title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York City's borough of Manhattan is the highest nominal income county in the United States. In particular, ZIP code 10021 on Manhattan's Upper East Side, with more than 100,000 inhabitants and a per capita income of over $90,000, has one of the largest concentrations of income in the United States. The other boroughs, especially Queens and Staten Island, have large middle-class populations.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York City's per capita income in 2000 was $22,402; men and women had a median income of $37,435 and $32,949 respectively. 21.2% of the population and 18.5% of families had incomes below the federal poverty line; 30.0% of this group were under the age of 18 and 17.8% were 65 and older.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Of Forbes Magazine's 400 richest American billionaires, 70 live in New York City. Former mayor and Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is one of the nation's richest men. As of 2009 New York has regained the number one spot as the city with most billionaires (55), after losing out to Moscow in 2008.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Neighborhood Tabulation Areas (NTAs) are a geographic unit created to help project populations at a small area level, as part of the long-term sustainability plan for the city known as PlaNYC, covering the years 2000–2030. The minimum population for an NTA is 15,000 people, a level seen as a useful summary level which can be used both with the 2010 Census and the American Community Survey.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York has ranked first in population among American cities since the first census in 1790. New York will maintain this position for the foreseeable future, although there are varying forecasts on how much the population will increase. The most realistic population projections from the Department of City Planning anticipate a 1.1 million increase by 2030, bringing the city's population total to 9.1 million.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: While the city's projected 2030 population will be a new high, only two boroughs, Staten Island and Queens have reached their population peak every year for the last 5 years. The study projects that by 2030, Queens will have 2.57 million people and Staten Island 552,000. Manhattan, with 1.83 million, Bronx with 1.46 million and Brooklyn with 2.72 million, will still be below their population peaks.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: On March 27, 2011, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the city would file a formal challenge to the Census results, as a result of alleged undercounting in the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. The mayor has asserted that the numbers for Queens and Brooklyn, the two most populous boroughs, are implausible. According to the Census, they grew by only 0.1% and 1.6%, respectively, while the other boroughs grew by between 3% and 5%. In addition, the Mayor claims, the census showed improbably high amounts of vacant housing in vital neighborhoods such as Jackson Heights, Queens.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Click here to view the density of New York City as an interactive map of the 1900 census, shortly after municipal consolidation of the five boroughs in 1898.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: According to the 2010 United States Census, New York City had the largest population of self-defined black residents of any U.S. city, with over 2,000,000 within the city's boundaries, although this number has decreased since 2000. New York City had more black people than did the entire state of California until the 1980 United States Census. The black population consists of immigrants and their descendants from Africa and the Caribbean as well as native-born African-Americans. Many of the city's black residents live in Brooklyn and The Bronx. Several of the city's neighborhoods are historical birthplaces of urban black culture in America, among them the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford–Stuyvesant and Manhattan's Harlem and various sections of Eastern Queens and The Bronx. Bedford-Stuyvesant is considered to have the highest concentration of black residents in the United States. New York City has the largest population of black immigrants (at 686,814) and descendants of immigrants from the Caribbean (especially from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Guyana, Belize, Grenada, and Haiti), and of sub-Saharan Africans. In a news item of April 3, 2006, however, the "New York Times" noted that for the first time since the American Civil War, the recorded African-American population was declining, because of emigration to other regions, a declining African-American birthrate in New York, and decreased immigration of blacks from the Caribbean and Africa.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: The New York City Metropolitan Area contains the largest ethnic Chinese population outside Asia, enumerating an estimated 735,019 individuals as of 2012, with the Manhattan Chinatown (), home to the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere. Other Chinatowns are included one in Queens (the Flushing Chinatown), three in Brooklyn (the Sunset Park Chinatown, the Avenue U Chinatown, and the Bensonhurst Chinatown), and one each in Edison, New Jersey and Nassau County, Long Island, as well as fledgling ethnic Chinese enclaves emerging throughout the New York City metropolitan area. Chinese in New York constitute the fastest-growing nationality in New York State and on Long Island.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York City was home to an estimated 82,313 Filipinos in 2011, representing a 7.7% increase from the estimated 77,191 in 2008, with 56%, or about 46,000, in Queens. Immigration from the Philippines began mainly after 1965, when immigration quotas that prevented Filipino immigration for many years were abolished. While there was earlier immigration from the Philippines, it was in low numbers and mainly concentrated in Hawaii and California. Since then, Filipinos have settled in Northeastern cities, with a majority in the New York City metropolitan area. Most of these immigrants have been professionals (doctors, nurses, other medical professions, accountants and engineers). The Filipino median household income in New York City was $81,929 in 2013, and 68% held a bachelor's degree or higher.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York City annually hosts the Philippine Independence Day Parade, which is traditionally held on the first Sunday of June on Madison Avenue. The celebration occupies nearly twenty-seven city blocks which includes a 3.5-hour parade and an all-day long street fair and cultural performances.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: A "Little Manila" can be found in Woodside, in the borough of Queens. Filipinos are also concentrated in Jackson Heights and Elmhurst in Queens. There are also smaller Filipino communities in Jamaica, Queens and parts of Brooklyn. The Benigno Aquino Triangle is located on Hillside Avenue in Hollis, Queens to commemorate the slain Filipino political leader and to recognize the large Filipino American population in the area.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Although not technically part of New York City, other large Filipino populations just outside the city's borders can be found in neighboring Northern and Central New Jersey, particularly in Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, and Passaic counties. By 2013 Census estimates, the New York City metropolitan area was estimated to be home to 224,266 Filipino Americans, 88.5% (about 200,000) of them single-race Filipinos. Over 150,000 Filipino-born immigrants made their home in the New York City tri-state metropolitan region in 2011. In 2012, a Census-estimated 235,222 single- and multi-racial Filipino Americans lived in the broader New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York City is home to 100,000 ethnic Koreans, with two-thirds living in Queens. On the other hand, the overall Greater New York Combined Statistical Area enumerated 218,764 Korean American residents as of the 2010 United States Census, the second-largest population of Koreans outside of Korea.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: According to 2007 American Community Survey estimates, New York City is home to approximately 315,000 people from the Indian subcontinent, which includes the countries of India (236,117), Pakistan (39,002), Bangladesh (34,332), and Sri Lanka (5,010). South Asians constitute 3.8% of New York City's population. The New York City Metropolitan Area is home to approximately 600,000 Indian Americans, representing the largest Asian Indian population in the Western Hemisphere. A majority of the South Asian residents are concentrated in Queens neighborhoods such as Jackson Heights, Flushing, City Line, Ozone Park, Glen Oaks, Floral Park, Bellerose, Jamaica, Kew Gardens and Elmhurst. In the borough of Queens, the South Asian population is approximately near 200,000 and counting, where they constitute 8.2% of the population. South Asians from the Caribbean majority from Guyana, Trinidad, and a small number from Jamaica are also large in number.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: According to the 2010 United States Census, there are 192,209 Asian Indians, 53,174 Bangladeshis, 41,887 Pakistanis, and 3,696 Sri Lankans


title: Demographics of New York City

text: The New York City Metropolitan Area contains the largest Sri Lankan community in the United States (second largest in North America after Toronto, Ontario, Canada), receiving the highest legal permanent resident Sri Lankan immigrant population. The Little Sri Lanka in the Tompkinsville neighborhood of the borough of Staten Island is one of the largest Sri Lankan communities outside of the country of Sri Lanka itself.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: As of the 2000 United States Census about over half of the 37,279 people of Japanese ancestry in New York State lived in New York City.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Approximately 5,000 Indonesians live in New York City. Indonesians are concentrated in Elmhurst, Queens.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Arabs first emigrated to New York City in the 1880s, the vast majority of them came from modern-day Lebanon and Syria. Before the advent of modern Lebanon in August 1920, and due to the political and historical nature of Ottoman-ruled Syria, the majority of Lebanese and Syrians referred to themselves as "Syrian" upon arrival to Ellis Island. Little by little, starting in the 1930s, immigrants from Lebanon started referring to themselves as "Lebanese-American" and immigrants from Syria retained the designation "Syrian-American". From 1880 to 1960 the overwhelming majority (90%) of Lebanese and Syrian immigrants were of the Christian faith. After 1960, especially after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Arab Muslims from other Arab countries such as Jordan, and Egypt started arriving in New York. The Syrian/Lebanese mother colony was located around Washington Street in Lower Manhattan, in a neighborhood called Little Syria. Syrian immigration to the United States was very small with respect to the other ethnic groups or peoples that arrived in America. In 1910, at the peak of Syrian immigration, only 60,000 Syrians entered the United States.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Around the late-1930s, Little Syria started to go into decline with the construction of skyscrapers in Lower Manhattan. In the name of urban renewal, the skyscraper era was ushered in and preceded with the destruction of five-storey tenements that Syrians called home. The final blow to Little Syria commenced with the construction of the Brooklyn battery tunnel in 1940. A large percentage of the community moved to the area around downtown Brooklyn; and set up shops and businesses on Atlantic Avenue. St. George's Syrian Catholic Church is the last physical reminder of the Syrian- and Lebanese-American community that once lived in Little Syria. In Brooklyn, there are two long-time established businesses still open on Atlantic Avenue. Damascus Bakery is still in business since 1936, and Sahadi's has had a strong loyal customer base since 1948. By the 1960s, the community was to move yet again this time to Park Slope and Bay Ridge...


title: Demographics of New York City

text: The New York metro area contains the largest concentration of populations with Arab and Middle Eastern ancestry in the United States, with 230,899 residents of the metro area claiming Arab ancestry in the 2000 U.S. Census. An estimated 70,000 lived in New York City as of 2000. New York City holds the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival, founded in 2003 by comedians Dean Obeidallah and Maysoon Zayid.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York City has the largest Albanian population in the United States. The first large group of Albanians came in the early 1900s to New York City due to political reasons. Albanians are concentrated in the Bronx.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Carl Schurz, a refugee from the unsuccessful first German democratic revolution of 1848, served as United States Secretary of the Interior and as United States Senator from Missouri. Carl Schurz Park in Manhattan is named after him.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: The influence of German immigration can still be felt in areas of New York City. The Yorkville neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan was a center of German-American culture. As of the 2000 census 255,536 New Yorkers reported German ancestry.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: In the middle of the 19th century, Little Germany, situated in what is now termed Alphabet City, was the first non-English-speaking urban enclave in the United States.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Greek immigration to New York City began mainly in the 1890s. The push factors for immigration were the Balkan Wars and World War I. Greek immigration to New York City took place between 1890 and around 1917. In the latter years, more women arrived and communities began to grow, especially in Astoria, Queens. Greeks again began to arrive in large numbers after 1945, as they fled the economic devastation caused by World War II and the Greek Civil War.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: In the first immigration wave, most of the Greek immigrants were men. Many of them worked in industrial labor jobs, and others created a niche in the fur business. This immigration wave brought 450,000 Greeks to the Northeast, largely concentrated in New York City. The second immigration wave, taking place between 1945 and 1982, was smaller with a total of 211,000 immigrants, mostly within the Northeast. However, new immigrants helped revive assimilating Greek communities and added new energy to a sense of ethnic identity.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: The largest concentration of Greeks can still be found in Astoria. The Greek community there was established in the early 20th century during immigration. The neighborhood still has many Greek food stores and restaurants. Residents of Greek descent make up 1.0% of New York City's population.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: The Irish community is one of New York's major ethnic groups and has been a significant proportion of the city's population since the waves of immigration in the mid-nineteenth century. New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade dates to 1762.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: During the Great Irish Famine (1845–1851), Irish families were forced to emigrate from Ireland; by 1854, between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000 people were forced to leave the country - about a quarter of the pre-famine population. In the United States, most of the recently arrived Irish became city dwellers as that was where work was. In addition, arriving with little money, many settled in the cities at which their ships made port. By 1850, the Irish made up a quarter of the population in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Their arrival in the United States before other waves of Catholic immigrants meant that ethnic Irish long dominated the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. They created a strong network of churches and parochial schools to support their communities.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: The Irish have long played a significant role in city politics, the Roman Catholic Church, and the New York City Fire Department and Police Department. As of the 2000 census, 520,810 New Yorkers reported Irish ancestry.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: According to a 2006 genetic survey by Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, about one in fifty New Yorkers of European origin carry a distinctive genetic signature on their Y chromosomes inherited from Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish high king of the 5th century A.D.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York City has the largest population of Italian Americans in the United States of America as well as North America, many of whom inhabit ethnic enclaves in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. New York City is home to the second largest Italian population outside of Italy, behind Buenos Aires, Argentina.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: The largest wave of Italian immigration to the United States took place in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Between 1870 and 1978, 5.3 million Italians immigrated to the United States, including over two million between 1900 and 1910. Only the Irish and Germans immigrated in larger numbers. Italian families first settled in Little Italy's neighborhoods, the first and most famous one being the one around Mulberry Street, in Manhattan. This settlement, however, is rapidly becoming part of the adjacent Chinatown as the older Italian residents die and their children move elsewhere. As of the 2000 census, 692,739 New Yorkers reported Italian ancestry, making them the largest European ethnic group in the city. In 2011, the American Community Survey found there were 49,075 persons of Italian birth in New York City.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York also has a Moldovan American community. Most of them live in Brooklyn and they mainly work in construction.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Polish immigration to New York City began at the end of the 19th century. In the 1980s, as a result of the Polish government's crackdown on the burgeoning "Solidarność" labor and political movement, Polish migration to the U.S. swelled. Polish Americans and Polish immigrants in the city generally reside in Brooklyn (neighborhoods of Greenpoint and Williamsburg) and in Queens (neighborhoods of Maspeth and Ridgewood). The combined neighborhood of Greenpoint/Williamsburg is sometimes referred to as "Little Poland" because of its large population of primarily working-class Polish immigrants, reportedly the second largest concentration in the United States, after Chicago. As of the 2000 census, 213,447 New Yorkers reported Polish ancestry.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York is home to a number of Polish and Polish-American cultural, community, and scientific institutions, including the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA) and the Polish Cultural Institute. Polish-language publications with circulation reaching outside the city include "The Polish Review", an English-language scholarly journal published since 1956 by PIASA; "Nowy Dziennik", founded in 1971; and "Polska Gazeta" , founded in the year 2000. The Polska Gazeta is the leading Polish-language daily newspaper in the tri-state area, delivering daily news to over 17,000 readers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Long Island and Delaware. The Polish Newspaper SuperExpress , covering New York, New Jersey & Connecticut started publication in 1996.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: The Pulaski Day Parade in New York on Fifth Avenue has been celebrated since 1937 to commemorate Kazimierz Pułaski, a Polish hero of the American Revolutionary War. It closely coincides with the October 11 General Pulaski Memorial Day, a national observance of his death at the Siege of Savannah, and his held on the first Sunday of October. In these parades march Polish dancers, Polish soccer teams and their mascots, Polish Scouts - ZHP and Polish school ambassadors and representatives, such as Mikolaj Pastorino (Nicholas Pastorino) and Lech Wałęsa. The Pulaski Day Parade is one of the largest parades in New York City.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: The Romanian community of New York City is the largest such community in North America. The 2000 Census reported 161,900 Romanians were living in New York City. They are mainly concentrated in Queens, as well as in parts of Manhattan and Staten Island. The Romanian Day Festival, for which the City closes a section of Broadway, demonstrates the strong sense of community of Romanians living in New York.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York City contains a very large and growing Russian-Jewish population estimated at 300,000. There are large numbers of Russian-Jews in Brooklyn, mostly in neighborhoods of Southern Brooklyn, notably Brighton Beach, also known as "Little Odessa", where there are many businesses and billboards with signage entirely in the Russian language. There is a significant Russian Orthodox population in New York City as well.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York City contains a large and growing Ukrainian population. New York's Ukrainian population was traditionally centered around the East Village in Manhattan, as well as Brighton Beach (also known as "Little Odesa"), in Brooklyn. Urban flight and recent waves of new immigration have spread Ukrainians throughout the boroughs, with a heavy concentration in Brooklyn.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: The New York metropolitan area is home to the largest Jewish population in the world outside Israel. While most are descendants of Jews who moved from Europe, a growing number are of Asian and Middle Eastern origin. After dropping from a peak of 2.5 million in the 1950s to a low of 1.4 million in 2002 the population of Jews in the New York metropolitan area grew to 1.54 million in 2011. A study by the UJA-Federation of New York released in 2012 showed that the proportion of liberal Jews was decreasing while the proportion of generally conservative Orthodox Jews and recent immigrants from Russia was increasing. Much of this growth is in Brooklyn, which in 2012 was 23% Jewish and where most of the Russian immigrants live and nearly all of the ultra-orthodox. The study by UJA-Federation of New York has been criticized by J.J. Goldberg, an observer at "The Jewish Daily Forward", as excluding suburban Jews, for example in New Jersey, that are outside the service area of UJA-Federation of New York and also for lack of granularity with respect to the Orthodox of New York City. The New York metropolitan area's Jewish population in 2001 was approximately 1.97 million, 600,000 fewer than in Israel's largest metropolitan area, denoted as Gush Dan. In 2012, an estimated 1,086,000 Ashkenazic Jews lived in New York City and constituted about 12% of the city's population, while approximately 100,000 Sephardic Jews live in the city too. New York City is also home to the world headquarters of the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch group and the Bobover, Pupa, Vizhnitz and Satmar branches of Hasidism, ultra-Orthodox sects of Judaism. Many notable Jews come from New York City.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: The first Jewish presence in New York City dates to the arrival of 23 Jewish refugees in 1654, who fled from Recife, Brazil, after the Portuguese conquered New Holland and brought the Inquisition with them. Major immigration of Jews to New York began in the 1880s, with the increase of Anti-Semitic actions in Central and Eastern Europe. The number of Jews in New York City soared throughout the beginning of the 20th century and reached a peak of 2 million in the 1950s, when Jews constituted one-quarter of the city's population. New York City's Jewish population then began to decline because of low fertility rates and migration to suburbs and other states, particularly California and Florida.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: A new wave of Ashkenazi, Kavkazi, Bukharian, and Georgian Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union began arriving in the 1980s and 1990s. Sephardic Jews including Syrian, Moroccan and other Jews of non-European origin have also lived in New York City since the 17th century. Many Jews, including the newer immigrants, have settled in Queens, south Brooklyn, and the Bronx, where at present most live in neighborhoods such as Riverdale. Sephardic Jews estimated at 100,000 strong have settled along Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn creating a unified community consisting of about 75,000 people in this area, while the other Sephardic Jews live in the Upper East Side of Manhattan and in Staten Island.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: 19th-century Jewish immigrants settled mainly in the tenement houses of the Lower East Side of Manhattan. New York City's current Jewish population is dispersed among all the boroughs; Brooklyn's Jewish population in 2011 was estimated as 561,000, and Manhattan's was 240,000.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: The Orthodox community is rapidly growing due to higher birthrates among Orthodox (especially Hasidic) Jews, while the numbers of Conservative and Reform Jews are declining. 60% of the Jewish children in New York are Orthodox, 37% Hasidic. This accelerating dynamic is accompanied by a substantial rise in the percentage of Jews who live in poverty.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York City has one of the largest Romani populations. There is a Macedonian Roma community in New York City. Macedonian Roma began immigrating to New York City in the late 1960s.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: New York City has the largest Puerto Rican population outside of Puerto Rico. Attributable to the changing citizenship status of the island's residents, Puerto Ricans can technically be said to have come to the City first as immigrants and subsequently as migrants. The first group of Puerto Ricans moved to New York in the mid-19th century, when Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony and its people Spanish subjects. The following wave of Puerto Ricans to move to New York did so after the Spanish–American War of 1898 made Puerto Rico a U.S. possession and after the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917 gave Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship, which allows travel without the need of a passport between the island and the United States mainland. The largest wave of migration came in the 1950s, in what became known as "The Great Migration"; as a result, more than a million Puerto Ricans once called New York City home. Presently the Puerto Rican population is around 800,000.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Puerto Ricans have historically lived in neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side (also known in the community as "Loisaida"), Spanish Harlem and Williamsburg, Brooklyn since the 1950s. However, there has been an increase in Puerto Ricans in outlying areas of the city, such as the North Shore of Staten Island, and the eastern Bronx.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Immigration records of Dominicans in the United States date from the late 19th century, and New York City has had a Dominican community since the 1930s. From the 1960s onward, after the fall of the Rafael Trujillo military regime, large waves of migration have thoroughly transnationalized the Dominican Republic, metaphorically blurring its frontier with the United States.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: In 2006 New York City's Dominican population decreased for the first time since the 1980s, dropping by 1.3% from 609,885 in 2006 to 602,093 in 2007. They are the city's second-largest Hispanic group and, in 2009, it was estimated that they composed 24.9% of New York City's Latino population. According to Census data analysis by CUNY's Center for Latin American, Caribbean & Latino Studies, shows Dominicans as the new largest group of Hispanics in NYC. There were about 747,473 Dominicans in the five boroughs in 2013, compared with 719,444 Puerto Ricans.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Areas with high a concentration of Dominicans are in Washington Heights, Corona, and certain areas in the Bronx.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: At the 2010 Census, there were 319,263 Mexican Americans living in New York City. In 2009, it was estimated that of the city's Hispanic population, 13.5% was of Mexican origin. Mexicans are the fastest growing group of Hispanic population. Some estimates suggest that Mexicans will surpass both Puerto Ricans and


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Dominicans in 2023 to become the city's largest national Latino sub-group. As of 2011, the Mexican Consulate estimated about 500,000 Mexicans lived in New York City, of whom 35,000 spoke a Mexican indigenous language.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Colombians have come in small numbers to New York City since the 1950s. The major exodus of Colombians from Colombia came in the 1970s and early 1980s when many of Colombia's cities were facing hardships from drug traffickers, crime and lack of employment. 55% of Colombians in New York City live in Queens, specifically in Jackson Heights, Corona, Elmhurst and Murray Hill. In 2019, it was and estimated that 505,493 Colombians lived in New York City, representing 5.6% of the total population.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: In 2009, it was estimated that 211,378 Ecuadorian Americans lived in New York City, representing 8.9% of the city's Hispanic population. They are the fifth largest sub-group of Hispanics, after Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Colombians and Mexicans.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Since 1990, the Salvadoran population has been growing very rapidly in New York City. More than 50% of Salvadorans live in Queens, and the growth of their population is most notable in South Jamaica and Far Rockaway. Many Salvadorans reside in the Bronx as well. There are also pockets of Salvadorans in Brooklyn and in East Harlem, Manhattan.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Panamanians began migrating to Naw York City in the 1800s. Panamanians are concentrated in Brooklyn's Flatbush and Crown Heights neighborhoods.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Approximately 80,000 to 100,000 Brazilians reside in the New York City area. There is a Brazilian community in Little Brazil.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Large influx of Argentines migrated to New York City in the 1980s and 1990s. There is an Argentine community in Junction Boulevard and Corona Avenue in Elmhurst, Queens.


title: Demographics of New York City

text: Since 2010, Little Australia has emerged and is growing rapidly, representing the Australasian presence in Nolita, Manhattan. In 2011, there were an estimated 20,000 Australian residents of New York City, nearly quadruple the 5,537 in 2005.


title: Marge Simpson

text: Marge is the matriarch of the Simpson family. With her husband Homer, she has three children: Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Marge is the moralistic force in her family and often provides a grounding voice in the midst of her family's antics by trying to maintain order in the Simpson household. She is often portrayed as a stereotypical television mother and is often included on lists of top "TV moms". She has appeared in other media relating to "The Simpsons"—including video games, "The Simpsons Movie", "The Simpsons" Ride, commercials, and comic books—and inspired an entire line of merchandise.


title: Marge Simpson

text: Marge's distinctive blue beehive hairstyle was inspired by a combination of the Bride's in "Bride of Frankenstein" and the style that Margaret Groening wore in the 1960s. Julie Kavner, who was a member of the original cast of "The Tracey Ullman Show", was asked to voice Marge so that more voice actors would not be needed. Kavner has won several awards for voicing Marge, including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992. She was also nominated for an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature for her performance in "The Simpsons Movie". In 2000, Marge, along with the rest of her family, was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


title: Marge Simpson

text: "The Simpsons" uses a floating timeline (the characters do not physically age), and as such the show is generally assumed to be set in the current year. In several episodes, events have been linked to specific time periods, although this timeline has been contradicted in subsequent episodes. Marge Simpson is married to Homer and mother of Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson. She was raised by her parents, Jacqueline and Clancy Bouvier. She has a pair of sisters, the joyless Patty and Selma, both of whom vocally disapprove of Homer. In "The Way We Was" (season two, 1991), it is revealed via flashback that Marge attended Springfield High School, and in her final year met Homer, after they both were sent to detention—Homer for smoking in the bathroom with Barney, and Marge for burning her bra in a feminist protest. She was at first wary of Homer, but agreed to go to the prom with him, although she ended up going with Artie Ziff after Homer received tutoring lessons as a means to get to know her better, while knowing that she needed to sleep for a school meet. However, she regretted going with Artie when he started to pressure her to have sex after prom. At the end of the evening, while Artie drove her home after receiving a slap, she spied Homer walking along the side of the road with the corsage meant for her. After hearing her parents voicing their negative opinions about Homer, she took her own car and went back to give him a ride. She then told Homer she should've gone to the prom with him and he fixes her snapped shoulder strap with the corsage. During the ride, he tells her he will hug her and kiss her and never be able to let her go. After the two had been dating for several years, Marge discovered she was pregnant with Bart, and she and Homer were married in a small wedding chapel across the state line. Bart was born soon after, and the couple bought their first house. The episode "That '90s Show" (season 19, 2008) contradicted much of the established back-story; for example, it was revealed that Marge and Homer were childless in the early 1990s although past episodes had suggested Bart and Lisa were born in the 1980s.


title: Marge Simpson

text: As with many "Simpsons" characters, Marge's age and birthday changes to serve the story. In season one (1990) episodes "Life on the Fast Lane" and "Some Enchanted Evening", Marge was said to be 34. In "Homer's Paternity Coot" (season 17, 2006), Marge states that Emerald would have been her birthstone if she had been born three months later, placing her birthday sometime in February. In "Regarding Margie" (season 17, 2006), Homer mentioned that Marge was his age, meaning she could have been anywhere between 36 and 40. During this episode (Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore), Lisa questions Homer's memory of Marge's birthday. When he cannot remember, Marge yells that it is in May. In the season eighteen episode "Marge Gamer" she states that she and actor Randy Quaid share the same birthdate (October 1).


title: Marge Simpson

text: Marge has been nonworking for most of the series, choosing to be a homemaker and take care of her family. However, she has held several one-episode jobs in the course of the series. These include working as a nuclear technician alongside Homer at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant in "Marge Gets a Job" (season four, 1992); selling houses in "Realty Bites" (season nine, 1997); owning her own pretzel business in "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson" (season eight, 1997), and working at an erotic bakery in "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes" (season 20, 2008). While Marge has never expressed discontent with her role as a homemaker, she has become bored with it. In "The Springfield Connection" (season six, 1995), Marge decided that she needed more excitement in her life and became a police officer. However, by the end of the episode, she became upset with the corruption in the force and quit.


title: Marge Simpson

text: Matt Groening first conceived Marge and the rest of the Simpson family in 1987 in the lobby of producer James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of animated shorts for "The Tracey Ullman Show", and had intended to present an adaptation of his "Life in Hell" comic strip. When he realized that animating "Life in Hell" would require him to rescind publication rights, Groening decided to go in another direction and hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, naming the characters after members of his own family. Marge was named after Groening's mother Margaret "Marge" Groening, who has said she bears little similarity to the character, stating, "It's really weird to have people think you're a cartoon." Marge's beehive hairstyle was inspired by the titular Bride in "Bride of Frankenstein" and the style that Margaret Groening wore during the 1960s, although her hair was never blue.


title: Marge Simpson

text: Marge debuted with the rest of the Simpson family on April 19, 1987, in "The Tracey Ullman Show" short "Good Night". In 1989, the shorts were adapted into "The Simpsons", a half-hour series airing on the Fox Network. Marge and the Simpson family remained the main characters on this new show.


title: Marge Simpson

text: Matt Groening believes that episodes featuring Marge are among the most difficult episodes to write. Bill Oakley believes that the "junior" writers are usually given Marge episodes because he and writing partner Josh Weinstein were given several to write during their first season. During the third season of the show, most of the writers focused on Bart and Homer, so David M. Stern decided to write a Marge episode, which became "Homer Alone" (season three, 1992). He felt that they could achieve a "deeper vein" of comedy in an episode where Marge has a nervous breakdown, and James L. Brooks quickly approved.


title: Marge Simpson

text: The entire Simpson family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette. The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead, they just traced over his drawings. To draw Marge, the animators generally start off with a sphere, similar to the way Lisa and Maggie are drawn. The eyes are then drawn, with one roughly in the middle of the sphere, and the other to the front side of the head. Then, the nose and lip are drawn. Her hair is then drawn on top as a long tube coming out of the sphere. An original idea the animators had for when Marge walked through doorways was that her hair would be forced down as she walked through, then once clear of the door, it would spring back and forth. This was never used. Groening's original plan for Marge's hair was that it would conceal large, "Life in Hell"-esque rabbit ears. The gag was intended to be revealed in the final episode of the series, but was scrapped early on due to inconsistencies, and also to the fact that rabbit ears would be too fictitious even for "The Simpsons".


title: Marge Simpson

text: Marge's voice is performed by Julie Kavner, who also does the voices of Marge's mother Jacqueline and her sisters Patty and Selma. Kavner had been part of the regular cast of "The Tracey Ullman Show". Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Kavner and fellow cast member Dan Castellaneta to voice Marge and Homer rather than hire more actors. Part of Kavner's contract says that she will never have to promote "The Simpsons" on video and she rarely performs Marge's voice in public because she believes it "destroys the illusion. People feel these are real people." Kavner takes recording sessions seriously and feels that voice acting is "a little more limiting than live acting. And I have nothing to do with my character's movement."


title: Marge Simpson

text: Marge's raspy voice is only slightly different from Kavner's, who has a "honeyed gravel voice" which she says is due to "a bump on [her] vocal cords." While Marge is her most famous character, Kavner's favorite characters to voice are Patty and Selma because "they're really funny and sad at the same time." In "The Simpsons Movie", some scenes, such as Marge's video message to Homer, were recorded over one hundred times, leaving Kavner exhausted. Kristen Bell provided Marge's singing voice in "The Star of the Backstage".


title: Marge Simpson

text: Until 1998, Kavner was paid $30,000 per episode. During a pay dispute in 1998, Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors with new actors, going as far as preparing to cast new voices. However, the dispute was soon resolved and she received $125,000 per episode until 2004 when the voice actors demanded that they be paid $360,000 an episode. The issue was resolved a month later, and Kavner earned $250,000 per episode. After salary re-negotiations in 2008, the voice actors receive approximately $400,000 per episode. Three years later, with Fox threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, Kavner and the other cast members accepted a 30 percent pay cut, down to just over $300,000 per episode.


title: Marge Simpson

text: Marge is generally a stereotypical sitcom mother, and she also plays the "long-suffering wife" who puts up with the antics of her children and her oafish husband. While she usually takes her family's problems with good humor, in "Homer Alone" (season three, 1992), her workload and resultant stress caused her to have a mental breakdown. After spending time at "Rancho Relaxo", during which her family barely coped with her absence, she returned refreshed and everyone promised to help out more often. Marge often provides a grounding opinion for Homer and their marriage has often been shaky. Marge admits that she "put[s] up with a lot in [their] marriage," and has left Homer or thrown him out of the house on several occasions. One of the first such episodes to depict this is "Secrets of a Successful Marriage" (season five, 1994), where Homer starts teaching an education class on how to build a successful marriage. He is at first unsuccessful, but gains the interest of the class when he starts giving away family secrets, many of which concern Marge. Upon finding this out, Marge is incensed and throws him out of the house. The next day, Homer is dirty and disheveled, and begs Marge to take him back, saying the one thing he can offer her that nobody else can is "complete and utter dependence." At first, Marge does not see that as a benefit, but eventually admits that he "really [does] make a gal feel needed." Episodes that depict marital problems have become more frequent in recent seasons of the show. Through it all, Marge has remained faithful to Homer, despite temptations to the contrary such as the one in "Life on the Fast Lane" (season one, 1990), where she resists the charming Frenchman Jacques and instead chooses to remain with Homer.


title: Marge Simpson

text: Marge is more caring, understanding, and nurturing toward Bart than Homer, but she refers to him as "a handful" and is often embarrassed by his antics. In "Marge Be Not Proud" (season seven, 1995), she felt she was mothering Bart too much and started acting more distant towards him after he was caught shoplifting. In the beginning of the episode, Bart protested her "over-mothering", but as she started acting more distant towards him, he felt guilty about it and made up with her. Marge has expressed understanding for her "special little guy" and has defended him on many occasions. She once said "I know Bart can be a handful, but I also know what he's like inside. He's got a spark. It's not a bad thing ... Of course, it makes him "do" bad things." Marge has a good relationship with Lisa and the two are shown to get along quite well. Marge over-mothers Maggie, which causes her to become too clingy and dependent on Marge.


title: Marge Simpson

text: Marge maintains a good relationship with her mother Jacqueline and her sisters Patty and Selma, though they disapprove of Homer and are vocal about it. Marge has tolerated their criticism, but has occasionally lost patience with them, once referring to them as "ghouls." Marge's late father Clancy is rarely referred to in the series and has had speaking parts in only two episodes. It was revealed in "Fear of Flying" (season six, 1994) that Clancy told Marge that he was a pilot, but in reality, he was a flight attendant. Marge discovered this one day and developed aerophobia. In "Jazzy and the Pussycats" (season 18, 2006), Homer casually mentions that they once attended his funeral. It was finally revealed that Clancy died of lung cancer in season 27 episode "Puffless".


title: Marge Simpson

text: Marge believes she has higher morals than most other characters, once leading a family values crusade against the violent "The Itchy & Scratchy Show" and being a prominent member of the "Citizens' Committee on Moral Hygiene." She often provides a voice of reason for the town itself, but many of the townspeople are frustrated or contemptuous of her failure to recognize or react correctly to breaches of social norms. Marge is the only member of the family who encourages, and often forces, church attendance. In "Homer the Heretic" (season four, 1992), Homer starts skipping church and Marge tells him "don't make me choose between my man and my God, because you just can't win." Yet, in some episodes, Marge's stereotypical attitude seems to affect her relationship with her daughter, Lisa, who is a feminist.


title: Marge Simpson

text: In "Lisa the Skeptic" (season nine, 1997), an "angel skeleton" is discovered, much to the skepticism of Lisa. As Lisa rants about the people who believe it is an angel, Marge informs her that she also believes it is an angel. She tells Lisa, "There has to be more to life than just what we see, everyone needs something to believe in." In spite of her highly debatable moral stances, Marge struggles with vices, such as a gambling addiction. While Marge has learned to cope with her addiction, it has never completely disappeared and remains an underlying problem that is referenced occasionally on the show. Marge is also known to suffer OCD as shown when she won a house cleaning but she then cleaned the whole house herself and it thus led to her accidentally causing her to suffer Amnesia. Another time is when the family had to house sit for Mr. Burns, she forced Lisa and herself to clean the entire mansion.


title: Marge Simpson

text: Politically, Marge generally aligns with the Democratic Party, having supported the candidacy of her state's progressive governor Mary Bailey, and voted for Jimmy Carter in both of his presidential elections. She was also deeply affected by the death of Lyndon B. Johnson, to the point where she wanted him to be alive so badly that she kept seeing him everywhere she looked.


title: Marge Simpson

text: At the 44th Primetime Emmy Awards, Kavner received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for voicing Marge in the season three episode "I Married Marge". In 2004, Kavner and Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer) won a Young Artist Award for "Most Popular Mom & Dad in a TV Series". For her performance in "The Simpsons Movie", Kavner was nominated for "Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature" at the 2007 Annie Awards, but lost to Ian Holm from "Ratatouille". Kavner's emotional performance in the movie got positive reviews and one critic said she "gave what must be the most heartfelt performance ever." Various episodes in which Marge is prominently featured have been nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program, including "The Way We Weren't" in 2004 and "Life on the Fast Lane", which won the award in 1990. In 2000, Marge and the rest of the Simpson family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard.


title: Marge Simpson

text: Marge has been ranked highly in lists of the top television mothers of all time. She was ranked first on "Entertainment Weekly"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s list in 1994; first on Fox News' list in 2005; eighth on CityNews' list in 2008; and was included in "Time"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s list of the "10 Best Moms Ever". In a 2004 poll in the United Kingdom, Marge was named the "most respected mother" by respondents. Still in 2004, Marge was ranked third in a poll conducted by the Opinion Research Company. In May 2012, Marge was one of the 12 moms chosen by users of iVillage on their list of "Mommy Dearest: The TV Moms You Love". AOL has named Marge the 24th "Most Memorable Female TV Character". Her relationship with Homer was included in "TV Guide" list of "The Best TV Couples of All Time".


title: Marge Simpson

text: Religious writer Kenneth Briggs has written that "Marge is my candidate for sainthood ... She lives in the real world, she lives with crises, with flawed people. She forgives and she makes her own mistakes. She is a forgiving, loving person ... absolutely saintly."


title: Marge Simpson

text: The edition of October 1, 1990 of "People" included an interview with then-First Lady of the United States Barbara Bush. The article included the following passage: "She loves "America's Funniest Home Videos" but remains baffled after sampling "The Simpsons". "It was the dumbest thing I had ever seen," she says, "but it's a family thing, and I guess it's clean." The writers decided to respond by privately sending a polite letter on September 28 to Bush where they posed as Marge Simpson. On October 9, Bush sent a reply: "Dear Marge, How kind of you to write. I'm glad you spoke your mind ... I foolishly didn't know you had one. I am looking at a picture of you ... depicted on a plastic cup ... with your blue hair filled with pink birds peeking out all over. Evidently, you and your charming family — Lisa, Homer, Bart and Maggie — are camping out. It's a nice family scene. Clearly you are setting a good example for the rest of the country. Please forgive a loose tongue."


title: Marge Simpson

text: In 2002, opponents of the Seattle Monorail Project planned on showing the episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" at a protest event. Following complaints, 20th Century Fox sent a letter to the event organizers ordering that the episode not be shown due to copyright laws. In 2004, Marge appeared on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom for the Alternative Christmas message, which is annually broadcast at the same time that Queen Elizabeth II gives her Christmas message.


title: Marge Simpson

text: On April 9, 2009, the United States Postal Service unveiled a series of five 44-cent stamps featuring Marge and the four other members of the Simpson family. They are the first characters from a television series to receive this recognition while the show is still in production. The stamps, designed by Matt Groening, were made available for purchase on May 7, 2009.


title: Marge Simpson

text: Marge is depicted in much "The Simpsons"-related merchandise, including T-shirts, baseball caps, bumper stickers, cardboard stand-ups, refrigerator magnets, key rings, buttons, dolls, posters and figurines. She has appeared in each of "The Simpsons" video games. Besides the television series, Marge regularly appears in issues of "Simpsons Comics", which were published from 1993-2018. Marge also plays a role in The Simpsons Ride, launched in 2008 at Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood.


title: Marge Simpson

text: Marge appeared in a 2005 advertisement for Dove Styling, where her normal beehive hair was exchanged for a more stylish look for a series of ads featuring several popular cartoon women.


title: Marge Simpson

text: In April 2004, Marge appeared on the cover of "Maxim". She also appeared on the cover of the November 2009 issue of "Playboy," becoming the first cartoon character to appear on the cover. The cover and a three-page picture spread, as well as a story inside entitled "The Devil in Marge Simpson", commemorated the 20th anniversary of "The Simpsons", but as also part of a plan to appeal to younger readers, a decision which has been criticized due to a page in which the character is depicted nude. Darine Stern's picture on the October 1971 cover served as the inspiration for Playboy's November 2009 cover.


title: George V of Hanover

text: George V (Georg Friedrich Alexander Karl Ernst August; 27 May 1819 – 12 June 1878) was the last King of Hanover, the only child and successor of King Ernest Augustus. George V's reign was ended by the Austro-Prussian War, after which Prussia annexed Hanover.


title: George V of Hanover

text: Prince George of Cumberland was born on 27 May 1819 in Berlin, the only son of Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale. Ernest Augustus was the fifth son of George III of the United Kingdom and his wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.


title: George V of Hanover

text: He was baptised on 8 July 1819 at a hotel in Berlin where his parents were staying, by the Rev. Henry Thomas Austen (brother of author Jane Austen). His godparents were the then Prince Regent George IV of the United Kingdom (represented by the Duke of Cumberland), King Frederick William III of Prussia, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, the Crown Prince of Prussia, Prince William of Prussia, Prince Frederick of Prussia, Prince Henry of Prussia, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, the Grand Duke Georg of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Duke Charles of Mecklenburg, Empress Maria Feodorovna, the Queen of the Netherlands Wilhelmine of Prussia, the Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom, the Hereditary Princess of Hesse-Homburg Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom, the Princess Mary (Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh), Princess Sophia of the United Kingdom, Princess Alexandrine of Prussia, the Electoral Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel, the Duchess of Anhalt-Dessau Princess Frederica Wilhelmina of Prussia, Princess Maria Anna of Hesse-Homburg (Princess William of Prussia), Margravine Elisabeth Louise of Brandenburg-Schwedt (Princess Ferdinand of Prussia), Princess Louisa of Prussia, and Princess Radziwill.


title: George V of Hanover

text: George spent his childhood in Berlin and in Great Britain. He lost the sight of one eye following a childhood illness in 1828, and in the other eye following an accident in 1833. His father had hoped that the young prince might marry his cousin Queen Victoria, who was older by three days, thus keeping the British and Hanoverian thrones united, but nothing came of the plan.


title: George V of Hanover

text: Upon the death of King William IV and the accession of Queen Victoria to the British throne, the 123-year personal union of the British and Hanoverian thrones ended because Hanover's semi-Salic law prevented a woman from ascending its throne. The Duke of Cumberland succeeded to the Hanoverian throne as Ernest Augustus, and Prince George became the Crown Prince of Hanover. As a legitimate descendant of George III in the male line, he remained a member of the British royal family and second in line to the British throne until the birth of Queen Victoria's first child, Victoria, Princess Royal, in 1840. Since he was totally blind, there were doubts as to whether the Crown Prince was qualified to succeed as king of Hanover, but his father decided that he should do so.


title: George V of Hanover

text: George married, on 18 February 1843, at Hanover, Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, the eldest daughter of Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, by his wife, Duchess Amelia of Württemberg.


title: George V of Hanover

text: The Crown Prince succeeded his father as the King of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg as well as Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, in the Peerage of Great Britain and Earl of Armagh, in the Peerage of Ireland, on 18 November 1851, assuming the style George V.


title: George V of Hanover

text: From his father and from his maternal uncle, Prince Charles Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, one of the most influential men at the Prussian court, George had learned to take a very high and autocratic view of royal authority. During his 15-year reign, he engaged in frequent disputes with the Hanoverian Landtag (parliament).


title: George V of Hanover

text: George was generally supportive of Austria in the Diet of the German Confederation. As the Austro-Prussian War started, the Prussian government sent a dispatch on 15 June 1866 demanding that Hanoverian troops submit to their authority or face war. Despite previously having concluded that Hanover could not win an armed confrontation with Prussia, George remained protective of his throne and refused the ultimatum. Contrary to the wishes of the parliament, Hanover joined the Austrian camp in the war. As a result, the Prussian army occupied Hanover and the Hanoverian army surrendered on 29 June 1866 following the Battle of Langensalza, the King and royal family having fled to Austria. The Prussian government formally annexed Hanover on 20 September 1866, despite the King of Prussia, William I, being a first cousin of King George V of Hanover; their mothers were sisters. The deposed King never renounced his rights to the throne or acknowledged Prussia's actions. From exile in Gmunden, Austria, he appealed in vain for the European great powers to intervene on behalf of Hanover. From 1866 to 1870, George V maintained the Guelphic Legion partially at his own expense.


title: George V of Hanover

text: While in exile from his throne, he was appointed an honorary full general in the British army in 1876.


title: George V of Hanover

text: George V died at his residence in the Rue de Presbourg, Paris, on 12 June 1878. After a funeral service in the Lutheran Church at the Rue Chaucat, his body was removed to England and buried in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.


title: George V of Hanover

text: The King supported industrial development. In 1856 the "Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hüttenverein" was founded which was named after him and his wife. The company erected an iron and steel works which gave the city Georgsmarienhütte its name.


title: George V of Hanover

text: By grant dated 15 August 1835, George's arms in right of the United Kingdom were those of his father (being the arms of the United Kingdom, differenced by a "label argent of three points, the centre point charged with a fleur-de-lys azure, and each of the other points charged with a cross gules"), the whole differenced by a "label gules bearing a horse courant argent".


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: Bacillus subtilis, known also as the hay bacillus or grass bacillus, is a Gram-positive, catalase-positive bacterium, found in soil and the gastrointestinal tract of ruminants, humans and marine sponges. As a member of the genus "Bacillus", "B. subtilis" is rod-shaped, and can form a tough, protective endospore, allowing it to tolerate extreme environmental conditions. "B. subtilis" has historically been classified as an obligate aerobe, though evidence exists that it is a facultative anaerobe. "B. subtilis" is considered the best studied Gram-positive bacterium and a model organism to study bacterial chromosome replication and cell differentiation. It is one of the bacterial champions in secreted enzyme production and used on an industrial scale by biotechnology companies.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: "Bacillus subtilis" is a Gram-positive bacterium, rod-shaped and catalase-positive. It was originally named "Vibrio subtilis" by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, and renamed "Bacillus subtilis" by Ferdinand Cohn in 1872 (subtilis being the Latin for "fine, thin, slender"). "B. subtilis" cells are typically rod-shaped, and are about 4–10 micrometers (μm) long and 0.25–1.0 μm in diameter, with a cell volume of about 4.6 fL at stationary phase.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: As with other members of the genus "Bacillus", it can form an endospore, to survive extreme environmental conditions of temperature and desiccation. "B. subtilis" is a facultative anaerobe and had been considered as an obligate aerobe until 1998. "B. subtilis" is heavily flagellated, which gives it the ability to move quickly in liquids.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: "B. subtilis" has proven highly amenable to genetic manipulation, and has become widely adopted as a model organism for laboratory studies, especially of sporulation, which is a simplified example of cellular differentiation. In terms of popularity as a laboratory model organism, "B. subtilis" is often considered as the Gram-positive equivalent of "Escherichia coli", an extensively studied Gram-negative bacterium.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: Colony, morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics of "Bacillus subtilis" are shown in the Table below.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: This species is commonly found in the upper layers of the soil and "B. subtilis" is thought to be a normal gut commensal in humans. A 2009 study compared the density of spores found in soil (about 10 spores per gram) to that found in human feces (about 10 spores per gram). The number of spores found in the human gut was too high to be attributed solely to consumption through food contamination. In some bee habitats, "B. subtilis" appears in the gut flora of honey bees. "B. subtilis" can also be found in marine environments.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: "Bacillus subtilis" can divide symmetrically to make two daughter cells (binary fission), or asymmetrically, producing a single endospore that can remain viable for decades and is resistant to unfavourable environmental conditions such as drought, salinity, extreme pH, radiation, and solvents. The endospore is formed at times of nutritional stress and through the use of hydrolysis, allowing the organism to persist in the environment until conditions become favourable. Prior to the process of sporulation the cells might become motile by producing flagella, take up DNA from the environment, or produce antibiotics. These responses are viewed as attempts to seek out nutrients by seeking a more favourable environment, enabling the cell to make use of new beneficial genetic material or simply by killing off competition.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: Under stressful conditions, such as nutrient deprivation, "B. subtilis" undergoes the process of sporulation. This process has been very well studied and has served as a model organism for studying sporulation.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: "Bacillus subtilis" is a model organism used to study bacterial chromosome replication. Replication of the single circular chromosome initiates at a single locus, the origin ("oriC"). Replication proceeds bidirectionally and two replication forks progress in clockwise and counterclockwise directions along the chromosome. Chromosome replication is completed when the forks reach the terminus region, which is positioned opposite to the origin on the chromosome map. The terminus region contains several short DNA sequences ("Ter" sites) that promote replication arrest. Specific proteins mediate all the steps in DNA replication. Comparison between the proteins involved in chromosomal DNA replication in "B. subtilis" and in "Escherichia coli" reveals similarities and differences. Although the basic components promoting initiation, elongation, and termination of replication are well-conserved, some important differences can be found (such as one bacterium missing proteins essential in the other). These differences underline the diversity in the mechanisms and strategies that various bacterial species have adopted to carry out the duplication of their genomes.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: "Bacillus subtilis" has about 4,100 genes. Of these, only 192 were shown to be indispensable; another 79 were predicted to be essential, as well. A vast majority of essential genes were categorized in relatively few domains of cell metabolism, with about half involved in information processing, one-fifth involved in the synthesis of cell envelope and the determination of cell shape and division, and one-tenth related to cell energetics.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: The complete genome sequence of "B. subtilis" sub-strain QB928 has 4,146,839 DNA base pairs and 4,292 genes. The QB928 strain is widely used in genetic studies due to the presence of various markers [aroI(aroK)906 purE1 dal(alrA)1 trpC2].


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: Several noncoding RNAs have been characterized in the "B. subtilis" genome in 2009, including Bsr RNAs.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: Microarray-based comparative genomic analyses have revealed that "B. subtilis" members show considerable genomic diversity.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: FsrA is a small RNA found in "Bacillus subtilis". It is an effector of the iron sparing response, and acts to down-regulate iron-containing proteins in times of poor iron bioavailability.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: A promising fish probiotic, "Bacillus subtilis" strain WS1A, that possesses antimicrobial activity against "Aeromonas veronii" and suppressed motile "Aeromonas" septicemia in "Labeo rohita". The de novo assembly resulted in an estimated chromosome size of 4,148,460 bp, with 4,288 open reading frames. "B. subtilis" strain WS1A genome contains many potential genes, such as those encoding proteins involved in the biosynthesis of riboflavin, vitamin B6, and amino acids ("ilvD") and in carbon utilization ("pta").


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: Natural bacterial transformation involves the transfer of DNA from one bacterium to another through the surrounding medium. In "B. subtilis" the length of transferred DNA is greater than 1271kb (more than 1 million bases). The transferred DNA is likely double-stranded DNA and is often more than a third of the total chromosome length of 4215 kb. It appears that about 7–9% of the recipient cells take up an entire chromosome.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: In order for a recipient bacterium to bind, take up exogenous DNA from another bacterium of the same species and recombine it into its chromosome, it must enter a special physiological state called competence.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: Competence in "B. subtilis" is induced toward the end of logarithmic growth, especially under conditions of amino-acid limitation. Under these stressful conditions of semistarvation, cells typically have just one copy of their chromosome and likely have increased DNA damage. To test whether transformation is an adaptive function for "B. subtilis" to repair its DNA damage, experiments were conducted using UV light as the damaging agent. These experiments led to the conclusion that competence, with uptake of DNA, is specifically induced by DNA-damaging conditions, and that transformation functions as a process for recombinational repair of DNA damage.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: While the natural competent state is common within laboratory "B. subtilis" and field isolates, some industrially relevant strains, e.g. "B. subtilis" (natto), are reluctant to DNA uptake due to the presence of restriction modification systems that degrade exogenous DNA. "B. subtilis" (natto) mutants, which are defective in a type I restriction modification system endonuclease, are able to act as recipients of conjugative plasmids in mating experiments, paving the way for further genetic engineering of this particular "B. subtilis" strain.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: Cultures of "B. subtilis" were popular worldwide, before the introduction of antibiotics, as an immunostimulatory agent to aid treatment of gastrointestinal and urinary tract diseases. It was used throughout the 1950s as an alternative medicine, which upon digestion has been found to significantly stimulate broad-spectrum immune activity including activation of secretion of specific antibodies IgM, IgG and IgA and release of CpG dinucleotides inducing interferon IFN-α/IFNγ producing activity of leukocytes and cytokines important in the development of cytotoxicity towards tumor cells. It was marketed throughout America and Europe from 1946 as an immunostimulatory aid in the treatment of gut and urinary tract diseases such as Rotavirus and Shigellosis. In 1966, the U.S Army dumped "bacillus subtilis" onto the grates of New York City subway stations for five days in order to observe people's reactions when coated by a strange dust, due to its ability to survive it is thought to still be present there.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: The antibiotic bacitracin was first isolated from a variety of "Bacillus licheniformis" named "Tracy I" in 1945, then considered part of the "B. subtilis" species. It is still commercially manufactured by growing the variety in a container of liquid growth medium. Over time, the bacteria synthesizes bacitracin and secretes the antibiotic into the medium. The bacitracin is then extracted from the medium using chemical processes.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: Since the 1960s "B. subtilis" has had a history as a test species in spaceflight experimentation. Its endospores can survive up to 6 years in space if coated by dust particles protecting it from solar UV rays. It has been used as an extremophile survival indicator in outer space such as Exobiology Radiation Assembly, EXOSTACK, and EXPOSE orbital missions.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: Wild-type natural isolates of "B. subtilis" are difficult to work with compared to laboratory strains that have undergone domestication processes of mutagenesis and selection. These strains often have improved capabilities of transformation (uptake and integration of environmental DNA), growth, and loss of abilities needed "in the wild". And, while dozens of different strains fitting this description exist, the strain designated '168' is the most widely used. Strain 168 is a tryptophan auxotroph isolated after X-ray mutagenesis of "B. subtilis" Marburg strain and is widely used in research due to its high transformation efficiency.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: "Bacillus globigii", a closely related but phylogenetically distinct species now known as "Bacillus atrophaeus" was used as a biowarfare during Project SHAD (aka "Project 112"). Subsequent genomic analysis showed that the strains used in those studies were products of deliberate enrichment for strains that exhibited abnormally high rates of sporulation.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: A strain of "B. subtilis" formerly known as "Bacillus natto" is used in the commercial production of the Japanese food "nattō", as well as the similar Korean food "cheonggukjang".


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: "Bacillus subtilis" was reviewed by the US FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine and found to present no safety concerns when used in direct-fed microbial products, so the Association of American Feed Control Officials has listed it approved for use as an animal feed ingredient under Section 36.14 "Direct-fed Microorganisms".


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency Animal Health and Production Feed Section has classified "Bacillus" culture dehydrated approved feed ingredients as a silage additive under Schedule IV-Part 2-Class 8.6 and assigned the International Feed Ingredient number IFN 8-19-119.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: On the other hand, several feed additives containing viable spores of "B. subtilis" have been positively evaluated by the European Food Safety Authority, regarding their safe use for weight gaining in animal production.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: "Bacillus subtilis" spores can survive the extreme heat generated during cooking. Some "B. subtilis" strains are responsible for causing ropiness or rope spoilage – a sticky, stringy consistency caused by bacterial production of long-chain polysaccharides – in spoiled bread dough and baked goods. For a long time, bread ropiness was associated uniquely with "B. subtilis" species by biochemical tests. Molecular assays (randomly amplified polymorphic DNA PCR assay, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis, and sequencing of the V3 region of 16S ribosomal DNA) revealed greater "Bacillus" species variety in ropy breads, which all seems to have a positive amylase activity and high heat resistance.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: "B. subtilis" CU1 (2 × 10 spores per day) was evaluated in a 16-week study (10 days administration of probiotic, followed by 18 days wash-out period per each month; repeated same procedure for total 4 months) to healthy subjects. "B. subtilis" CU1 was found to be safe and well tolerated in the subjects without any side effects.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: "Bacillus subtilis" and substances derived from it have been evaluated by different authoritative bodies for their safe and beneficial use in food. In the United States, an opinion letter issued in the early 1960s by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designated some substances derived from microorganisms as generally recognized as safe (GRAS), including carbohydrase and protease enzymes from "B. subtilis". The opinions were predicated on the use of nonpathogenic and nontoxicogenic strains of the respective organisms and on the use of current good manufacturing practices. The FDA stated that the enzymes derived from the "B. subtilis" strain were in common use in food prior to January 1, 1958, and that nontoxigenic and nonpathogenic strains of "B. subtilis" are widely available and have been safely used in a variety of food applications. This includes consumption of Japanese fermented soy bean, in the form of "Natto", which is commonly consumed in Japan, and contains as many as 10 viable cells per gram. The fermented beans are recognized for their contribution to a healthy gut flora and vitamin K intake; during this long history of widespread use, "natto" has not been implicated in adverse events potentially attributable to the presence of "B. subtilis". The natto product and the "B. subtilis" natto as its principal component are FOSHU (Foods for Specified Health Use) approved by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare as effective for preservation of health.


title: Bacillus subtilis

text: "Bacillus subtilis" has been granted "Qualified Presumption of Safety" status by the European Food Safety Authority.


title: Indigo Girls

text: Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. The two met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. They started performing with the name Indigo Girls as students at Emory University, performing weekly at The Dugout, a bar in Emory Village.


title: Indigo Girls

text: They released a self-produced, full-length record album entitled "Strange Fire" in 1987, and contracted with a major record company in 1988. After releasing nine albums with major record labels from 1987 through 2007, they have now resumed self-producing albums with their own IG Recordings company.


title: Indigo Girls

text: Outside of working on Indigo Girls–related projects, Ray has released solo albums and founded a non-profit organization that promotes independent musicians, while Saliers is an entrepreneur in the restaurant industry as well as a professional author; she also collaborates with her father, Don Saliers, in performing for special groups and causes. Saliers and Ray are both lesbians and are active in political and environmental causes.


title: Indigo Girls

text: Amy Ray and Emily Saliers first met and got to know each other as students at Laurel Ridge Elementary School in DeKalb County, Georgia, just outside Decatur, Georgia, but were not close friends because Saliers was a grade older than Ray. While attending Shamrock High School (now Druid Hills Middle School), they became better acquainted, and started performing together, first as "The B-Band" and then as "Saliers and Ray".


title: Indigo Girls

text: Saliers graduated and began attending Tulane University in Louisiana. A year later, Ray graduated high school and began attending Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Homesick, both returned to Georgia and transferred to Emory University in Atlanta (where Saliers' father was a professor).


title: Indigo Girls

text: By 1985, they had begun performing together again, this time as Indigo Girls. Saliers stated in a March 2007 National Public Radio "Talk of the Nation" interview, "we needed a name and we went through the dictionary looking for words that struck us and indigo was one."


title: Indigo Girls

text: Their first release in 1985 was a seven-inch single named "Crazy Game", with the B-side "Everybody's Waiting (for Someone to Come Home)".


title: Indigo Girls

text: That same year, the Indigo Girls released a six-track Extended play album named "Indigo Girls", and in 1987 released their first full-length album, "Strange Fire", recorded at John Keane Studio in Athens, Georgia, and including "Crazy Game". With this release, they secured the services of Russell Carter, who remains their manager to the present; they had first approached him when the EP album was released, but he told them their songs were "immature" and they were not likely to get a record deal. "Strange Fire" apparently changed his opinion.


title: Indigo Girls

text: The success of 10,000 Maniacs, Tracy Chapman, and Suzanne Vega encouraged Epic Records to enlist other folk-based female singer-songwriters; Epic signed the duo in 1988. Their first major-label release, also named "Indigo Girls", which scored No. 22 on the album chart, included a new version of "Land of Canaan", which was also on their 1985 EP album and on "Strange Fire". Also on the self-titled release was their first hit "Closer to Fine" (a collaboration with Irish band Hothouse Flowers), which scored No. 52 on the popular music chart and No. 26 on the modern rock chart. They even managed one week on the mainstream rock album-oriented rock music chart at No. 48. In 1990, they won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. They were also nominated for Best New Artist (but lost to Milli Vanilli who eventually had their award revoked).


title: Indigo Girls

text: Their second album, "Nomads Indians Saints", went gold in December 1991 and included the hit song "Hammer and a Nail", a No. 12 modern rock music track; it was not as successful as their first, which was certified platinum at about the same time. The Indigo Girls followed it with the live "Back on the Bus, Y'all" and 1992's album "Rites of Passage", featuring the song "Galileo", the duo's first top 10 modern rock music track (#10). During the accompanying tour in December, they invited on a few dates Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees as special guest to sing a couple of songs with them. They then recorded "Swamp Ophelia" in 1994, which went platinum in September 1996, and charted at No. 9 on the "Billboard" 200 album chart.


title: Indigo Girls

text: In 1995, the Indigo Girls released a live, double CD, "1200 Curfews". "Shaming of the Sun" was released in 1997 followed by "Come on Now Social" in 1999. "Shaming of the Sun" debuted at number seven on the Billboard charts, driven by the duo's contribution to the Lilith Fair music festival tour. The track "Shame on You" received more airplay on adult alternative, top 40 and adult top 40 radio stations than any of their previous singles, although this seemed to be a peak in their crossover success.


title: Indigo Girls

text: "Retrospective", a compilation album with two new tracks, was released in 2000 and "Become You" followed two years later. Their last Epic studio album was "All That We Let In", released in 2004 with an accompanying tour. On June 14, 2005, they released "Rarities", a collection of B-sides and rare tracks partially decided by fans' input, which fulfilled the album count obligation for their contract with Epic.


title: Indigo Girls

text: After departing Epic, the Indigo Girls signed a five-record deal with Hollywood Records. Their first (and only) Hollywood album, "Despite Our Differences", produced by Mitchell Froom, was released on September 19, 2006. John Metzger from "MusicBox Online" described "Despite our Differences" as "the most infectious, pop-infused set that the duo ever has managed to concoct. In fact, its melodies, harmonies, and arrangements are so ingratiating that the album carries the weight of an instant classic." Thom Jurek from "AllMusic" wrote: "part of an emotional journey as complete as can be. More relevant than anyone dared expect. It's accessible and moving and true. It's their own brand of rock & roll, hewn from over the years, that bears a signature that is now indelible. A moving, and utterly poetic offering."


title: Indigo Girls

text: After releasing "Despite Our Differences", the Indigo Girls' contract was terminated by Hollywood Records during their 2007 tour.


title: Indigo Girls

text: Following their break with Hollywood Records, the Indigo Girls announced their next record would be released independently. "Poseidon and the Bitter Bug" was released on March 24, 2009, from IG Recordings, the Indigo Girls' label, and distributed through Vanguard Records. This album is their first fully independent release since 1987's "Strange Fire", and their first two-CD set since 1995's live album "1200 Curfews"; the first disc has the 10 tracks accompanied by a backing band, and the second includes the same 10 songs with only Ray and Saliers on vocals and acoustic guitars, and an additional track. On June 29, 2010 Indigo Girls' second full-length live album, "Staring Down the Brilliant Dream", was released on IG Recordings/Vanguard Records. This was followed on October 12, 2010 with their first holiday album "Holly Happy Days". Indigo Girls' thirteenth studio album, "Beauty Queen Sister", was released on October 4, 2011, and their fourteenth studio album, "One Lost Day", was released on June 2, 2015 (both on IG Recordings/Vanguard Records).


title: Indigo Girls

text: Beginning in 2017, the Indigo Girls have toured the United States performing their music arranged for symphony orchestra. After more than fifty performances, in 2018 they released a live double album entitled "Indigo Girls Live with the University of Colorado Symphony Orchestra". In 2020, they followed this with the studio album "Look Long".


title: Indigo Girls

text: Ray and Saliers do not ordinarily collaborate in writing songs. They write separately and work out the arrangements together. There are a few exceptions, mostly unreleased songs from their early, pre-Epic days: "I Don't Know Your Name" and "If You Live Like That." "Blood Quantum", which appears on "Honor: A Benefit for the Honor the Earth Campaign" featured Ray's verses and chorus and Saliers's bridge. Finally, "I'll Give You My Skin", which appears both on "Tame Yourself" (a benefit album for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and on the Indigo Girls release "Rarities," is a collaborative work by Ray, Saliers, and Michael Stipe which is doubly rare, as Saliers and Ray usually write their songs without outside collaborators. In September 2020, the Indigo Girls released "Long Ride", the first song Ray and Saliers had written together in 30 years.


title: Indigo Girls

text: The Indigo Girls have toured as a duo and with a band. In 1990, they toured with Atlanta band the Ellen James Society backing them; they have also toured with side players, with one distinct group from 1991 to 1998, a second from 1999 to 2006, and a third from 2012 onwards.


title: Indigo Girls

text: In 1990, Ray founded Daemon Records, which has signed Magnapop, Ellen James Society, New Mongrels, Kristen Hall, Rose Polenzani, Girlyman, Athens Boys Choir, and James Hall among others.


title: Indigo Girls

text: Ray has put out six solo albums, entitled "Stag", "Prom", "Live from Knoxville", "Didn't It Feel Kinder", "Amy Ray: Live MVP", "Lung of Love", "Goodnight Tender" and "Holler" through Daemon. She has toured with both The Butchies and her bands The Volunteers and the Amy Ray Band.


title: Indigo Girls

text: Saliers also released a solo album, "Murmuration Nation", in 2017, and was a founding co-owner of Watershed Restaurant in Decatur, Georgia. She sold Watershed in 2018. Saliers was an initial investor in the Flying Biscuit Cafe in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2005, Saliers and her father, Don Saliers, a theology professor at Candler School of Theology at Emory University, released the book "A Song to Sing, a Life to Live: Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice". They promoted the release of the book together including several days of speaking and performing together at the Washington National Cathedral College in Washington D.C.


title: Indigo Girls

text: Ray and Saliers appeared in the latter half of the feature film "Boys on the Side", playing short excerpts from their songs "Joking" and "Southland in the Springtime," as well as singing "Feliz Cumpleaños" ("Happy Birthday" in Spanish) with the gathered group of friends during the birthday cake scene, and standing on the far side of several shots over the next few scenes. Neither had any spoken lines. The duo also appear in the 2006 documentary "Wordplay", where they discuss their reaction to appearing in a "New York Times" crossword puzzle and then begin to solve one together.


title: Indigo Girls

text: Ray and Saliers performed onstage in the 1994 revival of "Jesus Christ Superstar" in Atlanta, titled "Jesus Christ Superstar: A Resurrection". Ray played the role of Jesus and Saliers played the role of Mary Magdalene. They later reprised their roles in stagings of the musical in Austin, at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, and in Seattle.


title: Indigo Girls

text: They made several cameo appearances on the Ellen DeGeneres sitcom "Ellen". In the episode "Womyn Fest" Ellen and her friends are attending a feminist music festival and catch the end of a performance by the Indigo Girls.


title: Indigo Girls

text: They are mentioned multiple times in the 1995 Stephen King novel "Rose Madder" as well as being mentioned in TV shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Will and Grace", "South Park", "30 Rock", "The Office", "Squidbillies", "The Big Bang Theory", "Saturday Night Live", Tig Notaro's special "Happy To Be Here", "Harley Quinn" and "Nip\Tuck".


title: Indigo Girls

text: Posters of the Indigo Girls could be seen on the bedroom walls of Beth Jordache, played by Anna Friel, in the British TV soap Brookside in 1994 and on Neve Campbell's character, Sidney Prescott‘s, bedroom wall in the 1996 slasher film "Scream".


title: Indigo Girls

text: Appeared in 2018 onstage with standup comedian Tig Notaro's show "Happy to be Here" at The Heights in Houston, Texas, as a closing bit, performing one song.


title: Indigo Girls

text: Both Ray and Saliers have long identified themselves as lesbians. Because of their engagements for LGBT rights, they are regarded as icons of the movement.


title: Indigo Girls

text: Amy Ray currently lives in the foothills of North Georgia. She and her longtime partner, Carrie Schrader, have a daughter, Ozilline Graydon.


title: Indigo Girls

text: Saliers married her longtime girlfriend, former Indigo Girls tour manager Tristin Chipman, at New York City Hall in 2013. Chipman, a Canadian, is from Calgary, "but she spent most of her adult life in Toronto," according to Saliers between songs when performing onstage in Vancouver in 2013. The couple already had a daughter, Cleo, born in November 2012.


title: Indigo Girls

text: The Indigo Girls have been politically active, championing the causes of and held benefit concerts for the environment, gay rights, the rights of Native Americans, and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. For many years they incorporated a recycling and public outreach program into their road tours by including Greenpeace representative Stephanie Fairbanks in their road crew. They helped Winona LaDuke establish Honor the Earth, an organization dedicated to creating support and education for native environmental issues. After performing on the activist-oriented Spitfire Tour in 1999, Ray and Saliers joined forces with The Spitfire Agency to develop the Honor The Earth Tour, which visits colleges and Native communities, and raises money for their non-profit of the same name. Ray and Saliers have also appeared at the annual SOA Watch rallies, the March for Women's Lives, and several other rallies and protests.


title: Indigo Girls

text: In 2006 the Indigo Girls were featured in artist Pink's album "I'm Not Dead" in the song "Dear Mr. President", which Pink says is a political confrontation with George W. Bush about war, poverty, LGBT rights, abortion rights, and the No Child Left Behind Act. Returning the favor, Pink performed on the Indigo Girls' "Rock and Roll Heaven's Gate," which is about, among other things, sexism and heterosexism in the music industry.


title: Indigo Girls

text: In June 2007 the Indigo Girls were part of the multi-artist True Colors Tour 2007, on the tour's Las Vegas stop which benefited the Human Rights Campaign and other organizations that provide support to the LGBT community. The Indigo Girls performed again on the True Colors Tour 2008.


title: Indigo Girls

text: In April 2013, in response to criticism from transgender activists, the Indigo Girls issued a statement that they would play at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, but would protest the festival's "womyn-born womyn" policy from the stage, would donate any money received to trans activism, and would not return to the festival without "visible and concrete signs" that the policy would be changed.


title: Indigo Girls

text: In November 2017, the Indigo Girls were nominated to "Out" magazine's "OUT100" for 2017 in recognition of their work and their visibility.


title: Indigo Girls

text: The Indigo Girls are also members of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism and have worked with them on awareness campaigns.


title: Indigo Girls

text: Indigo Girls allow fans to tape their shows, and appropriately gathered recordings can be traded, obtained for free from a number of sources.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. According to its preamble, its purpose was the "substantial reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers and the elimination of preferences, on a reciprocal and mutually advantageous basis."


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: The GATT was first discussed during the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization (ITO). It was signed by 23 nations in Geneva on 30 October 1947, and was applied on a provisional basis 1 January 1948. It remained in effect until 1 January 1995, when the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established after agreement by 123 nations in Marrakesh on 15 April 1994, as part of the Uruguay Round Agreements. The WTO is the successor to the GATT, and the original GATT text (GATT 1947) is still in effect under the WTO framework, subject to the modifications of GATT 1994. Nations that were not party in 1995 to the GATT need to meet the minimum conditions spelled out in specific documents before they can accede; in September 2019, the list contained 36 nations.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: The GATT, and its successor the WTO, have succeeded in reducing tariffs. The average tariff levels for the major GATT participants were about 22% in 1947, but were 5% after the Uruguay Round in 1999. Experts attribute part of these tariff changes to GATT and the WTO.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is a multi-national trade treaty. It has been updated in a series of global trade negotiations consisting of nine "rounds" between 1947 and 1995. Its role in international trade was largely succeeded in 1995 by the World Trade Organization.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: During the 1940s, the United States sought to establish a set of post-war multilateral institutions, one of which would be devoted to the reconstruction of world trade. In 1945 and 1946, the U.S. took concrete steps to bring about such an organisation, proposing a conference to negotiate a charter for a trade organisation. The GATT was first conceived at the 1947 United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment (UNCTE), at which the International Trade Organization (ITO) was one of the ideas proposed. It was hoped that the ITO would be run alongside the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). More than 50 nations negotiated ITO and organising its founding charter, but after the withdrawal of the United States these negotiations collapsed.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: Preparatory sessions were held simultaneously at the UNCTE regarding the GATT. After several of these sessions, 23 nations signed the GATT on 30 October 1947 in Geneva, Switzerland. It came into force on 1 January 1948.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: The second round took place in 1949 in Annecy, France. 13 countries took part in the round. The main focus of the talks was more tariff reductions, around 5,000 in total.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: The third round occurred in Torquay, England in 1951. Thirty-eight countries took part in the round. 8,700 tariff concessions were made totalling the remaining amount of tariffs to ¾ of the tariffs which were in effect in 1948. The contemporaneous rejection by the U.S. of the Havana Charter signified the establishment of the GATT as a governing world body.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: The fourth round returned to Geneva in 1955 and lasted until May 1956. Twenty-six countries took part in the round. $2.5 billion in tariffs were eliminated or reduced.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: The fifth round occurred once more in Geneva and lasted from 1960 to 1962. The talks were named after U.S. Treasury Secretary and former Under Secretary of State, Douglas Dillon, who first proposed the talks. Twenty-six countries took part in the round. Along with reducing over $4.9 billion in tariffs, it also yielded discussion relating to the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC).


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: The sixth round of GATT multilateral trade negotiations, held from 1964 to 1967. It was named after U.S. President John F. Kennedy in recognition of his support for the reformulation of the United States trade agenda, which resulted in the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. This Act gave the President the widest-ever negotiating authority.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: As the Dillon Round went through the laborious process of item-by-item tariff negotiations, it became clear, long before the Round ended, that a more comprehensive approach was needed to deal with the emerging challenges resulting from the formation of the European Economic Community (EEC) and EFTA, as well as Europe's re-emergence as a significant international trader more generally.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: Japan's high economic growth rate portended the major role it would play later as an exporter, but the focal point of the Kennedy Round always was the United States-EEC relationship. Indeed, there was an influential American view that saw what became the Kennedy Round as the start of a transatlantic partnership that might ultimately lead to a transatlantic economic community.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: To an extent, this view was shared in Europe, but the process of European unification created its own stresses under which the Kennedy Round at times became a secondary focus for the EEC. An example of this was the French veto in January 1963, before the round had even started, on membership by the United Kingdom.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: Another was the internal crisis of 1965, which ended in the Luxembourg Compromise. Preparations for the new round were immediately overshadowed by the Chicken War, an early sign of the impact variable levies under the Common Agricultural Policy would eventually have. Some participants in the Round had been concerned that the convening of UNCTAD, scheduled for 1964, would result in further complications, but its impact on the actual negotiations was minimal.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: The working hypothesis for the tariff negotiations was a linear tariff cut of 50% with the smallest number of exceptions. A drawn-out argument developed about the trade effects a uniform linear cut would have on the dispersed rates (low and high tariffs quite far apart) of the United States as compared to the much more concentrated rates of the EEC which also tended to be in the lower held of United States tariff rates.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: The EEC accordingly argued for an evening-out or harmonisation of peaks and troughs through its cerement, double cart and thirty: ten proposals. Once negotiations had been joined, the lofty working hypothesis was soon undermined. The special-structure countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa), so called because their exports were dominated by raw materials and other primary commodities, negotiated their tariff reductions entirely through the item-by-item method.


title: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

text: In the end, the result was an average 35% reduction in tariffs, except for textiles, chemicals, steel and other sensitive products; plus a 15% to 18% reduction in tariffs for agricultural and food products. In addition, the negotiations on chemicals led to a provisional agreement on the abolition of the American Selling Price (ASP). This was a method of valuing some chemicals used by the noted States for the imposition of import duties which gave domestic manufacturers a much higher level of protection than the tariff schedule indicated.