by tyler | Apr 17, 2023 | CNN, world
Scientists have found thriving communities of coastal creatures, including tiny crabs and anemones, living thousands of miles from their original home on plastic debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a 620,000 square mile swirl of trash in the ocean between California and Hawaii.
In a new study published in the Nature Ecology & Evolution journal on Monday, a team of researchers revealed that dozens of species of coastal invertebrate organisms have been able to survive and reproduce on plastic garbage that’s been floating in the ocean for years.
The scientists said that the findings suggest plastic pollution in the ocean might be enabling the creation of new floating ecosystems of species that are not normally able to survive in the open ocean.
Unlike organic material that decomposes and sinks within months or, at most, a few years, plastic debris can float in the oceans for a much longer time, giving creatures the opportunity to survive and reproduce in the open ocean for years.
“It was surprising to see how frequent the coastal species were. They were on 70% of the debris that we found,” Linsey Haram, a science fellow at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the study’s lead author, told CNN.
Haram and her colleagues examined 105 items of plastic fished out of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between November 2018 and January 2019. They identified 484 marine invertebrate organisms on the debris, accounting for 46 different species, of which 80% were normally found in coastal habitats.
“Quite a large percentage of the diversity that we found were coastal species and not the the native pelagic open ocean species that we were largely expecting to find,” Haram said.
They did still find a lot of open ocean species, Haram added. “On two thirds of the debris, we found both communities together … competing for space, but very likely interacting in other ways.”
Haram said that the consequences of the introduction of new species into the remote areas of the ocean are not yet fully understood.
“There’s likely competition for space, because space is at a premium in the open ocean, there’s likely competition for food resources – but they may also be eating each other. It’s hard to know exactly what’s going on, but we have seen evidence of some of the coastal anemones eating open ocean species, so we know there is some predation going on between the two communities,” she said.
How exactly the creatures get to the open ocean and how they survive there remains unclear. Whether, for example, they were just hitching a ride on a piece of plastic they attached themselves to by the coast, or whether they were able to colonize new objects once they were in the open ocean, is unknown.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is twice the size of Texas, is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world.
The patch is bounded by an enormous gyre – the biggest of five huge, spinning circular currents in the world’s oceans that pull trash towards the center and trap it there, creating a garbage vortex.
It’s a mistake to think of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as an island of trash, though, Matthias Egger, the head of environmental and social affairs at The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit developing technologies to rid the oceans of plastic, told CNN.
“If you’re out there, what you see is just pristine blue ocean,” said Egger, who helped Haram’s research by collecting the samples in the patch, fishing them out with a net.
“You can think of it like the night sky. If you look up at night, you see all those white dots, that’s essentially what you see in the garbage patch. It’s not that dense, but there are a lot of them … out there, you start seeing more and more plastic the longer you look,” he said.
The Ocean Cleanup initiative estimates there are about 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch that weigh an estimated 80,000 tonnes. The majority of the plastic found in the patch comes from the fishing industry, while between 10% and 20% of the total volume can be traced back to the 2011 Japanese tsunami.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the world produces around 460 million tons of plastic a year, a figure that — without urgent action – will triple by 2060.
Globally, only around 9% of plastic waste is recycled, according to UNEP. As much as 22% of all plastic waste is mismanaged and ends up as litter, with large amounts eventually making it into the oceans.
Scientists have warned there has been a “rapid and unprecedented” increase in ocean plastic pollution since 2005.
“The problem is getting bigger and bigger by the minute,” Egger said. “We see turtles that are entangled in ghost fishing nets. Sometimes it’s even just turtle carcasses. We see ingestion of plastic fragments. Then there’s also the pollutants – chemicals.”
The Ocean Cleanup has built a huge trash-collecting system, a U-shaped barrier with a net-like skirt that hangs below the surface of the water. It moves with the current and collects faster-moving plastics as they float by.
“We want to look into what’s the impact on marine life. And once we know for sure that it’s safe and it benefits the environment, then we want to scale up,” Egger said.
But cleanup is only part of the solution. A study published last month said that without urgent policy action, the rate at which plastics enter the oceans could increase by around 2.6 times between now and 2040.
The UN Environment Assembly passed a historic resolution last year to end plastic pollution and create the world’s first global plastic pollution treaty by 2024 – a legally binding agreement that would address the full life cycle of plastic, from its production and design to its disposal.
by tyler | Apr 17, 2023 | CNN, world
A brilliant starburst feature shines in the latest image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.
The space observatory captured a bright burst of star formation triggered by two spiral galaxies crashing into one another.
The colliding galaxies, known collectively as Arp 220, generated an infrared glow that contains the light of more than 1 trillion suns. For comparison, the Milky Way galaxy has a luminosity that is the equivalent of about 10 billion suns.
The scintillating light show from the ultra-luminous infrared galaxy is the spiked starburst feature at the center of the new Webb image, which was released on Monday.
The telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera and Mid-Infrared Instrument captured the composite image.
Arp 220 is located 250 million light-years away in the Serpens constellation, and it’s the brightest of the three galactic mergers closest to Earth.
These two galaxies began colliding about 700 million years ago, and as the gas and dust combined, a tremendous flare of star birth began.
There are around 200 massive star clusters contained in a dusty region that stretches 5,000 light-years across, which is about 5% of the Milky Way’s diameter. Yet there is enough gas in this small region, astronomically speaking, to replace all of the gas in the entire Milky Way.
Previous observations of this star-packed region from other telescopes have observed different features. Radio telescopes saw 100 supernova remnants within an area of less than 500 light-years, while the Hubble Space Telescope documented the cores of the two original galaxies existing 1,200 light-years apart.
Each galactic core has a rotating star-forming ring that releases the bright infrared light that the powerful Webb telescope is capable of viewing in great detail. This brilliant luminosity creates the diffraction spikes, or starburst feature witnessed by Webb.
The new Webb image also reveals tails, or material streaming away from the galaxies due to gravity, in blue, to indicate activity as the galaxies continue to collide. Meanwhile, reddish-orange streams and filaments of organic material can be seen across the merging galaxies.
by tyler | Apr 17, 2023 | CNN, world
Just a few months after NASA introduced the world to the most powerful rocket ever flown to orbit, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is prepared to set off its own creation — which could pack nearly twice the power of anything flown before.
SpaceX’s vehicle, called Starship, is currently sitting on a launch pad at the company’s facilities on the southern Texas coastline. The company is targeting liftoff at 8 a.m. CT (9 a.m. ET) on Monday, although it has the ability to take off anytime between 8 a.m. CT (9 a.m. ET) and 9:30 a.m. CT (10:30 a.m. ET).
“I guess I’d like to just set expectations low,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said during a Twitter “Spaces” event for his subscribers Sunday evening. “If we get far enough away from launch pad before something goes wrong, then I think I would consider that to be a success. Just don’t blow up the pad.”
He added: “There’s a good chance that it gets postponed since we’re going to be pretty careful about this launch.”
SpaceX has a livestream of the Starship launch here.
Folks on the ground near SpaceX’s facilities in South Texas can certainly catch an in-person glimpse. Locals are known to line the surrounding beaches in South Padre Island to watch tests, and this launch is sure to draw spectators.
SpaceX has repeatedly warned those in the area, however, to stay away from the “Keepout Zone” — the areas directly surrounding the launch site that have been deemed too close to the rocket to be safe during lift off.
The “Keepout Zone” includes the coastline south of South Padre Island and stretches a few miles inland.
This will mark SpaceX’s first attempt to launch a fully assembled Starship vehicle, building on a years-long testing campaign.
Musk has talked about Starship — making elaborate presentations about its design and purpose — for half a decade, and he frequently harps on its potential for carrying cargo and humans to Mars. Musk has even said that his sole purpose for founding SpaceX was to develop a vehicle like Starship that could establish a human settlement on Mars.
Additionally, NASA has already awarded SpaceX contracts and options worth several billions of dollars to use Starship to ferry government astronauts to the surface of the moon under the space agency’s Artemis program.
The inaugural flight test will not complete a full orbit around Earth. If successful, however, it will travel about 150 miles above Earth’s surface, well into altitudes deemed to be outer space.
Starship consists of two parts: the Super Heavy booster, a gargantuan rocket that houses 33 engines, and the Starship spacecraft, which sits atop the booster during launch and is designed to break away after the booster expends its fuel to finish the mission.
The massive Super Heavy rocket booster will give the first blast of power at liftoff.
Less than three minutes after takeoff, it’s expected to expend its fuel and separate from the Starship spacecraft, leaving the booster to be discarded in the ocean. The Starship will use its own six engines, blazing for more than six minutes, to propel itself to nearly orbital speeds.
The vehicle will then complete a partial lap of the planet, reentering the Earth’s atmosphere near Hawaii. It’s expected to splash down off the coast about an hour and a half after liftoff.
Starship’s ultimate success or failure immensely consequential. Not only is it crucial to SpaceX’s future as a company — it also underpins the United States government’s ambitions for human exploration.
But it’s not all riding on this inaugural test flight. SpaceX has long established its willingness to embrace mishaps, mistakes and explosions in the name of refining the design of its spacecraft.
In the lead-up to the first launch of the company’s Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018, which held the title of most powerful rocket before NASA’s SLS took flight last year, Musk foresaw only a 50-50 chance of success.
“People (came) from all around the world to see what will either be a great rocket launch or the best fireworks display they’ve ever seen,” Musk told CNN at the time.
The inaugural Falcon Heavy launch was ultimately successful.
Development of Starship has been based at SpaceX’s privately held spaceport about 40 minutes outside Brownsville, Texas, on the US-Mexico border. Testing began years ago with brief “hop tests” of early spacecraft prototypes. The company began with brief flights that lifted a few dozen feet off the ground before evolving to high-altitude flights, most of which resulted in dramatic explosions as the company attempted to land them upright.
One suborbital flight test in May 2021, however, ended in success.
Since then, SpaceX has also been working to get its Super Heavy booster prepared for flight. The massive, 230-foot-tall (69-meter-tall) cylinder is packed with 33 of the company’s Raptor engines.
Fully stacked, Starship and Super Heavy stand about 400 feet (120 meters) tall.
SpaceX has been waiting more than a year to get FAA approval for this launch attempt.
The company, and federal regulators tasked with certifying SpaceX launches won’t pose risks to people or property in the area surrounding the launch site, have faced significant pushback from the local community, including from environmental groups.
But the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, announced Friday, April 14, that it granted the company’s request for an uncrewed flight test of the rocket out of the SpaceX facilities in South Texas.
“After a comprehensive license evaluation process, the FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy, payload, airspace integration and financial responsibility requirements,” the agency said in a statement.
During a call with reporters last week, an FAA official, who declined to be named for publication, said that the agency has been overseeing SpaceX’s compliance with the mitigating actions, some of which are still in the works, even as the company prepares for launch.
The FAA official said government personnel will be on the ground to ensure SpaceX complies with its license during the test launch.
SpaceX’s contract with NASA to use Starship for the space agency’s Artemis III moon landing later this decade leaves much of Starship’s development work to SpaceX. A $2.9 billion deal, inked in April 2021, was awarded to SpaceX over several competitors. It was later expanded to include a second lunar landing mission in 2027.
NASA has been working over the past year to hash out a work flow between the space agency and SpaceX. It’s a dynamic the two organization have had to iron out in previous SpaceX-NASA projects, including an ongoing partnership that uses SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to get astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
A moon mission, however, involves more powerful and complex hardware.
NASA is not, however, involved in planning the flight profile for this test flight or directing SpaceX on what to do, according to Lisa Hammond, NASA’s associate program manager of the Human Landing System at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Hammond did not share a specific checklist of tests or flights that NASA hopes to see before Starship is entrusted with a moon landing mission.
“I would not put it with a number,” she said, adding that the Artemis II mission, slated for next year, will see humans fly atop the SLS rocket after only one uncrewed test flight.
“The confidence comes in the design, the confidence comes in the safety of the vehicle for the crew,” Hammond said.
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell previously said she hopes the company will conduct more than 100 orbital test flights of Starship before putting humans on board, as the company will need to do in order to help NASA carry out its moon landing with the Artemis III mission, slated for 2025.
“I think that would be a great goal,” Shotwell said Wednesday, when asked whether that target was still feasible. “I don’t think we will do 100 flights of Starship next year, but maybe (in) 2025 we will do 100 flights.”
NASA’s current timeline targets 2025 for the first lunar landing mission, which will see astronauts transfer from their Orion capsule, which will launch atop a NASA Space Launch System rocket, and into a Starship spacecraft already in lunar orbit. It will be the Starship vehicle that ferries the crew down to the lunar surface.
It’s not clear, however, if 2025 is feasible. NASA’s inspector general has already suggested it is not. Delays, according to comments from the inspector general in March 2022, could revolve around Starship.
by tyler | Apr 17, 2023 | CNN, world
Here’s a look at the Vietnam War.
1883-1945 – Cochin-China, southern Vietnam, and Annam and Tonkin, central and northern Vietnam, along with Cambodia and Laos make up colonial empire French Indochina.
1946 – Communists in the north begin fighting France for control of the country.
1949 – France establishes the State of Vietnam in the southern half of the country.
1951 – Ho Chi Minh becomes leader of Dang Lao Dong Vietnam, the Vietnam Worker’s Party, in the north.
North Vietnam was communist. South Vietnam was not. North Vietnamese Communists and South Vietnamese Communist rebels, known as the Viet Cong, wanted to overthrow the South Vietnamese government and reunite the country.
1954 – North Vietnamese begin helping South Vietnamese rebels fight South Vietnamese troops, thus BEGINS the Vietnam conflict.
April 30, 1975 – South Vietnam surrenders to North Vietnam as North Vietnamese troops enter Saigon, ENDING the Vietnam conflict.
The war was estimated to cost about $200 billion.
Anti-war opinion increased in the United States from the mid-1960s on, with rallies, teach-ins, and other forms of demonstration.
North Vietnamese guerrilla forces used the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a network of jungle paths and mountain trails, to send supplies and troops into South Vietnam.
The bombing of North Vietnam surpassed the total tonnage of bombs dropped on Germany, Italy and Japan in World War II.
Today, Vietnam is a communist state.
Source: Dept. of Defense
8,744,000 – Total number of US Troops that served worldwide during Vietnam
3,403,000 served in Southeast Asia
2,594,000 served in South Vietnam
The total of American servicemen listed as POW/MIA at the end of the war was 2,646. As of April 14, 2023, 1,579 soldiers remain unaccounted for.
Battle: 47,434
Non-Battle: 10,786
Total In-Theatre: 58,220
1.3 million – Total military deaths for all countries involved
1 million – Total civilian deaths
September 2, 1945 – Vietnam declares independence from France. Neither France nor the United States recognizes this claim. US President Harry S. Truman aids France with military equipment to fight the rebels known as Viet Minh.
May 1954 – The Battle of Dien Bien Phu results in serious defeat for the French and peace talks in Geneva. The Geneva Accords end the French Indochina War.
July 21, 1954 – Vietnam signs the Geneva Accords and divides into two countries at the 17th parallel, the Communist-led north and US-supported south.
1957-1963 – North Vietnam and the Viet Cong fight South Vietnamese troops. Hoping to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, the United States sends more aid and military advisers to help the South Vietnamese government. The number of US military advisers in Vietnam grows from 900 in 1960 to 11,000 in 1962.
1964-1969 – By 1964, the Viet Cong, the Communist guerrilla force, has 35,000 troops in South Vietnam. The United States sends more and more troops to fight the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, with the number of US troops in Vietnam peaking at 543,000 in April 1969. Anti-war sentiment in the United States grows stronger as the troop numbers increase.
August 2, 1964 – Gulf of Tonkin – The North Vietnamese fire on a US destroyer anchored in the Gulf of Tonkin. After US President Lyndon Johnson falsely claims that there had been a second attack on the destroyer, Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which authorizes full-scale US intervention in the Vietnam War. Johnson orders the bombing of North Vietnam in retaliation for the Tonkin attack.
August 5, 1964 – Johnson asks Congress for the power to go to war against the North Vietnamese and the Communists for violating the Geneva Accords against South Vietnam and Laos. The request is granted August 7, 1964, in a Congressional joint resolution.
January 30, 1968 – Tet Offensive – The North Vietnamese launch a massive surprise attack during the festival of the Vietnamese New Year, called Tet. The attack hits 36 major cities and towns in South Vietnam. Both sides suffer heavy casualties, but the offensive demonstrates that the war will not end soon or easily. American public opinion against the war increases, and the US begins to reduce the number of troops in Vietnam.
March 16, 1968 – My Lai Massacre – About 400 women, children and elderly men are massacred by US forces in the village of My Lai in South Vietnam. Lieutenant William L. Calley Jr. is later court-martialed for leading the raid and sentenced to life in prison for his role but is released in 1974 when a federal court overturns the conviction. Calley is the only soldier ever convicted in connection with the event.
April 1970 – Invasion of Cambodia – US President Richard Nixon orders US and South Vietnamese troops to invade border areas in Cambodia and destroy supply centers set up by the North Vietnamese. The invasion sparks more anti-war protests, and on June 3, 1970, Nixon announces the completion of troop withdrawal.
May 4, 1970 – National Guard units fire into a group of demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio. The shots kill four students and wound nine others. Anti-war demonstrations and riots occur on hundreds of other campuses throughout May.
February 8, 1971 – Invasion of Laos – Under orders from Nixon, US and South Vietnamese ground troops, with the support of B-52 bombers, invade southern Laos in an effort to stop the North Vietnamese supply routes through Laos into South Vietnam. This action is done without consent of Congress and causes more anti-war protests in the United States.
January 27, 1973 – A cease-fire is arranged after peace talks.
March 29, 1973 – The last American ground troops leave. Fighting begins again between North and South Vietnam, but the United States does not return.
April 30, 1975 – South Vietnam surrenders to North Vietnam as North Vietnamese troops enter Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City.
May 25, 2012 – US President Barack Obama signs a proclamation that puts into effect the “Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War” that will continue until November 11, 2025. Over the next 13 years, the program will “honor and give thanks to a generation of proud Americans who saw our country through one of the most challenging missions we have ever faced.”
by tyler | Apr 13, 2023 | CNN, world
Here’s a look at the life of artist, musician and activist Yoko Ono.
Birth date: February 18, 1933
Birth place: Tokyo, Japan
Birth name: Ono Yōko (in Japanese)
Father: Yeisuke Ono, bank executive (also spelled Eisuke)
Mother: Isoko (Yasuda) Ono
Marriages: John Lennon (March 20, 1969-December 8, 1980, his death); Anthony Cox (1962-1969, divorced); Ichiyanagi Toshi (1956-1962, divorced)
Children: with John Lennon: Sean Lennon; with Anthony Cox: Kyoko Cox
Education: Attended Gakushuin University in Tokyo and Sarah Lawrence College in New York
As a child, Ono moved back and forth between Japan and the United States. During World War II, she was in Tokyo during an air raid on the city in March 1945.
She was the first woman ever admitted into the philosophy program at Gakushuin University.
Was a part of the New York avant-garde scene and the Fluxus movement, which was founded by conceptual artist George Maciunas, and included La Monte Young, Diane Wakoski and Walter De Maria.
Ono has repeatedly fought the parole of her husband’s convicted killer Mark David Chapman, out of concern for her personal safety.
Has won two Grammy Awards, one as an artist and producer (1981) and the other as a video producer (2000).
Early 1960s – Ono and La Monte Young stage a series of events in a loft on Chambers Street in Manhattan. Ono’s works are also experienced at Carnegie Recital Hall, Village Gate and various galleries in New York.
1962 – Returns to Japan, and is committed to a mental hospital for clinical depression.
Mid 1960s – Lecturer at Wesleyan College.
1964 – Premieres “Cut Piece,” which involves the audience cutting off pieces of Ono’s clothing until she is naked.
1966 – Premieres “No. 4 (Bottoms),” a short film featuring a series of close-ups of nude buttocks.
November 1966 – Ono meets John Lennon when he visits her art exhibit in London.
October 18, 1968 – Ono and Lennon are arrested in London for possession of cannabis. In court the following month, Lennon admits possession and is fined £150. Ono’s charges are dropped.
November 1968 – Ono and Lennon release the album “Two Virgins,” featuring a controversial nude photo of them on the cover.
March 25-31, 1969 – During their honeymoon, Ono and Lennon stage their first “bed-in” in their Amsterdam hotel room to promote world peace.
September 1969 – Ono performs with the Plastic Ono Band (which includes Lennon, Eric Clapton, Alan White and Klaus Voormann), and subsequently releases “Live Peace in Toronto, 1969.”
December 11, 1970 – Ono and Lennon release “Plastic Ono Band” solo LPs on the same day.
Late 1971 – During a custody battle, Ono’s ex-husband, film producer Tony Cox, disappears with their 8-year-old daughter, Kyoko. After traveling to Texas, then California, Cox and Kyoko join the religious organization The Walk, also known as the Church of the Living Word.
November 1980 – Ono and Lennon release “Double Fantasy.”
December 8, 1980 – Mark David Chapman shoots and kills Lennon in front of the Dakota hotel, where he and Ono live. Ono is a few feet away at the time of the shooting.
December 1980 – Ono receives a telegram from Cox and Kyoko offering condolences for Lennon’s death. This is the last communication Ono receives from her daughter for years.
1981 – Ono releases “Season of Glass,” a solo LP with a picture of Lennon’s bloodied glasses worn the night of his assassination on the cover.
November 1982 – Releases “It’s Alright (I See Rainbows).”
January 27, 1984 – Lennon and Ono’s album, “Milk and Honey,” is released.
January 1986 – In an interview with People magazine, Cox reveals that he and Kyoko “escaped” the religious organization The Walk in 1977. In response, Ono pens an open letter to Kyoko in the magazine.
1994 – Writes “New York Rock,” a rock opera that runs Off-Broadway for two weeks.
1994 – Ono and Kyoko reunite for the first time since Kyoko’s disappearance.
1995 – Releases “Rising,” a rock album, which features her son, Sean Lennon, and his band IMA.
2001 – Releases “Blueprint for a Sunrise.”
2002 – Founds the LennonOno Grant for Peace.
October 9, 2007 – Unveils the Imagine Peace Tower, an outdoor art installation that emits a ray of light every year from October 9th (John’s birthday) until December 8th (the date of his death). The tower is also illuminated annually on New Year’s Eve, Ono’s birthday in February, and the start of the Vernal Equinox and Winter Solstice. The tower is located on Vioey Island in Reykjavik, Iceland.
October 19, 2010 – Ono tells CNN’s Anderson Cooper that she was blamed for the breakup of the Beatles because of racism and sexism.
August 2012 – Ono and son, Sean, found Artists Against Fracking, which protests fracking of natural gas and oil.
September 17, 2013 – Releases “Take Me to the Land of Hell” with Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band.
February 2, 2016 – Ono exhibits “Land of Hope,” consisting of 19 pieces of her conceptual artwork in Mexico City’s Memory and Tolerance Museum. The exhibit is interactive and promotes an anti-violence message.
December 2, 2016 – The album, “Hell in Paradise 2016, Part 1,” a collection of remixes featuring Ono, is released.
January 13, 2017 – The album, “Hell in Paradise 2016, Part 2,” is released.
June 14, 2017 – The National Music Publishers Association announces that Ono will be added as a co-writer on Lennon’s 1971 song “Imagine.”
October 19, 2018 – The album, “Warzone,” is released. The album contains reimagined versions of Ono’s past works.
November 24, 2018 – The documentary, “John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky,” is released.
February 18, 2021 – A new multi-media company, the Coda Collection, launches a new music channel by the same name on Amazon Prime Video. The company is co-founded by Ono, Janie Hendrix, Jim Spinello, director and producer John McDermott, and entertainment lawyer Jonas Herbsman.
March 2022 – LED billboards in major metropolitan areas including Piccadilly Lights in London, Times Square in New York and K-Pop Square in Seoul, broadcast Ono’s message “Imagine Peace” in bold black letters every night for a month.
by tyler | Apr 13, 2023 | CNN, world
Here’s a look at the life of award-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave.
Birth date: January 30, 1937
Birth place: London, England
Birth name: Vanessa Redgrave
Father: Sir Michael Redgrave, actor
Mother: Rachel Kempson, actor
Marriage: Tony Richardson (April 29, 1962-April 28, 1967, divorced)
Children: with Franco Nero: Carlo Gabriel (September 16, 1969); with Tony Richardson: Joely (January 9, 1965), Natasha (May 11, 1963-March 18, 2009)
Education: Attended Central School of Speech and Drama in London, 1955-1957
Many members of the Redgrave family are/were actors, including her grandparents, parents, brother Corin, niece Jemma, sister Lynn, and daughters Natasha and Joely.
Her London stage debut and her first film role were both opposite her father, Sir Michael Redgrave.
She has worked professionally with all three of her children, her parents, siblings and niece.
Redgrave and her “Camelot” co-star Franco Nero had an affair and a son, in the late 1960s. They reunited in 2006 and held a private commitment ceremony with family and friends. The couple starred in “Letters to Juliet,” which has a plot similar to their real-life story.
Has been nominated for six Oscars and won once.
Has been nominated for three Tony Awards and won once.
Has been nominated for six Emmy Awards and won twice.
1957 – Stage debut in “The Reluctant Debutante” at the Frinton Summer Theatre in Frinton-on-the-Sea.
1958 – London stage debut in “A Touch of the Sun” and film debut in “Behind the Mask.”
April 10, 1967 – Redgrave and her sister Lynn, lose the Best Actress Oscar to Elizabeth Taylor for “Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?” Vanessa’s nomination is for “Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment” and Lynn’s is for “Georgy Girl.”
June 9, 1967 – Is made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.
1974 – Unsuccessfully runs for a seat in parliament on the Workers Revolutionary Party ticket.
1977 – “The Palestinian,” a television documentary on the Middle East conflict, produced and narrated by Redgrave is made. Its opening in Beverly Hills in early 1978 is marked with protests and the firebombing of one theater.
1977 – Stars in the movie “Julia.”
April 3, 1978 – Wins Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for “Julia.” Her acceptance speech is booed as she airs her political agenda and makes reference to “Zionist hoodlums” and her stance against antisemitism and fascism.
1979 – Again runs for a seat in parliament on the Workers Revolutionary Party ticket and loses.
September 13, 1981 – Wins Emmy for Best Actress Limited Series or a Special for “Playing for Time.”
1995 – Becomes a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
September 10, 2000 – Wins Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for “If These Walls Could Talk 2.”
June 8, 2003 – Wins a Tony for Best Actress for “Long Day’s Journey into Night.”
June 22, 2004 – The first 10 episodes of the television program “Nip/Tuck” airs with Vanessa and her daughter Joely Richardson playing mother and daughter.
November 2004 – Redgrave and her brother, Corin, launch a new political group, the Peace and Progress Party, to protest the war in Iraq.
March 18, 2009 – Redgrave’s daughter, actress Natasha Richardson, dies after suffering injuries in a skiing accident.
February 21, 2010 – Is presented with the Academy Fellowship at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards by Prince William.
Spring 2010 – Both of her siblings die, brother, Corin, after a short illness and sister, Lynn, of breast cancer.
November 2012 – Directs the play “A World I Loved: The Story of an Arab Woman.”
May 2, 2013 – Appears on British television in “The Call Out,” an episode of “Playhouse Presents” written and directed by son Carlo Nero.
April 2015 – Suffers a severe heart attack and undergoes surgery.
May 18, 2017 – “Sea Sorrow,” a documentary about the refugee crisis that marks Redgrave’s directorial debut, premieres in a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival.
August 30, 2018 – “The Aspern Papers” debuts at the Venice Film Festival starring Redgrave and her daughter, Joely Richardson.
February 7-9, 2019 – The play,”Vienna 1934-Munich 1938,” opens as a work in progress at London’s Rose Theatre Kingston, starring Redgrave and her granddaughter, Daisy Bevan.
June 30, 2019 – Stars in the movie “Mrs. Lowry & Son.”
December 31, 2021 – Redgrave receives a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and becomes a dame in the Queen’s New Year’s honors list.
