title: Charles Darwin

text: In eight years of work on barnacles, Darwin's theory helped him to find "homologies" showing that slightly changed body parts served different functions to meet new conditions, and in some genera he found minute males parasitic on hermaphrodites, showing an intermediate stage in evolution of distinct sexes. In 1853, it earned him the Royal Society's Royal Medal, and it made his reputation as a biologist. In 1854 he became a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, gaining postal access to its library. He began a major reassessment of his theory of species, and in November realised that divergence in the character of descendants could be explained by them becoming adapted to "diversified places in the economy of nature".


title: Charles Darwin

text: By the start of 1856, Darwin was investigating whether eggs and seeds could survive travel across seawater to spread species across oceans. Hooker increasingly doubted the traditional view that species were fixed, but their young friend Thomas Henry Huxley was still firmly against the transmutation of species. Lyell was intrigued by Darwin's speculations without realising their extent. When he read a paper by Alfred Russel Wallace, "On the Law which has Regulated the Introduction of New Species", he saw similarities with Darwin's thoughts and urged him to publish to establish precedence.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Though Darwin saw no threat, on 14 May 1856 he began writing a short paper. Finding answers to difficult questions held him up repeatedly, and he expanded his plans to a "big book on species" titled "Natural Selection", which was to include his "note on Man". He continued his researches, obtaining information and specimens from naturalists worldwide including Wallace who was working in Borneo.


title: Charles Darwin

text: In mid-1857 he added a section heading; "Theory applied to Races of Man", but did not add text on this topic. On 5 September 1857, Darwin sent the American botanist Asa Gray a detailed outline of his ideas, including an abstract of "Natural Selection", which omitted human origins and sexual selection. In December, Darwin received a letter from Wallace asking if the book would examine human origins. He responded that he would avoid that subject, "so surrounded with prejudices", while encouraging Wallace's theorising and adding that "I go much further than you."


title: Charles Darwin

text: Darwin's book was only partly written when, on 18 June 1858, he received a paper from Wallace describing natural selection. Shocked that he had been "forestalled", Darwin sent it on that day to Lyell, as requested by Wallace, and although Wallace had not asked for publication, Darwin suggested he would send it to any journal that Wallace chose. His family was in crisis with children in the village dying of scarlet fever, and he put matters in the hands of his friends. After some discussion, with no reliable way of involving Wallace, Lyell and Hooker decided on a joint presentation at the Linnean Society on 1 July of "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection". On the evening of 28 June, Darwin's baby son died of scarlet fever after almost a week of severe illness, and he was too distraught to attend.


title: Charles Darwin

text: There was little immediate attention to this announcement of the theory; the president of the Linnean Society remarked in May 1859 that the year had not been marked by any revolutionary discoveries. Only one review rankled enough for Darwin to recall it later; Professor Samuel Haughton of Dublin claimed that "all that was new in them was false, and what was true was old". Darwin struggled for thirteen months to produce an abstract of his "big book", suffering from ill health but getting constant encouragement from his scientific friends. Lyell arranged to have it published by John Murray.


title: Charles Darwin

text: "On the Origin of Species" proved unexpectedly popular, with the entire stock of 1,250 copies oversubscribed when it went on sale to booksellers on 22 November 1859. In the book, Darwin set out "one long argument" of detailed observations, inferences and consideration of anticipated objections. In making the case for common descent, he included evidence of homologies between humans and other mammals. Having outlined sexual selection, he hinted that it could explain differences between human races. He avoided explicit discussion of human origins, but implied the significance of his work with the sentence; "Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history." His theory is simply stated in the introduction:


title: Charles Darwin

text: The last word was the only variant of "evolved" in the first five editions of the book. "Evolutionism" at that time was associated with other concepts, most commonly with embryological development. Darwin first used the word evolution in "The Descent of Man" in 1871, before adding it in 1872 to the 6th edition of "The Origin of Species".


title: Charles Darwin

text: The book aroused international interest, with less controversy than had greeted the popular and less scientific "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation". Though Darwin's illness kept him away from the public debates, he eagerly scrutinised the scientific response, commenting on press cuttings, reviews, articles, satires and caricatures, and corresponded on it with colleagues worldwide. The book did not explicitly discuss human origins, but included a number of hints about the animal ancestry of humans from which the inference could be made.


title: Charles Darwin

text: The first review asked, "If a monkey has become a man–what may not a man become?" It said this should be left to theologians as being too dangerous for ordinary readers. Amongst early favourable responses, Huxley's reviews swiped at Richard Owen, leader of the scientific establishment which Huxley was trying to overthrow.


title: Charles Darwin

text: In April, Owen's review attacked Darwin's friends and condescendingly dismissed his ideas, angering Darwin, but Owen and others began to promote ideas of supernaturally guided evolution. Patrick Matthew drew attention to his 1831 book which had a brief appendix suggesting a concept of natural selection leading to new species, but he had not developed the idea.


title: Charles Darwin

text: The Church of England's response was mixed. Darwin's old Cambridge tutors Sedgwick and Henslow dismissed the ideas, but liberal clergymen interpreted natural selection as an instrument of God's design, with the cleric Charles Kingsley seeing it as "just as noble a conception of Deity". In 1860, the publication of "Essays and Reviews" by seven liberal Anglican theologians diverted clerical attention from Darwin. Its ideas, including higher criticism, were attacked by church authorities as heresy. In it, Baden Powell argued that miracles broke God's laws, so belief in them was atheistic, and praised "Mr Darwin's masterly volume [supporting] the grand principle of the self-evolving powers of nature".


title: Charles Darwin

text: Asa Gray discussed teleology with Darwin, who imported and distributed Gray's pamphlet on theistic evolution, "Natural Selection is not inconsistent with natural theology". The most famous confrontation was at the public 1860 Oxford evolution debate during a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, where the Bishop of Oxford Samuel Wilberforce, though not opposed to transmutation of species, argued against Darwin's explanation and human descent from apes. Joseph Hooker argued strongly for Darwin, and Thomas Huxley's legendary retort, that he would rather be descended from an ape than a man who misused his gifts, came to symbolise a triumph of science over religion.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Even Darwin's close friends Gray, Hooker, Huxley and Lyell still expressed various reservations but gave strong support, as did many others, particularly younger naturalists. Gray and Lyell sought reconciliation with faith, while Huxley portrayed a polarisation between religion and science. He campaigned pugnaciously against the authority of the clergy in education, aiming to overturn the dominance of clergymen and aristocratic amateurs under Owen in favour of a new generation of professional scientists. Owen's claim that brain anatomy proved humans to be a separate biological order from apes was shown to be false by Huxley in a long running dispute parodied by Kingsley as the "Great Hippocampus Question", and discredited Owen.


title: Charles Darwin

text: In response to objections that the origin of life was unexplained, Darwin pointed to acceptance of Newton's law even though the cause of gravity was unknown.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Darwinism became a movement covering a wide range of evolutionary ideas. In 1863 Lyell's "Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man" popularised prehistory, though his caution on evolution disappointed Darwin. Weeks later Huxley's "Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature" showed that anatomically, humans are apes, then "The Naturalist on the River Amazons" by Henry Walter Bates provided empirical evidence of natural selection. Lobbying brought Darwin Britain's highest scientific honour, the Royal Society's Copley Medal, awarded on 3 November 1864. That day, Huxley held the first meeting of what became the influential "X Club" devoted to "science, pure and free, untrammelled by religious dogmas". By the end of the decade most scientists agreed that evolution occurred, but only a minority supported Darwin's view that the chief mechanism was natural selection.


title: Charles Darwin

text: The "Origin of Species" was translated into many languages, becoming a staple scientific text attracting thoughtful attention from all walks of life, including the "working men" who flocked to Huxley's lectures. Darwin's theory resonated with various movements at the time and became a key fixture of popular culture. Cartoonists parodied animal ancestry in an old tradition of showing humans with animal traits, and in Britain these droll images served to popularise Darwin's theory in an unthreatening way. While ill in 1862 Darwin began growing a beard, and when he reappeared in public in 1866 caricatures of him as an ape helped to identify all forms of evolutionism with Darwinism.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Despite repeated bouts of illness during the last twenty-two years of his life, Darwin's work continued. Having published "On the Origin of Species" as an abstract of his theory, he pressed on with experiments, research, and writing of his "big book". He covered human descent from earlier animals including evolution of society and of mental abilities, as well as explaining decorative beauty in wildlife and diversifying into innovative plant studies.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Enquiries about insect pollination led in 1861 to novel studies of wild orchids, showing adaptation of their flowers to attract specific moths to each species and ensure cross fertilisation. In 1862 "Fertilisation of Orchids" gave his first detailed demonstration of the power of natural selection to explain complex ecological relationships, making testable predictions. As his health declined, he lay on his sickbed in a room filled with inventive experiments to trace the movements of climbing plants. Admiring visitors included Ernst Haeckel, a zealous proponent of "Darwinismus" incorporating Lamarckism and Goethe's idealism. Wallace remained supportive, though he increasingly turned to Spiritualism.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Darwin's book "The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication" (1868) was the first part of his planned "big book", and included his unsuccessful hypothesis of pangenesis attempting to explain heredity. It sold briskly at first, despite its size, and was translated into many languages. He wrote most of a second part, on natural selection, but it remained unpublished in his lifetime.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Lyell had already popularised human prehistory, and Huxley had shown that anatomically humans are apes. With "The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex" published in 1871, Darwin set out evidence from numerous sources that humans are animals, showing continuity of physical and mental attributes, and presented sexual selection to explain impractical animal features such as the peacock's plumage as well as human evolution of culture, differences between sexes, and physical and cultural racial classification, while emphasising that humans are all one species.


title: Charles Darwin

text: His research using images was expanded in his 1872 book "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals", one of the first books to feature printed photographs, which discussed the evolution of human psychology and its continuity with the behaviour of animals. Both books proved very popular, and Darwin was impressed by the general assent with which his views had been received, remarking that "everybody is talking about it without being shocked." His conclusion was "that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted powers—Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin."


title: Charles Darwin

text: His evolution-related experiments and investigations led to books on "Insectivorous Plants, The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom", different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, and "The Power of Movement in Plants". He continued to collect information and exchange views from scientific correspondents all over the world, including Mary Treat, whom he encouraged to persevere in her scientific work. He was the first person to recognize the significance of carnivory in plants. His botanical work was interpreted and popularised by various writers including Grant Allen and H. G. Wells, and helped transform plant science in the late 19th century and early 20th century.


title: Charles Darwin

text: In 1882 he was diagnosed with what was called "angina pectoris" which then meant coronary thrombosis and disease of the heart. At the time of his death, the physicians diagnosed "anginal attacks", and "heart-failure"; there has since been scholarly speculation about his life-long health issues.


title: Charles Darwin

text: He died at Down House on 19 April 1882. His last words were to his family, telling Emma "I am not the least afraid of death—Remember what a good wife you have been to me—Tell all my children to remember how good they have been to me". While she rested, he repeatedly told Henrietta and Francis "It's almost worth while to be sick to be nursed by you".


title: Charles Darwin

text: He had expected to be buried in St Mary's churchyard at Downe, but at the request of Darwin's colleagues, after public and parliamentary petitioning, William Spottiswoode (President of the Royal Society) arranged for Darwin to be honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton. The funeral, held on Wednesday 26 April, was attended by thousands of people, including family, friends, scientists, philosophers and dignitaries.


title: Charles Darwin

text: As Alfred Russel Wallace put it, Darwin had "wrought a greater revolution in human thought within a quarter of a century than any man of our time – or perhaps any time", having "given us a new conception of the world of life, and a theory which is itself a powerful instrument of research; has shown us how to combine into one consistent whole the facts accumulated by all the separate classes of workers, and has thereby revolutionised the whole study of nature".


title: Charles Darwin

text: Most scientists were now convinced of evolution as descent with modification, though few agreed with Darwin that natural selection "has been the main but not the exclusive means of modification".


title: Charles Darwin

text: During "the eclipse of Darwinism" scientists explored alternative mechanisms. Then Ronald Fisher incorporated Mendelian genetics in "The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection", leading to population genetics and the modern evolutionary synthesis, which continues to develop. Scientific discoveries have confirmed and validated Darwin's key insights.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Geographical features given his name include Darwin Sound and Mount Darwin, both named while he was on the "Beagle" voyage, and Darwin Harbour, named by his former shipmates on its next voyage, which eventually became the location of Darwin, the capital city of Australia's Northern Territory.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Darwin's name was given, formally or informally, to numerous plants and animals, including many he had collected on the voyage. Some names were given later, for example, tanagers found in the Galápagos Islands became popularly known as "Darwin's finches" in 1947.


title: Charles Darwin

text: In 1883 Sir Joseph Boehm sculpted a white marble life-size seated statue of Darwin. It was installed at the top of the main staircase in the Central Hall of the Natural History Museum in London, and unveiled on 9 June 1885 by Thomas Huxley in the presence of Edward, Prince of Wales, Bartholomew Sulivan, and Joseph Parslow at the ceremony. In 1927 its place was taken by an elephant, and in 1970 it was moved to the North Hall of the museum, then in May 2008 the statue was moved back to its original place, displacing a statue of the Museum's founder Richard Owen.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Darwin's children, now eminent, preserved his memory. In 1887 Francis Darwin published "Life and Letters" with his own reminiscences of his father, an autobiography Darwin had written for his family (edited to spare the sensitivities of Darwin's widow Emma), and correspondence. More volumes of correspondence followed.


title: Charles Darwin

text: The Shrewsbury School building, which Darwin attended as a boy, became the Free Library. A seated statue of Darwin was installed outside it, and unveiled in 1897.


title: Charles Darwin

text: The Linnean Society of London began awards of the Darwin–Wallace Medal in 1908, to mark fifty years from the joint reading on 1 July 1858 of papers by Darwin and Wallace publishing their theory. Further awards were made in 1958 and 2008, since 2010 the medal awards have been annual.


title: Charles Darwin

text: In June 1909, more than 400 officials and scientists from across the world met in Cambridge to commemorate Darwin's centenary and the fiftieth anniversary of "On the Origin of Species", with exhibitions and events.


title: Charles Darwin

text: The Darwin Centennial Celebration in 1959, on the centenary of "On the Origin of Species" and 150 years from Darwin's birth, had major commemorations at the University of Chicago. It featured the evolutionary synthesis, and claims to Darwin's legacy by biologists with differing views. It was marked by Gavin de Beer beginning publication of Darwin's manuscripts including his private notebooks, and a new generation of science historians began investigating the Darwin papers archived at Cambridge, starting the "Darwin Industry".


title: Charles Darwin

text: Darwin College, a postgraduate college at Cambridge University founded in 1964, is named after the Darwin family. From 2000 to 2017, UK £10 banknotes issued by the Bank of England featured Darwin's portrait printed on the reverse, along with a hummingbird and HMS "Beagle".


title: Charles Darwin

text: In 2009 worldwide events, programmes and publications celebrated the bicentenary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species". Marking his bicentenary, a statue of Darwin as a young man was placed in a courtyard of his alma mater, Christ's College, Cambridge. Darwin Day became an annual celebration. Darwin was further commemorated on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail in 2009 with six "jigsaw" shaped stamps symbolising how his studies of different disciplines formed his new ideas on evolution.


title: Charles Darwin

text: "" was a Dutch-Flemish television series from 2009 and 2010 initiated by the VPRO in collaboration with Teleac and Canvas to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species". The series features an 8-month voyage around the world (commenced on 1 September 2009) on board the clipper "Stad Amsterdam", which follows the route of the five-year-long voyage of Darwin between 1831 and 1836. Biologist Sarah Darwin (the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin) is one of the recurring shipmates who appear in the series.


title: Charles Darwin

text: The Darwins had ten children: two died in infancy, and Annie's death at the age of ten had a devastating effect on her parents. Charles was a devoted father and uncommonly attentive to his children. Whenever they fell ill, he feared that they might have inherited weaknesses from inbreeding due to the close family ties he shared with his wife and cousin, Emma Wedgwood. He examined inbreeding in his writings, contrasting it with the advantages of outcrossing in many species.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Charles Waring Darwin, born in December 1856, was the tenth and last of the children. Emma Darwin was aged 48 at the time of the birth, and the child was mentally subnormal and never learnt to walk or talk. He probably had Down syndrome, which had not then been medically described. The evidence is a photograph by William Erasmus Darwin of the infant and his mother, showing a characteristic head shape, and the family's observations of the child. Charles Waring died of scarlet fever on 28 June 1858, when Darwin wrote in his journal "Poor dear Baby died."


title: Charles Darwin

text: Of his surviving children, George, Francis and Horace became Fellows of the Royal Society, distinguished as astronomer, botanist and civil engineer, respectively. All three were knighted. Another son, Leonard, went on to be a soldier, politician, economist, eugenicist and mentor of the statistician and evolutionary biologist Ronald Fisher.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Darwin's family tradition was nonconformist Unitarianism, while his father and grandfather were freethinkers, and his baptism and boarding school were Church of England. When going to Cambridge to become an Anglican clergyman, he did not "in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible". He learned John Herschel's science which, like William Paley's natural theology, sought explanations in laws of nature rather than miracles and saw adaptation of species as evidence of design. On board HMS "Beagle", Darwin was quite orthodox and would quote the Bible as an authority on morality. He looked for "centres of creation" to explain distribution, and suggested that the very similar antlions found in Australia and England were evidence of a divine hand.


title: Charles Darwin

text: By his return, he was critical of the Bible as history, and wondered why all religions should not be equally valid. In the next few years, while intensively speculating on geology and the transmutation of species, he gave much thought to religion and openly discussed this with his wife Emma, whose beliefs similarly came from intensive study and questioning.


title: Charles Darwin

text: The theodicy of Paley and Thomas Malthus vindicated evils such as starvation as a result of a benevolent creator's laws, which had an overall good effect. To Darwin, natural selection produced the good of adaptation but removed the need for design, and he could not see the work of an omnipotent deity in all the pain and suffering, such as the ichneumon wasp paralysing caterpillars as live food for its eggs. Though he thought of religion as a tribal survival strategy, Darwin was reluctant to give up the idea of God as an ultimate lawgiver. He was increasingly troubled by the problem of evil.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Darwin remained close friends with the vicar of Downe, John Brodie Innes, and continued to play a leading part in the parish work of the church, but from around 1849 would go for a walk on Sundays while his family attended church. He considered it "absurd to doubt that a man might be an ardent theist and an evolutionist" and, though reticent about his religious views, in 1879 he wrote that "I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. – I think that generally ... an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind".


title: Charles Darwin

text: The "Lady Hope Story", published in 1915, claimed that Darwin had reverted to Christianity on his sickbed. The claims were repudiated by Darwin's children and have been dismissed as false by historians.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Darwin's views on social and political issues reflected his time and social position. He grew up in a family of Whig reformers who, like his uncle Josiah Wedgwood, supported electoral reform and the emancipation of slaves. Darwin was passionately opposed to slavery, while seeing no problem with the working conditions of English factory workers or servants.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Taking taxidermy lessons in 1826 from the freed slave John Edmonstone, whom Darwin long recalled as "a very pleasant and intelligent man", reinforced his belief that black people shared the same feelings, and could be as intelligent as people of other races. He took the same attitude to native people he met on the "Beagle" voyage. Though commonplace in Britain at the time, Silliman and Bachman noticed the contrast with slave-owning America. Around twenty years later, racism became a feature of British society, but Darwin remained strongly against slavery, against "ranking the so-called races of man as distinct species", and against ill-treatment of native people.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Darwin's interaction with Yaghans (Fuegians) such as Jemmy Button during the second voyage of HMS "Beagle" had a profound impact on his view of indigenous peoples. At his arrival in Tierra del Fuego he made a colourful description of "Fuegian savages". This view changed as he came to know Yaghan people more in detail. By studying the Yaghans, Darwin concluded that a number of basic emotions by different human groups were the same and that mental capabilities were roughly the same as for Europeans. While interested in Yaghan culture Darwin failed to appreciate their deep ecological knowledge and elaborate cosmology until the 1850s when he inspected a dictionary of Yaghan detailing 32,000 words. He saw that European colonisation would often lead to the extinction of native civilisations, and "tr[ied] to integrate colonialism into an evolutionary history of civilization analogous to natural history".


title: Charles Darwin

text: He thought men's eminence over women was the outcome of sexual selection, a view disputed by Antoinette Brown Blackwell in her 1875 book "The Sexes Throughout Nature".


title: Charles Darwin

text: Darwin was intrigued by his half-cousin Francis Galton's argument, introduced in 1865, that statistical analysis of heredity showed that moral and mental human traits could be inherited, and principles of animal breeding could apply to humans. In "The Descent of Man", Darwin noted that aiding the weak to survive and have families could lose the benefits of natural selection, but cautioned that withholding such aid would endanger the instinct of sympathy, "the noblest part of our nature", and factors such as education could be more important. When Galton suggested that publishing research could encourage intermarriage within a "caste" of "those who are naturally gifted", Darwin foresaw practical difficulties, and thought it "the sole feasible, yet I fear utopian, plan of procedure in improving the human race", preferring to simply publicise the importance of inheritance and leave decisions to individuals. Francis Galton named this field of study "eugenics" in 1883, after Darwin's death, and his theories were cited to promote eugenic policies.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Darwin's fame and popularity led to his name being associated with ideas and movements that, at times, had only an indirect relation to his writings, and sometimes went directly against his express comments.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Thomas Malthus had argued that population growth beyond resources was ordained by God to get humans to work productively and show restraint in getting families; this was used in the 1830s to justify workhouses and laissez-faire economics. Evolution was by then seen as having social implications, and Herbert Spencer's 1851 book "Social Statics" based ideas of human freedom and individual liberties on his Lamarckian evolutionary theory.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Soon after the "Origin" was published in 1859, critics derided his description of a struggle for existence as a Malthusian justification for the English industrial capitalism of the time. The term "Darwinism" was used for the evolutionary ideas of others, including Spencer's "survival of the fittest" as free-market progress, and Ernst Haeckel's polygenistic ideas of human development. Writers used natural selection to argue for various, often contradictory, ideologies such as laissez-faire dog-eat-dog capitalism, colonialism and imperialism. However, Darwin's holistic view of nature included "dependence of one being on another"; thus pacifists, socialists, liberal social reformers and anarchists such as Peter Kropotkin stressed the value of co-operation over struggle within a species. Darwin himself insisted that social policy should not simply be guided by concepts of struggle and selection in nature.


title: Charles Darwin

text: After the 1880s, a eugenics movement developed on ideas of biological inheritance, and for scientific justification of their ideas appealed to some concepts of Darwinism. In Britain, most shared Darwin's cautious views on voluntary improvement and sought to encourage those with good traits in "positive eugenics". During the "Eclipse of Darwinism", a scientific foundation for eugenics was provided by Mendelian genetics. Negative eugenics to remove the "feebleminded" were popular in America, Canada and Australia, and eugenics in the United States introduced compulsory sterilisation laws, followed by several other countries. Subsequently, Nazi eugenics brought the field into disrepute.


title: Charles Darwin

text: The term "Social Darwinism" was used infrequently from around the 1890s, but became popular as a derogatory term in the 1940s when used by Richard Hofstadter to attack the laissez-faire conservatism of those like William Graham Sumner who opposed reform and socialism. Since then, it has been used as a term of abuse by those opposed to what they think are the moral consequences of evolution.


title: Charles Darwin

text: Darwin was a prolific writer. Even without publication of his works on evolution, he would have had a considerable reputation as the author of "The Voyage of the Beagle", as a geologist who had published extensively on South America and had solved the puzzle of the formation of coral atolls, and as a biologist who had published the definitive work on barnacles. While "On the Origin of Species" dominates perceptions of his work, "The Descent of Man" and "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals" had considerable impact, and his books on plants including "The Power of Movement in Plants" were innovative studies of great importance, as was his final work on "The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms".


title: Charles Darwin

text: . Darwin was eminent as a naturalist, geologist, biologist, and author. After a summer as a physician's assistant (helping his father) and two years as a medical student, he went to Cambridge for the ordinary degree to qualify as a clergyman; he was also trained in taxidermy.


title: Charles Darwin

text: . Robert FitzRoy was to become known after the voyage for biblical literalism, but at this time he had considerable interest in Lyell's ideas, and they met before the voyage when Lyell asked for observations to be made in South America. FitzRoy's diary during the ascent of the River Santa Cruz in Patagonia recorded his opinion that the plains were raised beaches, but on return, newly married to a very religious lady, he recanted these ideas.


title: Charles Darwin

text: . In the section "Morphology" of Chapter XIII of "On the Origin of Species", Darwin commented on homologous bone patterns between humans and other mammals, writing: "What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same relative positions?" and in the concluding chapter: "The framework of bones being the same in the hand of a man, wing of a bat, fin of the porpoise, and leg of the horse … at once explain themselves on the theory of descent with slow and slight successive modifications."


title: Charles Darwin

text: In "On the Origin of Species" Darwin mentioned human origins in his concluding remark that "In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history."


title: Charles Darwin

text: In "Chapter VI: Difficulties on Theory" he referred to sexual selection: "I might have adduced for this same purpose the differences between the races of man, which are so strongly marked; I may add that some little light can apparently be thrown on the origin of these differences, chiefly through sexual selection of a particular kind, but without here entering on copious details my reasoning would appear frivolous."


title: Charles Darwin

text: "During many years I collected notes on the origin or descent of man, without any intention of publishing on the subject, but rather with the determination not to publish, as I thought that I should thus only add to the prejudices against my views. It seemed to me sufficient to indicate, in the first edition of my 'Origin of Species,' that by this work 'light would be thrown on the origin of man and his history;' and this implies that man must be included with other organic beings in any general conclusion respecting his manner of appearance on this earth." In a preface to the 1874 second edition, he added a reference to the second point: "it has been said by several critics, that when I found that many details of structure in man could not be explained through natural selection, I invented sexual selection; I gave, however, a tolerably clear sketch of this principle in the first edition of the 'Origin of Species,' and I there stated that it was applicable to man."


title: Charles Darwin

text: . See, for example, WILLA volume 4, "Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Feminization of Education" by Deborah M. De Simone: "Gilman shared many basic educational ideas with the generation of thinkers who matured during the period of "intellectual chaos" caused by Darwin's Origin of the Species. Marked by the belief that individuals can direct human and social evolution, many progressives came to view education as the panacea for advancing social progress and for solving such problems as urbanisation, poverty, or immigration."


title: Charles Darwin

text: . See, for example, the song "A lady fair of lineage high" from Gilbert and Sullivan's "Princess Ida", which describes the descent of man (but not woman!) from apes.


title: Charles Darwin

text: . Darwin's belief that black people had the same essential humanity as Europeans, and had many mental similarities, was reinforced by the lessons he had from John Edmonstone in 1826. Early in the "Beagle" voyage, Darwin nearly lost his position on the ship when he criticised FitzRoy's defence and praise of slavery. He wrote home about "how steadily the general feeling, as shown at elections, has been rising against Slavery. What a proud thing for England if she is the first European nation which utterly abolishes it! I was told before leaving England that after living in slave countries all my opinions would be altered; the only alteration I am aware of is forming a much higher estimate of the negro character." Regarding Fuegians, he "could not have believed how wide was the difference between savage and civilized man: it is greater than between a wild and domesticated animal, inasmuch as in man there is a greater power of improvement", but he knew and liked civilised Fuegians like Jemmy Button: "It seems yet wonderful to me, when I think over all his many good qualities, that he should have been of the same race, and doubtless partaken of the same character, with the miserable, degraded savages whom we first met here."


title: Charles Darwin

text: In the "Descent of Man", he mentioned the similarity of Fuegians' and Edmonstone's minds to Europeans' when arguing against "ranking the so-called races of man as distinct species".


title: Charles Darwin

text: He rejected the ill-treatment of native people, and for example wrote of massacres of Patagonian men, women, and children, "Every one here is fully convinced that this is the most just war, because it is against barbarians. Who would believe in this age that such atrocities could be committed in a Christian civilized country?"


title: Charles Darwin

text: . Geneticists studied human heredity as Mendelian inheritance, while eugenics movements sought to manage society, with a focus on social class in the United Kingdom, and on disability and ethnicity in the United States, leading to geneticists seeing this movement as impractical pseudoscience. A shift from voluntary arrangements to "negative" eugenics included compulsory sterilisation laws in the United States, copied by Nazi Germany as the basis for Nazi eugenics based on virulent racism and "racial hygiene".( )


title: Charles Darwin

text: . David Quammen writes of his "theory that [Darwin] turned to these arcane botanical studies – producing more than one book that was solidly empirical, discreetly evolutionary, yet a 'horrid bore' – at least partly so that the clamorous controversialists, fighting about apes and angels and souls, would leave him... alone". David Quammen, "The Brilliant Plodder" (review of Ken Thompson, "Darwin's Most Wonderful Plants: A Tour of His Botanical Legacy", University of Chicago Press, 255 pp.; Elizabeth Hennessy, "On the Backs of Tortoises: Darwin, the Galápagos, and the Fate of an Evolutionary Eden", Yale University Press, 310 pp.; Bill Jenkins, "Evolution Before Darwin: Theories of the Transmutation of Species in Edinburgh, 1804–1834", Edinburgh University Press, 222 pp.), "The New York Review of Books", vol. LXVII, no. 7 (23 April 2020), pp. 22–24. Quammen, quoted from p. 24 of his review.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: The Dark Knight Rises is a 2012 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan, and the story with David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is the final installment in Nolan's "The Dark Knight" trilogy, and the sequel to "The Dark Knight" (2008). The film stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, alongside Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon Levitt, and Morgan Freeman. Eight years after the events of "The Dark Knight", the revolutionary Bane forces Bruce Wayne to resume his role as Batman and save Gotham City from nuclear destruction.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Christopher Nolan was hesitant about returning to the series for a third film, but agreed after developing a story with his brother and Goyer that he felt would conclude the series on a satisfactory note. Nolan drew inspiration from Bane's comic book debut in the 1993 "" storyline, the 1986 series "The Dark Knight Returns", and the 1999 storyline "". Filming took place from May to November 2011 in locations including Jodhpur, London, Nottingham, Glasgow, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, and Pittsburgh. Nolan used IMAX 70 mm film cameras for much of the filming, including the first six minutes of the film, to optimize the quality of the picture. A vehicle variation of the Batplane and Batcopter termed the "Bat", an underground prison set, and a new Batcave set were created specifically for the film. As with "The Dark Knight", viral marketing campaigns began early during production. When filming concluded, Warner Bros. refocused its campaign, developing promotional websites, releasing the first six minutes of the film, screening theatrical trailers, and sending out information regarding the film's plot.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: "The Dark Knight Rises" premiered in New York City on July 16, 2012. The film was released in the United States and the United Kingdom on July 20, 2012. The film received positive reviews, with praise being directed toward the performances (particularly Hardy's), action sequences, direction, screenplay, musical score, and emotional depth, with many critics deeming it a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. The film grossed over $1 billion worldwide, making it the second film in the "Batman" film series to earn $1 billion, and the highest-grossing Batman film to date. In addition to being Nolan's highest-grossing film, it became the seventh-highest-grossing film of all time at the time of its release (ranked 32nd as of December 2022), as well as the third-highest-grossing film of 2012. It was named one of the top 10 films of 2012 by the American Film Institute. It is considered one of the greatest superhero films of all time, one of the best films of the 2010s, and one of the best sequels of all time.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Above Uzbekistan, a masked former member of the League of Shadows, Bane, leads an attack on a CIA plane to abduct Russian nuclear physicist, Dr. Leonid Pavel, while planting a corpse as the scientist's decoy before crashing the aircraft.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Meanwhile, it has been eight years after the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent, and organized crime has been eradicated in Gotham City thanks to legislation giving expanded powers to the police. Police commissioner James Gordon has kept Dent's killing spree as "Two-Face" a secret and allowed the blame for his crimes to fall on Batman. Gordon has prepared a speech revealing the truth but hesitates to read it at a public celebration. Bruce Wayne, still mourning the death of Rachel Dawes, has become a recluse and Wayne Enterprises is behindhand. Bane enlists Bruce's corporate rival John Daggett to buy Bruce's fingerprints. Daggett hires cat burglar Selina Kyle to steal Bruce's prints from Wayne Manor, but she is double-crossed by him and alerts the police.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: The police arrive and pursue Bane and Daggett's henchmen into the sewers while Kyle flees. The henchmen capture Gordon and take him to Bane, but he escapes and is found by officer John Blake. Blake, an orphan who has figured out Bruce's secret identity, persuades him to return as Batman. Bane attacks the Gotham Stock Exchange and uses Bruce's fingerprints in a series of fraudulent transactions that leaves Bruce bankrupt. Batman resurfaces while intercepting Bane and his subordinates. Bruce's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, fears that Bruce will get himself killed fighting Bane, and resigns in the hope of saving him, but only after admitting that he burned a letter that Rachel left for him saying she was going to marry Dent. Bane expands his operations and kills Daggett while Bruce and Wayne Enterprises' new CEO Miranda Tate become lovers.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Kyle agrees to take Batman to Bane, but instead leads him into Bane's trap. Bane gloats that he intends to fulfill Ra's al Ghul's mission to destroy Gotham City before defeating Batman, then breaks his back before taking him abroad to an underground prison where escape is virtually impossible. The inmates tell Bruce the story of Ra's al Ghul's child, who was born and raised in the prison before escaping — the only prisoner to have done so. Bane traps the police forces in the sewers and destroys all but one bridge surrounding the city. He kills Mayor Anthony Garcia and forces Pavel to convert a fusion reactor core into a decaying neutron bomb before killing him. Outside Blackgate Penitentiary, Bane reads Gordon's speech to a crowd, revealing the truth about Dent. He releases the prisoners of Blackgate, instates martial law in the city, and exiles and kills Gotham's elite in kangaroo courts presided over by Jonathan Crane.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Five months later, Bruce escapes (after two prisoners adjusted his herniated disc back into place) and returns to Gotham. As Batman, he frees the police and they clash with Bane's army in the streets; during the battle, Batman overpowers Bane. Tate intervenes and stabs Batman, revealing herself as Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul's daughter. She attempts to activate the bomb's detonator, but the bomb fails to activate due to Gordon blocking the signal. Talia leaves to find the bomb while Bane prepares to kill Batman, but Kyle arrives and kills Bane. Batman and Kyle pursue Talia, hoping to bring the bomb back to the reactor chamber where it can be stabilized. Talia's truck crashes, but she remotely floods and destroys the reactor chamber before dying. With no way to stop the detonation, Batman uses his aerial craft, the Bat, to haul the bomb far over the bay, where it safely explodes. Before takeoff, Batman subtly reveals his identity to Gordon.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: In the aftermath, Batman is presumed dead and honored as a hero. Wayne Manor becomes an orphanage and Bruce's estate is left to Alfred. Gordon finds the Bat Signal repaired, while Lucius Fox discovers that Bruce had fixed the malfunctioning auto-pilot on the Bat. While traveling abroad, Alfred glimpses Bruce alive and in a relationship with Selina Kyle - they quietly acknowledge one other but move on without speaking. Blake, whose legal first name is revealed as Robin, resigns from the GCPD and receives a parcel from Bruce leading him to the Batcave.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Other cast members include Rob Brown and Desmond Harrington as police officers; Christopher Judge as one of Bane's henchmen; and Noel Gugliemi as an ex-prisoner who is in charge of exiling corrupt elites during Bane's revolution. Thomas Lennon, who had appeared as a doctor in Nolan's 2000 film "Memento", once again plays a doctor.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: United States Senator Patrick Leahy, who had made a cameo appearance in "The Dark Knight", returned in "The Dark Knight Rises," as a Wayne Enterprises board member.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Several members of the Pittsburgh Steelers have cameo appearances as members of the fictional Gotham Rogues football team in the film, including Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward, Troy Polamalu, Willie Colon, Maurkice Pouncey, Mike Wallace, Heath Miller, Aaron Smith, Ryan Clark, James Farrior, LaMarr Woodley, and Casey Hampton, and former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher as the head coach of the Rogues. Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl, a kicker in college, appears as the kicker for the Rogues' opponents, the Rapid City Monuments. In 2008, the Rooney family sold a minority stake in the team to Thomas Tull, the CEO and president of Legendary Pictures, which produced "The Dark Knight Rises".


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Aaron Eckhart expressed enthusiasm in returning for a sequel if asked, although he later stated Nolan verified that his character, Harvey Dent / Two-Face, was dead, and only archive footage of Eckhart from "The Dark Knight" appears in the film.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: In 2005, David S. Goyer confirmed that he wrote treatments for two films involving the Joker; the first would involve Batman, Harvey Dent, and Commissioner Gordon hunting the Joker, while the second would have the Joker scarring Dent and turning him into Two-Face during his trial. The third treatment ended in the same way as the final version of "The Dark Knight Rises". Other aspects of the third treatment were incorporated into "The Dark Knight". However, Heath Ledger's family stated that he was planning on reprising his role as the Joker before his death. After Ledger's death, Christopher Nolan decided not to recast the role out of respect for his performance, and initially was hesitant to make a third film.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Warner Bros. president of production Jeff Robinov had hoped a third film would be released in 2011 or 2012. Nolan wanted the story for the third installment to keep him emotionally invested. "On a more superficial level, I have to ask the question," he reasoned, "how many good third movies in a franchise can people name?" Nolan said that he never even thought a third film was possible in the foreword for his book "The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy". Nolan only agreed to a third film on the basis of finding a worthwhile story, fearing that he would become bored halfway through production if he discovered the film to be unnecessary. By December 2008, Nolan completed a rough story outline, before he committed himself to "Inception". Later in December, Alan F. Horn confirmed that while discussions with Nolan about a third film were ongoing, no casting had been done, and Horn denied all such rumors. Before Nolan confirmed his involvement, Gary Oldman had said he was confident Nolan would return.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Following the success of the Joker in "The Dark Knight", studio executives wished for the Riddler to be included as the primary villain as he was considered a similar character and encouraged the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio. However, Nolan wanted the antagonist to be vastly different from the previous incarnations and committed to using Bane instead, citing the need for a character with a physical presence within the film. He was initially unfamiliar with the character's back-story, but pointed out the appeal of an archetype, labeling it as "the extreme of some type of villainy". When comparing the choice of Bane with the Joker, Nolan highlighted the Joker as an example of "diabolical, chaotic anarchy and has a devilish sense of humor", juxtaposing him against Bane, whom he likened to "a classic movie monster [...] with a terrific brain." Nolan has said that his draft of the script was inspired by Charles Dickens' 1859 novel "A Tale of Two Cities", which centers around the French Revolution. This homage to Dickens was briefly illustrated by having Bane inconspicuously finger knit paracord in the film, symbolizing Madame Defarge, the villain of "A Tale of Two Cities", and more overtly by Commissioner Gordon's eulogy for Bruce Wayne, which is taken directly from Dickens' novel.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: On February 9, 2010, it was announced that Nolan had "cracked" the story and was committed to returning to the project. Shortly afterward, it was announced David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan were working on a screenplay. Goyer would leave the project during pre-production to begin work on "Man of Steel"; Jonathan continued writing the script based on the story by his brother Chris and Goyer. Nolan said that his brother's original draft was about 400 pages. The film's storyline has been compared with the "Batman" comic book series' story arc "" (1993), which showcases Bane; the miniseries "The Dark Knight Returns" (1986), in which Batman returns to Gotham City after a ten-year absence; and the story arc "" (1999), which depicts a Gotham cut off from the rest of the world and overrun by gangs. The nickname "the Dark Knight" was first applied to Batman in "Batman" #1 (1940), in a story written by Bill Finger.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Nolan confirmed the Joker would not return in the third film, and dismissed rumors that he considered using unused footage of Heath Ledger from "The Dark Knight". Reportedly, before his death, Ledger had plans to reprise the role of the Joker in the third film after enjoying his time filming "The Dark Knight", a notion supported by Ledger's costar Aaron Eckhart, who portrayed Two-Face in the film. "The Dark Knight Rises" reunited Nolan with many of his past collaborators, including cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designer Nathan Crowley, editor Lee Smith, costume designer Lindy Hemming, special effects supervisors Paul Franklin and Chris Corbould, and composer Hans Zimmer.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: During location scouting in December 2010, Nolan began searching for locations such as India, Romania, and Michigan. According to the "Romania Insider", Nolan was interested in Bucharest's historical centers, Edgar Quinet Street, the Palace of the Parliament, and the Turda salt mine. The film had an estimated budget of $250–300 million, coming down to about $230 million after tax credits. Nolan elected not to film in 3-D, but instead stated that he intended to focus on improving image quality and scale using the IMAX format. "The Dark Knight Rises" featured over an hour of footage shot in IMAX (by comparison, "The Dark Knight" contained 28 minutes). Nolan had several meetings with IMAX Vice-president David Keighley to work on the logistics of projecting films in digital IMAX venues.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Wally Pfister had expressed interest in shooting the film entirely in IMAX, but because of the considerable noise made by IMAX cameras, 35mm and 70mm cameras had to be used for shooting the film's dialogue scenes, as dialogue had to be dubbed when shot with IMAX cameras. Chairman and president of the IMAX Corporation Greg Foster stated that IMAX planned to run the film in its theatres for two months, despite only being contractually committed to run the film for two weeks. Nolan also bypassed the use of a digital intermediate for the film, resulting in less manipulation of the filmed image and higher film resolution.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Filming was scheduled to start in May and conclude in November 2011. Principal photography commenced on May 6, 2011, in Jodhpur, India, at the Mehrangarh Fort before moving to Pittsburgh, where it operated under the working title "Magnus Rex" to reduce the visibility of the production. Shooting locations within the city included Heinz Field, the site of an American football game, with members of the Pittsburgh Steelers playing the Gotham Rogues football team. More than 11,000 extras were used to depict the shot sequence. Filming in Pittsburgh also took place at the Mellon Institute and Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. A letter sent out to residents and business owners detailing road closures revealed that the streets of the city would be featured "as the start of [the] film". 9-1-1 operators were told to expect an increase in calls related to gunshots and explosions in the film's production.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: The Pittsburgh leg of production wrapped after three weeks on August 21, 2011. The next portion of the filming began in Los Angeles in late August and finished up on October 23 after nine weeks of filming. New York and New Jersey were the next places of filming. The Trump Tower replaced the Richard J. Daley Center as the location for the headquarters of Wayne Enterprises. In November 2011, shooting shifted to Newark, New Jersey. Newark City Hall and Military Park were among the locations used for filming. Other shooting locations include London and Glasgow, the latter of which was used for "additional exterior filming". Principal photography concluded on November 14, 2011. The external waterfall scene at the end of the film was shot at Sgwd Henrhyd falls, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Production photos from filming in Pittsburgh showed a second Tumbler chassis after the first was destroyed, indicating that a new Batmobile would be in the film, following the destruction of the first in "The Dark Knight". Further set photos revealed a "new vehicle" being transported to Wabash Tunnel, prompting speculation as to its nature. In June 2011, Autoblog confirmed the presence of the new Lamborghini Aventador on the film set.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Several accidents occurred during the production of the film. While filming at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham, a tractor-trailer crashed into the main entrance, though no one was injured. A stuntman parachutist later crashed through the roof of a home in Cairngorm Gliding Club, Feshiebridge in Scotland, and became wedged there after a failed landing during a skydiving stunt; he was not seriously injured. While filming scenes in Pittsburgh, Hathaway's stunt double crashed into an IMAX camera while filming a sequence that required her to ride a Batpod down a flight of stairs during a riot. There were no injuries, but the camera was destroyed. A second accident took place in Pittsburgh when the truck carrying the then-unidentified vehicle later termed "the Bat" went off-course and crashed into a lighting array, damaging the model of the aircraft. Production was delayed while the model was repaired.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Shortly before Christmas of 2011, Christopher Nolan invited several prominent directors, including Edgar Wright, Michael Bay, Bryan Singer, Jon Favreau, Eli Roth, Duncan Jones and Stephen Daldry, to Universal CityWalk's IMAX theatre for a private screening of the first six minutes of "The Dark Knight Rises", which had been shot on IMAX film and edited from the original camera negative. Nolan, feeling that the use of film stock in cinema was being phased out due to the introduction of digital cinematography and projection, used this screening to make a case for the continued use of film, which he asserts still offers superior image quality to any digital format, and warned the filmmakers that unless they continued to assert their choice to use film in their productions, they may eventually lose it as an option. Nolan explained; "I wanted to give them a chance to see the potential, because I think IMAX is the best film format that was ever invented. It's the gold standard and what any other technology has to match up to, but none have, in my opinion. The message I wanted to put out there was that no one is taking anyone's digital cameras away. But if we want film to continue as an option, and someone is working on a big studio movie with the resources and the power to insist [on] film, they should say so. I felt as if I didn't say anything, and then we started to lose that option, it would be a shame. When I look at a digitally acquired and projected image, it looks inferior against an original negative anamorphic print or an IMAX one."


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Costume designer Lindy Hemming explained that Bane uses a mask to inhale an analgesic gas, which, in director Christopher Nolan's words, "keeps his pain just below the threshold so he can function." In designing Bane's costume, Hemming needed it to look "like an amalgam of all sorts of bits and pieces he cobbled together, as he passed through some very remote places. We made parts of his vest, for example, from fragments of an old military tent. His clothes are militaristic, but are not in any way a uniform." Hemming also designed Bane's mask to look "animalistic". Costume effects supervisor Graham Churchyard created a three-dimensional model of actor Tom Hardy's face and skull to design the mask, allowing the mask to perfectly conform to the contours of Hardy's face. Hemming personally designed Bane's coat, which she admitted took two years to complete. Taking inspiration from a Swedish army jacket and a frock coat from the French Revolution, it was designed to make Bane look equal parts dictatorial and revolutionary. The design was difficult as Hemming struggled to find a tailor in Los Angeles who could work with shearling.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: The Batsuit consisted of 110 separate pieces, each of which had to be replicated dozens of times over the course of the production. The base layer was made of a polyester mesh that is utilized by the military and high-tech sports manufacturers because of its breathability and moisture-wicking properties. Molded pieces of flexible urethane were then attached to the mesh, to form the overall body armor plating. Carbon fiber panels were placed inside the sections on the legs, chest and abdomen. The cowl was sculpted from a cast of Bale's face and head to become a perfect fit for Christian Bale. The suit remained unchanged for the film since "The Dark Knight".


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: In creating Selina Kyle's catsuit, two layers of material were used, the outer layer being polyurethane-coated spandex embossed with a hexagonal pattern. The catsuit also consisted of elbow-length gloves, a utility belt, and thigh-high boots with spike heels.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Concept artist Tully Summers commented on Nolan's style of cinematography when asked about the difference between his designs for this film and fantasy-based designs for "Men in Black 3": "The difference for me was Christopher Nolan's visual style. One of the things that makes his Batman movies so compelling is their tone of plausibility. He will often prefer a raw, grittier design over one that is very sleek and product design pretty. It's sort of a practical military aesthetic. This stuff is made to work, not impress shoppers. "The Dark Knight Rises" is a war film." Producer Emma Thomas stated this Batman film has a different visual aesthetic from the first two Nolan-directed features, explaining that "it's meant to be winter in Gotham, so that right there is going to lend a whole different look to the film."


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: The film introduces a vehicle that has been compared with the Batplane and the Batcopter, dubbed "the Bat". In designing the Bat, Nathan Crowley approached it as if it were an actual military project, emphasising the need for it to "fit into the same family" as the Tumbler and the Batpod. The final version of the Bat takes its design cues from the Harrier jump jet, Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey and the Boeing AH-64 Apache. Chris Corbould described the Bat's size and shape as presenting a major challenge for filming given Christopher Nolan's emphasis on practical effects over computer-generated imagery. In order to make the Bat "fly", it was variously supported by wires, suspended from cranes and helicopters, and mounted on a purpose-built vehicle with hydraulic controls to simulate movement.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: When designing the Batcave set, Crowley and fellow production designer Kevin Kavanaugh hit upon the idea of flooding the Batcave and having Batman's equipment, the Batsuit and a supercomputer rise from the water. Another set was designed at Cardington as an "underground prison", a rough-hewn labyrinth of stone cells in a vast abyss with a vertical shaft leading to the surface. Exteriors above the prison were filmed in Jodhpur, India, chosen because the "forbidding landscape added to the desolation".


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: In an interview in October 2010, composer Hans Zimmer confirmed that he would be returning to score "The Dark Knight Rises." James Newton Howard was offered to return and write the score with Zimmer as he did for "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight", but he chose not to because he noted that the chemistry established between Zimmer and Nolan during the making of "Inception" would make him seem like a "third wheel". Zimmer included several cues from the earlier scores but explained that he wanted to go in a "completely different direction" for Bane's theme.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: The film features a prevalent chant of the phrase ""Deshi Basara"". In November 2011, Zimmer crowdsourced online audio recordings of the chant to be used in the film's score. When asked about the chant for clarification, Zimmer said, "The chant became a very complicated thing because I wanted hundreds of thousands of voices, and it's not so easy to get hundreds of thousands of voices. So, we tweeted and we posted on the internet, for people who wanted to be part of it. It seemed like an interesting thing. We've created this world, over these last two movies, and somehow I think the audience and the fans have been part of this world. We do keep them in mind."


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Just like "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight", the film's main theme consists in just two notes repeated, representing Batman's pain and guilt. Many times is also reprised in small parts "Molossus", Batman's main action theme in the trilogy.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: The official website launched in May 2011, introducing a viral marketing campaign similar to the one used to promote "The Dark Knight". The website streamed an encrypted audio file described by users as chanting. Users decrypted the audio to the Twitter hashtag, "#TheFireRises". Warner Bros. removed a pixel from the webpage for every tweet using the hashtag. The website revealed the first official image of Bane.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: In July 2011, a teaser trailer leaked online before its official release with "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2". The studio released the teaser three days after the leak. The trailer received mixed responses; Stephen Spencer Davis of "Slate" wrote it successfully built hype, while Kofi Outlaw of "Screen Rant" showed disappointment, claiming it was more of an "announcement trailer" than an actual teaser trailer. Outlaw criticized the quality, writing that a scene depicting Commissioner Gordon in a hospital bed was overly dramatic, had "hammy" dialogue, and was difficult to understand due to Gordon's labored breathing. Outlaw wrote that the sweeping shot of Gotham City had poor CGI and was too reminiscent of the "Inception" trailer. The theatrical trailer leaked online, like the teaser trailer, before being released the following week attached to theatrical prints of "". Critics noted political undertones with dialogue foreshadowing the theme of income inequality and an "Occupy Gotham" campaign within the world of the story. Receiving more than 12.5 million views in the first 24 hours after its release, the trailer set the record for most combined downloads from iTunes, beating the previous record held by "The Avengers". However, the second trailer for "The Avengers" again set the record with 13.7 million downloads. Warner Bros. attached a second theatrical trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises" to theatrical prints of "The Avengers". An "unnamed" Warner Brothers executive clarified that "We see this placement as a good strategic decision. We always want our trailers to be seen with films that people want to see—and a lot of people will be going to The Avengers!" The executive also commented that the trailer will "provide the best potential exposure for TDKR." Warner Bros. released the trailer online on April 30, 2012, approximately four days before they attached it to theatrical prints of "The Avengers".


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Continuing a method used with "The Dark Knight" whereby the opening sequence of the film was attached to IMAX prints of "I Am Legend" seven months before release, a six-minute prologue of "The Dark Knight Rises" was attached to 70mm IMAX prints of "", again approximately seven months before release. Critical reaction to the prologue was positive. Addressing the issue in an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", Nolan said "I think when people see the film, things will come into focus. Bane is very complex and very interesting and when people see the finished film people will be very entertained by him."


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Viral marketing campaigns for the film continued as magazine companies "Empire" and "Wired" received "CIA documents" concerning a "Dr. Leonid Pavel", with its mugshot connected to actor Alon Abutbul. According to the first document, Pavel is a missing Russian nuclear physicist, while the second document appears to be an edited transcript of a conversation discussing the handover of Dr. Pavel to the CIA by Georgian separatists, but with most of the conversation redacted. These were later shown to be plot elements of the six-minute prologue. The official Twitter account later linked to another censored document, this time, referencing "Operation Early Bird". A website of the same name was discovered, revealing a countdown timer. When the countdown finished, the site presented a map showing all available theaters that would be screening the film's prologue earlier than its release.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Various websites received a package that included a cylinder map of "strike zones", and a "fire rises" T-shirt. In April 2012, the film's official website was updated with a "dossier" on a suspect named "John Doe" also known as "the Batman" for an arrest, with a list of several accusations. The premise of the campaign starts when the mayor of Gotham City "redoubles" the effort to capture Batman and anyone supporting his return in preparation for the upcoming "Harvey Dent Day". The site also includes an extensive list of real-world locations where "graffiti related to movement in support of the vigilante's return" is located. For each tweet of a specific location marked on the list, a frame of the second theatrical trailer for the film was released on a separate website.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: In January 2012, six months prior to the film's release, tickets for midnight IMAX showings in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles went on sale and sold out immediately. Purchased tickets surfaced for sale online for over $100, compared with their original price of $17.50.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: At the American International Toy Fair, Mattel unveiled figures for Batman, Bane, Catwoman, and Batman's flying vehicle, the Bat. The Mattel figures were also released in the "Movie Masters" line, featuring more highly detailed and articulated presentation, and Quiktek versions that feature interchangeable accessories. Lego released building sets and mini-figures based on the film and incorporating other DC Comic characters. Additionally, Funko released a series of plush toys, Mezco Toyz released vinyl figures, and Hornby released the Batman Tumbler car. Other partners include Jakks Pacific, who created novelty and large-scale figures and plush toys, and PPW Toys, who created a Batman themed Mr. Potato Head. Various clothing items including shoes, T-shirts, hats and wallets were also produced.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: A video game of the same name was released on the same day as the release of the film for the iOS and Android devices for promoting the movie. It was made by Gameloft. The game features an open world with primary focus on stealth and combat. The combat system of the game is inspired from and . It takes place in Gotham City, with a somewhat similar but still significantly different plot from that of the movie. IGN gave it a mediocre score of 5.5/10.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: The film novelization, written by author Greg Cox and published by Titan Books, was released alongside the film on July 24, 2012.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Warner Bros. partnered with Mountain Dew to do a cross-promotion that included a special paint scheme on the number 88 Chevrolet Impala owned by Hendrick Motorsports and driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. On June 17, 2012, the car won the 2012 Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway. On July 4, 2012, the studio signed a deal with Formula One team Lotus F1 to have the film's logos appear on the Lotus E20s driven by Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean at the 2012 British Grand Prix. Räikkönen and Grosjean went on to finish the race in fifth and sixth place respectively. Warner Bros. had previously followed a similar promotion at the 2008 British Grand Prix, when the now-defunct Toyota F1 carried a livery to promote "The Dark Knight".


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Two digital comic books entitled "Batman Origins" and "The Dark Knight: Prologue" were released exclusively for Nokia Lumia devices. A special movie application has also been released, featuring trailers, wallpapers, movie schedules and Batman trivias. Limited editions of the Lumia 710, Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 were also released featuring a laser-etched Batman logo.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: On July 6, 2012, Warner Bros. held a special IMAX screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" for more than one hundred reporters and critics. However, technical issues with the computer device synchronizing the sound and picture forced the studio to postpone the screening by a day. The film later premiered on July 16 at the AMC Lincoln Square Theater in New York City, followed by a European premiere on July 18 at Leicester Square in London, England. The film was released in Australia and New Zealand on July 19, and was later released in North America and the United Kingdom on July 20.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: On July 20, 2012, during a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" at the Century 16 cinema in Aurora, Colorado, a gunman wearing a gas mask opened fire inside the theater, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others. Police responding to the shooting apprehended a suspect later identified as 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes shortly after arriving on the scene. Initial reports stated that Holmes identified himself as "the Joker" at the time of his arrest though this has been debunked.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Warner Bros. cancelled the Paris, Mexico, and Japan premieres of "The Dark Knight Rises", and suspended the film's marketing campaign in Finland. Several broadcast networks also suspended television ads for the film in the United States. The trailer for "Gangster Squad", another Warner Bros. movie included in the screening of "The Dark Knight Rises", was removed as it contains a scene which shows gangsters shooting submachine guns at moviegoers through the screen, similar to the shooting in Aurora.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Director Christopher Nolan released a public statement calling the shooting "unbearably savage". Other stars of the film released statements expressing their condolences, with star Christian Bale paying a personal visit to the survivors and the memorial in Aurora.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: "The Dark Knight Rises" was released on November 28, 2012, in Hong Kong and New Zealand. On December 3, it was released in the United Kingdom, and on December 4, it was released in the United States. It is available on Blu-ray, DVD, and as a digital download. Coinciding with the release of this film, a box set of "The Dark Knight Trilogy" was released. "The Dark Knight Rises" was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on December 19, 2017.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Hours before the midnight release of the film, several box office analysts suggested as much as a $198 million domestic opening weekend. However, in the wake of the mass shooting during a midnight screening of the film, Warner Bros. decided to not report further box office figures for the movie until Monday, July 23, 2012. As a result, other distributors also delayed the release of their official estimates as well. The shooting is also speculated to have hurt the ticket sales as E! Online reported that a North Carolina audience member had stated that "this theater was kinda empty". Some reports released on July 21, 2012, said that rival studios estimated that the film grossed $75 million to $77 million on its opening day. Warner Bros. shortly after released a statement to ABC News stating that they delayed the release of their estimates for the opening day total of the film "out of respect for the victims and their families," and added "Warner Bros. Pictures will not be reporting box office numbers for "The Dark Knight Rises" throughout the weekend. Box office numbers will be released on Monday."


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: "The Dark Knight Rises" earned $448.1 million in North America, and $632.9 million in other countries, summing up to a worldwide total of $1.081 billion. Worldwide, it became the seventh-highest-grossing film of all time and the third-highest-grossing film of 2012. It had a worldwide opening weekend of $248.9 million. The film set a worldwide IMAX opening-weekend record with $23.8 million (overtaken by "") and also broke the record for the fastest movie to make over $50 million in IMAX theatres. IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond explained this by claiming, "Audiences are clearly seeking out and embracing the film the way it was meant to be seen – in IMAX." On the 2012 Labor Day weekend, it became the third film distributed by Warner Bros. and the thirteenth film in cinematic history to cross the $1 billion mark. The film also became the second movie (after "Avatar") to reach $100 million in worldwide IMAX grosses.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: "The Dark Knight Rises" opened on Friday, July 20, 2012. It earned an estimated $30.6 million in midnight showings, which was the second-highest midnight gross behind "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" ($43.5 million). It did, however, set an IMAX midnight-gross record with $2.3 million (overtaken by ""). The film made $75.8 million during its opening day, achieving, at the time, the third-highest single and opening day tally of all time. On July 23, 2012, it was announced that the film grossed $160.9 million for its debut weekend, which was the third-highest opening weekend ever, at the time, behind "Marvel's The Avengers" ($207.4 million) and "Deathly Hallows – Part 2" ($169.2 million). However, it did set an opening-weekend record for a 2D film (previously held by "The Dark Knight") and an IMAX opening-weekend record with $19.0 million (previously held by "Marvel's The Avengers"). The film also held the top spot at the box office for its second and third weekends. In North America, it is the thirteenth-highest-grossing film, the third-highest-grossing 2012 film, as well as the sixth-highest-grossing superhero film and film based on comics. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold more than 55 million tickets in the US.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Outside North America, the film opened with $88.0 million from 7,173 theaters in just 17 markets. It was in first place at the box office outside North America for four consecutive weekends. Its three largest markets are the UK, Ireland and Malta ($90.3 million), where it is the highest-grossing superhero film, China ($52.8 million) and Australia ($44.2 million).


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: "The Dark Knight Rises" received highly positive reviews from critics. Many have named it one of the best films of 2012, and one of the best superhero films of all time. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave "The Dark Knight Rises" an approval rating of based on reviews, and a rating average of . The web site's critical consensus reads, ""The Dark Knight Rises" is an ambitious, thoughtful, and potent action film that concludes Christopher Nolan's franchise in spectacular fashion." Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. It’s been cited as one the most influential films of the 2010s


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Robbie Collin of "The Daily Telegraph" granted the film a maximum score of five stars, stating that it is "a superhero film without a superhero" and praising Hardy's performance as well as the film's intricate plot and narrative. Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" thought the film was "potent, persuasive and hypnotic" and that it was "more than an exceptional superhero movie, it is masterful filmmaking by any standard." "The Playlists" Todd Gilchrist wrote "A cinematic, cultural and personal triumph, "The Dark Knight Rises" is emotionally inspiring, aesthetically significant and critically important for America itself – as a mirror of both sober reflection and resilient hope." IGN gave it a 9 out of 10, noting similarities in tone and theme to "Batman Begins" over the trilogy's second installment, "The Dark Knight", but also describing Bane as "that bit less interesting to watch" than Ledger's Joker, despite praising his "menacing voice" and "body language-driven performance".


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Film critic Richard Roeper gave the film an "A", calling it "a majestic, gorgeous, brutal and richly satisfying epic", and citing the final scenes of the picture as "the best five minutes of any film this year." The London Film Review gave the film a B and said "Nolan's film is a reminder that superheroes aren't merely a frivolous distraction, but an embodiment of our best selves."


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: "The Guardian" scored the film four out of five stars, calling it a film of "granite, monolithic intensity", yet also calling it a "hammy, portentous affair". Andrew O'Hehir of "Salon" writes "if "The Dark Knight Rises" is a fascist film, it's a great fascist film, and arguably the biggest, darkest, most thrilling and disturbing and utterly balls-out spectacle ever created for the screen". Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three out of four stars, stating "the film begins slowly with a murky plot and too many new characters, but builds to a sensational climax." This was the final Batman film and also the final DC film Ebert reviewed before his death in 2013.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: The film was crowned by "Forbes" as the best modern comic book superhero adaptation on screen, outranking both its main summer blockbuster competitor, "Marvel's The Avengers", and the trilogy's previous installment "The Dark Knight". It was selected for the American Film Institute's top 10 films of 2012, in addition to being on over 140 top ten end-of the year lists.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: CNN's Tom Charity said the film was a "disappointingly clunky and bombastic conclusion to a superior series" and called it Nolan's worst film. Anthony Lane of "The New Yorker" says that the "story is dense, overlong, and studded with references that will make sense only to those intimate with Nolan's previous excursions into Batmanhood". In reaction to fan backlash to some of the negative reviews, Rotten Tomatoes chose to disable user commentary for the film leading up to its release. Some fans had threatened violence against critics while others threatened to take down the websites of movie critics who had given the film a negative review.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Outside of the positive critical and audience reception that "The Dark Knight Rises" has received both upon release and retrospectively, certain retrospective reviews have been mixed or negative.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: In 2011, Aidan Gillen's character in the film, CIA operative Bill Wilson, became the subject of an Internet meme popular among 4chan users known as "Baneposting", which references the dialogue between Wilson and Bane in the film's opening plane scene.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Writing in "Salon", David Sirota, a progressive political commentator, compared "The Dark Knight Rises" and the game "Call of Duty" to 1980s popular culture reflecting the political period of the time, accusing them of perpetuating a conservative agenda: "Just as so many 1980s pop culture products reflected the spirit of the Reagan Revolution's conservative backlash, we are now seeing two blockbuster, genre-shaping products not-so-subtly reflect the Tea Party's rhetorical backlash to the powerful Occupy Wall Street zeitgeist." An article in "Variety" reported Chuck Dixon, the cocreator of the Bane character, as saying that Bane is "far more akin to an Occupy Wall Street type if you're looking to cast him politically."


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Catherine Shoard of the center-left British publication "The Guardian" said the film "is a quite audaciously capitalist vision, radically conservative, radically vigilante, that advances a serious, stirring proposal that the wish-fulfilment of the wealthy is to be championed if they say they want to do good." In contrast, liberal commentator Jonathan Chait opined in "New York" that "What passes for a right-wing movie these days is "The Dark Knight Rises", which submits the rather modest premise that, irritating though the rich may be, actually killing them and taking all their stuff might be excessive." Writing in "USA Today", Bryan Alexander called Bane "the ultimate occupier" and reported that Christian Bale was amazed that the script had "foreseen" the Occupy movement.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Nolan has denied that the film criticizes the Occupy movement, and insists that none of his Batman films are intended to be political: "I've had as many conversations with people who have seen the film the other way round. We throw a lot of things against the wall to see if it sticks. We put a lot of interesting questions in the air, but that's simply a backdrop for the story. What we're really trying to do is show the cracks of society, show the conflicts that somebody would try to wedge open. We're going to get wildly different interpretations of what the film is supporting and not supporting, but it's not doing any of those things. It's just telling a story. If you're saying, 'Have you made a film that's supposed to be criticizing the Occupy Wall Street movement?' – well, obviously, that's not true."


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Alternatively, politically conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh alleged that the film was biased against 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney due to Bane's name being a homophone for Bain Capital, the financial service company Romney used to head, despite the fact that the character has existed as a major Batman foe since 1993. In response, Nolan said that the comments were "bizarre", while Dixon and Freeman said that the comments were "ridiculous". Democratic adviser Christopher Lehane has noted the similarities between the narratives of the film and the presidential campaign.


title: The Dark Knight Rises

text: Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek pointed out that the film was inspired by the French Revolution as portrayed by novelist Charles Dickens.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: On January 28, 1986, the broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39a.m. EST (16:39 UTC). It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft in flight.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: The mission, designated STS-51-L, was the tenth flight for the orbiter and the twenty-fifth flight of the Space Shuttle fleet. The crew was scheduled to deploy a communications satellite and study Halley's Comet while they were in orbit, in addition to taking school teacher Christa McAuliffe into space. The latter resulted in a higher than usual media interest and coverage of the mission; the launch and subsequent disaster were seen live in many schools across the United States.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: The cause of the disaster was the failure of the two redundant O-ring seals in a joint in the shuttle's right solid rocket booster (SRB). The record-low temperatures of the launch had stiffened the rubber O-rings, reducing their ability to seal the joints. Shortly after liftoff, the seals were breached, and hot pressurized gas from within the SRB leaked through the joint and burned through the aft attachment strut connecting it to the external propellant tank (ET), and later the tank itself. The collapse of the ET's internal structures and the rotation of the SRB that followed threw the shuttle stack, traveling at a speed of Mach 1.92, into a direction which allowed aerodynamic forces to tear the orbiter apart. Both SRBs detached from the now-destroyed ET and continued to fly uncontrolled until the range safety officer destroyed them.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: The crew compartment and many other fragments from the shuttle were recovered from the ocean floor after a three-month search-and-recovery operation. The exact timing of the deaths of the crew is unknown, but several crew members are thought to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft. The orbiter had no escape system, and the impact of the crew compartment at terminal velocity with the ocean surface was too violent to be survivable.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the Space Shuttle program. President Ronald Reagan created the Rogers Commission to investigate the accident. The commission criticized NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes that had contributed to the accident. Test data since 1977 had revealed a potentially catastrophic flaw in the SRBs' O-rings. Neither NASA nor SRB manufacturer Morton Thiokol addressed the issue. NASA managers also disregarded engineers' warnings about the dangers of launching in cold temperatures and did not report these technical concerns to their superiors.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: As a result of the disaster, NASA established the Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance, and arranged for deployment of commercial satellites from expendable launch vehicles rather than from a crewed orbiter. To replace "Challenger", construction of a new Space Shuttle orbiter, was approved in 1987, and the new orbiter first flew in 1992. Subsequent missions were launched with redesigned SRBs and their crews wore pressurized suits during ascent and reentry.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable spacecraft operated by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It flew for the first time in April 1981, and was used to conduct in-orbit research, and deploy commercial, military, and scientific payloads. At launch, it consisted of the orbiter, which contained the crew and payload, the external tank (ET), and the two solid rocket boosters (SRBs). The orbiter was a reusable, winged vehicle that launched vertically and landed as a glider. Five orbiters were built during the Space Shuttle program. "Challenger" (OV-099) was the second orbiter constructed after its conversion from a structural test article. The orbiter contained the crew compartment, where the crew predominantly lived and worked throughout a mission. Three Space Shuttle main engines (SSMEs) were mounted at the aft end of the orbiter and provided thrust during launch. Once in space, the crew maneuvered using the two smaller, aft-mounted Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: When it launched, the orbiter was connected to the ET, which held the fuel for the SSMEs. The ET consisted of a larger tank for liquid hydrogen (LH2) and a smaller tank for liquid oxygen (LOX), both of which were required for the SSMEs to operate. After its fuel had been expended, the ET separated from the orbiter and reentered the atmosphere, where it would break apart during reentry and its pieces would land in the Indian or Pacific Ocean.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: Two solid rocket boosters (SRBs), built by Morton Thiokol at the time of the disaster, provided the majority of thrust at liftoff. They were connected to the external tank, and burned for the first two minutes of flight. The SRBs separated from the orbiter once they had expended their fuel and fell into the Atlantic Ocean under a parachute. NASA retrieval teams recovered the SRBs and returned them to the Kennedy Space Center, where they were disassembled and their components were reused on future flights. Each SRB was constructed in four main sections at the factory in Utah and transported to Kennedy Space Center (KSC), then assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC with three tang-and-clevis field joints, each joint consisting of a tang from the upper segment fitting into the clevis of the lower segment. Each field joint was sealed with two rubber O-rings around the circumference of the SRB and had a cross-section diameter of . The O-rings were required to contain the hot, high-pressure gases produced by the burning solid propellant and allowed for the SRBs to be rated for crewed missions. The two O-rings were configured to create a double bore seal, and the gap between segments was filled with putty. When the motor was running, this configuration was designed to compress air in the gap against the upper O-ring, pressing it against the sealing surfaces of its seat. On the SRB Critical Items List, the O-rings were listed as Criticality 1R, which indicated that an O-ring failure could result in the destruction of the vehicle and loss of life, but it was considered a redundant system due to the secondary O-ring.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: Evaluations of the proposed SRB design in the early 1970s and field joint testing showed that the wide tolerances between the mated parts allowed the O-rings to be extruded from their seats rather than compressed. This extrusion was judged to be acceptable by NASA and Morton Thiokol despite concerns of NASA's engineers. A 1977 test showed that up to of joint rotation occurred during the simulated internal pressure of a launch. Joint rotation, which occurred when the tang and clevis bent away from each other, reduced the pressure on the O-rings which weakened their seals and made it possible for combustion gases to erode the O-rings. NASA engineers suggested that the field joints should be redesigned to include shims around the O-rings, but they received no response. In 1980, the NASA Verification/Certification Committee requested further tests on joint integrity to include testing in the temperature range of and with only a single O-ring installed. The NASA program managers decided that their current level of testing was sufficient and further testing was not required. In December1982, the Critical Items List was updated to indicate that the secondary O-ring could not provide a backup to the primary O-ring, as it would not necessarily form a seal in the event of joint rotation. The O-rings were redesignated as Criticality1, removing the "R" to indicate it was no longer considered a redundant system.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: The first occurrence of in-flight O-ring erosion occurred on the right SRB on in November1981. In August1984, a post-flight inspection of the left SRB on revealed that soot had blown past the primary O-ring and was found in between the O-rings. Although there was no damage to the secondary O-ring, this indicated that the primary O-ring was not creating a reliable seal and was allowing hot gas to pass. The amount of O-ring erosion was insufficient to prevent the O-ring from sealing, and investigators concluded that the soot between the O-rings resulted from non-uniform pressure at the time of ignition. The January1985 launch of was the coldest Space Shuttle launch to date. The air temperature was at the time of launch, and the calculated O-ring temperature was . Post-flight analysis revealed erosion in primary O-rings in both SRBs. Morton Thiokol engineers determined that the cold temperatures caused a loss of flexibility in the O-rings that decreased their ability to seal the field joints, which allowed hot gas and soot to flow past the primary O-ring. O-ring erosion occurred on all but one () of the Space Shuttle flights in 1985, and erosion of both the primary and secondary O-rings occurred on .


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: To correct the issues with O-ring erosion, engineers at Morton Thiokol, led by Allan McDonald and Roger Boisjoly, proposed a redesigned field joint that introduced a metal lip to limit movement in the joint. They also recommended adding a spacer to provide additional thermal protection and using an O-ring with a larger cross section. In July1985, Morton Thiokol ordered redesigned SRB casings, with the intention of using already-manufactured casings for the upcoming launches until the redesigned cases were available the following year.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: The Space Shuttle mission, named , was the twenty-fifth Space Shuttle flight and the tenth flight of. The crew was announced on January27,1985, and was commanded by Dick Scobee. Michael Smith was assigned as the pilot, and the mission specialists were Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, and Ronald McNair. The two payload specialists were Gregory Jarvis, who was assigned to conduct research for the Hughes Aircraft Company, and Christa McAuliffe, who flew as part of the Teacher in Space Project.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: The primary mission of the "Challenger" crew was to use an Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) to deploy a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS), named TDRS-B, that would have been part of a constellation to enable constant communication with orbiting spacecraft. The crew also planned to study Halley's Comet as it passed near the sun, and deploy and retrieve a SPARTAN satellite.


title: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

text: The mission was originally scheduled for July1985, but was delayed to November and then to January1986. The mission was scheduled to launch on January22, but was delayed until January 28.