title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: That night, state troopers attempt to arrest Elwood for driving with a suspended license due to 116 parking tickets and 56 moving violations. After a high-speed chase through the Dixie Square Mall, the brothers escape. The next morning, as the police arrive at the flophouse where Elwood lives, a mysterious woman detonates a bomb that demolishes the building, but leaves Jake and Elwood unharmed, and saves them from being arrested.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Jake and Elwood begin tracking down members of the band. Five of them are performing as "Murph and The MagicTones" at a deserted Holiday Inn lounge, and quickly agree to rejoin. Another turns them down as he is the maître d' at an expensive restaurant, but the brothers refuse to leave the restaurant until he relents. On their way to meet the final two band members, the brothers find the road through Jackson Park blocked by an American Nazi Party demonstration on a bridge; Elwood runs them off the bridge into the East Lagoon. The last two band members, who now run a soul food restaurant, rejoin the band against the advice of one's wife. The reunited group obtains instruments and equipment from Ray's Music Exchange in Calumet City, and Ray, as usual, takes an IOU.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: As Jake attempts to book a gig, the mystery woman blows up the phone booth he is using; once again, he is miraculously unhurt. The band stumbles onto a gig at Bob's Country Bunker, a honky-tonk in Kokomo, Indiana. They win over the rowdy crowd but run up a bar tab higher than their pay, and infuriate the Good Ol' Boys, the country band that was booked for the gig.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Realizing that they need one big show to raise the necessary money, the brothers persuade their old agent to book the Palace Hotel Ballroom, north of Chicago. They mount a loudspeaker atop the Bluesmobile and drive around the Chicago area promoting the concert—and alerting the police, the neo-Nazis, and the Good Ol' Boys of their whereabouts. The ballroom is packed with blues fans, police officers, and the Good Ol' Boys. Jake and Elwood perform two songs, then sneak offstage, as the tax deadline is rapidly approaching. A record company executive offers them a $10,000 cash advance on a recording contract—more than enough to pay off the orphanage's taxes and Ray's IOU—and then shows the brothers how to slip out of the building unnoticed. As they make their escape via a service tunnel, they are confronted by the mystery woman: Jake's vengeful ex-fiancée. After her volley of M16 rifle bullets leaves them once again miraculously unharmed, Jake offers a series of ridiculous excuses that she declines, but when she looks into his eyes she takes interest in him again, allowing the brothers to escape to the Bluesmobile.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Jake and Elwood race back toward Chicago with dozens of state and local police and the Good Ol' Boys in pursuit. They eventually elude them all with a series of improbable maneuvers, including a miraculous gravity-defying escape from the neo-Nazis. At the Richard J. Daley Center, they rush inside the adjacent Chicago City Hall building, soon followed by hundreds of police, state troopers, SWAT teams, firefighters, Illinois National Guardsmen, and the Military Police. Finding the office of the Cook County Assessor, the brothers pay the tax bill. Just as their receipt is stamped, they are arrested by the mob of law officers. In prison, the band plays "Jailhouse Rock" for the inmates.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: The characters Jake and Elwood Blues were created by Belushi and Aykroyd in performances on "Saturday Night Live". The name "The Blues Brothers" was the idea of Howard Shore. The fictional backstory and character sketches of blood brothers Jake and Elwood were developed by Aykroyd in collaboration with Ron Gwynne, who is credited as a story consultant for the film. As related in the liner notes of the band's debut album, "Briefcase Full of Blues", the brothers grew up in an orphanage, learned the blues from a janitor named Curtis, and sealed their brotherhood by cutting their middle fingers with a steel string said to have come from the guitar of Elmore James.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Belushi had become a star in 1978 as a result of both the Blues Brothers' musical success and his role in "National Lampoon's Animal House". At one point, he managed the triple feat of being the star of the week's top-grossing film and top-rated television series and singing on the No. 1 album within a year. When Aykroyd and Belushi decided they could make a Blues Brothers film, the bidding war was intense. Universal Studios narrowly beat Paramount Pictures for the project. John Landis, who had directed Belushi in "Animal House", was aboard as director.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: However, the project had neither a budget nor a script. On the former issue, Universal head Lew Wasserman thought the film could be made for $12 million; the filmmakers wanted $20 million. It would be impossible to settle on a specific amount without a screenplay to review, and after Mitch Glazer declined to help him, Aykroyd wrote one on his own.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Aykroyd had never written a screenplay before, as he admitted in the 1998 documentary "Stories Behind the Making of The Blues Brothers", or even read one, and he was unable to find a writing partner. Consequently, he put together a very descriptive volume that explained the characters' origins and how the band members were recruited. His final draft was 324 pages, which was three times longer than a standard screenplay, written not in a standard screenplay format, but more like free verse. To soften the impact, Aykroyd made a joke of the thick script and had it bound with the cover of the Los Angeles Yellow Pages directory for when he turned it in to producer Robert K. Weiss. He titled it "The Return of the Blues Brothers", and credited it to "Scriptatron GL-9000". Landis was given the task of editing the script into a usable screenplay, which took him about two weeks.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: "The Blues Brothers" held the record for the most cars destroyed in the course of production for 18 years, at 103, one fewer than were wrecked in its 1998 sequel "Blues Brothers 2000". Both were surpassed by "" (2009), with 112 cars destroyed.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: At Aykroyd's demand, soul and R&B stars James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin were cast in speaking parts to support musical numbers built around them. This later caused friction in the production between Landis and Universal, as its costs far exceeded the original budget. Since none of them except Charles had any hits in recent years, the studio wanted the director to replace them with—or add performances by—younger acts, such as Rose Royce, whose "Car Wash" had made them disco stars after its use in the 1976 film of that name.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Other musicians in the cast include Big Walter Horton, Pinetop Perkins, and John Lee Hooker (who performed "Boom Boom" during the Maxwell Street scene). The members of The Blues Brothers Band were themselves notable. Steve Cropper and Donald Dunn are architects of the Stax Records sound (Cropper's guitar can be heard at the start of the Sam & Dave song "Soul Man") and were half of Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Horn players Lou Marini, Tom Malone, and Alan Rubin had all played in Blood, Sweat & Tears and the house band on "Saturday Night Live". Drummer Willie Hall had played in The Bar-Kays and backed Isaac Hayes. Matt Murphy is a veteran blues guitarist. As the band developed at "Saturday Night Live", pianist Paul Shaffer was part of the act and thus cast in the film. However, due to contractual obligations with "SNL", he was unable to participate, so actor-musician Murphy Dunne (whose father, George Dunne, was the Cook County Board President) was hired to take his role.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Fisher, Freeman, Gibson, and Candy were cast in non-musical supporting roles. The film is also notable for the number of cameo appearances by established celebrities and entertainment-industry figures, including Steve Lawrence as a booking agent, Twiggy as a "chic lady" in a Jaguar convertible whom Elwood propositions at a gas station, Steven Spielberg as the Cook County Assessor's clerk, Landis as a state trooper in the mall chase, Paul Reubens (before he became Pee-wee Herman) as a waiter in the restaurant Chez Paul, Joe Walsh in a cameo as the first prisoner to jump up on a table in the final scene, and Chaka Khan as the soloist in the Triple Rock choir. Muppet performer Frank Oz plays a corrections officer, and in the scene where the brothers crash into Toys "R" Us, the customer who asks for a Miss Piggy doll is played by stunt coordinator Gary McLarty. Singer/songwriter Stephen Bishop is an Illinois State Trooper who complains that Jake and Elwood broke his watch (a result of the car chase in the mall). Makeup artist Layne Britton is the old card player who asks Elwood, "Did you get me my Cheez Whiz, boy?" The character portrayed by Cab Calloway is named Curtis as a homage to Curtis Salgado, an Oregon blues musician who inspired Belushi while he was in that area filming "Animal House".


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Over 500 extras were used for the next-to-last scene, the blockade of the building at Daley Center, including 200 National Guardsmen, 100 state and city police officers, with 15 horses for the mounted police (and three each Sherman tanks, helicopters, and fire engines).


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Principal photography began in July 1979, with the film's budget still not settled. For the first month, things ran smoothly on and off the set. When Weiss saw the supposedly final $17.5 million budget, he reportedly joked, "I think we've spent that much already."


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: In the next month, the production began falling behind schedule. Much of the delay was due to Belushi's partying and carousing. When not on the set, he went out to his familiar Chicago haunts such as Wrigley Field and the Old Town Ale House. People often recognized him and slipped him cocaine, a drug he was already using heavily on his own, hoping to use it with him. "Every blue-collar Joe wants his John Belushi story," said Smokey Wendell, who was eventually hired to keep it away from the star. As a result of his late nights and drug and alcohol use, Belushi would often miss unit calls (the beginning of a production day) or go to his trailer after them and sleep, wasting hours of production time. One night, Aykroyd found him crashing on the sofa of a nearby house, where Belushi had already helped himself to food in the refrigerator.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Cocaine was already so prevalent on the set (like many other film productions of that era) that Aykroyd, who used far less than his partner, claims a section of the budget was actually set aside for purchases of the drug during night shooting. The stars had a private bar, the Blues Club, built on the set, for themselves, crew, and friends. Carrie Fisher, who was Aykroyd's girlfriend at that time, said that most of the bar's staff doubled as dealers, procuring any drug patrons desired.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: The movie's original budget was quickly surpassed, and back in Los Angeles, Wasserman grew increasingly frustrated. He was regularly confronting Ned Tanen, the executive in charge of production for Universal, over the costs. Sean Daniel, another studio executive, was not reassured when he came to Chicago and saw the production had set up a special facility for the 70 cars used in the chase sequences. Filming there, which was supposed to have concluded in the middle of September, continued into late October.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: On the set, Belushi's drug use worsened. Fisher, who herself later struggled with cocaine addiction, said Landis told her to keep Belushi away from the drug. Wendell was hired to clear any drugs from the places Belushi visited off-camera. Nevertheless, at one point, Landis found Belushi with what he described as a "mountain" of cocaine on a table in his trailer, which led to a tearful confrontation in which Belushi admitted his addiction and feared it could eventually kill him.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: After Aykroyd and Belushi's wife Judy had a talk with Belushi about his antics, the production returned to Los Angeles. Filming there again ran smoothly until it came time to shoot the final sequence at the Hollywood Palladium. Just beforehand, Belushi fell off a borrowed skateboard and seriously injured his knee, making it unlikely he could go through with the scene, which required him to sing, dance, and do cartwheels. Wasserman persuaded the city's top orthopedic surgeon to postpone his weekend plans long enough to stop by and sufficiently anesthetize Belushi's knee, and the scene was filmed as intended.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Much of "The Blues Brothers" was shot on location in and around Chicago between July and October 1979, including Joliet Correctional Center in nearby Joliet, Illinois, and Wauconda, Illinois, where the car crashes into the side of Route 12. Made with the cooperation of Mayor Jane M. Byrne, it is credited for putting Chicago on the map as a venue for filmmaking. In an article written to mark the film's 25th Anniversary DVD release, Aykroyd told the "Chicago Sun-Times": "Chicago is one of the stars of the movie. We wrote it as a tribute."


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: The first traffic stop was in Park Ridge, Illinois. The shopping mall car chase was filmed in the real, albeit shuttered, Dixie Square Mall, in Harvey, Illinois. The bridge jump was filmed on an actual drawbridge, the 95th Street bridge over the Calumet River, on the southeast side of Chicago. The main entrance to Wrigley Field (and its sign reading "Save lives. Drive safely, prevent fires") makes a brief appearance when the police visit it after Elwood falsely registers the ballpark's location, 1060 West Addison, as his home address on his driver's license. (Elwood's Illinois driver's license number is an almost-valid encoded number, with Aykroyd's own birth date embedded.) Jake's final confrontation with his girlfriend was filmed in a replica of a section of the abandoned Chicago freight tunnel system. The other chase scenes included lower Wacker Drive, Lake Street, and Richard J. Daley Center.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: In the final car chase scene, the production actually dropped a Ford Pinto, representing that which was driven by the "Illinois Nazis", from a helicopter at an altitude of about 1,200 feet—and had to gain a Special Airworthiness Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration to do it. The FAA was concerned that the car could prove too aerodynamic in a high-altitude drop, and pose a threat to nearby buildings. The shot leading up to the car drop, where the "Illinois Nazis" drive off a freeway ramp, was shot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, near the Hoan Bridge on Interstate 794. The Lake Freeway (North) was a planned but not completed six-lane freeway, and I-794 contained an unfinished ramp off which the Nazis drove. Several Milwaukee skyscrapers are visible in the background as the Bluesmobile flips over, notably the U.S. Bank Center.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: The Palace Hotel Ballroom, where the band performs their climactic concert, was at the time of filming a country club, but later became the South Shore Cultural Center, named after the Chicago neighborhood where it is located. The interior concert scenes were filmed in the Hollywood Palladium.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: The filming in downtown Chicago was conducted on Sundays during the summer of 1979, and much of downtown was cordoned off from the public. Costs for filming the largest scene in the city's history totaled $3.5 million. Permission was given after Belushi and Aykroyd offered to donate $50,000 to a charity after filming. Although the Bluesmobile was allowed to be driven through the Daley Center lobby, special breakaway panes were temporarily substituted for the normal glass in the building. The speeding car caused $7,650 in damage to 35 granite paver stones and a bronze air grille in the building. Interior shots of the elevator, staircase, and assessor's office were all recreated in a film set for filming.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: The film used 13 different cars bought at auction from the California Highway Patrol to depict the retired 1974 Mount Prospect, Illinois, Dodge Monaco patrol car. The vehicles were outfitted by the studio to do particular driving chores: some were customized for speed and others for jumps, depending on the scene. For the large car chases, filmmakers purchased 60 police cars at $400 each, and most were destroyed at the completion of the filming. More than 40 stunt drivers were hired, and the crew kept a 24-hour body shop to repair cars.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: For the scene when the Blues Brothers finally arrive at the Richard J. Daley Center, a mechanic took several months to rig the car to fall apart. At the time of its release, "The Blues Brothers" held the world record for the most cars destroyed in one film until it was surpassed by a single car in its 1998 sequel.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Landis' difficulties continued even after principal photography was completed. The first cut of "The Blues Brothers" lasted two and a half hours, with an intermission. After one early screening, Wasserman demanded it be shortened, and 20 minutes were cut. The film's final budget was $27.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ), $10 million over its original budget.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Prospects for a successful release did not look good. Aykroyd and Belushi had left "SNL" at the end of the previous season, reducing their bankability. Belushi's fame had taken a further hit after the critical failure of Spielberg's film "1941" at the end of the year. One day after the editing was done, Wasserman invited Landis up to his office to speak with Ted Mann, head of the Mann Theatres chain, which dominated film exhibition in the Western United States. He told Landis that he would not book the film at any theaters in predominantly white neighborhoods, such as Westwood. Not only did Mann not want black patrons going there to see the film, but he also surmised that white viewers were unlikely to see a film featuring older black musical stars. Ultimately, the film got less than half the bookings nationwide for its initial release than a typical big-budget studio film of the era, which did not bode well for its success at the box office.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: "The Blues Brothers" opened on June 20, 1980, with a release in 594 theaters. It took in $4,858,152, ranking second for that week (after "The Empire Strikes Back"). The film in total grossed $57,229,890 domestically and $58,000,000 in foreign box office for a total of $115,229,890. It ranked 10th at the domestic box office for the year. By genre, it is the ninth-highest-grossing musical and the 10th-highest earner among comedy road movies. It ranks second, between "Wayne's World" and "Wayne's World 2", among films adapted from "Saturday Night Live" sketches. Director John Landis claimed "The Blues Brothers" was also the first American film to gross more money overseas than it did in the United States. Over the years, the film has retained a following through television and home video.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: "The Blues Brothers" received mostly positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 73% "Certified Fresh" rating, based on 90 reviews, with an average rating of 7.60/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Too over the top for its own good, but ultimately rescued by the cast's charm, director John Landis' grace, and several soul-stirring musical numbers." It won the Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing and Sound Effects, is 14th on "Total Film" magazine's "List of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films of All Time," is 20th on "Empire"'s list of "The 50 Greatest Comedies", and is number 69 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". Metacritic gave the film a score of 60 based on 12 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave "The Blues Brothers" three out of four stars, praising it for its energetic musical numbers and "incredible" car chases. Ebert further noted that "Belushi and Aykroyd come over as hard-boiled city guys, total cynics with a world-view of sublime simplicity, and that all fits perfectly with the movie's other parts. There's even room, in the midst of the carnage and mayhem, for a surprising amount of grace, humor, and whimsy." Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film a "rare four-star rating", calling it "one of the all-time great comedies" and "the best movie ever made in Chicago". He described the film as "technically superb", praised it for "countering every explosion with a quiet moment," and said it "is at once a pure exercise in physical comedy as well as a marvelous tribute to the urban blues sound." He ranked it number eight on his list of the ten best movies of 1980. Richard Corliss, writing in "Time", opined: ""The Blues Brothers" is a demolition symphony that works with the cold efficiency of a Moog synthesizer gone sadistic."


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: In his review for "The Washington Post", Gary Arnold criticized Landis for engorging "the frail plot of "The Blues Brothers" with car chases and crack-ups, filmed with such avid, humorless starkness on the streets of Chicago that comic sensations are virtually obliterated." Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" criticized "The Blues Brothers" for shortchanging viewers on more details about Jake and Elwood's affinity for African-American culture. She also took director Landis to task for "distracting editing", mentioning the Soul Food diner scene in which the head of saxophonist Marini is out of shot as he dances on the counter. In the documentary, "Stories Behind the Making of The Blues Brothers", Landis acknowledges the criticism while stating "Everybody has his opinion," and Marini recalls the dismay he felt at seeing the completed film.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: Kim Newman, writing for "Empire" in 2013, considered "The Blues Brothers" to be "an amalgam of urban sleaze, automobile crunch and blackheart rhythm and blues" with "better music than any film had had for many years." He noted that Belushi and Aykroyd pack in their heroes: "Aretha storming through 'Think', Cab Calloway cruising through 'Minnie the Moocher', John Lee Hooker boogying through 'Boom Boom' and Ray Charles on electric piano." He observed that "the picture had revived the careers of virtually all the musicians that appeared in it" and concluded that "it still sounds great and looks as good as ever through Ray Bans."


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: On the 30th anniversary of the film's release, "L'Osservatore Romano" (the daily newspaper of Vatican City State) wrote that the film is filled with positive symbolism and moral references that can be related to Catholicism. They went further, stating, "The Blues Brothers" "is a memorable film, and, judging by the facts, a Catholic one."


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: "The Blues Brothers" has become a staple of late-night cinema, even slowly morphing into an audience-participation show in its regular screenings at the Valhalla Cinema, in Melbourne, Australia. John Landis acknowledged the support of the cinema and the fans by a phone call he made to the cinema at the 10th-anniversary screening, and later invited regular attendees to make cameo appearances in "Blues Brothers 2000". The fans act as the members of the crowd during the performance of "".


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: In August 2005, a 25th-anniversary celebration for "The Blues Brothers" was held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Attendees included Landis, former Universal Studios executive Thom Mount, film editor George Folsey, Jr., and cast members James Brown, Henry Gibson, Charles Napier, Steve Cropper, and Stephen Bishop. It featured a press conference, a panel discussion where Aykroyd joined by satellite, and a screening of the original theatrical version of the film. The panel discussion was broadcast direct to many other cinemas around the country.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: The cult-like popularity of "The Blues Brothers" has also spread to non-English-language markets such as Japan; it was an inspiration for Japanese companies Studio Hibari and Aniplex, which led to the creation of the manga and anime franchise Nerima Daikon Brothers, which contain heavy references to the film.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: When "The Blues Brothers" was first screened for a preview audience, a producer demanded that director Landis cut 25 minutes from the film. After trimming 15 minutes, it was released in theaters at 132 minutes. The film was first released on VHS and Betamax by MCA Videocassette Inc. in 1983; a Laserdisc from MCA Videodisc was released in the same year. It was then re-released on VHS, Laserdisc, and Betamax in 1985 from MCA Home Video, and again in 1990 from MCA/Universal Home Video. It was also released in a two-pack VHS box set with "Animal House". The original length of "The Blues Brothers" was restored to 148 minutes for the "Collector's Edition" DVD and a Special Edition VHS and Laserdisc release in 1998. The DVD and Laserdisc versions included a 56-minute documentary, "The Stories Behind the Making of The Blues Brothers". Produced and directed by JM Kenny (who also produced the "Collector's Edition" DVD of "Animal House" that same year), it included interviews with Landis, Aykroyd, members of The Blues Brothers Band, producer Robert K. Weiss, editor George Folsey Jr., and others involved with the film. It also included production photographs, the theatrical trailer, production notes, and cast and filmmaker bios. The 25th Anniversary DVD release in 2005 included both the theatrical cut and the extended version.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: "The Blues Brothers" was released on Blu-ray on July 26, 2011, with the same basic contents as the 25th Anniversary DVD. In a March 2011 interview with "Ain't it Cool News", Landis also mentioned he had approved the Blu-ray's remastered transfer. On May 19, 2020, the movie was given a 4K UHD release; it has a new 4K remaster from the original negative, and the extended footage was remastered from the same archived print as well.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: The Blues Brothers: Original Soundtrack Recording (later re-released as The Blues Brothers: Music from the Soundtrack) is the second album by the Blues Brothers Band. Released on June 20, 1980, the album was a followup to their debut live album, "Briefcase Full of Blues". The band toured the same year to promote the film, later releasing a second live album, "Made in America", which featured the Top 40 track, "Who's Making Love".


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: The soundtrack was recorded in Chicago at Universal Recording Corporation at the same time the movie was being filmed, with the exception of "Gimme Some Lovin", which was recorded at the Record Plant in Los Angeles, and The Old Landmark, which was recorded live on a Universal Studios sound stage on the West Coast, with overdubs later recorded at a studio in New York City.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: The songs on the soundtrack album are a noticeably different audio mix than in the film, with a prominent baritone saxophone in the horn line (also heard in the film during "Shake a Tail Feather", though no baritone sax is present), and female backing vocals on "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love", though the band had no other backup singers, besides Jake and/or Elwood, in the film. A number of regular Blues Brothers' members, including saxophonist Tom Scott and drummer Steve Jordan, perform on the soundtrack album, but are not in the film.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: According to Landis in the 1998 documentary "The Stories Behind the Making of 'The Blues Brothers", filmed musical performances by Franklin and Brown took more effort, as neither artist was accustomed to lip-synching their performances on film. Franklin required several takes, and Brown simply rerecorded his performance live on a Universal Studios sound stage during filming of the holly roller church scene, with overdubs later recorded at a studio in New York City. Cab Calloway initially wanted to do a disco variation on his signature tune, "Minnie the Moocher", having done the song in several styles in the past, but Landis insisted that the song be done faithfully to the original big-band version.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: "Gimme Some Lovin" was a Top 20 "Billboard" hit for the Blues Brothers, peaking at number 18. The album sold more than a million copies.


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: The film's score includes "God Music" (instrumental with choir vocalese) composed by Elmer Bernstein, who previously had worked with John Landis on "National Lampoon's Animal House". Other songs in the film include:


title: The Blues Brothers (film)

text: The 1998 sequel, "Blues Brothers 2000", had similar traits to the original, including large car-chase scenes and musical numbers. Landis returned to direct the film and Aykroyd reprised his role, joining John Goodman, Joe Morton, and 10-year-old J. Evan Bonifant as the new Blues Brothers. Franklin and Brown were among the celebrities returning from the first film. There were also musical performances by Sam Moore, Wilson Pickett, Paul Shaffer, B.B. King, and Eric Clapton, among others. Dozens of artists were packed into an all-star band called The Louisiana Gator Boys. Even with many returning cast members, the film was considered a box-office failure, only generating a little over $14 million in sales, and critics' reactions were negative.


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: Kim Seon-ho (; born May 8, 1986) is a South Korean actor. He began his career on stage and appeared in numerous plays before making his screen debut in 2017 with "Good Manager". He rose to prominence with the television series "Start-Up" (2020) and gained more recognition for his main role in "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" (2021)"," which aired on tvN and Netflix. In 2021, he was selected as Gallup Korea's Television Actor of the Year.


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: After graduating from high school, Kim studied at the Seoul Institute of the Arts where he received a degree from the Department of Broadcasting and Entertainment. While in college, he joined a theatre group and began acting in plays. His first stage role was in open-run "New Boeing Boeing" (an adaptation of the French play of the same name) in 2009, which he reprised in 2013. He found minor success appearing in the popular Daehakro (comparable to Off-Broadway) open run plays "Rooftop House Cat" and "Purpose of Love", which were both romantic comedies. Later, he expanded his repertoire with darker roles, and gained critical recognition in works such as "True West" and "Kiss of the Spider Woman" in 2015, and "Closer" in 2016.


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: Kim made his screen debut at the beginning of 2017 in the KBS2 office drama "Good Manager", after auditioning at the suggestion of producer who watched his performance in the play "Closer". Kim's next project "Strongest Deliveryman", for which he initially auditioned for a supporting role, marked his first appearance in a main role onscreen. Later in 2017, he starred in the action comedy "Two Cops" as a sly conman, which earned him two awards at the 2017 MBC Drama Awards. While the drama was still airing, he reprised his role onstage as Valentin in "Kiss of the Spider Woman".


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: In 2018, Kim portrayed the lead role of an painter in the drama special "You Drive Me Crazy", which had a four-episode broadcast in May. He also starred in the historical drama "100 Days My Prince", which became one of the highest-rated series in Korean cable television history. In September that year, Kim joined Salt Entertainment after the expiration of his contract with his former theatre company.


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: In March 2019, Kim played an aspiring singer in the JTBC comedy "Welcome to Waikiki 2". In October the same year, he starred in the tvN investigative crime drama "Catch the Ghost" opposite veteran actress Moon Geun-young, in his first leading role in a full-length series. On November 5, Kim joined the cast in fourth season of the KBS2 reality show "2 Days & 1 Night"; he received the Rookie Award at the 2020 KBS Entertainment Awards for his work on the show. In his final project of 2019, he appeared in the play "Memory in dream" .


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: Kim returned to the small screen in October 2020 through the tvN drama "Start-Up". His portrayal of a start-up investor with a tragic past was well-received by viewers and garnered him a nomination for the Baeksang Arts Award for Best Supporting Actor – Television. During the airing of "Start-Up", Kim topped the monthly brand reputation ranking index by the Korean Business Research Institute and experienced a surge in popularity domestically and internationally.


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: He made his comeback to theatre in January 2021 through the play "Ice" by Jang Jin, in which he played a detective trying to inculpate a young man in a murder case. On the April 4, 2021 the agency Salt Entertainment announced that actor Kim Seon-ho will hold his first global online fan meeting through TikTok Stage Connect 'Seonho's preference' on January 17th. Kim collaborated with Epitone Project to release the single "Reason" in May, which he sang and co-wrote, having previously appeared in the latter's music video.


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: In August 2021, he starred in the tvN drama "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" alongside Shin Min-a where he played an officially unemployed but all-around handyman in a seaside village of Gongjin. In September 2021, during "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha"'s airing, Kim once again topped Korean Business Research Institute's brand reputation ranking index. The series was both a domestic and international hit with audience ratings peaking at 13.322% and went on to become one of the highest-rated television series in Korean cable television history.


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: In May 2022, it was announced that Kim will return to the theater with the third work of "The 9th Best Plays Festival", play "Touching the Void" by David Greig. It is based on the true story of the survival of two British mountain climbers, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates. Kim is triple casts with actor Shin Sung-min and Lee Hwi-jong for the role of Joe. Korean premiere, directed by Kim Dong-yeon, was performed at Art One Theater 2 in Daehangno from July 8 to September 18, 2022.


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: In September 2022, Kim's agency announced his first fan meeting scheduled to be held on December 10. On October 31, the agency announced that the fan meeting ticket booking schedule has been postponed. It was originally scheduled for October 31, with a new date to be announced at a later date due to the Seoul Halloween crowd crush. On November 7, the agency announced November 11, 2022 as new ticket booking schedule. The fan meeting eventually were held two days in a row on December 10 and 11, 2022. In 2023, Kim Seon-ho will do his first offline Asia Tour, "2023 Kim Seon-ho Asia Tour: One, Two, Three, Smile." In the Philippines, fanmeeting scheduled to be held on January 22, 2023 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena. In Bangkok, fanmeeting scheduled to be held on February 11th and 12th, 2023 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center.


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: On October 17, 2021, a woman claiming to be the ex-girlfriend of "Actor K" (later revealed to be Kim) made allegations on a Korean internet forum that the actor had coerced her into getting an abortion while the two were dating. On October 20, 2021, in light of his ex-girlfriend's claims, he issued a public apology through his agency. As the ex-girlfriend's claims gathered public attention, a few companies such as Domino's Pizza quickly pulled their advertisements featuring Kim. Kim stepped down from being a permanent cast member of the KBS variety show "2 Days & 1 Night", and subsequently withdrew from film projects "Dog Days" and Lee Sang-geun's romantic comedy "2 O'Clock Date".


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: On October 20, 2021, Kim's ex-girlfriend issued a new statement, stating that there were some misunderstandings between them and that she has received an apology from him. She also apologised for causing unintentional damage. On October 26, 2021, a Korean media outlet published new evidence challenging the accusations of Kim's ex-girlfriend, citing sources from close acquaintances of both Kim and his ex-girlfriend. Screen-captures of chat conversations from acquaintances revealed that the ex-girlfriend had been the one to suggest the abortion, contrary to her claims. The pair then split up about a year after due to questionable circumstances surrounding the ex-girlfriend's personal life. Testimonies from acquaintances of both Kim and his ex-girlfriend continued to surface, refuting various claims previously made by the ex-girlfriend. Following the new reports, most companies began resuming advertisements featuring Kim. The production team of the film "Sad Tropics" also announced their decision to proceed with their project and list Kim as the lead actor.


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: On January 27, 2021, his agency SALT Entertainment confirmed that he donated 100 million won (approximately $90,300) to the Korea Childhood Leukemia Foundation. His agency stated, “In return for the support and love he’s received from many people, he donated with the hope that it might be even a bit of help for children and their families who are going through a hard time.” In September 2021, he partnered with Marco Rojo for the 'Happy Bean Special Funding' project raising money for better residential conditions for the elderly. Three days after the opening of the fund on September 3, the fundraising surpassed 100 million won, exceeding the target amount by 3600%.<ref name="https://hallyula.com/2021/09/happy-bean-funding-surpassed-100-million-thanks-to-kim-seon-ho"></ref> In December 2021, he quietly donated 50 million won to the Korea Leukemia Children's Foundation. The donation was not disclosed, because of Kim Seon-ho's request. His agency also declined to comment and stated, "I know it was done personally because he wanted to be of some help."


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: In September 2022, Kim donated the full amount of his theater fee to help the victims of Typhoon Hin Thorn Noh By donating through The Hope Bridge Korea Disaster Relief Association.


title: Kim Seon-ho

text: Following his rise in popularity in 2020, Kim has been chosen as the face of various brands in South Korea and Southeast Asia. His endorsements have included clothing, electronics, cosmetics, food, e-commerce and more. Some of the brands endorsed by Kim achieved record sales in 2021; this has been labelled "The Kim Seon-Ho Effect", attributed to his rapid rise in popularity both in Korea and internationally.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: The Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name: Fencer) is a supersonic, all-weather attack aircraft developed in the Soviet Union. The aircraft has a variable-sweep wing, twin-engines and a side-by-side seating arrangement for its crew of two. It was the first of the USSR's aircraft to carry an integrated digital navigation/attack system. It remains in service with the Russian Air Force, Syrian Air Force, Ukrainian Air Force, Algerian Air Force and various other air forces to which it was exported.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: One of the conditions for accepting the Sukhoi Su-7B into service in 1961 was the requirement for Sukhoi to develop an all-weather variant capable of precision air strikes. Preliminary investigations with "S-28" and "S-32" aircraft revealed that the basic Su-7 design was too small to contain all the avionics required for the mission. OKB-794 (later known as Leninets) was tasked with developing an advanced nav/attack system, codenamed "Puma", which would be at the core of the new aircraft. That same year, the United States proposal for their new all-weather strike fighter would be the TFX. The resulting F-111 would introduce a variable-geometry wing for greatly increased payload, range, and low-level penetration capabilities.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: In 1962–1963, Sukhoi initially set out to build an aircraft without the complexity of moving wings like the F-111. It designed and built a mockup of S-6, a delta wing aircraft powered by two Tumansky R-21 turbojet engines and with a crew of two in a tandem arrangement. The mockup was inspected but no further work was ordered due to lack of progress on the "Puma" hardware.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: In 1964, Sukhoi started work on "S-58M". The aircraft was supposed to represent a modification of the Sukhoi Su-15 interceptor (factory designation "S-58"). In the meantime, revised Soviet Air Force requirements called for a low-altitude strike aircraft with STOL capability. A key feature was the ability to cruise at supersonic speeds at low altitude for extended periods of time in order to traverse enemy air defenses. To achieve this, the design included two Tumansky R-27 afterburning turbojets for cruise and four Rybinsk RD-36-35 turbojets for STOL performance. Side-by-side seating for the crew was implemented since the large "Orion" radar antennas required a large frontal cross-section. To test the six-engine scheme, the first Su-15 prototype was converted into "S-58VD" flying laboratory which operated in 1966–1969.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: The aircraft was officially sanctioned on 24 August 1965 under the internal codename "T-6". The first prototype, "T-6-1", was completed in May 1967 and flew on 2 July with Vladimir Ilyushin at the controls. The initial flights were performed without the four lift jets, which were installed in October 1967. At the same time, R-27s were replaced with Lyulka AL-21Fs. STOL tests confirmed the data from S-58VD that short-field performance was achieved at the cost of significant loss of flight distance as the lift engines occupied space normally reserved for fuel, loss of under-fuselage hardpoints, and instability during transition from STOL to conventional flight. So the six-engine approach was abandoned.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: By 1967, the F-111 had entered service and demonstrated the practical advantages and solutions to the technical problems of a swing-wing design. On 7 August 1968, the OKB was officially tasked with investigating a variable geometry wing for the T-6. The resulting "T-6-2I" first flew on 17 January 1970 with Ilyushin at the controls. The subsequent government trials lasted until 1974, dictated by the complexity of the on-board systems. The day or night and all-weather capability was achieved – for the first time in Soviet tactical attack aircraft – thanks to the "Puma" nav/attack system consisting of two "Orion-A" superimposed radar scanners for nav/attack, a dedicated "Relyef" terrain clearance radar to provide automatic control of flights at low and extremely low altitudes, and an "Orbita-10-58" onboard computer. The crew was equipped with Zvezda K-36D ejection seats, allowing them to bail out at any altitude and flight speed, including during takeoff and landing. The resulting design with a range of and payload of was slightly smaller and shorter ranged than the F-111.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: Ten fatal accidents occurred during Su-24 development, killing thirteen Sukhoi and Soviet Air Force test pilots, and more than 5 crashes per year were occurring at average after that


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: The first production aircraft flew on 31 December 1971 with V.T. Vylomov at the controls, and on 4 February 1975, T-6 was formally accepted into service as the "Su-24". About 1,400 Su-24s were produced.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: Surviving Su-24M models have gone through a life-extension and updating program, with GLONASS, upgraded cockpit with multi-function displays (MFDs), HUD, digital moving-map generator, Shchel helmet-mounted sights, and provision for the latest guided weapons, including R-73 (AA-11 'Archer') air-to-air missiles. The upgraded aircraft are designated "Su-24M2".


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: The Su-24 has a shoulder-mounted variable geometry wing outboard of a relatively small fixed wing glove, swept at 69°. The wing has four sweep settings: 16° for take-off and landing, 35° and 45° for cruise at different altitudes, and 69° for minimum aspect ratio and wing area in low-level dashes. The variable geometry wing provides excellent STOL performance, allowing a landing speed of , even lower than the Sukhoi Su-17 despite substantially greater take-off weight. Its high wing loading provides a stable low-level ride and minimal gust response.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: The Su-24 has two Saturn/Lyulka AL-21F-3A after-burning turbojet engines with 109.8 kN (24,700 lbf) thrust each, fed with air from two rectangular side-mounted intakes with splitter plates/boundary-layer diverters.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: In early Su-24 ("Fencer A" according to NATO) aircraft these intakes had variable ramps, allowing a maximum speed of , Mach 2.18, at altitude and a ceiling of . Because the Su-24 is used almost exclusively for low-level missions, the actuators for the variable intakes were removed to reduce weight and maintenance. This has no effect on low-level performance, but absolute maximum speed and altitude are cut to Mach 1.35 and . The earliest Su-24 had a box-like rear fuselage, which was soon changed in production to a rear exhaust shroud more closely shaped around the engines to reduce drag. The revised aircraft also gained three side-by-side antenna fairings in the nose, a repositioned braking chute, and a new ram-air inlet at the base of the tail fin. The revised aircraft were dubbed "Fencer-B" by NATO, but did not merit a new Soviet designation.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: The Su-24's fixed armament is a single fast-firing GSh-6-23 cannon with 500 rounds of ammunition, mounted in the fuselage underside. The gun is covered with an eyelid shutter when not in use. Two or four R-60 (NATO AA-8 'Aphid') infrared missiles are usually carried for self-defence by the Su-24M/24MK.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: Initial Su-24s had basic electronic countermeasures (ECM) equipment, with many Su-24s limited to the old Sirena radar-warning receiver with no integral jamming system. Later-production Su-24s had more comprehensive radar warning, missile-launch warning, and active ECM equipment, with triangular antennas on the sides of the intakes and the tip of the vertical fin. This earned the NATO designation "Fencer-C", although again it did not have a separate Soviet designation. Some "Fencer-C" and later "Su-24M" (NATO "Fencer-D") have large wing fence/pylons on the wing glove portion with integral chaff/flare dispensers; others have such launchers scabbed onto either side of the tail fin.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: Substantial numbers of ex-Soviet Su-24s remain in service with Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. In 2008, roughly 415 were in service with Russian forces, split 321 with the Russian Air Force and 94 with the Russian Navy.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: The Soviet Union used some Su-24s in the Soviet–Afghan War, with an initial round of strikes in 1984 and a second intervention at the end of the war in 1988. No Su-24 was lost.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: On October 13, 1990, Syrian Air Force jets entered Lebanese airspace in order to strike General Michel Aoun's military forces. Seven Su-24s were used in this operation.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: During Operation Desert Storm, the Iraqi Air Force evacuated 24 of its 30 Su-24MKs to Iran. Another five were destroyed on the ground, while the sole survivor remained in service after the war.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: Fencers were used by the Uzbek Air Force (UzAF) against United Tajik Opposition operating from Afghanistan (which also had a civil war of its own going on), as part of a wider air campaign in support of the embattled government of Tajikistan during the 1992–97 civil war. An Su-24M was shot down on 3 May 1993 with an FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS fired by fundamentalists. Both Russian crew members were rescued.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: In August 1999 Tajikistan protested over an alleged strike involving four UzAF Su-24s against Islamist militants in areas close to two mountain villages in the Jirgatol District that, despite not producing human casualties, killed some 100 head of livestock and set ablaze several crop fields. Tashkent denied the accusations.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: In the final stages of the 1996-2001 phase of the Afghan civil war, Uzbekistan launched airstrikes against Taliban positions in support of the Northern Alliance. During a mission to attack a Taliban armoured infantry unit near Heiratan, an UzAF Su-24 was shot down on 6 June 2001, killing both crew members.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: On 3 February 1995, during operations over Chechnya, a Russian Su-24M hit the ground in bad weather killing both crew members.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: Su-24s were used in combat during the Second Chechen War performing bombing and reconnaissance missions. Up to four were lost, one due to hostile fire: on 4 October 1999, a Su-24 was shot down by a SAM while searching for the crash site of a downed Su-25. The pilot was killed while the navigator was taken prisoner.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: In August 2008, a low intensity conflict in the breakaway Georgian regions of Samachablo and Abkhazia, escalated into the 2008 South Ossetia war. Russian Su-24s flew bombing and reconnaissance sorties over Georgia. Russia admitted that three of its Su-25 strike aircraft and one Tu-22M3 long-range bomber were lost. "Moscow Defence Brief" provided a higher estimate, saying that Russian Air Force total losses during the war were one Tu-22M3 long-range bomber, one Su-24M Fencer fighter-bomber, one Su-24MR Fencer E reconnaissance plane and four Su-25 attack planes. Anton Lavrov listed one Su-25SM, two Su-25BM, two Su-24M and one Tu-22M3 lost.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: Libya received five Su-24MK and one Su-24MR from the Soviet Union in 1989. This was one of the last deliveries by the USSR to Libya before the end of the Cold War. One Su-24MK and one Su-24MR may have been transferred to the Syrian Arab Air Force. At the beginning of 2011, the Libyan Air Force was ordered to attack rebel positions and opposition rallies. The Libyan Air Force was limited to a composite force of some MiG-23 (due to be retired, according to plans) and Su-22 and few units of flyable MiG-21, Su-24 and Mirage F1ED fighter-bombers, supported by Soko G-2 Galeb and Aero L-39 Albatros armed trainers. The largest part of the former fleet was in disrepair or stored in not flyable condition. On 5 March 2011, at the beginning of the 2011 Libyan civil war, rebels shot down a Libyan Air Force Su-24MK during fighting around Ra's Lanuf with a ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun. Both crew members died. A BBC reporter was on the scene soon after the event and filmed an aircraft part at the crash site showing the emblem of the 1124 Squadron, flying the Su-24MK.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: Starting in November 2012, 18 months after the beginning of the Syrian Civil War and four months after the beginning of air raids by fixed-wing SyAAF aircraft, Su-24 bombers were filmed attacking rebel positions. The SAF suffered its first Su-24 loss, an upgraded MK2 version, to an Igla surface-to-air missile on 28 November 2012 near the town of Darat Izza in the Aleppo Governorate. One of the crew members, Col. Ziad Daud Ali, was injured and filmed being taken to a rebel field hospital.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: Syrian Su-24s have reportedly also been involved in near-encounters with NATO warplanes. The first of such incidents occurred in early September 2013, when Syrian Su-24s of the 819th Squadron (launched from Tiyas Military Airbase) flew low over the Mediterranean and approached the 14-mile air exclusion zone surrounding the British airbase in Akrotiri, Cyprus. The jets turned back before reaching the area due to two RAF Eurofighter Typhoons being scrambled to intercept them. Turkey also sent two F-16s. The Fencers were possibly testing the air defenses of the base (and their reaction time) in preparation for a possible military strike by the U.S, the United Kingdom and France in the aftermath of the chemical weapons attack in Ghouta, Damascus allegedly committed by the Syrian government.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: On 23 September 2014, a Syrian Su-24 was shot down by an Israeli Air Defense Command MIM-104D Patriot missile near Quneitra, after it had flown into Israeli controlled airspace over the occupied Golan Heights. The missile hit the aircraft when it already re-entered into the Syrian air space. Both crew members ejected safely and landed in Syrian territory.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: On 18 March 2018, a SyAAF Su-24 was shot down by rebels in East Qalamoun, East of Damascus province; it fell into territory controlled by Syrian government forces.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: On 1 March 2020, two SyAAF Su-24MK2s were shot down by Turkish Air Force F-16s using air-to-air missiles over the Idlib province. All four pilots ejected safely.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: The long-range striking power of the Russian aerospace forces in the region comes from the twelve Su-24M2 bombers that Russia sent to its base in Latakia, Syria. On 24 November 2015, a Russian Su-24M was shot down by a flight of two Turkish F-16s near the Turkey–Syrian border. The two crew ejected before the plane crashed in Syrian territory. Russia claimed that the jet had not left Syrian airspace while Turkey claimed that the jet entered their airspace and was warned 10–12 times before being shot down.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: A deputy commander in a Syrian Turkmen brigade claimed that his personnel shot and killed the crew while they were descending in their parachutes, while some Turkish officials subsequently stated that the crew was still alive. The weapon systems officer was rescued by Russian forces but the pilot was killed by rebels, along with a Russian marine involved in a helicopter rescue attempt. Russian president Vladimir Putin warned Turkey of serious consequences. To increase safety during aerial operations in the region, Russian fighter jets would escort bombers, S-400 SAM systems were deployed in Syria and a Russian cruiser was stationed off the coast to protect Russian aircraft. Following the incident, Russia announced that Su-24s in Syria had been armed with air-to-air missiles on operational sorties.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: On 2 July 2014, one Ukrainian Air Force Su-24 was damaged by a MANPADS fired by pro-Russian forces. One of the engines was damaged but the crew managed to return to base and land. During landing a new fire started but it was extinguished by the ground crew. Initially identified as a Su-25, on 20 August 2014 a Ukrainian Su-24M was shot down by pro-Russian forces in the Lugansk region and confirmed by Ukrainian authorities who reported that the crew members ejected safely and were recovered. On 21 August 2014, the downed plane was identified as a Su-24M.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: In late May 2015, a pair of Russian Su-24s made a low pass over the USS "Ross" in the Black Sea. In April 2016, several Russian Su-24s flew within 30 metres of another American ship, the destroyer "Donald Cook" in the Baltic Sea. The incidents occurred over two days, with the planes making passes by the "Donald Cook" while it was in international waters. In November 2018, two armed Russian Su-24s flew low over the Belgian frigate "Godetia". At the time of the incident, the "Godetia" was in use as the command ship of NATO’s northern mine-sweeping fleet.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: In March 2015, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir committed Sudan to join the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen against the Houthis. Part of the military effort was the commitment of up to four recently acquired Sudanese Air Force Su-24s to the Saudi King Khalid Air Base where they were depicted. Sudanese Armed Forces did not specify the type of mission the Su-24s conducted. Integrating few Soviet made combat jets with Air Forces using modern Western models (F-15s, F-16s, F/A-18s, Tornadoes, Typhoons) during an active military campaign would represent a first in the world which would require extensive communication integration or leaving the Soviet made jets operating on a different mission plan, not integrated with the rest of the campaign. Air defense units, like Saudi MIM-104 Patriot batteries, would either need to stand down, taking the risk of not monitoring for incoming threats or some very specific orders to avoid shooting down friendlies.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: On 28 March 2015, during Operation Decisive Storm, Houthi forces claimed they shot down a Sudanese Air Force Su-24. Houthis published photos of an allegedly captured Sudanese pilot and metal parts claiming it as the aircraft wreckage.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: Su-24Ms were used by Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine reportedly had 10-20 operational Su-24s prior to the invasion.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: In the first hours of the invasion, the Ukrainian Air Force used at least two Su-24Ms during the Battle of Antonov Airport against Russian Airborne Forces which had been inserted in the airport by helicopters. On 27 February, one Ukrainian Su-24 was lost near Bucha, Kyiv Oblast. The pilots, Commander Ruslan Aleksandrovich Belous and Commander Roman Aleksandrovich Dovhalyuk, died, and were awarded with the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Another bomber was reported lost on 3 April, when a video emerged showing the crash site with the remains of a blue-coloured AL-21 engine employed by the Su-24. On 10 April, another Ukrainian Su-24 was destroyed by Russian forces in Izyum. On 19 May, a Su-24 from the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade was lost near Pylove. The pilot Lt. Colonel Igor Khamar and the navigator Major Ilya Negar, died.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: On 9 August, explosions at Saky Airport in Novofedorivka, Crimea destroyed and damaged several aircraft on the ground, among them at least five Russian Naval Aviation Su-24s. Russia denied the loss of any aircraft, though this was refuted by satellite imagery.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: On 9 October 2022, an Su-24 crashed during landing in the Rostov region in Russia due to technical malfunction.


title: Sukhoi Su-24

text: In total as of 24 November 2022, Oryx open-source intelligence website has visually confirmed 8 Su-24 losses for Russia.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: Vivica Anjanetta Fox (born July 30, 1964) is an American actress, producer, and television host. Fox began her career on "Soul Train" (19821983). She eventually continued her career with roles on the daytime television soap operas "Days of Our Lives" (1988) and "Generations" (19891991), subsequently shifting to the prime-time slot, starring opposite Patti LaBelle, in the NBC sitcom "Out All Night" (19921993). Fox's breakthrough came in 1996, with roles in two box-office hit films, Roland Emmerich's "Independence Day" and F. Gary Gray's "Set It Off".


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: Fox has starred in the films "Booty Call" (1997), "Soul Food" (1997), "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" (1998), "Kingdom Come" (2001), "Two Can Play That Game" (2001), and "Boat Trip" (2002). She played Vernita Green in "Kill Bill" and landed supporting roles in films like "Ella Enchanted" (2004).


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: She scored leading roles in the short-lived Fox sitcom "Getting Personal" (1998) and the CBS medical drama "City of Angels" (2000). From 2003 to 2006, she co-starred in and produced the Lifetime crime drama series, "Missing", for which she received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series. Fox has also produced a number of straight-to-video films.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: Fox was born in South Bend, Indiana, the daughter of Everlyena, a pharmaceutical technician, and William Fox, a school administrator. Her parents relocated to the Benton Harbor, Michigan area soon after her birth. Fox is a 1982 graduate of Arlington High School in Indianapolis and subsequently graduated from Golden West College in Huntington Beach, California, with an AA degree in Social Sciences.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: In 1982, Fox relocated to California to attend Golden West College. While in California, she was a dancer on "Soul Train" from 1983 to 1984, and also appeared in the music video for R&B group Klymaxx's hit single, "Meeting in the Ladies Room". Afterwards, she started acting professionally, first on the NBC daytime soap opera "Days of Our Lives" in 1988, playing Carmen Silva. After making her debut as a sex worker in Oliver Stone's war drama film "Born on the Fourth of July" (1989), she was cast as Emily Franklin in the pilot episode of ABC comedy series, "Living Dolls", a spin-off of the sitcom "Who's the Boss?" but was replaced with Halle Berry for the remaining episodes. Later that year, Fox was cast as Maya Reubens, the leading character in the NBC daytime soap opera "Generations". The series broke new ground as the first soap opera to feature an African-American family from its inception.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: In the early 1990s, Fox began appearing in prime time television, playing guest-starring roles on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", "Beverly Hills, 90210", "Family Matters", "Matlock," and "Martin". In 1992, she was cast as Patti LaBelle's fashion-designer daughter, Charisse Chamberlain, on the NBC sitcom "Out All Night". In addition to this role, she returned to soap operas, playing the role of Dr. Stephanie Simmons on CBS' "The Young and the Restless" from 1994 to 1995. In 1995, she also had a cameo role in the comedy film "Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood".


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: In 1996, Fox played Will Smith's character's girlfriend, Jasmine Dubrow, in the epic science fiction disaster blockbuster "Independence Day", directed by Roland Emmerich. The film grossed over $800 million worldwide. Fox received an MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss with Smith, and was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. Later that year, she played Francesca "Frankie" Sutton in the crime action film "Set It Off" opposite Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah and Kimberly Elise. Directed by F. Gary Gray, "Set It Off" became a critical and box office success, grossing over $41 million against a budget of $9 million. In 1997, Fox starred in three movies: "Booty Call", a Columbia Pictures comedy opposite Jamie Foxx; the superhero film "Batman & Robin"; and 20th Century Fox's critically acclaimed comedy-drama "Soul Food". The latter was a major box office success. For her role, Fox received her first NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture nomination, and MTV Movie Award for Best Performance.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: Fox had additional leading roles on television. She played Queen of Sheba in the British television film "Solomon" in 1997. That same year, she starred opposite Arsenio Hall in the short-lived ABC sitcom "Arsenio". In 1998, she was lead actress in the short-lived Fox sitcom "Getting Personal". Also in 1998, Fox starred alongside Halle Berry, Lela Rochon and Larenz Tate in the romantic drama film "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", playing one of the three wives of singer Frankie Lymon. The following year, she appeared in stoner comedy horror "Idle Hands", and "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" with Helen Mirren. In 2000, she starred alongside Blair Underwood in the short-lived CBS medical drama, "City of Angels".


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: In 2001, Fox played Lucille Slocumb in "Kingdom Come", a comedy-drama starring LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Whoopi Goldberg. That same year, she was the lead in the romantic comedy "Two Can Play That Game", and had a supporting role in the independent comedy-drama "Little Secrets". In 2002, she starred alongside Miguel A. Núñez Jr. in "Juwanna Mann" and Cuba Gooding Jr. in "Boat Trip". In 2003, Quentin Tarantino cast her as Vernita Green in his two-part martial arts film "Kill Bill".


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: From 2004 to 2006, Fox co-produced and starred as FBI special agent Nicole Scott in the Lifetime television crime drama series "Missing". She received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for her role in 2006. During this time, Fox produced and played the leading roles in several films, including "Motives", "The Salon", "Getting Played," and "Three Can Play That Game". From 2007 to 2009, she had a recurring role in the HBO comedy series "Curb Your Enthusiasm", as the mother of a family displaced by a hurricane and taken in by Larry and Cheryl.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: Fox was a judge on The WB's talent show "The Starlet". She participated in the third season of ABC's hit television show, "Dancing with the Stars", but was voted off after the fourth week. In 2009, Fox served as celebrity spokesperson for the then newly revamped Psychic Friends Network. After receiving backlash for her involvement with the network, Fox denied any involvement with the company, despite having filmed a commercial and promo video which had already gone to air. She hosted her own VH1 reality series "Glam God with Vivica A. Fox" (2008), TV Land's "The Cougar" (2009), and Lifetime's "Prank My Mom" (2012). She was also a contestant on "The Apprentice" in 2015.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: In the late 2000s and 2010s, Fox had supporting roles in movies poorly received by critics, such as "The Hard Corps" (2006) alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme, "Kickin' It Old Skool" (2007) starring Jamie Kennedy, and "" (2008) with Jessica Simpson. On television, she had guest starring roles on "Law & Order", "Drop Dead Diva", "Melissa & Joey", "Femme Fatales," and "Raising Hope". As a regular, Fox starred in the syndicated sitcom "Mr. Box Office" alongside Bill Bellamy and Jon Lovitz.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: In 2012, she acted in the Nigerian action drama film "Black November", starring Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, Akon, and Wyclef Jean. In 2013, Fox landed a part in the Christian sports drama, "Home Run". The film had a limited release on April 19, 2013 in the United States and has grossed over $2.8 million. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the movie received 45% positive reviews from 11 critics. Fox also gave her voice to the direct-to-DVD animated movie "Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright". In October 2013, she had a supporting role in the Christmas movie "So This Is Christmas", alongside Eric Roberts. In 2014, she participated in the acclaimed parodic TV movie "". Later that year, Fox starred in "Mercenaries", alongside Kristanna Loken, Brigitte Nielsen, Cynthia Rothrock, Zoë Bell, and Nicole Bilderback.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: In 2015, she was cast as Cookie Lyon's sister for the second season of "Empire". She was a recurring cast member as of the second season and was promoted to series regular for its sixth and final season. She acted in the comedy-drama, "Chocolate City", alongside Robert Ri'chard, Michael Jai White, Carmen Electra. In the United States, the film was released in a limited release and through video on demand on May 22, 2015. Freestyle Releasing handled the theatrical release, with Paramount Home Entertainment handling the video on demand and home media release of the film. The film debuted on BET on June 10, 2015. Fox was in the crime action thriller "The Good, the Bad, and the Dead", starring Johnny Messner, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, and Michael Paré. She also appeared in the movie "True to the Game", based on Teri Woods' novel of the same name.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: Fox reprised her "Independence Day" role in Roland Emmerich's "", released on June 24, 2016. That same year, it was announced that she would portray the president of the United States in the science fiction film "Crossbreed", making her the first African-American woman to portray the role in a feature film. She was also cast in the television film "The Wrong Roommate".


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: On January 4, 2017, Lifetime launched the premiere of her new venture "Vivica's Black Magic" which was an exotic male review. During this time, she had a supporting role in the movie "" starring Robert Ri'chard, Michael Jai White, Mekhi Phifer, Ginuwine, and Melanie Brown. On August 12, 2017, the movie was made available on Netflix. Fox appeared as Cheer Goddess in the film "". She also starred in the TV biopic "Bobbi Kristina", based on the life of Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina. Fox acted in the independent drama, Jason's Letter. The film made its premiere on June 11, 2017, at the Schwartz Center for the Arts in Dover.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: In 2018, the actress released a book. Vivica's "Every Day I'm Hustling" (St. Martin's Press, 2018) is a "part memoir, part inspirational" book that focuses on her career and relationships. The same year, she appeared in the TV movie "". She was hired to host the TV talk show "Face the Truth" on CBS, which lasted only one season. She also had a role in the erotic romantic thriller "Kinky". The film was released in the United States on October 12, 2018, by Patriot Pictures. In December 2018, she appeared in two Christmas movies: "Christmas with a View", starring Patrick Duffy and "A Wedding for Christmas".


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: In 2019, Fox starred in several David DeCoteau TV movies, including "The Wrong Stepmother", "The Wrong Boy Next Door", "The Wrong Mommy", "The Wrong Tutor" and "The Wrong Cheerleader". She appeared as Dr. Angela Foster in the TV series "The Bay", and starred in the drama film "Fire And Rain". She also acted in two Christmas themed TV movies: "2nd Chance for Christmas" and "Christmas Matchmakers", starring Dorian Gregory.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: In 2020, she starred in the movie "Arkansas", alongside Liam Hemsworth, John Malkovich, and Vince Vaughn. That same year, she starred in the movie "Hooking Up", and had a role in the movie "True to the Game 2" starring Tamar Braxton, which was released on April 10. She also starred in the movie "Rev", released in May 2020.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: Fox later competed in season six of "The Masked Singer" as "Mother Nature". She was the second to be eliminated during the two-night premiere, alongside Dwight Howard as "Octopus" and Toni Braxton as "Pufferfish". However, her unmasking occurred at the beginning of the second part, as the first part ended in a cliffhanger.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: In December 1998, Fox married singer Christopher "Sixx-Nine" Harvest. The couple divorced in 2002. Fox briefly dated rapper 50 Cent in 2003. In November 2011, Fox and club promoter Omar "Slimm" White broke off their 10-month engagement. Fox stated her biggest regret is that she did not have children.


title: Vivica A. Fox

text: On September 20, 2020, Fox backed out of co-hosting a "Live From the Red Carpet" virtual pre-show for the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, because she tested positive for COVID-19. She later said this test result was a false positive.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: The Scramble for Africa, also called the Partition of Africa, or Conquest of Africa, was the invasion, annexation, division, and colonization of most of Africa by seven Western European powers during a short period known as New Imperialism (between 1881 and 1914). The 10 percent of Africa that was under formal European control in 1870 increased to almost 90 percent by 1914, with only Liberia and Ethiopia remaining independent.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: The Berlin Conference of 1884, which regulated European colonization and trade in Africa, is usually accepted as the beginning. In the last quarter of the 19th century, there were considerable political rivalries within the empires of the European continent, leading to the African continent being partitioned without wars between European nations. The later years of the 19th century saw a transition from "informal imperialism" – military influence and economic dominance – to direct rule.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: By 1841, businessmen from Europe had established small trading posts along the coasts of Africa, but they seldom moved inland, preferring to stay near the sea. They primarily traded with locals. Large parts of the continent were essentially uninhabitable for Europeans because of their high mortality rates from tropical diseases such as malaria. In the middle of the 19th century, European explorers mapped much of East Africa and Central Africa.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: As late as the 1870s, Europeans controlled approximately 10% of the African continent, with all their territories located near the coasts. The most important holdings were Angola and Mozambique, held by Portugal; the Cape Colony, held by Great Britain; and Algeria, held by France. By 1914, only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent of European control, with the latter having strong connections to the United States.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: Technological advances facilitated European expansion overseas. Industrialization brought about rapid advancements in transportation and communication, especially in the forms of steamships, railways and telegraphs. Medical advances also played an important role, especially medicines for tropical diseases, which helped control their adverse effects. The development of quinine, an effective treatment for malaria, made vast expanses of the tropics more accessible for Europeans.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the last regions of the world largely untouched by "informal imperialism", was attractive to business entrepreneurs. During a time when Britain's balance of trade showed a growing deficit, with shrinking and increasingly protectionist continental markets during the Long Depression (1873–96), Africa offered Britain, Germany, France, and other countries an open market that would garner them a trade surplus: a market that bought more from the colonial power than it sold overall.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: Surplus capital was often more profitably invested overseas, where cheap materials, limited competition, and abundant raw materials made a greater premium possible. Another inducement for imperialism arose from the demand for raw materials, especially ivory, rubber, palm oil, cocoa, diamonds, tea, and tin. Additionally, Britain wanted control of areas of southern and eastern coasts of Africa for stopover ports on the route to Asia and its empire in India. But, excluding the area which became the Union of South Africa in 1910, European nations invested relatively limited amounts of capital in Africa compared to that in other continents. Consequently, the companies involved in tropical African commerce were relatively small, apart from Cecil Rhodes's De Beers Mining Company. Rhodes had carved out Rhodesia for himself. Leopold II of Belgium created the Congo Free State for rubber and other resource production.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: Pro-imperialist colonial lobbyists such as the "Alldeutscher Verband", Francesco Crispi and Jules Ferry, argued that sheltered overseas markets in Africa would solve the problems of low prices and overproduction caused by shrinking continental markets. John A. Hobson argued in "Imperialism" that this shrinking of continental markets was a key factor of the global "New Imperialism" period. William Easterly, however, disagrees with the link made between capitalism and imperialism, arguing that colonialism is used mostly to promote state-led development rather than corporate development. He has said that "imperialism is not so clearly linked to capitalism and the free markets... historically there has been a closer link between colonialism/imperialism and state-led approaches to development."


title: Scramble for Africa

text: While tropical Africa was not a large zone of investment, other overseas regions were. The vast interior between Egypt and the gold and diamond-rich Southern Africa had strategic value in securing the flow of overseas trade. Britain was under political pressure to build up lucrative markets in India, Malaya, Australia and New Zealand. Thus, it wanted to secure the key waterway between East and West – the Suez Canal, completed in 1869. However, a theory that Britain sought to annex East Africa during the 1880 onwards, out of geo-strategic concerns connected to Egypt (especially the Suez Canal), has been challenged by historians such as John Darwin (1997) and Jonas F. Gjersø (2015).


title: Scramble for Africa

text: The scramble for African territory also reflected concern for the acquisition of military and naval bases, for strategic purposes and the exercise of power. The growing navies, and new ships driven by steam power, required coaling stations and ports for maintenance. Defence bases were also needed for the protection of sea routes and communication lines, particularly of expensive and vital international waterways such as the Suez Canal.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: Colonies were seen as assets in balance of power negotiations, useful as items of exchange at times of international bargaining. Colonies with large native populations were also a source of military power; Britain and France used large numbers of British Indian and North African soldiers, respectively, in many of their colonial wars (and would do so again in the coming World Wars). In the age of nationalism there was pressure for a nation to acquire an empire as a status symbol; the idea of "greatness" became linked with the "White Man's Burden", or sense of duty, underlying many nations' strategies.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: In the early 1880s, Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza was exploring the Kingdom of Kongo for France, at the same time Henry Morton Stanley explored it on behalf of Leopold II of Belgium, who would have it as his personal Congo Free State. France occupied Tunisia in May 1881, which may have convinced Italy to join the German-Austrian Dual Alliance in 1882, thus forming the Triple Alliance. The same year, Britain occupied Egypt (hitherto an autonomous state owing nominal fealty to the Ottoman Empire), which ruled over Sudan and parts of Chad, Eritrea, and Somalia. In 1884, Germany declared Togoland, the Cameroons and South West Africa to be under its protection; and France occupied Guinea. French West Africa was founded in 1895 and French Equatorial Africa in 1910. In French Somaliland, a short-lived Russian colony in the Egyptian fort of Sagallo was briefly proclaimed by Terek Cossacks in 1889.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: Germany, divided into small states, was not a colonial power before it unified in 1871. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck disliked colonies but gave in to popular and elite pressure in the 1880s. He sponsored the 1884–85 Berlin Conference, which set the rules of effective control of African territories, and reduced the risk of conflict between colonial powers. Bismarck used private companies to set up small colonial operations in Africa and the Pacific.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: Pan-Germanism became linked to the young nation's new imperialist drives. In the beginning of the 1880s, the "Deutscher Kolonialverein" was created, and published the "Kolonialzeitung". This colonial lobby was also relayed by the nationalist "Alldeutscher Verband". "Weltpolitik" (world policy) was the foreign policy adopted by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890, with the aim of transforming Germany into a global power through aggressive diplomacy, and the development of a large navy. Germany became the third-largest colonial power in Africa, the location of most of its 2.6 million square kilometres of colonial territory and 14 million colonial subjects in 1914. The African possessions were Southwest Africa, Togoland, the Cameroons, and Tanganyika. Germany tried to isolate France in 1905 with the First Moroccan Crisis. This led to the 1905 Algeciras Conference, in which France's influence on Morocco was compensated by the exchange of other territories, and then to the Agadir Crisis in 1911.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: After a war with Austria in 1859, Italy was largely unified into the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Italy sought to expand its territory and become a great power, taking possession of parts of Eritrea in 1870 and 1882. In 1889–90, it occupied territory on the south side of the horn of Africa, forming what would become Italian Somaliland. In the disorder that followed the 1889 death of Emperor Yohannes IV, General Oreste Baratieri occupied the Ethiopian Highlands along the Eritrean coast, and Italy proclaimed the establishment of a new colony of Eritrea, with its capital moved from Massawa to Asmara. When relations between Italy and Ethiopia deteriorated, the First Italo-Ethiopian War broke out in 1895; Italian troops were defeated as the Ethiopians had numerical superiority, better organization, and support from Russia and France. In 1911, Italy engaged in a war with the Ottoman Empire, in which it acquired Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, that together formed what became known as Italian Libya. In 1919 Enrico Corradini developed the concept of "Proletarian Nationalism", which was supposed to legitimise Italy's imperialism by a mixture of socialism with nationalism:


title: Scramble for Africa

text: The Second Italo-Abyssinian War (1935–36), ordered by the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, was the last colonial war (that is, intended to colonise a country, as opposed to wars of national liberation), occupying Ethiopia—which had remained the last independent African territory, apart from Liberia. Italian Ethiopia was occupied by fascist Italian forces in World War II as part of Italian East Africa though much of the mountainous countryside had remained out Italian control due to resistance from the Arbegnoch. The occupation is an example of the expansionist policy that characterized the Axis powers as opposed to the Scramble for Africa.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: David Livingstone's explorations, carried on by Henry Morton Stanley, excited imaginations with Stanley's grandiose ideas for colonisation; but these found little support owing to the problems and scale of action required, except from Leopold II of Belgium, who in 1876 had organised the International African Association. From 1869 to 1874, Stanley was secretly sent by Leopold II to the Congo region, where he made treaties with several African chiefs along the Congo River and by 1882 had sufficient territory to form the basis of the Congo Free State.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: While Stanley was exploring the Congo on behalf of Leopold II of Belgium, the Franco-Italian marine officer Pierre de Brazza travelled into the western Congo Basin and raised the French flag over the newly founded Brazzaville in 1881, thus occupying today's Republic of the Congo. Portugal, which also claimed the area because of old treaties with the Kingdom of Kongo, made a treaty with Britain on 26 February 1884 to block off Leopold's access to the Atlantic.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: By 1890 the Congo Free State had consolidated control of its territory between Leopoldville and Stanleyville and was looking to push south down the Lualaba River from Stanleyville. At the same time, the British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes was expanding north from the Limpopo River, sending the Pioneer Column (guided by Frederick Selous) through Matabeleland, and starting a colony in Mashonaland.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: Tippu Tip, a Zanzibari Arab based in the Sultanate of Zanzibar, also played a major role as a "protector of European explorers", ivory trader and slave trader. Having established a trading empire within Zanzibar and neighboring areas in East Africa, Tippu Tip would shift his alignment towards the rising colonial powers in the region and at the proposal of Henry Morton Stanley, Tippu Tip became a governor of the "Stanley Falls District" (Boyoma Falls) in Leopold's Congo Free State, before being involved in the Congo–Arab War against Leopold II's colonial state.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: To the west, in the land where their expansions would meet, was Katanga, site of the Yeke Kingdom of Msiri. Msiri was the most militarily powerful ruler in the area and traded large quantities of copper, ivory and slaves—and rumors of gold reached European ears. The scramble for Katanga was a prime example of the period. Rhodes sent two expeditions to Msiri in 1890 led by Alfred Sharpe, who was rebuffed, and Joseph Thomson, who failed to reach Katanga. Leopold sent four expeditions. First, the Le Marinel expedition could only extract a vaguely worded letter. The Delcommune expedition was rebuffed. The well-armed Stairs expedition was given orders to take Katanga with or without Msiri's consent. Msiri refused, was shot, and his head was cut off and stuck on a pole as a "barbaric lesson" to the people. The Bia River expedition finished the job of establishing an administration of sorts and a "police presence" in Katanga. Thus, the half million square kilometres of Katanga came into Leopold's possession and brought his African realm up to , about 75 times larger than Belgium. The Congo Free State imposed such a terror regime on the colonized people, including mass killings and forced labour, that Belgium, under pressure from the Congo Reform Association, ended Leopold II's rule and annexed it on 20 August 1908 as a colony of Belgium, known as the Belgian Congo.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: The brutality of King Leopold II in his former colony of the Congo Free State was well documented; up to 8 million of the estimated 16 million native inhabitants died between 1885 and 1908. According to Roger Casement, an Irish diplomat of the time, this depopulation had four main causes: "indiscriminate war", starvation, reduction of births and diseases. Sleeping sickness ravaged the country and must also be taken into account for the dramatic decrease in population; it has been estimated that sleeping sickness and smallpox killed nearly half the population in the areas surrounding the lower Congo River. Estimates of the death toll vary considerably. As the first census did not take place until 1924, it is difficult to quantify the population loss of the period. The Casement Report set it at three million. William Rubinstein writes: "More basically, it appears almost certain that the population figures given by Hochschild are inaccurate. There is, of course, no way of ascertaining the population of the Congo before the twentieth century, and estimates like 20 million are purely guesses. Most of the interior of the Congo was literally unexplored if not inaccessible."


title: Scramble for Africa

text: A similar situation occurred in the neighbouring French Congo, where most of the resource extraction was run by concession companies, whose brutal methods, along with the introduction of disease, resulted in the loss of up to 50% of the indigenous population according to Hochschild. The French government appointed a commission headed by de Brazza in 1905 to investigate the rumoured abuses in the colony. However, de Brazza died on the return trip, and his "searingly critical" report was neither acted upon nor released to the public. In the 1920s, about 20,000 forced labourers died building a railroad through the French territory.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: In order to construct the Suez Canal, French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps had obtained many concessions from Isma'il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan in 1854–56. Some sources estimate the workforce at 30,000, but others estimate that 120,000 workers died over the ten years of construction from malnutrition, fatigue, and disease, especially cholera. Shortly before its completion in 1869, Khedive Isma'il borrowed enormous sums from British and French bankers at high rates of interest. By 1875, he was facing financial difficulties and was forced to sell his block of shares in the Suez Canal. The shares were snapped up by Britain, under Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who sought to give his country practical control in the management of this strategic waterway. When Isma'il repudiated Egypt's foreign debt in 1879, Britain and France seized joint financial control over the country, forcing the Egyptian ruler to abdicate and installing his eldest son Tewfik Pasha in his place. The Egyptian and Sudanese ruling classes did not relish foreign intervention.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: During the 1870s, European initiatives against the slave trade caused an economic crisis in northern Sudan, precipitating the rise of Mahdist forces. In 1881, the Mahdist revolt erupted in Sudan under Muhammad Ahmad, severing Tewfik's authority in Sudan. The same year, Tewfik suffered an even more perilous rebellion by his own Egyptian army in the form of the Urabi revolt. In 1882, Tewfik appealed for direct British military assistance, commencing Britain's administration of Egypt. A joint British-Egyptian military force entered in the Mahdist War. Additionally the Egyptian province of Equatoria (located in South Sudan) led by Emin Pasha was also subject to an ostensible relief expedition of Emin Pasha against Mahdist forces. The British-Egyptian force ultimately defeated the Mahdist forces in Sudan in 1898. Thereafter, Britain seized effective control of Sudan, which was nominally called Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: The occupation of Egypt and the acquisition of the Congo were the first major moves in what came to be a precipitous scramble for African territory. In 1884, Otto von Bismarck convened the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference to discuss the African problem. While diplomatic discussions were held regarding ending the remaining slave trade as well as the reach of missionary activities, the primary concern of those in attendance was preventing war between the European powers as they divided the continent among themselves. More importantly, the diplomats in Berlin laid down the rules of competition by which the great powers were to be guided in seeking colonies. They also agreed that the area along the Congo River was to be administered by Leopold II as a neutral area in which trade and navigation were to be free. No nation was to stake claims in Africa without notifying other powers of its intentions. No territory could be formally claimed prior to being effectively occupied. However, the competitors ignored the rules when convenient, and on several occasions war was only narrowly avoided (see Fashoda Incident. The Swahili coast territories of the Sultanate of Zanzibar were partitioned between Germany and Britain, initially leaving the archipelago of Zanzibar independent until 1890, when that remnant of the Sultanate was made into a British protectorate with the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: Britain's administration of Egypt and the Cape Colony contributed to a preoccupation over securing the source of the Nile River. Egypt was taken over by the British in 1882, leaving the Ottoman Empire in a nominal role until 1914, when London made it a protectorate. Egypt was never an actual British colony. Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda were subjugated in the 1890s and early 20th century; and in the south, the Cape Colony (first acquired in 1795) provided a base for the subjugation of neighbouring African states and the Dutch Afrikaner settlers who had left the Cape to avoid the British and then founded their own republics. Theophilus Shepstone annexed the South African Republic in 1877 for the British Empire, after it had been independent for twenty years. In 1879, after the Anglo-Zulu War, Britain consolidated its control of most of the territories of South Africa. The Boers protested, and in December 1880 they revolted, leading to the First Boer War. British Prime Minister William Gladstone signed a peace treaty on 23 March 1881, giving self-government to the Boers in the Transvaal. The Jameson Raid of 1895 was a failed attempt by the British South Africa Company and the Johannesburg Reform Committee to overthrow the Boer government in the Transvaal. The Second Boer War, fought between 1899 and 1902, was about control of the gold and diamond industries; the independent Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic were this time defeated and absorbed into the British Empire.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: The French thrust into the African interior was mainly from the coasts of West Africa (present-day Senegal) eastward, through the Sahel along the southern border of the Sahara. Their ultimate aim was to have an uninterrupted colonial empire from the Niger River to the Nile, thus controlling all trade to and from the Sahel region by virtue of their existing control over the caravan routes through the Sahara. The British, on the other hand, wanted to link their possessions in Southern Africa with their territories in East Africa and these two areas with the Nile basin.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: The Sudan (which included most of present-day Uganda) was the key to the fulfillment of these ambitions, especially since Egypt was already under British control. This "red line" through Africa is made most famous by Cecil Rhodes. Along with Lord Milner, the British colonial minister in South Africa, Rhodes advocated such a "Cape to Cairo" empire, linking the Suez Canal to the mineral-rich South Africa by rail. Though hampered by German occupation of Tanganyika until the end of World War I, Rhodes successfully lobbied on behalf of such a sprawling African empire.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: If one draws a line from Cape Town to Cairo (Rhodes's dream), and one from Dakar to the Horn of Africa (the French ambition), these two lines intersect somewhere in eastern Sudan near Fashoda, explaining its strategic importance. In short, Britain had sought to extend its East African empire contiguously from Cairo to the Cape of Good Hope, while France had sought to extend its own holdings from Dakar to the Sudan, which would enable its empire to span the entire continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: A French force under Jean-Baptiste Marchand arrived first at the strategically located fort at Fashoda, soon followed by a British force under Lord Kitchener, commander in chief of the British Army since 1892. The French withdrew after a standoff and continued to press claims to other posts in the region. The Fashoda Incident ultimately led to the signature of the "Entente Cordiale" of 1904, which guaranteed peace between the two.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: Although the Berlin Conference had set the rules for the Scramble for Africa, it had not weakened the rival imperialists. As a result of the "Entente Cordiale", the German Kaiser decided to test the solidity of such influence, using the contested territory of Morocco as a battlefield. Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Tangier on 31 March 1905 and made a speech in favour of Moroccan independence, challenging French influence in Morocco. France's presence had been reaffirmed by Britain and Spain in 1904. The Kaiser's speech bolstered French nationalism, and with British support the French foreign minister, Théophile Delcassé, took a defiant line. The crisis peaked in mid-June 1905, when Delcassé was forced out of the ministry by the more conciliation-minded premier Maurice Rouvier. But by July 1905 Germany was becoming isolated, and the French agreed to a conference to solve the crisis.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: The 1906 Algeciras Conference was called to settle the dispute. Of the thirteen nations present, the German representatives found their only supporter was Austria-Hungary, which had no interest in Africa. France had firm support from Britain, the U.S., Russia, Italy and Spain. The Germans eventually accepted an agreement, signed on 31 May 1906, whereby France yielded certain domestic changes in Morocco but retained control of key areas.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: However, five years later the Second Moroccan Crisis (or Agadir Crisis) was sparked by the deployment of the German gunboat "Panther" to the port of Agadir in July 1911. Germany had started to attempt to match Britain's naval supremacy—the British navy had a policy of remaining larger than the next two rival fleets in the world combined. When the British heard of the "Panther"s arrival in Morocco, they wrongly believed that the Germans meant to turn Agadir into a naval base on the Atlantic. The German move was aimed at reinforcing claims for compensation for acceptance of effective French control of the North African kingdom, where France's pre-eminence had been upheld by the 1906 Algeciras Conference. In November 1911 a compromise was reached under which Germany accepted France's position in Morocco in return for a slice of territory in the French Equatorial African colony of Middle Congo.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: France and Spain subsequently established a full protectorate over Morocco on 30 March 1912, ending what remained of the country's formal independence. Furthermore, British backing for France during the two Moroccan crises reinforced the "Entente" between the two countries and added to Anglo-German estrangement, deepening the divisions that would culminate in the First World War.


title: Scramble for Africa

text: Following the Berlin Conference, the British, Italians, and Ethiopians sought to claim lands inhabited by the Somalis. The Dervish movement, led by Sayid Muhammed Abdullah Hassan, existed for 21 years, from 1899 until 1920. The Dervish movement successfully repulsed the British Empire four times and forced it to retreat to the coastal region. Because of these successful expeditions, the Dervish movement was recognized as an ally by the Ottoman and German empires. The Turks named Hassan Emir of the Somali nation, and the Germans promised to officially recognise any territories the Dervishes were to acquire. After a quarter of a century of holding the British at bay, the Dervishes were finally defeated in 1920 as a direct consequence of Britain's use of aircraft.