__NOTOC__ Year 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1949

January

January 1 – UN sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistan War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues to this day.

January 2 – Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.

January 4 – RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage.

January 4–February 22 – Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Nevada – winds of up to 72 mph – tens of thousands of cattle and sheep perish.

January 5 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.

January 11

* Los Angeles, California receives its first recorded snowfall.

* KDKA-TV becomes the first local, on-air television station in the US.

January 16 – Şemsettin Günaltay forms the new government of Turkey. (18 th government, last single party government of CHP)

: Beetle in U.S.]]

January 17 – The first Volkswagen Beetle to arrive in the United States, a 1948 model, is brought to New York by Dutch businessman Ben Pon. Unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sells the sample car to pay his travel expenses. Only two 1949 models will be sold in America that year, convincing Volkswagen chairman Heinrich Nordhoff that the car has no future in the U.S. (The VW Beetle goes on to become the greatest automobile phenomenon in American history.)

January 19 – The Poe Toaster first appears at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe.

January 20 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman begins his full term.

January 25

* Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA or COMECON) established by Soviet Union and other communist nations.

* The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.

* In the first Israeli election, David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister.

January 26 – Australian citizenship comes into being.

January 31 – Forces from the Communist Party of China enter Beijing.

February

February 1 – Rationing of clothes ends in Britain.

February 10 – Death of a Salesman opens in the Morosco Theatre and runs for 742 performances.

February 13 – António Óscar Carmona is re-elected president of Portugal for lack of an opposing candidate.

February 19 – Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.

February 22 – Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow, gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention.

March

March 1

* World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis retires.

* Indonesia seizes Yogyakarta from the Dutch.

March 2 – The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II under Captain James Gallagher lands in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight (it was refueled in flight 4 times).

March 17 – The Shamrock Hotel in Houston, Texas, owned by oil tycoon Glenn McCarthy, has its grand opening.

March 20 – The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Denver & Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago and Oakland, California, as the first long distance train to feature Vista Dome cars as regular equipment.

March 23 – Grant Coley Beaumont ,Wandoan Queensland Australia is born in Ipswich (QLD) General Hospital. Father Kevin Coley ,Mother Hazel Alice Beaumont (née Scaroni)

March 25 – An extensive deportation campaign is conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Soviet authorities deport more than 92,000 people from the Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union.

March 26 – The first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, conducted by legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini, and performed in concert (i.e. no scenery or costumes), is telecast by NBC, live from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center. The second half is telecast a week later. This is the only complete opera that Toscanini ever conducts on television.

March 28

* United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal resigns suddenly.

English astronomer Fred Hoyle coins the term Big Bang during a BBC Third Programme radio broadcast.

March 29 – The 21st Academy Awards ceremony is held.

March 31 – The former British colony of Newfoundland and Labrador joins Canada as its 10th province.

April

April 1

* Éire leaves the British Commonwealth and becomes the Republic of Ireland.

* The Tokyo Stock Exchange is founded.

April 4 – The North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., creating the NATO defense alliance.

April 7 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, opens on Broadway and goes on to become R&H;'s second longest-running musical. It becomes an instant classic of the musical theatre. The score's biggest hit is the song Some Enchanted Evening.

April 8 – Kathy Fiscus, 3 and 1/2 years old, dies from falling down an abandoned well in San Marino, California.

April 14 – The day the N'Ko alphabet is held to have been completed by Solomana Kante.

April 18 – Éire formally becomes the Republic of Ireland.

April 20 – The Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst (U16) goes up the Yangtze River to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of Mao's communist forces. Under heavy fire it runs aground off Rose Island. After an aborted rescue attempt on April 26 it anchors 10 miles upstream. Negotiations with the communist forces to let the ship leave drag on for weeks.

April 23 – Chinese communist troops take Nanjing.

April 27 – British Commonwealth of Nations renamed The Commonwealth.

April 28

* India issues the London Declaration, enabling it (and, thereafter, any other nation) to remain in the British Commonwealth despite becoming a republic, creating the position of 'Head of the Commonwealth', and renaming the organisation as the 'Commonwealth of Nations'.

* Former Philippine First Lady Aurora Quezon, 61, is assassinated while en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and 10 others are also killed.

April 29 – The News Review reveals that neither Selhurst College nor its headmaster H. Rochester Sneath exist.

May

May 1 – Nereid, a moon of Neptune, is discovered by Gerard P. Kuiper.

May 5 – The Council of Europe is founded by the signing of the Treaty of London.

May 9 – Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco, upon the death of his maternal grandfather Louis II.

May 11

* Israel is admitted to the United Nations as its 59th member.

* Siam officially changes its French name to "Thaïlande" (English name to "Thailand"), having officially changed its Thai name to "Prated Thai" since 1939.

May 12 – Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.

May 20

* The AFSA (predecessor of the NSA) is established.

* The Kuomintang regime declares Taiwan under martial law.

May 22 – After two months in Bethesda Naval Hospital, James Forrestal commits suicide, under circumstances that seem suspicious to many.

May 23

* The Federal Republic of Germany is established.

* EDSAC, the first stored-program computer, begins operation at Cambridge University.

June

June 2 – Transjordan becomes the Kingdom of Jordan.

June 6 – With the passage of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act by the Indian government, Mahabodhi Temple is restored to partial Buddhist control.

June 8

* Red Scare: Celebrities including Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.

* George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.

June 14 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey, becomes the first primate to enter space, on U.S. Hermes project V-2 rocket Blossom IVB, but is killed on impact at return.

June 19 – Glenn Dunnaway wins the inaugural NASCAR race at Charlotte Speedway, a 3/4 mile oval in Charlotte, North Carolina, but is disqualified due to illegal springs. Jim Roper is declared the official winner.

June 24 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, airs on NBC.

June 29

* The last U.S. troops withdraw from South Korea.

* Dock workers strike in the UK.

* Apartheid: The South African Citizenship Act suspends the granting of citizenship to British Commonwealth immigrants after 5 years and imposes a ban on mixed marriages.

July

July 11 – Pamir is the last commercial sailing ship to round Cape Horn under sail alone.

July 20 – Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their 19-month war.

July 27 – The de Havilland Comet, the Worlds First Jet-Powered Airliner, makes its first flight.

July 30 – Birth of legal aid in England and Wales.

July 31 – Captain Kerans of the HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after nightfall, under heavy fire from the Chinese People's Liberation Army on both sides of the Yangtze River, and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day.

August

August 5 – A 6.75 Richter scale earthquake in Ecuador kills 6,000 and destroys 50 towns.

August 8 – Bhutan becomes independent

August 12 – The Fourth Geneva Convention is agreed to.

August 14

* The Salvatore Giuliano Gang explodes mines under a police barracks outside Palermo, Sicily.

* A military coup in Syria ousts the president.

August 21 – Deportivo Saprissa enters Costa Rica – soccer's first division.

August 22 – The Queen Charlotte earthquake is Canada's largest earthquake since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake.

August 24 – North Atlantic Treaty Organization established.

August 28 – The last 6 surviving veterans of the American Civil War meet in Indianapolis.

August 29

* The Council of Europe meets for the first time.

* The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, code named "Joe 1". Its design imitates the American plutonium bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.

August 31 – The retreat of the Greek Democratic Army in Albania after its defeat at mount Grammos marks the end of the Greek Civil War.

September

September 5 – Howard Unruh, a World War II veteran, kills 13 neighbors in Camden, New Jersey with a souvenir Luger to become America's first single-episode mass murderer.

September 6 – Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to Germany.

September 7 – The Federal Republic of Germany is officially founded. Konrad Adenauer is the first federal chancellor.

September 9

* Albert Guay affair: A dynamite bomb destroys Canadian Pacific Airlines Douglas DC-3 in Quebec.

* Notorious World War II veteran Edwin Alonzo Boyd commits his first career bank robbery in Toronto.

September 13 – The Soviet Union vetoes United Nations membership for Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan and Portugal.

September 17 – The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives.

September 19 – The United Kingdom government devalues the pound sterling from $4.03 to $2.80, leading to many other currencies being devalued.

September 23 – U.S. Harry S. Truman announced that the USSR had the atomic bomb

September 24 – Laszlo Rajk, ex-foreign minister of Hungary, is sentenced to death.

September 29

* The First Plenary Session of the National People's Congress approves a design for the Flag of the People's Republic of China.

* Iva Toguri D'Aquino is found guilty of broadcasting for Japan as "Tokyo Rose" during World War II.

October

: People's Republic of China founded.]]

October 1 – The People's Republic of China is officially proclaimed.

October 7 – The Democratic Republic of Germany DDR is established officially

October 13 – Severe flooding hits Guatemala.

October 16 – Civil war ends in Greece with a communist surrender.

October 17 – Chinese communist troops take Guangzhou

October 27

* Chinese communist troops fail to take Kinmen in the Battle of Kuningtou; their advance towards Taiwan is halted.

* An airliner flying from Paris to New York crashes in the Azores island of São Miguel. Among the victims are violinist Ginette Neveu and French boxer Marcel Cerdan.

November

: Typhoon at Korea.]] : Sukarno, first President of Indonesia.]]

November 15 – Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte are executed for assassinating Mohandas Gandhi.

November 24 – The ski resort in Squaw Valley, California officially opens.

November 26 – The Indian Constituent Assembly adopts India's constitution .

November 27 – Indonesia is recognized.

November 28 – Winston Churchill makes a landmark speech in support of the idea of a European Union at Kingsway Hall, London.

December

December 7 – The government of the Republic of China finishes its evacuation to Taiwan, and declares Taipei its temporary capital city.

December 8 – United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) established as a UN agency.

December 10 – Robert Menzies elected prime minister of Australia.

December 14 – Traicho Kostov, ex-vice prime minister of Bulgaria, is sentenced to death.

December 15 – A typhoon strikes a fishing fleet off Korea, killing several thousand.

December 16 – Sukarno is elected president of the Republic of Indonesia.

December 17 – Burma recognizes the People's Republic of China.

December 27 – Queen Juliana of the Netherlands grants Indonesia sovereignty.

December 30 – India recognizes the People's Republic of China.

Undated

The Malta Labour Party is founded.

The Vatican announces that bones uncovered in its subterranean catacombs could be the apostle Peter; 19 years later, Pope Paul VI announces confirmation that the bones belong to this first saint.

The first 20 mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun prototypes are completed.

Samuel Putnam publishes his new translation of Don Quixote, the first in what we would consider modern English. It is instantly acclaimed and, in 2008, is still in print.

1949 was the first year in which no African-American was lynched in the USA.

Joseph Stalin launches a savage verbal attack on Soviet Jews, accusing them of being pro-Western and antisocialist.

Ongoing

Marshall Plan

First Indochina War

Births

January

January 1 – Vehbi Akdağ, Turkish wrestler

January 2 – Christopher Durang, American playwright

January 3 – Sylvia Likens, American murder victim (d. 1965)

January 7 – Chavo Guerrero, Sr., professional wrestler

January 8 – Wolfgang Puck, Austrian chef

January 10

* George Foreman, American boxer

* Linda Lovelace, American actress (d. 2002)

January 12

* Haruki Murakami, Japanese author

* Wayne Wang, Hong Kong-born film director

January 13 – Brandon Tartikoff, American television executive (d. 1997)

January 14 – Lawrence Kasdan, American director and screenwriter

January 16 – Caroline Munro, English actress and model

January 17 – Andy Kaufman, American comedian and actor (d. 1984)

January 18 – Philippe Starck, French designer

January 19

* Robert Palmer, English singer (d. 2003)

* Dennis Taylor, Irish snooker player

January 20 – Göran Persson, former Prime Minister of Sweden

January 22 – Steve Perry, American rock singer (Journey)

January 24 – John Belushi, American actor and comedian (d. 1982)

January 28 – Gregg Popovich, American basketball coach

January 30 – Peter Agre, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

January 31

* Johan Derksen, Dutch footballer and sports journalist

* Ken Wilber, American philosopher

February

February 2

* Brent Spiner, American actor

* Duncan Bannatyne, Scottish entrepreneur

February 3 – Hennie Kuiper, Dutch cyclist

February 4 – Rasim Delic, Bosnian military chief of staff and war criminal (d. 2010)

February 6 – Jim Sheridan, Irish film director

February 7

* Joe English, American drummer

* Alan Lancaster, English bassist

February 8 – Brooke Adams, American actress

February 9 – Judith Light, American actress

February 10

* Michael Weiss, jazz pianist and composer

* Maxime Le Forestier, French singer

February 15 – Ken Anderson, American NFL player

February 16 – Lyn Paul, English singer

February 17 – Dennis Green, American football coach

February 18 – Gary Ridgway, American serial killer

February 19 – Dan Bunten, American computer game designer (d. 1998)

February 20 – Ivana Trump, Czech businesswoman

February 21 – Ronnie Hellström, Swedish footballer

February 22 – Niki Lauda, Austrian race car driver

February 25 – Ric Flair, American professional wrestler

March

March 2

* Eddie Money, American rock guitarist and singer

* Gates McFadden, American actress and choreographer

* JPR Williams, Welsh rugby player

March 3 – Jesse Jefferson, American baseball player

March 6

* Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan

* Martin Buchan, Scottish footballer

March 7 – Ghulam Nabi Azad, Indian politician

March 9 – Tapani Kansa, Finnish singer

March 10 – Larry Wall, American computer programmer

March 12

* Rob Cohen, American film director, producer and writer

* Natalia Kuchinskaya, Soviet gymnast

March 13 – Julia Migenes, American soprano

March 16

* Elliott Murphy, American singer-songwriter

* Erik Estrada, Puerto Rican actor

* Victor Garber, Canadian actor (Godspell)

March 17

* Patrick Duffy, American actor

* Pat Rice, Irish footballer and football manager

March 18 – Alex Higgins, Irish snooker player (d. 2010)

March 19 – Hirofumi Hirano, Japanese politician and Chief Cabinet Secretary

March 22 – Fanny Ardant, French actress

March 23 – Ric Ocasek, American rock musician (The Cars)

March 24 – Nick Lowe, English musician

March 26

* Patrick Süskind, German writer

* Vicki Lawrence, American comedienne and game show hostess

March 29 – Michael Brecker, American jazz musician (d. 2007)

March 30

* Marcia Ball, American blues musician

* Lene Lovich, American singer

* Naomi Sims, American model and businesswoman

* Elijah Harper, Canadian Aboriginal activist

April

April 1

* Gérard Mestrallet, French businessman

* Sammy Nelson, Irish footballer

* Gil Scott-Heron, American musician and composer

April 3 – Richard Thompson, English musician and songwriter

April 6 – Horst Ludwig Störmer, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

April 7 – John Oates, American rock singer and guitarist (Hall & Oates)

April 8 – Brenda Russell, American-Canadian singer, songwriter and keyboardist (Piano in The Dark)

April 10 – Daniel Mangeas, French bicycle commentator

April 14 – John Shea, American actor

April 15

* Alla Pugacheva, Russian musical performer

* Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm, Polish born writer

April 16 – Sandy Hawley, Canadian jockey

April 18 – Geoff Bodine, American race car driver

April 19 – Sergey Nikolayevich Volkov, Russian figure skater (d. 1990)

April 20

* Jessica Lange, American actress

* Veronica Cartwright, English-born actress

April 21 – Patti Lupone, American actress

April 23 – Joyce DeWitt, American actress (Three's Company)

April 24 – Veronique Sanson, French singer and songwriter

April 28 – Bruno Kirby, American actor (d. 2006)

May

May 2 – Alan Titchmarsh, English gardener

May 3 – Leopoldo Luque, Argentine soccer player

May 4 – John Force, American race car driver

May 9 – Billy Joel, American singer-songwriter and pianist

May 13 – Zoë Wanamaker, English-American actress

May 18

* Rick Wakeman, English rock musician and songwriter (Yes)

* Bill Wallace, Canadian rock musician (The Guess Who)

May 19 – Archie Manning, American football player

May 20 – Dave Thomas, Canadian actor and comedian (SCTV)

May 24 – Tomaž Pisanski, Slovenian mathematician

May 26

* Philip Michael Thomas, American actor (Miami Vice)

* Hank Williams, Jr., American country singer

May 29 – Francis Rossi, English rock guitarist/singer (Status Quo)

May 31 – Tom Berenger, American actor (Platoon)

June

June 2 – Heather Couper, British astronomer

June 4 – Mark B. Cohen, Pennsylvania legislative leader

June 8 – Emanuel Ax, Polish-born pianist

June 13 – Ann Druyan, American popular science writer

June 14 – Harry Turtledove, American historian and novelist

June 15 – Jim Varney, American actor (Ernest Goes to Camp) (d. 2000)

June 17 – Andrei Fursenko, Russian politician, scientist and businessman

June 18

* Lech Kaczyński, President of Poland (d. 2010)

* Jarosław Kaczyński, Polish Prime Minister (2006–2007)

* Prince Lincoln Thompson, Jamaican musician (d. 1999)

June 19 – Hassan Shehata, Egyptian footballer and coach

June 21 – Jane Urquhart, Canadian author

June 22

* Alan Osmond, American pop singer

* Meryl Streep, American actress (Kramer vs. Kramer)

June 25 – Kene Holliday, American actor

June 27 – Vera Wang, American fashion designer

July

July 2 – David Eaton, American composer/conductor/producer

July 3

* Jan Smithers, American actress

* Johnnie Wilder, Jr., American vocalist (d. 2006)

July 7 – Shelley Duvall, American actress (Popeye)

July 11

* Ingrid Newkirk, animal rights activist

* Émerson Leão, Brazilian footballer

July 15

* Carl Bildt, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs, former Prime Minister of Sweden

* Trevor Horn, British singer and producer

July 17 – Charlie Steiner, American sportscaster

July 22

* Alan Menken, American composer

* Lasse Viren, Finnish long-distance runner

July 26

* Roger Meddows-Taylor, English rock musician (Queen)

* Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai businessman and former Prime Minister

August

August 2 – Fernando Collor de Mello, former President of Brazil

August 4 – John Riggins, American football player

August 6 – Alan Campbell, Northern Irish clergyman

August 7 – Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze

August 12

* Mark Knopfler, British rock guitarist (Dire Straits)

* Fernando Collor de Mello, President of Brazil

August 15 – Beverly Lynn Burns, American pilot, first woman in the world to captain the Boeing 747

August 20 – Philip Lynott, Irish rock musician (d. 1986)

August 21 – Loretta Devine, American actress

August 23

* Shelley Long, American actress (Cheers)

* Rick Springfield, Australian rock singer and actor

August 25

* Martin Amis, English novelist

* Gene Simmons, American rock musician (Kiss)

August 28 – Svetislav Pešić, Serbian basketball player and coach

August 31

* Richard Gere, American actor

* H. David Politzer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

September

September 7

* Lee McGeorge Durrell, American author, television presenter, and zookeeper

* Gloria Gaynor, American singer

September 9

* Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, current President of Indonesia

* Joe Theismann, American football player

September 10 – Bill O'Reilly, American conservative radio and television commentator

September 13 – John W. Henry, American foreign exchange advisor, Boston Red Sox owner

September 14 – Eikichi Yazawa, Japanese singer

September 15 – Joe Barton, American politician

September 16 – Ed Begley, Jr. American actor and enviromentalist (St. Elsewhere)

September 18

* Mo Mowlam, British politician (d. 2005)

* Peter Shilton, English goalkeeper

September 19 – Twiggy Lawson, English model

September 23 – Bruce Springsteen, American singer and songwriter

September 25 – Inshan Ali, West Indian cricketer (d. 1995)

September 26 – Jane Smiley, American novelist

September 27 – Mike Schmidt, American baseball player

October

October 1 – Isaac Bonewits, American author and occultist

October 2

* Richard Hell, American musician and writer

* Annie Leibovitz, American photographer

October 4 – Armand Assante, American actor

October 7 – Ronnie Mund, American television personality

October 8 – Sigourney Weaver, American actress

October 12

* Carlos the Jackal, Venezuelan-born mercenary

* Stan Hansen, American professional wrestler

October 14

* Katy Manning, Dr Who actress

* Katha Pollitt, American writer

October 17 – Bill Hudson, American musician

October 20 – Valeri Borzov, Ukrainian athlete

October 21 – Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel

October 22 – Arsène Wenger, French football (soccer) manager

October 26 – Antonio Carpio, Filipino Supreme Court jurist

November

November 2 – Simon Augustini, Albanian politician

November 3 – Larry Holmes, American World Heavyweight Boxing Champion

November 5

* Armin Shimerman, American actor

* Jimmie Spheeris, American singer-songwriter (d. 1984)

November 6 – Nigel Havers, British actor

November 7

* Aiswarya, Queen of Nepal (d. 2001)

* Judi Bari, American environmental activist (d. 1997)

November 8 – Bonnie Raitt, American country singer and guitarist

November 15 – David Rubinstein, American pianist and composer

November 19 – Ahmad Rashad, American sportscaster and television personality

November 22 – Shaun Garnett, English footballer and coach

November 24 – Nick Ainger, British politician

November 25 – Kerry James O'Keeffe, Australian cricketer and commentator

November 26

* Juanin Clay, American actress (d. 1995)

* Shlomo Artzi, Israeli singer

November 28

* Alexander Godunov, Russian-born dancer and actor (d. 1995)

* Paul Shaffer, Canadian-American musician (Late Night With David Letterman)

November 29

* Jerry Lawler, American professional wrestler and commentator

* Stan Rogers, Canadian musician (d. 1983)

* Garry Shandling, American comedian

December

December 1

* Kurt Schmoke, American Dean, Howard Law School, Mayor of Baltimore

* Sebastian Pinera, President of Chile

December 3 – John Akii-Bua, Ugandan hurdler (d. 1997)

December 4

* Jeff Bridges, American actor

* Pamela Stephenson, New Zealand-born comedienne, actress, and singer

December 7

* Tom Waits, American singer, composer, and actor

* Cathy Wayne, Australian pop entertainer (d. 1969)

December 8 – Mary Gordon, American writer

December 12 – Rajinikanth, Indian actor

December 13

* Robert Lindsay, English actor

* Randy Owen, American country lead vocalist, rhythm guitar player (Alabama)

* Tom Verlaine, American rock singer/guitarist (Television)

December 14 – Bill Buckner, American baseball player

December 15 – Don Johnson, American actor

December 16 – Billy Gibbons, American guitarist (ZZ Top)

December 17 – Paul Rodgers, British rock singer

December 19 – Sebastian, Danish musician

December 20 – Claudia Jennings, American model (d. 1979)

December 22

* Maurice Gibb, British rock musician (The Bee Gees) (d. 2003), and his twin brother:

* Robin Gibb, British rock musician (The Bee Gees)

December 24 – Randy Neugebauer, American politician

December 25

* Simone Bittencourt de Oliveira, Brazilian singer

* Sissy Spacek, American actress (Carrie)

December 25 – Joe Louis Walker, American musician

December 26 – José Ramos-Horta, President of East Timor, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

date unknown

* Suthep Po-ngam, Thai comedian, actor, film director and screenwriter

* Mu Tiezhu, Chinese basketball player and coach (d. 2008)

Deaths

January–March

January 6 – Victor Fleming, American director (b. 1883)

January 11 – Nelson Doubleday, American publisher (b. 1889)

January 14

* Harry Stack Sullivan, American psychiatrist (b. 1892)

* Joaquín Turina, Spanish composer (b. 1882)

January 28 – Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (b. 1908)

February 1 – Herbert Stothart, American composer (b. 1885)

February 12 – Imam Hassan al Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (b. 1906)

February 17 – Ellery Harding Clark, American athlete (b. 1874)

February 21 – Tan Malaka, Indonesian nationalist activist and communist leader (b. 1894)

March 7 – Bradbury Robinson, American who threw the first forward pass in American football history in 1906 (b. 1884)

March 11 – Henri Giraud, French general (b. 1879)

March 17 – Felix Bressart, German-American actor (b. 1892)

March 25 – Jack Kapp, president of the U.S. branch of Decca Records (b. 1901)

March 28 – Grigoraş Dinicu, Romanian composer (b. 1889)

March 30

* Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1884)

* Prince Harald of Denmark (b. 1876)

April–June

April 6 – Seymour Hicks, British actor (b. 1871)

April 8 – Kathy Fiscus, girl who became famous after falling down a well in San Marino, California (b. 1945)

April 15 – Wallace Beery, American actor (b. 1885)

April 18 – Will Hay, English comedian and actor (b. 1888)

April 19 – Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (b. 1877)

April 22 – Charles B. Middleton, American actor (b. 1874)

April 28 – Aurora Quezon, First Lady of the Philippines (shot) (b. 1888)

May 6 – Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)

May 9 – Louis II, Prince of Monaco (b. 1870)

May 22

* James Forrestal, U.S. Secretary of Navy and Defense (suicide) (b. 1892)

* Klaus Mann, German writer (suicide) (b. 1906)

May 23 – Jan Frans De Boever, Belgian painter (b. 1872)

May 27 – Robert Ripley, American creator of Ripley's Believe It or Not! (b. 1890)

June 10 – Sigrid Undset, Norwegian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)

June 14 – Russell Doubleday, American author and publisher (b. 1872)

June 19 – Syed Zafarul Hasan, Indian/Pakistani Muslim philosopher (b. 1885)

June 25 – Buck Freeman, American baseball player (b. 1871)

July–August

July 9 – Fritz Hart, English-born composer (b. 1874)

July 12 – Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland (b. 1860)

July 18 – Vítězslav Novák, Czech composer (b. 1870)

July 26 – Linda Arvidson, American actress (b. 1884)

August 9

* Gustavus M. Blech, German-American physician and surgeon (b. 1870)

* Harry Davenport, American actor (b. 1866)

* George Edward MacKenzie Skues, British inventor of nymph fly fishing (b. 1858)

August 16 – Margaret Mitchell, American writer (Gone With The Wind) (b. 1900)

August 17 – Gregorio Perfecto, Filipino jurist & politician (b. 1891)

August 18 – Paul Mares, American musician (b. 1900)

August 23 – Domingo Díaz Arosemena, President of Panama (b. 1875)

August 30 – Arthur Fielder, English cricketer (b. 1877)

September–October

September 7 – José Clemente Orozco, Mexican painter (b. 1883)

September 8 – Richard Strauss, German composer (Also Sprach Zarathustra) (b. 1864)

September 10 – Wiley Rutledge, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1894)

September 13 – August Krogh, Danish zoophysiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1874)

September 14 – Gottfried Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen, German Resistance figure (b. 1901)

September 18 – Frank Morgan, American actor, The Wizard of Oz (b. 1890)

September 19

* Will Cuppy, American humorist (b. 1884)

* George Shiels, Irish writer (b. 1886)

* Nikolaos Skalkottas, Greek composer (b. 1901)

September 20 – Richard Dix, American actor (b. 1893)

September 22 – Sam Wood, American director (b. 1883)

October 1 – Buddy Clark, American singer (b. 1911)

October 14 – Fritz Leiber, Sr., American actor (b. 1882)

October 15 – Elmer Clifton, American actor (b. 1890)

October 27

* Marcel Cerdan, French boxer (plane crash) (b. 1916)

* Ginette Neveu, French violinist (plane crash) (b. 1919)

October 31 – Edward Stettinius, Jr., U.S. Secretary of State (b. 1900)

November–December

November – Maria Josepha Sophia de Iturbide, head of the Imperial House of Mexico (b. 1872)

November 2

* Jerome F. Donovan, American politician (b. 1872)

* William Desmond, Irish actor (b. 1878)

November 3 – Solomon R. Guggenheim, American philanthropist (b. 1861)

November 5 – Abdolhossein Hazhir, Prime Minister of Iran (b. 1899)

November 15 (executed):

* Nathuram Godse, assassin of Mohandas Gandhi(b. 1910)

* Narayan Apte, Hindu activist, Godse's accomplice (b. 1911)

November 25 – Bill Robinson, American dancer (b. 1878)

November 30 – Irene Vanbrugh, English actress (b. 1872)

December 3 – Maria Ouspenskaya, Russian actress (b. 1876)

December 6 – Leadbelly, American blues musician (b. 1888)

December 11 – Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya, Indian philosopher (b. 1875)

December 16 – Sidney Olcott, Canadian film director (b. 1873)

December 28 – Hervey Allen, American author (b. 1889)

December 28 – Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete (b. 1910)

December 31 – Raimond Valgre, Estonian composer and musician (b. 1913)

Nobel Prizes

Physics – Yukawa Hideki

Chemistry – William Francis Giauque

Medicine – Walter Rudolf Hess, Antonio Caetano De Abreu Freire Egas Moniz

Literature – William Faulkner

Peace – John Boyd Orr

References

(right), who was a great fan of Tucker, in 1958 after Tucker's Covent Garden debut. This was the first and only time they met.]]

Richard Tucker (August 28, 1913–January 8, 1975) was an American operatic tenor.

Early life

Tucker was born Rivn (Rubin) Ticker in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of Romanian immigrants from Bessarabia. His father, Shmul (Sam) Ticker, and mother Fanya-Tsipa (Fanny) Ticker had already adopted the surname "Tucker" by the time their son entered first grade. His musical aptitude was discovered early, and was nurtured under the tutelage of Samuel Weisser at the Tifereth Israel synagogue in lower Manhattan. As a teenager, Tucker's interests alternated between athletics, at which he excelled during his high-school years, and singing for weddings and bar mitzvahs as a cantorial student. Eventually, he progressed from a part-time cantor at Temple Emanuel in Passaic, New Jersey, to full-time cantorships at Temple Adath Israel in the Bronx and, in June 1943, at the large and prestigious Brooklyn Jewish Center. Until then, Tucker's income derived mainly from his weekly commissions as a salesman for the Reliable Silk Company, in Manhattan's garment district.

On February 11, 1936, Tucker married Sara Perelmuth, the youngest child (and only daughter) of Levi and Anna Perelmuth, proprietors of the Grand Mansion, a kosher banquet hall in Manhattan's Lower East Side. At the time of Tucker's wedding to their daughter, the Perelmuths' musically-gifted eldest son, Yakob, had progressed from a part-time jazz violinist and lyric tenor vocalist to a national radio star who had already set his sights on an operatic career. Under the management of Sol Hurok, the eldest of the Perelmuth offspring, now renamed Jan Peerce, reached his goal when the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera Company, Edward Johnson, offered him a contract after an impressive audition. When Peerce made his much-acclaimed debut at the Met on November 29, 1941, his sister and her new husband were living with Peerce's parents while Tucker was trying to make a success as the sole proprietor (and only employee) of a silk-lining sales business while also officiating at Temple Adath Israel in the Bronx.

Operatic career

Although Peerce remained skeptical of Tucker's ability and did not overtly encourage his operatic ambitions (which led, unfortunately, to a permanent rift between the two brothers-in-law and their families), Peerce did play a role in introducing Tucker to conductor and arranger Zavel Zilberts, who coached Tucker until he came to the attention of Paul Althouse, a notable tenor whose operatic career had begun during the last years of Enrico Caruso's long reign at the Met. Althouse became Tucker's only teacher. In a rare moment of the pupil disregarding the teacher's advice, Tucker entered the Metropolitan Opera "Auditions of the Air" in 1941, but did not win. When Met general manager Edward Johnson came unannounced to the Brooklyn Jewish Center to hear Tucker sing, however, Johnson offered the tenor another audition and soon awarded him a contract. On January 25, 1945, under the baton of Emil Cooper, Tucker made his debut as Enzo in La Gioconda. The debut, one of the most successful in the annals of the Met, heralded Tucker's 30-year career as the leading American tenor of the postwar era.

(c.1950)]] Two years after his Metropolitan debut, Tucker was invited to reprise his success in La Gioconda at the cavernous amphitheater in Verona, Italy, for which the retired tenor and Verona native, Giovanni Zenatello, had also engaged a young, overweight, unknown Greek-American soprano named Maria Callas. Contemporary reviews of the 1947 Verona performances of La Gioconda verify that Tucker's success considerably surpassed Callas's, a fact overshadowed by the soprano's eventual worldwide acclaim. Two years later, in 1949, Tucker's rapidly ascending career was confirmed when Arturo Toscanini, the most celebrated Italian conductor of the twentieth century, engaged Tucker to sing the role of Radames for the NBC simulcasts of a complete performance of Aida opposite Herva Nelli in the title role, an event heard and seen on radio and television, and eventually released on LP, CD, VHS, and DVD. This was the first full opera performance ever broadcast on national television.

In the ensuing years, Tucker's ample lyric voice evolved into a lirico-spinto voice of near-dramatic proportions. If his signature stylistic devices, especially his affection for Italianate sobs, were not always lauded by the critics, the distinctive timbre of his ringing voice, his unfailingly secure technique, impeccable diction, and native-sounding pronunciation were universally acclaimed in every role he undertook. A profusion of legendary tenors — including Jussi Björling, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Mario del Monaco and, eventually, Jan Peerce) came and went during the years in which (Sir) Rudolf Bing led the Metropolitan. Tucker remained a dominant tenor and steadily took on new challenges. Although an indifferent actor throughout most of his career, Tucker made a strong dramatic impression with veteran critics when he reconceived the role of Canio in Pagliacci under the direction of Franco Zeffirelli in January 1970. The tenor was nearly 60 years old at the time.

Before and after each Metropolitan Opera season, Tucker appeared on concert stages through the U.S. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, his appearances in a series of "Puccini Night" open-air concerts at the landmark Lewisohn Stadium in New York City, under the direction of Alfredo Antonini, often attracted audiences of over 13,000 enthusiastic guests. Throughout his opera career, Tucker also officiated as a cantor during Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and other sacred events in the Jewish liturgical calendar. A devoted but strict patriarch, Tucker oversaw the religious development of his three sons (Berel [Barry] Tucker, b. 1938; David N. Tucker, M.D., b. 1941; and Henry R. Tucker, b. 1946), and arranged for them to sing with him on a popular television program hosted by Sam Levenson in the early 1950s.

Tucker had a long-running contract with Columbia Records, and eventually recorded for RCA Victor as well. But, measured against the sheer length of his career, Tucker's commercial recordings are proportionately sparse and inadequately convey the power and roundness of his voice, according to most of his artistic colleagues. Many of his commercial recordings, as well as private recordings of his concerts and broadcast performances, have been digitally remastered and are available in CD and online downloadable formats. A number of his national television appearances on "'The Voice of Firestone'" and "'The Bell Telephone Hour'" were preserved in kinescope and videotape form, and have been reissued in VHS and DVD format. Regrettably, a complete video performance of the tenor's searing portrayal of Canio in the Zeffirelli production of Pagliacci, which was to be paired with Cavalleria rusticana featuring Tucker's friend and tenor colleague Franco Corelli as Turiddu, was never telecast and has not been issued commercially, for legal reasons.

Although Tucker's well-crafted public image was that of a competitive, overwhelmingly self-confident performer, his offstage demeanor was that of an inherently private but unfailingly considerate man, especially where fans and colleagues were concerned. Never prone to looking back upon his career, Tucker always lived in the moment and maintained a boyish outlook on life. He also displayed a propensity for playing pranks on some of his fellow singers, often provoking a smile at some inappropriate moment in a performance. Once, during a broadcast of La forza del destino with baritone Robert Merrill, Tucker sneaked a nude photograph into a small trunk that Merrill opened onstage. In later years, Merrill described his tenor friend as "an original, right out of the pages of a Damon Runyon story."

Ironically, Tucker was touring with Merrill in a national series of joint concerts when, on January 8, 1975, he died of a heart attack while resting before an evening performance in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is the only person whose funeral has been held on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. In tribute to his legacy at the Met, the city of New York designated the park adjacent to Lincoln Center as Richard Tucker Square.

Legacy

Shortly after his death, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation was established by his widow, sons, colleagues, and friends, "to perpetuate the memory of America's greatest tenor through projects in aid of gifted young singers." In the intervening decades, the Richard Tucker Foundation, whose annual televised concerts have been hosted by Luciano Pavarotti and other opera stars of the past and present, has consistently awarded the largest vocal-music grants and scholarships. Recipients include sopranos Renée Fleming, Deborah Voigt, tenors Richard Leech, Stephen Costello, James Valenti and other opera singers of international renown.

Audio examples

Richard Tucker in La fanciulla del West

Renata Tebaldi and Richard Tucker in a scene from Puccini's Manon Lescaut

Richard Tucker in operetta

References

External links

.

Biography

Richard Tucker Music Foundation - "Dedicated to the support and advancement of the careers of promising and talented American opera singers"

Discography (Capon's Lists of Opera Recordings)

History of the Tenor - Sound Clips and Narration

Category:1913 births Category:1975 deaths Category:American male singers Category:American opera singers Category:Operatic tenors Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:People from Brooklyn Category:Hazzans Category:Jewish classical musicians Category:American people of Romanian-Jewish descent Category:American musicians of Romanian descent Category:American Jews Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Jewish opera singers

Imagesize	230px
Caption	c. 1945
Alt	A middle-aged Caucasian male wearing a dark business suit and wireframe glasses is depicted smilingly pensively at the camera in a black-and-white photo.
Order	33rd President of the United States
Term start	April 12, 1945
Term end	January 20, 1953
Vicepresident	None (1945–1949) Alben Barkley (1949–1953)
Predecessor	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Successor	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Birth date	May 08, 1884
Birth place	Lamar, Missouri
Death date	December 26, 1972
Death place	Kansas City, Missouri
Order2	34th Vice President of the United States
Term start2	January 20, 1945
Term end2	April 12, 1945
President2	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Predecessor2	Henry A. Wallace
Successor2	Alben W. Barkley
Order3	United States Senator from Missouri
Term start3	January 3, 1935
Term end3	January 17, 1945
Predecessor3	Roscoe C. Patterson
Successor3	Frank P. Briggs
Party	Democratic
Spouse	Bess Wallace Truman
Children	Mary Margaret Truman
Occupation	Small businessman (haberdasher), farmer
Religion	Southern Baptist
Signature	Harry S Truman Signature.svg
Signature alt	Cursive signature in ink
Rank	Major (World War I) Colonel (United States Army Reserve)
Branch	Missouri National Guard United States Army United States Army Reserve (1920–1953)
Serviceyears	1905–1911 1917–1919
Commands	Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, 60th Brigade, 35th Infantry Division
Battles	World War I

Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–1953). As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice-president and the 34th Vice President of the United States, he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his historic fourth term.

During World War I, Truman served in combat in France as an artillery officer in his National Guard unit. After the war he became part of the Democratic Party political machine of Tom Pendergast in Kansas City. He was elected a county official and in 1934 United States senator. After he gained national prominence as head of the wartime Truman Committee, Truman replaced vice president Henry A. Wallace as Roosevelt's running mate in 1944.

Truman faced many challenges in domestic affairs. The disorderly postwar reconversion of the economy of the United States was marked by severe shortages, numerous strikes, and the passage of the Taft–Hartley Act over his veto. He confounded all predictions to win election in 1948, helped by his famous Whistle Stop Tour of rural America. After his election he was able to pass only one of the proposals in his Fair Deal program. He used executive orders to end racial discrimination in the armed forces and created loyalty checks that dismissed thousands of communist supporters from office. Truman's presidency was also eventful in foreign affairs, with the defeat of Nazi and his decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan, the founding of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, the Truman Doctrine to contain communism, the beginning of the Cold War, the Berlin Airlift, the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Chinese Civil War, and the Korean War. Corruption in Truman's administration, which was linked to certain members in the cabinet and senior White House staff, was a central issue in the 1952 presidential campaign and helped cause Adlai Stevenson, Truman's successor for the Democratic nomination for president, to lose to Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election.

Truman, in sharp contrast to the imperious Roosevelt who kept personal control of all major decisions, was a folksy, unassuming president who relied on his cabinet. He popularized such phrases as "The buck stops here" and "If you can't stand the heat, you better get out of the kitchen." His approval ratings in the polls started out very high, then steadily sank until he was one of the most unpopular men to leave the White House. Popular and scholarly assessments of his presidency eventually became more positive after his retirement from politics. Truman's legendary upset victory in 1948 over Thomas E. Dewey is routinely invoked by underdog presidential candidates.

Personal life

Harry S. Truman was born on May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri, the oldest child of John Anderson Truman (1851–1914) and Martha Ellen Young Truman (1852–1947). His parents chose the name Harry after his mother's brother, Harrison Young (1846–1916), Harry's uncle. His parents chose "S" as his "middle name" in an attempt to please both of Harry's grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young. The initial did not actually stand for anything, a common practice among the Scots-Irish. A brother, John Vivian (1886–1965), soon followed, along with sister Mary Jane Truman (1889–1978).

In his autobiography, Truman stated, "I was named for ... Harrison Young. I was given the diminutive Harry and, so that I could have two initials in my given name, the letter S was added. My Grandfather Truman's name was Anderson Shippe [sometimes also spelled 'Shipp'] Truman and my Grandfather Young's name was Solomon Young, so I received the S for both of them." He once joked that the S was a name, not an initial, and it should not have a period, but official documents and his presidential library all use a period.

John Truman was a farmer and livestock dealer. The family lived in Lamar until Harry was ten months old. They then moved to a farm near Harrisonville, then to Belton, and in 1887 to his grandparents' 600 acre (240 ha) farm in Grandview. When Truman was six, his parents moved the family to Independence, so he could attend the Presbyterian Church Sunday School. Truman did not attend a traditional school until he was eight.

As a young boy, Truman had three main interests: music, reading, and history, all encouraged by his mother, to whom he was very close. As president he solicited political as well as personal advice from her. He got up at five every morning to practice the piano, which he studied twice a week until he was fifteen. Truman was a page at the 1900 Democratic National Convention at Convention Hall in Kansas City.

After graduating from Independence High School (now William Chrisman High School) in 1901, Truman worked as a timekeeper on the Santa Fe Railroad, sleeping in "hobo camps" near the rail lines; he then worked at a series of clerical jobs. He worked briefly in the mail room of the Kansas City Star. Truman decided not to join the International Typographical Union. He returned to the Grandview farm in 1906 where he remained until entering the army in 1917. During this period he courted Bess Wallace and proposed to her in 1911. She turned him down, and Truman said he wanted to make more money than a farmer before he proposed again.

World War I

Truman enlisted in the Missouri Army National Guard in 1905, and served until 1911. At his physical in 1905, his eyesight had been an unacceptable 20/50 in the right eye and 20/40 in the left. Reportedly, he passed by secretly memorizing the eye chart.

With the onset of American participation in World War I, Truman rejoined the Guard. Before going to France, he was sent to Camp Doniphan, near Lawton, Oklahoma for training. He ran the camp canteen with Edward Jacobson, a Kansas City clothing store clerk. At Ft. Sill he also met Lieutenant James M. Pendergast, nephew of Thomas Joseph (T.J.) Pendergast, a Kansas City politician. Both men were to have a profound influence on Truman's later life.

Truman became an officer, and then battery commander in an artillery regiment in France. His unit was Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, 60th Brigade, 35th Infantry Division, known for its discipline problems. During a sudden attack by the Germans in the Vosges Mountains, the battery started to disperse; Truman ordered them back into position using profanities that he had "learned while working on the Santa Fe railroad." On November 11, 1918 his artillery unit fired some of the last shots of World War I into German positions after the armistice was signed at 5am but before the ceasefire took effect at 11am. In a letter he wrote, "It is a shame we can't go in and devastate Germany and cut off a few of the Dutch kids' hands and feet and scalp a few of their old men". The war was a transformative experience that brought out Truman's leadership qualities; he later rose to the rank of Colonel in the Army Reserves, and his war record made possible his later political career in Missouri. The couple had one child, Mary Margaret (February 17, 1924 – January 29, 2008).

Truman was the only president who served after 1897 without a college degree: poor eyesight prevented him from applying to West Point (his childhood dream). When his high school buddies went off to the state university in 1901, Truman instead enrolled in a local business school, but only lasted a semester. In 1923-25 he took night courses toward a law degree at the Kansas City Law School (now the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law), but dropped out after losing his government job.

A month before Truman married, he and Jacobson opened a haberdashery at 104 West 12th Street in downtown Kansas City. After a few successful years, the store went bankrupt during the recession of 1921. Jacobson and Truman remained close friends, and Jacobson's advice to Truman on Zionism later played a critical role in the US government's decision to recognize Israel.

Freemasonry

On February 9, 1909, Harry Truman was initiated into Freemasonry in the Belton Lodge, Missouri. In 1911 he helped establish the Grandview Lodge, and he served as its first Worshipful Master. In 1940, Harry Truman was elected the 97th Grand Master of the Masons of Missouri. In 1945, he was made a 33° Sovereign Grand Inspector General and an Honorary Member of the supreme council at the Supreme Council A.A.S.R. Southern Jurisdiction Headquarters in Washington D.C. In 1959, he was awarded the 50 year award.

Hereditary memberships

Truman was a member of Sons of the Revolution and a card-carrying member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Two of his relatives were Confederate soldiers. Truman's grandmother Harriet (Gregg) Young was put in a "prison camp" due to Gen. Thomas Ewing's General Order#11 and his mother remembered her home being burned as a child, following Order #11.

Politics

Jackson County judge

In 1922, with the help of the Kansas City Democratic machine led by boss Tom Pendergast, Truman was elected as a judge of the County Court of the eastern district of Jackson County—an administrative, not judicial, position similar to county commissioners elsewhere. Though Truman at times expressed anger towards Jews in his diaries, his business partner and close friend Edward Jacobson was Jewish. Tales of the abuse, violence, and persecution suffered by many African American veterans upon their return from World War II infuriated Truman, and were a major factor in his decision to issue Executive Order 9981, in July 1948, to back civil rights initiatives and require equal opportunity in the armed forces.

He was not reelected in 1924, but in 1926 was elected the presiding judge for the court, and was reelected in 1930. In 1930 Truman coordinated the "Ten Year Plan," which transformed Jackson County and the Kansas City skyline with new public works projects, including an extensive series of roads, construction of a new Wight and Wight-designed County Court building, and the dedication of a series of 12 Madonna of the Trail monuments honoring pioneer women.

In 1933 Truman was named Missouri's director for the Federal Re-Employment program (part of the Civil Works Administration) at the request of Postmaster General James Farley as payback to Pendergast for delivering the Kansas City vote to Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. The appointment confirmed Pendergast's control over federal patronage jobs in Missouri and marked the zenith of his power. It was also to create a relationship between Truman and Harry Hopkins and assure avid Truman support for the New Deal.

U.S. Senator

First term

, Missouri.]] After serving as judge, Truman wanted to run for Governor or Congress, but Pendergast rejected these ideas. In 1934, Pendergast's aides suggested Harry Truman as a candidate for Senator; after three other men turned him down, Pendergast reluctantly backed Truman as the candidate for the 1934 U.S. Senate election for Missouri. During the Democratic primary, Truman defeated John J. Cochran and Tuck Milligan, the brother of federal prosecutor Maurice M. Milligan. Truman then defeated the incumbent Republican, Roscoe C. Patterson, by nearly 20%.

Truman assumed office as "the senator from Pendergast." He gave patronage decisions to Pendergast but always maintained he voted his conscience. Truman always defended the patronage by saying that by offering a little, he saved a lot.

In his first term as a U.S. Senator, Truman spoke out against corporate greed and the dangers of Wall Street speculators and other moneyed special interests attaining too much influence in national affairs. He was largely ignored by President Roosevelt, who did not take him seriously at this stage, and had difficulty getting White House secretaries to return his calls.

1940 election

In 1940, both Stark and Maurice Milligan challenged him in the Democratic primary for the Senate. Truman's organization was a loose-net network of old friends, prominent Masons, Army buddies, and National Guard activists, combined with old Pendergast allies in the Kansas City and St. Joseph areas. Truman was especially weak in the St. Louis area, where Robert E. Hannegan controlled the party. Hannegan decided to support Truman; he would go on to broker the 1944 deal that put Truman on the vice presidential ticket for Roosevelt. In the end, Stark and Milligan split the anti-Pendergast vote in the Democratic primary, and Truman won by 8000 votes. In the November election, Truman trailed Roosevelt slightly, but defeated the Republican Manvel H. Davis by a margin of 51% to 49%.

In September 1940, during the general election campaign, Truman was elected Grand Master of the Missouri Grand Lodge of Freemasonry. Truman said later that the Masonic election assured his victory in the general election.

Foreign policy

On June 23, 1941, the day after Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, Senator Truman declared: "If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. Neither of them thinks anything of their pledged word." Although the sentiment was in line with what many Americans felt at the time, it was regarded by later biographers as both inappropriate and cynical.

Truman Committee

Truman gained national visibility by fighting waste and mismanagement in the war effort through his committee (popularly known as the "Truman Committee"). The Roosevelt administration had initially feared the Truman Committee would hurt war morale, and Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson wrote to the president declaring it was "in the public interest" to suspend the committee. Truman replied that the committee was "100 percent behind the administration" and had no intention of criticizing the military conduct of the war. The committee is reported to have saved at least $15 billion and thousands of lives. Truman's advocacy of common-sense cost-saving measures for the military attracted much attention. In 1943, he appeared on the cover of Time. He would eventually appear on nine Time covers and be named the magazine's Man of the Year for 1945 and 1948. After years as a marginal figure in the Senate, Truman was cast into the national spotlight after the success of the Truman Committee.

Vice presidency

Following months of uncertainty over a running mate, Truman was selected as Franklin Roosevelt's vice presidential candidate in 1944 as the result of a deal worked out by Hannegan, who was Democratic National Chairman that year. Roosevelt's physical condition deteriorated in mid-1944. Key FDR advisers, including outgoing Democratic National Committee Chairman Frank C. Walker, incoming Chairman Robert Hannegan, party treasurer Edwin W. Pauley, strategist Ed Flynn, and lobbyist George E. Allen worked to keep Henry Wallace off the ticket in the summer of 1944. They considered Wallace too liberal and "realized that the man nominated to run with Roosevelt would in all probability be the next President. . ."

After meeting personally with the party leaders, FDR agreed to replace Wallace as vice president; however, Roosevelt left the final selection of a running mate until the end of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Before the convention began, Roosevelt wrote a note saying he would accept either Truman or Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas; state and city party leaders preferred Truman. Truman himself did not campaign directly or indirectly that summer for the number two spot on the ticket, and always maintained that he had not wanted the job of vice president. As a result, Roosevelt had to put a great deal of pressure on Truman to accept the vice presidency. On July 19, the party bosses summoned Truman to a suite in the Blackstone Hotel to listen in on a phone call that, unknown to the Senator, they had rehearsed in advance with the President. During the conversation, FDR asked the party bosses whether Truman would accept the position. When they said no, FDR angrily accused Truman of disrupting the unity of the Democratic party then hung up. Feeling as if he had no choice, Truman reluctantly agreed to become Roosevelt's running mate.

Truman's candidacy was humorously dubbed the second "Missouri Compromise" at the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, as his appeal to the party center contrasted with the liberal Wallace and the conservative Byrnes. The nomination was well received, and the Roosevelt–Truman team went on to score a 432–99 electoral-vote victory in the 1944 presidential election, defeating Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York and Governor John Bricker of Ohio. Truman was sworn in as vice president on January 20, 1945, and served less than three months.

Truman's brief vice-presidency was relatively uneventful, and Roosevelt rarely contacted him, even to inform him of major decisions. Truman shocked many when he attended his disgraced patron Pendergast's funeral a few days after being sworn in. Truman was reportedly the only elected official who attended the funeral. Truman brushed aside the criticism, saying simply, "He was always my friend and I have always been his."

Presidency 1945–1953

First term (1945–1949)

Assuming office

: Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Joseph Stalin, William Daniel Leahy, James F. Byrnes, Harry S. Truman and others.]] , Harry S. Truman and Winston Churchill in Potsdam, July 1945]] , Harry S. Truman, Joseph Stalin; behind: William Daniel Leahy, Ernest Bevin, James F. Byrnes and Vyacheslav Molotov.]] Truman had been vice president for only 82 days when President Roosevelt died, April 12, 1945. He had had very little communication with Roosevelt about world affairs or domestic politics and was uninformed about major initiatives relating to the war and the top secret Manhattan Project, which was about to test the world's first atomic bomb.

Shortly after taking the oath of office, Truman said to reporters: :"Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don't know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me."

Upon assuming the presidency, Truman asked all the members of FDR's cabinet to remain in place, told them that he was open to their advice, and laid down a central principle of his administration: he would be the one making decisions, and they were to support him. Just a few weeks after he assumed office, on his 61st birthday, the Allies achieved victory in Europe.

Truman was much more difficult for the Secret Service to protect than the wheel chair–bound Roosevelt had been. Truman was an avid walker, regularly taking walks around Washington.

Atomic bomb

Truman was briefed on the Manhattan Project by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson on the day that Roosevelt died, after his first Cabinet meeting as President. While in Europe for the Potsdam Conference, he learned the news that the Trinity test of the first atomic bomb had been successful. He dropped a hint to Joseph Stalin the U.S. was about to use a new kind of weapon against the Japanese. Though this was the first time the Soviets had been officially given information about the atomic bomb, Stalin (through espionage) was aware of the bomb project, learning about it long before Truman himself did.

In August 1945, after Japan turned down the Potsdam Declaration Truman authorized use of atomic weapons against Japan.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, at 8:15, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb, Little Boy, on Hiroshima. Two days later, having heard nothing from the Japanese government, the U.S. military proceeded with its plans to drop a second atomic bomb. On August 9, Nagasaki was also devastated with a bomb, Fat Man, dropped by the B-29 bomber Bockscar. The bombs killed as many as 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945, with roughly half of those deaths occurring on the days of the bombings. Truman received news of the bombing while aboard the heavy cruiser on his way back to the U.S. after the Potsdam Conference. The Japanese agreed to surrender on August 14.

Supporters of Truman's decision to use the bomb argue that it saved hundreds of thousands of lives that would have been lost in an invasion of mainland Japan. In 1954, Eleanor Roosevelt said that Truman had "made the only decision he could," and that the bomb's use was necessary "to avoid tremendous sacrifice of American lives." Others have argued that the use of nuclear weapons was unnecessary and inherently immoral. Truman himself wrote later in life that, "I knew what I was doing when I stopped the war... I have no regrets and, under the same circumstances, I would do it again."

Strikes and economic upheaval

" sign on his desk]] The end of World War II was followed by an uneasy transition from war to a peacetime economy. The president was faced with the renewal of labor-management conflicts that had lain dormant during the war years, severe shortages in housing and consumer products, and widespread dissatisfaction with inflation, which at one point hit 6% in a single month. In this polarized environment, there was a wave of destabilizing strikes in major industries, and Truman's response to them was generally seen as ineffective. While delivering a speech before Congress requesting authority for this plan, Truman received word that the strike had been settled on his terms. Faced with Communist abandonment of commitments to democracy made at the Potsdam Conference, and with Communist advances in Iran, Greece (leading to the Greek Civil War) and in Turkey, Truman and his foreign policy advisors took a hard line against the Soviets.

Although he claimed no personal expertise on foreign matters, Truman won bipartisan support for both the Truman Doctrine, which formalised a policy of containment, and the Marshall Plan, which aimed to help rebuild postwar Europe. To get Congress to spend the vast sums necessary to restart the moribund European economy, Truman used an ideological argument, arguing that Communism flourishes in economically deprived areas. As part of the U.S. Cold War strategy, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 and reorganized military forces by merging the Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment (later the Department of Defense) and creating the U.S. Air Force. The act also created the CIA and the National Security Council.

Fair Deal

After many years of Democratic majorities in Congress and two Democratic presidents, voter fatigue with the Democrats delivered a new Republican majority in the 1946 midterm elections, with the Republicans picking up 55 seats in the House of Representatives and several seats in the Senate. Although Truman cooperated closely with the Republican leaders on foreign policy, he fought them bitterly on domestic issues. He failed to prevent tax cuts or the removal of price controls. The power of the labor unions was significantly curtailed by the Taft–Hartley Act, which was enacted by overriding Truman's veto.

As he readied for the 1948 election, Truman made clear his identity as a Democrat in the New Deal tradition, advocating national health insurance, the repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act, and an aggressive civil rights program. Taken together, it all constituted a broad legislative agenda that came to be called the "Fair Deal."

Truman's proposals were not well received by Congress, even after Democratic gains in the 1948 election. Only one of the major Fair Deal bills, the Housing Act of 1949, was ever enacted.

Recognition of Israel

Menorah from the Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion (center). To the right is Abba Eban, Ambassador of Israel to the United States]] Truman made the decision to recognize the establishment of the State of Israel over the objections of Secretary of State George Marshall, who feared it would hurt relations with the Arab states. At a meeting in the White House on November 10, 1945, he told envoys to Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt: "I am sorry, gentlemen, but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious for the success of Zionism: I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents."

Rejecting Arab, British, and US State Department warnings that Jewish immigration to Palestine and a Jewish state would destabilize the Middle East, Truman and Congress continued to support the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people. American policy makers in 1947-48 agreed that the highest foreign policy objective was containment of Soviet expansion as the Cold War unfolded. From Washington's perspective Palestine was secondary to the goal of protecting the "Northern Tier" of Greece, Turkey, and Iran from Communism, as promised by the Truman Doctrine. Truman set three goals for the region: a peaceful solution, unwillingness to send U.S. troops, and the need to prevent Soviet penetration.

According to George Lenczowski, Truman's policy on Palestine was influenced by Jewish lobbyists. In his memoirs, Truman wrote that top Jewish leaders in the United States put pressure on him to promote Jewish aspirations in Palestine. At the urging of the British, a special U.N. committee, UNSCOP, recommended the immediate partitioning of Palestine into two states. With Truman's support, the plan was approved by the General Assembly on November 29, 1947. Secretary of State George Marshall and foreign affairs experts continued to oppose the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. When Truman agreed to meet with Chaim Weizmann, the Secretary of State objected but did not publicly dispute his decision. Secretary of Defense James Forrestal warned about the perils of arousing Arab hostility, which might result in denial of access to petroleum resources in the area, and about "the impact of this question on the security of the United States." Truman recognized the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, eleven minutes after it declared itself a nation.

Truman wrote:

Hitler had been murdering Jews right and left. I saw it, and I dream about it even to this day. The Jews needed some place where they could go. It is my attitude that the American government couldn't stand idly by while the victims [of] Hitler's madness are not allowed to build new lives.

Berlin Airlift

visits Buchenwald, shortly after its liberation by American forces on April 24, 1945]] On June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union blocked access to the three Western-held sectors of Berlin. The Allies had never negotiated a deal to guarantee supply of the sectors deep within the Soviet-occupied zone. The commander of the American occupation zone in Germany, General Lucius D. Clay, proposed sending a large armored column across the Soviet zone to West Berlin with instructions to defend itself if it were stopped or attacked. Truman believed this would entail an unacceptable risk of war. He approved a plan to supply the blockaded city by air. On June 25, the Allies initiated the Berlin Airlift, a campaign that delivered food and other supplies, such as coal, using military airplanes on a massive scale. Nothing remotely like it had ever been attempted before, and no single nation had the capability, either logistically or materially, to have accomplished it. The airlift worked; ground access was again granted on May 11, 1949. The airlift continued for several months after that. The Berlin Airlift was one of Truman's great foreign policy successes as president; it significantly aided his election campaign in 1948.

Defense cutbacks

Truman adopted a strategy of rapid demobilization after World War II, mothballing ships and sending the veterans home. The reasons for this strategy, which persisted through Truman's first term and well into his second, were largely financial. To fund domestic spending requirements, Truman had advocated a policy of defense program cuts for the U.S. armed forces at the end of the war. The Republican majority in Congress, anxious to enact numerous tax cuts, approved of Truman's plan to "hold the line" on defense spending. In addition, Truman's experience in the Senate left him with lingering suspicions that large sums were being wasted in the Pentagon. In 1949, Truman appointed Louis A. Johnson as Secretary of Defense. Impressed by U.S. advances in atomic bomb development, Truman and Johnson initially believed that the atomic bomb rendered conventional forces largely irrelevant to the modern battlefield. This assumption eventually had to be revisited, however, as the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic weapon in the same year.

Nevertheless, reductions continued, adversely affecting U.S. conventional defense readiness. Both Truman and Johnson had a particular antipathy to Navy and Marine Corps budget requests. Truman proposed disbanding the Marine Corps entirely as part of the 1948 defense reorganization plan but the idea was abandoned after a letter-writing campaign and the intervention of influential Marine veterans. The Marine Corps, its budgets slashed, was reduced to hoarding surplus inventories of World War II-era weapons and equipment.

Election of 1948

The 1948 presidential election is best remembered for Truman's stunning come-from-behind victory. In the spring of 1948, Truman's public approval rating stood at 36%, and the president was nearly universally regarded as incapable of winning the general election. The "New Deal" operatives within the party—including FDR's son James—tried to swing the Democratic nomination to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, a wildly popular figure whose political views—and party affiliation—were totally unknown. Eisenhower emphatically refused to accept, and Truman outflanked opponents to his nomination. Unfazed, Truman delivered an aggressive acceptance speech attacking the 80th Congress and promising to win the election and "make these Republicans like it."

Within two weeks, Truman issued Executive Order 9981, racially integrating the U.S. Armed Services. Truman took considerable political risk in backing civil rights, and many seasoned Democrats were concerned that the loss of Dixiecrat support might destroy the Democratic Party. The fear seemed well justified—Strom Thurmond declared his candidacy for the presidency and led a full-scale revolt of Southern "states' rights" proponents. This revolt on the right was matched by a revolt on the left, led by former Vice President Henry A. Wallace on the Progressive Party ticket. Immediately after its first post-FDR convention, the Democratic Party found itself disintegrating. Victory in November seemed a remote possibility indeed, with the party not simply split but divided three ways.

There followed a remarkable presidential odyssey, an unprecedented personal appeal to the nation. Truman and his staff crisscrossed the United States in the presidential train; his "whistlestop" tactic of giving brief speeches from the rear platform of the observation car Ferdinand Magellan came to represent the entire campaign. His combative appearances, such as those at the town square of Harrisburg, Illinois, captured the popular imagination and drew huge crowds. Six stops in Michigan drew a combined total of half a million people; a full million turned out for a New York City ticker-tape parade.

The large, mostly spontaneous gatherings at Truman's depot events were an important sign of a critical change in momentum in the campaign—but this shift went virtually unnoticed by the national press corps, which continued reporting Republican Thomas Dewey's apparent impending victory as a certainty. One reason for the press' inaccurate projection was polls conducted primarily by telephone in a time when many people, including much of Truman's populist base, did not own a telephone. This skewed the data to indicate a stronger support base for Dewey than existed, resulting in an unintended and undetected projection error that may well have contributed to the perception of Truman's bleak chances. The three major polling organizations also stopped polling well before the November 2 election date—Roper in September, and Crossley and Gallup in October—thus failing to measure the very period when Truman appears to have surged past Dewey.

In the end, Truman held his midwestern base of progressives, won most of the Southern states despite his civil rights plank, and squeaked through with narrow victories in a few critical "battleground" states, notably Ohio, California, and Illinois. The final tally showed that the president had secured 303 electoral votes, Dewey 189, and Thurmond only 39. Henry Wallace got none. The defining image of the campaign came after Election Day, when Truman held aloft the erroneous front page of the Chicago Tribune with a huge headline proclaiming "Dewey Defeats Truman." Truman did not have a vice president in his first term. His running mate, and eventual vice president for the term that began January 20, 1949, was Alben W. Barkley.

Second term (1949–1953)

Truman's inauguration was the first ever televised nationally." His second term was grueling, in large measure because of foreign policy challenges connected directly or indirectly to his policy of containment. He quickly had to come to terms with the end of the American nuclear monopoly. With information provided by its espionage networks in the United States, the Soviet Union's atomic bomb project progressed much faster than had been expected and they exploded their first bomb on August 29, 1949. On January 7, 1953, Truman announced the detonation of the first U.S. hydrogen bomb.

NATO

Truman was a strong supporter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which established a formal peacetime military alliance with Canada and many of the democratic European nations that had not fallen under Soviet control following World War II. Truman successfully guided the treaty through the Senate in 1949 and appointed Dwight D. Eisenhower as the first commander. NATO's stated goals were to contain Soviet expansion in Europe and to send a clear message to communist leaders that the world's democracies were willing and able to build new security structures in support of democratic ideals. The United States, Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, and Canada were the original treaty signatories; Greece and Turkey joined in 1952.

Chinese Civil War

On December 21, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi) and his National Revolutionary Army left mainland China, fleeing to Taiwan in the face of successful attacks by Mao Zedong's communist army during the Chinese Civil War. In June 1950, Truman ordered the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent further conflict between the communist government at the China mainland and the Republic of China on Taiwan. Truman also called for the ROC not to make any further attacks on the mainland.

Soviet espionage and McCarthyism

Throughout his presidency, Truman had to deal with accusations that the federal government was harboring Soviet spies at the highest level. Testimony in Congress on this issue garnered national attention, and thousands of people were fired as security risks. Truman was dubious about reports of potential Communist or Soviet penetration of the U.S. government, and his oft-quoted response was to dismiss the allegations as a "red herring."

In August 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a former spy for the Soviets and a senior editor at Time magazine, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and presented a list of what he said were members of an underground communist network working within the United States government in the 1930s. One was Alger Hiss, a senior State Department official. Hiss denied the accusations.

Chambers' revelations led to a crisis in American political culture, as Hiss was convicted of perjury, in a controversial trial. On February 9, 1950, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy accused the State Department of having communists on the payroll, and specifically claimed that Secretary of State Dean Acheson knew of, and was protecting, 205 communists within the State Department. At issue was whether Truman had removed all the subversive agents that had entered the government during the Roosevelt years. McCarthy insisted that he had not.

By spotlighting this issue and attacking Truman's administration, McCarthy quickly established himself as a national figure, and his explosive allegations dominated the headlines. His claims were short on confirmable details, but they nevertheless transfixed a nation struggling to come to grips with frightening new realities: the Soviet Union's nuclear explosion, the loss of U.S. atom bomb secrets, the fall of China to communism, and new revelations of Soviet intelligence penetration of other U.S. agencies, including the Treasury Department. He counterattacked, saying that "Americanism" itself was under attack by elements "who are loudly proclaiming that they are its chief defenders. ... They are trying to create fear and suspicion among us by the use of slander, unproved accusations and just plain lies. ... They are trying to get us to believe that our Government is riddled with communism and corruption. ... These slandermongers are trying to get us so hysterical that no one will stand up to them for fear of being called a communist. Now this is an old communist trick in reverse. ... That is not fair play. That is not Americanism."

Truman called for a naval blockade of Korea, only to learn that due to budget cutbacks, the U.S. Navy no longer possessed a sufficient number of warships to enforce such a measure. Truman promptly urged the United Nations to intervene; it did, authorizing armed defense for the first time in its history. The Soviet Union, which was boycotting the United Nations at the time, was not present at the vote that approved the measure. However, Truman decided not to consult with Congress, an error that greatly weakened his position later in the conflict.

In the first four weeks of the conflict, the American infantry forces hastily deployed to Korea proved too few and were under-equipped. The Eighth Army in Japan was forced to recondition World War II Sherman tanks from depots and monuments for use in Korea. On November 1, 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempted to assassinate Truman at Blair House. On the street outside the residence, Torresola mortally wounded a White House policeman, Leslie Coffelt, who shot Torresola dead before expiring himself. Collazo, as a co-conspirator in a felony that turned into a homicide, was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to death in 1952. Truman later commuted his sentence to life in prison. Acknowledging the importance of the question of Puerto Rican independence, Truman allowed for a plebiscite in Puerto Rico to determine the status of its relationship to the United States. The attack, which could easily have taken the president's life, drew new attention to security concerns surrounding his residence at Blair House. He had jumped up from his nap, and was watching the gunfight from his open bedroom window until a passerby shouted at him to take cover.

Steel and coal strikes

In response to a labor/management impasse arising from bitter disagreements over wage and price controls, Truman instructed his Secretary of Commerce, Charles W. Sawyer, to take control of a number of the nation's steel mills in April 1952. Truman cited his authority as Commander in Chief and the need to maintain an uninterrupted supply of steel for munitions to be used in the war in Korea. The Supreme Court found Truman's actions unconstitutional, however, and reversed the order in a major separation-of-powers decision, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer. The 6–3 decision, which held that Truman's assertion of authority was too vague and was not rooted in any legislative action by Congress, was delivered by a Court composed entirely of Justices appointed by either Truman or Roosevelt. The high court's reversal of Truman's order was one of the notable defeats of his presidency. After coal miners went on strike in the spring of 1946, Truman threatened to draft the miners into the Army if they did not return to work, or use members of the Army to replace the workers.

Scandals and controversies

In 1950, the Senate, led by Estes Kefauver, investigated numerous charges of corruption among senior Administration officials, some of whom received fur coats and deep freezers for favors. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was involved. In 1950, 166 IRS employees either resigned or were fired, and many were facing indictments from the Department of Justice on a variety of tax-fixing and bribery charges, including the assistant attorney general in charge of the Tax Division. When Attorney General Howard McGrath fired the special prosecutor for being too zealous, Truman fired McGrath. Historians agree that Truman himself was innocent and unaware—with one exception. In 1945, Mrs. Truman received a new, expensive, hard-to-get deep freezer. The businessman who provided the gift was the president of a perfume company and, thanks to Truman's aide and confidante General Harry Vaughan, received priority to fly to Europe days after the war ended, where he bought new perfumes. On the way back he "bumped" a wounded veteran from a flight back to the US. Disclosure of the episode in 1949 humiliated Truman. The President responded by vigorously defending Vaughan, an old friend with an office in the White House itself. Vaughan was eventually connected to multiple influence-peddling scandals.

Truman pardoned a Louisiana political figure, George A. Caldwell, a building contractor from Baton Rouge who had been imprisoned in the United States Penitentiary, Atlanta for income tax evasion and accepting kickbacks.He also similarly pardoned the controversial Texas political boss, George Parr of Duval County, the political benefactor of Lyndon B. Johnson, winner of a contested 1948 U.S. Senate election, which ultimately catapulted Johnson into the presidency.

Charges that Soviet agents had infiltrated the government bedeviled the Truman Administration and became a major campaign issue for Eisenhower in 1952. In 1947, Truman issued Executive Order 9835 to set up loyalty boards to investigate espionage among federal employees. Between 1947 and 1952, "about 20,000 government employees were investigated, some 2500 resigned 'voluntarily,' and 400 were fired." He did, however, strongly oppose mandatory loyalty oaths for governmental employees, a stance that led to charges that his Administration was soft on Communism. In 1953, Senator Joseph McCarthy and Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr. claimed that Truman had known Harry Dexter White was a Soviet spy when Truman appointed him to the International Monetary Fund.

On December 6, 1950, music critic Paul Hume wrote a critical review of a concert by Margaret Truman: "Miss Truman is a unique American phenomenon with a pleasant voice of little size and fair quality ... (she) cannot sing very well ... is flat a good deal of the time—more last night than at any time we have heard her in past years ... has not improved in the years we have heard her ... (and) still cannot sing with anything approaching professional finish."

In response Truman wrote a scathing response: I've just read your lousy review of Margaret's concert. I've come to the conclusion that you are an "eight ulcer man on four ulcer pay." It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful. When you write such poppy-cock as was in the back section of the paper you work for it shows conclusively that you're off the beam and at least four of your ulcers are at work. Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below! Pegler, a gutter snipe, is a gentleman alongside you. I hope you'll accept that statement as a worse insult than a reflection on your ancestry.

Civil rights

A 1947 report by the Truman administration titled To Secure These Rights presented a detailed ten-point agenda of civil rights reforms. In February 1948, the president submitted a civil rights agenda to Congress that proposed creating several federal offices devoted to issues such as voting rights and fair employment practices. This provoked a storm of criticism from Southern Democrats in the run up to the national nominating convention, but Truman refused to compromise, saying: "My forebears were Confederates. . . . But my very stomach turned over when I had learned that Negro soldiers, just back from overseas, were being dumped out of Army trucks in Mississippi and beaten."

Instead of addressing civil rights on a case by case need, Truman wanted to address civil rights on a national level. Truman made three executive orders that eventually became a structure for future civil rights legislation. The first executive order, Executive Order 9981 in 1948, is generally understood to be the act that desegregated the armed services. This was a milestone on a long road to desegregation of the Armed Forces. After several years of planning, recommendations and revisions between Truman, the Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity and the various branches of the military, Army units became racially integrated. This process was also helped by the pressure of manpower shortages during the Korean War, as replacements to previously segregated units could now be of any race.

The second, also in 1948, made it illegal to discriminate against persons applying for civil service positions based on race. The third executive order, in 1951, established Committee on Government Contract Compliance (CGCC). This committee ensured that defense contractors to the armed forces could not discriminate against a person on account of race.

Administration and Cabinet

All of the cabinet members when Truman became president in 1945 had been previously serving under Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Align	right
Name	Truman
President	Harry S. Truman
President start	1945
President end	1953
Vice president	none
Vice president start	1945
Vice president end	1949
Vice president 2	Alben W. Barkley
Vice president start 2	1949
Vice president end 2	1953
State	Edward R. Stettinius, Jr.
State date	1945
State 2	James F. Byrnes
State start 2	1945
State end 2	1947
State 3	George C. Marshall
State start 3	1947
State end 3	1949
State 4	Dean G. Acheson
State start 4	1949
State end 4	1953
War	Henry L. Stimson
War date	1945
War 2	Robert P. Patterson
War start 2	1945
War end 2	1947
War 3	Kenneth C. Royall
War date 3	1947
Treasury	Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
Treasury date	1945
Treasury 2	Fred M. Vinson
Treasury start 2	1945
Treasury end 2	1946
Treasury 3	John W. Snyder
Treasury start 3	1946
Treasury end 3	1953
Defense	James V. Forrestal
Defense start	1947
Defense end	1949
Defense 2	Louis A. Johnson
Defense start 2	1949
Defense end 2	1950
Defense 3	George C. Marshall
Defense start 3	1950
Defense end 3	1951
Defense 4	Robert A. Lovett
Defense start 4	1951
Defense end 4	1953
Justice	Francis Biddle
Justice date	1945
Justice 2	Tom C. Clark
Justice start 2	1945
Justice end 2	1949
Justice 3	J. Howard McGrath
Justice start 3	1949
Justice end 3	1952
Justice 4	James P. McGranery
Justice start 4	1952
Justice end 4	1953
Post	Frank C. Walker
Post date	1945
Post 2	Robert E. Hannegan
Post start 2	1945
Post end 2	1947
Post 3	Jesse M. Donaldson
Post start 3	1947
Post end 3	1953
Navy	James V. Forrestal
Navy start	1945
Navy end	1947
Interior	Harold L. Ickes
Interior start	1945
Interior end	1946
Interior 2	Julius A. Krug
Interior start 2	1946
Interior end 2	1949
Interior 3	Oscar L. Chapman
Interior start 3	1949
Interior end 3	1953
Agriculture	Claude R. Wickard
Agriculture date	1945
Agriculture 2	Clinton P. Anderson
Agriculture start 2	1945
Agriculture end 2	1948
Agriculture 3	Charles F. Brannan
Agriculture start 3	1948
Agriculture end 3	1953
Commerce	Henry A. Wallace
Commerce start	1945
Commerce end	1946
Commerce 2	W. Averell Harriman
Commerce start 2	1946
Commerce end 2	1948
Commerce 3	Charles W. Sawyer
Commerce start 3	1948
Commerce end 3	1953
Labor	Frances Perkins
Labor date	1945
Labor 2	Lewis B. Schwellenbach
Labor start 2	1945
Labor end 2	1948
Labor 3	Maurice J. Tobin
Labor start 3	1948
Labor end 3	1953

Judicial appointments

Supreme Court

Truman appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

*Harold Hitz Burton—1945

Fred M. Vinson (Chief Justice)—1946

Tom C. Clark—1949

Sherman Minton—1949

Truman's judicial appointments have been called by critics "inexcusable." A former Truman aide confided that it was the weakest aspect of Truman's presidency. The New York Times condemned the appointments of Tom C. Clark and Sherman Minton in particular as examples of cronyism and favoritism for unqualified candidates. However, Truman decided not to run for reelection.

At the time of the 1952 New Hampshire primary, no candidate had won Truman's backing. His first choice, Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson, had declined to run; Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson had also turned Truman down; Vice President Barkley was considered too old; and Truman distrusted and disliked Senator Estes Kefauver, whom he privately called "Cowfever."

Truman's name was on the New Hampshire primary ballot but Kefauver won. On March 29 Truman announced his decision not to run for re-election. Stevenson, having reconsidered his presidential ambitions, received Truman's backing and won the Democratic nomination.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, now a Republican and the nominee of his party, campaigned against what he denounced as Truman's failures regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption" and the "mess in Washington," and promised to "go to Korea." Eisenhower defeated Stevenson decisively in the general election, ending 20 years of Democratic rule. While Truman and Eisenhower had previously been good friends, Truman felt betrayed that Eisenhower did not denounce Joseph McCarthy during the campaign.

Post-presidency

Truman Library, Memoirs, and life as a private citizen

Truman returned to Independence, Missouri, to live at the Wallace home he and Bess had shared for years with her mother. Four months after leaving office, Truman was invited to address the Reserve Officers Association in Philadelphia. Refusing official transportation, Truman instead drove his brand-new Chrysler New Yorker, with Bess accompanying him in the passenger seat. The trip, which included stops in Washington, D.C., New York City, and smaller towns, caused a media sensation, especially when the former President was pulled over by a policeman for driving too slowly in a passing lane.

Truman's predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had organized his own presidential library, but legislation to enable future presidents to do something similar still remained to be enacted. Truman worked to garner private donations to build a presidential library, which he then donated to the federal government to maintain and operate—a practice adopted by all of his successors.

Once out of office, Truman quickly decided that he did not wish to be on any corporate payroll, believing that taking advantage of such financial opportunities would diminish the integrity of the nation's highest office. He also turned down numerous offers for commercial endorsements. Since his earlier business ventures had proved unremunerative, he had no personal savings. As a result, he faced financial challenges. Once Truman left the White House, his only income was his old army pension: $112.56 per month. Former members of Congress and the federal courts received a federal retirement package; President Truman himself ensured that former servants of the executive branch of government received similar support. In 1953, however, there was no such benefit package for former presidents.

Bill on July 30, 1965, by President Lyndon B. Johnson.]] He took out a personal loan from a Missouri bank shortly after leaving office, and then set about establishing another precedent for future former chief executives: a book deal for his memoirs of his time in office. Ulysses S. Grant had overcome similar financial issues with his own memoirs, but the book had been published posthumously, and he had declined to write about life in the White House in any detail. For the memoirs Truman received only a flat payment of $670,000, and had to pay two-thirds of that in tax; he calculated he got $37,000 after he paid his assistants.

Truman's memoirs were a commercial and critical success; they were published in two volumes in 1955 and 1956 by Doubleday (Garden City, N.Y) and Hodder & Stoughton (London): Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: Year of Decisions and Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: Years of Trial and Hope.

Truman was quoted in 1957 as saying to then-House Majority Leader John McCormack, "Had it not been for the fact that I was able to sell some property that my brother, sister, and I inherited from our mother, I would practically be on relief, but with the sale of that property I am not financially embarrassed."

In 1958, Congress passed the Former Presidents Act, offering a $25,000 yearly pension to each former president, and it is likely that Truman's financial status played a role in the law's enactment. Hoover may have been remembering an old favor: Shortly after becoming President, Truman had invited Hoover to the White House for an informal chat about conditions in Europe. This was Hoover's first visit to the White House since leaving office, as the Roosevelt administration had shunned Hoover. The two remained good friends for the remainder of their lives.

Later life and death

In 1956, Truman traveled to Europe with his wife. In Britain he received an honorary degree in Civic Law from Oxford University and met with Winston Churchill. On returning to the U.S., he supported Adlai Stevenson's second bid for the White House, although he had initially favored Democratic Governor W. Averell Harriman of New York.

Upon turning 80, Truman was feted in Washington and to address the United States Senate, as part of a new rule that allowed former presidents to be granted privilege of the floor. He also campaigned for senatorial candidates. After a fall in his home in late 1964, his physical condition declined. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare bill at the Truman Library and gave the first two Medicare cards to Truman and his wife Bess to honor his fight for government health care as president.

On December 5, 1972, he was admitted to Kansas City's Research Hospital and Medical Center with lung congestion from pneumonia. He developed multiple organ failure and died at 7:50 a.m. on December 26 at the age of 88. His wife died nearly ten years later, on October 18, 1982.

Legacy

When he left office in 1953, Truman was one of the most unpopular chief executives in history. His job approval rating of 22% in the Gallup Poll of February 1952 was lower than Richard Nixon's was in August 1974 at 24%, the month that Nixon resigned. American public feeling toward Truman grew steadily warmer with the passing years, however, and the period shortly after his death consolidated a partial rehabilitation among both historians and members of the general public. As early as 1962, a poll of 75 distinguished historians conducted by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. ranked Truman among the "near great" presidents. Since leaving office, Truman has fared well in polls ranking the presidents among Americans. He has never been listed lower than ninth, and most recently was fifth in a C-SPAN poll in 2009.

He has also had his critics. After a review of information available to Truman on the presence of espionage activities in the U.S. government, Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan concluded that Truman was "almost willfully obtuse" concerning the danger of American communism. As early as the late 1960s, revisionist historians began attacking Truman. Today, the consensus among historians is that "Harry Truman remains a controversial president."

Truman died during a time when the nation was consumed with crises in Vietnam and Watergate, and his death brought a new wave of attention to his political career. In the early and mid-1970s, Truman captured the popular imagination much as he had in 1948, this time emerging as a kind of political folk hero, a president who was thought to exemplify an integrity and accountability many observers felt was lacking in the Nixon White House. Truman has been portrayed on screen many times, several in performances that have won wide acclaim, and the pop band Chicago recorded a nostalgic song, "Harry Truman" (1975).

Due to Truman's critical role in the US government's decision to recognize Israel, the Israeli village of Beit Harel was renamed Kfar Truman.

Ironically, in view of Truman's attempt to curtail the naval carrier arm, which led to the 1949 Revolt of the Admirals, the navy decided to name an aircraft carrier after him. The was christened on September 7, 1996. The ship, sometimes known as the 'HST', was authorized as USS United States, the same as the carrier that Truman had cancelled in 1949, but her name was changed before the keel laying.

The Truman Scholarship, a federal program that seeks to honor U.S. college students who exemplified dedication to public service and leadership in public policy, was created in 1975. The President Harry S. Truman Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineering, a distinguished postdoctoral three-year appointment at Sandia National Laboratories was created in 2004. The University of Missouri established the Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs to advance the study and practice of governance. The university's Missouri Tigers athletics programs have an official mascot named Truman the Tiger. To mark its transformation from a regional state teachers' college to a highly selective liberal arts university and to honor the only Missourian to become president, Northeast Missouri State University became Truman State University on July 1, 1996. A member institution of the City Colleges of Chicago, Harry S Truman College in Chicago, Illinois is named in honor of the president for his dedication to public colleges and universities. The headquarters for the United States Department of State, built in the 1930s but never officially named, was dedicated as the Harry S Truman Building in 2000.

In 1991, Truman was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians, and a bronze bust depicting him is on permanent display in the rotunda of the Missouri State Capitol. Thomas Daniel, grandson of the Trumans accepted a star on the Missouri Walk of Fame in 2006 to honor his late grandfather. John Truman, Truman's nephew, accepted a star for Bess Truman in 2007. The Walk of Fame is in Marshfield, Missouri, a city Truman visited in 1948.

He was honored by the United States Postal Service with a 20¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.

Historic sites

Harry S. Truman National Historic Site includes the Wallace House at 219 N. Delaware in Independence and the family farmhouse at Grandview, Missouri (Truman sold most of the farm for Kansas City suburban development including the Truman Corners Shopping Center).

Harry S. Truman Birthplace State Historic Site is the house where Truman was born and spent 11 months in Lamar, Missouri.

Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum—The Presidential library in Independence

Harry S. Truman Little White House—Truman's winter getaway at Key West, Florida

See also

Electoral history of Harry S. Truman

Liberal coalition

National Mental Health Act

Truman Day

References

Bibliography

(35 volumes)

External links

Harry Truman's cabinet

Medical and health history of Harry Truman

C-SPAN's Presidential Libraries: Harry S. Truman

PBS American Experience Video Biography of Harry Truman

White House biography

Harry S. Truman’s Homes - slideshow by The New York Times

Harry S. Truman: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress

Truman Tapes Presidential Recording Project Miller Center of Public Affairs

The American Presidency Project at UCSB: The Most Comprehensive Resource on the Web

'The American Presidency: Transformation and Change – Harry Truman', lecture by Professor Vernon Bogdanor at Gresham College, 29 January 2008 [available for free audio, video and text download]

a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan">Harry Truman and Independence, Missouri: "This is Where I Belong," a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan

President Harry S. Truman American President: An Online Reference Resource. Miller Center of Public Affairs

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:"King Joe" redirects here. For the monster, see King Joe (Ultra monster). For the New Zealand professional wrestler who competed in Australasia during the 1970s and 80s, see Samoan Joe.

Name	Samoa Joe
Caption	Samoa Joe at a WWE live event in 2007.
Names	King Joe Joe Seanoa Yoshiaki Fujiwara Johnny Hemp (born March 17, 1979) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Samoa Joe. He is currently under contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

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Name	John Wayne
Imagesize	260px
Birth name	Marion Robert Morrison
Birth date	May 26, 1907
Birth place	Winterset, Iowa, U.S.
Death date	June 11, 1979
Death place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names	Marion Michael Morrison; Duke; Duke Morrison
Occupation	Actor, director, producer
Years active	1926–1976
Spouse
Website	http://www.johnwayne.com

Marion Mitchell Morrison (born Marion Robert Morrison; May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive voice, walk and height. He was also known for his conservative political views and his support, beginning in the 1950s, for anti-communist positions.

A Harris Poll, released January 2011, placed Wayne third among America's favorite film stars, the only deceased star on the list and the only one who has appeared on the poll every year since it first began in 1994.

In 1999, the American Film Institute named Wayne 13th among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time.

Early life

Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa. His middle name was soon changed from Robert to Mitchell when his parents decided to name their next son Robert.

Wayne's father, Clyde Leonard Morrison (1884–1937), was the son of American Civil War veteran Marion Mitchell Morrison (1845–1915). Wayne's mother, the former Mary Alberta Brown (1885–1970), was from Lancaster County, Nebraska. Wayne was of Presbyterian Scots-Irish descent through his second great-grandfather Robert Morrison, who was born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland and emigrated to the United States in 1782.

Wayne's family moved to Palmdale, California, and then in 1911 to Glendale, California, where his father worked as a pharmacist. A local fireman at the station on his route to school in Glendale started calling him "Little Duke" because he never went anywhere without his huge Airedale Terrier dog, Duke. He preferred "Duke" to "Marion," and the name stuck for the rest of his life.

As a teen, Wayne worked in an ice cream shop for a man who shod horses for Hollywood studios. He was also active as a member of the Order of DeMolay, a youth organization associated with the Freemasons. He attended Wilson Middle School in Glendale. He played football for the 1924 champion Glendale High School team. Wayne applied to the U.S. Naval Academy, but was not accepted. He instead attended the University of Southern California (USC), majoring in pre-law. He was a member of the Trojan Knights and Sigma Chi fraternities. Wayne also played on the USC football team under legendary coach Howard Jones. An injury curtailed his athletic career; Wayne later noted he was too terrified of Jones's reaction to reveal the actual cause of his injury, which was bodysurfing at the “Wedge” at the tip of the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach. He lost his athletic scholarship and, without funds, had to leave the university.

Wayne began working at the local film studios. Prolific silent western film star Tom Mix had gotten him a summer job in the prop department in exchange for football tickets. Wayne soon moved on to bit parts, establishing a longtime friendship with the director who provided most of those roles, John Ford. Early in this period, Wayne appeared with his USC teammates playing football in Brown of Harvard (1926), The Dropkick (1927), and Salute (1929) and Columbia's Maker of Men (filmed in 1930, released in 1931). Also, it is during this period that Wayne is reputed to have met the legendary gunfighter and lawman Wyatt Earp.

Film career

While working for Fox Film Corporation in bit roles, he was given on-screen credit as "Duke Morrison" only once, in Words and Music (1929). In 1930, director Raoul Walsh cast him in his first starring role in The Big Trail (1930). For his screen name, Walsh suggested "Anthony Wayne", after Revolutionary War general "Mad Anthony" Wayne. Fox Studios chief Winfield Sheehan rejected it as sounding "too Italian." Walsh then suggested "John Wayne." Sheehan agreed, and the name was set. Wayne himself was not even present for the discussion. His pay was raised to $105 a week.

The Big Trail was to be the first big-budget outdoor spectacle of the sound era, made at a staggering cost of over $2 million, utilizing hundreds of extras and wide vistas of the American southwest, still largely unpopulated at the time. To take advantage of the breathtaking scenery, it was filmed in two versions, a standard 35mm version and another in "Grandeur", a new process utilizing innovative camera and lenses and a revolutionary 70mm widescreen process. Many in the audience who saw it in Grandeur stood and cheered. Unfortunately, only a handful of theaters were equipped to show the film in its widescreen process, and the effort was largely wasted. The film was considered a huge flop. (1948)]] After the failure of The Big Trail, Wayne was relegated to small roles in A-pictures, including Columbia's The Deceiver (1931), in which he played a corpse. He appeared in the serial The Three Musketeers (1933), an updated version of the Alexandre Dumas novel in which the protagonists were soldiers in the French Foreign Legion in then-contemporary North Africa. He appeared in many low-budget "Poverty Row" westerns, mostly at Monogram Pictures and serials for Mascot Pictures Corporation. By Wayne's own estimation, he appeared in about eighty of these horse operas between 1930 - 1939. In Riders of Destiny (1933) he became film's first singing cowboy, albeit via dubbing. Wayne also appeared in some of the Three Mesquiteers westerns, whose title was a play on the Dumas classic. He was mentored by stuntmen in riding and other western skills.

(1942)]] Wayne's breakthrough role came with director John Ford's classic Stagecoach (1939). Because of Wayne's non-star status and track record in low-budget westerns throughout the 1930s, Ford had difficulty getting financing for what was to be an A-budget film. After rejection by all the top studios, Ford struck a deal with independent producer Walter Wanger in which Claire Trevor—a much bigger star at the time—received top billing. Stagecoach was a huge critical and financial success, and Wayne became a star. He later appeared in more than twenty of John Ford's films, including She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), The Wings of Eagles (1957), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

Wayne's first color film was Shepherd of the Hills (1941), in which he co-starred with his longtime friend Harry Carey. The following year he appeared in his only film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, the Technicolor epic Reap the Wild Wind (1942), in which he co-starred with Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard; it was one of the rare times he played a character with questionable values.

In 1949, director Robert Rossen offered the starring role of All the King's Men to Wayne. Wayne refused, believing the script to be un-American in many ways. Broderick Crawford, who eventually got the role, won the 1949 Oscar for best male actor, ironically beating out Wayne, who had been nominated for Sands of Iwo Jima. (1951)]] He lost the leading role in The Gunfighter (1950) to Gregory Peck due to his refusal to work for Columbia Pictures because its chief Harry Cohn had mistreated him years before when he was a young contract player. Cohn had bought the project for Wayne, but Wayne's grudge was too deep, and Cohn sold the script to Twentieth Century Fox, which cast Peck in the role Wayne badly wanted but refused to bend for. He appeared in the similar Box Office poll in 1939 and 1940. While these two polls are really an indication only of the popularity of series stars, Wayne also appeared in the Top Ten Money Makers Poll of all films from 1949 to 1957 and 1958 to 1974, taking first place in 1950, 1951, 1954 and 1971 . With a total of 25 years on the list, Wayne has more appearances than any other star, beating Clint Eastwood (21) into second place.

In later years, Wayne was recognized as a sort of American natural resource, and his various critics, of his performances and his politics, viewed him with more respect. Abbie Hoffman, the radical of the 1960s, paid tribute to Wayne's singularity, saying "I like Wayne's wholeness, his style. As for his politics, well—I suppose even cavemen felt a little admiration for the dinosaurs that were trying to gobble them up." Reviewing The Cowboys (1972), Vincent Canby of the New York Times, who did not particularly care for the film, wrote: "Wayne is, of course, marvelously indestructible, and he has become an almost perfect father figure."

Filmography

1964 illness

Wayne had been a chain-smoker of cigarettes since young adulthood. In 1964, Wayne was diagnosed with lung cancer, and underwent successful surgery to remove his entire left lung and four ribs. Despite efforts by his business associates to prevent him from going public with his illness (for fear it would cost him work), Wayne announced he had cancer and called on the public to get preventive examinations. Five years later, Wayne was declared cancer-free. Despite the fact that Wayne's diminished lung capacity left him incapable of prolonged exertion and frequently in need of supplemental oxygen, within a few years of his operation he chewed tobacco and began smoking cigars until the day he died.

Politics

Wayne claimed in his Playboy interview to have been a socialist during his years at college, and he admitted voting for Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election. In the same interview he also expressed admiration for Democratic President Harry S Truman. However, for most of his career he was a vocally conservative Republican. He took part in creating the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals in February 1944 and was elected president of that organization in 1947. He was an ardent anti-communist, and vocal supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1952, he made Big Jim McLain to show his support for the anti-communist cause. A supporter of Vice President Richard Nixon's candidacy in the United States presidential election in 1960, he expressed his vision of patriotism when John F. Kennedy won the election: "I didn't vote for him but he's my president, and I hope he does a good job."

Wayne used his iconic status to support conservative causes, including rallying support for the Vietnam War by producing, co-directing, and starring in the critically panned The Green Berets in 1968. In the mid-1970s, however, he talked some fellow conservatives into supporting the Panama Canal Treaty.

Due to his enormous popularity, and his status as the most famous Republican star in Hollywood, wealthy Texas Republican Party backers asked Wayne to run for national office in 1968, as had his friend and fellow actor, Senator George Murphy. He declined, joking that he did not believe the public would seriously consider an actor in the White House. However, he did support his friend Ronald Reagan's runs for Governor of California in 1966 and 1970. He was also asked to be the running mate for Democratic Alabama Governor George Wallace in 1968. Wayne vehemently rejected the offer. Wayne actively campaigned for Richard Nixon, and addressed the Republican National Convention on its opening day in August 1968. Wayne also was a member of the conservative and anti-communist John Birch Society.

Soviet documents released in 2003 reveal that, despite being a fan of Wayne's movies, Joseph Stalin ordered Wayne's assassination due to his strong anti-communist politics. Stalin died before the killing could be accomplished. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev, reportedly told Wayne during a 1959 visit to the United States that he had personally rescinded the order.

Military service controversy

, Australia, in December, 1943]] America's entry into World War II resulted in a deluge of support for the war effort from all sectors of society, and Hollywood was no exception. Many established stars rushed to sign up for military service.

As the majority of male leads left Hollywood to serve overseas, John Wayne saw his just-blossoming stardom at risk. Despite enormous pressure from his inner circle of friends, he put off enlisting. Wayne was exempted from service due to his age (34 at the time of Pearl Harbor) and family status, classified as 3-A (family deferment). Wayne's secretary recalled making inquiries of military officials on behalf of his interest in enlisting, "but he never really followed up on them." He repeatedly wrote to John Ford, asking to be placed in Ford's military unit, but consistently postponed it until "after he finished one more film." Republic Studios was emphatically resistant to losing Wayne, especially after the loss of Gene Autry to the Army.

Correspondence between Wayne and Herbert J. Yates (the head of Republic) indicates that Yates threatened Wayne with a lawsuit if he walked away from his contract, though the likelihood of a studio suing its biggest star for going to war was minute. Whether or not the threat was real, Wayne did not test it. Selective Service Records indicate he did not attempt to prevent his reclassification as 1-A (draft eligible), but apparently Republic Pictures intervened directly, requesting his further deferment. In May, 1944, Wayne was reclassified as 1-A (draft eligible), but the studio obtained another 2-A deferment (for "support of national health, safety, or interest").

The foregoing facts influenced the direction of Wayne's later life. By many accounts, Wayne's failure to serve in the military during World War II was the most painful experience of his life. There were some other stars who, for various reasons, did not enlist. But Wayne, by virtue of becoming a celluloid war hero in several patriotic war films, as well as an outspoken supporter of conservative political causes and the Vietnam War, became the focus of particular disdain from both himself and certain portions of the public, particularly in later years. While some hold Wayne in contempt for the paradox between his early actions and his later attitudes, his widow suggests that Wayne's rampant patriotism in later decades sprang not from hypocrisy but from guilt. Pilar Wayne wrote, "He would become a 'superpatriot' for the rest of his life trying to atone for staying home."

Controversial statements to Playboy magazine

In an interview with Playboy magazine published on May 1, 1971, Wayne made several controversial remarks about race and class in the United States. The interview became a hot topic and many stores had trouble keeping the issue in stock. He noted that, as someone living in the 20th century, he was not responsible for the way people who lived one hundred years before him had treated Native Americans, stating:

I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them if that's what you're asking. Our so called stealing of this country was just a question of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.... Look, I'm sure there have been inequalities. If those inequalities are presently affecting any of the Indians now alive, they have a right to a court hearing. But what happened 100 years ago in our country can't be blamed on us today. I'm quite sure that the concept of a Government-run reservation... seems to be what the socialists are working for now — to have everyone cared for from cradle to grave.... What happened between their forefathers and our forefathers is so far back -- right, wrong or indifferent -- that I don't see why we owe them anything. I don't know why the government should give them something that it wouldn't give me.

Wayne responded to questions about whether social programs like Medicare and Social Security were good for the country:

I know all about that. In the late Twenties, when I was a sophomore at USC, I was a socialist myself -- but not when I left. The average college kid idealistically wishes everybody could have ice cream and cake for every meal. But as he gets older and gives more thought to his and his fellow man's responsibilities, he finds that it can't work out that way -- that some people just won't carry their load.... I believe in welfare -- a welfare work program. I don't think a fella should be able to sit on his backside and receive welfare. I'd like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living. I'd like to know why they make excuses for cowards who spit in the faces of the police and then run behind the judicial sob sisters. I can't understand these people who carry placards to save the life of some criminal, yet have no thought for the innocent victim.

In the interview he previously had discussed race relations, including his response to Angela Davis's assertion that her removal from a position as an assistant professor in the UCLA philosophy department on the grounds that she was an active member the Communist party was actually because she was black:

With a lot of blacks, there's quite a bit of resentment along with their dissent, and possibly rightfully so. But we can't all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.

When asked how blacks could address their perceived lack of leadership experience and the inequities of the past, Wayne replied:

It's not my judgment. The academic community has developed certain tests that determine whether the blacks are sufficiently equipped scholastically. But some blacks have tried to force the issue and enter college when they haven't passed the tests and don't have the requisite background.... By going to school. I don't know why people insist that blacks have been forbidden to go to school. They were allowed in public schools wherever I've been. Even if they don't have the proper credentials for college, there are courses to help them become eligible. But if they aren't academically ready for that step, I don't think they should be allowed in. Otherwise, the academic society is brought down to the lowest common denominator.... What good would it do to register anybody in a class of higher algebra or calculus if they haven't learned to count? There has to be a standard. I don't feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves. Now, I'm not condoning slavery. It's just a fact of life, like the kid who gets infantile paralysis and has to wear braces so he can't play football with the rest of us. I will say this, though: I think any black who can compete with a white today can get a better break than a white man. I wish they'd tell me where in the world they have it better than right here in America. Wayne's son Ethan was billed as John Ethan Wayne in a few films and played one of the leads in the 1990s update of the Adam-12 television series.

His stormiest divorce was from Esperanza Baur, a former Mexican actress. She convinced herself that Wayne and co-star Gail Russell were having an affair. The night the film Angel and the Badman (1947) wrapped, there was the usual party for cast and crew, and Wayne came home very late. Esperanza was in a drunken rage by the time he arrived, and she attempted to shoot him as he walked through the front door. The only time he unintentionally appeared on film without it was for a split second in North to Alaska. On the first punch of the climactic fistfight, Wayne's hat flies off, revealing a brief flash of his unadorned scalp. Wayne also has several scenes in The Wings of Eagles where he is without his hairpiece. (During a widely noted appearance at Harvard University, Wayne was asked by a student, "Is your hair real?" Wayne responded in the affirmative, then added, "It's not mine, but it's real!")

Wayne had several high-profile affairs, including one with Marlene Dietrich that lasted for three years. In the years prior to his death, Wayne was romantically involved with his former secretary Pat Stacy (1941–1995).

Wayne biographer Michael Munn writes of Wayne's love of alcohol.

John Wayne's height has been perennially described as at least 6'4" (193 cm), but claims abound that he was shorter. However, Wayne's high school athletic records indicate he was 6'3" at age 17, and his University of Southern California athletic records state that by age 18, he had grown to 6'4".

Death

Although he enrolled in a cancer vaccine study in an attempt to ward off the disease, John Wayne died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979, at the UCLA Medical Center, and was interred in the Pacific View Memorial Park cemetery in Corona del Mar. According to his son Patrick, he converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before his death. He requested his tombstone read "Feo, Fuerte y Formal", a Mexican epitaph Wayne described as meaning "ugly, strong and dignified". However, the grave, unmarked for twenty years, is now marked with a quotation from his controversial 1971 Playboy interview: "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."

Among the 220 or so cast and crew who filmed the 1956 film, The Conqueror, on location near St. George, Utah, ninety-one had come down with cancer (41%), including stars Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead, and director Dick Powell. The film was shot in Southwestern Utah, east of and generally downwind from where the U.S. Government had tested nuclear weapons in Southeastern Nevada, and many contend that radioactive fallout from these tests contaminated the film location and poisoned the film crew working there. Despite the suggestion that Wayne’s 1964 lung cancer and his 1979 stomach cancer resulted from this nuclear contamination, he himself believed his lung cancer to have been a result of his six-pack-a-day cigarette habit. The effect of nuclear fallout on The Conqueror's cast and crew, and particularly on Wayne, is the subject of James Morrow's science-fiction short story Martyrs of the Upshot Knothole.

Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom

John Wayne's enduring status as an iconic American was formally recognized by the United States Congress on May 26, 1979, when he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Hollywood figures and American leaders from across the political spectrum, including Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Mike Frankovich, Katharine Hepburn, General and Mrs. Omar Bradley, Gregory Peck, Robert Stack, James Arness, and Kirk Douglas, testified to Congress of the merit and deservedness of this award. Most notable was the testimony of Robert Aldrich, then president of the Directors Guild of America: "It is important for you to know that I am a registered Democrat and, to my knowledge, share none of the political views espoused by Duke. However, whether he is ill disposed or healthy, John Wayne is far beyond the normal political sharp shooting in this community. Because of his courage, his dignity, his integrity, and because of his talents as an actor, his strength as a leader, his warmth as a human being throughout his illustrious career, he is entitled to a unique spot in our hearts and minds. In this industry, we often judge people, sometimes unfairly, by asking whether they have paid their dues. John Wayne has paid his dues over and over, and I'm proud to consider him a friend and am very much in favor of my Government recognizing in some important fashion the contribution that Mr. Wayne has made."

Maureen O'Hara, Wayne's close friend, initiated the petition for the medal and requested the words that would be placed onto the medal: "It is my great honor to be here. I beg you to strike a medal for Duke, to order the President to strike it. And I feel that the medal should say just one thing, 'John Wayne, American.'" The medal crafted by the United States Mint has on one side John Wayne riding on horseback, and the other side has a portrait of Wayne with the words, "John Wayne, American." This Congressional Gold Medal was presented to the family of John Wayne in a ceremony held on March 6, 1980, at the United States Capitol. Copies were made and sold in large numbers to the public.

On June 9, 1980, Wayne was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter (at whose inaugural ball Wayne had appeared "as a member of the loyal opposition", as Wayne described it in his speech to the gathering). Thus Wayne received the two highest civilian decorations awarded by the United States government.

American icon

, California]]

Wayne rose beyond the typical recognition for a famous actor to that of an enduring icon who symbolized and communicated American values and ideals. By the middle of his career, Wayne had developed a larger-than-life image, and as his career progressed, he selected roles that would not compromise his off-screen image. By the time of his last film The Shootist (1976), Wayne refused to allow his character to shoot a man in the back as was originally scripted, saying "I've made over 250 pictures and have never shot a guy in the back. Change it."

Wayne's rise to being the quintessential movie war hero began to take shape four years after World War II when Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) was released. His footprints at Grauman's Chinese theater in Hollywood were laid in cement that contained sand from Iwo Jima. His status grew so large and legendary that when Japanese Emperor Hirohito visited the United States in 1975, he asked to meet John Wayne, the symbolic representation of his country's former enemy.

Wayne was a popular visitor to the war zones in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. By the 1950s, perhaps in large part due to the military aspect of films such as the Sands of Iwo Jima, Flying Tigers, They Were Expendable, and the Ford cavalry trilogy, Wayne had become an icon to all the branches of the U.S. Military, even in light of his actual lack of military service. Many veterans have said their reason for serving was in some part related to watching Wayne's movies. His name is attached to various pieces of gear, such as the P-38 "John Wayne" can-opener, so named because "it can do anything," paper towels known as "John Wayne Toilet Paper" because "it's rough and it's tough and don't take shit off no one," and C-Ration crackers are called "John Wayne crackers" because presumably only someone as tough as Wayne could eat them. A rough and rocky mountain pass used by army tanks and jeeps at Fort Irwin in San Bernardino County, California, is aptly named "John Wayne Pass."

Various public locations have been named in memory of John Wayne. They include John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, where his nine-foot bronze statue graces the entrance; the John Wayne Marina near Sequim, Washington; John Wayne Elementary School (P.S. 380) in Brooklyn, NY, which boasts a 38-foot mosaic mural commission by New York artist Knox Martin entitled "John Wayne and the American Frontier"; and a 100-plus-mile trail named the "John Wayne Pioneer Trail" in Washington state's Iron Horse State Park. A larger than life-size bronze statue of Wayne atop a horse was erected at the corner of La Cienega Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California at the former offices of the Great Western Savings & Loan Corporation, for whom Wayne had done a number of commercials. (The building now houses Larry Flynt Enterprises.)

In the city of Maricopa, Arizona, part of AZ State Highway 347 is named John Wayne Parkway, which runs right through the center of town.

On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Wayne into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.

Celebrations and landmarks

Several celebrations took place on May 26, 2007, the centennial of John Wayne's birth.

At the Birthplace of John Wayne in Winterset, Iowa, the John Wayne Birthday Centennial Celebration was held on May 25–27, 2007. The celebration included chuck-wagon suppers, concerts by Michael Martin Murphey and Riders in the Sky, a Wild West Revue in the style of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, a Cowboy Symposium with John Wayne co-stars, Gregg Palmer, Ed Faulkner, and Dean Smith along with Paramount producer A.C. Lyles and costumer Luster Bayless were all there to talk about their friendships with Duke. They had cavalry and trick horse demonstrations as well as many of John Wayne's films running at the local theater.

This event also included the ground-breaking for the New John Wayne Birthplace Museum and Learning Center at his birthplace house. Over 30 family members were there including Melinda Wayne Munoz, Aissa, Ethan and Marisa Wayne. Several grandchildren and great-grandchildren were also present. An old gas station is being torn down to make way for the new museum. This groundbreaking was held with Ethan Wayne at the controls of the equipment.

In 2006, friends of Wayne's and his former Arizona business partner, Louis Johnson, inaugurated the "Louie and the Duke Classics" events benefiting the John Wayne Cancer Foundation and the American Cancer Society. The weekend long event each fall in Casa Grande, Arizona includes a golf tournament, an auction of John Wayne memorabilia and a team roping competition".

*Wayne was approached by Mel Brooks to play the part of the Waco Kid in the film Blazing Saddles. After reading the script he said, "I can't be in this picture, it's too dirty ... but I'll be the first in line to see it."

*He reportedly had initially strongly considered taking the role of Major Reisman in The Dirty Dozen, even asking MGM to make changes to the script to accommodate him. But ultimately, he turned it down to make The Green Berets. The role went to Lee Marvin.

*Wayne had lobbied to play the lead in Dirty Harry, but Warner Bros. felt that at age 63, he was too old for the role. The role eventually went to Clint Eastwood.

*Prior to his death, Wayne had bought the film rights to Buddy Atkinson's novel, Beau John, and was in the pre-production stage of the movie when he took ill. The film was a comedy set in Kentucky during the 1920s, and would have co-starred Ron Howard and Hal Linden.

Quotations

Movie quotations

"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them." (The Shootist)

Speaking to his young cavalry lieutenants: "Don't apologize—it's a sign of weakness." (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon)

"Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!" (True Grit)

"That'll be the day!" (The Searchers - Spoken several times; inspired Buddy Holly to write a song with that title.)

"Pilgrim." (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - Reportedly he used the expression "Pilgrim", as in "tenderfoot" or "dude" or "amateur", 23 times in that film, and once also in McLintock!. It became a catchphrase for impressionists such as John Byner, and Rich Little)

"I haven't lost my temper in 40 years; but, Pilgrim, you caused a lot of trouble this morning; might have got somebody killed; and somebody oughta belt you in the mouth. But I won't. I won't. The hell I won't!" (He belts him in the mouth). (To Leo Gordon in McLintock!)

"Out here, due process is a bullet!" (To anti-war journalist David Janssen in The Green Berets)

"Not hardly!" (Big Jake - used several times throughout the movie when told by others "Jacob McCandles?! I thought you were dead!")

"It's a hard life!" (The Cowboys - in response to "The 'long-haired man'" played by Bruce Dern saying "You're a hard man!")

"Were burning daylight" ( The Cowboys )

Famous quotations outside the movies

"I eat as much as I ever did, I drink more than I should, and my sex life is none of your goddamned business." (May 1971, Playboy interview)

"If I had known this, I would've put that patch on thirty-five years earlier." (1969, Academy Awards speech for Best Actor in True Grit.)

"We had a pretty good time together, when she wasn't trying to kill me!" (1954, in an interview with Hedda Hopper regarding his marriage to Esperanza "Chata" Baur.)

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry. Wayne was nominated for three competitive awards and won once.

Actor

{| | The winner for each year is in bold face text against a | bgcolor="yellow" | yellow | background. |}

{| class="wikitable" |- | align=center colspan="2"| - 1949 - Best Actor | width=3px bgcolor=silver rowspan=0"| | align=center colspan="2"| - 1969 - Best Actor |- ! Actor ! Film ! Actor ! Film |- | bgcolor=yellow|Broderick Crawford | bgcolor=yellow|All the King's Men {Best Picture} | Richard Burton | Anne of the Thousand Days |- | Kirk Douglas | Champion | Dustin Hoffman | Midnight Cowboy {Best Picture} |- | Gregory Peck | Twelve O'Clock High | Peter O'Toole''' | Goodbye, Mr. Chips |- | Richard Todd | The Hasty Heart | Jon Voight''' | Midnight Cowboy {Best Picture} |- | John Wayne | Sands of Iwo Jima | bgcolor=yellow|John Wayne | bgcolor=yellow|True Grit |- |}

Producer

{| class=wikitable | align=center bgcolor=lightsteelblue colspan=2|- 1960 - |- ! Producer ! Film |- | Bernard Smith | Elmer Gantry |- | Jerry Wald | Sons and Lovers |- | John Wayne | The Alamo |- | bgcolor=yellow|Billy Wilder | bgcolor=yellow|The Apartment {Best Picture} |- | Fred Zinnemann | The Sundowners |}

Golden Globes

The Golden Globe Awards are presented annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) to recognize outstanding achievements in the entertainment industry, both domestic and foreign, and to focus wide public attention upon the best in motion pictures and television. Wayne won a competitive award and received the Cecil B. DeMille Award.

See also

List of film collaborations

Hall of Great Western Performers

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

The Red Scare

References

Further reading

Baur, Andreas, and Bitterli, Konrad. "Brave Lonesome Cowboy. Der Mythos des Westerns in der Gegenwartskunst oder: John Wayne zum 100. Geburtstag". Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg. Nuremberg 2007 ISBN 978-3-939738-15-2.

Roberts, Randy, and James S. Olson. John Wayne: American. New York: Free Press, 1995 ISBN 978-0029238370.

Campbell, James T. "Print the Legend: John Wayne and Postwar American Culture". Reviews in American History, Volume 28, Number 3, September 2000, pp. 465–477.

Shepherd, Donald, and Robert Slatzer, with Dave Grayson. Duke: The Life and Times of John Wayne. New York: Doubleday, 1985 ISBN 0-385-17893-X.

Carey, Harry Jr. A Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1994 ISBN 0-8108-2865-0.

Clark, Donald & Christopher Anderson. John Wayne's The Alamo: The Making of the Epic Film. New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1995 ISBN 0-8065-1625-9. (pbk.)

Eyman, Scott. Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999 ISBN 0-684-81161-8.

McCarthy, Todd. Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood. New York: Grove Press, 1997 ISBN 0-8021-1598-5.

Maurice Zolotow., Shooting Star: A Biography of John Wayne. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974 ISBN 0671829696.

Jim Beaver, "John Wayne". Films in Review, Volume 28, Number 5, May 1977, pp. 265–284.

McGivern, Carolyn. John Wayne: A Giant Shadow. Bracknell, England: Sammon, 2000 ISBN 0-9540031-0-1.

Davis, Ronald L. Duke: The Life and Times of John Wayne. University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. ISBN 0806133295.

Raab, Markus, Beautiful Hearts, Laughers at the World, Bowlers. Worldviews of the Late Western; in: Baur/Bitterli: Brave Lonesome Cowboy. Der Myhos des Westerns in der Gegenwartskunst oder: John Wayne zum 100. Geburtstag, Nuremberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-939738-15-2.

External links

John Wayne Cancer Foundation

John Wayne Cancer Institute

Birthplace of John Wayne official website

John Wayne walks into Stardom

The Duke

John Wayne Island

Awesome, and Then Some by Dick Cavett

More Awesomeness, or John Wayne Part 2 by Dick Cavett

Category:1907 births Category:1979 deaths Category:People from Winterset, Iowa Category:Former Presbyterians Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:California Republicans Category:John Birch Society members Category:Actors from Iowa Category:American anti-communists Category:American film actors Category:American football offensive linemen Category:American silent film actors Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Conservatism in the United States Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Calvinism Category:Deaths from stomach cancer Category:Film serial actors Category:Liberty Records artists Category:Lung cancer survivors Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:University of Southern California alumni Category:USC Trojans football players Category:Western (genre) film actors

Name	Jean Cocteau
Caption	Jean Cocteau in his 20s
Birth name	Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau
Birth date	July 05, 1889
Birth place	Maisons-Laffitte, France
Death date	October 11, 1963
Death place	Milly-la-Foret, France
Partner	Panama Al Brown(?) Jean Marais (1937–1963)

Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, playwright, artist and filmmaker. Along with other avant-garde artists of his generation (Jean Anouilh and René Char for example) Cocteau grappled with the algebra of verbal codes old and new, mise en scène language and technologies of modernism to create a paradox: a classical avant-garde. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María Félix, Édith Piaf (whom he cast in one of his one-act plays entitled Le Bel Indifferent in 1940), and Raymond Radiguet.

His work was played out in the theatrical world of the Grands Theatres, the Boulevards and beyond during the Parisian epoque he both lived through and helped define and create. His versatile, unconventional approach and enormous output brought him international acclaim.

Early life

Cocteau was born in Maisons-Laffitte, Yvelines, once a small village near Paris to Georges Cocteau and his wife Eugénie Lecomte, a prominent Parisian family. His father was a lawyer and amateur painter, who committed suicide when Cocteau was nine. He left home at age fifteen. Despite his achievements in virtually all literary and artistic fields, Cocteau insisted that he was primarily a poet and that all his work was poetry. He published his first volume of poems, Aladdin's Lamp, at nineteen. Soon Cocteau became known in the Bohemian artistic circles as 'The Frivolous Prince'—the title of a volume he published at twenty-two. Edith Wharton described him as a man "to whom every great line of poetry was a sunrise, every sunset the foundation of the Heavenly City..."

In his early twenties, Cocteau became associated with the writers Marcel Proust, André Gide, and Maurice Barrès. In 1912 he collaborated with Léon Bakst to produce Le Dieu bleu for the Ballets Russes – the principal dancers being Tamara Karsavina and Vaslav Nijinsky. During World War I Cocteau served in the Red Cross as an ambulance driver. This was the period in which he met the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, artists Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani, and numerous other writers and artists with whom he later collaborated. The Russian ballet-master Sergei Diaghilev challenged Cocteau to write a scenario for the ballet – "Astonish me," he urged. This resulted in Parade which was produced by Diaghilev, designed by Picasso, and composed by Erik Satie in 1917. An important exponent of Surrealism, he had great influence on the work of others, including the group of composer friends in Montparnasse known as Les six. The word Surrealism was coined, in fact, by Apollinaire in the prologue to Les Mamelles de Tirésias, a work begun in 1903 and completed in 1917 less than a year before he died. "If it had not been for Apollinaire in uniform," wrote Cocteau, "with his skull shaved, the scar on his temple and the bandage around his head, women would have gouged our eyes out with hairpins." Cocteau denied being a Surrealist or being in any way attached to the movement.

Friendship with Raymond Radiguet

In 1918 he met the French poet Raymond Radiguet. They collaborated extensively, socialized, and undertook many journeys and vacations together. Cocteau also got Radiguet exempted from military service. In admiration of Radiguet's great literary talent, Cocteau promoted his friend's works in his artistic circle and also arranged for the publication by Grasset of Le Diable au corps (a largely autobiographical story of an adulterous relationship between a married woman and a younger man), exerting his influence to have the novel awarded the "Nouveau Monde" literary prize. Some contemporaries and later commentators thought there might have been a romantic component to their friendship. Cocteau himself was aware of this perception, and worked earnestly to dispel the notion that their relationship was sexual in nature.

There is disagreement over Cocteau's reaction to Radiguet's sudden death in 1923, with some claiming that it left him stunned, despondent and prey to opium addiction. Opponents of that interpretation point out that he did not attend the funeral (he generally did not attend funerals) and immediately left Paris with Diaghilev for a performance of Les noces (The Wedding) by the Ballets Russes at Monte Carlo. Cocteau himself much later characterised his reaction as one of "stupor and disgust." His opium addiction at the time, Cocteau said, was only coincidental, due to a chance meeting with Louis Laloy, the administrator of the Monte Carlo Opera. Cocteau's opium use and his efforts to stop profoundly changed his literary style. His most notable book, Les Enfants terribles, was written in a week during a strenuous opium weaning. In Opium, Diary of an Addict, he recounts the experience of his recovery from opium addiction in 1929. His account, which includes vivid pen-and-ink illustrations, alternates between his moment-to-moment experiences of drug withdrawal and his current thoughts about people and events in his world.

The Human Voice

Cocteau's experiments with the human voice peaked with his play La Voix humaine. The story involves one woman on stage speaking on the telephone with her (invisible and inaudible) departing lover, who is leaving her to marry another woman. The telephone proved to be the perfect prop for Cocteau to explore his ideas, feelings, and "algebra" concerning human needs and realities in communication.

Cocteau acknowledged in the introduction to the script that the play was motivated, in part, by complaints from his actresses that his works were too writer/director-dominated and gave the players little opportunity to show off their full range of talents. La Voix humaine was written, in effect, as an extravagant aria for Madame Berthe Bovy. Before came Orphée, later turned into one of his more successful films; after came La Machine infernale, arguably his most fully realized work of art. La Voix humaine is deceptively simple—a woman alone on stage for almost one hour of non-stop theatre speaking on the telephone with her departing lover. It is, in fact, full of theatrical codes harking back to the Dadaists' Vox Humana experiments after World War One, Alphonse de Lamartine's "La Voix humaine", part of his larger work Harmonies poétiques et religieuses and the effect of the creation of the Vox Humana ("voix humaine"), an organ stop of the Regal Class by Church organ masters (late 16th century) that attempted to imitate the human voice but never succeeded in doing better than the sound of a male chorus at a distance.

Reviews varied at the time and since but whatever the critique, the play, in a nutshell, represents Cocteau's state of mind and feelings towards his actors at the time: on the one hand, he desired to spoil and please them; on the other, he was fed up by their diva antics and was ready for revenge. It is also true that none of Cocteau's works has inspired as much imitation: Francis Poulenc's opera La Voix humaine, Gian Carlo Menotti's "opera bouffa" The Telephone and Roberto Rosselini's film version in Italian with Anna Magnani L'Amore (1948). There has also been a long line of interpreters including Simone Signoret, Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullmann (in the play) and Julia Migenes (in the opera).

According to one theory about how Cocteau was inspired to write La Voix humaine, he was experimenting with an idea by fellow French playwright Henri Bernstein. "When, in 1930, the Comedie-Française produced his La Voix humaine... Cocteau disavowed both literary right and literary left, as if to say, 'I'm standing as far right as Bernstein, in his very place, but it is an optical illusion: the avant-garde is spheroid and I've gone farther left than anyone else.'"

Maturity

In the 1930s, Cocteau had an affair with Princess Natalie Paley, the beautiful daughter of a Romanov grand duke and herself a sometimes actress, model, and former wife of couturier Lucien Lelong. She became pregnant. To Cocteau's distress and Paley's life-long regret, the fetus was aborted. Cocteau's longest-lasting relationships were with the French actors Jean Marais and Edouard Dermithe, whom Cocteau formally adopted. Cocteau cast Marais in The Eternal Return (1943), Beauty and the Beast (1946), Ruy Blas (1947), and Orpheus (1949).

In 1940, Le Bel Indifférent, Cocteau's play written for and starring Édith Piaf, was enormously successful. He also worked with Pablo Picasso on several projects and was friends with most of the European art community. Cocteau's films, most of which he both wrote and directed, were particularly important in introducing Surrealism into French cinema and influenced to a certain degree the upcoming French New Wave genre.

Cocteau is best known for his novel Les Enfants terribles (1929), and the films Les Parents terribles (1948), Beauty and the Beast (1946), and Orpheus (1949).

Cocteau died of a heart attack at his chateau in Milly-la-Forêt, Essonne, France, on 11 October 1963 at the age of 74. It is said that upon hearing of the death of his friend, the French singer Édith Piaf the same day, he choked so badly that his heart failed. He is buried beneath the floor of the Chapelle Saint Blaise Des Simples in Milly-la-Forêt. The epitaph on his gravestone set in the floor of the chapel reads: "I stay with you" ("Je reste avec vous").

Honours and awards

In 1955 Cocteau was made a member of the Académie française and The Royal Academy of Belgium.

During his life Cocteau was commander of the Legion of Honor, Member of the Mallarmé Academy, German Academy (Berlin), American Academy, Mark Twain (U.S.A) Academy, Honorary President of the Cannes film festival, Honorary President of the France-Hungary Association and President of the Jazz Academy and of the Academy of the Disc.

Filmography

Le Sang d'un poète (The Blood of a Poet) (1930)

L'Éternel Retour (The Eternal Return) (1943)

La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) (1946)

L'Aigle à deux têtes (The Eagle with Two Heads) (1948)

Les Parents terribles (The Storm Within) (1948)

Coriolan (1950) never released

Orphée (Orpheus) (1950)

La Villa Santo-Sospir (1952)

(1957) co-director, experimental film

Le Testament d'Orphée (The Testament of Orpheus) (1960)

Works

Literature

Each year links to its corresponding "[year] in literature" article, except for poetry and poetry criticism, which link to corresponding "[year] in poetry" articles.

, France]] ;Poetry

1909 La Lampe d'Aladin

1910 Le Prince frivole

1912 La Danse de Sophocle

1919 Ode à Picasso – Le Cap de Bonne-Espérance

1920 Escale. Poésies (1917–1920)

1922 Vocabulaire

1923 La Rose de François – Plain-Chant

1925 Cri écrit

1926 L'Ange Heurtebise

1927 Opéra

1934 Mythologie

1939 Énigmes

1941 Allégories

1945 Léone

1946 La Crucifixion

1948 Poèmes

1952 Le Chiffre sept – La Nappe du Catalan (en collaboration avec Georges Hugnet)

1953 Dentelles d'éternité – Appoggiatures

1954 Clair-obscur

1958 Paraprosodies

1961 Cérémonial espagnol du Phénix – La Partie d'échecs

1962 Le Requiem

1968 Faire-Part (posthume)

;Novels

1919: Le Potomak (definitive edition: 1924)

1923: Le Grand Écart – Thomas l'imposteur

1928: Le Livre blanc

1929: Les Enfants terribles

1940: La Fin du Potomak

;Theater

1917: Parade, ballet (music by Erik Satie, choreography by Léonide Massine)

1921: Les Mariés de la tour Eiffel (music by Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre)

1922: Antigone

1924: Roméo et Juliette

1925: Orphée

1930: ''La Voix humaine

1934: La Machine infernale

1936: L'École des veuves

1937: Œdipe-roi. Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde, premiere at the Théâtre Antoine

1938: Les Parents terribles, premiere at the Théâtre Antoine

1940: Les Monstres sacrés

1941: La Machine à écrire

1943: Renaud et Armide. L'Épouse injustement soupçonnée

1944: L'Aigle à deux têtes

1946: Le Jeune Homme et la Mort, ballet by Roland Petit

1948: Théâtre I and II

1951: Bacchus

1960: Nouveau théâtre de poche

1962: L'Impromptu du Palais-Royal

1971: Le Gendarme incompris (posthumous, in collaboration with Raymond Radiguet)

;Poetry and criticism

1918 Le Coq et l'Arlequin

1920 Carte blanche

1922 Le Secret professionnel

1926 Le Rappel à l'ordre – Lettre à Jacques Maritain

1930 Opium

1932 Essai de critique indirecte

1935 Portraits-Souvenir

1937 Mon premier voyage (Around the World in 80 Days)

1943 Le Greco

1947 Le Foyer des artistes – La Difficulté d'être

1949 Lettres aux Américains – Reines de la France

1951 Jean Marais – A Discussion about Cinematography (with André Fraigneau)

1952 Gide vivant

1953 Journal d'un inconnu. Démarche d'un poète

1955 Colette (Discourse on the reception at the Royal Academy of Belgium) – Discourse on the reception at the Académie française

1956 Discours d'Oxford

1957 Entretiens sur le musée de Dresde (with Louis Aragon) – La Corrida du 1er mai

1950: Poésie critique I

1960: Poésie critique II

1962 Le Cordon ombilical

1963 La Comtesse de Noailles, oui et non

1964 Portraits-Souvenir (posthumous ; A discussion with Roger Stéphane)

1965 Entretiens avec André Fraigneau (posthumous)

1973 Jean Cocteau par Jean Cocteau (posthumous ; A discussion with William Fielfield)

1973 Du cinématographe (posthumous). Entretiens sur le cinématographe (posthumous)

;Journalistic poetry

1935–1938 (posthumous)

Film

;Director

1925 : Jean Cocteau fait du cinéma

1930 : Le Sang d'un poète

1946 : La Belle et la Bête

1948 : L'Aigle à deux têtes

1948 : Les Parents terribles

1950 : Orphée

1950 : Coriolan

1952 : La Villa Santo-Sospir

1955 : L'Amour sous l'électrode

1957 :

1960 : Le Testament d'Orphée

;Scriptwriter

1943 : L'Éternel Retour directed byJean Delannoy

1948 : Ruy Blas directed by Pierre Billon

1950 : Les Enfants terribles directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, script by Jean Cocteau based on his novel

1951 : La Couronne Noire directed by Luis Saslavsky

1961 : La Princesse de Clèves directed by Jean Delannoy

1965 : Thomas l'imposteur directed by Georges Franju, script by Jean Cocteau based on his novel

;Dialogue writer

1943 : Le Baron fantôme (+ actor) directed by Serge de Poligny

1961 : La Princesse de Clèves directed by Jean Delannoy

1965 : Thomas l'imposteur directed by Georges Franju

;Director of Photography

1950 : Un chant d'amour réalisé par Jean Genet

Poetry illustrator

1924 : Dessins

1925 : Le Mystère de Jean l'oiseleur

1926 : Maison de santé

1929 : 25 dessins d'un dormeur

1935 : 60 designs for Les Enfants Terribles

1941 : Drawings in the margins of Chevaliers de la Table ronde

1948 : Drôle de ménage

1957 : La Chapelle Saint-Pierre, Villefranche-sur-Mer

1958 : La Salle des mariages, City Hall of Menton – La Chapelle Saint-Pierre (lithographies)

1959 : Gondol des morts

1960 : Chapelle Saint-Blaise-des-Simples, Milly-la-Forêt

1960 : Windows of the Église Saint-Maximin de Metz

Recordings

Colette par Jean Cocteau, discours de réception à l'Académie Royale de Belgique'', Ducretet-Thomson 300 V 078 St.

Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel and Portraits-Souvenir, La Voix de l'Auteur LVA 13

Plain-chant by Jean Marais, extracts from the piece Orphée by Jean-Pierre Aumont, Michel Bouquet, Monique Mélinand, Les Parents terribles by Yvonne de Bray and Jean Marais, L'Aigle à deux têtes par Edwige Feuillère and Jean Marais, L'Encyclopédie Sonore 320 E 874, 1971

Collection of three vinyl recordings of Jean Cocteau including La Voix humaine by Simone Signoret, 18 songs composed by Louis Bessières, Bee Michelin and Renaud Marx, on double-piano Paul Castanier, Le Discours de réception à l'Académie Française, Jacques Canetti JC1, 1984

Derniers propos à bâtons rompus avec Jean Cocteau, 16 September 1963 à Milly-la-Forêt, Bel Air 311035

Les Enfants terribles, radio version with Jean Marais, Josette Day, Silvia Monfort and Jean Cocteau, CD Phonurgia Nova ISBN 2-908325-07-1, 1992

Anthology, 4 CD containing numerous poems and texts read by the author, Anna la bonne, La Dame de Monte-Carlo and Mes sœurs, n'aimez pas les marins by Marianne Oswald, Le Bel Indifférent by Edith Piaf, La Voix humaine by Berthe Bovy, Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel with Jean Le Poulain, Jacques Charon and Jean Cocteau, discourse on the reception at the Académie française, with extracts from Les Parents terribles, La Machine infernale, pieces from Parade on piano with two hands by Georges Auric and Francis Poulenc, Frémeaux & Associés FA 064, 1997

Poems by Jean Cocteau read by the author, CD EMI 8551082, 1997

Hommage à Jean Cocteau, mélodies d'Henri Sauguet, Arthur Honegger, Louis Durey, Darius Milhaud, Erik Satie, Jean Wiener, Max Jacob, Francis Poulenc, Maurice Delage, Georges Auric, Guy Sacre, by Jean-François Gardeil (baryton) and Billy Eidi (piano), CD Adda 581177, 1989

Le Testament d'Orphée, journal sonore, by Roger Pillaudin, 2 CD INA / Radio France 211788, 1998

Journals

1946 La Belle et la Bête (film journal)

1949 Maalesh (journal of a stage production)

1983 Le Passé défini (posthumous)

1989 Journal, 1942–1945

Stamps

Marianne de Cocteau, 1960

Bibliography

Cocteau, Jean, Le Coq et l'Arlequin: notes autour de la musique – avec un portrait de l'auteur et deux monogrammes par P. Picasso, Paris, Éditions de la Sirène, 1918

Cocteau, Jean, Le Grand Écart, 1923, his first novel

Cocteau, Jean, Le Numéro Barbette, an influential essay on the nature of art inspired by the performer Barbette, 1926

Cocteau, Jean, The Human Voice, translated by Carl Wildman, Vision Press Ltd., Great Britain, 1947

Cocteau, Jean, The Eagle Has Two Heads, adapted by Ronald Duncan, Vision Press Ltd., Great Britain, 1947

Cocteau, Jean, "Bacchus". Paris: Gallimard, 1952.

Cocteau, Jean, The Holy Terrors (Les Enfants terribles), translated by Rosamond Lehmann, New Directions. New York, 1957

Cocteau, Jean, Opium: The Diary of a Cure, translated by Margaret Crosland and Sinclair Road, Grove Press Inc., New York, 1958

Cocteau, Jean, The Infernal Machine And Other Plays, translated by W.H. Auden, E.E. Cummings, Dudley Fitts, Albert Bermel, Mary C. Hoeck, and John K. Savacool, New Directions Books, New York, 1963

Cocteau, Jean, Toros Muertos, along with Lucien Clergue and Jean Petit, Brussel & Brussel,1966

Cocteau, Jean, The Art of Cinema, edited by André Bernard and Claude Gauteur, translated by Robin Buss, Marion Boyars, London, 1988

Cocteau, Jean, Diary of an Unknown, translated by Jesse Browner, Paragon House Publishers, New York, 1988

Cocteau, Jean, The White Book (Le Livre blanc), sometimes translated as The White Paper, translated by Margaret Crosland, City Lights Books, San Francisco, 1989

Cocteau, Jean, Les Parents terribles, new translation by Jeremy Sams, Nick Hern Books, London, 1994

Footnotes

References

Breton, André (1953). La Clé des champs, p. 77. Paris: Éditions du Sagittaire.

Steegmuller, Francis, Cocteau: A Biography, Atlantic-Little, Brown, Boston, 1970.

Crucifixion translated into Bengali by Malay Roy Choudhury

Further reading

Arthur B. Evans, Jean Cocteau and his Films of Orphic Identity. Philadelphia: Art Alliance Press, 1977.

Cornelia A. Tsakiridou, ed. Reviewing Orpheus: Essays on the Cinema and Art of Jean Cocteau. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1997.

External links

Original Edition of Ceramics by Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau website

Cocteau/cinema Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)

Cocteau CMEF Cap d'Ail

Cocteau et La chapelle Saint-Blaise-des-Simples

Jean Cocteau, Filmmaker

Raquel Bitton: 'The Sparrow and the Birdman', a drama focusing on the relationship of Cocteau to Edith Piaf

Category:1889 births Category:1963 deaths Category:Ballet librettists Category:Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:French dramatists and playwrights Category:French experimental filmmakers Category:French fantasy writers Category:French film directors Category:French illustrators Category:French novelists Category:French painters Category:French poets Category:French screenwriters Category:Surrealist filmmakers Category:Les six Category:LGBT directors Category:LGBT screenwriters Category:LGBT writers from France Category:Members of the Académie française Category:People from Maisons-Laffitte Category:Prince des poètes Category:Priory of Sion hoax Category:Surrealist writers

Name	Rev. Billy Graham
Caption	Billy Graham at a Crusade.
Birth name	William Franklin Graham Jr.
Birth date	November 07, 1918
Birth place	Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
Residence	Montreat, North Carolina, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Evangelist
Religion	Evangelical Christian
Denomination	Southern Baptist
Spouse	(her death)
Children	Franklin, Nelson, Virginia, Anne and Ruth
Website	BillyGraham.org
Signature	Billy Graham Signature.svg

Church	Christianity (Baptist)
Education	Diploma in Biblical Studies, Florida Bible Institute (Trinity Bible College), 1940 B.A. Wheaton College, 1943
Offices held	President, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. KBE (born November 7, 1918) is an American evangelical Christian reverend/evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States presidents going back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for the 20th century. He is a Southern Baptist. He rose to celebrity status as his sermons were broadcast on radio and television.

It is said that Graham has preached in person to more people around the world than any other preacher in history. According to his staff, as of 1993 more than 2.5 million people have "stepped forward at his crusades to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior", many to the altar call song "Just As I Am". As of 2008, Graham's lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion. However, he was turned down for membership in a local youth group because he was "too worldly". After graduating from Sharon High School in May 1936, Graham attended Bob Jones College (now Bob Jones University), then located in Cleveland, Tennessee, for one semester but found it too legalistic in both coursework and rules. They married two months after graduation and later lived in a log cabin designed by Ruth in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Montreat, North Carolina. and Nelson "Ned" Graham (b.1958; a pastor who runs East Gates International, which distributes Christian literature in China). Graham has 19 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren. Grandson Tullian Tchividjian is senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

As a guard against even the appearance of wrongdoing Graham had a policy that he would never be alone with a woman, other than his wife Ruth. This has come to be known as the Billy Graham Rule. Rev. Rick Warren and NFL quarterback Kurt Warner have claimed to follow the rule. Warner wrote in his book that he first applied the Billy Graham Rule in his marriage by not driving the babysitter home alone.

Ministry

Beginning

Graham transferred in January 1937 from Bob Jones College to Florida Bible Institute, and then finally to Wheaton College in 1939. Graham attended Wheaton College from 1939 to 1943, when he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology. While attending college, he became pastor of the United Gospel Tabernacle and also had other preaching engagements.

Graham served briefly as pastor of the Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois, not far from Wheaton, in 1943-44. While there, his friend Torrey Johnson, pastor of the Midwest Bible Church in Chicago, told Graham that his radio program "Songs in the Night" was about to be canceled for lack of funding. Consulting with the members of his church in Western Springs, Graham decided to take over Johnson's program with financial support from his parishioners. Launching the new radio program on January 2, 1944, still called Songs in the Night, Graham recruited the baritone George Beverly Shea as his director of radio ministry. While the radio ministry continued for many years, Graham decided to move on in early 1945, and in 1947, at age 30, he became the youngest person to serve as a sitting college president during his tenure at Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Graham served as the president of Northwestern College from 1948 to 1952.

Initially, Graham intended to become a chaplain in the armed forces, but shortly after applying for a commission contracted mumps. After a period of recuperation in Florida, Graham was hired as the first full time evangelist of the new Youth for Christ International (YFCI) which was co-founded by Torrey Johnson and evangelist Charles Templeton. He traveled throughout the United States and Europe as an evangelist for YFCI. Unlike many evangelists then and now, Graham had little formal theological training; when his friend Chuck Templeton urged him to join him in applying to Princeton Theological Seminary, Graham declined to do so. Graham's rise to national prominence is partly because of the assistance he received from news mogul William Randolph Hearst, whose interest in Graham was that he respected Graham for being his own person and following what he believed, though the two never met. Most observers believe that Hearst appreciated Graham's patriotism and appeals to youth and thought that Graham would be helpful in promoting Hearst's conservative anti-communist views. Hearst sent a telegram to his newspaper editors reading "Puff Graham" during Billy Graham's late 1949 Los Angeles crusade.

The increased media exposure from Hearst's newspaper chain and national magazines Graham said, "There is no scriptural basis for segregation… The ground at the foot of the cross is level, and it touches my heart when I see whites standing shoulder to shoulder with blacks at the cross." He appeared as a guest on a 1969 Woody Allen television special, where he joined the comedian in a witty exchange on theological matters. During the Cold War, Graham became the first evangelist of note to speak behind the Iron Curtain, addressing large crowds in countries throughout Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, calling for peace. During the Apartheid era, Graham consistently refused to visit South Africa until its government allowed attending audiences to sit desegregated. His first crusade there was in 1973, during which he openly denounced apartheid. In 1984, he led a series of summer meetings in the United Kingdom, called Mission England, using outdoor football grounds as venues.

Graham was interested in fostering evangelism around the world. In 1983, 1986 and 2000 he sponsored, organized and paid for massive training conferences for Christian evangelists from around the world; with the largest representations of nations ever held until that time. Over 157 nations were gathered in 2000 at the RAI Convention Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

At one revival in Seoul, South Korea, Graham attracted more than one million people to a single service. Novelist Patricia Cornwell, a family friend, also opposed burial at the library, calling it a tourist attraction. Franklin wanted his parents to be buried at the library site.

In April, 2010, Graham, at 91 and with substantial vision and hearing loss, made a rare public appearance at the re-dedication of the renovated Billy Graham Library. Graham's grandson, Will Graham told reporters that his grandfather has "got a lot more energy and he's talking about preaching one more time," stating that it would probably be a televised event rather than a stadium crusade.

Politics

Politically, Graham was a registered member of the Democratic Party. He leaned Republican during the presidency of Richard Nixon.

Pastor to presidents

and first lady Nancy Reagan greet Graham at the National Prayer Breakfast of 1981]] Graham has had a personal audience with many sitting US Presidents from Harry S Truman to Barack Obama. He visited in the Oval Office with Truman in 1950, urging him to counter communism in North Korea. However, Graham and his accompanying pastors were not aware of Washington protocol; they appeased the press corps waiting outside with details of the visit, with the three pastors even acquiescing to the calls of the press to kneel on the White House lawn, as if praying.

This led to Truman calling Graham a "counterfeit" publicity seeker, and Truman did not speak to Graham for years afterward. Graham also counseled Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and the Bush family. Graham enjoyed a friendship with Nixon and prominently supported him over Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.

As with other presidents in the past, Graham met with former President George W. Bush during December 2010, for a tour of his library.

Foreign policy views

Graham has been outspoken against communism and supportive of U.S. Cold War policy, including the Vietnam War. However, in a 1999 speech, Graham discussed his relationship with the late North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung, praising him as a "different kind of communist" and "one of the great fighters for freedom in his country against the Japanese." Graham went on to note that although he had never met Kim's son and current North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, he had "exchanged gifts with him." Graham has given a globe surmounted with doves to the North Korean Friendship Museum.

During a March 12, 1991, CBS broadcast of Billy Graham's Long Island, New York crusade, Graham said in reference to the Persian Gulf War, "As our President, President Bush, has said, it is not the people of Iraq we are at war with. It is some of the people in that regime. Pray for peace in the Middle East, a just peace." Graham had earlier said that "there come times when we have to fight for peace." He went on to say that out of the war in the Gulf may "come a new peace and, as suggested by the President, a new world order."

Controversy

Discussion of Jews with Nixon

In 2002, declassified "Richard Nixon tapes" confirmed remarks made by Graham to President Nixon three decades earlier. Captured on the tapes, Graham agreed with Nixon that Jews control the American media, calling it a "stranglehold" during a 1972 conversation with Nixon. These remarks were characterized as anti-Semitic by Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League

When the tapes were publicly released, Graham stated, "[A]lthough I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply regret comments I apparently made... They do not reflect my views, and I sincerely apologize for any offense caused by the remarks," and "If it wasn't on tape, I would not have believed it. I guess I was trying to please... I went to a meeting with Jewish leaders and I told them I would crawl to them to ask their forgiveness." According to Newsweek magazine, "[T]he shock of the revelation was magnified because of Graham's longtime support of Israel and his refusal to join in calls for conversion of the Jews."

Awards and honors

Graham has frequently been honored by surveys, including "Greatest Living American" and has consistently ranked among the most admired persons in the United States and the world.

In 1967, he was the first Protestant to receive an honorary degree from Belmont Abbey College, a Roman Catholic school.

In 1971, Graham received an award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. After the Nixon tapes were released, Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League called for Graham to return the award. He was honored by the American Jewish Committee with its National Interreligious Award for his efforts on behalf of Jewish-Christian relations; the committee called him one of the century's greatest Christian friends of Jews.

President Bill Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole awarded Graham the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in 1996.

On May 30, 1999, Graham was invited to give the pre-race invocation at the Indianapolis 500.

In December 2001, he was presented with an honorary knighthood, Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), for his international contributions to civic and religious life over 60 years.

On May 31, 2007, the $27 million Billy Graham Library was officially dedicated in Charlotte. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton appeared to celebrate with Graham. A highway in Charlotte bears Graham's name. Singer Michael W. Smith is active in Billy Graham Crusades as well as Samaritan's Purse.

In 2000, former First Lady Nancy Reagan presented the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award to Graham. Graham has been a friend of the Reagans for years.

Graham received the Big Brother of the Year Award for his work on behalf of children. He has been cited by the George Washington Carver Memorial Institute for his contributions to race relations. He has received the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion and the Sylvanus Thayer Award for his commitment to "Duty, Honor, Country". The "Billy Graham Children's Health Center" in Asheville is named after and funded by Graham. Graham has yet to comment on the film, but his son, Franklin released a critical statement on August 18, 2008, noting that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association "has not collaborated with nor does it endorse the movie." Graham's eldest daughter Gigi, however, has praised the movie and has also been hired as a consultant to help promote the film.

Books authored

Graham has authored the following books:

Calling Youth to Christ (1947)

America's Hour of Decision (1951)

I Saw Your Sons at War (1953)

Peace with God (1953, 1984)

Freedom from the Seven Deadly Sins (1955)

The Secret of Happiness (1955, 1985)

Billy Graham Talks to Teenagers (1958)

My Answer (1960)

Billy Graham Answers Your Questions (1960)

World Aflame (1965)

The Challenge (1969)

The Jesus Generation (1971)

Angels: God's Secret Agents (1975, 1985)

How to Be Born Again (1977)

The Holy Spirit (1978)

Till Armageddon (1981)

Approaching Hoofbeats (1983)

A Biblical Standard for Evangelists (1984)

Unto the Hills (1986)

Facing Death and the Life After (1987)

Answers to Life's Problems (1988)

Hope for the Troubled Heart (1991)

Storm Warning (1992)

Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham (1997, 2007)

Hope for Each Day (2002)

The Key to Personal Peace (2003)

Living in God's Love: The New York Crusade (2005)

The Journey: How to Live by Faith in an Uncertain World (2006)

Notes

References

External links

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

Billy Graham Training Center

Billy Graham Multimedia Center (Including sermons)

Billy Graham's impact on Britain Christianity magazine

Streaming video clip from 1957 event in Times Square

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Newsroom

Listen to Billy Graham Sermons

TED Talks: Billy Graham on technology, faith and suffering at TED in 1998

Oral History Interview with Billy Graham, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library

Financial summary of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

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