title: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

text: A remake of the game was announced at Ubisoft Forward 2020 and was originally scheduled to release on 21 January, 2021, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game is being developed by Indian studios Ubisoft Mumbai and Ubisoft Pune. Lowenthal returned to voice the Prince, while Farah was voiced by Supinder Wraich. The announcement trailer drew criticism from fans who considered the game's graphics to be lackluster, particularly as it was being developed using the newest iteration of Ubisoft Anvil. Ubisoft responded by stating that the visual style was an intentional choice, as they had wanted it to be "unique ... to make this game standout from other games" due to its fantasy elements. The release of the game was initially delayed by Ubisoft to 18 March, 2021, before being postponed indefinitely to "deliver a remake that feels fresh while remaining faithful to the original." In its quarterly financial report of 2021, Ubisoft stated the game is expected to be out during its 2022–2023 fiscal year. In May 2022, Ubisoft announced that Ubisoft Montreal was taking over development of the remake. A month later Ubisoft once again delayed the game, this time stating that the company was no longer targeting a release during its 2022–2023 fiscal year.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black and white by Walt Disney Studios and was released by Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse and his wife Minnie, although both characters appeared several months earlier in a test screening of "Plane Crazy". "Steamboat Willie" was the third of Mickey's films to be produced, but it was the first to be distributed, because Walt Disney, having seen "The Jazz Singer", had committed himself to produce one of the first fully synchronized sound cartoons.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: "Steamboat Willie" is especially notable for being one of the first cartoons with synchronized sound, as well as one of the first cartoons to feature a fully post-produced soundtrack, which distinguished it from earlier sound cartoons, such as Inkwell Studios' "Song Car-Tunes" (1924–1926) and Van Beuren Studios' "Dinner Time" (1928). Disney knew that synchronized sound was the future of film. "Steamboat Willie" became the most popular cartoon of its day.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: Music for "Steamboat Willie" was arranged by Wilfred Jackson and Bert Lewis, and it included the songs "Steamboat Bill", a composition popularized by baritone Arthur Collins during the 1910s, and "Turkey in the Straw", a composition popularized within minstrelsy during the 19th century. The title of the film may be a parody of the Buster Keaton film "Steamboat Bill, Jr." (1928), itself a reference to the song by Collins. Walt Disney performed all of the voices in the film, although there is little intelligible dialogue.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: The film has received wide critical acclaim, not only for introducing one of the world's most popular cartoon characters but also for its technical innovation. In 1994, members of the animation field voted "Steamboat Willie" 13th in the book "The 50 Greatest Cartoons", which listed the greatest cartoons of all time. In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the United States' National Film Registry for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."


title: Steamboat Willie

text: Mickey Mouse pilots a steam river sidewheeler, suggesting that he is the captain. He cheerfully whistles "Steamboat Bill" and sounds the boat's three whistles. Soon the real captain, Pete, appears and orders Mickey off the bridge. Mickey blows a raspberry at Pete. Pete attempts to kick him, but Mickey rushes away in time and Pete accidentally kicks himself in the rear. Mickey rushes down the stairs, slips on a bar of soap on the boat's deck, and lands in a bucket of water, whereupon a parrot laughs at him, and Mickey throws the bucket on its head.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: Pete, who has been watching the whole thing, pilots the steamboat himself. He bites off some chewing tobacco and spits into the wind. The spit flies backward and rings the boat's bell. Amused by this, Pete spits again, but this time the spit hits him in the face, making him fuss.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: The steamboat makes a stop at "Podunk Landing" to pick up a cargo of various livestock. Just as they set off again, Minnie Mouse appears, running to catch the boat before it leaves. Mickey does not see her in time, but she runs after the boat along the shore and Mickey takes her on board by hooking the cargo crane to her bloomers.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: Landing on deck, Minnie accidentally drops a ukulele and some sheet music for the song "Turkey in the Straw", which are eaten by a goat. The two mice use the goat's body as a phonograph, which they play by turning its tail like a crank. Mickey uses various objects on the boat as percussion accompaniment and "plays" the animals like musical instruments. This ends with Mickey using a cow's teeth and tongue to play the song as a xylophone.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: Captain Pete is unamused by the musical act and puts Mickey to work peeling potatoes. In the potato bin, the same parrot that laughed at him earlier appears in the porthole and laughs at him again. Fed up with the bird's heckling, Mickey throws a half-peeled potato at it, knocking it back into the river below. The film ends with Mickey laughing as he sits next to the potatoes.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: According to Roy O. Disney, Walt Disney was inspired to create a sound cartoon after watching "The Jazz Singer" (1927). Disney created cartoons starring Mickey Mouse in secret while he fulfilled his contract for another series, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. However, the first two "Mickey Mouse" films produced, silent versions of "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho", had failed to impress audiences and gain a distributor. Disney believed that adding sound to a cartoon would greatly increase its appeal.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: "Steamboat Willie" was not the first cartoon with synchronized sound. Starting in May 1924 and continuing through September 1926, Dave and Max Fleischer's Inkwell Studios produced 19 sound cartoons, part of the "Song Car-Tunes" series, using the Phonofilm sound-on-film process. However, the "Song Car-Tunes" failed to keep the sound fully synchronized, while "Steamboat Willie" was produced using a click track to keep his musicians on the beat. As little as one month before "Steamboat Willie" was released, Paul Terry released "Dinner Time", which also used a soundtrack, but "Dinner Time" was not a financial success.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: In June 1927, producer Pat Powers made an unsuccessful takeover bid for Lee DeForest's Phonofilm Corporation. In the aftermath, Powers hired a former DeForest technician, William Garrity, to produce a cloned version of the Phonofilm system, which Powers dubbed "Powers Cinephone". By then, DeForest was in too weak a financial position to mount a legal challenge against Powers for patent infringement. Powers convinced Disney to use Cinephone for "Steamboat Willie"; their business relationship lasted until 1930, when Powers and Disney had a falling-out over money, and Powers hired away from Disney's lead animator, Ub Iwerks.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: Mickey, Minnie and Pete perform in near-pantomime, with growls and squeaks but no intelligible dialogue. The only dialogue in the film is spoken by the ship's parrot. When Mickey falls into a bucket of soapy water, the bird says, "Hope you don't feel hurt, big boy! Ha ha ha ha ha!" At the end of the short, the parrot repeats the phrase, and after it falls in the water, it cries, "Help! Help! Man overboard!"


title: Steamboat Willie

text: The production of "Steamboat Willie" took place between July and September 1928, with an estimated budget of $4,986. There was initially some doubt among the animators that a sound cartoon would appear believable enough, so before a soundtrack was produced, Disney arranged for a screening of the film to a test audience with live sound to accompany it. This screening took place on July 29, with "Steamboat Willie" only partly finished. The audience sat in a room adjoining Walt's office. Roy placed the movie projector outdoors and the film was projected through a window so that the sound of the projector would not interfere with the live sound. Ub Iwerks set up a bedsheet behind the movie screen behind which he placed a microphone connected to speakers where the audience would sit. The live sound was produced from behind the bedsheet. Wilfred Jackson played the music on a mouth organ, Ub Iwerks banged on pots and pans for the percussion segment, and Johnny Cannon provided sound effects with various devices, including slide whistles and spittoons for bells. Walt himself provided what little dialogue there was to the film, mostly grunts, laughs, and squawks. After several practices, they were ready for the audience, which consisted of Disney employees and their wives.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: The response of the audience was extremely positive, and it gave Walt Disney the confidence to move forward and complete the film. He said later in recalling this first viewing, "The effect on our little audience was nothing less than electric. They responded almost instinctively to this union of sound and motion. I thought they were kidding me. So they put me in the audience and ran the action again. "It was terrible, but it was wonderful! And it was something new!" Iwerks said, "I've never been so thrilled in my life. Nothing since has ever equaled it."


title: Steamboat Willie

text: Walt Disney traveled to New York City to hire a company to produce the sound system. He eventually settled on Pat Powers's Cinephone system, created by Powers using an updated version of Lee De Forest's Phonofilm system, without giving De Forest any credit, a decision that Powers later regretted.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: The music in the final soundtrack was performed by the Green Brothers Novelty Band and was conducted by Carl Edouarde. Joe and Lew Green from the band also assisted in timing the music to the film. The first attempt to synchronize the recording with the film, done on September 15, 1928, was a disaster. Disney had to sell his Moon roadster in order to finance a second recording. This was a success, with the addition of a filmed bouncing ball to keep the tempo.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: "Steamboat Willie" premiered at Universal's Colony Theater in New York City on November 18, 1928. The film was distributed by Celebrity Productions, and its initial run lasted two weeks. Disney was paid $500 a week, which was considered a large amount at the time. It played ahead of the independent feature film "Gang War". "Steamboat Willie" was an immediate hit, while "Gang War" is all but forgotten today.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: The success of "Steamboat Willie" not only led to international fame for Walt Disney but for Mickey as well.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: "Variety" (November 21, 1928) wrote: "Not the first animated cartoon to be synchronized with sound effects, but the first to attract favorable attention. This one represents a high order of cartoon ingenuity, cleverly combined with sound effects. The union brought forth laughs galore. Giggles came so fast at the Colony [Theater] they were stumbling over each other. It's a peach of a synchronization job all the way, bright, snappy, and fit the situation perfectly. Cartoonist, Walter Disney. With most of the animated cartoons qualifying as a pain in the neck, it's a signal tribute to this particular one. If the same combination of talent can turn out a series as good as "Steamboat Willie" they should find a wide market if the interchangeability angle does not interfere. Recommended unreservedly for all wired houses."


title: Steamboat Willie

text: "The Film Daily" (November 25, 1928) said: "This is what "Steamboat Willie" has: First, a clever and amusing treatment; secondly, music and sound effects added via the Cinephone method. The result is a real tidbit of diversion. The maximum has been gotten from the sound effects. Worthy of bookings in any house wired to reproduce sound-on-film. Incidentally, this is the first Cinephone-recorded subject to get a public exhibition and at the Colony [Theater], New York, is being shown over Western Electric equipment."


title: Steamboat Willie

text: Despite being popular in the U.S., "Steamboat Willie" did not have a theatrical European release until 1929, when it was released publicly in the United Kingdom by British International Film Distributors Incorporated.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: The film has been the center of a variety of controversies regarding copyright. The copyright of the film has been extended by an act of the United States Congress. Since the copyright was filed in 1928 three days after its initial release, it has been extended for half a century and has therefore frozen the public domain until its eventual comeback in 2019.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: The film has been the center of some attention regarding the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act passed in the United States. "Steamboat Willie" has been close to entering the public domain in the U.S. several times. Each time, copyright protection has been extended. It could have entered the public domain in four different years: first in 1955, renewed to 1986, then to 2003 by the Copyright Act of 1976, and to the current date of 2023 by the Copyright Term Extension Act (also known pejoratively as the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act") of 1998. It has been claimed that these extensions were a response by Congress to extensive lobbying by The Walt Disney Company. Under current copyright law, "Steamboat Willie" is set to enter the US public domain on January 1, 2024. However, the character of Mickey Mouse will still be trademarked by Disney (requiring their approval to use most material of him in anything outside of fair use), and later works featuring Mickey Mouse will remain under copyright protection for the time being.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: In the 1990s, former Disney researcher Gregory S. Brown determined that the film was likely in U.S. public domain already due to errors in the original copyright formulation. In particular, the original film's copyright notice had two additional names between Disney and the copyright statement. Thus, under the rules of the Copyright Act of 1909, all copyright claims would be null. Arizona State University professor Dennis Karjala suggested that one of his law school students look into Brown's claim as a class project. Lauren Vanpelt took up the challenge and produced a paper agreeing with Brown's claim. She posted her project on the Internet in 1999. Disney later threatened to sue a Georgetown University law student who wrote a paper confirming Brown's claims, alleging that publishing the paper could be slander of title. However, Disney chose not to sue after its publication.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: Beginning in 2022, Republican lawmakers vowed to oppose any future attempt to extend the copyright term due to their opposition to some of Disney's progressive political stances (such as opposing the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act). Legal experts noted that later versions of Mickey Mouse created after "Steamboat Willie" will remain copyrighted and Disney's recent use of the "Steamboat Willie" version as a logo in its modern movies may allow them to claim protection for the 1928 version under trademark law, as active trademarks can be renewed in perpetuity (so long as the owner can prove using it).


title: Steamboat Willie

text: In the 1950s, Disney removed a scene where Mickey tugs on the tails of the baby pigs, picks up the mother and kicks them off her teats, and plays her like a accordion, since television distributors deemed it inappropriate. Since then, the full version of the film was included on the 1998 compilation VHS "The Spirit of Mickey" and the "Walt Disney Treasures" DVD set "Mickey Mouse in Black and White", as well as on Disney+.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: "Steamboat Willie"-themed levels are featured in the video games "" (1994), "Kingdom Hearts II" (2005), and "Epic Mickey" (2010). In "" (2012), a "Steamboat Willie" outfit can be obtained for Mickey. Sora's appearance in the "Kingdom Hearts II" "Steamboat Willie"-themed level was featured as an alternate costume in "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate".


title: Steamboat Willie

text: The fourth-season episode of "The Simpsons", "" features a short but nearly frame-for-frame parody of the opening scene of "Steamboat Willie" entitled "Steamboat Itchy".


title: Steamboat Willie

text: In the 1998 film "Saving Private Ryan", set in 1944, a German POW tries to win the sympathy of his American captors by mentioning "Steamboat Willie", even mimicking the sound of the boat whistle from the film. The unnamed character appears in the credits as "Steamboat Willie".


title: Steamboat Willie

text: In the 2001 Mickey Mouse cartoon "Mickey's April Fools", Mickey and Mortimer get sent to the President's office to claim a million dollars; Mortimer pretends to be Mickey, and he is shown acting in "Steamboat Willie".


title: Steamboat Willie

text: In the Goofy cartoon "How to Be a Waiter" (1999), Goofy is shown as an example of a movie, and "Steamboat Willie" is shown. But in that short, "Willie" is a shortened version titled "Steamboat Goofy".


title: Steamboat Willie

text: The opening scene is parodied near the end of "Aladdin and the King of Thieves" (1996). Genie, having been swallowed by the giant turtle which carries the Vanishing Isle upon its back, comes back out of the turtle's mouth in the steamboat from this film and is even in Mickey's form, whistling "Turkey in the Straw".


title: Steamboat Willie

text: In the 2008 movie of the TV series "Futurama" called "The Beast with a Billion Backs", the opening is a parody of "Steamboat Willie".


title: Steamboat Willie

text: The beginning of season 2 of the TV series "Alexei Sayle's Stuff" (1989) shows a black-and-white animation entitled "Steamboat Fatty", a parody of "Steamboat Willie".


title: Steamboat Willie

text: Since the release of "Meet the Robinsons" (2007), the scene of Mickey at the ship's wheel whistling "Steamboat Bill" has been used for Walt Disney Animation Studios' production logo. A "milestone" modification was used for "Tangled" (2010) and "Encanto" (2021), with text saying "Walt Disney Animation Studios: 50th/60th Animated Motion Picture" with the Mickey scene in the number "0"; the "Encanto" version using a shortened version. An 8-bit version of the logo was used for "Wreck-It Ralph" (2012). In "Frozen" (2013), "Moana" (2016), "Frozen II" (2019), "Raya and the Last Dragon" (2021), and "Encanto", Mickey's whistling was muted to allow their respective opening themes to play out over the logo.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: The Australian Perth Mint released a 1 kg gold coin in honor of "Steamboat Willie". The AU$5,000 coin could sell for AU$69,700 as an official Disney licensed product.


title: Steamboat Willie

text: On April 1, 2019, Lego released an official "Steamboat Willie" set to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Mickey Mouse.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran or Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia was the joint invasion of the neutral Imperial State of Iran by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union in August 1941. The invasion, code name Operation Countenance, was largely unopposed by the numerically and technologically outmatched Iranian forces. The multi-pronged coordinated invasion took place along Iran's borders with the Kingdom of Iraq, Azerbaijan SSR, and Turkmen SSR, with fighting beginning on 25 August and ending on 31 August when the Iranian government formally agreed to surrender, having already agreed to a ceasefire on 30 August.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The invasion took place two months after the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union's subsequent alliance with the United Kingdom. The attack also took place less than two months after Allied victories over pro-Axis forces in neighbouring Iraq and French Syria and Lebanon.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The invasion's strategic purpose was to ensure the safety of Allied supply lines to the USSR (see the Persian Corridor), secure Iranian oil fields, limit German influence in Iran (Reza Shah was considered friendly to Nazi Germany) and preempt a possible Axis advance from Turkey through Iran toward the Baku oil fields or British India. Following the invasion, on 16 September 1941 Reza Shah abdicated and was forced into exile by the invading British. He was replaced by his young son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: In 1925, after years of civil war, turmoil, and foreign intervention, Persia became unified under the rule of Reza Khan, who crowned himself as Reza Shah that same year. (In 1935 Reza Shah asked foreign delegates to use "Iran", the historical name of the country, used by its native people, in formal correspondence.) Reza Shah commenced an ambitious program of economic, cultural, and military modernization. Iran, which had been a divided and isolated country under the rule of the Qajar dynasty (in power during 1789–1925), attempted industrialization. Reza Shah's regime established schools, built infrastructure, modernized cities, and expanded transportation networks. The Shah pursued a foreign policy of neutrality, but depended on Western financing in order to finance his ambitious modernization projects.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: In early 1940, as Britain was involved in war with Germany in North Africa, it grew concerned about German access to the Persian Gulf, especially in light of Germany's non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. The British began to accuse Iran of supporting Nazism and of being pro-German. Although Reza Shah declared neutrality at an early stage of World War II, Iran assumed greater strategic importance to the British government, which feared that the Abadan Refinery (of the UK-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company) might fall into German hands; refining eight million tons of oil in 1940, the refinery made a crucial contribution to the Allied war effort. Relations between Britain and Iran had been strained since 1931 when the Shah unilaterally cancelled the D'Arcy Concession - a 1901 agreement that had given the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company the exclusive right to prospect for Iranian oil for 60 years, with Iran receiving 16 percent of the net profit. Led by the Shah, the Iranian imperial government accused the Company of undercutting its share of the profit by clandestinely reinvesting new capital into subsidiary companies, and thus excluding a significant sum from the annual capital gain calculation. Though the Shah promptly renegotiated a second concession with the Anglo-Iranian Company - with terms that better protected the Iranians' stake - the diplomatic conflict created an impression that the Shah was hostile to British oil interests.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: Following Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union became formal Allies, providing further impetus for an Allied invasion. In a major strategic analysis in the "New York Times" on a Sunday following Barbarossa, the famous international correspondent C. L. Sulzberger stated, "It is considered virtually a certainty by military experts that if the Reich succeeds...an attack on Egypt will be launched. Should the Germans...occupy the Caucasus and then push on to Iran and the Persian Gulf they will then outflank the British Middle Eastern positions by a wide sweep and perhaps by Autumn begin to make trouble in Iraq." With the Wehrmacht steadily advancing through the Soviet Union, the Persian Corridor formed by the Trans-Iranian Railway offered one of the easiest ways to supply the Soviets with Lend-Lease goods sent by sea from the then technically neutral United States. British and Soviet planners recognized the importance of that railway and sought to control it. As increasing U-boat attacks and winter ice made convoys to Arkhangelsk (which commenced in August 1941) dangerous, the railway seemed an increasingly attractive strategic route.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The two Allied nations applied pressure on Iran and on the Shah, which led to increased tensions and to anti-British rallies in Tehran. The British described the protests as "pro-German". Iran's strategic location threatened Soviet Caucasian oil and the Soviet armies' rear, and any German advance south-eastwards would threaten British communications between India and the Mediterranean.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: In July and August, the Shah refused demands from the British for the expulsion of German residents from Iran (mostly workers and diplomats). A British embassy report, dated 1940, estimated that there were almost 1,000 German nationals in Iran. According to Iran's "Ettela'at" newspaper, there were 690 German nationals in Iran (out of a total of 4,630 foreigners, including 2,590 British). Joan Beaumont estimates that "probably no more than 3,000 Germans actually lived in Iran, but they were believed to have a disproportionate influence because of their employment in strategic government industries and in Iran's transport and communications network."


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: However, the Iranians began to reduce their trade with the Germans in the face of Allied demands. Reza Shah sought to remain neutral, not wanting to anger either side. This approach became increasingly difficult in the face of Anglo-Soviet demands. British forces were already present in sizeable numbers in Iraq as a result of the Anglo-Iraqi War of May 1941. Thus Britain had troops stationed on the western border of Iran before the surprise invasion on 25 August 1941.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The invasion was a surprise attack described by Allied forces as rapid and conducted with ease. Prior to the invasion, two diplomatic notes were delivered to the Iranian government on 19 July and 17 August, requiring the Iranian government to expel German nationals. The second of the notes was recognised by the prime minister Ali Mansur as a disguised ultimatum. General Archibald Wavell later wrote in his despatch, "it was apparent that the Iranian Government fully expected an early British advance into Khuzistan and that reinforcements, including light and medium tanks, were being sent to Ahvaz".


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: Following the invasion, Sir Reader Bullard and Andrey Andreyevich Smirnov, the British and Soviet ambassadors to Iran, were summoned. The Shah demanded to know why they were invading his country and why they had not declared war. Both answered that it was because of "German residents" in Iran. When the Shah asked if the Allies would stop their attack if he expelled the Germans, the ambassadors did not answer. The Shah sent a telegram to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, pleading with him to stop the invasion. As the neutral United States had nothing to do with the attack, Roosevelt was not able to grant the Shah's plea but stated that he believed that the "territorial integrity" of Iran should be respected.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy attacked from the Persian Gulf, while other British Commonwealth forces came by land and air from Iraq. The Soviet Union invaded from the north, mostly from Transcaucasia, with the 44th and 47th armies of the Transcaucasian Front (General Dmitry Timofeyevich Kozlov), and the 53rd army of the Central Asian Military District, occupying Iran's northern provinces. Air force and naval units also participated in the battle. The Soviets used about 1,000 T-26 tanks for their combat operations.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: Six days after the invasion and the ensuing Allied occupation of southern Iran, the British divisions previously known as "Iraq Command" (also known as Iraqforce) were renamed "Persia and Iraq Force" (Paiforce), under the command of Lieutenant-General Edward Quinan. Paiforce was made up of the 8th and 10th Indian Infantry divisions, the 2nd Indian Armoured Brigade, 4th British Cavalry Brigade (later renamed 9th Armoured Brigade) and the 21st Indian Infantry Brigade. The invading Allies had 200,000 troops and modern aircraft, tanks, and artillery.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: In response to the invasion, the Iranian Army mobilised nine infantry divisions, some of them motorised; two of the divisions also had tanks. The Iranian army had a standing force of 126,000–200,000 men. While Iran had taken numerous steps through the previous decade to strengthen, standardise and create a modern army, they did not have enough training, armour and air power to fight a multi-front war. Reza Shah's modernisations had not been completed by the time war broke out, and the Iranian Army had been more concerned with civilian repression than invasions.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The Iranian army was armed with the vz. 24 rifle, a Czech version of the German Mauser. Iranian troops also had other Czech small arms like the ZB vz. 30 and ZB-53. Iran had bought 100 FT-6 and Panzer 38(t) light tanks as well as some AH-IV tankettes and additional LaFrance TK-6 armoured cars, enough to outfit their 1st and 2nd divisions. Further Iranian orders had been delayed by World War II. While it was a large order and they were excellent tanks, they were not enough to defeat a multi-front invasion by two great powers. The changing nature of tank warfare in the 1930s made all but 50 of them obsolete when the invasion began. The Imperial Iranian Air Force at the time flew a motley collection of outdated biplanes, including aircraft from the Hawker Hart family such as the Hawker Fury as well as French aircraft such as the Bréguet 14, Bréguet 19, Potez VIII and Blériot-SPAD S.42. They also had at the time some aircraft made by Polikarpov, although not the modern ones such as the Airco DH.4, Airco DH.9 and the original Polikarpov R-5. Prior to the attack, the RAF dropped leaflets on Iranian troops, asking them not to fight and to understand their country was "not threatened" as it was being "liberated" from possible Nazi destruction.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The Iranians had little time to organise a defence, as the Allies achieved a tactical surprise. The war began in the early morning hours of 25 August, when RAF aircraft entered Iranian airspace. They bombed targets in the cities of Tehran and Qazvin and various other towns and dropped leaflets urging the Iranians to surrender. The Soviets bombed targets in cities such as Tabriz, Ardabil and Rasht. Civilian and residential areas were hit, and several hundred people were killed and wounded. Reza Shah refused requests by his generals to destroy the road and transportation networks, largely because he did not want to damage the infrastructure that he had painstakingly built during his reign. That contributed to the speedy victory of the Allies.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: With no allies, Iranian resistance was rapidly overwhelmed and neutralised by Soviet and British tanks and infantry. The British and Soviet forces met at Sanandaj (called Senna by the British) ( west of Hamadan) and Qazvin (called Kazvin by the British) ( west of Tehran and north-east of Hamadan) on 30 and 31 August respectively. Faced with massive defeats, the Shah ordered his military to stop fighting and stand down on 29 August, four days into the invasion.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The British assembled a naval task force under Commodore Cosmo Graham to seize Bandar Shahpur, Abadan, and Khorramshahr. It attacked at dawn on 25 August 1941.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The naval attack began at 04:10 at Abadan when opened fire on the Iranian sloop "Palang", sinking it in a single salvo. The Abadan Refinery was of vital importance to the British commanders as well as keeping the employees of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company safe from possible reprisals. Khuzestan Province was defended by 27,000 troops from the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 16th infantry divisions, consisting of both light and mechanised infantry. All Iranian tanks were deployed in Khuzestan as part of the 1st and 2nd divisions. A British naval and paratrooper landing force landed at Abadan, securing the city and the refinery. "Shoreham" remained in the area and provided naval gunfire support. The Iranians managed to put up a resistance, and the refinery and the city were captured that afternoon after hand-to-hand combat resulted in the deaths of several British and Indian troops.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The Australian armed merchant cruiser HMAS " Kanimbla" and her escorts successfully navigated the Khor Musa inlet, arriving at Bandar Shapur at 04:15. The " Kanimbla" successfully landed two battalions of its troops, facing no resistance from Iranian patrol boats. Seven Axis merchant vessels were seized, while an eighth was scuttled. The naval base there was secured that evening following heavy fighting. At Khorramshahr, HMAS "Yarra" surprised the Iranian sloop "Babr", sinking it at its dock. There had been no time to prepare resistance, as the Iranians had been taken by surprise and the head of the navy, Gholamali Bayandor, was killed.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The surprise led to virtually no resistance in other areas of Khuzestan. The RAF attacked airbases and communications and rapidly gained air superiority. They destroyed numerous Iranian aircraft on the ground, and protected their forces from Iranian counter-attacks.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The 8th Indian Division (18th Brigade plus the 25th Brigade under command from the 10th Indian Division) advanced from Basra towards Qasr Sheikh (which was taken on 25 August) across the Shatt al-Arab waterway and captured the city of Khorramshahr, which was next to Abadan on the same day. The Karun River was not secured, as Iranian snipers remained, impeding British advance for a short time. Britain also landed troops at Bandar Abbas, and the Shatt al-Arab was secured. By 26 August, there was no organised resistance remaining in the area, with the Iranian forces overwhelmed by superior firepower, 350 Iranians taken prisoner and many killed or scattered.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The British hoped to capture Ahvaz and then drive north into Zagros Mountains passes to reach Qazvin, where they would link up with British troops in central Iran and Soviet troops from the north. By the early morning of 27 August, the British forces had reached Ahvaz. The Iranians, led by General Mohammad Shahbakhti, had prepared a strong defence. Iranian infantry had entrenched themselves around the city, with artillery support and tanks. Although Iranians had taken heavy losses and their morale was decreasing, they were prepared to fight hard. The Indian Army advance came to a halt and they were hesitant to cross the Karun River and attack the city. A British attack on the defences around the city was repelled by Iranian tanks and infantry.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: Whether the Iranian defence could have been successful is debatable and on 29 August, after some more sporadic fighting, word reached the Iranian commanders at Ahvaz that their government had accepted a ceasefire and they were not to fight any longer. The British and Iranians agreed as part of the ceasefire that the Iranians would not lay down their arms and remain at their posts but they would be joined by the British troops, who would carry out a parade in the city. In exchange, the Iranians would safely evacuate British residents in the city to British troops. The British with their Indian troops paraded in the city, with full military honours given by the Iranian general.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: Farther north, the 10th Indian Infantry Division under Major-General William Slim attacked central Iran. Slim directed the battle remotely via radio from India. The Indian Army infantry and armour massed at the Iraqi border town of Khanaqin ( north-east of Baghdad and from Basra). Unlike the terrain in Khuzestan, the British were attacking in Kermanshah Province, with mountainous terrain, advancing along steep mountain passes and a narrow road.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The British force broke through the border at the town of Qasr-e Shirin and moved into the Naft-e Shah oilfield with little opposition. The British stated that the operation had been carried out with minimum losses for the Iranians, but British troops faced a determined defence by 2,000 Iranians as they tried to capture the town of Gilan-e Gharb inside of Iran, which if successful would block the British from moving through the steep Pai Tak mountain pass. The RAF provided close air support and was involved in several dogfights with Iranian aircraft. Six Iranian fighters were shot down and several others damaged, for no loss, ensuring air superiority. The RAF also bombed several local towns and dropped leaflets urging surrender.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The British captured Gilan-e-Gharb and attacked Iranian forces who defended the town of Sarpol-e Zahab. With overwhelming firepower and decreasing Iranian morale, the British captured that town, scattering the remaining defenders. The Pai Tak Pass and the road to Kermanshah and eventually Tehran was open. The armoured columns began to secure the pass and the areas around it. The British forces moved along the Kermanshah highway towards the city of Shahabad. There was little Iranian resistance but some trees were cut down and a section of the road was even dynamited, which delayed the British forces for several hours.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The main Iranian forces in the region consisted of the 5th and 12th infantry divisions of 30,000 troops with supporting artillery at Kermanshah and Sanandaj. They were all light infantry (as the mechanised and armour had been stretched thin fighting on multiple fronts). The British reached the outskirts of Shahabad in the early morning hours of 28 August after delays. At the village of Zibri, they faced a strong Iranian garrison willing to put up a fight which caused the British several casualties, but with poor Iranian leadership and overwhelming British firepower, resistance crumbled and the British took Shahabad on the morning of the same day. By 29 August, the British had reached the town of Kerend and were within of Kermanshah and the Iranian commanders were told of the ceasefire order and stood down. The defenders declared Kermanshah an open city and the British entered on 1 September. They also entered Sanandaj peacefully and eventually Qazvin, which had already been captured by the Red Army.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The Soviet forces attacked on 25 August and Iranian airbases were destroyed by preliminary air attacks. The Soviets attacked using three armoured spearheads, totalling over 1,000 tanks and motorised infantry; the Iranians had no tanks in the area. The first force, consisting of the 47th Army broke through the border and moved from Soviet Azerbaijan into Iranian Azerbaijan. They moved towards Tabriz and Lake Urmia. They captured the Iranian city of Jolfa. An Iranian reconnaissance aircraft discovered the forces south of Jolfa moving towards Marand. It was possible for the Iranian 3rd Division under General Matboodi to move motorised infantry towards Shibli to halt the breakthrough, but due to being taken by surprise, he failed to make the proper counter-attack. He also failed to destroy the bridges and highways with explosives, allowing the Soviets to rapidly move through the region. Five Iranian bombers were intercepted trying to attack the Soviet positions around Jolfa.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The 53rd Army crossed the border and moved towards the city of Ardabil, defended by Iran's 15th Division led by Brigadier-General Qaderi. Two Iranian regiments began to move towards the town of Nir to confront the invaders. Despite having a solid force and well-motivated troops, Qaderi jumped into his car and abandoned his troops. He sabotaged the defence even further by ordering the supply trucks delivering food, weapons and artillery to unload their weapons to make way for his personal belongings. The Soviets bypassed Nir and moved south. Ardabil was bombed by the Soviet Air Force and received minor damage to its barracks. Cut off and bypassed, both the Iranian 15th Division in Ardabil and the 3rd Division in Tabriz began to collapse. Despite that, the regular troops tried to maintain order and began to march towards the enemy without many of their commanders. However, lacking food, supplies and ammunition, the troops were forced to abandon much of their heavy equipment. Heavy pockets of resistance remained, with some desperate fighting until the end. They were unsurprisingly beaten by the Soviets, who by August 26, occupied all of Iranian Azerbaijan (including Tabriz and Ardabil).


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: On 25 August, the Soviet attack against Gilan Province began with their Caspian Sea Flotilla, led by Rear-Admiral Sedelnikov. The flotilla consisted of more than a dozen patrol boats, destroyers, multiple anti-aircraft barges and landing craft. Facing them were three Iranian gunboats. Meanwhile, the 44th Army crossed the border and moved into Gilan Province. They moved along the Astara highway and the main coastal highway (Jadeh-e-Shomal). Heavy Iranian forces in the area made the naval landing force secure Iranian cities, which were then joined by the land forces. The flotilla landed troops and rapidly captured the border city of Astara. The landing force boarded their ships and moved towards their next targets.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The main objective of the attack was to capture Iran's Caspian Sea port of Bandar Pahlavi. The Iranian forces in Gilan, led by General Iranpour, made their stand at the provincial capital of Rasht and Bandar Pahlavi and offered a stubborn resistance. The Iranian forces sank barges at the entrance to Pahlavi harbour, and lacking coastal artillery, moved a battery of 75 mm guns to the area. The Iranians fought desperately, and despite Soviet superiority, the Iranians prevented them from landing. The Iranians were careful to not fire their guns while Soviet aircraft flew overhead to prevent them from disclosing their location. Soviet aircraft were kept at bay by 47 mm anti-aircraft artillery on Iranian barges.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The next day, however, the Soviet Air Force moved into action, using many heavy bombers. In groups of 4 aircraft each, their bombers attacked military positions and civilian targets throughout Gilan, including Bandar Pahlavi and Rasht. At least 200 civilians were killed during the bombings. The bombings also destroyed many Iranian positions, and resistance was finally crushed by the 44th Army advancing from land, capturing both cities. Fighting was very intense, and the Soviets took their heaviest casualties of the invasion here. However, lacking armour and air power, the Iranians could not stop the enemy. On 28 August, they were forced to surrender. Nevertheless, some Iranian forces refused to accept defeat, and retreated to Ramsar to continue fighting. Their efforts were undercut when the Iranian government announced a ceasefire the next day. By then, the Soviet forces had reached the city of Chalus, meaning that they could cross the Chalus Highway (Jadeh-e-Chalus) and reach Tehran across the Alborz Mountains.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: Meanwhile, the Soviet invasion force in Iranian Azerbaijan had moved south. The 47th Army had been delayed in the Jolfa area when three individual Iranian soldiers managed to block an important bridge until they ran out of ammunition and were killed. The Soviets did not use artillery for fear that they would damage the bridge and delay their advance further. The 47th Army moved south, capturing Dilman ( west of Tabriz) and then Urmia (Oromiyeh), ostensibly to block the escape of "German agents". The latter was defended by only a few snipers. The Soviets responded by bombing targets in the city, killing over a dozen people and wounding many others, and much of the city's bazaar was burned.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: Meanwhile, the 53rd Army moved south of Ardebil towards the Tehran-Karaj-Tabriz highway, capturing the city of Mianeh, East Azerbaijan and moving southeast towards Qazvin and Tehran by 27–28 August. Iran's 15th and 3rd divisions had already been bypassed and defeated, and there was only sporadic resistance against the Soviets. The Soviet armoured spearhead drove down the highway and poised to take Qazvin on the 29th ( from Tehran), followed by Saveh and Qom, south of Tehran, cutting the main Tehran-Saveh-Persian Gulf highway and cutting Iran effectively in two. But the Iranians accepted the ceasefire on 29 August, and the Soviets entered the now "open city" on 30 August. At the same time, elements of the 53rd Army captured the city of Hamadan. One civilian (a small child) was killed in a small bombing raid, and the sporadic resistance was defeated. They stopped their advance on 1 September and did not move further towards Tehran from Qazvin in light of negotiations with Iran's government.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: On 25 August, the Soviet Army invaded northeastern Iran from Soviet Turkmenistan. Details of this invasion were not nearly as extensive as details of the others. The Soviet invasion force had to cross mountainous terrain, and its goals were to recruit new troops from the Turkmen Sahra, assemble with the Soviet troops and to capture the city of Mashhad, the second largest city in Iran.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: Defending Mashhad and Khorasan Province was Iran's 9th Infantry Division, totalling 8,000 troops. They were light infantry, and it was unlikely that they could defend against the more numerous Soviet forces with armour and air power. The Soviet Air Force bombed Mashhad Airport, destroying many Iranian fighter aircraft, along with numerous military barracks. The Soviet forces advanced in three columns across the border. There was heavy fighting for three days, and by 28 August, the Iranians had been driven back after taking heavy casualties. Mashhad fell to the Soviets the same day.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: By 28–29 August 1941, the Iranian military situation was in complete chaos. The Allies had complete control over the skies of Iran, and large sections of the country were in their hands. Major Iranian cities (such as Tehran) were suffering repeated air raids. In Tehran itself, the casualties had been light, but the Soviet Air Force dropped leaflets over city, warning the population of an upcoming massive bombing raid and urging them to surrender before they suffered imminent destruction. Tehran water and food supply had faced shortages, and soldiers fled in fear of the Soviets killing them upon capture. Faced with total collapse, the royal family (except the Shah and the Crown Prince) fled to Isfahan.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The collapse of the army that Reza Shah had spent so much time and effort creating was humiliating. Many of the military generals had behaved incompetently or secretly sympathised with the British and ended up sabotaging the Iranian resistance. The army generals met in secret to discuss surrender options. When the Shah learned of the generals' actions, he beat the head of the armed forces General Ahmad Nakhjavan with a cane and physically stripped him of his rank. He was nearly shot by the Shah on the spot, but at the insistence of the Crown Prince, he was sent to prison instead.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The Shah ordered the resignation of the pro-British Prime Minister Ali Mansur, whom he blamed for demoralising the military. He was replaced with Mohammad Ali Foroughi, a former prime minister. The Shah ordered the Iranian military to end resistance and order a ceasefire. He entered into negotiations with the British and Soviets.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: Foroughi was an enemy of Reza Shah (he was forced into retirement in earlier years for political reasons, and his son was executed by firing squad). When he entered into negotiations with the British, instead of negotiating a favourable settlement, Foroughi implied that both he and the Iranian people wanted to be "liberated" from the Shah's rule. The British and Foroughi agreed that for the Allies to withdraw from Iran, the Iranians would have to assure that the German minister and his staff should leave Tehran; the German, Italian, Hungarian and Romanian legations should close and all remaining German nationals (including all families) to be handed over to the British and Soviet authorities. The last order would mean almost certain internment or, in the case of those handed to the Soviets, possible death. Reza Shah delayed on the last demand. Instead, he planned the secret evacuation of all German nationals from Iran. By 18 September, most of the German nationals had escaped via the Turkish border.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: In response to the Shah's defiance, the Red Army on 16 September moved to occupy Tehran. Fearing execution by the communists, many people (especially the wealthy) fled the city. Reza Shah, in a letter handwritten by Foroughi, announced his abdication, as the Soviets entered the city on 17 September. The British wanted to restore the Qajar Dynasty to power because they had served British interests well prior to Reza Shah's reign. However, the heir to the throne, Hamid Hassan Mirza, was a British citizen who spoke no Persian. Instead, with the help of Ardeshir Reporter, Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took the oath to become the Shah of Iran. Reza Shah was arrested before he was able to leave Tehran, and he was placed into British custody. He was sent to exile as a British prisoner in South Africa, where he died in 1944. The Allies withdrew from Tehran on 17 October and Iran was partitioned between Britain and the Soviet Union for the duration of the war, with the Soviets stationed in northern Iran and the British south of Hamadan and Qazvin.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The Persian Corridor became the route for a massive flow of supplies (over 5 million tons of matériel) to the Soviet Union and also the British in the Middle East. At the end of August 1942, German intelligence agents spread leaflets in Tabriz and other cities; an underground fascist organisation called Melnune Iran, was founded. Agents of Melnune Iran instigated anti-government protests in the lake Urmia region. The Bakhtiari and Qashqai peoples carried out armed resistance against the new government.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The new Shah signed a Tripartite Treaty Alliance with Britain and the Soviet Union on 29 January 1942, to aid in the allied war effort in a non-military way. This treaty committed the Allies to leaving Iran "not more than six months after the cessation of hostilities". In September 1943, Iran declared war on Germany, which qualified it for membership in the United Nations (UN). At the Tehran Conference in November of that year, Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin reaffirmed their commitment to Iranian independence and territorial integrity, with a willingness to extend economic assistance to Iran. The treaty ruled that Iran was not considered to be "occupied" by the Allies, but instead a member of the Allies.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: The effects of the war were very disruptive for Iran. Much of the state bureaucracy had been damaged by the invasion and food and other essential items were scarce. The Soviets appropriated most of the harvest in northern Iran, leading to food shortages for the general public. The British and Soviet occupiers used the delivery of grain as a bargaining chip and the food crisis was exacerbated because foreign troops needed to eat and use the transport network to move military equipment. The British meanwhile pressured the Shah to appoint Ahmad Qavam to be the prime minister, who proceeded to mismanage the entire food supply and economy. In 1942, bread riots took place in Tehran, martial law was declared and several rioters were killed by the police. Inflation increased by 450 percent, imposing great hardship on the lower and middle classes. In some areas there were famine deaths but there was virtually no armed resistance against the occupation.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: In 1943, 30,000 Americans helped to man the Persian Corridor and 26–34 percent of the supplies sent to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease Act were sent through Iran. The Americans also assuaged Iranian fears of colonisation by the two powers by confirming that they would respect the independence of Iran. The US also extended Lend-Lease assistance to Iran and began to train the Iranian army. Arthur Millspaugh became the finance minister of Iran but ran into much opposition trying to direct Iranian finances.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: There were two notable German attempts to undertake operations against the Allies in 1943. In the middle of 1943, Abwehr's Operation Francois was an attempt to use the dissident Qashqai people in Iran to sabotage British and American supplies bound for the Soviet Union. Also in 1943, Operation Long Jump was an unsuccessful German plot to assassinate the "Big Three" Allied leaders (Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt) at the Tehran Conference.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: During the three years of occupation, Joseph Stalin had expanded Soviet political influence in Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan in northwestern Iran, as well as in Iran founding the communist Tudeh Party of Iran. The Soviets had attempted during their occupation to stir tensions between the tenant-farmers and the landlords (known in Iran as arbabs). On 12 December 1945, after weeks of violent clashes a Soviet-backed separatist People's Republic of Azerbaijan was founded. The Kurdish People's Republic was also established in late 1945. Iranian government troops sent to reestablish control were blocked by Red Army units.


title: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

text: When the deadline for withdrawal arrived on 2 March 1946, six months after the end of the war, the British began to withdraw, but Moscow refused, citing "threats to Soviet security". Soviet troops did not withdraw from Iran proper until May 1946, following Iran's official complaint to the newly formed United Nations Security Council, which became the first complaint filed by a country in the UN's history, and a test for the UN's effectiveness in resolving global issues in the aftermath of the war. However, the UN Security Council took no direct steps to pressure the Soviets to withdraw.


title: Stethoscope

text: The stethoscope is a medical device for auscultation, or listening to internal sounds of an animal or human body. It typically has a small disc-shaped resonator that is placed against the skin, and one or two tubes connected to two earpieces. A stethoscope can be used to listen to the sounds made by the heart, lungs or intestines, as well as blood flow in arteries and veins. In combination with a manual sphygmomanometer, it is commonly used when measuring blood pressure.


title: Stethoscope

text: Less commonly, "mechanic's stethoscopes", equipped with rod shaped chestpieces, are used to listen to internal sounds made by machines (for example, sounds and vibrations emitted by worn ball bearings), such as diagnosing a malfunctioning automobile engine by listening to the sounds of its internal parts. Stethoscopes can also be used to check scientific vacuum chambers for leaks and for various other small-scale acoustic monitoring tasks.


title: Stethoscope

text: The stethoscope was invented in France in 1816 by René Laennec at the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris. It consisted of a wooden tube and was monaural. Laennec invented the stethoscope because he was not comfortable placing his ear directly onto a woman's chest to listen to her heart. He observed that a rolled piece of paper, placed between the individual's chest and his ear, could amplify heart sounds without requiring physical contact. Laennec's device was similar to the common ear trumpet, a historical form of hearing aid; indeed, his invention was almost indistinguishable in structure and function from the trumpet, which was commonly called a "microphone". Laennec called his device the "stethoscope" ("stetho-" + "-scope", "chest scope"), and he called its use "mediate auscultation", because it was auscultation with a tool intermediate between the individual's body and the physician's ear. (Today the word "auscultation" denotes all such listening, mediate or not.) The first flexible stethoscope of any sort may have been a binaural instrument with articulated joints not very clearly described in 1829. In 1840, Golding Bird described a stethoscope he had been using with a flexible tube. Bird was the first to publish a description of such a stethoscope, but he noted in his paper the prior existence of an earlier design (which he thought was of little utility) which he described as the snake ear trumpet. Bird's stethoscope had a single earpiece.


title: Stethoscope

text: In 1851, Irish physician Arthur Leared invented a binaural stethoscope, and in 1852, George Philip Cammann perfected the design of the stethoscope instrument (that used both ears) for commercial production, which has become the standard ever since. Cammann also wrote a major treatise on diagnosis by auscultation, which the refined binaural stethoscope made possible. By 1873, there were descriptions of a differential stethoscope that could connect to slightly different locations to create a slight stereo effect, though this did not become a standard tool in clinical practice.


title: Stethoscope

text: Somerville Scott Alison described his invention of the stethophone at the Royal Society in 1858; the stethophone had two separate bells, allowing the user to hear and compare sounds derived from two discrete locations. This was used to do definitive studies on binaural hearing and auditory processing that advanced knowledge of sound localization and eventually lead to an understanding of binaural fusion.


title: Stethoscope

text: The medical historian Jacalyn Duffin has argued that the invention of the stethoscope marked a major step in the redefinition of disease from being a bundle of symptoms, to the current sense of a disease as a problem with an anatomical system even if there are no observable symptoms. This re-conceptualization occurred in part, Duffin argues, because prior to stethoscopes, there were no non-lethal instruments for exploring internal anatomy.


title: Stethoscope

text: Rappaport and Sprague designed a new stethoscope in the 1940s, which became the standard by which other stethoscopes are measured, consisting of two sides, one of which is used for the respiratory system, the other for the cardiovascular system. The Rappaport-Sprague was later made by Hewlett-Packard. HP's medical products division was spun off as part of Agilent Technologies, Inc., where it became Agilent Healthcare. Agilent Healthcare was purchased by Philips which became Philips Medical Systems, before the walnut-boxed, $300, original Rappaport-Sprague stethoscope was finally abandoned ca. 2004, along with Philips' brand (manufactured by Andromed, of Montreal, Canada) electronic stethoscope model. The Rappaport-Sprague model stethoscope was heavy and short () with an antiquated appearance recognizable by their two large independent latex rubber tubes connecting an exposed leaf-spring-joined pair of opposing F-shaped chrome-plated brass binaural ear tubes with a dual-head chest piece.


title: Stethoscope

text: Several other minor refinements were made to stethoscopes until, in the early 1960s, David Littmann, a Harvard Medical School professor, created a new stethoscope that was lighter than previous models and had improved acoustics. In the late 1970s, 3M-Littmann introduced the tunable diaphragm: a very hard (G-10) glass-epoxy resin diaphragm member with an overmolded silicone flexible acoustic surround which permitted increased excursion of the diaphragm member in a Z-axis with respect to the plane of the sound collecting area. The left shift to a lower resonant frequency increases the volume of some low frequency sounds due to the longer waves propagated by the increased excursion of the hard diaphragm member suspended in the concentric accountic surround. Conversely, restricting excursion of the diaphragm by pressing the stethoscope diaphragm surface firmly against the anatomical area overlying the physiological sounds of interest, the acoustic surround could also be used to dampen excursion of the diaphragm in response to "z"-axis pressure against a concentric fret. This raises the frequency bias by shortening the wavelength to auscultate a higher range of physiological sounds.


title: Stethoscope

text: In 1999, Richard Deslauriers patented the first external noise reducing stethoscope, the DRG Puretone. It featured two parallel lumens containing two steel coils which dissipated infiltrating noise as inaudible heat energy. The steel coil "insulation" added .30 lb to each stethoscope. In 2005, DRG's diagnostics division was acquired by TRIMLINE Medical Products.


title: Stethoscope

text: Stethoscopes are a symbol of healthcare professionals. Healthcare providers are often seen or depicted wearing a stethoscope around the neck. A 2012 research paper claimed that the stethoscope, when compared to other medical equipment, had the highest positive impact on the perceived trustworthiness of the practitioner seen with it.


title: Stethoscope

text: Prevailing opinions on the utility of the stethoscope in current clinical practice vary depending on the medical specialty. Studies have shown that auscultation skill (i.e., the ability to make a diagnosis based on what is heard through a stethoscope) has been in decline for some time, such that some medical educators are working to re-establish it.


title: Stethoscope

text: In general practice, traditional blood pressure measurement using a mechanical sphygmomanometer with inflatable cuff and stethoscope is gradually being replaced with automated blood pressure monitors.


title: Stethoscope

text: Acoustic stethoscopes operate on the transmission of sound from the chest piece, via air-filled hollow tubes, to the listener's ears. The chestpiece usually consists of two sides that can be placed against the patient for sensing sound: a diaphragm (plastic disc) or bell (hollow cup). If the diaphragm is placed on the patient, body sounds vibrate the diaphragm, creating acoustic pressure waves which travel up the tubing to the listener's ears. If the bell is placed on the patient, the vibrations of the skin directly produce acoustic pressure waves traveling up to the listener's ears. The bell transmits low frequency sounds, while the diaphragm transmits higher frequency sounds. To deliver the acoustic energy primarily to either the bell or diaphragm, the tube connecting into the chamber between bell and diaphragm is open on only one side and can rotate. The opening is visible when connected into the bell. Rotating the tube 180 degrees in the head connects it to the diaphragm. This two-sided stethoscope was invented by Rappaport and Sprague in the early part of the 20th century.


title: Stethoscope

text: An electronic stethoscope (or stethophone) overcomes the low sound levels by electronically amplifying body sounds. However, amplification of stethoscope contact artifacts, and component cutoffs (frequency response thresholds of electronic stethoscope microphones, pre-amps, amps, and speakers) limit electronically amplified stethoscopes' overall utility by amplifying mid-range sounds, while simultaneously attenuating high- and low- frequency range sounds. Currently, a number of companies offer electronic stethoscopes. Electronic stethoscopes require conversion of acoustic sound waves to electrical signals which can then be amplified and processed for optimal listening. Unlike acoustic stethoscopes, which are all based on the same physics, transducers in electronic stethoscopes vary widely. The simplest and least effective method of sound detection is achieved by placing a microphone in the chestpiece. This method suffers from ambient noise interference and has fallen out of favor. Another method, used in Welch-Allyn's Meditron stethoscope, comprises placement of a piezoelectric crystal at the head of a metal shaft, the bottom of the shaft making contact with a diaphragm. 3M also uses a piezo-electric crystal placed within foam behind a thick rubber-like diaphragm. The Thinklabs' Rhythm 32 uses an electromagnetic diaphragm with a conductive inner surface to form a capacitive sensor. This diaphragm responds to sound waves, with changes in an electric field replacing changes in air pressure. The Eko Core enables wireless transmission of heart sounds to a smartphone or tablet.


title: Stethoscope

text: Because the sounds are transmitted electronically, an electronic stethoscope can be a wireless device, can be a recording device, and can provide noise reduction, signal enhancement, and both visual and audio output. Around 2001, Stethographics introduced PC-based software which enabled a phonocardiograph, graphic representation of cardiologic and pulmonologic sounds to be generated, and interpreted according to related algorithms. All of these features are helpful for purposes of telemedicine (remote diagnosis) and teaching.


title: Stethoscope

text: Electronic stethoscopes are also used with computer-aided auscultation programs to analyze the recorded heart sounds pathological or innocent heart murmurs.


title: Stethoscope

text: Some electronic stethoscopes feature direct audio output that can be used with an external recording device, such as a laptop or MP3 recorder. The same connection can be used to listen to the previously recorded auscultation through the stethoscope headphones, allowing for more detailed study for general research as well as evaluation and consultation regarding a particular patient's condition and telemedicine, or remote diagnosis.


title: Stethoscope

text: There are some smartphone apps that can use the phone as a stethoscope. At least one uses the phone's own microphone to amplify sound, produce a visualization, and e-mail the results. These apps may be used for training purposes or as novelties, but have not yet gained acceptance for professional medical use.


title: Stethoscope

text: A "fetal stethoscope" or "fetoscope" is an acoustic stethoscope shaped like a listening trumpet. It is placed against the abdomen of a pregnant woman to listen to the heart sounds of the fetus. The fetal stethoscope is also known as a Pinard horn after French obstetrician Adolphe Pinard (1844–1934).


title: Stethoscope

text: A Doppler stethoscope is an electronic device that measures the Doppler effect of ultrasound waves reflected from organs within the body. Motion is detected by the change in frequency, due to the Doppler effect, of the reflected waves. Hence the Doppler stethoscope is particularly suited to deal with moving objects such as a beating heart.


title: Stethoscope

text: It was recently demonstrated that continuous Doppler enables the auscultation of valvular movements and blood flow sounds that are undetected during cardiac examination with a stethoscope in adults. The Doppler auscultation presented a sensitivity of 84% for the detection of aortic regurgitations while classic stethoscope auscultation presented a sensitivity of 58%. Moreover, Doppler auscultation was superior in the detection of impaired ventricular relaxation. Since the physics of Doppler auscultation and classic auscultation are different, it has been suggested that both methods could complement each other.


title: Stethoscope

text: A military noise-immune Doppler based stethoscope has recently been developed for auscultation of patients in loud sound environments (up to 110 dB).


title: Stethoscope

text: A 3D-printed stethoscope is an open-source medical device meant for auscultation and manufactured via means of 3D printing. The 3D stethoscope was developed by Dr. Tarek Loubani and a team of medical and technology specialists. The 3D-stethoscope was developed as part of the Glia project, and its design is open source from the outset. The stethoscope gained widespread media coverage in Summer 2015.


title: Stethoscope

text: The need for a 3D-stethoscope was borne out of a lack of stethoscopes and other vital medical equipment because of the blockade of the Gaza Strip, where Loubani, a Palestinian-Canadian, worked as an emergency physician during the 2012 conflict in Gaza. The 1960s-era "Littmann Cardiology 3" stethoscope became the basis for the 3D-printed stethoscope developed by Loubani.


title: Stethoscope

text: Stethoscopes usually have rubber earpieces, which aid comfort and create a seal with the ear, improving the acoustic function of the device. Stethoscopes can be modified by replacing the standard earpieces with moulded versions, which improve comfort and transmission of sound. Moulded earpieces can be cast by an audiologist or made by the stethoscope user from a kit.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784. The city's metropolitan area, consisting of Mercer County, is grouped with the New York Combined Statistical Area by the United States Census Bureau, but it directly borders the Philadelphia metropolitan area and was from 1990 until 2000 part of the Philadelphia Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Trenton had a population of 90,871, making it the state's 10th-largest municipality.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Trenton dates back at least to June 3, 1719, when mention was made of a constable being appointed for Trenton while the area was still part of Hunterdon County. Boundaries were recorded for Trenton Township as of March 2, 1720. A courthouse and jail were constructed in Trenton around 1720, and the Freeholders of Hunterdon County met annually in Trenton.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Abraham Hunt was appointed in 1764 as Trenton's first Postmaster. On November 25, 1790, the Trenton became New Jersey's capital, and by November 13, 1792 the City of Trenton was formed within Trenton Township. Trenton Township was incorporated as one of New Jersey's initial group of 104 townships by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798. On February 22, 1834, portions of Trenton Township were taken to form Ewing Township. The remaining portion of Trenton Township was absorbed by the City of Trenton on April 10, 1837. A series of annexations took place over a 50-year period, with the city absorbing South Trenton (April 14, 1851), portions of Nottingham Township (April 14, 1856), both the Borough of Chambersburg Township, and Millham Township (both on March 30, 1888), as well as Wilbur Borough (February 28, 1898). Portions of Ewing Township and Hamilton Township were annexed to Trenton on March 23, 1900.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The earliest known inhabitants of the area that is today Trenton were the Lenape Native Americans. The first European settlement in what would become Trenton was established by Quakers in 1679, in the region then called the Falls of the Delaware, led by Mahlon Stacy from Handsworth, Sheffield, England. Quakers were being persecuted in England at this time and North America provided an opportunity to exercise their religious freedom.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: By 1719, the town adopted the name "Trent-towne", after William Trent, one of its leading landholders who purchased much of the surrounding land from Stacy's family. This name was later shortened to "Trenton".


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: On January 19, 1764, Benjamin Franklin, Postmaster General of the colonies, appointed Abraham Hunt, a Lieutenant Colonel in the New Jersey Hunterdon County militia and prominent merchant in Trenton, as the city's first postmaster. Hunt was again appointed Trenton's postmaster on October 13, 1775, shortly after the American Revolutionary War broke out.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: During the American Revolutionary War, Trenton was the site of the Battle of Trenton, George Washington's first military victory. On December 25–26, 1776, Washington and his army, after crossing the icy Delaware River to Trenton, defeated the Hessian troops garrisoned there. The second battle of Trenton, Battle of the Assunpink Creek, was fought here on January 2, 1777. After the war, the Congress of the Confederation met for two months at the French Arms Tavern from November 1, 1784, to December 24, 1784. While the city was preferred by New England and other northern states as a permanent capital for the new country, the southern states ultimately prevailed in their choice of a location south of the Mason–Dixon line. On April 21, 1789, the city hosted a reception for George Washington on his journey to New York City for his first inauguration.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Trenton became the state capital in 1790, but prior to that year the New Jersey Legislature often met in the city. The city was incorporated in 1792. In 1799, the federal government relocated its offices to Trenton for a period of several months, following an outbreak of yellow fever in the then-capital of Philadelphia.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Throughout the 19th century, Trenton grew steadily, as European immigrants came to work in its pottery and wire rope mills. In 1837, with the population now too large for government by council, a new mayoral government was adopted, with by-laws that remain in operation to this day.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The Trenton Six were a group of black men arrested for the alleged murder of an elderly white shopkeeper in January 1948 with a soda bottle. They were arrested without warrants, denied lawyers and sentenced to death based on what were described as coerced confessions. With the involvement of the Communist Party and the NAACP, there were several appeals, resulting in a total of four trials. Eventually the accused men (with the exception of one who died in prison) were released. The incident was the subject of the book "Jersey Justice: The Story of the Trenton Six", written by Cathy Knepper.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The Trenton Riots of 1968 were a major civil disturbance that took place during the week following the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis on April 4. Race riots broke out nationwide following the murder of the civil rights activist. More than 200 Trenton businesses, mostly in Downtown, were ransacked and burned. More than 300 people, most of them young black men, were arrested on charges ranging from assault and arson to looting and violating the mayor's emergency curfew. In addition to 16 injured policemen, 15 firefighters were treated at city hospitals for smoke inhalation, burns, sprains and cuts suffered while fighting raging blazes or for injuries inflicted by rioters. Citizens of Trenton's urban core often pulled false alarms and would then throw bricks at firefighters responding to the alarm boxes. This experience, along with similar experiences in other major cities, effectively ended the use of open-cab fire engines. As an interim measure, the Trenton Fire Department fabricated temporary cab enclosures from steel deck plating until new equipment could be obtained. The losses incurred by downtown businesses were initially estimated by the city to be $7 million, but the total of insurance claims and settlements came to $2.5 million.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Trenton's Battle Monument neighborhood was hardest hit. Since the 1950s, North Trenton had witnessed a steady exodus of middle-class residents, and the riots spelled the end for North Trenton. By the 1970s, the region had become one of the most blighted and crime-ridden in the city.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total area of 8.21 square miles (21.25 km), including 7.58 square miles (19.63 km) of land and 0.63 square miles (1.62 km) of water (7.62%).


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Several bridges across the Delaware River connect Trenton to Morrisville, Pennsylvania, all of which are operated by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission. The Trenton–Morrisville Toll Bridge, originally constructed in 1952, stretches , carrying U.S. Route 1. The Lower Trenton Bridge, bearing the legend "Trenton Makes The World Takes Bridge", is a span that was constructed in 1928 on the site of a bridge that dates back to 1804. The Calhoun Street Bridge, dating back to 1884, is long.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Trenton is located near the geographic center of the state, which is located southeast of the city. The city is sometimes included as part of North Jersey and as the southernmost city of the Tri-State Region, while others consider it a part of South Jersey and thus, the northernmost city of the Delaware Valley.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: However, Mercer County constitutes its own metropolitan statistical area, formally known as the Trenton-Princeton MSA. Locals consider Trenton to be a part of an ambiguous area known as Central Jersey, and thus part of neither region. They are generally split as to whether they are within New York or Philadelphia's sphere of influence. While it is geographically closer to Philadelphia, many people who have recently moved to the area commute to New York City, and have moved there to escape the New York region's high housing costs.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Trenton is one of two state capitals that border another state—the other being Carson City, Nevada. It is also one of the seven state capitals located within the Piedmont Plateau.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Trenton borders Ewing Township, Hamilton Township and Lawrence Township in Mercer County; and Falls Township, Lower Makefield Township and Morrisville in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, across the Delaware River in Pennsylvania.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The Northeast Corridor goes through Trenton. A straight line drawn between Center City, Philadelphia and Downtown Manhattan would pass within 2000 feet of the New Jersey State House.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The city of Trenton is home to numerous neighborhoods and sub-neighborhoods. The main neighborhoods are taken from the four cardinal directions (North, South, East, and West). Trenton was once home to large Italian, Hungarian, and Jewish communities, but, since the 1950s, demographic shifts have changed the city into a relatively segregated urban enclave of middle and lower income African Americans and newer immigrants, many of whom arrive from Latin America. Italians are scattered throughout the city, but a distinct Italian community is centered in the Chambersburg neighborhood, in South Trenton. This community has been in decline since the 1970s, largely due to economic and social shifts to the suburbs surrounding the city. Today Chambersburg has a large Latino community. Many of the Latino immigrants are from Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua. There is also a significant and growing Asian community in the Chambersburg neighborhood primarily made up of Burmese and Bhutanese/Nepali refugees.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The North Ward, once a mecca for the city's middle class, is now one of the most economically distressed, torn apart by race riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Nonetheless, the area still retains many important architectural and historic sites. North Trenton still has a large Polish-American neighborhood that borders Lawrence Township, many of whom attend St. Hedwig's Roman Catholic Church on Brunswick Avenue. St. Hedwig's church was built in 1904 by Polish immigrants, many of whose families still attend the church. North Trenton is also home to the historic Shiloh Baptist Church—one of the largest houses of worship in Trenton and the oldest African American church in the city, founded in 1888. The church is currently pastored by Rev. Darrell L. Armstrong, who carried the Olympic torch in 2002 for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Also located just at the southern tip of North Trenton is the city's Battle Monument, also known as "Five Points". It is a structure that marks the spot where George Washington's Continental Army launched the Battle of Trenton during the American Revolutionary War. It faces downtown Trenton and is a symbol of the city's historic past.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: South Ward is a diverse neighborhood, home to many Latin American, Italian-American, and African American residents.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: East Ward is the smallest neighborhood in Trenton and is home to the Trenton Transit Center and Trenton Central High School. The Chambersburg neighborhood is within the East Ward and was once noted in the region as a destination for its many Italian restaurants and pizzerias. With changing demographics, many of these businesses have either closed or relocated to suburban locations.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: According to the Köppen climate classification, Trenton lies in the transition from a humid subtropical ("Cfa") to a cooler humid continental climate ("Dfa"), favoring the former, with four seasons of approximately equal length and precipitation fairly evenly distributed through the year. The "Cfa" climate is the result of adiabatic warming of the Appalachians, low altitude and proximity to the coast without being on the immediate edge for moderate temperatures.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Winters are cold and damp: the daily average temperature in January is , and temperatures at or below occur on 3.9 nights annually, while there are 17 days where the temperature fails to rise above freezing. Episodes of extreme cold and wind can occur with wind chill values below . The plant hardiness zone at the Trenton Municipal Court is 7a with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of .


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Summers are hot and humid, with a July daily average of ; temperatures reaching or exceeding occur on 21.8 days. Episodes of extreme heat and humidity can occur with heat index values reaching . Extremes in air temperature have ranged from on February 9, 1934, up to as recently as July 22, 2011. However, air temperatures reaching or are uncommon.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The average precipitation is per year, which is fairly evenly distributed through the year. The driest month on average is February, with of precipitation on average, while the wettest month is July with of rainfall on average which corresponds with the annual peak in thunderstorm activity. The all-time single-day rainfall record is on September 16, 1999, during the passage of Hurricane Floyd. The all-time monthly rainfall record is in August 1955, due to the passage of Hurricane Connie and Hurricane Diane. The wettest year on record was 1996, when of precipitation fell. On the flip side, the driest month on record was October 1963, when only of rain was recorded. The of precipitation recorded in 1957 were the lowest ever for the city.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Snowfall can vary even more year to year. The average seasonal (November–April) snowfall total is , but has ranged from as low as in the winter of 1918–1919 to as high as in 1995–1996, which included the greatest single-storm snowfall, the Blizzard of January 7–8, 1996, when of snow fell. The average snowiest month is February which corresponds with the annual peak in nor'easter activity.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: "Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race."


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $36,601 (with a margin of error of +/− $1,485) and the median family income was $41,491 (+/− $2,778). Males had a median income of $29,884 (+/− $1,715) versus $31,319 (+/− $2,398) for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,400 (+/− $571). About 22.4% of families and 24.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 36.3% of those under age 18 and 17.5% of those age 65 or over.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: As of the 2000 United States census there were 85,403, people, 29,437 households, and 18,692 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 33,843 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 52.06% Black, 32.55% White, 0.35% Native American, 0.84% Asian, 0.23% Pacific Islander, 10.76% from other races, and 3.20% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 21.53% of the population.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: There were 29,437 households, 32.4% of which had children under the age of 18 living with them. 29.0% were married couples living together, 27.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.5% were non-families. 29.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75 and the average family size was 3.38.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: In the city the age distribution of the population shows 27.7% under the age of 18, 10.1% from 18 to 24, 31.9% from 25 to 44, 18.9% from 45 to 64, and 11.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.0 males.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The median income for a household in the city was $31,074, and the median income for a family was $36,681. Males had a median income of $29,721 versus $26,943 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,621. About 17.6% of families and 21.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 26.8% of those under age 18 and 19.5% of those age 65 or over.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Trenton was a major manufacturing center in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One relic of that era is the slogan "Trenton Makes, The World Takes", which is displayed on the Lower Free Bridge (just north of the Trenton–Morrisville Toll Bridge). The city adopted the slogan in 1917 to represent Trenton's then-leading role as a major manufacturing center for rubber, wire rope, ceramics and cigars. It was home to American Standards largest fixture factory.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Along with many other United States cities in the 1970s, Trenton fell on hard times when manufacturing and industrial jobs declined. Concurrently, state government agencies began leasing office space in the surrounding suburbs. State government leaders (particularly governors William Cahill and Brendan Byrne) attempted to revitalize the downtown area by making it the center of state government. Between 1982 and 1992, more than a dozen office buildings were constructed primarily by the state to house state offices. Today, Trenton's biggest employer is still the state of New Jersey. Each weekday, 20,000 state workers flood into the city from the surrounding suburbs.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Notable businesses of the thousands based in Trenton include Italian Peoples Bakery, a wholesale and retail bakery established in 1936. De Lorenzo's Tomato Pies and Papa's Tomato Pies were also fixtures of the city for many years, though both recently relocated to the suburbs.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Portions of Trenton are part of an Urban Enterprise Zone. The city was selected in 1983 as one of the initial group of 10 zones chosen to participate in the program. In addition to other benefits to encourage employment within the Zone, shoppers can take advantage of a reduced 3.3125% sales tax rate (half of the % rate charged statewide) at eligible merchants. Established in January 1986, the city's Urban Enterprise Zone status expires in December 2023.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The UEZ program in Trenton and four other original UEZ cities had been allowed to lapse as of January 1, 2017, after Governor Chris Christie, who called the program an "abject failure", vetoed a compromise bill that would have extended the status for two years. In May 2018, Governor Phil Murphy signed a law that reinstated the program in these five cities and extended the expiration date in other zones.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: In 2018, the city had an average property tax bill of $3,274, the lowest in the county, compared to an average bill of $8,292 in Mercer County and $8,767 statewide. The city had the sixth-highest property tax rate in New Jersey, with an equalized rate of 5.264% in 2020, compared to 2.760% in the county as a whole and a statewide average of 2.279%.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Trenton has long been part of the Philadelphia television market. However, following the 2000 United States Census, Trenton was shifted from the Philadelphia metropolitan statistical area to the New York metropolitan statistical area. With a similar shift by the New Haven, Connecticut, area to the New York area, they were the first two cases where metropolitan statistical areas differed from their defined Nielsen television markets. Trenton was the site of the studios of the former public television station New Jersey Network (a.k.a. NJN).


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Because of Trenton's near-equal distance to both New York City and Philadelphia, and because most homes in Mercer County receive network broadcasts from both cities, locals are sharply divided in fan loyalty between both cities. It is common to find Philadelphia's Phillies, Eagles, 76ers, Union and Flyers fans cheering (and arguing) right alongside fans of New York's Yankees, Mets, Nets, Knicks, Rangers, Islanders, Jets, Red Bulls and Giants or the New Jersey Devils.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Between 1948 and 1979, Trenton Speedway, located in adjacent Hamilton Township, hosted world class auto racing. Drivers such as Jim Clark, A. J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, Richard Petty and Bobby Allison raced on the one-mile (1.6 km) asphalt oval and then re-configured -mile race track. The speedway, which closed in 1980, was part of the larger New Jersey State Fairgrounds complex, which also closed in 1983. The former site of the speedway and fairgrounds is now the Grounds for Sculpture.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The Trenton Thunder, minor league team owned by Joe Plumeri, plays at 6,341-seat Arm & Hammer Park, the stadium which Plumeri had previously named after his father in 1999. The team was previously affiliated with the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, and, before moving to Trenton, the Chicago White Sox, but became an unaffiliated collegiate summer baseball team of the MLB Draft League beginning in 2021.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The Trenton Freedom of the Professional Indoor Football League were founded in 2013 and played their games at the Sun National Bank Center. The Freedom ended operations in 2015, joining the short-lived Trenton Steel (in 2011) and Trenton Lightning (in 2001) as indoor football teams that had brief operating lives at the arena.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The City of Trenton is governed within the Faulkner Act, formally known as the Optional Municipal Charter Law, under the Mayor-Council system of municipal government, one of 79 municipalities (of the 564) statewide that use this form of government. The governing body is comprised of a mayor and a seven-member city council. Three city council members are elected at-large, and four come from each of four wards. The mayor and council members are elected concurrently on a non-partisan basis to four-year terms of office as part of the November general election.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: In October 2020, the city council overrode a mayoral veto and shifted municipal elections from May to November, with proponents citing the increased turnout and savings to the city of $180,000 in each election cycle. The mayor and members of council all had their term-end dates extended by six months and moved to December 31 from June 30, 2022. The city retained a runoff provision that would have a December runoff in the event that the candidate with the highest number of votes doesn't obtain a majority.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: , the mayor of Trenton is Reed Gusciora, whose term of office ends December 31, 2022; before taking office as mayor, Gusciora had served in the New Jersey General Assembly. Members of the city council are Council President Kathy McBride (At-Large), Marge Caldwell-Wilson (North Ward), Joseph A. Harrison (East Ward), George P. Muschal (South Ward), Santiago Rodriquez (At-Large), Robin M. Vaughn (West Ward) and Sonya Wilkins (At-Large; appointed to serve an unexpired term), all serving terms of office ending December 31, 2022.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: In February 2022, the city council appointed Sonya Wilkins to fill the at-large seat expiring in December 2022 that had been held by Jerell A. Blakeley until he resigned from office the previous month to take a job outside the state.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: From February 7 to July 1, 2014, the acting mayor was George Muschal who retroactively assumed the office on that date due to the felony conviction of Tony F. Mack, who had taken office on July 1, 2010. Muschal, who was council president, was selected by the city council to serve as the interim mayor to finish the term.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: On February 7, 2014, Mack and his brother, Raphiel Mack, were convicted by a federal jury of bribery, fraud and extortion, based on the details of their participation in a scheme to take money in exchange for helping get approvals to develop a downtown parking garage as part of a sting operation by law enforcement. Days after the conviction, the office of the New Jersey Attorney General filed motions to have Mack removed from office, as state law requires the removal of elected officials after convictions for corruption. Initially, Mack fought the removal of him from the office but on February 26, a superior court judge ordered his removal and any actions taken by Mack between February 7 and the 26th could have been reversed by Muschal. Previously, Mack's housing director quit after it was learned he had a theft conviction. His chief of staff was arrested trying to buy heroin. His half-brother, whose authority he elevated at the city water plant, was arrested on charges of stealing. His law director resigned after arguing with Mack over complying with open-records laws and potential violations of laws prohibiting city contracts to big campaign donors.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Trenton is located in the 12th Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 15th state legislative district.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: As of March 23, 2011, there were a total of 37,407 registered voters in Trenton, of which 16,819 (45.0%) were registered as Democrats, 1,328 (3.6%) were registered as Republicans and 19,248 (51.5%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 12 voters registered to other parties.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 93.4% of the vote (23,125 cast), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 6.2% (1,528 votes), and other candidates with 0.4% (97 votes), among the 27,831 ballots cast by the city's 40,362 registered voters (3,081 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 69.0%. In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 89.9% of the vote here (23,577 cast), ahead of Republican John McCain with 8.2% (2,157 votes) and other candidates with 0.5% (141 votes), among the 26,229 ballots cast by the city's 41,005 registered voters, for a turnout of 64.0%.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Democrat Barbara Buono received 74.7% of the vote (9,179 cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 24.7% (3,035 votes), and other candidates with 0.6% (77 votes), among the 11,884 ballots cast by the city's 38,452 registered voters (407 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 30.9%. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Democrat Jon Corzine received 81.6% of the vote here (10,235 ballots cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 12.4% (1,560 votes), Independent Chris Daggett with 2.4% (305 votes) and other candidates with 1.1% (135 votes), among the 12,537 ballots cast by the city's 38,345 registered voters, yielding a 32.7% turnout.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The city of Trenton is protected on a full-time basis by the city of Trenton Fire and Emergency Services Department (TFD), which has been a paid department since 1892 after having been originally established in 1747 as a volunteer fire department. The TFD operates out of seven fire stations and operates a fire apparatus fleet of 7 engine companies, 3 ladder companies and one rescue company, along with one HAZMAT unit, an air cascade unit, a mobile command unit, a foam unit, one fireboat, and numerous special, support and reserve units, under the command of two battalion chiefs each shift.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: Trenton is the home of two post-secondary institutions: Thomas Edison State University, serving adult students around the nation and worldwide and Mercer County Community College's James Kerney Campus.


title: Trenton, New Jersey

text: The College of New Jersey, formerly named Trenton State College, was founded in Trenton in 1855 and is now located in nearby Ewing Township. Rider University was founded in Trenton in 1865 as The Trenton Business College. In 1959, Rider moved to its current location in nearby Lawrence Township.