title: Historical materialism

text: The supremacy of the proletariat will cause them to vanish still faster. United action, of the leading civilised countries at least, is one of the first conditions for the emancipation of the proletariat.


title: Historical materialism

text: In proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another will also be put an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put an end to. In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end.


title: Historical materialism

text: Under capitalism, the bourgeoisie and proletariat become the two primary classes. Class struggle between these two classes was now prevalent. With the emergence of capitalism, productive forces were now able to flourish, causing the industrial revolution in Europe. Despite this, however, the productive forces eventually reach a point where they can no longer expand, causing the same collapse that occurred at the end of feudalism:


title: Historical materialism

text: Modern bourgeois society, with its relations of production, of exchange and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells. [...] The productive forces at the disposal of society no longer tend to further the development of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they have become too powerful for these conditions, by which they are fettered, and so soon as they overcome these fetters, they bring disorder into the whole of bourgeois society, endanger the existence of bourgeois property.


title: Historical materialism

text: The bourgeoisie, as Marx stated in "The Communist Manifesto", has "forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons—the modern working class—the proletarians." Historical materialists henceforth believe that the modern proletariat are the new revolutionary class in relation to the bourgeoisie, in the same way that the bourgeoisie was the revolutionary class in relation to the nobility under feudalism. The proletariat, then, must seize power as the new revolutionary class in a dictatorship of the proletariat.


title: Historical materialism

text: Between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the "revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat".


title: Historical materialism

text: Within the co-operative society based on common ownership of the means of production, the producers do not exchange their products; just as little does the labor employed on the products appear here as the value of these products, as a material quality possessed by them, since now, in contrast to capitalist society, individual labor no longer exists in an indirect fashion but directly as a component part of total labor. The phrase "proceeds of labor", objectionable also today on account of its ambiguity, thus loses all meaning.


title: Historical materialism

text: What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has "developed" on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it "emerges" from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges. Accordingly, the individual producer receives back from society—after the deductions have been made—exactly what he gives to it. What he has given to it is his individual quantum of labor. For example, the social working day consists of the sum of the individual hours of work; the individual labor time of the individual producer is the part of the social working day contributed by him, his share in it. He receives a certificate from society that he has furnished such-and-such an amount of labor (after deducting his labor for the common funds); and with this certificate, he draws from the social stock of means of consumption as much as the same amount of labor cost. The same amount of labor which he has given to society in one form, he receives back in another.


title: Historical materialism

text: This lower-stage of communist society is, according to Marx, analogous to the lower-stage of capitalist society, i.e. the transition from feudalism to capitalism, in that both societies are "stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges." The emphasis on the idea that modes of production do not exist in isolation but rather are materialized from the previous existence is a core idea in historical materialism.


title: Historical materialism

text: There is considerable debate among communists regarding the nature of this society. Some such as Joseph Stalin, Fidel Castro, and other Marxist-Leninists believe that the lower-stage of communism constitutes its own mode of production, which they call socialist rather than communist. Marxist-Leninists believe that this society may still maintain the concepts of property, money, and commodity production. Other communists argue that the lower-stage of communism is just that; a communist mode of production, without commodities or money, stamped with the birthmarks of capitalism.


title: Historical materialism

text: To Marx, the higher-stage of communist society is a free association of producers which has successfully negated all remnants of capitalism, notably the concepts of states, nationality, sexism, families, alienation, social classes, money, property, commodities, the bourgeoisie, the proletariat, division of labor, cities and countryside, class struggle, religion, ideology, and markets. It is the negation of capitalism.


title: Historical materialism

text: In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!


title: Historical materialism

text: In the 1872 Preface to the French edition of "Das Kapital" Vol. 1, Marx emphasized that "[t]here is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits." Reaching a scientific understanding required conscientious, painstaking research, instead of philosophical speculation and unwarranted, sweeping generalizations. Having abandoned abstract philosophical speculation in his youth, Marx himself showed great reluctance during the rest of his life about offering any generalities or universal truths about human existence or human history.


title: Historical materialism

text: Marx took care to indicate that he was only proposing a guideline to historical research ("Leitfaden" or "Auffassung"), and was not providing any substantive "theory of history" or "grand philosophy of history", let alone a "master-key to history". Engels expressed irritation with dilettante academics who sought to knock up their skimpy historical knowledge as quickly as possible into some grand theoretical system that would explain "everything" about history. He opined that historical materialism and the theory of modes of production were being used as an excuse for not studying history.


title: Historical materialism

text: The first explicit and systematic summary of the materialist interpretation of history to be published was Engels's book "Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science", written with Marx's approval and guidance, and often referred to as the "Anti-Dühring". One of the polemics was to ridicule the easy "world schematism" of philosophers, who invented the latest wisdom from behind their writing desks. Towards the end of his life, in 1877, Marx wrote a letter to the editor of the Russian paper "Otetchestvennye Zapisky", which significantly contained the following disclaimer:


title: Historical materialism

text: Marx goes on to illustrate how the same factors can in different historical contexts produce very different results so that quick and easy generalizations are not really possible. To indicate how seriously Marx took research when he died, his estate contained several cubic metres of Russian statistical publications (it was, as the old Marx observed, in Russia that his ideas gained the most influence).


title: Historical materialism

text: Insofar as Marx and Engels regarded historical processes as law-governed processes, the possible future directions of historical development were to a great extent "limited" and "conditioned" by what happened before. Retrospectively, historical processes could be understood to have happened by "necessity" in certain ways and not others, and to some extent at least, the most likely variants of the future could be specified on the basis of careful study of the known facts.


title: Historical materialism

text: Towards the end of his life, Engels commented several times about the abuse of historical materialism.


title: Historical materialism

text: Philosopher of science Karl Popper, in "The Poverty of Historicism" and "Conjectures and Refutations", critiqued such claims of the explanatory power or valid application of historical materialism by arguing that it could explain or explain away any fact brought before it, making it unfalsifiable and thus pseudoscientific. Similar arguments were brought by Leszek Kołakowski in "Main Currents of Marxism."


title: Historical materialism

text: In his 1940 essay "Theses on the Philosophy of History", scholar Walter Benjamin compares historical materialism to the Turk, an 18th-century device which was promoted as a mechanized automaton which could defeat skilled chess players but actually concealed a human who controlled the machine. Benjamin suggested that, despite Marx's claims to scientific objectivity, historical materialism was actually quasi-religious. Like the Turk, wrote Benjamin, "[t]he puppet called 'historical materialism' is always supposed to win. It can do this with no further ado against any opponent, so long as it employs the services of theology, which as everyone knows is small and ugly and must be kept out of sight." Benjamin's friend and colleague Gershom Scholem would argue that Benjamin's critique of historical materialism was so definitive that, as Mark Lilla would write, "nothing remains of historical materialism [...] but the term itself".


title: Historical materialism

text: Neven Sesardic argues that historical materialism is a highly exaggerated claim. Sesardic observes that it was clear to many Marxists that the social, cultural and ideological superstructure of society was not under the control of the base but had at least some degree of autonomy. It was also clear that phenomena of the superstructure could determine part of the economic base. Thus, Sesardic argues that Marxists moved from a claim of the dominance of the economic base to a scenario in which the base sometimes determines the superstructure and the superstructure sometimes determines the base, which Sesardic argues destroys their whole position. This is because this new claim, according to Sesardic, is so innocuous that no-one would deny it, whereas the old claim was very radical, as it posited the dominance of economics. Sesardic argues that Marxists should have abandoned historical materialism when its strong version became untenable, but instead they chose to water it down until it became a trivial claim.


title: Historical materialism

text: In a foreword to his essay "Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy" (1886), three years after Marx's death, Engels claimed confidently that "the Marxist world outlook has found representatives far beyond the boundaries of Germany and Europe and in all the literary languages of the world." Indeed, in the years after Marx and Engels' deaths, "historical materialism" was identified as a distinct philosophical doctrine and was subsequently elaborated upon and systematized by Orthodox Marxist and Marxist–Leninist thinkers such as Eduard Bernstein, Karl Kautsky, Georgi Plekhanov and Nikolai Bukharin. This occurred despite the fact that many of Marx's earlier works on historical materialism, including "The German Ideology", remained unpublished until the 1930s.


title: Historical materialism

text: The substantivist ethnographic approach of economic anthropologist and sociologist Karl Polanyi bears similarities to historical materialism. Polanyi distinguishes between the "formal" definition of economics as the logic of rational choice between limited resources and a "substantive" definition of economics as the way humans make their living from their natural and social environment. In "The Great Transformation" (1944), Polanyi asserts that both the formal and substantive definitions of economics hold true under capitalism, but that the formal definition falls short when analyzing the economic behavior of pre-industrial societies, whose behavior was more often governed by redistribution and reciprocity. While Polanyi was influenced by Marx, he rejected the primacy of economic determinism in shaping the course of history, arguing that rather than being a realm unto itself, an economy is embedded within its contemporary social institutions, such as the state in the case of the market economy.


title: Historical materialism

text: Perhaps the most notable recent exploration of historical materialism is G. A. Cohen's "", which inaugurated the school of Analytical Marxism. Cohen advances a sophisticated technological-determinist interpretation of Marx "in which history is, fundamentally, the growth of human productive power, and forms of society rise and fall according as they enable or impede that growth."


title: Historical materialism

text: Jürgen Habermas believes historical materialism "needs revision in many respects", especially because it has ignored the significance of communicative action.


title: Historical materialism

text: Göran Therborn has argued that the method of historical materialism should be applied to historical materialism as an intellectual tradition, and to the history of Marxism itself.


title: Historical materialism

text: In the early 1980s, Paul Hirst and Barry Hindess elaborated a structural Marxist interpretation of historical materialism.


title: Historical materialism

text: Regulation theory, especially in the work of Michel Aglietta draws extensively on historical materialism.


title: Historical materialism

text: Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, much of Marxist thought was seen as anachronistic. A major effort to "renew" historical materialism comes from historian Ellen Meiksins Wood, who wrote in 1995 that, "There is something off about the assumption that the collapse of Communism represents a terminal crisis for Marxism. One might think, among other things, that in a period of capitalist triumphalism there is more scope than ever for the pursuit of Marxism’s principal project, the critique of capitalism."[T]he kernel of historical materialism was an insistence on the historicity and specificity of capitalism, and denial that its laws were the universal laws of history...this focus on the specificity of capitalism, as a moment with historical origins as well as an end, with a systemic logic specific to it, encourages a truly historical sense lacking in classical political economy and conventional ideas of progress, and this had potentially fruitful implications for the historical study of other modes of production too.Referencing Marx's Theses on Feuerbach, Wood says we ought to see historical materialism as “a theoretical foundation for interpreting the world in order to change it.”


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (originally The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere) is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–1798 and published in 1798 in the first edition of "Lyrical Ballads". Some modern editions use a revised version printed in 1817 that featured a gloss. Along with other poems in "Lyrical Ballads", it is often considered a signal shift to modern poetry and the beginning of British Romantic literature.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" recounts the experiences of a sailor who has returned from a long sea voyage. The mariner stops a man who is on his way to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate a story. The Wedding-Guest’s reaction turns from bemusement to impatience to fear to fascination as the mariner's story progresses, as can be seen in the language style: Coleridge uses narrative techniques such as personification and repetition to create a sense of danger, the supernatural, or serenity, depending on the mood in different parts of the poem.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: The poem begins with an old grey-bearded sailor, the Mariner, stopping a guest at a wedding ceremony to tell him a story of a sailing voyage he took long ago. The Wedding-Guest is at first reluctant to listen, as the ceremony is about to begin, but the mariner's glittering eye captivates him.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: The mariner's tale begins with his ship departing on its journey. Despite initial good fortune, the ship is driven south by a storm and eventually reaches the icy waters of the Antarctic. An albatross appears and leads the ship out of the ice jam where it is stuck, but even as the albatross is fed and praised by the ship's crew, the mariner shoots the bird:


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: The crew is angry with the mariner, believing the albatross brought the south wind that led them out of the Antarctic. However, the sailors change their minds when the weather becomes warmer and the mist disappears:


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: They soon find that they made a grave mistake in supporting this crime, as it arouses the wrath of spirits who then pursue the ship "from the land of mist and snow"; the south wind that had initially blown them north now sends the ship into uncharted waters near the equator, where it is becalmed:


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: The sailors change their minds again and blame the mariner for the torment of their thirst. In anger, the crew forces the mariner to wear the dead albatross about his neck, perhaps to illustrate the burden he must suffer from killing it, or perhaps as a sign of regret:


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: After a "weary time", the ship encounters a ghostly hulk. On board are Death (a skeleton) and the "Night-mare Life-in-Death", a deathly pale woman, who are playing dice for the souls of the crew. With a roll of the dice, Death wins the lives of the crew members and Life-in-Death the life of the mariner, a prize she considers more valuable. Her name is a clue to the mariner's fate: he will endure a fate worse than death as punishment for his killing of the albatross. One by one, all of the crew members die, but the mariner lives on, seeing for seven days and nights the curse in the eyes of the crew's corpses, whose last expressions remain upon their faces:


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: Eventually, this stage of the mariner's curse is lifted after he begins to appreciate the many sea creatures swimming in the water. Despite his cursing them as "slimy things" earlier in the poem, he suddenly sees their true beauty and blesses them ("A spring of love gush'd from my heart, And I bless'd them unaware"). As he manages to pray, the albatross falls from his neck and his guilt is partially expiated. It then starts to rain, and the bodies of the crew, possessed by good spirits, rise again and help steer the ship. In a trance, the mariner hears two spirits discussing his voyage and penance, and learns that the ship is being powered supernaturally:


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: Finally the mariner wakes from his trance and comes in sight of his homeland, but is initially uncertain as to whether or not he is hallucinating:


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: The rotten remains of the ship sink in a whirlpool, leaving only the mariner behind. A hermit on the mainland who has spotted the approaching ship comes to meet it in a boat, rowed by a pilot and his boy. When they pull the mariner from the water, they think he is dead, but when he opens his mouth, the pilot shrieks with fright. The hermit prays, and the mariner picks up the oars to row. The pilot's boy laughs, thinking the mariner is the devil, and cries, "The Devil knows how to row". Back on land, the mariner is compelled by "a woful agony" to tell the hermit his story.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: As penance for shooting the albatross, the mariner, driven by the agony of his guilt, is now forced to wander the earth, telling his story over and over, and teaching a lesson to those he meets:


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: After finishing his story, the mariner leaves, and the wedding-guest returns home, waking the next morning "a sadder and a wiser man".


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: The poem received mixed reviews from critics, and Coleridge was once told by the publisher that most of the book's sales were to sailors who thought it was a naval songbook. Coleridge made several modifications to the poem over the years. In the second edition of "Lyrical Ballads", published in 1800, he replaced many of the archaic words.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: The poem may have been inspired by James Cook's second voyage of exploration (1772–1775) of the South Seas and the Pacific Ocean; Coleridge's tutor, William Wales, was the astronomer on Cook's flagship and had a strong relationship with Cook. On this second voyage Cook crossed three times into the Antarctic Circle to determine whether the fabled great southern continent Terra Australis existed. Critics have also suggested that the poem may have been inspired by the voyage of Thomas James into the Arctic.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: According to Wordsworth, the poem was inspired while Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Wordsworth's sister Dorothy were on a walking tour through the Quantock Hills in Somerset. The discussion had turned to a book that Wordsworth was reading, that described a privateering voyage in 1719 during which a melancholy sailor, Simon Hatley, shot a black albatross.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: As they discussed Shelvocke's book, Wordsworth proffered the following developmental critique to Coleridge, which importantly contains a reference to tutelary spirits: "Suppose you represent him as having killed one of these birds on entering the south sea, and the tutelary spirits of these regions take upon them to avenge the crime." By the time the trio finished their walk, the poem had taken shape.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: Bernard Martin argues in "The Ancient Mariner and the Authentic Narrative" that Coleridge was also influenced by the life of Anglican clergyman John Newton, who had a near-death experience aboard a slave ship.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: The poem may also have been inspired by the legends of the Wandering Jew, who was forced to wander the earth until Judgement Day for a terrible crime, found in Charles Maturin's "Melmoth the Wanderer", M. G. Lewis' "The Monk" (a 1796 novel Coleridge reviewed), and the legend of the "Flying Dutchman".


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: It is argued that the harbour at Watchet in Somerset was the primary inspiration for the poem, although some time before, John Cruikshank, a local acquaintance of Coleridge's, had related a dream about a skeleton ship crewed by spectral sailors. In September 2003, a commemorative statue, by Alan B. Herriot of Penicuik, Scotland, was unveiled at Watchet harbour.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: However, when "Lyrical Ballads" was reprinted, Wordsworth included it despite Coleridge's objections, writing:


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: Upon its release, the poem was criticized for being obscure and difficult to read. The use of archaic spelling of words was seen as not in keeping with Wordsworth's claims of using common language. Criticism was renewed again in 1815–1816, when Coleridge added marginal notes to the poem that were also written in an archaic style. These notes or glosses, placed next to the text of the poem, ostensibly interpret the verses much like marginal notes found in the Bible. There were many opinions on why Coleridge inserted the gloss. Charles Lamb, who had deeply admired the original for its attention to "Human Feeling", claimed that the gloss distanced the audience from the narrative, weakening the poem's effects. The entire poem was first published in the collection of "Lyrical Ballads". Another version of the poem was published in the 1817 collection entitled "Sibylline Leaves" (see 1817 in poetry).


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: On a surface level the poem explores a violation of nature and the resulting psychological effects on the mariner and on all those who hear him. According to Jerome McGann the poem is like a salvation story. The poem's structure is multi-layered text based on Coleridge's interest in higher criticism. "Like the "Iliad" or "Paradise Lost" or any great historical product, the "Rime" is a work of trans-historical rather than so-called universal significance. This verbal distinction is important because it calls attention to a real one. Like The Divine Comedy or any other poem, the "Rime" is not valued or used always or everywhere or by everyone in the same way or for the same reasons."


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: Whalley (1947) suggests that the Ancient Mariner is an autobiographical portrait of Coleridge himself, comparing the mariner's loneliness with Coleridge's own feelings of loneliness expressed in his letters and journals.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: Coleridge often made changes to his poems and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was no exception – he produced at least eighteen different versions over the years. He regarded revision as an essential part of creating poetry. The of the poem was in "Lyrical Ballads" in 1798. The included a revised text, requested by Coleridge, in which some of the language and many of the archaic spellings were modernised. He also reduced the title to "The Ancient Mariner" but for later versions the longer title was restored. The 1802 and 1805 editions of "Lyrical Ballads" had minor textual changes. In 1817 included a new version with an extensive marginal gloss, written by the poet. The last version he produced was in 1834.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: Traditionally literary critics regarded each revision of a text by an author as producing a more authoritative version and Coleridge published somewhat revised versions of the poem in his "Poetical Works" anthology editions of 1828, 1829, and lastly in 1834—the year of his death. More recently scholars look to the earliest version, even in manuscript, as the most authoritative but for this poem no manuscript is extant. Hence the editors of the edition of "Collected Poems" published in 1972 used the 1798 version but made their own modernisation of the spelling and they added some passages taken from later editions.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: The 1817 edition, the one most used today and the first to be published under Coleridge's own name rather than anonymously, added a new Latin epigraph but the major change was the addition of the gloss that has a considerable effect on the way the poem reads. Coleridge's grandson E.H. Coleridge produced a detailed study of the published versions of the poem. Over all, Coleridge's revisions resulted in the poem losing thirty-nine lines and an introductory prose "Argument", and gaining fifty-eight glosses and a Latin epigraph.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: In general the anthologies included printed lists of "errata" and, in the case of the particularly lengthy list in "Sibylline Leaves", the list was included at the beginning of the volume. Such changes were often editorial rather than merely correcting errors. Coleridge also made handwritten changes in printed volumes of his work, particularly when he presented them as gifts to friends.


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: In addition to being referred to in several other notable works, due to the popularity of the poem the phrase ""albatross around one's neck"" has become an English-language idiom referring to "a heavy burden of guilt that becomes an obstacle to success".


title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: The phrase ""Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink"" has appeared widely in popular culture, but usually given in a more natural modern phrasing as "Water, water, everywhere / "But not a" drop to drink"; some such appearances have, in turn, played on the frequency with which these lines are misquoted.


title: Tutsi

text: The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic group Hutu and the Pygmy group of the Twa).


title: Tutsi

text: Historically, the Tutsi were pastoralists and filled the ranks of the warriors' caste. Before 1962, they regulated and controlled Rwandan society, which was composed of Tutsi aristocracy and Hutu commoners, utilizing a clientship structure. They occupied the dominant positions in the sharply stratified society and constituted the ruling class.


title: Tutsi

text: The definition of "Tutsi" people have changed through time and location. Social structures were not stable throughout Rwanda, even during colonial times under the Belgian rule. The Tutsi aristocracy or elite was distinguished from Tutsi commoners.


title: Tutsi

text: When the Belgian colonists conducted censuses, they wanted to identify the people throughout Rwanda-Burundi according to a simple classification scheme. They defined "Tutsi" as anyone owning more than ten cows (a sign of wealth) or with the physical features of a longer thin nose, high cheekbones, and being over six feet tall, all of which are common descriptions associated with the Tutsi.


title: Tutsi

text: Tutsis were considered to be of Cushitic origin, although they do not speak a Cushitic language, and have lived in the areas where they presently inhabit for at least 400 years, leading to considerable intermarriage with the Hutu in the area. Due to the history of intermingling and intermarrying of Hutus and Tutsis, some ethnographers and historians are of the view that Hutu and Tutsis cannot be called distinct ethnic groups.


title: Tutsi

text: Many analysts as well as inhabitants of the Great Lakes Region, carrying on the tradition, distinguish the Tutsi – as "Cushitics" – from Bantu people like the Hutu and several ethnic groups in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and in Uganda (excluding the Hima). However, Bantu is a linguistic classification (see the Bantu lemma as well as the lemma on Bantu people – the latter says: "Bantu people are the speakers of Bantu languages"). As the Tutsi speak the same Bantu language as the Hutu, they are Bantu (speaking) people.


title: Tutsi

text: Modern-day genetic studies of the Y-chromosome generally indicate that the Tutsi, like the Hutu, are largely of Bantu extraction (60% E1b1a, 20% B, 4% E-P2(xE1b1a)).


title: Tutsi

text: Paternal genetic influences associated with the Horn of Africa and North Africa are few (under 3% E1b1b-M35), and are ascribed to much earlier inhabitants who were assimilated. However, the Tutsi have considerably more haplogroup B Y-DNA paternal lineages (14.9% B) than do the Hutu (4.3% B).


title: Tutsi

text: There are no peer-reviewed genetic studies of the Tutsi's mtDNA or maternal lineages. However, Fornarino et al. (2009) report that unpublished data indicates that one Tutsi individual from Rwanda carries the India-associated mtDNA haplogroup R7.


title: Tutsi

text: Further individual 23andme DNA tests suggest that Tutsi mtDNA lineages are associated with local East African hunter-gatherer maternal haplogroups, particularly haplogroup L0, with very few associated with West African mtDNA lineages. A good number also carry West-Eurasian mtDNA lineages, particularly M1a, K1a; but also J1 and R0.


title: Tutsi

text: In general, the Tutsi appear to share a close genetic kinship with neighboring Bantu populations, particularly the Hutus. However, it is unclear whether this similarity is primarily due to extensive genetic exchanges between these communities through intermarriage or whether it ultimately stems from common origins:


title: Tutsi

text: [...] generations of gene flow obliterated whatever clear-cut physical distinctions may have once existed between these two Bantu peoples – renowned to be height, body build, and facial features. With a spectrum of physical variation in the peoples, Belgian authorities legally mandated ethnic affiliation in the 1920s, based on economic criteria. Formal and discrete social divisions were consequently imposed upon ambiguous biological distinctions. To some extent, the permeability of these categories in the intervening decades helped to reify the biological distinctions, generating a taller elite and a shorter underclass, but with little relation to the gene pools that had existed a few centuries ago. The social categories are thus real, but there is little if any detectable genetic differentiation between Hutu and Tutsi.


title: Tutsi

text: Tishkoff et al. (2009) found their mixed Hutu and Tutsi samples from Rwanda to be predominantly of Bantu origin, with minor gene flow from Afro-Asiatic communities (17.7% Afro-Asiatic genes found in the mixed Hutu/Tutsi population).


title: Tutsi

text: Prior to the arrival of colonists, Rwanda had been ruled by a Tutsi-dominated monarchy since the 15th century. In 1897, Germany established a presence in Rwanda with the formation of an alliance with the king, beginning the colonial era. Later, Belgium took control in 1916 during World War I. Both European nations ruled through the Rwandan king and perpetuated a pro-Tutsi policy.


title: Tutsi

text: In Burundi, meanwhile, Tutsi domination was even more entrenched. A ruling faction, the Ganwa, soon emerged from amongst the Tutsi and assumed effective control of the country's administration.


title: Tutsi

text: Rwanda was ruled as a colony by Germany (from 1897 to 1916) and by Belgium (from 1922 to 1961). Both the Tutsi and Hutu had been the traditional governing elite, but both colonial powers allowed only the Tutsi to be educated and to participate in the colonial government. Such discriminatory policies engendered resentment.


title: Tutsi

text: When the Belgians took over, they believed it could be better governed if they continued to identify the different populations. In the 1920s, they required people to identify with a particular ethnic group and classified them accordingly in censuses.


title: Tutsi

text: In 1959, Belgium reversed its stance and allowed the majority Hutu to assume control of the government through universal elections after independence. This partly reflected internal Belgian domestic politics, in which the discrimination against the Hutu majority came to be regarded as similar to oppression within Belgium stemming from the Flemish-Walloon conflict, and the democratization and empowerment of the Hutu was seen as a just response to the Tutsi domination. Belgian policies wavered and flip-flopped considerably during this period leading up to independence of Burundi and Rwanda.


title: Tutsi

text: The Hutu majority in Rwanda had revolted against the Tutsi and was able to take power. Tutsis fled and created exile communities outside Rwanda in Uganda and Tanzania. Their actions led to the deaths of up to 200,000 Hutus. Overt discrimination from the colonial period was continued by different Rwandan and Burundian governments, including identity cards that distinguished Tutsi and Hutu.


title: Tutsi

text: In 1993, Burundi's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, was assassinated by Tutsi officers, as was the person entitled to succeed him under the constitution. This sparked a genocide in Burundi between Hutu political structures and the Tutsi military, in which "possibly as many as 25,000 Tutsi" were murdered by the former and "at least as many" Hutu were killed by the latter. Since the 2000 Arusha Peace Process, today in Burundi the Tutsi minority shares power in a more or less equitable manner with the Hutu majority. Traditionally, the Tutsi had held more economic power and controlled the military.


title: Tutsi

text: A similar pattern of events took place in Rwanda, but there the Hutu came to power in 1962. They in turn often oppressed the Tutsi, who fled the country. After the anti-Tutsi violence around 1959–1961, Tutsis fled in large numbers.


title: Tutsi

text: These exile Tutsi communities gave rise to Tutsi rebel movements. The Rwandan Patriotic Front, mostly made up of exiled Tutsi living primarily in Uganda, attacked Rwanda in 1990 with the intention of taking back the power. The RPF had experience in organized irregular warfare from the Ugandan Bush War, and got much support from the government of Uganda. The initial RPF advance was halted by the lift of French arms to the Rwandan government. Attempts at peace culminated in the Arusha Accords.


title: Tutsi

text: The agreement broke down after the assassination of the Rwandan and Burundian Presidents, triggering a resumption of hostilities and the start of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, in which the Hutu then in power killed an estimated 500,000–600,000 people, largely of Tutsi origin. Victorious in the aftermath of the genocide, the Tutsi-ruled RPF came to power in July 1994.


title: Tutsi

text: In the Rwanda territory, from the 15th century until 1961, the Tutsi were ruled by a king (the "mwami"). Belgium abolished the monarchy, following the national referendum that led to independence. By contrast, in the northwestern part of the country (predominantly Hutu), large regional landholders shared power, similar to Buganda society (in what is now Uganda).


title: Tutsi

text: Under their holy king, Tutsi culture traditionally revolved around administering justice and government. They were the only proprietors of cattle, and sustained themselves on their own products. Additionally, their lifestyle afforded them a lot of leisure time, which they spent cultivating the high arts of poetry, weaving and music. Due to the Tutsi's status as a dominant minority vis-a-vis the Hutu farmers and the other local inhabitants, this relationship has been likened to that between lords and serfs in feudal Europe.


title: Tutsi

text: According to Fage (2013), the Tutsi are serologically related to Bantu and Nilotic populations. This in turn rules out a possible Cushitic origin for the founding Tutsi-Hima ruling class in the lacustrine kingdoms. However, the royal burial customs of the latter kingdoms are quite similar to those practiced by the former Cushitic Sidama states in the southern Gibe region of Ethiopia. By contrast, Bantu populations to the north of the Tutsi-Hima in the mount Kenya area such as the Agikuyu were until modern times essentially without a king (instead having a stateless age set system which they adopted from cushitic peoples) while there were a number of Bantu kingdoms to the south of the Tutsi-Hima in Tanzania, all of which shared the Tutsi-Hima's chieftaincy pattern. Since the Cushitic Sidama kingdoms interacted with Nilotic groups, Fage thus proposes that the Tutsi may have descended from one such migrating Nilotic population. The Tutsis' Nilotic ancestors would thereby in earlier times have served as cultural intermediaries, adopting some monarchical traditions from adjacent Cushitic kingdoms and subsequently taking those borrowed customs south with them when they first settled amongst Bantu autochthones in the Great Lakes area. However, little difference can be ascertained between the cultures today of the Tutsi and Hutu; both groups speak the same Bantu language. The rate of intermarriage between the two groups was traditionally very high, and relations were amicable until the 20th century. Many scholars have concluded that the determination of Tutsi was and is mainly an expression of class or caste, rather than ethnicity. Rwandans have their own language, but English, French and to some extent also Swahili, are all widely spoken as a second language for different historic reasons. They also have a very strong genealogical memory, with the ability to recall the names of at least six previous generations, based on their knowledge of their ancestry. In their culture, morning, afternoon, and evening greetings are different. Tutsi and Hutu families are patrilineal (surnames are passed down from male to male). In the past, most people had arranged marriages with people of the same social class. Today, Tutsi people can choose whom they want to marry. Group activities are a common couple date. However, some young Tutsis in the city are experimenting with Western dating and clubbing.


title: Tutsi

text: There are essentially two groups of Tutsi in the Congo (DRC). There is the Banyamulenge, who live in the southern tip of South Kivu. They are descendants of migrating Rwandan, Burundian and Tanzanian pastoralists. And secondly there are Tutsi in Masisi North Kivu and Kalehe in South Kivu – being part of the Banyarwanda (Hutu and Tutsi) community. These are not Banyamulenge. Some of these Banyarwanda are descendants of people that lived long before colonial rule in Rutshuru and in Masisi – on what is currently Congolese territory. Others migrated or were "transplanted" by the Belgian colonists from Rutshuru or from Rwanda and mostly settled in Masisi in North Kivu and Kalehe in South Kivu.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Dating back to 1955, he won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and the circuit now known as PGA Tour Champions. Nicknamed The King, Palmer was one of golf's most popular stars and seen as a trailblazer, the first superstar of the sport's television age, which began in the 1950s.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer's social impact on golf was unrivaled among fellow professionals; his modest origins and plain-spoken popularity helped change the perception of golf from an elite, upper-class pastime of private clubs to a more populist sport accessible to middle and working classes via public courses. Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player were "The Big Three" in golf during the 1960s; they are credited with popularizing and commercializing the sport around the world.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: In a career spanning more than six decades, Palmer won 62 PGA Tour titles from 1955 to 1973. He is fifth on the Tour's all-time victory list, trailing only Sam Snead, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Ben Hogan. He won seven major titles in a six-plus-year domination from the 1958 Masters to the 1964 Masters. He also won the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, and in 1974 was one of the 13 original inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Arnold Daniel Palmer was born on September 10, 1929, to Doris (née Morrison) and Milfred Jerome "Deacon" Palmer in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a working-class steel mill town. He learned golf from his father, who had suffered from polio at a young age and was head professional and greenskeeper at Latrobe Country Club, which allowed young Palmer to accompany his father as he maintained the course.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer attended Wake Forest College on a golf scholarship. He left upon the death of close friend Bud Worsham and enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he served for three years, 1951–1954. At the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey, he built a nine-hole course and had some time to continue to hone his golf skills. After Palmer's enlistment term ended, he returned to college and competitive golf.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer won the 1954 U.S. Amateur in Detroit and made the decision to turn pro in November of that year. "That victory was the turning point in my life," he said. "It gave me confidence I could compete at the highest level of the game." When reporters there asked Gene Littler who the young golfer was that was cracking balls on the practice tee, Littler said: "That's Arnold Palmer. He's going to be a great player some day. When he hits the ball, the earth shakes."


title: Arnold Palmer

text: After winning that match, Palmer quit his job selling paint and played in the Waite Memorial tournament in Shawnee-on-Delaware, Pennsylvania. There, he met his future wife, Winifred Walzer, and they remained married for 45 years until her death in 1999.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: On November 17, 1954, Palmer announced his intentions to turn pro. "What other people find in poetry, I find in the flight of a good drive," Palmer said.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer's first tour win came during his 1955 rookie season, when he won the Canadian Open and earned $2,400 for his efforts. He raised his game status for the next several seasons. Palmer's charisma was a major factor in establishing golf as a compelling television event in the 1950s and 1960s, which set the stage for the popularity it enjoys today. His first major championship win at the 1958 Masters Tournament, where he earned $11,250, established his position as one of the leading stars in golf, and by 1960 he had signed up as pioneering sports agent Mark McCormack's first client.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: In later interviews, McCormack listed five attributes that made Palmer especially marketable: his handsomeness; his relatively modest background (his father was a greenskeeper before rising to be club professional and Latrobe was a humble club); the way he played golf, taking risks and wearing his emotions on his sleeve; his involvement in a string of exciting finishes in early televised tournaments; and his affability.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer is also credited by many for securing the status of The Open Championship (British Open) among U.S. players. Before Ben Hogan won that championship in 1953, few American professionals had traveled to play in The Open, due to its extensive travel requirements, relatively small purse, and the style of its links courses (radically different from most American courses). Palmer wanted to emulate the feats of his predecessors Bobby Jones, Sam Snead and Hogan in his quest to become a leading American golfer.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: In particular, Palmer traveled to Scotland in 1960 to compete in the British Open for the first time. He had already won both the Masters and U.S. Open and was trying to emulate Hogan's 1953 feat of winning all three tournaments in a single year. Palmer played what he himself said were the four best rounds of his career, shooting 70-71-70-68. His scores had the English excitedly claiming that Palmer may well be the greatest golfer ever to play the game. British fans were excited about Palmer's playing in the Open. Although he failed to win, losing out to Kel Nagle by a single shot, his subsequent Open wins in the early 1960s convinced many American pros that a trip to Britain would be worth the effort, and certainly secured Palmer's popularity among British and European fans, not just American ones.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer was greatly disappointed by his runner-up finish in the 1960 British Open. His appearance overseas drew American attention to the Open Championship, which had previously been ignored by the American golfers. Palmer went on to win the Open Championship in 1961 and 1962, and last played in it in 1995. Martin Slumbers, chief executive of The R&A, called Palmer "a true gentleman, one of the greatest ever to play the game and a truly iconic figure in sport". His participation in The Open Championship in the early 1960s "was the catalyst to truly internationalize golf," said European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer's most prolific years were 1960–1963, when he won 29 PGA Tour events, including five major tournaments, in four seasons. In 1960, he won the Hickok Belt as the top professional athlete of the year and "Sports Illustrated" magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award. He built up a wide fan base, often referred to as "Arnie's Army", and in 1967 he became the first man to reach $1 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour. By the late 1960s Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player had both acquired clear ascendancy in their rivalry, but Palmer won a PGA Tour event every year from 1955 to 1971 inclusive, and in 1971 he enjoyed a revival, winning four events.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average four times: 1961, 1962, 1964, and 1967. He played on six Ryder Cup teams: 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1971, and 1973. He was the last playing captain in 1963, and captained the team again in 1975.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer was eligible for the Senior PGA Tour (now PGA Tour Champions) from its first season in 1980, and he was one of the marquee names who helped it to become successful. He won ten events on the tour, including five senior majors.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer won the first World Match Play Championship that was held in England. The event was originally organized by McCormack to showcase his stable of players. Their partnership was one of the most significant in the history of sports marketing. Long after he ceased to win tournaments, Palmer remained one of the highest earners in golf due to his appeal to sponsors and the public.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: In 2004, he competed in the Masters Tournament for the last time, marking his 50th consecutive appearance in that event. At his death, he and Jack Nicklaus were the only two Masters champions to be regular members of Masters organizer Augusta National Golf Club (as opposed to the honorary membership the club grants to all Masters champions).


title: Arnold Palmer

text: From 2007 until his death, Palmer served as an honorary starter for the Masters. He retired from tournament golf on October 13, 2006, when he withdrew from the Champions Tours' Administaff Small Business Classic after four holes due to dissatisfaction with his own play. He played the remaining holes but did not keep score.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer had a diverse golf-related business career, including owning the Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando, Florida, which is the venue for the PGA Tour's Arnold Palmer Invitational (renamed from the Bay Hill Invitational in 2007), helping to found The Golf Channel, and negotiating the deal to build the first golf course in the People's Republic of China. This led to the formation of Palmer Course Design in 1972, which was renamed Arnold Palmer Design Company when the company moved to Orlando, Florida, in 2006. Palmer's design partner was Ed Seay.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer designed more than 300 golf courses in 37 states, 25 countries, and five continents (all except Africa and Antarctica), including the first modern course built in China, in 1988. In 1971, he purchased Latrobe Country Club (where his father used to be the club professional) and owned it until his death. The licensing, endorsements, spokesman associations and commercial partnerships built by Palmer and McCormack are managed by Arnold Palmer Enterprises. Palmer was also a member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: In 1997, Palmer and fellow golfer Tiger Woods initiated a civil case in an effort to stop the unauthorized sale of their images and alleged signatures in the memorabilia market. The lawsuit was filed against Bruce Matthews, the owner of Gotta Have It Golf, Inc. and others. Matthews and associated parties counter-claimed that Palmer and associated businesses committed several acts, including breach of contract, breach of implied duty of good faith and violations of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. On March 12, 2014, a Florida jury ruled in favor of Gotta Have It on its breach of contract and other related claims. The same jury rejected the counterclaims of Palmer and Woods, and awarded Gotta Have It $668,346 in damages.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: One of Palmer's most recent products (mass-produced starting in 2001) is a branded use of the beverage known as the "Arnold Palmer", which combines sweetened iced tea with lemonade.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: As a member of the Lincoln-Mercury Sports Panel, in the early 1970s Palmer was a brand ambassador for Lincoln-Mercury. In 1974, Palmer, along with partners Mark McCormack and Don Massey, purchased a Cadillac dealership in Charlotte, North Carolina. Over the years, Palmer would acquire several other dealerships in several states including a Buick-Cadillac store in his hometown of Latrobe. The Latrobe dealership, known as Arnold Palmer Motors, closed in 2017 after 36 years in business.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: According to Adam Schupak of "Golf Week", "No one did more to popularize the sport than Palmer". "His dashing presence singlehandedly took golf out of the country clubs and into the mainstream. Quite simply, he made golf cool." Jack Nicklaus said:


title: Arnold Palmer

text: He is mentioned by James Bond's caddie in "Goldfinger": "If that's [Goldfinger's] original ball, I'm Arnold Palmer."


title: Arnold Palmer

text: In 2000, Palmer was ranked the sixth greatest player of all time in "Golf Digest" magazine's rankings, and by 2008 had earned an estimated $30 million.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa - The National Leadership Honor Society in 1964 at Wake Forest University. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009. He was the first golfer to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the second golfer, after Byron Nelson, to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: In addition to Palmer's impressive list of awards, he was bestowed the honor of kicking off the Masters Tournament beginning in 2007. From 2007 to 2009, Palmer was the sole honorary starter. In 2010, longtime friend and competitor Jack Nicklaus was appointed by Augusta National to join Palmer. In 2012, golf's The Big Three reunited as South African golfer Gary Player joined for the ceremonial tee shots as honorary starters for the 76th playing of the Masters Tournament. In describing the effect that Palmer had on the sport, biographer James Dodson stated:


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer was married to the former Winnie Walzer for 45 years; the couple had two daughters. Winnie died at age 65 on November 20, 1999, from complications due to ovarian cancer. His grandson, Sam Saunders, is a professional golfer who grew up playing at Bay Hill, where he won the club championship at age 15. Sam attended Clemson University in South Carolina on a golf scholarship and turned pro in 2008. Saunders stated that Palmer's family nickname is "Dumpy". Arnold married his second wife, Kathleen Gawthrop, in 2005 in Hawaii.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: During the spring and summer months, Palmer resided in Latrobe, and he spent winters in Orlando and La Quinta, California. He first visited Orlando in 1948 during a college match. When he took up residence in Orlando, Palmer helped the city become a recreation destination, "turning the entire state of Florida into a golfing paradise". That included building one of the premier events on the PGA Tour there along with his contributing to new hospitals. On hearing about Palmer's death, Tiger Woods said, "My kids were born at the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies, and his philanthropic work will be remembered along with his accomplishments in golf." Arnold Palmer Boulevard is named in his honor.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer was a member of the Freemasons since 1958. Palmer created the Arnie's Army Charitable Foundation to help children and youth. The Foundation saw the creation of the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies Center, The Howard Philips Center for Children & Families, the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, and the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve. He and O.J. Simpson were spokespersons for Hertz Rent-a-Car. Palmer served on the advisory board of U.S. English, a group that supports making English the official language of the United States.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: During his playing career, Palmer smoked cigarettes, which caused him to battle an addiction to nicotine. He noted that many of his colleagues smoked, and he even endorsed the product in television commercials. Later in life, Palmer made a complete about-face and urged the public to give up smoking. He said that cigarette smoking has a negative effect on every organ in the body. As a testimonial for smoking cessation products, he was depicted in a 1989 photo by Robert Straus that was subject to copyright litigation as late as 20 years later.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer was a Republican, and donated money to Pat Toomey, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and George W. Bush. He was approached on multiple occasions by the Republican Party encouraging him to run for political office, but declined on each occasion.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer's early "fear of flying" was what led him to pursue his pilot certificate. After almost 55 years, he logged nearly 20,000 hours of flight time in various aircraft. His personal website reads:


title: Arnold Palmer

text: On Palmer's 70th birthday in 1999, Westmoreland County Airport in Latrobe was renamed Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in his honor. According to their website: "[The airport] started as the Longview Flying Field in 1924. It became J.D. Hill Airport in 1928, Latrobe Airport in 1935 and Westmoreland County Airport in 1978. Complementing a rich history rooted in some of the earliest pioneers of aviation, the name was changed to Arnold Palmer Regional in 1999 to honor the Latrobe native golf legend who grew up less than a mile from the runway where he watched the world's first official airmail pickup in 1939 and later learned to fly himself." There is a statue of Palmer made by Zenos Frudakis, holding a golf club in front of the airport's entrance, unveiled in 2007.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer thought he would pilot a plane for the last time on January 31, 2011, and flew from Palm Springs in California to Orlando in his Cessna Citation X. His pilot's medical certificate expired that day and he chose not to renew it. However, public FAA records show he was issued a new third-class medical in May 2011.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Palmer died on September 25, 2016 (shortly after his 87th birthday) while awaiting heart surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (Shadyside) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was admitted three days earlier to undergo testing on his heart. After his funeral, he was cremated and his ashes were scattered in his hometown at Latrobe Country Club. His estate was valued at $875 million and was divided between his two daughters, his second wife (who received $10 million), eight employees who received $25,000 each, and his charity, Arnie's Army, which received $10 million.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Less than a week after Palmer died, his life was celebrated by both teams at the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, just outside the Twin Cities. The celebration included a video tribute and a moment of silence during the opening ceremony, which also included tributes from the opposing captains - Davis Love III for Team USA and Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke for Team Europe - and the opposing honorary captains - Nicklaus for Team USA and England's Tony Jacklin for Team Europe. During the matches, the players paid tribute to Palmer, which included wearing a special logo, button and pin. Palmer's bag from the 1975 Ryder Cup was also placed on the first tee as a tribute. Palmer had won more than 22 Ryder Cup matches and had also captained Team USA to two victories, in addition to holding or being tied for the records for youngest captain, most career singles points and most points in a single Ryder Cup. PGA of America president Derek Sprague stated:


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Two days after a 17–11 victory, which marked the first American Ryder Cup triumph since 2008 at Valhalla and which Love dedicated to Palmer, the majority of the team attended the memorial service for Palmer at St. Vincent College in Latrobe and also brought the trophy after Palmer's daughter Amy asked the team if they could do so.


title: Arnold Palmer

text: Defeated Player (2nd) and Finsterwald (3rd) in an 18-hole playoff; Palmer (68), Player (71) and Finsterwald (77). 1st, 2nd and 3rd places awarded in this playoff.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Paris (), also known as Alexander (, "Aléxandros"), the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, is a mythological nobleman that appears in a number of Greek legends.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Of these appearances, probably the best known was the elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta, this being one of the immediate causes of the Trojan War. Later in the war, he fatally wounds Achilles in the heel with an arrow as foretold by Achilles's mother, Thetis.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: The name "Paris" is probably of Luwian origin, and comparable to "Pari-zitis", attested as a Hittite scribe's name. The name Paris is etymologically unrelated to the name of the French city of Paris, which derives its name from a Gaulish tribe called the Parisii.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Paris was described by the chronicler Malalas in his account of the "Chronography" as " well-grown, sturdy, white, good nose, good eyes, black pupils, black hair, incipient beard, long-faced, heavy eyebrows, big mouth, charming, eloquent, agile, an accurate archer, cowardly, hedonist". Meanwhile, in the account of Dares the Phrygian, he was illustrated as ". . .fair, tall, and brave. His eyes were very beautiful, his hair soft and blond, his mouth charming, and his voice pleasant. He was swift, and eager to take command."


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Paris and the nymph Oenone had a son Corythus. By Helen, he had Bunomus, Aganus ("gentle"), Idaeus and a daughter also called Helen.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Paris was a child of Priam and Hecuba (see the List of children of Priam). Just before his birth, his mother dreamed that she gave birth to a flaming torch. This dream was interpreted by the seer Aesacus as a foretelling of the downfall of Troy, and he declared that the child would be the ruin of his homeland. On the day of Paris's birth, it was further announced by Aesacus that the child born of a royal Trojan that day would have to be killed to spare the kingdom, being the child that would bring about the prophecy. Though Paris was indeed born before nightfall, he was spared by Priam. Hecuba was also unable to kill the child, despite the urging of the priestess of Apollo, one Herophile. Instead, Paris's father prevailed upon his chief herdsman, Agelaus, to remove the child and kill him. The herdsman, unable to use a weapon against the infant, left him exposed on Mount Ida, hoping he would perish there (cf. Oedipus). He was, however, suckled by a she-bear. Returning after nine days, Agelaus was astonished to find the child still alive and brought him home in a backpack (Greek "pḗra", hence by folk etymology Paris’s name) to rear as his own. He returned to Priam bearing a dog's tongue as evidence of the deed's completion.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Paris's noble birth was betrayed by his outstanding beauty and intelligence. While still a child, he routed a gang of cattle-thieves and restored the animals they had stolen to the herd, thereby earning the surname Alexander ("protector of men"). It was at this time that Oenone became Paris's first lover. She was a nymph from Mount Ida in Phrygia. Her father was Cebren, a river-god or, according to other sources, she was the daughter of Oeneus. She was skilled in the arts of prophecy and medicine, which she had been taught by Rhea and Apollo, respectively. When Paris later left her for Helen, she told him that if he ever was wounded, he should come to her, for she could heal any injury, even the most serious wounds.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Paris's chief distraction at this time was to pit Agelaus's bulls against one another. One bull began to win these bouts consistently. Paris began to set it against rival herdsmen's own prize bulls and it defeated them all. Finally, Paris offered a golden crown to any bull that could defeat his champion. Ares responded to this challenge by transforming himself into a bull and easily winning the contest. Paris gave the crown to Ares without hesitation. It was this apparent honesty in judgment that prompted the gods of Olympus to have Paris arbitrate the divine contest between Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: In celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, Lord Zeus, father of the Greek pantheon, hosted a banquet on Mount Olympus. Every deity and demi-god had been invited, except Eris, the goddess of strife (no one wanted a troublemaker at a wedding). For revenge, Eris threw the golden Apple of Discord inscribed with "tēi kallistēi" – "For the most beautiful" – into the party, provoking a squabble among the attendant goddesses over for whom it had been meant.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: The goddesses thought to be the most beautiful were Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, and each one claimed the apple. They started a quarrel so they asked Zeus to choose one of them. Knowing that choosing any of them would bring him the hatred of the other two, Zeus did not want to take part in the decision. He thus appointed Paris to select the most beautiful.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Escorted by Hermes, the three goddesses bathed in the spring of Mount Ida and approached Paris as he herded his cattle. Having been given permission by Zeus to set any conditions he saw fit, Paris required that the goddesses undress before him (alternatively, the goddesses themselves chose to disrobe to show all their beauty). Still, Paris could not decide, as all three were ideally beautiful, so the goddesses attempted to bribe him to choose among them. Hera offered ownership of all of Europe and Asia. Athena offered skill in battle, wisdom and the abilities of the greatest warriors. Aphrodite offered the love of the most beautiful woman on Earth: Helen of Sparta. Paris chose Aphrodite and therefore Helen.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Helen was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta (a fact Aphrodite neglected to mention), so Paris had to raid Menelaus's house to steal Helen from him—according to some accounts, she fell in love with Paris and left willingly.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: The Spartans' expedition to retrieve Helen from Paris in Troy is the mythological basis of the Trojan War. This triggered the war because Helen was famous for her beauty throughout Achaea (ancient Greece), and had many suitors of extraordinary ability. Therefore, following Odysseus's advice, her father Tyndareus made all suitors promise to defend Helen's marriage to the man he chose for her. When Paris took her to Troy, Menelaus invoked this oath. Helen's other suitors—who between them represented the lion's share of Achaea's strength, wealth and military prowess—were obliged to help bring her back. Thus, the whole of Greece moved against Troy in force and the Trojan War began.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Homer's "Iliad" casts Paris as unskilled and cowardly. Although Paris readily admits his shortcomings in battle, his brother Hector scolds and belittles him after he runs away from a duel with Menelaus that was to determine the end of the war. His preference for bow and arrow emphasizes this, since he does not follow the code of honor shared by the other heroes.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Early in the epic, Paris and Menelaus duel in an attempt to end the war without further bloodshed. Menelaus easily defeats Paris, though Aphrodite spirits him away before Menelaus can finish the duel. Paris is returned to his bedchambers, where Aphrodite forces Helen to be with him.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Paris's second attempt at combat is equally fated: rather than engage the Greek hero Diomedes in hand-to-hand combat, Paris wounds Diomedes with an arrow through the foot.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Later, after slaying Hector and other heroes, Achilles dies by an arrow of Paris with Apollo's help. According to Hyginus (Fabulae, 107) Apollo disguised himself as Paris.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: Later in the war, after Philoctetes mortally wounds Paris, Helen makes her way to Mount Ida where she begs Paris's first wife, the nymph Oenone, to heal him. Still bitter that Paris had spurned her for his birthright in the city and then forgotten her for Helen, Oenone refuses. Helen returns alone to Troy, where Paris dies later the same day. In another version, Paris himself, in great pain, visits Oenone to plead for healing but is refused and dies on the mountainside. When Oenone hears of his funeral, she runs to his funeral pyre and throws herself in its fire.


title: Paris (mythology)

text: After Paris's death, his brother Deiphobus married Helen and was then killed by Menelaus in the sack of Troy.


title: KC and the Sunshine Band

text: KC and the Sunshine Band is an American disco and funk band that was founded in 1973 in Hialeah, Florida. Their best-known songs include the hits "That's the Way (I Like It)", "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty", "I'm Your Boogie Man", "Keep It Comin' Love", "Get Down Tonight", "Boogie Shoes", "Please Don't Go" and "Give It Up". The band took its name from lead vocalist Harry Wayne Casey's last name ('KC') and the 'Sunshine Band' from KC's home state of Florida, the Sunshine State. The group has had six top 10 singles, five number one singles and a number two single on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart.


title: KC and the Sunshine Band

text: The band was formed in 1973 by Harry Wayne Casey (KC), a record store employee and part-timer at TK Records in Hialeah, Florida. KC originally called the band KC & The Sunshine Junkanoo Band, as he used studio musicians from TK and a local Junkanoo band called the Miami Junkanoo Band. He was introduced to Richard Finch, who was engineering records for TK, and the Casey-Finch musical collaboration began. They were soon joined by guitarist Jerome Smith and drummer Robert Johnson, both TK studio musicians.


title: KC and the Sunshine Band

text: The first few songs, "Blow Your Whistle" (September 1973) and "Sound Your Funky Horn" (February 1974), were released as singles, and did well enough on the U.S. R&B chart and overseas that TK wanted a follow-up single and album. In the meantime, while working on demos for KC & the Sunshine Band, the song "Rock Your Baby" (George McCrae) was created. It was written by Casey and featured Smith on guitar, and became a number one hit in 51 countries in mid-1974. The band's "Queen of Clubs", which featured uncredited vocals by McCrae, was a hit in the UK, peaking at number 7, and they went on a tour there in 1975.


title: KC and the Sunshine Band

text: KC and other band members were frequent guests on WHYI-FM, branded as Y-100, one of southeast Florida's more powerful FM pop stations, that covered Dade and Broward Counties and beyond. This gave the band significant hometown exposure, during the rise of the disco genre in one of the music's epicenters.


title: KC and the Sunshine Band

text: With the release of the self-titled second album "KC and the Sunshine Band" in 1975 came the group's first major U.S. hit with "Get Down Tonight". It topped the R&B chart in April and hit number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in August. "That's the Way (I Like It)" also became a number one hit in November 1975 and the group received four nominations and one win at the 1976 Grammy Awards. The 1976 album "Part 3" yielded two number one singles: "I'm Your Boogie Man" and "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty". Another hit, "Keep It Comin' Love"(1977), peaked at number two. Their success lasted until the fifth album from 1979; their last chart topping hit was "Please Don't Go", hitting number one for one week in January 1980, and becoming the first number one hit of the 1980s. With the explosion of new wave music and the declining popularity of disco, the group explored other styles and changed labels, joining Epic Records in 1980 after TK Records went bankrupt.


title: KC and the Sunshine Band

text: With a change in styles, Casey enjoyed success, dueting with Teri DeSario with "Yes, I'm Ready", which hit No. 2 in March 1980; the adult contemporary sound was much different from his disco hits of the 1970s, and his first major success away from the Sunshine Band.


title: KC and the Sunshine Band

text: In 1981, the partnership between Finch and Casey came to an acrimonious end. Two years after the release of the previous album, the band released two albums with new material: "The Painter" (1981) and "Space Cadet Solo Flight" (1981). These albums generated little success, but in 1982, a hit track called "Give It Up" from the album "All in a Night's Work" (1982) brought a return to success in the UK, and appeared two years later in the U.S. Top 40. The song was also featured on the band's next album, 1984's "KC Ten".Epic Records, however, refused to issue the song as a single due to its prior failure in the US. Because of this, a frustrated Casey formed Meca Records, releasing the single himself on this label in a final attempt to garner the song some success in America. It worked, but the album still failed to meet expectations. This led to the group falling into stasis around 1985 with Casey's retirement.


title: KC and the Sunshine Band

text: A revival of interest in disco music in 1991 brought Casey out of retirement. He reformed the band with some new members and two other original members, (the percussionist Fermin Goytisolo and vocalist Beverly Champion-Foster) and began touring once again. The new band has released a large number of compilation albums through Rhino Records, along with some newly recorded material. The album "Oh Yeah!" was released in 1993 after a ten-year gap between new albums (excluding compilations).


title: KC and the Sunshine Band

text: In 2001 and 2007, the band released the albums "I'll Be There For You" and "Yummy". Both were composed of archived material recorded before their hiatus.


title: KC and the Sunshine Band

text: On July 6, 2013, KC and the Sunshine Band were honored with a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.


title: Abe Vigoda

text: Abraham Charles Vigoda (February 24, 1921 – January 26, 2016) was an American actor known for his portrayals of Salvatore Tessio in "The Godfather" (1972) and Phil Fish in both "Barney Miller" (1975–1977, 1982) and "Fish" (1977–1978).


title: Abe Vigoda

text: Vigoda was born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 24, 1921, the son of Samuel Vigoda and Lena Moses, Jewish immigrants from Russia. His father was a tailor who had two other sons: Hy and Bill. The latter was a comic book artist who drew for the "Archie Comics" franchise and others in the 1940s. Upon leaving school, Vigoda worked as a printer before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1943, serving in World War II. After his military service, he studied acting on the GI Bill at the American Theatre Wing. In the late 1940s, he began working in radio and made his television debut in an installment of the live drama series "Studio One".


title: Abe Vigoda

text: Vigoda began acting while in his 20s, working with the American Theatre Wing. His career as a professional actor began in 1947.


title: Abe Vigoda

text: He gained acting notability in the 1960s with his work in Broadway productions, including "Marat/Sade" (1967), portraying Mad Animal; "The Man in the Glass Booth" (1968), portraying Landau; "Inquest" (1970); and "Tough to Get Help" (1972), portraying Abraham Lincoln.


title: Abe Vigoda

text: His best known film role is that of Salvatore Tessio in "The Godfather" (1972). He also appeared briefly in "The Godfather Part II" in a flashback sequence at the end of the film. According to Francis Ford Coppola's commentary on the DVD's widescreen edition, Vigoda landed the role of Tessio in an "open call", in which actors who did not have agents could come in for an audition.


title: Abe Vigoda

text: He gained further fame as Phil Fish on "Barney Miller," a character known for his world-weary demeanor and persistent hemorrhoids. Vigoda landed the role after an unusual audition, in which he unwittingly displayed that he was a perfect fit for the role:


title: Abe Vigoda

text: Vigoda's character on "Barney Miller" was popular, and a spin off television series, "Fish," was created for him in 1977. The series, a situation comedy, ran from February 5, 1977, to May 18, 1978.


title: Abe Vigoda

text: In 1982 "People" magazine mistakenly referred to Vigoda as dead. At the time, Vigoda, aged 60, was performing in a stage play in Calgary. He took the mistake with good humor, posing for a photograph published in "Variety" in which he was sitting up in a coffin, holding the erroneous issue of "People." Jeff Jarvis, a "People" employee at the time, said that the magazine's editors were known for "messing up" stories and one of them repeatedly inserted the phrase "the late" in reference to Vigoda, even after a researcher correctly removed it. The erroneous version was what went to print.


title: Abe Vigoda

text: In 1987 the same mistake was made when a reporter for WWOR, Channel 9 in Secaucus, New Jersey, mistakenly referred to him as the "late Abe Vigoda". She realized and corrected her mistake the next day.


title: Abe Vigoda

text: He had been the subject of many running gags pertaining to the mistaken reports of his death. In 1997 Vigoda appeared in "Good Burger" as the character Otis, a restaurant's French fry man. Several jokes were made about his advanced age, including his character Otis saying, "I should've died years ago." That same year, he was shopping at Bloomingdale's in Manhattan when the salesman remarked, "You look like Abe Vigoda. But you can't be Abe Vigoda because he's dead." A "Late Night with David Letterman" skit showed Letterman trying to summon Vigoda's ghost, but Vigoda walked in and declared, "I'm not dead yet, you pinhead!"


title: Abe Vigoda

text: At a New York Friars Club roast of Rob Reiner which Vigoda attended, Billy Crystal joked, "I have nothing to say about Abe. I was always taught to speak well of the dead."


title: Abe Vigoda

text: In May 2001 a website was created with only one purpose: to report whether Vigoda was alive or dead. In addition, in 2005, a "tongue-in-cheek" Firefox extension was released with the sole purpose of telling the browser user Vigoda's status.


title: Abe Vigoda

text: Continuing with the gag, he appeared frequently to make fun of his status on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," including a guest appearance on the show's final episode. At the 1998 New York Friars Club roast of Drew Carey, with Vigoda in the audience, Jeff Ross joked, "My one regret is that Abe Vigoda isn't alive to see this." He followed that with "Drew, you go to Vegas; what's the over–under on Abe Vigoda?" On January 23, 2009, Vigoda appeared live on "The Today Show." He said he was doing well, joked about previous reports of his death and announced he had just completed a voice-over for an H&R Block commercial to air during the Super Bowl.


title: Abe Vigoda

text: Vigoda and Betty White, both 88 years old at the time, appeared in "Game", a Snickers commercial that debuted during Super Bowl XLIV on February 7, 2010. The synopsis made fun of the advanced age of the actors. The Super Bowl Ad Meter poll respondents rated the ad the highest of any shown during the game.


title: Abe Vigoda

text: Vigoda and his first wife Sonja Gohlke had one daughter named Carol. The marriage ended in divorce. His second marriage to Beatrice Schy lasted from 1968 until her death in 1992.


title: Abe Vigoda

text: Vigoda enjoyed playing handball and stated in an interview that he was "almost" a champion at the game in his youth.


title: Abe Vigoda

text: On January 26, 2016, one month before his 95th birthday, Vigoda died in his sleep at his daughter Carol Fuchs' home in Woodland Park, New Jersey, of natural causes. He had gone there "to escape the hazards of a blizzard."


title: Abe Vigoda

text: Vigoda's funeral was held on January 31, 2016. Notable figures including comic Gilbert Gottfried, former New York City mayor David Dinkins, and stand-up comedian Jeff Ross attended. He was buried in the Beth David Cemetery at Elmont, Nassau County, New York.


title: Abe Vigoda

text: On the 2017 Academy Awards show, Vigoda was not included in the show's memorial reel, surprising many and prompting a small PR backlash.


title: Days of Thunder

text: Days of Thunder is a 1990 American sports action drama film released by Paramount Pictures, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Tony Scott. The cast includes Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Cary Elwes, Caroline Williams, and Michael Rooker. The film also features appearances by real life NASCAR racers, such as Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace, Neil Bonnett, and Harry Gant. Commentator Dr. Jerry Punch, of ESPN, has a cameo appearance, as does co-producer Don Simpson.


title: Days of Thunder

text: This is the first of three films to star both Cruise and Kidman (the other two being "Far and Away" and "Eyes Wide Shut"). The film received mixed reviews, with criticism aimed at its unrealistic special effects, characters, screenplay, acting, dialogue and similarities to "Top Gun", but was widely praised for its action sequences, Hans Zimmer's musical score, fast pace, and the performances of Cruise and Kidman.


title: Days of Thunder

text: Young racer Cole Trickle, from Eagle Rock, California, has years of experience in open-wheel racing, winning championships with the World of Outlaws. Originally setting his sights on the Indianapolis 500, Cole realizes that "to win in Indy I'd need a great car, but stock cars are all the same". Chevrolet dealership tycoon Tim Daland recruits him to race for his team in the NASCAR Cup Series, bringing former crew chief and car builder Harry Hogge out of retirement to lead Cole's pit crew (Harry had left NASCAR a year prior to avoid investigation involving the death of driver Buddy Bretherton). After Cole sets a fast time in a private test at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Hogge builds him a new Chevrolet Lumina.


title: Days of Thunder

text: Cole makes his first start at Phoenix, where he has difficulty adjusting to the larger NASCAR stock cars and communicating with his crew, while being intimidated on the track by Winston Cup Champion and dirty driver Rowdy Burns; these obstacles, combined with crashes and blown engines, prevent Cole from finishing the next three races at Bristol, Dover, and Rockingham. Cole confesses to Harry that he does not understand any common NASCAR terminology, leading Harry to put him through rigorous training. This pays off at Darlington, when Cole uses a slingshot maneuver from the outside line to overtake Rowdy and win his first race.


title: Days of Thunder

text: The rivalry between Cole and Rowdy intensifies throughout the season until the Firecracker 400 at Daytona, where both drivers are seriously injured after being caught in "The Big One". Recovering in Daytona Beach, Cole develops a romantic relationship with Dr. Claire Lewicki, a neurosurgeon at a local hospital. NASCAR President Big John brings Rowdy and Cole together in a meeting and warns them that he and his sport will no longer tolerate any misbehavior from the two rivals. The two bitter rivals soon become close friends after having dinner and settling their differences by smashing rental cars in a race on the beach, per Big John's persuasion.


title: Days of Thunder

text: Daland hires hot-shot rookie Russ Wheeler to fill Cole's seat until Cole returns, and then expands his team, with Daland now fielding two teams – the second car driven by Wheeler, of which Harry disapproves. Though Cole shows signs of his old self, he falls into a new rivalry with Russ, leading to an engine failure at Atlanta. Daland offers no help to Cole or his team, as he is defensive of his new driver. At North Wilkesboro, Russ blocks Cole's path during their pit stop, and later forces Cole into the outside wall on the last lap to win the race. Cole retaliates by crashing into Russ' car after the race, leading to a fight between Harry, Daland, and both of Cole and Russ's pit crews, with Daland firing both Cole and Harry in the process.


title: Days of Thunder

text: Rowdy learns he has to undergo brain surgery to fix a broken blood vessel, and asks Cole to drive his car at the Daytona 500 so his sponsor will pay for the year. Cole reluctantly agrees and convinces Harry to return as his crew chief. Hours prior to the race, Harry discovers metal in the oil pan, a sign of engine failure, and manages to procure a new engine from Daland, who still believes in his former driver's promise. During the race, Cole's car is spun out by Russ and suffers a malfunctioning transmission, but the combined efforts of Harry's and Daland's pit crews manage to fix the problem and get Cole back on the lead lap. On the final lap, Russ predicts that Cole will attempt his signature slingshot maneuver from outside, but Cole tricks him with a crossover, overtaking him from the inside to win his first Daytona 500.


title: Days of Thunder

text: Cole drives into Victory Lane, where he and his pit crew celebrate with Claire. He approaches Harry, sitting alone, who is lost for words. Cole asks Harry to walk with him and Harry agrees, challenging him to a foot race to Victory Lane.


title: Days of Thunder

text: Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace, Neil Bonnett, Harry Gant, and Dr. Jerry Punch all appear in cameo roles as themselves. Bob Jenkins had a voice-over role as a public address announcer, and his ESPN colleagues Benny Parsons and Ned Jarrett portray radio announcers.


title: Days of Thunder

text: In addition, actress Margo Martindale is seen in her first film role, as Harry's timekeeper, while Don Simpson, one of the film's producers, has a cameo as driver Aldo Bennedetti, patterned after Mario Andretti and using his twin brother Aldo Andretti's first name.


title: Days of Thunder

text: Principal photography took place in early 1990 in and around Charlotte and Daytona Beach. It was plagued with delays due to frequent arguments on set between Simpson and Bruckheimer, Scott, and sometimes Towne over how to set up a shot. Crew members sat idle for long hours; some later said they had accumulated enough overtime pay to go on vacation for a full four months after filming was completed. The completion date was pushed back many times, with filming being completed in early May, three months later than it had originally been scheduled. At one point, following the third revision of the shooting schedule in a single day, the unit production manager, who represents the studio on the set or location, confronted Simpson and Bruckheimer and was told bluntly that the schedule no longer mattered.


title: Days of Thunder

text: In Daytona, Simpson and Bruckheimer spent $400,000 to have a vacant storefront in their hotel converted into their private gym, with a large neon sign reading "Days of Thunder." Simpson also kept a closet full of Donna Karan dresses to offer the attractive women his assistants found on the beach, and held private parties with friends like rapper Tone Lōc. Towne also played a role in the film's increasing cost by scrapping more barn scenes when he didn't like either of two barns built to his specifications. The film's original budget of $35 million nearly doubled; at that level it would have had to make at least $100 million, a rare gross at that time, to break even. In addition, when Tom Cruise lost the Oscar for "Born on the Fourth of July", some additional budget was cut. Despite the budget overruns and delays, reportedly it was only after shooting was finished that the filmmakers discovered they had neglected to film Cole Trickle's car crossing the finish line at Daytona. Nine million dollars of the film's budget plus gross percentage went to star Tom Cruise.


title: Days of Thunder

text: With the delay in completion of filming and no delay in release date, post production had to be completed in five weeks rather than the five months it would normally take for such a film.


title: Days of Thunder

text: The cars used as those of Cole Trickle, Rowdy Burns, and Russ Wheeler were provided by Hendrick Motorsports, with racers Greg Sacks, Tommy Ellis, Bobby Hamilton, and Hut Stricklin as the stand-in drivers. In order to provide authentic race footage involving the cars, these cars were actually raced on three occasions. In late 1989, Hamilton and Sacks raced at Phoenix. Hamilton officially qualified fifth and led a lap before his engine blew. In 1990, the cars were raced again at Daytona and Darlington. Sacks drove a car during the Busch Clash, while Hamilton and Ellis drove unscored entries in the Daytona 500. At Darlington, Stricklin and Sacks drove two of the cars, but both were pulled from the race early after Sacks broke a crankshaft. Cole's first car in the film is sponsored by City Chevrolet, a real-life car dealership in Charlotte, North Carolina, owned by Rick Hendrick.


title: Days of Thunder

text: The score for "Days of Thunder" was composed by Hans Zimmer, with Jeff Beck making a guest appearance on guitar. This was the first of an ongoing list of films in which Zimmer would compose the score for a Jerry Bruckheimer production. An official score album was not released until 2013, by La-La Land Records. The film's theme song "Last Note of Freedom" was sung by David Coverdale of the band Whitesnake at the request of Tom Cruise himself. Coverdale's vocal parts were recorded in 1990 in Los Angeles during a day off of the Whitesnake "Slip of the Tongue" Liquor and Poker world tour. "Show Me Heaven", written and sung by Maria McKee, reached number one in the music charts of the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway.


title: Days of Thunder

text: "Days of Thunder" was released on Wednesday, June 27, 1990. The film was a financial success grossing $157,920,733. The film was also successful on home video, grossing $40 million in rentals.


title: Days of Thunder

text: Having been previously released on VHS and then DVD, "Days of Thunder" was released as the fifth film entry in the Paramount Presents series on remastered Blu-ray in May 2020. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray was also released the same day. Extra features include a new Isolated Score and a six-minute featurette - Filmmaker Focus: Days of Thunder with Producer Jerry Bruckheimer.


title: Days of Thunder

text: The film received mixed reviews from critics who mostly shrugged off the sometimes over-the-top special effects and plot which greatly resembled the earlier Bruckheimer, Simpson, Scott and Cruise vehicle "Top Gun", which had been hugely successful four years earlier. "Halliwell's Film Guide" dismissed "Days of Thunder" as "An over familiar story rendered no more interestingly than usual", while the "Monthly Film Bulletin" described it as "simply a flashy, noisy star vehicle for Tom Cruise, one which – like the stock car he drives – goes around in circles getting nowhere". It holds a rating of 38% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 65 reviews, with the site's consensus stating: ""Days of Thunder" has Tom Cruise and plenty of flash going for it, but they aren't enough to compensate for the stock plot, two-dimensional characters, and poorly written dialogue." The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound (Charles M. Wilborn, Donald O. Mitchell, Rick Kline and Kevin O'Connell).


title: Days of Thunder

text: Following Tony Scott's death in 2012, film critic Stephen Metcalf argued that the film marked an important turning point in the history of the American film industry. "The best film he made may well have been "Crimson Tide"," he wrote in "Slate", "but the most important film he made was "Days of Thunder"." The excesses of its production and its failure to equal "Top Gun"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s magnitude of box-office success, he argues, helped end the era that had followed the failure of "Heaven's Gate" ten years earlier. The studio's willingness to indulge director Michael Cimino on that film, as other studios had been doing up to that point, led to a backlash where studios favored producers like Simpson and Bruckheimer whose films bore far more of their imprint than any director who worked for them. "Crimson Tide", made several years after "Days of Thunder", was the critical and commercial success it was, Metcalf says, because after similar excesses on the producers' part like those that occurred on "Thunder" directors were allowed to reassert themselves.


title: Days of Thunder

text: Yeah, yeah, you laugh but seriously I’m a big fan. To me "Days of Thunder" is the movie "Grand Prix" and "Le Mans" should have been. Sure, it had a big budget, big stars and a big director in Tony Scott, but it had the fun of those early AIP movies. I just don't think it works if you take the whole thing too seriously.


title: Days of Thunder

text: While the movie was neither based on a true story, nor a biographical film, the main character Cole Trickle was very loosely based on the careers of Tim Richmond and Geoff Bodine, and several scenes reenacted or referenced real-life stories and personalities from NASCAR history. The scene where Big John tells Cole and Rowdy they will drive to dinner together is based on an actual meeting Bill France Jr. had in the 1980s between Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Geoff Bodine. Richard Childress and Dale Earnhardt Jr. discussed how "Days of Thunder" was based on the rivalry between Earnhardt Sr. and Bodine. One scene in which Cole deliberately blows his engine by over-revving it reflects upon an incident in which Tim Richmond was said to have done at Michigan in 1987. In another scene, Trickle is told he cannot pit because the crew is too busy eating ice cream. This incident actually occurred at the 1987 Southern 500 involving the Hendrick Motorsports No. 35 team with crew chief Harry Hyde and Richmond's replacement driver Benny Parsons. The scene where Cole and Rowdy destroy a pair of rental cars by racing them through the city streets loosely referenced early 1950s NASCAR superstars Joe Weatherly and Curtis Turner, each of whom were known to rent cars, race, and crash them with abandon. In the final race at Daytona, Harry tells Cole they had to change engines; when asked where the engine came from, Harry says "we stole it" when in reality it came from his previous owner Tim. In the final race at Atlanta in 1990, the championship race between Earnhardt and Mark Martin was neck and neck; Martin did not feel any of his cars were good enough, so Robert Yates allowed Roush Racing to borrow one of Davey Allison's cars for a test run and the race as Yates wanted a Ford to win the championship. Earnhardt edged out Martin by 26 points for the championship.


title: Days of Thunder

text: A year after the film's release, the fictional Mello Yello sponsorship depicted on Trickle's No. 51 car was followed by a real-life sponsorship arrangement. The No. 42 Pontiac of SABCO Racing driven by Kyle Petty carried the paint scheme from 1991 to 1994. Mello Yello also sponsored the fall race at Charlotte from 1990 to 1994. At the 2013 Subway Firecracker 250, driver Kurt Busch had his unsponsored No. 1 Phoenix Racing Chevy painted to resemble Cole Trickle's No. 46 City Chevrolet car as part of an awareness campaign for the Armed Forces Foundation.


title: Days of Thunder

text: The Darlington throwback race weekend has also seen drivers race with paint schemes based on those from the film. The 2015 Bojangles' Southern 500 saw the Mello Yello car on the No. 42 Chevy of Kyle Larson. Rick Ware Racing executed the throwback in 2017 for Cody Ware's No. 51, but with a "Pray for Texas" message in support of the survivors of Hurricane Harvey. At the following year's race, RWR's No. 51 for B. J. McLeod resembled Russ Wheeler's No. 18 Hardee's car, but with Jacob Companies as the sponsor. In 2019, the City Chevrolet paint scheme returned on the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports car of William Byron. The NASCAR Xfinity Series' 2019 Darlington race saw the No. 51 of Jeremy Clements use a paint scheme resembling Rowdy Burns' Exxon car, but with RepairableVehicles.com as the sponsor.


title: Days of Thunder

text: The 2006 film "", which also stars Reily, features a reference to the movie when the titular character is traumatized into thinking he is on fire and calls Tom Cruise for help, referring to the film as a "Witchcraft movie".


title: Days of Thunder

text: In 2015, M&M's released a promo video on YouTube to commemorate the 25th anniversary of "Days of Thunder" and to promote M&M's Crispy. The video features driver Kyle Busch and crew chief Adam Stevens parodying scenes from the film.