How America's East Coast was once caught between colliding tectonic plates:Threat of major earthquake off California’s northern coast

 

 

 

How America's East Coast was once caught between colliding tectonic plates (and Florida actually fell off Africa) Break-up of the supercontinent Gondwana 130 Million years ago caused major tectonic upheaval Would have dramatically altered shape of the African and South American continent A new study of the tectonic plates that make up Earth has revealed just how tempestuous the east Coast one was. Researchers say massive mountains rising between colliding plates, volcanoes belching lava and giant faults slicing the crust were found as the continent originally formed. Researchers even say an unusual magnetic signal near Florida shows the peninsula stuck to North America's heel like a piece of old tape about 300 million years ago, when the central and southern Appalachian mountains were built. +3 The Brunswick Magnetic Anomaly is a geological feature that snakes from Alabama across Georgia, and offshore to North Carolina's Outer Banks. Anomalies in Earth's magnetic field are caused by structures such as faults, and by the varying magnetic intensities of different rock types - showing just how the continent was formed. SUPERCONTINENT GONDWANA For hundreds of millions of years, the southern continents of South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and India were united in the supercontinent Gondwana. While the causes for Gondwana's fragmentation are still debated, it is clear that the supercontinent first split along along the East African coast in a western and eastern part before separation of South America from Africa took place. Today's continental margins along the South Atlantic ocean and the subsurface graben structure of the West African Rift system in the African continent, extending from Nigeria northwards to Libya, provide key insights on the processes that shaped present-day Africa and South America. In fact, the rocks beneath Florida suggest the peninsula originally wasn't part of North America at all. It's a fragment of either Africa or South America, sutured onto the southeastern United States near an unusual feature called the Brunswick Magnetic Anomaly, researchers say. 'The repeated cycles of plate tectonics that have led to collision and assembly of large supercontinents and their breakup and formation of new ocean basins have produced continents that are collages of bits and pieces of other continents,' researchers led by  Elias Parker Jr. of the University of Georgia wrote. In many cases, the rocks involved in these collision and pull-apart episodes are still buried deep beneath the Earth's surface, so geologists must use geophysical measurements to study these features. The new study by Elias Parker Jr. of the University of Georgia examines a prominent swath of lower-than-normal magnetism — known as the Brunswick Magnetic Anomaly — that stretches from Alabama through Georgia and off shore to the North Carolina coast. Parker has analyzed the detailed characteristics of the magnetic anomalies from data collected across zones in Georgia and concludes that the Brunswick Magnetic Anomaly has a deeply buried source. The anomalous magnetic signal is consistent with an older tectonic event — the Alleghanian orogeny that formed the Alleghany-Appalachian Mountains when the supercontinent of Pangea was assembled. Parker's main conclusion is that the rocks responsible for the Brunswick Magnetic Anomaly mark a major fault-zone that formed as portions of Africa and North America were sheared together roughly 300 million years ago — and that more extensive evidence for this collision are preserved along this zone. One interesting implication is that perhaps a larger portion of what is now Africa was left behind in the American southeast when Pangea later broke up - including Florida. +3 How South America could have ruled the world: New image shows how the Earth MIGHT have looked if Africa had been split in two. The move would have left a huge ocean south of today¿s Sahara desert, creating a South Atlantic and a Saharan Atlantic Ocean. The huge upheavals occured millions of years ago when eastern North America was part of Gondwana and Pangaea, the supercontinents that formed as Earth's tectonic plates collided, split apart, and then crashed together again before rifting and drifting toward the spots where they're located today. Australian researchers say the break-up of the supercontinent Gondwana about 130 Million years ago could have lead to a completely different shape of the African and South American continent. They say the move would have left a huge ocean south of today’s Sahara desert, creating a South Atlantic and a Saharan Atlantic Ocean. Geoscientists from the University of Sydney and the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences used sophisticated plate tectonic and three-dimensional numerical modelling to recreate the shift - but with a different twist. The researchers say the shift that left Africa it its present location was almost very different. 'Extension along the South Atlantic and West African rift systems was about to split the African-South American part of Gondwana North-South into nearly equal halves, generating a South Atlantic and a Saharan Atlantic Ocean', geoscientist Sascha Brune said. 'In a dramatic plate tectonic twist, however, a competing rift along the present-day Equatorial Atlantic margins, won over the West African rift, causing it to become extinct, avoiding the break-up of the African continent and the formation of a Saharan Atlantic ocean.' +3 How the Earth looks today: Researchers say a minor change in the twist of a tectonic plate could have led to a very different Africa The team say their study highlights the importance of rift orientation relative to extension direction as key factor deciding whether an ocean basin opens or an aborted rift basin forms in the continental interior. For hundreds of millions of years, the southern continents of South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and India were united in the supercontinent Gondwana. While the causes for Gondwana's fragmentation are still debated, it is clear that the supercontinent first split along along the East African coast in a western and eastern part before separation of South America from Africa took place. Today's continental margins along the South Atlantic ocean and the subsurface graben structure of the West African Rift system in the African continent, extending from Nigeria northwards to Libya, provide key insights on the processes that shaped present-day Africa and South America. The South Atlantic part of this giant rift system evolved into an ocean basin, whereas its northern part along the West African Rift became stuck. The team say their complex numerical models gave a simple explanation: the larger the angle between rift trend and extensional direction, the more force is required to maintain a rift system. The West African rift featured a nearly orthogonal orientation with respect to westward extension which required distinctly more force than its ultimately successful Equatorial Atlantic opponent.

Threat of major earthquake off California’s northern coast greater than previously thought   March 2014 – OREGON  – The Cascadia subduction zone is less known than the San Andreas fault, which scientists have long predicted will produce The Big One. But in recent years, scientists have come to believe that the Cascadia is far more dangerous than originally believed and have been giving the system more attention. The Cascadia begins at a geologically treacherous area where three tectonic plates are pushing against each other. The intersection has produced the two largest earthquakes in California in the last decade — Sunday’s 6.8 temblor off Eureka and a 7.2 quake off Crescent City in 2005. The area has produced six quakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater in the last 100 years, the California Geological Survey said. Officials in Northern California as well as Oregon and Washington are beginning to address the dangers. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tsunami researchers are testing a new generation of tsunami detectors off the Oregon coast, which could provide earlier warnings about the incoming wave’s size. During the 2011 Japan tsunami, some of the first detailed alerts underestimated the size of the tsunami to be lower than the sea walls — and then communications were cut off. “So some people had a false sense of security,” said Vasily Titov, director of NOAA’s Center for Tsunami Research. “You want to have this information as accurate as possible.” Installing tsunami sensors on the deep ocean floor would provide better information on the tsunami’s size in as little as five minutes. It now takes about half an hour. Titov said two underwater test sensors off the Oregon coast seemed to perform well in Sunday’s earthquake, though the quake did not produce a tsunami. In Grays Harbor County in Washington state, crews will begin building an elementary school gym this summer to double as a “vertical evacuation center” — built so that 1,000 people can flee to the roof during a tsunami, protected by a high wall. “We have no natural high ground,” said Ocosta School District Supt. Paula Akerlund. “So we have to evacuate vertically.” Washington state and federal officials have also been discussing building about 50 “tsunami safe havens,” such as artificial hills that could hold as many as 800 people. The 2011 Japan tsunami as well as other natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina have fueled efforts to better prepare for a major quake on the Cascadia fault. “Katrina was a worst case scenario for hurricanes in the gulf. And a Cascadia would be the worst case scenario for tsunamis on the West Coast,” said Paul Whitmore, director of the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska. For years, scientists believed the largest earthquake the area could produce was magnitude 7.5. But scientists now say the Cascadia was the site of a magnitude 9 earthquake more than 300 years ago. Ripping over a fault that stretches in the Pacific Ocean from the coast of Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino, the quake on the evening of Jan. 26, 1700, was so powerful, entire sections of the Pacific coastline dropped by as much as 5 feet, allowing the ocean to rush in and leave behind dead trees by the shore.   100 recent earthquakes reported in swarm near Mt. Hood volcano   March 2014 – GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. (KOIN) — Mount Hood has seen nearly 100 earthquakes in the past few days, but a local seismologist said they are nothing to worry about. Geologists said most of the recent earthquakes have been small with only 30 actually being large enough to tell where they occurred. Researchers said these earthquake swarms happen several times a year and are nothing to worry about. “I wouldn’t say be worried but maybe expect to feel an earthquake. It’s always interesting to feel an earthquake next to a volcano. These swarms in the past have produced earthquakes that were felt at Government Camp,” said Seth Moran, a seismologist at USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory. According to Moran, the quakes are not being caused by magma in the volcano moving, but instead by the tectonic plates shifting. Mount Hood last erupted in 1790. The massive earthquake that struck near Maule in Chile, moved the entire city of Concepcion at least 10 feet to the west, experts have revealed. The destructive event, which measured a magnitude of 8.8, also shifted other parts of South America as far apart as the Falkland Islands and Fortaleza, Brazil. Enlarge +4 A graphic created by the Central and Southern Andes GPS Project. It shows the displacement in centimetres of the area surrounding the Chile earthquake epicentre. Concepcion moved the furthest at 303.9cm Scientists measured the impact of the February 27 earthquake by comparing precise GPS locations from before the event to those 10 days later. These revealed Chile's capital, Santiago, moved about 11 inches to the southwest. Even Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, which is 800miles from the epicentre, moved an inch. The earthquake is believed to be the fifth most powerful since seismic measurements began. It even knocked Earth a little off its axis. Nasa's Dr Richard Gross calculated the tremors moved the axis about which Earth's mass is balanced by about three inches. It even shortened the length of the day by about one-millionth of a second. More... Chile earthquake knocked Earth off its axis and made days shorter, says Nasa The quake’s epicentre was in a region of South America that’s part of the so-called 'ring of fire', an area of major seismic stresses which encircles the Pacific Ocean. All along this line, the tectonic plates on which the continents move press against each other at fault zones. +4 Soldiers patrol the earthquake damaged streets of Dichato, Chile. Two million people have been displaced the event +4 A destroyed building in Concepcion, Chile. The whole city shifted 10feet to the west as a result of the February earthquake Dr Mike Bevis from Ohio University, has led the CAP project since 1993 that uses GPS to analyse the crust of Chile. The area is of particular interest because it is an active subduction zone where the Nazca oceanic plate is colliding with the South American continental plate and being squeezed into the Earth's molten mantle below. This creates a build up of geologic pressures, which caused the Chilean quake in February. The US Geological Survey reported that there have been dozens of aftershocks, many exceeding a magnitude 6.0 or greater, since the initial event February 27. Dr Bevis' team, made up of scientists from U.S and Argentinian universities, hopes to add 50 extra GPS stations to its current 25. This should help them to measure the ongoing movement and deformation of the crust. +4 The earthquake shifted land as far apart as the Falkland Islands and Fortaleza, Brazil Team member Ben Brooks, from  the University of Hawaii said: 'The Maule earthquake will arguably become one of the, if not the most important great earthquake yet studied. 'We now have modern, precise instruments to evaluate this event, and because the site abuts a continent, we will be able to obtain dense spatial sampling of the changes it caused. 'As such the event represents an unprecedented opportunity for the earth science community if certain observations are made with quickly and comprehensively.'

Henry of Navarre

 

 

 

 Henry of Navarre

King Henri IV de France was the Protestant figure who was famous, according to legend, for saying « Paris vaut bien une messe» — Paris is well worth a mass — when he decided, for political reasons, to embrace Catholicism as king. Henri was by heredity the king of Navarre, a small, contested territory straddling the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain. Henri de Navarre was formally recognized as the legitimate king of France in 1589 by heirless French King Henri III, his brother-in-law and cousin, who was on his deathbed after suffering wounds inflicted upon him by a fanatical assassin. The new king had to convince the majority Catholics to give him their allegiance, so he renounced Protestantism. He came to the throne at the end of the religious wars between French Catholics and Protestants. In 1598 Henri signed the Edict of Nantes, giving Protestants the legal right to practice their religion in France. He was also the king who said, again according to legend, that his goal was to make sure that every French family had « une poule au pot » — a “chicken in the pot,” or a stewed chicken — for dinner every Sunday.   Henry IV (13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), Henri-Quatre also known by the epithet "Good King Henry", was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 to 1610 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first French monarch of the House of Bourbon. Baptised as a Catholic but raised in the Protestant faith by his mother Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, he inherited the throne of Navarre in 1572 on the death of his mother. As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the French Wars of Religion, he barely escaped assassination at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, and he later led Protestant forces against the royal army. As a French "prince of the blood" by reason of his descent from King Louis IX, he ascended the throne of France upon the death of his childless uncle-in-law Henry III in 1589. In accepting the throne, he found it prudent to abjure his Calvinist faith. Regardless, his coronation was followed by a four-year war against the Catholic League to establish his legitimacy. As a pragmatic politician (in the parlance of the time, a politique), he displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the time. Notably, he promulgated the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants, thereby effectively ending the Wars of Religion. He was assassinated by François Ravaillac, a fanatical Catholic, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII.[1] Considered as an usurper by Catholics and as a traitor by Protestants, Henry was hardly accepted by the population and escaped at least 12 assassination attempts.[2] An unpopular king during his reign, Henry's popularity greatly improved posthumously.[3] The "Good King Henry" (le bon roi Henri) was remembered for his geniality and his great concern about the welfare of his subjects. He was celebrated in the popular song Vive le roi Henri and in Voltaire's Henriade. Henry was born in Pau, the capital of the joint Kingdom of Navarre with the sovereign principality of Béarn.[4] His parents were Queen Joan III of Navarre (Jeanne d'Albret) and King Antoine of Navarre.[5] Although baptized as a Roman Catholic, Henry was raised as a Protestant by his mother,[6] who had declared Calvinism the religion of Navarre. As a teenager, Henry joined the Huguenot forces in the French Wars of Religion. On 9 June 1572, upon his mother's death, he became King of Navarre.   Henry III of France on his deathbed designating Henry III of Navarre as his successor in 1589. First marriage and Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre[edit] At Queen Jeanne's death, it was arranged for Henry to marry Margaret of Valois, daughter of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici. The wedding took place in Paris on 18 August 1572.[8] on the parvis of Notre Dame Cathedral. On 24 August, the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre began in Paris. Several thousand Protestants who had come to Paris for Henry's wedding were killed, as well as thousands more throughout the country in the days that followed. Henry narrowly escaped death thanks to the help of his wife and his promise to convert to Catholicism. He was made to live at the court of France, but he escaped in early 1576. On 5 February of that year, he formally abjured Catholicism at Tours and rejoined the Protestant forces in the military conflict.[9] Wars of Religion   Henry at the Battle of Arques At that time, the royal army was in a shambles and Henry IV could only count on barely 20,000 men to conquer a rebellious country. In order to accomplish this task, he divided his troops into three commands: Henri I d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville(1568-1595) for Picardy, Jean VI d'Aumont for Champagne and Henry IV for Normandy (where he awaited reinforcements fromElizabeth I of England). On 6 August 1589, Henry set up camp with 8,000 men at the port of Dieppe. The Duke of Mayenne sought to take back this key strategic port from Henry's forces and to drive him from Normandy. He drew together 35,000 troops, plus Cambrésis militias, Lorraine troops led by the Marquis de Pont-à-Mousson and a contingent of Spanish troops to attack the city.[1] Knowing that an attack against an army of this size would be pointless, and that staying in the city of Dieppe would be suicidal, Henry (after consulting with the Duke of Longueville and the Duke d'Aumont) decided to go to the city of Arques (today called "Arques-la-Bataille") and to construct important military defenses (raising of areas, rebuilding fortifications).   The battle   The ruins of the château of Arques, today. Between the 15 September and the 29 September 1589, the troops of the Catholic League launched several attacks on Arques and the surrounding areas, but the Duke of Mayenne's forces were countered by royal artillery. The attacks were extremely deadly for both sides, and soon Henry IV's side found itself undermanned. Henry's rescue came from the sea on the 23 September: 4,000 English soldiers sent by Queen Elizabeth had left England in several waves over three days. Seeing these reinforcements, the Duke of Mayenne decided to retreat, leaving Henry IV victorious. After the battle of Arques, Henri IV snatched a short rest in a neighbouring chateau, and before riding away he scratched with his diamond the following aspiration on one of the windows: " Dieu gard de mal ma mie. Ce 22 de Septembre 1589       Henry IV at the Battle of Ivry, byPeter Paul Rubens Henry IV had moved rapidly to besiege Dreux, a town controlled by the League. As Mayenne followed intending to raise the siege, Henry withdrew but stayed within sight. He deployed his army on the plain of Saint André between the towns of Nonancourt and Ivry. The army of the Catholic League consisted of citizens led by priests and rebellious nobles, Swiss infantry under Appenzell, pikemen brought from Flanders by Philip, Count of Egmont, and the troopers of the Guise family with the Duke of Mayenne in command. The battle At first light on 14 March 1590, the two armies engaged. The Duke had 12,000 foot soldiers supported by an assortment of German and Swiss infantry and 4,000 cavalry, 2,000 of whom were Spanish. Henry had only 8,000 foot soldiers and 3,000 men on horseback. Before the battle, the king famously spurred his troops: "Companions! If you today run at risk with me, I will also run at risk with you; I will be victorious or die. God is with us. Look at his and our enemies. Look at your king. Hold your ranks, I beg of you; and if the heat of battle makes you leave them, think also of rallying back: therein lies the key to victory. You will find it among those three trees that you can see over there on your right side. If you lose your ensigns, cornets or flags, do never lose sight of my panache; you will always find it on the road to honour and victory." The action began with a few deadly cannon volleys from the six pieces of the royal artillery, which was under the command of the master, La Guiche. The cavalry of the two sides then clashed with a dreadful force. The Duke of Mayenne followed up with the mercenary troops of the Guelders and Almaine across the open field. The mercenaries, who were mostly sympathetic to the Protestant cause, fired in the air and put their spears in rest. Mayenne charged with such a fury that after a terrible fusillade and a struggle of a full quarter of an hour which left the field covered with dead, following the defection of his mercenaries, the opposing left flank fled and the right was pierced and gave way. Aumont soon overcame the League's light horse and their royalist counterparts retreated under the attack of a Walloon(essentially Belgian) squadron backed up by two squadrons from the League. It was then the turn of the Maréchal d'Aumont, the Duc de Montpensier and the Baron de Biron to charge the foreign cavalry, forcing it into a retreat. Marshal de Biron, in command of the rear-guard, joined up with the king who, without stopping after his victory, had crossed the river Eure in pursuit of the enemy. However, the decisive event took place elsewhere on the battlefield: the King charged the League's lancers, who were unable to get far enough back to use their weapons. Mayenne was driven back, the Duke of Aumale forced to surrender, and the Count of Egmont killed. The Duke of Mayenne had lost the battle. Henry pursued the losers, many of whom surrendered for fear of falling into worse hands, their horses being in no condition to get them away from danger. The countryside was full of Leaguers and Spaniards in flight, with the king's victorious army pursuing and scattering the remnants of the larger groups that dispersed and re-gathered. Aftermath   Henry defeated Mayenne at Ivry so that he would became the only credible claimant to the throne of France. However, he was defeated in many sieges of Paris until he converted to Catholicism in 1593. Henry was advised that the French people would not accept a Protestant king. Thomas Babbington Macaulay wrote a famous poem about the battle, entitled "The Battle of Ivry." It begins: Now glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories are! And glory to our Sovereign Liege, King Henry of Navarre! Henry IV, as Hercules vanquishing the Lernaean Hydra (i.e. the Catholic League), by Toussaint Dubreuil, circa 1600 Henry of Navarre became heir presumptive to the French throne in 1584 upon the death of Francis, Duke of Anjou, brother and heir to the CatholicHenry III, who had succeeded Charles IX in 1574. Because Henry of Navarre was the next senior agnatic descendant of King Louis IX, King Henry III had no choice but to recognise him as the legitimate successor.[10] Salic law barred the king's sisters from inheriting and all others who could claim descent through the female line. Since Henry of Navarre was a Huguenot, the issue was not considered settled in many quarters of the country and France was plunged into a phase of the Wars of Religion known as the War of the Three Henries. Henry III and Henry of Navarre were two of these Henrys. The third was Henry I, Duke of Guise, who pushed for complete suppression of the Huguenots and had much support among Catholic loyalists. Political disagreements among the parties set off a series of campaigns and counter-campaigns that culminated in the Battle of Coutras.[11] In December 1588, Henry III had Henry I of Guise murdered,[12] along with his brother, Louis Cardinal de Guise.[13] This increased the tension further and Henry III was assassinated shortly thereafter by a fanatic monk.[14] Upon the death of Henry III on 2 August 1589, Henry of Navarre nominally became king of France. The Catholic League, however, strengthened by support from outside the country—especially from Spain, was strong enough to force him to the south. He had to set about winning his kingdom by military conquest, aided by money and troops sent by Elizabeth I of England. Henry's Catholic uncle Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon, was proclaimed king by the League, but the cardinal was Henry's prisoner.[15] Henry was victorious at the Battle of Arques and the Battle of Ivry, but failed to take Paris after Siege of Paris in 1590.[16] When the Cardinal de Bourbon died in 1590, the League could not agree on a new candidate. While some supported various Guise candidates, the strongest candidate was probably the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, the daughter of Philip II of Spain, whose mother Elisabeth had been the eldest daughter of Henry II of France.[17] The prominence of her candidacy hurt the League, which became suspect as agents of the foreign Spanish. Nevertheless, Henry remained unable to take control of Paris. Entrance of Henry IV in Paris, 22 March 1594, with 1,500 cuirassiers "Paris is well worth a Mass" On 25 July 1593, with the encouragement of the great love of his life, Gabrielle d'Estrées, Henry permanently renounced Protestantism, thus earning the resentment of the Huguenots and his former ally Queen Elizabeth I of England. He was said to have declared that Paris vaut bien une messe ("Paris is well worth a mass"),[18][19][20] although there is some doubt whether he said this, or whether the statement was attributed to him by his contemporaries.[21][22] His acceptance of Roman Catholicism secured for him the allegiance of the vast majority of his subjects, and he was crowned King of France at the Cathedral of Chartres on 27 February 1594. In 1598, however, he issued theEdict of Nantes, which granted circumscribed toleration to the Huguenots.[23] Royal styles of King Henry IV Par la grâce de Dieu, Roi de France et de Navarre Reference style His Most Christian Majesty Spoken style Your Most Christian Majesty Alternative style Sire Second marriageHenry IV and Marie de Médicis Henry's first marriage was not a happy one, and the couple remained childless. Henry and Margaret separated even before Henry succeeded to the throne in August 1589, and Margaret lived for many years in the Château d'Usson in the Auvergne. After Henry became king of France, it was of the utmost importance that he provide an heir to the crown in order to avoid the problem of a disputed succession. Henry favoured the idea of obtaining an annulment of his marriage to Margaret and taking Gabrielle d'Estrées as his bride; after all, she had already borne him three children. Henry's councilors strongly opposed this idea, but the matter was resolved unexpectedly by Gabrielle's sudden death in the early hours of 10 April 1599, after she had given birth to a premature and stillborn son. His marriage to Margaret was annulled in 1599, and he then married Marie de' Medici in 1600. For the royal entry of Marie into Papal Avignon on 19 November 1600, the Jesuit scholars bestowed on Henry the title of the Hercule Gaulois ("Gallic Hercules"), justifying the extravagant flattery with a genealogy that traced the origin of the House of Navarre to a nephew of Hercules' son Hispalus.[ Itinerary of François Pyrard de Laval, from 1601 to 1611 During his reign, Henry IV worked through his faithful right-hand man, the minister Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully, to regularize state finance, promote agriculture, drain swamps, undertake public works, and encourage education, as with the creation of the Collège Royal Henri-le-Grand in La Flèche (today the Prytanée Militaire de la Flèche). He and Sully protected forests from further devastation, built a new system of tree-lined highways, and constructed new bridges and canals. He had a 1200 metre canal built in the park at the Château Fontainebleau (which may be fished today) and ordered the planting of pines, elms, and fruit trees. The king restored Paris as a great city, with the Pont Neuf, which still stands today, constructed over the Seine river to connect the Rightand Left Banks of the city. Henry IV also had the Place Royale built (since 1800 known as Place des Vosges), and added the Grande Galerie to the Louvre Palace. More than 400 metres long and thirty-five metres wide, this huge addition was built along the bank of the Seine River, and at the time was the longest edifice of its kind in the world. King Henry IV, a promoter of the arts by all classes of people, invited hundreds of artists and craftsmen to live and work on the building's lower floors. This tradition continued for another two hundred years, until Emperor Napoleon I banned it. The art and architecture of his reign have become known as the "Henry IV style" since that time. King Henry's vision extended beyond France, and he financed several expeditions of Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts, and Samuel de Champlain to North America that saw France lay claim to Canada.[25] International relations under Henry IV   Coin of Henry IV, demi écu, Saint Lô, 1589 The reign of Henry IV saw the continuation of the rivalry among France, the Habsburg rulers of Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire for the mastery of Western Europe, a conflict that would only be resolved after the end of the Thirty Years' War. Spain and Italy[edit] During Henry's struggle for the crown, Spain had been the principal backer of the Catholic League, and it tried to thwart Henry. UnderAlexander Farnese, Duke of Parma an army from the Spanish Netherlands intervened in 1590 against Henry and foiled his siege of Paris. Another Spanish army helped the nobles opposing Henry to win the Battle of Craon against his troops in 1592. After Henry's coronation, the war continued as an official tug-of-war between the French and Spanish states that was terminated by the Peace of Vervins in 1598. This enabled Henry to turn his attention to Savoy, with which he also had been fighting. Their conflicts were settled in the Treaty of Lyon of 1601, which mandated territorial exchanges between France and the Duchy of Savoy. On April 1610 his liutenant Les Diguieres sign an alliance with Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy against Spain: the Treaty of Bruzolo, upside down after Henry's death[26] by Marie de' Medici just crowned queen, with rapprochement to Spain.[27] Germany[edit] In 1609 Henry's intervention helped to settle the War of the Jülich succession through diplomatic means. It was widely believed that in 1610 Henry was preparing to go to war against the Holy Roman Empire. The preparations were terminated by his assassination, however, and the subsequent rapprochement with Spain under the regency of Marie de' Medici. Ottoman Empire Bilingual Franco-Turkish translation of the 1604 Franco-Ottoman Capitulations between Sultan Ahmed Iand Henry IV of France, published byFrançois Savary de Brèves in 1615[28] Even before Henry's accession to the French throne, the French Huguenots were in contact with Aragonese Moriscos in plans against the Habsburg government of Spain in the 1570s.[29] Around 1575, plans were made for a combined attack of Aragonese Moriscos and Huguenots from Béarn under Henry against Spanish Aragon, in agreement with the king of Algiers and the Ottoman Empire, but these projects floundered with the arrival of John of Austria in Aragon and the disarmament of the Moriscos.[30][31] In 1576, a three-pronged fleet from Constantinople was planned to disembark between Murcia and Valencia while the French Huguenots would invade from the north and the Moriscos accomplish their uprising, but the Ottoman fleet failed to arrive.[30] After his crowning, Henry continued the policy of a Franco-Ottoman alliance and received an embassy from Sultan Mehmed III in 1601.[32][33] In 1604, a "Peace Treaty and Capitulation" was signed between Henry IV and the Ottoman Sultan Ahmet I. It granted numerous advantages to France in the Ottoman Empire In 1606–7, Henry IV sent Arnoult de Lisle as Ambassador to Morocco in order to obtain the observance of past friendship treaties. An embassy was sent to Tunisia in 1608 led by François Savary de Brèves. http://

JAMES DEAN

 

James Dean was born on February 8, 1931, at the Seven Gables apartment house located at the corner of 4th Street and McClure Street in Marion, Indiana, to Winton Dean and Mildred Wilson. Six years after his father had left farming to become a dental technician, James and his family moved to Santa Monica, California. The family spent several years there, and by all accounts young Dean was very close to his mother. According to Michael DeAngelis, she was "the only person capable of understanding him".[4] He was enrolled at Brentwood Public School in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles until his mother died of cancer when Dean was nine years old. Unable to care for his son, his father sent James to live with his sister Ortense and her husband Marcus Winslow on a farm in Fairmount, Indiana, where he was raised in a Quaker background. Dean sought the counsel and friendship of Methodist pastor, the Rev. James DeWeerd. DeWeerd seemed to have had a formative influence upon Dean, especially upon his future interests in bullfighting, car racing, and the theater. According to Billy J. Harbin, "Dean had an intimate relationship with his pastor... which began in his senior year of high school and endured for many years."[5] Their sexual relationship was earlier suggested in the 1994 book, Boulevard of Broken Dreams: The Life, Times, and Legend of James Dean by Paul Alexander.[6] In 2011, it was reported that he once told Elizabeth Taylor, his co-star in Giant, that he was sexually abused by a minister two years after his mother's death.[7] In high school, Dean's overall performance was mediocre. However, he was a popular school athlete, having successfully played on the baseball and basketball teams and studied drama and competed inforensics through the Indiana High School Forensic Association. After graduating from Fairmount High School on May 16, 1949, Dean moved back to California with his beagle, Max, to live with his father and stepmother. He enrolled in Santa Monica College (SMC) and majored in pre-law. Dean transferred to UCLA for one semester[8] and changed his major to drama, which resulted in estrangement from his father. He pledged the Sigma Nu fraternity but was never initiated. While at UCLA, he was picked from a pool of 350 actors to land the role of Malcolm in Macbeth. At that time, he also began acting with James Whitmore's acting workshop. In January 1951, he dropped out of UCLA to pursue a full-time career as an actor. in East of Eden (1955) Dean's first television appearance was in a Pepsi Cola television commercial.[10] He quit college to act full time and was cast as John the Beloved Disciple in Hill Number One, an Easter television special, and three walk-on roles in movies, Fixed Bayonets!, Sailor Beware, and Has Anybody Seen My Gal? His only speaking part was as a boxing trainer in Sailor Beware, a Paramount comedy starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. While struggling to get jobs in Hollywood, Dean also worked as a parking lot attendant at CBS Studios, during which time he met Rogers Brackett, a radio director for an advertising agency, who offered him professional help and guidance in his chosen career, as well as a place to stay.[11][12] In October 1951, following actor James Whitmore's and his mentor Rogers Brackett's advice, Dean moved to New York City. There he worked as a stunt tester for thegame show Beat the Clock. He also appeared in episodes of several CBS television series, The Web, Studio One, and Lux Video Theatre, before gaining admission to the legendary Actors Studio to study method acting under Lee Strasberg. Proud of this accomplishment, Dean referred to the Studio in a 1952 letter to his family as "The greatest school of the theater. It houses great people like Marlon Brando, Julie Harris, Arthur Kennedy, Mildred Dunnock. ... Very few get into it ... It is the best thing that can happen to an actor. I am one of the youngest to belong."[11] Dean's career picked up and he performed in further episodes of such early 1950s television shows as Kraft Television Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, Danger, and General Electric Theater. One early role, for the CBS series Omnibus in the episode "Glory in the Flower", saw Dean portraying the type of disaffected youth he would later immortalize in Rebel Without a Cause. (This summer 1953 program was also notable for featuring the song "Crazy Man, Crazy", one of the first dramatic TV programs to feature rock and roll.) Positive reviews for Dean's 1954 theatrical role as "Bachir", a pandering North African houseboy, in an adaptation of André Gide's book The Immoralist, led to calls from Hollywood. In 1953, director Elia Kazan was looking for a substantive actor to play the emotionally complex role of 'Cal Trask', for screenwriter Paul Osborn's adaptation of John Steinbeck's 1952 novel East of Eden. The lengthy novel deals with the story of the Trask and Hamilton families over the course of three generations, focusing especially on the lives of the latter two generations in Salinas Valley, California, from the mid-19th century through the 1910s. In contrast to the book, the film script dealt predominantly with the character of Cal Trask. Though he initially seems more aloof and emotionally troubled than his twin brother Aron, Cal is soon seen to be more worldly, business savvy, and even sagacious than their pious and constantly disapproving father (played by Raymond Massey) who seeks to invent a vegetable refrigeration process. Cal is bothered by the mystery of their supposedly dead mother, and discovers she is still alive and a brothel-keeping 'madame' (Jo Van Fleet). Before casting Cal, Elia Kazan said that he wanted "a Brando" for the role and Osborn suggested the relatively unknown young actor, James Dean. Dean met with Steinbeck who did not like the moody, complex young man personally, but thought him perfect for the part. Dean was cast in the role and on April 8, 1954, left New York City and headed for Los Angeles to begin shooting.[14][15][16] Much of Dean's performance in the film is unscripted, including his dance in the bean field and his fetal-like posturing while riding on top of a train boxcar (after searching out his mother in nearby Monterey). The most famous improvisation of the film occurs when Cal's father rejects his gift of $5,000 (money Cal earned by speculating in beans prior to World War I). Instead of running away from his father as the script called for, Dean instinctively turned to Massey and in a gesture of extreme emotion, lunged forward and grabbed him in a full embrace, crying. Kazan kept this cut and Massey's shocked reaction in the film. Dean's performance in the film foreshadowed his role as Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause. Both characters are angst-ridden protagonists and misunderstood outcasts, desperately craving approval from a father figure. For the 1955 Academy Awards, Dean received a posthumous nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in East of Eden, the first official posthumous acting nomination in Academy Awards history. (Jeanne Eagels was unofficially nominated for Best Actress in 1929, when the rules for selection of the winner were different.)   Rebel Without a Cause Main article: Rebel Without a Cause Dean quickly followed up his role in Eden with a starring role in Rebel Without a Cause, a film that would prove to be hugely popular among teenagers. The film has been cited as an accurate representation ofteenage angst.[17] It co-starred teen actors Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, and Dennis Hopper and was directed by Nicholas Ray.  Giant (1956 film) Giant, which was posthumously released in 1956, saw Dean play a supporting role to Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson. This was due to his desire to avoid being typecast as Jim Stark and Cal Trask. In the film, he plays Jett, an oil-rich Texan. His role was notable in that, in order to portray an older version of his character in one scene, Dean dyed his hair gray and shaved some of it off to give himself a receding hairline. Giant would be Dean's last film. At the end of the film, Dean was supposed to make a drunken speech at a banquet; this is nicknamed the 'Last Supper' because it was the last scene before his sudden death. Dean mumbled so much due to his desire to make the scene more realistic by actually being inebriated for the take that the scene had to later be overdubbed by Nick Adams, who had a small role in the film, because Dean had died before the film was edited. For the 1956 Academy Awards, Dean received his second posthumous Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his role in Giant. [edit]Racing career and 'Little Bastard' In April 1954, after securing the co-starring role of Cal Trask in East of Eden, Dean purchased a 1955 Triumph Tiger T110, 650 cc motorcycle and later, a used red, 1953 MG TD sports car.[18] In March 1955, Dean traded the MG for a new 1955 Porsche Super Speedster purchased from Competition Motors in Hollywood. He traded the Triumph T110 for a 1955 Triumph TR5 Trophy three days after filming wrapped onEast of Eden.[18] Just before filming began on Rebel Without a Cause, Dean entered the Palm Springs Road Races with the Speedster on March 26–27. He finished first overall in Saturday's novice class and second overall in the Sunday main event. Dean also raced the Speedster at Bakersfield on May 1–2, finishing first in class and third overall. His final race with the Speedster was at Santa Barbara on Memorial Day, May 30, where he started in the eighteenth position, worked his way up to fourth, before over-revving his engine and blowing a piston. He did not finish the race.   James Dean and Porsche Speedster 23F at Palm Springs Races March 1955 During the filming of Giant from June through mid-September, Warner Bros. had barred Dean from all racing activities. In July, Dean put down a deposit on a new Lotus IX sports racer with Jay Chamberlain, a dealer in Burbank. Dean was told that the Lotus delivery would be delayed until the fall. As Dean was finishing up Giant's filming, he suddenly traded in his Speedster at Competition Motors for a new, more powerful and faster 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder on September 21 and entered the upcoming Salinas Road Race event scheduled for October 1–2. He also purchased a new 1955 Ford Country Squire station wagon to use for towing the new Spyder to and from the races on an open wheel car trailer.[20] According to Lee Raskin, Porsche historian, and author of James Dean At Speed, Dean asked custom car painter and pin striper Dean Jeffries to paint Little Bastard on the car: "Dean Jeffries, who had a paint shop next to Barris did the customizing work which consisted of: painting '130' in black non-permanent paint on the front hood, doors and rear deck lid. He also painted "Little Bastard" in script across the rear cowling. The red leather bucket seats and red tail stripes were original. The tail stripes were painted by the Stuttgart factory, which was customary on the Spyders for racing ID." Rebel in a car: Poignant final picture of Hollywood legend James Dean taken hours before his death in beloved Porsche Spyder to be sold at auction. The star, 24, crashed car on Route 466 in California later the same day. Was on way to race at time with mechanic and friend Rolf Wutherich. Dean became screen legend despite starring in just three movies This is the poignant last picture of movie legend James Dean taken on the day of his fatal car crash. Dean is pictured looking relaxed and happy in the driver's seat of his beloved Porsche 550 Spyder with mechanic Rolf Wutherich sitting alongside him on a sunny California morning. The picture was taken on September 30, 1955, by photographer Sanford Roth who was following Dean to do a photo feature on a race he was attending. The photograph will be auctioned by Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills this week. Poignant: This is the last photograph of movie legend James Dean snapped on the morning of his fatal car crash on 30th Sept 1955. Dean is in the driving seat with mechanic Rolf Wutherich alongside him Roth took the picture just before the party headed out of Los Angeles to the road races at Salinas. The 24-year-old star crashed his car on Route 466 near Pasa Robles later on the same day. Dean was killed in the crash and his friend Wutherich was seriously injured. Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien's Auctions, said: 'James Dean is quite the icon today yet he was only in Hollywood for five years. Icon: Dean made just three films before he died in a head-on car crash at the age of just 24 'He made three movies and two of those came out after his death. It's amazing that in 2013 he is still such a memorable icon. 'This is a candid photo and was taken by the photographer from Dean's station wagon in front. Dean was on his way to a car race and it looks like they were all having fun. 'It is a forever powerful and compelling image, with Dean clasping his mechanic's hand in a gesture of anticipation and triumph. As it is one of the last photos ever taken of him, it is most poignant.' Photographer Roth first met Dean on the set of the 1956 film 'Giant' and the pair became friends. Roth took some iconic pictures of Dean both on the set of that film and afterwards in Los Angeles. Dean was the first ever actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, for his role in 'East of Eden' in 1955. He is also the only actor to receive two posthumous Academy Award acting nominations, as he had a second one the following year for 'Giant.' The photograph, which is being auctioned alongside other images of Dean taken by Roth, is set to fetch £500 when it goes for sale on April 5. James Dean is buried in Fairmount, Indiana, near his uncle's farm where he grew up. In 1977, a Dean memorial was erected in Cholame, California. The sculpture was made of stainless steel around a 'tree of heaven' growing in front of the former Cholame post office building. Doomed: The actor gives the thumbs-up sign from the car while parked on Vine Street in Hollywood. Dean, who had taken up racing the year before, owned the car only nine days when he lost his life in the crash Silver screen: Dean shot to fame for his starring role in the film Rebel Without a Cause (1955) alongside Sal Mineo (left) and Natalie Wood Loss: The actor died before two of the three films he starred in were released. He is seen here in one of those films, 'East of Eden' alongside Jo van Fleet The sculpture features a handwritten description by Dean's friend William Bast of one of Dean's favorite lines from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince: 'What is essential is invisible to the eye.' Dean was born in 1931,in Marion, Indiana. His father had left farming to become a dental technician, and Dean and his James family then moved to Santa Monica, California. His mother, to who he was close, died of cancer when Dean was just nine years old. Work: Another of Dean's films, 'Giant' was released in 1956 (seen here). Dean started acting after joining UCLA Resting place: Dean was buried in Park Cemetery in Fairmount, Indiana, close to the farm where he grew up with his aunt and uncle He was sent by his father to live with his aunt and uncle on a farm in Fairmount, Indiana, where he was raised in a Quaker background. His acting career took of after he graduated from high school and moved back to Los Angeles to live with his father. While studying at UCLA, he was picked to play Malcolm in Macbeth. He dropped out of the university in January 1951, to pursue an acting career full-time. Keen on James Dean? Women don’t find happy, smiling men attractive and prefer moody types   Not big on smiles: James Dean typifies the moody man It is said that if you smile, the world smiles with you. But if you are a man, you may be smiling alone. Research shows that women don’t find happy men attractive. The study, which helps explain the enduring appeal of James Dean, Marlon Brando and other film stars with broody good looks, found that expressions of pride and shame are more likely to win a girl’s heart. In other words, nice guys finish last. But, perhaps typically, the same outlook is not found in men, who are said to be drawn to happy women. Researchers say this may be because a smiling woman is seen as submissive and vulnerable. In one of the first studies of its kind, psychologists from the University of British Columbia in Canada set out to find out if the long-standing advice to smile when meeting someone new is backed up by science. More than a thousand men and women were shown pictures of faces making various expressions and asked to rate them for attractiveness. Some pictures of a neutral face were also included.   The women were least attracted to the smiling happy men and most interested in those whose head was held high with pride. They also found the men who looked ashamed rather attractive, the journal Emotion reports. Researcher Jessica Tracy said: ‘Pride may signal a man’s competence and ability to provide for a partner and offspring.’

James Dean's private letters to his girlfriend plus rare photos are up for grabs at auction He was the poster boy for Hollywood glamour - mean, moody and infinitely enigmatic. Now fans of actor James Dean have the chance to own a piece of his private life with the sale of personal letters at auction. The private letters from the movie heart-throb are to his then girlfriend Barbara Glenn, whom he dated for two years. The hand-written notes to Barbara Glenn, whom he dated for two years, come from her family archive and have never been sold before. Enlarge Slice of life: James Dean relaxing on the beach with his girlfriend Barbara Glenn, who is biting his finger Dean died in a car accident in 1955 as he was poised for major stardom. He starred in three major movies - Giant, East Of Eden and Rebel Without A Cause - before his untimely death of the age of 24. The three letters are to be sold separately but are estimated to fetch a total of $25,000 when they are sold at Christie's in London, England, on November 23. In one letter, dated January 10 1954, he tells Glenn about rehearsals for a Broadway adaptation of The Immoralist which he calls 'a piece of shit.' Love letter: In this letter, which is illustrated by strange drawings, he criticizes rehearsals for a Broadway play he was starring in The gang's all here: Dean with Barbara Glenn, third from right, and friend Martin Landau, second from right But the letter, sent from the St James Hotel in Philadelphia, and illustrated with doodles of buildings, also predicts that the play will 'probably be a monster success.' His positive reviews led to an early exit and a move to Los Angeles within weeks. Another letter was sent on May 7 that year, a month into filming his first starring role, East Of Eden. In the letter he responds angrily to a letter she wrote informing him she was doing a swimsuit photo-shoot, telling her: 'Boy, that's selling out cheap.' The final letter jokingly suggests that the relationship may be over as he tells her: 'Darling I haven't written because I have fallen in love.' But he goes on to say that he is referring to his horse 'Cisco the kid.' As he outlines how homesick he feels, he thanks her for 'the nicest, sweetest letters in the world.' Stormy couple: Dean and Glenn spent two tempestuous, drama-filled years together The couple are thought to have been introduced by mutual friend, the actor Martin Landau, in New York. Glenn's son, filmmaker Keith Gordon who is selling the letters, said: 'They were all young actors starting out and struggling together. 'She never discussed their romance in great detail, but I did know Jimmy was her first serious, grown-up relationship. 'It was apparently very intense and involved numerous break-ups and reconciliations, but she often remained his confidant even during some of the "off-again" times. Oh baby: Dean's letters include one where he jokes about not writing to Glenn because he's in love with a horse 'Eventually my mother met my father Mark Gordon, an actor and director, and broke it off with Jimmy to go with my Dad. 'Jimmy actually gave her his blessing to leave, even he knew that what they had was too fraught with drama to ever be stable. 'I hope that a fan or collector can gain as much pleasure from owning these letters as my mother clearly did from receiving them, and as I did in learning more about my mother's history.' Neil Roberts, head of popular culture at Christie's, said the letters provided 'a tangible insight into the mind of the film star.' 'They reveal a private side of Dean's character far removed from his public persona - the young man who became a screen legend - a lonely, insecure, and caring person, dedicated to his craft.' The lots also include a number of photographs of the actor.   Head and shoulders photograph of James Dean as a handsome youg lad, in hat and jacket. So much has been written about James Dean, and his influence looms so large over movies and over popular cultural in general, that it’s always jarring to be reminded that at the time of his death, at the preposterously young age of 24, he had starred in only three films — two of which hadn’t even been released when he died in a car crash on September 30, 1955. And yet, as iconic a star as Dean has become, much of the public’s view of the brooding young man from Indiana was, in fact, formed not by his singular onscreen presence in Giant, East of Eden or even Rebel Without a Cause, but by a series of remarkable pictures made in early ’55 by the photographer Dennis Stock.   James Dean poses with a hog on his uncle Marcus Winslow's Indiana farm, 1955.   In his wonderful 2005 book James Dean: Fifty Years Ago, Stock writes of trying to get the rapidly rising actor, whom he barely knew, to agree to let the photographer chronicle Dean’s return to both New York and Indiana from his new home in Los Angeles. “The story, as I explained it [to Jimmy],” Stock wrote, “was to reveal the environments that affected and shaped the unique character of James Byron Dean. We felt a trip to his hometown, Fairmount, Indiana, and to New York, the place of his professional beginnings, would best reveal those influences…. I would solicit an assignment guarantee to cover expenses. The obvious magazine to approach was LIFE…. It took only a week for LIFE to approve the assignment.” The photographs that Stock produced during his time with Dean captured an introspective, intensely self-analyzing (and occasionally self-absorbed) artist — albeit one who could, at times, also be self-deprecating almost to the point of parody. LIFE, meanwhile, ran a number of the pictures in its March 7, 1955, issue, under the headline, “Moody New Star.” East of Eden was about to open, and would make Dean a household name. Less than six months later, mere weeks before the release of Rebel Without a Cause, the phenomenally talented, category-defying actor would be dead — and would pass into legend. Here, LIFE.com remembers the too-short life and brilliant, violently truncated career of a true Hollywood original, as seen through the lens of a brilliant photographer, and asks: What would it have felt like? What would it have felt like to receive one’s weekly issue of LIFE magazine in the mail in, say, a small town in New Mexico, or New Hampshire — or in Boston or Chicago or Miami, for that matter — what would it have felt like to open it up, and encounter in its pages that startling shot of a haunted-looking Dean, cigarette in his mouth, stalking through Times Square in the rain? There’s a kind of desolate romance in that picture — a bracing, bleak solitude that evokes the story of every young, driven, sensitive, creative person who has ever moved to a city to pursue a dream. What did it feel like to see that picture, for the very first time, long before the man in the raincoat with the inscrutable, lopsided grin had become something far larger than a mere movie star? It’s difficult — in fact, it’s often impossible — to encounter any photographs of note that we’ve known for decades and see them, really see them, as if looking at them for the first time. But if we’re able to suspend for even a brief moment all we’ve come to know of James Dean, or all we think we know of James Dean, then the pictures in this gallery offer more than just a diversion, more than just a reminder of what was lost when Dean was killed in that car wreck six decades ago. They offer us a chance to experience the jolt that must have raced through countless readers in the late winter of 1955, as they gazed at Stock’s portraits of this strange, beautiful, thrilling young star, all the while knowing, knowing, that he would be with them, starring in movies, for years and years to come.   He has been dead almost 60 years: if he were alive today he would be 80. He was killed in a car crash in 1955 aged 24 James Dean was brought up by his aunt and uncle after his mother died when he was four We see his face on T-shirts and posters, and for decades it has been used to advertise cars, jeans, soft drinks, beer, and even a bank and a credit card. The surly expression is the epitome of cool, the perfect marketing image for the young. Yet James Dean has been dead almost 60 years: if he were alive today he would be 83. He was killed in a car crash in 1955 aged 24, six months after his first film, East Of Eden, was released, days before his second, Rebel Without A Cause, was to premiere, while his third, Giant, had only just finished shooting. Later this month, newly restored versions of all three will be re-released in a James Dean Season at London’s BFI Southbank. A movie about his life is in production. But why is Dean still the object of such fascination? What made him the perpetual symbol of youthful angst? And why, after all this time, does he seem so contemporary? I’ve been interested in Dean since I saw East Of Eden as a teenager; he was the first actor I’d seen who didn’t look like he was acting as he, like Marlon Brando, was pioneering a naturalistic form they’d learned at the Actors’ Studio in New York. I returned to him as an adult when I made the documentary James Dean: The First American Teenager, crossing America to interview colleagues and friends. A farm boy from Indiana, brought up by his aunt and uncle after his mother died when he was four, Dean left home at 18 then dropped out of college in LA for bit parts in movies and ads. At 21 he caught the bus to New York and appeared in more than 30 TV plays, one with Ronald Reagan. Dean's second film, Rebel Without A Cause, with Natalie Wood, was a study of the new American obsession with middle-class delinquency Then at 23 he was called back to Hollywood for East Of Eden. He flew there, carrying his few belongings in a paper bag and, with a cash advance, bought a secondhand MG sports car. He loved speed. Even before East Of Eden was released, director Elia Kazan and Warners knew they had something special, but already Dean was proving difficult in a Hollywood more familiar with the quiescent stars of the studio system. According to Dennis Hopper, before shooting Elia Kazan told the cast and crew that they were about to meet a young actor who might be strange and difficult, but would be ‘pure gold on screen’. In walked Dean, issuing a volley of four-letter expletives. Raymond Massey, who was playing Dean’s father in the film, turned to Kazan and said, ‘What price is gold?’ Dean’s second film, Rebel Without A Cause, with Natalie Wood, was a study of the new American obsession with middle-class delinquency. Dean’s famous red, zip-up jacket and blue jeans appear – though they nearly didn’t. Almost as though racing against time, Dean began Giant days after finishing Rebel Without A Cause, with Elizabeth Taylor (pictured) and Rock Hudson Planned as a low-budget black-and-white film, a week’s shooting had taken place in monochrome. Then, after positive studio reaction, they decided to begin again in colour. By such whims are iconic images created. Almost as though racing against time, Dean began Giant days after finishing Rebel, with Liz Taylor and Rock Hudson. Hudson hated him. ‘He was hard to be around. Full of contempt.’ Dean thought Hudson was a lousy actor. Dennis Hopper, who appeared in Rebel and Giant, told me of Dean’s unconventional preparation. ‘We were in Texas and there were people lined up 100ft from where Jimmy was doing his first scene with Elizabeth. 'He walked halfway between where we were shooting and where the people were, unfastened his pants, peed, and then walked back into the scene and got it in one take.’ Hopper asked him why. Dean liked to quote from a movie he'd seen: 'Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse' ‘Well, I was really nervous,’ Dean told him. ‘I figured if I could go and pee in front of all those people I could get back and do anything on film.’ Dean’s fee per movie was soaring, and during Giant he bought a new Porsche Spyder. Banned by the insurers from driving it until filming was done, he instead appeared, ironically enough, in a road-safety ad. ‘Remember,’ he ends it. ‘Drive safely, because the life you save… might be mine’, laughing as he changed the scripted line from ‘might be yours’. He had 13 days to live. On Friday, September 30, 1955, a week after finishing Giant, he picked up the Porsche, and set off with a mechanic for a race in Northern California. At 3.30pm a traffic cop gave him a speeding ticket. Then at 5.45pm, a student on his way home for the weekend pulled his car across the path of the speeding Porsche. Dean’s mechanic was thrown clear and survived with broken bones. The student had a bruised nose. But Dean, feet entangled in the clutch and brake pedals, was killed instantly. Within a few weeks the wrecked Porsche was displayed in a bowling alley in Los Angeles, where fans paid 50 cents to look at it. ‘People were tearing off pieces,’ friend Maila Nurmi said. ‘There was hardly anything left by the time they took it away.’ Rebel went on to become a worldwide success and Dean’s image was suddenly that of a rock star, even before rock ’n’ roll was properly born, before Elvis recorded his first big hit. What made him a legend? Some say he just happened along at the birth of our obsession with youth culture; good looks, jeans, great hair, combined to create a classic style. Most photos show him looking lonely, the outsider in the grown-up world. It was a look he perfected, because he was certainly narcissistic – encouraging photographers to follow him around, with one even driving in a car behind him the day he died. Composer Leonard Rosenman, who roomed with Dean in New York and went to Hollywood with him to write the score for East Of Eden, saw ‘a pathological desire for attention… though that’s an occupational disease for an actor’. During Giant Dean bought a new Porsche Spyder (in which he died). Banned by the insurers from driving it until filming was done, he instead appeared, ironically enough, in a road-safety ad He said Dean was also a poseur. He’d been introduced to him as ‘a tough kid who sleeps on nails’, but quickly discovered that ‘Jimmy had a tremendous desire to be an intellectual and would carry around books by Kierkegaard and Nietzche. I think he wanted to be different than he was.’ Jack Larson, a TV star who would see Dean at Hollywood parties, shares that view. ‘He’d sit at a bongo drum in a corner, and be annoying and self-indulgent while people were trying to talk. Then he’d look up with his kind of hurt little expression. And I thought he didn’t need to do it, poor guy.’ In his 18 months in Hollywood, Dean liked to quote a line from a movie he’d seen: ‘Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse.’ Rarely was there a more prophetic testament. But a collector of Dean memorabilia called Kenneth Kendall, who I interviewed in Los Angeles, had the most cynical take on Dean’s early death. ‘There’s one wonderful thing about dead movie stars,’ he said, as he pressed me to try on the jacket that Dean wore in East Of Eden. ‘They can’t disappoint you, which is about all the live ones are capable of doing.’

James Dean in his apartment on West 68th Street, New York City, 1955.   James Dean, New York City, 1955.   James Dean attending dance classes given by Katherine Dunham, New York City, 1955.   James Dean with the great Geraldine Page in her dressing room, New York City, 1955.   James Dean with a friend at Jerry's Bar, in front of the Ziegfeld Theater on 54th Street, New York City, 1955.   James Dean poses in a casket in a funeral parlor in Fairmount, Indiana, in 1955, seven months before he died.   James Dean in the Fairmount, Indiana, cemetery in 1955, where he found the grave of one of his ancestors with the same same name of the character, Cal, he played in East of Eden.   James Dean, with his cousin Markie (on the right), who lived on a nearby farm in Fairmount, Indiana 1955.   James Dean, Fairmount, Indiana, 1955.   James Dean visits the farm of his uncle, Marcus Winslow, in Fairmont, Indiana, in 1955 and in the dining room reads some poetry by James Whitcomb Riley.   James Dean and his young cousin Markie play with a model car in Indiana in 1955.   James Dean in his aunt and uncle's basement in Indiana, 1955.   James Dean at the local high school's Sweethearts Ball on St. Valentine's Day in Fairmount, Indiana, 1955.   James Dean spent his youth on his uncle Marcus Winslow's Indiana farm, where he loved to mix with the animals in the barnyard.   James Dean on his uncle Marcus Winslow's Indiana farm, 1955.

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