottom in the "Harry Potter" film series.


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: Born in Leeds, Lewis made his acting debut in "Some Kind of Life" (1995), guest-starring on dramas for ITV and BBC One before appearing in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (2001). Lewis played the role for ten years, concluding with the final film, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" (2011), for which he received critical praise. Following the series, Lewis recurred in "The Syndicate" and performed his first theatre role in "Our Boys" at the Duchess Theatre in 2012.


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: Lewis starred in "The Rise" (2012) which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to positive reviews and made appearances on BBC dramas "Bluestone 42" and "Death in Paradise" in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Lewis had a supporting role in "Me Before You" (2016), which became a box office success. He was cast in the crime dramas "Ripper Street" and "Happy Valley" before starring on the ITV drama "Girlfriends" in 2018. Lewis appeared in "Terminal" (2018), which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival as well as "Baby Done" (2020). Since 2020, Lewis has starred in Channel 5 television series "All Creatures Great and Small" to critical praise.


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: Matthew David Lewis was born on 27 June 1989 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, to Adrian Lewis and Lynda Needham. He was raised in the nearby town of Horsforth. He has two older brothers: Chris, a film editor, and Anthony, an actor. He was educated at St Mary's Menston Catholic Voluntary Academy.


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: Lewis has been acting since age five. He made his professional debut in television film "Some Kind of Life" (1995), directed by Kay Mellor. He guest-starred in the BBC One crime drama "Dalziel and Pascoe" before appearing in ITV series' "Heartbeat" and "Where the Heart Is" in 1999 and 2000, respectively.


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: In 1999, castings were held across the UK for "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", the film adaptation of British author J. K. Rowling's novel. Lewis, a fan of the series, initially attended an open audition at the Queens Hotel, Leeds, before being contacted two months later to perform a screen test for director Chris Columbus, eventually earning the role of Neville Longbottom. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was released in 2001 and became a critical and commercial hit. For the role, Lewis wore a set of false teeth, shoes two sizes too big, a fat suit and ear prosthetics. He reprised his role a year later in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"; Lewis has stated that his favorite lines stem from the film.


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004) and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2005) both premiered to critical acclaim. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" was released in 2007. During filming, co-star Helena Bonham Carter accidentally ruptured Lewis' eardrum when she stuck her wand in his ear during a scene. Lewis commented on enjoying the "diverse nature" of his role in the film which contained more "emotion and drama" than its predecessors. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" became the second-highest-grossing film of 2009. In a 2009 interview, Lewis spoke about his experience working with director David Yates, discussing "about what Neville would be doing and feeling, even [..] in the background." In April 2011, Lewis made his stage debut as Lester Cole in Agatha Christie's "Verdict" touring production.


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: Lewis returned once more for the final "Harry Potter" installments, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1" (2010) and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" (2011). His performance was praised by critics for his "scene stealing potential"; "CTV News" referred to Lewis as a "breakout stud" and "man of action". "Harry Potter" author J. K. Rowling gave a speech at the premiere of "Deathly Hallows – Part 2" in London, where she stated that there were seven major cast members in the series, whom she referred to as "The Big Seven" (Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Tom Felton, Lewis, Evanna Lynch and Bonnie Wright).


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: In 2012, Lewis portrayed Jamie Bradley in Kay Mellor's five-part BBC One television drama "The Syndicate". He made his West End debut, playing Mick in "Our Boys", at the Duchess Theatre from September to December 2012. Lewis co-starred in the 2012 crime film "The Rise", which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. "Express" stated that "Lewis provide[s] as much pleasure as the mechanics of the twisted revenge plot." He starred in two series of the South Africa filmed black comedy "Bluestone 42", which premiered on BBC Three in 2013. In 2015, Lewis guest-starred on the television crime drama "Death in Paradise".


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: Lewis played Patrick, the boyfriend of Emilia Clarke's character, in "Me Before You" (2016), which proved to be a commercial success. "Bustle" noted that "Lewis' role is one mostly of comedic relief" but the actor "plays the character's outrage perfectly"; Lewis stated he was careful not to make the role a "laughed-off villain, but a fully-formed character." That same year, Lewis reoccured in two BBC productions, crime dramas "Ripper Street" and "Happy Valley". He starred alongside Niamh Cusack in the London premiere of "Unfaithful", written by playwright Owen McCafferty, from August to October 2016. In 2017, Lewis, a friend of comedian Sal Vulcano, made an appearance on "Impractical Jokers" as himself filling in for Vulcano, which was shot at Universal Orlando.


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: In 2018, he starred on the ITV drama "Girlfriends", written by Mellor, and appeared in the 2018 neo-noir "Terminal", which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival to negative reviews. Lewis starred opposite Rose Matafeo in "Baby Done" (2020), produced by Taika Waititi. "The Guardian" praised his "thoroughly likable performance" as well as the "laid-back" chemistry between him and Matafeo. Lewis appeared in the Yorkshire-set television series "All Creatures Great and Small", which aired on Channel 5 in 2020 to high ratings and critical acclaim. "The New York Times" referred to Lewis' portrayal as a "dashing suitor" who achieved the character's "natural confidence [..] incredibly well." The programme was renewed for a second series in December 2020.


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: Lewis married Angela Jones in Italy on 28 May 2018, after the two had become engaged in November 2016. The couple had met in January 2016, when Lewis participated in the annual "Celebration of Harry Potter" event at Universal Orlando, where Jones was a VIP event manager for the resort and the event.


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: Lewis is a vice-president of the Leeds Rugby Foundation charity. Lewis hosts the Leeds United podcast "Doing a Leeds" with former professional footballer Jermaine Beckford.


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: In February 2021, it was announced that Lewis became the first Patron of the Bambisanani Partnership.


title: Matthew Lewis (actor)

text: On 24 July 2012, Lewis received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Leeds Metropolitan University for his contribution to the arts and charity work.


title: Vande Mataram

text: Vande Mataram (Sanskrit: वन्दे मातरम् IAST: , also spelt Bande Mataram; বন্দে মাতরম্, "Bônde Mātôrôm"; ) is a poem written in sanskritised Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in the 1870s. The first two verses of the poem were adopted as the National Song of India in October 1937 by the Congress.


title: Vande Mataram

text: The poem was first published in 1882 as part of Chatterjee's Bengali novel "Anandmath". It is an ode to the motherland, personified as the "mother goddess" is later verses, of the people. This initially referred to Bengal, with the "mother" figure therefore being Banga Mata (Mother Bengal), though the text does not mention this explicitly. Indian nationalist and philosopher Sri Aurobindo referred "Vande Mataram" as the "national Anthem of Bengal".


title: Vande Mataram

text: Nonetheless, the poem played a vital role in the Indian independence movement. It first gained political significance when it was recited by Rabindranath Tagore at Congress in 1896. By 1905, it had become a popular amongst political activists and freedom fighters as a marching song. The song, as well as "Anandmath", were banned under British colonial rule under threat of imprisonment, making its use revolutionary. The ban was ultimately overturned by the Indian government upon independence in 1947.


title: Vande Mataram

text: On 24 January 1950, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted "Vande Mataram" as the Republic's national song. President of India Rajendra Prasad stated that the song should be honoured equally with the national anthem of India, "Jana Gana Mana". While the Constitution of India does not make reference to a "national song", the Government filed an "affidavit" at the Delhi High Court in November 2022 stating that "Jana Gana Mana" and "Vande Mataram" would “stand on the same level”, and that citizens should show equal respect to both.


title: Vande Mataram

text: The first two verses of the song make abstract reference to the "mother" and "motherland", without any religious connotation. However, later verses mention Hindu goddesses such as Durga.


title: Vande Mataram

text: Unlike the national anthem, there are no rules or decorum to be observed when reciting "Vande Mataram".


title: Vande Mataram

text: The root of the Sanskrit word Vande is "Vand", which appears in "Rigveda" and other Vedic texts. According to Monier Monier-Williams, depending on the context, "vand" means "to praise, celebrate, laud, extol, to show honour, do homage, salute respectfully", or "deferentially, venerate, worship, adore", or "to offer anything respectfully to". The word "Mātaram" has Indo-European roots in "mātár-" (Sanskrit), "méter" (Greek), "mâter" (Latin) which mean "mother".


title: Vande Mataram

text: The first translation of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel "Anandamath", including the poem "Vande Mataram", into English was by Nares Chandra Sen-Gupta, with the fifth edition published in 1906 titled "The Abbey of Bliss".


title: Vande Mataram

text: Here is the translation in prose of the above two stanzas rendered by Sri Aurobindo Ghosh. This has also been adopted by the Government of India's national portal. The original "Vande Mataram" consists of six stanzas and the translation in prose for the complete poem by Shri Aurobindo appeared in "Karmayogin", 20 November 1909.


title: Vande Mataram

text: Apart from the above prose translation, Sri Aurobindo also translated "Vande Mataram" into a verse form known as "Mother, I praise thee!". Sri Aurobindo commented on his English translation of the poem that "It is difficult to translate the National Song of India into verse in another language owing to its unique union of sweetness, simple directness and high poetic force."


title: Vande Mataram

text: Vande Mataram has inspired many Indian poets and has been translated into numerous Indian languages, such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Odia, Malayalam, Assamese, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi Urdu and others.


title: Vande Mataram

text: Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was one of the earliest graduates of the newly established Calcutta University. After his BA, he joined the colonial government as a civil servant, becoming a Deputy Collector and later a Deputy Magistrate. Chattopadhyay was very intereste in recent events in Indian and Bengali history, particularly the Revolt of 1857 and the previous century's Sanyasi Rebellion. Around the same time, the administration was trying to promote "God Save the Queen" as the anthem for Indian subjects, which Indian nationalists disliked. It is generally believed that the concept of "Vande Mataram" came to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay when he was still a government official, around 1876. He wrote "Vande Mataram" at Chinsura (Chuchura), there is a white colour house of Adhya Family near river Hooghly (near Mallik Ghat).


title: Vande Mataram

text: Chattopadhyay wrote the poem in a spontaneous session using words from Sanskrit and Bengali. The poem was published in Chattopadhyay's book "Anandamath" (pronounced "Anondomôţh" in Bengali) in 1882, which is set in the events of the Sannyasi Rebellion. Jadunath Bhattacharya was asked to set a tune for this poem just after it was written.


title: Vande Mataram

text: ""Vande Mataram" was one of the most popular songs of protest during the Indian independence movement. The colonial government in response banned the book and made the recital of the song in public a crime. The colonial government imprisoned many independence activists for disobeying the order, but workers and general public repeatedly violated the ban many times by gathering together in the presence of colonial officials and singing it. Rabindranath Tagore sang "Vande Mataram" in 1896 at the Calcutta Congress Session held at Beadon Square. Dakhina Charan Sen sang it five years later in 1901 at another session of the Congress at Calcutta. Poet Sarala Devi Chaudurani sang the song in the Benares Congress Session in 1905. Lala Lajpat Rai started a journal called "Vande Mataram" from Lahore. Hiralal Sen made India's first political film in 1905 which ended with the chant. Matangini Hazra's last words as she was shot to death by the Crown police were "Vande Mataram".


title: Vande Mataram

text: In 1907, Bhikaiji Cama (1861–1936) created the first version of India's national flag (the Tiranga) in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1907. It had "Vande Mataram" written on it in the middle band.


title: Vande Mataram

text: A book titled "Kranti Geetanjali" published by Arya Printing Press (Lahore) and Bharatiya Press (Dehradun) in 1929 contains first two stanzas of this lyric on page 11 as "Matra Vandana" and a ghazal (Vande Mataram) composed by Bismil was also given on its back, i.e. page 12. The book written by the famous martyr of Kakori Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil was proscribed by the colonial government.


title: Vande Mataram

text: Mahatama Gandhi supported adoption and the singing of the Vande Mataram song. In January 1946, in a speech in Guwahati (Assam), he urged that "Jai Hind should not replace Vande-mataram". He reminded everyone present that Vande-mataram was being sung since the inception of the Congress. He supported the "Jai Hind" greeting, but remanded that this greeting should not be to the exclusion of Vande Mataram. Gandhi was concerned that those who discarded Vande Mataram given the tradition of sacrifice behind it, one day would discard "Jai Hind" also.


title: Vande Mataram

text: Parts of the Vande Mataram was chosen as the national song in 1937 by the Indian National Congress as it pursued the independence of India from colonial rule, after a committee consisting of Maulana Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Bose, Acharya Deva and Rabrindanath Tagore recommended the adoption. The entire song was not selected by Hindu leaders in order to respect the sentiments of non-Hindus, and the gathering agreed that anyone should be free to sing an alternate "unobjectionable song" at a national gathering if they do not want to sing Vande Mataram because they find it "objectionable" for a personal reason. According to the gathered leaders, including the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, though the first two stanzas began with an unexceptionable evocation of the beauty of the motherland, in later stanzas there are references to the Hindu goddess Durga. The Muslim League and Muhammad Ali Jinnah opposed the song. Thereafter, with the support of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru, the Indian National Congress decided to adopt only the first two stanzas as the national song to be sung at public gatherings, and other verses that included references to Durga and Lakshmi were expunged.


title: Vande Mataram

text: Rajendra Prasad, who was presiding the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950, made the following statement which was also adopted as the final decision on the issue:


title: Vande Mataram

text: ...The composition consisting of the words and music known as Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India, subject to such alterations in the words as the Government may authorise as occasion arises; and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it. (Applause). I hope this will satisfy the Members.


title: Vande Mataram

text: The poem has been set to a large number of tunes. The oldest surviving audio recordings date to 1907, and there have been more than a hundred different versions recorded throughout the 20th century. Many of these versions have employed traditional Indian classical ragas. Versions of the song have been visualised on celluloid in a number of films, including "Leader", "Amar Asha", and "Anand Math". It is widely believed that the tune set for All India Radio station version was composed by Ravi Shankar. Hemant Kumar composed music for the song in the movie Anand Math in 1952. Many singers like Lata Mangeshkar, K.S.Chithra sung made it cult classic. In 2002, BBC World Service conducted an international poll to choose ten most famous songs of all time. Around 7000 songs were selected from all over the world. "Vande Mataram", from the movie "Anand Math", was ranked second. All India Radio's version and some other versions are in Desh raga.


title: Vande Mataram

text: In July 2017, the Madras High Court ruled that the Vande Mataram shall be sung or played at least once a week in all schools, universities and other educational institutions of Tamil Nadu. The Court also ruled that the song should be played or sung in government offices and industrial facilities at least once a month.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six regions statewide, a research center in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and a study-abroad site in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland. Through its Corps of Cadets ROTC program, Virginia Tech is a senior military college.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Virginia Tech offers 280 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to some 34,400 students. It manages a research portfolio of $522 million, placing it among the top 50 universities in the U.S. for total research expenditures, top 25 in computer and information sciences and top 10 in engineering, with the latter two the highest rankings in the state. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". As of 2015, Virginia Tech was the state's second-largest public university by enrollment.


title: Virginia Tech

text: VT has produced two Rhodes Scholars, four Marshall Scholars, 38 Goldwater Scholars, and 131 Fulbright Scholars. Among its alumni are eight Medal of Honor recipients, 97 flag officers, governors of two U.S. states, two astronauts, and one billionaire. Three Nobel laureates and one MacArthur Fellow have received a degree or served as faculty members at the university. As of 2015, VT had more than 240,000 living alumni worldwide.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The university's athletic teams are known as the Virginia Tech Hokies and compete in Division I of the NCAA as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference.


title: Virginia Tech

text: In 1872, with federal funds provided by the Morrill Act of 1862, the Reconstruction-era Virginia General Assembly purchased the facilities of Preston and Olin Institute, a small Methodist school for boys in Southwest Virginia's rural Montgomery County. That same year, of the adjoining Solitude Farm including the house and several farm buildings on the estate were acquired for $21,250 from Robert Taylor Preston, a son of Governor of Virginia, James Patton Preston. The commonwealth incorporated a new institution on the site, a state-supported land-grant military institute named Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Virginia Tech's first student, Addison "Add" Caldwell registered on October 1, 1872, after hiking over 25 miles from his home in Craig County, Virginia. A statue, located in the Upper Quad of campus commemorates Add's journey to enroll. First-year cadets and their training cadre re-enact Addison Caldwell's journey every year in the Caldwell March. They complete the first half of the 26-mile march in the fall and the second half in the spring.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The first five presidents of Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College served in the Confederate States Army or the Confederate government during the Civil War as did many of its early professors including the first Commandant, James H. Lane, a VMI graduate and former Confederate General who taught civil engineering and commerce at the college and is the namesake of Lane Hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus, built in 1888. Its third president, Thomas Nelson Conrad, was a notorious Confederate spy who ran a covert intelligence gathering operation from a home in the heart of Washington, D.C.. Its sixth president, Paul Brandon Barringer, was a son of Confederate General Rufus Barringer and a nephew of Confederate Generals Stonewall Jackson and Daniel Harvey Hill.


title: Virginia Tech

text: In a nod to this southern heritage the Confederate Battle Flag was traditionally waved by cheerleaders at Virginia Tech football games and the Highty-Tighties played Dixie as a fight song when the Hokies scored a touchdown. A large Confederate flag also hung inside Cassell Coliseum where Virginia Tech basketball games are played. Since 1963, "Skipper", a replica of a Civil War cannon has been fired at football games by members of the Corps of Cadets when the team scores. The Confederate Flag was also prominently featured on all Virginia Tech class rings. The display of the Confederate flag at athletic events ended in the late 1960s after Marguerite Harper, a black woman attending Virginia Tech on a Rockefeller Scholarship for culturally disadvantaged students, was elected to the student senate during her sophomore year and made a successful resolution to end the practice. Following the resolution there was a large demonstration in opposition to the removal of the Confederate flag. The campus was covered in Confederate flags and Dixie was blasting from dormitory windows. Harper and her white roommate received hate mail and threatening phone calls but the resolution stood and the display of the rebel flag ended in 1969. The Confederate flag on Virginia Tech class rings became optional in 1972 and could be left off of the ring at the student's request. The Confederate flag has since been removed from class ring designs entirely.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Under the leadership of seventh president Joseph Dupuy Eggleston, who held the position from 1913 to 1919, the university established a Reserve Officer Training Corps to support national efforts during World War I.


title: Virginia Tech

text: In 1917, physics professor Charles E. Vawter, Jr. (son of Charles E. Vawter, who had served on the VPI board of visitors from 1886 to 1900), shot Stockton Heth, Jr., a scion of one of Montgomery County's wealthiest families, in his campus home on faculty row. Heth, who lived at Whitethorne, an antebellum mansion on a 1,500-acre estate near Blacksburg, later died of his wounds. Due to the Heth family's wealth and political connections, Vawter's position as head of the VPI physics department, and the extramarital affair that led to the shooting, the resulting murder trial was one of the most sensational in Virginia history. Eggleston attempted to suppress news of the affair in the media with considerable success, most likely due to world events that stole the headlines in the spring of 1917, rather than his efforts to protect VPI's reputation.


title: Virginia Tech

text: During Thomas Nelson Conrad's tenure as president, the college switched from semesters to the quarter system, which remained in place until the late 1980s. Under the 1891–1907 presidency of John McLaren McBryde, the school organized its academic programs into a traditional four-year college and a graduate department was founded. The evolution of the school's programs led to a name change in 1896 to Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute. The "Agricultural and Mechanical College" portion of the name was popularly omitted almost immediately; in 1944, the name was officially changed to Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI).


title: Virginia Tech

text: VPI admitted its first female students in 1921 as civilian day students; they did not live on campus. In 1923, VPI changed a policy of compulsory participation in the Corps of Cadets from four years to two years. In 1931, VPI began teaching classes at the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary (now Old Dominion University). This program eventually developed into a two-year engineering program that allowed students to transfer to VPI for their final two years of degree work. The first women's dormitory at VPI, Hillcrest Hall, was built in 1940. In 1943, VPI merged with Radford State Teachers College in nearby Radford, which became VPI's women's division; the merger was dissolved in 1964. Today, Radford University is a co-educational research university that enrolls nearly 10,000 students and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate programs.


title: Virginia Tech

text: In 1953 under the leadership of President Walter Stephenson Newman, VPI became the first historically white, four-year public institution among the 11 states in the former Confederacy to admit a black undergraduate. Three more black students were admitted in 1954. At the time Virginia still enforced Jim Crow laws and largely practiced racial segregation in public and private education, churches, neighborhoods, restaurants, and movie theaters and these first black students at VPI were not allowed to live in residence halls or eat in the dining halls on campus. Instead, they boarded with African American families in Blacksburg. In 1958 Charlie L. Yates made history as the first African American to graduate from VPI. Yates earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, with honors, and was hailed as the first African American "to be graduated from any major Southern engineering institute," according to news reports at the time.


title: Virginia Tech

text: VPI President T. Marshall Hahn, whose tenure ran from 1962 to 1974, was responsible for many of the programs and policies that transformed VPI from a small, historically white, predominately male, military institute with a primary focus on undergraduate teaching into a major co-educational research university. The student body that had been approximately 5,682 in 1962 increased by roughly 1,000 students each year, new dormitories and academic buildings were constructed, faculty members were added – in 1966, for instance, more than 100 new professors joined the faculty – and research budgets were increased. During Hahn's tenure, not only did the university graduate its first Rhodes Scholar, W.W. Lewis, Class of 1963, the requirement for male students to participate in the Corps of Cadets for two years was dropped in 1964. Beginning in the fall 1973, women could participate in the Corps, making Virginia Tech among the nation's first senior military colleges to integrate women.


title: Virginia Tech

text: In 1970, the state legislature allowed VPI university status and gave it the present legal name, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. In the early 1990s, university administration authorized the official use of Virginia Tech as equivalent to the full legal name; it has been used as the first-reference name for the school's athletic teams since the 1970s. However, diplomas and transcripts still spell out the formal name. Similarly, the abbreviation "VT" is far more common today than either VPI or VPI&SU.


title: Virginia Tech

text: During the Vietnam War, students on college campuses across the nation protested the draft and U.S. involvement in the conflict. Despite its long history as a military school, Virginia Tech was no exception. Most protests at Virginia Tech were small sit-ins and teach-ins, but In mid-April 1970 a group of anti-war protesters including students and faculty members disrupted a Corps of Cadets drill on campus. The Virginia Tech administration under Dr. Hahn took swift action. The students involved were suspended and the faculty members involved were fired from the university and the administration went to court and obtained an injunction to prevent them from repeating the act. This succeeded in calming tensions on campus, but only for a few weeks.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Tensions on campus reached the boiling point several days following the Kent State Shootings when on May 12, 1970, a large mob including students and a number of non-student anti-war protesters enraged by the Kent State incident and angered by the administration's disciplinary actions in response to a number of recent infractions by protesters including; vandalism of university property, a series of potentially dangerous fires set on campus, breaking and entering into a university building, and a sit-in in Cowgill Hill, seized Williams Hall and barricaded themselves inside. The administration responded quickly calling in law enforcement and early the following morning Virginia State Troopers forced their way into Williams Hall and began rounding up the protesters. Once inside the building the police discovered bomb making materials and determined that the students had apparently intended to build a firebomb. The first few protesters were dragged out of the building; the rest left peacefully and were arrested and taken to the Montgomery County jail. The students involved in the seizure, were suspended from Virginia Tech and given twenty-four hours to remove their belongings from campus after being released from jail.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Several more anti-war protests occurred at Virginia Tech during the early 1970s but none turned violent.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The university continued to expand through the last quarter of the 20th century. In 1975 William E. Lavery, who had joined the Virginia Tech faculty in 1966, took over as president when Dr. Hahn left the university to join Georgia-Pacific.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Desperate for additional farmland for the support of teaching, research, and extension programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech acquired Kentland Farm on December 31, 1986. Virginia Tech secretly traded about 250 acres of research orchards adjacent to a commercial area that would soon become Christiansburg's main shopping district to a group of developers for the historic but long fallow 1,785-acre Kentland property. The developers on the other end of the swap, one of whom was a former Tech athletics official, quickly sold 40 acres of the former university farmland for $2.7 million. News of the land swap, and especially the fact that it was done behind closed doors, sparked outrage.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Also in 1986, Virginia Tech became embroiled in an athletic scandal sparked by allegations of illegal recruiting, the bitter departure of two athletic directors in less than a year and millions of dollars of debt run up by the university's sports program due to mismanagement of financial resources, million dollar coaching contracts, and lavish expense accounts for athletics officials that led to a rebuke from Governor of Virginia, Gerald Baliles in 1987. Baliles, the featured speaker at the Virginia Tech's 115th annual commencement exercises, scolded the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors for the scandal and warned other state-supported institutions in Virginia not to put athletics ahead of academics.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Lavery developed a reorganization plan for the troubled Athletic Department, and Frank Beamer was hired to replace Bill Dooley as head football coach, but with negative publicity continuing to swirl within and around the university, he announced his resignation on October 16, 1987, effective December 31, 1987, to prevent polarization of the campus. He was succeeded as president by James Douglas McComas who served until 1994.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Due to the unpopularity of US involvement in the Vietnam War enrollment in the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets spiraled downward through the 1970s and 80s. In 1991 through the efforts of Henry Dekker (Class of 1944) The Corps of Cadets Alumni Inc. was created to save the corps, whose numbers had declined to only a few hundred students. In 1992 the alumni organization initiated Corps Review, a newsletter that was expanded to a magazine in 2004 and targeted corps alumni. In the mid-1990s, the corps alumni organization set a goal of "1000 in 2000" and initiated a major campaign to push the number of cadets to 1,000 by the turn of the century. The goal was not reached, but membership in the corps did increase substantially by the end of the decade.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The early decades of this century have seen expansion across the university's institutions in both physical and population sizes. In 2001 Virginia Tech acquired the 326-acre Heth Farm adjacent to campus, increasing the College Farm to over 3,000 acres. The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute was created with a strategic partnership with the Carilion Clinic and the governor of Virginia. These years also brought about the rapid development of the university's professional schools of graduate education and business programs. Virginia Tech brought in over $500 million in research expenditures in 2014.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The establishment of scholarships for cadets and a resurgence of national patriotism after the events of September 11, 2001 helped the corps recruit new cadets, increasing the ranks to 1,127 by 2018—the largest corps the university has seen since the mid-1960s. The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets is poised to increase enrollment to 1,400 in coming years.


title: Virginia Tech

text: On April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho fatally shot 32 faculty members and students and wounded 17 others in two locations on campus before killing himself. The massacre is the deadliest mass shooting on an American college campus, surpassing Charles Whitman's rampage at the University of Texas in 1966. Although it was at the time the deadliest mass shooting committed by a lone gunman in U.S. history, it has since been surpassed by two shootings at an Orlando nightclub and an outdoor music festival in Las Vegas. It is the second-deadliest school massacre in U.S. history, surpassed only by the Bath School bombing in 1927 that killed 44.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The Virginia Tech massacre led to an intense nationwide debate over gun rights, gun safety and efficacy of gun-free zones. It prompted many states to introduce legislation to prohibit public colleges and universities from banning concealed weapons on campus for permit holders. In 2013, at least 19 states introduced legislation to allow concealed carry on campus in some form, and in the 2014 legislative session, at least 14 states introduced similar legislation. In 2016, Tennessee passed a bill permitting faculty members to carry handguns on campus after notifying local law enforcement. In 2015, Texas became the eighth state to allow concealed weapons on college campuses. In December 2016, Governor John Kasich signed a bill into law that lifted Ohio's statewide ban on firearms on college campuses, leaving the decision to the institutions. In 2017, Georgia became the tenth state to prohibit colleges and universities from banning concealed weapons on campus. Virginia law allows individual institutions to make the decision whether to allow concealed weapons on campus, but Virginia Tech continues to ban concealed carry permit holders from carrying guns on campus.


title: Virginia Tech

text: After Amazon unveiled its second headquarters in Crystal City, Virginia, Virginia Tech announced plans to build a $1 billion graduate research center adjacent to the facility. The Virginia Tech Innovation Campus will be housed at a million-square-foot campus in Alexandria. It is expected to educate hundreds of graduate students. The Innovation Campus will focus on computer science and software engineering, with specializations in areas including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data analytics.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Due to rapid growth of incoming freshmen classes, the university announced in 2019 that it would offer 1,559 incoming, in-state freshmen financial incentives to skip the 2019–20 school year in Blacksburg. Expecting a larger-than-planned class size, the university budgeted $3.3 million for the endeavor. Virginia Tech also waived the requirement that freshmen live on campus for the 2019–20 school year, leased an off-campus Holiday Inn, and converted its on-campus hotel to house students.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Virginia Tech is a public university and one of Virginia's two land-grant institutions. Its academic programs are administered by nine colleges, the Graduate School, and the Honors College.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Virginia Tech offers 116 bachelor's degree programs through its nine undergraduate academic colleges, 160 master's and doctoral degree programs through the Graduate School, and a professional degree from the Virginia–Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. In addition, the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute, is a public/private partnership jointly managed by Virginia Tech and the Carilion Clinic founded on January 3, 2007.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Virginia Tech received a record number of nearly 22,500 applications for the fall 2015 freshman class, an increase of 7.6% from the previous year's 20,897 applications for an overall admissions rate of 65.8%. The typical student offered admission had a high-school grade point average of 4.00, with the middle 50 percent ranging from 3.84 and 4.27. The average cumulative SAT score was 1250 (out of 1600), with a middle range ranging from 1160 to 1340. Of the 5,518 students who accepted the offers of admission (for an admissions yield of 38%), 18 percent accepted under the Early Decision Plan. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions is located within the Visitor and Undergraduate Admissions Center.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Virginia Tech offers a highly selective Honors College, which provides undergraduate students 11 different ways to earn Honors credits towards one of the five Honors degree options. Once admitted, Honors students are required to maintain a 3.6 GPA in order to remain in the program. Roughly one-fourth of the approximately 1,600 University Honors students live in one of the two University Honors residential halls, the Honors Residential College located in East Ambler-Johnston and the Hillcrest Honors Community.


title: Virginia Tech

text: For the 2013–14 academic year, the Graduate School at Virginia Tech enrolled 6,723 graduate students (4,465 full-time; 2,258 part-time) in its masters and doctoral programs.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The Pamplin College of Business received 381 applications for its incoming Evening MBA program, and offered admission to 142. The class's average GMAT was 610, and mean undergraduate GPA was 3.4.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke, Va., received 4,403 applications for its eighth incoming class, the class of 2021, and offered admission to 42. The class's MCAT scores range was 503–520 (median 512, mean 512), and mean undergraduate GPA was 3.57.


title: Virginia Tech

text: In "U.S. News & World Report"s list of "2023 Best Colleges", Virginia Tech tied for 62nd overall among national universities, tied for 23rd among public ones, tied at 41st for "Most Innovative", ranked 156th in "Best Value Schools", and tied for 291st in "Top Performers on Social Mobility".


title: Virginia Tech

text: The Pamplin College of Business's part-time MBA program was tied for 19th overall by "U.S. News & World Report" in 2020. The Master of Information Technology program, jointly sponsored by the Pamplin College of Business and the College of Engineering, is ranked No. 4 in "U.S. News & World Report"s Best Online Graduate Computer Information Technology Programs. This interdisciplinary program is offered entirely online.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Programs in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies (CAUS) include architecture + design, landscape architecture, urban planning, and public administration. In its 2016 "America's Best Architecture & Design Schools" report, "DesignIntelligence" ranked the undergraduate architecture program 3rd nationally among both public and private universities. The graduate architecture program ranked 9th in the nation. For 2013, "DesignIntelligence" ranked the university's undergraduate and graduate landscape architecture programs No. 2 in the nation. In addition, "DesignIntelligence" ranked the university's undergraduate interior design program 6th and undergraduate industrial design program 3rd. The Planetizen 2012 Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs ranked Virginia Tech's MURP program as 19th. Virginia Tech's MURP program was also rated among the best programs in Technology, Land Use Planning, Environmental Planning, and Growth Management.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The College of Natural Resources and Environment's wood science and forest products program accredited by the Society of Wood Science and Technology.


title: Virginia Tech

text: "Kiplinger's Personal Finance" places Virginia Tech 20th in its 2019 ranking of 174 best value public colleges in the United States. In 2018, "CEOWORLD magazine" ranked the undergraduate architecture program 3rd nationally. The graduate architecture program ranked 14th.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Virginia Tech received the following rankings from The Princeton Review in its 2017 "Best 380 Colleges" Rankings:


title: Virginia Tech

text: Virginia Tech's research and development expenditures (R&D) were $542 million in fiscal year 2019, which ranked 48th among education institutions in the nation and 2nd in the state of Virginia according to the National Science Foundation. As a result, Virginia Tech marked its 15th consecutive year of research growth, with the university's research portfolio more than doubling from $192.7 million in fiscal year 2000. The only Virginia institution in the top 50 of the NSF's rankings for research expenditures, Virginia Tech is No. 23 among public universities. The university's research expenditures rank it in the top 5 percent of more than 900 research universities and colleges. Each year, the university receives thousands of awards to conduct research from an ever-expanding base of sponsors. Researchers pursue new discoveries in agriculture, biotechnology, information and communication technology, human health, transportation, energy management (including leadership in fuel-cell technology and power electronics), security, sustainability, and a wide range of other engineering, scientific, social science, and creative fields. This research led to 36 patents and 17 license and option agreements in fiscal year 2013.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The Fralin Life Science Institute is an expansion of the Fralin Biotechnology Center, which was established in 1991. Research at the institute is focused on the areas of vector-borne disease; infectious disease and microbial sciences; plant sciences; obesity; cancer biology; and ecology and organismal biology.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech, formerly known as the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, is a bioinformatics, computational biology, and systems biology research facility that opened in 2000 on Virginia Tech's main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. The institute houses more than 200 employees and multiple supercomputing clusters, and has more than $109 million in active research awards.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) was founded as the Center for Transportation Research in 1988, and employs more than 350 personnel. VTTI has more than $125 million in active research awards, and has a mission to save lives, save time, save money, and protect the environment. It is the second largest university-level transportation institute in the United States, and the largest group of driving safety researchers in the world. Facilities include the , two-lane, fully instrumented Virginia Smart Road; connected-vehicle test beds in Southwest and Northern Virginia; more than 83,000 square feet of office and laboratory space; the VTTI/Center for Injury Biomechanics Crash Sled Lab; and the National Tire Research Center in Southern Virginia. These laboratories include an asphalt lab, fully equipped garages, instrumentation bays, and a machine shop for working on VTTI's vehicle fleet.


title: Virginia Tech

text: VTTI develops and tests advanced transportation safety devices, techniques, and innovative applications. VTTI's research impacts public policy in transportation, notably through research into distracted driving and commercial hour-of-service.


title: Virginia Tech

text: VTTI conducts applied research to address transportation challenges from various perspectives: vehicle, driver, infrastructure, materials, and environment. Most notable among VTTI endeavors are its naturalistic driving studies. These studies particularly utilize VTTI's data acquisition systems, which gather continuous video and driving performance data in real-world driving conditions. These systems have been installed in nearly 4,000 passenger vehicles, commercial trucks and motor coaches, and motorcycles.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Since 2005, the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) has made efforts to build capacity at the intersection of engineering, science, biology, and the humanities. Thrust areas include nuclear engineering, nanoscale science and engineering, nano-bio interface, sustainable energy, safe and sustainable water, national security, cognition and communication systems, renewable materials, and emerging technologies. The first director was Roop L. Mahajan (2005–2016) and the current director is Dr. Stefan Duma (2016–present).


title: Virginia Tech

text: The Virginia Tech Research Center – Arlington (VTRC-A) opened at 900 N. Glebe Road in June 2011. The building is located in the Ballston area of Arlington.


title: Virginia Tech

text: Other research conducted throughout the university's colleges and interdisciplinary groups includes high-performance computing; advanced materials; wireless telecommunication; housing; human and animal health; cognition, development, and behavior; the environment; and energy, including power electronics, biofuels, fuel cells, and solar-powered building structures.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The Virginia Tech campus is in Blacksburg, Virginia. Most buildings are built of limestone in a neo-Gothic style. Notable green spaces include the Hahn Horticulture Garden, Virginia Tech Duck Pond, and the old-growth forest, Stadium Woods.


title: Virginia Tech

text: The central campus is roughly bordered by Prices Fork Road to the northwest, Plantation Drive to the west, Main Street to the east, and US 460 Bypass to the south, though it has several thousand acres beyond the central campus.