title: Mary II of England

text: Mary's animated and personable nature made her popular with the Dutch people, and her marriage to a Protestant prince was popular in Britain. She was devoted to her husband, but he was often away on campaigns, which led to Mary's family supposing him to be cold and neglectful. Within months of the marriage Mary was pregnant; however, on a visit to her husband at the fortified city of Breda, she suffered a miscarriage, which may have permanently impaired her ability to have children. Further bouts of illness, that may have been miscarriages, occurred in mid-1678, early 1679, and early 1680. Her childlessness would be the greatest source of unhappiness in her life.


title: Mary II of England

text: From May 1684, Charles II's illegitimate son, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, lived in the Netherlands, where he was fêted by William and Mary. Monmouth was viewed as a rival to the Duke of York, and as a potential Protestant heir who could supplant the Duke in the line of succession. William, however, did not consider him a viable alternative and correctly assumed that Monmouth had insufficient support.


title: Mary II of England

text: While the pair started out somewhat distant, they became quite close and trusting of each other over the course of their marriage. Their mutual fervour for Protestantism additionally helped bind them together.


title: Mary II of England

text: Upon the death of Charles II without legitimate issue in February 1685, the Duke of York became king as James II in England and Ireland and James VII in Scotland. Mary was playing cards when her husband informed her of her father's accession, with the knowledge that she was heir presumptive.


title: Mary II of England

text: When Charles's illegitimate son the Duke of Monmouth assembled an invasion force at Amsterdam, and sailed for Britain, William informed James of the Duke's departure, and ordered English regiments in the Low Countries to return to Britain. To William's relief, Monmouth was defeated, captured and executed, but both he and Mary were dismayed by James's subsequent actions.


title: Mary II of England

text: James had a controversial religious policy; his attempt to grant freedom of religion to non-Anglicans by suspending acts of Parliament by royal decree was not well received. Mary considered such action illegal, and her chaplain expressed this view in a letter to the archbishop of Canterbury, William Sancroft, on her behalf. She was further dismayed when James refused to help when the Catholic king of France, Louis XIV, invaded Orange and persecuted Huguenot refugees there. In an attempt to damage William, James encouraged his daughter's staff to inform her that William was having an affair with Elizabeth Villiers, the daughter of her childhood governess Frances Villiers. Acting on the information, Mary waited outside Villiers's room and caught her husband leaving it late at night. William denied adultery, and Mary apparently believed and forgave him. Possibly, Villiers and William were not meeting as lovers but to exchange diplomatic intelligence. Mary's staff was dismissed and sent back to Britain.


title: Mary II of England

text: Disgruntled Protestant politicians and noblemen were in contact with Mary's husband as early as 1686. After James took the step of forcing Anglican clergymen to read the Declaration of Indulgence—the proclamation granting religious liberty to Catholics and dissenters—from their churches in May 1688, his popularity plunged further. Alarm amongst Protestants increased when his wife, Mary of Modena, gave birth to a son—James Francis Edward—in June 1688, for the son would, unlike Mary and Anne, be raised a Roman Catholic. Some charged that the boy was "supposititious", having been secretly smuggled into the Queen's room in a bed-warming pan as a substitute for her stillborn baby. Others thought the father was someone other than James, who was rumoured to be impotent. Seeking information, Mary sent a pointed list of questions to her sister, Anne, regarding the circumstances of the birth. Anne's reply, and continued gossip, seemed to confirm Mary's suspicions that the child was not her natural brother, and that her father was conspiring to secure a Catholic succession.


title: Mary II of England

text: On 30 June, seven notable English nobles, later called "the Immortal Seven" secretly requested William—then in the Dutch Republic with Mary—to come to England with an army to depose James. William may have been jealous of his wife's position as the heiress to the English Crown, but according to Gilbert Burnet, Mary convinced her husband that she did not care for political power, and told him "she would be no more but his wife, and that she would do all that lay in her power to make him king for life". She would, she assured him, always obey her husband as she had promised to do in her marriage vows.


title: Mary II of England

text: William agreed to invade and issued a declaration which referred to James's newborn son as the "pretended Prince of Wales". He also gave a list of grievances of the English people and stated that his proposed expedition was for the sole purpose of having "a free and lawful Parliament assembled". Having been turned back by storms in October, William and the Dutch army finally landed in England on 5 November 1688, without Mary, who stayed behind in the Netherlands. The disaffected English Army and Navy went over to William, and on 11 December the defeated King James attempted to flee, but was intercepted. A second attempt at flight, on 23 December, was successful; William deliberately allowed James to escape to France, where he lived in exile until his death.


title: Mary II of England

text: Mary was upset by the circumstances surrounding the deposition of her father, and was torn between concern for him and duty to her husband, but was convinced that her husband's actions, however unpleasant, were necessary to "save the Church and State". When Mary travelled to England after the New Year, she wrote of her "secret joy" at returning to her homeland, "but that was soon checked with the consideration of my father's misfortunes". William ordered her to appear cheerful on their triumphant arrival in London. As a result, she was criticised by Sarah Churchill among others, for appearing cold to her father's plight.


title: Mary II of England

text: In January 1689, a Convention Parliament of England summoned by the Prince of Orange assembled, and much discussion relating to the appropriate course of action ensued. A party led by Lord Danby held that Mary should be sole monarch, as the rightful hereditary heir, while William and his supporters were adamant that a husband could not be subject to his wife. William wished to reign as a king, rather than function as a mere consort of a queen. For her part, Mary did not wish to be queen regnant, believing that women should defer to their husbands, and "knowing my heart is not made for a kingdom and my inclination leads me to a retired quiet life".


title: Mary II of England

text: On 13 February 1689, the English Parliament passed the Declaration of Right, in which it deemed that James, by attempting to flee on 11 December 1688, had abdicated the government of the realm, and that the Throne had thereby become vacant. Parliament offered the Crown not to James's son, who would have been the heir apparent under normal circumstances, but to William and Mary as joint sovereigns. The only precedent for a joint monarchy dated from the sixteenth century: when Queen Mary I married Philip of Spain, it was agreed that the latter would take the title of king, but only during his wife's lifetime, and restrictions were placed on his power. William, however, would be king even after his wife's death, and "the sole and full exercise of the regal power [would be] executed by the said Prince of Orange in the names of the said Prince and Princess during their joint lives." The declaration was later extended to exclude not only James and his heirs (other than Anne) from the throne, but all Catholics, since "it hath been found by experience that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a papist prince".


title: Mary II of England

text: The bishop of London, Henry Compton (one of the "Immortal Seven"), crowned William and Mary together at Westminster Abbey on 11 April 1689. Normally, the archbishop of Canterbury performs coronations, but the incumbent archbishop, William Sancroft, although an Anglican, refused to recognise the validity of James II's removal. Neither William nor Mary enjoyed the ceremony; she thought it "all vanity" and William called it "Popish".


title: Mary II of England

text: On the same day, the Convention of the Estates of Scotland—which was much more divided than the English Parliament—finally declared that James was no longer King of Scotland, that "no Papist can be King or Queen of this Realm", that William and Mary would be joint sovereigns, and that William would exercise sole and full power. The following day, they were proclaimed king and queen in Edinburgh. They took the Scottish coronation oath in London on 11 May.


title: Mary II of England

text: Even after the declaration, there was still substantial support for James from the Nonjuring schism in all three kingdoms, particularly in parts of Scotland. Viscount Dundee raised an army in the Scottish Highlands and won a convincing victory at Killiecrankie on 27 July. The huge losses suffered by Dundee's troops, however, coupled with his fatal wounding, served to remove the only effective resistance to William and the uprising was quickly crushed, suffering a resounding defeat by Scottish Covenanters the next month at the Battle of Dunkeld.


title: Mary II of England

text: In December 1689, Parliament passed the Bill of Rights. This measure—which restated and confirmed many provisions of the earlier Declaration of Right—established restrictions on the royal prerogative; it declared, among other things, that the Sovereign could not suspend laws passed by Parliament, levy taxes without parliamentary consent, infringe the right to petition, raise a standing army during peacetime without parliamentary consent, deny the right to bear arms to Protestant subjects, unduly interfere with parliamentary elections, punish members of either House of Parliament for anything said during debates, require excessive bail, or inflict cruel or unusual punishments. The Bill of Rights also confirmed the succession to the throne. Following the death of either William III or Mary II, the other was to continue to reign. Next in the line of succession would be any children of the couple, to be followed by Mary's sister Anne and her children. Last in the line of succession stood any children William III might have had from any subsequent marriage.


title: Mary II of England

text: From 1690 onwards, William was often absent from England on campaign, each year generally from the spring until the autumn. In 1690, he fought Jacobites (who supported James) in Ireland. William had crushed the Irish Jacobites by 1692, but he continued with campaigns abroad to wage war against France in the Netherlands. Whilst her husband was away, Mary administered the government of the realm with the advice of a nine-member Cabinet Council. She was not keen to assume power and felt "deprived of all that was dear to me in the person of my husband, left among those that were perfect strangers to me: my sister of a humour so reserved that I could have little comfort from her." Anne had quarrelled with William and Mary over money, and the relationship between the two sisters had soured.


title: Mary II of England

text: When her husband was away, Mary acted on her own if his advice was not available; whilst he was in England, Mary completely refrained from interfering in political matters, as had been agreed in the Declaration and Bill of Rights, and as she preferred. However, she proved a firm ruler, ordering the arrest of her own uncle, Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, for plotting to restore James II to the throne. In January 1692, the influential John Churchill, 1st Earl of Marlborough, was dismissed on similar charges; the dismissal somewhat diminished her popularity and further harmed her relationship with her sister Anne (who was strongly influenced by Churchill's wife, Sarah). Anne appeared at court with Sarah, obviously supporting the disgraced Churchill, which led to Mary angrily demanding that Anne dismiss Sarah and vacate her lodgings.


title: Mary II of England

text: Mary fell ill with a fever in April 1692, and missed Sunday church service for the first time in 12 years. She also failed to visit Anne, who was suffering a difficult labour. After Mary's recovery and the death of Anne's baby soon after it was born, Mary did visit her sister, but chose the opportunity to berate Anne for her friendship with Sarah. The sisters never saw each other again. Marlborough was arrested and imprisoned, but then released after his accuser was revealed to be an impostor. Mary recorded in her journal that the breach between the sisters was a punishment from God for the "irregularity" of the Revolution. She was extremely devout, and attended prayers at least twice a day.


title: Mary II of England

text: Many of Mary's proclamations focus on combating licentiousness, insobriety and vice. She often participated in the affairs of the Church—all matters of ecclesiastical patronage passed through her hands. On the death of Archbishop of Canterbury John Tillotson in December 1694, Mary was keen to appoint Bishop of Worcester Edward Stillingfleet to the vacancy, but William overruled her and the post went to Bishop of Lincoln Thomas Tenison.


title: Mary II of England

text: Mary was tall (5 foot 11 inches; 180 cm) and apparently fit; she regularly walked between her palaces at Whitehall and Kensington, and it appeared likely she would outlive her husband and sister, both of whom suffered from ill-health. In late 1694, however, she contracted smallpox. She sent away anyone who had not previously had the disease, to prevent the spread of infection. Anne, who was once again pregnant, sent Mary a letter saying she would run any risk to see her sister again, but the offer was declined by Mary's groom of the stool, the Countess of Derby. Several days into the course of her illness, the smallpox lesions reportedly disappeared, leaving her skin smooth and unmarked, and Mary said that she felt improved. Her attendants initially hoped she had been ill with measles rather than smallpox, and that she was recovering. But the rash had "turned inward", a sign that Mary was suffering from a usually fatal form of smallpox, and her condition quickly deteriorated. Mary died at Kensington Palace shortly after midnight on the morning of 28 December, at the young age of 32.


title: Mary II of England

text: William, who had grown increasingly to rely on Mary, was devastated by her death, and told Burnet that "from being the happiest" he was "now going to be the miserablest creature on earth". While the Jacobites considered her death divine retribution for breaking the fifth commandment ("honour thy father"), she was widely mourned in Britain. During a cold winter, in which the Thames froze, her embalmed body lay in state in Banqueting House, Whitehall. On 5 March, she was buried at Westminster Abbey. Her funeral service was the first of any royal attended by all the members of both Houses of Parliament. For the ceremony, composer Henry Purcell wrote "Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary".


title: Mary II of England

text: Mary endowed the College of William and Mary (in the present day Williamsburg, Virginia) in 1693, supported Thomas Bray, who founded the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and was instrumental in the foundation of the Royal Hospital for Seamen, Greenwich, after the Anglo-Dutch victory at the Battle of La Hogue. She is credited with influencing garden design at Het Loo and Hampton Court Palaces, and with popularising blue and white porcelain and the keeping of goldfish as pets.


title: Mary II of England

text: Mary was depicted by Jacobites as an unfaithful daughter who destroyed her father for her own and her husband's gain. In the early years of their reign, she was often seen as completely under the spell of her husband, but after she had temporarily governed alone during his absences abroad, she was portrayed as capable and confident. Nahum Tate's "A Present for the Ladies" (1692) compared her to Queen Elizabeth I. Her modesty and diffidence were praised in works such as "A Dialogue Concerning Women" (1691) by William Walsh, which compared her to Cincinnatus, the Roman general who took on a great task when called to do so, but then willingly abandoned power.


title: Mary II of England

text: A week before her death, Mary went through her papers, weeding out some, which were burnt, but her journal survives, as do her letters to William and to Frances Apsley. The Jacobites lambasted her, but the assessment of her character that came down to posterity was largely the vision of Mary as a dutiful, submissive wife, who assumed power reluctantly, exercised it with considerable ability when necessary, and willingly deferred it to her husband.


title: Mary II of England

text: The joint style of William III and Mary II was "William and Mary, by the Grace of God, King and Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, etc." when they ascended the English throne. From 11 April 1689—when the Estates of Scotland recognised them as sovereigns—the royal couple used the style "William and Mary, by the Grace of God, King and Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, etc.".


title: Mary II of England

text: The coat of arms used by William and Mary were: Quarterly, I and IV Grandquarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland); overall an escutcheon Azure billetty a lion rampant Or (for the House of Orange-Nassau).


title: George Washington University

text: The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest institution of higher education in the District of Columbia.


title: George Washington University

text: George Washington, the first president of the United States, advocated for the establishment of a national university in the U.S. capital in his first State of the Union address in 1790 and continued to promote this idea throughout his career and until his death. In his will, Washington left shares in the Potomac Company to endow the university. However, due to the company's financial difficulties, funds were raised independently by Baptist ministers. Among the patrons contributing funds were James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and John C. Calhoun. On February 9, 1821, the university was established by an Act of Congress first as Columbian College and then as Columbian University, making it one of only five universities in the United States with a congressional charter.


title: George Washington University

text: The university's undergraduate and graduate schools includes the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, the Elliott School of International Affairs, the GWU School of Business, the School of Media and Public Affairs, the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, the GWU Law School and the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. GWU's main Foggy Bottom campus is located in the heart of Washington, D.C., with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank located on campus and the White House and the U.S. Department of State within blocks of campus. GWU hosts numerous research centers and institutes, including the National Security Archive and the Institute for International Economic Policy. GWU also has two satellite campuses: the Mount Vernon campus, located in D.C.'s Foxhall neighborhood, and the Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Loudoun County, Virginia.


title: George Washington University

text: GWU is classified among The university offers degree programs in seventy-one disciplines, enrolling around 11,000 undergraduate and 15,500 graduate students. GWU is home to extensive student life programs, a strong Greek culture, and over 450 other student organizations. The school's athletic teams, the George Washington Colonials, play in the NCAA Division I Atlantic 10 Conference. GWU also annually hosts numerous political events, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund's Annual Meetings.


title: George Washington University

text: The university's alumni, faculty, and affiliates include 16 foreign heads of state or government, 28 United States senators, 27 United States governors, 18 U.S. Cabinet members, five Nobel laureates, two Olympic medalists, two Academy Award winners, and a Golden Globe winner. GWU has over 1,100 active alumni in the U.S. Foreign Service and is one of the largest feeder schools for the diplomatic corps.


title: George Washington University

text: The first President of the United States, George Washington, long favored the establishment of a university in a central part of the United States. He wrote to the U.S. Congress and others in favor of it, and envisioned it would be in a central part of D.C., stating he hoped the university would educate the most promising students from across the country while reaping the benefits of the nation's capital. He wished for the students to become "citizen leaders" of the new republic. Washington included a bequest of his shares in the Potomac Company in his last will and testament, though the shares lost their value and no educational institution ever benefited from them. His desire was shared and encouraged after his death by Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and they expressed the need to carry out Washington's plans. Finally, in 1821 the Baptist missionary and leading minister Luther Rice secured funds from James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun and other benefactors for a college to educate citizens from throughout the young nation in Washington, D.C. A large building was constructed on College Hill, which is now known as Meridian Hill, and on February 9, 1821, President Monroe approved the congressional charter creating the non-denominational Columbian College. Washingtonians, Congress and the academic community celebrated this new institution as the fulfillment of Washington's vision.


title: George Washington University

text: GWU, like much of Washington, D.C., traces many of its origins back to the Freemasons. The Bible that the President of the George Washington University uses to swear an oath on upon inauguration is the Bible of Freemason George Washington. Freemasonry symbols are prominently displayed throughout the campus including the foundation stones of many of the university buildings.


title: George Washington University

text: During the Civil War, many students left to join the Confederacy and the college's buildings were used as a Union Army military hospital and barracks. Walt Whitman was among many of the volunteers to work on the campus.


title: George Washington University

text: Following the war, in 1873, Columbian College became the Columbian University and moved to an urban downtown location centered on 15th and H streets.


title: George Washington University

text: Columbian University was renamed The George Washington University in 1904 after an agreement with the George Washington Memorial Association to build a campus building in honor of the first U.S. president. Neither the university nor the association were able to raise enough funds for the proposed building near the National Mall; however, the institution retained the name and the money that was raised went to the eventual construction of Lisner Auditorium. The university moved its principal operations to the D.C. neighborhood of Foggy Bottom in 1912.Many of the Colleges of the George Washington University stand out for their age and history. The Law School is the oldest law school in the District of Columbia. The School of Medicine and Health Sciences is the 11th oldest medical school in the nation. The Columbian College was founded in 1821, and is the oldest unit of the university. The Elliott School of International Affairs was formalized in 1898.


title: George Washington University

text: In the 1930s, the university was a major center for theoretical physics. The cosmologist George Gamow produced critical work on the Big Bang theory at GWU in the 1930s and 1940s. In one of the most important moments in the 20th century, Niels Bohr announced that Otto Hahn had successfully split the atom on January 26, 1939, at the Fifth Washington Conference on theoretical physics in the Hall of Government.


title: George Washington University

text: During the Vietnam War era, Thurston Hall, an undergraduate dormitory housing 1,116 students was a staging ground for student anti-war Demonstrations. (At 1900 F Street NW, the building is 3 blocks from the White House.)


title: George Washington University

text: In 1996, the university purchased the Mount Vernon College for Women in the city's Palisades neighborhood that became the school's coeducational Mount Vernon Campus. The campus was first utilized in 1997 for women only but became co-educational in a matter of years. The Mount Vernon campus is now totally integrated into the GWU community, serving as a complement to the Foggy Bottom campus. In 1999, GWU hosted the Town Hall with President Clinton, the first presidential town hall to ever be webcast live. The majority of the present infrastructure and financial stability at GWU is due to the tenures of GWU Presidents Cloyd Heck Marvin, Lloyd Hartman Elliott and Stephen Joel Trachtenberg.


title: George Washington University

text: In December 2006, the university named Johns Hopkins University provost Steven Knapp as the next President of the George Washington University. He began his presidency on August 1, 2007. In 2017, Thomas LeBlanc, provost of the University of Miami, was named the President of the George Washington University.


title: George Washington University

text: In July 2020, the university began forming special committees to look at possible name changes to an on-campus building and the school moniker. In a statement on the university's website, George Washington University President Thomas LeBlanc said one of the panels will examine the Colonials’ other_name, which critics say is antiquated and conjures up racism, violence and genocide. George Washington University law professor and Ward 3 D.C. Council member Mary Cheh will serve as chair of that committee. Another panel, to be chaired by George Washington University law professor Roger Fairfax Jr., looked into renaming the Marvin Center. The building was named after former school President Cloyd Heck Marvin, who was a known segregationist.


title: George Washington University

text: In February 2021, the university celebrated its 200th anniversary of its Congressional Charter. GW hosted former student, Senator Elizabeth Warren as speaker.


title: George Washington University

text: In January 2022, LeBlanc was succeeded by former Washington University in St. Louis Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton as interim university president.


title: George Washington University

text: GWU has three fully integrated campuses in the D.C. area. These are the Foggy Bottom Campus, the Mount Vernon Campus, and the Virginia Science and Technology Campus. The Foggy Bottom Campus houses the vast majority of academic programming. Residence halls exist on the Foggy Bottom and Mount Vernon campuses.


title: George Washington University

text: The GWU library system contains the Gelman Library, the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library, the Burns Law Library, Eckles Library (named for Charles Ellison Eckles and Anita Heurich Eckles), and the Virginia Science and Technology Library. The GWU Library System is a constituent member of the Washington Research Library Consortium, which allows for resource sharing among the university libraries of the Washington metropolitan area.


title: George Washington University

text: The main GWU campus consists of in historic Foggy Bottom and is located a few blocks from the White House, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, State Department and the National Mall. Barring a few outlying buildings, the boundaries of campus are delineated by (running clockwise from Washington Circle) Pennsylvania Avenue, 19th Street, E Street, Virginia Avenue, 24th Street, and New Hampshire Avenue. The university owns much of the property in Foggy Bottom and leases it to various tenants, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Other nearby institutions include the Harry S Truman Building (Department of State headquarters), John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, United States Institute of Peace, Watergate complex and the embassies of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Spain, Uruguay and Bosnia and Herzegovina.


title: George Washington University

text: The University Yard is the main open space and historic heart of the university. Along with George Washington's main library, Gelman Library, it constitutes the hub of the main campus. The seven-story Gelman Library building contains over two million volumes and is constructed in the Brutalist architectural style of the 1970s. It features a concrete façade punctuated by windows that are divided by projecting vertical slabs. For most of the year, parts of the library are open 24 hours a day, seven days per week for use by students, faculty, and staff. The library's seventh floor includes the Special Collections Research Center, National Security Archives, Global Resources Center and Kiev Library.


title: George Washington University

text: The National Security Archives (NSA) is a research institution that publishes declassified U.S. government files concerning selected topics of American foreign policy. It was a National Security Archive Freedom of Information Act request that eventually made the Central Intelligence Agency's so-called "Family Jewels" public.


title: George Washington University

text: Close to the library is Lisner Auditorium and a large open area between them is known as Kogan Plaza. Southeast of the plaza and located near Monroe Hall and Hall of Government is the Monroe Court, a landscaped area with a large fountain. The Foggy Bottom–GWU Washington Metro station is located at the intersection of 23rd and I Streets NW due south of Washington Circle, and provides access to the Orange, Blue and Silver lines. The University Hospital is located next to the Metro station entrance.


title: George Washington University

text: The Foggy Bottom campus contains most of the residence halls in which GWU students live. The most notable include Shenkman Hall, Thurston Hall, Madison Hall, Potomac House, Fulbright Hall, Mitchell Hall, Munson Hall, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis Hall, Phillip Amsterdam Hall, Guthridge Hall, Madison Hall, Townhouse Row, South Hall, and the newest, District House, which opened in 2016.


title: George Washington University

text: In late 2007, construction began on a large mixed-use residential, office and retail development located on the site of the old GWU Hospital (Square 54) and just east of the Foggy Bottom–GWU Metrorail station. It was the second-largest undeveloped lot in the District of Columbia at the time of initial construction activity. In 2014, the university assumed ownership of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the oldest private art museum in Washington, D.C. and independent college of art and design. The college of art and design became The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design under the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. The National Gallery of Art will acquire many of the 17,000 pieces of art from the Corcoran and the rest will be donated to other museums around the country. In May 2014, GWU opened the Milken Institute School of Public Health, a nine-story building that received LEED certification for sustainability features including a green roof, rainwater collection system, and special heating and air conditioning technologies that helps mass air displacement. The Textile Museum reopened to the public in March 2015 after the institution merged with the university in 2011 and closed it for renovations two years later.


title: George Washington University

text: In 1996, the university purchased the Mount Vernon College for Women in the city's Palisades neighborhood that became the school's coeducational Mount Vernon Campus. Initially, the Mount Vernon Campus remained exclusively a women's college until 1999 when GWU changed its operations to a co-ed facility. Now known as the Mount Vernon campus, it is totally integrated into the GWU community, serving as a complement to the Foggy Bottom campus. The campus has transportation systems connecting the students to the GWU campus in Foggy Bottom. It also includes Eckles Library, six residence halls, Lloyd Gymnasium, The GW-Mount Vernon Athletic Complex and other various campus facilities.


title: George Washington University

text: The George Washington University also operates a research and graduate campus in Ashburn, Virginia (near Dulles International Airport) which was established in 1991. Starting with a donation of from Robert H. Smith, the campus grew to by 2010.


title: George Washington University

text: Additionally, the university also operates several other graduate satellite education centers. These include the Alexandria Graduate Education Center in Alexandria, the Graduate Education Center in Arlington, and the Hampton Roads Center in Newport News. The Virginia Science and Technology Campus hosts research and educational partnerships with industry and government officials and offers more than 20 graduate degrees.


title: George Washington University

text: The Virginia Science and Technology Campus is home to the first walkable solar-power sidewalk in the world. The project began in 2012 and was completed two years later, inaugurated in October 2014.


title: George Washington University

text: The George Washington University is governed by the GWU Board of Trustees, the President of the George Washington University, provost, deans, and department chairs. The university employs over 6,000 faculty members, administrators, and support staff. In 2007, Steven Knapp was named the university's sixteenth president.; he had previously taught at the University of California, Berkeley and was later the provost at Johns Hopkins University. The current President of the George Washington University is Mark S. Wrighton. Ulysses S. Grant was a member of the Board of Trustees, and his Grandson, Ulysses S. Grant III, was Vice President of GW. John Quincy Adams was also a member of the board of trustees.


title: George Washington University

text: GWU is organized into fourteen schools and colleges, each with a different dean and organization. The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences was the original academic unit of the university. The Medical School is the 11th oldest medical school in the nation and the first to open in the District of Columbia. The Law School was also the first law school in the District of Columbia. Each academic unit has a distinct identity within the broader university. The Graduate School of Political Management and the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design were organized outside of the university, later to join in 1987 and 2014, respectively.


title: George Washington University

text: The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) is the oldest and largest college in the university. It was founded in 1821; at the beginning of the university's history, there was no distinction between this college and the university. The School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA), and the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration (SPPPA) belong to this college, although they are run separately. The Columbian College was among the first American institutions to grant a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), in 1888. The Columbian College is notable for its academic diversity, and offers a wide range of majors and courses of study. The Columbian College contains the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, the School of Media and Public Affairs, and the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. The Columbian College is primarily housed in Philips Hall, Rome Hall, Smith Hall of Art, MPA Building, Monroe Hall, Hall of Government, 1922 F Street, Corcoran Hall, Bell Hall, Samson Hall, Lisner Hall, and many other places around campus. The college is also present on the Mount Vernon and Virginia Campuses.


title: George Washington University

text: The Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration is a graduate school in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. Consistently ranked as one of the top Public Affairs Schools in the United States, it is ranked 11th nationwide by "U.S. News & World Report." The Trachtenberg School offers Master of Public Policy, Master of Public Administration, and PhD degrees in Public Policy and Public Administration. The school works in partnership with the Elliott School of International Affairs, the School of Public Health and Health Services, and the Graduate School of Education & Human Development to offer a variety of concentrations for its graduates.


title: George Washington University

text: The School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA), although run separately, belongs to the Columbian College of Arts in Sciences. It offers two undergraduate degrees, Journalism and Mass Communication and Political Communication and a master's degree in Media and Public Affairs. It is housed in the same building as the Graduate School of Political Management.The Public Affairs Project at GW, part of SMPA, is responsible for the creation and production of the PBS special, Planet Forward. School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA) was the first in the nation to offer a bachelor's degree in Political Communication. The program boasts a faculty of retired and current professionals – including CNN correspondents, journalists, political analysts, and campaign professionals. The school is consistently ranked in the top 10 programs in the nation.


title: George Washington University

text: The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design is one of the oldest arts education institutions in the United States. It is a school of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. It is housed in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the oldest private cultural institution in Washington, D.C.


title: George Washington University

text: Formerly an independent institution, known as the Corcoran College of Art and Design, the institution later merged the college operations with the George Washington University. The school retained over 20 full-time faculty members, and the college will continue to function as a separate entity within the university. The school has a historic building facing the White House on 17th Street.


title: George Washington University

text: The George Washington School of Business was established in 1928 with a $1 million gift by the Supreme Council of Scottish Rite Freemasonry Southern Jurisdiction. On February 6, 2006, the chairman and CEO of FedEx, Frederick W. Smith, opened a new complex for the school called Ric and Dawn Duquès Hall, which today houses the business school along with the Norma Lee and Morton Funger Hall.


title: George Washington University

text: , GW's undergraduate business program was ranked 42nd nationally and its International Business program was ranked ninth by "U.S. News & World Report".


title: George Washington University

text: Founded in 1824, the School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) or simply the George Washington School of Medicine, was the first school of medicine in the nation's capital due to the need for doctors in the District of Columbia.


title: George Washington University

text: In 1981, George Washington University Hospital became the center of the national spotlight when President Ronald Reagan was rushed to the emergency room after an attempted assassination.


title: George Washington University

text: GWU Hospital's emergency department was later renamed the Ronald Reagan Institute of Emergency Medicine. Other politicians, such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, come to GWU for routine and emergency procedures. Cheney and wife Lynne Cheney helped to start the Richard B. and Lynne V. Cheney Cardiovascular Institute in 2006. Others notable patients include former First Lady Laura Bush, who was treated for a pinched nerve.


title: George Washington University

text: SMHS is primarily housed in the GWU Hospital, Ross Hall, and many other centers along K Street and throughout the city.


title: George Washington University

text: GWU was once home to the George Washington Dental College, but this department would close in 1921 due to budget constraints.


title: George Washington University

text: The School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) was founded on October 1, 1884, as the Corcoran Scientific School of Columbian University. The school separated from the Columbian College in 1962 and was one of the first to accept women for degree candidacy in engineering. The bazooka was invented at the SEAS in 1942. The school moved into the new Science and Engineering Hall in D.C. in March 2015.


title: George Washington University

text: The Elliott School of International Affairs (ESIA) was founded in 1898 as the School of Comparative Jurisprudence and Diplomacy. Under President Lloyd Elliott, the school separated from Columbian College. On September 3, 2003, alumnus Colin Powell opened a new complex for this school at 1957 E Street NW in front of the Department of State. , its undergraduate program was ranked eighth globally by "Foreign Policy" magazine, while the graduate program is currently ranked seventh in the world. ESIA is primarily housed in Elliott Hall at 1957 E St.


title: George Washington University

text: The history of nursing education at GWU spans more than 100 years. In 2002, Jean Johnson, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, then senior associate dean for Health Sciences, met with the nursing faculty to assess GW's capacity to create GW's degree programs. The faculty moved forward to develop an MSN in the GWU School of Medicine and Health Sciences with programs in adult nurse practitioner, family nurse practitioner, nursing leadership and management, and clinical research administration. The first MSN class was admitted in 2004.


title: George Washington University

text: Meanwhile, approval was also obtained to develop a Department of Nursing Education. As the first and only chair of the department, Ellen Dawson, Ph.D., RN, ANP, led the MSN program to accreditation in time for the graduation of the first class in 2006. Also, she spearheaded the development of both the doctor of nursing practice (DNP) program and the 15-month (four consecutive semesters) accelerated second-degree bachelor of nursing science (ABSN) program located in Ashburn, VA. The first classes for these degrees were admitted in 2007 and 2009, respectively.In 2010, the GWU School of Nursing was re-established and is now the university's tenth academic institution, with Drs. Jean Johnson and Ellen Dawson as the founding deans.


title: George Washington University

text: The George Washington University Law School was established in 1826 and is the oldest law school in the District of Columbia. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, William Strong, David J. Brewer, Willis Van Devanter and John Marshall Harlan were among those who served on its faculty. Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Samuel Alito, and Justice Antonin Scalia presided over its moot court in 2006, 2007 and 2009, respectively. The law school is located primarily on the east side of University Yard.


title: George Washington University

text: The Graduate School of Education & Human Development (GSEHD) officially started in 1909. The school is composed of five distinct academic departments, and it is one of the largest schools within GW.


title: George Washington University

text: The George Washington University College of Professional Studies (CPS) was founded during the Trachtenberg Presidency. The Graduate School of Political Management is included within the college. CPS offers courses on the Foggy Bottom and Virginia campuses.


title: George Washington University

text: The Graduate School of Political Management (GSPM) is an academic unit of the College of Professional Studies. GSPM offers graduate degrees in legislative affairs, political management, and other related disciplines. The current director is Lara Brown.


title: George Washington University

text: Established in July 1997, and renamed in March 2014, the Milken Institute School of Public Health brought together three longstanding university programs in the schools of medicine, business, and education that have since expanded substantially. Today, more than 900 students from nearly every U.S. state and more than 35 nations pursue undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral-level degrees in public health. Its student body is one of the most ethnically diverse among the nation's private schools of public health.


title: George Washington University

text: The School also offers an array of joint degree programs, allowing students to couple a Juris Doctor (JD) with the Master of Public Health (MPH), or to combine an MPH with a Doctor of Medicine (MD) or an MA in International Affairs. An MPH/Physician Assistant program, the first in the world, is available at the Milken Institute SPH, as is the opportunity to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer while pursuing an MPH.


title: George Washington University

text: GWU is the largest higher education institution in Washington, D.C. There are approximately 10,000 full-time undergraduates studying at George Washington University, and 14,000 graduate students. These students come from all 50 states and over 120 countries. Nearly 900 students participate in GW's Study Abroad Programs each semester in 50 countries. , George Washington University no longer required the SAT and ACT test scores for applicants in order to boost the enrollment of disadvantaged students.


title: George Washington University

text: At GWU, tuition was guaranteed to remain at the freshman rate for up to ten continuous (full-time) semesters of undergraduate attendance at the university. GWU no longer offers fixed tuition. The 2021–2022 academic year tuition rate was $59,780. Students were awarded $308.1 million in financial-aid during the 2017–2018 academic year. For the FY2011 cohort of students, the student loan default rate was 1.4, one of the lowest in the nation. For the 2010–2011 school year, the freshman retention rate was 94.3%. GWU requires that students live on campus for their first three years of enrollment as undergraduates.According to the self-provided data by George Washington University, as of the 2011–2012 academic year, the acceptance rate for the Medical School was 3%, receiving 10,588 applications. GWU Law School's acceptance was 23%, receiving 10,021 applications. GW's Undergraduate studies' acceptance rate was 32%, receiving 21,433 applications. Admission to George Washington is considered to be competitive and highly selective, with "The Princeton Review" rating admissions difficulty as a 93 out of 99.


title: George Washington University

text: In September 2013, "The GWU Hatchet" reported that the university had a need-aware admissions policy, even though it claimed to have a need-blind policy at the time. The university subsequently admitted that its admissions policy was, in fact, need-aware.


title: George Washington University

text: During the 2013–2014 academic year, there were 5,015 undergraduates enrolled in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, 2,005 in the Elliott School of International Affairs, 1,566 in the School of Business, 774 in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, 367 in the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 174 in the Milken Institute School of Public Health, and 153 in the School of Nursing.


title: George Washington University

text: Students come from all 50 U.S. states. The top states include New York, California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Florida, Illinois and Connecticut.


title: George Washington University

text: George Washington University has many international students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. During the 2013–2014 academic year, there were over 130 countries represented among the student body. The most represented countries represented were China, South Korea, India, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Turkey, France, Nigeria, Pakistan, Japan, Iran, Germany, Brazil, Colombia, and Vietnam.


title: George Washington University

text: GWU was ranked as tied for 25th of the "Top Universities for Producing Billionaires 2016–2017" by "Times Higher Education"s "World University Rankings", which also ranks GWU as 51st of the "Top 100 Universities for Producing Millionaires" in the world.


title: George Washington University

text: The Princeton Review consistently ranks George Washington University in the Top 10 for the following categories:


title: George Washington University

text: In 2012, the university received national attention when GWU officials announced that they had misreported admissions data on their student body for over a decade, overstating the number of students who had graduated from high school in the top ten percent of their classes due to a "data reporting error". Consequently, "U.S. News & World Report" removed the school from its rankings and altered the GW's entry to being unranked for the 2013. The university was reinstated a year later in the 2014 rankings.


title: George Washington University

text: The Princeton Review ranked GWU first for "Top Colleges or Universities for Internship Opportunities." GWU is consistently ranked by The Princeton Review in the top "Most Politically Active" Schools.


title: George Washington University

text: "U.S. News & World Report" ranks GWU's international business program as eighth best in the world, its MBA program as 51st best, and its undergraduate business program as 38th best. "The Financial Times" ranks GWSB as the 47th best business school in the United States.


title: George Washington University

text: "Foreign Policy" ranks the Elliott School's Masters in International Affairs as the seventh best in the world in its 2018 "Inside the Ivory Tower" annual report. "Foreign Policy" ranks the Elliott School as being the eighth in the "Top U.S. Undergraduate Institutions to Study International Relations 2018."


title: George Washington University

text: The 2020 "U.S. News & World Report" ranks GWU Law School as fifth best in the U.S. for its international law program, fifth best for intellectual law, second best for part-time law, and as the 22nd best law school in the United States. The "National Law Journal" ranked GWU Law 21st for law schools that sent the highest percentage of new graduates to NLJ 250 law firms, the largest and most prominent law practices in the U.S.


title: George Washington University

text: George Washington is ranked 61st for the "Best Global Universities for Social Sciences and Public Health 2018" by "U.S. News & World Report".


title: George Washington University

text: The George Washington University is the largest research university in Washington, D.C. According to the National Science Foundation, GWU spent $260 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 89th in the nation.


title: George Washington University

text: The university is located in downtown D.C., near the Kennedy Center, embassies, and other cultural events. Students are known as highly politically active; "Uni in the USA" stated that "politics at George Washington is about as progressive as it gets".


title: George Washington University

text: There are many student organizations at the university. GWU has a Division I athletics program that includes men's baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, women's lacrosse, women's rowing, soccer, women's softball, swimming, women's tennis, women's volleyball and men's water polo. Colonials athletics teams compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The Division II men's and women's Rugby Teams both compete in the Potomac Rugby Union.


title: George Washington University

text: Most student organizations are run through the George Washington University Student Association (SA). The SA is fashioned after the federal government with an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. There are over 500 registered student organizations on campus. The largest student organization on campus, the GWU College Democrats have hosted speakers such as CNN contributor Donna Brazile and former DNC Chairman Howard Dean among many others. Likewise, the GWU College Republicans, the largest CR chapter in the nation, have been visited by politicians like John Ashcroft former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and former President George W. Bush. The International Affairs Society (IAS) runs the university's internationally top-ranked Model United Nations team, in addition to hosting yearly high school and middle school Model UN conferences on campus. This organization also hosts various foreign dignitaries, US Government officials, and subject matter experts to further inform and foster international understanding both in the university's student body and the greater D.C. community.


title: George Washington University

text: There are also several a cappella performance groups on campus. The university's school-sponsored a cappella group, the co-ed GWU Troubadours, has been a presence on campus since the mid-1950s and regularly records studio albums and travels internationally with the Department of Music. The Sons of Pitch, GW's only male a cappella group, has been around since 2003, and the female group the GWU Pitches was founded in 1996. All the groups are extremely committed to charity work, with the Troubadours holding an annual philanthropic concert in the fall entitled "Acappellapalooza," and the Sons of Pitch holding one in the spring named "The United States of A-Cappella." In the case of the former, groups from GWU are drawn for a concert, in the latter, groups from around the nation. The groups have raised tens of thousands of dollars for various charitable causes. Additionally, the university is home to the Voice gospel choir, a group that sings gospel music, the GWU Vibes, a co-ed group focusing on soulful music. The GWU Sirens, another all-girls group, and the GWU Motherfunkers, a coed top 40 group, were created in 2003 and 2012, respectively. Each year, the groups duke it out at the Battle of the A-Cappella groups, one of the biggest student events on GW's campus.


title: George Washington University

text: Another student group, the Emergency Medical Response Group (EMeRG) provides an all-volunteer 24/7 ambulance service for the campus and the Foggy Bottom/West End community at no cost. EMeRG has been active on campus since 1994 and has advanced from bike response into a two ambulance system that is sanctioned by the District of Columbia Department of Health and DC Fire and EMS (DCFEMS). EMeRG also plays an active role in special events in around the DC area including the Marine Corps Marathon, National Marathon, Cherry Blossom Race, Commencement, Inauguration and other events in downtown D.C. and on the National Mall.


title: George Washington University

text: GWU has a large Greek community with over 3,000 students consisting of just under 27 percent of the undergraduate population. Greek organizations are divided up between and governed by the Inter-Fraternity Council with 14 chapters, the Panhellenic Association with 11 chapters, and the Multicultural Greek Council with 13 chapters. Other Greek-life, known as "Alternative Greek Life" or simply "Alt-Greek", exists on campus in the form of professional, community-serviced based and honor groups although not under the university's traditional Greek life governing structure but instead are considered separate student organizations


title: George Washington University

text: There are chapters of many varied academic groups at the university. The local chapter of the Society of Physics Students was at one time under the auspices of world-renowned scientists like George Gamow, Ralph Asher Alpher, Mario Schoenberg and Edward Teller, who have all taught at the university. The Enosinian Society, founded in 1822, is one of the university's oldest student organizations. Invited speakers included Daniel Webster.


title: George Washington University

text: There are four major news sources on campus: the independent student-run newspaper "The GWU Hatchet", which publishes articles online daily and a print edition weekly; "The Rival GW", an online-only student-run publication; the online-only radio station, WRGW; and the university's official news source, "GWU Today". GWU also publishes a peer-reviewed journal, "The International Affairs Review", which is run by graduate students at the Elliott School.


title: George Washington University

text: George Washington University was ranked number 12 on The Sierra Club's magazine "Cool Schools List" for 2014 and was included in the Princeton Review's Guide to 322 Green Schools for 2013. The campus has a campus-wide building energy efficiency program along with nine LEED-certified buildings including the Milken Institute School of Public Health building. In 2016, university officials rejected demands by the student body for the university to divest from fossil fuels.


title: George Washington University

text: George Washington University is a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference and most of its teams play at the NCAA Division I level. All indoor sports play at the Smith Center on the Foggy Bottom campus. The outdoor events are held at the Mount Vernon campus Athletic Complex. The university's colors are buff and blue (buff being a color similar to tan, but sometimes represented as gold or yellow). The colors were taken from George Washington's uniform in the Revolutionary War. The teams have achieved great successes in recent years including a first-round victory in the Men's NCAA Division I Soccer Tournament in 2004. The men's and women's varsity crew team rows out of Thompson's Boat Center on the Potomac River and competes in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges. In the 2008–09 season, the men's crew team placed an all-time high national ranking of 12th in the country. The sailing team competes in the Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association while the gymnastics team competes in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League. In 2007 the GWU Men's Water Polo team placed third at Eastern Championships and was ranked 14th in the nation. Officials announced that seven teams, such as "men's rowing, sailing, men’s and women’s squash, men’s indoor track, men’s tennis and women’s water polo will be eliminated" after the 2020–2021 school year, due to financial concerns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. These programs have the opportunity to become club sports following their elimination.


title: George Washington University

text: Mike Jarvis coached GWU in the 1990s, and led the team to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1993, where they were beaten by the Fab Five University of Michigan team (which later vacated its wins due to NCAA rule violations). Jarvis also coached former Colonials head coach Karl Hobbs in high school. Former NBA player Yinka Dare also played at George Washington for two years before being drafted in the first round by the New Jersey Nets.


title: George Washington University

text: Under former head coach Karl Hobbs, GW's basketball team returned to the national stage in 2004 after defeating No. 9 Michigan State and No. 12 Maryland in back to back games to win the 2004 BB&T Classic. That year, the men's basketball team went on to win the Atlantic 10 West Title and the Atlantic 10 Tournament Title, earning an automatic bid to the 2005 NCAA tournament. The team received a No. 12 seed, losing to No. 5 seed Georgia Tech in the first round.


title: George Washington University

text: The team began the 2005–06 season ranked 21st in the "Associated Press" poll, reaching as high as sixth in the polls, and after some tournament success they closed out the year ranked 19th in the nation. They had a record of 26–2 going into the 2006 NCAA tournament. The 2005–06 team achieved the school's highest ranking in the last 50 years, peaking at No. 6 in the nation, had been one of the team's best and received an #8 seed in the NCAA Tournament. In the tournament, they came back from an 18-point second-half deficit to defeat #9 seed UNC-Wilmington, but lost to Duke University, the top overall seed, in the second round.While only one Colonial from the 2005–06 team was drafted in the 2006 NBA Draft, J. R. Pinnock, two other Colonials from that team have played in the NBA. Pops Mensah-Bonsu played for the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs and Toronto Raptors and Mike Hall played for the Washington Wizards.


title: George Washington University

text: The 2006–07 basketball season was considered by many to be a rebuilding year for the Colonials after graduating their entire starting front court and losing Pinnock to the NBA. Coach Karl Hobbs and Senior guard Carl Elliott managed to lead the team to a 23–8 record, winning the 2007 Atlantic 10 tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey, once again earning an auto-bid to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. The Colonials were placed as a #11 seed lost to No. 6 seed Vanderbilt University in Sacramento, CA, 77–44.


title: George Washington University

text: Hobbs, a former player and coach under Jim Calhoun at the University of Connecticut coached the Colonials for 10 years. Known for his animated sideline personality Hobbs had been considered one of the up-and-coming coaches in the NCAA. On April 25, 2011, the university released Hobbs from his contractual obligations, forcing him to resign as men's basketball coach


title: George Washington University

text: In May 2011, Incoming Athletic Director Patrick Nero hired former University of Vermont head coach Mike Lonergan to take over the men's basketball program. The Bowie, Md. native had a slow start to his GWU tenure, finishing 10–21 in his first full year as coach, and improving to 13–17 in the second. The 2013–14 season solidified his hiring, as the team finished 24–9 on the year, tallying the second-most wins in a season in GWU history; took third place in the Atlantic 10 standings and made it to the Atlantic 10 Championship semifinals; and earned the program's 11th bid to the NCAA Tournament, their first in seven years.


title: George Washington University

text: The NCAA committee selected the Colonials as the #9 seed in the East Region for the tournament. They faced #8 seed Memphis in the second round. The Tigers took a five-point lead over the Colonials into the half, but the Colonials almost came back to win. A late rally cut the Memphis lead to only one point with 25 seconds to go, but the Colonials could not hold on and lost, 71–66.


title: George Washington University

text: Soon after the end of the Colonials' successful 2013–14 campaign, Lonergan signed a contract extension, keeping him with the program through the 2020–21 season.


title: George Washington University

text: The Colonials won the 2016 National Invitation Tournament, defeating Hofstra, Monmouth, Florida, San Diego State and Valparaiso for the first postseason national title in their history. Prior to the 2016–2017 season, Mike Lonergan was removed as head coach following allegations of verbal abuse from players and staff. He was replaced by assistant coach Maurice Joseph who served as interim head coach before being signed fully following the 2016–2017 basketball season.


title: George Washington University

text: One of Lonergan's players, Yuta Watanabe, was the first Japanese-born student athlete to secure an NCAA Division I basketball scholarship. Watanabe now plays in the NBA, and is the second Japanese player ever in the NBA.


title: George Washington University

text: In March 2019, GWU hired Jamion Christian to be its next head men's basketball coach. After three years at GW, Christian was fired and Chris Caputo was hired from the University of Miami.


title: George Washington University

text: The George Washington Colonials baseball team is a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference, which is part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. George Washington's first baseball team was fielded in 1891. The team plays its home games at Barcroft Park in Arlington, Virginia. Gregg Ritchie coaches the Colonials.


title: George Washington University

text: The school sponsored intercollegiate football from 1881 to 1966. The team played home games primarily at Griffith Stadium and later at RFK Stadium. In 1966, the football program was discontinued due to a number of factors, including the team's lack of adequate facilities and the desire by the university to develop an on-campus fieldhouse for basketball and other sports. GWU has one alumni in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Alphonse Leemans.


title: George Washington University

text: The GWU Spirit Program includes a co-ed Cheer Team, the First Ladies Dance team, and the university mascot. The Colonials mascot is named George, and is portrayed by a student wearing an outfit inspired by a uniform worn by General Washington. In 2012, George took first place at the National Cheerleaders Association Mascot Competition and is the university's first national champion. The spirit program also includes the Colonial Brass, directed by Professor Benno Fritz.


title: George Washington University

text: The official fight song is "Hail to the Buff and Blue", composed in 1924 by student Eugene F. Sweeney and re-written in 1989 by Patrick M. Jones. The song is tolled twice-daily by bells atop Corcoran Hall, at 12:15pm and 6:00pm.


title: George Washington University

text: The university also has various club sports, which are not varsity sports, but compete against other colleges. Examples include: boxing, basketball, volleyball, ice hockey, figure skating, fencing, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, triathlon, tennis, ultimate frisbee, cricket, water polo, equestrian and others.


title: George Washington University

text: George Washington University alumni have included many current and past political figures, both in the United States and abroad. 16 GWU alumni have served as foreign heads of state or government (4 currently serving as of 2019). Many alumni have held U.S. Cabinet positions, including former Attorney General William Barr, former acting Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and former Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt. GWU is one of the schools with the most alumni that have served in the U.S. Congress. Notable recent GWU alumni members of congress include Harry Reid (Senate Majority Leader for most of the Obama Presidency), Elizabeth Warren (2020 presidential candidate), Eric Cantor (House Majority Leader, 2011–2014), and Robert Byrd (President pro tempore of the Senate under President Bush and President Obama). Alumni have served as governors of 19 U.S. states, as well as the District of Columbia and Guam, among others. Some alumni serving in President Trump's White House include current White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp and White House Cabinet Secretary Bill McGinley. Other prominent U.S. politicians include Senator J. William Fulbright, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, former CIA Director Allen Dulles and his brother, former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Also, current Premier of Bermuda Edward David Burt (youngest in history) and current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Bhutan Tshering Wangchuk are GWU alumni. Former associate director for National Preparedness at the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), John Brinkerhoff was a GWU alumni.


title: George Washington University

text: In business, Lee Kun-hee (MBA), Chairman of Samsung who is credited with transforming the company into one of the largest electronics manufacturers, Scott Kirby (MS), CEO of United Airlines, Kathy J. Warden (MBA), President and CEO of Northrop Grumman and John F.W. Rogers (BA), Executive Vice President, Chief of Staff and Secretary to the Board of Goldman Sachs. Notable company founders include Robert A. Altman (JD), co-founder of ZeniMax Media, Elaine Wynn, co-founder of Wynn Resorts, and Tom Cortese, co-founder of Peloton.


title: George Washington University

text: Science and technology alumni include Julius Axelrod (PhD), Nobel Laureate and medical researcher, Ralph Asher Alpher, National Medal of Science laureate, physicist and "father" of the Big Bang theory, Jack Edmonds, noted computer scientist and mathematician and one of the creators of combinatorial optimization, Walter O. Snelling, who first identified propane and researched how propane could be liquefied and used as a viable energy resource, Charles Browne Fleet, inventor of ChapStick. In addition, 7 NASA astronauts are alumni, including Charles Camarda and Serena Auñón-Chancellor.


title: George Washington University

text: In arts, entertainment and media, writer and filmmaker William Peter Blatty (MA), author of The Exorcist, which he adapted for the screen and won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Emmy winning actors Alec Baldwin and Kerry Washington are also alumni, while filmmaker and Palme d'Or recipient David Lynch and Oscar winning actor Jared Leto attended the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. Journalism alumni include Pulitzer Prize winner Glenn Greenwald, CNN commentators Dana Bash and Chuck Todd as well as NBC News reporter Kasie Hunt.


title: George Washington University

text: Leaders of academic institutions include William Greenleaf Eliot co-founder of Washington University in St. Louis, Derek Bok (AM), president of Harvard University, Scott Cowen (MBA), president of Tulane University and John T. Wilson, president of University of Chicago.


title: George Washington University

text: Well known athletes and sports personnel include Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach (BA, MA), winner of nine NBA championships as a head coach with an additional seven as a general manager for grand total of 16 NBA championships. Many players have been drafted into NBA such as Yinka Dare and Yuta Watanabe. Other notable athletes include WNBA star Jonquel Jones, NFL Hall of Fame running back Tuffy Leemans, and Olympic medalist Elena Myers. Several alumni have owned sports teams including Ted Lerner, owner of the Washington Nationals, Abe Pollin, owner of the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals, Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox.


title: George Washington University

text: Notable GWU faculty include Tom Perez, former Chair of the Democratic National Committee; two current Supreme Court Justices, Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson; George Gamow, developer of the Big Bang theory; Edward Teller, "father of the hydrogen bomb"; Vincent du Vigneaud, Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner; John Negroponte, first Director of National Intelligence; Thomas Buergenthal, former President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; Masatoshi Koshiba, Nobel Prize in Physics winner; Scott Pace, current Executive Secretary of the National Space Council; Amitai Etzioni, former President of the American Sociological Association; Marshall Warren Nirenberg, Nobel Prize in Medicine winner; Edward P. Jones, Pulitzer Prize winner; Abba Eban, former Vice President of the United Nations General Assembly; Dana Perino, former White House Press Secretary; and Ferid Murad, Nobel Prize in Medicine winner.


title: George Washington University

text: Other faculty have included Frank Sesno, CNN former Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief and Special Correspondent; James Carafano, Heritage Foundation national security and homeland security expert; Leon Fuerth, former national security adviser to Vice President Al Gore; James Rosenau, political theorist and former president of the International Studies Association; Steven V. Roberts, American journalist, writer and political commentator and former senior writer at "U.S. News & World Report"; Nancy E. Gary, former dean of Albany Medical College, Executive Vice President of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and Dean of its F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Roy Richard Grinker, anthropologist specializing in autism and North-South Korean relations, Edward P. Jones, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2004, novelist Herman "H.G." Carrillo, historian Jessica Krug, Dagmar R. Henney, Mohammad Nahavandian (economics), chief of staff of the President of Iran since 2013, and Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé (MBA), president of Togo since 2005, Dr. Blake R. Van Leer, president of Georgia Tech, Colonel and Civil Rights advocate.


title: Aitch (rapper)

text: Harrison James Armstrong (born 9 December 1999), known professionally as Aitch, is a British rapper from Manchester. His solo breakthrough single "Straight Rhymez" has garnered over 24 million views and brought him to the attention of London rapper Stormzy. His song "Rain" has garnered over 57 million views on YouTube and over 140 million streams on Spotify.


title: Aitch (rapper)

text: Aitch has released ten singles that have charted within the top 40 in the UK, including "Taste (Make It Shake)", which peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. He has supported rappers such as Cadet and Wiley on tour, as well as featuring on a new version of teenage rappers A1 x J1's top 20 hit "Latest Trends". The name "Aitch" derives from the pronunciation of the letter 'h', which is the first letter of his given name.


title: Aitch (rapper)

text: Harrison James Armstrong was born on 9 December 1999 in Moston, Manchester. He is an avid supporter of the football club Manchester United. After leaving school he went to college and played sports, but eventually dropped out and worked in construction with his grandfather.


title: Aitch (rapper)

text: Aitch first garnered attention in 2015 when a YouTube video of him rapping to friends gained local popularity. He originally didn't want the video published, but changed his mind when his video gained 10,000 views. His friend continued uploading Aitch's freestyles to see if it would gain more views.


title: Aitch (rapper)

text: Aitch made multiple appearances on the P110 YouTube channel, starting in September 2016 with a freestyle. He then premiered his song "Back To Basics" on the channel in June 2017. On 9 December 2017, Aitch released his EP, "On Your Marks". In May 2018, he released his breakthrough track "Straight Rhymez", which gained him national attention.


title: Aitch (rapper)

text: In August 2019, he released his song "Taste (Make It Shake)" which became his biggest song at the time. He then released his second EP, "AitcH2O", in September. In March 2020, he collaborated with AJ Tracey and Tay Keith on the track "Rain" which amassed over 50 million views on YouTube. In May his third EP, "Polaris" released. In June 2021, Aitch released the single "Learning Curve". he followed this up with "Party Round My Place" in September.


title: Aitch (rapper)

text: On 3 February 2022, Aitch was featured on ArrDee's single "War". The single debuted at number 6 on the UK Official Singles Top 100 Chart and debuted at number 21 on the UK Official Singles Sales Chart Top 100 on 11 February 2022. On 10 March 2022, Aitch released the single "Baby" featuring American singer Ashanti (who is credited as co-lead on the single) and heavily sampling the latter's 2003 hit "Rock wit U (Awww Baby)". After less than 24 hours, the single debuted at number 65 on the UK Official Singles Sales Chart Top 100. It debuted on the UK Official Singles Top 100 on 18 March 2022, placing at number 2.


title: Aitch (rapper)

text: In August 2022, Aitch released "My G", featuring Ed Sheeran, which is about Aitch's sister Gracie, who has Down syndrome.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his novel "Don Quixote", a work often cited as both the first modern novel and one of the pinnacles of world literature.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Much of his life was spent in poverty and obscurity, which led to many of his early works being lost. Despite this, his influence and literary contribution are reflected by the fact that Spanish is often referred to as "the language of Cervantes".


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: In 1569, Cervantes was forced to leave Spain and move to Rome, where he worked in the household of a cardinal. In 1570, he enlisted in a Spanish Navy infantry regiment, and was badly wounded at the Battle of Lepanto in October 1571. He served as a soldier until 1575, when he was captured by Barbary pirates; after five years in captivity, he was ransomed, and returned to Madrid.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: His first significant novel, titled "La Galatea", was published in 1585, but he continued to work as a purchasing agent, and later as government tax collector. Part One of "Don Quixote" was published in 1605, and Part Two in 1615. Other works include the 12 "Novelas ejemplares" ("Exemplary Novels"); a long poem, the "Viaje del Parnaso" ("Journey to Parnassus"); and "Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses" ("Eight Plays and Eight Interludes"). "Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda" ("The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda"), was published posthumously in 1616.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Despite his subsequent renown, much of Cervantes's life is uncertain, including his name, background and what he looked like. Although he signed himself "Cerbantes", his printers used "Cervantes", which became the common form. In later life, Cervantes used "Saavedra", the name of a distant relative, rather than the more usual "Cortinas", after his mother. But historian Luce López-Baralt, claimed that it comes from the word «shaibedraa» that in Arabic dialect is "one-handed", his nickname during his captivity.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Another area of dispute is his religious background. It has been suggested that not only Cervantes's father but also his mother may have been New Christians. According to Anthony Cascardi "While the family might have had some claim to nobility they often found themselves in financial straits. Moreover, they were almost certainly of converso origin, that is, converts to Catholicism of Jewish ancestry. In the Spain of Cervantes's days, this meant living under clouds of official suspicion and social mistrust, with far more limited opportunities than were enjoyed by members of the 'Old Christian' caste."


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: It is generally accepted Miguel de Cervantes was born around 29 September 1547, in Alcalá de Henares. He was the second son of barber-surgeon Rodrigo de Cervantes and his wife, Leonor de Cortinas (). Rodrigo came from Córdoba, Andalusia, where his father Juan de Cervantes was an influential lawyer.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: No authenticated portrait of the author is known to exist. The one most often associated with Cervantes is attributed to Juan de Jáuregui, but both names were added at a later date. The El Greco painting in the Museo del Prado, known as "Retrato de un caballero desconocido", or "Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman", is cited as 'possibly' depicting Cervantes, but there is no evidence for this. The portrait "The Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest" by El Greco is also thought to possibly depict Cervantes. However, the Prado itself, while mentioning that "specific names have been proposed for the sitter, including that of Cervantes", and even "that the painting could be a self-portrait", go on to state that "Without doubt, the most convincing suggestion has connected this figure with the Second Marquis of Montemayor, Juan de Silva y de Ribera, a contemporary of El Greco who was appointed military commander of the Alcázar in Toledo by Philip II and Chief Notary to the Crown, a position that would explain the solemn gesture of the hand, depicted in the act of taking an oath."


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: The portrait by Luis de Madrazo, at the Biblioteca Nacional de España, was painted in 1859, based on his imagination. The image that appears on Spanish euro coins of €0.10, €0.20, and €0.50 is based on a bust, created in 1905.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Rodrigo was frequently in debt, or searching for work, and moved constantly. Leonor came from Arganda del Rey, and died in October 1593, at the age of 73; surviving legal documents indicate she had seven children, could read and write, and was a resourceful individual with an eye for business. When Rodrigo was imprisoned for debt from October 1553 to April 1554, she supported the family on her own.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Cervantes's siblings were Andrés (born 1543), Andrea (born 1544), Luisa (born 1546), Rodrigo (born 1550), Magdalena (born 1554) and Juan. They lived in Córdoba until 1556, when his grandfather died. For reasons that are unclear, Rodrigo did not benefit from his will and the family disappears until 1564 when he filed a lawsuit in Seville.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Seville was then in the midst of an economic boom, and Rodrigo managed rented accommodation for his elder brother Andres, who was a junior magistrate. It is assumed Cervantes attended the Jesuit college in Seville, where one of the teachers was Jesuit playwright Pedro Pablo Acevedo, who moved there in 1561 from Córdoba. However, legal records show his father got into debt once more and in 1566 the family moved to Madrid.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: In the 19th century, a biographer discovered an arrest warrant for a Miguel de Cervantes, dated 15 September 1569, who was charged with wounding Antonio de Sigura in a duel. Although disputed at the time, largely on the grounds such behaviour was unworthy of so great an author, it is now accepted as the most likely reason for Cervantes leaving Madrid.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: He eventually made his way to Rome, where he found a position in the household of Giulio Acquaviva, an Italian bishop who spent 1568 to 1569 in Madrid, and was appointed Cardinal in 1570. When the 1570 to 1573 Ottoman–Venetian War began, Spain formed part of the Holy League, a coalition formed to support the Venetian Republic. Possibly seeing an opportunity to have his arrest warrant rescinded, Cervantes went to Naples, then part of the Crown of Aragon.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: The military commander in Naples was Alvaro de Sande, a friend of the family, who gave Cervantes a commission under the Marquis de Santa Cruz. At some point, he was joined in Naples by his younger brother Rodrigo. In September 1571, Cervantes sailed on board the "Marquesa", part of the Holy League fleet under Don John of Austria, illegitimate half brother of Phillip II of Spain; on 7 October, they defeated the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: According to his own account, although suffering from malaria, Cervantes was given command of a 12-man skiff, a small boat used for assaulting enemy galleys. The "Marquesa" lost 40 dead, and 120 wounded, including Cervantes, who received three separate wounds, two in the chest, and another that rendered his left arm useless, this last wound is the reason why he later was called ""El Manco de Lepanto"" (English:"The one-handed man of Lepanto, The one-armed man of Lepanto"), a title that followed him for the rest of his life. His actions at Lepanto were a source of pride to the end of his life, while Don John approved no less than four separate pay increases for him.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: In "Journey to Parnassus", published two years before his death in 1616, Cervantes claimed to have "lost the movement of the left hand for the glory of the right". As with much else, the extent of his disability is unclear, the only source being Cervantes himself, while commentators cite his habitual tendency to praise himself. However, they were serious enough to earn him six months in the Civic Hospital at Messina, Sicily.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Although he returned to service in July 1572, records show his chest wounds were still not completely healed in February 1573. Based mainly in Naples, he joined expeditions to Corfu and Navarino, and took part in the 1573 occupation of Tunis and La Goulette, which were recaptured by the Ottomans in 1574. Despite Lepanto, the war overall was an Ottoman victory, and the loss of Tunis a military disaster for Spain. Cervantes returned to Palermo, where he was paid off by the Duke of Sessa, who gave him letters of commendation.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: In early September 1575, Cervantes and Rodrigo left Naples on the galley "Sol"; as they approached Barcelona on 26 September, their ship was captured by Ottoman corsairs, and the brothers taken to Algiers, to be sold as slaves, or – as was the case of Cervantes and his brother – held for ransom, if this would be more lucrative than their sale as slaves. Rodrigo was ransomed in 1577, but his family could not afford the fee for Cervantes, who was forced to remain. Turkish historian Rasih Nuri İleri found evidence suggesting Cervantes worked on the construction of the Kılıç Ali Pasha Complex, which means he spent at least part of his captivity in Istanbul.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: By 1580, Spain was occupied with integrating Portugal, and suppressing the Dutch Revolt, while the Ottomans were at war with Persia; the two sides agreed a truce, leading to an improvement of relations. After almost five years, and four escape attempts, in 1580 Cervantes was set free by the Trinitarians, a religious charity that specialised in ransoming Christian captives, and returned to Madrid.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: While Cervantes was in captivity, both Don John and the Duke of Sessa died, depriving him of two potential patrons, while the Spanish economy was in dire straits. This made finding employment difficult; other than a period in 1581 to 1582, when he was employed as an intelligence agent in North Africa, little is known of his movements prior to 1584.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: In April of that year, Cervantes visited Esquivias, to help arrange the affairs of his recently deceased friend and minor poet, Pedro Lainez. Here he met Catalina de Salazar y Palacios (), eldest daughter of the widowed Catalina de Palacios; her husband died leaving only debts, but the elder Catalina owned some land of her own. This may be why in December 1584, Cervantes married her daughter, then between 15 and 18 years old. The first use of the name "Cervantes Saavedra" appears in 1586, on documents related to his marriage.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Shortly before this, his illegitimate daughter Isabel was born in November. Her mother, Ana Franca, was the wife of a Madrid inn keeper; they apparently concealed it from her husband, but Cervantes acknowledged paternity. When Ana Franca died in 1598, he asked his sister Magdalena to take care of his daughter.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: In 1587, Cervantes was appointed as a government purchasing agent, then became a tax collector in 1592. They were also subject to price fluctuations, which could go either way; he was briefly jailed several times for 'irregularities', but quickly released. Several applications for positions in Spanish America were rejected, although modern critics note images of the colonies appear in his work.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: From 1596 to 1600, he lived primarily in Seville, then returned to Madrid in 1606, where he remained for the rest of his life. In later years, he received some financial support from the Count of Lemos, although he was excluded from the retinue Lemos took to Naples when appointed Viceroy in 1608. In July 1613, he joined the Third Order Franciscans, then a common way for Catholics to gain spiritual merit. It is generally accepted Cervantes died on 22 April 1616 (NS; the Gregorian calendar had superseded the Julian in 1582 in Spain and some other countries); the symptoms described, including intense thirst, correspond to diabetes, then untreatable.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: In accordance with his will, Cervantes was buried in the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians, in central Madrid. His remains went missing when moved during rebuilding work at the convent in 1673, and in 2014, historian Fernando de Prado launched a project to rediscover them.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: In January 2015, Francisco Etxeberria, the forensic anthropologist leading the search, reported the discovery of caskets containing bone fragments, and part of a board, with the letters 'M.C.'. Based on evidence of injuries suffered at Lepanto, on 17 March 2015 they were confirmed as belonging to Cervantes along with his wife and others. They were formally reburied at a public ceremony in June 2015.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Cervantes claimed to have written over 20 plays, such as "El trato de Argel", based on his experiences in captivity. Such works were extremely short-lived, and even Lope de Vega, the best-known playwright of the day, could not live on their proceeds. In 1585, he published "La Galatea", a conventional pastoral romance that received little contemporary notice; despite promising to write a sequel, he never did so.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Aside from these, and some poems, by 1605, Cervantes had not been published for 20 years. In "Don Quixote", he challenged a form of literature that had been a favourite for more than a century, explicitly stating his purpose was to undermine 'vain and empty' chivalric romances. His portrayal of real life, and use of everyday speech in a literary context was considered innovative, and proved instantly popular. First published in January 1605, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza featured in masquerades held to celebrate the birth of Philip IV on 8 April.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: He finally achieved a degree of financial security, while its popularity led to demands for a sequel. In the foreword to his 1613 work, "Novelas ejemplares", dedicated to his patron, the Count of Lemos, Cervantes promises to produce one, but was pre-empted by an unauthorised version published in 1614, published under the name Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda. It is possible this delay was deliberate, to ensure support from his publisher and reading public; Cervantes finally produced the second part of "Don Quixote" in 1615.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: The two parts of "Don Quixote" are different in focus, but similar in their clarity of prose and their realism. The first was more comic, and had greater popular appeal. The second part is often considered more sophisticated and complex, with a greater depth of characterisation and philosophical insight.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: In addition to this, he produced a series of works between 1613 and his death in 1616. They include a collection of tales titled "Exemplary Novels". This was followed by "Viaje del Parnaso", or "Eight Comedies and Eight New Interludes", and "Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda", completed just before his death, and published posthumously in January 1617.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Cervantes was rediscovered by English writers in the mid-18th century. The literary editor John Bowle argued that Cervantes was as significant as any of the Greek and Roman authors then popular, and published an annotated edition in 1781. Now viewed as a significant work, at the time it proved a failure. However, "Don Quixote" has been translated into all major languages, in 700 editions. Mexican author Carlos Fuentes suggested that Cervantes and his contemporary William Shakespeare form part of a narrative tradition that includes Homer, Dante, Defoe, Dickens, Balzac, and Joyce.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Sigmund Freud claimed he learnt Spanish to read Cervantes in the original; he particularly admired "The Dialogue of the Dogs" ("El coloquio de los perros"), from "Exemplary Tales". Two dogs, Cipión and Berganza, share their stories; as one talks, the other listens, occasionally making comments. From 1871 to 1881, Freud and his close friend, Eduard Silberstein, wrote letters to each other, using the pennames Cipión and Berganza.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: The tricentennial of "Don Quixote" publication in 1905 was marked with celebrations in Spain; the 400th anniversary of his death in 2016, saw the production of "Cervantina", a celebration of his plays by the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico in Madrid. The Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library, the largest digital archive of Spanish-language historical and literary works in the world, is named after the author.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: Cervantes is generally considered a mediocre poet; few of his poems survive. Some appear in "La Galatea", while he also wrote "Dos Canciones à la Armada Invencible".


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: His sonnets are considered his best work, particularly "Al Túmulo del Rey Felipe en Sevilla", "Canto de Calíope" and "Epístola a Mateo Vázquez". "Viaje del Parnaso", or "Journey to Parnassus", is his most ambitious verse work, an allegory that consists largely of reviews of contemporary poets.


title: Miguel de Cervantes

text: These plays and entremeses, except for "Trato de Argel" and "La Numancia", made up "Ocho Comedias y ocho entreméses nuevos, nunca representados" ("Eight Comedies and Eight New Interludes, Never Before Performed"), which appeared in 1615. The dates and order of composition of Cervantes's entremeses are unknown. Faithful to the spirit of Lope de Rueda, Cervantes endowed them with novelistic elements, such as simplified plot, the type of descriptions normally associated with a novel, and character development. Cervantes included some of his dramas among the works he was most satisfied with.


title: Mike Oldfield

text: Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is a British musician, songwriter, and producer best known for his debut studio album "Tubular Bells" (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. Though primarily a guitarist, Oldfield plays a range of instruments, which includes keyboards, percussion, and vocals. He has adopted a range of musical styles throughout his career, including progressive rock, world, folk, classical, electronic, ambient, and new age music.


title: Mike Oldfield

text: Oldfield took up the guitar at age ten and left school in his teens to embark on a music career. From 1967 to 1970, he and his sister Sally Oldfield were a folk duo The Sallyangie, after which he performed with Kevin Ayers. In 1971, Oldfield started work on "Tubular Bells" which caught the attention of Richard Branson, who agreed to release it on his new label, Virgin Records. Its opening was used in the horror film "The Exorcist" and the album went on to sell over 2.7 million copies in the UK. Oldfield followed it with "Hergest Ridge" (1974), "Ommadawn" (1975), and "Incantations" (1978), all of which feature longform and mostly instrumental pieces.


title: Mike Oldfield

text: In the late 1970s, Oldfield began to tour and release more commercial and song-based music, beginning with "Platinum" (1979), "QE2" (1980), and "Five Miles Out" (1982). His most successful album of this period was "Crises" (1983), which features the worldwide hit single "Moonlight Shadow" with vocalist Maggie Reilly. After signing with WEA in the early 1990s, Oldfield's most significant album of the decade was "Tubular Bells II" (1992) and he experimented with virtual reality and gaming content with his MusicVR project. In 2012, he performed at the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games held in London. Oldfield's discography includes 26 studio albums, nine of which have reached the UK top-ten. His most recent album is "Return to Ommadawn" (2017).


title: Mike Oldfield

text: Oldfield was born on 15 May 1953 in Reading, Berkshire, to Raymond Oldfield, a general practitioner, and Maureen ("née" Liston), an Irish woman. He has two elder siblings, sister Sally and brother Terence. When Oldfield was seven, his mother gave birth to a younger brother, David, who had Down syndrome and died in infancy. His mother was prescribed barbiturates, to which she became addicted. She had mental health problems and would spend much of the rest of her life in mental institutions, dying in early 1975, shortly after Oldfield had started writing "Ommadawn".


title: Mike Oldfield

text: Oldfield attended (what was then called) St. Joseph's Convent School, Highlands Junior School, St. Edward's Preparatory School (still located in Tilehurst Road) and Presentation College (Bath Road), all in Reading. When he was thirteen, the family moved to Harold Wood, then in Essex, and Oldfield attended Hornchurch Grammar School where, having already displayed musical talent, he earned one GCE qualification in English.


title: Mike Oldfield

text: Oldfield took up the guitar aged ten, first learning on a 6-string acoustic instrument which his father had given to him. He learned technique by copying parts from songs, by folk guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, that he played on a portable record player. He tried to learn musical notation but was a "very, very slow" learner, saying: "If I have to, I can write things down. But I don't like to." By the time he was 12, Oldfield played the electric guitar and performed in local folk and youth clubs and dances, earning as much as £4 per gig. During a six-month break from music that Oldfield had around this time, he took up painting. In May 1968, when Oldfield turned fifteen, his school headmaster requested that he cut his long hair. Oldfield refused and left abruptly. He then decided to pursue music on a full-time, professional basis.