title: Chloral hydrate

text: It is, together with chloroform, a minor side-product of the chlorination of water when organic residues such as humic acids are present. It has been detected in drinking water at concentrations of up to 100 micrograms per litre (µg/L) but concentrations are normally found to be below 10 µg/L. Levels are generally found to be higher in surface water than in ground water.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Adipose tissue, body fat, or simply fat is a loose connective tissue composed mostly of adipocytes. In addition to adipocytes, adipose tissue contains the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of cells including preadipocytes, fibroblasts, vascular endothelial cells and a variety of immune cells such as adipose tissue macrophages. Adipose tissue is derived from preadipocytes. Its main role is to store energy in the form of lipids, although it also cushions and insulates the body. Far from being hormonally inert, adipose tissue has, in recent years, been recognized as a major endocrine organ, as it produces hormones such as leptin, estrogen, resistin, and cytokines (especially TNFα). In obesity, adipose tissue is also implicated in the chronic release of pro-inflammatory markers known as adipokines, which are responsible for the development of metabolic syndrome, a constellation of diseases including, but not limited to, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis. The two types of adipose tissue are white adipose tissue (WAT), which stores energy, and brown adipose tissue (BAT), which generates body heat. The formation of adipose tissue appears to be controlled in part by the adipose gene. Adipose tissue – more specifically brown adipose tissue – was first identified by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in 1551.


title: Adipose tissue

text: In humans, adipose tissue is located: beneath the skin (subcutaneous fat), around internal organs (visceral fat), in bone marrow (yellow bone marrow), intermuscular (Muscular system) and in the breast (breast tissue). Adipose tissue is found in specific locations, which are referred to as "adipose depots". Apart from adipocytes, which comprise the highest percentage of cells within adipose tissue, other cell types are present, collectively termed stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of cells. SVF includes preadipocytes, fibroblasts, adipose tissue macrophages, and endothelial cells.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Adipose tissue contains many small blood vessels. In the integumentary system, which includes the skin, it accumulates in the deepest level, the subcutaneous layer, providing insulation from heat and cold. Around organs, it provides protective padding. However, its main function is to be a reserve of lipids, which can be oxidised to meet the energy needs of the body and to protect it from excess glucose by storing triglycerides produced by the liver from sugars, although some evidence suggests that most lipid synthesis from carbohydrates occurs in the adipose tissue itself. Adipose depots in different parts of the body have different biochemical profiles. Under normal conditions, it provides feedback for hunger and diet to the brain.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Mice have eight major adipose depots, four of which are within the abdominal cavity. The paired gonadal depots are attached to the uterus and ovaries in females and the epididymis and testes in males; the paired retroperitoneal depots are found along the dorsal wall of the abdomen, surrounding the kidney, and, when massive, extend into the pelvis. The mesenteric depot forms a glue-like web that supports the intestines and the omental depot (which originates near the stomach and spleen) and - when massive - extends into the ventral abdomen. Both the mesenteric and omental depots incorporate much lymphoid tissue as lymph nodes and milky spots, respectively.


title: Adipose tissue

text: The two superficial depots are the paired inguinal depots, which are found anterior to the upper segment of the hind limbs (underneath the skin) and the subscapular depots, paired medial mixtures of brown adipose tissue adjacent to regions of white adipose tissue, which are found under the skin between the dorsal crests of the scapulae. The layer of brown adipose tissue in this depot is often covered by a "frosting" of white adipose tissue; sometimes these two types of fat (brown and white) are hard to distinguish. The inguinal depots enclose the inguinal group of lymph nodes. Minor depots include the pericardial, which surrounds the heart, and the paired popliteal depots, between the major muscles behind the knees, each containing one large lymph node. Of all the depots in the mouse, the gonadal depots are the largest and the most easily dissected, comprising about 30% of dissectible fat.


title: Adipose tissue

text: In an obese person, excess adipose tissue hanging downward from the abdomen is referred to as a panniculus. A panniculus complicates surgery of the morbidly obese individual. It may remain as a literal "apron of skin" if a severely obese person loses large amounts of fat (a common result of gastric bypass surgery). Obesity is treated through exercise, diet, and behavioral therapy. Reconstructive surgery is one aspect of treatment.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Visceral fat or abdominal fat (also known as organ fat or intra-abdominal fat) is located inside the abdominal cavity, packed between the organs (stomach, liver, intestines, kidneys, etc.). Visceral fat is different from subcutaneous fat underneath the skin, and intramuscular fat interspersed in skeletal muscles. Fat in the lower body, as in thighs and buttocks, is subcutaneous and is not consistently spaced tissue, whereas fat in the abdomen is mostly visceral and semi-fluid. Visceral fat is composed of several adipose depots, including mesenteric, epididymal white adipose tissue (EWAT), and perirenal depots. Visceral fat is often expressed in terms of its area in cm (VFA, visceral fat area).


title: Adipose tissue

text: An excess of visceral fat is known as abdominal obesity, or "belly fat", in which the abdomen protrudes excessively. New developments such as the Body Volume Index (BVI) are specifically designed to measure abdominal volume and abdominal fat. Excess visceral fat is also linked to type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, inflammatory diseases, and other obesity-related diseases. Likewise, the accumulation of neck fat (or cervical adipose tissue) has been shown to be associated with mortality. Several studies have suggested that visceral fat can be predicted from simple anthropometric measures, and predicts mortality more accurately than body mass index or waist circumference.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Men are more likely to have fat stored in the abdomen due to sex hormone differences. Estrogen (female sex hormone) causes fat to be stored in the buttocks, thighs, and hips in women. When women reach menopause and the estrogen produced by the ovaries declines, fat migrates from the buttocks, hips and thighs to the waist; later fat is stored in the abdomen.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Visceral fat can be caused by excess cortisol levels. At least 10 MET-hours per week of aerobic exercise leads to visceral fat reduction in those without metabolic-related disorders. Resistance training and caloric restriction also reduce visceral fat, although their effect may not be cumulative. Both exercise and hypocaloric diet cause loss of visceral fat, but exercise has a larger effect on visceral fat versus total fat. High-intensity exercise is one way to effectively reduce total abdominal fat. An energy restricted diet combined with exercise will reduce total body fat and the ratio of visceral adipose tissue to subcutaneous adipose tissue, suggesting a preferential mobilization for visceral fat over subcutaneous fat.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is a particular form of visceral fat deposited around the heart and found to be a metabolically active organ that generates various bioactive molecules, which might significantly affect cardiac function. Marked component differences have been observed in comparing EAT with subcutaneous fat, suggesting a location-specific impact of stored fatty acids on adipocyte function and metabolism.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Most of the remaining nonvisceral fat is found just below the skin in a region called the hypodermis. This subcutaneous fat is not related to many of the classic obesity-related pathologies, such as heart disease, cancer, and stroke, and some evidence even suggests it might be protective. The typically female (or gynecoid) pattern of body fat distribution around the hips, thighs, and buttocks is subcutaneous fat, and therefore poses less of a health risk compared to visceral fat.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Like all other fat organs, subcutaneous fat is an active part of the endocrine system, secreting the hormones leptin and resistin.


title: Adipose tissue

text: The relationship between the subcutaneous adipose layer and total body fat in a person is often modelled by using regression equations. The most popular of these equations was formed by Durnin and Wormersley, who rigorously tested many types of skinfold, and, as a result, created two formulae to calculate the body density of both men and women. These equations present an inverse correlation between skinfolds and body density—as the sum of skinfolds increases, the body density decreases.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Factors such as sex, age, population size or other variables may make the equations invalid and unusable, and, , Durnin and Wormersley's equations remain only estimates of a person's true level of fatness. New formulae are still being created.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Marrow fat, also known as marrow adipose tissue (MAT), is a poorly understood adipose depot that resides in the bone and is interspersed with hematopoietic cells as well as bony elements. The adipocytes in this depot are derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) which can give rise to fat cells, bone cells as well as other cell types. The fact that MAT increases in the setting of calorie restriction/ anorexia is a feature that distinguishes this depot from other fat depots. Exercise regulates MAT, decreasing MAT quantity and diminishing the size of marrow adipocytes. The exercise regulation of marrow fat suggests that it bears some physiologic similarity to other white adipose depots. Moreover, increased MAT in obesity further suggests a similarity to white fat depots.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Ectopic fat is the storage of triglycerides in tissues other than adipose tissue, that are supposed to contain only small amounts of fat, such as the liver, skeletal muscle, heart, and pancreas. This can interfere with cellular functions and hence organ function and is associated with insulin resistance in type-2 diabetes. It is stored in relatively high amounts around the organs of the abdominal cavity, but is not to be confused with visceral fat.


title: Adipose tissue

text: The specific cause for the accumulation of ectopic fat is unknown. The cause is likely a combination of genetic, environmental, and behavioral factors that are involved in excess energy intake and decreased physical activity. Substantial weight loss can reduce ectopic fat stores in all organs and this is associated with an improvement of the function of those organs.


title: Adipose tissue

text: In the latter case, non-invasive weight loss interventions like diet or exercise can decrease ectopic fat (particularly in heart and liver) in overweight or obese children and adults.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Free fatty acids (FFAs) are liberated from lipoproteins by lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and enter the adipocyte, where they are reassembled into triglycerides by esterifying them onto glycerol. Human fat tissue contains about 87% lipids.


title: Adipose tissue

text: There is a constant flux of FFAs entering and leaving adipose tissue. The net direction of this flux is controlled by insulin and leptin—if insulin is elevated, then there is a net inward flux of FFA, and only when insulin is low can FFA leave adipose tissue. Insulin secretion is stimulated by high blood sugar, which results from consuming carbohydrates.


title: Adipose tissue

text: In humans, lipolysis (hydrolysis of triglycerides into free fatty acids) is controlled through the balanced control of lipolytic B-adrenergic receptors and a2A-adrenergic receptor-mediated antilipolysis.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Fat cells have an important physiological role in maintaining triglyceride and free fatty acid levels, as well as determining insulin resistance. Abdominal fat has a different metabolic profile—being more prone to induce insulin resistance. This explains to a large degree why central obesity is a marker of impaired glucose tolerance and is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (even in the absence of diabetes mellitus and hypertension). Studies of female monkeys at Wake Forest University (2009) discovered that individuals with higher stress have higher levels of visceral fat in their bodies. This suggests a possible cause-and-effect link between the two, wherein stress promotes the accumulation of visceral fat, which in turn causes hormonal and metabolic changes that contribute to heart disease and other health problems.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Recent advances in biotechnology have allowed for the harvesting of adult stem cells from adipose tissue, allowing stimulation of tissue regrowth using a patient's own cells. In addition, adipose-derived stem cells from both human and animals reportedly can be efficiently reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells without the need for feeder cells. The use of a patient's own cells reduces the chance of tissue rejection and avoids ethical issues associated with the use of human embryonic stem cells. A growing body of evidence also suggests that different fat depots (i.e. abdominal, omental, pericardial) yield adipose-derived stem cells with different characteristics. These depot-dependent features include proliferation rate, immunophenotype, differentiation potential, gene expression, as well as sensitivity to hypoxic culture conditions. Oxygen levels seem to play an important role on the metabolism and in general the function of adipose-derived stem cells.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Adipose tissue is a major peripheral source of aromatase in both males and females, contributing to the production of estradiol.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Adipose tissues also secrete a type of cytokines (cell-to-cell signalling proteins) called adipokines (adipose cytokines), which play a role in obesity-associated complications. Perivascular adipose tissue releases adipokines such as adiponectin that affect the contractile function of the vessels that they surround.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Brown fat or brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a specialized form of adipose tissue important for adaptive thermogenesis in humans and other mammals. BAT can generate heat by "uncoupling" the respiratory chain of oxidative phosphorylation within mitochondria through tissue-specific expression of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). BAT is primarily located around the neck and large blood vessels of the thorax, where it may effectively act in heat exchange. BAT is robustly activated upon cold exposure by the release of catecholamines from sympathetic nerves that results in UCP1 activation.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Nearly half of the nerves present in adipose tissue are sensory neurons connected to the dorsal root ganglia.


title: Adipose tissue

text: BAT activation may also occur in response to overfeeding. UCP1 activity is stimulated by long chain fatty acids that are produced subsequent to β-adrenergic receptor activation. UCP1 is proposed to function as a fatty acid proton symporter, although the exact mechanism has yet to be elucidated. In contrast, UCP1 is inhibited by ATP, ADP, and GTP.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Attempts to simulate this process pharmacologically have so far been unsuccessful. Techniques to manipulate the differentiation of "brown fat" could become a mechanism for weight loss therapy in the future, encouraging the growth of tissue with this specialized metabolism without inducing it in other organs. A review on the eventual therapeutic targeting of brown fat to treat human obesity was published by Samuelson and Vidal-Puig in 2020.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Until recently, brown adipose tissue in humans was thought to be primarily limited to infants, but new evidence has overturned that belief. Metabolically active tissue with temperature responses similar to brown adipose was first reported in the neck and trunk of some human adults in 2007, and the presence of brown adipose in human adults was later verified histologically in the same anatomical regions.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Browning of WAT, also referred to as "beiging", occurs when adipocytes within WAT depots develop features of BAT. Beige adipocytes take on a multilocular appearance (containing several lipid droplets) and increase expression of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). In doing so, these normally energy-storing adipocytes become energy-releasing adipocytes.


title: Adipose tissue

text: The calorie-burning capacity of brown and beige fat has been extensively studied as research efforts focus on therapies targeted to treat obesity and diabetes. The drug 2,4-dinitrophenol, which also acts as a chemical uncoupler similarly to UCP1, was used for weight loss in the 1930s. However, it was quickly discontinued when excessive dosing led to adverse side effects including hyperthermia and death. β3 agonists, like CL316,243, have also been developed and tested in humans. However, the use of such drugs has proven largely unsuccessful due to several challenges, including varying species receptor specificity and poor oral bioavailability.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Cold is a primary regulator of BAT processes and induces WAT browning. Browning in response to chronic cold exposure has been well documented and is a reversible process. A study in mice demonstrated that cold-induced browning can be completely reversed in 21 days, with measurable decreases in UCP1 seen within a 24-hour period. A study by Rosenwald et al. revealed that when the animals are re-exposed to a cold environment, the same adipocytes will adopt a beige phenotype, suggesting that beige adipocytes are retained.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Transcriptional regulators, as well as a growing number of other factors, regulate the induction of beige fat. Four regulators of transcription are central to WAT browning and serve as targets for many of the molecules known to influence this process. These include peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), PRDM16, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha (PGC-1α), and Early B-Cell Factor-2 (EBF2).


title: Adipose tissue

text: The list of molecules that influence browning has grown in direct proportion to the popularity of this topic and is constantly evolving as more knowledge is acquired. Among these molecules are irisin and fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), which have been well-studied and are believed to be important regulators of browning. Irisin is secreted from muscle in response to exercise and has been shown to increase browning by acting on beige preadipocytes. FGF21, a hormone secreted mainly by the liver, has garnered a great deal of interest after being identified as a potent stimulator of glucose uptake and a browning regulator through its effects on PGC-1α. It is increased in BAT during cold exposure and is thought to aid in resistance to diet-induced obesity FGF21 may also be secreted in response to exercise and a low protein diet, although the latter has not been thoroughly investigated. Data from these studies suggest that environmental factors like diet and exercise may be important mediators of browning. In mice, it was found that beiging can occur through the production of methionine-enkephalin peptides by type 2 innate lymphoid cells in response to interleukin 33.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Due to the complex nature of adipose tissue and a growing list of browning regulatory molecules, great potential exists for the use of bioinformatics tools to improve study within this field. Studies of WAT browning have greatly benefited from advances in these techniques, as beige fat is rapidly gaining popularity as a therapeutic target for the treatment of obesity and diabetes.


title: Adipose tissue

text: DNA microarray is a bioinformatics tool used to quantify expression levels of various genes simultaneously, and has been used extensively in the study of adipose tissue. One such study used microarray analysis in conjunction with Ingenuity IPA software to look at changes in WAT and BAT gene expression when mice were exposed to temperatures of 28 and 6 °C. The most significantly up- and downregulated genes were then identified and used for analysis of differentially expressed pathways. It was discovered that many of the pathways upregulated in WAT after cold exposure are also highly expressed in BAT, such as oxidative phosphorylation, fatty acid metabolism, and pyruvate metabolism. This suggests that some of the adipocytes switched to a beige phenotype at 6 °C. Mössenböck et al. also used microarray analysis to demonstrate that insulin deficiency inhibits the differentiation of beige adipocytes but does not disturb their capacity for browning. These two studies demonstrate the potential for the use of microarray in the study of WAT browning.


title: Adipose tissue

text: RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) is a powerful computational tool that allows for the quantification of RNA expression for all genes within a sample. Incorporating RNA-Seq into browning studies is of great value, as it offers better specificity, sensitivity, and a more comprehensive overview of gene expression than other methods. RNA-Seq has been used in both human and mouse studies in an attempt characterize beige adipocytes according to their gene expression profiles and to identify potential therapeutic molecules that may induce the beige phenotype. One such study used RNA-Seq to compare gene expression profiles of WAT from wild-type (WT) mice and those overexpressing Early B-Cell Factor-2 (EBF2). WAT from the transgenic animals exhibited a brown fat gene program and had decreased WAT specific gene expression compared to the WT mice. Thus, EBF2 has been identified as a potential therapeutic molecule to induce beiging.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Chromatin immunoprecipitation with sequencing (ChIP-seq) is a method used to identify protein binding sites on DNA and assess histone modifications. This tool has enabled examination of epigenetic regulation of browning and helps elucidate the mechanisms by which protein-DNA interactions stimulate the differentiation of beige adipocytes. Studies observing the chromatin landscapes of beige adipocytes have found that adipogenesis of these cells results from the formation of cell specific chromatin landscapes, which regulate the transcriptional program and, ultimately, control differentiation. Using ChIP-seq in conjunction with other tools, recent studies have identified over 30 transcriptional and epigenetic factors that influence beige adipocyte development.


title: Adipose tissue

text: The thrifty gene hypothesis (also called the famine hypothesis) states that in some populations the body would be more efficient at retaining fat in times of plenty, thereby endowing greater resistance to starvation in times of food scarcity. This hypothesis, originally advanced in the context of glucose metabolism and insulin resistance, has been discredited by physical anthropologists, physiologists, and the original proponent of the idea himself with respect to that context, although according to its developer it remains "as viable as when [it was] first advanced" in other contexts.


title: Adipose tissue

text: In 1995, Jeffrey Friedman, in his residency at the Rockefeller University, together with Rudolph Leibel, Douglas Coleman et al. discovered the protein leptin that the genetically obese mouse lacked. Leptin is produced in the white adipose tissue and signals to the hypothalamus. When leptin levels drop, the body interprets this as a loss of energy, and hunger increases. Mice lacking this protein eat until they are four times their normal size.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Leptin, however, plays a different role in diet-induced obesity in rodents and humans. Because adipocytes produce leptin, leptin levels are elevated in the obese. However, hunger remains, and—when leptin levels drop due to weight loss—hunger increases. The drop of leptin is better viewed as a starvation signal than the rise of leptin as a satiety signal. However, elevated leptin in obesity is known as leptin resistance. The changes that occur in the hypothalamus to result in leptin resistance in obesity are currently the focus of obesity research.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Gene defects in the leptin gene ("ob") are rare in human obesity. , only 14 individuals from five families have been identified worldwide who carry a mutated "ob" gene (one of which was the first ever identified cause of genetic obesity in humans)—two families of Pakistani origin living in the UK, one family living in Turkey, one in Egypt, and one in Austria—and two other families have been found that carry a mutated "ob" receptor. Others have been identified as genetically partially deficient in leptin, and, in these individuals, leptin levels on the low end of the normal range can predict obesity.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Several mutations of genes involving the melanocortins (used in brain signaling associated with appetite) and their receptors have also been identified as causing obesity in a larger portion of the population than leptin mutations.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Adipose tissue has a density of ~0.9 g/ml. Thus, a person with more adipose tissue will float more easily than a person of the same weight with more muscular tissue, since muscular tissue has a density of 1.06 g/ml.


title: Adipose tissue

text: A body fat meter is a tool used to measure the body fat to weight ratio in the human body. Different meters use various methods to determine the ratio. They tend to under-read body fat percentage.


title: Adipose tissue

text: In contrast with clinical tools, one relatively inexpensive type of body fat meter uses the principle of bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) in order to determine an individual's body fat percentage. To achieve this, the meter passes a small, harmless, electric current through the body and measures the resistance, then uses information on the person's weight, height, age, and sex to calculate an approximate value for the person's body fat percentage. The calculation measures the total volume of water in the body (lean tissue and muscle contain a higher percentage of water than fat), and estimates the percentage of fat based on this information. The result can fluctuate several percentage points depending on what has been eaten and how much water has been drunk before the analysis.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Before bioelectrical impedance analysis machines were developed, there were many different ways in analyzing body composition such as skin fold methods using calipers, underwater weighing, whole body air displacement plethysmography (ADP) and DXA.


title: Adipose tissue

text: Within the fat (adipose) tissue of CCR2 deficient mice, there is an increased number of eosinophils, greater alternative Macrophage activation, and a propensity towards type 2 cytokine expression. Furthermore, this effect was exaggerated when the mice became obese from a high fat diet.


title: Adrianne Lenker

text: Adrianne Elizabeth Lenker (born July 9, 1991) is an American musician from Indianapolis, Indiana, best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of Big Thief.


title: Adrianne Lenker

text: Lenker was born in Indianapolis and was raised in a Christian cult until the age of six, but she primarily grew up in Minnesota. Her parents rented homes in Coon Rapids, Nisswa, and Bloomington, Minnesota, before settling down in Plymouth, Minnesota, where she lived for 10 years. She spent a summer traveling throughout the midwest and living out of a blue Ford cargo van.


title: Adrianne Lenker

text: Lenker wrote her first song at the age of eight, and recorded her first album at age 13. Her other interests included studying martial arts, and she was the state karate champion three years in a row. She did not attend high school and instead received her GED at the age of 16. She attended the Berklee College of Music on a scholarship provided by Susan Tedeschi of the Tedeschi Trucks Band.


title: Adrianne Lenker

text: On February 28, 2006, when Lenker was 14, she released her first solo album, titled "Stages of the Sun". On January 9, 2014, Lenker released her second solo album, "Hours Were the Birds".


title: Adrianne Lenker

text: On May 1, 2014, Lenker, together with future bandmate Buck Meek, released the LP records "a-sides" and "b-sides". In 2015, Lenker and Meek, alongside Max Oleartchik and James Krivchenia, formed the band Big Thief, whose first album was released in 2016.


title: Adrianne Lenker

text: Lenker met future Big Thief co-founder Buck Meek at a concert when she lived in Boston, and then she encountered him again in a bodega the day she moved to New York. The pair began to play together, and married when Lenker was 24. They divorced in 2018, remaining in Big Thief as "deep friends". In 2019, Lenker was in a relationship with the artist Indigo Sparke, and the two separated sometime in 2020.


title: Adrianne Lenker

text: While Lenker is comfortable with the label "queer", she has expressed a desire not to define her sexual orientation beyond that. Her lyrics often contain discussions of gender and the gender binary. In an interview with "The Brag", Lenker said of those lyrics, "I feel within myself a constant dialogue between my masculinity, my femininity and the part of me that is neither of those things. I'm just trying to talk about it because I feel like I'm something that is very ambiguous."


title: Ordovician

text: The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya.


title: Ordovician

text: The Ordovician, named after the Welsh tribe of the Ordovices, was defined by Charles Lapworth in 1879 to resolve a dispute between followers of Adam Sedgwick and Roderick Murchison, who were placing the same rock beds in North Wales in the Cambrian and Silurian systems, respectively. Lapworth recognized that the fossil fauna in the disputed strata were different from those of either the Cambrian or the Silurian systems, and placed them in a system of their own. The Ordovician received international approval in 1960 (forty years after Lapworth's death), when it was adopted as an official period of the Paleozoic Era by the International Geological Congress.


title: Ordovician

text: Life continued to flourish during the Ordovician as it did in the earlier Cambrian Period, although the end of the period was marked by the Ordovician–Silurian extinction events. Invertebrates, namely molluscs and arthropods, dominated the oceans, with members of the latter group probably starting their establishment on land during this time, becoming fully established by the Devonian. The first land plants are known from this period. The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event considerably increased the diversity of life. Fish, the world's first true vertebrates, continued to evolve, and those with jaws may have first appeared late in the period. About 100 times as many meteorites struck the Earth per year during the Ordovician compared with today.


title: Ordovician

text: A number of regional terms have been used to subdivide the Ordovician Period. In 2008, the ICS erected a formal international system of subdivisions. There exist Baltoscandic, British, Siberian, North American, Australian, Chinese Mediterranean and North-Gondwanan regional stratigraphic schemes.


title: Ordovician

text: The Ordovician Period in Britain was traditionally broken into Early (Tremadocian and Arenig), Middle (Llanvirn (subdivided into Abereiddian and Llandeilian) and Llandeilo) and Late (Caradoc and Ashgill) epochs. The corresponding rocks of the Ordovician System are referred to as coming from the Lower, Middle, or Upper part of the column. The faunal stages (subdivisions of epochs) from youngest to oldest are:


title: Ordovician

text: The Tremadoc corresponds to the (modern) Tremadocian. The Floian corresponds to the lower Arenig; the Arenig continues until the early Darriwilian, subsuming the Dapingian. The Llanvirn occupies the rest of the Darriwilian, and terminates with it at the base of the Late Ordovician.


title: Ordovician

text: The Sandbian represents the first half of the Caradoc; the Caradoc ends in the mid-Katian, and the Ashgill represents the last half of the Katian, plus the Hirnantian.


title: Ordovician

text: During the Ordovician, the southern continents were assembled into Gondwana, which reached from north of the equator to the South Pole. The Panthalassic Ocean, centered in the northern hemisphere, covered over half the globe. At the start of the period, the continents of Laurentia (in present-day North America), Siberia, and Baltica (present-day northern Europe) were separated from Gondwana by over of ocean. These smaller continents were also sufficiently widely separated from each other to develop distinct communities of benthic organisms. The small continent of Avalonia had just rifted from Gondwana and began to move north towards Baltica and Laurentia, opening the Rheic Ocean between Gondwana and Avalonia. Avalonia collided with Baltica towards the end of Ordovician.


title: Ordovician

text: Other geographic features of the Ordovician world included the Tornquist Sea, which separated Avalonia from Baltica; the Aegir Ocean, which separated Baltica from Siberia; and an oceanic area between Siberia, Baltica, and Gondwana which expanded to become the Paleoasian Ocean in Carboniferous time. The Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean formed a deep embayment between Siberia and the Central Mongolian terranes. Most of the terranes of central Asia were part of an equatorial archipelago whose geometry is poorly constrained by the available evidence.


title: Ordovician

text: The period was one of extensive, widespread tectonism and volcanism. However, orogenesis (mountain-building) was not primarily due to continent-continent collisions. Instead, mountains arose along active continental margins during accretion of arc terranes or ribbon microcontinents. Accretion of new crust was limited to the Iapetus margin of Laurentia; elsewhere, the pattern was of rifting in back-arc basins followed by remerger. This reflected episodic switching from extension to compression. The initiation of new subduction reflected a global reorganization of tectonic plates centered on the amalgamation of Gondwana.


title: Ordovician

text: The Taconic orogeny, a major mountain-building episode, was well under way in Cambrian times. This continued into the Ordovician, when at least two volcanic island arcs collided with Laurentia to form the Appalachian Mountains. Laurentia was otherwise tectonically stable. An island arc accreted to South China during the period, while subduction along north China (Sulinheer) resulted in the emplacement of ophiolites.


title: Ordovician

text: The ash fall of the Millburg/Big Bentonite bed, at about 454 Ma, was the largest in the last 590 million years. This had a dense rock equivalent volume of as much as . Remarkably, this appears to have had little impact on life.


title: Ordovician

text: There was vigorous tectonic activity along northwest margin of Gondwana during the Floian, 478 Ma, recorded in the Central Iberian Zone of Spain. The activity reached as far as Turkey by the end of Ordovician. The opposite margin of Gondwana, in Australia, faced a set of island arcs. The accretion of these arcs to the eastern margin of Gondwana was responsible for the Benambran Orogeny of eastern Australia. Subduction also took place along what is now Argentina (Famatinian Orogeny) at 450 Ma. This involved significant back arc rifting. The interior of Gondwana was tectonically quiet until the Triassic.


title: Ordovician

text: Towards the end of the period, Gondwana began to drift across the South Pole. This contributed to the Hibernian glaciation and the associated extinction event.


title: Ordovician

text: The Ordovician meteor event is a proposed shower of meteors that occurred during the Middle Ordovician Epoch, about 467.5 ± 0.28 million years ago, due to the break-up of the L chondrite parent body. It is not associated with any major extinction event.


title: Ordovician

text: The Ordovician was a time of calcite sea geochemistry in which low-magnesium calcite was the primary inorganic marine precipitate of calcium carbonate. Carbonate hardgrounds were thus very common, along with calcitic ooids, calcitic cements, and invertebrate faunas with dominantly calcitic skeletons. Biogenic aragonite, like that composing the shells of most molluscs, dissolved rapidly on the sea floor after death.


title: Ordovician

text: Unlike Cambrian times, when calcite production was dominated by microbial and non-biological processes, animals (and macroalgae) became a dominant source of calcareous material in Ordovician deposits.


title: Ordovician

text: The early Ordovician climate was very hot, with intense greenhouse conditions giving way to a more temperate climate in the Middle Ordovician. Further cooling led to the Late Ordovician glaciation. The Ordovician saw the highest sea levels of the Paleozoic, and the low relief of the continents led to many shelf deposits being formed under hundreds of metres of water. The sea level rose more or less continuously throughout the Early Ordovician, leveling off somewhat during the middle of the period. Locally, some regressions occurred, but the sea level rise continued in the beginning of the Late Ordovician. Sea levels fell steadily due to the cooling temperatures for about 30 million years leading up to the Hirnantian glaciation. During this icy stage, sea level seems to have risen and dropped somewhat. Despite much study, the details remain unresolved. In particular, some researches interpret the fluctuations in sea level as pre-Hibernian glaciation, but sedimentary evidence of glaciation is lacking until the end of the period. There is also evidence that global temperatures rose briefly in the early Katian (Boda Event), depositing bioherms and radiating fauna across Europe.


title: Ordovician

text: As with North America and Europe, Gondwana was largely covered with shallow seas during the Ordovician. Shallow clear waters over continental shelves encouraged the growth of organisms that deposit calcium carbonates in their shells and hard parts. The Panthalassic Ocean covered much of the Northern Hemisphere, and other minor oceans included Proto-Tethys, Paleo-Tethys, Khanty Ocean, which was closed off by the Late Ordovician, Iapetus Ocean, and the new Rheic Ocean.


title: Ordovician

text: As the Ordovician progressed, there is evidence of glaciers on the land we now know as Africa and South America, which were near the South Pole at the time, resulting in the ice caps of the Late Ordovician glaciation.


title: Ordovician

text: For most of the Late Ordovician life continued to flourish, but at and near the end of the period there were mass-extinction events that seriously affected conodonts and planktonic forms like graptolites. The trilobites Agnostida and Ptychopariida completely died out, and the Asaphida were much reduced. Brachiopods, bryozoans and echinoderms were also heavily affected, and the endocerid cephalopods died out completely, except for possible rare Silurian forms. The Ordovician–Silurian extinction events may have been caused by an ice age that occurred at the end of the Ordovician Period, due to the expansion of the first terrestrial plants, as the end of the Late Ordovician was one of the coldest times in the last 600 million years of Earth's history.


title: Ordovician

text: On the whole, the fauna that emerged in the Ordovician were the template for the remainder of the Palaeozoic. The fauna was dominated by tiered communities of suspension feeders, mainly with short food chains. The ecological system reached a new grade of complexity far beyond that of the Cambrian fauna, which has persisted until the present day.


title: Ordovician

text: Though less famous than the Cambrian explosion, the Ordovician radiation (also known as the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event) was no less remarkable; marine faunal genera increased fourfold, resulting in 12% of all known Phanerozoic marine fauna. Another change in the fauna was the strong increase in filter-feeding organisms. The trilobite, inarticulate brachiopod, archaeocyathid, and eocrinoid faunas of the Cambrian were succeeded by those that dominated the rest of the Paleozoic, such as articulate brachiopods, cephalopods, and crinoids. Articulate brachiopods, in particular, largely replaced trilobites in shelf communities. Their success epitomizes the greatly increased diversity of carbonate shell-secreting organisms in the Ordovician compared to the Cambrian.


title: Ordovician

text: Ordovician geography had its effect on the diversity of fauna. The widely separated continents of Laurentia and Baltica, then positioned close to the tropics and boasting many shallow seas rich in life, developed a distinct trilobite fauna from the trilobite fauna of Gondwana, and Gondwana developed distinct fauna in its tropical and temperature zones. However, tropical articulate brachiopods had a more cosmopolitan distribution, with less diversity on different continents. Faunas become less provincial later in the Ordovician, though they were still distinguishable into the late Ordovician.


title: Ordovician

text: Trilobites in particular were rich and diverse. Trilobites in the Ordovician were very different from their predecessors in the Cambrian. Many trilobites developed bizarre spines and nodules to defend against predators such as primitive eurypterids and nautiloids while other trilobites such as "Aeglina prisca" evolved to become swimming forms. Some trilobites even developed shovel-like snouts for ploughing through muddy sea bottoms. Another unusual clade of trilobites known as the trinucleids developed a broad pitted margin around their head shields. Some trilobites such as "Asaphus kowalewski" evolved long eyestalks to assist in detecting predators whereas other trilobite eyes in contrast disappeared completely. Molecular clock analyses suggest that early arachnids started living on land by the end of the Ordovician. Although solitary corals date back to at least the Cambrian, reef-forming corals appeared in the early Ordovician, including the earliest known octocorals, corresponding to an increase in the stability of carbonate and thus a new abundance of calcifying animals. Brachiopods surged in diversity, adapting to almost every type of marine environment. Molluscs, which appeared during the Cambrian or even the Ediacaran, became common and varied, especially bivalves, gastropods, and nautiloid cephalopods. Cephalopods diversified from shallow marine tropical environments to dominate almost all marine environments. Graptolites, which evolved in the preceding Cambrian period, thrived in the oceans. This includes the distinctive "Nemagraptus gracilis" graptolite fauna, which was distributed widely during peak sea levels in the Sandbian. Some new cystoids and crinoids appeared. It was long thought that the first true vertebrates (fish — Ostracoderms) appeared in the Ordovician, but recent discoveries in China reveal that they probably originated in the Early Cambrian. The first gnathostome (jawed fish) may have appeared in the Late Ordovician epoch. Chitinozoans, which first appeared late in the Wuliuan, exploded in diversity during the Tremadocian, quickly becoming globally widespread. Several groups of endobiotic symbionts appeared in the Ordovician.


title: Ordovician

text: In the Early Ordovician, trilobites were joined by many new types of organisms, including tabulate corals, strophomenid, rhynchonellid, and many new orthid brachiopods, bryozoans, planktonic graptolites and conodonts, and many types of molluscs and echinoderms, including the ophiuroids ("brittle stars") and the first sea stars. Nevertheless, the arthropods remained abundant; all the Late Cambrian orders continued, and were joined by the new group Phacopida. The first evidence of land plants also appeared (see evolutionary history of life).


title: Ordovician

text: In the Middle Ordovician, the trilobite-dominated Early Ordovician communities were replaced by generally more mixed ecosystems, in which brachiopods, bryozoans, molluscs, cornulitids, tentaculitids and echinoderms all flourished, tabulate corals diversified and the first rugose corals appeared. The planktonic graptolites remained diverse, with the Diplograptina making their appearance. One of the earliest known armoured agnathan ("ostracoderm") vertebrates, "Arandaspis", dates from the Middle Ordovician. During the Middle Ordovician there was a large increase in the intensity and diversity of bioeroding organisms. This is known as the Ordovician Bioerosion Revolution. It is marked by a sudden abundance of hard substrate trace fossils such as "Trypanites", "Palaeosabella", "Petroxestes" and "Osprioneides". Bioerosion became an important process, particularly in the thick calcitic skeletons of corals, bryozoans and brachiopods, and on the extensive carbonate hardgrounds that appear in abundance at this time.


title: Ordovician

text: Green algae were common in the Late Cambrian (perhaps earlier) and in the Ordovician. Terrestrial plants probably evolved from green algae, first appearing as tiny non-vascular forms resembling liverworts, in the middle to late Ordovician. Fossil spores found in Ordovician sedimentary rock are typical of bryophytes.


title: Ordovician

text: Among the first land fungi may have been arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (Glomerales), playing a crucial role in facilitating the colonization of land by plants through mycorrhizal symbiosis, which makes mineral nutrients available to plant cells; such fossilized fungal hyphae and spores from the Ordovician of Wisconsin have been found with an age of about 460 million years ago, a time when the land flora most likely only consisted of plants similar to non-vascular bryophytes.


title: Ordovician

text: The Ordovician came to a close in a series of extinction events that, taken together, comprise the second largest of the five major extinction events in Earth's history in terms of percentage of genera that became extinct. The only larger one was the Permian–Triassic extinction event.


title: Ordovician

text: The extinctions occurred approximately 447–444 million years ago and mark the boundary between the Ordovician and the following Silurian Period. At that time all complex multicellular organisms lived in the sea, and about 49% of genera of fauna disappeared forever; brachiopods and bryozoans were greatly reduced, along with many trilobite, conodont and graptolite families.


title: Ordovician

text: The most commonly accepted theory is that these events were triggered by the onset of cold conditions in the late Katian, followed by an ice age, in the Hirnantian faunal stage, that ended the long, stable greenhouse conditions typical of the Ordovician.


title: Ordovician

text: The ice age was possibly not long-lasting. Oxygen isotopes in fossil brachiopods show its duration may have been only 0.5 to 1.5 million years. Other researchers (Page et al.) estimate more temperate conditions did not return until the late Silurian.


title: Ordovician

text: The late Ordovician glaciation event was preceded by a fall in atmospheric carbon dioxide (from 7000 ppm to 4400 ppm). The dip may have been caused by a burst of volcanic activity that deposited new silicate rocks, which draw CO out of the air as they erode. Another possibility is that bryophytes and lichens, which colonized land in the middle to late Ordovician, may have increased weathering enough to draw down levels. The drop in selectively affected the shallow seas where most organisms lived. As the southern supercontinent Gondwana drifted over the South Pole, ice caps formed on it, which have been detected in Upper Ordovician rock strata of North Africa and then-adjacent northeastern South America, which were south-polar locations at the time.


title: Ordovician

text: As glaciers grew, the sea level dropped, and the vast shallow intra-continental Ordovician seas withdrew, which eliminated many ecological niches. When they returned, they carried diminished founder populations that lacked many whole families of organisms. They then withdrew again with the next pulse of glaciation, eliminating biological diversity with each change. Species limited to a single epicontinental sea on a given landmass were severely affected. Tropical lifeforms were hit particularly hard in the first wave of extinction, while cool-water species were hit worst in the second pulse.


title: Ordovician

text: Those species able to adapt to the changing conditions survived to fill the ecological niches left by the extinctions. For example, there is evidence the oceans became more deeply oxygenated during the glaciation, allowing unusual benthic organisms (Hirnantian fauna) to colonize the depths. These organisms were cosmopolitan in distribution and present at most latitudes.


title: Ordovician

text: At the end of the second event, melting glaciers caused the sea level to rise and stabilise once more. The rebound of life's diversity with the permanent re-flooding of continental shelves at the onset of the Silurian saw increased biodiversity within the surviving Orders. Recovery was characterized by an unusual number of "Lazarus taxa", disappearing during the extinction and reappearing well into the Silurian, which suggests that the taxa survived in small numbers in refugia.


title: Ordovician

text: An alternate extinction hypothesis suggested that a ten-second gamma-ray burst could have destroyed the ozone layer and exposed terrestrial and marine surface-dwelling life to deadly ultraviolet radiation and initiated global cooling.


title: Ordovician

text: Recent work considering the sequence stratigraphy of the Late Ordovician argues that the mass extinction was a single protracted episode lasting several hundred thousand years, with abrupt changes in water depth and sedimentation rate producing two pulses of last occurrences of species.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The Years of Lead () is a term used for a period of social and political turmoil in Italy that lasted from the late 1960s until the late 1980s, marked by a wave of both far-left and far-right incidents of political terrorism.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The Years of Lead are often considered to have begun with the 1968 movement in Italy and the Hot Autumn strikes starting in 1969; the death of the policeman Antonio Annarumma in November 1969; the Piazza Fontana bombing in December of that year, which killed 17 and was perpetrated by right-wing terrorists in Milan; and the subsequent death that same month of anarchist, left-wing worker Giuseppe Pinelli while in police custody under suspicion of a crime he did not commit.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: A far-left group, the Red Brigades, eventually became the most notorious terrorist organization associated with the period; in 1978, they kidnapped and assassinated former prime minister Aldo Moro. Another major crime associated with the Italian Years of Lead was the 1980 bombing of the Bologna railway station, which killed 85 people and was perpetrated by the far-right, neo-fascist terrorist group known as the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari. The terrorist organizations were gradually disbanded and their members arrested throughout the 1980s, with sporadic political violence continuing in Italy until the late 1980s and resurfacing to a lesser extent in the late 1990s until the mid-2000s.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The term's origin possibly came as a reference to the number of shootings during the period, or a popular 1981 German film "Marianne and Juliane", released in Italy as "Anni di piombo", which centered on the lives of two members of the West German militant far-left group Red Army Faction which had gained notoriety during the same period.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: There was widespread social conflict and unprecedented acts of terrorism carried out by both right- and left-wing groups. An attempt to endorse the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) by the Tambroni Cabinet led to rioting and was short-lived. Widespread labor unrest and the collaboration of countercultural student activist groups with working class factory workers and pro-labor radical leftist organizations such as Potere Operaio and Lotta Continua culminated in the so-called "Hot Autumn" of 1969, a massive series of strikes in factories and industrial centres in Northern Italy. Student strikes and labour strikes, often led by workers, leftists, left-sympathizing laborers, or Marxist activists, became increasingly common, often deteriorating into clashes between the police and demonstrators composed largely of workers, students, activists, and often left-wing militants.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The Christian Democrats (DC) were instrumental in the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) gaining power in the 1960s and they created a coalition. The assassination of the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro in 1978 ended the strategy of "historic compromise" between the DC and the Italian Communist Party (PCI). The assassination was carried out by the Red Brigades, then led by Mario Moretti. Between 1968 and 1988, 428 murders were attributed to political violence in the form of bombings, assassinations, and street warfare between rival militant factions.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: Public protests shook Italy during 1969, with the autonomist student movement being particularly active, leading to the occupation of the Fiat Mirafiori automobile factory in Turin.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 19 November 1969, Antonio Annarumma, a Milanese policeman, was killed during a riot by far-left demonstrators. He was the first civil servant to die in the wave of violence.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The Victor Emmanuel II Monument, the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Rome and the Banca Commerciale Italiana and the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Milan were bombed in December.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: Local police arrested 80 or so suspects from left-wing groups, including Giuseppe Pinelli, an anarchist initially blamed for the bombing, and Pietro Valpreda. Their guilt was denied by left-wing members, especially by members of the student movement, then prominent in Milan's universities, as they believed that the bombing was carried out by fascists. Following the death of Giuseppe Pinelli, who mysteriously died on 15 December while in police custody, the radical left-wing newspaper "Lotta Continua" started a campaign accusing police officer Luigi Calabresi of Pinelli's murder. In 1975, Calabresi and other police officials were acquitted by judge Gerardo D'Ambrosio who decided that Pinelli's fall from a window had been caused by his being taken ill and losing his balance.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: Meanwhile, the anarchist Valpreda and five others were convicted and jailed for the bombing. They were later released after three years of preventive detention. Then, two neo-fascists, Franco Freda (resident in Padua) and Giovanni Ventura, were arrested accused of being the organizers of the massacre; in 1987 they were acquitted by the Supreme Court for lack of evidence.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: In the 1990s, new investigations into the Piazza Fontana bombing, citing new witnesses testimony, implicated Freda and Ventura again. However, the pair cannot be put on trial again because of double jeopardy, as they were acquitted of the crime in 1987.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The Red Brigades, the most prominent far-left terrorist organization, conducted a secret internal investigation that paralleled the official inquiry. The inquiry was discovered after a shootout between the Red Brigade and the Carabinieri at Robbiano di Mediglia in October 1974. The cover-up was exposed in 2000 by Giovanni Pellegrino, at the time President of the Commissione Stragi (Parliamentary Committee on massacres).


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The Red Brigades were founded in August 1970 by Renato Curcio and Margherita (Mara) Cagol, who had met as students at the University of Trento and later married, and Alberto Franceschini.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: While the Trento group around Curcio had its main roots in the Sociology Department of the Catholic University, the Reggio Emilia group (around Franceschini) mostly included former members of the FGCI (the Communist youth movement) expelled from the parent party for their extremist views.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: Another group of militants came from the Sit-Siemens factories in Milan; these were Mario Moretti, a union official, Corrado Alunni, who would leave the Red Brigades to found another organization "fighter", and Alfredo Buonavita, a blue-collar worker.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The first action of the RB was burning the car of Giuseppe Leoni (a leader of Sit-Siemens company in Milan) on 17 September 1970, in the context of the labour unrest within the factory.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: In December, a neo-fascist coup, dubbed the "Golpe Borghese", was planned by young far-right fanatics, elderly veterans of Italian Social Republic, and supported by members of the "Corpo Forestale dello Stato", along with right-aligned entrepreneurs and industrialists. The "Black Prince", Junio Valerio Borghese, took part in it. The coup, called off at the last moment, was discovered by the newspaper "Paese Sera", and publicly exposed three months later.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On March 26, Alessandro Floris was assassinated in Genoa by a unit of the October 22 Group, a far-left terrorist organization. An amateur photographer had taken a photo of the killer that enabled police to identify the terrorists. The group was investigated, and more members arrested. Some fled to Milan and joined the "Gruppi di Azione Partigiana" (GAP) and, later, the Red Brigades.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The Red Brigades considered "Gruppo XXII Ottobre" its predecessor and, in April 1974, they kidnapped Judge Mario Sossi in a failed attempt at freeing the jailed members. Years later, the Red Brigades killed judge Francesco Coco on June 8, 1976, along with his two police escorts, Giovanni Saponara and Antioco Deiana, in revenge.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 17 May 1972, police officer Luigi Calabresi, a recipient of the gold medal of the Italian Republic for civil valour, was killed in Milan. Authorities initially focused on suspects in "Lotta Continua"; then it was assumed that Calabresi had been killed by neo-fascist organizations, bringing about the arrest of two neo-fascist activists, Gianni Nardi and Bruno Stefano, along with German Gudrun Kiess, in 1974. They were ultimately released. Sixteen years later, Adriano Sofri, Giorgio Petrostefani, Ovidio Bompressi, and Leonardo Marino were arrested in Milan following Marino's confession to the murder. Their trial finally established their guilt in organising and carrying out the assassination.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: Calabresi's assassination opened the chapter of assassinations carried out by armed groups of the far-left.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 31 May 1972, three Italian Carabinieri were killed in Peteano in a bombing, attributed to "Lotta Continua". Officers of the Carabinieri were later indicted and convicted for perverting the course of justice. Judge Casson identified "Ordine Nuovo" member Vincenzo Vinciguerra as the man who had planted the Peteano bomb.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The neo-fascist terrorist Vinciguerra, arrested in the 1980s for the bombing in Peteano, declared to magistrate Felice Casson that this false flag attack had been intended to force the Italian state to declare a state of emergency and to become more authoritarian. Vinciguerra explained how the SISMI military intelligence agency had protected him, allowing him to escape to Francoist Spain.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: Casson's investigation revealed that the right-wing organization Ordine Nuovo had collaborated with the Italian Military Secret Service, SID ("Servizio Informazioni Difesa"). Together, they had engineered the Peteano attack and then blamed the Red Brigades. He confessed and testified that he had been covered by a network of sympathizers in Italy and abroad who had ensured that he could escape after the attack. "A whole mechanism came into action", Vinciguerra recalled, "that is, the Carabinieri, the Minister of the Interior, the customs services and the military and civilian intelligence services accepted the ideological reasoning behind the attack."


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: A 16 April 1973 arson attack by members of Potere Operaio on the house of neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) militant Mario Mattei in Primavalle, Rome, resulted in his two sons, aged 22 and 8, being burned alive.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: During a 17 May 1973 ceremony honoring Luigi Calabresi, in which the Interior Minister was present, Gianfranco Bertoli, an anarchist, threw a bomb that killed four and injured 45.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: In 1975, Bertoli was sentenced to life imprisonment: the Milan Court wrote that he was embroiled in connections with the far-right, that was a SID informant and a confidant of the Police.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: In the 1990s it was suspected that Bertoli was a member of Gladio but he denied it in an interview: in the list of 622 Gladio members made public in 1990, his name is missing.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: A magistrate investigating the assassination attempt of Mariano Rumor found that Bertoli's files were incomplete. General , head of the SID from 1971 to 1975, was convicted "in absentia" in 1990 for obstruction of justice in the Mariano Rumor case.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: In May 1974, a bomb exploded during an anti-fascist demonstration in Brescia, Lombardy, killing eight and wounding 102. On 16 November 2010, the Court of Brescia acquitted the defendants: Francesco Delfino (a Carabiniere), Carlo Maria Maggi, Pino Rauti, Maurizio Tramonte, and Delfo Zorzi (members of the "Ordine Nuovo" neo-fascist group). The prosecutor had requested life sentences for Delfino, Maggi, Tramonte, and Zorzi, and acquittal for lack of evidence for Pino Rauti. The four defendants were acquitted again by the appeal court in 2012 but, in 2014, the supreme court ruled that the appeal trial would have to be held again at the appeal court of Milan for Maggi and Tramonte. Delfino and Zorzi were definitively acquitted. On 22 July 2015, the appeal court sentenced Maggi and Tramonte to life imprisonment for ordering and co-ordinating the massacre.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 17 June 1974, two members of MSI were murdered in Padua. Initially, an internal feud between neo-fascist groups was suspected, since the crime had occurred in the city of Franco Freda. However, the murder was then claimed by the Red Brigades: it was the first murder of the organization, which, until then had only committed robberies, bombings, and kidnappings.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: Count Edgardo Sogno said in his memoirs that in July 1974, he visited the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) station chief in Rome to inform him of preparations for a neo-fascist coup. Asking what the United States (US) government would do in case of such a coup, Sogno wrote that he was told, "the United States would have supported any initiative tending to keep the communists out of government."


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: General Maletti declared, in 2001, that he had not known about Sogno's relationship with the CIA and had not been informed about the coup, known as "Golpe bianco" (White Coup), led by Randolfo Pacciardi.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 4 August 1974, 12 people were killed and 48 others injured in the bombing of the Italicus Rome-Brenner express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro. Responsibility was claimed by the neo-fascist terrorist organization Ordine Nero.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: General Vito Miceli, chief of the SIOS military intelligence agency in 1969, and head of the SID from 1970 to 1974, was arrested in 1974 on charges of "conspiracy against the state". Following his arrest, the Italian secret services were reorganized by a 24 October 1977 law in an attempt to reassert civilian control over the intelligence agencies. The SID was divided into the current SISMI, the SISDE, and the CESIS, which was to directly coordinate with the Prime Minister of Italy. An Italian Parliamentary Committee on Secret services control (Copaco) was created at the same time. Miceli was acquitted in 1978.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: In 1974, some leaders of the Red Brigades, including Renato Curcio and Alberto Franceschini, were arrested, but new leadership continued the war against the Italian right-wing establishment with increased fervor.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The Italian government showed reluctance in addressing far left terrorism. The ruling Christian Democracy party underestimated the threat of the Red Brigades, speaking of "phantom" Red Brigades, emphasizing instead the danger of neo-fascist groups. The Italian left wing also was less worried by the existence of an armed communist organization than by the possible abuses by the police against protesters, calling for the disarmament of police during street demonstrations.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The year before, "Potere Operaio" had disbanded, although "Autonomia Operaia" carried on in its wake. "Lotta Continua" also dissolved in 1976, although their magazine struggled on for several years. From the remnants of "Lotta Continua" and similar groups, the terror organization "Prima Linea" emerged.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 28 February, student and fascist activist Mikis Mantakas was killed by far-leftists during riots in Rome.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 13 March, young militant of Italian Social Movement (MSI) Sergio Ramelli was assaulted in Milan by a group of "Avanguardia Operaia" and wounded in the head with wrenches (aka "Hazet 36"). He died on 29 April, after 47 days in the hospital.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 5 June, Giovanni D'Alfonso, member of the Carabinieri police force, was killed by the Red Brigades.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 29 April, lawyer and militant of Italian Social Movement (MSI) Enrico Pedenovi was killed in Milan by the organization "Prima Linea". This was the first assassination conducted by "Prima Linea".


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 15 December, in Sesto San Giovanni (a town near Milan), vice chief Vittorio Padovani and Marshal Sergio Bazzega were killed by young extremist Walter Alasia.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 11 March, Francesco Lorusso was killed by the military police (the Carabinieri) in the university of Bologna.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 12 May, in Rome, 19-year-old student Giorgiana Masi was killed during clashes between police officers and demonstrators.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 14 May, in Milan, activists from a far-left organization pulled out their pistols and began to shoot at the police, killing policeman Antonio Custra. A photographer took a photo of an activist shooting at the police. This year was called the time of the "P38", referring to the Walther P38 pistol.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 16 November, in Turin, Carlo Casalegno, deputy director of the newspaper "La Stampa", was seriously wounded in an ambush of the Red Brigades. He died thirteen days later, on November 29.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 7 January, in Rome young militants of Italian Social Movement (MSI) Franco Bigonzetti and Francesco Ciavatta were killed by far-leftists, another militant (Stefano Recchioni) was killed by the police during a violent demonstration. Some militants left the MSI and founded the "Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari", which had ties with the Roman criminal organization "Banda della Magliana".


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 8 November, in Patrica (a town near Frosinone), judge Fedele Calvosa was killed by the "Unità Comuniste Combattenti".


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On March 16, 1978, Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the Red Brigades (then led by Mario Moretti) and five of his security detail were killed. Aldo Moro was a left-leaning Christian Democrat who served several times as prime minister; before his murder, he had been trying to include the Italian Communist Party (PCI), headed by Enrico Berlinguer, in the government through a deal called the "Historic Compromise". PCI was, at the time, the largest communist party in western Europe; was mainly because of its non-extremist and pragmatic stance, its growing independence from Moscow and its eurocommunist doctrine. The PCI was especially strong in areas such as Emilia Romagna, where it had stable government positions and mature practical experience, which may have contributed to a more pragmatic approach to politics. The Red Brigades were fiercely opposed by the Communist Party and trade unions: some left-wing politicians used the expression "comrades who do wrong" ("Compagni che sbagliano"). , one of RB's members who participated at the kidnapping, declared that the decision to kidnap Moro "was taken a week before, a day was decided, it could have been March 15 or 17".


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On May 9, 1978, after a summary "trial of the people", Moro was murdered by Mario Moretti with, it was also determined, the participation of . The corpse was found that same day in the trunk of a red Renault 4 in via Michelangelo Caetani, in downtown Rome. A consequence there was the fact that the PCI did not gain executive power.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: Moro's assassination was followed by a large clampdown on the social movement, including the arrest of many members of "Autonomia Operaia", including, Oreste Scalzone and political philosopher Antonio Negri (arrested on 7 April 1979).


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: Active armed organization grew from 2 in 1969 to 91 in 1977 and 269 in 1979. In that year there were 659 attacks.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 20 March, investigative journalist Mino Pecorelli was gunned down in his car in Rome. Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti and Mafia boss Gaetano Badalamenti were sentenced in 2002 to 24 years in prison for the murder, though the sentences were overturned the following year.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 13 July, in Rome, Lieutenant Colonel of Carabinieri Antonio Varisco was killed by the Red Brigades.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 11 December, five teachers and five students of the "Valletta" Institute in Turin were shot in the legs by "Prima Linea".


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 8 January, Milan policemen Antonio Cestari, Rocco Santoro, and Michele Tatulli were killed by the Red Brigades.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 12 February, in Rome, at the "La Sapienza" University, Vittorio Bachelet, vice-president of the High Council of the Judiciary and former president of the Roman Catholic association Azione Cattolica, was killed by the Red Brigades.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 2 August, a bomb killed 85 people and wounded more than 200 in Bologna. Known as the Bologna massacre, the blast destroyed a large portion of the city's railway station. This was found to be a neo-fascist bombing, mainly organized by the "Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari": Francesca Mambro and Valerio Fioravanti were sentenced to life imprisonment. In April 2007 the Supreme Court confirmed the conviction of Luigi Ciavardini, a NAR member associated closely with close ties to "Terza Posizione". Ciavardini received a 30-year prison sentence for his role in the attack.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 5 July, Giuseppe Taliercio, director of the Porto Marghera's Montedison petrochemical establishment, was killed by the Red Brigades after 47 days of kidnapping.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 3 August, Roberto Peci, an electrician, was killed by the Red Brigades after being kidnapped and held for 54 days. The killing was a vendetta against his brother Patrizio, a member of RB who became pentito the year before.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 17 December, James L. Dozier, an American general and the deputy commander of NATO's South European forces based in Verona, was kidnapped by Red Brigades. He was freed in Padua on 28 January 1982 by the "Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza" (NOCS), an Italian police anti-terrorist task force.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 26 August, a group of Red Brigades terrorists attacked a military troop convoy, in Salerno. In the attack, Corporal Antonio Palumbo and policemen Antonio Bandiera and Mario De Marco were killed. The terrorists escaped.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 21 October, a group of Red Brigades terrorists attacked a bank in Turin, killing two guards, Antonio Pedio and Sebastiano d'Alleo.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 15 February, Leamon Hunt, American diplomat and Director General of the international peacekeeping force, Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), was killed by the Red Brigades.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 23 December, a bomb in a train between Florence and Rome killed 16 and wounded more than 200. In 1992, Mafia's members Giuseppe Calò and Guido Cercola were sentenced to life imprisonment, Franco Di Agostino (another member of the Sicilian Mafia) got 24 years, and German engineer Friedrich Schaudinn 22 for the bombing. Camorra's member Giuseppe Misso was sentenced to 3 years; other members of Camorra, Alfonso Galeota and Giulio Pirozzi were sentenced to 18 months, and their role in the massacre was deemed marginal. On February 18, 1994, the Florence court absolved MSI member of Parliament Massimo Abbatangelo from the massacre charge, but ruled him guilty of giving the explosive to Misso in the spring of 1984. Abbatangelo was sentenced to 6 years. Victims' relatives asked for a tougher sentence, but lost the appeal and had to pay for judiciary expenses.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 9 January, in Torvaianica (a town near Rome), policeman Ottavio Conte was killed by the Red Brigades.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 20 March 1987, Licio Giorgieri, a general in the Italian Air Force, was assassinated by the Red Brigades in Rome.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 16 April 1988, Senator Roberto Ruffilli was assassinated in an attack by a group of the Red Brigades in Forlì. It was the last murder committed by the Red Brigades: on 23 October a group of "irriducibili" (hardliners) declared, in a document, that war against the State was over.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a resurgence of Red Brigades terrorism led to further assassinations.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 20 May 1999, Massimo D'Antona, consultant to the Ministry of Labour, was assassinated in an attack by a group of terrorists of the Red Brigades in Rome.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 19 March 2002, Marco Biagi, consultant to the Ministry of Labour, was assassinated in an attack by a group of terrorists of the Red Brigades in Bologna.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: On 2 March 2003, Emanuele Petri, a policeman, was assassinated by a group of Red Brigades terrorists near Castiglion Fiorentino.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: In 2005, some suspected terrorists, known as the New Red Brigades ("Nuove Brigate Rosse") were arrested. On June 13, the court of Milan condemned 14 terrorists. The leader was sentenced to 15 years in jail. Three suspected terrorists were found not guilty.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: In 2021, France arrested seven of the dozens of fugitive leftist militants which had been given French protection for decades. Among the arrested were Giorgio Pietrostefani, a founding member of the Lotta Continua group who was convicted of the murder of Milan police commissioner Luigi Calabresi. Others were Marina Petrella, Roberta Cappelli and Sergio Tornaghi who had received life sentences for murders and kidnappings.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The Mitterrand doctrine, which was established in 1985 by then socialist French president François Mitterrand, stated that Italian far-left terrorists who fled to France and who were convicted of violent acts in Italy, excluding "active, actual, bloody terrorism" during the "Years of Lead", would receive asylum and would not be subject to extradition to Italy. They would be integrated into French society.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The act was announced on 21 April 1985, at the 65th Congress of the Human Rights League ("Ligue des droits de l'homme", LDH), stating of Italian criminals who had given up their violent pasts and had fled to France would be protected from extradition to Italy:


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: According to Reuters, the Italian guerillas numbered in the dozens. The French decision had a long term negative effect on French-Italian relations.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: Some Italian citizens accused of terrorist acts have found refuge in Brazil such as Cesare Battisti and others former members of the Armed Proletarians for Communism, a far-left militant and terrorist organization.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: Some Italian far-left activists found political asylum in Nicaragua, including Alessio Casimirri, who took part in the kidnapping of Aldo Moro.


title: Years of Lead (Italy)

text: The Years of Lead were believed to have increased the rate of immigration to the United States from Italy. However, as the Years of Lead came to an end in the 1980s and political stability increased in Italy, the rate of immigration to the United States decreased. In the years 1992–2002, Italian immigration ranged near 2,500 people annually.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Christian Louboutin (; born January 7, 1963) is a French fashion designer whose high-end stiletto footwear incorporates shiny, red-lacquered soles that have become his signature. Initially a freelance designer for fashion houses, he started his own shoe salon in Paris, with his shoes finding favor with celebrity clientele. He has partnered with other organizations for creative projects including limited edition pieces, gallery exhibits, and a custom bar. His company has since branched out into men's luxury footwear, handbags, fragrances and makeup.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Louboutin was born and raised in Paris, France. He was the only son of Roger, a cabinet-maker, and Irene, a French homemaker from Brittany. He has three sisters. Louboutin said in a 2012 interview that he was "much darker-skinned than everyone else in his family. You know, I felt I wasn't French. My family was very French and so I decided they had probably adopted me. But instead of feeling it was terrible and that I was an outsider who had to go and find my real family, I invented my own history, full of characters from Egypt because I was very into the pharaohs." In 2014, he learned from one of his sisters that his biological father was, in fact, an Egyptian with whom his mother Irene had been having a secret affair.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Louboutin was expelled from school three times and then decided to run away from home at the age of 12, at which point his mother allowed him to move out to live at a friend's house. He faced much opposition when he decided to drop out from school. However, he claims that what helped him make up his mind was an interview on TV with Sophia Loren, in which she introduced her sister, saying she had to leave school when she was only 12, but when she turned 50, she got her degree. He later remarked, "Everybody applauded! And I thought, 'Well, at least if I regret it I'm going to be like the sister of Sophia Loren!'"


title: Christian Louboutin

text: As a preteen he was one of the "Bande Du Palace", a group of hard partying teens and preteens that included Eva Ionesco, who were a fixture of the Parisian nightclub Le Palace.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Louboutin began sketching shoes in his early teens, ignoring his academic studies. Going through a punk phase, he was in a few films, including 1979 cult classic "Race d'ep" and "The Homosexual Century", which attracted an English-language audience. His first job was at the Folies Bergères, the cabaret where he assisted the entertainers backstage. He was also a fixture on the city's party scene alongside Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: His little formal training included drawing and the decorative arts at the Académie d'Art Roederer. Louboutin says his fascination with shoes began in 1976, when he visited the Musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie on the avenue Daumesnil. It was there that he saw a sign from Africa forbidding women wearing sharp stilettos from entering a building for fear of damage to the extensive wood flooring. This image stayed in his mind, and he later used this idea in his designs. "I wanted to defy that", Louboutin said. "I wanted to create something that broke rules and made women feel confident and empowered."


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Fascinated by world cultures, he ran away in his teens to Egypt and also spent a year in India. Louboutin returned to Paris in 1981, where he assembled a portfolio of drawings of elaborate high heels. He brought it to the top couture houses. The effort resulted in employment with Charles Jourdan. Subsequently, Louboutin met Roger Vivier, who claims to have invented the stiletto, or spiked-heel shoe. Louboutin became an apprentice in Vivier's atelier.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Going on to serve as a freelance designer, Louboutin designed women's shoes for Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and Maud Frizon. In the late 1980s, he turned away from fashion to become a landscape gardener and to contribute to "Vogue" but missed working with shoes and set up his company in 1991.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: With funds from two backers, he opened a Paris shoe salon in 1991 with Princess Caroline of Monaco as his first customer. She complimented the store one day when a fashion journalist was present, and the journalist's subsequent publication of Princess' comments helped greatly to increase Louboutin's renown. Clients such as Diane von Fürstenberg and Catherine Deneuve followed. Later, those interested in his stiletto heels have included Christina Aguilera, Shirley Coates, Joan Collins, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Tina Turner, Marion Cotillard, Nicki Minaj, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Blake Lively. Sarah Jessica Parker wore a pair of shoes by Louboutin for her wedding. Britney Spears wears a pair of high-heeled Louboutins in her music video "If U Seek Amy" that were not available for sale until a month after the video was released.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Louboutin topped the Luxury Institute's annual Luxury Brand Status Index (LBSI) for three years; the brand's offerings were declared the Most Prestigious Women's Shoes in 2007, 2008, and 2009. By 2011, Louboutin became the most searched-for shoe brand online.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: The Couture Council of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology will honor Louboutin with its 2019 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion in New York City on 4 September 2019.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In February, 2020 Christian Louboutin had an exhibition in Paris celebrating the 30th-anniversary of Christian Louboutin Ltd.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Landscape architect Louis Benech has been Louboutin's partner since 1999. The two divide their time among 25 homes in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, a fisherman's cottage in Lisbon, Portugal, a house in Melides, Portugal, a house in Comporta, Portugal, a palace in Aleppo, a houseboat on the Nile christened "Dahabibi-my love boat", and a house in Luxor. The Luxor house is a former craftsman's workshop, made of compressed earthen bricks, to which he has added an additional floor and a rooftop belvedere. Louboutin also shares a 13th-century castle in the Vendée with his business partner Bruno Chamberlain.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Louboutin helped bring stilettos back into fashion in the 1990s and 2000s, designing dozens of styles with heel heights of 120 mm (4.72 inches) and higher. The designer's professed goal has been to "make a woman look sexy, beautiful, to make her legs look as long as [he] can". While he does offer some lower-heeled styles, Louboutin is generally associated with dressier evening-wear designs incorporating jeweled straps, bows, feathers, patent leather, red soles, and other similar decorative touches. He is most popularly known for the red leather soles on his high-heeled shoes.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: His signature red soles were first created in 1993. "My sketches were not reproduced exactly as I had designed them and I couldn't figure out why. The two dimensional sketch was so powerful on paper, but when turned into a three-dimensional object, it was somehow lacking energy. Frustrated after having tried different things to liven up the design, I spontaneously grabbed my assistant's red nail polish and painted the sole. I instantly knew that this would be a success!".


title: Christian Louboutin

text: His single biggest client is American novelist Danielle Steel, who is reputed to own over 6,000 pairs and is known to have purchased up to 80 pairs at a time when shopping at his stores.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: The red sole is protected as a trademark in several countries, and litigation has taken place in various disputes in which Louboutin claimed infringement of its rights. Litigation generally also involved discussion of the validity or the scope of protection of the trademark.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In 2013, Louboutin filed a trademark infringement claim of the Benelux trademark against Dr. Adams. The Court of First Instance of Brussels declared the trademark however invalid. That decision was overturned by the Brussels Court of Appeal, who forbade the sale of shoes with a red sole by Dr. Adams.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In France the trademark of Louboutin was held valid, but not infringed by Zara. The Court of Appeal however considered the French trademark invalid. The latter decision was upheld by the French Supreme Court in 2012.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In 2012, in The Netherlands, Louboutin initiated litigation, based also on the Benelux trademark, against shoe retailer Van Haren, seeking to stop it from selling the red soled shoe "5th Avenue by Halle Berry". The District Court of The Hague proposed in 2015 to ask preliminary questions to the European Court of Justice that it considered necessary in order to determine whether the trademark would be valid. In June 2018, the European Court of Justice ruled that a trademark of a colour to be placed on a sole could be valid. Based on this decision, the Court of The Hague decided the trademark was valid, and Van Haren was infringing.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In 2011, Christian Louboutin company filed a US trademark infringement claim of its red-soled shoes against designer Yves Saint Laurent. The firm expected that the YSL shoe design would be revoked and sought US$1 million in damages. However, in August 2011, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero denied the firm's request to stop the sale of women's shoes with red soles by Yves Saint Laurent. The judge questioned the validity of the trademark, writing, "Louboutin's claim would cast a red cloud over the whole industry, cramping what other designers do, while allowing Louboutin to paint with a full palette." In his thirty-two-page decision, Judge Marrero compared fashion designers to painters and noted how creativity for both is dependent upon using color as "an indispensable medium" that "plays a unique role." The Court observed that: "The law should not countenance restraints that would interfere with creativity and stifle competition by one designer, while granting another a monopoly invested with the right to exclude use of an ornamental or functional medium necessary for freest and most productive artistic expression by all engaged in the same enterprise." Jewelry company Tiffany & Co., which has its blue box trademarked, filed an "amicus curiae" brief supporting the right to trademark a color.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In September 2012, the court finally ruled that Louboutin retains the exclusive right to use the color red on the bottom of its shoes whenever the outer portion of the shoe is any color besides red, while Yves Saint Laurent can continue to sell its shoes with red soles as long as the whole shoe is red. The YSL monochromatic shoe – red upper, red outsole – over which the lawsuit originally had been brought and against which Louboutin had tried and failed to get a preliminary injunction, therefore won't infringe the trimmed-down trademark.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property rejected Louboutin's trademark's extension to Switzerland in 2011, considering the trademark invalid. The Swiss Federal Supreme Court confirmed the invalidity of the trademark in Switzerland in February 2017.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In his first year of business, Louboutin sold 200 pairs of shoes. It has since become an internationally recognized brand. The United States accounts for 52 percent of Louboutin's sales; Europe, the Middle East and Russia, 30 percent; and Asia 18 percent. Of the firm's $300 million in annual revenue, 95% comes from shoes, with the remainder derived from purses and handbags. They expect the volume of handbags to eventually represent 20% of their annual sales.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In 2009, wholesale purchases represented 88% of the business. Overseas, the company has partnered with Pedder Group of Hong Kong, China for distribution in their Asian markets and the Chalhoub Group of the United Arab Emirates for their representation in the Middle East.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: As of March 2012, the firm employed 420 staff members (referred to as Loubi's Angels) around the world. Most of the footwear is manufactured and produced at his factory in Milan, but he also maintains a small atelier on Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for private clients and one-of-a-kind creations.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Louboutins can sell from $500 and up, with crystal-encrusted pairs costing up to $6,000. The base price for a custom-made pair of Louboutin is $4,000. If the style already exists, it is standard price tag plus 30%.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Louboutin has said over the past decade, he has been offered licensing deals on everything from cars and glasses to swimwear and ready-to-wear, but has turned them down as he does not want his name to be one that can be licensed. In 2003, his first extension outside of shoes was the introduction of his handbags and purses line.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In 2011, he launched a collection of men's footwear at a new exclusive store in Paris. Two explanations were given why Louboutin started a men's line. The first was a story of a French woman who asked him to make her a pair of shoes for her very large feet. He custom-created the size 13 1/2 shoes for her, but she didn't end up buying them. Instead, he passed them along to a friend who gave them to her husband. The second story was that the idea of starting a men's line came from musician Mika, who asked Louboutin to design all the shoes for his show for his tour. He also noticed, "There is a group of men that is thinking a little bit more like women. They're super-excited to buy the 'new thing.' I've noticed on blogs, for example, that men are very serious about their shoes now. They treat shoes very much as objects, as collectors' items. Of course, there is still a group that is more conservative in their tastes. They like to pass their shoes down to their son or say they have had a pair for 25 years". A unique feature introduced was the Tattoo Parlor, where customers could have digital photos taken of their tattoos and embroidered onto their shoes or, embroider the signature brogues in addition to selecting designs by Christian Louboutin with prices starting at around $8,000.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In 2012, Louboutin partnered with Batallure Beauty LLC to launch "Christian Louboutin Beauté" to enter the luxury beauty market. Catherine Roggero is the New York-based general manager for Christian Louboutin, a venture between Christian Louboutin SAS and Batallure Beauty. Roggero "will be responsible for developing Louboutin's beauty business."


title: Christian Louboutin

text: On 23 July 2014, Christian Louboutin Beauté launched a range of nail lacquers, exclusively debuting the signature red shade, Rouge Louboutin, at the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship in New York and its 15 US boutiques. In support of this launch, the high-end department store created Loubiville, a five-window visual merchandising display. The range was more widely distributed on 6 August 2014 to Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and select Sephora boutiques. The product is a logical brand extension, as an assistant's nail polish was the impetus for the shoes' red soles. Much like the shoes, the polish is receiving attention for its provocative shape, a long spiky cap, designed to resemble a calligrapher's brush or a spire.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In 2015, he expanded his foray into cosmetics with a lipstick collection. The tube was inspired by Babylonian architecture and Middle Eastern antiquities. As of 2017, the brand had 38 shades, divided into three collections.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Louboutin entered the fragrance market in 2016 with the release of three parfums: Bikini Questa Sera, with jasmine and tuberose notes; Tornade Blonde, with rose and cassis notes; and Trouble in Heaven, with patchouli and amber notes. The bottles were designed by Thomas Heatherwick's studio.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In 2007, he collaborated with the filmmaker David Lynch on "Fetish", an exhibition of his shoes in Lynch's photographs as erotic sculptural objects including ballet pumps made vertical by an impossible heel, or shoes with heels projecting inches beyond the sole (Viennese heel). He partnered once again with Lynch and Swizz Beats to compose music when Louboutin directed a show at the Crazy Horse, called "Feu", which ran from 5 March to 31 May 2012.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In conjunction with Bergdorf Goodman, he held a competition for design students at the Parsons New School for Design who graduated in 2010 and 2011, encouraging them to create apparel inspired by Louboutin's silhouettes of the past two decades, as well as the brand's new capsule collection.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In 2012, he was commissioned by Disney to create a modern-day Cinderella-inspired pair of slippers limited to just 20 pieces, to complement release of the "Cinderella": Diamond Edition Blu-ray Combo Pack in the fall. Louboutin also appears in a Disney-produced 10-minute short called The Magic of the Glass Slipper: A Cinderella Story, a bonus feature on the Cinderella Blu-ray DVD. He also partnered with Mattel that same year to create a limited edition "Louboutin Barbie". The first in the series was a cat burglar themed Barbie, which retailed for $150 and sold out the first day.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Louboutin was also one of the judges at the Martini Royale Casting Party to find the new face of the drinks brand.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In 2013, Louboutin was celebrated at Toronto's Design Exchange with a comprehensive exhibit featuring themes of showgirls, fetish, construction and travel.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In 2020, Louboutin created a digitalized Loubi World platform whereby guests can create an avatar with facial recognition technology and choose a variety of shoes and accessories. Louboutin designed the virtual space so that the avatars can interact with virtual locales and landmarks.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: In the spring of 2012, the company opened its first men's store in New York City, with over of space and located next to its existing Horatio Street store. From previous experience in his Paris store, Louboutin claimed that women feel uncomfortable when men stare at them while they try on shoes, hence the separate stores.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: The first Louboutin Men's Boutique, Christian Louboutin Boutique Homme on Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Paris, opened in the summer of 2012.


title: Christian Louboutin

text: Christian Louboutin Miami is located on 40th Street in the Design District of Miami, Florida. Louboutin chose to open a store in Miami because of the mix of businesses, the small urban scale, and his obvious following there. During Miami Basel art fair when the store opened in 2009, he said, "You don't get this with Europeans—but Americans actually come into my office in Paris to meet me, and a lot of those people are from Miami." The boutique stocks Louboutin's most colorful, strappy, precarious styles, on account of the subtropical climate and the fact that, Louboutin says, "people barely walk in the street."