title: History of abortion

text: Many feminists of the era were opposed to abortion. In "The Revolution", operated by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, an anonymous contributor signing "A" wrote in 1869 about the subject, arguing that instead of merely attempting to pass a law against abortion, the root cause must also be addressed. Simply passing an anti-abortion law would, the writer stated, "be only mowing off the top of the noxious weed, while the root remains. [...] No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh! thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime." To many feminists of this era, abortion was regarded as an undesirable necessity forced upon women by thoughtless men. Even the "free love" wing of the feminist movement refused to advocate abortion and treated the practice as an example of the hideous extremes to which modern marriage was driving women. Marital rape and the seduction of unmarried women were societal ills which feminists believed caused the need to abort, as men did not respect women's right to abstinence.


title: History of abortion

text: Socialist feminists tended to be more sympathetic to the need for abortion options for the poor, and indeed socialist feminist doctors, such as Marie Equi, Madeleine Pelletier, and William J. Robinson, themselves performed low-cost or free abortions for poor women.


title: History of abortion

text: The movement to liberalize abortion laws emerged in the 1920s and '30s as part of rising feminist activism that had already resulted in victories in the area of birth control. Campaigners including Marie Stopes in England and Margaret Sanger in the US had succeeded in bringing the issue into the open, and birth control clinics were established which offered family planning advice and contraceptive methods to women in need.


title: History of abortion

text: In 1929, the Infant Life Preservation Act was passed in Britain, which amended the law (Offences against the Person Act 1861) so that an abortion carried out in good faith, for the sole purpose of preserving the life of the mother, would not be an offence.


title: History of abortion

text: Stella Browne was a leading birth control campaigner, who increasingly began to venture into the more contentious issue of abortion in the 1930s. Browne's beliefs were heavily influenced by the work of Havelock Ellis, Edward Carpenter and other sexologists. She came to strongly believe that working women should have the choice to become pregnant and to terminate their pregnancy while they worked in the horrible circumstances surrounding a pregnant woman who was still required to do hard labour during her pregnancy. In this case she argued that doctors should give free information about birth control to women who wanted to know about it. This would give women agency over their own circumstances and allow them to decide whether they wanted to be mothers or not.


title: History of abortion

text: In the late 1920s Browne began a speaking tour around England, providing information about her beliefs on the need for accessibility of information about birth control for women, women's health problems, problems related to puberty and sex education and high maternal morbidity rates among other topics. These talks urged women to take matters of their sexuality and their health into their own hands. She became increasingly interested in her view of the woman's right to terminate their pregnancies, and in 1929 she brought forward her lecture "The Right to Abortion" in front of the World Sexual Reform Congress in London. In 1931 Browne began to develop her argument for women's right to decide to have an abortion. She again began touring, giving lectures on abortion and the negative consequences that followed if women were unable to terminate pregnancies of their own choosing such as: suicide, injury, permanent invalidism, madness and blood-poisoning.


title: History of abortion

text: Another prominent feminist to influence abortion law was Emily Stowe. In the 19th century she was one of the first doctors to be tried for attempting an abortion procedure in Canada.


title: History of abortion

text: Other prominent feminists, including Frida Laski, Dora Russell, Joan Malleson and Janet Chance began to champion this cause – the cause broke dramatically into the mainstream in July 1932 when the British Medical Association council formed a committee to discuss making changes to the laws on abortion. On 17 February 1936, Janet Chance, Alice Jenkins and Joan Malleson established the Abortion Law Reform Association as the first advocacy organisation for abortion liberalization. The association promoted access to abortion in the United Kingdom and campaigned for the elimination of legal obstacles. In its first year ALRA recruited 35 members, and by 1939 had almost 400 members.


title: History of abortion

text: The ALRA was very active between 1936 and 1939 sending speakers around the country to talk about Labour and Equal Citizenship and attempted, though most often unsuccessfully, to have letters and articles published in newspapers. They became the most popular when a member of the ALRA's Medico-Legal Committee received the case of a fourteen-year-old girl who had been raped, and received a termination of this pregnancy from Dr. Joan Malleson, a progenitor of the ALRA. This case gained a lot of publicity. However, once the war began, the case was tucked away and the cause again lost its importance to the public.


title: History of abortion

text: In 1938, Joan Malleson precipitated one of the most influential cases in British abortion law when she referred a pregnant fourteen-year-old rape victim to gynaecologist Aleck Bourne. He performed an abortion, then illegal, and was put on trial on charges of procuring abortion. Bourne was eventually acquitted in "Rex v. Bourne" as his actions were "an example of disinterested conduct in consonance with the highest traditions of the profession". This court case set a precedent that doctors could not be prosecuted for performing an abortion in cases where pregnancy would probably cause "mental and physical wreck".


title: History of abortion

text: Finally, the Birkett Committee, established in 1937 by the British government "to inquire into the prevalence of abortion, and the law relating thereto", recommended a change to abortion laws two years later. The intervention of World War II meant that all plans were shelved.


title: History of abortion

text: Another prominent figure in the reform of abortion laws was Dr. Morgentaler. Although born in Poland he made a name for himself in Canada, opening multiple illegal abortion clinics in Toronto, Ontario.


title: History of abortion

text: Prior to 1969, abortion was considered a crime for which the maximum punishment was life imprisonment for the doctor performing the abortion and two years imprisonment for the woman receiving the abortion. Abortion remained illegal until 1988, when the Supreme Court of Canada overruled the criminal punishments for abortion. Abortion remains a hotly debated topic. As of 2008 in Canada only 1-2% of abortions were pharmaceutically induced. After much controversy, starting in 2017 abortion pills could be used legally in Canada.


title: History of abortion

text: The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was the first government to legalize abortion and make it available on request, often for no cost. The Soviet government hoped to provide access to abortion in a safe environment performed by a trained doctor instead of "babki". While this campaign was extremely effective in the urban areas (as much as 75% of abortions in Moscow were performed in hospitals by 1925), it had much less effect on rural regions where there was neither access to doctors, transportation, or both and where women relied on traditional medicine. In the countryside in particular, women continued to see "babki", midwives, hairdressers, nurses, and others for the procedure after abortion was legalized in the Soviet Union.


title: History of abortion

text: From 1936 until 1955 the Soviet Union made abortion illegal (except for medically recommended cases) again, stemming largely from Joseph Stalin's worries about population growth. Stalin wanted to encourage population growth, as well as place a stronger emphasis on the importance of the family unit to communism.


title: History of abortion

text: During the Spanish Civil War, on 25 December 1936, in Catalonia, free abortion was legalized during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy with a decree signed by Josep Tarradellas, First Minister of the Government of Catalonia, and published on 9 January 1937 ("Diari Oficial de la Generalitat de Catalunya, núm.9").


title: History of abortion

text: In Britain, the Abortion Law Reform Association continued its campaigning after the War, and this, combined with broad social changes brought the issue of abortion back into the political arena in the 1960s. President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists John Peel chaired the committee advising the British Government on what became the 1967 Abortion Act. On the grounds of reducing the amount of disease and death associated with illegal abortion, the Abortion Act allowed for legal abortion on a number of grounds, including to prevent grave permanent injury to the woman's physical or mental health, to avoid injury to the physical or mental health of the woman or her existing child(ren) if the pregnancy was still under 28 weeks, or if the child was likely to be severely physically or mentally handicapped. The free provision of abortions was provided through the National Health Service.


title: History of abortion

text: In America an abortion reform movement emerged in the 1960s. In 1963, the Society for Humane Abortion was formed, providing women with information on how to obtain and perform abortions. In 1964 Gerri Santoro of Connecticut died trying to obtain an illegal abortion and her photo became the symbol of the abortion rights movement. Some women's rights activist groups developed their own skills to provide abortions to women who could not obtain them elsewhere. As an example, in Chicago, a group known as "Jane" operated a floating abortion clinic throughout much of the 1960s. Women seeking the procedure would call a designated number and be given instructions on how to find "Jane".


title: History of abortion

text: In the late 1960s, a number of organizations were formed to mobilize opinion both against and for the legalization of abortion. The forerunner of the NARAL Pro-Choice America was formed in 1969 to oppose restrictions on abortion and expand access to abortion. In late 1973 NARAL became the National Abortion Rights Action League. The American Medical Association, the American Bar Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the California Medical Association, the California Bar Association, and numerous other groups announced support behind new laws that would protect doctors from criminal prosecution if they performed abortions under rigid hospital controls. In 1967, Colorado became the first state to decriminalize a doctor performing an abortion in cases of rape, incest, or in which pregnancy would lead to permanent physical disability of the woman.


title: History of abortion

text: A bipartisan majority in the California legislature supported a new law introduced by Democratic state senator Anthony Beilenson, the "Therapeutic Abortion Act". Catholic clergy were strongly opposed but Catholic lay people were divided and non-Catholics strongly supported the proposal. Governor Ronald Reagan consulted with his father-in-law, a prominent surgeon who supported the law. He also consulted with James Cardinal McIntyre, the Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles. The archbishop strongly opposed any legalization of abortion and he convinced Reagan to announce he would veto the proposed law since the draft allowed abortions in the case of birth defects. The legislature dropped that provision and Reagan signed the law, which decriminalized abortions when done to protect the health of the mother. The expectation was that abortions would not become more numerous but would become much safer under hospital conditions. In 1968 the first full year under the new law there were 5,018 abortions in California. The numbers grew exponentially and stabilized at about 100,000 annually by the 1970s. It was abortion-on-demand, as 99.2% of California women who applied for an abortion were granted one. One out of every three pregnancies was ended by illegal abortion. The key factor was the sudden emergence of a woman's movement that introduced a very new idea—women had a basic right to control their bodies and could choose to have an abortion or not. Reagan by 1980 found his support among anti-abortion religious groups and said he was too new as governor to make a wise decision.


title: History of abortion

text: In 1970, Hawaii became the first state to legalize abortions on the request of the woman, and New York repealed its 1830 law and allowed abortions up to the 24th week of pregnancy. Similar laws were soon passed in Alaska and Washington. A law in Washington, D.C., which allowed abortion to protect the life or health of the woman, was challenged in the Supreme Court in 1971 in "United States v. Vuitch". The court upheld the law, deeming that "health" meant "psychological and physical well-being", essentially allowing abortion in Washington, DC. By the end of 1972, 13 states had a law similar to that of Colorado, while Mississippi allowed abortion in cases of rape or incest only and Alabama and Massachusetts allowed abortions only in cases where the woman's physical health was endangered.


title: History of abortion

text: The landmark judicial ruling of the Supreme Court in "Roe v. Wade" ruled that a Texas statute forbidding abortion except when necessary to save the life of the mother was unconstitutional. The immediate result was that all state laws to the contrary were null. The Court arrived at its decision by concluding that the issue of abortion and abortion rights falls under the right to privacy. The Court held that a right to privacy existed and included the right to have an abortion. The court found that a mother had a right to abortion until viability, a point to be determined by the abortion doctor. After viability a woman can obtain an abortion for health reasons, which the Court defined broadly to include psychological well-being.


title: History of abortion

text: From the 1970s, and the spread of second-wave feminism, abortion and reproductive rights became unifying issues among various women's rights groups in Canada, the United States, the Netherlands, Britain, Norway, France, Germany, and Italy.


title: History of abortion

text: On June 24, 2022, "Roe v. Wade" was overturned by the Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision. The ruling was part of "Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization", a decision of the Supreme Court that also overturned "Planned Parenthood v. Casey", another case of the Supreme Court regarding abortion.


title: History of abortion

text: Although prototypes of the modern curette are referred to in ancient texts, the instrument which is used today was initially designed in France in 1723, but was not applied specifically to a gynecological purpose until 1842. Dilation and curettage has been practiced since the late 19th century.


title: History of abortion

text: The 20th century saw improvements in abortion technology, increasing its safety, and reducing its side-effects. Vacuum devices, first described by the Scottish obstetrician James Young Simpson in the 19th century, allowed for the development of suction-aspiration abortion. The process was improved by the Russian doctor S. G. Bykov in 1927, where the method was used during its period of liberal abortion laws from 1920 to 1936. The technology was also used in China and Japan before being introduced to Britain and the United States in the 1960s. The invention of the Karman cannula, a flexible plastic cannula which replaced earlier metal models in the 1970s, reduced the occurrence of perforation and made suction-aspiration methods possible under local anesthesia.


title: History of abortion

text: In 1971, Lorraine Rothman and Carol Downer, founding members of the feminist self-help movement, invented the Del-Em, a safe, cheap suction device that made it possible for people with minimal training to perform early abortions called menstrual extraction. During the mid-1990s in the United States the medical community showed renewed interest in manual vacuum aspiration as a method of early surgical abortion. This resurgence is due to technological advances that permit early pregnancy detection (as soon as a week after conception) and a growing popular demand for safe, effective early abortion options, both surgical and medical. An innovator in the development of early surgical abortion services is Jerry Edwards, a physician, who developed a protocol in which women are offered an abortion using a handheld vacuum syringe as soon as a positive pregnancy test is received. This protocol also allows the early detection of an ectopic pregnancy.


title: History of abortion

text: Intact dilation and extraction was developed by Dr. James McMahon in 1983. It resembles a procedure used in the 19th century to save a woman's life in cases of obstructed labor, in which the fetal skull was first punctured with a perforator, then crushed and extracted with a forceps-like instrument, known as a cranioclast.


title: History of abortion

text: In 1980, researchers at Roussel Uclaf in France developed mifepristone, a chemical compound which works as an abortifacient by blocking hormone action. It was first marketed in France under the trade name Mifegyne in 1988. In July 2015 Canada approved mifepristone in combination with misoprostol (under the name Mifegymiso).


title: History of abortion

text: At various times abortion has been banned or restricted in countries around the world. Multiple scholars have noticed that in many cases, this has caused women to seek dangerous, illegal abortions underground or inspired trips abroad for "reproductive tourism". Half of the world's current deaths due to unsafe abortions occur in Asia.


title: History of abortion

text: Other authors have written that illegality has not always meant that abortions were unsafe. In the U.S. during the 19th century, early abortions under the hygienic conditions in which midwives usually worked were relatively safe.


title: History of abortion

text: In the early 1950s, the Chinese government made abortion illegal, with punishments for those who received or performed illegal abortions written into the law. These restrictions were seen as the government's way of emphasizing the importance of population growth.


title: History of abortion

text: As the decade went on, the laws were relaxed with the intent of reducing the number of deaths and lifelong injuries women sustained due to illegal abortions, as well as serving as a form of population control when used in conjunction with birth control. In the early 1980s, the state implemented a form of family planning which used abortion as a "back-up method"; and in 2005, there has been legislation trying to curb sex-selective abortion. As of 2009, although China had the highest number of abortions in the world, Russia had the highest rate in the world.


title: History of abortion

text: India enforced the Indian Penal Code from 1860 to 1971, criminalizing abortion and punishing both the practitioners and the women who sought out the procedure. As a result, women died in an attempt to obtain illegal abortions from unqualified midwives and "doctors". Abortion was made legal under specific circumstances in 1971, but as scholar S. Chandrasekhar notes, lower class women still find themselves at a greater risk of injury or death as a result of a botched abortion.


title: History of abortion

text: Japan is known today worldwide for its acceptance of abortion. It is estimated that two-thirds of Japanese women have an abortion by age forty, partially due to former government restrictions on contraceptive pills on 'public hygiene grounds'.


title: History of abortion

text: The Eugenics Protection Law of 1948 made abortion on demand legal up to twenty-two weeks' gestation so long as the woman's health was endangered; in 1949, this law was extended to consider the risk the child's birth would place on a woman's economic welfare. Originally, each case would have to be approved by a local eugenics council, but this was removed from the law in 1952, making the decision a private one between a woman and her physician.


title: History of abortion

text: In 1964, the creation of the conservative right-wing nationalist political lobbying group called Seicho-no-Ie brought about a strong opposition to the abortion laws. This campaign reached its peak strength in the early 1980s, but ultimately failed in 1983.


title: History of abortion

text: In 1957, Romania legalized abortion, but in 1966, after a decline in the national birthrate, Nicolae Ceauşescu approved Decree 770, which criminalized abortion and encouraged childbirth. As a result of this decree, women in want of abortion turned to illegal procedures that caused the deaths of over 9,000 women and left unwanted children abandoned in orphanages. Abortion remained illegal until 1989, when the decree was overturned.


title: History of abortion

text: There was intense public debate throughout the 1980s and 1990s over legal abortion reform. These debates portrayed abortion as un-Buddhist and anti-religious; abortion opponents ultimately labeled it as a form of Western corruption that was inherently anti-Thai and threatened the integrity of the nation. Despite this, in 2006, abortions became legal in cases of rape or foetal impairment. Mental health also became a factor in determining the legality of an abortion procedure. The strict regulations involved in qualifying for a legal abortion, however, cause approximately 300,000 women a year to seek illegal avenues according to scholar Andrea Whittaker, with the poorest undergoing the most dangerous of procedures.


title: The Times Group

text: Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited, (abbreviated as B.C.C.L. and d/b/a The Times Group), is an Indian media conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company remains a family-owned business with Sahu Jain family owning a majority stake in The Times Group.


title: The Times Group

text: On 3 November 1838, the "Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce" was first published, a predecessor of what would become "The Times of India". While starting as a biweekly paper, it was converted to a daily in 1850. In 1859 the paper was merged with two other papers into the "Bombay Times and Standard" under editor Robert Knight. Two years later, in 1861, the paper got a more national scope with the title "The Times of India". Subsequently the paper saw its ownership change several times until 1892 when an English journalist named Thomas Jewell Bennett along with Frank Morris Coleman (who later drowned in the 1915 sinking of the SS "Persia") acquired the newspaper through their new joint stock company, "Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd". (BCCL). At the time, some 800 people were employed by the paper.


title: The Times Group

text: The company, by that time consolidated in the Times of India Group, was taken over from its British owners in 1946 by industrialist Ramkrishna Dalmia.


title: The Times Group

text: Ramkrishna Dalmia (7 April 1893 – 26 September 1978) was a pioneer industrialist and founder of the Dalmia-Jain group or Dalmia Group and The Times Group. The name is variously written as Ram Krishan Dalmia and Ram Kishan Dalmia. In 1947, Dalmia engineered the acquisition of the media giant Bennett, Coleman by transferring monies from a bank and an insurance company of which he was the Chairman. In 1955, this came to the attention of the socialist parliamentarian Feroze Gandhi who was part of the ruling Congress party headed by his estranged father-in-law Jawaharlal Nehru. In December 1955, he raised the matter in the Parliament, documenting extensively the various fund transfers and intermediaries through which the acquisition had been financed. The case was investigated by the Vivian Bose Commission of Inquiry.


title: The Times Group

text: In the court case that followed, where he was represented by the leading British attorney Sir Dingle Mackintosh Foot, he was sentenced to two years in Tihar Jail. But for most of the jail term he managed to spend in hospital. Upon his release his son-in-law Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain to whom he had entrusted running of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. rebuffed his efforts to resume command of the company.


title: The Times Group

text: During his time in prison the company was run by his son-in-law Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain. Jain would buy the company a few years later and the company would be primarily run by his family in the years after. The company expanded its presence in the Indian media sphere by founding different papers and local editions of "The Times of India".


title: The Times Group

text: The Times of India press published a number of influential English (e.g. Illustrated Weekly of India 1880-1993) and Hindi magazines (e.g. Dharmyug 1949-1997, Sarika, Dinaman 1965-1990s, Parag 1958-1990s), edited by distinguished authors including Khushwant Singh, Dharmveer Bharti, Agyeya and Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena. However, the organisation faced financial difficulties, and most of them were closed down during the 1990s.


title: The Times Group

text: The sons of Sahu Ashok Jain, Sahu Samir Jain and Vineet Jain are credited with reviving the financial success of the group with newer and more profitable ventures.


title: The Times Group

text: Times Business Solutions – A division of Times Internet Limited is a limited company, wholly owned by Bennett Coleman Company Limited (The Times Group). TBS develops web sites within areas such as recruitment, real estate and matrimonials such as SimplyMarry.com.


title: The Times Group

text: TBS started as a division of BCCL in 2004 with the mission to create an exchange for job seekers and employers on the internet. With the growth of internet attaining rapid speed and being a highly profitable venture, Times Business Solutions – A division of Times Internet Limited was born as the ""Internet Initiatives"" of BCCL. Times Group, others put $20 million into Square Yards in Sep 2019.


title: The Times Group

text: Times Internet is an Indian company which owns, operates and invests in various Internet-led products, services and technology.


title: Sukumara Kurup

text: Sukumara Kurup (alias Sukumara Pillai) (born as P K Gopalakrishna Kurup) is an Indian fugitive and is one of the most-wanted criminals in the Indian state of Kerala. On 21 January 1984, he, along with his co-brother Bhaskara Pillai, his driver Ponnappan and his aide Shahu, murdered a man named Chacko in an attempt to fake Kurup's own death and thereby claim a life insurance amount of . The subterfuge was soon exposed by the police, who arrested Bhaskara Pillai, Ponnappan and Shahu. However, Kurup absconded from the state in the meantime. Notorious for being India's longest wanted fugitive, Kurup is still missing and untraced since 1984.


title: Sukumara Kurup

text: Chacko was forcefully intoxicated, poisoned and strangled to death and later the body was burnt inside an Ambassador car at night near Tannimukkam Puncha in Mavelikara. Sukumara Kurup allegedly committed the crime to fake his own death and claim an insurance amount of , by killing Chacko, who bore a striking resemblance to him. It is assumed that Kurup fled the country after the incident, while two of his three accomplices, driver Ponnappan and brother-in-law Bhaskara Pillai, were sentenced to a life-term imprisonment. His other accomplice, Chinnakkal Shahu, was arrested, but was later made an approver and released. He is the only living eye-witness of the murder of Chacko. According to the police, Sukumara Kurup is still on the list of absconding accused since January 1984.


title: Sukumara Kurup

text: The Chacko murder case is one of the longest-standing cases in the judicial history of Kerala. In 2018, Chacko's wife, Santhamma, told Bhaskaran that she forgives him and the others (including Kurup) when they met near the St Thomas Malankara Syrian Catholic Church at Chengannur.


title: Sukumara Kurup

text: The Chacko murder case is one case that caught the media's attention during the mid-2000s, when there were reports on Sukumara Kurup lookalikes from various parts of India. Since Kurup's remains still remain untraced, it's unclear as to whether he's dead or alive. Victims of his crime believe he could be alive and well in a foreign country based on what the investigating officer wrote while closing the case after 12 years of search (1984 to 1996): Kurup had fled from the country with the 72 hours head start he got and with possible help from political allies, cause after the murder came to light he was able to narrowly escape multiple times from the police.


title: Sukumara Kurup

text: However, it is believed by police that Kurup was found multiple times in India under the alias Joshi, and may have already passed away due to severe cardiac issues. Doctors that had attended him made the prognosis in 1990 that his condition was so bad that after fleeing, he couldn't have survived for long.


title: Sukumara Kurup

text: The 2016 Dileep starring movie "Pinneyum" by director Adoor Gopalakrishnan is loosely adapted from original criminal incident by Sukumara Kurup.


title: Sukumara Kurup

text: The 2021 crime thriller film, "Kurup", directed by Srinath Rajendran, was based on life and aftermath of Chacko murder case committed by Sukumara Kurup. Dulquer Salmaan played the role of Sukumara Kurup (credited as Sudhakara Kurup in the film) with Indrajith Sukumaran essaying the character of the lead investigation officer, S.P. Haridas I.P.S(credited as S.P. Krishnadas I.P.S in the film) and Tovino Thomas as Chacko (credited as Charlie in the film). The film is subject to fictitious themes and representation as well as adding a bit more story into the original case.


title: Shobha Kapoor

text: Shobha Kapoor (born 1 February 1949) is an Indian television, film and web series producer. She is the managing director of Balaji Telefilms Limited, a film, TV and web series production house in Mumbai, India, run by her and her daughter Ekta Kapoor.


title: Shobha Kapoor

text: Before marriage, she was an airhostess. Kapoor is married to actor Jeetendra. The couple has two children, Ekta Kapoor (b. 1975), who is a producer, and Tusshar Kapoor (b. 1976), who is an actor.


title: Shobha Kapoor

text: The following is the long list of motion pictures produced by Kapoor under her banner Balaji Motion Pictures.


title: Damian Harris

text: Damian David Harris (born 2 August 1958) is a British film director and screenwriter. He is the eldest son of the actor Richard Harris and socialite Elizabeth Rees-Williams.


title: Damian Harris

text: In 1968, Harris debuted on screen playing Miles in the film "Otley". At the age of 16, he appeared on his father's album of poetry and songs, "I, in the membership of my days", together with his brothers Jared and Jamie. Harris attended Downside School, Somerset, England. Later he studied screenwriting at New York University.


title: Damian Harris

text: He debuted as a director with short movies "Killing Time" (with Eric Stoltz) and "Greasy Lake" and then moved to full-length movies debuting with "The Rachel Papers", the adaptation of Martin Amis' novel. He has also directed episodes for several television series.


title: Damian Harris

text: Harris was born on 2 August 1958 in London, the eldest of three sons of the Irish actor Richard Harris and his first wife, Welsh actress Elizabeth Rees-Williams. His brothers are actors Jared Harris and Jamie Harris.


title: Damian Harris

text: In 1981, Harris married British actress Annabel Brooks. They have one child together, daughter Ella. Later the pair divorced. From 1997, up until their separation in 2002, Harris lived with Australian model and actress Peta Wilson. They have one child together, son Marlowe, born in February 2002.


title: Museo del Prado

text: The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on the former Spanish royal collection, and the single best collection of Spanish art. Founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture in 1819, it also contains important collections of other types of works. The Prado Museum is one of the most visited sites in the world, and is considered one of the greatest art museums in the world. The numerous works by Francisco Goya, the single most extensively represented artist, as well as by Hieronymus Bosch, El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, Titian, and Diego Velázquez, are some of the highlights of the collection. Velázquez and his keen eye and sensibility were also responsible for bringing much of the museum's fine collection of Italian masters to Spain, now one of the largest outside Italy.


title: Museo del Prado

text: The collection currently comprises around 8,200 drawings, 7,600 paintings, 4,800 prints, and 1,000 sculptures, in addition to many other works of art and historic documents. As of 2012, the museum displayed about 1,300 works in the main buildings, while around 3,100 works were on temporary loan to various museums and official institutions. The remainder were in storage.


title: Museo del Prado

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 attendance plunged by 76 percent to 852,161. Nonetheless, the Prado was ranked as the 16th most-visited museum in the list of most-visited art museums in the world in 2020. It is one of the largest museums in Spain.


title: Museo del Prado

text: The Prado, with the nearby Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Museo Reina Sofía, forms Madrid's Golden Triangle of Art, which was included in the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2021.


title: Museo del Prado

text: The building that is now the home of the Museo Nacional del Prado was designed in 1785 by architect of the Enlightenment in Spain Juan de Villanueva on the orders of Charles III to house the Natural History Cabinet. Nonetheless, the building's final function was not decided until the monarch's grandson, Ferdinand VII, encouraged by his wife, Queen María Isabel de Braganza, decided to use it as a new Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures. The royal museum, which would soon become known as the National Museum of Painting and Sculpture, and subsequently the Museo Nacional del Prado, opened to the public for the first time in November 1819. It was created with the double aim of showing the works of art belonging to the Spanish Crown and to demonstrate to the rest of Europe that Spanish art was of equal merit to any other national school. Also, this museum needed several renovations during the 19th and 20th centuries, because of the increase of the collection as well as the increase of the public who wants to see all the collection that the museum hosted.


title: Museo del Prado

text: The first catalogue of the museum, published in 1819 and solely devoted to Spanish painting, included 311 paintings, although at that time the museum housed 1,510 from the various royal residences, the Reales Sitios, including works from other schools. The exceptionally important royal collection, which forms the nucleus of the present-day Museo del Prado, started to increase significantly in the 16th century during the time of Charles V and continued under the succeeding Habsburg and Bourbon monarchs. Their efforts and determination led to the royal collection being enriched by some of the masterpieces now to be seen in the Prado. These include "The Descent from the Cross (van der Weyden)" by Rogier van der Weyden, "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymous Bosch, "The Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest" by El Greco, "Death of the Virgin (Mantegna)" by Mantegna, "The Holy Family", known as "La Perla (painting)", by Raphael, "Equestrian Portrait of Charles V" by Titian, "Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet" by Tintoretto, Dürer's "Self-portrait at 26", "Las Meninas" by Velázquez, "The Three Graces" by Rubens, and "The Family of Charles IV" by Goya.


title: Museo del Prado

text: In addition to works from the Spanish royal collection, other holdings increased and enriched the museum with further masterpieces, such as the two Majas by Goya. Among the now closed museums whose collections have been added to that of the Prado were the Museo de la Trinidad in 1872, and the Museo de Arte Moderno in 1971. In addition, numerous legacies, donations and purchases have been of crucial importance for the growth of the collection. Various works entered the Prado from the Museo de la Trinidad, including "The Fountain of Grace" by the School of Van Eyck, the Santo Domingo and San Pedro Martír altarpieces painted for the monastery of Santo Tomás in Ávila by Pedro Berruguete, and the five canvases by El Greco executed for the Colegio de doña María de Aragón. Most of the Museum's 19th-century paintings come from the former Museo de Arte Moderno, including works by the Madrazos, José de Madrazo y Agudo and Federico de Madrazo, Vicente López, Carlos de Haes, Eduardo Rosales and Sorolla.


title: Museo del Prado

text: Upon the deposition of Isabella II in 1868, the museum was nationalized and acquired the new name of "Museo del Prado". The building housed the royal collection of arts, and it rapidly proved too small. The first enlargement to the museum took place in 1918. Since the creation of the Museo del Prado more than 2,300 paintings have been incorporated into its collection, as well as numerous sculptures, prints, drawings and works of art through bequests, donations and purchases, which account for most of the New Acquisitions. Numerous bequests have enriched the museum's holdings, such as the outstanding collection of medals left to the museum by Pablo Bosch; the drawings and items of decorative art left by Pedro Fernández Durán as well as Van der Weyden's masterpiece, "Duran Madonna"; and the Ramón de Errazu bequest of 19th-century paintings. Particularly important donations include Barón Emile d'Erlanger's gift of Goya's Black Paintings in 1881. Among the numerous works that have entered the collection through purchase are some outstanding ones acquired in recent years including two works by El Greco, "The Fable" and "The Flight into Egypt" acquired in 1993 and 2001, Goya's "The Countess of Chinchon" bought in 2000, Velázquez's "Portrait of Ferdinando Brandani", acquired in 2003, Bruegel's "The Wine of Saint Martin's Day" bought in 2010 and Fra Angelico's "Madonna of the Pomegranate" purchased in 2016.


title: Museo del Prado

text: Between 1873 and 1900, the Prado helped decorate city halls, new universities, and churches. During the Second Spanish Republic from 1931 to 1936, the focus was on developing provincial museums. During the Spanish Civil War, upon the recommendation of the League of Nations, the museum staff removed 353 paintings, 168 drawings and the Dauphin's Treasure and sent the art to Valencia, then later to Girona, and finally to Geneva. The art had to be returned across French territory in night trains to the museum upon the commencement of World War II. During the early years of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, many paintings were sent to embassies.


title: Museo del Prado

text: The main building was enlarged with short pavilions in the rear between 1900 and 1960. The next enlargement was the incorporation of two buildings (nearby but not adjacent) into the institutional structure of the museum: the Casón del Buen Retiro, which is equipped to display up to 400 paintings and which housed the bulk of the 20th-century art from 1971 to 1997, and the Salón de Reinos (Throne building), formerly the Army Museum.


title: Museo del Prado

text: In 1993, an extension proposed by the Prado's director at the time, Felipe Garin, was quickly abandoned after a wave of criticism. In the late 1990s, a $14 million roof work forced the Velázquez masterpiece "Las Meninas" to change galleries twice. In 1998, the Prado annex in the nearby Casón del Buen Retiro closed for a $10 million two-year overhaul that included three new underground levels. In 2007, the museum finally executed Rafael Moneo's project to expand its exposition room to 16,000 square meters, hoping to increase the yearly number of visitors from 1.8 million to 2.5 million.


title: Museo del Prado

text: A glass-roofed and wedge-shaped foyer now contains the museum's shops and cafeteria, removing them from the main building to make more room for galleries. The 16th-century Cloister of Jerónimo has been removed stone by stone to make foundations for increased stability of surrounding buildings and will be re-assembled in the new museum's extension. Hydraulic jacks had to be used to prevent the basement walls from falling during construction.


title: Museo del Prado

text: In November 2016, it was announced that British architect Norman Foster, in a joint project with Carlos Rubio Carvajal, is to renovate the Hall of Realms, which once formed part of the Buen Retiro palace and transform it into a $32 million extension of the Prado. The museum announced the selection of Foster and Rubio after a jury reviewed the proposals of the eight competition finalists – including David Chipperfield, Rem Koolhaas and Eduardo Souto de Moura –, who had already been shortlisted from an initial list of 47 international teams of architects. The building was acquired by the Prado in 2015, after having served as an army museum until 2005. The project is designed to give the Prado about 61,500 square feet of additional available space, of which about 27,000 square feet will be used to exhibit works. Only in 2021, the Spanish government approved the plans and awarded the project 36 million euros.


title: Museo del Prado

text: The Prado Museum building is one of the buildings constructed during the reign of Charles III (Carlos III) as part of a grandiose building scheme designed to bestow upon Madrid a monumental urban space. The building was initially conceived by José Moñino y Redondo, count of Floridablanca, and was commissioned in 1785 by Charles III for the "reurbanización" of the Paseo del Prado. To this end, Charles III called on one of his favorite architects, Juan de Villanueva, author also of the nearby Botanical Garden and the City Hall of Madrid.


title: Museo del Prado

text: The "prado" ("meadow") that was where the museum now stands gave its name to the area, the Salón del Prado (later Paseo del Prado), and to the museum itself upon nationalisation. Work on the building stopped at the conclusion of Charles III's reign and throughout the Peninsular War and was only initiated again during the reign of Charles III's grandson, Ferdinand VII. The premises had been used as headquarters for the cavalry and a gunpowder-store for the Napoleonic troops based in Madrid during the war.


title: Museo del Prado

text: The next renovations that this museum will undergo will be conducted by British architect Norman Foster. This renovation was approved in June 2020 and is expected to take a minimum of four years.


title: Museo del Prado

text: Until the early 2000s, the Prado's annual income was approximately $18 million, $15 million of which came from the government and the remainder from private contributions, publications, and admissions. In 2001, the conservative government of José María Aznar decided to change the museum's financing platform, ushering in a public-private partnership. Under its new bylaws, which the Cortes Generales approved in 2003, the Prado must gradually reduce its level of state support to 50 percent from 80 percent. In exchange, the museum gained control of the budget — now roughly €35 million — and the power to raise money from corporate donations and merchandising. However, its recent €150 million expansion was paid for by the Spanish state.


title: Museo del Prado

text: In 1991, Manuel Villaescusa bequeathed his fortune of nearly $40 million in Madrid real estate to the Prado, to be used solely for the acquisition of paintings. The museum subsequently sold Villaescusa's buildings to realize income from them. The bequest suddenly made the Prado one of the most formidable bidders for paintings in the world.


title: Museo del Prado

text: The first four directors were drawn from nobility. From 1838 to 1960, the directors were mostly artists. Since then, most of them have been art historians.


title: Museo del Prado

text: In 2009, the Prado Museum selected 14 of its most important paintings to be displayed in Google Earth and Google Maps at extremely high resolution, with the largest displayed at 14,000 megapixels. The images' zoom capability allows for close-up views of paint texture and fine detail.


title: Museo del Prado

text: A few meters away there are two museums of international significance, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Museo Reina Sofía.


title: Museo del Prado

text: Nearby is the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. The Museo Arqueológico houses the archaeological collections formerly in the collection of the Prado, with works from Spain, Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome.


title: Museo del Prado

text: Between 8 November 2011 and 25 March 2012, a group of 179 works of art were brought to the Museo del Prado from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Notable works included:


title: Museo del Prado

text: Conversely, for the first time in its 200-year history, the Museo del Prado has toured an exhibition of its renowned collection of Italian masterpieces at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, from 16 May 2014 until 31 August 2014. Many of the works have never before left Spain.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: Southern Airways Flight 932 was a chartered Southern Airways Douglas DC-9 domestic United States commercial jet flight from Stallings Field (ISO) in Kinston, North Carolina, to Huntington Tri-State Airport/Milton J. Ferguson Field (HTS) near Kenova and Ceredo, West Virginia. At 7:36 pm on November 14, 1970, the aircraft crashed into a hill just short of the Tri-State Airport, killing all 75 people on board in what has been recognized as "the worst sports-related air tragedy in U.S. history".


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: The plane was carrying 37 members of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team, eight members of the coaching staff, 25 boosters, two pilots, two flight attendants, and a charter coordinator. The team was returning home after a 17–14 loss to the East Carolina Pirates at Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: At the time, Marshall's athletic teams rarely traveled by plane, since most away games were within easy driving distance of the campus. The team originally planned to cancel the flight, but changed plans and chartered the Southern Airways DC-9. The accident is the deadliest tragedy to have affected any sports team in U.S. history.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: It was the second college football team plane crash in a little over a month, after the October 2 crash that killed 31 (head coach, 14 Wichita State players, and 16 others).


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: The aircraft was a 95-seat, twin-jet engine Douglas DC-9-30 with tail registration N97S. The airliner's crew was Captain Frank Abbot (47), First Officer Jerry Smith (28), plus two flight attendants. All were qualified for the flight. This flight was the only flight that year for the Marshall University football team.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: The original proposal to charter the flight was refused because it would exceed "the takeoff limitations of their aircraft". The subsequent negotiations resulted in a reduction of the weight of passengers and baggage... and the charter flight was scheduled." The airliner left Stallings Field at Kinston, North Carolina, and the flight proceeded to Huntington without incident. The crew established radio contact with air traffic controllers at 7:23 pm with instructions to descend to . The controllers advised the crew that "rain, fog, smoke and a ragged ceiling" were at the airport, making landing more difficult, but possible. At 7:34 pm, the airliner's crew reported passing Tri-State Airport's outer marker. The controller gave them clearance to land. The aircraft began its normal descent after passing the outer marker, but did not arrest its descent and hold altitude at , as required by the assigned instrument approach procedure. Instead, the descent continued for another for unknown reasons, apparently without either crew member actually seeing the airport lights or runway. In the transcript of their cockpit communications in the final minutes, the pilots briefly debated that their autopilot had "captured" for a glide slope descent, although the airport was only equipped with a localizer. The report also noted that the craft approached the Catlettsburg Refinery in the final 30 seconds before impact, which "could have...affected...a visual illusion produced by the difference in the elevation of the refinery and the airport," which was nearly higher than the refinery, with hills in between. The co-pilot, monitoring the altimeter, called out, "It's beginning to lighten up a little bit on the ground here at... seven hundred feet... We're two hundred above [the descent vector]," and the charter coordinator replied, "Bet it'll be a missed approach." The corresponding flight recorder shows that the craft descended another in elevation within these 12 seconds, and the co-pilot calls out "four hundred" and agrees with the pilot they are on the correct "approach." In the next second, though, the co-pilot quickly calls out new readings, "hundred and twenty-six ... hundred", and the sounds of impact immediately follow.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: The airliner continued on final approach to Tri-State Airport when it collided with the tops of trees on a hillside west of runway 11 (now runway 12). The plane burst into flames and created a swath of charred ground wide and long. According to the official National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report, the accident was "unsurvivable". The aircraft "dipped to the right, almost inverted, and had crashed into a hollow 'nose-first'". By the time the plane came to a stop, it was short of the runway and south of the middle marker. Although the airport runway has since been lengthened past its original threshold, making historical measurements more difficult, the NTSB official report provides, "the accident occurred during hours of darkness at 38° 22' 27" N. latitude and 82° 34' 42" W. longitude." The report additionally notes, "Most of the fuselage was melted or reduced to a powder-like substance; however, several large pieces were scattered throughout the burned area." The remains of six passengers were never identified.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: The NTSB investigated the accident and its final report was issued on April 14, 1972. In the report, the NTSB concluded, "[...] the probable cause of this accident was the descent below Minimum Descent Altitude during a nonprecision approach under adverse operating conditions, without visual contact with the runway environment". They further stated, "The Board has been unable to determine the reason for this [greater] descent, although the two most likely explanations are (a) improper use of cockpit instrumentation data, or (b) an altimetry system error." At least one source says that water that had seeped into the plane's altimeter could have thrown off its height readings, leading the pilots to believe the plane was higher than was actually the case.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: The board made three recommendations as a result of this accident, including recommendations for heads-up displays, ground proximity warning devices, and surveillance and inspection of flight operations.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: On November 15, 1970, a memorial service was held at the indoor, 8,500-seat Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse with moments of silence, remembrances, and prayers. The following Saturday, another memorial service was held at the outdoor, 18,000-seat Fairfield Stadium. Across the nation, many expressed their condolences. Classes at Marshall, along with numerous events and shows by the Marshall Artists Series (and the football team's game against the Ohio Bobcats), were cancelled and government offices were closed. A mass funeral was held at the field house and many of the dead were buried at the Spring Hill Cemetery, some together because bodies were not identifiable.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: The effects of the crash on Huntington went far beyond the Marshall campus. Because it was the Herd's only charter flight of the season, boosters and prominent citizens were on the plane, including a city councilman, a state legislator, and four physicians. Seventy children had at least one parent die in the crash, with 18 of them left orphaned.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: The crash of Flight 932 so devastated the local community that it almost led to the discontinuation of Marshall's football program. New coach Jack Lengyel, Marshall University students, and Thundering Herd football fans convinced acting Marshall president, Donald N. Dedmon, to reconsider cancelling the program in late 1970. In the following weeks, Lengyel was aided in his attempts by receivers' coach Red Dawson. Dawson was a coach from the previous staff who had driven back from the East Carolina game along with Gail Parker, a freshman coach. Parker flew to the game, but did not fly back, having switched places with Deke Brackett, another coach. Dawson and Parker were buying boiled peanuts at a country store in rural Virginia when they heard the news over the radio. Before the trip, they were scheduled to go on a recruiting mission to Ferrum College after the ECU–Marshall game, in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to recruit junior college linebacker Billy Joe Mantooth. After the crash, Red Dawson helped bring together a group of players who were on the junior varsity football team during the 1970 season, as well as students and athletes from other sports, to form a 1971 football team.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: Head coach Rick Tolley was among the crash victims. Lengyel was named to take Tolley's place on March 12, 1971, after Dick Bestwick, the first choice for the job, backed out after just one week and returned to Georgia Tech. Lengyel, who came from a coaching job at the College of Wooster, was hired by the recently hired athletic director Joe McMullen, under whom he had previously worked at the University of Akron in the 1950s.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: The Marshall University football team only won two games during the 1971 season, against Xavier and Bowling Green. Lengyel led the Thundering Herd to a 9–33 record during his tenure, which ended after the 1974 season.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: Marshall University President John G. Barker and Vice President Dedmon appointed a memorial committee soon after the crash. The committee decided upon one major memorial within the campus, a plaque and memorial garden at Fairfield Stadium, and a granite cenotaph at the Spring Hill Cemetery; the Memorial Student Center was designated a memorial as well.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: On November 12, 1972, the Memorial Fountain was dedicated at the entrance of the Memorial Student Center. The sculpture's designer, Harry Bertoia, created the $25,000 memorial that incorporated bronze, copper tubing, and welding rods. The 6500 lb, 13 ft-high (2900 kg, 4 m-high) sculpture was completed within a year and a half. A plaque was placed on the base on August 10, 1973, reading:


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: Every year, on the anniversary of the crash, the fountain is shut off during a commemorative ceremony and not activated again until the following spring.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: Each year on the anniversary of the crash, those who died are mourned in a ceremony on the Marshall University campus in Huntington, West Virginia. A number of the victims are buried in a grave site in the Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington; 20th Street between Joan C. Edwards Stadium, Marshall's current on-campus football stadium, and Spring Hill Cemetery was renamed Marshall Memorial Boulevard in honor of the crash victims.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: On November 11, 2000, the "We Are Marshall Memorial Bronze" was dedicated. The bronze 17×23 ft (5×7 m) statue was created by artist Burl Jones of Sissonville, West Virginia, and cost $150,000. It is based upon ideas by John and Ann Krieger of Huntington. It was donated to the university by Marshall fans and is attached to Joan C. Edwards Stadium on the west façade. It was unveiled to thousands 90 minutes before the game with the Miami University RedHawks.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: On December 11, 2006, a memorial plaque was dedicated at the plane crash site. The ceremony featured guest speakers Dawson and Hardin. The Ceredo and Kenova fire departments were recognized at the event.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: Another plaque memorializing the 1970 Marshall football team was unveiled at East Carolina University on the same day and can be seen at the guest team entrance of Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium. Featured speakers were Chancellor Steve Ballard, Athletic Director Terry Holland, Pirates' broadcaster Jeff Charles, and Marshall president, Stephen Kopp.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: November 14, 2013, marked the first time that Marshall had played a road game on an anniversary of the disaster. As a memorial to the 75 victims, the Marshall players wore the number 75 on their helmets. The tribute was repeated for the rest of the season, including when Marshall met Rice in the 2013 Conference USA Football Championship game.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: Marshall was scheduled to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the air disaster in their football season opener on August 29, 2020. The opponent was scheduled to be East Carolina—the same team that defeated Marshall before the disaster took place. That game did not occur due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Southern Airways Flight 932

text: The events of the crash are documented in an episode of "Aircrash Confidential" titled "Disastrous Descents".


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Chelyabinsk (; , "Siläbe") is the administrative center and largest city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the seventh-largest city in Russia, with a population of over 1.1 million people, and the second-largest city in the Ural Federal District, after Yekaterinburg. Chelyabinsk runs along the Miass River, and is just east of the Ural Mountains.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The area of Chelyabinsk contained the ancient settlement of Arkaim, which belonged to the Sintashta culture. In 1736, a fortress by the name of Chelyaba was founded on the site of a Bashkir village. Chelyabinsk was granted town status by 1787. Chelyabinsk began to grow rapidly by the early 20th century as a result of the construction of railway links from the Russian core to Siberia, including the Trans-Siberian Railway. Its population reached 70,000 by 1917. Under the Soviet Union, Chelyabinsk became a major industrial centre during the 1930s. The Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant was built in 1933. During World War II, the city was a major contributor to the manufacture of tanks and ammunition.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Chelyabinsk remains an important industrial centre, especially heavy industries such as metallurgy and military production. It is home to several educational institutions, mainly South Ural State University and Chelyabinsk State University.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Archaeologists have discovered ruins of the ancient town of Arkaim in the vicinity of the city of Chelyabinsk. Ruins and artifacts in Arkaim and other sites in the region indicate a relatively advanced civilization existing in the area since the 2nd millennium BC, which was of proto-Indo-Iranian origin.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The Arkaim site, located in the Sintashta-Petrovka cultural area, was known by Russian archaeologists for at least 70 years, however it was mostly ignored by non-Russian anthropological circles. The borders of the Sintashta-Petrovka cultural area run along the eastern Urals of the Eurasian steppe to about 400 km south of Chelyabinsk and to the east for about 200 km. 23 archaeological sites are recognized as being part of this area.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The sites resemble towns, laid out in round, square, or oval shapes. Although most of the sites have been discovered by aerial photography, only two, Arkaim and Sintashta, have been thoroughly excavated. These sites are characterized by their fortification, connected houses, and extensive evidence of metallurgy.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The people of the Sintashta culture are thought to have spoken Proto-Indo-Iranian, the ancestor of the Indo-Iranian language family. This identification is based primarily on similarities between their language in comparison to sections of the "Rigveda", and based on funerary rituals of the Sintashta culture, as revealed by archaeological studies in the area.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The fortress of Chelyaba, from which the city takes its name, was founded at the location of the Bashkir village of Chelyaby () by colonel Alexey (Kutlu-Muhammed) Tevkelev in 1736 to protect the surrounding trade routes from possible attacks by Bashkir outlaws. During Pugachev's Rebellion, the fortress withstood a siege by the rebel forces in 1774, but was eventually captured for several months in 1775. In 1782, Chelyabinsk became a seat of the uyezd of Ufa Viceroyalty, which was later reformed into Orenburg Governorate. In 1787, Chelyabinsk was granted town status by the government.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Until the late 19th century, Chelyabinsk was a small provincial town. In 1892, the Samara-Zlatoust Railway was completed, which connected it with Moscow and the rest of European Russia. Also in 1892, construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway started from Chelyabinsk, and in 1896, the city was linked to Ekaterinburg. Chelyabinsk then became the main hub for travel to Siberia. For fifteen years, more than fifteen million people - a tenth of Russia's population at the time - passed through Chelyabinsk. Some of them remained in Chelyabinsk, which contributed to its rapid growth. In addition a so-called “customs fracture” was created in Chelyabinsk, which imposed duties on the shipment of goods between the European and Asian parts of Russia, which led to the emergence of mills and notably, a tea-packing factory. As a result, Chelyabinsk became a major trade center. Its population reached 20,000 inhabitants by 1897, 45,000 by 1913, and 70,000 by 1917. Because of its rapid growth at the turn of the 20th century, similar to that of midwestern American cities, Chelyabinsk was sometimes called "the Chicago of the Urals".


title: Chelyabinsk

text: During the first five-year plans of the 1930s, Chelyabinsk experienced rapid industrial growth. Several important factories, including the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant and the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant, were built at this time. During World War II, Joseph Stalin decided to move a large part of Soviet manufacturing to areas removed from the reach of the advancing German military as part of a general exodus from western occupied areas. This brought new industries and thousands of workers to Chelyabinsk, including facilities for the production of T-34 tanks and Katyusha rocket launchers. During World War II, the city's industries produced 18,000 tanks and 48,500 tank diesel engines as well as over 17 million units of ammunition. During that time Chelyabinsk was informally called “Tankograd” (English: “Tank City”). During World War II, the S.M. Kirov Factory no. 185 or “OKMO” was moved to Chelyabinsk from Leningrad to produce heavy tanks, although it was transferred to Omsk after 1962.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Shortly after dawn on February 15, 2013, a superbolide meteor descended at over over the Ural Mountains, exploding at an altitude of .


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The meteor created a momentary flash as bright as the sun and generated a shock wave that injured over a thousand people. Fragments fell in and around Chelyabinsk. Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov said 1,100 people had called for medical assistance following the incident, mostly for treatment of injuries from broken glass by the explosions. One woman suffered a broken spine. Kolesnikov also said about of a roof at a zinc factory had collapsed. A spokeswoman for the Emergency Ministry told the Associated Press that there was a meteor shower; however, another ministry spokeswoman was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying it was a single meteor. The size has been estimated at diameter with a mass of 10,000 or 11,000 metric tons. The power of the explosion was about 500 kilotons of TNT (about 1.8 PJ), which is 20–30 times more energy than was released from the atomic bomb detonated in Hiroshima. The city managed to avoid large casualties and destruction due to the high altitude of the explosion.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Chelyabinsk is the administrative center of the oblast. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as the City of Chelyabinsk, an administrative unit with a status equal to that of the oblast's districts. As a municipal division, the City of Chelyabinsk is incorporated as Chelyabinsky Urban Okrug. In June 2014, Chelyabinsk's seven city districts were granted civil status.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Chelyabinsk is located east of the Ural Mountains, 200 km (100 miles) south of Yekaterinburg. It is elevated 200-250 meters (650' to 825') above sea level.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The city is bisected by the Miass River, which is regarded as the border between the Urals and Siberia. This is reflected in the geology of the area, with the granite foothills of the Ural Mountains to the west and the lower sedimentary rock of the West Siberian Plain to the east.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The Leningrad bridge crosses the river, due to this it is known as “the bridge between the Urals and Siberia". Chelyabinsk itself is also known as "the gateway to Siberia".


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Like Rome, Constantinople, San Francisco and Moscow, Chelyabinsk is said to be located on seven hills.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The city of Chelyabinsk developed as a fortress. The first streets began to appear soon after the construction of the fortress on the right (southern) bank of the Miass River - already in September 1736. No residential buildings were built directly in the fortress itself; the houses of the inhabitants were located in the adjoining settlement, which was surrounded by a defensive wall. The very first street was formed between the northern wall of the fortress and the Miass River. A fragment of it is shown already in the foreground of the Chelyabinsk Fortress, attached by Colonel A.I. Tevkelev to his report to V.N. Tatishchev on September 10, 1736. Soon it received the name Sibirskaya (now Truda Street), since outside Chelyabinsk it crossed into the Siberian tract leading to Tobolsk. Apparently, there were also other names: in a number of sources it is called Bolshaya Beregovaya, as mentioned in a document dated March 10, 1753 The western end of the street in the last years of the 18th century acquired an independent name - on the pasture near the outskirts of the Ivanovo fair appeared. Apparently, according to it, this part of the street began to be called Sibirskaya-Ivanovskaya (as it is called in the list of 1795). Then, already in the 19th century, it was a little later upstream and downstream of the Miass (that is, west and east of the fortress). Perpendicular to the river, several more streets were planned. At first there were four of them - two each on the western and eastern sides. The first street to the east got its name from the first Chelyabinsk church, consecrated in 1739 in honor of Nicholas the Wonderworker - Nikolaevskaya street (nowadays Sovetskaya). It was one-sided and went west towards the church and the fortress. After the Chelyabinsk fortress was assigned the status of the center of the Isetskaya province in 1743, the construction of administrative buildings began here, and another street was formed between Nikolaevskaya Street and the square with the church, ending in the south with the Orenburg Gate and continuing further after the then city limit by the road to Orenburg - Orenburgskaya (now Tsvillinga Street). On Orenburgskaya Street, in 1787 only four courtyards were counted, and in the list of 1795 it was already called Khristorozhdestvenskaya, and there were eleven courtyards on it. In the 18th and first half of the 19th century, Khristorozhdestvenskaya Street was the main street in the city, it was the place where its social and business life was concentrated. The urban planning on the territory of the historical center of Chelyabinsk almost without changes coincides with the plan of Chelyabinsk in 1838. The Chelyabinsk fortress was built in the center of this territory in 1736. The plan of 1784 was supposed to streamline not only the layout of the city, but the development and maintenance of quarters. Along with the city center, a district center and a second city square are being laid in the riverside part. The plans of 1768 and 1784 were not carried out, though the existing Troitskaya Square, Truda Street and Tsvilinga Street are historical traces remained of them. In 1838, the land surveyor Sidorov drew up a new plan to streamline the city. In many ways, it was the starting point for the further development of the city.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: By 1934, during the Soviet period and the mass industrialization, about 250 thousand people lived in the city. Large-scale urban planning tasks necessitated the development of the first master plan of the city, executed under the guidance of the architect N. G. Eismont in 1936 (Leningrad branch of Giprogor, architects N. G. Berlinerblau, S. M. Gotlib, N. V. Gromov, K. M. Zaichenko and A. M. Suborov). The estimated population according to the general plan of 1936 was to reach 550 thousand people. The city developed around the historical core, including by cutting down the island birch forest, in the planning of the central part, a rectangular grid of streets was preserved, but with the enlargement of quarters. The Metallurgichesky, Traktorozavodsky and Leninsky district were built and developed with heavy industry. Along with the city center, the centers of 5 administrative districts were planned, interconnected by a system of transport highways. The main street - Spartak Street (now Lenin Avenue) - appears as a link between the Traktorozavodsky district, Revolution Square and the future ensemble of the pre-park square. Historically developed streets of Kirov and Zwilling connected the main square of the city with the system of squares in Zarechye. The master plan of 1936 provided for the creation of urban recreation areas on the basis of Shershnevsky Bor and Lake Smolino, for the first time the issue of creating a large reservoir on the Miass River (Shershnevskoye reservoir) was raised.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The war prevented the implementation of the master plan in full. The Chelyabinsk industrial complex has become a deep rear defense base of the country. The relocation of 60 industrial enterprises from the center of the country, the evacuation of the population were accompanied by mass construction of isolated villages from barracks and dugouts in free territories. At the same time, the urban area has grown significantly. The need to streamline the development of the post-war city is one of the driving reasons for the development of a new master plan, carried out in 1947 under the leadership of D. D. Bagarin (Lengiprogor, architects A. Slonimsky, L. Vertousov, engineers J. Rotenberg, I. Benevich and others). The second general plan is designed for a city with a population of more than 700 thousand people (in 1946, 450 thousand people lived in the city). Chelyabinsk was considered as a center of energy-intensive production, so the main attention was paid to the formation of 4 industrial hubs based on the capacities of existing enterprises. The main architectural and planning idea was the unification of disparate parts of the city into a single organism - was transferred from the general plan of the pre-war period. Along with the territory of the districts that had reserves for development (Traktorozavodsky - towards Lake First, Metallurgical - with partial use of the territory of Kashtaksky Bor, Leninsky - to Lake Smolino), new sites for promising construction were envisaged (North-West and Churilovo). The issues of transport construction were actively resolved: the creation of a bypass ring highway connecting the city districts, the routing of the main highways from east to west (Pobedy Avenue, Khudyakov - Dzerzhinsky) and from north to south ("Meridian" and Tchaikovsky Street) with access to the main roads beyond outside the city. In 1951, the master plan was adjusted in terms of the number of floors of the building: the share of multi-storey (up to 5 floors) buildings increased by reducing the share of 2-story and estate buildings to 25%.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The third master plan of the city (1967) was developed by the team of authors of the Chelyabinskgrazhdanproekt Institute. The city had a population of 857,000. The main architectural and planning idea was the active inclusion in the composition of the city of Shershnevsky and Kashtak forests, the Shershnevsky reservoir and the Miass River. Building on the free territories of the northwestern residential area, designed for a population of up to 300 thousand people, as a new direction for the development of the city, proposed by the master plan, has been carried out since the late 60s. The existing historically polycentric system of the center was enriched by the creation of new complexes: at the turn of the river near the Garden Island, along Tchaikovsky Street and the three-beam center of the northwest. The master plan of 1967 provided for the creation of new main streets and a ring road, the construction of bridges and overpasses, which was planned free the city center from transit traffic. In 1990 new city plan was approved and again in 2021.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The city has a humid continental climate (Köppen: "Dfb") similar to that of the Canadian prairies, despite being located further north. The average temperature in January is well below the freezing point at . July has a relatively cool average of , and the annual average is a few degrees above the freezing point at , indicating some moderation. The range of extremes allegedly reaches , claimed to be typical of a mid-latitude climate on a large continent such as Eurasia.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The majority of precipitation occurs in the summer, with less in the winter. The month of July experiences the most, with an average of precipitation, while January, the driest month, experiences . Total precipitation reaches an average of annually, consistent with the city's semi-arid influence. On average, 119 days of the year experience precipitation.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: As of 2020, the population of Chelyabinsk is 1,196,680; up from 1,130,132 recorded in the 2010 Census.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: At the time of the official 2010 Census, the ethnic makeup of the city's population whose ethnicity was known (1,082,269) was:


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The architecture of Chelyabinsk has been shaped through its history by the progression of historical eras in Russia. Before the 1917 Russian Revolution, the city was a trading center, with numerous merchant buildings in the eclectic and modern styles with elements of Russian Revival architecture, some of which are preserved on the pedestrian-only Kirovka Street.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Industrialization in Chelyabinsk started in the late 1920s. The construction of large plants was accompanied by the construction of new residential and public buildings in the constructivist style. Entire constructivist neighborhoods can be seen in the area of the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: In the late 1930s, a new era began in the city, with large-scale construction of Stalinist architecture. Many of the buildings in and around the city center and central avenue are constructed in this style.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The next 60 years saw extensive construction of residential high-rise buildings as the city's population rose to about one million, notably within the large residential area called "Severo-Zapad" (English: North-West).


title: Chelyabinsk

text: With the market reforms of the 1990s, there was an increase in the construction of office buildings and major shopping malls in postmodern and high-tech styles.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Chelyabinsk has seventeen public parks. The largest is Gagarin Central Park. Its territory includes large areas of rocky and forested terrain, located around several now-flooded abandoned quarries.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: There are over a dozen universities in Chelyabinsk. The oldest, Chelyabinsk State Agroengineering Academy, was founded in 1930, followed by the Chelyabinsk State Pedagogical University in 1934. Major universities include South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk State University, South Ural State University of Arts, and Chelyabinsk Medical Academy. After World War II, Chelyabinsk became the main center of vocational education of the entire Ural region.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Chelyabinsk is one of the major industrial centers of Russia. Heavy industries, especially metallurgy and military production, are predominant in the area, notably the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Combinate (CMK, ChMK), owned by the mining corporation Mechel. Other important industries include Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (CTZ, ChTZ), Chelyabinsk Electrode Plant (ChEZ), the machine part-producing Chelyabinsk Forge-and-Press Plant (ChKPZ), the crane-producing Chelyabinsk Mechanical Plant (ChMZ), and Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ), which is included in the "Big Eight" of pipe producers in Russia, and produces large-diameter pipes for use in pipelines. Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant, owned by the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, produces about 2% of the world's zinc supply and over 60% of the Russian supply. Kolyuschenko Road Machinery Plant produces construction machinery and dump trucks for the American manufacturer Terex.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Molnija Watch Factory produces pocket watches, as well as technical watches for use in aircraft and ships. In 1980, Molnija watches were given as gifts to participants of the Moscow Olympic Games.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The agro-industrial company Makfa, the largest producer of pasta in Russia, and one of the five largest producers in the world, is based in Chelyabinsk. The largest manufacturer of footwear in Russia, Unichel Footwear Firm, owns a factory in Chelyabinsk. Chelyabinsk is also home to the agricultural firm Ariant, which leads in the production of beverages and meat products in the Urals Federal District of Russia. The American corporation Emerson Electric owns part of the local company Metran, as well as a factory for the production of industrial equipment.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: In recent years, Chelyabinsk has had a significant role in other sectors of the Russian economy, hosting insurance firms, logistics centers, tourism, And important regional banking firms, such as Chelindbank and Chelyabinvestbank.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: There are several large shopping malls. The largest of them are Gorky (English: Hills), built in 2007 with an area of 55,000 meters (13½ acres), and Rodnik (English: Spring) built in 2011 with an area 135,000 meters (33¼ acres). At least two more are under construction: Almaz (English: Diamond), and Cloud, beginning construction in 2015 and 2018, with planned areas of 220,000 and 350,000 meters (54¼ and 86½ acres), respectively.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Public transport in Chelyabinsk consists of bus (since 1925), tram (since 1932) and trolleybus (since 1942) networks, as well as private "marshrutka" (routed cab) services. The city has several taxi companies.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: In 2011 the telecommunications company Beeline and Chelyabinsk city transport signed an agreement to provide passengers free internet. Currently Wi-Fi is available in some public trams and trolleybuses in Chelyabinsk.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: In recent history, Chelyabinsk has hosted several important sporting events, especially in martial arts. These events include the 2012 European Judo Championships, the 2014 World Judo Championships, and the 2015 World Taekwondo Championships. 2015 also saw Chelyabinsk host the European Speed Skating Championships. In 2018, Chelyabinsk and nearby Magnitogorsk hosted the IIHF World U18 Championship.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The city has several libraries, notably Chelyabinsk Regional Universal Scientific Library, the largest public library in the Chelyabinsk Oblast. The library has more than 2 million books, over 12,000 of which are rare, originating from the 17th to 19th centuries.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Chelyabinsk is home to several theatres. The Chelyabinsk Opera and Ballet Theatre, also known as the Glinka State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, was built in 1936–55 on the site of the former Nativity Cathedral, which existed from 1748 to 1932. The opening of the theatre eventually took place on September 29, 1956, with a production of Alexander Borodin's "Prince Igor". Others include the Nahum Orlov State Academic Drama Theatre, Chelyabinsk State Chamber Theater, Chelyabinsk State Puppet Theater, Chelyabinsk State Youth Theatre, Mannequin Theater, Chelyabinsk New Arts Theatre, and Chelyabinsk Contemporary Dance Theatre.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: There are nine museums in Chelyabinsk. Chelyabinsk Regional Museum was founded in 1913 and holds about 300,000 exhibits. Important expositions include the "Land of Cities" exhibit relating to the 2nd and 3rd millennium BCE settlement of Arkaim, the 570 kg largest fragment of the Chelyabinsk meteor, ornate 19th and 20th century blades made by Zlatoust arms factory, exhibits of Kasli artistic cast iron, and much more.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Chelyabinsk Regional Picture Gallery has more than 11,000 works. The museum displays collections of Russian, European, and international works originating from the Middle Ages to modern times. The museum has significant collections of religious icons from the 16th to 20th centuries, along with early printed books and manuscripts.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The Museum of History of the Southern Ural Railway hosts more than 30 exhibits of equipment used on the railway after its opening in Chelyabinsk in 1892.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: The Museum of Military Equipment in the Garden of Victory was founded in 2007. It has 16 exhibits, including models of T-34 and IS-3 tanks, along with Katyusha rocket launchers produced in Chelyabinsk during World War II.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: In addition, the city is home to the Chelyabinsk Regional Geological Museum, the Malgobekskii Museum of Military and Labor Glory, the Chelyabinsk Postal Service Museum, and the Entertaining Sciences Museum Eksperimentus.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Chelyabinsk Zoo is located in the central region of Chelyabinsk. It has an area of 30 hectares (75 acres) with more than 110 species of animals, of which more than 80 are listed in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation. The zoo participates in international programs for the conservation of endangered species, including amur (siberian) tigers, far eastern leopards and polar bears. The zoo holds regular sightseeing tours, lectures, exhibitions and celebrations.


title: Chelyabinsk

text: Other cultural attractions include the Chelyabinsk State Circus, the Chelyabinsk State Philharmonic Concert Hall named after Sergei Prokofiev, and Organ and Chamber Music Hall Rodina.


title: Marriageable age

text: Marriageable age (or marriage age) is the general age, as a legal age or as the minimum age subject to parental, religious or other forms of social approval, at which a person is legitimately allowed for marriage. Age and other prerequisites to marriage vary between jurisdictions, but in the vast majority of jurisdictions, the marriage age as a right is set at the age of majority. Nevertheless, most jurisdictions allow marriage at a younger age with parental or judicial approval, and some also allow adolescents to marry if the female is pregnant. The age of marriage is most commonly 18 years old, but there are variations, some higher and some lower. The marriageable age should not be confused with the age of majority or the age of consent, though they may be the same in many places.


title: Marriageable age

text: The 55 parties to the 1962 Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registration of Marriages have agreed to specify a minimum marriage age by statute law‚ to override customary, religious, and tribal laws and traditions. When the marriageable age under a law of a religious community is lower than that under the law of the land, the state law prevails. However, some religious communities do not accept the supremacy of state law in this respect, which may lead to child marriage or forced marriage. The 123 parties to the 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery have agreed to adopt a prescribed "suitable" minimum age for marriage. In many developing countries, the official age prescriptions stand as mere guidelines. UNICEF, the United Nations children's organization, regards a marriage of a minor (legal child), a person below the adult age, as child marriage and a violation of rights.


title: Marriageable age

text: Until recently, the minimum marriageable age for females was lower in many jurisdictions than for males, on the premise that females mature at an earlier age than males. This law has been viewed by some to be discriminatory, so that in many countries the marriageable age of females has been raised to equal that of males.


title: Marriageable age

text: Females married as young as 14 or 16. In Spartan marriages, females were around 18 and males were around 25.


title: Marriageable age

text: In ancient Athens, both husband and wife had the power to initiate a divorce. The husband simply had to send his wife back to her father to end the marriage.


title: Marriageable age

text: In the Roman Empire, the Emperor Augustus introduced marriage legislation, the "Lex Papia Poppaea", which rewarded marriage and childbearing. The legislation also imposed penalties on young persons who failed to marry and on those who committed adultery. Therefore, marriage and childbearing was made law between the ages of twenty-five and sixty for men, and twenty and fifty for women. Women who were Vestal Virgins were selected between the ages of 6 and 10 to serve as priestesses in the temple of goddess Vesta in the Roman Forum for 30 years, after which time they could marry.


title: Marriageable age

text: Noblewomen were known to marry as young as 12 years of age, whereas women in the lower social classes were more likely to marry slightly further into their teenage years. The father had the right and duty to seek a good and useful match for his children, and might arrange a child's betrothal long before he or she came of age (age of maturity). To further the interests of their birth families, daughters of the elite would marry into respectable families. If a daughter could prove the proposed husband to be of bad character, she could legitimately refuse the match


title: Marriageable age

text: In Roman law, age of majority was 21 years old, though the age of marriage was 12 years for females and 14 years for males, and age of betrothal was 7 years for both males and females. The age of lawful consent to a marriage was 12 for maidens and 14 for youths.


title: Marriageable age

text: Ancient Roman law required brides to be at least 12 years old. In ancient Roman law, first marriages to brides aged 12–25 required the consent of the bride and her father, but by the late antique period Roman law permitted women over 25 to marry without parental consent.


title: Marriageable age

text: Historically, individuals were allowed to enter into a marriage contract at a very young age. This coincided with signs of puberty: such as the start of menstruation for a female and the growth of pubic hair for a male. In Ancient Rome, the appropriate minimum age was regarded as 14 for males and 12 for females.


title: Marriageable age

text: 43% of Pagan females married as young as 12-15 and 42% of Christian females married as young as 15-18.


title: Marriageable age

text: In late antiquity, most Roman women married in their late teens to early twenties, but noble women married younger than those of the lower classes, as an aristocratic maiden was expected to be virgin until her first marriage. In late antiquity, under Roman law, daughters inherited equally from their parents if no will was produced. In addition, Roman law recognized wives' property as legally separate from husbands' property, as did some legal systems in parts of Europe and colonial Latin America.


title: Marriageable age

text: In 380 CE, the Emperor Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica, which made Catholicism the official religion of the Roman Empire. The Catholic Church adopted Roman law into Canon law.


title: Marriageable age

text: After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, manorialism also helped weaken the ties of kinship and thus the power of clans; as early as the 9th century in northwestern France, families that worked on manors were small, consisting of parents and children and occasionally a grandparent. The Roman Catholic Church and State had become allies in erasing the solidarity and thus the political power of the clans; the Roman Catholic Church sought to replace traditional religion, whose vehicle was the kin group, and substitute the authority of the elders of the kin group with that of a religious elder; at the same time, the king's rule was undermined by revolts by the most powerful kin groups, clans or sections, whose conspiracies and murders threatened the power of the state and also the demands by manorial lords for obedient, compliant workers. As the peasants and serfs lived and worked on farms that they rented from the lord of the manor, they also needed the permission of the lord to marry. Couples therefore had to comply with the lord of the manor and wait until a small farm became available before they could marry and thus produce children; those who could and did delay marriage were presumably rewarded by the landlord and those who did not were presumably denied that reward. For example, marriage ages in Medieval England varied depending on economic circumstances, with couples delaying marriage until their early twenties when times were bad, but might marry in their late teens after the Black Death, when there was a severe labour shortage; by appearances, marriage of adolescents was not the norm in England.


title: Marriageable age

text: In medieval Western Europe, the rise of Catholicism and manorialism had both created incentives to keep families nuclear, and thus the age of marriage increased; the Western Church instituted marriage laws and practices that undermined large kinship groups. The Roman Catholic Church prohibited consanguineous marriages, a marriage pattern that had been a means to maintain clans (and thus their power) throughout history. The Roman Catholic Church curtailed arranged marriages in which the bride did not clearly agree to the union.


title: Marriageable age

text: Male and female adolescents needed parental consent to marry because they were under the age of majority, 21 years old. In the 12th century, the Roman Catholic Church drastically changed legal standards for marital consent by allowing daughters over 12 years old and sons over 14 years old to marry without their parents' approval, even if their marriage was made clandestinely. Parish studies have confirmed that in the late medieval period females did sometimes marry without their parents' approval in England.


title: Marriageable age

text: In the 12th century, Canon law jurist Gratian, stated that consent for marriage could not take place before the age of 12 years old for females and 14 years old for males; and consent for betrothal could not take place before the age of 7 years old for females and males, as that is the age of reason. The Church of England, after breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church, carried with it the same minimum age requirements. Age of consent for marriage of 12 years old for maidens and of 14 years old for youths were written into English civil law.


title: Marriageable age

text: The first recorded age-of-consent law, in England, dates back 800 years. The age of consent law in question has to do with the law of rape and not the law of marriage as sometimes misunderstood. In 1275, in England, as part of the rape law, the Statute of Westminster 1275, made it a misdemeanor to "ravish" a "maiden within age", whether with or without her consent. The phrase "within age" was interpreted by jurist Sir Edward Coke as meaning the age of marriage, which at the time was 12 years old. A 1576 law was created with more severe punishments for ravishing a girl for which the age of consent was set at 10 years old. Under English common law the age of consent apart of the law of rape was 10 or 12 years old and rape was defined as forceful sexual intercourse with a woman against her will. To convict a man of rape, both force and lack of consent had to be proved, except in the case of a girl who is under the age of consent. Since the age of consent applied in all circumstances, not just in physical assaults, the law also made it impossible for an underage girl (under 12 years old) to consent to sexual activity. There was one exception: a man's acts with his wife (females over 12 years old), to which rape law did not apply. Jurist Sir Matthew Hale stated that both rape laws were valid at the same time. In 1875, the Offence Against the Persons Act raised the age to 13 years in England; an act of sexual intercourse with a girl younger than 13 was a felony.


title: Marriageable age

text: There were some fathers who arranged marriages for a son or a daughter before he or she reached the age of maturity, which is "similar" to what some fathers in ancient Rome did. Consummation would not take place until the age of maturity. Roman Catholic Canon law defines a marriage as consummated when the "spouses have performed between themselves in a human fashion a conjugal act which is suitable in itself for the procreation of offspring, to which marriage is ordered by its nature and by which the spouses become one flesh." There are recorded marriages of two- and three-year-olds: in 1564, a three-year-old named John was married to a two-year-old named Jane in the Bishop's Court in Chester, England.


title: Marriageable age

text: The policy of the Roman Catholic Church, and later various protestant churches, of considering clandestine marriages and marriages made without parental consent to be valid was controversial, and in the 16th century both the French monarchy and the Lutheran Church sought to end these practices, with limited success.


title: Marriageable age

text: In most of Northwestern Europe, marriages at very early ages were rare. One thousand marriage certificates from 1619 to 1660 in the Archdiocese of Canterbury show that only one bride was 13 years old, four were 15, twelve were 16, and seventeen were 17 years old; while the other 966 brides were at least 19 years old.


title: Marriageable age

text: In England and Wales, the Marriage Act 1753 required a marriage to be covered by a licence (requiring parental consent for those under 21) or the publication of banns (which parents of those under 21 could forbid). Additionally, the Church of England dictated that both the bride and groom must be at least 21 years of age to marry without the consent of their families; in the certificates, the most common age for the brides is 22 years. For the grooms 24 years was the most common age, with average ages of 24 years for the brides and 27 for the grooms. While European noblewomen often married early, they were a small minority of the population, and the marriage certificates from Canterbury show that even among nobility it was very rare to marry women off at very early ages.


title: Marriageable age

text: The minimum age requirements of 12 and 14 were eventually written into English civil law. By default, these provisions became the minimum marriage ages in colonial America. Marriages occurred several years earlier, on average, in colonial America than in Europe, and much higher proportions of the population eventually married. Community-based studies suggest an average age at marriage of about 20 years old for women in the early colonial period and about 26 years old for men. In the late 19th century and throughout the 20th century, U.S. states began to slowly raise the minimum legal age at which individuals were allowed to marry. Age restrictions, as in most developed countries, have been revised upward so that they are now between 15 and 21 years of age.


title: Marriageable age

text: Before 1929, Scots law followed Roman law in allowing a girl to marry at twelve years of age and a boy at fourteen, without any requirement for parental consent. However, marriage in Scotland at such young ages was in practice almost unknown.