title: Evolution of fish

text: Jawless fishes belong to the superclass Agnatha in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata. Agnatha comes from the Greek, and means "no jaws". It excludes all vertebrates with jaws, known as gnathostomes. Although a minor element of modern marine fauna, jawless fish were prominent among the early fish in the early Paleozoic. Two types of Early Cambrian animal which apparently had fins, vertebrate musculature, and gills are known from the early Cambrian Maotianshan shales of China: "Haikouichthys" and "Myllokunmingia". They have been tentatively assigned to Agnatha by Janvier. A third possible agnathid from the same region is "Haikouella". Another possible agnathid that has not been formally described was reported by Simonetti from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Many Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian agnathians were armoured with heavy, bony, and often elaborately sculpted, plates derived from mineralized scales. The first armoured agnathans—the Ostracoderms, precursors to the bony fish and hence to the tetrapods (including humans)—are known from the middle Ordovician, and by the Late Silurian the agnathans had reached the high point of their evolution. Most of the ostracoderms, such as thelodonts, osteostracans, and galeaspids, were more closely related to the gnathostomes than to the surviving agnathans, known as cyclostomes. Cyclostomes apparently split from other agnathans before the evolution of dentine and bone, which are present in many fossil agnathans, including conodonts. Agnathans declined in the Devonian and never recovered.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The agnathans as a whole are paraphyletic, because most extinct agnathans belong to the stem group of gnathostomes. Recent molecular data, both from rRNA and from mtDNA strongly supports the theory that living agnathans, known as cyclostomes, are monophyletic. In phylogenetic taxonomy, the relationships between animals are not typically divided into ranks, but illustrated as a nested "family tree" known as a cladogram. Phylogenetic groups are given definitions based on their relationship to one another, rather than purely on physical traits such as the presence of a backbone. This nesting pattern is often combined with traditional taxonomy, in a practice known as evolutionary taxonomy.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The cladogram below for jawless fish is based on studies compiled by Philippe Janvier and others for the "Tree of Life Web Project".


title: Evolution of fish

text: Conodonts resembled primitive jawless eels. They appeared 520 Ma and were wiped out 200 Ma. Initially they were known only from tooth-like microfossils called "conodont elements". These "teeth" have been variously interpreted as filter-feeding apparatuses or as a "grasping and crushing array". Conodonts ranged in length from a centimeter to the 40 cm "Promissum". Their large eyes had a lateral position, which makes a predatory role unlikely. The preserved musculature hints that some conodonts ("Promissum" at least) were efficient cruisers but incapable of bursts of speed. In 2012 researchers classified the conodonts in the phylum Chordata on the basis of their fins with fin rays, chevron-shaped muscles and notochord. Some researchers see them as vertebrates similar in appearance to modern hagfish and lampreys, though phylogenetic analysis suggests that they are more derived than either of these groups.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Ostracoderms "(shell-skinned)" are armoured jawless fishes of the Paleozoic. The term does not often appear in classifications today because it is paraphyletic or polyphyletic, and has no phylogenetic meaning. However, the term is still used informally to group together the armoured jawless fishes.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The ostracoderm armour consisted of 3–5 mm polygonal plates that shielded the head and gills, and then overlapped further down the body like scales. The eyes were particularly shielded. Earlier chordates used their gills for both respiration and feeding, whereas ostracoderms used their gills for respiration only. They had up to eight separate pharyngeal gill pouches along the side of the head, which were permanently open with no protective operculum. Unlike invertebrates that use ciliated motion to move food, ostracoderms used their muscular pharynx to create a suction that pulled small and slow moving prey into their mouths.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The first fossil fishes that were discovered were ostracoderms. The Swiss anatomist Louis Agassiz received some fossils of bony armored fish from Scotland in the 1830s. He had a hard time classifying them as they did not resemble any living creature. He compared them at first with extant armored fish such as catfish and sturgeons but later realizing that they had no movable jaws, classified them in 1844 into a new group "ostracoderms".


title: Evolution of fish

text: Ostracoderms existed in two major groups, the more primitive heterostracans and the cephalaspids. Later, about 420 million years ago, the jawed fish evolved from one of the ostracoderms. After the appearance of jawed fish, most ostracoderm species underwent a decline, and the last ostracoderms became extinct at the end of the Devonian period.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The vertebrate jaw probably originally evolved in the Silurian period and appeared in the Placoderm fish, which further diversified in the Devonian. The two most anterior pharyngeal arches are thought to have become the jaw itself and the hyoid arch, respectively. The hyoid system suspends the jaw from the braincase of the skull, permitting great mobility of the jaws. Already long assumed to be a paraphyletic assemblage leading to more derived gnathostomes, the discovery of "Entelognathus" suggests that placoderms are directly ancestral to modern bony fish.


title: Evolution of fish

text: As in most vertebrates, fish jaws are bony or cartilaginous and oppose vertically, comprising an "upper jaw" and a "lower jaw". The jaw is derived from the most anterior two pharyngeal arches supporting the gills, and usually bears numerous teeth. The skull of the last common ancestor of today's jawed vertebrates is assumed to have resembled sharks.


title: Evolution of fish

text: It is thought that the original selective advantages offered by the jaw were not related to feeding, but to increases in respiration efficiency. The jaws were used in the buccal pump (observable in modern fish and amphibians) that pumps water across the gills of fish or air into the lungs in the case of amphibians. Over evolutionary time the more familiar use of jaws (to humans) in feeding was selected for and became a very important function in vertebrates. Many teleost fish have substantially modified their jaws for suction feeding and jaw protrusion, resulting in highly complex jaws with dozens of bones involved.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Jawed vertebrates and jawed fish evolved from earlier jawless fish, and the cladogram below for jawed vertebrates is a continuation of the cladogram in the section above.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Placoderms, class Placodermi "(plate skinned)", are extinct armoured prehistoric fish, which appeared about 430 Ma in the Early to Middle Silurian. They were mostly wiped out during the Late Devonian Extinction event, 378 Ma, though some survived and made a slight recovery in diversity during the Famennian epoch before dying out entirely at the close of the Devonian, 360 mya; they are ultimately ancestral to modern gnathostome vertebrates. Their head and thorax were covered with massive and often ornamented armoured plates. The rest of the body was scaled or naked, depending on the species. The armour shield was articulated, with the head armour hinged to the thoracic armour. This allowed placoderms to lift their heads, unlike ostracoderms. Placoderms were the first jawed fish; their jaws likely evolved from the first of their gill arches. The chart on the right shows the rise and demise of the separate placoderm lineages: Acanthothoraci, Rhenanida, Antiarchi, Petalichthyidae, Ptyctodontida and Arthrodira.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Spiny sharks, class Acanthodii, are extinct fishes that share features with both bony and cartilaginous fishes, though ultimately more closely related to and ancestral to the latter. Despite being called "spiny sharks", acanthodians predate sharks, though they gave rise to them. They evolved in the sea at the beginning of the Silurian Period, some 50 million years before the first sharks appeared. Eventually competition from bony fishes proved too much, and the spiny sharks died out in Permian times about 250 Ma. In form they resembled sharks, but their epidermis was covered with tiny rhomboid platelets like the scales of holosteans (gars, bowfins).


title: Evolution of fish

text: Cartilaginous fishes, class Chondrichthyes, consisting of sharks, rays and chimaeras, appeared by about 395 million years ago, in the middle Devonian, evolving from acanthodians. The class contains the sub classes Holocephali (chimaera) and Elasmobranchii (sharks and rays). The radiation of elasmobranches in the chart on the right is divided into the taxa: Cladoselache, Eugeneodontiformes, Symmoriida, Xenacanthiformes, Ctenacanthiformes, Hybodontiformes, Galeomorphi, Squaliformes and Batoidea.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Bony fishes, class Osteichthyes, are characterised by bony skeleton rather than cartilage. They appeared in the late Silurian, about 419 million years ago. The recent discovery of "Entelognathus" strongly suggests that bony fishes (and possibly cartilaginous fishes, via acanthodians) evolved from early placoderms. A subclass of the Osteichthyes, the ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii), have become the dominant group of fishes in the post-Paleozoic and modern world, with some 30,000 living species.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The bony (and cartilaginous) fish groups that emerged after the Devonian, were characterised by steady improvements in foraging and locomotion.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Lobe-finned fishes, fish belonging to the class Sarcopterygii, are mostly extinct bony fishes, basally characterised by robust and stubby lobe fins containing a robust internal skeleton, cosmoid scales and internal nostrils. Their fins are fleshy, lobed, paired fins, joined to the body by a single bone. The fins of lobe-finned fish differ from those of all other fish in that each is borne on a fleshy, lobelike, scaly stalk extending from the body. The pectoral and pelvic fins are articulated in ways resembling the tetrapod limbs they were the precursors to. The fins evolved into the legs of the first tetrapod land vertebrates, amphibians. They also possess two dorsal fins with separate bases, as opposed to the single dorsal fin of ray-finned fish. The braincase of lobe-finned fishes primitively has a hinge line, but this is lost in tetrapods and lungfish. Many early lobe-finned fishes have a symmetrical tail. All lobe-finned fishes possess teeth covered with true enamel.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Lobe-finned fishes, such as coelacanths and lungfish, were the most diverse group of bony fishes in the Devonian. Taxonomists who subscribe to the cladistic approach include the grouping Tetrapoda within the Sarcopterygii, and the tetrapods in turn include all species of four-limbed vertebrates. The fin-limbs of lobe-finned fishes such as the coelacanths show a strong similarity to the expected ancestral form of tetrapod limbs. The lobe-finned fish apparently followed two different lines of development and are accordingly separated into two subclasses, the Rhipidistia (including the lungfish, and the Tetrapodomorpha, which include the Tetrapoda) and the Actinistia (coelacanths). The first lobe-finned fishes, found in the uppermost Silurian (ca 418 Ma), closely resembled spiny sharks, which became extinct at the end of the Paleozoic. In the early–middle Devonian (416 - 385 Ma), while the predatory placoderms dominated the seas, some lobe-finned fishes came into freshwater habitats.


title: Evolution of fish

text: In the Early Devonian (416-397 Ma), the lobe-finned fishes split into two main lineages — the coelacanths and the rhipidistians. The former never left the oceans and their heyday was the Late Devonian and Carboniferous, from 385 to 299 Ma, as they were more common during those periods than in any other period in the Phanerozoic; coelacanths still live today in the oceans (genus "Latimeria"). The Rhipidistians, whose ancestors probably lived in estuaries, migrated into freshwater habitats. They in turn split into two major groups: the lungfish and the tetrapodomorphs. The lungfish's greatest diversity was in the Triassic period; today there are fewer than a dozen genera left. The lungfish evolved the first proto-lungs and proto-limbs, developing the ability to live outside a water environment in the middle Devonian (397-385 Ma). The first tetrapodomorphs, which included the gigantic rhizodonts, had the same general anatomy as the lungfish, who were their closest kin, but they appear not to have left their water habitat until the late Devonian epoch (385 - 359 Ma), with the appearance of tetrapods (four-legged vertebrates). Tetrapods are the only tetrapodomorphs that survived after the Devonian. Lobe-finned fishes continued until towards the end of Paleozoic era, suffering heavy losses during the Permian-Triassic extinction event (251 Ma).


title: Evolution of fish

text: Ray-finned fishes, class Actinopterygii, differ from lobe-finned fishes in that their fins consist of webs of skin supported by spines ("rays") made of bone or horn. There are other differences in respiratory and circulatory structures. Ray-finned fishes normally have skeletons made from true bone, though this is not true of sturgeons and paddlefishes.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Ray-finned fishes are the dominant vertebrate group, containing half of all known vertebrate species. They inhabit abyssal depths in the sea, coastal inlets and freshwater rivers and lakes, and are a major source of food for humans.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The Late Devonian extinctions played a crucial role in shaping the evolution of fish, or vertebrates in general. Fishes evolved during the Early Paleozoic, and in the Devonian all modern groups (Agnatha, Chondrichthyes, and Osteichthyes) were already present. Devonian aquatic environments were also marked by placoderms and acanthodians, which are only known from fossils, however. After suffering large losses during the Late Devonian extinctions, cartilaginous fishes (Chondrichthyes) and the Actinopterygii among the bony fishes (Osteichthyes) diversified.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The sections below describe the of fish, their , including the conquest of land by early tetrapods, and the post-Devonian evolution of fishes.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The Devonian Period is broken into the Early, Middle and Late Devonian. By the start of the Early Devonian 419 mya, jawed fishes had divided into four distinct clades: the placoderms and spiny sharks, both of which are now extinct, and the cartilaginous and bony fishes, both of which are still extant. The modern bony fish, class Osteichthyes, appeared in the late Silurian or early Devonian, about 416 million years ago. Both the cartilaginous and bony fish may have arisen from either the placoderms or the spiny sharks. A subclass of bony fish, the ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii), have become the dominant group in the post-Paleozoic and modern world, with some 30,000 living species.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Sea levels in the Devonian were generally high. Marine faunas were dominated by bryozoa, diverse and abundant brachiopods, the enigmatic hederelloids, microconchids and corals. Lily-like crinoids were abundant, and trilobites were still fairly common. Among vertebrates, jawless armoured fish (ostracoderms) declined in diversity, while the jawed fish (gnathostomes) simultaneously increased in both the sea and fresh water. Armoured placoderms were numerous during the lower stages of the Devonian Period but became extinct in the Late Devonian, perhaps because of competition for food against the other fish species. Early cartilaginous (Chondrichthyes) and bony fish (Osteichthyes) also become diverse and played a large role within the Devonian seas. The first abundant genus of shark, "Cladoselache", appeared in the oceans during the Devonian Period. The great diversity of fish around at the time have led to the Devonian being given the name "The Age of Fish" in popular culture.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The first ray-finned and lobe-finned bony fish appeared in the Devonian, while the placoderms began dominating almost every known aquatic environment. However, another subclass of Osteichthyes, the Sarcopterygii, including lobe-finned fish including coelacanths and lungfish) and tetrapods, was the most diverse group of bony fish in the Devonian. Sarcopterygians are basally characterized by internal nostrils, lobe fins containing a robust internal skeleton, and cosmoid scales.


title: Evolution of fish

text: During the Middle Devonian 393–383 Ma, the armoured jawless ostracoderm fish were declining in diversity; the jawed fish were thriving and increasing in diversity in both the oceans and freshwater. The shallow, warm, oxygen-depleted waters of Devonian inland lakes, surrounded by primitive plants, provided the environment necessary for certain early fish to develop essential characteristics such as well developed lungs and the ability to crawl out of the water and onto the land for short periods of time. Cartilaginous fish, class Chondrichthyes, consisting of sharks, rays and chimaeras, appeared by about 395 million years ago, in the middle Devonian


title: Evolution of fish

text: During the Late Devonian the first forests were taking shape on land. The first tetrapods appear in the fossil record over a period, the beginning and end of which are marked with extinction events. This lasted until the end of the Devonian 359 mya. The ancestors of all tetrapods began adapting to walking on land, their strong pectoral and pelvic fins gradually evolved into legs (see "Tiktaalik"). In the oceans, primitive sharks became more numerous than in the Silurian and the late Ordovician. The first ammonite mollusks appeared. Trilobites, the mollusk-like brachiopods and the great coral reefs, were still common.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The Late Devonian extinction occurred at the beginning of the last phase of the Devonian period, the Famennian faunal stage, (the Frasnian-Famennian boundary), about Ma. Many fossil agnathan fish, save for the psammosteid heterostracans, make their last appearance shortly before this event. The Late Devonian extinction crisis primarily affected the marine community, and selectively affected shallow warm-water organisms rather than cool-water organisms. The most important group affected by this extinction event were the reef-builders of the great Devonian reef-systems.


title: Evolution of fish

text: A second extinction pulse, the Hangenberg event closed the Devonian period and had a dramatic impact on vertebrate faunas. Placoderms mostly became extinct during this event, as did most members of other groups including lobe-finned fish, acanthodians and early tetrapods in both marine and terrestrial habitats, leaving only a handful of survivors. This event has been related to glaciation in the temperate and polar zones as well as euxinia and anoxia in the seas.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The first tetrapods are four-legged, air-breathing, terrestrial animals from which the land vertebrates descended, including humans. They evolved from lobe-finned fish of the clade Sarcopterygii, appearing in coastal water in the middle Devonian, and giving rise to the first amphibians.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The group of lobe-finned fishes that were the ancestors of the tetrapod are grouped together as the Rhipidistia, and the first tetrapods evolved from these fish over the relatively short timespan 385–360 Ma. The early tetrapod groups themselves are grouped as Labyrinthodontia. They retained aquatic, fry-like tadpoles, a system still seen in modern amphibians. From the 1950s to the early 1980s it was thought that tetrapods evolved from fish that had already acquired the ability to crawl on land, possibly so they could go from a pool that was drying out to one that was deeper. However, in 1987, nearly complete fossils of "Acanthostega" from about showed that this Late Devonian transitional animal had legs and both lungs and gills, but could never have survived on land: its limbs and its wrist and ankle joints were too weak to bear its weight; its ribs were too short to prevent its lungs from being squeezed flat by its weight; its fish-like tail fin would have been damaged by dragging on the ground. The current hypothesis is that "Acanthostega", which was about long, was a wholly aquatic predator that hunted in shallow water. Its skeleton differed from that of most fish, in ways that enabled it to raise its head to breathe air while its body remained submerged, including: its jaws show modifications that would have enabled it to gulp air; the bones at the back of its skull are locked together, providing strong attachment points for muscles that raised its head; the head is not joined to the shoulder girdle and it has a distinct neck.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The Devonian proliferation of land plants may help to explain why air-breathing would have been an advantage: leaves falling into streams and rivers would have encouraged the growth of aquatic vegetation; this would have attracted grazing invertebrates and small fish that preyed on them; they would have been attractive prey but the environment was unsuitable for the big marine predatory fish; air-breathing would have been necessary because these waters would have been short of oxygen, since warm water holds less dissolved oxygen than cooler marine water and since the decomposition of vegetation would have used some of the oxygen.


title: Evolution of fish

text: There are three major hypotheses as to how tetrapods evolved their stubby fins (proto-limbs). The traditional explanation is the "shrinking waterhole hypothesis" or "desert hypothesis" posited by the American paleontologist Alfred Romer. He believed limbs and lungs may have evolved from the necessity of having to find new bodies of water as old waterholes dried up.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The second hypothesis is the "inter-tidal hypothesis" put forward in 2010 by a team of Polish paleontologists led by Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki. They argued that sarcopterygians may have first emerged unto land from intertidal zones rather than inland bodies of water. Their hypothesis is based on the discovery of the 395 million-year-old Zachełmie tracks in Zachełmie, Poland, the oldest ever discovered fossil evidence of tetrapods.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The third hypothesis, the "woodland hypothesis", was proposed by the American paleontologist Gregory J. Retallack in 2011. He argues that limbs may have developed in shallow bodies of water in woodlands as a means of navigating in environments filled with roots and vegetation. He based his conclusions on the evidence that transitional tetrapod fossils are consistently found in habitats that were formerly humid and wooded floodplains.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Research by Jennifer A. Clack and her colleagues showed that the very earliest tetrapods, animals similar to "Acanthostega", were wholly aquatic and quite unsuited to life on land. This is in contrast to the earlier view that fish had first invaded the land — either in search of prey (like modern mudskippers) or to find water when the pond they lived in dried out — and later evolved legs, lungs, etc.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Two ideas about the homology of arms, hands and digits have existed in the past 130 years. First that digits are unique to tetrapods and second that antecedents were present in the fins of early sarcopterygian fish. Until recently it was believed that "genetic and fossil data support the hypothesis that digits are evolutionary novelties". However new research that created a three-dimensional reconstruction of Panderichthys, a coastal fish from the Devonian period 385 million years ago, shows that these animals already had many of the homologous bones present in the forelimbs of limbed vertebrates. For example, they had radial bones similar to rudimentary fingers but positioned in the arm-like base of their fins. Thus there was in the evolution of tetrapods a shift such that the outermost part of the fins were lost and eventually replaced by early digits. This change is consistent with additional evidence from the study of actinopterygians, sharks and lungfish that the digits of tetrapods arose from pre-existing distal radials present in more primitive fish. Controversy still exists since Tiktaalik, a vertebrate often considered the missing link between fishes and land-living animals, had stubby leg-like limbs that lacked the finger-like radial bones found in the Panderichthys. The researchers of the paper commented that it "is difficult to say whether this character distribution implies that Tiktaalik is autapomorphic, that Panderichthys and tetrapods are convergent, or that Panderichthys is closer to tetrapods than Tiktaalik. At any rate, it demonstrates that the fish–tetrapod transition was accompanied by significant character incongruence in functionally important structures.".


title: Evolution of fish

text: From the end of the Devonian to the Mid Carboniferous a 30 million year gap occurs in the fossil record. This gap, called Romer's gap, is marked by the absence of ancestral tetrapod fossils and fossils of other vertebrates that look well-adapted for life on land.


title: Evolution of fish

text: By the late Devonian, land plants had stabilized freshwater habitats, allowing the first wetland ecosystems to develop, with increasingly complex food webs that afforded new opportunities. Freshwater habitats were not the only places to find water filled with organic matter and choked with plants with dense vegetation near the water's edge. Swampy habitats like shallow wetlands, coastal lagoons and large brackish river deltas also existed at this time, and there is much to suggest that this is the kind of environment in which the tetrapods evolved. Early fossil tetrapods have been found in marine sediments, and because fossils of primitive tetrapods in general are found scattered all around the world, they must have spread by following the coastal lines — they could not have lived in freshwater only.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Prehistoric fish are early fish that are known only from fossil records. They are the earliest known vertebrates, and include the first and extinct fish that lived through the Cambrian to the Tertiary. The study of prehistoric fish is called "paleoichthyology". A few living forms, such as the coelacanth are also referred to as prehistoric fish, or even living fossils, due to their current rarity and similarity to extinct forms. Fish that have become recently extinct are not usually referred to as prehistoric fish.


title: Evolution of fish

text: The coelacanth was thought to have gone extinct , until a living specimen belonging to the order was discovered in 1938 off the coast of South Africa.


title: Evolution of fish

text: Paleoichthyology is the scientific study of the prehistoric life of fish. Listed below are some researchers who have made notable contributions to paleoichthyology.


The 2020 United States presidential election in New Hampshire was held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, as part of the 2020 United States presidential election in which all 50 states and the District of Columbia participated. New Hampshire voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominees, incumbent President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, against the Democratic Party's nominees, former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris. New Hampshire has four electoral votes in the Electoral College.


title: 2020 United States presidential election in New Hampshire

text: New Hampshire is by far the most fiscally conservative state in New England, and its population has a strong disdain for taxes, historically giving Republicans an edge in its state office elections. However, like the rest of the region, it is very liberal on social issues like abortion and gay rights, and thus the Democratic Party has dominated in its federal elections in recent years. Polls throughout the 2020 campaign showed a clear Biden lead, and prior to election day, all 14 news organizations considered New Hampshire a state that Biden was heavily favored to win.


text: Per exit polls by the Associated Press, Biden prevailed in the state by garnering 58% of Caucasian women, and 69% of unmarried women. Biden carried voters prioritizing healthcare policy with 73% campaigning on protecting coverage for pre-existing conditions, a resonant issue in a state plagued by the opioid crisis.


text: Biden flipped the counties of Carroll, Hillsborough, Rockingham, and Sullivan, of which Hillsborough (which houses the state's largest city of Manchester) and Sullivan had voted for Barack Obama twice before switching to Trump in 2016, into the Democratic column. Biden also significantly expanded Hillary Clinton's 2016 lead of 2,736 votes (0.37%) to 59,267 votes (7.35%). Corresponding Democratic victories in the Senate election and both House elections reaffirmed the Democrats' strength in what used to be a heavily contested battleground. Contrary to earlier projections however, New Hampshire Republicans took control of both the executive and legislative branches of the New Hampshire government. Republicans flipped the previously Democrat-held New Hampshire state Senate and House of Representatives. Republicans also gained control of the state’s Executive Council, and Republican Gov. Chris Sununu was reelected for a third term with 65% of the vote. Biden's best margin was in the socially liberal Connecticut River Valley, which had overwhelmingly favored Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, while Trump's strength came in the rural Great North Woods Region. Biden was the first Democrat to ever win the White House without Coös County.


text: The New Hampshire primary, traditionally the first, was held on February 11, 2020, roughly a week after the Iowa caucuses.


text: The New Hampshire Republican primary took place on February 11, 2020. Incumbent president Donald Trump won the Republican primary with 85.6 percent of the vote, clinching all of the state's 22 pledged delegates to the 2020 Republican National Convention.


text: Bernie Sanders won the Democratic primary with 25.6 percent of the vote, ahead of second-place Pete Buttigieg, who received 24.3 percent of the vote. Both Sanders and Buttigieg received nine delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Amy Klobuchar finished in third place with 19.7 percent of the vote and earned six delegates. Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden finished in fourth and fifth place, respectively, and each received zero delegates.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Julie Isabel Bishop (born 17 July 1956) is an Australian former politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2018 and deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 2007 to 2018. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Curtin from 1998 to 2019. She has been the chancellor of the Australian National University since January 2020.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Bishop was born in Lobethal, South Australia, and studied law at the University of Adelaide. Prior to entering politics she worked as a commercial lawyer in Perth, Western Australia; she was the local managing partner of Clayton Utz. She was a delegate to the 1998 constitutional convention, and also served as a director of the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) and as a member of the Murdoch University senate. Bishop was elected to parliament at the 1998 federal election, representing the Division of Curtin in Perth's western suburbs. In the Howard Government, she served as Minister for Ageing (2003–2006), Minister for Education and Science (2006–2007), and Minister for Women (2006–2007).


title: Julie Bishop

text: After the Coalition lost the 2007 election, Bishop was elected deputy leader of the Liberal Party. She was the first woman to hold the position, and was re-elected to the post at multiple leadership spills following her initial election. During her time as deputy, there were three different Liberal leaders—Brendan Nelson, Malcolm Turnbull, and Tony Abbott. When the Coalition returned to power at the 2013 election, Bishop was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Abbott Government. She was Australia's first female foreign minister. Issues that arose during her tenure included changes to the Australian foreign aid program, the international military intervention against ISIL, the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and the execution of Australian citizens by Indonesia.


title: Julie Bishop

text: In August 2018, Peter Dutton challenged Turnbull for the leadership of the Liberal Party, due to dissatisfaction from the party's conservative wing. Turnbull defeated Dutton in a leadership ballot, but tensions continued to mount and the party voted in favour of holding a second spill; Bishop chose to be a candidate. In the second vote, Bishop was eliminated in the first round by Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison, with Morrison elected as party leader (and thus prime minister) in the second round. She declined to retain the foreign affairs portfolio in the Morrison Ministry, instead moving to the backbench. Bishop retired from politics on 11 April 2019, before the impending federal election.


title: Julie Bishop

text: On 1 January 2020, Bishop commenced her term as chancellor of the Australian National University. She is the first woman to be in this position.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Bishop was born on 17 July 1956 in Lobethal, South Australia. She is the third of four children born to Isabel Mary (née Wilson) and Douglas Alan Bishop; she has two older sisters and a younger brother. Bishop has described her parents as "classic Menzies Liberals". Her father was a returned soldier and orchardist, while her mother's family were sheep and wheat farmers. Both her mother and grandfather William Bishop were active in local government, serving terms as mayor of the East Torrens District Council.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Bishop grew up on an apple and cherry orchard in Basket Range. The year before she was born, it was burned to the ground in the Black Sunday bushfires. Bishop began her education at Basket Range Primary School and later attended St Peter's Collegiate Girls' School in Adelaide. She was the head prefect in her final year. Bishop went on to study law at the University of Adelaide. She worked two part-time jobs as a barmaid while at university—one at Football Park and one at a pub in Uraidla. She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1978.


title: Julie Bishop

text: After graduating law school, Bishop joined Wallmans, an Adelaide-based law firm, as its first female articled clerk. She left after less than a year , in part due to an incident where a senior partner asked her to perform waitressing duties. In 1982, aged 26, she became a partner in the firm of Mangan, Ey & Bishop. The following year, she married West Australian property developer Neil Gillon, and moved to Perth.


title: Julie Bishop

text: On arriving in WA, Bishop joined Robinson Cox as a solicitor specialising in commercial litigation and was made a full partner in 1985. According to Kerry Stokes, "in the legal profession she was a very determined, reasoned person [...] there's not been much written about what a good executive Julie was—responsible for administering and running a partnership, not just a lawyer".


title: Julie Bishop

text: In the late 1980s, Robinson Cox was hired by CSR Limited to defend against compensation claims brought by asbestos mining workers, who had contracted mesothelioma while working for Midalco, a subsidiary of CSR. Bishop was part of the team assigned to the case, which developed an argument that a company was not legally responsible for the actions of its subsidiaries. The Supreme Court of Western Australia eventually decided to pierce the corporate veil and hold CSR liable for Midalco's actions; the lead litigant died before the conclusion of the case, which lasted eight months. After becoming a public figure, Bishop was accused by opponents of acting immorally by involving herself in the case. She has said she conducted herself ethically and professionally, and per procedural advice given by barristers Robert French and David Malcolm (both future judges).


title: Julie Bishop

text: As a legal advisor to the Western Australian Development Corporation, Bishop assisted in the incorporation of several new government enterprises, including Gold Corporation (the operator of the Perth Mint), LandCorp, and Eventscorp (a division of Tourism Western Australia). Robinson Cox merged into the larger firm of Clayton Utz in 1992, and she was made managing partner of the firm's Perth office in 1994. In the same year, she took up an appointment as chair of the state government's Town Planning Appeal Tribunal, serving a three-year term. In 1996, Bishop attended Harvard Business School for eight weeks to complete the Advanced Management Programme for senior managers. She has credited one of her lecturers there, George C. Lodge, with inspiring her to enter public life. In 1997, she was elected to the senate of Murdoch University and appointed as a director of the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).


title: Julie Bishop

text: Bishop joined the Liberal Party in 1992. She has credited the WA Inc scandal with making her think she "did not ever want to see a Labor government elected again". She was chosen as the president of the Liberal party's CBD branch the year she joined the party, serving until 1997. In 1998, Senator Nick Minchin invited her to serve as an appointed delegate to the 1998 national constitutional convention. She was a "minimalist republican", and voted against the final model because she considered it too radical and unlikely to succeed at a referendum. At the convention, she became acquainted with Peter Costello, at the time serving as federal treasurer under John Howard.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Prior to the 1998 federal election, Bishop won Liberal preselection for the Division of Curtin, which takes in Perth's western suburbs. Her preselection bid received the support of Premier Richard Court, who had earmarked her as a future member of federal cabinet. The seat had been held for 17 years by Allan Rocher, who was a personal friend of Prime Minister John Howard but had left the Liberals in 1995 to sit as an independent. Howard did not want the Liberals to run a candidate against Rocher, and refused to campaign for Bishop; however, Peter Costello and Alexander Downer both supported her candidacy and Costello launched her campaign. At the election, she reclaimed the seat for the Liberals with a large swing in her favour.


title: Julie Bishop

text: After the Liberal Party lost the 2001 state election in Western Australia, Bishop was suggested by multiple media sources as a possible replacement for Richard Court as state Liberal leader (and thus Leader of the Opposition). It was later confirmed that Court favoured an arrangement where he and his deputy and factional rival, Colin Barnett, would resign their seats in the Legislative Assembly. Bishop would resign from federal Parliament and hand her seat to Barnett, and Court would hand the leadership of the WA Liberals to Bishop once she was safely in the state legislature by way of winning either Court or Barnett's old seats, both of which were within Curtin's boundaries and were comfortably safe for the Liberals. However, Bishop eventually rejected the deal.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Bishop was appointed Minister for Ageing by Prime Minister John Howard in 2003. She was later promoted to Minister for Education and Science and Minister for Women in 2006 and served in those positions until the defeat of the Howard Government at the 2007 federal election.


title: Julie Bishop

text: As education minister, Bishop's policies centred on the development of national education standards as well as performance-based pay for teachers. On 13 April 2007, the Australian State Governments jointly expressed opposition to Bishop's pay policy. In the 2007 budget, the Federal Government announced a $5 billion "endowment fund" for higher education, with the expressed goal of providing world-class tertiary institutions in Australia. Some of Bishop's public comments on education, including the remark that "the states have ideologically hijacked school syllabi and are wasting $180 million in unnecessary duplication", were criticised by teachers. An advance media kit for a 2006 speech claimed parts of the contemporary curriculum came "straight from Chairman Mao"; the remark was dropped from her speech.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Following the 2007 election, Bishop was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party on 29 November 2007; Brendan Nelson was elected Leader. In a ballot of Liberal Party room members, Bishop comfortably won with 44 votes, one more than the combined total of her two competitors, Andrew Robb (with 25 votes) and Christopher Pyne (with 18 votes).


title: Julie Bishop

text: On 22 September 2008, Bishop was promoted to the role of Shadow Treasurer by Nelson's successor as Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, making her the first woman to hold that portfolio. On 16 February 2009, however, she was moved from that position, with widespread media speculation that her colleagues were dissatisfied with her performance in the role. She was instead given the job of Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. After Tony Abbott was elected Liberal Leader following the 2009 leadership spill, Bishop retained her roles as Deputy Leader and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs.


title: Julie Bishop

text: In 2010, Bishop defended the suspected forgery of Australian passports by Mossad, saying that many countries practised the forging of passports for intelligence operations, including Australia. The Rudd Government attacked Bishop over the statements, saying she had "broken a long-standing convention" of not speculating about intelligence practices. She later clarified her statement, saying, "I have no knowledge of any Australian authority forging any passports of any nation."


title: Julie Bishop

text: Following the Coalition's narrow loss in the 2010 federal election, Bishop was re-elected unanimously as Deputy Leader by her colleagues and retained the position of Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, while also being given the additional responsibility of Shadow Minister for Trade.


title: Julie Bishop

text: After the Coalition won the 2013 federal election, new Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed Bishop as Minister for Foreign Affairs; she was sworn in by Governor-General Quentin Bryce on 18 September 2013. She became the only female member of the cabinet and was given the third-highest rank, after Abbott and Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss. In the months following her appointment several media reports claimed that Bishop, along with Social Services Minister Scott Morrison, were regarded internally as the best performing ministers in the Government.


title: Julie Bishop

text: In December 2014, Bishop became only the second woman to serve as acting prime minister, after Julia Gillard. Throughout her tenure as foreign minister, Bishop had been frequently tipped by political commentators as a possible future leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister.


title: Julie Bishop

text: One of Bishop's first steps after being appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs was to introduce sweeping changes to the Australian foreign aid program. These changes included abolition of the Australian foreign aid agency, AusAID, and extensive expenditure cuts.


title: Julie Bishop

text: The new government was sworn into office on 18 September 2013. Incoming Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the same day that AusAID would be integrated into the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT). The news of the proposed integration had been conveyed by Bishop to senior AusAID staff some days earlier. The official explanation for the integration of AusAID into DFAT was that “Integration will enable DFAT to better pursue Australia's national interests by ensuring closer alignment and mutually reinforcing linkages among the Government's aid, foreign affairs and trade efforts.”


title: Julie Bishop

text: The impact of the integration on the quality of Australia's aid program led to considerable debate. Sceptics pointed to the departure of a considerable number of experienced aid professionals from the former AusAID while the process of integration was taking place and argued that the culture and priorities of DFAT were not supportive of a quality aid program. Those in favour of the change argued that closer alignment with foreign affairs would ensure that the aid program was more relevant and would provide better value for money.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Subsequently, Bishop announced substantial expenditure cuts in the aid program. In Opposition, the Liberal Party had publicly endorsed the aim of maintaining the Australian aid budget at the level of 0.5% of GDP. Aid spending amounted to around $5.0 billion in 2014/15. However budget cuts introduced after the new government took office led to marked reductions. Expenditure was reduced to around $4.2 billion in 2015/16. Further reductions were introduced in following years. Aid spending as a share of GDP fell from 0.32% in 2014/15 to an estimated 0.23% in 2018/19.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Months after the Abbott Government took office, Bishop announced the implementation of a New Colombo Plan which would provide undergraduate students with funding to study in several different locations within the Indo-Pacific. The plan started off in pilot form and after initial success the full program was rolled out in 2015.


title: Julie Bishop

text: In a 2015 speech explaining the Australian Government's measures against ISIS, Bishop compared the psychological underpinnings of ISIS with that of Nazism. Citing Eric Hoffer's seminal work "The True Believer", she argued that the declared Caliphate drew from the same source that drove the masses to support Hitler; "Invincibility was—until the US-led airstrikes—all part of its attraction."


title: Julie Bishop

text: In October 2014, Man Haron Monis wrote to Attorney-General George Brandis asking if he (Monis) could contact the leader of ISIS, two months before he took hostages in the Sydney siege. On 28 May 2015, Bishop told Parliament that the letter was provided to a review of the siege, before correcting the record three days later.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Although Bishop fought against the Gillard Government's campaign to gain Australia a temporary two-year seat on the United Nations Security Council, she was widely lauded for her commanding performance when representing Australia on the Council in her capacity as Foreign Minister. She negotiated a successful resolution that was adopted by the Council in regards to gaining full access to the crash site of Flight MH17.


title: Julie Bishop

text: During the month of November 2014, Bishop chaired the Security Council and led meeting to discuss the threat of foreign fights, UN peacekeeping and the Ebola epidemic. Later, Bishop led negotiations to pass a resolution to set up an independent criminal tribunal into the downing of Flight MH17. Although Russia vetoed the resolution, Bishop was widely praised by other delegates for her work and for her strong statement following the veto that "the anticipated excuses and obfuscation by the Russian Federation should be treated with the utmost disdain".


title: Julie Bishop

text: In April 2015, Bishop paid an official visit to Iran, following the conclusion of a visit to India. She was the first Australian government minister to visit the country since 2003, having been personally invited by Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. They discussed the proposed nuclear deal and issues relating to Iranian asylum seekers in Australia. Bishop wore a headscarf or a hat for the duration of her visit, and did not shake hands with male dignitaries in order to avoid offending local sensibilities. She received some criticism for doing so, with Andrew Bolt rhetorically asking whether she should have "subjugated herself" to Islamic law. Head coverings are not mandatory for foreign women visiting Iran. In response, she said: "As a matter of fact I wear scarves and hats and headgear quite often as part of my everyday wear".


title: Julie Bishop

text: In early September 2017, as the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar became ethnic cleansing, Bishop said that Australia was deeply concerned by the escalating violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State and would provide up to to help Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. In 2018, Bishop called "for an end to the violence, for full and unhindered humanitarian access … and a full and transparent accountability of the human rights abuses". She also said that Australia's relationship with Myanmar Army "is designed to help promote positive change in Myanmar".


title: Julie Bishop

text: Bishop was involved at the highest level of negotiations with the Indonesian Government in attempts to save the lives of convicted drug smugglers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan. Demonstrating Australia's opposition to the death penalty, Bishop was widely applauded for the manner in which she conducted negotiations. This was in stark contrast to the criticism faced by Tony Abbott who was ridiculed for remarks he made in regards to foreign aid provided by Australia to Indonesia. Despite the Government's efforts, both Chan and Sukumaran were executed in April 2015. As a result of the executions, Bishop recalled the Australian Ambassador from Indonesia in condemnation of their decision.


title: Julie Bishop

text: By August 2015, Bishop stated that Australia's relationship with Indonesia was "back on track" after privately meeting with the Indonesian Foreign Minister to discuss the fallout from the executions.


title: Julie Bishop

text: In May 2018, Geoff Raby, a former Australian Ambassador to China, criticised Bishop's handling of Australia–China relations, stating she had neglected the relationship between the countries and had angered Chinese leaders with "strident public comments on the South China Sea" and a speech questioning China's regional leadership. He called on Malcolm Turnbull to "replace the Foreign Minister with someone better equipped for the demands of the job". In response, Bishop said that Raby was "profoundly ignorant [...] about the level of engagement between Australia and China at present and the state of the relationship", and that he had not spoken to her or her office in several years. Turnbull said the opinion piece was "utterly wrong" and described Bishop as "a formidable foreign minister, a great diplomat and a great colleague".


title: Julie Bishop

text: On 26 August 2018, Bishop issued a statement indicating that she would resign as Minister for Foreign Affairs. She was replaced by Senator Marise Payne on 28 August.


title: Julie Bishop

text: In February 2015, in response to rising criticisms of his leadership, Tony Abbott called a spill of leadership positions. Both Julie Bishop and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull were reported by the media as considering challenging for the leadership. Opinion poll results consistently showed that both Bishop and Turnbull were preferred by the public to Abbott. Eventually a motion to move a leadership spill fell by 61 votes to 39, and Abbott consequentially remained in office.


title: Julie Bishop

text: On 14 September 2015, Malcolm Turnbull challenged Tony Abbott for the leadership of the Liberal Party. After Turnbull was elected, Bishop defeated a challenge from Kevin Andrews to retain her position as Deputy Leader by 70 votes to 30. Hours before Turnbull's challenge, Bishop had visited Abbott to advise him he had lost the confidence of the Parliamentary Liberal Party. She is said to have intended to vote for Abbott in the leadership vote until he declared her position vacant as well as his, after which she voted for Turnbull. Bishop was retained as Foreign Minister following the formation of the Turnbull Government.


title: Julie Bishop

text: On 21 August 2018, Malcolm Turnbull called a leadership spill and defeated challenger Peter Dutton by 48 votes to 35. The deputy leadership was also declared vacant, with Bishop re-elected as deputy leader unopposed. Over the following days, there was widespread speculation about a second spill being called, and multiple media outlets reported on 23 August that Bishop would be a candidate for the leadership if that eventuated. A second spill was called on 24 August, and Bishop was eliminated on the first ballot with 11 votes out of 85 (or 12.9 percent). Morrison was elected leader over Dutton on the second ballot, and Josh Frydenberg was chosen as deputy leader. Bishop is the first woman to formally stand for the leadership of the Liberal Party, and only the second woman to stand for the leadership of one of Australia's two major parties, after the Labor Party's Julia Gillard.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Bishop is regarded as a being a moderate within the Liberal Party, and has been described as holding similar views to Malcolm Turnbull. She has stated that she regards herself a "very liberal-minded person", an "economic dry and a social liberal", and a "Menzian Liberal".


title: Julie Bishop

text: Bishop is in favour of an Australian republic, having served as a delegate at the Constitutional Convention of 1998. When a conscience vote has been allowed by the Liberal Party, Bishop has always voted in a "progressive" manner, voting in favour of allowing stem cell research and for removing ministerial oversight of the abortion pill RU486.


title: Julie Bishop

text: During the internal debate on same-sex marriage which divided the Liberal Party in August 2015, Bishop refused to publicly declare her personal views on the matter. However, her statement that she was "very liberally minded" on the topic was taken by many to be an allusion towards support of same-sex marriage. In a television interview in November 2015, Bishop confirmed that she supported same-sex marriage.


title: Julie Bishop

text: In August 2015, Bishop spoke in favour of holding a plebiscite on the matter, believing that the issue should be put to a democratic vote so that it could no longer distract from the government's policy agenda. This ultimately became the policy adopted by the government. Following the postal plebiscite in 2017, which resulted in a "Yes" vote, Bishop stated that she had voted in support of same-sex marriage.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Following her retirement from political life, Bishop took up a position on the board of the professional services company Palladium. In early August 2019 it was announced that she had agreed to take up the position of chancellor of Australian National University (ANU), commencing in January 2020. She would be the university's first female chancellor. Her predecessor is Gareth Evans, another former foreign minister. As chancellor, she will receive an annual honorarium of $75,000, the same amount as the outgoing chancellor Evans received in his final year.


title: Julie Bishop

text: When the United Kingdom assumed the presidency of the G7 in 2021, Bishop was appointed by the country's Minister for Women and Equalities Liz Truss to a newly formed Gender Equality Advisory Council (GEAC) chaired by Sarah Sands. From 2021 to 2022, she was a member of the Trilateral Commission’s Task Force on Global Capitalism in Transition, chaired by Carl Bildt, Kelly Grier and Takeshi Niinami.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Following her retirement from Parliament, Bishop established consulting firm "Julie Bishop & Partners". It was reported in January 2020 that Bishop had taken up a position with the UK financial firm Greensill Capital in December 2019 to "provide strategic advice to Greensill and serve as chair of Greensill Asia Pacific" as the company accelerated its expansion in the region. Lex Greensill, the founder of Greensill Capital, said that the company would "draw on Julie's unparalleled experience and expertise -- particularly her international credentials cemented during five years as Australia's foreign minister."


title: Julie Bishop

text: Over a year later, a scandal involving Greensill emerged in the United Kingdom. In April 2021 it was reported in the "Financial Times" and "The Sunday Times" that former UK prime minister David Cameron had been involved in lobbying activities within the UK government on behalf of Greensill. Shortly afterwards, it was reported in "The Australian Financial Review" that as part of Bishop's consulting activities with Greensill Capital in early 2020, she had attended meetings in Davos in Switzerland organised by Lex Greensill. In the meetings in Davos, Bishop joined with David Cameron to meet Lex Greensill to discuss the affairs of the company. In Davos, she and Lex Greensill also reportedly met the then-Australian finance minister Mathias Cormann. Cormann, who in March 2021 was elected as Secretary-General of the OECD, is reported to have said that he was asked by Bishop to meet with Lex Greensill and David Cameron. These meetings in Davos took place shortly after Bishop had taken up her position as Chancellor of the ANU. Bishop's activities with Greensill in Davos were reportedly arranged "in the margins" of an ANU function for Australians and Australian businesses in Davos. In June, it was reported that Australian Treasury officials had confirmed to an Australian Senate committee that Bishop had lobbied Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on behalf of Greensill and that Labor Party members of the Australian Parliamentary Committee on Corporations and Financial Services were pressing to have Bishop called before the committee for questioning. In connection with Bishop's connections with Greensill, the Australian Attorney General's Department confirmed that the Department had written to Bishop seeking clarification of her role at Greensill at the time that she contacted Frydenberg's office on behalf of the company.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Bishop was married to property developer Neil Gillon from 1983 to 1988, taking his surname for the duration of the marriage. She later had relationships with Senator Ross Lightfoot and former Lord Mayor of Perth Peter Nattrass. She was in a relationship with businessman David Panton from 2014 to 2022.


title: Julie Bishop

text: Bishop does not have children. In response to repeated media inquiries about the subject, she has stated that "I'm not having kids, there's no point lamenting what was or what could have been", and that she feels "incredibly lucky that I've had the kind of career that is so consuming that I don't feel I have a void in my life".


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (abbreviated as 1st Recon Bn) is a reconnaissance battalion in the United States Marine Corps. It is a stand-alone battalion with no parent regiment. Instead, it falls directly under the command of the 1st Marine Division. 1st Recon Bn is located at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: 1st Recon Battalion was reactivated on July 5, 2000, as part of Marine Corps Commandant General James L. Jones' mission to revitalize Marine Corps reconnaissance.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: The mission of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion is to provide task-organized forces in order to conduct amphibious reconnaissance, ground reconnaissance, battlespace shaping operations, raids, and specialized insertion and extraction.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion currently consists of five companies. The companies (except for headquarters and service company) each consist of two platoons. The standard breakdown of the four subsequent companies consists of a reconnaissance and surveillance platoon and a VBSS platoon. Platoons are further divided into three reconnaissance teams, a jump team, dive team and mobility team. A reconnaissance team consists of 6 to 8 Reconnaissance Marines and Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman (SARC). While ideal and established doctrine, this organizational structure can be modified by battalion or company commanding officers as they see fit.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: When the 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions were created in 1941, each had a Scout Company 7 officers and 132 NCOs and enlisted men divided into a headquarters unit and three platoons. The unit had M3 Scout Cars and a motorcycle platoon.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: In 1941, Lieutenant Colonel William "Wild Bill" Whaling (not to be confused with OSS Director William J. Donovan), the executive officer of 5th Marine Regiment visualized and perceived the use for specialized missions encompassing reconnaissance at the division-level, which would be conducted above the normal infantry battalion-level in scouting and patrolling. He recommended to General Alexander Vandegrift the need of a special "Scout and Sniper unit" for the 1st Marine Division's operations on Guadalcanal. Upon approval, by February 1, each of the three companies were created for each regiment.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: Forming the southern of the Bismarck Sea and the Bismarck Archipelago, the island of New Britain was focused for seizure by General MacArthur as it would mean control of the Vitiaz and Dampier Straits. Planning began and decision was made to first seize Arawe Peninsula, an island, a town, a plantation and the Japanese occupation forces situated on the southern coast, sixty miles south across island from Cape Gloucester. Cape Gloucester was tasked for seizure by Major General William H. Rupertus, the landing force commander of the northern elements.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: General Rupertus turned to his scout company's chief, 1st Lieutenant John D. Bradbeer, to lead a team of several Marine scouts to conduct amphibious reconnaissance patrols of New Britain. D-Day was determined on December 26, 1943. They landed on New Britain on September 24, 1943, at night by rubber boats from three PT boats #110, #325 and #327 of Motor Torepedo Boat Squadron 21, bringing Royal Australian Navy Lieutenant Kirkwall Smith, a former Australian coastwatcher who knew the area, and two natives.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: For nine days, they paddled throughout the prospective landing beaches, locating coastal-defense guns, sketched the beaches and evaded the Japanese patrols in the area. Upon time of return to their PT boat pickup, they couldn't establish radio contact, so they paddled out into the Dampier Strait until they were able to get contact by radio to arrange recovery. Bradbeer's patrol were able to uncover that Japanese troop strength on New Britain was about seventy-five hundred men.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: Forty-five days later of November 1943, Bradbeer accompanied Lieutenants Firm and Smith, and Ensign Gipe (a Navy hydrographer) and their small team and again landed from three PT boats on other proposed beaches. However, never landing on the proposed landing beach, it was quickly negated due to the cliffs just inland from the beach.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: By December 26, 1943, six days prior to D-Day, or D-6, Bradbeer and 1st Lieutenant Joseph A.L. Fournier split the recon patrol, taking their six Marines to reconnoiter remaining portions of the island; Bradbeer and his team went north, Fournier's team reconned the south. Hours later, they both confirmed the usability of the selected landing beaches, reporting them only lightly defended. Momentarily within a few more hours both teams were recovered by their PT boats. While returning, a Japanese barge opened fire onto Bradbeer's PT boat, injuring three of the PT crew personnel. US Navy Lieutenant Paul T. Rennell, the PT boat's captain, was able to break contact and evade the Japanese safely. The reconnaissance they provided was the third and the last preliminary amphibious reconnaissance for the New Britain operation.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: The III Amphibious Corps, led by Major General Geiger tasked MGen Rupertus's 1st Marine Division for the main assault landing on Peleliu. Originally, the 1st Tank Battalion's scout company were part of the "floating reserve", but was ordered ashore on D-Day, September 15, 1944. Early in the afternoon, the Company D (Scout) reinforced Colonel Herman Hanneken's 7th Marines to cover the 5th Marines. The island was declared secured on November 27.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: On April 3, 1945, 1st Marine Division sent their scout company in front of their zone of action along the boundary of the 6th Marine Division to their north. The recon company, commanded by 1st Lieutenant Robert J. Powell, Jr., traversed by motorized patrols to the eastern shore of Okinawa, reaching the base of Katchin Peninsula by 1300. They received further orders to advance north up the east coast toward Hiazaonna. Along the way they encountered a lightly held tank trap, then returned to 1st Marine Division before dark. Colonel Edward Snedeker 7th Marine Regiment followed the recon action report of 1st Marine Division's Company D (Scout) and pushed across the island to the town of Hiazaonna, reaching it at 1830 on April 3, 1945.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: A selected platoon of Kenny Houghton's 1st Marine Division Reconnaissance Company was dispatched to Korea as part of 1st Marine Brigade (5th and 11th Marines) landing at Pusan. The remainder of the Company arrived with the remainder of the Division, and all landed at Inchon. Recon Marines from the 2nd Marine Division Recon later arrived to augment the reconnaissance unit including Lieutenant "Bull" Francis Kraince. Barry Crossman was the Executive Officer.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: The organization was quickly altered from an amphibious unit of nine-man boat teams to a motorized unit of four-man jeep teams utilizing jeeps loaned by the United States Army. Using these vehicles the Company dispatched motorized patrols on a deep reconnaissance to scout from Wonsan and Hungnam to Huksori, an enemy supply depot some forty miles distant. An element of the Company acted as a point for Tobin's B/1/5 push on August 13, 1950, travelling by jeep about a mile forward of the infantry force.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: In January 1951, the unit dispatched patrols to search out guerrillas in the Andong area and later, on one occasion, stayed concealed in a town for two nights tracing enemy cavalry and infantry patrols, and ended up by directing air strikes on them.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: Marines from the 1st Recon Company made seven raids into North Korea from the "", one of which was conducted 12—16 August 1950, in which a combined force of sixteen Marines and twenty-five Navy Underwater Demolition Teams raided the Posung-Myon area destroying three tunnels and two railway bridges without losing one man.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Forward) deployed to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba and Haiti in October–November 1962 to await the invasion of Cuba. Upon the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the battalion returned to MCB Camp Pendleton.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: By June 1966, the 1st Marine Division had plans to expand its assigned Tactical Area of Responsibility (TAOR) southward from Da Nang to Tam Kỳ, the capital of the Quảng Tín Province. Pressure from the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) had placed Brigadier General William A. Stiles, the assistant division commander (ADC), position to respond by conceiving an operation by ordering an extensive reconnaissance effort between Da Nang and Tam Ky.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: BGen. Stiles had divided the operation into two phases. The first phase was to send in his recon assets in an area in the vicinity of the Hiệp Đức District. The division's intelligence (D-2) section had sources of a headquarters of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) 2nd Division lying somewhere near the western border of I Corps in the Quế Sơn Valley. The second phase consisted of a massive exploitation of the recon team's findings, by sending in a joint show-of-force; four infantry battalions from the 1st Marine Division and the ARVN 2nd Division.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: On the afternoon of June 13, a thirteen-man recon team, accompanied by the command group, of 1st Recon Battalion landed by helicopters in the middle of the Quế Sơn Valley onto the small mountain of Nui Loc Son. In the course of the next 24-hours, six more recon teams were deployed in different strategic positioning sites, ringing the valley. This enabled the teams to actively report on enemy activity, and if possible, forward observe for either air strikes or artillery fire. Up to eight battalions were on full standby— four battalions of Marines and ARVN each, ready to deploy against any hostile forces encountered. One recon team worked their way south of Hiệp Đức after they set up positions along the heavily wooded Hill 555. They spotted several groups of PAVN of varying size that appeared to be training in the area.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: The next day on June 14, a scout dog accompanying an enemy patrol caught scent of the nearby Marines and the patrol advanced towards their position; the recon team's leader immediately called for an extraction. A helicopter was inbound within minutes and the team hastily scrambled aboard and were safely flown back to Chu Lai Base Area.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: The other five recon teams remained undetected and continued reporting on the enemy for the next two days, until the moment Team 2 spotted a large enemy formation as they took up positions on Nui Vu hill, at the east end of the valley. Staff Sergeant Jimmie E. Howard (a decorated Korean War veteran), called in numerous fire coordination support, from an ARVN artillery battery located at an Army Special Forces camp 7 km to the south.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: The PAVN quickly adapted when they realized the barrage of artillery fire was more than mere coincidence; a battalion-size force was heading toward Nui Vu. On the night of June 15, a Special Forces team spotted the advancing enemy presence and alerted headquarters. However, they relayed the information too late. SSgt Howard had heard the enemy forces approach them as they amassed below them at the bottom of the hill. While the next few hours were quiet, by midnight, several of Howard's men spotted silhouettes as dozens of PAVN soldiers furtively climbed up the hill in the darkness. The PAVN instigated the fight by throwing grenades at the Marines. Greatly outnumbered, Howard's men held off the attackers.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: Howard understood that they would soon be overwhelmed and radioed to his commander, Lt. Colonel Arthur J. Sullivan, for an immediate extraction. A short time later, the UH-34s were inbound. However, the helicopters were under immediate attack from machine gun fires, forcing them to return. Sullivan relayed the bad news back to Howard that they would not be able to be extracted until daylight.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: Throughout the night, close air support, artillery strikes, and gunship fire support pounded the enemy, but the PAVN launched three strong attacks against Team 2. By 04:00 on 16 June, six out of eighteen Marines were killed in action and Howard was temporary immobilized from shrapnel wounds. Every other man was hit at least once. While they were suffering from ammunition shortages, some recon Marines resorted to throwing rocks at the enemy, others managed to pick up captured AK-47 rifles.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: By dawn, Company C of 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment (1/5) landed at the base of Nui Vu and reinforced recon Team 2. The Marines of 1/5 forced their way up the small mountain through scattered but strong resistance to reach Howard and his recon team. Howard and the surviving Marines were immediately evacuated; however, Charlie Company of 1/5 continued to battle for control of Nui Vu. The PAVN finally disengaged and withdrew, leaving 42 dead.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: The first phase of Operation Kansas had ended, however, the second phase of the operation was changed. On June 17, the day before the first assault was scheduled, General Walt advised Gen. Stiles that the ARVN units would be unavailable due to the Buddhist Uprising in Huế. Although aware of the circumstances, both Generals Walt and Stiles decided to continue the effort. Overall, the recon teams reported over 141 sightings of enemy forces. The second phase of the operation commenced artillery and air strikes, dispersing the enemy. Operation Kansas ended on June 22, 1966.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: On 6 July 1966, Lieutenant Colonel Arthur J. Sullivan, battalion commander of 1st Recon Battalion, moved his battalion headquarters to Hau Doc, a location 25 km west of Chu Lai. For eight days his recon teams covered four-hundred square kilometers of his area of operation (AO); sighting forty-six PAVN that were scattered throughout the dense, rugged double- and triple- canopy jungle terrain, roughly ranging of 200 soldiers at most. The ground combat and supporting elements resulted only in thirteen PAVN killed, with four prisoners. Because of the poor results, General Lewis J. Fields, the commanding general of the Chu Lai TOAR, ended the operation on July 14, 1966.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: On 5 September 1967, Nine Paratroopers [8 USMC and 1 Navy HM2] 1st Force Recon Company, 1st Recon Battalion, 1st Marine Division parachuted into "Happy Valley" southwest of Da Nang, Quanh Nam Provience Against North Vietnam/Viet Cong supply centers. Because of unexpected high winds the mission could not be completed and the members Evacuated. Loses were 3 injured and 1 MIA.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: Operation Scott Orchard was the last major 1st Marine Division operation of the Vietnam War, issued by the 1st Marine Division commander, MG Charles F. Widdecke. The operation began when Marines of 1st Recon Bn. commenced a heliborne assault into abandoned Fire Support Base (FSB) Dagger at 10:45 on 7 April 1971. After the brief firefight, the fire support base was declared secured. The plan was to reopen FSB Dagger in the Quế Sơn mountains by emplacing a provisional composite battery of 105-mm and 155-mm howitzers from the 1st Battalion, 11th Marines (1/11). FSB Dagger was used the previous autumn during Operation Catawba Falls. The intelligence sources from MACV had included reports of American prisoners-of-war were being held at an isolated camp in the mountainous region of the Quảng Nam Province, however no prisoners were found, contact was minimal and only abandoned base camps were discovered. The operation concluded on 12 April, the Marines had killed 4 PAVN/VC and captured 1 and 12 weapons.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: In 1990—1991, the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion participated in the Persian Gulf War. Upon returning from the Gulf War plans were enacted to break up 1st Reconnaissance Battalion and spread it out to AAV's, 1st Marines and 5th Marines. In June 1992 Alpha Company was moved and attached to Headquarters Battalion 1st Marine Division. Bravo Company was moved and attached to Headquarters Battalion 5th Marine Division. Charlie company was moved to the Marine Corps 8 wheeled amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) unit, forming LAR (Light Armored Reconnaissance). Delta Company was disbanded and folded into Charlie Company. Reconnaissance Company 5th Marines deployed as a company to Somalia in January 1993 and was spread around Somalia conducting reconnaissance and surveillance operations in Mogadishu, Biadoa and Bardere to help stop the flow of weapons being brought in by militant groups. Reconnaissance Company 5th Marines returned to Somalia on deployment multiple times in the next 5 years. Reconnaissance Company 1st Marines and Reconnaissance Company 5th Marines were brought back together in 2000 to reform 1st Reconnaissance Battalion in Camp Margarita, Camp Pendleton Ca, with only 50 unfilled billets on its first day.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: In January 2003, the battalion deployed to Kuwait in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The 1st Reconnaissance Battalion participated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq from March 2003 to June 2003. The battalion redeployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom from February 2004 to October 2004, where it took part in Operation Vigilant Resolve; September 2005 to April 2006, March 2007 to October 2007, and October 2008 to April 2009. In January 2006, the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion was in the national news for leading Operation Green Trident, which discovered over ten metric tons of insurgent munitions, hidden in caches throughout a large area south of Fallujah in the Euphrates River Valley. Marines of 1st Recon told military reporters that about 90 percent of their time in Operation Iraqi Freedom was spent in mounted patrols, using their Humvees.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: The 1st Recon were also deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2010 where they produced 300+ enemy KIA, did not lose a single man in their seven-month deployment and was regarded as "The deadliest battalion in Afghanistan right now" by Lt. Gen James Mattis.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: The unit conducted a battalion-sized helicopter insert into the area of Trek Nawa, operating for 32 days straight, away from friendly lines, during that period there was contact with Taliban forces for 28 of those days using tactics and offensive action that stunned the local enemy forces. Following the missions in Trek Nawa and surrounding areas, the battalion deployed two companies to the Upper Sangin River Valley.


title: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion

text: In February 2012, there was controversy when a September 2010 photograph was published showing members of Charlie Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, posing in front of a flag with a logo resembling that of the German "Schutzstaffel" while serving in Afghanistan. The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force inspector general found that there was no anti semitic intent on the part of the Marines to identify themselves with the organization as the symbol was in fact representative of the U.S. Marine Corps' scout sniper military occupational specialty.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: Blindness (, meaning "Essay on Blindness") is a 1995 novel by the Portuguese author José Saramago. It is one of Saramago's most famous novels, along with "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" and "Baltasar and Blimunda". In 1998, Saramago received the Nobel Prize for Literature, and "Blindness" was one of his works noted by the committee when announcing the award.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: A sequel titled "Seeing" was published in 2004. "Blindness" was adapted into a film of the same name in 2008.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: "Blindness" is the story of an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness afflicting nearly everyone in an unnamed city, and the social breakdown that swiftly follows. The novel follows the misfortune of a handful of unnamed characters who are among the first to be stricken with blindness, including an ophthalmologist, several of his patients, and assorted others, who are thrown together by chance. The ophthalmologist's spouse, "the doctor's wife," is inexplicably immune to the blindness. After a lengthy and traumatic quarantine in an asylum, the group bands together in a family-like unit to survive by their wits and by the good fortune that the doctor's wife has escaped the blindness. The sudden onset and unexplained origin and nature of the blindness cause widespread panic, and the social order rapidly unravels as the government attempts to contain the apparent contagion and keep order via increasingly repressive and inept measures.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: The first part of the novel follows the experiences of the central characters in the filthy, overcrowded asylum where they and other blind people have been quarantined. Hygiene, living conditions, and morale degrade horrifically in a very short period, mirroring the society outside.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: Anxiety over the availability of food, caused by delivery irregularities, acts to undermine solidarity; and lack of organization prevents the internees from fairly distributing food or chores. Soldiers assigned to guard the asylum and look after the well-being of the internees become increasingly antipathetic as one soldier after another becomes infected. The military refuses to allow basic medicine to be delivered, which ensures that a simple infection becomes deadly. Fearing an imminent escape, soldiers shoot down a crowd of internees waiting for a food delivery.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: Conditions degenerate further as an armed clique gains control over food deliveries, subjugating their fellow internees and exposing them to violent assault, rape, and deprivation. Faced with starvation, internees battle each other and burn down the asylum, only to discover that the army has abandoned the asylum, after which the protagonists join the throngs of nearly helpless blind people outside who wander the devastated city and fight one another to survive.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: The story then follows the doctor's wife, her husband, and their impromptu “family” as they attempt to survive outside, cared for largely by the doctor’s wife, who can still see (though she must hide this fact at first). At this point, the breakdown of society is near total. Law and order, social services, government, schools, etc., no longer function. Families have been separated and cannot find one another. People squat in abandoned buildings and scrounge for food. Violence, disease, and despair threaten to overwhelm human coping. The doctor and his wife and their new “family” eventually make a permanent home in the doctor's house and are establishing a new order to their lives when the blindness lifts from the city en masse just as suddenly and inexplicably as it struck.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: The doctor's wife is the only character in the novel who does not lose her sight. This phenomenon remains unexplained through the novel. Unwilling to leave her husband to be interned, she lies to the government doctors and claims to be blind. As such, she is interned with the rest of the afflicted. Once inside, she attempts to help the compound organize, but she is increasingly unable to hold back the animality of the compound. When one ward begins withholding food and demanding that the women of other wards submit to being raped in return for food, she kills the leader of their ward. Once they escape the compound, she helps her group survive in the city. The doctor's wife is the de facto leader of their small group, although in the end, she often serves their disabled needs and acts as a nurse to them.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: The doctor is an ophthalmologist stricken blind after treating a patient with what will come to be called "the white sickness". The doctor is among the first to be quarantined along with his wife. Due to his medical expertise he has a certain authority among those quarantined. However, much of the doctor's authority stems from his wife not having gone blind; she is able to see what is going on around the ward and relays what she sees to her husband. When the group from his ward finally escapes they end up travelling to and staying in the doctor and his wife's apartment. Several of the other main characters had been visiting the doctor's office when the epidemic begins to spread.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: The girl with the dark glasses is a former part-time prostitute who is struck blind while she is with a customer. She seemingly contracted the “white-blindness” while visiting the doctor due to conjunctivitis (hence the dark glasses). She is unceremoniously removed from the hotel and taken to be quarantined in the asylum. Once inside, she joins the small group of people who were contaminated at the doctor's office. When the car thief gropes her on the way to the lavatory, she kicks him with a heeled shoe – giving him a wound which will eventually lead to his death. While inside, she also takes care of the boy with the squint, whose mother is nowhere to be found. At the end of the story, she and the old man with the black eye patch become lovers.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: The old man with the black eye patch is the last person to join the first ward. He brings with him a portable transistor radio that allows the internees to listen to the news. He is also the main architect of the failed attack on the ward of hoodlums hoarding the food rations. Once the group escapes the quarantine, the old man becomes the lover of the girl with the dark glasses.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: The dog of tears is a dog that joins the small group of blind people when they leave the quarantine. While he is mostly loyal to the doctor's wife, he helps the whole group by protecting them all from packs of dogs who are becoming increasingly feral. He is called the dog of tears because he bonded to the group when he licked the tears off the face of the doctor's wife.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: The boy with the squint was a patient of the doctor's, which is most likely how he became infected. He is brought to the quarantine without his mother and soon falls in with the group in the first ward. The girl with the dark glasses assumes a motherly role for him, as she takes care of him and ensures his safety.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: After the first blind man was struck blind in traffic, a car thief brought him home and, subsequently stole his car. Soon after he went blind, the car thief and the first blind man re-encounter one another in the quarantine, where they soon come to blows. They have no time to resolve their conflict, though, since the car thief is the first internee killed by the guards. He is gunned down while trying to ask the guards for medication for his infected leg.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: The first man to go blind is struck blind in the middle of traffic, waiting at a stoplight. He is immediately taken home and then to the doctor's office, where he infects all of the other patients and the doctor. He is one of the principal members of the first ward - the ward with all of the original internees. When the epidemic is finally over, he is the first person to regain his sight.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: The wife of the first blind man goes blind soon after helping her husband to the quarantine. They are reunited by chance in the quarantine. Once inside, she also joins the first ward with the doctor and the doctor's wife. When the ward of hoodlums begins to demand that the women sleep with them in order to be fed, the first blind man's wife volunteers to go, in solidarity with the others.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: The man with the gun is the leader of the ward of hoodlums that seizes control of the food supply in the quarantine. He and his ward take the rations by force and threaten to shoot anyone who doesn't comply with their orders. This ward extorts valuables from the other internees in exchange for food and, when the "goods" (such as bracelets and watches run out) they begin to rape the women. He is later stabbed to death by the doctor's wife.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: This man is not one of those afflicted by the "white sickness"—rather he has been blind since birth. He is the only one in the ward who can read and write braille and who knows how to use a walking stick. Additionally, he is the second in command to the man with the gun in the ward of hoodlums. When the doctor's wife kills the man with the gun, the blind accountant takes the gun and tries to seize control but he is unable to rally support. He dies when one of the rape victims sets fire to the ward.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: Like most works by Saramago, "Blindness" contains many long, breathless passages in which commas take the place of periods, quotation marks, semicolons, and colons. The lack of quotation marks around dialogue means that the speakers' identities (or the fact that dialogue is occurring) may not be immediately apparent to the reader. The lack of proper character names in "Blindness" is typical of many of Saramago's novels (e.g. "All the Names"). The characters are instead referred to by descriptive appellations such as "the doctor's wife", "the car thief", or "the first blind man". Given the characters' blindness, some of their names seem ironic ("the boy with the squint" or "the girl with the dark glasses").


title: Blindness (novel)

text: The city afflicted by the blindness is never named, nor the country specified. Few definite identifiers of culture are given, which contributes an element of timelessness and universality to the novel. However, there are some signs that hint that the country is Saramago's homeland of Portugal: the main character is shown eating chouriço, a spicy sausage, and some dialogue in the original Portuguese employs the familiar "tu" second-person singular verb form (a distinction absent in most of Brazil). The church, with all its saintly images, is likely of the Catholic variety.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: Saramago wrote a sequel to "Blindness" in 2004, titled "Seeing" ("Ensaio sobre a lucidez", literal English translation "Essay on lucidity"), which has also been translated into English. The sequel novel takes place in the same country featured in "Blindness" and features several of the same nameless characters.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: An English-language film adaptation of "Blindness" was directed by Fernando Meirelles. Filming began in July 2007 and stars Mark Ruffalo as the doctor and Julianne Moore as the doctor's wife. The film opened the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: In 2007 the Drama Desk Award Winning Godlight Theatre Company staged the New York City theatrical premiere of Blindness at 59E59 Theaters. This stage version was adapted and directed by Joe Tantalo. The First Blind Man was played by Mike Roche.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: An outdoor performance adaptation by the Polish group Teatr KTO, was first presented in June 2010. It has since been performed at a number of venues, including the Old College Quad of the University of Edinburgh during the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: Shortly before his death, Saramago gave German composer Anno Schreier the rights to compose an opera based on the novel. The libretto is written in German by Kerstin Maria Pöhler. Like the German translation of the novel, the opera's title is "Die Stadt der Blinden". It saw its first performance on November 12, 2011 at the Zurich Opera House.


title: Blindness (novel)

text: In August 2020, the Donmar Warehouse produced a socially-distanced sound installation based on the novel. "BLINDNESS" was adapted by Simon Stephens and directed by Walter Meierjohann. Juliet Stevenson voiced the Doctor's Wife.


title: Callista Gingrich

text: Callista Louise Gingrich (née Bisek; March 4, 1966) is an American businesswoman, author, documentary film producer and former diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to the Holy See from 2017 to 2021. She is married to former House Speaker and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.


title: Callista Gingrich

text: Callista Louise Bisek, known as "Cally Lou" to her family, was born to Alphonse Emil Bisek and Bernita (Krause) Bisek, in Whitehall, Wisconsin. Her father worked in a packing plant and her mother was a secretary. She has Polish and Swiss ancestry. She graduated as valedictorian from Whitehall Memorial High School in 1984. A music student from childhood, Callista attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, majoring in music and becoming a member of Pi Kappa Lambda. She graduated cum laude in 1988.


title: Callista Gingrich

text: In 1988, just out of college, Gingrich accepted an internship in Washington, D.C., in the office of Republican Congressman Steve Gunderson. At the end of the internship she joined Gunderson's congressional staff where she worked until 1995. In 1995, she moved to the House Committee on Agriculture where she worked as chief clerk until 2007.


title: Callista Gingrich

text: After leaving the House Committee on Agriculture in 2007, Gingrich served as president of Gingrich Productions, a multimedia production company which she founded with her husband. They produce historical and public policy documentary films, publish books and newsletters, and make speeches, television, and radio appearances.


title: Callista Gingrich

text: Together, they hosted nine documentaries, including "The First American", "Divine Mercy: The Canonization of John Paul II", "A City Upon A Hill", "America at Risk", "Nine Days that Changed the World", "Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny", "Rediscovering God in America", "Rediscovering God in America II: Our Heritage, "and" We Have the Power". The films have sold several thousand copies.


title: Callista Gingrich

text: Gingrich authored seven children's books featuring Ellis the Elephant, including "Sweet Land of Liberty", about American exceptionalism, and "Land of the Pilgrims' Pride", about colonial America. Both were on "The New York Times" Best Seller list of Children's Picture Books. "Yankee Doodle Dandy", about the American Revolution, was released in 2013. "From Sea to Shining Sea", about the expedition of Lewis and Clark and the early years of the United States, was released in October 2014. "Christmas in America", about the history of Christmas in the United States, was released in October 2015. "Hail to the Chief", about United States presidents, was released in October 2016. "Remember the Ladies", about United States first ladies, was released in October 2017.


title: Callista Gingrich

text: Gingrich co-authored "Rediscovering God in America" with her husband, Newt Gingrich. She also co-authored a photobook, "Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny", with Newt Gingrich and Dave Bossie. Gingrich is the voice for several of her husband's audiobooks.


title: Callista Gingrich

text: President Donald Trump nominated Gingrich to be the United States Ambassador to the Holy See in May 2017, and the United States Senate confirmed the nomination on October 16, 2017. On December 22, 2017, Gingrich presented her credentials to Pope Francis and officially assumed the duties of United States Ambassador to the Holy See. She was the 11th U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See since formal relations were established in 1984 under President Ronald Reagan.


title: Callista Gingrich

text: Gingrich assumed the role of Ambassador after several instances of high-profile criticism of Donald Trump and his policies by Pope Francis and his allies. During her tenure, Gingrich focused on advancing areas of common ground between Washington and the Vatican, including defending religious freedom and combatting human trafficking. She also highlighted the role of women religious on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic and in conflict zones and helped Samaritan’s Purse bring an emergency field hospital, doctors and nurses to an area of northern Italy hit hard by COVID-19. In June 2018, Gingrich helped return a letter written by Christopher Columbus that had been stolen from the Vatican Archives.


title: Callista Gingrich

text: In June 2020, Gingrich was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Pius IX by Pope Francis, the highest distinction conferred by the Holy See on laypersons, in recognition of her contributions to the Church and society.


title: Callista Gingrich

text: As part of her husband's bid to become the Republican nominee in the 2012 presidential election, Gingrich often appeared by his side at rallies. In early 2012, Gingrich began to take a more active role in the campaign, and undertook her first campaign speaking appearances without her husband. On February 10, she appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference, giving an introduction to her husband prior to his speech. In addition, she supported his campaign through speaking appearances at Republican women's groups, meetings of Gingrich supporters, and various rallies.


title: Callista Gingrich

text: Gingrich is a long-time member of the choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. and plays French horn with the City of Fairfax Band in Fairfax, Virginia. She serves as president of the Gingrich Foundation which, among other charitable contributions, established the Newt L. and Callista L. Gingrich Scholarship to benefit instrumental music majors at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.


title: Callista Gingrich

text: Callista Bisek met Newt Gingrich in 1993 when he was House Minority Whip and she was working in the office of Congressman Steve Gunderson. Callista testified in 1999 as part of Gingrich's divorce proceedings that the couple began a six-year affair in 1993 while Newt was married to his second wife, Marianne. Newt divorced Marianne in December 1999, and on August 18, 2000, Callista and Newt were married in a private ceremony in Alexandria, Virginia. In 2002, Newt Gingrich asked the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta to annul his 19-year marriage to Marianne on the basis that she had been previously married. Callista, a lifelong Catholic, was instrumental in her husband's conversion to that faith in 2009. The Gingriches live in McLean, Virginia.