History.

The formation of Denton is closely tied with that of Denton County. White settlement of the area began in the middle of the 1800s when William S. Peters of Kentucky obtained a land grant from the Texas Congress and named it Peters Colony. After initial settlement in the southeast part of the county in 1843, the Texas Legislature voted to form Denton County in 1846. Both the county and the town were named for John B. Denton, a preacher and lawyer who was killed in 1841 during a skirmish with Kichai people in what is now Tarrant County. Pickneyville and Alton were selected as the county seat before Denton was named for that position in 1857. That year, a commission laid out the city and named the first streets.  Denton incorporated in 1866; its first mayor was J.B. Sawyer. As the city expanded beyond its original boundaries (which extended half of a mile in every direction from center of the public square), it became an agricultural trade center for the mill and cottage industries. The arrival of the Texas and Pacific Railway in 1881 gave Denton its first rail connection and brought an influx of people to the area. North Texas Normal College, now the University of North Texas, was established in 1890, and the Girls' Industrial College, now Texas Woman's University, was founded in 1901. As the universities increased in size, their impact on Denton's economy and culture increased. A middle-class African-American community, Quakertown, thrived just south of what is now Texas Woman's University until around 1920.  Denton grew from a population of 26,844 in 1960 to 48,063 in 1980. Its connection to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex via I-35E and I-35W played a major role in the growth, and the opening of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in 1974 led to an increase in population. In the 1980s, heavy manufacturing companies like Victor Equipment Company and Peterbilt joined older manufacturing firms such as Moore Business Forms and Morrison Milling Company in Denton. The population jumped from 66,270 in 1990 to 80,537 in 2000. In May 2006, Houston-based real estate company United Equities purchased the 100-block of Fry Street and announced that several of the historic buildings would be demolished to accommodate a new mixed-use commercial center. The proposal drew opposition from some residents, who sought to preserve the area as a historic and cultural icon for the city. The Denton City Council approved a new proposal for the area from Dinerstein Cos in 2010.

Geography.

Denton is located on the northern edge of the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area. These three cities form the area known as the "Golden Triangle of North Texas." According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which is land and is covered by water. The city lies in the northeast edge of the Bend Arch–Fort Worth Basin, which is characterized by flat terrain. Elevation ranges from. Part of the city is located atop the Barnett Shale, a geological formation believed to contain large quantities of natural gas. Lewisville Lake, a man-made reservoir, is located south of the city.

Climate.

With its hot, humid summers and cool winters, Denton's climate is characterized as humid subtropical and is within USDA hardiness zone 8a. The city's all-time high temperature is, recorded in 1954. Dry winds affect the area in the summer and can bring temperatures of over, although the average summer temperature highs range from between June and August. The all-time recorded low is, and the coolest month is January, with daily low temperatures averaging. Denton lies on the southern end of what is commonly referred to as "Tornado Alley"; the National Weather Service occasionally issues tornado watches, although tornadoes rarely form in the city. The city receives about of rain per year. Flash floods and severe thunderstorms are frequent occurrences during spring. Average snowfall in Denton is similar to the Dallas–Fort Worth average of per year.

Arts and cultural life.

Denton is home to several annual artistic and cultural events that cater to residents and tourists. The annual North Texas State Fair and Rodeo began in 1928 and promotes the cowboy culture of Texas. In addition to a rodeo, the event features several local country rock performances, pageants, and food contests. Hosted by the North Texas State Fairgrounds since 1948, the fair brings in over 150,000 people during its nine-day run. The Denton Municipal Airport has hosted the annual Denton Airshow since 1998. The event includes aerial demonstrations and airplane exhibits; it attracted over 10,000 attendees in 2012. Other events in the city include an annual Redbud Festival, the Fiesta on the Square, and the Thin Line Documentary Film Fest.  Denton houses the largest community garden in the United States, specifically Shiloh Field Community Garden, which measures at 14.5 acres of land.

Music.

The local independent music scene in Denton has emerged alongside Denton's academic music establishments, including the University of North Texas College of Music. The city's live music venues are largely supported by Denton's college-town atmosphere, although show attendance is bolstered by area residents. The "Dallas Observer" features a column on Denton's local music scene. In 2007 and 2008, Denton's music scene received feature attention from "The Guardian", "Pop Matters", and "The New York Times". "Paste Magazine" named Denton's music scene the best in the United States in 2008. The city-sponsored Denton Arts and Jazz Festival attracts over 200,000 people each year for live music, food, crafts, and recreation at Civic Center Park. Bands such as Tower of Power, Brave Combo, and Arturo Sandoval have performed at the festival, as well as jazz groups from the University of North Texas. With hopes of creating a live music event similar to South by Southwest, Denton held the first annual North by 35 Music Festival, now called 35 Denton, in March 2009. In 2014, the "Huffington Post" listed Denton as the number-one emerging cultural hot spot in Texas to visit, while referring to Denton as "Practically an indie band factory at this point..."

Denton Square.

The Denton Square, bordered by Oak, Hickory, Locust, and Elm Streets, is a cultural and political hub of the city. At its center is the Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square, which includes local government offices and a museum showcasing area history and culture. Listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, the former county courthouse was restored for the Texas Sesquicentennial in 1986. The positive response to the renovation sparked a downtown revitalization program that generated new jobs and reinvestment capital. The downtown square is populated by local shops and restaurants, some of which have been in business since the 1940s. Each year, the downtown square is adorned with lights and spotlighted during the Denton Holiday Lighting Festival.  The Denton Confederate Soldier Monument, a granite monument consisting of an arch topped by a statue of a Confederate soldier, was erected in 1918 in Denton Square on the courthouse lawn by the Daughters of the Confederacy. The monument is controversial, and attempts to have it removed have been unsuccessful.

Government.

Denton is the county seat of Denton County. From 1914 to 1959, the City of Denton used a mayor–city commission system, but a charter adopted in 1959 created a council–manager form of city government. Residents elect a mayor, four single-member district council members, and two at-large members. The city manager is appointed by the Denton City Council. Council terms are for two years, with a maximum of three consecutive terms, and elections are held each year in May. Utilities are administered by Denton Municipal Utilities; the city provides water, wastewater, electric, drainage and solid waste service. The electric utility, Denton Municipal Electric (DME), has been in operation since 1905. In 2009, DME began providing 40 percent of its energy to customers through renewable resources. The City of Denton Water Utilities Department serves the city's water demand. Atmos Energy provides the city's natural gas. Denton is a part of the Sister Cities International program and maintains cultural and economic exchange programs with its sister cities, Madaba in Jordan and San Nicolás de los Garza in Mexico.  The city of Denton is a voluntary member of the North Central Texas Council of Governments association, the purpose of which is to coordinate individual and collective local governments and facilitate regional solutions, eliminate unnecessary duplication, and enable joint decisions.

State and national representation.

Denton is located within U.S. House 26th Congressional district, which is represented by Michael C. Burgess. In the US Congress, the city is in the 30th District in the Texas Senate, represented by Republican Craig Estes. It is in the 64th District of the Texas House of Representatives, represented by Republican Myra Crownover since 2001.  Several Texas state agencies have facilities in the city, including a Texas Workforce Center, a Texas Department of Public Safety office, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice office, and a Denton District Parole Office. The Denton State Supported Living Center, formerly Denton State School, is the largest residential facility for people with developmental disabilities in Texas. The center serves an 18-county area and employs approximately 1,500 people. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has its Region VI headquarters in Denton.

Demographics.

Along with much of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Denton has grown rapidly in recent years, becoming the seventh fastest-growing city in the U.S. with a population over 100,000 between 2010 and 2011. The city has a population of 113,383 according to the 2010 United States Census, making it the 230th largest city in the United States and the 27th largest in Texas. The population density was 1,289.1 people per square mile. There were 46,211 housing units and 39,060 households in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 73.8% White, 10.3% African American, 4.1% Asian, 0.8% Native American, 0.1% Pacific Islander, and 3.2% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race comprised 21.2% of the population. The median income for a household was $44,415 in 2010. The per capita income was $22,940. About 20.3% of the population were below the poverty line.

Education.

Primary and secondary schools.

Denton Independent School District (DISD) provides the public primary and secondary educational system in the city. The district comprises four comprehensive high schools (Braswell, Denton, Guyer, and Ryan), one alternative high school, and multiple elementary and middle schools. Small portions of the city extend into the Argyle and Sanger school districts. Denton is also host to several private schools with religious affiliations and alternative education models. According to the 2010 United States Census, 35.1% of all adults over the age of 25 in Denton have obtained a bachelor's degree, as compared to the state average of 25.8%, and 86.1% of residents over the age of 25 have earned a high school diploma, as compared to the state average of 80%.  The high school residential program Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, for gifted students, is in Denton.  The Roman Catholic Immaculate Conception Catholic School, a K-8 school of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, opened in 1995. Construction on the current facility started on July 15, 2001, with its opening on August 19, 2002.  The charter school operator Life's Beautiful Educational Centers Inc. (closed 1999) operated the school L.O.V.E. in Denton.

Public libraries.

Denton is served by the Denton Public Library, which has three branches: Emily Fowler Central Library, North Branch Library, and South Branch Library.

University of North Texas.

The University of North Texas (UNT) in Denton is the flagship university of the University of North Texas System, which also includes the UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth, the University of North Texas at Dallas, and UNT Dallas College of Law. With an enrollment of nearly 38,000, it's the sixth largest university in Texas. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Its College of Music, the first school to offer a degree in the field of jazz studies, is nationally recognized.

Texas Woman's University.

Texas Woman's University (TWU) is a public university in Denton with two health science center branches in Dallas and Houston. Founded in 1901, the university enrolls more than 13,000 undergraduates and graduates. Men have been admitted to TWU since 1972 but make up less than ten percent of the university. TWU's College of Nursing is the second largest in Texas and in the top 20 of largest nursing programs in the United States, and the school's nursing doctoral program is the largest in the world.

FSB Exchange at NCTC Denton.

North Central Texas College (NCTC) is a public community college based in Gainesville, Texas. Starting in the 2019-2020 school year, North Central Texas College partnered with First State Bank to open a branch campus in downtown Denton. Located in the former Denton Record-Chronicle building, the campus focuses on accounting, business, biology, early childhood education, kinesiology, psychology, and general studies.

Economy.

The educational services, health and social services, manufacturing, and general retail sectors employ over 20,000 people in Denton. The city's three largest educational institutions, including the University of North Texas, Denton Independent School District, and Texas Woman's University, are the largest employers, employing almost 12,000 people. The University of North Texas is the largest employer in the city, with 7,764 employees comprising 12.59% of the workforce. The City of Denton also employs more than 1,334 people. Wholesale trade and hospitality jobs also play major roles. Notable businesses headquartered in Denton include truck manufacturer Peterbilt, beauty supplier Sally Beauty Company, and jewelry producer Jostens. Golden Triangle Mall, the city's largest shopping complex with over 90 specialty shops, is a major source of retail trade.

Top employers.

According to the city's 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in Denton are:

Media.

Since 1899, the "Denton Record-Chronicle" has been the newspaper of record for Denton. When it was acquired by Belo Corporation in 1999, the newspaper had a circulation of 16,000. The "North Texas Daily" and "The Lasso" provide daily and weekly news to students at the University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University. The city's public television station, Denton TV (DTV), covers city council meetings, restaurant scores, high school football, and educational programming. UNT's television station, ntTV, is broadcast on local channels provided by Charter Communications and Verizon Communications. "ntTV News" is broadcast live Monday through Thursday. KNTU 88.1 FM is UNT's official radio station. First aired in 1969, the station primarily plays a mixture of jazz and blues and covers local sports and news.

Transportation.

I-35E and I-35W, which split in Hillsboro south of the Metroplex and come north through Dallas and Fort Worth respectively, rejoin near the University of North Texas campus in the southwest part of Denton to form Interstate 35 as it continues north on its way to Oklahoma. Loop 288 partially encircles the city; it passes through the northern limits of the city by C. H. Collins Athletic Complex and the eastern side near Golden Triangle Mall. Highway 77 and 377 go through the historic town square and Highway 380 connects Denton to Frisco and McKinney in the east and Decatur in the west. Denton Enterprise Airport is a public airport located west of the central business district (CBD) of Denton. This airport serves as home to various cargo and charter operators as well as two flight schools. A new terminal opened in 2008, but as of June 2008 no scheduled commuter service is in place.

Mass transit.

Denton is served by the Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA), which operates local bus service and regional rail to Lewisville and Carrolton, with connections to Dallas' DART rail system. In 2011, Downtown Denton Transit Center and Medpark Station opened as commuter rail stations on DCTA's A-train, which now has five stations and connects to the Green Line of Dallas Area Rapid Transit's (DART) Green Line at Trinity Mills Station. The two transit companies, along with the Trinity Rail Express (TRE) of Fort Worth, offer regional passes to be used on any of the three systems. As of August, 2017 (no deadline announced), rides between the first two (DDTC and Medpark) and the last two (Hebron and Trinity Mills) are "fare-free," though any ride to or through the 3rd stop (Lewisville Lake) will require a paid pass. DCTA states this will relocate downtown parking needs to the underutilized space at Medpark station, and enhance mobility in Downtown Denton, including for students, as well as for residents of Hebron who connect to the DART system one stop away at Trinity Mills. DCTA also operates the Connect local bus service within the cities of Denton and Lewisville and special university shuttles. All Connect services (not the A-train) are free of charge for students at the University of North Texas who swipe their ID at the bus entrance. Special Programs for Aging Needs (SPAN), a non-profit organization, offers paratransit service for senior citizens and people with disabilities of all ages.

Health care.

Two major hospitals operate in Denton: Medical City Denton and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Denton are both full-service hospitals with differing capacities: 208 beds and 255 beds, respectively. Each employs more than 800 employees and are licensed with emergency services.

Fracking ban.

In response to a 2014 city referendum prohibiting hydraulic fracturing (fracking) that passed with 59% of the vote, Texas enacted a law specifying "the exclusive jurisdiction of this state to regulate oil and gas operations in this state and the express preemption of local regulation of those operations", though it allows some "commercially reasonable" rules. Denton says it will "continue to enforce our current regulations to protect the health and safety of our residents, but we do not know how the operators or courts will react".

Green Tree Estates water crisis.

The Green Tree Estates is a low-income mobile home neighborhood with an estimated 50 residents currently living on the property. The city of Denton annexed the neighborhood in 2011, but the land remained as private property. Residents claim that landowner, Don Roddy, was supposed to install infrastructure to connect to the city of Denton's water supply but never did. The residents living on the Green Tree Estates property relied on the privately-owned well for water. After numerous fines for failing to bring the system into compliance, Roddy announced that he would shut down the well-based water system completely on November 15th, 2019. The water from that systems was murky yellow, orange, and brown. On November 13, 2019, Denton Mayor Chris Watts issued a declaration of local state of disaster for the Green Tree Estates neighborhood and two days later, the City of Denton began sending tanks of water to Green Tree Estates.

2019 events.

The owner and well operator of Green Tree Estates, Don Roddy, turned off the private well om November 15th, 2019. It was later reported that Roddy had reached out to the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality and reported some of the connections were illegal, allowing Roddy to disconnect service at any time. On October 29 a neighborhood meeting took place to inform the Green Tree Estates residents of the situation and to collect feedback. However, the majority of the residents are Hispanic and few speak English so many residents did not acquire understanding from the meeting. In the meeting, Denton director of utilities, Ken Banks, estimated that the cost of bringing in a modern water system to the neighborhood would exceed $500,000. A representative from the Public Utility Commission reported that the city is not in a position to force Roddy to keep the water system on any longer. On November 11 at an additional meeting, City Manager, Todd Hileman, discussed how declaring the situation as an emergency would allow for temporary funding to ease the situation until a more permanent plan could be put into action. A translator is also present at this meeting to convey information to the Green Tree Estates residents. On November 13, 2019 Denton Mayor Chris Watts issued a declaration of local state of disaster for the Green Tree Estates neighborhood. This allowed for 90-day temporary funding for the Green Tree Estates residents.  On November 15, 2019, a special city council meeting was held to discuss how emergency funds will be spent. The city decided to purchase 14 275-gallon tanks to fill with water and distribute them to families of the Green Tree Estates. The city also plans to refill the tanks three days a week. Green Tree Estates residents expressed their concerns that this was not going to be enough water.  On December 10, 2019 the Denton City Council agreed to extend an emergency declaration over water service to the Green Tree Estates until February. In the meantime, plans to conduct courtesy home inspections and collect a census on property owners and tenants are made and considered key to settling on a long-term solution.

2020 events.

City leaders asked for the cooperation from the Green Tree Estates residents regarding conducting home inspections as well as helping to identify which residents owned their properties and which were tenants. Through these actions, advocacy groups and the city of Denton could work together on the needed easements for new water lines. City manager, Todd Hileman, said that the city’s ability to get those easements was “key” to settling on a long-term solution. However, residents of the Green Tree Estates expressed confusion stating that they didn’t understand what was being asked of them. An attorney representing the Green Tree Estates neighborhood advised the residents to hire their own inspectors, resulting in none of the 14 homes accepting courtesy inspections from the city of Denton. The residents are seeking to calculate the total costs before deciding to connect to Denton’s water system which means they need more time for the assessments and work. The residents of Green Tree Estates are asking the city of Denton for an extension on the public emergency until May 2021.  As of February 4, 2020, none of the 14 families living in the Green Tree Estates had completed the courtesy inspections of their homes from the city of Denton. Instead, the neighborhood’s attorney recommended the residents bring in their own inspectors. A Univision television reporter reported that “the residents want to calculate the total costs before deciding to connect to the system.” Lastly, the residents told the deputy director of public affairs that they needed more time for the assessments and the work and asked the city council to extend the public emergency until May 2021. Some council members were uneasy with the request for the extension to continue for more than a year, but other members were more comfortable with it as long as progress is shown to be made. At a February 18, 2020 the Denton city council said that it plans to revisit the issue April 21, to give residents and city officials time to see which owners would be able to connect if the water main. The expressed concern that residents may not actually connect to the water main if it is supplied. However, this idea is currently on hold due to concerns that many residents living at Green Tree estates will not be able to afford the fees required by the contractors, questions regarding which homes are up to code and concerns on the quality, age, and structural integrity of the private water system.

Denton is a city in and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, United States. With an estimated population of 141,541 as of 2019, it is the 24th-most populous city in Texas, the 196th-most populous city in the United States, and the 12th-most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.

Denton je město v americkém státě Texas, v okrese Denton, je zároveň hlavním městem okresu. Se svými 119 454 obyvateli je jedenácté největší město v megalopoli Dallas-Fort Worth. Nachází se 76 kilometrů jižně od hranice s Oklahomou a 79 kilometrů severovýchodně od Dallasu.


Plot.

On July 2, 1996, an enormous mothership UFO that has one fourth the mass of the Moon, enters orbit around Earth, deploying assault fortress saucers, each with a fifteen-mile radius, that take positions over 36 of Earth's major cities. David Levinson, an MIT-trained satellite technician, decodes a signal embedded within global satellite transmissions, realizing it is the aliens' countdown timer for a coordinated attack. With help from his ex-wife, White House Communications Director Constance Spano, David, and his father Julius gain access to the Oval Office and warn President Thomas J. Whitmore of the attack. Whitmore immediately orders large-scale evacuations of New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., but it is too late; the timer reaches zero, and the saucers fire destructive beams into the ground, causing massive walls of fire that kill millions. Whitmore, the Levinsons, and a few others narrowly escape aboard Air Force One as Washington is destroyed, along with the other locations over which the saucers are positioned.  On July 3, international leaders begin ordering individual counterattacks. Their air forces attack the saucers positioned above the ruins of the cities, but the saucers are protected by force fields. Each saucer launches a swarm of attack fighters with their own shield as well, which decimate the human fighter squadrons and military bases. Captain Steven Hiller, an F/A-18 jet pilot with the USMC squadron VMFA-314 based out of El Toro, survives by luring his attacker to the enclosed spaces of the Grand Canyon and sacrificing his plane, forcing the alien to crash-land. He subdues the downed alien and flags down a convoy of refugees, hitching a ride with former combat pilot Russell Casse. They transport the unconscious alien to Area 51, where Whitmore's group has landed. Through Secretary of Defense Albert Nimzicki, they have learned that a faction of the government has been involved in a UFO conspiracy since 1947 when one of the invaders' attack fighters crashed in Roswell. Area 51 houses the now-refurbished alien fighter, and three alien corpses recovered from the crash. As eccentric scientist Dr. Brackish Okun examines the alien captured by Steven, it regains consciousness and attacks, telepathically invading Okun's mind and killing all the other doctors. It uses Okun's vocal cords to communicate with President Whitmore, before launching a psychic attack against him. After Secret Service agents and military personnel kill the alien, Whitmore reveals what he saw in the aliens' plans. He says that the invaders are like locusts; their whole civilization travels from one planet to the next, stripping them of all their natural resources. The President reluctantly authorizes a nuclear attack; a B-2 Spirit fires a nuclear warhead tipped cruise missile at a saucer positioned above Houston, but the saucer remains intact. Meanwhile, Steven's fiancée Jasmine and her son survive the destruction of Los Angeles, and use an abandoned service truck to rescue other survivors, in the process finding the injured First Lady, Marilyn, whose helicopter crashed during the initial attack. Though the group is rescued by Steven and taken to Area 51, Marilyn dies of the severity of her wounds shortly after being reunited with her family.  On July 4, David demonstrates that the key to defeating the aliens is to deactivate their shields, and devises a stratagem to do this by uploading a virus into the mothership using the refurbished alien fighter, which Steven volunteers to pilot. The U.S. military contacts surviving airborne squadrons around the world through Morse code to organize a united counter-offense against the aliens. With military pilots in short supply, Whitmore enlists the help of volunteers with flight experience, including Russell, to fly the remaining F/A-18s at Area 51; and leads an attack on a saucer bearing down on the base. Flying into space and entering the alien invaders' mother ship, Steven and David upload the virus and successfully deploy a nuclear weapon on board the mothership, nullifying the aliens' communications system and reinforcements, before the malware filtered into the alien ships above Earth. With the aliens' shields deactivated, the fighter jets are able to successfully fight back against the enemy craft, but their supply of missiles is exhausted before they can destroy the saucer. As it prepares to fire on the base, Russell has one last missile to spare, but when the firing control on the missile jams, he rams his jet into the directed-energy weapon port, causing it to rebound into the ship, destroying it. Human military forces around the world are notified of the alien ships' critical point and successfully destroy the others. As humanity is rejoicing in victory, Steven and David return to Area 51 unharmed and reunite with their families. They then accompany Whitmore and his daughter in watching the wreckage from the mothership exploding, resembling a fireworks display as it enters Earth's atmosphere.

Production.

Development.

The idea for the film came when Emmerich and Devlin were in Europe promoting their film "Stargate". A reporter asked Emmerich why he made a film with content like "Stargate" if he did not believe in aliens. Emmerich stated he was still fascinated by the idea of an alien arrival, and further explained his response by asking the reporter to imagine what it would be like to wake up one morning and to discover 15 mile-wide spaceships were hovering over the world's largest cities. Emmerich then turned to Devlin and said, "I think I have an idea for our next film."  Emmerich and Devlin decided to expand on the idea by incorporating a large-scale attack, with Devlin saying he was bothered by the fact that "for the most part, in alien invasion movies, they come down to Earth and they're hidden in some back field...[o]r they arrive in little spores and inject themselves into the back of someone's head." Emmerich agreed by asking Devlin if arriving from across the galaxy, "would you hide on a farm or would you make a big entrance?" The two wrote the script during a month-long vacation in Mexico, and just one day after they sent it out for consideration, 20th Century Fox chairman Peter Chernin greenlit the screenplay. Pre-production began just three days later in February 1995. The U.S. military originally intended to provide personnel, vehicles, and costumes for the film; however, they backed out when the producers refused to remove the script's Area 51 references.  A then-record 3,000-plus special effects shots would ultimately be required for the film. The shoot utilized on-set, in-camera special effects more often than computer-generated effects in an effort to save money and get more authentic pyrotechnic results. Many of these shots were accomplished at Hughes Aircraft in Culver City, California, where the film's art department, motion control photography teams, pyrotechnics team, and model shop were headquartered. The production's model-making department built more than twice as many miniatures for the production than had ever been built for any film before by creating miniatures for buildings, city streets, aircraft, landmarks, and monuments. The crew also built miniatures for several of the spaceships featured in the film, including a destroyer model and a version of the mother ship spanning. City streets were recreated, then tilted upright beneath a high-speed camera mounted on a scaffolding filming downwards. An explosion would be ignited below the model, and flames would rise towards the camera, engulfing the tilted model and creating the rolling "wall of destruction" look seen in the film. A model of the White House was also created, covering by, and was used in forced-perspective shots before being destroyed in a similar fashion for its destruction scene. The detonation took a week to plan and required 40 explosive charges. The film's aliens were designed by production designer Patrick Tatopoulos. The actual aliens in the film are diminutive and based on a design Tatopoulos drew when tasked by Emmerich to create an alien that was "both familiar and completely original". These creatures wear "bio-mechanical" suits that are based on another design Tatopoulos pitched to Emmerich. These suits were tall, equipped with 25 tentacles, and purposely designed to show it could not sustain a person inside so it would not appear to be a "man in a suit".

Filming.

Principal photography began in July 1995 in New York City. A second unit gathered plate shots and establishing shots of Manhattan, Washington, D.C., an RV community in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the Very Large Array on the Plains of San Agustin, New Mexico. The main crew also filmed in nearby Cliffside Park, New Jersey before moving to the former Kaiser Steel mill in Fontana, California to film the post-attack Los Angeles sequences. The production then moved to Wendover, Utah, and West Wendover, Nevada, where the deserts doubled for Imperial Valley, and the Wendover Airport doubled for the El Toro and Area 51 exteriors. It was here where Pullman filmed his pre-battle speech. Immediately before filming the scene, Devlin and Pullman decided to add "Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!" to the end of the speech. At the time, the production was nicknamed "ID4" because Warner Bros. owned the rights to the title "Independence Day" (1983) and Devlin had hoped that if Fox executives noticed the addition in dailies, the impact of the new dialogue would help them to win the rights to the title. Pullman had stated in a 2020 interview that Fox had otherwise been aiming to use "Doomsday" for the film's release to match with other disaster films of the time, and Devlin and Emmerich had hoped the impact of this speech scene would help win Fox over to the "Independence Day" name. The right to use the title was eventually won two weeks later.  The production team moved to the Bonneville Salt Flats to film three scenes, then returned to California to film in various places around Los Angeles, including Hughes Aircraft where sets for the cable company and Area 51 interiors were constructed at a former aircraft plant. Sets for the latter included corridors containing windows that were covered with blue material. The filmmakers originally intended to use the chroma key technique to make it appear as if an activity was happening on the other side of the glass, but the composited images were not added to the final print because production designers decided the blue panels gave the sets a "clinical look". The attacker hangar set contained an attacker mockup wide that took four months to build. The White House interior sets used had already been built for "The American President" and had previously been used for "Nixon". Principal photography completed on November 3, 1995.  The film initially depicted Russell Casse being rejected as a volunteer for the July 4 aerial counteroffensive because of his alcoholism. He then uses a stolen missile tied to his red biplane to carry out his suicide mission. According to Dean Devlin, test audiences responded well to the scene's irony and comedic value. However, the scene was re-shot to include Russell's acceptance as a volunteer, his crash course on flying modern fighter aircraft, and him flying an F/A-18 instead of the biplane. Devlin preferred the alteration because the viewer now witnesses Russell ultimately making the decision to sacrifice his life, and seeing the biplane keeping pace and flying amongst F/A-18s was "just not believable". The film was officially completed on June 20, 1996.

Alternate ending.

For the film's original ending Russell Casse is not chosen for the counter-offensive and would show up later flying his biplane, which he used for Crop dusting, with a missile tied to the plane's left side. He would sacrifice himself in a similar fashion as he would do so in the film's theatrical ending.

Music.

The Grammy Award-winning score for the film was composed by David Arnold and recorded with an orchestra of 90, a choir of 46, "and every last ounce of stereotypical Americana he could muster for the occasion". The film's producer Dean Devlin commented that "you can leave it up to a Brit to write some of the most rousing and patriotic music in the history of American cinema." The soundtrack has received two official CD releases. RCA released a 50-minute album at the time of the film's release, then in 2010, La-La Land Records released a limited-edition, two-disc CD set that comprised the complete score plus 12 alternate cues. The premiere of "Independence Day" live took place at the Royal Albert Hall in September 2016, with the film's score was performed live to a screening of the film. This celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the film's release, and the event also featured a pre-film talk by David Arnold.

Release.

Theatrical.

While the film was still in post-production, Fox began a massive marketing campaign to help promote the film, beginning with the airing of a dramatic commercial during Super Bowl XXX, for which it paid $1.3 million. The film's subsequent success at the box office resulted in the trend of using Super Bowl air time to kick off the advertising campaign for potential blockbusters.  Fox's Licensing and Merchandising division also entered into co-promotional deals with Apple Inc. The co-marketing project was dubbed "The Power to Save the World" campaign, in which the company used footage of David using his PowerBook laptop in their print and television advertisements. Trendmasters entered a merchandising deal with the film's producers to create a line of tie-in toys. In exchange for product placement, Fox also entered into co-promotional deals with Molson Coors Brewing Company and Coca-Cola.  The film was marketed with several taglines, including: "We've always believed we weren't alone. On July 4, we'll wish we were", "Earth. Take a good look. It could be your last", and "Don't make plans for August". The weekend before the film's release, the Fox Network aired a half-hour special on the film, the first third of which was a spoof news report on the events that happen in the film. Roger Ebert attributed most of the film's early success to its teaser trailers and marketing campaigns, acknowledging them as "truly brilliant". The film had its official premiere held at Los Angeles' now-defunct Mann Plaza Theater on June 25, 1996. It was then screened privately at the White House for President Bill Clinton and his family before receiving a nationwide release in the United States on July 2, 1996, a day earlier than its previously scheduled opening. The theatrical release of this film introduced a new THX trailer featuring the new character mascot Tex, who was created by John Lasseter of Pixar Animation Studios. The trailer can be seen on older home video prints of early Pixar films, such as "Toy Story", "A Bug's Life", "Toy Story 2", "Finding Nemo" and "Cars".

Home media.

After a six-week, $30 million marketing campaign, "Independence Day" was released on VHS on November 22, 1996. A LaserDisc release came out at roughly the same time, which included audio commentary, theatrical trailers, deleted scenes, and a bundled soundtrack CD. The film sold 22 million copies in North America becoming the best selling live-action video.  It became available on DVD on June 27, 2000, and has since been re-released, in several different versions of this format, with varying supplemental material, including one instance where it was packaged with a lenticular cover. A special edition of the film was released on DVD in May 2002, which features nine minutes of additional footage not seen in the original theatrical release. "Independence Day" became available on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2007, and in North America on March 11, 2008 and in Australia on March 5, 2008. The initial single-disc releases only feature the theatrical cut and a few extras, as per the single-disc DVDs. For its 2016 twentieth anniversary, the film was re-released on two-disc Blu-ray and DVD, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and Digital HD. The 20th-anniversary editions feature both the theatrical and extended versions, all the extras of the previous 2-disc DVDs and more besides.

Censorship.

In Lebanon, certain Jewish- and Israel-related content in the film was censored. One cut scene involved Judd Hirsch's character donning a kippah, and leading soldiers and White House officials in a Jewish prayer. Other removed footage showed Israeli and Arab troops working together in preparation for countering the alien invasion. The Lebanese Shi'a Islamist militant group Hezbollah called for Muslims to boycott the film, describing it as "propaganda for the so-called genius of the Jews and their concern for humanity." In response, Jewish actor Jeff Goldblum said: "I think Hezbollah has missed the point. The film is not about American Jews saving the world; it's about teamwork among people of different religions and nationalities to defeat a common enemy."

Twentieth-anniversary release.

The film had both its twentieth anniversary and premiere at a special live-orchestral screening performance at the Royal Albert Hall on September 22, 2016. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the original orchestrator Nicholas Dodd, performed the score live during the film, and the film's composer, David Arnold, was a presenter at the event.

Reception.

Box office.

"Independence Day" was the highest-grossing film of 1996, beating "Twister", "Mission Impossible" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". In the United States, it earned $104.3 million in its opening week, including $96.1 million during its five-day holiday opening, and $50.2 million during its opening weekend. All three figures broke records set by "Jurassic Park" three years earlier. That film's sequel, "", claimed all three records when it was released the following year. "Independence Day" stayed in the number-one spot for three consecutive weeks and grossed $306,169,268 in North America and $511,231,623 in other territories during its theatrical run. The combined worldwide total of $817,400,891 came second only to the worldwide earnings of "Jurassic Park" as the highest of all time. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 69.26 million tickets in the US. The film currently is the 72nd-highest-worldwide-grossing film of all time. Hoping to capitalize on the film's success, several studios released large-scale disaster films, and the already rising interest in science fiction-related media was further increased by the film's popularity.  A month after the film's release, jewelry designers and marketing consultants reported an increased interest in dolphin-themed jewelry, as the character Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox) wears dolphin earrings, and is presented with a wedding ring featuring a gold dolphin.

Critical response.

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 65% of 71 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.41/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The plot is thin and so is character development, but as a thrilling, spectacle-filled summer movie, "Independence Day" delivers." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 59 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.  Critics wrote that the film has "cardboard" and "stereotypical" characters, and weak dialogue. However, the shot of the White House's destruction has been declared a milestone in visual effects and one of the most memorable scenes of the 1990s. In a 2010 poll, readers of "Entertainment Weekly" rated it the second-greatest summer film of the previous 20 years, ranking only behind "Jurassic Park".  Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" gave the film his highest rating, declaring it the "apotheosis" of "Star Wars". Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" gave it a B+ for living up to its massive hype, adding "charm is the foremost of this epic's contemporary characteristics. The script is witty, knowing, cool." Eight years later, "Entertainment Weekly" would rate the film as one of the best disaster films of all time. Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" felt that the film did an "excellent job conveying the boggling immensity of [the] extraterrestrial vehicles [...] and panic in the streets" and the scenes of the alien attack were "disturbing, unsettling and completely convincing".  However, the film's nationalistic overtones were widely criticized by reviewers outside the U.S. "Movie Review UK" described the film as "a mish-mash of elements from a wide variety of alien invasion movies and gung-ho American jingoism." The speech during which Whitmore states that victory in the coming war would see the entire world henceforth describe July 4 as its Independence Day, was described in a BBC review as "the most jaw-droppingly pompous soliloquy ever delivered in a mainstream Hollywood movie." In 2003, readers of "Empire", voted the scene that contained this speech as the "Cheesiest Movie Moment of All-Time". Conversely, "Empire" critic Kim Newman gave the film a five-star rating in the magazine's original review of the film.  Several critics expressed disappointment with the quality of the film's special effects. "Newsweek"s David Ansen claimed the special effects were of no better caliber than those seen nineteen years earlier in "Star Wars". Todd McCarthy of "Variety" felt the production's budget-conscious approach resulted in "cheesy" shots that lacked in quality relative to the effects present in films directed by James Cameron and Steven Spielberg. In his review, Roger Ebert took note of a lack of imagination in the spaceship and creature designs. Gene Siskel expressed the same sentiments in his "At the Movies" review of the film.""  American Film Institute lists

Legacy.

Disaster elements portrayed in "Independence Day" represented a significant turning point for Hollywood blockbuster films. With advancements in CGI special effects, events depicting mass destruction became commonplace in films that soon followed, such as "Armageddon" (1998) and "Deep Impact" (1998). The trend continued throughout the 2000s and 2010s, evident in films such as Emmerich's "The Day After Tomorrow" (2004), as well as "Transformers" (2007) and "The Avengers" (2012).

In other media.

Books.

Author Stephen Molstad wrote a tie-in novel to help promote the film shortly before its release. The novel goes into further detail on the characters, situations, and overall concepts not explored in the film. The novel presents the film's finale as originally scripted, with the character played by Randy Quaid stealing a missile and roping it to his cropduster biplane.  Following the film's success, a prequel novel entitled "Independence Day: Silent Zone" was written by Molstad in February 1998. The novel is set in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and details the early career of Dr. Brackish Okun.  Molstad wrote a third novel, "Independence Day: War in the Desert" in July 1999. Set in Saudi Arabia on July 3, it centers around Captain Cummins and Colonel Thompson, the two Royal Air Force officers seen receiving the Morse code message in the film.  A Marvel comic book was also written based on the first two novelizations.

Radio.

On August 4, 1996, BBC Radio 1 broadcast the one-hour play "Independence Day UK", written, produced, and directed by Dirk Maggs, a spin-off depicting the alien invasion from a British perspective. None of the original cast was present. Dean Devlin gave Maggs permission to produce an original version, on the condition that he did not reveal certain details of the movie's plot, and that the British were not depicted as saving the day. "Independence Day UK" was set up to be similar to the 1938 radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds—"the first 20 minutes were live.

Multimedia.

In 1996 a "behind-the-scenes" multimedia CD-ROM titled "Inside Independence Day" was released for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh; it includes storyboards for the film, sketches, movie clips, and a preview of the "Independence Day" video game.

Video games.

An "Independence Day" video game was released in February 1997 for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and PC, each version receiving mostly tepid reviews. The multi-view shooter game contains various missions to perform, with the ultimate goal of destroying the aliens' primary weapon. A wireless mobile version was released in 2005. A video game entitled "ID4 Online" was released in 2000.

Toys.

Trendmasters released a toy line for the film in 1996. Each action figure, vehicle or playset came with a inch floppy disk that contained an interactive computer game.

Sequels.

In June 2011, Devlin confirmed that he and Emmerich had written a treatment for two sequels to form a trilogy; both expressed the desire for Will Smith to return. In October 2011, however, discussions over Smith returning were halted, due to Fox's refusal to provide the $50 million salary demanded by Smith for the two sequels. Emmerich, however, made assurances that the films would be shot back-to-back, regardless of Smith's involvement.  In March 2013, Emmerich stated that the titles of the new films would be "ID: Forever – Part I" and "ID: Forever – Part II". In November 2014, the sequel was given the green light by 20th Century Fox, with a release date of June 24, 2016. This would be a stand-alone sequel, that would not split into two parts as originally planned, with filming beginning in May 2015 and casting being done after the studio locked down Emmerich as the director of the film. In December 2014, Devlin confirmed that Emmerich would indeed be directing the sequel. On June 22, 2015, Emmerich announced the official title, "".  With respect to Smith's decision not to return to film a sequel, Emmerich told Screen Crush that: "In the very beginning, I wanted to work with him and he was excited to be in it but then after a while he was tired of sequels, and he did another science fiction film, which was his father-son story "After Earth", so he opted out."  "" was released on June 24, 2016.

Independence Day is a 1996 American epic science fiction action film directed and co-written by Roland Emmerich. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, James Rebhorn, Harvey Fierstein, Vivica A. Fox and Harry Connick Jr. The film focuses on disparate groups of people who converge in the Nevada desert in the aftermath of a worldwide attack by an extraterrestrial race of unknown origin. With the other people of the world, they launch an all-out counterattack on July 4—Independence Day in the United States.

Den nezávislosti (v originále "Independence day") je americký sci-fi film německého režiséra Rolanda Emmericha, který se také podílel na scénáři spolu s hlavním scenáristou Deanem Devlinem. Film získal Oscar za vizuální efekty a nominaci za zvukové efekty. Nově se film dočkal úspěšného pokračování z roku 2016, přičemž má v roce 2017 přijít třetí díl. Film je rozdělen do několika dějových linií, které spolu zpočátku zdánlivě nijak nesouvisí, ale na konci se propojí. Zahrálo si zde mnoho známých herců, například Will Smith (v českém znění Michal Dlouhý) jako kapitán Steven Hiller, Bill Pullman (v českém znění Pavel Soukup) jako americký prezident Thomas J. Whitmore a Jeff Goldblum (v českém znění Pavel Trávníček) jako technik David Levinson.


Early life.

Claude Hudson Trucks was born on May 11, 1947 in Jacksonville, Florida. His father was an optician. He first discovered his talent at drumming when prompted by a band director in junior high: "The band director gave three of us sticks and said, 'Play me something,'" he recalled. He then attended Jean Ribault High School, where he was made first chair as a freshman. Trucks was in two bands before graduating: The Vikings, who released one 7-inch in 1964, and the Echoes, which mainly played Beatles covers. Trucks attended Florida State University for one year; he once said he "majored in staying out of Vietnam." His grades suffered from poor attendance and he was kicked out.  During this time, Trucks formed a band, the Bitter Ind., with two high school friends. The group played covers of Bob Dylan, the Byrds, and the Lovin' Spoonful. They relocated to Daytona Beach in hopes of finding greater success, but were often turned away by owners because their patrons were unable to dance to the music. At one club, he met members of the Allman Joys, including brothers Duane and Gregg Allman. The band changed their name to the 31st of February fearing legal action from New York nightclub The Bitter End. The band signed a deal with Vanguard Records, and their self-titled debut album was released in 1968. The group briefly toured with the Allmans under various names, recording demos later released in 1972 as "Duane & Greg Allman".

Music career.

Tired of his then-middling music career, Trucks pondered going back to school to study mathematics. In 1969, he was invited to join a new project headed by Duane Allman, who had secured a record deal with Atlantic Records. Allman introduced Trucks to Jai Johanny Johanson (Jaimoe), who also would be a drummer in the band. Together, the two developed a rhythmic drive that would prove crucial to the band. Trucks laid down a powerful conventional beat while the jazz-influenced Johanson added a second layer of percussion and ad libitum cymbal flourishes, seamlessly melded into one syncopated sound. Said founding member and co-lead guitarist Dickey Betts of Trucks' addition to the original band lineup, "...When Butch came along, he had that freight train, meat-and-potatoes kind of thing that set Jaimoe up perfectly. He had the power thing we needed." The group became the Allman Brothers Band, who began touring heavily and released their first, self-titled album later that November. Trucks continued to record and perform with the Allman Brothers Band until they disbanded in 2014.  Along with Allman Brothers band members Johanson, Betts, and Gregg Allman, Trucks was a plaintiff in a lawsuit against UMG Recordings. The suit, initiated in 2008, sought $10 million over royalties from compact disk sales and digital downloads services such as Apple's iTunes. Trucks saw the license given to users for downloads as legally unsound. Trucks embraced Internet technology for the group and planned to use Moogis.com (now defunct) to make the Web a real venue for the Allman Brothers and other jam bands. In the Brothers' later years, he helped connect them to the extended jamband scene. In 2013, he formed the Roots Rock Revival master camp experience.  In 2015, Trucks performed at two festivals with a band billed as Butch Trucks & Very Special Friends. This band evolved into a band called Les Brers which was led by Trucks and also featured other former Allman Brothers Band members including his longtime drumming partner Johanson. He also performed with a band called Butch Trucks & The Freight Train Band.  Trucks had a long interest in philosophy and literature. In 2005, "The New York Times Book Review" published a letter from Trucks criticizing writer Roy Blount, Jr.'s reference to Duane as "one of these churls" in a review of "Splendor in the Short Grass: The Grover Lewis Reader". The letter further criticized Grover Lewis for his 1971 "Rolling Stone" article about the band, which Trucks wrote made the members look like uneducated characters who spoke in dialogue "taken directly from Faulkner."

Personal life and death.

Trucks was married to Melinda Trucks, with whom he had two children, for 25 years. He also had two children from a previous marriage, and four grandchildren.  Trucks was related to other famous musicians: his nephew, guitarist Derek Trucks, is one of the co-founders of the Tedeschi Trucks Band and joined the Allman Brothers Band in 1999. Another nephew, Duane Trucks (Derek's younger brother), plays drums for Widespread Panic and Hard Working Americans. Trucks' oldest son, guitarist Vaylor Trucks, is part of a trio called The Yeti Trio based in Atlanta, Georgia. Butch Trucks was a nephew of Virgil Trucks, a Major League Baseball pitcher and coach.  Police reports confirmed that Trucks died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on January 24, 2017, in West Palm Beach, Florida, at the age of 69 "reportedly after years of financial strife".

Claude Hudson "Butch" Trucks (May 11, 1947 – January 24, 2017) was an American drummer. He was best known as a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. Trucks was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida. He played in various groups before forming the 31st of February while at Florida State University in the mid 1960s. He joined the Allman Brothers Band in 1969. Their 1971 live release, "At Fillmore East", represented an artistic and commercial breakthrough. The group became one of the most popular bands of the era on the strength of their live performances and several successful albums. Though the band broke up and reformed various times, Trucks remained a constant in their 45-year career. Trucks died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on January 24, 2017.

Claude Hudson „Butch“ Trucks (11. května 1947, Jacksonville, Florida, USA – 24. ledna 2017) byl americký bubeník, nejvíce známý jako zakládající člen skupiny The Allman Brothers Band. V 60. letech 20. století hrál se skupinou The 31st of February.


Biography.

Early years.

Irving Langmuir was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 31 January 1881. He was the third of the four children of Charles Langmuir and Sadie, Comings. During his childhood, Langmuir's parents encouraged him to carefully observe nature and to keep a detailed record of his various observations. When Irving was eleven, it was discovered that he had poor eyesight. When this problem was corrected, details that had previously eluded him were revealed, and his interest in the complications of nature was heightened.  During his childhood, Langmuir was influenced by his older brother, Arthur Langmuir. Arthur was a research chemist who encouraged Irving to be curious about nature and how things work. Arthur helped Irving set up his first chemistry lab in the corner of his bedroom, and he was content to answer the myriad questions that Irving would pose. Langmuir's hobbies included mountaineering, skiing, piloting his own plane, and classical music. In addition to his professional interest in the politics of atomic energy, he was concerned about wilderness conservation.

Education.

Langmuir attended several schools and institutes in America and Paris (1892–1895) before graduating high school from Chestnut Hill Academy (1898), an elite private school located in the affluent Chestnut Hill area in Philadelphia. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in metallurgical engineering (Met.E.) from the Columbia University School of Mines in 1903. He earned his PhD in 1906 under Friedrich Dolezalek in Göttingen, for research done using the "Nernst glower", an electric lamp invented by Nernst. His doctoral thesis was entitled "On the Partial Recombination of Dissolved Gases During Cooling." He later did postgraduate work in chemistry. Langmuir then taught at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, until 1909, when he began working at the General Electric research laboratory (Schenectady, New York).

Research.

His initial contributions to science came from his study of light bulbs (a continuation of his PhD work). His first major development was the improvement of the diffusion pump, which ultimately led to the invention of the high-vacuum rectifier and amplifier tubes. A year later, he and colleague Lewi Tonks discovered that the lifetime of a tungsten filament could be greatly lengthened by filling the bulb with an inert gas, such as argon, the critical factor (overlooked by other researchers) being the need for extreme cleanliness in all stages of the process. He also discovered that twisting the filament into a tight coil improved its efficiency. These were important developments in the history of the incandescent light bulb. His work in surface chemistry began at this point, when he discovered that molecular hydrogen introduced into a tungsten-filament bulb dissociated into atomic hydrogen and formed a layer one atom thick on the surface of the bulb.  His assistant in vacuum tube research was his cousin William Comings White.  As he continued to study filaments in vacuum and different gas environments, he began to study the emission of charged particles from hot filaments (thermionic emission). He was one of the first scientists to work with plasmas, and he was the first to call these ionized gases by that name because they reminded him of blood plasma. Langmuir and Tonks discovered electron density waves in plasmas that are now known as Langmuir waves.  He introduced the concept of electron temperature and in 1924 invented the diagnostic method for measuring both temperature and density with an electrostatic probe, now called a Langmuir probe and commonly used in plasma physics. The current of a biased probe tip is measured as a function of bias voltage to determine the local plasma temperature and density. He also discovered atomic hydrogen, which he put to use by inventing the atomic hydrogen welding process; the first plasma weld ever made. Plasma welding has since been developed into gas tungsten arc welding.  In 1917, he published a paper on the chemistry of oil films that later became the basis for the award of the 1932 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Langmuir theorized that oils consisting of an aliphatic chain with a hydrophilic end group (perhaps an alcohol or acid) were oriented as a film one molecule thick upon the surface of water, with the hydrophilic group down in the water and the hydrophobic chains clumped together on the surface. The thickness of the film could be easily determined from the known volume and area of the oil, which allowed investigation of the molecular configuration before spectroscopic techniques were available.

Later years.

Following World War I Langmuir contributed to atomic theory and the understanding of atomic structure by defining the modern concept of valence shells and isotopes.  Langmuir was president of the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1923.  Based on his work at General Electric, John B. Taylor developed a detector ionizing beams of alkali metals, called nowadays the Langmuir-Taylor detector.  He joined Katharine B. Blodgett to study thin films and surface adsorption. They introduced the concept of a monolayer (a layer of material one molecule thick) and the two-dimensional physics which describe such a surface. In 1932 he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his discoveries and investigations in surface chemistry."  In 1938, Langmuir's scientific interests began to turn to atmospheric science and meteorology. One of his first ventures, although tangentially related, was a refutation of the claim of entomologist Charles H. T. Townsend that the deer botfly flew at speeds of over 800 miles per hour. Langmuir estimated the fly's speed at 25 miles per hour.  After observing windrows of drifting seaweed in the Sargasso Sea he discovered a wind-driven surface circulation in the sea. It is now called the Langmuir circulation.  During World War II, Langmuir worked on improving naval sonar for submarine detection, and later to develop protective smoke screens and methods for deicing aircraft wings. This research led him to theorize that the introduction of dry ice and iodide into a sufficiently moist cloud of low temperature could induce precipitation (cloud seeding); though in frequent practice, particularly in Australia and the People's Republic of China, the efficiency of this technique remains controversial today.  In 1953 Langmuir coined the term "pathological science", describing research conducted with accordance to the scientific method, but tainted by unconscious bias or subjective effects. This is in contrast to pseudoscience, which has no pretense of following the scientific method. In his original speech, he presented ESP and flying saucers as examples of pathological science; since then, the label has been applied to polywater and cold fusion.  His house in Schenectady, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

Personal life.

Langmuir was married to Marion Mersereau (1883-1971) in 1912 with whom he adopted two children: Kenneth and Barbara. After a short illness, he died in Woods Hole, Massachusetts from a heart attack on 16 August 1957. His obituary ran on the front page of "The New York Times".  On his religious views, Langmuir was an agnostic.

In fiction.

According to author Kurt Vonnegut, Langmuir was the inspiration for his fictional scientist Dr. Felix Hoenikker in the novel "Cat's Cradle". The character's invention of ice-nine eventually destroyed the world. Langmuir had worked with Vonnegut's brother, Bernard Vonnegut.

Irving Langmuir (; 31 January 1881 – 16 August 1957) was an American chemist, physicist, and engineer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1932 for his work in surface chemistry.

Irving Langmuir (31. ledna 1881 Brooklyn – 16. srpna 1957 Woods Hole) byl americký chemik a fyzik, který v roce 1932 získal Nobelovu cenu za chemii za „jeho práci v hraniční chemii“. V letech 1909–1950, kdy pracoval v General Electric, vymyslel např. žárovku vyplněnou plynem nebo proces svařování atomárním vodíkem.


History.

Amid a flurry of line-up changes in the mid-1970s, including the departure of founding members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth, Gong drummer Pierre Moerlen was in charge of the band with two albums remaining on a contract with Virgin.  Moerlen formed a new line-up with his brother Benoit on mallet percussion, US-born bassist Hansford Rowe, and a rotating cast of session guitarists, notably Allan Holdsworth, Mick Taylor, Mike Oldfield, and Bon Lozaga.  They released two albums under the Gong moniker, "Gazeuse!" (called "Expresso" in North America) in 1976 and then "Expresso II" in 1978. Following the completion of the Virgin contract, Moerlen changed the name of the group to Pierre Moerlen's Gong. In early 1979, the group released "Downwind", which was a more rock/pop flavoured album that featured occasional lead vocals by Moerlen himself and a cameo by Steve Winwood. Later in 1979 they released another album, "Time is the Key", that took the band further into pop/rock territory. The live album "Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live" was released in 1980, followed by another studio album, "Leave It Open", in 1981. By this point, Pierre Moerlen's incarnation of Gong scaled back its activity greatly, not releasing another record until 1986's Scientology-inspired "Breakthrough", featuring members of the Swedish band Tribute. "Second Wind" followed in 1988. The group quietly disbanded soon after.  Lozaga, Rowe, and Benoit Moerlen went on to form Gongzilla in the early 1990s, releasing four albums to date which are very much an extension of the percussive fusion that the original group brought to the fold, and they perform a mix of new and old live material going back to the "Gazeuse"/"Expresso II" period. Moerlen joined them for their 2002 European tour.  Moerlen revived the PMG name in 2002 and recorded the album "Pentanine" with Russian musicians. He died unexpectedly of natural causes on 3 May 2005, while rehearsals for another Pierre Moerlen's Gong project were underway.  The last album of the Pierre Moerlen's Gong was started in 2005 with another new line-up of young French musicians, but Moerlen died suddenly leaving the project at a very early stage. The band nevertheless decided to record Pierre's last compositions with some of their own, and release it posthumously as "Tribute" in 2010.

Pierre Moerlen's Gong was an instrumental jazz fusion band led by French drummer Pierre Moerlen which developed as an offshoot of the psychedelic progressive rock band Gong founded and led by Daevid Allen. It was notable for the prominent use of mallet percussion, particularly vibraphone, in a jazz-rock context.

Pierre Moerlen's Gong byla progresivně rocková skupina, vzniklá ze skupiny Gong. Ve skupině hráli i Mike Oldfield, který už v té době měl velice úspěšnou sólovou kariéru, a dřívější člen The Rolling Stones Mick Taylor.


Plot.

In 1184 France, Balian, a blacksmith, is haunted by his wife's recent suicide. A Crusader passing through the village introduces himself as Balian's father, Baron Godfrey of Ibelin, and asks him to return with him to the Holy Land, but Balian declines. After the town priest reveals that he ordered Balian's wife beheaded before burial, Balian kills him and flees the village.  Balian joins his father, hoping to gain forgiveness and redemption for himself and his wife in Jerusalem. Soldiers sent by the bishop arrive to arrest Balian, but Godfrey refuses to surrender him, and in the ensuing attack, Godfrey is struck by an arrow that breaks off in his body, leaving a wound that would prove fatal days later.  In Messina, they have a contentious encounter with Guy de Lusignan, a Templar Knight and prospective future king of Jerusalem. Godfrey knights Balian, names him the new Baron of Ibelin, and orders him to serve the King of Jerusalem and protect the helpless, then succumbs to his injuries. During Balian's journey to Jerusalem his ship runs aground in a storm, leaving him as the only survivor. Balian is confronted by a Muslim cavalier, who attacks him over his horse. Balian is forced to slay the cavalier but spares the man's servant, and the man tells Balian that his deed will gain him fame and respect among the Saracens.  Balian becomes acquainted with Jerusalem's political arena: the leper King Baldwin IV; Tiberias, the Marshal of Jerusalem; the King's sister, Princess Sibylla, who is wife of Guy. Guy supports the anti-Muslim brutalities of the Knights Templar, and intends to break the fragile truce between the King and the sultan Saladin to make war on the Muslims. Balian travels to his inherited estate at Ibelin, and irrigates the dry and dusty lands using his knowledge of engineering to the joy of its residents. Sibylla visits him and the two become lovers.  Guy and his ally, the cruel Raynald of Châtillon, attack a Saracen caravan, and Saladin advances on Raynald's castle Kerak in retaliation. At the request of the king, Balian defends the villagers, despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered. Captured, Balian encounters the servant he freed, who he learns is actually Saladin's chancellor Imad ad-Din. Imad ad-Din releases Balian in repayment of the earlier debt. Saladin arrives with his army to besiege Kerak, and Baldwin meets it with his. They negotiate a Muslim retreat, and Baldwin swears to punish Raynald, though the exertion of these events weakens him.  Baldwin asks Balian to marry Sibylla and take control of the army, knowing they have affection for each other, but Balian refuses because it will require the execution of Guy and the Templars. Baldwin is soon succeeded by Sibylla, and Guy becomes king. Raynald is released, and gives Guy the war he desires by murdering Saladin's sister. Sending the heads of Saladin's emissaries back to him, Guy declares war on the Saracens and attempts to assassinate Balian, who barely survives.  Guy marches to war with the army, despite Balian's advice to remain near water. Saracens annihilate the tired and dehydrated Crusaders in the ensuing desert battle. Saladin executes Raynald, and marches on Jerusalem. Tiberias leaves for Cyprus, believing Jerusalem lost, but Balian remains to protect the people in the city, and knights every fighting man to inspire them. After an assault that lasts three days, a frustrated Saladin parleys with Balian. When Balian reaffirms that he will destroy the city if Saladin does not accept his surrender, Saladin agrees to allow the Christians to leave safely in exchange for Jerusalem. They ponder if it would be better if there were nothing left to fight over.  In the marching column of citizens, Balian finds Sibylla, who has renounced her claim as Queen. After they return to France, English knights en route to retake Jerusalem ride through the town to enlist Balian, now the famed defender of Jerusalem. Balian tells the crusader that he is merely a blacksmith again, and they depart. Balian is joined by Sibylla, and they pass by the grave of Balian's wife as they ride towards the unknown. An epilogue notes that "nearly a thousand years later, peace in the Holy Land still remains elusive."

Cast.

Many of the characters in the film are fictionalised versions of historical figures:

Historical accuracy.

Bloom's character, Balian of Ibelin, was a close ally of Raymond III of Tripoli, the film's Tiberias, and a member of that faction which sought a place within the patchwork of the Near East and opposed the aggressive policy of Raynald of Châtillon, the Templars, and "fanatics newly from Europe", who refused to come to terms of peace with the Muslims. Balian was a mature gentleman, just a year or two younger than Raymond, and one of the most important nobles in the kingdom, not a French blacksmith. His father, Barisan (the French "Balian"), founded the Ibelin family in the east, and probably came from Italy. Balian and Sibylla were indeed united in the defence of Jerusalem but no romantic relationship existed between the two. Balian married Sibylla's stepmother Maria Comnena, Dowager Queen of Jerusalem and Lady of Nablus. Nablus, rather than Ibelin, was Balian's fief at the time of Jerusalem's fall.  The "Old French Continuation" of William of Tyre (the so-called Chronicle of Ernoul) claimed that Sibylla had been infatuated with Balian's older brother Baldwin of Ibelin, a widower over twice her age, but this is doubtful; instead, it seems that Raymond of Tripoli attempted a coup to marry her off to him to strengthen the position of his faction. This legend seems to have been behind the film's creation of a romance between Sibylla and a member of the Ibelin family. King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, who reigned from 1174 to 1185, was a leper, and his sister Sibylla did marry Guy of Lusignan, though on her own initiative. Baldwin IV had a falling out with Guy, and so Guy did not succeed Baldwin IV immediately. Baldwin crowned Sibylla's son from her previous marriage to William of Montferrat, five-year-old Baldwin V, co-king in 1183. The little boy reigned as sole king for one year, dying in 1186 at nine years of age. After her son's death, Sibylla and Guy (to whom she was devoted) garrisoned the city, and she claimed the throne. The coronation scene in the movie was—in real life—more of a shock: Sibylla had been forced to promise to divorce Guy before becoming queen, with the assurance that she would be permitted to pick her own consort. After being crowned by Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem (who is unnamed until late in the movie), she chose to crown Guy as her consort. Raymond of Tripoli was not present, but was in Nablus attempting a coup, with Balian of Ibelin, to raise Sibylla's half-sister (Balian's stepdaughter), Princess Isabella of Jerusalem, to the throne. Isabella's husband, Humphrey IV of Toron, refused to precipitate a civil war and swore allegiance to Guy.  Raymond of Tripoli was a cousin of Amalric I of Jerusalem, one of the Kingdom's most powerful nobles, and sometime regent. He had a claim to the throne himself, but, being childless, instead tried to advance his allies in the Ibelin family. He was often in conflict with Guy and Raynald of Châtillon, who had risen to their positions by marrying wealthy heiresses and through the king's favour. The film's portrayal of Raynald of Châtillon as insane is not supported by contemporary sources, though the same sources do portray Raynald as a reckless, aggressive freebooting warlord who frequently violated truces between the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Sultanate of Egypt. The film's picture of Guy encouraging Raynald of Châtillon to attack Muslim pilgrimage convoys on their way to Mecca to provoke a war with Saladin is false. Guy was a weak, indecisive king who wanted to avoid a war with Saladin and who was simply unable to control the reckless Raynald. Saladin's abortive march on Kerak followed Raynald's raid on the Red Sea, which shocked the Muslim world by its proximity to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Guy and Raynald also harassed Muslim caravans and herders, and the claim that Raynald captured Saladin's sister is based on the account given in the "Old French Continuation of William of Tyre". This claim, unsupported by any other account, is generally believed to be false. In actuality, after Raynald's attack on one caravan, Saladin made sure that the next one, in which his sister was travelling, was properly guarded: the lady came to no harm. The depiction in the film of the Battle of Hattin, where the Crusader force wandered around the desert for three days without water before being ambushed, is consistent with the known facts. The scene in the film where Saladin hands Guy a cup of iced water (which in the Muslim world was a sign that the victor intended to spare the life of his prisoner), and then notes that he did not hand Raynald the cup (indicating that Raynald was to be executed) is supported by the Persian historian Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani who was present with Saladin after the Battle of Hattin.  Balian was present at the Battle of Hattin, but escaped and fled to Tyre and then Jerusalem, to retrieve his wife and children. The defenders of the city, including the military orders and the Patriarch Heraclius, named him the leader of the city's defence. On the ninth day of the siege of Jerusalem, Saladin's forces breached the wall, but the defenders held out until the tenth day, when Balian surrendered the city to Saladin. The Christians of the city were made to ransom themselves, and Balian was unable to raise the funds to ransom all the city's poor; thousands marched out into safety and thousands into slavery.  Balian and Sibylla remained in the Holy Land during the events of the Third Crusade. Sibylla was a victim of an epidemic during the Siege of Acre. Balian's relations with Richard I of England were far from amicable, because he supported the claim to kingship of Conrad of Montferrat against Richard's vassal Guy. He and his wife Maria arranged her daughter Isabella's forcible divorce from Humphrey of Toron so she could marry Conrad. Ambroise, who wrote a poetic account of the crusade, called Balian "more false than a goblin" and said he "should be hunted with dogs".  An episode of The History Channel's series "History vs. Hollywood" analysed the historical accuracy of the film. This program and a "Movie Real" (a series by A&E Network) episode about "Kingdom of Heaven" were both included on the DVD release.

Production.

Cinematography.

The visual style of "Kingdom of Heaven" emphasises set design and impressive cinematography in almost every scene. It is notable for its "visually stunning cinematography and haunting music". Cinematographer John Mathieson created many large, sweeping landscapes, where the cinematography, supporting performances, and battle sequences are meticulously mounted. The cinematography and scenes of set-pieces have been described as "ballets of light and color" (as in films by Akira Kurosawa). Director Ridley Scott's visual acumen was described as the main draw of "Kingdom of Heaven", with the "stellar" and "stunning" cinematography and "jaw-dropping combat sequences" based on the production design of Arthur Max.

Visual effects.

British visual effects firm Moving Picture Company completed 440 effects shots for the film. Additionally, Double Negative also contributed to complete the CGI work on the film.

Music.

The music differs in style and content from the soundtrack of Scott's earlier 2000 film "Gladiator" and many other subsequent films depicting historical events. A combination of medieval, Middle Eastern, contemporary classical, and popular influences, the soundtrack is largely the work of British film-score composer Harry Gregson-Williams. Jerry Goldsmith's "Valhalla" theme from "The 13th Warrior" and "Vide Cor Meum" (originally used by Scott in "Hannibal" and composed by Patrick Cassidy and Hans Zimmer), sung by Danielle de Niese and Bruno Lazzaretti, were used as replacements for original music by Gregson-Williams.

Reception.

Critical response.

Upon its release it was met with a mixed reception, with many critics being divided on the film. Critics such as Roger Ebert found the film's message to be deeper than that of Scott's "Gladiator".  The cast was widely praised. Jack Moore described Edward Norton's performance as the leper-King Baldwin as "phenomenal", and "so far removed from anything that he has ever done that we see the true complexities of his talent". The Syrian actor Ghassan Massoud was praised for his portrayal of Saladin, described in "The New York Times" as "cool as a tall glass of water". Also commended were Eva Green, who plays Princess Sibylla "with a measure of cool that defies her surroundings", and Jeremy Irons.  Lead actor Bloom's performance generally elicited a lukewarm reception from American critics, with the "Boston Globe" stating Bloom was "not "actively" bad as Balian of Ibelin", but nevertheless "seems like a man holding the fort for a genuine star who never arrives". Other critics conceded that Balian was more of a "brave and principled thinker-warrior" than a strong commander, and that he used brains rather than brawn to gain advantage in battle.  Bloom had gained 20 pounds for the part, and the Extended Director's Cut (detailed below) of "Kingdom of Heaven" reveals even more complex facets of Bloom's role, involving connections with unknown relatives. Despite the criticism, Bloom won two awards for his performance.  Online, general criticism has been also divided. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 39% based on reviews from 189 critics. The site's critical consensus reads: "Although it's an objective and handsomely presented take on the Crusades, "Kingdom of Heaven" lacks depth." Review aggregator Metacritic gives the film a 63/100 rating based on 40 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews" according to the website's weighted average system.

Academic criticism.

In the time since the film's release, scholars have offered analysis and criticisms through a lens situating "Kingdom of Heaven" within the context of contemporary international events and religious conflict, including: broad post-9/11 politics, neocolonialism, Orientalism, the Western perspective of the film, and the detrimental handling of differences between Christianity and Islam.  Academic criticism has focused on the supposed peaceful relationship between Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem and other cities depicted. Crusader historians such as Jonathan Riley-Smith, quoted by "The Daily Telegraph", called the film "dangerous to Arab relations", calling the movie "Osama bin Laden's version of history" which would "fuel the Islamic fundamentalists". Riley-Smith further commented against the historical accuracy, stating that "the fanaticism of most of the Christians in the film and their hatred of Islam is what the Islamists want to believe. At a time of inter-faith tension, nonsense like this will only reinforce existing myths", arguing that the film relied on the romanticized view of the Crusades propagated by Sir Walter Scott in his book "The Talisman", published in 1825 and now discredited by academics, "which depicts the Muslims as sophisticated and civilized, and the Crusaders are all brutes and barbarians. It has nothing to do with reality." Paul Halsall defended Ridley Scott, claiming that "historians can't criticize filmmakers for having to make the decisions they have to make... [Scott is] not writing a history textbook".  Thomas F. Madden, Director of Saint Louis University's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, criticised the film's presentation of the Crusades:  Scott himself defended this depiction of the Muslim-Christian relationship in footage on the DVD version of the movie's extra features. Scott sees this portrayal as being a contemporary look at the history. He argued that peace and brutality are concepts relative to one's own experience, and since contemporary society is so far removed from the brutal times in which the movie takes place, he told the story in a way that he felt was true to the source material, yet was more accessible to a modern audience. In other words, the "peace" that existed was exaggerated to fit modern ideas of what such a peace would be. At the time, it was merely a lull in Muslim-Christian violence compared to the standards of the period. The recurring use of "Assalamu Alaikum", the traditional Arabic greeting meaning "Peace be with you", is spoken both in Arabic and English several times.  The "Director's Cut" of the film is a four-disc set, two of which are dedicated to a feature-length documentary called ""The Path to Redemption"". This feature contains an additional featurette on historical accuracy called "Creative Accuracy: The Scholars Speak", where a number of academics support the film's contemporary relevance and historical accuracy. Among these historians is Dr. Nancy Caciola, who said that despite the various inaccuracies and fictionalized/dramatized details, she considered the film a "responsible depiction of the period."  Screenwriter William Monahan, who is a long-term enthusiast of the period, has said "If it isn't in, it doesn't mean we didn't know it... What you use, in drama, is what plays. Shakespeare did the same."  Caciola agreed with the fictionalization of characters on the grounds that "crafting a character who is someone the audience can identify with" is necessary in a film. She said that "I, as a professional, have spent much time with medieval people, so to speak, in the texts that I read; and quite honestly there are very few of them that if I met in the flesh I feel that I would be very fond of." This appears to echo the sentiments of Scott himself.  John Harlow of the "Times Online" wrote that Christianity is portrayed in an unfavourable light and the value of Christian belief is diminished, especially in the portrayal of Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem. When journalist Robert Fisk watched the film in a Beirut cinema, he reported that the Muslim audience rose to their feet and applauded during a scene in the film in which Saladin respectfully places a fallen cross back on top of a table after it had fallen during the three-day siege of the city.

Box office.

The film was a box office disappointment in the US and Canada, earning $47.4 million against a budget of around $130 million, but did better in Europe and the rest of the world, earning $164.3 million, with the worldwide box office earnings totalling at $211,643,158. It was also a big success in Arabic-speaking countries, especially Egypt. Scott insinuated that the US failure of the film was the result of bad advertising, which presented the film as an adventure with a love story rather than as an examination of religious conflict. It has also been noted that the film was altered from its original version to be shorter and follow a simpler plot line. This "less sophisticated" version is what hit theatres, although Scott and some of his crew felt it was watered down, explaining that by editing, "You've gone in there and taken little bits from everything".

Extended director's cut.

Unhappy with the theatrical version of "Kingdom of Heaven" (which he blamed on paying too much attention to the opinions of preview audiences, and acceding to Fox's request to shorten the film by 45 minutes), Ridley Scott supervised a director's cut of the film, which was released on 23 December 2005 at the Laemmle Fairfax Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Unlike the mixed critical reception of the film's theatrical version, the Director's Cut received overwhelmingly positive reviews from film critics, including a four-star review in the British magazine "Total Film" and a ten out of ten from IGN DVD. "Empire" magazine called the reedited film an "epic", adding, "The added 45 minutes in the director's cut are like pieces missing from a beautiful but incomplete puzzle." One reviewer suggested it is the most substantial director's cut of all time and James Berardinelli wrote that it offers a much greater insight into the story and the motivations of individual characters. "This is the one that should have gone out," reflected Scott.  The DVD of the extended director's cut was released on 23 May 2006. It comprises a four-disc box set with a runtime of 194 minutes, and is shown as a roadshow presentation with an overture and intermission in the vein of traditional Hollywood epic films. The first Blu-ray release omitted the roadshow elements, running at 189 minutes, but they were restored for the 2014 Ultimate Edition release.  Scott gave an interview to STV on the occasion of the extended edition's UK release, when he discussed the motives and thinking behind the new version. Asked if he was against previewing in general in 2006, Scott stated: "It depends who's in the driving seat. If you've got a lunatic doing my job, then you need to preview. But a good director should be experienced enough to judge what he thinks is the correct version to go out into the cinema."

Kingdom of Heaven is a 2005 epic historical drama film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by William Monahan. It stars Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Ghassan Massoud, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson, Iain Glen, Marton Csokas, Liam Neeson, Edward Norton, Michael Sheen, Velibor Topić and Alexander Siddig.

Království nebeské (v originálu "Kingdom of Heaven") je koprodukční film režiséra Ridleyho Scotta z roku 2005. Jde o historický epos, odehrávající se na blízkém východě před Třetí křížovou výpravou a líčí boje dvou náboženství o jejich posvátné město Jeruzalém - Království nebeské.


History.

From 976 onwards the Dravograd area was part of the Duchy of Carinthia. The German name "Unterdrauburg" denoted the place where the Drava River left Carinthia and flowed into the neighbouring Duchy of Styria. It corresponded with Oberdrauburg up the river at Carinthia's western border with the County of Tyrol. The name Dravograd was invented during the Slovene national revival in the 19th century. Previously, the local Slovene name of the town was "Traberk", a derivative of the German name "Drauburg". The 19th century was a period of national awakening of the Carinthian Slovenes, and also of the rise of competing nationalisms: Slovene and German.  After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918, the whole area south of Dravograd was occupied by the Slovene volunteer forces of Major Franjo Malgaj, acting in the name of the newly established State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The town of Dravograd itself however remained in the hands of the volunteers acting in the name of the German-Austrian rump state. In mid-December 1918, Dravograd was seized by the volunteer forces of Slovene General Rudolf Maister. According to the 1919 Treaty of Saint Germain, Dravograd became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (the later Yugoslavia).  In the interwar period, the area of Dravograd witnessed an important process of industrialization. In the 1930s, social tensions grew as the consequence of the world economic crisis, as did the tensions between the small ethnic German minority and the Slovene-speaking majority. In the late 1930s, the Nazi movement started penetrating the German community in Dravograd, triggering the reaction of the Slovene majority. Physical violence between the pro-Nazi organization and the local section of the Sokol movement were common. In 1939 and in 1940, two mass anti-Nazi rallies were held in the municipality of Dravograd, organized by patriotic and nationalist Slovene organizations, mostly of left-wing orientation.  In April 1941, after the Invasion of Yugoslavia, Dravograd was occupied by Wehrmacht forces and incorporated into the Carinthian "Reichsgau" of Nazi Germany. The use of the Slovene language was prohibited, all Slovene organizations were abolished, and numerous Slovenes were deported to central Germany or to the area governed by the Military Administration in Serbia. Local Slovene political activists were either executed or deported to Nazi concentration camps. In July 1941, the local artist Franjo Golob organized an underground anti-Nazi resistance cell, which was however soon discovered. Violent repression followed, which hindered the further development of anti-German resistance in this area. In mid-1943, the Yugoslav Partisans resistance movement started taking roots in the Dravograd area, which grew stronger by 1944, despite the brutal repressions of the Nazi authorities. Upon the German Instrument of Surrender and the nearby Battle of Poljana on 14/15 May 1945, the whole area was controlled by the Partisans.  In the communist period, the Dravograd area further developed its industrial capacities. During the Ten Day War of Slovenian independence in June and July 1991, some fighting took place in the Dravograd area.

Sights.

Ruins of the old Dravograd castle (also referred to as "Castrum Trahburck") overlook the town from the hill above the area of old market town. The castle was built in 1161 and in possession of Ortlof Trušenjski and his heirs until 1278. Afterwards, owners of the castle frequently changed (e.g., the Habsburgs in 1355, the Counts of Celje in 1387, and again the Habsburgs in 1456).  The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist and belongs to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Maribor. It was first mentioned in written documents dating to the late 14th century. It was rebuilt in 1520 and in 1621. The current church is Baroque with a characteristic onion dome on its belfry. A second church in the town is dedicated to Saint Vitus and is a late 12th-century Romanesque building.  Lake Dravograd () is a reservoir upstream from the hydroelectric power plant, between Dravograd and Črneče. It is an important natural habitat included in Natura 2000.

Transportation.

The Dravograd railway station is on the "Drautalbahn" railway line from Maribor to Innichen (San Candido) in Italy, opened in 1863. Highway No. 3 leading from Maribor to the Austrian border runs through the town, where highway No. 10-10 to Celje branches off.

Dravograd Hydroelectric Power Plant.

The power plant on the Drava River was built by the Germans during the Second World War, between 1941 and 1944. It started operating in 1944 with two vertical Kaplan turbines. It was the first pier-type power plant in Europe (along with a similar plant in Lavamünd, built in the same period). In April 1945, the plant was bombed and damaged by Allied air strikes. Renovation started after the war, with the first turbine becoming operational in December 1945 and the second in January the next year. Renovation ended in 1955, when the third turbine was added.  Refurbishment commenced in 1994, increasing the net capacity to 26.2 MW. Today the power plant can generate 142 million kWh of electricity annually, with an 8.9 m available head. Four 24 m wide spillways have a total spilling capacity of up to 5400 m3/s of water. For comparison, the highest water flows since construction of the power plant, measured during the 2012 foods, were 2570 m3/s. Three turbine piers are placed among the spillways. The plant reservoir is 10.2 km long and stretches up to the higher power plant at Lavamünd, Austria. It contains 5.6 million m of water.  The power plant is one of eight power plants on the Drava River in Slovenia and is managed by the company Dravske Elektrarne Maribor.

Notable people.

Notable people that were born or lived in Dravograd include:

Dravograd (; ) is a small town in northern Slovenia, close to the border with Austria. It is the seat of the Municipality of Dravograd. It lies on the Drava River at the confluence with the Meža and the Mislinja. It is part of the traditional Slovenian provinces of Carinthia and the larger Carinthia Statistical Region.

Dravograd (dialektem "Traberk", ) je město, které se rozkládá v Korutanském regionu () na severu Slovinska. Je správním centrem občiny Dravograd. Většina území leží na historickém území Korutan, menší jižní část, zahrnující železniční nádraží Dravograd a autobusové nádraží Dravograd, rozkládající se východně od řeky Meži a jižně od Drávy, však leží v Dolním Štýrsku.