title: Jack Brisco

text: In 1982, Brisco returned to Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. He regained the NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship (formerly called the NWA Eastern States Heavyweight Championship) by defeating Roddy Piper on May 10, 1982. He dropped the title back to Piper on July 7 and regained it in August. After his matches with Piper, Brisco traded the title back and forth with Paul Jones several times. He lost the belt to Jones on September 1 and won it back on October 18. Jones won the belt again a week later, and dropped it back to Brisco in November.


title: Jack Brisco

text: Brisco teamed with his brother to win the Mid-Atlantic version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship three times. As heels, they beat Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood for the belts on June 18, 1983. This set up a rivalry in which the belts switched hands several times. Steamboat and Youngblood regained the belts on October 3, but the Briscos won them back on October 21. They held the title for a little over a month before dropping it back to Steamboat and Youngblood. The Briscos again won the belts the following year, from Wahoo McDaniel and Mark Youngblood.


title: Jack Brisco

text: The Briscos acquired minority interests in Georgia Championship Wrestling and, in 1984, convinced a majority (52%) of the shareholders to sell their shares to Vince McMahon, enabling him to increase his dominance of the professional wrestling world. The popular story that the Briscos were offered lifetime jobs with the WWF in exchange for selling their interests in Georgia Championship Wrestling was refuted by Jack Brisco in a 1996 interview for Wrestling Perspective.


title: Jack Brisco

text: On December 28, 1984, the Briscos challenged The North-South Connection (Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch) for the WWF Tag Team Championship in Madison Square Garden. The match ended in a double countout, and was Jack Brisco's last high-profile bout.


title: Jack Brisco

text: Jack left the business entirely in February 1985, at the age of 43, after becoming disillusioned with the direction of the sport, citing a lack of amateur wrestlers in the pro ranks and the growing reliance on soap opera storylines.


title: Jack Brisco

text: Brisco was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2005. Brisco lived in Florida where he ran the "Brisco Brothers Body Shop" with brothers Gerald and Bill for over 30 years. He has also made occasional wrestling appearances such as Florida's "Wrestle Reunion" in January 2005. Brisco is considered one of the great legendary wrestlers of the 1970s and has often been cited as such by Ric Flair during his emotional promos. Brisco and his brother, Gerald were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2008.


title: Jack Brisco

text: Over the final few years of his life Jack suffered from bouts of pneumonia and back problems. He had been a heavy smoker. On February 1, 2010, Brisco died at the age of 68 from complications of open heart surgery. He was survived by his wife of over 30 years.


title: Adam Bernstein

text: Adam Bernstein (born May 7, 1960) is an Emmy Award-winning American film director, music video director and television director. For his work on the television show "Fargo" in 2014, he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special. In 2007, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series for his work on "30 Rock".


title: Adam Bernstein

text: Bernstein was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and is of half Jewish and half Italian ancestry. In 1973, he was the recipient of the Good Citizenship Medal from the Daughters of the American Revolution. A member of the Princeton University Class of 1982, Bernstein began his career as an animator. He later went on to direct Nickelodeon’s first original live-action, scripted comedy, "The Adventures of Pete & Pete", in 1986. His work as a director includes over seventy music videos, amongst which are "Love Shack" for the B-52's, "Hey Ladies" for the Beastie Boys and "Baby Got Back" for Sir Mix-a-Lot. Additionally, he has helmed the pilots for "Fargo", "30 Rock", "Scrubs", "Alpha House" and "Strangers with Candy", and multiple episodes of "Oz" and "Breaking Bad".


title: Adam Bernstein

text: Bernstein has been married to actress Jessica Hecht since 1995 (they both worked on "Breaking Bad", in which she starred as Gretchen, with Bernstein directing the seasons 1-5 episodes, on five seasons on the show).


title: Adam Bernstein

text: He was an adjunct faculty member at Williams College teaching theatre and filmmaking along with his wife.


title: Conure

text: Conures are a diverse, loosely defined group of small to medium-sized parrots. They belong to several genera within a long-tailed group of the New World parrot subfamily Arinae. The term "conure" is used primarily in bird keeping, though it has appeared in some scientific journals. The American Ornithologists' Union uses the generic term "parakeet" for all species elsewhere called "conure", though Joseph Forshaw, a prominent Australian ornithologist, uses "conure".


title: Conure

text: Conures are either large parakeets or small parrots found in the Western Hemisphere. They are analogous in size and way of life to Afro-Eurasia's rose-ringed parakeets or the Australian parakeets. All living conure species live in Central and South America. The extinct "Conuropsis carolinensis", or Carolina parakeet was an exception. Conures are often called the clowns of the parrot world due to their constant attention seeking behavior including hanging upside-down and swaying back and forth or "dancing".


title: Conure

text: Despite being large for parakeets, conures are lightly built with long tails and small (but strong) beaks. Conure beaks always have a small cere and are usually horn-colored (gray) or black. Most conure species live in flocks of 20 or more birds. Conures often eat grain, and so are treated as agricultural pests in some places.


title: Conure

text: Conures are as diverse a group as African parrots, so trying to characterize them all is difficult and inaccurate. The category "conure" is loosely defined because they do not currently constitute a natural, scientific grouping. The term "conure" is now used mostly in aviculture. Scientists tend to refer to these birds as "parrots" or "parakeets". The sun conure is one of the few species that is regularly called a conure even in scientific texts. ("See below under "Scientific classification" for more details.")


title: Conure

text: The condition of the individual will dictate the dietary needs. For example, the following activities will cause the dietary needs to vary: activity level, physiological condition, growth, breeding, egg-laying, rearing youth, and molting. Other than pellet mixes and seed mixes there are fresh foods that are acceptable for Conures to consume.


title: Conure

text: Foods that must be avoided and are very harmful, possibly deadly, are alcohol, avocado, caffeine, chocolate, cured meats, fatty or oily foods, salty food (including salted nuts), and sugared products.


title: Conure

text: Conures, as the term is used by aviculturists, include only the genera "Aratinga", "Pyrrhura", "Eupsittula" and "Psittacara" as well as several single-species genera and one double-species genus. Not all members of these genera are called "conures" with equal frequency—some are more often referred to as parakeets.


title: Conure

text: Old Tupi for "bright macaw", ("ara" – "macaw", "tinga" "bright") the "Aratinga" conures generally seem to have a more mischievous personality than the real little macaws or mini-macaws. Popular as pets, the "Aratinga" conures are generally larger with brighter plumage and are generally the noisier, more outgoing, more demanding of the two primary conure genera. The colorful sun conure and jenday conure are among the species of conures more commonly kept as pets. Many of the "Aratinga" species can be quite loud but otherwise can make very good pets for responsible owners. Lifespan is 20–30 years.


title: Conure

text: Nanday conures ("Aratinga nenday") have a distinctive black head, and wings and tails tipped with dark blue feathers. They have a light-blue scarf and bright orange feathers on their legs and around their vents. The maturity of a nanday can be told by the edges of its black hood: if the hood has a ragged edge of brown, then the bird is over a year old. Nandays are often extremely noisy—they are a heavily flock-oriented species, used to making their demands known, calling out warnings for the group, and calling to members of the group who are out of sight. They are also extremely social and intelligent birds, capable of learning tricks, mimicking sounds, and learning a decent vocabulary. At least one report suggests that they are highly adaptable to human encroachment on their territories, but the exact status of the species in the wild is unknown.


title: Conure

text: Flocks of nanday conures live wild in parts of Florida, notably the west coast, including areas of St. Petersburg and Clearwater. Additionally, Flocks of wild Nanday conures Live in Siesta Key, Sarasota, Florida. A large flock of nanday conures lives wild in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. They have been in the area for the past several years.


title: Conure

text: Gold-capped conures ("Aratinga auricapillus")—also known as golden-capped parakeets—are native to Brazil and Paraguay. Their natural habitats include subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, dry savanna, and plantations. The existence of this conure is threatened by habitat loss. However, gold-capped conures are prolific breeders, making them popular birds in aviculture, and hand-fed golden cap babies are generally available.


title: Conure

text: The gold-capped conure grows to about 13 to 14 inches in length and weighs about 150 grams. Their bodies are mainly green with blackish bills, gray feet and brown irises. The forehead, the areas around the eyes and underwing coverts are usually red. The breast feathers are a red and green mix. Their tail feathers are olive green with a bluish tip. The primary feathers, wing coverts, and under-wing coverts are blue.


title: Conure

text: Immature gold-capped conures are mostly green, with some orange around the eyes, above the beak, and on the breast near the wings. Some navy is mixed in with the green of the tail. The bird's full coloration is not seen until they are sexually mature at about two years of age. Their lifespan is about 30 years.


title: Conure

text: "Pyrrhura" is the other prominent genus of conures. These conures (with generally more green colors) include the very common green-cheeked conure, as well as the maroon-bellied conure, pearly conure, black-capped conure, painted conure, crimson-bellied conure, and a number of other species. They are usually smaller, have more subdued colors, and are much quieter than the "Aratinga" conures. Pyrrhura species are growing in popularity as pet birds, primarily due to their quiet nature, their affectionate and intelligent personalities, and the increasing number of color mutations developed in several of these species. On average, Pyrrhura conures live around 20 or 25 years. To reach full maturity, many of them molt to rid themselves of feathers from previous growth stages, and, occasionally, young birds pluck their feathers during the winter.


title: Conure

text: Until 2013, all "Psittacara" conures were part of the genus "Aratinga". Included here are common pet species such as the red-masked parakeet (or cherry-headed conure) and mitred parakeet.


title: Conure

text: As with the "Psittacara" species, the parrots now contained within the genus "Eupsittula" - including the familiar orange-fronted parakeet (or half-moon conure) were included in "Aratinga" until 2013.


title: Conure

text: The golden conure or Queen of Bavaria conure, "Guaruba guarouba" (recently reclassified from "Aratinga guarouba") is, as the name implies, covered all over with bright yellow feathers, except for the green wing-tip feathers and the greyish horn-colored beak. Golden conures are among the most expensive conures both to purchase and to care for, although many owners feel that the benefits outweigh the cost. It is one of the rarest conures in the wild in addition to the pet trade. Many experts believe that these birds should not be kept in captivity unless in a breeding program.


title: Conure

text: The Patagonian conure, also known as the burrowing parrot, "Cyanoliseus patagonus", is the largest conure. It is found in the Patagonia region of south-central Argentina and Chile. Drab on the top, brightly colored underneath, the Patagonian conure has increased in popularity since the 1990s, leading to an increase in illegal importation that threatens wild populations; however, they are fairly commonly bred in captivity. Patagonian conures have a reputation for being exceptionally sweet-natured and intelligent conures, but can be very loud and destructive with their chewing. The greater Patagonian conure ("Cyanoliseus patagonus bloxami" or "Cyanoliseus patagonus byroni") is the largest of all the conures. They learn to talk and they usually bond very well with people, especially if hand-raised, and although not the most colorful bird they make great pets.


title: Conure

text: Composed of the austral conure, "Enicognathus ferrugineus", which is native to the southern tip of South America and the slender-billed conure, "Enicognathus leptorhynchus", endemic to Chile.


title: Conure

text: The golden-plumed conure, also called the golden-plumed parakeet, "Leptosittaca branickii", is a small Andean conure not found in aviculture and endangered in its own habitat.


title: Conure

text: The exceedingly rare yellow-eared conure or "Ognorhynchus icterotis" of Colombia and Ecuador was never common in aviculture and has not successfully bred in captivity.


title: Conure

text: "Conuropsis carolinensis", the Carolina parakeet, was one of only two parrot species endemic to the United States in recorded history. The Carolina parakeet was a remarkably social bird, living in vast flocks. American bird hunters reported that Carolina parakeets would return to mourn dead members of the flock, making themselves easy targets. Considered a pest, popular in the pet trade, and bearing plume feathers valued for hats, this species was hunted to extinction around the beginning of the 1900s.


title: Conure

text: The word "conure" is an old term that originally described members of the no longer-used genus "Conurus", which included members of "Aratinga" and "Pyrrhura".


title: Conure

text: The parrot order, Psittaciformes, is a tangle of genera, many containing only one species. Parrots include about 353 species—generally grouped into two families: the Cacatuidae or cockatoos, and the Psittacidae or true parrots. The term parrot generally applies both to the entire order and to Psittacidae alone.


title: Conure

text: All members of the order Psittaciformes have a characteristic curved beak shape with the upper mandible having slight mobility in the joint with the skull and a generally erect stance. All parrots are zygodactyl—meaning they have four toes on each foot: two that face front and two that face back.


title: Conure

text: Conures and all other New World parrots are often placed in a subfamily or tribe Arinae. Internal relationships of conures are poorly understood though it seems evident that, to make them a natural grouping, the quaker parakeet, the thick-billed parrot, and "Brotogeris" should be included, and often are. Neotropical parrots, macaws, and other are also candidates potential for inclusion. In this scheme, "conure" comprises members of the genera:


title: Conure

text: The caiques and the hawk-headed parrot have also been proposed for inclusion, though both have a heavier build and different tail structure from traditional conures.


title: Conure

text: A blue-crowned conure was the titular star of the family movie "Paulie". The film used 14 different birds.


title: Conure

text: The conure is known to have the ability to perform several art forms. Typically skills include singing and on occasion the ability to paint.


title: Conure

text: Conures are highly adaptable to urban environments, and several non-native colonies have been observed globally. The exact origins of such colonies are generally unverifiable.


title: Conure

text: A colony of cherry-headed conures lives on Telegraph Hill, San Francisco. They are the subject of a film, "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill", based on a story by Mark Bittner. Flocks of conures can be seen and heard in many other areas of San Francisco such as the Tenderloin district.


title: Conure

text: Multiple colonies of cherry-headed and/or mitred conures thrive in and around Santa Clara County, California. In particular Sunnyvale, Cupertino (especially around the Apple Campus), and Palo Alto.


title: Conure

text: Multiple colonies of cherry-headed conures live in the San Gabriel Valley (the suburbs northeast of Los Angeles). Subtropical U.S. cities like Los Angeles are great environments for tropical birds because of all the tropical plants that are cultivated as ornamentals, providing them with their natural food supply. Flocks of fifty or more descend on fruit trees during their bearing season, staying for a few days and making a deafening racket. During mating season they build nests in the palm trees that line many streets in the region.


title: Conure

text: Three species of conures (genus "Aratinga") have formed non-native colonies in California. These are documented by the California Parrot Project in affiliation with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and in cooperation with the Pasadena Audubon Society.


title: Conure

text: A colony of half-moon conures has been observed in the Belmont Shore area of Long Beach, California since the late 1980s.


title: Conure

text: A least one wild pair of nandays has been spotted in downtown Delray Beach, Florida. The total number of birds in the colony is yet undetermined.


title: Conure

text: The Quaker (which may or may not be a conure) can be found in many states. Quakers are also illegal to own in many US states as they are known to build very large nests on powerlines (Quakers are the only parrots who build nests).


title: Cameron Payne

text: Cameron Payne (born August 8, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for Murray State.


title: Cameron Payne

text: Payne attended Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis, Tennessee. He grew from 5'5' as a freshman to 6'0 as a senior. Despite leading Lausanne Collegiate to a 2013 Division II state title in Tennessee, Payne was not a heavily scouted player by collegiate programs. He was considered to be a three-star recruit by Rivals.com and was not ranked in the top 100 prospects. He was recruited by William Small to play college basketball at Murray State, choosing the Racers over a few other schools. Payne then went from a relatively unknown college recruit to a potential NBA lottery pick.


title: Cameron Payne

text: As a freshman, Payne averaged 16.8 points, 5.4 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game. He was forced to start at point guard as a freshman due to an injury to Zay Jackson, and began his collegiate career registering 21 points, five boards and four assists in the team's opener at Valparaiso. Payne earned first-team All-OVC honors and was named freshman of the year by the conference. As a sophomore, he was the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year after he averaged 20.2 points, 6.0 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game. Payne opted to declare for the NBA Draft after his sophomore season.


title: Cameron Payne

text: During workouts prior to the NBA draft, Payne broke the ring finger on his non-shooting hand. The injury did not require surgery. On June 25, 2015, Payne was selected by the Oklahoma City Thunder with the 14th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft. On July 10, 2015, he signed his rookie scale contract with the Thunder. He made his debut for the Thunder on November 1 in a 117–93 win over the Denver Nuggets, recording three assists in four minutes. On December 5, he was assigned to the Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder's D-League affiliate. He was recalled on December 6, reassigned on December 15, and recalled again on December 16. On December 29, he had a 16-point effort in a 131–123 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. In the Thunder's regular season finale on April 12, 2016, Payne recorded career highs of 17 points and seven assists in a 102–98 loss to the San Antonio Spurs.


title: Cameron Payne

text: On July 25, 2016, Payne underwent a successful procedure to repair a fractured fifth metatarsal in his right foot. He recovered quickly and was cleared to practice when training camp opened. He went through full contact during the Thunder's first two days of practice, but on September 27, he suffered an acute fracture to his fifth metatarsal in the team's Blue-White Scrimmage. As a result, he missed the first two months of the 2016–17 season. After spending six days with the Oklahoma City Blue in early January, Payne joined the Thunder playing group for the first time in 2016–17 on January 7. He subsequently made his season debut that night, scoring eight points in 13 minutes against the Denver Nuggets. On February 9, 2017, he scored a season-high 15 points in a 118–109 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.


title: Cameron Payne

text: On February 23, 2017, Payne was traded, along with Joffrey Lauvergne and Anthony Morrow, to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Taj Gibson, Doug McDermott and a 2018 second-round draft pick. During the 2016–17 season, Payne had multiple assignments with the Windy City Bulls, the Bulls' D-League affiliate.


title: Cameron Payne

text: On September 8, 2017, Payne was ruled out for three to four months after undergoing surgery on his right foot two days prior. He was known as the tank commander. He made his season debut for the Bulls on February 22, 2018, in a 116–115 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. On March 17, 2018, Payne recorded his first professional double-double in his NBA career, putting up 13 points and a career-high 10 assists in a 114–109 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. On March 23, 2018, he had a career-high 17 points and six assists in a 118–105 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.


title: Cameron Payne

text: On October 24, 2018, Payne scored all of his career-high 21 points in the second half of the Bulls' 112–110 win over the Charlotte Hornets, going 7 for 11 on 3-pointers. On January 3, 2019, he was waived by the Bulls.


title: Cameron Payne

text: On January 6, 2019, Payne signed a 10-day contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers. On January 16, he signed a second 10-day contract with the Cavaliers. He parted ways with the Cavaliers following the expiration of his second 10-day contract.


title: Cameron Payne

text: On July 25, 2019, Payne signed a contract with the Toronto Raptors. On October 8, 2019, Payne played for 12 minutes against the Houston Rockets in a preseason game and tallied four points, one assist, and one rebound. On October 19, 2019, the Raptors released Payne.


title: Cameron Payne

text: On November 12, 2019, Payne was reported to join the Shanxi Loongs. He played in two games for the team, averaging 22.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 4.5 steals per contest. On January 2, 2020, Payne was replaced.


title: Cameron Payne

text: During the week of March 3, 2020, Payne was named the NBA G-League Player of the Week, averaging 23.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 10.3 assists, 2.7 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game while leading the Legends to a perfect 3-0 record for the week.


title: Cameron Payne

text: On June 30, 2020, Payne agreed to a two-season deal with the Phoenix Suns. He made his debut on July 31 in the 2020 NBA Bubble, where he recorded nine points, three rebounds, two assists, and two steals on a plus-minus of +21 in a 125–112 win over the Washington Wizards. On August 7, 2020, Payne recorded a season-high 15 points in a 114–99 win over the Indiana Pacers. He later repeated his season-high in a blowout 128–102 win over the Dallas Mavericks, helping the team be undefeated in all eight games the Suns played in the bubble while coming off the bench and having his highest scoring and rebounding season averages in the NBA yet.


title: Cameron Payne

text: After his successful time in the bubble, Payne had his second season option picked up on November 18, 2020. In his second season with Phoenix, Payne continued the successful production he had in the 2020 bubble off the bench. On January 6, 2021, he tied his then career-high of 10 assists in only 16 minutes of play in a 123–115 win over the Toronto Raptors. On February 20, he scored a season-high 19 points and put up seven assists in a blowout 128–97 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. On March 4, Payne recorded his second career double-double in the NBA, leading the Suns that night with 17 points and 10 assists coming off the bench in a 120–98 blowout win over the Golden State Warriors.


title: Cameron Payne

text: On June 22, 2021, Payne recorded a career high in the Western Conference Finals against the Los Angeles Clippers, recording 29 points, along with nine assists, two steals, and two blocks in the Suns' 104-103 win. Payne helped the Suns reach the 2021 NBA Finals, but the Suns lost the series in 6 games to the Milwaukee Bucks.


title: Cameron Payne

text: On March 4, 2022, Payne recorded a career-high 16 assists to go with 17 points in a 115–114 win over the New York Knicks.


title: Cameron Payne

text: On November 16, 2022, Payne matched his career-high of 29 points in a 130–119 win over the defending champion Golden State Warriors.


title: Cameron Payne

text: His father, Tony Payne, was once a youth basketball coach. He and his mother, Leshawn Payne, were also instrumental in helping Payne out with returning to the NBA after briefly being out of the league for China and the NBA G League.


title: Siege of Candia

text: The siege of Candia (modern Heraklion, Crete) was a military conflict in which Ottoman forces besieged the Venetian-ruled city. Lasting from 1648 to 1669, or a total of 21 years, it is the second-longest siege in history after the siege of Ceuta.


title: Siege of Candia

text: It ended with an Ottoman victory, but the effort and cost of the siege contributed to the decline of the Ottoman Empire, especially after the Great Turkish War.


title: Siege of Candia

text: In the 17th century, Venice's power in the Mediterranean was waning as Ottoman power grew. The Republic of Venice believed that the Ottomans would use any excuse to pursue further hostilities.


title: Siege of Candia

text: In 1644, the Knights of Malta attacked an Ottoman convoy on its way from Alexandria to Constantinople. They landed at Candia with the loot, which included the former Chief Black Eunuch of the Harem, the kadi of Cairo, among other pilgrims heading to Mecca.


title: Siege of Candia

text: In response, 60,000 Ottoman troops led by Yusuf Pasha disembarked on Venetian Crete with no apparent target, with many suspecting them heading for Malta. Instead, the Ottomans surprisingly struck against Crete in June 1645, besieging and occupying La Canea (modern Chania) and Rettimo (modern Rethimno). Each of these cities took two months to be conquered. Between 1645 and 1648, the Ottomans occupied the rest of the island and prepared to take the capital, Candia.


title: Siege of Candia

text: The siege of Candia began in May 1648. The Ottomans spent three months laying siege to the city, cutting off the water supply, and disrupting Venice's sea lanes to the city. They would bombard the city for the next 16 years to little effect.


title: Siege of Candia

text: The Venetians, in turn, sought to blockade the Ottoman-held Dardanelles to prevent the resupply of the Ottoman expeditionary force on Crete. This effort led to a series of naval actions. On 21 June 1655 and 26 August 1656, the Venetians were victorious, although the Venetian commander, Lorenzo Marcello, was killed in the latter engagement. However, on 17–19 July 1657, the Ottoman navy soundly defeated the Venetians. The Venetian captain, Lazzaro Mocenigo, was killed by a falling mast.


title: Siege of Candia

text: Venice received more aid from other western European states after the 7 November 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees and the consequent peace between France and Spain. However, the Peace of Vasvár (August 1664) released additional Ottoman forces for action against the Venetians in Candia.


title: Siege of Candia

text: In 1666, a Venetian attempt to recapture La Canea failed. The following year, Colonel Andrea Barozzi, a Venetian military engineer, defected to the Ottomans and gave them information on weak spots in Candia's fortifications. On 24 July 1669, a French land/sea expedition under Francois de Beaufort not only failed to lift the siege, but also lost the fleet's vice-flagship, "La Thérèse" a 900-ton French warship armed with 58 cannons, to an accidental explosion. This dual disaster was devastating to the morale of the city's defenders.


title: Siege of Candia

text: Chastened by their failed relief effort and the loss of so valuable a warship, the French abandoned Candia in August 1669, leaving Captain General Francesco Morosini, the commander of Venetian forces, with only 3,600 fit men and scant supplies to defend the fortress. He, therefore, accepted terms and surrendered to Ahmed Köprülü, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire on 27 September 1669. However, his surrender without first receiving authorization from the Venetian Senate made Morosini a controversial figure in Venice for some years afterward.


title: Siege of Candia

text: As part of the surrender terms, all Christians were allowed to leave Candia with whatever they could carry. At the same time, Venice retained possession of Gramvousa, Souda and Spinalonga, fortified islands that shielded natural harbors where Venetian ships could stop during their voyages to the eastern Mediterranean. After Candia's fall, the Venetians somewhat offset their defeat by expanding their holdings in Dalmatia.


title: Siege of Candia

text: Data obtained from the Archives of the Venetian State, relating to an operation organized by the Venetian Intelligence Services, describes a plan aimed at lifting the siege by infecting the Ottoman soldiers with plague; this was to be done by attacking them with a liquid made from the spleens and buboes of plague victims. "Although the plan was perfectly organized, and the deadly mixture was ready to use, the attack was ultimately never carried out." According to a scholar from the USA's National Defense University, this attack was previously unknown to historians of biological warfare until published in December 2015.


title: Siege of Candia

text: The siege of Candia is an integral part of the background to the historical novel "An Instance of the Fingerpost", where a significant protagonist is a Venetian veteran of that siege and several plot developments become clear through extensive flashbacks to the Candia events.


title: Collegiate secret societies in North America

text: There are many collegiate secret societies in North America. They vary greatly in their level of secrecy and the degree of independence from their universities. A collegiate "secret society" makes significant effort to keep affairs, membership rolls, signs of recognition, initiation, or other aspects secret from the public.


text: Some collegiate secret societies are referred to as "class societies", which restrict membership to one class year. Most class societies are restricted to the senior class, and are therefore also called "senior societies" on many campuses.


text: There is no strict rule on the categorization of secret societies. Secret societies can have ceremonial initiations, secret signs of recognition (gestures, handshakes, passwords), formal secrets, (the 'true' name of the society, a motto, or a society history); but, college fraternities or "social fraternities" have the same, and some of these elements can also be a part of literary societies, singing groups, editorial boards, and honorary and pre-professional groups. Some secret societies have kept their membership secret, for example Seven Society and Gridiron, and some have not, like Skull and Bones (the Yale societies had published their membership lists in the yearbooks and the "Yale Daily News").


text: One key concept in distinguishing secret societies from fraternities is that, on campuses that have both kinds of organizations, one can be a member of both (that is, membership is not mutually exclusive). Usually, being a member of more than one fraternity is not considered appropriate, because that member would have divided loyalties; however, typically, there is not an issue being a member of a secret society and a fraternity, because they are not considered similar organizations or competing organizations.


text: An especially difficult problem is the degree to which any one society is an actual society or is simply an honorary designation. Phi Beta Kappa, for example, was a true secret society, but after its secrets were divulged, the society continued on. It claims today to still be an actual society that has meetings, conducts its affairs, and is a living social entity, however membership for most members consists of one evening's initiation, and no more, which would make the society completely an honorary one in most people's eyes.


text: Many such societies exist which operate as honoraries on one campus, and which may have been at one time actual meeting societies, and which are kept alive by one or two dedicated local alumni or an alumni affairs or Dean's office person, who see to it that an annual initiation are held every year. Some of these frankly state that they are honoraries, other seek to perpetuate the image of a continuing active society where there is none.


text: While there are some guideline criteria for the neutral observer to understand what sort of society any given organization is, much of the analysis reverts to what any one society has been traditionally understood to be. There are additional means, such as societies that were more or less explicitly established in emulation of some previous secret society, or using historical records to show that society X was created out of society Y.


text: There are several common traits among these societies. For example, many societies have two part names, such as Skull and Bones or Scroll and Key. Many societies also limit their membership to a specific numerical limit in a class year. Extensive mortuary imagery is associated with many secret societies, maintaining a pretense of great seriousness, and clubhouses are often called "tombs".


text: The archetypical selection process for entry into a collegiate secret society began at Yale University by a process called "tapping". On a publicly announced evening, Yale undergraduates would assemble informally in the College Yard. Current members of Yale's secret societies would walk through the crowd and literally tap a prospective member on the shoulder and then walk with him up to the tapped man's dorm room. There, in private, they would ask him to become a member of their secret society; the inductee had the choice of accepting or rejecting the offer of membership. During this process, it was publicly known who was being tapped for the coming year. Today, the selection process is not quite as formal, but is in some ways still public. Now, many societies slip seal-stamped letters under the doors of expecting Juniors, and send cryptic emails to students' inboxes, inviting them to rush parties. Formal tapping days used to exist at Berkeley, and still exist in a much more formal setting at Missouri.


text: Several campuses distinguish societies called "honoraries" from secret societies. An honorary is considered to operate in name only: membership is an honor given in recognition of some achievement, and such a society is distinct from a secret society. However, functionally, such organizations can operate identically to secret societies, and historically, most honoraries operated on a secret society basis. Phi Beta Kappa is the best-known such example, where it originally operated on a secret chapter basis, and it became the progenitor of all college fraternities, and at the same time, some time after its secrets were made public in the 1830s, Phi Beta Kappa continued on as an honorary. Virtually all the oldest honoraries were once clearly secret societies, and the extent to which they are distinct is now ambiguous at best.


text: The first collegiate secret society recorded in North America is that of the F.H.C. Society, established on November 11, 1750 at The College of William & Mary. Though the letters stand for a Latin phrase, the society is informally and publicly referred to as the "Flat Hat Club"; its most prominent members included St. George Tucker, Thomas Jefferson, and George Wythe. The second-oldest Latin-letter society, the P.D.A. Society ("Please Don't Ask"), in 1776 refused entry to John Heath, then a student at the college; rebuffed, he in the same year established the first Greek-letter secret society at the college, the Phi Beta Kappa, modelling it on the two older fraternities (see the Flat Hat Club). The Phi Beta Kappa society had a rudimentary initiation and maintained an uncertain level of secrecy. Those secrets were exposed in the mid-1830s by students at Harvard University acting under the patronage of John Quincy Adams. Since the 1840s, Phi Beta Kappa has operated openly as an academic honor society.


text: The spread of Phi Beta Kappa to different colleges and universities likely sparked the creation of such competing societies as Chi Phi (1824), Kappa Alpha Society (1825), and Sigma Phi Society (1827); many continue today as American collegiate social fraternities (and, later, sororities). Sigma Phi remains the oldest continuously operating national collegiate secret society; it may have declined the founding members of Skull & Bones a charter prior to their forming their own society. A second line of development took place at Yale College, with the creation of Chi Delta Theta (1821) and Skull and Bones (1832): antecedents of what would become known as "class societies."


text: Skull & Bones aroused competition on campus, bringing forth Scroll and Key (1841), and later Wolf's Head (1883), among students in the senior class. But the prestige of the senior societies was able to keep the very influential fraternities Alpha Delta Phi and Psi Upsilon from ever becoming full four-year institutions at Yale. They remained junior class societies there. There were sophomore and freshman societies at Yale as well. A stable system of eight class societies (two competing chains of four class societies each) was in place by the late 1840s.


text: Delta Kappa Epsilon is actually a highly successful junior class society, founded at Yale in 1844. None of the 51 chapters the parent chapter spawned operates as a junior society, but DKE did come from the class society system. Likewise, Alpha Sigma Phi started out as a Yale sophomore society and now has 68 chapters (although, again, none of Alpha Sigma Phi's chapters have remained sophomore societies).


text: The development of class societies spread from Yale to other campuses in the northeastern States. Seniors at neighboring Wesleyan established a senior society, Skull & Serpent (1865), and a second society, originally a chapter of Skull and Bones, but then independent as a sophomore society, Theta Nu Epsilon (1870), which began to drastically increase the number of campuses with class societies. William Raimond Baird noted in the 1905 edition of his "Manual" that, "In addition to the regular fraternities, there are in the Eastern colleges many societies which draw members from only one of the undergraduate classes, and which have only a few features of the general fraternity system." From Wesleyan, the practice spread more widely across the Northeast, with full systems soon in place at Brown, Rutgers, and other institutions.


text: Kappa Sigma Theta, Phi Theta Psi, Delta Beta Xi, Delta Sigma Phi, were all sophomore societies at Yale, and the two large freshman societies of Delta Kappa and Kappa Sigma Epsilon lived until 1880. Delta Kappa established chapters at Amherst College, the University of North Carolina, University of Virginia, University of Mississippi, Dartmouth College, and Centre College. Kappa Sigma Epsilon had chapters at Amherst, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Dartmouth. Other class societies existed at Brown, Harvard, Syracuse, Colgate, Cornell, and other Northeastern institutions. At universities such as Colgate University, these secret societies have evolved and morphed over the years.


text: Theta Nu Epsilon spread to about 120 colleges and universities, but many of its chapters operated as three-year societies where operating as a class year society was inappropriate.


text: It is from this class society historical base and the desire to emulate the best-known of all the class societies, Skull & Bones, that senior societies in particular began to spread nationally between 1900 and 1930. Junior, sophomore, and freshman class societies also are to be found at campuses across the country today.


text: Tiger Brotherhood is an honorary service fraternity at Clemson University. It still embraces the same basic tenets as established by it founders, led by John Logan Marshall in 1929. Tiger Brotherhood promotes high standards of social and ethical conduct, while recognizing in its members an earnest devotion to Clemson, coupled with the integrity of character commensurate with a typical Clemson gentleman. The organization embodies an unequaled cross-section representation of the Clemson community. Students, faculty and staff all work with the bonds of brotherhood to champion a closer relationship. One for all and all for one, with Clemson and its many traditions and undying spirit as the central focus, today provides viable, flexible and a continuing forum for ideas and unending service to Clemson. For 90 years it has remained surrounded by an air of mystery.


text: Since being founded in 1819, Colgate University has had a rich tradition of student societies. Over the years, Colgate has had numerous secret societies with various degrees of secrecy.


text: Although there have been many underground organizations on the Colgate campus, the first secret honor society on record is the Skull and Scroll society founded in 1908. Members of the Skull and Scroll wore white hats with a black skull and scroll added to them. The Skull and Scroll had a rich history of membership with important names in Colgate history such as Ellery Huntington, Melbourne Read, and Harold Whitnall. A rival organization, The Gorgon's Head, was founded in 1912 and had members that wore black hats with a golden emblem. The Gorgon's Head chose people for traits such as character, distinguished service, and achievement. These two organizations competed with each other until 1934 when they merged to create the Konosioni senior honor society, none the Tredecim Senior Honor Society.


text: In its earlier iteration, the society initially was tasked with enforcing rules, such as mandating that all freshmen have to wear green beanies, with the punishment of paddling. The 1970s saw a change in course for the society as it became focused on leadership and the community. Tredecim now leads torch-light processions for first-year students during convocation and for seniors during graduation.


text: The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, was home to the first known secret collegiate society in the United States, the F.H.C. Society (founded in 1750). The initials of the society stand for a Latin phrase, likely "Fraternitas, Humanitas, et Cognitio" or "Fraternitas Humanitas Cognitioque" (two renderings of "brotherhood, humaneness, and knowledge"), but it has long been publicly nicknamed the "Flat Hat Club". William & Mary alumnus and third American president, Thomas Jefferson, was perhaps the most famous member of the F.H.C. Society. Other notable members of the original society included Col. James Innes, St. George Tucker, and George Wythe. Jefferson noted that, "When I was a student of Wm. & Mary college of this state, there existed a society called the F.H.C. society, confined to the number of six students only, of which I was a member, but it had no useful object, nor do I know whether it now exists." The best opinion is that the society did not survive the British invasion of Virginia at the end of the American Revolution. The society was revived in 1916 (at first, as the Flat Hat Club) and revived again in 1972.


text: William & Mary students John Heath and William Short (Class of 1779) founded the nation's first collegiate Greek-letter organization, Phi Beta Kappa, on December 5, 1776, as a secret literary and philosophical society. Additional chapters were established in 1780 and 1781 at Yale and Harvard. With nearly 300 chapters across the country and no longer secret, Phi Beta Kappa has grown to become the nation's premier academic honor society. Alumni John Marshall and Bushrod Washington were two of the earliest members of the society, elected in 1778 and 1780, respectively.


text: Although the pressures of the American Civil War forced several societies to disappear, many were revived during the 20th century. Some of the secret societies known to currently exist at the college are: The 7 Society, 13 Club, Alpha Club, Bishop James Madison Society, The Cord, Flat Hat Club, The Spades, W Society, and Wren Society.


text: Columbia University has three secret societies: St. Anthony Hall (1847) and the Nacoms and Sachems (1898 and 1915, respectively). St. Anthony Hall is a fraternal organization and literary society founded at Columbia that has ten other chapters, notably at Yale, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania. The Nacoms and Sachems are senior societies of fifteen members each. Though efforts have been made by the university's student body to force them to abolish their secrecy and register with the administration, efforts have been unsuccessful.


text: Cornell University has a rich history of secret societies on campus. Andrew Dickson White, the first President of Cornell University and himself a Bonesman, is said to have encouraged the formation of a "secret society" on campus. In the early years, the fraternities were called the "secret societies", but as the Greek system developed into a larger, more public entity, "secret society" began to refer only to the class societies, except for the Sigma Phi Society on campus. In the early twentieth century, Cornell students belonged to sophomore, junior, and senior societies, as well as honorary societies for particular fields of study. Liberalization of the 1960s spelled the end of these organizations as students rebelled against the establishment. The majority of the societies disappeared or became inactive in a very short time period, and today, the four organizations which operate on campus are: Sphinx Head (founded in 1890), Der Hexenkreis (founded in 1892), Quill and Dagger (founded in 1893), and Order of Omega (founded in 1959).


text: Dartmouth College's Office of Residential Life states that the earliest senior societies on campus date to 1783 and "continue to be a vibrant tradition within the campus community". Six of the eight senior societies keep their membership secret, while the other societies maintain secretive elements. According to the college, "approximately 25% of the senior class members are affiliated with a senior society." The college's administration of the society system at Dartmouth focuses on keeping track of membership and tapping lists, and differs from that of Yale's, though there are historical parallels between the two colleges' societies.


text: The Raven's Claw is an all-male senior honorary society at Dickinson College. It was founded in 1896, making it the first society unique to Dickinson College. Membership is limited to seven senior men who are selected by the seven previous members. The new members are chosen based on a variety of factors, these include: campus leadership, a solid academic record, and athletic participation. New members are inducted in a "Tapping Ceremony" which is held on the "Old Stone Steps of Old West". The ceremony is traditionally conducted during commencement weekend. They are called "claws" or "white hats", denoting the white caps they wear around campus to signify unity and loyalty. While the members of the group are known, the majority of their actions and traditions are concealed. The group prides itself in serving the Dickinson College and Carlisle, Pennsylvania communities through discreet service activities. The group's alumni organization is also responsible for founding one of the college's largest scholarship funds and the McAndrews Fund for athletics.


text: Founded in 2001, The Order of Scroll and Key is a senior honor society at Dickinson College which recognizes seven senior men each year. Every member is tapped at the end of their junior year on the basis of their dedication to the college and the surrounding Carlisle community. Their current membership includes fraternity presidents, community advisers, community service leaders, as well as many other individuals. Their alumni have gone on to be successful community leaders, businessmen, artists, etc. The Order of Scroll and Key works to benefit numerous area charities and philanthropies, and in recent years has supported Carlisle C.A.R.E.S., Safe Harbor, and Sadler Health Clinic, among others. As one of Dickinson's distinctive "hat" societies, members can always be recognized by the gray hats that they wear.


text: Wheel and Chain is Dickinson College's Senior Women's Honorary Society. Founded in 1924, members are elected in the spring of their junior year on the basis of participation in campus activities, service to the college and community, leadership skills and personal character. Membership is limited to ten senior women. New members are inducted in a "Tapping Ceremony" which is held on the "Old Stone Steps of Old West" in April. In May, each incoming Wheel and Chain class ceremoniously rings the bell in Denny Hall during Commencement ceremonies. Colloquially known as the "blue hats", members are known to the public; however, the society's activities remain secret.


text: Throughout its history, Duke University has hosted several secret societies. The Tombs is a now defunct society founded in 1903 whose members were known to tie bells around their ankles. Details regarding its purpose, selection of members and the importance of the bells are still unknown.


text: Two of the best-known societies were the Order of the Red Friars and the Order of the White Duchy. The Order of the Red Friars was founded in 1913 with an initial purpose to promote school spirit. Later, the group declared a change of mission to focus more on fostering loyalty to Duke University. The Order, as it was colloquially-known, was semi-secret. This is because the selection of new members, known as tapping, was held on the steps of the Duke Chapel in broad daylight. As the years went on, the rites of tapping became more elaborate; in the final and most traditional form of the rite, a red-hooded and robed figure publicly tapped new men into membership on the steps of the chapel. Some notable members of the Order were President Richard M. Nixon, William P. Few, and Rex Adams.


text: The Order of the White Duchy was founded in May 1925 by the Order of the Red Friars. The Red Friars chose what they considered the seven outstanding female members of the Class of 1925 to organize a similar organization, although it was not to be a sister organization. From 1925 on, new members were tapped into the order by the seven members of the White Duchy from the previous year. Members were known by the white carnation they wore on specific days of the year.


text: Throughout the 1960s, both societies faced charges of elitism and struggled to tap students at an increasingly hostile university. In 1968, the White Duchy disbanded and in 1971, the Order of the Red Friars was disbanded by alumni who determined that the group had outlived its usefulness. However, rumors surrounding its continued, albeit modified, form exist today. Two current secret societies - the Trident Society and the Old Trinity Club - are both thought to have been founded in the wake of the disbanding of the Order of the Red Friars. The Old Trinity Club is rumored to have started when an Editor-in-Chief of the Duke Chronicle was passed up for membership and decided to create his own, rival society.


text: The Old Trinity Club is the most visible society on campus today, as its members are seen walking around campus wearing black graduation gowns and sunglasses on certain days of the year. They follow a set pattern, holding their arms in symbols in the air and routinely stopping and shouting "Eruditio et Religio." A November 2007 edition of Rival Magazine quoted Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, Sue Wasiolek T'r76, claiming that "the Old Trinity Club has died, or at least in terms of its original manifestation. The way it manifests today is very different than when it was at its finest." It is said that students do not take the society seriously, viewing it more as a social fraternity than a secret society.


text: For years, rumors of a "TS" existing on campus as a continuation of the Order of the Red Friars' original mission. Only recently has it come to light that "TS" stands for "Trident Society". This society keeps the strictest silence about its membership and mission except for two instances when its existence came to be known. The first, in the November 2007 edition of the Rival Magazine, explained its ideas. According to a "cryptic letter sealed with wax", the society is "rooted in ideals that stretch back to the university's founding". The letter continued: "Our founders recognized that similar institutions existed at other top universities (Skull and Bones at Yale, The Sevens at UVA, Quill and Dagger at Cornell) and saw a void to fill at Duke".


text: As such, its members are not well known on campus. They "do not join to gain fame" or recognition; that said, members of the society are or were Rhodes Scholars, commencement speakers, players for Coach Krzyzweski, Phi Beta Kappas, A.B. & B.N. Duke Scholars, and leaders of the most influential groups on campus. The secrecy around this group drove Samantha Lachman to investigate the society in 2013. Her subsequent article, "Trasked with Secrecy", revealed many of the secrets of the group. She discovered the names of several prominent members, that the red roses & white carnations sometimes found at the base of the James B. Duke statue on West Campus are their calling card, and even that they have uninhibited access to the Duke University Chapel for their Initiation Rites.


text: Founded in 1836, Emory University is a prominent research institution in the city of Atlanta, GA. Emory has five secret societies, including the Paladin Society, D.V.S. Senior Honor Society, Ducemus, Speculum and The Order of Ammon.


text: In 2021, Ducemus was accused of attempting to manipulate Emory's student government elections by a member of its legislature, which led to a trial presided by the student judicial council. The accusatory plaintiff claimed that members of the secret society, who allegedly held positions in student government and various student organizations, attempted to sway the elections in their favor and secure positions for their members. The student judicial council ruled in the plaintiff's favor and disqualified the allegedly Ducemus-backed candidates.


text: The Burning Spear Society is a secret society at Florida State University, founded in 1993. Burning Spear was founded on July 14, 1993 by three students initially to promote Charlie Ward's Heisman campaign. By August 1993, sixteen students joined together to charter this new organization, and within one year's time seven additional students would be initiated into membership. Though not much is publicly available on the dealings of the organization, members often cite the provision of political, professional and financial support of FSU community members and efforts that strengthen the university's traditions as two of their most basic ambitions.


text: Fordham University was long accused of being involved with secret societies and covert activities due to anti-Catholic and nativist sentiments against the Irish and Italian immigrants it historically served. John Kelly, successor to Boss Tweed as Grand Sachem of Tammany Hall, was the nephew-in-law of Cardinal John McCloskey, the first president of Fordham, and many Fordham students and alumni were involved with Tammany Hall, including Edward Flynn, 20th century chair of the Democratic National Committee.


text: Founded in 1954 by Fr. Leo McLaughlin, S.J., was the Fordham Club. Membership is reserved to about thirty members of the Fordham College at Rose Hill senior class "recommended by their prominence and influence in extracurricular endeavors during their first three college years, having contributed in a significant and preeminent way to the vibrant spirit of Fordham." They have a robust alumni network with regular reunions and influence in the University.


text: Founded in 1837, the Parthenian Sodality was transferred to Fordham, which was founded in 1841, from St. Mary's College in Kentucky when the Jesuits took over administration of Fordham from the Archdiocese of New York in 1846. Approval of the transfer was granted by the Roman Prima Primaria in 1847. The Roman Sodality, under whose guidance the Parthenian Sodality was, was first founded in Rome in 1584. Though no longer held to the Roman sodality after Vatican II, the organization is said to exist in some form to this day under the name The Second Sodality, at which point it transitioned to being more identifiable as a secret society: hiding membership, meeting at odd times, and communicating through codes and riddles. In the chapel atop the administration building, now known as Cunniffe House, are listed over a hundred years of members, but this practice was ended around when the sodality went covert. It is said they will leave clues in the form of sonnets around campus and in the student newspapers to attract members. They tap around 25 members per year, of whom half usually figure out the clues. Meetings are usually held in the various chapels around campus, with important ceremonies happening in the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows.


text: Founded in 1826, Furman University is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in South Carolina. Until 1992 the university was, to varying degrees affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention which banned social organizations of all kinds. This drove students seeking such groups underground.


text: The most notable of these early secret societies was called "The Star and Lamp", however it is known today on more than 100 campuses as Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity. After being founded at The College of Charleston in 1904, Pi Kappa Phi operated "sub-rosa", or under the rose of secrecy, for much of the twentieth century so as to hide their activities from the university's Baptist administrators. During this time Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Tau Kappa Epsilon operated respectively as "The Centaur" and "The Knights Eternal" while a fourth organization, "The Robert E. Lee Fraternity" was concurrently active which would go on to merge with today's Kappa Alpha Order. For this reason, Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity's official flower is today, the rose, their sweetheart is called the rose and one of the group's most cherished songs is "The Rose Song". The rose and "sub-rosa" concept are present in the group's esoteric literature and rituals. Furthermore, the fraternity's chapter at Furman carries a unique flag which bears a red rose in the upper right-hand corner.


text: On campus today the only known active secret society is The Quaternion Club, although many are rumored to exist. Quaternion, which dates back to 1903, taps four juniors and four seniors each year in the late winter or early spring. The selection process is guarded but is thought to be controlled by current Quaternions currently in residence at the school. The initiation ritual and all group meetings take place in the "Old College", the original building in which James C. Furman taught the university's first courses in Greenville in 1851. It is also widely known that Quaternions are given lifetime access to this building upon initiation which also houses the controls for the 59 bell Burnside Carillon inside Furman's iconic bell tower. Famous Quaternions have included U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, and Clement Haynsworth, a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.


text: There are also a number of strongly rumored secret societies with less documentation including The Magnolia Society, which has apparently formed within the past decade and taps men and women from all classes into something like an elitist supper club. Magnolians, as they are called, can be identified only on their way to or from a "happening" by the sweetgrass rose they wear on their breast. The Black Swan or Paladin Brotherhood was a darker organization rumored to have operated on and off from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s, utilizing the unfinished attic of Judson dormitory for occult rituals.


text: Founded in 1821, George Washington University is located in the heart of the nation's capital. In 1997, University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg brought together student leaders from all parts of the university to support fellowship, make GW a better university, and behave in slightly frivolous ways. The secret society was named The Order of the Hippo, after a bronze statue of a hippo, also known as the River Horse (sculpture), displayed prominently in the center of campus. The Order takes its oath from a plaque located on the front of the hippo statue, which reads, "Art for wisdom, Science for joy, Politics for beauty, and a Hippo for hope." The Order has a ritual book, which is passed down from year to year and the main aim of the group is to enact Random Acts of Kindness around GW's campus to create a better environment for all students.


text: Georgetown’s leading secret society is the Society of Jesus founded as an all-male fraternity of would-be Catholic priests at the University of Paris (the Sorbonne) in 1534.  In 1773, the Jesuits were suppressed by the Pope but in Maryland they stayed organized secretly and in 1789 the suppressed Jesuits helped staff Georgetown College for its founder, America's first Catholic bishop, Archbishop John Carroll; later to become Georgetown University.  The Jesuits were long hostile to college fraternities and societies that tried to form at Georgetown like at other colleges in the 19th century because they could not control them, but the hostility had waned by 1920.  One century later, Georgetown has several fraternities and sororities, independent of the university, and a few all-male, all-female and co-ed secret societies.


text: The Stewards Society (collectively referred to as The Stewards) is an anonymous, all-male service fraternity, often considered a secret society, at Georgetown University. While generally considered a secret society by the student body, the Stewards have claimed to be a predominantly alumni built organisation. The original organisation was founded in 1982, eventually going public in 1988. The Stewards would continue to operate until the mid 1990s, where the organisation broke apart and the original group became defunct. The organisation, following this schism, would form The Second and later the Third Stewards Societies, although the groups are not connected organisationally. The organisation would put out public addresses in 2001 and 2020, claiming a number of service activities and defending their existence. In 2013, and 2020, the Stewards were the subject of a series of leaks, indicating that undisclosed members of the organisation were part of student government. The group has been criticized for pushing a conservative agenda on campus and for its exclusion of women.


text: The Anak Society is the oldest known secret society and honor society at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1908, Anak's purpose is "to honor outstanding juniors and seniors who have shown both exemplary leadership and a true love for Georgia Tech". The society's name refers to Anak, a biblical figure said to be the forefather of a race of giants.


text: Although not founded as a secret society, Anak has kept its activities and membership rosters confidential since 1961. Membership is made public upon a student's graduation or a faculty member's retirement. The Anak Society's membership comprises at least 1,100 Georgia Tech graduates, faculty members, and honorary members.


text: The society has been influential in the history of Georgia Tech. Anak played a major role in establishing several of Georgia Tech's most active student organizations – including Georgia Tech's yearbook, the "Blueprint"; Georgia Tech's student newspaper, "The Technique", and Georgia Tech's Student Government Association – as well as several lasting Georgia Tech traditions. The society also claims involvement in a number of civil rights projects, most notably in peacefully integrating Georgia Tech's first African-American students in 1961, preventing the Ku Klux Klan from setting up a student chapter at Georgia Tech.


text: Harvard does not have secret societies in the usual sense, though it does have final clubs, fraternities, sororities, and a variety of other secret or semi-secret organizations.


text: Final clubs are secretive about their election procedures, and they have secret initiations and meetings. However, there is little secrecy about who is a member. They are larger than secret societies generally are (approximately forty students per club). Guests are admitted under restrictions. However the Porcellian, AD, Fox and Fly clubs are somewhat stricter than the others, having rules against admitting non-members to most areas of their buildings. "Punch Season" and the "Final Dinner" is analogous to "Tap" at Yale. As of the Fall of 2015, one of the all-male final clubs has gone co-ed (the Spee Club). The seven remaining all-male clubs are in the process of going co-ed or are fighting pressures to do so.


text: Final clubs at Harvard include The Porcellian Club (1791), originally called The Argonauts; The Delphic Club (1900); The Fly Club, (1836), a successor of Alpha Delta Phi; The Phoenix - S K Club (1897); The Owl Club, originally called Phi Delta Psi, (1896); and The Fox Club (1898).


text: Co-ed clubs include The Spee Club, The Aleph (formerly Alpha Epsilon Pi) (2001), and The K.S (formerly Kappa Sigma) (1905).


text: There are also five female clubs: The Bee Club (1991), The Isis Club (2000), The Sablière Society (2002), The Pleiades Society (2002), and La Vie Club (2008).


text: Harvard also has two fraternities, Sigma Chi (1992) and Sigma Alpha Epsilon (1893), and four sororities: Delta Gamma (1994), Kappa Kappa Gamma (2003), Kappa Alpha Theta (1993), and Alpha Phi (2013). These organizations are semi-secret in nature, have secret initiation processes and meetings but a more transparent process for gaining membership. All four sororities and the Sigma Chi fraternity also have rules against admitting non-members to many parts of their buildings.


text: Another all-male social group is The Oak Club (2005), a successor of Delta Upsilon (1890) and later The D.U. "Duck" Club (1940), which holds events but does not own property in Harvard Square. There are also several final clubs and fraternities which are now defunct, including Pi Eta Speakers, The D.U. "Duck" Club, Delta Upsilon, Pi Kappa Alpha, and The Iroquois.


text: Approximately 10% of men and 5% of women are in final clubs. Approximately 7% of men and 15% of women are in Greek letter organizations. Additionally, an unknown number of students are in other secretive on-campus groups.


text: Other secretive social groups include the Hasty Pudding Club, Harvard Lampoon, Harvard Advocate, the Dickey Club, the Signet Society, and The Seneca.


text: Finally, Harvard Lodge is a university Masonic lodge, founded in 1922 by Harvard Law School Dean/Professor Roscoe Pound, members of the Harvard Square & Compass Club, and members of the Harvard Masonic Club (which included Theodore Roosevelt). It is the oldest academic lodge in North America, its membership is restricted to males with a Harvard affiliation, and it operates in the building of Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, overlooking Boston Common.


text: Although the members remain reticent, James Madison University has only one known secret society. This society is named IN8 (pronounced /ɪˈneɪt/). The name references the college's founding in 1908 and the emblem of the organization consists of an infinity sign with an ‘I’ and ‘N’ embedded within the curve. Most notably, IN8 is known for their laud of 8 students per semester who have outstanding college careers and fulfill the organization's 8 supposed core values: Loyalty, Benevolence, Service, Justice, Integrity, Intellect, Character, and Spirit. However, this is not their only known function, IN8 also provides philanthropic gifts to the university. The sundial located by the Quad, which is a famous landmark for many of the students, was donated by the group. IN8 hosts a website bearing their emblem which states “The IN8 Foundation is a benevolent charitable organization supporting the James Madison University community.”


text: The IN8 Foundation was mentioned in The Insider's Guide to the Colleges, 2009. Writing on student involvement at James Madison University, Insider Guides states that IN8 is “Not necessarily the most popular but one of the most famed among these [student groups] is IN8, JMU’s secret society. Every year, it gives out eight letters to students and faculty who have significantly impacted their society to let them know that their work does not go unnoticed. In addition, in 2003, they donated a human sundial, a spot in the middle of campus where a person stands on a particular month’s mark and casts a shadow on plaques six or seven feet away that designate the time.”


text: Through the years, many secret societies, senior societies and other groups have been founded at Johns Hopkins. Most of these societies were founded around the 1890s at the beginning of the university and played a significant role in the early development of the student body. This includes the Cane Club, The Ananias Society, The Senior Society, The Pithotomy Club, The Ubiquiteers, Tau Club, and De Gang. These historic secret societies are either defunct or non-existent.


text: Founded for members who value friendship and privacy to enjoy the arts together, the Blue Jay Supper Society is the only active secret society with open applications at Johns Hopkins. The Supper Society looks for brilliant misfits and creatives, and accepts applications from undergraduate and graduate students as well as alumni. Membership is capped at 150 globally.


text: Loyola University Maryland, a Jesuit, Liberal-Arts school located in Baltimore, Maryland has had few secret societies of notability. The Green and Grey society, named after the school’s colors, was established in 1989. The school selects “a small number of men and women from the senior class who demonstrated excellence in academic, personal, and spiritual integration and a commitment to leadership and service to Loyola. In the spirit of Jesuit ideals, the Society serves as advisors to the University executives by identifying and communicating issues of significance. As engaged members of community, the Society empowers students across the University to live the magis.” While the society is acknowledged to exist, they members and overall selection process remains elusive.


text: Secret societies have also long been part of Virginia's third-oldest public institution, which began in 1839 as an all-female seminary. One of the first of its kind, Longwood has undergone multiple changes in name and became co-educational in 1967 and transitioned from its previous name, Longwood College, to its final name, Longwood University, in 2002. Longwood currently has three secret societies, the oldest of which is CHI, founded on October 15, 1900 by members from three of Longwood's four sorority Alpha chapters-- Kappa Delta, Zeta Tau Alpha, and Sigma Sigma Sigma. The society was originally called the "Society of Societies" whose original intentions were to hold students accountable and enrich the lives of their peers and professors by calling out bad behavior, taking hooded walks called "CHI Walks" and hosting a bon-fire at the end of each academic year called "CHI burning" where senior members would reveal themselves to campus. Today, CHI represents something very different, and works on behalf of the college to represent Longwood spirit—the blue and white spirit. Members make their presence known through leaving small "droppings" or tokens around campus, writing letters to Longwood students, faculty, and staff which celebrate their achievements, and the members of CHI "commend" members during their annual "CHI Burning" which remains to this day. The mark of the society can be found on the sidewalks of the campus, where their symbol (a simple geometric version of Ruffner Hall) is painted in blue. Students, faculty, and staff do not step on these symbols as a means of paying respect to the society, the Longwood spirit, and the preservation of said spirit. The physical presence of CHI can also be found on campus because the society has donates generously to many campus fundraising campaigns, and donated CHI Fountain, located at the center of campus, which along its top stone, reads the public motto of the society.


text: The third-oldest and second-longest consistently operating secret society at Longwood is Princeps, which was founded in 1992 on the premise of promoting citizen leadership and academic excellence. The society is represented by the number seven, with a seven-point crown above the number, most commonly in black. The societies colors are red, gold, and black, and they often commend members of the community with letters, tokens of achievement, and other gifts. Princeps, meaning "leader" in Latin, also awards paper cutout versions of their symbol, the seven, to students who achieve both Dean's List and President's List. Those who achieve Dean's List receive a black seven and those who achieve President's List receive a red seven. Princeps also recognizes students with wooden sevens, and the senior members of the society reveal themselves on graduation morning on the front steps of Lancaster Hall, home to the President's Office, at 7:07am, where they appear from within the crowd or from the building wearing a red sash with their symbol, the 7 and crown, stitched on the sash which drapes across their body. Membership selection for this society, just like CHI, remains a secret. Princeps has no known ties to the University of Virginia's 7 Society.


text: Several secret societies exist at New York University, including Red Dragon Society, which only takes both "distinguished" male and female seniors from the College of Arts and Science, Knights of the Lamp, which only takes seniors from the Stern School of Business, and the Philomathean Society (which operated from 1832 to 1888), Eucleian Society (from 1832 to the 1940s), and Andiron Club. Only Red Dragon Society and Knights of the Lamp still exist, though there have been attempts to revive the other societies at the university among recent classes and incoming undergraduate classes. Edgar Allan Poe was a frequent speaker at the Philomathean Society and the Eucleian Society, and lived on the Square.


text: In addition, NYU's first yearbook was formed by fraternities and "secret societies" at the university.


text: Secret societies are banned in all military academies in the United States. Norwich University was the last military academy to outlaw secret societies, doing so in 1998. The stated reason for doing so was controversy regarding hazing and abuse of cadets. Prior to the ban Norwich was home to a handful of long standing secret societies such as the Old Crow Society, Night Riders, and Skull and Swords. Like the other military academies, Norwich does not allow fraternities, having been banned in 1962. However, Norwich has an Alpha chapter of the Theta Chi Society now known as Theta Chi Fraternity on the basis that it is not a traditional fraternity, but admits those in pursuit of engineering degrees and thus an order to honor academic accomplishments akin to Phi Theta Kappa.


text: There are currently three well-known societies at Pennsylvania State University: "Parmi Nous" (1907), "Lion's Paw" (1908), and "Skull and Bones" (1912). Penn State has seen a number of different honorary societies with varying levels of publicity and activity. In 1907, the first "hat" society, so-named because of such organizations' emblematic headwear, "Druids", was formed; similar societies expanded and included dedicated groups for women (e.g. "Chimes", "Scrolls") and men (e.g. "Blue Key", "Androcles") based on class standing and extracurricular involvement. These groups were temporarily governed by a "Hat Society Council" which was made up of representatives from each organization from 1948 to 1958. Hat societies were involved in University life passing down traditions (called "freshmen customs") for first-year students, forming honor guards for football players as they went on to the field, and recognizing leaders, scholars, and athletes in the Penn State community. The three remaining senior societies no longer operate as publicly but continue to serve the university in a variety of functions. "Lion's Paw" is closely associated with conservation efforts at Mount Nittany in State College, PA.


text: Princeton's eating clubs are not fraternities, nor are they secret societies by any standard measure, but they are often seen as being tenuously analogous.


text: Additionally, Princeton has a number of genuine secret societies; perhaps the best-known is a chapter of St. Anthony Hall, otherwise known as Delta Psi, a co-ed literary society. While membership in the Princeton chapter of Delta Psi (aka St. Anthony Hall) is public, the society is known to maintain a secret president, referred to as Number One, whose identity is known only to members for the duration of his or her office. The 21 Club, an all-male drinking society, is also a notorious Princeton secret society. Princeton also has a long tradition of underground societies. While secret society membership is relatively public at some schools, Princeton's historical secret society rolls are very secretive because of Woodrow Wilson's ban on clandestine organizations and his threat to expel secret fraternity members from Princeton. One such society is Phi (pronounced "fē"), a society dating to 1929 when members of the Whig society splintered off after the merger of the Whig and Cliosophic debating societies. Phi's membership is secretive and difficult to discern, because no more than ten active "Phis" exist at one time: Phis usually receive offers at the end of their third year. As an adaptation to Princeton's stringent anti-society rules, each active class does not meet the preceding class that selected it until the First of June (after their first Reunions and before graduation). 1.6... is the Golden Ratio, hence the name Phi. Another society is the exclusively female Foxtail Society, founded in 1974 soon after Princeton began admitting women in 1969. The society was founded in response to the lack of eating clubs open to women. While admittance numbers have changed over the years, the Foxtail selects anywhere from 10 to 15 women to become members at the end of their junior year.


text: As eighth oldest of the colleges in the United States, Rutgers University has had several secret societies on campus. One of which, a likely hoax, claims to be established in 1834. Students associated with these societies were allegedly involved in the Rutgers-Princeton Cannon War in 1876. At the turn of the 20th century, Rutgers had developed two full sets of class year societies based on the Yale model, down to the freshman societies such as the Chain and Bones and Serpent and Coffin. The senior class societies at Rutgers included the Brotherhood of the Golden Dagger (1898–1940), Casque and Dagger (1901), and Cap and Skull (1900). Cap and Skull was dissolved in the 1960s after complaints of elitism. In 1982 the name was revived for university-sanctioned senior-year honor society.


text: Founded in 1871, Smith College opened in 1875 as an institution dedicated to the education of women. Similarly to other colleges and universities, Smith also had secret societies from the 1890s until the 1960s. Two of these societies, the Orangemen and the Ancient Order of Hibernians (A.O.H.) were both founded in 1890 according to the Smith College Special Collections. In 1948, the President of the College, Herbert John Davis outlawed secret societies because he believed they were “undemocratic.” The A.O.H. and the Orangemen carried out a rivalry throughout their existences at the college.


text: The A.O.H. was a parody of the Irish Roman Catholic fraternal order by the same name, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which dates back to 1500s Ireland. The Orangemen also was a parody of the Loyal Orange Association, a Protestant Irish organization, which dates back to 1795 Ireland. The A.O.H. of Smith College did write to the A.O.H. for “recognition,” but were turned down.


text: The A.O.H’s color was green and the Orangemen’s was orange. The Orangemen wore cloaks with orange hoods and also had orange hats in which they paraded around campus. The A.O.H. also had activities including giving out special names to new members. According to Smith College Special Collections, both organizations limited membership to 12 people from each class year. The A.O.H. held initiations for new members in the fall of their first year of college. The Orangemen also held initiations.


text: Secret societies were outlawed at Smith College in 1948 making the groups stop “all official activities.” But, Smith College Special Collections says, “records indicate that both organizations continued unofficially until the mid 1960s” with available documentation ceasing during the 1965-1966 academic year.


text: The University of California, Berkeley is home to a small handful of secret societies. Skull & Keys, founded in 1892 by Frank Norris, is the earliest secret society at Berkeley and is composed of a select few members from certain fraternity chapters on campus.


text: The second oldest is the Sigma Phi Society of the Thorsen House (popularly shortened to Thorsen), founded in 1912, which acts independent to all of Berkeley's fraternal traditions and regulations and has resided in the famous Thorsen House since 1942.


text: The campus is also home to the Order of the Golden Bear, established in 1900, which discourages the term "secret society" despite operating with a secret membership. The order is composed of undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, faculty, and administrators with a commitment to the betterment of the university, although its significance and recognition is considerably smaller presently than it was in its earliest years.


text: The University of Chicago has never had a substantial number of active secret societies; indeed, shortly after the university's founding, the faculty of the university released a resolution suggesting that the exclusionary structure of many such societies made them antithetical to the democratic spirit of the university. Nevertheless, one notable exception - The Society of the Owl and Serpent, a secret honors society founded in 1896 - was active for over 70 years. The Society voted to officially disband in 1968 as a sign of its "counterculture" values, electing to donate its office space to the student radio group WHPK and use its remaining funds for the purchase of an FM transmitter.


text: Notable alumni of the Society of the Owl and Serpent include former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who graduated from the university in 1941.


text: The University of Cincinnati hosts several secret societies, locally referred to as honoraries. The first such organization is Sigma Sigma, founded in 1898 which is open to upperclassmen men on the campus. Sigma Sigma is responsible for the Sigma Sigma commons on the UC campus, along with other donations to the campus. Cincinnatus (co-ed) was founded in 1917 with the Men of METRO founded in 1946. CWEST and Sigma Phi exist as the female counterparts to Men of METRO and Sigma Sigma, respectively. Many of the university's prominent alumni claim membership to one or many of these organizations.


text: Each organization coordinates at least one annual event: Men of Metro and CWEST host an annual Talent Show, Cincinnatus a charitable run, Sigma Phi the Homecoming dance, and Sigma Sigma an annual carnival.


text: A group unique to the University of Georgia is the men's secret society known as the Order of the Greek Horsemen which annually inducts five fraternity men, all leaders of the Greek Fraternity system.


text: Likewise, the highest achievement a male can attain at the university is claimed by the Gridiron Secret Society.


text: Palladia Secret Society was founded in the early 1960s as the highest honor a woman can attain at the University of Georgia. Palladia inducts approximately 12 women each fall and has an extensive network of alumni, including administrators at the University of Georgia and prominent female leaders across the state.


text: The Panhellenic sororities also have a secret society known as Trust of the Pearl, which inducts five accomplished sorority women each spring. The Sphinx Club is the oldest honorary society at the University of Georgia, recognizing students, faculty, staff and alumni who have made significant contributions to the university, the State of Georgia and the nation. Membership to this organization is not secret; however, all business and happenings of the organization are.


text: Iron Arrow Honor Society, founded in 1926 in conjunction with the University of Miami's opening, is the highest honor attained at the University of Miami. Based on Seminole Indian tradition, Iron Arrow recognizes those individuals in the University of Miami community who exemplify the five qualities of Iron Arrow: Scholarship, Leadership, Character, Humility and Love of Alma Mater.


text: The University of Michigan Ann Arbor hosts three secret societies: Order of Angell, Phoenix, and the Vulcan Senior Engineering Society. Order of Angell and Phoenix were once under the umbrella group "The Tower Society", the name referring to their location in the top of the Michigan Union tower. Michigauma (Order of Angell) was all-male while Adara (Phoenix) was all-female.


text: Order of Angell, known as "Order", is an evolved version of a previous society Michigauma. It was inspired by the rituals and culture of the Native Americans of the United States. Since its creation in 1902 the group is credited with creating Dance Marathon, one of the largest charitable events at the University of Michigan and construction of the Michigan Union for which it was granted permanent space in the top floors of the tower which they refer to as the "tomb". In 2007 the group changed its name to Order of Angell and later, in 2021, the group officially disbanded.


text: Phoenix, (formerly known as Adara) holding to astrological roots, formed in the late 1970s by the women leaders on campus. In the early 1980s they joined the tower society and occupied the sixth floor of the tower just below Michigamua. Phoenix, alongside Order, is now co-ed. Phoenix was disbanded in March 2021 via a vote by an overwhelming majority.


text: Vulcan Senior Engineering Society, known as "the Vulcans", occupied the fifth floor of the Union tower though were not formally a part of the tower society. They draw their heritage from the Roman god Vulcan. The group which used to do its tapping publicly is known for its long black robes and for its financial contributions of the University of Michigan College of Engineering.


text: In 1895, the Alpha Theta Chapter of the Theta Nu Epsilon sophomore society was founded under the guidance of faculty member Luther DeFoe. DeFoe also served as a mentor to the founding members of the QEBH senior men's society, which was founded in 1898. Mystical Seven was founded in 1907 and has become the second best known society on campus. Some have suggested that Missouri's Mystical Seven was modeled after Virginia's Seven Society, which had been established just a couple years earlier. Other secret societies followed, including Society of the Hidden Eye for junior, senior men, LSV for senior women, Thadstek for freshman, sophomore men, Tomb and Key for freshman, sophomore men, and Kappa Kappa whose membership composition was unknown. During this period of rapid expansion of secret societies, a network of sub-rosa inter-fraternity organizations also established itself on campus with no purpose other than socializing and mischief making. This network, known commonly as the "Greek Underworld" included organizations such as Seven Equals, Kappa Beta Phi, Sigma Phi Sigma, Kappa Nu Theta, and Sigma Alpha Beta.


text: It is currently home to at least six secret honor societies that still participate in an annual public Taies Day ceremony at the end of each spring semester. QEBH, Mystical Seven, LSV, Alpha Xi chapter of Omicron Delta Kappa, Friars chapter of Mortar Board, and Rollins Society each use the Tap Day ceremony at the conclusion of the year to reveal the members who were initiated over the past year. Missouri is one of few remaining institutions in which the local Omicron Delta Kappa and Mortar Board chapters carry out much of their work in secrecy. The Jefferson Society, which attempted to take part in Tap Day and was denied, claims to have been around since 1862. In addition to Tap Day activities, several of the societies maintain a public presence during some athletic events. QEBH is the caretaker of the Victory Bell, along with Nebraska's Society of Innocents, awarded to the winner of the Missouri–Nebraska Rivalry football game each year. The Friars Chapter of Mortar Board exchanges a gavel with Nebraska (The Black Masque Chapter of Mortar Board) at each MU-UNL football game, symbolizing the rivalry between the Universities. Mystical Seven and Oklahoma's Pe-et Society were likewise entrusted with the Peace Pipe trophy that was awarded to the winner of the biennial Missouri-Oklahoma football match. Omicron Delta Kappa previously served as caretaker of the Indian War Drum trophy awarded to the winner of the annual Border War football game between Missouri and Kansas.


text: The library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill contains the archives of the Order of Gimghoul, a secret society headquartered at the Gimghoul Castle. The order was founded in 1889 by Robert Worth Bingham, Shepard Bryan, William W. Davies, Edward Wray Martin, and Andrew Henry Patterson, who were students at the time.


text: The society is open to male students (rising juniors and higher), and faculty members by invitation. The society centers itself around the legend of Peter Dromgoole, a student who mysteriously disappeared from the UNC campus in 1833. The founders originally called themselves the Order of Dromgoole, but later changed it to the Order of Gimghoul to be, "in accord with midnight and graves and weirdness", according to the university's archives.


text: Tradition has it that the order upheld the "Dromgoole legend and the ideals of Arthurian knighthood and chivalry". From all accounts, the order is social in nature, and has no clandestine agenda. Membership is closed and information about the order is strictly confidential, as is access to archives which are less than 50 years old.


text: The Order of the Gorgon's Head, another secret society at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was founded in 1896 by Darius Eatman, Edward Kidder Graham, Ralph Henry Graves, Samuel Selden Lamb, Richard Henry Lewis, Jr., and Percy DePonceau Whitaker. Membership has always been limited to male members of the junior, senior, professional, and post-graduate classes along with male faculty members. Inductees may not be members of other societies. Officers include Princeps (chief officer), Quaestor, and Scriptor. The purpose of the Order is to promote friendship, good will, and social fellowship among its members. The Order of the Gorgon's Head was one of two "junior orders" established at the university in the 1890s. The two orders had written agreements that they would not attempt to recruit freshmen or sophomores. Each order had a lodge (the Gimghouls later built a castle), where members gathered for meetings and events. Each had secret rituals based on myths. Those of the Order of the Gorgon's Head centered on the myth of the Gorgons, three monstrous sisters prominent in ancient Greek and Roman lore.


text: The university's library also contains the archives of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies. The Societies were founded in 1795 by some of the first students to attend the university, and are the oldest public-school societies in the nation. While at first maintaining strict secrecy in their proceedings, the Societies' meetings are now generally open to the public; however, the Societies reserve the right at all times to call an "Executive Session", at which point all non-members are escorted from the chambers. All undergraduates may attempt to join one of the two societies by petitioning, upon vote by current Society members.


text: Most recently, in 2011, he Daily Tar Heel reported the first of two donations to campus entities by a secret society named Infinity. In 2011, the society gifted $888.88 to the Eve Carson Scholarship fund, which honors the late Student Body President Eve Carson. In 2012, the society gifted $888.88 to the Student Enrichment Fund, a student-created fund allowing students to apply for grants to attend off-campus events such as speeches, conferences or other academic or extracurricular opportunities. The significance of the digit '8' comes from the symbol for infinity that resembles an eight on its side.


text: At Penn, secret societies are smaller than their Greek counterparts, and tend to vary in degree of secrecy. There are three senior honorary societies. The Sphinx Senior Society and the Friars Senior Society were both founded at the turn of the 20th century, while The Mortar Board Senior Society was founded in 1922. None of these societies was intended to be secret, in that their undergraduate and alumni membership were and continue to be publicly known, they share many of the characteristics of undergraduate secret societies of the time; they tap a diverse group of campus leaders to become members during their senior year, organize social and service activities throughout the year, and maintain an extensive network of successful and notable alumni. Alumni of Friars, for example, include Harold Ford Jr. and Ed Rendell; the Sphinx alumni roster boasts Richard A. Clarke and John Legend. In addition, there are several other groups called "secret societies". These groups generally denote a social club that is independent of any official organization. For this reason, the society is not regulated by the university and is not accountable to a national organization.


text: The University of Southern California is home to the Skull and Dagger Society. Founded in 1913, Skull and Dagger is USC's oldest honor society. The Society inducts Trojans who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership on campus or who have brought fame and notoriety to the university. In the early 20th century, the Society published its members names and accomplishments, however in recent years has kept its members' identities secret. Members often include student body presidents, Daily Trojan editors in chief, All-American athletes, football team captains and inter-fraternity council presidents. Little is known about the rituals and practices of the society aside from once a year when the society pranks the school, drops a banner from the Student Union Building, and runs through campus wearing odd hats and tailcoats. Recently, the society has been criticized for its annual prank practice, with opponents saying the pranks "damage the trustworthiness and credibility of respected campus services". Although originally an all-male society, Skull and Dagger now admits women. Skull and Dagger has been known to make gifts to the university. In 1994, the Society donated "The Wall of Scholars" to honor students who have won national and international fellowships, as well as recipients of USC awards. In 2011, the Society embarked to restore the university's class marker tradition and has been donating class markers ever since. Skull and Dagger has additionally endowed two scholarships, which are awarded annually to students "who have demonstrated significant campus and/or community leadership".


text: The University of Texas at Austin is home to the Friar Society. The Friar Society was founded in 1911 by Curtice Rosser and Marion Levy. Eight members were initially selected in the charter group. Originally, four men were chosen from the junior and senior classes every year on the basis of a significant contribution to The University of Texas. The Friar Society recognizes students who have made a significant contribution to The University of Texas. In 1936, the Friars decided to start taking larger classes to accommodate the growing size of the university. Women were first admitted to the Friar Society on March 25, 1973. In 1982, the Friars decided to create a teaching fellowship in honor of the upcoming centennial celebration for The University of Texas. Friar alumni raised $100,000 for this purpose, and this amount was matched by the Board of Regents to create an endowment. The Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship is an annual award given to a UT professor who has demonstrated excellence at the undergraduate teaching level. With a prize of $25,000, the award is the largest monetary award annually given to a UT professor.