title: Statistical significance

text: In statistical hypothesis testing, a result has statistical significance when it is very unlikely to have occurred given the null hypothesis (simply by chance alone). More precisely, a study's defined significance level, denoted by formula_1, is the probability of the study rejecting the null hypothesis, given that the null hypothesis is true; and the "p"-value of a result, "formula_2", is the probability of obtaining a result at least as extreme, given that the null hypothesis is true. The result is statistically significant, by the standards of the study, when formula_3. The significance level for a study is chosen before data collection, and is typically set to 5% or much lower—depending on the field of study.


title: Statistical significance

text: In any experiment or observation that involves drawing a sample from a population, there is always the possibility that an observed effect would have occurred due to sampling error alone. But if the "p"-value of an observed effect is less than (or equal to) the significance level, an investigator may conclude that the effect reflects the characteristics of the whole population, thereby rejecting the null hypothesis.


title: Statistical significance

text: This technique for testing the statistical significance of results was developed in the early 20th century. The term "significance" does not imply importance here, and the term "statistical significance" is not the same as research significance, theoretical significance, or practical significance. For example, the term clinical significance refers to the practical importance of a treatment effect.


title: Statistical significance

text: Statistical significance dates to the 1700s, in the work of John Arbuthnot and Pierre-Simon Laplace, who computed the "p"-value for the human sex ratio at birth, assuming a null hypothesis of equal probability of male and female births; see for details.


title: Statistical significance

text: In 1925, Ronald Fisher advanced the idea of statistical hypothesis testing, which he called "tests of significance", in his publication "Statistical Methods for Research Workers". Fisher suggested a probability of one in twenty (0.05) as a convenient cutoff level to reject the null hypothesis. In a 1933 paper, Jerzy Neyman and Egon Pearson called this cutoff the "significance level", which they named formula_1. They recommended that formula_1 be set ahead of time, prior to any data collection.


title: Statistical significance

text: Despite his initial suggestion of 0.05 as a significance level, Fisher did not intend this cutoff value to be fixed. In his 1956 publication "Statistical Methods and Scientific Inference," he recommended that significance levels be set according to specific circumstances.


title: Statistical significance

text: The significance level formula_1 is the threshold for formula_2 below which the null hypothesis is rejected even though by assumption it were true, and something else is going on. This means that formula_1 is also the probability of mistakenly rejecting the null hypothesis, if the null hypothesis is true. This is also called false positive and type I error.


title: Statistical significance

text: Sometimes researchers talk about the confidence level instead. This is the probability of not rejecting the null hypothesis given that it is true. Confidence levels and confidence intervals were introduced by Neyman in 1937.


title: Statistical significance

text: Statistical significance plays a pivotal role in statistical hypothesis testing. It is used to determine whether the null hypothesis should be rejected or retained. The null hypothesis is the default assumption that nothing happened or changed. For the null hypothesis to be rejected, an observed result has to be statistically significant, i.e. the observed "p"-value is less than the pre-specified significance level formula_1.


title: Statistical significance

text: To determine whether a result is statistically significant, a researcher calculates a "p"-value, which is the probability of observing an effect of the same magnitude or more extreme given that the null hypothesis is true. The null hypothesis is rejected if the "p"-value is less than (or equal to) a predetermined level, formula_1. formula_1 is also called the "significance level", and is the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis given that it is true (a type I error). It is usually set at or below 5%.


title: Statistical significance

text: For example, when formula_1 is set to 5%, the conditional probability of a type I error, "given that the null hypothesis is true", is 5%, and a statistically significant result is one where the observed "p"-value is less than (or equal to) 5%. When drawing data from a sample, this means that the rejection region comprises 5% of the sampling distribution. These 5% can be allocated to one side of the sampling distribution, as in a one-tailed test, or partitioned to both sides of the distribution, as in a two-tailed test, with each tail (or rejection region) containing 2.5% of the distribution.


title: Statistical significance

text: The use of a one-tailed test is dependent on whether the research question or alternative hypothesis specifies a direction such as whether a group of objects is "heavier" or the performance of students on an assessment is "better". A two-tailed test may still be used but it will be less powerful than a one-tailed test, because the rejection region for a one-tailed test is concentrated on one end of the null distribution and is twice the size (5% vs. 2.5%) of each rejection region for a two-tailed test. As a result, the null hypothesis can be rejected with a less extreme result if a one-tailed test was used. The one-tailed test is only more powerful than a two-tailed test if the specified direction of the alternative hypothesis is correct. If it is wrong, however, then the one-tailed test has no power.


title: Statistical significance

text: In specific fields such as particle physics and manufacturing, statistical significance is often expressed in multiples of the standard deviation or sigma ("σ") of a normal distribution, with significance thresholds set at a much stricter level (e.g. 5"σ"). For instance, the certainty of the Higgs boson particle's existence was based on the 5"σ" criterion, which corresponds to a "p"-value of about 1 in 3.5 million.


title: Statistical significance

text: In other fields of scientific research such as genome-wide association studies, significance levels as low as are not uncommon—as the number of tests performed is extremely large.


title: Statistical significance

text: Researchers focusing solely on whether their results are statistically significant might report findings that are not substantive and not replicable. There is also a difference between statistical significance and practical significance. A study that is found to be statistically significant may not necessarily be practically significant.


title: Statistical significance

text: Effect size is a measure of a study's practical significance. A statistically significant result may have a weak effect. To gauge the research significance of their result, researchers are encouraged to always report an effect size along with "p"-values. An effect size measure quantifies the strength of an effect, such as the distance between two means in units of standard deviation (cf. Cohen's d), the correlation coefficient between two variables or its square, and other measures.


title: Statistical significance

text: A statistically significant result may not be easy to reproduce. In particular, some statistically significant results will in fact be false positives. Each failed attempt to reproduce a result increases the likelihood that the result was a false positive.


title: Statistical significance

text: Starting in the 2010s, some journals began questioning whether significance testing, and particularly using a threshold of =5%, was being relied on too heavily as the primary measure of validity of a hypothesis. Some journals encouraged authors to do more detailed analysis than just a statistical significance test. In social psychology, the journal "Basic and Applied Social Psychology" banned the use of significance testing altogether from papers it published, requiring authors to use other measures to evaluate hypotheses and impact.


title: Statistical significance

text: Other editors, commenting on this ban have noted: "Banning the reporting of "p"-values, as Basic and Applied Social Psychology recently did, is not going to solve the problem because it is merely treating a symptom of the problem. There is nothing wrong with hypothesis testing and "p"-values per se as long as authors, reviewers, and action editors use them correctly." Some statisticians prefer to use alternative measures of evidence, such as likelihood ratios or Bayes factors. Using Bayesian statistics can avoid confidence levels, but also requires making additional assumptions, and may not necessarily improve practice regarding statistical testing.


title: Statistical significance

text: The widespread abuse of statistical significance represents an important topic of research in metascience.


title: Statistical significance

text: In 2016, the American Statistical Association (ASA) published a statement on "p"-values, saying that "the widespread use of 'statistical significance' (generally interpreted as "'p" ≤ 0.05') as a license for making a claim of a scientific finding (or implied truth) leads to considerable distortion of the scientific process". In 2017, a group of 72 authors proposed to enhance reproducibility by changing the "p"-value threshold for statistical significance from 0.05 to 0.005. Other researchers responded that imposing a more stringent significance threshold would aggravate problems such as data dredging; alternative propositions are thus to select and justify flexible "p"-value thresholds before collecting data, or to interpret "p"-values as continuous indices, thereby discarding thresholds and statistical significance. Additionally, the change to 0.005 would increase the likelihood of false negatives, whereby the effect being studied is real, but the test fails to show it.


title: Statistical significance

text: In 2019, over 800 statisticians and scientists signed a message calling for the abandonment of the term "statistical significance" in science, and the ASA published a further official statement declaring (page 2):


title: Bellamy Young

text: Bellamy Young (born Amy Maria Young; February 19, 1970) is an American actress, producer and singer, best known for her role as Melody "Mellie" Grant in the ABC drama series" Scandal" (2012–2018). In 2014, for her portrayal of Mellie, Young won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Young also starred in the Fox series "Prodigal Son" (2019–2021).


title: Bellamy Young

text: Young was born as Amy Maria Young in Asheville, North Carolina, and was adopted. She changed her name to join the Screen Actors Guild since there was another Amy Young registered, and chose the name Bellamy as a tribute to her late father's best friend, Bill, who had helped to raise her after her father died.


title: Bellamy Young

text: She graduated from Asheville School in 1987. She attended Yale University, majoring initially in Physics but ultimately studying English and Theatre, and graduated in 1991. Young spent a summer during college at the British American Drama Academy in England.


title: Bellamy Young

text: Young began her acting career in theatre. In 1997, she made her Broadway debut as Mary in the original cast of "The Life". Young has also appeared Off-Broadway in Stephen Sondheim's musical "Merrily We Roll Along" (1994), and Randy Newman's "Faust" (1995–1996). In 1995, Young made her television debut in a recurring role on the NBC daytime soap opera "Another World" as Dr. Courtney Evans. She guest-starred on "Law & Order" in 1997 and 1998, in two different roles. In 1999 she made her film debut with a small role in the crime drama "Black and White" and later co-starred in several independent films. In the early 2000s she began appearing in guest-starring roles on a number of television dramas and comedies, including "The Drew Carey Show", "The X Files", "ER", "Frasier", "The West Wing", "NCIS", "Medium", "Grey's Anatomy", "Private Practice", "Two and a Half Men", "Supernatural", "Drop Dead Diva", and "Castle". From 2000 to 2011, Young made over 30 guest appearances on television shows.


title: Bellamy Young

text: Young was a regular cast member in the USA Network series "Peacemakers" in 2003. The show was cancelled after one season of nine episodes. She had recurring roles in the Lifetime legal drama series "For the People" as Deputy Dist. Atty. Agnes Hunt in 2002, on NBC period drama "American Dreams" as Diane Shaw in 2003, on NBC's "Scrubs" as Dr. Grace Miller in 2004, as Assistant State Attorney Monica West on CBS's "" (2005–06), and on ABC primetime soap opera "Dirty Sexy Money" (2008–2009) as Ellen Darling, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Darling family. She also had a recurring role in "Criminal Minds" as Beth Clemmons from 2011 to 2013.


title: Bellamy Young

text: Young has appeared in supporting roles in a number of films, including "We Were Soldiers" (2002) and "" (2006), along with independent movies like "Larceny" (2004), "Eve of Understanding" (2006), "Trust Me" (2007), "This Is Not a Test" (2008), "In My Sleep" (2010), "The Freebie" (2010), and "Joint Body" (2014).


title: Bellamy Young

text: In 2011 Shonda Rhimes cast Young in the recurring role of First Lady, then 2016 Republican presidential nominee, Melody "Mellie" Grant on the ABC political thriller television series "Scandal" opposite Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn. Before "Scandal", Young appeared in Shonda Rhimes' "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice". She appeared in every episode of the first season of "Scandal" and was upgraded to a series regular as of season two. Young later said that her part was originally conceived as a three episode arc. Young has received critical acclaim for her performance as Melody Grant throughout her time on the show . "The Daily Beast" named her the "Breakout Star" of the show in 2014. Many critics praised Young's performance in her character's centered episode "Everything's Coming Up Mellie" of the third season. Cicely K. Dyson's review for "The Wall Street Journal" states: "Bellamy Young has been an amazing scene stealer for two-and-a-half seasons, and this time she finally got her chance to shine." Robert Rorke, writing for "The New York Post", states that, "In Mellie, the show has its most fleshed-out character and in Young, its most compelling performer." She won a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in season three.


title: Bellamy Young

text: On May 15, 2015, Young released her first album, "Far Away So Close", on iTunes. In 2016, she starred in the crime drama film "The Night Stalker" directed by Megan Griffiths about the serial killer Richard Ramirez. The following year, she had a supporting role in the independent comedy film "Bernard and Huey" opposite Jim Rash and David Koechner. In 2018, she co-starred in Disney's live action adaptation of "A Wrinkle in Time", along with Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling. Also that year, she played a leading role in the ABC comedy-drama pilot "False Profits".


title: Bellamy Young

text: In March 2019, Young announced that she would be co-starring in the Fox drama pilot "Prodigal Son" opposite Michael Sheen, Lou Diamond Phillips and Tom Payne. In May, the show was green-lit for a series order and by October, had been picked up for a full 22-episode season order . "Prodigal Son" was the first full season order of fall 2019 and was the highest-rated new show on any network. Young guest-starred in the ABC crime drama "Whiskey Cavalier" and Netflix anthology "Dolly Parton's Heartstrings" in 2019. In 2021, she guest-starred in the first episode of Fox series, "Fantasy Island" and starred in the CW reboot of "The Waltons' Homecoming" playing the role of Olivia Walton.


title: Bellamy Young

text: In 2022, Young starred in the ABC family drama series, "Promised Land" playing villainous Margaret Honeycroft. The series was canceled after one season. She returned to role of Olivia Walton in "The Waltons' Thanksgiving" later in 2022. Later in 2022, she was cast in the Hulu adaptation of "The Other Black Girl".


title: Bellamy Young

text: Young has been vegan since 1988 and in 2016 participated in a campaign for PETA titled, "Being Vegan Keeps Me Young". A long time supporter of shelter adoption, Young starred in 2 televised adverts for The Humane Society of the United States: 'The Shelter Pet Project' in 2015 and 'Honestly' in 2016.


title: Bellamy Young

text: Young is a registered Democrat. Along with several of her "Scandal" cast mates, Young headlined at a fundraiser event for Hillary Clinton in April 2016. From August through November 2016, Young hit the campaign trail for Clinton and visited Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. As part of the Obama administration legacy, in 2016, Young appeared in 'Women Film' by The United States of Women along with several other public figures such as Michelle Obama, Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey. After performing at the 2015 National Christmas Tree Lighting, it was announced that in 2016 Young would be co-ambassador, along with Chelsea Clinton, of the Trust for the National Mall.


title: Bellamy Young

text: Young is the honorary chair for the domestic violence nonprofit organization 'Helpmate' and has helped raise funds for victims of domestic violence. In 2015, Young won "Celebrity Jeopardy!" and as a result won $50,000 for Operation Blankets of Love – a charity which donates blankets to animals in shelters. As a teenager, Young began to suffer from migraines and still suffers from them to this day. She became a partner with GlaxoSmithKline for Treximet, in 2015, to spread migraine awareness. Young partnered with Merck & Co., in November 2016, to help educate people on the importance of biomarker testing in non-small cell lung cancer, the disease that killed her father.


title: Bellamy Young

text: A scholarship student herself, Young now endows a scholarship each year to a student at her alma mater, Yale University. In 2019, Young became an ambassador for the organization CARE and went on a trip to Rwanda to see the work they are doing there. For International Women's Day 2020, Young directed a PSA, for CARE, starring herself, Kerry Washington, Shonda Rhimes and Katie Lowes.


title: Bellamy Young

text: Young began dating Portuguese percussionist Pedro Segundo, in September 2017. In September 2022, Young revealed she and Segundo married during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: WrestleMania I

text: WrestleMania (sequentially known as WrestleMania I) was the inaugural WrestleMania and inaugural professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event (only in selected areas), produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on March 31, 1985, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The attendance for the event was 19,121. The event was seen by over one million viewers through closed-circuit television, making it the largest pay-per-view showing of a wrestling event on closed-circuit television in the United States at the time.


title: WrestleMania I

text: The show consisted of nine professional wrestling matches. In the main event, Hulk Hogan and Mr. T defeated Paul Orndorff and Roddy Piper. Also, Wendi Richter (accompanied by manager Cyndi Lauper) defeated Leilani Kai to win the WWF Women's Championship, and Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik defeated The U.S. Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham) to win the WWF Tag Team Championship. Celebrity guests included former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali as referee, baseball player/manager Billy Martin as ring announcer, and musician-actor Liberace as timekeeper.


title: WrestleMania I

text: The attendance at the event was 19,121. In addition, the event was seen by over one million viewers through closed-circuit television, making it the largest wrestling event on closed-circuit television in the United States at the time. A technical glitch ended the closed circuit broadcast early into the showing at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To appease angry fans who pelted the screen with garbage, WrestleMania was broadcast in its entirety on local ABC affiliate WTAE-TV two weeks later.


title: WrestleMania I

text: WWF announcer Gene Okerlund sang the national anthem, and Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura performed on commentary. Okerlund also did interviews backstage, and Alfred Hayes did interviews near the entrance to the locker room, right outside the ring. Howard Finkel was the ring announcer. The opening theme for the event was the instrumental portion of the Phil Collins and Philip Bailey hit "Easy Lover", while the closing theme for the credits was "Axel F" by Harold Faltermeyer. Celebrity guests in attendance included Billy Martin, Cyndi Lauper, Mr. T, Muhammad Ali, and Liberace accompanied by The Rockettes.


title: WrestleMania I

text: During the 1980s, World Wrestling Federation's main competition in the professional wrestling industry was from Jim Crockett Promotions. Vince McMahon countered Jim Crockett's successful Starrcade annual events, which began airing in 1983, by creating the WrestleMania franchise. A rights agreement which Barry Diller, head of USA Network co-owner Paramount, pushed by 1983 also allowed for better access to programming at the Madison Square Garden, including on any regional pay television network.


title: WrestleMania I

text: For the first WrestleMania, McMahon began cross promoting with MTV, which aired two wrestling specials. The first one was "The Brawl to End It All", aired on July 23, 1984, in which a match from a live Madison Square Garden broadcast was shown on MTV. Wendi Richter, allied with Cyndi Lauper, defeated The Fabulous Moolah, backed by Lou Albano, to win the WWF Women's Championship on the card. At "The War to Settle the Score", which aired on February 18, 1985, Leilani Kai, accompanied by Moolah, defeated Richter, again accompanied by Lauper, to win the Women's Championship. Aside from Lauper, other celebrities also appeared during the buildup to and at the event; most notably Muhammad Ali, Liberace (with The Rockettes), and Major League Baseball manager Billy Martin all appeared during the main event.


title: WrestleMania I

text: WrestleMania would become considered the WWF's flagship event. It has since become the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. Following the advent of Survivor Series in 1987 and then Royal Rumble and SummerSlam in 1988—WWF's four original pay-per-views—the four would eventually be dubbed the "Big Four". WrestleMania would eventually be described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment.


title: WrestleMania I

text: The card consisted of nine matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by WWF's writers.


title: WrestleMania I

text: Three championships were defended at WrestleMania: the WWF Women's Championship, WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship and the WWF World Tag Team Championship. Prior to the event, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine had feuded with Tito Santana over the Intercontinental Heavyweight belt. Valentine defeated Santana on September 24, 1984 for the championship. Mike Rotunda and Barry Windham won the WWF Tag Team Championship three months before WrestleMania from the team of Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch.


title: WrestleMania I

text: In the months leading up to the first WrestleMania, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper began a talk-show segment on WWF television entitled "Piper's Pit". On one episode of the show, he hit Jimmy Snuka over the head with a coconut, leading to a feud between the two men. As part of the storyline, Piper recruited Bob Orton to be his bodyguard. On another episode of Piper's Pit, Piper spoke out against the burgeoning Rock 'n' Wrestling connection, which led to a confrontation with Hulk Hogan. In February 1985, the two men faced each other at "The War to Settle the Score", where Hogan won by disqualification after interference by Paul Orndorff and Mr. T. Their on-going feud led to their match at WrestleMania.


title: WrestleMania I

text: As part of the promotion for the event, Hogan appeared on "Hot Properties" four days prior to WrestleMania, where he put host Richard Belzer into a front chinlock —a move that cuts off the flow of blood to the brain. Belzer, however, fell to the floor unconscious and began to bleed profusely. His injury required eight stitches. Belzer later sued Hogan for $5 million, but they eventually settled out of court. The night before WrestleMania, Hogan and Mr. T hosted an episode of "Saturday Night Live" to help promote the event.


title: WrestleMania I

text: Gene Okerlund opened the event by singing the national anthem. The originally intended singer, a celebrity guest that Okerlund and Vince McMahon refused to name, failed to appear.


title: WrestleMania I

text: The first match was between Tito Santana and The Executioner (Buddy Rose). Santana won the match after applying a figure four leglock on The Executioner, which was a shot at current Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine, as the figure four was his finishing move.


title: WrestleMania I

text: Following the match, King Kong Bundy (accompanied by Jimmy Hart) and Special Delivery Jones made their way to the ring. After crushing his opponent against the turnbuckle and landing on him stomach-first, Bundy pinned Jones. The WWF's official time for the match is a then-record time of nine seconds (a record since surpassed by The Rock defeating Erick Rowan at WrestleMania 32), although the match actually lasted 25 seconds.


title: WrestleMania I

text: The next match was between Ricky Steamboat and Matt Borne. Steamboat took the early advantage in the match-up, until Borne flipped him over and slammed him to the mat using a belly-to-belly suplex. After performing a flying crossbody Steamboat pinned Borne for the win.


title: WrestleMania I

text: After the match ended, David Sammartino, accompanied by his father Bruno Sammartino, and Brutus Beefcake, accompanied by Johnny Valiant, made their way to the ring. The action favoured both contestants, as each wrestler alternated having the advantage. After Beefcake threw David Sammartino out of the ring, Valiant lifted him up and slammed him to the cement floor. He then pushed Sammartino back into the ring before being attacked by Bruno. A short while later, all four men began fighting in the ring, and the match ended in a no-contest.


title: WrestleMania I

text: The first championship defense of WrestleMania was between Junkyard Dog and the reigning WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion Greg Valentine, who was accompanied to the ring by his manager Jimmy Hart. Junkyard Dog began the match in the offensive position, performing headbutts and punches on Valentine. As the action went back and forth, Hart climbed on the ring apron, where Valentine accidentally hit him. Later, Valentine pinned Junkyard Dog with his feet on the ropes for leverage, which is an illegal maneuver. As a result, Tito Santana ran down to the ring and explained to the referee what had happened and the match was restarted. Junkyard Dog eventually won the match by count-out as Valentine failed to re-enter the ring. Valentine, however, kept his title as titles do not change hands through count-out.


title: WrestleMania I

text: The following match was for the WWF Tag Team Championship. Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik, accompanied to the ring by Freddie Blassie, challenged the reigning champions, The U.S. Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham), who were accompanied by Lou Albano. The U.S. Express dominated the early part of the match until Volkoff and The Sheik began to gain the offensive advantage over Rotundo. Rotundo then tagged in Windham, who performed a bulldog on The Sheik. After nearly being pinned, The Sheik hit Windham in the head with Blassie's cane as the referee had his back turned. After Volkoff got the pin, Volkoff and The Sheik were crowned as the new tag champions, becoming the first people to win a championship at WrestleMania.


title: WrestleMania I

text: The next match on the card was a $15,000 Body Slam Challenge between André the Giant and Big John Studd, who was accompanied by Bobby Heenan. The stipulation of the match was that André the Giant had to body slam Studd to win $15,000, and if he failed, he would be forced to retire. After beginning the match in the defensive position, André countered with chops and a headbutt. From then on André controlled the match and after weakening Studd's knees with multiple kicks, André was able to lift Studd over his shoulders and execute a body slam to win the match. After André collected his prize money, he started throwing the money out to the audience. Heenan, however, grabbed the bag holding the remainder of the winnings and ran from ringside. As a result of the match, André was able to continue his career and his WWF undefeated streak was unscathed.


title: WrestleMania I

text: After all the men had left ringside, it was time for the WWF Women's Championship match between Wendi Richter, managed by singer Cyndi Lauper , and Leilani Kai, managed by former champion The Fabulous Moolah. Shortly after the match began, Moolah grabbed Richter as she was outside on the floor, but Lauper saved her from an attack. Kai then performed a flying crossbody from the top rope, but Richter used Kai's momentum to roll-up Kai in a pinning position. With this pin, Richter became the new Women's Champion.


title: WrestleMania I

text: The main event and last match of the night pitted Hulk Hogan, the reigning WWF World Heavyweight Champion, and Mr. T, accompanied by Jimmy Snuka, against "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, accompanied by "Cowboy" Bob Orton. Professional boxer Muhammad Ali was the special guest referee (on the outside of the ring), New York Yankees manager Billy Martin was the guest ring announcer while Liberace (accompanied by The Rockettes) was the guest time keeper. First, Piper, Orndorff, and Orton made their way to the ring as drums and bagpipes played, causing the crowd to boo. Crowd favorites Hogan, Mr. T, and Snuka made their way to the ring next. The match began with Mr. T and Piper in the ring and the two traded blows. Midway through the match, all four men began brawling in the ring, and Muhammad Ali punched Piper in an attempt to restore order. After the match's order was restored, Orndorff and Piper had the offensive advantage. As Orndorff locked Hogan into a full nelson, Orton climbed the top rope to attempt to knock out Hogan. Instead, Orton mistakenly hit Orndorff, and Hogan pinned him to win the match. In frustration, Piper knocked out the in-ring official, Pat Patterson before he and Orton retreated backstage leaving Orndorff alone in the ring with Hogan, Mr. T, and Snuka.


title: WrestleMania I

text: Approximately three months after WrestleMania, on July 6, 1985, Greg Valentine lost the Intercontinental Championship back to Tito Santana in a cage match. At about the same time, Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik lost the WWF Tag Team Championship back to The U.S. Express. They held the title until August, when the team of Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine, later known as the Dream Team, became the new champions.


title: WrestleMania I

text: On July 8, 1985, Don Muraco won the inaugural King of The Ring tournament by defeating the Iron Sheik in the finals.


title: WrestleMania I

text: After André the Giant defeated Big John Studd at the event, Studd formed a tag team with King Kong Bundy, and the duo faced André and Hulk Hogan on a number of occasions. Later, the team of Studd and Bundy teamed up in Handicap matches—a two against one wrestling match—against André, which renewed the feud between André and Studd.


title: WrestleMania I

text: In late 1985, Wendi Richter lost her WWF Women's Championship in controversial fashion. She wrestled a masked female wrestler known as The Spider Lady, who pinned Richter to win the title. After the match, the Spider Lady was revealed as the Fabulous Moolah. This finish was a screwjob, i.e. one participant (in this case Richter) was unaware of the planned title change. Richter left the WWF shortly after, and Moolah held the title for approximately two years.


title: WrestleMania I

text: In a new storyline after WrestleMania, Roddy Piper began training Bob Orton as a boxer. Hulk Hogan accepted a challenge on the behalf of Mr. T to face Orton in a match on the February 15, 1986 "Saturday Night's Main Event V". After Mr. T won the match, Orton and Piper attacked him, leading to a boxing match at WrestleMania 2 between Piper and Mr. T. At the second annual WrestleMania, Piper was disqualified in the Fourth round.


title: WrestleMania I

text: John Powell of "Slam! Wrestling" rated the event as average, citing that it "wasn't the greatest". Despite his overall rating, he praised several moments, including Orton hitting Orndorff with his cast, King Kong Bundy's win, and André the Giant throwing the money into the crowd. Powell listed Mr. T wrestling as his least favorite moment of the pay-per-view, saying the main event match, in which Mr. T took part, was humorous despite its lack of technical wrestling. "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" awarded the main event match its annual PWI Match of the Year honor. The event was included in a July 2007 special that aired on the MSG Network titled "The 50 Greatest Moments at Madison Square Garden", ranking at No. 30.


title: WrestleMania I

text: In the December 2002 issue of "Wrestling Digest", the main event match-up was listed as number five in the most memorable twenty-five matches of the past twenty-five years. Echoing John Powell's thoughts, Kevin Eck of "Wrestling Digest" stated, "The match itself was far from a technical-wrestling classic, but it delivered in terms of entertaining the crowd." In another "Wrestling Digest" article, written by Keith Loria, the main event was ranked third in the top ten matches in WrestleMania history. In contrast to Powell, Loria believed that Mr. T "proved to be an adequate grappler".


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Nadezhda Sergeyevna Alliluyeva (; – 9 November 1932) was the second wife of Joseph Stalin. She was born in Baku to a friend of Stalin, a fellow revolutionary, and was raised in Saint Petersburg. Having known Stalin from a young age, she married him when she was 18, and they had two children. Alliluyeva worked as a secretary for Bolshevik leaders, including Vladimir Lenin and Stalin, before enrolling at the Industrial Academy in Moscow to study synthetic fibres and become an engineer. She had health issues, which had an adverse impact on her relationship with Stalin. She also suspected he was unfaithful, which led to frequent arguments with him. On several occasions, Alliluyeva reportedly contemplated leaving Stalin, and after an argument, she fatally shot herself early in the morning of 9 November 1932.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Alliluyeva's father, Sergei Alliluyev (1866–1945), was from a peasant family in Voronezh Oblast (modern southwest Russia). He moved to the Caucasus, where he worked for the rail depot and first became familiar with working conditions in the Russian Empire. Sergei's grandmother was Romani, a fact to which his granddaughter, Svetlana, attributed the "southern, somewhat exotic features" and "black eyes" that characterized the Alliluyevs. Sergei joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1898, and became an active member in workers' study circles; it was through these meetings he met Mikhail Kalinin, one of the chief organizers of the party in the Caucasus. Sergei had been arrested and exiled to Siberia, but by 1902 he had returned to the Caucasus. In 1904, he met Ioseb Jughashvili (later known as Joseph Stalin) while helping to move a printing machine from Baku to Tiflis.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Alliluyeva's mother, Olga Fedotenko (1877–1951), was the youngest of nine children of Evgeni Fedotenko and Magdalena Eicholz. Alliluyeva's daughter Svetlana wrote in her memoir that Evgeni had Ukrainian ancestry on his father's side, his mother was Georgian, and he grew up speaking Georgian at home. Magdalena came from a family of German settlers, and spoke German and Georgian at home. Olga's father initially wanted her to marry one of his friend's sons, but she refused to accept the arrangements and left home at 14 to live with Sergei, joining him in Tiflis.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Nadezhda Alliluyeva, born in Baku on 22 September 1901, was the youngest of four children, following Anna, Fyodor, and Pavel. The family moved to Moscow in 1904, but had returned to Baku by 1906. In 1907, to avoid arrest, Sergei moved the family to Saint Petersburg, where they would remain. The family would often help hide members of the Bolsheviks, a Russian revolutionary group, at their home, including Stalin. Sergei Aliluyev worked at an electricity station, and by 1911 was named head of a sector there, allowing the family to afford a comfortable lifestyle.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Exposed to revolutionary activity throughout her youth, Alliluyeva first became a supporter of the Bolsheviks while in school. Her family frequently hosted party members at their home, including hiding Vladimir Lenin during the July Days of 1917, which further strengthened Alliluyeva's views. After Lenin escaped Russia in August 1917, Stalin arrived. He had known Alliluyeva since she was a child, reportedly having saved her from drowning when they were both in Baku. It had been many years since they had last seen each other, and over the rest of the summer they became close. The couple married in February or March 1919. Stalin was a 40-year-old widower and father of one son (Yakov), born in 1907 to Stalin's first wife, Kato Svanidze, who died of typhus later that year. There was no ceremony for the marriage, as Bolsheviks frowned upon the custom.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: The Bolsheviks took power in Russia in November 1917 (O.S. October 1917), which led to the Russian Civil War. In 1918, Alliluyeva and Stalin moved to Moscow, joining other Bolshevik leaders as the capital was transferred there from Petrograd. They took up residence in the Amusement Palace of the Kremlin, occupying separate rooms. Stalin made Alliluyeva a secretary at the People's Commissariat for Nationalities, where he served as the head, and in May brought her and her brother Fyodor with him to Tsaritsyn, where the Bolsheviks were fighting the White Army as part of the Russian Civil War. Alliluyeva did not stay long there and returned to Moscow, though Stalin's involvement in the Civil War meant he was rarely at home. By 1921 the Civil War had ended, and in 1922 the Soviet Union was established, Lenin taking the leading role.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Not wanting to be dependent on Stalin, Alliluyeva transferred positions and joined Lenin's secretariat. This allegedly annoyed Stalin, who wanted his wife to quit her job and remain at home. Alliluyeva was comfortable working for Lenin and his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya, also a Bolshevik functionary, as they were more lenient about her work than Stalin: for example, Lenin knew that Alliluyeva had left school at a young age and consequently forgave her for spelling errors.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: In 1921, a few months after the birth of their first child, Vasily, Alliluyeva was expelled from the Bolshevik Party; according to historian Oleg Khlevniuk she had trouble managing family life, professional work, and party work, and was considered "ballast with no interest in the life of the party whatsoever". Although she was admitted back through the intercession of top party officials, including Lenin, her full status was not restored until 1924. Alliluyeva was concerned that if she did not work outside the home, she would not be taken seriously. She also desired to be qualified for any role she took up. After working in Lenin's office, Alliluyeva transferred to briefly work for Sergo Ordzhonikidze, a close friend of Stalin's and a fellow senior Bolshevik, and then on to the International Agrarian Institute in the Department of Agitation and Propaganda as an assistant.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Lenin died in 1924 and was ultimately succeeded as leader of the Soviet Union by Stalin. Tired of her work and not happy in her role as the "First Lady", Alliluyeva looked for something else to do with herself. Interested in education and wanting to be more involved with the party, in 1929 she enrolled in the Industrial Academy to study engineering and synthetic fibres, which was a new technology at the time, and became more active in local party meetings. As was the custom of the time, Alliluyeva registered using her maiden name, which also allowed her to keep a low profile; it is unclear if her associates knew who she was, though it is likely that at least the local party boss, Nikita Khrushchev, knew of her. Alliluyeva frequently took the tram from the Kremlin to the Academy, joined by , the wife of Andrey Andreyev, a leading Bolshevik and associate of Stalin. At the Academy, Alliluyeva interacted with students from across the Soviet Union. Some have speculated that Alliluyeva learned of the issues the population was facing as a result of the collectivization of agriculture, including the famine in Ukraine, and argued with Stalin about this. Khlevniuk concludes that "there is absolutely no hard evidence that [Alliluyeva] objected to her husband's policies... Her letters give the impression that she, like the rest of the Bolshevik elite, was completely isolated from the suffering of tens of millions outside the Kremlin walls."


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Alliluyeva had her first child, Vasily, in 1921. Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore noted that she walked to the hospital to give birth in a show of "Bolshevik austerity". A second child, daughter Svetlana, was born in 1926. In 1921, the family also took in Stalin's first son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, who had been living in Tiflis with Svandize's relatives. Alliluyeva was only six years older than her step-son, Dzhugashvili, with whom she developed a friendly relationship. Around the same time the family also took in Artyom Sergeyev, the son of Fyodor Sergeyev, a close friend of Stalin. Fyodor died four months after the birth of Artyom in an accident, and though his mother was still alive, the boy was raised in the Stalin household.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Interested in pursuing a professional career, Alliluyeva did not spend much time with her children, and instead hired a nanny, Alexandra Bychokova, to watch the children. When Alliluyeva dealt with her children, though, she was quite strict: Svetlana would later recall that the only letter she received from her mother scolded her for "being terribly naughty", despite Svetlana's being only four or five at the time. She would also recall that the only person Stalin feared was Alliluyeva. Even so, Alliluyeva wanted to ensure the children received a good education.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: During the week, the family would stay in their Kremlin apartment, where Alliluyeva maintained a simple lifestyle and controlled the family's expenses. On weekends, they would often go to their dacha on the outskirts of Moscow. Alliluyeva's siblings and their families lived nearby, and they would all frequently get together on these occasions. In the summer, Stalin would holiday along the coast of the Black Sea, near Sochi or in Abkhazia, and was frequently joined by Alliluyeva, though by 1929 she would spend only a few days there before returning to Moscow for her studies. Though apart, the two of them would frequently write letters to each other.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: According to her close friend, Polina Zhemchuzhina, the marriage was strained, and the two argued frequently. Stalin believed that Alliluyeva's mother was schizophrenic. Karl Pauker, then head of Stalin's personal security, was an unwilling witness of their quarrels. "She is like a flint," Pauker said of Alliluyeva, "[Stalin] is very rough with her, but even he is afraid of her sometimes. Especially when the smile disappears from her face." She suspected Stalin was unfaithful with other women, though according to Boris Bazhanov, Stalin's one-time secretary, "women didn't interest [Stalin]. His own woman was enough for him, and he paid scant attention to her."


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Along with her husband's alleged neglect, Alliluyeva's last years were darkened by ill health. She was suffering from "terrible depressions", headaches, and early menopause; her daughter later claimed that Alliluyeva had "feminine problems" because of a "couple of abortions which were never attended to". On several occasions, Alliluyeva reportedly considered leaving Stalin and taking the children with her, and in 1926 she left for a short time, moving to Leningrad. Stalin called her back, and she returned to stay with him. Her nephew Alexander Alliluyev would later claim that shortly before her death Alliluyeva was again planning to leave Stalin, but there is no evidence to confirm this assertion.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: In November 1932, Alliluyeva was only a few weeks away from finishing her course at the Academy. Alongside her compatriots, she marched in the 7 November parade commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of the October Revolution, while Stalin and the children watched her from the top of Lenin's Mausoleum on Red Square. After the parade finished, Alliluyeva complained of a headache, so the children went to their dacha outside the city while she returned to their residence in the Kremlin. The next evening both Alliluyeva and Stalin attended a dinner hosted at the Kremlin apartment of Kliment Voroshilov, a close friend of Stalin's and a member of the Politburo, to commemorate the Revolution. Though she preferred to dress modestly in a style more in line with the Bolshevik ideology, Alliluyeva dressed up for the occasion. There was much drinking during the dinner, which had several high-ranking Bolsheviks and their spouses in attendance, and Alliluyeva and Stalin began to argue, which was not an unusual occurrence at these gatherings. It has been suggested that Stalin was also flirting with Galina Yegorova, the young wife of Alexander Yegorov, and there was recent discussion that he had been with a hairdresser who worked in the Kremlin.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Things became even worse between the two, and Montefiore suggested that when Stalin "toasted the destruction of the Enemies of the State", he saw Alliluyeva did not raise her glass as well, and became annoyed. Stalin supposedly threw something at her (listed variously as an orange peel, cigarette butt, or piece of bread) to get her attention, before finally calling out to her, which only further maddened Alliluyeva, who abruptly left the dinner and went outside; Zhemchuzhina followed after her to ensure someone else was there with her. The two women walked outside within the Kremlin Wall, discussing the events of the night, agreeing that Stalin was drunk, and talking about Alliluyeva's issues with Stalin's supposed affairs. The two parted ways and Alliluyeva returned to her residence.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Events after that are not clear, but some time early in the morning of 9 November, Alliluyeva, alone in her room, shot herself in the heart, killing herself instantly. Her body was found in the morning by Karolina Til, the Stalin family's housekeeper. Alliluyeva used a small Walther PP pistol only recently given to her by her brother Pavel Alliluyev, who brought it as a gift from his time in Berlin. She had asked him to do so, noting that it could be dangerous alone in the Kremlin at times, and she wanted protection.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Stalin and the other leaders decided it would not be appropriate to say Alliluyeva had killed herself, so when her death was announced the next day, the cause of death was given as appendicitis. The children were not told the true nature of her death. Accounts of contemporaries and Stalin's letters indicate that he was much disturbed by the event.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: "Pravda", the official party newspaper, announced Alliluyeva's death in its 10 November edition. This came as a surprise to many in the Soviet Union, as it also was the first public acknowledgement that Stalin had been married. Her body, in an open casket, was placed in an upper floor of the GUM department store, opposite Red Square and the Kremlin. Government and party officials came to visit, but the public was not allowed. The funeral was held on 12 November, both Stalin and Vasily attending. Stalin took part in the procession to the cemetery afterwards, which involved a march from GUM to the Novodevichy Cemetery, though it is not clear if he walked the entire route. In her memoirs Svetlana claimed that Stalin never again visited the grave.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Alliluyeva's death had a profound impact on her children and family. Svetlana only found out her mother killed herself when reading an English journal article in 1942. The revelation came as a shock to her, and profoundly altered her relationship with Stalin, who had maintained the lie for a decade. She remained distant from Stalin until his death, and took up her mother's maiden name in 1957 to further distance herself from him. She ultimately defected from the Soviet Union in 1967, and died in the United States in 2011.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Vasily was also greatly affected: although Alliluyeva had not played a major role in raising her children, she still showed interest in their well-being. After her death, Stalin doted upon Svetlana but virtually ignored Vasily, who began to drink from a young age and ultimately died of alcohol-related issues in 1962.


title: Nadezhda Alliluyeva

text: Alliluyeva's father, Sergei, became very withdrawn after her death. He wrote memoirs which were published in 1946 after heavy editing. He died of stomach cancer in 1945. Alliluyeva's mother, Olga, lived until 1951, dying of a heart attack.


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: Yoo Ji-tae (born April 13, 1976) is a South Korean actor, film director and screenwriter. After a stint as a fashion model, Yoo launched his acting career in 1998 then rose to fame through the films "Attack the Gas Station" (1999) and "Ditto" (2000). In the succeeding years, he gained acting recognition by working with acclaimed directors such as Hur Jin-ho in "One Fine Spring Day" (2001), Park Chan-wook in "Oldboy" (2003), and Hong Sang-soo in "Woman is the Future of Man" (2004). Yoo began directing short films in 2003, which were well received in the film festival circuit. His feature directorial debut "Mai Ratima" was released in 2013.


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: Yoo Ji-tae began his career as a fashion model, and he walked the runway for the Seoul Fashion Artist Association collections in 1995. Then in 2000, with a series of hit films and widely seen TV appearances, Yoo was more constantly in the limelight than any other actor, and in a very short time, rose to become a major actor in Korean film.


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: His first brush with fame came in the role of "Paint" in his second feature, the 1999 hit "Attack the Gas Station". His sensitive and artistic image in this film and the warm character he displayed as a guest on TV talk shows helped to propel him to stardom. With the surprise success of his third film "Ditto" in spring 2000, Yoo's star status was secured. He also appeared in the successful firefighting film "Libera Me". In this early part of his career, he was known particularly for the wild colors that he would dye his hair (white in "Attack the Gas Station", blue in "Ditto", blonde in "Libera Me").


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: In 2001, however, he dyed his hair black and took on a more subdued, serious role in Hur Jin-ho's "One Fine Spring Day". Although it wasn't a big hit with audiences, his performance in this film opened many critics' eyes and drew widespread praise, while officially launching the second stage of his career.


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: For the next two years, Yoo didn't appear in any new films, because "Natural City" took an unusually long time to progress from shooting to a commercial release. He then appeared in three works in 2003: "Natural City" (which bombed, despite its big budget and special effects), the horror/suspense film "Into the Mirror", and Park Chan-wook's acclaimed "Oldboy". Yoo's memorable role in the latter film as a wealthy eccentric fixated on revenge would make his face well known to international audiences.


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: As Yoo's career established itself he began to appear in many high-profile projects, such as in well-known arthouse director Hong Sang-soo's "Woman is the Future of Man" (which, like "Oldboy", screened at Cannes in 2004); Yim Pil-sung's big-budget "Antarctic Journal", shot in New Zealand; and the action/noir "Running Wild" with Kwon Sang-woo. He also established his own production company Yoo Movie in 2005.


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: As soon as he finished shooting the 2007 period film "Hwang Jin-yi" about a Joseon-era gisaeng, Yoo chose to act in the play "Come to the Ghost House". A graduate of Dankook University with a major in Theater and Film, he also established a theater to put on one play a year. Almost all the money for the theatrical productions comes from his own wallet. "I work on stage because it's there that I find the challenge and the stimulus an actor needs through continuous creative work," he said.


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: Yoo returned to the screen with 2008 romantic drama film, "Hello, Schoolgirl", based on the manhwa "Soonjeong Manwha".


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: In 2009, he lent his voice as narrator for the track "I’m Sorry" (미안해) in singer Jinju's album "Pearlfect".


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: Yoo then returned to the melodrama genre, starring in his first TV drama "Star's Lover" opposite Choi Ji-woo, as well as a couple of romance-themed films, notably "Secret Love" which reunited him with "Oldboy" costar Yoon Jin-seo. Afterwards he played another villain in the real-time suspense thriller "Midnight FM".


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: After getting his master's degree in 2008 from Chung-Ang University's Graduate School of Advanced Imaging Science, Multimedia & Film, in recent years Yoo has focused more on his passion for directing. To him, "Making films is like taking drugs. Actors feel a pleasure when they deliver well but directors feel they have poured out everything they have in the sole fact that they have completed a movie. It's impossible to compare the pleasure you get from it." He has helmed a number of award-winning short films that have screened in festivals around the world. In addition to directing his fourth short film "Invitation", Yoo wrote the script and plays the main character alongside leading lady Uhm Ji-won.


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: In 2012, Yoo directed his first feature film "Mai Ratima", based on a synopsis he wrote 15 years ago in college. It portrays the unlikely love affair of a Korean man in his 30s living on the bottom rung of society and a mail-order bride from Thailand in her 20s. Shooting began in Gyeonggi Province on January 26, 2012, and it premiered at the Busan International Film Festival on October 5, 2012. Yoo said he plans to continue producing or directing movies based on strong social issues as he is interested in the plight of the less privileged. "Mai Ratima" won the Jury Prize at the 2013 Deauville Asian Film Festival.


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: He then co-starred with Kōichi Satō and Vincent Gallo in Junji Sakamoto's 2013 suspense thriller "Human Trust".


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: For the biopic "The Tenor - Lirico Spinto", Yoo practiced singing for four hours every day for more than a year, and took private English and Japanese lessons to portray Bae Jae-chul, an internationally acclaimed tenor who loses his voice to thyroid cancer. Afterwards, he starred in another TV series "Healer", written by Song Ji-na.


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: In 2016, Yoo starred in the bowling-themed film, "Split". He returned to television in the South Korean remake of "The Good Wife".


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: In 2017, Yoo starred in "The Swindlers" along with Hyun Bin. The movie is about a prosecutor who plans to catch a con man who has swindled a large sum of money. The same year, he was cast in the Danish film "The House That Jack Built" by Lars Von Trier. He also had a starring role in the crime drama, "Mad Dog".


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: Yoo was raised by a single parent. "My mother, who worked as a nurse for a long time, wants to run a hospital for the elderly someday. I want to financially help her realize her dream, and then establish an orphanage," said Yoo. He is friends with comedian Kim Joon-ho, having lived together as roommates during college and briefly acting together onstage.


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: Currently a student at the Catholic University of Korea Graduate School of Social Work, Yoo is very active in philanthropic efforts. He joins charity photo shoots and auctions, has helped set up a kindergarten in Nepal, has donated to Haiti earthquake relief, has donated funds for building schools in Myanmar, has joined a charity photo shoot to benefit victims of facial burns, has volunteered in a campaign to deliver free lunches to underprivileged people, has promoted the adoption of abandoned dogs, and has campaigned against domestic violence towards migrant wives. His advocacies are World Vision, Compassion Korea, DAIL Community, Social Welfare Society Inc., YWCA of Korea, Nanum House of Sharing and Korean Association of Cinematheques.


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: Yoo first met actress Kim Hyo-jin in 2003 when they were models for a clothing brand, and the two became friends after continuously meeting in photo shoots. Their romantic relationship began in 2006, and they were among the very few Korean star couples who openly admitted their dating status. They announced their engagement in August 2011, and subsequently released pre-wedding photos. Their minimalist invitation was made from environmentally friendly paper and had the number 1,825 written on it, the exact number of days the two had spent together as a couple. They were married at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul on December 2, 2011. The wedding date marked the couple's fifth anniversary together and was booked by Yoo one year in advance despite landing on a Friday – an unusual day for a wedding. The ceremony was officiated by the president of World Vision Korea; Yoo and Kim are the organization's honorary ambassadors, and they donated a portion of their monetary wedding gifts to World Vision to help build a primary and middle school in Myanmar. Their first child, a son, was born on July 5, 2014. They welcomed their second son on April 15, 2019.


title: Yoo Ji-tae

text: On March 8, 2022, Yoo donated 10 million won to the Hope Bridge Disaster Relief Association to help the victims of the massive wildfire that started in Uljin, Gyeongbuk and has spread to Samcheok, Gangwon.


title: Norton Knatchbull, 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma

text: Norton Louis Philip Knatchbull, 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma (born 8 October 1947), known until 2005 as Lord Romsey and until 2017 as The Lord Brabourne, is a British peer.


text: Lord Mountbatten was born in Lambeth as the eldest son of Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, and John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne.


text: Mountbatten was educated at the Dragon School, in Oxford, and Gordonstoun School, Elgin, Moray, Scotland. He subsequently attended the University of Kent in southeast England.


text: He followed his father into the British film industry in the 1970s, working as location manager on "A Bridge Too Far" and associate producer of "Death on the Nile" and the television serial "Quatermass".


text: On the death of his father on 23 September 2005, he became the 8th Baron Brabourne, of Brabourne in the County of Kent, in the peerage of the United Kingdom. He also succeeded to the Knatchbull Baronetcy, of Mersham Hatch in the County of Kent, in the baronetage of England. On the death of his mother on 13 June 2017, he became Earl Mountbatten of Burma, also a title in the peerage of the United Kingdom created for his grandfather, Admiral of the Fleet Lord Louis Mountbatten.


text: He is a descendant of Queen Victoria, whose second daughter Princess Alice of the United Kingdom was his maternal great-great-grandmother. He is also a second cousin to Charles III, through his mother and Charles' father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who was his godfather. Mountbatten is the godfather of Philip's grandson, the Prince of Wales. He is also related to author Jane Austen. He is a direct descendant on his father, John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne's side of Jane's brother, Edward Austen Knight.


text: Mountbatten is married to Penelope Meredith Eastwood (born 16 April 1953), a daughter of Marian Elizabeth Hood (1926–2020) and Reginald Wray Frank Eastwood (1912–1980), a self-made millionaire who founded the Angus Steakhouse chain. They were wed on 20 October 1979 at Romsey Abbey, Romsey, only two months after the IRA murdered his 79-year-old maternal grandfather, Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma; his 14-year-old younger brother, Nicholas Knatchbull; and his 83-year-old paternal grandmother, Doreen Knatchbull, Dowager Lady Brabourne.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states (including Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Megara), and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I (allied with Greece's Boeotians, Thessalians, and Macedonians).


title: Battle of Plataea

text: The previous year the Persian invasion force, led by the Persian king in person, had scored victories at the battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium and conquered Thessaly, Phocis, Boeotia, Euboea and Attica. However, at the ensuing Battle of Salamis, the allied Greek navy had won an unlikely but decisive victory, preventing the conquest of the Peloponnesus. Xerxes then retreated with much of his army, leaving his general Mardonius to finish off the Greeks the following year.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: In the summer of 479 BC the Greeks assembled a huge (by ancient standards) army and marched out of the Peloponnesus. The Persians retreated to Boeotia and built a fortified camp near Plataea. The Greeks, however, refused to be drawn into the prime cavalry terrain around the Persian camp, resulting in a stalemate that lasted 11 days. While attempting a retreat after their supply lines were disrupted, the Greek battle line fragmented. Thinking the Greeks were in full retreat, Mardonius ordered his forces to pursue them, but the Greeks (particularly the Spartans, Tegeans and Athenians) halted and gave battle, routing the lightly armed Persian infantry and killing Mardonius.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: A large portion of the Persian army was trapped in its camp and slaughtered. The destruction of this army, and the remnants of the Persian navy allegedly on the same day at the Battle of Mycale, decisively ended the invasion. After Plataea and Mycale the Greek allies would take the offensive against the Persians, marking a new phase of the Greco-Persian Wars. Although Plataea was in every sense a resounding victory, it does not seem to have been attributed the same significance (even at the time) as, for example, the Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon or the allied Greek defeat at Thermopylae.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: The Greek city-states of Athens and Eretria had supported the unsuccessful Ionian Revolt against the Persian Empire of Darius I in 499–494 BC. The Persian Empire was still relatively young and prone to revolts by its subject peoples. Moreover, Darius was a usurper and had to spend considerable time putting down revolts against his rule. The Ionian Revolt threatened the integrity of his empire, and he thus vowed to punish those involved (especially those not already part of the empire). Darius also saw the opportunity to expand his empire into the fractious world of Ancient Greece.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: A preliminary expedition under Mardonius, in 492 BC, to secure the land approaches to Greece ended with the re-conquest of Thrace and forced Macedon to become a fully subordinate client kingdom of Persia; the latter had been a Persian vassal as early as the late 6th century BC. An amphibious task force was then sent out under Datis and Artaphernes in 490 BC, using Delos as an intermediate base at, successfully sacking Karystos and Eretria, before moving to attack Athens. However, at the ensuing Battle of Marathon, the Athenians won a remarkable victory, resulting in the withdrawal of the Persian army to Asia.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Darius therefore began raising a huge new army with which he meant to completely subjugate Greece. However, he died before the invasion could begin. The throne of Persia passed to his son Xerxes I, who quickly restarted the preparations for the invasion of Greece, including building two pontoon bridges across the Hellespont. In 481 BC, Xerxes sent ambassadors around Greece asking for earth and water as a gesture of their submission, but making the very deliberate omission of Athens and Sparta (both of whom were at open war with Persia). Support thus began to coalesce around these two leading states. A congress of city states met at Corinth in the late autumn of 481 BC, and a confederate alliance of Greek city-states was formed (hereafter referred to as "the Allies"). This was remarkable for the disjointed Greek world, especially since many of the city-states in attendance were still technically at war with each other.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: The Allies initially adopted a strategy of blocking land and sea approaches to southern Greece. Thus, in August 480 BC, after hearing of Xerxes' approach, a small Allied army led by Spartan King Leonidas I blocked the Pass of Thermopylae, while an Athenian-dominated navy sailed to the Straits of Artemisium. Famously, the massively outnumbered Greek army held Thermopylae for three days before being outflanked by the Persians, who used a little-known mountain path. Although much of the Greek army retreated, the rearguard, formed of the Spartan and Thespian contingents, was surrounded and annihilated. The simultaneous Battle of Artemisium, consisting of a series of naval encounters, was up to that point a stalemate; however, when news of Thermopylae reached them, the Greeks also retreated, since holding the straits was now a moot point.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Following Thermopylae, the Persian army proceeded to burn and sack the Boeotian cities that had not surrendered, Plataea and Thespiae, before taking possession of the now-evacuated city of Athens. The Allied army, meanwhile, prepared to defend the Isthmus of Corinth. Xerxes wished for a final crushing defeat of the Allies to finish the conquest of Greece in that campaigning season; conversely, the Allies sought a decisive victory over the Persian navy that would guarantee the security of the Peloponnese. The ensuing naval Battle of Salamis ended in a decisive victory for the Allies, marking a turning point in the conflict.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Following the defeat of his navy at Salamis, Xerxes retreated to Asia with the bulk of his army. According to Herodotus, this was because he feared the Greeks would sail to the Hellespont and destroy the pontoon bridges, thereby trapping his army in Europe. He left Mardonius, with hand-picked troops, to complete the conquest of Greece the following year. Mardonius evacuated Attica and wintered in Thessaly; the Athenians then reoccupied their destroyed city. Over the winter, there seems to have been some tension among the Allies. The Athenians in particular, who were not protected by the Isthmus but whose fleet was the key to the security of the Peloponnese, felt hard done by and demanded that an Allied army march north the following year. When the Allies failed to commit to this, the Athenian fleet refused to join the Allied navy in the spring. The navy, now under the command of the Spartan king Leotychides, stationed itself off Delos, while the remnants of the Persian fleet remained off Samos, both sides unwilling to risk battle. Similarly, Mardonius remained in Thessaly, knowing an attack on the Isthmus was pointless, while the Allies refused to send an army outside the Peloponnese.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Mardonius moved to break the stalemate by trying to win over the Athenians and their fleet through the mediation of Alexander I of Macedon, offering peace, self-government and territorial expansion. The Athenians made sure that a Spartan delegation was also on hand to hear the offer, and rejected it:


title: Battle of Plataea

text: The degree to which we are put in the shadow by the Medes' strength is hardly something you need to bring to our attention. We are already well aware of it. But even so, such is our love of liberty, that we will never surrender.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Upon this refusal, the Persians marched south again. Athens was again evacuated and left to the enemy, leading to the second phase of the Destruction of Athens. Mardonius now repeated his offer of peace to the Athenian refugees on Salamis. Athens, along with Megara and Plataea, sent emissaries to Sparta demanding assistance and threatening to accept the Persian terms if it was not given. According to Herodotus, the Spartans, who were at that time celebrating the festival of Hyacinthus, delayed making a decision until they were persuaded by a guest, Chileos of Tegea, who pointed out the danger to all of Greece if the Athenians surrendered. When the Athenian emissaries delivered an ultimatum to the Spartans the next day, they were amazed to hear that a task force was in fact already "en route"; the Spartan army was marching to meet the Persians.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: When Mardonius learned of the Spartan force, he completed the destruction of Athens, tearing down whatever was left standing. He then retreated towards Thebes, hoping to lure the Greek army into territory that would be suitable for the Persian cavalry. Mardonius created a fortified encampment on the north bank of the Asopus river in Boeotia covering the ground from Erythrae past Hysiae and up to the lands of Plataea.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: The Athenians sent 8,000 hoplites, led by Aristides, along with 600 Plataean exiles to join the Allied army. The army then marched in Boeotia across the passes of Mount Cithaeron, arriving near Plataea, and above the Persian position on the Asopus. Under the guidance of the commanding general, Pausanias, the Greeks took up position opposite the Persian lines but remained on high ground. Knowing that he had little hope of successfully attacking the Greek positions, Mardonius sought to either sow dissension among the Allies or lure them down into the plain. Plutarch reports that a conspiracy was discovered among some prominent Athenians, who were planning to betray the Allied cause; although this account is not universally accepted, it may indicate Mardonius' attempts of intrigue within the Greek ranks.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Mardonius also initiated hit-and-run cavalry attacks against the Greek lines, possibly trying to lure the Greeks down to the plain in pursuit. Although having some initial success, this strategy backfired when the Persian cavalry commander Masistius was killed; with his death, the cavalry retreated.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Their morale boosted by this small victory, the Greeks moved forward, still remaining on higher ground, to a new position more suited for encampment and better watered. The Spartans and Tegeans were on a ridge to the right of the line, the Athenians on a hillock on the left and the other contingents on the slightly lower ground between. In response, Mardonius brought his men up to the Asopus and arrayed them for battle; However, neither the Persians nor the Greeks would attack; Herodotus claims this is because both sides received bad omens during sacrificial rituals. The armies thus stayed camped in their locations for eight days, during which new Greek troops arrived. Mardonius then sought to break the stalemate by sending his cavalry to attack the passes of Mount Cithaeron; this raid resulted in the capture of a convoy of provisions intended for the Greeks. Two more days passed, during which time the supply lines of the Greeks continued to be menaced. Mardonius then launched another cavalry raid on the Greek lines, which succeeded in blocking the Gargaphian Spring, which had been the only source of water for the Greek army (they could not use the Asopus due to the threat posed by Persian archers). Coupled with the lack of food, the restriction of the water supply made the Greek position untenable, so they decided to retreat to a position in front of Plataea, from where they could guard the passes and have access to fresh water. To prevent the Persian cavalry from attacking during the retreat, it was to be performed that night.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: However, the retreat went awry. The Allied contingents in the centre missed their appointed position and ended up scattered in front of Plataea itself. The Athenians, Tegeans and Spartans, who had been guarding the rear of the retreat, had not even begun to retreat by daybreak. A single Spartan division was thus left on the ridge to guard the rear, while the Spartans and Tegeans retreated uphill; Pausanias also instructed the Athenians to begin the retreat and if possible join up with the Spartans. However, the Athenians at first retreated directly towards Plataea, and thus the Allied battle line remained fragmented as the Persian camp began to stir.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: According to Herodotus, the Spartans sent 45,000 men – 5,000 Spartiates (full citizen soldiers), 5,000 other Lacodaemonian hoplites (perioeci) and 35,000 helots (seven per Spartiate). This was probably the largest Spartan force ever assembled. The Greek army had been reinforced by contingents of hoplites from the other Allied city-states, as shown in the table. Diodorus Siculus claims in his Bibliotheca historica that the number of the Greek troops approached one hundred thousand.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: According to Herodotus, there were a total of 69,500 lightly armed troops – 35,000 helots and 34,500 troops from the rest of Greece; roughly one per hoplite. The number of 34,500 has been suggested to represent one light skirmisher supporting each non-Spartan hoplite (33,700), together with 800 Athenian archers, whose presence in the battle Herodotus later notes. Herodotus tells us that there were also 1,800 Thespians (but does not say how they were equipped), giving a total strength of 108,200 men.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: The number of hoplites is accepted as reasonable (and possible); the Athenians alone had fielded 10,000 hoplites at the Battle of Marathon. Some historians have accepted the number of light troops and used them as a population census of Greece at the time. Certainly these numbers are theoretically possible. Athens, for instance, allegedly fielded a fleet of 180 triremes at Salamis, manned by approximately 36,000 rowers and fighters. Thus 69,500 light troops could easily have been sent to Plataea. Nevertheless, the number of light troops is often rejected as exaggerated, especially in view of the ratio of seven helots to one Spartiate. For instance, Lazenby accepts that hoplites from other Greek cities might have been accompanied by one lightly armoured retainer each, but rejects the number of seven helots per Spartiate. He further speculates that each Spartiate was accompanied by one armed helot, and that the remaining helots were employed in the logistical effort, transporting food for the army. Both Lazenby and Holland deem the lightly armed troops, whatever their number, as essentially irrelevant to the outcome of battle.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: A further complication is that a certain proportion of the Allied manpower was needed to man the fleet, which amounted to at least 110 triremes, and thus approximately 22,000 men. Since the Battle of Mycale was fought at least near-simultaneously with the Battle of Plataea, then this was a pool of manpower which could not have contributed to Plataea, and further reduces the likelihood that 110,000 Greeks assembled before Plataea.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: The Greek forces were, as agreed by the Allied congress, under the overall command of Spartan royalty in the person of Pausanias, who was the regent for Leonidas' young son, Pleistarchus, his cousin. Diodorus tells us that the Athenian contingent was under the command of Aristides; it is probable that the other contingents also had their leaders. Herodotus tells us in several places that the Greeks held council during the prelude to the battle, implying that decisions were consensual and that Pausanias did not have the authority to issue direct orders to the other contingents. This style of leadership contributed to the way events unfolded during the battle itself. For instance, in the period immediately before the battle, Pausanias was unable to order the Athenians to join up with his forces, and thus the Greeks fought the battle completely separated from each other.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: According to Herodotus, the Persians numbered 300,000 and were accompanied by troops from Greek city states that supported the Persian cause (including Macedonia, Thessaly and Thebes). Herodotus admits that no one counted the Greek allies of the Achaemenids, but he guesses that there were about 50,000 of them. Mardonius' troops consisted of not only Persians and Medes, but also Bactrians, Scythians, Indians, Boeotians, Locrians, Malians, Thessalians, Macedonians, Thracians, and 1,000 Phocians. Herodotus described the composition of the principal troops of Mardonius:


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Diodorus Siculus claims in his Bibliotheca historica that the number of the Persian troops was some five hundred thousand.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: The figure of 300,000 has been doubted, along with many of Herodotus' numbers, by many historians; modern consensus estimates the total number of troops for the Persian invasion at around 250,000. According to this consensus, Herodotus' 300,000 Persians at Plataea would self-evidently be impossible. One approach to estimating the size of the Persian army has been to estimate how many men might feasibly have been accommodated within the Persian camp; this approach gives figures of between 70,000 and 120,000 men. Lazenby, for instance, by comparison with later Roman military camps, calculates the number of troops at 70,000, including 10,000 cavalry. Meanwhile, Connolly derives a number of 120,000 from the same-sized camp. Indeed, most estimates for the total Persian force are generally in this range. For instance, Delbrück, based on the distance the Persians marched in a day when Athens was attacked, concluded that 75,000 was the upper limit for the size of the Persian army, including the supply personnel and other non-combatants. In his battle account of Plataea, Delbrück estimated the Persian army, including allied Greeks, as amounting to 40,000.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: According to modern estimates based on the order of battle described by Herodotus, the detailed composition of the Achaemenid army consisted in about 40,000 Persian troops on the left of the battle line, facing the Spartans, about 20,000 Bactrians, Indians and Sakae in the centre, facing various Greek states, and about 20,000 Greek allies of the Persians (Macedonians, Thessalians, Beotians, Thebeans), positioned on the right wing facing the Athenians. The cavalry, which also consisted of Persians, Bactrians, Indians and Sakae, would total about 5,000.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Ctesias, who wrote a history of Persia based on Persian archives, claimed there were 120,000 Persian and 7,000 Greek soldiers, but his account is generally garbled (for instance, placing this battle before Salamis, he also says there were only 300 Spartans, 1000 perioeci and 6000 from the other cities at Plataea, perhaps confusing it with Thermopylae).


title: Battle of Plataea

text: In some ways the run-up to Plataea resembled that at the Battle of Marathon; there was a prolonged stalemate in which neither side risked attacking the other. The reasons for this stalemate were primarily tactical, and similar to the situation at Marathon; the Greek hoplites did not want to risk being outflanked by the Persian cavalry and the lightly armed Persian infantry could not hope to assault well-defended positions.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: According to Herodotus, both sides wished for a decisive battle that would tip the war in their favor. However, Lazenby believed that Mardonius' actions during the Plataea campaign were not consistent with an aggressive policy. He interprets the Persian operations during the prelude not as attempts to force the Allies into battle but as attempts to force the Allies into retreat (which indeed became the case). Mardonius may have felt he had little to gain in battle and that he could simply wait for the Greek alliance to fall apart (as it had nearly done over the winter). There can be little doubt from Herodotus' account that Mardonius was prepared to accept battle on his own terms, however. Regardless of the exact motives, the initial strategic situation allowed both sides to procrastinate, since food supplies were ample for both armies. Under these conditions, the tactical considerations outweighed the strategic need for action.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: When Mardonius' raids disrupted the Allied supply chain, it forced the Allies to rethink their strategy. Rather than now moving to attack, however, they instead looked to retreat and secure their lines of communication. Despite this defensive move by the Greeks, it was in fact the chaos resulting from this retreat that finally ended the stalemate. Mardonius perceived this as a full-on retreat, in effect thinking that the battle was already over, and sought to pursue the Greeks. Since he did not expect the Greeks to fight, the tactical problems were no longer an issue and he tried to take advantage of the altered strategic situation he thought he had produced. Conversely, the Greeks had, inadvertently, lured Mardonius into attacking them on the higher ground and, despite being outnumbered, were thus at a tactical advantage.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Once the Persians discovered that the Greeks had abandoned their positions and appeared to be in retreat, Mardonius decided to set off in immediate pursuit with the elite Persian infantry. As he did so, the rest of the Persian army, unbidden, began to move forward. The Spartans and Tegeans had by now reached the Temple of Demeter. The rearguard under Amompharetus began to withdraw from the ridge, under pressure from Persian cavalry, to join them. Pausanias sent a messenger to the Athenians, asking them to join up with the Spartans. However, the Athenians had been engaged by the Theban phalanx and were unable to assist Pausanias. The Spartans and Tegeans were first assaulted by the Persian cavalry, while the Persian infantry made their way forward. They then planted their shields and began shooting arrows at the Greeks, while the cavalry withdrew.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: According to Herodotus, Pausanias refused to advance because good omens were not divined in the goat sacrifices that were performed. At this point, as Greek soldiers began to fall under the barrage of arrows, the Tegeans started to run at the Persian lines. Offering one last sacrifice and a prayer to the heavens in front of the Temple of Hera, Pausanias finally received favourable omens and gave the command for the Spartans to advance, whereupon they also charged the Persian lines.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: The numerically superior Persian infantry were of the heavy (by Persian standards) sparabara formation, but this was still much lighter than the Greek phalanx. The Persian defensive weapon was a large wicker shield and they used short spears; by contrast, the hoplites were armoured in bronze, with a bronze-clad shield and a long spear. As shown at Marathon, it was a severe mismatch. The fight was fierce and long, but the Greeks (Spartans and Tegeans) continued to push into the Persian lines. The Persians tried to break the Greeks' spears by grabbing hold of them, but the Greeks responded by switching to swords. Mardonius was present at the scene, riding a white horse, and surrounded by a bodyguard of 1,000 men; while he remained, the Persians stood their ground. However, the Spartans closed in on Mardonius and a Spartan soldier named Arimnestus killed him. According to Plutarch, Arimnestus killed him by a blow to the head with a stone, a form of death which had been foretold to Mardonius by an oracle; some modern historians have called it unlikely that a Spartan would use such a weapon. With Mardonius dead, the Persians began to flee; although his bodyguard remained, they were annihilated. Herodotus claims that the reason for their discomfort was a lack of armour. Quickly the rout became general, with many Persians fleeing in disorder to their camp. However, Artabazus (who had earlier commanded the Sieges of Olynthus and Potidea), had disagreed with Mardonius about attacking the Greeks, and he had not fully engaged the forces under his command. As the rout commenced, he led these men (40,000, according to Herodotus) away from the battlefield, on the road to Thessaly, hoping to escape eventually to the Hellespont.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: On the opposite side of the battlefield the Athenians had triumphed in a tough battle against the Thebans. The other Greeks fighting for the Persians had deliberately fought badly, according to Herodotus. The Thebans retreated from the battle, but in a different direction from the Persians, allowing them to escape without further losses. The Greeks, reinforced by the contingents who had not taken part in the main battle, then stormed the Persian camp. Although the Persians initially defended the wall vigorously, it was eventually breached; the Persians, packed tightly together in the camp, were slaughtered by the Greeks. Of the Persians who had retreated to the camp, scarcely 3,000 were left alive.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: According to Herodotus, only 43,000 Persians survived the battle. The number who died, of course, depends on how many there were in the first place; there would be 257,000 dead by Herodotus' reckoning. Herodotus claims that the Greeks as a whole lost only 159 men. Furthermore, he claims that only Spartans, Tegeans and Athenians died, since they were the only ones who fought. Plutarch, who had access to other sources, gives 1,360 Greek casualties, while both Ephorus and Diodorus Siculus tally the Greek casualties to over 10,000.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Herodotus also recounts that King Alexander I of Macedonia (an ancestor of Alexander the Great,) who was allied to the Persians and present in their camp, secretly rode to the Greek camp with a warning that the Persians had decided to attack, and that before the main battle Mardonius issued a challenge to the Spartans to fight a special battle between equal numbers of Spartans and Persians, which was declined. Some historians have called these stories improbable.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: A Greek fleet under the Spartan king Leotychides had sailed to Samos to challenge the remnants of the Persian fleet. The Persians, whose ships were in a poor state of repair, had decided not to risk fighting and instead drew their ships up on the beach at the feet of Mount Mycale in Ionia. An army of 60,000 men had been left there by Xerxes and the fleet joined with them, building a palisade around the camp to protect the ships. However, Leotychides decided to attack the camp with the Allied fleet's marines. Seeing the small size of the Greek force, the Persians emerged from the camp but the Greek hoplites again proved superior and destroyed much of the Persian force. The ships were abandoned to the Greeks, who burned them, crippling Xerxes' sea power and marking the ascendancy of the Greek fleet.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: With the twin victories of Plataea and Mycale, the second Persian invasion of Greece was over. Moreover, the threat of future invasion was abated; although the Greeks remained worried that Xerxes would try again, over time it became apparent that the Persian desire to conquer Greece was much diminished.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: The remnants of the Persian army, under the command of Artabazus, tried to retreat back to Asia Minor. Travelling through the lands of Thessaly, Macedonia and Thrace by the shortest road, Artabazus eventually made it back to Byzantium, though losing many men to Thracian attacks, weariness and hunger. After the victory at Mycale, the Allied fleet sailed to the Hellespont to break down the pontoon bridges, but found that this had already been done. The Peloponnesians sailed home, but the Athenians remained to attack the Chersonesos, still held by the Persians. The Persians in the region, and their allies, made for Sestos, the strongest town in the region, and the Athenians laid siege to them there. After a protracted siege Sestos fell to the Athenians, marking the beginning of a new phase in the Greco-Persian Wars, the Greek counter-attack. Herodotus ended his "Histories" after the Siege of Sestos. Over the next 30 years the Greeks, primarily the Athenian-dominated Delian League, would expel (or help expel) the Persians from Macedon, Thrace, the Aegean islands and Ionia. Peace with Persia came in 449 BC with the Peace of Callias, finally ending a half-century of warfare.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Plataea and Mycale have great significance in ancient history as the battles that decisively ended the second Persian invasion of Greece, thereby swinging the balance of the Greco-Persian Wars in favour of the Greeks. They kept Persia from conquering all of Greece, although they paid a high price by losing many of their men. The Battle of Marathon showed that the Persians "could" be defeated, and the Battle of Salamis saved Greece from immediate conquest, but it was Plataea and Mycale that effectively ended that threat. However, neither of these battles is nearly as well known as Thermopylae, Salamis or Marathon. The reason for this discrepancy is not entirely clear; it might, however, be a result of the circumstances in which the battle was fought. The fame of Thermopylae certainly lies in the doomed heroism of the Greeks in the face of overwhelming numbers; and Marathon and Salamis perhaps because they were both fought against the odds, and in dire strategic situations. Conversely, the Battles of Plataea and Mycale were both fought from a relative position of Greek strength, and against lesser odds; the Greeks, in fact, sought out battle on both occasions.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Militarily, the major lesson of both Plataea and Mycale (since both were fought on land) was to re-emphasise the superiority of the hoplite over the more lightly armed Persian infantry, as had first been demonstrated at Marathon. Taking on this lesson, after the Greco-Persian Wars the Persian empire started recruiting and relying on Greek mercenaries. One such mercenary expedition, the "Anabasis of the 10,000" as narrated by Xenophon, further proved to the Greeks that the Persians were militarily vulnerable even well within their own territory, and paved the way for the destruction of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great some decades later.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: A bronze column in the shape of intertwined snakes (the Serpent column) was created from melted-down Persian weapons, acquired in the plunder of the Persian camp, and was erected at Delphi. It commemorated all the Greek city-states that had participated in the battle, listing them on the column, and thus confirming some of Herodotus' claims. Most of it still survives in the Hippodrome of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), where it was carried by Constantine the Great during the founding of his city on the Greek colony of Byzantium.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: The main source for the Greco-Persian Wars is the Greek historian Herodotus. Herodotus, who has been called the 'Father of History', was born in 484 BC in Halicarnassus, Asia Minor (then under Persian overlordship). He wrote his 'Enquiries' (Greek – "Historia"; English – "(The Histories") around 440–430 BC, trying to trace the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, which would still have been relatively recent history (the wars finally ending in 450 BC). Herodotus's approach was entirely novel, and at least in Western society, he does seem to have invented 'history' as we know it. As Holland has it: "For the first time, a chronicler set himself to trace the origins of a conflict not to a past so remote so as to be utterly fabulous, nor to the whims and wishes of some god, nor to a people's claim to manifest destiny, but rather explanations he could verify personally".


title: Battle of Plataea

text: Some subsequent ancient historians, despite following in his footsteps, criticised Herodotus, starting with Thucydides. Nevertheless, Thucydides chose to begin his history where Herodotus left off (at the Siege of Sestos), and therefore evidently felt that Herodotus's history was accurate enough not to need re-writing or correcting. Plutarch criticised Herodotus in his essay "On The Malignity of Herodotus", describing Herodotus as ""Philobarbaros"" (barbarian-lover), for not being pro-Greek enough, which suggests that Herodotus might actually have done a reasonable job of being even-handed. A negative view of Herodotus was passed on to Renaissance Europe, though he remained well read. However, since the 19th century his reputation has been dramatically rehabilitated by archaeological finds which have repeatedly confirmed his version of events. The prevailing modern view is that Herodotus generally did a remarkable job in his "Historia", but that some of his specific details (particularly troop numbers and dates) should be viewed with scepticism. Nevertheless, there are still some historians who believe Herodotus made up much of his story.


title: Battle of Plataea

text: The Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus, writing in the 1st century BC in his "Bibliotheca Historica", also provides an account of the Battle of Plataea. This account is fairly consistent with Herodotus's, but given that it was written much later, it may well have been derived from Herodotus's version. The Battle is also described in less detail by a number of other ancient historians including Plutarch, Ctesias of Cnidus, and is alluded by other authors, such as the playwright Aeschylus. Archaeological evidence, such as the Serpent Column, also supports some of Herodotus's specific claims.


title: Shetland Sheepdog

text: The Shetland Sheepdog, often known as the Sheltie, is a breed of herding dog that originated in the Shetland Islands of Scotland. The original name was "Shetland Collie," but this caused controversy amongst Rough Collie breeders of the time, so the breed's name was formally changed. This diligent small dog is clever, vocal, excitable and willing to please. They are incredibly trustworthy to their owners to the point where they are often referred to as "shadows" due to their attachment to family. This breed was formally recognized by The Kennel Club (UK) in 1909.


title: Shetland Sheepdog

text: Like the Shetland pony, Shetland cattle and the Shetland sheep, the Shetland Sheepdog is a hardy but diminutive breed developed to thrive amidst the harsh and meagre conditions of its native islands. While the Sheltie still excels at herding, today it is often raised as a working dog and/or family pet.


title: Shetland Sheepdog

text: The Sheltie's origins are obscure, but it is not a direct descendant of the Rough Collie, which it largely resembles. Rather, the Sheltie is a descendant of small specimens of the Scottish Collie and the King Charles Spaniel. They were originally a small mixed-breed dog, often only about in height at the shoulder, and it is thought that the original Shetland herding dogs were of the Spitz type, and were crossed with Collies from mainland Britain. In the early 20th century, James Loggie added a small Rough Collie to the breeding stock, and helped establish the breed that would become the modern Shetland Sheepdog.


title: Shetland Sheepdog

text: Unlike many miniature breeds that resemble their larger counterparts, this breed was not developed simply by selectively breeding the Rough Collie for smaller and smaller size. The original sheepdog of Shetland was a Spitz-type dog, probably similar to the modern Icelandic Sheepdog. This dog was crossed with mainland working collies brought to the islands, and then after being brought to England, it was further extensively crossed with the Rough Collie, and other breeds including some or all of the extinct Greenland Yakki, the King Charles Spaniel (not the Cavalier), the Pomeranian, and possibly the Border Collie. The original Spitz-type working sheepdog of Shetland is now extinct, having been replaced for herding there by the Border Collie. Shelties were used for herding until commercial livestock farming required larger breeds.


title: Shetland Sheepdog

text: When the breed was originally introduced breeders called them Shetland Collies, which upset Rough Collie breeders, so the name was changed to Shetland Sheepdog. During the early 20th century (up until the 1940s), additional crosses were made to Rough Collies to help retain the desired Rough Collie type – in fact, the first English Sheltie champion's dam, Gesta, was a rough Collie.