History.

Origins.

Columbia was founded by James W. Rouse (1914-1996), a native of Easton, Maryland. In 1935, Rouse obtained a job in Baltimore with the Federal Housing Administration, a New Deal agency whose purpose was to promote home ownership and home construction. This position exposed Rouse to all phases of the housing industry. Later in the 1930s he co-founded a Baltimore mortgage banking business, the Moss-Rouse Company. In the 1950s his company, by then known as James W. Rouse and Company, branched out into developing shopping centers and malls. In 1957 Rouse formed Community Research and Development, Inc. (CRD) for the purpose of building, owning and operating shopping centers throughout the country. Community Research and Development, Inc., which was managed by James W. Rouse and Company, became a publicly traded company in 1961. In 1966, Community Research and Development, Inc. changed its name to The Rouse Company, after it had acquired James W. Rouse and Company in exchange for company stock.  By the early 1950s Rouse was also active in organizations whose goals were to combat blight and promote urban renewal. Along the way, he came to recognize the importance of comprehensive planning and action to address housing issues. A talented public speaker, Rouse's speeches on housing matters attracted media attention. By the mid-1950s he was espousing his belief that in order to be successful, cities had to be places where people succeeded. In a 1959 speech he declared that the purpose of cities is for people, and that the objective of city planning should be to make a city into neighborhoods where men, women, and their families can live and work, and, most importantly, grow in character, personality, religious fulfillment, brotherhood, and the capacity for joyous living. In the early 1960s, Rouse decided to develop a new model city. Rouse's ideas about what a new model city should be like were informed by a number of factors, including his personal Christian faith as well as the goal for his company to earn a profit, influences that he did not consider to be incompatible with one another. After exploring possible new city locations near Atlanta, Georgia, and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, Rouse focused his attention between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., in Howard County, Maryland.

Howard County land acquisition.

In April 1962, Mel Berman, a longtime Howard County resident who was also a member of the CRD's Board of Directors, saw a sign on Cedar Lane in Howard County advertising for sale. Berman reported the option to the CRD and a decision was made to purchase the land. This was the first of 165 land purchases made by Rouse over the next year-and-a-half. In order to keep land costs low, Jack Jones, an attorney from Rouse's firm of Piper Marbury, set up a grid system to secretly buy land through dummy corporations like the "Alaska Iron Mines Company". Some of these straw purchasers included Columbia Industrial Development Corporation, 95-32 Corporation, 95-216 Corporation, Premble, Inc., Columbia Mall, Inc., Oakland Ridge Industrial Development Corporation, and Columbia Development Corporation. Robert Moxley's firm Security Realty Company (now Security Development Group Inc), negotiated many of the land deals for Jones, becoming his best client. CRD accumulated, 10 percent of Howard County, from 140 separate owners. Rouse was turned down in financing from David Rockefeller, who had recently cancelled a planned Rouse "Village" concept called Pocantico Hills. The $19,122,622 acquisition was then funded by Rouse's former employer Connecticut General Life Insurance in October 1962 at an average price of $1,500 per acre ($0.37/m2). The town center land of Oakland Manor was purchased from Isadore Guldesky who was turned down from building high-rises on the site by Rob Moxley's brother, County Commissioner and land developer Norman E. Moxley. Sensing that he had a key property, he requested $5 million for his, signing an agreement by hand on a land plat. The competition between Rouse and Guldesky carried over to the competing Tysons Corner Center and Tysons Galleria projects, with each hiring their competitor's employees.  By late 1962, citizens had elected an all-Republican three-member council. J. Hubert Black, Charles E. Miller, and David W. Force campaigned on a slow-growth ballot, but later approved the Columbia project. The Howard County Planning Commission Chairman Wilmer Sanner declared, "if this adds to the orderly development of the county, that's what we are looking for." That July, Sanner sold the majority of his Simpsonville farm to Howard Research prior to the public announcement. In October 1963, the acquisition was revealed to the residents of Howard County, putting to rest rumors about the mysterious purchases. These had included theories that the site was to become a medical research laboratory or a giant compost heap. Despite the moniker of being a "planned city", the planning for the city occupied Rouse officials for most of 1964 after the announcement while marketing director Scott Ditch was brought from Baltimore's Cross Keys development to promote the project to community groups. In December 1964 the zoning was rejected by planning director Tom Harris Jr. for handing nearly all planning control to the developer. A media push was instituted to approve the zoning by Dorris Thompson of "The Howard County Times", Seymour Barondes of the Howard County Civic Association, and Anita Iribe of the League of Women Voters. In June 1965 zoning was approved for the project, and Howard Research and Development entered into a $37.5 million construction deed backed by the property. Development was temporarily stalled in October 1965 when James and Anna Hepding of Simpsonville sued the planning board, stating New Town zoning was a form of spot zoning benefiting a sole property owner. The case was dropped when developer Homer Gudelsky purchased the estate. Ten years later, former Councilman Charles E. Miller stated that if he could do it over again, he wouldn't have voted to approve Columbia. He felt exploited and felt the subsidized housing would become a problem for the rest of the county. Miller had been defeated in the November 1974 Howard County Council elections, in part as a result of the changed political landscape that Columbia's development brought. In early 1976, a "Columbia Flier" editorial charged that Miller was a fear-mongering reactionary who had a personal vendetta against Columbia, Rouse and Columbia residents.

Unveiling and growth.

At the unveiling on June 21, 1967, James Rouse described Columbia as a planned new city which would avoid the leap-frog and spot development threatening the county. The new city would be complete with jobs, schools, shopping, and medical services, and a range of housing choices. Property taxes from commercial development would cover the additional services with which housing would burden the county. The urban planning process for Columbia included not only planners, but also a convened panel of nationally recognized experts in the social sciences, known as the Work Group. The fourteen member group of men and one woman, Antonia Handler Chayes, met for two days, twice a month, for half a year starting in 1963. The Work Group suggested innovations for planners in education, recreation, religion, and health care, as well as ways of improving social interactions. Columbia's open classrooms, interfaith centers, and the then-novel idea of a health maintenance organization (HMO) with a group practice of medical doctors (the Columbia Medical Plan) sprung from these meetings. The community's physical plan, with neighborhood and village centers, was also decided. Columbia's "New Town District" zoning ordinance gave developers great flexibility about what to put where, without requiring county approval for each specific project.  In 1968, vice-presidential candidate Spiro Agnew referenced Columbia to reporters, saying, "Government should act as a catalyst to encourage the local governments to encourage industry and business to move next to a planned community," and "I want to lessen the density in the ghettos, and concurrently rebuild the ghetto areas." In 1969, County Executive Omar J. Jones felt that the increase in tax base was lagging behind the need for infrastructure as the operating budget doubled to $15 million in three years. Crime rates shot up around the county by 30-50% a year, with hot spots around the development. By 1970, the project required additional financing to continue, borrowing $30 million from Connecticut General, Manufacturers Hanover Trust, and Morgan Guaranty. In 1972, amendments to New Town zoning proposing to place a maximum height for buildings and maintain the original density limit of 2.2 units per acre were opposed by Rouse allies including the Columbia Association, the Ellicott City Businessman's Association and the Columbia Democratic Club. By 1974, the amount owed reached $100,000 million, prompting partner Connecticut General to consider bankruptcy. An effort to create a special taxing district in 1978 and an effort to incorporate with a mayor in 1979 failed. In 1985 Cigna (Connecticut General) divested itself of the project for $120 million. By 1990 Howard Research and Development owed $125,162,689.> In 2004 the project was sold to General Growth Properties, which went bankrupt in 2008. General Growth Properties submitted a plan for increasing density throughout Columbia in 2004 which was unanimously voted down. Ownership of the project fell to the previous Rouse subsidiary the Howard Hughes Corporation. Howard Hughes submitted a new plan to increase density in 2010 under the Ulman administration that passed unanimously.  Columbia has never incorporated; some governance, however, is provided by the non-profit Columbia Association, which manages common areas and functions as a homeowner association with regard to private property. The first boards were filled entirely with Rouse Company appointees. The first manager of the Columbia Association was John Estabrook Slayton (d. 1967). For Slayton's contributions to the early planning of Columbia, the community center in the Wilde Lake village, Slayton House, was named for him. Wilde Lake was the first village area to be developed in Columbia; accordingly, the town's first high school was Wilde Lake High School, which opened in 1971 as a "model school for the nation". Constructed in the open classroom style, it was razed in 1994 but reconstructed on the same site in 1996.

Master plan.

To achieve the goals set forth by the Work Group, Columbia's Master Plan called for a series of ten self-contained villages, around which day-to-day life would revolve. The centerpiece of Columbia would be The Mall in Columbia and man-made Lake Kittamaqundi.

Villages and neighborhoods.

The village concept aimed to provide Columbia a small-town feel (like Easton, Maryland, where James Rouse grew up). Each village comprises several neighborhoods. The village center may contain middle and high schools. All villages have a shopping center, recreational facilities, a community center, a system of bike/walking paths, and homes. Four of the villages have interfaith centers, common worship facilities which are owned and jointly operated by a variety of religious congregations working together.  Most of Columbia's neighborhoods contain single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and apartments, though some are more exclusive than others. The original plan, following the neighborhood concept of Clarence Perry, would have had all the children of a neighborhood attend the same school, melding neighborhoods into a community and ensuring that all of Columbia's children get the same high-quality education. Rouse marketed the city as being "color blind" as a proponent of Senator Clark's fair housing legislation. If a neighborhood was filled with too many purchasers of a single race, houses would be blocked until the desired ratio was met.  Columbia takes its street names from famous works of art and literature: for example, the neighborhood of Hobbit's Glen takes its street names from the work of J. R. R. Tolkien; Running Brook, from the poetry of Robert Frost; and Clemens Crossing, from the work of Mark Twain. The book "Oh, You Must Live in Columbia!" chronicles the artistic, poetic, and historical origins of the street and place names in Columbia.

Further expansion.

"The Downtown Columbia Plan" is a 2010 amendment to the county's General Plan of expansion. It is a framework for the revitalization of Downtown Columbia over the next thirty years. Development plans for downtown projects in the years ahead will include details for that project such as neighborhood design guidelines, environmental restoration, public amenities and infrastructure. These development plans must adhere to the framework of the Downtown Columbia Plan as required by the zoning legislation. Over the life of the Downtown Columbia development project, as much as 13 million square feet of retail, commercial, residential, hotel and cultural development is planned.  To be accomplished in three phases, the plan calls for the formation of the non-profit Columbia Downtown Housing Corporation to build an additional 5,500 units of low income housing placed downtown in exchange for increased zoning density for other projects. Additional development includes 4.3 million square feet of commercial office space, 1.25 million square feet of retail space, 640 hotel rooms, Merriweather Post Pavilion redevelopment and a multi-modal transportation system.  The Downtown Columbia Plan also has sustainability features, including goals for saving water and energy, and for ecology and livability.  Columbia's master developer, the Howard Hughes Corporation, is heading up the expansion project. The project is projected to cost $90 million and will outline development in the community for the next 40 years.

Geography.

Because Columbia is unincorporated, there is confusion over its exact boundaries. In the strictest definition, Columbia comprises only the land governed under covenants by the Columbia Association. This is a considerably smaller area than the census-designated place (CDP) as defined by the United States Census Bureau. The CDP has a total area of, of which are land and, or 0.80%, are water. The CDP includes a number of older communities which do not lie within the CA's purview, including the Holiday Hills, Diamondback, and Allview subdivisions and the former town of Simpsonville, as well as some land on the east side of Clarksville. These areas are not part of the "new town", and are not directly served by its amenities. Some of these areas are included in Columbia ZIP codes by the post office, and some are not.  Columbia is located in central Maryland, southwest of Baltimore, northeast of Washington, D.C., and northwest of Annapolis. The community lies in the Piedmont region of Maryland, with its eastern edge at the fall line. The climate tends to hot, humid summers and cool to cold and wet winters. There are occasional large amounts of snowfall that happen every year.  The primary landforms in Columbia are rolling hills and stream valleys; Columbia's road network is laid out to follow the terrain, with many winding streets and cul-de-sacs. Elevations range from about above sea level. Most of Columbia is drained by the Middle Patuxent and Little Patuxent rivers. There are three artificial lakes, created by damming of tributary streams during community construction. In 1965, the Rouse Company leased of farmland staged for development, and earmarked of oak forest for timber harvesting. The company developed a sapling planter to replant sections of cleared land that would use Columbia's W.R. Grace-developed fertilizers. An outer ring of greenspace was abandoned early in the project because the combination with the already required river buffers would have reduced profitable land available for building. Along with Symphony Woods, many other stands of mature trees have been temporarily maintained in Columbia, including the large Middle Patuxent Environmental Area in the western part of the community between Harper's Choice and River Hill villages, protecting much of the river valley from development.

Climate.

Columbia has a humid subtropical climate, with cool winters and hot, muggy summers.

Demographics.

"NOTE: The CDP includes considerable areas which are not part of the planned community."  As of July 2019, Columbia is a majority minority community, with non-Hispanic whites constituting 47.3% of the population.

2010 census.

The 2009-2013 census estimates report the median income for a household in the CDP was $99,877. The per capita income for the CDP was $46,374. About 4.1% of families and 6.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.8% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over.

2000 census.

As of the census of 2000, there were 88,254 people, 34,199 households, and 23,118 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 3,202.0 people per square mile (1,236.4/km2). There were 35,281 housing units at an average density of 1,280.0 per square mile (494.3/km2). The racial makeup of the CDP was 66.52% White, 21.47% Black or African American, 0.26% Native American, 7.30% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 1.63% from other races, and 2.76% from two or more races. 4.12% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 14% of Columbia's residents were German, 11% Irish, 10% English, 5% Italian, 4% Polish, 2% Russian, 2% Scottish, 2% Indian, 2% Chinese, 2% Korean, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 2% French, and 2% West Indian.  There were 34,199 households out of which 35.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.4% were married couples living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.4% were non-families. 25.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 3.09.  In the CDP, the population was spread out with 26.3% under the age of 18, 6.7% from 18 to 24, 34.1% from 25 to 44, 25.5% from 45 to 64, and 7.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.7 males.

Economy.

James Rouse conceived of a city, not a suburban bedroom community, and a large area on the eastern edge was allocated for industrial purposes. The centerpiece of this aspect of the development was a General Electric appliance plant on a site previously operated as a cattle farm. After an injunction attempt was blocked in 1969, the plant began operations in 1972, peaking at 2,300 of the predicted 12,000 jobs. It was closed in 1990, with all but of the property being sold back to Howard Research and Development. One section of the property was subsequently redeveloped for big box retail; the remainder became the large Gateway Commerce office complex, still being expanded. In 1968, Bendix Field Engineering moved to a new facility on the historic Woodlawn Plantation where it was used for engineering activity. Howard County purchased the vacant facility creating the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship in 2011, which relocated to the vacant Patuxent Publishing building in 2014. There is still a smaller industrial area to the south of this, but by and large East Columbia is dominated by commercial real estate—office, retail, and wholesale—in contrast to the original plan, which saw the Town Center area as the commercial center of Columbia.  The U.S. federal government is the source of many jobs for Columbians. Several large U.S. Department of Defense installations and R&D facilities surround Columbia, the largest being the National Security Agency at Fort George G. Meade, and the Applied Physics Laboratory south of Columbia, both pre-dating the establishment of Columbia. Companies which have had research facilities in the area include W.R. Grace and Company and Westvaco. Further afield, many Columbians commute to government and government contractor jobs in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. area.  Companies based in Columbia include W.R. Grace and Company, Sourcefire, PetMeds, MICROS Systems, Martek Biosciences, Integral Systems, GP Strategies Corporation, Corporate Office Properties Trust, and the consumer research company Arbitron. When MaggieMoo's was an independent company, its headquarters was in Columbia.

Shopping.

The Mall in Columbia, located in Town Center, is a large regional shopping mall with four anchor department stores (Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, Macy's, and JCPenney), a multiplex movie theater, and more than 200 stores and restaurants.  There are several other major competing shopping centers in East Columbia, including Dobbin Center strip mall opened in 1983, Snowden Square big box retail on the remainder of the GE industrial site, Columbia Crossing I and II big box retail started in 1997, and Gateway Overlook.  Columbia's nine "village centers" provide residents with nearby shopping as well, often including supermarkets, gas stations, liquor stores, dry cleaners, restaurants, and hair salons. The village centers are laid out so that individual stores are not visible from the road, unlike traditional strip malls. The arrangement is criticized because it makes it difficult for newcomers and non-residents to know what shopping is available; it is praised for eliminating much of the garishness of roadside America.  The village centers have evolved over time. The Oakland Mills Village Center had a traditional Village Center layout—stores located off a central corridor—until its demolition in the late 1990s. It has since been replaced with a more traditional strip mall managed by Cedar Realty Trust. The Rouse Company abandoned the village center concept in 2002, selling off the assets to Kimco Realty for $120 million. The Kings Contrivance Village Center underwent major construction in 2007 and 2008 when a new Harris Teeter supermarket was added to the center, but maintained the original character of stores around a central corridor and plaza. Owen Brown village center is now managed by GFS Realty, and the Long Reach Village center was declared blighted and purchased by Howard County for resale in 2014.

Arts and culture.

Entertainment and performing arts.

In the absence of nightclubs, Columbia relies on local bars to bring in bands. Clyde's (near the Columbia Mall, on Lake Kittamaqundi), Sonoma's (in Owen Brown), and Nottingham's Tavern and The Green Turtle (near Dobbin Center) regularly bring in groups to perform.  Merriweather Post Pavilion, a well-known outdoor concert venue, attracts many prominent performers. In addition, there are several performing arts organizations that present professional theater, including Toby's Dinner Theatre, Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts and the Young Columbians which have produced the area premieres of several musicals.  Columbia also offers chamber music concerts, children's programs, community outreach programs, master classes, and pre-concert lectures and discussions through the Candlelight Concert Society, a non-profit organization formed by Columbia residents to provide chamber music concerts since 1972.

Howard County Library System.

Howard County Library System (HCLS) is consistently top rated among the nation's public library systems according to Hennen's American Public Library Ratings (HAPLR). Two of the six branches of the Howard County Library System are in Columbia, including the Central Branch in Town Center and the East Columbia Branch in Owen Brown.

Historic sites.

Two historic buildings in Columbia, Dorsey Hall and Woodlawn, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Both were once homes of prominent Howard County citizens. Most historic buildings, mills and plantations within Columbia that qualified for the register, such as Oakland Manor, were not submitted by Rouse company affiliates.

Religion.

Rouse believed that individual churches were a waste of developable land. Dr. Stanley Hallet advised the 1964 work group to economically abandon "The extravagance of church life" in favor of ecumenical establishments that focused resources on retreat centers and non-profit religious corporations. The Rouse Company discouraged individual congregations from purchasing land from the company. In 1966 the Columbia Religious Facilities Corporation was founded to lease interfaith centers to congregations. On June 22, 1969, $2.5 million in church donations applied to the CFRC to purchase Columbia land and build an interfaith facility in the village of Wilde Lake. The organization formed the Interfaith Housing Corporation (now the Columbia Housing Corporation) to purchase 300 units of low and moderate income housing in the development with Federal Housing Authority funding.

Parks and recreation.

Recreation has always been an important part of the Columbia concept. The homeowners association, the Columbia Association, known to many in Howard County as "CA", builds, operates and maintains most of these facilities. CA operates a variety of recreational facilities, including 23 outdoor swimming pools, six indoor pools, two water slides, ice and roller skating rinks, an equestrian center, a sports park with miniature golf, a skateboard park, batting cages, picnic pavilions, clubhouse and playground, three athletic clubs including the 24/7 Supreme Sports Club, numerous indoor and outdoor tennis, basketball, volleyball, squash and racquetball courts, and running tracks. In February 2006 LifeTime Fitness (a Minnesota company) opened a 24/7 health club at the edge of the Columbia Gateway industrial park. This facility includes one outdoor and two indoor pools (with water slides), racquetball courts, basketball courts, fitness equipment, and pilates and yoga facilities.  There are three lakes (Lake Kittamaqundi, Lake Elkhorn, and Wilde Lake) surrounded by parkland for sailing, fishing, and boating; of paths for jogging, strolling and biking; and 148 tot lots and play areas.  Nine village centers, 15 neighborhood centers, and four senior centers provide space for a large variety of community activities. There are a variety of fairs and celebrations throughout the year, including entertainment on the lakefront of Lake Kittamaqundi during the summer and the Columbia Festival of the Arts.  Columbia also has garden plots for rent, under the guidance of the Columbia Gardeners, which has been in existence since the 1970s. There are about 350 garden plots at three sites in Columbia, with each garden rented for a nominal fee (currently $30 per year).  The Rev3 Triathlon is held every October in Columbia. It is a major national event, both half iron and full ironman distances.  In 2017, Columbia FC, a soccer club based in Columbia was founded. Consisting of former Howard County students and transfer players, the sports club made their debut in Maryland’s Major Soccer League Division I on September 8th, 2019.

Education.

Columbia's public schools are operated by the Howard County Public School System. As of the 2007–2008 school year, the following high schools served some part of Columbia:  Most of these schools also serve students from outside Columbia, as is also the case with some middle and elementary schools.

Colleges and universities.

There are no conventional four-year colleges or universities in Columbia, but several other college-level programs have facilities there. Howard Community College is located near the town center, while the University of Phoenix, American Career Institute, Lincoln College of Technology, Loyola University Maryland, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland University of Integrative Health, and Johns Hopkins University have facilities on the east side of town at Columbia Gateway Business Park.  In 1966, Howard Community College (HCC) was founded by the Board of Education in Howard County and formally authorized by the Howard County Commissioners Charles E. Miller, J. Hubert Black, and David W. Force. In addition to its original campus in Columbia, it now has satellite campuses in Mount Airy, Laurel, and East Columbia, in the Columbia Gateway Business Park.

Infrastructure.

Transportation.

Public transit.

Columbia's initial plan called for a minibus system connecting the village centers on a distinct right-of-way that allowed denser development along the route. The routes were not constructed, though minibuses were operated by the Columbia Association under the name "ColumBus". These were eventually taken over by Howard County. Six Howard Transit bus routes served Columbia and connected it with its neighboring areas (such as Ellicott City and BWI Airport) until they were replaced by Regional Transportation Agency of Central Maryland (RTA) in 2014. Several Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) routes provide access to and from both Washington and Baltimore; MTA weekday commuter bus service connects Columbia to the Washington Metro system. There are no rail stations within Columbia, although the Dorsey MARC Train station is served by RTA buses.  RTA provides local bus service as well as the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and Maryland Transit Administration. RTA Bus Routes include: 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408, 501, and 503.  OurBus offers intercity bus service from Columbia to New Brunswick, New Jersey and New York City.

Roads.

Columbia has a number of roadways that serve the community (see below). All of these highways allow Columbia access to nearby Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Annapolis.

Healthcare.

Medical care is available at Howard County General Hospital, affiliated with Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Columbia Medical Plan was founded in 1967 as a health maintenance organization (HMO) available to citizens of Columbia. In more recent years, however, this plan has divided into separate medical groups that simply share the Twin Knolls buildings. Today, there is a Kaiser Permanente facility located in the Columbia Gateway industrial park. There are also a number of clinics, such as the Righttime Medical Care center and Patient First.

Sister cities.

Columbia is a sister city to the planned cities of Cergy-Pontoise, France, and Tres Cantos, Spain. The Columbia Association International and Multicultural Programs Advisory Committee organizes a summer exchange program for French and Spanish students enrolled in Howard County Public Schools. In 2013, CA announced its new sister city relationship with Tema, a port city in Ghana. The official celebration was marked with a Ghana Fest on November 17, 2013. An advisory committee planned to sign the official SCI agreement by 2015. A proposal to add Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, as a sister city is under consideration.

Related cities.

The Rouse Company, now owned by the Howard Hughes Corporation, owns and operates multiple HUD Title VII-New Town planned community developments along with Columbia. These include The Woodlands, Texas, Bridgeland Community, Texas, and Summerlin, Nevada.

Columbia is a census-designated place in Howard County, Maryland, United States, and is one of the principal communities of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. It is a planned community consisting of 10 self-contained villages.

Columbia ist eine Stadt im US-Bundesstaat Maryland in den Vereinigten Staaten. Partnerstädte sind Cergy-Pontoise in Frankreich und Tres Cantos in Spanien.


Origins.

Franz Werfel was a German-speaking Jew born in Prague in 1890. He became well known as a playwright. In the 1930s in Vienna, he began writing popular satirical plays lampooning the Nazi regime until the Anschluss, when the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler annexed Austria in 1938. Werfel and his wife Alma (Gustav Mahler's widow) fled to Paris until the Germans invaded France in 1940.  In his Personal Preface to "The Song of Bernadette", Franz Werfel takes up the story:  Hunted by the Gestapo, the Werfels experienced anxiety for their hosts as well as themselves. A number of families took turns in giving them shelter. These people told the Werfels the story of Bernadette. Werfel vowed that, if he and his wife escaped, he would put off all tasks and write Bernadette's story into a novel.

Plot.

The story is about the Platonic love relationship between Bernadette and “the lady” of her vision. Bernadette’s love for the lady attains “ecstasy” when in her presence at a grotto near Lourdes. The love she feels sustains her throughout the trials and tribulations which she is made to endure by doubters and by public officials who see her as a threat to the established order, which is based on a secular milieu.  The lady guides Bernadette to the discovery of a stream which springs from beneath the ground of the grotto. The curative powers of the water are discovered by various town folk, and the word is spread by them. Bernadette does no proselytizing.  The lady informs Bernadette of her wishes to have a chapel build on the site of the grotto, and to have processions to the site. Bernadette informs church and secular officials about this, but takes no action to have it done. Eventually, it gets done. Bernadette does not actively cultivate a following, but people are attracted to her by the love she radiates and by witnessing the ecstatic trance she experiences when she has visions of the lady at the grotto.  Bernadette does no preaching or evangelizing, but her behavior of itself converts doubters, and the very church officials who once doubted her become her protectors and advocates. Although she is dying of tuberculosis, she refuses to seek a cure from the lady, or to drink the curative water. She is canonized several years after her death.  The story of Bernadette Soubirous and Our Lady of Lourdes is told by Werfel with many embellishments, such as the chapter in which Bernadette is invited to board at the home of a rich woman who thinks Bernadette's visionary "lady" might be her deceased daughter. In side-stories and back story, the history of the town of Lourdes, the contemporary political situation in France, and the responses of believers and detractors are delineated. Werfel describes Bernadette as a religious peasant girl who would have preferred to continue on with an ordinary life, but takes the veil as a nun after she is told that because "Heaven chose her", she must choose Heaven. Bernadette's service as a sacristan, artist-embroiderer, and nurse in the convent are depicted, along with her spiritual growth. After her death, her body as well as her life are scrutinized for indications that she is a saint, and at last she is canonized.  The novel is laid out in five sections of ten chapters each, in a deliberate nod to the Catholic Rosary.  Unusual for a novel, the entire first part, which describes the events on the day that Bernadette first saw the Virgin Mary, is told in the present tense, as if it were happening at the moment. The rest of the novel is in the past tense.

Major themes.

Werfel presents Bernadette as a simple and pious girl from a poor family, who is regarded as stupid by her teachers, classmates, and authorities. He also depicts her as having inner strength and personal integrity, which is unshaken by those who challenge her stories of the "Lady of Massabielle" whom she alone can see. Bernadette is not a crusader, but the local people take up the cause of turning the grotto into a spiritual site, although the local authorities resist at first. This drama is played out against the larger canvas of French politics and the contemporary social climate. Explanatory digressions illustrate what Werfel perceives as an ongoing conflict between a human need to believe in the supernatural or in anomalous phenomena; a true religion, which should not address such "popular" manifestations; and the ideas of the Enlightenment and of atheism.

References to history, geography and current science.

Apparently, Werfel obtained accounts of Bernadette from Lourdes families whose older members had known her. It is possible that a great deal of folklore and legend had been added to the plain facts by the time Werfel heard the tale.  Lourdes pilgrims often want to know more about Bernadette and do not realize that, far from being a simple-minded shepherdess, she was a self-possessed young woman who stood by her story in the face of tough church and government inquiry. Werfel was able to work this aspect of her personality into his narration.  However, Werfel was not above fictionalization to fill in details or romanticize her story. He embellished the anti-religious feeling of the prosecutor, Vital Dutour (who, according to one source, altered Bernadette's answers to his questions to make her sound visionary), and transformed the relationship between Bernadette and Antoine Nicolau from one of friendship to one of unrequited love on Nicolau's part; when she leaves Lourdes to become a nun, he vows never to wed.  Werfel's work also features a highly dramatic and fictionalized death scene. In the book, Bernadette cries out in a loud, strong voice, ""J'aime" (I love)" followed by a whispered "Now and in the hour..." before her voice fails; the point of view characters are a) Sister Marie Thérèse Vauzous, Bernadette's former elementary school teacher, who, by the power of Bernadette's cry of love and transfigured expression, is converted from skepticism to belief that Bernadette's Lady is present in the room and b) Father Marie Dominique Peyramale, who is revitalized physically and spiritually by Bernadette's death.  In real life, however, Bernadette was in torment during the last day of her life, asking the other nuns to pray for her soul, and her last words—said twice—were "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, a poor sinner." Following this, according to Sister Nathalie Portat, she made the sign of the cross, drank a few drops of water and died.  Also, while a nun by the name of Marie Thérèse Vauzous was in charge of the novices at the monastery of Nevers where Bernadette was cloistered, she was neither the daughter of a general nor Bernadette's former schoolteacher. Bernadette first met her at Nevers. And the historic Dean Marie Dominique Peyramale had been dead for about a year and a half by the time that Bernadette herself perished on 16 April 1879.  However, in the preface, Werfel states that readers will justifiably ask "What is true and what is invented?" Werfel answers: "All the memorable happenings that constitute the substance of this book took place in the world of reality. Since their beginning dates back no longer than eighty years [N.B. at the time Werfel wrote the book], there beats upon them the bright light of modern history and their truth has been confirmed by friend and foe and by cool observers through faithful testimonies. My story makes no changes in this body of truth. I exercised my right of creative freedom only where the work, as a work of art, demanded certain chronological condensations or where there was need of striking the spark of life from the hardened substance." He declares: ""The Song of Bernadette" is a novel but not a fictive work."  It seems to have been inspired in part by Émile Zola's "Lourdes" (1884), a blistering denunciation of the industry that sprang up in Lourdes around the allegedly miraculous spring. One of Werfel's characters, Hyacinthe de Lafite, a member of the freethinkers' club that hangs around the town cafe, is not only fictional but a thinly disguised portrayal of Zola himself, re-imagined as a failed journalist/author who smugly casts Bernadette's experience in terms of the pagan history of the area: "The shepherd girl out of the antique world who, in the year 1858, sees the guardian nymph of the spring and redeems her from two thousand years of boredom[.]" By the end of the book, Lafite, the lady's "proudest foe", believing himself to be dying of cancer, is "lying on his knees" before the image of Bernadette's lady in the grotto, and crying out, "Bernadette Soubirous, pray for me!"  Werfel goes into great detail about the cures at the Lourdes Spring, and has Dr. Dozous, the town physician, show Hyacinthe through the wards of the hospital, particularly a dormitory of women with a particularly virulent form of Lupus vulgaris in which the face rots and falls off. Werfel provides medical details and claims that some such women have been completely cured after washing in water from the spring, and reports that many more healings take place during the Blessing of the Eucharist ceremony which is held daily at the grotto.  Werfel's description of the veiled lupus sufferers is very similar to that of Zola's description of Elise Rouquet, whose nose and mouth are being eaten away by lupus, on pages 13-14 of "Lourdes". Rouquet is also the Zola character who bathes her face in water from the Lourdes spring; one sore on her face improves, but the doctors are unable to decide, throughout the book, whether she actually had lupus or some other illness that responds well to washing or if the partial cure is psychosomatic. No such indecision plagues Dr. Dozous or his fellow physicians; in Chapter 46 of "The Song of Bernadette", "The Hell of the Flesh," he implausibly informs the fictional Lafite that one of the lupus patients bathed her face in water from the spring and that she "didn't realize at first that she had a nose and mouth again."

Copyright.

"The Song of Bernadette" has been in the public domain in the European Union since 1 January 2016.

The Song of Bernadette (German: "Das Lied von Bernadette") is a 1941 novel that tells the story of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, who, from February to July 1858 reported eighteen visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France. The novel was written by Franz Werfel and translated into English by Lewis Lewisohn in 1942. It was extremely popular, spending more than a year on the "New York Times" Best Seller list and 13 weeks in first place.

Das Lied von Bernadette ist ein 1941 erschienener Roman von Franz Werfel, der das Leben der heiligen Bernadette Soubirous von Lourdes beschreibt.


Name.

The name of the town is derived from the Spanish vernacular for reed grass ("Carrizo"), which grew significantly in the area and provided excellent feed for ranch cattle. The additional "zo" at the end of the town name was added to indicate abundance of Carrizo grass. The town is now often referred to colloquially as "Zozo".

History.

Prior to 1899, the area was primarily a few ranches and a stagecoach crossing with limited permanent settlement. Lawrence Murphy, a merchant active in the Lincoln County War (1878), owned a major ranch in the area. The location of Carrizozo was selected as the site for a station on the El Paso and Northeastern Railway (EP&NE) main line in 1899. Carrizozo was chosen over the nearby booming mine town of White Oaks, resulting in large-scale migration from White Oaks to Carrizozo.  The railroad brought businesses, growing population, and increased importance to the town of Carrizozo. As a result, a county referendum in 1909 moved the seat of Lincoln County from the town of Lincoln to Carrizozo. This decision resulted in a four-year legal battle that was eventually resolved in favor of Carrizozo by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of "Gray v. Taylor". The result was a boom in which railroad access and political importance combined to lead to significant population growth in Carrizozo. The population reached around 2,000 by 1920.  During this time, Albert B. Fall, a U.S. Senator from New Mexico and later Secretary of the Interior, owned the Three Rivers Ranch just south of Carrizozo, but had to sell it to settle legal debts as a result of his involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal (1922–1923). During the same time, journalist Quentin Reynolds visited the town and wrote a piece on it for "Collier's". Later, he wrote in "The Wounded Don't Cry" that "I used to agree with Bugs that once you left New York, you were strictly on the horse and buggy circuit. But of late years I've had to modify that. Since then I've discovered New Orleans, San Francisco and a little place called Carrizozo, New Mexico, where I want to go when I die. I want to go there and gang around the drug store and sneak behind the prescription counter with Art Rolland and have a nip of what he calls Old Granddaddy then type out his prescriptions for him."  Carrizozo is about east of the Trinity Site, where the first nuclear bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945. Residents reported tremors like an earthquake and, as the first major downwind settlement, the town received a significant part of the remnants of the mushroom cloud (resulting in some radioactive contamination of the area, which faded quickly and does not persist today).  With the rise of the automobile, Carrizozo's proximity to the railroad became less important starting in the 1950s, and the last passenger train passed through in 1968. The result was a decrease in economic opportunity in Carrizozo, and the population fell back to about 1,200 people for much of the end of the 20th century. Recently, the town has seen increasing focus on tourism, and cherry cider produced in the town is known nationally.

Geography.

Carrizozo is located at the northern end of the Tularosa Basin, which extends southward to the New Mexico–Texas border. The town itself is located in a flat area known prior to the founding of the town as the Corrizo flats, with typical Chihuahua desert scrub.  To the west of the town is the Carrizozo Malpais, a lava flow that is about 1,500 years old and accessible through the Valley of Fires Recreation Area. To the northeast is Carrizo Mountain, a peak within the Sacramento Mountains, and to the southeast are the Sierra Blanca.

Demographics.

As of the 2010 census, there were 996 people living in the town. The racial makeup of the town was 78.71% White, 0.70% African American, 2.61% American Indian, 14.16% Other, and 3.82% identified as two or more. Hispanics of any race were 43.57% of the population. Of the population, 54.72% were men and 45.28% were women. Of these, 15.96% were under the age of 18, 24.50% were over 65, and 59.54% were between 18 and 65.

Transportation.

Carrizozo is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 54 and U.S. Route 380. For general aviation, the town is served by Carrizozo Municipal Airport.

Film and television.

A number of movies have been filmed in Carrizozo. Movies which have been filmed at least partially in Carrizozo include:

Carrizozo is a town in Lincoln County, New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat, with a population of 996 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1899, the town provided the main railroad access for Lincoln County, and the town experienced significant population growth in the early decades of the 1900s. However, with declining relevance of the railroad, the population of the town has gradually declined. The town is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 54 and U.S. Route 380.

Carrizozo ist eine Stadt im Lincoln County im US-Bundesstaat New Mexico in den Vereinigten Staaten mit 1036 Einwohnern (Stand: 2000) und County Seat (Verwaltungssitz) des Lincoln County.


History.

What is today Bosque Farms was part of a Spanish land grant dating from 1716, originally known as Bosque del Pino (Forest Pines), or Los Pinos.  The land changed hands numerous times before being purchased during the Great Depression by the New Mexico Rural Rehabilitation Corporation, which in turn sold it to the federal Resettlement Administration in 1935. The RA renamed the land Bosque Farms and turned it into an agricultural resettlement project for Dust Bowl refugees. Traditional farming failed due to poor soil conditions, and the families that stayed turned to dairy farming, which became the community's main agricultural industry through the 1960s.  Bosque Farms was incorporated in 1974. Today, housing and commercial development are its main sources of revenue.

Geography.

Bosque Farms is located in the Rio Grande Valley at (34.853392, -106.699251).  According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of, all land.

Demographics.

As of the census of 2000, there were 3,931 people, 1,422 households, and 1,126 families residing in the village. The population density was 996.2 people per square mile (384.2/km). There were 1,476 housing units at an average density of 374.0 per square mile (144.3/km). The racial makeup of the village was 82.68% White, 0.61% African American, 1.88% Native American, 0.20% Asian, 11.19% from other races, and 3.43% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 29.53% of the population.  There were 1,422 households, out of which 33.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 67.5% were married couples living together, 8.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 20.8% were non-families. 16.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.76 and the average family size was 3.10.  In the village, the population was spread out, with 26.0% under the age of 18, 6.2% from 18 to 24, 25.4% from 25 to 44, 29.4% from 45 to 64, and 12.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.6 males.  The median income for a household in the village was $44,055, and the median income for a family was $49,688. Males had a median income of $40,963 versus $25,726 for females. The per capita income for the village was $20,317. About 4.8% of families and 7.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.4% of those under age 18 and 2.1% of those age 65 or over.

Education.

Bosque Farms' public schools are operated by Los Lunas Schools.

Blue Ribbon Award.

In 2010, Bosque Farms Elementary won the National Blue Ribbon Award for its excellence in education and for progress in “closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.”

Government.

As of March 2020, the current mayor of Bosque Farms is Wayne Ake.

Bosque Farms is a village in Valencia County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 3,904 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Bosque Farms ist eine Stadt im Valencia County im US-Bundesstaat New Mexico in den Vereinigten Staaten mit 3931 Einwohnern (.


Design.

"Mississippi" was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of. She displaced as designed and up to at full combat load. The ship was powered by four-shaft Curtis turbines and nine oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers rated at, generating a top speed of. The ship had a cruising range of at a speed of. Her crew numbered 1,081 officers and enlisted men. As built, she was fitted with two lattice masts with spotting tops for the main gun battery. The main armored belt was thick, while the main armored deck was up to thick. The main battery gun turrets had thick faces on barbettes. The conning tower had thick sides.  The ship was armed with a main battery of twelve /50 caliber guns in four, three-gun turrets on the centerline, placed in two superfiring pairs forward and aft of the superstructure. Unlike earlier American battleships with triple turrets, these mounts were true three-gun barrels, in that each barrel could elevate independently. The secondary battery consisted of fourteen /51 caliber guns mounted in individual casemates clustered in the superstructure amidships. Initially, the ship was to have been fitted with twenty-two of the guns, but experiences in the North Sea during World War I demonstrated that the additional guns, which would have been placed in the hull, would have been unusable in anything but calm seas. As a result, the casemates were plated over to prevent flooding. The secondary battery was augmented with four /50 caliber guns. In addition to her gun armament, "Mississippi" was also fitted with two torpedo tubes, mounted submerged in the hull, one on each broadside.

Modifications.

"Mississippi" was heavily modernized in the early 1930s. Her original turbines were replaced with new geared models manufactured by Westinghouse, and she received six express boilers designed by the Bureau of Engineering. This improved her performance to a top speed of from. Her armament was also revised, with the main battery turrets being modified to allow elevation to 30 degrees, greatly extending the range of the guns. Two of the 5-inch guns were removed, and eight 5-inch/25 caliber anti-aircraft guns were installed. She received an additional armored deck, and her underwater protection was improved. Both lattice masts were removed; a heavy tower bridge was built in place of the fore mast, and a light pole mast was erected in place of the main mast. These alterations greatly increased her displacement, to standard and full load. Her crew increased significantly, to 1,443.  In early 1945, while under repair for combat damage, "Mississippi" received a new secondary battery. The old 51-caliber 5-inch guns were removed, and eight more of the 25-caliber anti-aircraft guns were installed, along with thirteen quadruple Bofors 40 mm mounts and forty 20 mm Oerlikon guns. To compensate for the added weight, the ship's armored conning tower was removed.

Service history.

The keel for "Mississippi" was laid down on 5 April 1915 at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Newport News, Virginia. She was launched on 25 January 1917, and after completing fitting-out work, was commissioned into the US Navy on 18 December 1917. Then-Captain Joseph Lee Jayne served as the ship's first commanding officer. After completing sea trials off Virginia, "Mississippi" departed the United States on 22 March 1918 for the Gulf of Guacanayabo in Cuba, where she conducted further training. Later in the year, she returned to Hampton Roads, Virginia, where she began a cruise between Boston and New York. From 1919 to 1921, William A. Moffett served as the ship's commander. On 31 January 1919, she left for another round of training in the Caribbean. "Mississippi" was reassigned to the Pacific Fleet and she accordingly left the east coast on 19 July. Throughout the 1920s, the ship routinely returned to the Caribbean for winter training exercises. Two of the original fourteen 5-in/51 caliber guns were removed in 1922. During Fleet Problem I, held in February 1923, "Mississippi" sank the old pre-dreadnought "Coast Battleship No. 4" (formerly ), battering her first with her 5-inch guns at ranges between before firing a salvo of 14-inch shells that struck "Coast Battleship No. 4" amidships and inflicted fatal damage. During the gunnery exercise, spotter aircraft were used for the first time to help direct an American battleship's guns in a major exercise.  While conducting gunnery practice off San Pedro on 12 June 1924, there was an explosion in her forward superfiring Gun Turret No. 2. The resulting fire asphyxiated 44 members of the turret crew. Upon returning to port the gunpowder that was still in Gun No. 5, the remaining gun in the turret, exploded and killed four members of the rescue team. The shell that was in the gun narrowly missed the passenger ship "Yale". This was, at the time, the deadliest peace-time disaster in the Navy's history.  She left San Francisco on 15 April 1925 for war games held off Hawaii, after which she went on a cruise to Australia, returning to California on 26 September. The ship returned to the east coast in early 1931 for a major modernization at Norfolk Navy Yard that began on 30 March. This overhaul significantly changed the ship's profile by removing the original fore and aft lattice mast. The former was replaced with a tower. Modernization also included replacement of earlier 3-inch/50 cal anti-aircraft guns with eight 5-inch/25 caliber guns. Further training exercises followed in September 1933. On 24 October 1934, she passed through the Panama Canal on her way back to the Pacific Fleet, where she remained through mid-1941, apart from the normal winter cruises in the Caribbean. By this time, World War II had broken out in Europe, spawning the Battle of the Atlantic. In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the Neutrality Patrols to protect American shipping. On 7 May 1941, Admiral Harold Rainsford Stark, the Chief of Naval Operations, transferred "Mississippi", the battleships and, the aircraft carrier, four light cruisers, and two destroyer squadrons to the Atlantic to reinforce the Neutrality Patrols. On 15 June, "Mississippi" arrived back in Norfolk, where she prepared to make her first patrol in the North Atlantic, which consisted of escorting a convoy from Newport, Rhode Island to Hvalfjordur, Iceland. She began another convoy escort mission on 28 September, also to Iceland. "Mississippi" remained there through November to protect American shipping in the area. During this period, she was assigned to the "White Patrol", a special task group, along with the other two battleships and a pair of heavy cruisers.

World War II.

On 9 December, two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, "Mississippi" departed Iceland, bound for the Pacific Theater. She reached San Francisco on 22 January 1942, where she conducted training and escorted convoys along the west coast over the following seven months. Beginning in May 1942, the original 5-inch/51 caliber guns of the secondary battery were removed to make room for anti-aircraft machine guns. On 6 December, she escorted a convoy of troop ships to Fiji, returning to Pearl Harbor on 2 March 1943. Her first major combat operation began on 10 May, when she left Hawaii to support the liberation of the Aleutian Islands. She bombarded Kiska on 22 July, and the Japanese garrison withdrew from the island a few days later. After the conclusion of the campaign, "Mississippi" returned to San Francisco for an overhaul. On 19 October, she left San Pedro to join the invasion fleet that would attack the Gilbert Islands. During the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign on 20 November, while "Mississippi" was bombarding Makin, there was again an explosion in her No. 2 turret, this time killing 43 men. After repairs, she continued on in the campaign, bombarding Kwajalein on 31 January 1944, Taroa on 20 February, and Wotje on 21 February. On 15 March, she shelled Japanese positions at Kavieng on New Ireland, before returning to the United States for an overhaul in Puget Sound. This overhaul increased the number of 5-inch/25 cal guns from eight to fourteen.  After returning to the fleet, "Mississippi" provided gunfire support for the Marines that went ashore at Peleliu, bombarding Japanese positions on 12 September, three days before the landing. She remained there, shelling the island for a week, before proceeding on to Manus, which had recently been taken by American forces. Assigned to the invasion fleet for the Philippines under Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf, "Mississippi" left Manus on 12 October and arrived off Leyte on the 19th, when she began the coastal bombardment. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, on the night of 24 October, "Mississippi" and the rest of the coastal bombardment battleships decisively defeated the Japanese Southern Force under Vice Admiral Shōji Nishimura in the Battle of Surigao Strait. During the battle, the Japanese warships failed to detect the American vessels with their radar. Additionally, the narrow strait forced the Japanese to steam in line ahead, while "Mississippi" and the other battleships were stationed at the entrance, where they were able to fire full broadsides. As a result, Nishimura was unable to avoid having his "T" crossed. In the ensuing action, American destroyers inflicted heavy damage on the Japanese force, which was then annihilated by the concentrated fire from the battleships. "Mississippi", which was equipped with older fire control radar, had trouble identifying targets in the darkness, and so fired only one 12-gun salvo, after Oldendorf had given the order to cease fire. This salvo was the last fired in the action, and proved to be the last time a battleship fired its guns at another battleship.  "Mississippi" remained off Leyte, providing gunfire support until 16 November, when she withdrew to the Admiralty Islands to make preparations for the next operation. On 28 December, she returned to Leyte, anchoring in San Pedro Bay. The ship began shelling Japanese positions on the island of Luzon on 6 January 1945. During the bombardment, a Japanese kamikaze struck the ship, but she remained on station, bombarding the Japanese defenses, until 10 February, when she withdrew to Pearl Harbor for repairs. She returned to service in time to join the invasion fleet that attacked Okinawa, arriving off Nakagusuku Wan on 6 May. She shelled Shuri Castle, inflicting heavy damage on a major strongpoint in the Japanese defensive line. Another kamikaze (initially identified as a friendly plane) hit the ship on 5 June, but she remained in action off Okinawa until 16 June. In July of 1945 she had repairs done in USS ABSD-5 a floating repair dry dock. After the Japanese government announced it would surrender, "Mississippi" steamed to Sagami Wan, Honshū, as part of the occupation force, arriving there on 27 August. She was present during the signing of the surrender documents on 2 September in Tokyo Bay. Four days later, she left Japanese waters, bound for the United States. She reached Norfolk on 27 November.

Postwar career.

Upon arriving in Norfolk, the ship was converted into a gunnery training ship, and was assigned the hull number AG-128 on 15 February 1946. In some references her hull number is given as EAG-128. The initially planned armament as a training ship differed somewhat from that actually installed. No. 1 turret was replaced by a twin 6-inch (152 mm)/47 caliber dual-purpose turret, the same as mounted on the anti-aircraft cruisers. No. 2 and No. 3 14-inch turrets were removed, but No. 4 turret was initially retained. Three twin 5-inch (127 mm)/38 caliber dual-purpose mounts, two single 5-inch/54 caliber dual-purpose mounts (as on the aircraft carriers), two twin 3-inch (76 mm)/50 caliber mounts, and two 40 mm Bofors quad mounts were installed. Additional weapons proposed but not equipped included two twin 5-inch/54 caliber mounts and two twin 3-inch/70 caliber mounts, but the twin 5-inch/54 mount never entered service and the 3-inch/70 mount was not ready until 1956. Also, a triple 8-inch/55 caliber rapid-fire turret as on the heavy cruisers was proposed in place of No. 3 14-inch turret, but this was not equipped. It is unclear if a proposed mixed 20 mm Oerlikon battery of quadruple, twin, and single mounts was installed.  "Mississippi" was reconstructed at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard from November 1945 through April 1948. During the yard period she served as the flagship of the operational development force from 18 March to 15 May 1947, and as the flagship of Battleships-Cruisers Atlantic Fleet (COMBATCRULANT) from 11 June to 14 July 1947. In April 1947 she effectively replaced as an anti-aircraft training ship, with "Wyoming" mooring at a pier across from "Mississippi" and the bulk of "Wyoming"s crew "cross-decking" to "Mississippi". After emerging from the reconstruction, she served in the operational development force, carrying out gunnery tests and helping evaluate new weapon systems. The ship had two new RIM-2 Terrier missile launchers installed in 1952 with No. 4 turret removed, the work being completed on 9 August at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The first test firings of a ship-borne Terrier missile took place on 28–29 January 1953 off Cape Cod. "Mississippi" later tested the Petrel missile, a radar-homing weapon, in February 1956. On 17 February, "Mississippi" was decommissioned at Norfolk, sold for scrap to Bethlehem Steel on 28 November, and subsequently broken up.

USS "Mississippi" (BB-41/AG-128), the second of three members of the of battleship, was the third ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the 20th state. The ship was built at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Newport News, Virginia, from her keel laying in April 1915, her launching in January 1917, and her commissioning in December that year. She was armed with a battery of twelve guns in four three-gun turrets, and was protected by heavy armor plate, with her main belt armor being thick.

Die USS "Mississippi" (BB-41/AG-128) war ein US-amerikanisches Schlachtschiff der New-Mexico-Klasse und das dritte Schiff in der Geschichte der United States Navy, das zu Ehren des 20. US-Bundesstaates benannt wurde.


Biography.

Life in Romania.

Gaster was born in Bucharest into a renowned Jewish Austrian family which had settled in Wallachia at the beginning of the 19th century. He was the eldest son of Chevalier Abraham Emanuel Gaster, who was the consul of the Netherlands in Bucharest and the grandson of Asriel Gaster, a prosperous merchant and community leader. His mother, Phina Judith Rubinstein, came from a rabbinical dynasty which included Rabbi Levi Isaac ben Meir.  After having taken a degree in his native city (1874), he proceeded to Leipzig, where he received the degree of PhD in 1878 and then to the Jewish Seminary in Breslau, where he gained the "Hattarat Hora'ah" (rabbinical diploma) in 1881. His history of Romanian popular literature was published in Bucharest in 1883.  He was lecturer on the Romanian language and literature at the University of Bucharest (1881–85), inspector-general of schools, and a member of the council for examining teachers in Romania. He also lectured on the Romanian apocrypha, the whole of which he had discovered in manuscript.  Gaster was a central figure of Hibbat Zion in Romania and played a central role in the 1882 establishment by Jews from Moineşti of the Samarin (Zamarin) settlement, known since 1884 as Zichron Ya'akov.

Life in England.

Having been expelled from Romania by the Ion Brătianu government in 1885 for allegedly "being a member of an irredentist society", he went to England, where he held a lectureship, 1886 and 1891, in Slavonic literature at the University of Oxford, his lectures being later published as "Greco-Slavonic Literature", London, 1886.  A few years after, the Romanian government cancelled the decree of expulsion, presented him with the Romanian "Ordinul Naţional "Pentru Merit"" of the first class (1891), and invited him to return; however, he declined the invitation, and in 1893 became a naturalised British citizen. In 1895, at the request of the Romanian government, he wrote a report on the British system of education, which was printed as a "green book" and accepted as a basis of education in Romania.  In 1887 Gaster was appointed "hakham" of the Sephardic or Spanish and Portuguese Congregation in London, in which capacity he presided over the bicentenary of Bevis Marks Synagogue. He was invited to give the Ilchester Lectures at Oxford which were published in 1887 as "Ilchester Lectures on Greeko-Slavonic literature". Appointed as principal of Judith Lady Montefiore College, Ramsgate, from 1891 to 1896, he wrote valuable collection of essays accompanying the yearly reports of that institution. He was a member of the councils of the Folklore, Biblical, Archaeological, and Royal Asiatic societies, writing many papers in their interest. He was the only ordained rabbi ever to become president of The Folklore Society, in 1907-1908.  In 1925, Gaster was appointed one of the six members of the honorary board of trustees (Curatorium) of the Yiddish Scientific Institute (YIVO) in Wilna, alongside Simon Dubnow, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Edward Sapir and Chaim Zhitlowsky.  Gaster made a special study of the Samaritans and became a recognised authority on their language and literature. He visited Nablus in Palestine, the headquarters of the Samaritan community, and induced them to part with manuscripts covering the whole range of their literature. Where he could not secure the originals he had copies made for him by Samaritan priests. Gaster was among the most active leaders of the Zionist movement in England, and even while in Romania he assisted in establishing the first Jewish colony in Palestine.  Rising in worldwide Jewish affairs he became vice-president of the First Zionist Congress in Basel, and was a prominent figure in each succeeding congress. Gaster's residence, "Mizpah" 193 Maida Vale in London served as the venue for early talks between prominent Zionists and the Foreign Office in 1917. The first draft of the Balfour Declaration was written at the Gaster home on 7 February 1917 in the presence of Chaim Weizmann, Nahum Sokolow, Baron Rothschild, Sir Mark Sykes and Herbert Samuel. Other visitors to the Gaster home included Churchill, Lenin and Sigmund Freud.

Collector of manuscripts.

He was a great collector of manuscripts, having over two thousand, mainly Hebrew, Samaritan and Slavonic. At the outbreak of the second World War his collection was moved for safekeeping to cellars in the centre of London. However, water used to quench London fires saturated a large part of the collection, which made some of the items illegible in whole or in part. Fortunately many of them had previously been transliterated into Hebrew typescript.  The collection comprised over 10,000 fragments in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic from the Cairo Geniza (the genizah of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo); some 350 Hebrew codices and scrolls including prayer-books of many Jewish communities, apocryphal writings, commentaries, treatises, letters, marriage contracts, piyyutim, and thirteen scrolls of the Law; some 350 Samaritan manuscripts, among them manuscripts of the Pentateuch, commentaries and treatises, and liturgical, historical, chronological and astronomical codices, detailed census lists of the Samaritans and lists of manuscripts in their possession; and almost 1,500 uncatalogued Arabic fragments on paper from the Synagogue of Ben Ezra.  In 1954 the collection was purchased by the John Rylands Library (since 1972 part of the University of Manchester), where it remains. The Rylands Cairo Genizah Project has been in progress for a number of years on the identification of fragments and digitisation of images of the texts.  The 'Gaster Collection,' a number of mainly Karaite and Yemenite manuscripts were purchased from the library of Dr. Moses Gaster in 1927, and are currently housed at the British Library.

Literary works.

Gaster's major work, in which he invested ten years of his life, was a Romanian chrestomathy and glossary covering the period from the dawn of Romanian literature down to 1830. Gaster also wrote various text-books for the Jewish community of Romania, made a Romanian translation of the "Siddur", and compiled a short Hebrew Bible history.  Gaster believed in a scientific study of folklore and did not sympathize with those believing that preserving folklore should mostly serve a political nationalist purpose. His study of Romanian folklore led Gaster to conclusions at odds with those shared by most scholars of his time, who found there traces of pre-Christian beliefs. Gaster argued that nothing found in Romanian folklore pre-dated Christianity, and that what appeared as pre-Christian to other scholars in fact derived from a Christian heresy, Bogomilism. A list of major works follows:

Moses Gaster (17 September 1856 – 5 March 1939) was a Romanian, later British scholar, the "Hakham" of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation, London, and a Hebrew and Romanian linguist. Moses Gaster was an active Zionist in Romania as well as in England, where in 1899 he helped establish the English Zionist Federation. He was the father of Jack and Theodor Gaster and the grandfather of Marghanita Laski. He was also son-in-law to Michael Friedländer and father-in-law to Neville Laski.

Moses Gaster (* 16. September 1856 in Bukarest; † 5. März 1939 bei Abingdon, England) war sephardischer Oberrabbiner ("Chacham") Englands 1887–1918, jüdischer Gelehrter und Volkskundler.


Biography.

1917-1963: Early life and work as still photographer.

Civirani was born in Rome as son of a photographer.  From 1935 to 1965, Civirani was still photographer on the set of more than two hundred films.  In 1943, being hired as still photographer on the set of Luchino Visconti's "Ossessione", Civirani introduced the novelty of taking pictures not after the scene was shot - in a constellation that was staged for this purpose -, but while the scene was being shot, using for that purpose the lighter and unobtrusive Plaubel Makina 3. According to Civirani, this was also the first time that the still photographer appeared in the title credits.  Civirani continued working as still photographer for other renowned Italian directors such as Alessandro Blasetti ("Fabiola"), Federico Fellini ("The White Sheik"), Roberto Rossellini ("The Flowers of St. Francis") and Carlo Lizzani ("Chronicle of Poor Lovers").

1963-1976: Work as producer and director.

From 1963 to 1976, Civirani produced and directed 20 films in various genres.  It started in 1963 when Civirani convinced the producer Gino Mordini to co-finance with himself the low-budget night report "Sexy proibito" consisting of about 15 variety show numbers and six ballet numbers and compositions by Gino Landi, which Civirani directed with a troupe of 12 people in 12 days mostly at the De Paolis studio and pioneered using an Arriflex 35, a cheaper and lighter camera normally only used for news and documentaries, for a proper film. The soundtrack by Lallo Gori and the commentary written and spoken by Dino Verde were added afterwards at the moviola. "Sexy proibito" proved to be an unexpected financial success, which caused Mordini to produce another one like it on his own, titled "Sexy proibitissimo".  In 1964, Civirani in turn produced and directed a second report film of his own titled "Tentazioni proibite" ("Forbidden Temptations"). The film was shot in techniscope with a very small troupe including, again, Gino Landi and Giuseppe Giannini as cameraman. The first numbers were shot on location at the Berlin Wall, at the Reeperbahn, in Soho and on the third platform of the Eiffel Tower for a striptease - a trip of nine days, after which a striptease in a gondola on the Grand Canal and a few dance numbers were added, including one starring Yvonne De Carlo.  In 1965, Civirani co-wrote, produced and directed the sword-and-sandal film "Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun" starring Mark Forest and Giuliano Gemma, which was shot in four weeks, and subsequently a second adventure film, "Kindar the Invulnerable", starring, again, Mark Forest as well as Rosalba Neri, Mimmo Palmara and Orchidea De Santis and shot on location in Egypt with 300 horses and 200 camels and riders from the Egyptian cavalry.  In Civirani's next film, the western "Sheriff with the Gold", Klaus Kinski was to have a major role, but Civirani tore up the contract due to Kinski insisting on his clause securing him the right to change any sequence as he saw fit. The film was shot with a small troupe in Sardinia starring Jacques Berthier and Kathleen Parker. Civirani used the pseudonym Richard Kean as it had become a fashion in Italian westerns to use American names.  For his next film, the eurospy film "Operation Poker", Ken Clark had signed up as protagonist. Civirani asked for a new actor when Clark had not cut his hair as Civirani had asked, and was given Roger Browne. The film was shot on a tight schedule in Copenhagen at the Tuborg Brewery, in Lugano, in Marrakesh and in Torremolinos. Civirani remembers relentlessly and unsuccessfully courting main actress Josè Greci during the shoot, contrary to his own code of conduct.  With "The Beckett Affair", Civirani produced and directed another eurospy film in 1966. It starred Lang Jeffries and was co-produced with a French company, who helped with the shooting in Paris and sent Civirani two actors: Ivan Desny and Krista Nell.  There followed Civirani's second western, "Son of Django" starring Guy Madison, Gabriele Tinti, Daniele Vargas and Gordon Mitchell. The film was shot entirely in Rome: the exteriors at the Magliana, the interiors at the De Paolis studio.  Civirani's psychological giallo titled "The Devil Has Seven Faces" starred Carroll Baker, Stephen Boyd and George Hilton. The co-production with a Spanish company, who was in for 30 percent, broke up during the shoot, and Civirani was left on his own. He also had to reshoot part of the material due to it being out of focus. In the end, Civirani flew to New York City and personally sold an English dubbed version of the film.  "Le Mans, Shortcut to Hell", based on a story by Tito Carpi, starred again Lang Jeffries flanked by Edwige Fenech, who was only on set for three days, and Erna Schürer. Civirani's son Walter caught the 1970 real life accident of Jacky Ickx on film, which was used in the film.  With the trio Sandra Milo, George Hilton and John Ireland, Civirani produced and directed the comedic western "Trusting Is Good... Shooting Is Better".  In 1968, assisted by historian Maria Bellonci and screenwriter Barbara Alberti, Civirani embarked on a film project based on a story of his own titled ‘‘Lucrezia‘‘ and dealing with the life of Lucrezia Borgia. For the title role, he wished for Czech actress Olga Schoberová, who accepted and managed to catch a flight from Prague to Rome at the last minute, thus managing to escape the consequences of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. For the role of Pope Alexander VI, Civirani contacted Orson Welles and visited him during the shoot of ‘‘Battle of Neretva in Dubrovnic. Welles afterwards signed the contract, but had to back down in the end due to his commitment to the Yugoslawian government and was substituted by Leon Askin. "Lucrezia" was shot at the De Paolis studio in Rome, then in the woods of Manziana, where Fiorella Mannoia acted as body double for Schoberová in a nude riding scene, and finally at the Villa Farnese in Caprarola, where Landi also staged a dance choreography.  When the case of Matthias Defregger was in the news, the auxiliary bishop of Munich who in 1944 as Hauptmann of the 114th Jäger Division had been forced to shoot 17 hostages in the Italian hamlet Filetto di Camarda near L'Aquila, Civirani decided to make a film about it titled "Quel giorno Dio non c'ero" (literal translation: "That day God was not there"), founding the production company "Escalation Film". He went to Filetto "a couple of times" to speak with witnesses and set up a treatment, aided by a young journalist. For the shoot, he went there with a troupe of 12 people and the actors, among them Ivano Staccioli and Anna Miserocchi, recruited extras on location, who all helped in the reconstruction. This latter process brought to light new facts, which resulted in the screenplay being adapted on the fly. The resulting film was distributed by "Euro International" and barely turned in the already low guaranteed minimum in Italy. However, Civirani could turn a small profit through foreign sales.  In 1971, Civirani produced and directed a film with the comedic duo Ric e Gian titled "Ric e Gian alla conquista del West " ("Rick and John, Conquerors of the West"). The predictions for the film's success were very favorable, but it failed at the box office: It had cost 80 million lire, of which it returned only 30. According to Civirani, this was due to an unfortunate distribution strategy.  In the following years, Civirani produced and directed a total of four films with Franco and Ciccio. He started with the intent of shooting only two, "Two Sons of Trinity" and "I due gattoni a nove code... e mezza ad Amsterdam", founding the production company "Production International Films" for the purpose and convincing Giulio Sbarigia from "Fono Roma" to co-produce the films with him at 30 percent participation, who in turn managed to secure 20th Century Fox as distributor for "Two Sons of Trinity". According to Civirani, it was the first Franco and Ciccio film to appear on an American distribution list. Civirani then shot two more films with the comedic duo, the mafia-themed "I due pezzi da 90", and "I 2 della Formula 1 alla corsa più pazza del mondo".  On 14 August 1974, Civirani and his foreign production secretary Umberto Chinigo travelled to Santo Domingo to scout for a possible co-production. After the financial disaster of Ugo Liberatore's film "Noa-Noa" in which the Dominican Republic had lost 100.000 dollars, no Italian production company was involved on site anymore, although film equipment had been left behind. Civirani signed a co-production contract with Hugo Mateo and his company "Filmica La Trinitaria". After a brief return to Rome came back on 20 September 1974 and shot the voodoo-themed "Il pavone nero" (literal: "The Black Peacock") starring Karin Schubert mostly on location at Boca Chica and at the hotel "Viña del Mar", where a pagan altar was erected with the help of Haitian sugarcane harvesters who still practised the religion more than the locals.  In 1975, Civirani decided to shoot a second film there, "La ragazza dalla pelle di corallo" (literal: "The Girl with the Coral Skin"), again in co-production with Hugo Mateo. Civirani wrote the screenplay, which was semi-autobiographical. The film was shot for the most part at the Hotel Ambassador, where Civirani had reserved 20 rooms for four weeks for the purpose. This time, he used a Spanish troupe from the co-producing "Tecisa Film", with whom there were several difficulties during the shoot. The film's starring actress Rosanna Schiaffino did not travel to Santo Domingo, all her scenes were shot in Rome. The film also starred Gabriele Tinti and Eduardo Fajardo.

1976-2008: Work as film vendor and author.

After these, Civirani retired from his activities in film production. With his company "Parade Films Import-Export", he bought foreign films, dubbed them, and sold them to regional distributors. Civirani also founded the "Jolly Videoreg" which he used to sell VHS editions of his own films and those foreign films for which he had the home video distribution rights. Finally, Civirani also sold the rights to his films, after which both his companies were dissolved.  In 1995, Civirani's autobiographical book "Un fotografo a Cinecittà. Tra negativi, positivi, e belle donne" (literal English translation: "A photographer at Cinecittà. Inbetween negatives, positives, and beautiful women") was published, and in 2003, a second autobiographical book titled "Le donne dei sogni. Amori e trasgressioni sui set cinematografici" (lit.: "The Women of the Dreams. Love relations and transgressions on the cinematographic sets") was published, both by Gremese Editore. The latter is dedicated to Civirani's sons Walter and Fabrizio.

Filmography.

Civirani both produced (or co-produced) and directed a total of 20 films:

External links.

Osvaldo Civirani (19 May 1917 - 20 February 2008) was an Italian still photographer, producer, director, cinematographer, screenwriter and author.

Osvaldo Civirani (* 19. Mai 1917 in Rom; † 20. Februar 2008 ebenda) war ein italienischer Kameramann, Filmregisseur und Drehbuchautor.


Nucleophilic/electrophilic cascades.

Nucleophilic/electrophilic cascades are defined as the cascade sequences in which the key step constitutes a nucleophilic or electrophilic attack.  An example of such a cascade is seen in the short enantioselective synthesis of the broad-spectrum antibiotic (–)-chloramphenicol, reported by Rao et al. (Scheme 1). Herein, the chiral epoxy-alcohol 1 was first treated with dichloroacetonitrile in the presence of NaH. The resulting intermediate 2 then underwent a BF·EtO-mediated cascade reaction. Intramolecular opening of the epoxide ring yielded intermediate 3, which, after an "in situ" hydrolysis facilitated by excess BF·EtO, afforded (–)-chloramphenicol (4) in 71% overall yield. A nucleophilic cascade was also employed in the total synthesis of the natural product pentalenene (Scheme 2). In this procedure, squarate ester 5 was treated with (5-methylcyclopent-1-en-1-yl)lithium and propynyllithium. The two nucleophilic attacks occurred predominantly with "trans" addition to afford intermediate 6, which spontaneously underwent a 4π-conrotatory electrocyclic opening of the cyclobutene ring. The resulting conjugated species 7 equilibrated to conformer 8, which more readily underwent an 8π-conrotatory electrocyclization to the highly strained intermediate 9. The potential to release strain directed protonation of 9 such that species 10 was obtained selectively. The cascade was completed by an intramolecular aldol condensation that afforded product 11 in 76% overall yield. Further elaboration afforded the target (±)-pentalenene (12).

Organocatalytic cascades.

A subcategory of nucleophilic/electrophilic sequences is constituted by organocatalytic cascades, in which the key nucleophilic attack is driven by organocatalysis.  An organocatalytic cascade was employed in the total synthesis of the natural product harziphilone, reported by Sorensen et al. in 2004 (Scheme 3). Herein, treatment of the enone starting material 13 with organocatalyst 14 yielded intermediate 15 via conjugate addition. Subsequent cyclization by the intramolecular Michael addition of the enolate into the triple bond of the system gave species 16, which afforded intermediate 17 after proton transfer and tautomerization. The cascade was completed by elimination of the organocatalyst and a spontaneous 6π-electrocyclic ring closure of the resultant "cis"-dienone 18 to (+)-harziphilone (19) in 70% overall yield. An outstanding triple organocatalytic cascade was reported by Raabe et al. in 2006. Linear aldehydes (20), nitroalkenes (21) and "α","β"-unsaturated aldehydes (22) could be condensed together organocatalytically to afford "tetra"-substituted cyclohexane carbaldehydes (24) with moderate to excellent diastereoselectivity and complete enantiocontrol (Scheme 4). The transformation is mediated by the readily available proline-derived organocatalyst 23.  The transformation was proposed to proceed via a Michael addition/Michael addition/aldol condensation sequence (Scheme 5). In the first step, Michael addition of aldehyde 20 to nitroalkene 21 occurs through enamine catalysis, yielding nitroalkane 25. Condensation of "α","β"-unsaturated aldehyde 22 with the organocatalyst then facilitates the conjugate addition of 25 to give intermediate enamine 26, which is prone to undergo an intramolecular aldol condensation to iminium species 27. Organocatalyst 23 is regenerated by hydrolysis, along with the product 24, thus closing the triple cascade cycle.

Radical cascades.

Radical cascades are those in which the key step constitutes a radical reaction. The high reactivity of free radical species renders radical-based synthetic approaches decidedly suitable for cascade reactions.  One of the most widely recognized examples of the synthetic utility of radical cascades is the cyclization sequence employed in the total synthesis of (±)-hirsutene, in 1985 (Scheme 6). Herein, alkyl iodide 28 was converted to the primary radical intermediate 29, which underwent a 5-"exo"-trig cyclization to afford reactive species 30. A subsequent 5-"exo"-dig radical cyclization lead to intermediate 31, which upon quenching gave the target (±)-hirsutene (32) in 80% overall yield.  A cascade radical process was also used in one of the total syntheses of (–)-morphine (Scheme 7). Aryl bromide 33 was converted to the corresponding radical species 34 by treatment with tri-"n"-butyltin hydride. A 5-"exo"-trig cyclization then occurred to give intermediate 35 stereoselectively in virtue of the stereochemistry of the ether linkage. In the next step of the cascade, the geometric constraints of 35 forbid the kinetically favored 5-"exo"-trig cyclization pathway; instead secondary benzylic radical species 36 was obtained via a geometrically-allowed 6-"endo"-trig cyclization. Subsequent elimination of the phenyl sulfinyl radical afforded product 37 in 30% overall yield, which was further elaborated to (–)-morphine (38).

Pericyclic cascades.

Possibly the most widely encountered kind of process in cascade transformations, pericyclic reactions include cycloadditions, electrocyclic reactions and sigmatropic rearrangements. Although some of the abovementioned instances of nucleophilic/electrophilic and radical cascades involved pericyclic processes, this section contains only cascade sequences that are solely composed of pericyclic reactions or in which such a reaction arguably constitutes the key step.  A representative example of a pericyclic cascade is the endiandric acid cascade reported by Nicolaou et al. in 1982 (Scheme 8). Herein the highly unsaturated system 39 was first hydrogenated to the conjugated tetraene species 40, which upon heating underwent an 8π-conrotatory electrocyclic ring closure, yielding cyclic intermediate 41. A second spontaneous electrocyclization, this time a 6π-disrotatory ring closure, converted 41 to the bicyclic species 42, the geometry and stereochemistry of which favored a subsequent intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction. The methyl ester of endiandric acid B (43) was thus obtained in 23% overall yield.  A pericyclic sequence involving intramolecular hetero-cycloaddition reactions was employed in the total synthesis of naturally occurring alkaloid (–)-vindorosine (Scheme 9). Rapid access to the target was achieved from a solution of 1,3,4-oxadiazole 44 in triisopropyl benzene subjected to high temperatures and reduced pressure. First an inverse-electron-demand hetero-Diels-Alder reaction occurred to give intermediate 45. Thermodynamically favorable loss of nitrogen generated the 1,3-dipole-containing species 46. A spontaneous intramolecular [3+2] cycloaddition of the 1,3-dipole and the indole system then formed the "endo"-product 47 in 78% overall yield. Further elaboration yielded the target natural product 48.  The total synthesis of (–)-colombiasin A reported in 2005 by the Harrowven group included an electrocyclic cascade (Scheme 10). When subjected to heat via microwave irradiation, squarate derivative 49 underwent an electrocyclic opening of the cyclobutene ring, followed by a 6π-electrocyclic ring closure that yielded bicyclic intermediate 51. Tautomerization thereof gave the aromatic species 52, which upon exposure to air was oxidized to product 53 in 80% overall yield. The target (–)-colombiasin A (54) was then obtained from 53 via a heat-facilitated Diels-Alder reaction followed by cleavage of the "tert"-butyl protecting group.  Certain [2,2]paracyclophanes can also be obtained via pericyclic cascades, as reported by the Hopf group in 1981 (Scheme 11). In this sequence, a Diels-Alder reaction between 1,2,4,5-hexatetraene 55 and dienophile 56 first formed the highly reactive intermediate 57, which subsequently dimerized to yield [2,2]paracyclophane 58.

Transition-metal-catalyzed cascades.

Transition-metal-catalyzed cascade sequences combine the novelty and power of organometallic chemistry with the synthetic utility and economy of cascade reactions, providing an even more ecologically and economically desirable approach to organic synthesis.  For instance, rhodium catalysis was used to convert acyclic monoterpenes of the type 59 to 4"H"-chromen products in a hydroformylation cascade (Scheme 12). First, selective rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation of the less sterically hindered olefin bond in 59 yielded unsaturated aldehyde 60, which under the same conditions was then converted to intermediate 61 via a carbonyl-ene reaction. A second rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation to species 62 was followed by condensation to form 4"H"-chromen products of the type 63 in 40% overall yield.  Rhodium catalysis was also employed to initiate a cyclization/cycloaddition cascade in the synthesis of a tigliane reported by the Dauben group (Scheme 13). Treatment of diazoimide 64 with rhodium(II) acetate dimer generated a carbenoid that yielded reactive ylide 65 after an intramolecular cyclization with the neighboring carbonyl group. An intramolecular [3+2] cycloaddition then spontaneously occurred to afford the target tigliane 66.  The formal intramolecular [4+2] cycloaddition of 1,6-enynes of the type 67 mediated by gold catalysis is another example of a transition-metal-catalyzed cascade (Scheme 14). A variety of 1,6-enynes reacted under mild conditions in the presence of Au(I) complexes 68a–b to yield the tricyclic products 69 in moderate to excellent yields.  This formal cycloaddition was proposed to proceed via the cascade process shown in Scheme 15. Complexation of the 1,6-enyne 67 with the cationic form of the catalyst yields intermediate 70, in which the activated triple bond is attacked by the olefin functionality to yield substituted cyclopropane 71. Electrophilic opening of the three-membered ring forms cationic species 72, which undergoes a Friedel-Crafts-type reaction and then rearomatizes to give tricyclic product 69. Due to the nature of the interaction of gold complexes with unsaturated systems, this process could also be considered an electrophilic cascade.  An example of palladium-catalyzed cascades is represented by the asymmetric polyene Heck cyclization used in the preparation of (+)-xestoquinone from triflate substrate 75 (Scheme 16). Oxidative addition of the aryl–triflate bond into the palladium(0) complex in the presence of chiral diphosphine ligand ("S")-binap yields chiral palladium(II) complex 77. This step is followed by the dissociation of the triflate anion, association of the neighboring olefin and 1,2-insertion of the naphthyl group into the olefin to yield intermediate 79. A second migratory insertion into the remaining olefin group followed by a "β"-elimination then occurs to afford product 81 in 82% overall yield and with moderate enantioselectivity. The palladium(0) catalyst is also regenerated in this step, thus allowing the cascade to be reinitiated.

Multistep tandem reactions.

Multistep tandem reactions (or cascade reactions) are a sequence of chemical transformations (usually more than two steps) that happens consecutively to convert a starting material to a complex product. This kind of organic reactions are designed to construct difficult structures encountered in natural product total synthesis.  In the total synthesis of spiroketal ionophore antibiotic routiennocin 1 (Fig. 1), the central spiroketal skeleton was constructed by a multistep tandem reaction (Fig. 2). Fragment A and fragment B were coupled in a single step to form the key intermediate G that could be further elaborated to afford the final product routiennocin.  Four chemical transformations happened in this tandem reaction. First, treating fragment A with n-butyllithium formed carbon anion that attacked the alkyliodide part of fragment B to generate intermediate C (step 1). Then a 3, 4-dihydropyran derivative D was formed through base-mediated elimination reaction on intermediate C (step 2). The protecting group on 1, 3-diol moiety in intermediate D was removed by acid treatment to give the diol product E (step 3). The spiroketal product G was generated via intramolecular ketal formation reaction. This multistep tandem reaction greatly simplified the construction of this complex spiroketal structure and eased the path towards the total synthesis of routiennocin.

A cascade reaction, also known as a domino reaction or tandem reaction, is a chemical process that comprises at least two consecutive reactions such that each subsequent reaction occurs only in virtue of the chemical functionality formed in the previous step. In cascade reactions, isolation of intermediates is not required, as each reaction composing the sequence occurs spontaneously. In the strictest definition of the term, the reaction conditions do not change among the consecutive steps of a cascade and no new reagents are added after the initial step. By contrast, one-pot procedures similarly allow at least two reactions to be carried out consecutively without any isolation of intermediates, but do not preclude the addition of new reagents or the change of conditions after the first reaction. Thus, any cascade reaction is also a one-pot procedure, while the reverse does not hold true. Although often composed solely of intramolecular transformations, cascade reactions can also occur intermolecularly, in which case they also fall under the category of multicomponent reactions.

Tandem-Reaktion (auch Domino- oder Kaskaden-Reaktion, engl. Zipper-Reaction) ist ein Oberbegriff für eine intramolekulare Reaktionsfolge von oft hoch reaktiven, acyclischen Vorstufen zu komplexen, vielkernigen Molekülen. Damit sind Gesamtreaktionen gemeint, die eigentlich aus mehreren unabhängigen Reaktionsstufen (nicht mechanistischen Schritten) bestehen, die spontan unmittelbar nacheinander ablaufen. Man könnte sie auch einzeln nacheinander durchführen, um zum selben Produkt zu gelangen.