title: Tony Stewart

text: In September at Loudon, Stewart lead part of the final stages trying to hold off Clint Bowyer for RCR who dominated the race; when the white flag waved the fans saw that Stewart was out of gas; Bowyer passed him and won both the white flag and the checkers. Stewart finished 24th and waved to Bowyer to congratulate him as he slowly crossed the line to finish. After the race Stewart said when interviewed "My feelings are not happy that's for sure but we had a strong race; I thank Office Depot, Coca-Cola, and my sponsors... congratulations to Clint Bowyer and the helping hands, they deserved that one. I think I ran myself out of fuel; my team apologized and said "sorry for running you out of fuel", I think I ran myself out of fuel."


title: Tony Stewart

text: On October 12, 2010, Mobil 1 announced a sponsorship deal with Stewart-Haas Racing to sponsor Stewart's car, starting in 2011. It would be the primary sponsor for 11 races, while Office Depot would be the primary sponsor for the rest of the season. Mobil 1 would also sponsor Stewart in the Budweiser Shootout and the All-Star Race.


title: Tony Stewart

text: In 2011, Stewart returned in the No. 14 Office Depot-sponsored Chevrolet. Following a crash intentionally caused by Stewart on Brian Vickers at Infineon Raceway in June 2011, Vickers intentionally wrecked Stewart as payback. In an interview when asked about the crashes, Stewart said, "It was payback, but, you know, I dumped him first, and I dumped him because he was blocking..." Stewart and his teammate, Newman, started the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 first and second, and they finished it where they started as Newman won that race. By the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400, Stewart said in a post-race interview that his team was running so poorly that he was "wasting one of those top 12 spots." Entering the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup portion of the schedule winless, Stewart won the opening race of the Chase at the Chicagoland Speedway and jumped up seven spots in the points, securing second place and extending his streak of consecutive years with a win to 13. Stewart made it two for two in the Chase after Clint Bowyer ran out of fuel in the closing laps of the Sylvania 300 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Stewart took the win and the points lead after New Hampshire. At Talladega, Stewart struggled to lead a lap, and eventually did so; with assistance from Ryan Newman, Paul Menard, and Joey Logano, he led an additional 29 laps and captured the two-point bonus for leading the most laps. On October 30, 2011, at Martinsville Speedway, Stewart won the Tums Fast Relief 500, leading three times for 14 laps and moving into championship contention in second place in the points standings.


title: Tony Stewart

text: The next week, Stewart led 173 laps en route to winning the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, bringing him to within three points of championship points leader Carl Edwards with two races to go in the 2011 season. On November 20, 2011, Stewart won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship by winning the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway while Edwards finished second. Stewart and Edwards were tied on total points, but Stewart claimed the tiebreaker by having five race wins, all during the Chase, to Edwards's one win. In the process, Stewart became the first driver/owner to win the championship since Alan Kulwicki in 1992.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Before the season Stewart welcomed new drivers retired Indycar driver Danica Patrick and driver David Reutimann to drive partly for Stewart-Haas Racing as part of a partnership with Tommy Baldwin Racing who provided parts of the cars.


title: Tony Stewart

text: On February 11, 2012, Stewart led the final stages of the Budweiser Shootout by passing Marcos Ambrose on the final lap but was passed in a desperate charge to the finish line by Kyle Busch who beat him to the line in what was said the closest finish in Budweiser Shootout history (It would have been 2011 with Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin but Hamlin was black-flagged for being below the yellow line). Stewart won the 1st duel of the Gatorade Duels at Daytona when his new driver Danica Patrick hit the wall hard on the backstretch on the final lap, which brought out the caution. Stewart started 3rd in the Daytona 500 and ran well throughout the race, but was caught up in a late-race crash on lap 196 after getting turned by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. On March 11, Stewart won the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway beating Jimmie Johnson. It was his 45th career win and brought his streak of consecutive Cup seasons with a win to 14.


title: Tony Stewart

text: On March 25, 2012, Stewart won the rain-shortened Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway. On June 3, 2012, Stewart was caught in a 13 car crash on the back leg at Dover and finished the race in 25th place.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Tony Stewart led 18 laps at the 2012 Quicken Loans 400 and finished second behind Dale Earnhardt Jr. Stewart however caused controversy and got ripped by the fans and media for saying in a media conference that Earnhardt winning "Is not a national holiday." and taunting the Earnhardt nation for celebrating the 4th anniversary of Earnhardt's last win in 2008.


title: Tony Stewart

text: At Sonoma, Stewart moved quickly from the top 20 to third in the final laps of the Toyota Save Mart 350 and ended up second to Clint Bowyer by passing Kurt Busch on the final turn on the final lap. On July 7, Stewart was able to hold off Matt Kenseth to win his fourth Coke Zero 400 as a wreck ensued behind him. The win was a surprise one, as Stewart had been forced to start 42nd due to his car failing pre-qualifying inspection.


title: Tony Stewart

text: In August at Bristol in the 2012 Irwin Tools Night Race, when battling for the lead on lap 333, Stewart and Matt Kenseth tangled and brought out a caution. This was soon after Ryan Newman was wrecked by Juan Pablo Montoya in an accident which collected Jeff Burton. A furious Stewart climbed out of his wrecked car and angrily tossed his helmet at Kenseth's car, who exit out of the pit road, and then gestured applause at the fans. This was followed shortly thereafter by his student driver Danica Patrick wagging a finger at Regan Smith after he turned her into the inside wall many laps later.


title: Tony Stewart

text: In September at Atlanta, team spokesman Mike Arning announced that Office Depot will not be Stewart's sponsor in 2013.


title: Tony Stewart

text: On October 2, 2012, Bass Pro Shops announced they would be a co-primary sponsor for Stewart in a selected number of races for the 2013 season.


title: Tony Stewart

text: At the Talladega race in the fall, Stewart was leading on the final lap but underestimated the speed of a closing Michael Waltrip. On turn 4, Waltrip got a run, and tapped Stewart from behind, causing Stewart to spin and Waltrip to spin into the pack, causing a Big One that involved 23 cars, the largest crash of the season to date. Stewart flipped over, hitting the roofs of several other cars, including Kasey Kahne, Paul Menard, and Clint Bowyer, before landing upright. On November 9, it was announced that Kevin Harvick would be joining Stewart's team starting in 2014.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart would finish ninth in points, with two top-fives and four top tens in the Chase, for a final season total of three wins, 12 top-five, and 16 top-ten finishes overall.


title: Tony Stewart

text: In early 2013, reports said that Stewart was offered a chance by Roger Penske to race in the 2013 Indianapolis 500 in a Penske car. Stewart declined and said he was not ready to try the big race yet, due to his focus on stock cars.


title: Tony Stewart

text: In the Daytona 500, Stewart's day ended on lap 35, when he was caught up in an early crash with Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne; this would allow him to finish 41st. He rebounded slightly with an 8th-place finish at Phoenix and an 11th-place finish in Las Vegas. At Bristol, Stewart blew his tire on lap 3 and cut a brake line; he came back out over 20 laps down, unable to contend for the victory.


title: Tony Stewart

text: At Fontana, Stewart ran well for most of the day, leading laps and running on an alternate pit cycle, and nearly contended for the win. However, due to a late-race incident when Joey Logano blocked him on the last restart, Stewart ended up in 22nd place at the bottom of the lead lap. After the race, Stewart, angered, confronted Logano, who had just wrecked his car after battling with Denny Hamlin hard into the last turn, on pit road in a scuffle involving both teams' crews.


title: Tony Stewart

text: At Richmond, Stewart looked to be in contention for the win as he was 5th on a green-white-checkered finish, but in a fashion similar to his confrontation with Logano at Fontana; after a poor restart he lost a few positions. On the last lap, Kurt Busch tapped his bumper, moving Stewart out of the 2nd groove up to the top of the race track subsequently losing about 5 positions coming home 18th while Busch took a 9th-place finish. Stewart showed his displeasure with Busch after the race had finished, rubbing with him on the race track leading to a shoving match between the two when slowing down after the race ended. Down near the haulers, the two turned the attention given to race winner Harvick; to them when they had a verbal confrontation, again Stewart showing Busch his displeasure with his aggressive move. It was the first time since 2008 that the two got together in a feud.


title: Tony Stewart

text: At Talladega, Stewart was caught up in a 15 car wreck on lap 43 and ended up finishing 27th, 5 laps down. His teammates Danica Patrick and Ryan Newman were caught up in a later wreck on lap 182, in which Newman's car got crushed when Kurt Busch flipped over and landed on top of it.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart's 2013 season start was considered his worst start to a Sprint Cup season yet. As of Richmond, he had only one Top 10 finish, which was at Phoenix. The rest of his finishing positions had been in the upper 10's or lower 20's. After Richmond, Stewart was 22nd in the points standings with 207 points, 136 behind Jimmie Johnson. However, he showed signs of a rebound in the following weeks, scoring a solid 7th-place finish at the Coca-Cola 600 while avoiding several wrecks.


title: Tony Stewart

text: The following week at Dover, Stewart went a lap down early but got back on the lead lap with a beneficiary. In the last 20 laps, after Johnson was penalized for jumping the last restart, Stewart overtook Juan Pablo Montoya and held him off over the last three laps to score his sole Sprint Cup win of 2013. The win propelled him up 4 positions to 16th, into a Wildcard spot. This also gave Stewart a streak of 15 straight seasons with at least one race win. He followed this up with a fourth-place finish at Pocono and a fifth place at Michigan. His momentum was killed briefly by a 28th-place run at Sonoma and a 20th-place finish at Kentucky, but Stewart then rebounded to a second-place finish at the Coke Zero 400.


title: Tony Stewart

text: At New Hampshire, Stewart led 84 laps and was overtaken by Brian Vickers with 14 laps to go. A caution that led to a green-white-checkered finish ultimately ruined Stewart's chances of winning, as he ran out of fuel after the restart while Vickers took the win. Stewart then rebounded with a 4th-place run at Indianapolis and a 9th-place run at Pocono.


title: Tony Stewart

text: The day after the Pocono race, on August 5, 2013, while leading a sprint car race at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa, Stewart was involved in a multi-car crash when a lapped car spun in front of him and Stewart drove straight into him while it was sideways causing him to flip multiple times. The hit was hard enough that Stewart broke both the tibia and fibula bones in his lower right leg. He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital where surgery was performed on his broken leg. A second surgery was performed on August 8, 2013 in which a metal rod was inserted into the tibia. The injuries were bad enough that Stewart's streak of 521 consecutive Sprint Cup starts, dating back to the 1999 Daytona 500, ended. A replacement driver for the August 11 race at Watkins Glen International was not immediately named, though it was eventually announced that road veteran Max Papis would fill in for Watkins Glen. Stewart was eventually released from the hospital on August 11.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Prior to August 11, 2013, speculation arose regarding who would replace Stewart on the oval courses, with speculation that the replacement would either be Regan Smith, who drove two races in Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car after Earnhardt was sidelined with a concussion in 2012, or Austin Dillon. It was announced after Watkins Glen that Dillon would drive Stewart's car for Michigan. On August 19, 2013, Stewart was ruled out for the remainder of the season. Mark Martin was released from his contract with Michael Waltrip Racing and signed on to drive Stewart's car for the remaining thirteen races of the year, with the exception of Talladega, where Dillon drove the car. Brian Vickers and Elliott Sadler would drive the No. 55 for races Martin was originally intended to drive for MWR in.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Before the season it was announced that Stewart had been medically cleared to race. Stewart mentioned during Pre-Season Thunder that his leg would be about 65% healed going into Daytona. Stewart ran the Sprint Unlimited and was collected in a nine-car crash, though he was able to exit his car under his own power and without any pain. Stewart entered the Daytona 500 in his backup car, starting from the rear of the field. After the 6 hour and 22-minute rain delay, the race resumed, but just shy of halfway, Stewart's fuel pickup began to fail. His crew repaired the problem in the garage and allowed Stewart to return to the track, finishing the race 27 laps down.


title: Tony Stewart

text: The next week at Phoenix, Stewart ran in the top ten most of the day. A late string of cautions set up multiple restarts and Stewart opted to come down to pit road to be serviced each time the caution was thrown, subsequently losing track position. On the last and final restart, Stewart had 4 fresh tires and was starting 19th. He gained 3 positions, from 19th to 16th, where he finished. Stewart gained 12 spots in the standings, from 32nd to 20th.


title: Tony Stewart

text: At Bristol, Stewart missed the second round of knockout qualifying and started 37th. However, with a fast racecar, he was able to make his way up the field and finish fourth, his first top-five finish since the previous year's Brickyard 400. Stewart was the highest finishing Chevrolet in the race.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart qualified 10th at Auto Club. After a spin early in the race, Stewart was running 12th at the last caution, coming off of pit road 2nd and lining up 4th for the green-white-checkered finish behind Paul Menard, his driver Kurt Busch, and Landon Cassill. On the final restart, Stewart and Busch battled for the win, only to be passed up by Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson. Stewart finished third not being passed by Matt Kenseth, his fifth top 5 in a row.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart had a strong run at Pocono. He qualified in the top five and ran in there nearly the whole race, before a speeding penalty on pit road left him with a 13th-place finish. When Stewart was asked about what happened he said "It was a 100% driver error. Last week I cried over a 6th place finish and I just threw this one away. 100% driver error. My fault."


title: Tony Stewart

text: At Michigan, Stewart ran in the top-five. Late in the race, Stewart tangled with rookie Kyle Larson when Larson threw a block, leaving Stewart with an 11th-place finish. Stewart replied by bumping Larson under yellow and side-swiping him. The next week Stewart said "He'll learn not to block me. One way or another he'll learn like I did at his age."


title: Tony Stewart

text: After the Kevin Ward Jr. tragedy in mid-August, Stewart skipped Watkins Glen, Michigan, and Bristol. He was subbed by Regan Smith and Jeff Burton for those races. Despite having missed three races and thus losing too many points to recover lost points in the final 2 races, NASCAR granted him a waiver allowing him to still be eligible for the Chase if he won in the final two 'regular season' events, which he failed to do, causing him to miss the Chase for the third time in his career.


title: Tony Stewart

text: At the end of the October Charlotte race, Stewart was hit on pit road by Brad Keselowski, who was trying to run into Matt Kenseth, but missed. Stewart retaliated by reversing into him, smashing Keselowski's front in. Stewart was fined $25,000 and placed on probation until November 12, 2014 along with Keselowski who was fined $50,000.


title: Tony Stewart

text: At Martinsville, Stewart almost won. On the final restart, he pulled out in front of Dale Earnhardt Jr. but having older tires, got over-taken by Earnhardt with four laps to go. Stewart finished 4th but stated that after what he went through from August to then, finishing 4th felt like a win to him.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart finished the year with a last-place finish at Homestead-Miami, ending his 15-year winning streak. As a driver, 2014 was Stewart's worst year statistically. The season ended on a positive note for Stewart, as he won the Owner's Championship with Kevin Harvick. In an interview the day before the race, Stewart blamed his subpar year on the new rules package, saying it did not complement his driving style. He also dismissed countless claims that his poor showing had anything to do with his 2013 leg injury.


title: Tony Stewart

text: On February 15, 2014, Stewart returned to sprint car racing in his No. 14 sprint car, the very car that broke his leg in 2013. When asked why he returned, Stewart said he loved racing sprint cars too much to leave. Stewart silenced his critics by dominating and winning a sprint car race at Tri-City Motor Speedway in a huge comeback story. After the race Stewart said:


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart did not do as well in the 2015 season as hoped, as he failed to score a win for the second year in a row and missed the Chase. He even failed to finish higher than 6th-place for the first time in his career, only scoring 3 top-10 finishes the entire season. Despite these results, Stewart refused to put the blame on his crew chief, in spite of criticism from fans, saying that "I still really like working with Chad Johnston, I don't feel like he's what's holding us back... I'm holding him and the team back versus vice versa". He showed signs of a comeback after qualifying runs of 4th at Indianapolis, 5th at Pocono, 3rd at Watkins Glen, and 5th at Michigan.


title: Tony Stewart

text: In his last start of the season-opener Daytona 500, Stewart was involved in an accident on lap 41 with Matt Kenseth that collected Ryan Blaney and Michael Waltrip. Stewart pitted with significant front-right damage, and later took responsibility for the accident, saying that "when it got three-wide that particular lap, it got away from me". He ended up retiring on lap 72.


title: Tony Stewart

text: At the next race, the QuikTrip 500, Stewart did not set a time in qualifying due to a technical irregularity surrounding the amount of camber the car was running. Stewart had a relatively clean first part of the race, however in the second half of the race with 21 laps to go, was involved in a large accident alongside Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Regan Smith and Joe Nemechek, resulting in a red flag. Tony would finish 30th.


title: Tony Stewart

text: After qualifying 12th for the Kobalt 400, Stewart's fortunes did not improve as he finished 33rd, due to a pass-through penalty issued for a tire rolling out from his pit.


title: Tony Stewart

text: At the 2015 CampingWorld.com 500 Stewart qualified 17th, however on lap 288, he crashed, grinding alongside the front-stretch barrier, resulting in a caution. Stewart's teammate Harvick would eventually win.


title: Tony Stewart

text: At the next race, the Auto Club 400, Stewart had a clean race until 36 laps till the end. He was racing Aric Almirola hard, and Martin Truex Jr. cut in front of Tony, creating a hole in Stewart's bodywork which required him to pit for repairs. Following the incident, Stewart confronted Truex post-race, however Stewart still felt he had reason to be happy bar the incident, saying "We are getting to where we were sniffing the edge of the top 10 anyway all day," and that "this [race] is a big gain for us".


title: Tony Stewart

text: In August, Stewart lent his private plane to the family of IndyCar driver Justin Wilson so they could fly out to Long Pond, PA after Wilson was severely injured during a late-race crash; Wilson died several hours later.


title: Tony Stewart

text: On September 27, 2015, Bob Pockrass reported that Stewart announced plans to retire from racing after the 2016 season. Stewart formally announced on September 30, 2015, confirming this and announcing that Clint Bowyer would replace him in the No. 14 in 2017.


title: Tony Stewart

text: On January 31, 2016, Stewart injured his back while riding a dune buggy outside of San Diego with fellow driver Greg Biffle. Four days later, Stewart-Haas Racing announced he had suffered a burst fracture in his lumbar vertebra, which would prevent him from competing in the Daytona 500. Stewart was replaced by Brian Vickers and Ty Dillon. Stewart missed the first eight races of the season. On April 24, 2016, Stewart returned to racing in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond, where he finished 19th. Before the Richmond race, NASCAR granted Stewart a waiver from the rule saying that a driver must attempt every race to be eligible for the Chase. If Stewart won a race and finished in the top 30 in the standings by the autumn Richmond race, he would qualify for the 2016 Chase for the Sprint Cup.


title: Tony Stewart

text: For the running of the GEICO 500 at Talladega, Stewart would struggle at the beginning of the race but he would switch with Ty Dillon after the first caution and Dillon would drive the rest of the race; the doctor advised Stewart not to drive the whole race to avoid further injury. The No. 14 car would get the free pass after the first caution. Dillon would finish 6th, but Stewart would get the credit since he started the race and would get his first top 10 of the year. He finished 12th at Kansas the following week. At Michigan for the running of the FireKeepers Casino 400, Stewart would have his best race of the year so far, he would qualify a strong 3rd and run great all race long and would finish 7th.


title: Tony Stewart

text: The very next week at Sonoma, Stewart took advantage of a late caution and was able to lead the last 20 laps, winning for the first time in three years after making a last-lap pass on Denny Hamlin, who wheel-hopped in the final turn and hit the wall after Stewart slipped into the inside. The win was very popular amongst the garages and the win vaulted Stewart from 34th to 31st in the standings, just 9 points out of the top 30. Then the next race at Daytona, Stewart finished 26th due to a late wreck, but moved up to 30th in the points and currently became part of the Chase for the first time since 2012. He did much better at Kentucky, finishing a solid 5th and further propelling him to 20th in owner's points. The next week at New Hampshire he would continue his streak of strong races and get a 2nd-place finish, followed by two 5th-place finishes at Pocono and Watkins Glen.


title: Tony Stewart

text: At Richmond, Stewart was involved in a controversy with 28 laps to go in the race. Stewart, while racing former teammate Ryan Newman for 10th place, wrecked Newman in turn 3, causing a five-car pileup and ending Newman's chase chances. In an interview minutes after the crash, Newman was outspoken about his displeasure against Stewart and said "I guess he thought he was in a sprint car again and didn't know how to control his anger. It's disappointing that you have somebody who should be retired the way he drives. It's just ridiculous." Stewart's bid for a fourth title ended after poor finishes caused him to be eliminated from the first round of the Chase. After having his final top-ten at the 2016 Bank of America 500, Tony Stewart wrapped up his 18-year career in Cup competition with a 22nd-place finish at the 2016 Ford EcoBoost 400 where he was 2 laps down.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Before the 23rd running of the Brickyard 400, Stewart was inducted into the USAC Hall of Fame in recognition of his sterling United States Auto Club (USAC) career. He was the 1994 USAC National Midget champion; in 1995, Stewart became the first driver ever to claim all three of United States Auto Club National championships in a single season and is one of only six USAC “Triple Crown Champions.” To date, Stewart racing has also won seven USAC Silver Crown Series titles.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart has enjoyed a highly successful career in USAC; he has 27 USAC National Midget wins to his credit, as well as 10 wins in the Sprint cars and three in the Silver Crown series. He is also a member of the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame (2001) and the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame (2022). In addition to his USAC driving titles, he also has seven Sprint Car Owner championships as well as seven in the Silver Crown Series as an owner.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart frequently makes appearances on dirt tracks, appearing regularly at an ARCA race on dirt and many prominent midget car events, USACs Turkey Night Grand Prix, and the indoor Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart races 410 and 360 Dirt Sprint Cars about 50 times a year throughout the United States and Canada. On July 27, 2011, Stewart won his first-ever World of Outlaws race at Ohsweken Speedway. As of October 7, 2014, Stewart has three career World of Outlaws main event victories. Stewart competes with the World of Outlaws, All-Stars, and IRA Sprint Car series when traveling between NASCAR races and on off weekends.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Along with Stewart co-founding the Superstar Racing Experience, he would also drive full-time in the No. 14 machine. Stewart got a podium finish in the inaugural 2021 SRX Series race at Stafford Motor Speedway, finishing third. He followed by sweeping the series' two dirt track races at Knoxville Raceway and Eldora. A second-place finish in the final race at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway enabled Stewart to win the championship by 45 points over Ernie Francis Jr.


title: Tony Stewart

text: On August 9, 2014, Stewart competed in an evening sprint car race at Canandaigua Motorsports Park in Canandaigua, New York. About halfway through the race, Stewart bumped Kevin Ward Jr., causing Ward to lose control and spin out, into the wall. A full course yellow caution flag was displayed. Instead of waiting for race officials, an indignant Ward exited his vehicle and walked onto the track, gesticulating in defiance as Stewart approached. As Stewart approached under full-course caution he hit Ward, impacting him with his right rear tire. Mortally injured when the right rear tire of Stewart's car struck him, Ward was flung across the track to his death. Ward was transported by paramedics to Thompson Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival, due to "massive blunt trauma".


title: Tony Stewart

text: The incident took place the night before Stewart was scheduled to race in the Cup Series' Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen International; however, Stewart decided not to compete in the event, and Regan Smith started in his place. Stewart later released a statement "There aren't words to describe the sadness I feel about the accident that took the life of Kevin Ward Jr. It's a very emotional time for all involved, and it is the reason I've decided not to participate in today's race at Watkins Glen. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and everyone affected by this tragedy."


title: Tony Stewart

text: The day after the incident, Philip Povero, sheriff of Ontario County, New York, told reporters "At this very moment, there are no facts in hand that would substantiate or support a criminal charge, or indicate criminal intent on the part of any individual."


title: Tony Stewart

text: On August 15, 2014, NASCAR announced a rule change requiring that drivers who are involved in an accident and are unable to drive their cars back to pit road or the garage must remain in their vehicles until emergency crews arrive, except in an emergency (such as a fire or smoke caused by a blown engine).


title: Tony Stewart

text: For the August 17, 2014 race at Michigan and the following one at Bristol, Stewart was replaced by Jeff Burton. He returned at Atlanta, and was granted a waiver to maintain Chase eligibility despite missing three races (current Chase rules state that a driver must attempt to qualify for every race in order to be eligible). However, he failed to win at Atlanta or Richmond and thus was unable to qualify for the Chase.


title: Tony Stewart

text: This is been one of the toughest tragedies I've ever had to deal with, both professionally and personally. This is something that will definitely affect my life forever. This is a sadness and a pain I hope no one ever has to experience in their life. That being said, I know that the pain and the mourning that Kevin Ward's family and friends are experiencing is something that I can't possibly imagine. I want Kevin's father, Kevin Sr., his mother Pam, and his sisters Christi, Kayla, and Katelyn to know that every day I'm thinking about and praying for them.


title: Tony Stewart

text: The racing community is a large family, as you guys know. Everyone's saddened with this tragedy. I want to thank all my friends and family for their support through this tough, emotional time. And the support from the NASCAR community, my partners, all of our employees has been overwhelming. I've taken the last couple weeks off out of respect for Kevin and his family and also to cope with the accident in my own way. It's given me the time to think about life and how easy it is to take it for granted. I miss my team, my teammates, and the other drivers very much and I miss being back in the race car. I think that being back in the car this week with my racing family will help me get through this difficult time.


title: Tony Stewart

text: On September 24, 2014, a grand jury declined to indict Stewart on charges of manslaughter in the second-degree and criminally negligent homicide. Following the decision, District Attorney Michael Tantillo stated that videos of Stewart's driving did not demonstrate any aberrational driving and that Ward was under the influence of cannabis with levels high enough to impair judgment.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Ward's father, Kevin Ward Sr., wrote a letter vowing to "pursue to make all remedies for Kevin," implying the civil lawsuit they later filed. When Ward's family was informed that he had been high on cannabis, Ward Sr. wrote a letter that went viral on the internet, saying:


title: Tony Stewart

text: Tell me how a man the size of Kevin can make a sprint car turn to the right on impact. Tell me how a lap before (the incident) everything was fine, but the following lap was poor lighting. Tell me how a NASCAR star totally forgot what caution means. Maybe he should get a different headset so he is able to hear on the radio that the car in caution is up high, so go low. Or was he low until he rounded the corner and saw Kevin, Jr. standing up for himself?


title: Tony Stewart

text: A couple of days after the announcement of his exoneration by Ontario County (N.Y.) District Attorney Michael Tantillo, Stewart told "The Associated Press", that "I know 100 percent in my heart and in my mind that I did not do anything wrong. This was 100 percent an accident."


title: Tony Stewart

text: After a few years of going through the process of the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Ward family, it was announced in April 2018, that the suit had been settled out-of-court, just a few weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin. The terms of the settlement were confidential.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart is the owner of various open-wheel short-track racing cars, most of them being sponsored by Chevrolet since 2007. He also owns and drives dirt super late models.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Tri Star Motorsports (no relation to the TriStar Motorsports NASCAR team) was an IRL team that Stewart owned with Larry Curry, Andy Card, and Rick Ehrgott from 1999 to 2001.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Following the 2008 season, Stewart was given a 50% stake in Haas CNC Racing, which was owned outright by Gene Haas and fielded Chevrolet vehicles. This allowed Stewart to become an owner-driver, as he left his long-term team at Joe Gibbs Racing to start the venture. Initially fielding two cars, the #14 for himself and the #39 for Ryan Newman, Stewart has since expanded the operation to four cars and began running with Ford engines in 2017. The team has won two NASCAR Cup Series championships, the first with Stewart driving in 2011 and the second with Kevin Harvick driving in 2014.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart has won USAC car owner titles in the Silver Crown division in 2002 and 2003 with J. J. Yeley, in 2004 & 2005 with Dave Steele and 2010 and 2011 with Levi Jones of Olney, IL. He also collected owner titles in USAC's National Sprint Car Series with Yeley in 2003 and Jay Drake in 2004. He also won an owner title in the USAC National Sprint Car Series in 2006 with Josh Wise and 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 with Levi Jones of Olney, IL


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart's USAC midget and sprint cars carry No. 20 and No. 21, while his Silver Crown car carries No. 22.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart has also won World of Outlaws Sprint Car Championships as an owner with Donny Schatz in 2008–2009, 2012, and 2014–2018. The team was a two car operation with Schatz and Steve Kinser until Kinser's retirement in 2016. The team currently competes full time in the World of Outlaws with Schatz.


title: Tony Stewart

text: In October 2021 it was reported that Tony Stewart Racing would begin fielding entries in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series which will be first be made up of a Top Fuel entry for Leah Pruett and a Funny Car entry for Matt Hagan.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart purchased Eldora Speedway located near Rossburg, Ohio in late 2004 from Earl Baltes. Stewart is currently a co-owner of Paducah International Raceway near Paducah, Kentucky. He also co-owns Macon Speedway in Macon, Illinois along with Kenny Schrader, Kenny Wallace, and Bob Sargent.


title: Tony Stewart

text: In January 2015, Stewart purchased the All Star Circuit of Champions from Guy Webb. The purchase was Stewart's first foray into owning an entire racing series. In a separate agreement, Stewart announced that he had reached an agreement with the owners of the Renegade Sprint Series to merge with the All Star Circuit of Champions for the 2015 season under the All Star name.


title: Tony Stewart

text: The ASCoC is an American motorsports sanctioning body of Sprint Cars founded in 1970. The series sanctions 410ci winged sprint car races in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, and Florida.


title: Tony Stewart

text: In July 2020, Stewart and former NASCAR crew chief Ray Evernham formed the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX), a stock car series that began in summer 2021.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart owns a dirt late model Chevrolet Impala that carries No. 14 which he races frequently. He is also the owner of Custom Works, a company that manufactures radio-controlled oval track cars, and has had a degree of success as an r/c racer himself.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart was also the driving force behind the Prelude to the Dream, a dirt late model race held at Eldora Speedway from 2005 to 2012. It featured top drivers from NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA, and World of Outlaws, including race winners Kenny Wallace, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, and Stewart himself. The event raised over 4 million dollars for various NASCAR and driver charities including The Victory Junction Gang Camp.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Founded in 2003 by Stewart, the principal purposes of the Tony Stewart Foundation are to raise and donate funds to help care for chronically ill children, drivers injured in motorsports activities, and to support other charitable organizations in the protection of various animal species. The Tony Stewart Foundation will raise and donate funds to charitable interests, specifically those that support the aforementioned groups.


title: Tony Stewart

text: With 49 career points-paying victories, Stewart is ranked thirteenth among the all-time NASCAR Cup Series winners; he is ranked ninth among those who have competed during the sport's modern era (1972–present).


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart is the only driver to complete the Indianapolis 500–Coca-Cola 600 Double Duty, finishing sixth and third respectively in 2001. He is also the second owner-driver to win a NASCAR championship.


title: Tony Stewart

text: Stewart hosted a two-hour weekly radio show, titled "Tony Stewart Live", broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio. Stewart co-hosted the show with Matt Yocum, and took listener calls. The show ran from 2007 to 2008.


title: Middle class

text: The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Common definitions for the middle class range from the middle fifth of individuals on a nation's income ladder, to everyone but the poorest and wealthiest 20%. Theories like "Paradox of Interest" use decile groups and wealth distribution data to determine the size and wealth share of the middle class.


title: Middle class

text: From a Marxist standpoint, middle class initially referred to the 'bourgeoisie,' as distinct from nobility. With the development of capitalist societies and further inclusion of the bourgeoisie into the ruling class, middle class has been more closely identified by Marxist scholars with the term 'petite bourgeoisie.'


title: Middle class

text: There has been significant global middle-class growth over time. In February 2009, "The Economist" asserted that over half of the world's population belonged to the middle class, as a result of rapid growth in emerging countries. It characterized the middle class as having a reasonable amount of discretionary income and defined it as beginning at the point where people have roughly a third of their income left for discretionary spending after paying for basic food and shelter.


title: Middle class

text: The term "middle class" is first attested in James Bradshaw's 1745 pamphlet "Scheme to prevent running Irish Wools to France." Another phrase used in early modern Europe was "the middling sort".


title: Middle class

text: The term "middle class" has had several, sometimes contradictory, meanings. Friedrich Engels saw the category as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry in late-feudalist society. While the nobility owned much of the countryside, and the peasantry worked it, a new "bourgeoisie" (literally "town-dwellers") arose around mercantile functions in the city. In France, the middle classes helped drive the French Revolution. This "middle class" eventually overthrew the ruling monarchists of feudal society, thus becoming the new ruling class or bourgeoisie in the new capitalist-dominated societies.


title: Middle class

text: The modern usage of the term "middle-class", however, dates to the 1913 UK Registrar-General's report, in which the statistician T.H.C. Stevenson identified the middle class as those falling between the upper-class and the working-class. The middle class includes: professionals, managers, and senior civil servants. The chief defining characteristic of membership in the middle-class is control of significant human capital while still being under the dominion of the elite upper class, who control much of the financial and legal capital in the world.


title: Middle class

text: Within capitalism, "middle-class" initially referred to the "bourgeoisie"; later, with the further differentiation of classes as capitalist societies developed, the term came to be synonymous with the term "petite bourgeoisie". The boom-and-bust cycles of capitalist economies result in the periodic (and more or less temporary) impoverisation and proletarianisation of much of the "petite bourgeois" world, resulting in their moving back and forth between working-class and petite-bourgeois status. The typical modern definitions of "middle class" tend to ignore the fact that the classical petite-bourgeoisie is and has always been the owner of a small-to medium-sized business whose income is derived almost exclusively from the employment of workers; "middle class" came to refer to the combination of the labour aristocracy, professionals, and salaried, white-collar workers.


title: Middle class

text: The size of the middle class depends on how it is defined, whether by education, wealth, environment of upbringing, social network, manners or values, etc. These are all related, but are far from deterministically dependent. The following factors are often ascribed in the literature on this topic to a "middle class:"


title: Middle class

text: In the United States, by the end of the twentieth century, more people identified themselves as middle-class (with insignificant numbers identifying themselves as upper-class). The Labour Party in the UK, which grew out of the organised labour movement and originally drew almost all of its support from the working-class, reinvented itself under Tony Blair in the 1990s as "New Labour", a party competing with the Conservative Party for the votes of the middle-class as well as those of the Labour Party's traditional group of voters – the working-class. Around 40% of British people consider themselves to be middle class, and this number has remained relatively stable over the last few decades.


title: Middle class

text: Marxism defines social classes according to their relationship with the means of production. The main basis of social class division of Marxism: the possession of means of production, the role and position it plays in social labor organization (production process), the distribution of wealth and resources and the amount.The "middle class" is said to be the class below the ruling class and above the proletariat in the Marxist social schema and is synonymous with the term "petite-" or "petty-bourgeoisie". Marxist writers have used the term in two distinct but related ways. In the first sense, it is used for the bourgeoisie (the urban merchant and professional class) that arose between the aristocracy and the proletariat in the waning years of feudalism in the Marxist model. V. I. Lenin stated that the "peasantry ... in Russia constitute eight- or nine-tenths of the petty bourgeoisie". However, in modern developed countries, Marxist writers define the "petite bourgeoisie" as primarily comprising (as the name implies) owners of small to medium-sized businesses, who derive their income from the exploitation of wage-laborers (and who are in turn exploited by the "big" bourgeoisie i.e. bankers, owners of large corporate trusts, etc.) as well as the highly educated professional class of doctors, engineers, architects, lawyers, university professors, salaried middle-management of capitalist enterprises of all sizes, etc. – as the "middle class" which stands between the ruling capitalist "owners of the means of production" and the working class (whose income is derived solely from hourly wages).


title: Middle class

text: Pioneer 20th century American Marxist theoretician Louis C. Fraina (Lewis Corey) defined the middle class as "the class of independent small enterprisers, owners of productive property from which a livelihood is derived". From Fraina's perspective, this social category included "propertied farmers" but not propertyless tenant farmers. Middle class also included salaried managerial and supervisory employees but not "the masses of propertyless, dependent salaried employees. Fraina speculated that the entire category of salaried employees might be adequately described as a "new middle class" in economic terms, although this remained a social grouping in which "most of whose members are a new proletariat."


title: Middle class

text: In 1977 Barbara Ehrenreich and her then husband John defined a new class in the United States as "salaried mental workers who do not own the means of production and whose major function in the social division of labor ... [is] ... the reproduction of capitalist culture and capitalist class relations;" the Ehrenreichs named this group the "professional-managerial class".


title: Middle class

text: This group of middle-class professionals is distinguished from other social classes by their training and education (typically business qualifications and university degrees), with example occupations including academics and teachers, social workers, engineers, accountants, managers, nurses, and middle-level administrators. The Ehrenreichs developed their definition from studies by André Gorz, Serge Mallet, and others, of a "new working class," which, despite education and a perception of themselves as middle class, were part of the working class because they did not own the means of production, and were wage earners paid to produce a piece of capital. The professional-managerial class seeks higher rank status and salary and tend to have incomes above the average for their country.


title: Middle class

text: It is important to understand that modern definitions of the term "middle class" are often politically motivated and vary according to the exigencies of political purpose which they were conceived to serve in the first place as well as due to the multiplicity of more- or less-scientific methods used to measure and compare "wealth" between modern advanced industrial states (where poverty is relatively low and the distribution of wealth more egalitarian in a relative sense) and in developing countries (where poverty and a profoundly unequal distribution of wealth crush the vast majority of the population). Many of these methods of comparison have been harshly criticised; for example, economist Thomas Piketty, in his book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century", describes one of the most commonly used comparative measures of wealth across the globe – the Gini coefficient – as being an example of "synthetic indices ... which mix very different things, such as inequality with respect to labor and capital, so that it is impossible to distinguish clearly among the multiple dimensions of inequality and the various mechanisms at work."


title: Middle class

text: In February 2009, "The Economist" asserted that over half the world's population now belongs to the middle class, as a result of rapid growth in emerging countries. It characterized the middle class as having a reasonable amount of discretionary income, so that they do not live from hand-to-mouth as the poor do, and defined it as beginning at the point where people have roughly a third of their income left for discretionary spending after paying for basic food and shelter. This allows people to buy consumer goods, improve their health care, and provide for their children's education. Most of the emerging middle class consists of people who are middle class by the standards of the developing world but not the developed one, since their money incomes do not match developed country levels, but the percentage of it which is discretionary does. By this definition, the number of middle-class people in Asia exceeded that in the West sometime around 2007 or 2008.


title: Middle class

text: "The Economist" article pointed out that in many emerging countries, the middle class has not grown incrementally but explosively. The point at which the poor start entering the middle class by the millions is alleged to be the time when poor countries get the maximum benefit from cheap labour through international trade, before they price themselves out of world markets for cheap goods. It is also a period of rapid urbanization, when subsistence farmers abandon marginal farms to work in factories, resulting in a several-fold increase in their economic productivity before their wages catch up to international levels. That stage was reached in China some time between 1990 and 2005, when the Chinese "middle class" grew from 15% to 62% of the population and is just being reached in India now.


title: Middle class

text: "The Economist" predicted that surge across the poverty line should continue for a couple of decades and the global middle class will grow exponentially between now and 2030.


title: Middle class

text: Based on the rapid growth, scholars expect the global middle class to be the driving force for sustainable development. This assumption, however, is contested (see below).


title: Middle class

text: As the American middle class is estimated by some researchers to comprise approximately 45% of the population, "The Economist" article would put the size of the American middle class below the world average. This difference is due to the extreme difference in definitions between "The Economist" and many other models.


title: Middle class

text: In 2010, a working paper by the OECD asserted that 1.8 billion people were now members of the global "middle class". Credit Suisse's Global Wealth Report 2014, released in October 2014, estimated that one billion adults belonged to the "middle class," with wealth anywhere between the range of $10,000–$100,000.


title: Middle class

text: According to a study carried out by the Pew Research Center, a combined 16% of the world's population in 2011 were "upper-middle income" and "upper income".


title: Middle class

text: An April 2019 OECD report said that the millennial generation is being pushed out of the middle class throughout the Western world.


title: Middle class

text: In 2012, the "middle class" in Russia was estimated as 15% of the whole population. Due to sustainable growth, the pre-crisis level was exceeded. In 2015, research from the Russian Academy of Sciences estimated that around 15% of the Russian population are "firmly middle class", while around another 25% are "on the periphery".


title: Middle class

text: Since the beginning of the 21st century, China's middle class has grown by significant margins. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, by 2013, some 420 million people, or 31%, of the Chinese population qualified as middle class. Based on the World Bank definition of middle class as those having with daily spending between $10 to $50 per day, nearly 40% of the Chinese population were considered middle class as of 2017.


title: Middle class

text: Estimates vary widely on the number of middle-class people in India. According to one study the middle class in India stood at between 60 to 80 million by 1990. According to "The Economist", 78 million of India's population are considered middle class as of 2017, if defined using the cutoff of those making more than $10 per day, a standard used by the India's National Council of Applied Economic Research. If including those with incomes $2 – $10 per day, the number increases to 604 million. This was termed by researchers as the "new middle class". Measures considered include geography, lifestyle, income, and education. The World Inequality Report in 2018 further concluded that elites (i.e. the top 10%) are accumulating wealth at a greater rate than the middle class, that rather than growing, India's middle class may be shrinking in size.


title: Middle class

text: According to a 2014 study by Standard Bank economist Simon Freemantle, a total of 15.3 million households in 11 surveyed African nations are middle-class. These include Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. In South Africa, a report conducted by the Institute for Race Relations in 2015 estimated that between 10%–20% of South Africans are middle class, based on various criteria. An earlier study estimated that in 2008 21.3% of South Africans were members of the middle class.


title: Middle class

text: A study by EIU Canback indicates 90% of Africans fall below an income of $10 a day. The proportion of Africans in the $10–$20 middle class (excluding South Africa), rose from 4.4% to only 6.2% between 2004 and 2014. Over the same period, the proportion of "upper middle" income ($20–$50 a day) went from 1.4% to 2.3%.


title: Middle class

text: According to a 2014 study by the German Development Institute, the middle class of Sub-Saharan Africa rose from 14 million to 31 million people between 1990 and 2010.


title: Middle class

text: Over the years estimates on the size of the Latin American middle class have varied. A 1960 study stated that the middle strata in Latin America as a whole, exclusive of Indians, constituted just under 20% of the national society. A 1964 study estimated that 45 million Latin Americans belonged to the urban middle class while 15 million to the urban well-to-do and 8 million to the rural middle class and well-to-do. In Brazil, acccording to one estimate, in 1970 the lower middle class comprised 12% of the population while the upper middle class comprised 3.% In the mid 1970s it was estimated by one authority that the Brazilian middle class comprised between 15 to 25% of the population. According to one study, the Argentinian middle class by 1970 comprised 38% of the economically active population, compared with 19% in Brazil and 24% in Mexico. According to a study by the World Bank, the number of Latin Americans who are middle class rose from 103 million to 152 million between 2003 and 2009.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: Kenneth John Ortega (born April 18, 1950) is an American filmmaker, touring manager, and choreographer. He is known for directing the films "Newsies", "Hocus Pocus", "The Cheetah Girls 2", "High School Musical", "Michael Jackson's This Is It", "Descendants", and "Julie and the Phantoms". He also choreographed the films "St. Elmo's Fire", "Pretty in Pink", "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", and "Dirty Dancing"; and directed multiple concert tours for Cher, Gloria Estefan, Miley Cyrus, and Michael Jackson. For his work, Ortega was honored with both a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Disney Legend Award in 2019.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: Ortega was born in Palo Alto, California, the son of Madeline, a waitress, and Octavio "Tibby" Ortega, a factory worker. He also has a sister, Debra Ortega. Both of his parents were also born in Palo Alto, though his paternal grandparents were Spanish immigrants. He attended Sequoia High School in Redwood City, California, where he was a cheerleader and in the drama group.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: Ortega began his career as an actor, appearing in a touring production of "Oliver!" and "Hair" before venturing into choreography and directing. Ortega was offered the leading role in a production of "Jesus Christ Superstar," but turned the offer down to become a choreographer for the San Francisco-based band The Tubes after being spotted on the dance floor in a club by members of the band. Ortega toured with the band for ten years, before being contracted by Cher to choreograph a TV special and tour and by KISS on their Dynasty Tour.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: In 1980, Ortega was hired as one of the choreographers on the film "Xanadu", working with Gene Kelly who mentored him into choreographing for film. During this time period, Ortega also served as choreographer for several of John Hughes's films, including "Pretty in Pink" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", as well as the 1987 film "Dirty Dancing".


title: Kenny Ortega

text: Ortega would also choreograph several music videos, including "Material Girl" by Madonna, "She's a Beauty" by The Tubes, "Rock Me Tonite" by Billy Squier, Physical by Olivia Newton-John and "Mr. Roboto" by Styx.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: He made his directorial debut in 1992 with the Disney musical "Newsies", which was followed up by "Hocus Pocus" in 1993. Both films underperformed at the box-office but have since gone on to attract considerable cult followings. Ortega also served as choreographer for "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar" in 1995.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: Alongside Michael Jackson, he created and designed Jackson's Dangerous World Tour (1992–1993), HIStory World Tour (1996–1997) and Michael Jackson & Friends (1999). He has also choreographed events ranging from Super Bowl XXX, the 72nd Academy Awards, the 1996 Summer Olympics (Atlanta) and the 2002 Winter Olympics (Salt Lake City).


title: Kenny Ortega

text: In 2006, Ortega directed and choreographed two Disney Channel Original Movies, "High School Musical" and "The Cheetah Girls 2". Ortega would return as director and choreographer for "High School Musical 2" in 2007 and "" in 2008.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: In May 2009, Ortega began work directing and choreographing the scheduled 50-date Michael Jackson "This Is It" concert residency at The O2 Arena, billed as Jackson's final concerts in London. The engagement was subsequently cancelled due to Jackson's sudden death in June 2009. Ortega would serve as the director of the Michael Jackson Public Memorial at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, which was broadcast live on several networks on July 7, 2009, reaching a television audience of 31 million in America and more than one billion worldwide.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: At the end of the service, he introduced a rendition of Jackson's 1985 charity single "We Are the World" created for the This Is It concerts, featuring Jackson's backing singers on lead vocals with his dancers performing around them. Ortega directed the concert film "Michael Jackson's This Is It," which was put together from rehearsal footage recorded at the Los Angeles Forum and the Staples Center. The film was released on October 28 of the same year.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: He was set to direct the 2011 "Footloose" remake, but dropped out in October 2009 due to differences with Paramount over the budget and tone of the film.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: Ortega was also hired to direct a film adaptation of the Broadway musical "In the Heights" for Universal, but the studio dropped the project in 2011 due to budgetary and casting issues. On August 9, 2011, it was announced that Ortega would direct a remake of "Dirty Dancing", a project that was later postponed. The 2017 TV remake was filmed without Ortega's involvement.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: In 2015, Ortega directed and choreographed "Descendants" for the Disney Channel, a film based on the children of legendary Disney Villains. He would return in the same capacity for its two sequels, "Descendants 2" in 2017 and "Descendants 3" in 2019.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: In 2019, Ortega was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was named a Disney Legend at the 2019 D23 Expo.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: That fall, he directed and served as executive producer of the Netflix Original series " Julie and the Phantoms", which premiered on Netflix on September 10, 2020.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: Ortega is gay, and in a 2014 interview with anti-bullying organization Bystander Revolution, he said that "as a gay man having grown up in the 50s and 60s, I have to say, I'm very proud of the industry that I work in," referring to the acceptance of people with different sexual orientations in show business.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: During the trial "People v. Murray" regarding the death of Michael Jackson, Ortega was the trial's first witness.


title: Kenny Ortega

text: In 2020, Ortega recalled being falsely arrested at the age of 21 after a chief of police planted narcotics in his hotel room, allegedly upset by his performance in a touring production of "Hair". The charges were dropped after investigations were made, and Ortega recalled the arrest report identifying him as George Berger, the name of the character he played in the show.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: The German Instrument of Surrender (; ; ) was a legal document effecting the unconditional surrender of the remaining Nazi German armed forces to the Allies, and ended World War II in Europe; the signing took place at 22:43 CET on 8 May 1945 and the surrender took effect at 23:01 CET on the same day.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: The document was signed at the seat of the Soviet Military Administration in the Karlshorst quarter (Berlin, Germany) by representatives of the three German armed services of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) and Allied Expeditionary Force together with the Supreme High Command of the Soviet Red Army, with further French and American representatives signing as the witnesses. The Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel was the representative of Nazi Germany at the signing ceremony. Unlike in the case of the Empire of Japan, this surrender document led to the de facto fall of Nazi Germany when all civilian central authority and power within Germany had already been extinguished de facto at the death of Adolf Hitler and the Allied Governments also did not recognize the next Germany's government. As one result of Nazi German downfall; the Allies, officially United Nations, had de facto occupied Germany since the Nazi defeat — which was later confirmed by the four countries of Allies as the common representative of new Germany (United States-US, United Kingdom-UK, France, and Soviet Union-USSR), on 5 June 1945.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: There were three language versions of the surrender document — Russian, English, and German — with the Russian and English versions proclaimed in the document itself as the only authoritative ones.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: On 30 April 1945, head of state (with the title Führer) of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler killed himself in his "Führerbunker", under the Reich Chancellery, having drawn up a testament in which Admiral Karl Dönitz succeeded him as next head of state of Nazi Germany, with the title of Reich President. But with the fall of Berlin two days later, and American and Soviet forces having linked up at Torgau on the Elbe, the area of Germany still under German military control had been split in two. Moreover, the speed of the final Allied advances of March 1945 – together with Hitler's insistent orders to stand and fight to the last – had left the bulk of surviving German forces in isolated pockets and occupied territories, mostly outside the boundaries of pre-Nazi Germany. Dönitz attempted to form a government at Flensburg on the Danish border, and was joined there on 2 May 1945 by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) (English: "Upper Command of the Armed Forces") under Wilhelm Keitel, which had previously relocated, first to Krampnitz near Potsdam, and then to Rheinsberg, during the Battle of Berlin. But, although Dönitz sought to present his government as 'unpolitical', there was no repudiation of Nazism, the Nazi Party was not banned, leading Nazis were not detained, and the symbols of Nazism remained in place. Both the Soviets and the Americans remained adamant in not recognising Dönitz or the Flensburg Government as capable of representing the German state.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: At Hitler's death German armies remained in the Atlantic pockets of La Rochelle, St Nazaire, Lorient, Dunkirk and the Channel Islands; the Greek islands of Crete, Rhodes and the Dodecanese; southern Norway; Denmark; the northwestern Netherlands; northern Croatia; northern Italy; Austria; Bohemia and Moravia; the Courland peninsula in Latvia; the Hel Peninsula in Poland and in Germany towards Hamburg, facing British and Canadian forces; in Mecklenburg, Pomerania and the besieged city of Breslau, facing Soviet forces; and in southern Bavaria towards Berchtesgaden, facing American and French forces.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: Representatives of the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom, working through the European Advisory Commission (EAC) throughout 1944, sought to prepare an agreed surrender document to be used in the potential circumstances of Nazi power being overthrown within Germany either by military or civil authorities, and a post-Nazi government then seeking an armistice. By 3 January 1944, the Working Security Committee in the EAC proposed:


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: The committee further suggested that the instrument of surrender be signed by representatives of the German High Command. The considerations behind this recommendation were to prevent the repetition of the so-called stab-in-the-back myth, where extremists in Germany claimed that since the Armistice of 11 November 1918 had been signed only by civilians, the High Command of the Army carried no responsibility for the instrument of defeat or for the defeat itself.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: Not everyone agreed with the committee's predictions. Ambassador William Strang, 1st Baron Strang, the British representative at the EAC, claimed:


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: The surrender terms for Germany were initially discussed at the first EAC meeting on 14 January 1944. A definitive three-part text was agreed on 28 July 1944 and adopted by the three Allied Powers.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: The first part consisted of a brief preamble: "The German Government and German High Command, recognising and acknowledging the complete defeat of the German armed forces on land, at sea and in the air, hereby announce Germany's unconditional surrender".


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: The second part, articles 1–5, related to the military surrender by the German High Command of all forces on land, at sea and in the air, to the surrender of their weapons, to their evacuation from any territory outside German boundaries as they stood on 31 December 1937, and to their liability to captivity as prisoners of war.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: The third part, articles 6 to 12, related to the surrender by the German government to Allied representatives of almost all its powers and authority, the release and repatriation of prisoners and forced labourers, the cessation of radio broadcasts, the provision of intelligence and information, the maintenance of weapons and infrastructure, the yielding of Nazi leaders for war crimes trials, and the power of Allied Representatives to issue proclamations, orders, ordinances, and instructions covering "additional political, administrative, economic, financial, military and other requirements arising from the complete defeat of Germany". The key article in the third section was article 12, which provided that the German government and German High Command would comply fully with any proclamations, orders, ordinances and instructions of the accredited Allied representatives. This was understood by the Allies as allowing unlimited scope to impose arrangements for the restitution and reparation of damages. Articles 13 and 14 specified the date of surrender and the languages of the definitive texts.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: The Yalta Conference in February 1945 led to a further development of the terms of surrender, as it was agreed that administration of post-war Germany would be split into four occupation zones for the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the United States. It was also agreed at Yalta that an additional clause "12a," would be added to the July 1944 surrender text. It stated that the Allied representatives "will take such steps, including the complete disarmament, demilitarisation and dismemberment of Germany as they deem requisite for future peace and security." The Provisional Government of the French Republic, however, was not party to the Yalta agreement and refused to recognise it, which created a diplomatic problem as formal inclusion of the additional clause in the EAC text would inevitably create a French demand for equal representation in any dismemberment decisions. While this was unresolved, there were in effect two versions of the EAC text, one with the "dismemberment clause" and one without.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: By the end of March 1945, the British government began to doubt whether, once Germany had been completely overpowered, there would be any post-Nazi German civil authority capable of signing the instrument of surrender or of putting its provisions into effect. They proposed that the EAC text should be redrafted as a unilateral declaration of German defeat by the Allied Powers, and of their assumption of supreme authority following the total dissolution of the German state. It was in this form that the text agreed by the EAC was finally effected as the Declaration Regarding the Defeat of Germany.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: Meanwhile, the Combined Chiefs of Staff of the Western Allies agreed in August 1944 to general guidelines for the terms of local military surrenders to be concluded with any capitulating German forces. They mandated that capitulation had to be unconditional and restricted to the purely military aspects of a local surrender, that no commitments were to be given to the enemy, and that surrender was to be without prejudice to any subsequent general instrument of surrender which might replace any document of partial surrender and which would be jointly imposed on Germany by the three primary Allied Powers. These guidelines formed the basis for the series of partial capitulations of German forces to the Western Allies in April and May 1945.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: As the German surrender actually happened, the EAC text was substituted by a simplified, military-only version based on the wording of the partial surrender instrument of German forces in Italy signed at the surrender of Caserta. The reasons for the change are disputed but may have reflected awareness of the reservations being expressed as to the capability of the German signatories to agree the provisions of the full text or the continued uncertainty over communicating the "dismemberment clause" to the French.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: German military commanders in Italy had been conducting secret negotiations for a partial surrender; which was signed at Caserta on 29 April 1945, to come into effect on 2 May. Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, with overall military command for OKW-South, initially denounced the capitulation; but once Hitler's death had been confirmed, acceded to it.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: On 4 May 1945, German forces acting under instruction from the Dönitz Government and facing the British and Canadian 21st Army Group, signed an act of surrender at Lüneburg Heath to come into effect on 5 May.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: On 5 May 1945, all German forces in Bavaria and Southwest Germany signed an act of surrender to the Americans at Haar, outside Munich; coming into effect on 6 May.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: The impetus for the Caserta capitulation had arisen from within the local German military command; but from 2 May 1945, the Dönitz government assumed control of the process, pursuing a deliberate policy of successive partial capitulations in the west to play for time in order to bring as many as possible of the eastern military formations westwards so as to save them from Soviet or Yugoslav captivity, and surrender them intact to the British and Americans. In addition, Dönitz hoped to continue to evacuate soldiers and civilians by sea from the Hela peninsula and the surrounding Baltic coastal areas. Dönitz and Keitel were resolved against issuing any orders to surrender to Soviet forces, not only from undiminished anti-Bolshevism, but also because they could not be confident they would be obeyed, and might consequently place troops continuing to fight in the position of refusing a direct order, thereby stripping them of any legal protection as prisoners of war.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: Following these partial capitulations, the major remaining German forces in the field (other than those bottled-up on islands and fortress-ports) consisted of Army Group Ostmark facing Soviet forces in eastern Austria and western Bohemia; Army Group E facing Yugoslav forces in Croatia; the remains of Army Group Vistula facing Soviet forces in Mecklenburg; and Army Group Centre facing Soviet forces in eastern Bohemia and Moravia. From 5 May, Army Group Centre was also engaged in the brutal suppression of the Prague uprising. An occupying army of around 400,000 well-equipped German troops remained in Norway, under the command of General Franz Böhme, who was contacted by the German Minister in Sweden early on 6 May, to determine whether a further partial capitulation might be arranged for his forces with neutral Sweden acting as an intermediary, but he was unwilling to comply with anything other than a general surrender order from the German High Command. The surrenders in the west had succeeded in ceasing hostilities between the Western allies and German forces on almost all fronts. At the same time however, the broadcast orders of the Dönitz government continued to oppose any acts of German surrender to Soviet forces in Courland, Bohemia and Mecklenburg; indeed attempting to countermand ongoing surrender negotiations both in Berlin and Breslau. German forces in the east were ordered instead to fight their way westwards. Conscious that, if this were to continue, the Soviet Command would suspect that the Western allies were intending a separate peace (as indeed was exactly Dönitz's intention), Eisenhower determined that no further partial surrenders would be agreed in the West; but instead instructed the Dönitz government to send representatives to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) headquarters in Reims, to agree terms for a general surrender of all German forces simultaneously to all the Allied powers, including the Soviets.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: Dönitz's representative, Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, informed him on 6 May that Eisenhower was now insisting on "immediate, simultaneous and unconditional surrender on all fronts." General Alfred Jodl was sent to Reims to attempt to persuade Eisenhower otherwise, but Eisenhower shortcircuited any discussion by announcing at 21:00 pm on the 6th that, in the absence of a complete capitulation, he would close British and American lines to surrendering German forces at midnight on 8 May and resume the bombing offensive against remaining German-held positions and towns. Jodl telegraphed this message to Dönitz, who responded, authorising him to sign the instrument of unconditional surrender, but subject to negotiating a 48-hour delay, ostensibly to enable the surrender order to be communicated to outlying German military units.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: Consequently, the first Instrument of Surrender was signed in Reims at 02:41 Central European Time (CET) on 7 May 1945. The signing took place in a red brick schoolhouse, the , that served as the SHAEF headquarters. It was to take effect at 23:01 CET (one minute after 11:00 pm, British Double Summer Time) on 8 May, the 48-hour grace period having been back-dated to the start of final negotiations.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: The unconditional surrender of the German armed forces was signed by Jodl, on behalf of the OKW. Walter Bedell Smith signed on behalf of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force and General Ivan Susloparov on behalf of the Soviet High Command. French Major-General François Sevez signed as the official witness.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: Eisenhower had proceeded throughout in consultation with General Aleksei Antonov of the Soviet High Command; and at his request, General Susloparov had been seconded to the SHAEF Headquarters to represent the Soviet High Command in the surrender negotiations. The text of the act of surrender had been telegraphed to General Antonov in the early hours of 7 May, but no confirmation of Soviet approval had been received by the time of the surrender ceremony, nor was there confirmation that General Susloparov was empowered to sign as representing the Soviet High Command. Accordingly, Eisenhower agreed with Susloparov that a separate text should be signed by the German emissaries; undertaking that fully empowered representatives of each of the German armed services would attend a formal ratification of the act of surrender at a time and place designated by the Allied High Commands.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: Some six hours after the Reims signing, a response was received from the Soviet High Command stating that the Act of Surrender was unacceptable, both because the text differed from that agreed by the EAC, and because Susloparov had not been empowered to sign. These objections were however, pretexts; the substantive Soviet objection was that the act of surrender ought to be a unique, singular, historical event fully reflecting the leading contribution of the Soviet people to the final victory. They maintained that it should not be held on liberated territory that had been victimized by German aggression, but at the seat of government from where that German aggression sprang: Berlin. Furthermore, the Soviets pointed out that, although the terms of the surrender signed in Reims required German forces to cease all military activities and remain in their current positions; they were not explicitly required to lay down their arms and give themselves up, "what has to happen here is the surrender of German troops, giving themselves up as prisoners". Eisenhower immediately agreed, acknowledging that the act of surrender signed in Reims should be considered "a brief instrument of unconditional military surrender", and undertook to attend with correctly accredited representatives of the German High Command for a "more formal signing" of a suitably amended text presided over by Marshal Georgy Zhukov in Berlin (capital of Nazi Germany) on 8 May. Furthermore, he issued a clarificatory statement that any German forces continuing to fight against the Soviets after the stated deadline would "no longer have the status of soldiers"; and hence, if they were to surrender to the Americans or British, would then be handed back into Soviet captivity.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: The effect of the Reims signing was limited to a consolidation of the effective ceasefire between German forces and the Western Allies. Fighting continued unabated in the east however, especially as German forces now intensified their air and ground assault against the Prague uprising, while the seaborne evacuation of German troops across the Baltic continued. Dönitz issued new commands that resistance to Soviet forces should be maintained, taking advantage of the 48-hour grace period to order redoubled efforts to save German military units from Soviet captivity; and it soon became clear that he had authorised the signing of a general surrender at Reims in bad faith, and that consequently neither the Soviet Command nor the German forces would accept the Reims surrender as effecting an end to hostilities between them. General Ferdinand Schörner commanding Army Group Centre, broadcast a message to his troops on 8 May 1945 denouncing "false rumours" that the OKW had surrendered to the Soviet Command as well as the Western Allies; "The struggle in the west however is over. But there can be no question of surrender to the Bolsheviks."


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: Consequently, Eisenhower arranged for the commanders in chief of each of the three German armed services to be flown from Flensburg to Berlin early on 8 May; where they were kept waiting through the day until 10:00 pm when the Allied delegation arrived, at which point the amended surrender text was provided to them. The definitive Act of Military Surrender was dated as being signed before midnight on 8 May at the seat of the Soviet Military Administration in Berlin-Karlshorst, now the location of the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst. Since Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander for Western Europe technically outranked Zhukov, the act of signing on behalf of the Western Allies passed to his deputy, Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder. The proposed Soviet amendments to the Reims surrender text were accepted without difficulty by the Western Allies; but the identification and designation of the Allied signatories proved more problematic. French forces operated under SHAEF command, but General de Gaulle was demanding that General de Tassigny sign separately for the French High Command; but in that case it would be politically unacceptable for there to be no American signature on the definitive surrender document, while the Soviets would not agree to there being more than three Allied signatories in total – one of whom would have to be Zhukov. After repeated redrafts, all of which needed translating and retyping, it was finally agreed that both French and American signatures would be as witnesses. But the consequence was that the final versions were not ready for signing until after midnight. Consequently, the physical signing was delayed until nearly 01:00 am on 9 May, Central European Time; and then back-dated to 8 May to be consistent with the Reims agreement and the public announcements of the surrender already made by Western leaders. However, the official Soviet dispatch stated that the signing took place at 22:43 CET on 8 May, meaning that the signing still took place before the German surrender took effect.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: The definitive Act of Military Surrender differed from the Reims signing principally in respect of requiring three German signatories, who could fully represent all three armed services together with the German High Command. Otherwise the amended text set out an expanded article 2, now requiring German forces to disarm and hand over their weapons to local allied commanders. This clause had the effect of ensuring that German military forces would not only cease military operations against regular allied forces; but would also disarm themselves, disband, and be taken into captivity. Field Marshal Keitel initially balked at the amended text, proposing that an additional grace period of 12 hours be granted to surrendering German forces, before they might be exposed to punitive action for non-compliance under article 5. In the event, he had to be satisfied with a verbal assurance from Zhukov.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: Admiral Friedeburg was the only representative of the German forces to be present at the signing of the German instruments of surrender at Luneburg Heath on 4 May 1945, in Reims on 7 May and in Berlin on 8 May 1945.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: For the most part, the Berlin signing did the job required of it; with German forces in Courland and the Atlantic outposts all surrendering on 9 May within the informal 12-hour grace period. German surrender to the Soviets in Bohemia and Moravia took rather longer to achieve, with some German forces in Bohemia continuing to attempt to fight their way towards the American lines. Nevertheless, the principle of a common surrender broadly held; and units seeking to defy it were denied passage west, perforce having to surrender to the Soviets. The exception was Army Group E in Croatia, which fought on for several days attempting to force an escape from the partisan forces of Marshal Tito, such that many soldiers from these units did succeed in surrendering to General Alexander in Italy. These included considerable numbers of Ustase collaboration troops, who were subsequently returned to Yugoslavia; and who were all promptly executed without trial.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: The Reims signing ceremony had been attended by considerable numbers of reporters, all of whom were bound by a 36-hour embargo against reporting the capitulation. As it became clear that there would need to be a definitive second signing before the Act of Surrender could become operative, Eisenhower agreed that the news blackout should remain; however, the American journalist Edward Kennedy of the Associated Press news agency in Paris broke the embargo on 7 May, with the consequence that the German surrender was headline news in the western media on 8 May. Realising that it had become politically impossible to keep to the original timetable, it was eventually agreed that the Western Allies would celebrate "Victory in Europe Day" on 8 May, but that western leaders would not make their formal proclamations of Victory until that evening (when the Berlin signing ceremony should be imminent). The Soviet government made no public acknowledgement of the Reims signing, which they did not recognise; Soviet Union celebrated "Victory Day" on 9 May 1945 because this document was signed when time was 9 May in Soviet Union. Today, both 8 May and 9 May are considered the end of World War II in Europe to celebrate due to time zone difference.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: Although the German military signatories of this 8 May 1945 German Instruments of Surrender had been officially acting under instructions from Admiral Dönitz, none of the Allied Governments recognised the acting Flensburg Government as validly exercising civil power, and consequently the Allies had insisted that the German signatories should explicitly represent the German High Command alone. On 23 May 1945, in Flensburg, a group of former Nazi members, including Karl Dönitz, were taken into captivity as prisoners of war and Admiral Friedeburg committed suicide. Pursuant to Article 4 of the Instrument of Surrender, the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945 then took the signing of the Instrument of Surrender done by German military as confirming the de facto extinction of Nazi Germany on 8 May 1945 and the subsequent Allied occupation.


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: During 1944 and 1945; formerly neutral countries and former German allies had been joining the Allies and declaring war on Germany, an Axis country. The German embassies to the countries had been closed down, with their property and archives held in trust by a nominated protecting power (usually Switzerland or Sweden) under the terms of the Geneva Conventions; with counterpart arrangements for the former embassies of Allied countries in Berlin. The United States State Department had prepared for the diplomatic consequences of the war's ending on the assumption that there would have been an explicit statement of unconditional surrender of the German state in accordance with the agreed EAC surrender text. In the final days of April 1945, the State Department had notified the protecting powers, and all other remaining neutral governments (such as Ireland), that following the forthcoming German surrender, the continued identity of the German state would rest solely in the four Allied Powers, who would immediately recall all German diplomatic staff, take ownership of all German state property, extinguish all protecting power functions, and require the transfer of all archives and records to one or another of the embassies of the western Allies. On 8 May 1945, these arrangements were put into effect in full, notwithstanding that the only German parties to the signed surrender document had been the German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht-OKW); the western Allies maintaining that a functioning German state had already ceased to exist, and consequently that the surrender of the German military had effected the complete termination of Nazi Germany. As the protecting powers complied fully with the Allied demands, the German state ceased as a diplomatic entity on 8 May 1945; until the establishment of West Germany on 23 May 1949: Meaning the fall of German Reich (1871-1945) that included Nazi Germany and leading to the fact that Germany de facto lost its government to become a region occupied by the foreigners at the time (Empire of Japan, a remaining Axis belligerent, having already denounced the German decision about the surrender and unilaterally seized entire German property in Japan).


title: German Instrument of Surrender

text: Nevertheless, as the surrender instrument of 8 May 1945 had been signed only by German military representatives, the full civil provisions for the unconditional surrender of Germany remained without explicit formal basis. Consequently, the EAC text for Unconditional Surrender of Germany, redrafted as a declaration and with an extended explanatory preamble, was adopted unilaterally by the now four Allied Powers as the Declaration regarding the defeat of Germany. This spelled out the Allied position that as a result of its complete defeat Germany had no government or central authority (the Allies did not recognize the rump Nazi Flensburg Government) and that the vacated civil authority in Germany had consequently been assumed solely by the four Allied Representative Powers (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United States of America, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and French Republic) on behalf of the Allied Governments overall, an authority subsequently constituted into the Allied Control Council. Stalin had, however, already backtracked on his previous support for the principle of German dismemberment, publicly renouncing any such policy in his victory proclamation to the Soviet people of 8 May 1945. Consequently, there was no "dismemberment clause" in the Berlin declaration text.


title: Types of swords

text: The term sword used here is a narrow definition. This is not a general List of premodern combat weapons and does not include the machete or similar "sword-like" weapons.


title: Types of swords

text: Swords and knives found in Southeast Asia are influenced by Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and European forms.


title: Types of swords

text: All of the Islamic world during the 16th to 18th century, including the Ottoman Empire and Persia were influenced by the "scimitar" type of single-edged curved sword.


title: Zipporah

text: Zipporah, or Tzipora (; , "Ṣīppōrā", "bird"), is mentioned in the Book of Exodus as the wife of Moses, and the daughter of Reuel/Jethro, the priest and prince of Midian.


title: Zipporah

text: In the Book of Chronicles, two of her grandsons are mentioned: Shebuel, son of Gershom; and Rehabiah, son of Eliezer ().


title: Zipporah

text: In the Torah, Zipporah was one of the seven daughters of Jethro, a Kenite shepherd who was a priest of Midian. In , Jethro is also referred to as Reuel, and in the Book of Judges () as Hobab. Hobab is also the name of Jethro's son in .


title: Zipporah

text: While the Israelites/Hebrews were captives in Egypt, Moses killed an Egyptian who was striking a Hebrew, for which offense Pharaoh sought to kill Moses. Moses therefore fled from Egypt, and arrived in Midian. One day while he sat by a well, Reuel's daughters came to water their father's flocks. Other shepherds arrived and drove the girls away, so that they could water their own flocks first. Moses defended the girls and watered their flocks. Upon their return home, their father asked them, "How is it that you have come home so early today?" The girls answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock." "Where is he then?", Reuel asked them. "Why did you leave the man? Invite him for supper to break bread." Reuel then gave Moses Zipporah as his wife ().


title: Zipporah

text: After God commanded Moses to return to Egypt to free the Israelites, Moses took his wife and sons and started his journey. On the road, they stayed at an inn, where God came to kill Moses. Zipporah quickly circumcised her son with a sharp stone and touched Moses' feet with the foreskin, saying "Surely you are a husband of blood to me!" God then left Moses alone (). The details of the passage are unclear and subject to debate.


title: Zipporah

text: After Moses succeeded in taking the Israelites out of Egypt, and won a battle against Amalek, Reuel came to the Hebrew camp in the wilderness of Sinai, bringing with him Zipporah and their two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. The Bible does not say when Zipporah and her sons rejoined Reuel/Jethro, only that after he heard of what God did for the Israelites, he brought Moses' family to him. The most common translation is that Moses sent her away, but another grammatically permissible translation is that she sent things or persons, perhaps the announcement of the victory over Amalek. The word that makes this difficult is "shelucheiha", the sendings [away] of her ().


title: Zipporah

text: Moses' wife is referred to as a "Cushite" in . Interpretations differ on whether this Cushite woman was one and the same as Zipporah, or another woman, and whether he was married to them simultaneously (which would make him a polygamist) or successively. In the story, Aaron and Miriam criticize Moses' marriage to a Cushite woman. This criticism displeases God, who punishes Miriam with "Tzaraath" (often glossed as leprosy). Cushites were of the ancestry of either Kush (Nubia) in northeast Africa, or Arabians. The sons of Ham, mentioned within the Book of Genesis, have been identified with nations in Africa (Ethiopia, Egypt, Libya), the Levant (Canaan), and Arabia. The Midianites themselves were later on depicted at times in non-Biblical sources as dark-skinned and called "Kushim", a Hebrew word used for dark-skinned Africans. One interpretation is that the wife is Zipporah, and that she was referred to as a Cushite though she was a Midianite, because of her beauty.


title: Zipporah

text: The Samaritan Pentateuch text refers to Moses' wife Zipporah as "Kaashet" (which translates to "the beautiful woman"), rather than "Cushit" ("black woman" or "Cushite woman").


title: Zipporah

text: "Cushite woman" becomes "Aethiopissa" in the Latin Vulgate Bible version (4th century). Alonso de Sandoval, 17th century Jesuit, reasoned that Zipporah and the Cushite woman was the same person, and that she was black. He puts her in a group of what he calls "notable and sainted Ethiopians".


title: Zipporah

text: In the Druze religion, Zipporah's father Jethro is revered as the spiritual founder, chief prophet, and ancestor of all Druze. Moses was allowed to wed Zipporah after helping save Jethro's daughters and their flock from competing herdsmen. It has been expressed by prominent Druze such as Amal Nasser el-Din and Salman Tarif, who was a prominent Druze shaykh, that this makes the Druze related to the Jews through marriage. This view has been used to represent an element of the special relationship between Israeli Jews and Druze.


title: Zipporah

text: In Marcel Proust's story "" (1913), Swann is struck by the resemblance of his eventual wife Odette to Sandro Botticelli’s painting of Zipporah in a Sistine Chapel fresco, and this recognition is the catalyst for his obsession with her.


title: Zipporah

text: Zipporah is often included in Exodus-related drama. Examples include the films "The Ten Commandments" (1956), "The Prince of Egypt" (1998), and "" (2014). She is the main character in Marek Halter's novel "Zipporah, Wife of Moses" (2005).


title: Emeli Sandé

text: Adele Emily Sandé, ( ; born 10 March 1987), known professionally as Emeli Sandé, is a Scottish singer and songwriter. Born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, and raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, by an English mother and a Zambian father, Sandé rose to prominence after being a featured artist on the 2009 track "Diamond Rings" by rapper Chip. It was the first top 10 single on the UK Singles Chart for both of them. In 2010, she was featured on "Never Be Your Woman" by the rapper Wiley, which was another top ten hit. In 2012, she received the Brit Awards' Critics' Choice Award.


title: Emeli Sandé

text: Sandé released her first solo single "Heaven" in August 2011. She has two number-one singles across the UK and Ireland with "Read All About It" with Professor Green and "Beneath Your Beautiful", a collaboration with Labrinth. Her album "Our Version of Events" spent ten non-consecutive weeks at number one and became the best-selling album of 2012 in the UK, with over 1 million sales. In 2012, she performed in both the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the London Olympics. In 2013, at the Brit Awards 2013 ceremony, she won two awards: Best British Female Solo Artist, and British Album of the Year.


title: Emeli Sandé

text: In 2016, she released her second studio album "Long Live the Angels", which debuted at number 2 on the UK album chart. In 2017, she won the Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist, becoming her fourth win in total.


title: Emeli Sandé

text: Adele Emily Sandé was born in Sunderland, to a Zambian father, Joel Sandé, and an English mother, Diane Sandé-Wood, on 10 March 1987. Her father, having moved from Zambia, met her mother while they were both at the polytechnic in Sunderland. The family moved to Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, when she was four.


title: Emeli Sandé

text: Sandé wrote her first song at the age of 11, for her primary-school talent show. She remembers that that, “was the first time I thought I might be a songwriter. I always knew I wanted to be a musician and I knew I wanted to write because the people I was listening to all wrote. I never thought it was an option to sing anyone else's songs.” The first song she wrote was called "Tomorrow Starts Again" – the song had proper structure and even a middle eight.


title: Emeli Sandé

text: Sandé attended school at Alford Academy, where her father was a teacher. She said, "I hated to be ill and to miss a day because I was so hungry to learn. I was very shy, nerdy and extremely well-behaved. Inevitably, throughout secondary school, it was part and parcel of my identity that I was Mr. Sandé's daughter. No way could I muck about or get into trouble, because it would've got back to him within minutes. And Dad was strict, let me tell you."