title: Daniel Webster

text: Though Congress replaced the "Tariff of Abominations" with the Tariff of 1832, Calhoun and his Nullifier allies remained dissatisfied with tariff rates. Shortly after the 1832 presidential election, a South Carolina convention passed a resolution declaring the Tariff of 1832 to be "null, void, and no law" in South Carolina, marking the start of the Nullification Crisis. Hayne resigned from the Senate to become the governor of South Carolina, while Calhoun took Hayne's former seat in the Senate. In December 1832, Jackson issued the Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, warning that he would not allow South Carolina to defy federal law. Webster strongly approved of the Proclamation, telling an audience at Faneuil Hall that Jackson had articulated "the true principles of the Constitution," and that he would give the president "my entire and cordial support" in the crisis. He strongly supported Jackson's proposed Force Bill, which would authorize the president to use force against states that attempted to obstruct federal law. At the same time, he opposed Clay's efforts to end the crisis by lowering tariff rates, as he believed that making concessions to Calhoun's forces would set a bad precedent. After a spirited debate between himself and Calhoun, Congress passed the Force Bill in February 1833. Soon after, it passed the Tariff of 1833, the product of negotiations between Clay and Calhoun; the bill called for the gradual lowering of tariffs over a ten-year period. Although they symbolically "nullified" the Force Bill, South Carolina leaders accepted the new tariff law, bringing an end to the Nullification Crisis.


title: Daniel Webster

text: As Calhoun drifted away from the Democratic Party and occasionally cooperated with the National Republicans to oppose Jackson, some contemporaries began to refer to Calhoun, Webster, and Clay as "the Great Triumvirate." At the same time, Webster's alliance with Jackson in the Nullification Crisis caused some observers to wonder if he would join the Democratic Party or found a new party centered on their nationalistic vision. Jackson's decision to remove government deposits from the national bank in late 1833 ended any possibility of a Webster-Jackson alliance and helped to solidify partisan lines. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Webster led the Senate's effort to prevent Jackson's secretary of the treasury, Roger Taney, from removing government deposits. As the national bank's charter was due to expire in 1836, before the end of Jackson's term, he attempted to save the national bank through a compromise measure, but Democrats rejected his proposal. Ultimately, the Senate was unable to prevent the deposit removals or the expiration of the national bank's charter, but it did pass resolutions censuring Jackson and Taney. Webster's decision to vote for the censure resolution caused a permanent break with Jackson.


title: Daniel Webster

text: In the aftermath of the battle over the national bank, Jackson's political opponents coalesced into the Whig Party. By taking a name rooted in American and British history, the Whigs implicitly criticized Jackson as a tyrannical executive. Although National Republicans like Clay and Webster formed the core of the Whig Party, Anti-Masonic leaders like William H. Seward and states' rights Democrats like John Tyler also joined the new party. The Whig Party proved more durable than the National Republican Party and, along with the Democrats, the Whigs became one of the two major parties of the Second Party System, which would extend into the 1850s. By 1834, Webster supporters such as Caleb Cushing, Rufus Choate, Abbott Lawrence, and Edward Everett had begun preparing for his candidacy in the 1836 U.S. presidential election. With Clay showing no indication of making another run, Webster hoped to become the main Whig candidate in the 1836 election, but General William Henry Harrison and Senator Hugh Lawson White retained strong support in the West and the South, respectively. Rather than uniting behind one presidential candidate, Whig leaders settled on a strategy of running multiple candidates in order to force a contingent election in the House of Representatives.


title: Daniel Webster

text: He was nominated for president by the Massachusetts legislature, but Harrison won the backing of most Whigs outside of the South. Although his reputation as a national figure was far greater than that of Harrison, many Whigs hoped that Harrison's military record would allow him to replicate Jackson's 1832 victory. Webster's chances also suffered from his lingering association with the Federalist Party, his close relationship with elite politicians and businessmen, and his lack of appeal among the broad populace; Remini writes that the American public "admired and revered him but did not love or trust him." With little support outside of his home state, he attempted to withdraw his presidential candidacy, but, to his eventual regret, Massachusetts Whig leaders convinced him to stay in the race. Meanwhile, the 1835 Democratic National Convention nominated Van Buren, Jackson's preferred successor, for president. In the 1836 election, Van Buren won a majority of the popular and electoral vote, Harrison finished a distant second, and White carried two Southern states. Webster won only the electoral votes of Massachusetts. Adding to his displeasure, he lost a major Supreme Court decision, "Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge", shortly after the election.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Shortly after Van Buren took office, a major economic downturn known as the Panic of 1837 began. Webster and his Whig allies blamed Jackson's policies, including the Specie Circular, for the panic, but a worldwide economic downturn was a major contributing factor. The panic hit the country hard and proved disastrous for Webster's personal finances. With the help of Nicholas Biddle and other friendly bankers, Webster had gone into debt to engage in land speculation on a broad scale. His debt was exacerbated by his propensity for lavishly furnishing his estate and giving away money with "reckless generosity and heedless profusion," in addition to indulging the smaller-scale "passions and appetites" of gambling and alcohol. The panic resulted in many creditors calling in their loans and, according to Remini, Webster would never emerge from debt after 1837. Nonetheless, he remained focused on his political career. While Whigs promoted the American System as the means for economic recovery, Van Buren's response to the panic focused on the practice of "strict economy and frugality." Webster attacked Van Buren's proposals to address the economic crisis, including the establishment of an Independent Treasury system, and he helped arrange for the rescinding of the Specie Circular.


title: Daniel Webster

text: He entertained hopes of winning the Whig nomination in the 1840 U.S. presidential election but ultimately declined to challenge Clay or Harrison, both of whom commanded broader support within the party. He remained neutral between Clay and Harrison, instead departing for a trip to Europe, where he attended his daughter's wedding and befriended Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton. While he was abroad, the 1839 Whig National Convention nominated Harrison for president. Although many Whigs favored a Harrison-Webster ticket, the convention instead nominated John Tyler of Virginia for vice president. Webster served as a prominent campaign surrogate for Harrison in the 1840 election, although he disliked the party's new, popular style of campaigning that made use of songs and slogans like "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." The Whigs enjoyed great success in the 1840 elections, as Harrison took a majority of the popular and electoral vote and the party won control of Congress.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Harrison extensively consulted Webster and Clay regarding presidential appointments, and the two Whig leaders competed to place their supporters and allies in key positions. Harrison initially hoped that Webster would serve as secretary of the treasury in order to spearhead his economic program, but Webster instead became secretary of state, giving him oversight of foreign affairs. Just one month after taking office, Harrison died from pneumonia, and was succeeded by John Tyler. Though Tyler and Webster strongly differed regarding ideology (Tyler was a devotee of states' rights) and personality, they initially enjoyed a strong working relationship, partly because each saw Clay as a rival for power in the Whig Party. As Tyler, a former Democrat, had long been skeptical of the need for a national bank, Webster urged Whig congressmen to back a compromise bill put forward by Secretary of the Treasury Thomas Ewing which would have re-established the national bank but restricted its branching power. Congress rejected the compromise and instead passed Clay's bill, which was subsequently vetoed by Tyler. After Tyler vetoed another Whig bill, every Cabinet member except for Webster resigned, and a caucus of Whigs voted to expel Tyler from the party in September 1841. When Webster informed Tyler that he would not resign, Tyler responded, "give me your hand on that, and now I will say to you that Henry Clay is a doomed man."


title: Daniel Webster

text: Facing a hostile Congress, Tyler and Webster turned their attention to foreign policy. The administration put a new emphasis on American influence in the Pacific Ocean, reaching the first U.S. treaty with China, seeking to partition Oregon Country with Britain, and announcing that the United States would oppose any attempt to colonize the Hawaiian Islands. The most pressing foreign policy issue involved relations with Britain, as the United States had nearly gone to war with Britain over the Caroline affair and a border conflict between Maine and Canada. Seeking improved relations with the United States, British Prime Minister Robert Peel dispatched Lord Ashburton on a special mission to the United States. After extensive negotiations, the United States and Britain reached the Webster–Ashburton Treaty, which clearly delineated Maine's northern border and other sections of the U.S.-Canada border that had been in dispute. Senator Thomas Hart Benton led Senate opposition to the treaty, arguing that it "needlessly and shamelessly" relinquished American territory, but few others joined Benton in voting against the treaty, and it won ratification.


title: Daniel Webster

text: After mid-1841, congressional Whigs continually pressured Webster to resign, and by early 1843, Tyler had also begun to pressure Webster to leave office. As Tyler moved even farther away from Whig positions and began preparing a campaign for the Democratic nomination in the 1844 U.S. presidential election, Webster left office in May 1843. With Webster gone, Tyler turned his attention to the Texas annexation. Clay was nominated for president at the 1844 Whig National Convention, while the Democrats spurned both Tyler and former President Van Buren in favor of James K. Polk, a protege of Andrew Jackson. Webster's service in the Tyler administration had badly damaged his credibility among Whigs, but he began to rebuild old alliances within the party. Tyler's attempts to annex Texas became the key issue in the 1844 election, and Webster came out strongly against annexation. He campaigned on behalf of Clay, telling one crowd, "I know of no great national constitutional question; I know of no great interest of the country ... in which there is any difference between the distinguished leader of the Whig Party and myself." Despite Webster's campaigning, Polk defeated Clay in a close election. The election of the expansionist Polk ensured the annexation of Texas, and annexation was completed after Polk took office.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Webster considered retiring from public office after the 1844 election, but he accepted election to the United States Senate in early 1845. Webster sought to block the adoption of Polk's domestic policies, but Congress, controlled by Democrats, reduced tariff rates through the Walker tariff and re-established the Independent Treasury system. In May 1846, the Mexican–American War began after Congress, responding to a clash instigated by U.S. troops against the Mexican Army at the disputed Texas–Mexico border, declared war on Mexico. During the war, Northern Whigs became increasingly split between "Conscience Whigs" like Charles Sumner, who strongly favored anti-slavery policies, and "Cotton Whigs" like Webster, who emphasized good relations with Southern leaders. Webster had been a long-standing opponent of slavery; in an 1837 speech he called slavery a "great moral, social, and political evil," and added that he would vote against "any thing that shall extend the slavery of the African race on this continent, or add other slaveholding states to the Union." But, unlike his more strongly anti-slavery constituents, he did not believe that Congress should interfere with slavery in the states, and he placed less emphasis on preventing the spread of slavery into the territories. Nonetheless, because Webster opposed the acquisition of Mexican territory (with the exception of San Francisco), he voted against the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which the United States acquired the Mexican Cession.


title: Daniel Webster

text: General Zachary Taylor's success in the Mexican–American War drove him to the front ranks of Whig candidates in the 1848 U.S. presidential election. As Taylor held unclear political positions and had never been publicly affiliated with the Whig Party, Clay and Webster each launched their own bids for the presidency, but opposition from the Conscience Whigs badly damaged Webster's standing. On the first ballot of the 1848 Whig National Convention Webster finished a distant fourth behind Taylor, Clay, and General Winfield Scott. Taylor ultimately won the presidential nomination on the convention's third ballot, while Millard Fillmore of New York was selected as the party's vice presidential nominee. After Webster declined the request of Conscience Whigs to lead a new, anti-slavery third party, Conscience Whigs and "Barnburner" Democrats launched the Free Soil Party and nominated a ticket consisting of former President Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams. Despite having previously stated that he would not support Taylor in the 1848 presidential campaign, Webster threw his backing behind Taylor. Ultimately, Taylor won the election, defeating both Van Buren and Democratic nominee Lewis Cass.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Having only tepidly endorsed Taylor's campaign, Webster was excluded from the new administration's Cabinet and was not consulted on major appointments. After the 1848 election, the fate of the territories acquired in the Mexican-American War became a major subject of debate in Congress, as Northern and Southern leaders quarreled over the extension of slavery. In January 1850, Clay introduced a plan which combined the major subjects under discussion. His legislative package included the admission of California as a free state, the cession by Texas of some of its northern and western territorial claims in return for debt relief, the establishment of New Mexico and Utah territories, a ban on the importation of slaves into the District of Columbia for sale, and a more stringent fugitive slave law. The plan faced opposition from strongly pro-slavery Southern leaders like Calhoun and anti-slavery Northerners like William Seward and Salmon Chase. President Taylor also opposed Clay's proposal, since he favored granting California statehood immediately and denied the legitimacy of Texas's claims over New Mexico.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Clay had won Webster's backing for his proposal before presenting it to Congress, and Webster provided strong support for Clay's bill in the Senate. In a speech that became known as the "Seventh of March" speech, Webster attacked Northerners and Southerners alike for stirring up tensions over slavery. He admonished Northerners for obstructing the return of fugitive slaves but attacked Southern leaders for openly contemplating secession. After the speech, Webster was bitterly attacked by New England abolitionists. Theodore Parker complained, "No living man has done so much to debauch the conscience of the nation," while Horace Mann described Webster as "a fallen star! Lucifer descending from Heaven!" In contrast to that view, James G. Blaine wrote a few decades later:


title: Daniel Webster

text: The debate over Clay's compromise proposal continued into July 1850, when Taylor suddenly and unexpectedly died of an illness.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Millard Fillmore ascended to the presidency upon Taylor's death. Shortly after taking office, Fillmore dismissed Taylor's Cabinet appointees, named Webster as his secretary of state, and came out in favor of Clay's compromise. Fillmore chose the remaining members of his Cabinet in consultation with Webster, and Webster became the unofficial leader in the Cabinet. After Fillmore took office, Clay took a temporary leave from the Senate, but Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois took the lead in advocating for a compromise based largely on Clay's proposals. On behalf of the president, Webster drafted a special message to Congress calling for an end to the crisis over the territories, and he used the power of patronage to woo potential supporters. Soon after the Fillmore administration delivered the special message, Congress passed Douglas's legislative package, which became known as the Compromise of 1850.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Due to a prosperous economy and various other trends, few Whigs pushed for a revival of the national bank and other long-standing party policies during the Fillmore administration, and the Compromise of 1850 became the central political issue. While Fillmore hoped to reconcile with anti-Compromise Northern Whigs, Webster sought to purge them from the party, and he frequently intervened to block the election or appointment of anti-Compromise Whigs. In the North, the most controversial portion of the Compromise of 1850 was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and Webster became closely involved in enforcing the law. Disputes over fugitive slaves were widely publicized North and South, inflaming passions and raising tensions in the aftermath of the Compromise of 1850. Many of the administration's prosecutions or attempts to return slaves ended badly for the government, as in the case of Shadrach Minkins. In Massachusetts, anti-slavery Whigs allied with Democrats and, in a major rebuke to Webster, elected Free Soil leader Charles Sumner to the Senate.


title: Daniel Webster

text: When the New York & Erie Rail Road was completed in May 1851, President Fillmore and several members of his cabinet, including Webster, made a special, two-day excursion run to open the railway. It is reported that Webster viewed the entire run from a rocking chair attached to a flatcar, with a steamer rug and jug of high-quality Medford rum. At stops, he would get down and speechify.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Fillmore appointed Webster not only for his national stature and pro-Compromise position, but also for his experience in foreign affairs, and Fillmore relied on Webster to guide his administration's foreign policy. In the aftermath of the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1848, a diplomatic incident with the Austrian Empire arose over the Taylor administration's sympathetic actions towards the Hungarian rebels. Rather than backing down, the Fillmore administration secured the release of exiled Hungarian leader Lajos Kossuth from the Ottoman Empire and gave a banquet in Kossuth's honor. In 1851, Webster wrote a book about Kossuth's life.<ref name="Webster/1851/Kossuth"></ref> The administration was particularly active in Asia and the Pacific, especially with regard to Japan, which prohibited nearly all foreign contact. In November 1852, the administration launched the Perry Expedition to force Japan to establish trade relations with the United States. Perry was successful in his mission, as Japan agreed to open trade relations with the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa. The Fillmore administration also reached trade agreements with Latin American countries, worked to counter British influence in Central America and took measures to prevent unauthorized military expeditions against Cuba and other Latin American countries. An expedition to Cuba led by Narciso López precipitated a diplomatic crisis with Spain, but Fillmore, Webster, and the Spanish government worked out a series of face-saving measures that prevented an outbreak of hostilities from occurring.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Encouraged by Fillmore's professed lack of desire to pursue the Whig nomination in the 1852 U.S. presidential election, Webster launched another campaign for the presidency in 1851. Fillmore was sympathetic to the ambitions of his secretary of state, but he was unwilling to completely rule out accepting the party's 1852 nomination, as he feared doing so would allow his rival, William Seward, to gain control of the party. Another candidate emerged in the form of General Winfield Scott, who, like previously successful Whig presidential nominees William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, had earned fame for his martial accomplishments. Scott had supported the Compromise of 1850, but his association with Seward made him unacceptable to Southern Whigs. As Southerners retained a lingering distrust of Webster, they threw their backing behind Fillmore. Thus, Scott emerged as the preferred candidate of most Northern Whigs, Fillmore became the main candidate of Southern Whigs, and Webster was only able to win backing from a handful of delegates, most of whom were from New England.


title: Daniel Webster

text: On the first presidential ballot of the 1852 Whig National Convention, Fillmore received 133 of the necessary 147 votes, while Scott won 131 and Webster won 29. Although both Webster and Fillmore were willing to withdraw in favor of the other, their respective delegates at the convention were unable to unite around one candidate, and Scott took the nomination on the 53rd ballot. Webster was personally devastated by the defeat, and he refused to endorse Scott's candidacy. Webster allowed various third party groups to nominate him for president, although he did not openly condone these efforts. Scott proved to be a poor candidate, and he suffered the worst defeat in Whig history, losing to Democratic nominee Franklin Pierce. Thousands of anti-Scott Whigs and members of the nativist Native American Party cast their vote for Webster.


title: Daniel Webster

text: In 1808, Webster married Grace Fletcher, a schoolteacher and the daughter of a New Hampshire clergyman. Between 1810 and 1822, Daniel and Grace had five children: Grace, Daniel "Fletcher", Julia, Edward, and Charles. Grace and Charles died before reaching adulthood. Webster's wife, Grace, died in January 1828 due to a cancerous tumor, and Webster suffered another loss when his brother, Ezekiel, died in April 1829. In December 1829, Webster married Caroline LeRoy, the 32-year-old daughter of a New York merchant. They remained married until Webster's death, and she lived until 1882. She and Webster had two children together, another daughter named Grace and a son named Noah Webster. After the death of his first wife, Webster was frequently the subject of rumors in Washington regarding his alleged promiscuity; many suspected that the painter Sarah Goodridge, with whom he had a close relationship, was his mistress.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Webster and his family lived in Portsmouth until 1816 when they relocated to Boston. In 1831, Webster purchased a 150-acre estate (now known as the Thomas–Webster Estate) in Marshfield, Massachusetts. In the ensuing years, Webster spent much of his earnings making various improvements to his estate, and he made it his primary residence in 1837. After 1829, Webster also owned his father's home, The Elms, in Franklin, New Hampshire. Webster's older son, Fletcher, married a niece of Joseph Story, established a profitable law practice, served as chief clerk of the State Department, and was the only one of his siblings to outlive his father. Fletcher died at the 1862 Second Battle of Bull Run while serving as a colonel in the Union army. Webster's younger son, Edward, died of typhoid fever in January 1848 while serving in the Mexican-American War. Webster's daughter, Julia, married Samuel Appleton Appleton, but died of tuberculosis in April 1848.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Conflicting opinions have been voiced as to his religion. The Unitarian Universalist Church, citing "Unitarianism in America" from 1902, claim him as their own. Another source, the 1856 biography "The American Statesman: The Life and Character of Daniel Webster", proclaims him an avowed orthodox Trinitarian, baptized and raised in an Orthodox Congregational Church, and who died a member of the Episcopal Church. Remini writes that, though Webster occasionally attended other churches, he remained closely affiliated with the Congregational church throughout his life. In an 1807 letter to a Congregational pastor, Webster wrote, "I believe in the utter inability of any human being to work out his own Salvation, without the constant aids of the spirit of all grace. ... Although I have great respect for some other forms of worship, I believe the Congregational mode, on the whole, to be preferable to any other."


title: Daniel Webster

text: By early 1852, Webster had begun to suffer from cirrhosis of the liver, and his poor health increasingly made it difficult for him to serve as secretary of state. In September 1852, Webster returned to his Marshfield estate, where his health continued to decline due to cirrhosis and a subdural hematoma. He died at Marshfield on October 24, 1852, and is buried in Winslow Cemetery near his estate. His last words were: "I still live."


title: Daniel Webster

text: Remini writes that "whether men hated or admired [Webster], all agreed ... on the majesty of his oratory, the immensity of his intellectual powers, and the primacy of his constitutional knowledge." Ralph Waldo Emerson, who had criticized Webster following the Seventh of March address, remarked in the immediate aftermath of his death that Webster was "the completest man", and that "nature had not in our days, or not since Napoleon, cut out such a masterpiece." In "Profiles in Courage", John F. Kennedy called Webster's defense of the Compromise of 1850, despite the risk to his presidential ambitions and the denunciations he faced from the North, one of the "greatest acts of courageous principle" in the history of the Senate. Conversely, "Seventh of March" has been criticized by Henry Cabot Lodge who contrasted the speech's support of the 1850 compromise with his 1833 rejection of similar measures. "While he was brave and true and wise in 1833," said Lodge, "in 1850 he was not only inconsistent, but that he erred deeply in policy and statesmanship" in his advocacy of a policy that "made war inevitable by encouraging slave-holders to believe that they could always obtain anything they wanted by a sufficient show of violence."


title: Daniel Webster

text: Several historians suggest Webster failed to exercise leadership for any political issue or vision. Lodge describes Webster's "susceptibility to outside influences that formed such an odd trait in the character of a man so imperious by nature. When acting alone, he spoke his own opinions. When in a situation where public opinion was concentrated against him, he submitted to modifications of his views with a curious and indolent indifference." Similarly, Arthur Schlesinger cites Webster's letter requesting retainers for fighting for the national bank, one of his most inveterate causes; he then asks how Webster could "expect the American people to follow him through hell or high water when he would not lead unless someone made up a purse for him?" Remini writes that "Webster was a thoroughgoing elitist—and he reveled in it."


title: Daniel Webster

text: Webster retains his high prestige in some recent historiography. Baxter argues that his nationalistic view of the union as one and inseparable from liberty helped the union to triumph over the states-rights Confederacy, making it his greatest contribution. In 1959, the Senate named Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Robert M. La Follette, and Robert A. Taft as the five greatest senators in history. However Bartlett, emphasizing Webster's private life, says his great oratorical achievements were in part undercut by his improvidence with money, his excessively opulent lifestyle, and his numerous conflict of interest situations. Remini points out that Webster's historical orations taught Americans their history before textbooks were widely available.


title: Daniel Webster

text: While evaluations on his political career vary, Webster is widely praised for his talent as an orator and attorney. Former Solicitor General Seth P. Waxman writes that "in the realm of advocacy, Webster doesn't merely sit in the Pantheon: He is Zeus himself." Kennedy praised Webster's "ability to make alive and supreme the latent sense of oneness, of union, that all Americans felt but few could express." Webster's "Reply to Hayne" in 1830 was generally regarded as "the most eloquent speech ever delivered in Congress," and was a stock exercise for oratory students for 75 years. Schlesinger, however, notes that he is also an example of the limitations of formal oratory: Congress heard Webster or Clay with admiration, but they rarely prevailed at the vote. Plainer speech and party solidarity were more effective, and Webster never approached Jackson's popular appeal.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Webster's legacy has been commemorated by numerous means, including the Daniel Webster Highway and Mount Webster in New Hampshire. His statue stands in the National Statuary Hall Collection, while another statue stands in Central Park. The "USS Daniel Webster (SSBN-626)" and the "SS Daniel Webster" were both named for Webster. The first Webster postage stamp was issued in 1870. In all, Daniel Webster is honored on 14 different US postage issues, more than most U.S. Presidents. There are 27 towns named for Webster in California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia, including two in Wisconsin (Webster, Burnett County and Webster, Vernon County), a ghost town in Colorado, and Webster and Webster Hollow in Tennessee. Seven counties or parishes are named for Webster.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Webster is the major character in a fictional short story, "The Devil and Daniel Webster", by Stephen Vincent Benét. It serves as the basis for a one-act opera of the same name written by American composer Douglas Moore.


title: Daniel Webster

text: Webster is briefly discussed in Chapter XIX of MacKinlay Kantor's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Andersonville" (1955).


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: The Battle of Tannenberg, also known as the Second Battle of Tannenberg, was fought between Russia and Germany between 26 and 30 August 1914, the first month of World War I. The battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army and the suicide of its commanding general, Alexander Samsonov. A series of follow-up battles (First Masurian Lakes) destroyed most of the First Army as well and kept the Russians off balance until the spring of 1915.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: The battle is particularly notable for fast rail movements by the German Eighth Army, enabling them to concentrate against each of the two Russian armies in turn, first delaying the First Army and then destroying the Second before once again turning on the First days later. It is also notable for the failure of the Russians to encode their radio messages, broadcasting their daily marching orders in the clear, which allowed the Germans to make their movements with the confidence they would not be flanked.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: The almost miraculous outcome brought considerable prestige to Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and his rising staff-officer Erich Ludendorff. Although the battle actually took place near Allenstein (Olsztyn), Hindenburg named it after Tannenberg, to the west, in order to avenge the Teutonic Knights' defeat at the First Battle of Tannenberg 500 years earlier.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Germany entered World War I largely following the Schlieffen Plan. According to Prit Buttar, "In combination with his own strong desire to fight an offensive war featuring outflanking and encircling movements, Schlieffen went on to develop his plan for a sweeping advance through Belgium. In the east, limited German forces would defend against any Russian attack until more forces became available from the west, fresh from victory over the French. The total strength of the fully mobilised German Army in 1914 amounted to 1,191 battalions, the great majority of which would be deployed against France. The Eighth Army in East Prussia would go to war with barely 10 per cent of this total."


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: The French army's Plan XVII at the outbreak of the war involved swift mobilization followed by an immediate attack to drive the Germans from Alsace and Lorraine. If the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) joined in accordance with their Allied treaty, they would fill the left flank. Their Russian allies in the East would have a massive army, more than 95 divisions, but their mobilization would inevitably be slower. Getting their men to the front would itself take time because of their relatively sparse and unreliable railway network (for example, 75% of the Russian railways were still single-tracked). Russia intended to have 27 divisions at the front by day 15 of hostilities and 52 by day 23, but it would take 60 days before 90 divisions were in action. Despite their difficulties, the Russians promised the French that they would promptly engage the armies of Austria-Hungary in the south and on day 15 would invade German East Prussia.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: According to Prit Buttar, "In addition to the fortifications amongst the Masurian Lake District, the Germans had built a series of major forts around Königsberg in the 19th century and had then modernised them over the years. Similarly, major fortresses had been established along the Vistula, particularly at Thorn (now Toruń). Combined with the flexibility provided by the German railways, allowing General Maximilian von Prittwitz to concentrate against the inner flanks of either Russian invasion force, the Germans could realistically view the coming war with a degree of confidence."


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: The Russians would rely on two of their three railways that ran up to the border; each would provision an army. The railways ended at the border, as Russian trains operated on a different rail gauge from Western Europe. Consequently, its armies could be transported by rail only as far as the German border and could use Prussian railways only with captured locomotives and rolling stock. The First Army would use the line that ran from Vilnius, Lithuania, to the border southeast of Königsberg. The Second Army railway ran from Warsaw, Poland, to the border southwest of Königsberg. The two armies would take the Germans in a pincer. The Russian supply chains would be ungainly because—for defense—on their side of the border there were only a few sandy tracks rather than proper macadamized roads. Adding to their supply problems, the Russians deployed large numbers of cavalry and Cossacks; every day each horse needed ten times the resources that a man required.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: The First Army commander was Paul von Rennenkampf, who in the Russo-Japanese War had earned a reputation for "exceptional energy, determination, courage, and military capability."The First Army was mobilized from the Vilno Military District, and consisted of four infantry corps, five cavalry divisions and an independent cavalry brigade. The Second Army, commanded by Alexander Samsonov, was mobilized from the Warsaw Military District, and consisted of five infantry corps and four cavalry divisions. These two armies formed the Northwestern Front facing the Germans, under the command of Yakov Zhilinsky. The Southwestern Front, facing the Austro-Hungarians in Galicia, was commanded by Nikolai Iudovich Ivanov.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Communications would be a daunting challenge. The Russian supply of cable was insufficient to run telephone or telegraph connections from the rear; all they had was needed for field communications. Therefore, they relied on mobile wireless stations, which would link Zhilinskiy to his two army commanders and with all corps commanders. The Russians were aware that the Germans had broken their ciphers, but they continued to use them until war broke out. A new code was ready but they were still very short of code books. Zhilinskiy and Rennenkampf each had one; Samsonov did not. According to Prit Buttar, "Consequently, Samsonov concluded that he would have to take the risk of using uncoded radio messages."


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Rennenkampf's First Army crossed the frontier on 17 August, moving westward slowly. This was sooner than the Germans anticipated, because the Russian mobilization, including the Baltic and Warsaw districts, had begun secretly on 25 July, not with the Tsar's proclamation on 30 July.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Prittwitz attacked near Gumbinnen on 20 August, when he knew from intercepted wireless messages that Rennenkampf's infantry was resting. German I Corps commanded by Gen. Hermann von François was on their left, XVII Corps commanded by Lt. Gen. August von Mackensen in the center and I Reserve Corps led by Gen. Otto von Below on the right. A night march enabled one of François’ divisions to hit the Russian XX Corps' right flank at 04:00. Rennenkampf's men rallied to stoutly resist the attack. Their artillery was devastating until they ran out of ammunition, then the Russians retired. I Corps attacks were halted at 16:00 to rest men sapped by the torrid summer heat. François was sure they could win the next day. On his left, Mackensen's XVII Corps launched a vigorous frontal attack but the Russian infantry held firm. That afternoon the Russian heavy artillery struck back—the German infantry fled in panic, their artillery limbered up and joined the stampede. Prittwitz ordered I Corps and I Reserve Corps to break off the action and retreat also.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: At noon, Prittwitz had telephoned Field Marshal von Moltke at OHL (Oberste Heeresleitung, Supreme Headquarters) to report that all was going well; that evening he telephoned again to report disaster. His problems were compounded because an intercepted wireless message disclosed that the Russian II Army included five Corps and a cavalry division, and aerial scouts saw their columns marching across the frontier. They were opposed by a single reinforced German Corps, the XX, commanded by Lt. Gen. Friedrich von Scholtz. Their advance offered the possibility of cutting off any retreat westward while possibly encircling them between the two Russian armies. Prittwitz excitedly but inconclusively and repeatedly discussed the horrifying news with Moltke that evening on the telephone, shouting back and forth. At 20:23 Eighth Army telegraphed OHL that they would withdraw to West Prussia.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: By the next morning, 21 August, Eighth Army staff realized that because Samsonov's II Army was closer to the Vistula crossings than they were, they must first relocate most of their forces to join with XX Corps to block Samsonov before they could withdraw further. Now Moltke was told that they would only retreat a short distance. François protested directly to the Kaiser about his panicking superiors. That evening Prittwitz reported that the German 1st Cavalry Division had disappeared, only to later disclose that they had repulsed the Russian cavalry, capturing several hundred. By this point, Moltke had already decided to replace both Prittwitz and his chief of staff, Alfred von Waldersee. On the morning of 22 August their replacements, Col. Gen. Paul von Hindenburg and Maj. Gen. Erich Ludendorff, were notified of their new assignments.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: The Eighth Army issued orders to move to block Samsonov's Second Army. I Corps on the German left was closest to the railway, so it would take the long route by train to form up on the right side of XX Corps. The other two German corps would march the shorter distance to XX Corps' left. The First Cavalry Division and some older garrison troops would remain to screen Rennenkampf. On the afternoon of 22 August, the head of the Eighth Army field railways was informed by telegraph that new commanders were coming by special train. The telegram relieving their former commanders came later. I Corps was moving over more than 150 km (93 miles) of rail, day and night, one train every 30 minutes, with 25 minutes to unload instead of the customary hour or two.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: After the battle at Gumbinnen, Rennenkampf decided to pause his First Army to take resupply and to be in good positions if the Germans attacked again. This caused them to lose contact with the German Army, which he incorrectly reported was retreating in haste to the Vistula. Both Russian armies were having serious supply problems; everything had to be carted up from the railheads because they could not use the East Prussian railway track, and many units were hampered by a lack of field bakeries, ammunition carts and the like. The Second Army also was hampered by incompetent staff work and poor communications. Poor staff work not only exacerbated supply problems but, more importantly, caused Samsonov during the fighting to lose operational control over all but the two corps in his immediate vicinity (XIII & XV Corps).


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: On 21 August, Samsonov's Second Army crossed the border, and quickly took several border towns. The VI Corps took Ortelsburg, while I and XV Corps advanced onto Soldau and Neidenburg. On 22 August, Samsonov ordered XV Corps to advance towards Hohenstein, which they did on 23 August pushing Friedrich von Scholtz's XX Corps out of Lahna.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: The new commanders arrived at Marienburg on the afternoon of 23 August; they had met for the first time on their special train the previous night and now they rendezvoused with the Eighth Army staff. I Corps was moving by the rail line, and Ludendorff had previously counter-ordered it further east, at Deutsch-Eylau, where it could support the right of XX Corps. XVII Corps and I Reserve Corps would march towards the left of XX Corps. Ludendorff had delayed their marches for a day to rest while remaining in place should Rennenkampf attack. The German 1st Cavalry Division and some garrison troops of older men would remain as a screen just south of the eastern edge of the Königsberg defenses, facing Rennenkampf's First Army.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Hindenburg summarized his strategy, "We had not merely to win a victory over Samsonov. We had to annihilate him. Only thus could we get a free hand to deal with the second enemy, Rennenkampf, who was even then plundering and burning East Prussia." The new commander had raised the stakes dramatically. They must do more than stop Samsonov in his tracks, as they had tried to block and push back Rennenkampf. Samsonov must be annihilated before they turned back to deal with Rennenkampf. For the moment Samsonov would be opposed only by the forces he was already facing, XX Corps, mostly East Prussians who were defending their homes. The bulk of the Second Russian Army was still coming towards the front; if necessary, they would be allowed to push further into the province while the German reinforcements assembled on the flanks, poised to encircle the invaders—just the tactics instilled by Schlieffen.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Zhilinskiy had agreed to Samsonov's proposal to start the Second Army's advance further westward than originally planned, separating them even further from Rennenkampf's First Army. On 22 August Samsonov's forces encountered Germans all along their front and pushed them back in several places. Zhilinskiy ordered him to pursue vigorously. They already had been advancing for six days in sweltering heat without sufficient rest along primitive roads, averaging a day and had outrun their supplies. On 23 August they attacked the German XX Corps, which retreated to the Orlau-Frankenau line that night. The Russians followed, and on the 24th they attacked again; the now partially entrenched XX Corps temporarily stopped their advance before retreating to avoid possible encirclement. At one stage the chief of staff of the corps directed artillery fire onto his own dwelling.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Samsonov saw a wonderful opportunity because, as far as he was aware, both of his flanks were unopposed. He ordered most of his units to the northwest, toward the Vistula, leaving only his VI Corps to continue north towards their original objective of Seeburg. He did not have enough aircraft or skilled cavalry to detect the German buildup on his left. Rennenkampf mistakenly reported that two of the German Corps had sheltered in the Königsberg fortifications.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: On 24 August Hindenburg, Ludendorff and Hoffmann motored along the German lines to meet Scholtz and his principal subordinates, sharing the roads with panic-stricken refugees; in the background were columns of smoke from burning villages ignited by artillery shells. They could keep control of their army because most of the local telephone operators remained at their switchboards, carefully tracking the motorcade. Along the way they drove through the village of Tannenberg, which reminded the two younger men of the defeat of the Teutonic Knights there by the Poles and Lithuanians in 1410; Hindenburg had been thinking about that battle since the evening before when he strolled near the ruins of the castle of the Teutonic Order. (In 1910 Slavs had commemorated their triumph on the old battlefield.)


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Aided by Russian radio intercepts, a captured map of Russian positions, and information from fleeing German civilians of Rennenkampf's slow progress, Hindenburg and Ludendorff planned the encirclement of the Russian Second Army. I Corps and XX Corps would attack from Gilgenburg towards Neidenburg, while XVII Corps and I Reserve Corps attacked the Russian right flank. They met with Scholtz and his XX Corps staff on 24 August, and François on 25 August, where he was ordered to attack towards Usdau on 26 August. François stated only part of his corps and artillery had arrived. Ludendorf insisted the attack must go forward as planned, since more trains were expected beforehand. François replied, "If it is so ordered, of course an attack will be made, and the troops will obviously have to fight with bayonets."


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: On the way back to headquarters Hoffmann received new radio intercepts. Rennenkampf's most recent orders from Zhilinskiy were to continue due west, not turn south-westward towards Samsonov, who was instructed to continue his own drive northwest further away from Rennenkampf. Based on this information Scholtz formed a new defensive flank along the Drewenz River, while his main line strengthened their defenses. Back at headquarters Hindenburg told the staff, "Gentlemen. Our preparations are so well in hand that we can sleep soundly tonight."


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Samsonov was concerned by the German resistance with their earlier advance, and aerial reconnaissance spotted the arrival of the German I Corps. However, Samsonov was ordered by Zhilinski to attack northwest with Martos' XV Corps, and Klyuev's XII Corps, while I Corps protected the left flank, and VI Corps was positioned on the right at Bischofsburg.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Zhilinskiy was visited by the commander of the Russian Army, the Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia, who ordered him to support Samsonov.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Von François commenced his attack early on the 25th, with his 1st Infantry Division advancing towards Seeben, his 2nd Infantry division on its southern flank, and the rest of his corps arriving by train during the day. He captured Seeben by mid-afternoon, but saved an advance on Usdau for the next day. North of von François, Scholtz's 37th and 41st Infantry Divisions faced the Russian 2nd Infantry Division, which fell back with heavy losses. On the left flank of Scholtz's XX Corps, Curt von Morgen's 3rd Reserve Division was ordered to advance onto Hohenstein, but held back out of concern that the Russian XV and XII Corps would threaten his left flank. Klyuev's Russian XIII Corps was ordered to advance onto Allenstein. On Samsonov's right flank, Alexander Blagoveschensky's Russian VI corps soon faced Mackensen's German XVII Corps and von Below's German I Reserve Corps. Von Below, to the right of Mackensen, advanced to cut the road between Bischofsburg and Wartenburg. Blagoveschensky's 16th Infantry Division occupied Bischofsburg, while his 4th Infantry Division was north of Rothfliess, and his 4th Cavalry division was at Sensburg. The 16th Infantry division was ordered to move towards Allenstein, while the 16th Infantry Division was split between Lautern and Gross-Bössau. Mackensen's 36th Infantry Division, on the right, and his 35th infantry Division, on the left, advanced towards Bischofsburg. The Russian 4th Infantry Division suffered heavy losses and retreated towards Ortelsburg. In an attempt to send reinforcements, Blagoveschensky split the 16th Infantry Division between Bischofsburg and Ramsau. However, they were met in the flank and rear by von Belows's I Reserve Corps, and retreated in disarray.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: That evening the Eighth Army's staff was on edge. Little had been achieved during the day, when they had intended to spring the trap. XX Corps had done well on another torrid day, but now was exhausted. On their far left they knew that XVII Corps and I Reserve Corps were coming into action, but headquarters had learned little about their progress. In fact, XVII Corps had defeated the Russian VI Corps, which fled back along the roads. XVII Corps had endured long marches in sweltering weather, but some men still had the energy to pursue on bicycles requisitioned from civilians. Hoffmann, who had been an observer with the Japanese in Manchuria, tried to ease their nerves by telling how Samsonov and Rennenkampf had quarreled during that war, so they would do nothing to help one another. It was a good story that Hoffmann treasured and retold frequently. In Hindenburg's words "It was now apparent that danger was threatening from the side of Rennenkampf. It was reported that one of his corps was on the march through Angerburg. It is surprising that misgivings filled many a heart, that firm resolution began to yield to vacillation, and that doubts crept in where a clear vision had hitherto prevailed? We overcame the inward crisis, adhered to our original intention, and turned in full strength to effect its realization by attack." The German right flank would advance to Neidenburg, while von Below's I Reserve Corps advanced to Allenstein, and Mackensen's XVII Corps chased Blagoveschensky's retreating VI Corps.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Von François was ready to attack the Russian left decisively on 27 August, hitting I Russian Corps. His artillery barrage was overwhelming, and soon he had taken the key town of Usdau. In the center the Russians continued to strongly attack the German XX Corps and to move northwest from Allenstein. The German XVII Corps and I Reserve Corps pushed the Russian right wing they had bloodied the day before further back. Gen. Basil Gourko, commanding the Russian First Army Cavalry Division (and from 1916 to 1917 chief of the general staff), was told later that Samsonov did not know what was happening on his flanks because he was observing the action from a rise in the ground a distance from his wireless set and reports were not relayed to him.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: On the morning of 28 August the German commanders were motoring along the front when they were shown a report from an aerial observer that Rennenkampf's army was moving towards their rear. Ludendorff announced that the attack on the Second Army must be broken off. Hindenburg led him behind a nearby hedge; when they emerged Hindenburg calmly said that operations would continue as planned. Later radio intercepts confirmed Rennenkampf was still slowly advancing on Königsberg. Von François' I Corps resumed his assault on the Russian I Corps, taking Soldau by late morning, and then advancing onto Neidenburg, as the Russian I Corps became an ineffective force in the battle. Scholtz's XX Corps, to the north, also advanced. Though his 41st Infantry Division was badly mauled by Martos' Russian XV Corps, it held its ground, while the German 37th Infantry Division reached Hohenstein by the end of the day. The German 3rd Reserve Division was also able to advance on the Russian XV Corps, forcing Samsonov to order a retreat to Neidenburg. Von Below's German I Reserve Corps engaged Klyuev's Russian XIII Corps west of Allenstein, and became isolated. Klyuev received orders from Samsonov to retreat towards Kurken. Mackensen's German XVII Corps continued pursuing the retreating Russians. One half of the German encirclement was complete by the end of the day, as Ludendorff wrote, "The enemy front seemed to be breaking up... We did not have a clear picture of the situation with individual units. But there was no doubt that the battle was won."


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: On 29 August, von François' cavalry regiment reached Willenberg by evening, while his 1st Infantry Division occupied the road between Neidenburg and Willenberg. Von François' I Corps patrols linked up with Mackensen's German XVII Corps, who had advanced to Jedwabno, completing the encirclement. On 29 August the troops from the Russian Second Army's center who were retreating south ran into a German defensive line. Those Russians who tried to break through by dashing across open fields heavy with crops were mowed down. They were in a cauldron centered at Frogenau, west of Tannenberg, and throughout the day they were relentlessly pounded by artillery. Many surrendered — long columns of prisoners jammed the roads away from the battleground. Hindenburg and Ludendorff watched from a hilltop, with only a single field telephone line; thereafter they stayed closer to the telephone network. Hindenburg met one captured Russian corps commander that day, another on the day following. On 30 August the Russians remaining outside of the cauldron tried unsuccessfully to break open the snare. Rather than report the loss of his army to Tsar Nicholas II, Samsonov disappeared into the woods that night and committed suicide. His body was found in the following year and returned to Russia by the Red Cross.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: On 31 August Hindenburg formally reported to the Kaiser that three Russian army corps (XIII, XV and XXIII) had been destroyed. The two corps (I and VI) that had not been caught in the cauldron had been severely bloodied and were retreating back to Poland. He requested that the battle be named Tannenberg (an imaginative touch that both Ludendorff and Hoffmann claimed as their own).


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Samsonov's Second Army had been almost annihilated: 92,000 captured, 78,000 killed or wounded and only 10,000 (mostly from the retreating flanks) escaping. The Russians had lost 350 big guns. The Germans suffered just 12,000 casualties out of the 150,000 men committed to the battle. Sixty trains were required to take captured Russian equipment to Germany. The German official history estimated 50,000 Russians killed and wounded, which were never properly recorded. Another estimate gives 30,000 Russians killed or wounded, with 13 generals and 500 guns captured.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: To David Stevenson it was "a major victory but far from decisive", because the Russian First Army was still in East Prussia. It set the stage for the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes a week later, when the reinforced German Eighth Army confronted the Russian First Army. Rennenkampf retreated hastily back over the pre-war border before they could be encircled. The battle was humiliating to Russia as it meant their army was weak.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Field Marshal Sir Edmund Ironside saw Tannenberg as the "… greatest defeat suffered by any of the combatants during the war". It was a tactical masterpiece that demonstrated the superior skills of the German army. Their pre-war organization and training had proven themselves, which bolstered German morale while severely shaking Russian confidence. Nonetheless, as long as the great battle in the West continued the outnumbered Germans had to remain on the defensive in the East, anticipating that the Russians would make another thrust from Poland against Germany, and because the Russians had defeated the Austro-Hungarians in the Battle of Galicia; their allies would need help.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: The Russian official inquiry into the disaster blamed Zhilinskiy for not controlling his two armies. He was replaced in the Northwest Command and sent to liaise with the French. Rennenkampf was exonerated, but was retired after a dubious performance in Poland in 1916.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: Hindenburg was hailed as an epic hero, Ludendorff was praised, but Hoffmann was generally ignored by the press. Apparently not pleased by this, he later gave tours of the area, noting, "This is where the Field Marshal slept before the battle, this is where he slept after the battle, and this is where he slept during the battle." However, Hindenburg countered by saying, "If the battle had gone badly, the name 'Hindenburg' would have been reviled from one end of Germany to the other." Hoffmann is not mentioned in Hindenburg's memoirs. In his memoirs Ludendorff takes credit for the encirclement and most historians give him full responsibility for conducting the battle. Hindenburg wrote and spoke of "we", and when questioned about the crucial tête-à-tête with Ludendorff after dinner on 26 August resolutely maintained that they had calmly discussed their options and resolved to continue with the encirclement. Military historian Walter Elze wrote that a few months before his death Hindenburg finally acknowledged that Ludendorff had been in a state of panic that evening. Hindenburg would also remark, "After all, I know something about the business, I was the instructor in tactics at the War Academy for six years".


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: A German monument commemorating the battle was completed in 1927 in Hohenstein. However, it was blown up in World War II by the Germans during their retreat from Prussia in January 1945.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: German film director Heinz Paul made a film, "Tannenberg", about the battle, shot in East Prussia in 1932.


title: Battle of Tannenberg

text: The battle is at the center of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's novel "August 1914", published in 1971, and is featured in the video games "Darkest of Days" and "Tannenberg".


title: Anna Jay

text: Anna Marie Jernigan (born July 15, 1998), better known by the ring name Anna Jay, is an American professional wrestler. She is signed to All Elite Wrestling, where she is a member of the Jericho Appreciation Society stable.


title: Anna Jay

text: Jay started training at One Fall Power Factory in July 2018. In April 2019 during training, she suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery and was out of action for 4 to 6 months. On September 14, 2019, Jay made her debut at Glacier's charity event "The Battle of Altama". In January 2020, Jay defeated Thunder Blonde in a hair vs. hair match at a Georgia Premier Wrestling event.


title: Anna Jay

text: Jay made her first appearance in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on April 1, 2020, losing to Hikaru Shida in singles competition on "Dynamite". She was announced as having signed with the company that same month. Following a loss to Abadon on the June 17 episode of "Dynamite", she was then helped backstage by The Dark Order. Jay teamed with Tay Conti in the . They advanced in the quarterfinals by defeating Nyla Rose and Ariane Andrew but lost to Ivelisse and Diamante during the semifinals. She was officially introduced as a member of The Dark Order on the August 27 episode of "Dynamite". On the November 25 episode of "Dynamite", Jay challenged Shida for the AEW Women's World Championship in a losing effort. On December 30, she and Conti defeated Britt Baker and Penelope Ford on the special episode of "Dynamite" and tribute to deceased leader of The Dark Order, Brodie Lee, dubbed the Brodie Lee Celebration of Life. In February 2021, Jay was set to compete in the AEW Women's World Championship Eliminator Tournament but was taken off after suffering a shoulder injury during training. She underwent surgery the following month, and was expected not to wrestle for 6–12 months.


title: Anna Jay

text: Jay returned from injury on the September 1 episode of "Dynamite", saving Conti from an attack by Ford and The Bunny after Conti defeated Ford in a match. In November, Jay competed in the TBS Women's Championship Tournament, where she lost to Jamie Hayter in the first round. After months of feuding, the team of Jay and Conti defeated the team of Ford and The Bunny in a street fight on December 31 on "Rampage". Jay then challenged Jade Cargill for the AEW TBS Championship in the main event of the January 21, 2022 edition of "Rampage", where she was unsuccessful. On May 29, Jay faced Cargill for the championship again at Double or Nothing where she was unsuccessful again. On July 20, during Night 2 of Fyter Fest, Jay turned heel by attacking Ruby Soho, thus reuniting with Conti and joining the Jericho Appreciation Society. After her heel turn, Jay would go on to defeat Ruby Soho during the Rampage portion of Fight for the Fallen, choking Soho out with her own arm brace.


title: Anna Jay

text: Her heel turn would also see a gimmick change for Jay, who would often threaten to choke people out and even do so twice during backstage interviews. She would also adopt the new ring name of Anna Jay A.S. as a reference to her new stable, while also being referred by her original name.


title: Anna Jay

text: On June 28, 2021, Jay revealed over social media that she is currently in a relationship with fellow AEW wrestler Jack Perry.


title: Uncle from Another World

text: In modern-day Japan, Takafumi Takaoka picks up his uncle who recently awakened from a 17-year coma after being hit by a truck. Uncle shows the ability to use magic spells, and explains that he was actually sent to another world. Takafumi lets his uncle move in with him, and they, joined by Takafumi's childhood friend Sumika Fujimiya, spend the days helping uncle adjust to modern society while also watching his memories of the other world.


title: Uncle from Another World

text: The series is written and illustrated by Hotondoshindeiru. It started serialization on Kadokawa Shoten's manga app and website "ComicWalker" on June 29, 2018. A character popularity poll was held to commemorate the release of the first volume, where the winning character would be featured in a bonus segment at the end of the volume. As of September 2022, eight "tankōbon" volumes have been published.


title: Uncle from Another World

text: An anime television series adaptation was announced on June 18, 2021. The series is produced by AtelierPontdarc and directed by Shigeki Kawai, with Kenta Ihara writing the series' scripts, Kazuhiro Ota designing the characters, and Kenichiro Suehiro composing the music. It premiered on July 6, 2022, on AT-X. The opening theme song is "story" by Mayu Maeshima, while the ending theme song is "Ichibanboshi Sonority" by Yuka Iguchi. The series is currently being streamed worldwide by Netflix. On July 27, it was announced that Episode 5 would be delayed for two weeks to August 17, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On September 2, following the release of Episode 7, an indefinite delay was put into effect, citing more COVID-19 related concerns. However, on August 27, Ippei Icchi stated that he was supposed to direct Episode 10, but abruptly left following the discovery that the episode still did not have staff chosen, and that only in-house staff would participate. On September 9, it was announced that the series will restart its broadcast from Episode 1 on October 6, with Episode 8, the first new episode since going on hiatus, airing on November 24.


title: Uncle from Another World

text: The series ranked eighth in the 2019 Next Manga Awards in the digital category. The series ranked fifteenth in 2020 a survey of workers of the Honya Club bookstore in Japan. In the 2020 edition of the "Kono Manga ga Sugoi!" guidebook, the series ranked eleventh. Also in 2020, it was a runner-up for BookWalker's grand prize.


title: Uncle from Another World

text: Demelza from Anime UK News had mixed feelings about the first volume and criticized the art and characters.


title: Democracy Manifest

text: "Democracy Manifest" (also known as "Succulent Chinese Meal", among other names) is an October 1991 Australian news segment video by reporter Chris Reason. It is "one of Australia's most viral videos", according to Sportsbet. "The Guardian", in 2019, called it "perhaps the pre-eminent Australian meme of the past 10 years". YouTube has several postings of the video with more than a million views each.


title: Democracy Manifest

text: It features a man who is being arrested at a Fortitude Valley Chinese restaurant. Wrestled into a police car, he speaks with the commanding voice of a trained stage actor. As the police fumble, he exclaims "This is Democracy Manifest," "Get your hand off my penis!", "What is the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?", and "I see that you know your judo well."


title: Democracy Manifest

text: The video was made on 11 October 1991, but it was not uploaded to the Internet until 2009. A mystery developed about who the man was, with theories centring on Hungarian chess player Paul Charles Dozsa known for his dine and dash exploits. In 2020, an aging Australian man, later identified as Cecil George Edwards, appeared in a music video by an Australian punk rock band, The Chats, revealed himself as the man in the now-viral 1991 video. Edwards, who had been a serial prison escapee, was arrested for alleged credit card fraud by the Queensland Police Service, after being wrongly identified as one of Australia's most-wanted criminals. He maintains his innocence.


title: Democracy Manifest

text: The video shows an unnamed man being escorted by police out of a Chinese restaurant into a waiting police car. He is clearly agitated by this situation, and when told he is being placed under arrest he exclaims, "I am under what?" As police try to wrestle him into the car, the man says, "Gentlemen, this is democracy manifest". As the scuffle continues, he shouts, "Get your hand off my penis!" and then asks, "What is the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?" As the police struggle to contain the man, he states, "Ah, yes. I see that you know your judo well." He is then forced into the car, feet-first, while asking someone inside the vehicle, "And you, sir, are you waiting to receive my limp penis?", and bidding bystanders "ta ta and farewell".


title: Democracy Manifest

text: The video was taped by then-freshman reporter Chris Reason at "Seven News". Reason's reporting said that the man was arrested in a case of mistaken identity ("the police thought they'd caught Queensland's most wanted"). Other later sources said he was a dine and dasher, or an international criminal, while officer Dean Biron who attended the scene recalled he was wanted on 19 counts of fraud and receiving stolen goods worth $70,000. The man involved gave his name as Cecil George Edwards, one of several aliases. The clip remained obscure until a raw video version was uploaded to the Internet in January 2009 when it became an immediate viral video.


title: Democracy Manifest

text: The raw footage was missing Reason's voice-over explaining who the man was, or what the incident was about, and Internet speculation attempted to resolve the mystery. Theories about the man's identity centered on Paul Charles Dozsa, a Hungarian chess player and notorious dine and dasher, but there were also serious doubts about this theory. It was questioned as to why the arrest was filmed from so many angles, why it was filmed at all and why the allegedly-Hungarian man did not sound Hungarian. Friends, family and acquaintances of Dozsa also stated that the man in the video was not Dozsa. Other theories included that the man was politician John Bartlett, the video was a skit from a television show, or that the man was a real dine and dasher named Gregory John Ziegler.


title: Democracy Manifest

text: The mystery of the man's identity continued until 2020, when Australian punk band The Chats published a music video titled "Dine 'N Dash" that re-created the viral video with an older man acting the part of the arrestee. The actor then identified himself in an interview with "Sydney Morning Herald" as Cecil George Edwards, the man in the viral video, now going by the name of "Jack K". Asked why he made such a show during the arrest, he said he wanted to appear crazy so he might be placed into an asylum where it would be easier to escape. It was also revealed he had an artistic career making paintings, including some of the arrest.


title: Democracy Manifest

text: In 2020, "Jack K" was interviewed in a video titled "Democracy Manifest Guy Speaks". The interview includes the original "Seven News" archival footage of the event that was last broadcast to the public in 1990. In the broadcast footage, Reason's voice-over confirms his identity: "When Cecil George Edwards was arrested in a town mall last Friday, the Valley police thought they'd caught Queensland's most wanted."


title: Democracy Manifest

text: "Seven News" interviewed the arrestee again in 2021, for a segment that included additional archival footage, revealing that other than Cecil George Edwards, the arrestee, had also been known by the names of Johann Kelmut Karlson and Cecil Gerry Edwards.


title: Democracy Manifest

text: The Radio National program Earshot broadcast an hour-long biographical documentary on the incident in January 2022. In June 2022, academic Dean Biron gave his account of the arrest after 31 years, he was one of the arresting officers who was accused in the "Get your hands off my penis" part of the video; Biron corrected some misinformation such as the exact date, why the police were making the arrest, and that Edwards was not well known to police or considered a major case. Biron said after the arrest, Edwards was taken to jail then released on bail overnight. He then jumped bail and disappeared until his "15 minutes of fame" in 2020, "somehow scrubbed clean of that pesky past".


title: Democracy Manifest

text: Since being uploaded to YouTube in 2009, the video has become a viral hit in Australian culture. When Australian activist Julian Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2019, comparisons were made between both respective arrests and "it didn't take long for Aussies to all make the same joke".


title: Democracy Manifest

text: It has been the subject of an orchestral work composed by Michael Tan that was performed at the Sydney Opera House by Ensemble Apex.


title: Democracy Manifest

text: Slipstream Brewing Company, a microbrewer in Yeerongpilly, Queensland, makes a beer named "Succulent Chinese Meal".


title: Democracy Manifest

text: Mac Miller (under his production alias Larry Fisherman) sampled the video in his 2015 instrumental mixtape Run-On Sentences, Volume Two.


title: Human genome

text: The human genome is a complete set of nucleic acid sequences for humans, encoded as DNA within the 23 chromosome pairs in cell nuclei and in a small DNA molecule found within individual mitochondria. These are usually treated separately as the nuclear genome and the mitochondrial genome. Human genomes include both protein-coding DNA sequences and various types of DNA that does not encode proteins. The latter is a diverse category that includes DNA coding for non-translated RNA, such as that for ribosomal RNA, transfer RNA, ribozymes, small nuclear RNAs, and several types of regulatory RNAs. It also includes promoters and their associated gene-regulatory elements, DNA playing structural and replicatory roles, such as scaffolding regions, telomeres, centromeres, and origins of replication, plus large numbers of transposable elements, inserted viral DNA, non-functional pseudogenes and simple, highly-repetitive sequences. Introns make up a large percentage of non-coding DNA. Some of this non-coding DNA is non-functional junk DNA, such as pseudogenes, but there is no firm consensus on the total amount of junk DNA.


title: Human genome

text: Haploid human genomes, which are contained in germ cells (the egg and sperm gamete cells created in the meiosis phase of sexual reproduction before fertilization) consist of 3,054,815,472 DNA base pairs (if X chromosome is used), while female diploid genomes (found in somatic cells) have twice the DNA content.


title: Human genome

text: While there are significant differences among the genomes of human individuals (on the order of 0.1% due to single-nucleotide variants and 0.6% when considering indels), these are considerably smaller than the differences between humans and their closest living relatives, the bonobos and chimpanzees (~1.1% fixed single-nucleotide variants and 4% when including indels). Size in basepairs can vary too; the telomere length decreases after every round of DNA replication.


title: Human genome

text: Although the sequence of the human genome has been completely determined by DNA sequencing, it is not yet fully understood. Most, but not all, genes have been identified by a combination of high throughput experimental and bioinformatics approaches, yet much work still needs to be done to further elucidate the biological functions of their protein and RNA products (in particular, annotation of the complete CHM13v2.0 sequence is still ongoing). And yet, overlapping genes are quite common, in some cases allowing two protein coding genes from each strand to reuse base pairs twice (for example, genes DCDC2 and KAAG1). Recent results suggest that most of the vast quantities of noncoding DNA within the genome have associated biochemical activities, including regulation of gene expression, organization of chromosome architecture, and signals controlling epigenetic inheritance. There are also a significant number of retroviruses in human DNA, at least 3 of which have been proven to possess an important function (i.e., HIV-like HERV-K, HERV-W, and HERV-FRD play a role in placenta formation by inducing cell-cell fusion).


title: Human genome

text: In 2003, scientists reported the sequencing of 85% of the entire human genome, but as of 2020 at least 8% was still missing.


title: Human genome

text: In 2021, scientists reported sequencing the complete female genome (i.e., without the Y chromosome). This sequence identified 19,969 protein-coding sequences, accounting for approximately 1.5% of the genome, and 63,494 genes in total, most of them being non-coding RNA genes. The genome consists of regulatory DNA sequences, LINEs, SINEs, introns, and sequences for which as yet no function has been determined. The human Y chromosome, consisting of 62,460,029 base pairs from a different cell line and found in all males, was sequenced completely in January 2022.


title: Human genome

text: The first human genome sequences were published in nearly complete draft form in February 2001 by the Human Genome Project and Celera Corporation. Completion of the Human Genome Project's sequencing effort was announced in 2004 with the publication of a draft genome sequence, leaving just 341 gaps in the sequence, representing highly-repetitive and other DNA that could not be sequenced with the technology available at the time. The human genome was the first of all vertebrates to be sequenced to such near-completion, and as of 2018, the diploid genomes of over a million individual humans had been determined using next-generation sequencing.


title: Human genome

text: These data are used worldwide in biomedical science, anthropology, forensics and other branches of science. Such genomic studies have led to advances in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, and to new insights in many fields of biology, including human evolution.


title: Human genome

text: By 2018, the total number of genes had been raised to at least 46,831, plus another 2300 micro-RNA genes. A 2018 population survey found another 300 million bases of human genome that was not in the reference sequence. Prior to the acquisition of the full genome sequence, estimates of the number of human genes ranged from 50,000 to 140,000 (with occasional vagueness about whether these estimates included non-protein coding genes). As genome sequence quality and the methods for identifying protein-coding genes improved, the count of recognized protein-coding genes dropped to 19,000-20,000.


title: Human genome

text: In 2022 the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) consortium reported the complete sequence of a human female genome, filling all the gaps in the X chromosome (2020) and the 22 autosomes (May 2021). The previously unsequenced parts contain immune response genes that help to adapt to and survive infections, as well as genes that are important for predicting drug response. The completed human genome sequence will also provide better understanding of human formation as an individual organism and how humans vary both between each other and other species.


title: Human genome

text: Although the 'completion' of the human genome project was announced in 2001, there remained hundreds of gaps, with about 5–10% of the total sequence remaining undetermined. The missing genetic information was mostly in repetitive heterochromatic regions and near the centromeres and telomeres, but also some gene-encoding euchromatic regions. There remained 160 euchromatic gaps in 2015 when the sequences spanning another 50 formerly-unsequenced regions were determined. Only in 2020 was the first truly complete telomere-to-telomere sequence of a human chromosome determined, namely of the X chromosome. The first complete telomere-to-telomere sequence of a human autosomal chromosome, chromosome 8, followed a year later. The complete human genome (without Y chromosome) was published in 2021, while with Y chromosome in January 2022.


title: Human genome

text: The total length of the human reference genome, that does not represent the sequence of any specific individual. The genome is organized into 22 paired chromosomes, termed autosomes, plus the 23rd pair of sex chromosomes (XX) in the female and (XY) in the male. The haploid genome is 3 054 815 472 base pairs, when the X chromosome is included, and 2 963 015 935 base pairs when the Y chromosome is substituted for the X chromosome. These chromosomes are all large linear DNA molecules contained within the cell nucleus. The genome also includes the mitochondrial DNA, a comparatively small circular molecule present in multiple copies in each mitochondrion.


title: Human genome

text: The haploid human genome (23 chromosomes) is about 3 billion base pairs long and contains around 30,000 genes. Since every base pair can be coded by 2 bits, this is about 750 megabytes of data. An individual somatic (diploid) cell contains twice this amount, that is, about 6 billion base pairs. Males have fewer than females because the Y chromosome is about 57 million base pairs whereas the X is about 156 million. Since individual genomes vary in sequence by less than 1% from each other, the variations of a given human's genome from a common reference can be losslessly compressed to roughly 4 megabytes.


title: Human genome

text: The entropy rate of the genome differs significantly between coding and non-coding sequences. It is close to the maximum of 2 bits per base pair for the coding sequences (about 45 million base pairs), but less for the non-coding parts. It ranges between 1.5 and 1.9 bits per base pair for the individual chromosome, except for the Y chromosome, which has an entropy rate below 0.9 bits per base pair.


title: Human genome

text: The content of the human genome is commonly divided into coding and noncoding DNA sequences. Coding DNA is defined as those sequences that can be transcribed into mRNA and translated into proteins during the human life cycle; these sequences occupy only a small fraction of the genome (<2%). Noncoding DNA is made up of all of those sequences (approx. 98% of the genome) that are not used to encode proteins.


title: Human genome

text: Some noncoding DNA contains genes for RNA molecules with important biological functions (noncoding RNA, for example ribosomal RNA and transfer RNA). The exploration of the function and evolutionary origin of noncoding DNA is an important goal of contemporary genome research, including the ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) project, which aims to survey the entire human genome, using a variety of experimental tools whose results are indicative of molecular activity. It is however disputed whether molecular activity (transcription of DNA into RNA) alone implies that the RNA produced has a meaningful biological function, since experiments have shown that random nonfunctional DNA will also reproducibly recruit transcription factors resulting in transcription into nonfunctional RNA.


title: Human genome

text: There is no consensus on what constitutes a "functional" element in the genome since geneticists, evolutionary biologists, and molecular biologists employ different definitions and methods. In evolutionary definitions, "functional" DNA, whether it is coding or non-coding, contributes to the fitness of the organism, and therefore is maintained by negative evolutionary pressure whereas "non-functional" DNA has no benefit to the organism and therefore is under neutral selective pressure. This type of DNA has been described as junk DNA In genetic definitions, "functional" DNA is related to how DNA segments manifest by phenotype and "nonfunctional" is related to loss-of-function effects on the organism. In biochemical definitions, "functional" DNA relates to DNA sequences that specify molecular products (e.g. noncoding RNAs) and biochemical activities with mechanistic roles in gene or genome regulation (i.e. DNA sequences that impact cellular level activity such as cell type, condition, and molecular processes). There is no consensus in the literature on the amount of functional DNA since, depending on how "function" is understood, ranges have been estimated from up to 90% of the human genome is likely nonfunctional DNA (junk DNA) to up to 80% of the genome is likely functional. It is also possible that junk DNA may acquire a function in the future and therefore may play a role in evolution, but this is likely to occur only very rarely. Finally DNA that is deliterious to the organism and is under negative selective pressure is called garbage DNA.


title: Human genome

text: Because non-coding DNA greatly outnumbers coding DNA, the concept of the sequenced genome has become a more focused analytical concept than the classical concept of the DNA-coding gene.


title: Human genome

text: Protein-coding sequences represent the most widely studied and best understood component of the human genome. These sequences ultimately lead to the production of all human proteins, although several biological processes (e.g. DNA rearrangements and alternative pre-mRNA splicing) can lead to the production of many more unique proteins than the number of protein-coding genes. The complete modular protein-coding capacity of the genome is contained within the exome, and consists of DNA sequences encoded by exons that can be translated into proteins. Because of its biological importance, and the fact that it constitutes less than 2% of the genome, sequencing of the exome was the first major milepost of the Human Genome Project.


title: Human genome

text: Number of protein-coding genes. About 20,000 human proteins have been annotated in databases such as Uniprot. Historically, estimates for the number of protein genes have varied widely, ranging up to 2,000,000 in the late 1960s, but several researchers pointed out in the early 1970s that the estimated mutational load from deleterious mutations placed an upper limit of approximately 40,000 for the total number of functional loci (this includes protein-coding and functional non-coding genes). The number of human protein-coding genes is not significantly larger than that of many less complex organisms, such as the roundworm and the fruit fly. This difference may result from the extensive use of alternative pre-mRNA splicing in humans, which provides the ability to build a very large number of modular proteins through the selective incorporation of exons.


title: Human genome

text: Protein-coding capacity per chromosome. Protein-coding genes are distributed unevenly across the chromosomes, ranging from a few dozen to more than 2000, with an especially high gene density within chromosomes 1, 11, and 19. Each chromosome contains various gene-rich and gene-poor regions, which may be correlated with chromosome bands and GC-content. The significance of these nonrandom patterns of gene density is not well understood.


title: Human genome

text: Size of protein-coding genes. The size of protein-coding genes within the human genome shows enormous variability. For example, the gene for histone H1a (HIST1HIA) is relatively small and simple, lacking introns and encoding an 781 nucleotide-long mRNA that produces a 215 amino acid protein from its 648 nucleotide open reading frame. Dystrophin (DMD) was the largest protein-coding gene in the 2001 human reference genome, spanning a total of 2.2 million nucleotides, while more recent systematic meta-analysis of updated human genome data identified an even larger protein-coding gene, "RBFOX1" (RNA binding protein, fox-1 homolog 1), spanning a total of 2.47 million nucleotides. Titin (TTN) has the longest coding sequence (114,414 nucleotides), the largest number of exons (363), and the longest single exon (17,106 nucleotides). As estimated based on a curated set of protein-coding genes over the whole genome, the median size is 26,288 nucleotides (mean = 66,577), the median exon size, 133 nucleotides (mean = 309), the median number of exons, 8 (mean = 11), and the median encoded protein is 425 amino acids (mean = 553) in length.


title: Human genome

text: Noncoding DNA is defined as all of the DNA sequences within a genome that are not found within protein-coding exons, and so are never represented within the amino acid sequence of expressed proteins. By this definition, more than 98% of the human genomes is composed of ncDNA.


title: Human genome

text: Numerous classes of noncoding DNA have been identified, including genes for noncoding RNA (e.g. tRNA and rRNA), pseudogenes, introns, untranslated regions of mRNA, regulatory DNA sequences, repetitive DNA sequences, and sequences related to mobile genetic elements.


title: Human genome

text: Numerous sequences that are included within genes are also defined as noncoding DNA. These include genes for noncoding RNA (e.g. tRNA, rRNA), and untranslated components of protein-coding genes (e.g. introns, and 5' and 3' untranslated regions of mRNA).


title: Human genome

text: Protein-coding sequences (specifically, coding exons) constitute less than 1.5% of the human genome. In addition, about 26% of the human genome is introns. Aside from genes (exons and introns) and known regulatory sequences (8–20%), the human genome contains regions of noncoding DNA. The exact amount of noncoding DNA that plays a role in cell physiology has been hotly debated. Recent analysis by the ENCODE project indicates that 80% of the entire human genome is either transcribed, binds to regulatory proteins, or is associated with some other biochemical activity.


title: Human genome

text: It however remains controversial whether all of this biochemical activity contributes to cell physiology, or whether a substantial portion of this is the result of transcriptional and biochemical noise, which must be actively filtered out by the organism. Excluding protein-coding sequences, introns, and regulatory regions, much of the non-coding DNA is composed of:


title: Human genome

text: Many DNA sequences that do not play a role in gene expression have important biological functions. Comparative genomics studies indicate that about 5% of the genome contains sequences of noncoding DNA that are highly conserved, sometimes on time-scales representing hundreds of millions of years, implying that these noncoding regions are under strong evolutionary pressure and purifying selection.


title: Human genome

text: Many of these sequences regulate the structure of chromosomes by limiting the regions of heterochromatin formation and regulating structural features of the chromosomes, such as the telomeres and centromeres. Other noncoding regions serve as origins of DNA replication. Finally several regions are transcribed into functional noncoding RNA that regulate the expression of protein-coding genes (for example), mRNA translation and stability (see miRNA), chromatin structure (including histone modifications, for example), DNA methylation (for example), DNA recombination (for example), and cross-regulate other noncoding RNAs (for example). It is also likely that many transcribed noncoding regions do not serve any role and that this transcription is the product of non-specific RNA Polymerase activity.


title: Human genome

text: Pseudogenes are inactive copies of protein-coding genes, often generated by gene duplication, that have become nonfunctional through the accumulation of inactivating mutations. The number of pseudogenes in the human genome is on the order of 13,000, and in some chromosomes is nearly the same as the number of functional protein-coding genes. Gene duplication is a major mechanism through which new genetic material is generated during molecular evolution.


title: Human genome

text: For example, the olfactory receptor gene family is one of the best-documented examples of pseudogenes in the human genome. More than 60 percent of the genes in this family are non-functional pseudogenes in humans. By comparison, only 20 percent of genes in the mouse olfactory receptor gene family are pseudogenes. Research suggests that this is a species-specific characteristic, as the most closely related primates all have proportionally fewer pseudogenes. This genetic discovery helps to explain the less acute sense of smell in humans relative to other mammals.


title: Human genome

text: Noncoding RNA molecules play many essential roles in cells, especially in the many reactions of protein synthesis and RNA processing. Noncoding RNA include tRNA, ribosomal RNA, microRNA, snRNA and other non-coding RNA genes including about 60,000 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Although the number of reported lncRNA genes continues to rise and the exact number in the human genome is yet to be defined, many of them are argued to be non-functional.


title: Human genome

text: Many ncRNAs are critical elements in gene regulation and expression. Noncoding RNA also contributes to epigenetics, transcription, RNA splicing, and the translational machinery. The role of RNA in genetic regulation and disease offers a new potential level of unexplored genomic complexity.


title: Human genome

text: In addition to the ncRNA molecules that are encoded by discrete genes, the initial transcripts of protein coding genes usually contain extensive noncoding sequences, in the form of introns, 5'-untranslated regions (5'-UTR), and 3'-untranslated regions (3'-UTR). Within most protein-coding genes of the human genome, the length of intron sequences is 10- to 100-times the length of exon sequences.


title: Human genome

text: The human genome has many different regulatory sequences which are crucial to controlling gene expression. Conservative estimates indicate that these sequences make up 8% of the genome, however extrapolations from the ENCODE project give that 20-40% of the genome is gene regulatory sequence. Some types of non-coding DNA are genetic "switches" that do not encode proteins, but do regulate when and where genes are expressed (called enhancers).


title: Human genome

text: Regulatory sequences have been known since the late 1960s. The first identification of regulatory sequences in the human genome relied on recombinant DNA technology. Later with the advent of genomic sequencing, the identification of these sequences could be inferred by evolutionary conservation. The evolutionary branch between the primates and mouse, for example, occurred 70–90 million years ago. So computer comparisons of gene sequences that identify conserved non-coding sequences will be an indication of their importance in duties such as gene regulation.


title: Human genome

text: Other genomes have been sequenced with the same intention of aiding conservation-guided methods, for exampled the pufferfish genome. However, regulatory sequences disappear and re-evolve during evolution at a high rate.


title: Human genome

text: As of 2012, the efforts have shifted toward finding interactions between DNA and regulatory proteins by the technique ChIP-Seq, or gaps where the DNA is not packaged by histones (DNase hypersensitive sites), both of which tell where there are active regulatory sequences in the investigated cell type.


title: Human genome

text: About 8% of the human genome consists of tandem DNA arrays or tandem repeats, low complexity repeat sequences that have multiple adjacent copies (e.g. "CAGCAGCAG..."). The tandem sequences may be of variable lengths, from two nucleotides to tens of nucleotides. These sequences are highly variable, even among closely related individuals, and so are used for genealogical DNA testing and forensic DNA analysis.


title: Human genome

text: Repeated sequences of fewer than ten nucleotides (e.g. the dinucleotide repeat (AC)) are termed microsatellite sequences. Among the microsatellite sequences, trinucleotide repeats are of particular importance, as sometimes occur within coding regions of genes for proteins and may lead to genetic disorders. For example, Huntington's disease results from an expansion of the trinucleotide repeat (CAG) within the "Huntingtin" gene on human chromosome 4. Telomeres (the ends of linear chromosomes) end with a microsatellite hexanucleotide repeat of the sequence (TTAGGG).


title: Human genome

text: Tandem repeats of longer sequences (arrays of repeated sequences 10–60 nucleotides long) are termed minisatellites.


title: Human genome

text: Transposable genetic elements, DNA sequences that can replicate and insert copies of themselves at other locations within a host genome, are an abundant component in the human genome. The most abundant transposon lineage, "Alu", has about 50,000 active copies, and can be inserted into intragenic and intergenic regions. One other lineage, LINE-1, has about 100 active copies per genome (the number varies between people). Together with non-functional relics of old transposons, they account for over half of total human DNA. Sometimes called "jumping genes", transposons have played a major role in sculpting the human genome. Some of these sequences represent endogenous retroviruses, DNA copies of viral sequences that have become permanently integrated into the genome and are now passed on to succeeding generations.


title: Human genome

text: Mobile elements within the human genome can be classified into LTR retrotransposons (8.3% of total genome), SINEs (13.1% of total genome) including Alu elements, LINEs (20.4% of total genome), SVAs (SINE-VNTR-Alu) and Class II DNA transposons (2.9% of total genome).


title: Human genome

text: With the exception of identical twins, all humans show significant variation in genomic DNA sequences. The human reference genome (HRG) is used as a standard sequence reference.


title: Human genome

text: The Genome Reference Consortium is responsible for updating the HRG. Version 38 was released in December 2013.


title: Human genome

text: Most studies of human genetic variation have focused on single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are substitutions in individual bases along a chromosome. Most analyses estimate that SNPs occur 1 in 1000 base pairs, on average, in the euchromatic human genome, although they do not occur at a uniform density. Thus follows the popular statement that "we are all, regardless of race, genetically 99.9% the same", although this would be somewhat qualified by most geneticists. For example, a much larger fraction of the genome is now thought to be involved in copy number variation. A large-scale collaborative effort to catalog SNP variations in the human genome is being undertaken by the International HapMap Project.


title: Human genome

text: The genomic loci and length of certain types of small repetitive sequences are highly variable from person to person, which is the basis of DNA fingerprinting and DNA paternity testing technologies. The heterochromatic portions of the human genome, which total several hundred million base pairs, are also thought to be quite variable within the human population (they are so repetitive and so long that they cannot be accurately sequenced with current technology). These regions contain few genes, and it is unclear whether any significant phenotypic effect results from typical variation in repeats or heterochromatin.


title: Human genome

text: Most gross genomic mutations in gamete germ cells probably result in inviable embryos; however, a number of human diseases are related to large-scale genomic abnormalities. Down syndrome, Turner Syndrome, and a number of other diseases result from nondisjunction of entire chromosomes. Cancer cells frequently have aneuploidy of chromosomes and chromosome arms, although a cause and effect relationship between aneuploidy and cancer has not been established.