title: Joe Bryant

text: In 1975, Bryant married Pam Cox, sister of former NBA player Chubby Cox. Their son, Kobe, had a 20-year Hall of Fame career with the Los Angeles Lakers, winning five NBA championships. Kobe, along with his daughter Gianna, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California on January 26, 2020. Bryant also has two daughters, Sharia and Shaya. Through his wife Pam, he is the uncle of professional basketball player John Cox IV.


title: Ross Geller

text: Ross Geller, portrayed by David Schwimmer, is one of the six main characters of the NBC sitcom "Friends". Ross is considered by many to be the most intelligent member of the group and is noted for his goofy but lovable demeanor. His relationship with Rachel Green was included in "TV Guide"s list of the best TV couples of all time, as well as "Entertainment Weekly"s "30 Best 'Will They/Won't They?' TV Couples". Kevin Bright, who was one of the executive producers of the show, had worked with Schwimmer before, so the writers were already developing Ross's character in Schwimmer's voice. Hence, Schwimmer was the first person to be cast on the show.


title: Ross Geller

text: Ross is a paleontologist and has a Ph.D. from Columbia University. His romantic feelings toward Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), which began as a high-school infatuation, are an ongoing theme of his narrative arc. Likewise, their on-again, off-again romantic relationship is a nearly constant theme of "Friends".


title: Ross Geller

text: Raised on Long Island, Ross is the elder brother of Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), and son of Jack (Elliott Gould) and Judy Geller (Christina Pickles). Ross and Monica are Jewish and see themselves as at least cultural Jews, with Ross taking a more active role in wanting to teach his son, Ben, about the faith. Ross gets divorced and is newly single in first episode because his wife, Carol (Jane Sibbett), has realized she's a lesbian. Later in the series, he dates Rachel, but they split up when he sleeps with another woman the night they decide their relationship is "on a break". After his relationship with Rachel ends, Ross marries Emily Waltham (Helen Baxendale), the niece of Rachel's boss. However, because Ross says "I, Ross, take thee Rachel" instead of Emily during the nuptials, the marriage doesn't last long. In season 5, Ross and Rachel drunkenly marry in Las Vegas, and ultimately that marriage results in a divorce as well; however, they confess that if they ever got married properly it would be the one that lasted. Throughout the series, Ross gets divorced three times. In the first episode of "Joey", the spinoff series, it is hinted that Ross and Rachel may have gotten married again, as Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) tells his sister Gina (Drea de Matteo) that all of his friends are married.


title: Ross Geller

text: A running theme in Ross' narrative is his competition with Monica, manifested through wrestling and paranoia. As children, they took part in a family football game for the "Geller Cup" every Thanksgiving. This tradition ended in its sixth year after Monica "accidentally" broke Ross' nose. The siblings came up with a dance in primary school called "The Routine", which they performed as adults at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve in a New Year's Eve TV broadcast. When they were children, Monica felt that their parents favored Ross, but as time passed and they grew up, she actually liked Ross as a person and loved him more than out of a sense of family obligation. As adults, they became close, though the competition between them was still visible as seen in the season three episode, "The One with the Football".


title: Ross Geller

text: Ross often comes into conflict with Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow). His rationality and Phoebe's eccentricity lead to conflict over evolution, gravity, and whether Phoebe's mother was reincarnated as a cat. It is also revealed that Phoebe once mugged Ross (stealing a copy of the comic book "Science Boy" that Ross had created) when they were teenagers. The two are roommates for a few weeks when a fire forces Phoebe to move out of her apartment. She first moves into Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) and Monica's apartment but then decides she wants to give the newly engaged couple some privacy, so she moves in with Ross. In a "flashback" episode, they are alone at a bar and start kissing, but the moment quickly passes when Ross keeps bumping his head. Phoebe also helps Ross on numerous occasions, ultimately making him realize that he loves Rachel and they both are meant to be together.


title: Ross Geller

text: Since college, Ross' best friend has been Chandler Bing. In college, they were in a band called "Way/No Way", and Ross blamed Chandler when he was caught smoking marijuana. They become brothers-in-law after Chandler married Monica. Though they are best friends, at times Chandler gets annoyed with Ross' geeky behavior.


title: Ross Geller

text: Ross is friends with Rachel Greene, whom he has had a crush on since high school. Rachel viewed Ross as ‘Monica’s geeky older brother’ during high school. During the first episode of the series, when they meet after years apart, he rediscovers his feelings for her. They become close and have an on-and-off romantic relationship through the series. In the final season of the show, Rachel tells him that he means more to her than any other member of their group.


title: Ross Geller

text: He is also close friends with Joey Tribbiani and helps him with auditions. He kisses Joey once in order to help him practice a role as a gay man, only to find out that Joey had already done the audition and didn't get the part. Joey and Ross also briefly try to cut Chandler out of their friend group after Chandler ignores them. They once fall asleep together on the couch after watching "Die Hard". Toward the end of the series, however, Ross and Joey become closer friends, often hanging out together after Chandler gets married.


title: Ross Geller

text: Ross often tries to bring out the best of his friends in difficult situations. For instance, in season 2, he encourages Joey to audition for "Another World" after being fired from "Days of Our Lives" despite Joey's refusal to audition for a two-line part of a secondary character. In season 7, he buys Phoebe the bicycle of her dreams but threatens to take it away from her because of her reluctance to learn how to ride it. Also, when he discovers that Joey has a crush on Rachel, he tells him to go for it, even though he finds it difficult to accept the idea of Joey and Rachel being together. Above all, Ross is portrayed as a very sweet, loving, and adorable character who is always looking out for everyone's best interests and often the most mature compared to the rest of the gang (despite his ego, outbursts, and paranoia).


title: Ross Geller

text: Ross claims to have "given up a career in basketball" to become a paleontologist and claims that the ideas for "Jurassic Park" and "Die Hard" were stolen from him. He also had a major interest in music, playing the keyboard for hours in the basement of their house in Long Island. Ross also claims credit for the Got Milk? slogan.


title: Ross Geller

text: Ross had a pet in the first season of the show: a white-headed capuchin monkey named Marcel (although the monkey used in the series was a female called Katie).


title: Ross Geller

text: Over the course of the show, Ross dates a considerable number of women. He married three times and is divorced three times. His proclivity to marry and divorce is a running gag within the series.


title: Ross Geller

text: Rachel is Ross's most significant relationship during the series. His attraction to her is established early on; Ross met Rachel through his sister Monica, who was Rachel's best friend in high school. He developed an unrequited crush on her but never followed through on it. After leaving college, Ross married Carol, whom he had met at college, and had seemingly put his feelings for Rachel aside before he met her again in "The Pilot".


title: Ross Geller

text: In the Season 1 finale, Ross has to go to China for his work so he asks Chandler to give Rachel a present on her birthday which he had bought for her. Chandler does give the present to Rachel during her birthday celebration while Ross is in China but also accidentally reveals Ross's feelings for Rachel, prompting Rachel to panic and start thinking about Ross in a romantic way. After Ross arrives back from China, Rachel goes to the airport to receive him on realizing that she likes him, but she sees him with Julie and reluctantly backs off.


title: Ross Geller

text: In the season 2 episode "The One Where Ross Finds Out", Rachel is on a date with a guy when she confesses to Ross over the phone in a drunken state that she had feelings for him but now she is over him. Ross hears this message the next day at Monica's apartment with Rachel begging him not to check his messages. Later, in the same episode, they share a passionate kiss at the doors of Central Perk. Later he breaks up with Julie but Rachel decides she does not want to be with him after finding out that he had made a list, on the insistence of Chandler, comparing the good and bad qualities about her and Julie. In the later episode "The One with the Prom Video" it is revealed that Ross, despite being two years senior to Rachel, had decided to be her date on her and Monica's prom, as Rachel's date had not arrived, only to be left disappointed as her date arrives and they both along with Monica and her date take off for the prom. Touched by this, Rachel kisses Ross on learning this revelation, and the two begin dating.


title: Ross Geller

text: However, they take a break from their relationship on their one-year anniversary together after Rachel's overtime work prevents them from spending time together. That same night, Ross has a one-night stand with Chloe, which causes Rachel to officially end their relationship. They get together again at the end of season 3 but again break up at the start of season 4. Some of the later episodes show them to be still in love with each other such as when Ross cancels his Discovery channel show appears to be with Rachel when she breaks her rib or when Rachel flies to London to tell Ross before his wedding with Emily, that she is still in love with him, only to realize that it would be better not to tell. However, Ross accidentally says Rachel's name at the altar, and the marriage soon dissolves.


title: Ross Geller

text: In the season 5 finale "The One in Vegas", Ross and Rachel marry each other after getting drunk in Las Vegas. This marriage ends in a divorce after a failed application for an annulment; the two sadly admit that they thought if they ever married each other it would last.


title: Ross Geller

text: In the seventh season premiere "The One with Monica's Thunder", after the news of Monica and Chandler's engagement, a passionate moment between them leads to Ross and Rachel kissing. Monica is hurt by this as she believed that Rachel was trying to “steal her thunder”. The kiss is later revealed to have happened because Rachel is upset that she is “not even close” to being engaged.


title: Ross Geller

text: At the end of season 7 at Monica and Chandler's wedding, it is revealed that Rachel is pregnant. The father is revealed to be Ross in the second episode of season 8, and Rachel tells him in the next episode. They decide to have the baby, but the two do not resume their romantic relationship. In the middle of the season, Joey asks Rachel to move in with Ross so Ross can be more involved with her pregnancy. In the season 8 finale, Ross's daughter with Rachel named Emma Geller-Green is born. Rachel soon moves out of Ross's apartment in the middle of season 9 when she realizes their situation is not working.


title: Ross Geller

text: In the final episode of the show, when Rachel is moving to Paris for her job with a new fashion brand, Ross tells her at the airport that he loves her and asks not to leave. Rachel initially does not heed his feelings, but when the plane is about to take off, she realizes that she loves him too and gets off the plane. They profess their love for each other and decide to be together once and for all.


title: Ross Geller

text: In the first episode of the spin-off/sequel "Joey", it is hinted that Ross and Rachel were remarried shortly after the events of season 10 as Joey tells his sister Gina that all of his friends have married. In the fifteenth episode, Ross is mentioned, though not by name, in discussion when Joey tells his sister Gina that he confessed his love to Rachel but she was pregnant with Ross's baby and eventually ended up with him, the reason why Joey becomes reluctant to confess the same feelings to his girlfriend, Sarah.


title: Ross Geller

text: Carol (Anita Barone for the pilot episode, Jane Sibbett thereafter) is Ross's first wife and the mother of his son Ben. In the very first episode, Carol has just moved out of their apartment after coming out of the closet as a lesbian and leaving Ross for a woman named Susan Bunch, whom she later marries.


title: Ross Geller

text: In the early days, however, Ross and Carol seemed to have had a very passionate relationship. Carol is the only woman he's ever had sex with (and hence lost his virginity to) at the start of the series. It is also revealed they shared a steamy session at Disneyland behind the "Dutch children" in It's a Small World, which got them a lifetime ban from the theme park. In the third-season episode, "The One with the Flashback", it is revealed that Carol met Susan at her gym, and it is implied that they had a short affair before Carol could no longer bring herself to cheat on Ross, who innocently believed they were just friends and told him the truth.


title: Ross Geller

text: Ross maintains a fairly healthy relationship with Carol after their divorce and both decide to raise Ben together through shared parenting, but he doesn't hide his contempt for Susan as she "destroyed their marriage" and initially wanted to keep him out of Ben's life, having once told him to his face that the baby was not his and would not have the surname "Geller". He briefly considers getting back together with Carol and they even share a kiss at a sushi restaurant, but Carol makes it clear that she can't reciprocate his feelings and has chosen to be with Susan. In the second season, when Carol and Susan briefly call off their wedding due to Carol's homophobic parents' refusal to bless their relationship, Ross gives Carol away at the wedding and shares a dance with Susan, who develops a newfound respect for him.


title: Ross Geller

text: In the alternate timeline episode "The One That Could Have Been" (season 6), Carol and Susan are portrayed in a far more negative light. Exploring what could have happened if Ross and Carol never got divorced, it is revealed that they have been on a sexual dry spell that has lasted for months. During ideas to improve their sex life, Carol suddenly becomes very excited when Ross proposes that they have a threesome with another woman. Picking Susan, whom she met at her gym just like in the real timeline, the two women immediately proceed to have sex without Ross right in front of him, seemingly indifferent to his feelings. Ross later explains to Joey that he felt like a third wheel, just having sex with Carol while Susan kept kicking him away, and ended up being so bored he made himself a sandwich. Ross realizes his wife is a lesbian when Rachel states outright that Carol "sounds gay."


title: Ross Geller

text: During the fourth season, Ross meets and falls in love with Emily Waltham (Helen Baxendale), a British woman who is set up with Ross by Rachel. Six weeks into their relationship, Ross asks Emily to move in with him. This escalates into a marriage proposal. The two plan a wedding in London, to which Rachel is invited.


title: Ross Geller

text: During the ceremony, Ross, upon seeing Rachel, has a slip of the tongue and says Rachel's name instead of Emily's during his vows. Emily is furious and leaves the wedding. She later decides to forgive Ross, and reaches the airport in time to leave for their honeymoon, but is upset when she sees Ross and Rachel boarding the plane together after Ross, having given up on meeting Emily at the airport, invites Rachel on their honeymoon as a friend. Emily flees again. She later calls Ross only to tell him that he has to stop calling and harassing her relatives, but Ross makes her reveal her love for him. She says that she will return only if Ross stops being friends with Rachel. Unable to do so, Ross ends his marriage with Emily.


title: Ross Geller

text: Shortly before Emily gets remarried to another man, she gets cold feet and leaves a message on Ross's answering machine asking whether their divorce was a mistake. Rachel accidentally deletes Emily's message. Despite Monica pleading to keep Ross in the dark about it, Rachel tells him that Emily called, as she believes he should be in charge of his own happiness. When he starts to doubt whether or not he should return Emily's call, however, Rachel convinces him not to.


title: Ross Geller

text: Ross Geller has become a well-known figure in pop culture, in particular, due to his relationship with Rachel Green, his neurotic nature, and his love for dinosaurs.


title: Ross Geller

text: In October 2016, Ross Geller was voted "the Best Friends Character" in an international poll held by Comedy Central, during six weeks of ""FriendsFest"" on the channel.


title: Montmartre

text: Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Caulaincourt and Rue Custine on the north, the Rue de Clignancourt on the east and the Boulevard de Clichy and Boulevard de Rochechouart to the south, containing . Montmartre is primarily known for its artistic history, the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur on its summit, as well as a nightclub district.


title: Montmartre

text: The other church on the hill, Saint Pierre de Montmartre, built in 1147, was the church of the prestigious Montmartre Abbey. On 15 August 1534, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Francis Xavier and five other companions bound themselves by vows in the Martyrium of Saint Denis, 11 Rue Yvonne Le Tac, the first step in the creation of the Jesuits.


title: Montmartre

text: Near the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, during the Belle Époque, many artists lived, worked, or had studios in or around Montmartre, including Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Suzanne Valadon, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro and Vincent van Gogh. Montmartre is also the setting for several hit films.


title: Montmartre

text: The area is served by Métro, with Line 2 stations at Barbès–Rochechouart, Anvers, Pigalle and Blanche, Line 4 stations at Château Rouge and Barbès–Rochechouart, as well as Line 12 stations at Pigalle, Abbesses, Lamarck–Caulaincourt and Jules Joffrin. It is also served by the Montmartre Funicular.


title: Montmartre

text: The toponym "Mons Martis", Latin for "Mount of Mars", survived into Merovingian times, gallicised as Montmartre.


title: Montmartre

text: Archaeological excavations show that the heights of Montmartre were occupied from at least Gallo-Roman times. Texts from the 8th century cite the name of "mons Mercori" (Mount Mercury); a 9th-century text speaks of Mount Mars. Excavations in 1975 north of the Church of Saint-Pierre found coins from the 3rd century and the remains of a major wall. Earlier excavations in the 17th century at the Fontaine-du-But (2 rue Pierre-Dac) found vestiges of Roman baths from the 2nd century.


title: Montmartre

text: The butte owes its particular religious importance to the text entitled "Miracles of Saint-Denis", written before 885 by Hilduin, abbot of the monastery of Saint-Denis, which recounted how Saint Denis, a Christian bishop, was decapitated on the hilltop in 250 AD on orders of the Roman prefect Fescennius Sisinius for preaching the Christian faith to the Gallo-Roman inhabitants of Lutetia. According to Hilduin, Denis collected his head and carried it as far as the "fontaine Saint-Denis" (on modern "impasse Girardon"), then descended the north slope of the hill, where he died. Hilduin wrote that a church had been built "in the place formerly called Mont de Mars, and then, by a happy change, 'Mont des Martyrs'."


title: Montmartre

text: In 1134, king Louis VI purchased the Merovingian chapel and built on the site the church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, still standing. He also founded The Royal Abbey of Montmartre, a monastery of the Benedictine order, whose buildings, gardens and fields occupied most of Montmartre. He also built a small chapel, called the "Martyrium", at the site where it was believed that Saint Denis had been decapitated. It became a popular pilgrimage site. In the 17th century, a priory called "abbaye d'en bas" was built at that site, and in 1686 it was occupied by a community of nuns.


title: Montmartre

text: The abbey was destroyed in 1790 during the French Revolution, and the convent demolished to make place for gypsum mines. The church of Saint-Pierre was saved. At the place where the chapel of the Martyrs was located (now 11 rue Yvonne-Le Tac), an oratory was built in 1855. It was renovated in 1994.


title: Montmartre

text: By the 15th century, the north and northeast slopes of the hill were the site of a village surrounded by vineyards, gardens and orchards of peach and cherry trees. The first mills were built on the western slope in 1529, grinding wheat, barley and rye. There were thirteen mills at one time, though by the late nineteenth century only two remained,


title: Montmartre

text: During the 1590 Siege of Paris, in the last decade of the French Wars of Religion, Henry IV placed his artillery on top of the "butte" of Montmartre to fire down into the city. The siege eventually failed when a large relief force approached and forced Henry to withdraw.


title: Montmartre

text: In 1790, Montmartre was located just outside the limits of Paris. That year, under the revolutionary government of the National Constituent Assembly, it became the "commune" of Montmartre, with its town hall located on "place du Tertre", site of the former abbey. The main businesses of the "commune" were wine making, stone quarries and gypsum mines. (See Mines of Paris). The mining of gypsum had begun in the Gallo-Roman period, first in open air mines and then underground, and continued until 1860. The gypsum was cut into blocks, baked, then ground and put into sacks. Sold as "'montmartarite", it was used for plaster, because of its resistance to fire and water. Between the 7th and 9th centuries, most of the sarcophagi found in ancient sites were made of molded gypsum. In modern times, the mining was done with explosives, which riddled the ground under the butte with tunnels, making the ground very unstable and difficult to build upon. The construction of the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur required making a special foundation that descended 40 metres under the ground to hold the structure in place. A fossil tooth found in one of these mines was identified by Georges Cuvier as an extinct equine, which he dubbed "Palaeotherium", the "ancient animal". His sketch of the entire animal in 1825 was matched by a skeleton discovered later.


title: Montmartre

text: Russian soldiers occupied Montmartre during the Battle of Paris in 1814. They used the altitude of the hill for artillery bombardment of the city.


title: Montmartre

text: Montmartre remained outside of the city limits of Paris until January 1, 1860, when it was annexed to the city along with other communities ("faubourgs") surrounding Paris, and became part of the 18th arrondissement of Paris.


title: Montmartre

text: In 1871, Montmartre was the site of the beginning of the revolutionary uprising of the Paris Commune. During the Franco-Prussian War, the French army had stored a large number of cannon in a park at the top of the hill, near where the basilica is today. On 18 March 1871, the soldiers from the French Army tried to remove the cannon from the hilltop. They were blocked by members of the politically-radicalised Paris National Guard, who captured and then killed two French army generals, and installed a revolutionary government that lasted two months. The heights of Montmartre were retaken by the French Army with heavy fighting at the end of May 1871, during what became known as the Semaine Sanglante, or "Bloody Week".


title: Montmartre

text: In 1870, the future French prime minister during World War I, Georges Clemenceau, was appointed mayor of the 18th arrondissement, including Montmartre, by the new government of the Third Republic, and was also elected to the National Assembly. A member of the radical republican party, Clemenceau tried unsuccessfully to find a peaceful compromise between the even more radical Paris Commune and the more conservative French government. The Commune refused to recognize him as mayor, and seized the town hall. He ran for a seat in the council of the Paris Commune, but received less than eight hundred votes. He did not participate in the Commune, and was out of the city when the Commune was suppressed by the French army. In 1876, he again was elected as deputy for Montmartre and the 18th arrondissement.


title: Montmartre

text: The Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur was built on Montmartre from 1876 to 1919, financed by public subscription as a gesture of expiation for the suffering of France during the Franco-Prussian War. Its white dome is a highly visible landmark in the city, and near it artists set up their easels each day amidst the tables and colourful umbrellas of the "place du Tertre".


title: Montmartre

text: By the 19th century, the butte was famous for its cafés, guinguettes with public dancing, and cabarets. Le Chat Noir at 84 "boulevard de Rochechouart" was founded in 1881 by Rodolphe Salis, and became a popular haunt for writers and poets. The composer Eric Satie earned money by playing the piano there. The Moulin Rouge at 94 "boulevard de Clichy" was founded in 1889 by Joseph Oller and Charles Zidler; it became the birthplace of the French cancan. Artists who performed in the cabarets of Montmartre included Yvette Guilbert, Marcelle Lender, Aristide Bruant, La Goulue, Georges Guibourg, Mistinguett, Fréhel, Jane Avril, and Damia.


title: Montmartre

text: During the "Belle Époque" from 1872 to 1914, many artists lived and worked in Montmartre, where the rents were low and the atmosphere congenial. Pierre-Auguste Renoir rented space at "12 rue Cortot" in 1876 to paint "Bal du moulin de la Galette", showing a dance at Montmartre on a Sunday afternoon. Maurice Utrillo lived at the same address from 1906 to 1914, and Raoul Dufy shared an atelier there from 1901 to 1911. The building is now the "Musée de Montmartre". Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani and other artists lived and worked in a building called Le Bateau-Lavoir during the years 1904–1909, where Picasso painted one of his most important masterpieces, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon". Several composers, including Erik Satie, lived in the neighbourhood. Most of the artists left after the outbreak of World War I, the majority of them going to the Montparnasse quarter.


title: Montmartre

text: Artists' associations such as Les Nabis and the "Incohérents" were formed and individuals including Vincent van Gogh, Pierre Brissaud, Alfred Jarry, Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Henri Matisse, André Derain, Suzanne Valadon, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Théophile Steinlen, and African-American expatriates such as Langston Hughes worked in Montmartre and drew some of their inspiration from the area.


title: Montmartre

text: The last of the bohemian Montmartre artists was Gen Paul (1895–1975), born in Montmartre and a friend of Utrillo. Paul's calligraphic expressionist lithographs, sometimes memorializing picturesque Montmartre itself, owe a lot to Raoul Dufy.


title: Montmartre

text: Among the last of the neighborhood's bohemian gathering places was R-26, an artistic salon frequented by Josephine Baker, Le Corbusier and Django Reinhardt. Its name was commemorated by Reinhardt in his 1947 tune "R. vingt-six".


title: Montmartre

text: There is a small vineyard in the Rue Saint-Vincent, which continues the tradition of wine production in the Île de France; it yields about 500 litres per year.


title: Montmartre

text: The Musée de Montmartre is in the house where the painters Maurice Utrillo and Suzanne Valadon lived and worked in second-floor studios. The house was Pierre-Auguste Renoir's first Montmartre address. Many other personalities moved through the premises. The mansion in the garden at the back is the oldest hotel on Montmartre, and one of its first owners was Claude de la Rose, a 17th-century actor known as "Rosimond", who bought it in 1680. Claude de la Rose was the actor who replaced Molière, and who, like his predecessor, died on stage.


title: Montmartre

text: Nearby, day and night, tourists visit such sights as Place du Tertre and the cabaret du Lapin Agile, where the artists had worked and gathered. Many renowned artists, such as painter and sculptor Edgar Degas and film director François Truffaut, are buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre and the Cimetière Saint-Vincent. Near the top of the butte, Espace Dalí showcases surrealist artist Salvador Dalí's work. Montmartre is an officially designated historic district with limited development allowed in order to maintain its historic character.


title: Montmartre

text: An inclined railway, the Funiculaire de Montmartre, operated by the RATP, ascends the hill from the south while the Montmartre bus circles the hill.


title: Montmartre

text: Downhill to the southwest is the red-light district of Pigalle. That area is, today, largely known for a wide variety of stores specializing in instruments for rock music. There are also several concert halls, also used for rock music. The actual Moulin Rouge theatre is also in Pigalle, near the Blanche métro station.


title: Lake Erie

text: Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. At its deepest point Lake Erie is deep.


title: Lake Erie

text: Situated on the International Boundary between Canada and the United States, Lake Erie's northern shore is the Canadian province of Ontario, specifically the Ontario Peninsula, with the U.S. states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York on its western, southern, and eastern shores. These jurisdictions divide the surface area of the lake with water boundaries. The largest city on the lake is Cleveland, anchoring the third largest U.S. metro area in the Great Lakes region, after Greater Chicago and Metro Detroit. Other major cities along the lake shore include Buffalo, New York; Erie, Pennsylvania; and Toledo, Ohio.


title: Lake Erie

text: Situated below Lake Huron, Erie's primary inlet is the Detroit River. The main natural outflow from the lake is via the Niagara River, which provides hydroelectric power to Canada and the U.S. as it spins huge turbines near Niagara Falls at Lewiston, New York and Queenston, Ontario. Some outflow occurs via the Welland Canal, part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, which diverts water for ship passages from Port Colborne, Ontario on Lake Erie, to St. Catharines on Lake Ontario, an elevation difference of . Lake Erie's environmental health has been an ongoing concern for decades, with issues such as overfishing, pollution, algae blooms, and eutrophication generating headlines.


title: Lake Erie

text: Lake Erie (42.2° N, 81.2W) has a mean elevation of above sea level. It has a surface area of with a length of and breadth of at its widest points. It is the shallowest of the Great Lakes with an average depth of 10 fathoms 3 feet or and a maximum depth of Because Erie is the shallowest, it is also the warmest of the Great Lakes, and in 1999 this almost became a problem for two nuclear power plants which require cool lake water to keep their reactors cool. The warm summer of 1999 caused lake temperatures to come close to the limit necessary to keep the plants cool. Also because of its shallowness, it is the first to freeze in the winter. The shallowest section of Lake Erie is the western basin where depths average only ; as a result, "the slightest breeze can kick up lively waves," also known as seiches. The "waves build very quickly", according to other accounts. The region around the lake is known as the "thunderstorm capital of Canada" with "breathtaking" lightning displays. Sometimes fierce waves springing up unexpectedly have led to dramatic rescues; in one instance, a Cleveland resident trying to measure the dock near his house became trapped but was rescued by a fire department diver from Avon Lake, Ohio:


title: Lake Erie

text: Lake Erie is primarily fed by the Detroit River (from Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair) and drains via the Niagara River and Niagara Falls into Lake Ontario. Navigation downstream is provided by the Welland Canal, part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Other major contributors to Lake Erie include Grand River, Huron River, Maumee River, Sandusky River, Buffalo River, and Cuyahoga River. The drainage basin covers .


title: Lake Erie

text: Point Pelee National Park, the southernmost point of the Canadian mainland, is located on a peninsula extending into the lake. Lake Erie has 31 islands (13 in Canada, 18 in the U.S.), located generally in the western side of the lake. The largest of these is Pelee Island.


title: Lake Erie

text: Lake Erie has a lake retention time of 2.6 years, the shortest of all the Great Lakes. The lake's surface area is . Lake Erie's water level fluctuates with the seasons as in the other Great Lakes. Generally, the lowest levels are in January and February and the highest in June or July, although there have been exceptions. The average yearly level varies depending on long-term precipitation. Short-term level changes are often caused by seiches that are particularly high when southwesterly winds blow across the length of the lake during storms. These cause water to pile up at the eastern end of the lake. Storm-driven seiches can cause damage onshore. During one storm in November 2003, the water level at Buffalo rose by with waves of for a rise of . Meanwhile, at the western end of the lake, Toledo experienced a similar drop in water level.


title: Lake Erie

text: Lake Erie was carved out by glacier ice and in its current form is less than 4,000 years old, which is a short span in geological terms. Before this, the land on which the lake now sits went through several complex stages. A large lowland basin formed over two million years ago as a result of an eastern flowing river that existed well before the Pleistocene ice ages. This ancient drainage system was destroyed by the first major glacier in the area, while it deepened and enlarged the lowland areas, allowing water to settle and form a lake. The glaciers were able to carve away more land on the eastern side of the lowland because the bedrock is made of shale which is softer than the carbonate rocks of dolomite and limestone on the western side. Thus, the eastern and central basins of the modern lake are much deeper than the western basin, which averages only deep and is rich in nutrients and fish. Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes because the ice was relatively thin and lacked erosion power when it reached that far south, according to one view.


title: Lake Erie

text: As many as three glaciers advanced and retreated over the land, causing temporary lakes to form in the time periods in between each of them. Because each lake had a different volume of water, their shorelines rested at differing elevations. The last of these lakes to form, Lake Warren, existed between about 13,000 and 12,000 years ago. It was deeper than the current Lake Erie, and its shoreline existed about inland from the modern one. The shorelines of these lakes left behind high ground sand ridges that cut through swamps and were used as trails for Indians and later, pioneers. These trails became primitive roads which were eventually paved. U.S. Route 30 west of Delphos, Ohio, and U.S. Route 20 west of Norwalk and east of Cleveland were formed in this manner. The ancient sand dunes are visible in the Oak Openings Region in Northwest Ohio. There, the sandy dry lake bed soil was not sufficient to support large trees with the exception of a few species of oaks, forming a rare oak savanna.


title: Lake Erie

text: At the time of European contact, there were several Indigenous peoples living around the shores of the eastern end of the lake. The Erie tribe (from whom the lake takes its name) lived along the southern edge, while the Neutrals (also known as Attawandaron) lived along the northern shore. The tribal name "erie" is a shortened form of the Iroquoian word , meaning "long tail". The name may also come from the word "eri", meaning "cherry tree". Near Port Stanley, there is an Indigenous village dating from the 16th century known as the "Southwold Earthworks" where as many as 800 Neutral Indigenous peoples once lived; the archaeological remains include double earth walls winding around the grass-covered perimeter. Europeans named the tribe the "Neutral Indians" since these people refused to fight with other tribes.


title: Lake Erie

text: Both the Erie and Neutrals were conquered and assimilated by their hostile eastern neighbors, the Iroquois Confederacy, between 1651 and 1657 during the Beaver Wars. For decades after those wars, the land around eastern Lake Erie was claimed and utilized by the Iroquois as a hunting ground. As the power of the Iroquois waned during the last quarter of the 17th century, several other, mainly Anishinaabe, displaced them from the territories they claimed on the north shore of the lake. There was a legend of an Indigenous woman named Huldah, who, despairing over her lost British lover, hurled herself from a high rock from Pelee Island.


title: Lake Erie

text: In 1669, Frenchman Louis Jolliet was the first documented European to sight Lake Erie, although there is speculation that Étienne Brûlé may have come across it in 1615. Lake Erie was the last of the Great Lakes to be explored by Europeans, since the Iroquois who occupied the Niagara River area were in conflict with the French, and they did not allow explorers or traders to pass through; explorers followed rivers out of Lake Ontario and portaged to Lake Huron. British authorities in Canada were nervous about possible expansion by American settlers across Lake Erie, so Colonel Thomas Talbot developed the Talbot Trail in 1809 as a way to stimulate settlement to the area; Talbot recruited settlers from Ireland and Scotland, and there are numerous places named after him in southern Ontario, such as Port Talbot, the Talbot River, and Talbotville.


title: Lake Erie

text: During the War of 1812, Oliver Hazard Perry captured an entire British fleet in 1813 near Put-in-Bay, Ohio, despite having inferior numbers. American soldiers swept through the Ontario area around Port Rowan burning towns and villages. Generally, however, with the exceptions of the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812—which involved conflicts between the U.S. and the United Kingdom—relations between the U.S. and Canada have been remarkably friendly with an "unfortified boundary" and an agreement "that has kept all fleets of war off the Great Lakes."


title: Lake Erie

text: In 1837, rebellions broke about between Canadian settlers and the British Colonial government. These primarily concerned political reforms and land allocation issues. Some of the rebels stationed themselves in the U.S. and crossed the ice from Sandusky Bay to Pelee Island wearing "tattered overcoats and worn-out boots", and carrying muskets, pitchforks, and swords, but the islanders had already fled. Later, there was a battle on the ice with the Royal 32nd Regiment, with the rebels being driven to retreat.


title: Lake Erie

text: Settlers established commercial fisheries on the north coast of the lake around the 1850s. An important business was fishing. In the pre-Civil War years, railways sprouted everywhere, and around 1852 there were railways circling the lake. Maritime traffic picked up, although the lake was usually closed because of ice from December to early April, and ships had to wait for the ice to clear before proceeding. Since slavery had been abolished in Canada in 1833 but was still legal in southern U.S., a Lake Erie crossing was sometimes required for fugitive slaves seeking freedom:


title: Lake Erie

text: There were reports of disasters usually from sea captains passing information to reporters; in 1868, the captain of the "Grace Whitney" saw a sunken vessel with "three men clinging to the masthead," but he could not help because of the gale and high seas.


title: Lake Erie

text: A balloonist named John Steiner of Philadelphia made an ambitious trip across the lake in 1857. His voyage was described in "The New York Times":


title: Lake Erie

text: In 1885, lake winds were so strong that water levels dropped substantially, sometimes by as much as two feet, so that at ports such as Toledo, watercraft could not load coal or depart the port. During the history of the lake as a fishery, there has been marked battling by opposing interest groups:


title: Lake Erie

text: Predictions of the lake being over-fished in 1895 were premature, since the fishery has survived commercial and sport fishing, pollution in the middle of the 20th century, invasive species and other ailments, but state and provincial governments, as well as national governments, have played a greater role as time went by. Business boomed; in 1901, the Carnegie Company proposed building a new harbor near Erie, Pennsylvania, in Elk Creek to accommodate shipments from its tube-plant site nearby. In 1913, a memorial to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry was built on Put-in-Bay island featuring a Doric column.


title: Lake Erie

text: During the Prohibition years from 1919 to 1933, a "great deal of alcohol crossed Erie" along with "mobster corpses" dumped into the Detroit River which sometimes washed up on the beaches of Pelee Island. Notable rum runners included Thomas Joseph McGinty and the Purple Gang. The Coast Guard attempted to interdict the Canadian liquor with its Rum Patrol, and a casino operated on Middle Island.


title: Lake Erie

text: During the 20th century, commercial fishing was prevalent but so was the boom in manufacturing industry around the lake, and often rivers and streams were used as sewers to flush untreated sewage which ended up in the lake. Sometimes poorly constructed sanitary systems meant that when old pipes broke, raw sewage would spill directly into the Cuyahoga River and into the lake. A report in "Time" magazine in 1969 described the lake as a "gigantic cesspool" since only three of 62 beaches were rated "completely safe for swimming".


title: Lake Erie

text: By 1975 the popular commercial fish blue pike had been declared extinct, although the declaration may have been premature. By the 1980s, there were about 130 fishing vessels with about 3,000 workers, but commercial fishing was declining rapidly, particularly from the American side.


title: Lake Erie

text: In 2005, the Great Lakes states of Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Canadian Provinces of Ontario and Quebec endorsed the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Compact. The compact was signed into law by President George W. Bush in September 2008. An international water rights policy overseen by the Great Lakes Commission, the compact aims to prevent diversion of water from Great Lakes to distant states, as well as to set standards for use and conservation. It had support from both political parties, including United States Senator George Voinovich of Ohio and Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, but is not popular in the southwestern states because of frequent drought conditions and water scarcity.


title: Lake Erie

text: Like the other Great Lakes, Erie produces lake-effect snow when the first cold winds of winter pass over the warm waters. When the temperatures of the relatively warm surface water and the colder air separate to at least to apart, then "lake-effect snow becomes possible:"


title: Lake Erie

text: Heavy lake-effect snowfalls can occur when cold air travels or longer over a large unfrozen lake. Lake-effect snow makes Buffalo and Erie the eleventh and thirteenth snowiest cities in the entire United States respectively, according to data collected from the National Climatic Data Center. Since winds blow primarily west to east along the main axis of the lake, lake-effect snowstorms are more pronounced on the eastern parts of the lake. Buffalo typically gets of snow each winter and sometimes of snow; the snowiest city is Syracuse, New York, which can receive heavy snowfall from both the lake effect process and large coastal cyclones. A storm around Christmas in 2001 pounded Buffalo with of snow.


title: Lake Erie

text: The effects of the warmer lake water is reduced when the lake freezes over. In January 2011, for example, residents of Cleveland were glad when Lake Erie was "90 percent frozen" since it meant that the area had "made it over the hump" in terms of enduring repeated snowfalls which required much shoveling. Being the shallowest of the Great Lakes, it is the most likely to freeze and frequently does. In contrast, Lake Michigan has never completely frozen over since the warmer and deeper portion is in the south, although it came close to being totally frozen during three harsh winters over the past century. In past years, lake ice was so thick that it was possible to drive over it or go sailing on iceboats. Many lake residents take advantage of the ice and travel; some drive to Canada and back:


title: Lake Erie

text: Strong winds have caused lake currents to shift sediment on the bottom, leading to shifting sandbars that have been the cause of shipwrecks. But winds can have a peaceful purpose as well; there have been proposals to place electricity–producing wind turbines in windy and shallow points in the lake and along the coast. Steel Winds, a former steel mill site in Buffalo, has been developed as an urban wind farm housing 14 turbines capable of generating up to 35 megawatts of electricity. A plan by Samsung to build an offshore wind farm on the north shore of the lake, from Port Maitland to Nanticoke for a distance of , has been met with opposition from residents. Canadians near Leamington and Kingsville have organized protest groups to thwart attempts to bring wind turbines to the lake; reasons against the turbines include spoiling lake views. Plans to install turbines in Pigeon Bay, south of Leamington were met with opposition as well. The notion that bird and bat migration may be hurt by the wind turbines has been used to argue against the wind turbines as well.


title: Lake Erie

text: The lake is responsible for microclimates that are important to agriculture. Along its north shore is one of the richest areas of Canada's fruit and vegetable production; this southernmost tip, particularly in the area around Leamington, is known as Canada's "tomato capital". The area around Port Rowan has special trees which grow because of the "tempering effect of the lake", and species include tulip trees, dogwood, sassafras and sour gum. In this area there are many greenhouses which produce a "variety of tropical plants rarely cultivated so far north", including some species of cacti, because of the lake's tempering effect. Along the southeastern shore of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York is an important grape growing region, as are the islands in the lake. Apple orchards are abundant in northeast Ohio to western New York.


title: Lake Erie

text: According to one estimate, of water evaporates each year from the surface of the lake, which allows for rainfall and other precipitation in surrounding areas. There are conflicting reports about the overall effect of global warming on the Great Lakes region, including Lake Erie. One account suggests that climate change is causing greater evaporation of lake water, leading to warmer temperatures as well as ice in winter which is less thick or nonexistent, fueling concerns that "Erie appears to be shrinking" and is the most likely candidate among the five Great Lakes to "turn into a festering mud puddle." In 2010, the "Windsor Star" reported that the lake experienced record-breaking water temperatures reaching in mid-August and compared the lake to a "bath tub".


title: Lake Erie

text: Lake Erie has a complex ecosystem with many species in interaction. Human activity, such as pollution and maritime ship traffic, can affect this environment in numerous ways. The interactions between new species can sometimes have beneficial effects, as well as harmful effects. Some introductions have been seen as beneficial such as the introduction of Pacific salmon. Occasionally there have been mass die-offs of certain species of fish, sometimes for reasons unknown, such as many numbers of rainbow smelt in May 2010.


title: Lake Erie

text: The lake has been plagued with a number of invasive species, including zebra and quagga mussels, the goby and the grass carp. One estimate was that there have been 180 invasive species in the Great Lakes, some having traveled in ballast water in international ships. Zebra mussels and gobies have been credited with the increased population and size of smallmouth bass in Lake Erie. In 2008 there were concerns that the "newest invader swarming in the Great Lakes", which was the bloody-red shrimp, might harm fish populations and promote algae blooms.


title: Lake Erie

text: Environmentalists and biologists study lake conditions via installations such as the Franz Theodore Stone Laboratory on Gibraltar Island. The lab, which was established in 1895, is the oldest biological field station in the United States. Stone Laboratory was donated to the Ohio State University by Julius Stone in 1925 as part of the university's Ohio Sea Grant College Program. The Great Lakes Institute of the University of Windsor has experts who study issues such as lake sediment pollution and the flow of contaminants such as phosphorus.


title: Lake Erie

text: Other invasive species in Lake Erie include: spiny water fleas, fishhook water fleas, sea lamprey, and white perch. The invasive plant species in Lake Erie consist mainly of Eurasian milfoil, Trapa natans and purple loosestrife. The shore of the lake is also host to invasive species of the Phragmites reed.


title: Lake Erie

text: An ongoing concern is that nutrient overloading from fertilizers, human and animal waste, known as eutrophication, in which additional nitrogen and phosphorus enter the lake, will cause plant life to "run wild and multiply like crazy". Since there are fewer wetlands to filter nutrients, as well as greater channelization of waterways, nutrients in water can cause algal blooms to sprout as well as "low-oxygen dead zones" in a complex interaction of natural forces. As of the 2010s, much of the phosphorus in the lake comes from fertilizer applied to no-till soybean and corn fields but washed into streams by heavy rains. The algal blooms result from growth of "Microcystis", a toxic blue-green algae that the zebra mussels, which infest the lake, will not eat.


title: Lake Erie

text: There periodically is a "dead zone", or region of low oxygen, in the lake, the location of which varies. Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been studying the lake's blue-green algae blooms and trying to find ways to predict when they are spreading or where they might make landfall; typically the blooms arrive late each summer. This problem was extreme in the mid and late 1960s, and the Lake Erie Wastewater Management Study conducted by the Buffalo District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determined that the eutrophication was caused by point sources such as industrial outfalls and municipal sanitary and storm sewer outfalls, as well as diffuse sources, such as overland runoff from farm and forest land. All of these sources contribute nutrients, primarily phosphorus, to the lake. Growth of organisms in the lake is then spiked to the point that oxygen levels are depleted. Recommendations were made for reducing point source outflows, as well as reducing farm contributions of phosphorus by changing fertilizer usage, employing no-till farming and other conservative practices. Many industrial and municipal sources have since then been greatly reduced. The improved farming practices, which were voluntary, were followed for a while, resulting in remarkable recovery of the lake in the 1970s.


title: Lake Erie

text: The conservation practices are not monitored and have not been kept up. One recent account suggests that the seasonal algae blooms in Lake Erie were possibly caused by runoff from cities, fertilizers, zebra mussels, and livestock near water. A second report focuses on the zebra mussels as being the cause of dead zones since they filter so much sediment that this produces an overgrowth of algae. One report suggests the oxygen-poor zone began about 1993 in the lake's central basin and becomes more pronounced during summer months, but it is somewhat of a mystery why this happens. Some scientists speculate that the dead zone is a naturally occurring phenomenon. Another report cites Ohio's Maumee River as the main source of polluted runoff of phosphorus from industries, municipalities, tributaries and agriculture, and in 2008, satellite images showed the algal bloom heading toward Pelee Island. There have been two-year $2 million studies trying to understand the "growing zone" which was described as a 10-foot-thick layer of cold water at the bottom, in one area, which stretches across the lake's center. It kills fish and microscopic creatures of the lake's food chain and fouls the water, and may cause further problems in later years for sport and commercial fishing.


title: Lake Erie

text: Algae blooms continued in early 2013, but new farming techniques, climate change and even a change in Lake Erie's ecosystem make phosphorus pollution more intractable. Blue-green algae, or Cyanobacteria blooms, were problematic in August 2019. According to a news report in August, "scientists fully expect [it] to overwhelm much of western Lake Erie again this summer". By August 12, 2019, the bloom extended for roughly . A large bloom does not necessarily mean the cyanobacteria ... will produce toxins", said Michael McKay, executive director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER) at the University of Windsor. "Not enough is being done to stop fertilizer and phosphorus from getting into the lake and causing blooms," he added. Water testing was being conducted in August. The largest Lake Erie blooms to date occurred in 2015, exceeding the severity index at 10.5 and in 2011 at a 10, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In early August, the 2019 bloom was expected to measure 7.5 on the severity index, but could range between 6 and 9. At that time, satellite images depicted a bloom stretching up to on Lake Erie, with the epicenter near Toledo, Ohio.


title: Lake Erie

text: The Lake Erie water snake, a subspecies of the northern water snake ("Nerodia sipedon"), lives in the vicinity of Ohio's Put-in-Bay Harbor and had been placed on the threatened species list. By 2010, the water snake population was over 12,000 snakes. While they have a non-venomous bite, they are a key predator in the lake's aquatic ecosystem since they feed on mudpuppies, walleye, and smallmouth bass. The snake is helpful in keeping the population of goby fish in check. They mate from late May through early June and can be found in large mating balls with one female bunched with several males.


title: Lake Erie

text: In 1999, a local TV station's Doppler weather radar detected millions of mayflies heading for Presque Isle in blue and green splotches on the radar in clouds measuring long. These insects were a sign of Lake Erie's move back to health, since the mayflies require clean water to thrive. Biologist Masteller of Pennsylvania State University declared the bugs to be a "nice nuisance" since they signified the lake's return to health after forty years of absence. Each is long; the three main species of mayflies are "Ephemera simulans", "Hexagenia rigida" and "Hexagenia limbata". The insects mate over a 72-hour period from June through September; they fly in masses up to the shore, mate in the air, then females lay up to 8,000 eggs each over the water; the eggs sink back down and the cycle repeats. Sometimes the clouds of mayflies have caused power outages and roads to become slippery with squashed insects. Since zebra mussels filter extra nutrients from the lake, it allows the mayfly larvae to thrive.


title: Lake Erie

text: There have been incidents of birds dying from botulism, in 2000 and in 2002. Birds affected included grebes, common and red-breasted mergansers, loons, diving ducks, ring-billed gulls and herring gulls. One account suggests that bird populations are in trouble, notably the wood warbler, which had population declines around 60% in 2008. Possible causes for declines in bird populations are farming practices, loss of habitats, soil depletion and erosion, and toxic chemicals. In 2006, there were concerns of possible bird flu after two wild swans on the lake were found diseased, but it was learned that they did not contain the H5N1 virus. There were sightings of a magnificent frigatebird, a tropical bird with a two-metre wingspan, over the lake in 2008.


title: Lake Erie

text: Lake Erie infamously became very polluted in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of the quantity of heavy industry situated in cities on its shores, with reports of bacteria-laden beaches and fish contaminated by industrial waste. In the 1970s, patches of the lake were declared dead because of industrial waste as well as sewage from runoffs; as "The New York Times" reporter Denny Lee wrote in 2004, "The lake, after all, is where the Rust Belt meets the water."


title: Lake Erie

text: There were incidents of the oily surfaces of tributary rivers emptying into Lake Erie catching fire: in 1969, Cleveland's Cuyahoga River erupted in flames, chronicled in a "Time" magazine article which lamented a tendency to use rivers flowing through major cities as "convenient, free sewers"; the Detroit River caught fire on another occasion. The outlook was gloomy:


title: Lake Erie

text: In December 1970 a federal grand jury investigation led by U.S. Attorney Robert Jones began, of water pollution allegedly being caused by about 12 companies in northeastern Ohio. It was the first grand jury investigation of water pollution in the area. The grand jury indicted four corporations for polluting Lake Erie and waterways in northeast Ohio. Facing fines were Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., Shell Oil Co., Uniroyal Chemical Division of Uniroyal Inc. and Olin Corp. United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell gave a press conference December 18, 1970, referencing new pollution control litigation, with particular reference to work with the Environmental Protection Agency, and announcing the filing of a lawsuit that morning against the Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation for discharging substantial quantities of cyanide into the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland. Jones filed the misdemeanor charges in district court, alleging violations of the 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act.


title: Lake Erie

text: Cleveland's director of public utilities Ben Stefanski pursued a massive effort to "scrub the Cuyahoga"; the effort cost $100 million in bonds, according to one estimate. New sewer lines were built. Clevelanders approved a bond issue by 2 to 1 to upgrade Cleveland's sewage system. Federal officials acted as well: the United States Congress passed the Clean Water Act of 1972, and the United States and Canada established water pollution limits in an international water quality agreement. The Corps' LEWMS was also instituted at that time.


title: Lake Erie

text: The clearing of the water column is partly the result of the introduction and rapid spread of zebra mussels from Europe, which had the effect of covering the lake bottom, with each creature filtering a liter of fresh water each day, helping to restore the lake to a cleaner state. The 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement significantly reduced the dumping and runoff of phosphorus into the lake. The lake has since become clean enough to allow sunlight to infiltrate its water and produce algae and sea weed, but a dead zone persists. There have been instances of beach closings at Presque Isle because of unexplained E. Coli contaminations, possibly caused by sewer water overflows after heavy downpours.


title: Lake Erie

text: Since the 1970s environmental regulation has led to a great increase in water quality and the return of economically important fish species such as walleye and other biological life. There was substantial evidence that the new controls had substantially reduced levels of DDT in the water by 1979. Cleanup efforts were described in 1979 as a notable environmental success story, suggesting that the cumulative effect of legislation, studies, and bans had reversed the effects of pollution:


title: Lake Erie

text: Joint U.S.–Canadian agreements pushed 600 of 864 major industrial dischargers to meet requirements for keeping the water clean. One estimate was that $5 billion was spent to upgrade plants to treat sewage. The change toward cleaner water has been in a positive direction since the 1970s.


title: Lake Erie

text: There was a tentative exploratory plan to capture CO, compress it to a liquid form, and pump it a half-mile (800 m) beneath Lake Erie's surface underneath the porous rock structure. According to chemical engineer Peter Douglas, there is sufficient storage space beneath Lake Erie to hold between 15 and 50 years of liquid emissions from the 4,000 megawatt Nanticoke coal plant. But there has been no substantial progress on this issue since 2007.


title: Lake Erie

text: Lake Erie is home to one of the world's largest freshwater commercial fisheries. Lake Erie's fish populations are the most abundant of the Great Lakes, partially because of the lake's relatively mild temperatures and plentiful supply of plankton, which is the basic building block of the food chain. The lake's fish population accounts for an estimated 50% of all fish inhabiting the Great Lakes. The lake contains steelhead, walleye (known in Canada as pickerel), largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, perch, lake trout, king salmon, whitefish, smelt, and many others. The lake consists of a long list of well established introduced species. Common non-indigenous fish species include the rainbow smelt, alewife, white perch and common carp. Non-native sport fish such as rainbow trout and brown trout are stocked specifically for anglers to catch. Attempts failed to stock coho salmon, and its numbers are dwindling. Commercial landings are dominated by yellow perch and walleye, with substantial quantities of rainbow smelt and white bass also taken. Anglers target walleye and yellow perch, with some effort directed at rainbow trout.


title: Lake Erie

text: Up until the end of the 1950s, the most commonly caught commercial fish (more than 50% of the commercial catch) was a subspecies of the walleye known as the blue walleye ("Sander vitreus glaucus") sometimes erroneously called "blue pike". In the 1970s and 1980s, as pollution in the lake declined, counts of walleyes which were caught grew from 112,000 in 1975 to 4.1 million in 1985, with estimates of the numbers of walleyes in the lake at around 33 million in the basin, with many of or more. Not all walleyes thrived. The combination of overfishing and the eutrophication of the lake by pollution caused the population to collapse, and in the mid-1980s, the blue walleye was declared extinct. But the Lake Erie walleye was reportedly having record numbers, even in 1989, according to one report.


title: Lake Erie

text: There have been concerns about rising levels of mercury in walleye fish; a study by the Canadian Ministry of the Environment noted an "increasing concentration trend" but that concentrations were within acceptable limits established by authorities in Pennsylvania. Because of the threat of PCBs, It was recommended, that persons eat no more than one walleye meal per month. Because of these and other concerns, in 1990, the National Wildlife Federation was on the verge of having a "negative fish consumption "advisory"" for walleye and smallmouth bass, which had been the main catch of an $800 million commercial fishing industry.


title: Lake Erie

text: The longest fish in Lake Erie is reportedly the sturgeon which can grow to long and weight , but it is an endangered species and mostly lives on the bottom of the lake. In 2009, there was a confirmed instance of a sturgeon being caught, which was returned to the lake alive, and there are hopes that the population of sturgeons is resurging.


title: Lake Erie

text: Estimates vary about the fishing market for the Great Lakes region. In 2007, one estimate of the total market for fishing in the Great Lakes, including commercial and recreational fishing, was $4 billion annually. Another estimate was more than $7 billion. But since high levels of pollution were discovered in the 1960s and 1970s, there has been continued debate over the desired intensity of commercial fishing. Commercial fishing in Lake Erie has been hurt by pollution as well as government regulations which limit the size of their catch; one report suggested that the numbers of fishing boats and employees had declined by two-thirds in recent decades. Another concern had been that pollution in the lake, as well as toxins found inside fish, were working against commercial fishing interests.


title: Lake Erie

text: U.S. fishermen based along Lake Erie lost their livelihood over the past few decades and no longer catch fish such as whitefish for markets in New York. Pennsylvania had a special $3 stamp on fishing licenses to help "compensate commercial fishermen for their losses", but this program ended after five years. One blamed the commercial fishing ban on a "test of wills" between commercial and recreational fishermen: "One side needed large hauls. The other feared the lake was being emptied."


title: Lake Erie

text: Commercial fishing is now predominantly based in Canadian communities, with a much smaller fishery—largely restricted to yellow perch—in Ohio. The Ontario fishery is one of the most intensively managed in the world. However, there are reports that some Canadian commercial fishermen are dissatisfied with fishing quotas and have sued the government about this matter, and there have been complaints that the legislative body writing the quotas is dominated by the U.S. and that sport fishing interests are favored at the expense of commercial fishing interests. Cuts of 30 to 45 percent for certain fish were made in 2007. The Lake Erie fishery was one of the first fisheries in the world managed on individual transferable quotas and features mandatory daily catch reporting and intensive auditing of the catch reporting system. Still, the commercial fishery is the target of critics who would like to see the lake managed for the exclusive benefit of sport fishing and the various industries serving the sport fishery. According to one report, the Canadian town of Port Dover is the home of the lake's largest fishing fleet.


title: Lake Erie

text: The lake can be thought of as a common asset with multiple purposes including being a fishery. There was direct competition between commercial fishermen and sport fishermen (including charter boats and sales of fishing licenses) throughout the lake's history, with both sides seeking government assistance from either Washington or Ottawa, and trying to make their case to the public through newspaper reporting. But other groups have entered the political process as well, including environmentalists, lakefront property owners, industry owners and workers seeking cost-effective solutions for sewage, ferry boat operators, even corporations making electric-generating wind turbines.


title: Lake Erie

text: Management of the fishery is by consensus of all management agencies with an interest in the resource and work under the mandate of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. The commission makes assessments using sophisticated mathematical modeling systems. The commission has been the focus of considerable recrimination, primarily from angler and charter fishing groups in the U.S. which have had a historical antipathy to commercial fishing interests. This conflict is complex, dating from the 1960s and earlier, with the result in the United States that, in 2011, commercial fishing was mostly eliminated from Great Lakes states. One report suggests that battling between diverse fishing interests began around Lake Michigan and evolved to cover the entire Great Lakes region. The analysis suggests that in the Lake Erie context, the competition between sport and commercial fishing involves universals and that these conflicts are cultural, not scientific, and therefore not resolvable by reference to ecological data.


title: Lake Erie

text: The lake supports a strong sport fishery. While commercial fishing declined, sport fishing has remained. The deep cool waters that spawn the best fishing is in the Canadian side of the lake. As a result, a fishing boat that crosses the international border triggers the security concerns of border crossings, and fishermen are advised to carry their passport. If their boat crosses the invisible border line in the lake, upon returning to the American shore, passengers need to report to a local border protection office.


title: Lake Erie

text: In 2008, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission tried stocking the lake with brown trout in an effort to build what's called a "put-grow-and-take" fishery. There was a report that charter boat fishing increased substantially on the American side, from 46 to 638 charter boats in operation in Ohio alone, during a period from 1975 to 1985 as pollution levels declined and after populations of walleye increased substantially in the lake. In 1984, Ohio sold 27,000 nonresident fishing permits, and sport fishing was described as big business. In 1992, there were accounts of fishermen regularly catching walleye weighing up to . It is possible to fish off piers in winter for burbot; the burbot make a midwinter spawning run and is reportedly one of Erie's glacial relics.


title: Lake Erie

text: In winter when the lake freezes, many fishermen go out on the ice, cut holes, and fish. It is even possible to build bonfires on the ice. But venturing on Lake Erie ice can be dangerous. In a 2009 incident, warming temperatures, winds of and currents pushing eastward dislodged a miles-wide ice floe which broke away from the shore, trapping more than 130 fishermen offshore; one man died while the rest were rescued by helicopters or boats.


title: Lake Erie

text: The lake's formerly more extensive lakebed creates a favorable environment for agriculture in the bordering areas of Ontario, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York. The Lake Erie sections of western New York have a suitable climate for growing grapes, and there are many vineyards and wineries in Chautauqua County and Erie County. The Canadian region of Lake Erie's north shore is becoming a more prominent wine region as well; it has been dubbed the Lake Erie North Shore, or LENS region, and includes Pelee Island, and since it is farther north than comparable wine-growing areas in the world, the length of the days in the summer are longer. A longer growing season because of the lake-moderated temperatures make the risk of early frosts less likely.


title: Lake Erie

text: The drainage basin has led to well fertilized soil. The north coast of Ohio is widely referred to as its nursery capital.


title: Lake Erie

text: Lake Erie is a favorite for divers since there are many shipwrecks, perhaps 1,400 to 8,000 according to one estimate, of which about 270 are confirmed shipwreck locations. Research into shipwrecks has been organized by the Peachman Lake Erie Shipwreck Research Center, located on the grounds of the Great Lakes Historical Society. Most wrecks are undiscovered but believed to be well preserved and at most below the water surface. One report suggests there are more wrecks per square mile than any other freshwater location, including wrecks from Indignous watercraft. There are efforts to identify shipwreck sites and survey the lake floor to map the location of underwater sites, possibly for further study or exploration. While the lake is relatively warmer than the other Great Lakes, there is a thermocline, meaning that as a diver descends, the water temperature drops about , requiring a wetsuit. One estimate is that Lake Erie has a quarter of all 8,000 estimated shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. They are preserved because the water is cold and salt-free. Divers have a policy of not removing or touching anything at the wreck. The cold conditions make diving difficult, requiring divers with skill and experience. One charter firm from western New York State takes about 1,500 divers to Lake Erie shipwrecks in a typical season from April through October.


title: Lake Erie

text: In 1991, the 19th-century paddle steamer "Atlantic" was discovered. It had sunk in 1852 after a collision with the steamship "Ogdensburg", west of Long Point, Ontario, and survivors from "Atlantic" were saved by the crew of "Ogdensburg". One account suggests 130 people drowned while another suggests about 20 drowned. There was speculation that the sunken vessel had been a gambling ship, and therefore there might have been money aboard, but most historians were skeptical.


title: Lake Erie

text: In 1998, the wreckage of "Adventure" became the first shipwreck registered as an "underwater archaeological site"; when it was discovered that "Adventure"s propeller had been removed and given to a junkyard. The propeller was reclaimed days before being converted to scrap metal and brought back to the dive site. In 2003, divers discovered the steamer "Canobie" near Presque Isle, which had sunk in 1921. Other wrecks include the fish tub "Neal H. Dow" (1910), the "steamer-cum-barge" "Elderado" (1880), "W. R. Hanna", "Dundee" which sank north of Cleveland in 1900, "F. H. Prince", and "The Craftsman". In 2007, the wreck of the steamship named after "Mad" Anthony Wayne was found near Vermilion, Ohio in of water; the vessel sank in 1850 after its boilers exploded, and 38 people died. The wreck belongs to the state of Ohio, and salvaging it is illegal, but divers can visit. In addition, there are wrecks of smaller vessels, with occasional drownings of fishermen.


title: Lake Erie

text: There are numerous public parks around the lake. In western Pennsylvania, a wildlife reserve was established in 1991 in Springfield Township for hiking, fishing, cross-country skiing and walking along the beach. In Ontario, Long Point is a peninsula on the northwest shore near Port Rowan that extends into Lake Erie which is a stopover for birds migrating as well as turtles; Long Point Provincial Park is located there and has been designated as a UNESCO Biosphere reserve. In Ontario's Sand Hill Park, east of Port Burwell, there is a high dune which people climb for picturesque views of the lake. In southern Michigan, Sterling State Park has campgrounds, for hiking, biking, fishing, boating, with a sand beach for sunbathing, swimming, and picnicking.


title: Lake Erie

text: In 1997, "The New York Times" reporter Donna Marchetti took a bike tour around the Lake Erie perimeter, traveling per day and staying at bed and breakfasts. She biked through the cities of Cleveland, Erie, Windsor, Detroit and Toledo as well as resort towns, vineyards, and cornfields. The trip highlights were the "small port towns and rural farmlands of southern Ontario". There are few bike repair shops in Ontario on the route.


title: Lake Erie

text: Lake Erie islands tend to be in the westernmost part of the lake and have different characters. Some of them include:


title: Lake Erie

text: Kayaking has become more popular along the lake, particularly in places such as Put-in-Bay, Ohio. There are extensive views with steep cliffs with exotic wildlife and extensive shoreline. Long-distance swimmers have swum across the lake to set records; for example, a 15-year-old amputee swam the stretch across the lake in 2001. In 2008, 14-year-old Jade Scognamillo swam from New York's Sturgeon Point to Ontario's Crystal Beach and completed the 11.9-mile (19.2-km) swim in five hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds, and became the youngest swimmer to make the crossing. It is illegal for swimmers younger than 14 to attempt such a crossing. In Port Dover, Ontario, swimmers do high-dives at the annual "Polar Bear Swim" on the beach. Currents can pose a problem, and there have been occasional incidents of drownings.


title: Lake Erie

text: The lake is dotted by distinct lighthouses. A lighthouse off the coast of Cleveland, beset with cold lake winter spray, has an unusual artistic icy shape, although sometimes ice prevents the light from being seen by maritime vessels.


title: Lake Erie

text: There have been unconfirmed reports of persons spotting a creature akin to the Loch Ness Monster, beginning in the 19th century and sometimes called "Bessie" or "South Bay Bessie". There were reports in 1990 of people seeing a "large creature moving in the water about from their boat" described as black in color, about long, with a snakelike head, and moving as fast as a boat. Five other people reported seeing something similar on three separate occasions, but there is no scientific evidence of such a creature. There is a "Lake Erie Monster" beer and a Cleveland Monsters hockey team.


title: Lake Erie

text: There have been sporadic reports of people in Cleveland being able to see the Canadian shoreline as if it were immediately offshore, even though Canada is from Cleveland. It has been speculated that this is a weather-related phenomenon, working on similar principles as a mirage.


title: Lake Erie

text: The lake has been a shipping lane for maritime vessels for centuries. Ships headed eastward can take the Welland Canal and a series of eight locks descending to Lake Ontario which takes about 12 hours. Thousands of ships make this journey each year. During the 19th century, ships could enter the Buffalo River and travel the Erie Canal eastward to Albany then south to New York City along the Hudson River. Generally there is heavy traffic on the lake except during the winter months from January through March when ice prevents vessels from traveling safely.


title: Lake Erie

text: In 2007, there was a protest against Ontario's energy policy which allows the shipping of coal in the lake; Greenpeace activists climbed a ladder on a freighter and "locked themselves to the conveyor belt device that helps to unload the ship's cargo"; three activists were arrested and the ship was delayed for more than four hours, and anti-coal messages were painted on the ship.


title: Lake Erie

text: Ferryboats operate in numerous places: such as the passenger-only Jet Express Ferry from Sandusky and Port Clinton to Put-in-Bay and Kelly's Island. The Miller Ferry from Catawba Island to Put-In-Bay and Middle Bass Island, the Kellys Island ferry from Marblehead to Kellys Island, and the Owen Sound Transportation Company from Leamington or Kingsville to Pelee Island and Sandusky.


title: Lake Erie

text: However, plans to operate a ferryboat between the U.S. port of Erie and the Ontario port of Port Dover ran into a slew of political problems, including security restrictions on both sides as well as additional fees required to hire border inspectors. The project was abandoned.


title: Lake Erie

text: The Great Lakes Circle Tour is a designated scenic road system connecting all of the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River. Drivers can cross from the United States to the Canadian town of Fort Erie by going over the Peace Bridge.


title: Lake Erie

text: Since the border between the two nations is largely unpatrolled, it is possible for people to cross undetected from one country to the other, in either direction, by boat. In 2010, Canadian police arrested persons crossing the border illegally from the United States to Canada, near the Ontario town of Amherstburg.


title: Jathi Ratnalu

text: Jathi Ratnalu () is a 2021 Indian Telugu-language comedy drama film written and directed by Anudeep KV. Produced by Nag Ashwin under Swapna Cinema, the film stars Naveen Polishetty, Priyadarshi, Rahul Ramakrishna, and Faria Abdullah while Murali Sharma, Brahmanandam and Naresh play supporting roles. The plot follows three happy-go-lucky men who arrive in the city for a better life but land up in jail for a crime they didn't commit. The film released theatrically on 11 March 2021 and went on to become a blockbuster at the box office. Jathi Ratnalu generally received positive reviews from critics for the performances, direction and its good humour.


title: Jathi Ratnalu

text: Srikanth works in his father's ladies emporium in Jogipet, however, he aspires to get an IT job to earn respect from fellow villagers. He challenges his father that he would get a job in two months and leaves to Hyderabad. His unemployed friends, Sekhar and Ravi tag along with him. They struggle to find a house for rent in the city and but finally manage to move into an affluent apartment in Jubilee Hills. Srikanth falls for his neighbour Chitti, and she too likes him.


title: Jathi Ratnalu

text: Meanwhile, Jana Balam Party makes a public announcement that all the ministerial positions will be given only to the deserving candidates, who must have some kind of experience in the field. Chanakya who has insider info about the upcoming Indo-Asian Games in the city manages to get sports ministry over his rival Ramachandra. Chanakya who also lives in the same apartment as Srikanth and his friends, hosts his birthday party. Srikanth gets a job after attending several interviews and the trio attends the party without an invitation. That night, Chanakya who is shot in his abdomen falls unconscious in their flat. Drunken Ravi pronounces him dead because he checked the right side of his body instead of the left side. While attempting to dispose of the body, they are caught red-handed by the police, who arrest them in the belief that they have a criminal history. Chanakya, however, is alive and to their surprise, he names them as the perpetrators. They are taken to the court to be tried. Chitti, a lawyer by profession who has no knowledge on the law, tries to prove their innocence but the judge unconvinced, postpones the judgment and sends them to jail.


title: Jathi Ratnalu

text: Chanakya bails them out and his men take them to a den and enquires them the whereabouts of his mobile phone which Ravi used while they were trying to dispose of him. Ravi fails to recollect about the mobile. Srikanth overhears that they are going to be killed as soon as Chanakya gets hold of the mobile. They manage to escape by recreating the scenes happened during that day and decide to find the mobile in hopes of blackmailing Chanakya to withdraw the case. They trace the mobile to their car's boot, only to find that the car is in Chanakya's den. While retrieving the mobile, Ravi gets trapped in the car which Chanakya's fans decide to burn as a mark of protest. The next day, Srikanth and Sekhar rescue Ravi. They challenge Chanakya's brother-in-law but the mobile accidentally falls in a tea kettle. As a last hope, they deliver the mobile to Chanakya's rival Ramachandra. But he double-crosses them and joins hands with Chanakya in exchange for money. They are sent to court again for the trial.


title: Jathi Ratnalu

text: In a final attempt to save themselves, Srikanth fabricates a story that Chanakya is involved in a scam with Hong Kong-based businessmen, which everyone believes. The judge orders the police to unravel the conspiracy. In order to escape from the public outrage, the party pressurizes Chanakya to sever all his ties with Hong Kong and withdraw the case, which he obliges. Srikanth and his friends are acquitted of the crime and Chanakya's fan is taken into custody for the attempted murder. The Indo-Asian Games contract is given to Swatantra Electronics. Srikanth goes back to Jogipet to run his own ladies emporium and marries Chitti (who takes up job of providing legal opinions as an Advocate).


title: Jathi Ratnalu

text: In the end, it's revealed that the mobile has a recording of an interview where Chanakya claims to be a national champion in cricket, in which he is goalkeeper.


title: Jathi Ratnalu

text: The video implies, being a sports minister and national champion, he does not know the basics. In cricket, there is no goalkeeper, Only wicketkeeper.


title: Jathi Ratnalu

text: The film was announced in October 2019 with Naveen Polishetty, Priyadarshi and Rahul Ramakrishna playing the lead roles. The film is produced by Nag Ashwin under the studio Swapna Cinema. Director Anudeep KV wrote the story and screenplay. The music is composed by Radhan with the cinematography by Siddan Manohar.


title: Jathi Ratnalu

text: The film score and soundtrack album is composed by Radhan, who earlier teamed up with the director Nag Ashwin in "Yevade Subramanyam" (2015). Two songs "Chitti" (written by Ramajogayya Sastry and sung by Ram Miriyala) and "Mana Jathiratnalu" (written by Kasarla Shyam and sung by Rahul Sipligunj) were released as single tracks on 29 January and 19 February 2021 respectively.


title: Jathi Ratnalu

text: Neeshita Nyayapati, writing for "Times of India" gave three stars out of five and termed it as "A madcap comedy featuring 'silly fools'." She opined that in spite of weak story, the one-liners that roll one after another keep you engrossed. She concluded the review calling "Jathi Rathnalu is a mixed bag" but worth for its comedy and the performances." Hemanth Kumar in his review for "Firstpost" also gave three stars out of five and opined that the script of the film is packed with funny one-liners, and every scene is interesting. Though Kumar felt that the middle of the film was boring due to subplots, he praised the comic timing of Polishetty, Priyadarshi, and Ramakrishna. He concluded, "It is an unapologetic madcap entertainer, and does not hold itself back until the final moment."


title: Jathi Ratnalu

text: "The Hindu"'s Sangeetha Devi Dundoo termed the film as "Nonsensical laugh riot". She agreed with Kumar and opined that story was weak as fun wore out in the second half due to the repetition of one-liners. She praised the performances of the lead cast and felt that final courtroom scenes were the highlight of the film, though she would have preferred a shorter film and fewer sub-plots in the post-intermission narrative. Gabbeta Ranjith Kumar writing for "The Indian Express" praised the performance of Naveen Polishetty for his comedy timings and the chemistry with Priyadarshi and Rahul Ramakrishna. Ranjith Kumar contented, "Practically every dialogue leads to laughs, making the film one of the finest comedies to have come out of Tollywood in a long time."


title: Jathi Ratnalu

text: "Jathi Ratnalu" earned 8.1 crore on its opening day. On its second day, the film earned a share of 6.5 crore, taking the worldwide gross to 15 crore. On its fourth day, the film earned a share of ₹21.2 crore, taking the worldwide gross of ₹34.1 crore. On its seventh day, the film earned a share of ₹27.6 crore taking the worldwide gross of ₹44.9 crore. At the US box office, the film grossed $470,000 in the opening weekend. , the film has grossed US$1 million at the US box office.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: The Mongolian People's Republic (; , "BNMAU"; ) was a socialist state which existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia in East Asia. It was ruled by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party and maintained close links with the Soviet Union throughout its history.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: After the Mongols declared their independence from the collapsing Qing dynasty following the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, the Bogd Khanate of Mongolia was declared in Outer Mongolia by Bogd Khan as a theocratic monarchy aside from the brief period of Chinese occupation from 1919 to 1921. On 26 November 1924, after the death of Bogd Khan, the Mongolian People's Republic was proclaimed, under the watch of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Following World War II, international recognition of Mongolia increased with the Soviets organized a referendum in 1945 and independence was recognized by the Nationalist government of China in 1946. Communist rule in Mongolia ended in 1990 in line with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and Mongolia became a democratic republic in 1992.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: Geographically, it was bordered by China to its south and the Soviet Union (via the Russian SFSR) to its north. Until 1944, it also bordered the Tuvan People's Republic, a Soviet satellite state recognized only by Mongolia and the Soviet Union.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: From 1758 to 1911, the Mongols were ruled by the Manchu Qing dynasty. In the first decade of the 20th century, the Qing government began implementing the so-called New Policies, aimed at a further integration of Outer Mongolia. Upset by the prospect of the colonization akin to the developments in Inner Mongolia during the 19th century, the Mongolian aristocracy turned to the Russian Empire for support. In August 1911, a Mongol delegation went to Saint Petersburg and obtained a pledge of limited support. When they returned, the Xinhai Revolution—which eventually led to the collapse of the Qing dynasty—had begun. In December 1911 the Mongols deposed the Qing Amban in Ulaanbaatar and declared their independence under the leadership of the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, who was appointed Bogd Khan of Mongolia, breaking away from the Qing dynasty. Attempts to include Inner Mongolia into the new state failed for various reasons, including the military weakness of the Inner Mongols to achieve their independence, the lack of Russian assistance to them (Russia was bound in Inner Mongolian affairs by secret treaties with Japan), and the lack of support from Inner Mongolian aristocrats and the higher clergy. In the Khiagt agreement of 1915, China, Russia and Mongolia agreed on Mongolia's status as maintaining autonomy under Chinese suzerainty.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: However, the Republic of China was able to use the Russian Revolution and the ensuing civil war as a pretext to deploy troops in Outer Mongolia, and in 1919 the Mongolian government was forced to sign a treaty that abolished Mongolia's autonomy. According to an Associated Press dispatch, some Mongol chieftains signed a petition asking China to retake administration of Mongolia and end Outer Mongolia's autonomy. The Tusiyetu Khan Aimak's Prince Darchin Ch'in Wang was a supporter of Chinese rule while his younger brother Tsewang was a supporter of the Russian warlord Ungern-Sternberg. It was under Chinese occupation that the Mongolian People's Party was founded and once again looked to the north, this time to Soviet Russia, for help. In the meantime, White Russian troops led by Roman von Ungern-Sternberg had occupied Khuree in early March 1921, and a new theocratic government declared independence from China on 13 March. But the Mongolian Revolution of 1921 broke out and Ungern and the remaining Chinese troops were driven out in the following months, and on 6 July 1921, the Mongolian People's Party and Soviet troops took Niislel Khuree. The People's Party founded a new government, but kept the Bogd Khaan as nominal head of state. In the following years through some violent power struggles, Soviet influence got ever stronger, and after the Bogd Khaan's death, the Mongolian People's Republic was proclaimed on 26 November 1924. The government took control of the Bogda Khan's seal after his death according to the 26 November 1924 Constitution of the Mongolian People's Republic.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: It was proposed that Zhang Zuolin's domain (the Chinese "Three Eastern Provinces") take Outer Mongolia under its administration by the Bogda Khan and Bodo in 1922 after pro-Soviet Mongolian Communists seized control of Outer Mongolia.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: Between 1925 and 1928, the new regime became established. At the time, Mongolia was severely underdeveloped. Industry was nonexistent and all wealth was controlled by the nobility and religious establishments. The population numbered less than a million people and was shrinking due to nearly half of all Mongolian males living in monasteries. In 1928, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and the Comintern ordered the collectivization of Mongolian agriculture. This led to an economic crisis, which resulted in uprisings in the West and the South. Led by lamas, rebels took control of four provinces in hopes of an intervention by revered Panchen Lama or support by the Japanese. Although surprised by the uprising's scale, the Soviet government quickly reacted to defend the Mongolian regime and sent goods as well as troops. Encircled by the Communist forces and bombed by the Soviet Air Forces, the rebel zones faced starvation, causing the rebels to resort to cannibalism before being defeated. The Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union consequently criticised the Mongolian Communists for implementing the collectivization in a similar way as in the Soviet Union, forcing the Mongolian government to shift to the so-called "New Course" and abandon the noncapitalist path, including collectivization, for the time being. Historian Stephen Kotkin argued that this was a "full reversal Stalin would not countenance at home", although collectivization had resulted in similar economic chaos and a great famine in the Soviet Union.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: In 1934, Peljidiin Genden visited Moscow and angrily accused Stalin of "Red imperialism". He subsequently died in the Great Purge after being tricked into taking a holiday on the Black Sea. After 1932, the implementation of a command economy was scaled back. Meanwhile, Japanese incursions in Manchuria were a "casus belli" for Moscow to station troops in Mongolia. In 1936, Stalin then ordered the Great Purge into Mongolia. Among those killed were Genden, Anandyn Amar, Demid, and Darizavyn Losol. After the removal of Genden from power, Marshal Khorloogiin Choibalsan, a follower of Stalin, took over.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: During World War II, because of a growing Japanese threat over the border between Mongolia and Manchuria, the Soviet Union reversed the course of Mongolian socialism in favor of a new policy of economic gradualism and build-up of the national defence. The Soviet and Mongolian armies defeated Japanese forces that had invaded eastern Mongolia in the summer of 1939 at the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, and a truce was signed setting up a commission to define the Mongolian-Manchurian border in the autumn of that year.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: After 1941, Mongolia's economy was readjusted to support the Soviet Union in every way possible, including providing funding for several Soviet military units. Russian historian V. Suvorov wrote that Mongolian aid during the Soviet–German War was important like the United States assistance because warm clothes often decided victory in battles on the Eastern Front. Additionally, Mongolian volunteers fought in the Red Army against the Axis Powers in Europe.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: In 1944, Mongolia lost one of its neighbors when the Tuvan People's Republic joined the Soviet Union.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: In the summer of 1945, the Soviet Union used Mongolia as one base for launching the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation, a successful attack against the Japanese. The preceding build-up brought 650,000 Soviet soldiers to Mongolia, along with massive amounts of equipment. The Mongolian People's Army played a limited support role in the conflict, but its involvement gave Stalin the means to force the Chinese side finally to accept Mongolia's independence.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: The February 1945 Yalta Conference provided for the Soviet Union's participation in the Pacific War. One of the Soviet conditions for its participation, put forward at Yalta, was that after the war Outer Mongolia would retain its "status quo". The precise meaning of this "status quo" became a bone of contention at Sino-Soviet talks in Moscow in the summer of 1945 between Stalin and Chiang Kai-shek's envoy T. V. Soong.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: Stalin insisted on the Republic of China's recognition of Outer Mongolia's independence – something that it already enjoyed "de facto" even as it remained a part of China "de jure". Chiang Kai-shek resisted the idea but eventually gave in. However, Chiang extracted from Stalin a promise to refrain from supporting the Chinese Communist Party, partly as a "quid pro quo" for giving up Outer Mongolia.


title: Mongolian People's Republic

text: Thus, the Sino-Soviet Treaty guaranteed Outer Mongolia's independence, but it also ended Khorloogiin Choibalsan's hopes for uniting Outer Mongolia with Inner Mongolia, which remained in China's hands. Choibalsan initially hoped that Stalin would support his vision of Great Mongolia but the Soviet leader easily sacrificed Choibalsan's vision for Soviet gains, guaranteed by the Sino-Soviet Treaty and legitimized by the Yalta agreements. In this sense, the Sino-Soviet Treaty marked Mongolia's permanent division into an independent Mongolian People's Republic and a neighboring Inner Mongolia of the Republic of China.