title: Festival

text: Among the many offspring of general arts festivals are also more specific types of festivals, including ones that showcase intellectual or creative achievement such as science festivals, literary festivals and music festivals. Sub-categories include comedy festivals, rock festivals, jazz festivals and buskers festivals; poetry festivals, theatre festivals, and storytelling festivals; and re-enactment festivals such as Renaissance fairs. In the Philippines, aside from numerous art festivals scattered throughout the year, February is known as national arts month, the culmination of all art festivals in the entire archipelago. The modern model of music festivals began in the 1960s-70s and have become a lucrative global industry. Predecessors extend back to the 11th century and some, such as the Three Choirs Festival, remain to this day.


title: Festival

text: Film festivals involve the screenings of several different films, and are usually held annually. Some of the most significant film festivals include the Berlin International Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival. With the increasing importance of digitalization, one of the online film festival is Best Istanbul Film Festival.


title: Festival

text: A food festival is an event celebrating food or drink. These often highlight the output of producers from a certain region. Some food festivals are focused on a particular item of food, such as the National Peanut Festival in the United States, or the Galway International Oyster Festival in Ireland. There are also specific beverage festivals, such as the famous Oktoberfest in Germany for beer. Many countries hold festivals to celebrate wine. One example is the global celebration of the arrival of Beaujolais nouveau, which involves shipping the new wine around the world for its release date on the third Thursday of November each year. Both Beaujolais nouveau and the Japanese rice wine sake are associated with harvest time. In the Philippines, there are at least two hundred festivals dedicated to food and drinks.


title: Festival

text: Seasonal festivals, such as Beltane, are determined by the solar and the lunar calendars and by the cycle of the seasons, especially because of its effect on food supply, as a result of which there is a wide range of ancient and modern harvest festivals. Ancient Egyptians relied upon the seasonal inundation caused by the Nile River, a form of irrigation, which provided fertile land for crops. In the Alps, in autumn the return of the cattle from the mountain pastures to the stables in the valley is celebrated as "Almabtrieb". A recognized winter festival, the Chinese New Year, is set by the lunar calendar, and celebrated from the day of the second new moon after the winter solstice. Dree Festival of the Apatanis living in Lower Subansiri District of Arunachal Pradesh is celebrated every year from July 4 to 7 by praying for a bumper crop harvest.


title: Festival

text: Midsummer or St John's Day, is an example of a seasonal festival, related to the feast day of a Christian saint as well as a celebration of the time of the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, where it is particularly important in Sweden. Winter carnivals also provide the opportunity to utilise to celebrate creative or sporting activities requiring snow and ice. In the Philippines, each day of the year has at least one festival dedicated to harvesting of crops, fishes, crustaceans, milk, and other local goods.


title: Festival

text: Scholarly literature notes that festivals functionally disseminate political values and meaning, such as ownership of place, which undergoes transformation in accordance with the festival. Furthermore, a festival may act as an artefact which allows citizens to achieve "certain ideals", including those of identity and ideology. Festivals may be used to rehabilitate or elevate the image of a city; the ephemerality of festivals means that their impact is often incorporeal, of name, memory and perception. In deviating from routine, festivals may reinforce the convention, be it social, cultural or economic.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: The Ilyushin Il-2 (Cyrillic: Илью́шин Ил-2) Shturmovik (Cyrillic: Штурмови́к, "Shturmovík") is a ground-attack aircraft produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. The Il-2 was never given an official name and "shturmovik" is the generic Russian word meaning ground attack aircraft. The word also appears in Western sources as Stormovik and Sturmovik, neither of which give correct pronunciation in English.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: During the war, 36,183 units of the Il-2 were produced, and in combination with its successor, the Ilyushin Il-10, a total of 42,330 were built, making it the single most produced military aircraft design in aviation history, as well as one of the most produced piloted aircraft in history along with the American postwar civilian Cessna 172 and the German then-contemporary Messerschmitt Bf 109.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: To Il-2 pilots, the aircraft was simply the diminutive "Ilyusha". To the soldiers on the ground, it was the "Hunchback", the "Flying Tank" or the "Flying Infantryman". Its postwar NATO reporting name was "Bark". The Il-2 aircraft played a crucial role on the Eastern Front. When factories fell behind on deliveries, Joseph Stalin told the factory managers that the Il-2s were "as essential to the Red Army as air and bread."


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: The idea for a Soviet armored ground-attack aircraft dates to the early 1930s, when Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich designed TSh-1 and TSh-2 armored biplanes. However, Soviet engines at the time lacked the power needed to provide the heavy aircraft with good performance. The Il-2 was designed by Sergey Ilyushin and his team at the Central Design Bureau in 1938. TsKB-55 was a two-seat aircraft with an armoured shell weighing , protecting crew, engine, radiators, and the fuel tank. Standing loaded, the Ilyushin weighed more than , making the armoured shell about 15% of the aircraft's gross weight. Uniquely for a World War II attack aircraft, and similarly to the forward fuselage design of the World War I-era Imperial German Junkers J.I armored, all-metal biplane, the Il-2's armor was designed as a load-bearing part of the Ilyushin's monocoque structure, thus saving considerable weight. The prototype TsKB-55, which first flew on 2 October 1939, won the government competition against the Sukhoi Su-6 and received the VVS designation BSh-2 (the BSh stood for ""Bronirovani Shturmovik"" or armoured ground attack). The prototypes – TsKB-55 and TskB-57 – were built at Moscow plant #39, at that time the Ilyushin design bureau's base.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: The BSh-2 was overweight and underpowered, with the original Mikulin AM-35 engine designed to give its greatest power outputs at high altitude. Because of this it was redesigned as the TsKB-57, a lighter single-seat design, with the more powerful Mikulin AM-38 engine, a development of the AM-35 optimised for low level operation. The TsKB-57 first flew on 12 October 1940. The production aircraft passed State Acceptance Trials in March 1941, and was redesignated Il-2 in April. Deliveries to operational units commenced in May 1941.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: The armament of Il-2 was subject to a competition. One of the first 1940 photographs of the Il-2 show it equipped with two MP-6 23 mm autocannons developed by Yakov Taubin ("Яков Таубин") at OKB-16. The MP-6 gun weighed and developed an initial muzzle velocity of . It operated on the short recoil principle and had a rate of fire of about 600 rpm. (The development of the MP-6 gun can be traced back to 1937. The initial version was tested in the spring of 1940 on a Bf 110 bought from Germany, because there was no suitable Soviet aircraft on which to mount it. In the summer of 1940 it was tested on the Pashinin I-21.) Factory trials of the MP-6 gun on the Il-2 were conducted in August 1940. In the early Il-2 prototypes, these guns were fed by 81-round clips. In flight, these clips sometimes became dislodged because of their large surface, which caused them to experience significant aerodynamic pressure. Competitive tests were conducted in the spring of 1941 between the MP-6 gun modified to belt-fed and the newly developed, gas-operated Volkov-Yartsev VYa-23, which had otherwise rather similar characteristics. The VYa-23 was declared the winner at this trial. Subsequently, in May 1941, development of the MP-6 gun was terminated and Taubin was arrested and summarily executed in October that year.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: The Il-2 is a single-engine, propeller-driven, low-wing monoplane of mixed construction with a crew of two (one in early versions), specially designed for assault operations. Its most notable feature was the inclusion of armor in an airframe load-bearing scheme. Armor plates replaced the frame and paneling throughout the nacelle and middle part of the fuselage, and an armored hull made of riveted homogeneous armor steel AB-1 (AB-2) secured the aircraft's engine, cockpit, water and oil radiators, and fuel tanks.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: In early 1941, the Il-2 was ordered into production at four factories, and was eventually produced in greater numbers than any other military aircraft in aviation history, but by the time Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, only State Aviation Factory 18 at Voronezh and Factory 381 at Leningrad had commenced production, with 249 having been built by the time of the German attack.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: Production early in the war was slow because after the German invasion the aircraft factories near Moscow and other major cities in western Russia had to be moved east of the Ural Mountains. Ilyushin and his engineers had time to reconsider production methods, and two months after the move Il-2s were again being produced. The tempo was not to Premier Stalin's liking, however, and he issued the following telegram to Shenkman and Tretyakov:


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: As a result, "the production of Shturmoviks rapidly gained speed. Stalin's notion of the Il-2 being 'like bread' to the Red Army took hold in Ilyushin's aircraft plants and the army soon had their Shturmoviks available in quantity."


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: The first use in action of the Il-2 was with the 4th ShAP (Ground Attack Regiment) over the Berezina River days after German invasion began. The aircraft was so new that the pilots had no training in flight characteristics or tactics, and the ground crew no training in servicing or re-arming. The training received enabled the pilots only to take-off and land; none of the pilots had fired the armament, let alone learned tactics. There were 249 Il-2s available on 22 June 1941. In the first three days, 4th ShAP had lost 10 Il-2s to enemy action, a further 19 were lost to other causes, and 20 pilots were killed.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: Tactics improved as Soviet aircrews became used to the Il-2's strengths. Instead of a low horizontal straight approach at altitude, the target was usually kept to the pilot's left and a turn and shallow dive of 30 degrees was used, using an echeloned assault by four to twelve aircraft at a time. Although the Il-2's RS-82 and RS-132 rockets could destroy armored vehicles with a single hit, they were so inaccurate that experienced Il-2 pilots mainly used the cannon. Another potent weapon of the Il-2s was the PTAB shaped charge bomblets ("protivotankovaya aviabomba", "anti-tank aviation bomb"). They were designated PTAB-2.5-1.5, as they had a total weight of , and an explosive charge of . Up to 192 were carried in four external dispensers (cluster bombs) or up to 220 in the inner wing panels' internal ventral weapon bays. The HEAT charge could easily penetrate the relatively thin upper armor of all heavy German tanks. PTABs were first used on a large scale in the Battle of Kursk.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: The Il-2 was thereafter widely deployed on the Eastern Front. The aircraft could fly in low light conditions and carried weapons able to defeat the thick armor of the Panther and Tiger I tanks.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: The true capabilities of the Il-2 are difficult to determine from existing documentary evidence. W. Liss in "Aircraft profile 88: Ilyushin Il-2" mentions an engagement during the Battle of Kursk on 7 July 1943, in which 70 tanks from the German 9th Panzer Division were claimed to be destroyed by Ilyushin Il-2s in just 20 minutes. In another report of the action on the same day, a Soviet staff publication states that:


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: In the Battle of Kursk (Operation Citadel), General V. Ryazanov became a master in the use of attack aircraft "en masse", developing and improving the tactics of Il-2 operations in co-ordination with infantry, artillery and armored troops. Il-2s at Kursk used the "circle of death" tactic: up to eight Shturmoviks formed a defensive circle, each plane protecting the one ahead with its forward machine guns, while individual Il-2s took turns leaving the circle, attacking a target, and rejoining the circle. Ryazanov was later awarded the Gold Star of Hero of Soviet Union twice, and the 1st Assault Aviation Corps under his command became the first unit to be awarded the honorific title of Guards.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: In 1943, one loss corresponded to 26 Shturmovik sorties. About half of those lost were shot down by fighters, the rest falling to anti-aircraft fire.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: Other studies of the fighting at Kursk suggest that very few of German armour losses were caused by the IL-2 or any other Soviet aircraft. In fact, total German tank losses in Operation Citadel amounted to 323 totally destroyed, the vast majority to anti-tank guns and armored fighting vehicles. In addition it is difficult to find any first-hand accounts by German panzer crews on the Eastern Front describing anything more than the occasional loss to direct air attack. The vast majority, around 95–98%, of tank losses were due to enemy anti-tank guns, tanks, mines, artillery, and infantry assault, or simply abandoned as operational losses (such as mechanical breakdown or running out of fuel), which mostly happened during the last eleven months of the war.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: During the Battle of Kursk, VVS Il-2s claimed the destruction of no less than 270 tanks (and 2,000 men) in a period of just two hours against the 3rd Panzer Division. On 1 July, however, the 3rd Panzer Division's 6th Panzer Regiment had just 90 tanks, 180 less than claimed as destroyed. On 11 July (well after the battle), the 3rd Panzer Division still had 41 operational tanks. The 3rd Panzer Division continued fighting throughout July, mostly with 48th Panzer Corps. It did not record any extraordinary losses to air attack throughout this period. As with the other panzer divisions at Kursk, the large majority of the 3rd Panzer Division's tank losses were due to dug-in Soviet anti-tank guns and tanks.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: Perhaps the most extraordinary claim by the VVS's Il-2s is that, over a period of four hours, they destroyed 240 tanks and in the process virtually wiped out the 17th Panzer Division. On 1 July, the 17th Panzer Division had only one tank battalion (the II./Pz Rgt 39), with 67 tanks, 173 less than claimed destroyed by the VVS. The 17th Panzer Division was not even in the main attack sector, but further south with the 1st Panzer Army's 24th Panzer Corps. The 17th Panzer did not register any abnormal losses due to aircraft in the summer of 1943, and retreated westwards with Army Group South later in the year, still intact.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: The main problem with the Il-2 was the inaccuracy of its attacks. Towards the end of war, the Soviets were able to concentrate large numbers of Shturmoviks to support their main offensives. The effect, however, was often more psychological than actual physical destruction of targets, particularly against dug-in and armored targets. In the 9 June offensive in the Karelian Isthmus in Finland, the Finnish anti-aircraft forces were far too few in number to counter the armadas of Pe-2 and Il-2, but they quickly found that the Il-2 attacks generally missed their marks widely, particularly with bombs. While some attacks against large unprotected targets such as horse and truck convoys and railyards had devastating results, attacks against dug-in point targets were usually ineffective. The frequent duels between dug-in 20 and 40 mm AA guns and Il-2 attackers never resulted in the complete destruction of the gun, while many Il-2s were brought down in these attacks.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: The heavy armor of the Il-2 also meant that it would typically carry only comparatively light bomb-loads, which together with the poor accuracy of its attacks made it a far less deadly attack aircraft than contemporary Allied fighter-bombers such as the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and Hawker Typhoon. The rocket projectiles especially were not effective, even the larger RS-132 (of which four were carried) having a warhead with only of explosives, which compared poorly with the P-47's typical load of ten HVARs, each having a warhead, or the eight to twelve warheads of the Hawker Typhoon's RP-3 rockets. Likewise, the Shturmovik's bombs were usually only , or rarely , too small to compensate for the typically wide variation from the target point.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: To compensate for the poor accuracy of the Il-2's bombsight, in 1943, the Soviet Command decided to use shaped-charge armor-piercing projectiles against enemy armored vehicles, and the PTAB-2.5-1.5 SCAP aircraft bomb was put into production. These small-calibre bombs were loaded directly into the bomb bays and were dropped onto enemy vehicles from altitudes up to . As each Il-2 could carry up to 192 bombs, a "fire carpet" long and wide could cover the enemy tanks, giving a high "kill" probability.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: Pilots of 291st ShAP were the first to use the PTAB-2.5-1.5 bombs. During one sortie on 5 June 1943, six attack aircraft led by Lt. Col. A. Vitrook destroyed 15 enemy tanks in one attack, and during five days of the enemy advance, the 291st Division claimed to have destroyed or damaged 422 enemy tanks.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: Thanks to the heavy armor protection, the Il-2 could take a great deal of punishment and proved difficult for both ground and aircraft fire to shoot down.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: A major threat to the Il-2 was German ground fire. In postwar interviews, Il-2 pilots reported and artillery as the primary threat. While the fabled calibre gun was formidable, low-flying Il-2s presented too fast-moving a target for the 88's relatively low rate of fire, only occasional hits were scored. Similarly, Finnish attempts to counter the Il-2 during the summer of 1944 proved ineffective as a result of the low numbers of AA in the field army. Heavier guns drawn from homeland defence proved also relatively ineffective and few Il-2s were downed despite attempting different tactics with time-fused fragmentation, contact-fused, and shrapnel ammunition: the heavy guns simply lacked the reaction times to take advantage of the brief firing opportunities presented by the low-altitude Il-2 attacks. Single-barrel 20 mm anti-aircraft guns were also found somewhat inadequate due to limited firepower: one or two shells were often not enough to destroy the Il-2, and unless the Il-2 was attacking the gun itself, thus presenting effectively a stationary target, scoring more hits during a firing opportunity was rare.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: The armored tub, ranging from thickness and enveloping the engine and the cockpit, could deflect all small arms fire and glancing blows from larger-caliber ammunition. Unfortunately the rear gunners did not have the benefit of all-around armor protection, especially from the rear and to the sides, and suffered about four times the casualties of pilots. Added casualties resulted from the Soviet policy of not returning home with unused ammunition which typically resulted in repeated passes on the target. Soviet troops often requested additional passes even after the aircraft were out of ammunition to exploit the intimidating effect Il-2s had on German ground troops, who gave it the nickname "The Flying Tank". It was also called "Black Death" by German troops. "Luftwaffe" pilots called it "Zementbomber" (Concrete bomber). The Finnish nickname "maatalouskone" ("agricultural machine" or "tractor") derived from a word play with "maataistelukone" (ground attack aircraft, literally "ground combat aircraft" where "kone", literally "machine", in turn is shortened from "lentokone", aircraft, literally "flying machine")


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: Heavy losses to enemy fighters forced the reintroduction of a rear gunner; early Il-2s were field modified by cutting a hole in the fuselage behind the cockpit for a gunner sitting on a canvas sling armed with a UBT machine gun in an improvised mounting. The semi-turret gun mount allowed the machine gun to be fired at angles of up to 35° upwards, 35° to starboard and 15° to port. Tests showed that maximum speed decreased by between and that the two-seater was more difficult to handle because the center of gravity was shifted backwards. At the beginning of March 1942, a production two-seat Il-2 with the new gunner's cockpit began manufacturer tests. The second cockpit and armament increased all-up weight by so the flaps were allowed to be deployed at an angle of 17° to avoid an over-long takeoff run. The new variant had a lengthened fuselage compartment with an extended canopy offering some protection from the elements. Unlike the well-armoured cockpit of the pilot compartment with steel plating up to thick behind, beneath and on both sides as well as up to thick glass sections, the rear gunner was provided with thick armour, effective only against rifle-calibre rounds.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: To improve performance, the Mikulin Design Bureau started work on an uprated AM-38 engine. The new engines produced at takeoff and at . They gave an improved takeoff and low-altitude performance. On 30 October 1942, production Il-2s powered by AM38s were used on the Central Front for the first time when they successfully attacked Smolensk airfield occupied by Germans. The "Shturmovik" rear guns proved to be effective against hostile fighters, and during the service trials alone, gunners shot down seven Bf 109s and repulsed many attacks. In January 1943 two-seat attack aircraft powered by uprated AM-38F engines ("Forseerovannyy" – uprated) began to arrive at front line units.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: Nonetheless, the death rate among the air gunners remained exceptionally high and it was only for late models produced after 1944 that the rear plate of the armour shell was moved rearwards into the (wooden) rear fuselage to allow a gunner to sit behind the fuel tank. The armour did not extend to the rear or below although side armour panels were riveted to the rear armour plate to protect the ammunition tank for the UBT machine gun, providing some measure of protection. The modifications including adding the rear gunner and gun had added weight behind the center of gravity, resulting in "marginal" stability and handling characteristics that were "barely acceptable". The need to shift the aerodynamic center of the aircraft rearwards due to the weight of the added rear gunner and lengthened cockpit was the reason for the swept back outer wings in later Il-2s.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: Owing to a shortage of fighters, in 1941–1942, Il-2s were occasionally used as fighters. While outclassed by dedicated fighters such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190, in dogfights, the Il-2 could take on other "Luftwaffe" aircraft with some success. German front line units equipped with the Henschel Hs 126 suffered most of all from the ravages of Il-2s. Il-2 pilots also often attacked close formations of Junkers Ju 87s, as the machine guns of the "Ju 87 Stukas" were ineffective against the heavily armoured "Shturmoviks". In the winter of 1941–1942, Il-2s were used against "Luftwaffe" transport aircraft, and became the most dangerous opponent of the Junkers Ju 52/3m. Pilots of 33rd GvShAP were the most successful in these operations. Other successful units were those in 1942–1943 operating near Stalingrad. Their targets were not only Ju 52s but also Heinkel He 111 and Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor bombers, delivering supplies to the besieged German troops.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: While the Il-2 was a deadly air-to-ground weapon, and even a fairly effective interceptor against slow bombers and transport aircraft, heavy losses resulted from its vulnerability to fighter attack. Losses were very high, the highest of all types of Soviet aircraft, though given the numbers in service this is only to be expected. "Shturmovik" losses (including Il-10 type), in 1941–1945, were of 10,762 aircraft (533 in 1941, 1,676 in 1942, 3,515 in 1943, 3,347 in 1944 and 1,691 in 1945). The main defensive tactic was to fly low and reduce power as the fighter closed in. This could make the fighter overshoot and fly into the Il-2's firing zone.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: During the Battle in Karelian Isthmus, Vyborg Offensive in summer 1944, Finnish 24th and 34th Fighter Squadrons and Luftwaffe II./JG 54 took a toll on Soviet Il-2 squadrons. In just 30 days (10 June – 9 July) Finnish and German fighter pilots shot down 111 and 53 Il-2s respectively.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: Senior Lieutenant Anna Yegorova piloted 243 Il-2 missions and was decorated three times. One of these awards was the Gold Star of Hero of the Soviet Union that she had received "posthumously" in late 1944, since she was presumed dead after being shot down. She survived imprisonment in a German POW camp.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: Guards Junior Lieutenant Ivan Drachenko, another Il-2 pilot, was one of only four men who was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and who was also a Full Cavalier of the Order of Glory as a recipient of each of the Order of Glory's three classes. Despite having lost his right eye as a result of injuries sustained in a combat mission on August 14, 1943, he returned to flying status and continued to fly combat sorties until war's end.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: Recipient of the "Hero of the Soviet Union", T. Kuznetsov, survived the crash of his Il-2 in 1942 when shot down returning from a reconnaissance mission. Kuznetsov escaped from the wreck and hid nearby. To his surprise, a German Bf 109 fighter landed near the crash site and the pilot began to investigate the wrecked Il-2, possibly to look for souvenirs. Thinking quickly, Kuznetsov ran to the German fighter and used it to fly home, barely avoiding being shot down by Soviet fighters in the process.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: Lietenant Colonel Nelson Stepanyan flew an Il-2 and took part in a number of aerial battles and bombing sorties. He was shot down once but did return to the Soviet lines. On his final sortie in Liepāja, Latvia on 14 December 1944, his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire, and although wounded, he flew his airplane into a German warship. Soviet sources assert that Stepanyan flew no fewer than 239 combat sorties, sank 53 ships, thirteen of which he did alone, destroyed 80 tanks, 600 armored vehicles, and 27 aircraft.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: The cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy flew the Ilyushin in 185 sorties, and was awarded the "Hero of the Soviet Union" in 1944. Later, he became the earliest-born cosmonaut and the only cosmonaut to be awarded a "Hero of the Soviet Union" for an earlier achievement that was not related to space travel.


title: Ilyushin Il-2

text: The early two-seater prototype proved to be too heavy for the limited power of the early Mikulin AM-35 engine. A redesigned single-seat version was soon developed and saw combat, particularly in the early phase of the war in the Soviet Union. While the Il-2 proved to be a deadly air-to-ground weapon, heavy losses were caused by its vulnerability to fighter attack. Consequently, in February 1942, the two-seat design was revived. The Il-2M, with a rear gunner under the stretched canopy, entered service in September 1942 with the surviving single-seaters eventually modified to this standard. Later changes included an upgrade from to cannons, aerodynamic improvements, use of wooden outer wing panels instead of metal and increased fuel capacity. In 1943, the Il-2 Type 3 or Il-2m3 came out with redesigned "arrow-wings" that possessed leading edges that were swept back 15 degrees on the outer panels, and nearly straight trailing edges, resulting in a wing planform somewhat like the AT-6 trainer. Performance and handling were much improved from the resulting shift of the Il-2's aerodynamic center rearwards with the revised "arrow wing" planform to correct the earlier problem, and this became the most common version of the Il-2. A radial engine powered variant of the Il-2 with the Shvetsov ASh-82 engine was proposed in 1942 to remedy projected shortages in the Mikulin inline engines. However, the Shvetsov ASh-82 was also used in the new Lavochkin La-5 fighter which effectively secured all available engines to the Lavochkin bureau. The radial engine Sukhoi Su-2 ground attack aircraft was produced in small quantities, but was generally considered unsuitable due to inadequate performance and lack of defensive armament.


title: Telangana Legislative Assembly

text: The Telangana Legislative Assembly or Telangana Śāsana Sabha is the lower house of the Telangana Legislature. The Legislative Assembly of Telangana currently consists of 119 elected members and 1 nominated member from the Anglo-Indian community. Its chief engineer was Nawab Sarwar Jung.


title: Telangana Legislative Assembly

text: Each constituency elects one member of the assembly. Members are popularly known as M.L.A's. The assembly is elected using the simple plurality or "first past the post" electoral system. The elections are conducted by the Election Commission of India.


title: Telangana Legislative Assembly

text: The normal term of the members lasts for five years. In case of death, resignation or disqualification of a member, a by-election is conducted for constituency represented by the member. The house can be dissolved under the following conditions:


title: Telangana Legislative Assembly

text: The person who commands majority support of house members becomes the Chief Minister, forms the cabinet and his party/coalition becomes the ruling party/coalition.


title: Telangana Legislative Assembly

text: After the official division of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the state would be a bicameral assembly with a legislative council and a legislative assembly.


title: Telangana Legislative Assembly

text: The new state Telangana would be given 119 seats and its very first election would take place in April 2014. TRS had swept the election and formed the government with a super majority. With INC coming as the opposition and TDP as the 3rd largest. Then in 2018 the assembly dissolved earlier then expected and in the 2018 election TRS won with a greater majority.


title: Telangana Legislative Assembly

text: Then in 2019 the assembly approved the addition of another MLA. And instead of being MLA this would be a nominated MLA by the ruling party from the Anglo-India community. Stephenos Elvis is the current nominated MLA from the BRS party.


title: Telangana Legislative Assembly

text: There are currently 120 MLA in the legislative assembly. Out of which 119 members are elected by the people and 1 are nominated from the Anglo-India community. The state is divided into 119 constituency with roughly equal populations. Every 5 years the assembly is up for election. However election can happen earlier if :


title: Georges Seurat

text: Georges Pierre Seurat ( , , ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough surface.


title: Georges Seurat

text: Seurat's artistic personality combined qualities that are usually thought of as opposed and incompatible: on the one hand, his extreme and delicate sensibility, on the other, a passion for logical abstraction and an almost mathematical precision of mind. His large-scale work "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" (1884–1886) altered the direction of modern art by initiating Neo-Impressionism, and is one of the icons of late 19th-century painting.


title: Georges Seurat

text: Seurat was born on 2 December 1859 in Paris, at 60 rue de Bondy (now rue René Boulanger). The Seurat family moved to 136 boulevard de Magenta (now 110 boulevard de Magenta) in 1862 or 1863. His father, Antoine Chrysostome Seurat, originally from Champagne, was a former legal official who had become wealthy from speculating in property, and his mother, Ernestine Faivre, was from Paris. Georges had a brother, Émile Augustin, and a sister, Marie-Berthe, both older. His father lived in Le Raincy and visited his wife and children once a week at boulevard de Magenta.


title: Georges Seurat

text: Georges Seurat first studied art at the École Municipale de Sculpture et Dessin, near his family's home in the boulevard Magenta, which was run by the sculptor Justin Lequien. In 1878, he moved on to the École des Beaux-Arts where he was taught by Henri Lehmann, and followed a conventional academic training, drawing from casts of antique sculpture and copying drawings by old masters. Seurat's studies resulted in a well-considered and fertile theory of contrasts: a theory to which all his work was thereafter subjected. His formal artistic education came to an end in November 1879, when he left the École des Beaux-Arts for a year of military service.


title: Georges Seurat

text: After a year at the Brest Military Academy, he returned to Paris where he shared a studio with his friend Aman-Jean, while also renting a small apartment at 16 rue de Chabrol. For the next two years, he worked at mastering the art of monochrome drawing. His first exhibited work, shown at the Salon, of 1883, was a Conté crayon drawing of Aman-Jean. He also studied the works of Eugène Delacroix carefully, making notes on his use of color.


title: Georges Seurat

text: He spent 1883 working on his first major paintinga large canvas titled "Bathers at Asnières", a monumental work showing young men relaxing by the Seine in a working-class suburb of Paris. Although influenced in its use of color and light tone by Impressionism, the painting with its smooth, simplified textures and carefully outlined, rather sculptural figures, shows the continuing impact of his neoclassical training; the critic Paul Alexis described it as a "faux Puvis de Chavannes". Seurat also departed from the Impressionist ideal by preparing for the work with a number of drawings and oil sketches before starting on the canvas in his studio.


title: Georges Seurat

text: "Bathers at Asnières" was rejected by the Paris Salon, and instead he showed it at the Groupe des Artistes Indépendants in May 1884. Soon, however, disillusioned by the poor organization of the Indépendants, Seurat and some other artists he had met through the group – including Charles Angrand, Henri-Edmond Cross, Albert Dubois-Pillet and Paul Signac – set up a new organization, the Société des Artistes Indépendants. Seurat's new ideas on pointillism were to have an especially strong influence on Signac, who subsequently painted in the same idiom.


title: Georges Seurat

text: The painting shows members of each of the social classes participating in various park activities. The tiny juxtaposed dots of multi-colored paint allow the viewer's eye to blend colors optically, rather than having the colors physically blended on the canvas. It took Seurat two years to complete this painting, much of which he spent in the park sketching in preparation for the work. There are about 60 studies for the large painting, including a smaller version, "Study for A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" (1884–1885), which is now in the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago. The full work is also part of the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.


title: Georges Seurat

text: The painting was the inspiration for James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim's musical "Sunday in the Park with George" and played a significant symbolic role in John Hughes' "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".


title: Georges Seurat

text: Seurat concealed his relationship with Madeleine Knobloch (or Madeleine Knoblock, 1868–1903), an artist's model whom he portrayed in his painting "Jeune femme se poudrant". In 1889, she moved in with Seurat in his studio on the seventh floor of 128 bis Boulevard de Clichy.


title: Georges Seurat

text: When Madeleine became pregnant, the couple moved to a studio at 39 passage de l'Élysée-des-Beaux-Arts (now rue André Antoine). There she gave birth to their son, who was named Pierre-Georges, on 16 February 1890.


title: Georges Seurat

text: Seurat spent the summer of 1890 on the coast at Gravelines, where he painted four canvases including "The Channel of Gravelines, Petit Fort Philippe", as well as eight oil panels, and made a few drawings.


title: Georges Seurat

text: Seurat died in Paris in his parents' home on 29 March 1891 at the age of 31. The cause of his death is uncertain, and has been variously attributed to a form of meningitis, pneumonia, infectious angina, and diphtheria. His son died two weeks later from the same disease. His last ambitious work, "The Circus", was left unfinished at the time of his death.


title: Georges Seurat

text: On 30 March 1891 a commemorative service was held in the church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. Seurat was interred 31 March 1891 at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise.


title: Georges Seurat

text: At the time of Seurat's death, Madeleine was pregnant with a second child who died during or shortly after birth.


title: Georges Seurat

text: During the 19th century, scientist-writers such as Michel Eugène Chevreul, Ogden Rood and David Sutter wrote treatises on colour, optical effects and perception. They adapted the scientific research of Hermann von Helmholtz and Isaac Newton into a form accessible to laypeople. Artists followed new discoveries in perception with great interest.


title: Georges Seurat

text: Chevreul was perhaps the most important influence on artists at the time; his great contribution was producing a colour wheel of primary and intermediary hues. Chevreul was a French chemist who restored tapestries. During his restorations he noticed that the only way to restore a section properly was to take into account the influence of the colours around the missing wool; he could not produce the right hue unless he recognized the surrounding dyes. Chevreul discovered that two colours juxtaposed, slightly overlapping or very close together, would have the effect of another colour when seen from a distance. The discovery of this phenomenon became the basis for the pointillist technique of the Neo-Impressionist painters.


title: Georges Seurat

text: Chevreul also realized that the "halo" that one sees after looking at a colour is the opposing colour (also known as complementary color). For example: After looking at a red object, one may see a cyan echo/halo of the original object. This complementary colour (as an example, cyan for red) is due to retinal persistence. Neo-Impressionist painters interested in the interplay of colours made extensive use of complementary colors in their paintings. In his works, Chevreul advised artists to think and paint not just the colour of the central object, but to add colours and make appropriate adjustments to achieve a harmony among colours. It seems that the harmony Chevreul wrote about is what Seurat came to call "emotion".


title: Georges Seurat

text: It is not clear whether Seurat read all of Chevreul's book on colour contrast, published in 1859, but he did copy out several paragraphs from the chapter on painting, and he had read Charles Blanc's "Grammaire des arts du dessin" (1867), which cites Chevreul's work. Blanc's book was directed at artists and art connoisseurs. Because of colour's emotional significance to him, he made explicit recommendations that were close to the theories later adopted by the Neo-Impressionists. He said that colour should not be based on the "judgment of taste", but rather it should be close to what we experience in reality. Blanc did not want artists to use equal intensities of colour, but to consciously plan and understand the role of each hue in creating a whole.


title: Georges Seurat

text: While Chevreul based his theories on Newton's thoughts on the mixing of light, Ogden Rood based his writings on the work of Helmholtz. He analyzed the effects of mixing and juxtaposing material pigments. Rood valued as primary colors red, green and blue-violet. Like Chevreul, he said that if two colours are placed next to each other, from a distance they look like a third distinctive colour. He also pointed out that the juxtaposition of primary hues next to each other would create a far more intense and pleasing colour, when perceived by the eye and mind, than the corresponding color made simply by mixing paint. Rood advised artists to be aware of the difference between additive and subtractive qualities of colour, since material pigments and optical pigments (light) do not mix in the same way:


title: Georges Seurat

text: Seurat was also influenced by Sutter's "Phenomena of Vision" (1880), in which he wrote that "the laws of harmony can be learned as one learns the laws of harmony and music". He heard lectures in the 1880s by the mathematician Charles Henry at the Sorbonne, who discussed the emotional properties and symbolic meaning of lines and colour. There remains controversy over the extent to which Henry's ideas were adopted by Seurat.


title: Georges Seurat

text: Seurat took to heart the colour theorists' notion of a scientific approach to painting. He believed that a painter could use colour to create harmony and emotion in art in the same way that a musician uses counterpoint and variation to create harmony in music. He theorized that the scientific application of colour was like any other natural law, and he was driven to prove this conjecture. He thought that the knowledge of perception and optical laws could be used to create a new language of art based on its own set of heuristics and he set out to show this language using lines, colour intensity and colour schema. Seurat called this language Chromoluminarism.


title: Georges Seurat

text: In a letter to the writer Maurice Beaubourg in 1890 he wrote: "Art is Harmony. Harmony is the analogy of the contrary and of similar elements of tone, of colour and of line. In tone, lighter against darker. In colour, the complementary, red-green, orange-blue, yellow-violet. In line, those that form a right-angle. The frame is in a harmony that opposes those of the tones, colours and lines of the picture, these aspects are considered according to their dominance and under the influence of light, in gay, calm or sad combinations".


title: Georges Seurat

text: Seurat's theories can be summarized as follows: The emotion of gaiety can be achieved by the domination of luminous hues, by the predominance of warm colours, and by the use of lines directed upward. Calm is achieved through an equivalence/balance of the use of the light and the dark, by the balance of warm and cold colours, and by lines that are horizontal. Sadness is achieved by using dark and cold colours and by lines pointing downward.


title: Georges Seurat

text: Where the dialectic nature of Paul Cézanne's work had been greatly influential during the highly expressionistic phase of proto-Cubism, between 1908 and 1910, the work of Seurat, with its flatter, more linear structures, would capture the attention of the Cubists from 1911. Seurat in his few years of activity, was able, with his observations on irradiation and the effects of contrast, to create afresh without any guiding tradition, to complete an esthetic system with a new technical method perfectly adapted to its expression.


title: Georges Seurat

text: "With the advent of monochromatic Cubism in 1910–1911," writes art historian Robert Herbert, "questions of form displaced color in the artists' attention, and for these Seurat was more relevant. Thanks to several exhibitions, his paintings and drawings were easily seen in Paris, and reproductions of his major compositions circulated widely among the Cubists. "The Chahut" [Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo] was called by André Salmon 'one of the great icons of the new devotion', and both it and the "Cirque (Circus)", Musée d'Orsay, Paris, according to Guillaume Apollinaire, 'almost belong to Synthetic Cubism'."


title: Georges Seurat

text: The concept was well established among the French artists that painting could be expressed mathematically, in terms of both color and form; and this mathematical expression resulted in an independent and compelling "objective truth", perhaps more so than the objective truth of the object represented.


title: Georges Seurat

text: Indeed, the Neo-Impressionists had succeeded in establishing an objective scientific basis in the domain of color (Seurat addresses both problems in "Circus" and "Dancers"). Soon, the Cubists were to do so in both the domain of form and dynamics; Orphism would do so with color too.


title: Georges Seurat

text: From 1883 until his death, Seurat exhibited his work at the Salon, the Salon des Indépendants, Les XX in Brussels, the eighth Impressionist exhibition, and other exhibitions in France and abroad.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (often informally called Millionaire) is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television, contestants tackle a series of multiple-choice questions to win large cash prizes in a format that twists on many game show genre conventions – only one contestant plays at a time, similar to radio quizzes; contestants are given the question before deciding whether to answer, and have no time limit to answer questions; and the amount offered increases as they tackle questions that become increasingly difficult. The maximum cash prize offered in most versions of the format is an aspirational value in local currency, such as one million pounds in the U.K. or 75 million rupees (7.5 crore) in India.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The original British version debuted on 4 September 1998 on the ITV network, hosted by Chris Tarrant, who presented his final episode on 11 February 2014 after which the show was discontinued. A revived series of seven episodes to commemorate its 20th anniversary aired from 5 to 11 May 2018, hosted by Jeremy Clarkson. The revival received mostly positive reviews from critics and fans, as well as high viewing figures, leading ITV to renew the show for several more series. Since its debut, international variants of the game show have been aired in around 160 countries.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The format of the show was created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight, who had earlier created a number of the promotional games for Tarrant's morning show on Capital FM radio, such as the bong game. Tentatively known as "Cash Mountain", the show took its finalised title from a song written by Cole Porter for the 1956 film "High Society", starring Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm. Since the original version launched, several individuals have claimed that they originated the format and that Celador had breached their copyright. While many pursued litigation, they were all unsuccessful, and each claim was later settled out-of-court on an agreement/settlement.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In March 2006, original producer Celador announced that it was seeking to sell the worldwide rights to "Millionaire", together with the rest of its British programme library, as the first phase of a sell-off of the company's format and production divisions.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: British television producer Paul Smith first had the idea to franchise the UK programme internationally. He developed a series of standards for international variants that ensured they mirrored the British original closely. For example, all hosts were required to appear on-screen wearing Armani suits, as Tarrant did in the UK; producers were forbidden from hiring local composers to create original music, instead using the same music cues used by the British version; and the lighting system and set design were to adhere faithfully to the way they were presented on the British version. Some of Smith's rules have been slightly relaxed over the years as the franchise's development has progressed.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Dutch company 2waytraffic ultimately acquired "Millionaire" and all of Celador's other programmes. Two years later, Sony Pictures Entertainment purchased 2waytraffic for £137.5 million. Sony Pictures Television currently owns and licences the show's format, while Disney–ABC Domestic Television, the Walt Disney Company's in-home sales and content distribution firm controls the US version independently of Sony.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: A group of contestants on each episode play a preliminary round called "Fastest Finger First". All are given a question by the host and four answers which must be placed within a particular order; in the first season of the original version (1998) and the first four seasons of the Australian version (1999–2002), contestants have to answer a multiple-choice question. If any contestants are visually impaired, the host reads the question and four choices all at once, then repeats the choices after the music for the round begins. The contestant who answers correctly in the fastest time goes on to play the main game. In the event that no one gets the question right, another question is given; if two or more contestants answer correctly but with the same time, they are given a tie-breaker to determine who will move on. This round is only used when a new contestant is being chosen to play the main round, and can be played more than once in an episode among those remaining within the group seeking to play the main game. In celebrity editions, the round is not used; celebrities automatically take part in the main game.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Once a contestant enters the main game, they are asked increasingly difficult general knowledge questions by the host. Each features four possible answers, to which the contestant must give the correct answer. Doing so wins them a certain amount of money, with tackling more difficult questions increasing their prize fund. During their game, the player has a set of lifelines that they may use only once to help them with a question, as well as two "safety nets" – if a contestant gets a question wrong, but had reached a designated cash value during their game, they will leave with that amount as their prize. While the first few questions are generally easy, subsequent ones might prompt the host to ask if the answer they gave is their "final answer" – if it is, then it is locked in and cannot be changed. If a contestant feels unsure about an answer and does not wish to play on, they can walk away with the money they have won, to which the host will ask them to confirm this as their final decision; in such cases, the host will usually ask them to state what answer they would have gone for, and reveal if it would have been correct or incorrect.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: During the British original, between 1998 and 2007, the show's format focused on fifteen questions. The payout structure was as follows (questions at guaranteed levels are highlighted with a bolded text):


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Between 2007 and 2014, the number of questions was reduced to twelve; the overall change in format was later incorporated into a number of international markets over a period of four years, including the Arab world, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, France, Poland, Spain, and Turkey. The payout structure, as a whole, was subsequently changed as a result, with the second safety net relocated to £50,000 at question 7 (questions at guaranteed levels are highlighted with a bolded text):


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The game show's revival for British television in 2018 reverted to the original arrangement used before 2007, but with one notable difference, in that the second safety net was made adjustable – once a contestant reached £1,000, the host asked them, before giving the next question, if they wished to set the next cash prize amount as the second safety net, with this allowing them to set up as high as £500,000 in their game as a result.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The original US version premiered on ABC in August 1999 as part of a two-week daily special event hosted by Regis Philbin. After this and a second two-week event aired in November 1999, ABC commissioned a regular series that launched in January 2000 and ran until June 2002. The syndication of the game show was conceived and debuting in September 2002. The only difference between it and the British version was that episodes were halved in length – 30 minutes, as opposed to the 60-minute length of the original version. The change meant that the preliminary round of the show was eliminated, and contestants had to pass a more conventional game show qualification test. Exceptions to this arrangement, in which it was used under the name "Fastest Finger" included: primetime special editions of the programme; the 2004 series that was dubbed "Super Millionaire", in which the final prize was increased to $10,000,000; and for the 10th anniversary special of the US edition, which ran during August 2009 for eleven episodes. The decision to remove this round would later occur in other international versions, including the British original before its reinstatement in the renewed series.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In 2008, the US version changed its format so that contestants were required to answer questions within a set time limit. The limit varied depending on the difficulty of the question:


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The clock started immediately after a question was given and the four possible answers appeared. The clock paused when a lifeline was used. If the clock ran out with no answer locked in, the contestant walked away with any prize money won up to that point, unless the Double Dip lifeline had been used, in which case a failure to give a second answer was treated the same as a wrong answer. This format change was later adopted into other international versions – the British original, for example, adopted this change for episodes on 3 August 2010. The Indian version was introduced on 11 October 2010.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: On 13 September 2010, the US version adopted another significant change to its format. In this change, the game featured two rounds. The first round consisted of ten questions, in which the cash prize associated to each value, along with the category and difficulty for each question, was randomised per game. As such, the difficulty of the question in this round was "not" tied to the value associated to it, and a contestant did not know what amount they won unless they provided a correct answer, or chose to walk away. As part of this format, the amount of money a contestant won in this round was banked, but if they walked away before completing the round, they left with half the amount that had been banked; if they gave an incorrect answer during this round, they left with just $1,000. If they answered all ten questions correctly, they then moved on to the second round, which stuck to the standard format of the game show – the remaining questions were set to general knowledge and featured cash prizes of high, non-cumulative values. The contestant could, at this point, walk away with the total amount banked from the first round; otherwise, an incorrect answer meant they left with $25,000. The format was later modified for the fourteenth season of the US version, but retained the same arrangement for the last four questions.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In 2015, the so-called "shuffle format" was scrapped and the show returned to a version that closely resembled the original format.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In 2007, the German version modified the show's format with the inclusion of a new feature called "Risk Mode". During the main game, contestants are given the choice of choosing this feature, in which if they choose to use it, they gain the use of a fourth lifeline that allows them to discuss question with a member of the audience, in exchange for having no second safety net – if they get any question between the sixth and final cash prize amount wrong, they would leave with the guaranteed amount given for correctly answering five questions. This format became adopted in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Switzerland and Venezuela.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The Taiwanese version did not have any safety nets or any option to quit; the contestant's winnings won up until they were incorrect on any question was cut by half.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In November 2008, the Italian version modified the format of the show under the title "Edizione Straordinaria" (eng. "Extraordinary Edition"). In this variation of the game, six contestants take part, with each taking it in turns to answer questions and build up their prize fund. Utilising the time limit format introduced in the US version, this variation on the format grants a contestant the right to pass the question on to another player, who cannot pass it on themselves, while eliminating both the option of walking away from a question, and the use of lifelines. If a contestant cannot pass on or correctly answer a question, they are eliminated, and the highest cash value they made is removed. The game ends when all contestants are eliminated or the question for the highest cash value is answered – if a contestant who answers the final question gives an incorrect answer, they win a small prize and no further questions are played; if all contestants are eliminated before the final question, the last contestant to do so receives nothing, or a small prize if they reach the fifth question safety net. This format was later introduced to various markets over the course of a four-year-period from 2009 to 2012, including Norway, Hungary, Spain, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia, and Chile.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In 2009, the Australian version was modified to use the new Italian format, and the name was also changed from "Extraordinary Edition" to "Hot Seat". In 2017, as part of new modification to the format, the game incorporated the use of the Fastest Finger First round, with the winner able to select a lifeline, out of three that the show provided.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In 2013, the German version modified the show's format, which runs concurrent with the original format, where only one guaranteed level exists, at €1,000, and maximum prize is €2,000,000.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: During a standard play of the game, a contestant is given a series of lifelines to aid them with questions. In the standard format, a contestant has access to three lifelines which each can be used only once per game. More than one lifeline can be used on a single question. The standard lifelines used in the original format of the game show include:


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In the US, "Ask the Audience" and "Phone a Friend" had corporate sponsorship at different periods. The original AT&T sponsored "Phone-a-Friend" during the original ABC primetime show and the syndicated version's first season; the current AT&T sponsored the 2009 primetime episodes. From 2004 to 2006, AOL sponsored "Ask the Audience" and allowed users of Instant Messenger to participate in the lifeline by adding the screen name "MillionaireIM" to their contact list. When a contestant used the lifeline during the show, users would receive an instant message with the question and the four possible answers and vote for the correct answer. The computer tallied these results alongside the results from the studio audience.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Contestants pre-select multiple friends for "Phone a Friend". As soon as the contestant begins to play, producers alert the friends and ask them to keep their phone lines free and wait for three rings before answering. On 11 January 2010, the US version eliminated the use of "Phone a Friend" in response to an increasing trend of contestants' friends using web search engines and other internet resources to assist them during the calls. Producers came to feel that the lifeline was giving contestants who had friends with internet access an unfair advantage; they also believed it was contrary to the original intent of the lifeline: friends provided assistance based on what they knew.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: During recordings of the current British version, security personnel from the production office stay with contestants' friends at their homes to ensure integrity. During The People Play specials in 2012 and 2013, friends travelled to the studio and stayed backstage. When a contestant used the lifeline, the friend they called appeared on a monitor in the studio, and both the friend and contestant were able to see and communicate with each other.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: During the course of the game show's history, there were a number of unique lifeline additions in various versions of the programme:


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Out of all contestants who have played the game, relatively few have been able to win the top prize on any international version of the show. The first was John Carpenter, who won the top prize on the American version on 19 November 1999. Carpenter did not use a lifeline until the final question, using his Phone-a-Friend to call his father not for help but to tell him he was about to win the million.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Other notable top-prize winners include Judith Keppel, the first winner of the original British version; Kevin Olmstead from the US version, who won a progressive jackpot of $2.18 million; Martin Flood from the Australian version, who was investigated by producers after suspicions that he had cheated, much like Charles Ingram, but was later cleared; Sushil Kumar from the Indian version, who is often referred to in Western media as the "real-life "Slumdog Millionaire""; Mana Ashida from the Japanese version, who is the youngest winner in the "Millionaire" franchise; and David Chang, the first celebrity winner of the American version.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" debuted in Britain on 4 September 1998, with episodes broadcast on the ITV network. When it began airing, the show was hosted by Chris Tarrant, and became an instant hit – at its peak in 1999, one edition of the show was watched by over 19 million viewers. While most of the contestants were predominantly members of the general public who had applied to take part, the show later featured special celebrity editions during its later years, often coinciding with holidays and special events.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: On 22 October 2013, Tarrant decided to leave the programme after hosting it for 15 years. His decision subsequently led ITV to make plans to cancel the programme at the end of his contract, with no further specials being made other than those that were already planned. Tarrant's final episode was a special clip show entitled "Chris' Final Answer", which aired on 11 February 2014.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Four years later, ITV revived the programme for a special 7-episode series, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the British original. This series of special episodes was hosted by Jeremy Clarkson and aired every evening between 5 and 11 May 2018. The revival received mostly positive reviews from critics and fans, and, as well as high viewing figures, led to ITV renewing the show for another series with Clarkson returning as host.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Since the British original debuted in 1998, several different versions of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" have been created across the world, including Australia, the United States and India. In total over 100 different international variations have been made.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: On 18 April 1999, Nine Network launched an Australian version of the game show for its viewers. This version ran until its final episode, aired on 3 April 2006. After the first version ended, a second version was created, running for six episodes across October and November 2007, before a third version, entitled "Millionaire Hot Seat", made its debut on 20 April 2009. The original version was hosted by Eddie McGuire, until he was forced to sacrifice his on-air commitments upon being made the CEO of the network; after his resignation from this role, he resumed his duties as host of subsequent versions of the programme.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: On 16 August 1999, ABC launched an American version of the game show for its primetime viewers. Hosted by Regis Philbin, it proved to be a ratings success, becoming the highest-rated television show during the 1999–2000 season, with its average audience figures reaching approximately 29 million viewers. After a drop in ratings, this version was cancelled, with its final episode aired on 27 June 2002. On 16 September 2002, Meredith Vieira launched a daily syndicated version of the programme, which she hosted for 11 seasons, until May 2013. After her departure, the show was hosted by Cedric the Entertainer in 2013, and Terry Crews in 2014, before Chris Harrison took full hosting responsibilities in Autumn 2015. On 17 May 2019, the American version was cancelled after a total of 17 seasons and 20 years encompassing both primetime and first-run syndication; the final episode of the series was broadcast on 31 May. However, ABC reversed the cancellation of the programme on 8 January 2020, announcing plans for a twenty-first season, consisting of nine episodes, to be presented by Jimmy Kimmel starting 8 April.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: On 1 October 1999, NTV launched a Russian version the game show, entitled "О, счастливчик!" ("Oh, lucky man!"). This version ran until its final episode on 28 January 2001, whereupon a few weeks later it was relaunched under the Russian translation of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", on Channel One. The relaunched version was hosted by Maxim Galkin until 2008, when he was replaced as host by Dmitry Dibrov.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: On 3 July 2000, an Indian version of the game show was launched. The show was hosted by Amitabh Bachchan in his first appearance on Indian television, and received additional seasons in 2005–06, 2007, and then every year since 2010. Subsequent Indian versions were also made, including one on 9 April 2012 entitled "Ningalkkum Aakaam Kodeeshwaran", and hosted by Suresh Gopi. The original Indian version became immortalised in 2008, within the plot of Danny Boyle's award-winning drama film "Slumdog Millionaire", adapted from the 2005 Indian novel "Q & A" by Vikas Swarup.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: On 18 September 2010 a Sinhalese version called "Obada lakshapathi mamada lakshapathi" (ඔබද ලක්ෂපති මමද ලක්ෂපති) was launched by Sirasa TV of Capital Maharaja Television Network. Since then, it has grown its popularity immensely through local audiences. It is presented by Chandana Suriyabandara, a senior commentator in Sri Lanka. It offers 2 million rupees (Sri Lankan rupees; LKR) as the ultimate prize. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary, it's re-branded as a Who wants to be a ලක්ෂපති. And prize changed to 3 million Rupees.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In May 2011 a Tamil version called "Ungalil Yaar Maha Latchathipathi" (உங்களில் யார் மகா இலட்சாதிபதி) was launched by Shakthi TV. The show hosted by Abarna Suthan and Balendran Kandeeban. Top prize was 2 million rupees (Sri Lankan rupees; LKR) as the ultimate prize.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In 2000, a Filipino version of the game show was launched by the government-sequestered Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation. Hosted by Christopher de Leon, and produced by Viva Television, it ran for two years before being axed. On 23 May 2009, the show was relaunched on TV5, with Vic Sotto as the new host. The relaunched version was aired until 7 October 2012, when it was replaced by the Philippine version of "The Million Pound Drop Live", but returned the following year on 15 September 2013, following the success of "Talentadong Pinoy" that year.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Chi vuol essere miliardario? was first launched by Endemol on Canale 5 in 2000. In 2002, it changed its name to "Chi vuol essere milionario?" after the Italian Lira was replaced with the Euro. In 2018 it broadcast four special episodes for the 20th anniversary, followed by another eight special episodes in 2019, but the new season is produced by Fremantle Italia's unit Wavy. The host was Gerry Scotti for every edition from 2000 to 2011 and for the 20th anniversary special edition.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Ko Banchha Crorepati (Who Wants to have Ten Million; also simply known as KBC Nepal, Nepali: को बन्छ करोडपति) is a Nepali television game show based on the British programme "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" The show first premiered on 2 February 2019 on AP1 Television, scheduled to run for 52 episodes. It is hosted by Rajesh Hamal and produced by SRBN Media Pvt. Ltd. Contestants can win cash prizes up to 1 crore (10 million) Nepali rupees.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: ¿Quién quiere ser millonario? (English translation: "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?") is the Costa Rican version, hosted by Ignacio Santos Pasamontes. The main goal of the game is to win 30,000,000 Costa Rican colón (US$50,434 as of August 2020) by answering 15 multiple-choice questions correctly. There are four "lifelines" – fifty fifty, phone a friend, ask the audience and ask one person from audience. "¿Quién quiere ser millonario?" was broadcast from 3 February 2009 to 3 September 2013. It is shown on the private TV station Teletica. When a contestant gets the fifth question correct, he leaves with at least ₡500,000. When a contestant gets the tenth question correct, he leaves with at least ₡3,000,000. Only one contestant won top prize.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The musical score most commonly associated with the franchise was composed by father-and-son duo Keith and Matthew Strachan. The Strachans' score provides drama and tension, and unlike older game show musical scores, "Millionaire"s musical score was created to feature music playing almost throughout the entire show. The Strachans' main "Millionaire" theme song takes inspiration from the "Mars" movement of Gustav Holst's "The Planets", and their cues from the 6th/3rd to 10th/7th question, and then from the 11th/8th question onwards, take the pitch up a semitone for each subsequent question, in order to increase tension as the contestant progressed through the game. On Game Show Network (GSN)'s "Gameshow Hall of Fame" special, the narrator described the Strachan tracks as "mimicking the sound of a beating heart", and stated that as the contestant works their way up the money ladder, the music is "perfectly in tune with their ever-increasing pulse".


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The Strachans' "Millionaire" soundtrack was honoured by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers with numerous awards, the earliest of them awarded in 2000. The original music cues were given minor rearrangements for the U.S. version's clock format in 2008; for example, the question cues were synced to the "ticking" sounds of the game clock. Even later, the Strachan score was removed from the U.S. version altogether for the introduction of the shuffle format in 2010, in favour of a new musical score with cues written by Jeff Lippencott and Mark T. Williams, co-founders of the Los Angeles-based company Ah2 Music.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The basic set design used in the "Millionaire" franchise was conceived by British production designer Andy Walmsley, and is the most reproduced scenic design in television history. Unlike older game shows whose sets are or were designed to make the contestant(s) feel at ease, "Millionaire"s set was designed to make the contestant feel uncomfortable, so that the programme feels more like a movie thriller than a typical quiz show. The floor is made of Plexiglas beneath which lies a huge dish covered in mirror paper. The main game typically has the contestant and host sit in "Hot Seats", which are slightly modified, -high Pietranera Arco All chairs situated in the centre of the stage; an LG computer monitor directly facing each seat displays questions and other pertinent information.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The lighting system is programmed to darken the set as the contestant progresses further into the game. There are also spotlights situated at the bottom of the set area that zoom down on the contestant when they answer a major question; to increase the visibility of the light beams emitted by such spotlights, oil is vaporised, creating a haze effect. Media scholar Dr. Robert Thompson, a professor at Syracuse University, stated that the show's lighting system made the contestant feel as though they were outside a prison while an escape was in progress.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: When the U.S. "Millionaire" introduced its shuffle format, the Hot Seats and corresponding monitors were replaced with a single podium and as a result, the contestant and host stand throughout the game and are also able to walk around the stage. According to Vieira, the Hot Seat was removed because it was decided that the seat, which was originally intended to make the contestant feel nervous, actually ended up having contestants feel so comfortable in it that it did not service the production team any longer. Also, two video screens were installed–one that displays the current question in play, and another that displays the contestant's cumulative total and progress during the game. In September 2012, the redesigned set was improved with a modernised look and feel, in order to take into account the show's transition to high-definition broadcasting, which had just come about the previous year. The two video screens were replaced with two larger ones, having twice as many projectors as the previous screens; the previous contestant podium was replaced with a new one; and light-emitting diode (LED) technology was integrated into the lighting system to give the lights more vivid colours and the set and gameplay experience a more intimate feel.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: "Millionaire" has made catchphrases out of several lines used on the show. The most well-known of these catchphrases is the host's question "Is that your final answer?", asked whenever a contestant's answer needs to be verified. The question is asked because the rules require that the contestants must clearly indicate their choices before they are made official, the nature of the game allowing them to ponder the options before committing to an answer. Regularly on tier-three questions (and sometimes on tier-two), a dramatic pause occurs between the contestant's statement of their answer and the host's acknowledgement of whether or not it is correct.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Many parodies of "Millionaire" have capitalised on the "final answer" catchphrase. In the United States, the phrase was popularised by Philbin during his tenure as the host of that country's version, to the extent that TV Land listed it in its special "100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catchphrases", which aired in 2006.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: On the Australian versions, McGuire replaces the phrase with "Lock it in?"; likewise, the hosts of the Indian version have used varying "lock" catchphrases. There are also a number of other non-English versions of "Millionaire" where the host does not ask "[Is that your] final answer?" or a literal translation thereof. Besides the "final answer" question, other catchphrases used on the show include the contestants' requests to use lifelines, such as "I'd like to phone a friend"; and a line that Tarrant spoke whenever a contestant was struggling with a particular question, "Some questions are only easy if you know the answer."


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" has been credited with single-handedly reviving interest in, and breaking new ground for, the television game show. It revolutionised the look and feel of game shows with its unique lighting system, dramatic music cues, and futuristic set. The show also became one of the most popular game shows in television history, and is credited by some with paving the way for the phenomenon of reality programming.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In 2000, the British Film Institute honoured the UK version of "Millionaire" by ranking it number 23 on its "BFI TV 100" list, which compiled what British television industry professionals believed were the greatest programmes to have ever originated from that country. The UK "Millionaire" also won the 1999 British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Programme, and seven National Television Awards for Most Popular Quiz Programme from 1999 to 2005.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The original primetime version of the U.S. "Millionaire" won two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show in 2000 and 2001. Philbin was honoured with a Daytime Emmy in the category of Outstanding Game Show Host in 2001, while Vieira received one in 2005 and another in 2009, making her the second woman to win an Emmy Award for hosting a game show, and the first to win multiple times. "TV Guide" ranked the U.S. "Millionaire" No. 7 on its 2001 list of the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time, and later ranked it No. 6 on its 2013 "60 Greatest Game Shows" list. GSN ranked "Millionaire" No. 5 on its August 2006 list of the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time, and later honoured the show in January 2007 on its first, and so far only, "Gameshow Hall of Fame" special.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In September 2001, British Army Major Charles Ingram apparently won the top prize in the UK "Millionaire", but his flip-flopping on each of the final two questions raised suspicion of cheating. When the footage was reviewed, staff made a connection between Fastest Finger contestant Tecwen Whittock's coughing and Ingram's answers. The prize was withheld, and police were called in to investigate the matter further.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In March 2003, the Ingrams and Whittock were taken to court on the charge of using fraudulent means to win the top prize on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". During the trial, the defence claimed that Whittock had simply suffered from allergies during recording of the second episode, but the prosecution noted that his coughing stopped upon Ingram leaving the set and Whittock subsequently taking his turn on the main game. The trial concluded with all three being found guilty and receiving suspended sentences. After the trial, ITV aired a documentary about the scandal, along with Ingram's entire game, with coughing sounds amplified. As a joke, Benylin cough syrup paid to have the first commercial shown during the programme's commercial break.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Three board game adaptations of the UK "Millionaire" were released by Upstarts in 1998, and a junior edition recommended for younger players was introduced in 2001. The U.S. version also saw two board games of its own, released by Pressman Toy Corporation in 2000. Other "Millionaire" board games have included a game based on the Australian version's Hot Seat format, which was released by UGames; a game based on the Italian version released by Hasbro; and a game based on the French version which was released by TF1's games division.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: An electronic tabletop version of the game was released by Tiger Electronics in 2000. Six different DVD games based on the UK "Millionaire", featuring Tarrant's likeness and voice, were released by Zoo Digital Publishing and Universal Studios Home Entertainment between 2002 and 2008. In 2008, Imagination Games released a DVD game based on the U.S. version, based on the 2004–08 format and coming complete with Vieira's likeness and voice, as well as a quiz book and a 2009 desktop calendar.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The UK "Millionaire" saw five video game adaptations for personal computers and Sony's PlayStation and Sega's Dreamcast consoles, as well as Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, produced by Hothouse Creations and Eidos Interactive. Between 1999 and 2001, Jellyvision produced five games based on the U.S. network version for PCs and the PlayStation, all of them featuring Philbin's likeness and voice. The first of these adaptations—"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"—was published by Disney Interactive, while the later four were published by Buena Vista Interactive which had just been spun off from DI when it reestablished itself in attempts to diversify its portfolio. Of the five games, three featured general trivia questions, one was sports-themed, and another was a "Kids Edition" featuring easier questions. Eurocom ported the game to the Game Boy Color for the second edition. Two additional U.S. "Millionaire" games were released by Ludia in conjunction with Ubisoft in 2010 and 2011; the first of these was a game for Nintendo's Wii console and DS handheld system, as well as a PlayStation 3 port of the Wii version, based on the 2008–10 clock format, with the Wii version offered on the show as a consolation prize to audience contestants during the 2010–11 season. The second, for Microsoft's Xbox 360, was based on the shuffle format and was offered as a consolation prize during the next season (2011–12).


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: Ludia also made a Facebook game based on "Millionaire" available to players in North America from 2011 to 2016. This game featured an altered version of the shuffle format, condensing the number of questions to twelve—eight in round one and four in round two. Contestants competed against eight other "Millionaire" fans in round one, with the top three playing round two alone. There was no "final answer" rule; the contestant's responses were automatically locked in. Answering a question correctly earned a contestant the value of that question, multiplied by the number of people who responded incorrectly. Contestants were allowed to use two of their Facebook friends as Jump the Question lifelines in round one, and to use the Ask the Audience lifeline in round two to invite up to 50 such friends of theirs to answer a question for a portion of the prize money of the current question.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In 2020, Microids developed and published a video game under the same name, and released on Steam for Microsoft Windows, and in Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: In September 2001, Celador signed a deal with DIC Entertainment to produce a cartoon based on the show titled "The Adventures of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? – The Animated Series". The series was to follow fictional winners of the show, who would have used their prize money to take trips to various exotic locations, while the fictional host would keep in touch with them through the Millionaire Command Center.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The series was planned to be shown off at MIPCOM that year, however nothing else was confirmed for the series, and was silently scrapped without a formal announcement.


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: A theme park attraction based on the show, known as "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – Play It!", appeared at Disney's Hollywood Studios (when it was known as "Disney-MGM Studios") at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida and at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California. Both the Florida and California "Play It!" attractions opened in 2001; the California version closed in 2004, and the Florida version closed in 2006 and was replaced by "Toy Story Midway Mania!"


title: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

text: The format in the "Play It!" attraction was very similar to that of the television show that inspired it. When a show started, a "Fastest Finger" question was given, and the audience was asked to put the four answers in order; the person with the fastest time was the first contestant in the Hot Seat for that show. However, the main game had some differences: for example, contestants competed for points rather than dollars, the questions were set to time limits, and the Phone-a-Friend lifeline became "Phone a Complete Stranger" which connected the contestant to a Disney cast member outside the attraction's theatre who would find a guest to help. After the contestant's game was over, they were awarded anything from a collectible pin, to clothing, to a "Millionaire" CD game, to a three-night Disney Cruise.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is the fourth largest in Louisiana, though 2020 census estimates placed its population at 397,590. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, of which it is the parish seat. It extends along the west bank of the Red River (most notably at Wright Island, the Charles and Marie Hamel Memorial Park, and Bagley Island) into neighboring Bossier Parish. The United States Census Bureau's 2020 census tabulation for the city's population was 187,593, though the American Community Survey's census estimates determined 189,890 residents.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: Shreveport was founded in 1836 by the Shreve Town Company, a corporation established to develop a town at the juncture of the newly navigable Red River and the Texas Trail, an overland route into the newly independent Republic of Texas. Prior to Texas becoming independent, this trail entered Mexico. It grew throughout the 20th century and, after the discovery of oil in Louisiana, became a national center for the oil industry. Standard Oil of Louisiana (absorbed by Standard Oil of New Jersey and now part of ExxonMobil) and United Gas Corporation (now part of Pennzoil) were headquartered in the city until the 1960s and 1980s. After the loss of jobs in the oil industry, the close of Shreveport Operations (a General Motors vehicle factory), and other economic problems it struggled with a declining population, poverty, drugs and violent crime. However, the city continues in its efforts to revitalize its infrastructure, revive the economy through diversification, and lower crime. Despite these efforts, the city witnessed the largest number of homicides in its recorded history in 2021, eclipsing the previous record set in 1993.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: Shreveport is the educational, commercial and cultural center of the Ark-La-Tex region, where Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas meet. It is the location of Centenary College of Louisiana, Louisiana State University Shreveport, Louisiana Tech University Shreveport, Southern University at Shreveport, and Louisiana Baptist University. Its neighboring city, Bossier City, is the location of Bossier Parish Community College. It forms part of the I-20 Cyber Corridor linking Shreveport, Bossier City, Ruston, Grambling, and Monroe to Dallas and Tyler, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia. Companies with significant operations or headquarters in Shreveport are Amazon, Regions Financial Corporation, JPMorgan Chase, Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall, AT&T Mobility, United Parcel Service, Walmart, Chick-fil-A, Waffle House, SWEPCO, General Electric, UOP LLC, Calumet Specialty Products Partners, and APS Payroll.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: Shreveport was established to create a town at the meeting point of the Brown Bricks and the Texas Trail. The Red River was made navigable by Captain Henry Miller Shreve, who led the United States Army Corps of Engineers efforts to clear the Red River. A natural log jam, the Great Raft, had previously obstructed passage to shipping. Shreve used a specially modified riverboat, the "Heliopolis", to remove the log jam. The company and the village of Shreve Town were named in Shreve's honor.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: Shreve Town was originally contained within the boundaries of a piece of land sold to the company in 1835 by the indigenous Caddo Indians. In 1838 Caddo Parish was created from the large Natchitoches Parish, and Shreve Town became its parish seat. On March 20, 1839, the town was incorporated as Shreveport. Originally, the town consisted of 64 city blocks, created by eight streets running west from the Red River and eight streets running south from Cross Bayou, one of its tributaries.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: Shreveport soon became a center of steamboat commerce, carrying mostly cotton and agricultural crops from the plantations of Caddo Parish. Shreveport also had a slave market, though slave trading was not as widespread as in other parts of the state. Steamboats plied the Red River, and stevedores loaded and unloaded cargo. By 1860, Shreveport had a population of 2,200 free people and 1,300 slaves within the city limits.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: During the American Civil War, Shreveport was the capital of Louisiana from 1863 to 1865, having succeeded Baton Rouge and Opelousas after each fell under Union control. The city was a Confederate stronghold throughout the war and was the site of the headquarters of the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederate Army. Fort Albert Sidney Johnston was built on a ridge northwest of the city. Because of limited development in that area, the site is relatively undisturbed in the 21st century.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: Isolated from events in the east, the Civil War continued in the Trans-Mississippi theater for several weeks after Robert E. Lee's surrender in April 1865, and the Trans-Mississippi was the last Confederate command to surrender, on May 26, 1865. "The period May 13–21, 1865, was filled with great uncertainly after soldiers learned of the surrenders of Lee and Johnston, the Good Friday assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the rapid departure of their own generals." In the confusion there was a breakdown of military discipline and rioting by soldiers. They destroyed buildings containing service records, a loss that later made it difficult for many to gain Confederate pensions from state governments.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: Throughout the war, women in Shreveport did much to assist the soldiers fighting mostly far to the east. Historian John D. Winters writes of them in "The Civil War in Louisiana" (1963):


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: The women of Shreveport and vicinity labored long hours over their sewing machines to provide their men with adequate underclothing and uniforms. After the excitement of Fort Sumter, there was a great rush to get the volunteer companies ready and off to New Orleans ... Forming a Military Aid Society, the ladies of Shreveport requested donations of wool and cotton yarn for knitting socks. Joined by others, the Society collected blankets for the wounded and gave concerts and tableaux to raise funds. Tickets were sold for a diamond ring given by the mercantile house of Hyams and Brothers ...


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: A Confederate minstrel show gave two performances to raise money for the war effort in Shreveport in December 1862. The Shreveport Ladies Aid Society announced a grand dress ball for April 6, 1863. That same month students at the Mansfield Female College, in Mansfield in De Soto Parish, presented a vocal and instrumental concert to support the war.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: The Red River, opened by Shreve in the 1830s, remained navigable throughout the Civil War. But seasonal water levels got so low at one point that Union Admiral David Dixon Porter was trapped with his gunboats north of Alexandria. His engineers quickly constructed a temporary dam to raise the water level and free his fleet.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: In 1873, Shreveport lost 759 citizens in an 80-day period to a yellow fever epidemic, with over 400 additional victims eventually succumbing. The total death toll from August through November was approximately 1,200. Five Roman Catholic priests in the city and two religious sisters died while caring for yellow fever victims in the city.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: In 1895, Justin Vincent Gras (1868–1959), an immigrant from France, opened the largest grocery and liquor store in Shreveport. "What is good for Shreveport is good for me" became his motto. He had come to the city four years before to work for his uncle, and had quickly learned English and the mercantile business. Gras also invested in real estate; by the 1920s he was the largest landholder in Caddo Parish. Gras and his wife, Eugenie, became philanthropists, donating $2.3 million to establish the Community Foundation of North Louisiana. During World War I, Gras rebuilt the home church of his native village in the Pyrenees. He is interred at St. Joseph Cemetery in Shreveport.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: A number of local African American musicians became nationally famous. By the 1910s, Huddie William Ledbetter—also known as "Lead Belly", a blues singer and guitarist—was performing for Shreveport audiences in St. Paul's Bottoms, the notable red-light district of Shreveport that operated legally from 1903 to 1917. Ledbetter began to develop his own style of music after exposure to a variety of musical influences on Fannin Street, a row of saloons, brothels, and dance halls in the Bottoms. Bluesmen Jesse Thomas, Dave Alexander, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and the early jazz and ragtime composers Bill Wray and Willian Christopher O'Hare were all from Shreveport. Lead Belly achieved international fame.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: By 1914, neglect and lack of use, due to diversion of freight traffic to railroad lines, resulted in the Red River becoming unnavigable. In projects accomplished over decades, in 1994, the United States Army Corps of Engineers restored navigability by completion of a series of federally funded lock-and-dam structures and a navigation channel.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: As early as 1924, the citizens of Shreveport became interested in hosting a military flying field. In 1926, Shreveport citizens learned that the 3rd Attack Wing stationed at Fort Crockett, Texas, would be enlarged by 500 percent and would require at least 20,000 acres (81 km) to support aerial gunnery and a bombing range. The efforts to procure the government's commitment to build the facility in the Greater Shreveport metropolitan area were spearheaded by a committee co-chaired by local civic leaders Andrew Querbes and John D. Ewing, beginning in 1927. It took a great deal of correspondence between the interested parties and the original proposal was rejected. However, in February 1928, a young crop duster, an Air Corps captain named Harold Ross Harris, was hired to fly over the local area in order to find a suitable site for the airfield.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: Captain Harris selected what he felt was an adequate location for a military airfield. It was a sprawling section of cotton plantation near Bossier City. The site selection committee, representing the wealthiest taxpayers in the city, unanimously agreed upon the Barksdale Field location. A delegation of citizens traveled to Washington, D.C., to personally present the advantages of the proposed site to the War Department. Following the return of this delegation, a special army board visited Shreveport and reported the location met all requirements of the Air Corps.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: The site was selected December 5, 1928, as the location of the airfield. The land in Bossier Parish on which the airfield was built was unincorporated land near Bossier City that was annexed by the city of Shreveport once the site had been selected among 80 candidates. The real estate was purchased from over 800 property owners via a $1,500,000 municipal bond issue approved by Shreveport voters in 1929 in fulfillment of the pledge that the citizens of Shreveport made to the U.S. government. The last of these bonds matured on December 31, 1959. After acquisition, Shreveport then donated the land to the federal government per their agreement, while the federal government assumed all the costs of building construction and equipment installation. Shreveport had originally proposed a site adjacent to Cross Lake, but the United States Department of War deemed this location inappropriate due to the lack of suitable terrain for the facility's future expansion. Subsequent to the establishment of the military installation, Bossier City grew and expanded southward and eastward, eventually enveloping the area surrounding the base. Technically, Barksdale AFB is neither in Bossier City nor Shreveport but, like all military bases, is an autonomous community with its own infrastructure.


title: Shreveport, Louisiana

text: In September, 1941, the capture of the city of Shreveport was the objective of a U.S. Army war game, or military exercise, known as the Louisiana Maneuvers. The field exercise's mission was accomplished largely due to General George S. Patton, who commanded the mock "Blue" army's 2nd Armored Division.