title: Geraldine Page

text: Her official film debut and role in "Hondo", opposite John Wayne, garnering her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Prior, she appeared in an uncredited role in "Taxi". Speaking to a Kirksville newspaper, she said: "Actually "Hondo" wasn't my first movie. I had one small, but satisfactory scene in a Dan Dailey picture called "Taxi", which was filmed in New York." Page was blacklisted in Hollywood after her debut in "Hondo" based on her association with Uta Hagen and did not work in film for nearly ten years. Her work continued on Broadway playing a spinster in the 19541955 production of "The Rainmaker", written by N. Richard Nash; and as the frustrated wife whose husband becomes romantically obsessed with a young Arab, played by James Dean, in the 1954 production of "The Immoralist", written by Augustus Goetz and Ruth Goetz and based on the novel of the same name (1902) by André Gide. Page remained friends with Dean until his death the following year and kept a number of personal mementos from the play—including several drawings by him. After Page's death, these items were acquired by Heritage Auctions in 2006. In 2015 Angelica Page revealed that her mother had an affair with Dean during the production of "The Immoralist". She stated, "According to my mother, their affair went on for three-and-a-half months. In many ways my mother never really got over Jimmy. It was not unusual for me to go to her dressing room through the years, obviously many years after Dean was gone, and find pictures of him taped up on her mirror. My mother never forgot about Jimmy -- never. I believe they were artistic soul mates."


title: Geraldine Page

text: Prior to "Hondo", in 1952, she appeared in a revival of "Summer and Smoke" in 1952 putting herself, the play, and director Jose Quintero at the beginning of the Off-Broadway scene. Page played the same role of Alma Winemiller in a 1953 radio version (opposite Richard Kiley) and a film version in 1961 opposite Laurence Harvey. Both she and Una Merkel earned acting nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively in the 34th Academy Awards in 1961. The awards, however, went to Sophia Loren for "Two Women" and Rita Moreno for "West Side Story".


title: Geraldine Page

text: In 1959, Page earned an Emmy nomination, of Best Single Performance by an Actress, for her role in the "Playhouse 90" episode "The Old Man," written by William Faulkner. She subsequently earned critical accolades for her performance in the 1959–1960 Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's "Sweet Bird of Youth" opposite Paul Newman, in which she originated the role of a larger-than-life, addicted, sexually voracious Hollywood legend trying to extinguish her fears about her career with a young hustler named Chance Wayne (played by Newman). For her performance, Page received her first nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, as well as the Sarah Siddons Award for her performance in Chicago. She and Newman subsequently starred in the 1962 film adaptation of the same name and Page earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film.


title: Geraldine Page

text: Geraldine Page actually won consecutive Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama in 1961 and 1962 for "Summer and Smoke" and "Sweet Bird of Youth", respectively.


title: Geraldine Page

text: In 1963, Page starred in "Toys in the Attic", based on Lillian Hellman's play of the same name, and garnered a Golden Globe nomination. She received another nomination the following year starring in Delbert Mann's "Dear Heart" as a self-sufficient but lonely postmistress visiting New York City for a convention, finding love with a greeting card salesman. In 1964, she starred in a Lee Strasberg-directed Broadway revival of Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters" playing eldest sister Olga to Kim Stanley's Masha with Barbara Baxley as the interloper Natasha. Both Shirley Knight and Sandy Dennis played the youngest sister Irina at different stages in this production.


title: Geraldine Page

text: Between 1966 and 1969, Page appeared in two holiday-themed television productions based on stories by Truman Capote: "The Christmas Memory" (for "ABC Stage 67") and the television film "The Thanksgiving Visitor", both of which earned her two consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Actress. In 1967, Page appeared again onstage in Peter Shaffer's "Black Comedy/White Lies," a production which also included Michael Crawford and Lynn Redgrave, who were making their Broadway debuts. The same year, she appeared opposite Fred MacMurray in the Walt Disney-produced musical "The Happiest Millionaire". Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" was critical of the film, noting: "Geraldine Page and Gladys Cooper...square off in one musical scene of socially up-staging each other that is drenched in perfumed vulgarity. But, then, the whole picture is vulgar. It is an over-decorated, over-fluffed, over-sentimentalized endeavor to pretend the lace-curtain millionaires are—or were—every bit as folksy as the old prize-fighters and the Irish brawlers in the saloon."


title: Geraldine Page

text: Page starred opposite Ruth Gordon in the thriller "What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?" (1969), the third and final film in the Robert Aldrich-produced trilogy which followed "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962) and "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (1964). The film is based on the novel "The Forbidden Garden" by Ursula Curtiss and features Page as Claire Marrable, a recently widowed socialite, who, discovers that her husband has left her virtually nothing. The widow hires a number of unsuspecting housekeepers whom she murders one by one and robs them of their life savings in order to keep up her extravagant lifestyle. Writing for "The New York Times", Vincent Canby deemed the film "an amusingly baroque horror story told by a master misogynist," and praised Page's "affecting" performance.


title: Geraldine Page

text: Page subsequently appeared in the Don Siegel-directed thriller "The Beguiled" (1971) opposite Clint Eastwood, playing the headmistress of a Southern girls' boarding school who takes in a wounded Union soldier. Director Siegel called Page "certainly as fine an actor as I've ever worked with. I never have gotten along better with anyone than I did with her." This was followed by a supporting role in the comedy "Pete 'n' Tillie" (1972), for which she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also appeared in three episodes of Rod Serling's "Night Gallery" between 1972 and 1973. In January 1973, she returned to Broadway playing Mary Todd Lincoln opposite Maya Angelou in the two-character play "Look Away", written by Jerome Kilty. Page received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play (her second Tony Award nomination) for the 1975 production of Alan Ayckbourn's "Absurd Person Singular" with Sandy Dennis and Richard Kiley.


title: Geraldine Page

text: She also had a supporting role as a charismatic Hollywood evangelist (modeled after Aimee Semple McPherson) in "The Day of the Locust" (1975), an adaptation of the Nathanael West novel of the same name. In 1977, she appeared as a nun in the British comedy "Nasty Habits", and provided the voice role of Madame Medusa in the Walt Disney animated film "The Rescuers". During this time, she also appeared on television, guest-starring in the popular series "Kojak" (1976) and "Hawaii Five-O" (1977).


title: Geraldine Page

text: Page appeared as the mother of three siblings and wife of a prominent attorney in Woody Allen's "Interiors" (1978). For her performance, Page was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, and won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. "The New York Times"s Vincent Canby lauded her performance in the film, writing: "Miss Page, looking a bit like a youthful Louise Nevelson with mink-lashed eyes, is marvelous — erratically kind, impossibly demanding, pathetic in her loneliness and desperate in her anger." The following year, in November 1979, Page was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.


title: Geraldine Page

text: Page starred as Zelda Fitzgerald in the last major Broadway production of a Williams play, "Clothes for a Summer Hotel" in 1980, followed by a supporting role in "Harry's War" (1981). Page starred as the secretive nun Mother Miriam Ruth in the Broadway production of "Agnes of God," which opened in 1982 and ran for 599 performances with Page performing in nearly all of them; for her role, she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.


title: Geraldine Page

text: Also in 1983, Page invited the young actress Sabra Jones Strasberg to her dressing room to talk to Strasberg about how much she had liked her performance in "St. Joan" by Maxwell Anderson, in which Page had just seen her play the part originated by Ingrid Bergman. During this conversation, Strasberg asked her advice in forming a classic theatre based on alternating repertory. Strasberg later founded the Mirror Theater Ltd with its repertory program the Mirror Repertory, and Page accepted the role of Founding Artist in Residence. Page remained continually active in theater, appearing in numerous repertory, Broadway, and Off-Broadway productions throughout the 1980s; this included roles in a revivals of "Inheritors" by Susan Glaspell and "Paradise Lost" by Clifford Odets in 1983, "Rain" by John Colton (based on the short story "Miss Thompson" by W. Somerset Maugham) the following year. Further revivals followed in 1985: "Vivat! Vivat Regina!" by Robert Bolt (in which she played Elizabeth I), "Clarence" by Booth Tarkington, and "The Madwoman of Chaillot" (by Jean Giraudoux) in which she played the Madwoman to great acclaim).


title: Geraldine Page

text: Page earned her seventh Academy Award nomination for her performance in the dark comedy "The Pope of Greenwich Village" (1984). This marked a record at the time for most Academy Award nominations without a win, for which Page was tied with Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton (who themselves had also garnered seven nominations without winning). On television, Page had a supporting role in the miniseries "The Dollmaker" (1984), opposite Jane Fonda and Amanda Plummer. She appeared in the British horror film "The Bride" opposite Sting and Jennifer Beals; the drama "White Nights", directed by Taylor Hackford; and opposite Rebecca de Mornay in the drama "The Trip to Bountiful" (all 1985), in which she played an aging Southern Texas woman seeking to return to her hometown. The role earned Page wide critical acclaim, with the "Los Angeles Times" referring to it as "the performance of a lifetime."


title: Geraldine Page

text: In 1986, she appeared on Broadway in "The Circle" by W. Somerset Maugham; during this production, Page won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in "The Trip to Bountiful". During her acceptance speech, she thanked The Mirror Theater Ltd. Page wore her costume from "The Circle", which had been designed and made by Gail Cooper-Hecht, the Mirror Theater's costume designer. She received the award from F. Murray Abraham, who, after winning his Oscar for "Amadeus", also joined the Mirror Repertory Company to play the rag-picker in the "Madwoman of Chaillot". Prior to winning the Academy Award, Page said to "People" magazine: "If I lose the Oscar this year, I’ll have the record for the most nominations without ever winning... I’d love to be champion, [but the loser] doesn’t have to get up there and make a fool of herself."


title: Geraldine Page

text: After winning the Academy Award, Page returned to finish her run performing in "The Circle" for Mirror Theater and appeared opposite Carroll Baker, Oprah Winfrey, and Elizabeth McGovern in "Native Son" (1986). Page followed up "Native Son" with a lead role opposite Mary Stuart Masterson in "My Little Girl" (1987). In the fall of 1986, Page asked permission to return to Broadway in a revival of Noël Coward's "Blithe Spirit" in the role of Madame Arcati. She was cast in the role, though the production would be Page's last. She was again nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, though she did not win. A week after the Tony Awards ceremony, Page failed to appear for two performances of the play and was found dead in her Manhattan home. The show lasted several weeks more, with Page's understudy Patricia Conolly taking over her role.


title: Geraldine Page

text: Page was trained as a method actor, and at times worked with psychoanalysts when developing her interpretations of roles. She once told the "Los Angeles Times": "If I read a part and think I can connect to it, that I can touch people with it, I will do it, no matter what its size. And if I think I can't do something with a part, I won't take it." In a 1964 interview upon completing the Broadway run of "The Three Sisters", Page discussed her method acting at length. When asked if she used emotional recall as a technique, she responded: "I would never shut it out. But I don't try to get one. My whole effort is to relax and keep the doors open so that there's room if one should pop up."


title: Geraldine Page

text: During her life, Page was regarded as a respected character actress. Speaking of her stage career in 1986, she said: "I used to think that by opening [night] all the work was done. Now I'm finding how much you can learn from the audience." She described acting as a "bottomless cup," adding: "If I studied for the next ninety years I'd just be scratching the surface."


title: Geraldine Page

text: Page was married to violinist Alexander Schneider from 1954 to 1957. On September 8, 1963, she married actor Rip Torn, who was six years her junior, in Pinal, Arizona. They had played opposite one another in "Sweet Bird of Youth" on Broadway and in the 1962 film. They had three children: a daughter, actress Angelica Page, and twin sons, Anthony "Tony" and Jonathan "Jon" Torn.


title: Geraldine Page

text: Beginning in the early 1980s, Page and Torn lived separately after he started dating actress Amy Wright; Torn had first met Wright in 1976 and began an affair shortly after. Page was aware of Torn and Wright's relationship, and appeared onstage opposite Wright in the 1977 Off-Broadway production of "The Stronger", under Torn's direction. In 1983, Torn fathered a child with Wright. Upon the birth of the child, Page was questioned about her marriage by columnist Cindy Adams, to which she responded: "Of course Rip and I are still married. We've been married for years. We're staying married. What's the big fuss?" In spite of their separation, Page and Torn remained married until her death; her daughter described their relationship as still "close" up until Page died in 1987.


title: Geraldine Page

text: Page considered herself a gourmand, once joking: "Greedy gut is my middle name...Rip is wonderful. He does the cooking and I do the eating. I love everything but eggplant."


title: Geraldine Page

text: On June 13, 1987, Page failed to arrive at the Neil Simon Theatre for both the afternoon and evening performances of Sir Noël Coward's "Blithe Spirit", which had begun its run in March. At the end of the show's evening performance, the play's producer announced that Page had been found dead in her lower Manhattan townhouse. It was determined that she died of a heart attack.


title: Geraldine Page

text: On June 18, "an overflow crowd of colleagues, friends and fans," including Sissy Spacek, James Earl Jones, Amanda Plummer, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, and husband Torn attended a memorial service held at the Neil Simon Theatre. In highlighting Page's achievements, actress Anne Jackson said "[Page] used a stage like no one else I'd ever seen. It was like playing tennis with someone who had 26 arms." Rip Torn called her "Mi corazon, mi alma, mi esposa" ("My heart, my soul, my wife") and said they had "never stopped being lovers, and ... never will." Page was cremated.


title: Geraldine Page

text: Page earned a total of seven Oscar nominations before winning her first Academy Award for Best Actress in 1986 for "The Trip to Bountiful". She was also a winner of two Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and one BAFTA award.


title: Geraldine Page

text: For her stage work on Broadway, Page earned a total of four Tony Award nominations, and was referred to by the "New York Daily News" as "one of the finest stage actors of her generation." She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979.


title: Geraldine Page

text: Sarah Paulson portrayed Page in the 2017 anthology television series "Feud", which chronicles the rivalry between actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford on the set of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962).


title: Geraldine Page

text: She was also portrayed by her daughter, Angelica Page, in the stage production "Turning Page". A monologue play chronicling Page's life, it was also written by her daughter: "I grew up in the center of her sparkling career," Angelica recalled. "As her only daughter I feel compelled to share her lessons and gifts with others who did and did not have the opportunity to know her magic intimately. She was a true rebel and trail blazer. A masterful woman who was ahead of her time and should not be forgotten anytime soon." The play premiered in Los Angeles in 2016, followed by performances in New York City in 2017.


title: Anthony Salerno

text: Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno (August 15, 1911 – July 27, 1992) was an American mobster who served as underboss and front boss of the Genovese crime family in New York City from 1981 until his conviction in 1986.


title: Anthony Salerno

text: Salerno was born and raised in East Harlem, New York. In his youth, he became involved in gambling, numbers, loansharking and protection rackets for the Luciano family, which later came to be known as the Genovese family. Salerno was a member of the 116th Street Crew, headed by Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola. Salerno climbed the family ranks by controlling a possible million-dollar-a-year numbers racket operation in Harlem and a major loansharking operation. In 1948, Coppola fled to Florida to escape murder charges, and Salerno took over the crew.


title: Anthony Salerno

text: In 1959, Salerno was a secret financial backer of a heavyweight professional boxing title fight at New York's Yankee Stadium between Swedish boxer Ingemar Johansson and American boxer Floyd Patterson. No charges were filed against Salerno. Salerno divided his time between a home in Miami Beach, Florida, a estate and horse farm in upstate Rhinebeck, New York, the Palma Boys Club in East Harlem, and his apartment in the upscale Gramercy Park section of Manhattan. Salerno served as consigliere, underboss, and acting boss of the Genovese family.


title: Anthony Salerno

text: By the 1960s, Salerno controlled the largest numbers racket operation in New York, grossing up to $50 million per year. Salerno kept his headquarters at the Palma Boys Social Club in East Harlem and continued to work in these areas. The FBI accused him of heading a bookie and loan shark network that grossed $1 million annually. Salerno hired Roy Cohn as his attorney. On April 20, 1978, Salerno was sentenced to six months in federal prison for illegal gambling and tax evasion charges. In early 1981, after his release from prison, Salerno suffered a mild stroke and retreated to his Rhinebeck estate to recuperate. At the time of his stroke, Salerno was Genovese underboss.


title: Anthony Salerno

text: After Salerno's recovery from his stroke and the March 31, 1981, death of Genovese front boss Frank Tieri, Salerno succeeded him. Although law enforcement at the time thought that Salerno was the boss of the Genovese family, it was an open secret in New York Mafia circles that Salerno was merely a front man for the real boss, Vincent "the Chin" Gigante. For instance, Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco, who later became acting boss of the Lucchese crime family before turning informer, told investigators that when he became a Lucchese made man in 1982, he was told that Gigante was the boss of the Genovese family. Ever since the death of boss Vito Genovese in 1969, the real family leader had been Philip "Benny Squint" Lombardo. Over the years, Lombardo used several front bosses to hide his real status from law enforcement, a practice continued when Gigante took over the family upon Lombardo's retirement in 1981.


title: Anthony Salerno

text: On February 25, 1985, Salerno and eight other New York bosses on the "Mafia Commission" were indicted in the Mafia Commission Trial. In October 1986, "Fortune Magazine" named the 75-year-old Salerno as America's top gangster in power, wealth and influence. For that reason, he was nominally the lead defendant in the trial. Many observers disputed Salerno's top ranking, claiming that law enforcement greatly exaggerated Salerno's importance to bring attention to their legal case against him. Salerno's bail request was denied and his attorneys appealed the decision all the way to the United States Supreme Court. However, in "United States v. Salerno" the Supreme Court ruled that he could be held without bail because of his potential danger to the community. Along with the other defendants of the trial, Salerno pleaded not guilty on July 1, 1985. On November 19, 1986, Salerno was convicted on RICO charges. On January 13, 1987, he was sentenced, along with six other defendants, to 100 years in prison without parole and fined $240,000.


title: Anthony Salerno

text: While awaiting the Mafia Commission trial, Salerno was indicted in a separate trial on March 21, 1986, in a second federal racketeering indictment, which accused Salerno of having hidden controlling interests in S & A Concrete Co. and Transit-Mix Concrete Corp. in the construction of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the Trump Tower. Salerno was also accused of illegally aiding the election of Roy Lee Williams to the national presidency of the Teamsters Union. Salerno pleaded not guilty on all charges. In October 1988, he was convicted and sentenced to 70 years in prison, including a $376,000 fine, and ordered to forfeit half of the racketeering proceeds (estimated to be $30 million).


title: Anthony Salerno

text: In 1986, shortly after Salerno's conviction in the Commission Trial, Salerno's longtime right-hand man, Vincent "The Fish" Cafaro, turned informant, and told the FBI that Salerno had never been the real boss of the Genoveses, but was merely a front for Gigante. Cafaro also revealed that the Genovese family had been keeping up this ruse since 1969. An FBI bug had captured a conversation in which Salerno and capo Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello were reviewing a list of prospective candidates to be made in another family. Frustrated that the nicknames of the wannabes hadn't been included, Salerno shrugged and said, "I'll leave this up to the boss"–a clear sign that he was not the real leader of the family. However, according to "New York Times" organized crime reporter Selwyn Raab, even though prosecutors erred in billing Salerno as the Genovese boss, this mistake would not have jeopardized Salerno's conviction at the Commission Trial or his 100-year sentence. In his book, "Five Families," Raab noted that Salerno had been tried and convicted for specific criminal acts, not for being a boss.


title: Anthony Salerno

text: After his conviction and imprisonment, Salerno's health deteriorated due to his diabetes and suspected prostate cancer. On July 27, 1992, Anthony Salerno died at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.


title: Anthony Salerno

text: Salerno was buried at Saint Raymond's Cemetery in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx in New York City.


title: Anthony Salerno

text: Salerno is portrayed by Paul Sorvino in the film "Kill the Irishman" (2011) and Domenick Lombardozzi in the film "The Irishman" (2019).


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: The execution of Louis XVI by guillotine, a major event of the French Revolution, took place publicly on 21 January 1793 at the "Place de la Révolution" ("Revolution Square", formerly "Place Louis XV", and renamed "Place de la Concorde" in 1795) in Paris. At a trial on 17 January 1793, the National Convention had convicted the king of high treason in a near-unanimous vote; while no one voted "not guilty", several deputies abstained. Ultimately, they condemned him to death by a simple majority. The execution was performed four days later by Charles-Henri Sanson, then High Executioner of the French First Republic and previously royal executioner under Louis.


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: Often viewed as a turning point in both French and European history, Louis' death inspired various reactions around the world. To some, his death at the hands of his former subjects symbolised the long-awaited end of an unbroken thousand-year period of absolute monarchy in France and the true beginning of democracy within the nation, although Louis would not be the last king of France. Others (even some who had supported major political reform) condemned the execution as an act of senseless bloodshed and saw it as a sign that France had devolved into a state of violent, amoral chaos.


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: Louis' death emboldened revolutionaries within France, who would continue to alter the country's political and social structure radically over the next several years. Nine months after Louis' death, his wife Marie Antoinette, herself the former queen of France, met her own death at the guillotine at the same location in Paris.


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: Louis XVI awoke early in the morning. After dressing with the aid of his valet Jean-Baptiste Cléry, he went to meet with the non-juring Irish priest Henry Essex Edgeworth to make his confession. He heard his last Mass, served by Cléry, and received Communion. The Mass requisites were provided by special direction of the authorities. On Edgeworth's advice, Louis avoided a last farewell scene with his family. At 7 o'clock he confided his last wishes to the priest. His royal seal was to go to the Dauphin and his wedding ring to the Queen. After receiving the priest's blessing, he went to meet Antoine Joseph Santerre, Commander of the Guard. A green carriage waited in the second court. He seated himself in it with the priest, with two militiamen sitting opposite them. The carriage left the Temple at approximately 9 o'clock. For more than an hour the carriage, preceded by drummers playing to drown out any support for the King and escorted by a cavalry troop with drawn sabres, made its way through Paris along a route lined with 80,000 men-at-arms (soldiers of the National Guard and sans-culottes).


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: In the neighbourhood of the present-day "rue de Cléry", the Baron de Batz, a supporter of the Royal family who had financed the flight to Varennes, had summoned 300 Royalists to enable the King's escape. Louis was to be hidden in a house in the "rue de Cléry" belonging to the Count of Marsan. The Baron leaped forward calling "Follow me, my friends, let us save the King!", but his associates had been denounced and only a few had been able to turn up. Three of them were killed, but de Batz managed to escape.


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: At 10 o'clock, the carriage arrived at "Place de la Révolution" and proceeded to an area where a scaffold had been erected, in a space surrounded by guns and drums, and by a crowd carrying pikes and bayonets.


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: After initially refusing to permit Sanson and his assistants to bind his hands together, Louis XVI relented when Sanson proposed to use his handkerchief instead of rope. The executioner's men cut the king's hair, removed his shirt's collar, and followed him up the scaffold. Upon the platform, Louis proclaimed his innocence to the crowd and expressed his concern for the future of France. He tried to give an extensive speech, but a drum roll was ordered by Antoine Joseph Santerre and the resulting noise made his final words difficult to understand.


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: The executioners fastened him to the guillotine's bench ("bascule"), positioning his neck beneath the device's yoke ("lunette") to hold it in place, and the blade swiftly decapitated him. Sanson grabbed his severed head out of the receptacle into which it fell and exhibited it to the cheering crowd. According to one witness report, the blade did not sever his neck but instead cut through the back of his skull and into his jaw. Some accounts state that members of the crowd rushed towards the scaffold with handkerchiefs to dip them in his blood and keep as souvenirs.


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: The 13 February issue of the "Thermomètre du jour" ('Daily Thermometer'), a moderate Republican newspaper, described the King as shouting "I am lost!", citing as its source the executioner, Charles-Henri Sanson.


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: The executioner Charles-Henri Sanson responded to the story by offering his own version of events in a letter dated 20 February 1793. The account of Sanson states:


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: In his letter, published along with its French mistakes in the "Thermomètre" of Thursday, 21 February 1793, Sanson emphasises that the King "bore all this with a composure and a firmness which has surprised us all. I remained strongly convinced that he derived this firmness from the principles of the religion by which he seemed penetrated and persuaded as no other man."


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: In his Causeries, Alexandre Dumas refers to a meeting circa 1830 with Henri Sanson, eldest son of Charles-Henri Sanson, who had also been present at the execution.


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: Henri Sanson was appointed Executioner of Paris from April 1793, and would later execute Marie Antoinette.


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: Speaking to Victor Hugo in 1840, a man called Leboucher, who had arrived in Paris from Bourges in December 1792 and was present at the execution of Louis XVI, recalled vividly:


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: A popular but apocryphal legend holds that as soon as the guillotine fell, an anonymous Freemason leaped on the scaffolding, plunged his hand into the blood, splashed drips of it onto the crown, and shouted, ""Jacques de Molay, tu es vengé!"" (usually translated as, "Jacques de Molay, thou art avenged"). De Molay (died 1314), the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, had reportedly cursed Louis' ancestor Philip the Fair, after the latter had sentenced him to burn at the stake based on false confessions. The story spread widely and the phrase remains in use today to indicate the triumph of reason and logic over "religious superstition".


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: The body of Louis XVI was immediately transported to the old Church of the Madeleine (demolished in 1799), since the legislation in force forbade burial of his remains beside those of his father, the Dauphin Louis de France, at Sens. Two curates who had sworn fealty to the Revolution held a short memorial service at the church. One of them, Damoureau, stated in evidence:


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: On 21 January 1815 Louis XVI and his wife's remains were re-buried in the Basilica of Saint-Denis where in 1816 his brother, King Louis XVIII, had a funerary monument erected by Edme Gaulle.


title: Execution of Louis XVI

text: The area where Louis XVI and later (16 October 1793) Marie Antoinette were buried, in the churchyard of St. Mary Magdaleine's, is today the "Square Louis XVI" greenspace, containing the classically self-effacing Expiatory Chapel completed in 1826 during the reign of Louis' youngest brother Charles X. The crypt altar stands above the exact spot where the remains of the Royal couple were originally laid to rest. The chapel narrowly escaped destruction on politico-ideological grounds during the violently anti-clerical period at the beginning of the 20th century.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in Western Europe and North America in the 1870s. Social Darwinism holds that the strong see their wealth and power increase while the weak see their wealth and power decrease. Social Darwinist definitions of "the strong" and "the weak" vary, and also differ on the precise mechanisms that reward strength and punish weakness. Many such views stress competition between individuals in "laissez-faire" capitalism, while others, emphasizing struggle between national or racial groups, support eugenics, racism, imperialism and/or fascism.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Social Darwinism declined in popularity as a purportedly scientific concept following the First World War, and was largely discredited by the end of the Second World War—partially due to its association with Nazism and due to a growing scientific consensus that eugenics and scientific racism were groundless. Later reference to social Darwinism was usually pejorative.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Some groups, including creationists such as William Jennings Bryan, argued that social Darwinism is a logical consequence of Darwinism. Academics such as Steven Pinker have argued that this is a fallacy of appeal to nature as natural selection is a description of a biological phenomenon and does not imply that this phenomenon is morally desirable in human society. While most scholars recognize some historical links between the popularisation of Darwin's theory and forms of social Darwinism, they also maintain that social Darwinism is not a necessary consequence of the principles of biological evolution. Social Darwinism is generally accepted to be a pseudoscience.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Scholars debate the extent to which the various social Darwinist ideologies reflect Charles Darwin's own views on human social and economic issues. His writings have passages that can be interpreted as opposing aggressive individualism, while other passages appear to promote it. Darwin's early evolutionary views and his opposition to slavery ran counter to many of the claims that social Darwinists would eventually make about the mental capabilities of the poor and indigenous peoples in the European colonies. After the publication of "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, one strand of Darwin's followers, led by Sir John Lubbock, argued that natural selection ceased to have any noticeable effect on humans once organised societies had been formed. However, some scholars argue that Darwin's view gradually changed and came to incorporate views from other theorists such as Herbert Spencer. Spencer published his Lamarckian evolutionary ideas about society before Darwin first published his hypothesis in 1859, and both Spencer and Darwin promoted their own conceptions of moral values. Spencer supported "laissez-faire" capitalism on the basis of his Lamarckian belief that struggle for survival spurred self-improvement which could be inherited. An important proponent in Germany was Ernst Haeckel, who popularized Darwin's thought and his personal interpretation of it, and used it as well to contribute to a new creed, the monist movement.


title: Social Darwinism

text: The term "Darwinism" was coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in his March 1861 review of "On the Origin of Species", and by the 1870s it was used to describe a range of concepts of evolution or development, without any specific commitment to Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection.


title: Social Darwinism

text: The phrase "social Darwinism" first appeared in Joseph Fisher's 1877 article on "The History of Landholding in Ireland", which was published in the "Transactions of the Royal Historical Society". Fisher was commenting on how a system for borrowing livestock called "tenure" had led to the false impression that the early Irish had already evolved or developed land tenure;


title: Social Darwinism

text: Despite the fact that Social Darwinism bears Charles Darwin's name, it is also linked today with others, notably Herbert Spencer, Thomas Malthus, and Francis Galton, the founder of eugenics. In fact, Spencer was not described as a social Darwinist until the 1930s, long after his death. The term "social Darwinism" first appeared in Europe in 1880, and journalist Emilie Gautier had coined the term with reference to a health conference in Berlin 1877. Around 1900 it was used by sociologists, some being opposed to the concept. The American historian Richard Hofstadter popularized the term in the United States in 1944. He used it in the ideological war effort against fascism to denote a reactionary creed that promoted competitive strife, racism, and chauvinism. Hofstadter later also recognized (what he saw as) the influence of Darwinist and other evolutionary ideas upon those with collectivist views, enough to devise a term for the phenomenon, "Darwinist collectivism". Before Hofstadter's work the use of the term "social Darwinism" in English academic journals was quite rare. In fact,


title: Social Darwinism

text: Social Darwinism has many definitions, and some of them are incompatible with each other. As such, social Darwinism has been criticized for being an inconsistent philosophy, which does not lead to any clear political conclusions. For example, "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics" states:Part of the difficulty in establishing sensible and consistent usage is that commitment to the biology of natural selection and to 'survival of the fittest' entailed nothing uniform either for sociological method or for political doctrine. A 'social Darwinist' could just as well be a defender of laissez-faire as a defender of state socialism, just as much an imperialist as a domestic eugenist.


title: Social Darwinism

text: The term "social Darwinism" has rarely been used by advocates of the supposed ideologies or ideas; instead it has almost always been used pejoratively by its opponents. The term draws upon the common meaning of "Darwinism", which includes a range of evolutionary views, but in the late 19th century was applied more specifically to natural selection as first advanced by Charles Darwin to explain speciation in populations of organisms. The process includes competition between individuals for limited resources, popularly but inaccurately described by the phrase "survival of the fittest", a term coined by sociologist Herbert Spencer.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Creationists have often maintained that social Darwinism—leading to policies designed to reward the most competitive—is a logical consequence of "Darwinism" (the theory of natural selection in biology).


title: Social Darwinism

text: Biologists and historians have stated that this is a fallacy of appeal to nature and should not be taken to imply that this phenomenon ought to be used as a moral guide in human society. While there are historical links between the popularization of Darwin's theory and forms of social Darwinism, social Darwinism is not a necessary consequence of the principles of biological evolution.


title: Social Darwinism

text: While the term has been applied to the claim that Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection can be used to understand the social endurance of a nation or country, social Darwinism commonly refers to ideas that predate Darwin's publication of "On the Origin of Species". Others whose ideas are given the label include the 18th-century clergyman Thomas Malthus, and Darwin's cousin Francis Galton who founded eugenics towards the end of the 19th century.


title: Social Darwinism

text: The massive expansion in Western colonialism during the New Imperialism era fitted in with the broader notion of social Darwinism used from the 1870s onwards to account for the phenomenon of "the Anglo-Saxon and latin overflowing his boundaries", as phrased by the late-Victorian sociologist Benjamin Kidd in "Social Evolution", published in 1894. The concept also proved useful to justify what was seen by some as the inevitable "disappearance" of "the weaker races... before the stronger" not so much "through the effects of ... our vices upon them" as "what may be called the virtues of our civilisation." Winston Churchill, a political proponent of eugenics, maintained that if fewer 'feebleminded' individuals were born, less crime would take place.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Herbert Spencer's ideas, like those of evolutionary progressivism, stemmed from his reading of Thomas Malthus, and his later theories were influenced by those of Darwin. However, Spencer's major work, "Progress: Its Law and Cause" (1857), was released two years before the publication of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", and "First Principles" was printed in 1860.


title: Social Darwinism

text: In "The Social Organism" (1860), Spencer compares society to a living organism and argues that, just as biological organisms evolve through natural selection, society evolves and increases in complexity through analogous processes.


title: Social Darwinism

text: In many ways, Spencer's theory of cosmic evolution has much more in common with the works of Lamarck and Auguste Comte's positivism than with Darwin's.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Jeff Riggenbach argues that Spencer's view was that culture and education made a sort of Lamarckism possible and notes that Herbert Spencer was a proponent of private charity. However, the legacy of his social Darwinism was less than charitable.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Spencer's work also served to renew interest in the work of Malthus. While Malthus's work does not itself qualify as social Darwinism, his 1798 work "An Essay on the Principle of Population", was incredibly popular and widely read by social Darwinists. In that book, for example, the author argued that as an increasing population would normally outgrow its food supply, this would result in the starvation of the weakest and a Malthusian catastrophe.


title: Social Darwinism

text: According to Michael Ruse, Darwin read Malthus' famous "Essay on a Principle of Population" in 1838, four years after Malthus' death. Malthus himself anticipated the social Darwinists in suggesting that charity could exacerbate social problems.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Another of these social interpretations of Darwin's biological views, later known as eugenics, was put forth by Darwin's cousin, Francis Galton, in 1865 and 1869. Galton argued that just as physical traits were clearly inherited among generations of people, the same could be said for mental qualities (genius and talent). Galton argued that social morals needed to change so that heredity was a conscious decision, to avoid both the over-breeding by less fit members of society and the under-breeding of the more fit ones.


title: Social Darwinism

text: In Galton's view, social institutions such as welfare and insane asylums were allowing inferior humans to survive and reproduce at levels faster than the more "superior" humans in respectable society, and if corrections were not soon taken, society would be awash with "inferiors". Darwin read his cousin's work with interest, and devoted sections of "Descent of Man" to discussion of Galton's theories. Neither Galton nor Darwin, though, advocated any eugenic policies restricting reproduction, due to their Whiggish distrust of government.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy addressed the question of artificial selection, yet Nietzsche's principles did not concur with Darwinian theories of natural selection. Nietzsche's point of view on sickness and health, in particular, opposed him to the concept of biological adaptation as forged by Spencer's "fitness". Nietzsche criticized Haeckel, Spencer, and Darwin, sometimes under the same banner by maintaining that in specific cases, sickness was necessary and even helpful. Thus, he wrote:


title: Social Darwinism

text: Wherever progress is to ensue, deviating natures are of greatest importance. Every progress of the whole must be preceded by a partial weakening. The strongest natures retain the type, the weaker ones help to advance it.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Something similar also happens in the individual. There is rarely a degeneration, a truncation, or even a vice or any physical or moral loss without an advantage somewhere else. In a warlike and restless clan, for example, the sicklier man may have occasion to be alone, and may therefore become quieter and wiser; the one-eyed man will have one eye the stronger; the blind man will see deeper inwardly, and certainly hear better. To this extent, the famous theory of the survival of the fittest does not seem to me to be the only viewpoint from which to explain the progress of strengthening of a man or of a race.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Ernst Haeckel's recapitulation theory was not Darwinism, but rather attempted to combine the ideas of Goethe, Lamarck and Darwin. It was adopted by emerging social sciences to support the concept that non-European societies were "primitive", in an early stage of development towards the European ideal, but since then it has been heavily refuted on many fronts. Haeckel's works led to the formation of the Monist League in 1904 with many prominent citizens among its members, including the Nobel Prize winner Wilhelm Ostwald.


title: Social Darwinism

text: The simpler aspects of social Darwinism followed the earlier Malthusian ideas that humans, especially males, require competition in their lives to survive. Further, the poor should have to provide for themselves and not be given any aid. However, amidst this climate, most social Darwinists of the early 20th century actually supported better working conditions and salaries. Such measures would grant the poor a better chance to provide for themselves yet still distinguish those who are capable of succeeding from those who are poor out of laziness, weakness, or inferiority.


title: Social Darwinism

text: One of the earliest uses of the term "social Darwinism" was by Eduard Oscar Schmidt of the University of Strasbourg, when reporting at a scientific and medical conference held in Munich in 1877. He noted how socialists, although opponents of Darwin's theory, used it to add force to their political arguments. Schmidt's essay first appeared in English in "Popular Science" in March 1879. There followed an anarchist tract published in Paris in 1880 entitled "Le darwinisme social" by Émile Gautier. However, the use of the term was very rare—at least in the English-speaking world (Hodgson, 2004)—until the American historian Richard Hofstadter published his influential "Social Darwinism in American Thought" (1944) during World War II.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Hypotheses of social evolution and cultural evolution were common in Europe. The Enlightenment thinkers who preceded Darwin, such as Hegel, often argued that societies progressed through stages of increasing development. Earlier thinkers also emphasized conflict as an inherent feature of social life. Thomas Hobbes's 17th-century portrayal of the state of nature seems analogous to the competition for natural resources described by Darwin. Social Darwinism is distinct from other theories of social change because of the way it draws Darwin's distinctive ideas from the field of biology into social studies.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Darwin, unlike Hobbes, believed that this struggle for natural resources allowed individuals with certain physical and mental traits to succeed more frequently than others, and that these traits accumulated in the population over time, which under certain conditions could lead to the descendants being so different that they would be defined as a new species.


title: Social Darwinism

text: However, Darwin felt that "social instincts" such as "sympathy" and "moral sentiments" also evolved through natural selection, and that these resulted in the strengthening of societies in which they occurred, so much so that he wrote about it in "Descent of Man":


title: Social Darwinism

text: The following proposition seems to me in a high degree probable—namely, that any animal whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts, the parental and filial affections being here included, would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual powers had become as well, or nearly as well developed, as in man. For, firstly, the social instincts lead an animal to take pleasure in the society of its fellows, to feel a certain amount of sympathy with them, and to perform various services for them.


title: Social Darwinism

text: The Committee of Union and Progress in the Ottoman Empire adopted Social Darwinist ideology. Belief that there was a life-or-death conflict between Turks and other ethnicities motivated them to carry out genocides and ethnic cleansing campaigns against the Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Greeks and other groups. Social Darwinism enabled them to view extermination of entire population groups and the murder of women and children as a necessary and justified course of action.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Nazi Germany's justification for its aggression was regularly promoted in Nazi propaganda films depicting scenes such as beetles fighting in a lab setting to demonstrate the principles of "survival of the fittest" as depicted in "Alles Leben ist Kampf" (English translation: "All Life is Struggle"). Hitler often refused to intervene in the promotion of officers and staff members, preferring instead to have them fight amongst themselves to force the "stronger" person to prevail—"strength" referring to those social forces void of virtue or principle. Key proponents were Alfred Rosenberg, who was hanged later at Nuremberg. Such ideas also helped to advance euthanasia in Germany, especially Action T4, which led to the murder of mentally ill and disabled people in Germany.


title: Social Darwinism

text: The argument that Nazi ideology was strongly influenced by social Darwinist ideas is often found in historical and social science literature. For example, the philosopher and historian Hannah Arendt analysed the historical development via social Darwinist ethics to racist ideology.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Another example is recent scholarship that portrays Ernst Haeckel's Monist League as a mystical progenitor of the Völkisch movement and, ultimately, of the Nazi Party of Adolf Hitler. Scholars opposed to this interpretation, however, have pointed out that the Monists were freethinkers who opposed all forms of mysticism, and that their organizations were immediately banned following the Nazi takeover in 1933 because of their association with a wide variety of causes including feminism, pacifism, human rights, and early gay rights movements.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Within American society, ideas of social Darwinism reached their greatest prominence during the Gilded Age—predominantly through the rationale of the late 19th-century industrial titans such as John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) and Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919). Nationwide monopolists of this type applied Darwin's concept of natural selection to explain corporate dominance in their respective fields and thus to justify their exorbitant accumulations of success and social advancement. Rockefeller, for example, proclaimed: "The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest...the working out of a law of nature and a law of God." Robert Bork (1927–2012) backed this notion of inherent characteristics as the sole determinant of survival in the business-operations context when he said: "In America, the rich are overwhelmingly people—entrepreneurs, small-business men, corporate executives, doctors, lawyers, etc.—who have gained their higher incomes through intelligence, imagination, and hard work." Moreover, William Graham Sumner (1840–1910) lauded this same cohort of magnates, and further extended the theory of "corporate Darwinism". Sumner argued that societal progress depended on the "fittest families" passing down wealth and genetic traits to their offspring, thus allegedly creating a lineage of superior citizens. However, contemporary social-scientists repudiate such claims and demand that economic status be considered "not" a direct function of one's inborn traits and moral worth.


title: Social Darwinism

text: In 1883 Sumner published a highly-influential pamphlet entitled "What Social Classes Owe to Each Other", in which he insisted that the social classes owe each other nothing, synthesizing Darwin's findings with free-enterprise capitalism for his justification. According to Sumner, those who feel an obligation to provide assistance to those unequipped or under-equipped to compete for resources, will lead to a country in which the weak and inferior are encouraged to breed more like themselves, eventually dragging the country down. Sumner also believed that the best equipped to win the struggle for existence was the American businessman, and concluded that taxes and regulations serve as dangers to his survival. This pamphlet makes no mention of Darwinism, and only refers to Darwin in a statement on the meaning of liberty, that "There never has been any man, from the primitive barbarian up to a Humboldt or a Darwin, who could do as he had a mind to."


title: Social Darwinism

text: Sumner never fully embraced Darwinian ideas, and some contemporary historians do not believe that Sumner ever actually believed in social Darwinism. The great majority of American businessmen rejected the anti-philanthropic implications of Sumner's theory. Instead they gave millions to build schools, colleges, hospitals, art institutes, parks and many other institutions. Andrew Carnegie, who admired Spencer, was the leading philanthropist in the world in the period from 1890 to 1920, and a major leader against imperialism and warfare.


title: Social Darwinism

text: The Englishman H. G. Wells (1866–1946) was heavily influenced by Darwinist thought, but reacted against social Darwinism.


title: Social Darwinism

text: American novelist Jack London (1876–1916) wrote stories of survival that incorporated his views on social Darwinism. American film-director Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) has been described as "just an old-fashioned social Darwinist".


title: Social Darwinism

text: On the basis of U.S. theory and practice, commercial Darwinism operates in markets worldwide, pitting corporation against corporation in struggles for survival.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Social Darwinism has influenced political, public health and social movements in Japan since the late 19th and early 20th century. Social Darwinism was originally brought to Japan through the works of Francis Galton and Ernst Haeckel as well as United States, British and French Lamarckian eugenic written studies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Eugenism as a science was hotly debated at the beginning of the 20th century, in "Jinsei-Der Mensch", the first eugenics journal in the empire. As Japan sought to close ranks with the west, this practice was adopted wholesale along with colonialism and its justifications.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Social Darwinism was formally introduced to China through the translation by Yan Fu of Huxley's "Evolution and Ethics", in the course of an extensive series of translations of influential Western thought. Yan's translation strongly impacted Chinese scholars because he added national elements not found in the original. Yan Fu criticized Huxley from the perspective of Spencerian social Darwinism in his own annotations to the translation. He understood Spencer's sociology as "not merely analytical and descriptive, but prescriptive as well", and saw Spencer building on Darwin, whom Yan summarized thus:


title: Social Darwinism

text: By the 1920s, social Darwinism found expression in the promotion of eugenics by the Chinese sociologist Pan Guangdan. When Chiang Kai-shek started the New Life movement in 1934, he "...harked back to theories of Social Darwinism", writing that "only those who readapt themselves to new conditions, day by day, can live properly. When the life of a people is going through this process of readaptation, it has to remedy its own defects, and get rid of those elements which become useless. Then we call it new life."


title: Social Darwinism

text: The Aztecs were not the first civilization in Mesoamerica to practice human sacrifice of the weak, disabled and infirm such as children with Down syndrome, as a way to strengthen the population and remove non-productive members. The first to use these practices was probably the Olmec civilization (1200–300 BCE), which began such rituals atop their sacred pyramids. Other civilizations such as the Maya and Toltecs continued the practices. The Aztecs did, however, take sacrifice to an unprecedented scale. It is thought that hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of victims were sacrificed each year.


title: Social Darwinism

text: In the 1860s and 1870s, social Darwinism began to take shape in interaction between Charles Darwin and his German advocates, namely August Schleicher, Max Müller and Ernst Haeckel. Evolutionary linguistics was taken as a platform to construe a Darwinian theory of mankind. Since it was thought at the time that the orangutan and human brain were roughly the same size, Darwin and his colleagues suspected that only the invention of language could account for differentiation between humans and other Great Apes. It was suggested that the evolution of language and the mind must go hand in hand. From this perspective, empirical evidence from languages from around the world was interpreted by Haeckel as supporting the idea that nations, despite having rather similar physiology, represented such distinct lines of 'evolution' that mankind should be divided into nine different species. Haeckel constructed an evolutionary and intellectual hierarchy of such species. In a similar vein, Schleicher regarded languages as different species and sub-species, adopting Darwin's concept of selection through competition to the study of the history and spread of nations. Some of their ideas, including the concept of living space were adopted to the Nazi ideology after their deaths.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Social evolution theories in Germany gained large popularity in the 1860s and had a strong antiestablishment connotation first. Social Darwinism allowed people to counter the connection of "Thron und Altar", the intertwined establishment of clergy and nobility, and provided as well the idea of progressive change and evolution of society as a whole. Ernst Haeckel propagated both Darwinism as a part of natural history and as a suitable base for a modern Weltanschauung, a world view based on scientific reasoning in his Monist League. Friedrich von Hellwald had a strong role in popularizing it in Austria. Darwin's work served as a catalyst to popularize evolutionary thinking.


title: Social Darwinism

text: A sort of aristocratic turn, the use of the struggle for life as a base of social Darwinism "sensu stricto" came up after 1900 with Alexander Tille's 1895 work Entwicklungsethik (Ethics of Evolution), which asked to move "from Darwin till Nietzsche". Further interpretations moved to ideologies propagating a racist and hierarchical society and provided ground for the later radical versions of social Darwinism.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Social Darwinism came to play a major role in the ideology of Nazism, which combined it with a similarly pseudo-scientific theory of racial hierarchy to identify the Germans as a part of what the Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race. Nazi social Darwinist beliefs led them to retain business competition and private property as economic engines. Nazism likewise opposed social welfare based on a social Darwinist belief that the weak and feeble should perish. This association with Nazism, coupled with increasing recognition that it was scientifically unfounded, contributed to the broader rejection of social Darwinism after the end of World War II.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Social Darwinism has many definitions, and some of them are incompatible with each other. As such, social Darwinism has been criticized for being an inconsistent philosophy, which does not lead to any clear political conclusions. For example, "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics" states:


title: Social Darwinism

text: Part of the difficulty in establishing sensible and consistent usage is that commitment to the biology of natural selection and to "survival of the fittest" entailed nothing uniform either for sociological method or for political doctrine. A "social Darwinist" could just as well be a defender of laissez-faire as a defender of state socialism, just as much an imperialist as a domestic eugenist.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Social Darwinism was predominantly found in laissez-faire societies where the prevailing view was that of an individualist order to society. A different form of social Darwinism was part of the ideological foundations of Nazism and other fascist movements. This form did not envision survival of the fittest within an individualist order of society, but rather advocated a type of racial and national struggle where the state directed human breeding through eugenics. Names such as "Darwinian collectivism" or "Reform Darwinism" have been suggested to describe these views to differentiate them from the individualist type of social Darwinism.


title: Social Darwinism

text: As mentioned above, social Darwinism has often been linked to nationalism and imperialism. During the age of New Imperialism, the concepts of evolution justified the exploitation of "lesser breeds without the law" by "superior races". To elitists, strong nations were composed of white people who were successful at expanding their empires, and as such, these strong nations would survive in the struggle for dominance. With this attitude, Europeans, except for Christian missionaries, seldom adopted the customs and languages of local people under their empires.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Peter Kropotkin argued in his 1902 book "" that Darwin did not define the fittest as the strongest, or most clever, but recognized that the fittest could be those who cooperated with each other. In many animal societies, "struggle is replaced by co-operation".


title: Social Darwinism

text: It may be that at the outset Darwin himself was not fully aware of the generality of the factor which he first invoked for explaining one series only of facts relative to the accumulation of individual variations in incipient species. But he foresaw that the term [evolution] which he was introducing into science would lose its philosophical and its only true meaning if it were to be used in its narrow sense only—that of a struggle between separate individuals for the sheer means of existence. And at the very beginning of his memorable work he insisted upon the term being taken in its "large and metaphorical sense including dependence of one being on another, and including (which is more important) not only the life of the individual, but success in leaving progeny." [Quoting "Origin of Species," chap. iii, p. 62 of first edition.]


title: Social Darwinism

text: While he himself was chiefly using the term in its narrow sense for his own special purpose, he warned his followers against committing the error (which he seems once to have committed himself) of overrating its narrow meaning. In "The Descent of Man" he gave some powerful pages to illustrate its proper, wide sense. He pointed out how, in numberless animal societies, the struggle between separate individuals for the means of existence disappears, how struggle is replaced by co-operation, and how that substitution results in the development of intellectual and moral faculties which secure to the species the best conditions for survival. He intimated that in such cases the fittest are not the physically strongest, nor the cunningest, but those who learn to combine so as mutually to support each other, strong and weak alike, for the welfare of the community. "Those communities", he wrote, "which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members would flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring" (2nd edit., p. 163). The term, which originated from the narrow Malthusian conception of competition between each and all, thus lost its narrowness in the mind of one who knew Nature.


title: Social Darwinism

text: Noam Chomsky discussed briefly Kropotkin's views in an 8 July 2011 YouTube video from Renegade Economist, in which Kropotkin...argued that on Darwinian grounds, you would expect cooperation and mutual aid to develop leading towards community, workers' control and so on. Well, you know, he didn't prove his point. It's at least as well argued as Herbert Spencer is ...


title: Social Darwinism

text: Kropotkin, an anarchist, described how co-operation exists in nature, and that it too must serve a purpose in natural selection. This is only social Darwinism in that the case for mutual aid in society is made by appealing to evolutionary biology. To Kropotkin, the state is "unnatural" in the sense that it prevents the realisation of what he deemed to be the next stage of human social evolution: anarcho-communism. Though there are similarities, this position differs from dialectical materialism.


title: Social Darwinism

text: In contrast, Fabians in the early 1900s sought to use the state as the means through which a collectivist social Darwinism was to be put into effect. The common Fabian views of the time reconciled a specific form of state socialism and the goal of reducing poverty with eugenics policies.


title: Social Darwinism

text: "[These policies] imply a total disregard for any idea of individual self-fulfilment as the aim of a socialist society...These policies also implied a notion of the person as a set of genetically fixed qualities, where experience and environment came a very poor second by comparison with innate characteristics. In the debate between nature and nurture, the former was seen to have a massive advantage."


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: Nemanja Vidić (, ; born 21 October 1981) is a Serbian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He is best known for his time at Manchester United, was part of the Serbia national team, and is considered as one of the greatest defenders in the history of the sport. He is one of only four players to win the Premier League Player of the Season award twice, alongside Thierry Henry, Kevin De Bruyne and Cristiano Ronaldo.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: After establishing himself at Red Star Belgrade during the early 2000s, Vidić moved to Spartak Moscow in the summer of 2004. He further garnered breakout attention when he was part of the "Famous Four" Serbia and Montenegro national team defence that conceded just one goal during the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, prompting a £7 million transfer to Manchester United in January 2006. Vidić then established a prominent defensive partnership with Rio Ferdinand the following season, and was eventually selected as the new team captain of Manchester United at the start of the 2010–11 season. His captaincy ran over the course of four seasons, until his departure in July 2014. After a period of eight years in Manchester, Vidić joined Serie A club Inter Milan on a free transfer. Vidić mainly featured as a rotational player for two seasons, eventually agreeing to an early termination of his contract on 18 January 2016, as a result of inactivity due to a hernia injury. Vidić then announced his retirement just under two weeks later, on 29 January.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: A Yugoslavian youth international, Vidić made his senior debut on 12 October 2002 against Italy in UEFA Euro 2004 qualification. Vidić was part of Serbia and Montenegro's "Famous Four" defence, that conceded just one goal during the ten 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification matches, setting a record for the fewest goals conceded. On 24 October 2011, Vidić retired from the Serbian national team.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: Vidić collected a host of honours in his United career, including three consecutive Premier League titles (five titles in total), the UEFA Champions League, the FIFA Club World Cup, three League Cup medals, as well as being included in three consecutive (four in total) PFA Team of the Year sides from 2007 to 2009.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: Vidić was born to Dragoljub, a now-retired copper factory worker, and Zora, a bank clerk. Vidić took up football at six years of age, alongside his older brother Dušanko, with local side Jedinstvo Užice. He progressed quickly, and moved to Sloboda Užice at the age of 12.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: Two-and-a-half years after signing for Sloboda Užice, before his 15th birthday, Red Star Belgrade signed Vidić to their youth system. He started his senior career on a season-long loan deal at Spartak Subotica in 2000. He moved back to Red Star after the loan deal ended, playing regularly in the top-flight Yugoslav League with coach Zoran Filipović. He won the 2001–02 Yugoslav Cup with Red Star. Vidić quickly gained the captain's armband, and during his three years as captain, he scored 12 goals in 67 matches and ended his Red Star career on a high note by leading the club to a domestic double. He won the 2004 Serbia and Montenegro League and Serbia and Montenegro Cup trophies with Red Star and, in July 2004, he joined Russian Premier League side Spartak Moscow. The details of the transfer were not revealed, although it was reported that Vidić became the most expensive defender in the history of the Russian Premier League.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: After playing two seasons for Spartak Moscow, Vidić signed for Manchester United for a fee of around £7 million on 25 December 2005 and joined the club on 5 January 2006 after his work permit was granted. This was two-and-a-half years after Manchester United's reported interest in him began. On this occasion, United beat out stiff competition for Vidić's signature, as his transfer to Fiorentina in Italy had already been agreed with the club's Sporting Director, Pantaleo Corvino. Since Fiorentina had to wait in order to complete the signing due to not having any free non-EU spots on its roster at the time, United stepped in and hijacked the transfer. He was assigned the number 15 shirt and on 25 January 2006, he made his debut for United as a substitute for Ruud van Nistelrooy in the dying minutes of a 2–1 win in the League Cup semi-final second leg against Blackburn Rovers. On 16 February 2006, Vidić won his first trophy with United, coming on in the 83rd minute for Wes Brown in the 2006 League Cup final win against Wigan Athletic. Vidić received a medal for his appearance in the final, but later gave it to team-mate Giuseppe Rossi in recognition of Rossi's contributions in the earlier rounds of the competition.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: During the 2006–07 Premier League season, Vidić formed a partnership with Rio Ferdinand in the centre of defence, which has since become one of the most prominent partnerships in European football, and became an established first team player. In his first full season playing for Manchester United, he made 25 appearances in the Premier League and ended the season winning his first league medal.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: Vidić scored his first ever goal for United on 14 October 2006 against Wigan Athletic in the team's 1–3 victory. He scored his second goal in a 3–0 win over Portsmouth on 4 November, his first goal at United's Old Trafford stadium. He scored his first Champions League goal for Manchester United against Benfica on 6 December in the Group Stage, a match which United won 3–1.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: On 8 November 2007, Vidić signed a five-year contract extension, keeping him at Manchester United until 2012. At the end of the 2007–08 season, he earned his second consecutive Premier League medal. He was also a part of the squad which won the 2008 UEFA Champions League Final against Chelsea, his first European medal. During United's 2007–08 season, he made 32 league appearances and scored one goal.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: During the 2008–09 season, Vidić was a pivotal part of the United defence in the absence of a number of other defenders during various parts of the season. He started every match in the domestic league, with United going on a record run of 14 consecutive clean sheets in Premier League matches. Towards the end of the 2008–09 season, Vidić was shortlisted for the PFA Player of the Year award, along with four other United players; he was considered the favourite to receive the accolade, although it was later awarded to his team-mate Ryan Giggs. Vidić was later named as the Manchester United Fans' Player of the Year and Players' Player of the Year, succeeding Cristiano Ronaldo, who won both awards in 2007–08. During the League Cup final, Vidić was deployed at right-back when he replaced John O'Shea.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: On 25 October 2009, Vidić was again sent off against Liverpool in a 2–0 defeat, marking the third consecutive game against their fiercest rivals in which he had been shown a red card. On 21 March 2010, however, he managed to play a full 90 minutes in a 2–1 win against Liverpool at Old Trafford and again on 19 September 2010, this time in a 3–2 victory.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: On 23 July 2010, it was reported that Vidić had extended his contract with Manchester United by agreeing to a new long-term contract, ending long-running speculation of a move to Real Madrid. The new four-year contract was signed on 20 August. Vidić scored his first goal of the season on 11 September away to Everton to put his side 1–2 up, the game ending with a dramatic finish, with the final score 3–3. After captaining Manchester United for the first five matches of the 2010–11 season, manager Sir Alex Ferguson later confirmed that Vidić had taken over from Gary Neville as team and club captain on a permanent basis. On 30 October, Vidić scored his first home goal of the season in a 2–0 league win against Tottenham Hotspur, the 1,000th to be scored at Old Trafford in the Premier League. On 13 November 2010, Vidić scored his third goal of the season in a 2–2 away draw against Aston Villa in the 85th minute to grab United a point from a 2–0 deficit.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: On 1 February, Vidić scored against Aston Villa at Old Trafford with a powerful drive inside the penalty area as United won 3–1. On 1 March 2011, Vidić was sent off in stoppage time in an intense match against Chelsea for a foul on Ramires. Chelsea won 2–1. Vidić got his revenge on 8 May, when he scored against Chelsea to end their title aspirations in a 2–1 victory, which also propelled United toward a record-breaking 19th Premier league title, a feat which was completed the following week at Blackburn Rovers.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: In August 2011, Vidić started the season opening game, the 2011 FA Community Shield at Wembley Stadium. He was taken off at half-time, however, along with partner Rio Ferdinand as United trailed 2–0 to Manchester City. In the second half, United turned the game around and won 3–2. Vidić went on to lift the Shield as the captain, claiming his fourth Community Shield medal of his career. A week later, he started in Manchester United's opening Premier League fixture of the season at West Bromwich Albion, but was taken off during the second half with a calf injury. After the match, it was initially thought that Vidić would only miss a couple of weeks. A further diagnosis, however, found the injury to be worse than first feared, sidelining him for five weeks. He missed the wins against Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea, and the 1–1 draw against Stoke City. He also missed the first two UEFA Champions League games of the season against Benfica and Basel, both ending in draws.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: After additionally missing the 2–0 home win against Norwich City on 1 October 2011, Sir Alex Ferguson indicated that he hoped Vidić would be back for the match against Liverpool at Anfield on 15 October 2011. He did not make the match at Anfield, but returned in the following game in the Champions League against Oțelul Galați. United won the game 2–0. Vidić, however, was sent off midway through the second half for a high challenge in what was arguably a harsh decision. After the match, Ferguson said he could see why the referee gave the decision and that the club would not appeal, meaning Vidić had to serve a European suspension.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: After missing the Manchester Derby the following weekend, which Manchester United heavily lost 6–1 to Manchester City, Vidić played his first full 90 minutes of the season against Aldershot Town in a fourth round League Cup tie, which United won 3–0. He made his return to Premier League action at Goodison Park in a 0–1 win against Everton. In the next four Premier League matches, he played a big part in winning and keeping clean sheets against Sunderland (1–0) at Old Trafford and Swansea City (0–1) at the Liberty Stadium. There was nothing to be done, however, for conceding a goal from a penalty kick caused by a controversial Rio Ferdinand tackle at home against Newcastle United in a 1–1 draw. Nevertheless, the skipper took his side to another clean sheet at Villa Park in a 0–1 win against Aston Villa with Phil Jones scoring the only goal. Alex Ferguson rested Vidić at Old Trafford in a shocking 2–1 League Cup quarter-final defeat against Crystal Palace.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: On 7 December 2011, Vidić twisted his knee during United's Champions League clash at Basel and left the field on a stretcher. Ferguson later confirmed that he would miss the rest of the season.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: Vidić returned to first-team action on 20 August 2012 in a 0–1 away defeat to Everton. On 25 August 2012, in a home game against Fulham, he scored an own goal in the 64th minute. A cross was played into the box from the left-hand side that goalkeeper David de Gea came for and tried to punch, resulting in the Spaniard becoming sandwiched between Vidić and Mladen Petrić; the ball came off his heel and bounced into the goal.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: On 25 September 2012, Vidić was ruled out for eight weeks due to another knee injury. He was expected to return for United's game against CFR Cluj in the Champions League on 5 December 2012. He was ruled out of this game, however, and the next Premier League game against Manchester City. He eventually managed to make a return from injury, coming on as a 68th-minute substitute for Rio Ferdinand against Sunderland on 15 December. On 13 January 2013, he scored from a Patrice Evra header, which deflected over his head in a home game against Liverpool. Vidić managed to make 22 league appearances for the Red Devils, scoring one goal, as the club won its 13th Premier League title, finishing 11 points over incumbents Manchester City.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: On 7 February 2014, Vidić announced that he would be leaving Manchester United at the end of the 2013–14 season when his contract expires. Vidić stated: "I'm not considering staying in England as the only club I ever wanted to play for here is Manchester United".


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: On 16 March, Vidić received his second yellow card and was subsequently sent off on 77 minutes in a 3–0 home defeat against Liverpool. Vidić's expulsion totaled to four red cards against Liverpool during his career at Manchester United, more than any other player against an opponent in the history of the Premier League.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: On 1 April, Vidić scored the opening goal in Manchester United's 1–1 Champions League quarter-final first leg draw against Bayern Munich. United were eventually knocked out by a 4–2 aggregate scoreline.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: He played his last home match for Manchester United on 6 May against Hull City, in which he received three standing ovations: one during a pre-match presentation for him by Sir Bobby Charlton, the second when he came on as a substitute for Phil Jones, and the third for his first touch of the game.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: In 2014, Inter Milan announced that Vidić would be joining them at the end of his contract in July 2014. He made his debut for Inter on 30 July 2014, playing against his former team, Manchester United, in the International Champions Cup; he scored in the penalty shoot-out, but Inter lost the match. In his competitive debut, a goalless draw at Torino on 31 August, he conceded a penalty by fouling Fabio Quagliarella and was sent off for dissent after sarcastically applauding the referee in added time. On 18 September, Vidić was selected man of the match after his performance against Ukrainian side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk where Inter won 1–0 in Kyiv thanks to a goal from Danilo D'Ambrosio. Three days later, in week three of 2014–15 Serie A, he made an error that allowed Franco Vázquez to score the only goal for Palermo in a 1–1 draw at Stadio Renzo Barbera.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: Following Walter Mazzarri's departure as head coach, the returning Roberto Mancini relegated Vidić to the bench in favor of younger defenders Andrea Ranocchia and Juan Jesus. On 11 January 2015, he played his first game in two months in a 3–1 win over Genoa, where he scored his first goal for Inter with a header in the 88th minute. A string of injuries for Inter's defence, and good performances from Vidić, made him re-establish himself as a first team player.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: On 18 January 2016, his contract with Inter Milan was ended by mutual consent. 11 days later, on 29 January, the defender announced his retirement from the game with immediate effect.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: A Yugoslavian youth international, Vidić made his senior debut on 12 October 2002 against Italy in UEFA Euro 2004 qualification.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: Vidić was part of Serbia and Montenegro's "Famous Four" defence, alongside Mladen Krstajić, Ivica Dragutinović and Goran Gavrančić, that conceded just one goal during the ten 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification matches, setting a new record for the fewest goals conceded. Vidić played a major part in the last qualification game, against Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which Serbia and Montenegro won 1–0 and secured qualification; Vidić was given a red card, however, five minutes before the end. Vidić missed out on Serbia and Montenegro's opening group stage match against the Netherlands through suspension from his previous red card, and on 12 June 2006, he injured his left knee ligaments during training, and therefore he did not participate in any games at the 2006 World Cup.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: After the World Cup, Vidić went on to represent the national team, now independent as the Serbian national team. He was a regular during 2010 World Cup qualifying when fit, and was instrumental in Serbia finishing top of their group ahead of the likes of France and Romania, with the best defensive record of all the teams participating in the group. Serbia had less luck at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and came in last place in Group D. In a match against Germany in the Group Stage of the World Cup, Vidić gave away a penalty in the second half while Serbia were leading 1–0. However Lukas Podolski's kick was successfully blocked by goalkeeper Vladimir Stojković.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: On 11 October 2011, Vidić missed a decisive penalty against Slovenia. On 24 October 2011, Vidić announced his retirement from the Serbian national team, because of negative comments from fans about his performances in the national shirt.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: Described by David Pleat of "The Guardian" as a "no-nonsense" defender, Vidić has been labelled as a "tough" centre-back, who was known for his physical challenges. He was considered to be one of the world's best centre-backs in his prime due to his defensive consistency and awareness, as well as his strength, leadership, and ability in the air, which made him a goal threat on set pieces. As such, he formed an effective and successful defensive partnership with a more mobile and technical defender such as Rio Ferdinand during their time together at Manchester United. Unlike Ferdinand, however, his playing style focussed primarily on the defensive aspect of the game, rather than attempting to carry the ball forward or play out from the back. He was also praised for his aggressive defensive style by his Manchester United team-mates, and was highly regarded in the media for his on-the-pitch bravery throughout his career. As a consequence, he enjoyed a cult status among the United faithful, and was often compared to former Manchester United defender Steve Bruce, who had similar characteristics. Although primarily a centre-back, Vidić was also capable of playing as a makeshift right-back on occasion, as was the case when he replaced O'Shea in the 2009 League Cup Final. Although his preferred role was as part of a central defensive pairing in a back four, he was also capable of playing in a three-man defensive line on occasion. Pace being his major weakness, especially towards the end of his career, was compensated by his elite positioning and decision-making.


title: Nemanja Vidić

text: On 17 July 2005, Vidić married Ana Ivanović, an economics student at the University of Belgrade. They have three sons named Luka, Stefan, and Petar.


title: Morgan Freeman on screen and stage

text: American actor and director Morgan Freeman has had a prolific career on film, television and on the stage. His film debut was as an uncredited character in the Sidney Lumet–directed drama "The Pawnbroker" in 1964. Freeman also made his stage debut in the same year by appearing in the musical "Hello, Dolly!" He followed this with further stage appearances in "The Niggerlovers" (1967), "The Dozens" (1969), "Exhibition" (1969), and the musical "Purlie" (1970–1971). He played various characters on the children's television series "The Electric Company" (1971–1977). Freeman subsequently appeared in the films "Teachers" in 1984, and "Marie" in 1985 before making his breakthrough with 1987's "Street Smart". His role earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Two years later he appeared in war film "Glory" (1989), and starred as Hoke Coleburn in the comedy-drama "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989). Freeman won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in the latter and also earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.


title: Morgan Freeman on screen and stage

text: In the 1990s, he was cast in numerous films, including the adventure film "" (1991) opposite Kevin Costner, drama "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994) with Tim Robbins, psychological thriller "Seven" (1995), historical drama "Amistad" (1997), crime thriller "Kiss the Girls" (1997), and science fiction disaster film "Deep Impact" (1998). His role in "The Shawshank Redemption" earned him a second nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 2003, he played God in the comedy "Bruce Almighty" opposite Jim Carrey. The following year Freeman played Eddie "Scrap Iron" Dupris in Clint Eastwood's film "Million Dollar Baby" (2004), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.


title: Morgan Freeman on screen and stage

text: Freeman played Lucius Fox in a trilogy of Batman films: "Batman Begins" (2005), "The Dark Knight" (2008), and "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012). During that time, Freeman also appeared in "The Bucket List" (2007) opposite Jack Nicholson, "Wanted" (2008) with Angelina Jolie, and "Invictus" (2009) with Matt Damon. In 2011, Freeman received the AFI Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Two years later he starred in action thriller "Olympus Has Fallen" (2013), science fiction film "Oblivion" (2013), caper "Now You See Me" (2013), and comedy "Last Vegas". In 2014, Freeman appeared in the science fiction films "Transcendence" and "Lucy".


title: Morgan Freeman on screen and stage

text: Freeman has also narrated several documentaries and television series, including "Cosmic Voyage" (1996), "Slavery and the Making of America" (2004), "March of the Penguins" (2005), and "Breaking the Taboo" (2011). He was also the host and narrator for the series "Through the Wormhole" from 2010 to 2017.


title: Soldier Field

text: Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) since 1971, as well as Chicago Fire FC of Major League Soccer (MLS) from 1998 to 2005 and since 2020. The stadium has a football capacity of 61,500, making it the smallest stadium in the NFL. Soldier Field is also the oldest stadium in both the NFL and MLS.


title: Soldier Field

text: The stadium's interior was rebuilt as part of a major renovation project in 2002, which modernized the facility but lowered its seating capacity, eventually causing it to be delisted as a National Historic Landmark in 2006. Soldier Field has served as the home venue for a number of other sports teams in its history, including the Chicago Cardinals of the NFL and University of Notre Dame football. It hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, and multiple CONCACAF Gold Cup championships. In 1968, it hosted the inaugural World Games of the Special Olympics, as well as its second World Games in 1970. Other historic events have included large rallies with speeches, including by Amelia Earhart, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King Jr..


title: Soldier Field

text: On December 3, 1919, Chicago-based architectural firm Holabird & Roche was chosen to design the stadium, which broke ground on August 11, 1922. The stadium cost $13 million to construct (equivalent to $ million in ), a large sum for a sporting venue at that time (in comparison, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum had cost less than US$1 million in 1923 dollars). On October 9, 1924, the 53rd anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire, the stadium was officially dedicated as Municipal Grant Park Stadium, although it had hosted a few events before then, including a field day for Chicago police officers on September 6, and the stadium's first football game, between Louisville Male High School and Austin Community Academy High School, on October 4. On November 22, the stadium hosted its first college football game, in which Notre Dame defeated Northwestern University 13–6.


title: Soldier Field

text: On November 11, 1925, the stadium's name was changed to Soldier Field, in dedication to U.S. soldiers who had died in combat during World War I. Its formal rededication as Soldier Field was held during the 29th annual playing of the Army–Navy Game on November 27, 1926. Several months earlier, in June 1926, the stadium hosted several events during the 28th International Eucharistic Congress.


title: Soldier Field

text: The stadium's design is in the Neoclassical style, with Doric columns rising above the East and West entrances. In its earliest configuration, Soldier Field was capable of seating 74,280 spectators, and was in the shape of a U. Additional seating could be added along the interior field, upper promenades, and on the large, open field and terrace beyond the north endzone, bringing the seating capacity to over 100,000.


title: Soldier Field

text: Before they moved into the stadium, the Chicago Bears had played select charity games at Soldier Field as early as , when they played their former crosstown rivals, the Chicago Cardinals. The Cardinals also used the stadium as their home field for their final season in the city in 1959.


title: Soldier Field

text: In , the Bears moved into Soldier Field full-time, originally with a three-year commitment. The team previously played home games at Wrigley Field, the home stadium of the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball (MLB), but were forced to move to a larger venue due to post-AFL–NFL merger policies requiring that stadium capacities seat at least 50,000 spectators. The Bears had initially intended to build a stadium in Arlington Heights, but the property did not fit the league's specifications.


title: Soldier Field

text: On September 19, 1971, the Bears played their first home game at Soldier Field, in which they defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 17–15. In 1978, the Bears and the Chicago Park District agreed to a 20-year lease and renovation of the stadium; both parties pooled their resources for the renovation. The playing surface was AstroTurf from 1971 until 1987, and was replaced with natural grass in 1988. On February 27, 1987, Soldier Field was designated a National Historic Landmark.


title: Soldier Field

text: In 1989, Soldier Field's future was in jeopardy after a proposal was created for a "McDome", which was intended to be a domed stadium for the Bears, but was rejected by the Illinois Legislature in 1990. Because of this, Bears president Michael McCaskey considered relocation as a possible factor for a new stadium. The Bears had also purchased options in Hoffman Estates, Elk Grove Village and Aurora. In 1995, McCaskey announced that he and Northwest Indiana developers agreed to construction of an entertainment complex called "Planet Park", which would also include a new stadium. However, the plan was rejected by the Lake County Council, and in 1998, then-Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley proposed that the Bears share Comiskey Park with the Chicago White Sox.


title: Soldier Field

text: Beginning in 1978, the plank seating was replaced by individual seats with backs and armrests. In 1982, a new press box, as well as 60 skyboxes, were added to the stadium, boosting its capacity to 66,030. In 1988, 56 more skyboxes were added, increasing capacity to 66,946. Capacity was slightly increased to 66,950 in 1992. By 1994, however, capacity was slightly reduced to 66,944. During the renovation, seating capacity was reduced to 55,701 by building a grandstand in the open end of the U shape. This moved the field closer to both ends in order to move the fans closer to the field, at the expense of seating capacity. The front row 50-yard line seats were only away from the sidelines, the shortest distance of all NFL stadiums until MetLife Stadium opened in 2010 with a distance of .


title: Soldier Field

text: In 2001, the Chicago Park District, which owns the structure, faced substantial criticism when it announced plans to alter the stadium with a design by Benjamin T. Wood and Carlos Zapata of Wood + Zapata in Boston. The stadium grounds were reconfigured by local architecture firm Lohan Associate, led by architect Dirk Lohan, grandson of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The stadium's interior would be demolished and reconstructed while the exterior would be preserved in an example of facadism. A similar endeavor of constructing a new stadium within the confines of a historic stadium's exterior was done with Leipzig's Red Bull Arena, which similarly built a modern stadium while preserving the exterior of the original Zentralstadion. Fans and radio hosts, such as WSCR's Mike North, criticized the small seating capacity of the new venue, and others have criticized the Park District's lack of care to the field surface after the first seasonal freeze and a refusal to consider a new-generation artificial surface, leaving the Bears to play on dead grass.


title: Soldier Field

text: On January 19, 2002, the night of the Bears' playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, demolition began as tailgate fires still burned in trash cans in the parking lots. The removal of 24,000 stadium seats in 36 hours by Archer Seating Clearinghouse, a speed record never exceeded since, was the first step in building the new Soldier Field. Nostalgic Bears fans recalling the team's glory seasons (especially 1985), as well as some retired players, picked up their seats in the South parking lot. The foremen on the job were Grant Wedding, who installed the seats himself in 1979, and Mark Wretschko, an executive for the factory who made the new seats. As Soldier Field underwent renovation, the Bears spent the 2002 NFL season playing their home games at Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois. On September 29, , the Bears played their first game at the renovated Soldier Field, in which they were defeated by the Green Bay Packers 23–38. The total funding for the renovation cost $632 million - taxpayers were responsible for $432 million while the Chicago Bears and the NFL contributed $200 million.


title: Soldier Field

text: Several writers and columnists attacked the Soldier Field renovation project as an aesthetic, political and financial nightmare. The project received mixed reviews within the architecture community, with criticism from civic and preservation groups. Prominent architect and native Chicagoan Stanley Tigerman called it "a fiasco". "Chicago Tribune" architecture critic Blair Kamin dubbed it the "Eyesore on the Lake Shore", while others called it "Monstrosity on the Midway" or "Mistake by the Lake". The renovation was described by some as if "a spaceship landed on the stadium". Lohan responded:


title: Soldier Field

text: I would never say that Soldier Field is an architectural landmark. Nobody has copied it; nobody has learned from it. People like it for nostalgic reasons. They remember the games and parades and tractor pulls and veterans' affairs they've seen there over the years. I wouldn't do this if it were the Parthenon. But this isn't the Parthenon.


title: Soldier Field

text: Proponents of the renovation argued it was direly needed because of aging and cramped facilities. "The New York Times" named the renovated Soldier Field one of the five best new buildings of 2003. Soldier Field was given an award in design excellence by the American Institute of Architects in 2004.


title: Soldier Field

text: On September 23, 2004, as a result of the renovation, a 10-member federal advisory committee unanimously recommended that Soldier Field be delisted as a National Historic Landmark. The recommendation to delist was prepared by Carol Ahlgren, an architectural historian at the National Park Service's Midwest Regional Office in Omaha, Nebraska, who was quoted in Preservation Online stating, "if we had let this stand, I believe it would have lowered the standard of National Historic Landmarks throughout the country [...] If we want to keep the integrity of the program, let alone the landmarks, we really had no other recourse." The stadium lost the landmark designation on February 17, 2006.