-- Small dataset. Used for debugging / unit testing

if not is_stop_word_or_number then
  dofile 'words/stop_words.lua'
end

ent_lines_4EX = {}  

ent_lines_4EX['Japan national football team'] = '993546	Japan national football team	Japan national football team  Japan is one of the most successful football teams in Asia having qualified for the last five consecutive FIFA World Cups with second round advancements in 2002 2010 and having won the AFC Asian Cup a record four times in 1992 2000 2004 2011 To this they add a 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup second place The Japanese team is commonly known by the fans and media as or as abbreviated expressions Although the team does not have an official nickname as such it is often known by the name of the manager For example under Takeshi Okada the team was known as Recently the team has been known or nicknamed as the Samurai Blue while news media still refer it to by manager s last name as or in short History Japan s first major achievement in international football came in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City where the team won the bronze medal Although this result earned the sport increased recognition in Japan the absence of a professional domestic league hindered its growth and Japan would not qualify for the FIFA World Cup until 30 years later In 1991 the owners of the semi-professional Japan Soccer League agreed to disband the league and re-form as the professional J League partly to raise the sport s profile and to strengthen the national team program With the launch of the new league in 1993 interest in football and the national team grew However in its first attempt to qualify with professional players Japan narrowly missed a ticket to the 1994 FIFA World Cup after failing to beat Iraq in the final match of the qualification round remembered by fans as the Agony of Doha The nation s first ever FIFA World Cup appearance was in 1998 where they lost all three matches Japan s first two fixtures went 1–0 in favor of Argentina and Croatia despite playing well in both games Their campaign ended with an unexpected 2–1 defeat to rank outsiders Jamaica Four years later Japan co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup with South Korea Despite being held to a 2–2 draw by Belgium in their opening game the Japanese team advanced to the second round with a 1–0 win over Russia and a 2–0 victory against Tunisia However they subsequently exited the tournament during the Round of 16 after losing 1–0 to eventual third-place finishers Turkey On June 8 2005 Japan qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany its third consecutive World Cup by beating North Korea 2–0 on neutral ground However Japan failed to advance to the Round of 16 after finishing the group without a win losing to Australia 1–3 drawing Croatia 0–0 and losing to Brazil 1–4 Japan has had considerably more success in the Asian Cup taking home the winner s trophy in four of the last six finals in 1992 2000 2004 and 2011 Their principal continental rivals are South Korea followed by Saudi Arabia and most recently Australia Japan is the only team from outside the Americas to participate in the Copa América having been invited in 1999 and 2011 During the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification in the fourth round of the Asian Qualifiers Japan became the first team other than the host South Africa to qualify after defeating Uzbekistan 1–0 away Japan was put in Group E along with the Netherlands Denmark and Cameroon Japan won its opening game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup defeating Cameroon 1–0 but subsequently lost to the Netherlands 0–1 before defeating Denmark 3–1 to advance to the next round against Paraguay In the first knockout round Japan were eliminated from the competition following penalties after a 0–0 draw against Paraguay After the World Cup head coach Takeshi Okada resigned He was replaced by former Juventus and AC Milan coach Alberto Zaccheroni In his first few matches Japan recorded victories over Guatemala 2–1 and Paraguay 1–0 as well as one of their best ever results – a 1–0 victory over Argentina At the start of 2011 Japan participated in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar On 29 January they beat Australia 1–0 in the final after extra time their fourth Asian Cup triumph and allowing them to qualify for FIFA Confederations Cup Japan then started their road to World Cup 2014 Brazil with numerous qualifiers Throughout they suffered only two losses to Uzbekistan and Jordan and drawing against Australia Afterwards on October 12 Japan picked up a historic 1–0 victory over France a team they had never before defeated After a 1–1 draw with Australia they qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup becoming the first nation outside of Brazil who is hosting the tournament to qualify Japan started their 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup with a 3–0 loss to Brazil They were then eliminated from the competition after losing to Italy 3–4 but received praise for their style of play in the match They lost their final game 1-2 against Mexico and finished 4th place in Group A in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup One month later in the EAFF East Asian Cup they started out with a 3-3 draw to China They then beat Australia 3-2 and beat South Korea 2-1 in the 3rd and final match in the 2013 EAFF East Asian Cup to claim their first title in history Team image Fan Chanting Japanese national team supporters are known for chanting Nippon Ole Nippon is the Japanese term for Japan at home matches Kits and colours Japan s current kit is provided by Adidas the team s official apparel sponsor The home kit consists of a Navy blue jersey with a red line down the center with all support for Japan faintly written on it navy blue shorts with bright blue patches on the side and navy blue socks with a red line down the center The away kit consists of a white jersey white shorts and white socks all with In 2011 Japan switched temporarily the color of the numbers from white to gold Prior to Adidas the team s official apparel sponsor were the Japanese brand Asics and Puma The national team kit design has gone through several alterations in the past In the early 80s the kit was white with blue trim When Japan was coached by Kenzo Yokoyama 1988–1991 the kits were red and white matching the colors of Japan s national flag The kits worn for the 1992 AFC Asian Cup consisted of white stripes stilized to form a wing with red diamonds During Japan s first World Cup appearance in 1998 the national team kits were blue jerseys with red and white flame designs on the sleeves and designed by JFA with the sponsor alternating each year between Asics Puma and Adidas Japan uses blue and white rather than red and white due to a superstition In its first major international competition the 1936 Summer Olympics Japan used a blue kit in the match against Sweden and Japan won the match by a score of 3–2 Also the Japanese Football Association logo has some yellow it represents the fair play honesty in Japanese tradition all surrounding by blue on the jersey that means youth in Japanese tradition that also explains the colours of the uniform which could be translated as the fair play purpose supported on the power of youth Sponsorship Japan has one of the highest sponsorship incomes for a national squad In 2006 their sponsorship income amounted to over 16 5 million pounds Primary sponsors include Adidas Kirin Saison Card International FamilyMart JAL Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Sony Asahi Shinbun Konami Mizuho Financial and Audi Mascot The mascots are Karappe and Karara two Yatagarasu wearing the Japan national football team uniform The mascots were designed by Japanese manga artist Susumu Matsushita Each year when a new kit is launched the mascots change uniforms Players Current squad Squad selected for the friendlies matches vs Netherlands on 16 November and Belgium on 19 November 2013 Recent call-ups The following players have also been called up to the Japan squad within the last 12 months Competitions Olympic Games Since 1992 the Olympic team has been drawn from a squad with a maximum of three players over 23 years of age and the achievements of this team are not generally regarded as part of the national team s records nor are the statistics credited to the players international records Copa América Japan is the only team from outside the Americas to participate in the Copa América having been invited in both 1999 and 2011 However Japan declined their invitation on May 16 2011 after events related with the Tōhoku earthquake and difficulty to release some Japanese players from European teams to play as a replacement On May 17 2011 CONMEBOL invited Costa Rica to replace Japan in the competition the Costa Rican Football Federation accepted their invitation later that day'

ent_lines_4EX['Leicestershire'] = '61153	Leicestershire	Leicestershire  Leicestershire or abbreviation Leics is a landlocked county in the English Midlands It takes its name from the City of Leicester traditionally its administrative centre although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north Lincolnshire to the north-east Rutland to the east Northamptonshire to the south-east Warwickshire to the south-west Staffordshire to the west and Derbyshire to the north-west The border with Warwickshire is Watling Street the A5 The county has a population of just under 1 million with over half the population living in Leicester s built-up area History Leicestershire was recorded in the Domesday Book in four wapentakes Guthlaxton Framland Goscote and Gartree These later became hundreds with the division of Goscote into West Goscote and East Goscote and the addition of Sparkenhoe hundred In 1087 the first recorded use of the name was as Laegrecastrescir Leicestershire s external boundaries have changed little since the Domesday Survey The Measham - Donisthorpe exclave of Derbyshire has been exchanged for the Netherseal area and the urban expansion of Market Harborough has caused Little Bowden previously in Northamptonshire to be annexed In 1974 the Local Government Act 1972 abolished the county borough status of Leicester city and the county status of neighbouring Rutland converting both to administrative districts of Leicestershire These actions were reversed on 1 April 1997 when Rutland and the City of Leicester became unitary authorities Rutland became a distinct Ceremonial County once again although it continues to be policed by Leicestershire Constabulary The symbol of the county council Leicestershire County Cricket Club and Leicester City FC is the fox Leicestershire is considered to be the birthplace of fox hunting as it is known today Hugo Meynell who lived in Quorn is known as the father of fox hunting Melton Mowbray and Market Harborough have associations with fox hunting as has neighbouring Rutland Geography The River Soar rises to the east of Hinckley in the far south of the county and flows northward through Leicester before emptying into the River Trent at the point where Derbyshire Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire meet A large part of the north-west of the county around Coalville forms part of the new National Forest area extending into Derbyshire and Staffordshire The highest point of the county is Bardon Hill at 278 metres 912 ft which is also a Marilyn Demographics The population of Leicestershire excluding the Leicester unitary authority is 609 578 people 2001 census The county covers an area of 2 084 km2 804 sq mi Its largest population centre is the city of Leicester followed by the town of Loughborough Other large towns include Ashby-de-la-Zouch Coalville Hinckley Market Harborough Melton Mowbray Oadby Wigston and Lutterworth Some of the larger of Leicestershire s villages are Birstall population 11 400 in 2004 Broughton Astley Castle Donington Kibworth Beauchamp along with Kibworth Harcourt Great Glen Ibstock Countesthorpe and Kegworth One of the most rapidly expanding villages is Anstey which has recently seen a large number of development schemes The United Kingdom Census 2001 showed a total resident population for Leicester of 279 921 a 0 5 decrease from the 1991 census Approximately 62 000 were aged under 16 199 000 were aged 16–74 and 19 000 aged 75 and over 76 9 of Leicester s population claim they have been born in the UK according to the 2001 UK Census Mid-year estimates for 2006 indicate that the population of the City of Leicester stood at 289 700 making Leicester the most populous city in East Midlands The population density is and for every 100 females there were 92 9 males Of those aged 16–74 in Leicester 38 5 had no academic qualifications significantly higher than 28 9 in all of England 23 0 of Leicester s residents were born outside of the United Kingdom more than double than the English average of 9 2 Economy Engineering Engineering has long been an important part of the economy of Leicestershire John Taylor Bellfounders continues a history of bellfounding in Loughborough since the 14th century In 1881 John Taylors cast the largest bell in Britain Great Paul for St Paul s Cathedral in London Norman Underwood have been making sand cast sheet lead roofing and stained glass since 1825 working on many of England s major cathedrals and historic buildings including Salisbury Cathedral Windsor Castle Westminster Abbey Hampton Court Palace and Chatsworth House Snibston Discovery Park is built on one of three coal mines that operated in Coalville from the 1820s until 1986 Abbey Pumping Station houses four enormous steam powered beam engines built in Leicester in the 1890s in the Vulcan factory owned by Josiah Gimson whose son Ernest Gimson was an influential furniture designer and architect of the English arts and crafts movement Engineering companies today include sports car maker Noble Automotive Ltd in Barwell Triumph Motorcycles in Hinckley Jones Shipman machine tools Metalfacture Ltd sheet metal work Richards Engineering foundry equipment Transmon Engineering materials handling equipment Trelleborg Industrial AVS in Beaumont Leys industrial suspension components Parker Plant quarrying equipment Aggregate Industries UK construction materials Infotec in Ashby-de-la-Zouch electronic information display boards Alstec in Whetstone Leicestershire airport baggage handling systems and Brush Traction railway locomotives in Loughborough Local commitment to nurturing the upcoming cadre of British engineers includes apprenticeship schemes with local companies and academic-industrial connections with the engineering departments at Leicester University De Montfort University and Loughborough University The Systems Engineering Innovation Centre and Centre for Excellence for low carbon and fuel cell technologies are both based at Loughborough University Private sector research and development organisations include PERA - the technology based consultancy in Melton Mowbray and MIRA - the automotive research and development centre based on the outskirts of Hinckley Automotive and aerospace engineers use the test facilities at Mallory Park and Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome and proving ground On 18 October 2007 the last airworthy Avro Vulcan was flown from Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome after 10 years of restoration there by aerospace engineers of the Vulcan Operating Company Trade associations There are several trade associations with their head offices based in Leicestershire including the Ergonomics Society the European Construction Institute the Institute of Diagnostic Engineers the Pre-cast Flooring Federation the Concrete Pipe Association the Timber Packaging Pallet Confederation and the National Association of Wood Shaving Sawdust Merchants Contractors Farming Leicestershire has a long history of livestock farming which continues today Robert Bakewell farmer 1725–1795 of Dishley near Loughborough was a revolutionary in the field of selective breeding Bakewell s Leicester Longwool sheep was much prized by farmers across the British Empire and is today a heritage breed admired all over the world Commercial and rare breeds associated with the descendants of Bakewell s sheep include the English Leicester Border Leicester Bluefaced Leicester Scotch mule and Welsh halfbred In 2006 in Leicestershire and Rutland there were 6 450 people working as farmers managers and farm labourers on 2 719 farms with of farmed land The animal population was 122 284 cattle 57 059 pigs and 314 214 sheep Source DEFRA The Leicestershire County Show is held on the first Bank Holiday in May each year and includes animal showings trade exhibitions and show jumping Melton Mowbray Market is an important regional livestock market Field Sports remain an important part of the rural economy of Leicestershire with stables kennels and gunsmiths based in the county Thatched roofs are built and maintained by members of Rutland Leicestershire Master Thatchers Association Food and drink Stilton Red Leicester cheese and the pork pie are three of Leicestershire s most famous contributions to English cuisine Leicestershire food producers include Claybrooke mill one of the very few commercially working watermills left in Britain producing a range of over 40 flours meat from rare and minority breeds from Brockleby s Christmas turkey and goose from Seldom Seen Farm Two dairies produce Red Leicester cheese in the county Long Clawson and the Leicestershire Handmade Cheese Company All natural non-alcoholic fruit cordials and presse drinks are made by Belvoir Fruit Farms and sold in supermarkets across Britain Swithland Spring Water is sourced from the Charnwood hills Breweries in Leicestershire and Rutland are listed on the Leicester CAMRA website The county s largest beer brewer is Everards and there are several microbreweries such as Belvoir Brewery in Old Dalby Parish Brewery in Burrough on the Hill Wicked Hathern Brewery in Loughborough the Gas Dog Brewery at Somerby near Melton Ellis Wood brewery in Hinckley and the Pig Pub Brewery in Claybrooke Magna near Lutterworth Vineyards in Leicestershire include Chevelswarde Vineyard Lutterworth Welland Valley Vineyard Market Harborough and Eglantine Loughborough Melton Mowbray Sloe Gin is a liqueur with a distinctive flavour Various markets are held across the county Leicester Market is the largest outdoor covered marketplace in Europe and among the products on sale are fruit and vegetables sold by enthusiastic market stallholders who shout out their prices and fresh fish and meat in the Indoor Market The annual East Midlands Food Drink Festival held in Melton Mowbray had over 200 exhibitors and 20 000 visitors attending in 2007 making it the largest British regional food festival Food processing in the city and county includes popular British fish and chip shop pie Pukka Pies who are based in Syston Walkers Midshire Foods part of the Samworth Brothers group makes sausages and pies in its Beaumont Leys factories Samworth Brothers has operations in Leicestershire and Cornwall Ginsters making a range of products from sandwiches to desserts for UK retailers under their brands as well the company s own portfolio of brands including Dickinson Morris producers of pork pies and Melton Hunt Cake Walkers crisps are made in Beaumont Leys using Lincolnshire potatoes United Biscuits have their distribution centre in Ashby-de-la-Zouch as well as a snacks factory producing brands such as Hula Hoops Skips snack Nik Naks and Space Raiders and they also have a biscuit factory in Wigston The Masterfoods UK factory at Melton Mowbray produces petfood for brands such as Cesar Kitekat PAL Pedigree Sheba Whiskas Aquarian and Trill Hand made chocolates are produced by Chocolate Perfection in Ashby-de-la-Zouch Some 15 major Indian food manufacturers are based in Leicester including Sara Foods Mayur Foods Cofresh Snack Foods Ltd Farsan Apni Roti and Spice n Tice The Mithai Indian sweet market is catered for by award winning Indian restaurants – for instance the vegetable samosas approved by the Vegetarian Society sold at The Sharmilee on Belgrave Road The growing market for Indian food has afforded new opportunities to long standing local companies for example the Long Clawson dairy a co-operative manufacturer of Stilton cheese now also makes Paneer cheese used in the Indian dish Mattar Paneer Leicestershire food exported abroad includes cheese from the Long Clawson dairy which is sold in supermarkets in Canada and the United States via a network of distributors coordinated by Taunton based company Somerdale Belvoir Fruit Farms cordials and pressé drinks are sold on the United States east coast in Wegmans Food Markets World Market Harris Teeter Dean DeLuca and in specialized British food stores such as Myers of Keswick New York City and the British Pantry near Washington D C The annual Leicestershire Rutland Restaurant Awards has several categories including Leicestershire Rutland Restaurant of the Year Best Asian Restaurant Best Service Best Newcomer Best Fine Dining Restaurant Best Value for Money Best Drinks Wine List Best Local Produce Menu Best Gastro Pub Best Neighbourhood Restaurant Best Business Lunch and Leicestershire Rutland Young Chef of the Year See also Leicester food drink Clothing Leicester and Leicestershire has had a traditional industry of knitwear hosiery and footwear and the sheep on the county s coat of arms is recognition of this The rich history of the East Midlands knitting knitwear industry is chronicled on the Knitting Together website The local manufacturing industry which began with hand knitting in the Middle Ages and was fully industrialized by the end of the 19th century survived until the end of the 20th century through retailers buying UK sourced products and government measures such as the protection of the Multi Fibre Arrangement which ended in 2004 Cheaper global competition coupled with the 1999 slump in the UK fashion retail sector led to the end of much of the cheaper clothing manufacturing industry Today Leicestershire companies focus on high quality clothing and specialty textiles One such company is Pantherella who make socks at their Hallaton Street factory off Saffron Lane which are sold in high-end department stores around the world including in the UK Harrods Selfridges and John Lewis and in the US in Nordstrom Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus Other local companies manufacture knitwear such as Commando Knitwear of Wigston and others specialize in technical textiles for industrial or medical purposes Clothing and fabric for the British Asian community is made here - for example the shop Saree Mandir sells silk saree s and salwar suits for women whose design patterns closely follow contemporary Indian trends The Knitting Industries Federation continues to be based in Leicestershire On the creative side the design centre for Next clothing is in Enderby and the design centre for George Clothing Asda Walmart is in Lutterworth De Montfort University has in the form of its Fashion and Contour Design course a leading design department for female underwear It also has the only UK University courses in Footwear Design providing future designers for local shoemakers Shoefayre Stead and Simpson and Shoe Zone who all have their headquarters in the county Gola also originates from the county Healthcare University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust employs around 11 000 at its three hospitals in the city and county the Glenfield the General and the Royal Infirmary Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust employs around 5 600 staff providing mental health learning disability and community health services in the city and county These services are commissioned by the three newly established Clinical Commissioning Groups led by local GP s The British Psychological Society and the Institute of Occupational Safety Health IOSH based in Wigston have their head offices in Leicestershire Biomedical industries Pharmaceutical biotechnology and medical instrument manufacturing companies include 3M Bridgehead International in Melton Fisher Scientific in Loughborough and Ashfield Healthcare in Ashby de-la-Zouch Freight and distribution Transportation links are good East Midlands Airport is one mile 1 6 km south of Castle Donington next to the M1 in north-west Leicestershire and is the second largest freight airport in the United Kingdom after London Heathrow DHL Aviation have a large purpose built facility at EMA and courier companies UPS and TNT also use the airport as a base Lufthansa Cargo is also a regular user of East Midlands and the airport is a primary hub for Royal Mail The M1 is Leicestershire s other important transport hub The start of the M6 and part of the A14 briefly intersect with the southern tip of Leicestershire Many large retail companies have huge warehouses at the Magna Park complex near Lutterworth The Widdowson Group make use of J21a of the M1 to provide warehousing transportation freight forwarding garage services and LGV HGV training Pall-Ex of Ellistown provide automated palletised freight distribution services from their location off Junction 22 of the M1 The Midland Main Line provides important connections to Yorkshire and London and the Birmingham–Stansted Line is essentially Leicestershire s east–west connection from Hinckley to Melton Other Ibstock based developer Wilson Bowden was bought in 2007 by Barratt Developments plc in a GBP2 2 billion deal Charles Street Buildings Leicester and Jelson Homes are two other successful Leicester based property companies Syston based Dunelm Mill is a growing home furnishings retailer The company started in 1979 as a family business selling curtains from a Leicester market stall whose first store opened in Churchgate Leicester in 1984 In 2006 Dunelm opened its 80th store and the company floated on the stock market placing the company s founders the Adderley family among Britain s most successful entrepreneurs Hamilton based LPC Group manufactures more than 600 million toilet rolls and kitchen towel rolls per year in its Leicestershire factories Toy car company Corgi have their European operation at the Meridian Business Park although the toys are now manufactured in China and the company is owned by Margate based Hornby Hairdresser Barrie Hedley operates three Barrie Stephen salons in the city and county and has been a finalist in the British hairdressing awards 2004 2005 and 2006 In 2007 Hedley won the Entrepreneur of the year at the Leicestershire Business Awards Lumbers of Market Street Leicester was a finalist in the Independent Retailer category of the UK Jewellery Awards 2007 Ulverscroft Large Print Books of Anstey Leicestershire are a leading publisher of books for the visually impaired Leicestershire is twinned with Kilkenny Ireland Leicester s Cultural Quarter is an ambitious plan to drive the regeneration of a large run-down area of the City It has delivered A new venue for the performing arts Curve Creative workspaces for artists designers LCB Depot and a Digital Media Centre A huge number of Creative and Media businesses have thrived in the region such as the digital agency Cite http www cite co uk In addition the area now has much-improved streets pavements and open spaces with integrated artworks As part of a 2002 marketing campaign the plant conservation charity Plantlife chose the Foxglove as the county flower Financial and business services Financial and business service companies with operations in Leicestershire include Alliance Leicester Royal Bank of Scotland State Bank of India HSBC and PricewaterhouseCoopers Pension provision company Mattioli Woods employs 170 people at its Grove Park Enderby HQ and has a reputation for employing graduates directly from Leicestershire Universities Companies that have their head office in the area include Next clothing and British Gas Business The Institute of Credit Management the European Association of Trade Mark Owners and the Point of Purchase Advertising International POPAI are based in Leicestershire Key stakeholders promoting economic development formed Leicester Leicestershire Economic Partnership in 2011 Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce is another good source for business advice Business awards The Leicestershire Business Awards has categories including Investing in Leicestershire Contribution to the Community and Entrepreneur of the Year Recent Leicestershire winners of the Queen s Award for Enterprise are listed on the Lord Lieutenant s website Statistics This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire and Rutland it does not include the City of Leicester at current basic prices published pp  240–253 by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling Local government County Hall situated in Glenfield about 3 miles 5 km north-west of Leicester city centre is the seat of Leicestershire County Council and the headquarters of the county authority The City of Leicester is administered from offices in Leicester itself and the City Council meets at Leicester Town Hall Below the County Council seven district councils for a second tier of local government Education Publicly funded secondary schools in Leicestershire are comprehensive The schools are segregated by age in some areas to ages 10–14 middle schools and 14–16 upper schools or 14–18 upper schools which also provide sixth form education The schools compared with other LEAs have large numbers on the roll with school enrollment often 2000 and more For Melton and Blaby districts although there is division by middle and upper schools there is only one upper school in either district giving no choice of school However it should be noted that many students of Lutterworth College in Harborough District actually hail from Blaby district Charnwood has the largest school population – four times the size of the Melton district In 2007 the best-performing state school at GCSE was Beauchamp College in Oadby No comprehensives in Leicestershire LEA were rated as poor performers unlike in some neighbouring counties In 2007 7 800 pupils took GCSE exams For A-levels the best comprehensive school in the county was the De Lisle Catholic Science College in Loughborough The best schools overall at A-level were the two private single-sex schools in Loughborough Loughborough Grammar School and Loughborough High School GCSE results by district council of pupils gaining 5 grades A-C in 2007 including English and Maths 46 8 was the England average compared to Leicestershire s 48 9 Private schools Private schools in Leicestershire include Leicester Grammar School mixed Leicester High School for Girls girls Loughborough Grammar School boys Loughborough High School girls Fairfield Preparatory School primary school – mixed Welbeck College military 6th form college – mixed Ratcliffe College Roman Catholic – mixed Grace Dieu Manor School Roman Catholic – mixed Stoneygate school primary school – mixed and Stoneygate College mixed Our Lady s Convent School OLCS Roman Catholic - girls Further education Leicester College offers among others courses in catering cookery hospitality and leisure plumbing electrician carpentry and joinery building trades and gas motor vehicle maintenance computing business design and media and print Stephenson College Coalville offers among others courses in construction building trades and gas motor vehicle maintenance and repair beauty computing business sport and coaching care and complementary therapy Farming sector training Brooksby Melton College provides apprenticeships and further education training courses in animal care countryside equine fisheries and land based service engineering at their Brooksby campus Music education Soar Valley Music Centre offers further education courses in music performance and production Higher education Leicestershire has three universities the University of Leicester Loughborough University and De Montfort University Educational associations Several educational associations have their head offices in Leicestershire including the Mathematical Association the Association of School and College Leaders the Association for College Management the Girls Schools Association the National Adult School Association the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education and the Headmasters Headmistresses Conference Sporting associations A number of UK sporting bodies have their head offices in Leicestershire including the Institute of Sports Recreation Management the Institute of Swimming Teachers Coaches the English Volleyball Association the Great Britain Wheelchair Basketball Association the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association the British Judo Association the British Parachute Association the British Triathlon Federation the Amateur Swimming Association the British Gliding Association the British Motorcycle Federation the English Indoor Bowls Association the Youth Sports Trust and the British Isles Bowls Council Music The full range of music is performed in the county from early medieval European and Asian classical music folk jazz blues rock and pop The major Download Festival a hard rock and metal festival is hosted at Donington Park Symphony orchestras The Philharmonia Orchestra Leicester Symphony Orchestra and the internationally famous Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra are three of the larger orchestras in the county Amateur orchestras Leicestershire Sinfonia the Loughborough Orchestra the Charnwood orchestra the Coalville Light Orchestra and the Soar Valley Music Centre Orchestra Choirs and choral societies Leicester based choirs include the Leicester Bach Choir Broom Leys Choral Society Whitwick Cantamici the Cecilian Singers Charnwood Choral Society Coalville and District Male Voice Choir Coro Nostro Chamber Choir Humberstone Choral Society Kainé Gospel Choir Kingfisher Chorale Leicester Church Music Consort Leicester City Male Voice Choir Leicester Philharmonic Choir Leicestershire Chorale Loughborough Male Voice Choir Meridian Singers Newtown Linford mixed voice choir Red Leicester choir the Scarlet choir Shepshed Singers Synergy Community Choir Wigston and district male voice choir Unity Community Choir and the Peepul Choir Early music The Longsdale Consort perform music of the renaissance and baroque periods Leicester Recorder Society Music shops Stores selling sheet music and musical instruments in Leicestershire include Sona Rupa Indian Sheehans Music Instruments Intasound Music Ltd ABC Music Market Harborough and MH Music'

ent_lines_4EX['Leicestershire County Cricket Club'] = '1622318	Leicestershire County Cricket Club	Leicestershire County Cricket Club  Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure representing the historic county of Leicestershire It has also been representative of the county of Rutland Its limited overs team is called the Leicestershire Foxes Their kit colours are red with black trim in the Clydesdale Bank 40 and black with red trim in the t20 The shirt sponsors are Oval Insurance Broking with Highcross Leicester shopping centre on the top reverse side of the shirt The club is based at Grace Road Leicester and have also played home games at Aylestone Road in Leicester at Hinckley Loughborough Melton Mowbray Ashby-de-la-Zouch and in Coalville inside the traditional county boundaries and at Uppingham and Oakham over the border in Rutland Leicestershire are in the second divisions of the County Championship and in Group C of the Pro40 one day league They recently finished bottom of the County Championship for the first time since the introduction of two divisions Their best showing in recent years has been in the Twenty20 Cup with the Foxes winning the trophy three times in eight years Honours Second XI honours 1 Bain Hogg Trophy – 2nd 11 one day competition – 1996 History Earliest cricket Cricket may not have reached the county until well into the 18th century A notice in the Leicester Journal dated 17 August 1776 is the earliest known mention of cricket in Leicestershire But it was only a few years after that before a Leicestershire and Rutland Cricket Club was taking part in important matches mainly against Nottingham Cricket Club and Marylebone Cricket Club MCC This club was prominent from 1781 until the beginning of the 19th century 19th century Little more is heard of Leicestershire cricket until the formation of the present club on 25 March 1879 Essex CCC versus Leicestershire CCC at Leyton on 14 15 16 May 1894 was the initial first-class match played by either club In 1895 the County Championship was restructured into a 14-team competition with the introduction of Essex Leicestershire and Warwickshire CCC Early and mid 20th century Leicestershire s first 70 years were largely spent in lower table mediocrity with few notable exceptions In 1953 the motivation of secretary-captain Charles Palmer lifted the side fleetingly to third place but most of the rest of the 1950s was spent propping up the table or thereabouts Start of improvement The late 1950s and the 1960s Change came in the late 1950s with the recruitment of the charismatic Willie Watson at the end of a distinguished career with England and Yorkshire Watson s run gathering sparked the home-grown Maurice Hallam into becoming one of England s best opening batsmen In bowling Leicestershire had an erratically successful group of seamers in Terry Spencer Brian Boshier John Cotton and Jack van Geloven plus the spin of John Savage Another change was in the captaincy Tony Lock the former England and Surrey spinner who had galvanised Western Australia The 1970s and the first golden era Ray Illingworth again from Yorkshire instilled self-belief to the extent that the county took its first ever trophy in 1972 the Benson Hedges Cup with Chris Balderstone man of the match This was start of the first golden era as the first of five trophies in five years and included Leicestershire s first ever County Championship title in 1975 A couple of runners up spots were also thrown in The game when Leicestershire won their first ever County Championship on 15 September 1975 marked something of a personal triumph for Chris Balderstone Batting on 51 not out against Derbyshire at Chesterfield after close of play he changed into his football kit to play for Doncaster Rovers in an evening match 30 miles away a 1–1 draw with Brentford Thus he is the only player to have played League Football and first class cricket on the same day He then returned to Chesterfield to complete a century the following morning and take three wickets to wrap up the title To add to that season s success for Leicestershire was a second Benson Hedges victory The 1980s A runners up spot in the 1982 County Championship brought some respectability but the decade s only first class silverware was in the 1985 Benson Hedges Cup with Balderstone still on board making him the most successful trophy winner in the club s history with six Success in the late 1990s Leicestershire won the county championship in 1996 and again in 1998 This was an amazing achievement considering the resources of the club compared to other county teams This Leicestershire side led by Jack Birkenshaw and James Whitaker used team spirit and togetherness to get the best out of a group of players who were either discarded from other counties or brought through the Leicestershire ranks This team did not have many stars but Aftab Habib Darren Maddy Vince Wells Jimmy Ormond Alan Mullally and Chris Lewis all had chances for England West Indian all-rounder Phil Simmons was also named as one of Wisden s Cricketers of the year in 1997 while playing for the club International players England Australia Bangladesh India New Zealand Pakistan South Africa West Indies Records Most first-class runs for Leicestershire br Qualification – 17000 runs Most first-class wickets for Leicestershire br Qualification – 600 wickets Most first team winners medal for Leicestershire Batting Best partnership for each wicket county championship Sub Academy The Leicestershire Sub Academy is designed for young cricketers who have potential to play at the highest level It is also called the EPP Emerging Player Programme Many players who are involved in this set up move on to the LCCC academy where they will play matches against academies from other counties'

ent_lines_4EX['Barack Obama'] = '534366	Barack Obama	Barack Obama  Barack Hussein Obama II born August 4 1961 is the 44th and current President of the United States the first African American to hold the office Born in Honolulu Hawaii Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School where he was president of the Harvard Law Review He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004 He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004 running unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 2000 In 2004 Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July and his election to the Senate in November He began his presidential campaign in 2007 and in 2008 after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election and was inaugurated as president on January 20 2009 Nine months after his election Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate During his first two years in office Obama signed into law economic stimulus legislation in response to the Great Recession in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 Other major domestic initiatives in his first term include the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act often referred to as Obamacare the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the Don t Ask Don t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 In foreign policy Obama ended U S military involvement in the Iraq War increased U S troop levels in Afghanistan signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia ordered U S military involvement in Libya and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden He later became the first sitting U S president to publicly support same-sex marriage In November 2010 the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives as the Democratic Party lost a total of 63 seats and after a lengthy debate over federal spending and whether or not to raise the nation s debt limit Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 Obama was re-elected president in November 2012 defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney and was sworn in for a second term on January 20 2013 During his second term Obama has promoted domestic policies related to gun control in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting has called for full equality for LGBT Americans and his administration filed briefs which urged the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 and California s Proposition 8 as unconstitutional In foreign policy Obama has continued the process of ending U S combat operations in Afghanistan Early life and career Obama was born on August 4 1961 at Kapiolani Maternity Gynecological Hospital now Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu Hawaii and is the first President to have been born in Hawaii His mother Stanley Ann Dunham was born in Wichita Kansas and was of mostly English ancestry His father Barack Obama Sr was a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo Kenya Obama s parents met in 1960 in a Russian class at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa where his father was a foreign student on scholarship The couple married in Wailuku on Maui on February 2 1961 and separated when Obama s mother moved with their newborn son to Seattle Washington in late August 1961 to attend the University of Washington for one year In the meantime Obama Sr completed his undergraduate economics degree in Hawaii in June 1962 then left to attend graduate school at Harvard University on a scholarship Obama s parents divorced in March 1964 Obama Sr returned to Kenya in 1964 where he remarried he visited Barack in Hawaii only once in 1971 He died in an automobile accident in 1982 when his son was 21 years old In 1963 Dunham met Lolo Soetoro an Indonesian East–West Center graduate student in geography at the University of Hawaii and the couple were married on Molokai on March 15 1965 After two one-year extensions of his J-1 visa Lolo returned to Indonesia in 1966 followed sixteen months later by his wife and stepson in 1967 with the family initially living in a Menteng Dalam neighborhood in the Tebet subdistrict of south Jakarta then from 1970 in a wealthier neighborhood in the Menteng subdistrict of central Jakarta From ages six to ten Obama attended local Indonesian-language schools St Francis of Assisi Catholic School for two years and Besuki Public School for one and a half years supplemented by English-language Calvert School homeschooling by his mother In 1971 Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents Madelyn and Stanley Dunham and with the aid of a scholarship attended Punahou School a private college preparatory school from fifth grade until his graduation from high school in 1979 Obama lived with his mother and sister in Hawaii for three years from 1972 to 1975 while his mother was a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Hawaii Obama chose to stay in Hawaii with his grandparents for high school at Punahou when his mother and sister returned to Indonesia in 1975 to begin anthropology field work His mother spent most of the next two decades in Indonesia divorcing Lolo in 1980 and earning a PhD in 1992 before dying in 1995 in Hawaii following treatment for ovarian cancer and uterine cancer Of his early childhood Obama recalled That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage Reflecting later on his years in Honolulu Obama wrote The opportunity that Hawaii offered—to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect—became an integral part of my world view and a basis for the values that I hold most dear Obama has also written and talked about using alcohol marijuana and cocaine during his teenage years to push questions of who I was out of my mind Obama was also a member of the choom gang a self-named group of friends that spent time together and occasionally smoked marijuana Following high school Obama moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend Occidental College In February 1981 he made his first public speech calling for Occidental to participate in the disinvestment from South Africa in response to its policy of apartheid In mid-1981 Obama traveled to Indonesia to visit his mother and half-sister Maya and visited the families of college friends in Pakistan and India for three weeks Later in 1981 he transferred as a junior to Columbia College Columbia University in New York City where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983 He worked for a year at the Business International Corporation then at the New York Public Interest Research Group Community organizer and Harvard Law School Two years after graduating Obama was hired in Chicago as director of the Developing Communities Project DCP a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Roseland West Pullman and Riverdale on Chicago s South Side He worked there as a community organizer from June 1985 to May 1988 He helped set up a job training program a college preparatory tutoring program and a tenants rights organization in Altgeld Gardens Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation a community organizing institute ref In mid-1988 he traveled for the first time in Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time He returned to Kenya in 1992 with his fiancée Michelle and his half-sister Auma He returned to Kenya in August 2006 for a visit to his father s birthplace a village near Kisumu in rural western Kenya In late 1988 Obama entered Harvard Law School He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year and president of the journal in his second year During his summers he returned to Chicago where he worked as an associate at the law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins Sutter in 1990 After graduating with a J D magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991 he returned to Chicago Obama s election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations which evolved into a personal memoir The manuscript was published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father University of Chicago Law School and civil rights attorney In 1991 Obama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book He then taught at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years—as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996 and as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004—teaching constitutional law From April to October 1992 Obama directed Illinois s Project Vote a voter registration campaign with ten staffers and seven hundred volunteer registrars it achieved its goal of registering 150 000 of 400 000 unregistered African Americans in the state leading Crain s Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of 40 under Forty powers to be In 1993 he joined Davis Miner Barnhill Galland a 13-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996 then of counsel from 1996 to 2004 His law license became inactive in 2007 From 1994 to 2002 Obama served on the boards of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project and of the Joyce Foundation He served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002 as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999 Legislative career 1997–2008 State Senator 1997–2004 Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996 succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from Illinois s 13th District which at that time spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park  – Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn Once elected Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation that reformed ethics and health care laws He sponsored a law that increased tax credits for low-income workers negotiated welfare reform and promoted increased subsidies for childcare In 2001 as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan s payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998 defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah in the general election and was reelected again in 2002 In 2000 he lost a Democratic primary race for Illinois s 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one In January 2003 Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate s Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats after a decade in the minority regained a majority He sponsored and led unanimous bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations During his 2004 general election campaign for U S Senate police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U S Senate U S Senate campaign In May 2002 Obama commissioned a poll to assess his prospects in a 2004 U S Senate race he created a campaign committee began raising funds and lined up political media consultant David Axelrod by August 2002 Obama formally announced his candidacy in January 2003 Obama was an early opponent of the George W Bush administration s 2003 invasion of Iraq On October 2 2002 the day President Bush and Congress agreed on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War Obama addressed the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq War rally and spoke out against the war He addressed another anti-war rally in March 2003 and told the crowd that it s not too late to stop the war Decisions by Republican incumbent Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor Carol Moseley Braun to not participate in the election resulted in wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving fifteen candidates In the March 2004 primary election Obama won in an unexpected landslide—which overnight made him a rising star within the national Democratic Party started speculation about a presidential future and led to the reissue of his memoir Dreams from My Father In July 2004 Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention seen by 9 1 million viewers His speech was well received and elevated his status within the Democratic Party Obama s expected opponent in the general election Republican primary winner Jack Ryan withdrew from the race in June 2004 Six weeks later Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan In the November 2004 general election Obama won with 70 percent of the vote U S Senator 2005–2008 Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 3 2005 becoming the only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus CQ Weekly characterized him as a loyal Democrat based on analysis of all Senate votes in 2005–2007 Obama announced on November 13 2008 that he would resign his Senate seat on November 16 2008 before the start of the lame-duck session to focus on his transition period for the presidency Legislation Obama cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act He introduced two initiatives that bore his name Lugar–Obama which expanded the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction concept to conventional weapons and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 which authorized the establishment of USAspending gov a web search engine on federal spending On June 3 2008 Senator Obama—along with Senators Tom Carper Tom Coburn and John McCain —introduced follow-up legislation Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008 Obama sponsored legislation that would have required nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks but the bill failed to pass in the full Senate after being heavily modified in committee Regarding tort reform Obama voted for the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 which grants immunity from civil liability to telecommunications companies complicit with NSA warrantless wiretapping operations In December 2006 President Bush signed into law the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief Security and Democracy Promotion Act marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor In January 2007 Obama and Senator Feingold introduced a corporate jet provision to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act which was signed into law in September 2007 Obama also introduced Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections and the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007 neither of which was signed into law Later in 2007 Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to add safeguards for personality-disorder military discharges This amendment passed the full Senate in the spring of 2008 He sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran s oil and gas industry which has not passed committee and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children s Health Insurance Program providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries Committees Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations Environment and Public Works and Veterans Affairs through December 2006 In January 2007 he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health Education Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs He also became Chairman of the Senate s subcommittee on European Affairs As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe the Middle East Central Asia and Africa He met with Mahmoud Abbas before Abbas became President of the Palestinian National Authority and gave a speech at the University of Nairobi in which he condemned corruption within the Kenyan government Presidential campaigns 2008 presidential campaign On February 10 2007 Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield Illinois The choice of the announcement site was viewed as symbolic because it was also where Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic House Divided speech in 1858 Obama emphasized issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War increasing energy independence and reforming the health care system in a campaign that projected themes of hope and change A large number of candidates entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries The field narrowed to a duel between Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton after early contests with the race remaining close throughout the primary process but with Obama gaining a steady lead in pledged delegates due to better long-range planning superior fundraising dominant organizing in caucus states and better exploitation of delegate allocation rules On June 7 2008 Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama On August 23 Obama announced his selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate Obama selected Biden from a field speculated to include former Indiana Governor and Senator Evan Bayh and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine At the Democratic National Convention in Denver Colorado Hillary Clinton called for her supporters to endorse Obama and she and Bill Clinton gave convention speeches in his support Obama delivered his acceptance speech not at the center where the Democratic National Convention was held but at Invesco Field at Mile High to a crowd of over 75 000 the speech was viewed by over 38 million people worldwide During both the primary process and the general election Obama s campaign set numerous fundraising records particularly in the quantity of small donations On June 19 2008 Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976 John McCain was nominated as the Republican candidate and the two engaged in three presidential debates in September and October 2008 On November 4 Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to 173 received by McCain Obama won 52 9 of the popular vote to McCain s 45 7 He became the first African American to be elected president Obama delivered his victory speech before hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago s Grant Park 2012 presidential campaign On April 4 2011 Obama announced his re-election campaign for 2012 in a video titled It Begins with Us that he posted on his website and filed election papers with the Federal Election Commission As the incumbent president he ran virtually unopposed in the Democratic Party presidential primaries and on April 3 2012 Obama had secured the 2778 convention delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination At the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte North Carolina former President Bill Clinton formally nominated Obama and Joe Biden as the Democratic Party candidates for president and vice president in the general election in which their main opponents were Republicans Mitt Romney the former governor of Massachusetts and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin On November 6 2012 Obama won 332 electoral votes exceeding the 270 required for him to be re-elected as president With more than 51 of the popular vote Obama became the first Democratic president since Franklin D Roosevelt to twice win the majority of the popular vote President Obama addressed supporters and volunteers at Chicago s McCormick Place after his reelection and said Tonight you voted for action not politics as usual You elected us to focus on your jobs not ours And in the coming weeks and months I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties Presidency First days The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President took place on January 20 2009 In his first few days in office Obama issued executive orders and presidential memoranda directing the U S military to develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq He ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp but Congress prevented the closure by refusing to appropriate the required funds and preventing moving any Guantanamo detainee into the U S or to other countries Obama reduced the secrecy given to presidential records He also revoked President George W Bush s restoration of President Ronald Reagan s Mexico City Policy prohibiting federal aid to international family planning organizations that perform or provide counseling about abortion Domestic policy The first bill signed into law by Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 relaxing the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits Five days later he signed the reauthorization of the State Children s Health Insurance Program SCHIP to cover an additional 4 million uninsured children In March 2009 Obama reversed a Bush-era policy which had limited funding of embryonic stem cell research and pledged to develop strict guidelines on the research Obama appointed two women to serve on the Supreme Court in the first two years of his Presidency Sonia Sotomayor nominated by Obama on May 26 2009 to replace retiring Associate Justice David Souter was confirmed on August 6 2009 becoming the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan nominated by Obama on May 10 2010 to replace retiring Associate Justice John Paul Stevens was confirmed on August 5 2010 bringing the number of women sitting simultaneously on the Court to three for the first time in American history On September 30 2009 the Obama administration proposed new regulations on power plants factories and oil refineries in an attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to curb global warming On October 8 2009 Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act a measure that expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim s actual or perceived gender sexual orientation gender identity or disability On March 30 2010 Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act a reconciliation bill which ends the process of the federal government giving subsidies to private banks to give out federally insured loans increases the Pell Grant scholarship award and makes changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act In a major space policy speech in April 2010 Obama announced a planned change in direction at NASA the U S space agency He ended plans for a return of human spaceflight to the moon and development of the Ares I rocket Ares V rocket and Constellation program in favor of funding Earth science projects a new rocket type and research and development for an eventual manned mission to Mars and ongoing missions to the International Space Station On December 22 2010 Obama signed the Don t Ask Don t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 fulfilling a key promise made in the 2008 presidential campaign to end the Don t ask don t tell policy of 1993 that had prevented gay and lesbian people from serving openly in the United States Armed Forces President Obama s 2011 State of the Union Address focused on themes of education and innovation stressing the importance of innovation economics to make the United States more competitive globally He spoke of a five-year freeze in domestic spending eliminating tax breaks for oil companies and reversing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans banning congressional earmarks and reducing healthcare costs He promised that the United States would have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 and would be 80 reliant on clean electricity As a candidate for the Illinois state senate Obama had said in 1996 that he favored legalizing same-sex marriage but by the time of his run for the U S senate in 2004 he said that while he supported civil unions and domestic partnerships for same-sex partners for strategic reasons he opposed same-sex marriages On May 9 2012 shortly after the official launch of his campaign for re-election as president Obama said his views had evolved and he publicly affirmed his personal support for the legalization of same-sex marriage becoming the first sitting U S president to do so During his second inaugural address on January 21 2013 Obama called for full equality for gay Americans Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well This was a historic moment being the first time that a president mentioned gay rights or the word gay in an inaugural address In 2013 the Obama administration filed briefs which urged the Supreme Court to rule in favor of same-sex couples in the cases of Hollingsworth v Perry regarding same-sex marriage and United States v Windsor regarding the Defense of Marriage Act Economic policy On February 17 2009 Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 a 787 billion economic stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening worldwide recession The act includes increased federal spending for health care infrastructure education various tax breaks and incentives and direct assistance to individuals which is being distributed over the course of several years In March Obama s Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner took further steps to manage the financial crisis including introducing the Public-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets which contains provisions for buying up to two trillion dollars in depreciated real estate assets Obama intervened in the troubled automotive industry in March 2009 renewing loans for General Motors and Chrysler to continue operations while reorganizing Over the following months the White House set terms for both firms bankruptcies including the sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat and a reorganization of GM giving the U S government a temporary 60 equity stake in the company with the Canadian government taking a 12 stake In June 2009 dissatisfied with the pace of economic stimulus Obama called on his cabinet to accelerate the investment He signed into law the Car Allowance Rebate System known colloquially as Cash for Clunkers that temporarily boosted the economy Although spending and loan guarantees from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department authorized by the Bush and Obama administrations totaled about 11 5 trillion only 3 trillion had been spent by the end of November 2009 However Obama and the Congressional Budget Office predicted that the 2010 budget deficit will be 1 5 trillion or 10 6 of the nation s gross domestic product GDP compared to the 2009 deficit of 1 4 trillion or 9 9 of GDP For 2011 the administration predicted the deficit will slightly shrink to 1 34 trillion while the 10-year deficit will increase to 8 53 trillion or 90 of GDP The most recent increase in the U S debt ceiling to 16 4 trillion was signed into law on January 26 2012 On August 2 2011 after a lengthy congressional debate over whether to raise the nation s debt limit Obama signed the bipartisan Budget Control Act of 2011 The legislation enforces limits on discretionary spending until 2021 establishes a procedure to increase the debt limit creates a Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to propose further deficit reduction with a stated goal of achieving at least 1 5 trillion in budgetary savings over 10 years and establishes automatic procedures for reducing spending by as much as 1 2 trillion if legislation originating with the new joint select committee does not achieve such savings By passing the legislation Congress was able to prevent a U S government default on its obligations As it did throughout 2008 the unemployment rate rose in 2009 reaching a peak in October at 10 0 and averaging 10 0 in the fourth quarter Following a decrease to 9 7 in the first quarter of 2010 the unemployment rate fell to 9 6 in the second quarter where it remained for the rest of the year Between February and December 2010 employment rose by 0 8 which was less than the average of 1 9 experienced during comparable periods in the past four employment recoveries By November 2012 the unemployment rate fell to 7 7 decreasing to 7 3 in the second quarter of 2013 GDP growth returned in the third quarter of 2009 expanding at a rate of 1 6 followed by a 5 0 increase in the fourth quarter Growth continued in 2010 posting an increase of 3 7 in the first quarter with lesser gains throughout the rest of the year In July 2010 the Federal Reserve expressed that although economic activity continued to increase its pace had slowed and chairman Ben Bernanke stated that the economic outlook was unusually uncertain Overall the economy expanded at a rate of 2 9 in 2010 The Congressional Budget Office and a broad range of economists credit Obama s stimulus plan for economic growth The CBO released a report stating that the stimulus bill increased employment by 1–2 1 million while conceding that It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package Although an April 2010 survey of members of the National Association for Business Economics showed an increase in job creation over a similar January survey for the first time in two years 73 of 68 respondents believed that the stimulus bill has had no impact on employment Within a month of the 2010 midterm elections Obama announced a compromise deal with the Congressional Republican leadership that included a temporary two-year extension of the 2001 and 2003 income tax rates a one-year payroll tax reduction continuation of unemployment benefits and a new rate and exemption amount for estate taxes The compromise overcame opposition from some in both parties and the resulting 858 billion Tax Relief Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 passed with bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress before Obama signed it on December 17 2010 In December 2013 Obama declared that growing income inequality is a defining challenge of our time and called on Congress to bolster the safety net and raise wages This came on the heels of the nationwide strikes of fast-food workers and Pope Francis criticism of inequality and trickle-down economics Environmental policy In July 2013 Obama expressed reservations and stated he would reject the Keystone XL pipeline if it increased carbon pollution or greenhouse emmisions Obama s advisers called for a halt to petroleum exploration in the Arctic in January 2013 Gulf of Mexico oil spill On April 20 2010 an explosion destroyed an offshore drilling rig at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico causing a major sustained oil leak The well s operator BP initiated a containment and cleanup plan and began drilling two relief wells intended to stop the flow Obama visited the Gulf on May 2 among visits by members of his cabinet and again on May 28 and June 4 On May 22 he announced a federal investigation and formed a bipartisan commission to recommend new safety standards after a review by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and concurrent Congressional hearings On May 27 he announced a six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling permits and leases pending regulatory review As multiple efforts by BP failed some in the media and public expressed confusion and criticism over various aspects of the incident and stated a desire for more involvement by Obama and the federal government Health care reform Obama called for Congress to pass legislation reforming health care in the United States a key campaign promise and a top legislative goal He proposed an expansion of health insurance coverage to cover the uninsured to cap premium increases and to allow people to retain their coverage when they leave or change jobs His proposal was to spend 900 billion over 10 years and include a government insurance plan also known as the public option to compete with the corporate insurance sector as a main component to lowering costs and improving quality of health care It would also make it illegal for insurers to drop sick people or deny them coverage for pre-existing conditions and require every American to carry health coverage The plan also includes medical spending cuts and taxes on insurance companies that offer expensive plans On July 14 2009 House Democratic leaders introduced a 1 017-page plan for overhauling the U S health care system which Obama wanted Congress to approve by the end of 2009 After much public debate during the Congressional summer recess of 2009 Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9 where he addressed concerns over the proposals In March 2009 Obama lifted a ban on using federal funds for stem cell research On November 7 2009 a health care bill featuring the public option was passed in the House On December 24 2009 the Senate passed its own bill—without a public option—on a party-line vote of 60–39 On March 21 2010 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by the Senate in December was passed in the House by a vote of 219 to 212 Obama signed the bill into law on March 23 2010 The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes health-related provisions to take effect over four years including expanding Medicaid eligibility for people making up to 133 of the federal poverty level FPL starting in 2014 subsidizing insurance premiums for people making up to 400 of the FPL 88 000 for family of four in 2010 so their maximum out-of-pocket payment for annual premiums will be from 2 to 9 5 of income providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits prohibiting denial of coverage and denial of claims based on pre-existing conditions establishing health insurance exchanges prohibiting annual coverage caps and support for medical research According to White House and Congressional Budget Office figures the maximum share of income that enrollees would have to pay would vary depending on their income relative to the federal poverty level The costs of these provisions are offset by taxes fees and cost-saving measures such as new Medicare taxes for those in high-income brackets taxes on indoor tanning cuts to the Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies there is also a tax penalty for those who do not obtain health insurance unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons In March 2010 the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the net effect of both laws will be a reduction in the federal deficit by 143 billion over the first decade The law faced several legal challenges primarily based on the argument that an individual mandate requiring Americans to buy health insurance was unconstitutional On June 28 2012 the Supreme Court ruled by a 5–4 vote in National Federation of Independent Business v Sebelius that the Commerce Clause does not allow the government to require people to buy health insurance but the mandate was constitutional under the US Congress s taxing authority Energy policy needed for energy policy Prior content moved to Environmental Policy Gun control On January 16 2013 one month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting President Obama signed 23 executive orders and outlined a series of sweeping proposals regarding gun control He urged Congress to reintroduce an expired ban on military-style assault weapons such as those used in several recent mass shootings impose limits on ammunition magazines to 10 rounds introduce background checks on all gun sales pass a ban on possession and sale of armor-piercing bullets introduce harsher penalties for gun-traffickers especially unlicensed dealers who buy arms for criminals and approving the appointment of the head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives for the first time since 2006 2010 midterm elections Obama called the November 2 2010 election where the Democratic Party lost 63 seats in and control of the House of Representatives humbling and a shellacking He said that the results came because not enough Americans had felt the effects of the economic recovery Foreign policy In February and March 2009 Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made separate overseas trips to announce a new era in U S foreign relations with Russia and Europe using the terms break and reset to signal major changes from the policies of the preceding administration Obama attempted to reach out to Arab leaders by granting his first interview to an Arab cable TV network Al Arabiya On March 19 Obama continued his outreach to the Muslim world releasing a New Year s video message to the people and government of Iran In April Obama gave a speech in Ankara Turkey which was well received by many Arab governments On June 4 2009 Obama delivered a speech at Cairo University in Egypt calling for A New Beginning in relations between the Islamic world and the United States and promoting Middle East peace On June 26 2009 in response to the Iranian government s actions towards protesters following Iran s 2009 presidential election Obama said The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous We see it and we condemn it On July 7 while in Moscow he responded to a Vice President Biden comment on a possible Israeli military strike on Iran by saying We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East On September 24 2009 Obama became the first sitting U S president to preside over a meeting of the United Nations Security Council In March 2010 Obama took a public stance against plans by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue building Jewish housing projects in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem During the same month an agreement was reached with the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by about one-third Obama and Medvedev signed the New START treaty in April 2010 and the U S Senate ratified it in December 2010 On December 6 2011 he instructed agencies to consider LGBT rights when issuing financial aid to foreign countries Obama criticized Russia s law discriminating against gays joining other western leaders in the boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia Notably his Secretary of State John Kerry declared the end of the Monroe Doctrine in November 2013 Iraqi withdrawal On February 27 2009 Obama announced that combat operations in Iraq would end within 18 months His remarks were made to a group of Marines preparing for deployment to Afghanistan Obama said Let me say this as plainly as I can by August 31 2010 our combat mission in Iraq will end The Obama administration scheduled the withdrawal of combat troops to be completed by August 2010 decreasing troop s levels from 142 000 while leaving a transitional force of about 50 000 in Iraq until the end of 2011 On August 19 2010 the last U S combat brigade exited Iraq Remaining troops transitioned from combat operations to counter-terrorism and the training equipping and advising of Iraqi security forces On August 31 2010 Obama announced that the United States combat mission in Iraq was over On October 21 2011 President Obama announced that all U S troops would leave Iraq in time to be home for the holidays War in Afghanistan Early in his presidency Obama moved to bolster U S troop strength in Afghanistan He announced an increase to U S troop levels of 17 000 in February 2009 to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan an area he said had not received the strategic attention direction and resources it urgently requires He replaced the military commander in Afghanistan General David D McKiernan with former Special Forces commander Lt Gen Stanley A McChrystal in May 2009 indicating that McChrystal s Special Forces experience would facilitate the use of counterinsurgency tactics in the war On December 1 2009 Obama announced the deployment of an additional 30 000 military personnel to Afghanistan and proposed to begin troop withdrawals 18 months from that date this took place in July 2011 David Petraeus replaced McChrystal in June 2010 after McChrystal s staff criticized White House personnel in a magazine article In February 2013 Obama said the U S military would reduce the troop level in Afghanistan from 68 000 to 34 000 US troops by February 2014 Israel Obama referred to the bond between the United States and Israel as unbreakable During the initial years of the Obama administration the U S increased military cooperation with Israel including increased military aid re-establishment of the U S -Israeli Joint Political Military Group and the Defense Policy Advisory Group and an increase in visits among high-level military officials of both countries The Obama administration asked Congress to allocate money toward funding the Iron Dome program in response to the waves of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel In 2011 the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements with the United States being the only nation to do so Obama supports the two-state solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict based on the 1967 borders with land swaps In 2013 one journalist reported that in Obama s view with each new settlement announcement Netanyahu is moving his country down a path toward near-total isolation War in Libya In March 2011 as forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi advanced on rebels across Libya calls for a no-fly zone came from around the world including Europe the Arab League and a resolution passed unanimously by the U S Senate In response to the unanimous passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 on March 17 Gaddafi—who had previously vowed to show no mercy to the rebels of Benghazi—announced an immediate cessation of military activities yet reports came in that his forces continued shelling Misrata The next day on Obama s orders the U S military took part in air strikes to destroy the Libyan government s air defense capabilities to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly-zone including the use of Tomahawk missiles B-2 Spirits and fighter jets Six days later on March 25 by unanimous vote of all of its 28 members NATO took over leadership of the effort dubbed Operation Unified Protector Some Representatives questioned whether Obama had the constitutional authority to order military action in addition to questioning its cost structure and aftermath Osama bin Laden Starting with information received in July 2010 intelligence developed by the CIA over the next several months determined what they believed to be the location of Osama bin Laden in a large compound in Abbottabad Pakistan a suburban area 35 miles from Islamabad CIA head Leon Panetta reported this intelligence to President Obama in March 2011 Meeting with his national security advisers over the course of the next six weeks Obama rejected a plan to bomb the compound and authorized a surgical raid to be conducted by United States Navy SEALs The operation took place on May 1 2011 resulting in the death of bin Laden and the seizure of papers computer drives and disks from the compound DNA testing identified bin Laden s body which was buried at sea several hours later Within minutes of the President s announcement from Washington DC late in the evening on May 1 there were spontaneous celebrations around the country as crowds gathered outside the White House and at New York City s Ground Zero and Times Square Reaction to the announcement was positive across party lines including from former presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush and from many countries around the world Cultural and political image Obama s family history upbringing and Ivy League education differ markedly from those of African-American politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through participation in the civil rights movement Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is black enough Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists that we re still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign speech saying I wouldn t be here if time and again the torch had not been passed to a new generation Obama is frequently referred to as an exceptional orator During his pre-inauguration transition period and continuing into his presidency Obama has delivered a series of weekly Internet video addresses According to the Gallup Organization Obama began his presidency with a 68 approval rating before gradually declining for the rest of the year and eventually bottoming out at 41 in August 2010 a trend similar to Ronald Reagan s and Bill Clinton s first years in office He experienced a small poll bounce shortly after the death of Osama bin Laden which lasted until around June 2011 when his approval numbers dropped back to where they were prior to the operation His approval ratings rebounded around the same time as his re-election in 2012 with polls showing an average job approval of 52 shortly after his second inauguration Polls show strong support for Obama in other countries and before being elected President he met with prominent foreign figures including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair Italy s Democratic Party leader and Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni and French President Nicolas Sarkozy In a February 2009 poll conducted in Western Europe and the U S by Harris Interactive for France 24 and the International Herald Tribune Obama was rated as the most respected world leader as well as the most powerful In a similar poll conducted by Harris in May 2009 Obama was rated as the most popular world leader as well as the one figure most people would pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of the economic downturn Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for abridged audiobook versions of Dreams from My Father in February 2006 and for The Audacity of Hope in February 2008 His concession speech after the New Hampshire primary was set to music by independent artists as the music video Yes We Can which was viewed 10 million times on YouTube in its first month and received a Daytime Emmy Award In December 2008 Time magazine named Obama as its Person of the Year for his historic candidacy and election which it described as the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments He was again named Person of the Year in 2012 On October 9 2009 the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples Obama accepted this award in Oslo Norway on December 10 2009 with deep gratitude and great humility The award drew a mixture of praise and criticism from world leaders and media figures Obama is the fourth U S president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the third to become a Nobel laureate while in office According to November 2013 polls Obama s average approval rating fell to 41 thus setting a new low for the president Family and personal life In a 2006 interview Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family It s like a little mini-United Nations he said I ve got relatives who look like Bernie Mac and I ve got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher Obama has a half-sister with whom he was raised Maya Soetoro-Ng the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second husband and seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father s family – six of them living Obama s mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother Madelyn Dunham until her death on November 2 2008 two days before his election to the Presidency Obama also has roots in Ireland he met with his Irish cousins in Moneygall in May 2011 In Dreams from My Father Obama ties his mother s family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War In his youth Obama was known as Barry among his family and friends but asked to be addressed with his given name during his college years Besides his native English Obama speaks some basic Indonesian having learned the language during his four childhood years in Jakarta He plays basketball a sport he participated in as a member of his high school s varsity team he is left-handed Obama is a supporter of the Chicago White Sox and he threw out the first pitch at the 2005 ALCS when he was still a senator In 2009 he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the all star game while wearing a White Sox jacket He is also primarily a Chicago Bears football fan in the NFL but in his childhood and adolescence was a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and rooted for them ahead of their victory in Super Bowl XLIII 12 days after he took office as President In 2011 Obama invited the 1985 Chicago Bears to the White House the team had not visited the White House after their Super Bowl win in 1986 due to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster In June 1989 Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin Assigned for three months as Obama s adviser at the firm Robinson joined him at several group social functions but declined his initial requests to date They began dating later that summer became engaged in 1991 and were married on October 3 1992 The couple s first daughter Malia Ann was born on July 4 1998 followed by a second daughter Natasha Sasha on June 10 2001 The Obama daughters attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools When they moved to Washington D C in January 2009 the girls started at the private Sidwell Friends School The Obamas have a Portuguese Water Dog named Bo a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy Applying the proceeds of a book deal the family moved in 2005 from a Hyde Park Chicago condominium to a 1 6 million house in neighboring Kenwood Chicago The purchase of an adjacent lot—and sale of part of it to Obama by the wife of developer campaign donor and friend Tony Rezko —attracted media attention because of Rezko s subsequent indictment and conviction on political corruption charges that were unrelated to Obama In December 2007 Money estimated the Obama family s net worth at 1 3 million See also ref Their 2009 tax return showed a household income of 5 5 million—up from about 4 2 million in 2007 and 1 6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books On his 2010 income of 1 7 million he gave 14 to non-profit organizations including 131 000 to Fisher House Foundation a charity assisting wounded veterans families allowing them to reside near where the veteran is receiving medical treatments As per his 2012 financial disclosure Obama may be worth as much as 10 million Obama tried to quit smoking several times sometimes using nicotine replacement therapy and in early 2010 Michelle Obama said that he had successfully quit smoking Religious views Obama is a Christian whose religious views developed in his adult life He wrote in The Audacity of Hope that he was not raised in a religious household He described his mother raised by non-religious parents whom Obama has specified elsewhere as non-practicing Methodists and Baptists as being detached from religion yet in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known He described his father as a confirmed atheist by the time his parents met and his stepfather as a man who saw religion as not particularly useful Obama explained how through working with black churches as a community organizer while in his twenties he came to understand the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change In an interview with the evangelical periodical Christianity Today Obama stated I am a Christian and I am a devout Christian I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life On September 27 2010 Obama released a statement commenting on his religious views saying I m a Christian by choice My family didn t—frankly they weren t folks who went to church every week And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn t raise me in the church So I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead—being my brothers and sisters keeper treating others as they would treat me Obama met Trinity United Church of Christ pastor Rev Jeremiah Wright in October 1987 and became a member of Trinity in 1992 He resigned from Trinity in May 2008 during his first presidential campaign after controversial statements by Wright were publicized After a prolonged effort to find a church to attend regularly in Washington Obama announced in June 2009 that his primary place of worship would be the Evergreen Chapel at Camp David External links Official Other'

ent_lines_4EX['Germany'] = '11867	Germany	Germany  Germany officially the Federal Republic of Germany is a federal parliamentary republic in western - central Europe The country consists of 16 states and its capital and largest city is Berlin Germany covers an area of and has a largely temperate seasonal climate With 80 6 million inhabitants it is the most populous member state in the European Union Germany is the major economic and political power of the European continent and a historic leader in many cultural theoretical and technical fields Various Germanic tribes occupied what is now northern Germany and southern Scandinavia since classical antiquity A region named Germania was documented by the Romans before AD 100 During the Migration Period that coincided with the decline of the Roman Empire the Germanic tribes expanded southward and established kingdoms throughout much of Europe Beginning in the 10th century German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire ref During the 16th century northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars the rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states in 1871 into the German Empire which was dominated by Prussia After the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the subsequent military surrender in World War I the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic in 1918 with some of its territory partitioned in the Treaty of Versailles Despite its lead in many scientific and cultural fields at this time Germany nonetheless endured significant economic and political instability which intensified during the Great Depression and contributed to the establishment of the Third Reich in 1933 The subsequent rise of fascism led to World War II After 1945 Germany was divided by allied occupation and evolved into two states East Germany and West Germany In 1990 the country was reunified Germany has the world s fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP and the fifth-largest by purchasing power parity As a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors it is the second-largest exporter and third-largest importer of goods It is a developed country with a very high standard of living featuring comprehensive social security that includes the world s oldest universal health care system Known for its rich cultural and political history Germany has been the home of many influential philosophers music composers scientists and inventors Germany was a founding member of the European Community in 1957 which became the EU in 1993 It is part of the Schengen Area and has been a member of the eurozone since 1999 Germany is a great power in regional and global affairs and is a member of the United Nations NATO the G8 the G20 the OECD and the Council of Europe Etymology The English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine The German term Deutschland originally diutisciu land the German lands is derived from deutsch descended from Old High German diutisc popular i e belonging to the diot or diota people originally used to distinguish the language of the common people from Latin and its Romance descendants This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic þiudiskaz popular see also the Latinised form Theodiscus derived from þeudō descended from Proto-Indo-European tewtéh₂- people History Germanic tribes and Frankish Empire The Germanic tribes are thought to date from the Nordic Bronze Age or the Pre-Roman Iron Age From southern Scandinavia and north Germany they expanded south east and west from the 1st century BC coming into contact with the Celtic tribes of Gaul as well as Iranian Baltic and Slavic tribes in Central and Eastern Europe Under Augustus Rome began to invade Germania an area extending roughly from the Rhine to the Ural Mountains In AD 9 three Roman legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus were defeated by the Cheruscan leader Arminius By AD 100 when Tacitus wrote Germania Germanic tribes had settled along the Rhine and the Danube the Limes Germanicus occupying most of the area of modern Germany Austria southern Bavaria and the western Rhineland however were Roman provinces In the 3rd century a number of large West Germanic tribes emerged Alemanni Franks Chatti Saxons Frisii Sicambri and Thuringii Around 260 the Germanic peoples broke into Roman-controlled lands After the invasion of the Huns in 375 and with the decline of Rome from 395 Germanic tribes moved further south-west Simultaneously several large tribes formed in what is now Germany and displaced the smaller Germanic tribes Large areas known since the Merovingian period as Austrasia were occupied by the Franks and Northern Germany was ruled by the Saxons and Slavs Holy Roman Empire On 25 December 800 the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned emperor and founded the Carolingian Empire which was divided in 843 The Holy Roman Empire resulted from the eastern portion of this division Its territory stretched from the Eider River in the north to the Mediterranean coast in the south Under the reign of the Ottonian emperors 919–1024 several major duchies were consolidated and the German king Otto I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor of these regions in 962 In 996 Gregory V became the first German Pope appointed by his cousin Otto III whom he shortly after crowned Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Empire absorbed northern Italy and Burgundy under the reign of the Salian emperors 1024–1125 although the emperors lost power through the Investiture Controversy Under the Hohenstaufen emperors 1138–1254 the German princes increased their influence further south and east into territories inhabited by Slavs preceding German settlement in these areas and further east Ostsiedlung Northern German towns grew prosperous as members of the Hanseatic League Starting with the Great Famine in 1315 then the Black Death of 1348–50 the population of Germany plummeted The edict of the Golden Bull in 1356 provided the basic constitution of the empire and codified the election of the emperor by seven prince-electors who ruled some of the most powerful principalities and archbishoprics Martin Luther publicised The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 in Wittenberg challenging the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church and initiating the Protestant Reformation A separate Lutheran church became the official religion in many German states after 1530 Religious conflict led to the Thirty Years War 1618–1648 which devastated German lands The population of the German states was reduced by about 30 The Peace of Westphalia 1648 ended religious warfare among the German states but the empire was de facto divided into numerous independent principalities In the 18th century the Holy Roman Empire consisted of approximately 1 800 such territories From 1740 onwards dualism between the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy and the Kingdom of Prussia dominated German history In 1806 the Imperium was overrun and dissolved as a result of the Napoleonic Wars German Confederation and Empire Following the fall of Napoleon the Congress of Vienna convened in 1814 and founded the German Confederation Deutscher Bund a loose league of 39 sovereign states Disagreement with restoration politics partly led to the rise of liberal movements followed by new measures of repression by Austrian statesman Metternich The Zollverein a tariff union furthered economic unity in the German states National and liberal ideals of the French Revolution gained increasing support among many especially young Germans The Hambach Festival in May 1832 was a main event in support of German unity freedom and democracy In the light of a series of revolutionary movements in Europe which established a republic in France intellectuals and commoners started the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states King Frederick William IV of Prussia was offered the title of Emperor but with a loss of power he rejected the crown and the proposed constitution leading to a temporary setback for the movement Conflict between King William I of Prussia and the increasingly liberal parliament erupted over military reforms in 1862 and the king appointed Otto von Bismarck the new Minister President of Prussia Bismarck successfully waged war on Denmark in 1864 Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 enabled him to create the North German Confederation Norddeutscher Bund and to exclude Austria formerly the leading German state from the federation s affairs After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War the German Empire was proclaimed in 1871 in Versailles uniting all scattered parts of Germany except Austria or Lesser Germany With almost two-thirds of its territory and population Prussia was the dominating constituent of the new state the Hohenzollern King of Prussia ruled as its concurrent Emperor and Berlin became its capital In the period following the unification of Germany Bismarck s foreign policy as Chancellor of Germany under Emperor William I secured Germany s position as a great nation by forging alliances isolating France by diplomatic means and avoiding war As a result of the Berlin Conference in 1884 Germany claimed several colonies including German East Africa German South-West Africa Togo and Cameroon Under Wilhelm II however Germany like other European powers took an imperialistic course leading to friction with neighbouring countries Most alliances in which Germany had previously been involved were not renewed and new alliances excluded the country The assassination of Austria s crown prince on 28 June 1914 triggered World War I Germany as part of the Central Powers suffered defeat against the Allies in one of the bloodiest conflicts of all time An estimated two million German soldiers died in World War I The German Revolution broke out in November 1918 and Emperor Wilhelm II and all German ruling princes abdicated An armistice ended the war on 11 November and Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919 The treaty was perceived in Germany as a humiliating continuation of the war and is often cited as an influence in the rise of Nazism Weimar Republic and Nazi Regime At the beginning of the German Revolution in November 1918 Germany was declared a republic However the struggle for power continued with radical-left Communists seizing power in Bavaria The revolution came to an end on 11 August 1919 when the democratic Weimar Constitution was signed by President Friedrich Ebert An era of increasing national confidence a very liberal cultural life and decade of economic prosperity followed - known as the Golden Twenties Suffering from the Great Depression of 1929 the harsh peace conditions dictated by the Treaty of Versailles and a long succession of unstable governments Germans increasingly lacked identification with the government in the early 1930s This was exacerbated by a widespread right-wing or stab-in-the-back legend which argued that Germany had lost World War I because of those who wanted to overthrow the government The Weimar government was accused of betraying Germany by signing the Versailles Treaty By 1932 the German Communist Party and the Nazi Party controlled the majority of Parliament fuelled by discontent with the Weimar government After a series of unsuccessful cabinets President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933 On 27 February 1933 the Reichstag building went up in flames and a consequent emergency decree abrogated basic citizens rights An enabling act passed in parliament gave Hitler unrestricted legislative power Only the Social Democratic Party voted against it while Communist MPs had already been imprisoned Using his powers to crush any actual or potential resistance Hitler established a centralised totalitarian state within months Industry was revitalised with a focus on military rearmament In 1935 Germany reacquired control of the Saar and in 1936 military control of the Rhineland both of which had been lost in the Treaty of Versailles In 1938 Austria was annexed and in 1939 Czechoslovakia was brought under German control The invasion of Poland was prepared through the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact and Operation Himmler On 1 September 1939 the German Wehrmacht launched a blitzkrieg on Poland which was swiftly occupied by Germany and by the Soviet Red Army The UK and France declared war on Germany marking the beginning of World War II As the war progressed Germany and its allies quickly gained control of most of continental Europe and North Africa though plans to force the United Kingdom to an armistice or surrender failed On 22 June 1941 Germany broke the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact and invaded the Soviet Union Japan s attack on Pearl Harbor led Germany to declare war on the United States The Battle of Stalingrad forced the German army to retreat on the Eastern front In September 1943 Germany s ally Italy surrendered and German troops were forced to defend an additional front in Italy D-Day opened a Western front as Allied forces advanced towards German territory On 8 May 1945 the German armed forces surrendered after the Red Army occupied Berlin In what later became known as The Holocaust the Third Reich regime had enacted policies directly subjugating many dissidents and minorities Millions of people were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust including several million Jews Romani people Slavic people Soviet POWs people with mental and or physical disabilities Jehovah s Witnesses homosexuals and members of the political and religious opposition World War II was responsible for more than 40 million dead in Europe The war casualties for Germany are estimated at 5 3 million German soldiers millions of German civilians and losing the war resulted in large territorial losses the expulsion of about 15 million ethnic Germans from former eastern territories of Germany and other formerly occupied European countries mass rape of German women and the destruction of numerous major cities The Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals were held after World War II East and West Germany After the surrender of Germany the remaining German territory and Berlin were partitioned by the Allies into four military occupation zones Together these zones accepted more than 6 5 million of the ethnic Germans expelled from eastern areas The western sectors controlled by France the United Kingdom and the United States were merged on 23 May 1949 to form the Federal Republic of Germany Bundesrepublik Deutschland on 7 October 1949 the Soviet Zone became the German Democratic Republic Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR They were informally known as West Germany and East Germany East Germany selected East Berlin as its capital while West Germany chose Bonn as a provisional capital to emphasise its stance that the two-state solution was an artificial and temporary status quo West Germany established as a federal parliamentary republic with a social market economy was allied with the United States the UK and France Konrad Adenauer was elected the first Federal Chancellor Bundeskanzler of Germany in 1949 and remained in office until 1963 Under his and Ludwig Erhard s leadership the country enjoyed prolonged economic growth beginning in the early 1950s that became famous as the economic miracle West Germany joined NATO in 1955 and was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957 East Germany was an Eastern Bloc state under political and military control by the USSR via the latter s occupation forces and the Warsaw Pact Though East Germany claimed to be a democracy political power was exercised solely by leading members Politbüro of the communist-controlled Socialist Unity Party of Germany SED supported by the Stasi an immense secret service and a variety of sub-organisations controlling every aspect of society A Soviet-style command economy was set up the GDR later became a Comecon state While East German propaganda was based on the benefits of the GDR s social programmes and the alleged constant threat of a West German invasion many of its citizens looked to the West for freedom and prosperity The Berlin Wall built in 1961 to stop East Germans from escaping to West Germany became a symbol of the Cold War hence its fall in 1989 following democratic reforms in Poland and Hungary became a symbol of the Fall of Communism German Reunification and Die Wende Tensions between East and West Germany were reduced in the early 1970s by Chancellor Willy Brandt s In summer 1989 Hungary decided to dismantle the Iron Curtain and open the borders causing the emigration of thousands of East Germans to West Germany via Hungary This had devastating effects on the GDR where regular mass demonstrations received increasing support The East German authorities unexpectedly eased the border restrictions allowing East German citizens to travel to the West originally intended to help retain East Germany as a state the opening of the border actually led to an acceleration of the Wende reform process This culminated in the Two Plus Four Treaty a year later on 12 September 1990 under which the four occupying powers renounced their rights under the Instrument of Surrender and Germany regained full sovereignty This permitted German reunification on 3 October 1990 with the accession of the five re-established states of the former GDR new states or neue Länder German Reunification and the EU Based on the Berlin Bonn Act adopted on 10 March 1994 Berlin once again became the capital of the reunified Germany while Bonn obtained the unique status of a Bundesstadt federal city retaining some federal ministries The relocation of the government was completed in 1999 Since reunification Germany has taken a more active role in the European Union and NATO Germany sent a peacekeeping force to secure stability in the Balkans and sent a force of German troops to Afghanistan as part of a NATO effort to provide security in that country after the ousting of the Taliban These deployments were controversial since after the war Germany was bound by domestic law only to deploy troops for defence roles In 2005 Angela Merkel became the first female Chancellor of Germany as the leader of a grand coalition Germany hosted the 2007 G8 summit in Heiligendamm Mecklenburg In 2009 a liberal - conservative coalition under Merkel assumed leadership of the country Geography Germany is in Western and Central Europe with Denmark bordering to the north Poland and the Czech Republic to the east Austria and Switzerland to the south France and Luxembourg to the southwest and Belgium and the Netherlands to the northwest It lies mostly between latitudes 47° and 55° N the tip of Sylt is just north of 55° and longitudes 5° and 16° E The territory covers consisting of of land and of water It is the seventh largest country by area in Europe and the 62nd largest in the world Elevation ranges from the mountains of the Alps highest point the Zugspitze at in the south to the shores of the North Sea Nordsee in the northwest and the Baltic Sea Ostsee in the northeast The forested uplands of central Germany and the lowlands of northern Germany lowest point Wilstermarsch at below sea level are traversed by such major rivers as the Rhine Danube and Elbe Glaciers are found in the Alpine region but are experiencing deglaciation Significant natural resources are iron ore coal potash timber lignite uranium copper natural gas salt nickel arable land and water Climate Most of Germany has a temperate seasonal climate in which humid westerly winds predominate The country is situated in between the oceanic Western European and the continental Eastern European climate The climate is moderated by the North Atlantic Drift the northern extension of the Gulf Stream This warmer water affects the areas bordering the North Sea consequently in the northwest and the north the climate is oceanic Germany gets an average of precipitation per year Rainfall occurs year-round with no obligatory dry season Winters are mild and summers tend to be warm temperatures can exceed The east has a more continental climate winters can be very cold and summers very warm and longer dry periods can occur Central and southern Germany are transition regions which vary from moderately oceanic to continental In addition to the maritime and continental climates that predominate over most of the country the Alpine regions in the extreme south and to a lesser degree some areas of the Central German Uplands have a mountain climate characterised by lower temperatures and greater precipitation Biodiversity The territory of Germany can be subdivided into two ecoregions European-Mediterranean montane mixed forests and Northeast-Atlantic shelf marine the majority of Germany is covered by either arable land 34 or forest and woodland 30 1 only 13 4 of the area consists of permanent pastures 11 8 is covered by settlements and streets Plants and animals are those generally common to middle Europe Beeches oaks and other deciduous trees constitute one-third of the forests conifers are increasing as a result of reforestation Spruce and fir trees predominate in the upper mountains while pine and larch are found in sandy soil There are many species of ferns flowers fungi and mosses Wild animals include deer wild boar mouflon fox badger hare and small numbers of beavers The blue cornflower was once a German national symbol The 14 national parks in Germany include the Jasmund National Park the Vorpommern Lagoon Area National Park the Müritz National Park the Wadden Sea National Parks the Harz National Park the Hainich National Park the Saxon Switzerland National Park the Bavarian Forest National Park and the Berchtesgaden National Park In addition there are 14 Biosphere Reserves as well as 98 nature parks More than 400 registered zoos and animal parks operate in Germany which is believed to be the largest number in any country The Berlin Zoo opened in 1844 is the oldest zoo in Germany and presents the most comprehensive collection of species in the world Politics Germany is a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic The German political system operates under a framework laid out in the 1949 constitutional document known as the Grundgesetz Basic Law Amendments generally require a two-thirds majority of both chambers of parliament the fundamental principles of the constitution as expressed in the articles guaranteeing human dignity the separation of powers the federal structure and the rule of law are valid in perpetuity The president is the head of state and invested primarily with representative responsibilities and powers He is elected by the Bundesversammlung federal convention an institution consisting of the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of state delegates The second-highest official in the German order of precedence is the Bundestagspräsident President of the Bundestag who is elected by the Bundestag and responsible for overseeing the daily sessions of the body The third-highest official and the head of government is the Chancellor who is appointed by the Bundespräsident after being elected by the Bundestag The chancellor currently Angela Merkel is the head of government and exercises executive power similar to the role of a Prime Minister in other parliamentary democracies Federal legislative power is vested in the parliament consisting of the Bundestag Federal Diet and Bundesrat Federal Council which together form the legislative body The Bundestag is elected through direct elections by proportional representation mixed-member The members of the Bundesrat represent the governments of the sixteen federated states and are members of the state cabinets Since 1949 the party system has been dominated by the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party of Germany So far every chancellor has been a member of one of these parties However the smaller liberal Free Democratic Party which had members in the Bundestag from 1949 to 2013 and the Alliance 90 The Greens which has had seats in parliament since 1983 have also played important roles Minor parties such as The Left Free Voters and the Pirate Party are represented in some state parliaments Law Germany has a civil law system based on Roman law with some references to Germanic law The Bundesverfassungsgericht Federal Constitutional Court is the German Supreme Court responsible for constitutional matters with power of judicial review Germany s supreme court system called Oberste Gerichtshöfe des Bundes is specialised for civil and criminal cases the highest court of appeal is the inquisitorial Federal Court of Justice and for other affairs the courts are the Federal Labour Court the Federal Social Court the Federal Finance Court and the Federal Administrative Court The Völkerstrafgesetzbuch regulates the consequences of crimes against humanity genocide and war crimes and gives German courts universal jurisdiction in some circumstances Criminal and private laws are codified on the national level in the Strafgesetzbuch and the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch respectively The German penal system is aimed towards rehabilitation of the criminal and the protection of the general public Except for petty crimes which are tried before a single professional judge and serious political crimes all charges are tried before mixed tribunals on which lay judges sit side by side with professional judges Many of the fundamental matters of administrative law remain in the jurisdiction of the states though most states base their own laws in that area on the 1976 Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetz Administrative Proceedings Act covering important points of administrative law The Oberverwaltungsgerichte are the highest level of administrative jurisdiction concerning the state administrations unless the question of law concerns federal law or state law identical to federal law In such cases final appeal to the Federal Administrative Court is possible Constituent states Germany comprises sixteen states which are collectively referred to as Länder ref Each state has its own state constitution and is largely autonomous in regard to its internal organisation Because of differences in size and population the subdivisions of these states vary especially as between city states Stadtstaaten and states with larger territories Flächenländer For regional administrative purposes five states namely Baden-Württemberg Bavaria Hesse North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony consist of a total of 22 Government Districts Regierungsbezirke Germany is divided into 403 districts Kreise at a municipal level these consist of 301 rural districts and 102 urban districts Foreign relations Germany has a network of 229 diplomatic missions abroad and maintains relations with more than 190 countries it is the largest contributor to the budget of the European Union providing 20 and the third largest contributor to the UN providing 8 Germany is a member of NATO the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development OECD the G8 the G20 the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund IMF It has played a leading role in the European Union since its inception and has maintained a strong alliance with France since the end of World War II Germany seeks to advance the creation of a more unified European political defence and security apparatus The development policy of the Federal Republic of Germany is an independent area of German foreign policy It is formulated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development BMZ and carried out by the implementing organisations The German government sees development policy as a joint responsibility of the international community It is the world s third biggest aid donor after the United States and France During the Cold War Germany s partition by the Iron Curtain made it a symbol of East–West tensions and a political battleground in Europe However Willy Brandt s Ostpolitik was a key factor in the détente of the 1970s In 1999 Chancellor Gerhard Schröder s government defined a new basis for German foreign policy by taking part in the NATO decisions surrounding the Kosovo War and by sending German troops into combat for the first time since World War II The governments of Germany and the United States are close political allies The 1948 Marshall Plan and strong cultural ties have crafted a strong bond between the two countries although Schröder s vocal opposition to the Iraq War suggested the end of Atlanticism and a relative cooling of German-American relations The two countries are also economically interdependent 8 8 of German exports are US-bound and 6 6 of German imports originate from the US Military Germany s military the Bundeswehr is organised into Heer Army Marine Navy Luftwaffe Air Force Bundeswehr Joint Medical Service and Streitkräftebasis Joint Support Service branches The role of the Bundeswehr is described in the Constitution of Germany Art 87a as absolutely defensive only Its only active role before 1990 was the Katastropheneinsatz disaster control Within the Bundeswehr it helped after natural disasters both in Germany and abroad After 1990 the international situation changed from East-West confrontation to one of general uncertainty and instability Today after a ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court in 1994 the term defense has been defined to not only include protection of the borders of Germany but also crisis reaction and conflict prevention or more broadly as guarding the security of Germany anywhere in the world military spending was an estimated 1 3 of the country s GDP which is low in a ranking of all countries in absolute terms German military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world In peacetime the Bundeswehr is commanded by the Minister of Defence If Germany went to war which according to the constitution is allowed only for defensive purposes the Chancellor would become commander-in-chief of the Bundeswehr Until 2011 military service was compulsory for men at age 18 and conscripts served six-month tours of duty conscientious objectors could instead opt for an equal length of Zivildienst civilian service or a six-year commitment to voluntary emergency services like a fire department or the Red Cross On 1 July 2011 conscription was officially suspended and replaced with a voluntary service Since 2001 women may serve in all functions of service without restriction but they have not been subject to conscription There are presently some 17 500 women on active duty and a number of female reservists Economy Germany has a social market economy with a highly skilled labour force a large capital stock a low level of corruption and a high level of innovation It has the largest and most powerful national economy in Europe the fourth largest by nominal GDP in the world Field listing – GDP official exchange rate ref the fifth largest by PPP Field listing – GDP PPP exchange rate ref and was the biggest net contributor to the EU budget in 2011 The service sector contributes approximately 71 of the total GDP industry 28 and agriculture 1 The official average national unemployment rate in June 2013 was 6 6 However the official average national unemployment rate also includes people with a part-time job that are looking for a full-time job The unofficial average national unemployment rate in 2011 was 5 7 Germany is an advocate of closer European economic and political integration Its commercial policies are increasingly determined by agreements among European Union EU members and by EU legislation Germany introduced the common European currency the euro on 1 January 2002 Its monetary policy is set by the European Central Bank which is headquartered in Frankfurt Two decades after German reunification standards of living and per capita incomes remain significantly higher in the states of the former West Germany than in the former East The modernisation and integration of the eastern German economy is a long-term process scheduled to last until the year 2019 with annual transfers from west to east amounting to roughly 80 billion In January 2009 the German government approved a €50 billion economic stimulus plan to protect several sectors from a downturn and a subsequent rise in unemployment rates Of the world s 500 largest stock-market-listed companies measured by revenue in 2010 the Fortune Global 500 37 are headquartered in Germany 30 Germany-based companies are included in the DAX the German stock market index Well-known global brands are Mercedes-Benz BMW SAP Siemens Volkswagen Adidas Audi Allianz Porsche Bayer Bosch and Nivea Germany is recognised for its specialised small and medium enterprises Around 1 000 of these companies are global market leaders in their segment and are labelled hidden champions The list includes the largest German companies by revenue in 2011 Infrastructure With its central position in Europe Germany is a transport hub This is reflected in its dense and modern transport networks The motorway Autobahn network ranks as the third-largest worldwide in length and is known for its lack of a general speed limit Germany has established a polycentric network of high-speed trains The InterCityExpress or ICE network of the Deutsche Bahn serves major German cities as well as destinations in neighbouring countries with speeds up to 300 kph 186 mph The largest German airports are Frankfurt Airport and Munich Airport both hubs of Lufthansa while Air Berlin has hubs at Berlin Tegel and Düsseldorf Other major airports include Berlin Schönefeld Hamburg Cologne Bonn and Leipzig Halle Both airports in Berlin will be consolidated at a site adjacent to Berlin Schönefeld which will become Berlin Brandenburg Airport Germany was the world s sixth-largest consumer of energy and 60 of its primary energy was imported Government policy promotes energy conservation and renewable energy commercialisation Energy efficiency has been improving since the early 1970s the government aims to meet the country s electricity demands using 40 renewable sources by 2020 and 100 by 2050 In 2010 energy sources were oil 33 7 coal including lignite 22 9 natural gas 21 8 nuclear 10 8 hydro-electric and wind power 1 5 and other renewable sources 7 9 In 2000 the government and the nuclear power industry agreed to phase out all nuclear power plants by 2021 Germany is committed to the Kyoto protocol and several other treaties promoting biodiversity low emission standards recycling and the use of renewable energy and supports sustainable development at a global level The German government has initiated wide-ranging emission reduction activities and the country s overall emissions are falling Nevertheless the country s greenhouse gas emissions were the highest in the EU Science and technology Germany s achievements in the sciences have been significant and research and development efforts form an integral part of the economy The Nobel Prize has been awarded to 104 German laureates For most of the 20th century German laureates had more awards than those of any other nation especially in the sciences physics chemistry and physiology or medicine The work of Albert Einstein and Max Planck was crucial to the foundation of modern physics which Werner Heisenberg and Max Born developed further They were preceded by such key physicists as Hermann von Helmholtz Joseph von Fraunhofer and Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit among others Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays and was the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 Otto Hahn was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry and discovered nuclear fission while Ferdinand Cohn and Robert Koch were founders of microbiology Numerous mathematicians were born in Germany including Carl Friedrich Gauss David Hilbert Bernhard Riemann Gottfried Leibniz Karl Weierstrass Hermann Weyl and Felix Klein Research institutions in Germany include the Max Planck Society the Helmholtz Association and the Fraunhofer Society The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize is granted to ten scientists and academics every year With a maximum of €2 5 million per award it is one of highest endowed research prizes in the world Germany has been the home of many famous inventors and engineers such as Johannes Gutenberg credited with the invention of movable type printing in Europe Hans Geiger the creator of the Geiger counter and Konrad Zuse who built the first fully automatic digital computer German inventors engineers and industrialists such as Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin Otto Lilienthal Gottlieb Daimler Rudolf Diesel Hugo Junkers and Karl Benz helped shape modern automotive and air transportation technology Aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun developed the first space rocket and later on was a prominent member of NASA and developed the Saturn V Moon rocket which paved the way for the success of the US Apollo programme Heinrich Rudolf Hertz s work in the domain of electromagnetic radiation was pivotal to the development of modern telecommunication Germany is one of the leading countries in developing and using green technologies Companies specialising in green technology have an estimated turnover of €200 billion Key sectors of Germany s green technology industry are power generation sustainable mobility material efficiency energy efficiency waste management and recycling and sustainable water management Demographics With a population of 80 2 million according to the May 2011 census Germany is the most populous country in the European Union the second most populous country in Europe after Russia and ranks as the 16th most populous country in the world Its population density stands at 225 inhabitants per square kilometre The overall life expectancy in Germany at birth is 80 19 years 77 93 years for males and 82 58 years for females The fertility rate of 1 41 children born per woman 2011 estimates or 8 33 births per 1000 inhabitants is one of the lowest in the world Since the 1970s Germany s death rate has continuously exceeded its birth rate The Federal Statistical Office of Germany has forecast that the population could shrink to between 65 and 70 million by 2060 depending on the level of net migration Details on the methodology detailed tables etc are provided at ref However such forecasts have often been proven wrong in the past and Germany is currently witnessing increased birth rates and migration rates since the beginning of the 2010s It is notably experiencing a strong increase in the number of well-educated migrants In 2012 300 000 more immigrants than emigrants were reported in Germany Germans by nationality make up 92 3 of the population of Germany and about six million foreign citizens 7 7 of the population were registered in Germany Regarding ethnic background 20 of the country s residents or more than 16 million people were of foreign or partially foreign descent including persons descending or partially descending from ethnic German repatriates 96 of whom lived in the former West Germany or Berlin In 2010 2 3 million families with children under 18 years were living in Germany in which at least one parent had foreign roots They represented 29 of the total of 8 1 million families with minor children Compared with 2005 – the year when the microcensus started to collect detailed information on the population with a migrant background – the proportion of migrant families has risen by 2 percentage points Most of the families with a migrant background live in the western part of Germany In 2010 the proportion of migrant families in all families was 32 in the pre-unification territory of the Federal Republic This figure was more than double that in the new Länder including Berlin where it stood at 15 Families with a migrant background more often have three or more minor children in the household than families without a migrant background In 2010 about 15 of the families with a migrant background contained three or more minor children as compared with just 9 of the families without a migrant background The United Nations Population Fund lists Germany as host to the third-highest number of international migrants worldwide about 5 or 10 million of all 191 million migrants As a consequence of restrictions to Germany s formerly rather unrestricted laws on asylum and immigration the number of immigrants seeking asylum or claiming German ethnicity mostly from the former Soviet Union has been declining steadily since 2000 In 2009 20 of the population had immigrant roots the highest since 1945 the largest national group was from Turkey 2 5 million followed by Italy 776 000 and Poland 687 000 About 3 million Aussiedler —ethnic Germans mainly from the former eastern bloc—have resettled in Germany since 1987 Large numbers of people with full or significant German ancestry are found in the United States Brazil Argentina and Canada Most ethnic minorities especially those of non-European origin reside in large urban areas like Berlin Hamburg Frankfurt Rhine-Main Rhine-Ruhr Rhine-Neckar and Munich The percentage of non-Germans and immigrants is rather low in rural areas and small towns especially in the East German states of the former GDR territory Germany is home to the third-highest number of international migrants worldwide Ethnic composition in 2010 Germany has a number of large cities There are 11 officially recognised metropolitan regions in Germany – and since 2006 34 potential cities were identified which can be called a Regiopolis The largest conurbation is the Rhine-Ruhr region 11 7 million including Düsseldorf the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia Cologne Bonn Dortmund Essen Duisburg and Bochum Religion a href Christianity Christianity a is the largest religion in Germany with around 51 5 million adherents 62 8 in 2008 Relative to the whole population 30 0 of Germans are a href Catholic Church Catholics a 29 9 are a href Protestantism Protestants a belonging to the a href Evangelical Church in Germany Evangelical Church in Germany a EKD and the remaining Christians belong to smaller denominations each with less than 0 5 of the German population Protestantism is concentrated in the north and east and a href Roman Catholicism in Germany Roman Catholicism a is concentrated in the south and west 1 6 of the country s overall population declare themselves Orthodox Christians The second largest religion is Islam with an estimated 3 8 to 4 3 million adherents 4 6 to 5 2 followed by Buddhism with 250 000 and Judaism with around 200 000 adherents 0 3 Hinduism has some 90 000 adherents 0 1 All other religious communities in Germany have fewer than 50 000 adherents Of the roughly 4 million Muslims most are Sunnis and Alevites from Turkey but there are a small number of Shi ites and other denominations German Muslims a large portion of whom are of Turkish origin lack full official state recognition of their religious community Germany has Europe s third largest Jewish population after France and the United Kingdom Approximately 50 of the Buddhists in Germany are Asian immigrants Germans with no stated religious adherence make up 34 1 of the population and are concentrated in the former East Germany and major metropolitan areas German reunification in 1990 greatly increased the country s non-religious population a legacy of the state atheism of the previously Soviet -controlled East Christian church membership has decreased in recent decades particularly among Protestants Languages German is the official and predominant spoken language in Germany It is one of 23 official languages in the European Union and one of the three working languages of the European Commission Recognised native minority languages in Germany are Danish Low German Sorbian Romany and Frisian they are officially protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages The most used immigrant languages are Turkish Kurdish Polish the Balkan languages and Russian 67 of German citizens claim to be able to communicate in at least one foreign language and 27 in at least two languages other than their own ref Standard German is a West Germanic language and is closely related to and classified alongside English Low German Dutch and the Frisian languages To a lesser extent it is also related to the East extinct and North Germanic languages Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family Significant minorities of words are derived from Latin and Greek with a smaller amount from French and most recently English known as Denglisch German is written using the Latin alphabet German dialects traditional local varieties traced back to the Germanic tribes are distinguished from varieties of standard German by their lexicon phonology and syntax Education Over 99 of Germans age 15 and above are estimated to be able to read and write Responsibility for educational supervision in Germany is primarily organised within the individual federal states Since the 1960s a reform movement attempted to unify secondary education in a Gesamtschule comprehensive school several West German states later simplified their school system to two or three tiers A system of apprenticeship called Duale Ausbildung dual education allows pupils in vocational training to learn in a company as well as in a state-run vocational school This successful model is highly regarded and reproduced all around the world Optional kindergarten education is provided for all children between three and six years old after which school attendance is compulsory for at least nine years Primary education usually lasts for four to six years and public schools are not stratified at this stage In contrast secondary education includes three traditional types of schools focused on different levels of academic ability the Gymnasium enrols the most gifted children and prepares students for university studies the Realschule for intermediate students lasts six years the Hauptschule prepares pupils for vocational education The general entrance requirement for university is Abitur a qualification normally based on continuous assessment during the last few years at school and final examinations however there are a number of exceptions and precise requirements vary depending on the state the university and the subject Germany s universities are recognised internationally in the Academic Ranking of World Universities ARWU for 2008 six of the top 100 universities in the world are in Germany and 18 of the top 200 Most of the German universities are public institutions charging tuition fees of only around €60 per semester and up to €500 in the state of Niedersachsen for each student Thus academic education is open to most citizens and studying is increasingly common in Germany Although the dual education system that combines practical and theoretical educations and does not lead to academic degrees is typical for Germany and recognised as a role model for other countries The oldest universities of Germany are also among the oldest and best regarded in the world with Heidelberg University being the oldest established in 1386 and in continuous operation since then It is followed by Leipzig University 1409 Rostock University 1419 Greifswald University 1456 Freiburg University 1457 LMU Munich 1472 and the University of Tübingen 1477 Most German universities focus more on teaching than on research Research is mostly exhibited in independent institutes that are embedded in academic clusters such as within Max Planck Fraunhofer Leibniz and Helmholtz institutes This German specialisation is rarely reflected in academic rankings which is the reason why German universities seem to be underperforming according to some of the ratings such as ARWU Some German universities are shifting their focus more towards research though especially the institutes of technology Health Germany has the world s oldest universal health care system dating back to Bismarck s social legislation in 1883 Currently the population is covered by a fairly comprehensive health insurance plan provided by statute Certain groups of people lifetime officials self-employed persons employees with high income can opt out of the plan and switch to a private insurance contract Previously these groups could also choose to do without insurance but this option was dropped in 2009 According to the World Health Organization Germany s health care system was 77 government-funded and 23 privately funded In 2005 Germany spent 11 of its GDP on health care Germany ranked 20th in the world in life expectancy with 77 years for men and 82 years for women and it had a very low infant mortality rate 4 per 1 000 live births the principal cause of death was cardiovascular disease at 41 followed by malignant tumours at 26 about 82 000 Germans had been infected with HIV AIDS and 26 000 had died from the disease cumulatively since 1982 This article may incorporate text from this source which is in the public domain ref According to a 2005 survey 27 of German adults are smokers Culture From its roots culture in German states has been shaped by major intellectual and popular currents in Europe both religious and secular Historically Germany has been called Das Land der Dichter und Denker the land of poets and thinkers because of the major role its famous writers and philosophers have played in the development of Western thought and culture The federated states are in charge of the cultural institutions There are 240 subsidised theatres hundreds of symphonic orchestras thousands of museums and over 25 000 libraries spread in Germany These cultural opportunities are enjoyed by many there are over 91 million German museum visits every year annually 20 million go to theatres and operas 3 6 million per year listen to the symphonic orchestras As of 2012 the UNESCO inscribed 37 properties in Germany on the World Heritage List Germany has established a high level of gender equality promotes disability rights and is legally and socially tolerant towards homosexuals Gays and lesbians can legally adopt their partner s biological children and civil unions have been permitted since 2001 Germany has also changed its attitude towards immigrants since the mid-1990s the government and the majority of Germans have begun to acknowledge that controlled immigration should be allowed based on qualification standards Germany has been named the world s second most valued nation among 50 countries in 2010 A global opinion poll for the BBC revealed that Germany is recognised for having the most positive influence in the world in 2011 and for being the most positively viewed nation in the world in 2013 Art Numerous German painters have enjoyed international prestige through their work in diverse artistic styles Albrecht Dürer Hans Holbein the Younger Matthias Grünewald and Lucas Cranach the Elder were important artists of the Renaissance Peter Paul Rubens and Johann Baptist Zimmermann of Baroque Caspar David Friedrich and Carl Spitzweg of Romanticism Max Liebermann of Impressionism and Max Ernst of Surrealism Several German artist groups formed in the 20th century such as the November Group or Die Brücke The Bridge and Der Blaue Reiter The Blue Rider in Expressionism The New Objectivity arose as a counter-style to it during the Weimar Republic After WWII main movements of Neo-expressionism performance art and Conceptual art evolved with notable artists such as Joseph Beuys Gerhard Richter Jörg Immendorff HA Schult Aris Kalaizis Neo Rauch New Leipzig School and Andreas Gursky photography Major art exhibitions and festivals in Germany are the documenta transmediale and Art Cologne Music German classical music comprises works by some of the world s most well-known composers including Ludwig van Beethoven Johann Sebastian Bach Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Johannes Brahms Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss Germany is the largest music market in Europe and third largest in the world German popular music of the 20th and 21st century includes the movements of Neue Deutsche Welle Nena Alphaville Ostrock City Keimzeit Metal Rock Rammstein Scorpions Punk Die Ärzte Die Toten Hosen Pop rock Beatsteaks Tokio Hotel Indie Tocotronic Blumfeld and Hip Hop Die Fantastischen Vier Deichkind Especially the German Electronic music gained global influence with Kraftwerk being a pioneer group in this genre and the Minimal and Techno scenes in Germany being very popular e g Paul van Dyk Tomcraft Paul Kalkbrenner and Scooter Architecture Architectural contributions from Germany include the Carolingian and Ottonian styles which were precursors of Romanesque Brick Gothic in medieval times and Brick Expressionism in modern times are two distinctive styles that developed in Germany Also in Renaissance and Baroque art regional and typically German elements evolved e g Weser Renaissance and Dresden Baroque Among many renowned Baroque masters were Pöppelmann Balthasar Neumann Knobelsdorff and the Asam brothers Germany is especially renowned for its timber frame old towns with many well-kept examples to be found along the German Timber-Frame Road leading from the very south of Germany to Northern Germany and its coasts When industrialisation spread across Europe Classicism and a distinctive style of historism developed in Germany sometimes referred to as Gründerzeit style due to the economical boom years at the end of the 19th century Resort architecture and Spa architecture are sub-styles that evolved since the 18th century in Germany with the first modern spas and Seaside resorts of Europe Many architects formed this era with Schinkel Semper Stüler von Gärtner Schwechten and Lipsius among them Jugendstil became a dominant architectural style at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century with a strong influence of the Art Nouveau movement The Art Deco movement did not gain much influence in Germany instead the Expressionist architecture spread across the country with e g Höger Mendelsohn Böhm and Schumacher being influential architects Germany was particularly important in the early modern movement - it is the home of the Bauhaus movement founded by Walter Gropius And thus Germany is a cradle of modern architecture Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became one of the world s most renowned architects in the second half of the 20th century He conceived of the glass façade skyscraper Renowned contemporary architects include Hans Kollhoff Helmut Jahn Behnisch Albert Speer Junior Frei Otto Oswald Mathias Ungers Gottfried Böhm Stephan Braunfels and Anna Heringer Literature and philosophy German literature can be traced back to the Middle Ages and the works of writers such as Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach Well-known German authors include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Friedrich Schiller Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Theodor Fontane The collections of folk tales published by the Brothers Grimm popularised German folklore on an international level Influential authors of the 20th century include Gerhart Hauptmann Thomas Mann Hermann Hesse Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass German-speaking book publishers produce some 700 million books every year with about 80 000 titles nearly 60 000 of them new Germany comes third in quantity of books published after the English-speaking book market and the People s Republic of China The Frankfurt Book Fair is the most important in the world for international deals and trading with a tradition spanning over 500 years German philosophy is historically significant Gottfried Leibniz s contributions to rationalism the enlightenment philosophy by Immanuel Kant the establishment of classical German idealism by Johann Gottlieb Fichte Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling Arthur Schopenhauer s composition of metaphysical pessimism the formulation of communist theory by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Friedrich Nietzsche s development of perspectivism Gottlob Frege s contributions to the dawn of analytic philosophy Martin Heidegger s works on Being and the development of the Frankfurt school by Max Horkheimer Theodor Adorno Herbert Marcuse and Jürgen Habermas have been particularly influential In the 21st century Germany has contributed to the development of contemporary analytic philosophy in continental Europe Media German cinema dates back to the earliest years of the medium it has made major technical and artistic contributions to film as with the work of Max Skladanowsky who showed the first film sequences ever to an audience in 1895 Early German cinema was particularly influential with German expressionists such as Robert Wiene and Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Director Fritz Lang s Metropolis 1927 is referred to as the first modern science-fiction film In 1930 the Austrian-American Josef von Sternberg directed The Blue Angel the first major German sound film During the 1970s and 1980s New German Cinema directors such as Volker Schlöndorff Werner Herzog Wim Wenders and Rainer Werner Fassbinder put West German cinema on the international stage The annual European Film Awards ceremony is held every other year in Berlin home of the European Film Academy EFA the Berlin Film Festival held annually since 1951 is one of the world s foremost film festivals In the 21st century several German movies have had international success such as Nowhere in Africa 2001 Das Experiment 2001 Good Bye Lenin 2003 Gegen die Wand Head-On 2004 Der Untergang Downfall 2004 2006 The Baader Meinhof Complex 2008 The Wave 2008 The White Ribbon 2009 Pandorum 2009 Soul Kitchen 2009 Animals United 2010 Combat Girls 2011 and Cloud Atlas 2012 The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film went to the German production Die Blechtrommel The Tin Drum in 1979 to Nowhere in Africa in 2002 and to Das Leben der Anderen The Lives of Others in 2007 Germany s television market is the largest in Europe with some 34 million TV households Around 90 of German households have cable or satellite TV with a variety of free-to-view public and commercial channels The most watched television broadcast of all-time in Germany was the Germany vs Spain semi-fnal game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Nine out of ten of the top ten most watched television broadcasts of all-time in Germany feature the German national football team Cuisine German cuisine varies from region to region The southern regions of Bavaria and Swabia for instance share a culinary culture with Switzerland and Austria In all regions meat is often eaten in sausage form Organic food has gained a market share of ca 2 and is expected to increase further Although wine is becoming more popular in many parts of Germany the national alcoholic drink is beer German beer consumption per person is declining but at 121 4 litres in 2009 it is still among the highest in the world The Michelin guide has awarded nine restaurants in Germany three stars the highest designation while 15 more received two stars German restaurants have become the world s second-most decorated after France Pork beef and poultry are the main varieties of meat consumed in Germany with pork being the most popular The average person in Germany will consume up to of meat in a year Among poultry chicken is most common although duck goose and turkey are also enjoyed Game meats especially boar rabbit and venison are also widely available all year round Trout is the most common freshwater fish on the German menu pike carp and European perch also are listed frequently Vegetables are often used in stews or vegetable soups but are also served as side dishes Carrots turnips spinach peas beans broccoli and many types of cabbage are very common A wide variety of cakes and tarts are served throughout the country most commonly made with fresh fruit Apples plums strawberries and cherries are used regularly in cakes Cheesecake is also very popular often made with quark Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte Black Forest cake made with cherries is probably the most well-known example of a wide variety of typically German tortes filled with whipped or butter cream Sports Twenty-seven million Germans are members of a sports club and an additional twelve million pursue sports individually Association football is the most popular sport With more than 6 3 million official members the German Football Association Deutscher Fußball-Bund is the largest sports organisation of its kind worldwide The Bundesliga the top league of German football is the most popular sports league in Germany and attracts the second highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world The German national football team won the FIFA World Cup in 1954 1974 and 1990 and the UEFA European Football Championship in 1972 1980 and 1996 Germany hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1974 and 2006 and the UEFA European Football Championship in 1988 Among the most well-known footballers are Franz Beckenbauer Gerd Müller Jürgen Klinsmann Lothar Matthäus and Oliver Kahn Other popular spectator sports include handball volleyball basketball ice hockey and tennis Germany is one of the leading motor sports countries in the world Constructors like BMW and Mercedes are prominent manufacturers in motor sport Additionally Porsche has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans an annual endurance race held in France 16 times and Audi has won it 11 times The Formula One driver Michael Schumacher has set many motor sport records during his career having won more Formula One World Drivers Championships and more Formula One races than any other driver he is one of the highest paid sportsmen in history Historically German sportsmen have been successful contenders in the Olympic Games ranking third in an all-time Olympic Games medal count combining East and West German medals In the 2008 Summer Olympics Germany finished fifth in the medal count while in the 2006 Winter Olympics they finished first Germany has hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice in Berlin in 1936 and in Munich in 1972 The Winter Olympic Games took place in Germany once in 1936 in the twin towns of Garmisch and Partenkirchen'

ent_lines_4EX['Queen (band)'] = '42010	Queen (band)	Queen band  Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970 originally consisting of Freddie Mercury lead vocals piano Brian May guitar vocals John Deacon bass guitar and Roger Taylor drums vocals Queen s earliest works were influenced by progressive rock hard rock and heavy metal but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works incorporating further diverse styles into their music Before joining Queen Brian May and Roger Taylor had been playing together in a band named Smile with bassist Tim Staffell Freddie Mercury then known as Farrokh Freddie Bulsara was a fan of Smile and encouraged them to experiment with more elaborate stage and recording techniques after Staffell s departure in 1970 Mercury himself joined the band shortly thereafter changed the name of the band to Queen and adopted his familiar stage name John Deacon was recruited prior to recording their eponymous debut album 1973 Queen enjoyed success in the UK with their debut and its follow-up Queen II 1974 but it was the release of Sheer Heart Attack 1974 and A Night at the Opera 1975 that gained the band international success The latter featured Bohemian Rhapsody which stayed at number one in the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks it charted at number one in several other territories and gave the band their first top ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 Their 1977 album News of the World contained two of rock s most recognisable anthems We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions By the early 1980s Queen were one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world and their performance at 1985 s Live Aid is widely regarded as one of the greatest in rock history In 1991 Mercury died of bronchopneumonia a complication of AIDS and Deacon retired in 1997 Since then May and Taylor have infrequently performed together including a collaboration with Paul Rodgers under the name Queen Paul Rodgers which ended in May 2009 The band have released a total of 18 number one albums 18 number one singles and 10 number one DVDs Estimates of their album sales generally range from 150 million to 300 million albums making them one of the world s best-selling music artists They received the Outstanding Contribution to British Music Award from the British Phonographic Industry in 1990 and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 History Early days 1968–1974 In 1968 guitarist Brian May a student at London s Imperial College and bassist Tim Staffell decided to form a band May placed an advertisement on the college notice board for a Mitch Mitchell Ginger Baker type drummer Roger Taylor a young dental student auditioned and got the job The group called themselves Smile While attending Ealing Art College Tim Staffell became friends with Farrokh Bulsara a fellow student who had assumed the English name of Freddie Bulsara felt that he and the band had the same tastes and soon became a keen fan of Smile In late 1970 after Staffell left to join the band Humpy Bong the remaining Smile members encouraged by Bulsara changed their name to Queen and continued working together When asked about the name Bulsara explained I thought up the name Queen It s just a name but it s very regal obviously and it sounds splendid It s a strong name very universal and immediate It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations I was certainly aware of gay connotations but that was just one facet of it The band had a number of bass players during this period who did not fit with the band s chemistry It was not until February 1971 that they settled on John Deacon and began to rehearse for their first album They recorded four of their own songs Liar Keep Yourself Alive The Night Comes Down and Jesus for a demo tape no record companies were interested It was also around this time Freddie changed his surname to Mercury inspired by the line Mother Mercury look what they ve done to me in the song My Fairy King On 2 July 1971 Queen played their first show in the classic line-up of Mercury May Deacon and Taylor at a Surrey college outside London Having attended art college Mercury also designed Queen s logo called the Queen crest shortly before the release of the band s first album The logo combines the zodiac signs of all four members two lions for Leo Deacon and Taylor a crab for Cancer May and two fairies for Virgo Mercury The lions embrace a stylised letter Q the crab rests atop the letter with flames rising directly above it and the fairies are each sheltering below a lion There is also a crown inside the Q and the whole logo is over-shadowed by an enormous phoenix The whole symbol bears a passing resemblance to the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom particularly with the lion supporters The original logo as found on the reverse-side of the first album cover was a simple line drawing but more intricate colour versions were used on later sleeves In 1972 Queen entered discussions with Trident Studios after being spotted at De La Lane Studios by John Antony and after discussions were offered a management deal by Norman Sheffield under Neptune Productions a subsidiary of Trident to manage the band and enable them to use the facilities at Trident to record new material whilst the management search for a record label to sign Queen This suited both parties at the time as Trident were expanding into management and Queen under the deal were able to make use of the hi-tech recording facilities shared by bands at the time such as The Beatles and Elton John to produce new material However Trident found it difficult to find a label for a band bearing a name with such connotation during the early 1970s In July 1973 Queen finally under under a Trident EMI deal released their eponymous debut album an effort influenced by the heavy metal and progressive rock of the day The album was received well by critics Gordon Fletcher of Rolling Stone said their debut album is superb and Chicago s Daily Herald called it an above average debut It drew little mainstream attention and the lead single Keep Yourself Alive a Brian May composition sold poorly Retrospectively Keep Yourself Alive is cited as the highlight of the album and in 2008 Rolling Stone ranked it 31st in the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs Of All Time describing it as an entire album s worth of riffs crammed into a single song The album was certified gold in the UK and the US The group s second LP Queen II was released in 1974 and features rock photographer Mick Rock s iconic image of the band on the cover This image would be used as the basis for the 1975 Bohemian Rhapsody music video production The album reached number five on the British album chart and became the first Queen album to chart in the UK The Freddie Mercury-written lead single Seven Seas of Rhye reached number ten in the UK giving the band their first hit The album is the first real testament to the band s distinctive layered sound and features long complex instrumental passages fantasy-themed lyrics and musical virtuosity Aside from its only single the album also included the song The March of the Black Queen a six-minute epic which lacks a chorus The Daily Vault described the number as menacing Critical reaction was mixed the Winnipeg Free Press while praising the band s debut album described Queen II as a over-produced monstrosity Allmusic has described the album as a favourite among the band s hardcore fans and it is the first of three Queen albums to feature in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die Sheer Heart Attack to A Night at the Opera 1974–1976 After the band s six-night stand at New York s Uris Theatre in May 1974 Brian May collapsed and was diagnosed as having hepatitis While recuperating May was initially absent when the band started work on their third album but he returned midway through the recording process Released in 1974 Sheer Heart Attack reached number two in the United Kingdom sold well throughout Europe and went gold in the United States It gave the band their first real experience of international success and was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic The album experimented with a variety of musical genres including British music hall heavy metal ballads ragtime and Caribbean At this point Queen started to move away from the progressive tendencies of their first two releases into a more radio-friendly song-oriented style Sheer Heart Attack introduced new sound and melody patterns that would be refined on their next album A Night at the Opera The single Killer Queen from Sheer Heart Attack reached number two on the British charts and became their first US hit reaching number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 It combines camp vaudeville and British music hall with May s guitar virtuosity The album s second single Now I m Here a more traditional hard rock composition was a number eleven hit in Britain while the high speed rocker Stone Cold Crazy featuring May s uptempo riffs is a precursor to speed metal In recent years the album has received acclaim from music publications In 2006 Classic Rock ranked it number 28 in The 100 Greatest British Rock Albums Ever and in 2007 Mojo ranked it No 88 in The 100 Records That Changed the World It is also the second of three Queen albums to feature in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die In 1975 the band left for a world tour with each member in Zandra Rhodes -created costumes and accompanied with banks of lights and effects They toured the US as headliners and played in Canada for the first time In September later that year after an acromonious split with Trident the band negotiated themselves out of their Trident Studios contract and searched for new management One of the options they considered was an offer from Led Zeppelin s manager Peter Grant Grant wanted them to sign with Led Zeppelin s own production company Swan Song Records The band found the contract unacceptable and instead contacted Elton John s manager John Reid who accepted the position In late 1975 Queen recorded and released A Night at the Opera taking its name from the popular Marx Brothers movie At the time it was the most expensive album ever produced Like its predecessor the album features diverse musical styles and experimentation with stereo sound In The Prophet s Song an eight-minute epic the middle section is a canon with simple phrases layered to create a full-choral sound The Mercury penned ballad Love of My Life featured a harp and overdubbed vocal harmonies The album was very successful in Britain and went triple platinum in the United States The British public voted it the 13th greatest album of all time in a 2004 Channel 4 poll It has also ranked highly in international polls in a worldwide Guinness poll it was voted the 19th greatest of all time while an ABC poll saw the Australian public vote it the 28th greatest of all time A Night at the Opera has frequently appeared in greatest albums lists reflecting the opinions of critics Among other accolades it was ranked number 16 in Q Magazine s The 50 Best British Albums Ever in 2004 and number 11 in Rolling Stone s The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time as featured in their Mexican edition in 2004 It was also placed at No  230 on Rolling Stone magazine s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003 A Night at the Opera is the third and final Queen album to be featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die The album also featured the hit single Bohemian Rhapsody which was number one in the UK for nine weeks and is the third-best-selling single of all time in the UK surpassed only by Band Aid s Do They Know It s Christmas and Elton John s Candle in the Wind 1997 —making it the best selling commercial single in the UK It also reached number nine in the United States a 1992 re-release reached number two on Billboard for five weeks It is the only single ever to sell a million copies on two separate occasions and became the Christmas number one twice in the UK the only single ever to do so Bohemian Rhapsody has been voted numerous times the greatest song of all time The band decided to make a video to help go with the single and hired Trilion a subsidiary of the former management company Trident Studios using new technology to create the video the result is generally considered to have been the first true music video ever produced The album s first track Death on Two Legs is said to be written by Mercury about Norman Sheffield and the former management at Trident who helped make the video so popular Although other bands including The Beatles had made short promotional films or videos of songs prior to this generally those were specifically made to be aired on specific television shows The second single from the album You re My Best Friend the second song composed by John Deacon and his first single peaked at number sixteen in the United States and went on to become a worldwide Top Ten hit The band s A Night at the Opera Tour began in November 1975 and covered Europe the United States Japan and Australia A Day at the Races to Live Killers 1976–1979 By 1976 Queen were back in the studio recording A Day at the Races which is often regarded as a sequel album to A Night at the Opera It again borrowed the name of a Marx Brothers movie and its cover was similar to that of A Night at the Opera a variation on the same Queen Crest The most recognisable of the Marx Brothers Groucho Marx invited Queen to visit him in his Los Angeles home in March 1977 there the band thanked him in person and performed 39 a cappella Musically A Day at the Races was by both fans and critics standards a strong effort reaching number one in the UK and Japan and number five in the US The major hit on the album was Somebody to Love a gospel-inspired song in which Mercury May and Taylor multi-tracked their voices to create a 100-voice gospel choir The song went to number two in the United Kingdom and number thirteen on the US singles chart The album also featured one of the band s heaviest songs Brian May s Tie Your Mother Down which became a staple of their live shows During 1976 Queen played one of their most famous gigs a free concert in Hyde Park London It set an attendance record with 150 000 people confirmed in the audience On 1 December 1976 Queen were the intended guests on London s early evening Today programme but they pulled out at the last-minute which saw their late replacement on the show EMI labelmate the Sex Pistols give their seminal interview During the A Day at the Races Tour in 1977 Queen performed sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden New York in February and Earls Court London in June The band s sixth studio album News of the World was released in 1977 which has gone four times platinum in the United States and twice in the UK The album contained many songs tailor-made for live performance including two of rock s most recognisable anthems We Will Rock You and the rock ballad We Are the Champions both of which became enduring international sports anthems and the latter reached number four in the United States Queen commenced the News of the World Tour in October 1977 and Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times called this concert tour the band s most spectacularly staged and finely honed show In 1978 Queen toured the US and Canada and spent much of 1979 touring in Europe and Japan They released their first live album Live Killers in 1979 it went platinum twice in the United States Queen also released the very successful single Crazy Little Thing Called Love a rockabilly inspired song done in the style of Elvis Presley The song made the top 10 in many countries topped the Australian ARIA Charts for seven consecutive weeks and was the band s first number one single in the United States where it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks Having written the song on guitar and played rhythm on the record Mercury played rhythm guitar while performing the song live which was the first time he ever played guitar in concert In December 1979 Queen played the opening night at the Concert for the People of Kampuchea in London having accepted a request by the event s organiser Paul McCartney The Game to The Works 1980–1984 Queen began their 1980s career with The Game It featured the singles Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Another One Bites the Dust both of which reached number one in the United States After attending a Queen concert in Los Angeles Michael Jackson suggested to Mercury backstage that Another One Bites the Dust be released as a single and in October 1980 it spent three weeks at number one The album topped the Billboard 200 for five weeks and sold over four million copies in the US It was also the first appearance of a synthesiser on a Queen album Heretofore their albums featured a distinctive No Synthesisers sleeve note The note is widely assumed to reflect an anti-synth pro- hard -rock stance by the band but was later revealed by producer Roy Thomas Baker to be an attempt to clarify that those albums multi-layered solos were created with guitars not synths as record company executives kept assuming at the time In September 1980 Queen performed three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden In 1980 Queen also released the soundtrack they had recorded for Flash Gordon At the 1981 American Music Awards on 30 January Another One Bites the Dust won the award for Favorite Pop Rock Single and Queen were nominated for Favorite Pop Rock Band Duo or Group In February 1981 Queen travelled to South America as part of The Game Tour and became the first major rock band to play in Latin American stadiums The tour included five shows in Argentina one of which drew the largest single concert crowd in Argentine history with an audience of 300 000 in Buenos Aires and two concerts at the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo Brazil where they played to an audience of more than 131 000 people in the first night then the largest paying audience for a single band anywhere in the world and more than 120 000 people the following night In October of the same year Queen performed for more than 150 000 fans on 9 October at Monterrey Estadio Universitario and 17 and 18 at Puebla Estadio Zaragoza Mexico On 24 and 25 November Queen played two sell out nights at the Montreal Forum Quebec Canada One of Mercury s most notable performances of The Game s final track Save Me took place in Montreal and the concert is recorded in the live album Queen Rock Montreal Queen worked with David Bowie on the single Under Pressure The first-time collaboration with another artist was spontaneous as Bowie happened to drop by the studio while Queen were recording Upon its release the song was extremely successful reaching number one in the UK and featuring at number 31 on VH1 s 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s Later in 1981 Queen released their first compilation album titled Greatest Hits which showcased the group s highlights from 1974–1981 It is the best-selling album in UK Chart history and has spent 450 weeks in the UK Album Chart The album is certified eight times platinum in the United States and has sold over 25 million copies worldwide Taylor became the first member of the band to release his own solo album in 1981 titled Fun in Space In 1982 the band released the album Hot Space a departure from their trademark seventies sound this time being a mixture of rock pop rock dance funk and R B Most of the album was recorded in Munich during the most turbulent period in the band s history and Taylor and May lamented the new sound with both being very critical of the influence Mercury s personal manager Paul Prenter had on the singer May was also scathing of Prenter who was Mercury s manager from the early 1980s to 1984 for being dismissive of the importance of radio stations such as the US networks and their vital connection between the artist and the community and for denying them access to Mercury The band stopped touring North America after their Hot Space Tour as their success there had waned although they would perform on American television for the only time during the eighth season premiere of Saturday Night Live Queen left Elektra Records their label in the United States Canada Japan Australia and New Zealand and signed onto EMI Capitol Records After working steadily for over ten years Queen decided that they would not perform any live shows in 1983 During this time they recorded a new album at the Record Plant Studios Los Angeles and Musicland Studios Munich and several members of the band explored side projects and solo work May released a mini-album titled Star Fleet Project on which he collaborated with Eddie Van Halen In February 1984 Queen released their eleventh studio album The Works which included the successful singles Radio Ga Ga Hammer to Fall and I Want to Break Free Despite these hit singles the album failed to do well in the United States while in the UK it went triple platinum and remained in the album chart for two years That year Queen began The Works Tour the first tour to feature keyboardist Spike Edney as an extra live musician The tour featured nine sold-out dates in October in Bophuthatswana South Africa at the arena in Sun City Upon returning to England they were the subject of outrage having played there during the height of apartheid and in violation of worldwide divestment efforts and a United Nations cultural boycott The band responded to the critics by stating that they were playing music for fans in that country and they also stressed that the concerts were played before integrated audiences Queen donated to a school for the deaf and blind as a philanthropic gesture but were fined by the Musicians Union and placed on the United Nations blacklisted artists Live Aid and later years 1985–1990 In January 1985 the band headlined two nights of the first Rock in Rio festival at Rio de Janeiro Brazil and played in front of over 300 000 people each night The Boston Globe described it as a mesmerising performance A selection of highlights of both nights was released on VHS with the title Queen Live in Rio and was later broadcast on MTV in the US In April and May 1985 Queen completed the Works Tour with sold-out shows in Australia and Japan At Live Aid held at Wembley on 13 July 1985 in front of the biggest-ever TV audience of 1 9 billion Queen performed some of their greatest hits during which the sold-out stadium audience of 72 000 people clapped sang and swayed in unison The show s organisers Bob Geldof and Midge Ure other musicians such as Elton John Cliff Richard and Dave Grohl and various music journalists commented that Queen stole the show An industry poll in 2005 named it the greatest rock performance of all time When interviewed for Mojo magazine the band said the most amazing sight at Live Aid was to see the audience clapping to Radio Ga Ga Brian May stated I d never seen anything like that in my life and it wasn t calculated either We understood our audience and played to them but that was one of those weird accidents because of the music video I remember thinking oh great they ve picked it up and then I thought this is not a Queen audience This is a general audience who ve bought tickets before they even knew we were on the bill And they all did it How did they know Nobody told them to do it The band now revitalised by the response to Live Aid — a shot in the arm Roger Taylor called it Also a limited-edition boxed set containing all Queen albums to date was released under the title of The Complete Works The package included previously unreleased material most notably Queen s non-album single of Christmas 1984 titled Thank God It s Christmas In early 1986 Queen recorded the album A Kind of Magic containing several reworkings of songs written for the fantasy action film Highlander The album was very successful producing a string of hits including the title track A Kind of Magic Also charting from the album were Friends Will Be Friends Who Wants to Live Forever featuring an orchestra conducted by Michael Kamen and the de facto theme from Highlander Princes of the Universe In summer of 1986 Queen went on their final tour with Freddie Mercury A sold-out tour in support of A Kind of Magic once again they hired Spike Edney leading to him being dubbed the unofficial fifth member The Magic Tour s highlight was at Wembley Stadium in London and resulted in the live double album Queen at Wembley released on CD and as a live concert DVD which has gone five times platinum in the US and four times platinum in the UK Queen could not book Wembley for a third night but they did play at Knebworth Park The show sold out within two hours and over 120 000 fans packed the park for what was Queen s final live performance with Mercury Queen began the tour at the Råsunda Stadium in Stockholm Sweden and during the tour the band performed a concert at Slane Castle Ireland in front of an audience of 95 000 which broke the venue s attendance record The band also played behind the Iron Curtain when they performed to a crowd of 80 000 at the Népstadion in Budapest in what was one of the biggest rock concerts ever held in Eastern Europe More than one million people saw Queen on the tour—400 000 in the United Kingdom alone a record at the time After working on various solo projects during 1988 including Mercury s collaboration with Montserrat Caballé Barcelona the band released The Miracle in 1989 The album continued the direction of A Kind of Magic using a pop-rock sound mixed with a few heavy numbers It spawned the European hits I Want It All Breakthru The Invisible Man Scandal and The Miracle The Miracle also began a change in direction of Queen s songwriting philosophy Since the band s beginning nearly all songs had been written by and credited to a single member with other members adding minimally With The Miracle the band s songwriting became more collaborative and they vowed to credit the final product only to Queen as a group Mercury illness death and tribute 1988–1992 After fans noticed Mercury s increasingly gaunt appearance in 1988 rumours began to spread that Mercury was suffering from AIDS Mercury flatly denied this insisting he was merely exhausted and too busy to provide interviews The band decided to continue making albums starting with The Miracle in 1989 and continuing with Innuendo in 1991 Despite his deteriorating health the lead singer continued to contribute For the last two albums made while Mercury was still alive the band credited all songs to Queen rather than specific members of the group freeing them of internal conflict and differences In 1990 Mercury made his final public appearance when he joined the rest of Queen to collect the BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music Innuendo was released in early 1991 with an eponymous number 1 UK hit and other charting singles including The Show Must Go On Mercury was increasingly ill and could barely walk when the band recorded The Show Must Go On in 1990 Because of this May had concerns about whether he was physically capable of singing it Recalling Mercury s successful performance May states he went in and killed it completely lacerated that vocal The band s second greatest hits compilation Greatest Hits II followed in October 1991 which is the eighth best-selling album of all time in the UK and has sold 16 million copies worldwide On 23 November 1991 in a prepared statement made on his deathbed Mercury confirmed that he had AIDS Within 24 hours of the statement he died of bronchial pneumonia which was brought on as a complication of AIDS His funeral service on 27 November in Kensal Green West London was private and held in accordance with the Zoroastrian religious faith of his family Bohemian Rhapsody was re-released as a single shortly after Mercury s death with These Are the Days of Our Lives as the double A-side The music video for These Are the Days of Our Lives contain Mercury s final scenes in front of the camera The single went to number one in the UK remaining there for five weeks – the only recording to top the Christmas chart twice and the only one to be number one in four different years 1975 1976 1991 and 1992 Initial proceeds from the single – approximately £1 000 000 – were donated to the Terrence Higgins Trust Queen s popularity was stimulated in the United States when Bohemian Rhapsody was featured in the 1992 comedy film Wayne s World Its inclusion helped the song reach number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks in 1992 it remained in the Hot 100 for over 40 weeks and won the band an MTV Award at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards The compilation album Classic Queen also reached number four on the Billboard 200 and is certified three times platinum in the US Wayne s World footage was used to make a new music video for Bohemian Rhapsody with which the band and management were delighted On 20 April 1992 The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was held at London s Wembley Stadium to a 72 000-strong crowd Performers including Def Leppard Robert Plant Guns N Roses Elton John David Bowie George Michael Annie Lennox Seal Extreme and Metallica performed various Queen songs along with the three remaining Queen members The concert is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as The largest rock star benefit concert as it was televised to over 1 2 billion viewers worldwide and raised over £20 000 000 for AIDS charities Made in Heaven to 46664 Concert 1995–2003 Queen s last album featuring Mercury titled Made in Heaven was finally released in 1995 four years after his death Featuring tracks such as Too Much Love Will Kill You and Heaven for Everyone it was constructed from Mercury s final recordings in 1991 material left over from their previous studio albums and re-worked material from May Taylor and Mercury s solo albums Both stages of recording before and after Mercury s death were completed at the band s studio in Montreux Switzerland The album reached No  1 on the UK charts immediately following its release and has sold 20 million copies worldwide On 25 November 1996 a statue of Mercury was unveiled in Montreux overlooking Lake Geneva almost five years to the day since his death In 1997 Queen returned to the studio to record No-One but You Only the Good Die Young It was released as a bonus track on the Queen Rocks compilation album later that year The song was later released as a single reaching number 13 in the UK chart In January 1997 Queen performed The Show Must Go On live with Elton John and the Béjart Ballet in Paris on a night in which Freddie Mercury was remembered and it marked the last performance and public appearance of John Deacon who chose to retire The Paris concert was only the second time Queen had played live since Mercury s death and prompted Elton John to urge them to perform again Brian May and Roger Taylor performed together at several award ceremonies and charity concerts sharing vocals with various guest singers During this time they were billed as Queen followed by the guest singer s name In 1998 the duo appeared at Luciano Pavarotti s benefit concert with May performing Too Much Love Will Kill You with Pavarotti later playing Radio Ga Ga We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions with Zucchero They again attended and performed at Pavarotti s benefit concert in Modena Italy in May 2003 Several of the guest singers recorded new versions of Queen s hits under the Queen name such as Robbie Williams providing vocals for We Are the Champions for the soundtrack of A Knight s Tale 2001 In 1999 a Greatest Hits III album was released This featured among others Queen Wyclef Jean on a rap version of Another One Bites the Dust A live version of Somebody to Love by George Michael and a live version of The Show Must Go On with Elton John were also featured in the album By this point Queen s vast amount of record sales made them the second best selling artist in the UK of all time behind The Beatles In 2002 Queen were awarded the 2 207th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame which is located at 6358 Hollywood Blvd On 29 November 2003 May and Taylor performed at the 46664 Concert hosted by Nelson Mandela at Green Point Stadium Cape Town in order to raise awareness of the spread of HIV AIDS in South Africa May and Taylor spent time at Mandela s home discussing how Africa s problems might be approached and two years later the band was made ambassadors for the 46664 cause Queen Paul Rodgers 2004–2009 At the end of 2004 May and Taylor announced that they would reunite and return to touring in 2005 with Paul Rodgers founder and former lead singer of Free and Bad Company Brian May s website also stated that Rodgers would be featured with Queen as Queen Paul Rodgers not replacing Mercury The retired John Deacon would not be participating In November 2004 Queen were among the inaugural inductees into the UK Music Hall of Fame and the award ceremony was the first event at which Rodgers joined May and Taylor as vocalist Between 2005 and 2006 Queen Paul Rodgers embarked on a world tour which was the first time Queen toured since their last tour with Freddie Mercury in 1986 The band s drummer Roger Taylor commented We never thought we would tour again Paul came along by chance and we seemed to have a chemistry Paul is just such a great singer He s not trying to be Freddie The first leg was in Europe the second in Japan and the third in the US in 2006 Queen received the inaugural VH1 Rock Honors at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas Nevada on 25 May 2006 The Foo Fighters paid homage to the band in performing Tie Your Mother Down to open the ceremony before being joined on stage by May Taylor and Paul Rodgers who played a selection of Queen hits On 15 August 2006 Brian May confirmed through his website and fan club that Queen Paul Rodgers would begin producing their first studio album beginning in October to be recorded at a secret location Queen Paul Rodgers performed at the Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday Tribute held in Hyde Park London on 27 June 2008 to commemorate Mandela s ninetieth birthday and again promote awareness of the HIV AIDS pandemic The first Queen Paul Rodgers album titled The Cosmos Rocks was released in Europe on 12 September 2008 and in the United States on 28 October 2008 Following the release of the album the band again went on a tour through Europe opening on Kharkiv s Freedom Square in front of 350 000 Ukrainian fans The 12 September concert in Ukraine was later released on DVD The tour then moved to Russia and the band performed two sold-out shows at the Moscow Arena Having completed the first leg of its extensive European tour which saw the band play 15 sold-out dates across nine countries the UK leg of the tour sold out within 90 minutes of going on sale and included three London dates the first of which was The O2 Arena on 13 October The last leg of the tour took place in South America and included a sold-out concert at the Estadio José Amalfitani Buenos Aires Queen and Paul Rodgers officially split up without animosity on 12 May 2009 Rodgers stated My arrangement with was similar to my arrangement with Jimmy Page in The Firm in that it was never meant to be a permanent arrangement Rodgers did not rule out the possibility of working with Queen again Departure from EMI 40th Anniversary 2009–present On 20 May 2009 May and Taylor performed We Are the Champions live on the season finale of American Idol with winner Kris Allen and runner-up Adam Lambert providing a vocal duet In mid-2009 after the split of Queen Paul Rodgers the Queen online website announced a new greatest hits compilation named Absolute Greatest The album was released on 16 November and peaked at number 3 in the official UK Chart The album contains 20 of Queen s biggest hits spanning their entire career and was released in four different formats single disc double disc with commentary double disc with feature book and a vinyl record Prior to its release a competition was run by Queen online to guess the track listing as a promotion for the album On 30 October 2009 May wrote a fanclub letter on his website stating that Queen had no intentions to tour in 2010 but that there was a possibility of a performance He was quoted as saying The greatest debate though is always about when we will next play together as Queen At the moment in spite of the many rumours that are out there we do not have plans to tour in 2010 The good news though is that Roger and I have a much closer mutual understanding these days—privately and professionally and all ideas are carefully considered Music is never far away from us As I write there is an important one-off performance on offer in the USA and it remains to be decided whether we will take up this particular challenge Every day doors seem to open and every day we interact perhaps more than ever before with the world outside It is a time of exciting transition in Rock music and in The Business It s good that the pulse still beats On 15 November 2009 May and Taylor performed Bohemian Rhapsody live on the British TV show The X Factor alongside the finalists On 7 May 2010 May and Taylor announced that they were quitting their record label EMI after almost 40 years On 20 August 2010 Queen s manager Jim Beach put out a Newsletter stating that the band had signed a new contract with Universal Music During an interview for Hardtalk on the BBC on 22 September May confirmed that the band s new deal was with Island Records a subsidiary of Universal For the first time since the late 1980s Queen s catalogue will have the same distributor worldwide as their US home Hollywood Records is currently distributed by Universal for a time in the late 1980s Queen was on EMI-owned Capitol Records in the US On 14 March 2011 which marked the band s 40th anniversary Queen s first five albums were re-released in the UK and some other territories as remastered deluxe editions the US versions were released on 17 May The second five albums of Queen s back catalogue were released worldwide on 27 June with the exception of the US and Canada 27 September The final five were released in the UK on 5 September In May 2011 Jane s Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell noted that Queen are currently scouting their once former and current live bassist Chris Chaney to join the band Farrell stated I have to keep Chris away from Queen who want him and they re not gonna get him unless we re not doing anything Then they can have him In the same month Paul Rodgers stated he may tour with Queen again in the near future At the 2011 Broadcast Music Incorporated BMI Awards held in London on 4 October Queen received the BMI Icon Award in recognition for their airplay success in the US At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards on 6 November Queen received the Global Icon Award which Katy Perry presented to Brian May Queen closed the awards ceremony with Adam Lambert on vocals performing The Show Must Go On We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions The collaboration garnered a positive response from both fans and critics resulting in speculation about future projects together In October 2011 it was announced that Queen will be recording a new album featuring lost demos of Mercury on vocals Brian May confirmed that he and Taylor are working their way through the band s old material to compile a selection of unreleased songs for the forthcoming album May also revealed that a series of duets that Mercury recorded with Michael Jackson are to be released in 2012 On 25 and 26 April May and Taylor appeared on the eleventh series of American Idol at the Nokia Theatre Los Angeles performing a Queen medley with the six finalists on the first show and the following day performed Somebody to Love with the Queen Extravaganza band Queen were scheduled to headline Sonisphere at Knebworth on 7 July 2012 with Adam Lambert before the festival was cancelled Queen s final concert with Freddie Mercury was in Knebworth in 1986 Brian May commented It s a worthy challenge for us and I m sure Adam would meet with Freddie s approval Queen expressed disappointment at the cancellation and released a statement to the effect that they were looking to find another venue It was later announced that Queen Adam Lambert would play two shows at the Hammersmith Apollo London on 11 and 12 July 2012 Both shows sold out within 24 hours of tickets going on open sale A third London date was scheduled for 14 July On 30 June Queen Lambert performed in Kiev Ukraine at a joint concert with Elton John for the Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation Queen also performed with Lambert on 3 July 2012 at Moscow s Olympic Stadium and on 7 July 2012 at the Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw Poland On 12 August 2012 Queen performed at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London The performance at London s Olympic Stadium opened with a special remastered video clip of Freddie Mercury on stage performing his call and response routine during their 1986 concert at Wembley Stadium Following this May performed part of the Brighton Rock solo before being joined by Taylor and solo artist Jessie J for a performance of We Will Rock You On 20 September 2013 Queen Adam Lambert performed at the iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Hotel Casino in Las Vegas Artistry Musical style The band drew artistic influence from many other British rock acts at the time such as The Beatles Led Zeppelin Pink Floyd The Who Black Sabbath Slade Deep Purple and David Bowie Queen composed music that drew inspiration from many different genres of music often with a tongue-in-cheek attitude The genres they have been associated with include progressive rock glam rock hard rock heavy metal pop rock psychedelic rock blues rock and dance disco Queen also wrote songs that were inspired by genres that are not typically associated with rock such as ragtime opera gospel vaudeville and folk In 1963 the teenage Brian May and his father custom-built his signature guitar Red Special which was purposely designed to feedback Sonic experimentation figured heavily in Queen s songs A distinctive characteristic of Queen s music are the vocal harmonies which are usually composed of the voices of May Mercury and Taylor best heard on the studio albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races Some of the ground work for the development of this sound can be attributed to their former producer Roy Thomas Baker and their engineer Mike Stone Besides vocal harmonies Queen were also known for multi-tracking voices to imitate the sound of a large choir through overdubs For instance according to Brian May there are over 180 vocal overdubs in Bohemian Rhapsody Many Queen songs were also written with audience participation in mind such as We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions Influence Queen have been recognised as having made significant contributions to such genres as hard rock and heavy metal amongst others Hence the band have been cited as an influence by many other musicians Moreover like their music the bands and artists that have claimed to be influenced by Queen are diverse and span different generations countries and genres Some of the musicians that have cited the band as an influence include Anthrax Nirvana Def Leppard Dream Theater Extreme Trivium Foo Fighters Franz Ferdinand George Michael Green Day Guns N Roses Iron Maiden Journey Kansas Katy Perry Keane Lady Gaga Manic Street Preachers Meat Loaf Metallica Mika Muse Mötley Crüe My Chemical Romance Panic at the Disco Queensrÿche Van Halen Radiohead Robbie Williams Trent Reznor Steve Vai Sum 41 Styx Midge Ure The Flaming Lips The Killers and The Smashing Pumpkins Queen have been cited as a major influence on the neo-classical metal genre by Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen Metallica recorded a cover version of Stone Cold Crazy which first appeared on the album in 1990 and won their first Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1991 In the early 1970s Queen helped spur the heavy metal genre s evolution by discarding much of its blues influence the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in addition they fused the music genre with a punk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed Legacy In 2002 Queen s Bohemian Rhapsody was voted the UK s favourite hit of all time in a poll conducted by the Guinness World Records British Hit Singles Book and in 2004 the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame Acclaimed for their stadium rock in 2005 an industry poll ranked Queen s performance at Live Aid in 1985 as the best live act in history In 2007 they were also voted the greatest British band in history by BBC Radio 2 listeners As of 2005 according to the Guinness Book of World Records Queen albums have spent a total of 1 322 weeks twenty-six years on the UK Album Charts more time than any other musical act Also in 2005 with the release of their live album with Paul Rodgers Queen moved into third place on the list of acts with the most aggregate time spent on the British record charts In 2006 the Greatest Hits album was the all-time best-selling album in UK Chart history with sales of 5 407 587 copies over 604 295 more copies than its nearest competitor The Beatles Sgt Pepper s Lonely Hearts Club Band Their Greatest Hits II album is the eighth best seller with sales of 3 746 404 copies The band have released a total of eighteen number one albums eighteen number one singles and ten number one DVDs worldwide making them one of the world s best-selling music artists Queen have sold over 150 million albums with some estimates in excess of 300 million albums worldwide including 34 5 million in the United States alone as of 2004 Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 the band is also the only group in which every member has composed more than one chart-topping single and all four members of Queen were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003 In 2009 We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the latter was voted the world s favourite song in a global music poll Queen are one of the most bootlegged bands ever according to Nick Weymouth who manages the band s official website A 2001 survey discovered the existence of 12 225 websites dedicated to Queen bootlegs the highest number for any band Bootleg recordings have contributed to the band s popularity in certain countries where Western music is censored such as Iran In a project called Queen The Top 100 Bootlegs many of these have been made officially available to download for a nominal fee from Queen s website with profits going to the Mercury Phoenix Trust Rolling Stone ranked Queen at number 52 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time while ranking Mercury the 18th greatest singer and May the twenty-sixth greatest guitarist Queen were named 13th on VH1 s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock list and in 2010 were ranked 17th on VH1 s 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list Visitors to Play com voted them as the best music artist of the last 60 years in their list of Top 100 Music Artists in 2013 Gigwise readers chose Queen as the best band of past 60 years In other media Musical theatre In May 2002 a musical or rock theatrical based on the songs of Queen titled We Will Rock You opened at the Dominion Theatre on London s West End The musical was written by British comedian and author Ben Elton in collaboration with Brian May and Roger Taylor and produced by Robert De Niro It has since been staged in many cities around the world Following the Las Vegas premiere on 8 September 2004 Queen were inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk in Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles The original London production was scheduled to close on Saturday 7 October 2006 at the Dominion Theatre but due to public demand the show has now been extended indefinitely We Will Rock You has become the longest running musical ever to run at this prime London theatre overtaking the previous record holder the Grease musical Brian May has confirmed that they are considering writing a sequel to the musical The musical toured around the UK in 2009 playing at Manchester Palace Theatre Sunderland Empire Birmingham Hippodrome Bristol Hippodrome and Edinburgh Playhouse The launch of the musical coincided with Queen Elizabeth II s Golden Jubilee As part of the Jubilee celebrations Brian May performed a guitar solo of God Save the Queen as featured on Queen s A Night at the Opera from the roof of Buckingham Palace The recording of this performance was used as video for the same song on the 30th Anniversary DVD edition of A Night at the Opera Sean Bovim created Queen at the Ballet a tribute to Freddie Mercury which uses Queen s music as a soundtrack for the show s dancers who interpret the stories behind tracks such as Bohemian Rhapsody Radio Ga Ga and Killer Queen Queen s music also appears in the Off-Broadway production Power Balladz most notably the song We Are the Champions with the show s two performers believing the song was the apex of artistic achievement in its day Digital realm In conjunction with Electronic Arts Queen released the computer game in 1998 The music itself—tracks from Queen s vast catalogue in many cases remixed into new instrumental versions—was by and large well received but the game experience was hampered by poor gameplay Adding to the problem was an extremely long development time resulting in graphic elements that already seemed outdated by the time of release Under the supervision of May and Taylor numerous restoration projects have been under way involving Queen s lengthy audio and video catalogue DVD releases of their 1986 Wembley concert titled Live At Wembley Stadium 1982 Milton Keynes concert Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl and two Greatest Video Hits Volumes 1 and 2 spanning the 1970s and 1980s have seen the band s music remixed into 5 1 and DTS surround sound So far only two of the band s albums A Night at the Opera and The Game have been fully remixed into high-resolution multichannel surround on DVD-Audio A Night at the Opera was re-released with some revised 5 1 mixes and accompanying videos in 2005 for the 30th anniversary of the album s original release CD DVD-Video set In 2007 a Blu-ray edition of Queen s previously released concerts Queen Rock Montreal Live Aid was released marking their first project in 1080p HD Queen have been featured multiple times in the Guitar Hero franchise a cover of Killer Queen in the original Guitar Hero We Are The Champions Fat Bottomed Girls and the Paul Rodgers collaboration C-lebrity in a track pack for Guitar Hero World Tour Under Pressure with David Bowie in Guitar Hero 5 I Want It All in Stone Cold Crazy in and Bohemian Rhapsody in On 13 October 2009 Brian May revealed there was talk going on behind the scenes about a dedicated Queen Rock Band game Queen have also been featured multiple times in the Rock Band franchise a track pack of 10 songs which are compatible with Rock Band Rock Band 2 and Rock Band 3 three of those are also compatible with Lego Rock Band Their hit Bohemian Rhapsody was featured in Rock Band 3 with full harmony and keys support The band also appeared in the video game Lego Rock Band as playable Lego avatars In March 2009 Sony Computer Entertainment released a Queen branded version of the company s karaoke franchise SingStar The game which is available on PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 is titled SingStar Queen and has 25 songs on the PS3 and 20 on the PS2 We Will Rock You and other songs by Queen also appear in DJ Hero One Vision was featured on the successful video game Grand Theft Auto IV on the fictional radio station Liberty Rock Radio 97 8 while Radio Ga Ga features on Grand Theft Auto V character trailer for Michael and the game s soundtrack Film and television Queen contributed music directly to the movies Flash Gordon 1980 with Flash as the theme song and Highlander the original 1986 film with A Kind of Magic One Year of Love Who Wants to Live Forever Hammer to Fall and the theme Princes of the Universe which was also used as the theme of the 1992–1998 In the United States Bohemian Rhapsody was re-released as a single in 1992 after appearing in the comedy film Wayne s World The single subsequently reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 with The Show Must Go On as the first track on the single and helped rekindle the band s popularity in North America Several films have featured their songs performed by other artists A version of Somebody to Love was done by Anne Hathaway in the 2004 film Ella Enchanted In 2006 Brittany Murphy also recorded a cover of the same song for the 2006 movie Happy Feet In 2001 a version of The Show Must Go On was performed by Jim Broadbent and Nicole Kidman in the movie musical Moulin Rouge The closing credits of A Knight s Tale released in 2001 has a version of We Are the Champions performed by Robbie Williams and Queen the introduction to the same movie features We Will Rock You played by the medieval audience We Are the Champions also features in The Mighty Ducks trilogy Chicken Little 2005 and the 2008 film What Happens in Vegas In 1992 the film Gladiator featured snippets of We Will Rock You performed by Warrant whereas their full version was released as a single In 2004 Don t Stop Me Now was featured in the bar fight scene in the cult movie Shaun of the Dead and You re My Best Friend played during the end credits as well as during the 2006 Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy The Break-Up In May 2004 the Japanese live-action version of Sailor Moon called Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon during Act 29 Minako s Rival Mio Kuroki is a Transfer Student used I Was Born To Love You in a volleyball game scene featuring the show s hero Usagi Tsukino Sailor Moon I Was Born to Love You was used as the theme song of the Japanese television drama Pride on Fuji Television in 2004 starring Takuya Kimura and Yūko Takeuchi The show s soundtrack also contained other songs by Queen including We Will Rock You We Are the Champions and Bohemian Rhapsody Since featuring in Grosse Pointe Blank in 1997 Under Pressure has appeared in a number of comedies such as 40 Days and 40 Nights in 2002 and Ben Stiller s 2007 film The Heartbreak Kid Don t Stop Me Now has featured in the BBC television show Top Gear and in 2005 the song was voted as The Greatest Driving Song Ever by the shows viewers The song was also featured in Fox s cartoon series American Dad during the first season episode Roger n Me on Fox on 23 April 2006 This was the first of three appearances of Queen songs the second being Another One Bites the Dust in 42-Year-Old Virgin and Bicycle Race in Jack s Back Keeping in the tradition since Season Five of naming each season s episodes after songs from a famous 1970s era rock band Led Zeppelin for the fifth season The Who for the sixth and The Rolling Stones for the seventh the eighth and final season of That 70s Show consisted of episodes named after Queen songs Bohemian Rhapsody served as the season premiere Fox television show The Simpsons has made storylines which have featured Queen songs such as We Will Rock You We Are the Champions both sung by Homer and You re My Best Friend We Are the Champions has also featured in South Park episode Stanley s Cup season 5 of The Sopranos Tony s ringtone and the first season of Malcolm in the Middle The British teen drama Skins had two Queen songs on its show Escape from the Swamp features on series 2 episode 7 and Don t Stop Me Now on series 3 episode 2 On 11 April 2006 Brian May and Roger Taylor appeared on the American singing contest television show American Idol Each contestant was required to sing a Queen song during that week of the competition Songs which appeared on the show included Bohemian Rhapsody Fat Bottomed Girls The Show Must Go On Who Wants to Live Forever and Innuendo Brian May later criticised the show for editing specific scenes one of which made the group s time with contestant Ace Young look negative despite it being the opposite Taylor and May again appeared on the American Idol Season 8 finale in May 2009 performing We Are the Champions with finalists Adam Lambert and Kris Allen On 15 November 2009 Brian May and Roger Taylor appeared on the singing contest television show X Factor in the UK In the autumn of 2009 the Fox television show Glee featured the fictional high school s show choir singing Somebody to Love as their second act performance in the episode The Rhodes Not Taken The performance was included on the show s soundtrack CD and is available as a single via digital download In June 2010 the choir performed Another One Bites the Dust in the episode Funk In May 2012 the choir performed We Are the Champions in the episode Nationals and the song features in In September 2010 Brian May announced in a BBC interview that Sacha Baron Cohen is to play Mercury in a film of the same name TIME commented with approval on his singing ability and visual similarity to Mercury The motion picture is being written by Peter Morgan who had been nominated for Oscars for his screenplays The Queen and Frost Nixon The film which is being co-produced by Robert De Niro s TriBeCa Productions will focus on Queen s formative years and the period leading up to the celebrated performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert'

ent_lines_4EX['Apple'] = '18978754	Apple	Apple  The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree species Malus domestica in the rose family Rosaceae It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans Apples grow on small deciduous trees The tree originated in Central Asia where its wild ancestor Malus sieversii is still found today Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe and were brought to North America by European colonists Apples have been present in the mythology and religions of many cultures including Norse Greek and Christian traditions In 2010 the fruit s genome was decoded leading to new understandings of disease control and selective breeding in apple production There are more than 7 500 known cultivars of apples resulting in a range of desired characteristics Different cultivars are bred for various tastes and uses including cooking fresh eating and cider production Domestic apples are generally propagated by grafting although wild apples grow readily from seed Trees are prone to a number of fungal bacterial and pest problems which can be controlled by a number of organic and non-organic means About 69 million tons of apples were grown worldwide in 2010 and China produced almost half of this total The United States is the second-leading producer with more than 6 of world production Turkey is third followed by Italy India and Poland Apples are often eaten raw but can also be found in many prepared foods especially desserts and drinks Many beneficial health effects are thought to result from eating apples however two forms of allergies are seen to various proteins found in the fruit Botanical information The apple forms a tree that is small and deciduous generally standing tall in cultivation and up to in the wild When cultivated the size shape and branch density is determined by rootstock selection and trimming method The leaves are alternately arranged dark green-colored simple ovals with serrated margins and slightly downy undersides Blossoms are produced in spring simultaneously with the budding of the leaves and are produced on spurs and some long shoots The flowers are white with a pink tinge that gradually fades five petaled with an inflorescence consisting of a cyme with 4–6 flowers The central flower of the inflorescence is called the king bloom it opens first and can develop a larger fruit The fruit matures in autumn and varieties exist with a wide range of sizes Commercial growers aim to produce an apple that is in diameter due to market preference Some consumers especially those in Japan prefer a larger apple while apples below are generally used for making juice and have little fresh market value The skin of ripe apples is generally red yellow green or pink although many bi- or tri-colored varieties may be found The skin may also be wholly or partly russeted i e rough and brown The skin is covered in a protective layer of epicuticular wax The flesh is generally pale yellowish-white though pink or yellow flesh is also known Wild ancestors The original wild ancestor of Malus domestica was Malus sieversii found growing wild in the mountains of Central Asia in southern Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan and Xinjiang China Cultivation of the species most likely beginning on the forested flanks of the Tian Shan mountains progressed over a long period of time and permitted secondary introgression of genes from other species into the open-pollinated seeds Significant exchange with Malus sylvestris the crabapple resulted in current populations of apples to be more related to crabapples than to the more morphologically similar progenitor Malus sieversii In strains without recent admixture the contribution of the latter predominates Genome In 2010 an Italian-led consortium announced they had decoded the complete genome of the apple in collaboration with horticultural genomicists at Washington State University using the Golden delicious variety It had about 57 000 genes the highest number of any plant genome studied to date and more genes than the human genome about 30 000 This new understanding of the apple genome will help scientists in identifying genes and gene variants that contribute to resistance to disease and drought and other desirable characteristics Understanding the genes behind these characteristics will allow scientists to perform more knowledgeable selective breeding Decoding the genome also provided proof that Malus sieversii was the wild ancestor of the domestic apple—an issue that had been long-debated in the scientific community History The center of diversity of the genus Malus is in eastern Turkey The apple tree was perhaps the earliest tree to be cultivated and its fruits have been improved through selection over thousands of years Alexander the Great is credited with finding dwarfed apples in Kazakhstan in Asia in 328 BCE those he brought back to Macedonia might have been the progenitors of dwarfing root stocks Winter apples picked in late autumn and stored just above freezing have been an important food in Asia and Europe for millennia Apples were brought to North America by colonists in the 17th century and the first apple orchard on the North American continent was planted in Boston by Reverend William Blaxton in 1625 The only apples native to North America are crab apples which were once called common apples Apple varieties brought as seed from Europe were spread along Native American trade routes as well as being cultivated on Colonial farms An 1845 United States apples nursery catalogue sold 350 of the best varieties showing the proliferation of new North American varieties by the early 19th century In the 20th century irrigation projects in Eastern Washington began and allowed the development of the multibillion dollar fruit industry of which the apple is the leading product Until the 20th century farmers stored apples in frostproof cellars during the winter for their own use or for sale Improved transportation of fresh apples by train and road replaced the necessity for storage In the 21st century long-term storage again came into popularity as controlled atmosphere facilities were used to keep apples fresh year-round Controlled atmosphere facilities use high humidity and low oxygen and carbon dioxide levels to maintain fruit freshness Cultural aspects Germanic paganism In Norse mythology the goddess Iðunn is portrayed in the Prose Edda written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson as providing apples to the gods that give them eternal youthfulness English scholar H R Ellis Davidson links apples to religious practices in Germanic paganism from which Norse paganism developed She points out that buckets of apples were found in the Oseberg ship burial site in Norway and that fruit and nuts Iðunn having been described as being transformed into a nut in Skáldskaparmál have been found in the early graves of the Germanic peoples in England and elsewhere on the continent of Europe which may have had a symbolic meaning and that nuts are still a recognized symbol of fertility in southwest England Davidson notes a connection between apples and the Vanir a tribe of gods associated with fertility in Norse mythology citing an instance of eleven golden apples being given to woo the beautiful Gerðr by Skírnir who was acting as messenger for the major Vanir god Freyr in stanzas 19 and 20 of Skírnismál Davidson also notes a further connection between fertility and apples in Norse mythology in chapter 2 of the Völsunga saga when the major goddess Frigg sends King Rerir an apple after he prays to Odin for a child Frigg s messenger in the guise of a crow drops the apple in his lap as he sits atop a mound Rerir s wife s consumption of the apple results in a six-year pregnancy and the Caesarean section birth of their son—the hero Völsung Further Davidson points out the strange phrase Apples of Hel used in an 11th-century poem by the skald Thorbiorn Brúnarson She states this may imply that the apple was thought of by Brúnarson as the food of the dead Further Davidson notes that the potentially Germanic goddess Nehalennia is sometimes depicted with apples and that parallels exist in early Irish stories Davidson asserts that while cultivation of the apple in Northern Europe extends back to at least the time of the Roman Empire and came to Europe from the Near East the native varieties of apple trees growing in Northern Europe are small and bitter Davidson concludes that in the figure of Iðunn we must have a dim reflection of an old symbol that of the guardian goddess of the life-giving fruit of the other world Greek mythology Apples appear in many religious traditions often as a mystical or forbidden fruit One of the problems identifying apples in religion mythology and folktales is that the word apple was used as a generic term for all foreign fruit other than berries including nuts as late as the 17th century For instance in Greek mythology the Greek hero Heracles as a part of his Twelve Labours was required to travel to the Garden of the Hesperides and pick the golden apples off the Tree of Life growing at its center The Greek goddess of discord Eris became disgruntled after she was excluded from the wedding of Peleus and Thetis In retaliation she tossed a golden apple inscribed Καλλίστη Kalliste sometimes transliterated Kallisti For the most beautiful one into the wedding party Three goddesses claimed the apple Hera Athena and Aphrodite Paris of Troy was appointed to select the recipient After being bribed by both Hera and Athena Aphrodite tempted him with the most beautiful woman in the world Helen of Sparta He awarded the apple to Aphrodite thus indirectly causing the Trojan War The apple was thus considered in ancient Greece to be sacred to Aphrodite and to throw an apple at someone was to symbolically declare one s love and similarly to catch it was to symbolically show one s acceptance of that love An epigram claiming authorship by Plato states Atalanta also of Greek mythology raced all her suitors in an attempt to avoid marriage She outran all but Hippomenes also known as Melanion a name possibly derived from melon the Greek word for both apple and fruit in general who defeated her by cunning not speed Hippomenes knew that he could not win in a fair race so he used three golden apples gifts of Aphrodite the goddess of love to distract Atalanta It took all three apples and all of his speed but Hippomenes was finally successful winning the race and Atalanta s hand The forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden Though the forbidden fruit of Eden in the Book of Genesis is not identified popular Christian tradition has held that it was an apple that Eve coaxed Adam to share with her The origin of the popular identification with a fruit unknown in the Middle East in biblical times is found in confusion between the Latin words mālum an apple and mălum an evil each of which is normally written malum The tree of the forbidden fruit is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in and the Latin for good and evil is bonum et malum Renaissance painters may also have been influenced by the story of the golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides As a result in the story of Adam and Eve the apple became a symbol for knowledge immortality temptation the fall of man into sin and sin itself The larynx in the human throat has been called Adam s apple because of a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit remaining in the throat of Adam The apple as symbol of sexual seduction has been used to imply human sexuality possibly in an ironic vein Cultivars There are more than 7 500 known cultivars of apples Cultivars vary in their yield and the ultimate size of the tree even when grown on the same rootstock Different cultivars are available for temperate and subtropical climates The UK s National Fruit Collection which is the responsibility of the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs has a collection of over 2 000 accessions in Kent The University of Reading which is responsible for developing the UK national collection database provides access to search the national collection The University of Reading s work is part of the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources of which there are 38 countries participating in the Malus Pyrus work group The UK s national fruit collection database contains a wealth of information on the characteristics and origin of many apples including alternative names for what is essentially the same genetic apple variety Most of these cultivars are bred for eating fresh dessert apples though some are cultivated specifically for cooking cooking apples or producing cider Cider apples are typically too tart and astringent to eat fresh but they give the beverage a rich flavor that dessert apples cannot Commercially popular apple cultivars are soft but crisp Other desired qualities in modern commercial apple breeding are a colorful skin absence of russeting ease of shipping lengthy storage ability high yields disease resistance common apple shape and developed flavor Modern apples are generally sweeter than older cultivars as popular tastes in apples have varied over time Most North Americans and Europeans favor sweet subacid apples but tart apples have a strong minority following Extremely sweet apples with barely any acid flavor are popular in Asia and especially India Old cultivars are often oddly shaped russeted and have a variety of textures and colors Some find them to have a better flavor than modern cultivars but may have other problems which make them commercially unviable from low yield disease susceptibility or poor tolerance for storage or transport A few old cultivars are still produced on a large scale but many have been preserved by home gardeners and farmers that sell directly to local markets Many unusual and locally important cultivars with their own unique taste and appearance exist apple conservation campaigns have sprung up around the world to preserve such local cultivars from extinction In the United Kingdom old cultivars such as Cox s Orange Pippin and Egremont Russet are still commercially important even though by modern standards they are low yielding and susceptible to disease Cultivation Breeding In the wild apples grow readily from seeds However like most perennial fruits apples are ordinarily propagated asexually by grafting This is because seedling apples are an example of extreme heterozygotes in that rather than inheriting DNA from their parents to create a new apple with those characteristics they are instead significantly different from their parents Triploid varieties have an additional reproductive barrier in that 3 sets of chromosomes cannot be divided evenly during meiosis yielding unequal segregation of the chromosomes aneuploids Even in the case when a triploid plant can produce a seed apples are an example it occurs infrequently and seedlings rarely survive Because apples do not breed true when planted as seeds grafting is generally used to produce new apple trees The rootstock used for the bottom of the graft can be selected to produce trees of a large variety of sizes as well as changing the winter hardiness insect and disease resistance and soil preference of the resulting tree Dwarf rootstocks can be used to produce very small trees less than high at maturity which bear fruit earlier in their life cycle than full size trees Dwarf rootstocks for apple trees can be traced as far back as 300 BC to the area of Persia and Asia Minor Alexander the Great sent samples of dwarf apple trees to Aristotle s Lyceum Dwarf rootstocks became common by the 15th century and later went through several cycles of popularity and decline throughout the world The majority of the rootstocks used today to control size in apples were developed in England in the early 1900s The East Malling Research Station conducted extensive research into rootstocks and today their rootstocks are given an M prefix to designate their origin Rootstocks marked with an MM prefix are Malling-series varieties later crossed with trees of the Northern Spy variety in Merton England Most new apple cultivars originate as seedlings which either arise by chance or are bred by deliberately crossing cultivars with promising characteristics The words seedling pippin and kernel in the name of an apple cultivar suggest that it originated as a seedling Apples can also form bud sports mutations on a single branch Some bud sports turn out to be improved strains of the parent cultivar Some differ sufficiently from the parent tree to be considered new cultivars Since the 1930s the Excelsior Experiment Station at the University of Minnesota has introduced a steady progression of important apples that are widely grown both commercially and by local orchardists throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin Its most important contributions have included Haralson which is the most widely cultivated apple in Minnesota Wealthy Honeygold and Honeycrisp Apples have been acclimatized in Ecuador at very high altitudes where they provide crops twice per year because of constant temperate conditions year-round Pollination Apples are self-incompatible they must cross-pollinate to develop fruit During the flowering each season apple growers often utilize pollinators to carry pollen Honey bees are most commonly used Orchard mason bees are also used as supplemental pollinators in commercial orchards Bumblebee queens are sometimes present in orchards but not usually in enough quantity to be significant pollinators There are four to seven pollination groups in apples depending on climate One cultivar can be pollinated by a compatible cultivar from the same group or close A with A or A with B but not A with C or D Varieties are sometimes classified by the day of peak bloom in the average 30-day blossom period with pollenizers selected from varieties within a 6-day overlap period Maturation and harvest Cultivars vary in their yield and the ultimate size of the tree even when grown on the same rootstock Some cultivars if left unpruned will grow very large which allows them to bear much more fruit but makes harvesting very difficult Depending on the tree density number of trees planted per unit surface area mature trees typically bear of apples each year though productivity can be close to zero in poor years Apples are harvested using three-point ladders that are designed to fit amongst the branches Trees grafted on dwarfing rootstocks will bear about of fruit per year Crops ripen at different times of the year according to the variety of apple Varieties that yield their crop in the summer include Gala Golden Supreme McIntosh Transparent Primate Sweet Bough and Duchess fall producers include Fuji Jonagold Golden Delicious Red Delicious Chenango Gravenstein Wealthy McIntosh Snow and Blenheim winter producers include Winesap Granny Smith King Wagener Swayzie Greening and Tolman Sweet Storage Commercially apples can be stored for some months in controlled-atmosphere chambers to delay ethylene -induced ripening Apples are commonly stored in chambers with higher concentrations of carbon dioxide and high air filtration This prevents ethylene concentrations from rising to higher amounts and preventing ripening from occurring too quickly Ripening continues when the fruit is removed from storage For home storage most varieties of apple can be held for approximately two weeks when kept at the coolest part of the refrigerator i e below 5 °C Some types including the Granny Smith and Fuji can be stored up to a year without significant degradation Pests and diseases Apple trees are susceptible to a number of fungal and bacterial diseases and insect pests Many commercial orchards pursue an aggressive program of chemical sprays to maintain high fruit quality tree health and high yields A trend in orchard management is the use of organic methods These ban the use of some pesticides though some older pesticides are allowed Organic methods include for instance introducing its natural predator to reduce the population of a particular pest A wide range of pests and diseases can affect the plant three of the more common diseases pests are mildew aphids and apple scab Among the most serious disease problems are fireblight a bacterial disease and Gymnosporangium rust and black spot two fungal diseases Codling moths and apple maggots are two other pests which affect apple trees Young apple trees are also prone to mammal pests like mice and deer which feed on the soft bark of the trees especially in winter Production About 69 million tonnes of apples were grown worldwide in 2010 with China producing almost half of this total The United States is the second-leading producer with more than 6 of world production The largest exporters of apples in 2009 were China the U S Turkey Poland Italy Iran and India while the biggest importers in the same year were Russia Germany the UK and the Netherlands In the United States more than 60 of all the apples sold commercially are grown in Washington Imported apples from New Zealand and other more temperate areas are competing with U S production and increasing each year Most of Australia s apple production is for domestic consumption Imports from New Zealand have been disallowed under quarantine regulations for fireblight since 1921 Other countries with a significant production are Russia Ukraine Argentina Germany and Japan Human consumption Apples are often eaten raw The whole fruit including the skin is suitable for human consumption except for the seeds which may affect some consumers The core is often not eaten and is discarded Varieties bred for raw consumption are termed dessert or table apples Apples can be canned or juiced They are milled or pressed to produce apple juice which may be drunk unfiltered called apple cider in North America or filtered The juice can be fermented to make cider called hard cider in North America ciderkin and vinegar Through distillation various alcoholic beverages can be produced such as applejack Calvados and apfelwein Apple seed oil and pectin may also be produced Popular uses Apples are an important ingredient in many desserts such as apple pie apple crumble apple crisp and apple cake They are often eaten baked or stewed and they can also be dried and eaten or reconstituted soaked in water alcohol or some other liquid for later use Puréed apples are generally known as apple sauce Apples are also made into apple butter and apple jelly They are also used cooked in meat dishes Sliced apples turn brown with exposure to air due to the conversion of natural phenolic substances into melanin upon exposure to oxygen Different cultivars vary in their propensity to brown after slicing Sliced fruit can be treated with acidulated water to prevent this effect Organic production Organic apples are commonly produced in the United States Organic production is difficult in Europe though a few orchards have done so with commercial success using disease-resistant cultivars A light coating of kaolin which forms a physical barrier to some pests also helps prevent apple sun scalding Allergy One form of apple allergy often found in northern Europe is called birch-apple syndrome and is found in people who are also allergic to birch pollen Allergic reactions are triggered by a protein in apples that is similar to birch pollen and people affected by this protein can also develop allergies to other fruits nuts and vegetables Reactions which entail oral allergy syndrome OAS generally involve itching and inflammation of the mouth and throat but in rare cases can also include life-threatening anaphylaxis This reaction only occurs when raw fruit is consumed—the allergen is neutralized in the cooking process The variety of apple maturity and storage conditions can change the amount of allergen present in individual fruits Long storage times can increase the amount of proteins that cause birch-apple syndrome In other areas such as the Mediterranean some individuals have adverse reactions to apples because of their similarity to peaches This form of apple allergy also includes OAS but often has more severe symptoms such as vomiting abdominal pain and urticaria and can be life-threatening Individuals with this form of allergy can also develop reactions to other fruits and nuts Cooking does not break down the protein causing this particular reaction so affected individuals can eat neither raw nor cooked apples Freshly harvested over-ripe fruits tend to have the highest levels of the protein that causes this reaction Breeding efforts have yet to produce a hypoallergenic fruit suitable for either of the two forms of apple allergy Toxicity of seeds The seeds of apples contain small amounts of amygdalin a sugar and cyanide compound known as a cyanogenic glycoside Ingesting small amounts of apple seeds will cause no ill effects but in extremely large doses can cause adverse reactions There is only one known case of fatal cyanide poisoning from apple seeds in this case the individual chewed and swallowed one cup of seeds It may take several hours before the poison takes effect as cyanogenic glycosides must be hydrolyzed before the cyanide ion is released Nutrition The proverb An apple a day keeps the doctor away addressing the health effects of the fruit dates from 19th century Wales Preliminary research suggests that apples may reduce the risk of colon cancer prostate cancer and lung cancer Apple peels contain ursolic acid which in rat studies increases skeletal muscle and brown fat and decreases white fat obesity glucose intolerance and fatty liver disease According to the United States Department of Agriculture a typical apple serving weighs 242 grams and contains 126 calories with significant dietary fiber and vitamin C content Apple peels are a source of various phytochemicals with unknown nutritional value and possible antioxidant activity in vitro The predominant phenolic phytochemicals in apples are quercetin epicatechin and procyanidin B2 Apple juice concentrate has been found in mice to increase the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine Other studies have shown an alleviation of oxidative damage and cognitive decline in mice after the administration of apple juice Fruit flies fed an apple extract lived 10 longer than other flies fed a normal diet'

ent_lines_4EX['Apple Inc.'] = '856	Apple Inc.	Apple Inc  Apple Inc is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino California that designs develops and sells consumer electronics computer software and personal computers Its best-known hardware products are the Mac line of computers the iPod media player the iPhone smartphone and the iPad tablet computer Its consumer software includes the OS X and iOS operating systems the iTunes media browser the Safari web browser and the iLife and iWork creativity and productivity suites Apple was founded by Steve Jobs Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on April 1 1976 to develop and sell personal computers It was incorporated as Apple Computer Inc on January 3 1977 and was renamed as Apple Inc on January 9 2007 to reflect its shifted focus towards consumer electronics Apple is the world s second-largest information technology company by revenue after Samsung Electronics and the world s third-largest mobile phone maker after Samsung and Nokia Fortune magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008 and in the world from 2008 to 2012 On September 30 2013 Apple surpassed Coca-Cola to become the world s most valuable brand in the Omnicom Group s Best Global Brands report However the company has received criticism for its contractors labor practices and for Apple s own environmental and business practices As of May 2013 Apple maintains 408 retail stores in fourteen countries as well as the online Apple Store and iTunes Store the latter of which is the world s largest music retailer Apple is the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization with an estimated value of US 415 billion as of March 2013 As of September 29 2012 the company had 72 800 permanent full-time employees and 3 300 temporary full-time employees worldwide Its worldwide annual revenue in 2012 totalled 156 billion In May 2013 Apple entered the top ten of the Fortune 500 list of companies for the first time rising 11 places above its 2012 ranking to take the sixth position History 1976–80 Founding and incorporation Apple was established on April 1 1976 by Steve Jobs Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne to sell the Apple I personal computer kit a computer single handedly designed by Wozniak The kits were hand-built by Wozniak and first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club The Apple I was sold as a motherboard with CPU RAM and basic textual-video chips which is less than what is today considered a complete personal computer The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at 666 66 in dollars adjusted for inflation Apple was incorporated January 3 1977 without Wayne who sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak for US 800 Multi-millionaire Mike Markkula provided essential business expertise and funding of 250 000 during the incorporation of Apple During the first five years of operations revenues doubled every four months an average growth rate of 700 The Apple II also invented by Wozniak was introduced on April 16 1977 at the first West Coast Computer Faire It differed from its major rivals the TRS-80 and Commodore PET due to its character cell-based color graphics and an open architecture While early models used ordinary cassette tapes as storage devices they were superseded by the introduction of a 5 1 4 inch floppy disk drive and interface the Disk II The Apple II was chosen to be the desktop platform for the first killer app of the business world VisiCalc a spreadsheet program VisiCalc created a business market for the Apple II and gave home users compatibility with the office an additional reason to buy an Apple II Apple was a distant third place to Commodore and Tandy until VisiCalc came along By the end of the 1970s Apple had a staff of computer designers and a production line The company introduced the Apple III in May 1980 in an attempt to compete with IBM and Microsoft in the business and corporate computing market Jobs and several Apple employees including Jef Raskin visited Xerox PARC in December 1979 to see the Xerox Alto Xerox granted Apple engineers three days of access to the PARC facilities in return for the option to buy 100 000 shares 800 000 split-adjusted shares of Apple at the pre-IPO price of 10 a share Jobs was immediately convinced that all future computers would use a graphical user interface GUI and development of a GUI began for the Apple Lisa On December 12 1980 Apple went public at 22 per share generating more capital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956 and instantly creating more millionaires about 300 than any company in history 1981–89 Success with Macintosh Apple began working on the Apple Lisa in 1978 In 1982 Jobs was pushed from the Lisa team due to infighting Jobs took over Jef Raskin s low-cost-computer project the Macintosh A race broke out between the Lisa team and the Macintosh team over which product would ship first Lisa won the race in 1983 and became the first personal computer sold to the public with a GUI but was a commercial failure due to its high price tag and limited software titles In 1984 Apple next launched the Macintosh Its debut was announced by the now famous 1 5 million television commercial 1984 It was directed by Ridley Scott and was aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22 1984 It is now hailed as a watershed event for Apple s success and a masterpiece The Macintosh initially sold well but follow-up sales were not strong due to its high price and limited range of software titles The Macintosh was the first personal computer to be sold without a programming language at all The machine s fortunes changed with the introduction of the LaserWriter the first PostScript laser printer to be sold at a reasonable price and PageMaker an early desktop publishing package It has been suggested that the combination of these three products was responsible for the creation of the desktop publishing market The Mac was particularly powerful in the desktop publishing market due to its advanced graphics capabilities which had necessarily been built in to create the intuitive Macintosh GUI In 1985 a power struggle developed between Jobs and CEO John Sculley who had been hired two years earlier The Apple board of directors instructed Sculley to contain Jobs and limit his ability to launch expensive forays into untested products Rather than submit to Sculley s direction Jobs attempted to oust him from his leadership role at Apple Sculley found out that Jobs had been attempting to organize a coup and called a board meeting at which Apple s board of directors sided with Sculley and removed Jobs from his managerial duties Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT Inc the same year The Macintosh Portable was introduced in 1989 and was designed to be just as powerful as a desktop Macintosh but weighed a bulky with a 12-hour battery life After the Macintosh Portable Apple introduced the PowerBook in 1991 The same year Apple introduced System 7 a major upgrade to the operating system which added color to the interface and introduced new networking capabilities It remained the architectural basis for Mac OS until 2001 The success of the PowerBook and other products brought increasing revenue For some time Apple was doing incredibly well introducing fresh new products and generating increasing profits in the process The magazine MacAddict named the period between 1989 and 1991 as the first golden age of the Macintosh Following the success of the Macintosh LC Apple introduced the Centris line a low-end Quadra and the ill-fated Performa line that was sold with an overwhelming number of configurations and software bundles to avoid competing with the various consumer outlets such as Sears Price Club and Wal-Mart the primary dealers for these models Consumers ended up confused and did not understand the difference between models 1990–99 Decline and restructuring During this time Apple experimented with a number of other failed consumer targeted products including digital cameras portable CD audio players speakers video consoles and TV appliances Enormous resources were also invested in the problem-plagued Newton division based on John Sculley s unrealistic market forecasts Ultimately none of these products helped as Apple s market share and stock prices continued to slide Apple saw the Apple II series as too expensive to produce while taking away sales from the low-end Macintosh In 1990 Apple released the Macintosh LC with a single expansion slot for the Apple IIe Card to migrate Apple II users to the Macintosh platform Apple stopped selling the Apple IIe in 1993 Microsoft continued to gain market share with Windows focusing on delivering software to cheap commodity personal computers while Apple was delivering a richly engineered but expensive experience Apple relied on high profit margins and never developed a clear response Instead they sued Microsoft for using a graphical user interface similar to the Apple Lisa in Apple Computer Inc v Microsoft Corporation The lawsuit dragged on for years before it was finally dismissed At the same time a series of major product flops and missed deadlines sullied Apple s reputation and Sculley was replaced as CEO by Michael Spindler By the early 1990s Apple was developing alternative platforms to the Macintosh such as the A UX Apple had also begun to experiment in providing a Mac-only online portal which they called eWorld developed in collaboration with America Online and designed as a Mac-friendly alternative to other online services such as CompuServe The Macintosh platform was itself becoming outdated because it was not built for multitasking and several important software routines were programmed directly into the hardware In addition Apple was facing competition from OS 2 and UNIX vendors such as Sun Microsystems The Macintosh would need to be replaced by a new platform or reworked to run on more powerful hardware In 1994 Apple allied with IBM and Motorola in the AIM alliance The goal was to create a new computing platform the PowerPC Reference Platform which would use IBM and Motorola hardware coupled with Apple s software The AIM alliance hoped that PReP s performance and Apple s software would leave the PC far behind thus countering Microsoft The same year Apple introduced the Power Macintosh the first of many Apple computers to use Motorola s PowerPC processor In 1996 Michael Spindler was replaced by Gil Amelio as CEO Gil Amelio made many changes at Apple including extensive layoffs After numerous failed attempts to improve Mac OS first with the Taligent project then later with Copland and Gershwin Amelio chose to purchase NeXT and its NeXTSTEP operating system bringing Steve Jobs back to Apple as an advisor On July 9 1997 Gil Amelio was ousted by the board of directors after overseeing a three-year record-low stock price and crippling financial losses Jobs became the interim CEO and began restructuring the company s product line At the 1997 Macworld Expo Steve Jobs announced that Apple would join Microsoft to release new versions of Microsoft Office for the Macintosh and that Microsoft made a 150 million investment in non-voting Apple stock On November 10 1997 Apple introduced the Apple Online Store tied to a new build-to-order manufacturing strategy On August 15 1998 Apple introduced a new all-in-one computer reminiscent of the Macintosh 128K the iMac The iMac design team was led by Jonathan Ive who would later design the iPod and the iPhone The iMac featured modern technology and a unique design and sold almost 800 000 units in its first five months Through this period Apple purchased several companies to create a portfolio of professional and consumer-oriented digital production software In 1998 Apple announced the purchase of Macromedia s Final Cut software signaling its expansion into the digital video editing market The following year Apple released two video editing products iMovie for consumers and for professionals Final Cut Pro which has gone on to be a significant video-editing program with 800 000 registered users in early 2007 In 2002 Apple purchased Nothing Real for their advanced digital compositing application Shake as well as Emagic for their music productivity application Logic which led to the development of their consumer-level GarageBand application iPhoto s release the same year completed the iLife suite 2000–06 Return to profitability Mac OS X based on NeXT s OPENSTEP and BSD Unix was released on March 24 2001 after several years of development Aimed at consumers and professionals alike Mac OS X aimed to combine the stability reliability and security of Unix with the ease of use afforded by an overhauled user interface To aid users in migrating from Mac OS 9 the new operating system allowed the use of OS 9 applications through Mac OS X s Classic environment On May 19 2001 Apple opened the first official Apple Retail Stores in Virginia and California On July 9 they bought Spruce Technologies a DVD authoring company On October 23 of the same year Apple announced the iPod portable digital audio player and started selling it on November 10 The product was phenomenally successful — over 100 million units were sold within six years In 2003 Apple s iTunes Store was introduced offering online music downloads for 0 99 a song and integration with the iPod The service quickly became the market leader in online music services with over 5 billion downloads by June 19 2008 Since 2001 Apple s design team has progressively abandoned the use of translucent colored plastics first used in the iMac G3 This began with the titanium PowerBook and was followed by the white polycarbonate iBook and the flat-panel iMac At the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address on June 6 2005 Steve Jobs announced that Apple would begin producing Intel -based Mac computers in 2006 On January 10 2006 the new MacBook Pro and iMac became the first Apple computers to use Intel s Core Duo CPU By August 7 2006 Apple had transitioned the entire Mac product line to Intel chips over one year sooner than announced The Power Mac iBook and PowerBook brands were retired during the transition the Mac Pro MacBook and MacBook Pro became their respective successors On April 29 2009 The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was building its own team of engineers to design microchips Apple introduced Boot Camp to help users install Windows XP or Windows Vista on their Intel Macs alongside Mac OS X Apple s success during this period was evident in its stock price Between early 2003 and 2006 the price of Apple s stock increased more than tenfold from around 6 per share split-adjusted to over 80 In January 2006 Apple s market cap surpassed that of Dell Nine years prior Dell s CEO Michael Dell said that if he ran Apple he would shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders Although Apple s market share in computers had grown it remained far behind competitors using Microsoft Windows with only about 8 of desktops and laptops in the US 2007–10 Success with mobile devices Apple achieved widespread success with its iPhone iPod Touch and iPad products which introduced innovations in mobile phones portable music players and personal computers respectively In addition the implementation of a store for the purchase of software applications represented a new business model Touch screens had been invented and seen in mobile devices before but Apple was the first to achieve mass market adoption of such a user interface that included particular pre-programmed touch gestures Delivering his keynote speech at the Macworld Expo on January 9 2007 Jobs announced that Apple Computer Inc would from that point on be known as Apple Inc because computers were no longer the main focus of the company which had shifted its emphasis to mobile electronic devices The event also saw the announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV In an article posted on Apple s website on February 6 2007 Steve Jobs wrote that Apple would be willing to sell music on the iTunes Store without digital rights management DRM which would allow tracks to be played on third-party players if record labels would agree to drop the technology On April 2 2007 Apple and EMI jointly announced the removal of DRM technology from EMI s catalog in the iTunes Store effective in May Other record labels followed later that year In July of the following year Apple launched the App Store to sell third-party applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch Within a month the store sold 60 million applications and brought in 1 million daily on average with Jobs speculating that the App Store could become a billion-dollar business for Apple Three months later it was announced that Apple had become the third-largest mobile handset supplier in the world due to the popularity of the iPhone On December 16 2008 Apple announced that after over 20 years of attending Macworld 2009 would be the last year Apple would be attending the Macworld Expo and that Phil Schiller would deliver the 2009 keynote in lieu of the expected Jobs Almost exactly one month later on January 14 2009 an internal Apple memo from Jobs announced that he would be taking a six-month leave of absence until the end of June 2009 to allow him to better focus on his health and to allow the company to better focus on its products without having the rampant media speculating about his health Despite Jobs absence Apple recorded its best non-holiday quarter Q1 FY 2009 during the recession with a revenue of 8 16 billion and a profit of 1 21 billion After years of speculation and multiple rumored leaks Apple announced a large screen tablet-like media device known as the iPad on January 27 2010 The iPad runs the same touch based operating system that the iPhone uses and many of the same iPhone apps are compatible with the iPad This gave the iPad a large app catalog on launch even with very little development time before the release Later that year on April 3 2010 the iPad was launched in the US and sold more than 300 000 units on that day reaching 500 000 by the end of the first week In May of the same year Apple s market cap exceeded that of competitor Microsoft for the first time since 1989 Apple released the iPhone 4 which introduced video calling multitasking and a new uninsulated stainless steel design which acts as the phone s antenna Because of this antenna implementation some iPhone 4 users reported a reduction in signal strength when the phone is held in specific ways After a large amount of media coverage including mainstream news organizations Apple held a press conference where they offered buyers a free rubber bumper case which had been proven to eliminate the signal reduction issue Later that year Apple again refreshed its iPod line of MP3 players which introduced a multi-touch iPod Nano iPod Touch with FaceTime and iPod Shuffle with buttons which brought back the buttons of earlier generations In October 2010 Apple shares hit an all-time high eclipsing 300 Additionally on October 20 Apple updated their MacBook Air laptop iLife suite of applications and unveiled Mac OS X Lion the last version with the name Mac OS X On January 6 2011 the company opened their Mac App Store a digital software distribution platform similar to the existing iOS App Store Apple was featured in the documentary Something Ventured which premiered in 2011 2011–12 Steve Jobs death On January 17 2011 Jobs announced in an internal Apple memo that he would take another medical leave of absence for an indefinite period to allow him to focus on his health Chief operating officer Tim Cook assumed Jobs day-to-day operations at Apple although Jobs would still remain involved in major strategic decisions for the company Apple became the most valuable consumer-facing brand in the world In June 2011 Steve Jobs surprisingly took the stage and unveiled iCloud an online storage and syncing service for music photos files and software which replaced MobileMe Apple s previous attempt at content syncing This would be the last product launch Jobs would attend before his death It has been argued that Apple has achieved such efficiency in its supply chain that the company operates as a monopsony one buyer many sellers in that it can dictate terms to its suppliers In July 2011 due to the American debt-ceiling crisis Apple s financial reserves were briefly larger than those of the U S Government On August 24 2011 Jobs resigned his position as CEO of Apple He was replaced by Tim Cook and Jobs became Apple s chairman Prior to this Apple did not have a chairman and instead had two co-lead directors Andrea Jung and Arthur D Levinson who continued with those titles until Levinson became Chairman of the Board in November On October 4 2011 Apple announced the iPhone 4S which included an improved camera with 1080p video recording a dual core A5 chip capable of 7 times faster graphics than the A4 an intelligent software assistant named Siri and cloud-sourced data with iCloud The iPhone 4S was officially released on October 14 2011 On October 5 2011 Apple announced that Jobs had died marking the end of an era for Apple Inc On October 29 2011 Apple purchased C3 Technologies a mapping company for 240 million becoming the third mapping company Apple has purchased On January 10 2012 Apple paid 500 million to acquire Anobit an Israeli hardware company that developed and supplies a proprietary memory signal processing technology that improves the performance of flash-memory used in iPhones and iPads On January 19 2012 Apple s Phil Schiller introduced iBooks Textbooks for iOS and iBook Author for Mac OS X in New York City This was the first major announcement by Apple since the passing of Steve Jobs who stated in his biography that he wanted to reinvent the textbook and education The third-generation iPad was announced on March 7 2012 It includes a Retina display a new CPU a five megapixel camera and 1080p video recording On July 24 2012 during a conference call with investors Tim Cook said that he loved India but that Apple was going to expect larger opportunities outside of India citing the reason as the 30 sourcing requirement from India On August 20 2012 Apple s rising stock rose the company s value to a world-record 624 billion This beat the non-inflation-adjusted record for market capitalization set by Microsoft in 1999 On August 24 2012 a US jury ruled that Samsung should pay Apple 1 05 billion £665m in damages in an intellectual property lawsuit Samsung said they will appeal the court ruling Samsung subsequently prevailed on its motion to vacate this damages award which the Court reduced by 450 million The Court further granted Samsung s request for a new trial On September 12 2012 Apple unveiled the iPhone 5 featuring an enlarged screen more powerful processors and running iOS 6 The latter includes a new mapping application replacing Google Maps that has attracted some criticism It was made available on September 21 2012 and became Apple s biggest iPhone launch with over 2 million pre-orders pushing back the delivery date to late October On October 23 2012 Apple unveiled the iPad Mini which features a 7 9-inch screen in contrast to the iPad s 9 7-inch screen Apple also released a third-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display the fourth-generation iPad featuring a faster processor and a Lightning dock connector and new iMac and Mac Mini computers After the launch of Apple s iPad Mini and fourth generation iPad on November 3 2012 Apple announced that they had sold 3 million iPads in three days of the launch but it did not mention the sales figures of specific iPad models On November 10 2012 Apple confirmed a global settlement that would dismiss all lawsuits between Apple and HTC up to that date in favor of a ten-year license agreement for current and future patents between the two companies It is predicted that Apple will make 280 million a year from this deal with HTC In December 2012 in a TV interview for NBC s Rock Center and also aired on the Today morning show Apple CEO Tim Cook said that in 2013 the company will produce one of its existing lines of Mac computers in the United States In January 2013 Cook stated that he expected China to overtake the US as Apple s biggest market 2013–present Acquisitions and expansions In March 2013 Apple announced a patent for an augmented reality AR system that can identify objects in a live video stream and present information corresponding to these objects through a computer-generated information layer overlaid on top of the real-world image At the Worldwide Developer s Conference on June 10 2013 Apple announced the seventh iOS operating system alongside OS X Mavericks the tenth version of Mac OS X and a new Internet radio service called iTunes Radio iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks are both expected to be released during fall 2013 while the iTunes Radio Service which will be integrated with Apple s personal voice-assistant software program Siri is scheduled for release in the second half of 2013 The radio service features more than 200 stations according to company s statement On July 2 2013 Apple announced the recruitment of Paul Deneve Belgian President and CEO of Yves Saint Laurent to Apple s top ranks A spokesperson for the company stated We re thrilled to welcome Paul Deneve to Apple He ll be working on special projects as a vice president reporting directly to Tim Cook Alongside Google vice-president Vint Cerf and AT T CEO Randall Stephenson Cook attended a closed-door summit held by President Obama on August 8 2013 in regard to government surveillance and the Internet in the wake of the Edward Snowden NSA incident A report on August 22 2013 confirmed that Apple acquired Embark Inc a small Silicon Valley-based mapping company Embark builds free transit apps to help smartphone users navigate public transportation in U S cities such as New York San Francisco and Chicago Following the confirmation of the acquisition an Apple spokesperson explained Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans In November 2012 Embark claimed that over 500 000 people used its apps An anonymous Apple employee revealed to the Bloomberg media publication that the opening of a Tokyo Japan store is planned for 2014 The construction of the store will be completed in February 2014 but as of August 29 2013 Takashi Takebayashi a Tokyo-based spokesman for Apple has not made any comment to the media A Japanese analyst has stated For Apple the Japanese market is appealing in terms of quantity and price There is room to expand tablet sales and a possibility the Japanese market expands if Apple’s mobile carrier partners increase On October 1 2013 Apple India executives unveiled a plan to expand further into the Indian market following Cook s acknowledgment of the country in July 2013 when sales results showed that iPhone sales in India grew 400 during the second quarter of 2013 In attendance at the confidential meeting were 20 CEOs and senior executives from telecom and electronic retail companies A mid-October 2013 announcement revealed that Burberry executive Angela Ahrendts will commence as a senior vice president at Apple in mid-2014 Ahrendts oversaw Burberry s digital strategy for almost eight years and during her tenure sales increased to about US 3 2 billion 2 billion pounds and shares gained more than threefold In a company wide memo sent on the morning of October 15 2013 Cook explained the decision to hire Ahrendts She shares our values and our focus on innovation She places the same strong emphasis as we do on the customer experience She cares deeply about people and embraces our view that our most important resource and our soul is our people She believes in enriching the lives of others and she is wicked smart On November 24 2013 Apple Inc confirmed the purchase of PrimeSense an Israeli 3D sensing company based in Tel Aviv In December 2013 Apple Inc purchased social analytics firm Topsy one of a small number of firms with real-time access to the messages that appear on Twitter every tweet published since 2006 is within its scope Debra Aho Williamson an analyst with EMarketer Inc explained “A key point is they are one of the few companies that has access to the Twitter fire hose and can do real-time analysis of the trends and discussions happening on Twitter ” While an exact amount is still unknown the deal was apparently worth more than US 200 million according to people with knowledge of the secret deal and Apple spokespeople have refused to disclose the purpose of the acquisition On December 6 2013 Apple Inc launched iBeacon technology across its 254 U S retail stores Using Bluetooth wireless technology iBeacon senses the user s exact location within the Apple store and sends the user messages about products events and other information tailored to the user s location iBeacon works as long as the user has downloaded the Apple Store app and has given Apple permission to track them Products Mac Apple sells a variety of computer accessories for Macs including Thunderbolt Display Magic Mouse Magic Trackpad Wireless Keyboard Battery Charger the AirPort wireless networking products and Time Capsule iPad On January 27 2010 Apple introduced their much-anticipated media tablet the iPad running a modified version of iOS It offers multi-touch interaction with multimedia formats including newspapers magazines ebooks textbooks photos movies videos of TV shows music word processing documents spreadsheets videogames and most existing iPhone apps It also includes a mobile version of Safari for web browsing as well as access to the App Store iTunes Library iBookstore contacts and notepad Content is downloadable via Wi-Fi and optional 3G service or synced through the user s computer AT T was initially the sole US provider of 3G wireless access for the iPad On March 2 2011 Apple introduced the iPad 2 which had a faster processor and a camera on the front and back It also added support for optional 3G service provided by Verizon in addition to the existing offering by AT T However the availability of the iPad 2 has been limited as a result of the devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Japan in March 2011 On March 7 2012 Apple introduced the third-generation iPad marketed as the new iPad It added LTE service from AT T or Verizon the upgraded A5X processor and the Retina display 2048 by 1536 resolution originally implemented on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S The dimensions and form factor remained relatively unchanged with the new iPad being a fraction thicker and heavier than the previous version and minor positioning changes On October 23 2012 Apple s fourth-generation iPad came out marketed as the iPad with Retina display It added the upgraded A6X processor and replaced the traditional 30-pin dock connector with the all-digital Lightning connector The iPad Mini was also introduced with a reduced 7 9-inch display and featuring much of the same internal specifications as the iPad 2 On October 22 2013 Apple introduced the iPad Air It added the new 64 bit Apple-A7 processor The iPad mini with Retina Display was also introduced featuring the Apple-A7 processor as well Since its launch iPad users have downloaded three billion apps while the total number of App Store downloads is over 25 billion iPod On October 23 2001 Apple introduced the iPod digital music player Several updated models have since been introduced and the iPod brand is now the market leader in portable music players by a significant margin with more than 350 million units shipped Apple has partnered with Nike to offer the Nike iPod Sports Kit enabling runners to synchronize and monitor their runs with iTunes and the Nike website Apple currently sells four variants of the iPod iPhone At the Macworld Conference Expo in January 2007 Steve Jobs introduced the long-anticipated iPhone a convergence of an Internet-enabled smartphone and iPod The first-generation iPhone was released on June 29 2007 for 499 4 GB and 599 8 GB with an AT T contract On February 5 2008 it was updated to have 16 GB of memory in addition to the 8 GB and 4 GB models It combined a 2 5G quad band GSM and EDGE cellular phone with features found in handheld devices running scaled-down versions of Apple s Mac OS X dubbed iPhone OS later renamed iOS with various Mac OS X applications such as Safari and Mail It also includes web-based and Dashboard apps such as Google Maps and Weather The iPhone features a touchscreen display Bluetooth and Wi-Fi both b and g At Worldwide Developers Conference WWDC on June 9 2008 Apple announced the iPhone 3G It was released on July 11 2008 with a reduced price of 199 for the 8 GB version and 299 for the 16 GB version This version added support for 3G networking and assisted-GPS navigation The flat silver back and large antenna square of the original model were eliminated in favor of a curved glossy black or white back Software capabilities were improved with the release of the App Store providing applications for download that were compatible with the iPhone On April 24 2009 the App Store surpassed one billion downloads At WWDC on June 8 2009 Apple announced the iPhone 3GS It provided an incremental update to the device including faster internal components support for faster 3G speeds video recording capbility and voice control At WWDC on June 7 2010 Apple announced the redesigned iPhone 4 It features a 960x640 display the Apple A4 processor also used in the iPad a gyroscope for enhanced gaming 5MP camera with LED flash front-facing VGA camera and FaceTime video calling Shortly after its release reception issues were discovered by consumers due to the stainless steel band around the edge of the device which also serves as the phone s cellular signal and Wi-Fi antenna The issue was corrected by a Bumper Case distributed by Apple for free to all owners for a few months In June 2011 Apple overtook Nokia to become the world s biggest smartphone maker by volume On October 4 2011 Apple unveiled the iPhone 4S which was first released on October 14 2011 It features the Apple A5 processor and is the first model offered by Sprint joining AT T and Verizon Wireless as the United States carriers offering iPhone models On October 19 2011 Apple announced an agreement with C Spire Wireless to sell the iPhone 4S with that carrier in the near future marking the first time the iPhone was officially supported on a regional carrier s network Another notable feature of the iPhone 4S was Siri voice assistant technology which Apple had acquired in 2010 as well as other features including an updated 8MP camera with new optics Apple sold 4 million iPhone 4S phones in the first three days of availability On September 12 2012 Apple introduced the iPhone 5 It added a 4-inch display 4G LTE connectivity and the upgraded Apple A6 chip among several other improvements Two million iPhones were sold in the first twenty-four hours of pre-ordering and over five million handsets were sold in the first three days of its launch A patent filed in July 2013 revealed the development of a new iPhone battery system that uses location data in combination with data on the user s habits to moderate the handsets power settings accordingly Apple is working towards a power management system that will provide features such as the ability of the iPhone to estimate the length of time a user will be away from a power source to modify energy usage and a detection function that adjusts the charging rate to best suit the type of power source that is being used In March 2013 one of the largest cellular phone companies in the United States T-Mobile announced that it would begin selling the iPhone 5 on April 12 The announcement of the iPhone came with the announcement that the company would begin implementing 4G cellular service for its users Upon the launch of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C Apple sold over nine million devices in the first three days of its launch which sets a new record for first-weekend smartphone sales This was the first time that Apple has simultaneously launched two models and the inclusion of China in the list of markets contributed to the record sales result On October 15 2013 U S Cellular the United States fifth largest cell phone provider announced that it would in fact begin to carry the iPhone It is the last of the five major carriers including AT T Verizon Sprint and T-Mobile to acquire the phone The phone went on sale on November 8 at U S Cellular stores around the country The finalization of a deal between Apple and China Mobile the world s largest mobile network was announced in late December 2013 The multi-year agreement provides iPhone access to over 760 million China Mobile subscribers Apple TV At the 2007 Macworld conference Jobs demonstrated the Apple TV previously known as the iTV a set-top video device intended to bridge the sale of content from iTunes with high-definition televisions The device links up to a user s TV and syncs either via Wi-Fi or a wired network with one computer s iTunes library and streams from an additional four The Apple TV originally incorporated a 40 GB hard drive for storage includes outputs for HDMI and component video and plays video at a maximum resolution of 720p On May 31 2007 a 160 GB drive was released alongside the existing 40 GB model and on January 15 2008 a software update was released which allowed media to be purchased directly from the Apple TV In September 2009 Apple discontinued the original 40 GB Apple TV and now continues to produce and sell the 160 GB Apple TV On September 1 2010 alongside the release of the new line of iPod devices for the year Apple released a completely redesigned Apple TV The new device is 1 4 the size runs quieter and replaces the need for a hard drive with media streaming from any iTunes library on the network along with 8 GB of flash memory to cache media downloaded Apple with the Apple TV has added another device to its portfolio that runs on its A4 processor along with the iPad and the iPhone The memory included in the device is the half of the iPhone 4 at 256 MB the same as the iPad iPhone 3GS third and fourth-generation iPod Touch It has HDMI out as the only video out source Features include access to the iTunes Store to rent movies and TV shows purchasing has been discontinued streaming from internet video sources including YouTube and Netflix and media streaming from an iTunes library Apple also reduced the price of the device to 99 A third generation of the device was introduced at an Apple event on March 7 2012 with new features such as higher resolution 1080p and a new user interface Software Apple develops its own operating system to run on Macs OS X the latest version being OS X Mavericks version 10 9 Apple also independently develops computer software titles for its OS X operating system Much of the software Apple develops is bundled with its computers An example of this is the consumer-oriented iLife software package that bundles iMovie iPhoto and GarageBand For presentation page layout and word processing iWork is available which includes Keynote Pages and Numbers iTunes QuickTime media player and Software Update are available as free downloads for both OS X and Windows Apple also offers a range of professional software titles Their range of server software includes the operating system OS X Server Apple Remote Desktop a remote systems management application and Xsan a Storage Area Network file system For the professional creative market there is Aperture for professional RAW -format photo processing Final Cut Pro a video production suite Logic Pro a comprehensive music toolkit and Motion an advanced effects composition program Apple also offers online services with iCloud which provides cloud storage and syncing for a wide range of data including email contacts calendars photos and documents It also offers iOS device backup and is able to integrate directly with third-party apps for even greater functionality iCloud is the fourth generation of online services provided by Apple and was preceded by MobileMe Mac and iTools all which met varying degrees of success Corporate identity Logo According to Steve Jobs Apple was so named because Jobs was coming back from an apple farm and he was on a fruitarian diet He thought the name was fun spirited and not intimidating Apple s first logo designed by Ron Wayne depicts Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree It was almost immediately replaced by Rob Janoff s rainbow Apple the now-familiar rainbow-colored silhouette of an apple with a bite taken out of it Janoff presented Jobs with several different monochromatic themes for the bitten logo and Jobs immediately took a liking to it While Jobs liked the logo he insisted it be in color to humanize the company The logo was designed with a bite so that it would not be confused with a cherry The colored stripes were conceived to make the logo more accessible and to represent the fact the Apple II could generate graphics in color This logo is often erroneously referred to as a tribute to Alan Turing with the bite mark a reference to his method of suicide Both Janoff and Apple deny any homage to Turing in the design of the logo On August 27 1999 the following year after the iMac G3 was introduced Apple officially dropped the rainbow scheme and began to use monochromatic themes nearly identical in shape to its previous rainbow incarnation on various products packaging and advertising An Aqua -themed version of the monochrome logo was used from 1999 to 2003 and a Glass-themed version was used from 2007 to 2013 With the release of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks in fall of 2013 the logo appears flat and white with no glossy effects Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were Beatles fans but Apple Inc had trademark issues with Apple Corps Ltd a multimedia company started by the Beatles in 1967 involving their name and logo This resulted in a series of lawsuits and tension between the two companies These issues ended with settling of their most recent lawsuit in 2007 Advertising Apple s first slogan Byte into an Apple was coined in the late 1970s From 1997–2002 the slogan Think Different was used in advertising campaigns and is still closely associated with Apple Apple also has slogans for specific product lines — for example iThink therefore iMac was used in 1998 to promote the iMac and Say hello to iPhone has been used in iPhone advertisements Hello was also used to introduce the original Macintosh Newton iMac hello again and iPod Since the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984 with the 1984 Super Bowl commercial to the more modern Get a Mac adverts Apple has been recognized in the past for its efforts towards effective advertising and marketing for its products though its advertising was criticized for the claims made by some later campaigns particularly the 2005 Power Mac ads and iPhone ads in Britain Apple s product commercials gained fame for launching musicians into stardom as a result of their eye-popping graphics and catchy tunes First the company popularized Canadian singer Feist s 1234 song in its ad campaign Later Apple used the song New Soul by French-Israeli singer-songwriter Yael Naïm to promote the MacBook Air The debut single shot to the top of the charts and sold hundreds of thousands of copies in a span of weeks Brand loyalty Apple s brand loyalty is considered unusual for any product At one time Apple evangelists were actively engaged by the company but this was after the phenomenon was already firmly established Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki has called the brand fanaticism something that was stumbled upon Apple has however supported the continuing existence of a network of Mac User Groups in most major and many minor centers of population where Mac computers are available Mac users would meet at the European Apple Expo and the San Francisco Macworld Conference Expo trade shows where Apple traditionally introduced new products each year to the industry and public until Apple pulled out of both events While the conferences continue Apple does not have official representation there Mac developers in turn continue to gather at the annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference Apple Store openings can draw crowds of thousands with some waiting in line as much as a day before the opening or flying in from other countries for the event The New York City Fifth Avenue Cube store had a line as long as half a mile a few Mac fans took the opportunity of the setting to propose marriage The Ginza opening in Tokyo was estimated in the thousands with a line exceeding eight city blocks John Sculley told The Guardian newspaper in 1997 People talk about technology but Apple was a marketing company It was the marketing company of the decade Research in 2002 by NetRatings indicate that the average Apple consumer was usually more affluent and better educated than other PC company consumers The research indicated that this correlation could stem from the fact that on average Apple Inc products are more expensive than other PC products Corporate affairs During the Mac s early history Apple generally refused to adopt prevailing industry standards for hardware instead creating their own This trend was largely reversed in the late 1990s beginning with Apple s adoption of the PCI bus in the 7500 8500 9500 Power Macs Apple has since adopted USB AGP HyperTransport Wi-Fi and other industry standards in its computers and was in some cases a leader in the adoption of standards such as USB FireWire is an Apple-originated standard that has seen widespread industry adoption after it was standardized as IEEE 1394 Ever since the first Apple Store opened Apple has sold third-party accessories For instance at one point Nikon and Canon digital cameras were sold inside the store Adobe one of Apple s oldest software partners also sells its Mac-compatible software as does Microsoft who sells Microsoft Office for the Mac Books from John Wiley Sons who publishes the For Dummies series of instructional books are a notable exception however The publisher s line of books were banned from Apple Stores in 2005 because Steve Jobs disagreed with their decision to publish an unauthorized Jobs biography iCon After the launch of the iBookstore Apple stopped selling physical books both online and at the Apple Retail Stores Headquarters Apple Inc s world corporate headquarters are located in the middle of Silicon Valley at 1–6 Infinite Loop Cupertino California This Apple campus has six buildings that total and was built in 1993 by Sobrato Development Cos In 2006 Apple announced its intention to build a second campus on assembled from various contiguous plots east of N Wolfe Road between Pruneridge Avenue and Vallco Parkway Later acquisitions increased this to 175 acres The new campus also in Cupertino will be about east of the current campus The new campus building will be designed by Norman Foster On October 15 2013 it was announced that the Cupertino City Council has approved the proposed spaceship design campus On June 7 2011 Steve Jobs gave a presentation to Cupertino City Council detailing the architectural design of the new building and its environs The new campus is planned to house up to 13 000 employees in one central four-storied circular building with a café for 3 000 sitting people integrated surrounded by extensive landscape with parking mainly underground and the rest centralized in a parking structure The new campus will be built on the former HP headquarters next to Interstate 280 The morning of the announcement Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted Our home for innovation and creativity for decades to come Cupertino City Council Gives Unanimous Approval for Apple s New Campus The 2 8 million square foot facility which will include Steve Jobs s original designs for a fitness center and corporate auditorium will be able to house 14 000 employees and will have enough parking to accommodate almost all of them Apple s headquarters for Europe the Middle East and Africa EMEA are located in Cork in the south of Ireland The facility which opened in 1980 was Apple s first location outside of the United States Apple Sales International which deals with all of Apple s international sales outside of the USA is located at Apple s campus in Cork along with Apple Distribution International which similarly deals with Apple s international distribution network On April 20 2012 Apple announced the addition of 500 new jobs to its European headquarters This will bring the total workforce from around 2 800 to 3 300 employees The company will build a new office block on its Hollyhill Campus to accommodate the additional staff Corporate culture Apple was one of several highly successful companies founded in the 1970s that bucked the traditional notions of what a corporate culture should look like in organizational hierarchy flat versus tall casual versus formal attire etc Other highly successful firms with similar cultural aspects from the same period include Southwest Airlines and Microsoft Originally the company stood in opposition to staid competitors like IBM by default thanks to the influence of its founders Steve Jobs often walked around the office barefoot even after Apple was a Fortune 500 company By the time of the 1984 TV ad this trait had become a key way the company attempted to differentiate itself from its competitors According to a 2011 report in Fortune this has resulted in a corporate culture more akin to a startup rather than a multinational corporation As the company has grown and been led by a series of chief executives each with his own idea of what Apple should be some of its original character has arguably been lost but Apple still has a reputation for fostering individuality and excellence that reliably draws talented people into its employ This was especially after Jobs return To recognize the best of its employees Apple created the Apple Fellows program awarding individuals who made extraordinary technical or leadership contributions to personal computing while at the company The Apple Fellowship has so far been awarded to a few individuals including Bill Atkinson Steve Capps Rod Holt Alan Kay Guy Kawasaki Al Alcorn Don Norman Rich Page and Steve Wozniak Apple is also known for strictly enforcing accountability Each project has a directly responsible individual or DRI in Apple jargon As an example when iOS senior vice president Scott Forstall refused to sign Apple s official apology for numerous errors in the redesigned Maps app he was forced to resign Numerous employees of Apple have cited that projects without Jobs involvement often took longer than projects with his involvement At Apple employees are specialists who are not exposed to functions outside their area of expertise Jobs saw this as a means of having best-in-class employees in every role For instance Ron Johnson who was Senior Vice President of Retail Operations until November 1 2011 was responsible for site selection in-store service and store layout yet he had no control of the inventory in his stores which is done company wide by then-COO and now CEO Tim Cook who has a background in supply-chain management This is the opposite of General Electric s corporate culture which has created well-rounded managers Under the leadership of Tim Cook who joined the company in 1998 and ascended to his present position as CEO Apple has developed an extremely efficient and effective supply chain which has been ranked as the world s best for the four years 2007–2010 The company s manufacturing procurement and logistics enables it to execute massive product launches without having to maintain large profit-sapping inventories Apple s profit margins have been 40 percent compared with 10–20 percent for most other hardware companies in 2011 Cook s catchphrase to describe his focus on the company s operational edge is “Nobody wants to buy sour milk” The company previously advertised its products as being made in America up to the late 1990s however as a result of outsourcing initiatives in the 2000s almost all of its manufacturing is now done abroad According to a report by the New York Times Apple insiders believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U S A ” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products Unlike other major US companies Apple has a relatively simple compensation policy for executives which does not include perks that other CEOs enjoy such as country club fees and private use of company aircraft The company usually grants stock options to executives every other year A media article published in July 2013 provided details about Apple s At-Home Apple Advisors customer support program that serves as the corporation s call center The advisors are employed within the U S and work remotely after undergoing a four-week training program that also serves as a testing period The advisors earn between US 9 and 12 per hour and receive intensive management to ensure a high quality of customer support Employee relations A class-action lawsuit alleging that the company suppressed employee compensation has been filed against Apple in a California federal district court Litigation Apple has been a participant in various legal proceedings and claims since it began operation and like its competitors and peers engages in litigation trying legal cases before the courts in its normal course of business for a variety of reasons In particular Apple is known for and promotes itself as actively and aggressively enforcing its intellectual property interests Some examples include Apple v Samsung Apple v Microsoft Motorola v Apple Apple Corps v Apple Computer Finance In its fiscal year ending in September 2011 Apple Inc reported a total of 108 billion in annual revenues – a significant increase from its 2010 revenues of 65 billion – and nearly 82 billion in cash reserves Apple achieved these results while losing market share in certain product categories On March 19 2012 Apple announced plans for a 2 65-per-share dividend beginning in fourth quarter of 2012 per approval by their board of directors On September 2012 Apple reached a record share price of more than 705 and closed at above 700 With 936 596 000 outstanding shares as of June 30 2012 it had a market capitalization of about 660 billion At the time this was the highest nominal market capitalization ever reached by a publicly traded company surpassing a record set by Microsoft in 1999 Environmental record Climate change and clean energy On April 21 2011 Greenpeace released a report highlighting the fact that data centers consumed up to 2 of all global electricity and this amount was projected to increase Phil Radford of Greenpeace said “we are concerned that this new explosion in electricity use could lock us into old polluting energy sources instead of the clean energy available today ” On April 17 2012 following a Greenpeace protest of Apple Apple Inc released a statement committing to ending its use of coal and shifting to 100 clean energy In 2013 Apple announced it was using 100 renewable energy to power their data centers and overall 75 of its power comes from renewable sources In 2010 Climate Counts a nonprofit organization dedicated to directing consumers toward the greenest companies gave Apple a score of 52 points out of a possible 100 which puts Apple in their top category Striding This was an increase from May 2008 when Climate Counts only gave Apple 11 points out of 100 which placed the company last among electronics companies at which time Climate Counts also labeled Apple with a stuck icon adding that Apple at the time was a choice to avoid for the climate conscious consumer Toxics Greenpeace has campaigned against Apple because of various environmental issues including a global end-of-life take-back plan non-recyclable hardware components and toxins within iPhone hardware Since 2003 Greenpeace has campaigned against Apple s use of particular chemicals in its products more specifically the inclusion of PVC and BFRs in their devices On May 2 2007 Steve Jobs released a report announcing plans to eliminate PVC and BFRs by the end of 2008 Apple has since eliminated PVC and BFRs from its product range becoming the first laptopmaker to do so In the first edition of the Greenpeace Green Electronics Guide released in August 2006 Apple only scored 2 7 10 The Environmental Protection Agency rates Apple highest amongst producers of notebooks and fairly well compared to producers of desktop computers and LCD displays In June 2007 Apple upgraded the MacBook Pro replacing cold cathode fluorescent lamp CCFL backlit LCD displays with mercury -free LED backlit LCD displays and arsenic -free glass and has since done this for all notebooks Apple has also left out BFRs and PVCs in various internal components Apple offers information about emissions materials and electrical usage concerning each product In June 2009 Apple s iPhone 3GS was free of PVC arsenic BFRs and had an efficient power adapter In October 2009 Apple upgraded the iMac and MacBook replacing the cold cathode fluorescent lamp CCFL backlit LCD displays with mercury-free LED backlit LCD displays and arsenic-free glass This means all Apple computers have mercury free LED backlit displays arsenic-free glass and are without PVC cables All Apple computers also have EPEAT Gold status In October 2011 Chinese authorities ordered an Apple supplier to close part of its plant in Suzhou after residents living nearby raised significant environmental concerns In November 2011 Apple featured in Greenpeace s Guide to Greener Electronics which ranks electronics manufacturers on sustainability climate and energy policy and how green their products are The company ranked fourth of fifteen electronics companies moving up five places from the previous year with a score of 4 6 10 down from 4 9 Greenpeace praises Apple s sustainability noting that the company exceeded its 70 global recycling goal in 2010 It continues to score well on the products rating with all Apple products now being free of PVC vinyl plastic and brominated flame retardants However the guide criticizes Apple on the Energy criteria for not seeking external verification of its greenhouse gas emissions data and for not setting out any targets to reduce emissions In January 2012 Apple announced plans and requested that their cable maker Volex begin producing halogen-free USB and power cables In June 2012 Apple Inc withdrew its products from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool EPEAT certification system but reversed this decision in July Labor practices In 2006 the Mail on Sunday reported on the working conditions that existed at factories in China where the contract manufacturers Foxconn and Inventec produced the iPod The article stated that one complex of factories that assembles the iPod among other items had over 200 000 workers that lived and worked in the factory with employees regularly working more than 60 hours per week The article also reported that workers made around 100 per month and were required to live pay for rent and food from the company which generally amounted to a little over half of workers earnings Apple immediately launched an investigation and worked with their manufacturers to ensure acceptable working conditions In 2007 Apple started yearly audits of all its suppliers regarding worker s rights slowly raising standards and pruning suppliers that did not comply Yearly progress reports have been published since 2008 In 2010 workers in China planned to sue iPhone contractors over poisoning by a cleaner used to clean LCD screens One worker claimed that he and his coworkers had not been informed of possible occupational illnesses After a spate of suicides in a Foxconn facility in China making iPads and iPhones albeit at a lower rate than in China as a whole workers were forced to sign a legally binding document guaranteeing that they would not kill themselves In 2011 Apple admitted that its suppliers child labor practices in China had worsened Workers in factories producing Apple products have also been exposed to n- hexane a neurotoxin that is a cheaper alternative than alcohol for cleaning the products In 2013 China Labor Watch said it found violations of the law and of Apple s pledges about working conditions at facilities operated by Pegatron including discrimination against ethnic minorities and women withholding employees pay excessive work hours poor living conditions health and safety problems and pollution Tax practices Apple created subsidiaries in low-tax places such as the Republic of Ireland the Netherlands Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands to cut the taxes it pays around the world According to the New York Times in the 1980s Apple was among the first tech companies to designate overseas salespeople in high-tax countries in a manner that allowed the company to sell on behalf of low-tax subsidiaries on other continents sidestepping income taxes In the late 1980s Apple was a pioneer of an accounting technique known as the Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich which reduces taxes by routing profits through Irish subsidiaries and the Netherlands and then to the Caribbean British Conservative Party Member of Parliament Charlie Elphicke published research on October 30 2012 which showed that some multinational companies including Apple Inc were making billions of pounds of profit in the UK but were paying an effective tax rate to the UK Treasury of only 3 percent well below standard corporation tax He followed this research by calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to force these multinationals which also included Google and Coca-Cola to state the effective rate of tax they pay on their UK revenues Elphicke also said that government contracts should be withheld from multinationals who do not pay their fair share of UK tax Charitable causes As of 2012 Apple is listed as a partner of the Product RED campaign together with other brands such as Nike Girl American Express and Converse The campaign s mission is to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child by 2015 its byline is Fighting For An AIDS Free Generation In November 2012 Apple donated 2 5 million to the American Red Cross to aid relief efforts after Hurricane Sandy'


ent_names_4EX = {}  
for name,_ in pairs(ent_lines_4EX) do
  table.insert(ent_names_4EX, name)
end


ent_wiki_words_4EX = {}
for ent_name,line in pairs(ent_lines_4EX) do
  ent_wiki_words_4EX[ent_name] = {}
  local parts = split(line, '\t')
  local wiki_words =  split(parts[3], ' ')

  -- Compute tf's
  for _,w in pairs(wiki_words) do
    if (not is_stop_word_or_number(w)) then
      if (not ent_wiki_words_4EX[ent_name][w]) then
        ent_wiki_words_4EX[ent_name][w] = 0
      end
      ent_wiki_words_4EX[ent_name][w] = ent_wiki_words_4EX[ent_name][w] + 1
    end
  end
end
