title: Ryan White

text: White attended Western Middle School for eighth grade during the 1985–1986 school year. He was deeply unhappy and had few friends. The school required him to eat with disposable utensils, use separate bathrooms, and waived his requirement to enroll in a gym class. Threats continued. When a bullet was fired through the Whites' living room window (no one was home at the time), the family decided to leave Kokomo. After finishing the school year, his family moved to Cicero, Indiana, where he began ninth grade at Hamilton Heights High School, in Arcadia, Indiana. On August 31, 1986, a "very nervous" White was greeted by school principal Tony Cook, school system superintendent Bob G. Carnal, and a handful of students who had been educated about AIDS and were unafraid to shake White's hand.


title: Ryan White

text: The publicity of Ryan White's story catapulted him into the national spotlight, amidst a growing wave of AIDS coverage in the news media. Between 1985 and 1987, the number of news stories about AIDS in the American media doubled. While isolated in middle school, White appeared frequently on national television and in newspapers to discuss his tribulations with the disease. Eventually, he became known as a poster child for the AIDS crisis, appearing in fundraising and educational campaigns for the syndrome. White participated in numerous public benefits for children with AIDS. Many celebrities appeared with him, starting during his trial and continuing for the rest of his life, to help publicly destigmatize socializing with people with AIDS. Singers John Mellencamp, Elton John and Michael Jackson, actor Matt Frewer, diver Greg Louganis, President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan, Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop, Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight and basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar all befriended White. He also was a friend to many children with AIDS or other potentially debilitating conditions.


title: Ryan White

text: For the rest of his life, White appeared frequently on Phil Donahue's talk show. His celebrity crush, Alyssa Milano of the then-popular TV show "Who's the Boss?", met White and gave him a friendship bracelet and a kiss. Elton John loaned Jeanne White $16,500 to put toward a down payment on the Cicero home, and rather than accept repayment, placed the repaid money into a college fund for White's sister. In high school, White drove a red 1988 Ford Mustang LX 5.0, a gift from Michael Jackson. Despite the fame and donations, Ryan White stated that he disliked the public spotlight, loathed remarks that seemingly blamed his mother or his upbringing for his illness, and emphasized that he would be willing at any moment to trade his fame for freedom from the disease.


title: Ryan White

text: In 1988, Ryan White spoke before the President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic. Ryan White told the commission of the discrimination he had faced when he first tried to return to school, but how education about the disease had made him welcome in the town of Cicero. Ryan White emphasized his differing experiences in Kokomo and Cicero as an example of the power and importance of AIDS education.


title: Ryan White

text: In 1989, ABC aired the television movie "The Ryan White Story", starring Lukas Haas as Ryan, Judith Light as Jeanne and Nikki Cox as his sister Andrea. Ryan White had a small cameo appearance as "Chad" in the film, playing a boy who also has HIV and later befriends Haas. Others in the film included Sarah Jessica Parker as a sympathetic nurse, George Dzundza as his doctor, and George C. Scott as Ryan's attorney, who legally argued against school board authorities. Nielsen estimated that the movie was seen by 15 million viewers. Some residents of Kokomo felt that the movie was condemning of them for their actions against White. After the film aired, the office of Kokomo mayor Robert F. Sargent was flooded with complaints from across the country, although Robert Sargent had not been elected to the office during the time of the controversy.


title: Ryan White

text: By early 1990, White's health was deteriorating rapidly. In his final public appearance, he hosted an after-Oscars party with former president Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Reagan in California. Despite his declining health, Ryan White spoke to the Reagans about his date to the prom and his hopes of attending college.


title: Ryan White

text: On March 29, 1990, Ryan White entered Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis with a respiratory tract infection. As his condition deteriorated, he was sedated and placed on a ventilator. He was visited by Elton John, and the hospital was deluged with calls from well-wishers. Ryan White died on April 8, 1990.


title: Ryan White

text: Over 1,500 people attended Ryan's funeral on April 11, a standing-room only event held at the Second Presbyterian Church on Meridian Street in Indianapolis. White's pallbearers included Elton John, football star Howie Long and Phil Donahue. Elton John performed "Skyline Pigeon" at the funeral. The funeral was also attended by singer Michael Jackson, future U.S. President Donald Trump and then-First Lady Barbara Bush. On the day of the funeral, Ronald Reagan wrote a tribute to Ryan that appeared in "The Washington Post". Reagan's statement about AIDS and White's funeral were seen as indicators of how greatly Ryan White had helped change perceptions of AIDS.


title: Ryan White

text: White is buried in Cicero, close to the former home of his mother. In the year following his death, his grave was vandalized on four occasions. As time passed, White's grave became a shrine for his admirers.


title: Ryan White

text: Ryan White was one of a handful of highly visible people with AIDS in the 1980s and early 1990s who helped change the public perception of the disease. Ryan, along with actor Rock Hudson, was one of the earliest public faces of AIDS. Other public figures who were infected with HIV included Keith Haring, Holly Johnson, Freddie Mercury, the Ray brothers, Magic Johnson, Greg Louganis, Arthur Ashe, Liberace, Eazy-E, Anthony Perkins, Randy Shilts, Ricky Wilson, Ofra Haza, Robert Reed, and Jerry Smith. Ryan White helped to increase public awareness that HIV/AIDS was a significant epidemic.


title: Ryan White

text: Numerous charities formed around White's death. The Indiana University Dance Marathon, started in 1991, raises money for the Riley Hospital for Children. Between 1991 and 2022, this event helped raise over $50 million for children at Riley. The money raised has also helped fund the Ryan White Infectious Disease Clinic at the hospital to take care of the nation's sickest children. Ryan's personal physician, with whom he was close friends, Dr. Martin Kleiman, became the Ryan White Professor of Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. In a 1993 interview, prominent gay rights and AIDS activist Larry Kramer said, "I think little Ryan White probably did more to change the face of this illness and to move people than anyone. And he continues to be a presence through his mom, Jeanne White. She has an incredibly moving presence as she speaks around the world."


title: Ryan White

text: In 1992, White's mother founded the national nonprofit Ryan White Foundation. The foundation worked to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS-related issues, with a focus on hemophiliacs like Ryan White, and on families caring for relatives with the disease. The foundation was active throughout the 1990s, with donations reaching $300,000 a year in 1997. Between 1997 and 2000, however, AIDS donations declined nationwide by 21%, and the Ryan White Foundation saw its donation level drop to $100,000 a year. In 2000, Ryan's mother closed the foundation, and merged its remaining assets with AIDS Action, a larger charity. She became a spokeswoman for AIDS activism and continued to arrange speaking events through the site devoted to her son, ryanwhite.com (no longer online as of October 2020). White's high school, Hamilton Heights, has had a student-government sponsored annual AIDS Walk, with proceeds going to a Ryan White Scholarship Fund.


title: Ryan White

text: Elton John has cited White's death as the major impetus behind his decision to fight his long-standing alcohol and cocaine addiction; he went into rehab shortly afterwards, and later created the Elton John AIDS Foundation. White also became the inspiration for a handful of popular songs. Elton John donated proceeds from "The Last Song," which appears on his album "The One", to a Ryan White fund at Riley Hospital. Michael Jackson dedicated the song "Gone Too Soon" from his "Dangerous" album to White, as did 1980s pop star Tiffany with the song "Here in My Heart" on her "New Inside" album. In November 2007, The Children's Museum of Indianapolis opened an exhibit called "," which remains a sobering, featured exhibit and continues to develop, while it features White's bedroom and belongings alongside similar tributes to Anne Frank and Ruby Bridges. After Ryan died, Greg Louganis gave his Olympic gold medal to Ryan's mother, and it is now part of the display about Ryan at the Children's Museum. In April 2015, Greg visited The Power of Children exhibit with Jeanne to see his medal in Ryan's recreated room. He said then, "The thing I’ll always remember about Ryan is his courage, strength, and sense of humor...The way Ryan lived his life continues to give me the strength and courage to do things I might not otherwise feel comfortable doing.”


title: Ryan White

text: In the early 1980s, AIDS was known as gay-related immune deficiency, because the disease had first been identified among primarily homosexual communities in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco. At the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, the disease was thought to be a "homosexual problem" and was largely ignored by policymakers. White's diagnosis demonstrated to many that AIDS was not exclusive to homosexual men. In his advocacy for AIDS research, White always rejected any criticism of homosexuality, although not gay himself.


title: Ryan White

text: Ryan White was seen by some as an "innocent victim" of the AIDS epidemic. Ryan White and his family strongly rejected the language of "innocent victim" because the phrase was often used to imply that gays with AIDS were "guilty". Ryan's mother told "The New York Times",


title: Ryan White

text: In August 1990, four months after Ryan White's death, Congress enacted The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act (often known simply as the Ryan White CARE Act), in his honor. The act is the United States' largest federally funded program for people living with HIV/AIDS. The Ryan White CARE Act funds programs to improve availability of care for low-income, uninsured and underinsured victims of AIDS and their families.


title: Ryan White

text: Ryan White programs are "payers of last resort," which subsidize treatment when no other resources are available. The act was reauthorized in 1996, 2000, 2006 and 2009 and remains an active piece of legislation today. The program provides some level of care for around 500,000 people a year and, in 2004, provided funds to 2,567 organizations. The Ryan White programs also provide funding and technical assistance to local and state primary medical care providers, support services, healthcare providers and training programs.


title: Ryan White

text: The Ryan White CARE Act was set to expire on September 30, 2009, but an extension was signed by President Barack Obama.


title: Teapot Dome scandal

text: The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923. Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming, as well as two locations in California, to private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding. The leases were the subject of a seminal investigation by Senator Thomas J. Walsh. Convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies, Fall became the first presidential cabinet member to go to prison; no one was convicted of paying the bribes.


title: Teapot Dome scandal

text: Before the Watergate scandal, Teapot Dome was regarded as the "greatest and most sensational scandal in the history of American politics". It irrevocably damaged the reputation of the Harding administration, which was already severely diminished by its controversial handling of the Great Railroad Strike of 1922 and Harding's veto of the Bonus Bill in 1922. Congress subsequently passed legislation, enduring to this day, giving subpoena power to the House and Senate for review of tax records of any U.S. citizen regardless of elected or appointed position. These resulting laws are also considered to have empowered the role of Congress more generally.


title: Teapot Dome scandal

text: In the early 20th century, the U.S. Navy largely obtained fuel oil by converting it from coal. To ensure that the Navy would always have enough fuel available, President Taft designated several oil-producing areas as naval oil reserves. In 1921, President Harding issued an executive order that transferred control of Teapot Dome Oil Field in Natrona County, Wyoming, and the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Oil Fields in Kern County, California, from the Navy Department to the Department of the Interior. This was not implemented until the next year in 1922, when Interior Secretary Fall persuaded Navy Secretary Edwin C. Denby to transfer control.


title: Teapot Dome scandal

text: Later in 1922, Fall leased the oil production rights at Teapot Dome to Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil, a subsidiary of Sinclair Oil Corporation. He also leased the Elk Hills reserve to Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company. Both leases were issued without competitive bidding, which was legal under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920.


title: Teapot Dome scandal

text: The lease terms were very favorable to the oil companies, who secretly made Fall a rich man. Fall received a no-interest loan from Doheny of $100,000 (about $ in 2022 dollars) in November 1921. He received other gifts from Doheny and Sinclair totaling about $404,000 (about $ today). This money changing hands was illegal, not the leases. Fall attempted to keep his actions secret, but the sudden improvement in his standard of living was suspect. He even paid up his ranch taxes, for example, which had been as much as 10 years past due. Carl Magee, who later founded "The Albuquerque Tribune", wrote about this sudden affluence and also brought it to the attention of the Senate investigation.


title: Teapot Dome scandal

text: In April 1922, a Wyoming oil operator wrote to his senator, John B. Kendrick, angered that Sinclair had been given a contract to the lands in a secret deal. Kendrick did not respond, but two days later on April 15, he introduced a resolution calling for an investigation of the deal. Republican Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin led an investigation by the Senate Committee on Public Lands. At first, La Follette believed Fall was innocent. However, his suspicions were aroused after his own office in the Senate Office Building was ransacked.


title: Teapot Dome scandal

text: Democrat Thomas J. Walsh of Montana, the most junior minority member, led a lengthy inquiry. For two years, Walsh pushed forward while Fall stepped backward, covering his tracks as he went. No evidence of wrongdoing was initially uncovered, as the leases were legal enough, but records kept disappearing mysteriously. Fall had made the leases appear legitimate, but his acceptance of the money was his undoing. By 1924, the remaining unanswered question was how Fall had become so rich so quickly and easily.


title: Teapot Dome scandal

text: Money from the bribes had gone to Fall's cattle ranch and investments in his business. Finally, as the investigation was winding down with Fall apparently innocent, Walsh uncovered a piece of evidence Fall had failed to cover up: Doheny's $100,000 loan to Fall. This discovery broke open the scandal. Civil and criminal suits related to the scandal continued throughout the 1920s. In 1927, the Supreme Court ruled that the oil leases had been corruptly obtained. The Court invalidated the Elk Hills lease in February 1927, and the Teapot Dome lease in October. Both reserves were returned to the Navy.


title: Teapot Dome scandal

text: In 1929, Fall was found guilty of accepting bribes from Doheny. Conversely, in 1930, Doheny was acquitted of paying bribes to Fall. Further, Doheny's corporation foreclosed on Fall's home in the Tularosa Basin, New Mexico, because of "unpaid loans" that turned out to be that same $100,000 bribe. Sinclair served six months in jail on a charge of jury tampering.


title: Teapot Dome scandal

text: Although Fall was to blame for this scandal, Harding's reputation was permanently sullied because of his involvement with the wrong people. Evidence proving Fall's guilt only arose after Harding's death in 1923.


title: Teapot Dome scandal

text: The Supreme Court's ruling in "McGrain v. Daugherty" (1927) for the first time explicitly established that Congress had the power to compel testimony.


title: Teapot Dome scandal

text: The Teapot Dome oil field was then idled for 49 years, but went back into production in 1976. After Teapot Dome had earned over $569 million in revenue from the of oil extracted over the previous 39 years, the Department of Energy in February 2015 sold the oil field for $45 million to New York–based Stranded Oil Resources Corp.


title: Teapot Dome scandal

text: The Teapot Dome scandal has historically been regarded as the worst such scandal in the United States – the "high water mark" of cabinet corruption. It is often used as a benchmark for comparison with subsequent scandals. In particular it has been compared to the Watergate scandal, in which a cabinet member, Attorney General John N. Mitchell, went to prison, the second time in American history that a member of the cabinet has been incarcerated.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I, with its football teams competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Member universities represent a range of private and public universities of various enrollment sizes located primarily in urban metropolitan areas in the Northeastern, Midwestern, and Southern regions of the United States.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The American's legal predecessor, the original Big East Conference, was considered one of the six collegiate power conferences of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) era in college football, and The American inherited that status in the BCS's final season. With the advent of the College Football Playoff in 2014, The American became a "Group of Five" conference, which shares one automatic spot in the New Year's Six bowl games.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The league is the product of substantial turmoil in the old Big East during the 2010–14 conference realignment period. It is one of two conferences to emerge from the all-sports Big East in 2013. While the other successor, which does not sponsor football, purchased the Big East Conference name, The American inherited the old Big East's structure and is that conference's legal successor. However, both conferences claim 1979 as their founding date, and the same history up to 2013. The American is headquartered in Irving, Texas, and led by Commissioner Michael Aresco.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The current full members of the conference are the University of Central Florida, University of Cincinnati, East Carolina University, University of Houston, University of Memphis, University of South Florida, Southern Methodist University, Temple University, Tulane University, University of Tulsa, and Wichita State University, though Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston will be departing the conference on July 1, 2023. The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Florida Atlantic University, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, University of North Texas, Rice University, and University of Texas at San Antonio will be joining as full members on July 1, 2023. The American also has seven affiliate members: California State University, Sacramento, University of Florida, Florida International University, James Madison University, United States Naval Academy, Old Dominion University, and Vanderbilt University.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The Big East Conference was founded in 1979 as a basketball conference and included the colleges of Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, and Syracuse, which in turn invited Connecticut (UConn), Holy Cross, Rutgers, and Boston College to be members. UConn and Boston College would accept the invitation, while Holy Cross soon thereafter declined the invitation, and Rutgers eventually declined and remained in the Atlantic 10 Conference (then known as the Eastern 8 Conference). Seton Hall was then invited as a replacement and the conference started play with seven members.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Villanova and Pittsburgh joined shortly thereafter under the leadership of the first Big East commissioner, Dave Gavitt.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The conference remained largely unchanged until 1991, when it began to sponsor football, adding Miami as a full member, and Rutgers, Temple, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia as football-only members. Rutgers and West Virginia were offered full all-sports membership in 1995, while Virginia Tech waited until 2000 for the same offer. Temple football was kicked out after the 2004 season, but rejoined in 2012 and intended to become a full member in 2013.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The unusual structure of the Big East, with the "football" and "non-football" schools, led to instability in the conference. The waves of defection and replacement brought about by the conference realignments of 2005 and the early 2010s revealed tension between the football-sponsoring and non-football schools that eventually led to the split of the conference in 2013.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The conference was reorganized following the tumultuous period of realignment that hobbled the Big East between 2010 and 2013. The Big East was one of the most severely impacted conferences during the most recent conference realignment period. In all, 14 member schools announced their departure for other conferences, and 15 other schools announced plans to join the conference (eight as all-sports members, and four for football only). Three of the latter group later backed out of their plans to join (one for all sports, and the other two for football only).


title: American Athletic Conference

text: On December 15, 2012, the Big East's seven remaining non-FBS schools, all Catholic institutions consisting of DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova announced that they voted unanimously to leave the Big East Conference effective June 30, 2015. The "Catholic 7", by leaving, were looking for a more lucrative television deal than the one they would receive by remaining with the football schools. In March 2013, representatives of the Catholic 7 announced they would leave the conference effective June 30, 2013, retaining the Big East name, $10 million, and the right to hold the conference's basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Following the announcement of the departure of the Catholic 7 universities, the remaining ten football-playing members started the process of selecting a new name for the conference and choosing a new site to hold its basketball tournament. Various names were considered, with the "America 12" conference reportedly one of the finalists until rejected by college presidents sensitive of adding a number to the end of the conference name. On April 3, 2013, the conference announced that it had chosen a new name: American Athletic Conference. The conference also revealed that it prefers the nickname "The American" because it was thought "AAC" would cause too much confusion with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Louisville and Rutgers spent one season in the newly renamed conference. On July 1, 2014, Louisville joined the ACC and Rutgers joined the Big Ten Conference. On that same day, East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa joined The American for all sports, while Sacramento State and San Diego State joined as affiliate members for women's rowing. Navy joined as an affiliate member in football on July 1, 2015.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: For the next several years, The American did not discuss the addition of any new members. However, in March 2017, media reports indicated that the conference was seriously considering adding one or more new members specifically as basketball upgrades. Wichita State, Dayton, and VCU were reportedly considered, with Wichita State being seen as the strongest candidate. By the end of that month, it was reported that talks between the American and Wichita State had advanced to the point that the two sides were discussing a timeline for membership, with the possibility of the Shockers joining as a full but non-football member as early as the 2017–18 school year. The report indicated that a final decision would be made in April. The conference's board of directors voted unanimously on April 7 to add Wichita State effective in July 2017, making the Shockers the league's first full non-football member since the Big East split.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: On June 21, 2019, a Boston-area sports news website, "Digital Sports Desk", revealed that UConn was expected to announce by the end of the month that it would leave the American for the Big East Conference in 2020. The story was picked up by multiple national media outlets the next day. The main issue that reportedly had to be resolved prior to any official announcement was the future of UConn football, as the Big East does not sponsor that sport, and sources indicated that the American had no interest in retaining UConn as a football-only member. Reportedly, American Conference insiders were not surprised by UConn's prospective move, as that school had been vigorously opposed to that league's most recently announced television deal.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: National media believed that should UConn leave the American, the conference's likeliest response would be to bring in two new schools—one for football only and a second in non-football sports, similar to the American's sequential additions of Navy and Wichita State. The most likely prospects for football-only membership were seen as Army (currently an FBS independent, with most of its other sports in the Patriot League), and Air Force (currently an all-sports member of the Mountain West Conference). Any of several schools could potentially fill the non-football slot, with Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports considering VCU to be "the most logical target there." Thamel dismissed the prospect of the American adding a new all-sports member, saying "there's no obvious candidate who could add value in both basketball and football."


title: American Athletic Conference

text: On June 24, 2019, it was reported that the Big East had formally approved an invitation for UConn to join the conference. On June 26, 2019, the UConn Board of Trustees accepted the invitation and they are expected to join the league for the 2020–2021 season. On July 26, media reports indicated that UConn and The American had reached a buyout agreement that confirmed UConn's Big East arrival date as July 1, 2020, paying the American a $17 million exit fee.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: It was widely reported that UConn was "rejoining" the Big East, given that the Huskies would be reunited with many of the schools against which it played for three decades in the original Big East. Indeed, UConn was the last charter member of the old Big East still playing in The American.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The American took a number of steps to stabilize the conference after the departure of UConn. The first move was the addition of Old Dominion University as an affiliate member in women's lacrosse for the 2020–21 season. Old Dominion was previously added to The American for women's rowing beginning in the 2018–19 season.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The American moved their headquarters from Providence, Rhode Island to Irving, Texas. This was a planned move, to better centralize the conference offices with the member schools. Irving is in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, which is also home to the headquarters of the Big 12 Conference, College Football Playoff, and the National Football Foundation. The conference also moved the men's basketball tournament to the region, to be played at the new Dickies Arena until 2022.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, some member schools have eliminated sports due to budget constraints. The University of Cincinnati eliminated its men's soccer program while East Carolina University canceled men and women's swimming and diving teams and tennis teams. Women's rowing member San Diego State University dropped that sport effective with the end of the 2020–21 season.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: In late July 2021, founding Big 12 members Oklahoma and Texas jointly announced that they planned to leave the conference no later than 2025, and formally requested an invitation from the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Shortly thereafter, The American became a peripheral player in this saga when the Big 12 sent a cease and desist letter to current broadcast partner ESPN, charging the network with conspiring to damage the league by luring Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC, and also alleging that the network encouraged an unnamed conference to raid the Big 12 to pave the way for an earlier departure by Oklahoma and Texas. A later media report identified that other conference as The American. ESPN issued an official denial of the Big 12 charges, and officials from The American declined to comment.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: On September 3, "Sports Illustrated" reported that the Big 12 Conference was on the verge of inviting four schools— including American Conference members Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF. Later that month, all three schools received and accepted membership offers on the date of the presidents' meeting, with the official announcement stating only that they would join the Big 12 no later than 2024–25. On June 10, 2022, The American and the three departing schools announced a buyout agreement had been reached, confirming those schools' 2023 departure date. At the time, it was possible that Cincinnati and UCF could remain in the conference as affiliate members for women's lacrosse and men's soccer, respectively, as the Big 12 does not sponsor those sports, though no formal announcement has been made. UCF would later accept an offer of men's soccer membership from the Sun Belt Conference effective in 2023, aligning its men's soccer program with that of West Virginia, the only pre-2023 Big 12 member sponsoring men's soccer.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: In late September 2021, several national media outlets reported that Mountain West Conference (MW) members Air Force and Colorado State had approached The American regarding a possible move to that league. However, on October 1, the MW announced that its current membership would remain intact for the foreseeable future, removing its 12 football members (including football-only member Hawaii) from the list of potential new members for The American. For its part, The American officially denied extending invitations to the two Colorado schools.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Later that month on October 18, 2021, Yahoo! Sports reported that The American was preparing to receive applications from six of the 14 members of Conference USA—Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB, and UTSA. This would make The American a 14-full-member conference. The next day, ESPN reported that all six schools had submitted applications, and that each would receive a formal letter by the end of that week (October 22) detailing the terms of conference expansion. All six schools were accepted on October 21, and the conference confirmed their 2023 entry date on June 16, 2022.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: A series of further realignment moves centering on the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) led to The American's men's soccer league expanding earlier than planned. This sequence began in November 2021 when James Madison announced its departure from the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) to join the SBC in 2023. The CAA responded by invoking a provision of its bylaws to ban JMU from further conference championship events. The SBC responded by pushing JMU's entry forward to 2022.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Soon after this, the other three C-USA members set to move to the SBC in 2023 (Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss, with Marshall and ODU sponsoring men's soccer) announced that they would instead leave in 2022. Following a brief legal dispute, C-USA and the three schools reached a settlement that allowed those schools to join the SBC in 2022. With three men's soccer schools now joining in 2022 instead of 2023, the SBC announced it would reinstate men's soccer at that time. The new full members were joined by three full SBC member and three new associate members. Coastal Carolina, played the 2021 season in C-USA. The other two full SBC members, Georgia Southern and Georgia State played the MAC. The new associates were Kentucky and South Carolina, which had been single-sport C-USA members since 2005; and West Virginia, which had previously announced that it would move men's soccer from the Mid-American Conference to C-USA in 2022.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: C-USA was then left with only four men's soccer programs for 2022 (Charlotte, FIU, Florida Atlantic, and UAB), with all but FIU set to become full American members in 2023. The American accordingly brought all four schools as new men's soccer members for 2022, with FIU remaining an affiliate after the others fully join The American.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Similar changes came to women's swimming & diving, again due in part to SBC expansion. Of the schools leaving C-USA for the SBC in 2022, Marshall and Old Dominion sponsor that sport, and incoming American members Florida Atlantic, North Texas, and Rice also sponsor the sport (although Rice fields swimmers only, with no divers). The American brought the aforementioned future full members, plus FIU, into its women's swimming & diving league. As with men's soccer, FIU will remain a women's swimming & diving affiliate after the other schools fully join The American.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The conference currently has 11 full member institutions – and six affiliate members – in 12 states, including California, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The newest full member, Wichita State is the only one that does not sponsor football.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The American currently sponsors championship competition in 10 men's and 12 women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Old Dominion and Sacramento State are affiliate members for women's rowing. Florida, Old Dominion, Vanderbilt, and James Madison are affiliate members for women's lacrosse. South Florida and Charlotte will add women's lacrosse teams in the 2024–25 school year.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Under NCAA rules reflecting the large number of male scholarship participants in football and attempting to address gender equity concerns (see also Title IX), each member institution is required to provide more women's varsity sports than men's.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Note: Shared titles (ex: 2014 football, 2020 men's basketball) are counted as a full title for each co-champion.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: No current American Conference member has won an NCAA team championship while a member of the conference. The only school to have won a national title while in The American, UConn, left for the Big East Conference in 2020. Several members have won national titles before joining The American.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Excluded from these lists are all national championships earned outside the scope of NCAA competition, including Division I FBS football titles, Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association titles, women's AIAW titles, National Collegiate Equestrian Association titles, retroactive Helms Athletic Foundation titles, and ITA tennis titles.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Includes all titles won while a member of The American, whether or not the conference sponsored that sport at the time.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The conference began football during the 1991–92 season, and was a founding member of the Bowl Championship Series. Previously, conference opponents operated on a two-year cycle, as a home-and-home series.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The conference previously did not have enough teams to form divisions, but now does after Navy joined the conference in 2015. When Navy joined in 2015 and divisions were created, Navy was placed in the West division along with Houston, Memphis, SMU, Tulane, and Tulsa. Teams play eight conference games a season. Since 2015, each team has played the other five teams in its own division, as well as three teams from the other division, operating in a four-year cycle ensuring that each school will play every conference opponent at home and on the road at least once in the four-year cycle. The East and West division winners, determined by final conference record, meet in the American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game, which is played at the home site of one of the division winners.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: With the departure of UConn after the 2019 season, divisions were affected by the reduction to an uneven number of teams. At the time, The American had no plan to add another team to rebalance divisions, so divisions were eliminated from the conference for the time being. The championship game is now played by the two teams that achieved the best record in regular season conference play. With the upcoming expansion of the conference to 14 members, a divisional split is now all but certain once all new members join.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Like the conference itself, football experienced much transition through its history – in fact it was the main force behind such departures and expansion. In 2003, the BCS announced that it would adjust the automatic bids granted to its six founding conferences based on results from 2004 to 2007. With the addition of Cincinnati, Louisville, and South Florida in 2005, the conference retained its BCS automatic-qualifying status. In 2007, South Florida rose to No. 2 in the BCS rankings, but finished No. 21 in the final poll. Cincinnati finished the 2009 regular season undefeated at 12–0, and ranked No. 3 in the final BCS standings, barely missing the opportunity to play for the BCS National Championship. The conference was 9–7 (.563) in BCS bowl games, the third highest winning percentage among the AQ conferences. After the 2017 season, the University of Central Florida Knights, a member of the American, went undefeated but were not invited to the College Football Playoff. They earned the Group of Five's New Year's Six bowl bid and defeated Auburn in the Peach Bowl. They would claim a national championship, which was recognized by the Colley Matrix, one of the NCAA recognized selectors of the national champion in football.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: In 2021, Cincinnati became the first Group of Five team ever to appear in the top four of the CFP rankings at any point of the season, going on to become the first G5 team ever selected for the CFP semifinals.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The American Championship Game pits the Eastern Division representative against the Western Division representative in a game held following the conclusion of the regular season. The site of the Championship Game is the home stadium of the division champion with the best overall conference record. In the event that the two division champions are tied, then the head-to-head record shall be used as the tiebreaker. Prior to the 2015 season, when the conference split into two six-team divisions and created a conference championship game, The American awarded its championship to the team(s) with the best overall conference record.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The American has many rivalries among its member schools, primarily in football. Some rivalries existed before the conference was established or began play in football. Recent conference realignment in 2005 and 2013 ended – or temporarily halted – many rivalries. Before their departure to other conferences, a number of former member schools held longtime rivalries within the conference.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Following the 2013 season, the BCS era came to a close and was replaced by the College Football Playoff. Four teams play in two semifinal games, with the winners advancing to the College Football Playoff National Championship. Six bowl games — the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and Peach Bowl — will rotate as hosts for the semifinal games, and host major bowls when they do not host semifinal games (access bowls).


title: American Athletic Conference

text: With the birth of the College Football Playoff, The American lost its automatic qualifying status for one of the major bowls. Instead, one automatic qualifying spot is reserved for the highest ranked team from the "Group of Five" conferences – The American, Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, and Sun Belt Conference.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Although the pick order usually corresponds to the conference standings, the bowls are not required to make their choices strictly according to the won-lost records; many factors influence bowl selections, especially the likely turnout of the team's fans. Picks are made after any applicable College Football Playoff selections. If a team is selected for the one of the access bowls or playoff, the bowl with the No. 2 pick will have the first pick of the remaining teams in the conference.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The total pay of head coaches includes university and non-university compensation. This includes base salary, income from contracts, foundation supplements, bonuses and media and radio pay.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: In June 2013, it was announced that the inaugural men's basketball tournament would take place at FedExForum in Memphis. FedExForum had previously hosted eight Conference USA basketball tournaments.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: Even though the Big East Conference was meant to be a basketball-oriented conference, UConn, a member of The American, won the 2014 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament (the first after the conferences split).


title: American Athletic Conference

text: This list goes through the 2020–21 season. Only current American Conference members are included. However, this list covers the entire histories of basketball at the listed institutions, not just their American Conference tenures.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: The American has many rivalries among its member schools, some of which existed before the conference was established. Recent conference realignment in 2005 and 2013 ended – or temporarily halted – many rivalries. Before their departure to other conferences, a number of former member schools held longtime rivalries within the conference.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: In June 2013, it was announced that the inaugural women's basketball tournament would take place at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. Women's basketball teams have played a total of 20 times in the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship (since 1982), with UConn winning 11 national championships under head coach Geno Auriemma since 1995. Women's national championship tournaments prior to 1982 were run by the AIAW.


title: American Athletic Conference

text: One of the current full member schools, Tulane University, is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization of 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada. Seven members are doctorate-granting universities with "very high research activity," the highest classification given by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Member schools are also highly ranked nationally and globally by various groups, including "U.S. News & World Report", "Washington Monthly", and "Times Higher Education".


title: American Athletic Conference

text: In March 2019, the conference announced a $1 billion, 12-year media rights deal with ESPN, under which the majority of AAC content will be aired on ESPN properties. Selected basketball games and Navy football are sub-licensed to CBS Sports, as Navy had a previous deal with CBS prior to joining The American. Content not aired on linear television will be exclusive to ESPN's subscription package ESPN+, but a larger number of events (including at least 40 football games and 65 men's basketball games per-season, including the conference semi-finals and championship) will air on ABC and ESPN's linear networks than under the previous contract.


title: Birkin bag

text: The Birkin bag (or simply Birkin) is a kind of tote bag introduced in 1984 by the French luxury goods maker Hermès. Birkin bags are handmade from leather and are named after the English-French actress and singer Jane Birkin.


title: Birkin bag

text: The bag quickly became a symbol of wealth and exclusivity due to its high price and assumed long waiting lists. Birkins are a popular item with handbag collectors, and were once seen as the rarest handbag in the world. The bag's value is a matter of its intentionally high price, which has led to its being described as a Veblen good.


title: Birkin bag

text: In 2020, prices started at US$11,000 for regular leather. The price has reached US$380,000 (HK$2.94 million) when a bag made of exotic skin and diamond was sold at auction by Christie's in Hong Kong for a record price in May 2017. Costs can vary widely according to the type of leather, if exotic skins are used, and if precious metals and jewels are part of the bag. Birkins are distributed to Hermès boutiques on unpredictable schedules and in limited quantities, which creates artificial scarcity and exclusivity; however, the bags have also flooded the upscale resale market and are frequently sold in second-hand boutiques (resellers) and through social media.


title: Birkin bag

text: In 1984, Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas was seated next to Jane Birkin on a flight from Paris to London. Birkin had just placed her straw traveling bag in the overhead compartment for her seat, but the contents fell to the deck, leaving her to scramble to replace them. Birkin explained to Dumas that it had been difficult to find a leather weekend bag she liked.


title: Birkin bag

text: Dumas took this encounter as inspiration to create a supple black leather bag, based on an earlier design, the Haut à Courroies, which Hermès had created around 1900. Birkin initially used the bag, but changed her mind because she was carrying too many things in it: "What's the use of having a second one?" she said laughingly. "You only need one and that busts your arm; they're bloody heavy. I'm going to have to have an operation for tendonitis in the shoulder." Nevertheless, since the late 1980s, the bag has become a status symbol, though it has become much easier to purchase due to aftermarket resales.


title: Birkin bag

text: In July 2015, Birkin asked Hermès to stop using her name for the crocodile version due to ethical concerns, as PETA alleged crocodile farms supplying the hide to Hermès for the manufacture of the bags crammed their animals into barren concrete pits. PETA reported that: "At just one year old, alligators are shot with a captive bolt gun or crudely cut into while they're still conscious and able to feel pain." Birkin is quoted as having asked Hermès "to debaptise the Birkin Croco until better practices in line with international norms can be put in place".


title: Birkin bag

text: Birkin bags are sold in a range of sizes. Each one may be made to order with different customer-chosen hides, colour, and hardware fixtures. There are also other individual options, such as diamond encrusting.


title: Birkin bag

text: The bags are handmade in France using the company's signature saddle stitching, developed in the 1800s. Each bag is hand-sewn by a single artisan, and is then buffed, painted, and polished, taking up to 18 hours to make. Artisans purportedly train for 5 years before they're allowed to make their first Birkin bag. Leathers are obtained from different tanners in France, resulting in varying smells and textures. The company justifies the cost of the Birkin bag compared to other bags because of the degree of craftsmanship involved.


title: Birkin bag

text: According to a 2014 estimate, Hermès produced 70,000 Birkin bags that year. The bag is highly coveted and has been reputed to have a waiting list of up to six years. The rarity of these bags is purportedly designed to increase demand by collectors.


title: Birkin bag

text: As a result of strong demand, the Birkin bag has a high resale value in many countries, especially in Asia, and to such an extent that the bag is considered by some people as an instrument of investment. One 2016 study found that Birkin bags had average annual returns of 14.2% between 1980 and 2015, significantly beating the S&P 500 Index in returns over the same period. In April 2010, Hermès announced that the waiting list would no longer exist, implying that these bags are potentially available to the general public.


title: Birkin bag

text: "The Philippine Star" reported in March 2013, that a high-end, 30-cm Shiny Rouge H Porosus Crocodile Birkin with 18-carat gold fittings and encrusted with diamonds was sold for US$203,150 at an auction in Dallas, Texas, US.


title: Birkin bag

text: In May 2017, a 30-centimeter matte white Himalaya niloticus crocodile Birkin with 18-carat white gold and hardware bearing 245 diamonds was sold at a Christie's auction in Hong Kong for HK$2.94 million (US$377,261), creating a new record for the most expensive handbag in the world.


title: Birkin bag

text: According to an analyst quoted by "The New York Times" in 2019, there are more than one million Birkin bags on the market, while a resale boutique in Miami has sold more than US$60 million in used Birkin bags in just five years.


title: Birkin bag

text: The limited availability of the bags is in part due to the unclear sales strategy in boutiques; there is a low likelihood that a given Hermès boutique will facilitate sale to any prospecting customer, as popular rumour suggests that one must have a long-standing relationship with one of the Hermès sales associates in order to successfully acquire a Birkin, and waiting lists for them no longer exist.


title: Birkin bag

text: In addition to the possible counterfeits that all well-known brands are subject to, fake Hermès bags—including the Birkin bag—are alleged to have been made by a group including seven former Hermès workers. Ten people went on trial in June 2020, alleged to have made dozens of counterfeit bags that sold for tens of thousands of euros each, for a total profit of over €2 million. The crime was discovered by police investigating unrelated stolen products. Four of those on trial were skilled leatherworkers; the bags were made using Hermès stitching methods. The counterfeiters imported crocodile skins. Leather offcuts, tools, zips, and faulty bags that were to be destroyed had been stolen from Hermès.


title: Birkin bag

text: The Birkin bag is a major plot point of the "Sex and the City" episode "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda", in which Samantha is placed on a five-year waiting list for the bag. She is so desperate to obtain one that she falsely says the bag is for her celebrity client Lucy Liu. When Liu finds out she fires Samantha and keeps the bag for herself. The Birkin bag also made frequent appearances on the teen hit series Gossip Girl. Many of the bags, including a cognac ostrich Birkin 35, were from the personal collection of Kelly Rutherford, the actress who played Lily van der Woodsen.


title: Birkin bag

text: In his 2008 memoir, "Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag," author Michael Tonello, recounted his career selling used luxury goods on eBay.


title: Birkin bag

text: In the "Will & Grace" episode "Last Ex to Brooklyn", Grace is given a Birkin by her husband's ex-girlfriend Diane, who works at "Vogue". Will angrily says that he has been on a two-year waiting list for the bag.


title: Birkin bag

text: In the "Gilmore Girls" episode "Welcome to the Dollhouse", Rory is given a Birkin by her boyfriend Logan. Emily says that around her birthday she had hinted to Richard about wanting one.


title: Birkin bag

text: In "How I Met Your Mother" episode "The Mermaid Theory", Zoey is seen with a light brown Birkin bag as she enters the bar to meet and sit with Ted at MacLaren's pub.


title: Birkin bag

text: Kim Kardashian made news in 2013 for a US$40,000 Birkin, given to her by husband Kanye West, on which the artist George Condo painted a group of nude figures. Another picture showed Khloe Kardashian's child nestled in US$108,000 worth of the bags, which drew some unfavorable comments about conspicuous consumption from her adherents. Additionally, Kim's daughter was publicized while carrying a US$17,000 Hermès bag.


title: Birkin bag

text: In her 2015 memoir "The Primates of Park Avenue", author Wednesday Martin recounts how Birkin bags signal social class status on the Upper East Side.


title: Birkin bag

text: The Birkin features in the lyrics of numerous rap songs, including Jay-Z's "30-Something", ASAP Rocky and Schoolboy Q's "Electric Body", and the Migos track "Jane" which is a reference to Jane Birkin. Following the release of his and Future's track "Big Mood", Canadian rapper Drake explained the track's lyrics by stating that he has amassed a huge collection of Birkin bags as a gift to his future wife.


title: Birkin bag

text: Rosmah Mansor, the second wife of Najib Razak, former prime minister of Malaysia, is claimed to have the largest Birkin collection in the world. In 2018, Malaysian police found a total of 272 Hermès bags, worth nearly US$13 million, after seizing the family's three apartments in Kuala Lumpur.


title: Birkin bag

text: Other known large collections of Birkin bags include: Singapore socialite Jamie Chua, who reportedly owns more than 200 Hermès Birkin and Kelly bags, and celebrity fashion designer Victoria Beckham, who reportedly has more than 100 Birkin bags.


title: Birkin bag

text: In 2021, NY-based designer, MSCHF, bought $122,500 of Birkin bags and used them to craft a new "Birkinstocks" sandal. Rapper Future was seen wearing a pair of the shoes in February 2021.


title: Birkin bag

text: Comedian and rapper Zack Fox makes a reference to Birkin bags in his song "Marinate". Rapper Cardi B is also a vocal fan of the Birkin bag, and references them in her 2018 song "She Bad" and her 2021 hit "Up". She also frequently posts her large Birkin collection on social media sites like Instagram.


title: Debian

text: Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of Debian (0.01) was released on September 15, 1993, and its first stable version (1.1) was released on June 17, 1996. The Debian Stable branch is the most popular edition for personal computers and servers. Debian is also the basis for many other distributions, most notably Ubuntu.


title: Debian

text: Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kernel. The project is coordinated over the Internet by a team of volunteers guided by the Debian Project Leader and three foundational documents: the Debian Social Contract, the Debian Constitution, and the Debian Free Software Guidelines. New distributions are updated continually, and the next candidate is released after a time-based freeze.


title: Debian

text: Since its founding, Debian has been developed openly and distributed freely according to the principles of the GNU Project. Because of this, the Free Software Foundation sponsored the project from November 1994 to November 1995. When the sponsorship ended, the Debian Project formed the nonprofit organization Software in the Public Interest to continue financially supporting development.


title: Debian

text: Debian distribution codenames are based on the names of characters from the "Toy Story" films. Debian's "unstable" trunk is named after Sid, a character who regularly destroyed his toys.


title: Debian

text: Debian was first announced on August 16, 1993, by Ian Murdock, who initially called the system "the Debian Linux Release". The word "Debian" was formed as a portmanteau of the first name of his then-girlfriend (later ex-wife) Debra Lynn and his own first name. Before Debian's release, the Softlanding Linux System (SLS) had been a popular Linux distribution and the basis for Slackware. The perceived poor maintenance and prevalence of bugs in SLS motivated Murdock to launch a new distribution.


title: Debian

text: Debian 0.01, released on September 15, 1993, was the first of several internal releases. Version 0.90 was the first public release, providing support through mailing lists hosted at Pixar. The release included the Debian Linux Manifesto, outlining Murdock's view for the new operating system. In it he called for the creation of a distribution to be maintained "openly in the spirit of Linux and GNU."


title: Debian

text: The Debian project released the 0.9x versions in 1994 and 1995. During this time it was sponsored by the Free Software Foundation for one year. Ian Murdock delegated the base system, the core packages of Debian, to Bruce Perens and Murdock focused on the management of the growing project. The first ports to non-IA-32 architectures began in 1995, and Debian 1.1 was released in 1996. By that time and thanks to Ian Jackson, the dpkg package manager was already an essential part of Debian.


title: Debian

text: In 1996, Bruce Perens assumed the project leadership. Perens was a controversial leader, regarded as authoritarian and strongly attached to Debian. He drafted a social contract and edited suggestions from a month-long discussion into the Debian Social Contract and the Debian Free Software Guidelines. After the FSF withdrew their sponsorship in the midst of the free software vs. open source debate, Perens initiated the creation of the legal umbrella organization Software in the Public Interest instead of seeking renewed involvement with the FSF. He led the conversion of the project from a.out to ELF. He created the BusyBox program to make it possible to run a Debian installer on a single floppy disk, and wrote a new installer. By the time Debian 1.2 was released, the project had grown to nearly two hundred volunteers. Perens left the project in 1998.


title: Debian

text: Ian Jackson became the leader in 1998. Debian 2.0 introduced the second official port, m68k. During this time the first port to a non-Linux kernel, Debian GNU/Hurd, was started. On December 2, the first Debian Constitution was ratified.


title: Debian

text: From 1999, the project leader was elected yearly. The Advanced Packaging Tool was deployed with Debian 2.1. The number of applicants was overwhelming and the project established the new member process. The first Debian derivatives, namely Libranet, Corel Linux and Stormix's Storm Linux, were started in 1999. The 2.2 release in 2000 was dedicated to Joel Klecker, a developer who died of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.


title: Debian

text: In late 2000, the project reorganized the archive with new package "pools" and created the "Testing" distribution, made up of packages considered stable, to reduce the freeze for the next release. In the same year, developers began holding an annual conference called DebConf with talks and workshops for developers and technical users. In May 2001, Hewlett-Packard announced plans to base its Linux development on Debian.


title: Debian

text: In July 2002, the project released version 3.0, code-named Woody, the first release to include cryptographic software, a free licensed KDE and internationalization. During these last release cycles, the Debian project drew considerable criticism from the free software community because of the long time between stable releases.


title: Debian

text: Some events disturbed the project while working on Sarge, as Debian servers were attacked by fire and hackers. One of the most memorable was the Vancouver prospectus. After a meeting held in Vancouver, release manager Steve Langasek announced a plan to reduce the number of supported ports to four in order to shorten future release cycles. There was a large reaction because the proposal looked more like a decision and because such a drop would damage Debian's aim to be "the universal operating system".


title: Debian

text: The first version of the Debian-based Ubuntu, named "4.10 Warty Warthog", was released on October 20, 2004. Because it was distributed as a free download, it became one of the most popular and successful operating systems with more than "40 million users" according to Canonical Ltd. However, Murdock was critical of the differences between Ubuntu packages and Debian, stating that it leads to incompatibilities.


title: Debian

text: The 3.1 Sarge release was made in June 2005. This release updated 73% of the software and included over 9,000 new packages. A new installer with a modular design, Debian-Installer, allowed installations with RAID, XFS and LVM support, improved hardware detection, made installations easier for novice users, and was translated into almost forty languages. An installation manual and release notes were in ten and fifteen languages respectively. The efforts of Skolelinux, Debian-Med and Debian-Accessibility raised the number of packages that were educational, had a medical affiliation, and ones made for people with disabilities.


title: Debian

text: In 2006, as a result of a much-publicized dispute, Mozilla software was rebranded in Debian, with Firefox forked as Iceweasel and Thunderbird as Icedove. The Mozilla Corporation stated that software with unapproved modifications could not be distributed under the Firefox trademark. Two reasons that Debian modifies the Firefox software are to change the non-free artwork and to provide security patches. In February 2016, it was announced that Mozilla and Debian had reached an agreement and Iceweasel would revert to the name Firefox; similar agreement was anticipated for Icedove/Thunderbird.


title: Debian

text: A fund-raising experiment, Dunc-Tank, was created to solve the release cycle problem and release managers were paid to work full-time; in response, unpaid developers slowed down their work and the release was delayed.<br>


title: Debian

text: Debian 4.0 (Etch) was released in April 2007, featuring the x86-64 port and a graphical installer.<br>


title: Debian

text: Debian 5.0 (Lenny) was released in February 2009, supporting Marvell's Orion platform and netbooks such as the Asus Eee PC. The release was dedicated to Thiemo Seufer, a developer who died in a car crash.


title: Debian

text: In July 2009, the policy of time-based development freezes on a two-year cycle was announced. Time-based freezes are intended to blend the predictability of time based releases with Debian's policy of feature based releases, and to reduce overall freeze time. The Squeeze cycle was going to be especially short; however, this initial schedule was abandoned. In September 2010, the backports service became official, providing more recent versions of some software for the stable release.


title: Debian

text: Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) was released in February 2011, featuring Debian GNU/kFreeBSD as a technology preview, along with adding a dependency-based boot system, and moving problematic firmware to the non-free section.<br>


title: Debian

text: Debian 9.0 (Stretch) was released in June 2017, with nftables as a replacement for iptables, support for Flatpak apps, and MariaDB as the replacement for MySQL.<br>


title: Debian

text: Debian 10.0 (Buster) was released in July 2019, adding support for Secure Boot and enabling AppArmor by default.<br>


title: Debian

text: Debian 11.0 (Bullseye) was released in August 2021, enabling persistency in the system journal, adding support for driverless scanning, and containing kernel-level support for exFAT filesystems.


title: Debian

text: Debian used to be released as a very large set of CDs for each architecture, but with the release of Debian 9 (Stretch) in 2017, these have been dropped.


title: Debian

text: Throughout Debian's lifetime, both the Debian distribution and its website have won various awards from different organizations, including "Server Distribution of the Year" 2011, "The best Linux distro of 2011", and a "Best of the Net" award for October 1998.


title: Debian

text: On December 2, 2015, Microsoft announced that they would offer Debian GNU/Linux as an endorsed distribution on the Azure cloud platform. Microsoft has also added a user environment to their Windows 10 desktop operating system called Windows Subsystem for Linux that offers a Debian subset.


title: Debian

text: Debian has access to online repositories that contain over 51,000 packages. Debian officially contains only free software, but non-free software can be downloaded and installed from the Debian repositories. Debian includes popular free programs such as LibreOffice, Firefox web browser, Evolution mail, K3b disc burner, VLC media player, GIMP image editor, and Evince document viewer. Debian is a popular choice for servers, for example as the operating system component of a LAMP stack.


title: Debian

text: Several flavors of the Linux kernel exist for each port. For example, the i386 port has flavors for IA-32 PCs supporting Physical Address Extension and real-time computing, for older PCs, and for x86-64 PCs. The Linux kernel does not officially contain firmware lacking source code, although such firmware is available in non-free packages and alternative installation media.


title: Debian

text: Debian offers CD and DVD images specifically built for XFCE, GNOME, KDE, MATE, Cinnamon, LXDE, and LXQT. MATE is officially supported, while Cinnamon support was added with Debian 8.0 Jessie. Less common window managers such as Enlightenment, Openbox, Fluxbox, IceWM, Window Maker and others are available.


title: Debian

text: The default desktop environment of version 7.0 Wheezy was temporarily switched to Xfce, because GNOME 3 did not fit on the first CD of the set. The default for the version 8.0 Jessie was changed again to Xfce in November 2013, and back to GNOME in September 2014.


title: Debian

text: Several parts of Debian are translated into languages other than American English, including package descriptions, configuration messages, documentation and the website. The level of software localization depends on the language, ranging from the highly supported German and French to the barely translated Creek and Samoan. The Debian 10 installer is available in 76 languages.


title: Debian

text: Multimedia support has been problematic in Debian regarding codecs threatened by possible patent infringements, lacking source code, or under too restrictive licenses. Even though packages with problems related to their distribution could go into the non-free area, software such as libdvdcss is not hosted at Debian.


title: Debian

text: A notable third party repository exists, formerly named debian-multimedia.org, providing software not present in Debian such as Windows codecs, libdvdcss and the Adobe Flash Player. Even though this repository is maintained by Christian Marillat, a Debian developer, it is not part of the project and is not hosted on a Debian server. The repository provides packages already included in Debian, interfering with the official maintenance. Eventually, project leader Stefano Zacchiroli asked Marillat to either settle an agreement about the packaging or to stop using the "Debian" name. Marillat chose the latter and renamed the repository to deb-multimedia.org. The repository was so popular that the switchover was announced by the official blog of the Debian project.


title: Debian

text: Debian offers DVD and CD images for installation that can be downloaded using BitTorrent or jigdo. Physical discs can also be bought from retailers. The full sets are made up of several discs (the amd64 port consists of 13 DVDs or 84 CDs), but only the first disc is required for installation, as the installer can retrieve software not contained in the first disc image from online repositories.


title: Debian

text: Debian offers different network installation methods. A minimal install of Debian is available via the "netinst" CD, whereby Debian is installed with just a base and later added software can be downloaded from the Internet. Another option is to boot the installer from the network.


title: Debian

text: The default bootstrap loader is GNU GRUB version 2, though the package name is simply grub, while version 1 was renamed to grub-legacy. This conflicts with (e.g., Fedora Linux), where grub version 2 is named grub2.


title: Debian

text: The default desktop may be chosen from the DVD boot menu among GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce and LXDE, and from special disc 1 CDs.


title: Debian

text: Debian releases live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives, for IA-32 and x86-64 architectures, and with a choice of desktop environments. These "Debian Live" images allow users to boot from removable media and run Debian without affecting the contents of their computer. A full install of Debian to the computer's hard drive can be initiated from the live image environment. Personalized images can be built with the live-build tool for discs, USB drives and for network booting purposes. Installation images are hybrid on some architectures and can be used to create a bootable USB drive (Live USB).


title: Debian

text: Package management operations can be performed with different tools available on Debian, from the lowest level command dpkg to graphical front-ends like Synaptic. The recommended standard for administering packages on a Debian system is the apt toolset.


title: Debian

text: dpkg provides the low-level infrastructure for package management. The dpkg database contains the list of installed software on the current system. The dpkg command tool does not know about repositories. The command can work with local .deb package files, and information from the dpkg database.


title: Debian

text: An Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) allows administering an installed Debian system to retrieve and resolve package dependencies from repositories. APT tools share dependency information and cached packages.


title: Debian

text: GDebi is an APT tool which can be used in command-line and on the GUI. GDebi can install a local .deb file via the command line like the dpkg command, but with access to repositories to resolve dependencies. Other graphical front-ends for APT include Software Center, Synaptic and Apper.


title: Debian

text: GNOME Software is a graphical front-end for PackageKit, which itself can work on top of various software packaging systems.


title: Debian

text: The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) define the distinctive meaning of the word "free" as in "free and open-source software". Packages that comply with these guidelines, usually under the GNU General Public License, Modified BSD License or Artistic License, are included inside the "main" area; otherwise, they are included inside the "non-free" and "contrib" areas. These last two areas are not distributed within the official installation media, but they can be adopted manually.


title: Debian

text: Non-free includes packages that do not comply with the DFSG, such as documentation with invariant sections and proprietary software, and legally questionable packages. Contrib includes packages which do comply with the DFSG but fail other requirements. For example, they may depend on packages which are in non-free or requires such for building them.


title: Debian

text: Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation have criticized the Debian project for hosting the non-free repository and because the contrib and non-free areas are easily accessible, an opinion echoed by some in Debian including the former project leader Wichert Akkerman. The internal dissent in the Debian project regarding the non-free section has persisted, but the last time it came to a vote in 2004, the majority decided to keep it.


title: Debian

text: The most popular optional Linux cross-distribution package manager are graphical (front-ends) package managers. They are available within the official Debian Repository but are not installed by default. They are widely popular with both Debian users and Debian software developers who are interested in installing the most recent versions of application or using the cross-distribution package manager built-in sandbox environment. While at the same time remaining in control of the security.


title: Debian

text: Three branches of Debian (also called "releases", "distributions" or "suites") are regularly maintained:


title: Debian

text: The "snapshot" archive provides older versions of the branches. They may be used to install a specific older version of some software.


title: Debian

text: "Stable" and "oldstable" get minor updates, called "point releases"; , the "stable" release is version 11.0, released on , and the "oldstable" release is version 10.10.


title: Debian

text: The numbering scheme for the point releases up to Debian 4.0 was to include the letter "r" (for "revision") after the main version number and then the number of the point release; for example, the latest point release of version 4.0 is 4.0r9. This scheme was chosen because a new dotted version would make the old one look obsolete and vendors would have trouble selling their CDs.


title: Debian

text: From Debian 5.0, the numbering scheme of point releases was changed, conforming to the GNU version numbering standard; the first point release of Debian 5.0 was 5.0.1 instead of 5.0r1. The numbering scheme was once again changed for the first Debian 7 update, which was version 7.1. The "r" scheme is no longer in use, but point release announcements include a note about not throwing away old CDs.


title: Debian

text: Debian is one of the most popular Linux distributions, and many other distributions have been created from the Debian codebase. , DistroWatch lists 121 active Debian derivatives. The Debian project provides its derivatives with guidelines for best practices and encourages derivatives to merge their work back into Debian.


title: Debian

text: Debian Pure Blends are subsets of a Debian release configured out-of-the-box for users with particular skills and interests. For example, Debian Jr. is made for children, while Debian Science is for researchers and scientists. The complete Debian distribution includes all available Debian Pure Blends. "Debian Blend" (without "Pure") is a term for a Debian-based distribution that strives to become part of mainstream Debian, and have its extra features included in future releases.


title: Debian

text: Debian GNU/kFreeBSD is a discontinued Debian flavor. It used the FreeBSD kernel and GNU userland. The majority of software in Debian GNU/kFreeBSD was built from the same sources as Debian, with some kernel packages from FreeBSD. The "k" in "kFreeBSD" is an abbreviation for "kernel", which refers to the FreeBSD kernel. Before discontinuing the project, Debian maintained i386 and amd64 ports. The last version of Debian kFreeBSD was Debian 8 (Jessie) RC3. Debian GNU/kFreeBSD was created in 2002. It was included in Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) as a technology preview, and in Debian 7.0 (Wheezy) as an official port. Debian GNU/kFreeBSD was discontinued as an officially supported platform as of Debian 8.0. Debian developers cited OSS, pf, jails, NDIS, and ZFS as reasons for being interested in the FreeBSD kernel. It has not been updated since Debian 8. As of July 2019, however, the operating system continues to be maintained unofficially.


title: Debian

text: Debian GNU/Hurd is a flavor based on the Hurd microkernel, instead of Linux. Debian GNU/Hurd has been in development since 1998, and made a formal release in May 2013, with 78% of the software packaged for Debian GNU/Linux ported to the GNU Hurd. Hurd is not yet an official Debian release, and is maintained and developed as an unofficial port. Debian GNU/Hurd is distributed as an installer CD (running the official Debian installer) or ready-to-run virtual disk image (Live CD, Live USB). The CD uses the IA-32 architecture, making it compatible with IA-32 and x86-64 PCs. The current version of Debian GNU/Hurd is 2021, published in August 2021.


title: Debian

text: The Debian "swirl" logo was designed by Raul Silva in 1999 as part of a contest to replace the semi-official logo that had been used. The winner of the contest received an @debian.org email address, and a set of Debian 2.1 install CDs for the architecture of their choice. There has been no official statement from the Debian project on the logo's meaning, but at the time of the logo's selection, it was suggested that the logo represented the magic smoke ( or the genie ) that made computers work.


title: Debian

text: One theory about the origin of the Debian logo is that Buzz Lightyear, the chosen character for the first named Debian release, has a swirl in his chin. Stefano Zacchiroli also suggested that this swirl is the Debian one. Buzz Lightyear's swirl is a more likely candidate as the codenames for Debian are names of Toy Story characters. The former Debian project leader Bruce Perens used to work for Pixar and is credited as a studio tools engineer on "Toy Story 2" (1999).


title: Debian

text: Hardware requirements are at least those of the kernel and the GNU toolsets. Debian's recommended system requirements depend on the level of installation, which corresponds to increased numbers of installed components:


title: Debian

text: The real minimum memory requirements depend on the architecture and may be much less than the numbers listed in this table. It is possible to install Debian with 170 MB of RAM for x86-64; the installer will run in low memory mode and it is recommended to create a swap partition. The installer for z/Architecture requires about 20 MB of RAM, but relies on network hardware. Similarly, disk space requirements, which depend on the packages to be installed, can be reduced by manually selecting the packages needed. , no Pure Blend exists that would lower the hardware requirements easily.


title: Debian

text: It is possible to run graphical user interfaces on older or low-end systems, but the installation of window managers instead of desktop environments is recommended, as desktop environments are more resource intensive. Requirements for individual software vary widely and must be considered, with those of the base operating environment.


title: Debian

text: Debian supports a variety of ARM-based NAS devices. The NSLU2 was supported by the installer in Debian 4.0 and 5.0, and Martin Michlmayr is providing installation tarballs since version 6.0. Other supported NAS devices are the Buffalo Kurobox Pro, GLAN Tank, Thecus N2100 and QNAP Turbo Stations.


title: Debian

text: Devices based on the Kirkwood system on a chip (SoC) are supported too, such as the SheevaPlug plug computer and OpenRD products. There are efforts to run Debian on mobile devices, but this is not a project goal yet since the Debian Linux kernel maintainers would not apply the needed patches. Nevertheless, there are packages for resource-limited systems.


title: Debian

text: There are efforts to support Debian on wireless access points. Debian is known to run on set-top boxes. Work is ongoing to support the AM335x processor, which is used in electronic point of service solutions. Debian may be customized to run on cash machines.


title: Debian

text: BeagleBoard, a low-power open-source hardware single-board computer (made by Texas Instruments) has switched to Debian Linux preloaded on its Beaglebone Black board's flash.


title: Debian

text: Debian's policies and team efforts focus on collaborative software development and testing processes. As a result, a new major release tends to occur every two years with revision releases that fix security issues and important problems. The Debian project is a volunteer organization with three foundational documents:


title: Debian

text: Debian developers are organized in a web of trust. There are about one thousand active Debian developers, but it is possible to contribute to the project without being an official developer.


title: Debian

text: The project maintains official mailing lists and conferences for communication and coordination between developers. For issues with single packages and other tasks, a public bug tracking system is used by developers and end users. Internet Relay Chat is also used for communication among developers and to provide real time help.


title: Debian

text: Debian is supported by donations made to organizations authorized by the leader. The largest supporter is Software in the Public Interest, the owner of the Debian trademark, manager of the monetary donations and umbrella organization for various other community free software projects.


title: Debian

text: A Project Leader is elected once per year by the developers. The leader has special powers, but they are not absolute, and appoints delegates to perform specialized tasks. Delegates make decisions as they think is best, taking into account technical criteria and consensus. By way of a General Resolution, the developers may recall the leader, reverse a decision made by the leader or a delegate, amend foundational documents and make other binding decisions. The voting method is based on the Schulze method (Cloneproof Schwartz Sequential Dropping).


title: Debian

text: Project leadership is distributed occasionally. Branden Robinson was helped by the Project Scud, a team of developers that assisted the leader, but there were concerns that such leadership would split Debian into two developer classes. Anthony Towns created a supplemental position, Second In Charge (2IC), that shared some powers of the leader. Steve McIntyre was 2IC and had a 2IC himself.


title: Debian

text: One important role in Debian's leadership is that of a release manager. The release team sets goals for the next release, supervises the processes and decides when to release. The team is led by the next release managers and stable release managers. Release assistants were introduced in 2003.


title: Debian

text: The Debian Project has an influx of applicants wishing to become developers. These applicants must undergo a vetting process which establishes their identity, motivation, understanding of the project's principles, and technical competence. This process has become much harder throughout the years.


title: Debian

text: Debian developers may resign their positions at any time or, when deemed necessary, they can be expelled. Those who follow the retiring protocol are granted the "emeritus" status and they may regain their membership through a shortened new member process.


title: Debian

text: Each software package has a "maintainer" that may be either one person or a team of Debian developers and non-developer maintainers. The maintainer keeps track of upstream releases, and ensures that the package coheres with the rest of the distribution and meets the standards of quality of Debian. Packages may include modifications introduced by Debian to achieve compliance with Debian Policy, even to fix non-Debian specific bugs, although coordination with upstream developers is advised.


title: Debian

text: The maintainer releases a new version by uploading the package to the "incoming" system, which verifies the integrity of the packages and their digital signatures. If the package is found to be valid, it is installed in the package archive into an area called the "pool" and distributed every day to hundreds of mirrors worldwide. The upload must be signed using OpenPGP-compatible software. All Debian developers have individual cryptographic key pairs. Developers are responsible for any package they upload even if the packaging was prepared by another contributor.


title: Debian

text: Initially, an accepted package is only available in the "unstable" branch. For a package to become a candidate for the next release, it must migrate to the "Testing" branch by meeting the following:


title: Debian

text: Thus, a release-critical bug in a new version of a shared library on which many packages depend may prevent those packages from entering "Testing", because the updated library must meet the requirements too. From the branch viewpoint, the migration process happens twice per day, rendering "Testing" in perpetual beta.


title: Debian

text: Periodically, the release team publishes guidelines to the developers in order to ready the release. A new release occurs after a freeze, when all important software is reasonably up-to-date in the "Testing" branch and any other significant issues are solved. At that time, all packages in the "testing" branch become the new "stable" branch. Although freeze dates are time-based, release dates are not, which are announced by the release managers a couple of weeks beforehand.


title: Debian

text: A version of a package can belong to more than one branch, usually "testing" and "unstable". It is possible for a package to keep the same version between stable releases and be part of "oldstable", "stable", "testing" and "unstable" at the same time. Each branch can be seen as a collection of pointers into the package "pool" mentioned above.


title: Debian

text: One way to resolve the challenge of a release-critical bug in a new application version is the use of optional package managers. They allow software developers to use sandbox environments, while at the same time remaining in control of security. Another benefit of a cross-distribution package manager is that they allow application developers to directly provide updates to users without going through distributions, and without having to package and test the application separately for each distribution.


title: Debian

text: A new "stable" branch of Debian gets released approximately every 2 years. It will receive official support for about 3 years with update for major security or usability fixes. Point releases will be available every several months as determined by Stable Release Managers (SRM).


title: Debian

text: Debian also launched its Long Term Support (LTS) project since Debian 6 (Debian Squeeze). For each Debian release, it will receive two years of extra security updates provided by LTS Team after its End Of Life (EOL). However, no point releases will be made. Now each Debian release can receive 5 years of security support in total.


title: Debian

text: The Debian project handles security through public disclosure. Debian security advisories are compatible with the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures dictionary, are usually coordinated with other free software vendors and are published the same day a vulnerability is made public. There used to be a security audit project that focused on packages in the stable release looking for security bugs; Steve Kemp, who started the project, retired in 2011 but resumed his activities and applied to rejoin in 2014.


title: Debian

text: The "stable" branch is supported by the Debian security team; "oldstable" is supported for one year. Although Squeeze is not officially supported, Debian is coordinating an effort to provide long-term support (LTS) until February 2016, five years after the initial release, but only for the IA-32 and x86-64 platforms. "Testing" is supported by the "testing" security team, but does not receive updates in as timely a manner as "stable". "Unstable"s security is left for the package maintainers.


title: Debian

text: The Debian project offers documentation and tools to harden a Debian installation both manually and automatically. AppArmor support is available and enabled by default since Buster. Debian provides an optional hardening wrapper, and does not harden all of its software by default using gcc features such as PIE and buffer overflow protection, unlike operating systems such as OpenBSD, but tries to build as many packages as possible with hardening flags.


title: Debian

text: In May 2008, a Debian developer discovered that the OpenSSL package distributed with Debian and derivatives such as Ubuntu made a variety of security keys vulnerable to a random number generator attack, since only 32,767 different keys were generated. The security weakness was caused by changes made in 2006 by another Debian developer in response to memory debugger warnings. The complete resolution procedure was cumbersome because patching the security hole was not enough; it involved regenerating all affected keys and certificates.


title: Debian

text: The cost of developing all of the packages included in Debian 5.0 Lenny (323 million lines of code) has been estimated to be about , using one method based on the COCOMO model. , Black Duck Open Hub estimates that the current codebase (74 million lines of code) would cost about to develop, using a different method based on the same model.


title: Debian

text: A large number of forks and derivatives have been built upon Debian over the years. Among the more notable are Ubuntu, developed by Canonical Ltd. and first released in 2004, which has surpassed Debian in popularity with desktop users; Knoppix, first released in the year 2000 and one of the first distributions optimized to boot from external storage; and Devuan, which gained attention in 2014 when it forked in disagreement over Debian's adoption of the systemd software suite, and has been mirroring Debian releases since 2017.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: Alert, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada, is the northernmost continuously inhabited place in the world, on Ellesmere Island (Queen Elizabeth Islands) at latitude 82°30'05" north, from the North Pole. As of the 2016 census, the population was 0. All Alert residents are temporary, typically serving six-month tours of duty there. It takes its name from , which wintered east of the present station, off what is now Cape Sheridan, in 1875–1876.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: Alert's temporary inhabitants staff a military signals intelligence radio receiving facility at Canadian Forces Station Alert (CFS Alert), as well as a co-located Environment Canada weather station, a Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) atmosphere monitoring observatory, and the Alert Airport.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: Alert is named after , a British ship that wintered about away in 1875–76. The ship's captain, George Nares, and his crew were the first recorded Europeans to reach the northern end of Ellesmere Island. Over the following decades, several other expeditions passed through the area, most notably Robert Peary during his expedition to reach the North Pole in 1909.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: Shortly after the end of World War II, Charles J. Hubbard of the United States Weather Bureau aroused interest in the United States and Canada for the establishment of a network of Arctic stations. His plan, in broad perspective, envisaged the establishment of two main stations, one in Greenland and the other on the archipelago, which could be reached by sea supply. These main stations would then serve as advance bases from which a number of smaller stations would be established by air. The immediate plans contemplated the establishment of weather stations only, but it was thought that a system of weather stations would also provide a nucleus of transportation, communications, and settlements, which would greatly aid programs of research in many other fields of science. It was recognized that ultimate action would depend on international cooperation, since the land masses involved were under Canadian and Danish control.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: Following negotiations between the United States and Canadian governments, a group of five weather stations was established, known as the Joint Arctic Weather Stations (JAWS). On the Canadian side, the stations were to be operated by the Department of Transport. The locations for each station were surveyed in 1946, and a cache of supplies was dropped in Alert in 1948 by USS "Edisto". Alert was the last of the five to be settled when the first twelve personnel (eight permanent staff and four to assist with construction) arrived on April 9, 1950. Construction began immediately, with the first priority being the creation of an ice runway on Alert Inlet before work began on the permanent all-season runway on Cape Belknap. Until its completion, supplies were parachuted in.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: On July 30, 1950, nine crew members of a Royal Canadian Air Force Lancaster died in a crash while making an airdrop of supplies to the station.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: The last United States personnel were withdrawn on October 31, 1970, and the following year operation of the weather station was transferred to the newly created Department of the Environment, with the Department of Transport retaining control of airfield operations for several more years.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: In April 1971, a party of federal and Northwest Territories (NWT) government officials arrived in Alert in an attempt to reach the North Pole. Alert had been the embarkation point for many North Pole expeditions that relied on weather information supplied by the weather station there. The 1971 expedition was led by NWT Commissioner, Stuart Hodgson, and included in his party were representatives of the prime minister's office, the Canadian Armed Forces, the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, as well as a large media group including Pat Carney of Gemini Productions, Ed Ogle of "Time" magazine, Val Wake of "CBC News", and a television crew from California. While waiting in Alert for a weather window to fly to the pole, the party's television crew spent a lot of time filming at the weather station. The military was unhappy about the film crew working on the station, but the weather station was seen as being a sort of no-man's land. The commissioner's party made two attempts to reach the pole and failed. Some of the incidents surrounding this event are recounted in Val Wake's memoir "My Voyage around Spray with Apologies to Captain Joshua Slocum".


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: In August 1975, Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau and his then three-year-old son and future prime minister, Justin Trudeau, visited the station and nearby Ward Hunt Island. In August 1986, the Government of Canada opened Alert Background Air Pollution Monitoring Network.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: By the 1990s, the original buildings of the original weather station had fallen into disrepair and were burned in the summer of 1996, leaving only the hydrogen shed and a wooden outhouse. The weather station and observatory offices were moved to Polaris Hall.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: In early April 2006, the Roly McLenahan Torch that was used to light the flame at Whitehorse, Yukon, for the Canada Winter Games, passed through Alert. While the Canada Games torch was supposed to pass over the North Pole, bad weather prevented a Canadian military Twin Otter from making the trip. The torch did not travel outside Alert that weekend (April 9–12). In August 2006, Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, made a visit to Alert as part of his campaign to promote Canadian sovereignty in the north.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: On November 8, 2009, the 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay arrived at Alert via airplane from Churchill, Manitoba, reaching its most northerly point on land. The next day it travelled to Iqaluit.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: On January 19 and 20, 2015, Governor General David Johnston flew into Alert on a C-17 Globemaster transport from CFB Trenton. He toured Alert, received an overview of its operations, met with civilian and military personnel and presided over a change-of-command.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: Since Alert has not been regularly accessible by icebreakers due to heavy ice conditions in the Lincoln Sea, resupply is provided by Royal Canadian Air Force transport aircraft which land at the adjacent Alert Airport. Difficult conditions at such a remote northern location have resulted in several incidents, two of which have involved fatalities:


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: Since the beginning of the JAWS project, the Canadian Armed Forces had been interested in the establishment at Alert for several reasons: the JAWS facility extended Canadian sovereignty over a large uninhabited area which Canada claimed as its sovereign territory, and its proximity to the Soviet Union made it of strategic importance. Alert is closer to Moscow (c. ) than it is to Ottawa (c. ). Thus, the possibility of utilizing the site for the purpose of intercepting radio signals was deemed to warrant a military presence.


title: Alert, Nunavut

text: In 1950, Alert Airport was established. It is the only airport serving the settlement and is presently part of CFS Alert. In 1956, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), which was expanding its presence throughout the high Arctic with the construction of the Distant Early Warning Line radar network, established a building uphill from the DOT's JAWS station to house "High Arctic Long Range Communications Research", or signals intelligence operations.