title: Robert Redford

text: Redford was born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, to Martha Woodruff Redford (née Hart; 1914–1955) and Charles Robert Redford (1914–1991), an accountant. He has a half brother, William, from his father's first marriage. Redford is of English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry. His patrilineal great-great-grandfather, a Protestant Englishman named Elisha Redford, married Mary Ann McCreery, of Irish Catholic descent, in Manchester. They emigrated to New York City in 1849, immediately settling in Stonington, Connecticut. They had a son named Charles, the first in line to have been given the name. Regarding Redford's maternal lineage, the Harts were Irish from Galway and the Greens were Scots-Irish who settled in the United States in the 18th century.


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford's family moved to Van Nuys, Los Angeles, while his father worked in El Segundo. Robert attended Van Nuys High School, where he was classmates with baseball pitcher Don Drysdale. He has described himself as having been a "bad" student, finding inspiration outside the classroom, and being interested in art and sports. He hit tennis balls with Pancho Gonzales at the Los Angeles Tennis Club to warm him up.


title: Robert Redford

text: After graduating from high school in 1954, he attended the University of Colorado in Boulder for a year and a half, where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. While there, he worked at a restaurant/bar called The Sink, where a painting of his likeness still figures prominently among the bar's murals. While at Colorado, Redford began drinking heavily and, as a result, lost his half-scholarship and was kicked out of school. He went on to travel in Europe, living in France, Spain, and Italy. He later studied painting at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and took classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (Class of 1959) in New York City.


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford's career, like that of many major stars who emerged in the 1950s, began in New York City, where the actor found work both on stage and in television. His Broadway debut was in a small role in "Tall Story" (1959), followed by parts in "The Highest Tree" (1959) and "Sunday in New York" (1961). His biggest Broadway success was as the stuffy newlywed husband of Elizabeth Ashley in the original 1963 cast of Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park".


title: Robert Redford

text: Starting in 1960, Redford appeared as a guest star on numerous television drama programs, including "Naked City", "Maverick", "The Untouchables", "The Americans", "Whispering Smith", "Perry Mason", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Route 66", "Dr. Kildare", "Playhouse 90", "Tate", "The Twilight Zone", "The Virginian", and "Captain Brassbound's Conversion", among others.


title: Robert Redford

text: In 1960, Redford was cast as Danny Tilford, a mentally disturbed young man trapped in the wreckage of his family garage, in "Breakdown", one of the last episodes of the syndicated adventure series, "Rescue 8", starring Jim Davis and Lang Jeffries.


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford earned an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "The Voice of Charlie Pont" (ABC, 1962). One of his last television appearances until 2019 was on October 7, 1963, on "Breaking Point," an ABC medical drama about psychiatry.


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford made his screen debut in "Tall Story" (1960) in a minor role. The film's stars were Anthony Perkins, Jane Fonda (her debut), and Ray Walston. After his Broadway success, he was cast in larger feature roles in movies. In 1962 Redford got his second film role in "War Hunt," and was soon after casting alongside screen legend Alec Guinness in the war comedy "Situation Hopeless ... But Not Serious", in which he played an American soldier falsely imprisoned by a German civilian even after the war has ended. In "Inside Daisy Clover" (1965), which won him a Golden Globe for best new star, he played a bisexual movie star who marries starlet Natalie Wood, and rejoined her along with Charles Bronson for Sydney Pollack's "This Property Is Condemned" (1966) — again, as her lover, though this time in a film which achieved even greater success. The same year saw his first teaming (on equal footing) with Jane Fonda, in Arthur Penn's "The Chase". This film marked the only time Redford would star with Marlon Brando. Fonda and Redford were paired again in the popular big-screen version of "Barefoot in the Park" (1967) and were again co-stars many years later in Pollack's "The Electric Horseman" (1979), followed 38 years later with a Netflix feature, "Our Souls at Night".


title: Robert Redford

text: After this initial success, Redford became concerned about his blond male stereotype image and turned down roles in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "The Graduate". Redford found the niche he was looking for in George Roy Hill's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969), scripted by William Goldman, in which he was paired for the first time with Paul Newman. The film was a huge success and made him a major bankable star, cementing his screen image as an intelligent, reliable, sometimes sardonic good guy. While Redford did not receive an Academy Award or Golden Globe nomination for playing the Sundance Kid, he did win a British Academy of Film and Television Award (BAFTA) for that role and his parts in "Downhill Racer" (1969) and "Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here" (1969). The latter two films and the subsequent "Little Fauss and Big Halsy" (1970), and "The Hot Rock" (1972) were not commercially successful. The political satire "The Candidate" (1972) was a moderate box office and critical success.


title: Robert Redford

text: Starting in 1973, Redford experienced an almost-unparalleled four-year run of box office success. The western "Jeremiah Johnson"s (1972) box office earnings from early 1973 until its second re-release in 1975 would have placed it as the No. 2 highest-grossing film of 1973. The romantic period drama with Barbra Streisand, "The Way We Were" (1973), was the 11th highest-grossing film of 1973. The crime caper reunion with Paul Newman, "The Sting" (1973), became the top-grossing film of 1974 and one of the top 20 highest-grossing movies of all time when adjusted for inflation, plus landed Redford the lone nomination of his career for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The romantic drama "The Great Gatsby" (1974) was the No. 8 highest-grossing film of 1974. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) placed as the No. 10 highest-grossing film for 1974 as it was re-released due to the popularity of "The Sting." In 1974 Redford became the first performer since Bing Crosby in 1946 to have three films in a year's top ten grossing titles. Each year between 1974 and 1976, movie exhibitors voted Redford Hollywood's top box-office star.


title: Robert Redford

text: In 1975, Redford's hit movies included 1920s aviation drama, "The Great Waldo Pepper" (1975), and the spy thriller "Three Days of the Condor" (1975), alongside Faye Dunaway, which finished at Nos. 16 and 17 in box office grosses for 1975, respectively. In 1976 he co-starred with Dustin Hoffman in the No. 2 highest-grossing film for the year, the critically acclaimed "All the President's Men". In 1975, 1977 and 1978, Redford won the Golden Globe for Favorite World Film Star, a popularity-based award that is no longer awarded.


title: Robert Redford

text: "All the President's Men" (1976), in which Redford and Hoffman play Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, was a landmark film for Redford. Not only was he the executive producer and co-star, but the film's serious subject matter — the Watergate scandal — and its attempt to create a realistic portrayal of journalism also reflected the actor's offscreen concerns for political causes. The film landed eight Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Director (Alan J. Pakula), while winning for the Best Screenplay (Goldman). It actually won the New York Film Critics Award for Best Picture and Best Director.


title: Robert Redford

text: In 1977, Redford appeared in a segment of the war film "A Bridge Too Far" (1977). Then he took a two-year hiatus from movies, before starring as past-his-prime rodeo star in the adventure-romance "The Electric Horseman" (1979). This film reunited him with Jane Fonda, finishing at No. 9 in the box office for 1980. Later that year he appeared in the prison drama "Brubaker" (1980), playing a prison warden attempting to reform the system. His directorial debut, "Ordinary People", which followed the disintegration of an upper-class American family after the death of a son, was one of the most critically and publicly acclaimed films of the decade, winning four Oscars, including Best Director for Redford himself, and Best Picture.


title: Robert Redford

text: Soon after that, he starred in the baseball drama "The Natural" (1984). Sydney Pollack's "Out of Africa" (1985), with Redford in the male lead role opposite Meryl Streep, became a large box office success (combined 1985 and 1986 grosses placed it at No. 5 for 1986), won a Golden Globe for Best Picture, and won seven Oscars, including Best Picture. Streep was nominated for Best Actress but Redford did not receive a nomination. The movie proved to be Redford's biggest success of the decade and Redford and Pollack's most successful of their seven movies together.


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford's next film, "Legal Eagles" (1986) alongside Debra Winger, was only a minor success at the box office. After that, his second directorial project, "The Milagro Beanfield War" (1987), failed to generate the same level of attention as "Ordinary People".


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford continued as a major star throughout the 1990s and 2000s. He released his third film as a director, "A River Runs Through It", in 1992, which was a return to mainstream success for Redford as a director and brought a young Brad Pitt to greater prominence. In 1993, he played what became one of his most popular and recognized roles, starring in "Indecent Proposal" as a millionaire businessman who tests a couple's morals; the film became one of the year's biggest hits. He co-starred with Michelle Pfeiffer in the newsroom romance "Up Close & Personal" (1996), and with Kristin Scott Thomas and a young Scarlett Johansson in "The Horse Whisperer" (1998), which he also directed. Redford also continued work in films with political contexts, such as "Havana" (1990), playing Jack Weil, a professional gambler in 1959 Cuba during the Revolution, as well as "Sneakers" (1992), in which he co-starred with River Phoenix and Sidney Poitier, his first teaming with the latter.


title: Robert Redford

text: He appeared as a disgraced Army general sent to prison in the prison drama "The Last Castle" (2001), directed by Rod Lurie. In the same year, Redford reteamed with Brad Pitt for "Spy Game", another success for the pair but with Redford switching this time from director to actor. During that time, he planned to direct and star in a sequel of "The Candidate" but the project never happened. Redford, a leading environmental activist, narrated the IMAX documentary "Sacred Planet" (2004), a sweeping journey across the globe to some of its most exotic and endangered places. In "The Clearing" (2004), a thriller co-starring Helen Mirren, Redford was a successful businessman whose kidnapping unearths the secrets and inadequacies that led to his achieving the American Dream.


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford stepped back into producing with "The Motorcycle Diaries" (2004), a coming-of-age road film about a young medical student, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and his friend Alberto Granado. It also explored the political and social issues of South America that influenced Guevara and shaped his future. With five years spent on the film's making, Redford was credited by director Walter Salles for being instrumental in getting it made and released.


title: Robert Redford

text: Back in front of the camera, Redford received good notices for his role in director Lasse Hallström's "An Unfinished Life" (2005) as a cantankerous rancher who is forced to take in his estranged daughter-in-law (Jennifer Lopez)—whom he blames for his son's death—and the granddaughter he never knew he had when they fled an abusive relationship. The film, which sat on the shelf for many months while its distributor Miramax was restructured, was generally dismissed as clichéd and overly sentimental. Meanwhile, Redford returned to familiar territory when he reteamed with Meryl Streep 22 years after they starred in "Out of Africa", for his personal project "Lions for Lambs" (2007), which also starred Tom Cruise. After a great deal of hype, the film opened to mixed reviews and disappointing box office.


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford appeared in the 2011 documentary "Buck" by Cindy Meehl, where he discussed his experiences with title subject Buck Brannaman during the production of "The Horse Whisperer". In 2012, Redford directed "The Company You Keep", in which he starred as a former Weather Underground activist who goes on the run after a journalist discovers his identity. In 2013, he starred in "All Is Lost", directed by J.C. Chandor, about a man lost at sea. He received acclaim for his performance in the film, in which he is its only cast member and there is almost no dialogue. Redford was nominated for a Golden Globe, his first Best Actor nomination for a Golden Globe, and won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, his first time winning an acting honour from that group (he had been nominated in 1969 for "Downhill Racer").


title: Robert Redford

text: In April 2014, Redford played the main antagonist of the Marvel Studios superhero film "," Alexander Pierce, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and leader of the Hydra cell operating the Triskelion. Redford was a co-producer and, with Emma Thompson and Nick Nolte, costar of the 2015 Broad Green Pictures film "A Walk in the Woods", based on Bill Bryson's book of the same name. Redford had optioned the film rights for the book from Bryson after reading it more than a decade earlier, with the intent of costarring in it with Paul Newman, but had shelved the project after Newman's death. The same year, he played news anchor Dan Rather in James Vanderbilt's "Truth" alongside Cate Blanchett. In 2016, he took the supporting role of Mr. Meacham in the Disney remake " Pete's Dragon".


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford starred in "The Discovery" and "Our Souls at Night", both released on Netflix streaming in 2017. The latter film, which was also produced by Redford, reunited him with co-star Jane Fonda for the fourth time and garnered positive reviews. Redford played bank robber Forrest Tucker in the drama film "The Old Man & the Gun", which was released in September 2018, and for which he received a Golden Globe nomination.


title: Robert Redford

text: In August 2018, Redford announced his retirement from acting after completion of the film, though the following month, Redford stated that he "regretted" announcing his retirement because "you never know". He briefly reprised his role as Alexander Pierce for a cameo appearance in "", filmed in 2017 prior to the completion of the former film.


title: Robert Redford

text: In 1976, Robert Redford published "The Outlaw Trail: A Journey Through Time". Redford states, "The Outlaw Trail. It was a name that fascinated me - a geographical anchor in Western folklore. Whether real or imagined, it was a name that, for me, held a kind of magic, a freedom, a mystery. I wanted to see it in much the same way as the outlaws did, by horse and by foot, and document the adventure with text and photographs."


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford had long harbored ambitions to work on both sides of the camera. As early as 1969, Redford had served as the executive producer for "Downhill Racer". His first film as director was 1980's Best Picture winner "Ordinary People", a drama about the slow disintegration of an upper-middle class family, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director. Redford was credited with obtaining a powerful dramatic performance from Mary Tyler Moore, as well as superb work from Donald Sutherland and Timothy Hutton, who also won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford did not direct again until "The Milagro Beanfield War" (1988), a well-crafted, though not commercially successful, screen version of John Nichols's acclaimed novel of the Southwest. "The Milagro Beanfield War" is the story of the people of Milagro, New Mexico (based on the real town of Truchas in northern New Mexico), overcoming big developers who set about to ruin their community and force them out with tax increases. Other directorial projects have included the period drama "A River Runs Through It" (1992), based on Norman Maclean's novella, and the exposé "Quiz Show" (1994), about the quiz show scandal of the late 1950s. In the latter film, Redford worked from a screenplay by Paul Attanasio with noted cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and a strong cast that featured Paul Scofield, John Turturro, Rob Morrow, and Ralph Fiennes. Redford also directed Matt Damon and Will Smith in "The Legend of Bagger Vance" (2000). In 2010, Redford released "The Conspirator", a period drama revolving around the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. In 2012, he directed the political thriller " The Company You Keep" starring himself, Shia LaBeouf and Julie Christie.


title: Robert Redford

text: In 1995, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Bard College. He was a 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award/Honorary Oscar recipient at the 74th Academy Awards.


title: Robert Redford

text: In December 2005, he received the Kennedy Center Honors for his contributions to American culture. The honors recipients are recognized for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts: whether in dance, music, theater, opera, motion pictures or television.


title: Robert Redford

text: In 2008, he was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life."


title: Robert Redford

text: The University of Southern California (USC) School of Dramatic Arts announced the first annual "Robert Redford Award for Engaged Artists" in 2009. According to the school's website, the award was created "to honor those who have distinguished themselves not only in the exemplary quality, skill and innovation of their work, but also in their public commitment to social responsibility, to increasing awareness of global issues and events, and to inspiring and empowering young people."


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Brown University at the 240th Commencement exercises on May 25, 2008, with the actor also speaking at the ceremonies. On October 14, 2010, Redford was appointed "chevalier" of the Légion d'honneur by President Nicolas Sarkozy. He was a 2010 recipient of the New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.


title: Robert Redford

text: On May 24, 2015, Redford delivered the commencement address and received an honorary degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine. On November 22, 2016, President Barack Obama honored Redford with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.


title: Robert Redford

text: With the financial proceeds of his acting success, starting with his salaries from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "Downhill Racer", Redford bought a ski area on the east side of Mount Timpanogos northeast of Provo, Utah, called "Timp Haven". He renamed it "Sundance" after his "Sundance Kid" character. Redford's wife Lola was from Utah and they had built a home in the area in 1963. Portions of the movie "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972), a film which is both one of Redford's favorites and one that has heavily influenced him, was shot near the ski area.


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford went on to found the Sundance Film Festival, which became the country's largest festival for independent films. In 2008, Sundance exhibited 125 feature-length films from 34 countries, with more than 50,000 attendees, Salt Lake City, and Park City, Utah.


title: Robert Redford

text: Robert Redford also founded the Sundance Institute; Sundance Cinemas; Sundance Catalog; and the Sundance Channel; all in and around Park City, 30 miles (48 km) north of the Sundance ski area. Redford also owned a Park City restaurant, Zoom, that closed in May 2017.


title: Robert Redford

text: Robert Redford is the co-owner of Wildwood Enterprises, Inc., with Bill Holderman, producer, with the following film credits: "Lions for Lambs"; "Quiz Show"; "A River Runs Through It"; "Ordinary People"; "The Horse Whisperer"; "The Legend of Bagger Vance"; "Slums of Beverly Hills"; "The Motorcycle Diaries"; and "The Conspirator".


title: Robert Redford

text: Most recently, Sundance Productions produced "Chicagoland (CNN)", "Cathedrals of Culture" (Berlin Film Festival), "The March (PBS)" and Emmy nominee "All The President's Men Revisited" (Discovery), Isabella Rossellini's "Green Porno Live!", and "To Russia With Love" on Epix.


title: Robert Redford

text: Since founding the nonprofit Sundance Institute in Park City, Utah, in 1981, Redford has been deeply involved with independent film.


title: Robert Redford

text: Through its various workshop programs and popular film festival, Sundance has provided much-needed support for independent filmmakers. In 1995, Redford signed a deal with Showtime to start a 24-hour cable television channel devoted to airing independent films. The Sundance Channel premiered on February 29, 1996.


title: Robert Redford

text: On August 9, 1958, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Redford married Lola Van Wagenen, who dropped out of college to marry him. A Mormon ceremony took place on September 12 at Lola's grandmother's home. They had four children: Scott Anthony Redford (September 1, 1959 – November 17, 1959), Shauna Jean Redford (born November 15, 1960), David James Redford (May 5, 1962 – October 16, 2020), and Amy Hart Redford (born October 22, 1970). They divorced in 1985.


title: Robert Redford

text: Scott Redford died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of months and is buried at Provo City Cemetery in Provo, Utah. Shauna Redford is a painter and married to journalist Eric Schlosser. James Redford was a writer and producer, while Amy Redford is an actress, director, and producer. Redford has seven grandchildren.


title: Robert Redford

text: In July 2009, Redford married his longtime partner, Sibylle Szaggars, at the Louis C. Jacob Hotel in Hamburg, Germany. She had moved in with Redford in the 1990s and shared his home in Sundance, Utah.


title: Robert Redford

text: In May 2011, Alfred A. Knopf published "Robert Redford: The Biography" by Michael Feeney Callan, written over fifteen years with Redford's input and drawn from his personal papers and diaries.


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford supports environmentalism, Native American rights, LGBT rights, and the arts. He has also supported advocacy groups, such as the Political Action Committee of the Directors Guild of America. Redford has supported Republicans, including Brent Cornell Morris in his unsuccessful campaign for the Republican nomination for Utah's 3rd congressional district in 1990. Redford also supported Gary Herbert, another Republican and a friend, in Herbert's successful 2004 campaign to be elected Utah's Lieutenant Governor. Herbert later became Governor of Utah.


title: Robert Redford

text: As an avid environmentalist, Redford is a trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He endorsed Democratic President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012. Redford is the first quote on the back cover of Donald Trump's book "Crippled America" (2015), saying of Trump's candidacy, "I'm glad he's in there, being the way he is, and saying what he says and the ways he says it, I think shakes things up and I think that is very needed." A representative later clarified that Redford's statement, taken from a longer conversation with Larry King, was not intended to endorse Trump for president. In 2019, Redford penned an op-ed in which he referred to Trump's administration as a "monarchy in disguise" and stated "[i]t's time for Trump to go." Redford later co-authored another op-ed in which he criticized Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic while also citing the collective public response to the pandemic as a model for how to respond to climate change. He has criticized the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. In July 2020, Redford penned an op-ed in which he stated President Trump lacks a "moral compass." In the same piece, he announced that he would be voting for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.


title: Robert Redford

text: Redford is opposed to the TransCanada Corporation's Keystone Pipeline. In 2013, he was identified by its CEO, Russ Girling, for leading the anti-pipeline protest movement.


title: Robert Redford

text: In April 2014, Redford, a Pitzer College Trustee, and Pitzer College President Laura Skandera Trombley announced that the college will divest fossil fuel stocks from its endowment; at the time, it was the higher education institution with the largest endowment in the US to make this commitment. The press conference was held at the LA Press Club. In November 2012, Pitzer launched the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability at Pitzer College. The Redford Conservancy educates the next generation of students to create solutions for the most challenging and urgent sustainability problems.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film "Footloose" (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller "JFK" (1991), the legal drama "A Few Good Men" (1992), the historical docudrama "Apollo 13" (1995), and the mystery drama "Mystic River" (2003). Bacon is also known for voicing the title character in "Balto" (1995), and has taken on darker roles, such as that of a sadistic guard in "Sleepers" (1996), and troubled former child abuser in "The Woodsman" (2004). He is further known for the hit comedies "National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978), "Diner" (1982), "Tremors" (1990) and "Crazy, Stupid, Love" (2011). His other well-known films are "Friday the 13th" (1980), "Flatliners" (1990), "The River Wild" (1994), "Wild Things" (1998), "Stir of Echoes" (1999), "Hollow Man" (2000), "Frost/Nixon" (2008), "" (2011), "Black Mass" (2015) and "Patriots Day" (2016). He is equally prolific on television, having starred in the Fox drama series "The Following" (2013–2015). For the HBO original film "Taking Chance" (2009), Bacon won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, also receiving a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. More recently, Bacon portrayed the title character, and was the series lead, of the Amazon Prime television series "I Love Dick", for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: "The Guardian" named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination. In 2003, Bacon received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture industry.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bacon has become associated with the concept of interconnectedness among people, having been popularized by the game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon". In 2007, he created SixDegrees.org, a charitable foundation. He is a brand ambassador for British mobile network operator EE and has been featured in several ads for the company.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bacon, the youngest of six children, was born and raised in a close-knit family in Philadelphia. His mother, Ruth Hilda (née Holmes; 1916–1991), taught at an elementary school and was a liberal activist, while his father, Edmund Bacon (1910–2005), was an urban planner who served for many years as executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and authored the seminal text "Design of Cities".


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bacon attended Julia R. Masterman High School for both middle and high school. At age 16, in 1975, Bacon won a full scholarship to and attended the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts at Bucknell University, a state-funded five-week arts program at which he studied theater under Glory Van Scott. The experience solidified Bacon's passion for the arts.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bacon left home at age 17 to pursue a theater career in New York City, where he appeared in a production at the Circle in the Square Theater School. "I wanted life, man, the real thing", he later recalled to Nancy Mills of "Cosmopolitan". "The message I got was 'The arts are it. Business is the devil's work. Art and creative expression are next to godliness.' Combine that with an immense ego and you wind up with an actor."


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bacon's debut in the fraternity comedy "National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978) did not lead to the fame he had sought, and Bacon returned to waiting tables and auditioning for small roles in theater. He briefly worked on the television soap operas "Search for Tomorrow" (1979) and "Guiding Light" (1980–81) in New York.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: In 1980, he appeared in the slasher film "Friday the 13th". Some of his early stage work included "Getting Out", performed at New York's Phoenix Theater, and "Flux", at Second Stage Theatre during their 1981–1982 season.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: In 1982, he won an Obie Award for his role in "Forty Deuce", and soon afterward he made his Broadway debut in "Slab Boys", with then-unknowns Sean Penn and Val Kilmer. However, it was not until he portrayed Timothy Fenwick that same year in Barry Levinson's film "Diner"costarring Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke, Tim Daly, and Ellen Barkinthat he made an indelible impression on film critics and moviegoers alike.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bolstered by the attention garnered by his performance in "Diner", Bacon starred in "Footloose" (1984). Richard Corliss of "TIME" likened "Footloose" to the James Dean classic "Rebel Without a Cause" and the old Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland musicals, commenting that the film includes "motifs on book burning, mid-life crisis, AWOL parents, fatal car crashes, drug enforcement, and Bible Belt vigilantism." To prepare for the role, Bacon enrolled at a high school as a transfer student named "Ren McCormick" and studied teenagers before leaving in the middle of the day. Bacon earned strong reviews for "Footloose".


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bacon's critical and box office success led to a period of typecasting in roles similar to the two he portrayed in "Diner" and "Footloose", and he had difficulty shaking this on-screen image. For the next several years he chose films that cast him against either type and experienced, by his own estimation, a career slump.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: After a cameo in John Hughes's 1987 comedy "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", Bacon starred in John Hughes's 1988 comedy "She's Having a Baby", and the following year he was in another comedy called "The Big Picture".


title: Kevin Bacon

text: In 1990, Bacon had two successful roles. He played a character who saved his town from under-the-earth "graboid" monsters in the comedy/horror film "Tremors", and he portrayed an earnest medical student experimenting with death in Joel Schumacher's "Flatliners".


title: Kevin Bacon

text: In Bacon's next project he starred opposite Elizabeth Perkins in "He Said, She Said". Despite lukewarm reviews and low audience turnout, "He Said, She Said" was illuminating for Bacon. Required to play a character with sexist attitudes, he admitted that the role was not that large a stretch for him.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: By 1991, Bacon began to give up the idea of playing leading men in big-budget films and to remake himself as a character actor. "The only way I was going to be able to work on 'A' projects with really 'A' directors was if I wasn't the guy who was starring", he confided to "The New York Times" writer Trip Gabriel. "You can't afford to set up a $40 million movie if you don't have your star." He performed that year as gay prostitute Willie O'Keefe in Oliver Stone's "JFK" and went on to play a prosecuting attorney in the military courtroom drama "A Few Good Men". Later that year he returned to the theater to play in "Spike Heels", directed by Michael Greif.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: In 1994, Bacon earned a Golden Globe nomination for his role in "The River Wild", opposite Meryl Streep. He described the film to Chase in "Cosmopolitan" as a "grueling shoot", in which "every one of us fell out of the boat at one point or another and had to be saved".


title: Kevin Bacon

text: His next film, "Murder in the First", earned him the Broadcast Film Critic's Association Award in 1995, the same year that he starred in the blockbuster hit "Apollo 13". Bacon played a trademark dark role once again in "Sleepers" (1996). This part starkly contrasted with his appearance in the lighthearted romantic comedy, "Picture Perfect" (1997).


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bacon made his debut as a director with the television film "Losing Chase" (1996), which was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, and won one. Bacon again resurrected his oddball mystique that year as a mentally-challenged houseguest in "Digging to China" and as a disc jockey corrupted by payola in "Telling Lies in America". As the executive producer of "Wild Things" (1998), Bacon reserved a supporting role for himself and went on to star in "Stir of Echoes" (1999), directed by David Koepp.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: In 2000, he appeared in Paul Verhoeven's "Hollow Man." Bacon, Colin Firth and Rachel Blanchard depict a ménage à trois in their film, "Where the Truth Lies". Bacon and director Atom Egoyan have condemned the MPAA ratings board decision to rate the film "NC-17" rather than the preferable "R". Bacon commented: "I don't get it, when I see films (that) are extremely violent, extremely objectionable sometimes in terms of the roles that women play, slide by with an R, no problem, because the people happen to have more of their clothes on."


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bacon was again acclaimed for a dark starring role playing an offending pedophile on parole in "The Woodsman" (2004), for which he was nominated for best actor and received the Independent Spirit Award. He appeared in the HBO Films production of "Taking Chance", based on an eponymous story written by Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl, an American Desert Storm war veteran. The film premiered on HBO on February 21, 2009. Bacon won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie for his role.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: On July 15, 2010, it was confirmed that Bacon would appear in Matthew Vaughn's "" as mutant villain Sebastian Shaw.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: In March 2012, Bacon was featured in a performance of Dustin Lance Black's play, "8" – a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage – as Attorney Charles J. Cooper. The production was held at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre and broadcast on YouTube to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: From 2013 to 2015, Bacon starred as Ryan Hardy in the FOX television series "The Following". In 2013, he won a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television for that role.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: In 2015, he said in a "Huffington Post" interview he would like to return to the "Tremors" franchise. However, Bacon did not appear in "" (2015).


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Beginning in 2012, Bacon has appeared in a major advertising campaign for the EE mobile network in the United Kingdom, based on the Six Degrees concept and his various film roles. In 2015, he became a commercial spokesperson for the U.S. egg industry.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bacon is the subject of the trivia game titled "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," based on the idea that, due to his prolific screen career covering a diverse range of genres, any Hollywood actor can be linked to another in a handful of steps based on their association with Bacon. The name of the game derives from the idea of six degrees of separation.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Although he was initially dismayed by the game, the meme stuck, and Bacon eventually embraced it, forming the charitable initiative SixDegrees.org, a social networking service intended to link people and charities to each other.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: The measure of proximity to Bacon has been mathematically formalized as the Bacon number and can be referenced at websites including Oracle of Bacon, which is in turn based upon Internet Movie Database data. In 2012, Google added a feature to their search engine, whereby searching for an actor's name followed by the words "Bacon Number" will show the ways in which that actor is connected to Kevin Bacon. This feature is no longer active.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: A similar measurement exists in the mathematics community, where one measures how far one is removed from co-writing a mathematical paper with the prolific and itinerant mathematician Paul Erdős. This is done by means of the Erdős number, which is 0 for Paul Erdős himself, 1 for someone who co-wrote an article with him, 2 for someone who co-wrote with someone who co-wrote with him, etc. People have combined the Bacon number and the Erdős number to form the Erdős–Bacon number, which is the sum of the two.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: In 1995, Kevin formed a band called The Bacon Brothers with his brother, Michael. The duo has released seven albums. Kevin Bacon also sings in a variety of other media; he has serenaded his goats on Instagram, and sings with the band the Old 97's in his role as himself in "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special".


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bacon has been married to actress Kyra Sedgwick since September 4, 1988; they met on the set of the PBS version of Lanford Wilson's play "Lemon Sky". He has said: "The time I was hitting what I considered to be bottom was also the time I met my wife, our kids were born, good things were happening. And I was able to keep supporting myself; that always gave me strength." Bacon and Sedgwick have starred together in "Pyrates," "Murder in the First", "The Woodsman", and "Loverboy". They have two children, Travis Sedgwick (b. 1989) and Sosie Ruth (b. 1992). They reside on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Bacon was previously in a five-year relationship with actress Tracy Pollan, in the 1980s.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bacon has spoken out for the separation of church and state, and told "The Times" in 2005 that he did not "believe in God." He has also said that he is not anti-religion.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bacon and Sedgwick appeared in will.i.am's video "It's a New Day", which was released following Barack Obama's 2008 presidential win.


title: Kevin Bacon

text: Bacon and Sedgwick learned in 2011, via their appearance on the PBS TV show "Finding Your Roots" with Henry Louis Gates, that they are ninth cousins, once removed. They also appeared in a video promoting the "Bill of Reproductive Rights", supporting among other things a woman's right to choose and have access to birth control.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: Babylon is a 2022 American epic period comedy-drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, and Li Jun Li. Its plot chronicles the rise and fall of multiple characters during Hollywood's transition from silent to sound films in the late 1920s.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: Chazelle began developing the film in July 2019, with Lionsgate as the frontrunner to acquire the project. It was subsequently announced that Paramount Pictures had acquired worldwide rights in November 2019. Much of the main cast joined the project between January 2020 and August 2021, and filming took place in Los Angeles from July to October 2021.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: "Babylon" had its world premiere in Los Angeles on December 15, 2022, and is scheduled to be released in the United States on December 23, 2022, by Paramount Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the cinematography, score, and cast performances, but criticized the screenplay, graphic content, and runtime. It received five nominations at the 80th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and nine nominations at the 28th Critics' Choice Awards, including Best Picture.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: "Babylon" chronicles the rise and fall of multiple characters during Hollywood's transition from silent to sound films in the late 1920s.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: It was announced in July 2019 that Damien Chazelle had set his next project, a period drama set in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Lionsgate Films was the frontrunner to acquire the project, with Emma Stone and Brad Pitt in the mix to star. In November, Paramount Pictures acquired worldwide rights to the project, with Stone and Pitt still circling roles. Pitt confirmed his involvement in January 2020, describing the film as being set when the silent film era transitioned into sound. He was set to play a character modeled on actor-director John Gilbert.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: By December 2020, Margot Robbie was in early negotiations to replace Stone, who exited the film due to scheduling conflicts, and Li Jun Li was also cast. Robbie was confirmed in March 2021, with Jovan Adepo and Diego Calva also joining.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: In June, Katherine Waterston, Max Minghella, Flea, Samara Weaving, Rory Scovel, Lukas Haas, Eric Roberts, P.J. Byrne, Damon Gupton, Olivia Wilde, Spike Jonze, Phoebe Tonkin, and Tobey Maguire (who is also an executive producer for the film), joined the cast. In July 2021, Jean Smart joined the cast. In August 2021, Chloe Fineman, Jeff Garlin, Telvin Griffin and Troy Metcalf joined the cast of the film.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: Filming was initially set to take place in California in mid-2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming began on July 1, 2021, and wrapped on October 21, 2021.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: Justin Hurwitz, a frequent collaborator of Chazelle, composed the film's score. Two tracks from the score, "Call Me Manny" and "Voodoo Mama," were released digitally on November 10, 2022, the latter track being used to underscore the film's first trailer. The soundtrack album was released by Interscope Records on December 9, 2022.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: "Babylon" was first screened for critics and industry on November 14, 2022, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles and in New York City the following day. It was released on December 23, 2022. The film was initially scheduled for a December 25, 2021, limited release and a January 7, 2022, wide release, but was later delayed by an entire year, with a December 25, 2022 limited release, and a January 6, 2023 wide release, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In October, the film was moved two days earlier to the current date and is set for a wide release.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: The first red-banded trailer for "Babylon" premiered on September 12, 2022, at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival during a Q&A event with Chazelle and TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey. It was released to the public the following day, alongside character posters of the main cast. Noting its uncensored nudity, profanity and drug use, several publications compared the trailer's atmosphere to that of films such as "The Wolf of Wall Street" (2013) and "The Great Gatsby" (2013), which star Robbie and Maguire, respectively. A featurette about the making of the film was released on November 21, 2022. The second and final trailer for the film and its theatrical release poster were released on November 28, 2022.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: In the United States and Canada, "Babylon" will be released alongside "Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody", and is projected to gross $18 million over its four-day opening weekend.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, "Babylon" holds a rating of 63% based on 104 reviews with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's consensus reads: ""Babylon"'s overwhelming muchness is exhausting, but much like the industry it honors, its well-acted, well-crafted glitz and glamour can often be an effective distraction". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: In his review for the "San Francisco Chronicle", Mick LaSalle praised Chazelle's ambition and direction, writing that ""Babylon" is what movie love really looks like." "The Hollywood Reporter"'s David Rooney described it as a "syncopated concentration of hedonistic revelry", praising the cast performances, score, cinematography, costume and production design, but criticizing the screenplay and direction—ultimately concluding "it’s hard to imagine the overstuffed yet insubstantial "Babylon" finding its way into many screen-classic montages". Conversely, Peter Hammond of "Deadline" wrote that "it is guaranteed to be a movie that will stay in your head", commending the direction, production design, and cast performances.


title: Babylon (2022 film)

text: In his review for "The Guardian", Peter Bradshaw assigned the film three stars out of five, applauding the performances of Robbie and Pitt for elevating "a story in no hurry to engage with the true-life nastiness of its era". Writing for "Vanity Fair", Richard Lawson concurred with Bradshaw's sentiment, stating: "These are little islands in a sea of mannered chaos, but it begins to feel, as "Babylon" stretches out across three hours and eight minutes, that Chazelle has no clear idea where all of this is going." And in one scathing review for "Time", Stephanie Zacharek highlighted Jun Li's performance, but criticized Chazelle's screenplay and direction, summarizing: "Babylon is a manic sprawl that only pretends to celebrate cinema. It’s really about prurience, dumb sensation, self-congratulation and willful ignorance of history."


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait (; ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the north and Saudi Arabia to the south. Kuwait also shares maritime borders with Iran. Kuwait has a coastal length of approximately . Most of the country's population reside in the urban agglomeration of the capital city Kuwait City. , Kuwait has a population of 4.45 million people of which 1.45 million are Kuwaiti citizens while the remaining 3.00 million are foreign nationals from over 100 countries.


title: Kuwait

text: Historically, most of present-day Kuwait was part of ancient Mesopotamia. Pre-oil Kuwait was a strategic trade port between Mesopotamia, Persia and India. Oil reserves were discovered in commercial quantities in 1938. In 1946, crude oil was exported for the first time. From 1946 to 1982, the country underwent large-scale modernization, largely based on income from oil production. In the 1980s, Kuwait experienced a period of geopolitical instability and an economic crisis following the stock market crash. In 1990, after oil production disputes with neighbouring Iraq, Kuwait was invaded, and later annexed into one of Iraq's governorates by Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi occupation of Kuwait came to an end on February 26, 1991, after military intervention by a military coalition led by the United States and various other countries.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait is an emirate. The emir is the head of state and the Al Sabah is the ruling family which dominates the country's political system. Kuwait's official state religion is Islam. Kuwait is a developing country with a high-income economy, backed by the world's sixth largest oil reserves. The Kuwaiti dinar is the highest valued currency in the world. In 2009, Kuwait had the highest Human Development Index in the Arab world. Kuwait has the largest number of stateless people in the entire region. Kuwait is a founding member of the GCC and is also a member of the UN, AL, OPEC and the OIC.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait named the emir's son as the country's new prime minister on July 24, 2022 to replace caretaker premier Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid, who faced a combative parliament as head of cabinet in a feud hindering fiscal reform.


title: Kuwait

text: The country's name is from the Arabic diminutive form of ( or ), meaning "fortress built near water". Since 1961, the official name of the state is the "State of Kuwait".


title: Kuwait

text: Following the post-glacial flooding of the Persian Gulf basin, debris from the Tigris–Euphrates river formed a substantial delta, creating most of the land in present-day Kuwait and establishing the present coastlines. One of the earliest evidence of human habitation in Kuwait dates back to 8000 BC where Mesolithic tools were found in Burgan. Historically, most of present-day Kuwait was part of ancient Mesopotamia.


title: Kuwait

text: During the Ubaid period (6500 BC), Kuwait was the central site of interaction between the peoples of Mesopotamia and Neolithic Eastern Arabia, including Bahra 1 and site H3 in Subiya. The Neolithic inhabitants of Kuwait were among the world's earliest maritime traders. One of the world's earliest reed-boats was discovered at site H3 dating back to the Ubaid period. Other Neolithic sites in Kuwait are located in Khiran and Sulaibikhat.


title: Kuwait

text: Mesopotamians first settled in the Kuwaiti island of Failaka in 2000 B.C. Traders from the Sumerian city of Ur inhabited Failaka and ran a mercantile business. The island had many Mesopotamian-style buildings typical of those found in Iraq dating from around 2000 B.C. In 4000 BC until 2000 BC, Kuwait was home to the Dilmun civilization. Dilmun included Al-Shadadiya, Akkaz, Umm an Namil, and Failaka. At its peak in 2000 BC, Dilmun controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes.


title: Kuwait

text: During the Dilmun era (from ca. 3000 BC), Failaka was known as "Agarum", the land of Enzak, a great god in the Dilmun civilization according to Sumerian cuneiform texts found on the island. As part of Dilmun, Failaka became a hub for the civilization from the end of the 3rd to the middle of the 1st millennium BC. After the Dilmun civilization, Failaka was inhabited by the Kassites of Mesopotamia, and was formally under the control of the Kassite dynasty of Babylon. Studies indicate traces of human settlement can be found on Failaka dating back to as early as the end of the 3rd millennium BC, and extending until the 20th century AD. Many of the artifacts found in Falaika are linked to Mesopotamian civilizations and seem to show that Failaka was gradually drawn toward the civilization based in Antioch.


title: Kuwait

text: Under Nebuchadnezzar II, the bay of Kuwait was under Babylonian control. Cuneiform documents found in Failaka indicate the presence of Babylonians in the island's population. Babylonian Kings were present in Failaka during the Neo-Babylonian Empire period, Nabonidus had a governor in Failaka and Nebuchadnezzar II had a palace and temple in Falaika. Failaka also contained temples dedicated to the worship of Shamash, the Mesopotamian sun god in the Babylonian pantheon.


title: Kuwait

text: Following the Fall of Babylon, the bay of Kuwait came under the control of the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550‒330 BC) as the bay was repopulated after seven centuries of abandonment. Failaka was under the control of the Achaemenid Empire as evidenced by the archaeological discovery of Achaemenid strata. There are Aramaic inscriptions that testify Achaemenid presence.


title: Kuwait

text: In 4th century BC, the ancient Greeks colonized the bay of Kuwait under Alexander the Great. The ancient Greeks named mainland Kuwait "Larissa" and Failaka was named "Ikaros". The bay of Kuwait was named "Hieros Kolpos". According to Strabo and Arrian, Alexander the Great named Failaka "Ikaros" because it resembled the Aegean island of that name in size and shape. Some elements of Greek mythology were mixed with the local cults. "Ikaros" was also the name of a prominent city situated in Failaka. Large Hellenistic forts and Greek temples were uncovered. Archaeological remains of Greek colonization were also discovered in Akkaz, Umm an Namil, and Subiya.


title: Kuwait

text: At the time of Alexander the Great, the mouth of the Euphrates River was located in northern Kuwait. The Euphrates river flowed directly into the Persian Gulf via Khor Subiya which was a river channel at the time. Failaka was located 15 kilometers from the mouth of the Euphrates river. By the first century BC, the Khor Subiya river channel dried out completely.


title: Kuwait

text: In 127 BC, Kuwait was part of the Parthian Empire and the kingdom of Characene was established around Teredon in present-day Kuwait. Characene was centered in the region encompassing southern Mesopotamia, Characene coins were discovered in Akkaz, Umm an Namil, and Failaka. A busy Parthian commercial station was situated in Kuwait.


title: Kuwait

text: The earliest recorded mention of Kuwait was in 150 AD in the geographical treatise "Geography" by Greek scholar Ptolemy. Ptolemy mentioned the Bay of Kuwait as "Hieros Kolpos" ("Sacer Sinus" in the Latin versions).


title: Kuwait

text: In 224 AD, Kuwait became part of the Sassanid Empire. At the time of the Sassanid Empire, Kuwait was known as "Meshan", which was an alternative name of the kingdom of Characene. Akkaz was a Partho-Sassanian site; the Sassanid religion's tower of silence was discovered in northern Akkaz. Late Sassanian settlements were discovered in Failaka. In Bubiyan, there is archaeological evidence of Sassanian to early Islamic periods of human presence as evidenced by the recent discovery of torpedo-jar pottery shards on several prominent beach ridges.


title: Kuwait

text: Most of present-day Kuwait is still archaeologically unexplored. According to several famous archaeologists and geologists, Kuwait was likely the original location of the Pishon River which watered the mythical Garden of Eden. Juris Zarins argued that the Garden of Eden was situated at the head of the Persian Gulf (present-day Kuwait), where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers run into the sea, from his research on this area using information from many different sources, including LANDSAT images from space. His suggestion about the Pishon River was supported by James A. Sauer of the American Center of Oriental Research. Sauer made an argument from geology and history that Pishon River was the now-defunct Kuwait River. With the aid of satellite photos, Farouk El-Baz traced the dry channel from Kuwait up the Wadi Al-Batin.


title: Kuwait

text: In 636 AD, the Battle of Chains between the Sassanid Empire and Rashidun Caliphate was fought in Kuwait. At the time, Kuwait was under the control of the Sassanid Empire. The Battle of Chains was the first battle of the Rashidun Caliphate in which the Muslim army sought to extend its frontiers.


title: Kuwait

text: As a result of Rashidun victory in 636 AD, the bay of Kuwait was home to the city of Kazma (also known as "Kadhima" or "Kāzimah") in the early Islamic era. Medieval Arabic sources contain multiple references to the bay of Kuwait in the early Islamic period. According to medieval sources, the city functioned as a trade port and resting place for pilgrims on their way from Iraq to Hejaz. The city was controlled by the kingdom of Al-Hirah in Iraq. In the early Islamic period, the bay of Kuwait was known for being a fertile area. The Kuwaiti city of Kazma was also a stop for caravans coming from Persia and Mesopotamia en route to the Arabian Peninsula. The poet Al-Farazdaq, recognized as one of the greatest classical poets of the Arabs, was born in the Kuwaiti city of Kazma.


title: Kuwait

text: Christian Nestorian settlements flourished across the bay of Kuwait from the 5th century until the 9th century. Excavations have revealed several farms, villages and two large churches dating from the 5th and 6th century. Archaeologists are currently excavating nearby sites to understand the extent of the settlements that flourished in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D. An old island tradition is that a community grew up around a Christian mystic and hermit. The small farms and villages were eventually abandoned. Remains of Byzantine era Nestorian churches were found in Akkaz and Al-Qusur. Pottery at the site can be dated from as early as the first half of the 7th century through the 9th century.


title: Kuwait

text: In 1521, Kuwait was under Portuguese control. In the late 16th century, the Portuguese built a defensive settlement in Kuwait. In 1613, Kuwait City was founded as a fishing village. Administratively, it was a sheikhdom, ruled by local sheikhs from Bani Khalid clan. In 1682 or 1716, the Bani Utbah settled in Kuwait City, which at this time was still inhabited by fishermen and primarily functioned as a fishing village under Bani Khalid control. Sometime after the death of the Bani Khalid's leader Barrak Bin Urair and the fall of the Bani Khalid Emirate, the Utub were able to wrest control of Kuwait as a result of successive matrimonial alliances.


title: Kuwait

text: In the early eighteenth century, Kuwait prospered as a maritime port city and rapidly became the principal commercial center for the transit of goods between Baghdad, India, Muscat, and Arabian Peninsula. By the mid-1700s, Kuwait had established itself as the major trading route from the Persian Gulf to Aleppo. During the Persian siege of Basra in 1775–79, Iraqi merchants took refuge in Kuwait and were partly instrumental in the expansion of Kuwait's boat-building and trading activities. As a result, Kuwait's maritime commerce boomed, as the Indian trade routes with Baghdad, Aleppo, Smyrna and Constantinople were diverted to Kuwait during this time. The East India Company was diverted to Kuwait in 1792. The East India Company secured the sea routes between Kuwait, India and the east coasts of Africa. After the Persians withdrew from Basra in 1779, Kuwait continued to attract trade away from Basra. The flight of many of Basra's leading merchants to Kuwait continued to play a significant role in Basra's commercial stagnation well into the 1850s.


title: Kuwait

text: According to Kuwaiti authors, the instability in Basra helped foster economic prosperity in Kuwait. In the late 18th century, Kuwait was a haven for Basra merchants fleeing Ottoman persecution. Kuwait was the center of boat building in the Persian Gulf, its ships renowned throughout the Indian Ocean. Kuwaitis also developed a reputation as the best sailors in the Persian Gulf. In the 19th century, Kuwait became significant in the horse trade, with regular shipments in sailing vessels. In the mid 19th century, it was estimated that Kuwait exported an average of 800 horses to India annually.


title: Kuwait

text: In the 1890s, threatened by the Ottoman Empire, ruler Sheikh Mubarak Al Sabah signed an agreement with the British government in India (subsequently known as the Anglo-Kuwaiti Agreement of 1899) making Kuwait a British protectorate. This gave Britain exclusive access and trade with Kuwait, while denying Ottoman provinces to the north a port on the Persian Gulf. The Sheikhdom of Kuwait remained a British protectorate until 1961.


title: Kuwait

text: During the reign of Mubarak, Kuwait was dubbed the "Marseilles of the Persian Gulf" because its economic vitality attracted a large variety of people. The population was cosmopolitan, ethnically and religiously diverse, including Arabs, Persians, Africans, Jews and Armenians. Kuwait was known for its religious tolerance.


title: Kuwait

text: After the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913, Kuwait was established as an autonomous "kaza," or district, of the Ottoman Empire and a "de facto" protectorate of Great Britain.


title: Kuwait

text: In the first decades of the twentieth century, Kuwait had a well-established elite: wealthy trading families linked by marriage and shared economic interests, long-settled and urban, most claiming descent from the original 30 Bani Utubi families. The wealthiest were merchants who acquired their wealth from long-distance commerce, shipbuilding and pearling. They were a cosmopolitan elite who traveled extensively to India, Africa and Europe, and educated their sons abroad more than other Gulf Arab elite. Western visitors noted the Kuwaiti elite used European office systems, typewriters, and followed European culture with curiosity. The richest were involved in general trade. The Kuwaiti merchant families of Al-Ghanim and Al-Hamad were estimated to be worth millions before the 1940s.


title: Kuwait

text: In the early 20th century, Kuwait immensely declined in regional economic importance, mainly due to many trade blockades and the world economic depression. Before Mary Bruins Allison visited Kuwait in 1934, Kuwait lost its prominence in long-distance trade. During World War I, the British Empire imposed a trade blockade against Kuwait because Kuwait's ruler at the time, Salim Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, supported the Ottoman Empire. The British economic blockade heavily damaged Kuwait's economy.


title: Kuwait

text: In 1919, Sheikh Salim Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah intended to build a commercial city in the south of Kuwait. This caused a diplomatic crisis with Najd, but Britain intervened, discouraging Sheikh Salim. In 1920, an attempt by the Ikhwan to build a stronghold in southern Kuwait led to the Battle of Hamdh. The Battle of Hamdh involved 2,000 Ikhwan fighters against 100 Kuwaiti cavalrymen and 200 Kuwaiti infantrymen. The battle lasted for six days and resulted in heavy but unknown casualties on both sides resulting in the victory of the Ikhwan forces and leading to the battle of Jahra around the Kuwait Red Fort. The Battle of Jahra happened as the result of the Battle of Hamdh. A force of three to four thousand Ikhwan, led by Faisal Al-Dawish, attacked the Red Fort at Al-Jahra, defended by fifteen hundred men. The fort was besieged and the Kuwaiti position precarious; had the fort fallen, Kuwait would likely have been incorporated into Ibn Saud's empire. The Ikhwan attack repulsed for the while, negotiations began between Salim and Al-Dawish; the latter threatened another attack if the Kuwaiti forces did not surrender. The local merchant class convinced Salim to call in help from British troops, who showed up with airplanes and three warships, ending the attacks. After the Battle of Jahra, Ibn Saud's warriors, the Ikhwan, demanded that Kuwait follows five rules: evict all the Shias, adopt the Ikhwan doctrine, label the Turks "heretics", abolish smoking, munkar and prostitution, and destroy the American missionary hospital.


title: Kuwait

text: The Kuwait–Najd War of 1919–20 erupted in the aftermath of World War I. The war occurred because Ibn Saud of Najd wanted to annex Kuwait. The sharpened conflict between Kuwait and Najd led to the death of hundreds of Kuwaitis. The war resulted in sporadic border clashes throughout 1919–1920.


title: Kuwait

text: When Percy Cox was informed of the border clashes in Kuwait, he sent a letter to the Ruler of Arabistan Sheikh Khazʽal Ibn Jabir offering the Kuwaiti throne to either him or one of his heirs, knowing that Khaz'al would be a wiser ruler than the Al Sabah family. Khaz'al, who considered the Al Sabah as his own family, replied "Do you expect me to allow the stepping down of Al Mubarak from the throne of Kuwait? Do you think I can accept this?" He then asked:


title: Kuwait

text: Following the Kuwait–Najd War in 1919–20, Ibn Saud imposed a trade blockade against Kuwait from the years 1923 until 1937. The goal of the Saudi economic and military attacks on Kuwait was to annex as much of Kuwait's territory as possible. At the Uqair conference in 1922, the boundaries of Kuwait and Najd were set; as a result of British interference, Kuwait had no representative at the Uqair conference. After the Uqair conference, Kuwait was still subjected to a Saudi economic blockade and intermittent Saudi raiding.


title: Kuwait

text: The Great Depression harmed Kuwait's economy, starting in the late 1920s. International trading was one of Kuwait's main sources of income before oil. Kuwaiti merchants were mostly intermediary merchants. As a result of the decline of European demand for goods from India and Africa, Kuwait's economy suffered. The decline in international trade resulted in an increase in gold smuggling by Kuwaiti ships to India. Some Kuwaiti merchant families became rich from this smuggling. Kuwait's pearl industry also collapsed as a result of the worldwide economic depression. At its height, Kuwait's pearl industry had led the world's luxury market, regularly sending out between 750 and 800 ships to meet the European elite's desire for pearls. During the economic depression, luxuries like pearls were in little demand. The Japanese invention of cultured pearls also contributed to the collapse of Kuwait's pearl industry.


title: Kuwait

text: Attempts by Faisal king of Iraq to build a railway to Kuwait and port facilities on the Gulf were rejected by Britain. These and other similar British colonial policies made Kuwait a focus of the Arab national movement in Iraq, and a symbol of Iraqi humiliation at the hands of the British.


title: Kuwait

text: Throughout the 1930s, Kuwaiti people opposed the British imposed separation of Kuwait from Iraq. In 1938, the "Free Kuwaiti Movement" was established by Kuwaiti youth who opposed British rule and submitted a petition requesting the Iraqi government reunifies Kuwait and Iraq. Due to fears of armed uprising in Kuwait, the Al Sabah agreed to the establishment of a legislative council to represent the "Free Kuwaiti Movement" demanding the reunification of Iraq and Kuwait. The council's first meeting in 1938 resulted in unanimous resolutions demanding the reunification of Kuwait and Iraq.


title: Kuwait

text: In March 1939, a popular armed uprising erupted within Kuwait to reunify with Iraq. The Al Sabah family, along with British military support, violently put down the uprising, and killed and imprisoned its participants. King Ghazi of Iraq publicly demanded the release of the Kuwaiti prisoners and warned the Al Sabah family to end the repression of the "Free Kuwaiti Movement".


title: Kuwait

text: Between 1946 and 1982, Kuwait experienced a period of prosperity driven by oil and its liberal atmosphere. In popular discourse, the years between 1946 and 1982 are referred to as the "Golden Era of Kuwait". In 1950, a major public-work programme began to enable Kuwaitis to enjoy a modern standard of living. By 1952, the country became the largest oil exporter in the Persian Gulf region. This massive growth attracted many foreign workers, especially from Palestine, India, and Egypt – with the latter being particularly political within the context of the Arab Cold War.


title: Kuwait

text: In June 1961, Kuwait became independent with the end of the British protectorate and the Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah became Emir of Kuwait. Kuwait's national day, however, is celebrated on 25 February, the anniversary of the coronation of Sheikh Abdullah (it was originally celebrated on 19 June, the date of independence, but concerns over the summer heat caused the government to move it). Under the terms of the newly drafted Constitution, Kuwait held its first parliamentary elections in 1963. Kuwait was the first of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf to establish a constitution and parliament.


title: Kuwait

text: Although Kuwait formally gained independence in 1961, Iraq initially refused to recognize the country's independence by maintaining that Kuwait is part of Iraq, albeit Iraq later briefly backed down following a show of force by Britain and Arab League support of Kuwait's independence. The short-lived Operation Vantage crisis evolved in July 1961, as the Iraqi government threatened to invade Kuwait and the invasion was finally averted following plans by the Arab League to form an international Arab force against the potential Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. As a result of Operation Vantage, the Arab League took over the border security of Kuwait and the British had withdrawn their forces by 19 October. Iraqi prime minister Abd al-Karim Qasim was killed in a coup in 1963 but, although Iraq recognised Kuwaiti independence and the military threat was perceived to be reduced, Britain continued to monitor the situation and kept forces available to protect Kuwait until 1971. There had been no Iraqi military action against Kuwait at the time: this was attributed to the political and military situation within Iraq which continued to be unstable. A treaty of friendship between Iraq and Kuwait was signed in 1963 by which Iraq recognised the 1932 border of Kuwait. After the 1967 Six Day War Kuwait along with other Arab speaking countries voted the three no's of the Khartoum Resolution: no peace with Israel, no Recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel. The Kuwait-Iraq 1973 Sanita border skirmish evolved on 20 March 1973, when Iraqi army units occupied El-Samitah near the Kuwaiti border, which evoked an international crisis.


title: Kuwait

text: On 6 February 1974, Palestinian militants occupied the Japanese embassy in Kuwait, taking the ambassador and ten others hostage. The militants' motive was to support the Japanese Red Army members and Palestinian militants who were holding hostages on a Singaporean ferry in what is known as the "Laju" incident. Ultimately, the hostages were released, and the guerrillas allowed to fly to Aden. This was the first time Palestinian guerrillas struck in Kuwait as the Al Sabah ruling family, headed by Sheikh Sabah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, funded the Palestinian resistance movement. Kuwait had been a regular endpoint for Palestinian plane hijacking in the past and had considered itself safe.


title: Kuwait

text: In the 1960s and 1970s, Kuwait was considered the most developed country in the region. Kuwait was the pioneer in the Middle East in diversifying its earnings away from oil exports. The Kuwait Investment Authority is the world's first sovereign wealth fund. From the 1970s onward, Kuwait scored highest of all Arab countries on the Human Development Index. Kuwait University was established in 1966. Kuwait's theatre industry was well known throughout the Arab world.


title: Kuwait

text: In the 1960s and 1970s, Kuwait's press was described as one of the freest in the world. Kuwait was the pioneer in the literary renaissance in the Arab region. In 1958, "Al-Arabi" magazine was first published. The magazine went on to become the most popular magazine in the Arab world. Many Arab writers moved to Kuwait because they enjoyed greater freedom of expression than elsewhere in the Arab world. The Iraqi poet Ahmed Matar left Iraq in the 1970s to take refuge in the more liberal environment of Kuwait.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwaiti society embraced liberal and non-traditional attitudes throughout the 1960s and 1970s. For example, most Kuwaiti women did not wear the hijab in the 1960s and 70s.


title: Kuwait

text: In the early 1980s, Kuwait experienced a major economic crisis after the Souk Al-Manakh stock market crash and decrease in oil price.


title: Kuwait

text: During the Iran–Iraq War, Kuwait supported Iraq. Throughout the 1980s, there were several terror attacks in Kuwait, including the 1983 Kuwait bombings, hijacking of several Kuwait Airways planes and the attempted assassination of Emir Jaber in 1985. Kuwait was a regional hub of science and technology in the 1960s and 1970s up until the early 1980s; the scientific research sector significantly suffered due to the terror attacks.


title: Kuwait

text: After the Iran–Iraq War ended, Kuwait declined an Iraqi request to forgive its US$65 billion debt. An economic rivalry between the two countries ensued after Kuwait increased its oil production by 40 percent. Tensions between the two countries increased further in July 1990, after Iraq complained to OPEC claiming that Kuwait was stealing its oil from a field near the border by slant drilling of the Rumaila field.


title: Kuwait

text: In August 1990, Iraqi forces invaded and annexed Kuwait without any warning. After a series of failed diplomatic negotiations, the United States led a coalition to remove the Iraqi forces from Kuwait, in what became known as the Gulf War. On 26 February 1991, in phase of code-named Operation Desert Storm, the coalition succeeded in driving out the Iraqi forces. As they retreated, Iraqi forces carried out a scorched earth policy by setting oil wells on fire. During the Iraqi occupation, more than 1,000 Kuwaiti civilians were killed. In addition, more than 600 Kuwaitis went missing during Iraq's occupation; remains of approximately 375 were found in mass graves in Iraq. Kuwait celebrates February 26 as Liberation Day. The event marked the country as the centre of the last major war in the 20th century.


title: Kuwait

text: In the early 1990s, Kuwait expelled approximately 400,000 Palestinian expats. Kuwait's policy was a response to alignment of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the PLO with Saddam Hussein. Kuwait also deported thousands of Iraqis and Yemenis after the Gulf War.


title: Kuwait

text: In addition, hundreds of thousands of stateless Bedoon were expelled from Kuwait in the early-to-mid 1990s. At the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in 1995, it was announced that the Al Sabah ruling family deported 150,000 stateless Bedoon to refugee camps in the Kuwaiti desert near the Iraqi border with minimal water, insufficient food, and no basic shelter. The Kuwaiti authorities also threatened to murder the stateless Bedoon. As a result, many of the stateless Bedoon fled to Iraq where they still remain stateless people even today.


title: Kuwait

text: In March 2003, Kuwait became the springboard for the US-led invasion of Iraq. In 2005, women won the right to vote and run in elections. Upon the death of the Emir Jaber in January 2006, Sheikh Saad Al-Sabah succeeded him but was removed nine days later due to his failing health. As a result, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah was sworn in as Emir. From 2006 onwards, Kuwait suffered from chronic political deadlock between the government and parliament which resulted in multiple cabinet reshuffles and dissolutions. This significantly hampered investment and economic reforms in Kuwait, making the country's economy much more dependent on oil.


title: Kuwait

text: From 2006 to 2009, Kuwait had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the Arab world. China awarded Kuwait Investment Authority an additional $700 million quota on top of $300 million awarded in March 2012. The quota is the highest to be granted by China to foreign investment entities. In 2014 and 2015, Kuwait was ranked first among Arab countries in the Global Gender Gap Report.


title: Kuwait

text: In March 2014, David S. Cohen, who was then Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, accused Kuwait of funding terrorism. Since the end of the Gulf War in 1991, accusations of Kuwait funding terrorism have been very common and come from a wide variety of sources including intelligence reports, Western government officials, scholarly research, and renowned journalists. From 2014 to 2015, Kuwait was frequently described as the world's biggest source of terrorism funding, particularly for ISIS and Al-Qaeda.


title: Kuwait

text: On 26 June 2015, a suicide bombing took place at a Shia Muslim mosque in Kuwait. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the attack. Twenty-seven people were killed and 227 people were wounded. It was the largest terror attack in Kuwait's history. In the aftermath, a lawsuit was filed accusing the Kuwaiti government of negligence and direct responsibility for the terror attack.


title: Kuwait

text: Due to declining oil prices since the late 2010s, Kuwait has been facing one of the worst economic crunches in the entire region. Historically, Kuwait's infrastructure projects market has underperformed its potential due to political deadlock between the government and parliament. Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City was inaugurated in mid-2016. In 2020, the Kuwaiti government experienced its first fiscal deficit since 1995.


title: Kuwait

text: In recent years, Kuwait has invested significantly in its economic relations with China. China has been Kuwait's largest trade partner since 2016. Under the Belt and Road Initiative, Kuwait and China have various cooperation projects including South al-Mutlaa which is currently under construction in northern Kuwait. The Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway is part of the first phase of the Silk City project. The causeway was inaugurated in May 2019 as part of Kuwait Vision 2035, it connects Kuwait City to northern Kuwait. The Kuwait National Cultural District comprises the Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Cultural Centre, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre, Al Shaheed Park, and Al Salam Palace. In 2020, Kuwait's domestic travel and tourism spending was $6.1 billion.


title: Kuwait

text: The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated Kuwait's economic crisis. Kuwait's economy faced a budget deficit of $46 billion in 2020. In September 2020, Kuwait's Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah became the 16th Emir of Kuwait and the successor to Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, who died at the age of 91. In October 2020, Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah was appointed as the Crown Prince.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait currently has the largest US military presence in the Middle East region. There are over 14,000 US military personnel stationed in the country. Camp Arifjan is the largest US military base in Kuwait.


title: Kuwait

text: Located in the north-east corner of the Arabian Peninsula, Kuwait is one of the smallest countries in the world in terms of land area. Kuwait lies between latitudes 28° and 31° N, and longitudes 46° and 49° E. Kuwait is generally low-lying, with the highest point being above sea level. Mutla Ridge is the highest point in Kuwait.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait has ten islands. With an area of , the Bubiyan is the largest island in Kuwait and is connected to the rest of the country by a bridge. 0.6% of Kuwaiti land area is considered arable with sparse vegetation found along its coastline. Kuwait City is located on Kuwait Bay, a natural deep-water harbor.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait's Burgan field has a total capacity of approximately of proven oil reserves. During the 1991 Kuwaiti oil fires, more than 500 oil lakes were created covering a combined surface area of about . The resulting soil contamination due to oil and soot accumulation had made eastern and south-eastern parts of Kuwait uninhabitable. Sand and oil residue had reduced large parts of the Kuwaiti desert to semi-asphalt surfaces. The oil spills during the Gulf War also drastically affected Kuwait's marine resources.


title: Kuwait

text: Due to Kuwait's proximity to Iraq and Iran, the winter season in Kuwait is colder than other coastal countries in the region (especially UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain). Kuwait is also less humid than other coastal countries in the region. The spring season in March is warm with occasional thunderstorms. The frequent winds from the northwest are cold in winter and hot in summer. Southeasterly damp winds spring up between July and October. Hot and dry south winds prevail in spring and early summer. The shamal, a northwesterly wind common during June and July, causes dramatic sandstorms. Summers in Kuwait are some of the hottest on earth. The highest recorded temperature was at Mitribah on 21 July 2016, which is the highest temperature recorded in Asia.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait emits a lot of carbon dioxide per person compared to most other countries. In recent years, Kuwait has been regularly ranked among the world's highest countries in term of CO per capita emissions.


title: Kuwait

text: At present, there are five protected areas in Kuwait recognized by the IUCN. In response to Kuwait becoming the 169th signatory of the Ramsar Convention, Bubiyan Island's Mubarak al-Kabeer reserve was designated as the country's first Wetland of International Importance. The 50,948 ha reserve consists of small lagoons and shallow salt marshes and is important as a stop-over for migrating birds on two migration routes. The reserve is home to the world's largest breeding colony of crab-plover.


title: Kuwait

text: Currently, 444 species of birds have been recorded in Kuwait, 18 species of which breed in the country. Due to its location at the head of the Persian Gulf near the mouth of the Tigris–Euphrates river, Kuwait is situated at the crossroads of many major bird migration routes and between two and three million birds pass each year. Kuwait's marine and littoral ecosystems contain the bulk of the country's biodiversity heritage. The marshes in northern Kuwait and Jahra have become increasingly important as a refuge for passage migrants.


title: Kuwait

text: Twenty eight species of mammal are found in Kuwait; animals such as gerboa, desert rabbits and hedgehogs are common in the desert. Large carnivores, such as the wolf, caracal and jackal, are longer present. Among the endangered mammalian species are the red fox and wild cat. Forty reptile species have been recorded although none are endemic to Kuwait.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait, Oman and Yemen are the only locations where the endangered smoothtooth blacktip shark is confirmed as occurring.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwaiti islands are important breeding areas for four species of tern and the socotra cormorant. Kubbar Island has been recognised an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a breeding colony of white-cheeked terns.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait is part of the Tigris–Euphrates river system basin. Several Tigris–Euphrates confluences form parts of the Kuwait–Iraq border. Bubiyan Island is part of the Shatt al-Arab delta. Kuwait is partially part of the Mesopotamian Marshes. Kuwait does not currently have any permanent rivers within its territory. However, Kuwait does have several wadis, the most notable of which is Wadi Al-Batin which forms the border between Kuwait and Iraq. Kuwait also has several river-like marine channels around Bubiyan Island, most notably Khawr Abd Allah which is now an estuary, but once was the point where the Shatt al-Arab emptied into the Persian Gulf. Khawr Abd Allah is located in southern Iraq and northern Kuwait, the Iraq-Kuwait border divides the lower portion of the estuary, but adjacent to the port of Umm Qasr the estuary becomes wholly Iraqi. It forms the northeast coastline of Bubiyan Island and the north coastline of Warbah Island.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait relies on water desalination as a primary source of fresh water for drinking and domestic purposes. There are currently more than six desalination plants. Kuwait was the first country in the world to use desalination to supply water for large-scale domestic use. The history of desalination in Kuwait dates back to 1951 when the first distillation plant was commissioned.


title: Kuwait

text: In 1965, the Kuwaiti government commissioned the Swedish engineering company of VBB (Sweco) to develop and implement a plan for a modern water-supply system for Kuwait City. The company built five groups of water towers, thirty-one towers total, designed by its chief architect Sune Lindström, called "the mushroom towers". For a sixth site, the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed, wanted a more spectacular design. This last group, known as Kuwait Towers, consists of three towers, two of which also serve as water towers. Water from the desalination facility is pumped up to the tower. The thirty-three towers have a standard capacity of 102,000 cubic meters of water. "The Water Towers" (Kuwait Tower and the Kuwait Water Towers) were awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (1980 Cycle).


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait's fresh water resources are limited to groundwater, desalinated seawater, and treated wastewater effluents. There are three major municipal wastewater treatment plants. Most water demand is currently satisfied through seawater desalination plants. Sewage disposal is handled by a national sewage network that covers 98% of facilities in the country.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait is a semi-constitutional emirate, which is sometimes described as "anocratic". The Polity data series and Economist Democracy Index both categorize Kuwait as an autocracy (dictatorship). Freedom House rates the country as "partly free" in the Freedom in the World survey. The Emir is the head of state. The political system consists of an appointed government (dominated by the Al Sabah ruling family), appointed judiciary, and elected legislature. The Constitution of Kuwait was promulgated in 1962.


title: Kuwait

text: Executive power is executed by the government. The Emir appoints the prime minister, who in turn chooses the cabinet of ministers comprising the government. In recent decades, numerous policies of the Kuwaiti government have been characterized as "demographic engineering", especially in relation to Kuwait's stateless Bedoon crisis and the history of naturalization in Kuwait.


title: Kuwait

text: The Emir appoints all the judges and many judges are foreign nationals from Egypt. The Constitutional Court is charged with ruling on the conformity of laws and decrees with the constitution. Kuwait has an active public sphere and civil society with political and social organizations that are parties in all but name. Professional groups like the Chamber of Commerce maintain their autonomy from the government.


title: Kuwait

text: The legislative branch consists of the National Assembly, which has nominal oversight authority. As per article 107 of the Kuwait constitution, the Emir can dissolve the parliament so long as an election for a new assembly are held within two months of the dissolution. Due to frequent cabinet resignations, Kuwait has a new government every eight months. The political instability has significantly hampered the country's economic development and infrastructure.


title: Kuwait

text: The Emir has suspended the constitution twice: in 1976 under Sheikh Sabah Al-Salim Al-Sabah and 1986 under Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah. Kuwait is regularly characterized as being a "rentier state" in which the ruling family uses oil revenues to buy the political acquiescence of the citizenry; more than 70% of government spending consists of public sector salaries and subsidies. Kuwait has the highest public sector wage bill in the GCC region as public sector wages account for 12.4% of GDP.


title: Kuwait

text: Although Kuwaiti women outnumber men in the workforce, the political participation of Kuwaiti women has been limited. Kuwaiti women are considered among the most emancipated women in the Middle East. In 2014 and 2015, Kuwait was ranked first among Arab countries in the Global Gender Gap Report. In 2013, 53% of Kuwaiti women participated in the labor force. Kuwait has higher female citizen participation in the workforce than other GCC countries. According to the Social Progress Index, Kuwait ranks first in social progress in the Arab world and Muslim world and second highest in the Middle East after Israel. Kuwait ranks among the world's top countries by life expectancy, women's workforce participation, global food security, and school order and safety.


title: Kuwait

text: Article 4 of the Kuwait constitution stipulates that Kuwait is a hereditary emirate whose emir must be an heir of Mubarak Al-Sabah. Mubarak had four sons, but an informal pattern of alternation between the descendants of his sons Jabir and Salem emerged since his death in 1915. This pattern of succession had one exception before 2006, when Sheikh Sabah Al-Salim, a son of Salem, was named crown prince to succeed his half-brother Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem as a consequence of infighting and lack of consensus within the ruling family council. The alternating system was resumed when Sheikh Sabah Al-Salim named Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed of the Jabir branch as his crown prince, eventually ruling as Emir for 29 years from 1977 to 2006. On January 15, 2006, Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed died and his crown prince, Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah of the Salem branch was named Emir. On January 23, 2006, the National Assembly unanimously voted in favor of Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah abdicating in favor of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed, citing his illness with a form of dementia. Instead of naming a successor from the Salem branch as per convention, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed named his half-brother Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed as crown prince and his nephew Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed as prime minister.


title: Kuwait

text: Article 4 of the Kuwait constitution stipulates that the incoming Emir's choice of crown prince needs to be approved by an absolute majority of the National Assembly. If this approval is not achieved, the emir is constitutionally required to submit three alternative candidates for crown prince to the National Assembly. This process has caused contenders for power to engage in alliance-building in the political scene, which has taken historically private feuding within the ruling family to the "public arena and the political realm".


title: Kuwait

text: The foreign affairs of Kuwait are handled at the level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The first foreign affairs department bureau was established in 1961. Kuwait became the 111th member state of the United Nations in May 1963. It is a long-standing member of the Arab League and Gulf Cooperation Council.


title: Kuwait

text: Before the Gulf War, Kuwait was the only "pro-Soviet" state in the Persian Gulf region. Kuwait acted as a conduit for the Soviets to the other Arab states of the Persian Gulf, and Kuwait was used to demonstrate the benefits of a pro-Soviet stance. In July 1987, Kuwait refused to allow U.S. military bases in its territory. As a result of the Gulf War, Kuwait's relations with the U.S. have improved (major non-NATO ally). Kuwait is also a major ally of ASEAN and enjoys a close economic relationship with China while working to establish a model of cooperation in numerous fields.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait is a major non-NATO ally to the United States and currently has the largest US military presence in the entire Middle East region. The United States government utilizes Kuwait-based military bases as staging hubs, training ranges, and logistical support for regional and international military operations. The bases include Camp Arifjan, Camp Buehring, Ali Al Salem Air Field, and the naval base Camp Patriot.


title: Kuwait

text: Under the Belt and Road Initiative, Kuwait and China have many important cooperation projects including South al-Mutlaa and Mubarak Al Kabeer Port.


title: Kuwait

text: The Military of Kuwait traces its original roots to the Kuwaiti cavalrymen and infantrymen that used to protect Kuwait and its wall since the early 1900s. These cavalrymen and infantrymen formed the defense and security forces in metropolitan areas and were charged with protecting outposts outside the wall of Kuwait.


title: Kuwait

text: The Military of Kuwait consists of several joint defense forces. The governing bodies are the Kuwait Ministry of Defense, the Kuwait Ministry of Interior, the Kuwait National Guard, and the Kuwait Fire Service Directorate. The Emir of Kuwait is the commander-in-chief of all defense forces by default.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait follows the "civil law system" modeled after the French legal system, Kuwait's legal system is largely secular. Sharia law governs only family law for Muslim residents, while non-Muslims in Kuwait have a secular family law. For the application of family law, there are three separate court sections: Sunni (Maliki), Shia, and non-Muslim. According to the United Nations, Kuwait's legal system is a mix of English common law, French civil law, Egyptian civil law and Islamic law.


title: Kuwait

text: The court system in Kuwait is secular. Unlike other Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Kuwait does not have Sharia courts. Sections of the civil court system administer family law. Kuwait has the most secular commercial law in the Persian Gulf region. The parliament criminalized alcohol consumption in 1983. Kuwait's Code of Personal Status was promulgated in 1984.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait is divided into six governorates: Al Asimah Governorate (or Capital Governorate); Hawalli Governorate; Farwaniya Governorate; Mubarak Al-Kabeer Governorate; Ahmadi Governorate; and Jahra Governorate. The governorates are further subdivided into areas.


title: Kuwait

text: Human rights in Kuwait has been the subject of significant criticism, particularly regarding the Bedoon (stateless people). The Kuwaiti government's handling of the stateless Bedoon crisis has come under criticism from many human rights organisations and even the United Nations. According to Human Rights Watch in 1995, Kuwait has produced 300,000 stateless Bedoon. Kuwait has the largest number of stateless people in the entire region. Since 1986, the Kuwaiti government has refused to grant any form of documentation to the Bedoon including birth certificates, death certificates, identity cards, marriage certificates, and driving licences. The Kuwaiti Bedoon crisis resembles the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar (Burma). According to several human rights organizations, Kuwait is committing ethnic cleansing and genocide against the stateless Bedoon.


title: Kuwait

text: On the other hand, human rights organizations have criticized Kuwait for the human rights abuses toward foreign nationals. Foreign nationals account for 70% of Kuwait's total population. The kafala system leaves foreign nationals prone to exploitation. Administrative deportation is very common in Kuwait for minor offenses, including minor traffic violations. Kuwait is one of the world's worst offenders in human trafficking. Hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals are subjected to numerous human rights abuses including involuntary servitude. They are subjected to physical and sexual abuse, non-payment of wages, poor work conditions, threats, confinement to the home, and withholding of passports to restrict their freedom of movement. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic vaccination rollout, Kuwait has been regularly accused of implementing a xenophobic vaccine policy toward foreign nationals.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait's mistreatment of foreign workers has resulted in various high-profile diplomatic crises. In 2018, there was a diplomatic crisis between Kuwait and the Philippines due to the mistreatment of Filipino workers in Kuwait. Approximately 60% of Filipinos in Kuwait are employed as domestic workers. In July 2018, Kuwaiti fashionista Sondos Alqattan released a controversial video criticizing domestic workers from the Philippines. In 2020, there was a diplomatic crisis between Kuwait and Egypt due to the mistreatment of Egyptian workers in Kuwait.


title: Kuwait

text: Various Kuwaitis have been jailed after they criticized the Al Sabah ruling family. In 2010, the U.S. State Department said it had concerns about the case of Kuwaiti blogger and journalist Mohammad Abdul-Kader al-Jassem who was on trial for allegedly criticizing the ruling al-Sabah family, and faced up to 18 years in prison if convicted. He was detained after a complaint against him was issued by the office of Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.


title: Kuwait

text: Extensive corruption among Kuwait's high-level government officials is a serious problem resulting in tensions between the government and the public. In the Corruption Perceptions Index 2007, Kuwait was ranked 60th out of 179 countries for corruption (least corrupt countries are at the top of the list). On a scale of 0 to 10 with 0 the most corrupt and 10 the most transparent, Transparency International rated Kuwait 4.3.


title: Kuwait

text: In 2009, 20% of the youth in juvenile centres had dyslexia, as compared to the 6% of the general population. Data from a 1993 study found that there is a higher rate of psychiatric morbidity in Kuwaiti prisons than in the general population.


title: Kuwait

text: Kuwait has a wealthy petroleum-based economy. Kuwait is one of the richest countries in the world. The Kuwaiti dinar is the highest-valued unit of currency in the world. According to the World Bank, Kuwait is the fifth richest country in the world by gross national income per capita, and one of five nations with a GNI per capita above $70,000. As a result of various diversification policies, petroleum now accounts for 43% of total GDP and 70% of export earnings. The biggest non-oil industry is steel manufacturing.


title: Kuwait

text: It is noteworthy in the study that Kuwait ranked first in the Arab world and 11th globally in the number of small and medium enterprises per 1,000 people, with a score of 67.3 points. sorces ( https://www.arabtimesonline.com/news/kuwait-billionaires-richest-worldwide/)


title: Kuwait

text: In the past five years, there has been a significant rise in entrepreneurship and small business start-ups in Kuwait. The informal sector is also on the rise, mainly due to the popularity of Instagram businesses. In 2020, Kuwait ranked fourth in the MENA region in startup funding after the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.


title: Kuwait

text: In 2019, Iraq was Kuwait's leading export market and food/agricultural products accounted for 94.2% of total export commodities. Globally, Kuwait's main export products were mineral fuels including oil (89.1% of total exports), aircraft and spacecraft (4.3%), organic chemicals (3.2%), plastics (1.2%), iron and steel (0.2%), gems and precious metals (0.1%), machinery including computers (0.1%), aluminum (0.1%), copper (0.1%), and salt, sulphur, stone and cement (0.1%). Kuwait was the world's biggest exporter of sulfonated, nitrated and nitrosated hydrocarbons in 2019. Kuwait was ranked 63rd out of 157 countries in the 2019 Economic Complexity Index (ECI).