Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (born November twenty two, 1984) is associate degree yank thespian and singer. She was among the world’s highest-paid actresses from 2014 to 2016, has created multiple appearances within the Forbes Celebrity a hundred, and incorporates a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Born and raised in Manhattan, the big apple town, she aspired to be associate degree thespian from a young age, associate degreed initial appeared on stage in an off-Broadway play as a baby. Johansson created her film debut within the fantasy comedy North (1994) associate degreed was appointive for an freelance Spirit Award for Manny & Lo (1996). She gained additional recognition for her add The Horse utterer (1998) and Ghost World (2001).

Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 along with her performances in Lost in Translation (for that she won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress) and woman with a Pearl jewelry. She was appointive for four Golden Globe Awards for these films, associate degreed for taking part in an unloved stripling within the drama A Love Song for policeman Long (2004), and a seductress within the psychological adventure story point (2005). different films throughout this era embrace the mystery adventure story The status (2006) and therefore the comedy-drama Vicky Cristina metropolis (2008). She conjointly free 2 albums- anyplace I Lay My Head (2008) and divide (2009), each of that charted on the sign two hundred.

In 2010, Johansson debuted on Great White Way in a very revival of A read from the Bridge, that won her a Tony Award for Best Featured thespian. Later that year, she began representational process Latrodectus mactans within the Marvel medium Universe. She voiced associate degree intelligent pc OS within the 2013 comedy-drama Her, associate degreed compete an alien within the 2013 fantasy film below the Skin, and a girl with paranormal skills within the 2014 fantasy action Australopithecus afarensis. She was the highest-grossing thespian of 2016, and is additionally, as of might 2017, the highest-grossing thespian of all time in North America in nominal dollar terms.

As a figure, Johansson is taken into account a Hollywood sex image. She could be a distinguished celebrity whole endorser, and conjointly supports numerous charities and causes. She has been married doubly, to the Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds from 2008 to 2011 and therefore the French bourgeois Romain Dauriac (with whom she incorporates a daughter) from 2014 to 2017.

Early life

Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born within the Manhattan borough of latest House of York town, New York. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is associate degree designer originally from Kobenhavn, Denmark, and her paternal grandad, Ejner Johansson, was associate degree historiographer, scriptwriter and film maker, whose own father was Swedish. Scarlett’s mother, Melanie Sloan, a producer, comes from associate degree Israelite Jewish family, from Polska and Russia. She has associate degree older sister, Vanessa, conjointly associate degree actress; associate degree older brother, Adrian; and a twin brother, Hunter. Johansson conjointly has associate degree older stepbrother, Christian, from her father’s 1st wedding. She holds each yankee and Danish citizenship. The thespian may be a maternal niece of Phil Schlamberg, the last far-famed combat death of warfare II, WHO was the airplane pilot to Captain Krauthead Yellin.

Johansson attended postscript forty-one, associate degree school in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Her folks single once she was thirteen. Johansson was notably on the point of her maternal grannie, Dorothy Sloan, a comptroller and schoolteacher; they typically stayed along and Johansson thought-about Sloan her succor. fascinated by a career within the spotlight from associate degree early age, she typically placed on song-and-dance routines for her family. She was notably keen on musical and jazz hands. She took lessons in faucet dance, and states that her folks were corroboratory of her career selection. She describes her childhood as terribly normal.

As a child, Johansson practiced acting by staring within the mirror till she created herself cry, eager to be Garland in American stateet Me in St. Louis. At age seven, she was blasted once a agent signed one in all her brothers rather than her, however she later determined to become associate degree thespian anyway. She listed at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, and commenced auditioning for commercials, however shortly lost interest- “I did not need to push marvel Bread.” She shifted her focus to film and theater, creating her 1st stage look within the city district play false belief with Ethan Hawke, within which she had 2 lines. Around now, she began learning at skilled Children’s college (PCS), a non-public institution for aspiring kid actors in Manhattan. At age 9, Johansson created her film debut as John Ritter’s female offspring within the fantasy comedy North (1994). She says that once she was on the film set, she knew intuitively what to try and do. Johansson later vie minor roles together with because the female offspring of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw’s characters within the mystery adventure story simply Cause (1995), associate degreed an pupil in If Lucy Fell (1996).

Acting career

Early roles (1996–2002)

Johansson’s 1st leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant adolescent WHO runs off from her menage in Manny & Lo (1996) aboard Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews- one written for the port of entry Chronicle noted, ” grows on you, for the most part attributable to the charm of … Scarlett Johansson,” whereas critic Paddy LaSalle, writing for constant paper, commented on her “peaceful aura”, and believed, “If she will be able to get through pubescence therewith aura undisturbed, she might become a crucial actor.” Johansson attained a nomination for the freelance Spirit Award for Best Lead feminine for the role.

After showing in minor roles in Fall and residential Alone three (both 1997), Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance within the film The Horse verbaliser (1998), directed by player. The drama film, supported the 1995 novel of constant name by saint Evans, tells the story of a proficient trainer with a present for understanding horses, WHO is employed to assist associate degree burned adolescent contend by Johansson. The actor received associate degree “introducing” credit on this film, though it had been her seventh role. On Johansson’s maturity, thespian delineated her as “13 occurring 30”. Todd McCarthy of selection commented that Johansson “convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and therefore the inner pain of a carefree woman suddenly sick by atrocious happenstance”. For the film, she was appointed for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for many Promising actor. She believed that the film modified several things in her life, realizing that acting is that the ability to control one’s emotions. On finding smart roles as a young person, Johansson aforesaid it had been exhausting for her as adults wrote the scripts and that they “portray children like mall rats and not seriously … children and teenagers simply are not being depicted with any real depth”.

Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999) and within the neo-noir, Coen brothers film the person WHO Wasn’t There (2001). Her breakthrough came taking part in a misanthropic outcast in Terry Zwigoff’s comedy Ghost World (2001), associate degree adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ graphic novel of same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from big apple, and Zwigoff believed her to be “a distinctive, flake, and right for that part”. The film premiered at the 2001 city International Film Festival; it had been a box workplace failure, however has since developed a cult standing. Johansson was attributable with “sensitivity associate degreed talent belie her age” by an capital of Texas Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting actor for her performance.

With David Arquette, Johansson appeared within the horror comedy Eight legged Freaks (2002), a few assortment of spiders that ar exposed to waste, inflicting them to grow to mammoth proportions and start killing and harvest. once graduating from PCS that year, she applied to big apple University’s Tisch faculty of the Arts; she set to target her film career once she was rejected.

Transition to adult roles (2003–2004)

Johansson transitioned from young to adult roles with 2 films in 2003- the romantic comedy-drama Lost in Translation and therefore the drama lady with a Pearl jewellery. within the former, directed by Serdica film producer, she plays Charlotte, a listless and lonely young partner, opposite Bill Murray. film producer had 1st noticed Johansson in Manny & Lo, and compared her to a young Lauren Bacall; film producer based mostly the film’s story on the link between Bogart and Bacall within the huge Sleep (1946). Johansson found the expertise of operating with a feminine director completely different owing to Coppola’s ability to empathise along with her. created on a budget of $4 million, the film earned $119 million at the box workplace and received positive reviews. Roger Ebert was happy with the film and represented the lead performances as “wonderful”, and recreation Weekly wrote of Johansson’s “embracing, relaxing serenity”. The ny Times praised Johansson, then 18, for taking part in associate degree older character.

In Peter Webber’s lady with a Pearl jewellery, that is predicated on the novel of same name by role player Chevalier, Johansson compete Griet, a young 17th-century servant within the social unit of the Dutch painter Johannes old master (played by English actor Colin Firth). Webber interviewed a hundred and fifty actors before casting Johansson. Johansson found the character moving, however failed to scan the novel, as she thought it had been higher to approach the story with a opportunity. lady with a Pearl jewellery received positive reviews and was profitable. In his review for The American, Anthony Lane thought that her presence unbroken the film “alive”, writing, “She is usually mute and shut to plain onscreen, however await the ardor with that she will be able to summon a photo and bloom beneath its gaze; this can be her film, not Vermeer’s, all the approach.” Owen Gleiberman, of recreation Weekly noted her “nearly silent performance”, observing, “The interaction on her face of concern, ignorance, curiosity, and sex is extremely dramatic.” She was appointed for the BAFTA Award for Best role player in an exceedingly Leading Role and Golden Globe Awards for Best role player for each films in 2003, winning the previous for Lost in Translation.

In Variety’s opinion, Johansson’s roles in Lost in Translation and lady with a Pearl jewellery established her as among the foremost versatile actresses of her generation. Johansson had 5 releases in 2004, 3 of which—the young heist film the proper Score, the drama A Love Song for police officer Long, and therefore the drama a decent Woman—were essential and business failures. Co-starring with John Travolta, Johansson compete a restless and suspicious adolescent in an exceedingly Love Song for police officer Long, that is predicated on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. Variety’s David Rooney wrote that Johansson’s and Travolta’s portrayals reclaimed the film. Johansson earned a Golden Globe Award for Best role player in an exceedingly Drama nomination for the film.

In her fourth unharness in 2004, the live-action animated comedy The SpongeBob SquarePants moving-picture show, Johansson voiced blue blood Mindy, the girl of King Neptune. She took the half owing to her love for cartoons and therefore the Ren & Stimpy Show. The film was her most commercially victorious work that year. She followed it with In smart Company, a comedy-drama during which she complicates the lifetime of his father once she dates his a lot of younger boss. Reviews of the film were usually positive, describing it as “witty and charming”. Roger Ebert was affected with Johansson’s portrayal, writing that she “continues to use the attractive force pull of quiet fascination”.

Films with Woody Allen (2005–2009)

Johansson vie Nola, associate aspiring histrion World Health Organization begins associate affair with a partner (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in Woody Allen’s drama point in 2005. when commutation Kate Winslet with Johansson for the role, Allen modified the character’s position from British to yankee. As a lover of Allen’s films, Johansson likeable the concept of operating with him, however felt nervous her 1st day on the set. The ny Times was affected with Johansson and Rhys Meyers’ performances, and Mick Rene-Robert Cavelier, writing within the point of entry Chronicle, aforementioned that Johansson “is a powerhouse from the word go”, with a performance that “borders on astonishing”. The film, a box workplace success, attained Johansson nominations for the Golden Globe and therefore the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting histrion. conjointly that year, Johansson underwent a cutting out, when that she asterisked with Ewan McGregor in archangel Bay’s fantasy film The Island, in twin roles as wife Jordan and her clone, Jordan 2 Delta. Johansson found her photography schedule exhausting- she had to plan fourteen hours on a daily basis, and she or he hit her head and hurt herself. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $163 million against a $126 million budget.

Two of Johansson’s films in 2006 explored the planet of stage magicians, each opposite Hugh Jackman. Allen forged her opposite Jackman and himself within the film Scoop (2006), during which she vie a journalism student. The film was a modest worldwide box workplace success, however polarized critics. Ebert was crucial of the film, however found Johansson “lovely as always”, and Mick Rene-Robert Cavelier noted the freshness she delivered to her half. She conjointly appeared in Brian DE Palma’s The Black Dahlia pinnata, a movie noir shot in l. a. and Balkan nation. Johansson later aforementioned she was a devotee of DE Palma and had wished to figure with him on the film, however thought that she was unsuitable for the half. Anne Billson of The Daily Telegraph likewise found her cast. However, CNN aforementioned that she “takes to the nonwoody amount atmosphere as if it were oxygen”.

Also in 2006, Johansson asterisked within the short film once the Deal Goes right down to accompany Bob Dylan’s song “When the Deal Goes Down…” from the album times. Johansson had a supporting role of assistant and lover of Jackman’s character, associate blue magician, in St. Christopher Nolan’s mystery adventure story The status (2006). Nolan thought Johansson possessed “ambiguity” and “a protected quality”. She was fascinated with Nolan’s directive ways and likeable operating with him. The film was a crucial and box workplace success, suggested by the l. a. Times as “an adult, provocative piece of work”. Some critics were skeptical of her performance- Anne Billson found her cast, and Dan Jolin in Empire magazine criticized her English accent.

Johansson’s solely add 2007 was within the critically panned comedy-drama The Nanny Diaries aboard Chris Evans and Laura Linney, wherever she plays a university graduate operating as a nanny. Reviews of her performance were mixed; selection wrote, ” essays a fascinating heroine”, and therefore the New Yorker criticized her for trying “merely confused” whereas “trying to administer the fabric a plausible emotional center”. In 2008, Johansson asterisked, with Natalie Portman and Eric Bana, within the alternative Boleyn lady, that conjointly attained mixed reviews. Promoting the film, Johansson and Portman appeared on the duvet of W, discussing with the magazine the public’s reception of them. In Rolling Stone, Pete Travers criticized the film for ” in frustrating herks and jerks”, however thought that the couple were the sole positive facet of the assembly. selection attributable the forged as “almost perfect … at the highest of its game”, citing “Johansson’s quieter Madonna … because the emotional center”.

In her third collaboration with film producer, the romantic comedy-drama Vicky Cristina metropolis (2008), that was recorded in Kingdom of Spain, Johansson plays one among the love interests of Javier Bardem’s character aboard Penélope Cruz. The film was one among Allen’s most profitable and received favorable reviews. A reviewer in selection delineate Johansson as “open and malleable” compared to the opposite actors. She conjointly vie the Delilah slick Floss within the Spirit, supported the newspaper drawing of an equivalent name by can Eisner. It received poor reviews from critics, World Health Organization deemed it melodramatic, unoriginal, and sexist. Johansson’s solely role in 2009 was as Pakistani monetary unit Marks, a yoga educator, within the ensemble comedy-drama he is simply Not That Into You (2009). The film was discharged to lukewarm reviews, however was a box workplace success.

Marvel Cinematic Universe and stage roles (2010–2013)

Johansson had aspired to look on Broadway since her childhood. She created her debut in a very 2010 revival of Arthur Miller’s drama A read from the Bridge. Set within the Nineteen Fifties, in AN Italian-American neighborhood in the big apple, it tells the tragic tale of Eddie (played by Liev Schreiber), World Health Organization has AN inappropriate love for his wife’s orphan kinswoman, Catherine (played by Johansson). once some reservations regarding enjoying a young character, Johansson united to the play once an acquaintance convinced her to require on the half. mountain Brantley of The the big apple Times wrote of Johansson’s performance that she “melts into her character thus totally that her nimbus of celebrity disappears”. Variety’s David Rooney was affected with the play and Johansson especially, describing her because the chief entertainer. She won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured player in a very Play. Some critics and Broadway actors criticized the award committee’s call to reward the work of thought Hollywood actors, together with Johansson. In response, she aforesaid that she understood the frustration, however had worked arduous for her accomplishments.

Johansson vie Latrodectus mactans in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man a pair of (2010), an area of the Marvel medium Universe (MCU). Before she secured the role, she coloured her hair red to win over Favreau that she was right for the half, and undertook stunt and strength coaching to organize for the role. Johannsson aforesaid the character resonated along with her, and he or she loved the superhero’s human traits. The film earned $623.9 million against its $200 million budget, and received typically positive reviews from critics, however she was principally criticized for her performance. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph and Matt Reuben Lucius Goldberg thought that she had very little to try and do however look engaging. In 2011, Johansson vie the role of Kelly, a zookeeper within the family film we have a tendency to Bought a menagerie aboard Matt friend. The film got principally favorable reviews, and Anne Billson praised Johansson for transportation depth to a rather uninteresting character. Johansson earned an adolescent selection Award for selection picture Actress- Drama nomination for her performance.

Johansson learned some Russian from a former teacher on the phone for her role of Latrodectus mactans within the Avengers (2012), another entry from the MCU. The film received principally positive reviews and poor several box workplace records, changing into the third highest-grossing film each within the u. s. and worldwide. For her performance, she was nominative for 2 teenaged selection Awards and 3 People’s selection Awards. Later that year, Johansson delineated the player Janet Leigh in Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock, a under-the-table drama regarding the creating of Alfred the Great Hitchcock’s 1960 film sick person. Roger Ebert wrote that Johansson didn’t look very like Leigh, however sent her spunk, intelligence, and sense of humor.

In Gregorian calendar month 2013, Johansson asterisked in a very Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Rob Ashford. Set within the Mississippi Delta, it examines the relationships among the family of massive dada (played by Ciarán Hinds), primarily between his son Brick (played by Benjamin Walker) and Maggie (played by Johansson). Her performance received mixed reviews. recreation Weekly’s Thom Geier wrote, “Scarlett Johansson brings a fierce fighting spirit” to her half, however Joe Dziemianowicz from Daily News referred to as her performance “alarmingly one-note”. The 2013 Sundance festival hosted the premiere of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut, Don Jon. during this romantic comedy-drama, she plays a girl metagrabolised by the pornography-addicted title character. Gordon-Levitt wrote the role for Johansson, World Health Organization had antecedently loved his acting work. The film received positive reviews and Johansson’s performance was highlighted by critics. Claudia Puig of USA these days thought-about it one in every of her best performances.

In 2013, Johansson voiced the character Samantha, AN intelligent pc software system, in Spike Jonze’s film Her, exchange Samantha Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe Morton within the role. The film premiered at the eighth Rome International festival, wherever Johansson won Best player; she was conjointly nominative for the Critics’ selection picture Award for Best Supporting Actress. Johansson was intimidated by the role’s quality, and regarded her recording sessions for the role difficult however liberating. Peter Travers believed Johansson’s voice within the film was “sweet, sexy, caring, artful, chilling award-worthy”. Time magazine’s Richard Corliss referred to as her performance “seductive and winning”, and Her was rated mutually of the most effective films of 2013. Johansson was forged within the role of AN alien World Health Organization preys on men in European nation in dessert apple Glazer’s fantasy picture beneath the Skin (2013). The film, AN adaptation of Michel Faber’s novel of an equivalent name, took 9 years to complete. For the role, she learned to drive a van ANd speak with an English accent. Johansson impermanent conversations with non-professional actors on the road, World Health Organization didn’t understand they were being recorded. it absolutely was free to typically positive reviews, with explicit praise for Johansson. Erin Whitney, writing for HuffPost, thought-about it her best performance so far, and noted that it absolutely was her 1st totally nude role. It earned Johansson a BIFA Award for Best Performance by AN player in a very British freelance Film nomination.

Recent work (2014–present)

Continuing her add the MCU, Johansson reprised her role as spider in Captain America- The Winter Soldier (2014). within the film, she joins forces with the title character (Chris Evans) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to uncover a conspiracy among S.H.I.E.L.D., whereas facing a mysterious assassin called the Winter Soldier. Johansson and Evans wrote their own dialogue for many scenes that they had along. Johansson was drawn to her character’s method of doing her job, using her female wiles and not her physical attractiveness. The film was a essential and business success, grossing over $714 million worldwide. Critic Odie Henderson saw “a real emotional shorthand at work, particularly from Johansson, United Nations agency is superb here”. The role earned her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting histrion nomination.

Johansson compete a supporting role within the film cook (2014), aboard Henry M. Robert Downey, Jr., Sofía Vergara, and director Jon Favreau. It grossed over $45 million at the box workplace and was well received by critics. The Chicago Sun-Times author Richard Roeper found the film “funny, kinky and perceptive, with a bounty of attention-grabbing supporting characters”. In Luc Besson’s fantasy action film Lucy (2014), Johansson marked because the title character, United Nations agency gains paranormal talents once a nootropic drug is absorbed into her blood. Besson mentioned the role with many actresses, and forged Johansson supported her sturdy reaction to the script and her discipline. Critics typically praised the film’s themes, visuals, and Johansson’s performance; some found the plot nonsensical. IGN’s Jim Vejvoda attributed the film’s success to her acting and Besson’s vogue. The film grossed $458 million against a budget of $40 million to become the eighteenth highest-grossing film of 2014.

In 2015 and 2016, Johansson once more compete spider within the MCU films Avengers- Age of Ultron and Captain America- warfare. throughout cinematography of the previous, a combination of close-ups, concealing costumes, stunt doubles and visual effects were accustomed hide her maternity. each films earned over $1.4 billion, ranking among the highest-grossing films of all time. For Captain America- warfare, Johansson earned her second nomination for Critics’ selection flick Award for Best histrion in associate Action flick and her fourth for Saturn Award for Best Supporting histrion. Earlier in 2016, Johansson had featured within the Coen brothers’ well-received comedy film Hail, Caesar! a couple of “fixer” operating within the classical Hollywood cinema, {trying|making associate attempt|attempting} to find what happened to a forged member United Nations agency nonexistent throughout the cinematography of a biblical epic; Johansson plays an histrion United Nations agency becomes pregnant whereas her film is in production. She conjointly voiced the character Kaa in Disney’s live-action remake of The Jungle Book, and Ash within the animated play film Sing (both 2016).

Johansson compete Motoko Kusanagi in Prince Rupert Sanders’s 2017 film adaptation of the Ghost within the Shell franchise. The film was praised for its visual vogue, acting, and photography, however was polemical for whitewashing the forged, notably Johansson’s character, a lady|machine} United Nations agency was meant to carry the recollections of a Japanese woman. Responding to the criticism, she aforesaid she would ne’er play an individual of another race, however needed to require the rare chance to star in a very franchise with a feminine protagonist. The film grossed $169.8 million worldwide against a production budget of $110 million. In March 2017, Johansson hosted weekday Night Live for the fifth time, creating her the seventeenth person, and also the fourth girl, to enter the NBC sketch comedy’s prestigious Five-Timers Club. Johansson’s next 2017 film was comedy Rough Night, wherever she compete Jess Thayer, one in all the 5 friends—alongside Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana glass-cutter, and Zoë Kravitz—whose bachelorette party goes wrong once a male stripper dies. The film had a mixed essential reception and moderate box workplace returns.

In 2018, Johansson voiced show dog Nutmeg in Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated film island of Dogs, discharged in March, and reprised her MCU role as spider in Avengers- time War, that followed ensuing month.

Upcoming projects

In October 2014, it had been proclaimed that Johansson can star in, and govt turn out, the coming eight-episode amount series The Custom of the Country, supported Edith Wharton’s 1913 novel of a similar name. She is about to play water nymph Spragg, a young lady from the Middle West United Nations agency tries to climb her far the big apple town social ladder. Johansson can star aboard Adam Driver in Noah Baumbach’s presently untitled film, regular to be discharged in Nov 2018. she’s going to conjointly play spider in associate Untitled Avengers film, the fourth within the series, regular for might 2019.

Music career

In 2006, Johansson American ginseng the track “Summertime” for surprising Dreams – Songs From the celebs, a non-profit assortment of songs recorded by Hollywood actors. She performed with the Deliverer and Madonna Chain for a Coachella reunion show in Indio, California, in April 2007. the subsequent year, Johansson appeared because the actress in Justin Timberlake’s music video, for “What Goes Around… Comes Around”, that was appointed for Associate in Nursing MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.

In might 2008, Johansson discharged her debut album anyplace I Lay My Head, that consists of 1 original song and 10 cowl versions of Tom Waits songs, and options David pioneer and members from the yea yea Yeahs and Celebration. Reviews of the album were mixed. Spin wasn’t notably affected with Johansson’s singing. Some critics found it to be “surprisingly alluring”, “a courageously eccentric selection”, and “a sensible album” with “ghostly magic”. NME named the album the “23rd best album of 2008”, and it peaked at range 126 on the sign two hundred. Johansson started paying attention to Waits once she was eleven or twelve years recent, and same of him, “His melodies square measure thus stunning, his voice is thus distinct and that i had my very own manner of doing Tom Waits songs.”

In Gregorian calendar month 2009, Johansson and singer-songwriter Pete Yorn discharged a cooperative album, Break Up, galvanized by textile Gainsbourg’s duets with Brigitte Bardot. The album reached range forty-one within the North American nation. In 2010, Steel Train discharged Terrible Thrills Vol. 1, which has their favorite feminine artists singing songs from their self-titled album. Johansson is that the initial creative person on the album, singing “Bullet”. Johansson American ginseng “One Whole Hour” for the 2011 sound recording of the documentary Wretches & Jabberers (2010). and in 2012 American ginseng on a J. Ralph track entitled “Before My Time” for the tip credits of the climate documentary Chasing Ice (2012)

In Gregorian calendar month 2015, Johansson shaped a band referred to as the Singles with Este Haim from HAIM, Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris, and Julia Haltigan. The group’s initial single was referred to as “Candy”. Johansson was issued a stop and refrain order from the lead singer of the Los Angeles-based rock group the Singles, exigent she stop victimisation their name. In 2016, she performed “Trust in Me” for The Jungle Book sound recording and “The Promise & The Prize,” “Universal Fanfare”, “Set It All Free” and “I do not Wanna” for Sing- Original show sound recording.

Personal life

Johansson is Jewish and celebrates each Christmas and Feast of the Dedication. She has explicit that she dislikes it once celebrities give thanks God or the Nazarene in their award acceptance speeches. whereas attending PCS, Johansson dated acquaintance Jack Antonoff from 2001 to 2002. She dated her Black flower co-star rag Hartnett for regarding 2 years till the top of 2006; Hartnett aforementioned they split as a result of their busy schedules unbroken them apart. Johansson began a relationship with Canadian actor Ryan painter in 2007; they became engaged in could 2008, married in Sep 2008, separated in December 2010, and unmarried in Gregorian calendar month 2011.

In Nov 2012, Johansson started geological dating Frenchman Romain Dauriac, the owner of AN advertising agency; they became engaged the subsequent Sep. The couple divided their time between big apple town and Paris. In 2014, she gave birth to their girl, Rose Dorothy Dauriac. Johansson and Dauriac married that Gregorian calendar month in Philipsburg, Montana. They separated in mid-2016, and unmarried in Sep 2017. Johansson has criticized the media for promoting a picture that causes unhealthy diets and ingestion disorders among girls. In one article she wrote for HuffPost, she inspired the reader to take care of a healthy body. She appeared nude on the quilt of the March 2006 issue of life-style aboard role player Keira Knightley and absolutely clothed dressmaker Tom Ford. This caused some dispute because it was believed the ikon incontestible that girls ar forced to flaunt their physiological property a lot of usually than men. In Sep 2011, nude pictures of Johansson hacked from her telephone were printed on-line. Following AN law enforcement agency investigation, the hacker was in remission, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to ten years in jail. Johansson aforementioned the photos had been sent to her then-husband, Reynolds, 3 years before the incident. In 2014, Johansson won a case against French publisher JC Lattès for slanderous statements regarding her relationships within the novel the primary issue we glance At by Grégoire Delacourt. Johansson was awarded $3,400; she had claimed $68,000.

It was confirmed in December 2017 that Johansson had begun a relationship with Saturday Night Live co-head author and “Weekend Update” star Colin Jost.

Public image

Johansson has been known as “ScarJo” by the media and fans, however dislikes the nickname, finding it lazy, frivolous and insulting. She is represented as a sex image by the media, that considers her lips, green eyes, and voice among her emblems. The state capital Morning Herald describes Johansson as “the embodiment of male fantasy”. throughout the picture taking of point, director thespian commented on her attractiveness. In 2014, American film critic Anthony Lane wrote that “she is plain, and fruitfully, alert to her hot weather, and of what proportion, right down to the last in., it contributes to the contours of her name.” Johansson same that she unlikeable being sexualized, which a preoccupation with a personality’s attractiveness doesn’t last. She lost the lead role within the lady with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) as its director David Fincher thought she was “too sexy” for the half.

Johansson ranks extremely in many beauty listings. Maxim enclosed her in their Hot one hundred from 2006 to 2014. She has been named “Sexiest lady Alive” doubly by Esquire (2006 and 2013), and has been enclosed in similar listings by pleasure seeker (2007), comfort station Health (2011), and FHM (since 2005). She was named GQ’s child of the Year in 2010. madam Tussauds ny repository put in a wax sculpture of her in 2015.

Johansson was invited to affix the Academy of flick Arts and Sciences in Gregorian calendar month 2004. In 2006, Johansson appeared on Forbes’ Celebrity one hundred, and once more in 2014 and 2015. Johansson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in could 2012. In 2014, 2015, and 2016, she was one among the highest-paid actresses, with annual earnings of $17 million, $35.5 million, and $25 million, severally. She was the highest-grossing actor of 2016, with a complete of $1.2 billion. As a result, IndieWire praised her for absorbing risky roles. As of could 2017, Johansson is that the highest-grossing player of all time in North America, together with her films creating over $3.6 billion.

Johansson has appeared in advertising campaigns for designer, Dolce & Gabbana, L’Oréal, and Joe Louis Vuitton, and has delineate the Spanish complete Mango since 2009. Johansson was the primary Hollywood celebrity to represent a champagne producer, showing in advertisements for Moët & Chandon. In Jan 2014, the Israeli company SodaStream, that makes home-carbonation product, employed Johansson as its 1st international complete ambassador, a relationship that commenced with a tv industrial throughout Super Bowl forty-eight on Groundhog Day, 2014. This tested polemic, as SodaStream relies in Israeli-occupied territory within the geographic region.

Other ventures

Philanthropy

Johansson has supported numerous charitable organizations, together with Aid Still needed, Cancer analysis UK, rise up To Cancer, Too many ladies (which works against breast cancer), and USA Harvest, that provides food for individuals in want. In 2005, Johansson became a worldwide ambassador for the help and development agency Oxfam. In 2007, Johansson took half within the anti-poverty campaign ONE, that was organized by U2’s lead singer Bono. In March 2008, a UK-based bidder paid £20,000 on associate eBay auction to learn Oxfam, winning a hair and makeup treatment, a combine of tickets, and a chauffeured trip to accompany Johansson on a 20-minute date to the planet premiere of he is simply Not That Into You.

In January 2014, Johansson resigned from her Oxfam position once criticism of her promotion of SodaStream, whose main mill was based mostly in Mishor Adumim, associate Israeli settlement within the West Bank; Oxfam opposes all trade with such Israeli settlements. Oxfam explicit that it absolutely was glad for her contributions in raising funds to fight poorness. beside her Avengers costars, Johansson raised $500,000 for the victims of cyclone Maria. In 2018, she collaborated with three hundred ladies in Hollywood to line up the Time’s Up initiative to safeguard ladies from harassment and discrimination.
Politics

Johansson was registered as associate freelance, a minimum of through 2008, and campaigned for Democratic candidate John Kerry within the 2004 u. s. presidential election. once Saint George W. Bush was reelected in 2004, she aforementioned she was defeated.

In January 2008, Johansson’s campaign for Democratic candidate Barack Obama enclosed appearances in Iowa targeted at younger voters, associate look at Cornell school, and a speaking engagement at Carleton school in Northfield, Minnesota, on Super weekday, 2008. Johansson appeared within the music video for rapper can.i.am’s song, “Yes we tend to Can” (2008), directed by Jesse Dylan; the song was galvanized by Obama’s speech once the 2008 New Hampshire primary. In Gregorian calendar month 2012, Johansson and Pakistani monetary unit Wintour hosted a fashion launch of pro-Obama covering, bags, and accessories, whose take visited the President’s re-election campaign. She self-addressed voters at the Democratic National Convention in Gregorian calendar month 2012, line for Obama’s election and for a lot of engagement from young voters. She inspired ladies to vote for Obama and condemned Mitt Romney for his opposition to Planned adulthood.

Johansson in public supported and supported Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s 2013 endure ny town accountant by hosting a series of fundraisers. To encourage individuals to select the United States election of 2016, Johansson appeared in a very industrial aboard her Marvel medium Universe co-star Henry M. Robert Downey, Jr., and god Whedon. In 2017, she spoke at the Women’s move on Washington, addressing Donald Trump’s presidency and stating that she would support him if he’s employed for women’s rights and stops retreating federal funding for Planned adulthood.

Referance – wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlett_Johansson

Ryan Rodney Sir Joshua painter (born Oct twenty 3, 1976) may be a Canadian actor, filmmaker, and screenwriter. variety of his superlative roles ar Billy Simpson at intervals the YTV Canadian young series facet (1991), Michael metropolis on the primary principle programme two Guys and a lady (1998–2001), and varied magazine characters along side Marvel Comics superheroes Hannibal King in Blade- Trinity (2004), and Wade Wilson / Deadpool in X-Men Origins- Wolverine (2009), Deadpool (2016), and Deadpool 2 (2018); the latter role attained him a Golden Globe Award nomination. He delineate the Hal Jordan incarnation of the DC Comics superhero inexperienced lamp at intervals the 2011 film of an analogous name. he is married to actor painter spirited.

Reynolds has put together marked in films admire National Lampoon’s Van Wilder (2002), The Amityville Horror (2005), Definitely, maybe (2008), The Proposal (2009), Buried (2010), The Croods (2013), The Voices (2014), Mississippi Grind (2015) and lady in Gold (2015).

He reprised his role as Deadpool in Deadpool 2 (2018), that he put together co-wrote, equally as readjustment the titular character at intervals the forthcoming image Detective Pikachu (2019).

Early life of Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Rodney painter was born on Gregorian calendar month twenty three, 1976, in Vancouver, Canadian province. His father, James Chester “Jim” painter, was a food middleman, and his mother, Tammy, a retail employee. he’s of Irish ancestry and was raised as a Roman Catholic. The youngest of 4 brothers, he graduated from Kitsilano middle school in Vancouver in 1994. He attended Kwantlen engineering school University, conjointly in Vancouver, till throwing in the towel. 2 of his elder brothers work as law enforcement officials in Canadian province, one in every of whom could be a Royal Canadian Mounted Police member.

Career

1991–2004

Reynolds’ career began in 1991, once he marked as Billy Simpson within the Canadian-produced adolescent serial slope, distributed within the u. s. by jukebox as Fifteen. In 1996, he had a supporting role as Jay “Boom” DeBoom in ”Syzygy”, the thirteenth episode of season 3 of the X-Files, and co-starred with genus Melissa Joan Hart within the TV moving picture Sabrina the teenaged Witch. As associate adult, painter marked within the yankee tv series 2 Guys, a woman and a dish Place, taking part in medico Michael “Berg” metropolis, and within the National Lampoon moving picture Van Wilder. In 1993–94, he had a continual role within the Odyssey as Macro. He conjointly cameoed in Harold & Kumar visit White Castle as a nurse, appeared within the In-Laws with Michael The Little Giant and Albert Francis Charles Augustus Emmanuel Brooks, also as within the Canadian production Foolproof. He conjointly appeared within the TV show The Outer Limits episode “ Origin of the Species” that originally appeared on November fourteen, 1998.

2005–2015

In 2005, he compete a waiter named Monty in Waiting…, and as music govt Chris Brander within the romantic comedy simply Friends aboard Amy sensible and Pakistani monetary unit Faris. Reynolds compete the protagonist within the 2008 film undoubtedly, Maybe. He has additionally appeared within the second-season finale of the tv series Scrubs. In 2007, Reynolds guest-starred as Brendan’s friend Hams within the episode “Douchebag within the City” of the TBS programme My Boys. In 2009, he pictured saint designer, prima opposite Sandra Bullock, within the Proposal, and electro-acoustic transducer Connell in Adventureland.

Although he has performed primarily in comedies, Reynolds underwent intense physical coaching to play associate action role because the character of Hannibal King within the 2004 film Blade- Trinity. Reynolds compete martyr Lutz within the 2005 remake of the 1979 horror film The Amityville Horror. to boot, he compete associate government agent aboard Ray Liotta within the 2006 crime action film Smokin’ Aces.

In a March 2005 interview, Reynolds spoke of his interest and involvement in an exceedingly potential film adaptation of Deadpool with film writer David S. Goyer, in addition because the chance of enjoying the incarnation of The Flash referred to as saphead West in associate adaption of the popular DC Comics character in associate future pic project. Reynolds pictured Wade Wilson / Weapon XI in an exceedingly supporting role within the prequel X-Men film, X-Men Origins- Wolverine (2009); a job that he would later play in an exceedingly by-product film supported the character free in 2016.

In 2010, Reynolds marked within the Spanish and yank heroic tale Buried, that screened at the Sundance festival. In June 2010, Reynolds was invited to hitch the Academy of flick Arts and Sciences. Reynolds pictured the Hal Jordan version of superhero inexperienced lamp in Warner Bros.’ film inexperienced lamp, free on June seventeen, 2011 in 3D. although the film did not fare well each financially and critically, this role created him one among the few actors to headline in films supported each Marvel and DC characters. In 2011 he co-starred within the comedy, The pitch, in addition as being the utterer for the docudrama The Whale. In 2012, he pictured associate agent in sanctuary, aboard Denzel Washington. He then had prima roles in 2 Dreamworks Animation feature films; The Croods and Turbo, each free in 2013. His next role was in portrayal Nick Walker within the Universal photos film adaptation of Dark Horse Comics’ R.I.P.D. (Rest in Peace Department), that was free in 2013. Reynolds went on to star in inexpensive films, The Voices (2014), The Captive (2014), and Mississippi Grind (2015); before having a supporting role within the financially victorious history film, lady in Gold (2015). Reynolds came to the heroic tale genre with Self/Less (2015) wherever he compete a twin role (something he had done before in his career).

2016–present

In 2016, Reynolds found essential and business success with Deadpool, a show that had been in development as early as 2000. when depicting Wade Wilson / Weapon XI, while not the name Deadpool, in X-Men Origins- Wolverine, he became heavily concerned within the development of a Deadpool film. Deadpool featured a bring up of the character, ignoring the events of X-Men Origins- Wolverine, and establishing a replacement backstory for the character that was nearer to the Marvel Comics supply material. The film takes place at intervals the larger X-Men film universe, being created attainable by the reset timeline in X-Men- Days of Future Past. Deadpool created many box-office records, including- a worldwide gap of $264.9 million from sixty two markets, that is that the biggest of 2016, the most important for associate R-rated film, and therefore the second biggest for Fox, solely behind Star Wars- Episode III – Revenge of the Sith ($303.9 million). It conjointly recorded the most important IMAX second worldwide gap of all time with $27.4 million from 606 IMAX theatres, eclipsing The Dark Knight Rises ($23.8 million). The film’s monetary and important success crystal rectifier the studio to maneuver forward with a sequel. conjointly that year, Reynolds had a supporting role within the Ariel Vromen-directed adventure story Criminal.

On Dec fifteen, 2016, Reynolds received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6801 Hollywood street. Reynolds co-starred with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson within the phantasy adventure story Life (2017), that reunited him with sanctuary director Daniel Espinosa.

Reynolds began photography Deadpool a pair of in June 2017, that is ready to premiere in might eighteen, 2018. He also will star because the titular character in a very film adaptation of the Detective Pikachu computer game. In Gregorian calendar month 2018, Reynolds signed a three-year initial look trot out Fox, beginning development on a live-action adaptation of the parlour game Clue, to be confined by Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.

In the media

In October 2008, painter wrote for The Huffington Post relating to his conceive to run the ny town Marathon for his father WHO, at the time, suffered from Parkinson’s disease. painter appeared in People’s Sexiest Man Alive lists in 2008 and 2009, and was awarded the highest honour in 2010.

On day, 2012, painter appeared on the BBC’s prime Gear because the Star in a very Reasonably-Priced automobile. He announce a time of 1-43.7.

On May 13, 2018, painter had a special performance on the South Korea MBC TV’s King of Mask Singer (episode 153’s opening).

Personal life of Ryan Reynolds

In 2002, painter began chemical analysis Canadian singer Alanis Morissette. They proclaimed their engagement in June 2004. In Feb 2007, representatives for Morissette and painter proclaimed they’d reciprocally set to finish their engagement. Morissette aforementioned her album Flavors of trap was created out of her grief once the break-up. The song “Torch” was written regarding painter.

Soon once the top of his relationship with Morissette in 2007, painter began chemical analysis yank histrion Scarlett Johansson. The couple proclaimed their engagement in could 2008, and married on Gregorian calendar month twenty seven, 2008, in an exceedingly quiet ceremony close to Tofino, Canadian province. On Gregorian calendar month fourteen, 2010, painter and Johansson proclaimed that they’d separated. painter filed for divorce in la on Gregorian calendar month twenty three, 2010; Johansson filed her response at the same time. The divorce was finalized on legal holiday, 2011.

Reynolds 1st met William Blake spirited in early 2010 whereas photography inexperienced lamp, during which she co-starred. In Gregorian calendar month 2011, Hollyscoop reported they were chemical analysis. The couple married on Gregorian calendar month nine, 2012, at mountain man Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South geographical area. they need 2 daughters- James (born 2014) and Inez (born 2016).

Reynolds has brazenly spoken regarding his life-time struggle with anxiety, noting in 2018 that he carries out several interviews within the character of Deadpool, to alleviate his fears.

Filmography of Ryan Reynolds

Main article- Ryan Reynolds filmography
Awards and nominations

Critics’ Choice Movie Awards

Entertainment Weekly Entertainer of the Year Award

Golden Globe Awards

Gotham Awards

Goya Awards

Hollywood Walk of Fame

MTV Movie Awards

People’s Choice Awards

Producers Guild of America

San Diego Film Critics Society Awards

Saturn Awards

Teen Choice Awards

Miscellaneous awards

Referance – wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Reynolds

Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service company based in Menlo Park, California. Its website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.

The founders initially limited the website’s membership to Harvard students. Later they expanded it to higher education institutions in the Boston area, the Ivy League schools, and Stanford University. Facebook gradually added support for students at various other universities, and eventually to high school students. Since 2006, anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old has been allowed to become a registered user of Facebook, though variations exist in this requirement, depending on local laws. The name comes from the face book directories often given to American university students. Facebook held its initial public offering (IPO) in February 2012, and began selling stock to the public three months later, reaching an original peak market capitalization of $104 billion, a new record. Facebook makes most of its revenue from advertisements that appear onscreen.

Facebook can be accessed from a large range of devices with Internet connectivity, such as desktop computers, laptops and tablet computers, and smartphones. After registering, users can create a customized profile indicating their name, occupation, schools attended and so on. Users can add other users as “friends”, exchange messages, post status updates, share photos, videos and links, use various software applications (“apps”), and receive notifications of other users’ activity. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups organized by workplace, school, hobbies or other topics, and categorize their friends into lists such as “People From Work” or “Close Friends”. Additionally, users can report or block unpleasant people.

Facebook has more than 2.2 billion monthly active users as of January 2018. Its popularity has led to prominent media coverage for the company, including significant scrutiny over privacy and the psychological effects it has on users. In recent years, the company has faced intense pressure over the amount of fake news, hate speech and depictions of violence prevalent on its services, all of which it is attempting to counteract.

On May 1, 2018, Facebook announced its plans to launch a new dating service. According to Mark Zuckerberg- “There are 200 million people on Facebook that list themselves as single, so clearly there’s something to do here”. In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data mining scandal, the service is being developed with privacy features, and friends will be unable to view one’s dating profile.

History of Facebook

2003–2006- Thefacebook, Thiel investment, and name change

Zuckerberg wrote a program called “Facemash” in 2003 while attending Harvard University as a sophomore (second year student). According to The Harvard Crimson, the site was comparable to Hot or Not and used “photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine Houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the “hotter” person”. Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online. The Facemash site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers, but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy. Ultimately, the charges were dropped. Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final exam. He uploaded all art images to a website, each of which was featured with a corresponding comments section, then shared the site with his classmates, and people started sharing notes.

A “face book” is a student directory featuring photos and basic information. In 2003, there were no universal online facebooks at Harvard, with only paper sheets distributed and private online directories. Zuckerberg told the Crimson that “Everyone’s been talking a lot about a universal face book within Harvard. I think it’s kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week.” In January 2004, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website, known as “TheFacebook”, with the inspiration coming from an editorial in the Crimson about Facemash, stating that “It is clear that the technology needed to create a centralized Website is readily available … the benefits are many.” On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched “TheFacebook”, originally located at thefacebook.com.

Six days after the site launched, Harvard seniors Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing that he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com. They claimed that he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product. The three complained to The Harvard Crimson and the newspaper began an investigation. They later filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, subsequently settling in 2008 for 1.2 million shares (worth $300 million at Facebook’s IPO).

Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College; within the first month, more than half the undergraduates at Harvard were registered on the service. Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes joined Zuckerberg to help manage the growth of the website. In March 2004, Facebook expanded to the universities of Columbia, Stanford, and Yale. It later opened to all Ivy League colleges, Boston University, New York University, MIT, Washington and gradually most universities in the United States and Canada.

In mid-2004, entrepreneur Sean Parker—an informal advisor to Zuckerberg—became the company’s president. In June 2004, Facebook moved its operations base to Palo Alto, California. It received its first investment later that month from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. In 2005, the company dropped “the” from its name after purchasing the domain name facebook.com for US$200,000. The domain facebook.com belonged to AboutFace Corporation before the purchase. This website last appeared on April 8, 2005; from April 10, 2005, to August 4, 2005, this domain gave a 403 error.

In May 2005, Accel Partners invested $12.7 million in Facebook, and Jim Breyer added $1 million of his own money. A high-school version of the site was launched in September 2005, which Zuckerberg called the next logical step. (At the time, high-school networks required an invitation to join.) Facebook also expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft.

2006–2012- Public access, Microsoft alliance and rapid growth

On September 26, 2006, Facebook was opened to everyone at least 13 years old with a valid email address. In late 2007, Facebook had 100,000 business pages (pages which allowed companies to promote themselves and attract customers). These started as group pages, but a new concept called company pages was planned. Pages began rolling out for businesses in May 2009. On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion. Microsoft’s purchase included rights to place international advertisements on the social networking site.

In October 2008, Facebook announced that it would set up its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. Almost a year later, in September 2009, Facebook said that it had turned cash flow positive for the first time. A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users. Entertainment Weekly included the site on its end-of-the-decade “best-of” list saying, “How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers’ birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?”

Traffic to Facebook increased steadily after 2009. The company announced 500 million users in July 2010, and according to its data, half of the site’s membership used Facebook daily, for an average of 34 minutes, while 150 million users accessed the site by mobile. A company representative called the milestone a “quiet revolution.” In November 2010, based on SecondMarket Inc. (an exchange for privately held companies’ shares), Facebook’s value was $41 billion. The company had slightly surpassed eBay to become the third largest American web company after Google and Amazon.com.

In early 2011, Facebook announced plans to move its headquarters to the former Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park, California. In March 2011, it was reported that Facebook was removing about 20,000 profiles every day for violations such as spam, graphic content, and underage use, as part of its efforts to boost cyber security. Statistics by DoubleClick showed that Facebook reached one trillion page views in the month of June 2011, making it the most visited website tracked by DoubleClick. According to a Nielsen study, Facebook had in 2011 become the second-most accessed website in the U.S. behind Google.

2012–2013- IPO, lawsuits and one-billionth user

Facebook eventually filed for an initial public offering on February 1, 2012. Facebook held an initial public offering on May 17, 2012, negotiating a share price of US$38. The company was valued at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly listed public company. Facebook began selling stock to the public and trading on the NASDAQ on May 18, 2012. Based on its 2012 income of $5 billion, Facebook joined the Fortune 500 list for the first time in May 2013, ranked in position 462.

Facebook filed their S1 document with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 1, 2012. The company applied for a $5 billion IPO, one of the biggest offerings in the history of technology. The IPO raised $16 billion, making it the third-largest in U.S. history.

The shares began trading on May 18; the stock struggled to stay above the IPO price for most of the day, but set a record for the trading volume of an IPO (460 million shares). The first day of trading was marred by technical glitches that prevented orders from going through; only the technical problems and artificial support from underwriters prevented the stock price from falling below the IPO price on the day. In March 2012, Facebook announced App Center, a store selling applications that operate via the website. The store was to be available on iPhones, Android devices, and mobile web users.

On May 22, 2012, the Yahoo! Finance website reported that Facebook’s lead underwriters, Morgan Stanley (MS), JP Morgan (JPM), and Goldman Sachs (GS), cut their earnings forecasts for the company in the middle of the IPO process. The stock had begun its freefall by this time, closing at 34.03 on May 21 and 31.00 on May 22. A “circuit breaker” trading curb was used in an attempt to slow down the stock price’s decline. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro, and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Chairman Rick Ketchum, called for a review of the circumstances surrounding the IPO.

Facebook’s IPO was consequently investigated, and was compared to a “pump and dump” scheme. A class-action lawsuit was filed in May 2012 because of the trading glitches, which led to botched orders. Lawsuits were filed, alleging that an underwriter for Morgan Stanley selectively revealed adjusted earnings estimates to preferred clients.

The other underwriters (MS, JPM, GS), Facebook’s CEO and board, and NASDAQ also faced litigation after numerous lawsuits were filed, while SEC and FINRA both launched investigations. It was believed that adjustments to earnings estimates were communicated to the underwriters by a Facebook financial officer, who used the information to cash out on their positions while leaving the general public with overpriced shares. By the end of May 2012, Facebook’s stock lost over a quarter of its starting value, which led The Wall Street Journal to label the IPO a “fiasco”. Zuckerberg announced to the media at the start of October 2012 that Facebook had passed the monthly active users mark of one billion. The company’s data also revealed 600 million mobile users, 219 billion photo uploads, and 140 billion friend connections.

2013–2014- Site developments, A4AI and 10th anniversary

On January 15, 2013, Facebook announced Facebook Graph Search, which provides users with a “precise answer”, rather than a link to an answer by leveraging the data present on its site. Facebook emphasized that the feature would be “privacy-aware”, returning results only from content already shared with the user. On April 3, 2013, Facebook unveiled Facebook Home, a user-interface layer for Android devices offering greater integration with the site. HTC announced the HTC First, a smartphone with Home pre-loaded.

On April 15, 2013, Facebook announced an alliance across 19 states with the National Association of Attorneys General, to provide teenagers and parents with information on tools to manage social networking profiles. On April 19, 2013, Facebook officially modified its logo to remove the faint blue line at the bottom of the “F” icon. The letter F moved closer to the edge of the box.

Following a campaign by 100 advocacy groups, Facebook agreed to update its policy on hate speech. The campaign highlighted content promoting domestic and sexual violence against women, and used over 57,000 tweets and more than 4,900 emails that caused withdrawal of advertising from the site by 15 companies, including Nissan UK, House of Burlesque and Nationwide UK. The social media website initially responded by stating that “while it may be vulgar and offensive, distasteful content on its own does not violate our policies”. It decided to take action on May 29, 2013, after it “become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate”.

On June 12, 2013, Facebook announced on its newsroom that it was introducing clickable hashtags to help users follow trending discussions, or search what others are talking about on a topic. A July 2013 Wall Street Journal article identified the Facebook IPO as the cause of a change in the U.S.’ national economic statistics, as the local government area of the company’s headquarters, San Mateo County, California, became the top wage-earning county in the country after the fourth quarter of 2012. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average weekly wage in the county was US$3,240, 107% higher than the previous year. It noted the wages were “the equivalent of $168,000 a year, and more than 50% higher than the next-highest county, New York County (better known as Manhattan), at $2,107 a week, or roughly $110,000 a year.”

Facebook was blocked by the Chinese government in 2009. In September 2013, the South China Morning Post announced that the block would lifted in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone “to welcome foreign companies to invest and to let foreigners live and work happily in the free-trade zone”. However, a few days later, the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, dismissed the earlier report, reiterating the block on Facebook.

Facebook was announced as a member of The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) in October 2013, when the A4AI was launched. The A4AI is a coalition of public and private organizations that includes Google, Intel and Microsoft. Led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the A4AI seeks to make Internet access more affordable so that access is broadened in the developing world, where only 31% of people are online. Google will help to decrease Internet access prices so that they fall below the UN Broadband Commission’s worldwide target of 5% of monthly income. A Reuters report, published on December 11, 2013, stated that Standard & Poor’s announced the placement of Facebook on its S&P 500 index “after the close of trading on December 20”. Facebook announced Q4 2013 earnings of $523 million (20 cents per share), an increase of $64 million from the previous year, as well as 945 million mobile users.

The company celebrated its 10th anniversary during the week of February 3, 2014. In each of the first three months of 2014, over one billion users logged into their Facebook account on a mobile device. As part of the company’s second quarter results, Facebook announced in late July 2014 that mobile accounted for 62% of its advertising revenue, which is an increase of 21% from the previous year. By September 2014, Facebook’s market capitalization had risen to over $200 billion.

Alongside other American technology figures like Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook, Zuckerberg hosted visiting Chinese politician Lu Wei, known as the “Internet czar” for his influence in the enforcement of China’s online policy, at Facebook’s headquarters on December 8, 2014. The meeting occurred after Zuckerberg participated in a Q&A session at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, on October 23, 2014, where he attempted to converse in Mandarin—although Facebook is banned in China, Zuckerberg is highly regarded among the people and was at the university to help fuel the nation’s burgeoning entrepreneur sector. A book of Chinese president Xi Jinping found on Zuckerberg’s office desk attracted a great deal of attention in the media, after the Facebook founder explained to Lu, “I want them to understand socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

2015–present- Combating fake news and other ventures

As of January 21, 2015, Facebook’s algorithm is programmed to filter out false or misleading content, such as fake news stories and hoaxes, and will be supported by users who select the option to flag a story as “purposefully fake or deceitful news”. According to Reuters, such content is “being spread like a wildfire” on the social media platform. Facebook maintained that “satirical” content, “intended to be humorous, or content that is clearly labeled as satire”, will be taken into account and should not be intercepted. The algorithm, however, has been accused of maintaining a “filter bubble”, where both material the user disagrees with and posts with a low level of likes, will also not be seen. In November 2015, Zuckerberg prolonged period of paternity leave from 4 weeks to 4 months.

On April 12, 2016, Zuckerberg revealed a decade-long plan for Facebook in a keynote address. His speech outlined his vision, which rested on three main pillars- artificial intelligence, increased connectivity around the world and virtual and augmented reality. In June 2016 Facebook announced Deep Text, a natural language processing AI which will learn user intent and context in 20 languages.

In July 2016, a US$1 billion lawsuit was filed against the company alleging that it permitted the Hamas group to use it to perform assaults that ended the lives of four people. Facebook released the blueprints of Surround 360 camera on GitHub under open-source license. In September 2016, it won an Emmy for its Visual animated short “Henry”.

In October 2016, Facebook announced a fee-based communications tool called Workplace that aims to “connect everyone” while at work. Users can create profiles, see updates from co-workers on their news feed, stream live video and participate in secure group chats. Facebook annually has an Oculus Connect conference. Following the 2016 presidential election, Facebook announced that it would further combat the spread of fake news by using fact checkers from sites like FactCheck.org and Associated Press (AP), making reporting hoaxes easier through crowdsourcing, and disrupting financial incentives for spammers.

On January 17, 2017, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg planning to open Station F, a startup incubator campus in Paris, France. On a six-monthly cycle, Facebook will work with ten to 15 data-driven startups in the location to help them develop their businesses. On April 18, 2017, Facebook announced the beta launch of Facebook Spaces at Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference in San Francisco. Facebook Spaces, a virtual reality app version of Facebook for the Facebook-owned Oculus VR goggles. In a virtual and shared space, users can access a curated selection of 360-degree photos and videos using their avatar, with the support of the controller. Users can also access their own photos and videos, and any media shared on their Facebook newsfeed. The beta app is currently available in the Oculus Store.

In September 2017, Facebook announced it would be spending up to US$1 billion on original shows for its Facebook Watch platform. On October 16, 2017, Facebook acquired the anonymous compliment social media app tbh for an undisclosed amount, announcing intentions to leave the app independent, similar to Instagram and WhatsApp. In May 2018, at its annual F8 developers conference in San Jose, California, Facebook announced it would make its own dating service. Shares in the dating business Match Group fell by 22% following the announcement.

Corporate affairs of facebook

Management

Facebook’s key management personnel consists of Mark Zuckerberg (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer), Sheryl Sandberg (Chief Operating Officer), David Wehner (Chief Financial Officer), Mike Schroepfer (Chief Technology Officer), and Chris Cox (Chief Product Officer). As of June 30, 2017, Facebook has 20,658 employees.

Revenue

Most of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising. Facebook generally has a lower clickthrough rate (CTR) for advertisements than most major websites. According to BusinessWeek.com, banner advertisements on Facebook have generally received one-fifth the number of clicks compared to those on the Web as a whole, although specific comparisons can reveal a much larger disparity. For example, while Google users click on the first advertisement for search results an average of 8% of the time (80,000 clicks for every one million searches), Facebook’s users click on advertisements an average of 0.04% of the time (400 clicks for every one million pages). Successful advertising campaigns on the site can have clickthrough rates as low as 0.05% to 0.04%, and CTR for ads tend to fall within two weeks.

The cause of Facebook’s low CTR has been attributed to younger users enabling ad blocking software and their adeptness at ignoring advertising messages, as well as the site’s primary purpose being social communication rather than content viewing. According to digital consultancy iStrategy Labs in mid-January 2014, three million fewer users aged between 13 and 17 years were present on Facebook’s Social Advertising platform compared to 2011. However, Time writer and reporter Christopher Matthews stated in the wake of the iStrategy Labs results-

A big part of Facebook’s pitch is that it has so much information about its users that it can more effectively target ads to those who will be responsive to the content. If Facebook can prove that theory to be true, then it may not worry so much about losing its cool cachet.

A portion of Facebook revenue comes from the “firehose” access, bulk access to the social media data sold to the third parties. In December 2014, a report from Frank N. Magid and Associates found that the percentage of teens aged 13 to 17 who used Facebook fell to 88% in 2014, down from 94% in 2013 and 95% in 2012. Zuckerberg, alongside other Facebook executives, have questioned the data in such reports; although, a former Facebook senior employee has commented- “Mark is very willing to recognize the strengths in other products and the flaws in Facebook.”

On pages for brands and products, however, some companies have reported CTR as high as 6.49% for Wall posts. A study found that, for video advertisements on Facebook, over 40% of users who viewed the videos viewed the entire video, while the industry average was 25% for in-banner video ads.

The company released its own set of revenue data at the end of January 2014 and claimed- Revenues of US$2.59 billion were generated for the three months ending December 31, 2013; earnings per share were 31 cents; revenues of US$7.87 billion were made for the entirety of 2013; and Facebook’s annual profit for 2013 was US$1.5 billion. During the same time, independent market research firm eMarketer released data in which Facebook accounted for 5.7 per cent of all global digital ad revenues in 2013 (Google’s share was 32.4 per cent). Revenue for the June 2014 quarter rose to $2.68 billion, an increase of 67 per cent over the second quarter of 2013. Mobile advertising revenue accounted for around 62 per cent of advertising revenue, an increase of approximately 41 per cent over the comparable quarter of the previous year. In December 2017, the company announced that it would no longer route all of its revenues through its Ireland headquarters, but rather record revenue locally in each of the countries where it is generated.

Number of advertisers

In February 2015, Facebook announced that it had reached two million active advertisers with most of the gain coming from small businesses. An active advertiser is an advertiser that has advertised on the Facebook platform in the last 28 days. In March 2016, Facebook announced that it reached three million active advertisers with more than 70% from outside the US.

Mergers and acquisitions

On November 15, 2010, Facebook announced it had acquired the domain name fb.com from the American Farm Bureau Federation for an undisclosed amount. On January 11, 2011, the Farm Bureau disclosed $8.5 million in “domain sales income”, making the acquisition of FB.com one of the ten highest domain sales in history.

In February 2014, Facebook announced that it would be buying mobile messaging company WhatsApp for US$19 billion in cash and stock.

In November 2016 Facebook acquired CrowdTangle, a social analytics company that tracks how content spreads online. CrowdTangle confirmed the acquisition in a message at their website, but company didn’t disclosed financial terms of the deal.

Offices

In early 2011, Facebook announced plans to move to its new headquarters, the former Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park. All users outside of the US and Canada have a contract with Facebook’s Irish subsidiary “Facebook Ireland Limited”. This allows Facebook to avoid US taxes for all users in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and South America. Facebook is making use of the Double Irish arrangement which allows it to pay just about 2–3% corporation tax on all international revenue. In 2010, Facebook opened its fourth office, in Hyderabad and the first in Asia.

Facebook, which in 2010 had more than 750 million active users globally including over 23 million in India, announced that its Hyderabad center would house online advertising and developer support teams and provide round-the-clock, multilingual support to the social networking site’s users and advertisers globally. With this, Facebook joins other giants like Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, IBM and Computer Associates that have already set up shop. In Hyderabad, it is registered as ‘Facebook India Online Services Pvt Ltd’.

Though Facebook did not specify its India investment or hiring figures, it said recruitment had already begun for a director of operations and other key positions at Hyderabad, which would supplement its operations in California, Dublin in Ireland as well as at Austin, Texas. A custom-built data center with substantially reduced (“38% less”) power consumption compared to existing Facebook data centers opened in April 2011 in Prineville, Oregon. In April 2012, Facebook opened a second data center in Forest City, North Carolina, US. In June 2013, Facebook opened a third data center in Luleå, Sweden. In November 2014, Facebook opened a fourth data center in Altoona, Iowa, US. In September 2016, Facebook announced a coming datacenter in Los Lunas, New Mexico in 2018 powered by renewable energy.

On October 1, 2012, CEO Zuckerberg visited Moscow to stimulate social media innovation in Russia and to boost Facebook’s position in the Russian market. Russia’s communications minister tweeted that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev urged the social media giant’s founder to abandon plans to lure away Russian programmers and instead consider opening a research center in Moscow. Facebook has roughly 9 million users in Russia, while domestic analogue VK has around 34 million.

The establishment of a woodworking facility on the Menlo Park campus was announced at the end of August 2013. The facility, opened in June 2013, provides equipment, safety courses and a woodworking learning course. Employees are required to purchase materials at the in-house store. A Facebook spokesperson explained that the intention of setting up the facility is to encourage employees to think in an innovative manner because of the different environment; it also serves as an attractive perk for prospective employees. On November 21, 2016 Facebook announced that it will open its new London headquarters next year and create another 500 jobs in the UK. New headquarters will be in Fitzrovia in central London at a site that is currently undergoing redevelopment. Facebook’s London-based executive, Nicola Mendelsohn said “The UK remains one of the best places to be a tech company”. In August 2017, Facebook announced the opening of a new office in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2018. Facebook will occupy the top three floors of 100 Binney St in Kendall Square and share the building with the pharmaceutical employees from Bristol-Myers Squibb. The offices will be home to Facebook’s “Connectivity Lab”, a group focused on bringing Internet access and technology to 4 billion people who do not have access to the Internet.

Tax affairs

Like Apple, Google and Microsoft (and other US technology multinationals), Facebook has an office in Ireland (Facebook Ireland), with circa 2,000 employees, through which it manages 1.9bn global Facebook accounts (86% of all Facebook accounts), representing all of its non-US accounts (i.e. not just European). Facebook Ireland is the 9th largest Irish company (by 2017 revenues, see here).

Facebook Ireland uses a basic double Irish tax structure to pay effective tax rates of <1% on the Irish business, which is a similar outcome for Apple and Google in Ireland.

Under pressure from the EU, the Irish Government closed the double Irish to new schemes in 2015, however, existing users, like Facebook, have until 2020 to find alternatives. On foot of their EU Commission €13bn tax fine (for period 2004-2014, the largest tax fine in history), Apple has restructured their double Irish structure (Apple Sales International), into an Irish capital allowances for intangibles tax scheme (see leprechaun economics). However Microsoft has opted for a variation of the double Irish called the single malt, which relies on specific wording in the Ireland-Malta tax treaty.

To create a double Irish tax structure, a large quantum of intellectual property (or “IP”) must be owned in a low-tax location, which the double Irish will then charge out to all non-US locations as a royalty payment (to relocate profits to the low-tax location). The US IRS is challenging Facebook Inc. on the valuation it used when it transferred IP from the US to Facebook Ireland in 2010 (which Facebook Ireland then revalued higher before charging out), as it was building it’s double Irish. The case is ongoing and the IRS have noted that the potential quantum of fine is $3-5bn.

The US Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 changes Facebook’s global tax calculations. Facebook Ireland will now be subject to the US GILTI tax of 10.5% on global intangible profits (i.e. Irish profits). On the basis that Facebook Ireland is paying some tax, the effective minimum US tax for Facebook Ireland will be circa 11%. In contrast, Facebook Inc. would incur a special IP tax rate of 13.125% (the FDII rate) if it’s Irish business was relocated back to the US. Higher tax relief in the US (21% vs. Irish at the GILTI rate) and accelerated capital expensing, would make this effective US rate circa 12%.

The closeness of the net effective tax costs of having Facebook Ireland, in Ireland, or relocated back to the US, was shown when Reuters revealed that Facebook Ireland is going to move 1.5bn non-EU accounts back to the US to limit exposure to the EU Commission’s May 2018 GDPR. To irrevocably limit financial exposure to the EU’s GDPR, these 1.5bn non-EU accounts (and their commercial processing) must be moved to the US. Facebook said that this move “did not carry tax implications”, a statement which was mistakenly interpreted as implying that processing would stay in Ireland.

Website

Technical aspects

The website’s primary color is blue as Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind, a realization that occurred after a test undertaken around 2007; he explained in 2010- “blue is the richest color for me—I can see all of blue.” Facebook is built in PHP which is compiled with HipHop for PHP, a “source code transformer” built by Facebook engineers that turns PHP into C++. The deployment of HipHop reportedly reduced average CPU consumption on Facebook servers by 50%.

Facebook is developed as one monolithic application. According to an interview in 2012 with Chuck Rossi, a build engineer at Facebook, Facebook compiles into a 1.5 GB binary blob which is then distributed to the servers using a custom BitTorrent-based release system. Rossi stated that it takes about 15 minutes to build and 15 minutes to release to the servers. The build and release process has zero downtime and new changes to Facebook are rolled out daily.

Facebook uses a combination platform based on HBase to store data across distributed machines. Using a tailing architecture, new events are stored in log files, and the logs are tailed. The system rolls these events up and writes them into storage. The user interface then pulls the data out and displays it to users. Facebook handles requests as AJAX behavior. These requests are written to a log file using Scribe (developed by Facebook).

Data is read from these log files using Ptail, an internally built tool to aggregate data from multiple Scribe stores. It tails the log files and pulls data out (thus the name). Ptail data are separated out into three streams so they can eventually be sent to their own clusters in different data centers (Plugin impression, News feed impressions, Actions (plugin + news feed)). Puma is used to manage periods of high data flow (Input/Output or IO). Data is processed in batches to lessen the number of times needed to read and write under high demand periods (A hot article will generate a lot of impressions and news feed impressions which will cause huge data skews). Batches are taken every 1.5 seconds, limited by memory used when creating a hash table.

After this, data is output in PHP format (compiled with HipHop for PHP). The backend is written in Java and Thrift is used as the messaging format so PHP programs can query Java services. Caching solutions are used to make the web pages display more quickly. The more and longer data is cached the less realtime it is. The data is then sent to MapReduce servers so it can be queried via Hive. This also serves as a backup plan as the data can be recovered from Hive. Raw logs are removed after a period of time.

On March 20, 2014, Facebook announced a new open-source programming language called Hack. Before public release, a large portion of Facebook was already running and “battle tested” using the new language.

Facebook uses the Momentum platform from Message Systems to deliver the enormous volume of emails it sends to its users every day.

History of Facebook

On July 20, 2008, Facebook introduced “Facebook Beta”, a significant redesign of its user interface on selected networks. The Mini-Feed and Wall were consolidated, profiles were separated into tabbed sections, and an effort was made to create a cleaner look. After initially giving users a choice to switch, Facebook began migrating all users to the new version starting in September 2008. On December 11, 2008, it was announced that Facebook was testing a simpler signup process.

User profile/personal timeline

Each registered user on Facebook gets their own personal profile that shows their posts and content. The format of individual user pages was revamped in September 2011 and became known as “Timeline”, a chronological feed of a user’s stories, including status updates, photos, interactions with apps, and events. The new layout also let users add a “cover photo”, a large header image at the top of the Timeline. Along with the new layout, users were also given more privacy settings to control the content on the Timeline. In 2007, Facebook launched Facebook Pages for brands and celebrities to interact with their fanbase, with more 100,000 Pages launched in November. In June 2009, Facebook introduced a “Usernames” feature, allowing users to choose a unique nickname used in the URL for their personal profile, for easier sharing.

In February 2014, Facebook expanded the options for a user’s gender setting, adding a custom input field that allows users to choose from a wide range of gender identities. Users can also set which set of gender-specific pronoun should be used in reference to them throughout the site. In May 2014, Facebook introduced a feature to allow users to ask for information not disclosed by other users on their profiles. If a user does not provide key information, such as location, hometown, or relationship status, other users can use a new “ask” button to send a message asking about that item to the user in a single click.

News Feed

On September 6, 2006, News Feed was announced, which appears on every user’s homepage and highlights information including profile changes, upcoming events, and birthdays of the user’s friends. This enabled spammers and other users to manipulate these features by creating illegitimate events or posting fake birthdays to attract attention to their profile or cause. Initially, the News Feed caused dissatisfaction among Facebook users; some complained it was too cluttered and full of undesired information, others were concerned that it made it too easy for others to track individual activities (such as relationship status changes, events, and conversations with other users). In response, Zuckerberg issued an apology for the site’s failure to include appropriate customizable privacy features. Since then, users have been able to control what types of information are shared automatically with friends. Users are now able to prevent user-set categories of friends from seeing updates about certain types of activities, including profile changes, Wall posts, and newly added friends.

On February 23, 2010, Facebook was granted a patent on certain aspects of its News Feed. The patent covers News Feeds in which links are provided so that one user can participate in the same activity of another user. The patent may encourage Facebook to pursue action against websites that violate its patent, which may potentially include websites such as Twitter. One of the most popular applications on Facebook is the Photos application, where users can upload albums and photos. Facebook allows users to upload an unlimited number of photos, compared with other image hosting services such as Photobucket and Flickr, which apply limits to the number of photos that a user is allowed to upload. During the first years, Facebook users were limited to 60 photos per album. As of May 2009, this limit has been increased to 200 photos per album.

Privacy settings can be set for individual albums, limiting the groups of users that can see an album. For example, the privacy of an album can be set so that only the user’s friends can see the album, while the privacy of another album can be set so that all Facebook users can see it. Another feature of the Photos application is the ability to “tag”, or label, users in a photo. For instance, if a photo contains a user’s friend, then the user can tag the friend in the photo. This sends a notification to the friend that she has been tagged, and provides a link to see the photo. On June 7, 2012, Facebook launched its App Center to its users. It will help the users in finding games and other applications with ease. Since the launch of the App Center, Facebook has seen 150M monthly users with 2.4 times the installation of apps. The sorting and display of stories in a user’s News Feed is governed by the EdgeRank algorithm.

On May 13, 2015, Facebook in association with major news portals launched a program “Instant Articles” to provide rich news experience. Instant articles provides users, access to articles on Facebook news feed without leaving the site. According to the technology news web site Gizmodo on May 9, 2016, Facebook curators routinely suppress or promote news that is deemed to meet a political agenda. For example, articles about Black Lives Matter would be listed even if they did not meet the trending criteria of News Feed. Likewise positive news about conservative political figures were regularly excised from Facebook pages. In January 2017, Facebook launched Facebook Stories for iOS and Android in Ireland. The feature, following the format of Snapchat and Instagram stories, allows users to upload photos and videos that appear above friends’ and followers’ News Feeds and disappear after 24 hours.

On October 11, 2017, Facebook introduced the 3D Posts feature to allow for uploading interactive 3D assets in the News Feed. On January 11, 2018, Facebook announced that it would be changing its News Feed algorithm to prioritize what friends and family share and de-emphasize content from media companies. The change was intended to maximize the “meaningful interactions” that people have with content on Facebook.

Like button

The “like” button, stylized as a “thumbs up” icon, was first enabled on February 9, 2009, and enables users to easily interact with status updates, comments, photos and videos, links shared by friends, and advertisements. Once clicked by a user, the designated content appears in the News Feeds of that user’s friends, and the button also displays the number of other users who have liked the content, including a full or partial list of those users. The like button was extended to comments in June 2010. After extensive testing and years of questions from the public about whether it had an intention to incorporate a “Dislike” button, Facebook officially rolled out “Reactions” to users worldwide on February 24, 2016, letting users long-press on the like button for an option to use one of five pre-defined emotions, including “Love”, “Haha”, “Wow”, “Sad”, or “Angry”. Reactions were also extended to comments in May 2017.

Instant messaging

Facebook Messenger is an instant messaging service and software application. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the company revamped its messaging service in 2010, and subsequently released standalone iOS and Android apps in August 2011. Over the years, Facebook has released new apps on a variety of different operating systems, launched a dedicated website interface, and separated the messaging functionality from the main Facebook app, requiring users to download the standalone apps.

Facebook Messenger lets Facebook users send messages to each other. Complementing regular conversations, Messenger lets users make voice calls and video calls both in one-to-one interactions and in group conversations. Its Android app has integrated support for SMS and “Chat Heads”, which are round profile photo icons appearing on-screen regardless of what app is open, while both apps support multiple accounts, conversations with optional end-to-end encryption, and playing “Instant Games”, which are select games built into Messenger. Some features, including sending money and requesting transportation, are limited to the United States. In 2017, Facebook has added “Messenger Day”, a feature that lets users share photos and videos in a story-format with all their friends with the content disappearing after 24 hours; Reactions, which lets users tap and hold a message to add a reaction through an emoji; and Mentions, which lets users in group conversations type @ to give a particular user a notification.

In March 2015, Facebook announced that it would start letting businesses and users interact through Messenger with features such as tracking purchases and receiving notifications, and interacting with customer service representatives. It also announced that third-party developers could integrate their apps into Messenger, letting users enter an app while inside Messenger and optionally share details from the app into a chat. In April 2016, it introduced an API for developers to build chatbots into Messenger, for uses such as news publishers building bots to give users news through the service, and in April 2017, it enabled the M virtual assistant for users in the U.S., which scans chats for keywords and suggests relevant actions, such as its payments system for users mentioning money. Additionally, Facebook expanded the use of bots, incorporating group chatbots into Messenger as “Chat Extensions”, adding a “Discovery” tab for finding bots, and enabling special, branded QR codes that, when scanned, take the user to a specific bot.

Following

On September 14, 2011, Facebook added the ability for users to provide a “Subscribe” button on their page, which allows users to subscribe to public postings by the user without needing to add him or her as a friend. In conjunction, Facebook also introduced a system in February 2012 to verify the identity of certain accounts. In December 2012, Facebook announced that because of user confusion surrounding its function, the Subscribe button would be re-labeled as a “Follow” button—making it more similar to other social networks with similar functions.

Comparison with Myspace

The media often compares Facebook to Myspace, but one significant difference between the two Web sites is the level of customization. Another difference is Facebook’s requirement that users give their true identity, a demand that MySpace does not make. MySpace allows users to decorate their profiles using HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), while Facebook allows only plain text. Facebook has a number of features with which users may interact. They include the Wall, a space on every user’s profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see; Pokes, which allows users to send a virtual “poke” to each other (a notification then tells a user that he or she has been poked); Photos, that allows users to upload albums and photos; and Status, which allows users to inform their friends of their whereabouts and actions. Facebook also allows users to tag various people in photographs. Depending on privacy settings, anyone who can see a user’s profile can also view that user’s Wall. In July 2007, Facebook began allowing users to post attachments to the Wall, whereas the Wall was previously limited to textual content only. Facebook also differs from Myspace in the form of advertising used. Facebook uses advertising in the form of banner ads, referral marketing, and games. Myspace, on the other hand, uses Google and AdSense. There is also a difference in the userbase of each site. MySpace, initially, was much more popular with high school students, while Facebook was more popular among college students. A study by the American firm Nielsen Claritas showed that Facebook users are more inclined to use other professional networking sites, such as LinkedIn, than Myspace users.

Privacy

Facebook enables users to choose their own privacy settings and choose who can see specific parts of their profile. The website is free to its users and generates revenue from advertising, such as banner ads. Facebook requires a user’s name and profile picture (if applicable) to be accessible by everyone. Users can control who sees other information they have shared, as well as who can find them in searches, through their privacy settings. On November 6, 2007, Facebook launched Facebook Beacon, which was a part of Facebook’s advertisement system until it was discontinued in 2009. Its purpose was to allow targeted advertisements and allowing users to share their activities with their friends.

In 2010, Facebook’s security team began expanding its efforts to reduce the risks to users’ privacy, but privacy concerns remain. Since 2010, the US National Security Agency has been taking publicly posted profile information from Facebook, among other social media services, user profiles to discover who they interact with.

On November 29, 2011, Facebook settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived consumers by failing to keep privacy promises. In August 2013 High-Tech Bridge published a study showing that links included in Facebook messaging service messages were being accessed by Facebook. In January 2014 two users filed a lawsuit against Facebook alleging that their privacy had been violated by this practice.

In April 2018, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal, and refuting a report to the contrary by Reuters, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would implement additional privacy “controls and settings” worldwide. These settings were originally intended for deployment in Europe in order to comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which take effect in May. In the lead-up to its implementation, Facebook also changed its terms of service and privacy policy to specify that that users within the European Union are served by Facebook Ireland, Ltd., while users outside of the EU are served by Facebook Inc., which is subject to U.S. jurisdiction. Previously, all users outside of Canada and the United States were served by Facebook Ireland, Ltd., which would make an additional 1.5 billion users subject to EU law in their use of Facebook than legally needed.

In the aftermath of the breach, Facebook withdrew its opposition to the California Consumer Privacy Act. Facebook, Google, Comcast, AT&T and Verizon had previously donated $200,000 each to a $1 million fund dedicated to opposing of the ballot measure. The Committee to Protect California jobs, which opposed the ballot question and is sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce told Ars Technica that “”Facebook has NOT dropped its opposition to the measure”. According to the Committee Facebook “simply formally dropped their participation in the ‘no’ campaign.”

Facebook Bug Bounty Program

On July 29, 2011, Facebook announced its Bug Bounty Program in which security researchers will be paid a minimum of $500 for reporting security holes on Facebook’s website. Facebook’s Whitehat page for security researchers says- “If you give us a reasonable time to respond to your report before making any information public and make a good faith effort to avoid privacy violations, destruction of data, and interruption or degradation of our service during your research, we will not bring any lawsuit against you or ask law enforcement to investigate you.”

Facebook started paying researchers who find and report security bugs by issuing them custom branded “White Hat” debit cards that can be reloaded with funds each time the researchers discover new flaws. “Researchers who find bugs and security improvements are rare, and we value them and have to find ways to reward them,” Ryan McGeehan, former manager of Facebook’s security response team, told CNET in an interview. “Having this exclusive black card is another way to recognize them. They can show up at a conference and show this card and say ‘I did special work for Facebook.'”

India, which has the second largest number of bug hunters in the world, tops the Facebook Bug Bounty Program with the largest number of valid bugs. “Researchers in Russia earned the highest amount per report in 2013, receiving an average of $3,961 for 38 bugs. India contributed the largest number of valid bugs at 136, with an average reward of $1,353. The U.S. reported 92 issues and averaged $2,272 in rewards. Brazil and the UK were third and fourth by volume, with 53 bugs and 40 bugs, respectively, and average rewards of $3,792 and $2,950”, Facebook quoted in a post.

Reception of facebook

User growth

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in August 2008 that Facebook had passed 100 million registered users. This increased to 150 million “active” users in January 2009. Stan Schroeder of Mashable questioned how the measurement of “active” was made, though acknowledging that “it probably means that users who’ve just created an account which sits idle for a long period of time aren’t included”. The number of users continued to grow, reaching 250 million in July 2009, 300 million in September 2009, 400 million in February 2010, and 500 million in July 2010. According to the company’s data at the July 2010 announcement, half of the site’s membership used Facebook daily, for an average of 34 minutes, while 150 million users accessed the site by mobile. A company representative called the milestone a “quiet revolution.”

Mark Zuckerberg announced to the media at the start of October 2012 that Facebook had passed the monthly active users mark of one billion. The company’s data also revealed 600 million mobile users, 219 billion photo uploads, and 140 billion friend connections. This continued to grow, reaching 1.19 billion monthly active users in October 2013, 1.44 billion users in April 2015, of which 1.25 billion were mobile users, 1.71 billion users in July 2016, 1.94 billion users in March 2017, and ultimately 2 billion users in June 2017.

Early in 2015, it was reported that teenagers preferred competing web sites such as Instagram and Snapchat. The estimated number of teens leaving Facebook was a million per year.

In November 2015, after skepticism about the accuracy of its “monthly active users” measurement, Facebook changed its definition of an “active user”, now defining it as a logged-in member who visits the Facebook site through the web browser or mobile app, or uses the Facebook Messenger app, in the last 30 days of the date of measurement. This excludes the use of third-party services with Facebook integration, which was previously counted.

Statistics

According to analytics firm comScore, Facebook is the leading social networking site based on monthly unique visitors, having overtaken main competitor MySpace in April 2008. comScore reported that Facebook attracted over 130 million unique visitors in May 2010, an increase of 8.6 million people. According to third-party web analytics providers, Alexa and SimilarWeb, Facebook is ranked second and first globally respectively, it is the highest-read social network on the Web, with over 20 billion visitors per month, as of 2015. SimilarWeb, Quantcast, and Compete.com all rank the website 2nd in the U.S. in traffic. The website is the most popular for uploading photos, cumulatively with 50 billion uploaded. In 2010, Sophos’s “Security Threat Report 2010” polled over 500 firms, 60% of which responded that they believed Facebook was the social network that “posed the biggest threat to security”, well ahead of MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Facebook is the most popular social networking site in several English-speaking countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. However, Facebook still receives limited adoption in countries such as Japan, where domestically created social networks are still largely preferred. In regional Internet markets, penetration on Facebook is highest in North America (69 percent), followed by Middle East-Africa (67 percent), Latin America (58 percent), Europe (57 percent), and Asia-Pacific (17 percent). Some of the top competitors were listed in 2007 by Mashable.

Awards and recognition

The website has won awards such as placement into the “Top 100 Classic Websites” by PC Magazine in 2007, and winning the “People’s Voice Award” from the Webby Awards in 2008. In a 2006 study conducted by Student Monitor, a company specializing in research concerning the college student market, Facebook was named the “second most popular thing among undergraduates,” tied with beer and only ranked lower than the iPod.

In 2010, Facebook won the Crunchie “Best Overall Startup Or Product” award for the third year in a row. However, in a July 2010 survey performed by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Facebook received a score of 64 out of 100, placing it in the bottom 5% of all private-sector companies in terms of customer satisfaction, alongside industries such as the IRS e-file system, airlines, and cable companies. The reasons why Facebook scored so poorly include privacy problems, frequent changes to the website’s interface, the results returned by the News Feed, and spam.

In December 2008, the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory ruled that Facebook is a valid protocol to serve court notices to defendants. It is believed to be the world’s first legal judgement that defines a summons posted on Facebook as legally binding. In March 2009, the New Zealand High Court associate justice David Gendall allowed for the serving of legal papers on Craig Axe by the company Axe Market Garden via Facebook. Employers have also used Facebook as a means to keep tabs on their employees and have even been known to fire them over posts they have made.

By 2005, the use of Facebook had already become so ubiquitous that the generic verb “facebooking” had come into use to describe the process of browsing others’ profiles or updating one’s own. In 2008, Collins English Dictionary declared “Facebook” as its new Word of the Year. In December 2009, the New Oxford American Dictionary declared its word of the year to be the verb “unfriend”, defined as “To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook”.

Criticisms and controversies of Facebook

Facebook’s market dominance has led to international media coverage and significant reporting of its shortcomings. Notable issues include Internet privacy, such as its widespread use of a “like” button on third-party websites tracking users, possible indefinite records of user information, automatic facial recognition software, and its role in the workplace, including employer-employee account disclosure. In a 2014 Huffington Post blog article entitled “Facebook- The World’s Biggest Waste of Time?”, Bill Robinson stated that going on Facebook was not a productive use of time and he raised concerns about its addictive qualities. Timothy A Pychyl wrote in Psychology Today about his concerns that Facebook is leading to “technological time wasting” and procrastination.

The use of Facebook can have psychological effects, including feelings of jealousy and stress, a lack of attention, and social media addiction, in some cases comparable to drug addiction.

Facebook’s company tactics have also received prominent coverage, including electricity usage, tax avoidance, real-name user requirement policies, censorship, and its involvement in the United States PRISM surveillance program.

Due to allowing users to publish material by themselves, Facebook has come under scrutiny for the amount of freedom it gives users, including copyright and intellectual property infringement, hate speech, incitement of rape and terrorism, fake news, and crimes, murders and violent incidents live-streamed through its Facebook Live functionality.

Facebook worked on special censorship software so it could potentially accommodate censorship demands in Communist-controlled China.

The company has also been subject to multiple litigation cases over the years, with its most prominent case concerning allegations that CEO Mark Zuckerberg broke an oral contract with Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra to build the then-named “HarvardConnection” social network in 2004, instead allegedly opting to steal the idea and code to launch Facebook months before HarvardConnection began. The original lawsuit was eventually settled in 2009, with Facebook paying approximately $20 million in cash and 1.25 million shares. A new lawsuit in 2011 was dismissed.

On November 5, 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, revealed that Russian state organizations with ties to Vladimir Putin pursued between 2009 and 2011 large investments in Facebook and Twitter via an intermediary—Russian-American entrepreneur Yuri Milner, who befriended Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and was a business associate of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. According to The Express Tribune, Facebook is among the corporations that “avoided billions of dollars in tax using offshore companies”. A subsidiary of the Kremlin-controlled Gazprom funded an investment company that partnered with DST Global, an investment firm part of Mail.ru, to buy shares in Facebook, reaping millions when the social media giant went public in 2012. Four days after the Facebook IPO, a DST Global subsidiary sold more than 27 million shares of Facebook for roughly $1 billion.

On March 6, 2018, BlackBerry sued Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp subdivision for ripping off key features of its messaging app. According to BlackBerry, it invented the core concepts in mobile messaging app which were copied by Facebook and its subsidiaries. According to the Facebook Deputy General Counsel, Paul Grewal, BlackBerry abandoned its effort to innovate and it is now looking to tax the innovation of others.

Shadow profiles

“Shadow profile” has become a catch all term for data that is outside the scope of a user’s official profile or voluntarily shared content. This includes data that Facebook collects on non-users that may be collected by the Facebook analytics Pixel or location data from a mobile phone. During his 2018 Congressional testimony, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that while users have control over data collection for advertising purposes, “On security, there may be specific things about how you use Facebook, even if you’re not logged in, that we keep track of to make sure you’re not abusing the systems.” Zuckerberg also stated that he was not familiar with the term “shadow profile”, though he did confirm that Facebook gathers data on individuals who have not signed up for Facebook accounts.

Cambridge Analytica

In March 2018, whistleblowers revealed that personal information from over 50 million Facebook users was sold to Cambridge Analytica, a political data analysis firm that had worked for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The data was collected using an app created by Global Science Research. While approximately 270,000 people volunteered to use the app, Facebook’s API also permitted data collection from the friends of app users. When the information was first reported Facebook tried to downplay the significance of the breach, and attempted to suggest that the stolen data was no longer available to Cambridge Analytica. However, with increasing scrutiny, Facebook issued a statement expressing alarm and suspended Cambridge Analytica, while review of documents and interviews with former Facebook employees suggested that Cambridge Analytica was still in possession of the data. This is a violation of the consent decree entered into law by Facebook with the Federal Trade Commission, and violations of the consent decree could carry a penalty of $40,000 per violation, meaning that if news reports that the data of 50 million people were shared proves true, the company’s possible exposure runs into the trillions of dollars.

According to The Guardian reporter Carole Cadwalladr who broke the story, both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica threatened to sue the newspaper if it published the story and continually tried to prevent its publication. After the story was published anyway, Facebook claimed that it had been “lied to”. Cadwalladr said that Facebook was trying to shift the blame onto a third party. Nick Thompson of Wired and CBS News pointed out that Cambridge Analytica obtained all the personal data without having to “breach” Facebook, and that “It didn’t work because somebody hacked in and broke stuff, it worked because Facebook has built the craziest most invasive advertising model in the history of the world and someone took advantage of it.” On March 23, 2018, The English High Court granted an application by the Information Commissioner’s Office for a warrant to search Cambridge Analytica’s London offices ending a standoff between Facebook’s data team and the Information Commissioner over who is responsible for the forensic searching of the company’s servers.

On March 25, Zuckerberg placed a newspaper ad in UK and US newspapers apologising over a “breach of trust”; newspapers included Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Observer, Sunday Mirror and Sunday Express.

You may have heard about a quiz app built by a university researcher that leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014. This was a breach of trust, and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time. We’re now taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

We’ve already stopped apps like this from getting so much information. Now we’re limiting the data apps get when you sign in using Facebook.

We’re also investigating every single app that had access to large amounts of data before we fixed this. We expect there are others. And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected.

Finally, we’ll remind you which apps you’ve give access to your information – so you can shut off the ones you don’t want anymore.

Thank you for believing in this community. I promise to do better for you.

On March 26, the Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into Facebook regarding the use of its data by Cambridge Analytica, causing stocks to temporarily drop by more than 5 percent.

Public apologies

In early March 2018, a U.K.-based newspaper called The Observer reported that a “political consultancy” known as Cambridge Analytica had been provided access to the personal data of about 50 million Americans by Facebook. On March 21, 2018, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg issued the company’s first public statement since this information was publicly disclosed. However, another article was published on April 4 by Wired that reports a statement made by Facebook regarding the number of people affected. Mike Schroepfer – Facebook’s chief technology officer – disclosed that the amount is closer to 87 million via a blog post. The earlier announcement discussed modification to the way that “third-party applications” could access data from Facebook. An app downloaded by 270,000 people has been claimed to have led to the crisis. When users downloaded this app – called “thisisyourdigitallife” – information regarding the users’ preferred Facebook content as well as their “home town” could then be accessed by the app. This was than used to acquire similar information of the user’s contacts and continued to affect approximately 50 million people in total. It has also been claimed that pre-existing policies around access to personal information of Facebook users by “third-party app developers” are foundational to the “crisis”. The company has received significant backlash following the disclosure of the use of private data by other entities. This backlash has also taken the form of demands for legal accountability, including the opening of an investigation into the company by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Others such as Elon Musk, who has deleted his Facebook pages for SpaceX and Tesla, have publicly expressed their decision to terminate their use of the media platform for their purposes.

According to a study done by Jeffery Child and Shawn Starcher in 2015, Facebook is a social media platform where “both known and unknown audiences can gain access to posted context, increasing the possibility for privacy breakdowns”. The company has a history of making efforts of rapprochement for such privacy crises. Past apologies of Facebook started in 2009, when Facebook first launched their site worldwide. In the hopes of making it easier for users to share or keep their information private, the company ended up modifying the entire site and publicizing a subsequent apology for the situation. For years, Facebook has been giving advertisers the option of having targeted ads based on data collecting companies like Acxiom Corp and Experian PLC. In March 2016, Facebook first acknowledged that user data had been mishandled back in 2014 when a third-party app was linked back to Cambridge Analytica. This was the same company that was hired by the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump. The media platform has also been accessed by individuals in addition to corporate entities for varying purposes. The site has been used to determine the eligibility for students to be employed or charged with a form of retribution in some cases, based on what they share or post.

In response to criticism and outrage, different media outlets were used by the company to issue a public apology. On March 25, 2018, U.K. newspapers The Observer, The Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Mirror, Sunday Express and Sunday Telegraph contained full-page ads depicting a personal apology from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. In the United States, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal also contained the same page-length ads. In addition to the use of newspaper outlets, Mark Zuckerberg issued a verbal apology on CNN. and took part in interviews with other news organizations such as Recode. Zuckerberg has also made multiple other apologies over the course of the years regarding Facebook. In May 2010, Zuckerberg issued a public apology over discrepancies in the privacy settings in The Washington Post via an Op-Ed article. Similarly, the CEO has also made apologies via blog posts as well as through the Facebook platform itself.

In an effort to earn back public trust, Facebook ended its partnerships with several data brokers who aid advertisers in targeting people on the social network. The company has also adjusted the privacy settings again for its user base as well. Previously, Facebook had its privacy settings spread out over 20 pages, and has now put all of its privacy settings on one page, which makes it harder for third-party apps to access the user’s personal information. In addition to publicly apologizing, Facebook has said that it will be reviewing and auditing thousands of apps that display “suspicious activities” in an effort to ensure that this breach of privacy doesn’t happen again. In a 2010 report regarding privacy, a research project stated that not a lot of information is available regarding the consequences of what people disclose online so often what is available are just reports made available through popular media. In 2017, a former Facebook executive went on the record to discuss how social media platforms have contributed to the unraveling of the “fabric of society”.

Impact

Media impact

In April 2011, Facebook launched a new portal for marketers and creative agencies to help them develop brand promotions on Facebook. The company began its push by inviting a select group of British advertising leaders to meet Facebook’s top executives at an “influencers’ summit” in February 2010. Facebook has now been involved in campaigns for True Blood, American Idol, and Top Gear. News and media outlets such as The Washington Post, Financial Times and ABC News have used aggregated Facebook fan data to create various infographics and charts to accompany their articles. In 2012, beauty pageant Miss Sri Lanka Online was run exclusively using Facebook.

Economic impact

Facebook, Inc. has utilized growing internet markets using a social media platform to expand its user base while generating billions of dollars in revenue from Facebook’s companies. Through empirical findings, economists have been able to identify key areas where Facebook has been able to stimulate economic activity by offering a free public good in that one user will not reduce the amount available to another, while also generating positive externalities. Thus, mobile phone manufactures and carriers have been beneficiaries of Facebook’s spillover effect. Three distinct areas have been found to add the most economic impact- platform competition, the marketing place, and user behavior data.

Facebook’s platform is efficient because it lowers barriers to entry and lowers costs for businesses to rapidly innovate new ideas. Scalability is accomplished with less wasted resources and monetized by collecting user behavior and usage data for targeted advertising. Facebook advertising allows firms to reasonably scale up operations to reach Facebook users. Facebook’s daily active users have increased 18% year-over-year and burgeoning from 1 million users in 2004, to over 1.9 billion in 2017. Facebook is a leader among tech companies who continues to improve their carbon impact through more efficient data centers and clean renewable energy.

By the end of 2016, Facebook’s total revenue earnings were $27.638 billion, gross profit was $23.849 billion and a net income for the year was $10.188 billion.

Facebook provides a development platform for many social gaming, communication, feedback, review, and other applications related to online activities. This open platform of Facebook has spawned many new businesses and added thousands of jobs to the economy. Zynga Inc., a leading company in social gaming app development, is an example of those businesses. An econometric analysis studied the impact of Facebook on the economy in terms of the number of jobs created and the economic value of those jobs. The conservative estimate was that the app development platform of Facebook added more than 182,000 jobs in the U.S. economy in 2011. The total economic value of the added employment was about $12 billion.

Social impact

Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in various ways. Facebook allows people using computers or mobile phones to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. It has reunited lost family members and friends. It allows users to trade ideas, stay informed with local or global developments, and unite people with common interests and/or beliefs through open, closed and private groups and other pages.

Facebook’s social impact has also changed how people communicate. Rather than having to reply to others through email, Facebook allows users to broadcast or share content to others, and thereby to engage others or be engaged with others’ posts.

Facebook has been successful and more socially impactful than many other social media sites. David Kirkpatrick, technology journalist and author of The Facebook Effect, believes that Facebook is structured in a way that is not easily replaceable. He challenges users to consider how difficult it would be to move all the relationships and photos to an alternative. Facebook has let people participate in an atmosphere with the “over the backyard fence quality” of a small town, despite the move to larger cities. As per Pew Research Center survey, 44 percent of the overall US population gets news through Facebook.

Emotional health impact

Facebook, and social media in general, has received significant media coverage for negative emotional health impacts. Studies have shown that Facebook causes negative effects on self-esteem by triggering feelings of envy, with vacation and holiday photos proving to be the largest resentment triggers. Other prevalent causes of envy include posts by friends about family happiness and images of physical beauty—such envious feelings leave people lonely and dissatisfied with their own lives. A joint study by two German universities discovered that one out of three people were more dissatisfied with their lives after visiting Facebook, and another study by Utah Valley University found that college students felt worse about their own lives following an increase in the amount of time spent on Facebook.

In a presentation by California State University psychology professor Larry D. Rosen, he notes that teenagers using Facebook exhibit more narcissistic tendencies, while young adults show signs of antisocial behavior, mania, and aggressiveness. However, he also found positive effects from Facebook use, including signs of “virtual empathy” towards online friends and helping introverted persons learn social skills. He said that “While nobody can deny that Facebook has altered the landscape of social interaction, particularly among young people, we are just now starting to see solid psychological research demonstrating both the positives and the negatives”.

In a blog post in December 2017, the company pointed to research that has shown “passively consuming” the News Feed, as in reading but not interacting, does indeed leave users with negative feelings afterwards, whereas interacting with messages points to improvements in well-being. TechCrunch noted that CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said in a recent earnings call that “Time spent is not a goal by itself. We want the time people spend on Facebook to encourage meaningful social interactions”.

Political impact

In February 2008, a Facebook group called “One Million Voices Against FARC” organized an event in which hundreds of thousands of Colombians marched in protest against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as the FARC (from the group’s Spanish name). In August 2010, one of North Korea’s official government websites and the official news agency of the country, Uriminzokkiri, joined Facebook.

During the Arab Spring many journalists made claims that Facebook played a major role in generating the 2011 Egyptian revolution. On January 14, the Facebook page of “We are all khaled Said” was started by Wael Ghoniem Create Event to invite the Egyptian people to “peaceful demonstrations” on January 25. According to Mashable, in Tunisia and Egypt, Facebook became the primary tool for connecting all protesters and led the Egyptian government of Prime Minister Nazif to ban Facebook, Twitter and another websites on January 26 then ban all mobile and Internet connections for all of Egypt at midnight January 28. After 18 days, the uprising forced President Mubarak to resign.

In Bahrain uprising which started on February 14, 2011, Facebook was utilized by the Bahraini regime as well as regime loyalists to identify, capture and prosecute citizens involved in the protests. A 20-year-old woman named Ayat Al Qurmezi was identified as a protester using Facebook, taken from her home by masked commandos and put in prison.

In 2011, Facebook filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to form a political action committee under the name FB PAC. In an email to The Hill, a spokesman for Facebook said “Facebook Political Action Committee will give our employees a way to make their voice heard in the political process by supporting candidates who share our goals of promoting the value of innovation to our economy while giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”

During the Syrian civil war, the YPG, a libertarian army for Rojava has recruited westerners through Facebook in its fight against ISIL. Dozens have joined its ranks for various reasons from religious to ideological. The Facebook page’s name “The Lions of Rojava” comes from a Kurdish saying which translates as “A lion is a lion, whether it’s a female or a male”, reflecting the organization’s feminist ideology.

United States

Facebook’s role in the American political process was demonstrated in January 2008, shortly before the New Hampshire primary, when Facebook teamed up with ABC and Saint Anselm College to allow users to give live feedback about the “back to back” January 5 Republican and Democratic debates. Facebook users took part in debate groups on specific topics, voter registration, and message questions.

Over a million people installed the Facebook application “US Politics on Facebook” in order to take part, and the application measured users’ responses to specific comments made by the debating candidates. This debate showed the broader community what many young students had already experienced- Facebook as a popular and powerful new way to interact and voice opinions. A poll by CBS News, UWIRE and The Chronicle of Higher Education claimed to illustrate how the “Facebook effect” has affected youth voting rates, support by youth of political candidates, and general involvement by the youth population in the 2008 election.

The new social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, made use first of the personal computer and the Internet, and after 2010 of the smart phones to connect hundreds of millions of people, especially those under age 35. By 2008, politicians and interest groups were experimenting with systematic use of social media to spread their message among much larger audiences than they had previously reached.

Facebook is having an impact on local government as well. Justin Smith, a Colorado sheriff uses Facebook to disseminate his ideas on matters relating to local, state, and national concerns. He also publicizes crimes, particularly those that his department solves. He has seven thousand followers on the social medium, considered a large number. Smith said that he rarely goes out in public “when I don’t get feedback from folks. … Facebook is an interesting tool because I think it holds candidates and elected officials more accountable. Voters know where someone stands.”

According to the Investor’s Business Daily, “In 2012, the Obama campaign encouraged supporters to download an Obama 2012 Facebook app that, when activated, let the campaign collect Facebook data both on users and their friends.” Carol Davidsen, the Obama for America (OFA) former director of integration and media analytics, wrote that “Facebook was surprised we were able to suck out the whole social graph, but they didn’t stop us once they realised that was what we were doing.”

As American political strategists turn their attention to the 2016 presidential contest, they identify Facebook as an increasingly important advertising tool. Recent technical innovations have made possible more advanced divisions and subdivisions of the electorate. Most important, Facebook can now deliver video ads to small, highly targeted subsets. Television, by contrast, shows the same commercials to all viewers, and so cannot be precisely tailored.

2016 United States elections

A Russian company bought more than $100,000 worth of Facebook ads during the 2016 presidential election. Special Council Robert Mueller, contacted Facebook subsequently to the company’s disclosure that it sold ads to a Russian Spy Agency-linked company (Internet Research Agency), and the Menlo Park-based company has pledged full cooperation in Mueller’s investigation, and began with providing all information about the advertisement buys by the Russian government, including the identities of the individuals and companies who made the purchases. The Daily Beast reports that Russia Used Facebook Events to Organize Anti-Immigrant Rallies on U.S. Soil. Facebook has concluded that a 225,000-member anti-immigrant group that attempted to organize anti-Clinton rallies in Texas during the 2016 presidential campaign was “likely operated out of Russia”, Business Insider reports. Russians also staged anti-Trump rallies in November 2016 and bought a Black Lives Matter Facebook ad during the 2016 campaign. Pro-Publica also reported on how Facebook Enabled Advertisers to Reach ‘Jew Haters.’ Facebook enabled advertisers to direct their pitches to the news feeds of almost 2,300 people who expressed interest in the topics of “Jew hater,” “How to burn jews,” or, “History of ‘why jews ruin the world.’”

As of mid-September 2017 Facebook still does not know the extent of Russia’s advertisement purchases during the 2016 election — or whether these unidentified ad buys are still on the site. A Facebook spokesman told CNN that there was “no sales support”. A company representative would not elaborate when asked by Business Insider if it plans to change its ad sales policy.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook shared copies of ads and account information related to the Russian ad purchases on its platform with Robert Mueller that go beyond what it shared with Congress last week. Facebook’s unusual compliance was in response to Search Warrants issued by Mueller’s Federal Grand Jury. The Financial Times reports that United States Senate Intelligence committee seeks further information about Russia links with Facebook, and are stepping up the pressure on Facebook as concerns rise about the role the social media network played in Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. CNN reports that Facebook handed Russia-linked ads over to Mueller under search warrant.

Congressional Committees have said Facebook is withholding key information that could illuminate the shape and extent of a Russian propaganda campaign aimed at tilting the U.S. presidential election. The Financial Times reports US lawmakers with access to sensitive intelligence have expressed fears that Russia’s campaign to influence US politics via Facebook is continuing today even as American investigators probe Moscow’s use of social media in the 2016 election.

“Being Patriotic”, a Facebook group uncovered by The Daily Beast, is the first evidence of suspected Russian provocateurs explicitly mobilizing Trump supporters in real life. The Washington Post reports Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over black political activism and Muslims. The Russians took advantage of Facebook’s ability to simultaneously send contrary messages to different groups of users based on their political and demographic characteristics and also sought to sow discord among religious groups. Other ads highlighted support for Democrat Hillary Clinton among Muslim women. The ads suggest that Russian operatives worked off of evolving lists of racial, religious, political and economic themes. They used these to create pages, write posts and craft ads that would appear in users’ news feeds—with the apparent goal of appealing to one audience and alienating another. Mark Zuckerberg responds to Trump, regrets he dismissed election concerns. The Daily Beast reports Russians Impersonated Real American Muslims to Stir Chaos on Facebook and Instagram. The Daily Beast reports that Mark Zuckerberg Blew Off Russian Troll Warnings Before the Attack on America.

On November 5, 2017, The New York Times reported that Russian-American Billionaire Yuri Milner, who befriended Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had between 2009 and 2011 strong Kremlin backing for his investments in Facebook and Twitter.

On March 17, 2018, The New York Times and The Observer of London reported the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica data breach in which Cambridge Analytica collected personal information from Facebook users as a basis of crafting political campaigns for whomever purchased their services. As a result, Facebook banned Cambridge Analytica from advertising on its platform. The Guardian reported further that Facebook has known about this security breach for two years, but has done nothing to protect its users.

Bans and censorship

In many countries the social networking sites and mobile apps have been blocked temporarily or permanently, including China, Iran, and North Korea. Facebook has been banned by Syria, China, and Iran.

Scientific impact

In January 2018, Facebook launched a new unit of time, the flick, equivalent to 1/705600000 of a second, exactly.

In popular culture

• Author Ben Mezrich published a book in July 2009 about Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook, titled The Accidental Billionaires- The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal.
• In 2009, My Facebook song from Gigi was released in Indonesia. The song is in Indonesian, telling about a guy that met his ex-girlfriend via Facebook. This song soon became popular in Indonesia, having high airplay on radio stations.
• The Social Network, a drama film directed by David Fincher and adapted from Mezrich’s book, was released October 1, 2010. The film is a fictional re-telling of the creation of Facebook, and the legal battles associated with it. People portrayed in the movie, including Zuckerberg, criticized its accuracy.
• In response to the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day controversy and the banning of the website in Pakistan, an Islamic version of the website was created, called MillatFacebook.
• The site was parodied in “You Have 0 Friends”, an April 2010 episode of the American animated comedy series South Park.
• In July 2014, after Shakira became the first celebrity to cross over 100 million likes, Mark Zuckerberg posted a congratulatory message on the artist’s wall. Cristiano Ronaldo is the second to reach 100 million likes, ahead of Rihanna and Eminem, who had 98 million and 89 million likes respectively. On March 15, 2015, Cristiano Ronaldo surpassed Shakira to become the most liked person on Facebook.

Referance – wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

The Infinity Gems, originally referred to as Soul Gems and later referred to as Infinity Stones, are six immensely powerful fictional gems appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Whoever holds and uses all six Gems gains omnipotence and omniscience. The six primary Gems are the Mind Gem, the Soul Gem, the Space Gem, the Power Gem, the Time Gem and the Reality Gem. In later storylines, crossovers and other media, a seventh Gem is sometimes added.

The Gems play a prominent role in the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which they are known as the Infinity Stones.

Publication history of Infinity Gems

The first Infinity Gem appeared in the Marvel Universe comics in 1972, in Marvel Premiere #1 (which also introduced the character Adam Warlock), and was originally called a “Soul Gem”. Five years later, two more “Soul Gems” were introduced in a Warlock crossover with Spider-Man, and the full set of six appeared as the death-obsessed villain Thanos attempted to use them to extinguish every star in the universe. In a 1988 storyline in Silver Surfer, the Elders of the Universe try to use the Soul Gems to steal the energy of the world-eating entity Galactus.

In the 1990 limited series The Thanos Quest, Thanos refers to the entire set as “Infinity Gems” for the first time, and the gems began to take a more prominent role in the Marvel Universe. In this storyline, Thanos steals the gems and inserts them into a gold glove known as the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos reveals the Gems to be the last remains of an omnipotent being. In the miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos uses the Gems to become nearly omnipotent himself. He wields his power to kill half the population of the universe as a gift to his love, the cosmic embodiment of Death. Though he easily repels an attack by Earth’s heroes and other cosmic entities, the Gauntlet is stolen from him by Nebula, who undoes his mass killings. Adam Warlock recovers the Gauntlet in turn and divides the Gems a group he calls “the Infinity Watch”, consisting of himself; the superheroes Gamora, Pip the Troll, Drax the Destroyer, and Moondragon; and his former adversary Thanos. This group’s adventures in defending the gems appeared in the ongoing series Warlock and the Infinity Watch (1992- 1995).

The Gems are next gathered by Warlock’s evil alter ego, the Magus, in The Infinity War, a 1992 limited series. The Magus is defeated by Warlock and Earth’s heroes. In 1993, a third limited series, The Infinity Crusade, described the attempts of Warlock’s “Good” side, the Goddess, to destroy evil in the universe by destroying free will; the Gems are once more retrieved by the Infinity Watch.

Following the cancellation of the Infinity Watch series, the one-shot title Rune/Silver Surfer depicts the Gems being stolen by the extradimensional vampire Rune and dispersed throughout the Ultraverse. The Asgardian god Loki subsequently enters the Ultraverse, collects the Gems, and discovers the existence of a seventh Gem, “Ego”. The Ego Gem, possessing the Avenger Sersi, merges with the other Gems to reform Nemesis–the original omnipotent being whose essence formed the Gems–and battles the Avengers and Ultraforce before being dissipated once again.

In a story arc of the Thanos ongoing series (2003-2004), Galactus gathers the six Gems, but accidentally allows an interdimensional parasite, named Hunger, access into the Earth-616 universe. Thanos and Galactus banish the entity, and the Gems are scattered again with the exception of the Soul Gem, which Thanos retains for its customary custodian, Adam Warlock. In New Avengers- Illuminati, a 2007-2008 limited series, a cabal of Earth’s heroes gather the Gems and attempt to wish them out of existence, but discover that they must exist as part of the cosmic balance. Instead, the Illuminati divide and hide the Gems.

In a 2010 Avengers storyline, the human criminal known as the Hood steals several Gems, but is defeated by use of the remaining Gems; the Illuminati attempt to hide them again. Later, the Illuminati wield the Gems to stop another universe from collapsing into their own, but the Gems are shattered in the effort. Afterwards, the previously vanished Time Gem appears to Captain America and some of the Avengers and transports them into future realities, shattering throughout time in the process.

As a result of the Incursions, the entire Multiverse is destroyed. However, Doctor Doom combines fragments of several alternate realities into Battleworld. Doctor Strange gathers Infinity Gems from various realities into a new Infinity Gauntlet, which he leaves hidden until the surviving heroes of Earth-616 return. The Gauntlet is subsequently claimed by T’Challa, who uses it to keep the Beyonder-enhanced Doom occupied until Mister Fantastic can disrupt his power source.

Following the destruction of the entire Multiverse and its restoration, the destroyed Infinity Gems are recreated and scattered across the universe, with their colors switched and some taking on uncut ingot forms. In Marvel Legacy #1, the Space Gem (now colored blue) appears on Earth where a Frost Giant working for Loki steals it from a S.H.I.E.L.D. storage facility, however he is intercepted and defeated by Wolverine. Star-Lord discovers an extra-large Power Stone (now colored purple) being protected by the Nova Corps, and an alternate universe Peter Quill named Starkill has the Reality Stone (now colored red). A future version of Ghost Rider is revealed to possess a shard of the Time Stone (now colored green), while in the present the complete stone restores the ruined planet of Sakaar and is claimed by the Super-Skrull. The Mind Stone (now colored yellow) is found on Earth in the hands of petty crook Turk Barrett, and the Soul Stone (now colored orange) is mentioned to Adam Warlock to be in the hands of his dark aspect the Magus; however, Ultron is able to claim it after ambushing and killing him.

Description of Infinity Gems

Each Gem is shaped like a small oval. Each Gem is named after, and represents, a different characteristic of existence, and possessing any single Gem grants the user the ability to command whatever aspect of existence the Gem represents. The Gems are not immutable. On two occasions, one or more of the Gems have appeared as deep pink spheres several feet in diameter. On other occasions, the Gems have appeared in their small oval shape but with different coloring (i.e. the Soul Gem being red colored when worn by the Gardener). In the Ultraverse, after merging into their original form of Nemesis, the Gems were again separated after a battle with Ultraforce and the Avengers. As part of the Marvel Legacy initiative, the Infinity Gems (now known as the Infinity Stones), had their colors altered to match the colors of the Infinity Stones from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The six Infinity Gems include-

Additional Gems have appeared in crossover media and alternate universes outside the Marvel Universe.

Other versions

Council of Reeds

The Reed Richards of Earth-616, in an attempt to “solve everything”, meets with a council of alternate universe Reeds. Three of them wear Infinity Gauntlets, which only work in concert with their respective universes.

New Avengers

During the “Incursion” storyline, the Avengers travel to a parallel Earth where a pastiche on the Justice League have replaced this Earth’s Avengers who all died in a previous cataclysm. Here the Gems are all square planes which are assembled into the “Wisher’s Cube”, a composite of the concepts of the Infinity Gems and the Cosmic Cube.

Secret Wars

After various alternate universes are combined into Battleworld, Doctor Strange gathers Infinity Gems from other universes into a new Infinity Gauntlet that works in the area where Doom has built his palace. Strange leaves the Gauntlet hidden until he has access to someone he can trust it with; after his death, the Gauntlet is claimed by T’Challa, who uses it against Doom in the final battle.

A separate section of Battleworld known as New Xandar also has a Gauntlet fought over by multiple factions until the majority of the Stones, except the Reality Stone, were taken by Thanos. Thanos eventually tracks the missing Stone to Nova Corps member Anwen Bakian. When Thanos confronts her to get the Stone, Anwen gives him a duplicate of the Reality Stone she created called the ‘Death Stone’. When used along with the other five Stones, the Death Stone corrupts Thanos with black matter and turns him to dust.

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, an Infinity Gauntlet is seen in Project Pegasus. The Mind Gem (stolen by Hydra) is used by Modi (Thor’s son) to control both Director Flumm and Cassie Lang, but are stopped by the Ultimates. The Power Gem is later revealed to be in the possession of former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sayuri Kyota, while a second Infinity Gauntlet is recovered from an A.I.M. base by Thor and Susan Storm. Kang the Conqueror later allies himself with the Hulk, Reed Richards and Quicksilver as part of a plan to steal the two Gauntlets, which results in the destruction of the Triskelion. Quicksilver recovers two additional Gems allowing the villains to teleport away. Richards is later able to recover another of the Gems, which is found lodged in Tony Stark’s brain. He informs Stark that the Infinity Gems are needed to save the world from a coming cataclysm that will destroy the entire universe. After brainwashing Johnny Storm and forcing him to travel to the Earth’s core, the Dark Ultimates are able to recover the final gem, but are defeated by the Ultimates. The gems then shatter, rendering the Gauntlets useless.

What If?

In a reality where Doctor Doom retained the power of the Beyonder, he acquired the Infinity Gems from the Elders of the Universe and used them to defeat the Celestials in a 407-year-long war before finally forsaking his power.

In an alternate reality where the original Fantastic Four died, a new Fantastic Four — consisting of Spider-Man, Hulk, Wolverine and Ghost Rider — was formed. With Iron Man replacing Ghost Rider, they were the only heroes available to fight Thanos when he initially assembled the Infinity Gauntlet. Despite Iron Man’s use of Negative Zone–enhanced Celestial armor, Thanos still easily defeated the team until Wolverine tricked Thanos into erasing Mephisto from existence before cutting off Thanos’s left arm, and therefore the Infinity Gauntlet. With Thanos powerless, Spider-Man used the gauntlet to undo the events of Thanos’s godhood.

Contest of Champions

In the Contest of Champions miniseries, an alternate version of Tony Stark uses the Reality Gem to win the superhero civil war and affect the outcome of a presidential election. When he tries to use the Gem on Battleworld, he is killed by the Maestro, who says the Gems do not work in any universe other than their own.

In other media

Television

The Infinity Gauntlet and the Infinity Gems appear in The Super Hero Squad Show television show.
The Infinity Gauntlet and the Infinity Gems appear in Avengers Assemble. In this show, there are only five Infinity Gems and the Soul Stone is not present.

Film

The Infinity Stones are significant in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing important roles in several films. Director James Gunn created the backstory for the Stones in the film Guardians of the Galaxy, where the Collector explains they are the remnants of six singularities that existed before the Big Bang, which were compressed into stones after the universe began. In the film Avengers- Infinity War, it is further explained by Wong and Doctor Strange to Tony Stark that each stone embodies and controls a fundamental aspect of existence.

In order of introduction, they are-

• Space Stone (Blue)-
  Housed in the Tesseract, it first appears briefly in the Thor post-credits scene. In Captain America- The First Avenger, it is used by the Red Skull to power weaponry developed by Hydra, and in The Avengers it is shown to be capable of generating wormholes, which Loki uses to transport the Chitauri to New York City in an attempt to conquer Earth. After the Avengers repel the invasion, it is returned to Asgard for safekeeping. In November 2013, producer Kevin Feige confirmed that the Tesseract is the Space Stone. Loki steals the Tesseract before Asgard’s destruction at the end of Thor- Ragnarok and gives it to Thanos in Avengers- Infinity War to save Thor’s life.
• Mind Stone (Yellow)-
  In The Avengers, Thanos gives Loki a scepter that allows him to control people’s minds and to project energy. The scepter falls into the hands of Hydra leader Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, who is shown in the mid-credits scene of Captain America- The Winter Soldier to have been using it to experiment on humans. The only surviving subjects of those experiments are Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, in whom superhuman abilities were unlocked. In Avengers- Age of Ultron, the scepter is revealed to contain the Mind Stone, and has an artificial intelligence that grants sentience to the computer program Ultron, who then incorporates the stone into his “Vision”, an android. The Mind Stone can also enhance the user’s intelligence, grants the user immense knowledge, and can create new life. In Avengers- Infinity War, Vision is injured by Thanos’ children trying to get the Mind Stone and is taken to Wakanda to have it removed, in the hope that he can live without it. When the operation to remove the Stone is interrupted, Wanda Maximoff is forced to destroy Vision and the Stone, only for Thanos to use the Time Stone to repair and collect it while killing Vision again.
• Reality Stone (Red)-
  Formed by the Dark Elf Malekith into a fluid-like weapon called the Aether, it is said to be able to destroy the Nine Realms and return the universe to its pre-Big Bang state. The Asgardians entrust the Aether to the Collector at the end of Thor- The Dark World to separate it from the Tesseract, as they consider it unwise to have multiple Stones close together. The Aether, when bonded with a host, can turn anything into dark matter, and is capable of sucking the life force out of humans and other mortals. In Avengers- Infinity War, Thanos lays waste to Knowhere and takes the Reality Stone from the Collector.
• Power Stone (Purple)-
  The Power Stone is contained within an orb that Ronan the Accuser seeks to find for Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy. It is capable of destroying entire civilizations, and Ronan tries to use it to destroy the planet Xandar. The Guardians of the Galaxy stop him and entrust the stone to the Nova Corps for safekeeping. Before the events of Avengers- Infinity War, the Power Stone is the first to be obtained by Thanos, as Thor informs the Guardians that his army has decimated Xandar.
• Time Stone (Green)-
  The Time Stone was encased in the Eye of Agamotto by Earth’s first sorcerer, Agamotto. A Master of the Mystic Arts can use the Stone to alter and manipulate time. Thousands of years later, in Doctor Strange, Dr. Stephen Strange learns to use the Eye and uses it to save the Earth from Dormammu by trapping the demon in a time loop until he abandons his plans for Earth. The Masters of the Mystic Arts retain possession of the Eye in their secret compound Kamar-Taj in Kathmandu, Nepal. During the events of Avengers- Infinity War, Strange uses the Time Stone to look into future timelines; viewing millions of possible outcomes of their conflict with Thanos. Strange later surrenders the stone to Thanos in exchange for him sparing Tony Stark’s life.
• Soul Stone (Orange)-
  The Soul Stone is first seen in Avengers- Infinity War. Some time prior to Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos asked Gamora to locate the Soul Stone, because unlike the other Infinity Stones, there was little record of its existence. Gamora found it hidden on the planet Vormir. Thanos takes Gamora to recover it, where they discover that the Red Skull guards the Soul Stone. Red Skull warns Thanos that he must sacrifice something he loves to acquire it. Thanos tearfully throws Gamora off a cliff and gains the Soul Stone.
  A right-handed gauntlet appears in the film Thor, where it is stored in Odin’s vault; this gauntlet was later revealed to be a fake in Thor- Ragnarok. In the mid-credits scene of Avengers- Age of Ultron, Thanos is seen wearing a left-handed gauntlet.

Gaming

• The Infinity Gems are featured in the video games Marvel Super Heroes In War of the Gems (based on the “Infinity Gauntlet” saga) and Marvel Super Heroes.
• In Marvel vs. Capcom 2- New Age of Heroes, Thanos uses Power, Soul, Reality, and Space for his Supers.
• The Infinity Gems, including the Infinity Sword, appear as a driving part of the Marvel Super Hero Squad- The Infinity Gauntlet video game.
• The Infinity Stones play a major role in the fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom- Infinite. During gameplay, using an Infinity Stone will grant player characters a specific enhancement based on the stone being used. In the game’s story, Ultron and Sigma use two of the stones to become “Ultron Sigma” and merge the worlds into one under their control, and the heroes must retrieve the other four stones to stop them. The Infinity Stones in the game use the naming and color scheme of the Stones from the Marvel Cinematic Universe rather than the naming and color scheme of the Infinity Gems from previous Marvel video games. The Collector’s Edition of the game comes with a replica of the Infinity Stones housed in a small box with an LED display.
• From January to August 2012, Wizkids presented the Infinity Gauntlet program at stores that host HeroClix tournaments. An Infinity Gauntlet prop was released, followed by a different Gem each month. Each Gem can be added the Gauntlet, increasing its power in game. The Gems can be displayed on a stand that comes with the Gauntlet or on each Elder that Thanos encountered in the story Thanos Quest.
• Replica Infinity Gauntlets were given out as trophies at Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament 8, a 2012 Road to Evo tournament.
• In a tie-in with the film Avengers- Infinity War, Marvel and Epic Games announced the “Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup” mode for Fortnite Battle Royale, where players can find the Infinity Gauntlet hidden on the game map and become Thanos with added abilities.

Referance- wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_Gems

Elon Musk (born June 28, 1971) is a South African-born American business magnate, investor and engineer. He is the founder, CEO, and lead designer of SpaceX; co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; and co-founder and CEO of Neuralink. In December 2016, he was ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful People. As of February 2018, he has a net worth of $20.8 billion and is listed by Forbes as the 53rd-richest person in the world.

Born in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk taught himself computer programming at the age of 12. He moved to Canada when he was 17 to attend Queen’s University. He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania two years later, where he received an economics degree from the Wharton School and a degree in physics from the College of Arts and Sciences. He began a PhD in applied physics and material sciences at Stanford University in 1995, but dropped out after two days to pursue an entrepreneurial career. He subsequently co-founded Zip2, a web software company, which was acquired by Compaq for $340 million in 1999. Musk then founded X.com, an online payment company. It merged with Confinity in 2000 and became PayPal, which was bought by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002.

In May 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company, of which he is CEO and lead designer. He co-founded Tesla, Inc., an electric vehicle and solar panel manufacturer, in 2003, and operates as its CEO and product architect. In 2006, he inspired the creation of SolarCity, a solar energy services company that is now a subsidiary of Tesla, and operates as its chairman. In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit research company that aims to promote friendly artificial intelligence. In July 2016, he co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company focused on developing brain–computer interfaces, and is its CEO. In December 2016, Musk founded The Boring Company, an infrastructure and tunnel-construction company.

In addition to his primary business pursuits, Musk has envisioned a high-speed transportation system, known as the Hyperloop, and has proposed a vertical take-off and landing supersonic jet electric aircraft with electric fan propulsion, known as the Musk electric jet. Musk has stated that the goals of SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity revolve around his vision to change the world and humanity. His goals include reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption, and reducing the “risk of human extinction” by establishing a human colony on Mars.

Early life of Elon Musk

Early childhood

Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa, the son of Maye Musk (née Haldeman), a model and dietitian from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, and sailor. He has a younger brother, Kimbal (born 1972), and a younger sister, Tosca (born 1974). His paternal grandmother was British, and he also has Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His maternal grandfather was American, from Minnesota. After his parents divorced in 1980, Musk lived mostly with his father in the suburbs of Pretoria, which Musk chose two years after his parents split up, but now says was “not a good idea”. As an adult, Musk has severed relations with his father. He has a half sister, and half brother.

During Musk’s childhood, he was an avid reader. At age 10, he developed an interest in computing with the Commodore VIC-20. He taught himself computer programming at the age of 12, sold the code of a BASIC-based video game he created called Blastar, to a magazine called PC and Office Technology, for approximately $500. A web version of the game is available online. His childhood reading included Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series from which he drew the lesson that “you should try to take the set of actions that are likely to prolong civilization, minimize the probability of a dark age and reduce the length of a dark age if there is one.”

Musk was severely bullied throughout his childhood, and was once hospitalized when a group of boys threw him down a flight of stairs and then beat him until he lost consciousness.

Musk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School, and Bryanston High School before graduating from Pretoria Boys High School. He moved to Canada in June 1989, just before his 18th birthday, after obtaining Canadian citizenship through his Canadian-born mother.

Education

At the age of 17, Musk was accepted into Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, for undergraduate study. In 1992, after spending two years at Queen’s University, Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where in May 1997 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from its College of Arts and Sciences, and a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from its Wharton School of Business. Musk extended his studies for one year to finish the second bachelor’s degree. While at the University of Pennsylvania, Musk and fellow Penn student Adeo Ressi rented a 10-bedroom fraternity house, using it as an unofficial nightclub.

In 1995, at age 24, Musk moved to California to begin a PhD in applied physics and materials science at Stanford University, but left the program after two days to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations in the areas of the internet, renewable energy and outer space. In 2002, he became a U.S. citizen.

Career of Elon Musk

Zip2

In 1995, Musk and his brother, Kimbal, started Zip2, a web software company, with money raised from a small group of angel investors. The company developed and marketed an Internet “city guide” for the newspaper publishing industry. Musk obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune and persuaded the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with CitySearch. While at Zip2, Musk wanted to become CEO; however, none of the board members would allow it. Compaq acquired Zip2 for US$307 million in cash and US$34 million in stock options in February 1999. Musk received US$22 million for his 7 percent share from the sale.

X.com and PayPal

In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company, with US$10 million from the sale of Zip2. One year later, the company merged with Confinity, which had a money-transfer service called PayPal. The merged company focused on the PayPal service and was renamed PayPal in 2001. PayPal’s early growth was driven mainly by a viral marketing campaign where new customers were recruited when they received money through the service. Musk was ousted in October 2000 from his role as CEO (although he remained on the board) due to disagreements with other company leadership, notably over his desire to move PayPal’s Unix-based infrastructure to Microsoft Windows. In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk received US$165 million. Before its sale, Musk, who was the company’s largest shareholder, owned 11.7% of PayPal’s shares.

In July 2017, Musk purchased the domain x.com from PayPal for an undisclosed amount stating that it has “great sentimental value” to him.

SpaceX

In 2001, Musk conceptualized “Mars Oasis,” a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, containing food crops growing on Martian regolith, in an attempt to regain public interest in space exploration. In October 2001, Musk travelled to Moscow with Jim Cantrell (an aerospace supplies fixer), and Adeo Ressi (his best friend from college), to buy refurbished Dnepr Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could send the envisioned payloads into space. The group met with companies such as NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras; however, according to Cantrell, Musk was seen as a novice and was consequently spat on by one of the Russian chief designers, and the group returned to the United States empty-handed. In February 2002, the group returned to Russia to look for three ICBMs, bringing along Mike Griffin. Griffin had worked for the CIA’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel, as well as NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and was just leaving Orbital Sciences, a maker of satellites and spacecraft. The group met again with Kosmotras, and were offered one rocket for US$8 million; however, this was seen by Musk as too expensive; Musk consequently stormed out of the meeting. On the flight back from Moscow, Musk realized that he could start a company that could build the affordable rockets he needed. According to early Tesla and SpaceX investor Steve Jurvetson, Musk calculated that the raw materials for building a rocket actually were only 3 percent of the sales price of a rocket at the time. It was concluded that theoretically, by applying vertical integration and the modular approach from software engineering, SpaceX could cut launch price by a factor of ten and still enjoy a 70-percent gross margin. Ultimately, Musk ended up founding SpaceX with the long-term goal of creating a “true spacefaring civilization.”

With US$100 million of his early fortune, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, in May 2002. Musk is chief executive officer (CEO) and chief technology officer (CTO) of the Hawthorne, California-based company. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles with a focus on advancing the state of rocket technology. The company’s first two launch vehicles are the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets (a nod to Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon), and its first spacecraft is the Dragon (a nod to Puff the Magic Dragon). In seven years, SpaceX designed the family of Falcon launch vehicles and the Dragon multipurpose spacecraft. In September 2008, SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket became the first privately funded liquid-fueled vehicle to put a satellite into Earth orbit. On May 25, 2012, the SpaceX Dragon vehicle berthed with the ISS, making history as the first commercial company to launch and berth a vehicle to the International Space Station.

In 2006, SpaceX was awarded a contract from NASA to continue the development and test of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft in order to transport cargo to the International Space Station, followed by a US$1.6 billion NASA Commercial Resupply Services program contract on December 23, 2008, for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the Space Station, replacing the US Space Shuttle after it retired in 2011. Astronaut transport to the ISS is currently handled solely by the Soyuz, but SpaceX is one of two companies awarded a contract by NASA as part of the Commercial Crew Development program, which is intended to develop a US astronaut transport capability by 2018. On December 22, 2015, SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon rocket back at the launch pad. This was the first time in history such a feat had been achieved by an orbital rocket and is a significant step towards rocket reusability lowering the costs of access to space. This first stage recovery was replicated several times in 2016 by landing on an autonomous spaceport drone ship, an ocean-based recovery platform, and by the end of 2017, SpaceX had landed and recovered the first stage on 16 missions in a row where a landing and recovery were attempted, including all 14 attempts in 2017. 20 out of 42 first stage Falcon 9 boosters have been recovered overall since the Falcon 9 maiden flight in 2010. In the most recent full year—2017—SpaceX launched 18 successful Falcon 9 flights, more than doubling their highest previous year of 8.

On February 6, 2018, SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon Heavy, the fourth-highest capacity rocket ever built (after Saturn V, Energia and N1) and the most powerful rocket in operation as of 2018. The inaugural mission carried a Tesla Roadster belonging to Musk as a dummy payload.

SpaceX is both the largest private producer of rocket engines in the world, and holder of the record for highest thrust-to-weight ratio for a rocket engine (the Merlin 1D). SpaceX has produced more than 100 operational Merlin 1D engines. Each Merlin 1D engine can vertically lift the weight of 40 average family cars. In combination, the 9 Merlin engines in the Falcon 9 first stage produce anywhere from 5.8 to 6.7 MN (1.3 to 1.5 million pounds) of thrust, depending on altitude.

Musk was influenced by Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series and views space exploration as an important step in preserving and expanding the consciousness of human life. Musk said that multiplanetary life may serve as a hedge against threats to the survival of the human species.

An asteroid or a super volcano could destroy us, and we face risks the dinosaurs never saw- an engineered virus, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, catastrophic global warming or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us. Humankind evolved over millions of years, but in the last sixty years atomic weaponry created the potential to extinguish ourselves. Sooner or later, we must expand life beyond this green and blue ball—or go extinct.

Musk’s goal is to reduce the cost of human spaceflight by a factor of 10. In a 2011 interview, he said he hopes to send humans to Mars’ surface within 10–20 years. In Ashlee Vance’s biography, Musk stated that he wants to establish a Mars colony by 2040, with a population of 80,000. Musk stated that, since Mars’ atmosphere lacks oxygen, all transportation would have to be electric (electric cars, electric trains, Hyperloop, electric aircraft). Musk stated in June 2016 that the first unmanned flight of the larger Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) spacecraft is aimed for departure to the red planet in 2022, to be followed by the first manned MCT Mars flight departing in 2024. In September 2016, Musk revealed details of his architecture to explore and colonize Mars. By 2016, Musk’s private trust holds 54% of SpaceX stock, equivalent to 78% of voting shares.

In late 2017, SpaceX unveiled the design for its next-generation launch vehicle and spacecraft system—BFR—that would support all SpaceX launch service provider capabilities with a single set of very large vehicles- Earth-orbit, Lunar-orbit, interplanetary missions, and even intercontinental passenger transport on Earth, and totally replace the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon vehicles in the 2020s. The BFR will have a 9-meter (30 ft) core diameter. Significant development on the vehicles began in 2017, while the new rocket engine development began in 2012.

Tesla

Tesla, Inc. (originally Tesla Motors) was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who financed the company until the Series A round of funding.

Both men played active roles in the company’s early development prior to Elon Musk’s involvement. Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004, joining Tesla’s board of directors as its chairman. Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design at a detailed level, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations.

Following the financial crisis in 2008, Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect, positions he still holds today. Tesla Motors first built an electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster in 2008, with sales of about 2,500 vehicles to 31 countries. Tesla began delivery of its four-door Model S sedan on June 22, 2012. It unveiled its third product, the Model X, aimed at the SUV/minivan market, on February 9, 2012; however, the Model X launch was delayed until September 2015. In addition to its own cars, Tesla sells electric powertrain systems to Daimler for the Smart EV, Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive and Mercedes A Class, and to Toyota for the RAV4 EV. Musk was able to bring in both companies as long-term investors in Tesla.

Musk observing an assembly demo at the reopening of the NUMMI plant, now known as the Musk has favored building a sub-US$30,000 compact Tesla model and building and selling electric vehicle powertrain components so that other automakers can produce electric vehicles at affordable prices without having to develop the products in-house; this led to the Model 3 that is planned to have a base price of US$35,000. Several mainstream publications have compared him with Henry Ford for his work on advanced vehicle powertrains.

In a May 2013 interview with All Things Digital, Musk said that to overcome the range limitations of electric cars, Tesla is “dramatically accelerating” its network of supercharger stations, tripling the number on the East and West coasts of the U.S. that June, with plans for more expansion across North America, including Canada, throughout the year. As of January 29, 2016, Musk owns about 28.9 million Tesla shares, which equates to about 22% of the company.

As of 2014, Musk’s annual salary is one dollar, similar to that of Steve Jobs and other CEOs; the remainder of his compensation is in the form of stock and performance-based bonuses.

In 2014, Musk announced that Tesla would allow its technology patents to be used by anyone in good faith in a bid to entice automobile manufacturers to speed up development of electric cars. “The unfortunate reality is electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn’t burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent, constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales,” Musk said.

In February 2016, Musk announced that he had acquired the Tesla.com domain name from Stu Grossman, who had owned it since 1992, and changed Tesla’s homepage to that domain.

In January 2018, Musk was granted a $2.6 billion award by the company, awarding him with 20.3 million shares and could raise Tesla’s market value to $650 billion. Majority shareholder approval is pending. The grant was also meant to end speculation about Musk’s potential departure from Tesla to devote more time to his other business ventures. A report by advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co. to clients argued against granting the award. Despite what the New York Post described as an “astronomical deal” in pay, Musk accepted $750 million in public funds from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as part of the Buffalo Billion project, a plan to invest money to help the economy of the Buffalo, New York area. The money was used to build a factory and infrastructure for solar panel maker SolarCity, which Tesla acquired. As of March 2018, the plant employed “just a few hundred workers and its future remains uncertain.” (The Buffalo area actually lost nearly 5,000 jobs between December 2016 and December 2017).

SolarCity

Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity, which was then co-founded in 2006 by his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive. By 2013, SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States. SolarCity was acquired by Tesla, Inc. in 2016 and is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Tesla.

The underlying motivation for funding both SolarCity and Tesla was to help combat global warming. In 2012, Musk announced that SolarCity and Tesla are collaborating to use electric vehicle batteries to smooth the impact of rooftop solar on the power grid, with the program going live in 2013.

On June 17, 2014, Musk committed to building a SolarCity advanced production facility in Buffalo, New York, that would triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States. Musk stated the plant will be “one of the single largest solar panel production plants in the world,” and it will be followed by one or more even bigger facilities in subsequent years.

Hyperloop

On August 12, 2013, Musk unveiled a concept for a high-speed transportation system incorporating reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on an air cushion driven by linear induction motors and air compressors. The mechanism for releasing the concept was an alpha-design document that, in addition to scoping out the technology, outlined a notional route where such a transport system might be built- between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area.

After earlier envisioning Hyperloop, Musk assigned a dozen engineers from Tesla and SpaceX who worked for nine months, establishing the conceptual foundations and creating the designs for the transportation system. An early design for the system was then published in a whitepaper posted to the Tesla and SpaceX blogs. Musk’s proposal, if technologically feasible at the costs he has cited, would make Hyperloop travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances. The alpha design was proposed to use a partial vacuum to reduce aerodynamic drag, which it is theorized would allow for high-speed travel with relatively low power, with certain other features like air-bearing skis and an inlet compressor to reduce freestream flow. The document of alpha design estimated the total cost of an LA-to-SF Hyperloop system at US$6 billion, but this amount is speculative.

In June 2015, Musk announced a design competition for students and others to build Hyperloop pods to operate on a SpaceX-sponsored mile-long track in a 2015–2017 Hyperloop pod competition. The track was used in January 2017, and Musk also started building a tunnel.

Hyperloop One, a company unaffiliated with Musk, had announced that it had done its first successful test run on its DevLoop track in Nevada on July 13, 2017. It was on May 12, 2017 at 12 a.m. and had lasted 5.3 seconds, reaching a top speed of 70 mph.

On July 20, 2017, Elon Musk announced that he had gotten “verbal government approval” to build a hyperloop from New York City to Washington D.C, stopping in both Philadelphia and Baltimore. However, the New York City Transit Authority, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Maryland Transit Administration, United States Department of Homeland Security, as well as the mayors of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. stated that they are unaware of any such agreement.

OpenAI

In December 2015, Musk announced the creation of OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company. OpenAI aims to develop artificial general intelligence in a way that is safe and beneficial to humanity.

By making AI available to everyone, OpenAI wants to “counteract large corporations who may gain too much power by owning super-intelligence systems devoted to profits, as well as governments which may use AI to gain power and even oppress their citizenry.” Musk has stated he wants to counteract the concentration of power. In 2018 Musk left the OpenAI board to avoid “potential future conflict” with his role as CEO of Tesla as Tesla increasingly becomes involved in AI.

Neuralink

In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup company, to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence. The company, which is still in the earliest stages of existence, is centered on creating devices that can be implanted in the human brain, with the eventual purpose of helping human beings merge with software and keep pace with advancements in artificial intelligence. These enhancements could improve memory or allow for more direct interfacing with computing devices. Musk sees Neuralink and OpenAI as related- “OpenAI is a nonprofit dedicated to minimizing the dangers of artificial intelligence, while Neuralink is working on ways to implant technology into our brains to create mind-computer interfaces. … Neuralink allows our brains to keep up in the intelligence race. The machines can’t outsmart us if we have everything the machines have plus everything we have. At least, that is if you assume that what we have is actually an advantage.”

The Boring Company

On December 17, 2016, while stuck in traffic, Musk tweeted “Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging…” The company was named ‘The Boring Company’. On January 21, 2017, Musk tweeted “Exciting progress on the tunnel front. Plan to start digging in a month or so.” The first tunnel will start on the SpaceX campus, and will probably go to a nearby parking garage. As of January 26, 2017, discussions with regulatory bodies have begun, but no requests for permits to dig in the Los Angeles area had been filed with the California Department of Transportation by late January 2017.

In February 2017, the company began digging a 30-foot-wide, 50-foot-long, and 15-foot-deep “test trench” on the premises of Space X’s offices in Los Angeles, since the construction requires no permits. Musk has said that a 10-fold decrease in tunnel boring cost per mile is necessary for economic feasibility of the proposed tunnel network.

Thud

In 2018, Elon Musk announced a new comedic media venture, Thud, on his Twitter page. Musk has been the subject of headlines by satirical news website The Onion after the entrepreneur hired former Onion staffers. In 2014, Musk expressed interest in buying The Onion prior to Univision’s acquisition of the publication.

Political views

Politically, Musk has described himself as “half Democrat, half Republican.” In his own words- “I’m somewhere in the middle, socially liberal and fiscally conservative.” In December 2016, Musk became a member of two of then President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential advisory committees (the Strategic and Policy Forum and Manufacturing Jobs Initiative) but resigned from both in June 2017, in protest at Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Musk has described himself as “nauseatingly pro-American”. According to Musk, the United States is ” the greatest country that has ever existed on Earth,” describing it as “the greatest force for good of any country that’s ever been.” Musk believes outright that there “would not be democracy in the world if not for the United States,” arguing there were “three separate occasions in the 20th-century where democracy would have fallen with World War I, World War II and the Cold War, if not for the United States.” Musk also stated that he thinks “it would be a mistake to say the United States is perfect, it certainly is not. There have been many foolish things the United States has done and bad things the United States has done.”

Prompted by the emergence of self-driving cars and artificial intelligence, Musk has voiced support for a universal basic income.

Prior to the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, Musk criticized candidate Trump by saying- “I feel a bit stronger that he is probably not the right guy. He doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.” Following Donald Trump’s inauguration, Musk expressed approval of Trump’s choice of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State and accepted an invitation to appear on a panel advising President Trump. Regarding his cooperation with Trump, Musk has subsequently commented- “The more voices of reason that the President hears, the better.”

Lobbying

In an interview with The Washington Post, Musk stated he was a “significant (though not top-tier) donor to Democrats,” but that he also gives heavily to Republicans. Musk further stated, “in order to have your voice be heard in Washington, you have to make some little contribution.”

A recent report from the Sunlight Foundation (a nonpartisan group that tracks government spending), found that “SpaceX has spent over US$4 million on lobbying Congress since it was established in 2002 and doled out more than US$800,000 in political contributions” to Democrats and Republicans. The same report noted that “SpaceX’s campaign to win political support has been systematic and sophisticated,” and that “unlike most tech-startups, SpaceX has maintained a significant lobbying presence in Washington almost since day 1.” The report further noted that “Musk himself has donated roughly US$725,000 to various campaigns since 2002. In 2004, he contributed US$2,000 to President George W. Bush’s reelection campaign, maxing out (over US$100,000) to Barack Obama’s reelection campaign and donated US$5,000 to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who represents Florida, a state critical to the space industry. (…) All told, Musk and SpaceX gave out roughly US$250,000 in the 2012 election cycle.” Additionally, SpaceX hired former Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to represent the company, via the Washington-based lobbying group Patton Boggs LLP. Alongside Patton Boggs LLP, SpaceX uses several other outside lobbying firms, who work with SpaceX’s own lobbyists.

Musk had been a supporter of the U.S. political action committee (PAC) FWD.us, which was started by fellow high-profile entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg and advocates for immigration reform. However, in May 2013, Musk publicly withdrew his support in protest of advertisements the PAC was running that supported causes like the Keystone Pipeline. Musk and other members, including David O. Sacks, pulled out, criticizing the strategy as “cynical.” Musk further stated, “we shouldn’t give in to the politics. If we give in to that, we’ll get the political system we deserve.”

In December 2013, Sean Becker of the media/political website Mic called Musk a “complete hypocrite,” stating that ” the 2014 election cycle, Musk has contributed to the Longhorn PAC and the National Republican Congressional Committee – both of which have funded the campaigns of anti-science, anti-environment candidates such as Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-Minn.).” Musk has directly contributed to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who has been accused of holding similar positions regarding climate change.

Subsidies

Musk has stated that he does not believe the U.S. government should provide subsidies to companies but should instead use a carbon tax to price in the negative externality of air pollution and discourage “bad behavior.” Musk argues that the free market would achieve the “best solution,” and that producing environmentally unfriendly vehicles should come with its own consequences.

Musk’s statements have been widely criticized, with Stanford University Professor Fred Turner noting that “if you’re an entrepreneur like Elon Musk, you will take the money where you can get it, but at the same time believe as a matter of faith that it’s entrepreneurship and technology that are the sources of social change, not the state. It is not quite self-delusion, but there is a habit of thinking of oneself as a free-standing, independent agent, and of not acknowledging the subsidies that one received. And this goes on all the time in Silicon Valley.” Author Michael Shellenberger argued that “in the case of Musk, it is hard not to read that as a kind of defensiveness. And I think there is a business reason for it. They are dealing with a lot of investors for whom subsidies are not the basis for a long-term viable business, and they often want to exaggerate the speed with which they are going to be able to become independent.” Shellenberger continues, “we would all be better off if these entrepreneurs were a bit more grateful, a bit more humble.” While journalist and author Jim Motavalli, who interviewed Musk for High Voltage, his 2011 book about the electric vehicle industry, speculated that “Elon is now looking at it from the point of view of a winner, and he doesn’t want to see other people win because they get government money – I do think there is a tendency of people, once they have succeeded, to want to pull the ladder up after them.”

In 2015, Musk’s statements were subject to further scrutiny when an LA Times article claimed that SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity and buyers of their products had or were projected to receive together an estimated US$4.9 billion in government subsidies over twenty years. One example given is New York state, which is spending $750 million to build a solar panel factory in Buffalo which will be leased to SolarCity for $1 a year. The deal also includes no property taxes for a decade, an estimated $260 million valuation. Musk employs a former U.S. State Department official as the chief negotiator for Tesla.

Opinions

Destiny and religion

When asked whether he believed “there was some kind of destiny involved” in humanity’s transition to a multi-planetary species, rather than “just physics,” Musk responded-

Well, I do. Do I think that there’s some sort of master intelligence architecting all of this stuff? I think probably not because then you have to say- “Where does the master intelligence come from?” So it sort of begs the question. So I think really you can explain this with the fundamental laws of physics. You know it’s complex phenomenon from simple elements.

Musk has stated that he does not pray, or worship any being, although previously admitted to praying before an important Falcon 1 launch, asking “any entities that listening” to “bless launch.” When asked whether he believed “religion and science could co-exist,” Musk replied “probably not.”

Extraterrestrial life

Although Musk believes “there is a good chance that there is simple life on other planets,” he “questions whether there is other intelligent life in the known universe.” Musk later clarified his “hope that there is other intelligent life in the known universe,” and stated that it is “probably more likely than not, but that’s a complete guess.”

Musk has also considered the simulation hypothesis as a potential solution to the Fermi paradox-

The absence of any noticeable life may be an argument in favour of us being in a simulation…. Like when you’re playing an adventure game, and you can see the stars in the background, but you can’t ever get there. If it’s not a simulation, then maybe we’re in a lab and there’s some advanced alien civilization that’s just watching how we develop, out of curiosity, like mould in a petri dish…. If you look at our current technology level, something strange has to happen to civilizations, and I mean strange in a bad way. … And it could be that there are a whole lot of dead, one-planet civilizations.

Artificial intelligence

Musk has frequently spoken about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, declaring it “the most serious threat to the survival of the human race.” During a 2014 interview at the MIT AeroAstro Centennial Symposium, Musk described AI as ” biggest existential threat,” further stating, “I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish.” Musk described the creation of artificial intelligence as “summoning the demon”.

Despite this, Musk has previously invested in DeepMind, an AI firm, and Vicarious, a company working to improve machine intelligence. In January 2015, he donated $10 million to the Future of Life Institute, an organization focused on challenges posed by advanced technologies. He is the co-chairman of OpenAI, a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company.

Musk has said that his investments are, “not from the standpoint of actually trying to make any investment return… I like to just keep an eye on what’s going on with artificial intelligence.” Musk continued, “There have been movies about this, you know, like Terminator – there are some scary outcomes. And we should try to make sure the outcomes are good, not bad.”

In June 2016, Musk was asked whether he thinks humans live in a computer simulation, to which he answered-

The strongest argument for us probably being in a simulation I think is the following- 40 years ago we had Pong – two rectangles and a dot. That’s where we were. Now 40 years later we have photorealistic, 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously and it’s getting better every year. And soon we’ll have virtual reality, we’ll have augmented reality. If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality, just indistinguishable.

Elon Musk’s dark warnings over Artificial Intelligence has brought him some controversy. He and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have clashed with the latter terming his warnings “irresponsible”. Musk responded to Mark’s censure by saying that he had discussed AI with Zuckerberg and found him to have only a “limited understanding” of the subject. In 2014 Slate’s Adam Elkus argued “our ‘smartest’ AI is about as intelligent as a toddler—and only when it comes to instrumental tasks like information recall. Most roboticists are still trying to get a robot hand to pick up a ball or run around without falling over.” Elkus goes on to argue that Musk’s “summoning the demon” analogy may be harmful because it could result in “harsh cuts” to AI research budgets.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington D.C. think-tank, awarded its Annual Luddite Award to “alarmists touting an artificial intelligence apocalypse”; its president, Robert D. Atkinson, complained that Musk and others say AI is the largest existential threat to humanity. Atkinson stated “That’s not a very winning message if you want to get AI funding out of Congress to the National Science Foundation.” Nature sharply disagreed with the ITIF in an April 2016 editorial, siding instead with Musk, and concluding- “It is crucial that progress in technology is matched by solid, well-funded research to anticipate the scenarios it could bring about… If that is a Luddite perspective, then so be it.” In a 2015 Washington Post editorial, researcher Murray Shanahan stated that human-level AI is unlikely to arrive “anytime soon,” but that nevertheless “the time to start thinking through the consequences is now.”

Public transport

At a Tesla event on the sidelines of the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems in December 2017, Musk stated that-

I think public transport is painful. It sucks. Why do you want to get on something with a lot of other people, that doesn’t leave where you want it to leave, doesn’t start where you want it to start, doesn’t end where you want it to end? And it doesn’t go all the time. It’s a pain in the ass. That’s why everyone doesn’t like it. And there’s like a bunch of random strangers, one of who might be a serial killer, OK, great.

Afterwards, he dismissed an audience member’s response that public transportation functioned effectively in Japan.

His comment sparked widespread criticism from both the public and transit experts. Urban planning expert Brent Toderian started the hashtag #GreatThingsThatHappenedonTransit which was widely adopted by Twitter users in order to dispel Musk’s notion that everybody hated public transport. Yonah Freemark, an urbanist and journalist specialising in planning and transportation, summarised Musk’s views on public transport as “It’s terrible. You might be killed. Japanese trains are awful. Individualized transport for everyone! Congestion? Induced demand? Climate change impacts? Unwalkable streets? Who cares!”

Jarrett Walker, a known public transport expert and consultant from Portland, said that “Musk’s hatred of sharing space with strangers is a luxury (or pathology) that only the rich can afford,” referring to the theory that planning a city around the preferences of a minority yields an outcome that usually does not work for the majority. Musk responded with “You’re an idiot,” later saying “Sorry Meant to say ‘sanctimonious idiot.'” The exchange received a significant amount of media attention and prompted Nobel laureate Paul Krugman to comment on the controversy, saying that apparently, “You’re an idiot” is Musk’s idea of a cogent argument.

Personal life

Musk owned a McLaren F1 supercar, which he crashed while it was uninsured. He also previously owned an Aero L-39, a Czech-made jet trainer aircraft.

The 1994 model Dassault Falcon 900 aircraft used in the 2005 film Thank You for Smoking was registered to Musk (N900SX), and Musk had a cameo as the pilot of his plane, opening the door for Robert Duvall and escorting Aaron Eckhart aboard. Musk owns Wet Nellie, the Lotus Esprit from the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. He plans to convert it into the functional car-submarine from the film.

Musk attended the Burning Man festival in 2004 and has said he first thought up the idea for SolarCity at the festival.

Tosca Musk, Elon’s sister, is a filmmaker. She is the founder of Musk Entertainment and has produced various movies.

Musk stated that he wants “to die on Mars, just not on impact.”

Philanthropy

Musk is chairman of the Musk Foundation, which focuses its philanthropic efforts on providing solar-power energy systems in disaster areas. In 2010, the Musk Foundation collaborated with SolarCity to donate a 25-kW solar power system to the South Bay Community Alliance’s hurricane response center in Coden, Alabama. In July 2011, the Musk Foundation donated US$250,000 towards a solar power project in Sōma, Japan, a city that had been recently devastated by a tsunami.

In July 2014, Musk was asked by cartoonist Matthew Inman and William Terbo, the grandnephew of Nikola Tesla, to donate US$8 million toward the construction of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe. Ultimately, Musk agreed to donate US$1 million toward the project and additionally pledged to build a Tesla Supercharger in the museum car park.

Musk donated US$10 million to the Future of Life Institute in January 2015, to run a global research program aimed at keeping artificial intelligence beneficial to humanity.

As of 2015, Musk is a trustee of the X Prize Foundation and a signatory of The Giving Pledge.

Family

Musk met his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, while both were students at Ontario’s Queen’s University. They married in 2000 and separated in 2008. Their first son, Nevada Alexander Musk, died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) at the age of 10 weeks. They later had five sons through in vitro fertilization – twins in 2004, followed by triplets in 2006. They share custody of all five sons.

In 2008, Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley, and in 2010, the couple married. In January 2012, Musk announced that he had ended his four-year relationship with Riley, tweeting to Riley, “It was an amazing four years. I will love you forever. You will make someone very happy one day.” In July 2013, Musk and Riley remarried. In December 2014, Musk filed for a second divorce from Riley; however, the action was withdrawn. The media announced in March 2016 that divorce proceedings were again under way, this time with Riley filing for divorce from Musk. The divorce was finalized in late 2016.

Musk began dating American actress Amber Heard in 2016 but the two split up after one year due to their conflicting schedules. On May 7, 2018, Musk and Canadian musician Grimes revealed that they had begun dating.

Zolpidem usage

In an apparent admission of mixing zolpidem and alcohol, Musk tweeted in June 2017- “A little red wine, vintage record, some Ambien … and magic!” Musk gained media attention for mentioning the dangerous drug combination publicly on his social media.

Patents

Awards and recognition

• In 2006, Musk served as a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board.
• R&D Magazine Innovator of the Year for 2007 for SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity.
• Inc Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2007 for his work on Tesla and SpaceX.
  2007 Index Design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster. Global Green 2006 product design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev.
• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low award for the most outstanding contribution in the field of space transportation in 2007/2008. Musk was recognized for his design of the Falcon 1, the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to reach orbit.
• National Wildlife Federation 2008 National Conservation Achievement award for Tesla and SolarCity. Other 2008 recipients include journalist Thomas Friedman, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Florida Governor Charlie Crist.
• The Aviation Week 2008 Laureate for the most significant achievement worldwide in the space industry.
• National Space Society’s Von Braun Trophy in 2008/2009, given for leadership of the most significant achievement in space. Prior recipients include Burt Rutan and Steve Squyres.
• Automotive Executive of the Year (worldwide) in 2010 for demonstrating technology leadership and innovation via Tesla. Prior awardees include Bill Ford Jr, Bob Lutz, Dieter Zetsche and Lee Iacocca. Musk is the youngest ever recipient of this award.
• Listed as one of Time’s 100 people who most affected the world in 2010.
• The world governing body for aerospace records, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, presented Musk in 2010 with the highest award in air and space, the FAI Gold Space Medal, for designing the first privately developed rocket to reach orbit. Prior recipients include Neil Armstrong, Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites and John Glenn.
• Named as one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire magazine.
• Recognized as a Living Legend of Aviation in 2010 by the Kitty Hawk Foundation for creating the successor to the Space Shuttle (Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft). Other recipients include Buzz Aldrin and Richard Branson.
• In 2010, Musk was elected to the board of trustees of the California Institute of Technology, however no longer holds the position.
• In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, he was ranked as the No. 10 (tied with rocketry pioneer and scientist Wernher von Braun) most popular space hero.
• In February 2011, Forbes listed Musk as one of “America’s 20 Most Powerful CEOs 40 And Under.”
• In June 2011, Musk was awarded the US$250,000 Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization
• In 2011, Musk was honored as a Legendary Leader at the Churchill Club Awards.
• In 2012, Musk was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society’s highest award- a Gold Medal.
• Musk was the 2012 recipient of Smithsonian magazine’s American Ingenuity Award in the Technology category.
• In 2013, Musk was named the Fortune Businessperson of the year for SpaceX, SolarCity, and Tesla.
• In 2015, he was awarded IEEE Honorary Membership.
• As of 2015, Musk serves on the board of advisors of Social Concepts, Inc.
• In 2016, The Drive, a division of Time, named Musk the most influential person in the car business and as the second most influential person in the automotive tech sector.
• In June 2016, Business Insider named Musk one of the “Top 10 Business Visionaries Creating Value for the World” along with Mark Zuckerberg and Sal Khan.
• In December 2016, Musk was ranked 21st on Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful People.
• In March 2017, Musk was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 3 in the list of 200 Most Influential Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs.
• Musk was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)in 2018.

Honorary doctorates

• Honorary doctorate in Design from the Art Center College of Design
• Honorary doctorate (DUniv) in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Surrey
• Honorary doctorate of Engineering and Technology from Yale University
• Honorary Doctorate from AGH Cracow.

In popular media

In Iron Man 2 (2010), Musk met Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in a restaurant, and had some brief lines regarding an “idea for an electric jet.”

In January 2015, Musk made a guest appearance playing himself on The Simpsons in an episode titled “The Musk Who Fell to Earth”; the episode poked fun at many of Musk’s ideas.

In November 2015, Musk appeared in an episode of The Big Bang Theory, playing himself, volunteering at a soup kitchen with Howard.

Musk was featured in the 2015 environmental documentary Racing Extinction, in which a custom Tesla Model S was designed to help project images of critically endangered species onto public buildings, including the Empire State Building and the Vatican.

In 2016, Musk appeared as himself in the romantic comedy film Why Him? where he was briefly met by one of the main characters, Ned Flemming played by Bryan Cranston, in a bar at a party.

Also in 2016, Musk was referenced by Dr. Martin Stein on The CW time-travel TV show DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. During time travel to the past, Stein meets his younger self and introduced himself as Elon Musk, to disguise his own identity.

In October 2017, Musk was prematurely immortalized as a historic pioneer on the CBS All Access series Star Trek- Discovery. Set in the year 2256, Captain Gabriel Lorca attempts to motivate a scientist on his ship by asking him “How do you want to be remembered in history? Alongside the Wright Brothers, Elon Musk, Zefram Cochrane? Or as a failed fungus expert. A selfish little man who put the survival of his own ego before the lives of others?” According to an article in techcrunch.com published the day after the episode aired, this mention is “also interesting because of its notable omission of Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos- This other space entrepreneur is such a big fan of Star Trek that he pitched and succeeded in landing a cameo in Star Trek Beyond as an alien being, but he doesn’t rate a mention from Lorca among the spaceflight pantheon.”

Musk is significantly referenced numerous times in Hat Films’ 2017 album, Neon Musk.

In November 2017, Musk appeared as himself in the Season 1, Episode 6, episode of The Big Bang Theory spin-off prequel series Young Sheldon. The successful first landing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage on a drone ship on April 8, 2016, is shown being covered by CNN. This is followed by a scene where Musk is shown alone in his office reading the notebook that young Sheldon mailed NASA in 1989 (a scene shown earlier in the episode) containing calculations detailing how this feat could be accomplished.

Referance- Wikipedia

India (IAST: Bhārat), also called the Republic of India (IAST: Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country (with over 1.2 billion people), and the most populous democracy in the world. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast; and Myanmar and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE—one of the world’s earliest civilisations. In the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Large-scale urbanisation occurred on the Ganges in the first millennium BCE leading to the Mahajanapadas, and Buddhism and Jainism arose. Early political consolidations took place under the Maurya, Satavahana and Gupta empires; the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as Southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, and Sikhism emerged, all adding to the region’s diverse culture. Much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate; the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The country was unified in the 17th century by the Mughal Empire. In the 18th century, the subcontinent came under the Maratha Empire and in the 19th under the British East India Company, later shifting to British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance and led to India’s independence in 1947.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYJxr5U4HfM

In 2017, the Indian economy was the world’s sixth largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest-growing major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, and inadequate public healthcare. A nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the second largest standing army in the world and ranks fifth in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal republic governed under a parliamentary system and consists of 29 states and 7 union territories. India is widely recognised for its wide cinema, rich cuisine and lush wildlife and vegetation. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.

Etymology of India

The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu. The latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ἰνδοί), which translates as “The people of the Indus”.

The geographical term Bharat (Bhārat, pronounced [ˈbʱaːɾət̪: (About this sound listen)), which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. It is a modernisation of the historical name Bharatavarsha, which traditionally referred to the Indian subcontinent and gained increasing currency from the mid-19th century as a native name for India. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bhāratas in the second millennium BCE. It is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. The Hindu text Skanda Purana states that the region was named “Bharat” after Bharata Chakravartin. Gaṇarājya (literally, people’s State) is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for “republic” dating back to ancient times.

Hindustan ( (About this sound listen)) is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century BCE. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then. Its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety. Currently, the name may refer to either the northern part of India or the entire country.

History Of India

Ancient India

The earliest authenticated human remains in South Asia date to about 30,000 years ago. Nearly contemporaneous Mesolithic rock art sites have been found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, including at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh. Around 7000 BCE, one of the first known Neolithic settlements appeared on the subcontinent in Mehrgarh and other sites in the subcontinent. These gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation, the first urban culture in South Asia; it flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade.

During the period 2000–500 BCE, in terms of culture, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age. The Vedas, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism, were composed during this period, and historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain. Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west. The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose during this period. On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation. In South India, a progression to sedentary life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period, as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions.

In the late Vedic period, around the 6th century BCE, the small states and chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies that were known as the mahajanapadas. The emerging urbanisation gave rise to non-Vedic religious movements, two of which became independent religions. Jainism came into prominence during the life of its exemplar, Mahavira. Buddhism, based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle class; chronicling the life of the Buddha was central to the beginnings of recorded history in India. In an age of increasing urban wealth, both religions held up renunciation as an ideal, and both established long-lasting monastic traditions. Politically, by the 3rd century BCE, the kingdom of Magadha had annexed or reduced other states to emerge as the Mauryan Empire. The empire was once thought to have controlled most of the subcontinent excepting the far south, but its core regions are now thought to have been separated by large autonomous areas. The Mauryan kings are known as much for their empire-building and determined management of public life as for Ashoka’s renunciation of militarism and far-flung advocacy of the Buddhist dhamma.

The Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that, between 200 BCE and 200 CE, the southern peninsula was being ruled by the Cheras, the Cholas, and the Pandyas, dynasties that traded extensively with the Roman Empire and with West and South-East Asia. In North India, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family, leading to increased subordination of women. By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Gupta Empire had created in the greater Ganges Plain a complex system of administration and taxation that became a model for later Indian kingdoms. Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on devotion rather than the management of ritual began to assert itself. The renewal was reflected in a flowering of sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among an urban elite. Classical Sanskrit literature flowered as well, and Indian science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics made significant advances.

Medieval India

The Indian early medieval age, 600 CE to 1200 CE, is defined by regional kingdoms and cultural diversity. When Harsha of Kannauj, who ruled much of the Indo-Gangetic Plain from 606 to 647 CE, attempted to expand southwards, he was defeated by the Chalukya ruler of the Deccan. When his successor attempted to expand eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king of Bengal. When the Chalukyas attempted to expand southwards, they were defeated by the Pallavas from farther south, who in turn were opposed by the Pandyas and the Cholas from still farther south. No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands much beyond his core region. During this time, pastoral peoples whose land had been cleared to make way for the growing agricultural economy were accommodated within caste society, as were new non-traditional ruling classes. The caste system consequently began to show regional differences.

In the 6th and 7th centuries, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil language. They were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of Hinduism and the development of all modern languages of the subcontinent. Indian royalty, big and small, and the temples they patronised drew citizens in great numbers to the capital cities, which became economic hubs as well. Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another urbanisation. By the 8th and 9th centuries, the effects were felt in South-East Asia, as South Indian culture and political systems were exported to lands that became part of modern-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Java. Indian merchants, scholars, and sometimes armies were involved in this transmission; South-East Asians took the initiative as well, with many sojourning in Indian seminaries and translating Buddhist and Hindu texts into their languages.

After the 10th century, Muslim Central Asian nomadic clans, using swift-horse cavalry and raising vast armies united by ethnicity and religion, repeatedly overran South Asia’s north-western plains, leading eventually to the establishment of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate in 1206. The sultanate was to control much of North India and to make many forays into South India. Although at first disruptive for the Indian elites, the sultanate largely left its vast non-Muslim subject population to its own laws and customs. By repeatedly repulsing Mongol raiders in the 13th century, the sultanate saved India from the devastation visited on West and Central Asia, setting the scene for centuries of migration of fleeing soldiers, learned men, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from that region into the subcontinent, thereby creating a syncretic Indo-Islamic culture in the north. The sultanate’s raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India paved the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire. Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition and building upon the military technology of the sultanate, the empire came to control much of peninsular India, and was to influence South Indian society for long afterwards.

Early modern India

Writing the will and testament of the Mughal king court in Persian, 1590–1595
In the early 16th century, northern India, being then under mainly Muslim rulers, fell again to the superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central Asian warriors. The resulting Mughal Empire did not stamp out the local societies it came to rule, but rather balanced and pacified them through new administrative practices and diverse and inclusive ruling elites, leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule. Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic identity, especially under Akbar, the Mughals united their far-flung realms through loyalty, expressed through a Persianised culture, to an emperor who had near-divine status. The Mughal state’s economic policies, deriving most revenues from agriculture and mandating that taxes be paid in the well-regulated silver currency, caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets. The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India’s economic expansion, resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture. Newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as the Marathas, the Rajputs, and the Sikhs, gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military experience. Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India. As the empire disintegrated, many among these elites were able to seek and control their own affairs.

By the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial and political dominance being increasingly blurred, a number of European trading companies, including the English East India Company, had established coastal outposts. The East India Company’s control of the seas, greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology led it to increasingly flex its military muscle and caused it to become attractive to a portion of the Indian elite; these factors were crucial in allowing the company to gain control over the Bengal region by 1765 and sideline the other European companies. Its further access to the riches of Bengal and the subsequent increased strength and size of its army enabled it to annex or subdue most of India by the 1820s. India was then no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had, but was instead supplying the British Empire with raw materials, and many historians consider this to be the onset of India’s colonial period. By this time, with its economic power severely curtailed by the British parliament and effectively having been made an arm of British administration, the company began to more consciously enter non-economic arenas such as education, social reform, and culture.

Modern India

The British Indian Empire, from the 1909 edition of The Imperial Gazetteer of India. Areas directly governed by the British are shaded pink; the princely states under British suzerainty are in yellow.
Historians consider India’s modern age to have begun sometime between 1848 and 1885. The appointment in 1848 of Lord Dalhousie as Governor General of the East India Company set the stage for changes essential to a modern state. These included the consolidation and demarcation of sovereignty, the surveillance of the population, and the education of citizens. Technological changes—among them, railways, canals, and the telegraph—were introduced not long after their introduction in Europe. However, disaffection with the company also grew during this time, and set off the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Fed by diverse resentments and perceptions, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh land taxes, and summary treatment of some rich landowners and princes, the rebellion rocked many regions of northern and central India and shook the foundations of Company rule. Although the rebellion was suppressed by 1858, it led to the dissolution of the East India Company and to the direct administration of India by the British government. Proclaiming a unitary state and a gradual but limited British-style parliamentary system, the new rulers also protected princes and landed gentry as a feudal safeguard against future unrest. In the decades following, public life gradually emerged all over India, leading eventually to the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885.

The rush of technology and the commercialisation of agriculture in the second half of the 19th century was marked by economic setbacks—many small farmers became dependent on the whims of far-away markets. There was an increase in the number of large-scale famines, and, despite the risks of infrastructure development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial employment was generated for Indians. There were also salutary effects: commercial cropping, especially in the newly canalled Punjab, led to increased food production for internal consumption. The railway network provided critical famine relief, notably reduced the cost of moving goods, and helped the nascent Indian-owned industry.
About 14.5 million people lost their homes as a result of the partition of India in 1947.
After World War I, in which approximately one million Indians served, a new period began. It was marked by British reforms but also repressive legislations, by more strident Indian calls for self-rule, and by the beginnings of a nonviolent movement of non-co-operation, of which Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would become the leader and enduring symbol. During the 1930s, slow legislative reform was enacted by the British; the Indian National Congress won victories in the resulting elections. The next decade was beset with crises: Indian participation in World War II, the Congress’s final push for non-co-operation, and an upsurge of Muslim nationalism. All were capped by the advent of independence in 1947, but tempered by the partition of India into two states: India and Pakistan.

Vital to India’s self-image as an independent nation was its constitution, completed in 1950, which put in place a secular and democratic republic. It has remained a democracy with civil liberties, an active Supreme Court, and a largely independent press. Economic liberalisation, which was begun in the 1990s, has created a large urban middle class, transformed India into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, and increased its geopolitical clout. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture. Yet, India is also shaped by seemingly unyielding poverty, both rural and urban; by religious and caste-related violence; by Maoist-inspired Naxalite insurgencies; and by separatism in Jammu and Kashmir and in Northeast India. It has unresolved territorial disputes with China and with Pakistan. The India–Pakistan nuclear rivalry came to a head in 1998. India’s sustained democratic freedoms are unique among the world’s newer nations; however, in spite of its recent economic successes, freedom from want for its disadvantaged population remains a goal yet to be achieved.

Geography of India

India comprises the bulk of the Indian subcontinent, lying atop the Indian tectonic plate, and part of the Indo-Australian Plate. India’s defining geological processes began 75 million years ago when the Indian plate, then part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, began a north-eastward drift caused by seafloor spreading to its south-west and, later, south and south-east. Simultaneously, the vast Tethyn oceanic crust, to its northeast, began to subduct under the Eurasian plate. These dual processes, driven by convection in the Earth’s mantle, both created the Indian Ocean and caused the Indian continental crust eventually to under-thrust Eurasia and to uplift the Himalayas. Immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast trough that rapidly filled with river-borne sediment and now constitutes the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Cut off from the plain by the ancient Aravalli Range lies the Thar Desert.

The original Indian plate survives as peninsular India, the oldest and geologically most stable part of India. It extends as far north as the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel chains run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in the east. To the south, the remaining peninsular landmass, the Deccan Plateau, is flanked on the west and east by coastal ranges known as the Western and Eastern Ghats; the plateau contains the country’s oldest rock formations, some over one billion years old. Constituted in such fashion, India lies to the north of the equator between 6° 44′ and 35° 30′ north latitude and 68° 7′ and 97° 25′ east longitude.

A shining white snow-clad range, framed against a turquoise sky. In the middle ground, a ridge descends from the right to form a saddle in the centre of the photograph, partly in shadow. In the near foreground, a loop of a road is seen.

India’s coastline measures 7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi) in length; of this distance, 5,423 kilometres (3,400 mi) belong to peninsular India and 2,094 kilometres (1,300 mi) to the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep island chains. According to the Indian naval hydrographic charts, the mainland coastline consists of the following: 43% sandy beaches; 11% rocky shores, including cliffs; and 46% mudflats or marshy shores.

Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal. Important tributaries of the Ganges include the Yamuna and the Kosi; the latter’s extremely low gradient often leads to severe floods and course changes. Major peninsular rivers, whose steeper gradients prevent their waters from flooding, include the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the Kaveri, and the Krishna, which also drain into the Bay of Bengal; and the Narmada and the Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea. Coastal features include the marshy Rann of Kutch of western India and the alluvial Sundarbans delta of eastern India; the latter is shared with Bangladesh. India has two archipelagos: the Lakshadweep, coral atolls off India’s south-western coast; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a volcanic chain in the Andaman Sea.

The Indian climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert, both of which drive the economically and culturally pivotal summer and winter monsoons. The Himalayas prevent cold Central Asian katabatic winds from blowing in, keeping the bulk of the Indian subcontinent warmer than most locations at similar latitudes. The Thar Desert plays a crucial role in attracting the moisture-laden south-west summer monsoon winds that, between June and October, provide the majority of India’s rainfall. Four major climatic groupings predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane.

Biodiversity of India

The Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is the Indian national bird. It roosts in moist and dry-deciduous forests, cultivated areas, and village precincts.
India lies within the Indomalaya ecozone and contains three biodiversity hotspots. One of 17 megadiverse countries, it hosts 8.6% of all mammalian, 13.7% of all avian, 7.9% of all reptilian, 6% of all amphibian, 12.2% of all piscine, and 6.0% of all flowering plant species. About 21.2% of the country’s landmass is covered by forests (tree canopy density >10%), of which 12.2% comprises moderately or very dense forests (tree canopy density >40%). Endemism is high among plants, 33%, and among ecoregions such as the shola forests. Habitat ranges from the tropical rainforest of the Andaman Islands, Western Ghats, and North-East India to the coniferous forest of the Himalaya. Between these extremes lie the moist deciduous sal forest of eastern India; the dry deciduous teak forest of central and southern India; and the babul-dominated thorn forest of the central Deccan and western Gangetic plain. The medicinal neem, widely used in rural Indian herbal remedies, is a key Indian tree. The luxuriant pipal fig tree, shown on the seals of Mohenjo-daro, shaded Gautama Buddha as he sought enlightenment.

Many Indian species descend from taxa originating in Gondwana, from which the Indian plate separated more than 105 million years before present. Peninsular India’s subsequent movement towards and collision with the Laurasian landmass set off a mass exchange of species. Epochal volcanism and climatic changes 20 million years ago forced a mass extinction. Mammals then entered India from Asia through two zoogeographical passes flanking the rising Himalaya. Thus, while 45.8% of reptiles and 55.8% of amphibians are endemic, only 12.6% of mammals and 4.5% of birds are. Among them are the Nilgiri leaf monkey and Beddome’s toad of the Western Ghats. India contains 172 IUCN-designated threatened animal species, or 2.9% of endangered forms. These include the Asiatic lion, the Bengal tiger, the snow leopard and the Indian white-rumped vulture, which, by ingesting the carrion of diclofenac-laced cattle, nearly became extinct.

The pervasive and ecologically devastating human encroachment of recent decades has critically endangered Indian wildlife. In response, the system of national parks and protected areas, first established in 1935, was substantially expanded. In 1972, India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act and Project Tiger to safeguard crucial wilderness; the Forest Conservation Act was enacted in 1980 and amendments added in 1988. India hosts more than five hundred wildlife sanctuaries and thirteen biosphere reserves, four of which are part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; twenty-five wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention.

Politics and government of India

India is the world’s most populous democracy. A parliamentary republic with a multi-party system, it has seven recognised national parties, including the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and more than 40 regional parties. The Congress is considered centre-left in Indian political culture, and the BJP right-wing. For most of the period between 1950—when India first became a republic—and the late 1980s, the Congress held a majority in the parliament. Since then, however, it has increasingly shared the political stage with the BJP, as well as with powerful regional parties which have often forced the creation of multi-party coalitions at the centre.

In the Republic of India’s first three general elections, in 1951, 1957, and 1962, the Jawaharlal Nehru-led Congress won easy victories. On Nehru’s death in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri briefly became prime minister; he was succeeded, after his own unexpected death in 1966, by Indira Gandhi, who went on to lead the Congress to election victories in 1967 and 1971. Following public discontent with the state of emergency she declared in 1975, the Congress was voted out of power in 1977; the then-new Janata Party, which had opposed the emergency, was voted in. Its government lasted just over three years. Voted back into power in 1980, the Congress saw a change in leadership in 1984, when Indira Gandhi was assassinated; she was succeeded by her son Rajiv Gandhi, who won an easy victory in the general elections later that year. The Congress was voted out again in 1989 when a National Front coalition, led by the newly formed Janata Dal in alliance with the Left Front, won the elections; that government too proved relatively short-lived, lasting just under two years. Elections were held again in 1991; no party won an absolute majority. The Congress, as the largest single party, was able to form a minority government led by P. V. Narasimha Rao.

A two-year period of political turmoil followed the general election of 1996. Several short-lived alliances shared power at the centre. The BJP formed a government briefly in 1996; it was followed by two comparatively long-lasting United Front coalitions, which depended on external support. In 1998, the BJP was able to form a successful coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the NDA became the first non-Congress, coalition government to complete a five-year term. In the 2004 Indian general elections, again no party won an absolute majority, but the Congress emerged as the largest single party, forming another successful coalition: the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). It had the support of left-leaning parties and MPs who opposed the BJP. The UPA returned to power in the 2009 general election with increased numbers, and it no longer required external support from India’s communist parties. That year, Manmohan Singh became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1957 and 1962 to be re-elected to a consecutive five-year term. In the 2014 general election, the BJP became the first political party since 1984 to win a majority and govern without the support of other parties. The Prime Minister of India is Narendra Modi, who was formerly Chief Minister of Gujarat. On 20 July 2017, Ram Nath Kovind was elected India’s 14th President and took the oath of office on 25 July 2017.

Government in India

India is a federation with a parliamentary system governed under the Constitution of India, which serves as the country’s supreme legal document. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, in which “majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law”. Federalism in India defines the power distribution between the Union, or Central, government and the states. The government abides by constitutional checks and balances. The Constitution of India, which came into effect on 26 January 1950, states in its preamble that India is a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. India’s form of government, traditionally described as “quasi-federal” with a strong centre and weak states, has grown increasingly federal since the late 1990s as a result of political, economic, and social changes.

National symbols of India

Flag Tiranga (Tricolour)
Emblem Sarnath Lion Capital
Language None
Anthem Jana Gana Mana
Song Vande Mataram
Currency ₹ (Indian rupee)
Calendar Saka
Animal Tiger (land), River dolphin (aquatic)
Bird Indian peafowl
Flower Lotus
Fruit Mango
Tree Banyan
River Ganga
Game Not declared

The Union government comprises three branches

Executive: The President of India is the head of state and is elected indirectly by a national electoral college for a five-year term. The Prime Minister of India is the head of government and exercises most executive power. Appointed by the president, the prime minister is by convention supported by the party or political alliance holding the majority of seats in the lower house of parliament. The executive branch of the Indian government consists of the president, the vice-president, and the Council of Ministers—the cabinet being its executive committee—headed by the prime minister. Any minister holding a portfolio must be a member of one of the houses of parliament. In the Indian parliamentary system, the executive is subordinate to the legislature; the prime minister and his council are directly responsible to the lower house of the parliament. The civil servants are permanent executives and all executive decisions are implemented by them.
Legislature: The legislature of India is the bicameral parliament. It operates under a Westminster-style parliamentary system and comprises the upper house called the Rajya Sabha (“Council of States”) and the lower called the Lok Sabha (“House of the People”). The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body that has 245 members who serve in staggered six-year terms. Most are elected indirectly by the state and territorial legislatures in numbers proportional to their state’s share of the national population. All but two of the Lok Sabha’s 545 members are directly elected by popular vote; they represent individual constituencies via five-year terms. The remaining two members are nominated by the president from among the Anglo-Indian community, in case the president decides that they are not adequately represented.
Judiciary: India has a unitary three-tier independent judiciary that comprises the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India, 24 High Courts, and a large number of trial courts. The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over cases involving fundamental rights and over disputes between states and the centre; it has appellate jurisdiction over the High Courts. It has the power both to declare the law and to strike down union or state laws which contravene the constitution, as well as to invalidate any government action it deems unconstitutional.

Subdivisions

States (1–29) & Union territories (A-G)
1. Andhra Pradesh 19. Nagaland
2. Arunachal Pradesh 20. Odisha
3. Assam 21. Punjab
4. Bihar 22. Rajasthan
5. Chhattisgarh 23. Sikkim
6. Goa 24. Tamil Nadu
7. Gujarat 25. Telangana
8. Haryana 26. Tripura
9. Himachal Pradesh 27. Uttar Pradesh
10. Jammu and Kashmir 28. Uttarakhand
11. Jharkhand 29. West Bengal
12. Karnataka A. Andaman and Nicobar Islands
13. Kerala B. Chandigarh
14. Madhya Pradesh C. Dadra and Nagar Haveli
15. Maharashtra D. Daman and Diu
16. Manipur E. Lakshadweep
17. Meghalaya F. National Capital Territory of Delhi
18. Mizoram G. Puducherry

India is a federation composed of 29 states and 7 union territories. All states, as well as the union territories of Puducherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments, both patterned on the Westminster model. The remaining five union territories are directly ruled by the centre through appointed administrators. In 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, states were reorganised on a linguistic basis. Since then, their structure has remained largely unchanged. Each state or union territory is further divided into administrative districts. The districts, in turn, are further divided into tehsils and ultimately into villages.

Foreign relations and military

Modi and British Prime Minister Theresa May at the India-UK Tech Summit in New Delhi
Since its independence in 1947, India has maintained cordial relations with most nations. In the 1950s, it strongly supported decolonisation in Africa and Asia and played a lead role in the Non-Aligned Movement. In the late 1980s, the Indian military twice intervened abroad at the invitation of neighbouring countries: a peace-keeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990; and an armed intervention to prevent a 1988 coup d’état attempt in the Maldives. India has tense relations with neighbouring Pakistan; the two nations have gone to war four times: in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. Three of these wars were fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir, while the fourth, the 1971 war, followed from India’s support for the independence of Bangladesh. After waging the 1962 Sino-Indian War and the 1965 war with Pakistan, India pursued close military and economic ties with the Soviet Union; by the late 1960s, the Soviet Union was its largest arms supplier.

Aside from ongoing strategic relations with Russia, India has wide-ranging defence relations with Israel and France. In recent years, it has played key roles in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the World Trade Organisation. The nation has provided 100,000 military and police personnel to serve in 35 UN peacekeeping operations across four continents. It participates in the East Asia Summit, the G8+5, and other multilateral forums. India has close economic ties with South America, Asia, and Africa; it pursues a “Look East” policy that seeks to strengthen partnerships with the ASEAN nations, Japan, and South Korea that revolve around many issues, but especially those involving economic investment and regional security.

China’s nuclear test of 1964, as well as its repeated threats to intervene in support of Pakistan in the 1965 war, convinced India to develop nuclear weapons. India conducted its first nuclear weapons test in 1974 and carried out further underground testing in 1998. Despite criticism and military sanctions, India has signed neither the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty nor the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, considering both to be flawed and discriminatory. India maintains a “no first use” nuclear policy and is developing a nuclear triad capability as a part of its “minimum credible deterrence” doctrine. It is developing a ballistic missile defence shield and, in collaboration with Russia, a fifth-generation fighter jet. Other indigenous military projects involve the design and implementation of Vikrant-class aircraft carriers and Arihant-class nuclear submarines.

Since the end of the Cold War, India has increased its economic, strategic, and military co-operation with the United States and the European Union. In 2008, a civilian nuclear agreement was signed between India and the United States. Although India possessed nuclear weapons at the time and was not party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it received waivers from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, ending earlier restrictions on India’s nuclear technology and commerce. As a consequence, India became the sixth de facto nuclear weapons state. India subsequently signed co-operation agreements involving civilian nuclear energy with Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

The President of India is the supreme commander of the nation’s armed forces; with 1.395 million active troops, they compose the world’s second-largest military. It comprises the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, the Indian Air Force, and the Indian Coast Guard. The official Indian defence budget for 2011 was US$36.03 billion, or 1.83% of GDP. For the fiscal year spanning 2012–2013, US$40.44 billion was budgeted. According to a 2008 SIPRI report, India’s annual military expenditure in terms of purchasing power stood at US$72.7 billion. In 2011, the annual defence budget increased by 11.6%, although this does not include funds that reach the military through other branches of government. As of 2012, India is the world’s largest arms importer; between 2007 and 2011, it accounted for 10% of funds spent on international arms purchases. Much of the military expenditure was focused on defence against Pakistan and countering growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean.

Economy Of India

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Indian economy in 2017 was nominally worth US$2.611 trillion; it is the sixth-largest economy by market exchange rates, and is, at US$9.459 trillion, the third-largest by purchasing power parity, or PPP. With its average annual GDP growth rate of 5.8% over the past two decades, and reaching 6.1% during 2011–12, India is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. However, the country ranks 140th in the world in nominal GDP per capita and 129th in GDP per capita at PPP. Until 1991, all Indian governments followed protectionist policies that were influenced by socialist economics. Widespread state intervention and regulation largely walled the economy off from the outside world. An acute balance of payments crisis in 1991 forced the nation to liberalise its economy; since then it has slowly moved towards a free-market system by emphasising both foreign trade and direct investment inflows. India has been a member of WTO since 1 January 1995.

The 513.7-million-worker Indian labour force is the world’s second-largest, as of 2016. The service sector makes up 55.6% of GDP, the industrial sector 26.3% and the agricultural sector 18.1%. India’s foreign exchange remittances of US$70 billion in 2014, the largest in the world, contributed to its economy by 25 million Indians working in foreign countries. Major agricultural products include rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, and potatoes. Major industries include textiles, telecommunications, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, food processing, steel, transport equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, and software. In 2006, the share of external trade in India’s GDP stood at 24%, up from 6% in 1985. In 2008, India’s share of world trade was 1.68%; In 2011, India was the world’s tenth-largest importer and the nineteenth-largest exporter. Major exports include petroleum products, textile goods, jewellery, software, engineering goods, chemicals, and leather manufactures. Major imports include crude oil, machinery, gems, fertiliser, and chemicals. Between 2001 and 2011, the contribution of petrochemical and engineering goods to total exports grew from 14% to 42%. India was the second largest textile exporter after China in the world in the calendar year 2013.

Averaging an economic growth rate of 7.5% for several years prior to 2007, India has more than doubled its hourly wage rates during the first decade of the 21st century. Some 431 million Indians have left poverty since 1985; India’s middle classes are projected to number around 580 million by 2030. Though ranking 51st in global competitiveness, India ranks 17th in financial market sophistication, 24th in the banking sector, 44th in business sophistication, and 39th in innovation, ahead of several advanced economies, as of 2010. With 7 of the world’s top 15 information technology outsourcing companies based in India, the country is viewed as the second-most favourable outsourcing destination after the United States, as of 2009. India’s consumer market, the world’s eleventh-largest, is expected to become fifth-largest by 2030. However, hardly 2% of Indians pay income taxes.

Driven by growth, India’s nominal GDP per capita has steadily increased from US$329 in 1991, when economic liberalisation began, to US$1,265 in 2010, to an estimated US$1,723 in 2016, and is expected to grow to US$2,358 by 2020; however, it has remained lower than those of other Asian developing countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, and is expected to remain so in the near future. However, it is higher than Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and others.

According to a 2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers report, India’s GDP at purchasing power parity could overtake that of the United States by 2045. During the next four decades, Indian GDP is expected to grow at an annualised average of 8%, making it potentially the world’s fastest-growing major economy until 2050. The report highlights key growth factors: a young and rapidly growing working-age population; growth in the manufacturing sector because of rising education and engineering skill levels; and sustained growth of the consumer market driven by a rapidly growing middle-class. The World Bank cautions that, for India to achieve its economic potential, it must continue to focus on public sector reform, transport infrastructure, agricultural and rural development, removal of labour regulations, education, energy security, and public health and nutrition.

According to the Worldwide Cost of Living Report 2017 released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) which was created by comparing more than 400 individual prices across 160 products and services, four of the cheapest cities were in India: Bangalore (3rd), Mumbai (5th), Chennai (5th) and New Delhi (8th).

Industries

The Delhi Metro rapid transit system and the low-floor CNG buses. Infrastructure in India in the next five years is estimated to bring in $1 trillion in investment, half of it by India’s private sector.
India’s telecommunication industry, the world’s fastest-growing, added 227 million subscribers during the period 2010–11, and after the third quarter of 2017, India surpassed the US to become the second largest smartphone market in the world after China.

The Indian automotive industry, the world’s second-fastest growing, increased domestic sales by 26% during 2009–10, and exports by 36% during 2008–09. India’s capacity to generate electrical power is 300 gigawatts, of which 42 gigawatts is renewable. At the end of 2011, the Indian IT industry employed 2.8 million professionals, generated revenues close to US$100 billion equalling 7.5% of Indian GDP and contributed 26% of India’s merchandise exports.

The pharmaceutical industry in India is among the significant emerging markets for the global pharmaceutical industry. The Indian pharmaceutical market is expected to reach $48.5 billion by 2020. India’s R & D spending constitutes 60% of the biopharmaceutical industry. India is among the top 12 biotech destinations in the world. The Indian biotech industry grew by 15.1% in 2012–13, increasing its revenues from 204.4 billion INR (Indian rupees) to 235.24 billion INR (3.94 B US$ – exchange rate June 2013: 1 US$ approx. 60 INR).

Socio-economic challenges

Despite economic growth during recent decades, India continues to face socio-economic challenges. In 2006, India contained the largest number of people living below the World Bank’s international poverty line of US$1.25 per day, the proportion having decreased from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005; under its later revised poverty line, it was 21% in 2011. 30.7% of India’s children under the age of five are underweight. According to a Food and Agriculture Organization report in 2015, 15% of the population is undernourished. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme attempts to lower these rates.

According to a Walk Free Foundation report in 2016, there were an estimated 18.3 million people in India, or 1.4% of the population, living in the forms of modern slavery, such as bonded labour, child labour, human trafficking, and forced begging, among others. According to the 2011 census, there were 10.1 million child labourers in the country, a decline of 2.6 million from 12.6 million child labourers in 2001.

Since 1991, economic inequality between India’s states has consistently grown: the per-capita net state domestic product of the richest states in 2007 was 3.2 times that of the poorest. Corruption in India is perceived to have decreased. According to Corruption Perceptions Index, India ranked 76th out of 176 countries in 2016, from 85th in 2014.

Demographics

With 1,210,193,422 residents reported in the 2011 provisional census report, India is the world’s second-most populous country. Its population grew by 17.64% during 2001–2011, compared to 21.54% growth in the previous decade (1991–2001). The human sex ratio, according to the 2011 census, is 940 females per 1,000 males. The median age was 27.6 as of 2016. The first post-colonial census, conducted in 1951, counted 361.1 million people. Medical advances made in the last 50 years as well as increased agricultural productivity brought about by the “Green Revolution” have caused India’s population to grow rapidly. India continues to face several public health-related challenges.

Life expectancy in India is at 68 years, with life expectancy for women being 69.6 years and for men being 67.3. There are around 50 physicians per 100,000 Indians. The number of Indians living in urban areas has grown by 31.2% between 1991 and 2001. Yet, in 2001, over 70% lived in rural areas. The level of urbanisation increased from 27.81% in 2001 Census to 31.16% in 2011 Census. The slowing down of the overall growth rate of population was due to the sharp decline in the growth rate in rural areas since 1991. According to the 2011 census, there are 53 million-plus urban agglomerations in India; among them Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, in decreasing order by population. The literacy rate in 2011 was 74.04%: 65.46% among females and 82.14% among males. The rural-urban literacy gap which was 21.2 percentage points in 2001, dropped to 16.1 percentage points in 2011. The improvement in literacy rate in rural area is two times that in urban areas. Kerala is the most literate state with 93.91% literacy; while Bihar the least with 63.82%.

India is home to two major language families: Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian (spoken by 24% of the population). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austroasiatic and Sino-Tibetan language families. India has no national language. Hindi, with the largest number of speakers, is the official language of the government. English is used extensively in business and administration and has the status of a “subsidiary official language”; it is important in education, especially as a medium of higher education. Each state and union territory has one or more official languages, and the constitution recognises in particular 22 “scheduled languages”. The Constitution of India recognises 212 scheduled tribal groups which together constitute about 7.5% of the country’s population. The 2011 census reported that the religion in India with the largest number of followers was Hinduism (79.80% of the population), followed by Islam (14.23%); the remaining were Christianity (2.30%), Sikhism (1.72%), Buddhism (0.70%), Jainism (0.36%) and others (0.9%). India has the world’s largest Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Zoroastrian, and Bahá’í populations, and has the third-largest Muslim population—the largest for a non-Muslim majority country.

Culture of India

Indian cultural history spans more than 4,500 years. During the Vedic period (c. 1700 – 500 BCE), the foundations of Hindu philosophy, mythology, theology and literature were laid, and many beliefs and practices which still exist today, such as dhárma, kárma, yóga, and mokṣa, were established. India is notable for its religious diversity, with Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, and Jainism among the nation’s major religions. The predominant religion, Hinduism, has been shaped by various historical schools of thought, including those of the Upanishads, the Yoga Sutras, the Bhakti movement, and by Buddhist philosophy.

Art and architecture

Much of Indian architecture, including the Taj Mahal, other works of Mughal architecture, and South Indian architecture, blends ancient local traditions with imported styles. Vernacular architecture is also highly regional in it flavours. Vastu shastra, literally “science of construction” or “architecture” and ascribed to Mamuni Mayan, explores how the laws of nature affect human dwellings; it employs precise geometry and directional alignments to reflect perceived cosmic constructs. As applied in Hindu temple architecture, it is influenced by the Shilpa Shastras, a series of foundational texts whose basic mythological form is the Vastu-Purusha mandala, a square that embodied the “absolute”. The Taj Mahal, built in Agra between 1631 and 1648 by orders of Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, has been described in the UNESCO World Heritage List as “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage”. Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture, developed by the British in the late 19th century, drew on Indo-Islamic architecture.

Literature

The earliest literary writings in India, composed between 1700 BCE and 1200 CE, were in the Sanskrit language. Prominent works of this Sanskrit literature include epics such as the Mahābhārata and the Ramayana, the dramas of Kālidāsa such as the Abhijñānaśākuntalam (The Recognition of Śakuntalā), and poetry such as the Mahākāvya. Kamasutra, the famous book about sexual intercourse also originated in India. Developed between 600 BCE and 300 CE in South India, the Sangam literature, consisting of 2,381 poems, is regarded as a predecessor of Tamil literature. From the 14th to the 18th centuries, India’s literary traditions went through a period of drastic change because of the emergence of devotional poets such as Kabīr, Tulsīdās, and Guru Nānak. This period was characterised by a varied and wide spectrum of thought and expression; as a consequence, medieval Indian literary works differed significantly from classical traditions. In the 19th century, Indian writers took a new interest in social questions and psychological descriptions. In the 20th century, Indian literature was influenced by the works of Bengali poet and novelist Rabindranath Tagore, who was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Performing arts

Indian music ranges over various traditions and regional styles. Classical music encompasses two genres and their various folk offshoots: the northern Hindustani and southern Carnatic schools. Regionalised popular forms include filmi and folk music; the syncretic tradition of the bauls is a well-known form of the latter. Indian dance also features diverse folk and classical forms. Among the better-known folk dances are the bhangra of Punjab, the bihu of Assam, the chhau of Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand, garba and dandiya of Gujarat, ghoomar of Rajasthan, and the lavani of Maharashtra. Eight dance forms, many with narrative forms and mythological elements, have been accorded classical dance status by India’s National Academy of Music, Dance, and Drama. These are: bharatanatyam of the state of Tamil Nadu, kathak of Uttar Pradesh, kathakali and mohiniyattam of Kerala, kuchipudi of Andhra Pradesh, manipuri of Manipur, odissi of Odisha, and the sattriya of Assam. Theatre in India melds music, dance, and improvised or written dialogue. Often based on Hindu mythology, but also borrowing from medieval romances or social and political events, Indian theatre includes the bhavai of Gujarat, the jatra of West Bengal, the nautanki and ramlila of North India, tamasha of Maharashtra, burrakatha of Andhra Pradesh, terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu, and the yakshagana of Karnataka. India has a theatre training institute N.S.D that is situated at New Delhi It is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

Motion pictures, television

The Indian film industry produces the world’s most-watched cinema. Established regional cinematic traditions exist in the Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, and Telugu languages. South Indian cinema attracts more than 75% of national film revenue.

Television broadcasting began in India in 1959 as a state-run medium of communication and had slow expansion for more than two decades. The state monopoly on television broadcast ended in the 1990s and, since then, satellite channels have increasingly shaped the popular culture of Indian society. Today, television is the most penetrative media in India; industry estimates indicate that as of 2012 there are over 554 million TV consumers, 462 million with satellite and/or cable connections, compared to other forms of mass media such as press (350 million), radio (156 million) or internet (37 million).

Cuisine

Indian cuisine encompasses a wide variety of regional and traditional cuisines, often depending on a particular state (such as Maharashtrian cuisine). Staple foods of Indian cuisine include pearl millet (bājra), rice, whole-wheat flour (aṭṭa), and a variety of lentils, such as masoor (most often red lentils), toor (pigeon peas), urad (black gram), and mong (mung beans). Lentils may be used whole, dehusked—for example, dhuli moong or dhuli urad—or split. Split lentils, or dal, are used extensively. The spice trade between India and Europe is often cited by historians as the primary catalyst for Europe’s Age of Discovery.

Society

Traditional Indian society is sometimes defined by social hierarchy. The Indian caste system embodies much of the social stratification and many of the social restrictions found in the Indian subcontinent. Social classes are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups, often termed as jātis, or “castes”. India declared untouchability to be illegal in 1947 and has since enacted other anti-discriminatory laws and social welfare initiatives. At the workplace in urban India and in international or leading Indian companies, the caste related identification has pretty much lost its importance.

Family values are important in the Indian tradition, and multi-generational patriarchal joint families have been the norm in India, though nuclear families are becoming common in urban areas. An overwhelming majority of Indians, with their consent, have their marriages arranged by their parents or other elders in the family. Marriage is thought to be for life, and the divorce rate is extremely low. As of 2001, just 1.6 percent of Indian women were divorced but this figure was rising due to their education and economic independence. Child marriages are common, especially in rural areas; many women wed before reaching 18, which is their legal marriageable age. Female infanticide and female foeticide in the country have caused a discrepancy in the sex ratio, as of 2005 it was estimated that there were 50 million more males than females in the nation. However a report from 2011 has shown improvement in the gender ratio. The payment of dowry, although illegal, remains widespread across class lines. Deaths resulting from dowry, mostly from bride burning, are on the rise, despite stringent anti-dowry laws.

Many Indian festivals are religious in origin. The best known include Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Thai Pongal, Holi, Durga Puja, Eid ul-Fitr, Bakr-Id, Christmas, and Vaisakhi. India has three national holidays which are observed in all states and union territories – Republic Day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti. Other sets of holidays, varying between nine and twelve, are officially observed in individual states.

Clothing

Cotton was domesticated in India by 4000 BCE. Traditional Indian dress varies in colour and style across regions and depends on various factors, including climate and faith. Popular styles of dress include draped garments such as the sari for women and the dhoti or lungi for men. Stitched clothes, such as the shalwar kameez for women and kurta–pyjama combinations or European-style trousers and shirts for men, are also popular. Use of delicate jewellery, modelled on real flowers worn in ancient India, is part of a tradition dating back some 5,000 years; gemstones are also worn in India as talismans.

Sports

In India, several traditional indigenous sports remain fairly popular, such as kabaddi, kho kho, pehlwani and gilli-danda. Some of the earliest forms of Asian martial arts, such as kalarippayattu, musti yuddha, silambam, and marma adi, originated in India. Chess, commonly held to have originated in India as chaturaṅga, is regaining widespread popularity with the rise in the number of Indian grandmasters. Pachisi, from which parcheesi derives, was played on a giant marble court by Akbar.

The improved results garnered by the Indian Davis Cup team and other Indian tennis players in the early 2010s have made tennis increasingly popular in the country. India has a comparatively strong presence in shooting sports, and has won several medals at the Olympics, the World Shooting Championships, and the Commonwealth Games. Other sports in which Indians have succeeded internationally include badminton (Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu are two of the top-ranked female badminton players in the world), boxing, and wrestling. Football is popular in West Bengal, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and the north-eastern states. India is scheduled to host the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Field hockey in India is administered by Hockey India. The Indian national hockey team won the 1975 Hockey World Cup and have, as of 2016, taken eight gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, making it the sport’s most successful team in the Olympics.

India has also played a major role in popularising cricket. Thus, cricket is, by far, the most popular sport in India. The Indian national cricket team won the 1983 and 2011 Cricket World Cup events, the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, shared the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka, and won 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. Cricket in India is administered by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI); the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Deodhar Trophy, the Irani Trophy, and the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy are domestic competitions. The BCCI also conducts an annual Twenty20 competition known as the Indian Premier League.

India has hosted or co-hosted several international sporting events: the 1951 and 1982 Asian Games; the 1987, 1996, and 2011 Cricket World Cup tournaments; the 2003 Afro-Asian Games; the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy; the 2010 Hockey World Cup; and the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Major international sporting events held annually in India include the Chennai Open, the Mumbai Marathon, the Delhi Half Marathon, and the Indian Masters. The first Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix featured in late 2011 but has been discontinued from the F1 season calendar since 2014.

India has traditionally been the dominant country at the South Asian Games. An example of this dominance is the basketball competition where Team India won three out of four tournaments to date.

The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and the Arjuna Award are the highest forms of government recognition for athletic achievement; the Dronacharya Award is awarded for excellence in coaching.

Referance: wikipedia.org/wiki/India

Avengers: Infinity War is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2012’s The Avengers and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the nineteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and features an ensemble cast including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin, and Chris Pratt. In Avengers: Infinity War, the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy attempt to stop Thanos from amassing the all-powerful Infinity Stones.

The film was announced in October 2014 as Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1. The Russo brothers came on board to direct in April 2015 and by May, Markus and McFeely had signed on to write the script for the film, which drew inspiration from Jim Starlin’s 1991 The Infinity Gauntlet comic and Jonathan Hickman’s 2013 Infinity comic. In 2016, Marvel shortened the title to Avengers: Infinity War. Filming began in January 2017 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, and lasted until July 2017, shooting back-to-back with a direct sequel. Additional filming took place in Scotland, England, the Downtown Atlanta area, and New York City. With an estimated budget between $316-400 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made.

Avengers: Infinity War held its world premiere on April 23, 2018 in Los Angeles and was released in the United States on April 27, 2018, in IMAX and 3D. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the cast, visual effects, emotional weight of the story, and action scenes, although the runtime received some criticism. It has grossed over $1.6 billion worldwide, making it the fifth highest-grossing film of all time, as well as the highest-grossing film of 2018, highest-ever grossing superhero film, and the eighth highest-grossing film ever in the United States. In its opening weekend, it grossed $641 million worldwide and $258 million in the United States and Canada, setting the records for the highest-grossing openings for both. The untitled sequel is set to be released on May 3, 2019.

Plot of Avengers: Infinity War

Having acquired the Power Stone from the planet Xandar, Thanos and his lieutenants—Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive—intercept the spaceship carrying the survivors of Asgard’s destruction.: As they extract the Space Stone from the Tesseract, Thanos subdues Thor, overpowers Hulk, and kills Loki. Heimdall sends Hulk to Earth using the Bifröst before being killed. Thanos departs with his lieutenants and obliterates the spaceship.

Hulk crash-lands at the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City, reverting to Bruce Banner. He warns Stephen Strange and Wong about Thanos’ plan to kill half of all life in the universe; in response, Strange recruits Tony Stark. Maw and Obsidian arrive to retrieve the Time Stone from Strange, drawing the attention of Peter Parker. Maw captures Strange, but fails to take the Time Stone due to an enchantment. Stark and Parker pursue Maw’s spaceship, Banner contacts Steve Rogers, and Wong stays behind to guard the Sanctum.

In Scotland, Midnight and Glaive ambush Wanda Maximoff and Vision in order to retrieve the Mind Stone in Vision’s forehead. Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Sam Wilson rescue them and take shelter with James Rhodes and Banner at the Avengers Compound. Vision offers to sacrifice himself by having Maximoff destroy the Mind Stone to keep Thanos from retrieving it. Rogers suggests they travel to Wakanda, which he believes has the resources to remove the stone without destroying Vision.

The Guardians of the Galaxy respond to a distress call from the Asgardian ship and rescue Thor, who surmises Thanos seeks the Reality Stone, which is in the possession of the Collector on Knowhere. Rocket and Groot accompany Thor to Nidavellir, where they and Eitri create an enchanted battle-axe capable of killing Thanos. On Knowhere, Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis find Thanos with the Reality Stone already in his possession. Thanos kidnaps Gamora, his adoptive daughter, who reveals the location of the Soul Stone to save her captive adoptive sister Nebula from torture. Thanos and Gamora travel to Vormir, where Red Skull, keeper of the Soul Stone, informs him the stone can only be retrieved by sacrificing someone he loves. Thanos reluctantly kills Gamora, earning the Stone.

Nebula escapes captivity and asks the remaining Guardians to meet her on Thanos’ destroyed homeworld, Titan. Stark and Parker kill Maw and rescue Strange. Landing on Titan, they meet Quill, Drax, and Mantis. The group forms a plan to remove Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet after Strange uses the Time Stone to view millions of possible futures, seeing only one in which Thanos loses. Thanos arrives, justifying his plans as necessary to ensure the survival of a universe threatened by overpopulation. The group subdues him until Nebula deduces that Thanos has killed Gamora. Enraged, Quill retaliates, allowing Thanos to break the group’s hold and overpower them. After Stark is seriously wounded by Thanos, Strange surrenders the Time Stone in exchange for Thanos sparing Stark. Thanos departs for Earth.

In Wakanda, Rogers reunites with Bucky Barnes before Thanos’ army invades. The Avengers, alongside T’Challa and the Wakandan forces, mount a defense while Shuri works to extract the Mind Stone from Vision. Banner, unable to transform into the Hulk, fights in Stark’s Hulkbuster armor. Thor, Rocket, and Groot arrive to reinforce the Avengers; Midnight, Obsidian, and Glaive are killed and their army is routed. Thanos arrives and despite Maximoff’s attempt to destroy the Mind Stone, retrieves it from Vision, killing him.

Thor severely wounds Thanos, but Thanos activates the complete Infinity Gauntlet and teleports away. Half of all life across the universe disintegrates, including Barnes, T’Challa, Groot, Maximoff, Wilson, Mantis, Drax, Quill, Strange, and Parker. Stark and Nebula remain on Titan while Banner, M’Baku, Okoye, Rhodes, Rocket, Rogers, Romanoff, and Thor are left on the Wakandan battlefield. Meanwhile, Thanos recovers on another planet.

In a post-credits scene, Nick Fury transmits a signal as he, Maria Hill, and others disintegrate. The transmitter displays a star insignia on a red-and-blue background.

Cast of Avengers: Infinity War

• Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man:
  The leader and benefactor of the Avengers, who is a self-described genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist with electromechanical suits of armor of his own making. Co-director Joe Russo explained that Stark “senses this greater threat approaching, so he is doing everything in his power to keep the Earth safe.” Downey added that Stark would have smaller goals than in previous films, with the idea of him as a tinkerer continued from Iron Man 3, although this was not reflected in the final film.
• Chris Hemsworth as Thor:
  An Avenger and the king of Asgard, based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name. Joe Russo stated that Thor’s storyline picks up after the events of Thor: Ragnarok, which finds him in a “very profound… very interesting place” with “real emotional motivation”. At the recommendation of Hemsworth, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely consulted Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi and screenwriter Eric Pearson to help carry over the comedic and tragic elements of the re-toned Thor from that film. Thor now wields a mystical axe known as Stormbreaker, after the destruction of his hammer Mjolnir in Ragnarok.
• Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Hulk:
  An Avenger and a genius scientist who, because of exposure to gamma radiation, transforms into a monster when enraged or agitated. Banner spends the film trying to reintegrate with the Avengers, and also tries to “impress upon everybody how dangerous Thanos is.” This continues a story arc for the character that was established in Thor: Ragnarok and concludes in the Infinity War sequel, with the difference between Hulk and Banner “starting to blur a little bit”. Ruffalo described Hulk in Infinity War as having the mental capacity of a five-year-old.
• Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America:
  A fugitive superhero and leader of a faction of Avengers. A World War II veteran, he was enhanced to the peak of human physicality by an experimental serum and frozen in suspended animation before waking up in the modern world. Joe Russo said after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Rogers struggles with the conflict between his responsibility to himself and his responsibility to others. The character embodies the “spirit” of his comic alternate identity Nomad in the film, and receives new vibranium gauntlets from Shuri to replace his traditional shield.
• Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow:
  A highly trained spy, a member of Rogers’ faction of Avengers, and a former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Johansson said that Romanoff’s situation in the aftermath of the events of Captain America: Civil War has been “a dark time. I wouldn’t say that my character has been particularly hopeful, but I think she’s hardened even more than she probably was before.”
• Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange:
  A former neurosurgeon who, after a car accident that led to a journey of healing, discovered the hidden world of magic and alternate dimensions and became a Master of the Mystic Arts. Markus and McFeely described Strange as ” up being the reasonable adult in the room” with the “widest perspective available” due to the film’s stakes. Aaron Lazar served as Cumberbatch’s stand-in until the latter completed filming on The Current War. At that point, Cumberbatch re-shot scenes where his face needed to be seen. Julian “JayFunk” Daniels once again assisted Cumberbatch with his finger-tutting movements.
• Don Cheadle as James “Rhodey” Rhodes / War Machine:
  A former officer in the U.S. Air Force who operates the War Machine armor and is an Avenger. Following his paralysis during the events of Civil War, Rhodes is given an apparatus by Stark to walk again, although he is reluctant to don his War Machine armor and rejoin the Avengers due to his injury. Cheadle believed that Rhodes is “negotiating this reunion and his rejoining this team.” He also explained that Rhodes’ relationship with Stark “deepened” from his accident, saying, “I think Tony feels somewhat responsible and culpable in a way. But again, he’s always had my back in a way that only he could really have.”
• Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man: A teenager and Stark’s protegé who received spider-like abilities after being bitten by a genetically-modified spider.
  Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa / Black Panther: The king of the African nation of Wakanda, who gained his enhanced strength by ingesting the Heart-Shaped Herb.
• Paul Bettany as Vision:
  An android and Avenger created using the artificial intelligence J.A.R.V.I.S., Ultron, and the Mind Stone. Anthony Russo called Vision “a living MacGuffin. Obviously, that raises the stakes because Vision’s life is in danger, and his life is in conflict with Thanos’ goals, so something’s got to give.”
• Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch: A member of Rogers’ faction of Avengers, who can harness magic and engage in hypnosis and telekinesis.
• Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Falcon:
  A member of Rogers’ faction of Avengers and former pararescueman trained by the military in aerial combat, using a specially designed wing pack. Mackie noted that Wilson has a grudge with other heroes like Iron Man and Black Panther after the events of Civil War.
• Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier:
  An enhanced assassin and Rogers’ ally and best friend, who reemerged brainwashed after being thought killed in action during World War II. Barnes, who formerly went by Winter Soldier, is given the name White Wolf by the people of Wakanda, who helped remove his Hydra programming.
• Tom Hiddleston as Loki: Thor’s adoptive brother, based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name.
• Idris Elba as Heimdall: The all-seeing, all-hearing Asgardian former sentry of the Bifröst Bridge, based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name.
• Peter Dinklage as Eitri: King of the Dwarves of Nidavellir, and weaponsmith, based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name.
• Benedict Wong as Wong: One of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, tasked with protecting some of Kamar-Taj’s most valuable relics and books.
• Pom Klementieff as Mantis: A member of the Guardians of the Galaxy with empathic powers.
• Karen Gillan as Nebula: An adopted daughter of Thanos who was raised with Gamora as siblings.
• Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer: A member of the Guardians and warrior in search of vengeance against Thanos for killing his family. At the end of each day of filming, Bautista would have to sit in a sauna to remove his makeup.
• Zoe Saldana as Gamora: A member of the Guardians, who is an orphan from an alien world and raised by Thanos, seeking redemption for her past crimes. Ariana Greenblatt portrays a young Gamora.
• Vin Diesel as Groot:
  A member of the Guardians who is a tree-like humanoid. Executive producer James Gunn explained that Groot is still an adolescent in the film, in the same state of growth seen in one of the post-credit scenes in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Terry Notary provided motion capture for Groot, and said the character is “coming of age, so you’ll see the teenager find a mentor to look up to and to model himself after.”
• Bradley Cooper as Rocket:
  A member of the Guardians who is a genetically-engineered raccoon-based bounty hunter and mercenary, and is a master of weapons and battle tactics. Sean Gunn was again the stand-in for Rocket during filming, with his acting and expressions serving as motion reference for the character.
• Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts:
  Stark’s fiancée and the CEO of Stark Industries. Downey felt that “Pepper remains the heart of the story”, which was not a focal point in some of the preceding films with Stark. Downey continued that “we wanted to get back to that reality. Not just for them, but let’s really see how that can add to the something-worth-fighting-for of it all.”
  Benicio del Toro as Taneleer Tivan / The Collector: One of the Elders of the Universe, who is an obsessive keeper of the largest collection of interstellar fauna, relics, and species of all manner in the galaxy.
• Josh Brolin as Thanos:
  An intergalactic despot from Titan who longs to collect all six of the Infinity Stones in order to impose his will on all of reality, wanting to “re-balance the universe”. Producer Kevin Feige added that Thanos believes the universe is becoming over-populated, which led to the destruction of his home moon Titan and is something he vowed not to let happen again, and also said “you could almost go so far as to say he is the main character of” the film. McFeely shared this sentiment, describing the film as his “hero journey” in addition to being the film’s protagonist, stating, “Part of that is the things that the most to him. We wanted to show that. It wasn’t just power; it wasn’t just an ideal; it was people.” Brolin likened Thanos to “the Quasimodo of this time” and the novel Perfume, since Thanos was born deformed and considered a “freak” on Titan, while Joe Russo would reference The Godfather for Brolin at times, which Brolin felt helped “to emotionalize the whole thing.” Brolin further added that he preferred playing Thanos over Cable in Deadpool 2 because of the amount of work that went into creating the character. Thanos does not wear armor for most of the film, which is symbolic of his growing power as he collects the Infinity Stones. In addition to voicing for the character, Brolin performed motion capture on set.
• Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord:
  The half-human, half-Celestial leader of the Guardians who was abducted from Earth as a child, and raised by a group of alien thieves and smugglers called the Ravagers. Pratt described his role in the film as “a cameo… you get to be a little more vibrant; a little more irreverent; a little bit more colorful if you want it to be.”
• Additionally, several other actors reprise their MCU roles: Danai Gurira as Okoye, the head of the Dora Milaje; Letitia Wright as T’Challa’s sister Shuri; William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross, the U.S. Secretary of State; Kerry Condon as the voice of Stark’s A.I. F.R.I.D.A.Y.; Winston Duke as M’Baku, the leader of Wakanda’s mountain tribe the Jabari; Florence Kasumba as Ayo, a member of the Dora Milaje; Jacob Batalon as Parker’s friend Ned; Isabella Amara as Parker’s classmate Sally; Tiffany Espensen as Parker’s classmate Cindy; and Ethan Dizon as Parker’s classmate Tiny. Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders make uncredited cameos as Nick Fury and Maria Hill, the former director and deputy director of S.H.I.E.L.D, respectively, in the film’s post-credits scene.

Thanos’ henchmen, known collectively in the comics as the Black Order and in the film as the “Children of Thanos”, include Terry Notary as Cull Obsidian, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw, Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight, and Michael James Shaw as Corvus Glaive. The foursome provided voices and motion-capture performances on set for their characters. As Coon was pregnant during filming, she mainly did facial capture for Proxima Midnight with some motion-capture, with stuntwoman Monique Ganderton standing-in and providing the rest on set. Ross Marquand portrays Johann Schmidt / Red Skull, the “Stonekeeper” and former Nazi commander of Hydra during World War II. Marquand replaces Hugo Weaving, who had expressed reluctance to reprise the character from Captain America: The First Avenger. Avengers co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance in the film as Parker’s school bus driver, while screenwriter Stephen McFeely cameos as Secretary Ross’s aide. David Cross was invited to make a cameo appearance as Tobias Fünke, his character from the sitcom Arrested Development, which the Russo brothers had previously worked on; this was prevented by a scheduling conflict, but Fünke still appears in the film as a specimen in the Collector’s collection, played by an uncredited extra.

Avengers: Infinity War Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZfuNTqbHE8

Production Avengers: Infinity War

Main article: Production of Avengers: Infinity War and the untitled Avengers sequel
In October 2014, Marvel announced a two-part sequel to Avengers: Age of Ultron, titled Avengers: Infinity War. Part 1 was scheduled to be released on May 4, 2018, with Part 2 scheduled for May 3, 2019. In April 2015, Marvel announced that Anthony and Joe Russo would direct both parts of Avengers: Infinity War, with back-to-back filming expected to begin in 2016. The same month, Kevin Feige said that the Infinity War films would be two distinct films “because they such shared elements, it felt appropriate… to like that. But I wouldn’t call it one story that’s cut in half. I would say it’s going to be two distinct movies.” By May 2015, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely had signed on to write the screenplays for both parts of the film, which draws inspiration from Jim Starlin’s 1991 “The Infinity Gauntlet” comic and Jonathan Hickman’s 2013 “Infinity” comic. Anthony Russo added the film was inspired by 1990s heist films, with Thanos “on a smash-and-grab :to acquire the Infinity Stones:, and everybody’s trying to catch up the whole movie.” In May 2016, the Russos revealed that they would retitle the two films, to further remove the misconception that they were one large film split in two, with Joe stating, “The intention is we will change , we just haven’t come up with yet.” That July, Marvel revealed the film’s title would be shortened to simply Avengers: Infinity War.

Principal photography began on January 23, 2017, under the working title Mary Lou, at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, with Trent Opaloch as director of photography. In early February, Marvel confirmed the involvement of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord, and Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in the film. Additional filming took place in Scotland beginning in February 2017. The filming occurred in Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands, with studio work taking place at Wardpark Studios in Cumbernauld. Filming also began at Durham Cathedral in Durham, England in early May 2017. In late June 2017, filming occurred in Downtown Atlanta, as well as Atlanta’s Central Park in early July, before moving to Queens, New York in the middle of the month. Filming concluded on July 14, 2017. For the film’s final scene, where Thanos emerges healed in a nipa hut, the filmmakers partnered with Indochina Productions, a studio based in Thailand, to acquire footage of the Banaue Rice Terraces at Ifugao, Philippines.

Later in July 2017, Joe Russo stated there were a couple of unfinished scenes for Infinity War that would be shot “in the next few months”. In early March 2018, Disney moved the release of Infinity War in the United States to April 27, 2018, to have it be released the same weekend as some of its international markets. Visual effects for the film were created by Industrial Light & Magic, Framestore, Method Studios, Weta Digital, Double Negative, Cinesite, Digital Domain, Rise, Lola VFX, and Perception. With an estimated budget between $300–400 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made.

Avengers: Infinity War Music

In June 2016, Alan Silvestri, who composed the score for The Avengers, was revealed to be returning to score both Infinity War and its sequel. Silvestri started to record his score in January 2018, and concluded in late March. Silvestri felt working on the film “was a really different experience than anything I’d done before, especially in regard to the approach and balancing quick shifts in tone.” Ludwig Göransson’s theme from Black Panther is also used in the film. Hollywood Records and Marvel Music released the soundtrack album digitally on April 27, 2018, with a release on physical formats following on May 18. Two versions were released, a regular and deluxe edition, with the deluxe edition featuring some extended and additional tracks.

Release Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War held its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on April 23, 2018, screening also at the adjacent El Capitan Theatre and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. It was released in most countries worldwide, including the United States, on April 27, 2018, with a few debuts beginning as early as April 25, and was shown in IMAX and 3D on select screens. In the United States, the film opened in 4,474 theaters, 408 of which were IMAX; this was the widest release for a Disney title ever and the second-widest ever after Despicable Me 3’s 4,529 theaters. Three of AMC Theatres’ locations screened the film for 24 hours straight, with 53 of their locations having showtimes at either 2 AM or 3 AM to accommodate demand. In India, the film had the biggest release ever for a Hollywood film, opening on nearly 2,000 screens in four languages. The film also screened in 515 4DX theaters in 59 countries. It was originally scheduled to be released on May 4, 2018 in the United States.

Select footage from the film was screened around various cities during the film’s press tour in early April, ahead of the film’s Los Angeles premiere. The Russos noted that only a limited amount of the film would be shown at these screenings to reduce the chance of spoilers being leaked. Adam Chitwood of Collider commented that this was “highly unusual as most Marvel movies are screened in their entirety for press about a month before they hit theaters.” Ahead of the United States release, AMC Theatres in New York City and Orlando, Florida aired an eleven-MCU film marathon beginning on April 25, leading to a screening of Infinity War. The El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles also had a similar marathon ahead of the film’s release.

Marketing

From left to right: Kevin Feige, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Chadwick Boseman and Mark Ruffalo at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con
In May 2017, Robert Downey Jr. and his philanthropic organization Random Act Funding partnered with Omaze to initiate a contest to benefit the organization. A randomly chosen winner from those that donated would receive an Infinity War set visit. A life-sized statue of Thanos, created by Legacy Effects, was on display at D23 Expo 2017, alongside statues of the Black Order / “Children of Thanos”: Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, and Cull Obsidian. Additionally, Feige, Joe Russo, Downey, Brolin, Bettany, Olsen, Klementieff, Gillan, Bautista, Cheadle, Mackie, Cumberbatch, Stan, Holland, Boseman, Ruffalo and Hemsworth appeared at D23 Expo to present a clip highlighting the 10 years of MCU films, along with footage from Infinity War. The footage, which was screened exclusively for the panel, received strong audience reaction, with fans “literally on their feet and jumping as the footage played”. Julia Alexander of Polygon commented, “to say that there was quite a bit happening in the trailer would be one hell of an understatement, but that’s not what got me excited about the promises Infinity War may deliver upon. Seeing Spider-Man in the same movie as Iron Man, Thor, Star-Lord and the Scarlet Witch finally feels like Marvel has made the movie it always wanted to—and the one we’ve always wanted to see. For nearly ten years we dreamt of this reality and to see it play across a massive screen… it was impossible to not feel emotional.” CinemaBlend’s Eric Eisenberg said the footage left him “literally shaking”, with the film looking “like it could be one of the most epic blockbusters ever created,” concluding “the hype most definitely feels very, very real.” Haleigh Foutch for Collider said, “It looks dark and dramatic, and utterly epic. It’s clear Marvel is trying to do something different here… to pay off a decade’s worth of narrative and world-building. While it’s impossible to tell from two minutes work of footage, it certainly looks like that gamble paid off.” The D23 footage was also shown at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con International. Due to the two convention presentations, Avengers: Infinity War generated over 90,000 new conversations on social media from July 17 to 23, the third-most during that time period behind Thor: Ragnarok and Justice League, according to comScore and its PreAct service. Infinity War stayed in third the following week, with over 41,000 new social media conversations, behind Ragnarok and It. By the week of October 16, Infinity War had generated over 679,000 total social media conversations.

To promote the release of the film’s first trailer, Marvel released “a retrospective video looking back at some of its best trailers” since Iron Man, “paired with fan reaction videos to those trailers.” The first trailer for Avengers: Infinity War debuted on Good Morning America on November 29, 2017. Josh Spiegel of The Hollywood Reporter said, “The trailer promises, in many ways, exactly what anyone with a passing familiarity with superhero movies would expect…” but “the most important part of the trailer is how it carefully, deliberately introduces the notion that the Infinity War films are going to function as a passing of the torch, from one set of Avengers to a newer group.” Scott Mendelson writing, for Forbes, noted that even though the trailer was not much different from the convention footage screened earlier in the year, it was “damn impressive. Moreover, it uses Nick Fury’s big “Avengers Initiative” speech, along with Alan Silvestri’s Avengers theme, to excellent effect.” Conversely to Mendelson, Alexander commented on the different marketing strategy for the film between the convention footage scenes and the trailer scenes, feeling the “two couldn’t be more different”. She noted how the convention footage (“meant to please a crowd running on little sleep and jittery with anticipation”) was released between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Thor: Ragnarok, and “:i:t made sense to use Thor and the Guardians to hype up :Infinity War:…” because “Marvel relied on the anticipation of Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’s success to excite fans, and footage of older movies set to classic Marvel scores as a way to drive home how this movie is an event in itself.” Conversely, the trailer (“designed to explain what’s about to happen, teasing it out with additional background”) heavily featured Black Panther and Wakanda, which Alexander said could not have been done earlier, without the additional marketing for Black Panther that happened after the conventions to provide additional context. Gael Cooper of CNET observed that the trailer was viewed nearly 500,000 times in its first 15 minutes after it was posted on YouTube, but questioned if the trailer broke the site after the view counter appeared to be stuck at 467,331. The trailer was viewed 230 million times in its first 24 hours, becoming the most viewed trailer in that time period, surpassing the record of It.

In January 2018, Marvel Comics published a two-issue prequel comic titled Avengers: Infinity War Prelude, which serves as a bridge between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. A commercial for Infinity War aired during Super Bowl LII. The ad generated the most social media buzz out of all the films advertised during the Super Bowl, according to comScore and United Talent Agency; it was viewed 17.6 million times across YouTube and Facebook. On February 27, 2018, Disney and Marvel announced the Marvel: The Universe Unites charity campaign leading to the release of merchandise for the film on March 3. The week-long event saw stars from the film create social media challenges to provide funds and raise awareness for charities that support children and families impacted by serious illness. If their collective posts reached 1 million likes, Marvel said they would make a $250,000 donation to Starlight Children’s Foundation. Additionally, Disney planned to donate 10% of sales of all Marvel products purchased at Disney Stores in the United States and online on the weekend of March 3 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, up to $50,000. Hasbro donated $1 million worth of cash and products to Give Kids the World Village and Funko made a $1 million toy donation to Starlight.

A second trailer was released on March 16, 2018, which earned over 1 million views on YouTube in less than three hours after it was released. Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post was not overly enthused about another superhero film having “special-effects-heavy villains, or the sight of yet another mysterious object hanging over the Manhattan skyline,” but felt the trailer made her realize “that I’m actually looking forward to seeing :the characters of the MCU: get to know each other.” Josh Spiegel of The Hollywood Reporter agreed with Rosenberg about the potential for character interactions, noting the trailer “suggests that some of these meetings are going to keep up the playful tone of recent MCU movies”. He continued, “It is arguably gimmicky to pile up all of the crossover-style introductions or combinations of heroes in a movie like this, like a superpowered version of two well liked TV shows crossing over primarily in the hopes of getting more viewers to pay attention. But the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is built on a foundation of these heroes existing within the same space, so their eventual meetings have a level of anticipation that exceeds that of watching them face off against Thanos.” The second trailer was viewed 179 million times in the first 24 hours, the third-most viewed trailer in that time period, behind the first trailer for the film and It, while also becoming the biggest release for a second trailer, surpassing Beauty and the Beast (128 million views).

A week before the film’s release, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai was lit up each night for the film, counting down to its release. In early May 2018, Marvel and Epic Games announced the “Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup” mode for Fortnite Battle Royale, where players can find the Infinity Gauntlet hidden on the game map and become Thanos with added abilities. The Russo brothers were fans of Fortnite and approached Donald Mustard, the worldwide creative director of Epic Games, about the potential for a crossover between the properties. On November 20, 2018, Little, Brown and Company will publish Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War: Thanos – Titan Consumed, written by Barry Lyga. Despite not existing within Marvel Studios’ MCU canon, the novel explores the origins of Thanos before the events of the film. Lyga noted he spoke with Marvel Studios to get an “outline of who Thanos is and what he means to the movies,” and “was given great latitude and a free hand :in some areas of the story:, while in others I had to tip-toe very carefully through the MCU.”

Additional marketing partners for the film included Coca-Cola, Quicken Loans and their Rocket Mortgage service, the Infiniti QX50 (which is also featured in the film), Ziploc, Go-Gurt, Yoplait, Synchrony Bank, American Airlines, and Stand Up to Cancer. The partners created television commercials “inspired by or featuring the film’s characters and themes”, interactive digital initiatives, and robust in-store presences at numerous retailers. Duracell, Unilever, Quaker Oats Company, Chevron, and Samsung ran promotions in smaller markets. Coca-Cola, Ziploc, Go-Gurt, and Yoplait created special packaging in support of the film, with Synchrony implementing a “Save Like a Hero” campaign, and Stand Up to Cancer and American Airlines launching a national campaign with a PSA starring Johansson and Hemsworth. In the United Kingdom, OnePlus released an Infinity War edition for one of their smartphones. Deadline Hollywood estimated the media value was $150 million, the largest for any Marvel film, with Coca-Cola contributing an estimated $40 million.

Reception

Box office Collection of Avengers: Infinity War

As of May 13, 2018, Avengers: Infinity War has grossed $548.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $1.059 billion in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.607 billion. It is currently the fifth highest-grossing film of all-time, as well as the highest-grossing film of 2018, the highest-grossing superhero film, and the highest-grossing MCU film.

Its worldwide opening weekend of $640.5 million, is the biggest of all time, beating The Fate of the Furious’ $541.9 million. It crossed the $1 billion threshold at the worldwide box office in 11 days, becoming the fastest film to reach the milestone, eclipsing Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ record of 12 days. Also in its second weekend, Infinity War passed $13.5 million from 4DX screens, which was the all-time record for the format. With $118.3 million worldwide from IMAX, the film was the largest gross for a Marvel film and fifth-largest worldwide in the format. In May 2018, two weeks after its release, Deadline Hollywood deduced the film had already broken even, and estimated its net profit would be around $600 million, accounting for production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs, with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from home media.

Pre-sale ticket records of Avengers: Infinity War

In December 2017, a survey from Fandango indicated that Infinity War was the most anticipated film of 2018. Fandango reported that Infinity War achieved the largest initial 24-hour ticket pre-sales for a superhero film in just six hours, surpassing the record from Black Panther. Atom Tickets also reported that Infinity War sold more tickets in its first pre-sales day than Black Panther sold in its first month. Within 72 hours, the film generated the biggest amount of pre-sales for any superhero film at AMC Theatres. AMC noted that Infinity War’s advance ticket sales were 257.6% ahead of Black Panther’s, 751.5% ahead of Captain America: Civil War, and 1,106.5% ahead of Avengers: Age of Ultron during the same time frame. Two weeks before its release, Fandango revealed that advance ticket sales for Infinity War were outpacing the last seven MCU films combined in the same timeframe, and had become the company’s top April release. It was also on pace to become the top superhero film, with Fandango’s Erik Davis noting, “Infinity War has built up such unprecedented anticipation that it’s pacing to break records, the likes of which we have never seen before for a superhero movie.” A week before the film released, The Wall Street Journal noted the film had sold more than $50 million worth of advance tickets, behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), with Fandango reporting that more than 2,500 showtimes had sold out. On Atom Tickets, Infinity War had the most pre-sale volume, selling 7% higher than The Last Jedi and 250% higher than Black Panther at the same point in their sales. Atom also reported that ticket sales for Infinity War were doubling daily the week of its release, the fastest rate of increase the service has seen for any MCU title.

United States and Canada

Avengers: Infinity War earned $106.7 million on its opening day in the United States and Canada (including $39 million from Thursday night previews), for an opening weekend total of $258.2 million. The Thursday night preview earning was the best for an MCU film (beating Avengers: Age of Ultron’s $27.6 million) and the fourth-best of all time, behind The Force Awakens ($57 million), The Last Jedi ($45 million) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ($43.5 million). Fandango reported that $14 million of the $39 million came from ticket pre-sales from the company. The opening day gross was the second-best ever, behind The Force Awakens’ $119.1 million, its Saturday gross of $83 million was the best-ever Saturday gross, beating Jurassic World’s $69.6 million, and its Sunday gross of $69.2 million was the best-ever, beating The Force Awakens’ $60.5 million. The total weekend gross became highest-grossing opening weekend of all time, beating The Force Awakens’ $248 million. IMAX contributed $22.5 million to the opening weekend gross, which was the best opening for a Marvel film in the format and the third-biggest opening, behind The Force Awakens ($30 million) and The Last Jedi ($24.7 million). AMC reported that the film had the highest Friday and Saturday box office gross for a single title in the company’s history, while Fandango reported that approximately $84 million worth of tickets were sold through the service, approximately 30%, which was the largest share of the weekend box office for any film in the company’s history. Avengers: Infinity War earned an additional $25 million the Monday after its opening weekend, which was the highest grossing Monday in April, beating Furious 7 ($14 million), and the second-best Monday gross for an MCU film, after Black Panther ($40.1 million). The next day, it earned $23.5 million, which was the highest grossing Tuesday for an MCU film, beating Black Panther ($20.8 million), and the highest grossing Tuesday in May, beating The Avengers ($17.6 million). It also tied The Force Awakens for the fastest to reach $300 million at five days.

The film remained number one in its second weekend, earning $115.5 million, which was the second-best second weekend ever after The Force Awakens ($149.2 million). Infinity War also surpassed $400 million in the weekend, doing so in nine days, becoming the second fastest film to reach that mark, again after The Force Awakens’s eight days. In its third weekend, Infinity War remained number one at the box office, and became the second-fastest film to surpass $500 million, doing so in 15 days (behind The Force Awakens’s 10 days). The weekend also saw its total domestic IMAX gross become $48.1 million, which was the highest for any MCU film. It is currently the eigth highest-grossing film of all time and highest-grossing superhero film. The film was projected to gross $490–590 million for its total final domestic gross, which was later revised to $600-650 million.

Other territories

Outside the United States and Canada, the film earned $382.7 million from 52 markets, opening number one in all, and became the number two opening internationally, behind The Fate of the Furious ($444.2 million). IMAX contributed $18.5 million, which was the best opening outside of the US, Canada, and China, surpassing The Force Awakens ($17.5 million). All-time opening weekend records were set in South Korea ($39.2 million), Mexico ($25.4 million), Brazil ($19.1 million), India (for a Western release, $18.6 million), the Philippines ($12.5 million), Thailand ($10 million), Indonesia ($9.6 million), Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Central America, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and West Africa. Many markets also set opening day records. Australia opened with $6.7 million, which was the second biggest opening day of all time, behind The Force Awakens; it went on to have the second-highest opening weekend ever, with $23.2 million. France’s opening day gross of $3.9 million was the highest ever for the month of April and the largest ever for an MCU film, while the same amount in Italy was the third-highest opening day and biggest superhero and Disney opening ever. France went on to earn $17.7 million, the biggest superhero opening in the market. Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden had the best opening for a superhero film. The United Kingdom earned $8.9 million, which was the biggest MCU opening day and third highest opening day for a Disney film; it would go on to earn $41.4 million for the weekend, which was the third-highest of all time and the second-highest Disney opening. The United Kingdom also had the highest grossing Saturday ever. Argentina had the second highest opening day of all time, while Germany had the best superhero film opening day of all time, ultimately earning $14.7 million, which was the best superhero opening ever. Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, the Middle East, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine also broke superhero film records. Japan had the second-biggest opening for an MCU film with $9 million.

Avengers: Infinity War remained number one in its 54 markets in its second weekend. The $4.9 million opening day in Russia was the biggest of all time. Infinity War was also the first film in Russia to sell more than 1 million tickets in a single day, and went on to gross $17.6 million in the market, a new opening weekend record. IMAX contributed $2.2 million in the market, which was also an opening weekend record. In its third weekend, the film remained number one in a majority of its markets. Infinity War opened in China to $200 million (RMB 1.266 billion), which was the second highest opening weekend in local currency behind The Fate of the Furious ($184 million and RMB 1.352 million). IMAX contributed $20.5 million, which was the third-largest opening in China. Infinity War also broke China’s pre-sale record of 400 million yuan ($63 million). In India, Infinity War became the first Hollywood film to earn over ₹200cr ($29.7 million), and became the highest grossing MCU film in the United Kingdom. The film became the highest grossing release ever in Brazil, Indonesia, and the Philippines, Central America, Bolivia, Venezuela, the Latin America region, Malaysia, Singapore, India (for a Western release) and Vietnam, and the second-highest in Mexico, behind Coco. As of May 13, 2018, the film’s top markets are China ($200 million), South Korea ($84.6 million), and United Kingdom ($82.1 million). The film is currently in the top 20 for the highest-grossing films of all time in territories outside the United States and Canada.

Critical response

The performances of the cast, and that of Josh Brolin (pictured) in particular, were praised by many critics.
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 84% approval rating based on 319 reviews, and an average rating of 7.4/10. The site’s critical consensus reads, “Avengers: Infinity War ably juggles a dizzying array of MCU heroes in the fight against their gravest threat yet, and the result is a thrilling, emotionally resonant blockbuster that (mostly) realizes its gargantuan ambitions.” Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A” on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 87% overall positive score and a 68% “definite recommend”.

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter praised the writers’ and directors’ ability to balance the large cast of characters, saying, “…writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and directors Anthony and Joe Russo, under the supervision of Marvel Films maestro Kevin Feige, acknowledge the traffic jam of egos and play it for laughs.” Owen Gleiberman of Variety concurred, stating, Infinity War is a brashly entertaining jamboree, structured to show off each hero or heroine and give them just enough to do, and to update their mythologies without making it all feel like homework.” Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers said the film is “too much of a good thing” and wrote, “The Russo brothers have clearly never learned the concept that less is more. They’ve used the premise of an Avengers reunion to put on a fireworks explosion of action and laughs that won’t quit.” Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called it Marvel’s “biggest and most ambitious movie yet”, but concluded “it’s certainly not the best. However, there’s plenty of action, humor and heart—and some genuinely effective dramatic moments.” Roeper went on to praise the film’s cast and Josh Brolin in particular, whom he called “the film’s most interesting performance”. Gleiberman called Brolin’s motion capture performance “supremely effective” and said, “Brolin infuses Thanos with his slit-eyed manipulative glower, so that the evil in this movie never feels less than personal.” McCarthy wrote, “Brolin’s calm, considered reading of the character bestows this conquering beast with an unexpectedly resonant emotional dimension, making him much more than a thick stick figure of a supervillain.” McCarthy also praised the film’s action sequences, saying “Infinity War brims with tensely spectacular combat sequences, even if the question of who’s going to win each one has that extravagantly arbitrary could-Mighty-Mouse-beat-up-Superman? quality.” Gleiberman called the scale of the action, “astonishing”, and Travers wrote,”Avengers182184:

Conversely, A. O. Scott of The New York Times criticized the film’s reliance on other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, saying, “Considered on its own, as a single, nearly 2-hour-40-minute movie, Avengers185186It187188185 Infinity War. It’s all sensation and no pulse. Everything is big, all of the time.”

Accolades

Avengers: Infinity War was nominated for three MTV Movie & TV Awards, including Best Movie, Best Villain (Josh Brolin), and Best Fight (Scarlett Johansson, Danai Gurira, Elizabeth Olsen vs. Carrie Coon).

Sequel

An untitled sequel is scheduled to be released on May 3, 2019, with the Russos returning to direct, and Markus and McFeely once again writing the screenplay.

Referance :

wikipedia.org/wiki/Avengers:_Infinity_War

imdb.com/title/tt4154756/

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament contested by the men’s national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It is scheduled to take place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting rights on 2 December 2010.

This will be the first World Cup held in Europe since the 2006 tournament in Germany, and the first ever to be held in Eastern Europe. All of the stadium venues are in European Russia, to keep travel time manageable.

The final tournament will involve 32 national teams, which include 31 teams determined through qualifying competitions and the automatically qualified host team. Of the 32 teams, 20 will be making back-to-back appearances following the last tournament in 2014, including defending champions Germany, while Iceland and Panama will both be making their first appearances at a FIFA World Cup. A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 venues located in 11 cities. The final will take place on 15 July at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

The winners of the World Cup will qualify for the 2021 FIFA Confederations Cup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ2vr7VUytM

Host selection

The bidding procedure to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups began in January 2009, and national associations had until 2 February 2009 to register their interest. Initially, nine countries placed bids for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but Mexico later withdrew from proceedings, and Indonesia’s bid was rejected by FIFA in February 2010 after the Indonesian government failed to submit a letter to support the bid. During the bidding process, the three remaining non-UEFA nations (Australia, Japan, and the United States) gradually withdrew from the 2018 bids, and the UEFA nations were thus ruled out of the 2022 bid. As such, there were eventually four bids for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, two of which were joint bids: England, Russia, Netherlands/Belgium, and Portugal/Spain.

The twenty-two-member FIFA Executive Committee convened in Zürich on 2 December 2010 to vote to select the hosts of both tournaments. Russia won the right to be the 2018 host in the second round of voting. The Portugal/Spain bid came second, and that from Belgium/Netherlands third. England’s bid to host its second tournament fell at the first hurdle.

The voting results were as follows:

The process was not without criticism: allegations of bribery on the part of the Russian team and corruption from FIFA members were made particularly by the English Football Association. It was alleged that four members of the executive committee had requested bribes to vote for England, and Sepp Blatter said that it had already been arranged before the vote that Russia would win. Although the 2014 Garcia Report absolved Russia of any blame, the FA refused to accept this, with Greg Dyke calling for a re-examination of the affair and David Bernstein calling for a boycott of the World Cup.

2018 FIFA World Cup Teams

For the first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup, all eligible nations – the 209 FIFA member associations minus automatically qualified hosts Russia – entered the qualifying process. Zimbabwe and Indonesia were later disqualified before playing their first matches, while Gibraltar and Kosovo, who joined FIFA on 13 May 2016 after the qualifying draw but before European qualifying had begun, also entered the competition. Places in the tournament were allocated to continental confederations, with the allocation unchanged from the 2014 World Cup. The first qualification game began in Dili, Timor Leste, on 12 March 2015 as part of the AFC’s qualification, and the main qualifying draw took place at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg on 25 July 2015 at 18:00 local time (UTC+3).

Of the thirty-two nations qualified to play at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, twenty countries competed at the previous edition of the tournament in 2014. Both Iceland and Panama qualified for the first time, with the former becoming the smallest country in terms of population to reach the World Cup. Other teams returning after absences of at least three tournaments include: Egypt, returning to the finals after a 28-year absence from their last appearance in 1990; Morocco, who last competed in 1998; Peru, returning after a 36-year absence (since 1982); and Senegal, competing for the second time after reaching the quarter-finals in 2002. It is the first time three Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland and Sweden) and four Arab nations (Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia) have qualified for the World Cup.

Notable countries that failed to qualify include four-time champions Italy (for the first time since 1958) and three-time runner-up Netherlands. Four reigning continental champions failed to qualify: 2017 Africa Cup of Nations winner Cameroon, two-time Copa América champion and 2017 Confederations Cup runner-up Chile, 2016 OFC Nations Cup winner New Zealand, and 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup champion United States (for the first time since 1986). The other notable qualifying streaks broken were for Ghana and Ivory Coast, who had both made the previous three tournaments.

Draw

The draw was held on 1 December 2017, at 18:00 MSK, at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow. The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four.

For the draw, the teams were allocated to four pots based on the FIFA World Rankings of October 2017. Pot 1 contained the hosts Russia (who were automatically assigned to Position A1) and the best seven teams, Pot 2 contained the next best eight teams, and so on for Pots 3 and 4. This was different from previous draws, where only Pot 1 was based on FIFA Rankings while the remaining pots were based on geographical considerations. However, still retained was the fact that teams from the same confederation were not drawn against each other for the group stage, except for UEFA where each group contained up to two teams.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Russia (65) (hosts)  Germany (1)  Brazil (2)  Portugal (3)  Argentina (4)  Belgium (5)  Poland (6)  France (7)	Spain (8)  Peru (10)   Switzerland (11)  England (12)  Colombia (13)  Mexico (16)  Uruguay (17)  Croatia (18)	Denmark (19)  Iceland (21)  Costa Rica (22)  Sweden (25)  Tunisia (28)  Egypt (30)  Senegal (32)  Iran (34)	Serbia (38)  Nigeria (41)  Australia (43)  Japan (44)  Morocco (48)  Panama (49)  South Korea (62)  Saudi Arabia (63)

Squads

Each team must first name a preliminary squad of 30 players. From the preliminary squad, the team must name a final squad of 23 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers) by the FIFA deadline. Players in the final squad may be replaced due to serious injury up to 24 hours prior to kickoff of the team’s first match, where the replacement players do not need to be in the preliminary squad.

For players named in the 30-player preliminary squad, there is a mandatory rest period between 21 and 27 May 2018, except for those involved in the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final played on 26 May.

In February 2018, it was announced that the number of players to be named in the provisional squads would be increased from 30 to 35.

Referees

On 29 March 2018, FIFA released the list of 36 referees and 63 assistant referees selected to oversee matches. On 30 April 2018, FIFA released the list of 13 video assistant referees, who will solely act as VARs in the tournament.

Venues

Russia proposed the following host cities: Kaliningrad, Kazan, Krasnodar, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Saint Petersburg, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, Volgograd, Yaroslavl, and Yekaterinburg. All the cities are in or just outside European Russia to reduce travel time for the teams in the huge country. The bid evaluation report stated: “The Russian bid proposes 13 host cities and 16 stadiums, thus exceeding FIFA’s minimum requirement. Three of the 16 stadiums would be renovated, and 13 would be newly constructed.”

In October 2011, Russia decreased the number of stadiums from 16 to 14. Construction of the proposed Podolsk stadium in the Moscow region was cancelled by the regional government, and also in the capital, Otkrytiye Arena was competing with Dynamo Stadium over which would be constructed first.

The final choice of host cities was announced on 29 September 2012. The number of cities was further reduced to 11 and number of stadiums to 12 as Krasnodar and Yaroslavl were dropped from the final list. Of the 12 stadiums used for the tournament, 3 (Luzhniki, Yekaterinburg and Sochi) have been extensively renovated and the other 9 stadiums to be used are brand new; $11.8 billion has been spent on hosting the tournament.

Sepp Blatter stated in July 2014 that due to concerns over the completion of venues in Russia, the number of venues for the tournament may be reduced from 12 to 10. He also said, “We are not going to be in a situation, as is the case of one, two or even three stadiums in South Africa, where it is a problem of what you do with these stadiums”.

In October 2014, on their first official visit to Russia, FIFA’s inspection committee and its head Chris Unger visited St Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan and both Moscow venues. They were satisfied with the progress.

On 8 October 2015, FIFA and the Local Organising Committee agreed on the official names of the stadiums used during the tournament.

Of the 12 venues used, the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and the Saint Petersburg Stadium (the two largest stadiums in Russia) will be used most, with 7 matches being played at each of these stadiums. Sochi, Kazan, Nizhny Novogrod and Samara will host 6 matches including one quarter-final match apiece, and the Otkrytiye Stadium in Moscow and Rostov-on-Don will host 5 matches apiece including one round of 16 match each. Volgograd, Kaliningrad, Yekaterinburg and Saransk will host 4 matches each and none of these cities will host any knockout stage games.

Moscow		Saint Petersburg	Sochi
Luzhniki Stadium	Otkritie Arena (Spartak Stadium)	Krestovsky Stadium (Saint Petersburg Stadium)	Fisht Olympic Stadium (Fisht Stadium)
Capacity: 81,000	Capacity: 45,360	Capacity: 68,134	Capacity: 47,659
Samara	Moscow Saint Petersburg Kaliningrad Nizhny Novgorod Kazan Samara Volgograd Saransk Sochi Rostov-on-Don Yekaterinburg		Kazan
Cosmos Arena (Samara Arena)			Kazan Arena
Capacity: 44,918			Capacity: 45,379
Rostov-on-Don			Volgograd
Rostov Arena			Volgograd Arena
Capacity: 45,000			Capacity: 45,568
Nizhny Novgorod	Saransk	Yekaterinburg	Kaliningrad
Nizhny Novgorod Stadium	Mordovia Arena	Central Stadium (Ekaterinburg Arena)	Kaliningrad Stadium
Capacity: 44,899	Capacity: 44,442	Capacity: 35,696	Capacity: 35,212

Team base camps

Base camps will be used by the 32 national squads to stay and train before and during the World Cup tournament. On 9 February 2018, FIFA announced the base camps for each participating team.

• Argentina: Bronnitsy, Moscow Oblast
• Australia: Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan
• Belgium: Krasnogorsky, Moscow Oblast
• Brazil: Sochi, Krasnodar Krai
• Colombia: Verkhneuslonsky, Republic of Tatarstan
• Costa Rica: Saint Petersburg
• Croatia: Vyborgsky, Leningrad Oblast
• Denmark: Anapa, Krasnodar Krai
• Egypt: Grozny, Chechen Republic
• England: Saint Petersburg
• France: Istra, Moscow Oblast
• Germany: Moscow
• Iceland: Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai
• Iran: Bakovka, Moscow Oblast
• Japan: Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan
• Mexico: Khimki, Moscow Oblast
• Morocco: Voronezh, Voronezh Oblast
• Nigeria: Yessentuki, Stavropol Krai
• Panama: Saransk, Republic of Mordovia
• Peru: Moscow
• Poland: Sochi, Krasnodar Krai
• Portugal: Ramenskoye, Moscow Oblast
• Russia: Khimki, Moscow Oblast
• Saudi Arabia: Saint Petersburg
• Senegal: Kaluga, Kaluga Oblast
• Serbia: Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad Oblast
• South Korea: Saint Petersburg
• Spain: Krasnodar, Krasnodar Krai
• Switzerland: Togliatti, Samara Oblast
• Sweden: Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai
• Tunisia: Pervomayskoye, Moscow Oblast
• Uruguay: Bor, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

Schedule

The full schedule was announced by FIFA on 24 July 2015 (without kick-off times, which were confirmed later). On 1 December 2017, following the final draw, six kick-off times were adjusted by FIFA. Russia was placed in position A1 in the group stage and will play in the opening match at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on 14 June against Saudi Arabia, the two lowest ranked teams of the tournament at the time of the final draw. The Luzhniki Stadium will also host the second semi-final on 11 July and the final on 15 July. The Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg will host the first semi-final on 10 July and the third place play-off on 14 July.

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the round of 16. Matches are played on a round-robin basis.

All times listed are local time.

Tiebreakers

The rankings of teams in each group are determined as follows (regulations Article 32.5)://

If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings are determined as follows:

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Russia (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Saudi Arabia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Egypt	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Uruguay	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Portugal	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Spain	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Morocco	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Iran	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Australia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Peru	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Denmark	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Argentina	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Iceland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Croatia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Nigeria	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Brazil	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Switzerland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Costa Rica	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Serbia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Mexico	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Sweden	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	South Korea	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group G

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Belgium	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Panama	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Tunisia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	England	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Group H

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Poland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Senegal	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Colombia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Japan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Knockout stage

In the knockout stages, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time is played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winners.

If a match goes into extra time, each team will be allowed to make a fourth substitution, the first time this has been allowed in a FIFA World Cup tournament.

Bracket

Prize money of 2018 FIFA World Cup

Prize money amounts were announced in October 2017.

Marketing

Branding

The tournament logo was unveiled on 28 October 2014 by cosmonauts at the International Space Station and then projected onto Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre during an evening television programme. Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that the logo was inspired by “Russia’s rich artistic tradition and its history of bold achievement and innovation”, and FIFA President Sepp Blatter stated that it reflected the “heart and soul” of the country. For the branding, a typeface called Dusha (from Душа, Russian for soul) was created by Portuguese design agency Brandia Central in 2014.

Mascot

The official FIFA World Cup mascot for the 2018 tournament, a wolf named Zabivaka (“the one who scores” in Russian), was unveiled on 21 October 2016. Representing an anthropomorphic wolf with brown and white wool T-shirt with the words “RUSSIA 2018” and orange sport glasses. The combination of white, blue and red T-shirt and shorts are the national colors of the Russian team. The student designer is Ekaterina Bocharova, and the mascot was selected by Internet voting.

The election results were announced on 22 October 2016, in the Evening Urgant on Channel One Russia. Wolf, named Zabivaka, scored 53% of the vote, ahead of Tiger (27%). Cat, with 20% of the vote, was third. More than 1 million people participated in the voting, which took place during September 2016 on the FIFA platforms, as well as during the live broadcast on Channel One, where the results of the creative competition were announced.

2018 FIFA World Cup Ticketing

The first phase of ticket sales started on 14 September 2017, 12:00 Moscow Time, and lasted until 12 October 2017. The general visa policy of Russia will not apply to the World Cup participants and fans, who will be able to visit Russia without a visa right before and during the competition regardless of their citizenship. Fans attending the matches will be required to avail of a FAN ID.

In April 6, 2018, the design of the ticket was unveiled. The ticket design contain security features such as a barcode, a hologram next to the stadium sector map, and the name of the ticketholder.

Match ball

The official match ball of the 2018 World Cup is called “Telstar 18” and is based on the name and design of the first Adidas World Cup ball from 1970. It was introduced on November 9, 2017.

Merchandise

On April 30, 2018, EA announced a free expansion for FIFA 18 based on the 2018 FIFA World Cup, featuring all 32 participating teams and all 12 stadiums used at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Preparations and costs

The Russian Government has earmarked a budget of around 20 billion dollars which was later slashed to 10 billion dollars for the preparations of the World Cup of which half is spent on transport infrastructure. A special emphasis was made on airports, with many of those in the host cities were renovated and modernised. In Samara, new tram lines were laid. The city of Saransk got two new hotels, Mercure Saransk Centre and Four Points by Sheraton Saransk as well as few other smaller accommodation facilities.

Controversies

Allegations of corruption in the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups caused threats from England’s FA to boycott the tournament. FIFA appointed Michael J. Garcia, a US attorney, to investigate and produce a report on the corruption allegations. Although the report was never published, FIFA released a 42-page summary of its findings as determined by German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert. Eckert’s summary cleared Russia and Qatar of any wrongdoing, but was denounced by critics as a whitewash. Garcia criticised the summary as being “materially incomplete” with “erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions”, and appealed to FIFA’s Appeal Committee. The committee declined to hear his appeal, so Garcia resigned in protest of FIFA’s conduct, citing a “lack of leadership” and lack of confidence in the independence of Eckert.

On 3 June 2015, the FBI confirmed that the federal authorities were investigating the bidding and awarding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. In an interview published on 7 June 2015, Domenico Scala, the head of FIFA’s Audit And Compliance Committee, stated that “should there be evidence that the awards to Qatar and Russia came only because of bought votes, then the awards could be cancelled”.

Due to the financial crisis in the Russian economy, in June 2015 a government decree cut the budget by $560 million, to a total of $11.8 billion. The budget for the preparations was cut a few times, but in 2017 were again risen by $600 million to $11.8 billion.

After Morocco qualified for the tournament with a 2–0 victory over Ivory Coast, the celebrations by the Moroccan community in Brussels turned into a riot with cars burnt, shops looted by some 300 rioters and 20 police officers injured. Firefighters sent to put out the fires were also attacked by the rioters.

Doping in Russia

Russia have the most (41) Olympic medals stripped for doping violations – the most of any country, four times the number of the runner-up and nearly a third of the global total. From 2011 to 2015, more than a thousand Russian competitors in various sports, including summer, winter and Paralympic sports, benefited from a cover-up. 33 footballers who are alleged to be part of the steroid program are listed in the McLaren Report.

On 5 December 2017, the IOC announced that Russia is not allowed to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Russian Football Union Vitaly Mutko was banned for life from future Olympic Games for his role in the doping conspiracy.

On 22 December 2017, it was reported that FIFA fired a doctor who had been investigating doping in Russian football.

Response to Skripal poisoning

In response to the March 2018 poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced that no British ministers or members of the royal family would attend the World Cup, and issued a warning to any travelling England fans. Furthermore, Iceland has decided to diplomatically boycott the Russia-held 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Russia responded to the comments from the UK Parliament claiming that “the west are trying to deny Russia the World Cup”.

Terrorist threats

Late in March 2018, ISIS made a threat that they would bomb (primarily England) fans via drones. Information came to light after ISIS members posted video clips and photos on an encrypted app, Telegram. Though originally, threats started in October 2017, when a pro-ISIS page posted a picture of Argentina star, Lionel Messi, seemingly in a jail cell with blood on his face and a mock up of Nikes tagline “Just Do It” replaced with “Just Terrorism”.

Broadcasting rights

FIFA, through several companies, sold the broadcasting rights for the 2018 FIFA World Cup to various local broadcasters.

In the United States, the 2018 World Cup will be the first men’s World Cup whose rights will be held by Fox Sports. The elimination of the U.S. national team in qualifying led to concerns that U.S. interest and viewership of this World Cup would be reduced (particularly “casual” viewers interested in the U.S. team), especially noting how much Fox paid for the rights, and that U.S. games at the 2014 World Cup peaked at 16.5 million viewers. During a launch event prior to the elimination, Fox stated that it had planned to place a secondary focus on the Mexican team in its coverage to take advantage of their popularity in the U.S.; the network stated that it still committed to broadcasting a significant amount of coverage for the tournament.

In February 2018, Ukrainian rightsholder UA:PBC stated that it would not broadcast the World Cup. This came in the wake of growing boycotts of the tournament among the Ukraine Football Federation and sports minister Ihor Zhdanov.

Sponsorship

Referance : wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup

World War II (often abbreviated to WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. The vast majority of the world’s countries—including all of the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most global World War II in history; it directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of total war, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of which were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, biological and chemical warfare, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

The Empire of Japan aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the Republic of China in 1937, but the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939, the day of the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the subsequent declarations of World War II on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. The war continued primarily between the European Axis powers and the coalition of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, with campaigns including the North Africa and East Africa campaigns, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz bombing campaign, and the Balkan Campaign, as well as the long-running Battle of the Atlantic. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history, which trapped the major part of the Axis military forces into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific.

The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, and Germany and Italy were defeated in North Africa and then, decisively, at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. In 1943, with a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy which brought about Italian surrender, and Allied victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands.

The war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, Japan formally surrendered on 2 September 1945. Thus ended the World War II in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies.

World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States—became the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Africa and Asia began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and to create a common identity.

Chronology

The start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland; the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of World War II in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931.

Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and the two wars merged in 1941. This article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939.

The exact date of the war’s end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the World War II ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945 (V-J Day), rather than the formal surrender of Japan, which was on 2 September 1945. A peace treaty with Japan was signed in 1951. A treaty regarding Germany’s future allowed the reunification of East and West Germany to take place in 1990 and resolved other post-World War II issues.

World War II Background 

Europe

World War I had radically altered the political European map, with the defeat of the Central Powers—including Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire—and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, which eventually led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World War I, such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania and Greece, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman and Russian Empires.

To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was created during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The organisation’s primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military and naval disarmament, and settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration.

Despite strong pacifist sentiment after World War I, its aftermath still caused irredentist and revanchist nationalism in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses incurred by the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all of its overseas possessions, while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country’s armed forces.

The German Empire was dissolved in the German Revolution of 1918–1919, and a democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic, was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by Britain and France to secure Italian entrance into the World War II were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising the creation of a “New Roman Empire”.

Adolf Hitler, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of the world order, and soon began a massive rearmament campaign. Meanwhile, France, to secure its alliance, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription.

To contain Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front in April 1935; however, that June, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany’s goals of capturing vast areas of Eastern Europe, drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect though, the Franco-Soviet pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year.

Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936, encountering little opposition. In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome–Berlin Axis. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy would join in the following year.

Asia

The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese Communist Party allies and new regional warlords. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan, which had long sought influence in China as the first step of what its government saw as the country’s right to rule Asia, used the Mukden Incident as a pretext to launch an invasion of Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo.

Too weak to resist Japan, China appealed to the League of Nations for help. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until the Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan. After the 1936 Xi’an Incident, the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan.

Pre-war events

Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)

The Second Italo–Ethiopian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with the invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia) by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d’Italia), which was launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. The World War II resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of the League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did nothing when the former clearly violated the League’s Article X. Germany was the only major European nation to openly support the invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany’s goal of absorbing Austria.

Spanish Civil War (1936–39)

The bombing of Guernica in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, sparked Europe-wide fears that the next war would be based on bombing of cities with very high civilian casualties

When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to the Nationalist rebels, led by General Francisco Franco. The Soviet Union supported the existing government, the Spanish Republic. Over 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades, also fought against the Nationalists. Both Germany and the USSR used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War II but generally favoured the Axis. His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front.

Japanese invasion of China (1937)

In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Peking after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China’s prior co-operation with Germany. From September to November, the Japanese attacked Taiyuan, as well as engaging the Kuomintang Army around Xinkou and Communist forces in Pingxingguan. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but, after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese.

In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan, but the city was taken by October. Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the World War II.

Soviet–Japanese border conflicts

In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People’s Republic. The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron, which emphasised Japan’s expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. With the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets, this policy would prove difficult to maintain. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed a Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron, promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward, eventually leading to its World War II with the United States and the Western Allies.

European occupations and agreements

In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers. Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population; and soon Britain and France followed the counsel of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement, which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary and Poland annexed Czechoslovakia’s Zaolzie region.

Although all of Germany’s stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish “war-mongers” and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state, the Slovak Republic. Hitler also delivered the 20 March 1939 ultimatum to Lithuania, forcing the concession of the Klaipėda Region.

Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig, Britain and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to Romania and Greece. Shortly after the Franco-British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel. Hitler accused Britain and Poland of trying to “encircle” Germany and renounced the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact.

In August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression treaty with a secret protocol. The parties gave each other rights to “spheres of influence” (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia for the USSR). It also raised the question of continuing Polish independence. The agreement assured that after the attack of Poland Germany would not have to face the prospect of a two-front war, as it had in World War I.

The situation reached a general crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. In a private meeting with the Italian foreign minister Count Ciano, Hitler asserted that Poland was a “doubtful neutral” that needed to either yield to his demands or be “liquidated” to prevent it from drawing off German troops in the future “unavoidable” war with the Western democracies. He did not believe Britain or France would intervene in the conflict. On 23 August Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that Britain had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it.

In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which only served as a pretext to worsen relations. On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig, and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the German minority would vote on secession. The Poles refused to comply with the German demands and on the night of 30–31 August in a violent meeting with the British ambassador Neville Henderson, Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected.

Course of the war

War breaks out in Europe (1939–40)

On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland under the false pretext that the Poles had carried out a series of sabotage operations against German targets near the border. Two days later, on 3 September, after a British ultimatum to Germany to cease military operations was ignored, Britain and France, followed by the fully independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth—Australia (3 September), Canada (10 September), New Zealand (3 September), and South Africa (6 September)—declared World War II on Germany. However, initially the alliance provided limited direct military support to Poland, consisting of a cautious, half-hearted French probe into the Saarland. The Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany, which aimed to damage the country’s economy and war effort. Germany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which was to later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic.

On 17 September 1939, after signing a cease-fire with Japan, the Soviets invaded Poland from the east. The Polish army was defeated and Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on 27 September with final pockets of resistance surrendering on 6 October. Poland’s territory was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union, with Lithuania and Slovakia also receiving small shares. After the defeat of Poland’s armed forces, the Polish resistance established an Underground State and a partisan Home Army. About 100,000 Polish military personnel were evacuated to Romania and the Baltic countries; many of these soldiers later fought against the Germans in other theatres of the war. Poland’s Enigma codebreakers were also evacuated to France.

On 6 October, Hitler made a public peace overture to Britain and France, but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. Chamberlain rejected this on 12 October, saying “Past experience has shown that no reliance can be placed upon the promises of the present German Government.” After this rejection Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France, but bad weather forced repeated postponements until the spring of 1940.

After signing the German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation, the Soviet Union forced the Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—to allow it to station Soviet troops in their countries under pacts of “mutual assistance”. Finland rejected territorial demands, prompting a Soviet invasion in November 1939. The resulting Winter War ended in March 1940 with Finnish concessions. Britain and France, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to its entering the World War II on the side of the Germans, responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting the USSR’s expulsion from the League of Nations.

In June 1940, the Soviet Union forcibly annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and the disputed Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Hertza. Meanwhile, Nazi-Soviet political rapprochement and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for World War II.

Western Europe (1940–41)

In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were attempting to cut off by unilaterally mining neutral Norwegian waters. Denmark capitulated after a few hours, and despite Allied support, during which the important harbour of Narvik temporarily was recaptured from the Germans, Norway was conquered within two months. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, with Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940.

Germany launched an offensive against France and, adhering to the Manstein Plan also attacked the neutral nations of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg on 10 May 1940. That same day British forces landed in Iceland and the Faroes to preempt a possible German invasion of the islands. The US, in close co-operation with the Danish envoy to Washington D.C., agreed to protect Greenland, laying the political framework for the formal establishment of bases in April 1941. The Netherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days and weeks, respectively. The French-fortified Maginot Line and the main body of the Allied forces which had moved into Belgium were circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded Ardennes region, mistakenly perceived by Allied planners as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. As a result, the bulk of the Allied armies found themselves trapped in an encirclement and were beaten. The majority were taken prisoner, whilst over 300,000, mostly British and French, were evacuated from the continent at Dunkirk by early June, although abandoning almost all of their equipment.

On 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom. Paris fell to the Germans on 14 June and eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany and was soon divided into German and Italian occupation zones, and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime, which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet but the British feared the Germans would seize it, so on 3 July, the British attacked it.

The Battle of Britain began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours. On 19 July, Hitler again publicly offered to end the World War II , saying he had no desire to destroy the British Empire. The United Kingdom rejected this ultimatum. The main German air superiority campaign started in August but failed to defeat RAF Fighter Command, and a proposed invasion was postponed indefinitely on 17 September. The German strategic bombing offensive intensified as night attacks on London and other cities in the Blitz, but largely failed to disrupt the British war effort.

Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic. The British scored a significant victory on 27 May 1941 by sinking the German battleship Bismarck. Perhaps most importantly, during the Battle of Britain the Royal Air Force had successfully resisted the Luftwaffe’s assault, and the German bombing campaign largely ended in May 1941.

Throughout this period, the neutral United States took measures to assist China and the Western Allies. In November 1939, the American Neutrality Act was amended to allow “cash and carry” purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased. In September, the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases. Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention into the conflict well into 1941.

Although Roosevelt had promised to keep the United States out of the World War II , he nevertheless took concrete steps to prepare for war. In December 1940 he accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out negotiations as useless, calling for the US to become an “arsenal of democracy” and promoted the passage of Lend-Lease aid to support the British war effort. In January 1941 secret high level staff talks with the British began for the purposes of determining how to defeat Germany should the US enter the war. They decided on a number of offensive policies, including an air offensive, the “early elimination” of Italy, raids, support of resistance groups, and the capture of positions to launch an offensive against Germany.

At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact united Japan, Italy and Germany to formalise the Axis Powers. The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country, with the exception of the Soviet Union, not in the World War II which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia and Romania joined the Tripartite Pact. Romania would make a major contribution (as did Hungary) to the Axis war against the USSR, partially to recapture territory ceded to the USSR, partially to pursue its leader Ion Antonescu’s desire to combat communism.

Mediterranean (1940–41)

Italy began operations in the Mediterranean, initiating a siege of Malta in June, conquering British Somaliland in August, and making an incursion into British-held Egypt in September 1940. In October 1940, Italy started the Greco-Italian War because of Mussolini’s jealousy of Hitler’s success but within days was repulsed with few territorial gains and a stalemate soon occurred. The United Kingdom responded to Greek requests for assistance by sending troops to Crete and providing air support to Greece. Hitler decided that when the weather improved he would take action against Greece to assist the Italians and prevent the British from gaining a foothold in the Balkans, to strike against the British naval dominance of the Mediterranean, and to secure his hold on Romanian oil.

In December 1940, British Commonwealth forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa. The offensive in North Africa was highly successful and by early February 1941 Italy had lost control of eastern Libya and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission by a carrier attack at Taranto, and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan.

The Germans soon intervened to assist Italy. Hitler sent German forces to Libya in February, and by the end of March the Axis had launched an offensive which drove back the Commonwealth forces which had been weakened to support Greece. In under a month, Commonwealth forces were pushed back into Egypt with the exception of the besieged port of Tobruk that fell later. The Commonwealth attempted to dislodge Axis forces in May and again in June, but failed on both occasions.

By late March 1941, following Bulgaria’s signing of the Tripartite Pact, the Germans were in position to intervene in Greece. Plans were changed, however, because of developments in neighbouring Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav government had signed the Tripartite Pact on 25 March, only to be overthrown two days later by a British-encouraged coup. Hitler viewed the new regime as hostile and immediately decided to eliminate it. On 6 April Germany simultaneously invaded both Yugoslavia and Greece, making rapid progress and forcing both nations to surrender within the month. The British were driven from the Balkans after Germany conquered the Greek island of Crete by the end of May. Although the Axis victory was swift, bitter partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, which continued until the end of the World War II.

The Allies did have some successes during this time. In the Middle East, Commonwealth forces first quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria, then, with the assistance of the Free French, invaded Syria and Lebanon to prevent further such occurrences.

Axis attack on the USSR (1941)

With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border.

Hitler believed that Britain’s refusal to end the World War II was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later. He therefore decided to try to strengthen Germany’s relations with the Soviets, or failing that, to attack and eliminate them as a factor. In November 1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the Tripartite Pact. The Soviets showed some interest, but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued the directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union.

On 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, with Germany accusing the Soviets of plotting against them. They were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary. The primary targets of this surprise offensive were the Baltic region, Moscow and Ukraine, with the ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, from the Caspian to the White Seas. Hitler’s objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate Lebensraum (“living space”) by dispossessing the native population and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany’s remaining rivals. World War II, World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II World War II .

Although the Red Army was preparing for strategic counter-offensives before the World War II , Barbarossa forced the Soviet supreme command to adopt a strategic defence. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By the middle of August, however, the German Army High Command decided to suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted Army Group Centre, and to divert the 2nd Panzer Group to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad. The Kiev offensive was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made possible further advance into Crimea and industrially developed Eastern Ukraine (the First Battle of Kharkov).

The diversion of three quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to the Eastern Front prompted Britain to reconsider its grand strategy. In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany The British and Soviets invaded neutral Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and Iran’s oil fields. In August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter.

By October Axis operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges of Leningrad and Sevastopol continuing. A major offensive against Moscow was renewed; after two months of fierce battles in increasingly harsh weather the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops were forced to suspend their offensive. Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The blitzkrieg phase of the World War II in Europe had ended.

By early December, freshly mobilised reserves allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops. This, as well as intelligence data which established that a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be sufficient to deter any attack by the Japanese Kwantung Army, allowed the Soviets to begin a massive counter-offensive that started on 5 December all along the front and pushed German troops 100–250 kilometres (62–155 mi) west.

World War II breaks out in the Pacific (1941)

In 1939, the United States had renounced its trade treaty with Japan; and, beginning with an aviation gasoline ban in July 1940, Japan became subject to increasing economic pressure. During this time, Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by late September. Despite several offensives by both sides, the World War II between China and Japan was stalemated by 1940. To increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war with the Western powers, Japan invaded and occupied northern Indochina. Afterwards, the United States embargoed iron, steel and mechanical parts against Japan. Other sanctions soon followed.

Chinese nationalist forces launched a large-scale counter-offensive in early 1940. In August, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists. Continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in armed clashes in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation. In March, the Japanese 11th army attacked the headquarters of the Chinese 19th army but was repulsed during Battle of Shanggao. In September, Japan attempted to take the city of Changsha again and clashed with Chinese nationalist forces.

German successes in Europe encouraged Japan to increase pressure on European governments in Southeast Asia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan some oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies, but negotiations for additional access to their resources ended in failure in June 1941. In July 1941 Japan sent troops to southern Indochina, thus threatening British and Dutch possessions in the Far East. The United States, United Kingdom and other Western governments reacted to this move with a freeze on Japanese assets and a total oil embargo. At the same time, Japan was planning an invasion of the Soviet Far East, intending to capitalise off the German invasion in the west, but abandoned the operation after the sanctions.

Since early 1941 the United States and Japan had been engaged in negotiations in an attempt to improve their strained relations and end the World War II in China. During these negotiations Japan advanced a number of proposals which were dismissed by the Americans as inadequate. At the same time the US, Britain, and the Netherlands engaged in secret discussions for the joint defence of their territories, in the event of a Japanese attack against any of them. Roosevelt reinforced the Philippines (an American protectorate scheduled for independence in 1946) and warned Japan that the US would react to Japanese attacks against any “neighboring countries”.

Frustrated at the lack of progress and feeling the pinch of the American-British-Dutch sanctions, Japan prepared for war. On 20 November a new government under Hideki Tojo presented an interim proposal as its final offer. It called for the end of American aid to China and for the supply of oil and other resources to Japan. In exchange Japan promised not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia and to withdraw its forces from southern Indochina. The American counter-proposal of 26 November required that Japan evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with all Pacific powers. That meant Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in China, or seizing the natural resources it needed in the Dutch East Indies by force; the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.

Japan planned to rapidly seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific; the Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive World War II . To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter it was further planned to neutralise the United States Pacific Fleet and the American military presence in the Philippines from the outset. On 7 December 1941 (8 December in Asian time zones), Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. These included an attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, landings in Thailand and Malaya and the battle of Hong Kong.

These attacks led the United States, United Kingdom, China, Australia and several other states to formally declare war on Japan, whereas the Soviet Union, being heavily involved in large-scale hostilities with European Axis countries, maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan. Germany, followed by the other Axis states, declared World War II on the United States in solidarity with Japan, citing as justification the American attacks on German war vessels that had been ordered by Roosevelt.

Axis advance stalls (1942–43)

On 1 January 1942, the Allied Big Four—the Soviet Union, China, Britain and the United States—and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the Declaration by United Nations, thereby affirming the Atlantic Charter, and agreeing to not to sign a separate peace with the Axis powers.

During 1942, Allied officials debated on the appropriate grand strategy to pursue. All agreed that defeating Germany was the primary objective. The Americans favoured a straightforward, large-scale attack on Germany through France. The Soviets were also demanding a second front. The British, on the other hand, argued that military operations should target peripheral areas to wear out German strength, leading to increasing demoralisation, and bolster resistance forces. Germany itself would be subject to a heavy bombing campaign. An offensive against Germany would then be launched primarily by Allied armour without using large-scale armies. Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in France was infeasible in 1942 and they should instead focus on driving the Axis out of North Africa.

At the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, the Allies reiterated the statements issued in the 1942 Declaration by the United Nations, and demanded the unconditional surrender of their enemies. The British and Americans agreed to continue to press the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediterranean supply routes. Although the British argued for further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the World War II, in May 1943, the Americans extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean to an invasion of the Italian mainland and to invade France in 1944.

Pacific (1942–43)

By the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally Thailand had almost fully conquered Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, and Rabaul, inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners. Despite stubborn resistance by Filipino and US forces, the Philippine Commonwealth was eventually captured in May 1942, forcing its government into exile. On 16 April, in Burma, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during the Battle of Yenangyaung and rescued by the Chinese 38th Division. Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the South China Sea, Java Sea and Indian Ocean, and bombed the Allied naval base at Darwin, Australia. In January 1942, the only Allied success against Japan was a Chinese victory at Changsha. These easy victories over unprepared US and European opponents left Japan overconfident, as well as overextended.

In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to capture Port Moresby by amphibious assault and thus sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The planned invasion was thwarted when an Allied task force, centred on two American fleet carriers, fought Japanese naval forces to a draw in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Japan’s next plan, motivated by the earlier Doolittle Raid, was to seize Midway Atoll and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to occupy the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. In mid-May, Japan started the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign in China, with the goal of inflicting retribution on the Chinese who aided the surviving American airmen in the Doolittle Raid by destroying air bases and fighting against the Chinese 23rd and 32nd Army Groups. In early June, Japan put its operations into action but the Americans, having broken Japanese naval codes in late May, were fully aware of plans and order of battle, and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory at Midway over the Imperial Japanese Navy.

With its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan chose to focus on a belated attempt to capture Port Moresby by an overland campaign in the Territory of Papua. The Americans planned a counter-attack against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily Guadalcanal, as a first step towards capturing Rabaul, the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia.

Both plans started in July, but by mid-September, the Battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the northern part of the island, where they faced Australian and United States troops in the Battle of Buna-Gona. Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops. In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first, an offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942, went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May 1943. The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese front-lines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved mixed results.

Eastern Front (1942–43)

Despite considerable losses, in early 1942 Germany and its allies stopped a major Soviet offensive in central and southern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they had achieved during the previous year. In May the Germans defeated Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov, and then launched their main summer offensive against southern Russia in June 1942, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and occupy Kuban steppe, while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A advanced to the lower Don River and struck south-east to the Caucasus, while Army Group B headed towards the Volga River. The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad on the Volga.

By mid-November, the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter street fighting when the Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad and an assault on the Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the latter failed disastrously. By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been forced to surrender, and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another attack on Kharkov, creating a salient in their front line around the Soviet city of Kursk.

Western Europe/Atlantic and Mediterranean (1942–43)

Exploiting poor American naval command decisions, the German navy ravaged Allied shipping off the American Atlantic coast. By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive, Operation Crusader, in North Africa, and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made. In North Africa, the Germans launched an offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala Line by early February, followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives. Concerns the Japanese might use bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in early May 1942. An Axis offensive in Libya forced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt until Axis forces were stopped at El Alamein. On the Continent, raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets, culminating in the disastrous Dieppe Raid, demonstrated the Western Allies’ inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.

In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein and, at a high cost, managed to deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta. A few months later, the Allies commenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya. This attack was followed up shortly after by Anglo-American landings in French North Africa, which resulted in the region joining the Allies. Hitler responded to the French colony’s defection by ordering the occupation of Vichy France; although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to scuttle their fleet to prevent its capture by German forces. The now pincered Axis forces in Africa withdrew into Tunisia, which was conquered by the Allies in May 1943.

In early 1943 the British and Americans began the Combined Bomber Offensive, a strategic bombing campaign against Germany. The goals were to disrupt the German World War II economy, reduce German morale, and “de-house” the civilian population.

Allies gain momentum (1943–44)

After the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Canadian and US forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians. Soon after, the US, with support from Australian and New Zealand forces, began major operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands, and breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives, and had also neutralised the major Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. In April, the Allies launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea. In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for large offensives in central Russia. On 4 July 1943, Germany attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets’ deeply echeloned and well-constructed defences and, for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled the operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success. This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies’ invasion of Sicily launched on 9 July which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month. Also, in July 1943 the British firebombed Hamburg killing over 40,000 people.

On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives, thereby dispelling any chance of German victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk marked the end of German superiority, giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front. The Germans tried to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortified Panther–Wotan line, but the Soviets broke through it at Smolensk and by the Lower Dnieper Offensives.

On 3 September 1943, the Western Allies invaded the Italian mainland, following Italy’s armistice with the Allies. Germany with the help of fascists responded by disarming Italian forces that were in many places without superior orders, seizing military control of Italian areas, and creating a series of defensive lines. German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon established a new client state in German-occupied Italy named the Italian Social Republic, causing an Italian civil war. The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November.

German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By May 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective, the resulting sizeable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign. In November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran. The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory and the military planning for the Burma Campaign, while the latter included agreement that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany’s defeat.

From November 1943, during the seven-week Battle of Changde, the Chinese forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition, while awaiting Allied relief. In January 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassino and tried to outflank it with landings at Anzio. By the end of January, a major Soviet offensive expelled German forces from the Leningrad region, ending the longest and most lethal siege in history.

The following Soviet offensive was halted on the pre-war Estonian border by the German Army Group North aided by Estonians hoping to re-establish national independence. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the Baltic Sea region. By late May 1944, the Soviets had liberated Crimea, largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made incursions into Romania, which were repulsed by the Axis troops. The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, on 4 June, Rome was captured.

The Allies had mixed success in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, an operation against British positions in Assam, India, and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at Imphal and Kohima. In May 1944, British forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma, and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese troops in Myitkyina. The second Japanese invasion of China aimed to destroy China’s main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields. By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of Henan and begun a new attack on Changsha in the Hunan province.

Allies close in (1944)

On 6 June 1944 (known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure, the Western Allies invaded northern France. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also attacked southern France. These landings were successful, and led to the defeat of the German Army units in France. Paris was liberated by the local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces, both led by General Charles de Gaulle, on 25 August and the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded by a major airborne operation in the Netherlands failed. After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, but failed to cross the Ruhr river in a large offensive. In Italy, Allied advance also slowed due to the last major German defensive line.

On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus (“Operation Bagration”) that destroyed the German Army Group Centre almost completely. Soon after that another Soviet strategic offensive forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The Soviet advance prompted resistance forces in Poland to initiate several uprisings against the German occupation. However, the largest of these in Warsaw, where German soldiers massacred 200,000 civilians, and a national uprising in Slovakia, did not receive Soviet support and were subsequently suppressed by the Germans. The Red Army’s strategic offensive in eastern Romania cut off and destroyed the considerable German troops there and triggered a successful coup d’état in Romania and in Bulgaria, followed by those countries’ shift to the Allied side.

In September 1944, Soviet troops advanced into Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of German Army Groups E and F in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off. By this point, the Communist-led Partisans under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who had led an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and engaged in delaying efforts against German forces further south. In northern Serbia, the Red Army, with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a massive assault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in February 1945. Unlike impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, bitter Finnish resistance to the Soviet offensive in the Karelian Isthmus denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to a Soviet-Finnish armistice on relatively mild conditions, although Finland was forced to fight their former allies.

By the start of July 1944, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In September 1944, Chinese force captured the Mount Song to reopen the Burma Road. In China, the Japanese had more successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August. Soon after, they invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by mid-December.

In the Pacific, US forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944, they began their offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands, and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. These defeats led to the resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo, and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces invaded the Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history.

Axis collapse, Allied victory (1944–45)

On 16 December 1944, Germany made a last attempt on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes and along the French–German border to split the Western Allies, encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and capture their primary supply port at Antwerp to prompt a political settlement. By January, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled. In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets and Poles attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia. On 4 February, Soviet, British and US leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.

In February, the Soviets entered Silesia and Pomerania, while Western Allies entered western Germany and closed to the Rhine river. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling the German Army Group B, while the Soviets advanced to Vienna. In early April, the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across western Germany capturing Hamburg and Nuremberg, while Soviet and Polish forces stormed Berlin in late April. American and Soviet forces met at the Elbe river on 25 April. On 30 April 1945, the Reichstag was captured, signalling the military defeat of Nazi Germany.

Several changes in leadership occurred during this period. On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by Harry S. Truman. Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on 28 April. Two days later, Hitler committed suicide, and was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.

German forces surrendered in Italy on 29 April. Total and unconditional surrender was signed on 7 May, to be effective by the end of 8 May. German Army Group Centre resisted in Prague until 11 May.

In the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of April 1945. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 and recaptured Manila in March following a battle which reduced the city to ruins. Fighting continued on Luzon, Mindanao, and other islands of the Philippines until the end of the war. Meanwhile, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) were destroying strategic and populated cities and towns in Japan in an effort to destroy Japanese war industry and civilian morale. On the night of 9–10 March, USAAF B-29 bombers struck Tokyo with thousands of incendiary bombs, which killed 100,000 civilians and destroyed 16 square miles (41 km2) within a few hours. Over the next five months, the USAAF firebombed a total of 67 Japanese cities, killing 393,000 civilians and destroying 65% of built-up areas.

In May 1945, Australian troops landed in Borneo, over-running the oilfields there. British, American, and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma in March, and the British pushed on to reach Rangoon by 3 May. Chinese forces started to counterattack in Battle of West Hunan that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945. American naval and amphibious forces also moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by the end of June. At the same time, American submarines cut off Japanese imports, drastically reducing Japan’s ability to supply its overseas forces.

On 11 July, Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany, and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of all Japanese forces by Japan, specifically stating that “the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction”. During this conference, the United Kingdom held its general election, and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.

The Allies called for unconditional Japanese surrender in the Potsdam Declaration of 27 July, but the Japanese government rejected the call. In early August, the USAAF dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, invaded Japanese-held Manchuria, and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Japanese fighting force. The Red Army also captured Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On 15 August 1945, Japan surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed at Tokyo Bay on the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, ending the war.

Aftermath

Defendants at the Nuremberg trials, where the Allied forces prosecuted prominent members of the political, military, judicial and economic leadership of Nazi Germany for crimes against humanity

The Allies established occupation administrations in Austria and Germany. The former became a neutral state, non-aligned with any political bloc. The latter was divided into western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the USSR, accordingly. A denazification programme in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.

Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory. Among the eastern territories, Silesia, Neumark and most of Pomerania were taken over by Poland, East Prussia was divided between Poland and the USSR, followed by the expulsion of the 9 million Germans from these provinces, as well as the expulsion of 3 million Germans from the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia to Germany. By the 1950s, every fifth West German was a refugee from the east. The Soviet Union also took over the Polish provinces east of the Curzon line, from which 2 million Poles were expelled; north-east Romania, parts of eastern Finland, and the three Baltic states were also incorporated into the USSR.

In an effort to maintain world peace, the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as a common standard for all member nations. The great powers that were the victors of the war—France, China, Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States—became the permanent members of the UN’s Security Council. The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, between the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China in 1971, and between the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over.

Germany had been de facto divided, and two independent states, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic were created within the borders of Allied and Soviet occupation zones, accordingly. The rest of Europe was also divided into Western and Soviet spheres of influence. Most eastern and central European countries fell into the Soviet sphere, which led to establishment of Communist-led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupation authorities. As a result, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Albania became Soviet satellite states. Communist Yugoslavia conducted a fully independent policy, causing tension with the USSR.

Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact; the long period of political tensions and military competition between them, the Cold War, would be accompanied by an unprecedented arms race and proxy wars.

In Asia, the United States led the occupation of Japan and administrated Japan’s former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Korea, formerly under Japanese rule, was divided and occupied by the Soviet Union in the North and the US in the South between 1945 and 1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate government for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the Korean War.

In China, nationalist and communist forces resumed the civil war in June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People’s Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan in 1949. In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the creation of Israel marked the escalation of the Arab–Israeli conflict. While European powers attempted to retain some or all of their colonial empires, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to decolonisation.

The global economy suffered heavily from the war, although participating nations were affected differently. The US emerged much richer than any other nation; it had a baby boom and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other powers and it dominated the world economy. The UK and US pursued a policy of industrial disarmament in Western Germany in the years 1945–1948. Because of international trade interdependencies this led to European economic stagnation and delayed European recovery for several years.

Recovery began with the mid-1948 currency reform in Western Germany, and was sped up by the liberalisation of European economic policy that the Marshall Plan (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused. The post-1948 West German recovery has been called the German economic miracle. Italy also experienced an economic boom and the French economy rebounded. By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin, and although it received a quarter of the total Marshall Plan assistance, more than any other European country, continued relative economic decline for decades.

The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era. Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s. China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952.

Impact of World War II

Casualties and war crimes

Estimates for the total number of casualties in the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians. Many of the civilians died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings, disease, and starvation.

The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths.  A quarter of the people in the Soviet Union were wounded or killed. Germany sustained 5.3 million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cgRwDkP6vk

Of the total number of deaths in World War II, approximately 85 per cent—mostly Soviet and Chinese—were on the Allied side. Many of these deaths were caused by war crimes committed by German and Japanese forces in occupied territories. An estimated 11 to 17 million civilians died as a direct or as an indirect result of Nazi racist policies, including the Holocaust of around 6 million Jews, half of whom were Polish citizens, along with a further minimum 1.9 million ethnic Poles. Millions of other Slavs (including Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians), Roma, homosexuals, and other ethnic and minority groups were also killed. Hundreds of thousands (varying estimates) of ethnic Serbs, along with gypsies and Jews, were murdered by the Axis-aligned Croatian Ustaše in Yugoslavia, and retribution-related killings were committed just after the World War II ended.

In Asia and the Pacific, between 3 million and more than 10 million civilians, mostly Chinese (estimated at 7.5 million), were killed by the Japanese occupation forces. The best-known Japanese atrocity was the Nanking Massacre, in which fifty to three hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported that 2.7 million casualties occurred during the Sankō Sakusen. General Yasuji Okamura implemented the policy in Heipei and Shantung.

Axis forces employed biological and chemical weapons. The Imperial Japanese Army used a variety of such weapons during its invasion and occupation of China (see Unit 731) and in early conflicts against the Soviets. Both the Germans and Japanese tested such weapons against civilians and, sometimes on prisoners of World War II.

The Soviet Union was responsible for the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers, and the imprisonment or execution of thousands of political prisoners by the NKVD, in the Baltic states, and eastern Poland annexed by the Red Army.

The mass-bombing of cities in Europe and Asia has often been called a war crime. However, no positive or specific customary international humanitarian law with respect to aerial warfare existed before or during World War II.

Genocide, concentration camps, and slave labour

The German government led by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party was responsible for the Holocaust (killing of approximately 6 million Jews), as well as for killing of 2.7 million ethnic Poles, and 4 million others who were deemed “unworthy of life” (including the disabled and mentally ill, Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Romani) as part of a programme of deliberate extermination. Soviet POWs were kept in especially unbearable condition, and, although their extermination was not an official goal, 3.6 million of Soviet POWs out of 5.7 died in Nazi camps during the World War II.  In addition to concentration camps, death camps were created in Nazi Germany to exterminate people at an industrial scale. Nazi Germany extensively used forced labourers. About 12 million Europeans from German occupied countries were used as slave work force in German agriculture and war economy. Soviet Gulag became de facto a system of deadly camps during 1942-43, when privation and hunger caused numerous deaths of inmates, including foreign citizens of Poland and other countries occupied in 1939-40 by the USSR, as well as of the Axis POWs. By the end of the war, most Soviet POWs liberated from Nazi camps and many repatriated civilians were detained in special filtration camps where they were subjected to NKVD check, and significant part of them was sent to Gulag as real or perceived Nazi collaborators.

Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1 per cent (for American POWs, 37 per cent), seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians. While 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States were released after the surrender of Japan, the number of Chinese released was only 56.

According to historian Zhifen Ju, at least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941 by the East Asia Development Board, or Kōain, for work in mines and World War II industries. After 1942, the number reached 10 million. The US Library of Congress estimates that in Java, between 4 and 10 million rōmusha (Japanese: “manual labourers”), were forced to work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in South East Asia, and only 52,000 were repatriated to Java.

On 19 February 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, interning about 100,000 Japanese living on the West Coast. Canada had a similar programme. In addition, 14,000 German and Italian citizens who had been assessed as being security risks were also interned.

In accordance with the Allied agreement made at the Yalta Conference, millions of POWs and civilians were used as forced labour by the Soviet Union.

Occupation

In Europe, occupation came under two forms. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and the annexed portions of Czechoslovakia) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5 billion reichmarks (27.8 billion US dollars) by the end of the war, this figure does not include the sizeable plunder of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods. Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40 per cent of the income Germany collected from taxation, a figure which increased to nearly 40 per cent of total German income as the World War II went on.

In the East, the intended gains of Lebensraum were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet scorched earth policies denied resources to the German invaders. Unlike in the West, the Nazi racial policy encouraged extreme brutality against what it considered to be the “inferior people” of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by mass executions. Although resistance groups formed in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the East or the West until late 1943.

In Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, essentially a Japanese hegemony which it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples. Although Japanese forces were originally welcomed as liberators from European domination in some territories, their excessive brutality turned local public opinion against them within weeks. During Japan’s initial conquest it captured 4,000,000 barrels (640,000 m3) of oil (~5.5×105 tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces, and by 1943 was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to 50 million barrels (~6.8×106 t), 76 per cent of its 1940 output rate.

Home fronts and production

In Europe, before the outbreak of the World War II, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and British Dominions) had a 30 per cent larger population and a 30 per cent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis powers (Germany and Italy); if colonies are included, it then gives the Allies more than a 5:1 advantage in population and nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP. In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan, but only an 89 per cent higher GDP; this is reduced to three times the population and only a 38 per cent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included.

The United States provided about two-thirds of all the ordnance used by the Allies in terms of warships, transports, warplanes, artillery, tanks, trucks, and ammunition. Though the Allies’ economic and population advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies, as the World War II largely settled into one of attrition. While the Allies’ ability to out-produce the Axis is often attributed to the Allies having more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan’s reluctance to employ women in the labour force, Allied strategic bombing, and Germany’s late shift to a war economy contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted World War II, and were not equipped to do so. To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of slave labourers; Germany used about 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe, while Japan used more than 18 million people in Far East Asia.

Advances in technology and warfare

Aircraft were used for reconnaissance, as fighters, bombers, and ground-support, and each role was advanced considerably. Innovation included airlift (the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment, and personnel); and of strategic bombing (the bombing of enemy industrial and population centres to destroy the enemy’s ability to wage World War II ). Anti-aircraft weaponry also advanced, including defences such as radar and surface-to-air artillery, such as the German 88 mm gun. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneered and, though late introduction meant it had little impact, it led to jets becoming standard in air forces worldwide.

Advances were made in nearly every aspect of naval warfare, most notably with aircraft carriers and submarines. Although aeronautical warfare had relatively little success at the start of the World War II, actions at Taranto, Pearl Harbor, and the Coral Sea established the carrier as the dominant capital ship in place of the battleship.

In the Atlantic, escort carriers proved to be a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close the Mid-Atlantic gap. Carriers were also more economical than battleships because of the relatively low cost of aircraft and their not requiring to be as heavily armoured. Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the First World War, were anticipated by all sides to be important in the second. The British focused development on anti-submarine weaponry and tactics, such as sonar and convoys, while Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as the Type VII submarine and wolfpack tactics. Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the Leigh light, hedgehog, squid, and homing torpedoes proved victorious.

Land warfare changed from the static front lines of World War I to increased mobility and combined arms. The tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon. In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced than it had been during World War I, and advances continued throughout the World War II with increases in speed, armour and firepower.

At the start of the World War II, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications. This idea was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. This, along with Germany’s use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France. Many means of destroying tanks, including indirect artillery, anti-tank guns (both towed and self-propelled), mines, short-ranged infantry antitank weapons, and other tanks were used. Even with large-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the backbone of all forces, and throughout the war, most infantry were equipped similarly to World War I.

The portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the German MG34, and various submachine guns which were suited to close combat in urban and jungle settings. The assault rifle, a late World War II development incorporating many features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard postwar infantry weapon for most armed forces.

Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using large codebooks for cryptography by designing ciphering machines, the most well known being the German Enigma machine. Development of SIGINT (signals intelligence) and cryptanalysis enabled the countering process of decryption. Notable examples were the Allied decryption of Japanese naval codes and British Ultra, a pioneering method for decoding Enigma benefiting from information given to Britain by the Polish Cipher Bureau, which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the World War II. Another aspect of military intelligence was the use of deception, which the Allies used to great effect, such as in operations Mincemeat and Bodyguard. Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world’s first programmable computers (Z3, Colossus, and ENIAC), guided missiles and modern rockets, the Manhattan Project’s development of nuclear weapons, operations research and the development of artificial harbours and oil pipelines under the English Channel.

Referance: wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II

Elizabeth Olsen (born February 16, 1989) is an American actress. Her breakthrough came in 2011 when she starred in the independent thriller drama Martha Marcy May Marlene, for which she was nominated for the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, among other awards. She subsequently starred in the films Silent House (2011), Liberal Arts (2012), Oldboy (2013), Godzilla (2014), I Saw the Light (2015), Ingrid Goes West (2017), and Wind River (2017). Since 2014, Olsen has portrayed the superhero Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Early life of Elizabeth Olsen

Elizabeth Olsen was born in Sherman Oaks, California, to Jarnette “Jarnie”, a personal manager, and David “Dave” Olsen, a real estate developer and mortgage banker. She is the younger sister of twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who became noted at an early age as TV and film stars. Olsen also has an older brother, Trent, and two younger half-siblings. In 1996, Olsen’s parents divorced. The Olsens have Norwegian and English ancestry.

As a child, Elizabeth Olsen received ballet and singing lessons. She began acting at a young age, with appearances in her sisters’ films. Before the age of 11, Olsen had small roles in How the West Was Fun and the straight-to-video series The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley. Having appeared in her sisters’ videos, when she was in the fourth grade, Olsen began to go on auditions for other projects. She attended Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood, California, from kindergarten through grade 12.

After graduation, Elizabeth Olsen enrolled at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. In 2009, Olsen spent a semester studying in Moscow at the Moscow Art Theatre School through the MATS program at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG4SuYLfebY

How much money is Elizabeth Olsen worth?

Elizabeth Olsen is an American actress who has a net worth of $5 million.

Elizabeth Olsen Sisters?

Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen

Career

Elizabeth Olsen began acting when she was four years old and co-starred in six of Mary-Kate and Ashley’s productions; she also auditioned for the film Spy Kids. She almost quit acting in 2004 due to the media frenzy surrounding Mary-Kate’s eating disorder. Olsen’s breakout role came in 2011, in the film Martha Marcy May Marlene. The film, along with Olsen’s performance, received critical acclaim. Olsen was nominated for and won numerous critics awards for her portrayal of the titular character Martha, a girl suffering from delusions and paranoia after fleeing her life in a cult and returning to her family. She next appeared in the horror film remake Silent House, in which she played the role of Sarah. The film received mixed reviews, but Olsen’s performance was praised. Olsen also appeared in the music video “The Queen” by Carlotta. Olsen filmed the movie Red Lights in mid-2011, and it was released in the U.S. on July 13, 2012. She starred in Josh Radnor’s film Liberal Arts, which was released on January 22, 2012. She and Dakota Fanning starred in Very Good Girls, a 2013 release.

In January 2013, Olsen was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award. She co-starred in the 2013 American remake of the 2003 South Korean film Oldboy; she played Marie, a young social worker who developed a relationship with the protagonist, played by Josh Brolin. She played Edie Parker, Jack Kerouac’s first wife and the author of the Beat Generation memoir You’ll Be Okay, in Kill Your Darlings. Also in 2013, she portrayed the leading role in In Secret, an adaptation of Émile Zola’s 1867 classic novel Thérèse Raquin.

In 2014, Elizabeth Olsen starred in Legendary’s reboot Godzilla, opposite Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Olsen joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe playing the character of Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the 2015 sequel to The Avengers. She first appeared as the character in a mid-credits scene of the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, alongside her Godzilla co-star Taylor-Johnson, who portrayed her brother Quicksilver. She reprised the role in the 2016 film Captain America: Civil War and the 2018 sequel Avengers: Infinity War.

In September 2014, it was announced that Olsen would portray Audrey Williams, Hank Williams’s wife, manager, and duet partner in the upcoming 2015 biopic film I Saw the Light directed by Marc Abraham and starring Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams.

In January 2016, it was announced that Olsen would star alongside her Avengers: Age of Ultron co-star Jeremy Renner in Taylor Sheridan’s directorial feature film debut, Wind River. In August 2016, it was announced that she would star in Matt Spicer’s Ingrid Goes West opposite Aubrey Plaza. Both films were released in August 2017.

Personal life of Elizabeth Olsen

Olsen attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and Atlantic Theater Company and graduated in March 2013 after six years of intermittent study. Her sisters’ clothing line “Elizabeth and James” was named after her and her older brother.

Filmography

Elizabeth Olsen Movies

Year / Title / Role / Notes
2011 / Silent House / Sarah /
Martha Marcy May Marlene / Martha /
Peace, Love & Misunderstanding / Zoe /
2012 / Red Lights / Sally Owen /
Liberal Arts / Zibby /
2013 / Kill Your Darlings / Edie Parker /
Very Good Girls / Gerry /
In Secret / Thérèse Raquin /
Oldboy / Marie Sebastian /
2014 / Captain America: The Winter Soldier / Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch / Uncredited cameo
Godzilla / Elle Brody /
2015 / Avengers: Age of Ultron / Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch /
I Saw the Light / Audrey Williams /
2016 / Captain America: Civil War / Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch /
2017 / Ingrid Goes West / Taylor Sloane /
Wind River / Jane Banner /
Kodachrome / Zoe Kern /
2018 / Avengers: Infinity War / Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch /
2019 / Untitled Avengers film / Post-production

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z7bZOJV3v8

Television
Year / Title / Role / Notes
1994 / How the West Was Fun / Girl in car / Television film
2016 / Drunk History / Norma Kopp / Episode: “Siblings”
2017 / HarmonQuest / Stirrip / Episode: “The Keystone Obelisk”
2018 / Sorry for Your Loss / Leigh Gibbs / Main role, upcoming series

Video shorts
Year / Title / Role / Notes
1993 / Our First Video / Herself /
1993 / Olsen Twins Mother’s Day Special / Herself /
1994–1996 / The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley / Herself / 4 episodes

Awards and nominations
Year / Nominated work / Association / Category / Result / Refs
2011 / Martha Marcy May Marlene / Alliance of Women Film Journalists / Best Breakthrough Performance / Won
Chicago Film Critics Association / Most Promising Performer / Won
Florida Film Critics Circle / Pauline Kael Breakout Award / Won
Ghent International Film Festival / Special Mention / Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association / New Generation Award / Won
Vancouver Film Critics Circle / Best Actress / Won
Broadcast Film Critics Association / Best Actress / Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association / Best Actress / Nominated
Detroit Film Critics Society / Best Breakthrough Performance / Nominated
Gotham Independent Film Awards / Best Breakthrough Actress / Nominated
Gotham Independent Film Awards / Best Ensemble Performance / Nominated
Independent Spirit Awards / Best Female Lead / Nominated
Online Film Critics Society / Best Actress / Nominated
San Diego Film Critics / Best Actress / Nominated
Satellite Awards / Best Actress – Motion Picture / Nominated
Saturn Awards / Best Actress / Nominated
Toronto Film Critics Association / Best Actress / Nominated
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association / Best Actress / Nominated
2013 / Herself / British Academy Film Awards / BAFTA Rising Star Award / Nominated
Silent House / Fangoria Chainsaw Awards / Best Leading Actress / Won
2014 / Godzilla / Teen Choice Awards / Choice Movie: Breakout Star / Nominated
2015 / I Saw the Light / Deauville American Film Festival / Hollywood Rising Star Award / Won
Avengers: Age of Ultron / Teen Choice Awards / Choice Movie: Breakout Star / Nominated
2016 / Captain America: Civil War / Teen Choice Awards / Choice Movie: Chemistry
shared with Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie and Jeremy Renner / Nominated