title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The editor of the "Springfield Express," J. G. Newbill, said in the November 11, 1881, issue:"It has been stated that this city "got" its name from the fact of a spring and field being near by just west of town. But such is not a correct version. When the authorized persons met and adopted the title of the "Future Great" of the Southwest, several of the earliest settlers had handed in their favorite names, among whom was Kindred Rose, who presented the winning name, "Springfield," in honor of his former home town, Springfield, Tennessee."


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: "The town took its name from the circumstance of there being a "spring" under the hill, on the creek, while on top of the hill, where the principal portion of the town lay, there was a "field"."


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The presence of the Native Americans in the area slowed the European-American settlement of the land. Long before the 1830s, the native Kickapoo and Osage, and the Lenape (Delaware) from the mid-Atlantic coast had settled in this general area. The Osage had been the dominant tribe for more than a century in the larger region.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: On the southeastern side of the city in 1812, about 500 Kickapoo Native Americans built a small village of about 100 wigwams. They abandoned the site in 1828. Ten miles south of the site of Springfield, the Lenape had built a substantial dwelling of houses that borrowed elements of Anglo colonial style from the mid-Atlantic, where their people had migrated from.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The first European-American settlers to the area were John Polk Campbell and his brother, who moved to the area in 1829 from Tennessee. Campbell chose the area because of the presence of a natural well that flowed into a small stream. He staked his claim by carving his initials in a tree. Campbell was joined by settlers Thomas Finney, Samuel Weaver, and Joseph Miller. They cleared the land of trees to develop it for farms. A small general store was soon opened.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: In 1833, the southern part of the state was named Greene County after Revolutionary War hero General Nathanael Greene. Campbell Township was one of the seven original townships organized on March 11, 1833, when Greene County was much larger. An 1876 map shows it boundaries include all the sections in T29N and R21 and 22W. It was bounded by Center Township on the west, Robberson, and Franklin Townships on the north, Taylor Township on the east, and Wilson and Clay Townships on the south. (Later, Campbell was split into Campbell No. 1 Township and Campbell No. 2 Township, then into North Campbell No. 1 Township, North Campbell No. 2 Township, and North Campbell No. 3 Township.)


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The county seat of Springfield is located in Campbell Township due to the efforts of John Polk Campbell. The township is named after John Polk Campbell, who donated the land for Springfield's public square and platted the town site. He deeded 50 acres of land to the legislature for the creation of a county seat in 1835. Campbell laid out city streets and lots. The town was incorporated in 1838. In 1878, the town got its nickname the "Queen City of the Ozarks."


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The United States government enforced Indian Removal during the 1830s, forcing land cessions in the Southeast and other areas, and relocating tribes to Indian Territory, which later developed as Oklahoma. During the 1838 relocation of Cherokee natives, the Trail of Tears passed through Springfield to the west, along the Old Wire Road.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: By 1861, Springfield's population had grown to approximately 2,000, and it had become an important commercial hub. In the late 1850s, telegraph lines, previously only to St. Louis, reached Springfield. News from point further west was brought to Springfield overland and then sent by telegraph to what was then called the New York Associated Press. At the start of the American Civil War, Springfield was divided in its loyalty, as it had been settled by people from both the North and South, as well as by German immigrants in the mid-19th century who tended to support the Union.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Union and Confederate armies both recognized the city's strategic importance and sought to control it. They fought the Battle of Wilson's Creek on August 10, 1861, a few miles southwest of town. The battle was a Confederate victory, and Nathaniel Lyon became the first Union General killed in Civil War. Union troops retreated to Lebanon to regroup. When they returned, they found that most of the Confederate army had withdrawn.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: On October 25, 1861, Union Major Charles Zagonyi led an attack against the remaining Confederates in the area, in a battle known as the First Battle of Springfield, or Zagonyi's Charge. Zagonyi's men removed the Confederate flag from Springfield's public square and returned to camp. It was the only Union victory in southwestern Missouri in 1861. The increased military activity in the area set the stage for the Battle of Pea Ridge in northern Arkansas in March 1862.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: On January 8, 1863, Confederate forces under General John S. Marmaduke advanced to take control of Springfield and an urban fight ensued. But that evening, the Confederates withdrew. This became known as the Second Battle of Springfield. Marmaduke sent a message to the Union forces asking that the Confederate casualties have a proper burial. The city remained under Union control for the remainder of the war. The US army used Springfield as a supply base and central point of operation for military activities in the area.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Promptly after the Civil War ended on July 21, 1865, Wild Bill Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt in a shootout over a disagreement about a debt Tutt claimed Hickok owed him. During a poker game at the former Lyon House Hotel, in response to the disagreement over the amount, Tutt had taken Hickok's watch, which Hickok demanded he return immediately. Hickok warned that Tutt had better not be seen wearing that watch, then spotted him wearing it in Park Central Square, prompting the gunfight.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: On January 25, 1866, Hickok was still in Springfield when he witnessed a Springfield police officer, John Orr, shoot and kill James Coleman after Coleman interfered with the arrest of Coleman's friend Bingham, who was drunk and disorderly. Hickok provided testimony in the case. Orr was arrested, released on bail, and immediately fled the country. He was never brought to trial or heard from again.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: From the period after Reconstruction into the early 20th century, lynchings of freedmen and their descendants occurred in some cities and counties in Missouri, particularly in former slaveholding areas.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: On April 14, 1906, a white mob broke into the Springfield county jail, and lynched two black men, Horace Duncan and Fred Coker, for allegedly sexually assaulting Mina Edwards, a white woman. Later they returned to the jail, where other African-American prisoners were being held, and pulled out Will Allen, who had been accused of murdering a white man. All three suspects were hanged from the Gottfried Tower, which held a replica of the Statue of Liberty, and burned in the courthouse square by a mob of more than 2,000 citizens. Judge Azariah W. Lincoln called for a grand jury, but no one was prosecuted. The proceedings were covered by national newspapers, the "New York Times" and "Los Angeles Times".


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Duncan's and Coker's employer testified that they were at his business at the time of the crime against Edwards, and other evidence suggested that they and Allen were all innocent. These three are the only recorded lynchings in Greene County. But the extrajudicial murders were part of a pattern of discrimination, repeated violence and intimidation of African Americans in this city and southwest Missouri from 1894 to 1909, in an attempt to expel them from the region. Whites in Lawrence County also lynched three African-American men in this period. After the mass lynching in Springfield, many African Americans left the area in a large exodus.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: A historic plaque on the southeast corner of the Springfield courthouse square commemorates Duncan, Coker, and Allen, the three victims of mob violence.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Four nationally broadcast television series originated from the city between 1955 and 1961: "Ozark Jubilee" and its spin-off, "Five Star Jubilee"; "Talent Varieties"; and "The Eddy Arnold Show". All were carried live by ABC except for "Five Star Jubilee" on NBC and were produced by Springfield's Crossroads TV Productions, owned by Ralph D. Foster. Many of the biggest names in country music frequently visited or lived in Springfield at the time. City officials estimated the programs meant about 2,000 weekly visitors and "over $1,000,000 in fresh income."


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Staged at the Jewell Theatre (demolished in 1961), "Ozark Jubilee" was the first national country music TV show to feature top stars and attract a significant viewership. "Five Star Jubilee", produced from the Landers Theatre, was the first network color television series to originate outside of New York City or Hollywood. Ironically, Springfield's NBC affiliate, KYTV-TV (which helped produce the program), was not equipped to broadcast in color and aired the show in black-and-white.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The ABC, NBC and Mutual radio networks also all carried country music shows nationally from Springfield during the decade, including KWTO'S "Korn's-A-Krackin" (Mutual).


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Springfield Chamber of Commerce once presented visiting dignitaries with an "Ozark Hillbilly Medallion" and a certificate proclaiming the honoree a "hillbilly of the Ozarks". On June 7, 1953, U.S. President Harry Truman received the medallion after a breakfast speech () at the Shrine Mosque for a reunion of the 35th Division. Other recipients included US Army generals Omar Bradley and Matthew Ridgway, US Representative Dewey Short, J. C. Penney, Johnny Olson, Ralph Story and disc jockey Nelson King.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield is on the Springfield Plateau of the Ozarks region of southwest Missouri. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.7%) is water.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The city of Springfield is mainly flat with rolling hills and cliffs surrounding its south, east, and north sections. Springfield is on the Springfield Plateau, which reaches from Northwest Arkansas to Central Missouri. Most of the plateau is characterized by forest, pastures and shrub-scrub habitats. Many streams and tributaries, such as the James River, Galloway Creek and Jordan Creek, flow within or near the city. Nearby lakes include Table Rock Lake, Stockton Lake, McDaniel Lake, Fellows Lake, Lake Springfield, and Pomme de Terre Lake. Springfield is near the population center of the United States, about to the east.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield has an average surface wind velocity comparable to Chicago's, according to information compiled at the National Climatic Data Center at NOAA. It is placed within "Power Class 3" in the Wind Energy Resource Atlas published by a branch of the U.S. Department of Energy; having an average wind speed range of 6.4 to 7.0 miles per hour.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield lies in the northern limits of a humid subtropical climate ("Cfa"), as defined by the Köppen climate classification system. As such, it experiences times of exceptional humidity; especially in late summer. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from in January to in July. On average, there are 40 days of + highs, 2 days of + highs, 15 days where the high fails to rise above freezing, and 1.3 nights of lows at or below per year. It has an average annual precipitation of , including an average of snow. Extremes in temperature range from on February 12, 1899 up to on July 14, 1954.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: According to a 2007 story in "Forbes" magazine's list of "America's Wildest Weather Cities" and the Weather Variety Index, Springfield is the city with the most varied weather in the United States. On May 1, 2013, Springfield reached a high temperature of 81 degrees Fahrenheit. By the evening of May 2, snow was falling, persisting into the following day and eventually accumulating to about two inches.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: As of the 2020 census, there were 169,176 people, 80,693 households, and 36,237 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,951.8 inhabitants per square mile (753.6/km2). There were 77,620 housing units at an average density of 949.8 per square mile (366.7/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 81% White, 79.4% Non-Hispanic White, 5% African American, 0.8% Native American, 2.3% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 2.2% from other races and 9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6% of the population.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: There were 80,693 households, of which 17.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 30% were married couples living together, 9.6% had a female householder with no spouse present, 5.2% had a male householder with no wife present, and 55.1% were non-families and 12.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.94 and the average family size was 2.68.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The median age in the city was 33.6 years. 17.9% of residents were under the age of 18; 19.1% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 26.5% were from 25 to 44; 20.9% were from 45 to 64; and 15.6% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.6% male and 51.4% female.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: As of the 2010 census, there were 159,498 people, 69,754 households, and 35,453 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 77,620 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 88.7% White, 4.1% African American, 0.8% Native American, 1.9% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 1.2% from other races, and 3.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.7% of the population.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: There were 69,754 households, of which 23.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.4% were married couples living together, 11.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 49.2% were non-families. 37.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.13 and the average family size was 2.81.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The median age in the city was 33.2 years. 18.3% of residents were under the age of 18; 18.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 26% were from 25 to 44; 22.7% were from 45 to 64; and 14.5% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.5% male and 51.5% female.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: According to the 2000 United States Census, 151,580 people, 64,691 households, and 35,709 families resided in the city. The population density was 2,072.0 people per square mile (800.0/km). There were 69,650 housing units at an average density of 952.1/mi (367.6/km). The racial makeup of the city was 91.69% White, 3.27% African American, 0.75% Native American, 1.36% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 0.88% from other races, and 1.95% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.31% of the population.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: There were 64,691 households, out of which 24.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.7% were married couples living together, 10.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.8% were non-families. 35.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.17 and the average family size was 2.82. In the city 19.9% were under the age of 18, 17.4% from 18 to 24, 28.0% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 14.9% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.0 males.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The median income for a household in the city was $29,563, and the median income for a family was $38,114. Males had a median income of $27,778 versus $20,980 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,711. About 9.9% of families and 15.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.1% of those under age 18 and 7.9% of those age 65 or over.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Registered neighborhoods include University Heights, Bissett, Bradford Park, Doling, Grant Beach, Heart of the Westside, Midtown, Oak Grove, Parkcrest, Phelps Grove, Robberson, Rountree, Tom Watkins, Weller, West Central, Westside Community Betterment, and Woodland Heights.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield's economy is based on health care, manufacturing, retail, education, and tourism. With a Gross Metropolitan Product of $13.66 billion in 2004 and $18.6 billion in 2016, the city’s economy makes up 6.7% of the Gross State Product of Missouri.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Total retail sales exceed $4.1 billion annually in Springfield and $5.8 billion in the Springfield MSA. Its largest shopping mall is Battlefield Mall. According to the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau, an estimated 3,000,000 overnight visitors and day-trippers annually visit the city. The city has more than 60 lodging facilities and 6,000 hotel rooms. The Convention & Visitors Bureau spends more than $1,000,000 annually marketing the city as a travel destination.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Positronic, Bass Pro Shops, John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts, BKD, Noble & Associates, Prime, Inc., Springfield ReManufacturing, and O'Reilly Auto Parts all have their national headquarters in Springfield. In addition, two major American Christian denominations — General Council of the Assemblies of God in the United States of America (one of the largest of the Pentecostal denominations) and Baptist Bible Fellowship International (a fundamentalist Baptist denomination) — are headquartered in the city.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield’s city government is based on the council–manager system. By charter, the city has eight council members, each elected for a four-year term on a nonpartisan basis, and a mayor elected for a two-year term. Jason Gage, the City Manager, appointed by the Council, serves as the chief executive and administrative officer for the City and is responsible for directing the overall operations of the City of Springfield and for executing all policies and programs authorized by City Council. Anita Cotter, the City Clerk, appointed by the council to serve as the Chief of Staff for City Council Members and Custodian of Records, coordinates and responds to all Sunshine Requests and maintains official City records, including minutes, ordinances, resolutions, contracts, and other vital documents. The presiding officer at council meetings is the mayor. Council meetings are held every other Monday night in City Council Chambers. City Council elections are held the first Tuesday in April.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: City Utilities of Springfield (CU) is a city-owned utility serving the Springfield area with electricity, natural gas, water, telecommunications and transit services. CU provides service to over 115,000 electric, 84,000 natural gas, and 83,000 water customers.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield has several universities, colleges, and high schools with three of the main higher learning institutions, Missouri State, Drury, and OTC, are all located in and around downtown Springfield.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Founded in 1905 as the Fourth District Normal School, Missouri State University (MSU) is the state's second largest university by enrollment, with over 23,000 students.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Drury University is a private university with over 1,000 students Founded in 1873 by congregationalist, it was modelled after schools like Yale and Harvard. It is ranked as number 2 for best value schools and number 12 for best university in the Midwest according to "US News."


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Evangel University is from a 2013 consolidation of Central Bible College and Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Lindenwood University opened a Springfield extension from their College of Education and Human Services.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: University of Missouri opened a clinical campus in 2016 for their medical school to increase their class size.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Other branches include Mercy College of Nursing and Health Sciences of Southwest Baptist University, Everest College, Columbia College, Webster University, and University of Phoenix.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Ozarks Technical Community College (OTC) is the second largest college in the city of Springfield, having more than 11,000 students in attendance.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Other colleges in Springfield include Baptist Bible College, Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, and Cox College (Nursing and Allied Health).


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Springfield Public School District is the largest district in the state of Missouri with an official fall 2011 enrollment of 24,366 students attending 50 schools. Public high schools include Central High School, Kickapoo High School, Hillcrest High School, Parkview High School, and Glendale High School.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Private high schools include Springfield Sudbury School, Summit Preparatory School, Greenwood Laboratory School, New Covenant Academy, Springfield Catholic High School, Christian Schools of Springfield, and Grace Classical Academy.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Springfield-Greene County Park Board manages 3,200 acres and 103 sites, including the Nathanael Greene/Close Memorial Park, which contains the historic Gray-Campbell Farmstead, Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden, Master Gardener demonstration gardens, Dr. Bill Roston Native Butterfly House, and Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center; the Rutledge-Wilson Farm Community Park; the Mediacom Ice Park; the Cooper Park and Sports Complex; Dickerson Park Zoo; and various other public parks, community centers, and facilities.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The non-profit Ozark Greenways Inc. promotes trail recreation and local bicycling through the establishment of greenway trails, including a 35-mile crushed-gravel trail, the Frisco Highline Trail connecting Springfield to the town of Bolivar, and smaller trails connecting parks and sites of interest within the town and county.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Missouri Department of Conservation operates the Springfield Nature Center and numerous nearby conservation areas.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield's metropolitan area is situated within close distance of recreational lakes, waterways, caves, and forests, such as the James River, Busiek State Forest, Lake Springfield, Table Rock Lake, Buffalo National River, Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Fellows Lake, and Fantastic Caverns.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Like many cities across the nation, Springfield has seen a resurgence in its downtown area. Many of the older buildings have been, and are continuing to be, renovated into mixed-use buildings such as lofts, office space, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, boutiques, and music venues. The Downtown Springfield Community Improvement District (CID) has historic theaters that have been restored to their original state, including the Gillioz Theatre and the Landers Theatre.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: In 2001, Phase I of Jordan Valley Park opened along with the Mediacom Ice Park. Phase II of Jordan Valley Park was completed in 2012. 2001 also saw the opening of The Creamery Arts Center, a city-owned building inside Jordan Valley Park. It is home to the Springfield Regional Arts Council, Springfield Regional Opera, Springfield Ballet, and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and provides office and meeting space for other arts organizations which serve the community. The center has been renovated to include two art galleries with monthly exhibitions, an Arts Library, rehearsal studios, and classrooms offering art workshops and hands-on activities. The facilities also include an outdoor classroom.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: A March 2009 "New York Times" article described the history and ascendancy of cashew chicken in Springfield, where local variations of the popular Chinese dish are ubiquitous.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Springfield Opera has operated in the city for nearly 40 years. In its history, the opera has performed various well known shows, such as The Barber of Seville, La bohème and Carmen.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Springfield Ballet was founded in 1978 as a not-for-profit to bring ballet to the region. The first performance was held at the Springfield Art Museum in November 1976, and the first public performance in March 1977. The ballet currently performs at the Landers Theatre in downtown Springfield, and has performed with the Springfield Symphony for holiday programs.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Springfield Little Theatre was founded in 1934 and purchased the Landers Theatre in 1970 for its permanent performance venue. The theatre is the oldest civic theatre in Missouri and one of the oldest in the Midwest, attended by 60,000 people yearly. Its venue, the Landers, has been the setting for performances by actors such as Kathleen Turner, Tess Harper, and Lucas Grabeel.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Springfield Symphony was founded in 1935 and is one of the oldest arts organizations in the city. The symphony was one of the founding members of the American Symphony Orchestra League, now known as the League of American Orchestras, the largest international body for symphonies and orchestras. The symphony performs monthly at Juanita K. Hammons Hall.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Springfield Art Museum was started by a small group of women, headed by Deborah D. Weisel. Within two years of its original founding as an art study club, the museum had been formed and began showing travelling exhibitions from cities like New York and Philadelphia. In 1948, the museum was handed into the control of the city. In 2018, a 30-year plan was revealed with the intent of updating the museum to be comparable to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Northwest Arkansas, capitalizing on its central location in the city and adjacent park space.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: In 1938, a Springfield flag was made official. It resembled the flag of St. Louis (which was later replaced by a new flag). In 2017, the Springfield Flag Movement proposed a new flag for Springfield, arguing that the current flag is disconnected from modern Springfield culture, as it "doesn't speak to the unique history and identity of Springfield". On January 10, 2022, Springfield's city council voted 7–2 in favor of adopting the Springfield Flag Movement's proposed flag as the official city flag. The new flag was officially adopted by the city on March 1, 2022.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Missouri Food Truck Festival has been held in Springfield for several years and brings food trucks from Springfield and surrounding states to be sampled for a single event. Like most local events, it includes live music and allows people to travel from one food truck to another to sample various specialties from various cuisines.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: First Friday is a monthly event held in downtown Springfield that allows local artists to show off their works and encourages people to stroll the streets and art galleries to look at local works of art. The event is sponsored by the Springfield Regional Arts Council and has been a regular event in the city since 2001.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Cider Days is a two-day event held on Walnut Street downtown featuring local artists showing their crafts, fall themed activities and performances by local groups, as well as cider sampling. Arts Fest is held in May also on Walnut Street downtown, and features similar art vendors showing crafts as well as entertainment for children.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Recently, the city has started to host an annual Route 66 Festival downtown along Route 66 and in Park Central Square. A parade starts the event with a collection of dozens of vintage cars traveling along the former highway. There are also live performances in Park Central Square as people move around St. Louis Street to observe classic cars and browse items from vendors selling artwork and literature about Route 66. The event also holds a 6.6 kilometer run. The 2018 festival lasted two days and was attended by 56,000 people.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Japanese Fall Festival usually takes place in September at the Springfield Botanical Gardens in Nathanael Greene Park. The event is put on by the Sister Cities Association and commemorates Japanese culture, often involving visitors from Springfield's sister city of Isesaki, offering Japanese tea, giving live performances and selling traditional items like Bonsai and kimono dresses. Springfield in turns sends local groups to Isesaki's city festival each year.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Several holiday events take place in Springfield, including the yearly Downtown Christmas Parade showcasing local schools and businesses sponsoring floats. There's also a yearly lighting of a Christmas tree at Park Central Square and the Festival of Lights in Jordan Valley Park. During Halloween, locals dance to Michael Jackson's Thriller on Commercial Street to a large audience.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield plays host to college teams from Missouri State University (NCAA Division I), Drury University (NCAA Division II), and Evangel University (NAIA). Great Southern Bank Arena (capacity 11,000) opened in 2008 and is home to the Missouri State Bears and Lady Bears basketball teams, and the O'Reilly Family Event Center, which opened in 2010, is now home to the Drury Panthers men's and women's basketball teams.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Springfield Cardinals, the Double-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, have played at Hammons Field in downtown Springfield since their inaugural season in 2005 after the team moved from El Paso. There have been more than 100 Springfield Cardinals who have gone on to play for St. Louis. Springfield has had minor league teams dating back to 1905, and this city has hosted various exposition games.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield Rugby Football Club (SRFC) was established in 1983 and is a well-known rugby club in the Midwestern United States. SRFC plays in Division II of the Frontier Region of the Western Conference which runs teams for men, women and youth.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The PGA sponsored Price Cutter Charity Championship is played at Highland Springs Country Club on the southeast side of Springfield every year. The event is sponsored by Dr Pepper. Since the event started in 1990, more than $14 million has been raised for local children's charities.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield has hosted various sporting events. Missouri State's campus in Springfield has hosted the Missouri Special Olympics several times. Springfield has also hosted the Show-Me Games and regularly hosts the Missouri Winter Games in the sports of racquetball, trap shooting, swimming, volleyball and gymnastics. In 2019 and 2020, Springfield will the host of the NAIA Softball Championship World Series. Springfield has also been the host of the Missouri Valley Conference baseball tournament, as well as finals for the Missouri Valley Conference in sports like tennis and volleyball. As a city with a World TeamTennis team, Springfield has hosted final games at Cooper Tennis Complex.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is located in the city. Opening in 1994, the hall of fame contains over four thousand sports related items and exhibits. Each year the hall inducts new members who have contributed to sports in the state of Missouri, including athletes, coaches, physical therapists, winning sports teams and Olympic athletes.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Beginning in 2003, Springfield was only one of thirteen cities in the United States to be a part of the US Olympic Committee's Olympic Development Program. The goal of the program was to develop beginning athletes into elite athletes, with Springfield's program focusing on archery, hockey, tennis and volleyball. Despite the end of the Olympic program in all cities, the city maintains the program as the Community Sports Development Program sponsored by the Springfield Greene County Park Board.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield is served by Interstate 44, which connects the city with St. Louis and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Route 13 (Kansas Expressway) carries traffic north towards Kansas City. U.S. Route 60, U.S. Route 65, and U.S. Route 160 pass through the city. The average commuting time was 17.7 minutes from 2013 to 2017.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Major streets include Glenstone Avenue, Sunshine Street (Missouri Route 413), National Avenue, Division Street, Campbell Avenue, Kansas Expressway, Battlefield Road, Republic Road, West Bypass, Chestnut Expressway, and Kearney Street.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield is also the site of the first diverging diamond interchange within the United States, at the intersection of I-44 and MO-13 (Kansas Expressway) (at ).


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: U.S. Route 66 and U.S. Route 166 formerly passed through Springfield, and sections of historic US 66 can still be seen in the city. US 166's eastern terminus was once in the northeast section of the city, and US 60 (westbound) originally ended in downtown Springfield. US 60 now goes through town on James River Freeway. In mid-November 2013, the city began discussing plans to upgrade sections of Schoolcraft Freeway (Highway 65) and James River Freeway (Highway 60) through the city to Interstate 44. The main reason is to minimize confusion should there be an incident on I-44 as a detour route.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield-Branson National Airport (SGF) serves the city with direct flights to 14 cities. It is the principal air gateway to the Springfield region. The Downtown Airport is also a public-use airport located near downtown. In May 2009, the Springfield-Branson airport opened a new passenger terminal. Financing included $97 million in revenue bonds issued by the airport and $20 million of discretionary federal aviation funds, with no city taxes used. The building includes , 10 gates (expandable to 60) and 1,826 parking spaces. Direct connections from Springfield are available to Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Destin/Fort Walton Beach, Punta Gorda/Fort Myers, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orlando, Phoenix and Tampa. No international flights have regular service into Springfield-Branson, but it does serve international charters.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Passenger trains have not served Springfield since 1967, but more than 65 freight trains travel to, from, and through the city each day. Springfield was once home to the headquarters and main shops of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad (Frisco). Into the 1960s, the "Kansas City-Florida Special" ran from Kansas City Union Station to Jacksonville, Florida, and the "Sunnyland" ran between Kansas City and Birmingham and New Orleans. The railroad also operated two daily trains to St. Louis Union Station through its Springfield station: the "Meteor" and the "Will Rogers." Both continued southwest to Oklahoma City Union Station via Tulsa Union Depot. The "Meteor" continued on to Lawton, Oklahoma. The Frisco's final passenger train was the "Southland" (Kansas City - Memphis - Birmingham), a successor to the "Sunnyland."


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: As late as 1949 the Missouri Pacific had a short branch line connection from the company's Springfield station to Crane, whereupon connections could be made to the "Southern Scenic" on the railroad's Kansas City to Newport, Arkansas, line.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The Frisco was absorbed by the Burlington Northern (BN) in 1980, and in 1994 the BN merged with the Santa Fe, creating the current Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway. BNSF has three switch yards (two small) in Springfield. Mainlines to and from Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis and Tulsa converge at the railroad's yard facility in northern Springfield. In October 2006, BNSF announced plans to upgrade its Tulsa and Memphis mainlines into Springfield to handle an additional four to six daily intermodal freight trains between the West Coast and the Southeast. The Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad also operates several miles of (former Missouri Pacific) industrial track in the city.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: City Utilities of Springfield operates local bus service. Greyhound Lines serves Springfield on its line from New York to Los Angeles. Jefferson Lines serves Springfield on its line from Kansas City to Little Rock/Pine Bluff.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield is a regional medical hub with the healthcare field employing a large number of people in the city. Major care providers include CoxHealth, Mercy, Ozarks Community Hospital and Jordan Valley Community Health Center, with Mercy being classified amongst the top 100 hospitals in the country. The industry employs more than 30,000 people in the Springfield metro.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: CoxHealth is a private not-for-profit healthcare system headquartered in Springfield. It is ranked in the top ten hospitals in Missouri and it is a seven time top 100 hospital system operating six hospitals, over 80 clinics, health plans and other facilities and employing over 12,100 people in southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas. The largest of the network's hospitals, Cox South is a level one trauma, stroke, and STEMI Center. Cox also runs a Children's Miracle Network Hospital for specialized pediatric care.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Mercy Hospital Springfield, part of the Mercy Health System based in St. Louis, is ranked number six in the state. It has a Level 1 Trauma Center and runs a pediatric cancer center. Mercy Springfield is one of only six St. Jude Children's Research Hospital affiliates in the country, located inside the Jane Pitt Pediatric Cancer Center named for Jane Pitt, mother of actor and Springfield native, Brad Pitt, who helped to fund the center with help from his brother, businessman Douglas Pitt, sister Julie, and then partner, actress Angelina Jolie.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Both Cox and Mercy maintain Ronald McDonald House Charities and houses for families of those who have children undergoing medical treatment.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, one of six federal institutions designed to handle federal inmates' medical concerns, is located at the corner of W. Sunshine Street and Kansas Expressway. Several high-profile criminals, including several mob bosses have been housed at the center. Among them, Joseph Bonanno of the Bonanno crime family and John Gotti of the Gambino crime family, who died in the center. The center also housed mass murderer Jared Lee Loughner, who perpetrated the 2011 Tucson shooting injuring US Representative Gabby Giffords.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The city's major daily newspaper is the "Springfield News-Leader," which circulates to more than 50,000 people on Sundays. Other newspapers for Springfield include "Daily Events", "Springfield Business Journal," which is a weekly paper that provides comprehensive business news, and "The Standard" which is Missouri State University's in-school newspaper, and "Ozarks Independent", an online local news publication.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: In addition to newspapers, Springfield is the base of 417 Magazine, a local lifestyle and entertainment magazine showcasing restaurants, attractions and local businesses in the 417 area code. The Magazine also maintains 417 Biz for business and networking information highlighting local businesspeople and entrepreneurs, as well as 417 Bride for wedding and bridal related content.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: As of 2021, the Springfield media market ranks 74th in the nation, amongst markets like Omaha, Nebraska, and Columbia, South Carolina. The area is composed of 31 counties in southwest Missouri and Arkansas. As of 2021, there are 432,370 television-owning households.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: The city has a history dating back to the 1950s in film and television. Several films, such as "The Winning Team" (1952) starring Doris Day, Frank Lovejoy and future U.S. President Ronald Reagan, held their premieres in Springfield at the Gillioz Theatre downtown. Reagan, along with his wife Nancy Reagan and President Harry S. Truman, were in attendance.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: In 2007, Springfield was one of more than a dozen other Springfields in the country vying to host the premiere of "The Simpsons Movie" through an online video competition voted on by readers of "USA Today". The premiere was ultimately hosted in Springfield, Vermont.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: Springfield hosts the SATO 48 film contest (Springfield And The Ozarks 48-Hour Film Challenge) every spring in which filmmakers have 48 hours to make a film running five minutes or less.


title: Springfield, Missouri

text: In 2018, a new film festival, Rated SGF, began in Springfield. The event is hosted by the Film and Media Association of Springfield and the Downtown Springfield Association.


title: Leonberger

text: The Leonberger is a dog breed, whose name derives from the city of Leonberg in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.


title: Leonberger

text: This breed occurs with a generous double coat; the Leonberger is a large, muscular, and elegant dog with balanced body type, medium temperament, and dramatic presence. The head is adorned with a striking black mask and projects the breed's distinct expression of intelligence, pride, and kindliness. Remaining true to their early roots as a capable family and working dog and search-and-rescue dog (particularly water), the surprisingly agile Leonberger is sound and coordinated, with both strength in bearing and elegance in movement. A sexually dimorphic breed, the Leonberger possesses either a strongly masculine or elegantly feminine form, making gender immediately discernible.


title: Leonberger

text: Capable of demanding work, the Leonberger is a dog of ample substance. Its frame is supported with well-muscled, medium to heavy bone in direct proportion to its size. A roomy chest is sufficiently broad and deep for the purpose of work. Seen in profile, the chest curves inward from the prosternum, tangentially joins at the elbow to its underline at 50% of the withers' height, and then continues slightly upward toward the stifle.


title: Leonberger

text: The head is well balanced in proportion to the size of the dog and is deeper than broad with the length of muzzle and the length of skull roughly equal. With close-fitting eyelids, the eyes are set into the skull upon a slight oblique; the eyes are medium-sized, almond-shaped, and colored dark brown. The ears are fleshy, moderately sized, and pendant-shaped, with sufficient substance to hang close to the skull and drop the tip of the ears level with the inside corners of the mouth. The Leonberger's ears rise from halfway between the eye and the top of the skull to level with the top of the skull. Though level bites and slight anomalies not affecting the robustness of the lower jaw are common, the ideal Leonberger possesses a strong scissor bite with full dentition.


title: Leonberger

text: Both a necessity for work and a defining attribute of the breed, the Leonberger has a water-resistant double coat on the body that is complemented by the shorter, fine hair on the muzzle and limbs. The long, profuse, outer coat is durable, relatively straight, lies flat, and fits close. A mature, masculine Leonberger exhibits a pronounced mane. Similarly, his tail is very well furnished from the tip to the base where it blends harmoniously with the breech's furnishings. Climate permitting, his undercoat is soft and dense. Apart from a of the feet, the Leonberger is presented untrimmed.


title: Leonberger

text: Several coat colours are acceptable, including all combinations of lion-yellow, red, red-brown, and sand. Nose leather, foot pads, and lips should always be black. Faulty colours include brown with brown nose leather, black and tan, black, white, or silver, and eyes without any brown. A small patch of white on the chest or toes is permitted.


title: Leonberger

text: First and foremost a family dog, the Leonberger's temperament is one of its most important and distinguishing characteristics. Well socialized and trained, the Leonberger is self-assured, insensitive to noise, submissive to family members, friendly toward children, well composed with passersby, and self-disciplined when obliging its family or property with protection. Robust, loyal, intelligent, playful, and kindly, they can thus be taken anywhere without difficulty and adjust easily to a variety of circumstances, including the introduction of other dogs. Proper control and early socialization and training are essential, as this is a giant breed.


title: Leonberger

text: Leonbergers are strong, generally healthy dogs. Hip dysplasia, which devastates many large breeds, is largely controlled because of the effort of many breeders who actively screen their Leonbergers using X-rays evaluated by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals and leave dysplastic specimens out of the gene pool, thereby reducing the risk of bone/joint problems. For over 20 years, breeders belonging to the Leonberger Club of America, which issued pedigrees for the Leonberger breed in America, adhered to many aspects of the German breeding program, whereby member kennels may only choose to breed dogs that were certified as having three generations free of hip dysplasia. As a likely result, the incidence of hip dysplasia in the breed was reduced to almost 10% and the occurrence of OFA-rated "Excellent" hips increased by over 60% in just 20 years. Current incidence rates of hip dysplasia in Leonbergers are likely around 13%. After 2010, when the Leonberger Club of America joined the American Kennel Club, the formerly strict breeding rules are no longer mandatory for all Leonbergers.


title: Leonberger

text: Though not common, Leonbergers do inherit and/or develop a number of diseases that range in their impact from mild to devastating. In addition to hip dysplasia, Leonbergers can inherit and/or develop heart problems, inherited Leonberger paralysis/polyneuropathy, osteosarcoma, hemangiosarcoma, osteochondrosis dissecans, allergies, digestive disorders, cataracts, entropion/ectropion eyelids, progressive retinal atrophy, perianal fistulas, and thyroid disorders. Though rumors persist of Leonbergers being more sensitive to anesthesia than other dog breeds, they are largely untrue. Leonbergers, like other large-breed dogs, require less dosage per pound of sedative than smaller breeds to yield the same effect. The Leonberger Health Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation whose sole mission is to support major researchers who are seeking to identify genetic markers for serious diseases that affect the breed, is currently focusing on osteosarcoma, hemangiosarcoma, and Leonberger polyneuropathy.


title: Leonberger

text: Leonbergers in U.K. and U.S./Canada surveys had a median lifespan around 7 years, which is about 4 years less than the average purebred dog, but typical of similarly sized breeds. About 20% of Leonbergers in the surveys lived to 10 years or more. The oldest dogs in both surveys died at about 13. In France, the breed has a median lifespan of 8.75 years.


title: Leonberger

text: Serious diseases can affect the Leonberger—certain types of cancers are very common in the breed. Gastric dilatation volvulus, commonly called bloat, is another serious condition that affects many of the large- and giant-breed dogs, particularly those with deep chests. It causes the stomach to twist and can be fatal quite quickly. Adult Leonbergers should always be fed twice a day rather than one large meal to reduce the likelihood of bloat. Leonbergers are not alone in inheriting serious diseases, and according to the University of Sydney's LIDA taskforce, Leonbergers have relatively few health issues compared to other dog breeds.


title: Leonberger

text: In a 2004 U.K. Kennel Club survey, the most common causes of death were cancer (45%), cardiac disease (11%), and "unknown" (8.5%). In a 2000 U.S./Canada Leonberger Club of America survey, the most common causes of death were cancer (37%), old age (12%), cardiac disease (9%), and "sudden death" (8%).


title: Leonberger

text: Studies have indicated problems with inherited polyneuropathy in certain populations of Leonbergers and cataracts in dogs in the United Kingdom. A study of "Leonberger polyneuropathy" was published in 2014. Genetic testing is to be done through a protocol administered in North America by the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory or Institute of Genetics, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.


title: Leonberger

text: In the 1830s, Heinrich Essig, a dog breeder and seller and mayor of the town of Leonberg near Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, claimed to have created the Leonberger by crossing a female Landseer Newfoundland with a "barry" male from the Great St Bernard Hospice and Monastery (which would later create the Saint Bernard). Later, according to Essig, a Pyrenean Mountain Dog was added, resulting in very large dogs with the long, white coats that were the fashion for the time, and a pleasant temperament. The first dogs registered as Leonbergers were born in 1846 and had many of the prized qualities of the breeds from which they were derived. The legend is that the dogs were bred to be to be an homage of the lion in the town crest and coat-of-arms animal of Leonberg, the lion. The Leonberger dog became popular with several European royal households, including Napoleon II, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the Prince of Wales, Otto Von Bismarck, Emperor Napoleon III, and Umberto I of Italy. Essig's claim of breeding the dog as described is disputed. Records from as early as 1585 may indicate the existence of Leonberger-type dogs; documents dating from 1601 held by the Metternich family describe similar dogs used to deter the theft of livestock. Either way, no doubt exists that Essig named and registered the breed first. A black-and-white engraving of the Leonberger was included in "The Illustrated Book of the Dog" by Vero Shaw (at p. 488) in 1881. At the time, Essig's Leonbergers were denounced as an indifferent knockoff of a St. Bernard—not a stable and recognized breed—and a product of a popular fad or fashion for large and strong dogs, fomented in part by Essig's prodigious marketing skills (he gave dogs to the rich and famous).


title: Leonberger

text: The modern look of the Leonberger, with darker coats and black masks, was developed during the latter part of the 20th century by reintroducing other breeds, such as the Newfoundland. This was necessary because breeding stocks of the Leonberger were seriously affected by the two world wars. During World War I, reportedly, only five Leonbergers survived World War I and were bred until World War II when, again, almost all Leonbergers were lost. During the two world wars, Leonbergers were used to pull the ammunition carts, a service to the breed's country that resulted in the Leonbergers' near-destruction. Karl Stadelmann and Otto Josenhans are credited as the breed's saviors, bringing them back from almost extinction. Leonbergers today can have their ancestry traced to the eight dogs that survived World War II.


title: Leonberger

text: Traditionally, Leonbergers were kept as farm dogs and were much praised for their abilities in watchdog and draft work. They were frequently seen pulling carts around the villages of Bavaria and surrounding districts. Around the beginning of the 20th century, Leonbergers were imported by the government of Canada for use as water rescue/lifesaving dogs. The breed continues in that role today, along with the Newfoundland, Labrador Retriever, and Golden Retriever; they are used at the Italian School of Canine Lifeguard. They have been used successfully as flock guard dogs.


title: Leonberger

text: The Leonberger received American Kennel Club recognition as a member of the Working Group on January 1, 2010, alongside the Icelandic Sheepdog and the Cane Corso. It was the 167th breed to be recognized by the AKC.


title: Leonberger

text: The Lifetime TV movie "Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever" features a Leonberger that becomes a victim of a dognapping, co-starring with the famous Grumpy Cat.


title: Leonberger

text: In the story "Murphy and the Great Surf Rescue" in Gill Lewis' "Puppy Academy" series of children's books, Murphy is a Leonberger puppy whose special skill is swimming.


title: Leonberger

text: The graphic music video "Deutschland" by German rock band Rammstein portrays the symbolic figure of Germania giving birth to Leonberger puppies.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: Wessel Johannes "Hansie" Cronje (25 September 1969 – 1 June 2002) was a South African international cricketer and captain of the South African national cricket team in the 1990s. A right-handed all-rounder, as captain Cronje led his team to victory in 27 test matches and 99 one day internationals. He was voted the 11th greatest South African in 2004 despite having been banned from cricket for life due to his role in a match-fixing scandal. He died in a plane crash in 2002.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: Cronje was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa to Ewie Cronje and San-Marie Cronje on 25 September 1969. He graduated in 1987 from Grey College in Bloemfontein, where he was the head boy. An excellent all round sportsman, he represented the then Orange Free State Province in cricket and rugby at schools level. He was the captain of his school's cricket and rugby teams. Cronje earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of the Free State. He had an older brother, Frans Cronje, and a younger sister, Hester Parsons.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: His father Ewie had played for Orange Free State in the 1960s, and Frans had also played first-class cricket.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: Cronje made his first-class debut for Orange Free State against Transvaal at Johannesburg in January 1988 at the age of 18. In the following season, he was a regular, appearing in all eight Currie Cup matches plus being part of the Benson and Hedges Series winning team, scoring 73 as an opener in the final. In 1989–90, despite playing all the Currie Cup matches, he failed to make a century, and averaged only 19.76; however, in one-day games he averaged 60.12. During that season he scored his maiden century for South African Universities against Mike Gatting's rebels.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: Despite having just turned 21, Cronje was made captain of Orange Free State for the 1990–91 season. He scored his maiden century for them against Natal in December 1990, and finished the season with another century and a total of 715 runs at 39.72. That season he also scored 159* in a 40-over match against Griqualand West.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In 1995, Cronje appeared for Leicestershire where he scored 1301 runs at 52.04 finishing the season as the county's leading scorer.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In 1995–96, he finished the season top of the batting averages in the Currie Cup, his top score of 158 helped Free State chase down 389 to beat Northern Transvaal.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In 1997, Cronje played for Ireland as an overseas player in the Benson and Hedges Cup and helped them to a 46-run win over Middlesex by scoring 94 not out and taking three wickets. This was Ireland's first ever win against English county opposition. Later in the same competition, he scored 85 and took one wicket against Glamorgan.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: Cronje's form in 1991/92 was impressive especially in the one-day format where he averaged 61.40. He earned an international call up for the 1992 World Cup, making his One Day International debut against Australia at Sydney. During the tournament he played in eight of the team's nine games, averaging 34.00 with the bat, while his medium pace was used in bowling 20 overs.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: After the World Cup Cronje was part of the tour to the West Indies; he featured in the three ODI's, and in the Test match at Bridgetown that followed, he made his Test debut. This was South Africa's first Test since readmission and they came close to beating a strong West Indian side, going into the final day at 122/2 chasing 200 they collapsed to 148.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: India toured South Africa in 1992/93. In the first one-day international, he hit the famous six when his team needed 6 runs off only 4 balls, and was awarded Man of the match for his bowling. In the one-day series, Cronje managed just one fifty but with the ball he was economical and took his career best figures of 5/32, becoming the second South African to take five wickets in an ODI. In the Test series that followed he scored his maiden test century, 135 off 411 balls, after coming in at 0–1 in the second over he was last man out, after eight and three-quarter hours, in a total of 275. This contributed to South Africa's first Test win since readmission. At the end of the season in a triangular tournament with Pakistan and West Indies he scored 81 off 70 balls against Pakistan.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In South Africa's next Test series against Sri Lanka, Cronje scored his second Test century, 122 in the second Test in Colombo; the victory margin of an innings and 208 runs is a South African record. He finished the series with 237 runs at 59.25 after scoring 73* in the drawn third Test.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In 1993–94, there was another Castle Cup/Total Power Series double for Orange Free State. In international cricket, he was named as vice-captain for the tour of Australia despite being the youngest member of the squad. In the first ODI of the triangular tournament with New Zealand and Australia, he guided South Africa to victory against Australia at the MCG with 91*, which won him the man of the match award. He scored 71 in a rain-affected first test at Melbourne before a tense second test that South Africa won by 5 runs. An injury to captain Kepler Wessels meant Cronje was captain for the final day of the match. Between the second and third tests, the one-day tournament continued, now with Cronje as captain, South Africa made the final series but lost it 2–1 to Australia. He became South Africa's second youngest Test captain, after Murray Bisset in 1898–99, when he led the team for the third test at Adelaide but it was an unsuccessful start to his captaincy career as the series was squared.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In February 1994, there was the return series as Australia toured South Africa. Cronje started the ODI series with scores of 112, 97, 45 and 50* and when Australia played Orange Free State in their final match before the first Test, Cronje hit 251 off 306 balls, 200 of these came on the final day in which 294 runs were added. Despite this, Orange Free State lost the match. In the first test at Johannesburg, he added another century as South Africa won by 197 runs. This innings was the end of a 14-day period in which he'd scored 721 runs against the Aussies. However, he failed to reach fifty in the next two tests and four ODIs as both series were drawn.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: There was another drawn series when South Africa toured England in 1994. Cronje scored only one century on the whole tour and scored only 90 runs in the three-test series. In October 1994, South Africa again came up against Australia in a triangular one day series also featuring Pakistan. Cronje scored 354 runs at an average of 88.50. Despite this, South Africa lost all their matches. This series was Bob Woolmer's first as coach and Kepler Wessels' last as captain. Cronje, who'd previously been vice-captain, was named as captain for the test series with New Zealand in 1994–95.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: South Africa lost the first Test in Johannesburg but before the second test the two teams plus Pakistan and Sri Lanka competed for the Mandela Trophy, New Zealand failed to gain a win in the six match round robin stage while South Africa beat Pakistan in the final. This changed the momentum as South Africa secured wins in Durban and Cape Town, where Cronje scored his fourth test century. He was the first captain since W. G. Grace to win a three-match series after being one down.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In early 1995, South Africa won one-off tests against both Pakistan and New Zealand. In Auckland Cronje scored the only century of the match before a final day declaration left his bowlers barely enough time to dismiss the Kiwis.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In October 1995, South Africa won a one-off Test with Zimbabwe. Cronje scored a second innings 54* to guide them to a seven wicket win. In two one-dayers that followed, he took five wickets as South Africa comfortably won both. South Africa won the five Test series against England 1–0 despite Cronje struggling, scoring 113 runs at 18.83. However, he top scored in the one-day series that they won 6–1.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In the 1996 World Cup, he scored 78 and 45* against New Zealand and Pakistan respectively as South Africa won their group but in the Quarter final with West Indies a Brian Lara century ended their ten-game winning streak.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: The 1996–97 season featured back-to-back series with India. The first away was lost 2–1. The home series was won 2–0. In the six tests combined, Cronje managed one fifty. Cronje produced better form against Australia, averaging over 50 in both test and ODI series although both were lost.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: Cronje started 1997–98 by leading South Africa to their first series victory in Pakistan, his batting continued to struggle with his biggest contribution being taking the wickets of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Moin Khan in the Third Test.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: Cronje once again came up against Australia and once again ended on the losing side. In the triangular one day series they won the group with Australia just scraping through, they also won the first 'final' but South Africa lost the last two finals. During the group matches Cronje had threatened to lead his team off after Pat Symcox had missiles thrown at him, Symcox had the last laugh ending the match with 4/24. Before the Test series started he scored consecutive centuries against Tasmania and Australia A these were his first in two years.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In the first Test, Cronje scored 70 as South Africa saved the match; in the second Test, he lasted 335 minutes for his 88. Despite this, they lost by an innings. In the third Test, they scored 517 and although Mark Taylor carried his bat for 169, Australia needed to bat 109 overs to save the match. Mark Waugh batted 404 minutes, and, despite controversy when Waugh hit one of his bails off (under Law 35 he was adjudged to have finished his stroke and therefore given not out), South Africa fell three wickets short. Cronje put a stump through the umpires' dressing room door after the match and was lucky to avoid a ban.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: Cronje missed the first Test of the series with Pakistan because of a knee injury. The second Test at Durban was lost, but he top scored at Port Elizabeth with 85, to help square the three Test series 1–1. There was still time in the season for a two-Test series with Sri Lanka. The first was won with Cronje scoring 49 and 74; in the second Test, he took 3/14, his best bowling in Tests, and smashed 82 off 63 balls, his fifty being brought up with three consecutive sixes off Muttiah Muralitharan, and was reached off just 31 balls; at the time, it was the second fastest in Tests after Kapil Dev's. In the triangular series, which South Africa won, he scored only one fifty at East London where he also took 2/17 off 10 overs.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: During the 1998 Test series against England, Cronje scored five consecutive fifties, having failed to score one in the nine previous Tests against them. In his fiftieth Test, at Trent Bridge he scored 126, his sixth and last Test century and his first in 29 matches. During his second innings of 67, he passed 3,000 runs – only the second South African to do so. However, England won the Test, and the one at Headingley, to win the series 2–1, Cronje finished the series as South Africa's top scorer with 401 runs at 66.83.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In the West Indies series of 1998–99, Cronje captained South Africa to their only whitewash in a five Test series. His best batting against West Indies came when playing for Free State; he scored 158* as they chased down 438 and made up a first innings deficit of 249. In the ODI series he was South Africa's top scorer and took 11 wickets at 14.72 as South Africa won 6–1.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In March 1999, they toured New Zealand, beating them 1–0 in the Test series and 3–2 in the one-dayers.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: At the 1999 World Cup, Cronje finished with 98 runs at 12.25 as South Africa were eliminated after the famous tied semi-final against Australia at Edgbaston. In the first match of the tournament versus India, Cronje came onto the field with an earpiece wired to coach Bob Woolmer, but at the first drinks break match referee Talat Ali ordered him to remove it.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In October 1999, Cronje became South Africa's highest Test run scorer during the first Test against Zimbabwe. The two Test series was won 2–0 thanks to innings victories. South Africa won the series with England in the fourth Test at Cape Town, Cronje's fiftieth as captain.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: The fifth test of the 1999–2000 South Africa versus England series at Centurion was ruined by rain, entering the final day only 45 overs had been possible with South Africa 155/6. On the final morning as they batted on, news filtered through that the captains had met and were going to "make a game of it". A target of 250 from 70 overs was agreed. When South Africa reached 248/8, Cronje declared; both teams then forfeited an innings leaving England a target of 249 to win the Test, which they did with two wickets left and only five balls remaining. It ended South Africa's 14-game unbeaten streak in Test cricket. It was later learnt Cronje accepted money and a gift from a bookmaker in return for making an early declaration in this Test. (See below).


title: Hansie Cronje

text: Cronje top scored with 56 after South Africa were left reeling at 21–5 in the Final of the triangular tournament which featured England and Zimbabwe.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: On 31 March 2000, his cricket career finished with a 73-ball 79 against Pakistan in the final of Sharjah Cup 1999/2000.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: Under Cronje's captaincy, South Africa won 27 Tests and lost 11, completing series victories against every team except Australia.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: He captained the One Day International team to 99 wins out of 138 matches with one tied match and three no results. He holds the South African record for matches won as captain, and his record of captaining his side in 138 matches stands bettered only by Graeme Smith's 149 matches as ODI captain. His 99 wins as captain makes him the fourth most successful captain worldwide in terms of matches won, behind Ricky Ponting, Allan Border and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and in terms of percentage of wins (73.70), behind Ponting and Clive Lloyd.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: Cronje has the record for playing the most consecutive ODI matches as captain (130) and is the only player to play in 100+ consecutive ODI matches as captain.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: On 7 April 2000, it was revealed there was a conversation between Cronje and Sanjeev Chawla, a representative of an Indian betting syndicate, over match-fixing allegations. Three other players, Herschelle Gibbs, Nicky Boje, and Pieter Strydom, were also implicated. After an enquiry by the King Commission, Cronje was banned from any involvement in cricket for life. He challenged his life ban in September 2001 but on 17 October 2001, his application was dismissed.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: After 13 years, on 22 July 2013, the Delhi Police registered a First Information Report for match-fixing in 2000; the charge sheet in the case involved several South African cricketers including Cronje.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: On 1 June 2002, Cronje's scheduled flight home from Johannesburg to George was grounded. He then hitched a ride as the only passenger aboard a Hawker Siddeley HS 748 turboprop aircraft. Near George airport, the pilots lost visibility in clouds and were unable to land, partly due to unusable navigational equipment. While circling, the plane crashed into the Outeniqua Mountains northeast of the airport. Cronje, aged 32, and the two pilots were killed instantly.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In August 2006, an inquest into the plane crash was opened by South Africa's High Court. The inquest concluded that "the death of the deceased Wessel Johannes Cronje was brought about by an act or omission prima facie amounting to an offence on the part of pilots."


title: Hansie Cronje

text: Conspiracy theories that Cronje was murdered on the orders of a cricket betting syndicate flourished after his death and were most recently re-floated by former Nottinghamshire coach Clive Rice in the wake of the death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer in March 2007. It was alleged that he was murdered to hide the truths behind match-fixing.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: Hansie Cronje married Bertha Hans on 8 April 1995. They had no children. Hansie's widow later married Jacques Du Plessis, a financial auditor, in 2003. It was reported that the private ceremony was attended by Hansie's parents and siblings, and close friends Jonty Rhodes and his wife Kate.


title: Hansie Cronje

text: In 2008, a biographical film titled "Hansie: A True Story" was released, where Frank Rautenbach played the part of Cronje.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (; or , ; commonly shortened to PACA; ; also branded as Région Sud) is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, the far southeastern on the mainland. Its prefecture and largest city is Marseille. The region is roughly coterminous with the former French province of Provence, with the addition of the following adjacent areas: the former papal territory of Avignon, known as Comtat Venaissin; the former Sardinian-Piedmontese County of Nice annexed in 1860, whose coastline is known in English as the French Riviera and in French as the "Côte d'Azur"; and the southeastern part of the former French province of Dauphiné, in the French Alps. Previously known by the acronym PACA, the region adopted the name "Région Sud" as a commercial name or nickname in December 2017. 5,007,977 people live in the region according to the 2015 census.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: It encompasses six departments in Southeastern France: Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Hautes-Alpes, Var and Vaucluse. It is bounded to the east by the France–Italy border, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea and by the Principality of Monaco, to the north by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and to the west by Occitanie, with the Rhône marking its westernmost border. The region logotype displays the coat of arms created in the 1990s and which combines the coats of arms of the old provinces making up Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. The region's economy is the third largest in France, just behind Île-de-France and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Its GDP in 2015 was €168.2 billion (US$190.5 billion) while its per capita GDP was €30,863 (US$34,950).


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: As of 2018, the population of the region was 5,052,832; Marseille and its metropolitan area is the most populous in the region with a city population of 868,277, an urban population of 1,607,292 and a metropolitan population of 1,863,762. Marseille is the second largest city in France after Paris, and has the third largest metropolitan population, behind those of Paris and Lyon respectively.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Nice is host to the second-largest population concentration in the region, with a city population of 344,875 and an urban population of 1,005,230, making it the fifth-most populous city in France.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: The absolute majority of the population speaks French but many regional and foreign languages are present in the region.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: The 1999 Census, which included a complementary survey asking for the mother tongue of the respondents, gave results on the most spoken mother tongues in Provence after French:


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: According to a 2009 study, nearly 40% of all newborns in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in 2007 had at least one parent of an immigrant background, mostly Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Maghrebi. This is the second-highest rate after Île-de-France (Greater Paris), where the figure was around 56%. Since the 1960s, the region has been a major immigration centre from France and into France, mostly due to Northern French and to Mediterranean immigration from countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur is divided into 6 departments. These are Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var and Vaucluse.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: The largest cities in the region are Marseille (regional prefecture), Nice, Toulon and Aix-en-Provence, each with a population exceeding 100,000 inhabitants at the 1999 census. After Marseille, Nice is the second most populous city in the region, with a city proper population of about 350,000 and an urban population exceeding 1 million.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Marseille has an urban area of 2 million inhabitants and is the largest and capital city of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. It is also the second-most populated city in France, just behind Paris, and the city with the third-largest metropolitan population in France, behind Paris and Lyon, respectively.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Along with Nice and Marseille, the region is also made internationally popular with Cannes, a city that, despite its comparatively small size (population of 73,603 in 2012), hosts the annual Cannes Film Festival, which has highly popularized the region. In addition, Arles has become renowned as the city where Vincent van Gogh lived and painted 300 paintings.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Toulon is a large military harbour on the Mediterranean coast and is home to a French naval base. It is the capital of the Var department in the region. Also, Aix-en-Provence has long been a university town and, to this day, remains the most important educational centre in the region.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Below is a list of the most populated cities in the region along with their population (city proper) according to the most recent census:


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: This region has a total area of . It has a wide variety of landscapes, from the Alps mountains to plains and coastal areas like Nice and Marseille, which form the majority of the land area. The region has a Mediterranean coastline on the south, on which the majority of its population lives. It borders Italy (Liguria and Piedmont) to the east, Monaco (Fontvieille, La Colle, La Rousse, Larvotto, Les Moneghetti, Les Révoires, Saint Michel) in the south-east, and the French regions of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes to the north and Occitanie to the west. The Rhône, Durance, Var and Arc rivers run through the region. The borders were unaffected by the 2016 French regional reforms.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: This region is famous for the Côte d'Azur (French Riviera), which spans the coastal cities of Nice, Saint-Laurent-du-Var, Antibes, Juan-les-Pins, Cannes, Mandelieu-la-Napoule, Fréjus, Saint-Raphaël, Sainte-Maxime and Saint-Tropez; and on the Rhône river, the city of Avignon which is surrounded by medieval stone walls.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: The Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur is the legislative body ("assemblée délibérante") of the region. The President of the Regional Council has been Renaud Muselier formerly of The Republicans (LR) since 2017.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: In the recent years, The Republicans have gained strong support in the region. Following the 2015 regional election, the party took control of the regional executive, which had been previously controlled by the Socialist Party (PS). Christian Estrosi succeeded Michel Vauzelle as President of the Regional Council. The 2015 election was also a show of force for the National Front (FN), led by Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, which garnered over 45% of the vote in the second round. The Socialist Party lost all representation at the regional level.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: The French Communist Party (PCF) historically had several strongholds in the region from the 1920s onward, including Aubagne, Draguignan, La Ciotat, Beausoleil, Martigues, Gardanne, Arles as well as some suburbs of Marseille, although not enough to win regional elections; the party usually received about 10% of the vote. In the 2002 presidential election, this declined to 4%. In 2007, it dropped below 2%.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Nowadays the main competition in regional politics is between the right-wing The Republicans and the far-right National Rally (formerly National Front). In the second round of the 2021 regional election, The Republicans received 57.3% of the vote against the National Rally's 42.7% with a list led by Thierry Mariani. The Socialist Party, present in the first round on a joint list led by Europe Ecology – The Greens, failed again to win any seats.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: The 2022 presidential election marked the first time a far-right candidate won a majority of the vote in the second round in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Marine Le Pen won a majority of the vote in three of the six departments (55.1% in Var, 52% in Vaucluse and 51.5% in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence); her respective scores in the remaining three (49.9% in Alpes-Maritimes, 47.9% in Bouches-du-Rhône and 44.9% in Hautes-Alpes) were superior to her national total (41.5%).


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: In the second round of the last four presidential elections, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur voted as follows, with the winner of the election indicated in italics:


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: The regional income per capita is close to the French national average. Income inequality however is higher than in other regions: it is ranked the 2nd region most marked by inequalities after Île-de-France. The region is ranked fifth by GDP (as of 2016). Between 2007 and 2011, the region registered an average annual growth rate of 1.6% of GDP (Eurostat), close to the national average annual growth rate of 1.5%. Representing 7.2% of the national GDP over the period, the region is an important economic powerhouse.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: In 2013, the region was responsible for 7.4% of national employment, with an employment rate of 60.9%. The region's employment success has a main characteristic: a higher concentration of elderly people than in the rest of France (respectively 27.1% and 24.1% in 2013).


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: With more than 80% of regional employment in the service sector in 2016, the regional economy is mostly oriented towards service activities, above the national average of 75.8%. The sector grew between 2000 and 2010 (3.1% on annual average versus 2.1% in France). The region concentrates more on commercial activities than financial ones than the rest of France does; principally because of tourism. 34% of the labour force is employed in retail and trade, against 32% at the national level. Moreover, the sector strongly contributes to growth of added value (81.5% vs. 77.3% at the national level). The industrial sector (existing mainly through the Marseille-Fos Port), including construction, consists of 17.1% of regional employment (vs. 20.6% in the rest of France), and contributes to 9.3% of gross added value, 3.2 points below the French level.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Employment in the agricultural sector is lower than the national level (2.4% against 3.1%). However, it grew at a rate of 4.1% annually on average between 2000 and 2008, while the rest of the country saw its agricultural employment decline by 2.4%. According to the INSEE, the region is characterised by a strong presence of SMEs of less than 500 employees, which represent 91.2% of local businesses (higher than the national average of 90.9%). Retail activities and tourism explain these figures.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: The region's economy is dependent on tourism like most coastal places but also a majority of its economy is dependent on coastal activities. PACA is the 3rd richest French region and ranks 19th on the European scale. Its prosperity is mainly thanks to its attractiveness in terms of tourism; it is indeed one of the world's favourite tourist destinations, welcoming about 34 million tourists every year. The service sector predominates and provides many good jobs. In 2009, the region was admittedly affected by the global economic crisis, albeit to a small extent. It is (after the Paris area) the 2nd French region with regards to business startups.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: If tourism is the driving force of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the region is also a leader when it comes to innovative sectors, such as high technology, biotechnology, and microelectronics. Education, for its part, is well developed with the region's various universities, international schools, preparatory classes for specialist university courses, and engineering and business schools. All these institutions of higher learning help contribute to the human capital needed by the region to meet current technological challenges.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: The region has a total GDP (2018) of €166.4 billion (US$188.7 bn), the sixth highest in France. It has a per capita GDP of €30,864 (US$34,994), slightly higher than the French average. According to a recent survey, a person living in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur has an average annual income of about €37,489 (US$45,755).


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: The region is one of the most visited of France, and has therefore many well-known museums, mostly in Marseille: the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations, the Musée Cantini, the Musée Grobet-Labadié, the Marseille History Museum, the Musée des beaux-arts de Marseille, the Musée de la Faïence de Marseille and the Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Marseille are some of the tourist spots of the city. However, other museums are internationally recognised, like the Musée Matisse, the Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain, the Musée Marc Chagall, the Musée international d'Art naïf Anatole Jakovsky, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice, the Musée National du Sport and the Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Nice.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur has two of the busiest airports in France: Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (ranking third nationally after Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport) and Marseille Provence Airport (ranking fifth nationally after Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport). Nice saw 14,485,423 people travelling through its airport in 2019, while 10,151,743 used Marseille to fly. As of 2019, the third-busiest airport in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur is Toulon–Hyères Airport (507,199 passengers), ranking 27th nationally.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: The region is at the centre of a complex and dense motorway network, in the heart of Mediterranean coast. Motorways are operated by ASF, ESCOTA, SMTC, MPM (Marseille Metropolis) and DIR Med (State). In PACA, motorways have the particularity to serve the city centres of large cities, unlike other large cities of France. This is due to their comparatively early construction in relation to the motorways of France's other regions.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: The region is served by 13 high-speed trains stations and one more in the Principality of Monaco. Two stations are situated on the LGV Méditerranée opened in 2001: Avignon TGV and Aix-en-Provence TGV. The others stations served by high-speed services are Avignon-Centre, Arles, Miramas, Marseille-Saint-Charles, Toulon, Les Arcs-Draguignan, Saint-Raphaël-Valescure, Cannes, Antibes, Nice-Ville and Menton.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Despite the importance of the region in the national economy and demography, the national services on conventional network are not very high due to the fact of the saturations of the tracks with high speed and regional trains.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: All regional trains services are operated by SNCF TER Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur, except between Nice and Digne-les-Bains, operated by CP, the own-region company. The Regional Council of Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur is the transport authority and defines the services in all region. An attractive fare permits to transport more than 100,000 passengers every day in 750 trains. Trains are leaving every 15, 20, 30, 60 or 120 minutes on each line.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: With only one big line, the tracks are saturated causing delays or cancellations. The region has to rent other trains from other regions to respond at the offer. In 2016, during the second Council of the Year at the Region Hall in Marseille, in front of politicians and the new President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Christian Estrosi, the SNCF CEO, Guillaume Pepy, has announced the impossibility of the company to respond to the demand. The Marseille-Saint-Charles Station, the Marseille's main railway station can't support more than 23 trains an hour and the tracks are too old and not enough to accept an average of the capacity. The project of new high-speed line called LGV PACA in 2030 could permit to increase trains on tracks with a new crossing of Marseille with a tunnel. Two new stations will be created in the territory of the city and a new line between Cannes and Nice Côte d'Azur Airport.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Services operated by SNCF are declined with two appellations unlike other regions : TER, normally suburban trains and Intervilles, long-distance regional trains.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: The mining company Alteo processes bauxite to produce aluminium, resulting in various waste materials such as "boues rouges" (red mud) and arsenic. The dumping of this waste in the marine reserve of Calanques National Park for six years was authorised by the French Government in 2015. Company representatives have dismissed environmental concerns as exaggerated and uninformed. The region also includes another national park, Port-Cros National Park near Toulon.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Due to motor vehicle traffic, the urban areas are often saturated on a daily basis, but cities are investing in public transport networks such as Marseille's subway (2 lines) and tramway (3 lines), the Aubagne tramway (1 line) and the Nice tramway (3 lines). Other networks existed at the beginning of the 20th century in smaller cities such as Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, La Ciotat and Toulon but are now gone.


title: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

text: Major universities of the region include the Aix-Marseille University, the University of Toulon, the University of Avignon and the Côte d'Azur University. Other towns have higher education classes but no universities.


"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" () is a slogan popularised by Karl Marx in his 1875 "Critique of the Gotha Programme". The principle refers to free access to and distribution of goods, capital and services. In the Marxist view, such an arrangement will be made possible by the abundance of goods and services that a developed communist system will be capable to produce; the idea is that, with the full development of socialism and unfettered productive forces, there will be enough to satisfy everyone's needs.


title: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs

text: The complete paragraph containing Marx's statement of the creed in the "Critique of the Gotha Programme" is as follows:


text: Although Marx is popularly thought of as the originator of the phrase, the slogan was common within the socialist movement. For example, August Becker in 1844 described it as the basic principle of communism and Louis Blanc used it in 1851. The French socialist Saint-Simonists of the 1820s and 1830s used slightly different slogans such as,"from each according to his ability, to each ability according to its work" or," From each according to his capacity, to each according to his works.” The origin of this phrasing has also been attributed to the French utopian Étienne-Gabriel Morelly, who proposed in his 1755 "Code of Nature" "Sacred and Fundamental Laws that would tear out the roots of vice and of all the evils of a society", including:


text: Some scholars trace the phrase to the New Testament. In Acts of the Apostles the lifestyle of the community of believers in Jerusalem is described as communal (without individual possession), and uses the phrase ""distribution was made unto every man according as he had need"" ():


text: Other scholars find its origins in "the Roman legal concept of obligation in solidum", in which "everyone assumes responsibility for anyone who cannot pay his debt, and he is conversely responsible for everyone else". James Furner argues:


text: If = a disadvantage, and = action to redress that disadvantage, the principle of solidarity is: if any member of a group acquires , each member has a duty to perform (if they can assist). All we then need to add, to get to the fundamental principle of developed communism, is to assume that non-satisfaction of a need is a disadvantage. The corresponding principle of solidarity in respect of need says: if any member of society has an unsatisfied need, each member has a duty to produce its object (if they can). But that is precisely what the principle 'from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs!' dictates. In Marx's vision, the basic principle of developed communism is a principle of solidarity in respect of need.


text: Marx delineated the specific conditions under which such a creed would be applicable—a society where technology and social organization had substantially eliminated the need for physical labor in the production of things, where "labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want". Marx explained his belief that, in such a society, each person would be motivated to work for the good of society despite the absence of a social mechanism "compelling" them to work, because work would have become a pleasurable and creative activity. Marx intended the initial part of his slogan, "from each according to his ability" to suggest not merely that each person should work as hard as they can, but that each person should best develop their particular talents.


text: Claiming themselves to be at a "lower stage of communism" (i.e. "socialism", in line with Vladimir Lenin’s terminology), the Soviet Union adapted the formula as: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his work (labour investment)". This was incorporated in Article 12 of the 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union, but described by Leon Trotsky as "This inwardly contradictory, not to say nonsensical, formula".


text: In Ayn Rand's 1957 pro-capitalist novel "Atlas Shrugged", a large and profitable motor company adopted this slogan as its method for determining employee compensation. The system quickly fell prey to corruption and greed, forcing the most capable employees to work overtime in order to satisfy the needs of the least competent and to funnel money to the owners. As a result, the company went bankrupt within four years.


text: In Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel "The Handmaid's Tale", members of a dystopian society recited the phrase thrice daily. Notably the phrase is altered to read "From each according to her ability; to each according to his need", demonstrating a perversion of the phrase's original intention by Atwood's fictional society.


text: In Vladimir Voinovich's 1986 novel "Moscow 2042", the slogan was parodied in the context of "communism in one city". Every morning the radio announced: "Comrades, your needs for today are as follows: ...".


text: In Ruben Östlund's 2022 movie Triangle of Sadness, the character of Russian capitalist Dmitri played by Zlatko Buric uses the quote to convince Abigail to give him some food, despite his hatred for communist ideas; before that point in the story, Dmitri was using Marxist quotes ironically, to entertain himself.


title: Thirst trap

text: A thirst trap is a type of social media post intended to entice viewers sexually. It refers to a viewer's "thirst", a colloquialism likening sexual frustration to dehydration, implying desperation, with the afflicted individual being described as "thirsty." Originating around the early 2010s, the meaning has changed over time.


title: Thirst trap

text: The term "thirst trap" emerged on Twitter and Urban Dictionary in 2011, and throughout the years as the rise of Snapchat, Instagram, and online dating apps such as Tinder. In 2011, it was defined by Urban Dictionary as "any statement used to intentionally create attention or 'thirst'."


title: Thirst trap

text: In 2018, it was reported to have entered common usage, as media sources including "The New York Times" and "GQ" started using the expression without definition.


title: Thirst trap

text: Often, the term "thirst trap" describes an attractive picture of an individual that they post online.


title: Thirst trap

text: Thirst trap can also describe a digital heartthrob. For instance, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has been described as a political thirst trap.


title: Thirst trap

text: There can be several motivations behind thirst trapping. People can seek "likes" and comments on social media which can provide a temporary boost in self-esteem and validation. Posting a thirst trap can also be a way to express sexuality. Thirst traps can contribute to personal branding as well. Sometimes, there can be a financial benefit for sharing thirst traps. Some post thirst traps as a way to cope with emotional distress, such as after a breakup. Furthermore, these images can be used to spite a former lover. Sharing a thirst trap has also been used as a way to connect in times of social isolation (e.g. COVID-19 pandemic).


title: Thirst trap

text: From a physiological standpoint, endorphins and neurotransmitters like oxytocin and dopamine can be released with the process of sharing thirst traps, leading to a sense of pleasure and an ambiguous or masturbatory alternative for actual physical sexual contact.


title: Thirst trap

text: Methodologies have developed to take an optimal thirst trap photo. Reporting for "Vice" magazine, Graham Isador found several of his social network contacts spent a lot of time considering how to take the best photo and what text they should use. They considered angles and lighting. Sometimes they made use of the self-timer feature available on some cameras. Often, body parts are put on display without being too explicit (e.g. bulges of male genitalia, breast cleavage, abdominal muscles, pectoral muscles, backs, buttocks).


title: Thirst trap

text: Often, the thirst trap is accompanied by a caption. For instance, in October 2019, actress Tracee Ellis Ross posted bikini pictures on Instagram with a caption that included the message: "I've worked so hard to feel good in my skin and to build a life that truly matches me and I'm in it and it feels good. ... No filter, no retouch 47 year old thirst trap! Boom!"


title: Thirst trap

text: "Gatsbying" is a variation of the thirst trap, where one puts posts on social media to attract the attention of a particular individual. The term alludes to the novel "The Great Gatsby" where the character Jay Gatsby would throw extravagant parties to attract the attention of his love interest, Daisy. "Instagrandstanding" is an alternative name for this.


title: Thirst trap

text: "Wholesome trapping" has developed, where one posts pictures of more meaningful aspects of life, such as spending time with friends or doing outdoor activities.


title: Thirst trap

text: Psychotherapist Lisa Brateman has criticized thirst traps as being an unhealthy method of receiving external validation. This desire for external validation can be addictive.