Scott Eastwood

Scott Eastwood (born Scott Clinton Reeves; March 21, 1986)[1] is an American actor and model. He has appeared in the films Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Gran Torino (2008), Invictus (2009), The Forger (2012), Trouble with the Curve (2012), Texas Chainsaw (2013), Fury (2014), The Perfect Wave (2014), The Longest Ride (2015), Mercury Plains (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), Snowden (2016), Walk of Fame (2017), The Fate of the Furious (2017), Overdrive (2017), and Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018). He has also been a model for the fragrance Cool Water by Davidoff. He is the youngest son of Academy Award-winning actor-director Clint Eastwood and oldest of Jacelyn Reeves.
Early life
Eastwood was born Scott Clinton Reeves[2] on March 21, 1986 at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey, California.[3] He is the son of actor-director Clint Eastwood and flight attendant Jacelyn Reeves, and is the fifth of Clint's eight children.[4][5][6][7] He has a younger sister named Kathryn who was born two years after him in 1988,[5][8] and a number of paternal half-siblings, including Kimber Tunis, Kyle Eastwood, Alison Eastwood, Francesca Eastwood and Morgan Eastwood. Eastwood was raised in Carmel-by-the-Sea until age ten,[3] after which he moved with his mother to Hawaii.[9] He spent four years in Hawaii before returning to California, where he graduated from Carmel High School.[3][10] He attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he graduated with a communications degree in 2008.[11]

Career
Eastwood began his career by using his given last name to avoid nepotism, although there is another actor named Scott Reeves. "I've auditioned for pretty much every one of my father's movies", he said in 2015, stating that he was rejected for the Clint Eastwood-directed American Sniper.[12] He briefly appeared in his father's 2008 film Gran Torino, and played Joel Stransky in Invictus.

In April 2010, Eastwood played the lead role in Enter Nowhere,[13] had a supporting role in David Ayer's 2014 film Fury, appeared in the 2015 music video for Taylor Swift's "Wildest Dreams", and starred alongside Britt Robertson in the 2015 film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' novel The Longest Ride.[14]

In 2016, Eastwood played Lieutenant GQ Edwards in the film Suicide Squad, an adaptation of the DC Comics series.[12] Also that year, he starred alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley in the biographical drama film Snowden, directed by Oliver Stone, which was released in September.

In 2017, he played a special agent in the action film The Fate of the Furious, and starred in Overdrive, a thriller film which was shot in Paris and Marseille.[15][16] In 2018, he starred as Nate Lambert in the science fiction follow-up Pacific Rim: Uprising.[17][18]

Personal life
In August 2016, Scott opened up to the media about a previous car accident on September 24, 2014, that killed his girlfriend at the time, Jewel Brangman.[19][20] Scott bears a striking resemblance to his father. This was reported when he dressed up as the character played by Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly for a Halloween charity event in 2016.

Disney

The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (/ˈdɪzni/),[3] is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California.

Disney was originally founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt and Roy O. Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio; it also operated under the names The Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before officially changing its name to The Walt Disney Company in 1986. The company established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into live-action film production, television, and theme parks.

Since the 1980s, Disney has created and acquired corporate divisions in order to market more mature content than is typically associated with its flagship family-oriented brands. The company is known for its film studio division, The Walt Disney Studios, which includes Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, and Blue Sky Studios. Disney's other main divisions are Disney Media Networks, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, and Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International. Disney also owns and operates the ABC broadcast network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic; publishing, merchandising, music, and theater divisions; and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, a group of 14 theme parks around the world.[4][5]

The company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1991. Cartoon character Mickey Mouse, created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, is one of the world's most recognizable characters[6] and serves as the company's official mascot.
1923–1928: Silent film era
In early 1923, Kansas City, Missouri, animator Walt Disney created a short film entitled Alice's Wonderland, which featured child actress Virginia Davis interacting with animated characters. After the bankruptcy in 1923 of his previous firm, Laugh-O-Gram Studio,[ChWDC 1] Disney moved to Hollywood to join his brother, Roy O. Disney. Film distributor Margaret J. Winkler of M.J. Winkler Productions contacted Disney with plans to distribute a whole series of Alice Comedies purchased for $1,500 per reel with Disney as a production partner. Walt and Roy Disney formed Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio that same year. More animated films followed after Alice.[8] In January 1926, with the completion of the Disney studio on Hyperion Street, the Disney Brothers Studio's name was changed to the Walt Disney Studio.[ChWDC 2]

After the demise of the Alice comedies, Disney developed an all-cartoon series starring a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.[8] The series was produced by Winkler Pictures and distributed by Universal Pictures.[ChWDC 2] Universal owned Oswald, so Disney only made a few hundred dollars.[8] Disney completed 27 Oswald shorts before losing the contract in March 1928, when Winkler head Charles Mintz hired away four of Disney's primary animators (the exception being Ub Iwerks) to start his own animation studio, Snappy Comedies.[ChWDC 3]

1928–1934: Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies
In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a mouse character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California, drawing up a few simple drawings. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse (Disney's wife, Lillian, disliked the sound of 'Mortimer Mouse') and starred in several Disney produced films. Ub Iwerks refined Disney's initial design of Mickey Mouse.[8] Disney's first sound film Steamboat Willie, a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18, 1928[ChWDC 3] through Pat Powers' distribution company.[8] It was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho.[ChWDC 3] Steamboat Willie was an immediate smash hit, and its initial success was attributed not just to Mickey's appeal as a character, but to the fact that it was the first cartoon to feature synchronized sound.[8] Disney used Pat Powers' Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee de Forest's Phonofilm system.[ChWDC 3] Steamboat Willie premiered at B. S. Moss's Colony Theater in New York City, now The Broadway Theatre.[9] Disney's Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho were then retrofitted with synchronized sound tracks and re-released successfully in 1929.[ChWDC 3]

Disney continued to produce cartoons with Mickey Mouse and other characters,[8] and began the Silly Symphony series with Columbia Pictures signing on as Symphonies distributor in August 1929. In September 1929, theater manager Harry Woodin requested permission to start a Mickey Mouse Club which Walt approved. In November, test comics strips were sent to King Features, who requested additional samples to show to the publisher, William Randolph Hearst. On December 16, the Walt Disney Studios partnership was reorganized as a corporation with the name of Walt Disney Productions, Limited with a merchandising division, Walt Disney Enterprises, and two subsidiaries, Disney Film Recording Company, Limited and Liled Realty and Investment Company for real estate holdings. Walt and his wife held 60% (6,000 shares) and Roy owned 40% of WD Productions. On December 30, King Features signed its first newspaper, New York Mirror, to publish the Mickey Mouse comic strip with Walt's permission.[ChWDC 4]

In 1932, Disney signed an exclusive contract with Technicolor (through the end of 1935) to produce cartoons in color, beginning with Flowers and Trees (1932). Disney released cartoons through Powers' Celebrity Pictures (1928–1930), Columbia Pictures (1930–1932), and United Artists (1932–1937).[10] The popularity of the Mickey Mouse series allowed Disney to plan for his first feature-length animation.[8] The feature film Walt Before Mickey, based on the book by Diane Disney Miller, featured these moments in the studio's history.[11]

1934–1945: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and World War II
Deciding to push the boundaries of animation even further, Disney began production of his first feature-length animated film in 1934. Taking three years to complete, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, premiered in December 1937 and by 1939 became the highest-grossing film of that time.[12] Snow White was released through RKO Radio Pictures, which had assumed distribution of Disney's product in July 1937,[ChWDC 5] after United Artists attempted to attain future television rights to the Disney shorts.[13] Using the profits from Snow White, Disney financed the construction of a new 51-acre (210,000 m2) studio complex in Burbank, California. The new Walt Disney Studios, in which the company is headquartered to this day, was completed and open for business by the end of 1939.[ChWDC 6] The following year on April 2, Walt Disney Productions had its initial public offering.[ChWDC 7][14]

The studio continued releasing animated shorts and features, such as Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942).[8] After World War II began, box office profits declined. When the United States entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, many of Disney's animators were drafted into the armed forces. The U.S. and Canadian governments commissioned the studio to produce training and propaganda films. By 1942, 90% of its 550 employees were working on war-related films.[15] Films such as the feature Victory Through Air Power and the short Education for Death (both 1943) were meant to increase public support for the war effort. Even the studio's characters joined the effort, as Donald Duck appeared in a number of comical propaganda shorts, including the Academy Award-winning Der Fuehrer's Face (1943).

1946–1954: Post-war and television
With limited staff and little operating capital during and after the war, Disney's feature films during much of the 1940s were "package films", or collections of shorts, such as The Three Caballeros (1944) and Melody Time (1948), which performed poorly at the box office. At the same time, the studio began producing live-action films and documentaries. Song of the South (1946) and So Dear to My Heart (1948) featured animated segments, while the True-Life Adventures series, which included such films as Seal Island (1948) and The Vanishing Prairie (1954), were also popular. Eight of the films in the series won Academy Awards.[16]

The release of Cinderella in 1950 proved that feature-length animation could still succeed in the marketplace. Other releases of the period included Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953), both in production before the war began, and Disney's first all-live action feature, Treasure Island (1950). Other early all-live-action Disney films included The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), The Sword and the Rose (1953), and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). Disney ended its distribution contract with RKO in 1953, forming its own distribution arm, Buena Vista Distribution.[17]

In December 1950, Walt Disney Productions and the Coca-Cola Company teamed up for Disney's first venture into television, the NBC television network special An Hour in Wonderland. In October 1954, the ABC network launched Disney's first regular television series.

1955–1965: DisneylandIn 1954, Walt Disney used his Disneyland series to unveil what would become Disneyland, an idea conceived out of a desire for a place where parents and children could both have fun at the same time. On July 18, 1955, Walt Disney opened Disneyland to the general public. On July 17, 1955, Disneyland was previewed with a live television broadcast hosted by Robert Cummings, Art Linkletter and Ronald Reagan. After a shaky start, Disneyland continued to grow and attract visitors from across the country and around the world. A major expansion in 1959 included the addition of America's first monorail system. For the 1964 New York World's Fair, Disney prepared four separate attractions for various sponsors, each of which would find its way to Disneyland in one form or another. During this time, Walt Disney was also secretly scouting out new sites for a second Disney theme park. In November 1965, "Disney World" was announced, with plans for theme parks, hotels, and even a model city on thousands of acres of land purchased outside of Orlando, Florida.[18]

Disney continued to focus its talents on television throughout the 1950s. Its weekday afternoon children's television program The Mickey Mouse Club, featuring its roster of young "Mouseketeers", premiered in 1955 to great success, as did the Davy Crockett miniseries, starring Fess Parker and broadcast on the Disneyland anthology show.[8] Two years later, the Zorro series would prove just as popular, running for two seasons on ABC.[19] Despite such success, Walt Disney Productions invested little into television ventures in the 1960s,[citation needed] with the exception of the long-running anthology series, later known as The Wonderful World of Disney.[8]

Disney's film studios stayed busy as well, averaging five or six releases per year during this period. While the production of shorts slowed significantly during the 1950s and 1960s, the studio released a number of popular animated features, like Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959) and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), which introduced a new xerography process to transfer the drawings to animation cels.[20] Disney's live-action releases were spread across a number of genres, including historical fiction (Johnny Tremain, 1957), adaptations of children's books (Pollyanna, 1960) and modern-day comedies (The Shaggy Dog, 1959). Disney's most successful film of the 1960s was a live action/animated musical adaptation of Mary Poppins, which was one of the all-time highest-grossing movies[8] and received five Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Julie Andrews and Best Song for Robert B. Sherman & Richard M. Sherman for "Chim Chim Cher-ee".[21] The theme park design and architectural group became so integral to the Disney studio's operations that the studio bought it on February 5, 1965, along with the WED Enterprises name.[22][23][24][25]

1966–1971: Deaths of Walt and Roy Disney and opening of Walt Disney World
On December 15, 1966, Walt Disney died of complications relating to lung cancer,[8] and Roy Disney took over as chairman, CEO, and president of the company. One of his first acts was to rename Disney World as "Walt Disney World" in honor of his brother and his vision.[26] In 1967, the last two films Walt actively supervised were released, the animated feature The Jungle Book[8] and the musical The Happiest Millionaire.[27] The studio released a number of comedies in the late 1960s, including The Love Bug (1969's highest-grossing film)[8] and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), which starred another young Disney discovery, Kurt Russell. The 1970s opened with the release of Disney's first "post-Walt" animated feature, The Aristocats, followed by a return to fantasy musicals in 1971's Bedknobs and Broomsticks.[8] Blackbeard's Ghost was another successful film during this period.[8] On October 1, 1971, Walt Disney World opened to the public, with Roy Disney dedicating the facility in person later that month. On December 20, 1971, Roy Disney died of a stroke. He left the company under control of Donn Tatum, Card Walker, and Walt's son-in-law Ron Miller, each trained by Walt and Roy.

1972–1984: Theatrical malaise and new leadership
While Walt Disney Productions continued releasing family-friendly films throughout the 1970s, such as Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)[8] and Freaky Friday (1976), the films did not fare as well at the box office as earlier material. However, the animation studio saw success with Robin Hood (1973), The Rescuers (1977), and The Fox and the Hound (1981). As head of the studio, Miller attempted to make films to drive the profitable teenage market who generally passed on seeing Disney films.[28] Inspired by the popularity of Star Wars, Disney produced the science-fiction adventure The Black Hole in 1979 that cost $20 million to make, but was lost in Star Wars' wake.[8] The Black Hole was the first Disney film to carry a PG rating in the United States.[28][N 1] Disney dabbled in the horror genre with The Watcher in the Woods, and financed the boldly innovative Tron; both films were released to minimal success.[8]

Disney also hired outside producers for film projects, which had never been done before in the studio's history.[28] In 1979, Disney entered a joint venture with Paramount Pictures on the production of the 1980 film adaptation of Popeye and Dragonslayer (1981); the first time Disney collaborated with another studio. Paramount distributed Disney films in Canada at the time, and it was hoped that Disney's marketing prestige would help sell the two films.[28] Finally, in 1982, the Disney family sold the naming rights and rail-based attractions to the Disney film studio for 818,461 shares of Disney stock then worth $42.6 million none of which went to Retlaw. Also, Roy E. Disney objected to the overvalued purchase price of the naming right and voted against the purchase as a Disney board director.[29]

The 1983 release of Mickey's Christmas Carol began a string of successful movies, starting with Never Cry Wolf and the Ray Bradbury adaptation Something Wicked This Way Comes.[8] The Walt Disney Productions film division was incorporated on April 1, 1983 as Walt Disney Pictures.[30] In 1984, Disney CEO Ron Miller created Touchstone Films as a brand for Disney to release more major motion pictures. Touchstone's first release was the comedy Splash (1984), which was a box office success.[31] With The Wonderful World of Disney remaining a prime-time staple, Disney returned to television in the 1970s with syndicated programming such as the anthology series The Mouse Factory and a brief revival of the Mickey Mouse Club. In 1980, Disney launched Walt Disney Home Video to take advantage of the newly emerging videocassette market. On April 18, 1983, The Disney Channel debuted as a subscription-level channel on cable systems nationwide, featuring its large library of classic films and TV series, along with original programming and family-friendly third-party offerings.
Walt Disney World received much of the company's attention through the 1970s and into the 1980s. In 1978, Disney executives announced plans for the second Walt Disney World theme park, EPCOT Center, which would open in October 1982. Inspired by Walt Disney's dream of a futuristic model city, EPCOT Center was built as a "permanent World's Fair", complete with exhibits sponsored by major American corporations, as well as pavilions based on the cultures of other nations. In Japan, The Oriental Land Company partnered with Walt Disney Productions to build the first Disney theme park outside of the United States, Tokyo Disneyland, which opened in April 1983. Despite the success of the Disney Channel and its new theme park creations, Walt Disney Productions was financially vulnerable. Its film library was valuable, but offered few current successes, and its leadership team was unable to keep up with other studios, particularly the works of Don Bluth, who defected from Disney in 1979. By the early 1980s, the parks were generating 70% of Disney's income.[8]

In 1984, financier Saul Steinberg's Reliance Group Holdings launched a hostile takeover bid for Walt Disney Productions,[8] with the intent of selling off some of its operations.[32] Disney bought out Reliance's 11.1% stake in the company. However, another shareholder filed suit claiming the deal devaluated Disney's stock and for Disney management to retain their positions. The shareholder lawsuit was settled in 1989 for a total of $45 million from Disney and Reliance.[8] Likewise in 1984, MCA (then-parent company of Universal Studios) actually struck a deal with Disney to purchase the company on the condition insisted by the Disney family that Disney CEO Ron W. Miller be MCA president, but disagreements between MCA chairman Lew Wasserman and Disney over the condition caused the agreement to fell through completely.[33]

1984–2005: Michael Eisner's leadership and "Save Disney" campaign
See also: Timeline of The Walt Disney Company § 1984–2004
With the Sid Bass family purchase of 18.7 percent of Disney, Bass and the board brought in Michael Eisner from Paramount as CEO and Frank Wells from Warner Bros. as president. Eisner emphasized Touchstone with Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1985) to start leading to increased output with Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), Pretty Woman (1990) and additional hits. Eisner used expanding cable and home video markets to sign deals using Disney shows and films with a long-term deal with Showtime Networks for Disney/Touchstone releases through 1996 and entering television with syndication and distribution for TV series as The Golden Girls and Home Improvement. Disney began limited releases of its previous films on video tapes in the late 1980s. Eisner's Disney purchased KHJ, an independent Los Angeles TV station.[8] Organized in 1985, Silver Screen Partners II, LP financed films for Disney with $193 million. In January 1987, Silver Screen III began financing movies for Disney with $300 million raised, the largest amount raised for a film financing limited partnership by E.F. Hutton.[34] Silver Screen IV was also set up to finance Disney's studios.[35]

Beginning with Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988, Disney's flagship animation studio enjoyed a series of commercial and critical successes with such films as The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992) and The Lion King (1994). In addition, the company successfully entered the field of television animation with a number of lavishly budgeted and acclaimed series such as Adventures of the Gummi Bears, DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin and Gargoyles.[36] Disney moved to first place in box office receipts by 1988 and had increased revenues by 20% every year.[8]

In 1989, Disney signed an agreement-in-principle to acquire The Jim Henson Company from its founder, Muppet creator Jim Henson. The deal included Henson's programming library and Muppet characters (excluding the Muppets created for Sesame Street), as well as Jim Henson's personal creative services. However, Henson died suddenly in May 1990 before the deal was completed, resulting in the two companies terminating merger negotiations the following December.[37] Named the "Disney Decade" by the company, the executive talent attempted to move the company to new heights in the 1990s with huge changes and accomplishments.[8] In September 1990, Disney arranged for financing up to $200 million by a unit of Nomura Securities for Interscope films made for Disney. On October 23, Disney formed Touchwood Pacific Partners which would supplant the Silver Screen Partnership series as their movie studios' primary source of funding.[35]

In 1991, hotels, home video distribution, and Disney merchandising became 28% of total company revenues while international revenues contributed 22% of total revenues. The company committed its studios in the first quarter of 1991 to produce 25 films in 1992. However, 1991 saw net income drop by 23% and had no growth for the year, but saw the release of Beauty and the Beast, winner of two Academy Awards and top-grossing film in the genre. Disney next moved into publishing with Hyperion Books and adult music with Hollywood Records while Walt Disney Imagineering was laying off 400 employees.[8] Disney also broadened its adult offerings in film when then-Disney Studio Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg acquired Miramax Films in 1993. That same year Disney created the NHL team the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, named after the 1992 hit film of the same name. Disney purchased a minority stake in the Anaheim Angels baseball team around the same time.[8]

Wells was killed in a helicopter crash in 1994.[8] Shortly thereafter, Katzenberg resigned and formed DreamWorks SKG because Eisner would not appoint Katzenberg to Wells' now-available post (Katzenberg had also sued over the terms of his contract).[8] Instead, Eisner recruited his friend Michael Ovitz, one of the founders of the Creative Artists Agency, to be President, with minimal involvement from Disney's board of directors (which at the time included Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier, Hilton Hotels Corporation CEO Stephen Bollenbach, former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, Yale dean Robert A. M. Stern, and Eisner's predecessors Raymond Watson and Card Walker). Ovitz lasted only 14 months and left Disney in December 1996 via a "no fault termination" with a severance package of $38 million in cash and 3 million stock options worth roughly $100 million at the time of Ovitz's departure. The Ovitz episode engendered a long-running derivative suit, which finally concluded in June 2006, almost 10 years later. Chancellor William B. Chandler III of the Delaware Court of Chancery, despite describing Eisner's behavior as falling "far short of what shareholders expect and demand from those entrusted with a fiduciary position..." found in favor of Eisner and the rest of the Disney board because they had not violated the letter of the law (namely, the duty of care owed by a corporation's officers and board to its shareholders).[38] Eisner later said, in a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, that he regretted letting Ovitz go

Yves Segers

Yves Segers kan verwijzen naar:

Yves Segers (dirigent) (1978), Belgisch dirigent
Yves Segers (zanger) (1971), Belgisch zanger

المنطقة 51

المنطقة 51 هي الاسم المستعار للقاعدة العسكرية الواقعة في الجزء الجنوبي من ولاية نيفادا في غرب الولايات المتحدة (83 ميلا إلى الشمال الغربي من وسط مدينة لاس فيجاس). ويقع في وسطها على الشاطئ الجنوبي من بحيرة الجرووم مطار عسكري سري ضخم. والهدف الأساسي لبناء هذه القاعدة هو دعم تطوير واختبار الطائرات التجريبية ونظم الأسلحة.

تقع القاعدة داخل نطاق القوات الجوية للولايات المتحدة في قاعدة نيفادا للتجارب والتدريب، على الرغم من أن المرافق الموجودة في النطاق تدار من قبل جناح القاعدة الجوية 99 في قاعدة نيليس الجوية، ويبدو أن تشغيل مرفق جرووم كعامل مساعد بمركز الاختبار لطيران القوات الجوية(AFFTC) في قاعدة ادواردز الجوية في صحراء موجافي، حول 186 ميل (300 كـم)الجنوب الغربي من جرووم، وبناءً على هذا تُعرف القاعدة بمركز الاختيار لطيران القوات الجوية (كتيبة 3).

تشمل الأسماء الأخرى المستخدمة للمرفق دريم لاند، مزرعة الجنة،  قاعدة البداية، شريط واترتاون، بحيرة جرووم،  ومؤخرا المطار المنزلى.  تعد هذه المنطقة جزءاً من منطقة العمليات العسكرية بنيليس، ويُشار إلى المجال الجوى المحظور حول الميدان ب (أر- 4808N )، والمعروفة من قبل الطيارين العسكريين بأنها منطقة "الصندوق".

وكان لدرجة السرية الشديدة التي تحيط بالقاعدة ووجودها على النحو الذي تعترف به حكومة الولايات المتحدة على نحو هزيل، مما جعل مواضيع أخرى لقصص نظريات المؤامرة تتداول وتستمر كعنصر محوري لشيء طائر مجهول (UFO) الفولكلور
الجغرافيا

خريطة تبين المنطقة 51، NAFR، وNTSتشترك
المنطقة 51 في الحدود مع منطقة مسطح يوكا من موقع تجارب ولاية نيفادا (NTS)، موقع 739 من التجارب النووية 928 التي أجراها قسم الطاقة بالولايات المتحدة في NTS يقع جبل يوكا للنفايات النووية تقريبا 40 ميل (64 كيلومتر) إلى الجنوب الغربي من بحيرة جرووم.

يستخدم نفس نظام تسمية المنطقة "xx" لأجزاء أخرى من مواقع التجارب في نيفادا.

وتعتبر القاعدة المستطيلة الأصلية من 6 إلى 10 ميل هي الآن جزءا من ما يسمى ب "جرووم", وهى القاعدة المستطيلة من 23 إلى 25.3 ميل من المجال الجوى المحظور. وتتصل المنطقة بشبكة الطرق الداخلية NTS، والطرق الممهدة المؤدية جنوبا إلى ميركري وغربا إلى مسطح يوكا. مما يؤدي شمال شرق البحيرة الي طريق بحيرة جرووم الواسع الجيد الصيانة الذي يمر عبر تلال جمبلد. في السابق كان يؤدي إلى المناجم في حوض جروم، ولكنه تحسن منذ إغلاقها. الطريق المتعرج يمر عبر نقاط التفتيش الأمنية، ولكن المنطقة المحظورة حول قاعدة تمتد أكثر إلى الشرق. بعد خروجه من المنطقة المحظورة، طريق بحيرة جرووم ينحدر شرقا إلى سهل وادي Tikaboo، ويمر على مداخل الطرق الترابية لعدة مزارع مواشي، قبل أن يلتقيا مع الطريق الرئيسى 375، على "الطريق السريع خارج الأرض"، إلى الجنوب من راشيل.

العمليات في بحيرة جرووم
بحيرة جرووم ليست قاعدة جوية تقليدية، ووحدات الجبهة ليست في العادة منتشرة هناك. بدلا من ذلك تستخدم للتطوير والاختبار، ومراحل التدريب على الطائرات جديدة بمجرد موافقة القوات الجوية للولايات المتحدة عليها أو غيرها من الوكالات مثل وكالة الاستخبارات المركزية، وتشغيل الطائرات التي تجري عادة من قاعدة القوات الجوية العادية.

أقمار التجسس السوفياتية حصلت على صور فوتوغرافية لمنطقة بحيرة جرووم خلال ذروة الحرب الباردة، وبعد ذلك، الأقمار الصناعية المدنية اظهرت صورا تفصيلية للقاعدة وضواحيها. هذه الصور دعم الاستنتاجات متواضعة فقط حول القاعدة، ويصور على قاعدة لا يوصف، طويلة مهبط الطائرات وحظائر الطائرات والبحيرة.
بحيرة جرووم كانت تستخدم للقصف المدفعي والتدريب علي المدفعية خلال الحرب العالمية الثانية، ولكن تم التخلي عنها بعد ذلك حتى نيسان / أبريل 1955، عندما تم اختياره من قبل فريق لوكهيد اسكنك كموقع مثالي لاختبار لوكهيد يو-2 - 2 طائرة التجسس. قاع البحيرة قدم الشريط المثالية التي يمكن عمل اختبارات الطائرات المزعجة، ارتفاع سلسلة جبال وادي الإيمجرانت ومحيط NTS يحمي موقع الاختبار من أعين المتطفلين والتدخل الخارجي.

شيدت لوكهيد قاعدة مؤقتة في الموقع، ثم عرفت باسم الموقع الثاني أو "المزرعة"، التي تتألف من أكثر بقليل من بضعة مخابئ، وحلقات عمل ومنازل متنقلة لفريقها الصغير. في ثلاثة أشهر فقط شيد مدرج طوله 5000  ودخل الخدمة بحلول تموز / يوليو 1955. حصلت المزرعة على تسليم أول يو 2 في 24 يوليو، 1955 من بوربانك على سي 124 جلوب ماستر الثاني طائرة شحن، يرافقه فنيي وكهيد على دي سي 3. انطلق أول يو - 2 من الجرووم في 4 أغسطس، 1955. بدأت عمليات تحليق أسطول يو 2 تحت سيطرة وكالة المخابرات المركزية الأمريكية في الأجواء السوفياتية بحلول منتصف عام 1956.

خلال هذه الفترة، واصلت NTS تنفيذ سلسلة من التفجيرات النووية في الغلاف الجوي. عمليات يو 2 طوال عامي 1957 كثيرا ما تعطلت بسبب سلسلة Plumbbob من التجارب النووية، والتي فجرت أكثر من دستتين من أجهزة NTS. وانفجار Plumbbob - هود يوم 5 يوليو ادي الي تداعيات متناثرة في الجروم وادت الي إجلاء مؤقت.

برنامج البلاك بيرد
حتى قبل اكتمال تطور يو 2، بدأ العمل في شركة لوكهيد كجزء من وكالة المخابرات المركزية لمشروع اوكسكارت الذي ينطوي على و- 12 - أ ماخ -3 عالية الارتفاع للاستطلاع للطائرات التي أصبحت بعد ذلك السلاح الجوي الأميركي الشهير لوكهيد إس آر-71 بلاك بيرد وخصائص رحلة البلاكبيرد ومتطلبات الصيانة تحتاج الي التوسع الهائل من المرافق والمدارج في بحيرة جرووم. لأول مرة حلقت آ- 12 على الجرووم في عام 1962، حيث تم اطالت المدرج الرئيسي 8,500 قدم (2,600 م)، وتضخيم القاعدة مكملا لأكثر من 1،000 فردا. حيث تغذي الدبابات وبرج المراقبة، وماس البيسبول. وتم تعزيز الأمن حد كبير والمناجم المدنية الصغيرة في حوض الجرووم اغلقت، والمنطقة المحيطة بها أصبح حكرا على العسكريين. شهد الجرووم أول رحلة من الكثير من المتغيرات الرئيسية للبلاكبيرد : أ- 12 ،وفشل ويلافن - 12والبديل الاعتراضي، وعلى مد 21 البلاكبيرد القائم على مشروع بدون طيار. وظل أ - 12 عند بحيرة جرووم حتى عام 1968. (أول إس آر-71 حلقت في بالمدال، ولاية كاليفورنيا).

برنامج Blue/F-11

Area 51

Area 51 is the common name of a highly classified United States Air Force (USAF) facility located within the Nevada Test and Training Range. Officially, the facility is called Homey Airport (KXTA) or Groom Lake, named after the salt flat situated next to its airfield. Although details of the facility's operations are not publicly known, the USAF says it is an open training range,[2] and it most likely supports the development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems, based on historical evidence.[3][2] The USAF acquired the site in 1955, primarily for flight testing the Lockheed U-2 aircraft.[4]

The intense secrecy surrounding the base has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central component to unidentified flying object (UFO) folklore.[5][6] The base has never been declared a secret base, but all research and occurrences in Area 51 are Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI).[5] The CIA publicly acknowledged the existence of the base for the first time on 25 June 2013, following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in 2005, and they declassified documents detailing the history and purpose of Area 51.[7]

Area 51 is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles (134 km) north-northwest of Las Vegas. The surrounding area is a popular tourist destination, including the small town of Rachel, on the "Extraterrestrial Highway".
The original rectangular base of 6 by 10 miles (9.7 by 16.1 km) is now part of the so-called "Groom box", a rectangular area measuring 23 by 25 miles (37 by 40 km), of restricted airspace. The area is connected to the internal Nevada Test Site (NTS) road network, with paved roads leading south to Mercury and west to Yucca Flat. Leading northeast from the lake, the wide and well-maintained Groom Lake Road runs through a pass in the Jumbled Hills. The road formerly led to mines in the Groom basin, but has been improved since their closure. Its winding course runs past a security checkpoint, but the restricted area around the base extends farther east. After leaving the restricted area, Groom Lake Road descends eastward to the floor of the Tikaboo Valley, passing the dirt-road entrances to several small ranches, before converging with State Route 375, the "Extraterrestrial Highway",[8] south of Rachel.

Area 51 shares a border with the Yucca Flat region of the Nevada Test Site, the location of 739 of the 928 nuclear tests conducted by the United States Department of Energy at NTS.[9][10][11] The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is 44 miles (71 km) southwest of Groom Lake.

Groom Lake
Groom Lake is a salt flat[12] in Nevada used for runways of the Nellis Bombing Range Test Site airport (KXTA) on the north of the Area 51 USAF military installation. The lake at 4,409 ft (1,344 m)[13] elevation is approximately 3.7 miles (6.0 km) from north to south and 3 miles (4.8 km) from east to west at its widest point. Located within the namesake Groom Lake Valley portion of the Tonopah Basin, the lake is 25 mi (40 km) south of Rachel, Nevada.

History
The origin of the name "Area 51" is unclear. It is believed to be from an Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) numbering grid, although Area 51 is not part of this system; it is adjacent to Area 15. Another explanation is that 51 was used because it was unlikely that the AEC would use the number.[14] According to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the correct names for the facility are Homey Airport (KXTA) and Groom Lake,[15][16] though the name Area 51 was used in a CIA document from the Vietnam War.[17] The facility has also been referred to as Dreamland and Paradise Ranch,[18][19] among other nicknames. The USAF public relations has referred to the facility as "an operating location near Groom Dry Lake". The special use airspace around the field is referred to as Restricted Area 4808 North (R-4808N).[20]

Lead and silver were discovered in the southern part of the Groom Range in 1864,[21] and the English company Groome Lead Mines Limited financed the Conception Mines in the 1870s, giving the district its name (nearby mines included Maria, Willow, and White Lake).[22] J. B. Osborne and partners acquired the interests in Groom in 1876, and his son acquired the interests in the 1890s.[22] Mining continued until 1918, then resumed after World War II until the early 1950s.[22]

The airfield on the Groom Lake site began service in 1942 as Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field[23] and consisted of two unpaved 5,000-foot runways at 37°16′35″N 115°45′20″W.[24]

U-2 program
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) established the Groom Lake test facility in April 1955 for Project AQUATONE, the development of the Lockheed U-2 strategic reconnaissance aircraft. Project director Richard M. Bissell Jr. understood that the flight test and pilot training programs could not be conducted at Edwards Air Force Base or Lockheed's Palmdale facility, given the extreme secrecy surrounding the project. He conducted a search for a suitable testing site for the U-2 under the same extreme security as the rest of the project.[25] He notified Lockheed, who sent an inspection team out to Groom Lake. According to Lockheed's U-2 designer Kelly Johnson:[25]

We flew over it and within thirty seconds, you knew that was the place… it was right by a dry lake. Man alive, we looked at that lake, and we all looked at each other. It was another Edwards, so we wheeled around, landed on that lake, taxied up to one end of it. It was a perfect natural landing field… as smooth as a billiard table without anything being done to it.

The lake bed made an ideal strip for testing aircraft, and the Emigrant Valley's mountain ranges and the NTS perimeter protected the site from visitors, about 100 mi (160 km) north of Las Vegas.[26] The CIA asked the AEC to acquire the land, designated "Area 51" on the map, and to add it to the Nevada Test Site.[7]:56–57

Johnson named the area "Paradise Ranch" to encourage workers to move to "the new facility in the middle of nowhere", as the CIA later described it, and the name became shortened to "the Ranch".[7]:57[27] On 4 May 1955, a survey team arrived at Groom Lake and laid out a 5,000-foot (1,500 m) north-south runway on the southwest corner of the lakebed and designated a site for a base support facility. The Ranch initially consisted of little more than a few shelters, workshops, and trailer homes in which to house its small team.[26] In a little over three months, the base consisted of a single paved runway, three hangars, a control tower, and rudimentary accommodations for test personnel. The base's few amenities included a movie theater and volleyball court. There was also a mess hall, several wells, and fuel storage tanks. CIA, Air Force, and Lockheed personnel began arriving by July 1955. The Ranch received its first U-2 delivery on 24 July 1955 from Burbank on a C-124 Globemaster II cargo plane, accompanied by Lockheed technicians on a Douglas DC-3.[26] Regular Military Air Transport Service flights were set up between Area 51 and Lockheed's offices in Burbank, California. To preserve secrecy, personnel flew to Nevada on Monday mornings and returned to California on Friday evenings
Project OXCART was established in August 1959 for "antiradar studies, aerodynamic structural tests, and engineering designs" and all later work on the Lockheed A-12.[29] This included testing at Groom Lake, which had inadequate facilities consisting of buildings for only 150 people, a 5,000 ft (1,500 m) asphalt runway, and limited fuel, hangar, and shop space.[25] Groom Lake had received the name "Area 51"[25][verification needed] when A-12 test facility construction began in September 1960, including a new 8,500 ft (2,600 m) runway to replace the existing runway.[30]

Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company (REECo) began construction of "Project 51" on 1 October 1960 with double-shift construction schedules. The contractor upgraded base facilities and built a new 10,000 ft (3,000 m) runway (14/32) diagonally across the southwest corner of the lakebed. They marked an Archimedean spiral on the dry lake approximately two miles across so that an A-12 pilot approaching the end of the overrun could abort instead of plunging into the sagebrush. Area 51 pilots called it "The Hook". For crosswind landings, they marked two unpaved airstrips (runways 9/27 and 03/21) on the dry lakebed.[31]

By August 1961, construction was completed of the essential facilities; three surplus Navy hangars were erected on the base's north side—hangars, while hangar 7 was new construction. The original U-2 hangars were converted to maintenance and machine shops. Facilities in the main cantonment area included workshops and buildings for storage and administration, a commissary, control tower, fire station, and housing. The Navy also contributed more than 130 surplus Babbitt duplex housing units for long-term occupancy facilities. Older buildings were repaired, and additional facilities were constructed as necessary. A reservoir pond surrounded by trees served as a recreational area one mile north of the base. Other recreational facilities included a gymnasium, a movie theater, and a baseball diamond.[31] A permanent aircraft fuel tank farm was constructed by early 1962 for the special JP-7 fuel required by the A-12. Seven tanks were constructed, with a total capacity of 1,320,000 gallons.

Security was enhanced for the arrival of OXCART and the small mine was closed in the Groom basin. In January 1962, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expanded the restricted airspace in the vicinity of Groom Lake, and the lakebed became the center of a 600 square-mile addition to restricted area R-4808N.[31] The CIA facility received eight USAF F-101 Voodoos for training, two T-33 Shooting Star trainers for proficiency flying, a C-130 Hercules for cargo transport, a U-3A for administrative purposes, a helicopter for search and rescue, and a Cessna 180 for liaison use, and Lockheed provided an F-104 Starfighter for use as a chase plane.[31]

The first A-12 test aircraft was covertly trucked from Burbank on 26 February 1962 and arrived at Groom Lake on 28 February.[28] It made its first flight 26 April 1962 when the base had over 1,000 personnel. Initially, all who were not connected with a test were herded into the mess hall before each takeoff. This was soon dropped, as it disrupted activities and was impractical with the large number of flights.[25] The closed airspace above Groom Lake was within the Nellis Air Force Range airspace, and pilots saw the A-12 20 to 30 times.[25] Groom was also the site of the first Lockheed D-21 drone test flight on 22 December 1964.[28] By the end of 1963, nine A-12s were at Area 51, assigned to the CIA-operated "1129th Special Activities Squadron".[32]

D-21 Tagboard
Following the loss of Gary Powers' U-2 over the Soviet Union, there were several discussions about using the A-12 OXCART as an unpiloted drone aircraft. Although Kelly Johnson had come to support the idea of drone reconnaissance, he opposed the development of an A-12 drone, contending that the aircraft was too large and complex for such a conversion. However, the Air Force agreed to fund the study of a high-speed, high-altitude drone aircraft in October 1962. The Air Force interest seems to have moved the CIA to take action, the project designated "Q-12". By October 1963, the drone's design had been finalized. At the same time, the Q-12 underwent a name change. To separate it from the other A-12-based projects, it was renamed the "D-21". (The "12" was reversed to "21"). "Tagboard" was the project's code name.[25]

The first D-21 was completed in the spring of 1964 by Lockheed. After four more months of checkouts and static tests, the aircraft was shipped to Groom Lake and reassembled. It was to be carried by a two-seat derivative of the A-12, designated the "M-21". When the D-21/M-21 reached the launch point, the first step would be to blow off the D-21's inlet and exhaust covers. With the D-21/M-21 at the correct speed and altitude, the LCO would start the ramjet and the other systems of the D-21. "With the D-21's systems activated and running, and the launch aircraft at the correct point, the M-21 would begin a slight pushover, the LCO would push a final button, and the D-21 would come off the pylon".[25]

Difficulties were addressed throughout 1964 and 1965 at Groom Lake with various technical issues. Captive flights showed unforeseen aerodynamic difficulties. By late January 1966, more than a year after the first captive flight, everything seemed ready. The first D-21 launch was made on 5 March 1966 with a successful flight, with the D-21 flying 120 miles with limited fuel. A second D-12 flight was successful in April 1966 with the drone flying 1,200 miles, reaching Mach 3.3 and 90,000 feet. An accident on 30 July 1966 with a fully fueled D-21, on a planned checkout flight suffered from an unstart of the drone after its separation, causing it to collide with the M-21 launch aircraft. The two crewmen ejected and landed in the ocean 150 miles offshore. One crew member was picked up by a helicopter, but the other, having survived the aircraft breakup and ejection, drowned when sea water entered his pressure suit. Kelly Johnson personally cancelled the entire program, having had serious doubts from the start of the feasibility. A number of D-21s had already been produced, and rather than scrapping the whole effort, Johnson again proposed to the Air Force that they be launched from a B-52H bomber.[25]

By late summer of 1967, the modification work to both the D-21 (now designated D-21B) and the B-52Hs were complete. The test program could now resume. The test missions were flown out of Groom Lake, with the actual launches over the Pacific. The first D-21B to be flown was Article 501, the prototype. The first attempt was made on 28 September 1967, and ended in complete failure. As the B-52 was flying toward the launch point, the D-21B fell off the pylon. The B-52H gave a sharp lurch as the drone fell free. The booster fired and was "quite a sight from the ground". The failure was traced to a stripped nut on the forward right attachment point on the pylon. Several more tests were made, none of which met with success. However, the fact is that the resumptions of D-21 tests took place against a changing reconnaissance background. The A-12 had finally been allowed to deploy, and the SR-71 was soon to replace it. At the same time, new developments in reconnaissance satellite technology were nearing operation. Up to this point, the limited number of satellites available restricted coverage to the Soviet Union. A new generation of reconnaissance satellites could soon cover targets anywhere in the world. The satellites' resolution would be comparable to that of aircraft, but without the slightest political risk. Time was running out for the Tagboard.[25]

Several more test flights, including two over China, were made from Beale AFB, California, in 1969 and 1970, to varying degrees of success. On 15 July 1971, Kelly Johnson received a wire canceling the D-21B program. The remaining drones were transferred by a C-5A and placed in dead storage. The tooling used to build the D-21Bs was ordered destroyed. Like the A-12 Oxcart, the D-21B Tagboard drones remained a Black airplane, even in retirement. Their existence was not suspected until August 1976, when the first group was placed in storage at the Davis-Monthan AFB Military Storage and Disposition Center. A second group arrived in 1977. They were labeled "GTD-21Bs" (GT stood for ground training).[25]

Davis-Monthan is an open base, with public tours of the storage area at the time, so the odd-looking drones were soon spotted and photos began appearing in magazines. Speculation about the D-21Bs circulated within aviation circles for years, and it was not until 1982 that details of the Tagboard program were released. However, it was not until 1993 that the B-52/D-21B program was made public. That same year, the surviving D-21Bs were released to museums

كيم كلايسترز

كيم ليو كلايسترز هي لاعبة كرة مضرب بلجيكية ولدت يوم 8 يونيو 1983, احترفت التنس سنة 1999 أصبحت مصنفة أولى عالميا في 11 أغسطس 2003 لمدة 20 إسبوعاً, وقد فازت البطلة الكبيرة الملقبة بماما كيم ببطولة أمريكا المفتوحة للتنس ثلاث مرات وذلك سنة 2005و 2009و 2010 وفازت أيضاً ببطولة أستراليا المفتوحة لعام 2011 عندما تغلبت على اللاعبة الصينية لينا في المباراة النهائية، وقد حققت اللاعبة البلجيكية 41 لقباً في مسيرتها الاحترافية حتى هذه اللحظة.

الحياة الاجتماعية:-

كيم كلايسترز كانت مخطوبة للاعب التنس الأسترالي ليوت هويت ولكن تم الانفصال بعد حوالي ثلاثة أشهر من إعلان الخطبة، ثم بعد ذلك تزوجت اللاعبة البلجيكية من لاعب كرة السلة البلجيكي برايان لينش وأنجبا طفلة عام 2008 واسمها جايدا برايان لينش.

Kim Clijsters

Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters[1] (Dutch pronunciation: [kɪm ˈklɛistərs] (About this soundlisten); born 8 June 1983) is a Belgian professional tennis player. Clijsters was a world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, having held both rankings simultaneously in 2003. She won a total of six Grand Slam tournament titles, four in singles and two in doubles.

Clijsters competed professionally from 1997 to 2012 in an era where her primary rivals were compatriot Justine Henin and 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams. Coming from a country with limited success in men's or women's tennis, Clijsters became the first Belgian player to attain the No. 1 ranking. Together with Henin, she established Belgium as a leading force in women's tennis as the two of them led their country to their first Fed Cup crown in 2001 and were the top two players in the world in late 2003. Individually, Clijsters won 41 singles titles and 11 doubles titles on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour. She was a three-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships. Between singles and doubles, she was a champion at all four Grand Slam tournaments, winning the US Open and the Australian Open in singles and Wimbledon and the French Open in doubles with Ai Sugiyama. Her success at majors was highlighted by winning three consecutive appearances at the US Open.

Plagued by injuries and having lost some of her desire to compete, Clijsters initially retired from tennis in 2007 at the age of 23 to get married and have a daughter. She returned to the sport two years later and won her second US Open title as an unranked player in just her third tournament back. She defended her title the following year and then won the Australian Open in 2011 en route to becoming the first mother to be ranked No. 1 by the WTA. Along with Margaret Court, she also holds the record for most Grand Slam singles titles won as a mother, with three such titles, and was the first to win one since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980. She retired from professional tennis a second time after the 2012 US Open, and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2017. In September 2019, Clijsters announced her plans to come back to the tour once again, at the start of the 2020 season.

Clijsters was born to athletic parents with backgrounds in professional football and gymnastics. She was renowned for her athleticism, which was highlighted by her ability to perform splits on court in the middle of points. She built the offensive side of her game around controlled aggression while also using her exceptional movement to become an elite defensive player. Clijsters was very popular and well-liked as a player, having won the Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award eight times.
Early life and background
Clijsters was born on 8 June 1983 in Bilzen, a small town in northeastern Belgium. She grew up with her younger sister Elke in the nearby town of Bree in the Flemish province of Limburg.[2] Kim is the daughter of Lei Clijsters and Els Vandecaetsbeek, both of whom were accomplished athletes. Her mother Els was a Belgian national artistic gymnastics champion. Her father Lei was a professional football defender who played for a variety of clubs in the top-flight Belgian First Division, including KV Mechelen with whom he won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1988. He was also a member of the Belgium national football team, tallying 40 caps and competing in two World Cups.[3][4] Clijsters credits her parents for giving her a footballer's legs and a gymnast's flexibility.[1] She also attributes her success to the freedom they gave her when she was a young player, saying, "Without the support I've had from my family, I wouldn't be where I am. They've let me make my own decisions."[5]

When Clijsters was five years old, her father built a clay tennis court at their home as a gift to his daughter to celebrate him winning the 1988 Gouden Schoen, an award given to the player of the year in the Belgian First Division. He had previously announced the idea of the gift as a celebration of the award during a television interview.[3][6][7] Clijsters began playing tennis earlier that year after attending a lesson with her cousins and her uncle while her parents were away.[2] From then on, she became fixated on the sport. She began playing with her sister at the Tennisdel club in Genk by the time she was seven. Her first coach Bart Van Kerckhoven recalled that she was extremely energetic and never wanted to leave the tennis court, adding that, "If the group before her did some sprints to finish off the session, Kim would join in. Then she put her heart and soul into her own training session, after which she joined the next group for their warm-up exercises."[6]

At the age of nine, Clijsters began working with Benny Vanhoudt in the more distant town of Diest. Along with her sister, she trained for fifteen hours a week, including five hours of individual instruction, which Vanhoudt said was "an insane amount [of total hours]."[8] She continued to train in Diest until she was twelve. During this time, she also first worked with Carl Maes and Wim Fissette, both of whom would coach Clijsters later in her professional career. When she was thirteen, Maes took over as her primary coach at the Flemish Tennis Association in Antwerp.[9]

Junior career
Clijsters had success at both the national and international levels at a very young age. In 1993, she won the 12-and-under division of the Belgian Junior Championships (the Coupe de Borman) in doubles with her future longtime rival Justine Henin. At the time, Clijsters was ten years old and Henin was eleven.[6] A year later, she won the 12-and-under singles event at the same tournament.[10] Clijsters continued to play alongside Henin, winning the doubles event at the 14-and-under European Junior Championships as well as the 14-and-under European Junior Team Championships for Belgium, both in 1996 and the latter of which also with Leslie Butkiewicz.[6][11] Her first big international junior title came at Les Petits As, a high-level 14-and-under tournament. She defeated future top 25 players Iveta Benešová and Elena Bovina in the semifinals and final respectively.[6]

Clijsters played two full seasons on the ITF Junior Circuit, the premier junior tour that is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). At the very end of 1997, she partnered with Zsófia Gubacsi to win her first ITF title in the doubles event at the Grade A Orange Bowl, one of the highest level junior tournaments.[12] In 1998, Clijsters had her best year on the junior tour, finishing the season at career-high rankings of world No. 11 in singles and world No. 4 in doubles.[13][14] She won two junior Grand Slam doubles titles, the French Open with Jelena Dokic and the US Open with Eva Dyrberg.[15][16] She defeated her French Open partner Dokic in the US Open doubles final.[16] In singles, she made it to the Wimbledon final, but finished runner-up to Katarina Srebotnik.[9]

Professional career
1997–99: Maiden WTA title, Newcomer of the Year
As a fourteen year old, Clijsters could only enter professional tournaments through qualifying since the WTA Tour's policy did not allow players her age to receive main draw wild cards. In August 1997, Clijsters qualified for her first main draw at her second career tournament on the lower-level ITF Women's Circuit, which was held in the Belgian coastal town of Koksijde. She won seven matches in total, including five in qualifying, to reach the quarterfinals. Clijsters did not enter another professional tournament until after her runner-up finish at the Wimbledon girls' singles event the following summer. Playing in Brussels in July 1998, she won both the singles and doubles events for her first career professional titles. Clijsters continued to excel at the ITF level, winning four more titles within the next year, two in both singles and doubles.[9][17]

Clijsters began 1999 with a WTA singles ranking of No. 420 in the world.[18] Around this time, Belgian women's tennis was beginning to flourish. Both Dominique Van Roost and Sabine Appelmans had been ranked in the top 20 within the previous two years, complementing the rise of Clijsters and Henin on the junior tour. This success helped lead to the revival of the only WTA tournament in Belgium, which was relaunched as the Flanders Women's Open in Antwerp after not being held in six years. Clijsters made her WTA debut at the tournament in May, entering the main draw as a lucky loser after losing in the final round of qualifying. She won her first career tour-level match against Miho Saeki and advanced to the quarterfinals, where she was defeated by top seed Sarah Pitkowski despite holding match points.[19]

One week after Clijsters turned sixteen, she entered Wimbledon as the youngest player in the top 200. After barely having a high enough ranking to get into the qualifying draw, she ultimately made it to the round of sixteen in her Grand Slam tournament debut. She defeated world No. 10 Amanda Coetzer in the third round and did not drop a set until losing to Steffi Graf one round later, her only career match against her childhood idol.[2][20][21] Clijsters also had a good showing at the US Open, losing to the eventual champion Serena Williams in the third round after squandering a chance to serve for the match.[21] Clijsters next played at the Luxembourg Open held in the town of Kockelscheuer just outside the capital. She won the title with relative ease in just her fourth career WTA event, taking affinity for the friendly atmosphere of the smaller tournament and the faster carpet courts. Most notably, she faced off against Van Roost in the final and only conceded four games to the top-ranked Belgian.[22] Clijsters also made the singles final in Bratislava at her next tournament, finishing runner-up to No. 11 Amélie Mauresmo. Nonetheless, she was able to win the doubles event with compatriot Laurence Courtois as her partner.[23] At the end of the season, Clijsters was named WTA Newcomer of the Year, having risen to No. 47 in the world.[24]

2000–02: French Open finalist, Tour champion
Clijsters was unable to repeat her success at the Grand Slam tournaments in 2000, not advancing past the second round at any of the singles events.[17] However, she continued her steady climb in the rankings up to No. 18 on the strength of two more titles,[18] one at the Tasmanian International in her first tournament of the year[25] and another at the Sparkassen Cup in Germany near the end of the season.[26] The latter victory was Clijsters's first at a Tier II event (the second highest level tournament) and followed up a loss in another Tier II final to world No. 1 Martina Hingis earlier that month.[27] In the middle of the year, Clijsters also finished runner-up at the Wimbledon mixed doubles event alongside her boyfriend Lleyton Hewitt
At the Indian Wells Open in early 2001, Clijsters finally defeated Hingis in her fourth meeting against the world No. 1 player to reach her first Tier I final.[28] After winning the first set of the final, she ended up losing in three sets to Serena Williams. The match was overshadowed by the controversy of the crowd booing Williams for her sister Venus's late withdrawal from their semifinal, leading to both sisters boycotting the tournament for 14 years.[29][30] A few months later at the French Open, Clijsters became the first Belgian to contest a Grand Slam singles final. She had defeated No. 16 Henin in the semifinals in their closest and highest profile match to date, coming back from a set and a break down, and also having saved three break points that would have put her behind 5–2 in the second set.[31] The final against Australian Open champion and world No. 4 Jennifer Capriati was an even tighter match. Playing a day after her 18th birthday, Clijsters won the first set but lost the second. After a French Open final record 22 games and 2 hours 21 minutes in total, she was defeated by Capriati 12–10 in the deciding set.[32][33] The match was ranked as the greatest French Open women's final in Open Era history by Tennis.com.[33] Clijsters would go on to make it to at least the quarterfinals at each of the next three majors.[17] She also played in her first Grand Slam doubles final at Wimbledon later that year, with Ai Sugiyama as her partner.[34] She won three singles titles in 2001, including her second titles at both the Luxembourg Open and the Sparkassen Cup, to help her finish the season at No. 5 in the world. With four doubles finals in total, she was also ranked No. 15 in doubles at the end of the year.[17][18]

Clijsters maintained her top ten ranking throughout 2002[18] despite struggling with an ongoing shoulder injury in the first half of the year.[35] Her best result at a Grand Slam event came at the Australian Open, where she lost another three-set match to Capriati in the semifinals in their first meeting since the French Open final.[36] Nonetheless, she continued to rise in the rankings to No. 3 by March, her best ranking for the season.[18] Although Clijsters did not reach another Grand Slam quarterfinal the rest of the year, she won three more titles leading up to the year-end WTA Tour Championships in Los Angeles.[17] She received her third invite to the event, which only the top 16 players in the world are guaranteed entry. Clijsters made it to the final with ease after dropping only six games in the first three rounds, including a victory over Henin in the quarterfinals[37] and a retirement due to injury from Venus Williams in the semifinals. Her opponent in the final was Serena Williams, who entered the match with a 56–4 record on the season and having won the last three majors of the year. Although Serena had won their first five encounters and was considered a clear favourite, Clijsters upset Serena in straight sets to win the championship.[38] After the tournament, she said, "This is the best victory of my career."[35]

2003: World No. 1 in singles and doubles
The 2003 season was Clijsters's "annus mirabilis".[39] She competed in 21 singles events, reaching the semifinals in all but one of them, advancing to 15 finals, and winning nine titles. With a record of 90–12, she was the first player to accrue 90 wins since Martina Navratilova in 1982 and the first to play more than 100 matches since Chris Evert in 1974.[40] Clijsters also played an extensive doubles schedule, compiling a total of 170 matches between both disciplines.[39] She partnered with Sugiyama the entire year, winning seven titles in thirteen events.[17] This season also marked the peak of the rivalry between Clijsters and Henin, as the pair faced each other eight matches, the last six of which were in finals.[41] In doubles, five of her ten finals were against the team of Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suárez.[17] With her success, Clijsters became the first Belgian world No. 1 in singles or doubles, achieving both feats in August.[18]

Singles: Two Grand Slam finals, Tour Championship defense
Clijsters began her singles season by winning the Sydney International over Lindsay Davenport, her third consecutive title.[42] She extended her tour win streak to 17 matches—all without dropping a set[17]—before she was defeated by Serena Williams in an Australian Open semifinal where she had a 5–1 lead in the third set as well as two match points on serve. She said afterwards, "The only thing I regret a little bit, is those two double faults [to start the game at 5–4]. I could feel that she was really trying to step it up, and that she was hitting the balls a lot more aggressive and had almost no unforced errors at the end."[43][44] Williams won the title to complete her "Serena Slam".[45] After losing in the final at her next two tournaments, Clijsters recovered at the Indian Wells Open to win her first Tier I title. Like in Sydney, she defeated Davenport in the final.[46] She won another Tier I title on clay in May at the Italian Open over No. 4 Amélie Mauresmo, who had a chance to serve for the match in the second set.[47]

At the French Open, both Clijsters and Henin reached the final to guarantee that the winner would become the first Belgian Grand Slam singles champion.[39] Henin had won their only meeting in a final in 2003 thus far at the German Open, which was also their only other encounter on clay.[41] While both players had match points in Germany,[48] Henin won in Paris in a lopsided affair where she only lost four games.[49] After losing in the semifinals at Wimbledon to Venus Williams,[50] Clijsters rebounded to win two Tier II titles at the Stanford Classic[51] and the Los Angeles Open. With the second of those titles, she attained the world No. 1 ranking, in part because the top-ranked Serena Williams had not played on tour since Wimbledon due to a knee injury.[39] She was the first woman to become No. 1 without winning a Grand Slam singles title.[40][52] Clijsters regained the top ranking in doubles the following week to become only the fifth player in WTA history to be No. 1 in singles and doubles simultaneously.[40][53] Despite playing the US Open as the top seed, Clijsters again lost to Henin in the final in straight sets. Clijsters had been regarded as the favourite entering the match because of her performance in the earlier rounds and Henin's lengthy semifinal match the previous day.[39][54] The title helped Henin rise to No. 2 in the world.[55]

The last stage of the season featured Clijsters battling Henin for the top ranking. Clijsters defeated Henin in the final of the Tennis Grand Prix in Filderstadt to defend her title and her world No. 1 ranking. This was the eighth time in WTA history where the top two players in the world faced off for the top ranking.[56] Although Clijsters lost the top ranking to Henin the following week,[57] she regained it a week later by winning the Luxembourg Open for the third year in a row.[18][58] She finished her season by defending her title at the WTA Tour Championships in the first year where the tournament switched to a round robin format in the initial stage. Clijsters swept her group of Mauresmo, Elena Dementieva, and Chanda Rubin.[59] She won her semifinal against Capriati before defeating Mauresmo again for the title. With the million dollar prize, Clijsters finished the season as the tour prize money leader and became the first player to earn four million dollars in a season on the WTA Tour.[60] Nonetheless, Henin took the year-end No. 1 ranking by improving on her performance at the event from the previous season.[61]

Doubles: French Open and Wimbledon titles
In the early part of the season, Clijsters and Sugiyama won three titles on hard courts.[17] However, they did not win any big titles through May, losing in the Australian Open quarterfinals to the Williams sisters and finishing runners-up at their first two Tier I finals.[17][62] They entered the French Open and Wimbledon and made it to the finals at both events. Clijsters and Sugiyama defeated the top seeds Ruano Pascual and Suarez in both finals for Clijsters's first two Grand Slam tournament titles. The French Open final was a tighter match, ending 9–7 in the third set.[39][63] Despite these titles, the duo remained behind Ruano Pascual and Suarez in the rankings until August when Clijsters became world No. 1. She held the top ranking for four non-consecutive weeks.[18][64] The pair were the top seeds at the US Open, but withdrew in the second round due to rain delaying Sugiyama's fourth round singles match for three days.[65] They ended the season by finishing runners-up to Ruano Pascual and Suarez at the WTA Tour Championships.[66] Despite Clijsters's success in 2003, she seldom played doubles during the rest of her career.[67]

2004–05: Extended injury absence, first Grand Slam singles title
Although Clijsters maintained her form into 2004, her season was ultimately marred by injuries. It was feared that she would need surgery and miss the Australian Open after she injured her left ankle in the Hopman Cup.[68] Nonetheless, she competed at the event and reached the championship match without dropping a set, despite aggravating her ankle injury in the quarterfinals.[69] Her opponent in the final was Henin and unlike their previous two Grand Slam finals, Clijsters was able to win a set. With Henin up a break at 4–3 in the third set, the chair umpire incorrectly overruled a line call on break point that would have leveled the match. Henin ended up winning the game and the match. Clijsters said afterwards, "I'm just as disappointed as after the last two grand slam [finals], but I played a lot better this time".[70] In February, she won her next two tournaments, including the Diamond Games in Antwerp for her first WTA title in her home country.[71] After Clijsters withdrew from the Indian Wells Open following one match with a torn left wrist tendon, she only played in two more WTA events the remainder of the season. She returned to the WTA Tour six weeks later with a wrist brace, but again withdrew after one match. In June, she found out she would need surgery to remove a cyst in her wrist.[72][73] As a result, she remained out until the Hasselt Cup in Belgium where she needed to retire in her third match.[72][74]

There were few expectations on Clijsters entering 2005, as it still was not certain whether she would be able to play.[75] After missing the Australian Open, she returned to the tour in February. In her second and third tournaments back, Clijsters won both Tier I events in March, the Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open, to become the second woman to complete the Sunshine Double after Steffi Graf in 1994 and 1996.[76][77] She defeated world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport in the final of Indian Wells, as well as No. 2 Amélie Mauresmo and No. 3 Maria Sharapova in her last two matches in Miami.[78] These titles lifted her ranking from outside the top 100 back into the top 20.[18][75] Clijsters was unable to continue her success into the clay or grass court seasons, winning just one title and losing in the fourth round in three sets to Davenport at both the French Open and Wimbledon
After Wimbledon in late June,[81] Clijsters only lost one more match through early October.[17] During this stretch, she won five titles including her third Stanford Classic[82] and her fifth Luxembourg Open.[83] She also built up a 22-match win streak[83] and defeated Henin in the final of the Tier I Canadian Open in their only meeting of the year.[41][84] Clijsters's most important title of the season was the US Open, her first Grand Slam singles title. As the fourth seed, she was not tested until the quarterfinals, when Venus Williams was two games away from defeating her at a set and a break up. Clijsters rebounded to win the match in three sets and then defeated the top seed and world No. 2 Sharapova in the semifinals, also in three sets. Despite her previous struggles in Grand Slam singles finals, she won the championship against No. 13 Mary Pierce with ease, only conceding four games.[79] As the winner of the US Open Series, Clijsters received double the standard amount of prize money. Her $2.2 million prize was the largest in women's sports history at the time.[85] Clijsters's last tournament of the year was the WTA Tour Championships. Although she had a chance to return to No. 1 if she outperformed the top-ranked Davenport, she only won one match and did not advance out of her round robin group.[86] She finished the year ranked No. 2, having won a tour-best nine titles and all of her finals.[17][18][86] She was named both the WTA Player of the Year and the WTA Comeback Player of the Year.[87] Despite this success, Clijsters announced in August that she was planning to retire in 2007 because of her injury troubles