who formed the band of non violent revolutionary the khudai khidmatgars

Also called "Surkh Posh" or "Red Shirts", it was originally a social reform organisation focussing on education and the elimination of blood feuds known as the Anjuman-e-Islah-e Afghania (society for reformation of Afghans). The movement was led by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known locally as Bacha Khan or Badshah Khan.[1]

Khudai Khidmatgar

Khudai Khidmatgar (Pashto: خدايي خدمتگار) literally translates as the servants of God, represented a non-violent struggle against the British Empire by the Pashtuns (also known as Pathans, Pakhtuns or Afghans) of the North-West Frontier Province of British India (now in Pakistan).

It gradually became more political as it was being targeted by the British Raj, by 1929 its leadership was exiled from the province and large numbers were arrested. Seeking allies, it approached the Muslim League and Indian National Congress, rebuffed by the former in 1929 the movement formally joined the Congress party. Due to pressure across India, the British government finally released Bacha Khan and lifted restrictions on the movement. As part of the Government of India Act 1935, limited franchise was for the first time introduced in the North-West Frontier Province. In the subsequent election, Bacha Khan's brother Dr.Khan Sahib was elected Chief Minister.

The Khudai Khidmatgar (KK) movement faced another crackdown for its role in the Quit India Movement after 1940, in that period it started facing increasing opposition from the Muslim League in the province. Its Congress affiliate won the 1946 election again, however it faced an increasing protest by supporters of the Pakistan movement. Amidst negotiations for the British departure from India, the Congress party agreed to the partition of India on the provision that a referendum was held to ascertain whether NWFP would prefer to be part of the new state of Pakistan or India. Realising they were in an untenable position the KK movement decided to boycott the referendum which allowed a landsliding victory for the Pakistan vote.over 99% votes were in favor of Pakistan. The KK movement faced a backlash from the new Pakistani government following partition, its government was dismissed and the movement banned.

At the beginning of the 20th century Pashtun society was colonized, stagnant, violent, worn down by feuds, inequalities, factionalism, poor social cooperation, and plain ignorance.[2][3] Education opportunities were strictly limited. Pashtuns are Muslims; and religious leaders and Mullahs were known to have told parents that if their children went to school, they would go to hell. Khan stated that “the real purpose of this propaganda” was to keep Pashtuns “illiterate and uneducated”, and hence his people “were the most backward in India” with regard to education.[4] He also stated that by the time Islam reached his people centuries earlier, it had lost much of its original spiritual message.[4]

Formed out of the Society for the Reformation of Pashtuns (Anjuman-e-Islah-e-Afghan), it initially targeted social reformation and launched campaigns against prostitution. Bacha Khan as its founder seemed to be influenced by the realisation that whenever British troops were faced with an armed uprising they eventually always overcame the rebellion. The same could not be said when using non violence against the troops.

The movement started prior to the Qissa Khwani bazaar massacre, when a demonstration of hundreds of non violent supporters were fired upon by British soldiers in Peshawar. Its low point and eventual dissipation was after Pakistan's independence in 1947, when the Muslim League Chief Minister Abdul Qayyum Khan banned the movement and launched a brutal crackdown on its members, which culminated in the Babra massacre. At its peak, the KK movement consisted of almost 100,000 members.

Initially the movement focussed on social reform as a means of improving the status of Pashtuns against the British. Ghaffar Khan founded several reform movements prior to the formation of the Khudai Khidmatgar, the Anjumen-e Islah ul-Afghan in 1921, the farmers' organisation Anjuman-e Zamidaran in 1927 and the youth movement Pashtun Jirga in 1927. Trying to further spread awareness on Pashtun issues Abdul Ghaffar Khan founded the magazine Pakhtun in May 1928. Finally in March 1930, almost on the eve of the Qissa Khwani Bazaar Massacre the Khudai Khidmatgar were formed.[1]

Khan drew his first recruits from the young men who had graduated from his schools. Trained and uniformed, they served behind their officers and filed out into various villages to seek recruits. They began by wearing a simple white overshirt, but the white was soon dirtied. A couple of men had their shirts dyed at the local tannery, and the brick-red colour proved a breakthrough, it was this distinctive colour that earned the Khudai khidmatgar movement activists the name "the Red shirts" or surkh posh. Other reason for the choice of red color was a symbolic adherence of the anti colonial movements to the revolutionary and socialist discourse.

Volunteers who took the oath formed platoons with commanding officers and learned basic army discipline. The volunteers had their own flags: red in the beginning, later tri-colour and bands: bagpipe and drums. The men wore red uniforms and the women black. They had drills, badges, a flag, the entire military hierarchy of rank and even a bagpipe corps.

Khan set up a network of committees called jirgas, named and modelled after the traditional tribal councils. Villages were grouped into larger groups, responsible to district-wide committees. The Provincial Jirgah was the ultimate authority.

Officers in the ranks were not elected, since Khan wanted to avoid infighting. He appointed a salar-e-azam or commander-in-chief, who in turn appointed officers to serve under him. Other ranks included Jarnails (Generals). The army was completely voluntary; even the officers gave their services free. Women were recruited too, and played an important role in the struggles to come.

Volunteers went to the villages and opened schools, helped on work projects, and maintained order at public gatherings. From time to time they drilled in work camps and took long military-style marches into the hills.

Under the influence of Abdul Ghaffar Khan the movement advocated non-violent protests and justified their actions through an Islamic context. Khan did not find Islam and non-violence as incompatible. Despite that the movement was intrinsically non-sectarian. In more than one occasion when Hindus and Sikhs were attacked in Peshawar, Khidmatgar members helped protect their lives and property.

“The Holy Prophet Mohammed came into this world and taught us ‘That man is a Muslim who never hurts anyone by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God's creatures.’ Belief in God is to love one's fellow men.” – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

“There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pathan like me subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It is not a new creed. It was followed fourteen hundred years ago by the Prophet all the time he was in Mecca.” – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

In the presence of God I solemnly affirm that:

We are the army of God
By death or wealth unmoved,
We march, our leader and we,
Ready to die!

In the name of God, we march
And in his name, We die
We serve in the name of God
God's servant are we!

God is our king,
And great is he,
We serve our Lord,
His slaves are we!

Our country's cause
We serve with our breath,
For such an end,
Glorious is death

We serve and we love
Our people and our cause
Freedom is our aim,
And our lives are its price.

We love our country
And respect our country
Zealously we protect it
For the glory of God

By cannon or gun undismayed
Soldiers and horsemen,
None can come between,
Our work and our duty.[6]

British troops employed a wide variety of tactics against KK activists.

"The British used to torture us, throw us into ponds in wintertime, shave our beards, but even then Badshah Khan told his followers not to lose patience. He said 'there is an answer to violence, which is more violence. But nothing can conquer nonviolence. You cannot kill it. It keeps standing up. The British sent their horses and cars to run over us, but I took my shawl in my mouth to keep from screaming. We were human beings, but we should not cry or express in any way that we were injured or weak." â€“ Musharraf Din (Baldauf).

Another tactic employed against non-violent protesters who were blocking roads was to charge them with cars and horses.

In 1930, soldiers of the Garhwal Rifles refused to fire on non-violent protests led by Khudai Khidmatgars in Peshawar. By disobeying direct orders, the regiment sent a clear message to London that loyalty of India's armed forces could not be taken for granted to enact harsh measures. However, by 1931, 5,000 members of the Khudai Khidmatgar and 2,000 members of the Congress Party were arrested.[7] This was followed by the shooting of unarmed protestors in Utmanzai and the Takkar Massacre followed by the Hathikhel massacre.

In 1932, the Khudai Khidmatgar movement changed its tactics and involved women in the movement. This unnerved many Indian officers working in the region as in those days of conservative India it was considered a grave insult to attack women, more so in a conservative Pashtun society. However the brutality increased and in one case five police officers in Benares had to be suspended due to "horrific reports about violence used against young female volunteers".

The British bombed a village in the Bajaur Valley in March 1932 and arrested Abdul Ghaffar Khan as well as more than 4,000 Khudai Khitmatgars. The British bombardments in the border area continued up till 1936–1937 because, “India is a training field for active military training which can be found nowhere else in the Empire", a British court concluded in 1933.

Other alleged tactics ranged from poisoning[8] to the use of castrations against some Khudai Khidmatgar activists.[9]

After the anti-war resignation of Dr. Khan's Ministry in 1939 because of the events of World War 2, British tactics towards the movement changed to employ divide-and-rule tactics through the instigation of sectarian and communal tensions over brute force. Governor George Cunningham's policy note of 23 September 1942, called for the government to ‘continuously preach the danger to Muslims of connivance with the revolutionary Hindu body. Most tribesmen seem to respond to this’, while in another paper he commented about the period 1939–1943: ‘Our propaganda since the beginning of the war had been most successful. It had played throughout on the Islamic theme.’[10]

The movement was facing intense pressure by 1930 and the leadership under Ghaffar Khan was actively seeking political allies in India to help reduce the pressure on it by the British authorities. Previously in December 1928, Barrister Muhammad Jan Abbasi invited Bacha Khan to attend a Khilafat conference. The session ended badly with Maulana Shaukat Ali nearly being attacked by one member from the Punjab.

Despite the initial closeness between Ghaffar Khan and Ali, the harshness of their critique of Gandhi contrasted poorly with the patience shown by Gandhi in Ghaffar Khan's eyes. Another attempt was made by senior KK leaders to approach Sir Fazli Hussain a senior Punjabi leader of the Unionist party pleading for assistance against the crackdown which was dismissed.

The Congress subsequently offered all possible help to the Pathans in exchange on their part to joining the Congress party for the independence struggle. This offer was put forth in the Frontier province, and was accepted by the Khudai Kidmatgars on August 1931. The move shocked the British authorities who were forced to ease pressure on the KK.

More, with the introduction of provincial autonomy under the Government of India Act 1935, The first limited election were held in NWFP in 1936. Ghaffar Khan was banned from the province. His brother, Dr. Khan Sahib, led the party to a narrow victory and became Chief Minister. Ghaffar Khan returned to Peshawar in triumph on 29 August 1937 on what the Peshawar daily Khyber Mail called the happiest day of his life. During the two-year stint of the Congress party under Dr Khan Sahib as Chief minister, major reforms were introduced including land reforms, promotion of the teaching of Pashto and the release of political prisoners.

On Congress directive the ministries in eight out of eleven provinces resigned in protest against Britain's not promising India independence after the War. The decision to resign proved a pivotal moment in Indian history, in the Frontier it was instrumental in giving those groups that opposed the Khudai Khidmatgar movement the opportunity to broaden their constituency.

The KK's activists role in helping Subhash Chandra Bose's escape in 1943 has largely been ignored till recently. In 1943, Amir Khan Khattak along with four other people received Subhash Chandra Bose at Nowshera Railway Station. He had come to make his escape to Nazi Germany via Afghanistan. Disguised as a Muslim, Subhash was taken to Khattak's village Dak Ismailkhel on the request of Mian Akbar Shah from Faqir Chand's house in Peshawar. He stayed with him for two days before leaving in a Pashtun attire for the German Embassy in Kabul leading to his journey to Germany and finally Japan.Agha Haider Ali of the Afghan National bank, helped Bose get in touch with the Kabul authorities and with his travel plans.[11]

The increasingly liberal movement faced an increasing backlash from conservatives because of its support for the Congress party amidst growing support for the Pakistan movement. The decision of Dr. Khan Sahib to support his daughters marriage to a Sikh soldier led to some senior associates of Bacha Khan to leave.[12][13]

Similarly his son Ghani Khan's criticism of feudal landlords angered many conservative "Khans" and Nawabs, some formerly sympathetic to the movement.[10]

This coincided with a determined effort by the British Raj to discredit the movement with the assistance of mullahs and ulema allied with the British.[14] The British Governor, Cunningham, instructed the big khans to meet each mullah on individual basis and tell him to serve the 'cause of Islam' for which he would be duly paid. The Mullahs were told that in case of good progress they would also be considered for government pension. A Cunningham policy note of 23 September 1942 reads: 'Continuously preach the danger to Muslims of connivance with the revolutionary Hindu body. Most tribesmen seem to respond to this', while in another paper he says about the period 1939â€“43: 'Our propaganda since the beginning of the war had been most successful. It had played throughout on the Islamic theme.[10]

The Khudai Khidmatgar movement decline can be traced back to two decisions the first was the Congress decision in 1939 to resign from power in protest against British World War II policy. This move gave an opportunity to the Muslim League to develop and for the British authorities to alter their strategy.

In 1940, a split occurred within the Pakhtun Zalmey, the youth organisation affiliated with Bacha Khan's Khudai Khidmatgar movement. It occurred after Bacha Khan refused to accept the results of the internal party 1940 elections in which Salar Aslam Khan of Kohat won the contest as president of Pakhtun Zalmey with overwhelming majority. The refusal by Bacha Khan to accept Salaar Aslam caused a great damage to the party in southern districts of the province where Khudai Khidmatgars won all the seats of the provincial as well as national assemblies in the previous elections. Salar Aslam was also a member of the Forward Block and Bacha Khan's argument was that he could not trust anyone but his elder son, Ghani Khan, whom he wanted to lead Pakhtun Zalmey. "It was a mistake of Bacha Khan. He was not happy about his decision later, but had to argue that at that sensitive stage of the political struggle, he could only trust Ghani Khan.[11]

The party also faced attempts by the British Raj to discredit it by portraying it as an irreligious group trying to promote a pro Hindu and pro communist agenda.[15] Despite these attempts, the movements political wing contested and won the 1946 provincial elections.

An exception to the rule of nonviolence occurred when Badshah Khan's son Ghani Khan on 26/27 April 1947 founded the breakaway group Zalmai Pukhtoon (Pashtun Youth), a militant, organisation of Pukhtoon youth, carrying fire-arms, the aim of which was to protect the Khudai Khidmatgars (Servants of God) and members of the Congress Party from violence feared at the hands of Muslim League activists. It had no connection as such with the Khudai Khidmatgars.

Nehru's fateful visit to the Frontier in October 1946 and its tragic aftermath in a gradual erosion of the popular base of the incumbent Khan Sahib Ministry. Despite this, the movement stayed true to its non-communal leanings, when the Khudai Khitmatgar came out to protect thousands of Sikhs and Hindus worried they would be attacked in the increasing pre-partition violence between Hindus and Muslims.[16]

Pakistan's Independence in August 1947 marked the beginning of the end of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement. While the Congress government remained in power briefly it was eventually dismissed by the Governor under the orders of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Dr. Khan Sahib was replaced by former Congressite Abdul Qayyum Khan. He successfully stopped an attempted rapprochement between Ghaffar Khan and Muhammad Ali Jinnah by stopping a planned meeting between the two citing security threats.[17] With that, Jinnah gave Qayyum Khan a free hand in dealing with the Congress and the Khudai Khidmatgars. The crackdown that followed culminated with the Babra Sharif massacre.

Despite the provocation and its obvious ambivalence over Pakistan's creation, the Khudai Khidmatgar leaders reconvened at Sardaryab on 3 and 4 September 1947 and passed a resolution[18] that stated, "The Khudai Khidmagars regard Pakistan as their own country and pledge that they shall do their utmost to strengthen and safeguard its interest and make every sacrifice for the cause; The dismissal of Dr. Khan Sahib’s ministry and the setting up of Abdul Qaiyum’s ministry is undemocratic, but as our country is passing through a critical stage, the Khudai Khidmatgars shall take no step which might create difficulties in the way of either the Provincial or Central Government; After the division of the country the Khudai Khidmatgars sever their connection with the All-India Congress organization and, therefore, instead of the Tricolor, adopt the Red Flag as the symbol of their party."

You have thrown us (Khudai Khidmatgar) to the wolves.

However, Qayyum Khan and the central government had already decided that there would be no accord with the movement. The Khudai Khidmatgar organisation was declared unlawful in mid-September 1948, mass arrests followed and the centre at Sardaryab (Markaz-e-Khudai Khidmatgaran), built in 1942, was destroyed by the Provincial Government. This crackdown ultimately led to the Babra Sharif massacre.[19]

The movement was also hit by defections as party members switched sides out of fear or for benefit. Those members that wished to survive politically rallied behind a former ally, turned opponent of Qayyum Khan, the Pir of Manki Sharif. The Pir created a breakaway Muslim League, however, it proved no match for Qayyum who engineered his re-election in 1951.[19]

The movement lingered on till 1955, when it was again banned by the central government because of Ghaffar Khan's opposition to the One Unit. An aborted attempt was made to bring Ghaffar Khan into the government as a minister as well as turning the KK movement into a national organization, but Ghaffar Khan turned down the offer.[20]

Although the ban on the movement was lifted in 1972, the Khudai Khidmatgar movement had been broken.

The Khudai Khidmatgar movement was a success in the terms of its opposition to British rule. However, the social effects of the movement have not survived. While the Ghaffar Khan family maintains a hold over the political philosophy of the movement, its history has largely been wiped out from official memory in Pakistan. The movement has also been criticized for its opposition to partition, and by that virtue the creation of Pakistan.[10]

As a result, it has been seen as a secessionist movement in Pakistan, and in the 1950s and 1960s it was also perceived as pro communist, an argument that was used by conservative elements to discredit it as anti-Islam. The movement's claim to total non-violence seems flawed as well; some critics argue that while the movement proved a success against the British, it like other non-violent movements would not have proved a success against another Imperial power. This is supposedly proved by its failure to pose a challenge to the Pakistani government amidst a crackdown that was far more brutal than any done by the British.[3] Others have also suggested that the Khudai Khidmatgar movement was not in fact as non-violent as its supporters would argue. Writers like Schofiled and Bannerjee have documented cases of attacks on British personnel and soldiers.[21]


below the soil surface what is the top of the zone of saturation called

The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water.[1]

Water table

The water table is the surface where the water pressure head is equal to the atmospheric pressure (where gauge pressure = 0). It may be visualized as the "surface" of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity.[2]

The groundwater may be from precipitation or from groundwater flowing into the aquifer. In areas with sufficient precipitation, water infiltrates through pore spaces in the soil, passing through the unsaturated zone. At increasing depths, water fills in more of the pore spaces in the soils, until a zone of saturation is reached. Below the water table, in the phreatic zone (zone of saturation), layers of permeable rock that yield groundwater are called aquifers. In less permeable soils, such as tight bedrock formations and historic lakebed deposits, the water table may be more difficult to define.

The water table should not be confused with the water level in a deeper well. If a deeper aquifer has a lower permeable unit that confines the upward flow, then the water level in this aquifer may rise to a level that is greater or less than the elevation of the actual water table. The elevation of the water in this deeper well is dependent upon the pressure in the deeper aquifer and is referred to as the potentiometric surface, not the water table.[2]

The water table may vary due to seasonal changes such as precipitation and evapotranspiration. In undeveloped regions with permeable soils that receive sufficient amounts of precipitation, the water table typically slopes toward rivers that act to drain the groundwater away and release the pressure in the aquifer. Springs, rivers, lakes and oases occur when the water table reaches the surface. Springs commonly form on hillsides, where the Earth's slanting surface may "intersect" with the water table. Groundwater entering rivers and lakes accounts for the base-flow water levels in water bodies.[citation needed]

Within an aquifer, the water table is rarely horizontal, but reflects the surface relief due to the capillary effect (capillary fringe) in soils, sediments and other porous media. In the aquifer, groundwater flows from points of higher pressure to points of lower pressure, and the direction of groundwater flow typically has both a horizontal and a vertical component. The slope of the water table is known as the hydraulic gradient, which depends on the rate at which water is added to and removed from the aquifer and the permeability of the material. The water table does not always mimic the topography due to variations in the underlying geological structure (e.g.,Â  folded, faulted, fractured bedrock)

A perched water table (or perched aquifer) is an aquifer that occurs above the regional water table, in the vadose zone. This occurs when there is an impermeable layer of rock or sediment (aquiclude) or relatively impermeable layer (aquitard) above the main water table/aquifer but below the surface of the land. If a perched aquifer's flow intersects the Earth's dry surface, at a valley wall, for example, the water is discharged as a spring.

On low-lying oceanic islands with porous soil, freshwater tends to collect in lenticular pools on top of the denser seawater intruding from the sides of the islands. Such an island's freshwater lens, and thus the water table, rises and falls with the tides.

In some regions, for example, Great Britain or California, winter precipitation is often higher than summer precipitation and so the groundwater storage is not fully recharged in summer. Consequently, the water table is lower during the summer. This disparity between the level of the winter and summer water table is known as the "zone of intermittent saturation", wherein the water table will fluctuate in response to climatic conditions.

Fossil water is groundwater that has remained in an aquifer for several millennia and occurs mainly in deserts. It is non-renewable by present-day rainfall due to its depth below the surface, and any extraction causes a permanent change in the water table in such regions.

Aquifer drawdown or overdrafting and the pumping of fossil water may be a contributing factor to sea-level rise.[3]

Most crops need a water table at a minimum depth because at shallower depths the crop suffers a yield decline.[6] For some important food and fiber crops a classification was made:[7]


asian girl sings like a bridge over troubled water

She made her debut in 1996 with the song "MR", which was released on Naver Music. Despite having a long career in South Korea, she was only able to make her international breakthrough in 2014, when she became the first Korean artist to sing the American national anthem at a NBA game.[1] Sohyang also achieved fame when she sang with Kirk Franklin.[2] Sohyang has participated many times on television music competition programs Immortal Songs 2 and I Am a Singer, winning twice on Immortal Songs 2 with songs "Lean on Me" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water".

Sohyang

Kim So-hyang (born April 5, 1978), credited as Sohyang, is a South Korean singer.

Sohyang studied French at Kyunghee University.

At the age of 20, when Sohyang was freshly married, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer which she survived but now she cannot bear any children.

Sohyang is the sister-in-law of DNCE's JinJoo Lee. They have a really close relationship which is often showcased on social media accounts like Jinjoo's Instagram profile.

In December 2016, she was awarded the Seoul Success Award in the Culture category.

In Disney's movie Moana, Sohyang voiced the protagonist in the Korean-dubbed version, for the singing parts.[3][4]

In the first half of 2017, Sohyang appeared on MBC's King of Mask Singer as a contestant for the show's 2nd anniversary and became the winner six consecutive times (Generation 53-58), making her the female singer with the highest number of consecutive wins ever achieved (second highest overall) before losing her crown in July 2017 and departing from the show.[5]

Sohyang's vocal type is a Lyric Soprano, specifically a Full-Lyric Soprano. Her vocal range spans from D3 to A6 (supported range from A3 to E6), a total of 3 octaves, 3 notes, and a semitone. She is known for her emotive and powerful vocals, with characteristics being a homogeneous, rounded, and bright instrument of remarkable beauty and meticulous control. This skill has been very much well showcased all throughout her career.[6][7][8][9]


what are the products of helium burning in a star

Helium accumulates in the core of stars as a result of the proton–proton chain reaction and the carbon–nitrogen–oxygen cycle. Further nuclear fusion reactions of helium with hydrogen or another alpha particle produce lithium-5 and beryllium-8 respectively. Both products are highly unstable and decay, almost instantly, back into smaller nuclei, unless a third alpha particle fuses with a beryllium before that time to produce a stable carbon-12 nucleus.[3]

Triple-alpha process

The triple-alpha process is a set of nuclear fusion reactions by which three helium-4 nuclei (alpha particles) are transformed into carbon.[1][2]

When a star runs out of hydrogen to fuse in its core, it begins to collapse until the central temperature rises to 108 K,[4] six times hotter than the sun's core. At this temperature and density, alpha particles can fuse fast enough (the half-life of 5Li is 6978370000000000000♠3.7×10−22 s and that of 8Be is 6983670000000000000♠6.7×10−17 s) to produce significant amounts of carbon and restore thermodynamic equilibrium in the core

The net energy release of the process is 7.273 MeV (6988116600000000000♠1.166 pJ).

As a side effect of the process, some carbon nuclei fuse with additional helium to produce a stable isotope of oxygen and energy:

See alpha process for more details about this reaction and further steps in the chain of stellar nucleosynthesis.

This creates a situation in which stellar nucleosynthesis produces large amounts of carbon and oxygen but only a small fraction of those elements are converted into neon and heavier elements. Both oxygen and carbon make up the 'ash' of helium-4 burning.

Because the triple-alpha process is unlikely, it normally needs a long time to produce much carbon. One consequence of this is that no significant amount of carbon was produced in the Big Bang because within minutes after the Big Bang, the temperature fell below the critical point for nuclear fusion.

Ordinarily, the probability of the triple alpha process is extremely small. However, the beryllium-8 ground state has almost exactly the energy of two alpha particles. In the second step, 8Be + 4He has almost exactly the energy of an excited state of 12C. This "resonance" greatly increases the probability that an incoming alpha particle will combine with beryllium-8 to form carbon. The existence of this resonance was predicted by Fred Hoyle before its actual observation, based on the physical necessity for it to exist, in order for carbon to be formed in stars. The prediction and then discovery of this energy resonance and process gave very significant support to Hoyle's hypothesis of stellar nucleosynthesis, which posited that all chemical elements had originally been formed from hydrogen, the true primordial substance. The anthropic principle has been cited to explain the fact that nuclear resonances are sensitively arranged to create large amounts of carbon and oxygen in the universe.[5][6]

With further increases of temperature and density, fusion processes produce nuclides only up to nickel-56 (which decays later to iron); heavier elements (those beyond Ni) are created mainly by neutron capture. The slow capture of neutrons, the s-process, produces about half of elements beyond iron. The other half are produced by rapid neutron capture, the r-process, which probably occurs in a core-collapse supernova.

The triple-alpha steps are strongly dependent on the temperature and density of the stellar material. The power released by the reaction is approximately proportional to the temperature to the 40th power, and the density squared.[7] In contrast, the PP chain produces energy at a rate proportional to the fourth power of temperature, the CNO cycle at about the 17th power of the temperature, and both are linearly proportional to the density. This strong temperature dependence has consequences for the late stage of stellar evolution, the red giant stage.

For lower mass stars, the helium accumulating in the core is prevented from further collapse only by electron degeneracy pressure. As the temperature rises, increased pressure in the core would normally result in an expansion, reduction of density, and thus reduction in reaction rate. However, due to the high pressure at the center of the star this does not occur and energy production continues unmoderated. As a consequence, the temperature increases, causing the reaction rate further increase in a positive feedback cycle that becomes a runaway reaction. This process, known as the helium flash, lasts a matter of seconds but burns 60â€“80% of the helium in the core. During the core flash, the star's energy production can reach approximately 1011 solar luminosities which is comparable to the luminosity of a whole galaxy,[8] although no effects will be immediately observed at the surface, as it is hidden by the star's overlying layers.

For higher mass stars, carbon collects in the core, displacing the helium to a surrounding shell where helium burning occurs. In this helium shell, the pressures are lower and the mass is not supported by electron degeneracy. Thus, as opposed to the center of the star, the shell is able to expand in response to increased thermal pressure in the helium shell. Expansion cools this layer and slows the reaction, causing the star to contract again. This process continues cyclically, and stars undergoing this process will have periodically variable radius and power production. These stars will also lose material from their outer layers as they expand and contract.

The triple alpha process is highly dependent on carbon-12 and beryllium-8 having resonances with slightly more energy than helium-4, and before 1952, no such energy levels were known for carbon. The astrophysicist Fred Hoyle used the fact that carbon-12 is abundant in the universe as evidence for the existence of a carbon-12 resonance. The only way Hoyle could find that would produce an abundance of both carbon and oxygen is through a triple alpha process with a carbon-12 resonance near 7.68Â MeV.[9]

Hoyle went to nuclear physicist William Alfred Fowler's lab at Caltech and said that there had to be a resonance of 7.68 MeV in the carbon-12 nucleus. (There had been reports of an excited state at about 7.5Â MeV.[9]) Fred Hoyle's audacity in doing this is remarkable, and initially the nuclear physicists in the lab were skeptical. Finally, a junior physicist, Ward Whaling, fresh from Rice University, who was looking for a project decided to look for the resonance. Fowler gave Whaling permission to use an old Van de Graaff generator that was not being used. Hoyle was back in Cambridge when his prediction was verified a few months later. The nuclear physicists put Hoyle as first author on a paper delivered by Whaling at the Summer meeting of the American Physical Society. A long and fruitful collaboration between Hoyle and Fowler soon followed, with Fowler even coming to Cambridge.[10] By 1952, Fowler had noted the beryllium-8 resonance, and Edwin Salpeter calculated the reaction rate taking this resonance into account.[11][12]

This helped to explain the rate of the process, but the rate calculated by Salpeter seemed too low at the temperatures expected in supernovas.[9] When Fowler's lab discovered a carbon-12 resonance near 7.65 MeV it eliminated the discrepancy between the nuclear theory and the theory of stellar evolution.

The final reaction product lies in a 0+ state (0 spin and positive parity). Since the Hoyle state was predicted to be either a 0+ or a 2+ state, electronâ€“positron pairs or gamma rays were expected to be seen. However, when experiments were carried out, the gamma emission reaction channel was not observed, and this meant the state must be a 0+ state. This state completely suppresses single gamma emission, since single gamma emission must carry away at least 1 unit of angular momentum. Pair production from an excited 0+ state is possible because their combined spins (0) can couple to a reaction that has a change in angular momentum of 0.[13]

Carbon is a necessary component of all life that we know. 12C, a stable isotope of carbon, is abundantly produced in stars due to three factors:

Some scholars argue the 7.656 MeV Hoyle resonance, in particular, is unlikely to be the product of mere chance. Fred Hoyle argued in 1982 that the Hoyle resonance was evidence of a "superintellect";[9] Leonard Susskind in The Cosmic Landscape rejects Hoyle's intelligent design argument[16] Instead, some scientists believe that different universes, portions of a vast "multiverse", have different fundamental constants:[17] according to this controversial fine-tuning hypothesis, life can only evolve in the minority of universes where the fundamental constants happen to be fine-tuned to support the existence of life. Other scientists reject the hypothesis of the multiverse on account of the lack of independent evidence.[18]


when did the philadelphia athletics move to kansas city

The Oakland Athletics, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Philadelphia. This article details the history of the Philadelphia Athletics, from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City.

History of the Philadelphia Athletics

The Western League had been renamed the American League in 1900 by league president Bancroft (Ban) Johnson, and declared itself the second major league in 1901. Johnson created new franchises in the east and eliminated some franchises in the West.[1] Philadelphia had a new franchise created to compete with the National League's Philadelphia Phillies. Former catcher Connie Mack was recruited to manage the club. Mack in turn persuaded Phillies minority owner Ben Shibe as well as others to invest in the team, which would be called the Philadelphia Athletics. Mack himself bought a 25% interest, while the remaining 25% was sold to Philadelphia sportswriters Sam Jones and Frank Hough.[2]

The new league recruited many of its players from the existing National League, persuading them to "jump" to the American League in defiance of their National League contracts. One of the players who jumped to the new league was second baseman Nap Lajoie, formerly of the crosstown Phillies. He won the A.L.'s first batting title with a.426 batting average, still a league record. The Athletics and the American League received a setback when, on April 21, 1902, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidated Lajoie's contract with the Athletics, and ordered him back to the Phillies. This order, though, was only enforceable in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Lajoie was sold to Cleveland, but was kept out of road games in Philadelphia until the National Agreement was signed between the two leagues in 1903.

In the early years, the A's established themselves as one of the dominant teams in the new league, winning the A.L. pennant six times (1902, 1905, 1910, 1911, 1913 and 1914), and winning the World Series in 1910, 1911 and 1913.[3] They won over 100 games in 1910 and 1911, and 99 games in 1914. The team was known for its "$100,000 Infield", consisting of Stuffy McInnis (first base), Eddie Collins (second base), Jack Barry (shortstop), and Frank "Home Run" Baker (third base) as well as pitchers Eddie Plank and Chief Bender. Rube Waddell was also a major pitching star for the A's in the early 1900s. According to Lamont Buchanan in The World Series and Highlights of Baseball, the A's fans were fond of chanting, "If Eddie Plank doesn't make you lose / We have Waddell and Bender all ready to use!" Plank holds the franchise record for career victories, with 284.

In 1909, the A's moved into the major leagues' first concrete-and-steel ballpark, Shibe Park. This remains the second and last time in franchise history where a new ballpark was built specifically for the A's. Later in the decade, Mack bought the 25% of the team's stock owned by Jones and Hough to become a full partner with Shibe. Shibe ceded Mack full control over the baseball side while retaining control over the business side.[2]

In 1914, the Athletics lost the 1914 World Series to the "Miracle Braves" in a four-game sweep. Mack traded, sold or released most of the team's star players soon after. In his book To Every Thing a Season, Bruce Kuklick points out that there were suspicions that the A's had thrown the Series, or at least "laid down", perhaps in protest of Mack's frugal ways. Mack himself alluded to that rumor years later, but debunked it. He claimed that the team was torn by numerous internal factions, and was also distracted by the allure of a third major league, the Federal League.

The Federal League had been formed to begin play in 1914. As the AL had done 13 years before, the new league raided existing AL and NL teams for players. Several of his best players, including Bender, had already decided to jump before the World Series. Mack refused to match the upstart league's offers, preferring to rebuild with younger (and less expensive) players. The result was a swift and near-total collapse. The Athletics went from a 99–53 (.651) record and a pennant in 1914 to a record of 43–109 (.283) and last place in 1915, and then to 36–117 (.235, still a modern major-league low) in 1916.[4] The team would finish in last place every year through 1922 and would not contend again until 1925. Shibe died in 1922, and his sons Tom and John took over the business side, leaving the baseball side to Mack. By this time Mack had cemented his famous image of the tall, gaunt and well-dressed man waving his players into position with a scorecard. Unlike most managers, he chose to wear a high-collar shirt, tie, ascot scarf, and a straw boater hat instead of a uniform, a look that he never changed for the rest of his life, even decades after it went out of fashion. This came at the price of Mack not being allowed on-field during games per league regulations.

By the latter half of the 1920s, Mack had assembled one of the most feared batting orders in the history of baseball featuring three future Baseball Hall of Fame members.[5] At its heart were Al Simmons, who batted.334 and hit 307 home runs over his major league career, Jimmie Foxx, who hit 30 or more home runs in 12 consecutive seasons and drove in more than 100 runs in 13 consecutive years, and Mickey Cochrane, one of the best-hitting catchers in baseball history.[5] A fourth future Hall of Fame member was pitcher Lefty Grove, who led the American League in strikeouts seven years in a row, and had the league's lowest earned run average a record nine times.[6]

In 1927 and 1928, the Athletics finished second to the New York Yankees, then won pennants in 1929, 1930 and 1931, winning the World Series in 1929 and 1930.[3] In each of the three years, the Athletics won over 100 games. While the 1927 New York Yankees, whose batting order was known as the Murderers' Row, are remembered as one of the best teams in baseball history, the Athletics teams of the late 1920s and early 1930s are largely forgotten.[5] Opponents who faced both teams considered them to be generally equal.[5] Both teams won three consecutive pennants and two of three World Series.[5]

Statistically the New York and Philadelphia dynasties were remarkably even: The Athletics had a record of 313-143 (.686) between 1929 and 1931; the Yankees, 302-160 (.654) between 1926 and 1928.[5] And while the Athletics scored six fewer runs than the Yankeesâ€”2,710 -2,716, the Athletics had five fewer runs scored against them: 1,992-1,997, a difference of only one run.[5] The Yankees had the best single season at the plate, hitting for a combined.307 batting average and scoring 975 runs in 1927.[5] The Athletics' strongest offensive performance came in 1929, when they batted.296. On defense the Athletics were clearly superior; over their three-year American League reign they committed only 432 errors, 167 fewer than the Yankees.[5] Cochrane was also especially adept at telling his pitchers how to pitch to opposing batters.[5] Many veteran baseball observers believe that the Yankees' far more exalted status in history is due largely to the fact that they played in New York, where most of the national media is located.[5]

As it turned out, this would be the Athletics' last hurrah in Philadelphia.[5] The Great Depression was well under way, and declining attendance had drastically reduced the team's revenues.[5] Mack again sold or traded his best players in order to reduce expenses.[5] In September 1932, he sold Simmons, Jimmy Dykes and Mule Haas to the Chicago White Sox for $100,000.[5] In December 1933, Mack sent Grove, Rube Walberg and Max Bishop to the Boston Red Sox for Bob Kline, Rabbit Warstler and $125,000.[5] Also in 1933, he sold Cochrane to the Detroit Tigers for $100,000.[5] The construction of a spite fence at Shibe Park, blocking the view from nearby buildings, only served to irritate potential paying fans. However, the consequences did not become apparent for a few more years, as the team finished second in 1932 and third in 1933.

The Athletics finished fifth in 1934, then last in 1935. Mack was already 68 years old when the A's won the pennant in 1931, and many felt that the game had long since passed him by. Although he had every intention of building another winner, he did not have the extra money to get big stars. He also did not (or could not) invest in a farm system. Unlike most other owners, Mack had no source of income aside from the A's, so the dwindling attendance figures of the early 1930s hit him especially hard.

As a result, the A's went into a decline that lasted for over 30 years, through three cities. Except for a fifth-place finish in 1944, they finished in last or next-to-last place every year from 1935 to 1946. In 1936, Tom Shibe died, and John succeeded him as club president. However, John resigned due to illness a few months later, leaving the presidency to Mack. When John died on July 11, 1937, Mack bought enough shares from the Shibe estate to become majority owner.[7] However, Mack had been the franchise's number-one man since Ben Shibe's death. Even as bad as the A's got during this time and long after most other teams hired a general manager, Mack retained complete authority over baseball matters, making personnel decisions and leading the team on the field. One of the few times that he even considered ceding some of his duties came in the 1934-35 offseason, when he entertained hiring Babe Ruth to succeed him as manager. However, he backed off from this idea, saying that the Babe's wife, Claire, would be running the team within a month.[8] Even when the Phillies moved to Shibe Park as tenants of the A's midway through the 1938 season, not enough revenue came in for Mack to build another winner.

By the mid-1940s, Mack began showing unmistakable signs of mental deterioration. He would call on players from decades earlier to pinch-hit, lapse into sudden outbursts of temper, or make strange calls that the team would often just ignore. He spent most games asleep in the dugout rather than playing any active part, leaving his coaches to run the team most of the time. Nonetheless, despite calls inside and outside the organization to step down, Mack would not even consider firing himself. Also during this time, Mack gave a minority stake in the team to his sons, Roy, Earle and Connie Jr. Although Connie Jr. was several years younger than Roy and Earle (he was the son of Connie, Sr.'s second marriage), Mack intended to have all three of them inherit the team upon his death. He also intended for Earle, who had been assistant manager since 1924, to succeed him as manager. This decision would have dire consequences for the A's later on.[7]

To the surprise of most people in baseball, Mack managed not only to get out of the cellar in 1947, but actually finished with a winning record for the first time in 14 years. They contended for much of 1948, even managing to spend 49 days in first place. However, the turning point came on June 13, when pitcher Nels Potter, who had been a solid middle reliever for most of the season, blew a three-run lead in the first game of a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns. An enraged Mack ordered him off the team in front of a shocked clubhouse after the game.[9] The A's spent most of the summer in either first or second place before fading to fourth, and Mack's abrupt dismissal of Potter is often cited as costing the A's a pennant. They would not be a factor in a pennant race again at that late date until 1969â€”their second year in Oakland.

Another winning record in 1949 sparked hopes that 1950—the 50th anniversary of both the American League and Mack's tenure as manager of the A's--would bring a pennant at last. During that year, the team wore uniforms trimmed in blue and gold, in honor of the Golden Jubilee of "The Grand Old Man of Baseball." However, the 1950 season was an unmitigated disaster. They were only above.500 once all season (at 3-2), and a 5–17 May ended any hope of contention. Before May was out, Mack's sons had agreed to ease their father out as manager. On May 26, Jimmie Dykes was named assistant manager, with control over the A's day-to-day operations. It was further decided that Mack would resign after the season, and Dykes would be named his successor. On the same date, Cochrane, who had been brought back as a coach earlier in the year, was named general manager, stripping Connie Sr. of his last direct authority over baseball matters.[7] Ultimately, the A's finished with the worst record in the majors at 52-102, 46 games out of first. Mack's 50-year tenure as manager is a North American professional sports record that has never been threatened.

In the late 1940s, a power struggle developed between Roy and Earle on one side and Connie Jr. on the other. Connie Jr., like many A's fans, had become disenchanted with his brothers' bargain-basement approach to running the team. However, Roy and Earle were not willing to modernize and refused to listen to their younger brother, whom they considered a mere child with no relevant opinion (Connie Jr. was almost 20 years younger than Roy and Earle). Compounding their disagreements was the fact that they had different mothers. When it was apparent that Roy and Earle would not consider making what he considered to be critical reforms, Connie Jr. and his mother (who was angered at Connie, Sr.'s refusal to give Connie, Jr.'s sisters any role in the team) made an alliance with the Shibe heirs. Connie Jr. began taking steps to upgrade the team and the park. One of the few things on which the two sides agreed was that it was time for Connie Sr. to step down as manager.[7]

Matters came to a head in July 1950, when Connie Jr. and the Shibes decided to sell the team. However, Roy and Earle insisted that they have a 30-day option to buy out Connie Jr. and the Shibes before the team was put on the market. Connie Jr. didn't think Roy and Earle could get the $1.74 million required to buy him out, but Roy and Earle called their bluff by mortgaging the team to Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (now part of CIGNA) and pledging Shibe Park as collateral. The mortgage deal closed on August 26. The shares of Connie Jr. and the Shibes were retired, ending the Shibes' half-century involvement with the A's and making Connie Sr., Roy and Earle the team's only shareholders. Although his father remained nominal owner and team president, Roy, who had been vice president since 1936, now became operating head of the franchise, sharing day-to-day control with Earle. However, under the terms of the mortgage, the A's were now saddled with payments of $200,000 over the first five years, depriving them of badly needed capital that could have been used on improving the team and the park.[7] Unfortunately for the A's, the team continued to slide on the field. Although the 1949 team set a major league record for double plays which still stands, this was more a reflection of the team's poor pitching staff allowing too many base runners.[10] They would have only one winning record from 1951 to 1954â€”a fourth-place finish in 1952. The nadir came in 1954, when the A's finished with a ghastly 51-103 record, easily the worst record in baseball and 60 games out of first. Attendance plummeted and revenues continued to dwindle.

At the same time, the Phillies, who had been the definition of baseball futility for over 30 years, began a surprisingly quick climb to respectability. The A's had always been the more popular team in Philadelphia for most of the first half of the century, even though for much of the last decade they had been as bad or worse than the Phillies. However, unlike the A's, the Phillies began spending lavishly on young prospects in the 1940s. The impact was immediate. In 1947, the A's finished fourth in the American League while the Phillies tied for the worst record in the National League. Only three years later, while the A's finished dead last in the majors, the Phillies went all the way to the 1950 World Series. It soon became obvious that the Phillies had passed the A's as Philadelphia's number-one team.

In response, Roy and Earle began cutting costs even further. They turned over the rent from the Phillies to Connecticut General and took cash advances from their concessions contractor. The cost-cutting ramped up even further in the 1953â€“54 offseason, when they slashed over $100,000 off the player payroll, fired general manager Arthur Ehlers and replaced Dykes as manager with shortstop Eddie Joost. They also pared down the minor-league system to only six clubs. However, even with these measures, there wasn't nearly enough money coming in to service the mortgage debt, and Roy and Earle began feuding with each other.[7]

Despite the turmoil, some Athletics players shone on the field. In 1951, Gus Zernial led the American League with 33 home runs, 129 runs scored, 68 extra-base hits, and 17 outfield assists; in 1952 he swatted 29 homers and bagged 100 RBI; in 1953 he hit 42 homers and drove in 108 runs. In 1952, left-handed pitcher Bobby Shantz won 24 games and was named the league's Most Valuable Player, and Ferris Fain won AL batting championships in 1951 (with a.344 average) and 1952 (with a.320 average). His 1952 batting crown remains the last time an Athletic has led the league in hitting. Joost was a solid fielder who had a good eye at the plate for generating walks and had an above-average on-base percentage as a result. All four players represented the American League in the All-Star Game. Shantz might have won 30 games his best year 1952 but was hurt by a pitched ball on the wrist and was finished for the season.

By the summer of 1954, it was obvious that the A's were on an irreversible slide into bankruptcy. Earle and Roy decided that there was no choice but to sell their father's beloved team, and it was with great sorrow that the old man gave his approval for the sale. Although several offers were put forward by Philadelphia interests, American League president Will Harridge was convinced that the team could never be viable in Philadelphia. The sparse crowds at Shibe had been a source of frustration for some time to the other AL owners, as they could not even begin to meet their expenses for trips to Philadelphia. As a result, Harridge had come to believe that the only way to resolve the "Philadelphia problem" was to move the Athletics elsewhere. For this reason, when Chicago businessman Arnold Johnson offered to buy the team, the other owners pressured Roy Mack to agree to the sale. Johnson had very close ties to the Yankees; he not only owned Yankee Stadium but also owned Blues Stadium in Kansas City, home to the Yankees' top farm team. Johnson intended to move the A's to a renovated Blues Stadium if he was cleared to buy them. The Yankees made no secret that they favored Johnson, and their backing gave him the upper hand with the other owners. After an October 12 owners meeting at which several offers from Philadelphia interests were rejected as inadequate (Harridge later said that while several of them "talked about millions", they didn't have any money behind them), Mack agreed in principle to sell the A's to Johnson no later than October 18.[7]

However, on October 17, Roy Mack suddenly announced that the A's had been sold to a Philadelphia-based group headed by auto dealer John Crisconi. The deal was to be approved at an American League owners' meeting on October 28. It looked headed for approval when rumors (reportedly planted by the Yankees) cropped up that the Crisconi group was underfinanced, and Johnson collared Roy Mack at Roy's home to persuade him that his original deal was better in the long run. On October 28, the sale to the Crisconi group came up one vote short of the five needed for approval, with Roy Mack voting against the deal he'd just negotiated. A day later, Connie Mack released an open letter to A's fans (one that was likely written by his wife) blasting the owners for sinking the deal to the Crisconi group. However, he conceded that he didn't have enough money to run the A's in 1955, and the Johnson deal was the only one that had any prospect of winning approval. A few days later, the Macks sold the A's to Johnson for $3.5 million--$1.5 million for their shares plus $2 million in debt. Selling Shibe Park—which had been renamed Connie Mack Stadium a year earlier—proved more difficult, but the Phillies reluctantly bought it. The American League owners met again on November 8, and duly approved Johnson's bid to buy the A's. Johnson's first act was to request permission to move to Kansas City. This proved more difficult, since it required a three-fourths majority. However, Detroit owner Spike Briggs was persuaded to change his vote, ending the A's 54-year stay in Philadelphia.[7]


who owned the farmhouse where the two commanders of the civil war met to end the war

The home of James and Nancy Bennett, simple yeoman farmers, served as the site of the surrender negotiations between Major General William T. Sherman and General Joseph E. Johnston April 17, 18, and 26, 1865. It was the largest surrender of the American Civil War, officially ending the fighting in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The original house burned in 1921 and was reconstructed as a one-story log structure covered by weatherboards with a gable roof and a shed addition. Also on the property are a log kitchen and smokehouse.[7]

Bennett Place

Bennett Place, sometimes known as Bennett Farm, in Durham, Durham County, North Carolina, was the site of the largest surrender of Confederate soldiers ending the American Civil War, on April 26, 1865.

After Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea, he turned north through the Carolinas for the Carolinas Campaign. Confederate President Jefferson Davis met General Joseph E. Johnston in Greensboro, North Carolina, while Sherman had stopped in Raleigh.

Though Davis wished to continue the war, Johnston sent a courier to the Union troops encamped at Morrisville, with a message to General Sherman, offering a meeting between the lines to discuss a truce. Johnston, whose army was still an active fighting force encamped in Greensboro, realized it could not continue the war now that Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9. Johnston, escorted by a detachment of about 60 troopers of the 5th South Carolina Cavalry Regiment, traveled east along the Hillsborough Road toward Durham Station. Sherman was riding west to meet him, with an escort of 200 men from the 9th and 13th Pennsylvania, 8th Indiana and 2nd Kentucky Cavalry. The farm of James and Nancy Bennett was the closest and most convenient place for privacy. The first day's discussion (April 17) was intensified by the telegram Sherman handed to Johnston, informing of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. They met the following day, April 18, and signed terms of surrender. However, on April 24, Grant arrived and informed Sherman that the terms had been rejected by the presidential cabinet in Washington because they exceeded the terms that Grant had given Lee and included civil matters.[2] The opposing generals met again on April 26, 1865, and with the assistance of Gen. John M. Schofield agreed to new terms omitting the controversial sections.[3] The agreement disbanded all active Confederate forces in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, totaling 89,270 soldiers, the largest group to surrender during the war.

James and Nancy Bennett were like many families who suffered tremendously during the four years of war. They lost a son and son in law: Lorenzo, who served in the 27th North Carolina, buried in Winchester, Virginia; and their daughter Eliza's husband, Robert Duke, who died in a Confederate Army hospital and is buried in Lynchburg, Virginia. Their 3rd child, Alfonzo, was not in the war but died during the Civil War years (1864)

The Bennetts never fully recovered from the war, and in 1878, James Bennett died and the family moved to the new community of Durham to begin a life without him. The Bennett Farm was abandoned and fell into ruin, a fire finally destroying the farmhouse in 1921. In 1923 the Unity monument was dedicated on the site. In 1960 the Bennett Farm site was fully reclaimed and restored by local preservationists. It was then turned over to the State of North Carolina and made a state historic site.

The difficulty in reaching a surrender agreement lay in part in Johnston's desire, influenced by President Davis, for more than the purely military surrender that Major General Sherman offered. Sherman's original terms matched those offered by Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant to General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, but Johnston along with General John C. Breckinridge, also serving as Secretary of War for the Confederacy, insisted on resolutions of political issues, including the reestablishment of state governments, return of some weapons to state arsenals and civil rights after the war. Sherman, in accordance with Lincoln's stated wishes for a compassionate and forgiving end to the war, agreed on terms that included the political issues. He was unaware that on March 3, Lincoln had given Grant orders to only discuss military matters with Lee.[4] United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton identified many problems and loopholes within Sherman and Johnston's original terms and persuaded the cabinet to unanimously reject them.[5] In response, Jefferson Davis ordered Johnston to disband his infantry and escape with his mounted troops. However, Johnston disobeyed his orders and agreed to meet again with Major General Sherman at the Bennett Farm again on April 26, 1865. The rival generals agreed to new surrender terms identical to the ones Grant gave Lee, along with some supplemental terms written by Schofield pertaining to rations and return of the paroled soldiers to their homes.[6] The surrender agreement ended the war for the 89,270 soldiers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Three more primary surrenders would follow in Citronelle, Alabama; Galveston, Texas; and Doaksville, Oklahoma.

In 1923, the Unity Monument was placed on the site to commemorate this historic event. Among the many contributors to the preservation of this historic landmark were the Duke, Everett, and Morgan families.

Today, Bennett Place State Historic Site belongs to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and is located in the west end of Durham, near Duke University. The site is open to the public, Tuesday-Saturday, 9am-5pm, with a visitor center, museum, theater presentation, "Dawn of Peace", research library, gift shop, and the reconstruction of the Bennett Farm. Living history programs and the commemoration of the surrender take place throughout the year. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.[1]

On April 15, 2010, the Bennett Place Historic Site unveiled a new painting by renowned Civil War artist Dan Nance, entitled "The First Meeting". On the same day, the site gave its first William Vatavuk Scholarship, a yearly scholarship for students who wish to major in history in college. The scholarship honors the late William Vatavuk, who wrote Dawn of Peace, the first guidebook for the historic site.


who is generally recognised as iceland's first permanent male settler

The first Viking to sight Iceland was Gardar Svavarsson, who went off course due to harsh conditions when sailing from Norway to the Faroe Islands. His reports led to the first efforts to settle the island. Flóki Vilgerðarson (b. 9th century) was the first Norseman to sail to Iceland intentionally. His story is documented in the Landnámabók manuscript, and he is said to have named the island Ísland (Iceland). The first permanent settler in Iceland is usually considered to have been a Norwegian chieftain named Ingólfur Arnarson. He settled with his family in around 874, at a place he named "Bay of Smokes", or Reykjavík in Icelandic.[13]

Icelanders

Icelanders (Icelandic:

Icelanders established the country of Iceland in 930 A.D. when Althingi (Parliament) met for the first time. Iceland came under the reign of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish kings but regained full sovereignty and independence from the Danish monarchy on 1 December 1918, when Kingdom of Iceland was established. On 17 June 1944, the monarchy was abolished and the Icelandic republic was founded. The language spoken is Icelandic, a North Germanic language, and Lutheranism is the predominant religion. Historical and DNA records indicate that around 60 to 80 percent of the male settlers were of Norse origin (primarily from Western Norway) and a similar percentage of the women were of Celtic stock from Ireland and peripheral Scotland.[9][10]

Icelanders have had a tumultuous history. Development of the island was slow due to a lack of interest from the countries controlling it for most of its history: Norway, Denmark–Norway, and ultimately Denmark. Through this time, Iceland had relatively little contact with the outside world.[11] The island became independent in union with Denmark in 1918. Since 1944, Iceland has been a republic, and Icelandic society has undergone a rapid modernisation process in the post-independence era.

Iceland is a geologically young land mass, having formed an estimated 20 million years ago due to volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic ridge. One of the last larger islands to remain uninhabited, the first human settlement date is generally accepted to be 874, although there is some evidence to suggest human activity prior to the Norse arrival.[12]

Following Ingólfur, and also in 874, another group of Norwegians set sail across the North Atlantic Ocean with their families, livestock, slaves and possessions, escaping the domination of the first King of Norway, Harald Fairhair. They traveled 1,000 km (600 mi) in their Viking longships to the island of Iceland. These people were primarily of Norwegian, Irish or Gaelic Scottish origin. The Irish and the Scottish Gaels were either slaves or servants of the Norse chiefs, according to the Icelandic sagas, or descendants of a "group of Norsemen who had settled in Scotland and Ireland and intermarried with Gaelic-speaking people".[14] Genetic evidence suggests that approximately 62% of the Icelandic maternal gene pool is derived from Ireland and Scotland, which is much higher than other Scandinavian countries, although comparable to the Faroese, while 37% is of Nordic origin.[15] About 20-25% of the Icelandic paternal gene pool is of Gaelic origin, with the rest being Nordic.[16]

The Icelandic Age of Settlement (Icelandic: Landnámsöld) is considered to have lasted from 874 to 930, at which point most of the island had been claimed and the Alþingi (English: Althing), the assembly of the Icelandic Commonwealth, was founded at Þingvellir.[17]

In 930, on the Þingvellir (English: Thingvellir) plain near Reykjavík, the chieftains and their families met and established the Alþingi, Iceland's first national assembly. However, the Alþingi lacked the power to enforce the laws it made. In 1262, struggles between rival chieftains left Iceland so divided that King Haakon IV of Norway was asked to step in as a final arbitrator for all disputes, as part of the Old Covenant. This is known as the Age of the Sturlungs.[18]

Iceland was under Norwegian leadership until 1380, when the Royal House of Norway died out. At this point, both Iceland and Norway came under the control of the Danish Crown. With the introduction of absolute monarchy in Denmark, the Icelanders relinquished their autonomy to the crown, including the right to initiate and consent to legislation. This meant a loss of independence for Iceland, which led to nearly 300 years of decline: perhaps largely because Denmark and its Crown did not consider Iceland to be a colony to be supported and assisted. In particular, the lack of help in defense led to constant raids by marauding pirates along the Icelandic coasts.[11]

Unlike Norway, Denmark did not need Iceland's fish and homespun wool. This created a dramatic deficit in Iceland's trade, and no new ships were built as a result. In 1602 Iceland was forbidden to trade with other countries by order of the Danish Government, and in the 18th century climatic conditions had reached an all-time low since Settlement.[11]

In 1783–84 Laki, a volcanic fissure in the south of the island, erupted. The eruption produced about 15 km³ (3.6 mi³) of basalt lava, and the total volume of tephra emitted was 0.91 km³.[19] The aerosols built up caused a cooling effect in the Northern Hemisphere. The consequences for Iceland were catastrophic, with approximately 25-33% of the population dying in the famine of 1783 and 1784. Around 80% of sheep, 50% of cattle, and 50% of horses died of fluorosis from the 8 million tons of fluorine that were released.[20] This disaster is known as the Mist Hardship (Icelandic: Móðuharðindin).

In 1798–99 the Alþingi was discontinued for several decades, eventually being restored in 1844. It was moved to Reykjavík, the capital, after being held at Þingvellir for over nine centuries.

The 19th century brought significant improvement in the Icelanders' situation. A protest movement was led by Jón Sigurðsson, a statesman, historian, and authority on Icelandic literature. Inspired by the romantic and nationalist currents from mainland Europe, Jón protested strongly, through political journals and self-publications, for 'a return to national consciousness' and for political and social changes to be made to help speed up Iceland's development.[21]

In 1854, the Danish government relaxed the trade ban that had been imposed in 1602, and Iceland gradually began to rejoin Western Europe economically and socially. With this return of contact with other peoples came a reawakening of Iceland's arts, especially its literature. Twenty years later in 1874, Iceland was granted a constitution. Icelanders today recognize JÃ³n's efforts as largely responsible for their economic and social resurgence.[21]

Iceland gained full sovereignty and independence from Denmark in 1918 after World War I. It became the Kingdom of Iceland. The King of Denmark also served as the King of Iceland but Iceland retained only formal ties with the Danish Crown. On 17 June 1944 the monarchy was abolished and a republic was established on what would have been Jón Sigurðsson's 133rd birthday. This ended nearly six centuries of ties with Denmark.[21]

Most mitochondrial DNA lineages found today in contemporary Icelanders can be traced to the native populations in Ireland and Scotland and Scandinavia. Another study[22] shows that a tiny proportion of samples of contemporary Icelanders carry a more distant lineage, which belongs to the haplogroup C1e, which can possibly be traced to the settlement of the Americas around 14,000 years ago. The same study used preliminary genealogical analyses which revealed that C1e lineage was present in the Icelandic mtDNA pool at least 300 years ago. Due to their small founding population and considerable history of relative isolation, Icelanders have often been considered highly genetically homogeneous as compared to other European populations. For this reason, along with the extensive genealogical records for much of the population that reach back to the settlement of Iceland, Icelanders have been the focus of considerable genomics research by both biotechnology companies and academic and medical researchers. However, one study of mitochondrial DNA, blood groups, and isozymes revealed a more variable population than expected from these genetic standpoints, comparable to the diversity of some other Europeans.[23] Another study shows that quite a big group of Scandinavian males, in particular Norwegians and Icelanders (up to 31% of samples), carry Haplogroup R1a1a (Y-DNA).

Results of the mitochondrial DNA studies have been consistent with the genealogical records that trace the ancestry of most Icelanders to Scandinavia, Ireland and Scotland, though there may have been a minor contribution from other European groups. Founder effects and the effects of genetic drift are more pronounced for the Icelandic gene pool than other nearby populations, supporting the assumed genetic isolation of the population.[24]

The first Europeans to emigrate to and settle in Greenland were Icelanders who did so under the leadership of Erik the Red in the late 10th century, CE and numbered around 500 people. Isolated fjords in this harsh land offered sufficient grazing to support cattle and sheep, though the climate was too cold for cereal crops. Royal trade ships from Norway occasionally went to Greenland to trade for walrus tusks and falcons. The population eventually reached a high point of perhaps 3,000 in two communities and developed independent institutions before fading away during the 15th century.[25] A papal legation was sent there as late as 1492, the year Columbus attempted to find a shorter spice route to Asia but instead encountered the Americas.

According to the Saga of Eric the Red, Icelandic immigration to North America dates back to Vinland circa 1006. The colony was believed to be short-lived and abandoned by the 1020s. [26] European settlement of the region was not archeologically and historically confirmed as more than legend until the 1960s. The former Norse site, now known as L'Anse aux Meadows, pre-dated the arrival of Colombus in the Americas by almost 500 years.

A more recent instance of Icelandic immigration to North America occurred in 1855, when a small group settled in Spanish Fork, Utah.[27] Another Icelandic colony formed in Washington Island, Wisconsin.[28] Immigration to the United States and Canada began in earnest in the 1870s, with most migrants initially settling in the Great Lakes area. These settlers were fleeing famine and overcrowding on Iceland.[29] Today, there are sizable communities of Icelandic descent in both the United States and Canada. Gimli, in Manitoba, Canada, is home to the largest population of Icelanders outside of the main island of Iceland.[30]

Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is the official language of Iceland (de facto; the laws are silent about the issue). Icelandic has inflectional grammar comparable to Latin, Ancient Greek, more closely to Old English and practically identical to Old Norse.

Old Icelandic literature can be divided into several categories, of which three are best known to foreigners: Eddic poetry, skaldic poetry, and saga literature, if saga literature is understood broadly. Eddic poetry is made up of heroic and mythological poems. Poetry that praises someone is considered skaldic poetry or court poetry. Finally Saga literature is prose, ranging from pure fiction to fairly factual history.[31]

Written Icelandic has changed little since the 13th century. Because of this, modern readers can understand the Icelanders' sagas. The sagas tell of events in Iceland in the 10th and early 11th centuries. They are considered to be the best-known pieces of Icelandic literature.[32]

The elder or Poetic Edda, the younger or Prose Edda, and the sagas are the major pieces of Icelandic literature. The Poetic Edda is a collection of poems and stories from the late 10th century, whereas the younger or Prose Edda is a manual of poetry that contains many stories of Norse mythology.

Iceland embraced Christianity in c. AD 1000, in what is called the kristnitaka, and the country, while mostly secular in observance, is still predominantly Christian culturally. The Lutheran church claims some 84% of the total population.[33] While early Icelandic Christianity was more lax in its observances than traditional Catholicism, Pietism, a religious movement imported from Denmark in the 18th century, had a marked effect on the island. By discouraging all but religious leisure activities, it fostered a certain dourness, which was for a long time considered an Icelandic stereotype. At the same time, it also led to a boom in printing, and Iceland today is one of the most literate societies in the world.[21][34]

While Catholicism was supplanted by Protestantism during the Reformation, most other world religions are now represented on the island: there are small Protestant Free Churches and Catholic communities, and even a nascent Muslim community, composed of both immigrants and local converts. Perhaps unique to Iceland is the fast-growing Ásatrúarfélag, a legally recognized revival of the pre-Christian Nordic religion of the original settlers. According to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Reykjavík, there were only approximately 30 Jews in Iceland as of 2001.[35] The former First Lady of Iceland Dorrit Moussaieff was an Israeli-born Bukharian Jew.

Icelandic cuisine consists mainly of fish, lamb, and dairy. Fish was once the main part of an Icelander's diet but has recently given way to meats such as beef, pork, and poultry.[20]

Iceland has many traditional foods called Þorramatur. These foods include smoked and salted lamb, singed sheep heads, dried fish, smoked and pickled salmon, and cured shark. Andrew Zimmern, a chef who has traveled the world on his show Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, responded to the question "What's the most disgusting thing you've ever eaten?" with the response "That would have to be the fermented shark fin I had in Iceland." Fermented shark fin is a form of Þorramatur.[36]

The earliest indigenous Icelandic music was the rímur, epic tales from the Viking era that were often performed a cappella. Christianity played a major role in the development of Icelandic music, with many hymns being written in the local idiom. Hallgrímur Pétursson, a poet and priest, is noted for writing many of these hymns in the 17th century. The island's relative isolation ensured that the music maintained its regional flavor. It was only in the 19th century that the first pipe organs, prevalent in European religious music, first appeared on the island.[37]

Many singers, groups, and forms of music have come from Iceland. Most Icelandic music contains vibrant folk and pop traditions. Some more recent groups and singers are Voces Thules, The Sugarcubes, Björk, Sigur Rós, and Of Monsters and Men.

The national anthem is "Ó Guð vors lands" (English: "Our Country's God"), written by Matthías Jochumsson, with music by Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson. The song was written in 1874, when Iceland celebrated its one thousandth anniversary of settlement on the island. It was originally published with the title A Hymn in Commemoration of Iceland's Thousand Years.[37]

Iceland's national football team has yet to participate in the FIFA World Cup. However they have qualified for the finals of the 2016 European Championship. Their first Olympic participation was in the 1912 Summer Olympics; however, they did not participate again until the 1936 Summer Olympics. Their first appearance at the winter games was at the 1948 Winter Olympics. In 1956, Vilhjálmur Einarsson won the Olympic silver medal for the triple jump.[38] The Icelandic national handball team has enjoyed relative success. The team received a silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Games and a 3rd place at the 2010 European Men's Handball Championship.


bb-8 is an astromech droid from what film

BB-8 (or Beebee-Ate) is a droid character in the Star Wars franchise, appearing in both the 2015 Star Wars: The Force Awakens and 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi films. Spherical with a free-moving domed head, BB-8 is portrayed by both a rod puppet and a remote-controlled robotic unit.

BB-8

Scanlan told Entertainment Weekly in November 2015 that the robot's design came from an original sketch by Abrams, saying "It was a very simple sketch, beautiful in its simplicity of a ball with this little dome on top."[3] Of BB-8's design "with differently shaped panels on each side to help the viewerâ€™s eye track movement", Scanlan said "If you had parallel patterns that ran around the circumference, they would be less informative as to the direction BB-8 was traveling than a slightly more chaotic pattern."[3]

Abrams also named the robot, telling Entertainment Weekly in August 2015, "I named him BB-8 because it was almost onomatopoeia. It was sort of how he looked to me, with the 8, obviously, and then the two B's."[4] The name was conceived early on in the film's production and was one of the few to remain unchanged.[4]

In August 2013, The Force Awakens cinematographer Daniel Mindel and Episode VIII director Rian Johnson each stated that The Force Awakens director J. J. Abrams would use little computer-generated imagery (CGI) and more practical, traditional special effects in order to recreate the visual realism and authenticity of the original Star Wars film.[5][6][7] To that end, the droid BB-8 was a physical prop developed by Disney Research,[8] created by special effects artist Neal Scanlan and operated live on set with the actors.[9][10][11] Seven BB-8 puppets were constructed for filming.[12] The most prominent was a rod puppet, controlled by puppeteers Dave Chapman and Brian Herring. In addition, there were several radio controlled units and some static prop versions. A fully functioning, self-contained robotic unit was not practical for shooting, so most of the "walking" scenes were achieved by the puppet, with rods removed in post production. Later a self standing remote controlled unit was constructed and used at promotional events.[1]

BB-8 is a spherical robot with a free-moving domed head. It is white, with orange and silver accents and a black optical lens on its headpiece. BB-8 also possesses multiple panels containing various tools or ports. Scanlan said of the robot's personality, "We always imagined BB-8 as being quite manipulative. I think he knows heâ€™s cute. He knows that he can win people over. And he uses that, like children do, to get his own way. In this film, he has a very important mission that he has to accomplish and so he uses his personality, his coyness, and all of those things."[3] Of BB-8's gender he said, "I'm still not sure, dare I say, whether BB-8 is male or female... BB-8 was female in our eyes. And then he or she became male. And that's all part of the evolution, not only visually, but in the way they move, how they hold themselves."[3]

Calling the robot a "Swiss Army Knife that shouldnâ€™t be trusted", he noted that while each of the BB-8's panels has a specific purpose, like a port or tool, not all of them have been absolutely defined to leave options for future films.[3]

The voice of BB-8 was supplied by comedians Bill Hader and Ben Schwartz, both credited as "BB-8 vocal consultants" in the film. The voice was created by Abrams manipulating their voices through a talkbox attached to an iPad running a sound effects app.[13]

BB-8 was first seen in the 88-second The Force Awakens teaser trailer released by Lucasfilm on November 28, 2014.[14] Its name was revealed by Entertainment Weekly in a Lucasfilm-designed Topps-style trading card mockup in December 2014.[15][16]

In the film, the robot is the astromech droid of the Resistance X-wing fighter pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac).[17] Poe entrusts it with a map that must be delivered to the Resistance headquarters in order to determine the whereabouts of Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. While Poe is captured and interrogated by the sinister First Order commander Kylo Ren, BB-8 flees across the desert of the planet Jakku and finds sanctuary with the plucky scavenger Rey. Eventually Rey, the renegade stormtrooper Finn, Han Solo, and Chewbacca bring BB-8 to Resistance leader Leia Organa, and ultimately reunite him with Poe.

In The Last Jedi, BB-8 fixes Poe's X-wing weapons system by smashing his head into it. In Canto Bight, a drunken gambler repeatedly inserts coins into a slot in BB-8, thinking he is a slot machine. The droid later subdues several guards, allowing Finn and Rose to escape imprisonment. BB-8 then uses the coins to subdue a fourth guard. Later, he operates an AT-ST in order to rescue Finn and Rose after they are captured by the First Order.

BB-8 is a point of view character in the 2015 novelization of The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster.[18] The droid also appears in the comic book series Star Wars: Poe Dameron, published by Marvel Comics in April 2016.[19]

The official September 4, 2015 launch of all merchandise for The Force Awakens[20][21][22] included an 11.4 centimeter tall mobile app-enabled BB-8 robot toy developed by Sphero.[8] Sphero had participated in a Disney-run startup accelerator program in July 2014, during which Disney CEO Bob Iger showed Sphero executives on-set photos and imagery of BB-8 before anyone outside of the production team knew of the robot's existence. Sphero acquired the license in November 2014, completing the development and production of the toy in time for its September 2015 release.[23][24][25][26][27][28] Wired called the BB-8 toy "the only truly cutting-edge item" in the Force Awakens collection.[23] In 2015, Sphero sold over 1 million of the robots.[29]

Other BB-8 merchandising includes household items,[30] luggage and bags,[31][32] a life-size plush,[33] a Lego Star Wars playset called Poe's X-wing Fighter,[34][35] Hasbro's Star Wars: The Force Awakens Takodana Encounter set,[36][37] and other action figures and other toys.[32][38][39] The Lego versions of Poe and BB-8 have also appeared in the 2016 short form animated series Lego Star Wars: The Resistance Rises,[40][41][42][43] and the short Poe Dameron vs the First Order Snowspeeder.[44]

Anthony Breznican of Entertainment Weekly wrote of BB-8 in November 2015, "He bowled us over immediately. From the moment Star Wars fans laid eyes on the droid with the roly-poly body and the babyface, it was love."[3] The droid has been called a breakout character of the film,[33] and of 2015.[45] Time's Alex Fitzpatrick wrote in September 2015, "As a movie character, BB-8 feels destined to become a fan favorite. Some Star Wars fans have already tattooed likenesses of the droid on various parts of their body, and the movie isnâ€™t even out until December."[25] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times noted that "the hype for The Force Awakens has been so insane and the marketing so intense, we knew about BB-8 as a pricey and cool toy well before BB-8 ever made his big-screen debut.[46] According to Tor.com:

We haven't even seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens but we (as in: humanity) don't need to in order to know that BB-8 is the break-out star. This soccer ball that thinks it is a robot is a masterpiece of evocative design that instantly evokes a galaxy far, far away. You see BB-8, even if only in silhouette, and you immediately think Star Wars. Rey and Finn and Poeâ€™s little pal is a hint of the continuing universe that will unfold with The Force Awakens, and a promise to fans that the filmmakers of the new films have a deep understanding of what makes Star Wars fun and mythic.[47]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that "no one can steal a scene from BB-8".[48] The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy explained that the droid "serves as a welcome robot reboot from the sidelined (but hardly vanquished) R2-D2",[49] and Emily Asher-Perrin of Tor.com described BB-8 as "the perfect hybrid of R2-D2 and WALL-E".[50] Entertainment Weekly's Chris Nashawaty called BB-8 "that rolling gyroscopic weeble that, if possible, may out-cute R2-D2".[51] Ann Hornaday wrote in The Washington Post that "BB-8, a roly-poly little Wall-E of a creature, rolls, beeps and blinks with such puppy-ish charisma that R2-D2 and C-3PO might want to call their agents to make sure theyâ€™re in the next installment.[52] Stephanie Zacharek of Time also praised BB-8:

Abrams and his team of designers and technicians introduce a new star... A roly-poly cueball with a surprisingly expressive half-dome for a head—and a vocabulary of squeaks and squiggles that are more eloquent than mere words—BB-8 is both modernist and old-fashioned at once, a marvelous creation that could have sprung from the imagination of Jules Verne.[53]

BB-8 appeared with several other Force Awakens characters on the December 2015 cover of Rolling Stone,[54][55] and alone on the cover of the December 18, 2015 issue of The Hollywood Reporter.[56] The droid was also featured alone on one of two alternate covers of the December 14, 2015 issue of Time (the other cover featuring R2-D2).[57][58][59] This was the first time the magazine has offered two covers for editions worldwide.[57] The Time cover photographer, Marco Grob, said, "The moment you meet BB-8, you almost build some form of weird human connection. It has this really cute way of looking at you."[57]

The Force Awakens received seven Visual Effects Society Award nominations, including one for Outstanding Models in a Photoreal or Animated Project for BB-8.[60][61]


who does the voice of king candy in wreck it ralph

In Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, he voiced Simone (a reckless French accent speaking Chipmunk, the result after Simon was bitten by a spider). In 2012, Tudyk appeared in Timur Bekmambetov's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, in the role of Stephen A. Douglas.[7] Tudyk also voiced King Candy in Walt Disney Animation Studios' 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph, a performance for which he won the Annie Award for Voice Acting. He played Ben Chapman in the 2013 movie 42 about Jackie Robinson.

Alan Tudyk

Alan Wray Tudyk (/ˈtuːdɪk/ TYOO-dik; born March 16, 1971) is an American actor and voice actor[1] known for his roles as Hoban "Wash" Washburne in the space western television series Firefly and movie Serenity, Alpha in the science fiction TV series Dollhouse, Tucker McGee in Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, Steve the Pirate in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, and Wat in A Knight's Tale. He also co-starred on the ABC sitcom Suburgatory. Tudyk had a supporting role in the film 42 as baseball manager Ben Chapman and voiced roles in every Walt Disney Animation Studios film to date starting with Wreck-It Ralph. He has also featured in the web series Con Man and the films Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Tudyk was born on March 16, 1971, in El Paso, Texas, the son of Betty Loyce (nÃ©e Wiley) and Timothy Nicholas Tudyk. He was raised in Plano, Texas, a suburb of Dallas,[2] where he attended Plano Senior High School. He had a brief experience as a stand-up comic, before quitting after an angry audience member threatened to kill him.[3] Tudyk studied drama at the Methodist-affiliated Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas, where he won the Academic Excellence award for drama. While in college, he played Beaver Smith in an eastern New Mexico summer stock theater production of Billy the Kid. Tudyk entered Juilliard but left in 1996 before earning a degree.

In 2000, Tudyk played Gerhardt, a gay German drug addict, alongside Sandra Bullock and Viggo Mortensen in 28 Days. He played Wat in 2001's A Knight's Tale, Steve the Pirate in the 2004 comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story and the emotional robot Sonny in I, Robot. In 2005, he reprised his role as the playful, easy-going Hoban "Wash" Washburne in the film Serenity, derived from the cult television series Firefly by Joss Whedon.[4]

In 2007, Tudyk had a supporting role as a strong-willed doctor in the western film 3:10 to Yuma alongside Christian Bale and Russell Crowe along with a brief but memorable role in the film Knocked Up and a highly physical comedic performance in the British film Death at a Funeral. Tudyk starred as Tucker in the indie horror comedy Tucker & Dale vs Evil.[5] He also appears in Transformers: Dark of the Moon as Dutch.[6]

Tudyk voiced the Duke of Weselton in Disney's 2013 film Frozen. In 2014, he voiced Alistair Krei in Disney's Big Hero 6, and in 2016 he voiced Duke Weaselton and Hei Hei in Disney's Zootopia and Moana, respectively. That same year, he played the droid K-2SO in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

In 1999, Tudyk made his Broadway debut in Epic Proportions. He was also in Wonder of the World, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Misalliance, Oedipus and Bunny Bunny.[8] In 2005, Tudyk filled in for Hank Azaria's roles in Spamalot from June to December and starred in a limited run of Prelude to a Kiss.

One of Tudyk's better-known roles is the playful, easy-going Hoban "Wash" Washburne in the television series Firefly by Joss Whedon.[4] Although the series ran for only one season, Universal Studios purchased the rights to the show and turned it into a film, Serenity, in which he reprised the role. He did a few voices from Make Way for Noddy.[9] In 2014, Tudyk took over the role of lead anchor on the live action [adult swim] comedy, Newsreaders. Tudyk appeared as the cult leader, Father, in a two-part episode of Strangers With Candy entitled "Blank Stare." Among several guest spots on popular shows such as Arrested Development, he played a convicted pedophile on a popular episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Tudyk was cast as a special guest star in Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.[2] The show featured people whose personalities had been erased, with Tudyk portraying Alpha, a former "active" who accidentally downloaded 48 separate personalities. Alpha served as the main antagonist of the series' first season, with guest appearances in the show's second season. Tudyk also guest-starred in three episodes of ABC's modern remake of the television miniseries V. Tudyk provided the voice of superhero Green Arrow and villain Psimon in the animated series Young Justice.[10] He also co-starred in the ABC comedy series Suburgatory as Noah Werner, a dentist from the city, who moves to the suburbs.[11] Tudyk voiced Debbie the prostitute in season 3 of The Life and Times of Tim. He also provided the voices of Ludo Avarius and King River Butterfly in the Disney animated series, Star vs the Forces of Evil.

In 2015, he released his own web series Con Man based loosely upon his experiences touring the convention circuit after the cancellation of Firefly.[12] In 2017 he was a main cast member on the DC Comics-based show, Powerless.

Tudyk voices a Marine in the Xbox 360 game Halo 3. He is joined by his Firefly co-stars Adam Baldwin and Nathan Fillion who both voice Marines. All three actors are given personalities in the game resembling those of their characters from Firefly. Tudyk made an appearance in Halo 3: ODST as the character "Mickey", an elite ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) who is part of the player character's squad as they try to escape a city invaded by the Covenant. He voiced the DC Comics character Green Arrow in the 2013 video game Injustice: Gods Among Us. He reprised the role in Injustice 2.

Tudyk was engaged to choreographer Charissa Barton in December 2015.[13] They married on September 24, 2016.[14]