title: David McCullough

text: In 1995, McCullough received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award. The Helmerich Award is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust.


title: David McCullough

text: McCullough was referred to as a "master of the art of narrative history." "The New York Times" critic John Leonard wrote that McCullough was "incapable of writing a page of bad prose." His works have been published in ten languages, over nine million copies have been printed, and all of his books are still in print.


title: David McCullough

text: In December 2012, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania announced that it would rename the 16th Street Bridge in Pittsburgh in honor of McCullough.


title: David McCullough

text: In a ceremony at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, on November 16, 2015, the Air University of the United States Air Force awarded McCullough an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree. He was also made an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa at Yale University in 2015.


title: David McCullough

text: On May 11, 2016, McCullough received the United States Capitol Historical Society's Freedom Award. It was presented in the National Statuary Hall.


title: David McCullough

text: In September 2016, McCullough received the Gerry Lenfest Spirit of the American Revolution Award from the Museum of the American Revolution.


title: David McCullough

text: McCullough narrated many television shows and documentaries throughout his career. In addition to narrating the 2003 film "Seabiscuit", McCullough hosted PBS<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "American Experience" from 1988 to 1999. McCullough narrated numerous documentaries directed by Ken Burns, including the Emmy Award-winning "The Civil War", the Academy Award-nominated "Brooklyn Bridge", "The Statue of Liberty", and "The Congress". He served as a guest narrator for The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, a Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert special that aired on PBS in 2010.


title: David McCullough

text: McCullough narrated, in whole or in part, numerous of his own audiobooks, including "Truman", "1776", "The Greater Journey", and "The Wright Brothers".


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: "Livin' on a Prayer" is a song by the American rock band Bon Jovi, and is the band's second chart-topping single from their third album "Slippery When Wet". Written by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child, the single, released in late 1986, was well received at both rock and pop radio and its music video was given heavy rotation at MTV, giving the band their first No. 1 on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock chart and their second consecutive No. 1 "Billboard" Hot 100 hit.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: "Livin' on a Prayer" is the band's signature song, topping fan-voted lists and re-charting around the world decades after its release. In 2013, the song was certified triple platinum for over 3 million digital downloads. The official music video has over 936 million views on YouTube .


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: Jon Bon Jovi did not like the original recording of this song, which can be found as a hidden track on "100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong". Lead guitarist Richie Sambora, however, convinced him the song was good, and they reworked it with a new bassline (recorded by Hugh McDonald uncredited), different drum fills and the use of a talk box to include it on "Slippery When Wet". The song spent two weeks at number one on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, from January 31 to February 14, 1987, and four weeks at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100, from February 14 to March 14. It also hit number four on the UK Singles Chart.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: The album version of the song, timed around 4:10, fades out at the end. However, the music video game "Guitar Hero World Tour" features the song's original studio ending, where the band revisit the intro riff and end with a talk box solo; this version ends at 4:53. The original ending is also playable on the similar video game "Rock Band 2", though edited in this case (thereby eliminating the talk box solo at the end). The version included on the 2005 DualDisc edition of "Slippery When Wet" has an extended version of the original ending, with a different talk box solo playing over the riff (possibly taken from an outtake of the song); this version, which fades out at the end like the standard version of the song, ends at 5:06.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: After the September 11, 2001 attacks – in which New Jersey was the second-hardest hit state after New York, suffering hundreds of casualties among both WTC workers and first responders – the band performed an acoustic version of this song for New York. Bon Jovi performed a similar version as part of the special "".


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: In 2022, Mike Reno, vocalist of the band Loverboy, revealed to Loudwire he is certain the backing vocals he recorded for this song are used.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: "Billboard" said that "metal muscle meets gritty reality in a tough, clanging rocker." "Cash Box" said that "Solid chorus and ringing guitar highlight Jon Bon Jovi’s gutsy singing."


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: In 2006, online voters rated "Livin' on a Prayer" No. 1 on VH1's list of The 100 Greatest Songs of the '80s. More recently, in New Zealand, "Livin' on a Prayer" was No. 1 on the C4 music channel's show "U Choose 40", on the 80's Icons list. It was also No. 1 on the "Sing-a-long Classics List". After Bon Jovi performed in New Zealand on January 28, 2008, while on their Lost Highway Tour, the song re-entered the official New Zealand RIANZ singles chart at number 24, over twenty years after the initial release.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: Australian music TV channel MAX placed the song at No. 18 on their 2008 countdown "Rock Songs: Top 100". In 2009, the song returned to the charts in the UK, notably hitting the number-one spot on the UK Rock Chart.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: In 2010, it was chosen in an online vote on the Grammy.com website over the group's more recent hits "Always" and "It's My Life" to be played live by the band on the 52nd Grammy Awards telecast.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: In the "Billboard" Hot 100 50th Anniversary list, "Livin' on a Prayer" was named the 46th greatest rock song of all time. After the song was released for download, the song has sold 3.4 million digital copies in the US as of November 2014. "Louder Sound" and "Billboard" ranked the song number four and number two, respectively, on their lists of the 10 greatest Bon Jovi songs.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: The song, including its original ending, is also playable on the music video games "Guitar Hero World Tour" and "Rock Band 2". The song was re-worked and made available to download on November 9, 2010, for use in the "Rock Band 3" music gaming platform to take advantage of PRO mode which allows use of a real guitar / bass guitar, and standard MIDI-compatible electronic drum kits / keyboards in addition to up to three-part harmony or backup vocals.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: In November 2013, the song made its return to the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 25, due to a viral video.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: In 2017, ShortList's Dave Fawbert listed the song as containing "one of the greatest key changes in music history".


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: In 2021, "Rolling Stone" ranked the song at number 457 in their updated list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: The song reveals two characters, Tommy and Gina, a working-class couple who struggle to make ends meet. Tommy loses his job as a dockworker due to a strike while Gina works as a diner waitress. The storyline was loosely based on real-life events that Jon Bon Jovi and songwriter Desmond Child experienced in the 1970s. Before becoming prolific artists and songwriters, Desmond Child and his then-girlfriend, singer-songwriter Maria Vidal, both lived together and had already begun their music careers but worked day jobs to help sustain a living; Child was a taxi driver in New York while Vidal worked as a waitress in a diner named "Once Upon A Stove", similar to Gina in the song. The owner, manager, and other employees of the diner nicknamed Vidal as "Gina" due to her slight physical resemblance to Italian actress and photographer Gina Lollobrigida.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: "It deals with the way that two kids – Tommy and Gina – face life's struggles," noted Bon Jovi, "and how their love and ambitions get them through the hard times. It's working class and it's real… I wanted to incorporate the movie element, and tell a story about people I knew. So instead of doing what I did on 'Runaway', where the girl didn't have a name, I gave them names, which gave them an identity... Tommy and Gina aren't two specific people; they represent a lifestyle." Tommy and Gina are also referred to in Bon Jovi's 2000 single "It's My Life".


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: In a 2002 interview, Bon Jovi said that he wrote the song as a response to the Reagan Era, adding, "trickle-down economics are really inspirational to writing songs".


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: The music video was filmed on September 17, 1986, at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California and was directed by Wayne Isham. It all starts with a silhouette of the band walking down the hall and it features shots of the band rehearsing, filmed in black and white, then playing in front of a crowd, in color.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: In the beginning of the video, Jon has a harness attached by professional stunt coordinators and stunt spotters, and during the final chorus, he soars over the crowd via overhead wires attached to the harness.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: Bon Jovi have themselves reworked the song several times, including an acoustic live version that served as a precursor to the "MTV Unplugged" series and a re-recorded version of the song, "Prayer '94," which appeared on U.S. versions of their "Cross Road" hits collection.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: In May 2013, the song was featured in a segment on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". In this segment, a man and his wife were at a gas station when they were suddenly offered a free tank of gas in exchange for singing a song. The husband, Will Sims II, responded by singing "Livin' on a Prayer." The video of the segment went viral, prompting Jon Bon Jovi to record a video personally thanking the couple for having "so much fun" with the band's song.


title: Livin' on a Prayer

text: In 2019, Grammy Award-winning singer Michelle Williams performed the song on the second US series of "The Masked Singer".


title: Saccharin

text: Saccharin ("aka" saccharine, Sodium sacchari) is an artificial sweetener with effectively no nutritional value. It is about 550 times as sweet as sucrose but has a bitter or metallic aftertaste, especially at high concentrations. Saccharin is used to sweeten products such as drinks, candies, cookies, and especially for masking bitter taste of some medicines.


title: Saccharin

text: Saccharin derives its name from the word "saccharine", meaning "sugary". The word saccharine is used figuratively, often in a derogative sense, to describe something "unpleasantly over-polite" or "overly sweet". Both words are derived from the Greek word ("sakkharon") meaning "gravel". Similarly, saccharose is an obsolete name for sucrose (table sugar).


title: Saccharin

text: Saccharin is heat-stable. It does not react chemically with other food ingredients; as such, it stores well. Blends of saccharin with other sweeteners are often used to compensate for each sweetener's weaknesses and faults. A 10:1 cyclamate–saccharin blend is common in countries where both these sweeteners are legal; in this blend, each sweetener masks the other's offtaste. Saccharin is often used with aspartame in diet carbonated soft drinks, so some sweetness remains should the fountain syrup be stored beyond aspartame's relatively short shelf life.


title: Saccharin

text: In its acid form, saccharin is not water-soluble. The form used as an artificial sweetener is usually its sodium salt. The calcium salt is also sometimes used, especially by people restricting their dietary sodium intake. Both salts are highly water-soluble: 0.67 g/ml in water at room temperature.


title: Saccharin

text: In the 1970s, studies performed on laboratory rats found an association between consumption of high doses of saccharin and the development of bladder cancer. However, further study determined that this effect was due to a mechanism that is not relevant to humans (deposition of crystals; see History section). Epidemiological studies have shown no evidence that saccharin is associated with bladder cancer in humans. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) originally classified saccharin in Group 2B ("possibly carcinogenic to humans") based on the rat studies, but downgraded it to Group 3 ("not classifiable as to the carcinogenicity to humans") upon review of the subsequent research.


title: Saccharin

text: Saccharin has no food energy and no nutritional value. It is safe to consume for individuals with diabetes or prediabetes.


title: Saccharin

text: People with sulfonamide allergies can experience allergic reactions to saccharin, as it is a sulfonamide derivative and can cross-react. Saccharin in toothpaste can cause burning sensations, swelling, and rashes of the mouth and lips in sensitive individuals.


title: Saccharin

text: Saccharin was produced first in 1879, by Constantin Fahlberg, a chemist working on coal tar derivatives in Ira Remsen's laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. Fahlberg noticed a sweet taste on his hand one evening, and connected this with the compound benzoic sulfimide on which he had been working that day. Fahlberg and Remsen published articles on benzoic sulfimide in 1879 and 1880. In 1884, then working on his own in New York City, Fahlberg applied for patents in several countries, describing methods of producing this substance that he named saccharin. Two years later, he began production of the substance in a factory in a suburb of Magdeburg in Germany. Fahlberg would soon grow wealthy, while Remsen merely grew irritated, believing he deserved credit for substances produced in his laboratory. On the matter, Remsen commented, "Fahlberg is a scoundrel. It nauseates me to hear my name mentioned in the same breath with him."


title: Saccharin

text: Although saccharin was commercialized not long after its discovery, until sugar shortages during World War I, its use had not become widespread. Its popularity further increased during the 1960s and 1970s among dieters, since saccharin is a calorie-free sweetener. In the United States, saccharin is often found in restaurants in pink packets; the most popular brand is "Sweet'n Low".


title: Saccharin

text: Because of the difficulty of importing sugar from the West Indies, the British Saccharin Company was founded in 1917 to produce saccharin at its Paragon Works near Accrington, Lancashire. Production was licensed and controlled by the Board of Trade in London. Production continued on the site until 1926.


title: Saccharin

text: Starting in 1907, the United States Food and Drug Administration began investigating saccharin as a result of the Pure Food and Drug Act. Harvey Wiley, then the director of the bureau of chemistry for the FDA, viewed it as an illegal substitution of a valuable ingredient, sugar, by a less valuable ingredient. In a clash that had career consequences, Wiley told President Theodore Roosevelt, "Everyone who ate that sweet corn was deceived. He thought he was eating sugar, when in point of fact he was eating a coal tar product totally devoid of food value and extremely injurious to health." But Roosevelt himself was a consumer of saccharin, and, in a heated exchange, Roosevelt angrily answered Wiley by stating, "Anybody who says saccharin is injurious to health is an idiot." The episode proved the undoing of Wiley's career.


title: Saccharin

text: In 1911, Food Inspection Decision 135 stated that foods containing saccharin were adulterated. However, in 1912, Food Inspection Decision 142 stated that saccharin was not harmful.


title: Saccharin

text: More controversy was stirred in 1969 with the discovery of files from the FDA's investigations of 1948 and 1949. These investigations, which had originally argued against saccharin use, were shown to prove little about saccharin being harmful to human health. In 1977, the FDA made an attempt to completely ban the substance, following studies showing that the substance caused bladder cancer in rats. The attempted ban was unsuccessful due to public opposition that was encouraged by industry advertisements, and instead the following label was mandated: "Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals". That requirement was dropped in 2000 following new research that concluded humans reacted differently than rats and were not at risk of cancer at typical intake levels. (See also: labeling below.) The sweetener has continued to be widely used in the United States and is now the third-most popular artificial sweetener behind sucralose and aspartame.


title: Saccharin

text: The current status of saccharin is that it is allowed in most countries, and countries such as Canada have lifted their previous ban of it as a food additive. The claims that it is associated with bladder cancer were shown to be unfounded in experiments on primates. (It is, however, prohibited to mail saccharin tablets or packets to France.)


title: Saccharin

text: Saccharin was formerly on California's list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer for the purposes of Proposition 65, but it was delisted in 2001.


title: Saccharin

text: In 1958, the United States Congress amended the Food, Drugs, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 with the Delaney clause to mandate that the Food and Drug Administration not approve substances that "induce cancer in man, or, after tests, [are] found to induce cancer in animals." Studies in laboratory rats during the early 1970s linked saccharin with the development of bladder cancer in rodents. As a consequence, all food containing saccharin was labeled with a warning meeting the requirement of the Saccharin Study and Labeling Act of 1977.


title: Saccharin

text: However, in 2000, the warning labels were removed because scientists learned that rodents, unlike humans, have a unique combination of high pH, high calcium phosphate, and high protein levels in their urine. One or more of the proteins that are more prevalent in male rats combine with calcium phosphate and saccharin to produce microcrystals that damage the lining of the bladder. Over time, the rat's bladder responds to this damage by overproducing cells to repair the damage, which leads to tumor formation. Since this does not occur in humans, there is no elevated risk of bladder cancer.


title: Saccharin

text: The delisting of saccharin led to legislation repealing the warning label requirement for products containing saccharin. In 2001, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the state of California reversed their positions on saccharin, declaring it safe for consumption. The FDA's decision followed a 2000 determination by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' National Toxicology Program to remove saccharin from its list of carcinogens.


title: Saccharin

text: The Environmental Protection Agency has officially removed saccharin and its salts from their list of hazardous constituents and commercial chemical products. In a release in December 2010, the EPA stated that saccharin is no longer considered a potential hazard to human health.


title: Saccharin

text: Saccharin can be produced in various ways. The original route by Remsen and Fahlberg starts with toluene; another route begins with "o"-chlorotoluene. Sulfonation of toluene by chlorosulfonic acid gives the "ortho" and "para" substituted sulfonyl chlorides. The "ortho" isomer is separated and converted to the sulfonamide with ammonia. Oxidation of the methyl substituent gives the carboxylic acid, which cyclicizes to give saccharin free acid:


title: Saccharin

text: In 1950, an improved synthesis was developed at the Maumee Chemical Company of Toledo, Ohio. In this synthesis, the methyl anthranilate successively reacts with nitrous acid (from sodium nitrite and hydrochloric acid), sulfur dioxide, chlorine, and then ammonia to yield saccharin:


title: Saccharin

text: The free acid of saccharin has a low p"K" of 1.6 (the acidic hydrogen being that attached to the nitrogen). Saccharin can be used to prepare exclusively disubstituted amines from alkyl halides via a nucleophilic substitution, followed by a Gabriel synthesis.


title: 1998 in film

text: "Shakespeare in Love" (which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), "Saving Private Ryan"," Armageddon" (which was the top-grossing film of the year in the United States), "American History X", "The Truman Show", "Primary Colors", ""Rushmore"", "Rush Hour", "There's Something About Mary", "The Big Lebowski", and Terrence Malick's directorial return in "The Thin Red Line". DreamWorks SKG released its first two animated films: "Antz" and "The Prince of Egypt". The "Pokémon" theatrical film series started with "". Warner Bros. Pictures celebrated its 75th anniversary.


title: 1998 in film

text: The year saw two dueling science-fiction disaster films about asteroids, "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact", becoming box office success, with "Armageddon" becoming the more popular of the two. It was also the highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide.


title: July 1932 German federal election

text: Federal elections were held in Germany on 31 July 1932, following the premature dissolution of the Reichstag. The Nazi Party made significant gains and became the largest party in the Reichstag for the first time, although they failed to win a majority. The Communist Party increased their vote share as well. The two parties jointly controlled a majority of the seats in the Reichstag, meaning no majority coalition government could be formed without including at least one of them.


title: July 1932 German federal election

text: Since 1929, Germany had been suffering from the Great Depression; unemployment had risen from 8.5% to nearly 30% between 1929 and 1932, while industrial production dropped by around 42%. In March 1930, the governing grand coalition of the pro-republican parties (the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Centre Party and both liberal parties) collapsed. President Paul von Hindenburg appointed a minority government, headed by the Centre Party's Heinrich Brüning, which could only govern by using Hindenburg's emergency powers. The September 1930 elections produced a highly fragmented Reichstag, making the formation of a stable government impossible. The elections also saw the Nazi Party rise to national prominence, gaining 95 seats.


title: July 1932 German federal election

text: Brüning's policies, implemented via presidential decree and tolerated by parliament, failed to solve the economic crisis and weakened the parliamentary system. In March 1932, presidential elections pitted the incumbent Hindenburg, supported by pro-democratic parties, against Hitler and the Communist Ernst Thälmann. Hitler received around a third of the vote and was defeated in the second round in April by Hindenburg, who won a narrow majority. However, at the end of May 1932, Hindenburg was persuaded to dismiss Brüning as chancellor and replaced him with Franz von Papen, a renegade from the Centre Party, and a non-partisan "Cabinet of Barons". Papen's cabinet had almost no support in the Reichstag. Only three days after his appointment, he was faced with the opposition and had Hindenburg dissolve the Reichstag and called for new elections for 31 July so that the Reichstag could not dismiss him immediately.


title: July 1932 German federal election

text: The election campaign took place under violent circumstances, as Papen lifted the token ban on the SA, the Nazi (national socialist) paramilitary, which Brüning had put in place during the last days of his administration. That inevitably led to clashes with the Communist paramilitary.


title: July 1932 German federal election

text: The elections resulted in significant gains by the Nazi Party; with 230 seats, it became the largest party in parliament for the first time, but lacked an overall majority. Neither the Nazi Party nor Hindenburg had a governing majority, and the other parties refused to co-operate, meaning no coalition government with a majority could be formed. Papen's minority government continued in office, leading to another early election in November.


title: UPS Airlines

text: UPS Airlines is a major American cargo airline based in Louisville, Kentucky. The second-largest cargo airline worldwide (in terms of freight volume flown), UPS Airlines flies to 815 destinations worldwide. A wholly owned subsidiary of UPS (United Parcel Service) since its launch in 1988, the airline marked its 30th year of operation in 2018.


title: UPS Airlines

text: In line with passenger airlines, UPS Airlines operates under the hub-and-spoke model. The airline's primary hub in the United States is at Louisville International Airport, where it built a 5,200,000 square foot facility known as "UPS Worldport". In addition to Worldport, UPS has several secondary hubs across the United States and international hubs in Germany, China, and Hong Kong.


title: UPS Airlines

text: The origin of transporting packages by air for UPS (then United Parcel Service) dates to 1929. Similar to the US Postal Service, UPS packages were transported as baggage on commercial airline flights. Many packages were shipped by the Ford Trimotors of United Airlines. After Black Tuesday and the beginning of the Great Depression, the air service would be discontinued by the end of 1931. However, the air service would lead to the expansion beyond the West Coast; in 1930, the company moved operations from Oakland to New York City and established operations in other regions across the country as well.


title: UPS Airlines

text: After World War II, UPS (in the process of acquiring common carrier rights for every address in the United States) revisited the idea of shipping packages by air. Starting in 1953, 2-day delivery was offered on coast-to-coast packages; the service was called Blue Label Air. As before, UPS package volume was transported on commercial airline flights. Initially unprofitable, Blue Label Air became popular as its speed created enough demand to maintain a profit.


title: UPS Airlines

text: In 1975, UPS started its first international operations as it expanded into Canada, with an additional expansion into West Germany a year later.


title: UPS Airlines

text: As UPS had become an international company, access to its own cargo aircraft had become a more apparent issue. In 1976, competitor Federal Express (which owned its own fleet of jet aircraft) had turned a profit, showcasing that package delivery companies did not have to exclusively rely on commercial aircraft to transport their volume.


title: UPS Airlines

text: In 1978, the Airline Deregulation Act gave UPS a significant opportunity: the company could now establish its own airline and flying from city to city would require far fewer legislative hurdles as the federal government now encouraged competition between airlines.


title: UPS Airlines

text: In 1980, UPS opened its first major hub for sorting packages transported by aircraft, located in Louisville, Kentucky. Located at the westernmost point of the Eastern time zone, Louisville is accessible (by jet aircraft) across the majority of the contiguous United States in less than three hours. In contrast to chief competitor Federal Express (which owned its own aircraft), in the early 1980s, air operations of UPS were undertaken by several contractors, including Evergreen International Airlines, Interstate Airlines, Ryan Air, and Orion Air. Through its contractors, UPS flew its packages using a fleet of commercial aircraft converted to freighters, including Boeing 727-100s, 727-200s, Douglas DC-8s, and Boeing 747-100s.


title: UPS Airlines

text: In 1982, UPS introduced its Next-Day Air service, guaranteeing overnight delivery on certain packages.


title: UPS Airlines

text: To expand its flight network, UPS opened a distribution facility in Anchorage in 1985. Similar to Louisville, Anchorage was chosen for its strategic geographical position, accessible to 90% of the industrialized world in less than 9 hours flying distance.


title: UPS Airlines

text: In 1986, in an effort to obtain service rights to Japan, UPS entered into a joint venture with DHL, named International Parcel Express (IPX). IPX was rejected for use in Japan, leading UPS to purchase the DHL share of the joint venture in 1987. At the end of 1987, UPS ended the use of contract flights by Evergreen, Ryan, and Orion. Using the flight certificate intended for the IPX joint venture, the renamed UPS Airlines commenced operations in January 1988, adopting many flight crews from Orion Air.


title: UPS Airlines

text: At the 1988 founding of UPS Airlines, the company operated a route network serving 41 countries connecting the United States and Canada to Asia and Europe. To expand and modernize its jet fleet, at the end of 1987, UPS purchased dedicated freighter variants of the Boeing 757. In 1995, UPS purchased a second aircraft type from Boeing, the Boeing 767 freighter. The launch customer of both aircraft, UPS Airlines would purchase 75 757s and 32 767s, more than doubling the size of its aircraft fleet.


title: UPS Airlines

text: To update the oldest aircraft in its fleet, the 727-100QF conversion was introduced (QF=Quiet Freighter). In place of a hush kit, the QF conversion changed the aircraft from Pratt & Whitney JT8D to Rolls-Royce Tay turbofans.


title: UPS Airlines

text: In 1991, to gain the ability to fly domestic cargo flights within Europe, UPS entered into a partnership with Danish airline Star Air (part of the Maersk conglomerate), leasing several 727 freighters to the airline (later replaced by 757 freighters).


title: UPS Airlines

text: In the early 1990s, to add capacity to its network, UPS Airlines opened additional hubs, with primary hubs in Rockford, Illinois (Chicago) and Philadelphia; secondary hubs were opened in Dallas/Fort Worth; Columbia, South Carolina; and Ontario, California (Los Angeles).


title: UPS Airlines

text: With most of its aircraft flying primarily on weeknights, the airline was eager to find other ways to produce income from its fleet. In the 1990s, eight 727 freighters were converted (at a cost of $2.5 million each) into 727-100QC (QC=Quick Change) freighters with the ability to be re-converted into passenger aircraft for the purpose of chartered flights. After disappointing results, in 2001, UPS ended charter service with quick-change freighters, with the aircraft returned to cargo service.


title: UPS Airlines

text: Following the addition of primary and secondary hubs to the airline network during the 1990s, for much of the next decade, additional demand led to massive expansion of its central Louisville air hub. From 1999 to 2002, in a $1 billion expansion, the Louisville hub was doubled in size (to 4 million square feet), with the hub adapting the name of the expansion project, Worldport. As part of the 2004 purchase of Menlo Worldwide Forwarding, a second expansion was completed in 2006 to expand heavy-freight operations in the UPS systems; similar expansions were added to the largest UPS hubs in the United States. From 2006 to 2010, a third expansion added over 1 million square feet to the Worldport facility (to 5.2 million square feet) and added additional ramp space for aircraft.


title: UPS Airlines

text: During the 2000s, further efforts were made by UPS to expand its flight network. In 2000, the company acquired Challenge Air Cargo to expand its services in Latin America. In a new concept, UPS introduced several "around the world" flights; originating from Louisville, the long-distance flights have several intermediate stops in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, before returning to Worldport. In April 2001, UPS Airlines launched its first direct flights to China, providing service six days a week. In 2004, parent company UPS acquired Menlo Worldwide Forwarding (the successor to Emery Worldwide) to expand its heavy-freight operations.


title: UPS Airlines

text: During the 2000s, the makeup of the UPS Airlines fleet underwent considerable change. As part of a $5 billion purchase of 60 aircraft, UPS phased in its first Airbus A300F freighters in 2000 (its first Airbus aircraft). The same year, the airline announced a $2 billion purchase of 13 McDonnell Douglas MD-11F freighters (with an additional option for 22); in contrast to the A300 freighters, the MD-11s were conversions of recently retired passenger aircraft.


title: UPS Airlines

text: As part of the company rebranding from United Parcel Service to UPS in early 2003, the airline redesigned its aircraft livery, featuring the redesigned company "shield" logo on the vertical stabilizer.


title: UPS Airlines

text: In January 2005, UPS Airlines became the second airline (behind FedEx Express) to order the Airbus A380-800F, placing an order for 10 aircraft (with an option for 10 more). Configured to load three decks of freight (one more than a Boeing 747 and other widebody aircraft), the A380 freighter would have entered service from 2009 to 2012. Under the terms of the A380 purchase, UPS reduced its order for A300 aircraft from 90 aircraft to 53. To modernize its existing wide-body fleet, 11 additional MD-11Fs and 8 Boeing 747-400Fs were ordered.


title: UPS Airlines

text: In February 2007, UPS Airlines nearly doubled the size of its 767 fleet, as an order was placed for 27 additional freighters, entering service between 2009 and 2012. Following years of delays by Airbus, in March 2007, UPS ended its purchase of the Airbus A380F. Alongside the cancellation by FedEx Express, the final A380 purchase by an American-owned airline ended.


title: UPS Airlines

text: By 2007, additional MD-11s and 747-400s had entered service, leading the airline to gradually phase out its oldest aircraft from the fleet. Initially, the Boeing 727 freighters (the oldest and lowest-capacity aircraft) were retired, replaced on routes by Boeing 757 freighters. During 2008 and 2009, the 747-100 and 747-200 aircraft were retired, replaced by the 747-400s and MD-11Fs. In 2009, UPS Airlines retired its entire fleet of DC-8 aircraft; at the time, its 44 aircraft represented nearly half of the active DC-8 fleet flying worldwide.


title: UPS Airlines

text: On February 8, 2010, UPS announced the plans to furlough at least 300 pilots in 2010 and 2011, cancelling a 2009 agreement between the company and the Independent Pilots Association. The remaining pilots not furloughed demonstrated unprecedented unity by not flying overtime while colleagues were laid off. UPS decided to reduce the furlough to 109 pilots. The final pilot furloughed was in August 2010. UPS decided to recall pilots back to work in December 2011. The furlough officially ended in May, 2014 when the first pilot furloughed returned to work. On September 1, 2016, UPS and the IPA agreed to a new 5-year contract. Key components of the agreement were: immediate increases of 14.65% and a signing bonus in place of retroactive pay; 3% annual wage increases through the span of the contract; enhanced pension benefits; crew rest enhancements, including reduced duty period limits for overnight and international flights; additional sleep facilities at major gateways; and sleep modules in UPS Boeing 767 aircraft.


title: UPS Airlines

text: In 2014, the UPS 767 fleet was modified, as all existing aircraft and all aircraft on order were fitted with winglets. While over 10 feet tall, the large winglets were optimized to reduce drag, consequently reducing fuel consumption and emissions. In 2017, 3 767-300ERs were purchased from Japan Airlines, becoming the first converted 767s for UPS.


title: UPS Airlines

text: In October 2016, UPS Airlines announced a $5.2 billion agreement to purchase 14 Boeing 747-8F freighter aircraft (with an option for 14 more). While originally planning to end production of the 747 by 2020, along with the UPS purchase, Boeing cites replacement of older aircraft, e-commerce, and demand for larger aircraft across international routes as justification for retaining the 747. In February 2018, UPS exercised its option to purchase the additional 14 747 freighters, making UPS the largest operator of the 747-8 worldwide. As part of the option, UPS also purchased 4 additional Boeing 767-300F freighters, delivered by 2022.


title: UPS Airlines

text: The introduction of the 747-8F fleet allows UPS to introduce its longest-ever flight, flying nonstop from Louisville (Worldport) to its gateway in Dubai International Airport (nearly 6,700 miles). The flight segment is part of an "around the world flight", stopping at its hub in Shenzen, China and making another stop at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Alaska before returning to Louisville.


title: UPS Airlines

text: Each day, UPS Airlines flies to over 220 countries and territories worldwide, serving 388 airports in the United States with 936 flight segments and 378 international airports with 755 flight segments Using the traditional hub-and-spoke model, UPS Airlines operates through its central facility, Worldport, in Louisville, Kentucky. In addition, the company operates several facilities on a regional level across the United States.


title: UPS Airlines

text: UPS Airlines operates several international hubs worldwide outside of Worldport. Two are in North America with one in Europe; three are located in China (Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong), and one at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.


title: UPS Airlines

text: As of February 2022, UPS Airlines has an active fleet of 290 aircraft. Operating an all-jet fleet, the airline does not own any turboprop, short-haul aircraft; as it needs such aircraft, they are chartered from companies such as Air Cargo Carriers and Ameriflight.


title: UPS Airlines

text: UPS Airlines will become the world's largest operator of the Boeing 747-8F (following its 2018 purchase); it is the second-largest operator of the Boeing 757 and 767, McDonnell Douglas MD-11F, and Airbus A300. The airline was also the largest operator of the Douglas DC-8 for a number of years, as it operated nearly half the active examples of the type worldwide at the time of its 2009 retirement.


title: UPS Airlines

text: While UPS is distinguished by its UPS Brown delivery vehicles, to reduce heat absorption and save weight, brown has been reduced to a secondary color on UPS Airlines aircraft. During its existence, the airline has used two liveries on its aircraft fleet. In line with the long-running UPS tradition of not displaying vehicle-manufacturer branding, UPS Airlines aircraft do not have any markings indicating aircraft type.


title: UPS Airlines

text: From its 1988 formation to 2003, UPS Airlines used a bi-color brown and white livery on its aircraft. Most of the fuselage was painted white with the vertical stabilizer painted the same UPS Brown as its delivery vehicles. On the centerline of the fuselage, a brown cheatline was applied; as its 727, DC-8, MD-11, and 747 fleet were converted passenger aircraft, this was done to further cover up the passenger windows. On the forward third of the fuselage above the cheatline was painted: ""United Parcel Service"".


title: UPS Airlines

text: In 2003, to commemorate the official name change of United Parcel Service to UPS, the company logo was given a redesign along with a redesign of the UPS Airlines livery. With nearly the entire fuselage painted white, the brown portion of the tail was changed to sweep above the rear fuselage, coming to a point near the front of the wing; the white and brown portions of the fuselage were separated by a gold stripe. In place of the ""United Parcel Service"" was painted in two lines": "Worldwide Services: Synchronizing the world of commerce"." The only aircraft in the UPS Airlines fleet that did not adopt the "Worldwide Services" livery were the Boeing 747-100, Boeing 747-200, along with the majority of the Boeing 727 fleet, as these aircraft were in the process of being phased out in the mid-2000s.


title: UPS Airlines

text: In 2014, in line with UPS delivery vehicles, UPS Airlines phased in a revised version of its ""Worldwide Services"" livery, removing the ""Synchronizing the world of commerce"" phrase from the fuselage. The UPS emblem and gold body stripe painted brighter, with the gradient shading removed from the emblem. Along with aircraft entering service, the livery was phased into the airline fleet as aircraft underwent repainting for maintenance, with Dean Baldwin Painting at Grissom Aeroplex in Peru, Indiana (a 40-minute flight from Worldport) updating the exteriors.


title: UPS Airlines

text: As a safeguard against failure of service resulting from weather, mechanical failure, or any unexpected reasons, for most of its existence, UPS Airlines has operated a "hot-spare" contingency program. Similar in intent to the scrambling of military aircraft, the hot-spare program is designed for a flight crew to takeoff with an empty aircraft within 30 minutes of a request for service. At any given time, 14 different aircraft are designated at 7 UPS Airlines hubs, equalizing flight distance and time between locations. Four of the six aircraft types flown by the airline are used for hot-spare service (excluding the 747-400 and 747-8).


title: UPS Airlines

text: To ensure that an aircraft can be flight-ready within 30 minutes, hot-spare aircraft are preflighted and fueled ahead of time. In 2014, UPS launched 275 hot spares in total, allowing 1.5 million packages to make service on time, making almost $32 million in revenue.


title: UPS Airlines

text: , UPS Airlines was experimenting with a Global Positioning System-based landing procedure, called continuous descent approach at the Worldport, replacing the traditional holding pattern and step-wise descent. CDA is used to reduce the time and fuel needed to approach a runway and land by eliminating the need to alternatively reduce and increase throttle to descend and level off. UPS Airlines estimates that this procedure saves an average of 250 to 465 lbs (110 to 210 kilograms) of fuel per flight. CDA is part of the Federal Aviation Administration's long-term "Next-Gen" air traffic control plan.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Defence Forces (, officially styled ) are the armed forces of Ireland. They encompass the Army, Air Corps, Naval Service, and Reserve Defence Forces.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Supreme Commander of the Defence Forces is the President of Ireland. All Defence Forces officers hold their commission from the President, but in practice the Minister for Defence acts on the President's behalf and reports to the Government of Ireland. The Minister for Defence is advised by the Council of Defence on the business of the Department of Defence.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: As of September 2020, there were 8,529 permanent personnel in the Defence Forces, comprising 6,878 Army, 752 Air Corps and 899 Naval Service personnel.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Irish state has a long-standing policy of non-belligerence in armed conflicts, including neutrality in World War II. Ireland's military capabilities are modest. However, the state has a long history of involvement in United Nations peacekeeping operations. Functions of the Defence Forces include:


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Defence Forces trace their origins to the Irish Volunteers, founded in 1913. Their official Irish-language title, Óglaigh na hÉireann, is taken from the equivalent Irish-language title of the Irish Volunteers, as are their cap badge and the buttons worn on ceremonial uniforms (the buttons are still marked with the initials "IV").


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Irish Volunteers were central to the Easter Rising staged in April 1916. After the rising, the Volunteers gave allegiance to the First Dáil, the parliament of the revolutionary Irish Republic. At this time the Volunteers became known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA). From 1919 onwards, the IRA waged a guerrilla campaign against British rule in Ireland that is now known as the War of Independence.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: A brought hostilities to an end; the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed on 6 December. The Provisional Government was then constituted on 14 January 1922. The IRA divided between those who accepted the decision of the Dáil in ratifying the Treaty and those who did not: consequently, both civil war and re-occupation by the British became possible. In February 1922, the pro-treaty IRA became the National Army of the Irish Free State. With declining relations between the remaining units of the anti-treaty IRA and the newly recruited pro-treaty National Army, the Irish Civil War broke out on 28 June 1922. It ended in victory for the National Army when, on 24 May 1923, the anti-treaty IRA Chief of Staff, Frank Aiken ordered his volunteers to dump arms.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: On 3 August 1923 the new state passed the "Defence Forces (Temporary Provisions) Act", raising ""an armed force to be called Oglaigh na hEireann (hereinafter referred to as the Forces) consisting of such number of officers, non-commissioned officers, and men as may from time to time be provided by the Oireachtas the new parliament of the Irish Free State."" The Forces were established on 1 October 1924.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The state was officially neutral during World War II but declared an official state of emergency on 2 September 1939 and the Army was mobilised. As the Emergency progressed, more and newer equipment was purchased for the rapidly expanding force from Britain and the United States as well as some manufactured at home. For the duration of the Emergency, Ireland, while formally neutral, tacitly supported the Allies in several ways. Allied aircraft were allowed to access the Atlantic Ocean via the Donegal Corridor. German military personnel were interned in the Curragh along with the belligerent powers' servicemen, whereas Allied airmen and sailors who crashed in Ireland were very often repatriated, usually by secretly moving them across the border to Northern Ireland. G2, the Army's intelligence section, played a vital role in the detection and arrest of German spies, such as Hermann Görtz.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: In September 1946, the Naval Service was established as Ireland's maritime force and as a permanent component of the Defence Forces.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: Ireland became a member of the United Nations in 1955. The first contribution to peacekeeping was in 1958 when Army officers were assigned to the United Nations Observation Group in Lebanon (UNOGIL). Since 1958 the Defence Forces have had a continuous presence on armed United Nations peacekeeping operations, except between May 1974 to May 1978 (although they did retain overseas unarmed observer missions during this period). The first armed peacekeeping mission was to the Operation des Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC) in 1960. During the ONUC mission, a company from the Irish Army were involved in a battle at Jadotville, in which the Irish held-out against a larger Katangese force. A memorial to Irish personnel who served as United Nations peacekeepers was unveiled in 2009 in the town of Fermoy, recording that there was a total of ninety Irish fatalities while on active service with the UN until that date.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: During the Troubles, the period of civil conflict centred on Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1998, the Defence Forces deployed to aid the Garda Síochána. Troops were deployed for duty to the border areas, new border military posts were established, and in 1973 new permanent border units were established. In 1974, troops were deployed to maximum-security prisons in Portlaoise and Limerick where IRA prisoners were detained. Armed troops were deployed in 1976 to all major post offices during a three-month national bank strike. In 1978, cash-in-transit escorts were established to protect large cash movements throughout the state, continuing until 2014. Tasks in military aid to the civil power continue today, but no longer to the same degree or intensity.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Defence Forces are organised under the Chief of Staff, supported by Deputy Chief of Staff Operations, and the Deputy Chief of Staff Support. They consist of a Permanent Defence Force (PDF), which is a standing force and provides the main capability for military operations, and the Reserve Defence Forces (RDF), military reserve forces which support the PDF if necessary. The PDF is organised into three service branches: the Army, the Naval Service, and the Air Corps. The RDF may be further subdivided into a First Line Reserve (FLR) and a Second Line Reserve; the First Line Reserve comprises former members of the Permanent Defence Force, while the Second Line Reserve comprises an Army Reserve and a Naval Service Reserve (both recruited directly from the civilian population). A reorganization of the RDF in 2013, referred to as the "single force concept", has resulted in units of the RDF being embedded within units of the PDF, rather than existing entirely in parallel as a separate reserve force; this moves away from the traditional approach of the RDF being considered a fourth service branch of the Defence Forces.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: In January 2022, the Commission on the Defence Forces recommended the establishment of an 'Information Command', under the command of a general, to handle cyberattacks and misinformation.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: As of mid-2016, the Army had approximately 7,300 active personnel, with 1,663 personnel in the Army Reserve. Up to late 2012 the army had three brigades: 1 Southern, 2 Eastern and 4 Western; in 2012, 4 Western Brigade stood down at its HQ Custume Barracks, Athlone. The state is now divided into two Brigade areas for administrative and operational reasons, with the former 4 Western Brigade split between the other two brigades. In addition to the brigade structure, there is also the Defence Forces Training Centre, a logistics base in the Curragh.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The two-brigade structure envisages distinct operational areas of responsibility for each of the brigades. The 1st Brigade has primary responsibility for operational tasks in the southern region, while the 2nd Brigade leads on operational tasks in the eastern and western regions. Practical operational considerations dictate the requirement to outline operational areas of responsibility. The brigade structure is based on strengthened combat and combat-support elements, together with streamlined combat-service-support elements.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Army has nine specialist corps, each designated as either combat, combat support or combat service support. These are the Infantry Corps, Artillery Corps, Cavalry Corps, Engineer Corps, Ordnance Corps, Medical Corps, Transport Corps, Military Police Corps, and the Communications and Information Services Corps. In the case of corps which support the infantry, a Corps Director and staff are provided to coordinate the purchase of specialised equipment, the execution of specialised training, and other necessary activities.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: Irish infantry are equipped with assault rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, hand grenades, and anti-tank weapons. Most weapons used by their defence forces follow NATO standards and are purchased from abroad, with Ireland having a very limited arms industry. The Army has light armoured vehicles, with the primary vehicle being the MOWAG Piranha, armed with machine guns. The Army also use the FV101 Scorpion armoured reconnaissance vehicle, equipped with a 76mm low-velocity gun and a 7.62mm machine gun. Its artillery capabilities consist of 120mm mortars and 105mm light guns.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Air Corps is the air component of the Defence Forces. Its HQ is at Casement (Baldonnel) Aerodrome. The Air Corps is the smallest of the branches of the Defence Forces, with approximately 939 personnel, and its primary roles are defined as:


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Air Corps is tasked with the traditional air-force role of defending Irish airspace; however, its practical capability to do so is severely limited and it has no aerial fighter or bomber capability at present. The Air Corps provide support to the Army and Naval Service, together with non-military air services such as the Emergency Aeromedical (air ambulance) Service, VIP transport, and search and rescue (in support of Coast Guard search and rescue efforts). The Air Corps' helicopters are the only helicopters within the state capable of flying at night in mountain terrain using night-vision technology.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Air Corps' two CASA CN-235 maritime patrol aircraft are equipped with detection systems and assist the Naval Service in patrolling Ireland's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone. These aircraft are also used for high-altitude, low-opening parachuting by the Army's ARW. The corps has six AgustaWestland AW139 utility helicopters capable of being armed with FN MAG machine guns. These advanced helicopters can be flown using night-vision goggles and used in support of the ARW, Naval Service and Garda Síochána operations. Seven Pilatus PC-9 turboprop aircraft can be equipped with rocket pods and machine guns, and two Eurocopter EC135 light utility helicopters (which can be used as sniper platforms by the ARW) are used for training pilots and for air-ambulance missions.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Air Corps conducted over 130 maritime surveillance patrol flights in 2019, and provided medical support to the HSE for patients by conducting over 233 Emergency Aeromedical Service missions and 32 inter-hospital air ambulance transfers.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Naval Service maintains a complement of about 1,144 personnel and is tasked with patrolling Irish territorial waters as well as the Irish Conservation Box, a large area of sea in which fishing is restricted to preserve fish numbers. It is tasked with enforcing this European-Union-protected area and thus serves the EU as well as Ireland. Together with the Air Corps and Customs, it has intercepted a number of vessels carrying narcotics to and from Ireland.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Naval Service has nine patrol vessels (1xP30, 2xP40, 2xP50, 4xP60) which are operated in support of the service's primary roles, inflatable seagoing craft, and training vessels. It maintains highly-trained armed boarding parties that can seize a vessel if necessary. In 2019, for example, there were approximately 780 boarding operations and 12 vessels were detained . The service's specialised diving unit is the Naval Service Diving Section.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The Reserve Defence Forces (RDF) in its current form was established in October 2005 and comprises the Army Reserve (AR) and Naval Service Reserve (NSR). The RDF is a part-time, voluntary component of the Defence Forces in peacetime, supporting the Permanent Defence Forces (PDF) in its domestic roles and training alongside its professional full-time colleagues as part of the "Single Force Concept" whereby RDF units are integrated with their PDF counterparts, coming under the one command. As of mid-2018, there were 1,778 reservists, with 1,663 in the Army Reserve and 115 in the Naval Service Reserve.


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: The interests of members of the Defence Forces are represented by a number of representative associations, similar to trade unions (which Irish military personnel are banned from joining). Officers of the PDF are represented by the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, Rank-and-file members of the PDF are represented by the Permanent Defence Force Other Ranks Representative Association (PDFORRA), which is affiliated to the Irish Conference of Professional and Service Associations and to the European Organisation of Military Associations, EUROMIL. In 2009, members of PDFORRA took part in an Irish Congress of Trade Unions protest against the government's handling of the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, at which time the Department of Defence warned that Defence Forces members could not take part in or sponsor any "public agitation", and that PDFORRA had "no express permission" for members to take part in the protests. All ranks of the RDF are represented by the Reserve Defence Forces Representative Association (RDFRA).


title: Defence Forces (Ireland)

text: Complaints concerning and made by serving and former members of the Defence Forces can be investigated by the independent Office of the Ombudsman for the Defence Forces (ODF), in cases where internal grievance procedures within the DF have been exhausted.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough covering much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. 'Tower Hamlets' was originally an alternative name for the historic Tower Division; the area of south-east Middlesex, focused on (but not limited to) the area of the modern borough, which owed military service to the Tower of London.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The borough lies on the north bank of the River Thames immediately east of the City of London, and includes much of the redeveloped Docklands area. Some of the tallest buildings in London occupy the centre of the Isle of Dogs in the south of the borough. A part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is in Tower Hamlets.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The 2019 mid-year population for the borough is estimated at 324,745. British Bangladeshis at 32% form the largest ethnic group. The 2011 census showed Tower Hamlets to have the highest proportion of Muslims of any English local authority and that Muslims heavily outnumbered Christians. The borough has more than forty mosques and Islamic centres and madrasahs, including the East London Mosque, Britain's largest. Brick Lane's restaurants, neighbouring street market and shops provide the largest range of Bengali cuisine, woodwork, carpets and clothes in Europe. The Lane is also a major centre of hipster subculture.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: In 2017 a joint study by Trust for London and New Policy Institute found Tower Hamlets to be the 2nd most deprived London borough (after Barking and Dagenham) based on an average calculated across a range of indicators; with high rates of poverty, child poverty, unemployment and pay inequality compared to other London boroughs. However, it has the lowest gap for educational outcomes at secondary level.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Tower Hamlets is in East London, north of the River Thames. The City of London lies to the west, the London Borough of Hackney to the north, while the River Lea forms the boundary with the London Borough of Newham to the east. The River Lea also forms the boundary between the historic counties of Middlesex and Essex. The borough's Thames frontage extends from the Tower Dock inlet, immediately west of the Tower of London, through several miles of former docklands, including the Isle of Dogs peninsula, to the confluence of the Thames and Lea at Blackwall.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The areas along the Thames and Lea flood plains were historically frequently flooded, but the Thames Barrier, further east, has reduced that risk.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The Regent's Canal enters the borough from Hackney to meet the River Thames at Limehouse Basin. A stretch of the Hertford Union Canal leads from the Regent's canal, at a basin in the north of Mile End, to join the River Lea at Old Ford. A further canal, Limehouse Cut, London's oldest, leads from locks at Bromley-by-Bow to Limehouse Basin. Most of the canal tow-paths are open to both pedestrians and cyclists.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The Borough includes open spaces such as Victoria Park, King Edward Memorial Park, Mile End Park, Island Gardens and part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The earliest reference to the name "Tower Hamlets" was in 1554, when the Council of the Tower of London ordered a muster of "men of the hamlets which owe their service to the tower". This covered a wider area than the present-day borough, and its military relationship with the Tower is thought to have been several centuries earlier than the 1554 record. In 1605, the Lieutenant of the Tower was given the right to muster the militia and the area east of the tower came to be a distinct military unit, officially called Tower Hamlets (or the Tower Division). The Hamlets of the Tower paid taxes for the militia in 1646. A legacy of that connection with the Tower is that residents of the modern borough can gain entrance for only a token fee of £1. this benefit isn't extended to the London Borough of Hackney, most of which once formed part of the original Tower Hamlets.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The London Borough of Tower Hamlets forms the core of the East End. The population of the area grew enormously in the 19th century, leading to extreme overcrowding and a concentration of poor people and immigrants throughout the area. These problems were exacerbated by the construction of St Katharine Docks (1827) and the central London railway termini (1840–1875) with many displaced people moving into the area following the clearance of former slums and rookeries. Over the course of a century, the East End became synonymous with poverty, overcrowding, disease and criminality.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The area was once characterised by rural settlements clustered around the City walls or along the main roads, surrounded by farmland, with marshes and small communities by the River, serving the needs of shipping and the Royal Navy. Until the arrival of formal docks, shipping was required to land goods in the Pool of London, but industries related to construction, repair, and victualling of ships flourished in the area from Tudor times. The area attracted large numbers of rural people looking for employment. Successive waves of foreign immigration began with Huguenot refugees creating a new extramural suburb in Spitalfields in the 17th century. They were followed by Irish weavers, Ashkenazi Jews and, in the 20th century, Bangladeshis. Many of these immigrants worked in the clothing industry. The abundance of semi- and unskilled labour led to low wages and poor conditions throughout the East End. This brought the attentions of social reformers during the mid-18th century and led to the formation of unions and workers associations at the end of the century. The radicalism of the East End contributed to the formation of the Labour Party and demands for the enfranchisement of women.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Official attempts to address the overcrowded housing began at the beginning of the 20th century under the London County Council. Aerial bombing in World War II devastated much of the East End, with its docks, railways and industry forming a continual target. In the separate boroughs making up today's Tower Hamlets a total of 2,221 civilians were killed and 7,472 were injured, with 46,482 houses destroyed and 47,574 damaged. This led to some dispersal of the population to outlying suburbs. New housing was built in the 1950s for those that remained. The closure of the last of the East End docks in the Port of London in 1980 created further challenges and led to attempts at regeneration and the formation of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The Canary Wharf development, improved infrastructure, and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park mean that the East End is undergoing further change, but some of its districts continue to see some of the worst poverty in Britain.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The coat of arms of the Borough of Tower Hamlets was granted by the College of Arms in 1965 and is composed of elements representing the maritime trades and heritage of the area. The strong links to the former Manor and Ancient Parish of Stepney and to St Dunstan's church in Stepney known as the "Church of the High Seas" are represented. The Manor and Parish did not have a coat of arms but the (smaller) subsequent Metropolitan Borough of Stepney did, and elements from that have been incorporated into the current design.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Motto: From great things to greater, an anglicised version of the Latin motto on the arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The council's logo is used as an alternative to the coat of arms. It features a simplified White Tower, above a stylised representation of the Thames. This was a development of the previous logo of the White Tower, in mulberry (claret) and presented in a three-tower form, as if seen from certain quarters which obscured the furthest corner tower - and a geographically accurate representation of the local part of the Thames. This older version is still seen on many street signs.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Until the United Kingdom left the European Union, the borough was a part of the London constituency for elections to the European Parliament. Labour has dominated national elections in Tower Hamlets, although other left-wing parties have won seats including the Respect Unity coalition in 2005 in Bethnal Green & Bow.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The borough lies within the City and East constituency, one of fourteen constituencies which make up the London Assembly, and is represented by John Biggs of the Labour Party.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The Labour Party has dominated politics in Tower Hamlets since the borough was created in 1965, except for a period from 1986 to 1994 when the SDP–Liberal Alliance and then the Liberal Democrats controlled the council. The British National Party won its first council seat in 1993, when Derek Beackon was elected as a Millwall councillor.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: In May 2010, a referendum led to the creation of a directly elected executive Mayor for the Borough. At the ensuing election in October 2010, Lutfur Rahman was elected Mayor as an independent candidate, becoming the UK's first Muslim executive mayor. Rahman had been selected as the Labour candidate for Mayor, and was a former Leader of the council. However, allegations of electoral malpractice were made against him and his supporters, and he was suspended from the Labour Party before nominations closed. He was re-elected as Mayor in May 2014.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: At the May 2010 election, the composition of the council was 41 Labour, 8 Conservative, 1 Respect and 1 Liberal Democrat councillor. Since then, Respect gained a seat from Labour at a by-election, and in three separate groups a total of 8 Labour Councillors and one Conservative defected to Lutfur Rahman's independent group.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: This shifting of political allegiances is normal for Tower Hamlets. Between the 2006 and 2010 elections, five Respect councillors defected to Labour; one Respect and one Labour councillor defected to the Conservatives; one Liberal Democrat defected to Labour; and one Labour councillor was gained through a by-election at the expense of the Liberal Democrats.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: In July 2013, the Tower Hamlets (Electoral Changes) Order 2013 was passed, reducing the size of the council and creating new electoral wards made of single, two- and 3-member divisions.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: In September 2013, Lutfur Rahman's independent group was officially renamed Tower Hamlets First. At the May 2014 election, the group made significant gains by winning 18 of the 45 seats, which reduced the previously Labour-held council to No Overall Control. Labour remained the largest group, with 22 councillors, a nett loss of 14, while the Conservatives had five seats, down by six. Both the Liberal Democrats and Respect Party were left with no seats after this election.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: In November 2014, the Department for Communities and Local Government announced that it would appoint commissioners to take over some of the council's functions, following an inspection report by PricewaterhouseCoopers that raised several concerns over the allocation of grants. The action was supported by the Department's shadow secretary, Hilary Benn.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: On 23 April 2015, the courts removed Mayor Rahman from office for electoral fraud and ordered a new election to be held. Six days later, the Electoral Commission officially withdrew Rahman's Tower Hamlets First from the electoral register, after deciding that the party did not operate a responsible financial scheme, nor ran in accordance with its initial documentation provided at registration. The decision did not in itself disband the Tower Hamlets First political group in the council, but the members splintered into the Tower Hamlets Independent Group, the People's Alliance of Tower Hamlets, and a number of Independent councillors. On 11 June 2015, an election was held to replace Rahman, and the Labour candidate John Biggs was elected as mayor, while a Labour win at a by-election enabled the party to regain overall control of the council.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: 22 Labour, nine Independent Group, five People's Alliance of Tower Hamlets (PATH), five Conservatives, three ungrouped Independents, and one Liberal Democrat. By May 2018, ten councillors had joined a political group called Aspire.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: At the 2018 Tower Hamlets London Borough Council election, Labour held the position of mayor and also gained twenty council seats overall, giving it control of the council. It now had 42 councillors, taking all but one of the seats won by Tower Hamlets First in 2014, and also taking seats from the Conservatives. Rabina Khan, formerly of Tower Hamlets First, but by then leader of the rival PATH, came second in the Mayoral election and was the only former Tower Hamlets First councillor to hold a seat.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Since 2014, the council has embraced a policy of decentralisation by establishing neighbourhood forums. In 2014, the East Shoreditch Neighbourhood Planning Forum was set up which was followed in 2016 with the designation of a Limehouse Community Forum, an Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood Planning Forum, and a Spitalfields Neighbourhood Planning Forum.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The Canary Wharf complex within Docklands on the Isle of Dogs forms a group of some of the tallest buildings in Europe. One Canada Square was the first to be constructed and is the third tallest in London. Nearby are the HSBC Tower, Citigroup Centres and One Churchill Place, headquarters of Barclays Bank. Within the same complex are the Heron Quays offices.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, developed for the London 2012 Olympics, lies within the borders of Tower Hamlets.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The data below were taken between 1971 and 2000 at the weather station in Greenwich, around south of the town hall, at Mulberry Place:


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: By 1891, Tower Hamlets – roughly the ancient civil parish of Stepney – was already one of the most populated areas in London. Throughout the nineteenth century, the local population increased by an average of 20% every ten years. The building of the docks intensified land use and caused the last marshy areas in the south of the parish to be drained for housing and industry. In the north of the borough, employment was principally in weaving, small household industries like boot and furniture making and new industrial enterprises like Bryant and May. The availability of cheap labour drew in many employers. To the south, employment was in the docks and related industries – such as chandlery and rope making.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: By the middle of the nineteenth century, the district now recognised as Tower Hamlets was characterised by overcrowding and poverty. The construction of the railways caused many more displaced people to settle in the area, and a massive influx of Eastern European Jews at the latter part of the nineteenth century added to the population growth. This migration peaked at the end of that century and population growth entered a long decline through to the 1960s, as people moved away eastwards to newer suburbs of London and Essex. The area's population had neared 600,000 around the end of the nineteenth century, but fell to a low of less than 140,000 by the early 1980s.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The metropolitan boroughs suffered very badly during World War II, during which considerable numbers of houses were destroyed or damaged beyond use due to heavy aerial bombing. This coincided with a decline in work in the docks, and the closure of many traditional industries. The Abercrombie Plan for London (1944) began an exodus from London towards the new towns.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: This decline began to reverse with the establishment of the London Docklands Development Corporation bringing new industries and housing to the brownfield sites along the river. Also contributing was new immigration from Asia beginning in the 1970s. According to the 2001 UK Census the population of the borough is approximately 196,106. According to the ONS estimate, the population is 237,900, as of 2010.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Crime in the borough increased by 3.5% from 2009 to 2010, according to figures from the Metropolitan Police, having decreased by 24% between 2003/04 and 2007/08.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Tower Hamlets has one of the smallest White British populations of any local authority in the United Kingdom. No ethnic group forms a majority of the population; a plurality of residents are white (45%), a little over two thirds of whom are White British. 32% of residents are Bangladeshi, which is the largest ethnic minority group in the borough, with Asians as a whole forming 41% of the population. A small proportion are of Black African and Caribbean descent (7%), with Somalis representing the second-largest minority ethnic group. Those of mixed ethnic backgrounds form 4%, while other ethnic groups form 2%. The White British proportion was recorded as 31.2% in the 2011 UK Census, a decrease from 42.9% in 2001.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: In 2018, Tower Hamlets had the lowest life expectancy and the highest rate of heart disease of all London boroughs, along with Newham.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: According to the 2021 census, 39.9% of the population was Muslim, 22.3% Christian, 2.0% Hindu, 1.0% Buddhist, 0.4% Jewish, 0.3% Sikh, 0.5% followed some other religion, 26.6% were not affiliated to a religion and 6.9% did not state their religious views.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The following table shows the religious identity of residents residing in Tower Hamlets according to the 2001, 2011 and the 2021 censuses.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: There are 21 active churches, affiliated with the Church of England, which include Christ Church of Spitalfields, St Paul's Church of Shadwell and St Dunstan's of Stepney and also churches of many other Christian denominations.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: There are more than 40 mosques and Islamic centres in Tower Hamlets. The most famous is the East London Mosque, one of the first mosques in Britain allowed to broadcast the adhan, and one of the biggest Islamic centres in Europe. The Maryam Centre, a part of the mosque, is the biggest Islamic centre for women in Europe. Opened in 2013, it features a main prayer hall, ameliorated funeral services, education facilities, a fitness centre and support services.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The East London Mosque has been visited by several notable people, including Prince Charles, Boris Johnson, many foreign government officials and world-renowned imams and Muslim scholars. Other notable mosques are Brick Lane Mosque, Darul Ummah Masjid, Esha Atul Islam Mosque, Markazi Masjid, Stepney Shahjalal Mosque and Poplar Central Mosque.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Other notable religious buildings include the Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue, the Congregation of Jacob Synagogue, the London Buddhist Centre, the Hindu Pragati Sangha Temple, and the Gurdwara Sikh Sangat. The Great Synagogue of London, which was destroyed during the Second World War, is located just outside the borough's boundaries, in the City.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The borough hosts the world headquarters of many global financial businesses, employing some of the highest paid workers in London, but also has a high rates of long-term illness and premature death and the 2nd highest unemployment rate in London.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Canary Wharf is home to the world or European headquarters of numerous major banks and professional services firms including Barclays, Citigroup, Clifford Chance, Credit Suisse, Infosys, Fitch Ratings, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, KPMG, MetLife, Morgan Stanley, RBC, Skadden, State Street and Thomson Reuters. Savills, a top-end estate agency recommends that 'extreme luxury' and ultra-modern residential properties are to be found at Canary Riverside, West India Quay, Pan Peninsula and Neo Bankside.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The End Child Poverty coalition published that Tower Hamlets has the highest proportion of children in poverty of any local authority in the UK at 49% (and as high as 54.5% in the Bethnal Green South ward).


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Surveys and interviews conducted by the Child Poverty Action group for the council found that the Universal Credit system was deeply unpopular with low-income families in the borough and that most claimants who have used the system found it difficult to understand and experienced frequent payment errors.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is the local education authority for state schools within the borough. In January 2008, there were 19,890 primary-school pupils and 15,262 secondary-school pupils attending state schools there. Independent-school pupils account for 2.4 per cent of schoolchildren in the borough. In 2010, 51.8 per cent of pupils achieved 5 A*–C GCSEs including Mathematics and English – the highest results in the borough's history – compared to the national average of 53.4 per cent. Seventy-four per cent achieved 5 A*–C GCSEs for all subjects (the same as the English average); the figure in 1997 was 26 per cent. The percentage of pupils on free school meals in the borough is the highest in England and Wales. In 2007 the council rejected proposals to build a Goldman Sachs-sponsored academy.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Schools in the borough have high levels of racial segregation. "The Times" reported in 2006 that 47 per cent of secondary schools were exclusively non-white, and that 33 per cent had a white majority. About 60 per cent of pupils entering primary and secondary school are Bangladeshi. 78% of primary-school pupils speak English as a second language.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The council runs several Idea Stores in the borough, which combine traditional library and computer services with other resources, and are designed to attract more diverse members. The flagship Whitechapel store was designed by David Adjaye and cost £16 million to build.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Mile End Stadium within Mile End Park hosts an athletics stadium and facilities for football and basketball. Two football clubs, Tower Hamlets F.C. (formerly Bethnal Green United) and Sporting Bengal United F.C., are based there, playing in the Essex Senior Football League.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: John Orwell Sports Centre in Wapping is the base of Wapping Hockey Club. In 2014, the club secured over £300,000 of investment to designate the centre a hockey priority facility.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: A leisure centre including a swimming pool at Mile End Stadium was completed in 2006. Other pools are located at St Georges, Limehouse and York Hall, in Bethnal Green. York Hall is also a regular venue for boxing tournaments, and in May 2007 a public spa was opened in the building's renovated Turkish baths.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: KO Muay Thai Gym and Apolaki Krav Maga & Dirty Boxing Academy. in Bethnal Green are the main sources for martial arts and combat sports training in the area.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The unusual Green Bridge, opened in 2000, links sections of Mile End Park that would otherwise be divided by Mile End Road. The bridge contains gardens, water features and trees around the path.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Tower Hamlets was one of five host boroughs for the 2012 Summer Olympics; the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park was constructed in the Lea Valley. As such, the borough's involvement in the Olympics includes:


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: There are over one hundred parks and open spaces in Tower Hamlets ranging from the large Victoria Park, to numerous small gardens and squares. The second largest, Mile End Park, separated from Victoria Park by a canal, includes "The Green Bridge" that carries the park across the busy Mile End Road. One of the smallest at 1.19 ha is the decorative Grove Hall Park off Fairfield Road, Bow, which was once the site of a lunatic asylum. Other parks include Altab Ali Park, Mudchute Park and Grove Hall Park.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: As with most of the transport network in Tower Hamlets, several roads radiate across the Borough from the City of London. East–west routes include:


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The principal rail services commence in the City at Fenchurch Street, with one stop at Limehouse; and Liverpool Street, with stops at Bethnal Green and Cambridge Heath. The East London Line passes from north to south through Tower Hamlets with stations at Whitechapel, Shadwell and Wapping. One entrance to Shoreditch High Street station is inside the Borough. And the North London Line passes the very north in Tower Hamlets with one entrance to Hackney Wick inside the Borough. Two Crossrail stations are currently under construction and are expected to start services in summer 2021.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: The Docklands Light Railway was built to serve the docklands areas of the borough, with a principal terminus at Bank and Tower Gateway. An interchange at Poplar allows trains to proceed north to Stratford, south via Canary Wharf towards Lewisham, and east either via the London City Airport to Woolwich Arsenal or via ExCeL London to Beckton.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Three London Underground services cross the district, serving a total of 8 stations: the District and Hammersmith and City lines share track between Aldgate East and Barking. The Central line has stations at Bethnal Green and Mile End - where there is an interchange to the District line. A third central line station, at Shoreditch, has been proposed as the Central line runs within close proximity of Shoreditch High Street station. If built, it will be situated between the existing stations at Bethnal Green and Liverpool St. The Jubilee line has one stop at Canary Wharf.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: underground, light rail, 24.0% of all residents aged 16–74; on foot, 7.5%; bus, minibus or coach, 7.5%; driving a car or van, 6.9%; bicycle, 4.1%; train, 3.8%; work mainly at or from home, 2.3%.


title: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

text: Tower Hamlets Borough Council operates a walking bus service for school pupils on agreed routes with some running every school day while and others once or twice a week depending on the number of adult volunteers involved.


title: Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious

text: Ristarte is a novice goddess who is placed in charge of saving the world of Gaeabrande from a Demon Lord by summoning a human hero. An S-class world, Gaeabrande is extremely dangerous, so Ristarte is careful to select a hero who will be able to prevail against the enemies. She settles on Seiya Ryuuguuin, whose stats are many times greater than any other contender. Unfortunately, upon summoning him, Ristarte finds to her dismay that he is ridiculously cautious of everything, including her. Refusing to even enter Gaeabrande's safest areas until he has trained to a level that he is comfortable with, Seiya's reticence drives the goddess crazy. However, when the pair finally do set foot on Gaeabrande, events may prove this hero's caution is well justified.


text: The series was first published online in Kadokawa's user-generated novel publishing website Kakuyomu in June 2016 by Light Tuchihi. Later on, publisher Fujimi Shobo acquired the title and published the first volume as a light novel under their Kadokawa Books imprint in February 2017. The series is licensed in North America by Yen Press.


text: A manga adaptation by Koyuki was serialized in Fujimi Shobo's "Monthly Dragon Age" from November 9, 2018, to October 7, 2022. The manga is also licensed in North America by Yen Press.


text: An anime television series adaptation by White Fox was announced on November 7, 2018. The series was directed by Masayuki Sakoi, with Kenta Ihara handling series composition, Mai Toda designing the characters, and Yoshiaki Fujisawa composing the music. It aired from October 2 to December 27, 2019 on AT-X and other channels. Myth & Roid performed the series' opening theme song "TIT FOR TAT", while Riko Azuna performed the series' ending theme song "be perfect, plz!". Funimation had licensed the series for a SimulDub. Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll. The third episode, which was supposed to air on October 16, 2019, was delayed by a week due to production issues, with a re-broadcast of Episode 2 taking its place. Similarly, Episode 10 was delayed for a week due to production issues, with a recap episode taking its place. Characters from the series have also appeared in the crossover anime series "Isekai Quartet".


title: Eclipse

text: An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three celestial objects is known as a syzygy. Apart from syzygy, the term eclipse is also used when a spacecraft reaches a position where it can observe two celestial bodies so aligned. An eclipse is the result of either an occultation (completely hidden) or a transit (partially hidden).


title: Eclipse

text: The term eclipse is most often used to describe either a solar eclipse, when the Moon's shadow crosses the Earth's surface, or a lunar eclipse, when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. However, it can also refer to such events beyond the Earth–Moon system: for example, a planet moving into the shadow cast by one of its moons, a moon passing into the shadow cast by its host planet, or a moon passing into the shadow of another moon. A binary star system can also produce eclipses if the plane of the orbit of its constituent stars intersects the observer's position.


title: Eclipse

text: For the special cases of solar and lunar eclipses, these only happen during an "eclipse season", the two times of each year when the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun crosses with the plane of the Moon's orbit around the Earth and the line defined by the intersecting planes points near the Sun. The type of solar eclipse that happens during each season (whether total, annular, hybrid, or partial) depends on apparent sizes of the Sun and Moon. If the orbit of the Earth around the Sun and the Moon's orbit around the Earth were both in the same plane with each other, then eclipses would happen each and every month. There would be a lunar eclipse at every full moon, and a solar eclipse at every new moon. And if both orbits were perfectly circular, then each solar eclipse would be the same type every month. It is because of the non-planar and non-circular differences that eclipses are not a common event. Lunar eclipses can be viewed from the entire nightside half of the Earth. But solar eclipses, particularly total eclipses occurring at any one particular point on the Earth's surface, are very rare events that can be many decades apart.


title: Eclipse

text: The term is derived from the ancient Greek noun ('), which means "the abandonment", "the downfall", or "the darkening of a heavenly body", which is derived from the verb (') which means "to abandon", "to darken", or "to cease to exist," a combination of prefix ('), from preposition ('), "out," and of verb (""), "to be absent".


title: Eclipse

text: For any two objects in space, a line can be extended from the first through the second. The latter object will block some amount of light being emitted by the former, creating a region of shadow around the axis of the line. Typically these objects are moving with respect to each other and their surroundings, so the resulting shadow will sweep through a region of space, only passing through any particular location in the region for a fixed interval of time. As viewed from such a location, this shadowing event is known as an eclipse.


title: Eclipse

text: Typically the cross-section of the objects involved in an astronomical eclipse is roughly disk-shaped. The region of an object's shadow during an eclipse is divided into three parts:


title: Eclipse

text: A total eclipse occurs when the observer is within the umbra, an annular eclipse when the observer is within the antumbra, and a partial eclipse when the observer is within the penumbra. During a lunar eclipse only the umbra and penumbra are applicable, because the antumbra of the Sun-Earth system lies far beyond the Moon. Analogously, Earth's apparent diameter from the viewpoint of the Moon is nearly four times that of the Sun and thus cannot produce an annular eclipse. The same terms may be used analogously in describing other eclipses, e.g., the antumbra of Deimos crossing Mars, or Phobos entering Mars's penumbra.


title: Eclipse

text: The "first contact" occurs when the eclipsing object's disc first starts to impinge on the light source; "second contact" is when the disc moves completely within the light source; "third contact" when it starts to move out of the light; and "fourth" or "last contact" when it finally leaves the light source's disc entirely.


title: Eclipse

text: For spherical bodies, when the occulting object is smaller than the star, the length ("L") of the umbra's cone-shaped shadow is given by:


title: Eclipse

text: where "R" is the radius of the star, "R" is the occulting object's radius, and "r" is the distance from the star to the occulting object. For Earth, on average "L" is equal to 1.384 km, which is much larger than the Moon's semimajor axis of 3.844 km. Hence the umbral cone of the Earth can completely envelop the Moon during a lunar eclipse. If the occulting object has an atmosphere, however, some of the luminosity of the star can be refracted into the volume of the umbra. This occurs, for example, during an eclipse of the Moon by the Earth—producing a faint, ruddy illumination of the Moon even at totality.


title: Eclipse

text: On Earth, the shadow cast during an eclipse moves very approximately at 1 km per sec. This depends on the location of the shadow on the Earth and the angle in which it is moving.


title: Eclipse

text: An eclipse cycle takes place when eclipses in a series are separated by a certain interval of time. This happens when the orbital motions of the bodies form repeating harmonic patterns. A particular instance is the saros, which results in a repetition of a solar or lunar eclipse every 6,585.3 days, or a little over 18 years. Because this is not a whole number of days, successive eclipses will be visible from different parts of the world. In one saros period there are 239.0 anomalistic periods, 241.0 sidereal periods, 242.0 nodical periods, and 223.0 synodic periods. Although the orbit of the Moon does not give exact integers, the numbers of orbit cycles are close enough to integers to give strong similarity for eclipses spaced at 18.03 yr intervals.


title: Eclipse

text: An eclipse involving the Sun, Earth, and Moon can occur only when they are nearly in a straight line, allowing one to be hidden behind another, viewed from the third. Because the orbital plane of the Moon is tilted with respect to the orbital plane of the Earth (the ecliptic), eclipses can occur only when the Moon is close to the intersection of these two planes (the nodes). The Sun, Earth and nodes are aligned twice a year (during an eclipse season), and eclipses can occur during a period of about two months around these times. There can be from four to seven eclipses in a calendar year, which repeat according to various eclipse cycles, such as a saros.


title: Eclipse

text: As observed from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes in front of the Sun. The type of solar eclipse event depends on the distance of the Moon from the Earth during the event. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Earth intersects the umbra portion of the Moon's shadow. When the umbra does not reach the surface of the Earth, the Sun is only partially occulted, resulting in an annular eclipse. Partial solar eclipses occur when the viewer is inside the penumbra.


title: Eclipse

text: The eclipse magnitude is the fraction of the Sun's diameter that is covered by the Moon. For a total eclipse, this value is always greater than or equal to one. In both annular and total eclipses, the eclipse magnitude is the ratio of the angular sizes of the Moon to the Sun.


title: Eclipse

text: Solar eclipses are relatively brief events that can only be viewed in totality along a relatively narrow track. Under the most favorable circumstances, a total solar eclipse can last for 7 minutes, 31 seconds, and can be viewed along a track that is up to 250 km wide. However, the region where a partial eclipse can be observed is much larger. The Moon's umbra will advance eastward at a rate of 1,700 km/h, until it no longer intersects the Earth's surface.


title: Eclipse

text: During a solar eclipse, the Moon can sometimes perfectly cover the Sun because its apparent size is nearly the same as the Sun's when viewed from the Earth. A total solar eclipse is in fact an occultation while an annular solar eclipse is a transit.


title: Eclipse

text: When observed at points in space other than from the Earth's surface, the Sun can be eclipsed by bodies other than the Moon. Two examples include when the crew of Apollo 12 observed the in 1969 and when the "Cassini" probe observed in 2006.


title: Eclipse

text: Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow. This happens only during a full moon, when the Moon is on the far side of the Earth from the Sun. Unlike a solar eclipse, an eclipse of the Moon can be observed from nearly an entire hemisphere. For this reason it is much more common to observe a lunar eclipse from a given location. A lunar eclipse lasts longer, taking several hours to complete, with totality itself usually averaging anywhere from about 30 minutes to over an hour.


title: Eclipse

text: There are three types of lunar eclipses: penumbral, when the Moon crosses only the Earth's penumbra; partial, when the Moon crosses partially into the Earth's umbra; and total, when the Moon crosses entirely into the Earth's umbra. Total lunar eclipses pass through all three phases. Even during a total lunar eclipse, however, the Moon is not completely dark. Sunlight refracted through the Earth's atmosphere enters the umbra and provides a faint illumination. Much as in a sunset, the atmosphere tends to more strongly scatter light with shorter wavelengths, so the illumination of the Moon by refracted light has a red hue, thus the phrase 'Blood Moon' is often found in descriptions of such lunar events as far back as eclipses are recorded.


title: Eclipse

text: Records of solar eclipses have been kept since ancient times. Eclipse dates can be used for chronological dating of historical records. A Syrian clay tablet, in the Ugaritic language, records a solar eclipse which occurred on March 5, 1223 B.C., while Paul Griffin argues that a stone in Ireland records an eclipse on November 30, 3340 B.C. Positing classical-era astronomers' use of Babylonian eclipse records mostly from the 13th century BC provides a feasible and mathematically consistent explanation for the Greek finding all three lunar mean motions (synodic, anomalistic, draconitic) to a precision of about one part in a million or better. Chinese historical records of solar eclipses date back over 3,000 years and have been used to measure changes in the Earth's rate of spin.