title: Colosseum

text: Construction was funded by the opulent spoils taken from the Jewish Temple after the First Jewish–Roman War in 70 AD led to the Siege of Jerusalem. According to a reconstructed inscription found on the site, "the emperor Vespasian ordered this new amphitheatre to be erected from his general's share of the booty." It is often assumed that Jewish prisoners of war were brought back to Rome and contributed to the massive workforce needed for the construction of the amphitheatre, but there is no ancient evidence for that; it would, nonetheless, be commensurate with Roman practice to add humiliation to the defeated population. Along with this free source of unskilled labor, teams of professional Roman builders, engineers, artists, painters and decorators undertook the more specialized tasks necessary for building the Colosseum. The Colosseum was constructed with several different materials: wood, limestone, tuff, tiles, cement, and mortar.


title: Colosseum

text: Construction of the Colosseum began under the rule of Vespasian in around 70–72 AD (73–75 AD according to some sources). The Colosseum had been completed up to the third story by the time of Vespasian's death in 79. The top level was finished by his son, Titus, in 80, and the inaugural games were held in 80 or 81 AD. Dio Cassius recounts that over 9,000 wild animals were killed during the inaugural games of the amphitheatre. Commemorative coinage was issued celebrating the inauguration. The building was remodelled further under Vespasian's younger son, the newly designated Emperor Domitian, who constructed the "hypogeum", a series of tunnels used to house animals and slaves. He also added a gallery to the top of the Colosseum to increase its seating capacity.


title: Colosseum

text: In 217, the Colosseum was badly damaged by a major fire (caused by lightning, according to Dio Cassius), which destroyed the wooden upper levels of the amphitheatre's interior. It was not fully repaired until about 240 and underwent further repairs in 250 or 252 and again in 320. Honorius banned the practice of gladiator fights in 399 and again in 404. Gladiatorial fights are last mentioned around 435. An inscription records the restoration of various parts of the Colosseum under Theodosius II and Valentinian III (reigned 425–455), possibly to repair damage caused by a major earthquake in 443; more work followed in 484 and 508. The arena continued to be used for contests well into the 6th century. Animal hunts continued until at least 523, when Anicius Maximus celebrated his consulship with some "venationes", criticised by King Theodoric the Great for their high cost.


title: Colosseum

text: The Colosseum underwent several radical changes of use. By the late 6th century a small chapel had been built into the structure of the amphitheater, though this apparently did not confer any particular religious significance on the building as a whole. The arena was converted into a cemetery. The numerous vaulted spaces in the arcades under the seating were converted into housing and workshops, and are recorded as still being rented out as late as the 12th century. Around 1200 the Frangipani family took over the Colosseum and fortified it, apparently using it as a castle. In the early to mid 14th century, the Pope's relocation to Avignon caused a population decline in Rome that left the region insecure. The colosseum was largely abandoned by the public and became a popular den for bandits.


title: Colosseum

text: Severe damage was inflicted on the Colosseum by the great earthquake in 1349, causing the outer south side, lying on a less stable alluvial terrain, to collapse. Much of the tumbled stone was reused to build palaces, churches, hospitals and other buildings elsewhere in Rome. In 1377, after the Pope's return to Rome, the Colosseum was restored by a religious order called Arciconfraternita del SS. Salvatore ad Sancta Sanctorum, who then inhabited a northern portion of it until as late as the early 19th century. The interior of the amphitheater was extensively stripped of stone, which was reused elsewhere, or (in the case of the marble façade) was burned to make quicklime. The iron clamps which held the stonework together were pried or hacked out of the walls, leaving numerous pockmarks which still scar the building today.


title: Colosseum

text: During the 16th and 17th century, Church officials sought a productive role for the Colosseum. Pope Sixtus V (1585–1590) planned to turn the building into a wool factory to provide employment for Rome's prostitutes, though this proposal fell through with his premature death. In 1671 Cardinal Altieri authorized its use for bullfights; a public outcry caused the idea to be hastily abandoned.


title: Colosseum

text: In 1749, Pope Benedict XIV endorsed the view that the Colosseum was a sacred site where early Christians had been martyred. He forbade the use of the Colosseum as a quarry and consecrated the building to the Passion of Christ and installed Stations of the Cross, declaring it sanctified by the blood of the Christian martyrs who perished there ("see Significance in Christianity"). However, there is no historical evidence to support Benedict's claim, nor is there even any evidence that anyone before the 16th century suggested this might be the case; the "Catholic Encyclopedia" concludes that there are no historical grounds for the supposition, other than the reasonably plausible conjecture that some of the many martyrs may well have been.


title: Colosseum

text: Later popes initiated various stabilization and restoration projects, removing the extensive vegetation which had overgrown the structure and threatened to damage it further. The façade was reinforced with triangular brick wedges in 1807 and 1827, and the interior was repaired in 1831, 1846 and in the 1930s. The arena substructure was partly excavated in 1810–1814 and 1874 and was fully exposed under Benito Mussolini in the 1930s.


title: Colosseum

text: The Colosseum is today one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions, receiving millions of visitors annually. The effects of pollution and general deterioration over time prompted a major restoration programme carried out between 1993 and 2000, at a cost of Lire 40 billion ($19.3m / €20.6m at 2000 prices).


title: Colosseum

text: In recent years, the Colosseum has become a symbol of the international campaign against capital punishment, which was abolished in Italy in 1948. Several anti–death penalty demonstrations took place in front of the Colosseum in 2000. Since that time, as a gesture against the death penalty, the local authorities of Rome change the color of the Colosseum's night time illumination from white to gold whenever a person condemned to the death penalty anywhere in the world gets their sentence commuted or is released, or if a jurisdiction abolishes the death penalty. Most recently, the Colosseum was illuminated in gold in November 2012 following the abolishment of capital punishment in the American state of Connecticut in April 2012.


title: Colosseum

text: Because of the ruined state of the interior, it is impractical to use the Colosseum to host large events; only a few hundred spectators can be accommodated in temporary seating. However, much larger concerts have been held just outside, using the Colosseum as a backdrop. Performers who have played at the Colosseum in recent years have included Ray Charles (May 2002), Paul McCartney (May 2003), Elton John (September 2005), and Billy Joel (July 2006).


title: Colosseum

text: Unlike Roman theatres that were built into hillsides, the Colosseum is an entirely free-standing structure. It derives its basic exterior and interior architecture from that of two theatres back to back. It is elliptical in plan and is 189 meters (615 ft / 640 Roman feet) long, and 156 meters (510 ft / 528 Roman feet) wide, with a base area of . The height of the outer wall is 48 meters (157 ft / 165 Roman feet). The perimeter originally measured 545 meters (1,788 ft / 1,835 Roman feet). The central arena is an oval 87 m (287 ft) long and 55 m (180 ft) wide, surrounded by a wall 5 m (15 ft) high, above which rose tiers of seating.


title: Colosseum

text: The outer wall is estimated to have required over of travertine stone which were set without mortar; they were held together by 300 tons of iron clamps. However, it has suffered extensive damage over the centuries, with large segments having collapsed following earthquakes. The north side of the perimeter wall is still standing; the distinctive triangular brick wedges at each end are modern additions, having been constructed in the early 19th century to shore up the wall. The remainder of the present-day exterior of the Colosseum is in fact the original interior wall.


title: Colosseum

text: The surviving part of the outer wall's monumental façade comprises three superposed storeys surmounted by a podium on which stands a tall attic, both of which are pierced by windows interspersed at regular intervals. The arcades are framed by half-columns of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, while the attic is decorated with Corinthian pilasters. Each of the arches in the second- and third-floor arcades framed statues, probably honoring divinities and other figures from Classical mythology.


title: Colosseum

text: Two hundred and forty mast corbels were positioned around the top of the attic. They originally supported a retractable awning, known as the "velarium", that kept the sun and rain off spectators. This consisted of a canvas-covered, net-like structure made of ropes, with a hole in the center. It covered two-thirds of the arena, and sloped down towards the center to catch the wind and provide a breeze for the audience. Sailors, specially enlisted from the Roman naval headquarters at Misenum and housed in the nearby "Castra Misenatium", were used to work the "velarium".


title: Colosseum

text: The Colosseum's huge crowd capacity made it essential that the venue could be filled or evacuated quickly. Its architects adopted solutions very similar to those used in modern stadiums to deal with the same problem. The amphitheatre was ringed by eighty entrances at ground level, 76 of which were used by ordinary spectators. Each entrance and exit was numbered, as was each staircase. The northern main entrance was reserved for the Roman Emperor and his aides, whilst the other three axial entrances were most likely used by the elite. All four axial entrances were richly decorated with painted stucco reliefs, of which fragments survive. Many of the original outer entrances have disappeared with the collapse of the perimeter wall, but entrances XXIII (23) to LIIII (54) survive.


title: Colosseum

text: Spectators were given tickets in the form of numbered pottery shards, which directed them to the appropriate section and row. They accessed their seats via "vomitoria" (singular "vomitorium"), passageways that opened into a tier of seats from below or behind. These quickly dispersed people into their seats and, upon conclusion of the event or in an emergency evacuation, could permit their exit within only a few minutes. The name "vomitoria" derived from the Latin word for a rapid discharge, from which English derives the word vomit.


title: Colosseum

text: According to the Codex-Calendar of 354, the Colosseum could accommodate 87,000 people, although modern estimates put the figure at around 50,000. They were seated in a tiered arrangement that reflected the rigidly stratified nature of Roman society. Special boxes were provided at the north and south ends respectively for the Emperor and the Vestal Virgins, providing the best views of the arena. Flanking them at the same level was a broad platform or "podium" for the senatorial class, who were allowed to bring their own chairs. The names of some 5th century senators can still be seen carved into the stonework, presumably reserving areas for their use.


title: Colosseum

text: The tier above the senators, known as the "maenianum primum", was occupied by the non-senatorial noble class or knights ("equites"). The next level up, the "maenianum secundum", was originally reserved for ordinary Roman citizens ("plebeians") and was divided into two sections. The lower part (the "immum") was for wealthy citizens, while the upper part (the "summum") was for poor citizens. Specific sectors were provided for other social groups: for instance, boys with their tutors, soldiers on leave, foreign dignitaries, scribes, heralds, priests and so on. Stone (and later marble) seating was provided for the citizens and nobles, who presumably would have brought their own cushions with them. Inscriptions identified the areas reserved for specific groups.


title: Colosseum

text: Another level, the "maenianum secundum in legneis", was added at the very top of the building during the reign of Domitian. This comprised a gallery for the common poor, slaves and women. It would have been either standing room only, or would have had very steep wooden benches. Some groups were banned altogether from the Colosseum, notably gravediggers, actors and former gladiators.


title: Colosseum

text: Each tier was divided into sections ("maeniana") by curved passages and low walls ("praecinctiones" or "baltei"), and were subdivided into "cunei", or wedges, by the steps and aisles from the vomitoria. Each row ("gradus") of seats was numbered, permitting each individual seat to be exactly designated by its gradus, cuneus, and number.


title: Colosseum

text: The arena itself was 83 meters by 48 meters (272 ft by 157 ft / 280 by 163 Roman feet). It comprised a wooden floor covered by sand (the Latin word for sand is "harena" or "arena"), covering an elaborate underground structure called the "hypogeum" (literally meaning "underground"). The hypogeum was not part of the original construction but was ordered to be built by Emperor Domitian. Little now remains of the original arena floor, but the "hypogeum" is still clearly visible. It consisted of a two-level subterranean network of tunnels and cages beneath the arena where gladiators and animals were held before contests began. Eighty vertical shafts provided instant access to the arena for caged animals and scenery pieces concealed underneath; larger hinged platforms, called "hegmata", provided access for elephants and the like. It was restructured on numerous occasions; at least twelve different phases of construction can be seen.


title: Colosseum

text: The "hypogeum" was connected by tunnels to a number of points outside the Colosseum. Animals and performers were brought through the tunnel from nearby stables, with the gladiators' barracks at the Ludus Magnus to the east also being connected by tunnels. Separate tunnels were provided for the Emperor and the Vestal Virgins to permit them to enter and exit the Colosseum without needing to pass through the crowds.


title: Colosseum

text: Substantial quantities of machinery also existed in the "hypogeum". Elevators and pulleys raised and lowered scenery and props, as well as lifting caged animals to the surface for release. There is evidence for the existence of major hydraulic mechanisms and according to ancient accounts, it was possible to flood the arena rapidly, presumably via a connection to a nearby aqueduct. However, the construction of the hypogeum at Domitian's behest put an end to the practise of flooding, and thus also to naval battles, early in the Colosseum's existence.


title: Colosseum

text: The Colosseum and its activities supported a substantial industry in the area. In addition to the amphitheatre itself, many other buildings nearby were linked to the games. Immediately to the east is the remains of the "Ludus Magnus", a training school for gladiators. This was connected to the Colosseum by an underground passage, to allow easy access for the gladiators. The "Ludus Magnus" had its own miniature training arena, which was itself a popular attraction for Roman spectators. Other training schools were in the same area, including the "Ludus Matutinus" (Morning School), where fighters of animals were trained, plus the Dacian and Gallic Schools.


title: Colosseum

text: Also nearby were the "Armamentarium", comprising an armory to store weapons; the "Summum Choragium", where machinery was stored; the "Sanitarium", which had facilities to treat wounded gladiators; and the "Spoliarium", where bodies of dead gladiators were stripped of their armor and disposed of.


title: Colosseum

text: Around the perimeter of the Colosseum, at a distance of 18 m (59 ft) from the perimeter, was a series of tall stone posts, with five remaining on the eastern side. Various explanations have been advanced for their presence; they may have been a religious boundary, or an outer boundary for ticket checks, or an anchor for the "velarium" or awning.


title: Colosseum

text: The Colosseum was used to host gladiatorial shows as well as a variety of other events. The shows, called "munera", were always given by private individuals rather than the state. They had a strong religious element but were also demonstrations of power and family prestige, and were immensely popular with the population. Another popular type of show was the animal hunt, or "venatio". This utilized a great variety of wild beasts, mainly imported from Africa and the Middle East, and included creatures such as rhinoceros, hippopotamuses, elephants, giraffes, aurochs, wisents, Barbary lions, panthers, leopards, bears, Caspian tigers, crocodiles and ostriches. Battles and hunts were often staged amid elaborate sets with movable trees and buildings. Such events were occasionally on a huge scale; Trajan is said to have celebrated his victories in Dacia in 107 with contests involving 11,000 animals and 10,000 gladiators over the course of 123 days. During lunch intervals, executions "ad bestias" would be staged. Those condemned to death would be sent into the arena, naked and unarmed, to face the beasts of death which would literally tear them to pieces. Other performances would also take place by acrobats and magicians, typically during the intervals.


title: Colosseum

text: During the early days of the Colosseum, ancient writers recorded that the building was used for "naumachiae" (more properly known as "navalia proelia") or simulated sea battles. Accounts of the inaugural games held by Titus in AD 80 describe it being filled with water for a display of specially trained swimming horses and bulls. There is also an account of a re-enactment of a famous sea battle between the Corcyrean (Corfiot) Greeks and the Corinthians. This has been the subject of some debate among historians; although providing the water would not have been a problem, it is unclear how the arena could have been waterproofed, nor would there have been enough space in the arena for the warships to move around. It has been suggested that the reports either have the location wrong or that the Colosseum originally featured a wide floodable channel down its central axis (which would later have been replaced by the hypogeum).


title: Colosseum

text: "Sylvae" or recreations of natural scenes were also held in the arena. Painters, technicians and architects would construct a simulation of a forest with real trees and bushes planted in the arena's floor, and animals would then be introduced. Such scenes might be used simply to display a natural environment for the urban population, or could otherwise be used as the backdrop for hunts or dramas depicting episodes from mythology. They were also occasionally used for executions in which the hero of the story – played by a condemned person – was killed in one of various gruesome but mythologically authentic ways, such as being mauled by beasts or burned to death.


title: Colosseum

text: The Colosseum today is a major tourist attraction in Rome with thousands of tourists each year entering to view the interior arena. There is now a museum dedicated to Eros in the upper floor of the outer wall of the building. Part of the arena floor has been re-floored. Beneath the Colosseum, a network of subterranean passageways once used to transport wild animals and gladiators to the arena opened to the public in summer 2010.


title: Colosseum

text: The Colosseum is also the site of Roman Catholic ceremonies in the 20th and 21st centuries. For instance, Pope Benedict XVI led the Stations of the Cross called the Scriptural Way of the Cross (which calls for more meditation) at the Colosseum on Good Fridays.


title: Colosseum

text: In 2011 Diego Della Valle, head of the shoe firm Tod's, entered into an agreement with local officials to sponsor a €25 million restoration of the Colosseum. Work was planned to begin at the end of 2011, taking up to two and a half years. Due to the controversial nature of using a public–private partnership to fund the restoration, work was delayed and began in 2013. The restoration is the first full cleaning and repair in the Colosseum's history. The first stage is to clean and restore the Colosseum's arcaded façade and replace the metal enclosures that block the ground-level arches. After three years, the work was completed on 1 July 2016, when the Italian minister of culture, Dario Franceschini, also announced that the funds have been committed to replace the floors by the end of 2018. These will provide a stage that Franceschini says will be used for "cultural events of the highest level." The project also includes creating a services center and restoring the galleries and underground spaces inside the Colosseum. Since 1 November 2017, the top two levels have been opened for guided visits. The fourth level held the marketplace, and the top fifth tier is where the poorest citizens, the plebeians, gathered and watched the show, bringing picnics for the day-long event.


title: Colosseum

text: The Colosseum is generally regarded by Christians as a site of the martyrdom of large numbers of believers during the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, as evidenced by Church history and tradition. On the other hand, other scholars believe that the majority of martyrdoms may have occurred at other venues within the city of Rome, rather than at the Colosseum, citing a lack of still-intact physical evidence or historical records. These scholars assert that "some Christians were executed as common criminals in the Colosseum—their crime being refusal to reverence the Roman gods", but most Christian martyrs of the early Church were executed for their faith at the Circus Maximus. According to Irenaeus (died about 202), Ignatius of Antioch was fed to the lions in Rome around 107 A.D and although Irenaeus says nothing about this happening at the Colosseum, tradition ascribes it to that place.


title: Colosseum

text: In the Middle Ages, the Colosseum was not regarded as a monument, and was used as what some modern sources label a "quarry," which is to say that stones from the Colosseum were taken for the building of other sacred sites. This fact is used to support the idea that, at a time when sites associated with martyrs were highly venerated the Colosseum was not being treated as a sacred site. It was not included in the itineraries compiled for the use of pilgrims nor in works such as the 12th century "Mirabilia Urbis Romae" ("Marvels of the City of Rome"), which claims the Circus Flaminius – but not the Colosseum – as the site of martyrdoms. Part of the structure was inhabited by a Christian religious order, but it is not known whether this was for any particular religious reason.


title: Colosseum

text: Pope Pius V (1566–1572) is said to have recommended that pilgrims gather sand from the arena of the Colosseum to serve as a relic, on the grounds that it was impregnated with the blood of martyrs, although some of his contemporaries did not share his conviction. A century later Fioravante Martinelli listed the Colosseum at the head of a list of places sacred to the martyrs in his 1653 book "Roma ex ethnica sacra". Martinelli's book evidently had an effect on public opinion; in response to Cardinal Altieri's proposal some years later to turn the Colosseum into a bullring, Carlo Tomassi published a pamphlet in protest against what he regarded as an act of desecration. The ensuing controversy persuaded Pope Clement X to close the Colosseum's external arcades and declare it a sanctuary.


title: Colosseum

text: At the insistence of St. Leonard of Port Maurice, Pope Benedict XIV (1740–1758) forbade the quarrying of the Colosseum and erected Stations of the Cross around the arena, which remained until February 1874. Benedict Joseph Labre spent the later years of his life within the walls of the Colosseum, living on alms, before he died in 1783. Several 19th century popes funded repair and restoration work on the Colosseum, and it still retains its Christian connection today. A Christian cross stands in the Colosseum, with a plaque, stating:


title: Colosseum

text: The amphitheater, one consecrated to triumphs, entertainments, and the impious worship of pagan gods, is now dedicated to the sufferings of the martyrs purified from impious superstitions.


title: Colosseum

text: Other Christian crosses stand in several points around the arena and every Good Friday the Pope leads a Via Crucis procession to the amphitheater.


title: Colosseum

text: The Colosseum has a wide and well-documented history of flora ever since Domenico Panaroli made the first catalogue of its plants in 1643. Since then, 684 species have been identified there. The peak was in 1855 (420 species). Attempts were made in 1871 to eradicate the vegetation, because of concerns over the damage that was being caused to the masonry, but much of it has returned. 242 species have been counted today and of the species first identified by Panaroli, 200 remain.


title: Colosseum

text: The variation of plants can be explained by the change of climate in Rome through the centuries. Additionally, bird migration, flower blooming, and the growth of Rome that caused the Colosseum to become embedded within the modern city centre rather than on the outskirts of the ancient city, as well as deliberate transport of species, are also contributing causes. Another reason often given is their seeds being unwittingly transported either on the fur or in the feces of animals brought there from all corners of the empire.


title: Colosseum

text: The Colosseum has appeared in numerous films, artworks and games. It's featured in movies such as "Roman Holiday", "Gladiator", "The Way of the Dragon", "The Core" and "Jumper" and games like , and Forge of Empires.


title: Pansexuality

text: Pansexuality is sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determining factors in their romantic or sexual attraction to others.


title: Pansexuality

text: Pansexuality may be considered a sexual orientation in its own right or a branch of bisexuality, to indicate an alternative sexual identity. Because pansexual people are open to relationships with people who do not identify as strictly men or women, and pansexuality therefore rejects the gender binary, it is considered by some to be a more inclusive term than "bisexual". The extent to which the term "bisexual" is inclusive when compared with the term "pansexual" is debated within the LGBT community, especially the bisexual community.


title: Pansexuality

text: Pansexuality is also sometimes called "omnisexuality". Omnisexuality may be used to describe those "attracted to people of all genders across the gender spectrum", and pansexuality may be used to describe the same people, or those attracted to people "regardless of gender". The prefix "pan-" comes from the Ancient Greek (), meaning "all, every".


title: Pansexuality

text: Early individuals who displayed Pansexual tendencies include John Wilmot and Friedrich Schiller. Although later attributed to Shulamith Firestone, the hybrid words "pansexual" and "pansexualism" were first attested in 1914 (spelled "pan-sexualism"), coined by opponents of Sigmund Freud to denote the idea "that the sex instinct plays the primary part in all human activity, mental and physical". The term was translated to German as in Freud's work "Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego."


title: Pansexuality

text: The word "pansexual" is attested as a term for a variety of attraction, alongside "omnisexual" (coming from the Latin , "all") and the earlier "bisexual", by the 1970s. "Bi Any Other Name" states that "pansexual people have been actively involved in the bisexual community since the 1970s." The term "pansexuality" emerged as a term for a sexual identity or sexual orientation in the 1990s, "to describe desires that already existed for many people". Social psychologist Nikki Hayfield states that the term saw early use in BDSM communities.


title: Pansexuality

text: In 2010, the pansexual flag was posted on a Tumblr blog to represent the pansexual community. It was designed by someone named Jasper Varney. The colors are intended to represent attraction and gender spectrum, with cyan for attraction to men, pink for attraction to women, and yellow for attraction to non-binary people.


title: Pansexuality

text: Variations on pansexual are beginning to appear in surveys, e.g., "panqueer", which combines pansexual with queer, has been used by participants in a study on non-medical impacts of COVID-19.


title: Pansexuality

text: A literal dictionary definition of "bisexuality", due to the prefix "bi-", is sexual or romantic attraction to two sexes (males and females), or to two genders (men and women). Pansexuality, however, composed with the prefix "pan-", is the sexual attraction to a person of any sex or gender. Using these definitions, pansexuality is defined differently by explicitly including people who are intersex, transgender, or outside the gender binary.


title: Pansexuality

text: Volume 2 of Cavendish's "Sex and Society" states that "although the term's literal meaning can be interpreted as 'attracted to everything,' people who identify as pansexual do not usually include paraphilias, such as bestiality, pedophilia, and necrophilia, in their definition" and that they "stress that the term "pansexuality" describes only consensual adult sexual behaviors."


title: Pansexuality

text: The definition of pansexuality can encourage the belief that it is the only sexual identity that covers individuals who do not cleanly fit into the categories of male or man, or female or woman. However, bisexual-identified people and scholars may object to the notion that bisexuality means sexual attraction to only two genders, arguing that since "bisexual" is not simply about attraction to two sexes and encompasses attraction to different genders as well, it includes attraction to more than two genders. Gender is considered more complex than the state of one's sex, as gender includes genetic, hormonal, environmental and social factors. Furthermore, the term "bisexual" is sometimes defined as the romantic or sexual attraction to multiple genders. The Bisexual Resource Center, for example, defines bisexuality as "an umbrella term for people who recognize and honor their potential for sexual and emotional attraction to more than one gender", while the American Institute of Bisexuality states that the term "bisexual" "is an open and inclusive term for many kinds of people with same-sex and different-sex attractions" and that "the scientific classification "bisexual" only addresses the physical, biological sex of the people involved, not the gender-presentation."


title: Pansexuality

text: Scholar Shiri Eisner states that terms such as "pansexual", "omnisexual", "polysexual", "queer", etc. are being used in place of the term "bisexual" because "bisexuality, it's been claimed, is a gender binary, and therefore oppressive, word" and that "the great debate is being perpetuated and developed by bisexual-identified transgender and genderqueer people on the one hand, and non-bi-identified transgender and genderqueer people on the other." Eisner argues that "the allegations of binarism have little to do with bisexuality's actual attributes or bisexual people's behavior in real life" and that the allegations are a political method to keep the bisexual and transgender movements separated, because of those who believe that bisexuality ignores or erases the visibility of transgender and genderqueer people.


title: Pansexuality

text: The American Institute of Bisexuality argues that "terms like "pansexual", "polysexual", "omnisexual", and "ambisexual" also describe a person with homosexual and heterosexual attractions, and therefore people with those labels are also bisexual" and that "by replacing the prefix bi – (two, both) with pan- (all), poly- (many), omni- (all), ambi- (both, and implying ambiguity in this case), people who adopt these labels seek to clearly express the fact that gender does not factor into their own sexuality", but "this does not mean, however, that people who identify as bisexual are fixated on gender." The institute believes that the idea that identifying as bisexual reinforces a false gender binary "has its roots in the anti-science, anti-Enlightenment philosophy that has ironically found a home within many Queer Studies departments at universities across the Anglophone world," and that, "while it is true that our society's language and terminology do not necessarily reflect the full spectrum of human gender diversity, that is hardly the fault of people who choose to identify as bi. ... The Latin prefix bi- does indeed indicate two or both, however the 'both' indicated in the word bisexual are merely "homosexual" (lit. same sex) and "heterosexual" (lit. different sex)." The institute argues that heterosexuality and homosexuality, by contrast, "are defined by the boundary of two sexes/genders. Given those fundamental facts, any criticism of bisexuality as reinforcing a gender binary is misplaced. Over time, our society's concept of human sex and gender may well change."


title: Pansexuality

text: Social psychologist Corey Flanders said the "bisexual umbrella" is a term used to describe a range of sexual identities and communities that express attraction to multiple genders, often grouping together those who identify as bisexual, pansexual, queer, and fluid, as well as other identities. The term faces issues of balancing inclusivity with cohesiveness where, on one hand, the term can bring together many disparate identities and gather their experiences, and on the other, it can lead to too many sub-groupings and exclude those who identify with more than one sexual identity.


title: Pansexuality

text: The term "pansexuality" is sometimes used interchangeably with "bisexuality", and, similarly, people who identify as bisexual may "feel that gender, biological sex, and sexual orientation should not be a focal point in potential [romantic/sexual] relationships." Additionally, "pansexuality" is often used in conjunction with "bisexuality", which can pose difficulties in studying differences and similarities in experiences between those who identify as pansexual and those who identify as bisexual and not pansexual. In one study analyzing sexual identities described as alternative terms for bisexual or bi-self labels, "half of all bisexual and bisexual-identified respondents also chose alternative self-labels such as "queer", "pansexual", "pansensual," "polyfidelitous", "ambisexual", "polysexual", or personalized identities such as "byke" or "biphilic"." In a 2017 study, identifying as pansexual was found to be "most appealing to nonheterosexual women and noncisgender individuals." Polysexuality is similar to pansexuality in definition, meaning "encompassing more than one sexuality", but not necessarily encompassing all sexualities. This is distinct from polyamory, which means more than one intimate relationship at the same time with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved.


title: Pansexuality

text: Sexual fluidity is different from gender fluidity. Sexual fluidity is a concept that describes how a person's sexual identity may shift, and can shift at any time. The American Institute of Bisexuality stated that the term "fluid" "expresses the fact that the balance of a person's homosexual and heterosexual attractions exists in a state of flux and changes over time."


title: Pansexuality

text: Eisner states that "the idea of bisexuality as an umbrella term can emphasize a multiplicity of identities, forms of desire, lived experiences, and politics," and "resist a single standard" of defining bisexual-umbrella identities and communities, including pansexuality and pansexuals. Eisner also says that only those who want to be included under the bisexual umbrella should be included. The term "plurisexualities" is used by social psychologist Nikki Hayfield over bisexuality as an umbrella term "to capture additional identities relating to attraction to multiple genders", while also referring to specific identities like "bisexual", "asexual", and "pansexual".


title: Pansexuality

text: In contrast to the idea of a bisexual umbrella, scholars Christopher Belous and Melissa Bauman propose that pansexuality might be considered more of an umbrella term than bisexuality, arguing that because pansexuality is often defined more broadly than bisexuality, bisexuality may exist under the umbrella of "pansexual orientations". They noted that more research is necessary to clarify which of the two terms might be more appropriate as an umbrella term. Scholar Emily Prior questions the use of bisexuality as an umbrella term, noting that "the empirical evidence just isn't there" to determine whether bisexuality can effectively act as an umbrella term. Social psychologist Joye Swan argues that including other orientations under the bisexual umbrella contributes to bisexual invisibility, invisibility for other sexualities, and presumes that "all or most bisexual people agree with being categorized" under the bisexual umbrella.


title: Pansexuality

text: A 2016 Harris Poll survey of 2,000 US adults commissioned by GLAAD found that among 18-34 year-olds, about two percent self-identify as pansexual and approximately one percent in all other age groups. In 2017, 14% of a sample of 12,000 LGBTQ youth between 13 and 17 years of age declared themselves pansexual in a Human Rights Campaign/University of Connecticut survey.


title: Pansexuality

text: According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, 25% of American transgender people identify as bisexual. A 2017 study published in the "Journal of Bisexuality" found that when bisexuals and pansexuals described gender and defined bisexuality, "there were no differences in how pansexual and bisexual people ... discussed sex or gender", and that the findings "do not support the stereotype that bisexual people endorse a binary view of gender while pansexual people do not." One New Zealand 2019 study of a nationally representative group of bisexual and pansexual participants found that younger, gender-diverse, and Maori people were more likely to self-identify as pansexual compared to bisexual. Educational psychologist Barbara Gormley states that "bi+ people may embody more than one gender/sex as well as romantically love more than one gender/sex; therefore, we [bi+ people] have no reference point in a binary-gendered universe." The 2021 IPSOS survey found that the United States was the country with the highest percentage of pansexual individuals.


title: Pansexuality

text: The internationally recognised LGBT awareness period is the annual "Pansexual & Panromantic Awareness Day" (24 May), first celebrated in 2015, to promote awareness of and celebrate pansexual and panromantic identities.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: Alicia Amanda Vikander (, ; born 3 October 1988) is a Swedish actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics' Choice Movie Award, as well as receiving nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and three British Academy Film Awards.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: Born and raised in Gothenburg, Vikander began acting as a child in minor stage productions at the Gothenburg opera house and trained as a ballet dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm. She began her acting career in Swedish short films and television series and first gained recognition for her role in the drama series "Andra Avenyn" (2008–2010). She made her feature film debut in "Pure" (2010), for which she won the Guldbagge Award for Best Actress. She gained wider recognition in 2012 for playing Kitty in Joe Wright's adaptation of "Anna Karenina" and Queen Caroline Mathilde in the Danish film "A Royal Affair".


title: Alicia Vikander

text: Vikander achieved global recognition for her roles as Vera Brittain in "Testament of Youth" (2014), a humanoid robot in "Ex Machina" (2014), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and Gerda Wegener in "The Danish Girl" (2015), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2016, Vikander was listed by "Forbes" in its 30 Under 30 list. She has also starred in the action film "Jason Bourne" (2016), as Lara Croft in the adventure film "Tomb Raider" (2018), and in the fantasy film "The Green Knight" (2021).


title: Alicia Vikander

text: Alicia Amanda Vikander was born on 3 October 1988 in Gothenburg to Maria Fahl (1951-2022), a stage actress, and Svante Vikander, a psychiatrist. Her parents are from small villages in the north and south of Sweden, respectively. They separated when Vikander was two months old, and she was mostly raised by her mother. She has five half-siblings on her father's side. Vikander has said she had the best of both worlds growing up, being an only child to her mother and being surrounded by a large family when she went to her father's house every second week. She is one-quarter Finnish; her maternal great-aunt moved from Finland to Sweden to escape World War II.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: Vikander started her acting career at age seven, starring in a production of "Kristina från Duvemåla" at The Göteborg Opera, which was written by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson from ABBA, performing in the play for three and a half years. She appeared in several musicals at the Opera, such as "The Sound of Music" and "Les Misérables." In 1997 she participated in the TV4 children's singing show "Småstjärnorna;" she performed the Helen Sjöholms song, "Du måste finnas". She won her episode with praise from the judges for her stage presence.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: Vikander trained in ballet from age nine with the "Svenska Balettskolan i Göteborg" (1998–2004). At 15, Vikander moved from Gothenburg to train at the ballet's upper school in Stockholm, living on her own. She trained one summer at the American Academy of Ballet in New York.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: At age 16, she almost left school to commit fully to the television series she worked on with director Tomas Alfredson, realising her passion for acting. Her dance career was sidelined in her late teens due to injuries. She auditioned for drama school but was turned down twice. At one point, Vikander was admitted to law school but she never attended, following her dreams to become an actress instead.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: Vikander began her career by appearing in a number of short films and television roles in her native Sweden. She later appeared in Swedish TV drama "Andra Avenyn" from 2008 to 2010.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: Vikander received critical acclaim for her feature film debut, playing the leading role of Katarina in the Swedish film "Pure" (2010). The film tells the story of the troubled secretary Katarina, who desperately tries to escape her life. With this role, Vikander won the Rising Star Award in 2010 at the Stockholm International Film Festival, the Shooting Star Award at the Berlin International Film Festival and the prestigious Guldbagge Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She became represented by Tavistock Wood management in the UK, and shortly afterwards she also signed with United Talent Agency in the US. In 2011, she had the leading role of Fragancia Fernandez, who is arrested for attempted murder, in "The Crown Jewels". In 2012, Vikander gained international attention for playing the key role of Kitty in the English-language film adaptation of "Anna Karenina," starring Keira Knightley. The film premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and received positive reviews.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: That year, she added Danish to her repertoire while co-starring as Queen Caroline Mathilde in the Nikolaj Arcel feature film "A Royal Affair." It had its world premiere at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival and was received with critical acclaim. The film was subsequently nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards. Vikander was named as one of the 10 Actors to Watch: Breakthrough Performances of 2012 at the 20th Hamptons International Film Festival, was nominated for BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2013, and received the Editor's Choice Award at the 2013 Elle Style Awards.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: In 2013, she starred as German Pirate Party member Anke Domscheit-Berg in "The Fifth Estate." The film opened the Toronto International Film Festival on 5 September 2013. It garnered mixed critical reactions. Vikander also had the leading role of Erika in the Swedish film "Hotell," for which she got the Marrakech International Film Festival Award for Best Actress. In 2014, she appeared in the Australian crime thriller "Son of a Gun". The film was released in Australia on 16 October 2014 and received mixed reviews; Vikander, however, was praised for her performance.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: In 2015, Vikander had substantial roles in eight films. She garnered widespread critical acclaim for her portrayal of painter Gerda Wegener in Tom Hooper's "The Danish Girl," for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the second Swedish actress to win this award; the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, and the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress; and received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role but lost both awards to Brie Larson for "Room".


title: Alicia Vikander

text: She garnered critical acclaim and wide recognition for her starring role as Artificial intelligence Ava in Alex Garland's directorial debut "Ex Machina," for which she received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. In 2016, "Forbes" included Vikander in its 30 Under 30 list.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: She had the leading role of pacifist Vera Brittain in "Testament of Youth" alongside Kit Harington and Emily Watson. "Testament of Youth" was well received upon its release, with critics particularly praising Vikander's performance. For her role as Brittain, Vikander was nominated for BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film. She also played the role of half-human/half-witch Alice Deane in the fantasy film "Seventh Son" (2015), narrated the Swedish documentary "" (2015), had the female leading role in the Guy Ritchie-directed action film "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", based on the 1964 MGM television series of the same name; and appeared in the film "Burnt" (2015).


title: Alicia Vikander

text: On 6 May 2016, it was announced that Vikander set up a production company called Vikarious along with her agent Charles Collier. The company's first film, "Euphoria", a production with Sweden's B-Reel Films, began shooting in the German Alps in August 2016. The film is the English-language directorial debut of Swedish writer/director Lisa Langseth, and was Langseth and Vikander's third collaboration. Vikander starred opposite Eva Green and Charlotte Rampling as sisters in conflict travelling through Europe toward a mystery destination. "Euphoria" received its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2017.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: In 2016, Vikander starred opposite Matt Damon in "Jason Bourne", directed by Paul Greengrass. It was released on 29 July 2016 by Universal Pictures. Vikander then appeared in the adaptation of the novel "The Light Between Oceans" (2016), directed by Derek Cianfrance, with Michael Fassbender and Rachel Weisz. The film was released in the United States by Touchstone Pictures on 2 September 2016. Vikander portrayed Lara Croft in the action reboot film "Tomb Raider", which was released on 16 March 2018. In 2019, Vikander starred in the short film "I Am Easy to Find" directed by Mike Mills, which was part of the eighth album of the same name by The National. That same year, Vikander starred in the psychological thriller "Earthquake Bird" opposite Riley Keough directed by Wash Westmoreland for Netflix.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: In 2020, Vikander portrayed a young Gloria Steinem in the biographic drama "The Glorias" directed by Julie Taymor, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020. Vikander next starred opposite Dev Patel in the medieval fantasy "The Green Knight" directed by David Lowery which was released by A24. She also starred in the thriller "Beckett", opposite John David Washington directed by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino and produced by Luca Guadagnino, "Blue Bayou" directed by Justin Chon, and she will star in "Firebrand" as Queen Catherine Parr, replacing Michelle Williams.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: In late 2014, she began a relationship with actor Michael Fassbender; whom she met while filming "The Light Between Oceans". They made their first public appearance as a couple at the 2016 Golden Globe Awards, where Vikander was nominated for her performances in "Ex Machina" and "The Danish Girl", and Fassbender was nominated for "Steve Jobs". They married on 14 October 2017 in a private ceremony in Ibiza, Spain. , the couple reside in Lisbon, Portugal. They have a son, born in 2021.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: On 10 November 2017, Vikander was one of 584 women who called for the Swedish film and theatre industries to address what they claimed was a culture of sexual misconduct. She added her signature to an open letter published in the Swedish newspaper "Svenska Dagbladet". The letter contained numerous accounts of sexual harassment, assault and rape suffered by women in the Swedish industry, all recounted anonymously. According to a translation of the letter published by English-language Swedish publication "The Local", the signatories vowed that they would "no longer be silent". Following the letter's publication, Swedish press reported that culture minister Alice Bah Kuhnke called a meeting of the heads of Sweden's National Theatre Company, the Royal Dramatic Theatre, and the Royal Swedish Opera.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: In 2020, Vikander recorded a narration of the audiobook chapter "Pippi Longstocking Moves Into Villa Villekulla", supporting the global charitable initiative "Pippi of Today", a collaboration between The Astrid Lindgren Company and Save the Children, to create awareness and raise money for girls on the move.


title: Alicia Vikander

text: In 2021, Vikander recorded the song "Blue Bayou", which is featured on the "Blue Bayou (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)".


title: Kelly McGillis

text: Kelly Ann McGillis (born July 9, 1957) is an American stage actress. She is known for her film roles such as Rachel Lapp in "Witness" (1985), for which she received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations; Charlie in "Top Gun" (1986); "Made in Heaven" (1987); "The House on Carroll Street" (1988); and as Kathryn Murphy in "The Accused" (1988). In her later career, she has starred in horror films such as "Stake Land" (2010), "The Innkeepers" (2011), and "We Are What We Are" (2013).


title: Kelly McGillis

text: McGillis was born on July 9, 1957, in the southern California suburb of Newport Beach, the eldest of three daughters born to Virginia Joan (née Snell), a homemaker, and Donald Manson McGillis, a physician. Her paternal ancestry is Scots-Irish, and her maternal ancestry is German; she also has Welsh ancestry. She attended Newport Harbor High School.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: McGillis was raised in Los Angeles, and attended the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California. After getting her GED after dropping out of high school in 1975, she moved to New York City to study acting at the Juilliard School, where she graduated in 1983, Group 12.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: After making her film debut in "Reuben, Reuben" in 1983, McGillis' breakout role was that of an Amish mother in "Witness" (1985) for which she received Golden Globe and BAFTA award nominations. Her next high-profile role was that of flight instructor Charlotte Blackwood (call sign "Charlie") in the 1986 fighter-pilot film "Top Gun".


title: Kelly McGillis

text: In 1987, McGillis acted in the romance film "Made in Heaven," directed by Alan Rudolph, which was produced by Lorimar Productions.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: McGillis played the part of caretaker for Miss Venable (Jessica Tandy) in 1988's "The House on Carroll Street", which also starred Jeff Daniels. She overhears a suspicious conversation in the house next door and suspects that she's stumbled on a conspiracy to smuggle Nazi war criminals into the United States.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: After 1988's "The Accused", she appeared in "Cat Chaser" with Peter Weller, a film she despised and which discouraged her from pursuing an acting career. McGillis appeared in dozens of television and film roles throughout the 1990s before taking a break from acting for a few years.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: McGillis played the part of Babe Ruth's second wife, Claire Merritt Ruth, in "The Babe" (1992). From the late-1980s to the mid-1990s, McGillis appeared in "Winter People" (1989), and "North" (1994), her second Amish part in television or film, as well as several made-for-TV films.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: In 1999, McGillis co-starred with Val Kilmer (who plays Virgil, a blind man), for a second time as his over protective sister in "At First Sight".


title: Kelly McGillis

text: She played the suspect in the disappearance of a young woman in "The Monkey's Mask", an international lesbian cult film from 2000 starring Susie Porter. The film is based on the verse novel of the same name by Australian poet Dorothy Porter.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: She starred in the 1984 television movie "Sweet Revenge" (also known as "Bittersweet Revenge") with Alec Baldwin.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: Other television films during the 1980s included "Private Sessions" in 1985, and as a narrator in "Santabear's First Christmas". She also narrated the documentary "Out of Ireland" for PBS in 1995.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: While at Juilliard she performed in William Congreve's "Love for Love", directed by John Bletchley. She appeared in a couple of off-broadway and Broadway theater productions during the 1980s in New York City.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: During the late-1980s and through the mid-2000s, McGillis was a featured actress at the prestigious Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC. In 2002, she appeared in production of John Webber's play "The Duchess of Malfi" at the Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, DC.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: In 2004, she appeared in the stage play "The Graduate" as Mrs. Robinson, touring the United States. McGillis starred in a Pasadena Playhouse stage production of "The Little Foxes" by Lillian Hellman in May 2009, co-starring with Julia Duffy.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: Her stage work includes: "Don Juan" (1982), "The Sea Gull" (1985), "Peccadillo" (1985), "The Merchant of Venice" (1988), "Twelfth Night" (1989), "Mary Stuart" (1990), "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (1990), "Hedda Gabler" (1994), "Mourning Becomes Electra" (1997), "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1999), "Measure for Measure" (1999) and "The Graduate" (2004), together with additional roles in "Love for Love", "Six Characters in Search of an Author", "Three Sisters" and "The Winter's Tale".


title: Kelly McGillis

text: She also appeared in a production of "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" by Terrence McNally, which toured the United Kingdom in 2010.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: She began working in television again in 2006, then in 2007 joined the cast of Showtime's "The L Word" for its fifth season.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: She had a role in the 2010 vampire film "Stake Land", directed by Jim Mickle, starring alongside Nick Damici, Connor Paolo and Danielle Harris.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: She starred in Ti West's 2011 thriller "The Innkeepers", "We Are What We Are" and "Tio Papi" in 2013, "Grand Street," "Love Finds You in Sugarcreek, Ohio" (which was McGillis' third Amish-themed film), "Z Nation", and an episode of "Sisters of Mercy" in 2014, and "Blue" in 2015.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: "An Uncommon Grace" on Hallmark Channel was McGillis' fourth Amish themed film. and she had the lead role in "Mother of All Secrets" (filmed in Bermuda) in 2017 as Rose Lewis.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: McGillis married fellow Juilliard student Boyd Black in 1979; the couple divorced in 1981. She married Fred Tillman in 1989, and they have two daughters, Kelsey and Sonora. The couple divorced in 2002.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: In 1982, McGillis was raped by two men in her New York apartment. Leroy Johnson, who was 15 years old at the time, was sentenced to three years in prison, but the other assailant had all charges dropped due to a lack of corroborative evidence.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: "The Centurion", a 110-foot schooner valued at $1.5 million owned by McGillis and her husband, Fred Tillman, was destroyed by fire in April 1996 at a marina in Dania, Florida. The fire started on an adjacent boat at the Port LauDania marina on a Dania Cutoff Canal and spread to the schooner. Tillman had brought the boat from the couple's home in Key West in hopes of selling it at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: McGillis came out as a lesbian in 2009 during an interview with "SheWired". In 2010, she entered into a civil union with Melanie Leis, a Philadelphia sales executive. She and McGillis had met in 2000 when Leis was a bartender at Kelly's Caribbean Bar Grill & Brewery in Key West, Florida, which McGillis owned with her then-husband Fred Tillman. Their union was dissolved the following year.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: McGillis worked full-time with drug addicts and alcoholics at Seabrook House Drug Alcohol Rehab Center, a rehabilitation center in Bridgeton, New Jersey, when she and Leis shared a home in Collingswood.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: McGillis currently lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina. As of 2013, she has taught acting at the New York Studio for Stage and Screen NYS3 in Asheville, North Carolina.


title: Kelly McGillis

text: McGillis was left scratched and bruised after being assaulted by a woman who broke into her North Carolina home on June 17, 2016. She said the attack, as well as others she has experienced in the past, led her to apply for a concealed carry gun permit to protect herself. Following the incident, a 38-year-old woman, Laurence Marie Dorn, was charged with second-degree burglary, misdemeanor larceny, misdemeanor stalking, assault and battery, and interfering with emergency communication. Dorn was later convicted of misdemeanor breaking and entering and sentenced to probation.


title: Liv Tyler

text: Liv Rundgren Tyler (born Liv Rundgren; July 1, 1977) is an American actress, producer, singer and former model. She began a modeling career at age 14. She later decided to focus on acting and made her film debut in "Silent Fall" (1994); she went on to achieve critical recognition with starring roles in "Heavy" and "Empire Records" (both 1995), as well as "That Thing You Do!" and "Stealing Beauty" (both 1996). She then appeared in films such as "Inventing the Abbotts" (1997), "Armageddon" (1998), "Cookie's Fortune" and "Onegin" (both 1999), "Dr. T & the Women" (2000), and "One Night at McCool's" (2001). She then played Arwen Undómiel in the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy (2001–2003), which became one of the highest-grossing film series in history.


title: Liv Tyler

text: Following the success of "Lord of the Rings", Tyler has appeared in a variety of roles, including the films "Jersey Girl" (2004), "Lonesome Jim" (2005), "Reign Over Me" (2007), "The Strangers", "The Incredible Hulk" (both 2008), "Super" (2010), "Space Station 76" (2014), "Wildling" (2018), and "Ad Astra" (2019). Outside of film, she starred in the HBO supernatural drama series "The Leftovers" (2014–2017), the BBC period drama series "Gunpowder" (2017), the ITV/Hulu period drama series "Harlots" (2018–2019) and the Fox procedural drama series "" (2020).


title: Liv Tyler

text: Tyler is also a singer. Having sung with composer Howard Shore, she appeared as guest vocalist on The Lemonheads' album "Varshons" (2009) singing a cover of the Leonard Cohen song "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye". She appeared on the 2017 bonus disk of Evan Dando's album "Baby I'm Bored" (2003) providing featured vocals for the song "Shots Is Fired". In 2011, she released her debut single, "Need You Tonight".


title: Liv Tyler

text: Tyler has served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for the United States since 2003, and as a spokesperson for Givenchy's line of perfume and cosmetics. She is the daughter of Steven Tyler and Bebe Buell, although she has a very close relationship with her adoptive father Todd Rundgren.


title: Liv Tyler

text: Tyler was born Liv Rundgren on July 1, 1977, in New York City at Mount Sinai Hospital. She is the only daughter of Bebe Buell, a model, singer, and former "Playboy" Playmate (Miss November 1974), and Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith. Her mother named her after Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, after seeing Ullmann on the cover of the March 5, 1977, issue of "TV Guide".


title: Liv Tyler

text: Her ancestry includes Italian (from her great-grandfather), German, Ukrainian, English and African-American (from her maternal great-great-great-great-grandfather). Tyler has three half-siblings: Mia Tyler (born 1978), Chelsea Anna Tyler Foster (née Tallarico; born 1989), and Taj Monroe Tallarico (born 1991). Her maternal grandmother, Dorothea Johnson, founded the Protocol School of Washington.


title: Liv Tyler

text: From 1972 to 1979, Buell lived with rock musician Todd Rundgren. In 1976, Buell became pregnant from a brief relationship with Steven Tyler. She gave birth on July 1, 1977, naming the daughter Liv Rundgren and claiming that Todd Rundgren was the biological father because Tyler was in the middle of his well-documented drug excesses. Liv told "People Magazine" in 1992 that "Todd's my spiritual father. I love him". By then Rundgren and Buell had ended their romantic relationship but Rundgren nevertheless signed the birth certificate and acted as a father figure to Liv, including paying for her education.


title: Liv Tyler

text: At age 10 or 11, Liv met Steven Tyler and suspected he was her father when she observed a resemblance between her and Tyler's daughter Mia. When she asked her mother, the secret was revealed. The truth about Tyler's paternity did not become public until 1991, when she changed her surname from Rundgren to Tyler, but kept Rundgren as a middle name. Buell's stated reason for claiming that Rundgren was Liv's father was that Steven Tyler was too heavily addicted to drugs at the time of Liv's birth. Since learning the truth about her paternity, Liv and Steven have developed a close relationship. They also have worked together professionally, once when she appeared in Aerosmith's music video for "Crazy" in 1993, and again when Aerosmith performed songs in the film "Armageddon" (1998), in which Liv starred. Tyler maintains a close relationship with Rundgren. "I'm so grateful to him, I have so much love for him. You know, when he holds me it feels like Daddy. And he's very protective and strong."


title: Liv Tyler

text: Tyler attended the Congressional Schools of Virginia, Breakwater School, and Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, before returning to New York City with her mother at age 12. She went to York Preparatory in New York City for junior high and high school after her mother researched the school to accommodate Tyler's ADHD. She also attended the Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica, California. She graduated from York in 1995 and left to continue her acting career. When asked about her youth, Tyler said: "For me, I didn't get much of a childhood in my teen years because I've been working since I was 14. But that also kept me out of trouble. When everybody was doing acid and partying like crazy, I was at work on a movie in Tuscany ... having my own fun, of course, but it was a different kind of thing. I have no regrets. I love the way my life has gone."


title: Liv Tyler

text: Tyler received her first modeling job at 14 with the assistance of Paulina Porizkova, who took pictures of her that ended up in "Interview" magazine. She later starred in television commercials. She became bored with her modeling career less than a year after it started and decided to go into acting, although she never took acting lessons. Tyler first became known to television audiences when she starred alongside Alicia Silverstone in the music video for Aerosmith's 1993 song "Crazy".


title: Liv Tyler

text: Tyler made her feature film debut in "Silent Fall" in 1994, where she played the elder sister of a boy with autism. In 1995, she starred in the comedy-drama "Empire Records". Tyler has described "Empire Records" as "one of the best experiences" she has ever had. Soon after, she landed a supporting role in James Mangold's 1995 drama "Heavy" as Callie, a naive young waitress. The film received favorable reviews; critic Janet Maslin noted: "Ms. Tyler ... gives a charmingly ingenuous performance, betraying no self-consciousness about her lush good looks."


title: Liv Tyler

text: Tyler's breakthrough role was in the arthouse film "Stealing Beauty" (1996), in which she played Lucy Harmon, an innocent, romantic teenager who travels to Tuscany, Italy, intent on losing her virginity. The film received generally mixed reviews, but Tyler's performance was regarded favorably by critics. "Variety" wrote: "Tyler is the perfect accomplice. At times sweetly awkward, at others composed and serene, the actress appears to respond effortlessly and intuitively to the camera, creating a rich sense of what Lucy is about that often is not explicit in the dialogue." "Empire" noted, "Liv Tyler (here radiantly resembling a ganglier young Ava Gardner) with a rare opportunity to enamour, a break she capitalizes on with composure." The film was directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, who chose Tyler for the role after meeting with a number of young girls in Los Angeles, including Tyler's music video co-star Alicia Silverstone. Bertolucci said "there was something missing in all of them". He later said that what he saw in Tyler was a "gravitas" he described as "a New York aura". During promotion of the film, Tyler said she wanted to separate herself from the character during production: "I tried my damnedest not to think of my own situation. But at one point, after a take, I just started to cry and cry. I remembered when I found out about my dad and how we just stared at each other from head to toe taking in every nook and cranny."


title: Liv Tyler

text: She later appeared in "That Thing You Do!" (1996), a movie about a fictional one-hit wonder rock band called The Oneders, following their whirlwind rise to the top of the pop charts and, just as quickly, their plunge back to obscurity. The film was written and directed by Tom Hanks. It grossed over $25 million worldwide, and received favorable reviews. In 1997, she appeared in "Inventing the Abbotts" as the daughter of Will Patton and Barbara Williams' characters. The movie is based on a short story by Sue Miller. "Entertainment Weekly" declared Tyler's performance as "lovely and pliant". That same year, Tyler was chosen by "People" magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People.


title: Liv Tyler

text: Tyler next appeared in "Armageddon" (1998), where she played the daughter of Bruce Willis' character and love interest of Ben Affleck's character. The film generated mixed reviews, but it was a box office blockbuster, earning $553 million worldwide. The movie included the songs "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" and "What Kind of Love Are You On" by Aerosmith. In a 2001 interview with "The Guardian", she said that she initially turned down the role in "Armageddon:" "I really didn't want to do it at first and I turned it down a couple of times, but the biggest reason I changed my mind was because I was scared of it. I wanted to try it for that very reason. I mean, I'm not really in this to do amazing things in my career – I just want it to be special when I make a movie."


title: Liv Tyler

text: She was then cast in the drama "Onegin" (1999), a film based on the 19th century Russian novel of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, in which she portrayed Tatyana Larina and co-starred with Ralph Fiennes. Tyler was required to master an English accent, though Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" felt that her approximation of an English accent was "inert". The film was critically and financially unsuccessful. That same year, she appeared in the historical comedy film "Plunkett & Macleane".


title: Liv Tyler

text: She later appeared in two films directed by Robert Altman, "Cookie's Fortune" (1999) and "Dr. T & the Women" (2000). In "Cookie's Fortune", she was part of an ensemble cast that included Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Chris O'Donnell, and Patricia Neal. Her performance was well received among critics; Salon.com wrote: "This is the first time in which Tyler's acting is a match for her beauty (she's always been a bit forlorn). Altman helps her find some snap, but a relaxed, silly snap, as in the cartoon sound she makes when she takes a midday swig of bourbon. The lazy geniality of the movie is summed up by the way Emma [Tyler's character] saunters off to take a swim with her cowboy hat and pint of Wild Turkey." "Entertainment Weekly" also wrote that Tyler was "sweetly gruff as the tomboy troublemaker". In "Dr. T & the Women", a romantic comedy, she played Marilyn, a gynecological patient of Richard Gere's character and the lesbian lover of his daughter, played by Kate Hudson.


title: Liv Tyler

text: In 2001, Tyler played the object of infatuation for three men (Matt Dillon, John Goodman, and Paul Reiser) in the comedy "One Night at McCool's". She said the role was "definitely the first part where I had to be so physically aware and have people so aware of me physically. Maybe it's not hard for anybody else, but it is a bit for me. I mean I love my body and I feel very comfortable in my skin but this was tough." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" wrote: "Tyler, a true beauty, gives the role a valiant try, but her range is too limited to play this amalgam of female perfection."


title: Liv Tyler

text: In 2001, she starred in the feature film "", directed by Peter Jackson. She played the Elf maiden Arwen Undómiel. The film is based on the first volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". The filmmakers approached Tyler after seeing her performance in "Plunkett & Macleane". She learned to speak the Elvish language that was created by Tolkien. Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" said Tyler's performance was "lovely and earnest".


title: Liv Tyler

text: A year later, Tyler again starred as Arwen in "", the second installment of the series. The film received favorable reviews. She spent months learning sword fighting for the concluding battle scenes in the film, but her scenes were removed after the script was changed. The film was an enormous box office success, earning over $926 million worldwide and out-grossing its predecessor, which earned over $871 million. In 2003, Tyler featured in the third and last installment of the series, "".


title: Liv Tyler

text: Following the success of "The Lord of the Rings", she appeared opposite her "Armageddon" co-star Ben Affleck in writer-director Kevin Smith's romantic comedy "Jersey Girl" (2004), playing a woman who meets a widowed father, played by Affleck, and re-opens his heart to love. In an interview with MTV News, Tyler confessed that she felt "scared and vulnerable" while filming "Jersey Girl", adding "I was so used to those other elements of the character [Arwen]. On "The Lord of the Rings", a lot of things were done in post-production, whereas this was really just about me and Ben sitting there, just shooting off dialogue."


title: Liv Tyler

text: In 2003, she became the spokesperson for Givenchy perfume and cosmetics, and in 2005 the brand named a rose after her, which was used in one of its fragrances. In 2009, she signed on for two more years as Givenchy spokesperson. On December 8, 2011, Givenchy announced a collaboration between Givenchy perfumes and Sony Music. In the video released on February 7, 2012, Tyler covered the INXS song "Need You Tonight".


title: Liv Tyler

text: In 2005, she appeared in Steve Buscemi's independent drama "Lonesome Jim", where she was cast alongside Casey Affleck as a single mother and nurse who reconnects with an old fling who has returned to their small Indiana town after a failed run as a novelist in New York. The film was screened at a special presentation at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Her next appearance was in a supporting role as an insightful therapist who tries to help a once-successful dentist (Adam Sandler) cope with the loss of his family in the September 11 attacks in "Reign Over Me" (2007).


title: Liv Tyler

text: In 2008, she starred in the home invasion horror film "The Strangers" with Scott Speedman, a film about a young couple who are terrorized one night by three masked assailants in their remote country house. Although the film garnered a mixed reception among critics, it was a major box office success, earning more than $80 million over its $9 million budget. In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", she said "The Strangers" was the most challenging role of her career. "It was as far as I could push myself in every way: physically, emotionally, mentally."


title: Liv Tyler

text: She appeared in "The Incredible Hulk" (2008), in which she played Dr. Betty Ross, the love interest of the title character, played by Edward Norton. Tyler was a fan of the television show, and was attracted to the love story in the script. She said filming the part was "very physical, which was fun", and compared her performance to "a deer caught in the headlights". "The Incredible Hulk" was a moderate box office success, earning over $262 million worldwide against a $150 million budget. "The Washington Post", in review of the film, wrote: "Tyler gives Betty an appropriately angelic nimbus of ethereal gentleness as the one Beauty who can tame the Beast ... during their most pivotal encounters."


title: Liv Tyler

text: Tyler appeared in two films released in 2011: "Super" and "The Ledge". In April 2011, publishing house Rodale announced that Tyler and her grandmother Dorothea Johnson, an etiquette expert, had written a book called "Modern Manners". It was released October 29, 2013.


title: Liv Tyler

text: In 2014, Tyler appeared in "Space Station 76", a film directed by Jack Plotnick, also starring Matt Bomer and Patrick Wilson, as well as in the independent horror-drama film "Jamie Marks Is Dead", directed by Carter Smith.


title: Liv Tyler

text: In June 2014, Tyler began appearing as a regular in the HBO television series "The Leftovers". The series ended after three seasons in 2017.


title: Liv Tyler

text: In 2016, Tyler took on a role opposite Bel Powley in the fantasy/horror drama film "Wildling," directed by Fritz Böhm. The film also marked her debut as a producer. It was released in 2018.


title: Liv Tyler

text: In 2017, Tyler quickly landed a role as Anne Vaux in the BBC/HBO miniseries "Gunpowder", co-starring Kit Harington. She later joined the second season of the ITV/Hulu period drama series "Harlots", starring in the second and third series in a regular role as Lady Isabella Fitzwilliam.


title: Liv Tyler

text: In 2019, Tyler co-starred opposite Brad Pitt in the science fiction drama film "Ad Astra", which received positive reviews from critics. In 2020, she began a starring role as Michelle Blake in the Fox procedural drama series "", which is a spin-off of the drama series "9-1-1". On June 1, 2020, Tyler - together with her "Lord of the Rings" costars Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, Miranda Otto, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Karl Urban, and Elijah Wood, plus writer Philippa Boyens and director Peter Jackson - joined Josh Gad's YouTube series "Reunited Apart" which reunites the cast of popular movies through video-conferencing, and promotes donations to non-profit charities.


title: Liv Tyler

text: Tyler dated her "Inventing the Abbotts" co-star Joaquin Phoenix from 1995 to 1998. During her relationship with Phoenix, she became a vegan; however, when the relationship ended, she went back to eating meat. In 1998, she began dating British musician Royston Langdon of the band Spacehog. They became engaged in February 2001, and married in Barbados on March 25, 2003. In December 2004, she gave birth to a son. On May 8, 2008, they confirmed through representatives that they would be separating.


title: Liv Tyler

text: In June 2010, Tyler stated she was "far too sensitive" for casual dates, adding "I fall in love once in a blue moon."


title: Liv Tyler

text: In 2014, Tyler met David Gardner, a British sports and entertainment manager. They became engaged in July 2015. They have two children together: a son, Sailor Gene, born in February 2015, and a daughter, Lula Rose, born in July 2016. Tyler temporarily moved to London shortly after her daughter's birth.


title: Liv Tyler

text: Tyler learned transcendental meditation in New York City. In December 2012, she participated in a charity gala for the David Lynch Foundation to provide transcendental meditation to disadvantaged sections of society. At the event, she said, "It helps me make better decisions and be a better mother, and just deal with the daily stress of the modern world that we live in. It helps with everything."


title: Liv Tyler

text: Tyler bought a townhouse on West 11th Street in Greenwich Village, New York City for $2.53 million in 2001. In 2019 she sold it for $17.45 million in favour of London, where she has resided with her family since 2018.


title: Liv Tyler

text: In January 2021, Tyler said on Instagram that she had tested positive for COVID-19 on New Year's Eve, leaving her bedridden in isolation for 10 days. She said the virus "comes on fast, like a locomotive", and "F’s with your body and mind equally".


title: Liv Tyler

text: Tyler is an active supporter of the charitable United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). She was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United States in 2003. In November 2004, she hosted the lighting of the UNICEF Snowflake in New York City. She was also a spokesperson for the 2004 Givenchy Mother's Day promotion in support of UNICEF's Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus campaign.


title: Liv Tyler

text: Since 2004, she has donated to the Women's Cancer Research Fund to support innovative research, education, and outreach directed at the development of more effective approaches to the early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of all women's cancers. In October 2007, Tyler, with her mother Bebe Buell and her grandmother Dorothea Johnson, helped launch the Emergen-C Pink energy drink, in an event in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month.


title: Mexico City

text: Mexico City (, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: "Altepetl Mexico") is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of Mexico within the high Mexican central plateau, at an altitude of . The city has 16 boroughs or "demarcaciones territoriales", which are in turn divided into neighborhoods or "colonias".


title: Mexico City

text: The 2020 population for the city proper was 9,209,944, with a land area of . According to the most recent definition agreed upon by the federal and state governments, the population of Greater Mexico City is 21,804,515, which makes it the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the world, the second-largest urban agglomeration in the Western Hemisphere (behind São Paulo, Brazil), and the largest Spanish-speaking city (city proper) in the world. Greater Mexico City has a GDP of $411 billion in 2011, which makes it one of the most productive urban areas in the world. The city was responsible for generating 15.8% of Mexico's GDP, and the metropolitan area accounted for about 22% of the country's GDP. If it were an independent country in 2013, Mexico City would be the fifth-largest economy in Latin America.


title: Mexico City

text: Mexico's capital is both the oldest capital city in the Americas and one of two founded by indigenous people. The city was originally built on a group of islands in Lake Texcoco by the Mexica (Aztecs) around 1325, under the name Tenochtitlan. It was almost completely destroyed in the 1521 Siege of Tenochtitlan and subsequently redesigned and rebuilt in accordance with the Spanish urban standards. In 1524, the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as , and as of 1585, it was officially known as (Mexico City). Mexico City was the political, administrative, and financial center of a major part of the Spanish colonial empire. After independence from Spain was achieved, the federal district was created in 1824.


title: Mexico City

text: After years of demanding greater political autonomy, residents were finally given the right to elect both a head of government and the representatives of the unicameral Legislative Assembly by election in 1997. Ever since, left-wing parties (first the Party of the Democratic Revolution and later the National Regeneration Movement) have controlled both of them. The city has several progressive policies, such as elective abortions, a limited form of euthanasia, no-fault divorce, and same-sex marriage. On 29 January 2016, it ceased to be the "Federal District" ( or ) and is now officially known as (or ), with a greater degree of autonomy. A clause in the Constitution of Mexico, however, prevents it from becoming a state within the Mexican federation, as it is the seat of power in the country, unless the capital of the country were to be relocated elsewhere.


title: Mexico City

text: Mexico City was traditionally known as "La Ciudad de los Palacios" ("the City of the Palaces"), a nickname attributed to Baron Alexander von Humboldt when visiting the city in the 19th century, who, sending a letter back to Europe, said Mexico City could rival any major city in Europe. But it was English politician Charles Latrobe who really penned the following: "... look at their works: the moles, aqueducts, churches, roads—and the luxurious "City of Palaces" which has risen from the clay-builts ruins of Tenochtitlan...", on page 84 of the Letter V of "The Rambler in Mexico". During the colonial period, the city's motto was "Muy Noble e Insigne, Muy Leal e Imperial" (Very Noble and Distinguished, Very Loyal and Imperial). During Andrés López Obrador's administration a political slogan was introduced: "la Ciudad de la Esperanza" ("The City of Hope"). This motto was quickly adopted as a city nickname but has faded since the new motto, "Capital en Movimiento" ("Capital in Movement"), was adopted by the administration headed by Marcelo Ebrard, though the latter is not treated as often as a nickname in media. Since 2013, to refer to the city, particularly in relation to government campaigns, the abbreviation CDMX has been used (from Ciudad de México), prior to this but recently, the abbreviation was "DF" (from Distrito Federal de México).


title: Mexico City

text: The city is colloquially known as "Chilangolandia" after the locals' nickname "chilangos". Chilango is used pejoratively by people living outside Mexico City to "connote a loud, arrogant, ill-mannered, loutish person". For their part those living in Mexico City designate insultingly those who live elsewhere as living in "la provincia" ("the provinces", the periphery) and many proudly embrace the term chilango. Residents of Mexico City are more recently called "defeños" (deriving from the postal abbreviation of the Federal District in Spanish: D.F., which is read "De-Efe"). They are formally called "capitalinos" (in reference to the city being the capital of the country), but "[p]erhaps because capitalino is the more polite, specific, and correct word, it is almost never utilized".


title: Mexico City

text: The oldest signs of human occupation in the area of Mexico City are those of the "Peñón woman" and others found in San Bartolo Atepehuacan (Gustavo A. Madero). They were believed to correspond to the lower Cenolithic period (9500–7000 BC). However, a 2003 study placed the age of the Peñon woman at 12,700 years old (calendar age), one of the oldest human remains discovered in the Americas. Studies of her mitochondrial DNA suggest she was either of Asian or European or Aboriginal Australian origin.


title: Mexico City

text: The area was the destination of the migrations of the Teochichimecas during the 8th and 13th centuries, people that would give rise to the Toltec, and Mexica (Aztecs) cultures. The latter arrived around the 14th century to settle first on the shores of the lake.


title: Mexico City

text: The city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan was founded by the Mexica people in 1325 or 1327. The old Mexica city that is now referred to as Tenochtitlan was built on an island in the center of the inland lake system of the Valley of Mexico, which is shared with a smaller city-state called Tlatelolco. According to legend, the Mexicas' principal god, Huitzilopochtli, indicated the site where they were to build their home by presenting a golden eagle perched on a prickly pear devouring a rattlesnake.


title: Mexico City

text: Between 1325 and 1521, Tenochtitlan grew in size and strength, eventually dominating the other city-states around Lake Texcoco and in the Valley of Mexico. When the Spaniards arrived, the Aztec Empire had reached much of Mesoamerica, touching both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean.


title: Mexico City

text: After landing in Veracruz, Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés advanced upon Tenochtitlan with the aid of many of the other native peoples,


title: Mexico City

text: arriving there on 8 November 1519. Cortés and his men marched along the causeway leading into the city from Iztapalapa (Ixtapalapa), and the city's ruler, Moctezuma II, greeted the Spaniards; they exchanged gifts, but the camaraderie did not last long. Cortés put Moctezuma under house arrest, hoping to rule through him.


title: Mexico City

text: Tensions increased until, on the night of 30 June 1520 – during a struggle known as "La Noche Triste" – the Aztecs rose up against the Spanish intrusion and managed to capture or drive out the Europeans and their Tlaxcalan allies. Cortés regrouped at Tlaxcala. The Aztecs thought the Spaniards were permanently gone, and they elected a new king, Cuitláhuac, but he soon died; the next king was Cuauhtémoc. Cortés began a siege of Tenochtitlan in May 1521. For three months, the city suffered from the lack of food and water as well as the spread of smallpox brought by the Europeans. Cortés and his allies landed their forces in the south of the island and slowly fought their way through the city. Cuauhtémoc surrendered in August 1521. The Spaniards practically razed Tenochtitlan during the final siege of the conquest.


title: Mexico City

text: Cortés first settled in Coyoacán, but decided to rebuild the Aztec site to erase all traces of the old order. He did not establish a territory under his own personal rule, but remained loyal to the Spanish crown. The first Spanish viceroy arrived in Mexico City fourteen years later. By that time, the city had again become a city-state, having power that extended far beyond its borders. Although the Spanish preserved Tenochtitlan's basic layout, they built Catholic churches over the old Aztec temples and claimed the imperial palaces for themselves. Tenochtitlan was renamed "Mexico" because the Spanish found the word easier to pronounce.


title: Mexico City

text: The city had been the capital of the Aztec Empire and in the colonial era, Mexico City became the capital of New Spain. The viceroy of Mexico or vice-king lived in the viceregal palace on the main square or Zócalo. The Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, the seat of the Archbishopric of New Spain, was constructed on another side of the Zócalo, as was the archbishop's palace, and across from it the building housing the city council or "ayuntamiento" of the city. A late seventeenth-century painting of the Zócalo by Cristóbal de Villalpando depicts the main square, which had been the old Aztec ceremonial center. The existing central plaza of the Aztecs was effectively and permanently transformed to the ceremonial center and seat of power during the colonial period, and remains to this day in modern Mexico, the central plaza of the nation. The rebuilding of the city after the siege of Tenochtitlan was accomplished by the abundant indigenous labor in the surrounding area. Franciscan friar Toribio de Benavente Motolinia, one of the Twelve Apostles of Mexico who arrived in New Spain in 1524, described the rebuilding of the city as one of the afflictions or plagues of the early period:


title: Mexico City

text: The seventh plague was the construction of the great City of Mexico, which, during the early years used more people than in the construction of Jerusalem. The crowds of laborers were so numerous that one could hardly move in the streets and causeways, although they are very wide. Many died from being crushed by beams, or falling from high places, or in tearing down old buildings for new ones.


title: Mexico City

text: Preconquest Tenochtitlan was built in the center of the inland lake system, with the city reachable by canoe and by wide causeways to the mainland. The causeways were rebuilt under Spanish rule with indigenous labor. Colonial Spanish cities were constructed on a grid pattern, if no geographical obstacle prevented it. In Mexico City, the Zócalo (main square) was the central place from which the grid was then built outward. The Spanish lived in the area closest to the main square in what was known as the "traza", in orderly, well laid-out streets. Indigenous residences were outside that exclusive zone and houses were haphazardly located. Spaniards sought to keep indigenous people separate but since the Zócalo was a center of commerce for Amerindians, they were a constant presence in the central area, so strict segregation was never enforced. At intervals Zócalo was where major celebrations took place as well as executions. It was also the site of two major riots in the seventeenth century, one in 1624, the other in 1692.


title: Mexico City

text: The city grew as the population did, coming up against the lake's waters. As the depth of the lake water fluctuated, Mexico City was subject to periodic flooding. A major labor draft, the "desagüe", compelled thousands of indigenous over the colonial period to work on infrastructure to prevent flooding. Floods were not only an inconvenience but also a health hazard, since during flood periods human waste polluted the city's streets. By draining the area, the mosquito population dropped as did the frequency of the diseases they spread. However, draining the wetlands also changed the habitat for fish and birds and the areas accessible for indigenous cultivation close to the capital. The 16th century saw a proliferation of churches, many of which can still be seen today in the historic center.


title: Mexico City

text: Economically, Mexico City prospered as a result of trade. Unlike Brazil or Peru, Mexico had easy contact with both the Atlantic and Pacific worlds. Although the Spanish crown tried to completely regulate all commerce in the city, it had only partial success.


title: Mexico City

text: The concept of nobility flourished in New Spain in a way not seen in other parts of the Americas. Spaniards encountered a society in which the concept of nobility mirrored that of their own. Spaniards respected the indigenous order of nobility and added to it. In the ensuing centuries, possession of a noble title in Mexico did not mean one exercised great political power, for one's power was limited even if the accumulation of wealth was not. The concept of nobility in Mexico was not political but rather a very conservative Spanish social one, based on proving the worthiness of the family. Most of these families proved their worth by making fortunes in New Spain outside of the city itself, then spending the revenues in the capital, building churches, supporting charities and building extravagant palatial homes. The craze to build the most opulent residence possible reached its height in the last half of the 18th century. Many of these palaces can still be seen today, leading to Mexico City's nickname of "The city of palaces" given by Alexander Von Humboldt.


title: Mexico City

text: The Grito de Dolores ("Cry of Dolores"), also known as El Grito de la Independencia ("Cry of Independence"), marked the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence. The Battle of Guanajuato, the first major engagement of the insurgency, occurred four days later. After a decade of war, Mexico's independence from Spain was effectively declared in the Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire on 27 September 1821. Agustín de Iturbide is proclaimed Emperor of the First Mexican Empire by Congress, crowned in the Cathedral of Mexico. Unrest followed for the next several decades, as different factions fought for control of Mexico.


title: Mexico City

text: The Mexican Federal District was established by the new government and by the signing of their new constitution, where the concept of a federal district was adapted from the United States Constitution. Before this designation, Mexico City had served as the seat of government for both the State of Mexico and the nation as a whole. Texcoco de Mora and then Toluca became the capital of the State of Mexico.


title: Mexico City

text: During the 19th century, Mexico City was the center stage of all the political disputes of the country. It was the imperial capital on two occasions (1821–1823 and 1864–1867), and of two federalist states and two centralist states that followed innumerable coups d'états in the space of half a century before the triumph of the Liberals after the Reform War. It was also the objective of one of the two French invasions to Mexico (1861–1867), and occupied for a year by American troops in the framework of the Mexican–American War (1847–1848).


title: Mexico City

text: The Battle for Mexico City was the series of engagements from 8 to 15 September 1847, in the general vicinity of Mexico City during the U.S. Mexican War. Included are major actions at the battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec, culminating with the fall of Mexico City. The U.S. Army under Winfield Scott scored a major success that ended the war. The American invasion into the Federal District was first resisted during the Battle of Churubusco on 8 August, where the Saint Patrick's Battalion, which was composed primarily of Catholic Irish and German immigrants but also Canadians, English, French, Italians, Poles, Scots, Spaniards, Swiss, and Mexicans, fought for the Mexican cause, repelling the American attacks. After defeating the Saint Patrick's Battalion, the Mexican–American War came to a close after the United States deployed combat units deep into Mexico resulting in the capture of Mexico City and Veracruz by the U.S. Army's 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Divisions. The invasion culminated with the storming of Chapultepec Castle in the city itself.


title: Mexico City

text: During this battle, on 13 September, the 4th Division, under John A. Quitman, spearheaded the attack against Chapultepec and carried the castle. Future Confederate generals George E. Pickett and James Longstreet participated in the attack. Serving in the Mexican defense were the cadets later immortalized as "Los Niños Héroes" (the "Boy Heroes"). The Mexican forces fell back from Chapultepec and retreated within the city. Attacks on the Belén and San Cosme Gates came afterwards. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in what is now the far north of the city.


title: Mexico City

text: Events such as the Mexican–American War, the French Intervention and the Reform War left the city relatively untouched and it continued to grow, especially during the rule of President Porfirio Díaz. During this time the city developed a modern infrastructure, such as roads, schools, transportation systems and communication systems. However the regime concentrated resources and wealth into the city while the rest of the country languished in poverty.


title: Mexico City

text: Under the rule of Porfirio Díaz, Mexico City experienced a massive transformation. Díaz's goal was to create a city which could rival the great European cities. He and his government came to the conclusion that they would use Paris as a model, while still containing remnants of Amerindian and Hispanic elements. This style of Mexican-French fusion architecture became colloquially known as Porfirian Architecture. Porfirian architecture became very influenced by Paris' Haussmannization.


title: Mexico City

text: During this era of Porfirian rule, the city underwent an extensive modernization. Many Spanish Colonial style buildings were destroyed, replaced by new much larger Porfirian institutions and many outlying rural zones were transformed into urban or industrialized districts with most having electrical, gas and sewage utilities by 1908. While the initial focus was on developing modern hospitals, schools, factories and massive public works, perhaps the most long-lasting effects of the Porfirian modernization were creation of the Colonia Roma area and the development of Reforma Avenue. Many of Mexico City's major attractions and landmarks were built during this era in this style.