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46,996,015	Songs of Innocence and Experience (Allen Ginsberg album)	1,171,815,930	null	[ "1970 albums", "Musical settings of poems by William Blake", "Works by Allen Ginsberg" ]	Songs of Innocence and Experience is an album by American beat poet and writer Allen Ginsberg, recorded in 1969. For the recording, Ginsberg sang pieces from 18th-century English poet William Blake's illustrated poetry collection of the same name and set them to a folk-based instrumental idiom, featuring simple melodies and accompaniment performed with a host of jazz musicians. Among the album's contributors were trumpeter Don Cherry, arranger/pianist Bob Dorough, multi-instrumentalist Jon Sholle, drummer Elvin Jones, and Peter Orlovsky – Ginsberg's life-partner and fellow poet – who contributed vocals and helped produce the recording with British underground writer Barry Miles. The album is one of the most famous attempts at setting lyrics from Blake's Songs collection to music. Ginsberg, having studied the rhyme and meter of the poems, believed they were originally intended to be sung and that a Blakean musical performance could roughly be replicated. The themes explored in Blake's poems – childhood and abuse, organized religion, institutionalization, and poverty – connected with Ginsberg spiritually. He was inspired to undertake the project by a religious vision of Blake from decades earlier and his witnessing the 1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity, as well as rock music of the era's counterculture, citing its qualities of poetry and consciousness. The album was first released in 1970 on LP by MGM Records and Verve Forecast Records, selling poorly but receiving critical acclaim. It soon went out of print, while a follow-up release of more Blake recordings, planned with Fantasy Records, never materialized. In 2017, Omnivore Recordings released The Complete Songs of Innocence and Experience, a double CD featuring the original album and previously unreleased Blakean recordings by Ginsberg from 1971. ## Background In 1948, Ginsberg experienced what he described as a religious vision of 18th-century English poet William Blake appearing in his East Harlem apartment and reciting poetry to him. He was profoundly moved by this experience and inspired to set Blake's poetry to music. According to art historian Stephen F. Eisenman, "all at once, Ginsberg later said, he apprehended the unity of things material and spiritual, religious and carnal. Looking out the window, he saw 'into the depths of the universe' and understood that 'this was the moment that I was born for.'" Ginsberg's interest in Blake resurfaced in the late 1960s when he began to research Western Gnosticism for philosophical reasons. Ginsberg came to believe that Blake's poems were originally composed for the purpose of being sung and that, by studying their rhyme and meter, such a performance could be roughly reproduced. He planned to record musical adaptations of poems from Blake's illustrated Songs of Innocence and of Experience collection, which thematized the importance and sanctity of childhood, featuring critiques of systemic child abuse ("The Chimney Sweeper"), organized religion ("The Garden of Love"), and "the institutionalized culture of benevolence that perpetuated poverty" ("Holy Thursday"). The poetry collection, Ginsberg said, "seemed the nearest thing to holy mantra or holy prayer poetry that I could find in my own consciousness". Ginsberg was also inspired by the rock music of 1960s counterculture, citing acts like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, the Fugs, the Band, and Donovan. As Ginsberg recalled, "all the lovely youthful bands that have been wakening the conscience of the world, really, were approaching high poetry and cosmic consciousness in their content, so I was interested in seeing if Blake's highest poetry could be vocalised, tuned, and sung in the context of the Beatles' 'I Am the Walrus' or 'Day in the Life of' [sic] or in the context of 'Sad-eyed Lady of the Lowland' [sic] or 'John Wesley Harding' by Dylan." Ginsberg added that he wanted to present Blake in a way that would interest Dylan, who had disliked the poet. Ginsberg's witness of the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests and riot in Chicago provided an impetus to record the album. ## Writing and recording After leaving Chicago, Ginsberg went to upstate New York, where he had bought a farm as a retreat with money earned from his poetry readings. There, he experimented setting Blake's poems to music on a pump organ. He told Publishers Weekly in June 1969 that he was learning to notate music while working on the Blake settings. That same month, he began recording the album at Apostolic Recording Studio in New York City's Lower Manhattan. British underground writer and businessman Barry Miles was enlisted to produce the recording, and Ginsberg helped set him up at the legendary Hotel Chelsea, paying for and negotiating a favorable rent from its manager Stanley Bard, who knew and respected the poet. By this time, Ginsberg had composed some of the music he would use as settings for Blake's poems. In studio, Ginsberg sang and played harmonium, piano, and finger cymbals for Songs of Innocence and Experience. The harmonium, played before by Ginsberg at numerous poetry readings, was borrowed from his life-partner and fellow poet Peter Orlovsky, who had received the instrument as a souvenir from Benares during the pair's visit to India in the early 1960s. Orlovsky also contributed vocals to the recording and assisted Miles with its production. Ginsberg was accompanied by a host of jazz musicians during the recording sessions, including trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Herman Wright, guitarist Jon Sholle, French horn player Julius Watkins, and arranger/vocalist/pianist Bob Dorough. Drummer Elvin Jones was enlisted to play on the album's final track, "The Grey Monk". Ginsberg also invited bassist Charles Mingus to perform on the album, but Mingus declined. According to Miles, the recording also featured saxophonist Archie Shepp, although he is not named in the album credits. The album's recording produced 19 tracks, nine of which were recorded during the sessions held from June to July 1969. According to several scholarly sources, Songs of Innocence and Experience was completed later that year in December. ## Musical style According to English scholar Jonathan Roberts, the resulting music sets Blake's poems to a folk music idiom. The songs on the album average under two minutes in length. Ginsberg's melodies and the accompanying instrumentation are noted for their simplicity, with Peter Frank from Fanfare describing the accompaniment as "mantra-like". Vocally, Ginsberg demonstrates a lithe, high-toned delivery and the dramatic character of what Ink 19 magazine's James Mann calls "a poet's voice". His New York accent is also said by Mann to make the stanzas "breathe". Lester Bangs compares the poet's vocal style on the album to that of a mu'azzin – a mosque appointee who recites the call to prayer – but one who is Anglo-American. In the opinion of Relix magazine's Jeff Tamarkin, Ginsberg's "intonations and somewhat droning delivery" of Blake's words possess a grasp on their "inherent rhythms and melodies", pitted against contemporary "folk-rock/jazz-based forms". ## Release and reception Songs of Innocence and Experience was released as an LP record in 1970 by MGM Records and Verve Forecast Records. The record was credited as being "by William Blake, tuned by Allen Ginsberg", while its production was credited to "Miles Associates". Despite selling poorly, it was one of the most famous musical adaptations of Blake's Songs collection. Reviewing in April 1970 for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau gave the record an "A" and hailed it as "a collaboration of genius". He credited Ginsberg for singing in the manner of Blake's writing – "crude, human, touching, and superb" – and enhancing the source material with his musicians, a feat Christgau found seemingly impossible. In Rolling Stone, Bangs applauded Ginsberg's vocals and found the record effortless and unpretentious, "like a labor of love, a salute from a young visionary to an ancient sage, executed with delicacy and charm". John G. Simon from The Harvard Crimson said the music demonstrates a range of styles and is not the most accessible but still unforgettable, offering listeners a way to remember the words to Blake's poetry as they would know the lyrics to popular music songs. In The New Yorker, Ellen Willis said of the album, "It's a beautiful record, which makes me happy every time I hear it – but then most of what Ginsberg does has that effect on me. He should be persuaded to record a collection of mantras next." ## Legacy Ginsberg later considered buying the rights to the album back from MGM – through a deal he and Miles had arranged with Fantasy Records – so that he could record the remainder of Blake's Songs collection and release the recordings as a double album. Fantasy offered them a five-album deal with an advance and paid studio time to master the recordings, more than hundred of which Miles had already edited for a series of spoken-word and mantra records. According to Miles, the mastering was to be finished by June 1971, when Ginsberg was planning to leave for Australia. However, Ginsberg complicated the matter by having more tapes mailed to him from the various colleges where his poetry recitals had been recorded. In August, Ginsberg sent the master tapes to Fantasy, along with a letter saying he wants to rerecord and remix some of the songs and that he has recorded 16 albums of poems. The letter also noted his desire to postpone contract negotiations until he finishes traveling with poet Gary Snyder to the Sierras and to India. The albums were never released. At the time, Ginsberg also considered making an album of Blake settings with David Axelrod, a Los Angeles-based producer and composer best known for his successful tenure at Capitol Records. Axelrod had released his own instrumental interpretations of Blake's Songs collection on two albums – Song of Innocence (1968) and Songs of Experience (1969) – which fused sounds from pop, jazz, rock, and theater music. Ginsberg and Axelrod discussed ideas for a project on several occasions, including an album of both Blake and Ginsberg poems, but it never materialized either due to other pursuits and priorities. The original Songs of Innocence and Experience eventually went out of print and remained so until the release of The Complete Songs of Innocence and Experience by Omnivore Recordings on June 23, 2017. A double-CD reissue, the Omnivore set featured a second disc of previously unreleased recordings of Blake settings and other spiritually-themed performances, recorded by Ginsberg in San Francisco between July and August 1971. Reviewing the reissue for AllMusic, Thom Jurek said, "As much of a treasure as this document is, it's disc two that holds the greatest revelations. ... As a whole, they are an inspiring, provocative, and life-affirming chapter in his legacy." In 2019, Gavin Edwards included the original album in a piece for Rolling Stone covering 10 "weird" albums the magazine praised in the 1970s but "you've never heard", writing that Ginsberg's adaptation "was more literary than musical, but listening to him, one couldn't help but get caught up in the rush of words and images." ## Track listing All compositions are credited to Allen Ginsberg and William Blake; production is credited to Barry Miles and Peter Orlovsky. LP: Side one 1. $a$ "Introduction" / (b) "The Shepherd" – 2:11 2. "The Echoing Green" – 1:27 3. "The Lamb" – 1:15 4. "The Little Black Boy" – 3:05 5. "The Blossom" – 1:27 6. "The Chimney Sweepers" – 2:24 7. "The Little Boy Lost" – 1:09 8. $a$ "The Little Boy Found" / (b) "Laughing Song" – 1:31 9. "Holy Thursday" – 1:18 10. "Night" – 4:01 LP: Side two 1. "Introduction" – 2:09 2. "Nurses Song" – 2:10 3. "The Sick Rose" – 1:41 4. "Ah! Sun-Flower" – 1:18 5. "The Garden of Love" – 1:08 6. "London" – 2:01 7. "The Human Abstract" – 2:35 8. "To Tirzah" – 1:47 9. "The Grey Monk" – 4:13 ### The Complete Songs of Innocence and Experience The 2017 two-CD reissue by Omnivore combines the LP sides as tracks 1–19 on one CD and adds the following: CD one: Bonus tracks 20. "The Grey Monk" (alternate take) – 3:20 21. "Brothels of Paris" – 3:47 CD two: Blake Songs 1. "A Cradle Song" – 5:04 2. "The Divine Image" – 2:49 3. "Spring" – 4:21 4. "Nurse's Song" – 6:02 5. "Infant Joy" – 2:22 6. "A Dream" – 3:11 7. "On Another Sorrow" – 3:51 8. "Holy Thursday" – 4:32 9. "The Fly" – 0:52 10. "The School Boy" – 3:55 11. "The Voice of the Ancient Bard" – 1:16 CD two: Mantras 12. "Padmasambhava Mantra" – 12:03 13. "Om Namah Shivaye" – 4:55 14. "Roghupati Raghava" – 6:09 ## Personnel Credits for the 2017 CD, taken from AllMusic: - Michael Aldrich – choir/chorus - Greg Allen – design, reissue art direction - Dave Baker – engineering - Gordon Ball – photography - Audrey Bilger – project assistance - William Blake – composition, illustrations - Cyril Caster – arrangement, choir/chorus, French horn, guitar, trumpet - Don Cherry – bass, choir/chorus, finger cymbals, gourd, harpsichord, sleigh bells, trumpet, wood flute - Lee Crabtree – arrangement - Dutch Cramblitt – project assistance - Elsa Dorfman – project assistance - Bob Dorough – arrangement, choir/chorus, harpsichord, organ, piano, project assistance - Allen Ginsberg – arrangement, choir/chorus, composition, finger cymbals, harmonium, piano, Tibetan trumpet, tuning, vocals - Elaine Gongora – art direction - Michael Graves – mastering, restoration - Peter Hale – associate production - Matt Hoffman – choir/chorus - Peter Hornbeck – viola, violin - Elvin Jones – drums - John Kilgore – project assistance - Steve Knutson – project assistance - Tim Lawrence – project assistance - Tom Lee – project assistance - Sid Maurer – art direction - Fred McDarrah – photography - Michael McInnerney – cover photo - Jon Meyer – flute, project assistance - Barry Miles – photography, production - Tim Noakes – project assistance - Bill O'Hanlon – project assistance - Peter Orlovsky – production, vocals - Kari Pearson – editorial supervision - Brad Rosenberger – project assistance - Arthur Russell – cello - Jerry Schmidt – photography - Alan Senauke – mandolin, project assistance - Jon Sholle – arrangement, autoharp, bass, drums, electric bass, guitar - Dorothy Stefanski – editorial supervision - Pat Thomas – compilation production, liner notes - John Townley – project assistance - Julius Watkins – French horn - Herman Wright – bass - Peter Wright – project assistance - Janet Zeitz – choir/chorus, flute ## See also - William Blake in popular culture
69,812,106	Wieting Opera House	1,170,390,141	Performance hall in Syracuse, New York	[ "Buildings and structures demolished in 1930", "Burned theatres", "Demolished theatres in New York (state)" ]	The Wieting Opera House was a performance hall in Syracuse, New York, that hosted operas, films, and other performances from 1852 to 1930. Initially built by John Wieting in 1852 as Wieting Hall, the building burnt down in 1856. He rebuilt it that year, and in 1870 renovated the hall into an opera house. Towards the end of the 19th century, the opera house was a major theater in the Eastern United States, and held test performances of shows that were bound for performance on Broadway in New York City. The opera house burnt down in 1881 and 1896, and was rebuilt both times, the second time by Wieting's wife, Mary Elizabeth Wieting. The opera house began showing movies in the early 20th century, and closed in 1930, when it was replaced with a parking garage. ## Wieting Hall The block in Syracuse on which the Wieting Opera House was located, near Clinton Square, was initially a hardware store, shoe store, and "granite hall", a performance hall. The block burnt in 1849 or 1851, and was rebuilt shortly afterwards, as a large building with a hall on top by Charles A. Wheaton and Horace Wheaton. Their hall was the city's first to have a gallery. The building was purchased by John Wieting in 1850. Wieting, who had made a fortune in lecturing, felt that Syracuse did not have a public hall that was proportionally large enough for the city. He either funded improvements or the building of a new hall in 1852. The hall was opened on December 16, 1852. Wieting had plans to develop his building further, but before he could, it burnt down on January 5, 1856. The fire almost razed the whole building; just the left wall was left standing. Firefighters who responded were unable to contain the fire at first as the water they were attempting to use froze. The damages were estimated at \$200,000. No notable performances had been held in the hall at that point. Wieting oversaw the building of the second Wieting Hall in its place. Construction was completed in around 100 days and the hall opened on December 9, 1856. The hall was one story above the street and had an entrance on Salina Street, while the stage was to the west. A gallery went from the stage around the hall. Seating was first interlocked wooden chairs, but these were later replaced with "opera chairs". This hall became known for hosting various speakers. It held lectures from figures including Charles Dickens, Thurlow Weed, Dean Richmond, John Kelly, Charles Sumner, Henry Ward Beecher, Roscoe Conkling, Horace Greeley, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Buffalo Bill, Peter Cagger, Wendell Phillips, Samuel J. Tilden, Henry Jarvis Raymond, Stephen A. Douglas, John Albion Andrew, John Brough, Edwin D. Morgan, John Sherman, Gerrit Smith, William Lloyd Garrison, Hannibal Hamlin, Samuel Joseph May, Chester A. Arthur, John Van Buren, Horatio Seymour, and Anna Elizabeth Dickinson. The hall also held performances, with singers such as Adelina Patti, Christina Nilsson, and Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa. Others who performed include Edwin Booth, Edwin Forrest, Joseph K. Emmett, Charlotte Cushman, Harrigan and Hart, Ellen Terry, Lillian Russell, Sarah Bernhardt, Fanny Janauschek, John McCullough, Lawrence Barrett, Joseph Jefferson, and Henry Irving. During the 1860s, Wieting Hall hosted many minstrel shows by performers including Lew Benedict, Primrose and West, and Charles, Daniel and Gus Frohman. ## Political Conventions The hall was regularly the site of state conventions for political parties; the historian Franklin H. Chase stated that it held more conventions than any other American hall. Wieting Hall held the New York State convention of the Democratic Party in 1858; after beginning at noon the party could not resolve existing divisions and a disagreement arose over who should chair the meeting. Tensions rose high, and one chair was forcibly removed from his role. In August of 1860 it served as the site of newly formed Republican Party of New York's convention. Future governor Edwin Morgan received the nomination. It was the site of pledges to the Union during the American Civil War, and a two-lecture series on November 14 and 15, 1861, by Frederick Douglass, titled "The Rebellion, its Cause and Remedy". In anticipation of Douglass's arrival, some Syracuse residents protested his visit; a handbill was circulated advocating for citizens to "drive him from our city!" Syracuse's mayor, Charles Andrews, fearing a mob might attack Douglass, deployed the police and drafted 50 additional men. He was joined in his efforts by the county sheriff and soldiers training at a nearby camp. Wieting refused to cancel Douglass's performance, and he arrived to a hall that was protected with soldiers and greeted by Andrews himself. The 1861 convention of the New York State Teachers Association was held at the hall, with speeches from figures including Susan B. Anthony. Dickens visited Syracuse in 1868 and read from A Christmas Carol and The Pickwick Papers for a reported two hours. In September 1871 Roscoe Conkling took leadership of the New York State Republican party at a convention at the Wieting. One of the last conventions held there was of the Liberal party in 1872. ## Wieting Opera House Twenty-four years after it opened, in 1870, Wieting had the building renamed the Wieting Opera House as part of a series of renovations. The building opened under its new name on September 19, 1870. It had a seating capacity of 1,017, and, despite its name, did not have a true opera performance until an 1886 performance by the American Opera Company. Foster Hirsch notes that opera was "not intended to be the theatre's staple" and the name merely offered a "respectable cover". In 1878 the hall hosted a convention of the National Liberal League. One of the last performances was Sarah Bernhardt, who appeared in March 1881 in Camille. The opera house caught fire on July 19, 1881, and was again burnt to the ground. Losses from the fire were estimated at \$400,000, and it was again rebuilt, with the purchase of additional land. The new opera house was the first building in Syracuse to have incandescent lighting. It opened on September 18, 1883. Upon Wieting's death in 1888, his wife, Mary Elizabeth Wieting, inherited his estate and began managing the opera house. The Syracuse University Alma Mater's first performance was under the title "Song of Syracuse" at the Wieting on March 15, 1893. This hall burnt down on September 3, 1896, and Mary Wieting funded a rebuilding, which opened on September 16, 1897. She had been involved in the reconstruction, attempting to make the opera house "absolutely fire-proof" and offering suggestions to Oscar Cobb as he designed the new building. It was sometimes referred to as the "New Wieting Opera House". The building was heavily decorated, colored gold and rose, with chandeliers, floors made from Italian mosaic, silk and velvet drapes, and doors made from bronze. The Shubert brothers managed the opera house for almost 25 years beginning in the early 1900s. In September 1918, Lee and J. J. Shubert, attempted to file a legal suit in order to force the name of the building to be changed to the "Shubert–Wieting Opera House", which Wieting had her agent respond to by saying that such a change would be in "violation of the theatre lease and will not be countenanced". ## Notable performances and reputation At its peak, the Wieting was considered "one of the premiere theaters in the East". Its construction and the presence of several similar theaters developed the city into a place to try-out plays that would later go to be performed on Broadway. The theater was a member of The Theatrical Syndicate, which gave it "first claim" on a number of Broadway shows and revivals in the area. In 1889 Mary Wieting hired Sam S. Shubert as a treasurer, and two years later made him house manager. He in turn hired his brother, Levi. Sam progressed his career here for a time, producing his first show circa 1896 with a production of A Texas Steer. However, he left to manage the Bastable Theatre, a local competitor to the Wieting, in December 1897. Shubert led the Bastable in competition with the Wieting and the greater Theatrical Syndicate. According to the 2008 book Our Movie Houses, "all the big stars of the Broadway stage performed at the Wieting during the later decades of the nineteenth century." A 1930 article in the Syracuse Herald claimed that "[e]very theatrical star of any consequence in America since 1850 has appeared at the Wieting." Notable actors and lecturers that performed at the Wieting Opera House during this era include Lillian Russell, Victor Herbert, Helena Modjeska, Ellen Terry, and Mark Twain. The hall hosted a popular series of Gilbert and Sullivan shows. The first performance in the Wieting Opera House in 1870 was The Lancers. The first performance in the Wieting after it was reconstructed in 1882 was Romeo and Juliet starring Hortense Rhéa. In 1883 the Wieting held a performance The Maid of Arran, musical by Syracuse native L. Frank Baum. The stop was very successful; a local paper described a "very large and fashionable audience." Baum had the Wieting give out free copies of the musical's sheet music to attendees. The following year an October 4 performance of Prince Methusalem by the New York Opera Company began late after the company was unable to pay for transport to Syracuse due to a poor reception in Elmira, New York. The audience, described in The New York Times as a large one, had become impatient and "noisy demonstrations" broke out before the opera company emerged and the show began, belatedly. In December 1895 The School Girl starring Minnie Palmer came to the United States for a tour. It began on December 23 at the Wieting; shortly before the performance Richard Golden, a co-star, fell ill and the show's director William Gill was forced to take his place. The Wedding Day, starring Lillian Russell, opened its touring season on September 15, 1896, in what was also the newly rebuilt Wieting's first performance. The stop kicked off a tour that was described as having "exceptional success". In January 1899 the theater showed chronomatograph videos in an event kicked off by Burton Holmes. During Theodore Roosevelt's 1900 campaign for the presidency he spoke at the Wieting and nearby Clinton Square. An estimated crowd of slightly under 15,000 people heard him speak. On September 7, 1900, the Wieiting hosted a performance of Anthony Hope Hawkins to raise funds in the aftermath of that year's Galveston hurricane that ran from 11 am to 11 pm. On November 29, 1902, smoke from a nearby fire filled the opera house, but the company finished their performance. In 1905 the theatre advertised that Ida Tarbell would be performing there for twenty weeks, but this did not happen. The operetta Naughty Marietta was first run for a week at the Wieting beginning October 24, 1910, and it premiered on Broadway the following month. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra performed several times at the Wieting, first in 1896. A 1910 rendition of The Bohemian Girl put on by the orchestra was well received critically, but somewhat poorly attended. ## Later history The New Wieting Opera House added movies to its offerings in the early 1900s. The Wieting showed a premiere of the 1921 film The Right Way, which advocated for prison reform. The estate of Mary Wieting, who had died in 1927, held the opera house until they sold it to the Hemacon Realty Corporation for \$1 million in July 1929. In May 1930 the Syracuse Herald described the building as probably "the outstanding relic of the past still existent in modern Syracuse". That year, the Shuberts's lease on the theater was set to expire on August 1, and the owners were unwilling to undertake reconstruction and expansion projects. The company's head said "There will be no theater on the Wieting site after Aug. 1. That much can be said with assurance." It was reported that the theater would likely be replaced by a garage, although a local theater owner, Nathan Robbins, was working to finance a reconstruction project. It was announced on June 21 that the Opera House had been purchased to be made into a parking garage that connected to the Lincoln Bank. The cost of purchase was later disclosed to be \$200,000. By the time it was sold, the theater was in very poor condition, with water damage and unstable walls. The seats were removed, and the walls were reinforced, with one being completely reconstructed. At one point the land was occupied by Syracuse's E. W. Edwards department store. The current plot is occupied by the Atrium at Clinton Square, redeveloped in 1972.
54,234,970	Tian Qilang	1,055,171,135	Short story by Pu Songling	[ "Short stories adapted into films", "Stories within Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" ]	"Tian Qilang" (Chinese: 田七郎; pinyin: Tián Qīláng) is a short story by Pu Songling first published in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (1740). The story revolves around Wu Chengxiu, who befriends the title character, a young hunter, and the series of unfortunate events they experience thereafter. In writing "Tian Qilang", Pu was heavily influenced by biographies of famous assassins in Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian; Pu's story has in turn been adapted into a television series story arc, a film, and a play. ## Plot Liaoyang resident Wu Chengxiu (武承休) hears, in his dreams, the name of the one who "can share your trials and tribulations", and he rushes to enquire about Tian Qilang. He learns that Tian is a twenty-year-old hunter who lives with his mother in a dilapidated shack. Attempting to form a friendship with him, Wu first offers him gold, which he refuses; then Wu pays Tian a handsome sum for a few animal hides. However, Tian does not accept Wu's invitation to his residence, and his mother chases Wu away, because she senses that turmoil will befall him and she does not want her son to be implicated. Tian feels he had shortchanged Wu, because the hides were of inferior quality, and he bags "a perfect tiger specimen" and presents it to him. Wu then pressures him into staying at his place. Indifferent to his well-to-do friends' snide remarks about Tian, Wu also secretly disposes of Tian's ragged clothing and replaces them with presentable garb. To repay Wu, Tian sends him rabbit and deer meat on a daily basis, but refuses to be hosted at Wu's place. Some time later, Tian is found guilty of the manslaughter of a fellow hunter. Wu provides financial support to both Tian's and the deceased hunter's families, and uses his influence to save Tian. After a month, Tian is released from prison; his mother reminds him that he is greatly indebted to Wu. Thereafter, Tian is informed that a servant of Wu's has committed a crime and is currently being harboured by his new employer, the brother of the Censor. An incensed Tian decides to seek out this rogue servant; a few days later, the servant is found dead in the woods. In retaliation, the Censor's brother has Wu's uncle captured and beaten to death. Meanwhile, Tian Qilang has already fled. The Censor's brother is in the middle of bribing a magistrate when a woodcutter enters the court office to deliver some firewood. However, the woodcutter is in fact Tian Qilang, who rushes towards the Censor's brother and beheads him with a blade. The magistrate escapes in time, and Tian is quickly surrounded by soldiers; he commits suicide. A frightened magistrate returns to inspect the corpse, but it immediately lunges itself at him, and swiftly executes the magistrate. Tian's mother and son flee before they can be arrested. Moved by the actions of Tian Qilang, Wu Chengxiu holds a lavish funeral for him. Tian Qilang's son changes his name to Tong (佟), settles down in Dengzhou, and becomes a high-ranking official in the military. Years later, he returns to his hometown; Wu Chengxiu, now an octogenarian, leads him to Tian's grave. ## Publication history > Unwillingness to accept lightly a single coin is characteristic of someone who could not forget the gift of a single meal. What a fine mother! Qilang's wrath had not been fully discharged, so even in death he could vent it further – how awesome was his spirit! If Jing Ke had been capable of this feat, he would have left no regret to linger on for a thousand years. Were there such men like this, they could patch holes in Heaven's net. So clouded is the way of the world, I lament the scarcity of Qilangs. Sad indeed! The story was first published in 1740 in an anthology of short stories by Pu Songling titled Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, or Liaozhai Zhiyi. The title "Tian Qilang" (田七郎) is loosely translated as "Seventh Master Tian", Tian (田) being the surname of the titular character. Sidney Sondergard published her English translation of "Tian Qilang" in 2008. "Tian Qilang" has also been translated into Esperanto as "La Cxasisto Tian". ## Inspiration Critics including He Shouqi (何守奇), Feng Zhenluan (冯镇峦), and, more recently, Alan Barr have written that Pu Songling was greatly influenced by Sima Qian and his Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji). "Tian Qilang" is predominantly based on the Shiji biography of assassin Nie Zheng (聂政); however, Pu "updates and re-shapes the story in such a way as radically to alter its character". Nie is celebrated as the epitome of a heroic character because of his filial piety in particular; Pu is said to have been "fascinated" by such "heroic ethos". Incidentally, Nie Zheng also appears in an eponymous Liaozhai tale. On the other hand, the character Wu Chengxiu in "Tian Qilang" is compared with Yan Zhongzi (巖鐘仔), who hired Nie Zheng to assassinate his rival, the Han Prime Minister Xia Lei (俠累). Both men, Wu and Yan, are "unstinting in (their) efforts to win over a formidable man of action". The decision to have Tian Qilang be a hunter may have been influenced by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms character Liu An (劉安), who was also a hunter and demonstrated significant filial piety. A notable difference between "Tian Qilang" and the Shiji account of Nie Zheng is the lack of a "counterpart in Pu's tale to the assassin's sister Nie Rong (聂荣)". A reason offered for such an omission is that Nie's elder sibling dies while attempting to retrieve the slain assassin's body, and such a heroic feat "comes close to upstaging her (brother's act)"; Pu did not want Tian Qilang's actions to be overshadowed, and preferred that "justice is seen to be done in a more conspicuously satisfying way". Additionally, Pu "characteristically" arranges "his intricate plot in eight distinct stages" with a "series of dramatic fluctations" – the third-person narrative found in Shiji is replaced by a more limited viewpoint in "Tian Qilang", which allows for more suspense. Nie Zheng's mother does not have "an active role in the story"; Pu accords Tian Qilang's mother with "a distinct identity of her own" and a voice that "articulates the profound inequality which exists between her son and Wu Chengxiu". At the same time, she is the one who reminds Tian that he owes Wu a debt of gratitude for saving his life. ## Literary significance and adaptations Marlon Hom describes the character Tian Qilang as the "manifestation of chivalry". In his essay "The Literature of "A Gentleman Dies for the One Who Knows Him"" (as translated from Chinese by Ihor Pidhainy), Wang Wenxing hails "Tian Qilang" as "the greatest literary achievement amongst literary works of the 'a gentleman dies for one who knows him' (士為知己者死) theme". Wang compares the relationship between Tian Qilang and Master Wu to that of Crown Prince Dan and Jing Ke, and writes that Tian's ultimate act of vengeance is similar to Yu Rang stabbing of Zhao Xiangzi cloth. He concludes that the story well encapsulates the themes of loyalty and righteousness. Wang also praises the character development present in "Tian Qilang", in particular the depiction of Tian Qilang that "touches upon human nature and fate". "Tian Qilang" has been adapted for television, film, and the stage. Zhang Shichuan directed the 1927 Chinese black-and-white film Tian Qilang (alternatively known as The Hunter's Legend) starring Zhang Huichong, Zhu Fei, and Huang Junfu. The plot of An Unsung Hero (丹青副) by nineteenth-century playwright Liu Qingyun is based upon "Tian Qilang". A 74-episode Liaozhai television series released in 1986 includes a two-episode story arc titled "Tian Qilang". Directed by Meng Senhui (孟森辉) and written by Liu Jinping (刘印平), it stars Yao Zufu (姚祖福) as Tian and Wang Xiyan (王熙岩) as Wu. In 2003, China Post issued a third collection of commemorative Liaozhai postage stamps; amongst the collection is one depicting a scene in "Tian Qilang"; others show scenes from entries such as "Xiangyu". ## See also - List of Chinese films before 1930
12,451,132	White-crowned forktail	1,134,088,545	Species of bird	[ "Birds described in 1818", "Birds of China", "Birds of Southeast Asia", "Enicurus", "Taxa named by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot", "Taxonomy articles created by Polbot" ]	The white-crowned forktail (Enicurus leschenaulti) is a species of forktail in the family Muscicapidae. Scientifically described in 1818, it has five subspecies, each occupying a different geographic range. The largest of the forktails, Enicurus leschenaulti, is between 25 and 28 centimetres (9.8 and 11.0 in) long. It has a black throat and breast, black mantle, and largely black wings. The rump and lower back are white, and the bird has a prominent white crown, from which it gets its name. As with other forktails, the tail is long, deeply forked, and banded in black and white. A variety of whistling and clicking calls have been described. Slight morphological differences have been observed between subspecies. A shy bird, the white-crowned forktail stays near water, and forages on the edges of rivers and streams for invertebrates. Its breeding season is between March and September, and possibly extends till October. Its nests are also built near the water, and are constructed of plant material. The eggs are between two and five in number, though there is latitudinal variation. Multiple broods in a year have been observed in China. The white-crowned forktail is found in China, Southeast Asia and also in northeastern parts of the Indian subcontinent. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. Its elevational range varies across its range, from a minimum of 185 metres (607 ft) above sea level to a maximum of 2,400 metres (7,900 ft). It is categorized as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. ## Taxonomy The white-crowned forktail was scientifically described in 1818 by French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot. The specimen described came from Java. Five subspecies have been described. E. l. indicus is found from Sikkim to Myanmar, the Chinese province of Yunnan, northern Thailand, and Vietnam. E. l. sinensis is found in southern and eastern China, including in the regions of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Zhejiang, and Guangdong. E. l. frontalis is seen in the southern and central parts of the Malay Peninsula, on the islands of Nias and Sumatra. E. l. chaseni is found only on Batu island. E. l. leschenaulti is found in Java and on the island of Bali. The species was found to be more distantly related to the slaty-backed forktail and the little forktail than to other forktail species. The precise geographic delineation between E. l. borneensis and E. l. frontalis is not known. It is closely related to the Bornean forktail (Enicurus borneensis) which replaces it in mountain areas of Borneo. E. borneensis was previously considered a sixth subspecies of the white-crowned forktail. It is genetically distinct from the white-crowned forktail, but morphologically similar. ## Description The white-crowned forktail is the largest of the forktails. Between 25 and 28 centimetres (9.8 and 11.0 in) long, the white-crowned forktail typically weighs between 27 and 38 grams (0.95 and 1.34 oz), though specimens weighing up to 53 grams (1.9 oz) have been reported. It has black feathering on its throat extending down to its breast, as well as a black face and scapulars. The crown and forehead have a prominent white patch, sometimes visible as a slight crest, from which the bird gets its name. The belly of the bird is white, and is sharply delineated from the throat and face. The lower back and rump of the bird are white. The tail of the species is long and evenly graduated, with a deep fork. It has white tips, and the outer feathers are white. It also has three narrower white bands created by the tips of shorter tail feathers. The wings of this species are largely black with a prominent white band across the greater coverts. Juveniles of the species have brownish black upperparts, breast, and throat, brown flanks, and brown mottling on the belly. They also lack the prominent white crown. The bill of the species is black, while the feet are pinkish in color. Its mantle is completely black, a feature used to distinguish the species from the spotted forktail, which has a speckled mantle, and from the slaty-backed forktail, which has a slate-grey mantle. It is distinguished from the black-backed forktail by its longer tail and larger size. The Indian subspecies E. l. indicus has a bill slightly longer than the nominate subspecies E. l. leschenaulti, while the bill of the Chinese subspecies E. l. sinensis is slightly shorter than that of the nominate. The subspecies frontalis is somewhat smaller than the others, and the extent of white on its crown is smaller: E. l. borneensis is similar to frontalis but has a longer tail. E. l. chaseni is larger than birds from the rest of Sumatra, and also has a longer tail. Multiple calls have been observed. The alarm call and contact calls are high-pitched, ringing lengthy whistles, described as "tseee, tseee" or "zweeet": these calls are repeated multiple times, with pauses in between. The alarm call is harsher and more emphatic, described as "scree" or "scree chit chit". Males use a long and complex whistled song when displaying or exhibiting territorial behavior; this often consists of a long whistle that fades away, followed by shorter whistles, clicking or chacking noises, or bell-like sounds. The call of the borneensis subspecies is slightly different from the others. ## Distribution and habitat The habitat of the white-crowned forktail is subtropical or tropical regions in moist lowland forests and moist broadleaf montane forests. As is the case with other forktail species, the white-crowned forktail frequents fast-flowing rivers, waterfalls, and streams within the forests, though it may move to slower moving water sources in the winter. Its elevational range has been observed to vary seasonally, and in the northeastern regions of the Indian subcontinent, it is likely to migrate seasonally; all records from Bangladesh are from winter months. It also frequents damp areas and pools within the forest, including animal wallows, swampy areas, and water ditches. It may be found along slower-moving rivers and streams in the lowland regions of its distribution. It prefers areas screened by dense vegetation. On the island of Borneo the white-crowned forktail is sometimes found in drier areas, including along tracks and ridges in the forest, and in heathland. The white-crowned forktail has a wide geographic distribution across south and south-east Asia, including in parts of India, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Bhutan, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia . The elevational range of the species varies across its geographic distribution. In the Eastern Himalayas the species is generally found below 800 metres (2,600 ft) above sea level, though occasionally found till 1,250 metres (4,100 ft), and exceptionally at 2,400 metres (7,900 ft) in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. In Sumatra and Borneo it is generally seen up to an elevation of 1,400 metres (4,600 ft). The subspecies borneensis is found at 900–1,950 metres (2,950–6,400 ft), but occasionally as low as 185 metres (607 ft). It is common through most of its range but uncommon in the Himalayas. In the Chinese portion of its range, it is reported to be the most common forktail. Though the population of the species is not precisely known, it is thought to be greater than 10,000 individuals, and is estimated to be stable. It is categorized as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. ## Behaviour and ecology As with other forktails, the white-crowned forktail keeps close to water. It has been observed to frequently wag its tail. It forages along the edges of streams and in the water, primarily for insects, such as black beetles, water crickets, springtails, and caterpillars. Described as a shy bird, it flies close to the ground, usually calling as it does. It is thought to shift its elevational range slightly with the time of year. The white-crowned forktail breeds between the months of March and September, and possibly till October. The breeding period varies slightly across its range. Eggs have been recorded as early as March in Borneo, and on one occasion a parent with a fledgling was recorded in February. The nest is constructed of moss, plants, leaves, and wood fibre, and is in the shape of a large cup. It is usually located near or over the water, and occasionally in forest gullies nearby. It is usually placed in a hole in a bank or cliff, or among tree roots, and has been observed to have been constructed behind waterfalls, with the birds flying through the water to reach their nest. The location of the nest is always damp. The species usually lays between two and five eggs, which are creamy, pinkish, or greyish white, and covered in speckles of red-brown, salmon, and lilac. Birds in southern China have been observed to have two broods in a year, a pattern which may hold true elsewhere. The number of eggs in a brood varies with latitude, with individuals in China regularly being recorded laying four to five eggs. The nests of the species have been observed in Myanmar to be parasitized by the Drongo cuckoo.
973,601	Charles Bassett	1,167,803,588	United States Air Force test pilot and astronaut	[ "1931 births", "1966 deaths", "20th-century American engineers", "Accidental deaths in Missouri", "American electrical engineers", "American test pilots", "Aviators from Ohio", "Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States", "Burials at Arlington National Cemetery", "Deaths by decapitation", "Engineers from Ohio", "Military personnel from Dayton, Ohio", "Ohio State University alumni", "Space program fatalities", "Texas Tech University alumni", "U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School alumni", "USC Viterbi School of Engineering alumni", "United States Air Force astronauts", "United States Air Force officers", "Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1966" ]	Charles Arthur Bassett II (December 30, 1931 – February 28, 1966), (Major, USAF), was an American electrical engineer and United States Air Force test pilot. He went to Ohio State University for two years and later graduated from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. He joined the Air Force as a pilot and graduated from both the Air Force's Experimental Test Pilot School and the Aerospace Research Pilot School. Bassett was married and had two children. He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1963 and was assigned to Gemini 9. He died in an airplane crash during training for his first spaceflight. He is memorialized on the Space Mirror Memorial; The Astronaut Monument; and the Fallen Astronaut memorial plaque, which was placed on the Moon during the Apollo 15 mission. ## Early life and education Charles Arthur Bassett II was born on December 30, 1931, in Dayton, Ohio, to Charles Arthur "Pete" Bassett (1897–1957) and Fannie Belle Milby Bassett (née James; 1907–1993). Bassett was active in the Boy Scouts of America, where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. During high school, Bassett was a model plane aficionado. He belonged to a club that built gasoline-powered models and flew them in the school gym. Bassett's interest in model airplanes translated to real aircraft; he made his first solo flight at age 16. He worked odd jobs at the airport to earn money for flying lessons and earned his private pilot license at age seventeen. After graduating from Berea High School, in Berea, in 1950, he attended Ohio State University, in Columbus, from 1950 to 1952. Midway through college in 1952, Bassett enrolled in Air Force ROTC; he entered the U.S. Air Force as an aviation cadet in October of that year. He attended Texas Technological College, now Texas Tech University, from 1958 to 1960. He received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in electrical engineering from Texas Tech and did graduate work at University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. ## Military service He started his career with training at Stallings Air Base, North Carolina, and Bryan Air Force Base, Texas. Bassett graduated from Bryan in December 1953 and was commissioned in the Air Force. He arrived for additional training in Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, as a second lieutenant. There, he flew trainer aircraft, such as the T-6, the T-28, and the T-33, and flew the jet fighter F-86 Sabre in 1954. He went to Korea with the 8th Fighter Bomber Group and flew a F-86 Sabre. Bassett was too late to fly any combat missions, and said, "If you don't have any challenge, you never know how good you are." Bassett was promoted to first lieutenant in May 1955. He returned from Korea in 1955 and was assigned to Suffolk County Air Force Base, in New York, flying aircraft such as the F-86D, the F-102, and the C-119. In November 1960, Bassett went to Maxwell Air Force Base, in Alabama, to attend Squadron Officer School. He also graduated from the Air Force Experimental Test Pilot School (Class 62A) and the Aerospace Research Pilot School (Class III) and was promoted to captain. Bassett was an experimental test pilot and engineering test pilot in the Fighter Projects Office at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and logged over 3,600 hours of flying time, including over 2,900 hours in a jet aircraft. ## NASA career Bassett was one of NASA's third group of astronauts, named in October 1963. In addition to participating in the overall astronaut training program, he had specific responsibilities related to training and simulators. On November 8, 1965, he was selected as pilot of the Gemini 9 mission with Elliot See as command pilot. According to chief astronaut Deke Slayton's autobiography, he chose Bassett for Gemini 9 because he was "strong enough to carry" both himself and See. Slayton had also assigned Bassett as command module pilot for the second backup Apollo crew, alongside Frank Borman and William Anders. ## Personal life On June 22, 1955, Bassett married Jeannie Martin. They had two children: Karen (December 22, 1957) and Peter (April 6, 1961). ## Death Bassett and Elliot See died on February 28, 1966, when their T-38 trainer jet, piloted by See, crashed into McDonnell Aircraft Building 101, known as the McDonnell Space Center, 1,000 feet (300 m) from Lambert Field airport in St. Louis, Missouri. Building 101 was where the Gemini spacecraft was built, and the two astronauts were going there that Monday morning to train for two weeks in a simulator. They died within five hundred feet (150 m) of their spacecraft. Both men's remains were buried in Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, March 4. During funeral services in Texas two days earlier, astronauts Jim McDivitt and Jim Lovell and civilian pilot Jere Cobb flew the missing man formation in Bassett's honor, while Buzz Aldrin, Bill Anders, and Walter Cunningham did the same to honor See. A NASA investigative panel later concluded that pilot error, caused by poor visibility due to bad weather, was the principal cause of the accident. The panel concluded that See was flying too low to the ground during his second approach, probably because of the poor visibility. ## Memorials Bassett is honored at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center's Space Mirror Memorial, alongside 24 other NASA astronauts who died in the pursuit of space exploration. His name also appears on the Fallen Astronaut memorial plaque at Hadley Rille on the Moon, placed by the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. Texas Tech University dedicated an Electrical Engineering Research Laboratory building in Bassett's honor in November 1996. ## See also - List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents
46,820,035	Bertie's Brainstorm	1,168,116,900	null	[ "1910s American films", "1910s English-language films", "1911 drama films", "1911 films", "1911 lost films", "American black-and-white films", "American drama short films", "American silent short films", "English-language drama films", "Lost American drama films", "Silent American drama films", "Thanhouser Company films" ]	Bertie's Brainstorm is a 1911 American silent short drama film produced by the Thanhouser Company. The film focuses on Bertie Fawcett, a dim-witted fop, who erroneously believes to have won the heart of May Vernon. In reality, May loves Jack and the two are set to be married, but May's father wishes he would prove his worth by earning his own living. Bertie chances upon the letter and sets off to make a living proceeds through a number of jobs with hope to claim May as his bride. The film ends with Bertie returning and finding out that May has married Jack. Little is known about the production of the film save that William Russell played an unknown role and that the scenario was written by Lloyd F. Lonergan. The foppish character of Bertie may have been inspired by Edwin Thanhouser's role as Bertie Nizril in Thoroughbred. Originally conceived as a series, this ultimately singular work received praise from critics. The film is presumed lost. ## Plot An official synopsis published in the Billboard states, "Bertie Fawcett is a dudish chap, who believes that he has won the heart of May Vernon. May, however, regards Bertie as very much of a joke, and is in love with Jack Mace, who is her ideal of manly beauty. May's father has no objection to Jack personally, but he does not propose that the daughter he idolizes shall wed a weakling or a ne'er do well. Therefore, he tells May in a letter that if 'that young man wants to marry you, he must show his ability by earning his own living during vacation.' Unfortunately for Bertie, he sees the letter, and egotistically jumps to the conclusion that he is the person referred to. He starts out to make his own living, but soon finds that it is not as easy as it sounds. He is successfully a writer, a billposter, a village constable, and a living target in the baseball show, but fails to shine in any one sphere. And then to cap the climax, when he returns to claim his bride, he finds that May is married to Jack." ## Production The only known actor in the production for William Russell in an unknown role. A surviving film still appears to show Russell in the role of Jack at the climax of the film in which Bertie encounters the newly married couple. The other cast credits are unknown, but many Thanhouser productions are fragmentary. In late 1910, the Thanhouser company released a list of the important personalities in their films. The list includes G.W. Abbe, Justus D. Barnes, Frank H. Crane, Irene Crane, Marie Eline, Violet Heming, Martin J. Faust, Thomas Fortune, George Middleton, Grace Moore, John W. Noble, Anna Rosemond, Mrs. George Walters. The scenario was written by Lloyd F. Lonergan and the character of Bertie may have been based on Edwin Thanhouser's role of Bertie Nizril from Thoroughbred. The play was a three-act comedy by Ralph Lumley and was first produced on February 13, 1895. The play would come to the Garrick Theatre in New York City on August 17, 1896 and Edwin Thanhouser took over the role on August 29, 1896. A series of Bertie films was projected, but only this work was produced. Two other announced works included Bertie's Bride and Bertie's Baby. ## Release and reception The single reel drama, approximately 1,000 feet long, was released on January 17, 1911. The film received favorable reviews from Billboard, The Moving Picture World and The New York Dramatic Mirror. Billboard would write, "The adventures of the unfortunate Bertie are such as will make the usual motion picture audience chuckle with appreciation. The film is, of course, a farce essentially. The photography is well up to the Thanhouser standard." Walton of the Moving Picture News, would quip, "This beats the brainstorm in Les Miserables. It is a Doré nightmare." The comedic farce of the dim-witted fop proved to be successful if ultimately singular release of an expected series of films. The film is presumed lost because the film is not known to be held in any archive or by any collector.
8,404,277	Rjukan Line	1,057,611,487	Railway line in Vestfjorddalen, Norway	[ "1909 establishments in Norway", "1991 establishments in Norway", "Electric railways in Norway", "Heritage railways in Norway", "Museums established in 1991", "Norsk Transport", "Private railway lines in Norway", "Railway lines closed in 1991", "Railway lines in Vestfold og Telemark", "Railway lines opened in 1909", "Rjukan Line" ]	The Rjukan Line (Norwegian: Rjukanbanen), at first called the Vestfjorddal Line, was a 16-kilometre (10 mi) Norwegian railway line running through Vestfjorddalen between Mæl and Rjukan in Vestfold og Telemark county. The railway's main purpose was to transport chemicals from Norsk Hydro's plant at Rjukan to the port at Skien, in addition to passenger transport. At Mæl the wagons were shipped 30 kilometres (19 mi) on the Tinnsjø railway ferry to Tinnoset where they connected to the Tinnoset Line. The Rjukan Line and the ferries were operated by Norsk Transport, a subsidiary of Norsk Hydro. Construction of the line started in 1907, and it opened two years later. It became the second Norwegian railway to be electrified in 1911. It experienced heavy growth, and had fifteen electric locomotives in use. During World War II it was the scene of the Norwegian heavy water sabotage. After the 1960s production declined, and the railway was closed in 1991. It was kept as a heritage railway. ## History ### Background The Telemark power-based industry started in 1902 when Sam Eyde, along with Norwegian and Swedish investors, bought Rjukan Falls—establishing A/S Rjukanfos on 30 April 1903. The same year, on 13 February, Eyde and Kristian Birkeland had met and started working on refining the electric arc to produce an electric flame; allowing Eyde to complete his process of converting air and electricity into fertilizer. On 19 December 1903 Det Norske Kvælstofkompagni was founded, followed by Det Norske Aktieselskap for Eletrokemisk Industri (today Elkem) in 1904; both were in part owned by the Wallenberg family, Stockholms Enskilda Bank and Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas. The test plant in Notodden started operation on 2 May 1905 as the first in the world to produce synthetic potassium nitrate. On 2 December 1905 Norsk Hydro-Elektrisk Kvælstofaktieselskab (now Norsk Hydro) was founded, and plans to start a new plant in Rjukan were initialized; moving closer to the source of power would improve efficiency and not make it possible for the newly independent Government of Norway to hinder construction of hydroelectric power by foreign investors—a major political issue at the time. Rjukanfos applied for permission to build a power line from Rjukan to Notodden, but on 18 June 1907 the Norwegian Parliament did not accept the application, despite an offer from Eyde that the state would receive escheat after eighty years, in part because the state would have to guarantee for the project. In the meantime, the issue of a pure industrial versus a general purpose railway line had stirred local protests, since Norsk Hydro had indicated they were not interested in building a railway to serve the general public. At the time it was common that lines built primarily for single-company freight transport would involve the subsidized operation of passenger and general cargo trains, at the expense of the railway owner. Heavy local protests were transmitted to parliament in 1906, but by the next year an agreement was made for the construction of a general purpose line. On 13 April 1907 Norsk Hydro and the German group Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik (today BASF) made an agreement for the creation of the factory at Rjukan, Rjukan Salpeterfabrik, and at the same time created Norsk Transportaktieselskap—both companies were owned as 50/50 joint ventures. Norsk Transport received a concession to build—with necessary expropriations and operate a railway for thirty years on 17 July 1907. The companies had a stock equity of NOK 34 million. ### Construction By the time the concession was given construction of the railway had already started. At the most 2,000 workers were involved in the construction of the plant, the Rjukan Line, and the Tinnoset Line. This was in addition to the Svelgfoss Power Station and a new potassium nitrate factory in Notodden. During the construction one worker lost his life in a landslide, while two survived the accident. Housing was provided in simple barracks, and few laborers came with family. Prostitution and the sale of illegal liquor during the prohibition flourished; the lack of proper law enforcement making Vestfjorddalen known as a lawless valley. The Rjukan Line was built with a maximum gradient of 1.5%. In addition to the line to the plant, a branch line went to the hydroelectric power station at Vemork; completed in 1908 it would only be used for service technicians to the power station and had a gradient of 5.7%. Construction in Vestfjorddalen was led by Sigurd Kloumann. During May 1908 the workers were not being paid regularly enough, and took to a strike on 6 June; 2,120 men were at the most in strike. As a consequence Norsk Hydro became a member of Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NAF). Negotiations were conducted in August, but failed—not until Minister of Labour Nils Claus Ihlen meddled and Sam Eyde pulled Norsk Hydro out of NAF and reduced his demands did the strike end, on 6 October. Laying of the tracks started during the fall of 1908, and on 18 February 1909 the first train from Notodden to Vestfjorddalen ran. The official opening of the line from Notodden to Rjukan occurred on 9 August, performed by King Haakon VII—despite the mayor of Tinn referring to the monarch as "the Swidish King Oscar II". The line was initially operated by steam locomotives, however the cost of steam power was large; and on 7 June 1910 a contract with Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (today AEG) of Berlin was signed to provide overhead wires and five electric locomotives. The Rjukan Line became the second electrified railway in Norway, after the Thamshavn Line, and the first that would be connected to the main railway network. The first electric locomotive was taken into operation on 30 November 1911. Because only some of the locomotives were delivered, steam locomotive had to help with the service. Because of insufficient safety routines there were several fatalities among employees, and not until 1922 was sufficient policy initiated. ### Ships In 1907 the first ferry, an unmotorized barge named Tinnsjø was completed; the steam ship Skarsfos was used to haul it between the two railways. The first self-propelled ferry was SF Rjukanfos, a 338 GRT ferry launched in 1909. She got a major overhaul in 1915 after the sister ship SF Hydro at 494 gross register tons was launched the same year. The third steamship was SF Ammonia at 929 gross register tons. Lake Tinn freezes in winter, and all the ships had to be built as icebreakers. The ferries transported the wagons and passengers 30 kilometres (19 mi) across Lake Tinn; until 1936 Norsk Transport had to compete with a passenger steamship service, but after their closing the railway ferries were responsible for all passenger traffic on the lake, which also helped boost passenger traffic on the trains. ### The first years The first potassium nitrate was transported on 8 December 1911, and two years later the plants were making a profit. Transported cargo increased from 110,000 tonnes per year to 250,000 tonnes in 1915, after the plant had been expanded, and up to 345,000 tonnes in 1917. The small hamlet of Rjukan had turned into a town, and in 1920 there were 11,651 people in Tinn. The 1920 were a tough time, and cargo decreased, but in 1929 the electric arc technology was replaced by the ammonia method, with the main product being potassium nitrate. During the 1930s other products came into production, including hydrogen and other gases, and from 1934 as the first plant in the world mass-produced heavy water. Passenger transport was of two types; trains that corresponded with the ferries and connected with trains at Tinnoset, and commuter trains transporting workers to the plants at Rjukan. The commuter trains were initiated in 1913, and Norsk Hydro started building housing at Ingolfsland and Tveito, and both Ingolfsland and Miland got their own stops, and from 1919 stations. The two kilometers (one mile) commuter train from Rjukan to Ingofsland took five minutes; a month pass cost NOK 2.50 for employees and their families. There were seventeen departures in each direction per week, timed to fit with the working times at the plant. This increased to 58 in 1916, when a new stop at Tveito was opened. The passenger transport to Mæl was performed by connecting passenger wagons to the freight trains. Up to ten trains were operated each direction each day, and up to five would correspond with the ferry; at Tinnoset trains would operate to Skien, and connection at Hjuksebø allowed for transport to Oslo Vestbanestasjon. In 1928 Norsk Transport and NSB agreed to operate a weekly night train service from Rjukan to Oslo; the service lasted until 1933. During the 1930s NSB and Norsk Hydro initiated an attempt to attract tourists to Rjukan, through discounted direct trains from Oslo, Drammen and Skien. They were taken up again after the war, and remained until 1969. ### World War II The German occupation of Norway (1940–1945) during World War II made the Rjukan Line the area for a massive struggle in between the Norwegian resistance movement and the Third Reich. In February 1940, before the occupation, the entire Vestfjorddalen and the docks closed for foreigners. On 4 May 1940 German troops reached Rjukan, a month after the invasion of Norway had started. The ferries were camouflaged and by January 1941 lack of coal resulted in the steamships being fired by wood. One of the by-products at Rjukan was the production of heavy water—a key component in nuclear weapons, and necessary for the Germany designs as a moderator. The hydrogen plant at Vemork was the first mass producer of heavy water, and in 1939 IG Farben, who owned 25% of Norsk Hydro at the time, asked to import five liters of heavy water, but was denied due to lack of an export license. In 1939–40 production at Vemork was 20 kilograms, by 1942 production had increased to five kilograms per day. The first attempt from the resistance was Operation Grouse in October 1942, but failed and caught by the Germans; as a consequence passenger transport after 7 April 1942 from Ingolfsland Station to Rjukan was only permitted for soldiers, police, workers at the plant and schoolchildren. All filled ammonia wagons were stored indoors in a tunnel with heavy guarding. On 16 November 1943 the US Army Air Forces bombed the hydrogen plant; the attack killed 21 civilians but failed to touch the plant itself, located underneath seven stories of reinforced concrete. The secondary targets of the attack were the station at Rjukan, the industrial tracks and the track to Vemork. The attack caused great damage to the railway with locomotives No.7 and 8, eight cargo wagons and seven passenger wagons suffering damage. Total costs for the bombings were NOK 245,611, most of it related to rolling stock. The Germans decided to cancel production of heavy water at Rjukan, and move the remains of the potassium hydroxide—from which the heavy water was distilled—was to be transported to Germany. The resistance movement was aware of this plan, and considered blowing up the train at various places, but instead chose to target the ferry SF Hydro. The night before the shipment went the saboteurs entered the ship and placed a bomb in the hull, timed so the ferry would blow at the deepest point of the lake, but at the same time close to land to help save the civilians on board. The attack was successful, the ship sank to 430 metres (1,410 ft) depth with 47 people on board, including eight German soldiers, a crew of seven and the cargo of heavy water. 29 people survived. ### Climax After the end of the war Norsk Hydro had a strong liquidity, while the Green Revolution and increased industrialization of agriculture in Europe boomed the demand for the products; from 1945 to 1955 production increased eightfold. The increased transport was a heavy burden on the two steamships, and in 1953 Norsk Transport ordered MF Storegut, a diesel powered ship of 1,119 GRT. She was launched on 25 May 1956, and the two older ferries were put to reserve duty in the meantime. A number of upgrades were made to the line, and the two locomotives 9 and 10 were bought in 1958. This was followed by the three diesel locomotives 20, 21 and 22 from Henschel. In 1966 two NSB El 1 locomotives were bought, and the voltage on the line increased from 10 to 15 kV. In 1957 five round trips had to be made each day, while the trains made nine round trips from Rjukan to Mæl. Rjukan station handled 100 wagons, with 800 tonnes potassium nitrate and 400 tonnes ammonia; by 1962 723,482 tonnes were transported on the Rjukan Line, 14% of the transported amount of NSB (excluding the ore trains on the Ofoten Line). In total 30 million tonnes on 1,5 million carloads were transported from 1911 to 1991. ### Decline Norsk Hydro announced in 1963 a savings plan for its four plants in Norway; Chief Executive Officer Rolf Østbye made it clear that new technology in the production of ammonia would force the closure of the plant at Rjukan, and replace it with a petroleum-based process at Herøya. The Rjukan situation, as it was named in the press, became a source of conflict between the local community and Norsk Hydro; initially 250 jobs were to be moved to Herøya, but in 1964 Norsk Hydro applied for permission to build a power line from Rjukan to Herøya—what would become the death sentence for the Rjukan Line. Permission for the construction of the power line was granted in 1968. Production of fertilizer was moved to Herøya and Glomfjord, and Rjukan transferred to production of kalkammonsalpeter in 1963 and ammonium nitrate in 1964. During the 1960s a series of cost reductions were introduced on the line, after major reorganizations between 1965 and 1970; the last commuter train for the workers to the plants went on 25 May 1968, while on 31 May 1970 the last passenger train in connection with the ferries went on Rjukan Line, being replaced with bus. In 1972 Norsk Transport applied to terminate passenger transport with the railway ferry, since they were operating trips with only passengers and no cargo. The application was declined by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications, but in 1978 they permitted that the Saturday afternoon and Sunday departures be terminated—these were not used to transport freight trains. By the mid eighties passenger numbers had fallen dramatically, and in 1985 the department gave in and permitted the termination of passenger services with Storegut and Ammonia. The plan had been producing a deficit since 1982. Norsk Hydro made an agreement with the authorities where they would create 350 new permanent jobs, create a business fund and donate NOK 60 million for the construction of a new road, Route 37 along Lake Tinn. In 1988 Norsk Hydro terminated the ammonia production, and in 1991 they also closed down the production ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate, along with the Rjukan Line. Within a few years the number of Norsk Hydro employees in Rjukan had been reduced from 1,760 to 530 people; 24 of these were employed by Norsk Transport operating the railway and railway ferries. All the employees were either retired or moved to other areas of Norsk Hydro's enterprise. The last train ran on 4 July 1991, four days after the plant closed. Without production at the plants there was no need for the railway; it would be more economical to transport the few last products by truck. The final journey hauled several wagons down to the coast for scrapping. The closing of the Rjukan Line also terminated operations on the Tinnoset Line, where passenger traffic had remained until 1991. ## Rolling stock ## Reuse as a heritage line After the closing in 1991 the foundation Stiftelsen Rjukanbanen'' was established to ensure that the railway remained in an operational condition, and kept the two railway ferries and some of the rolling stock in operational condition. Norsk Transport retained for a period maintenance of the Rjukan Line, while the Tinnoset Line remained part of the rail network maintained by the Norwegian National Rail Administration. The foundation operated ad-hoc charter services on both the Tinnoset Line and the Rjukan Line, as well as with both railway ferries. By 2004 the foundation had run out of money, and closed down. In 2006 the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage announced they would be working to preserve the railways and ferries, and in 2008 it became clear that the directorate was working with an application for the Rjukan Line, the Tinnoset Line and the ferries to be included in a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with the closed plants in Rjukan and Odda. The line was added to the list of priority technical and industrial cultural heritage by the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage.
51,516,179	Cami Bradley	1,162,016,864	Pop music vocalist from Spokane, Washington	[ "1988 births", "21st-century American singers", "21st-century American women singers", "21st-century pianists", "21st-century women pianists", "America's Got Talent contestants", "American child singers", "American musical duos", "Living people", "Musicians from Spokane, Washington" ]	Carmen Jane "Cami" Bradley (born May 26, 1988) is an American singer-songwriter and keyboardist from Spokane, Washington. Bradley gained fame in 2013 as a contestant on season eight of America's Got Talent, during which she advanced to the finals by performing her arrangements of popular songs including "Believe". Bradley finished the season in sixth place. Prior to her appearance on America's Got Talent, Bradley won a local singing competition in Spokane in 2006. She self-released two solo projects in 2009 and a third in 2013. Following her national exposure, Bradley and Alabama singer-songwriter Whitney Dean formed a collaboration called the Sweeplings. She formed a second collaboration in 2019, Carmen Jane, to pursue a more experimental sound. The Sweeplings have released numerous works including the full-length album Rise & Fall (2015); songs including "Carry Me Home" have since been used in television series and promotional videos. Bradley and Dean joined Nettwerk in 2017 for their third EP, Sleepwalking, and a deluxe version of Rise & Fall. A full-length album scheduled for 2018 was scrapped; after a seven-month break, Bradley and Dean released the EP Losing Ground Vol. 1 in March 2020; volume two was released in September. ## Background Carmen Jane Miller was born in Spokane, Washington, into a musical family. Her father, Paul Miller, was the worship leader at the family's church; he was practicing vocal scales in the car while on the way to perform services when four-year-old Cami started singing along. Her mother, Amy Miller, said that was when they knew she had both singing talent and an ear for music. Cami Miller began learning the piano by age seven, and started writing songs at ten, though she later called those efforts terrible. Her early style was influenced by a wide range of music, including artists Christina Aguilera and Natalie Cole, and soundtracks to Disney films. Miller began performing her songs during her teen years; the week before she turned 18, she won a car by finishing first in the Spring 2006 season of the local Gimme the MIKE competition. When it was suggested that she should try out for national, televised singing competitions like The Voice, she declined because she did not find the idea to be appealing. Miller married Eric Bradley on August 25, 2006. ## Career ### 2009: Anomalous and Unhinged Cami Bradley's first recording effort was the full-length album Anomalous, released in April 2009 and featuring 12 songs. Bradley later said she was happy with the album, but it did not really represent her because she was still trying to find her artistic voice. In June 2009, she released the four-song EP Unhinged, including a medley of the traditional hymns "Amazing Grace" and "'Tis So Sweet". ### 2013: Seas and America's Got Talent Bradley self-released her second full-length album Seas in May 2013, featuring her husband Eric on drums. A Kickstarter campaign in April to fund the album's release concert raised nearly \$4,000. Seas comprises seven songs including "This Ocean", a duet with her younger brother Ryan Miller, one-half of the indie duo the Rustics. For this album, Bradley said she wrote emotional stories based on the experiences of people close to her, to create "a picture of what I see other people feeling." Early in 2013, Bradley got a telephone call from a scout with America's Got Talent suggesting that she send them a video of her performing. The producers then sent her to audition in Chicago, where she began to have second thoughts. Instead, she sang an a cappella version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", prompting the judges to put her through to the Las Vegas round; there, she performed "Summertime" and advanced to the live shows. Bradley's televised appearance during the Las Vegas episode was brief; it was her quarterfinals performance that propelled her into the national spotlight. Bradley accompanied herself on piano in a stripped-down performance of "Believe", earning praise from the judges. Mel B lauded the brave arrangement and suggested that Cher might consider a similar approach. Howard Stern agreed, and said it was like hearing the lyrics and their meaning for the first time. Howie Mandel said Bradley had a haunting style and a "star quality ... that could possibly take her all the way." Bradley continued into the finals of the competition with rearranged versions of pop songs including "Can't Help Falling in Love" and "Livin' on a Prayer". Her sixth-place finish left her happy and newly confident, having been given the opportunity to "get out of my comfort zone." After America's Got Talent wrapped, Bradley joined her fellow finalists on a two-month tour. She appeared on FORTE's debut album as the featured guest on "The Prayer", and performed the song live with FORTE at Carnegie Hall. ### 2014–present #### The Sweeplings Singer-songwriter Whitney Dean was working on his music while at home in Huntsville, Alabama, when his wife suggested that they watch Bradley perform on America's Got Talent. Afterward, Bethany Dean said her husband and Bradley should write music together. Bradley declined on first contact, but Bethany Dean persisted; within a few months, Whitney Dean and Bradley began collaborating via Skype. In April 2014, the Deans were invited by the Bradleys to visit their home in Spokane, Washington, and the meeting was both pleasant and productive. Within their first weekend, Cami Bradley and Whitney Dean had co-written eight songs. A self-titled, four-song EP was released in September 2014, but the new duo did little promotion at first, because Bradley did not want her fans to be confused if the pairing did not work out; Bradley also wanted to make clear that she and Dean were not a romantic couple. Instead, she released videos of cover songs as a solo artist so people would not forget about her. In August 2015, the Sweeplings released their debut album, Rise & Fall, on their own label. NPR had premiered the song "Carry Me Home" the month before, and iTunes later placed the song on its list of the 25 best singer-songwriter tracks of 2015. In February 2016, Billboard premiered the video for "Under Your Spell", a song about the struggle with life choices. Albums to follow included Covers, Ch. 1; the EP Winter's Call; a Christmas album, Merrier Days; a deluxe version of Rise & Fall; and the EP Sleepwalking. An album planned for 2018 was put on hold when "some tragedy, some loss, some internal struggle" led Bradley and Dean to take an extended break. In 2020, Losing Ground was released as two EPs; the first in March, and the second in September. Each volume features seven songs. Also in 2020, The Sweeplings uploaded several official music videos to their YouTube channel, including "In Between" in January, "Bleed Me White" in March, and "I Won't Go" in August. #### Carmen Jane In 2019, Bradley formed a second collaboration in addition to her music with the Sweeplings. Carmen Jane, after her given name, makes songs that feature a different tone than her other work, a more experimental "dark pop" sound reminiscent of Billie Eilish. Bradley's collaborator in Germany is producer Nico Rebscher, and their work is "the first time I've felt fully me in music." Carmen Jane is based in Los Angeles, where Bradley also travels to write music with her brother, Ryan. ## Critical reception People magazine praised Bradley during her appearances on America's Got Talent. "There's something about this 25-year-old's voice that pulls you in as she takes on classic songs and makes them her own." Of "Believe", entertainment editor Avery Thompson wrote, "with just a piano and her incredible voice, Cami stole the show and perhaps the competition." A readers' poll conducted annually by Inlander named Bradley the Best Singer-Songwriter of 2015 and 2016. She placed second in the same poll in both 2017 and 2018. AllMusic wrote that songs composed by Bradley and Dean reveal "a penchant for haunting, tender harmonies and a roots-inspired sound that bears similarities to The Civil Wars." PopDust rated Rise & Fall No. 15 on its list of best albums of 2015, on which "Dean and Bradley float across vast landscapes of dusty tones and shadowy figures." The Birmingham News called it "an uncommonly focused, polished and big-stage-ready debut from an independent band". Elmore Magazine noted Bradley's "concise" chemistry with Dean. In its review of Sleepwalking, Atwood Magazine wrote, "Cami Bradley's breathtaking voice leads with pain and passion, charged with a poignant edge that is as biting as it is bitten." ## Personal life Eric and Cami Bradley live primarily in Spokane, Washington, and work at her father's church there. They bought a small second home in Huntsville, Alabama, to facilitate Cami's career with the Sweeplings; their home search was featured on a 2016 episode of Tiny House Hunting. Cami Bradley also is a professional photographer. ## Discography ### Albums As a solo artist - Anomalous (2009) - Unhinged (EP, 2009) - Seas (2013) With the Sweeplings - The Sweeplings (EP, 2014) - Rise & Fall (2015) - Covers, Ch. 1 (2016) - Winter's Call (EP, 2016) - Rise & Fall (Deluxe Edition) (2017) - Merrier Days (EP, 2017) - Sleepwalking (EP, 2017) - Losing Ground Vol. 1 (EP, 2020) - Losing Ground Vol. 2 (EP, 2020) ### Singles As a solo artist - "Come Around" (2013) With the Sweeplings - "Snow May Be Falling" (2014) - "Cannonball" (2015) - "Carry Me Home" (2015) - "In Too Deep" (2016) - "Hold Tight" (2016) - "What We Once Were" (2016) - "Fool" (2017) - "Losing You" (2017) - "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" (2018) - "In Between" (2020) - "Bleed Me White" (2020) - "Shake the Dust" (2020) - "Running" (2020) - "Deep & Wild" (2020) - "I Won't Go" (2020)
25,185,428	Ezio Auditore da Firenze	1,173,235,025	Assassin's Creed character	[ "Assassin's Creed characters", "Fictional Florentine people", "Fictional Italian people in video games", "Fictional blade and dart throwers", "Fictional characters from Tuscany", "Fictional characters from the 16th century", "Fictional criminals in video games", "Fictional explorers in video games", "Fictional fist-load fighters", "Fictional hapkido practitioners", "Fictional knife-fighters", "Fictional martial arts trainers", "Fictional socialites", "Fictional swordfighters in video games", "Fighting game characters", "Male characters in video games", "Nobility characters in video games", "Spike Video Game Award winners", "Video game characters introduced in 2009", "Video game characters with superhuman senses", "Video game mascots", "Video game protagonists", "Vigilante characters in video games" ]	Ezio Auditore da Firenze () is a character in the video game series Assassin's Creed, an Italian master assassin who serves as the protagonist of the series' games set during the Italian Renaissance. His life and career as an assassin are chronicled in Assassin's Creed II, II: Discovery, Brotherhood, and Revelations, and the short films Assassin's Creed: Lineage and Assassin's Creed Embers. All games (excluding II: Discovery) and films he appears in were re-released as an enhanced bundle, The Ezio Collection, in 2016. Ezio has also been frequently referenced or made smaller appearances in other media within the franchise. Actor Roger Craig Smith has consistently provided the character's voice throughout his appearances, while Devon Bostick portrayed him in live-action in Lineage and Tomokazu Seki provide his Japanese voice. Within the series' alternate historical setting, Ezio was born into Italian nobility from Florence in 1459. His family had long been loyal to the Assassin Brotherhood, a fictional organization inspired by the real-life Order of Assassins dedicated to protecting peace and freedom, but Ezio did not learn about his Assassin heritage until his late teens, after most of his immediate kin were killed during the Pazzi conspiracy. His quest to track down those responsible for killing his family eventually sets him up against the villainous Templar Order led by the House of Borgia. Spending years to fight against Rodrigo and Cesare Borgia and their henchmen, he eventually re-establishes the Brotherhood as the dominant force in Italy. His further adventures lead him to Spain and the Ottoman Empire, where he is also essential in overcoming Templar threats and restoring the Assassins. After his retirement from the Brotherhood, he lives a peaceful life in rural Tuscany until his eventual death from a heart attack in 1524. The character has received critical acclaim and is often named among the greatest video game characters of all time. While most of his praise focuses on his portrayal and growth throughout the series, as well as the unique chronicling of his entire life, he has also been noted as one of the most attractive video game characters of all time. Due to his reception and the fact that he is the only character in the series who is the protagonist of multiple major installments of the franchise, he is usually considered the face of the franchise and its most popular character. Ezio's popularity has led to several crossover appearances outside of the Assassin's Creed series, notably Soulcalibur V, Fortnite, and Brawlhalla, as a guest character. ## Development When creating the character, the developers were keen on establishing similarities between the series' previous protagonist Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad in style and general appearance, while at the same time differentiating Ezio from the former characterwise. His name, meaning eagle, was chosen to keep up the tradition of Altaïr, whose name meant "flying one". While Altaïr was described as a warrior monk bred for combat and the life of an assassin, Ezio's backstory was consciously designed in sharp contrast to make playing him feel like an "empowering experience". Unlike Altaïr, Ezio is not born into the order and discovers his heritage only in his teens, while his main goal for most of the first game is to seek revenge on those who murdered his family. Even though this was made to be his main motivation for the early part of the game, his personal growth was to enable him to seek justice as the game progressed. He does not start out as a master assassin but has to hone his craft throughout, making him more relatable to players. Ezio learns new moves and abilities by being taught by friends and allies, unlike a progression tree, to make the players immersion into the character feel more natural. In general, Ezio was designed to be a Renaissance man, who was to be open minded and truth-seeking, but also be fun-loving. The creative director of Assassin's Creed III, Alex Hutchinson, compared Ezio to actor Errol Flynn, as he was designed to be an over-the-top womanizer and braggart. ## Fictional character biography ### Assassin's Creed II and II: Discovery Ezio is an ancestor of Desmond Miles, the protagonist of most of the early series' backstory, who experiences Ezio's life through the Animus, a device unlocking hidden memories inside his DNA. As it is shown in the beginning of Assassin's Creed II, Ezio was born into the nobility in the Italian city of Florence in 1459. Tutored by the banker Giovanni Tornabuoni until the age of 17, Ezio led an affluent, care-free lifestyle until his father Giovanni discovered a plot to assassinate the leader of Florence. Giovanni accused Francesco de' Pazzi as a conspirator, but when he presented the evidence to the gonfaloniere of Florence, Uberto Alberti, the latter is revealed to also be conspirator and orders for the Auditore family's arrest, blaming them for the plot. Out running errands for his father, Ezio is not home when his father and two brothers are arrested and later publicly hanged. Ezio, following his father's final advice, finds his Assassin tools and flees the city with his mother and sister to his uncle Mario's estate in Monteriggioni. Mario assists Ezio in discovering the people behind the conspiracy and trains him. While exacting revenge on the Pazzi family, Ezio discovers that more people from outside Florence are involved. The search for those responsible leads Ezio from Florence to San Gimignano, Forlì, Venice, and eventually Rome. As he identifies and assassinates more and more political figures, Ezio also gains several allies, including Niccolò Machiavelli, Caterina Sforza, and Leonardo da Vinci. These allies partly train Ezio into an Assassin and guide him on his quest. Eventually, the conspiracy leads to the mastermind behind the plot: Rodrigo Borgia, Grand Master of the Italian Templars. He sought to find the Apple — a powerful ancient artifact known as a Piece of Eden —which lay in Florence. Ezio finds Borgia in possession of the Apple and learns that Borgia believes himself to be "the Prophet", who will lead the Templars to a fabled "Vault". Ezio is able to confront Borgia with the help of his allies and recover the Apple, but Borgia flees before he can be killed. Ezio's allies reveal they are all Assassins and believe Ezio to be the true Prophet, allowing him to join their ranks. During the events of Assassin's Creed II: Discovery, which plays after Borgia's escape during Assassin's Creed II, Ezio travels to Spain in 1490 to free his fellow Assassins, who have been imprisoned under the guise of the Spanish Inquisition. In the process, he discovers that the Templars are planning to sail west to discover the New World. Ezio has to save Christopher Columbus and kill Tomás de Torquemada to end the Templar threat. Ezio must also assassinate some other important targets such as Gasper Martinez, Pedro Llorente, and Juan de Marillo. Along the way, Ezio saves many imprisoned Assassins who help him, including Luis de Santángel and Raphael Sanchez. In the end, Granada City is taken under siege by Templars, and Ezio has to save the Moorish King Muhammad XII. Years later, in 1492, Borgia becomes Pope Alexander VI and resides in Vatican City. By 1499, Ezio and his allies have completed the Codex, which is revealed to be a world map, and discover that "the Vault" lies in Rome and has to be opened with the Apple and the Papal cross, another Piece of Eden. While his allies distract the city's guards, Ezio infiltrates the Vatican using the Apple and attempts to assassinate Alexander. The Pope uses the Staff to incapacitate Ezio, escaping with both the Staff and the Apple. Ezio, now injured, finds Alexander in time to stop him and fights him in hand-to-hand combat, easily defeating the older man. He decides to let the Pope live, realizing that killing him will not bring back his family. Now in possession of both the Staff and the Apple, Ezio opens the Vault, where a holographic figure approaches him. Identifying herself as Minerva, she confirms that he is the Prophet. Belonging to an extinct precursor race that created humanity, she warns Desmond - who is reliving Ezio's memories - from a cataclysmic solar flare only he can prevent. As Minerva's projection fades, Ezio is left confused as he tries to ask who Desmond is. ### Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood At the start of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Montereggioni is besieged by the Papal Armies led by Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander and co-leader of the Templar Order. During the siege, the Apple is lost, Monteriggioni is destroyed, Caterina Sforza is kidnapped, and Ezio's uncle Mario is killed. Escaping the city with his mother and sister, an injured Ezio sets off for Rome to destroy the Borgia once and for all; however, he collapses shortly thereafter. Days later, Ezio awakens in Rome and receives a new set of gear from Niccolò Machiavelli, who also saved him days earlier. After his wounds heal, Ezio and Machiavelli set their plan into motion – to liberate Rome and remove the Borgias from power permanently, as well as retrieve the Apple of Eden. Slowly, over the next three and a half years, Ezio and his allies win a series of victories over the Borgias, reclaiming and restoring the city by destroying the Borgia's allies and ressources. Ezio restores the ranks of the Assassins and in time succeeds Machiavelli as the Mentor, the leader of the order. By 1503, Ezio has assassinated the clan's banker, Juan Borgia, and their French general ally, the Baron de Valois, and incapacitated Lucrezia Borgia, leaving their power base in disarray. Cesare, in a fit of rage, kills his father and begins losing control over the city. After retrieving the Apple, Ezio uses its power to destroy what is left of Cesare's army and allies. By the end of 1503, Borgia control over the city is completely broken and Cesare is arrested by the new Pope, Julius II, escpaing some time later. Ezio rejects the Apple of Eden and hides it below the Colosseum in the Temple of Juno. In 1507, Ezio travels to Spain and catches up with Cesare at the siege of Viana Castle. Ultimately defeated by Ezio, an indignant Cesare Borgia is thrown off the castle walls to his death. ### Assassin's Creed: Revelations After the events of Brotherhood, Ezio discovers a letter left behind by his father that talks about a hidden library full of vast knowledge underneath Masyaf Castle, left there by the legendary Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, setting the events of Assassin's Creed: Revelations into motion. Arriving at Masyaf in early 1511, Ezio is ambushed by Templars who occupy the fortress, also searching for Altaïr's library. After escaping capture and assassinating the Templar captain, Ezio recovers the journal of Niccolò Polo, which tells of five seals hidden in Constantinople that will open the door to Altaïr's library. Arriving in Constantinople, Ezio begins his search for the seals, while helping the local Assassin's Guild, led by Yusuf Tazim, overthrow Byzantine Templar control. Over time, Ezio succeeds in eradicating Templar influence and resubjugating the city to the rule of the family of Prince Suleiman. Ezio recovers four of the five keys with the help of historian and book collector Sofia Sartor. He then travels to an underground city in Cappadocia, the Templar base of operations. After assassinating the Templar leader Manuel Palaiologos and recovering the final key, it is revealed that Prince Suleiman's uncle Prince Ahmet has been secretly leading the Byzantine Templars and wishes to open Altaïr's library for himself. After Ezio refuses to hand over the keys, Ahmet threatens to harm Sofia and sails off, leaving Ezio in Cappadocia. Upon returning to Constantinople, Ezio finds that Sofia has been kidnapped by Ahmet and Yusuf has been murdered to force Ezio to reveal the key's whereabouts. Leading an all-out attack with the Constantinople Assassins, Ezio ultimately saves Sofia. He then engages in a chase with Ahmet and eventually recovers the keys from the latter. A returning sultan Selim I kills Ahmet and thanks Ezio for saving his son and country, but at the same time orders him to leave the Ottoman Empire and never return. Ezio and Sofia make their way back to Masyaf and open the library, where Ezio finds Altaïr's corpse. The entire purpose of the library was to convey another message to Ezio's descendant, Desmond Miles, through another Apple of Eden. An aged Ezio decides that he has seen enough violence and mystery for one life, and leaves the Apple of Eden behind. ### Assassin's Creed: Embers In the animated short Assassin's Creed: Embers, the last years of Ezio's life are chronicled. After his retirement from the Order of Assassins, he has settled down in a Tuscan villa near Monteriggioni with Sofia, and had two children, Flavia and Marcello. In 1524, a mysterious Chinese woman appears at his door requesting his help. The woman, Shao Jun, is a member of the vanquished Chinese Assassin Order and sought Ezio's advice in how to help her people and rebuild their order. After helping Shao fight off soldiers sent by the Chinese Emperor Jiajing and training her, Ezio sees Shao on her way back to China, armed with the wisdom she came seeking him for. Shortly thereafter, while on a trip to the market square in Florence, Ezio dies from a heart attack at the age of 65. ## Other appearances ### Assassin's Creed series In the modern-day section of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, a market analysis for Abstergo Entertainment, the fictional video games subsidiary of Abstergo Industries, can be found via hacking computers. The market analysis reveals Abstergo was looking into the possibility of using Ezio as the protagonist of a future project, but ultimately decided against it due to his violent and womanizing nature and him "corrupting" people into following the Assassins' flawed ideology. Despite this, in Assassin's Creed Unity, Abstergo has produced a fictional video game starring Ezio, titled Fear and Loathing in Florence, which can be seen at the start. In the spin-off game Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China, which follows Shao Jun after the events of Embers, Jun applies Ezio's teachings in her quest to restore the Chinese Assassin Brotherhood and considers him her mentor. In 2018, Ezio became a playable character in the free to play role-playing mobile game Assassin's Creed Rebellion. Like II: Discovery, the game is set during the Spanish Inquisition and features multiple characters from different installments of the series, as they build a Brotherhood to overthrow the Spanish Templar Order. Ezio's Brotherhood outfit has been featured as an unlockable cosmetic option in all subsequent releases of the series. In 2020, Ezio's outfit has been added in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. His Assassin's Creed II outfit has also been featured in several games, including Valhalla, added as part of the final content update for the game in December 2022. Aside from the video games, Ezio has also been featured in a number of Assassin's Creed extended media. In literature, he appears as the protagonist of the novels Assassin's Creed: Renaissance, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and Assassin's Creed: Revelations by Oliver Bowden, which adapt each of the major games featuring him. In 2017, Ezio appeared in the first issue of the Assassin's Creed: Reflections comic book miniseries, which sees him comforting a dying Leonardo da Vinci in 1519 while recounting his encounter with Lisa Gherardini, the noblewoman who served as the inspiration for Leonardo's Mona Lisa. In 2021, Ezio was included as a playable character in the board game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice by Triton Noir. The game features an original storyline set between the events of Brotherhood and Revelations. ### Others Due to his popularity, Ezio has made numerous crossover appearances outside of the Assassin's Creed franchise. All three of his prominent outfits from throughout the series have also been featured as unlockable cosmetic options in several games. In 2012, Ezio was included as a guest character in the fighting game Soulcalibur V. He also appeared in the 2014 and 2020 free to play role-playing mobile games Soul Hunters and AFK Arena, through a collaboration between developer Lilith Games and Ubisoft. Ezio later appeared as a boss in another one of Ubisoft's titles, For Honor. In the fighting game, players are encouraged to duel with and kill Ezio in a time-limited special event, active from December 2018 to January 2019. In March 2022, Ezio was added as a playable character in Fortnite Battle Royale. He could be unlocked from the in-game store or by purchasing Assassin's Creed Valhalla or its Dawn of Ragnarök DLC on the Epic Games Store before March 2023. In July 2022, Ezio was added as a playable character to the fighting game Brawlhalla. Ezio's robes from Assassin's Creed II are unlockable to wear in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, LittleBigPlanet for the PlayStation 3, and PowerUp Heroes for Kinect on the Xbox 360. His Revelations outfit, under the name the "Dashin' Hashashin", was presented as promotional headgear to Team Fortress 2 players who had pre-ordered Revelations, along with a special knife modeled after his hidden blade (called "The Sharp Dresser") for the Spy class in the game. The robes are also featured as an unlockable skin in Final Fantasy XIII-2 and XV, as part of special events. In a time-limited special event in Monster Hunter World, players were able to unlock Ezio's Assassin's Creed II robes as a special armor. His Assassin's Creed II outfit was also added to Fall Guys in June 2022, while his Brotherhood outfit is included in the mobile battle royale game Free Fire. ## Reception and legacy The character was critically acclaimed by the media and general public alike, with his depiction and transformation, as well as the chronicling of his entire life drawing significant praise. He is the only character in the series to receive several main games. Ezio is widely regarded as the series' best character and the face of the franchise, often finishing first in rankings of the series' characters. With the exception of II: Discovery (a Nintendo DS release), all games and films he appears in were re-released as an enhanced bundle, The Ezio Collection, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, in 2016. Like other protagonists in the series, Ezio has been also subject to merchandise. Ezio's likeness, along with five other series protagonists, was used for a line of character-themed wine labels as part of a joint collaboration between Ubisoft and winemaker Lot18; the full name of his label is "2015 Ezio Auditore Super Tuscan Red Blend", a reference to his birthplace of Florence, Tuscany. Initial reception for Ezio as a character was positive. GamesRadar characterized him as an "ass-kicking, morally ambiguous superhero" and noted that he had a livelier and more charming personality than his predecessor Altaïr, with his personal growth being a central aspect of the narrative. Will Tutle of GameSpy also noted Ezio's growth and contrast to Altaïr as his strongest features, stating that while he was an unlikeable womanizer at first, he was later hoping he would "get his revenge and uncover the truth". In contrast, GameSpot'''s Kevin VanOrd called Ezio "terrific" and "instantly likeable", while praising him as a more realized character than Altaïr. In his review of Revelations, VanOrd lauded the developers for reflecting Ezio's age and weariness throughout the game, as well as highlighting his role as a mentor. Matt Miller of GameInformer stated that by Revelations, Ezio has grown from a boy seeking revenge to a man seeking wisdom, as well as a "venerable mentor", which was made a central aspect of his character. John Davison of GamePro named Ezio the epicenter of the game and drew a comparison between him and Nathan Drake. Like Drake, the "charming, witty, and comically self-deprecating" Ezio was "designed to draw the player into the narrative." Ezio Auditore received an award from GameSpot for the "Best New Character" in 2009. GameZone authors Natalie Romano and Angelina Sandoval listed him third for "Gaming God of 2009", which ranks the most attractive video game men of the year. He was also nominated at the Spike Video Game Awards 2010 for "Best Character". The 2011 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition lists Ezio as the 35th most popular video game character. The praise for his portrayal has also placed him high in multiple all-decade or all-time rankings. Ezio was voted as the third top character of the 2000s decade by Game Informer's readers. In 2012, GamesRadar+ ranked him as the eighth "most memorable, influential, and badass" protagonist in games due to his entire life being portrayed. They also placed him second on the list of most badass game characters of the generation, saying "Ezio has become synonymous with the image of the video game assassin." The characters' physical attractiveness and clothing style have also been noted. At the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards, he won the award for "Best Dressed Assassin", while Paste named him as one of the "best costumed characters in videogames." GamesRadar named Ezio "Mister 2009" in their article on the sexiest new characters of the decade of 2000. Furthermore, PlayStation Official Magazine'' ranked Ezio fifth on their list of "finest facial hair gaming has to offer".
4,266,848	MLS Cup 2003	1,169,228,290	2003 edition of the MLS Cup	[ "2003 Major League Soccer season", "2003 in sports in California", "21st century in Carson, California", "Chicago Fire FC matches", "MLS Cup", "November 2003 sports events in the United States", "San Jose Earthquakes matches", "Sports competitions in Carson, California" ]	MLS Cup 2003 was the eighth edition of the MLS Cup, the championship match of Major League Soccer (MLS), which took place on November 23, 2003. It was hosted at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, and was contested by the Chicago Fire and the San Jose Earthquakes to decide the champion of the 2003 season. Both teams had previously won the MLS Cup and were looking for their second championship. San Jose defeated Chicago 4–2, clinching their second championship in three years; Landon Donovan scored two goals and was named the match's most valuable player. The match included a sequence of three goals scored within a five-minute period early in the second half and had the earliest goal scored in MLS Cup history, the competition's first own goal, and the first penalty kick awarded in a final. It was also the highest-scoring final, with six goals in total. ## Venue The under construction Home Depot Center was announced as the venue of MLS Cup 2003 on February 27, 2002, a week after CMGI Field in Foxborough, Massachusetts, was awarded the 2002 final. The 27,000-seat stadium opened on June 7, 2003, as the centerpiece of a \$140 million multi-sport complex in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson. The Home Depot Center is a soccer-specific stadium that was built to primarily serve as the home of the Los Angeles Galaxy. It also hosted several matches during the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup in September and October, including the final match. The 2003 edition was the second MLS Cup to be hosted in the Los Angeles area, following the 1998 cup at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, attended by 51,530 spectators. The 2003 cup was attended by a sellout crowd of 27,000, including 500 San Jose Earthquakes supporters in the designated away section. The Home Depot Center was selected to host later MLS Cups in 2004, 2008, and 2011 before neutral venues for the final were abolished. The stadium, later renamed the StubHub Center, would go on to host the MLS Cup in 2012 and 2014. ## Road to the final The MLS Cup is the post-season championship of Major League Soccer (MLS), a professional club soccer league based in the United States. The 2003 season was the eighth in the league's history and was contested by ten teams in two conferences. Each team played a total of 30 matches in the regular season from April to October, facing teams within their conference four times, outside of their conference two times, and playing an additional set of games against a non-conference team. The playoffs ran entirely within November and was contested by the top four teams in each conference, a change from the 2002 playoffs. It was organized into three rounds: a home-and-away series in the Conference Semifinals with a winner determined by aggregate score, followed by an overtime period and a penalty shootout if necessary; a single-match Conference Final; and the MLS Cup final. MLS Cup 2003 was contested by the Chicago Fire, who also won the regular season's Supporters' Shield and the U.S. Open Cup, and the San Jose Earthquakes. Both teams had previously won the MLS Cup and finished at the top of their respective conferences in regular season play, separated by a single point. The two teams had not previously met in the playoffs. Chicago and San Jose played three matches in the regular season, which ended in two scoreless draws and a 4–1 victory in May for the Fire at San Jose's Spartan Stadium. ### Chicago Fire The Chicago Fire entered as one of the league's first two expansion teams in 1998, winning the MLS Cup and U.S. Open Cup in their inaugural season. The team returned to the MLS Cup in 2000, losing to the Kansas City Wizards, and won the 2000 U.S. Open Cup. The team finished the 2002 season as the third-placed seed in the Eastern Conference, its worst-ever performance, and were eliminated by the New England Revolution in the Conference Semifinals. The Fire had moved to Cardinal Stadium, a college venue in Naperville, Illinois, for the 2002 and 2003 seasons while Soldier Field was renovated. Dave Sarachan was hired to replace Bob Bradley as head coach and drafted several rookie players, including forwards Nate Jaqua and Damani Ralph, and new acquisitions to bolster the team's existing lineup while offloading expensive veteran players. The Fire struggled with injuries to several starting players that led to several draws and losses early in the season, but scored key victories and won a Supporters' Shield title and the 2003 U.S. Open Cup. Sarachan was named MLS Coach of the Year prior to the MLS Cup final, where a win would clinch a treble for the first time in American soccer history. Chicago entered the playoffs as top seed and faced D.C. United in the Conference Semifinals. The team won 4–0 on aggregate with back-to-back 2–0 wins and advanced to face New England in the Conference Finals. The match, played at Soldier Field in Chicago, was scoreless after regulation time and advanced to overtime, where captain Chris Armas scored the golden goal in the 101st minute. The Fire became the first team to reach an MLS Cup final without conceding a goal in the playoffs, earning three straight shutouts. ### San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes (originally the San Jose Clash) participated in the inaugural edition of the playoffs in 1996, but failed to qualify for four subsequent seasons. After finishing the 2000 season in last place, Frank Yallop was hired as the club's fifth head coach in 2001, taking the retiring Dominic Kinnear as his assistant. The team was bolstered by the acquisition of veteran defender Jeff Agoos, striker Dwayne De Rosario, and teenage forward Landon Donovan. The Earthquakes went on a 12-match unbeaten streak and won their first MLS Cup over the Los Angeles Galaxy, their in-state rivals. San Jose finished the 2002 season in second place, behind the Galaxy, but were eliminated by the Columbus Crew in the Conference Semifinals. The Earthquakes acquired several rookie players in the 2003 SuperDraft, including midfielder Todd Dunivant, forward Jamil Walker, and goalkeeper Josh Saunders, capping a busy off-season that saw the departure of several veteran players. San Jose began the season with a six-match unbeaten streak and continued to stay atop the Western Conference standings despite injuries to several key players and absences due to national team call-ups. The team held on to finish second overall behind the Chicago Fire with 51 points, with Landon Donovan leading the team's scoring with 12 goals and Pat Onstad setting new goalkeeping records for the club. San Jose were paired with rivals Los Angeles in the Conference Semifinals and lost the away leg 2–0, conceding goals to Sasha Victorine and Carlos Ruiz after a half-time skirmish. The Galaxy's extended their aggregate lead to 4–0 during the first 13 minutes of the second leg at Spartan Stadium on November 9, but the Earthquakes responded by scoring four unanswered goals to tie the match 4–4 on aggregate, including a last-minute header from defender Chris Roner. San Jose clinched their series victory with a golden goal scored by substitute forward Rodrigo Faria in the 96th minute, capping a comeback in what was called one of the greatest matches in MLS history. In the Conference Final against the Kansas City Wizards on November 15, San Jose conceded the first goal and rallied to equalize before trailing 2–1. Earthquakes midfielder Brian Mullan then equalized again and sent the match to overtime, where Landon Donovan scored a golden goal in the 117th minute. ### Summary of results Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away). ## Broadcasting and entertainment The MLS Cup final was televised in the United States on ABC in English and Spanish using secondary audio programming. English play-by-play commentary was provided by JP Dellacamera with color analysis by Ty Keough, reprising their roles at MLS Cup 2002. Play-by-play commentator Ernesto Motta returned from the previous cup's Spanish-language broadcast, working alongside color analyst Robert Sierra. ABC/ESPN provided a total of 20 cameras, including aerial coverage from a Goodyear Blimp. The match was also broadcast live on radio within the U.S. on Sports Byline USA in English and Radio Unica in Spanish, and on the American Forces Radio Network internationally. The ABC broadcast earned a Nielsen rating of 0.6, the lowest figure recorded for an MLS Cup. The match's half-time show featured singer Michelle Branch, who performed her hit single "Breathe". ## Match ### Summary Referee of the Year Brian Hall was chosen to officiate the match and was previously the head referee at MLS Cup 1997. At kickoff, set for 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time, the weather in Carson was sunny with a temperature of 71 °F (22 °C). Both teams fielded their regular lineups arranged in a 4–4–2 formation. The Earthquakes kicked off the match and made a series of attacks that won them a free kick outside of the penalty box. After a faked shot by Jeff Agoos, Danish midfielder Ronnie Ekelund drove the ball past the defensive wall and scored the first goal of the final, tying the record for fastest MLS Cup goal. Chicago had the majority of possession and chances in the first half, including two shots that were missed by striker Ante Razov and a poor touch by Damani Ralph, but eventually conceded a second goal to San Jose. An Earthquakes counter-attack in the 38th minute sprung Jamil Walker, who sent a through-pass to Landon Donovan, who sprinted pass several defenders and shot the ball past goalkeeper Zach Thornton. The second half opened with a sequence of three goals by both teams within five minutes, beginning with a short pass by Andy Williams to DaMarcus Beasley that was shot into the near side of the goal, cutting San Jose's lead to 2–1. Shortly after kickoff, a long overhead pass by Brian Mullan found Earthquakes midfielder Richard Mulrooney, who scored and restored the Earthquakes' two-goal lead. The Fire continued to press for a second goal and earned a throw-in near San Jose's goal that led to a cross into the box by Evan Whitfield. The cross was deflected into the goal by Earthquakes defender Chris Roner, who had been substituted three minutes earlier, narrowing the team's lead to 3–2 in the 54th minute. Roner then conceded a penalty kick to the Earthquakes two minutes later after a tackle from behind on Damani Ralph in the penalty area. Ante Razov took the penalty kick, the first in MLS Cup history, but it was saved by goalkeeper Pat Onstad with a dive to his right side to catch the ball. Razov attempted to score an equalizing goal in the 58th minute, taking a shot in front of Onstad that grazed the corner of the net. San Jose forward Jamil Walker suffered an injury and was replaced in the 60th minute by Dwayne DeRosario, who sized on a mis-cleared ball from Chicago ten minutes later and sent a cross into the box that was finished by Landon Donovan, giving the Earthquakes a 4–2 lead in the 71st minute. With the goal, Donovan became the first player to score two goals in an MLS Cup. A chance for Chicago to reduce San Jose's lead came from a cross by Ralph in the 82nd minute that rolled across the six-yard box, but the tap-in for Razov was missed and the ball continued out of bounds. Ralph also had a chance to score a consolation goal in the third minute of stoppage time, a cross by Nate Jaqua that he headed wide in front of the goal. Despite having fewer shots and corner kicks, the San Jose Earthquakes won the match 4–2 and earned their second championship in three years. ### Details ### Statistics ## Post-match The San Jose Earthquakes became the second team in league history to win multiple MLS Cups, following D.C. United's three titles in the 1990s. The six-goal 2003 final was the highest-scoring in MLS Cup history, beating the five-goal inaugural edition, and featured its earliest goal, its first own goal, and its first awarded penalty kick. The own goal and penalty kick were both caused by Earthquakes defender Chris Roner, who would undergo ankle surgery at the end of the season that ultimately led to the end of his playing career. Landon Donovan became the first player to score multiple goals in an MLS Cup final and was named the match's most valuable player. San Jose captain Jeff Agoos won his fifth MLS Cup, having played in six previous finals for the Earthquakes and D.C. United. San Jose qualified for the 2004 CONCACAF Champions' Cup as MLS Cup champions, while Chicago also qualified as Supporters' Shield champion. The Earthquakes were eliminated in the quarterfinals by eventual champions Alajuelense, while the Fire were defeated by Deportivo Saprissa in the semifinals. Both teams have yet to make an appearance at the MLS Cup final since 2003; two years after the cup, the Earthquakes were placed on hiatus and replaced by the Houston Dynamo, who would win back-to-back MLS Cups in their first two seasons before San Jose was reinstated in 2008. The first domestic treble in MLS history was ultimately won in 2017 by Toronto FC.
3,208,834	Ohio State Route 750	1,134,758,831	Highway in Ohio	[ "State highways in Ohio", "Transportation in Delaware County, Ohio" ]	State Route 750 (SR 750) is an east–west state highway located in central Ohio. The western terminus of the state highway is at a signalized intersection with SR 257 nearly 2.5 miles (4.0 km) west of Powell, just outside the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. The highway travels east to Highbanks Metro Park and Polaris Fashion Place. The eastern terminus of SR 750 is at Interstate 71 (I-71) in the far northern reaches of the city of Columbus. The route was designated in 1937, and both termini were rerouted. The eastern terminus was extended east in 1997, and the western terminus was rerouted south in 2007. ## Route description The entirety of SR 750 exists within southwestern Delaware County. SR 750 starts at SR 257, near Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. SR 750 goes through Powell with no major intersections. After Powell, there is an intersection with SR 315 near the Olentangy River and the northwest corner of Highbanks Metro Park. The route soon intersects U.S. Route 23 (US 23) in a large commercial area. Less than one mile later, SR 750 overpasses railroads owned by CSX and Norfolk Southern. The road dips southeastward, and becomes Polaris Parkway, as it slowly curves around the Polaris Fashion Place. Powell Road continues eastward toward Westerville. SR 750 ends at I-71 at an incomplete partial cloverleaf interchange, and Polaris Parkway continues eastward to Westerville. The highest traffic count is near US 23, where 29,690 vehicles travel the highway on average each day. The lowest traffic count is near SR 257, where 8,080 vehicles travel the highway on average each day. ## History SR 750 was established in 1937, ran from SR 257 to its junction with SR 315. In 1997, SR 750 was extended eastward from SR 315, crossing Olentangy River and US 23 via Powell Road, then following Polaris Parkway around to a new eastern terminus at I-71 in the far northern end of Columbus. Ten years later, a new interchange was built for Gemini Place at I-71, north of SR 750. The interchange would relieve traffic in the area. The next year, SR 750's westernmost portion was re-routed to the south, onto an all-new alignment that brought its western terminus in line with the intersection of SR 257 and County Road 126 (Glick Road), after an expansion to the Columbus Zoo. In September 2013, a slope stabilization project began for SR 315, and turn lanes are currently being added for SR 315 and SR 750's intersection. ## Major intersections
70,585,701	Rock and Hard Place	1,170,026,789	null	[ "2022 American television episodes", "Better Call Saul (season 6) episodes", "Television episodes about suicide", "Television episodes set in Mexico" ]	"Rock and Hard Place" is the third episode of the sixth season of Better Call Saul, the spin-off television series of Breaking Bad. It was written and directed by Gordon Smith. The episode aired on April 25, 2022, on AMC and AMC+. In several countries outside the United States and Canada, the episode premiered on Netflix the following day. In the episode, Nacho Varga is forced to choose sides while on the run from the cartel. Meanwhile, Jimmy McGill questions his reputation as a lawyer when he involves his friend Huell Babineaux in his scheme to ruin Howard Hamlin's life. Filming for the episode took place between April and May 2021. Actor Michael Mando, who plays Nacho, described his character's journey and the allusions in the episode to the ancient legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, practices in the Aztec and Mayan cultures, and the religious motif of weighing a person's soul. A series of misfortunes arose in the process of shooting the final scenes, such as Mando having to be rushed to the hospital after severely cutting his finger and a sandstorm hitting the set. Smith's approach as director was to meet audience expectations and focus on maximizing the tension in the episode's finale. "Rock and Hard Place" was met with critical acclaim for its themes, story, Smith's direction, and Mando's performance. It marked the final appearance in the series for Mando (Nacho Varga). An estimated 1.16 million viewers saw the episode during its first broadcast on AMC. ## Plot ### Opening As rain begins to fall, a close-up scan of a small patch of desert stops on a blue flower, then settles on a piece of broken glass. ### Main story The truck Nacho Varga is driving after his escape breaks down. He conceals himself in an abandoned oil tanker until the Cousins move on with their search and night falls. The next day, he cleans himself at a mechanic's shop and makes a farewell call to his father, Manuel. He calls Mike Ehrmantraut, asks to speak to Gus Fring, and offers to surrender as long as his father is protected. Gus' men smuggle Nacho into the U.S., and Mike administers a beating so it appears Nacho was captured. Mike and Nacho review the plan for Nacho to absolve Gus of blame for Lalo's death. After confessing, Nacho will attempt to flee so Victor can kill him, guaranteeing the Salamancas will not torture him. Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler conspire to obtain duplicates of Howard Hamlin's car and vanity license plate as part of their plan to force a resolution of the Sandpiper case but realize that actually obtaining access to his car is more feasible. Jimmy and Kim work with Huell Babineaux and another associate to obtain copies of Howard's car key and remote unlock button. Huell tells Jimmy he does not understand why two legitimate lawyers would commit crimes. Jimmy makes an unconvincing argument about doing wrong to accomplish a greater good. Prosecutor Suzanne Ericsen connects Jimmy to Lalo Salamanca and Nacho. She tells Kim that Lalo is dead, and asks Kim to persuade Jimmy to inform on the Salamancas. Gus, Tyrus, and Victor meet with Juan Bolsa, Hector Salamanca, and the Cousins to hand Nacho over, while Mike trains his sniper rifle on the meeting location from a distance. As planned, Nacho claims he aided the Alvarezes to kill Lalo. He then bolsters his confession by revealing that he tried to kill Hector, but Gus saved him. Nacho uses the piece of broken glass he retrieved from Gus' trash to cut his restraints, seize Bolsa's gun, and shoots himself in the head. As Gus and his men depart, the Cousins assist Hector to fire bullets into Nacho's lifeless body. ## Production The episode was written and directed by co-executive producer Gordon Smith. "Rock and Hard Place" marked the death of longtime character Nacho Varga, played by Michael Mando, who had been with the series since the second episode. Series co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould and executive producer Melissa Bernstein first told Mando about his character's fate in the winter of 2020, a few months before filming began on the sixth season of Better Call Saul. Smith said the writers had decided early on that it was better for the series to conclude Nacho's storyline early on in the season instead of spending several episodes of him "on the run and getting out of jams". Earlier scenes in the episode, as Mando put it, were meant to symbolize "what life meant to this character, and what he was willing to stand up for." Filming for the episode began in April 2021. The first scene that was shot was of Nacho pouring himself a drink and noticing the broken glass in Gus' trash, which had been thrown out in the previous episode "Carrot and Stick". The shot taken from the point of view of the trash can was meant to symbolize how fragmented the character was at that moment. Smith filmed a take of Mando without the effect and, two weeks later, projected the shot onto a screen, where they could adjust where the glass was and how it was fractured. The oil tanker scene was shot on location for the exterior and in a studio for the interior. Nacho's submergence in the oil, which was first discussed in December 2020, was filmed on a soundstage in May 2021. It was the last scene Mando filmed on Better Call Saul. Each take would last one to two minutes with Mando performing the stunt himself, using about 40 U.S. gallons (150 L) of a vegetable-based substance. Its thickness made it difficult for Mando to submerge, so he had to hold onto horizontal scaffolding poles nearby to pull himself under. Resetting the scene would take at least an hour. The set in the studio had to be flipped upside down every time the crew wanted to point the camera in a different direction so a crane could fit inside. The episode's cold open was shot simultaneously with the oil tanker scene on a different soundstage, where they added a 40 by 40 feet (12 by 12 m) patch of desert with a green screen in the background. It took two days to prepare and was shot using a motion control rig. Mando compared Nacho's phone call to his father (played by Juan Carlos Cantu) to the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, which details the story of a man between a rock and a hard place who voluntarily goes through Hades to save the person he loves on the condition that he can never see her again. "In that particular phone call," said Mando, "he's free, he's won, and he's looking into the sunset. But his heart turns around and asks his father to come with him, indirectly, subtextually. And his father says no. So he willingly walks back into the fire and trades his life for the life of his father." Assistant director Rich Sickler read Mando the lines to both of Nacho's phone calls in the episode. Mando said he did not shoot his side of the conversations with Cantu or Jonathan Banks, who plays Mike, on set because he thought it would be ideal if the actors did not see each other, much like the characters they played, to create a sense of disconnection. Cantu was not given access to the season's scripts, so, while filming, he actually did not know what Nacho had gone through, what he looked like, or where he was in the story. Mando agreed to be on set when Cantu shot his side of the dialogue. Mando likened the moment of being interrogated before his death to being on trial and his heart being weighed. He called it the "first time he has no fear of any of these people ... completely willing to tell the story that will save his father, regardless of what anybody else thinks." He saw Nacho's confession to Hector as keeping his promise to his father in standing up to the cartel. He also said it was the moment Nacho and Mike's relationship broke apart as they made allegiances to different people, Nacho to his father and Mike to Gus. A Latin American documentary about the Aztecs and the Mayans, which said the victors of a sport would sacrifice themselves for their gods to bring rain, inspired Mando's performance. He viewed his character's suicide as a moment of no regrets because Nacho knew when and for what reason he was going to die: "For the first time in his life, he has a clear image of himself." Mando called the finale ominous because every other character present during Nacho's execution would eventually meet their own fates on Breaking Bad: "These are all dead men walking, watching the first man die." He also said that the purple flower that appears in the opening scene at the site of Nacho's suicide represents enlightenment from these cultures that comes from facing death. The crew wore Nacho shirts and fake tear tattoos to commemorate Mando's last days on set. A series of misfortunes arose in the process of shooting the scenes in the desert. Off-set, Mando was rushed to the hospital after he severely cut his thumb and lost all sensation in his left hand. He was not able to start shooting his scenes for a week and a half. On the first day of filming the desert scenes, a sandstorm hit the set and production was paused; at the time they stopped, everyone's coverage had been shot but Mando's. Resuming the next day, Smith gave Mando a note that changed Mando's interpretation of Nacho's last words; Mando said he "realized that this was not an f-you speech, this was a speech that is filled with the underlying values and integrity of who Nacho really is, and where he'd like to see his community go". That night, Mando arrived home to discover that a tree struck by lightning had fallen in his driveway, blocking his entrance. Smith's approach as director was to meet audience expectations and focus on maximizing the tension in the scene despite the outcome seeming obvious in hindsight. Mando brought some of the character acting he did as Vaas Montenegro from the video game Far Cry 3 in the final scene, though he had to tone it back at Smith's request. Smith compared Jimmy and Kim's relationship in "Rock and Hard Place" to an episode of Arrested Development where a character gets married after "a series of escalating dares". He noted their newly developed habit of smoking indoors as a sign that the "discipline is breaking down a little bit. It's a little bit chaotic and dangerous, but not terribly. Every step down a slippery slope is fine until you're at the bottom." The staircase sequence with the valet featured a number of wipe transitions. The crew found a parallelogram-shaped parking garage to shoot the scene. The staircase in the location had a hollow spot where they could fit the camera with a descender rig. Smith described it as "building a little elevator shaft for a camera body in this small, triangular hole that ran the length of the stairwell". During post-production, editing for the episode was completed by Joey Reinisch in his second solo editing credit on television. ## Reception ### Critical response On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of five reviews are positive, with an average rating of 9.3/10. Mando's performance as Nacho received critical acclaim. Kaleena Rivera of Pajiba praised the actor's display of rage and the episode's buildup to the ending. The A.V. Club's Kimberly Potts said Mando's acting was deserving of an Emmy nomination. She also compared Nacho's last words to Walter White's confession to Jesse Pinkman in the Breaking Bad episode "Ozymandias" and gave positive notes to the performances of Giancarlo Esposito and Mark Margolis and the show's development of Nacho as a compelling character. David Segal of The New York Times saluted Smith's screenplay and direction and the production design. He similarly compared Nacho's life to that of Jesse's—both criminals who made "some terrible life choices" and were "over-punished for them"—adding, "It would have been great to see more of this stellar actor, but if you must leave a show, a more dramatic and affecting end is hard to imagine." Steve Greene, writing for IndieWire, said he enjoyed how the storylines shared similar themes on creating one's fate. Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone complimented the episode's straightforward narrative and said Mando's performance was "fantastic throughout — so tired, so defeated, and yet so insistent about ending things on something resembling his own terms if he can. It is a tour de force, particularly the phone call sequence and Nacho staring down the Salamancas for the last time." TVLine named Mando the performer of the week ending on April 30, 2022. They called it "a beautifully moving episode that saw Mando hit new dramatic heights ... we could see the emotions welling up in Mando's eyes as his character's tragic fate began to settle in. ... Nacho may not have lived long enough to share the screen with Breaking Bad's Walt and Jesse — but with Mando's truly exceptional performance this week, he's more than earned the right to share the screen with anyone." ### Ratings An estimated 1.16 million viewers watched "Rock and Hard Place" during its first broadcast on AMC on April 25, 2022.
27,424,180	Tropical Depression One (1979)	1,171,669,448	Atlantic tropical depression in 1979	[ "1979 Atlantic hurricane season", "1979 in Jamaica", "Atlantic tropical depressions", "Hurricanes in Jamaica" ]	Tropical Depression One brought severe flooding to Jamaica in June 1979. The second tropical cyclone of the Atlantic hurricane season, the depression developed from a tropical wave to the south of Grand Cayman on June 11. Tracking generally northward, the depression passed west of Jamaica. On June 12, the depression peaked with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 km/h), never having reached tropical storm status. The following day, it made landfall in Cuba, where minimal impact was recorded. Early on June 14, the depression emerged into the western Atlantic Ocean and then moved parallel to the east coast of Florida for a few days. The depression made another landfall in South Carolina on June 16 and dissipated shortly thereafter. The slow movement of the depression to the west of Jamaica resulted in torrential rainfall, peaking at 32 in (810 mm) in Friendship, a city in Westmoreland Parish. Throughout western Jamaica, about 1,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged, while up to 40,000 people were left homeless. The city of New Market was submerged for at least six months. Crops, electricity, telephones, buildings, and railways also suffered damage during the disaster. There were 40 deaths and approximately \$27 million (1979 USD) in damage. The depression also brought heavy precipitation to Cuba and the Bahamas, while farther north, light rainfall and rough seas plagued the East Coast of the United States. One individual in South Carolina went missing and was later presumed to have died after their boat was torn loose from its mooring. ## Meteorological history A tropical wave emerged into the Atlantic Ocean from the west coast of Africa on May 30. Minimal development occurred as the wave tracked westward across much of the Atlantic and Caribbean Sea. However, by June 11, the system began to interact with a stationary trough of low pressure in the western Caribbean Sea. Based on ship and land observations, a tropical depression developed at 12:00 UTC that day while located about 230 miles (370 km) south of Grand Cayman. Initially the depression was forecast to move northwestward at about 5 mph (8 km/h); instead, it drifted to the northeast. Minimal intensification occurred, as satellite imagery, weather stations, and a reconnaissance aircraft indicated the depression remained below tropical storm status. Around 18:00 UTC on June 12, the depression attained its maximum sustained wind speeds of 35 mph (55 km/h). Early on June 13, satellite and weather radar showed heavy rainbands moving across Jamaica and eastern Cuba. Due its interaction with the two islands, the depression weakened slightly. Later on June 13, the storm made landfall near Venezuela, Cuba with winds of 30 mph (45 km/h). Moving northward, it emerged into the Atlantic Ocean near Cayo Santa María early the next day. Around 12:00 UTC on June 14, the system re-strengthened and again attained its maximum sustained wind speed of 35 mph (55 km/h). Despite moving back over open waters, the depression failed to intensify further. Operationally, the system was thought to have made landfall in east-central Florida, but later analysis revealed that the center remained over water. The depression continued northward until striking near Charleston, South Carolina late on June 16, still with the same intensity. It degenerated into a remnant low pressure area about six hours later. Its remnants continued northeastward across the Southeastern United States, the Mid-Atlantic, and New England until dissipating fully on June 18. ## Impact The depression's slow movement resulted in torrential rainfall on the island of Jamaica. Precipitation peaked at 32 inches (810 mm) in Friendship, located in Westmoreland Parish. As the flooding began, several shelters were open in the parish. Residents in the Savanna-la-Mar area were forced to evacuate by boats or makeshift rafts. The flooding also ruined crops. Sugar cane, which was already 70–80 percent harvested, suffered about \$2.25 million (1979 USD) in damage. It was estimated that 4 million lb (1.8 million kg) of bananas were lost, worth nearly \$1 million. In total, agricultural interests incurred \$5.89 million in damage, chiefly f which was in Westmoreland Parish. The storm affected an estimated 300 mi (480 km) of roadways impacted, with about 2,000 ft (610 m) of highway completely washed out. Three bridges collapsed, while 10 others sustained damage. The increasing height and volume of the Bluefields River led to debris flow and created a colluvium – an unconsolidated deposit of sediments – near the mouth of the river. In the valley areas, temporary lakes were formed and small dams were overtopped. The cities of Chigwell, Enfield, Exeter, Leamington, and New Market were all submerged during the flooding. New Market was inundated with as much as 80 ft (24 m) of water during the disaster, which did not completely recede until more than six months later. This resulted in extreme damage to or complete loss of crops, livestock, and household possessions. Extensive impact to property was reported, including to electricity, telephones, buildings, and railways, with a "conservative" estimate of \$39.3 million in damage. At least 1,000 homes were severely damaged or destroyed. As many as 40,000 people were left homeless. Overall, there were 40 deaths and approximately \$27 million in damage. Following the storm, Hanover, Saint Elizabeth, Saint James, and Westmoreland parishes were considered disaster areas. A task force was established by the Prime Minister Michael Manley for reconstruction efforts. About 7,758 families, a total of 36,391 people, required assistance with food supplies for over 13 weeks. The Housing Task Force called for the construction of 582 new houses, 300 of which for those left homeless. The houses constructed for the people rendered homeless were prefabricated by the Ministry of Housing and then erected by the local authorities, under the guidance of the Ministry of Local Government. In response to the disaster, the Government of Jamaica established the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management in July 1980. The depression and its remnants also brought rainfall and high tides to the eastern United States. In South Carolina, precipitation peaked at 6.89 in (175 mm) in Cheraw. Along the coast, waves reached 13 ft (4.0 m) in height, strong enough to tear a boat from its mooring at Surfside Beach. One person was listed as missing and later presumed to have died. ## See also - 1986 Jamaica floods - Tropical Depression Fourteen (1987) - Tropical Storm Chris (1988)
760,589	1961 Atlantic hurricane season	1,160,010,529	Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean	[ "1961 Atlantic hurricane season", "Articles which contain graphical timelines" ]	The 1961 Atlantic hurricane season was a hyperactive Atlantic hurricane season, with an accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) total of 189. The season, however, was an average one in terms of named storms. The season featured eight hurricanes and a well above average number of five major hurricanes. It was previously thought that the season had a record-tying seven major hurricanes, before the Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project downgraded two storms in 2019. Two Category 5 hurricanes were seen in 1961, making it one of only seven Atlantic hurricane seasons to feature multiple Category 5 hurricanes in one season. The season started on June 15, and ended on November 15. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. The first system, an operationally unclassified tropical depression, formed offshore east Central Florida on June 10, but dissipated a few days later. Next, Hurricane Anna developed in the eastern Caribbean Sea near the Windward Islands on July 20. It brought minor damage to the islands, as well as wind and flood impacts to Central America after striking Belize as a hurricane. Anna caused one death and about \$300,000 (1961 USD) in damage. Activity went dormant for nearly a month and a half, until Hurricane Betsy developed on September 2. Betsy peaked as a Category 4 hurricane, but remained at sea and caused no impact. One of the most significant storms of the season was Hurricane Carla, which peaked as a Category 4 hurricane, before striking Texas. Carla caused 43 deaths and approximately \$325.74 million in damage. Hurricane Debbie was a Category 1 storm that existed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Early in its duration, unsettled weather from Debbie in Cape Verde resulted in a plane crash that killed 60 people. The extratropical remnants of Debbie then brushed Ireland, causing severe damage over the British Isles. The next storm, Hurricane Esther, threatened to strike New England as a major hurricane, but rapidly weakened and made landfall in Massachusetts as only a tropical storm. Impact was generally minor, with about \$6 million in damage and seven deaths, all of which from a United States Navy plane crash. An unnamed tropical storm and Hurricane Frances caused minimal impact on land. In mid-October, Tropical Storm Gerda brought flooding to Jamaica and eastern Cuba, resulting in twelve deaths. Another significant storm was Hurricane Hattie, a late-season Category 5 hurricane that struck Belize. Hattie caused 319 confirmed fatalities and about \$60.3 million in damage. Destruction was so severe in Belize that the government had to relocate inland to a new city, Belmopan. In early November, the depression that would later strengthen into Hurricane Jenny brought light rainfall to Puerto Rico. The final storm, Tropical Storm Inga, dissipated on November 8, after causing no impact on land. On September 11, three hurricanes existed simultaneously – Betsy, Carla, and Debbie – the most on a single day in the Atlantic basin since 1893 and until 1998. Collectively, the storms of the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season caused about \$392.34 million in damage and at least 437 fatalities. ## Season summary The Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 15. It was an above average season in which twelve tropical storms formed; this was above the 1950–2000 average of 9.6 named storms. Eight of these reached hurricane status, also above of the 1950–2000 average of 5.9. Furthermore, five storms reached major hurricane status. It was originally believed that the season had seven major hurricanes, though later analysis resulted in a downgrade of two storms. Of the five major hurricanes, two became Category 5 hurricanes. Four hurricanes and two tropical storms made landfall during the season, causing 348 deaths and \$391.6 million in damage. Hurricane Debbie also caused damage and deaths, despite remaining offshore and then after becoming extratropical. Tropical cyclogenesis began with an initially unclassified tropical depression, which developed on June 10. More than a month later, Hurricane Anna formed on July 17 and dissipated on July 24. Thereafter, no other systems developed in July or the month of August. A lack of cyclonic activity in the Atlantic basin in August is rare, with such phenomenon not occurring again until the 1997 and 2022 seasons. The Atlantic basin remained dormant until Hurricane Betsy developed on September 2. During the next four days, two other tropical cyclones formed – Carla and Debbie. On September 11, the three storms – Betsy, Carla, and Debbie – existed simultaneously as hurricanes, the most in a single day since 1893 and until 1998. Esther, which developed on September 10, did not reach hurricane status until September 12. Later that day, a tropical storm that went unnamed formed over the Bahamas and moved across the East Coast of the United States for its brief duration. After Debbie became extratropical on September 14, another tropical cyclone developed over two weeks later, Hurricane Frances. Thereafter, tropical cyclogenesis slowed in October, which featured only three systems, a second previously unclassified tropical depression, Gerda, and Hattie. The latter was the strongest tropical cyclone of the season, peaking with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (266 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 914 mbar (27.0 inHg). After weakening slightly, Hattie struck Belize on October 31, before dissipating on November 1. Later that day, Hurricane Jenny developed northeast of Antigua. Jenny remained weak for much of its duration and became extratropical on November 8. The final system, Tropical Storm Inga, formed in the Gulf of Mexico on November 4. Four days later, Inga dissipated, one week before the season officially ended. The season's activity was reflected with an accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) rating of 189, one of the highest values recorded. ACE is, broadly speaking, a measure of the power of the hurricane multiplied by the length of time it existed, so storms that last a long time, as well as particularly strong hurricanes, have high ACEs. It is only calculated for full advisories on tropical systems at or exceeding 39 mph (63 km/h), which is the threshold for tropical storm strength. ## Systems ### Hurricane Anna A tropical wave that emerged into the Atlantic from the west coast of Africa around mid-July developed about 575 mi (925 km) northeast of Cayenne, French Guiana, late on July 17. The depression moved west-northwestward and by the following day, it intensified into a Tropical Storm Anna. After passing just south of Grenada early on July 20, Anna entered the Caribbean Sea. Favorable environmental conditions allowed Anna to reach hurricane intensity late on July 20. The cyclone continued to slowly intensifying, reaching Category 2 intensity on July 22 and peaking with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (169 km/h). However, the storm weakened slightly before making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in Honduras near Barra Patuca, Gracias a Dios Department, with winds of 80 mph (130 km/h). After re-emerging into the Caribbean, Anna weakened slightly further, striking Utila around 01:00 UTC on July 24 with winds of 75 mph (121 km/h). About nine hours later, the hurricane made landfall in Belize near Monkey River Town at the same intensity. Anna rapidly weakened over land and dissipated late on July 24. As a developing tropical cyclone over the Windward Islands, Anna produced strong winds on Grenada, though damage was limited to some crops, trees, and telephone poles. Other islands experienced gusty winds, but no damage. Passing just north of Venezuela, the hurricane produced strong winds over the country, peaking as high as 70 mph (110 km/h). Strong winds caused widespread damage in northern Honduras. Throughout the country, at least 36 homes were destroyed and 228 were damaged. Severe damage in the Gracias a Dios Department left hundreds of people homeless. Additionally, high winds toppled approximately 10,000 coconut trees. Overall, Anna caused one fatality and \$300,000 in damage, primarily in Central America. ### Hurricane Betsy In early September, a tropical wave was noted in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). On September 2, the disturbance was analyzed to have attained tropical storm strength, after nearby ship reports indicated strong winds associated with anomalously low barometric pressures. Moving steadily northwestward, favorable conditions allowed Betsy to quickly intensify later that day. Shortly after, a trough situated along 50°W steered Betsy to a more northerly course. Another low-pressure area later formed in the trough, perturbing the ridge to the north of Betsy for much of its initial stages, causing the hurricane's central pressure to rise, despite an increase in sustained winds. However, on September 5, a shortwave forced the low northeastward, allowing for Betsy to strengthen further. Early on September 6, Betsy attained Category 4 hurricane strength, peaking with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (210 km/h) and a central pressure of 945 mbar (945 hPa; 27.9 inHg), based on reconnaissance flights into the system. However, as a result of missing the short wave itself, the hurricane later weakened and fell to Category 3 intensity while located about 440 miles (710 km) east-northeast of Bermuda. Betsy weakened further to Category 2 hurricane before becoming nearly stationary beginning on September 6. Moving into higher latitudes, Betsy began to weaken, degenerating back to Category 1 hurricane intensity on late on September 8. A separate, minor trough was later able to move the system northeastwards by the following day. Betsy re-intensified into a Category 2 hurricane early on September 10, but transitioned into extratropical cyclone several hours later. The extratropical remnants continued northeastward and weakened, before executing a large loop over the far north Atlantic. The remnants dissipated well north of the Azores on September 16. ### Hurricane Carla A tropical depression developed from an area of squally weather embedded within the ITCZ in the southwestern Caribbean Sea on September 3. Initially a tropical depression, it strengthened slowly while heading northwestward, and by September 4, the system was upgraded to Tropical Storm Carla. About 24 hours later, Carla was upgraded to a hurricane. Shortly thereafter, the storm curved northward while approaching the Yucatán Channel. Late on September 7, Carla entered the Gulf of Mexico while passing just northeast of the Yucatán Peninsula. The cyclone reached major hurricane intensity around 12:00 UTC on the next day. Resuming its northwestward course, Carla continued intensification and on September 11, it peaked as a Category 4 hurricane. Carla made landfall near Port O'Connor, Texas, with winds of 145 mph (233 km/h). It weakened quickly inland and was reduced to a tropical storm on September 12. Heading generally northward, Carla transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on September 13, while centered over southern Oklahoma. However, the remnants continued generally northeastward and entered Canada on September 14, before dissipating near Cape Chidley early on September 16. While crossing the Yucatán Channel, the outer bands of Carla brought gusty winds and severe local flooding in western Cuba and the Yucatán Peninsula. Although initially considered a significant threat to Florida, the storm brought only light winds and small amounts of precipitation, reaching no more than 3.15 in (80 mm). In Texas, wind gusts as high as 170 mph (270 km/h) were observed in Port Lavaca. Additionally, several tornadoes spawned in the state caused notable impacts, with the most destructive tornado striking Galveston, Texas at F4 intensity, resulting in 200 buildings being severely damaged, of which 60-75 were destroyed, eight deaths and 200 injuries. Throughout the state, Carla destroyed 1,915 homes, 568 farm buildings, and 415 other buildings. Additionally, 50,723 homes, 5,620 farm buildings, and 10,487 other buildings suffered damage. There were 34 fatalities and at least \$300 million in losses in Texas alone. Several tornadoes also touched down in Louisiana, causing the destruction of 140 homes and 11 farms and other buildings, and major damage to 231 additional homes and 11 farm and other buildings. Minor to moderate damage was also reported to 748 homes and 75 farm and other buildings. Six deaths and \$25 million in losses in Louisiana were attributed to Carla. Heavy rainfall occurred in several other states, especially in Kansas, where flash flooding severely damaged crops and drowned five people. Overall, Carla resulted in \$325.74 million in losses and 46 fatalities. In Canada, the remnants of Carla brought strong winds to Ontario and New Brunswick, though impact was primarily limited to power outages and falling trees and branches. ### Hurricane Debbie A tropical disturbance was first identified in late August over Central Africa. The wave developed into a tropical depression just offshore Senegal around 12:00 UTC on September 5. It was estimated to have intensified into Tropical Storm Debbie early the next day. Several hours later, Debbie passed through the southern Cape Verde Islands as a strong tropical storm or minimal hurricane, resulting in a plane crash that killed 60 people. Once clear of the islands, data on the storm became sparse, and the status of Debbie was uncertain over the following several days as it tracked west-northwestward and later northward. It was not until a commercial airliner intercepted the storm on September 10 that its location was certain. The following day, Debbie intensified and reached its peak intensity as a strong Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (140 km/h). The hurricane gradually slowed its forward motion and weakened. By September 13, Debbie's motion became influenced by the westerlies, causing the system to accelerate east-northeastward. The storm transitioned into an extratropical cyclone late on September 14 about 140 mi (225 km) west-southwest of Horta, Azores. The remnants of Debbie soon passed east-northeastward throughout the Azores and then curved northeastward. The system deepened slightly as it neared the British Isles, skirting the coast of Western Ireland on September 16. In Ireland, Debbie brought record winds to much of the island, with a peak gust of 114 mph (183 km/h) measured just offshore. Widespread wind damage and disruption occurred, downing tens of thousands of trees and power lines. Countless structures sustained varying degrees of damage, with many smaller buildings destroyed. Agriculture experienced extensive losses to barley, corn and wheat crops. Throughout Ireland, Debbie killed 18 people, with 12 in the Republic of Ireland and six in Northern Ireland. The storm also battered parts of Great Britain with winds in excess of 100 mph (160 km/h). ### Hurricane Esther On September 10, Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) III observed an area of disturbed weather well southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. Later that day, a tropical depression developed about 510 miles (820 km) west-southwest of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands. Moving northwestward, the depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Esther on September 11, before reaching hurricane intensity on the following day. Early on September 13, Esther curved westward and deepened into a major hurricane. The storm remained a Category 3 hurricane for about four days and gradually moved in west-northwestward direction. Esther strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane on September 16 and peaked as a Category 5 hurricane on the following day with sustained winds of 160 mph (260 km/h). The storm curved north-northeastward on September 19, while offshore North Carolina. Esther began to weaken while approaching New England and fell to Category 2 intensity early on September 21. The storm turned eastward on the following day and gradually weakened to a tropical storm. It then executed a large cyclonic loop, until curving northward on September 25. Early on the following day, Esther made two landfalls in Massachusetts, first on Muskeget Island and then near South Yarmouth with winds of 60 mph (97 km/h). The storm then emerged over the Gulf of Maine and made landfall in Brunswick, Maine, around 11:00 UTC on September 26 with winds of 40 mph (64 km/h). Esther weakened to a tropical depression late on September 26 before weakening to a tropical depression and becoming extratropical over southeastern Quebec. The remnants persisted for about 12 hours, before dissipating early on September 27. Between North Carolina and New Jersey effects were primarily limited to strong winds and minor beach erosion and coastal flooding due to storm surge. In New York, strong winds led to severe crop losses and over 300,000 power outages. High tides caused coastal flooding and damage a number of pleasure boats. Similar impact was reported in Massachusetts. Additionally, some areas observed more than 8 inches (200 mm) of rainfall, flooding basements, low-lying roads, and underpasses. Overall, damage was minor, totaling about \$6 million. There were also seven deaths reported when United States Navy P5M aircraft crashed about 120 miles (190 km) north of Bermuda. ### Tropical Storm Six TIROS III imagery indicated a vortex east of the Bahamas between September 9 and September 12. A tropical depression formed at 12:00 UTC on September 12 near Great Harbour Cay in the Bahamas, after TIROS revealed a surface circulation. The depression tracked northward and intensified into a tropical storm while located offshore North Carolina. Around 12:00 UTC September 14, it made landfall in the state near Topsail Beach, North Carolina, with winds of 45 mph (72 km/h). The storm curved accelerated northeastward and intensified despite mostly remaining over land, striking near the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula about nine hours later with winds of 50 mph (80 km/h). After re-emerging into the Atlantic late on September 14, the cyclone made landfall near Islip, New York, with peak winds of 65 mph (105 km/h) around 06:00 UTC on September 15, followed by another landfall near Guilford, Connecticut, about an hour later at the same intensity. The cyclone became extratropical over southern Maine around 12:00 UTC and quickly dissipated. Impact from the storm was generally minor. In Savannah, Georgia, the storm produced an F2 tornado that blew the roof off of a lumber company building. In North Carolina, 3.12 inches (79 mm) of precipitation fell at Williamston. Strong winds lashed Rhode Island, with winds as high as 70 mph (110 km/h) in Point Judith. About 29,000 homes were left without electricity, while 1,200 lost telephone service. Hundreds of small crafts and a few ferries and barges were swamped or sank. Hurricane-force wind gusts in Massachusetts felled trees, electrical wires, and TV antennas. Some roads in the southeastern portion of the state were blocked by fallen trees. Similar impact was reported in Maine, where an F2 tornado/waterspout tracked 19.1 miles (30.7 km) from Beals through Roque Bluffs before dissipating in Dog Town just east of East Machias. Power lines were considerably damaged and numerous trees were knocked down, including two incidents where trees fell on and damaged homes. The tornado caused one injury when a man was hit by a flying wooden plank. ### Hurricane Frances A westward-moving tropical wave organized into Tropical Storm Frances on September 30, east of the northern Lesser Antilles. Six hours later, the depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Frances. Heading westward, it crossed through the Leeward Islands and entered the Caribbean Sea on October 1. Thereafter, the lack of divergence at high levels prevented significant strengthening for a few days. While situated south of Puerto Rico on October 2, Frances curved northwestward. The storm brought heavy rainfall to Puerto Rico, peaking at 10.15 inches (258 mm) in the Indiera Baja barrio of Maricao. Considerable damage to roads and bridges occurred. However, due to swift evacuations of residents by the Civil Defense and American Red Cross, no fatalities were reported. Tracking to the northwest, Frances made landfall near Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, early on October 3 with winds of 60 mph (97 km/h). No impact was reported on the island. Later on October 3, Frances emerged into the Atlantic Ocean just southeast of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Thereafter, the storm accelerated somewhat and resumed intensification, reaching hurricane status on October 4. Around that time, it curved northeastward and deepened further. Early on October 7, Frances attained its peak intensity with winds of 130 mph (210 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 948 mbar (28.0 inHg). The storm passed by Bermuda around that time, where it dropped 1.35 inches (34 mm) of precipitation. Later on October 7, Frances re-curved to the north. Early on the following day, the storm became extratropical as it approached the Gulf of Maine. The remnants curved east-northeastward and struck Nova Scotia, before dissipating early on October 10. ### Tropical Storm Gerda A westward-moving tropical wave reached the central Caribbean by mid-October. The wave crossed Jamaica, causing flooding that damaged roads and forced many to evacuate their homes in western Kingston. Five fatalities were reported in Jamaica. Early on October 17, the wave developed into a tropical depression just southwest of Cape Cruz, Cuba. It continued northward and made another landfall near Santa Cruz del Sur several hours later. The depression also brought heavy rainfall to eastern Cuba, which resulted in seven deaths. After striking Cuba, the depression emerged into the Atlantic early on October 18 as it intensified into Tropical Storm Gerda. Moving across the Bahamas later on October 18, Gerda accelerated to the north-northeast. The storm curved northeastward on October 20, while peaking with winds of 70 mph (110 km/h). However, a Texas Tower offshore Massachusetts observed hurricane-force winds. At 00:00 UTC on October 20, Gerda transitioned into an extratropical cyclone while situated about 165 miles (265 km) southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Damage from the storm in New England was "about the same as that from a typical wintertime northeaster". The remnants of Gerda moved northeastward and then to the east, before dissipating between Newfoundland and the Azores late on October 22. ### Hurricane Hattie In late October, an area of low pressure persisted in the western Caribbean Sea for several days. Around 00:00 UTC on October 26, a tropical depression developed about 100 mi (160 km) northeast of Colón, Panama. Approximately 12 hours later, the depression intensified into Tropical Storm Hattie. Moving towards the north and north-northeast, the storm quickly gained hurricane status early on October 28 and reached major hurricane intensity that same day. Hattie turned towards the west to the east of Jamaica and strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (266 km/h) on October 31. The storm then weakened to a Category 4 hurricane prior to landfall south of Belize City, British Honduras, with winds of 150 mph (240 km/h). Continuing southwest, the storm rapidly weakened over the mountainous terrain of Central America, dissipating on November 1. It was originally thought that the remnants may have contributed to the development of Tropical Storm Simone in the eastern Pacific Ocean, but a 2019 reanalysis concluded that the remnants of Hattie instead became a Central American gyre. Hattie first affected regions in the southwestern Caribbean, producing hurricane-force winds and causing one death on San Andres Island. It was initially forecast to continue north and strike Cuba, which prompted evacuations. Little effects were reported as Hattie turned to the west, although rainfall reached 11.5 in (290 mm) on Grand Cayman. The worst damage was in the country of Belize. The former capital, Belize City, was flooded by a powerful storm surge and high waves and affected by strong winds. The territory governor estimated 70% of the buildings in the city were damaged, which left over 10,000 people homeless. The damage was severe enough that it prompted the government to relocate inland to a new city, Belmopan. In the territory, Hattie left about \$60 million in damage and caused 307 deaths. The government estimated that Hattie was more damaging than a hurricane in 1931 that killed 2,000 people; the lower toll for Hattie was due to advance warning. Elsewhere in Central America, the hurricane killed 11 people in Guatemala and one in Honduras. ### Hurricane Jenny A surface trough of low pressure developed in the eastern Caribbean Sea on October 30. The trough split, with the northern portion spawning a tropical depression near Antigua at 00:00 UTC on November 2. The precursor to Jenny brought light rainfall to Puerto Rico, peaking at 4.97 inches (126 mm) in Río Blanco, Naguabo. Moving northeastward ahead of an upper-level trough, the depression remained weak for over three days. On November 3, the system curved eastward, before briefly turning to the southeast on November 4. The depression tracked in a circular path during the next 24 hours, moving northeastward, north-northwestward, and then west-northward. Finally, the system strengthened into Tropical Storm Jenny early on November 5. Jenny intensified further and reached hurricane status at 12:00 UTC on November 6. Later that day, the United States Weather Bureau began advisories and described Jenny as having "characteristic of many storms in the sub-tropics late in the hurricane season." Around 18:00 UTC on November 6, Jenny attained its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 974 mbar (28.8 inHg). Thereafter, the storm briefly decelerated and weakened, falling to tropical storm intensity around midday on November 7. Jenny curved northeastward and continued to weaken, transitioning into an extratropical cyclone late on November 10 about 545 mi (875 km) east of Cape Race, Newfoundland. The extratropical remnants continued to move northeastward and weakened before being absorbed by a larger extratropical cyclone on the following day. ### Tropical Storm Inga Early on November 4, the SS Navigator encountered a weather system in the Gulf of Mexico that produced northwesterly winds of 81 to 92 mph (130 to 148 km/h). Reconnaissance aircraft data indicated that Tropical Storm Inga developed at 00:00 UTC on November 4, while located about 145 miles (235 km) northeast of Veracruz. A strong high pressure system and a cold front entering the Gulf of Mexico from Texas caused the storm to move southward and then southeastward. Inga slowly strengthened and peaked as a 70 mph (110 km/h) tropical storm early on November 7. Thereafter, the storm became nearly stationary and began weakening. By 12:00 UTC on November 8, Inga dissipated in the Bay of Campeche, as reconnaissance aircraft found no closed circulation. ### Tropical Storm Twelve A stationary front across the central Atlantic Ocean led to the development of a low pressure area by November 16, northeast of the Lesser Antilles. A day later, it is estimated that a tropical depression developed, although due to the system's large size, it was possible it was a subtropical cyclone. The depression moved northeastward and slowly intensified, based on observations from nearby ships. On November 19, the depression strengthened into a tropical storm. The storm strengthened to reach peak winds of 60 mph (97 km/h) on November 20. By that time, a cold front was approaching the storm, causing the storm to transition into an extratropical cyclone on November 21; later that day, the front absorbed the former tropical storm. ### Other storms In addition to the twelve systems reaching at least tropical storm status, two other cyclones formed but remained at tropical depression intensity. The first such system, also the first tropical cyclone of the season, originated from a tropical wave about 35 mi (55 km) east of Palm Bay, Florida, on June 10. Moving quickly northeastward, the depression may have reached tropical storm intensity on June 12 but degenerated into a trough offshore New England on the next day. On October 12, a trough developed into a tropical depression about halfway between Bermuda and North Carolina. This depression also moved quickly northeastward and merged with a frontal boundary by October 15. A report from Mexico indicates that a tropical depression formed off the west coasts of Tabasco and Coatzacoalcos. The depression significantly impacted the northern portions of Veracruz with heavy rainfall on June 30. However, the Atlantic hurricane best track does not list this system as a tropical depression. ## Storm names The following names were used for named storms (tropical storms and hurricanes) that formed in the North Atlantic in 1961. Storms were named Frances, Hattie, Inga and Jenny for the first time in 1961. Names that were not assigned are marked in . ### Retirement The names Carla and Hattie were later retired, replaced with Carol and Holly, respectively. ## Season effects The following table lists all of the storms that have formed in the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season. It includes their duration, names, landfall(s) (in parentheses), damages, and death totals. Deaths in parentheses are additional and indirect (an example of an indirect death would be a traffic accident), but were still related to that storm. Damage and deaths include totals while the storm was extratropical, a wave, or a low, and all of the damage figures are in 1961 USD. ## See also - 1961 Pacific hurricane season - 1961 Pacific typhoon season - 1961 North Indian Ocean cyclone season - Australian region cyclone seasons: 1960–61 1961–62 - South Pacific cyclone seasons: 1960–61 1961–62 - South-West Indian Ocean cyclone seasons: 1960–61 1961–62
69,751,873	Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (march)	1,171,964,176	March by John Philip Sousa	[ "1923 compositions", "American military marches", "Concert band pieces", "Sousa marches" ]	"Nobles of the Mystic Shrine" is a march composed by John Philip Sousa upon the request of his nephew, A. R. Varela. Sousa dedicated the march to the Almas Temple and the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. It was first conducted in June 1923, with a band of around 6,200 members—the largest Sousa had ever conducted. It is one of the few Sousa marches with the first strain written in the minor mode. Contemporary versions of the march recorded by the Ottoman military band also use the Jingling Johnny in the final strain. ## Background John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor. He served as the director of the United States Marine Band from 1880 to 1892. During his tenure, he was popularly referred to as the "March King". In 1881, Sousa became a Freemason and on November 18 the same year, he was raised to a third-degree mason. After leaving the marine band, Sousa started his own band, which he later called "Sousa's Band". In April 1922, Sousa became a member of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (AAONMS). He was soon named their first honorary director. ## Composition and analysis On the request of his nephew, A. R. Varela, Sousa composed a march titled "Nobles of the Mystic Shrine". According to author Paul E. Bierley, "The new march saluted Shriners", but was specifically dedicated to the Almas Temple and the AAONMS. "Nobles of the Mystic Shrine" is one of the few of Sousa's marches in which the introduction and the first strain is written in the minor mode. The march is approximately 3 minutes 30 seconds long. The introduction begins in a minor key, which drops to mezzo-forte during the first strain. According to the Marine Band, Sousa added triangles to the first strain to "reinforce the mystical theme of the march". Piccolo, Eb Clarinet, cornets, trumpets, trombones, and cymbals are tacet during most of the second strain. The trio has been referred by the Marine Band as one of Sousa's "most elegant trio melodies". Bells are first played during the trio. In the break strain, all the instruments are played back with a subito fortissimo ('). A diminuendo is also added to the percussion instruments. In the final strain, all the instruments are played with a '. A Jingling Johnny bell tower is also added, which is played, according to the Marine Band, to "bring home the exotic character" of the march. The structure of the march is: - Introduction: F major - First strain: B-flat minor - Second strain: D-flat major - Trio: G-flat major - Break strain: B-flat minor - Final strain: G-flat major ### Instrumentation English composer Philip Sparke made few changes to the march, and the instrumentation of his version included: Woodwind: 1 piccolo 1 flute 1 oboe 1 E-flat clarinet 3 clarinets 1 bass clarinet 1 bassoon 1 alto saxophone 1 tenor saxophone 1 baritone saxophone Brass: 3 trumpets 4 horns 3 trombones 1 euphonium 1 tuba Percussion: snare drum bass drum crash cymbal tambourine triangle ## Performance The march was first conducted during the Shriners' National Convention in Washington, D.C., in June 1923. At the Griffith Stadium, Sousa conducted a band of around 6,200 members—the largest he had ever conducted. Sousa was wearing navy-blue uniform and a red Almas Shrine fez. He conducted the march twice before conducting "The Thunderer". Various Shriners accompanied Sousa during his tours, and during the later years of Sousa's band, the majority of his members were Shriners. Contemporary versions of the march by the Ottoman military band also use the Jingling Johnny with the fortissimo.
316,446	Póvoa de Varzim	1,157,496,579	null	[ "Cities in Portugal", "Municipalities of Porto District", "Populated coastal places in Portugal", "Port cities and towns in Portugal", "Póvoa de Varzim", "Seaside resorts in Portugal" ]	Póvoa de Varzim () is a Portuguese city in Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, 30 km (18.6 mi) from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho and Douro rivers. In 2001, there were 63,470 inhabitants, with 42,396 living in the city proper. The city expanded southwards, to Vila do Conde, and there are about 100,000 inhabitants in the urban area alone. It is the seventh-largest urban agglomeration in Portugal and the third largest in Northern Portugal. Permanent settlement in Póvoa de Varzim dates back to around four to six thousand years ago. Around 900 BC, unrest in the region led to the establishment of Cividade de Terroso, a fortified city, which developed maritime trade routes with the civilizations of classical antiquity. Modern Póvoa de Varzim emerged after the conquest by the Roman Republic of the city by 138 BC; fishing and fish processing units soon developed, which became the foundations of the local economy. By the 11th century, the fishing industry and fertile farmlands were the economic base of a feudal lordship and Varzim was fiercely disputed between the local overlords and the early Portuguese kings, which resulted in the establishment of the present day's municipality in 1308 and being subjugated to monastic power some years later. Póvoa de Varzim's importance reemerged with the Age of Discovery due to its shipbuilders and merchants proficiency and wealth, who traded around the globe in complex trade routes. By the 17th century, the fish processing industry rebounded and, sometime later, Póvoa became the dominant fishing port in northern Portugal. Póvoa de Varzim has been a well-known beach resort for over three centuries, the most popular in Northern Portugal, which unfolded an influential literary culture and historical-artistic patronage in music and theater. Casino da Póvoa is one of the few and prominent gambling venues in Portugal. Leisure and health benefits provided in large sandy beaches attracts national and international visitors. Póvoa de Varzim holds other landmarks, especially the traditional Junqueira shopping street, Garrett Theatre, the Ethnography and History Museum, Cividade de Terroso, the Medieval Rates Monastery, Baroque Matriz Church, city Hall and Portuguese vernacular architecture in Praça do Almada, and numerous Portuguese cuisine restaurants that make Póvoa de Varzim popular in all Northern Portugal, which started to attract an international following. Farol da Lapa, Farol de Regufe, the main breakwater of the Port of Póvoa de Varzim, Carvalhido and São Félix Hill are preferred for sightseeing. The city has significant textile and food industries. The town has retained a distinct cultural identity and ancient Norse customs such as the writing system of siglas poveiras, the masseira farming technique and festivals. ## History ### Castro Culture and Roman conquest Discoveries of Acheulean stone tools suggest Póvoa de Varzim has been inhabited since the Lower Palaeolithic, around 200,000 BC. The first groups of shepherds settled on the coast where Póvoa de Varzim is now located between the 4th millennium and early 2nd millennium BC. A Neolithic-Calcolithic necropolis, with seven known burial mounds, can still be seen around São Félix Hill and Cividade Hill. Widespread pillaging by rival and migrant tribes led the resident populations of the coastal plain of Póvoa de Varzim to raise a town atop the hill that stood next to the sea. The acropolis protection was reinforced by successive rings of walls and a trench at the base of the hill. Established by the 9th or 8th century B.C., the city area covered 12,000 m<sup>2</sup> (3.0 acres) and had several hundred inhabitants. Its location near waterways helped it to maintain commercial relations with the Mediterranean civilizations, especially noticeable during the Carthaginian dominion of the southern Iberian Peninsula. During the Punic Wars, the Romans became aware of the Castro region's rich deposits of gold and tin. Viriathus, leading Lusitanian troops, hindered the expansion of the Roman Republic north of the river Douro. His murder in 138 BC opened the way for the Roman legions. Over the following two years, Decimus Junius Brutus advanced into the Castro region from south of the Douro, crushed the Castro armies, and left Cividade de Terroso, in ruins. The region was pacified during the reign of Caesar Augustus and the Castro people returned to the coastal plain, where Villa Euracini and Roman fish factories were built. With the annexation by the Roman Republic, trading supported regional economic development, with Roman merchants organized in true commercial companies who looked for monopoly in commercial relations. ### Feudalism and municipalism With the fall of the Roman Empire, Suebi populations established themselves in the countryside. It was first mentioned on 26 March 953 during the rule of Mumadona Dias, Countess of Portugal. The region was attacked by the Vikings in the 960s, by the Moors in 997 and again by Norman pirates in 1015–1016. Hints indicate a Norse settlement in Villa Euracini after those invasions. During the Middle Ages, the name Euracini evolved to Uracini, Vracini, Veracini, Verazini, Verazim, Varazim and, eventually, Varzim. In 1033, Guterre Pelayo, a leading captain of the Reconquista for the County of Portugal, was recognized by Bermudo, Emperor in Gallaecia, as the Lord of Varzim, during the chaotic epoch following Almanzor's attack on the Christian realms. Henry, the Portuguese count, recognized his rule over the port of Varzim amongst several other possessions. Varzim overlords gained significant power and, when Portugal was already a stable kingdom, Sancho I of Portugal attacked the fief and seized the port, destroyed most of the properties and expelled the farmers. The northern area became known as Varzim dos Cavaleiros (Knights' Varzim) and belonged to the military order of the Knights Hospitaller, who inherited the wealth of the local overlords. Lower Varzim, the royal southern land, was the location of the port and contiguous farmlands. According to a 1258 chronic, while Sancho II of Portugal was disputing the throne with his brother, Afonso, who was invited by the knights to take over the Portuguese throne, Gavião of Varzim used the opportunity to destroy the king's assets in Lower Varzim. He violently entered in the king's lands, destroyed it significantly, in such a way that no bread could be sowed, nor a car could cross that place as it often used to do. Sancho II was overthrown, Afonso became king and ordered the resettlement of the royal land and the king's chronicler explicitly stated that all the port was the property of the king. Gomes Lourenço, of the Honour of Varzim, was a very influential knight and godfather of King Denis. He took advantage of his relationship with important people in the kingdom in order to get the recognition of the seaport, located in Lower Varzim, as his honour. He tried to convince King Denis, that the king's father, Afonso, took it from him unfairly. Justifying the attitude with the Honour of Varzim, Gomes and his descendants went to the port to get the tribute from the fishermen. In 1308, King Denis granted a charter, the Foral, giving the royal land to 54 families of Varzim; these had to found a municipality known as Póvoa around Praça Velha, siding Varzim Old Town, controlled by the knights. In 1312, King Denis donated Póvoa to his bastard son, Afonso Sanches, Lord of Albuquerque, who included it in the patrimony of the Monastery of Santa Clara, which he had just founded in Vila do Conde. In 1367, King Ferdinand I confirmed the charters, privileges and uses of Póvoa de Varzim. These were again confirmed by John I in 1387. But the domain of the monastery over the town grew stronger and the people asked King Manuel I to end the situation. In 1514, during the era of charter reform, the King granted a new charter to Póvoa de Varzim. Besides the town hall and square, the town gained a pillory, granted significant self-government, and involved itself in the Portuguese discoveries. ### Shipbuilders, seafarers and fishermen In the 16th century, the fishermen started to work in maritime activities, as pilots or seafarers in the crew of the Portuguese ships, due to their high nautical knowledge. The fishermen of the region are known to fish in Newfoundland since at least 1506. During the reign of John III the Povoan shipmaking art was already renowned, and Povoan carpenters were sought after by Lisbon's Ribeira das Naus shipyard due to their high technical skills. The single-floored houses dominated the town's landscape, but there are indications of multiple floored habitations with rich architecture. The seafarers' social class, well-off gentlemen, was associated with this richer architecture around Praça Velha square. In the 17th century, the shipbuilding industry boomed in Ribeira, area around Póvoa Fortress in the sheltered bay, and one third of the population had some relation with this activity, building ships for the merchant navigation. During this period there was a relevant urban expansion: the Praça civic center with the town hall and the Madre Deus Chapel, the area of the old town where the Main church was located and the fishermen neighborhood of Junqueira was starting its affirmation as a new urban center. In the beginning of the 18th century, there was a decline in the Ribeira shipyard activities, due to the aggradation of the Portuguese coast and the Povoan shipyard started to work in the construction of fishing vessels. There was a significant increase of the fisher community in the middle of the century, becoming the main activity, and during the reign of Joseph I with the country in the middle of an economic crisis, Póvoa started a rapid development. The Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon noticed their overwhelming notoriety in the Minho coast and considered Povoans to be the most expert fishermen from Cape St. Vincent to Caminha, with a sizable number of fishermen, ships and high sea fishing. The result was a very considerable quantity of caught fish. The community became wealthier and, following a royal provision by Queen Mary I in 1791, the inspector general Almada reorganized the town's layout, a new civic centre with a monumental city hall, streets and infrastructure were built, all of which provided the potential for a new business — sea baths. ### The Baths of Póvoa and the modern city Since 1725, the iodine-rich seawaters of Póvoa, due to the peculiar high quantities of seaweed that ends up in Póvoa beaches from the sheltered bay to Cape Santo André, brought by ocean currents, lead that Benedictine monks choose to take sea-baths in there, searching cures for skin and bone problems. Still in the 18th century, other people went to Póvoa with the same concerns. In the 19th century, the town became popular as a summer destination for the wealthy of Entre-Douro-e-Minho province and Portuguese Brazilians, due to its large sandy beaches and the development of theaters, hotels and casinos. It then became renowned for its refined literary culture, artistic patronage in music and theater, and intellectual tertulia. On 27 February 1892, a shipwreck had critical impact in community. Seven lanchas poveiras wrecked in a storm and 105 fishermen were killed, just metres off the shore. Over-fishing by steamboats created severe social problems and fishermen emigration. The fishing industry lost much of its importance. Meanwhile, Póvoa developed into the most popular holiday destination in northern Portugal, The textile and food industries thrived. Streetcars appeared in 1874 and endured until September 1934. The rail connection to Porto opened in 1875 and to inland Minho region in 1878. National highways linking the city to Barcelos, Famalicão and Viana do Castelo opened. The first urbanization project for the waterfront was drafted in 1891. All these events led to a major growth between the 1930s and 1960s. Póvoa de Varzim developed a cosmopolitan style and became a service-sector city. It is one of northern Portugal's main urban centres. Póvoa is the focal point of a larger area, which includes Vila do Conde and Esposende. ## Geography Occupying an area of 82.1 km<sup>2</sup> (31.7 sq mi), Póvoa de Varzim lies between the Cávado and Ave rivers, or, from a wider perspective, halfway between the Minho and Douro rivers on the northern coast of Portugal — the Costa Verde. It is bordered to the north by the municipality of Esposende, to the northeast by Barcelos, to the east by Vila Nova de Famalicão, and to the south by Vila do Conde. To the west, it has a shoreline on the Atlantic Ocean. The rocky cliffs, common features downstream of the Minho's estuary, disappear in Póvoa de Varzim, giving way to a coastal plain. The plain is located in a cuspate foreland, an old marine plateau from the Plio-Pleistocene, conferring a sandy soil to the coastal lands. The sand dunes in the Northwestern coast formed during the Little Ice Age and started piling up in the 15th or 16th century. Wandering along the coast one discerns Cape Santo André, the tip of the cuspate foreland and the Avarus Promontory, referred to by Ptolemy. São Félix Hill (202 m or 663 ft) and Cividade Hill (155 m or 509 ft) rise above the landscape. Despite their modest rise, the expanse of the plain makes them easy reference points on the horizon. The mountain chain known as Serra de Rates divides the municipality into two distinctive areas: the coastal plain and hills where the forests become more abundant and the soils have less sea influence. In this landscape dominated by the plains and low hills, only the hillside of Corga da Soalheira (150 m or 490 ft) in the interior, is dissimilar. There are no large rivers, but abundant small water streams exist. Some of these streams are permanent, such as the Este River, which feeds into the Ave. The source of the Esteiro Stream is located at the base of Cividade Hill and empties at the beach of Aver-o-Mar, while the Alto River's source is at the base of São Félix and reaches the Atlantic at Rio Alto Beach. The land is well-irrigated, springs and wells are very common since underground water is often close to the surface. The forest areas suffer from strong demographic pressure and intensive agriculture. Some forests locally known as bouças are defined areas with maritime pines, oaks and eucalyptus plantations. Forests are still important in parishes surrounded by the Serra de Rates, whose flora is distinguished by the pedunculate oak or the european holly. In the 18th century, the monks of Tibães planted pines, which characterized the civil parish of Estela. In the past the Atlantic forest predominated, with trees such as oaks, ash trees, hazels, strawberry trees, holm oak, and alders. The granitic gneiss rocks throughout the entire coastline are home to large populations of invertebrates, fish and seaweed. These gneiss and the dunes form rich ecosystems, but are threatened by waterfront construction, holiday-makers and dune sports. Short-beaked common dolphins occur in large numbers in Northern Portugal. Dolphins show themselves by porpoising and bowriding along with boats just off the city of Póvoa de Varzim, where fishing activities occur. Alive or dead discarded fish while fishing can be easily caught by dolphins, which could help explain this relationship in the city's waters. The OMARE Marine Observatory also identified the Risso's dolphin and the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin in local waters. Stranded whales and dolphins and found dead occur with some frequency, natural causes, rough seas events, incidents with ships or fishing boats can explain these events. The city core is situated in a region dominated by old Hercynian granites, including Póvoa de Varzim Granite and Santo André Granite. A continuous area dominated by schist exists to the Northeast and vernacular architecture of the rural areas highlight the local geological diversity. Oldest rocks, from the Pre-Ordovician epoch, are found in the Schist-greywacke Complex between Rates, Laundos, and Estela. Wandering even further Northeast, there is shale of micaceous clay nature, occasionally quartzite, dating to the Devonian period, that may contain fossils. ### Climate Póvoa's climate is classified as a Warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb in the Köppen climate classification system), with gentle summers and mild winters, influenced by the Atlantic ocean. Temperature extremes recorded at Sá Carneiro Airport, records started in 1967, range from −3.8 °C (25.2 °F) to 38.3 °C (100.9 °F). In Póvoa de Varzim proper, average temperatures oscillate between 9 °C (48.2 °F) in winter and 19 °C (66.2 °F) in the summer. The city's beach area averages between 11 °C (51.8 °F) and 18 °C (64.4 °F) and diurnal temperature variation there is very low, just 4 °C (39.2 °F). The remaining territory, including the northwestern rural beaches, swings around 8 °C (46.4 °F) daily. Using 1971–2000 data, there are 33 days a year above 25 °C (77.0 °F) and 9 days above 30 °C (86.0 °F). Heat waves can occur for an average of 10 days, yet it tends to be balmier than inland Northwestern Portugal, and it is used by inland Minho Province residents seeking to escape the summer heat in the valleys. The so-called tropical nights with minimum temperature above 20 °C (68 °F) occur three days per year. There are no full-days below freezing, yet temperatures below 0 °C (32.0 °F) can occur at the height of winter during the night and early morning. The city possesses a microclimate and is considered the region least subject to frosts in all northern Portugal. Cold waves are absent and snowfall is firmly uncommon, the last occurred in January 1986. More recently, snowfall occurred inland. This is due to the winter maritime winds that normally blow from the south and southwest. Most of the rain is concentrated in the winter months, due to the Azores High which influences the subsidence of the air resulting in dry air during the summer. Topography and distance from the sea influence precipitation even at short distances. The urban core receives over 900 millimetres (35 in), the outskirts can get up to 1,200 millimetres (47 in) of rain per year, while the city's countryside can get up to 1,500 millimetres (59 in). The prevailing northern winds, known as Nortadas, arise in the summer after midday. Strongest wind gusts are felt in the city's sands and only reaching inland in municipalities south of Póvoa de Varzim. During the summer, a mass of hot and wet air, brought by the south and western maritime winds, creates Póvoa de Varzim's characteristic fog covering only the coast and with strong ocean scent brought in by the marine layer, which is composed of salt from the surf and sea spray, with lesser amounts of iodine from the outlying kelp forests. Southerly winds can sporadically bring the Saharan Air Layer and Saharan dust can form a thick plume blocking the sun. Sunshine duration values are high, between April and September the mean is always over 217 hours, peaking in July with 308 hours. The gloomiest months are December and January with 124 hours each (1961–1990 data). Solar irradiance is high in the city's beaches, and lower inland and on the northwestern coast. ## Demographics A native of Póvoa de Varzim is called a Poveiro which can be rendered into English as Povoan. According to the 2001 Census, there were 63,470 inhabitants that year, 38 848 (61.2%) of whom lived in the city. The number goes up to 100,000 if adjacent satellite areas are taken into account, ranking it as the seventh largest independent urban area in Portugal, within a polycentric agglomeration of about 3 million people, ranging from Braga to Porto. According to the EOCD methology, Póvoa de Varzim was the 13th largest Functional urban area of Portugal, hence a small urban area with 63,428 inhabitants, by including only its municipality. The urban area has a population density of 3035/km<sup>2</sup> (7,864/mi<sup>2</sup>), while the rural and suburban areas have a density of 355.5/km<sup>2</sup> (920/mi<sup>2</sup>). The rural areas away from the city tend to be scarcely populated, becoming denser near it. During the summer the resident population in the city triples; this seasonal movement from neighbouring cities is due to the draw of the beach and 29.9% of homes had seasonal use in 2001, the highest in Greater Porto. Póvoa de Varzim is the youngest city in the region with a birth rate of 13.665 and mortality rate of 8.330. Unlike other urban areas of greater Porto, it is not a satellite city. Significant commuting occurs only with Vila do Conde, an urban expansion area of Póvoa since the 18th century. For centuries a fishing community of mostly Norman origin, where ethnic isolationism was a common practice, Póvoa de Varzim is today a cosmopolitan town, with people originating from the Ave Valley who settled in the coastal Northern districts during the 20th century, the ancient immigration from Galicia, Portuguese-Africans (who arrived in significant numbers after the independence of Angola and Mozambique) in the late 1970s. In 2017, Póvoa de Varzim had a legal foreign resident population of 1.5%, up from 1.4% in 2008, mostly including economic migrants and expatriates, it excludes those who obtained Portuguese citizenship and illegal migrants. Most of these were from Brazil, China, Ukraine, France, Spain, Mozambique, Angola, Romania, the United Kingdom and Cape Verde. Most of the growth in foreign population arrived from China, other Asian countries, France and other European countries. In 2017, 231 migrants moved to Póvoa de Varzim from Brazil, Ukraine and Venezuela; but also from Uzbekistan, Angola, and Georgia. Indonesian fishermen have been contracted to work in Póvoa de Varzim to redress labour shortages. Their arrival was negotiated directly with the Indonesian diplomatic authorities. Their numbers have grown to over 400, though some have moved on to other areas and even other European countries. The population of the entire municipality grew only 1% between 1981 and 1991, then increased by 15.3% between 1991 and 2001. During that period, the urban population had grown 23%, with the number of families increasing considerably — by about 44.5%. The urban area kept a slower but steady growth in the 21st century, and in the 2021 Census it was one of the few urban areas to expand in the whole of Portugal. The quality of living, the infrastructure development and a 15 minutes distance from Porto and Braga, prompted new residents originating from near-by cities such as Guimarães, Famalicão, Braga and Porto. The beach areas of Póvoa de Varzim is also popular for a new home by foreign nationals, mostly French and Swiss. Due to the practice of endogamy and the caste system, Póvoa's fishing community maintained local ethnic characteristics. Anthropological and cultural data indicate Nordic fishermen settling during the period of the coast's resettlement. In As Praias de Portugal (Beaches of Portugal, 1876), Ramalho ortigão wrote that the Povoan fishermen were a "race" in the Portuguese coast; entirely different from the Mediterranean type of Ovar and Olhão, Poveiro is of "Saxon" type. On the other hand, the man from the interior was a farmer with Galician character (Paleo and Nordid-Atlantid). In a 1908 research, anthropologist Fonseca Cardoso considered that Poveiros were the result of a mixture of Teutons, Jews and mostly, Normans. In the book The Races of Europe (1938), Poveiros were distinguished by having a greater than usual degree of blondism, broad faces of unknown origin, and broad jaws. Poveiros have migrated to other places and this attenuated the population growth. One should notice that the Poveiros tended to create their own associations abroad, there are Casa dos Poveiros (Poveiros House) in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo), Germiston in South Africa and Toronto in Canada. In Rio de Janeiro, the community was known for not wanting other peoples of other origins, including Portuguese born in other regions, within their community. In 1920, many Poveiros emigrated in Brazil returned, as many refused to lose Portuguese nationality. The governor of Angola, with an ambition to develop fisheries, suggested the creation of a Povoan colony in Porto Alexandre. Due to fisher classes affairs, the fisher areas of Vila do Conde, Esposende and Matosinhos have strong Povoan cultural influence and half of the population of Vila do Conde and Matosinhos are of Povoan descent. ## Economy The economy of Póvoa de Varzim is driven by sales, manufacturing, construction, healthcare, agribusiness, fishing, and tourism. In the 2021 census, the unemployment rate, at 8.3%, compared to Porto Metropolitan Area at 9.6%, Northern Portugal at 8.4% and the national average at 8.1%. Póvoa de Varzim's purchasing power represented 0.6% of the total national purchasing power in 2019, up from 0.5% in 1993. However, per capita values were just 96.5% of the national average in 2019, up from 90.6% in 1993. Comparing 2009 to 2020, the diversified economy of Póvoa de Varzim drifted away from construction (-70.3%), administrative (-55.6%), Entertainment & leisure (-44.1%), and professional services (-22.9%) towards the growing fields of real estate (+73.5%), industrial sector (+47.3%), sales (+43.4%), Agribusiness & Fisheries (+41%), Healthcare (+31.9%) and Hospitality (+9.2%). quaternary sector (+41%) and Transport (+9.4%) are comparably minor yet growing economic activities. Póvoa de Varzim's real estate development ranked as the fifth most active out of seventeen municipalities of Metropolitan Porto in 2015, when considering new homes. Reconstruction was mostly stagnant, and Póvoa de Varzim was eighth in overall activity. ### Fisheries The fact that it is a seaside city has shaped Póvoa de Varzim's economy: the fishing industry, from the fishing vessels that put in each day to the canning industry and to the city's fish market, beach agriculture, and seaweed-gathering for fertilizing fields are the result of its geography. Tourism and the related industries are more relevant in Póvoa's economy these days, as fisheries have lost importance. Nevertheless, the mean value of fish landed in 2004, in its seaport, was almost three times that of Matosinhos seaport and significantly higher in the average vessels' capacity. Its fishing productivity is also comparatively higher than the national average. A Poveira is a traditional Povoan canning factory and most of its production, 80 to 85%, is exported and deals with high-end brands in canned fish, for MDC markets. Export market brands include: Poveira, D'Henry IV, Ala-Arriba, Minerva, and Alva. Marine fish farming started in 1994 by SafiEstela, an aquafarming firm established in 1968. It uses the latest knowledge on the breeding and production of high-valued seafood species, including soles, with intricate fish husbandry. It was part of the European Maximus consortium of 8 SME and 6 RTD performers involving states in Atlantic Europe, with innovative scientific processes in a number of interrelated disciplines, including growth physiology, quality, fish welfare and stunning methods. ### Agribusiness Production is still specialized in horticultural goods, but most of the masseiras were substituted by greenhouses and a significant share of the production is exported to other Western European markets. Póvoa de Varzim is part of the ancient Vinho Verde winemaking region, and there is commercial wine production, however, local masseira wines are not commercially produced. The inland valley region is committed to milk production and the Agros corporation headquarters of Lactogal, the largest dairy products and milk producer company in the Iberian Peninsula, is located in Espaço Agros and has several departments such as exhibition park and laboratories. In agriculture, the masseira farm fields were developed. This technique increases agricultural yields by using large, rectangular depressions dug into sand dunes, with the spoil piled up into banks surrounding the depression. Grapes are cultivated on the banks to the south, east and west, and trees and reeds on the northern slope act as a windbreak against the prevailing northern wind. Garden crops are grown in the central depression. ### Tourism Tourism industry is subdivided into gambling, hospitality, restaurants, beach bars and cafés. National visitors are prevalent and from diverse localities. In 1876, Ramalho Ortigão noticed that Póvoa was very popular in all social ranks in Northern Portugal. In the contemporary period, the construction of motorways negatively affected overnight stays in local hotels. This has been leveled by a noticeable attraction of Portuguese living abroad and foreign tourists and the number of hotel rooms in 2014 increased to 1.774. Most of those tourists are French or from diverse countries in Northern Europe. International tourists sleeping in the city's hotels represented 35.1% of guests in 2013, up from 30.3% in 2001. In 2017, international tourists represented 55% of guests in the hospitality industry, which registed 250 thousand overnight stays almost the double of the 2012 statistics. Informal local accommodation, especially typical homes in rua Latino Coelho, is a popular alternative. In the summer of 2017, Póvoa de Varzim was the second location with the largest growth in the Portuguese AirBNB hospitality service. Póvoa de Varzim has the longest overnight stays for foreign tourists in Metropolitan Porto who stay, on average, 3 days. International awareness is increasing and Povoa de Varzim was considered a 2022 hotspot for family vacations in Portugal by Yahoo! UK and Prima magazine, along with Lisbon, Albufeira, Porto, Carvoeiro and Viana do Castelo, highlighting the seven miles of soft golden sands and the historical side of the city, namely the important fishing and shipbuilding legacy. National and foreign visitors search the town for the numerous sandy beaches, sunbathing, sunsets over the ocean, relaxation and city trips. Walking from the beach promenades to the old town shopping street, the Junqueira, is particularly enjoyed, as is local food, most especially seafood. Since 1970, Póvoa de Varzim became widely popular in Northern Portugal for restaurants specialized in Portuguese Piri Piri Chicken, Cabidela chicken blood rice or codfish. Due to tourism, affluent pensioners from the Western World living in Póvoa de Varzim increased, triggering fears of renewed gentrification, the city hall responded with the planned construction of apartments with controlled prices for young Povoans in Penalves area. Reducing seasonality in tourism demand has been a city's goal, throw the development of sports and cultural tourism, this helped to decline the seasonality from 48.4% in 2001 to 44.9% in 2013. ### Manufacturing There are some industrial areas, including Zona Industrial de Amorim and Parque Industrial de Laundos, in the city's outskirts, next to the A28 Motorway. Póvoa de Varzim has been noted internationally for its Renewable energy industry. The world's first commercial wave farm was located in its coast, at the Aguçadora Wave Park. The wave farm used Pelamis P-750 machines. The project failed and was replaced by the windfloat project, a new prototype on offshore wind farms, from a distinct company, that attained successful testing. Energie, a company headquartered in Póvoa de Varzim, developed a thermodynamic solar system combining solar energy and a heat pump to generate energy. The manufacturing industry is an important employer, mostly in the textile industry. One of its traditional and high-end products are the Tapetes Beiriz, a handmade rug produced since 1918, which currently also produces contemporary rugs. The clothing industry balanced back from European Union's expansion to Eastern Europe and Globalization, by shifting to luxury clothing for high fashion brands or reinventing uniforms, with specific needs or complexity, as seen in the case of Damel. In construction and civil engineering, Monte Adriano is a large Portuguese company. ## Government Póvoa de Varzim is governed by a Câmara Municipal (City Council) composed of nine councilmen. A Municipal Assembly exists and it is the legislative body of the municipality. After the first free elections, with the end of the Estado Novo period, only right-wing parties have governed the city: the city council was governed by the CDS between 1976 and 1989 and since then by the PSD. The CDS saw its popularity suffer an abrupt decline in 1997. On the other hand, the PSD in the same year achieved its first absolute majority with 62.4% of the votes. After the 2021 municipal elections, seven councilmen were members of the centre-right Partido Social Democrata (PSD), and two of the centre-left Partido Socialista (PS). The mayor is Aires Pereira, for the PSD, elected with 51.7% of the votes. However, turnout was below 50%, at 48.1%. The PSD holds the majority of public offices both in the Municipal Assembly and in the administrative parishes. Póvoa de Varzim Assembly is singly elected and comprises 27 members, with the PSD holding 15 seats — 48.60%, the PS 7 seats — 22,02%, Chega 1 seat — 6.04%, CDU 1 seat — 4.33%, CDS 1 seat — 4,04%, Liberals 1 seat — 3.54%, and the Left Bloc 1 seat — 3.01%. Póvoa de Varzim is the northernmost municipality in the Porto Metropolitan Area, about 27 km (17 mi) north of Porto. However, it is not a Porto's Commuter town. Póvoa de Varzim also used to be part of the former Association of Municipalities of the Ave Valley, along with neighbouring cities such as Vila do Conde, Guimarães, and Famalicão, with which it has the most important modern demographic links. Since the establishment of the County of Portugal around 1095, Varzim was an administrative and military unit that stretched from the sea to Cividade de Terroso and São Félix Hills. Póvoa de Varzim was established as a municipality in 1308 with the election of a town hall judge and boundary exemption. As the town achieved broad self-government in the 16th century, restricted borders were created, which split the town itself and since disputed by the town hall. Over time, these were expanded to approach the medieval lordship boundaries. However, Caxinas and Poça da Barca, south expansion areas of Póvoa de Varzim in the 18th and 19th centuries with fisher populations from Póvoa, are administrated by Vila do Conde, in spite of the centuries-old requests of Póvoa de Varzim for these to be incorporated in its municipality. Inland, the parishes of Rio Mau, Touginhó, and Arcos are also historically disputed. The origin of the coat of arms of Póvoa de Varzim is unknown, but it certainly has local traits and symbolism. The coat of arms consists of a golden sun and a silver moon; in the middle a golden cross completed by two anchor silver arms, representing safety at sea. Over the cross, a ring, of which falls a golden rosary that interlaces with the anchor arms, representing faith and divine protection. The crest is made of five silver towers due to its city status. The flag is broken in blue and white. Between 1939 and 1958, a different coat of Arms and flag were used, which the population criticized; it consisted of a golden shield, covered by a red net, the sea and a black Poveiro boat; the flag was plain red. The population did not accept these new symbols and years later the old ones would be restored. ## Cityscape ### Urban morphology Located in the coastal plain between the sea and hills, the city of Póvoa de Varzim has eleven Partes (parts), or districts. These districts are, in turn, part of two formal administrative structures known as freguesias (civil parishes): U.F. Póvoa de Varzim, Beiriz e Argivai and U.F. Aver-o-Mar, Amorim e Terroso. To the south, the city is extending out to combine with Vila do Conde. The city started from an inland town that extended to the coast. The Bairro da Matriz, whose nucleus was the centre from whence the city grew, is intersected by 14th century narrow and twisted streets lined by single-family homes. The historical district has old buildings such as the sixteenth-century house in front of Matriz Church — the main church, the old Town Hall (14th century), the seventeenth-century Solar dos Carneiros and the house of Captain Leite Ferreira, and the eighteenth century Limas and the Coentrão Houses. The fishermen were grouped in the south coast, around Póvoa Cove (Enseada da Póvoa); The fisher district was already developed in the 18th century with its structure of narrow streets parallel to the coast. Póvoa de Varzim City Centre or Centro is dominated by the service sector and by the shopping streets of Junqueira and Mousinho de Albuquerque Avenue. Praça do Almada, the central square, is tipped by City Hall, municipal departments, banks and other services. In the middle of the square, to the west, the Manueline pillory of Póvoa de Varzim stands. The Pelourinho, granted to the town in 1514, is a national monument representing the municipal emancipation of Póvoa de Varzim. Bairro Norte, the beach district, is north of town and is densely occupied. Continuous to this area, the Agro-Velho beach district, mostly known as Nova Póvoa, is the area of the city with most high-rises, the largest of which the Nova Póvoa, with 30 floors and 95 metres (312 ft) high, complete in 1979, was the tallest building in Portugal until the year 2000 and is still today one of the five tallest buildings. Close at hand, Barreiros and Parque da Cidade are districts from the latest expansion. Inland, Giesteira, derived from the old village of Giesteira that, with Argivai, formed the main nucleus of the settlement before the 14th century, and whose lavradores (farmers) set up "Póvoa" in the coast. Argivai is divided by the Santa Clara Aqueduct, the second-largest aqueduct in Portugal, construction started in 1626. The old areas of Mariadeira, Regufe, Penalves, and Gândara have modest development, possess different topologies and are residential with small central areas. The Regufe Quarter has as symbol the Regufe Lighthouse, a sample from the 19th century iron art. Aver-o-mar is the northernmost urban coastal district and also of residential nature, with the exception of Santo André also known as Quião, which keeps an untouched fishing character recognized by family homes that have grown up in a spontaneous way. Of the diverse religious buildings the 18th-century Baroque churches are prominent: the Parish Church, the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows and its six chapels, and the fishermen Lapa Church, with its curious Lapa Lighthouse. On the other hand, Misericórdia Church and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus denote the preference for the Neoclassical style at the end of the 19th century. The Romanesque revival style can be seen in São José de Ribamar. ### Beaches and parks Póvoa de Varzim's beach is a 12 km (7.5 mi) stretch of golden sands, forming sheltered bays and divided by rocks. Most beaches in the city are family-oriented such as Redonda, Salgueira or Lagoa Beach and during the summer period it can get crowded while those away from the city core, such as Santo André, are less crowded. Salgueira and Aguçadoura are surfing beaches. Located near a camping park, Rio Alto Beach is chosen by naturists given its difficult access and the privacy offered by the sand dunes. The most important and popular green space is Póvoa de Varzim City Park, an urban park hosting leisure activities. It is almost entirely landscaped including hills, a large island, a lake, ponds and a stream. The city park and other minor parks in Póvoa de Varzim were designed by Sidónio Pardal, a well-known Portuguese landscape architect. It also includes great lawn areas, rustic buildings, amphitheatres and playground structures. It is a popular place for jogging, cycling and birdwatching. It stretches from the A28 motorway to Pedreira Lake. Póvoa de Varzim's most relevant garden squares are Praça do Almada (19th century) and Praça Luiz de Camões (20th century). Near the A28 motorway, there are three small parks: Espaço Agros, Argivai Picnic Park (Parque de Merendas de Argivai), and Travessa de Calves Green Space. Espaço Agros is a private-sponsored park with 22 hectare in the former Anjo woodland. This woodland was damaged by the construction of high speed roads in the beginning of the 1990s. Agros kept the essential rural setting, with some landscaping and environmental improvements, including a small lake. This is also the location of the city-owned Picnic Park, used for Easter Monday picnics. The Primary Dune System of Póvoa de Varzim, on the Northwestern coast, stretches for more than 6 km (3.7 mi). Best preserved in Northern Aguçadoura's Dune Park where a boardwalk exists between the primary dune and the grey dune. Boardwalks exist in considerable lengths of the coastline. The Port of Póvoa de Varzim is a semi-natural open space, popular in the weekend or the summer months. Cividade de Terroso is an archeological site surrounded by lush green areas and, on the hilltop, exclusively with native flora, as proven by archeological research. São Félix Hill (Monte São Félix), with panoramic views over the city and the countryside, is a religious and forested hill with a gardened stairway. The outer suburbs include Parque da Estela and Rates Park. The later is an adventure-camp with sport activities, canopy walkways, ecotourism by foot, horse, all-terrain vehicles or mountain biking. ### Countryside The green belt of Póvoa de Varzim includes a web of 98 localities in the parishes of Aguçadoura, Amorim, Balazar, Beiriz, Estela, Laundos, Navais, Rates, and Terroso. São Pedro de Rates, Codixeira, Aldeia, Pedreira, Fontainhas, Areosa, Teso, and Santo André de Baixo are the main rural communities, but there are tiny villages, such as Além, Calves, Gestrins, Gresufes, Passô, Sejães, and Crasto. Terroso, Amorim and Beiriz are located in the urban hinterland. Beiriz has the notorious Beiriz carpets and diverse old country estates such as villas and a tapada, a hunting park, while Amorim is known for the bread eaten at high temperatures just after being made — the Broa de Amorim. The hills of Póvoa de Varzim: Cividade and São Félix are located in Terroso and Laúndos, respectively. On the first hill, there is Cividade de Terroso, with 3 thousand years was one of the major Castro culture cities, and the eremite Saint Félix is thought to have lived on the second hill during the Middle Ages. Rates was a small town during the Middle Ages which developed around the monastery established by Count Henry in 1100 on the site of an older temple and gained importance due to the legend of Saint Peter of Rates, the first bishop of Braga, becoming a central site in the Portuguese way of Saint James. Of the millenarian monastery, the São Pedro de Rates Church remains and is one of the oldest and best preserved Romanesque monuments in Portugal and is classified as national monument since 1910. Bordering Rates, Balazar became a Christian pilgrimage destination in the 20th century due to Alexandrina Maria da Costa, died 1955, who gained fame as a Saint, beatified by Pope John Paul II. The northern sandy land of the municipality, Aguçadoura, Navais, and Estela is the farming area of Póvoa de Varzim, supplying the European markets with horticultural goods. In old times, the population attributed legends, magical virtues or therapeutic effects to several springs. In Navais, there is the very ancient Moura Encontada Fountain, associated with Moura — a feminine water deity and guardian of enchanted treasures. ## Culture and contemporary life Junqueira is Póvoa de Varzim's busiest shopping district, that cater to both the daily needs of residents and visitors. The main street, a shopping street since the 18th century, is a pedestrian area since 1955, one of the earliest in Portugal, and a model for other Portuguese cities that later did similar developments. It has about 1 km (0.62 mi) of pedestrian streets. Dotted with boutiques in old traditional buildings, Junqueira is renowned for its jewellery, with Ourivesaria Gomes was the goldsmith, The most notable of its goldsmiths is Ourivesaria Gomes, where, during the Estado Novo, important people of the regime were often seen with their families. Open for more than 100 years, Ourivesaria Gomes was the goldsmithery of the Portuguese Royal House, and it had kings, nobility and the clergy as customers. The bullet used for the assassination attempt of Pope John Paul II was encrusted in the crown of Our Lady of Fatima by them. People in Póvoa de Varzim observe a variety of festivals each year. The major celebration is Póvoa de Varzim Holiday, dedicated to Saint Peter. Neighbourhoods are decorated and, on the night of 28 to 29 June, the population gathers in the streets and neighbourhoods compete in the rusgas carnival. The population behaves much like football supporters, when defending their preferred quarter. Families who emigrated to the United States and beyond, have been known to come back to Póvoa, time and again, simply to relish the spectacular feelings of excitement and community present at this festival. Easter Monday or Anjo festival is a remnant of a pagan festival, formerly called "Festa da Hera" (The Ivy Festival), in which several family picnics are held in the woods. Carnival is a traditional festival in Póvoa de Varzim with the old Carnival Balls, masked people gathering in Rua da Junqueira until the late 1970s which led to the 1980s expensive carnival parades in the waterfront. The remains of such organized events are now celebrated spontaneously by the people who gather for a parade in Avenida dos Banhos. Despite not having any sort of advertising or media coverage, Póvoa's "Spontaneous Carnival" (Carnaval dos espontâneos) started to attract thousands of people. Póvoa de Varzim's waterfront is a beach and nightlife area popular with tourists and locals alike. Avenida dos Banhos, along Redonda and Salgueira beaches, is an iconic venue, with nightclubs, bars, and esplanades along the way. Passeio Alegre is a beach square filled with esplanades and nearby Caetano de Oliveira Square, to the north, is a small lively square, with several bars where younger Povoans meet, before going on to the nightclubs. Póvoa has an LGBT-friendly history since the late 1990s and held the Northern Portugal Pride, the first city in the North to hold a gay pride festival, which ended in 2005, due to climbing rental prices. It was organized by former Hit Club and ILGA Portugal. Póvoa de Varzim has been a writers Mecca since the 19th century, gathering in tertulia sessions. Famous writers closely associated with the city are Almeida Garrett, António da Costa, Ramalho Ortigão, João Penha, Oliveira Martins, António Nobre, Antero de Figueiredo, Raul Brandão, Teixeira de Pascoaes, Alexandre Pinheiro Torres, and Agustina Bessa-Luís. However, the city is mostly remembered as the birthplace of Eça de Queiroz, one of the main writers in the Portuguese language. Camilo Castelo Branco wrote part of his life's work in former Hotel Luso-Brazileiro and José Régio wrote most of his work in Diana Bar, currently the beach library. In modern times, the city gained international prominence with Correntes d'Escritas, a literary festival where writers from the Portuguese and Spanish-speaking world gather in a variety of presentations and an annual award for best new release. Latin American writer Luis Sepúlveda or the Africans Mia Couto and Ondjaki became associated with the city. ### Entertainment and performing arts Casino da Póvoa is a gaming and entertainment venue since the 1930s. In 2006, it was the second casino in revenues, with 54 million euros and the third most popular with 1.2 million customers. The casino has several bars, a live performances bar, a theater and restaurants, including haute cuisine of local and Portuguese inspiration. In the 19th century, Póvoa had over a dozen gambling venues, such as Salão Chinês, Café Suisso, Café David, Café Universal and Luso-Brasileiro. Póvoa de Varzim has hotels. The most historic of which is the Grande Hotel da Póvoa, built in the 1930s, an arresting modernist building and, siding it, the Hotel Luso-Brasileiro, the oldest in town, running since the 19th century, other 19th-century former hotels are found in the city such as Hotel Universal in Praça do Almada. Póvoa's theatrical tradition can be traced to 1793 when Italian operas and Portuguese comedies were presented in a theatre built in Campo das Cobras. It developed with Teatro Garrett (1873) and Teatro Sá da Bandeira (1876). The Varazim Teatro is a cultural and youth group of amateur theatre that has encouraged local drama with its own space known as Espaço D'Mente. Póvoa de Varzim Auditorium houses the local school of music and the Póvoa de Varzim Symphony Orchestra, which is the resident orchestra during the Festival Internacional de Música da Póvoa de Varzim, an event established in 1978. Póvoa de Varzim Music Hall is the residence of Banda Musical da Póvoa de Varzim (1864) and its pops orchestra. The Póvoa de Varzim Bullfighting Arena is used for Portuguese-style bullfighting, horse shows, and concerts. The most important run in the local bullring is Grande Corrida TV Norte (Northern Portugal's TV Great Run) in late July. Others runs are held, such as 18th century-style Gala runs or with horsewomen. ### Museums The Ethnography and History Municipal Museum of Póvoa de Varzim (1937) on Rua Visconde de Azevedo houses archaeological finds and exhibits relating to the seafaring history of the city. it is one of the oldest ethnic museums in Portugal and the "Siglas Poveiras" exhibit won the 1980 "European Museum of The Year Award". It possesses ancient sacred art, Poveiro boats and archaeological finds such as Roman inscriptions and Castro culture pottery. Themed museums exist: Santa Casa Museum with a religious theme, the Museum Nucleus of the Romanesque Church of Saint Peter of Rates, the Archaeological Nucleus of Cividade de Terroso, and the Bullfighting Museum located in Póvoa de Varzim bullring. Another two museums are due to open: Casa do Pescador (Fisherman home) and Farol de Regufe (Regufe lighthouse). Small art galleries housing contemporary works of art are located in Casino da Póvoa, which exhibits paintings from some of the finest Portuguese artists, and the Ortopóvoa Art Gallery, bordering the Municipal Museum. An arts cooperative created in 1935, A Filantrópica has as its purpose the execution of cultural activities and inducement to artistic creation. The Rates Ecomuseum is a historical and countryside route, with various stops starting on the Praça (the Square) with the Senhor da Praça baroque chapel, the Rates pillory and the old Rates township house, and primordial springs, wind and water mills, rustic ways and houses. The Arquivo Municipal is the city's archive planned for those who are interested in tracing their family pedigree chart or scrutinize the city's records. ### Ethnography The culture of Póvoa de Varzim derives from different working classes and with influences arriving from the maritime route from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean. The docudrama film Ala-Arriba! by José Leitão de Barros, popularized this unique Portuguese fishing community within the country during the 1940s. The local expression ala-arriba means "go upwards" and it represents the co-operation between the inhabitants. Siglas Poveiras are a form of proto-writing system, with a restricted number of symbols that were combined to form more complex symbols; these were used as a rudimentary visual communication system, and as a signature to mark belongings. Merchants wrote them in their books of credit; fishermen used it in religious rituals by marking them in the door of Catholic chapels near hills or beaches; in the table of the church during marriage and in their tombstone; and also had magical significance, such as the São Selimão sigla, that could be used as a protecting symbol and not as family mark. Children used the same family mark with piques as a form of cadency. The youngest son would not have any pique and would inherit his father's symbol. The siglas are still used, though much less commonly, by some families; and are related with Viking traditions. The Poveiro is a specific genre of boat characterized by a wide flat-bottom and a deep helm. There were diverse boats with different sizes, uses and shapes. The most notable of which, the Lancha Poveira, was believed to be derived from the Drakkar Viking, but without a long stern and bow and with a lateen sail. Each boat carried carvings, namely a sigla poveira mark for boat identification and magical-religious protection at sea. According to a tradition that persists to this day, the youngest son is the heir of the family, as in old Brittany and Denmark, because it was expected that he would take care of his parents when they became old. Women govern the family because men were usually away from home fishing. The Branqueta is the traditional dress of the fishermen of Póvoa de Varzim. The Camisola Poveira are pullovers, part of the dress, that have fishery motifs in white, black and red, with the name of the owner embroidered in siglas poveiras. Other dresses include the urban tricana poveira for women and children's catalim caps. Handicrafts include the Tapetes de Beiriz rustic carpets. Formerly, the population was divided into different "castes", Lanchões, Rasqueiros, and Sardinheiros which were stratified depending on their Poveiro boat and fisheries caught. Apart from them, the Lavradores (the farmers) and the Sargaceiros and Seareiros, who went to the sea searching for fertilizers. As a rule, the groups remained distinct, and mixed marriages between them were forbidden, mostly because of the isolationism of the fishermen. São Félix Hill is a reference point for fishermen at sea and on the last Sunday of May, there is the Pilgrimage of Nossa Senhora da Saúde (Our Lady of Good Health) which covers a distance of 7 km (4.3 mi) between the Matriz Church and the hill. In Cape Santo André there is the Saint's Rock, which has a mark that the Povoan fishermen believe to be a footprint of Saint Andrew. The saint is seen as the "Boatman of Souls", fishing the souls of those who drown in the sea after a shipwreck and helped in fisheries and marriages. The procession to the cape occurs on the dawn of the last day of November, when groups of men and women, wearing black hoods and holding lamps, go to the chapel via the beach. On 15 August, the pinnacle of the fishermen's Feast of the Assumption occurs in the seaport with carefully arranged boats and fireworks. In mid-September, there's the Senhora das Dores festival with the century-old Pottery Fair. ### Cuisine The most traditional ingredients of the local cuisine are locally grown vegetables and fish. The fish used in the traditional cuisine are divided in two categories, the "poor" fish (sardine, ray, mackerel, and others) and the "wealthy" fish (such as whiting, snook, and alfonsino). The most famous local dish is Pescada à Poveira (Poveira Whiting), whose main ingredients are, along with the fish that gives the name to the dish, potatoes, eggs and a boiled onion and tomato sauce. Other fishery dishes include the Arroz de Sardinha (sardine rice), Caldeirada de Peixe (fish stew), Lulas Recheadas à Poveiro (Poveiro stuffed squids), Arroz de Marisco (seafood rice) and Lagosta Suada (steamed spiny lobster). Shellfish and boiled iscas, pataniscas, and bolinhos de bacalhau are popular snacks. Other dishes include Feijoada Poveira, made with white beans and served with dry rice (arroz seco); and Francesinha Poveira made in long bread that first appeared in 1962 as fast food for holidaymakers. Restaurants specializing in Portuguese barbecued chicken, seafood, francesinha, bacalhau can be found along the Estrada Nacional 13 road and other areas of the city. ### Sports The city has developed a number of sporting venues and has hosted several national, European and world championships in different sports. 38% of the population practised sport, a high rate when compared to the national average. Several sports venues are located in the Northside around Avenida Vasco da Gama. The most popular sport in Póvoa de Varzim is association football. The city is home to Varzim SC, a professional football club, who play in Estádio do Varzim on the North Side. City Park's Stadium and surrounding football fields are the main stage for Póvoa de Varzim's People's championship where its junior and senior football clubs compete: Aguçadoura, Amorim, Argivai, Averomar, Balazar, Barreiros, Beiriz, Belém, Estela, Juve Norte, Laundos, Leões da Lapa, Mariadeira, Matriz, Navais, Rates, Regufe, Terroso, and Unidos ao Varzim. Swimming is the second most practised sport. There are two swimming pool complexes next to each other in the Northside: one Municipally owned and another one privately held. The city pool complex is managed by Varzim Lazer. The venue has several pools including an Olympic-size swimming pool and swimming lessons for babies, children, and adults. It also holds the International Meeting of Póvoa de Varzim, in long course pool, part of the European winter calendar. The other complex is property of Clube Desportivo da Póvoa. The site also offers swimming lessons and some swimming pools, including a heated saltwater swimming pool filled with Póvoa de Varzim's seawater. Clube Desportivo da Póvoa competes in several sports, including rink hockey, volleyball, basketball, footvolley, auto racing, judo, badminton, and athletics. In the North side, there's also the Clube da Praia focusing on padel, tennis, and squash courts surrounded by a private beach shaded by palm trees. Beach volley and footvolley are popular sports, and it was in Póvoa that footvolley was, for the first time, practiced in Portugal. Due to its location and suitable urban areas, board culture is omnipresent in Póvoa de Varzim. Bodyboarders and surfers meet at Salgueira Beach. In Lota, a recreation area for several audiences, is especially popular amongst the skater and biker communities, and is considered the most charismatic skater area in the country. The marina, near the seaport, offers sea activities developed by the local yacht club – the Clube Naval Povoense. Costa Verde Trophy, linking Póvoa and Viana do Castelo, is one of the regattas organized by the club and Rally Portugal yacht racing is a sailing and sightseeing event along the west Iberian coast. The municipal company, Varzim Lazer, holds the Pavilhão da Póvoa, a multi-functional indoor arena and the Póvoa de Varzim Bullfighting Arena. Other clubs for other sports also exists: Póvoa Futsal Club in futsal, Clube de Andebol da Póvoa de Varzim in handball, Clube de Atletismo da Póvoa de Varzim in Athletics. There's also Póvoa de Varzim and Vila do Conde united clubs exists for baseball and American football, Villas Vikings and Villas Titans, respectively. In athletics, the Grande Prémio de São Pedro (Saint Peter Grand Prix), which occurs in the city's streets during the summer, is part of the national calendar of the Portuguese Athletics Federation. Other notable annual events, includes the Cego do Maio Half Marathon and the Grande Prémio da Marginal (Waterfront Grand Prix), the later goes along the Póvoa de Varzim and Vila do Conde beachfront, aiming for the funding of the National Association of Paramiloidosis. In cycling, it hosts the Clássica da Primavera (Spring Classic) in April. Mountain bike events are common. Along the sand dunes, the Estela links golf course was considered by Golf Digest as the 5th best golf course in Portugal. ### Media O Comércio da Póvoa de Varzim (est. 1903), A Voz da Póvoa (est. 1938), and Póvoa Semanário, which appeared during the 1990s, are Póvoa de Varzim's major weekly newspapers; while the Gazeta da Póvoa de Varzim (1870–1874) was the first local newspaper. Most are dedicated to local news and have Internet editions. The local radio stations Rádio Mar (89.0) and Radio Onda Viva (96.1) broadcast on FM and online. The stations' programming include local news and sports and feature an in-depth look at the city's top news by interviewing a guest at lunchtime on weekends. Radio Onda Viva airs Mandarin Chinese programming daily. The radio station, Rádio Mar, and the newspaper Póvoa Semanário belong to the same group; the same company offers news services to the neighbouring cities of Vila do Conde and Esposende. ## Public services ### Education Higher education has limited history and availability. The Póvoa de Varzim/Vila do Conde campus or Campus 2 of Porto Polytechnic houses the Superior School of Hospitality and Tourism (ESHT) and the School of Media, Arts and Design (ESMAD). The later school is centered around creativity and employability, offering academic choices centered around design, cinema, photography, multimedia, and the Web. Campus 2 was built in 2001, with 31,544 square metres (7.795 acres) and state-of-the-art facilities such as three amphitheaters, a large library, an auditorium and a research space. Póvoa's campus origins lie in the former School of Industrial Studies and Management founded in 1990, offering undergraduate and postgraduate education in management and technology. The new campus has planned expansion, adaptation and academic internationalization. Póvoa de Varzim has public, denominational and independent schools in the city and outskirts. Public education in the municipality is provided by five school districts: Flávio Gonçalves, Cego do Maio, Aver-o-Mar, Campo Aberto, and Rates. These school districts arrange kindergartens and schools to the 9th grade of different locations of the municipality and are headed by Escolas de Educação Básica do 2.° e 3.°Ciclo (6th to the 9th-grade schools) that give the name to each district. Private schools are primarily run by Catholic parishes or groups, the most notable of which is the Colégio do Sagrado Coração de Jesus. The Grande Colégio da Póvoa de Varzim and Campo Verde School of Agriculture are eminent independent schools and MAPADI is a large facility and school for children with down syndrome. Secondary education (10th to the 12th grade) is provided in the school section at Póvoa city centre: Escola Secundária Eça de Queirós and Escola Secundária Rocha Peixoto and by the Colégio de Amorim, an independent school in the outskirts. Eça de Queirós was a lyceum created in 1904 that maintains its humanist outlook and Rocha Peixoto was a former industrial and commercial school created in 1924. The Rocha Peixoto Municipal Library, established in 1880, was housed in the current building in 1991. the public library system includes some branches in the suburbs, Diana Bar Beach Library and the Garden Library of Casa Manuel Lopes, a youth seasonal library during the month of August. ### Healthcare The first healthcare structure, the Santa Casa da Misericórdia da Póvoa de Varzim (Holy House of Mercy), opened in 1756. The hospitals of the city are the São Pedro Pescador Hospital (state-run) in Largo das Dores and the privately held Hospital da Luz Póvoa de Varzim (notable private hospital previously known as Clipóvoa) in Rua Manuel I street. The public hospital suffers from a lack of bed spaces. Due to this, it underwent expansion works and there is an ongoing plan to build a modern hospital on the border between the cities of Póvoa de Varzim and Vila do Conde, to serve the population of both municipalities. The Centro de Saúde da Póvoa de Varzim (Health Centre) is a public primary care building that has extensions in the main suburbs. Póvoa de Varzim Animal Emergency Ambulance is a 24-hour service for pets articulated with the local veterinary hospitals and A Cerca animal shelter which started operating in 2018. It is the first service of this kind in Northern Portugal. It is operated by Póvoa de Varzim firefighters. ### Public safety The Municipal Police of Póvoa de Varzim is an administrative police force that acts solely within the municipality and reports directly to the mayor and it is headquartered in the former Póvoa de Varzim Barracks, the Quartel, in Rua Rocha Peixoto. The Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP) does the city policing and it is headquartered in the Esquadra, police station located in Praça Marquês de Pombal, while the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) is responsible for the countryside and its territorial station or Posto Territorial da Póvoa de Varzim is located in Largo das Dores. Póvoa de Varzim had a crime rate of 27.1 per 1,000 residents in 2015, ranking among the safest municipalities in metropolitan Porto. It is considered by the PSP police as a "calm" zone in all categories of offense; violent crime, in particular, is practically non-existent. Mostly, crime consists of minor robberies to homes, stores, or from cars. The Royal Humanitarian Association of Volunteer Firefighters or Real Associação Humanitária dos Bombeiros Voluntários is a volunteer fire department which faces diverse firefighting challenges, from family homes, high-rise buildings to wildfires. It was established in 1877 and granted the royal title in 1904, which it retains. Its headquarters are located in Rua Santos Minho, with the station and engines facing nearby Rua Arquitecto Ventura Terra. Os Delfins is a professional lifeguard service and school which patrols the beaches of Póvoa de Varzim and Vila do Conde, it currently has activities elsewhere in Northern Portugal. This Póvoa-based association uses the dolphin as the mascot and in naming. The lifeguards can be identified on the beaches by their yellow T-shirts with red captions. Póvoa is one of the twelve national sea borders controlled by the Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras (SEF) and it as an ISN Lifeboat rescue station. The Póvoa de Varzim Maritime Police patrols Póvoa de Varzim seafront, including the seaport, beaches and maritime waters under the national sovereignty and jurisdiction. It often acts against illegal fisheries, unruly harvest of shellfish, and smuggling. The Póvoa de Varzim and Vila do Conde Maritime Police Picket are headquartered in Largo Dr. Vasques Calafate, sharing resources with the Captaincy of the Port of Póvoa de Varzim. Póvoa de Varzim is home to the Escola dos Serviços, a Portuguese military base unit for logistics, military education and training, and financial resources. It includes a command, army staff, the Commander and Services Company, and the Battalion of Service and Support to Military Instruction. The unit is hair to the Battalion of Military Administration that was transferred to Póvoa de Varzim in December 1914 to prepare for the Portuguese participation in World War I. The current base unit was built in 1994 and it increased in military personnel, duties and responsibilities in 2006. ## Transport Póvoa de Varzim is served by a transportation network that employs maritime, aerial and terrestrial travel. The terrestrial access infrastructure is composed of national motorways (freeways), the national roads system, and light rail metro. These infrastructures and the airport, bus terminal, marina and harbour are daily used by commuters. Public transportation within the city is provided by private-owned companies. The Central de Camionagem is a terminus for urban and long-distance buses that provide mass transit in the surrounding region, namely the city's countryside, Porto, Minho Region, and Galicia in Spain. Litoral Norte as a wholly urban transportation network with 5 lines, while Linhares has the oldest bus network operating in the city, now owned by Transdev. Póvoa de Varzim taxis are black with an olive green hardtop. The main taxi stands are located in Praça do Almada, in Póvoa de Varzim metro station and Largo das Dores. There are taxi centrals: Central Táxis Ribamar, Táxis Póvoa and a few others. Ribamar has a tourist service to tourist attractions away from the city center, including the Discovery Age carrack replica in Vila do Conde's riverside, the medieval Romanesque churches of Rates and Rio Mau, Cividade de Terroso and São Félix Hill. ### Air The Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport (IATA: OPO, ICAO: LPPR) is located 18 km (11 mi) south of Póvoa de Varzim. The airport, known outside the region as Porto Airport, is the second-busiest international airport in Portugal, moving over 10.7 million passengers in 2017. Using cars or taxis, it is fast accessible (17 minutes) via the A28 motorway, linked to the A41 motorway and the airport's drop-off and pick-up areas, or the EN13 highway, the later using the airport's EN107 accessway. Póvoa Aerodrome, officially known as S. Miguel de Laundos, is small-sized, with only 270 meters long for ultralight aviation and other small planes for leisure activities. ### Rail Line B of Porto Metro links Póvoa de Varzim to Porto and the airport with two services: a standard and a shuttle (the Expresso). Through Verdes station, Metro trains link the city and the airport. This waiting station to reach Póvoa de Varzim is a small public park near the airport, and it literally means the green park station. The line operates on a former railway, which opened in 1875 and closed in 2002 to give way for the metro. The railway network was expanded and reached Famalicão in 1881, it was closed entirely in 1995 due to an accident with a bus and became a rail trail. ### Roads The city is connected by road on a north-south axis reaching Viana do Castelo and the Spanish border to Porto by the A28 motorway. In Greater Porto, the A28 has the most popular suburban commercial areas of Northern Portugal with suburban shopping centers, large stand-alone stores, retail parks and outlets and reaches Porto's major thoroughfares and ring roads, including the VCI inner orbital motorway. Póvoa is also reached by the A7 (from Guimarães and Vila Nova de Famalicão) and A11 (from Braga and Barcelos) motorways on an east-west axis, through the south and north of the city, in that order, and both cross the A28. With these motorways, Póvoa de Varzim is accessible within minutes and central in the Northern Littoral Urban-Metropolitan Region of Northern Portugal, with 2.99 million inhabitants (2001 census). Although it lost usefulness for long distances, the National Roads system has acquired local importance: EN13 that cuts the city in half, in a north-south direction, is used by commuters originating from the northern suburbs and from Vila do Conde, in the south, to travel downtown. The EN205 and the EN206 are used by commuters starting from the interior of the municipality. The traditional road system of the city, composed of roads that run parallel in the direction of the sea, can be seen in any of the following avenues: Avenida do Mar, Avenida Vasco da Gama, Avenida Mouzinho de Albuquerque, and Avenida Santos Graça. The Avenida dos Descobrimentos and Avenida dos Banhos, in other hand, run parallel to the coast. The growth of the city inland and northwards made ring roads more important, this can be seen in Avenida 25 de Abril, an urban belt road. ### Bikeways The main bike paths in Póvoa de Varzim — known as ciclovias in Portuguese — are the Marginal in the coastal area, the Ecopista linking the city and the countryside, the Parque da Cidade, linking the City Park and the beaches, and the Via B, the urban-belt bike path. The bikeways are all interlinked. The Marginal bikeway was built in 1998 and runs for 2 km in Póvoa de Varzim, going through the main beaches of Avenida dos Banhos and around the seaport. It extends for another 3.5 km across the Vila do Conde beaches and reaching the fort at the estuary of the Ave River. The Ecopista is a shared-use path, for bicycling and walking, 28 km long (18 of which in Póvoa de Varzim), linking Póvoa de Varzim and the inland town of Famalicão through the countryside and suburban areas. One of the main attractions on the Ecopista is the Romanesque Church in Rates and it grow throw flat terrain, despite crossing the hills of the countryside. The City Park to the Coastal Area Bikeway started being built in November 2018 and it is mostly exclusive for bikes, except in areas where that is not possible, such as the area where it crosses the EN13 highway. The Via B Bikeway was built in 2018 and it goes throw the city's inland expansion area. The School Bikeway with 1.3 km between the school district and the Marginal Bikeway started being built in 2019. ## Notable people - Peter of Rates traditionally, the first bishop of Braga between AD45 and AD60. - Saint Felix the Hermit a 9th-century fisherman and hermit - Tomé de Sousa (1503–1579) the first governor-general of Brazil from 1549 to 1553. - José Rodrigues Maio (1817–1884) commonly known as Cego do Maio a national hero, lifeguard and fisherman - Francisco Gomes de Amorim (1827–1891) a Portuguese poet and dramatist - Eça de Queiroz (1845–1900) a realist style Portuguese writer - António dos Santos Graça (1882—1956) an ethnologist, journalist and politician; studied local culture, history and folklore. - Josué Francisco Trocado (1882–1962) a Portuguese composer. - Alexandrina of Balazar (1904–1955) known as Blessed Alexandrina of Balazar, was a mystic and victim soul - Diogo Freitas do Amaral (1941–2019) a politician, law professor and Minister. He served briefly as Prime Minister in an interim capacity in the early 1980s. - Tavares Moreira (1944–2020) an economist & governor of the Bank of Portugal (1986–1992) - José Macedo Vieira (born 1949) the president of the city council of Póvoa de Varzim since 1993. ### Sport - António Lima Pereira (1952–2022) a footballer with 225 club caps and 20 for Portugal - Manuel Albino Morim Maçães (born 1972), known as Bino, a former footballer with 329 club caps and 3 for Portugal - Geraldo Alves (born 1980) a footballer with 392 club caps - Bruno Alves (born 1981) a footballer with over 530 club caps and 96 for Portugal - Carlos Milhazes (born 1981) a former footballer with 380 club caps - Rui Costa (born 1986) a Portuguese professional road bicycle racer - Adriano Niz (born 1986) a former freestyle swimmer, competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Luís Neto (born 1988) a footballer with over 250 club caps and 19 for Portugal ## International relations ### Atlantic Axis and European Regions Póvoa de Varzim is part of the Eixo Atlântico ("Atlantic Axis"), a lobby of the most relevant Galician and Northern Portuguese cities. It also became a permanent member of the European Committee of the Regions, an assembly of local and regional representatives with a direct voice within the EU's institutional framework. In 2016, the regional government of Príncipe Island, an autonomous region of São Tomé and Príncipe, and the municipality of Póvoa de Varzim, established a cooperation protocol, which has diverse fields of cooperation using human and technical resources. The protocol was signed after a visit to Póvoa de Varzim by the president of Príncipe Province, José Cardoso Cassandra. ### Twin towns – sister cities Póvoa de Varzim is twinned with: - Montgeron, France (1986) - Eschborn, Germany (1988) ### Partner cities - Żabbar, Malta (2001) ## See also - List of notable residents of Póvoa de Varzim - Sculptures in Póvoa de Varzim - Landmarks in Póvoa de Varzim - Aguçadora Wave Park
11,069,849	Disappearance of Madeleine McCann	1,173,398,327	Unsolved 2007 missing-person case	[ "2000s missing person cases", "2007 crimes in Portugal", "Disappearance of Madeleine McCann", "History of the Algarve", "Kidnappings in Portugal", "May 2007 crimes", "May 2007 events in Europe", "Missing person cases in Portugal", "Portugal–United Kingdom relations", "Possibly living people", "Unsolved crimes in Portugal" ]	Madeleine Beth McCann (born 12 May 2003) is a British missing person who, at the age of 3, disappeared from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Lagos, Portugal, on the evening of 3 May 2007. The Daily Telegraph described her disappearance as "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history". Madeleine's whereabouts remain unknown, although German prosecutors believe she is dead. Madeleine was on holiday from the United Kingdom with her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, her two-year-old twin siblings, and a group of family friends and their children. The McCann children had been left asleep at 20:30 in the ground-floor apartment while their parents dined with friends in a restaurant 55 metres (180 ft) away. The parents checked on the children throughout the evening, until Kate discovered Madeleine was missing at 22:00. Over the following weeks, particularly after misinterpreting a British DNA analysis, the Portuguese police came to believe that Madeleine had died in an accident in the apartment and her parents had covered it up. The McCanns were given arguido (suspect) status in September 2007, which was lifted when Portugal's attorney general archived the case in July 2008 for lack of evidence. Madeleine's parents continued the investigation using private detectives until Scotland Yard opened its own inquiry, Operation Grange, in 2011. The senior investigating officer announced that he was treating the disappearance as "a criminal act by a stranger", most likely a planned abduction or burglary gone wrong. In 2013, Scotland Yard released e-fit images of men they wanted to trace, including one of a man seen carrying a child toward the beach on the night Madeleine vanished. Shortly after this, Portuguese police reopened their inquiry. Operation Grange was scaled back in 2015, but the remaining detectives continued to pursue a small number of inquiries described in April 2017 as significant. In 2020, police in the German city of Braunschweig stated there was a new suspect in Madeleine's disappearance, a German national and convicted sex offender who public prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters was convinced had abducted and murdered the child. Madeleine's disappearance attracted sustained press coverage both in the UK and internationally, reminiscent of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997. Her parents were subjected to intense scrutiny and baseless allegations of involvement in her death, particularly in the tabloid press and on Twitter. In 2008 they and their travelling companions received damages and apologies from Express Newspapers, and in 2011 the McCanns testified before the Leveson Inquiry into British press misconduct, lending support to those arguing for tighter press regulation. ## People ### Madeleine McCann Madeleine McCann was born in Leicester and lived with her family in Rothley, Leicestershire. At her parents' request, she was made a ward of court in England shortly after the disappearance, which gave the court statutory powers to act on her behalf. Police described Madeleine as blonde-haired, with blue-green eyes, a small brown spot on her left calf, and a distinctive dark strip on the iris of her right eye. In 2009 the McCanns released age-progressed images of how she may have looked at age six, and in 2012 Scotland Yard commissioned one of her at age nine. ### Kate and Gerry McCann Madeleine's parents are both physicians and practising Roman Catholics. Kate Marie McCann, née Healy (born 1968, Huyton, near Liverpool) attended All Saints School in Anfield, then Notre Dame High School in Everton Valley, graduating in 1992 with a degree in medicine from the University of Dundee. She moved briefly into obstetrics and gynaecology, then anaesthetics, and finally general practice. Gerald Patrick McCann (born 1968 in Glasgow) attended Holyrood R.C. Secondary School before graduating from the University of Glasgow with a BSc in physiology/sports science in 1989. In 1992, he qualified in medicine and in 2002 obtained his MD, also from Glasgow. Since 2005, he has been a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester. The McCanns met in 1993 in Glasgow and were married in 1998. Madeleine was born in 2003 and the twins, a boy and a girl, in 2005. ### Tapas Seven The McCanns were on holiday with seven friends and eight children in all, including the McCanns' three. The nine adults dined together most evenings at 20:30 in the resort's tapas restaurant, as a result of which the media dubbed the friends the "Tapas Seven". The report of one of the group, Jane Tanner, that she saw a man carry a child away from the resort 45 minutes before Madeleine was reported missing, became one of the most-discussed aspects of the case. (See "Tanner sighting") ## 5A Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, Praia da Luz The McCanns arrived on 28 April 2007 for their seven-night spring break in Praia da Luz, a village in Portugal's Algarve region with a population of 1,000, known as "Little Britain" because of the concentration of British homeowners and holidaymakers. They had booked through the British holiday company Mark Warner Ltd, and were placed in 5A Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, an apartment owned by a retired teacher from Liverpool, one of several privately owned properties the company rented. 5A was a two-bedroom, ground-floor apartment in the fifth block of a group of apartments known as Waterside Village, which lay on the perimeter of part of Mark Warner's Ocean Club resort. Matthew and Rachel Oldfield were next door in 5B, Jane Tanner and Russell O'Brien in 5D, and the Paynes and Dianne Webster on the first floor. Located on the corner of Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva and Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins, 5A was accessible to the public from two sides. Sliding glass patio doors in the living room at the back overlooked the Ocean Club's pool, tennis courts, tapas restaurant, and bar. The patio doors could be accessed via a public street, Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins, where a small gate and set of steps led to 5A's balcony and living room. 5A's front door was on the opposite side of the block from the Ocean Club, on Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva. The McCanns' children slept in a bedroom next to the front door, which the McCanns kept locked. The bedroom had one waist-high window with curtains and a metal exterior shutter, the latter controlled by a cord inside the window; the McCanns kept the curtains and shutter closed throughout the holiday. The window overlooked a narrow walkway and residents' car park, which was separated from the street by a low wall. Madeleine slept in a single bed next to the bedroom door, on the opposite side of the room from the window; the twins were in travel cots in the middle of the room. There was another single bed underneath the window. ## Thursday, 3 May 2007 ### Daytime: McCann family activities Thursday, 3 May, was the penultimate day of the family's holiday. Over breakfast Madeleine asked: "Why didn't you come when [my brother] and I cried last night?" After the disappearance, her parents wondered whether this meant someone had entered the children's bedroom. Her mother also noticed a large brown stain on Madeleine's pyjama top. The children spent the morning in the resort's Kids' Club, then the family lunched at their apartment before heading to the pool. Kate took the last known photograph of Madeleine at 2:29 that afternoon, sitting by the pool next to her father and two-year-old sister. The children returned to the Kids' Club, then at 18:00 their mother took them back to 5A, while their father went for a tennis lesson. The McCanns put the children to bed at around 19:00. Madeleine was left asleep in short-sleeved, pink-and-white Marks and Spencer's Eeyore pyjamas, next to her comfort blanket and a soft toy, Cuddle Cat. ### 20:30: Tapas restaurant At 20:30 the parents left 5A to dine with their friends in the Ocean Club's open-air tapas restaurant, located on the other side of the pool. 5A lay about 55 metres (180 ft) from the restaurant as the crow flies, but getting to the restaurant involved walking along a public street to reach the doors of the Ocean Club resort, then walking through the resort to the other side of the pool, a distance of about 82 metres (295 ft). The top of the apartment was visible from the tapas restaurant, but not the doors. The patio doors could be locked only from the inside, so the McCanns left them closed but unlocked, with the curtains drawn, so they could let themselves in that way when checking on the children. There was a child-safety gate at the top of the steps from the patio and a low gate at the bottom, which led to the street. The resort's staff had left a note in a message book at the swimming-pool reception area, asking that the same table, which overlooked the apartments, be block-booked for 20:30 for the McCanns and friends every evening for the last four evenings of the holiday. The message said the group's children were asleep in the apartments. Kate believes the abductor may have seen the note. The McCanns and their friends left the restaurant roughly every half-hour to check on their children. Gerry carried out the first check on 5A at around 21:05. The children were asleep and all was well, except that he recalled having left the children's bedroom door slightly ajar, and now it stood almost wide open. He pulled it nearly closed again before returning to the restaurant. ### 21:15: Tanner sighting The sighting by Jane Tanner, one of the Tapas Seven, of a man carrying a child that night, became an important part of the early investigation. Tanner had left the restaurant just after 21:00 to check on her own daughter, passing Gerry on Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins on his way back to the restaurant from his 21:05 check. He had stopped to chat to a British holidaymaker, but neither man recalled having seen Tanner. This puzzled the Portuguese police, given how narrow the street was, and led them to accuse Tanner of having invented the sighting. Tanner told the police that at around 21:15 she had noticed a man carrying a young child walk across the junction of Rua Dr Francisco Gentil Martins and Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva just ahead of her. He was not far from Madeleine's bedroom, heading east, away from the front of apartment 5A. In the early days of the investigation, the direction in which he was walking was thought to be important because he was moving toward the home of Robert Murat, the 33-year-old British-Portuguese man who lived near 5A, and who became the case's first suspect. The child in the man's arms was wearing light-coloured pink pyjamas with a floral pattern and cuffs on the legs, similar to Madeleine's. Tanner described the man as white, dark-haired, 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) tall, of southern European or Mediterranean appearance, 35–40 years old, wearing gold or beige trousers and a dark jacket, and said he did not look like a tourist. According to Kate, Tanner passed the information to Portuguese police as soon as Madeleine was reported missing, but they did not pass the description to the media until 25 May. Madeleine's Fund hired a forensic artist to create an image of the man, which was released in October 2007. The sighting became important because it offered investigators a time frame for the abduction, but Scotland Yard came to view it as a red herring. In October 2013, they said that a British holidaymaker had been identified as the man Tanner had seen; he had been returning to his apartment after collecting his daughter from the Ocean Club night creche. Scotland Yard took photographs of the man wearing the same or similar clothes to the ones he was wearing on the night, and standing in a pose similar to the one Tanner reported. The pyjamas his daughter had been wearing also matched Tanner's report. Operation Grange's lead detective, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, said they were "almost certain" the Tanner sighting was not related to the abduction. ### 22:00: Smith sighting The rejection of the Tanner sighting as crucial to the timeline allowed investigators to focus on another sighting of a man carrying a child on the night of Madeleine's disappearance, this one reported to Portuguese police on 26 May 2007 by Martin and Mary Smith, who had been in Praia da Luz on holiday from Ireland. Scotland Yard concluded in 2013 that the Smith sighting offered the approximate time of Madeleine's kidnap. The Smiths saw the man at around 22:00 on Rua da Escola Primária, 500 yards (460 m) from the McCanns' apartment, walking away from the Ocean Club and towards Rua 25 de Abril and the beach. He was carrying a girl aged 3–4 years. She had blonde hair and pale skin, was wearing light-coloured pyjamas, and had bare feet. The man was mid-30s, 5 ft 7 in–5 ft 9 in (1.75–1.80 m), slim-to-normal build, with short brown hair, wearing cream or beige trousers. He did not look like a tourist, according to the Smiths, and had seemed uncomfortable carrying the child. E-fits based on the Smiths' testimony were first created in 2008 by Oakley International, private investigators hired by the McCanns, and were publicised in 2013 by Scotland Yard on the BBC programme Crimewatch. ### 22:00: Reported missing Kate had intended to check on the children at 21:30, but Matthew Oldfield, one of the Tapas Seven, offered to do it when he checked on his own children in the apartment next door to 5A. He noticed that the McCanns' children's bedroom door was wide open, but after hearing no noise, he left 5A without looking far enough into the bedroom to see whether Madeleine was there. He could not recall whether the bedroom window and its exterior shutter were open at this point. Early on in the investigation, Portuguese police accused Oldfield of involvement because he had volunteered to do the check, suggesting to them that he had handed Madeleine to someone through the bedroom window. Kate made her own check of 5A at around 22:00. Scotland Yard stated in 2013 that Madeleine was probably taken moments before this. Kate recalled entering the apartment through the unlocked patio doors at the back and noticing that the children's bedroom door was wide open. When she tried to close the door, it slammed shut as though there was a draught, which is when she saw that the bedroom window and its shutter were open. Madeleine's Cuddle Cat and blanket were still on the bed, but Madeleine was gone. After briefly searching the apartment, Kate ran back towards the restaurant, screaming, "Madeleine's gone! Someone's taken her!" At around 22:10, Gerry sent Matthew Oldfield to ask the resort's reception desk to call the police, and at 22:30 the resort activated its missing-child search protocol. Sixty staff and guests searched until 04:30, at first assuming that Madeleine had wandered off. One of them told Channel 4's Dispatches that, from one end of Praia da Luz to the other, searchers calling Madeleine's name could be heard. ## Early response ### Portuguese police Two officers from the gendarmerie, the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR), arrived at the resort at 23:10 from Lagos, 5 miles (8 km) away. At midnight, after briefly searching, they alerted the criminal police, the Polícia Judiciária (PJ), in nearby Portimão. Kate recounted that the PJ arrived just after 01:00. According to the PJ, they arrived within 10 minutes of being alerted. At 02:00 two patrol dogs were brought to the resort, and at 08:00 four search and rescue dogs. Police officers had their leave cancelled and started searching waterways, wells, caves, sewers and ruins around Praia da Luz. Inspector Gonçalo Amaral, head of the PJ in Portimão, became the inquiry's coordinator. It was widely acknowledged that mistakes were made during the so-called "golden hours" soon after the disappearance. Neither border nor marine police were given descriptions of Madeleine for many hours, and officers did not make house-to-house searches. According to Kate, roadblocks were first put in place at 10:00 the next morning. Police did not request motorway surveillance pictures of vehicles leaving Praia da Luz the night of the disappearance, or of the road between Lagos and Vila Real de Santo António on the Spanish border. Euroscut, the company that monitors the road, said they were not approached for information. It took Interpol five days to issue a global missing-person alert. Not everyone in the resort at the time was interviewed; holidaymakers later contacted the British police to say no one had spoken to them. The crime scene was not secured. Portuguese police took samples from Madeleine's bedroom, which were sent to three forensic labs. It was reported on 1 June 2007 that DNA from one "stranger" had been found, but around 20 people had entered apartment 5A before it was closed off, according to Chief Inspector Olegário de Sousa of the PJ. According to Kate, an officer placed tape across the doorway of the children's bedroom, but left at 03:00 without securing the apartment. The PJ case file, released in 2008, showed that 5A lay empty for a month after the disappearance, then was let out to tourists before being sealed off in August 2007 for more forensic tests. A similar situation arose outside the apartment when a crowd gathered by the front door of 5A, including next to the children's bedroom window—through which an abductor may have entered or left—trampling on evidence. An officer dusted the bedroom window's exterior shutter for fingerprints without wearing gloves or other protective clothing. ### British police In the United Kingdom it was agreed that Madeleine's home force, Leicestershire Police—led by Chief Constable Matt Baggott—would coordinate the British response, although it remained a Portuguese inquiry. A strategic coordinating group, or "gold" group, was put together, representing Leicestershire Police, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), and the National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA). The PJ gave a British team a room in which to work, but apparently resented their presence. British police were used to feeding their data into HOLMES 2 (the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System); in Portugal, the information was collected in boxes. In addition the PJ had less autonomy than police in the UK, often having to wait for magistrates' decisions, which slowed things down. In an interview for Anthony Summers's and Robbyn Swan's book Looking for Madeleine (2014), Jim Gamble, head of CEOP at the time, said Portuguese police felt they were being condescended to, and that the British were acting as a "colonial power". ### Media and PR A PJ officer acknowledged in 2010 that Portuguese police had been suspicious of the McCanns from the start because of the "media circus". Gerry told Vanity Fair in 2008 that he had decided to "market" Madeleine to keep her in the public eye. To that end, a string of public relations consultants arrived in Praia da Luz, deeply resented by the local police, who saw the media attention as counterproductive. Alex Woolfall of the British PR firm Bell Pottinger, representing Mark Warner Ltd, dealt with the media for the first ten days, then the British government sent in press officers. This was apparently unprecedented. The first government press officer was Sheree Dodd, a former Daily Mirror journalist, who was followed by Clarence Mitchell, director of media monitoring for the Central Office of Information. When the government withdrew Mitchell, the McCanns hired Justine McGuinness, who was reportedly headhunted for the job. When she left, Hanover Communications took over briefly, headed by Charles Lewington, formerly John Major's private secretary. In September 2007, Brian Kennedy of Everest Windows stepped forward as a benefactor and offered to cover Mitchell's salary so that he could return. Mitchell resigned from his government position and started working for the McCanns full-time; he was later paid by Madeleine's Fund. The McCanns set up Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Ltd on 15 May 2007 to raise money and awareness; its website attracted 58 million hits in the first two days. Throughout May and June the couple's PR team arranged events to sustain media interest in the case, including a visit to the Portuguese city of Fátima as well as trips to Holland, Germany, Spain, and Morocco. On 30 May 2007, accompanied by reporters, the couple flew to Rome—in Sir Philip Green's Learjet—to meet Pope Benedict XVI, a visit arranged by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster. The following month balloons were let off in 300 cities around the world. By early June, journalists were voicing concerns: the "sheer professionalism of it ... troubled journalists", according to Matthew Parris. Placing Madeleine on the front page of a British newspaper would sell up to 30,000 extra copies. She appeared on the cover of People magazine on 28 May 2007, on the front page of several British tabloids every day for almost six months, and as one of Sky News's menu options: "UK News", "Madeleine", "World News". Between May 2007 and July 2008, the Portuguese tabloid Correio da Manhã published 384 articles about Madeleine. By June 2008 a search for her name on YouTube returned over 3,680 videos and seven million posts. ## First Portuguese inquiry (2007–2008) ### First arguido Twelve days after Madeleine's disappearance, Robert Murat, a 34-year-old British-Portuguese property consultant, became the first arguido (suspect) in the case. Born in Hammersmith, West London, Murat lived in his mother's house, Casa Liliana, 150 yards (137 m) from apartment 5A in the direction in which the man in the Tanner sighting had walked. He was named a suspect after a Sunday Mirror journalist told Portuguese police he had been asking about the case. The PJ had briefly signed Murat up as an official interpreter; he said he had wanted to help because he had a daughter in England around Madeleine's age. Three members of the Tapas Seven—Fiona Payne, Russell O'Brien, and Rachael Oldfield—said they had seen Murat outside apartment 5A shortly after the disappearance, as did an Ocean Club nanny and two British holidaymakers. This would not have been surprising considering how close Murat lived to 5A, but he and his mother said he had been at home all evening. The McCann circle was clearly suspicious of Murat: one of the McCanns' supporters offered BBC reporter Richard Bilton "exclusive access to any new developments in the case" if Bilton would report back what the press pack was saying about Murat. Beginning on 15 May 2007, Murat's home was searched; the pool drained; his cars, computers, phones and video tapes examined; his garden searched using ground radar and sniffer dogs; and two of his associates questioned. In March 2008, one of those associates had his car set ablazed, with the word fala ("speak") sprayed in red on the pavement. There was nothing to link Murat or his friends to the disappearance, and Murat's arguido status was lifted on 21 July 2008 when the case was archived. In April 2008 he received £600,000 in out-of-court settlements for libel in what The Observer said was the largest number of separate libel actions brought in the UK by the same person in relation to one issue; his friends received £100,000 each. In July 2014, during Operation Grange, one of those friends was questioned again as a witness, this time by the PJ on behalf of Scotland Yard. In December that year Murat and his wife were questioned, also on behalf of Scotland Yard, along with eight others. In 2017 Murat's mother added her voice to those who had witnessed suspicious events around 5A that night: she told the BBC that she had driven past apartment 5A that night and had seen a young woman in a plum-coloured top behaving suspiciously just outside it, information she said she passed to the police at the time. She also said she had seen a small brown rental car speeding toward the apartment, driving the wrong way down a one-way street. ### Witness statements In statements to the PJ, witnesses described men behaving oddly near apartment 5A in the days before the disappearance and on the day itself. Scotland Yard came to believe that these men may have been engaged in reconnaissance for an abduction or burglary. There had been a fourfold increase in burglaries between January and May 2007, including two in the McCanns' block in the seventeen days before the disappearance, during which burglars had entered through windows. Several witnesses reported men collecting for charity. On 20 April, a bedraggled-looking man asked a tourist in her apartment near 5A for money for an orphanage in nearby Espiche; apparently there were no orphanages or similar in or near Espiche at the time. The witness described the man as pushy and intimidating. On 25 or 26 April, the tourist who rented apartment 5A before the McCanns found a man on his balcony who had entered via the steps from the street. Polite and clean-shaven, the visitor asked for money for an orphanage. On the day of the disappearance, 3 May, there were four charity collections by two men in the streets around 5A. At 4:00 p.m. two black-haired men approached a British homeowner looking for funds for a hostel or hospice in or near Espiche, and at 5:00 p.m two men approached another British tourist with a similar story. An "ugly" blond-haired man was seen on 2 May across the road from 5A, apparently watching it; he had also been seen on 29 April near the Ocean Club. On 30 April the granddaughter of 5A's former owners saw a blond-haired man leaning against a wall behind the apartments, and saw him again on 2 May near the tapas restaurant, looking at 5A. She described him as Caucasian, mid-30s, with short cropped hair, and "ugly" with spots. On or before the day of the disappearance, a man was seen staring at the McCanns' block, where a white van was parked. In the late afternoon of 3 May, a girl on the balcony of the apartment above 5A saw a man leave through the gate below, as though he had come out of a ground-floor apartment; what caught her attention was that he looked around before shutting the gate quietly, with both hands. At 14:30 two blond-haired men were seen on the balcony of 5C, an empty apartment two doors from 5A. At 16:00–17:00 a blond-haired man was seen near 5A. At 18:00 the same or another blond-haired man was seen in the stairwell of the McCanns' block. At 23:00, after the disappearance, two blond-haired men were seen in a nearby street speaking in raised voices. When they realised they had been noticed, they reportedly lowered their voices and walked away. ### McCanns as arguidos #### Early suspicion The first indication that the media were turning against the McCanns came on 6 June 2007, when a German journalist asked them during a Berlin press conference whether they were involved in the disappearance. On 30 June a 3,000-word article entitled "The Madeleine Case: A Pact of Silence" appeared in Sol, a Portuguese weekly, stating that the McCanns were suspects, highlighting alleged inconsistencies between their statements and implying that the Tanner sighting had been invented. The reporters had obtained the Tapas Sevens' mobile numbers and that of another witness, so it was apparent that the inquiry had a leak. This and later articles in the Portuguese press, invariably followed up in the UK, made several allegations, based on no evidence, which would engulf the McCanns for years on social media. They included that the McCanns and Tapas Seven were "swingers", that the McCanns had been sedating their children, and that the group had formed a "pact of silence" regarding what had happened on the night of the disappearance. Much was made of apparent inconsistencies within and between the McCanns' and Tapas Seven's statements. The police had asked the group questions in Portuguese, and an interpreter had translated the replies. According to Kate, the statements were then typed up in Portuguese and verbally translated back into English for the interviewees to sign. Among the inconsistencies was whether the McCanns had entered the apartment by the front or back door when checking on the children. According to the PJ case file, Gerry stated during his first interview, on 4 May 2007, that the couple had entered 5A through the locked front door for his 21:05 and her 22:00 checks, and in a second interview, on 10 May, that he had entered through the unlocked patio doors at the back. (The patio doors could be unlocked only from inside, so the parents had left them unlocked to let themselves in.) There was also an inconsistency about whether the front door had been locked. Gerry told The Sunday Times in December 2007 that they had used the front door earlier in the week, but it was next to the children's bedroom, so they had started using the patio doors instead. The PJ also questioned why, when Kate discovered Madeleine was missing, she had run to the tapas restaurant leaving the twins alone in 5A, when she could have used her mobile phone or shouted to the group from 5A's rear balcony. Another issue was whether the exterior shutter over Madeleine's bedroom window could be opened from outside. According to journalist Danny Collins, the shutter was made of non-ferrous metal slats on a roller blind that was housed in a box at the top of the inside window, controlled by pulling on a strap. Once rolled down, the slats locked in place outside the window and could be raised only by using the strap on the inside. Kate said the shutter and window were closed when Madeleine was put to bed, but open when she discovered Madeleine was missing. Gerry told the PJ that, when he was first alerted to the disappearance, he had lowered the shutter, then had gone outside and discovered that it could be raised only from the outside. Against this, Portuguese police said the shutter could not be raised from the outside without being forced, but there was no sign of forced entry; they also said forcing the shutter open would have caused a lot of noise. The apparent discrepancies contributed to the view of the PJ that there had been no abduction. Kate's shout of "they've taken her" was viewed with suspicion, as though she had been trying to lend credence to a false abduction story. Particularly from August onwards, these suspicions developed into the theory that Madeleine had died in apartment 5A as a result of an accident—perhaps after being sedated to help her stay asleep—and that her parents had hidden her body for a month, before retrieving her and driving her to an unknown place in a car they had hired over three weeks after the disappearance. In 2010, Carlos Anjos, former head of the Police Detectives Union in Portugal, told the BBC programme Panorama that most Portuguese investigators still believed Madeleine had died as a result of an accident in the apartment. #### Portugal sends a letter rogatory On 28 June 2007, the McCanns suggested to the PJ that the police request help from Danie Krugel, a South African former police officer who had developed a "matter orientation system", a handheld device that he claimed could locate missing people using DNA and satellites. On hearing about this years later, one scientist said it had caused his "BS detector to go off the scale". Kate wrote in 2011 that Krugel's claims made no sense, but the couple were desperate. In the second week of June they sent Krugel hair and eyelashes from Madeleine collected from the McCann family home by relatives in the UK. Krugel arrived in Praia da Luz on 15 July and told the McCanns his equipment had picked up a "static signal" in an area of the beach near the Rocha Negra cliff. The officer in charge of the PJ inquiry, Inspector Gonçalo Amaral, interpreted Kate's support of Krugel as a ploy. By this point he believed the McCanns were involved in the disappearance and that Kate was using Krugel—she had also considered using psychics—to "disclose the location of her daughter's body" without compromising herself. With this in mind, the PJ sent a letter rogatory to the British police to ask for assistance in their search for Madeleine's body. In response, Mark Harrison, the national search adviser for the NPIA, arrived in Praia da Luz, walked around the search areas, and flew over them by helicopter. Describing Krugel's ideas as "highly unlikely", Harrison's report, dated 23 July 2007, said that 100 officers had searched up to 9.3 miles (15 km) around Praia da Luz, but that the officer in charge and most of the team had no training in search procedures, with the exception of a search-and-rescue team from Lisbon. Search dogs had been used, but after five days instead of within two days as the handlers recommend. Harrison suggested searching the beach and shoreline, an open area near the village, Robert Murat's property, apartment 5A, the Tapas Seven's apartments, and any hired vehicles. He recommended using ground-penetrating radar and bringing in Keela and Eddie, two Springer spaniel sniffer dogs from South Yorkshire. #### British sniffer dogs arrive Keela was a forensic investigation dog trained to give her handler, Martin Grime, a "passive alert" to the scent of human blood by placing her nose close to the spot, then freezing in that position. Eddie was an enhanced-victim-recovery dog (EVRD, or cadaver dog) who gave a "bark alert" to the scent of human cadavers, including shortly after the death of the subject, even if the remains were buried, incinerated, or in water; he was trained to bark only in response to that scent and not for any other reason. The dogs arrived in Praia da Luz on 31 July 2007 and were taken to apartment 5A, nearby wasteland, and the beach. Both dogs alerted behind the sofa in the living room of 5A, and Eddie gave an alert near the wardrobe in the main bedroom. There were no alerts on the beach or wasteland. The PJ obtained warrants to search the house the McCanns had rented on Rua das Flores, and the silver Renault Scénic the couple had hired 24 days after Madeleine went missing. The house and grounds were searched on 2 August. The only alert was from Eddie when he encountered Cuddle Cat, which was lying in the living room; Keela did not give an alert. The police left with boxes of the McCanns' clothes, Cuddle Cat, a pair of latex gloves, suitcases, a notepad, two diaries—including one that Kate had started after the disappearance—and a friend's Bible she had borrowed. A passage the Bible's owner had marked from 2 Samuel, about the death of a child, was copied into the police case file along with a Portuguese translation. The items were taken to another location, where Eddie alerted his handler to one of the boxes of clothes. A source close to the McCanns' lawyers told reporters that, if there was indeed a smell of corpses on Kate's clothes, it could have been caused by her contact with corpses as a family doctor. The police removed the Renault and, on 6 August, Keela and Eddie were taken to an underground car park opposite the PJ headquarters in Portimão, where ten cars were parked, 20–30 feet apart, including the McCanns' and Murat's. Eddie, the cadaver dog, gave an alert outside the McCanns' car by the driver's door. The next morning Keela alerted to the rear driver's side inside the boot (trunk in North American English) and the map compartment in the driver's door, which contained the ignition key and key ring. When the key ring was hidden underneath sand in a fire bucket, she alerted again, as she did when the bucket was moved to a different floor of the car park. Almost immediately the Portuguese press began running stories that Madeleine had died inside apartment 5A. #### British DNA analysis Hair and other fibres were collected from areas in the car and apartment 5A where Keela and Eddie had given alerts, and were sent to the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in Birmingham for DNA profiling, arriving around 8 August 2007. At this point, according to The Sunday Times, the PJ "abandoned the abduction theory". On 8 August, without waiting for the results from Birmingham, Portuguese police called the McCanns to a meeting in Portimão, where Guilhermino Encarnação, PJ regional director, and Luis Neves, coordinator of the Direcção Central de Combate ao Banditismo in Lisbon, told them the case was now a murder inquiry. When Encarnação died of stomach cancer in 2010, The Daily Telegraph identified him as a major source of the leaks against the McCanns. Both the McCanns were interrogated that day; the officers suggested that Kate's memory was faulty. The FSS used a technique known as low copy number (LCN) testing. Used when only a few cells are available, the test is controversial because it is vulnerable to contamination and misinterpretation. On 3 September, John Lowe of the FSS emailed Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior of the Leicestershire Police, the liaison officer between the British and Portuguese authorities. Lowe told Prior that a sample from the car boot contained fifteen out of nineteen of Madeleine's DNA components, and that the result was "too complex for meaningful interpretation": > A complex LCN [low copy number] DNA result which appeared to have originated from at least three people was obtained from cellular material recovered from the luggage compartment section ... Within the DNA profile of Madeleine McCann there are 20 DNA components represented by 19 peaks on a chart. ... Of these 19 components 15 are present within the result from this item; there are 37 components in total. There are 37 components because there are at least 3 contributors; but there could be up to five contributors. In my opinion therefore this result is too complex for meaningful interpretation/inclusion. ... [W]e cannot answer the question: Is the match genuine, or is it a chance match. #### McCanns made arguidos Lowe's email was translated into Portuguese on 4 September 2007. The next day, according to Kate, the PJ proposed that, if she were to admit that Madeleine had died in an accident in the apartment and that she had hidden the body, she might only serve a two-year sentence. Her husband would not be charged and would be free to leave. Both parents were given arguido status on 7 September, and were advised by their lawyer not to answer questions. The PJ told Gerry that Madeleine's DNA had been found in the car boot and behind the sofa in apartment 5A. Gerry did respond to questions, but Kate declined to reply to 48 questions she was asked during an eleven-hour interview. The DNA evidence was a "100 percent match", journalists in Portugal were told. British tabloid headlines included "Corpse in McCann Car" (London Evening Standard, 16 October 2007), while the Daily Star reported that a "clump of Maddie's hair" had been found in the car. The leaks came directly from Portuguese police, according to testimony in 2012 from Jerry Lawton, a Daily Star reporter, to the Leveson Inquiry. Matt Baggott of the Leicestershire Police told the inquiry that, because the Portuguese were in charge of the case, he had made a decision not to correct reporters; his force's priority, he said, was to maintain a good relationship with the PJ with a view to finding Madeleine. #### McCanns return to the UK, Almeida report Despite their arguido status, the McCanns were allowed to leave Portugal, and on legal advice did so immediately, arriving back in England on 9 September 2007. The following day Chief Inspector Tavares de Almeida of the PJ in Portimão signed a nine-page report concluding that Madeleine had died in apartment 5A as a result of an accident, that the restaurant meal and apparent regular checks on the McCann children had been part of the cover-up, that the Tapas Seven had helped to mislead the police, and that the McCanns had concealed the child's body before faking an abduction. An eleven-page document from the Information Analysis Brigade in Lisbon analysed alleged discrepancies in the McCanns' statements. On 11 September the public prosecutor, José Cunha de Magalhães e Meneses, handed the ten-volume case file to a judge, Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias. Meneses applied for the seizure of Kate's diary and Gerry's laptop. The police also wanted to trace telephone calls between the McCanns and the Tapas Seven, and there were details in the report about the number of suitcases the McCanns and their friends had taken back to England. On 28 September 2007, according to a diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks in 2010, the United States ambassador to Portugal, Al Hoffman, wrote about a meeting he had had with the British ambassador to Portugal, Alexander Ellis, on 21 September 2007. The cable said: "Without delving into the details of the case, Ellis admitted that the British police had developed the current evidence against the McCann parents, and he stressed that authorities from both countries were working co-operatively. He commented that the media frenzy was to be expected and was acceptable as long as government officials keep their comments behind closed doors." Control Risks, a British security company—paid by an anonymous donor to assist the McCanns since 7 May 2007—took hair samples from the McCann twins on 24 September 2007, at their parents' request. The twins had slept through the commotion in apartment 5A after Madeleine was reported missing; Kate wrote that she was concerned the abductor might have given the children sedatives. According to the PJ files, Kate had asked them to take samples, three months after the disappearance, but they had not done so. Control Risks took a sample from Kate too, to rebut allegations that she was on medication. No trace of drugs was found. ### Gonçalo Amaral's removal, later developments On 2 October 2007 Chief Inspector Gonçalo Amaral was removed from his post as the inquiry's coordinator and transferred to Faro after telling the newspaper Diário de Notícias that British police had only pursued leads helpful to the McCanns. As an example, he criticised their decision to follow up an anonymous email to Prince Charles that claimed a former Ocean Club employee had taken Madeleine. Amaral was himself made an arguido one day after Madeleine's disappearance, in relation to his investigation of another case, the disappearance of Joana Cipriano. The following month he was charged with making a false statement, and four other officers were charged with assault. Eight-year-old Joana Cipriano had vanished in 2004 from Figueira, seven miles (11 km) from Praia da Luz. Her body was never found, and no murder weapon was identified. Cipriano's mother and uncle were convicted of her murder after confessing, but the mother retracted her confession, saying she had been beaten by police. Amaral was not present when the beating is alleged to have taken place, but he was accused of having covered up for others. The other detectives were acquitted. Amaral was convicted of perjury in May 2009 and received an eighteen-month suspended sentence. The McCann inquiry was taken over by Paulo Rebelo, deputy national director of the PJ, which expanded its team of detectives and began a case review. On 29 November 2007 four members of the Portuguese inquiry, including Francisco Corte-Real, vice-president of Portugal's forensic crime service, were briefed at Leicestershire Police headquarters by the FSS. In April 2008 the Tapas Seven were interviewed in England by the Leicestershire Police, with the PJ in attendance. The PJ planned in December 2007 to hold a reconstruction in Praia da Luz, using the McCanns and Tapas Seven rather than actors, but the Tapas Seven declined to participate. The poor relationship between the McCanns and Portuguese police was evident again that month when, on the day the couple were at the European Parliament to promote a monitoring system for missing children, transcripts of their interviews with the PJ were leaked to Spanish television. The national director of the PJ, Alípio Ribeiro, resigned not long after this, citing media pressure; he had publicly said the police had been hasty in naming the McCanns as suspects. As of May 2008 Portuguese prosecutors were examining several charges against the McCanns, including child abandonment, abduction, homicide, and concealment of a corpse. ### Inquiry closed (21 July 2008) On 21 July 2008 the Portuguese Attorney General, Fernando José Pinto Monteiro, announced that there was no evidence to link the McCanns or Robert Murat to Madeleine's disappearance. Their arguido status was lifted and the case was closed. On 4 August, Portugal's Ministério Público released seventeen case files containing 11,233 pages on CD-ROM to the media, including 2,550 pages of sightings. The files included a 58-page prosecutors' report, which concluded: "No element of proof whatsoever was found which allows us to form any lucid, sensible, serious and honest conclusion about the circumstances." In 2009 Portugal released a further 2,000 pages. Days after the case closed, excerpts from Kate's diary, which had been taken by the PJ in August 2007, were published in translation by a Portuguese tabloid, Correio da Manhã, despite a Portuguese judge's ruling in June 2008 that the seizure had been a privacy violation and that any copies must be destroyed. On 14 September 2008, a News International tabloid, News of the World, published the extracts, again without permission and now improperly translated back into English. ### Amaral's book (24 July 2008) The lingering tensions between the McCanns and the PJ had reached such a height that Amaral resigned from the force in June 2008 to write a book alleging that Madeleine had died in an accident in the apartment and that, to cover it up, the McCanns had faked an abduction. Three days after the case closed, Amaral's book, Maddie: A Verdade da Mentira ("Maddie: The Truth of the Lie"), was published in Portugal by Guerra & Paz. By November 2008 it had sold 180,000 copies and by 2010 had been translated into six languages. A documentary based on the book was broadcast on TVI in Portugal in April 2009, watched by 2.2 million viewers. The McCanns began a libel action against Amaral and his publisher in 2009. Madeleine's Fund covered the legal fees. In 2015 they were awarded over €600,000 in libel damages; Amaral's appeal against that decision succeeded in 2016. A judge had issued an injunction against further publication or sales of the book in 2009, but the Lisbon Court of Appeal overturned the ban in 2010, stating that it violated Amaral's freedom of expression. The ban was reinstated in 2015 as part of the libel ruling, then lifted when Amaral's appeal succeeded in 2016. The McCanns appealed the 2016 decision to Portugal's Supreme Court, but the court ruled against them in February 2017. In their 76-page ruling, the judges wrote that the McCanns had not, in fact, been cleared by the archiving of the criminal case in 2008. In March 2017, the Supreme Court rejected the McCanns' final appeal. ## Madeleine's Fund inquiry (2007–2011) ### Raising money The McCanns set up Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned Ltd on 15 May 2007, twelve days after the disappearance. Over 80 million people visited the fund's website in the three months after the disappearance. From September 2007, Brian Kennedy of Everest Windows supported the couple financially, and Kennedy's lawyer joined the fund's board of directors. As of February 2017 it had seven directors, including the McCanns. Appeals by public figures were screened at football matches across the UK. Between May 2007 and March 2008, the fund received £1,846,178, including £1.4 million through the bank, £390,000 online, and £64,000 from merchandise. Donations included £250,000 from the News of the World, £250,000 from Sir Philip Green, \$50,000 from Simon Cowell, and \$25,000 from Coleen Rooney. J. K. Rowling and Richard Branson also made large donations; Branson donated £100,000 to the McCanns' legal fund. Madeleine's Fund did not cover the couple's legal costs arising from their status as arguidos, but it was criticised in October 2007 for having made two of the McCanns' mortgage payments, before they were made arguidos. A reward of £2.5 million was also offered, including from the News of the World, Rowling, Branson, Green, and a Scottish businessman, Stephen Winyard. In March 2008, Express Newspapers paid the fund £550,000 and £375,000 in libel damages arising out of articles about the McCanns and the Tapas Seven, respectively. In 2011, Kate McCann's book, Madeleine, was serialised by The Sunday Times and The Sun, both owned by News International, for a payment to the fund of £500,000 to £1 million. In December 2015, the fund stood at around £750,000. ### Private investigators Madeleine's Fund hired several firms of private investigators, causing friction with Portuguese police. Shortly after the disappearance, an anonymous benefactor paid for the services of a British security company, Control Risks. There had reportedly been four independent sightings from North Africa; Brian Kennedy went to Morocco himself in September 2007 to look into one. A Norwegian woman had reported seeing a girl matching Madeleine's description in a petrol station near Marrakesh, Morocco, on 9 May 2007; the child had reportedly asked the man she was with, in English, "Can we see Mummy soon?" When the witness returned home to Spain, she learned about the disappearance and telephoned the Spanish police. A month later, according to Kate, the police had still not formally interviewed the woman, which led the McCanns to fear that leads were not being pursued. The McCanns themselves travelled to Morocco on 10 June 2007 to raise awareness. They spent the night at the British ambassador's residence and were briefed by consular staff and a Metropolitan Police attaché. Kennedy hired a Spanish agency, Método 3, for six months at £50,000 a month, which put 35 investigators on the case in Europe and Morocco. The relationship came to an end in part because the head of the agency made several public statements that concerned the McCanns, including to CBS that, "We know the kidnapper. We know who he is and how he has done it." Another private investigator was David Edgar, a retired detective inspector hired in 2009 on the recommendation of the head of Manchester's Serious Crime Squad. Edgar released an e-fit in August that year of a woman said to have asked two British men in Barcelona, shortly after the disappearance, whether they were there to deliver her new daughter. Other private initiatives included a Portuguese lawyer financing the search of a reservoir near Praia da Luz in February 2008, and the use of ground radar by a South African property developer, Stephen Birch, who said in 2012 that scans showed there were bones beneath the driveway of a house in Praia da Luz. ### Oakley International In 2008, Madeleine's Fund hired Oakley International, a Washington, D.C.-registered detective agency, for over £500,000 for six months. Oakley sent a five-man team to Portugal led by Henri Exton, a former British police officer who had worked for MI5. The Oakley team engaged in undercover operations within the Ocean Club and among paedophile rings and the Roma community. Exton questioned the significance of the Tanner sighting, and focused instead on the sighting by Martin and Mary Smith of a man carrying a child toward the beach. The Oakley team produced e-fits based on the Smiths' description. This was a sensitive issue, because Martin had recently watched BBC coverage of the McCanns's arrival in the UK from Portugal, at the height of public debate about their alleged involvement. As Gerry exited the aircraft with his son in his arms, Smith believed he recognised him as the man he had seen carrying the child in Praia da Luz. He reported his suspicion to the Leicestershire Police but later came to accept that he was mistaken: at 22:00 witnesses placed Gerry in the tapas restaurant. Nevertheless, publication of the Smith e-fits, which bore some resemblance to Gerry, would have fed the conspiracy theories about the McCanns. Exton submitted his report to Madeleine's Fund in November 2008 and suggested releasing the e-fits, but the fund told Exton that the report and its e-fits had to remain confidential. The relationship between the company and the fund had soured, in part because of a dispute over fees, and in part because the report was critical of the McCanns and their friends: it suggested that Madeleine may have died in an accident after letting herself out of the apartment through its unlocked patio doors. Madeleine's Fund passed the e-fits to the police—the PJ and the Leicestershire Police had them by October 2009, and Scotland Yard received them when they became involved in August 2011—but did not otherwise release them. Kate did not include them with the other images of suspects in her book, Madeleine (2011), although she suggested that both the Tanner and Smith sightings were crucial. Scotland Yard released the e-fits in October 2013 for a BBC Crimewatch reconstruction. After it had aired, The Sunday Times published that the McCanns had had the e-fits since 2008. In response, the couple complained that the Sunday Times story implied (wrongly) that they had not only failed to publish the e-fits but had withheld them from the police. The newspaper published an apology on an inside page in December 2013. The McCanns subsequently sued and received £55,000 in damages, which Gerry said would be donated to charity. ## Further police inquiries (2011–present) ### Gamble report The McCanns met the British Home Secretary Alan Johnson in 2009 to request a review of the case. Johnson commissioned a scoping report from Jim Gamble of CEOP. By March 2010, the Home Office had begun discussions with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) about setting up a British inquiry. Delivered in May 2010, the Gamble report examined how several British agencies had become involved in the search for Madeleine, including CEOP itself, the Leicestershire Police, the Metropolitan Police Service, SOCA, the NPIA, Crimestoppers, the Home Office, Foreign Office, and 10 Downing Street. Gamble criticised the lack of coordination; everyone had wanted to help, and some had wanted "to be seen to help", he wrote, which had "created a sense of chaos and a sense of competition" hampering the inquiry by causing resentment among the Portuguese police. He recommended renewed cooperation between the British and Portuguese authorities; that all relevant information be exchanged between the police forces; that police perform an analysis of telephone calls made on the night of the disappearance; and that all leads be pursued, including those developed by private detectives. ### Operation Grange In May 2011, under Home Secretary Theresa May, Scotland Yard launched an investigative review, Operation Grange, with a team of 29 detectives and eight civilians. The announcement of the review appeared to have been triggered by a News International campaign by way of The Sun. The issue of whether this request was the result of "threats" or "persuasion" from News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was one of the issues raised at the Leveson Inquiry. On 11 May 2011, as it was serializing Kate's book, Madeleine, the front page of The Sun hosted an open letter from the McCanns in which they asked Prime Minister David Cameron to set up a new inquiry; 20,000 people signed the newspaper's petition that day. On the same day, according to her testimony to the Leveson Inquiry, May spoke by telephone, at her instigation, to Brooks and Dominic Mohan, editor of The Sun. The next day she wrote to the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Stephenson, to say that Portuguese police had agreed to cooperate with a British inquiry. Within 24 hours, Cameron made the announcement about Operation Grange, to be financed by a Home Office contingency fund. Operation Grange was led by Commander Simon Foy. Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood of Scotland Yard's Homicide and Serious Crime Command was the first senior investigating officer, reporting to Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell. The team consisted of three detective inspectors, five detective sergeants, nineteen detective constables, and around six civilian staff. By July 2013 the review had become an investigation. When Redwood retired in 2014, he was replaced by DCI Nicola Wall. The team had tens of thousands of documents translated, released an age-progressed image, and investigated over 8,000 potential sightings. By 2015 they had taken 1,338 statements, collected 1,027 exhibits, and investigated 650 sex offenders and 60 persons of interest. The inquiry was scaled back in October 2015 and the number of officers reduced to four. The Home Secretary approved an additional £95,000 of funding in April 2016 for what the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, said was one remaining line of inquiry. Another £85,000 was approved to cover up to September 2017; and £150,000 to cover until 31 March 2019, taking the cost of the inquiry to £11.75 million. The Home Office said it would approve similar funding for 2019. #### Funding In September 2018, the Home Office announced: "We have received and are considering a request from the Metropolitan Police Service to extend funding for Operation Grange until the end of March 2019". Up to that month, Operation Grange had cost £11.6m. In November 2018, an extra £150,000 is granted to continue the investigation, the latest in a series of six-month extensions which took the cost of Operation Grange to an estimated £11.75m. June 2019, the British government said it would fund Operation Grange until March 2020. ### Theories: Planned abduction, burglary, wandered off DCI Redwood made clear that Operation Grange was looking at a "criminal act by a stranger", most likely a planned abduction or a burglary that Madeleine had disturbed. There had been a fourfold increase in local burglaries between January and May 2007, including two in the McCanns' block in the seventeen days before the disappearance, during which intruders had entered through windows. In an interview in April 2017, just before the tenth anniversary of the disappearance, Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner, Mark Rowley, appeared to dismiss the burglary hypothesis, while adding that it was "not entirely ruled out". Referring to the suspects who might have been involved in burglaries in the area, he said that police had "pretty much closed off that group of people". The remaining detectives were focusing on a small number of inquiries that they believed were significant. Also that month there were claims that Scotland Yard was looking for a woman seen near 5A at the time of the disappearance. Redwood said in 2013 that, "on one reading of the evidence", the disappearance did look like a pre-planned abduction, which "undoubtedly would have involved reconnaissance". Several witnesses described men hanging around near apartment 5A in the days before the disappearance and on the day itself. In May 2013, Scotland Yard wanted to trace twelve manual workers who were at the Ocean Club when Madeleine disappeared, including six British cleaners in a white van who were offering their services to British expats. In October 2013 Scotland Yard and Crimewatch staged a reconstruction—broadcast in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany—during which they released e-fits of the men seen near 5A and of the Smith sighting. Days after Crimewatch aired, Portugal's attorney general reopened the Portuguese inquiry, citing new evidence. Another theory is that Madeleine, nearly four at the time, left the apartment by herself, perhaps to look for her parents, and was abducted by a passerby or fell into one of the open construction sites nearby. This is widely regarded as unlikely. According to her mother, Madeleine would have had to open the unlocked patio doors, close the curtains behind her, close the door again, open and close the child gate at the top of the stairs, then open and close the gate leading to the street. ### Tracking mobile phone calls Using mobile-phone tracking techniques, and with the cooperation of over thirty countries, police traced who had used cell phones near the scene of Madeleine's disappearance within the important time frame. The analysis turned up several calls and texts near the Ocean Club between a 30-year-old former Ocean Club bus driver, and his 24-year-old and 53-year-old associates. Detectives interviewed them in June 2014; they denied any connection to the disappearance. Police also found that the cell phone of Euclides Monteiro, a former Ocean Club restaurant worker who had previously been fired for theft, had been used near the resort that night. Originally from Cape Verde, Monteiro died in 2009 in a tractor accident. The suspicion was that he had been breaking into apartments to finance a drug habit; his widow said he had been questioned previously about break-ins involving the sexual assault of children but had been cleared by DNA evidence. ### Holiday-home sexual assaults Scotland Yard issued another appeal in March 2014 for information about a man who had entered holiday homes occupied by British families in four incidents in the western region of Algarve between 2004 and 2006, two of them in Praia da Luz. On those occasions he had sexually assaulted five girls, aged 7–10, in their beds. The man spoke English with a foreign accent and his speech was slow and perhaps slurred. He had short, dark, unkempt hair, tanned skin, and in the view of three victims a distinctive smell; he may have worn a long-sleeved burgundy top, perhaps with a white circle on the back. These were among twelve incidents reported in the area between 2004 and 2010. The PJ reportedly believed the intruder in the four incidents between 2004 and 2006 was Monteiro. ### Searches and interviews in Praia da Luz In June 2014, officers from Scotland Yard and the PJ, accompanied by archaeologists and sniffer dogs, searched drains and dug in 60,000 square metres (15 acres) of wasteland in Praia da Luz. Nothing was found. The following month, at Scotland Yard's request, the PJ in Faro interviewed four Portuguese citizens, with Scotland Yard in attendance. No evidence was found to implicate them. One man, an associate of Robert Murat, was first questioned shortly after the disappearance. Pedro do Carmo, deputy director of the PJ, told the BBC that the interviews had been conducted only because Scotland Yard had requested them. Eleven people, including three Britons, were interviewed in December 2014. According to Portuguese media, Scotland Yard compiled 253 questions for the interviewees, including, "Did you kill Madeleine?" and, "Where did you hide the body?" Robert Murat, his wife, and her ex-husband were questioned, as were the former Ocean Club bus driver and his two associates who had telephoned or texted each other near the Ocean Club around the time of the disappearance. They admitted to having broken into Ocean Club apartments but denied having taken Madeleine. ### German investigations in 2020 In June 2020, the public prosecutor in the German city of Braunschweig ordered an inquiry regarding the possible involvement of then-43-year-old Christian Brückner (born 7 December 1976; also known simply as "Christian B" under German privacy laws), a convicted sex offender believed to have been living in a borrowed VW camper van in the Algarve region at the time of Madeleine's disappearance. A British woman, who was Brückner's girlfriend at the time, reported that he told her the night before the abduction: "I have a job to do in Praia da Luz tomorrow. It's a horrible job but it's something I have to do and it will change my life. You won't be seeing me for a while." Brückner's car, a Jaguar XJR6, was registered to a new owner the day after Madeleine disappeared. Hans Christian Wolters, from the public prosecutor's office, stated that they were starting proceedings under the presumption that Madeleine is dead, due to Brückner's criminal record. Brückner has previously been convicted of unrelated counts of child sexual abuse and drug trafficking, and as of 2019 is serving a prison sentence in Germany for raping a 72-year-old American pensioner in the Algarve region; he is scheduled for release in September 2025. On 3 June 2020, the German Federal Criminal Police Office made a public appeal for information relating to the McCann case on Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst, a crime programme broadcast by the public television station ZDF. German police stated that they received useful information in 2013 after the case was first featured on Aktenzeichen XY, but that it took years to find substantial evidence for prosecution, and that they still need more information. The prosecutors asked the public for information about Brückner's phone number and a number that dialled him on the day of the disappearance, with which Brückner's number had a 30-minute connection. On 27 July 2020, German police began searching an allotment in Hanover in connection with the investigation. In October 2021, the Mirror reported that Wolters had become convinced that Brückner abducted and murdered Madeleine. From 23 until 25 May 2023 on a peninsula near the Arade Dam which is near Silves and about 50 kilometres (31 mi) from where Madeleine McCann was last seen on 3 May 2007, Portuguese police along with German and British colleagues began a search of an area just over a 1 mile (1.6 km) long for possible evidence in the case. Previously, McCann's sock was found in the search area in 2008 and Hans Christian Wolters of the German prosecutors office in Braunschweig with support from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) requested the May 2023 search which was coordinated by the deputy director of Polícia Judiciária's Northern Directorate. According to cell phone geolocating, the cell phone of Brückner was allegedly near McCann within 5 minutes of her disappearance. On 25 May, Correio da Manhã reported that a "relevant clue" was found during the search. The search was by request from the Germans. German investigators believe it is possible that the girl was killed in the dam and thrown into the water. ### Other inquiries In the early days of the inquiry, Portuguese police searched through images seized from paedophile investigations, and Madeleine's parents were shown photographs of sex offenders in case they recognised them from Praia de Luz. Several British paedophiles were of interest. In May 2009, investigators working for the McCanns tried to question one, Raymond Hewlett; he had allegedly told someone he knew what happened to Madeleine, but he retracted his statement and died of cancer in Germany in December of that year. Scotland Yard made inquiries about two paedophiles who had been in jail in Scotland for murder since 2010; the men had been running a window-cleaning service in the Canary Islands when Madeleine went missing. A man from Northern Ireland who died in 2013 was discussed in the media in connection with the disappearance: after being released from prison for the sexual assault of his four daughters, he had moved to the Portuguese town of Carvoeiro, approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Praia da Luz; he was there when Madeleine went missing. Another focus of Operation Grange was Urs Hans von Aesch, a deceased Swiss man implicated in the 2007 murder, in Switzerland, of five-year-old Ylenia Lenhard. Ylenia disappeared on 31 July 2007, nearly three months after Madeleine, and was found dead in September as a result of toluene poisoning. Von Aesch was living in Spain when Madeleine disappeared. In June 2016, Operation Grange officers interviewed an alleged victim of the deceased broadcaster Clement Freud, who was accused that year of having a history of child sexual abuse. Freud had had a home in Praia da Luz and had befriended the McCanns in July 2007, several weeks after the disappearance. Freud's family said he had been in the UK when Madeleine went missing. ## Tabloids and social media ### "Trial by media" Eilis O'Hanlon wrote that the disappearance "could almost stand as a metaphor for the rise of social media as the predominant mode of public discourse". Twitter, one year old when Madeleine McCann went missing, became the source of much of the vitriol. Ten years later, the "#McCann" hashtag was still producing over 100 tweets an hour, according to researchers at the University of Huddersfield. Social media's attacks included a threat to kidnap one of the McCanns' twins, and when Scotland Yard and Crimewatch staged their reconstruction in 2013, there was apparently talk of phoning in with false information to sabotage the appeal. One man who ran an anti-McCann website received a three-month suspended sentence in 2013 after leafleting their village with his allegations. The following year a Twitter user was found dead from a helium overdose after Sky News confronted her about her 400 anti-McCann tweets. The couple's status as photogenic, articulate, and professional was at first beneficial. Offers of help came in from across the United Kingdom, including 10 Downing Street. The McCanns took full advantage of the interest by hiring public relations consultants and offering regular events to sustain media interest. However the frenzy eventually turned against the couple, and there began what PR consultant Michael Cole called the "monstering of the McCanns". They were harshly criticised for having left their children alone in an unlocked apartment, despite the availability of Ocean Club babysitters and a crèche; the argument ran that a working-class couple would have faced child abandonment charges. Seventeen thousand people signed an online petition in June 2007 asking Leicestershire Social Services to investigate how the children came to be left unattended. Kate's appearance and demeanour were widely discussed, with much of the commentary coming from other women, including Booker Prize–winner Anne Enright in the London Review of Books. Kate was deemed cold and controlled, too attractive, too thin, too well-dressed, or too intense. She had apparently been advised by abduction experts not to cry on camera because the kidnapper might enjoy her distress, and this led to more criticism: the Portuguese tabloid Correio da Manhã cited sources complaining that she had not "shed a single tear". Journalism professor Nicola Goc argued that Kate had joined a long list of mothers deemed killers because of unacceptable maternal behaviour. Commentators compared her experience to that of Lindy Chamberlain, convicted of murder after her baby was killed by a dingo. Like Kate, she was suspected, in part, because she had not wept in public. There was even a similar (false) story about supposedly relevant Bible passages the women were said to have highlighted. Chamberlain asked: "How can you apologise to me and do this again to someone else?" In November 2011, the McCanns testified before the Leveson Inquiry into British press standards. The inquiry heard that Peter Hill, the editor of the Daily Express, in particular, had become "obsessed" with the couple. Express headlines included that Madeleine McCann had been "killed by sleeping pills", "Find body or McCanns will escape", and McCanns or a friend must be to blame'", the latter based on an interview with a waiter. "Maddie 'Sold' by Hard-Up McCanns" ran a headline in the Daily Star, part of the Express group. Lord Justice Leveson called the articles "complete piffle". Roy Greenslade described them as "no journalistic accident, but a sustained campaign of vitriol against a grief-stricken family". ### Libel actions In addition to their legal efforts against Gonçalo Amaral and his publisher, the McCanns and Tapas Seven brought libel actions against several newspapers. The Daily Express, Daily Star and their sister Sunday papers, owned by Northern & Shell, published front-page apologies in 2008 and donated £550,000 to Madeleine's Fund. The Tapas Seven were awarded £375,000 against the Express group, also donated to Madeleine's Fund, along with an apology in the Daily Express. The McCanns received £55,000 from The Sunday Times in 2013 when the newspaper implied that they had withheld e-fits from the police. Robert Murat received £600,000 in out-of-court settlements for libel in relation to 100 articles published by eleven newspapers—The Sun and News of the World (News International), Daily Express, Sunday Express and Daily Star (Northern & Shell), London Evening Standard, Daily Mail and Metro (Associated Newspapers), Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Daily Record (Mirror Group Newspapers). According to The Observer, it was the largest number of separate libel actions brought in the UK by the same person in relation to one issue. His two associates were each awarded \$100,000, and all three received public apologies. The British Sky Broadcasting Group, which owns Sky News, paid Murat undisclosed damages in 2008 and agreed that Sky News would host an apology on its website for twelve months. ## Netflix documentary (2019) Netflix released an eight-part documentary series, The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, on 15 March 2019. Interviewees included Jim Gamble, former head of CEOP; Alan Johnson, former British home secretary; Brian Kennedy, the British businessman who supported the McCanns financially; Justine McGuiness, the McCanns' former spokesperson; Gonçalo Amaral, former head of the PJ investigation; Robert Murat, the first arguido; Julian Peribañez, a former Método 3 private investigator; Sandra Felgueiras, a Portuguese journalist who covered the disappearance; and Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, authors of Looking for Madeleine (2014). ## See also - List of people who disappeared - Reactions to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann - Reported sightings of Madeleine McCann - Disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh – previously Britain and the world's biggest ever missing person's inquiry
5,593,554	New York State Route 43	1,132,326,707	State highway in Rensselaer County, New York, US	[ "State highways in New York (state)", "Transportation in Rensselaer County, New York" ]	New York State Route 43 (NY 43) is a state highway in Rensselaer County, New York, in the United States. It extends for 24.00 miles (38.62 km) from Interstate 90 (I-90) exit 8 in North Greenbush to the Massachusetts state line, where it continues into Williamstown as Massachusetts Route 43. Most of NY 43 is a two-lane highway that passes through a mixture of rural and residential areas; however, its westernmost 2 miles (3.2 km) between I-90 and U.S. Route 4 (US 4) is a four-lane divided highway. NY 43 has an overlap with NY 66 in Sand Lake and intersects NY 22 in Stephentown. When NY 43 was first assigned in the 1920s, it began near the village of Schoharie and ended in downtown Albany. Initially, the portion of modern NY 43 east of Averill Park was designated as part of New York State Route 7 in 1924. It was renumbered to New York State Route 45 by 1926 and became part of an extended NY 43 as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York. NY 43 was originally routed on Broadway and Washington Avenue in Rensselaer; however, it was rerouted to use 3rd Avenue and US 4 instead in the late 1960s. In the early 1970s, the route was truncated to consist only of the portion east of the Hudson River. NY 43's former routing west to Schoharie was redesignated NY 443 as a result. NY 43 was realigned slightly in the late 1990s to serve the new exit 8 on I-90. Its former routing into Rensselaer on 3rd Avenue is now partly NY 151 and unsigned NY 915E. ## Route description NY 43 begins at an interchange with I-90 (exit 8) in the town of North Greenbush in western Rensselaer County. The route heads northeastward as a four-lane divided highway through a small forest separating NY 43 from a pair of residential neighborhoods. NY 43 provides access to these neighborhoods at an intersection with Washington Avenue. Past this junction, the highway turns eastward to meet US 4 in the hamlet of Defreestville. NY 43 narrows to two lanes roughly 0.25 miles (0.40 km) east of US 4 and continues eastward through a densely populated area of North Greenbush. East of Lape Road (County Route 66 or CR 66), the amount of development along NY 43 begins to decline and give way to small, open fields located amongst forested areas. However, as NY 43 enters the town of Sand Lake, the number of homes and businesses on the highway rises once more. The level of development reaches its greatest point in West Sand Lake, a community centered around NY 43's junction with NY 150. NY 43 continues on, passing through residential areas of Sand Lake as it intersects NY 351 and heads eastward to Averill Park. The route meets NY 66 east of the community, and the two routes overlap for 3 miles (5 km) southeastward along the eastern shores of the small Glass and Crooked Lakes. NY 43 and NY 66 split just after crossing into the town of Nassau near the southern edge of Crooked Lake. NY 43 heads southeastward from NY 66, passing through mostly rural, forested areas as it proceeds toward the Massachusetts state line. Most of the development along the final stretch of the route is concentrated in the small communities along the route. It passes through Dunham Hollow and enters the town of Stephentown as it serves the hamlet of West Stephentown. NY 43 continues through forested areas of Stephentown to Stephentown Center, denoted by a cluster of homes near the intersection of NY 43 and Newton Road. From Stephentown Center, the route heads southeast to the community of Stephentown situated 2 miles (3.2 km) west of the state line. NY 43 serves as the main commercial strip through the hamlet, which is the largest location on the route since Averill Park. Here, NY 43 intersects NY 22 at a junction that features sharp corners for commuters turning onto NY 43 from NY 22. Past NY 22, NY 43 heads southeast through mostly open fields and lightly populated areas to the Massachusetts state line, where the roadway becomes Route 43 upon crossing into Hancock, Massachusetts. ## History ### Origins and designation In 1908, the New York State Legislature created a system of unsigned legislative routes across the state of New York. Two of the routes created at this time were Route 7, which extended from the Pennsylvania state line south of Binghamton to Albany via Oneonta, Cobleskill, Berne, and New Scotland, and Route 24, a highway extending from the east bank of the Hudson River in Rensselaer to the Massachusetts state line near Mount Lebanon by way of Averill Park and Nassau. In the vicinity of Rensselaer, Route 21 was routed on 3rd Avenue, 3rd Avenue Extension, North Greenbush Road, and West Sand Lake Road. When the first set of posted routes in New York were assigned in 1924, a highway connecting Route 21 in Averill Park to the Massachusetts state line at Stephentown was designated as part of NY 7, a route that continued northwest from Averill Park to Troy on modern NY 66. By 1926, the portion of old legislative Route 7 from Central Bridge to East Berne was designated as part of NY 43, a new route extending from Central Bridge to downtown Albany via East Berne, Clarksville, and Delmar, while NY 7 was renumbered to NY 45. ### Changes in routing In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, NY 43 was truncated slightly on its western end to begin at a junction with the new NY 30 north of Schoharie. Meanwhile, NY 45 was reassigned to another highway in Orange County. The portion of former NY 45 from Troy to Averill Park became part of NY 66 while the remainder became an eastward extension of NY 43. The extended NY 43 was now concurrent with US 9 and US 20 along Madison Avenue from Delaware Avenue to Rensselaer, where it followed Broadway and Washington Avenue to US 4 in Defreestville. The route continued east to Averill Park on what had been legislative Route 21. NY 43 was extended slightly following the construction of a new alignment for NY 30 near Central Bridge in the early 1940s. NY 30 now left its old alignment southeast of Central Bridge and bypassed the community to the east. The former routing of NY 30 into Central Bridge became an extension of NY 43, which overlapped NY 30 between the new alignment and Schoharie. When NY 30A replaced NY 148 in 1960, the short piece of NY 43 near Central Bridge became part of NY 30A and NY 43 was truncated back to NY 30 near Schoharie. In the late 1960s, NY 43 was rerouted through downtown Rensselaer to follow 3rd Avenue (previously NY 381) east to US 4. From there, NY 43 overlapped US 4 northward to Defreestville, where it rejoined its previous alignment. NY 43 was truncated on its western end to the junction of 3rd Avenue and Broadway in downtown Rensselaer in the early 1970s, eliminating the overlap with US 9 and US 20 through Albany. Its former routing from Schoharie to Albany was renumbered to NY 443. NY 43 remained on 3rd Avenue up to the late 1990s when it was rerouted to follow a new highway to I-90 exit 8 west of Defreestville. The realignment eliminated the overlap with US 4 and also took NY 43 outside of the Rensselaer city limits for the first time since being extended across the Hudson River in 1930. The former alignment of NY 43 along 3rd Avenue from Broadway to Barracks Road became part of NY 151; the remainder was designated NY 915E, an unsigned reference route. ## Major intersections ## See also
5,948,508	SooperDooperLooper	1,153,275,626	Looping roller coaster at Hersheypark	[ "1977 establishments in Pennsylvania", "Hersheypark", "Roller coasters introduced in 1977" ]	SooperDooperLooper (stylized as sooperdooperLooper) is a steel roller coaster at Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States. Designed and manufactured by Anton Schwarzkopf, the roller coaster opened to the public on May 8, 1977. SooperDooperLooper is located in The Hollow section of the park and cost more than \$3 million to construct and build. The roller coaster reaches a maximum height of 70 feet (21 meters), with a maximum speed of 45 miles per hour (72 km/h), and a total track length of 2,614 feet (797 meters). The SooperDooperLooper is a Schwarzkopf Looper Racer model, similar to The New Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California. The roller coaster features a 57-foot (17-meter) vertical loop as its signature element. A 150-foot (46-meter) tunnel was added after two seasons of operation. The SooperDooperLooper has seen several variations in color schemes and trains. When the roller coaster opened it received generally positive reviews from critics and guests. ## History Planning for the roller coaster, to be known as the SooperDooperLooper, began in 1975. During the roller coaster's planning stages, Hershey shortlisted a group of names to "merry Derry dip" and "sooperdooperLooper". An executive of Hershey preferred the former "merry Derry dip" as it referenced the Derry Township, the area where Hershey, Pennsylvania, was located. However, the latter was ultimately chosen when the executive was outvoted by his wife and children. The roller coaster was bought in Zürich, Switzerland, in February 1976. Hersheypark announced its intentions to add a new looping roller coaster for the 1977 season in April 1976. The new roller coaster would include a vertical loop and would be located near the park's amphitheater and log flume. The attraction would be similar to the Great American Revolution at Magic Mountain, an amusement park in Valencia, California. Work began on the project site on October 29, 1976. The name of the roller coaster was presented in December 1976 to the media as the "SooperDooperLooper" along with illustrations. Parts of the roller coaster arrived from its European manufacturer, with foundation work beginning in the early weeks of December. The attraction was said to be the park's "most structurally involved" project to date, at the time. Construction of the SooperDooperLooper continued into the winter months, causing minor problems when mechanical equipment broke down. Preparation on the roller coaster's vertical loop and station were conducted in February 1977. In the same month, 80 percent of the 8,300,000 pounds (3,800,000 kg) of concrete for the foundation work was complete. The roller coaster's vertical loop was finished in March. Construction on the roller coaster was completed in early May. A preview ceremony for the roller coaster was hosted by the park on May 6, where 250 visitors were in attendance. The SooperDooperLooper was officially opened to the public alongside the park's season on May 8. The park touted the looping roller coaster as the longest to open in the East Coast region. A 150-foot (46-meter) tunnel featuring lights and sounds was added to the roller coaster for the 1979 season. ## Ride experience The train leaves the station and makes a slight right turn before proceeding up the 28-degree incline lift hill. At the top of the lift hill, the train makes a left turn with a small dip and descends a long 75-foot (23-meter) drop, where the train reaches its maximum speed of 45 miles per hour (72 km/h), then enters the 57-foot (17-meter) vertical loop. Exiting the loop, the train makes a long, ascending sweeping left turn that travels through the middle of the loop. The train traverses a gentle right curve which includes a short tunnel. Out of the tunnel, the track travels along the terrain through various turns. The train goes down a drop then up another hill into a downward spiraling helix, before hitting the final brake run. This is followed by a right turn back to the station. One cycle of the SooperDooperLooper takes around a minute and forty-five seconds to complete. ## Characteristics The SooperDooperLooper was designed and manufactured by Anton Schwarzkopf in West Germany. The SooperDooperLooper is a Looping Racer model. Werner Stengel was one of the architects to assist in designing the roller coaster. The design of the roller coaster was also assisted by R. Duell Associates, with General Manufacturer and Equipment Company implementing sensor equipment. Intamin acted on behalf of Schwarzkopf as the business facilitator for the attraction and aided in various roles during its construction. The roller coaster cost more than \$3 million to plan and build. Upon opening, the roller coaster was situated between the Comet wooden roller coaster and Coal Cracker log flume. The SooperDooperLooper is located in "The Hollow" section of the park along with roller coasters Skyrush and the Comet. The roller coaster replaced the Giant Wheel as well as the Alpine Flyer attraction. The station platform is located on the second-story of its queue building. The station was refurbished during the 2012 season. The roller coaster needed around 500 tons of steel for its construction. The SooperDooperLooper debuted with white track and orange trains. The roller coaster was repainted in 1989 to feature a black track and blue supports. During the 2021 season, the track retained the black and blue color scheme, with the vertical loop painted white. The roller coaster reaches a maximum height of 70 feet (21 meters). The tunnel section used to contain an animatronic spider that would drop down towards the train and scare riders. The track reaches a total length of 2,614 feet (797 meters) and is considered a terrain roller coaster as it utilizes the landscape in its layout. Originally, the SooperDooperLooper operated with three trains that sat 24 riders a train, but now runs with only two. The two trains operate with six cars a train, each car arranged two-seats across in two rows allowing for a maximum capacity of twenty four riders a train. Each train features a lap bar restraint. The original Schwarzkopf trains were replaced with trains manufactured by Giovanola in 1989. For the 2012 season, the Giovanola trains were replaced with trains manufactured by Gerstlauer, with an orange color scheme. The control system was also updated with magnetic brakes. One Giovanola train was donated to the National Roller Coaster Museum and Archives. ## Incidents and accidents A 16-year-old worker from Lebanon, Pennsylvania, died after being hit by a moving train in the station's loading area while performing maintenance on August 25, 1977. A second maintenance worker was reportedly slightly injured in the accident. The roller coaster remained closed during an investigation of the accident, and would reopen on September 1, with the park claiming the 16-year-old's actions caused the train to set in motion. An initial investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) differed from the park's investigation. The park would later reverse course, stating the accident victim was not at fault and placed fault with the media for the divergence of facts regarding the accident. OSHA would fine Hersheypark the maximum penalty of \$2,000 dollars in September for two violations in safety protocol regarding the possibility of hazards. The family of the 16-year-old would later sue Schwarzkopf and Intamin for damages. A 22-year-old park visitor was seriously injured after falling from the roller coaster while riding on May 1, 1988. The roller coaster was closed pending investigations from the park and Pennsylvania's Bureau of Amusement Rides and Attractions. Mechanical fault was ruled out, with preliminary reports stating the visitor had stood up while the roller coaster was in motion. State investigators cleared the park of wrongdoing on May 6, faulting the rider for their conduct in opening their lap bar restraint. The roller coaster reopened the next day, May 7. ## Reception and legacy Upon opening, the SooperDooperLooper received generally positive reviews from critics and guests. Dean R. Wise, a reporter for the York Daily Record, recorded guests’ reactions to the roller coaster, with most riders exclaiming various praise. Wise personally commented that the roller coaster was quick, and ended his commentary stating it was "positively insane". Charles Shaw, a staff member for the Intelligencer Journal, highlighted the steep incline of the lift hill as well as the excitement of the vertical loop, calling it "rather fun" after fully grasping the experience. Shaw further described the remainder of the ride as "a little anti-climatic" as it contained elements seen on other roller coasters. Sue Smith, an editor for Lancaster New Era, commented that though she had her eyes closed during the ride, the sensation of the roller coaster was "a little scary and a lot thrilling", emphasizing the vertical loop. Lorrie Brown, a reporter for the Public Opinion, remarked that though the physical appearance of the loop was smaller than first anticipated, she concluded "the sooperdooperLooper delivers". Brown additionally stated the roller coaster produced "a whirlwind of motion", and was similarly scared by the end helix as with the vertical loop. Attendance at Hersheypark increased from 1.4 million to 1.7 million visitors during the 1977 season, ranking among the top three United States amusement parks. The increase in visitors was partially attributed to the opening of the SooperDooperLooper. The SooperDooperLooper was the first inverting roller coaster at the park. After five years of operation, over 200,000 t-shirts with the slogan "I survived the sooperdooperLooper" were sold, prompting the park to celebrate the roller coaster with a t-shirt day for the end of the 1981 season.
2,555,620	Porcelain (song)	1,165,525,634	2000 single by Moby	[ "1999 songs", "2000 singles", "Moby songs", "Music videos directed by Jonas Åkerlund", "Music videos directed by Nick Brandt", "Mute Records singles", "Song recordings produced by Moby", "Songs written by Moby", "V2 Records singles" ]	"Porcelain" is a song by American electronic musician Moby. It was released as the sixth single from his fifth studio album Play on April 25, 2000. Written by Moby, who also performs vocals on the recording, "Porcelain" is a melancholic song with lyrics reflecting on the breakup of a relationship. It features a lush musical backing that incorporates reversed strings and various synthesized elements. While Moby initially expressed disdain over the song and its production, he was eventually talked into including it on Play. One of the most successful singles from Play, "Porcelain" became a top five hit in the United Kingdom and entered various other national record charts. Contributing to the song's commercial exposure was its use in several forms of media, including a notable placement in the 2000 film The Beach. Music critics have highlighted "Porcelain" as a standout track on Play, and it has also been included on several year-end and all-time lists of the best songs. Two different music videos were produced for "Porcelain", directed by Jonas Åkerlund and Nick Brandt. ## Background and composition "Porcelain" was written and produced by Moby for his fifth studio album Play (1999). Moby recorded the song, and the rest of Play, in his apartment in Manhattan's Little Italy neighborhood. According to him, the song's lyrics were inspired by a personal experience: "I was involved with this really, really wonderful woman, and I loved her very much. But I knew deep in my heart of hearts that we had no business being romantically involved. So, it's sort of about being in love with someone but knowing you shouldn't be with them." Moby initially disliked "Porcelain", finding his production "mushy" and his vocals "really weak". He recalled that he "couldn't imagine anyone else wanting to listen to it" and had to be talked into including the song on Play. Andy Gensler of The Hollywood Reporter described "Porcelain" as a "lush" downtempo track. The song features vocals performed by Moby, and introspective, wistful lyrics that describe "loving someone, but having to break up with them anyway." Composed in the key of E major and running at a tempo of 96 beats per minute, "Porcelain" follows a constant four-chord progression (Gm−B−Fm−A) in the B mixolydian mode, with the exception of a bridge midway through the song. The music incorporates several layered elements, including a reversed sample of strings from the Ernest Gold composition "Fight for Survival" (from his soundtrack for the 1960 film Exodus), synthesizer chords, piano and cello lines, vocal samples, and a drum machine rhythm. Pilar Basso performs additional vocals on the song. ## Release The sixth single from Play, "Porcelain" was first released to radio on April 25, 2000, then issued as a physical single on June 12, 2000. Like other tracks from the album, "Porcelain" was licensed for use in numerous commercials and films. English director Danny Boyle featured "Porcelain" in his 2000 film The Beach, with Moby later crediting the film with significantly raising exposure of the song. "Porcelain" was also notably featured in commercials for the Volkswagen Polo, Bosch, and France Télécom. "Porcelain" became one of the most successful singles from Play, and Moby has since referred to it as "probably the most signature song" on the album. It debuted at its peak position of number five on the UK Singles Chart. The single also charted in numerous other European countries, including France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. In Canada, "Porcelain" peaked at number 50 on the RPM national singles chart, while in the United States, it placed on several genre-specific Billboard charts tracking popular records in dance and rock markets. Surprisingly, the song could be heard in Playing by Heart film released in 1998. ## Critical reception and legacy Entertainment Weekly's David Browne deemed "Porcelain" a standout track on Play, praising it as a "gorgeous" song anchored by Moby's "plaintive" vocal performance. Chicago Sun-Times critic Jim DeRogatis found the song "emotional and gripping" and remarked that if it "didn't move you (in every sense of the word), then you probably had no pulse." Alexandra Marshall of MTV described "Porcelain" as "a lush little snippet which sounds like a basement tape from a Magnetic Fields EP." The Birmingham Evening Mail said that the song's "sweeping melody and atmospheric vocals" create a "distinctive soundscape". Naming it the 26th best single of 2000, Playlouder referred to "Porcelain" as Play's "most crushingly heavenly track" and stated that "familiarity made it no less of a glorious single." It was voted by critics as the 56th best single of 2000 in The Village Voice's year-end Pazz & Jop poll. In 2003, Q listed "Porcelain" as one of the 1,001 best songs of all time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame featured the track in its exhibit "The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". Liana Jonas of AllMusic referred to "Porcelain" as "a groundbreaking recording", noting that the song's commercial success "helped bring electronica music into the limelight." Moby named his 2016 memoir after the song. Later, "Porcelain" was prominently sampled on rapper ASAP Rocky's 2018 song "ASAP Forever", with Moby being credited as a featured artist on the track. For his 19th studio album Reprise (2021), Moby recorded a new version of "Porcelain" featuring Jim James of My Morning Jacket on vocals, which was released as the first single from the album on March 26, 2021. ## Music videos Two separate music videos were produced for "Porcelain". The first version, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, is primarily a simple closeup of a human eye; various images are reflected onto the eye throughout the entire video, including Moby performing the song, people smiling, and a piano being played. This version only aired in European markets and was not released in the US until its inclusion on the 2001 video album Play: The DVD. The second video, directed by Nick Brandt, follows a driverless 1972 Cadillac DeVille, in which Moby is a passenger, as it travels through a city and a countryside, passing various people in slow motion. The car drives through a field, a forest, past cattle, and finally down a hillside going into the distance. ## Track listing - CD single (CDMute252) 1. "Porcelain" (single version) – 3:32 2. "Flying Over the Dateline" – 4:48 3. "Summer" – 5:55 - Cassette single (CMute252) 1. "Porcelain" (single version) – 3:32 2. "Porcelain" (Torsten Stenzel's Vocaldubmix) – 8:22 3. "Summer" – 5:55 - CD single – remixes (LCDMute252) 1. "Porcelain" (Clubbed to Death version by Rob Dougan) – 6:36 2. "Porcelain" (Futureshock instrumental) – 8:21 3. "Porcelain" (Torsten Stenzel's edited remix) – 4:49 - 12-inch single – remixes (12Mute252) 1. "Porcelain" (Torsten Stenzel's remix) – 9:05 2. "Porcelain" (Force Mass Motion remix) – 8:32 - 12-inch single – remixes (L12Mute252) 1. "Porcelain" (Futureshock instrumental) – 8:21 2. "Porcelain" (Futureshock beats) – 3:59 3. "Porcelain" (Clubbed to Death variation by Rob Dougan) – 6:36 - 12-inch single (63881-27650-1) 1. "Porcelain" (Clubbed to Death variation by Rob Dougan) – 6:36 2. "Porcelain" (album version) – 4:01 3. "Porcelain" (Futureshock remix) – 8:35 4. "Porcelain" (Futureshock beats) – 3:59 - "Honey" / "Porcelain" CD single (MUSH019852) 1. "Honey" (remix edit; featuring Kelis) – 3:13 2. "Porcelain" (album mix) – 4:01 3. "Honey" (Fafu's 12" mix; featuring Kelis) – 6:19 4. "Porcelain" (Clubbed to Death variation by Rob Dougan) – 6:36 5. "Honey" (Moby's 118 mix) – 4:48 - Digital single – remixes (ANJ396D) 1. "Porcelain" (Above & Beyond remix) – 6:41 2. "Porcelain" (Arty remix) – 3:31 - Digital single – remix (SHA120S1) 1. "Porcelain" (Pola & Bryson remix) – 5:27 - Digital EP – remixes (ROCKD025) 1. "Porcelain" (Timo Maas & James Teej's Broken China dub) – 9:16 2. "Porcelain" (Sebastian Mullaert's Transformation mix) – 13:27 ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ## Certifications ## Release history
15,944,285	Günther Specht	1,170,131,426	German World War II flying ace	[ "1914 births", "1945 deaths", "Aerial disappearances of military personnel in action", "Aviators killed by being shot down", "German World War II flying aces", "Luftwaffe personnel killed in World War II", "Luftwaffe pilots", "Missing in action of World War II", "People from Ząbkowice Śląskie", "People from the Province of Lower Silesia", "Recipients of the Gold German Cross", "Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross" ]	Günther Specht (13 November 1914 – 1 January 1945) was a German Luftwaffe fighter ace during World War II. Having joined the Luftwaffe in 1935 and completed his pilot training, at the start of the war Specht was a Leutnant in 3./ZG 26 "Horst Wessel" (the 3rd squadron of the 26th Heavy Fighter Wing). In 1939 he was wounded by an RAF tail gunner and blinded in one eye. After his recovery he chose to return to active service but was shot down again in France and was seriously injured. These injuries kept him grounded for the next two years. In 1942 he returned to active duty with 1st Fighter Wing (Jagdgeschwader 1 Oesau; JG 1). He was then made Group Commander (Gruppenkommandeur) of II Group of JG 11 (II./JG 11) and promoted to Major. He was appointed as Wing Commander (Geschwaderkommodore) of JG 11 and was listed as missing in action during the attack on the Allied bases at Asch and Ophoven as part of Operation Bodenplatte. He was posthumously promoted to lieutenant colonel (German: Oberstleutnant) and was recommended for the Oak Leaves (German: Eichenlaub) to the Knight's Cross, which was never actioned amongst all the confusion in the last months of the war. Specht was considered one of the best fighter leaders during the war and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. During his combat career he was credited with 34 enemy aircraft destroyed, all downed on the Western Front. He was shot down six times during the war. ## Personality Specht was born on 13 November 1914 in Frankenstein (modern Ząbkowice Śląskie) of Prussia (modern Poland). Specht was short in stature but full of energy. He had a distinguishing patch of gray in his hair just above his forehead. He was a perfectionist with a high sense of duty, and expected his men to follow his high standards. Although he lost his left eye in late 1939, according to Squadron Leader (German: Staffelkapitän) Heinz Knoke of 5./JG 11, he could see like a vulture and was an excellent marksman. Specht also had an eye for detail, and he wrote detailed mission log reports for future use. Specht's personal emblems adorning his aircraft included a design by Specht of a pencil superimposed on a chevron (termed a winged pencil) as a wry comment on being deskbound following his injuries. His single-engine aircraft with JG 11 sported a green spinner and a Knight's Cross painted on the cowling after he was awarded the honour in April 1944. Specht would not allow women on the group base, considering them an unnecessary diversion. According to Knoke, one time Specht's wife came to visit him on the II./JG 11 base but was held at the guard room on Specht's orders and refused to receive calls from the guard. Instead he asked Knoke to pass a message to her to 'put herself on ice', saying that he would have time for her only after the war. Specht however did not survive, dying five months before the war in Europe came to an end. ### Formation leadership After taking command of II./JG 11, Specht led the group on every mission in which it participated. Following each mission, he wrote detailed and analytical mission reports. He soon gained a reputation as one of the most reliable formation leaders, with II./JG 11 reputed to be one of the best units among the fighter force (German: Jagdwaffe) on Reich air defense (German: Reichsluftverteidigung). On 17 August 1943 Specht led the group from Gilze en Rijen on an intercept and sighted the B-17 Flying Fortresses of 381 Bombing Group near Antwerp. He waited for 30 minutes until the escorts turned back at Eupen before attacking. Within the next half hour, sixty percent of the bombers went down. Specht himself was credited with downing two as his 16th and 17th victories. On 11 September 1944 Specht and the JG 11 Headquarters-flight (German: Stabsschwarm) led a combined formation of II. Gruppe Jagdgeschwader 4 (Sturm) (German: Sturmgruppen) and III./JG 4. Due to Specht's skills, they positioned themselves against thirty-four B-17s of the "Bloody 100th" and fifteen B-17s were downed before the escorting P-51s arrived. Specht was credited with one P-51. ## Military career Having joined the Luftwaffe in 1935 and completed his pilot training, when war started in September 1939 Specht was a Leutnant in 3./ZG 26 "Horst Wessel" (the 3rd squadron of the 26th Heavy Fighter Wing). Supposedly equipped with the new, twin-engine, Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter, its production was so far behind schedule that 7 of the 10 Zerstörergruppen (including Specht's I./ZG 26) had to be equipped with old Messerschmitt Bf 109C and D single-engined fighters. They thus took no role in the Polish campaign, instead based on the North Sea coast near Wilhelmshaven. This was virtually the only part of the Western Front, during the Phoney War, where there was significant aerial activity in the early months of the war, as RAF bombers flew unescorted raids on the German naval bases. So it did not take long for Specht to score his first victories: two Handley Page Hampden medium bombers in a squadron conducting an armed reconnaissance operation near Heligoland, shot down on 29 September. Needing a long-range fighter to better intercept the British bombers at distance, I./ZG 26 was thus the next Gruppe selected for re-equipping onto the Bf 110. On 3 December 1939, 24 RAF Vickers Wellington bombers from Marham and Mildenhall bases attacked Heligoland. These were intercepted by I./ZG 26 along with other Messerschmitt Bf 109 units. Specht scored his third victory, shooting down a bomber over the North Sea. But he was also hit by return fire from the Wellington's tail gunner, seriously wounding him in the face. Ditching into the sea, he was picked up by rescue craft. Losing the sight in his left eye, he spent the next six months in recovery. He was shot down by Corporal Copley of No. 38 Squadron RAF. However, he returned to active service, as Gruppe Adjutant of I./ZG 26. Still able to fly combat missions, his aircraft sported a pencil under his Adjutant's chevron – bemoaning the combat pilot's universal loathing of paperwork! During the French campaign, on 23 May 1940, Spitfires were encountered by Bf 110s and Bf 109s for the first time. The engagement resulted in the loss of two Bf 110s and two Bf 109s. However, Specht would claim three RAF Supermarine Spitfire fighters shot down. The British No. 92 Squadron RAF involved lost three Spitfires in the entire engagement. Squadron Leader Roger J Bushell became a prisoner of war while Paul H. Klipsch and Patrick Alexander George Learmond were killed in action. During the course of this battle, Specht and his rear gunner/radio operator were wounded, force land near Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer with a damaged aircraft. Again he was badly injured and spent further time in hospital. After recovering he took up staff duties for a year, until 16 September 1941, when he was made Staffelkapitän (Squadron leader) of a newly formed night-fighter training unit, 2./Nachtjagdschule 1 (coming out of 2./Zerstörerschule 1). Soon after, on 31 October, Hauptmann (Captain) Specht was promoted to Kommandeur of III./NJS 1. Located at Ingolstadt-Manching, Specht instructed pilots in conversion to night fighting. Paul Zorner, a future night fighter expert, was one of his students. Leading the Gruppe for exactly one year, this was the last time Specht flew a twin engine aircraft, whereupon he returned to combat duties. Initially reassigned to 10./JG 1 based in the Ruhr, he shot down his first Viermot (four-engined bomber), a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress on a mission to Wilhelmshaven, his 7th aerial victory, on 26 February 1943. This was the beginning of a new war for Specht – the 8th USAAF was starting its bombing offensive on the Reich's industrial complex. Soon afterward, on 27 March, he was appointed Staffelkapitän of the newly reformed 7./JG 1, then in May 1943 he was promoted to Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 11, succeeding Major Adolf Dickfeld who was transferred. Jagdgeschwader 11 was a new fighter wing, created in April 1943 by dividing Jagdgeschwader 1 (flying Fw 190s) in half and filling it out into a full wing with new Gruppen flying Bf 109G-6 'gunboats', to increase the homeland protection. He was based back near his original airfields on the North Sea coast, his unit the first line of defense against the bomber streams and their fighter escorts. Throughout 1943, as the Luftwaffe took the fight to the bombers flying unescorted over the Reich, Specht scored regularly. Leading by example, he soon became one of the top Viermot aces shooting down 14 bombers out of his 18 victories that year. This included his 13th victory on 26 July, during Blitz Week, when bombers targeted the Blohm & Voss U Boat yards in Hamburg and the synthetic rubber factories of Continental AG and Nordhafen in Hanover.; as well a pair on 17 August on the Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission. He was awarded the Honour Goblet of the Luftwaffe (Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe) on 23 August, and the German Cross in Gold (Deutsches Kreuz in Gold) on 25 November. Specht became increasingly critical of the relatively weak armament of the Bf 109 during this time. Towards the end of 1943, with longer-ranged fighter-escorts accompanying the Allied bombers, tactics had to change: The single-engined fighters would engage the fighter screen while a Zerstörergruppe would take on the bombers. Coincidentally, for a while Specht's II./JG 11 was paired up with his old unit, I./ZG 26. He continued his success into 1944: On 11 February 1944 II./JG 11 engaged escort fighters returning from a raid on Frankfurt with Specht downing 2nd Lieutenant Richard McDonald of the 354th Fighter Group, who crashed his P-51 Mustang "Plane Jane" near Oberalben. Nine days later, (the opening of the 8th USAAF's "Big Week") Specht had to crash land on the Ærø Island as a result of technical problems with his Bf 109G. Despite that, he was back in the air the next day claiming a P-47 fighter, and a bomber and a fighter the day after, to take his tally to 30. On 15 March II./JG 11 lost six killed in action, two wounded, and eight aircraft lost, resulting in Specht declaring the unit non-operational for six weeks to rest and replace losses. On 8 April 1944 Specht was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) for his 30 victories on the Western Front. On 15 April, after his commander Hermann Graf was injured on 29 March, he transferred his command of II./JG 11 to Major Günther Rall, and moved to the Geschwaderstab (Wing Command flight) as Kommodore-in-training, under Herbert Ihlefeld. Specht was given full command of JG 11 on 15 May, replacing Ihlefeld who was himself transferred to command JG 1. But little could be done as the Allied bombing offensive stepped up a gear. His units were decimated over the skies of Normandy in June and July. He himself was injured in July, suffering head injuries in yet another crash-landing. Despite severe pain from his injuries, Specht remained on combat duty. His wing was retired to the Rhineland to be rebuilt, but they were crushed again in the latter half of 1944. The Allies were now sending overwhelming numbers of bombers to destroy the German industrial and military factories and the bombers were now protected by the advent of the P-51 Mustang, providing fighter cover right into the heart of the Reich and back. During Operation Market Garden, the Allied parachute landings in the Netherlands, Specht claimed two RAF Hawker Typhoons west of Arnhem on 26 September. According to RAF records only three Typhoons were shot down on 26 September; two to flak and one in aerial combat against Jagdgeschwader 53 Bf 109s near Apeldoorn. No fighters were recorded lost near Deventer. However, it may be the case that loss records were lost or not well kept, meaning Specht's claims cannot be traced and may well be accurate. ### Operation Bodenplatte In December, Hitler ordered his final, desperate attack in the west - through the snow-covered forests of the Ardennes. Poor weather kept the promised air support grounded, but early on the morning of New Year's Day, long after it was tactically useful or relevant, the Luftwaffe launched Operation Bodenplatte ('Baseplate') - not against the devastating strategic bombers, but on the frontline fighter airbases. Virtually all available fighter groups in the west were allocated to this mission, JG 11 was assigned the USAAF airfield at Asch (Code Name Y–29) and the RAF airfield at Ophoven north of Asch. The 366th Fighter Group (366th FG, Ninth Air Force) and the 352nd Fighter Group (352 FG, Eighth Air Force) were based at Asch. No. 41, No. 130, 350 and No. 610 Squadrons of the 2nd Tactical Wing were based at Ophoven. For this mission Specht wore his full dress uniform with medals instead of his flight suit. JG 11 was based at Darmstadt-Griesheim, Zellhausen, and Gross-Ostheim. I./JG 11, III./JG 11 (Fw 190 A–9), and II./JG 11 (Bf 109 G) mustered sixty-five aircraft for this mission. Specht flew Fw 190 A-9 (Werknummer 205033—factory number) "Black 4". Overall the operation was a major failure. With the large proportion of inexperienced, green pilots, flight coordination was extremely difficult and due to the extreme secrecy many pilots were shot down by their own FlaK antiaircraft, who were not pre-warned of the operation. It also resulted in the loss of a number of irreplaceable combat leaders. As regards JG 11 specifically, at 08:08 am the aircraft took off and assembled over Aschaffenburg with two Junkers Ju 188 'Pathfinders' to navigate. After assembling, Specht ordered all aircraft to fly at 400 feet (120 m) to the target area, climbing to 1,500 feet (460 m) prior to commencing the attack. Some P-47 Thunderbolts of the 390th Fighter Squadron, 366th FG, were already airborne and Mustangs of the 487th Fighter Squadron, 352nd FG, were on the runway. The formation was disrupted by flak, and several German aircraft were shot down. The P-47 and P-51s took a heavy toll of JG 11; some 25 pilots were lost, including Specht, who was posted as Missing In Action, along with other senior officers of JG 11. ### Death and subsequent confusion There was some confusion over the circumstance of Specht's death. Lt. Melvin Paisley and his wingman Flight Officer Dave Johnson were flying 366th FG P-47s; Johnson shot down two German fighters before his aircraft was heavily damaged from return fire. Bailing out, he landed in a field near Asch. A Bf 109 he had shot down had belly landed close by and Johnson rode a borrowed bicycle over to inspect it. The aircraft was intact but the pilot was dead. Johnson took the pilot's identification card and gun and rode back to base. The identification card identified the pilot as an Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel); however, the card actually belonged to Oberleutnant (German: Oberleutnant) August Engel of 8. Staffel. Further research has revealed more detail. German records confirmed Specht flew a Fw 190, not a Bf 109, and that he was a Major at the time, confirming Johnson's victim was most likely to have been Engel. Johnson's claim form revealed he had claimed a Bf 109, not an Fw 190. The ID card of Johnson's victim was passed on to a member of the ground crew who spoke German. This individual stated that the rank was given as lieutenant colonel. The incorrect identification was most likely a language error and misunderstanding of German ranks. This may have caused the belief that Johnson had killed Specht. Johnson died in October 1976, and aviation historians were unable to secure his version of events. Specht was officially listed as missing in action over Maastricht, but he has recently been confirmed dead. He crashed his plane after taking heavy fire. Specht was promoted posthumously to Oberstleutnant and nominated for the Eichenlaub (Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross) though this was never awarded in the bedlam of the final weeks of the war. Shot down six times in his career, he preferred to try landing his damaged aircraft rather than taking to his parachute. Specht was credited with 34 aerial victories, which according to Obermaier included 17 heavy bombers, all achieved over the Western Front. ## Summary of career ### Aerial victory claims Mathews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 31 aerial victory claims, including 15 heavy bombers, plus three further unconfirmed claims, all of which claimed on the Western Front. Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 05 Ost TN-6". The Luftwaffe grid map (Jägermeldenetz) covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15 minutes of latitude by 30 minutes of longitude, an area of about 360 square miles (930 km<sup>2</sup>). These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 km × 4 km (1.9 mi × 2.5 mi) in size. ### Awards - Iron Cross in 1939 2nd and 1st Class. - Honour Goblet of the Luftwaffe on 23 August 1943 as Hauptmann and Gruppenkommandeur - German Cross in Gold on 25 November 1943 while serving in the II./Jagdgeschwader 11 - Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 8 April 1944 as Major and Gruppenkommandeur of the II./Jagdgeschwader 11 ### Dates of rank ## See also - Organizational Hierarchy of the Luftwaffe during WW II ## Military Offices held [1914 births](Category:1914_births "wikilink") [1945 deaths](Category:1945_deaths "wikilink") [People from Ząbkowice Śląskie](Category:People_from_Ząbkowice_Śląskie "wikilink") [People from the Province of Lower Silesia](Category:People_from_the_Province_of_Lower_Silesia "wikilink") [Luftwaffe pilots](Category:Luftwaffe_pilots "wikilink") [German World War II flying aces](Category:German_World_War_II_flying_aces "wikilink") [Luftwaffe personnel killed in World War II](Category:Luftwaffe_personnel_killed_in_World_War_II "wikilink") [Missing in action of World War II](Category:Missing_in_action_of_World_War_II "wikilink") [Recipients of the Gold German Cross](Category:Recipients_of_the_Gold_German_Cross "wikilink") [Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross](Category:Recipients_of_the_Knight's_Cross_of_the_Iron_Cross "wikilink") [Aviators killed by being shot down](Category:Aviators_killed_by_being_shot_down "wikilink") [Aerial disappearances of military personnel in action](Category:Aerial_disappearances_of_military_personnel_in_action "wikilink")
54,922,493	Wipeout Omega Collection	1,170,743,187	2017 video game compilation	[ "2017 video games", "Clever Beans games", "Creative Vault Studios games", "Multiplayer and single-player video games", "PlayStation 4 Pro enhanced games", "PlayStation 4 games", "PlayStation 4-only games", "Racing video games", "Sony Interactive Entertainment game compilations", "Split-screen multiplayer games", "Video game remasters", "Video games developed in the United Kingdom", "Video games set in Canada", "Video games set in Italy", "Video games set in Japan", "Video games set in Kiribati", "Video games set in the 22nd century", "Video games set in the United Kingdom", "Video games set in the United States", "Wipeout (series)" ]	Wipeout Omega Collection (stylised as WipE′out Omega Collection) is a 2017 futuristic racing video game compilation co-developed by XDev, Clever Beans and Creative Vault Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. It was first released in North America on June 6 2017 and in Europe a day later. The compilation includes remasters of two entries in the series: Wipeout HD, along with its Wipeout HD Fury expansion, and Wipeout 2048. Both games revolve around players competing in anti-gravity racing leagues. Wipeout Omega Collection is the first title in the Wipeout series not to be developed by franchise creators Studio Liverpool, following its closure in 2012. It received positive reviews upon release, with many critics welcoming the series' return and the upgraded visuals, as well as the preservation of its ubiquitous techno soundtrack. ## Contents Wipeout Omega Collection is a remaster of the previous two titles in the Wipeout series: Wipeout HD (with its Wipeout HD Fury expansion) and Wipeout 2048. Wipeout HD itself contains content from the PlayStation Portable titles Wipeout Pure and Wipeout Pulse. In all games, players control anti-gravity ships which are owned by racing corporations (effectively referred to as 'teams' in-game). Every ship has different characteristics; for example, each ship's statistics vary in handling, thrust, top speed and shield strength. Each ship is equipped with an energy shield which absorbs damage sustained during a race; energy is lost whenever the player's ship collides with the trackside barrier, other ships, or is hit by weapon fire. If the shield runs out, the player's ship will explode and is consequently eliminated from the race. The player may replenish energy by absorbing unwanted weapon pick-ups. Nine game modes appear in Omega Collection: from HD; tournament, speed lap, time trial and single races return, as does the "Zone" mode, in which the player must survive as their ship increasingly accelerates to extreme speeds. From the Fury expansion; "Zone Battle", Eliminator and Detonator features in the compilation, in addition the entire campaign from 2048. The games contain a total of 26 unique tracks and 46 unique ship models, and include local split-screen and online multiplayer. The campaigns for both games are split into three groups, in a similar manner to how the HD and Fury campaigns were separated in Wipeout HD Fury. The compilation is capable of running at a native resolution of 1080p on the PlayStation 4 and 4K on the PlayStation 4 Pro, both at 60 frames per second. In addition to new special effects and upgraded textures, it also has an optional HDR-compatibility mode which is supported on both consoles. An update to the game added support for PlayStation VR. The Omega Collection features 28 licensed soundtracks; if the PlayStation Music app is installed, players can use the "Best of WipEout" Spotify playlist to play tracks from older Wipeout games. ## Development and release The original developers of the Wipeout series, Studio Liverpool, was closed by Sony Worldwide Studios in August 2012. It was reported that around the time of its close the studio was developing a "dramatically different" Wipeout launch title for the then-upcoming PlayStation 4. Despite the studio's closure, its Liverpool campus at Wavertree Technology Park still houses Sony's External Development Studio Europe (XDev) among other departments. In 2015, Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida hinted towards a possible Wipeout title for the PlayStation 4, saying that the company would like to "balance" the number of games in their franchises. The following year Nick Burcombe, co-creator of the original Wipeout, affirmed that enthusiasm towards developing a new instalment remained high among his team, should Sony decide to commission one. When asked about the potential revival of the Wipeout brand, Burcombe commented that any new title would be wholly contingent on demand and Sony's willingness to relinquish the franchise. Wipeout Omega Collection was formally announced by Sony Interactive Entertainment during the annual PlayStation Experience expo on 4 December 2016, with a slated release date in the summer of 2017. The game was available both via digital and retail format on 6 June for North America and 7 June for Europe. A virtual reality version of the game was released through a free patch in March 2018. Those who pre-ordered the game digitally were gifted a dynamic theme for their PlayStation 4 as well as access to an exclusive ship. Those who pre-ordered the disc version in Europe were given an exclusive steelbook as well as customisable themes for the PlayStation 4. ## Reception Wipeout Omega Collection received positive reviews upon release. It holds an average score of 85 percent at Metacritic, based on an aggregate of 53 reviews, and also appeared among Metacritic's top 30 highest ranked PlayStation 4 games of 2017. The upgraded visuals of both Wipeout HD and 2048 received unanimous praise among critics. Martin Robinson from Eurogamer lauded the game's improved lighting, textures, and HDR-compatibility while remarking that the game "never looked better" despite its "greying roots". GameSpot's Miguel Concepcion asserted that game was Wipeout "in its prettiest form", commenting that the visual fidelity of HD and 2048 demonstrated that it was not merely a direct port. David Meikleham of GamesRadar+ likewise praised its "pristine" 4K visuals and heralded the compilation as a perfect illustrator for HDR gaming. Sammy Barker from Push Square noted that the exceptional presentation epitomised the appeal of the wider Wipeout franchise, concluding that the Omega Collection was a visually impressive remaster Frédéric Goyon from Jeuxvideo.com commended the compilation's "charismatic" aesthetic design and was enthralled over the remastered graphics. Wired UK's Matt Kamen praised the visuals of both games and the intricate details of its textures, cementing that the whole experience was "glorious to behold", while Jordan Devore from Destructoid reckoned that the compilation's visual polish alone made it a worthwhile purchase, regardless of a 4K setup. Although the gameplay was mainly well-received, some critics noted a sense of repetition despite the abundance of content. Devore opined that certain long-time players of the franchise may feel fatigued over the tracks that have been used repeatedly over the years, but nevertheless thought the overall experience was entertaining in its own right. Robinson observed that both HD and 2048 offer distinct personalities and offers a "purposely" aggressive and meaningful amount of substance for the player. Concepcion praised the compilation's consistent gameplay and its gradual progression in difficulty, while Meikleham felt that the Omega Collection's recycled content did not matter in light of its quantity. Barker and Goyon found the controls to be fluid and responsive, with Barker commenting that its gameplay was permeated by an "eye-watering" sense of speed. Kamen enjoyed the combined elements of 2048's campaign progression system and HD's more "down to earth" tournament structure, noting that both games contributed to an overall "smoothly" integrated experience. Wipeout Omega Collection became the first game in the series to gain the UK All Formats physical No. 1, and entered the download charts at No. 15. The game was nominated for "Racing Game" at The Independent Game Developers' Association Awards 2017, and for "Music Design" at the 2018 Develop Awards.
2,251,152	Illbleed	1,148,064,232	2001 video game	[ "2000s horror video games", "2001 video games", "Action-adventure games", "Cancelled Xbox games", "Dreamcast games", "Dreamcast-only games", "Jaleco games", "Single-player video games", "Video games developed in Japan", "Video games featuring female protagonists" ]	is a survival horror game developed by Crazy Games and released for the Dreamcast in 2001. It was published by Crazy Games in Japan and Amusement Interface Associate (AIA) in North America. The game follows Eriko Christy, a high school student exploring a horror-themed amusement park to find her missing friends. The player explores six haunted house attractions based on fictional horror films, detecting and neutralizing hidden traps and enemies which can harm or frighten Eriko and her friends. Crazy Games was known as Climax Graphics until a month before Illbleed's release. As Climax Graphics, they developed and published Blue Stinger (1999), an action-adventure game for the Dreamcast. The team wanted to explore horror themes in their next game, and so drew inspiration from haunted house attractions and horror films to create an original scenario to differentiate it from other horror games. Illbleed was released in the months following Sega's discontinuation of the Dreamcast. It received mixed reviews, with praise for its original concept, dark humor, camp style, and horror B movie qualities, but criticism for its game design, controls, and overall playability. It was a commercial failure, only selling a tenth of Blue Stinger's figures. A port for the Xbox was planned but canceled. ## Gameplay Illbleed is a survival horror game. The player explores six stages, each an amusement park attraction themed after a different fictional horror film, and complete objectives unique to each one. The player begins by controlling the protagonist, Eriko Christy, but rescues and recruits more playable characters as they progress, each with different strengths and weaknesses. Items may be found throughout levels, or purchased at the park's grandstand, which serves as a hub world. Items include text that tells the story, event items needed to complete a stage objective, or recovery items that can heal the player character. The player can purchase recovery items and character upgrades from the "Emergency Room" in each stage and the hub world. In contrast to contemporary survival horror games, Illbleed prioritizes locating and neutralizing traps over combat. A level's trap locations, enemies, and items are randomized. Different types of traps and enemies may affect the player character's stamina, heart rate, or bleeding rate. Physical damage reduces stamina and increases bleeding, while frightening moments increase their heart rate. High bleeding rates cause stamina and heart rate to fall. If the bleeding reaches a certain threshold, or they lose all their stamina, the character dies. If their heart rate increases too much, they die of a heart attack, or they faint if it drops too low. If the player fails to keep the character alive, they must continue with another available character. Dead characters can be revived outside the level. If there are no remaining characters, the game ends and must be restarted from a previous save point. To avoid hazards, the player must watch a sensory feedback monitor which indicates the senses of sight, hearing, smell, and a sixth sense. Each time the player gets near an item or potential hazard, different senses may react on the sensory monitor. To dismantle traps, the player must use the Horror Monitor, which can be found near the beginning of each stage. The Horror Monitor allows the player to mark areas for potential traps and enemies at the cost of adrenaline. The player can survey any spot marked. If a trap was there, it is disabled and the spent adrenaline returns to the character. Marking enemies grants the player a first strike advantage going into battle. Engaging enemies places the game into a combat mode with unique controls. The player must neutralize the enemy or escape by calling for a helicopter from a helipad. Winning a battle grants the character adrenaline. ## Plot Eriko Christy is a high school student and horror aficionado. As a child, Eriko's family ran a "horror caravan", a traveling horror-themed amusement attraction. Her father tested horror gimmicks on her when she was a child, traumatizing her. When she was six years old, her mother divorced her father and took Eriko, estranging the two. In the present, Eriko's friends Kevin, Randy, and Michel invite her to Illbleed, a new horror amusement park. Its creator, the horror film producer Michael Reynolds, offers a reward of \$100 million to anyone who can successfully reach the end of the park. Eriko declines the invitation, assuming it is a cheap publicity stunt. Her three friends excitedly set out for the park, leaving her with her ticket. After a few days without hearing from her friends, Eriko goes to the park to investigate. In the park, Eriko explores haunted house attractions themed after horror films. While exploring the attractions, she has the opportunity to save each of her friends. If she saves all three and a reporter, Jorg, Eriko and her friends win the prize money, but Eriko states that she is going back to Illbleed and tells them not to follow. This initiates a new game plus mode, wherein Eriko meets Michael Reynolds at the end, discovers he is her father, and defeats him in a final battle. ## Development Illbleed was developed for the Dreamcast by the Tokyo-based game developer Crazy Games, under leadership from its founder and producer Shinya Nishigaki. The company was known as Climax Graphics until one month before the game's release. The team began working on Illbleed after completing their first Dreamcast game, Blue Stinger (1999), which was published by Sega in Japan. They considered making a sequel to Blue Stinger and were asked by Sega to do so after its commercial success in the West. However, they elected to make an original horror game. Illbleed's production occurred in Shinjuku, Tokyo and lasted a year and a half. At its peak, Crazy Games had 23 staff working on the game. Programmer Kazuaki Yokozawa designed a new game engine in an effort to alleviate many of the issues in Blue Stinger, such as the camera. It also allowed for higher frame rates, more effects, and more objects on screen. The team had avoided horror elements in Blue Stinger to set it apart from horror adventure games on the market like Resident Evil, but they decided to wholly embrace horror for Illbleed. Horror media was in the middle of a renaissance at the time, owing success to films such as Ring (1998) and Spiral (1998) in Japan, and Scream (1996) in the United States. Wanting a game with jump scares, the team decided to create an elaborate haunted house game, simulating the haunted house attractions seen in amusement parks. They visited haunted house attractions at Fuji-Q Highland in Yamanashi for inspiration, and studied how such attractions are designed to play with attendees' expectations. They also pulled influence from 1980s American horror films and B movies. Nishigaki, a film aficionado, cited the directorial styles of James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Hayao Miyazaki, and Akira Kurosawa as influences. ## Release Illbleed was announced in April 2000 at Tokyo Game Show. A playable demo was demonstrated at E3 that year and at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2000. Although Crazy Games originally expected Sega to localize the game due to Blue Stinger's success, Sega of America dropped Illbleed from its localization lineup in mid-2000, citing a crowded first-party release schedule. Sega felt it was a strong game and would get picked up by a third-party publisher, and as expected, Crazy Games soon had offers from five different publishers to localize. Jaleco obtained the rights, but it was struggling financially and was bought out by PCCW. Former Jaleco executives founded Amusement Interface Associate (AIA) and its subsidiary AIA USA in early 2001, which ultimately localized the game. Crazy Games self-published Illbleed in Japan on March 29, 2001 for the Dreamcast, two months after Sega announced it was discontinuing the platform. It was released in North America by AIA USA one month later. A Chinese-language edition was released in January 2002. Crazy Games also released an action figure of Eriko Christy, limited to 1,000 figures. Illbleed was a commercial failure, only selling 50,000 copies worldwide, a tenth of Blue Stinger's sales. Ports of Illbleed and Blue Stinger were under development for the Xbox by the Japanese developer Coolnet Entertainment. Despite Illbleed being reportedly 90% complete, the ports were canceled due to Nishigaki's death in 2004 and the Xbox's poor performance in Japan. ## Reception Illbleed received "mixed or average reviews", according to the video game review aggregator Metacritic. Many critics praised its willingness to stray from the typical survival horror gameplay of the time, by forgoing combat and puzzle-solving segments in favor of trap detection and avoidance. Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) wrote that Illbleed "picks up the dying survival horror torch, douses it in gasoline, and throws it into your treehouse, laughing all the while". Next Generation described the survival horror genre as becoming "almost as ubiquitous as first-person shooters", and felt Illbleed successfully set itself apart. GameSpy agreed, saying the genre needed some kind of innovation, and felt that Illbleed's new gameplay elements and unique humor made it original. The most-praised elements included the campy B movie style, twisted dark humor, and gratuitous use of blood. GameSpot called the offbeat presentation Illbleed's most redeeming quality, writing that "gratuitous use of luscious, spurting blood sets its B movie tone perfectly". EGM described the game as "psychotically gorgeous" and "freaking bizarre". Dreamcast Magazine (UK) summarized the game in one word, "excess", explaining that everything in the game was "insane" and "over-the-top". GameSpy and GameSpot observed that the game was self-aware of its camp qualities and fully embraced it. While the voice acting was panned by EGM and GameSpy, Dreamcast Magazine felt it contributed to its campy quality. Both EGM and Next Generation wrote that the game had a low budget feel which made it feel in the same vein as the B movies that inspired it. Illbleed's game design and controls were criticized. Critics said the stiff jump mechanics, the stark difference between walking and running, and the camera system all contributed to frustration. IGN wrote that it could be difficult to enjoy the game while these problems interrupted the experience. Edge described the room-to-room exploration as a repetitive "minesweeping" exercise of tagging traps, but felt it worked generally well except for a lack of checkpoints. GameSpot and GameSpy criticized what they called "stop and go" pacing: needing to stop and scan rooms for traps upon entering them, before being able to proceed. Critics recommended Illbleed to players who can appreciate schlock horror and ignore technical flaws. GameSpot wrote that whether players enjoy the game depends on their "affinity for slapstick horror" and "tolerance for tedium." Producer Shinya Nishigaki said of the reception: "Illbleed requires a high degree of intelligence to play [...] It was just an entire mix of entertainment that many people couldn't understand. To me, the negative reviews of the game did not affect me at all."
64,242,726	AN/APS-20	1,149,684,502	Airborne search radar	[ "Aircraft radars", "Anti-submarine warfare", "Cold War military radars of the United States", "General Electric radars", "Military equipment introduced from 1945 to 1949", "Radars of the United States Air Force", "Weather radars" ]	The AN/APS-20 was an airborne early warning, anti-submarine, maritime surveillance and weather radar developed in the United States in the 1940s. Entering service in 1945, it served for nearly half a century, finally being retired in 1991. Initially developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under Project Cadillac, the radar was developed to be carried by aircraft to extend the sensor range of ships by placing a radar at altitude. Although developed for carrier-borne operation, first being installed in the single-engined General Motors TBM-3W Avenger, it was also used in larger four-engined airframes, the last being a fleet of Avro Shackleton AEW.2 which were converted from maritime patrol aircraft. Similarly, although developed for detecting aircraft, it saw extensive service in anti-submarine and maritime patrol roles and was one of the first radars to be used in researching extreme weather like hurricanes by agencies like the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA). As well as the United States, the radar was used by a large number of services in other countries, including the French Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Early versions of the radar could see a low-flying aircraft at 65 nautical miles (120 km; 75 mi) and a ship at 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi). This was improved, so that later versions had a range against aerial targets of 115 nautical miles (213 km; 132 mi). ## Background From the early days of its development, radar had been used to detect aircraft. Early apparatus was large and required substantial power, and so was limited to fixed locations and ships. However, during World War II, increasingly smaller radar sets were developed that could be more installed in smaller platforms like aircraft. At the same time, the United States Navy (USN) was aware that attacks from the aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy were the largest threat to their warships and protecting these ships became more dependent on aircraft carriers and their squadrons. Shipborne radar did not have sufficient range to identify attacking bombers in time to launch defensive interceptor aircraft due to the radar horizon. The solution lay in placing a radar in an aircraft. Night fighter radars proved inadequate for the task. Optimised for aerial combat, they were too short ranged to fulfil the necessary long-range aerial surveillance role. ## Design and development The solution to the problem of detecting objects beyond the horizon lay in developing a dedicated airborne early warning radar. On 2 February 1942, the USN commissioned the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to explore an airborne radar design dedicated to seeking aircraft under Project Cadillac, named after the Cadillac Mountain in Maine. The team grew rapidly from 37, including 10 officers, in May 1943 to 138 at the end of the War. The outcome of the development was an S-Band radar designated AN/APS-20. Development continued in two guises. Cadillac I, the initial platform, was to be carrier-based and the first radar was to be fitted to converted General Motors TBM-3 Avenger torpedo bombers. Simultaneously, the need for a version for larger land-based aircraft was recognised. Under the guise of Cadillac II, it was decided that the Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress heavy bomber was to be fitted with the radar. The production radar was manufactured by General Electric and Hazeltine. The first version, the AN/APS-20A, had, initially, an 8-foot-4-inch (2.54 m) antenna and operated on a frequency of 2850 MHz in the S band. Later a slightly smaller 8 ft (2.4 m) antenna was used. The scanner had two speeds, 3 and 6 revolutions per minute. The radar worked at a Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF) of 300 Hz, a pulse length of 2 μm (7.9×10<sup>−5</sup> in). Peak power was 1 megawatt (1,300 hp). The AN/APS-20B, designed to be carried by larger aircraft, differed in size and capability. It had a peak power of 2 MW (2,700 hp) and a horizontal beam width of 1.5° and vertical of 6°. Pulse width remained 2 μs. Range was extended to 65 nautical miles (120 km; 75 mi) against low flying aircraft and 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) against shipping. Later versions expanded the capability. The AN/APS-20F extended the range against aircraft to 80 nautical miles (150 km; 92 mi), while the larger AN/APS-20E could detect an aerial 1 m<sup>2</sup> (11 sq ft) target at 115 nautical miles (213 km; 132 mi). Initially deployed in 1953, the E model operated in the L band, S band and X band, with a wide selection of PRFs and pulse widths in each band. It also included automatic target indication, three choices of heading reference and stabilization, selectable azimuth and elevation beam widths, selectable output and receiver radiated gain and automatic gain control amongst other features. ## Service ### Trials and initial use The first aircraft equipped with the AN/APS-20 was a converted TBM-3 Avenger, designated XTBM-3W, which first flew on 5 August 1944. The radar was mounted in a radome under the forward fuselage. A series of aircraft were converted from existing TBM-3 airframes by the Naval Aircraft Modification Unit and designated TBM-3W, with initial training aboard the aircraft carrier Ranger starting in May 1945. At the same time, 31 large Boeing PB-1W aircraft were converted from B-17G Flying Fortresses to become the first land-based aircraft equipped with the radar. They were especially designed to combat the increasing threat of Japanese Kamikaze attacks. The crew of the Avenger consisted of, as well as the pilot, a single Radar Operator (RO). The larger size of the PB-1W allowed for two ROs, an Electronics Technician and, critically, a Combat Information Center (CIC) Officer supported by two radio operators. The latter team was able to direct aircraft to the target, adding the ability of the aircraft to control fighter aircraft and enabling operation independent of shipboard or ground-based control. This capability was later developed into the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS). The war ended before either aircraft became operational. Post-war, the USN quickly accelerated a program to get the radar into service. The AN/APS-20 was installed in the Douglas AD-3W Skyraider, which replaced the Avenger, and the Lockheed PO-2W Warning Star, a specialised platform developed from the Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation airliner. Both also saw service outside the USN. The latter, which could carry up to 32 servicemen for long trips, so impressed the newly formed United States Air Force (USAF) that it ordered it into service as the EC-121 Warning Star. Following a test between 24 February and 23 March 1953, the USAF used their aircraft to mount a near-continuous monitor of potential incursion by the Soviet Air Forces of American continental airspace. At the same time, the Royal Navy procured fifty examples of the AD-3W as the Skyraider AEW.1. This was the first use of the radar the a non-US operator. Meanwhile, in an attempt to extend endurance, in 1954 the USN ordered the installation of the radar in a blimp, the ZP2N-1W, later redesigned ZPG-2W and then, in 1962, EZ-1B. The last example retired in October 1962, not only ending the use of the radar in airships but also all lighter than air operations by the service. ### Expanding capabilities Alongside these developments, new uses of the radar were explored. One arena where the radar broke new ground was in weather research, particularly with the hurricane hunters that flew into tropical cyclones. The first trials of the radar took place in 1946 with a PB-1W and on 15 September 1953 the newly created weather squadron VJ2 flew the first aircraft equipped with an APS/AN-20 into a hurricane, Hurricane Dolly. Equipped with the dedicated WV-3 Warning Star from 1956, the squadron frequently flew up to three times a week on tropical cyclone observation. At the same time, VW-1 was providing a similar service tracking typhoons in the Pacific. Other users of the radar included the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA) and its successor the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Aircraft operated by these agencies were also made available to universities, and therefore the radar was also used as a tool for academic research where its attributes proved invaluable in the study of precipitation. It was used in a wide range of airframes, including converted Douglas DC-6 airliners and the dedicated Lockheed WP-3A Orion which served into the 1970s. Meanwhile, in 1948, the UK evaluated a PB-1W equipped with AN/APS-20 against a Vickers Warwick V fitted with ASV.13 to see if the radar could also be used to identify surface ships, but the peak power was deemed too high and the pulse length too long for the application. Nonetheless, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) used the radar in their maritime surveillance Canadair Argus Mk.1. The USN also looked to mount the radar on its carrier-borne anti-submarine aircraft, commissioning Grumman to use it in the design which eventually became the Grumman S2F Tracker. Of greater impact, however, was the improved AN/APS-20E subsequently used in the role in the Lockheed P2V Neptune. The radar first flew in the third airframe, designated P2V-2S, which was the first developed for the anti-submarine role. It proved effective at identifying large surface ships up to 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) away but was ineffectual when tracking periscopes. Subsequently, the airframe was adopted by a range of operators, from the Argentine Navy to the Republic of China Air Force. The AN/APS-20 was also briefly used as part of the Space Race, supporting Project Mercury, where the radar's long range enabled it to be used in tracking and other tasks. It was particularly used to help find returning space capsules after splashdown. For example, the radar was installed aboard aircraft of VP-5 that were involved in the recovery of Commander Alan Shepard from Mercury-Redstone 3, Captain Gus Grissom from Mercury-Redstone 4 and Commander Wally Schirra from Mercury-Atlas 8. Replacement of the radar took many decades. The USAF trialled the more advanced AN/APS-82, which provided target height data, in 1956 but waited until after 1962 before replacing the radar with the AN/APS-95 aboard their Warning Stars. In the meantime, the USN introduced the AN/APS-82 on board carriers in the airborne early warning role in 1959. The AN/APS-80, which offered similar capabilities to the AN/APS-20 but added continuous 360° area search coverage, replaced the radar in the anti-submarine role from 1961. The Canadians finally replaced their AN/APS-20 with AN/APS-115 in 1981. The last operator of the radar was the Royal Air Force (RAF), which had previously used it between 1952 and 1957. When the Royal Navy retired their last AN/APS-20, they were refurbished and fitted to retiring Avro Shackleton MR.2 maritime patrol aircraft. Re-entering service in 1972 with the RAF with the designation AEW.2, the aircraft continued to operate until July 1991 in the airborne early warning role. ## Variants AN/APS-20A Initial version developed for carrier-based aircraft with single 12 in (305 mm) CRT display. AN/APS-20B Initial version developed for land-based aircraft with additional command and control capability. AN/APS-20C Improved version to equip both large four-engine and carrier-borne single-engine aircraft. AN/APS-20E Larger antenna version optimised for maritime patrol. AN/APS-20F Version with smaller antenna and less range than the AN/APS-20E. ## Applications ### Aircraft - Avro Shackleton AEW.2 – 12 converted. - Boeing B-29 Superfortress – 3 converted. - Boeing PB-1W – 32 converted. - Canadair Argus Mk.1 – 13 built. - Fairey Gannet AEW.3 – 44 built. - Douglas AD-W / EA-1 Skyraider – 367 built, including one XAD-1W prototype. - Douglas Skyraider AEW.1 – 50 built. - Douglas DC-6 – 2 converted. - Goodyear ZPG-2W – 5 built. - Goodyear ZPG-3W – 4 built. - General Motors TBM-3W Avenger – 27 converted. - Grumman Avenger Mk.3W2 – 8 delivered. - Grumman TB3F-1S / AF-2W Guardian – 156 built, including one XTB3F-1S prototype. - Lockheed PO-2W / WV-2 / EC-121 Warning Star. 232 built. - Lockheed WV-3 / WC-121 Warning Star. 8 converted. - Lockheed P2V-2S Neptune – 1 built. - Lockheed P2V-3W Neptune – 30 built. - Lockheed P2V-4 / P-2D Neptune – 51 built, including P2V-2S prototype. - Lockheed P2V-5 / P-2E Neptune – 424 built, including 52 Neptune MR.1. - Lockheed P2V-7 / P-2H Neptune – 287 built, including 48 assembled by Kawasaki. - Lockheed EP-3E Orion – 2 converted. - Lockheed WP-3A Orion – 4 converted. - Sikorsky HR2S-1W – 2 built. ### Former operators Argentina - Argentine Navy. Australia - Royal Australian Air Force. Brazil - Brazilian Air Force. Canada - Royal Canadian Air Force. - Royal Canadian Navy. France - French Navy. Japan - Japan Maritime Self Defense Force. Netherlands - Dutch Naval Aviation Service. Portugal - Portuguese Air Force. Republic of China - Republic of China Air Force. United Kingdom - Royal Air Force. - Royal Navy. United States - Environmental Science Services Administration. - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. - United States Air Force. - United States Navy. - United States Weather Bureau. ## See also
10,985,299	Doll (manga)	1,166,546,925	Japanese manga series by Mitsukazu Mihara	[ "Josei manga", "Mitsukazu Mihara", "Science fiction anime and manga", "Shodensha manga", "Tokyopop titles" ]	Doll (Japanese: ドール, Hepburn: Dōru) is a science fiction josei (targeted towards women) manga by Mitsukazu Mihara. Appearing as a serial in the Japanese manga magazine Feel Young from 1998 to 2002, the thirty-three chapters of Doll were collected into six bound volumes by Shodensha and published from August 2000 to August 2002. Taking place in the future, the plot focuses on relationships between people and the eponymous androids; the series has an overarching plot that follows an illegal reprogrammer of Dolls and his revenge against the corporation which creates them. One of the characters, the corporation that manufactures the Dolls, and the concept of the Dolls appeared earlier in Mihara's short manga "The Sunflower Quality Of An Integrated Circuit" (集積回路のヒマワリ) (1995), later collected in IC in a Sunflower (1997). In 2003, Tokyopop licensed the series for an English-language translations in North America and the United Kingdom, publishing the series from August 2004 to October 2005. The series has received several positive reviews from English-language critics, and the first volume placed in ICv2's list of the top 100 best-selling graphic novels for July 2004. In 2011, Tokyopop's North American branch stopped publication and returned its manga licenses. ## Plot Set in the future, Doll centers around relationships between humans and the eponymous androids—created by Kaoru and Motohiko Kirishima and manufactured by SG Corporation. During the development of the "Sterol-2" Doll, Kaoru's mental condition begins to deteriorate; after attempting to retain a copy of her mind and memories in a prototype of a Doll, Motohiko realizes his mistake of trying to replace his wife. Retiring from the corporation to care for her, he leaves behind eight other prototypes, which are seen throughout the series: a nameless male Doll, who was the constant companion for a woman and cremated with her by her greedy stepson; Chocolat, a maid who was discovered in a trash heap by an elderly farming community; Honey, a secretary loyal to the SG Corporation president; Cherry, the maid to an award-winning, bulimic writer; Vanilla, a maid to an elderly man and his unfaithful, younger wife; the sexaroid Veronica, one of two Dolls built for sexual intercourse, and her unnamed partner; and S, who hunts down illegally reprogrammed Dolls for SG Corporation. Doll also focuses on Ichiro, a reprogrammer of Dolls who was abused by his stepmother and stepsiblings. Chosen to become the next president of SG Corporation, he was castrated by his beloved Doll on the orders of his jealous relatives. His Doll, the only one who had shown him kindness, was then destroyed. No longer the successor, Ichiro studied all the aspects of the Doll business. At eighteen years old, he left and began to reprogram Dolls illegally, seeking revenge on SG Corporation. Years later, Ichiro finds the unnamed sexaroid, after Veronica is destroyed by a sadistic owner. Ichiro reprograms the sexaroid to mimic human emotions, and the sexaroid becomes Ichiro's companion. They eventually find and purchase Vanilla, who acts as if she suffers from psychological trauma. While on a date with the sexaroid, Vanilla recovers her memories of having been ordered to bury her master's corpse by her mistress. Meanwhile, Ichiro is captured by agents of the SG Corporation. Learning of this, the sexaroid leaves to rescue him, against the wishes of another reprogrammer, Psycho Candy. Captured, tagged for destruction, and reunited with Ichiro, the sexaroid finds himself ordered by Ichiro to switch places with him and escape. Ichiro then gives the sexaroid a name, Itsuki. With Itsuki's tag for destruction, Ichiro is killed at the moment his father finally recognizes him. Doll concludes with SG Corporation's scandal and subsequent bankruptcy, as Motohiko and his wife are content with knowing that they left Dolls in the world, while Vanilla and Itsuki live together in a house purchased by Ichiro. ## Development The character Vanilla, the concept of the Dolls, and SG Corporation first appeared in Mitsukazu Mihara's earlier short manga "The Sunflower Quality Of An Integrated Circuit" (集積回路のヒマワリ) (1995), later collected in IC in a Sunflower (1997). Doll began as "the simple notion of humans vs. robots". Although she often uses Lolita fashion—a clothing style influenced by the Rococo style and the Victorian and Edwardian eras—in her character designs as a way to convey the duality of her characters, she felt that the fashion failed to give the manga depth. She then centered the plots on the psychological aspects. As Mihara has expressed an interest in exploring the impact of the childhood environment on a person, especially his or her relationships with parents, the stories in Doll involve the eponymous androids and family life. Each short story contains an independent theme; "A Maid Servant", for example, takes its inspiration from a book about aging fears, and "miseducation" serves as the theme for a story about cram school, inspired by a book about the inadequacy of solely teaching theories. The overarching plot of Doll started with the second volume; she envisioned a prodigy burdened by "parental pressure" and a Doll to heal the psychological pain. She explained that while her flaws may appear in the human characters, her "hopes for perfection" may appear in the Dolls. The Dolls, however, never developed consciousness, with the remodeled Dolls only capable of mimicking human emotion—in contrast to the typical progression of other stories in the genre. Mihara never considered making the androids capable of emotion, wishing for the narrative to center on the human characters. ## Release Written and illustrated by Mitsukazu Mihara, the thirty-three chapters of Doll appeared as a serial in the Japanese josei (targeted towards women) manga magazine Feel Young, from 1998 to 2002. The chapters were collected into six bound volumes by Shodensha and published from August 10, 2000, to August 8, 2002. In 2003, Tokyopop licensed Doll for an English-language translation in North America and the United Kingdom. The series was published from August 10, 2004, to October 11, 2005; the first volume was also published as a limited-edition hardcover on May 11, 2004. Tokyopop's North American branch stopped publishing on May 31, 2011, with its manga licenses returned. Doll has also been translated into German by Tokyopop Germany. ### Volume list ## Reception The first volume of Doll debuted at the 73rd spot on ICv2's list of the top 100 best-selling graphic novels for July 2004 with an estimated 1,394 copies sold. Doll has received several positive reviews from English-language critics. About.com's Deb Aoki placed it on her list of recommended horror manga. According to Aoki, Mihara's stories proved to be haunting, despite not following the traditional model of gory horror stories. While finding Mihara's art well-done, yet "not especially memorable", Patrick King of Animefringe wrote that Mihara's focus on the social effects of the Dolls and their environments greatly contributed to the appeal of the series. Sequential Tart's Sheena McNeil wrote that Doll examines the relationships between androids and people on "a much more serious and realistic level" than Clamp's Chobits. In follow-up reviews, she wrote that the series conveyed "a sense of reality that is unsettling and the stories are harsh reads—being violent and/or tragic." According to her, Doll simultaneously examines the meaning of humanity and modern-day fears surrounding the possibility of such androids. She also wrote that Mihara's "jaw-dropping beautiful" artwork contrasted well with the characters' misery. Jason Thompson, in Manga: The Complete Guide, wrote that childbirth and family served as the manga's themes. According to him, Mihara's character designs and artwork complemented the stories nicely. Conversely, Anime News Network's Liann Cooper reviewed the hardcover edition of Doll with mixed feelings: according to her, the stories mostly lacked entertainment value, and had artwork that failed to catch the reader's eye, but she praised the presentation. She concluded that the hardcover edition would only appeal to "avid collectors".
5,947,616	Astoria Park	1,171,095,651	Public park in Queens, New York	[ "1936 establishments in New York City", "Astoria, Queens", "Buildings and structures completed in 1936", "New York City Designated Landmarks in Queens, New York", "Parks in Queens, New York", "Robert Moses projects", "Skateparks in New York City", "Skateparks in the United States", "Urban public parks", "Works Progress Administration in New York City" ]	Astoria Park is a 59.96-acre (24.26 ha) public park in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City. The park is situated on the eastern shore of the Hell Gate, a strait of the East River, between Ditmars Boulevard to the north and Hoyt Avenue to the south. The Robert F. Kennedy (Triborough) and Hell Gate Bridges respectively pass over the park's southern and northern sections. Astoria Park contains a playground, a soccer field, a running track, a skate park, and courts for tennis, basketball, and bocce. Astoria Park also includes the Astoria Play Center, which consists of a recreation center and a pool. The park and play center are maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks). While Astoria Park was planned in 1905, the land was not acquired until October 1913. Astoria Park was formally named after the surrounding neighborhood in December 1913 and recreational facilities gradually opened within the park over the two following decades. The pool and bathhouse were designed by John Hatton during a Works Progress Administration project in 1935–1936 and was used for the United States Olympic Trials for swimming during 1936, 1952, and 1964. The park was extensively renovated in the 1980s and the late 2010s. The Astoria Play Center was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2007. ## Description Astoria Park is in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City. It is bounded by Astoria Park South, an extension of Hoyt Avenue, to the south; the Hell Gate, a strait of the East River, to the west; Ditmars Boulevard to the north; and 19th Street to the east. The RFK (Triborough) Bridge crosses over the southern section of Astoria Park. The Hell Gate Bridge, carrying Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and the New York Connecting Railroad, crosses over the northern section. The park is separated from the Hell Gate and the East River by a 30-foot-wide (9.1 m) road called Shore Boulevard. The park covers 59.96 acres (24.26 ha). The southeastern corner of the park under the RFK Bridge, between Hoyt Avenue North and Hoyt Avenue South, extends east to 21st Street. Astoria Park is crossed by numerous paths, of which some are paved in hexagonal blocks, while others contain asphalt paving. Several paths are built on slopes and contain staggered steps. Several entrances are spaced around the perimeter of the park. In the western portion of the park, along Shore Boulevard, is a memorial dedicated to World War I victims. There is also a plaque commemorating the PS General Slocum, which caught fire and sunk in the Hell Gate in 1904, killing over a thousand people. ### Recreational facilities Recreational facilities are concentrated in the southern two-thirds of the park, south of 23rd Avenue. The southernmost portion of Astoria Park, at 18th Street and Astoria Park South, contains a 0.25-mile (400 m) running track, which surrounds a soccer field. East of the running track are fourteen tennis courts and a restroom. The tennis court area protrudes slightly under the RFK Bridge. A "tennis landscape" separates the tennis courts from the street. There is a parking lot just north of the running track, underneath the RFK Bridge and at the western end of Hoyt Avenue North. Also underneath the bridge, west of the parking lot, is a 21,500-square-foot (2,000 m<sup>2</sup>) skate park. The central portion of the park contains the Astoria Pool and Play Center. There are also basketball courts southwest of the pool area, as well as bocce courts and Charybdis Playground north of the pool area. Charybdis Playground sits opposite the Hell Gate from Scylla Point on Wards Island. The two features are named after Scylla and Charybdis, two water hazards described in Homer's Odyssey, and refer to the dangerous whirlpools in the waters of the Hell Gate. Charybdis Playground was named first, in 1997; Scylla Point was named in 2001 after parks commissioner Henry Stern petitioned the federal government to rename what was then known as "Negro Point", in 2001. Charybdis Playground contains a decorated one-story brick restroom. The restroom contains decorative piers protruding from all four corners; glass-block openings; and Art Deco lettering indicating the girls' and boys' restrooms. ### Astoria Play Center #### Pools Astoria Park contains an enclosed elliptical pool area that is aligned north-south, with two pools (formerly three). The main pool is rectangular and measures 330 by 165 feet (101 by 50 m), with a depth of 4 feet (1.2 m) and a surface area of 54,450 square feet (5,059 m<sup>2</sup>). It was the largest of 11 pools in New York City that were completed by the Works Progress Administration in 1936. At its peak, the pool area was able to fit 6,200 swimmers, and the main pool alone had a capacity of 5,570. The pools hosted swimming trials for three Summer Olympic Games in 1936, 1952, and 1964. The main pool is flanked by two semicircular pools, each with a 165-foot diameter. The wading pool is north of the main pool and is surrounded by spray spouts. The diving pool to the south was drained and fenced off in the 1980s, and was totally infilled between 2017 and 2019. The still-extant diving board measures 32 feet (9.8 m) tall, with three platforms cantilevered over each other. The diving board, described by Architectural Record as "an example of design for function", allowed four contestants to dive simultaneously: one each from the top and bottom, and two from the middle. The deck surrounding the pools is made of cement. The deck is surrounded by concrete bleachers and enclosed by a brick perimeter wall topped by a wrought iron fence. There is also a filter house on the western side of the pool area. The filter house contains a balcony that is raised one story above the pool deck and two stories above a plaza to the west. The filter house's balcony has a roof that is designed like a saucer. #### Bathhouse The bathhouse was designed by John Hatton. It incorporates both classical motifs, such as brick piers, and modern motifs, such as geometric brickwork. The bathhouse is a "U"-shaped brick structure west of 19th Street, between 23rd Drive to the north and 23rd Terrace to the south. Pavilions extend north and south of the bathhouse's central lobby. Wings extend eastward into the hillside from the ends of both pavilions. The main entrance plaza is sunken below street level, surrounded by the bathhouse pavilion to the west, the wings to the north and south, and 19th Street to the east. The entrance plaza is accessed via two ramps with steps, which extend north to 23rd Drive and south to 23rd Terrace. The main entrance is flanked by a pair of stepped-brick piers with glass brick columns set into the middle of each pier. The pool entrance, at the center of the western facade, is also flanked by stepped-brick piers with glass brick columns and contains a clock suspended above the center. As designed, the pool entrance was flanked by two stainless steel sculptures created by Emil Siebern, which depicted female athletes. The lobby between the main and pool entrances is open to the outdoors and contains a brick floor surrounded by bluestone and granite. The ceiling of the lobby contains concrete beams. The octagonal ticket booth at the center of the lobby has a nautical theme, with an outwardly angled terrazzo base, a ticket collector's cage, and a ventilation cupola on the roof. The north and south walls are divided into three bays and contain the women's and men's locker rooms. These bays contain glass bricks at the top and openings or doorways at the bottom. Above the center bays on each side are Art Deco-style aluminum letters indicating the respective genders' locker rooms. The bathhouse pavilions are similar in design. The east facade is fifteen bays wide, while the west facade is seventeen bays wide. Except for the central bay on each side, there are openings with glass blocks topped by metal louvers; these are separated by fluted brick piers. At the northern and southern ends of the west facade, there are semicircular coves with doorways that lead to the bathhouse's locker rooms. The eastern wings of the bathhouse, to the north and south of the entrance court, each contain two bays of horizontal glass-brick bands. The roof of the bathhouse pavilion doubles as a viewing platform and contains a concrete deck and metal railing. The eastern portion of the roof is higher than the western portion. The roof contains two concrete ventilators above the main entrance. Upon the bathhouse's completion, Architectural Forum praised its use of glass bricks "for privacy and ease of maintenance". ## History The park site formerly contained Pot Cove, a Native American settlement used for maize cultivation and fishing. The name also applies to the small cove next to the park's southwestern corner. The settlement's namesake may have been the 130-foot-long (40 m) Pot Rock within the Hell Gate; the rock was dynamited in 1876 as part of the removal of Hell Gate rocks. There were hills immediately above the Hell Gate shoreline, and several creeks emptied into the cove. One of these was Linden Brook, which flowed along the current path of Astoria Park South and into Pot Cove. The surrounding land had numerous owners from the 17th to 19th centuries. The tracts were developed with the estates of wealthy businessmen such as Edwin Hoyt, Edward Woolsey, and Henry Barclay. Maps show that some streets had already been laid out on the future park site by the late 19th century. The surrounding Astoria neighborhood was part of the independent city of Long Island City, which was combined into the City of Greater New York in 1898. Augustus D. Juilliard began combining the various properties for the future site of Astoria Park in 1872. As the lots were purchased, the estates on the site were largely demolished by the 1890s. ### Creation and early years The East River Land Company acquired 27 acres (11 ha) south of 24th Avenue from Augustus Juilliard, as well as 31 acres (13 ha) to the north from James Barclay, in 1905. This was part of the acquisition of some 180 acres (73 ha) on the Hell Gate shorefront, comprising over 2,000 lots. In 1907, the New York Connecting Railroad (NYCN) bought 13,566 square feet (1,260.3 m<sup>2</sup>) from the East River Land Company for a right-of-way to build the Hell Gate Bridge through Astoria Park's site. The bridge, opened in 1917, was part of a railroad line from the new Pennsylvania Station to New York City's northeastern suburbs. Also in 1907, the city government was slated to pay the East River Land Company \$200,000 for nine hundred lots totaling 70 acres (28 ha). However, the city balked on acquiring the land, contending that the selling price was too high and citing the company's decision to grant the NYCN an easement. The city's hesitancy was attributed to the Panic of 1907, which had worsened the city's finances. By 1913, residents of Manhattan and Long Island City were again calling for the creation of a park along the Astoria waterfront. The site was just north of the Astoria ferry landing, where service ran to Manhattan. That July, the New York City Board of Estimate authorized a park to be laid out on the plot between the East River, Ditmars Boulevard, 19th Street, and Hoyt Avenue. The projected \$1.5 million cost would be paid by tax assessments placed on residents of Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, as well as an extra assessment on people living in the immediate area. At the time, the northern portion of the park contained the Barclay mansion, a brick building measuring 54 by 74 feet (16 by 23 m), while the southern portion contained three unidentified structures. A corps of engineers was hired to draw plans for the new park. The city acquired 56.25 acres (22.76 ha) in October 1913, and shortly afterward, the Board of Estimate renamed the park for mayor William Jay Gaynor. Many residents preferred to name the park for the Astoria neighborhood, and it was officially renamed Astoria Park in December 1913. NYC Parks architect Carl Francis Pilat completed plans for the park in January 1914. It was intended to be the city's first large park with active recreational facilities. These facilities would be in the southern two-thirds of the park, near transit. The southernmost section between 24th and Hoyt Avenues would receive a running track, three baseball diamonds, two grandstands, and a playfield. The center section between 23rd and 24th Avenues would contain tennis courts, playgrounds, wading pool, locker rooms, and storage rooms. The northernmost portion between Ditmars Boulevard and 23rd Avenue would contain a landscape with paths and gardens. The plan also included restoring the old Barclay mansion for use as a meeting room, though it was demolished instead. In its 1914 annual report, NYC Parks reported the city's sinking fund commission, which owned the site, had not yet turned over ownership of the land. Condemnation proceedings were still ongoing at the time. By 1915, NYC Parks reported that Astoria Park was used by thousands of Manhattan residents during Sundays, but that the land was still an unimproved "No Man's Land". Queens officials announced a plan in 1922 to pave 23rd Avenue and create an ornamental gateway to Astoria Park from that avenue. The same year, NYC Parks announced improvements to the section between Hoyt and 24th Avenues, including a bandstand. There would also be a 450-by-300-foot (137 by 91 m) athletic oval that could be turned into an ice skating pond during winter, and funding was also allocated for plantings. The bandstand had been completed by 1924. Construction of a seawall and an approximately 3,000-foot-long (910 m) section of Shore Boulevard started in April 1926, and a memorial to victims of World War I was dedicated that November. Shore Boulevard was completed and opened in October 1927. At the time, the park covered 56 acres, which were largely lawns and recreation areas. The facilities included a playground, skating rink, athletic field, restroom, six tennis courts, and two baseball diamonds. Contracts for a wading pool and six extra tennis courts were awarded in early 1929, with the tennis courts being completed later that year. Work on the Triborough Bridge above the park's southern section began in late 1929, causing significant changes to the park layout during much of the next decade. ### Works Progress Administration renovations In 1934, mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia nominated Robert Moses to become commissioner of a unified New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. At the time, the United States was experiencing the Great Depression; immediately after La Guardia won the 1933 election, Moses began to write "a plan for putting 80,000 men to work on 1,700 relief projects". By the time he was in office, several hundred such projects were underway across the city. Moses was especially interested in creating new pools and other bathing facilities, such as those in Jacob Riis Park, Jones Beach, and Orchard Beach. He devised a list of 23 pools around the city, including one at Astoria Park. The pools would be built using funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency created as part of the New Deal to combat the Depression's negative effects. Eleven of these pools were to be designed concurrently and open in 1936. Moses, along with architects Aymar Embury II and Gilmore David Clarke, created a common design for these proposed aquatic centers. Each location was to have distinct pools for diving, swimming, and wading; bleachers and viewing areas; and bathhouses with locker rooms that could be used as gymnasiums. The pools were to have several common features, such as a minimum 55-yard (50 m) length, underwater lighting, heating, filtration, and low-cost construction materials. To fit the requirement for cheap materials, each building would be built using elements of the Streamline Moderne and Classical architectural styles. The buildings would also be near "comfort stations", additional playgrounds, and spruced-up landscapes. Construction for some of the 11 pools began in October 1934. The excavation plan for a large pool complex at Astoria Park was issued that December, to replace the existing wading pool. Moses was also planning a "model playground" at Astoria Park, one of five around the city. The complex was initially supposed to be completed by mid-1935, but this was delayed due to a temporary work stoppage. Plans for the bathhouse, landscape, bleachers, and filter house were completed by the end of 1935. John Hatton was responsible for the pool complex's primary design, while Gregory Kiely designed some minor details. The war memorial was moved to make way for the pool. By mid-1936, ten of the eleven WPA-funded pools were completed and were being opened at a rate of one per week. The Astoria Pool was the third pool to open; at a ceremony on July 2, 1936, WPA administrator Harry Hopkins called the pool "the finest in the world". The Triborough Bridge opened one week afterward on July 11, adding 4.5 acres (1.8 ha) to the park's site. A 384-space parking lot opened under the bridge in July 1937, alleviating congestion at the pool. ### Mid- and late 20th century The Astoria Pool's main and diving pool hosted the 1936 Olympic swimming trials shortly after its opening. The trials, which were featured prominently in the local media, led the pool to be nicknamed the "Olympic Tryout Pool". The pool was also nicknamed "The Bathtub" for its size, and in subsequent years, children from Manhattan's Lower East Side traveled to the pool for a day "in the country". In 1940, a running track opened within Astoria Park. Siebern's athletic sculptures at the bathhouse had been removed by 1943, when Moses wrote that they "have long since traveled [...] from the storage yard to the scrap heap". The playgrounds were renovated in 1946. Within the subsequent decade, a concession stand was added to the filter house next to the pool. The 1952 Olympic swimming trials were also hosted at the Astoria Pool. The Astoria Pool hosted the Olympic swimming trials once again in 1964. In advance of this, the Astoria Play Center was renovated; its roof decks and some windows were replaced, and the facade was repainted. By the 1970s, parks across New York City were in poor condition following the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis. The park had become dilapidated: in 1980, The New York Times reported that almost every bench had been destroyed, and teenagers were sneaking into the pool after hours. Astoria Park's conditions prompted a neighborhood resident to form Friends of Astoria Park in 1975. The group had raised \$3,700 for the park's cleanup within three years. Between 1979 and 1982, a playground and a restroom on the pool's southwest side were destroyed and ball courts were built at that location. This was part of a \$5 million renovation that also included a repaved parking lot, as well as improvements to the baseball and soccer fields, running tracks, tennis courts, paths, and lighting. Much of Astoria Park was rebuilt from 1983 to 1987, including the northern playground's restroom and the seawall. The playground itself was rebuilt and reopened in 1989. By that year, the main pool was the only one of Astoria Park's three WPA-era pools in use, and it had become deteriorated, but it too was planned to be renovated for \$15.3 million. Some infrastructure around the pools was replaced and upgraded in 1991, and again between 1998 and 1999. Additionally, high lead levels in the area under the Triborough Bridge, caused by paint chips falling from the bridge, forced the temporary closure of that park section in 1993. ### 21st century The northern playground and its restroom were reconstructed in the late 1990s, with \$400,000 allocated to the playground and \$381,000 to the restroom. The northern playground was renamed Charybdis Playground in 1997. A 400-meter (1,300 ft), eight-lane rubberized track replaced an old six-lane cinder track, and an exercise parcourse with eight stations was installed during a \$2.2 million project in 2000. Another \$1 million was allocated to improvements to paths and park furniture, such as fences and benches. Some restoration was undertaken on the landscape during the early 2000s. In 2006, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Astoria Pool and Play Center as a landmark. The commission had previously considered the pool for landmark status in 1990, along with the other ten WPA pools in the city. The landmark designation covered the pool and bathhouse, as well as part of the surrounding park between the Triborough and Hell Gate Bridges. A group of volunteers formed the Astoria Park Alliance in 2007 to clean up the park. NYC Parks created a master plan for the Astoria Pool in 2010, in which it proposed turning the pool into a year-round facility by converting it into an ice rink or amphitheater during the off-season. The department also considered reopening the diving pool. The Astoria Skate Park opened that October, and the United States Tennis Association renovated the park's tennis courts the next year. NYC Parks announced in 2012 that it would infill the diving pool, restore the diving board, and create a plaza with an amphitheater on its site. The design process was completed in early 2015. The amphitheater's designers had found that the pool and Charybdis Playground had been dumping sewage directly into the East River ever since the pool had been constructed in the 1930s. Because the repairs required the installation of new sewer lines, the playground's restrooms were closed in 2015 for at least five years. After the design process was completed, community members advocated for the diving pool's restoration, though NYC Parks refused to change the plans. Diving Pool Plaza was completed in late 2019. In 2016, \$30 million was allocated for further improvements to the park's recreational facilities as part of the city's Anchor Parks program. A three-phase renovation of Astoria Park commenced in 2018 as part of the Anchor Parks program. The first phase, which involved rebuilding the track and other facilities in the southern portion of the park for \$13.65 million, was completed in October 2019. The second phase, which includes rebuilding the wading pool and Charybdis Playground for \$12.5 million, was completed in September 2021, following a temporary opening and re-closure that July. The third phase includes landscaping in the park's northern section for \$4–5 million. NYC Parks also closed Astoria Pool during 2023 for a \$19 million renovation. The renovation involves replacing the deck, filtration system, and mechanical systems; the pool was scheduled to reopen in 2024. New York Road Runners hosts a weekly 3.10-mile Open Run. ## See also - List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Queens
44,508,648	The Boat Race 1961	1,148,428,821	null	[ "1961 in English sport", "1961 in rowing", "1961 sports events in London", "April 1961 sports events in the United Kingdom", "The Boat Race" ]	The 107th Boat Race took place on 1 April 1961. Held annually, the Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge along the River Thames. The race which was delayed, the lead changed hands several times and an Oxford rower slumped and nearly fell out of the boat. It was won by Cambridge by 4+1⁄4 lengths in a time of 19 minutes 22 seconds. ## Background The Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing competition between the University of Oxford (sometimes referred to as the "Dark Blues") and the University of Cambridge (sometimes referred to as the "Light Blues"). First held in 1829, the race takes place on the 4.2-mile (6.8 km) Championship Course on the River Thames in southwest London. The rivalry is a major point of honour between the two universities; it is followed throughout the United Kingdom and, as of 2014, broadcast worldwide. Oxford went into the race as reigning champions, having won the 1960 race by 1+1⁄4 lengths, while Cambridge led overall with 58 victories to Oxford's 47 (excluding the "dead heat" of 1877). Cambridge had not lost three consecutive races since the 1913 race. Cambridge's coaches included J. R. F. Best, James Crowden (who rowed for the Light Blues in the 1951 and 1952 races), Derek Mays-Smith (who rowed in the 1955 and 1956 races), J. R. Owen (1959 and 1960 races) and J. J. Vernon (who rowed in the 1955 race). Oxford's coaching team comprised Jumbo Edwards (who rowed for Oxford in 1926 and 1930), J. L. Fage (an Oxford Blue in 1958 and 1959) and L. A. F. Stokes (who rowed for the Dark Blues in the 1951 and 1952 races). Oxford opted to row with 13-foot (4.0 m) long oars, 1 foot (0.3 m) longer than Cambridge's. Cambridge arrived at Putney with a reputation for speed over short distances and were regarded as "potentially dangerous challengers". Meanwhile, Oxford were anticipated to be "exceptionally strong" yet on occasion their rowing appeared to be "laborious", with some commentators blaming the longer oars. The race was umpired by George Douglas "Jock" Clapperton who had coxed Oxford in the 1923 and 1924 races as well as umpiring in the 1959 boat race. He was accompanied in the umpire's boat by Antony Armstrong-Jones, husband of Princess Margaret, who had coxed Cambridge to victory in the 1950 race. ## Crews The Oxford crew weighed an average of 12 st 12 lb (81.4 kg), 1 pound (0.5 kg) per rower more than their opponents. Cambridge's crew contained two former Blues, cox Roger Weston and rower John Beveridge who was making his third appearance in the event. Oxford saw five members of the previous year's race return. There were three non-British participants registered in the race: Oxford's number three, John Sewell and Cambridge's Mike Christian and Mark Hoffman were all from the United States. The latter pair had both captained the boat club at Harvard University. ## Race Oxford, the pre-race favourites, won the toss and elected to start from the Surrey station, handing the Middlesex side of the river to Cambridge. The race commenced at 2.35 p.m., delayed by more than 20 minutes as a result of a drifting stake boat, with Cambridge taking an early but brief lead. After the first minute, Oxford led by a few feet and increased their advantage to half a length by Craven Steps. At Craven Cottage, Cambridge spurted and retook the lead, but Oxford counterattacked and edged ahead. With the advantage of the bend in the river, Cambridge drew level by the Mile Post. The Dark Blues once again took the lead, and by Hammersmith Bridge were four seconds ahead and held a clear water advantage. Rowing into a headwind, Oxford began to lose their shape and by Chiswick Eyot, Cambridge had reduced the deficit enough to overlap the Dark Blue boat, although Oxford still led by a length at Chiswick Steps. Twelve minutes into the race, the Oxford number six, Graham Cooper, "turned pale and slumped", disrupting the Oxford rhythm. Although he appeared to recover, "the cohesion had gone". Cambridge overtook the Dark Blue boat and were three lengths ahead by Barnes Bridge, and passed the finishing post with a four-and-a-half length advantage in a time of 19 minutes 22 seconds, the slowest since the 1954 race. It was Cambridge's first victory in three years and their largest winning margin since the 1955 race. The rowing correspondent for The Times suggested that "for Oxford it was a sad day, and for Cooper a tragedy", while for Cambridge it was "a splendid victory". Cambridge's stroke Hoffman said "it was a tough race ... but when I saw that one of the Oxford crew was in distress, I knew we could not help winning." It was the third time since the war that Oxford had lost the event as a result of a crew member collapsing mid-race. Oxford's bow Richard Bate confessed that he "didn't even know anything had been wrong until after the race. I only knew we were not at our best."
332,388	Nat Hentoff	1,173,819,178	American music critic and author (1925–2017)	[ "1925 births", "2017 deaths", "American anti-abortion activists", "American anti–death penalty activists", "American atheists", "American columnists", "American essayists", "American libertarians", "American male essayists", "American male non-fiction writers", "American male novelists", "American music historians", "American music journalists", "American people of Russian-Jewish descent", "American political writers", "Cato Institute people", "Fulbright alumni", "Historians from Massachusetts", "Historians from New York (state)", "Jazz record producers", "Jazz writers", "Jewish American atheists", "Jewish American historians", "Northeastern University alumni", "People from Fire Island, New York", "The New Yorker staff writers", "The Village Voice people", "The Wall Street Journal people", "The Washington Post columnists", "The Washington Times people", "War Resisters League activists", "Writers from Boston", "Writers from Manhattan", "Writers from New York (state)" ]	Nathan Irving Hentoff (June 10, 1925 – January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media. Hentoff was a columnist for The Village Voice from 1958 to 2009. Following his departure from The Village Voice, Hentoff became a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and continued writing his music column for The Wall Street Journal, which published his works until his death. He often wrote on First Amendment issues, vigorously defending the freedom of the press. Hentoff was formerly a columnist for: Down Beat, JazzTimes, Legal Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Progressive, Editor & Publisher and Free Inquiry. He was a staff writer for The New Yorker, and his writings were also published in: The New York Times, Jewish World Review, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Commonweal, and Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo. ## Early life Hentoff was born on June 10, 1925, in Boston, Massachusetts, the firstborn child of Simon, a traveling salesman, and Lena (née Katzenberg). His parents were Jewish Russian immigrants. As a teen, Hentoff attended Boston Latin School and worked for Frances Sweeney on the Boston City Reporter, investigating antisemitic hate groups. Sweeney was a major influence on Hentoff; his memoir, Boston Boy, is dedicated to her. He played soprano saxophone and clarinet as a youth, and became interested in jazz after listening to Artie Shaw play. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree with highest honors, in 1946 from Northeastern University. That same year he enrolled for graduate study at Harvard University. In 1950, he attended Sorbonne University in Paris, France, on a Fulbright Scholarship. ## Career Hentoff began his career in broadcast journalism while hosting a weekly jazz program on Boston radio station WMEX. In the 1940s, he hosted two radio shows on WMEX: JazzAlbum and From Bach to Bartók. In the early 1950s he continued to present a jazz program on WMEX, and as a Staff Announcer for WMEX, he regularly hosted remote broadcasts from the Savoy, and Storyville, two Boston clubs run by George Wein, and during that period was an announcer on the program Evolution of Jazz on WGBH-FM. In 2013, the Evolution of Jazz series was contributed to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting by the University of Maryland's National Public Broadcasting Archives as part of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB) collection. By the late 1950s, he was co-hosting the program The Scope of Jazz on WBAI-FM in New York City. He went on to write many books on jazz and politics. In 1952, Hentoff joined Down Beat magazine as a columnist. The following year, he moved to New York to become the city's editor of the magazine. He was fired in 1957, he alleged, because he attempted to hire an African-American writer. Hentoff co-wrote Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz by the Men Who Made It (1955) with Nat Shapiro. The book includes interviews with jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington. Hentoff co-founded The Jazz Review in 1958, a magazine that he co-edited with Martin Williams until 1961. In 1960 he served as artists and repertoire (A&R) director for the short-lived jazz label Candid Records, which released albums by Charles Mingus, Cecil Taylor, and Max Roach. Around the same time, Hentoff began freelance writing for Esquire, Playboy, Harper's, New York Herald Tribune, Commonweal, and The Reporter. From 1958 to 2009, he wrote weekly columns on education, civil liberties, politics, and capital punishment for The Village Voice. He also wrote for The New Yorker (1960–1986), The Washington Post (1984–2000), and The Washington Times. He worked with the Jazz Foundation of America to help American jazz and blues musicians in need. He wrote many articles for The Wall Street Journal and The Village Voice to draw attention to the plight of America's pioneering jazz and blues musicians. Hentoff also wrote many novels for young adults, including I'm Really Dragged But Nothing Gets Me Down (1968), This School is Driving Me Crazy (1976), Blues for Charlie Darwin (1982), and The Day They Came To Arrest The Book (1983). Writing about the latter for The Washington Post, Alyssa Rosenberg commented that "One of the useful — or depressing — things about reading Hentoff’s YA polemic, which was published all the way back in 1982, is how similar the novel’s conflicts are to our present debates." Beginning in February 2008, Hentoff was a weekly contributing columnist at WorldNetDaily. In January 2009, The Village Voice, which had published his commentary and criticism for fifty years, announced that he had been laid off. He then went on to write for United Features, Jewish World Review, and The Wall Street Journal. He joined the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, as a senior fellow in February 2009. In 2013, The Pleasures of Being Out of Step, a biographical film about Hentoff, explored his career in jazz and as a First Amendment advocate. The independent documentary, produced and directed by David L. Lewis, won the Grand Jury prize in the Metropolis competition at the DOC NYC festival and played in theaters across the country. ## Political views, commentary, and activism Hentoff espoused generally liberal views on domestic policy and civil liberties, but in the 1980s, he began articulating more socially conservative positions especially in regard to medical ethics and reproductive rights. He was opposed to abortion, voluntary euthanasia, and the selective medical treatment of severely disabled infants. He believed that a consistent life ethic should be the viewpoint of a genuine civil libertarian, arguing that all human rights are at risk when the rights of one group of people are diminished, that human rights are interconnected, and that people deny others' human rights at their peril. ### Anti-Semitism Hentoff believed antisemitism was rampant. ### Social and individual freedom Hentoff was a civil libertarian and free speech activist who opposed abortion and capital punishment. The American Conservative magazine called him "the only Jewish, atheist, pro-life, libertarian hawk in America." Although he supported the American Civil Liberties Union for many years, he criticized the organization in 1999 for defending government-enforced speech codes in universities and the workplace. He served on the board of advisors for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, another civil liberties group. His book Free Speech for Me—But Not for Thee outlined his views on free speech and criticized those who favored censorship "in any form." ### Vietnam Hentoff agitated against the Vietnam War and against the United States' participation. Although he said he was a "hardcore anti-communist" since the age of 15, he had "no illusions about the corrupt, undemocratic government of South Vietnam." After the war's end, Hentoff, Joan Baez, and Ginetta Sagan of Amnesty International repeatedly protested what he called "the horrifying abuses of human rights [committed] by the Vietnamese Communist regime." ### Middle East Hentoff defended the existence of the state of Israel. He criticized Israeli policies such as the absence of due process for Palestinians and the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. His opposition to Israel's invasion of Lebanon led three rabbis symbolically to "excommunicate" him from Judaism. He commented, "I would have told them about my life as a heretic, a tradition I keep precisely because I am a Jew." He supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq. ### War on terror Hentoff criticized the Clinton administration for the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. He also criticized the Bush administration for "authoritarian" policies such as the Patriot Act and other civil liberties restrictions legislated through invoking the ostensible need for homeland security. An ardent critic of the G. W. Bush administration's expansion of presidential power, in 2008 Hentoff called for the new president to deal with the "noxious residue of the Bush-Cheney war against terrorism". According to Hentoff, among the casualties of that war have been "survivors, if they can be found, of CIA secret prisons ('black sites'), victims of CIA kidnapping renditions, and American citizens locked up indefinitely as 'unlawful enemy combatants'". He wanted lawyer John Yoo to be prosecuted for war crimes. ### Presidential politics Hentoff stated that while he had been prepared to support Barack Obama enthusiastically in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, his view changed after looking into Obama's voting record on abortion. During President Obama's first year, Hentoff praised him for ending policies of CIA renditions, but criticized him for failing to end George W. Bush's practice of "state torture" of prisoners. ## Awards and honors Hentoff was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 1972. He won the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award in 1980 for his columns on law and criminal justice. In 1983, he was awarded the American Library Association's Imroth Award for Intellectual Freedom. In 1985, he received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the Northeastern University. In 1995, he was honored with the National Press Foundation's Award in recognition of his lifetime distinguished contributions to journalism. In 2004, Hentoff was named one of six NEA Jazz Masters by the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, thus becoming the first nonmusician in history to win this award. That same year, the Boston Latin School honored him as alumnus of the year. In 2005, he was one of the first recipients of the Human Life Foundation's "Great Defender of Life" award. ## Personal life Hentoff grew up attending an Orthodox synagogue in Boston. He recalled that as a youth, he would travel around the city with his father during the High Holidays to listen to various cantors and compare notes on their performances. He said cantors made "sacred texts compellingly clear to the heart," and he collected their recordings. In later life, Hentoff was an atheist, and sardonically described himself as "a member of the Proud and Ancient Order of Stiff-Necked Jewish Atheists". He expressed sympathy for Israel's Peace Now movement. Hentoff married three times, first to Miriam Sargent in 1950; the marriage was childless and the couple divorced that same year. His second wife was Trudi Bernstein, whom he married on September 2, 1954, and with whom he had two children, Miranda and Jessica. (Jessica Hentoff is the founder of Circus Harmony, a non-profit social circus and circus school in St. Louis, Missouri.) He divorced his second wife in August 1959. On August 15, 1959, he married his third wife, Margot Goodman, with whom he had two children: Nicholas and Thomas. The couple remained together until he died of natural causes at his Manhattan apartment on January 7, 2017, aged 91. ## Books ### Non-fiction - Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz as Told by the Men who Made it, with Nat Shapiro. (1955) - The Jazz Makers, with Nat Shapiro. (1957) - The Jazz Life. (1961) - Peace Agitator: The Story of A. J. Muste. (1963) - The New Equality. (1964) - Our Children Are Dying (with John Holt). (1967) - A Doctor Among the Addicts: The Story of Marie Nyswander. (1968) - A Political Life: The Education of John V. Lindsay (1969) - Journey into Jazz. (1971) - Jazz Is. (1976) - Does Anybody Give a Damn?: Nat Hentoff on Education. (Random House; 1977) - The First Freedom: The Tumultuous History of Free Speech in America. (1980) - American Heroes: In and Out of School. (1987) - John Cardinal O'Connor: At the Storm Center of a Changing American Catholic Church. (1988) - Free Speech for Me—But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other. (1993) - Listen to the Stories: Nat Hentoff on Jazz and Country Music. (1995) - Living the Bill of Rights: How to Be an Authentic American. (1999) - The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance. (2004) - American Music Is. (2004) ### Novels - Jazz Country. (1965) - Call the Keeper. (1966) - Onwards! (1968) - I'm Really Dragged But Nothing Gets Me Down (1968) - This School is Driving Me Crazy. (1976) - Does This School Have Capital Punishment? (1982) - Blues for Charlie Darwin. (1982) - The Day They Came To Arrest The Book. (1983) - The Man from Internal Affairs. (1985) ### Memoirs - Boston Boy: Growing Up With Jazz and Other Rebellious Passions. (1986) - Speaking Freely: A Memoir. (1997) ### Compilations - The Nat Hentoff Reader. (2001) ### Edited volumes - Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz by the Men Who Made It (with Nat Shapiro). (1955) - Black Anti-Semitism and Jewish Racism. (1969) - Jazz: New Perspectives on the History of Jazz by Twelve of the World's Foremost Jazz Critics and Scholars. (with Albert McCarthy) (1975)
50,801,479	Steep (video game)	1,172,839,867	2016 video game	[ "2016 video games", "Cancelled Nintendo Switch games", "D.I.C.E. Award for Sports Game of the Year winners", "Multiplayer and single-player video games", "Multiple-sport video games", "Open-world video games", "PlayStation 4 Pro enhanced games", "PlayStation 4 games", "Skiing video games", "Snowboarding video games", "Sports video games set in France", "Sports video games set in Italy", "Ubisoft games", "Video games developed in France", "Video games developed in Serbia", "Video games set in Alaska", "Video games set in Austria", "Video games set in Switzerland", "Windows games", "Winter Olympic video games", "X Games", "Xbox One games" ]	Steep is a sports video game developed by Ubisoft Annecy and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide on 2 December 2016 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. Developed by Ubisoft Annecy beginning in 2013, it was their first original game. It is set in the Alps, where players can participate in several winter and action sports disciplines, skiing, snowboarding, paragliding and wingsuit flying. With later downloadable content, mountains in Alaska, Japan and Korea were also included in the game and rocket-powered wingsuit flying, sledding, BASE jumping, and speed riding were incorporated as additional sports. Furthermore, two of the game's expansions allowed the player to take part in the Winter X Games and the 2018 Winter Olympics. The game places a great emphasis on online multiplayer, focusing on competing in various winter sporting challenges with other players online. Upon release, the game received mixed reviews. While critics lauded the overall graphics, vast open world and enjoyable activities, they also pointed out its lack of direction and overall scope, while criticism was also directed at the fact that being online was mandatory to play most of the game. ## Gameplay Steep is an online multiplayer extreme sports game set in an open world environment of the Alps, centered on the Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe, which can be explored freely by players. Later downloadable content (DLC) also added the Alaska Range, centered on the Denali (formerly known as Mount McKinley), the tallest mountain in North America, as well as Japanese and Korean mountain ranges into the game. Korea features the venues of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County. The game can be played from either a first-person or third-person perspective. The game also utilizes camera angles similar to GoPro during races, via a sponsoring deal. The four main activities available in the game include skiing, wingsuit flying, snowboarding, and paragliding. With later DLC, rocket-powered wingsuit flying, sledding, basejumping, and speed riding were also incorporated. Players can switch between these activities by using the game's menu wheel. Steep is an online-focused game, in which all players share the same game world, engaging in various sports activities simultaneously. Players can collide with each other unless disabled in the settings. To navigate the world quickly, players can use the "mountain view" mode, which shows different "drop zones" in the game. These drop zones serve as fast travel points that allow players to reach different parts of the game's world without having to actually move that distance. There are various hidden races, challenges, and areas, which can be discovered and unlocked through exploring the world. Players are equipped with a pair of binoculars, which can be used to discover new locations. The game has a trick system, which allows players to perform special maneuvers such as spinning and grabbing while they are skiing or snowboarding. Players receive points if they perform tricks. If the player performs excellently in a race, they will receive a medal as an award. When the player crashes during a challenge, they have the ability to retry it immediately and view the amount of g-Force the player's character endured during the crash. When players move around on the map, their path will be recorded automatically and can be viewed through entering the mountain mode. Players capture screenshots and view their own performance data. These replays can be shared to the game's community and various social networking sites. Players can set and share their trail as a challenge for other players. There are six types of play style ranging from racing, to exploring. The game features a nonlinear story, that follows the chosen player characters as they seek to become a winter and extreme sports legend. To achieve the rank of "Ultimate Legend", the characters have to attain legendary status in all six disciplines the game has to offer. With later DLCs, the player can also enter the Winter X Games, and take part in an event called "Winterfest", where he has to overcome costumed adversaries to be crowned the "King of Winter". The "Road To The Olympics" featured a new story campaign, in which the player character, an aspiring winter sports athlete, has to complete a series of events to qualify for the 2018 Olympic Games and become the first athlete to win gold medals in all three freestyle disciplines: big air, slopestyle, and halfpipe. ## Development The game was developed by Ubisoft Annecy, a French studio which had previously worked on the multiplayer modes of the Assassin's Creed franchise and the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell franchise as well as assisting in the development of Tom Clancy's The Division. The game was co-developed by Ubisoft studios in Kyiv and Montpellier. Steep became the first original game created by them. Development of the game was started in late 2013. The concept was inspired by the developer's close proximity to the Alps, and another Ubisoft game, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, whose large open world forced developer Ubisoft Paris to implement transport methods such as paragliding. The Trials series also influenced the game's design. Ubisoft originally was not convinced by the development team's concept, but they later greenlit the project's development, mainly due to the huge popularity of extreme sporting videos on the video sharing website YouTube. The developers were also inspired by the renewed interest in the skateboarding game Skate 3 after it was re-popularized through Let's Play streaming events performed by YouTubers and others. According to Igor Manceau, the game's director, the team pitched the project to Ubisoft as they believed that the game's online structure and open world are elements that are new to the sports genre. Manceau claimed that the game was a "passion project" and a "natural progression" for the studio, and that it was designed to be accessible for newcomers and complex for fans of the genre. The team collaborated with the action sport industry and consulted several professional skiers and extreme sports athletes and experts, such as Louis Aikins, Kevin Rolland, Sammy Luebke, and Horacio Llorens. However, one of the professional skiers, Matilda Rapaport, died while shooting a promotion video for the game in Farellones, Chile due to a sudden avalanche accident. The game was revealed with a trailer and playable demo at the 2016 Electronic Entertainment Expo as the closing act to Ubisoft's press conference. An open beta was set to be released prior to the game's official launch. Steep was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on 2 December 2016. A new region, Alaska, was introduced into the game as a free update soon after the game's release. A version for the Nintendo Switch was announced but later canceled. ### Additional expansions The game was supported by a season pass during the first year of its release cycle. The season pass included the Winterfest DLC, adding sledging and new challenges, the Extreme Pack, adding speed riding, basejumping and rocket-powered wingsuits, as well as the Adrenaline Pack, adding night races and new outfits. In June, at E3 2017, Ubisoft announced that a Winter Olympics expansion, Steep: Road to the Olympics, would be released on 5 December 2017. The expansion featured new mountain ranges in Korea and Japan and let the player take part in the 2018 Winter Olympics. For the third year of the release cycle, the X Games Pass could be purchased, including the Rocket Wings DLC, adding more rocket-powered wingsuit events, the 90s DLC, adding 90s-themend clothing, as well as the eponymous X Games DLC, allowing the player to enter the Winter X Games competition. All three releases could be purchased separately or as enhanced versions of the base game, respectively. Access to the Road to the Olympics DLC was removed from the game in 2022 to comply with third party rights. ## Reception Steep received "mixed or average" reviews, according to Metacritic. While critics generally lauded the game's vast open world and enjoyable activities, critics also pointed out its lack of direction and overall scope, with critique also being directed at its always-online concept. In February 2019, Ubisoft announced that Steep was played by 10 million individual players. Matthew Kato of Game Informer awarded the game a positive review. While he was initially wondering if a game solely centered on extreme sports and a vast open world would capture the players, he found Steep to be very captivating through its open world, gameplay, and atmosphere. He called the "volume of challenges [...] admirable, as is the scale of its open world", but was especially pleased with how well the world was tailored to cater to each discipline, thus interacting with the world was a "breathtaking and demanding" process. He noted that the trick system was aimed at accessibility and thus did not provide a feeling akin to the Tony Hawk's series of video games. TJ Hafer of IGN also rated the game positively for similar reasons, describing Steep's world as "one of the most diverse and visually interesting open worlds" in video games. He called the physics of the game "satisfying" and noted that they managed to find a balance between realistic and arcade approaches. Unlike other critics, he found the open concept of the game to be working out well. He lauded the game for its well executed controls, which he described as "intense, engaging, and at times [...] frantic." Also, he praised the game's open world, which he described as "gorgeous" and also "just awe-inspiringly gargantuan", with its "grandiose, attractive environments". Ray Castillo of EGM gave the game an average rating and was more critical. He too lauded Ubisoft Annecy for the game's graphics and world design, stating, that the "game looks gorgeous, and each mountainside has character to it." Furthermore, he noted the customization options for the different characters as very rich. However, he was critical of the game's map and objective structure, stating that the map opens up too early and is convoluted, while the presentation of objectives is confusing, and they do not seem to be designed to lead the player to an end goal through constant progress. This led him to conclude that the game lacked direction. He called the fact that the game has to have an internet connection to be played "unforgivable". He concluded, that while the game had "a lot of good ideas at its core", it was "more frustrating than fun." Similarly, Hafer noted that the paragliding path was the least entertaining of the four initial play styles but if a player wanted to complete the game, he was forced to do these events. Furthermore, he missed the option of increasing a character's stats, as it was handled in most classic extreme sport titles. ### Additional expansions The additional expansions were similarly received as the main game. The Road to the Olympics DLC was criticized by Kato of for providing little substance. While he enjoyed the Japanese mountain ranges, he was very critical of the game's new story mode and the Korean mountain. He noted that the mode "half-heartedly attempts the staging of its own Olympic drama" without conveying an Olympic experience. The decision to only include freestyle disciplines in the story while completely omitting skiing events such as Super-G or giant slalom added to that sentiment. He questioned the decision to include the Korean mountain ranges where the Olympics took place but not making them accessible in freeride mode. All in all, he noted that the expansion "restrict what is best about Steep with little to show for it in return." Chris Shive of Hardcore Gamer was less critical of the expansion, calling the new story mode "a goal-focused narrative that so many gamers have been conditioned to crave", while noting the game's stunning visuals, especially in the Japanese mountains. The X Games Pass was described by Michele Sollazzo of Eurogamer as a completion of the game's development, bringing it to its final form. Also, he noted that the expansion provided a good contrast to the previous Road to Olympics expansion, as it focused more on extreme sports. While he noted the X Games expansion itself as short, he found the competitions to be rather challenging. Stefan Stuursma of XGN also noted the difficulty of the X Games events and felt the new challenges added depth to the game. However, he criticized Ubisoft for not including a new area and the relative small amount of content in the new DLC package. ### Accolades The game won "Best Sports Game" at the 2016 Gamescom Awards and the 2016 Game Critics Awards, as well as "Sports Game of the Year" at the 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. ## See also - Riders Republic, a 2021 extreme sports game also developed by Ubisoft Annecy
65,372,862	Japanese destroyer Nara (1944)	1,054,627,484	Japanese Matsu-class escort destroyers	[ "1944 ships", "Matsu-class destroyers", "Ships built by Fujinagata Shipyards", "World War II destroyers of Japan" ]	Nara (楢, "Oak") was one of 18 Matsu-class escort destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. Completed in November 1944, the ship was badly damaged when she struck a naval mine in June 1945. She was not repaired before the end of the war and was scrapped in 1948. ## Design and description Designed for ease of production, the Matsu class was smaller, slower, and more lightly armed than previous destroyers, as the IJN intended them for second-line duties like escorting convoys, releasing the larger ships for missions with the fleet. The ships measured 100 meters (328 ft 1 in) long overall, with a beam of 9.35 meters (30 ft 8 in) and a draft of 3.3 meters (10 ft 10 in). Their crew numbered 210 officers and enlisted men. They displaced 1,282 metric tons (1,262 long tons) at standard load and 1,554 metric tons (1,529 long tons) at deep load. The ships had two Kampon geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by two Kampon water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at a total of 19,000 shaft horsepower (14,000 kW) for a speed of 27.8 knots (51.5 km/h; 32.0 mph). The Matsus had a range of 4,680 nautical miles (8,670 km; 5,390 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph). The main armament of the Matsu-class ships consisted of three 127-millimeter (5 in) Type 89 dual-purpose guns in one twin-gun mount aft and one single mount forward of the superstructure. The single mount was partially protected against spray by a gun shield. The accuracy of the Type 89 guns was severely reduced against aircraft because no high-angle gunnery director was fitted. The ships carried a total of twenty-five 25-millimeter (1 in) Type 96 anti-aircraft guns in 4 triple and 13 single mounts. The Matsus were equipped with Type 13 early-warning and Type 22 surface-search radars. The ships were also armed with a single rotating quadruple mount amidships for 610-millimeter (24 in) torpedoes. They could deliver their 36 depth charges via two stern rails and two throwers. ## Construction and career Authorized in the late 1942 by the Modified 5th Naval Armaments Supplement Program, Nara was laid down by Fujinagata Shipyards on 10 June 1944 in its Osaka facility and launched on 12 October. Upon her completion on 26 November, the ship was assigned to Destroyer Squadron 11 of the Combined Fleet for training. The ship was assigned to the squadron's Destroyer Division 53 on 15 March. The squadron was briefly attached to the Second Fleet on 1–20 April before rejoining the Combined Fleet. She was badly damaged when she struck a mine near the Shimonoseki Strait on 30 June. The division was disbanded on 15 July; Nara was disarmed and towed to Moji. The ship was turned over to Allied forces there at the time of the surrender of Japan on 2 September and was stricken from the navy list on 30 November. Unrepaired, she was broken up at Shimonoseki in July 1948.
48,222,210	4,722 Hours	1,171,484,231	null	[ "2015 American television episodes", "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (season 3) episodes", "Bottle television episodes", "Television episodes directed by Jesse Bochco", "Television episodes written by Craig Titley", "Works about astronauts" ]	"4,722 Hours" is the fifth episode of the third season of the American television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D., it follows Jemma Simmons, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who is stranded on an alien planet. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledges the franchise's films. The episode was written by Craig Titley, and directed by Jesse Bochco. Elizabeth Henstridge portrays Simmons, and is joined by guest star Dillon Casey as another survivor stranded on the planet. Series regulars Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, and Iain De Caestecker also briefly appear. The episode was a departure from the norm for the series, focusing on a single character rather than the usual ensemble, and taking place on an alien planet. The episode was filmed in the Californian desert, with a filtering effect used to make it appear to be night on the planet, as its sun rarely rises. The episode took inspiration from multiple science fiction films, and bears similarity to The Martian, which was released close to the episode's airing. "4,722 Hours" originally aired on ABC on October 27, 2015, and according to Nielsen Media Research, was watched by 6.40 million viewers within a week of its release. The episode received an overwhelmingly positive critical response, with praise going to its bottle episode nature and Henstridge's performance, as well as to the storytelling which was generally seen as overcoming predictable or familiar plot beats. Many critics called it the best episode of the series. ## Plot S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jemma Simmons is sucked into an alien monolith she is studying, and is teleported to night-time on a barren, desert planet. She braves a sandstorm, and finds water and a plant-like creature to eat. After 752 hours, Simmons is trapped by a man, who eventually introduces himself as Will, an astronaut sent through the portal by NASA in 2001 who has been stranded alone, and believes the planet, or an entity controlling the planet, to be evil. Will and his team had come on a year-long mission of exploration, but the others had soon succumbed to the effects of "it"; two had killed themselves, while Will killed the other when the latter attacked him. Will only survived the next 14 years by hiding from "it", and luck. Simmons uses Will's equipment, including maps he and his team made of the surrounding areas, to try to find a way back through the portal. While out scavenging for food, Simmons sees a metallic reflection in the distance, and follows it to find an old sword and 19th century astronomy equipment. Realizing that she has entered what Will calls the "No Fly Zone", the area where his fellow astronauts all went before they died, Simmons is soon caught up in another sandstorm—this time, she sees a cloaked figure approaching her and flees back to the cave. Inspired by the astronomy equipment to use the stars and moons, Simmons deduces that the portal's location is fixed but appears to move due to the planet's rotation. By using Will's old NASA equipment and her S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued cell phone, she predicts the portal's next opening, but they arrive at the location to find that "it" has apparently altered the landscape to create an impassable canyon between them and the portal. Simmons loses hope of ever returning to Earth as the portal opens and closes in front of them, and resigns herself to life on the planet with Will. The two grow close as time continues to pass. 4,722 hours since Simmons' arrival, they see a flare in the distance. Running to it, Simmons finds her S.H.I.E.L.D. partner Leo Fitz. As "it" arrives, Will stays behind to hold it off while Simmons reluctantly escapes with Fitz. She tells him of her ordeal, and Fitz promises to help her return to the planet and save Will. ## Production ### Development In September 2015, following the airing of the season's premiere in which the location of the character Jemma Simmons was revealed to be an alien planet, executive producer Jeffrey Bell stated that "at some point we will fully explore what's happened to her". He called it "the craziest thing we've done ... a different kind of episode". The next month, Marvel announced that the episode, the fifth of the season, would be titled "4,722 Hours". It is written by Craig Titley, with Jesse Bochco directing. For "4,722 Hours", instead of the normal title sequence used in the season, the series' title in the episode's typeface silently fades onto the screen over the back drop of the planet Simmons is stranded on. ### Writing The decision to dedicate an entire episode to Simmons' time on the planet was made early in the planning of the third season, so that the character could rejoin the rest of the cast early in the season while avoiding having the second season's cliffhanger "feel worthless because she's back and she's fine". The use of the titular hours to mark the passage of time came about after the idea of the planet not having a sunrise was set, as using days was then no longer reasonable. The series' writers room worked together to break the story, which took around an hour and a half rather than the usual few weeks. Series writer and supervising producer Brent Fletcher came up with an idea to split the 4,722 hours into five acts, with each written like the chapter of the book. The acts were given labels such as "The Stranger" and "The Plan", and this structure served as the basis for Titley's script. Though many similarities were noted between the episode and the film The Martian, Titley had not seen the film when he was writing the script, and instead was inspired by the general science fiction trope of "a person alone on a planet" and such films as Enemy Mine. Elizabeth Henstridge described the episode as "a coming-of-age story. I think we see Simmons at the start, and she's never really been combat ready ... we see her have to survive, and just to see her go on this journey from complete despair". Henstridge also noted thriller elements in the episode. On the moment in "4,722 Hours" where Simmons loses hope, Henstridge explained, "I never thought we'd see her get to that place ... It justifies her relationship with Will, too, because she was ready to end it all and he was the one who pulled her back from the brink." Concerning that relationship with new character Will Daniels, the executive producers worked with Titley to try to make it feel earned in the episode, given the fan following of "FitzSimmons" (the potential relationship between Simmons and Leo Fitz). Executive producer Jed Whedon also noted on this that the episode "wasn't a story about the two of them on this planet, but a story about Fitz hearing this and how he will respond. He breaks your heart, at the end, she breaks your heart, and hopefully, you're feeling for all three involved." Having the NASA astronauts travel to the planet in 2001 was a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey, which also featured a monolith, while Titley named Daniels' fellow astronauts after his favorite cinematic astronauts: Austin from The Six Million Dollar Man; Taylor from Planet of the Apes; and Brubaker from Capricorn One. ### Casting In October 2015, Marvel revealed that main cast members Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Henstridge, Nick Blood, Adrianne Palicki, Henry Simmons, and Luke Mitchell would star as Phil Coulson, Melinda May, Grant Ward, Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz, Jemma Simmons, Lance Hunter, Bobbi Morse, Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, and Lincoln Campbell, respectively. However, the majority of the cast does not ultimately appear, with only Henstridge and De Caestecker playing notable roles; Whedon said that the others basically had "a week off". Dillon Casey guest stars as Will Daniels. On the series having an episode revolving around a single character, Whedon said, "We have a lot of people on the show and we felt like this year was the year to start branching off into things like this. So, we just committed wholeheartedly". In casting Casey as Daniels, the producers wanted someone who was older than Henstridge, physically unlike De Caestecker, and "doesn't look like [Simmons'] type", to make it less clear that they would end up together. ### Filming Filming occurred in a work quarry in Simi Valley and in Northridge, Los Angeles near the Mojave Desert during the day, with director of photography Feliks Parnell using a filtering effect inspired by Mad Max: Fury Road to make it appear to be night time. This was seen to be more practical than night shooting in the desert, given that almost every scene takes place during the 18-year-long night on the planet. Because of this, the production struggled with the intense heat of the desert. Around 22 minutes of extra footage was shot for the episode that had to be cut, including a subplot in which Simmons loses her grandmother's necklace and Daniels finds it for her. On how continuity was emphasized during the making of the episode, Bochco explained that for each of the episode's five acts there was a different stage of hair, makeup, and wardrobe so the crew could depict the physical changes to Simmons as time progresses. Rather than try and film the episode in complete order, which was "impossible" due to location scheduling needs, the production just tried to avoid changing from one stage to another, and then back again. On how much the episode shows "the entity" on the planet, Bochco and Titley compared it to the shark in Jaws, with this episode just showing "[its] fin from time to time", and a bigger reveal of the creature coming in a later episode. ## Release "4,722 Hours" was first aired in the United States on ABC on October 27, 2015. The episode began streaming on Netflix on June 16, 2016. ## Reception ### Ratings In the United States the episode received a 1.4/4 percent share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, meaning that it was seen by 1.4 percent of all households, and 4 percent of all of those watching television at the time of the broadcast. It was watched by 3.81 million viewers. Within a week of its release the episode was watched by 6.40 million U.S. viewers, above the season average of 5.52 million viewers. ### Critical response Eric Goldman of IGN scored the episode a 9.7 out of 10, indicating an "amazing" episode which he called "a standout ... excellent TV". He praised the bold departure from the series' normal "vibe", Henstridge's "fantastic performance", and the way the relationship between Simmons and Daniels develops throughout the episode, and said that "it's a testament to how well this episode was constructed and how well the story was told that [the familiar/predictable] aspects didn't hinder how involving this was". Oliver Sava at The A.V. Club graded the episode an "A", calling it a "high point of the series that shows the value of breaking from the established formula". He noted how the episode played to different strengths than the similar The Martian, focusing on the more personal aspects of Simmons journey rather than S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attempts to rescue her. He praised the performances of Henstridge and Casey, the episode's simple-yet-effective use of colored filters (in comparison to the series' usual "drab color palette"), and the depiction of Simmons' loss of hope and developing relationship with Daniels, despite the predictable progression of the story. Den of Geek's Rob Leane was less positive, praising the "brave decision" to focus on Simmons and Henstridge's performance, while noting the "undeniable similarities" between the episode and The Martian, and panning the introduction of Daniels as "more like a plot device than a real driving force for the episode" and the unwanted introduction of a love-triangle to the series. Molly Freeman, writing for Screen Rant, called "4,722 Hours" a "strong hour of television" featuring a dramatic risk in focusing on Simmons that she felt paid off. Freeman stated, "once the dramatic arc of the episode is established, it takes a fairly standard route ... [but] the performance of Henstridge helps to bring enough emotion to give the storyline the weight that it needs". Kevin Fitzpatrick at ScreenCrush called the episode "inventive and unexpected" and "a brilliant gamble", praising Henstridge's performance and the "immersive" quality of the episode, especially the investment in Simmons' personal development with Daniels and attempts to escape the planet, which he felt was "only occasionally marred by the required exposition of its more improbable elements". Fitzpatrick positively compared "4,722 Hours" to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Hush". Joseph McCabe of Nerdist stated on the episode, "This week's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is so good that it leaves me in a state of pessimism. Because I can't see any way to follow it up that gives a satisfying resolution to the story it so beautifully presents." He called it "one of the very finest episodes S.H.I.E.L.D. has given us, and one of the few a viewer with almost no prior knowledge of the show can fully appreciate", and praised the handling of Simmons' and Daniels' relationship, saying that Henstridge and Casey "complement one another marvelously". Discussing the episode for Vox, Caroline Framke called it "astonishing", praising the decision to dedicate an episode to Simmons' ordeal rather than just reveal it through flashbacks in "normal" episodes, as well as the efforts of Bochco, Titley, and Henstridge, and the use of the "sinister" on-screen hour counter. Also reviewing the episode for Den of Geek, Marc Buxton scored it 4.5 stars out 5, calling it "the most experimental episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to date, and ... it might have been the finest hour of the series so far". Buxton felt that the episode retroactively improved the earlier season three episodes, which he had called "anticlimactic" due to their handling of Simmons' storyline, and praised Henstridge's performance. He also positively compared the episode's villain, which he described as "hard to grasp, mysterious, and ever present", to "the best Steven Moffat Doctor Who villains". ### Accolades Henstridge was named TVLine's "Performer of the Week" for the week of October 25, 2015, for her performance in this episode, particularly for appearing throughout the whole of it, and for the more "heartbreaking" scenes near the end. The episode was named one of the best television episodes of 2015 by The Atlantic. In June 2016, IGN ranked the episode as the best in the series.
25,645,761	500 euro note	1,170,956,565	Banknote of the European Union	[ "Euro banknotes", "Five-hundred-base-unit banknotes" ]	The five-hundred-euro note (€500) is the highest-value euro banknote and was produced between the introduction of the euro (in its cash form) in 2002 until 2019. Since 27 April 2019, the banknote has no longer been issued by central banks in the euro area, but continues to be legal tender and can be used as a means of payment. It is one of the highest-value circulating banknotes in the world, worth around 545 USD; 3,935 CNY; 78,149 JPY; 488 CHF, or 428 GBP as of June 2023. The note is used in the 25 countries which have the euro as their sole currency, with a population of about 343 million. Initially, the high denomination notes were introduced very rapidly so that in the first 7 years (up to December 2008) there were 530 million five-hundred-euro banknotes in circulation. Subsequently, the rate of increase was radically slowed. In July 2023, there were approximately 281 million banknotes in circulation (decreased from 614 million in 2015). It is the least widely circulated denomination, accounting for 0.9% of the total banknotes. It is the largest note measuring 160 × 82 mm and has a purple colour scheme. The five-hundred-euro banknotes depict bridges and arches/doorways in modern architecture (around the late 20th century). The five-hundred-euro note contains several complex security features such as watermarks, invisible ink, holograms and microprinting that make counterfeiting very difficult. The note is being phased out due to concerns of widespread use for illegal purposes. Most printing of new €500 notes ceased in 2019, although existing notes will remain legal tender until further notice. ## History The euro was founded on 1 January 1999, when it became the currency of over 300 million people in Europe. For the first three years of its existence it was an invisible currency, only used in accountancy. Euro cash was not introduced until 1 January 2002, when it replaced the national banknotes and coins of the 12 initial eurozone countries, such as the Luxembourgish franc. Slovenia joined the Eurozone in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014 and Lithuania joined on 1 January 2015. ### The changeover period The changeover period during which the former currencies' notes and coins were exchanged for those of the euro lasted about two months, going from 1 January 2002 until 28 February 2002. The official date on which the national currencies ceased to be legal tender varied from member state to member state. The earliest date was in Germany, where the mark officially ceased to be legal tender on 31 December 2001, though the exchange period lasted for two months more. Even after the old currencies ceased to be legal tender, they continued to be accepted by national central banks for periods ranging from ten years to forever. ### Design changes Notes printed before November 2003 bear the signature of the first president of the European Central Bank, Wim Duisenberg, who was replaced on 1 November 2003 by Jean-Claude Trichet, whose signature appears on issues from November 2003 to March 2012. Notes issued after March 2012 bear the signature of the third president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi. As of June 2012, current issues do not reflect the expansion of the European Union. Cyprus is not depicted on current notes as the map does not extend far enough east and Malta is also missing as it does not meet the current series' minimum size for depiction. The European Central Bank is currently introducing a new series of euro banknotes. The 500-euro denomination, however, will not be included in the new series as it was decided to phase out issuance of 500-euro banknotes. ### End of production and issuance The European Central Bank announced on 4 May 2016 that it would stop issuing the 500-euro notes by the end of 2018. This decision is due to the suspicion that the notes are widely used for illegal purposes, according to a high-ranking bank official, Benoît Cœuré. The notes were last printed in 2014 and the demand was satisfied since from stocks. On 27 January 2019, 17 of 19 Eurosystem's central banks stopped issuing and distributing €500 banknotes. To ensure a smooth transition and for logistic reasons, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Oesterreichische Nationalbank opted for longer period and issued banknotes until 26 April 2019. Circulating 500-euro notes remain legal tender and can continue to be used as a means of payment and store of value until further notice. Banks, bureaux de change and other commercial parties can keep recirculating the existing notes. The date when euro banknotes of the first series cease to be legal tender will be announced "well in advance" by ECB. Banknotes will always retain their value and can be exchanged for an unlimited period of time at the Eurosystem central banks. ## Design The five-hundred-euro note measures at 160 millimetres (6.3 in) × 82 millimetres (3.2 in) with a purple colour scheme. All bank notes depict bridges and arches/doorways in a different historical European style; the five-hundred-euro note shows Modern architecture (around the 20th century). Although Robert Kalina's original designs were intended to show real monuments, for political reasons the bridge and art are merely hypothetical examples of the architectural era. Nevertheless, the featured bridge is highly similar to Guadiana International Bridge. Like all euro notes, it contains the denomination, the EU flag, the signature of the president of the ECB and the initials of said bank in different EU languages, a depiction of EU territories overseas, the stars from the EU flag and twelve security features as listed below. ### Security features The five-hundred-euro note is protected by: - Colour changing ink used on the numeral located on the back of the note, that appears to change colour from purple to brown, when the note is tilted. - A transparent number printed in the top corner of the note, on both sides, appear to combine perfectly to form the value numeral when held against the light. - A glossy stripe, situated at the back of the note, showing the value numeral and the euro symbol. - A hologram, used on the note which appears to see the hologram image change between the value and a window or doorway, but in the background, it appears to be rainbow-coloured concentric circles of micro-letters moving from the centre to the edges of the patch. - A EURion constellation; the EURion constellation is a pattern of symbols found on a number of banknote designs worldwide since about 1996. It is added to help software detect the presence of a banknote in a digital image. - Watermarks, which appear when held up to the light. - Raised printing in the main image, the lettering and the value numerals on the front of the banknotes will be raised. - Ultraviolet ink; the paper itself does not glow, fibres embedded in the paper do appear, and be coloured red, blue and green, the EU flag is green and has orange stars, the ECB President's, currently Mario Draghi's, signature turns green, the large stars and small circles on the front glow and the European map, a bridge and the value numeral on the back appear in yellow. - Microprinting, on various areas of the banknotes there is microprinting, for example, inside the "ΕΥΡΩ" (EURO in Greek characters) on the front. The micro-text is sharp, not blurred. - A security thread, embedded in the banknote paper. The thread will appear as a dark stripe when held up to the light. The word "EURO" and the value is embedded in tiny letters on the thread. - Perforations in the hologram which will form the euro symbol. There are also small numbers showing the value. - A matted surface; the note paper is made out of pure cotton, which feels crisp and firm, but not limp or waxy. - A serial number. ## Crime The value of the note is much greater than the largest circulating notes of most other major currencies, such as the United States 100-dollar bill. Thus a large monetary value can be concentrated into a small volume of notes. This facilitates crimes that deal in cash, including money laundering, drug dealing, and tax evasion. There have been calls to withdraw the note for this reason. However, some of the currencies the euro replaced had widely used high-value notes, including the 5,000 Austrian schillings (€363), the 1,000 Dutch guilders (€454), the 1,000 Deutsche Marks (€511), and 500 Latvian lats (€711). Even though there were some valuable banknotes in the national currencies of Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, the number of banknotes was relatively small compared to the euro banknotes. At the end of the year 2000 there were 89.20 million 1,000 Deutsche Mark banknotes, 13.97 million 5,000 Austrian Schilling banknotes and 13.28 million 1,000 Dutch Guilder banknotes in circulation. Latvia had a negligible number of 500 lat banknotes. In contrast the European Central Bank ordered the production of 371 million €500 banknotes before 1 July 2002. In particular, a quarter of these high-value bills was within the borders of Spain in 2006. This concentration of €500 notes is far greater than expected for an economy of Spain's size, as prior to conversion to euro the largest banknote was 10,000 Spanish pesetas, worth €60. These notes are rarely seen in every-day commerce – they have been nicknamed "Bin Ladens" by the populace (as the presence and appearance of the notes are well-known, but the notes themselves are quite difficult to find). The financial analyst Jeffrey Robinson had warned back in 1998 before issuance that he believed that the €500 note would be used mostly for drug trafficking and money laundering. British and Spanish police are using the bills to track money laundering. As of 20 April 2010, money exchange offices in the United Kingdom were banned from selling €500 notes due to their use in money laundering. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) stated that "90% of all €500 notes sold in the UK are in the hands of organised crime", revealed during an eight-month analysis. As of May 2023, €500 is equivalent to about £440, depending on exchange rates (around eight times the value of the Bank of England's largest publicly circulated note), and had, according to SOCA, become the currency choice for criminal gangs to hide their profits. The EU directive 2005/06/EC "on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing" tries to prevent such crime by requiring banks, real estate agents, tax and business advisors or agents, casinos and more companies to investigate and report usage of cash in excess of €15,000. In Denmark, which is an EU member state but which is not in the Eurozone, all transactions involving €500 notes have been banned since January 2020. ## Circulation The European Central Bank is closely monitoring the circulation and stock of the euro coins and banknotes. It is a task of the Eurosystem to ensure an efficient and smooth supply of euro notes and to maintain their integrity throughout the euro area. The first set of €500 banknotes was introduced in January 2002. The number of banknotes in circulation increased each year until 2011. In the period from 2011 until 2013 there was a decrease in the quantity of circulated banknotes. The €500 banknote peaked at the end of March 2009 at 36.9% of the value of all euro banknotes. Circulation by numbers of notes peaked at 613,559,542 banknotes in December 2015 when the decision to not include this denomination in the new Europa series was made. The amount of circulated banknotes decreased ever since. The figures are as follows: ## Legal information Legally, both the European Central Bank and the central banks of the eurozone countries have the right to issue the 7 different euro banknotes. In practice, only the national central banks of the zone physically issue and withdraw euro banknotes. The European Central Bank does not have a cash office and is not involved in any cash operations.
69,865,752	Tolkien's Art: 'A Mythology for England'	1,156,397,875	1979 book by Jane Chance	[ "1979 books", "Books about Middle-earth", "Tolkien studies" ]	Tolkien's Art: 'A Mythology for England' is a 1979 book of Tolkien scholarship by Jane Chance, writing then as Jane Chance Nitzsche. The book looks in turn at Tolkien's essays "On Fairy-Stories" and "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics"; The Hobbit; the fairy-stories "Leaf by Niggle" and "Smith of Wootton Major"; the minor works "Lay of Autrou and Itroun", "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth", "Imram", and Farmer Giles of Ham; The Lord of the Rings; and very briefly in the concluding section, The Silmarillion. In 2001, a second edition extended all the chapters but still treated The Silmarillion, that Tolkien worked on throughout his life, as a sort of coda. Tolkien scholars including Tom Shippey and Verlyn Flieger, while noting some good points in the book, roundly criticised Chance's approach as seeking to fit his writings into an allegorical pattern which in their view did not exist, and disagreeing with points of detail. They noted that Bilbo Baggins, for instance, is nothing like a king. Others commented that the second edition had failed to keep up with advances in Tolkien scholarship. The scholar Michael Drout has praised the appropriateness of the subtitle's description of Tolkien's legendarium, "A mythology for England", though it seems that Tolkien never used that exact phrase. ## Context The English philologist J. R. R. Tolkien published the bestselling children's book The Hobbit in 1937, and the bestselling fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings in 1954–1955. His fantasy writings were severely criticised by the literary establishment. From the 1970s, Tolkien scholars including Tom Shippey and Verlyn Flieger began to mount a detailed defence of Tolkien. Jane Chance (formerly writing as Jane Chance Nitzsche) is an American scholar, from 1973 at Rice University, specializing in medieval English literature, gender studies, and Tolkien. ## Book ### Publication history Tolkien's Art: 'A Mythology for England' was first published by Macmillan in London in 1979. A paperback edition in Papermac appeared in 1980. A revised edition was published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2001. ### Synopsis The first edition had five named chapters, and a short concluding section. "The Critic as Monster" looked at Tolkien's major essays "On Fairy-Stories" and "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics". Chance notes the powerful effect that Tolkien's Beowulf essay had on scholarship, and that it provoked a lasting controversy over the poem's Germanic and Christian components. "The King Under the Mountain: Tolkien's Children's Story", dealt with The Hobbit. She notes the central place given to the book's two leading monsters, Gollum and Smaug, and the monstrous aspects of the Elvenking, the Master of Dale, and the dwarf-king, to whom she ascribes "the more 'spiritual' sins" compared to the gluttony, sloth, and anger of the other monsters such as the trolls, goblins, and wargs. She contrasts the "unobtrusive" hobbit Bilbo Baggins with the "usually obtrusive" and uncharitable narrator of the story. "The Christian King: Tolkien's Fairy-Stories", explored the Christian symbolism and allegory of "Leaf by Niggle" and "Smith of Wootton Major". "The Germanic King: Tolkien's Medieval Parodies", looked at some minor works, namely "The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun", "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth", "Imram", and Farmer Giles of Ham, comparing them to Old English and Middle English works such as Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. "The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien's Epic" set Tolkien's book in the context of epic works from Beowulf to Le Morte d'Arthur, Faerie Queene and Don Quixote. Those books variously explore chivalric and Christian ideals and modern realism, overlaid according to Chance on medieval heroism and medieval Christianity. Chance contrasts Tolkien's "two Germanic lords", the dour legalistic Denethor and the loving Théoden. A final brief section dealt with The Silmarillion: "Basically the mythology dramatises the conflict between the fallen Vala Melkor, or Morgoth, followed by his Maia servant Sauron and the One, Eru or Iluvatar, 'Father of All', although this is not at first apparent because of the bewildering array of tales and characters". She describes the work's themes as "clearly biblical", concluding that Tolkien had "indeed finally written that 'mythology for England'". The 2001 revised edition extended all the chapters in the light of Tolkien scholarship and of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume The History of Middle-earth, but continued to describe The Silmarillion as "an appropriate coda to Tolkien's life". ## Reception ### First edition Reviewing the first edition, Shippey writes that "a proper reading of Tolkien must depend on some sensitivity to the other literatures and views of literature he spent his time considering". In his view, Chance rightly set out to find the "seeds" of Tolkien's "mythology for England" in the medieval: it was "regrettable that [her attempt] fails". Shippey writes that Chance does not grasp Tolkien's valuing of the literal: that the Beowulf dragon is still a real dragon, "not yet Satan" – as it would have been a few centuries later. In Shippey's opinion, this "mistake" makes it too easy for the critic to impute meanings that Tolkien did not intend. He gives as example Chance's assertion that Tolkien's talk of disliking allegory since he grew "old and wary enough to detect its presence" must be an allegory, and that his reference to age must mean he did not really dislike allegory: Shippey calls this a perfectly circular argument. He replies that Tolkien in fact definitely liked "strong fierce old men", such as Aragorn, Théoden King, Helm Hammerhand, and Gandalf; and that they represent "that unyielding courage to which Tolkien gave so high a value, and which he set at the heart of his mythology". He states that Chance has no time for such old-fashioned values, and instead praises Bilbo's growth as a "type of the good king". He observes that Bilbo is nothing like a king, and that talk of "types" just muddies the waters. Shippey ends by saying that there are "some" good points in the book: Chance rightly sees "self-images of Tolkien" throughout his fiction; and she is right, too, in seeing Middle-earth as a balance between creativity and scholarship, "Germanic past and Christian present". The scholar of literature and religion David Lyle Jeffrey, writing in VII, states that Chance interpreted Tolkien's various activities – philology, editing scholarly textbooks, translating, storytelling – "as roles", a sort of "complex psychological warfare in Tolkien's conscious and subconscious mind". Jeffrey comments that this has the advantage of causing the reader to look at Tolkien in the context of his professional work and intellectual history, but that he fears that she "offers us a more complex and schizophrenic Tolkien" than might be justified by the diversity of his lines of work. He writes that Chance "tries to 'save the appearances' for allegory" by demonstrating that Tolkien deliberately played "as a bad exegete". He states, too, that she argued that Tolkien's "old critic" represented St Augustine's "Old Man" who adhered to the letter rather than the spirit of the law. Jeffrey doubts that Chance was correct to conclude this, or that there was a mental split between Tolkien the writer and Tolkien the philologist. Leslie Stratyner, writing in Mythlore, notes that Chance argues that the enemy in The Lord of the Rings works mainly as "'a symbolic perversion of Christian rather than Germanic values'". Stratyner objects that the One Ring, embodying the nature of Sauron, can be read in terms of the Anglo-Saxon practice of giving rings to loyal followers, "twisted to his dark purpose"; his loyal thanes are the Nazgûl, and they serve him not because they feel loyal and loving towards him, but because he has enslaved them with magic rings. ### Second edition The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger welcomes the "solid critical work" of the 2001 edition amidst the publicity for Peter Jackson's then-forthcoming films of The Lord of The Rings. She agrees with Chance's identification of the Finnish Kalevala as the trigger for Tolkien's legendarium, but found misleading her general comparison with "mythological tales that often begin with creation" – as diverse as the Bible, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and the Mabinogion. Flieger agrees with Chance's comparison of Eru Ilúvatar with God, and the Valar with the Bible's angels, but writes that Chance "fails to note the equally important differences" where Tolkien intentionally "diverged from these models". Flieger writes that Chance was following Tolkien's intentions in calling the tales of Middle-earth "a mythology for England", but that she is not persuaded by Chance's argument that this applies to all of Tolkien's fiction. That would, Flieger writes, leave The Silmarillion only as a "'coda', as if it were an addendum to the principal composition", ignoring the lifetime's work that Tolkien put into that work, and from which The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings both emerged. Finally, she states that Chance follows Tolkien's biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, throughout the book in describing Tolkien as "two people", one a dry scholar, the other an artist in words, supporting this with "sound scholarly evidence". Flieger disagrees with some "points of interpretation", writing that "Frodo, not Sam, is 'the real threat to Sauron'" and finds "Gollum's sacrifice of himself" an over-generous description of "that unhappy creature". She concludes that the book does explain "the scholarly roots of Tolkien's fiction", and how "those roots nourished the tree". The independent scholar Daniel J. Smitherman writes that Chance had narrowed her scope to "the theme of kingship and its adversaries—of the heroes and the monsters". He agrees that in Tolkien, both hero and monster sometimes appear directly, and are sometimes concealed. He finds Chance's 1979 demonstration that Tolkien used (medieval) English literature significant, but by the 2000s there was so much Tolkien scholarship, and it was based on so much more of Tolkien's writing than Chance had access to in the 1970s, that the revision seemed less than valuable; and that would have been true even if Chance's writing style had been better. Margaret Hiley, writing in Modern Fiction Studies, calls Chance's Tolkien's Art and Shippey's The Road to Middle-earth "the best" of "many critical studies" of Tolkien's method in creating a new mythology. ### "A mythology for England" Tolkien scholars have analysed the extent to which Tolkien intended his Middle-earth writings, his legendarium, to form "A mythology for England", as the book's subtitle proposes. In a 1951 letter to the publisher Milton Waldman, Tolkien wrote "I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story – the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the vast backcloths – which I could dedicate simply to: to England; to my country. ..." Michael Drout states that Tolkien never used the actual phrase "A mythology for England", though commentators have found it appropriate as a description of much of his approach in creating Middle-earth. In the first edition, the subtitle was placed in inverted commas, indicating that it had been thought to be a direct quotation; the punctuation marks were removed from the subtitle in the revised edition of 2002, and Tolkien's 1951 letter to Waldman is quoted at length, heading the book's introduction.
57,039,954	Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino	1,173,735,502	2018 studio album by Arctic Monkeys	[ "2018 albums", "Albums produced by Alex Turner", "Albums produced by James Ford (musician)", "Albums recorded at Electro-Vox Recording Studios", "Arctic Monkeys albums", "Domino Recording Company albums", "Glam rock albums by English artists", "Lounge music albums", "Psychedelic pop albums", "Science fiction concept albums", "Space age pop albums" ]	Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (stylised as Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino) is the sixth studio album by English rock band Arctic Monkeys, released on 11 May 2018 by Domino Recording Company. The album was written by frontman Alex Turner in 2016 on a Steinway Vertegrand piano in his Los Angeles home. It was produced in Los Angeles, Paris and London by frequent Arctic Monkeys collaborator James Ford and Turner, alongside a wide array of guest musicians including Tom Rowley, Loren Humphrey, James Righton, Zach Dawes, Tyler Parkford and Cam Avery. Turner designed the album artwork himself, which depicts the resort with cardboard cut-outs and a tape recorder. Its title refers to Tranquility Base, the site of the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing. Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is a major departure from the band's previous guitar-heavy work, being considered less accessible than its internationally successful predecessor, AM (2013). It features a rich sound that embodies psychedelic pop, lounge pop, space pop, and glam rock, as well as elements of jazz. It also draws influence from soul, progressive rock, funk, French pop and film soundtracks of the 1960s. Instrumentally, it incorporates vintage synthesisers and keyboards, including organs, pianos, harpsichords and the dolceola, as well as the Orchestron, Farfisa and RMI Rocksichord. Baritone and lap steel guitars are introduced by the band on multiple tracks, in addition to the electric and acoustic guitars typically used by the band, as well as a variety of percussion instruments, including rotary timpani and vibraphones. Its lyrical content draws heavily from science fiction and film, exploring consumerism, politics, religion and technology through the concept of a luxury resort on the Moon told from the perspective of various characters, such as the singer in the in-house band on "Star Treatment" or the hotel's receptionist on the title track. Despite its stylistic deviation polarising listeners, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino was released to generally positive reviews and was named the best album of 2018 by Q magazine. It was nominated for the 2018 Mercury Prize and the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. The single "Four Out of Five" was nominated for Best Rock Performance. It became the band's sixth consecutive number-one debut in the UK, the country's fastest-selling vinyl record in 25 years, and the band's third top 10 album in the US. It also topped the charts in Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Greece, Portugal, Scotland and Switzerland. Following its release, the album was promoted by the singles "Four Out of Five" and "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino", as well as a global tour and multiple television appearances. ## Background and recording The band's fifth studio album AM was released in September 2013 to critical acclaim, bringing the group new levels of commercial success globally. In April 2016, Alex Turner's psychedelic pop side project the Last Shadow Puppets released their second studio album Everything You've Come to Expect. A year later, Turner co-produced Alexandra Savior's debut album Belladonna of Sadness with James Ford. This was Turner's first foray into record production, with the two proceeding to produce Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Following the international success of AM, Turner suffered from writer's block, and struggled to find a direction for a new album. Having written "Sweet Dreams, TN" from Everything You've Come to Expect, he lost interest in writing love songs, with a friend suggesting "not doing that for a moment". In early 2016, upon watching Federico Fellini's 1963 film 81⁄2, Turner was inspired by its depiction of writer's block, childhood memories and the science fiction genre. He began writing songs for the album on a Steinway Vertegrand piano he received as a 30th birthday gift from the Arctic Monkeys' manager Ian McAndrew. He wrote and recorded the demos in a spare room of his Los Angeles home dubbed "Lunar Surface". During the process Turner recalled piano lessons he had received from his father at the age of eight, commenting that he "never thought [his father's influence] would find its way into [his] compositions as much as it has on this record". Many of the vocal takes included on the finished album originate from Turner's home demos on a TASCAM 388 8-track recording machine. Guitarist Jamie Cook commented that he "was blown away by the direction Alex had gone in" when Turner played him the demos in February 2017. Initially unsure how they would record the songs, the two discussed Turner releasing a solo album, but ultimately decided against the idea. Cook began recording guitar ideas to complement the demos, with bassist Nick O'Malley approving of the demo for "Star Treatment". In September 2017, the Arctic Monkeys began recording material at Vox Studios in Hollywood and La Frette in Paris. Frequent collaborator James Ford co-produced the album with Turner. During these sessions the piano and guitar parts began to mesh, with O'Malley and drummer Matt Helders joining. Helders commented that during recording he played with more restraint than on previous records, noting that "it's about playing for the songs". Further recording sessions took place with Ford in London. The group employed a wide array of guest musicians. Ford and guitarist Tom Rowley, (who has served as a touring member of the band since 2013), contributed to several tracks. Drummer Loren Humphrey of Guards, keyboardist James Righton and pianist Josephine Stephenson contributed to "Four Out of Five", "Science Fiction" and "The Ultracheese". Zach Dawes and Tyler Parkford of Mini Mansions, and Evan Weiss of Wires on Fire also performed on "American Sports" and "The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip". Additionally, Cam Avery of Tame Impala contributed backing vocals to "She Looks Like Fun". The musicians performed together in a single room, influenced by images of the sessions for the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966), as well as Phil Spector's Wall of Sound production method. Parkford joined the band as a touring member following the album's release, whilst Avery also joined the Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino Tour as an opening act and guest musician at some shows. ## Composition ### Musical style and influences Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is a departure from AMs guitar riff-driven work, resultant of Turner's usage of the piano over the guitar in its composition. It has been characterised as psychedelic pop, lounge pop, space pop, and glam rock. The album further incorporates influences from jazz, as well as soul, prog, funk, French pop and film soundtracks of the 1960s. Its sound has been described as "subdued, but warm and classic in the way that musicians who seek out storied mixing consoles aspire to", as well as "lush and claustrophobic". The melodic songs feature unconventional chord progressions, and often abandon the traditional "verse" and "chorus" structure. The album has been noted for its lack of distinct hooks, and its tendency to limit "casual consumption". Instrumentally, it incorporates vintage synthesisers and keyboards reminiscent of space age pop. Keyboards used on the album include organs, pianos, harpsichords and the dolceola, as well as the Orchestron, Farfisa and RMI Rocksichord. Multiple tracks feature baritone and lap steel guitars in addition to the electric and acoustic guitars typically used by the band, as well as a variety of percussion instruments, including rotary timpani and vibraphones. The album has been compared to the works of David Bowie, Serge Gainsbourg, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hawley and Father John Misty, as well as Pet Sounds (1966) by the Beach Boys. Turner has cited Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971), Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man (1977), Dion's Born to Be with You (1975) and François de Roubaix's score for Le Samouraï (1967) as key influences. The album's drum and bass lines have been compared closely to those on Histoire de Melody Nelson, with the influence of Pet Sounds pervading the record, especially in its vocal harmonies. ### Lyrics and themes Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is a concept album depicting a luxury hotel at Tranquility Base, the location of the 1969 Moon landing. Lyrically, the album refers frequently to science fiction, incorporating "hyperrealist satire" and "interstellar escapism" in order to explore entertainment's role in periods of social change: "the desire to escape into it, and the desire to create it". This is influenced by current politics in the United States, as well as consumerism, fame, religion and technology. The "forgetful, distractible oddballs" Turner embodies as his narrators frequently become distracted. The multiple unreliable narrators are "sometimes barely [able to] string a sentence together", and draw influence from lounge music. Turner uses multiple vocal tones to "embody" the different characters, with his vocal range incorporating both deep and falsetto singing styles. Turner's lyrical voice has been described as "absurdist suave", as opposed to the "witty sleaze" of his previous work, and has been compared to Argentine short-story writer Jorge Luis Borges. The lyrics are dense and self-aware and have been described as "endlessly quotable", written in a "rambling, stream-of-consciousness style". Turner cited various films as influencing the lyrics, including Spirits of the Dead (1968), World on a Wire (1973) and the works of Jean-Pierre Melville. Furthermore, the ideas present within the books Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985) by Neil Postman and Infinite Jest (1996) by David Foster Wallace inspired Turner's philosophical exploration of the human condition in contemporary society. Turner commented that he took a different approach to writing lyrics than on previous albums, noting that he "became less concerned on this album [with] compartmentalising every idea to the point where each song became this episode that starts and ends in three minutes". Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen inspired this different perspective on each lyric's relationship with its context. He further noted that his writing on the album was straightforward in a way he considered similar to the band's debut Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006). On the connections between the two albums, Turner commented that "it's set in a completely different place, obviously, but there's something in the lyrics that reminds me of something in that writing. I'm tempted to say that it's something to do with how blunt it is. I think that was something I was trying to get away from, and perhaps I’ve returned to it now". ### Songs "Star Treatment", the album's opening track, begins with a reference to American indie rock band the Strokes' early influence on Turner. On their impact, Turner commented: "The arrival of the Strokes changed what music I was listening to, what shoes I was wearing. I grew my hair out and borrowed my mum's blazer. I was a huge fan". Its chorus describes a fictional band named "the Martini Police". The track's narrator expresses surprise that somebody has never seen the science fiction film Blade Runner (1982). Turner has stated that this was based on real-life interactions, noting his interest in the fact that "it goes beyond: 'What do you mean you've never seen Blade Runner?' and gets to: 'Oh my God, I envy you!'". Musically, the track's glam influences have been analogised to "David Bowie descending on a lunar wedding". It has also been compared to the soul of Curtis Mayfield, with Turner's "debonaire" vocal delivery being likened to rapping. "One Point Perspective" is built around a "sweet" and "plucky" percussive piano motif containing "lavish" strings and a basic hip-hop beat. The song's "dandy" narrator has been compared to Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker. Turner has alluded that the song was inspired by conversations he witnessed and experienced whilst under the influence of narcotics. Its title refers to a cinematic technique often employed by film directors such as Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson, which Turner described as "unsettling". Turner has noted that the track's jazz elements were influenced by his father, commenting that "the sort of jazzy bit of that, that every time it comes around, when I sit there, it feels like something he would play". On "American Sports", the album explores a darker musical direction, featuring "spooky", heavily affected keyboards. Turner's vocals have been described as both "sinister" and "dreamy". The lyric "the trainer's explanation was accepted by the steward" was suggested by his grandfather, in reference to horse racing. The album's titular track mocks contemporary society's sterility, as well as containing political references, on which Turner has commented that "more of those ideas have certainly found a way into this record than anything I’ve done before". It is told from the perspective of the hotel's receptionist, named Mark. Musically, the track features "skittish" jazz drums, as well as harpsichords, performed by Turner and co-producer James Ford. "Golden Trunks" has been described as "unsettling", and contains a "raw and brooding" guitar riff that has been compared to the album's predecessor AM. Turner's falsetto vocals display "rakish charm", with the song depicting a conversation between Turner and a potential romantic interest. It has been suggested that the lyrics "the leader of the free world reminds you of a wrestler wearing tight golden trunks" is in reference to the then president of the United States Donald Trump. "Four Out of Five" has been described as a "Bowie-ish glam song", as well as being likened to a stylistic combination of the band's Suck It and See (2011) and Turner's work with the Last Shadow Puppets. Kitty Empire of The Observer compared the song's guitar riff to the band's single "Do I Wanna Know?" (2013), incorporating Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" (1972). It has been labelled as the album's only "singalong anthem", and describes an acclaimed taqueria on the moon named the "Information-Action Ratio", in reference to Neil Postman's concept, exploring gentrification. The taqueria's name was a coincidental result of Matt Helders' backing vocals, with Turner commenting that "phonetically it's quite alluring". The articulation of Turner's vocals on the track incorporates elements of hip hop. On "The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip", Turner vocally alternates from a "Bowie-style drawl to the falsetto and to a gruff murmur", with its minimal percussion and bass guitar and use of reverb being compared to Pet Sounds. The track was inspired by a news report Turner read describing a monster truck front flip. "Science Fiction" is driven by a "slinky" riff, and has been compared stylistically to the band's Humbug (2009). The track's title is one of many references to science fiction on the album; however, Turner expressed that his reading of the genre was limited. "She Looks Like Fun" has been described as a "'60s-style novelty track". Lyrically, the song addresses social media; Turner was inspired by an episode of American comedy-drama television series High Maintenance in which with the need for "constant updating and refreshing" of social media is depicted. "Batphone" has also been compared to Humbug and AM, musically featuring a "heavier thump". The album's "schmoozy" final track "The Ultracheese" has been compared to pop standards "Que Sera, Sera", "New York, New York", "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and "Leavin' on Your Mind". It features a "gorgeous" acoustic and baritone guitar solos performed by Tom Rowley, and descending piano chords that "symbol a kind of final bow". Turner has commented that musically the song resembles his "default position", comparing it to previous tracks "Cornerstone" and "The Dream Synopsis". The track was recorded in a live take with a large ensemble, including baritone and pedal steel guitars, two drum kits, a bass guitar, a Wurlitzer, and two pianos. Turner referred to the song as the group's most successful implementation of this recording style. ## Artwork and title The album's artwork was designed by Alex Turner using cardboard cut-outs and a Revox A77 tape machine, itself containing an early version of the album. On the artwork, Turner stated that "In the past I've definitely had record covers that don't, to me, represent what's on the wax, and I certainly don't feel that way about this one. By the end of it, I think I'd forgotten there even was a record. I'd just gotten obsessed with cardboard." Turner began by drawing a hexagon, to reflect the band's sixth studio album, eventually drawing influence from architects Eero Saarinen and John Lautner, becoming "quite consumed" by the process. The artwork was initially inspired by a photograph depicting the set for a Lunar Hilton hotel being built for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Turner began imagining a model of the titular hotel within its lobby. He was further inspired by the rotating sign of Los Angeles food chain House of Pies, an element which he incorporated into the artwork. The album's title is in reference to Tranquility Base, the first site on the Moon to be walked by humans. Turner was inspired by the conspiracy theory that Stanley Kubrick faked the first Moon landing, initially naming the spare room in which he wrote and recorded the project's demos "Lunar Surface". He stated that naming the room was "instrumental" in the conception of the title, alongside a series of Apollo-branded cups owned by Turner which depict an eagle with the caption "Tranquility Base". ## Release and promotion In September 2017, bassist Nick O'Malley announced that the band had begun recording a follow-up to 2013's AM, stating that if a new album was not released in 2018 they would have had "problems". The release of Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino was first announced on 5 April 2018, through a short video directed by Ben Chappell. The video depicted the spinning model featured in the album's artwork, and included snippets of new music. The group announced promotional pop-up shops on the weekend of the album's release, in their native Sheffield, New York, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, and Sydney. The Sydney pop-up venue also included a mini film festival curated by the band. ### Singles and videos No singles were released prior to the album, although multiple tracks were debuted before its release in the first leg of the Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino Tour. Two days after the album's release, "Four Out of Five" was issued as its lead single, alongside an accompanying music video directed by Ben Chappell and Aaron Brown. The video was compared to the works of Stanley Kubrick, depicting Turner walking through an elegant home reminiscent of The Shining and an underground train station evocative of the dystopia of A Clockwork Orange. The single debuted at number 18 on the UK Singles Chart. In July, the group released a music video for the album's titular track, "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino", again directed by Brown and Chappell. The stylised video is inspired by Kubrick, featuring the surreal science fiction style established in "Four Out of Five", and depicts Turner exploring a hotel. The track was announced as the album's second single alongside the release of the video. On 30 November, the group released a 7" vinyl version of the single, accompanied by the previously unreleased B-side "Anyways". ### Tour In January 2018, the band announced a tour of North America and Europe which began in May, concluding in October at the Voodoo Experience. In October they extended the tour into April 2019, with dates added in Australia and New Zealand, as well as Latin America. The songs "American Sports", "Four Out of Five", "One Point Perspective" and "She Looks Like Fun" were debuted live in San Diego on 2 May. This was the tour's opening performance, and the Arctic Monkeys' first performance since 2014. For the tour, the group were joined by longtime touring members Tom Rowley and Davey Latter, as well as album contributors Tyler Parkford and Cam Avery, the latter of whom also acted as a supporting act. The band adapted their live show to better fit the stylistic differences of the album's material, with the new shows being described as "sophisticated". Turner's presence was also noted to be more "playful" than on the band's previous tours, attributed to his decreased usage of the guitar, with the band described as embodying "lounge lizard" characters. The group released the 11-minute documentary film Warp Speed Chic on their YouTube channel in October 2018. The film was directed by Chappell, and features footage of the French leg of the tour, intercut with September 2017 footage of the band recording the album in France. In June 2019, they released another short documentary film depicting the concluding Mexican leg of the tour, again directed by Chappell. A live recording, Live at the Royal Albert Hall, was released in December 2020. ### Other performances The band made a number of television performances in promotion of the album including on the late-night talk shows The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Late Show with James Corden and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. In June, they performed live at BBC's Maida Vale Studios, with their performance being broadcast as a Live at the BBC special. Their setlist consisted of songs from Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, as well as earlier songs. In September, the group released a live rendition of "Four Out of Five" and a cover of an untitled song by Stephen Fretwell as a part of the Spotify Singles series, recorded live at Electric Lady Studios in New York. In January 2019, the band made their debut performance on American music program Austin City Limits. ## Reception ### Critical Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino received generally favourable reviews from critics, but was described as being "polarising" for listeners. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received a score of 76, based on 32 reviews. Thomas Smith of NME noted that the album was likely to divide listeners, describing it as "the band's most intriguing record to date". Cosette Schulz for Exclaim! suggested against dismissing the album without multiple listens, writing that it "feels like poetic social and fantasy-world commentary penned by Turner, who then fancied having a go at the piano and then brought the whole band in for good measure." For Q, Niall Doherty described it as "a strange, wonderful album, one that almost feels like Arctic Monkeys have embarked on their own full-band side-project". Roisin O'Connor of The Independent described it as "creative, intriguing and completely different". Spin's Larry Fitzmaurice similarly noted the album as the group's "strangest and most alluring", writing that a "sense of heading into the unknown – of charting new and strange artistic territory, accessibility be damned – pervades Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino as a whole, its own adventurousness proving a successful gambit". The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick found it to be "a work with its own internal logic that mocks the very notion of artistic integrity". John Robinson for Uncut praised the album as "low-key but engrossing", but noted that "it can be a little one-paced, and a little withholding". For The Guardian, Alexis Petridis praised the project's humour, but criticised its occasional smugness, noting that the tracks "can feel like less than the sum of their parts". He concluded that the album was an imperfect success which showcased "evidence – albeit flawed – of a certain musical restlessness". Kitty Empire of sister publication The Observer was more positive, writing that despite a chance that the album might be poorly-received, the "voyage into themed purgatory ... is worth it". She praised the album's stylistic deviation from the accessible rock of AM, resulting in "a riveting and immersive listen". AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised the album, writing that "the expansive aural horizons of Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino suggest there are plenty of avenues for Turner to steer Arctic Monkeys into a fruitful middle age". However, he noted that focused listening revealed careless details, and that the album was hindered by an absence of memorable songs. Similarly, Annie Zaleski of The A.V. Club noted that its lack of "obvious hooks" was its key flaw, with its structureless nature resulting in the album feeling "unmoored and even plodding". In a mixed review for Rolling Stone, Jon Dolan praised the album's ambition but criticised the album as "meandering", concluding that the new stylistic direction "doesn't quite work". ### Accolades Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino was nominated for the 2018 Mercury Prize, an annual prize awarded to the year's best British or Irish album based solely on said album's merit, regardless of an act's popularity or previous general success. This became the band's fourth nomination for the award: the second most nominations received by any act. The album was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, with single "Four Out of Five" nominated for Best Rock Performance. The album also appeared on numerous year-end lists. At Album of the Year, which creates an aggregate of music critic's year-end lists, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino was listed as the fourteenth best album of the year, with Q and Kitty Empire of The Observer naming it the best album of 2018. Publications including NME, The Independent and Mojo also listed Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino as the year's second best album. Uproxx, BBC Radio 6 Music and Entertainment Weekly included the album in the top five of their year-end lists, with Vulture and The Guardian including the album in their top ten. Publications that listed the album in their top twenty include Flood, Paste and The Line of Best Fit. Numerous publications included Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino in their top fifty albums of the year, including Crack Magazine, Esquire, musicOMH, Pitchfork, Uncut and Louder Than War, while Noisey listed the album in their top hundred. At the end of the 2010s, the album was included in decade-end lists by The Independent (48) and NME (53). ## Commercial performance Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, with combined sales of 86,000 copies, and became the group's sixth consecutive album to debut at number one in the UK. In addition, with 24,500 vinyl copies sold in the first week, the album became the country's fastest selling vinyl record since 1993, a record held formerly by Liam Gallagher's As You Were. A week following its release, the album was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry, receiving gold certification on June 1. The album debuted at number one in France, Australia, Scotland, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece and Portugal. It additionally reached number two in Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark and Norway, and the top ten in Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Finland, Sweden, Japan and Poland. In the United States, the album debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 47,000 units, of which 37,000 were in traditional album sales. ## Track listing ## Personnel Credits adapted from liner notes. Arctic Monkeys - Alex Turner – vocals (all tracks), backing vocals (1–10), organ (1–7, 9, 10), piano (1, 2, 4–7, 9, 10), guitar (1, 2, 5–7, 9, 10), bass (4–10), Orchestron (1, 2, 4), synthesiser (7, 10), baritone guitar (1), dolceola (1), harpsichord (4), acoustic guitar (6), drums (10) - Jamie Cook – guitar (1, 2, 4–9, 11), lap steel (1, 3), acoustic guitar (5), baritone guitar (10) - Nick O'Malley – bass (1–3, 9, 11), backing vocals (1, 2), guitar (7), baritone guitar (8) - Matt Helders – drums (1–3, 6, 7, 9, 11), rotary timpani (1), backing vocals (1), synthesisers (8), Farfisa (8) Additional musicians - James Ford – drums (1, 4, 7), percussion (1, 5, 6), Orchestron (2, 4, 6), vibraphone (1, 2), pedal steel (1, 11), acoustic guitar (3, 6), piano (8, 11), Farfisa (1), RMI Rocksichord (1), baritone guitar (1), harpsichord (4), synthesiser programming (4), syntesiser (4-6, 9, 10), rotary timpani (6), organ (9) - Tom Rowley – guitar (5, 8), electric guitar (3, 6), acoustic guitar (5, 8), piano (7, 9), fuzz guitar (3), electric guitar solo (6), acoustic and baritone guitar solo (11) - Zach Dawes – baritone guitar (3), piano (7) - Tyler Parkford – piano (3), Farfisa (7) - Evan Weiss – acoustic guitar (3, 7) - Loren Humphrey – drums (6, 8, 9, 11) - James Righton – Wurlitzer (6, 8, 11) - Josephine Stephenson – piano (6, 8, 11) Technical - James Ford – production, engineering (London), mixing - Alex Turner – production, engineering (Lunar Surface, LA) - Jimmy Robertson – engineering (La Frette, Paris) - Nico Quéré – engineering (La Frette, Paris) - Anthony Cazade – engineering (La Frette, Paris) - Jonathan Ratovoarisoa – engineering (La Frette, Paris) - Michael Harris – engineering (Vox, LA) - Loren Humphrey – engineering (Lunar Surface, LA) Artwork' - Alex Turner – artwork - Matthew Cooper – design - Zackery Michael – photography - Ben Chappell – band portraits, additional photography ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ### Decade-end charts ## Certifications
5,542,455	Outrageous Betrayal	1,116,387,959	Book by Steven Pressman	[ "1993 non-fiction books", "Human Potential Movement", "New Age books", "Personal development", "Werner Erhard" ]	Outrageous Betrayal: The Dark Journey of Werner Erhard from est to Exile is a non-fiction book written by freelance journalist Steven Pressman and first published in 1993 by St. Martin's Press. The book gives an account of Werner Erhard's early life as Jack Rosenberg, his exploration of various forms of self-help techniques, and his foundation of Erhard Seminars Training "est" and later of Werner Erhard and Associates and of the est successor course, "The Forum". Pressman details the rapid financial success Erhard had with these companies, as well as controversies relating to litigation involving former participants in his courses. The work concludes by going over the impact of a March 3, 1991 60 Minutes broadcast on CBS where members of Erhard's family made allegations against him, and Erhard's decision to leave the United States. Representatives of Werner Erhard and of Landmark Worldwide, the successor company to The Forum, regarded the book as being "defamatory". There are no references or citations provided in the book. ## Author Pressman worked as a journalist after graduating from college in 1977. He worked as a journalist for Orange City News, the Los Angeles Daily Journal, California Lawyer magazine, and Congressional Quarterly's Weekly Report. During his time performing research for and writing Outrageous Betrayal, Pressman published articles for the Legal Times newspaper and wrote articles and served as a senior editor for California Republic. In 1993, Pressman worked as a San Francisco-based legal journalist for California Lawyer. ## Research In the "Acknowledgments" section of Outrageous Betrayal, Pressman wrote that he relied upon both named and unnamed sources for information in the book, in addition to "previously published accounts, court transcripts, depositions, and other documents in which various individuals have recounted earlier conversations". In an article on fair use for Columbia Journalism Review, Pressman noted that he "gathered reams of written materials -- some of it private and confidential -- that were helpful in drawing a comprehensive portrait of my subject". In the Daily Journal, Pressman wrote that legal counsel for the book's publisher insisted on numerous changes to the book "in order to reduce, if not eliminate, the possibility of a successful suit for copyright infringement". By 1993, Pressman and St. Martin's Press had received approximately two dozen letters from Erhard's attorney Walter Maksym, though Erhard's representatives had yet to see the book itself. Maksym told the San Francisco Daily Journal in March 1993 that he wanted to "fact check the book", because he believed that "this is a first-time unknown author who apparently has interviewed only people who have negative things to say", and stated "We have cautioned the publisher that they are responsible for the accuracy of the book." Charlie Spicer, a senior editor at St. Martin's Press, described the actions of Erhard's representatives with regard to the book as "a desperate campaign by someone with something to hide". The author himself made specific reference to his legal support, mentioning "the potential legal rapids that confront authors writing these days about controversial subjects". ## Contents In Outrageous Betrayal, Steven Pressman gives a chronological account of Erhard's life and businesses, from high-school years through his formation of companies that delivered awareness training and the later controversies surrounding his business and family life. The book goes into detail regarding his early life as Jack Rosenberg and his name-change to Werner Erhard, his move to California, and the initial inspirations behind the training that would become "est". Pressman writes that Erhard took inspiration from the self-help course Mind Dynamics, cybernetics, from the books Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, and from Scientology and the writings of L. Ron Hubbard. He also notes how an attorney skilled in tax law helped Erhard in forming his first awareness-training company, Erhard Seminars Training. Pressman notes how Erhard and his businesses became successful within two years of foundation, and writes that his awareness-training programs trained over half a million people in his courses and brought in tens of millions of dollars in revenue. The book then describes controversies relating to both Erhard's businesses and his reported treatment of his family. Pressman also describes the successor company to Est, Werner Erhard and Associates, and Erhard's decision to sell the "technology" of his course The Forum to his employees and to leave the United States. The book's epilogue includes a firsthand account of a Landmark Forum seminar led by the former Est-trainer Laurel Scheaf in 1992. ## Reception St. Martin's Press first published Outrageous Betrayal in 1993, and Random House published a second edition of the text in 1995. An analysis in Kirkus Reviews, noting the choice of title by the author, asserted that Pressman: "makes no pretense to objectivity here." Kirkus Reviews criticized the book, saying "What the author dramatically fails to provide by bearing down on the negative (to the extent that nearly all his informants denounce est and its founder) is any real understanding of est's teachings--and of why they appealed so deeply to so many." Paul S. Boyer, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, reviewed the book in The Washington Post. Boyer wrote that the book "nicely recounts the bizarre tale" of Werner Erhard, saying "Pressman tells his fascinating story well." However he also commented that the book gives "only the sketchiest historical context" of est and its roots in societal experiences. A review by Mary Carroll published in the American Library Association's Booklist noted that the controversy surrounding Erhard was not new, but she wrote that "Pressman pulls the details together effectively." Carroll went on to comment: "Outrageous Betrayal is a disturbing but fascinating object lesson in the power of charisma divorced from conscience." Frances Halpern of the Los Angeles Times called the book a "damning biography". In 1995, Outrageous Betrayal was cited in a report on the United States Department of Transportation by the United States House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations in a case unrelated to Erhard or Est. This was in reference to a Congressional investigation of Gregory May and controversial trainings given by his company Gregory May Associates (GMA) to the Federal Aviation Administration. The testimony given stated that, according to Outrageous Betrayal, a member of GMA's board had been influenced by Erhard Seminars Training and the Church of Scientology. Novelist and journalist Dan Wakefield, in his review of the book in Tricycle: the Buddhist Review, criticized Pressman for failing to speak with people who had positive things to say about est. Pressman described the est training as "a mish-mash of self-help theories, common-sense psychology, and dime-store ideas of motivation" while also praising the program for helping him personally in dealing with alcoholism. Wakefield also cites an opinion survey which suggests that most est participants had positive experiences with it. ## See also - Human Potential Movement - Journalism sourcing - Large Group Awareness Training
17,167,816	Backlash (2003)	1,162,027,007	World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view event	[ "2003 WWE pay-per-view events", "2003 in Massachusetts", "April 2003 events in the United States", "Entertainment events in Massachusetts", "Events in Worcester, Massachusetts", "History of Worcester, Massachusetts", "Professional wrestling in Massachusetts", "WWE Backlash" ]	The 2003 Backlash was the fifth Backlash professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. The event took place on April 27, 2003, at the Worcester Centrum in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was the first Backlash event held under the WWE name after the promotion was renamed from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to WWE in May 2002. The concept of the pay-per-view was based around the backlash from WrestleMania XIX. The main event and featured match of the Raw brand was the encounter of Goldberg and The Rock, where Goldberg, in his first WWE pay-per-view, defeated The Rock by pinfall, following a spear and a Jackhammer. The featured match on the undercard was a WWE Championship match from the SmackDown! brand, between John Cena and the reigning champion, Brock Lesnar, where Lesnar defeated Cena by pinfall after an F-5. The other predominant match on the undercard was a six-man tag team match from the Raw brand, between the team of Triple H, Ric Flair, and Chris Jericho facing Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, and Booker T. Triple H, Flair, and Jericho won the match by pinfall, after Triple H hit Nash with a sledgehammer. The predominant undercard match from the SmackDown! brand was the encounter of the Big Show and Rey Mysterio, where Big Show pinned Mysterio after a chokeslam. The event grossed \$450,000 with 10,000 ticket sales and had a 0.67 buyrate. Following the event, Goldberg began a feud with Chris Jericho. At Bad Blood, Goldberg defeated Jericho via pinfall after a Jackhammer. Brock Lesnar began a storyline with Big Show over the WWE Championship. At Judgment Day, Lesnar defeated Big Show in a Stretcher match to retain the WWE Championship. Triple H engaged in a storyline with Kevin Nash over the World Heavyweight Championship. At Judgment Day, Nash defeated Triple H via disqualification; due to WWE regulations, Triple H retained the championship. ## Production ### Background Backlash is a pay-per-view (PPV) event that was established by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 1999. The concept of the pay-per-view was based around the backlash from WWE's flagship event, WrestleMania. The 2003 event was the fifth Backlash and featured the backlash from WrestleMania XIX. It was scheduled to take place on April 27, 2003, at the Worcester Centrum in Worcester, Massachusetts and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. It was also the first Backlash event held under the WWE name after the company changed its name from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to WWE in May 2002. ### Storylines The main event at Backlash was the encounter of Goldberg and The Rock; the main feud from the Raw brand heading into the event. The feud began on the March 31 episode of Raw, where The Rock held a segment entitled Rock Appreciation Night, a segment intended to promote his win against Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIX. During the segment, The Rock discussed the list of people he has beaten in his career, including Austin, and proclaimed he was leaving WWE since he had nothing left to accomplish, and because the fans didn't appreciate him anymore. Goldberg then made his WWE debut, as he came down to the ring and stated that he would be The Rock's next challenger. After the confrontation, Goldberg speared The Rock. On the April 7 episode of Raw, Goldberg and The Rock had another confrontation, where Goldberg provoked The Rock into answering his challenge, but The Rock refused. The Rock finally accepted Goldberg's challenge on the April 14 episode of Raw via satellite. On the April 21 episode of Raw, the feud intensified as The Rock held another Rock Concert segment, where he mocked Goldberg with Gillberg, a wrestler whose gimmick was to parody Goldberg. Later into the segment, Goldberg appeared from the audience and entered the ring, only to have The Rock execute a Rock Bottom on him. The other primary match at Backlash was a WWE Championship match between John Cena and the reigning champion, Brock Lesnar. Their feud began February 13 episode of SmackDown!, during a one-on-one match with Lesnar and Cena, which ended with Lesnar almost ending Cena's career by using the F-5 to propel his leg into the ring post, putting Cena temporarily out of action. At WrestleMania XIX, Lesnar challenged for the WWE Championship held by then-champion Kurt Angle. Toward the end of the match, Lesnar massively botched a shooting star press when he severely underestimated the distance and did not fully rotate his body, slamming his head into Angle's side and ribcage. This stunned Lesnar and he suffered a massive concussion, which forced Angle to improvise the finish of the match. Lesnar then capitalized and regained the WWE title. On the April 3 episode of SmackDown!, General Manager Stephanie McMahon announced a WWE Championship tournament, where the winner would receive a WWE Championship match at Backlash against Lesnar. John Cena, who had recently recovered from his aforementioned leg injury, was involved in the tournament, where he defeated Chris Benoit in the finals on the April 17 episode of SmackDown! to earn a WWE Championship match. On the April 24 episode of SmackDown!, their feud intensified during a main event match involving Lesnar and A-Train, where Cena interfered by breaking a pinfall attempt by Lesnar. After the match, Cena hit Lesnar with his trademark chain and the WWE Championship belt. The main match on the undercard from the Raw brand, was a six-man tag team match involving the team of Triple H, Ric Flair, and Chris Jericho against Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, and Booker T. The feud began on the March 31 episode of Raw in a backstage segment, where Booker T was being medically attended to following his World Heavyweight Championship match with Triple H at WrestleMania XIX. Ric Flair came into the scene to confront and taunt Booker T for losing, angering Booker T, who promptly threatened Flair. Later in the night, Jericho cut a promo where he complained that he should have won his match against Michaels at WrestleMania XIX. After the promo, Booker T defeated Jericho in their scheduled match via disqualification after Ric Flair interfered in the match and attacked Booker T. This also brought Triple H down to the ring, and he, Jericho, and Flair attacked Booker T simultaneously. The attack caused Shawn Michaels to come down to the ring to help Booker T to no avail, as Jericho locked Michaels in the Walls of Jericho, while Triple H locked Booker T in an Indian deathlock. On the April 7 episode of Raw, Kevin Nash entered the feud during a main event tag team match with Triple H and Jericho facing Michaels and Booker T. After Booker T pinned Triple H to earn the victory for his team, Flair came into the ring and attacked Booker T, followed by Jericho attacking Michaels with a steel chair. The attack led to the shocking return of Kevin Nash, who had been sidelined with an quadriceps injury, and he attacked Jericho and Flair. After this turn of events, Triple H prepared to hit Nash with a sledgehammer, only to retreat the ring soon afterwards. One week later, Nash said that he wanted himself, Michaels and Triple H to all be friends again, only for Triple H to tell him that he and Michaels could never be friends again. Triple H would go on to suggest that he and Nash should instead side together against Michaels, since it was Michaels who turned on Nash in 1994. This brought Michaels into the ring, and a heated argument ensued between the three. Later that night, Triple H and Flair fought against Booker T and The Hurricane and lost thanks to Michaels. Jericho then attacked Michaels and Nash came to the rescue, but accidentally hit Booker T with the sledgehammer. The feud intensified on the April 21 episode of Raw during a main event World Heavyweight Championship match between Booker T and the reigning champion, Triple H, with Michaels as the special guest referee. During the match, Michaels superkicked Triple H, resulting in Flair and Jericho coming into the ring and attacking Michaels and Booker T. Nash then came down to the ring, where he laid out Jericho and Flair. He also helped Michaels and Triple H back to their feet, only to receive a low blow by Triple H. The other main match on the undercard from the SmackDown! brand, was the encounter of The Big Show and Rey Mysterio. The feud began on the April 17 episode of SmackDown!, during a tag team match pitting Mysterio and Tajiri against Big Show and A-Train. Big Show and A-Train won the match via pinfall. After the match, however, Tajiri sprayed green mist into A-Train's face, while Mysterio delivered a 619 on Big Show, which caused him to collapse onto the floor. After the match in a backstage segment, Big Show appeared angry with Mysterio for supposedly being embarrassed by him. The feud escalated during the April 24 episode of SmackDown!, during a match between Big Show and Tajiri. After Big Show performed a chokeslam on Tajiri, Mysterio came down to the ring and distracted Big Show, which caused Big Show to chase Mysterio at ringside, resulting in Tajiri winning the match via countout. ## Event ### Sunday Night Heat Before the event aired live on pay-per-view, Scott Steiner defeated Rico in a match on Sunday Night Heat, which aired on TNN. ### Main card The first match was a tag team match for the Tag Team Championship between Los Guerreros (Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero) and Team Angle (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas). The match began with Team Angle gaining an early advantage over Los Guerreros, after they performed a leapfrog stun gun on Eddie. Benjamin and Haas then prevented Eddie from tagging Chavo into the match for a period of time, but Chavo was eventually tagged into the match, where he gained the advantage over Haas. While Chavo was the legal wrestler in the match, Eddie illegally entered the ring and executed a frog splash on Haas, leading to an unsuccessful pin attempt by Chavo. After the pin attempt, Eddie and Benjamin fought at ringside, where Benjamin tripped Chavo, who was in the ring about to perform a suplex on Haas. Benjamin held Chavo's leg down, allowing Haas to pin Chavo and retain the titles. The second match was Sean O'Haire (with Roddy Piper) versus Rikishi. O'Haire gained the early advantage, as he clotheslined Rikishi. Rikishi was able to retaliate with a stink face attempt. Piper attempted to hit Rikishi with a coconut, but Rikishi broke it over Piper's head. The distraction allowed O'Haire to perform the Prophecy on Rikishi for a pinfall. The third match was for the World Tag Team Championship between The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley) and the reigning champions, Kane and Rob Van Dam, with Chief Morley as the special guest referee. The match began with Kane and Van Dam in control of the match, after Kane performed a spinebuster on Bubba Ray. D-Von, though, gained the advantage after delivering a sidewalk slam onto Van Dam. Later in the match, Kane regained control, which proceeded into a chokeslam attempt on Bubba Ray. Morley, however, gave Kane a low blow. Afterwards, Lance Storm attempted to interfere in the match on Kane and Van Dam's behalf, to no avail, which proceeded with a 3-D from The Dudley Boyz onto Morley, thus knocking out the official of the match. The distraction by Morley and Storm allowed Kane to successfully deliver a chokeslam, followed by a Five-Star Frog Splash onto Bubba, into a pinfall officiated by a new referee, to retain the title. The fourth match was for the Women's Championship, where Jazz, who was accompanied by Theodore Long, faced the reigning champion, Trish Stratus. As part of the storyline, Stratus came into the match with injured ribs and was advised not to wrestle by doctors, but was forced to wrestle anyway by Raw General Manager, Eric Bischoff. Both women wrestled a back-and-forth match, until Stratus gained the advantage over Jazz by performing a Stratusfaction (springboard bulldog) on her. During the pin attempt, Long threw his shoe at Stratus's head, causing the pin to be broken. The ending of the match saw Stratus attempting to perform a springboard sunset flip on Jazz, only for Jazz to counter it by sitting on her while grabbing the middle rope to win the title. The fifth match was Big Show versus Rey Mysterio. Throughout the match, Mysterio used his quickness against Big Show's size advantage, including performing two 619s on Big Show. During a third attempt, Mysterio attempted a West Coast Pop but Big Show countered the move into a chokeslam for the pinfall. After the match, Mysterio was placed and strapped onto a stretcher by EMTs. Big Show picked up the stretcher with Mysterio still on it and slammed it against the ring post, similar to swinging a baseball bat. The sixth match was for the WWE Championship between John Cena and the reigning champion, Brock Lesnar. Lesnar gained the early advantage over Cena by performing a suplex and slamming Cena's head on the broadcast table. Cena retaliated as he threw Lesnar into the steel steps. Lesnar then delivered a spinebuster on Cena, regaining control of the match. After a spear from Lesnar which sent Cena into the ring corner, Cena attempted to push Lesnar into the referee to no avail. The distraction allowed Cena to hit a low blow on Lesnar. Cena attempted to hit Lesnar with a steel chain, but the referee confiscated the chain before he could use it on Lesnar. The situation allowed Lesnar to perform the F-5 on Cena to retain the title. The seventh match on the main card was a six-man tag team match between the team of Triple H, Ric Flair, and Chris Jericho facing the team of Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, and Booker T. Triple H's team took the early advantage, after Triple H illegally entered the ring and performed a Pedigree on Michaels. Michaels' team, however, took control of the match when Nash was tagged in and dominated all three opposers. As Nash wrestled Jericho, Booker T performed the scissors kick on Flair, which proceeded into Nash and Triple H brawling at ringside, Jericho and Booker T brawling at ringside, and Flair and Michaels wrestling in the ring. As Flair and Michaels wrestled, Flair was able to lock in the figure-four leg lock, while Jericho illegally entered the match and performed a Lionsault on Michaels, who was locked in the hold. Nash, who continued to brawl with Triple H at ringside, noticed the turn of events and entered the ring where he delivered a Jackknife Powerbomb on Jericho and threw Flair onto the referee. As the referee was knocked down, Triple H hit Nash with a sledgehammer and pinned him, earning the victory for himself, Flair, and Jericho. ### Main event In the main event, Goldberg faced The Rock. Early into the match, The Rock taunted Goldberg at ringside to avoid wrestling him. As The Rock reentered the ring, Goldberg performed a Rock Bottom on him to gain the early advantage. Goldberg went for a spear, but The Rock dodged it, resulting in Goldberg hitting the ring post. The Rock took advantage over the situation, as he locked Goldberg in a sharpshooter. Goldberg broke the hold by grabbing the ring ropes. After shoving the referee away and hitting Goldberg with a low blow, The Rock attempted a Rock Bottom, but Goldberg speared him. The Rock was able to perform a spinebuster, Rock Bottom, another spinebuster and a People's Elbow on Goldberg for a near-fall. Afterwards, Goldberg delivered two spears and a Jackhammer for the pinfall. ## Reception Backlash 2003 had 345,000 buys. The event was named the Worst Major Wrestling Show of 2003 by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer's ratings for the event reflect the negative reception, as he rated the WWE Tag Team Championship match the highest at 3 stars. Cena vs. Lesnar was rated 1.25 stars (which was the same rating received by the heavily criticised main event), the World Tag Team Championship match received 1.75 stars (same as the WWE Women's Championship match), while Show vs. Mysterio was rated 1 star. The 6-man tag match was rated 2.5 stars, while the lowest-rated match was Rikishi vs. Sean O' Haire (0.5 stars). ## Aftermath After Backlash, The Rock left WWE to primarily focus on his acting career, as he filmed Walking Tall, a film co-produced by WWE Films, which released in 2004. Goldberg would begin a feud with Chris Jericho beginning on the April 28, 2003 episode of Raw, during Jericho's first episode of the Highlight Reel, an interview show, where Goldberg was the guest. During the segment, Jericho stated that no one wanted Goldberg in WWE, especially Jericho. Jericho stated that it was because of Goldberg that Jericho was held down and not given opportunities in WCW, sparking a feud between the two wrestlers. Less than a month later, on the May 12, 2003 episode of Raw, a mystery assailant attempted to run over Goldberg as he was sitting in his limousine. The following week on Raw, Co-Raw General Manager Steve Austin interrogated several Raw superstars to find out who was the assailant. One of those interrogated was Lance Storm, who admitted that he was guilty. Austin then forced Storm into a match with Goldberg, who defeated Storm via pinfall. After the match, Goldberg forced Storm to admit who put him up to it. Storm admitted that Jericho was the superstar who conspired Storm into running him over. On the May 26, 2003 episode of Raw, Goldberg yet again was a guest on the Highlight Reel, where Jericho and Goldberg agreed to a match at Bad Blood. At Bad Blood, Goldberg defeated Jericho via pinfall, after a Jackhammer. Brock Lesnar engaged in a feud against Big Show over the WWE Championship. The feud began on the May 1, 2003 episode of SmackDown!, where Lesnar cut an in-ring promo against Big Show, stating that he was a coward for attacking and injuring Rey Mysterio at Backlash. Big Show later appeared on the stage, where he challenged Lesnar into a WWE Championship match. The following week on SmackDown!, it was announced that Big Show would face Lesnar for the WWE Championship at Judgment Day in a Stretcher match. Later that night, the feud escalated during a Handicap match between Chris Benoit and the team of Big Show and A-Train. Benoit lost via pinfall; after the match, Benoit was double-teamed by Big Show and A-Train. The double-team caused Lesnar to come and assist Benoit to no avail, as Big Show performed a chokeslam on Lesnar. At Judgment Day, Lesnar defeated Big Show in the Stretcher match to retain the WWE Championship. The aftermath of the six-man tag team match from Backlash, was a feud over the World Heavyweight Championship between Kevin Nash and the reigning champion, Triple H. The feud began on the April 28, 2003 episode of Raw, during a tag team match for the World Tag Team Championship involving Triple H and Ric Flair facing the reigning champions, Kane and Rob Van Dam. As Triple H attempted a pinfall on Van Dam, Nash came down to the ring and chased Triple H to the backstage area with a sledgehammer. Triple H then ran towards a limousine, where Nash smashed the windows with the sledgehammer and threw it into the limousine, as it drove off with Triple H. The following week on Raw, Raw Co-General Managers Stone Cold Steve Austin and Eric Bischoff announced a World Heavyweight Championship match between Nash and Triple H at Judgment Day. At Judgment Day, Triple H retained the World Heavyweight Championship after deliberately getting himself disqualified. The 2003 Backlash would be the final Backlash to feature wrestlers from the SmackDown! brand until the 2007 event as the next three years' events were held exclusively for the Raw brand. ## Results ### Tournament bracket The tournament to determine the number one contender for the WWE Championship match was held between April 1 and April 15, 2003. The tournament brackets were:
48,937,209	Q72 (New York City bus)	1,169,695,357	Bus route in Queens, New York	[ "Bus routes in Queens, New York", "Grand Street and Grand Avenue", "LaGuardia Airport", "MTA Regional Bus routes", "Streetcar lines in Brooklyn", "Streetcar lines in Queens, New York" ]	The Q72 bus route constitutes a public transit route along Junction Boulevard and 94th Street in Queens, New York City. It operates between the Rego Park and East Elmhurst neighborhoods of Queens, and extends into LaGuardia Airport at the north end of the borough. It is city-operated under the MTA Bus Company brand of MTA Regional Bus Operations. The route was originally a streetcar line known as the North Beach line or Junction Boulevard line running primarily on Junction Avenue, the predecessor to Junction Boulevard, to the resorts of Queens' North Beach on the Bowery Bay coastline. Service began in the late 1890s either as a standalone shuttle service or to facilitate through service between the Flushing–Ridgewood Line and Grand Street Line. All three lines were replaced by city buses in the 1940s, though the Junction Boulevard route would be privately operated by Triboro Coach from 1961 to 2006 when it was taken over by the MTA Bus Company. ## Route description and service ### Streetcar line Originally a branch of the Grand Street and Flushing–Ridgewood lines, the Junction Boulevard line, also known as the North Beach line began at the intersection of Corona Avenue and Junction Avenue (later Junction Boulevard) and traveled north along Junction to its terminus in Jackson Heights and Corona. It then turned east and north along Old Bowery Road (later Jackson Mill Road) through East Elmhurst, crossing Jackson Mill Pond and terminating at a loop at North Beach amusement area, a peninsula on the Bowery Bay coastline. This is the modern location of LaGuardia Airport. The line stopped serving the shoreline in the 1920s following the decline of the North Beach resorts. It was truncated to Ditmars Boulevard by 1939, and was never extended to serve LaGuardia Airport. The combined Grand Street/Grand Avenue and Junction Boulevard service was also known as the Maspeth−North Beach Line. Between May 15, 1923 and October 27, 1925, the New York and Queens County Railway used the trackage of the Junction Boulevard line for service from their line on Northern Boulevard. Trolleys ran from the northern Queens neighborhoods of College Point and Flushing as well as the south Queens neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens to the Junction Boulevard station of the IRT Flushing Line at Roosevelt Avenue. The service ended when the Flushing Line was extended to 111th Street. The right-of-way of Jackson Mill Road today consists of 97th Street, the northern end of 94th Street, and several short and separate street sections which retain the name Jackson Mill Road. ### Current bus service The current Q72 service begins at Junction Boulevard and Queens Boulevard in Rego Park, adjacent to the Rego Center shopping complex and at the 63rd Drive station. It extends along the former trolley route on Junction Boulevard, then directly north on 94th Street to East Elmhurst and LaGuardia Airport. During rush hours, limited Q72 buses short-turn at 95th Street and Ditmars Boulevard. Prior to 2006, the Q72 (like the streetcar line it replaced) terminated at Ditmars Boulevard just outside LaGuardia Airport. It only entered the airport on its first and final daily trips, during early morning and late night hours. The Q72 only serves LaGuardia's Central Terminals (B, C, and D), and does not serve the Marine Air Terminal. Service to the American Airlines hangar near Terminal B was eliminated on September 8, 2013. The Q72 operates out of the LaGuardia Depot, the former Triboro Coach depot, in East Elmhurst. ## History On May 21, 1894, the Grand Street Line, operated by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) and later Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) subsidiary called the Brooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation (B&QT), began electrified service between Maspeth, Queens and ferries in western Brooklyn. On May 27, the line was extended east along Grand Avenue and Corona Avenue to Junction Avenue. On June 1, the line was extended north along Junction Avenue and Old Bowery Road to North Beach. The Junction Avenue line and other trolley lines to North Beach primarily served the Gala Amusement Park, owned by the Steinway family. On June 20, 1896, service on the Fresh Pond Road Line (predecessor to the Flushing–Ridgewood Line) was run between Ridgewood Terminal and North Beach. In November 1899, the Fresh Pond line was extended along Corona Avenue to Flushing, and the Junction Avenue line became part of the eastern portion of Grand Street service between the Maspeth Trolley Depot and North Beach. The line ran as a standalone shuttle service and facilitating through service from the Flushing–Ridgewood Line and Grand Street Line (now the Q58 and Q59 buses respectively) to central Queens and Brooklyn. In the 1920s, due to the prohibition movement in the United States and pollution in Bowery Bay, the resorts at North Beach closed and the Junction line was truncated south of the former amusement area. In 1929, the Junction line was split from Grand Avenue service, becoming a shuttle between Corona Avenue and East Elmhurst. During the 1920s and 1930s, more conventional grid plans were laid down in Jackson Heights, Corona, and East Elmhurst. The winding and circuitous Jackson Mill Road, however, was preserved due to the presence of the streetcar line. In 1935, the Junction Boulevard line was rebuilt. The former dirt roadbed was replaced with concrete, to go along with heavier rails and improved trolley wire. In late 1936, Grand Avenue service was once again extended along Junction Boulevard. In 1938, the City of New York notified the B&QT to abandon the remaining line north of the planned Grand Central Parkway in the North Beach vicinity, due to the construction of the New York Municipal Airport on the Glenn H. Curtiss/North Beach Airport site which replaced the resort area. Due to conflicts with the city over a potential extension to the new municipal airport, the Junction line was never extended to the facility. The last trolley to North Beach ran on December 9, 1938, after which service was truncated to Ditmars Boulevard at the south end of the 94th Street overpass over the Grand Central Parkway. The airport, later named LaGuardia Airport, opened on October 15, 1939, with special B&QT bus service between the trolleys and the Airport. Around this time, many streetcar lines in Queens and the rest of the city began to be replaced by buses, particularly after the unification of city's three primary transit companies (including the BMT) under municipal operations in June 1940. Under public operations, Junction Boulevard trolley service became a shuttle once again in February 1946. On August 25, 1949, the trolley line was replaced by buses, and relocated onto 94th Street north of 32nd Avenue. Although initially planned to be extended north to LaGuardia Airport and south to Queens Boulevard, the route continued to run only between Corona Avenue and Ditmars Boulevard/Grand Central Parkway. In spite of running entirely in Queens, the route was numbered "B72", "B" standing for Brooklyn; the Flushing–Ridgewood and Grand Street lines also received Brooklyn designations (B58 and B59). The B59 and B72 originally operated out of the now-closed Crosstown Depot in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. A second route, called the B72A, was proposed as an inra-airport shuttle between the LaGuardia Overseas Terminal Administration Building (now the Marine Air Terminal) at 85th Street and 102nd Street (near the current Terminal C). This route, which was not implemented, would have connected with the B72 at 94th Street and Ditmars Boulevard, and replaced the between Flushing and the Airport. In 1954 and again in July 1960, the Green Bus Lines, Triboro Coach, and Jamaica Buses companies (all owned by the shareholders of Green Lines) proposed to take over many city-operated bus lines in Queens and Brooklyn, including the Junction Boulevard route. At the same time as the 1960 proposal, the New York City Transit Authority applied for an extension of the Junction Boulevard route south from Corona Avenue to Queens Boulevard (its current terminus). That year, the B72 was moved to the Flushing Depot in Queens. On January 22, 1961, the B72 was transferred to Triboro Coach and renumbered Q72. It was extended south to Queens Boulevard to serve burgeoning apartments in Rego Park and Elmhurst, as well as the local Alexander's department store (now the Rego Center). It was also extended north to the LaGuardia Airport Administration building (Marine Air Terminal). The Q72 was the only city route to be taken over by a private operator. The switch to private operations eliminated the longtime free transfer to the B58 Flushing–Ridgewood service at Corona Avenue. By the 1970s, the Q72 bus was truncated back to Ditmars Boulevard and 94th Street. On February 2, 2006, the operations of Triboro Coach were taken over by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) under the MTA Bus Company brand. In September of that year, the Q72 route was extended to LaGuardia Airport. On October 12, 2009, buses on the Q72 were equipped with luggage racks, as part of a ten-bus pilot program on airport bus services to improve passenger flow. In December 2019, the MTA released a draft redesign of the Queens bus network. As part of the redesign, the Q72 bus would have terminated at Ditmars Boulevard and would have most of its stops eliminated. The redesign was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City in 2020, and the original draft plan was dropped due to negative feedback. A revised plan was released in March 2022. As part of the new plan, the Q72 will continue to serve LaGuardia Airport, with a slight modification to its southern terminus. The Q72 will turn right onto 62nd Drive, Queens Boulevard, and 59th Avenue, serving Queens Center Mall and the Woodhaven Boulevard station. This change was made because the Woodhaven Boulevard station is planned to become wheelchair-accessible, whereas the 63rd Drive station is not. ## See also - Triboro Coach
1,233,146	Shamrock Rovers F.C.	1,173,844,716	Association football club in Tallaght, Ireland	[ "1899 establishments in Ireland", "Association football clubs established in 1899", "Association football clubs in South Dublin (county)", "Former Leinster Senior League clubs", "League of Ireland Premier Division clubs", "Shamrock Rovers F.C.", "United Soccer Association imported teams" ]	Shamrock Rovers Football Club (Irish: Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish professional football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most successful club in the Republic of Ireland. The club has won the League of Ireland title a record 20 times and the FAI Cup a record 25 times. Shamrock Rovers have supplied more players to the Republic of Ireland national football team (64) than any other club. In All-Ireland competitions, such as the Intercity Cup, they hold the record for winning the most titles, having won seven cups overall. Shamrock Rovers were founded in Ringsend, Dublin. The official date of the club's foundation is 1899. They won the League title at the first attempt in the 1922–23 season and established themselves as Republic of Ireland most successful club by 1949, winning 44 major trophies. During the 1950s, the club won three League titles and two FAI Cups and became the first Irish team to compete in European competition, playing in the European Cup in 1957. They followed this by winning a record six FAI Cups in succession in the 1960s, when they were also one of the European club teams that spent the summer of 1967 in the United States, founding the United Soccer Association. They won the first of four League titles in a row in 1983–84, after a long decline. The club played at Glenmalure Park from 1926 to 1987 when the owners controversially sold the stadium to property developers. Shamrock Rovers spent the next 22 years playing home games at various venues around Dublin and on occasions, Ireland. They moved into Tallaght Stadium prior to the start of the 2009 season after years of delays and legal disputes, during which time the club's supporters saved them from extinction. Shamrock Rovers wore green and white striped jerseys until 1926 when they adopted the green and white hooped strip that they have worn ever since. Their club badge has featured a football and a shamrock throughout their history. The club has a relatively large support base and shares an intense rivalry with Bohemian Football Club and St Patrick's Athletic. On 25 August 2011 Rovers became the first Irish side to reach the group stages of either of the top two European competitions by beating Partizan Belgrade in the play-off round of the Europa League. ## History ### Foundation and early history The foundation of Shamrock Rovers is disputed amongst supporters of the club. No official documentation of the era exists. For many years the earliest known mention of the club in the newspaper archives at the National Library of Ireland came from 1901 and an article in the club programme from 28 December 1941 claims that the club was founded in this year. Research by the Shamrock Rovers Heritage Trust uncovered a very brief report in the Evening Herald from April 1899 on a match between Shamrock Rovers and Rosemount, which has established that the club was in existence from at least that time. The only two certainties about the origins of the club in relation to what year they were formed are the facts that, Rovers played only exhibition games for the first two years of their existence and the club registered with the Leinster Football Association in 1901. Essentially, the dispute is over whether the two years of exhibition games were played before or after the registration. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the date 1899 was written on the gates of Glenmalure Park but since the 1990s, 1901 had been adopted as the founding year by the various regimes which have run the club. In light of the discovery of evidence supporting a founding date before April 1899 the club opened an 1899 Suite in Tallaght Stadium in February 2017. Shamrock Rovers originate from Ringsend, a Southside inner suburb of Dublin. The name of the club derives from Shamrock Avenue in Ringsend, where the first club rooms were secured. In September 1906, after a few seasons in operation, Rovers withdrew from the First Division of the Leinster Senior League. In 1914, they were resurrected and started playing their matches at Ringsend Park. On 17 April 1915, the side won the Irish Junior Cup, which was then the top junior competition organised on an all-Ireland basis. They defeated Derry Celtic Swifts 1–0 in the final, played in Dublin. However, Ringsend park became unavailable within two years. The club disbanded and played only exhibition games for the next five years. In 1921, Shamrock Rovers were resurrected once more, as a Leinster Senior League outfit, and reached the final of the inaugural FAI Cup, where they lost to St James's Gate in a fixture marred by crowd violence. The following season, the club won the League of Ireland title at the first attempt, going 21 games unbeaten and scoring 77 goals. In 1924, an influential member of the League winning side of two years previous, Bob Fullam, returned to Rovers from Leeds United and combined with John Flood, John Fagan and Billy Farrell to complete the forward line known as The Four Fs. By the conclusion of their fifth season in the League of Ireland, the club had won three League titles and one FAI Cup. During the 1930s, the club won a further three League titles and five FAI Cups with Irish internationals, Paddy Moore and Jimmy Dunne playing key roles in their success, supported by crowds of up to 30,000 people at Glenmalure Park. By 1949, Shamrock Rovers had established themselves as Ireland's most successful football club. Their 44 major trophies included six League of Ireland titles, 11 FAI Cups, seven League of Ireland Shields, six Leinster Senior Cups, two Dublin City Cups, four Intercity Cups and eight President's Cups. ### Coad's Colts In November 1949, following the death of Jimmy Dunne, Paddy Coad accepted the position of player-manager having played with the club for almost eight years, in which time he had established himself as one of the best players in the League of Ireland. Coad opted for a radical youth policy and over the course of his first three years in charge, signed virtually the entire schoolboy international side to Rovers. He employed revolutionary training methods with extra emphasis on technical skill and possession which resulted in a fast, passing style of football that contributed significantly to the development of the game in Ireland. In 1954, the club won the League of Ireland for the first time in fifteen years, while Paddy Ambrose finished the season as the team's leading scorer. Led by players like Liam Tuohy and Coad himself, the team known as Coad's Colts proceeded to win two more league titles and two FAI Cups, concluding the golden era of Irish football as one of its most successful teams. ### Six in a row After the departure of Coad in 1960 and an unsuccessful season under Albie Murphy, Seán Thomas took on the role of rebuilding the Rovers team which had suffered from the break-up of Coad's Colts. Paddy Ambrose and Ronnie Nolan had remained with the club and were joined by a large selection of signings including Irish internationals, Frank O’Neill and Johnny Fullam. The decision by Liam Tuohy to return to the club as captain, after four successful years at Newcastle United, effectively saw the completion of Thomas' side. The club won every domestic honour except the Top Four Competition in the 1963–64 season and were narrowly defeated by holders and eventual finalists, Valencia, in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. Thomas, however, quit the Hoops at the end of the season following a dispute with the Cunninghams (Owners) over team selection. Liam Tuohy took over as player-manager and led the club to a further five FAI Cups in succession, completing a series of six, including a 3–0 defeat of League of Ireland champions, Waterford in 1968, in front of 40,000 people at Dalymount Park. The summer of 1967 had been spent in the United States, participating in the foundation of the United Soccer Association, where Rovers represented Boston as Boston Rovers. The 1968–69 season saw Mick Leech score a total of 56 goals for the club, including two in the last FAI Cup final of the Six in a Row period, against Cork Celtic. ### Decline The Hoops' defeat to Shelbourne in the first round of the FAI Cup in 1970, their first defeat in 32 Cup games over seven years, marked the start of the decline in the fortunes of the club. Despite only narrowly missing out on the League title in the 1970–71 season in controversial circumstances, the next twelve years proved to be a disaster for the club both on and off the field. On 25 April 1971, Rovers met Cork Hibs in Dalymount in a League play-off watched by 28,000 people. Their pre-match buildup was thrown into disarray when players and directors clashed over win bonuses. Hibs won the play-off 3–1. The next season, the Cunninghams, now under the control of sons Arthur and Des, sold the club to three brothers from Dublin; Paddy, Barton and Louis Kilcoyne. The Kilcoynes had witnessed decades of huge attendances at Irish football games and sought to take over the club primarily for business reasons. However, within the space of five years, the large crowds disappeared from Irish football stadia and combined with the demise of Drumcondra and Cork Hibs, the decline in fortunes of a number of top clubs and the lack of action by the FAI, the League of Ireland was plunged into a drastic decline. Faced with dwindling attendances, the Kilcoynes decided to starve the club and sold off senior players who were replaced by junior footballers. On a tour of Japan in 1975, Mick Meagan and Theo Dunne's young side defeated the Japanese national team 3–2 in front of 60,000 spectators at the Olympic Stadium, but that victory was the highlight of a season that saw the team finish bottom of the table and re-apply for admission into the League of Ireland. In 1976, Meagan and Dunne resigned from the club and were replaced by Seán Thomas, the architect of the Six in a Row side, who with limited resources, re-signed Johnny Fullam and Mick Leech, as well as John Conway from Bohemians. Rovers finished the 1976–77 season in eleventh but won the club's only League of Ireland Cup, with Leech's 250th career goal proving the difference against Sligo. In July 1977, Irish international player-manager John Giles returned to Dublin to take up the same role at Rovers. The Kilcoynes implemented a full-time policy and unveiled plans to rebuild Glenmalure Park as a 50,000 all-seater stadium as well as turning the club into a school of excellence for Irish football, capable of challenging for European honours. Giles signed Irish internationals, Ray Treacy, Eamon Dunphy and Paddy Mulligan to complement the youth setup. In his first season in charge, the club won their 21st FAI Cup, defeating Sligo in a controversial final, but despite that success and emphatic victories in European competition against Apoel Nicosia and Fram Reykjavík, Giles' conservative approach based on possession football proved unsuccessful and on 3 February 1983, he resigned. ### Four in a row In the summer of 1983, Jim McLaughlin replaced Noel Campbell as Rovers' manager, after a successful period at Dundalk. Louis Kilcoyne made money available to McLaughlin who responded by selling and releasing almost the entire squad he had inherited from the Giles era, including fans' favourite, Alan O'Neill, while retaining the services of Liam Buckley, Harry Kenny, Alan Campbell and Peter Eccles. He brought in what was effectively a League of Ireland XI which included Jody Byrne and Noel King from Dundalk, Mick Neville from Drogheda, the trio of Eviston, Brady and O'Brien from Bohemians, and Anto Whelan and Neville Steedman from Manchester United and Thurles Town . On 1 April 1984, the club clinched their first League of Ireland title in 20 years with a 3–1 defeat of Shelbourne and 14 days later against Limerick at Glenmalure Park, midfielder and captain, Pat Byrne was presented with the trophy. Following that success, the club's two star strikers, Campbell and Buckley, were transferred to Racing de Santander and K.S.V. Waregem. McLaughlin replaced them with Mick Byrne and Noel Larkin and the pairing proved successful as the club won a further three League titles and three FAI Cups, with Byrne finishing the final season of the Four in a Row period as the League's top goalscorer. Dermot Keely managed and played for the club that year after McLaughlin's decision to transfer to Derry City The Hoops won 74 League games out of 100 from August 1983 to April 1987, losing only 11. ### The homeless years (1987–2009) Shortly after winning their 14th League title, Louis Kilcoyne announced that the Kilcoynes were selling Glenmalure Park, which they had recently purchased from the Jesuits. The team played the entire 1987–88 season in an almost empty Tolka Park as a result of a boycott called for by the Shamrock Rovers Supporters Club and KRAM (Keep Rovers at Milltown), which was observed by the vast majority of Hoops fans. Following the completion of the boycott season in Tolka, the Kilcoynes sold the football club to Dublin businessman John McNamara, who put forward a controversial proposal to move in with Bohemians at Dalymount Park. KRAM congregated to vote on whether to lift the boycott and on the proposal to move to Dalymount. Both motions were passed and the club spent the next two seasons at the Phibsboro venue, with an unrecognisable side playing in front of small attendances. As the 1989–90 season concluded, the club announced that they were moving to the RDS Arena in Ballsbridge, located halfway between Ringsend and Milltown on the Southside of Dublin. On 30 September 1990, the RDS played host to Shamrock Rovers against St. Patrick's Athletic, in front of approximately 25,000 people . The fixture started a six-year period at the venue that included a League title-winning season in 1993–94. Ray Treacy managed the League winning side which included Paul Osam, Gino Brazil, John Toal, Alan Byrne and Stephen Geoghegan, who ended the season as top goalscorer. The next season, a number of key players were released as Treacy and McNamara enforced a tight budget and opted to rebuild the side with young players. The team began the season with a heavy defeat to Górnik Zabrze in the UEFA Cup and struggled their way to a midtable standing. They started the 1995–96 season badly and by late that season, after almost two years of growing supporter discontent at the running of the club, Treacy resigned, with McNamara following him shortly afterwards. One of McNamara's final acts was to appoint Alan O'Neill and Terry Eviston, who had both returned to the club in 1993, as joint managers of the side. They succeeded in removing the threat of relegation and almost guided the team to European qualification. #### Long road to Tallaght As the 1995–96 season concluded, John McNamara sold the club to Premier Computers, headed by Alan McGrath. McGrath unveiled a plan to build a state-of-the-art stadium in the Dublin southwest suburb of Tallaght, and employed Pat Byrne as commercial manager. However, after a couple of weeks and a loss in the first game of the season, O’Neill was dismissed, while Eviston resigned in solidarity. Byrne was appointed manager of the side playing in Tolka Park once again, and they struggled through the season with the League's joint top scorer, Tony Cousins playing a leading role in avoiding relegation. In May 1997, Alan McGrath resigned as club chairman and was replaced by Brian Kearney, also of Premier Computers, who succeeded in acquiring planning permission for the new stadium in January 1998. However, the permission was delayed by objections until November 1998, by which time Joe Colwell had replaced Kearney as chairman and ended Premier Computers' involvement with the club. On the pitch, Mick Byrne guided Rovers to an Intertoto Cup spot in 1997–98 and an eighth-place finish, the next season. He was replaced by Damien Richardson, who managed the club during their stay at Morton Stadium before his dismissal in April 2002, after a disagreement with Colwell. By that time, a half-built shell of a stadium stood at the Tallaght site; Mulden International Ltd, recruited by Colwell to complete the project, had pulled out of building the stadium. They leased it to a separate company, transferring the responsibility, and focused on four acres that they had retained for themselves. #### Examinership and survival Tony Maguire replaced Colwell as chairman and began the search for potential investors. In his first season as manager, Liam Buckley guided the club to the FAI Cup final and European qualification, as the team played at Richmond Park. The 2003 season was marked by the club's worsening finances as a deal with potential investor, Conor Clarkson was held up by Mulden's reluctance to sell their land. Having successfully applied for a one-year planning extension in October 2003, the club applied for a further extension a few months after Buckley's departure in September 2004. SDCC refused the application, but clarified their position by confirming their intention to build the stadium in partnership with the club, once the issue of ownership had been resolved. The trustees of the 400 Club (supporters group) informed the board of directors that they were no longer willing to bankroll their ownership of Shamrock Rovers. Faced with the choice of remaining with Clarkson, whose plans were nullified by SDCC's decision, or cooperating with the council, Maguire chose the former and with Mulden's financing, initiated a High Court judicial review of the decision. The review failed and on 11 April 2005, facing debts of over two million Euro, the club entered into examinership. The 400 Club agreed to completely bankroll the club during the process. On 5 May 2005, Tony Maguire resigned on request by the FAI, who had discovered that the club had submitted their 2003 accounts in their application for a licence for the 2005 season. This resulted in a points deduction and subsequent relegation under Roddy Collins. The examinership concluded in July 2005 with the examiner accepting the 400 Club's bid for Shamrock Rovers, saving the club from extinction, and the supporters-owned club won promotion at the first attempt in 2006 under Pat Scully. The 2007 and 2008 seasons at Tolka Park were ones of overachievement and stability, but the major event of the period was the recommencement of building on the stadium after more than two years of legal disputes between the council and Thomas Davis CLG. ### Tallaght The 2009 season proved to be a progressive one for the club, starting with the completion of the stadium and ending with a second-place finish and qualification to the Europa League under the management of Michael O'Neill. Tallaght Stadium hosted the highest attendances in the League of Ireland, regularly selling out its capacity. The season was also marked by the visit of Real Madrid to Tallaght Stadium, where they defeated The Hoops 1–0 in front of a record attendance of 10,900 people. The team entered the 2010–11 Europa League in the second qualifying round and defeated Bnei Yehuda of Israel to progress to a third qualifying round tie against Juventus. The Italian side won the tie 3–0 on aggregate. Shamrock Rovers finished the 2010 season as champions, ending a 16-year drought by narrowly beating Bohemians to the title on goal difference. Rovers also got to the FAI Cup final, the first in the Aviva Stadium, where, in front of a crowd of over 30,000, they were defeated on penalties by Sligo Rovers. #### 2011 season In 2011 the club played its first-ever Champions League game and its first game in the highest level of European Cup Competition since the 1987–88 European Cup, beating Estonian Champions Flora Tallinn in the 2011–12 Champions League Second qualifying round. They accomplished this feat by triumphing 1–0 in the first leg at Tallaght Stadium and drawing 0–0 in the second leg in Estonia to advance 1–0 on aggregate. Rovers were then beaten 3–0 on aggregate in the next round by Danish Champions Copenhagen but advanced to the 2011–12 Europa League Play-off round. There they were drawn against Serbian Champions FK Partizan, whom they defeated 3–2 on aggregate (2–1 on the night after extra time) to reach the group stages of the Europa League. This marked a famous victory for Irish football, as it was the first time an Irish club had reached the group stages of a major European competition. Rovers also won the All Ireland Setanta Sports Cup in 2011 by defeating Dundalk in the final at Tallaght Stadium. Rovers wrapped up a second league title in a row with a last-minute victory over UCD at Belfield on 25 October 2011. ### Bradley era The club suffered something of a lean spell after the highs of the 2011 season. Michael O'Neill departed to manage the Northern Ireland national team and was replaced by Stephen Kenny. However, Kenny was fired after less than a full season in 2012. His successor Trevor Croly also did not last a full season as manager despite winning two minor trophies, the League Cup and Setanta Cup in 2013. Pat Fenlon a former Rovers player was appointed the following season but he too failed to win major trophies. In 2016 he was replaced by Stephen Bradley, another former player, who at that time was coaching one of the club's underage sides. It took some time for Bradley to rebuild a winning team to challenge the then-dominant Dundalk. However, through developing young players and astute signings such as Jack Byrne, Rovers steadily improved under Bradley's management. In 2019 Bradley's team won the FAI Cup, defeating Dundalk after penalties in the final, before a crowd of over 33,000, the first time that Rovers had won the Cup since 1987. The following season, a campaign truncated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Rovers won a shortened league season unbeaten. In the Europa League qualifying rounds Rovers were narrowly beaten 2–0 by Italian giants AC Milan. Dundalk denied Bradley's team a 'double' however, beating them in the FAI Cup Final, which due to the pandemic, was played behind closed doors. In 2021, despite losing star players such as Jack Byrne and Aaron McEneff, before the start of the season, Shamrock Rovers retained the title, finishing sixteen points ahead of nearest rival St Patrick's Athletic and picking up the trophy before a full house in Tallaght Stadium against Drogheda United. In 2022, Rovers won their third league title in a row, picking up the trophy in a 1–0 win against Derry City. The club also qualified for the group stages of the UEFA Conference League for the first time. Attendances also continued to improve, with an average of more than 6,000 fans attending home games in Tallaght stadium in 2022. ## Colours and badge Until 1926, Shamrock Rovers wore green and white striped jerseys but following a suggestion by a committee member, John Sheridan, the club chose to adopt the green and white hooped strip. A close relationship existed between the club and Belfast Celtic and it was on account of this that the idea was formed. The first game featuring the new jerseys was against Bray Unknowns in a FAI Cup match on 9 January 1927 at Shelbourne Park. The Hoops lost the game 3–0 and senior members of the club considered abandoning the new strip. Despite this loss, the team continued to wear green and white hoops and have done ever since. The 2007 season was the first season since the hoops were introduced that they were not continuous around the main body of the jersey. The style of the shirt sleeves has been changed on numerous occasions. The away colours of the club have varied over time. In the early 1980s, the club had a yellow away jersey. In the mid-1990s, a hooped purple jersey was adopted. In 2011, the team wore an all-black away strip. The club emblem features a football and a shamrock and has done so throughout the history of the club. Minor alterations to the club badge have included changing the style of the shamrock and the width of the diagonal lines. In 2005, a star was added above the badge to signify the first 10 League of Ireland titles won by the club. After the takeover of the club by the supporters, black became the club's third official colour in recognition of the loss of Glenmalure Park. It was also decided that the number 12 would no longer be worn by any Shamrock Rovers player and instead would represent the club's supporters. ## Stadiums ### Glenmalure Park On 11 September 1926, Shamrock Rovers played their first game at Glenmalure Park, Milltown against Dundalk, having previously played at Ringsend Park, Shelbourne Park, Windy Arbour and a different pitch behind the famous Milltown one. The official opening took place on Sunday, 19 September 1926 as Belfast Celtic provided the opposition in an exhibition game. When the Cunninghams acquired the club in the 1930s, the stadium was named Glenmalure Park in honour of their ancestral home in Glenmalure. They completed the stadium with the addition of terraces, one of which was covered. The stadium remained essentially unaltered from then until its demolition in 1990, excluding the destruction of a small terrace and the erection of floodlights in the 1980s. Its capacity was approximately 20,000 for most of its existence, its largest recorded attendance being 28,000, set against Waterford in 1968. Larger, unreported, attendances were present at the venue before then. In 1987, the Kilcoynes decided to sell the stadium to property developers, having recently purchased it from the Jesuits. The last game at Glenmalure Park was an FAI Cup semi-final between Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers on 12 April 1987. The game saw a pitch invasion by supporters protesting against the sale of the stadium. The next season, the supporters formed an association called Keep Rovers at Milltown and placed a picket on home games at Tolka Park, effectively bankrupting the club's owners. They accumulated funds, through supporter contributions, in an effort to purchase the stadium but failed to match the offer of a property developer to whom the Kilcoynes eventually sold the site. After a lengthy appeals process, Glenmalure Park was demolished in 1990 to be replaced by an apartment complex. ### Tallaght Stadium In the 1990s, Shamrock Rovers were granted land in the Dublin suburb of Tallaght to build a new stadium. On 30 March 2000, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern turned the sod at the site. However, work on the stadium ceased in 2001 and in March 2005, South Dublin County Council announced that they were taking back the land that they had granted to the club, as the conditions of the planning permission had not been met. A public consultation process was initiated in July 2005 and a resolution was passed in December 2005 to alter the stadium to accommodate senior GAA games while still having Shamrock Rovers as the preferred tenants. This decision was subject to additional government funding. This funding was not made available and on 13 January 2006 the council voted to proceed with the original plan. This second vote was challenged by a local Gaelic Athletic Association club, Thomas Davis who wanted the vote on 13 January 2006 declared illegal thus forcing the county council to build the GAA stadium. Thomas Davis claimed that the capacity of the stadium (initially 6,000, ultimately 10,000) would not be affected by the change, the other parties involved disputed this and argued that the capacity would be reduced. Requests under the freedom of information act to both South Dublin County Council and the Department of Sport showed that Thomas Davis had not submitted any plans showing that capacity would not be affected. Thomas Davis GAA club instituted judicial review proceedings in the High Court in May 2006. Their main argument was that the decision of the council on 13 February 2006 to revert to the original plans for the stadium, which did not include a senior GAA pitch, was unlawful. Their submission on the technical point was accompanied by cultural arguments that 'the youth of Tallaght will be restricted to a diet of Association football' and that a soccer-only ground would place the 'applicant at a severe disadvantage in attracting the youth of Tallaght to the club, the sport and the GAA culture. The stadium, however, with the original design, could accommodate youth GAA games as the pitch used at this level fits within the stadium's dimensions. It was only adult GAA games that would not have been facilitated. The then Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue, consistently supported the government's decision to support the stadium with soccer pitch dimensions, and claimed that the GAA were stalling the project which he believed they had no need for on top of their own site in Rathcoole. On 14 December 2006 the Football Association of Ireland pledged financial assistance for the Hoops' High Court battle involving Thomas Davis. The judicial review began on 20 April 2007 and concluded on 14 December 2007. In the High Court decision Mr. Justice Roderick Murphy found in favour of South Dublin Co. Council and Shamrock Rovers. South Dublin County Council were correct in their 13 February 2006 vote to proceed with the stadium as originally planned. An application by Thomas Davis for leave to appeal this decision to the Supreme court was refused by Judge Murphy on 25 January 2008. Building commenced on the stadium on 6 May 2008. Shamrock Rovers played their first 'home' game in over 20 years in the stadium in March 2009. ## Ownership Shamrock Rovers F.C. is partially owned by the Shamrock Rovers Members Club, with businessman Ray Wilson owning 50% of the club since 2016. The Shamrock Rovers Members Club was originally formed as the 400 Club in November 2002, by the then privately owned football club's board of directors, to raise funds through the fan base, with the sole purpose of facilitating a mortgage for the development of the stalled stadium project in Tallaght. The monthly membership fee was set at €40. However, it became apparent to the members that the funds raised were being used for purposes outside of the stated objective. As a result, the membership took control of the 400 Club, adopted a transparent structure and constitution, and declared itself totally independent of the then board of Shamrock Rovers. The 400 Club consortium played a crucial role in the survival of Shamrock Rovers when the club entered examinership in April 2005. They paid off a portion of the club's debts and assumed responsibility for running it. After the successful acquisition of the club through the examinership process, the 400 Club Trustees became the Board of Directors of Shamrock Rovers Football Club and began the process of building a sustainable club through sensible business practices. Numerous clubs and supporters groups subsequently sought their advice with regard to using the model of the 400 club elsewhere. At the annual meeting of the 400 Club in 2006, the members voted to rename it as the SRFC Members Club, reflecting the reality of their ownership of the football club. At the 2008 meeting, the monthly membership fee was increased to €50. In January 2012, there were more than 400 members of the club. Membership is open to all. ## Supporters and rivalries The majority of Shamrock Rovers supporters originate from the Southside of Dublin, but the club attracts fans from across the city and country. Since its foundation, the club has maintained a proud Irish identity, and their supporters reflect this in the flags and banners they display. Their support base contains a number of clubs dedicated to supporting the team at away games. It also contains an ultras group, which was the first formed in Ireland, the SRFC Ultras, who produce choreographed displays of support at games. They have connections with other European groups including supporters of Roma, Hammarby and Panathinaikos. Until the 1970s, Glenmalure Park regularly hosted attendances in the region of 20,000 people, but as the majority of the Irish public turned its back on Irish football, those numbers declined and despite winning the League of Ireland four times in succession in the 1980s, the attendances for the period averaged approximately a quarter of that figure. The sale of the stadium contributed to a further decline in support. During the homeless years, particularly those spent on the Northside, attendances continued to fall with the exception of those recorded during the club's residence at the RDS, which included an opening attendance of 22,000. Prior to the relocation to Tallaght, the club's support base had been reduced to a hardcore group of over a thousand people. As of 2010, this included approximately 2,700 season ticket holders. Throughout their history, Shamrock Rovers have shared many rivalries of differing importance and intensity. The oldest such rivalry is that shared with Shelbourne, formed on the basis of the clubs' foundations in Ringsend. It remains as a secondary rivalry of similar importance to the local derby contested with St. Patrick's Athletic. During the 1950s and 1960s, the club's principal rival was the now-defunct, Drumcondra. In the 1970s, they were replaced as the major club on the Northside by Bohemians. Since then, the relatively minor rivalry that existed between Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians has developed into a classic rivalry, producing intense games and large attendances. ## Other teams ### Women ### Shamrock Rovers II Throughout its history Rovers have entered reserve teams in various leagues including the Leinster Senior League Senior Division, the League of Ireland B Division, the A Championship and the League of Ireland U19 Division. In 2014 they played in the League of Ireland First Division. In January 2020, it was announced that a team with the name Shamrock Rovers II would be entering the 2020 League of Ireland First Division ### Youth setup The current schoolboys' sections of Shamrock Rovers date back to 1996 when Rovers and Tallaght Town AFC merged to form a new section to serve the Tallaght area of South West Dublin. Tallaght Town initially remained in operation as a limited company and as trustee of a training facility used by the youth teams at Shamrock Rovers. The partnership between the two clubs broke up again in the mid-2000s, with Tallaght Town retaining the training facility at Carolan Park in Kiltipper. However, the schoolboy or underage section remained with Shamrock Rovers and was fully absorbed into the club once Rovers began playing at Tallaght Stadium in 2009. From then until 2014, Shamrock Rovers underage teams continued to play and train at Tallaght Town's grounds at Kiltipper. However, in that year Rovers acquired their own training ground at Roadstone in Clondalkin, and the club's underage as well as first-team moved their training base there. Shamrock Rovers also opened their own football academy at the site. The Roadstone facility has an AstroTurf pitch and two hybrid pitches (mainly grass) which were built to replace the existing grass pitches during 2016–17. The training ground was officially opened in 2017. As of February 2023, former player Shane Robinson is the director of the academy. Over 200 underage players play for Shamrock Rovers. The club has teams at every age from under-8 up to under-13 playing in the Dublin and District Schoolboy League as well as U14, U15, U17 & U19 male teams in the elite underage FAI National League. In addition, there is an under-17 women's team and an amputee team. A Sunday morning academy, for children between the ages of 4 and 6, is also in operation. The club's youth teams have participated in the Milk Cup and Dallas Cup. In recent years, the Shamrock Rovers Academy has successfully brought many young players through to the professional game including Irish international goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, who was transferred to Manchester City FC and Kevin Zefi to Inter Milan, as well as players such as Trevor Clarke, Aaron Bolger and most recently Aidomo Emakhu who have made it through to the Rovers first team. The club operates scholarships covering all levels of education. Players at the academy also receive tuition for the Leaving Certificate at Ashfield College with whom Rovers have a partnership. The club also runs a scheme for transition year students that allows one age group (Under 15s) to train at Roadstone each week morning and study in the afternoons in a classroom at Roadstone. the club also has a community officer and has partnerships with underage football clubs and schools in the local area. ## Honours ### Senior - League of Ireland/League of Ireland Premier Division: 20 (record) - 1922–23, 1924–25, 1926–27, 1931–32, 1937–38, 1938–39, 1953–54, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1963–64 1983–84, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1993–94, 2010, 2011, 2020, 2021, 2022 - FAI Cup: 25 (record) - 1924–25, 1928–29, 1929–30, 1930–31, 1931–32, 1932–33, 1935–36, 1939–40, 1943–44, 1944–45, 1947–48, 1954–55, 1955–56, 1961–62, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1977–78, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 2019 - League of Ireland First Division - 2006 - League of Ireland Shield: 18 (record) - 1924–25, 1926–27, 1931–32, 1932–33, 1934–35, 1937–38, 1941–42, 1949–50, 1951–52, 1954–55, 1955–56, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1965–66, 1967–68 - League of Ireland Cup: 2 - 1976–77, 2013 - LFA President's Cup: 21 (record) - 1929–30, 1932–33, 1940–41, 1941–42, 1943–44, 1944–45, 1945–46, 1948–49, 1954–55, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1959–60, 1962–63, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1972–73, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88 - Dublin City Cup: 10 - 1944–45, 1947–48, 1952–53, 1954–55, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1959–60, 1963–64, 1966–67, 1983–84 - Top Four Cup: 3 - 1955–56, 1957–58, 1965–66 - FAI Super Cup: 1 - 1998–99 - Setanta Sports Cup: 2 - 2011, 2013 - Blaxnit Cup: 1 - 1967–68 - Dublin and Belfast Inter-City Cup: 4 - 1942–43, 1945–46, 1946–47, 1948–49 - Tyler Cup: 1 - 1977–78 - President of Ireland's Cup: 1 - 2022 - Leinster Senior League: 1 - 1921–22 ' - Leinster Senior Cup: 18 - 1922–23, 1926–27, 1928–29, 1929–30, 1932–33, 1937–38, 1952–53, 1954–55, 1955–56, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1963–64, 1968–69, 1981–82, 1984–85, 1996–97, 2011–12, 2012–13 ### Reserves ## Managers ## Player of the Year ## Players ### First-team squad ### Retired numbers 12 – 12th man ## Technical staff ## Records and statistics ### European record Shamrock Rovers have a long history in European competition. They were the first Irish side to enter European competition, and featured regularly in the 1960s and 1980s. The club has had some relative success with victories in the Intertoto-Cup and the Europa League. Throughout their participation Rovers have beaten teams from Luxembourg, Cyprus, Iceland and Germany, and were the first Irish club to beat teams from Turkey, Poland, Israel, Serbia Slovakia, Albania and Hungary. Their first victory in the UEFA Champions League came in a 1–0 victory in the 2011–12 qualifying phase against FC Flora Tallinn at Tallaght Stadium . Their biggest win was a 7–0 aggregate victory (3–0 away, 4–0 home) over Fram Reykjavik in the UEFA Cup first round in September 1982, which remains a record for League of Ireland clubs in European competition. On 25 August 2011, they became the first Irish team to qualify for the UEFA Europa League group stage when they defeated Partizan Belgrade 2–1 after extra-time in Serbia, for a 3–2 aggregate victory. Rovers qualified for the group stages of the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League #### Overview ''Correct as of August 3, 2023 #### Matches Notes - PR: Preliminary round - QR: Qualifying round - 1R: First round - 2R: Second round - 1Q: First qualifying round - 2Q: Second qualifying round - 3Q: Third qualifying round - PO''': Play-off round
17,562	Leni Riefenstahl	1,171,459,910	German film director, photographer, actress and Nazi propagandist (1902–2003)	[ "1902 births", "2003 deaths", "20th-century German actresses", "20th-century German women artists", "20th-century memoirists", "20th-century women photographers", "Actresses from Berlin", "Burials at Munich Waldfriedhof", "Deaths from cancer in Germany", "Expatriate photographers in Sudan", "Film controversies in Germany", "Film directors from Berlin", "German Protestants", "German centenarians", "German documentary film directors", "German female dancers", "German film actresses", "German memoirists", "German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States", "German propagandists", "German silent film actresses", "German women cinematographers", "German women film directors", "German women photographers", "Leni Riefenstahl", "Mountaineering film directors", "Nazi propagandists", "People from the Province of Brandenburg", "Photographers from Berlin", "Propaganda film directors", "Underwater photographers", "Women centenarians", "Women documentary filmmakers", "Women in Nazi Germany" ]	Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for producing Nazi propaganda. A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl became interested in dancing during her childhood, taking lessons and performing across Europe. After seeing a promotional poster for the 1924 film Mountain of Destiny, she was inspired to move into acting and between 1925 and 1929 starred in five successful motion pictures. Riefenstahl became one of the few women in Germany to direct a film during the Weimar era when, in 1932, she decided to try directing with her own film, Das Blaue Licht ("The Blue Light"). In the 1930s, she directed the Nazi propaganda films Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938), resulting in worldwide attention and acclaim. The films are widely considered two of the most effective and technically innovative propaganda films ever made. Her involvement in Triumph of the Will, however, significantly damaged her career and reputation after World War II. Adolf Hitler closely collaborated with Riefenstahl during the production of at least three important Nazi films, and they formed a friendly relationship. After the war, Riefenstahl was arrested and found to be a Nazi "fellow traveller" but was not charged with war crimes. Throughout her later life, she denied having known about the Holocaust, and was criticized as the "voice of the 'how could we have known?' defense." Riefenstahl's postwar work included an autobiography and two photography books on the Nuba people. ## Early life Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl was born in Berlin on 22 August 1902. Her father, Alfred Theodor Paul Riefenstahl, owned a successful heating and ventilation company and wanted his daughter to follow him into the business world. Since Riefenstahl was the only child for several years, Alfred wanted her to carry on the family name and secure the family fortune. However, her mother, Bertha Ida (Scherlach), who had been a part-time seamstress before her marriage, had faith in Riefenstahl and believed that her daughter's future was in show business. Riefenstahl had a younger brother, Heinz, who was killed at the age of 39 on the Eastern Front in Nazi Germany's war against the Soviet Union. Riefenstahl fell in love with the arts in her childhood. She began to paint and write poetry at the age of four. She was also athletic, and at the age of twelve joined a gymnastics and swimming club. Her mother was confident her daughter would grow up to be successful in the field of art and therefore gave her full support, unlike Riefenstahl's father, who was not interested in his daughter's artistic inclinations. In 1918, when she was 16, Riefenstahl attended a presentation of Snow White which interested her deeply; it led her to want to be a dancer. Her father instead wanted to provide his daughter with an education that could lead to a more dignified occupation. His wife, however, continued to support her daughter's passion. Without her husband's knowledge, she enrolled Riefenstahl in dance and ballet classes at the Grimm-Reiter Dance School in Berlin, where she quickly became a star pupil. ## Dancing and acting careers Riefenstahl attended dancing academies and became well known for her self-styled interpretive dancing skills, traveling across Europe with Max Reinhardt in a show funded by Jewish producer Harry Sokal. Riefenstahl often made almost for each performance and was so dedicated to dancing that she gave filmmaking no thought. She began to suffer a series of foot injuries that led to knee surgery that threatened her dancing career. It was while going to a doctor's appointment that she first saw a poster for the 1924 film Mountain of Destiny. She became inspired to go into movie making, and began visiting the cinema to see films and also attended film shows. On one of her adventures, Riefenstahl met Luis Trenker, an actor who had appeared in Mountain of Destiny. At a meeting arranged by her friend Gunther Rahn, she met Arnold Fanck, the director of Mountain of Destiny and a pioneer of the mountain film genre. Fanck was working on a film in Berlin. After Riefenstahl told him how much she admired his work, she also convinced him of her acting skill. She persuaded him to feature her in one of his films. Riefenstahl later received a package from Fanck containing the script of the 1926 film The Holy Mountain. She made a series of films for Fanck, where she learned from him acting and film editing techniques. One of Fanck's films that brought Riefenstahl into the limelight was The White Hell of Pitz Palu of 1929, co-directed by G. W. Pabst. She had to undergo many physical challenges that would probably be deemed unethical in today’s standards. Some of the torments included: being engulfed in small avalanches, jumping into mountain lakes and icy streams, climbing rocky pinnacles barefoot, letting herself be pulled up a rock face as she was pelted by snow and ice, balancing on a ladder above a deep glacial crevasse, and enduring obscene jokes from her exclusively male colleagues. Her fame spread to countries outside Germany. Riefenstahl produced and directed her own work called Das Blaue Licht ("The Blue Light") in 1932, co-written by Carl Mayer and Béla Balázs. This film won the silver medal at the Venice Film Festival, but was not universally well-received, for which Riefenstahl blamed the critics, many of whom were Jewish. Upon its 1938 re-release, the names of Balázs and Sokal, both Jewish, were removed from the credits; some reports say this was at Riefenstahl's behest. In the film, Riefenstahl played an innocent peasant girl who is hated by the villagers because they think she is diabolic and cast out. She is protected by a glowing mountain grotto. According to herself, Riefenstahl received invitations to travel to Hollywood to create films, but she refused them in favour of remaining in Germany with a boyfriend. Hitler was a fan of the film, and thought Riefenstahl epitomized the perfect German female. He saw talent in Riefenstahl and arranged a meeting. In 1933, Riefenstahl appeared in the U.S.-German co-productions of the Arnold Fanck-directed, German-language SOS Eisberg and the Tay Garnett-directed, English-language S.O.S. Iceberg. The films were filmed simultaneously in English and German and produced and distributed by Universal Studios. Her role as an actress in S.O.S. Iceberg was her only English language role in film. ## Directing career ### Propaganda films Riefenstahl heard Nazi Party (NSDAP) leader Adolf Hitler speak at a rally in 1932 and was mesmerized by his talent as a public speaker. Describing the experience in her memoir, Riefenstahl wrote, "I had an almost apocalyptic vision that I was never able to forget. It seemed as if the Earth's surface were spreading out in front of me, like a hemisphere that suddenly splits apart in the middle, spewing out an enormous jet of water, so powerful that it touched the sky and shook the earth". Hitler was immediately captivated by Riefenstahl's work. She is described as fitting in with Hitler's ideal of Aryan womanhood, a feature he had noted when he saw her starring performance in Das Blaue Licht. After meeting Hitler, Riefenstahl was offered the opportunity to direct "The Victory of Faith", an hour-long propaganda film about the fifth Nuremberg Rally in 1933. The opportunity that was offered was a huge surprise to Riefenstahl. Hitler had ordered Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry to give the film commission to Riefenstahl, but the Ministry had never informed her. Riefenstahl agreed to direct the movie even though she was only given a few days before the rally to prepare. She and Hitler got on well, forming a friendly relationship. The propaganda film was funded entirely by the NSDAP. During the filming of Victory of Faith, Hitler had stood side by side with the leader of the Sturmabteilung (SA), Ernst Röhm, a man with whom he clearly had a close working relationship. Röhm was murdered on Hitler's orders a short time later, during the purge of the SA referred to as the Night of the Long Knives. It has gone on record that, immediately following the killings, Hitler ordered all copies of the film to be destroyed, although Riefenstahl disputed that this ever happened. Still impressed with Riefenstahl's work, Hitler asked her to film Triumph des Willens ("Triumph of the Will"), a new propaganda film about the 1934 party rally in Nuremberg. More than one million Germans participated in the rally. The film is sometimes considered the greatest propaganda film ever made. Initially, according to Riefenstahl, she resisted and did not want to create further Nazi Party films, instead wanting to direct a feature film based on Eugen d'Albert's Tiefland ("Lowlands"), an opera that was extremely popular in Berlin in the 1920s. Riefenstahl received private funding for the production of Tiefland, but the filming in Spain was derailed and the project was cancelled. (When Tiefland was eventually shot, between 1940 and 1944, it was done in black and white, and was the third most expensive film produced in Nazi Germany. During the filming of Tiefland, Riefenstahl utilized Romani from internment camps for extras, who were severely mistreated on set, and when the filming completed they were sent to the death camp Auschwitz.) Hitler was able to convince her to film Triumph des Willens on the condition that she would not be required to make further films for the party, according to Riefenstahl. The motion picture was generally recognized as an epic, innovative work of propaganda filmmaking. The film took Riefenstahl's career to a new level and gave her further international recognition. In interviews for the 1993 documentary The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, Riefenstahl adamantly denied any deliberate attempt to create Nazi propaganda and said she was disgusted that Triumph des Willens was used in such a way. Despite allegedly vowing not to make any more films about the Nazi Party, Riefenstahl made the 28-minute Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht ("Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces") about the German Army in 1935. Like The Victory of Faith and Triumph of the Will, this was filmed at the annual Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg. Riefenstahl said this film was a sub-set of Victory of Faith, added to mollify the German Army which felt it was not represented well in Triumph of the Will. Hitler invited Riefenstahl to film the 1936 Summer Olympics scheduled to be held in Berlin, a film which Riefenstahl said had been commissioned by the International Olympic Committee. She visited Greece to take footage of the route of the inaugural torch relay and the games' original site at Olympia, where she was aided by Greek photographer Nelly's. This material became Olympia, a hugely successful film which has since been widely noted for its technical and aesthetic achievements. Olympia was secretly funded by the Nazis. She was one of the first filmmakers to use tracking shots in a documentary, placing a camera on rails to follow the athletes' movement. The film is also noted for its slow motion shots. Riefenstahl played with the idea of slow motion, underwater diving shots, extremely high and low shooting angles, panoramic aerial shots, and tracking system shots for allowing fast action. Many of these shots were relatively unheard of at the time, but Riefenstahl's use and augmentation of them set a standard, and is the reason they are still used to this day. Riefenstahl's work on Olympia has been cited as a major influence in modern sports photography. Riefenstahl filmed competitors of all races, including African-American Jesse Owens in what later became famous footage. Olympia premiered for Hitler's 49th birthday in 1938. Its international debut led Riefenstahl to embark on an American publicity tour in an attempt to secure commercial release. In February 1937, Riefenstahl enthusiastically told a reporter for the Detroit News, "To me, Hitler is the greatest man who ever lived. He truly is without fault, so simple and at the same time possessed of masculine strength". She arrived in New York City on 4 November 1938, five days before Kristallnacht (the "Night of the Broken Glass"). When news of the event reached the United States, Riefenstahl publicly defended Hitler. On 18 November, she was received by Henry Ford in Detroit. Olympia was shown at the Chicago Engineers Club two days later. Avery Brundage, President of the International Olympic Committee, praised the film and held Riefenstahl in the highest regard. She negotiated with Louis B. Mayer, and on 8 December, Walt Disney brought her on a three-hour tour showing her the ongoing production of Fantasia. From the Goebbels Diaries, researchers learned that Riefenstahl had been friendly with Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda, attending the opera with them and going to his parties. Riefenstahl maintained that Goebbels was upset when she rejected his advances and was jealous of her influence on Hitler, seeing her as an internal threat. She therefore insisted his diary entries could not be trusted. By later accounts, Goebbels thought highly of Riefenstahl's filmmaking but was angered with what he saw as her overspending on the Nazi-provided filmmaking budgets. ### Iconography In Triumph of the Will, Tom Saunders argues that Hitler serves as the object of the camera's gaze. Saunders writes, "Without denying that "rampant masculinity" (the "sexiness" of Hitler and the SS) serves as the object of the gaze, I would suggest that desire is also directed toward the feminine. This occurs not in the familiar sequences of adoring women greeting Hitler's arrival and cavalcade through Nuremberg. In these Hitler clearly remains the focus of attraction, as more generally in the visual treatment of his mass following. Rather, it is encoded in representation of flags and banners, which were shot in such a way as to make them visually desirable as well as potent political symbols". The flag serves as a symbol of masculinity, equated with national pride and dominance, that supposedly channels men's sexual and masculine energy. Riefenstahl's cinematic framing of the flags encapsulated its iconography. Saunders continues, "The effect is a significant double transformation: the images mechanize human beings and breathe life into flags. Even when the carriers are not mostly submerged under the sea of colored cloth, and when facial features are visible in profile, they attain neither character nor distinctiveness. The men remain ants in a vast enterprise. By contrast and paradoxically, the flags, whether a few or hundreds peopling the frame, assume distinct identities". ### Use of music Riefenstahl distorts the diegetic sound in Triumph of the Will. Her distortion of sound suggests she was influenced by German art cinema. Influenced by Classical Hollywood cinema's style, German art film employed music to enhance the narrative, establish a sense of grandeur, and to heighten the emotions in a scene. In Triumph of the Will, Riefenstahl used traditional folk music to accompany and intensify her shots. Ben Morgan comments on Riefenstahl's distortion of sound: "In Triumph of the Will, the material world leaves no aural impression beyond the music. Where the film does combine diegetic noise with the music, the effects used are human (laughter or cheering) and offer a rhythmic extension to the music rather than a contrast to it. By replacing diegetic sound, Riefenstahl's film employs music to combine the documentary with the fantastic." ### World War II When Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, Riefenstahl was photographed in Poland wearing a military uniform and a pistol on her belt in the company of German soldiers; she had gone to Poland as a war correspondent. On 12 September, she was in the town of Końskie when 30 civilians were executed in retaliation for an alleged attack on German soldiers. According to her memoir, Riefenstahl tried to intervene but a furious German soldier held her at gunpoint and threatened to shoot her on the spot. She said she did not realize the victims were Jews. Photographs of a potentially distraught Riefenstahl survive from that day. Nevertheless, by 5 October 1939, Riefenstahl was back in occupied Poland filming Hitler's victory parade in Warsaw. Afterwards, she left Poland and chose not to make any more Nazi-related films. On 14 June 1940, the day Paris was declared an open city by the French and occupied by German troops, Riefenstahl wrote to Hitler in a telegram, "With indescribable joy, deeply moved and filled with burning gratitude, we share with you, my Führer, your and Germany's greatest victory, the entry of German troops into Paris. You exceed anything human imagination has the power to conceive, achieving deeds without parallel in the history of mankind. How can we ever thank you?" She later explained, "Everyone thought the war was over, and in that spirit I sent the cable to Hitler". Riefenstahl was friends with Hitler for 12 years. However, her relationship with Hitler severely declined in 1944 after her brother died on the Russian Front. After the Nuremberg rallies trilogy and Olympia, Riefenstahl began work on the movie she had tried and failed to direct once before, namely Tiefland. On Hitler's direct order, the German government paid her in compensation. From 23 September until 13 November 1940, she filmed in Krün near Mittenwald. The extras playing Spanish women and farmers were drawn from Romani detained in a camp at Salzburg-Maxglan who were forced to work with her. Filming at the Babelsberg Studios near Berlin began 18 months later in April 1942. This time Sinti and Roma people from the Marzahn detention camp near Berlin were compelled to work as extras. Almost to the end of her life, despite overwhelming evidence that the concentration camp occupants had been forced to work on the movie were later sent to the Auschwitz death camp, Riefenstahl continued to maintain that all the film extras survived. Riefenstahl sued filmmaker Nina Gladitz, who said Riefenstahl personally chose the extras at their holding camp; Gladitz had found one of the Romani survivors and matched his memory with stills of the movie for a documentary Gladitz was filming. The German court ruled largely in favour of Gladitz, declaring that Riefenstahl had known the extras were from a concentration camp, but they also agreed that Riefenstahl had not been informed the Romani would be sent to Auschwitz after filming was completed. This issue came up again in 2002, when Riefenstahl was 100 years old and she was taken to court by a Roma group for denying the Nazis had exterminated Romani. Riefenstahl apologized and said, "I regret that Sinti and Roma [people] had to suffer during the period of National Socialism. It is known today that many of them were murdered in concentration camps". In October 1944 the production of Tiefland moved to Barrandov Studios in Prague for interior filming. Lavish sets made these shots some of the most costly of the film. The film was not edited and released until almost ten years later. The last time Riefenstahl saw Hitler was when she married Peter Jacob on 21 March 1944. Riefenstahl and Jacob divorced in 1946. As Germany's military situation became impossible by early 1945, Riefenstahl left Berlin and was hitchhiking with a group of men, trying to reach her mother, when she was taken into custody by American troops. She walked out of a holding camp, beginning a series of escapes and arrests across the chaotic landscape. At last making it back home on a bicycle, she found that American troops had seized her house. She was surprised by how kindly they treated her. ### Thwarted film projects Most of Riefenstahl's unfinished projects were lost towards the end of the war. The French government confiscated all of her editing equipment, along with the production reels of Tiefland. After years of legal wrangling, these were returned to her, but the French government had reportedly damaged some of the film stock whilst trying to develop and edit it, with a few key scenes being missing (although Riefenstahl was surprised to find the original negatives for Olympia in the same shipment). During the filming of Olympia, Riefenstahl was funded by the state to create her own production company in her own name, Riefenstahl-Film GmbH, which was uninvolved with her most influential works. She edited and dubbed the remaining material and Tiefland premiered on 11 February 1954 in Stuttgart. However, it was denied entry into the Cannes Film Festival. Although Riefenstahl lived for almost another half century, Tiefland was her last feature film. Riefenstahl tried many times to make more films during the 1950s and 1960s, but was met with resistance, public protests and sharp criticism. Many of her filmmaking peers in Hollywood had fled Nazi Germany and were unsympathetic to her. Although both film professionals and investors were willing to support her work, most of the projects she attempted were stopped owing to ever-renewed and highly negative publicity about her past work in Nazi Germany. In 1954, Jean Cocteau, who greatly admired the film, insisted on Tiefland being shown at the Cannes Film Festival, which he was running that year. In 1960, Riefenstahl attempted to prevent filmmaker Erwin Leiser from juxtaposing scenes from Triumph des Willens with footage from concentration camps in his film Mein Kampf. Riefenstahl had high hopes for a collaboration with Cocteau called Friedrich und Voltaire ("Friedrich and Voltaire"), wherein Cocteau was to play two roles. They thought the film might symbolize the love-hate relationship between Germany and France. Cocteau's illness and 1963 death put an end to the project. A musical remake of Das Blaue Licht ("The Blue Light") with an English production company also fell apart. In the 1960s, Riefenstahl became interested in Africa from Ernest Hemingway's Green Hills of Africa and from the photographs of George Rodger. She visited Kenya for the first time in 1956 and later Sudan, where she photographed Nuba tribes with whom she sporadically lived, learning about their culture so she could photograph them more easily. Even though her film project about modern slavery entitled Die Schwarze Fracht ("The Black Cargo") was never completed, Riefenstahl was able to sell the stills from the expedition to magazines in various parts of the world. While scouting shooting locations, she almost died from injuries received in a truck accident. After waking up from a coma in a Nairobi hospital, she finished writing the script, but was soon thoroughly thwarted by uncooperative locals, the Suez Canal crisis and bad weather. In the end, the film project was called off. Even so, Riefenstahl was granted Sudanese citizenship for her services to the country, becoming the first foreigner to receive a Sudanese passport. ## Detention and trials Novelist and sports writer Budd Schulberg, assigned by the U.S. Navy to the OSS for intelligence work while attached to John Ford's documentary unit, was ordered to arrest Riefenstahl at her chalet in Kitzbühel, ostensibly to have her identify Nazi war criminals in German film footage captured by the Allied troops shortly after the war. Riefenstahl said she was not aware of the nature of the internment camps. According to Schulberg, "She gave me the usual song and dance. She said, 'Of course, you know, I'm really so misunderstood. I'm not political'". Riefenstahl said she was fascinated by the Nazis, but also politically naive, remaining ignorant about war crimes. Throughout 1945 to 1948, she was held by various Allied-controlled prison camps across Germany. She was also under house arrest for a period of time. She was tried four times by postwar authorities for denazification and eventually found to be a "fellow traveller" (Mitläufer) who sympathised with the Nazis. While never an official member of the Nazi party, she was always seen in association due to the propaganda films she made in Nazi Germany. Over the years, she filed and won over fifty libel cases against people who had accused her of complicity with Nazi crimes. Riefenstahl said that her biggest regret in life was meeting Hitler, declaring, "It was the biggest catastrophe of my life. Until the day I die people will keep saying, 'Leni is a Nazi', and I'll keep saying, 'But what did she do?'" Even though she went on to win up to fifty libel cases, details about her relation to the Nazi party generally remain unclear. Shortly before she died, Riefenstahl voiced her final words on the subject of her connection to Hitler in a BBC interview: "I was one of millions who thought Hitler had all the answers. We saw only the good things; we didn't know bad things were to come." ## Africa, photography, books and final film Riefenstahl began a lifelong companionship with her cameraman Horst Kettner, who was 40 years her junior and assisted her with the photographs; they were together from the time she was 60 and he was 20. Riefenstahl traveled to Africa, inspired by the works of George Rodger that celebrated the ceremonial wrestling matches of the Nuba. Riefenstahl's books with photographs of the Nuba tribes were published in 1974 and republished in 1976 as Die Nuba (translated as "The Last of the Nuba") and Die Nuba von Kau ("The Nuba People of Kau"). They were harshly criticized by American writer and philosopher Susan Sontag, who wrote in The New York Review of Books that they were evidence of Riefenstahl's continued adherence to "fascist aesthetics". In this review, which art critic Hilton Kramer described as "one of the most important inquiries into the relation of esthetics to ideology we have had in many years", Sontag argued that: > Although the Nuba are black, not Aryan, Riefenstahl's portrait of them is consistent with some of the larger themes of Nazi ideology: the contrast between the clean and the impure, the incorruptible and the defiled, the physical and the mental, the joyful and the critical. [...] What is distinctive about the fascist version of the old idea of the Noble Savage is its contempt for all that is reflective, critical, and pluralistic. [...] In celebrating a society where the exhibition of physical skill and courage and the victory of the stronger man over the weaker have, at least as she sees it, become the unifying symbol of the communal culture—where success in fighting is the "main aspiration of a man's life"—Riefenstahl seems only to have modified the ideas of her Nazi films. In December 1974, American writer and photographer Eudora Welty reviewed Die Nuba positively for the New York Times, giving an impressionistic account of the aesthetics of Riefenstahl's book: > She uses the light purposefully: the full, blinding brightness to make us see the ail‐absorbing blackness of the skin; the ray of light slanting down from the single hole, high in the wall, that is the doorway of the circular house, which tells us how secret and safe it has been made; the first dawn light streaking the face of a calf in the sleeping camp where the young men go to live, which suggests their world apart. All the pictures bring us the physical beauty of the people: a young girl, shy and mischievous of face, with a bead sewn into her lower lip like a permanent cinnamon drop; a wrestler prepared for his match, with his shaven head turned to look over the massive shoulder, all skin color taken away by a coating of ashes. Art Director's Club of Germany awarded Riefenstahl a gold medal for the best photographic achievement of 1975. She also sold some of the pictures to German magazines. Riefenstahl photographed the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, and rock star Mick Jagger along with his wife Bianca for The Sunday Times. Years later, Riefenstahl photographed Las Vegas entertainers Siegfried & Roy. She was guest of honour at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In 1978, Riefenstahl published a book of her sub-aquatic photographs called Korallengärten ("Coral Gardens"), followed by the 1990 book Wunder unter Wasser ("Wonder under Water"). On 22 August 2002, her 100th birthday, she released the film Impressionen unter Wasser ("Underwater Impressions"), an idealized documentary of life in the oceans and her first film in over 25 years. Riefenstahl was a member of Greenpeace for eight years. When filming Impressionen unter Wasser, Riefenstahl lied about her age in order to be certified for scuba diving. Riefenstahl survived a helicopter crash in Sudan in 2000 while trying to learn the fates of her Nuba friends during the Second Sudanese Civil War, and was airlifted to a Munich hospital, where she received treatment for two broken ribs. ## Death Riefenstahl celebrated her 101st birthday on 22 August 2003 at a hotel in Feldafing, on Lake Starnberg, Bavaria, near her home. The day after her birthday celebration, she became ill. Riefenstahl had been suffering from cancer for some time, and her health rapidly deteriorated during the last weeks of her life. Kettner said in an interview in 2002, "Ms. Riefenstahl is in great pain and she has become very weak and is taking painkillers". Riefenstahl died in her sleep at around 10:00 pm on 8 September 2003 at her home in Pöcking, Germany. After cremation, her ashes were buried in Munich Waldfriedhof. After her death, there was a varied response in the obituary pages of leading publications, although most recognized her technical breakthroughs in filmmaking. Gisela Jahn, Leni Riefenstahl's former secretary and sole heir, donated the estate bequeathed to her to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Items included photographs, films, manuscripts, letters, files, and documents dating back to the 1920s. ## Reception According to Taylor Downing, Riefenstahl's Nazi-era work "made it acceptable, even desirable, for millions of Germans to go along with Hitler. And in promoting the Nazi leadership, there is a direct line from her infamous Nazi party films to Auschwitz and Belsen." Similarly, Abraham Cooper argues that Riefenstahl's work was essential to the carrying out of the mission of the Holocaust and describes her as an "unindicted co-conspirator." Film scholar Mark Cousins notes in his book The Story of Film that, "Next to Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, Leni Riefenstahl was the most technically talented Western film maker of her era." When traveling to Hollywood to showcase her film Olympia shortly after the coordinated attack of German Jews known as Kristallnacht, Riefenstahl was criticized by the Anti-Nazi League and others. Reviewer Gary Morris called Riefenstahl, "An artist of unparalleled gifts, a woman in an industry dominated by men, one of the great formalists of the cinema on a par with Eisenstein or Welles." Film critic Hal Erickson of The New York Times states that the "Jewish Question" is mainly unmentioned in Triumph des Willens; "filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl prefers to concentrate on cheering crowds, precision marching, military bands, and Hitler's climactic speech, all orchestrated, choreographed and illuminated on a scale that makes Griffith and DeMille look like poverty-row directors." Charles Moore of The Daily Telegraph wrote, "She was perhaps the most talented female cinema director of the 20th century; her celebration of Nazi Germany in film ensured that she was certainly the most infamous." Film journalist Sandra Smith from The Independent remarked, "Opinions will be divided between those who see her as a young, talented and ambitious woman caught up in the tide of events which she did not fully understand, and those who believe her to be a cold and opportunist propagandist and a Nazi by association." Critic Judith Thurman said in The New Yorker that, "Riefenstahl's genius has rarely been questioned, even by critics who despise the service to which she lent it. Riefenstahl was a consummate stylist obsessed with bodies in motion, particularly those of dancers and athletes. Riefenstahl relies heavily for her transitions on portentous cutaways to butts, mist, statuary, foliage, and rooftops. Her reaction shots have a tedious sameness: shining, ecstatic faces—nearly all young and Aryan, except for Hitler's." Pauline Kael, also a film reviewer employed for The New Yorker, called Triumph des Willens and Olympia, "the two greatest films ever directed by a woman". Writer Richard Corliss wrote in Time that he was "impressed by Riefenstahl's standing as a total auteur: producer, writer, director, editor and, in the fiction films, actress. The issues her films and her career raise are as complex and they are important, and her vilifiers tend to reduce the argument to one of a director's complicity in atrocity or her criminal ignorance." In 2002, Steven Bach wrote that "Riefenstahl disturbs because she remains the adamant, fierce, glib voice of the 'how could we have known?' defense, an argument fewer and fewer Germans, and almost none of the current generation, still feel comfortable making." ## Film biographies In 1993, Riefenstahl was the subject of the award-winning German documentary film The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, directed by Ray Müller. Riefenstahl appeared in the film and answered several questions and detailed the production of her films. The biofilm was nominated for seven Emmy Awards, winning in one category. Riefenstahl, who for some time had been working on her memoirs, decided to cooperate in the production of this documentary to tell her life story about the struggles she had gone through in her personal life, her film-making career and what people thought of her. She was also the subject of Müller's 2000 documentary film Leni Riefenstahl: Her Dream of Africa, about her return to Sudan to visit the Nuba people. In 2000, Jodie Foster was planning a biographical drama on Riefenstahl, then seen as the last surviving member of Hitler's "inner circle", causing protests, with the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's dean Marvin Hier warning against a revisionist view that glorified the director, observing that Riefenstahl had seemed "quite infatuated" with Hitler. In 2007, British screenwriter Rupert Walters was reported to be writing a script for the movie. The project did not receive Riefenstahl's approval prior to her death, as Riefenstahl asked for a veto on any scenes to which she did not agree. Riefenstahl reportedly wanted Sharon Stone to play her rather than Foster. In 2011, director Steven Soderbergh revealed that he had also been working on a biopic of Riefenstahl for about six months. He eventually abandoned the project over concerns of its commercial prospects. ## In popular culture Riefenstahl was portrayed by Zdena Studenková in Leni, a 2014 Slovak drama play about her fictional participation in The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She was portrayed by Dutch actress Carice van Houten in Race, a sports drama film directed by Stephen Hopkins about Jesse Owens. It was released in North America on 19 February 2016. In the 2016 short film Leni. Leni., based on the play by Tom McNab and directed by Adrian Vitoria, Hildegard Neil portrays Riefenstahl. In 2021, she was the subject of Nigel Farndale's novel The Dictator's Muse. ## Filmography ### Filmography ### Acting roles - 1925: Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit ("Ways to Strength and Beauty") as Dancer - 1926: Der heilige Berg ("The Holy Mountain") as Diotima - 1927: Der große Sprung ("The Great Leap") as Gita - 1928: Das Schicksal derer von Habsburg ("Fate of the House of Habsburg") as Maria Vetsera - 1929: Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü ("The White Hell of Pitz Palu") as Maria Maioni - 1930: Stürme über dem Mont Blanc ("Storm Over Mont Blanc") as Hella Armstrong - 1931: Der weiße Rausch ("The White Ecstasy") as Leni - 1932: Das blaue Licht ("The Blue Light") as Junta - 1933: S.O.S. Eisberg ("S.O.S. Iceberg") as Hella, seine Frau - 1954: Tiefland ("Lowlands") as Martha, a Spanish dancer (final film role) ## Books - (reviewed by bell hooks)
56,520,766	Tata Sabaya	1,128,913,888	A 5,430-metre (17,810 ft) high volcan in Bolivia	[ "Five-thousanders of the Andes", "Pyroclastic shields", "Stratovolcanoes of Bolivia", "Subduction volcanoes", "Volcanoes of Oruro Department" ]	Tata Sabaya is a 5,430-metre (17,810 ft) high volcano in Bolivia. It is part of the Central Volcanic Zone, one of several volcanic belts in the Andes which are separated by gaps without volcanic activity. This section of the Andes was volcanically active since the Jurassic, with an episode of strong ignimbritic volcanism occurring during the Miocene. Tata Sabaya lies in a thinly populated region north of the Salar de Coipasa salt pan. Volcanic activity at Tata Sabaya and elsewhere in the Central Volcanic Zone is the consequence of the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South America Plate. The volcano has developed along a lineament that separates older crust north of the lineament from younger crust in the south, and the edifice has been formed by andesitic rocks. The southern flank of Tata Sabaya failed during the latest Pleistocene about 12,000 - 12,360 years before present. Debris from the collapse entered a lake that covered the Salar de Coipasa at that time and formed a deposit with a volume of 6 ± 1 cubic kilometre (1.44 ± 0.24 cu mi). Subsequently, the collapse scar was partly filled in with more recent lava flows and lava domes; one eruption occurred about 6,000 years before present. ## Geography and geomorphology Tata Sabaya lies just north of the Salar de Coipasa in Bolivia. The small village of Pagador lies west-southwest of the volcano, but the whole region is overall thinly inhabited. The name means "Father Sabaya"; the term "Sabaya" may be the Aymara corruption of the Quechua term for "devil", "demon". The volcano is a topic in local myths, where it is sometimes personified. Tata Sabaya is part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, which consists of a volcanic arc that mainly follows the Western Cordillera. There are about 44 Holocene volcanoes, however the remoteness of the region and dry climate has restricted scientific research of these volcanoes; among the better known are Lastarria, the Nevados de Payachata, Ollagüe, San Pablo, San Pedro and Socompa. Tata Sabaya is a volcano which reaches a height of 5,430 metres (17,810 ft). Five lava flows extend north from the summit and display levees and flow fronts, the flows reaching a maximum length of 2 kilometres (1.2 mi). The top of these flows is cut by a collapse scar that extends east and west of the edifice in the form of scarps up to 50 metres (160 ft) high. The space between the scarps is in turn filled by more recent lava flows with a blocky appearance. Farther away of the edifice, the scarp is more noticeable and reaches a height of about 200 metres (660 ft) on the southeastern side of the volcano. A 300-square-kilometre (120 sq mi) large deposit south of the volcano, originally interpreted as a nuee ardente deposit, is actually a landslide deposit which extends over a length of 20 kilometres (12 mi) and a width of 7 kilometres (4.3 mi); its volume is about 6 ± 1 cubic kilometre (1.44 ± 0.24 cu mi). The landslide incorporated material from the salar, and its rocks reflect in part the layering and structure of the pre-collapse volcano. The deposit is one of the more conspicuous of its type, to the point that it was observed and identified on low-resolution Landsat images. It consists of material that forms hummock-like deposits, with individual hummocks becoming smaller the farther away from the edifice they are. The deposit extends into the Salar de Coipasa where it is confined by faults and is in part covered by lacustrine sediments such as tufa. ## Geology Off the western coast of South America, the Nazca Plate subducts beneath the South America Plate at a rate of about 10 centimetres per year (3.9 in/year). This subduction process is responsible for the volcanism in the Andean Volcanic Belt, which occurs in a Northern Volcanic Zone in Ecuador and Colombia, a Central Volcanic Zone in Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina and a Southern Volcanic Zone in Chile and Argentina. These volcanic zones are separated by gaps without volcanism, where the subduction process is shallower. Several phases of tectonic and volcanic activity have been identified in the Central Volcanic Zone. An earlier phase of volcanism in the Cordillera de la Costa commenced in the Jurassic but is considered separate from the Central Volcanic Zone magmatism proper. After an erosional hiatus during the Oligocene, volcanic arc activity increased during the Miocene and culminated in a phase of strong ignimbrite eruptions, which originated in calderas. This phase was associated with a substantial thickening of the crust in the Central Andes. During the Pleistocene ignimbrite volcanism waned again and stratovolcanoes began to develop. Tata Sabaya lies along a crustal transition area which separates a younger crust farther south from an older (Proterozoic) crust in the north, which is made up by the Chilenia terrane and the Arequipa-Antofalla craton, respectively. This transition area appears to coincide with a chain of volcanoes that Tata Sabaya is part of and which extends from Cerro Saxani in the east to Isluga in Chile, as well as with the northern end of the Pica gap where no recent volcanism occurs in the volcanic arc. The basement of the volcano is formed by the ignimbritic Altos de Pica formation, although outcrops of granite have been observed in the region; one of these outcrops may be a Precambrian granite subsequently thermally modified in the Toarcian. This basement is covered by younger volcanic rocks, alluvium and sediments of the Salar de Coipasa. Seismic tomography suggests that molten magma exists in the regional crust. ### Composition Tata Sabaya has produced "two-pyroxene" andesite and porphyritic andesite. Minerals contained within the rock are augite, biotite, hornblende, hypersthene, plagioclase and titanomagnetite with only little variation between rocks erupted during separate stages of volcanic activity. The erupted volcanites define a potassium-rich calc-alkaline suite. Inclusions of more mafic rocks in the erupted material may indicate that mafic magma was injected into the magma chamber of Tata Sabaya. The magma genesis at Tata Sabaya has been explained with magma mixing processes, which gave rise to a fairly uniform composition of the eruption products. ## Climate and vegetation The region is dry with precipitation mainly falling during southern hemisphere summer, and has little vegetation cover. Polylepis tarapacana trees grow on the slopes of Tata Sabaya; these trees form the highest woodlands in the world. Other aspects of regional vegetation are the so-called puna steppe, which is characterized by grass and shrub vegetation. ## Eruption history Of all volcanoes in Bolivia, Tata Sabaya is the only one with Holocene activity which is not on the border with another country. The young age of the mountain has been inferred from the lack of glaciation and moraines on the mountain, unlike neighbouring summits. The earliest activity at Tata Sabaya constructed a pyroclastic shield, which crops out as a 20-metre (66 ft) thick sequence of block-and-ash flows fallout deposits and pumice deposits in the northern sector of the volcano. Effusive eruptions then built up a volcanic cone on top of this shield; the five northerly lava flows were emplaced during this phase of activity. Some lava flows from this stage were unstable and collapsed, covering the northern parts of the volcano with debris. This effusive activity eventually oversteepened the cone, causing its southern sector to collapse. During this collapse and landsliding, large toreva blocks developed from sectors of the cone which slid down undeformed, while other material from the cone formed the hummocks in the sector collapse deposit; there was no explosive eruption at the time of the collapse. The configuration of the deposit indicates that the debris entered the Salar when it was filled with water; the height of the tufa deposits imply that water levels were about 3,700 metres (12,100 ft) above sea level. This and the lake terraces that the landslide overran marks the collapse as synchronous with the Lake Tauca episode 12,000-12,360 years ago when water levels in the Salar de Coipasa reached their maximum. The onset of such collapses on volcanoes is often determined by faulting, climate change or eruption of the volcano; at Tata Sabaya earthquakes and the injection of new magma has been invoked to explain the destabilization of the edifice. After the collapse, Holocene activity filled the scar with lava domes and lava flows, cancelling the traces of the collapse; some of these in turn collapsed as well and gave rise to hot avalanche deposits. Radiocarbon dating for a pyroclastic flow has yielded an age of 6,000 years before present, implying that the volcano may be still active. Reportedly, when in 1600 Huaynaputina erupted in Peru a volcano named Sabaya erupted in Oruro and destroyed a village.
26,046,999	Real Chemistry	1,168,633,968	American holding company	[ "2001 establishments in California", "American companies established in 2001", "Companies based in San Francisco", "Health care companies of the United States", "Public relations companies of the United States" ]	Real Chemistry, formerly known as W2O Group, is a global health innovation company that utilizes AI for its healthcare services. Founded by Jim Weiss in 2001, Real Chemistry is an American company with global offices in Europe and Canada. ## Corporate history Real Chemistry was founded as WeissComm Partners in 2001 by Jim Weiss as a one-person marketing consulting firm, with clients primarily in the healthcare industry. His firm grew quickly until 2008. According to Weiss, less favorable conditions in the healthcare industry led to a series of layoffs. In response, the following year Weiss acquired creative services firm ODA and social media marketing firm, Common Sense Media Group, in order to diversify his interests and reduce reliance on the healthcare industry. That same year, Weiss re-formed the company under the acronym WCG, consolidating the two acquisitions under a new corporate umbrella. The acquired companies and the firm's revenues continued growing. By 2011 it had annual revenues of \$48 million. In 2012, WCG was re-structured again under a new holding company called W2O Group, which was made up of three companies: WCG, W2O Ventures, and Twist Mktg. The fourth company in the holding group, Brewlife, was formed the following year to focus on startup companies. The holding group had \$75 million in annual revenues by 2013 and \$82.6 million in 2014. In 2014 and 2015, W2O opened new offices in major U.S. and European cities. In May 2016, a private-equity firm called Mountaingate Capital made an investment in W2O Group, which funded a series of acquisitions. Seven months after acquiring Fox Communications, W2O Group laid off founder Lynn Fox, who sued alleging gender discrimination. In June 2019, New Mountain capital acquired an interest in W2O Group for an undisclosed amount. Following the acquisition, the company acquired Elysia Group, Discern Health and 21GRAMS. The company acquired starpower LLC, an entertainment marketing agency, in 2020. In January 2021, Swoop, Inc., which specializes in pharmaceutical IT, and IPM.ai, a data and analytics company, were both acquired. In March 2021, W2O Group was rebranded as Real Chemistry, and all subsidiaries were consolidated into the newly unified company. As a result of rapid acquisition activity in 2019, Real Chemistry has grown to employ over 2,000 people in 10 locations worldwide. In January 2022, Shankar Narayanan took over as CEO, and founder Jim Weiss became chairman. In April 2022, Real Chemistry acquired the conversational AI company conversationHEALTH. In March 2023, Real Chemistry acquired TI Health, a data-driven marketing and predictive analytics company. ### Acquisitions ## Operations and services Real Chemistry provides marketing and tech-enabled global health services to healthcare and technology companies. The company operated through five subsidiaries: WCG, Twist, Pure, Sentient and Marketeching, but has since unified into Real Chemistry. WCG was the public relations arm. As of 2012, it was responsible for about 80 percent of the company's revenue. Twist is a 50-person division that initially served largely as a conflict and analytics division. The Brewlife division serves the company's startup and emerging technology clientele. Real Chemistry is the second largest PR firm by revenue in O'Dwyer's annual rankings of U.S. agencies and is the largest in the healthcare sector as of 2023. More than 90 percent of its revenues are from U.S.-based clients. Healthcare tends to be its fastest growing practice area and was the firm's focus early on, though more recently the analytics practice has taken a larger role. According to PR Week, the company's most-used services include "PR, analytics, and its CCX creative unit." It also started a multicultural practice in early 2015. One of Real Chemistry's software services is MDigitalLife, which stores data on the online activity of doctors and patients. It is used by pharmaceutical companies to understand sentiment in the healthcare field.
74,167	Poutine	1,172,741,335	Dish of french fries, cheese curds and gravy	[ "Cheese dishes", "Cuisine of Quebec", "Cultural appropriation", "Culture of Quebec", "Fast food", "French fries", "National dishes", "Peasant food", "Street food" ]	Poutine () is a dish of french fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. It emerged in Quebec, in the late 1950s in the Centre-du-Québec region, though its exact origins are uncertain and there are several competing claims regarding its invention. For many years, it was used by some to mock Quebec society. Poutine later became celebrated as a symbol of Québécois culture and the province of Quebec. It has long been associated with Quebec cuisine, and its rise in prominence has led to its growing popularity throughout the rest of Canada. Annual poutine celebrations occur in Montreal, Quebec City, and Drummondville, as well as Toronto, Ottawa, New Hampshire, and Chicago. It has been called "Canada's national dish", though some critics believe this labelling represents cultural appropriation of the Québécois or Quebec's national identity. Many variations on the original recipe are popular, leading some to suggest that poutine has emerged as a new dish classification in its own right, as with sandwiches and dumplings. ## History ### Origins The dish was created in the Centre-du-Québec area in the late 1950s. Several restaurants in the area claim to be the originators of the dish, but no consensus exists. - Le Lutin qui rit, Warwick – Restaurateur Fernand Lachance of Le Café Idéal (later Le Lutin qui rit), is said to have exclaimed in 1957, "ça va faire une maudite poutine!" (English: "It will make a damn mess!") when asked by a regular to put a handful of cheese curds in a take-out bag of french fries. The dish "poutine" appears on the establishment's 1957 menu. Lachance served this on a plate, and beginning in 1962 added hot gravy to keep it warm. - Le Roy Jucep, Drummondville – This drive-in restaurant served french fries with gravy, to which some customers would add a side order of cheese curds. Owner Jean-Paul Roy began serving the combination in 1958 and added it to the menu in 1964 as "fromage-patate-sauce". Felt to be too long a name, this was later changed to poutine for a cook nicknamed "Ti-Pout" and a slang word for "pudding". The restaurant displays a copyright registration certificate, issued by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, which alludes to Roy having invented poutine. - La Petite Vache, Princeville – Customers would mix cheese curds with their fries, a combination which was added to the menu. One option included gravy and was called the "Mixte". According to Canadian food researcher Sylvain Charlebois, while Warwick is the birthplace of poutine, Drummondville's Jean-Paul Roy is the true inventor since le Roy Jucep was the first to sell poutine with three combined ingredients, in 1964. The Oxford Companion to Cheese takes a different perspective, stating that the inventors were not chefs but the customers who chose to add cheese curds to their fries. ### Development Poutine was consumed in small "greasy spoon" diners (commonly known in Quebec as cantines or casse-croûtes), pubs, at roadside chip wagons (commonly known as cabanes à patates, literally "potato shacks"), and in ice hockey arenas. For decades, it remained a country snack food in Quebec's dairy region, due to the narrow freshness window of cheddar cheese curds. In 1969, poutine was brought to Quebec City in Ashton Leblond's food truck (a business which grew into the Chez Ashton fast-food chain). In the early 1970s, La Banquise began serving poutine in Montreal, followed by the Burger King chain in 1983. Others that followed used inferior cheese and the dish's reputation declined. Poutine was largely perceived as an unsophisticated backwoods creation or unhealthy junk food to be consumed after a night of drinking. Montreal chefs would make poutine to feed their staff but had not dared to put it on their menus. In the 1990s, attempts were made to elevate the dish by using baked potatoes and duck stock. In November 2001, Martin Picard of bistro Au Pied de Cochon began serving a foie gras poutine which was praised by customers and food critics. This influenced chefs in Toronto and Vancouver to feature poutine on upscale menus. Chef Mark McEwan served lobster poutine at his Bymark eatery, and chef Jamie Kennedy served braised beef poutine at his eponymous restaurant. Over the next decade, poutine gained acceptance and popularity in all types of restaurants, from haute cuisine to fast food, and spread across Canada and internationally. ### Etymology The Dictionnaire historique du français québécois lists 15 meanings of poutine in Québécois and Acadian French, most of which are for kinds of food; the word poutine in the meaning "fries with cheese and gravy" is dated to 1982 in English. Other senses of the word have been in use since at least 1810. According to Merriam-Webster, a popular etymology is that poutine is from a Québécois slang word meaning "mess", and that others attribute it to the English word pudding. The exact provenance of the word poutine is uncertain. The Dictionnaire historique mentions the possibility that the form poutine is simply a gallicization of the word pudding. However, it considers it more likely that it was inherited from regional languages spoken in France, and that some of its meanings resulted from the later influence of the similar-sounding English word pudding. It cites the Provençal forms poutingo "bad stew" and poutité "hodgepodge" or "crushed fruit or foods"; poutringo "mixture of various things" in Languedocien; and poutringue or potringa "bad stew" in Franche-Comté as possibly related to poutine. The meaning "fries with cheese and gravy" of poutine is among those held as probably unrelated to pudding, provided the latter view is correct. ## Recipe The traditional recipe for poutine consists of: - French fries: These are usually of medium thickness and fried (sometimes twice) such that the inside stays soft, while the outside is crispy. - Cheese curds: Fresh cheese curds are used to give the desired texture. The curd size varies, as does the amount used. - Brown gravy: Traditionally, it is a light and thin beef or chicken gravy, somewhat salty and mildly spiced with a hint of pepper; or a sauce brune, which is a combination of chicken and beef stock. Poutine sauces (mélange à sauce poutine) are sold in Quebec, Ontario, and Maritime grocery stores in jars or cans and in powdered mix packets; some grocery chains offer their own house-brand versions. Many stores and restaurants also offer vegetarian gravy. To maintain the texture of the fries, the cheese curds and gravy are added immediately before serving the dish. The hot gravy is usually poured over room-temperature cheese curds, so they are warmed without melting completely. The thin gravy allows all the fries to be coated. The serving dish typically has some depth to act as a basket for the fries so that they retain their heat. It is important to control the temperature, timing, and the order in which the ingredients are added to obtain the right food textures—an essential part of the experience of eating poutine. Freshness and juiciness of the curds is essential. Air and moisture seep out of the curds over time, altering their acidity level. This causes proteins to lose their elasticity, and the curds to lose their complex texture and characteristic squeaky sound when chewed. The curds should be less than a day old, which requires proximity to a dairy. While Montreal is 60 kilometres (37 mi) from a cheese plant in Mirabel, restaurants and specialty cheese shops outside of dairy regions may be unable to sell enough curds to justify the expense of daily deliveries. Furthermore, Canadian food safety practices require curds to be refrigerated within 24 hours, which suppresses the properties of their texture. This has resulted in poutineries which specialize in the dish; busy poutineries may use 100 kilograms (220 lb) of curds per day. Poutineries which are too distant from dairies may make their own cheese curds on site, in batches every few hours, to ensure a fresh and steady supply. ### Variations The texture, temperature and viscosity of poutine's ingredients differ and continuously change as the food is consumed, making it a dish of highly dynamic contrasts. Strengthening these contrasts, superior poutines are identified by the crispiness of the fries, freshness of the curds, and a unifying gravy. Even small variations in ingredients or preparation—the oil used for frying, the origin of the curds, or spices in the gravy—can result in a distinctly different experience of eating the poutine. Some recipes eliminate the cheese, but most Québécois would call such a dish a frite sauce (English: french fries with gravy), not poutine. When curds are unavailable, mozzarella cheese may be an acceptable alternative. Shredded mozzarella is commonly used in Saskatchewan. Sweet potato may be used as a healthier alternative to french fries, adding more dietary fibre and vitamins. Poutineries, like Montreal's La Banquise, which is credited for much of the innovation and popularization of poutine, have dozens of varieties of poutine on their menus. Many of these are based on the traditional recipe with an added meat topping such as sausage, chicken, bacon, brisket, or Montreal-style smoked meat, with the gravy adjusted for balance. The Quebec City-based chain Chez Ashton is known for its poutine Galvaude (topped with chicken and green peas) and Dulton (with ground beef). New variations are frequently introduced. Pulled pork was popular around 2013, followed a couple years later by Asian-fusion poutines. Montreal's high immigrant population has led to many takes on the dish inspired by other cuisines, such as Haitian, Mexican, Portuguese, Indian, Japanese, Greek, Italian and Lebanese. These poutines may bear little resemblance to the traditional recipe. They replace some or all of the ingredients but maintain the dynamic contrasts of textures and temperatures with a crispy element, a dairy or dairy-like element, and a unifying sauce. Many variations on the original recipe are popular, leading some to suggest that poutine has emerged as a new dish classification in its own right, as with sandwiches, dumplings, soups, and flatbreads. Poutineries will frequently offer limited-time promotional specials, such as a Thanksgiving poutine with turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. In anticipation of the legalization of cannabis in Canada, Montreal's Le Gras Dur served a "pot poutine" with a gravy that included hemp protein, hemp seeds and hemp oil, offered with a joint-like roll of turkey, wild mushrooms and arugula. Gourmet poutine with three-pepper sauce, merguez sausage, foie gras or caviar and truffle can be found. This is a trend that began in the 1990s and is credited to David McMillan of Montreal's Joe Beef and Globe restaurants. Savoury sauces like Moroccan harissa, lobster sauce, and red-wine veal jus have been used to complement artisanal cheeses and rich ingredients. Chains such as Smoke's Poutinerie, New York Fries, McDonald's, Wendy's, A&W, KFC, Burger King, Harvey's, Mary Brown's, Arby's, and Wahlburgers restaurants also sell versions of poutine in Quebec and the rest of Canada (although not always country-wide). Tim Hortons began selling poutine in 2018. Fast-food combination meals in Canada often have the options to have french fries "poutinized" by adding cheese curds (or shredded cheese in the Prairies and Western Canada) and gravy, or substituting a poutine for a fries side. ### Internationally Poutine is found in the northern border regions of the United States, including New England and the larger Northeast, the Pacific Northwest, and the Upper Midwest. These regions offer further variations of the basic dish, usually by utilizing cheeses other than fresh curds, which are not widely available in the US. Wendy's fast food chain offers poutine in the form of "Baconator Fries", which is fried thin sticks of potato with melted yellow cheese and bits of bacon. In the country culture, a mixed fry can also come with cooked ground beef on top and is referred to as a hamburger mix, though this is less popular than a regular mix. In the Pacific Northwest, one variation replaces the gravy with chowder featuring local seafood. Disco fries, french fries typically covered in mozzarella cheese and brown gravy, were popularized in New Jersey in the 1990s. They gained their name in the 1970s for being a favourite of late-night diners, who often came from dancing at disco clubs. The dish is also popular in New Orleans including variations called Cajun poutine. Poutine spread to the United Kingdom, Korea and Russia, where it has been referred to as "Raspoutine". The first poutinerie in Paris, La Maison de la Poutine, opened in 2017 and quickly gained attention from mainstream media and gastronomers. ## Cultural aspects A cultural marker, poutine had long been Quebec's adored junk food before spreading across the rest of Canada and the United States. It had by then made inroads with food critics and established culinary circles, challenging its junk food status. Food critic Jacob Richler noted in 2012 that Canadian dishes are too similar to their European roots to be considered original, with the exception of poutine, which he credited as the country's most famous culinary creation. In May 2014, the word "poutine" was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of the English language. In 2007, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) declared the results of an online survey on the greatest Canadian inventions, in which poutine ranked at No. 10. Maclean's 2017 survey of "favourite iconic Canadian food" placed poutine first with 21% of respondents, ahead of maple syrup with 14%. By 2011, media outlets were reporting 11 April as National Poutine Day. In March 2016, poutine was served at the White House during the first state dinner hosted by President Barack Obama and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Poutine has been a highlight of Canada Day celebrations in Trafalgar Square in London, England, for several years, and was a comfort food for the local community after the 2013 Lac-Megantic derailment. It was served at the inaugural Canadian Comedy Awards. The first poutine festival was held in Warwick, Quebec, in 1993. This annual event expanded to become the largest cheese festival in Canada. In 2014, it was moved to the larger town of Victoriaville. Montreal has hosted La Poutine Week, an annual festival, food tour, and competition held 1–7 February, since 2013. It spread across Canada and internationally, and by 2021 had become the largest poutine festival in the world, with over 700 restaurants serving more than 350,000 poutines. Poutine festivals are also held in Drummondville (since 2008), Ottawa-Gatineau, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Quebec City and Sherbrooke. In the US, major festivals have been held in Chicago, Illinois, Manchester, New Hampshire, Knoxville, Tennessee, and in Rhode Island. Since 2010, the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFCE) has held a world poutine-eating championship sponsored by Toronto-based chain Smoke's Poutinerie. There was criticism that the inaugural contest was held outside of Quebec and excluded Québécois. The IFCE stated that Montreal poutineries had not expressed any interest in holding the competition. Regulations for contests in Quebec make it difficult to include the province, which is often absent from national contests. Smoke's has since sponsored a cross-Canada poutine eating tour. In 2011, chef Chuck Hughes won on Iron Chef America (episode 2 of season 9) by beating Bobby Flay with a plate of lobster poutine. Jones Soda Co., originally a Canadian company now based in the US, created a poutine-flavoured limited-edition soft drink in 2013, which received international pop culture attention. Bacon-poutine was one of four flavours selected as a finalist in the 2014 Lay's Canada Do Us A Flavour potato chip contest. Though it did not win, Lay's later added a bacon-poutine variety in its Canada entry for the World Flavourites. Loblaws' President's Choice and Ruffles brands also offer poutine-flavoured potato chips in Canada. Giapos Ice Cream of New Zealand has served a "poutine ice cream" of oolong matcha tea, ice cream and caramel sauce over hand-cut fries since 2017. In a 2018 promotional campaign for the film Crazy Rich Asians, "the world's richest poutine" was created with wagyu steak, lobster, truffles, shiitake and chanterelle mushrooms, edible orchids, and gold flakes, priced just under \$450. Joel Edmundson, of the 2018–19 National Hockey League champion team St. Louis Blues, ate poutine from the Stanley Cup during celebrations attended by over 4,000 fans in his hometown of Brandon, Manitoba. Mathieu Joseph, a Chambly, Quebec native who won the Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021, also ate poutine from the Cup during a celebration with the Cup in 2021. ## Nutrition Health advocates have been critical of poutine since the 1980s. In a 2013 study of Canadian restaurants, poutine was found to have the second-highest sodium (1547 mg average and as high as 2227 mg) among single meal items, after stir-fry entrées. ## Social mobility and appropriation The social status of poutine has evolved dramatically since its origins in rural Quebec in the 1950s. The dish was long mocked as a culinary invention and used as a means of stigmatization by non-Québécois against Quebec society to reduce its legitimacy. While the first generations that suffered from the poutine stigma opted to disidentify from the dish, younger people in Quebec began to reappropriate poutine as a symbol of Quebecois cultural pride. Today, the dish is celebrated in many annual poutine festivals in Quebec, the rest of Canada, and in the United States. The evolution of the different symbols associated with poutine was first studied in Maudite Poutine! by Charles-Alexandre Théorêt. Théorêt revisited many of these stigmas in an interview given at Tout le monde en parle on 11 November 2007. As poutine gained popularity outside Quebec provincial borders in the mid-2000s, the dish gradually stopped being mocked and was eventually introduced into the popular discourse as a symbol of Canadian identity. Today, the dish is often presented as being of Canadian cuisine, even as Canada's national dish. Nicolas Fabien-Ouellet suggested in the peer-reviewed journal CuiZine that this "Canadization" of poutine constitutes cultural appropriation. This appropriation is not linked to its preparation or consumption outside Quebec, but strictly to its presentation as a Canadian dish instead of a Québécois dish. Fabien-Ouellet explains: > as soon as a Quebec cultural trait begins to be appreciated internationally, it begins to be identified as typically Canadian, this prevents Quebec culture from shining, and becomes part of absorption and assimilation processes. All this is reminiscent of the reasons why Cajun cuisine is differentiated in the US context. ## In politics In a Talking to Americans segment on the Canadian mock television news show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, during the 2000 US election, comedian Rick Mercer posed as a reporter and asked US politicians what they thought of "Prime Minister Jean Poutine" and his endorsement of George W. Bush for president. (The Prime Minister of Canada at the time was Jean Chrétien.) None of the interviewees noticed the insertion of "Poutine" and Bush pledged to "work closely" with Mr. Poutine. A few years later, when Bush made his first official visit to Canada as president, he joked in a speech, "There's a prominent citizen who endorsed me in the 2000 election, and I wanted a chance to finally thank him [...] I was hoping to meet Jean Poutine." The remark was met with laughter and applause. In French, Russian president Vladimir Putin's surname is spelled "Poutine", with the two having identical pronunciation. The similarity has been a source of confusion; in commenting on the Talking to Americans prank on Bush, Washington Post columnist Al Kamen mistakenly believed that Mercer's fictional Jean Poutine was a reference to Putin. In 2017, Russian-themed poutinerie Vladimir Poutine opened in Montreal, with dishes named for political figures from Rasputin to Donald Trump. In the week following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, frequent insults and threats were received by the three Maison de la Poutine restaurants in Paris, some stating a belief that they worked for the Russian state. Another poutinerie in Lyon changed the name of its 20-year signature dish, Vladimir poutine, stating that it "was no longer funny". In Quebec, Le Roy Jucep announced that it was retiring the word poutine in support of Ukraine and reverted to "fromage-patate-sauce" on its menus and branding. During the 2011 Canadian federal election, some voters reported receiving robocalls claiming to be from Elections Canada, from a phone number registered to "Pierre Poutine". The calls targeted voters who had previously indicated they would not vote for the Conservative Party. The calls, made on election day or the day before, falsely advised voters that their polling station had been changed, in an attempt to prevent them from voting. The allegations became known as the Robocall scandal, and subsequent investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police resulted in Michael Sona, a junior Conservative Party staffer, being convicted of violating the Elections Act. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel had a Canadian lunch with counterpart Justin Trudeau on 16 June 2017, during which they ate hotdogs and poutine. Michel tweeted later that this was "A great way to meet a dear friend though our fries are better", referring to the popular claim that fries were originally invented in Belgium. In 2019, Canada attempted to garner support for its campaign for a non-permanent United Nations Security Council seat in the following year's election by serving poutine to UN diplomats. ## See also - Cuisine of Quebec - Cheese fries - Canadian cuisine - Demi-glace - Halal snack pack - List of accompaniments to french fries - List of Canadian inventions and discoveries - List of potato dishes - Poutine râpée - Velouté sauce
2,206,452	Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?	1,154,788,567	null	[ "1991 American television episodes", "The Simpsons (season 2) episodes", "Works about brothers" ]	"Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 21, 1991. In the episode, Grampa confesses that Homer has a half-brother named Herbert Powell, a car manufacturer. Herb permits Homer to design his company's new car, which is an overpriced monstrosity that bankrupts him. The episode was written by Jeff Martin and directed by Wes Archer. American actor Danny DeVito provided the voice of Herb. The episode features cultural references to cars such as the Edsel, the Tucker Torpedo, the Ford Mustang, and the Lamborghini Cheetah. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 15.4, and was the highest-rated show on Fox the week it aired. Some fans were upset with the sad ending of the episode, so the producers decided to write a sequel, "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" with a positive ending. ## Plot Grampa suffers a mild heart attack while arguing with a cinema clerk. Thinking he might die, he confesses a long-hidden secret: Homer has a half-brother. Before Grampa married Homer's mother, he and a carnival prostitute had a son whom they left at the Shelbyville Orphanage. Determined to find his brother, Homer visits the orphanage and learns that his half-brother Herb Powell now lives in Detroit. Herb owns Powell Motors, a Detroit automobile manufacturer. Herb is overjoyed to learn Homer is his half-brother and invites the Simpsons to stay at his mansion. Bart, Lisa, and Maggie are enthralled by Herb's wealthy lifestyle and kind personality, but Marge worries wealth will spoil her children. After Herb decides that Homer, an average American, is the perfect person to design his company's new car, he gives him free rein to design it. When Herb's design team ignores Homer's outlandish suggestions, Herb encourages Homer to take command of the project and incorporate his own ideas in the final design. When the new car is unveiled with great fanfare, Herb is horrified to find it is unaffordable (costing \$82,000) and poorly designed; Powell Motors is forced into bankruptcy. The bank forecloses on Herb's mansion and he loses everything he worked for. As Herb leaves Detroit on a bus, he angrily disowns Homer as a brother. Grampa arrives and scolds Homer for ruining Herb's life. While Homer drives the family home, Bart tells him his car is great. Homer is relieved to learn at least one person likes it. ## Production "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" was written by Jeff Martin and directed by Wes Archer. Both Homer's mother and Herb Powell make their first appearances on The Simpsons in the episode. Some fans were upset with the sad ending of the episode, and as a result the producers decided to write a sequel in which Herb would be given a kinder fate. The resulting episode, "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?", aired at the end of the third season. In that episode, Herb briefly settled in the Simpson household, despite his intense continuing antipathy toward Homer. Homer loaned Herb US\$2000, which Herb used to build an invention that translated infantile speech into comprehensible English, based on observations he made of Maggie. He proceeded to mass-produce his new product and regained his fortune. He then bought each member of the family gifts and paid Homer back with a vibrating chair, along with his forgiveness. The episode was recorded on August 13, 1990. The voice of Herb was provided by guest star Danny DeVito, an American actor who was suggested for the role by Simpsons executive producer Sam Simon. Bart's voice actor, Nancy Cartwright, writes in her autobiography My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy that DeVito had to record his lines quickly because he had another appointment, so the staff focused on recording only his scenes instead of the whole episode at once. Cartwright was a fan of DeVito's and recalls: "This morning, at the table read, I had just filled my plate with assorted fruits when Bonnie said to my backside, 'Nancy, I want to introduce you to ...' and I turned and practically knocked over Danny DeVito, all four feet, eleven inches of him. How embarrassing!" While recording the scenes, Cartwright stood directly across the room from DeVito, which she appreciated since she got to see him in action. She thought DeVito "threw his body and soul" into his performance. While the recording took part, animation director Archer scribbled down some of DeVito's attitudes, gestures, and facial expressions on a piece of paper as he performed. In one scene of the episode, Herb tells Homer and the rest of the Simpson family to "[make] yourselves at home. We have a tennis court, a swimming pool, a screening room ..." Cartwright said of it: > This was obviously written with Danny in mind as I have no doubt that he actually has the aforementioned amenities in real life. He has earned his right to stand tall, and it wouldn't have shocked me to see him spew attitude all over us if he wanted to. But he's a hard worker and he concentrated on the job [...] As the episode came to its climax, we discovered that all the material things in the world don't mean as much to Herb as being with family. Somehow I just get the feeling that this part was tailor-made with Danny, the family man, in mind. ## Cultural references The storyline of a controversially styled car causing the company to fail echoes that of the Edsel, the Tucker 48, and the later DeLorean. The Edsel was a controversially styled car named after Henry Ford's son, Edsel, which is now considered one of the biggest car flops in history, while production of the Tucker Torpedo, which introduced many new features, was shut down amidst scandal and accusations of stock fraud in 1949. Homer wants the horns of the car he is designing to play the traditional Spanish folk corrido "La Cucaracha". The Pope is in the audience for the unveiling of Homer's new car. Herb berates his staff for suggesting that the company name a new car "Persephone" after the Greek goddess of fertility in Greek mythology, telling them "People don't want cars named after hungry old Greek broads! They want names like 'Mustang' and 'Cheetah', vicious animal names," referencing the Ford Mustang and Lamborghini Cheetah cars. The title of the episode is a reference to the name of the fictional book "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" in the 1941 film Sullivan's Travels. Herb lives in a house that looks like American architect Frank Lloyd Wright's house in Oak Park, Illinois, works in a studio that looks like the Taliesin school of architecture in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and his factory resembles the Johnson Wax Headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, all three buildings designed by Wright. ## Reception In its original broadcast, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" finished twenty-sixth in the ratings for the week of February 18–24, 1991. With a Nielsen rating of 15.4, equivalent to approximately 14.1 million viewing households, it was the highest-rated show on Fox that week. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, wrote that although it is "inevitable" that Homer's car will be a disaster, the "joy of this episode is anticipating exactly what sort of disaster". A member of the IGN staff wrote in a season two review that "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" is one of the "real winners to be found in the second season". Dawn Taylor of The DVD Journal thought the most memorable line of the episode was Homer's idea of the perfect car, "You know that little ball you put on the aerial so you can find your car in a parking lot? That should be on every car! And some things are so snazzy they never go out of style — like tail fins! And bubble domes! And shag carpeting!" DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson called the episode a solid episode and said that the introduction of Homer's brother "could have been gimmicky, especially with a big-name guest star like DeVito, but the concept fared nicely". Jacobson added that he thought DeVito "brought spark to his part and made Herb fun and lively. The parts in which Homer developed his car were also hilarious and offered some of the show's best bits. The program even showed some great little moments, like the hallmark Simpson five o'clock shadow on infant Herb." Jeremy Kleinman of DVD Talk said the episode "features another great guest voice, this time by Danny DeVito as the voice of Homer's long lost brother Herb, who reenters Homer's life and solicits his 'common man' prospective in building a car. Once again, Homer's sentimentality comes through." Total Film's Nathan Ditum ranked DeVito's performance as the 10th best guest appearance in the show's history. On June 29, 2013, Porcubimmer Motors debuted a real-life version of "The Homer," the car that was designed by Homer in this episode, at the 24 Hours of LeMons race in Buttonwillow, California.
273,451	Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle	1,166,831,808	2005 Japanese manga series by Clamp and its adaptations	[ "2003 manga", "2005 anime television series debuts", "2006 anime television series debuts", "2007 anime OVAs", "2009 anime OVAs", "Adventure anime and manga", "Anime OVAs composed by Yuki Kajiura", "Anime and manga about parallel universes", "Bee Train Production", "Cloning in fiction", "Crunchyroll anime", "Del Rey Manga", "Funimation", "Isekai anime and manga", "Kodansha manga", "NHK original programming", "Production I.G", "Romance anime and manga", "Shōnen manga", "Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle", "Works by Clamp (manga artists)" ]	Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (Japanese: ツバサ-RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, Hepburn: Tsubasa: Rezaboa Kuronikuru) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. It takes place in the same fictional universe as many of Clamp's other manga series, most notably xxxHolic. The plot follows how Sakura, the princess of the Kingdom of Clow, loses all her memories and how Syaoran, a young archaeologist who is her childhood friend, goes on arduous adventures to save her, with two other companions. The Dimensional Witch Yūko Ichihara instructs him to go with two people, Kurogane and Fai D. Flowright. They search for Sakura's memories, which were scattered in various worlds in the form of angelic-like feathers, as retrieving them will help save her very being. Tsubasa was conceived when four Clamp artists wanted to create a manga series that connected all their previous works. They took the designs for the main protagonists from their earlier manga called Cardcaptor Sakura. It was serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine from May 2003 until October 2009, and was collected in twenty-eight tankōbon volumes, totalling 232 chapters - 18 to 20 pages each. The manga was adapted into an anime series, Tsubasa Chronicle (ツバサ・クロニクル, Tsubasa Kuronikuru), animated by Bee Train, which aired 52 episodes over two seasons during 2005 and 2006. Production I.G released an interlude film between the first two seasons titled Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom, as well as five original video animations (OVAs) between November 2007 and May 2009, which acted as a sequel to the second season. The manga was licensed for English language release by Del Rey Manga, who has released all of its volumes since April 27, 2004. Funimation licensed the anime for English release. They published all the TV episodes in DVD volumes as well as the film. The OVAs of Tsubasa were released in North America in January 2011. Various video games and drama CDs based on the series have been released. A sequel titled Tsubasa: WoRLD CHRoNiCLE started serialization in 2014 and ended in 2016. The series has been well received by Japanese and English readers, and it reached high positions on various best-seller lists; the series has sold over twenty million manga volumes in Japan and one million units in North America. Both the manga and anime have had positive response from critics, who praised its connections to previous works and its artwork. The plot twists in later parts of the story have resulted in mixed reactions due to positive focus on the impact on the plot and negative one based on how confusing they are. ## Plot The series begins by introducing childhood friends with quite a strong and close friendship: Syaoran, a young archaeologist who is investigating a ruin within the Kingdom of Clow, and Sakura, princess of the Kingdom of Clow and daughter of the late king Clow Reed. When Sakura visits Syaoran in the ruins, her spirit takes on the form of a pair of ghostly feathered wings that disintegrate to other dimensions. As she descends into a catatonic near death state, Syaoran meets the Dimensional Witch, Yūko Ichihara, to whom he begs for help to save Sakura. Yūko is also visited by two others who each have their own wish: Kurogane, a ninja who wishes to return to his home world after being banished from his world by Princess Tomoyo to allow him to learn what true strength is; and Fai D. Flowright, a magician who wishes to never return to his home world, Celes to avoid his king, Ashura-ō. In exchange for the ability to travel across dimensions, Yūko demands that each pay with that they value most: Kurogane offers his sword Ginryū; Fai offers the tattoo that suppresses his enormous magical strength and power; and Syaoran offers all of Sakura's memories that involve him. Yūko then presents them with a creature named Mokona Modoki that sends the group on a journey across dimensions in search of Sakura's feathers. After obtaining the first feathers, Sakura awakens from her catatonic state and starts recovering her memories. During their adventures, the group gradually grows closer to the point that Fai jokingly labels them as relatives. As they travel, they learn that the feathers have their own unique abilities and can bestow several supernatural abilities to those who possess them. During their journey in Tokyo, the group discovers that Syaoran is in reality a clone imbued with half the heart of the original Syaoran. Several years ago, Fei-Wang Reed, the wizard who caused Sakura to lose her memories, took the original Syaoran prisoner and created the clone to collect Sakura's feathers. Shortly after the original Syaoran breaks free of Fei-Wang's hold, the clone loses his heart and becomes an emotionless puppet that follows Fei-Wang's will, betraying the group. The original Syaoran joins in the group's journey with Sakura wishing to save the clone. Foreseeing a future in which Fai kills the original Syaoran forced by Fei-Wang's curse, Sakura gets stabbed in his place, but at the same time splits her body and soul, sending each to different worlds, Seresu and the Dream World, respectively. In the Dream World, the Syaoran clone destroys Sakura's soul when trying to get the feathers. Before her soul perishes, Sakura reveals that she too is a clone of the original Sakura who was also taken prisoner by Fei-Wang. Fei-Wang then takes Sakura's body to use its stored power. The group departs to rescue the two Sakuras learning from Yūko that Fei-Wang is in an alternate dimension from the Kingdom of Clow. Such parallel dimension is the result of Syaoran's wish to save the original Sakura from Fei-Wang's curse years ago. In order to grant his wish, Syaoran became Fei-Wang's prisoner and Yūko's assistant, Kimihiro Watanuki, was used to replace Syaoran within his original world's history. The group battles Fei-Wang who destroys the Syaoran clone when he betrays him. He then uses the immeasurably strong ability and strength of the two Sakuras to resurrect Yūko, accidentally frozen in time by Clow Reed himself to halt her death, therein proving himself Clow's superior. Yūko uses her life and Clow's magic as payment to make the clones reborn in the past to live together. As the two know all of the series' events would repeat, the clones seal themselves in Yūko's shop until the battle against him. The group manages to kill Fei-Wang, who traps Syaoran in a void between time and space, dragging both his clone and Watanuki along as a consequence of their connection. With their creator's death, both clones of Sakura and Syaoran fade away leaving behind two feathers. Syaoran and Watanuki escape from the void for a price: Syaoran must continue traveling through the dimensions forever, while Watanuki must stay in Yūko's shop. The group rests in the Kingdom of Clow where Fai, Kurogane, and Mokona decide to join Syaoran once again in hope of finding a way to bring back the clones who still exist as the two feathers. Before departing on their separate ways, Syaoran and Sakura confess their mutually strong, close and pure romantic love for each other, as well as their shared real name, Tsubasa, as they hope to meet again. ## Production Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle began with an inspiration of the four-member team, Clamp, to link their works set in a realistic world with their works set in different fantasy worlds. Prior to beginning work on Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Clamp had created the manga Cardcaptor Sakura, from which the two main characters are taken. Clamp decided to draw Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle by using a style first conceived by Osamu Tezuka, named the "father of manga" and often credited as the "father of anime", known as Osamu Tezuka's Star System. In this system, characters with the same name and design are used in different settings, drawing mostly from the vast character pool of its own works and occasionally from others' works. Unlike characters under the Star System, three months prior to the release of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, the Young Magazine began serializing Clamp's xxxHolic, a manga whose two main characters, Kimihiro Watanuki and Yūko Ichihara, are two of the same characters used in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle; both series run in parallel. Like many of their other works, each member of Clamp had a role different from their other projects instead of retaining set roles. For Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Mokona drew the main characters, whereas Tsubaki Nekoi and Satsuki Igarashi drew the side characters and backgrounds; Nanase Ohkawa was the sole person in charge of the storyline; the other members of Clamp were not told in advance how the plot would unfold. The word "Tsubasa" was used so that the title would be easy to read. However, believing "Tsubasa" only would be too short, they added the words "Chronicle" and "Reservoir" from Nekoi's notes. A special interview with Ohkawa and Kiichiro Sugawara, Clamp's editor from the Weekly Shōnen Magazine's Editorial Department, took place after the story of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle had progressed past the arc from Ōto Country. Ohkawa has stated that the group is very conscious of the fact that Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle is the title in Shōnen Magazine with the youngest readership and that it is their very first foray into the shōnen demographic. Thus, the members of Clamp ensure that they employ a drawing style and dialogue appropriate for young male audiences; the manga incorporates furigana that makes reading Japanese easier. To aid in this effort, the group holds conferences with Sugawara where they discuss the plot. Ohkawa stated during the interview that the only time the story significantly changed was during Country of Jade arc; It went from a "horror story with vampires" to a "detective mystery". Following the story in the Piffle Country, Clamp aimed to make the series darker and more complex, resulting in it receiving elements previously seen in other of their series. The Shura Country's story was written to introduce the idea that a dead person cannot be revived even if somebody travels back to the past and changes history. This theme would be further explored later in the story. The members of Clamp had some difficulty adjusting from their typical style after deciding to publish with Weekly Shōnen Magazine. Because their typical thinner lines did not give the desired impact, Ohkawa expressed the group's desire to make their lines thicker, and to use simpler layouts similar to the other stories already present in Shōnen Magazine. She stated that they used their original artistic style to attract initial readers and then slowly transitioned to a new style. Sometime around when the story arc focused on the Country of Ōto took place, their art style had gradually been changing again; at this point they were thinking of returning to their original style. They were still adjusting to a weekly schedule; many of their previous works were on a monthly schedule. Sugawara expressed concerns about the strain on the artists of concurrently doing a weekly issue of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle linked with xxxHolic, but in the end he whole-heartedly approved. In accordance with Ohkawa's desire for each to have a well-organized story, Clamp avoids putting references between the two stories too frequently. The main idea was connecting these two series was to have protagonists from two different manga with different personalities and designs. However, during the ending they would be stated to share the same existence, and had to go on different paths. As Tsubasa is connected with xxxHolic, the characters' designs are also meant to be similar; Like xxxHolic, the artwork is sometimes influenced by Ukiyo-e art style which leads to the characters have longer limbs. When asked if another series influenced Tsubasa in the concept of parallel worlds, Ohkawa replied that she was not a fan of sci-fi series and pointed that all worlds shown in the series were other works from Tsubasa. At the same time, she wanted to segregate Tsubasa from previous works. She also explained that while some characters are the same, their traits and personalities were modified due to different backstories. When thinking about including character goods with the volume releases, Sugawara came up with the atypical idea of releasing a deluxe and normal edition of the manga after contemplating the inconsistency of novels getting both a soft-cover and hard-cover release, but manga only received one version. Because it was a new concept, the group experienced several mishaps such as accidentally placing a vertically flipped illustration on the first deluxe edition. The group also decided to use another atypical practice of keeping catchphrases that appeared in the magazine identical to the ones that appear on the frontispieces of the deluxe editions. ## Themes Tsubasa explores the fragility of human relationships through Sakura losing all of her memories involving her love interest, Syaoran. Despite this tragedy, Syaoran manages to become friends with other characters across his journey. Furthermore, Sakura once again develops feelings for Syaoran who at the same time starts falling for her again. The development of the characters' relationship demonstrates how while modern society depends on already existing one, a severed one can be reformed if people have the will. At the same time, Syaoran has to say goodbye to the people he met as a result of having to continue travelling. Despite also losing these newfound friends, these actions will help Syaoran grow into a young man. Based on the shōjo manga character Syaoran Li, the initial Syaoran from the series was written to be a shōnen manga lead instead. As a result, the narrative places emphasis on his friendships as he obtains new powers while retaining a kind demeanor. Although the series is a shōnen manga, Clamp incorporates shōjo manga motfifs into the character to attract a female demographic, with his desire to recover the magic feathers of Sakura being a common element of shōjo manga. The angel-like feathers and multiple outfits serve as a mean to appeal to the female demographic while the ending exploring the characters named Tsubasa serve as major symbolism about romantic relationships. Another theme in the series is the use of identical people as a result of the characters travelling to parallel worlds where they find alternative versions of people they met before. Despite sharing the same physical appearances, these identical versions have been through different experiences earning their own identities. Syaoran also has his own doppelgänger commonly referred as "The Other Syaoran" who at the same time shares the same identity as the protagonist from xxxHolic, Kimihiro Watanuki. Across the series, these character are developed and choose their own paths to earn their own identities. The exploration of cloning in Tsubasa becomes a major theme in the narrative despite Syaoran and Sakura being identical to their original personas, they have different identities that the audience is given as a reward to explore. ## Media ### Manga Written and illustrated by Clamp, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was serialized in Japan in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine between May 21, 2003, to October 7, 2009. Its 233 chapters, which are called "Chapitre" (シャピトル, Shapitoru), French for "Chapter", have been compiled into twenty-eight tankōbon volumes by Kodansha, with the first volume released on August 9, 2003, and the last one on November 17, 2009. All the volumes were also released in deluxe editions containing color pages and new illustrations at the same time as the original release. In June 2014, Kodansha's Magazine Special announced a new manga of Tsubasa would start serialization in August that year and that it would be connected to xxxHolic Rei. Titled Tsubasa: WoRLD CHRoNiCLE, the series has also been licensed by Kodansha USA for English release. A single chapter was also serialized in the Weekly Shōnen Magazine in February 2015. Tsubasa was one of the first four manga series licensed for English release in North America by Del Rey Manga and was acquired together with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Negima! Magister Negi Magi, and xxxHolic in January 2004. Del Rey released the first volume of the series on April 27, 2004, and the last one on November 23, 2010. Kodansha USA is due to re-release it in omnibus format during 2014. Tanoshimi, the United Kingdom branch of Random House, published the first 14 volumes as published by Del Rey in the United Kingdom, between August 3, 2006 and June 5, 2008. ### Anime series The animation studio Bee Train adapted the manga series into a two-season anime television series Tsubasa Chronicle (ツバサ・クロニクル, Tsubasa Kuronikuru) spanning fifty-two episodes in total. Both seasons were written by Hiroyuki Kawasaki and directed by Kōichi Mashimo, with Hiroshi Morioka joining on as co-director for the second season. The music for the series was composed by Yuki Kajiura. The first season aired Saturday nights at 18:30 on NHK-E from April 9, 2005, to October 15, 2005, and spanned 26 episodes. The second season began on April 29, 2006, at 18:30 and concluded on November 4, 2006; it spanned twenty-six episodes. In Japan, Bandai Visual released the series across fourteen Region 2 DVD compilation volumes between August 26, 2005, and February 23, 2007. Two DVD box sets were then released on October 26, 2011 and November 25, 2011. Funimation licensed both seasons under the title Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle for English-language release January 2006. They released the TV series in North America across twelve Region 1 DVD compilation volumes. Funimation released the DVDs in two collections, where each contains six of the DVDs together in a box set, on November 11, 2008, and December 29, 2009. A DVD box with the first season and the film was released on January 19, 2010. It was re-released in Blu-ray format on May 4, 2010, in a package that also included the anime's second season. Funimation also released the first season of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle in the United Kingdom through Revelation Films beginning on September 17, 2007, across six Region 2 DVD compilation volumes. The English dub of the first season was broadcast on the Funimation Channel in the United States. Revelation Films had previously confirmed the release of the second season of Tsubasa Chronicle in the U.K., although no release dates were ever set. ### Theatrical film A film interlude, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom, was adapted by the animation studio Production I.G and premiered in Japanese theaters on August 20, 2005, in conjunction with xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream, between the two seasons of the anime series. Its plot continues the journey from Syaoran's group for Sakura's feathers. They locate one at the Country of Birdcages, where they have to confront the world's king in order to obtain it. It was directed by Itsuro Kawasaki and written by Midori Goto and Junichi Fujisaku. Character designs were provided by Yoko Kikuchi, and music was by Yuki Kajiura. Clamp artist Ageha Ohkawa liked how both films were connected, despite that both have different themes. Shochiku released the DVD for the film on February 25, 2006, in Japan in both regular and premium editions. Funimation released the film on a single DVD in English on February 19, 2009, in North America as a double feature with the xxxHolic film. It was released alongside a DVD box of the anime's first season on January 19, 2010. It was re-released in Blu-ray format on May 4, 2010, in a package that included the anime's second season. ### Original video animations Two original video animation (OVA) series were animated by Production I.G. They were directed by Shunsuke Tada and written by Nanase Ohkawa, with music provided by Yuki Kajiura. A three-episode OVA series titled Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations (ツバサ TOKYO REVELATIONS) was released between November 16, 2007, and March 17, 2008, across three DVDs bundled with limited versions of volumes 21, 22, and 23 of the manga. Their plot is set after the anime's ending, and follows the arrival of Syaoran's group in a postapocalyptic Tokyo, where the connection between Syaoran and a teenager identical to him is revealed. A two-episode OVA series titled Tsubasa Spring Thunder Chronicles (ツバサ春雷記, Tsubasa Shunraiki) was released across two DVDs. The first was packaged with volume 26 of the manga, which was released on March 17, 2009; and the second was packaged with volume 27, released on May 15, 2009. They are set after the characters' journey to Seresu as they search for a way to make Sakura's soul return to her body. In May 2010, Funimation announced they licensed both series of OVAs. They were released together under the title of "Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE - OVA Collection" in both DVD and Blu-ray formats on January 4, 2011. In June 2011, Funimation started streaming the five episodes on their official website. ### Audio CDs The original soundtrack for the anime was released in four soundtrack albums titled Future Soundscape I\~IV. They were released by Victor Entertainment for the anime from July 6, 2005, to September 21, 2006, each in a normal and a limited edition that featured additional merchandise. Additionally, a compilation album titled Best Vocal Collection was released on December 20, 2006, that collected fourteen vocal tracks from the anime. Each release charted on the Oricon charts, and the highest ranking album, Future Soundscape I, peaked at 39th and remained on the charts for three weeks. Ten music albums have been released, and each contains a single piece of theme music for the various adaptations. For the anime adaptation Tsubasa Chronicle, four maxi singles titled Loop, Blaze, It's, and Kazemachi Jet / Spica were released between May 10, 2005, and July 14, 2006. For the anime film Tsubasa Chronicle the Movie: The Princess of the Country of Birdcages, two maxi singles titled Aerial and Amrita were released on August 17, 2005, and on August 18, 2005. For the OVA adaptations, two maxi singles and two studio albums titled Synchronicity, Saigo no Kajitsu / Mitsubashi to Kagakusha, Kazeyomi, and Everlasting Songs were released between November 21, 2007, and February 25, 2009. All of the releases charted on the Oricon charts, with the highest ranking single being Loop, which peaked at 7th and remained on the chart for nine weeks. Victor Entertainment released a series of three drama CDs titled "The Matinée of the Palace", based on the anime adaptation featuring the same voice actors. The first, subtitled Chapter.1 \~Coral, the City on the Water\~, was released on December 16, 2005. Chapter.2 \~Impossible Goal\~ followed on February 1, 2006. The final CD, subtitled Chapter.3 \~Unspeakable Lines\~, was released on March 24, 2006. All of the releases charted on the Oricon charts, with the highest ranking album being Chapter.2 \~Impossible Goal\~, peaking at 161st and remaining on the chart for a week. A spin-off series of four drama CDs titled "Private High School Holitsuba" have been released between 2006 and 2009, and has also had a one-chapter manga adaptation. Set in an alternate universe, the series features characters from Tsubasa and xxxHolic as students and teachers from the fictional school "Holitsuba". ### Video games A video game titled Tsubasa Chronicle (ツバサクロニクル) developed by Cavia, based on the anime adaptation of the same name, was released in Japan for the Nintendo DS on October 27, 2005, by Akira. Tsubasa Chronicle is a role-playing game whose gameplay requires the player to navigate the world as Sakura and Syaoran in search of Sakura's memory fragments. Players can compete with each other wirelessly. A sequel titled Tsubasa Chronicle Volume 2 (ツバサクロニクル Vol.2) was released on April 20, 2006, again for the Nintendo DS and shares various gameplay traits with Tsubasa Chronicle. ### Art and fanbooks Two different fanbooks have been released for the anime of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. Kodansha released two in Japan by between 2005 and 2006 that contain character illustrations and information, a collection of the theme song videos, and interviews with the voice actors. The first book published was TV Animation Tsubasa Chronicle Official Fanbook (TV ANIMATION ツバサ・クロニクル OFFICIAL FANBOOK) on May 17, 2005. The second book published was TV Animation Tsubasa Chronicle 2nd Season Official Fanbook (TV ANIMATION ツバサ・クロニクル 2nd SEASON OFFICIAL FANBOOK) on June 16, 2006. DH Publishing released one in English on May 25, 2008, titled Tsubasa Chronicle Factbook: Mystery, Magic and Mischief, the eighteenth of the Mysteries and Secrets Revealed! series of books. In Japan, Kodansha will release another guidebook on December 31, 2016. Three different artbooks which contain illustrations have been released in Japan by Kodansha between 2006 and 2009. The first book published was TV Animation Tsubasa Chronicle Best Selection (TV ANIMATION ツバサ・クロニクル BEST SELECTION) on April 17, 2006, bearing an . The second book published was Tsubasa Original Illustrations Collection –Album De Reproductions- (ツバサ原画集-ALBuM De REProDUCTioNS-) on April 17, 2007, and containing art from the first 14 volumes. An English version of ALBuM De REProDUCTioNS was released on December 8, 2009. This contained one of the short stories titled Tsubasa: World of the Untold Story that also featured as omake to the manga volumes. Another artbook, Tsubasa Original Illustrations Collection –Album De Reproductions- 2 (ツバサ原画集-ALBuM De REProDUCTioNS- 2), was released on November 17, 2009, containing art from the final 14 volumes. Two character guides were released by Kodansha in Japan and then translated and released in North American by Del Rey Manga. They contain overviews of the worlds, overviews of characters, fan reports, illustrations, and interviews. The Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Character Guide (ツバサ CARACTere GuiDE, Tsubasa Caractère Guide) was released on April 15, 2005, covering events from volume 1 to volume 7. It was released in English on December 26, 2006. The Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Character Guide 2 (ツバサ CARACTere GuiDE 2, Tsubasa Caractère Guide 2) was released on October 17, 2006. It was released in English on October 13, 2009. Another related book is Soel and Larg: The Adventures of Mokona Modoki (ソエルとラーグ―モコナ=モドキの冒険, Soel to Larg: Mokona=Modoki no Bōken) which was released by Kodansha on July 17, 2004. It is set prior to the events of xxxHolic and Tsubasa and tells the lives from the two Mokona Modoki ever since their creation by Clow Reed and Yūko Ichihara. There are two guidebooks focused in the soundtrack used in the anime adaptation of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle that were published in Japan by Kodansha. The first one, Tsubasa Chronicle Piano Solo Album (楽しいバイエル併用ツバサクロニクルピアノソロアルバム), was released on August 30, 2005, and focused on piano sheet music for tracks from the series' soundtrack album bearing an . The second one, Tsubasa Chronicle Piano Solo Album 2 (楽しいバイエル併用ツバサクロニクルピアノソロアルバムオープニング・エンディング・劇中曲を収載!!), was published on July 24, 2006, and it had piano sheet music for several soundtracks. ## Reception ### Manga The Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle manga series was well received by Japanese readers, and appeared at various times on lists of best-selling volumes. In September 2009, it was announced that the first 27 volumes had sold over 20 million copies in Japan, becoming one of Clamp's best selling titles. In its debut, the first volume of World Chronicle sold 127.643 units. After the first volume's English release on April 27, 2004, it sold 2,330 copies in May 2004, placing it at the top end of the top 100 sales of that month. It was fifth on Waldenbooks's 2004 list, obtaining the highest place ever by a manga volume. It was consistently ranked in the top 10 of the list of Manga Top 50 for every quarterly release of the "ICv2 Retailers Guide to Anime/Manga", based on sales from both mainstream bookstores and comic book shops, since its release in May 2004, except for the fourth quarter of 2007, reaching a top rank of number 3. By November 2006, over a million manga volumes from the series had been sold in North America by Del Rey Manga. The series was also listed as the nineteenth best-selling manga from North America in 2010 by ICv2. In the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation Award from 2009, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was the winner in the category "Best Manga - Action". About.com placed it twenty-ninth in their article "36 Great Manga Missed by the Eisner Awards", while the artbook Tsubasa ALBuM De REProDUCTioNS was third in their 2009 poll "Best Manga Book". In Mania Entertainment's "Best Manga Awards For 2005", Tsubasa was third in the category "Best Shōnen". It was a nominee for the American Anime Awards in 2007, but was one of the last series announced due to an error made by the people in charge. Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was fairly well received by reviewers, who described it as a treat for Clamp fans due to the large number of crossover characters in the series. Initial fan response to Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was that it was "Cardcaptor Sakura for guys". Fans speculated that the series would conclude one of Clamp's unfinished series, X, or that it would be a sequel to Cardcaptor Sakura that focused on the character Syaoran Li. Critics described the series as being marked by several plot twists, with About.com writer Katherine Luther labelling it as "perhaps the "twistiest" of twists that we have seen in anime and manga in quite some time". For the earlier half of the series, Mikhail Koulikov from Anime News Network described the series as settling into a "predictable pattern" that Melissa Harper, also from Anime News Network, described as somewhat slow, and "frankly a bit boring". However, Michael Aronson from Manga Life found the series appealing and accessible to readers who have not read other Clamp series, and he hoped it would remain this accessible for following volumes. He found that the relation between Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle and xxxHolic would persuade readers to also read the latter series. Mania Entertainment's Megan Lavey found the introduction to be a "pretty simple love story", while liking the characters' personalities. She liked how the series was connected with xxxHolic and hoped that both series would continue crossing over. In a general overview of the manga, Julie Gray from Comic Book Bin gave positive remarks to the characters' complex personalities and how the plot has been developed throughout its first ten volumes. She recommended that people should buy the series. Active Anime's Blake Waymire found that the change of settings was well done, and he noted how some story arcs could go from dramatic to charming. From volume 15 onwards, Clamp unleashed a series of "mind-blowing" plot twists that had been foreshadowed frequently throughout the series. These twists have been described by Anime News Network as "stunning" but confusingly executed due to the sheer number of storylines coming together. Other critics praised the pacing as letting "the story progress at its own natural momentum", keeping the reader "from being bored by any one literary genre". The plot twists and the ever-changing relationships between the manga's main characters were praised; "few manga creators could pull off this sort of outrageous storytelling stunt". Active Anime writer Holly Ellingwood called the plot twists as "the most shocking set of events in the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles to date!", finding that despite such twists, more secrets were brought to readers to persuade them to read the following volumes. Ellingwood also reviewed following volumes and found the last plot revelations intriguing; she enjoyed that a strong connection is revealed between characters from Tsubasa and xxxHolic. Comic Book Resources regarded the ending of the series as bittersweet homage to Cardcaptor Sakura due to the clones disappearing and the original Syaoran separating from Sakura despite confessing their mutual love. Manga News praised the ending for the heavy focus on the clones of Syaoran and Sakura, giving emotional scenes as well and their relationship Yuko and Fei-Wang Reed but lamented Fai and Kurogane had less prominent roles. Critics have described the artwork as "keeping up the standards expected of Clamp" with its high level of detail, though perhaps too much detail, especially during action sequences. The artstyle is "stylish" and "dynamic", characterized by a large number of "sweeping lines curlicues that look unlike anything else in the genre" that help bring the action scenes to life for exciting experiences. Ed Sizemore from Comics Worth Reading highlighted the fact that each dimension that the protagonists visit is characterized by its very own look and feel so that "no two worlds are even remotely similar". However, the amount of detail and lack of contrast, while beautiful, often render scenes incomprehensible to the point where the reader is left guessing who is attacking. Critics have praised Del Rey's inclusion of English translation notes that aid in understanding the plot, especially due to its crossover nature. Lavey found the translation a "good read", liking how some Japanese words were not translated and instead explained in notes. The handling of fight scenes, most notably Syaoran's, was highly praised. Paul Price lists both Tsubasa series as examples of isekai in "A Survey of the Story Elements of Isekai Manga" for the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, describing them as "immersive", examples of isekai where there is no portal between worlds and all the action takes place in fantastical other worlds rather than the real world. ### Anime Critics have described the anime adaptation as having a very slow pace but having a beautiful musical score. Carl Kimlinger from Anime News Network faulted the director, Koichi Mashimo, for "downshifting the plot's energy" and as having "too many flashbacks, too many slow pans over inexpressive eyes", that create an end-product that is "tediously formulaic". Active Anime's Christopher Seaman had mixed feelings, finding the romantic themes mature and the magical themes appealing to younger audiences; he concluded that "teens would get the most out of the series." He recommended the series in general, praising its plot and its themes. DVDTalk's Todd Douglass Jr. ranked the anime DVD box as "Highly Recommended"; he liked how, despite borrowing elements from other series, it was "entirely self-contained". Douglas pointed out that following its second season, the anime kept entertaining viewers, and felt they would not find a reason to dislike it. Douglas enjoyed the anime's storytelling. He liked its characters, but found it sometimes dragging due to its episodic nature. Kimlinger praised the musical score as being beautiful, as Yuki Kajiura's work has always been. Chris Beveridge from Mania Entertainment made similar comments, praising the series' score and animation, while commenting on the series' accessibility. He said that people unrelated with Clamp's works would like Tsubasa, in contrast to other people who would "get out of the series". Its episodic nature was praised by Luther, who commented how the main plot was connected to each of the story arcs. The English cast for the anime has been labelled as "done and very solid". IGN's Jeffrey Harris felt Christopher Sabat was its best actor. Harris called the anime "a nice looking and at times elegant looking show", pointing to the traits of the main characters. He criticized the lack of extras in the DVDs releases. Reviewing the anime's and xxxHolic's films, IGN writer N.S. Davidson said the Tsubasa film would be appealing to viewers of the series, despite its short length. He liked how both films' storylines interacted, allowing parts of the plot of Tsubasa to be explained in the xxxHolic film, and he found artistic similarities between the two films. Carlo Santos was more critical of the film but still called it "good art". In a TV Asahi poll, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was ranked as the fifty-ninth most popular anime in Japan. It ranked ninth in Animage's Anime Grand Prix anime popularity poll from 2005, while it was also listed as an "Honorable Mention" in IGN's "Top Ten Anime of 2007" feature. Although the Tsubasa OVAs were not the first original animation DVDs (OADs), OVAs published with manga volumes, its release helped to popularize the term. Chris Beveridge from Mania Entertainment considered the OVAs to have better quality than the TV series, mainly because they were developed by Production I.G instead of Bee Train and because they have a darker storyline. In a further review, Beveridge found fascinating the events occurring in the OVAs due to the number of revelations changed the way people viewed the series. The character designs were felt to be more similar to the manga's ones than the TV series, while the animation has been considered "a notch above that of standard Television". The themes were noted to be more mature both brutally and mentally; although the number of changes presented throughout them has been praised, another series of OVAs that would conclude the storyline built in the last episode from Spring Thunder Chronicles has been requested by reviewers.
1,917,463	Åråsen Stadion	1,136,955,402	Football stadium in Norway	[ "1951 establishments in Norway", "Eliteserien venues", "Football venues in Norway", "Lillestrøm", "Lillestrøm SK", "Sports venues completed in 1951", "Sports venues in Skedsmo" ]	The Åråsen Stadion, officially written Åråsen stadion, is an all-seater football stadium located in Lillestrøm, a city east of Oslo in Skedsmo, Norway. With a capacity of 11,500 spectators, the venue is the home of the Eliteserien side Lillestrøm SK (LSK). The stadium has four stands, of which the West Stand has luxury boxes and club seating for 700. Because of the stadium's proximity to Kjeller Airport, it has retractable floodlights. The record attendance of 13,652 dates from 2002. In addition to league, cup and UEFA Cup matches for LSK, the venue has been used for one Strømmen IF top-league match in 1986, the UEFA Women's Euro 1997, eight other Norway women's national football team matches, the 2002 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship, and seven Norway national under-21 football team matches. LSK started purchasing land for their own stadium in 1947, having previously played at Lillestrøm Stadion. Construction started in 1950 and Åråsen opened on 7 July 1951, having cost 150,000 Norwegian krone (NOK). The grandstand was supplemented with a second stand in 1960. On 7 April 1967, the stadium burned down, but was rebuilt by September 1968. Another stand opened on the east side in 1974, the same year as LSK was promoted to the 1. divisjon, then the highest division of Norwegian football. The East Stand was moved to the north side and a new 3,700-seat stand built on the east side in 1978, which remains today. Between 1999 and 2002, the other three sides were redeveloped, costing NOK 240 million. This included luxury boxes, a new pitch with under-soil heating, three grandstands, and adjacent commercial and residential property. ## History Lillestrøm SK originally used Jenseberg Stadion in Strømmen for their matches, as there was no suitable stadium in Lillestrøm. On 6 June 1920, the municipality opened Lillestrøm Stadion, where Lillestrøm SK moved their matches. In 1930, the club started working on plans for their own stadium. Led by the chairman Erling Nicolaysen, a stadium fund was established, which grew to NOK 200. However, during the Second World War, the club's funds eradicated. On 2 June 1947, the club's board appointed a committee to work with the stadium issue. They determined that the area Sørumsbrenna, part of a farm belonging to Knut Sørum, was the ideal location, despite it being fallow and scrub on a marsh. Holthe og Ahlsen made plans for developing the 4.5-hectare (11-acre) lot. The purchase was approved by the club's annual meeting on 29 September. Additional land was bought in 1948 and 1950, raising the area to 7.2 hectares (18 acres). Construction was mostly done by volunteers; the building of the stadium required 31,000 man-hours in volunteer work and cost NOK 150,000. After the land was cleared, a layer of mixed sand and earth were laid. The pitch, with the dimensions 108 by 68 meters (118 by 74 yd), was sown in mid-1950. The work also included a grandstand, changing rooms, a watering system and kiosks. The stand could accommodate 2,500 spectators, and the stadium had a total permitted capacity of 6,000 people. The inaugural match was played against Sarpsborg on 7 July 1951 in front of 3,500 spectators. A training pitch beside the stadium pitch opened in 1953. The following year, a new steel entrance was built, following in 1955 with a referees' changing room and administrative offices. In 1959, after eight years of planning, construction of an additional terrace started, which opened in 1960. On 7 April 1967, the grandstand caught fire and the entire structure burned down beyond repair. The buildings and stands were subsequently demolished. At the same time, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration proposed that the Fetveien road, which runs to the south of the stadium, should be moved to run through the stadium, which would have required the stadium to be moved. However, the Public Roads Administration abandoned their plans and a building permit was issued. New changing rooms, club house and terraces were completed in September 1968. To accommodate increasing interest for the club following good results during the early 1970s, the board approved a new grandstand on the east long side. Construction started in late 1973, with the stand covering two-thirds of the length of the pitch, and opened ahead of the 1974 season with capacity for 1,056 spectators. The club house was expanded to 200 square meters (2,200 sq ft). In 1974, the club won promotion to the First Division, and the new grandstand was extended by 352 seats. On the west side, two wooden and steel standing terraces were built. The expansion was done with help of volunteer work, with 30 to 40 people helping each weekday evening and up to 80 people helping at the weekends. The grandstand was moved to the north side and a new grandstand with seating for 3,700 people was opened on the east end in 1978. The new stand was the first in Norway to have plastic seats and is the oldest part of the current stadium. Construction cost NOK 2.8 million, which was largely loan-financed. Between 1980 and 1986, the area under the new grandstand was built to include new changing rooms, meeting rooms, offices and other facilities totaling 1,300 square meters (14,000 sq ft). Some of the office space was rented out. After five years of planning, construction of a completely renovated stadium started in February 1999. To finance the stadium, a limited company, Åråsen Stadion AS, was established, and owned by the club, rather than by the limited company which runs the elite team. Only the East Stand from 1978 was kept. In 2000, new grass was laid on the pitch, replacing the original grass from 1950. This included installation of under-soil heating and an automatic irrigation sprinkler system. The new pitch had the dimensions 105-by-65-meter (115 by 71 yd). Combined, this cost NOK 12 million. The first new stand to be completed was the West Stand, which opened ahead of the 2000 season. In addition to luxury boxes, it consists of 6,500 square meters (70,000 sq ft) of commercial property, including a car dealer, a medical center and a restaurant. The investments at Åråsen cost NOK 800 million, of which NOK 240 million was used on the stadium itself. Other investments in the area were carried out by private investors and public agencies, who bought land from Lillestrøm SK. The training pitch to the north was demolished to make way for student housing for 100 people. The area to the west of the stadium was turned into a car retailer. Immediately surrounding the stadium was a complex of commercial and residential properties. This included a 8,500-square-meter (91,000 sq ft) section to the north which consists of 96 apartments, some with balconies facing the pitch, and a grocery store. Construction of the South Stand and affiliated buildings started on 15 November 2000 and was completed ahead of the 2002 season. In conjunction with the stand was a 2,000-square-meter (22,000 sq ft) commercial area rented by Akershus County Municipality, which hosts a psychiatric clinic for children and youth. Because of the stadium's close proximity to Kjeller Airport, the stadium is limited to a height of 12 meters (39 ft), which meant the upgrade could not incorporate floodlights. When mounted on four posts, the flood lights need to be 40 meters (130 ft) above ground to give 1,200 lux on the field. In 2000, this caused Lillestrøm SK to have to play their home match in the 2000–01 UEFA Cup against Alavés at Marienlyst Stadion in Drammen. In 2001, an evening league game was played using floodlighting mounted on four temporary cranes. A retractable floodlighting system was installed in January 2002. In 2006, team-owner Per Berg stated that Lillestrøm SK would be in need of a new venue and indicated that one could be built at Kjeller, should the airport close. By 2007, the club's management was working on ideas to building new stadium, as the luxury boxes were all sold out and the club could not make more than NOK 22 to 23 million per year on commercial income from Åråsen. In 2009, Lillestrøm launched itself as one of six candidate cities for Norway's joint bid with Sweden to host Euro 2016. This would involve building a new venue seating between 35,000 and 44,000 in Lillestrøm. The stadium would be built in modules, so the upper tiers could be dismounted after the championship and installed on other venues. The proposal was selected as one of four for the bid, but the bid was never sent. In January 2009, the club sold 25 percent of their ownership in Åråsen Eiendom, which is responsible for operating the commercial facilities at the stadium, to Lillestrømbanken, a local bank, for NOK 9 million. The club retained full ownership of Åråsen Stadion AS, the company which owns the venue. In a 2012 survey carried out by the Norwegian Players' Association among away-team captains, Åråsen was found to be the league's third-best stadium, with a score of 4.33 on a scale from one to five. ## Facilities Åråsen Stadion has a capacity of 12,250 spectators, all seated. The stadium consists of four single-tier stands. The western stand is the main stand, with the upper section consisting of luxury boxes and club seating for 700 people. For sponsorship reasons it is known as the Lillestrøm Torv Stand, after a local shopping center. The southern part of the East Stand houses the Kanarifansen, the official LSK supporters' group, while the northern part has unreserved seating. The South Stand is named for Romerikes Blad, the local newspaper, while the North Stand is named for Legea, a sportswear manufacturer. The latter is used for away fans. The stadium is owned by Åråsen Stadion AS, which is again wholly owned by Lillestrøm SK. Operation of the venue's commercial properties is done by Åråsen Eiendom AS, which is owned 75 percent by Åråsen Stadion and 25 percent by Lillestrømbanken. The stadium is within walking distance of both the town center of Lillestrøm and Lillestrøm Station. Lillestrøm SK hold their training sessions in the nearby Lillestrøm Stadion and LSK-Hallen. ## Events Åråsen has been the home venue for Lillestrøm SK since the 1951 season and has been the venue for all their home league games. Since the 1975 season, LSK has played every season in the top tier of the league system. Åråsen has also been the venue for most LSK matches in UEFA tournaments, including the Champions League and the UEFA Cup, but the club has previously played some home matches at Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo and Marienlyst Stadion. The record attendance of 13,652 spectators was set on 16 May 2002 in the match between Lillestrøm and their rivals Vålerenga. The second-highest attended match was a cup match against Rosenborg in 1993, which attracted 13,595 people. The team's highest average league attendance was set in the 2007 season, when there was an average of 9,018 spectators per match. The team's season average has been above 6,000 during the 2000s, and was as low as 6,165 in 2010 and 6,448 in 2001. The team also saw high attendances in the 1970s, attracting its fourth-ever highest average in 1977 with 8,430 spectators, and attendances of 6,531 and 6,346 in 1978 and 1976, respectively. LSK's club seats was in 2009 the most expensive tickets in the league, costing NOK 660 per match. When Strømmen IF were promoted to First Division ahead of the 1986 season, the team originally announced that they would play their fall games at Åråsen, as Strømmen Stadion was in need of a new pitch. In the end, Strømmen only played one of their matches at Åråsen, drawing 1–1 against Rosenborg on 10 August 1986 in front of 1,649 spectators. Norway co-hosted UEFA Women's Euro 1997, and three group-stage matches and a semi-final were held at Åråsen. This included Norway playing two matches, against Denmark and Italy, which attracted 4,221 and 4,067 spectators, respectively. Norway's national women's team has also played eight other matches at Åråsen: 3–0 against Finland in 1983, 2–2 against Sweden in 1984, 1–0 against Finland in 1985, 4–0 against England in 1997, 2–0 against England in 1998, 4–0 against Ukraine in 2001, 4–1 against Ukraine in 2005 and 3–0 against Austria in 2007. Norway hosted the 2002 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship, with two group-stage matches being played at Åråsen. On 23 July, Slovakia beat the Czech Republic 5–2, and on 26 July Germany beat Belgium 2–1. The former attracted 611 spectators. The Norway national under-21 football team has played seven home matches at Åråsen: 1–3 against Sweden in 1979, 1–2 against France in 1987, 3–2 against San Marino in 1992, 0–0 against Georgia in 1999, 3–0 against Germany in 2001, 0–0 against Slovenia in 2004, and 1–0 against Turkey in 2007.
4,194	Bohrium	1,172,537,458	null	[ "Bohrium", "Chemical elements", "Chemical elements with hexagonal close-packed structure", "Synthetic elements", "Transition metals" ]	Bohrium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Bh and atomic number 107. It is named after Danish physicist Niels Bohr. As a synthetic element, it can be created in particle accelerators but is not found in nature. All known isotopes of bohrium are highly radioactive; the most stable known isotope is <sup>270</sup>Bh with a half-life of approximately 2.4 minutes, though the unconfirmed <sup>278</sup>Bh may have a longer half-life of about 11.5 minutes. In the periodic table, it is a d-block transactinide element. It is a member of the 7th period and belongs to the group 7 elements as the fifth member of the 6d series of transition metals. Chemistry experiments have confirmed that bohrium behaves as the heavier homologue to rhenium in group 7. The chemical properties of bohrium are characterized only partly, but they compare well with the chemistry of the other group 7 elements. ## Introduction ## History ### Discovery Two groups claimed discovery of the element. Evidence of bohrium was first reported in 1976 by a Soviet research team led by Yuri Oganessian, in which targets of bismuth-209 and lead-208 were bombarded with accelerated nuclei of chromium-54 and manganese-55 respectively. Two activities, one with a half-life of one to two milliseconds, and the other with an approximately five-second half-life, were seen. Since the ratio of the intensities of these two activities was constant throughout the experiment, it was proposed that the first was from the isotope bohrium-261 and that the second was from its daughter dubnium-257. Later, the dubnium isotope was corrected to dubnium-258, which indeed has a five-second half-life (dubnium-257 has a one-second half-life); however, the half-life observed for its parent is much shorter than the half-lives later observed in the definitive discovery of bohrium at Darmstadt in 1981. The IUPAC/IUPAP Transfermium Working Group (TWG) concluded that while dubnium-258 was probably seen in this experiment, the evidence for the production of its parent bohrium-262 was not convincing enough. In 1981, a German research team led by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung) in Darmstadt bombarded a target of bismuth-209 with accelerated nuclei of chromium-54 to produce 5 atoms of the isotope bohrium-262: <sup>209</sup> <sub>83</sub>Bi + <sup>54</sup> <sub>24</sub>Cr → <sup>262</sup> <sub>107</sub>Bh + This discovery was further substantiated by their detailed measurements of the alpha decay chain of the produced bohrium atoms to previously known isotopes of fermium and californium. The IUPAC/IUPAP Transfermium Working Group (TWG) recognised the GSI collaboration as official discoverers in their 1992 report. ### Proposed names In September 1992, the German group suggested the name nielsbohrium with symbol Ns to honor the Danish physicist Niels Bohr. The Soviet scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia had suggested this name be given to element 105 (which was finally called dubnium) and the German team wished to recognise both Bohr and the fact that the Dubna team had been the first to propose the cold fusion reaction, and simultaneously help to solve the controversial problem of the naming of element 105. The Dubna team agreed with the German group's naming proposal for element 107. There was an element naming controversy as to what the elements from 104 to 106 were to be called; the IUPAC adopted unnilseptium (symbol Uns) as a temporary, systematic element name for this element. In 1994 a committee of IUPAC recommended that element 107 be named bohrium, not nielsbohrium, since there was no precedent for using a scientist's complete name in the naming of an element. This was opposed by the discoverers as there was some concern that the name might be confused with boron and in particular the distinguishing of the names of their respective oxyanions, bohrate and borate. The matter was handed to the Danish branch of IUPAC which, despite this, voted in favour of the name bohrium, and thus the name bohrium for element 107 was recognized internationally in 1997; the names of the respective oxyanions of boron and bohrium remain unchanged despite their homophony. ## Isotopes Bohrium has no stable or naturally occurring isotopes. Several radioactive isotopes have been synthesized in the laboratory, either by fusing two atoms or by observing the decay of heavier elements. Twelve different isotopes of bohrium have been reported with atomic masses 260–262, 264–267, 270–272, 274, and 278, one of which, bohrium-262, has a known metastable state. All of these but the unconfirmed <sup>278</sup>Bh decay only through alpha decay, although some unknown bohrium isotopes are predicted to undergo spontaneous fission. The lighter isotopes usually have shorter half-lives; half-lives of under 100 ms for <sup>260</sup>Bh, <sup>261</sup>Bh, <sup>262</sup>Bh, and <sup>262m</sup>Bh were observed. <sup>264</sup>Bh, <sup>265</sup>Bh, <sup>266</sup>Bh, and <sup>271</sup>Bh are more stable at around 1 s, and <sup>267</sup>Bh and <sup>272</sup>Bh have half-lives of about 10 s. The heaviest isotopes are the most stable, with <sup>270</sup>Bh and <sup>274</sup>Bh having measured half-lives of about 2.4 min and 40 s respectively, and the even heavier unconfirmed isotope <sup>278</sup>Bh appearing to have an even longer half-life of about 11.5 minutes. The most proton-rich isotopes with masses 260, 261, and 262 were directly produced by cold fusion, those with mass 262 and 264 were reported in the decay chains of meitnerium and roentgenium, while the neutron-rich isotopes with masses 265, 266, 267 were created in irradiations of actinide targets. The five most neutron-rich ones with masses 270, 271, 272, 274, and 278 (unconfirmed) appear in the decay chains of <sup>282</sup>Nh, <sup>287</sup>Mc, <sup>288</sup>Mc, <sup>294</sup>Ts, and <sup>290</sup>Fl respectively. The half-lives of bohrium isotopes range from about ten milliseconds for <sup>262m</sup>Bh to about one minute for <sup>270</sup>Bh and <sup>274</sup>Bh, extending to about 11.5 minutes for the unconfirmed <sup>278</sup>Bh, one of the longest-lived known superheavy nuclides. ## Predicted properties Very few properties of bohrium or its compounds have been measured; this is due to its extremely limited and expensive production and the fact that bohrium (and its parents) decays very quickly. A few singular chemistry-related properties have been measured, but properties of bohrium metal remain unknown and only predictions are available. ### Chemical Bohrium is the fifth member of the 6d series of transition metals and the heaviest member of group 7 in the periodic table, below manganese, technetium and rhenium. All the members of the group readily portray their group oxidation state of +7 and the state becomes more stable as the group is descended. Thus bohrium is expected to form a stable +7 state. Technetium also shows a stable +4 state whilst rhenium exhibits stable +4 and +3 states. Bohrium may therefore show these lower states as well. The higher +7 oxidation state is more likely to exist in oxyanions, such as perbohrate, BhO<sup>−</sup> <sub>4</sub>, analogous to the lighter permanganate, pertechnetate, and perrhenate. Nevertheless, bohrium(VII) is likely to be unstable in aqueous solution, and would probably be easily reduced to the more stable bohrium(IV). Technetium and rhenium are known to form volatile heptoxides M<sub>2</sub>O<sub>7</sub> (M = Tc, Re), so bohrium should also form the volatile oxide Bh<sub>2</sub>O<sub>7</sub>. The oxide should dissolve in water to form perbohric acid, HBhO<sub>4</sub>. Rhenium and technetium form a range of oxyhalides from the halogenation of the oxide. The chlorination of the oxide forms the oxychlorides MO<sub>3</sub>Cl, so BhO<sub>3</sub>Cl should be formed in this reaction. Fluorination results in MO<sub>3</sub>F and MO<sub>2</sub>F<sub>3</sub> for the heavier elements in addition to the rhenium compounds ReOF<sub>5</sub> and ReF<sub>7</sub>. Therefore, oxyfluoride formation for bohrium may help to indicate eka-rhenium properties. Since the oxychlorides are asymmetrical, and they should have increasingly large dipole moments going down the group, they should become less volatile in the order TcO<sub>3</sub>Cl \> ReO<sub>3</sub>Cl \> BhO<sub>3</sub>Cl: this was experimentally confirmed in 2000 by measuring the enthalpies of adsorption of these three compounds. The values are for TcO<sub>3</sub>Cl and ReO<sub>3</sub>Cl are −51 kJ/mol and −61 kJ/mol respectively; the experimental value for BhO<sub>3</sub>Cl is −77.8 kJ/mol, very close to the theoretically expected value of −78.5 kJ/mol. ### Physical and atomic Bohrium is expected to be a solid under normal conditions and assume a hexagonal close-packed crystal structure (<sup>c</sup>/<sub>a</sub> = 1.62), similar to its lighter congener rhenium. Early predictions by Fricke estimated its density at 37.1 g/cm<sup>3</sup>, but newer calculations predict a somewhat lower value of 26–27 g/cm<sup>3</sup>. The atomic radius of bohrium is expected to be around 128 pm. Due to the relativistic stabilization of the 7s orbital and destabilization of the 6d orbital, the Bh<sup>+</sup> ion is predicted to have an electron configuration of [Rn] 5f<sup>14</sup> 6d<sup>4</sup> 7s<sup>2</sup>, giving up a 6d electron instead of a 7s electron, which is the opposite of the behavior of its lighter homologues manganese and technetium. Rhenium, on the other hand, follows its heavier congener bohrium in giving up a 5d electron before a 6s electron, as relativistic effects have become significant by the sixth period, where they cause among other things the yellow color of gold and the low melting point of mercury. The Bh<sup>2+</sup> ion is expected to have an electron configuration of [Rn] 5f<sup>14</sup> 6d<sup>3</sup> 7s<sup>2</sup>; in contrast, the Re<sup>2+</sup> ion is expected to have a [Xe] 4f<sup>14</sup> 5d<sup>5</sup> configuration, this time analogous to manganese and technetium. The ionic radius of hexacoordinate heptavalent bohrium is expected to be 58 pm (heptavalent manganese, technetium, and rhenium having values of 46, 57, and 53 pm respectively). Pentavalent bohrium should have a larger ionic radius of 83 pm. ## Experimental chemistry In 1995, the first report on attempted isolation of the element was unsuccessful, prompting new theoretical studies to investigate how best to investigate bohrium (using its lighter homologs technetium and rhenium for comparison) and removing unwanted contaminating elements such as the trivalent actinides, the group 5 elements, and polonium. In 2000, it was confirmed that although relativistic effects are important, bohrium behaves like a typical group 7 element. A team at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) conducted a chemistry reaction using six atoms of <sup>267</sup>Bh produced in the reaction between <sup>249</sup>Bk and <sup>22</sup>Ne ions. The resulting atoms were thermalised and reacted with a HCl/O<sub>2</sub> mixture to form a volatile oxychloride. The reaction also produced isotopes of its lighter homologues, technetium (as <sup>108</sup>Tc) and rhenium (as <sup>169</sup>Re). The isothermal adsorption curves were measured and gave strong evidence for the formation of a volatile oxychloride with properties similar to that of rhenium oxychloride. This placed bohrium as a typical member of group 7. The adsorption enthalpies of the oxychlorides of technetium, rhenium, and bohrium were measured in this experiment, agreeing very well with the theoretical predictions and implying a sequence of decreasing oxychloride volatility down group 7 of TcO<sub>3</sub>Cl \> ReO<sub>3</sub>Cl \> BhO<sub>3</sub>Cl. 2 Bh + 3 O <sub>2</sub> + 2 HCl → 2 BhO <sub>3</sub>Cl + H <sub>2</sub> The longer-lived heavy isotopes of bohrium, produced as the daughters of heavier elements, offer advantages for future radiochemical experiments. Although the heavy isotope <sup>274</sup>Bh requires a rare and highly radioactive berkelium target for its production, the isotopes <sup>272</sup>Bh, <sup>271</sup>Bh, and <sup>270</sup>Bh can be readily produced as daughters of more easily produced moscovium and nihonium isotopes.
20,488,429	Black Widows of Liverpool	1,171,725,193	Irish murderers	[ "1880 murders in the United Kingdom", "1880s in Liverpool", "1881 murders in the United Kingdom", "1882 murders in the United Kingdom", "1883 murders in the United Kingdom", "1884 deaths", "19th-century executions by England and Wales", "Criminal duos", "Executed British female serial killers", "Executed Irish people", "Executed Irish women", "Filicides in England", "Irish female murderers", "Irish female serial killers", "Mariticides", "Murder in England", "Murderers for life insurance money", "People convicted of murder by England and Wales", "Place of birth missing", "Poisoners", "Sibling duos" ]	Catherine Flannagan (1829 – 3 March 1884) and Margaret Higgins (1843 – 3 March 1884) were Irish sisters who were convicted of poisoning and murdering one person in Liverpool, England, and suspected of four more deaths. The women collected a burial society payout (a type of life insurance) on each death, and were found to have been committing murders using arsenic to obtain the insurance money. Although Flannagan evaded police for a time, both sisters were caught and convicted of one of the murders; they were both hanged on the same day at Kirkdale Prison. Modern investigation of the crime has raised the possibility that the sisters were part of a larger conspiracy of murder-for-profit—a network of "black widows"—but no convictions were ever obtained for any of the alleged conspiracy members other than the two sisters. ## Deaths In 1880, unmarried sisters Catherine and Margaret Flannagan ran a rooming house at 5 Skirving Street in Liverpool. The household consisted of the two sisters, Catherine's son John Flannagan, and two lodger families—hod carrier Thomas Higgins, Higgins' daughter Mary, Patrick Jennings, and Jennings' daughter Margaret. John Flannagan, aged 22 and previously healthy, died suddenly in December 1880. His death did not raise any particular comment; Catherine collected £71 (worth roughly £ in 2019 pounds) from the burial society with which he had been registered and he was interred shortly thereafter. By 1882, a romance started between Margaret Flannagan and Thomas Higgins; the pair married in October of that year. Thomas's daughter Mary, aged 8, died within months of the wedding after a short illness. Once again, the burial society payout was collected upon death, this time by Margaret Higgins. In January 1883, Margaret Jennings, aged 19, also died. Her burial payout was collected by Catherine. In the face of neighbourhood gossip about the death rate in the house, Catherine, Margaret, and Higgins moved their household to 105 Latimer Street and then again to 27 Ascot Street. In September 1883, Higgins, then 45, became yet another member of the household to fall mysteriously ill. His stomach pains were severe enough that a Doctor Whitford was called; he attributed Higgins's illness to dysentery related to drinking cheap whiskey and prescribed opium and castor oil. Higgins died after two days of illness. Days later, the same doctor was contacted and asked to provide a death certificate. He did so, attributing the death to dysentery. ## Investigation Although Higgins's death by apparent dysentery raised no questions for Doctor Whitford, Higgins's brother Patrick was surprised to hear that Thomas, who had been strong and in good health, could have succumbed so easily to illness. When Patrick discovered that his brother has been insured with five different burial societies, which left his widow with a profit of around £100, he pursued the matter with the authorities. A postmortem examination was ordered on Higgins's body. To the surprise of mourners, the coroner arrived at the home to perform the examination in the middle of Higgins's wake. Catherine, upon hearing that a full autopsy was to be performed, fled the home. When a full autopsy of Higgins's body was completed, evidence of arsenic poisoning was found: His organs showed traces of arsenic, in quantities indicating the poisoning had taken place over several days. Evidence from the home, including "a bottle containing a mystery white substance and a market pocket worn by [Margaret]" was examined by poison expert Dr Campbell Brown, who verified the presence of arsenic – dust in Margaret's pocket, and an arsenic solution (containing unusual adulterants) in the bottle. Margaret was arrested immediately; Catherine, after moving from one boarding house to another to avoid police for nearly a week, was taken into custody in Wavertree. On 16 October 1883, the sisters were formally charged with the murder of Thomas Higgins. Orders for the exhumation of the previously deceased members of the household were issued when it became clear that arsenic was the mechanism of Higgins's death. The bodies of John Flannagan, Mary Higgins, and Margaret Jennings all showed evidence of minimal deterioration, a quality associated with arsenic poisoning, and traces of arsenic were found in the remains of all three. Investigators initially assumed that the arsenic used to poison the victims had come from rat poison, but when common adulterants used in rat poison failed to show up in autopsies, they were forced to come up with a new theory. It was unlikely that the illiterate sisters would have been able to acquire arsenic through the usual method of visiting a chemist, a route open to doctors rather than spinsters. Eventually it was discovered that common flypaper at the time contained arsenic, and that by soaking the flypaper in water, a solution substantially identical – including the same adulterants – to that found in a bottle at the Higgins residence could be obtained. ## Aftermath At the time of her arrest, Catherine claimed to her solicitor that the murders were not isolated, and provided a list of six or seven other deaths that she claimed to be killings related to burial society fraud as well as a list of five other women who had either perpetrated those murders or provided insurance to those who did. ### Alleged conspiracy Catherine's list of alleged conspirators contained three poisoners other than herself, one accomplice, and three agents of the insuring groups who had provided payouts upon the deaths. Margaret Evans, Bridget Begley, and Margaret Higgins were named as the poisoners; Margaret Potter, a Mrs Fallon, and a Bridget Stanton were the insurers; and Catherine Ryan was alleged to have obtained the arsenic needed by one of the poisoners. According to Flannagan, Evans had been the instigator of the crime ring, beginning with the murder of a mentally handicapped teenager in which Ryan obtained the poison and Evans administered it. Although Evans did not personally receive an insurance payout from this death, there were implications that she had dealings with the boy's father and may have profited from those. The women Catherine alleged to have been involved in the conspiracy all appear often in accounts of suspicious deaths in this period; Mrs Stanton, for example, was linked to the insurance policies of three of the deaths, and groups of two or more of the involved women were seen visiting those who died shortly before their deaths. In one case, when an insurance company supervisor requested to meet Thomas Higgins in the course of issuing the insurance on him, he was greeted at his home by a woman who was neither Flannagan nor Higgins, who presented to him a "Thomas" who he later realised, upon seeing the deceased Thomas Higgins, was an impostor. Catherine's testimony was sometimes contradictory to both herself and to what seemed to be obvious facts of the conspiracy; in one case, despite Mrs Stanton's close links to the insurance payouts of murder victims and Catherine's identification of her as part of the conspiracy, she "exonerated" Stanton after police arrested the woman. Ultimately it was decided by the prosecuting solicitor for Liverpool that while the additional deaths were likely to be murder, it would be difficult to prove that anyone other than Catherine or Margaret had committed them, especially considering that the primary evidence against the other women was being provided by Flannagan, who had every reason to attempt to minimise her own responsibility in such crimes. As a result, only the sisters were tried for the crime of murdering Thomas Higgins, despite continuing suspicion by all investigating parties that there had been more deaths than just the four household ones, and more murderers than just the two women. ### Trial At the trial in 1884, prosecutors implicated Catherine and Margaret in the three other deaths in their household as well as that of Higgins, with which they were officially were charged. Catherine's offer to provide evidence against other conspirators for the prosecution in exchange for leniency was refused. The sisters were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. The sentence was completed on 3 March 1884 at Kirkdale Prison, with the sisters attended to by a Roman Catholic priest. The deaths were witnessed by a reported 1,000 people. ## In media Contemporary accounts of the Flannagan sisters referred to them as "disciple[s] of Lucrezia Borgia", or as "the Borgias of the Slums", in reference to their use of poison and the tales of how Borgia had been known to do the same. Modern accounts of the sisters, such as those by Angela Brabin and the television series Deadly Women, have focused more on the cooperative aspect of the crimes rather than the poison aspect, and tend to refer to them as "black widows" or "The Black Widows of Liverpool", particularly in reference to the allegation that the Flannagan sisters were part of a larger murder ring. Wax effigies of Flannagan and Higgins were placed in Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors after their executions. A radio dramatization of the murders and following events titled Life Assurance, written by Chrissie Gittens based on the book The Black Widows of Liverpool by Angela Brabin (Palatine Books, 2003 /2nd Revised Edition 2009 ) and directed by Claire Grove, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2005, with Sorcha Cusack as Catherine Flanagan, Gillian Kearney as Ellen Flanagan, Anny Tobin as Margaret Higgins, Robert Hastie as Inspector Keighley, Stephen Hogan as Thomas Higgins, Hugh Dickson as Dr. Whitford and Nicholas Boulton as Patrick Jennings. ## See also - Black Widow Murders
1,000,407	L.A.M.B.	1,169,747,097	Fashion line	[ "2000s fashion", "Clothing brands of the United States", "Gwen Stefani" ]	L.A.M.B. is a fashion line by American singer Gwen Stefani, the lead vocalist of the rock band No Doubt. The line manufactures apparel and fashion accessories. It was founded in 2003 and made its runway debut in 2004. The fashion line manufactures accessories like shoes, watches, bags and a fragrance called "L." The name is an acronym of her debut solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. As of 2015, the line currently focuses on eyewear. The line was influenced by a variety of cultures fashions, including Guatemalan, Japanese, Indian and Jamaican styles. Stefani came from a family of seamstresses. This further inspired her to launch her own fashion line. The line achieved popularity among celebrities and was worn by stars such as Teri Hatcher, Nicole Kidman, Paris Hilton and Stefani herself. The fashion line made a runway debut in the spring collection of 2004 and achieved mainstream success at New York Fashion Week in 2005. At one point, its annual gross income was \$90 million. An additional fashion line, called Harajuku Lovers, was subsequently launched by Stefani. ## History Stefani first came face to face with designing clothes when she and her mother would sew clothes for themselves when she was young. Stefani comes from a long line of seamstresses, as even her great-grandmother would sew clothes. Stefani made most of the things she wore onstage during concerts. When she became successful and began to tour constantly, she felt she lost her way. Then she met the stylist Andrea Lieberman. Lieberman introduced her to ready-to-wear clothing. Later Lieberman became her creative consultant and Zaldy Goco took over as the head designer. Goco later parted ways with L.A.M.B. L.A.M.B. started out as a collaboration with LeSportsac in 2003. The name L.A.M.B. is an acronym which stands for Love. Angel. Music. Baby., which is also the name of Stefani's first solo album. ## Products The fashion line manufactures clothes, shoes, bags and a fragrance called "L". The brand started out as a line for women but claims the track items are unisex. The clothes were manufactured by Ska Girl LLC, which was founded in 2003 by Ken Erman, president of L.A.M.B. The eyewear collection launched in January 2016. It won 3 of 20/20 - Vision Monday Reader's Choice awards: Frame Brand Introduced 2016, Sunglass Brand Introduced 2016 & Frame Brand – Women. L.A.M.B joined with Royal Elastics for the shoe line. Stefani then started to widen the footwear line for adults to include boots and stilettos. L.A.M.B collaborated with Coty Inc. for the fragrance and with LeSportsac for handbags in 2003. Stefani went on to design a new line of handbags with Shifter and Partners in 2006. The bags feature LeSportsac's rip-stop nylon along with a variety of antiqued metal hardware, leather trims and colorful linings. Stefani planned to design lingerie as well as make-up products for L.A.M.B. L.A.M.B. partnered with Vestal Group on a line of 39 women's watches. L.A.M.B. products were relatively expensive, with apparel priced \$55 to \$1100, handbags priced \$80 to \$825, and watches priced \$125 to \$995. ### Fragrance Coty Inc. announced a global licensing agreement with Stefani, to develop and market fragrances for L.A.M.B. The fragrance called "L" was launched in September 2007 at Soho House in New York City. Stefani worked with perfumer Harry Fremont to develop the scent. Stefani described the fragrance as "it's another thing you can wear and another thing I can be part of creatively. I created it for myself -- it's like me shrunk into a box." ## Promotion and fashion shows Stefani frequently referred to her clothing line in her music, as one of the brand's promotional strategies. Stefani refers to her clothing line in her songs "Wind It Up," "Harajuku Girls," and "Crash" (which even incorporates the brand's slogan, "I want you all over me like L.A.M.B."). Stefani is often seen wearing her own designs, especially when making public appearances. A thirty-second commercial directed by Sophie Muller was also released to promote the brand's fragrance. L.A.M.B. had participated in the Spring/Summer 2006, 2007, and 2008 New York Fashion Weeks. Stefani described her first line, which debuted on September 16, 2005, as "a little Sound of Music, some Orange County chola girl, some Rasta, and a bit of The Great Gatsby." The highlights of the show were purple cars bouncing using hydraulics while Stefani's song "Wind It Up" made its debut as the models walked the runway. For Spring/Summer 2007, Stefani opted for a presentation rather than a catwalk show. The models, all donning identical blond wigs, wore designs Stefani said were inspired by Michelle Pfeiffer's role as Elvira Hancock in the 1983 Scarface. The show included some of Stefani's trademark tracksuits and extensively referenced prints from Guatemala, India, and Japan. On September 5, 2007, L.A.M.B opened New York's Spring/Summer 2008 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. The collection "looked like the sixties as seen by someone who grew up in the eighties" and incorporated influences from Stefani's ska roots. ## Critical reception The line was mostly well received by critics and Stefani was appreciated for taking fashion seriously even though she is a celebrity. Fern Mallis of IMG praised the line and Stefani as well and said, "the L.A.M.B. line is clearly at the top of these lines and is as unique and individual as Gwen herself." The shoes were well received by the critics, though considered to be pricey. Desiree Stimpert of About.com said, " ... these shoes aren't for everyone, but will most definitely appeal to fans of Ms. Stefani's music and fashion - sense." Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly said, "L.A.M.B.'s embellished tracksuits, Rasta-inspired knits, and gaucho-heel combos deliver the edge" Nicole Phelps of Style.com said, "The collection, which looked like the sixties as seen by someone who grew up in the eighties, was altogether more wearable and on trend." Fashion journalist Cathy Horyn of The New York Times differed and said, "If ever there was a reason for a pop star to concentrate on her vocal skills, it was Gwen Stefani's fashion meltdown." ## Commercial success The brand was sold in 275 stores worldwide and was seen worn on celebrities including Teri Hatcher, Nicole Kidman, Kelly Ripa, Paris Hilton, and Stefani herself. L.A.M.B sales had expanded from \$40 million in 2005 to a predicted \$90 million in 2006. In March 2008, it was reported the line reached sales of \$100 million. According to a Nordstrom spokesperson, the debut of L.A.M.B.'s watch line was the store's most successful watch launch ever. The brand's designs have appeared in W, Marie Claire, Elle, Lucky and InStyle.
1,223,470	My Kind of Christmas	1,153,482,184	null	[ "2000 Christmas albums", "Albums produced by Ron Fair", "Albums produced by the Matrix (production team)", "Albums recorded at Metalworks Studios", "Christina Aguilera albums", "Christmas albums by American artists", "Dance-pop albums by American artists", "RCA Records Christmas albums" ]	My Kind of Christmas is the third studio album and first Christmas album by American singer Christina Aguilera. It was released on October 24, 2000, by RCA Records. The album was recorded from late 1999 to mid 2000, while Aguilera was touring to promote her first two albums: Christina Aguilera (1999) and Mi Reflejo (2000). My Kind of Christmas contains cover versions of Christmas standards, such as "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Angels We Have Heard on High", as well as several original recordings, which incorporate dance-pop elements. The album was produced by Ron Fair, the Matrix, Robbie Buchanan, Barry Harris and Chris Cox. My Kind of Christmas received generally mixed reviews from music critics, who criticized its musical style and Aguilera's vocals. The album peaked at number 28 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having sold 1,015,000 copies. Aguilera appeared on several television shows, such as The Early Show and The David Letterman Show, to promote the album, and also performed a special concert for ABC, which was released on DVD in June 2001, as My Reflection. ## Background Aguilera achieved success following the release of her first two studio albums, Christina Aguilera in 1999 and Mi Reflejo in late-2000 respectively, both of which were certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 1999, Aguilera released a cover of "The Christmas Song" which found critical and commercial success peaking at number 18 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Recording for My Kind of Christmas began from early to mid-2000, when Aguilera was touring to support her debut and Spanish-counterpart albums. ## Composition My Kind of Christmas is a Christmas and dance-pop album, which is made up of mainly cover versions of Christmas standards along with several new tracks. The album begins with two original songs. "Christmas Time" is a "catchy, upbeat, pop song, all about the Christmas season" and includes a rap from Aguilera towards the end. "This Year" was co-written by Aguilera and is a hip hop and R&B-infused song where "Aguilera sings about spending the holidays with her sweetheart in a typical xtina fashion". This is followed by "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Merry Christmas, Baby" which are the three soulful and gospel ballads from the album, backed by a 70-piece orchestra. Originally, Etta James was planned to be included as a featured performer on the track "Merry Christmas, Baby". However Dr. John was chosen instead. A portion of "Auld Lang Syne" is included at the beginning of "Merry Christmas, Baby" with some deeming the input to be unnecessary. Aguilera's cover of "O Holy Night" was received with mixed reviews with comparisons made to Mariah Carey's version. Aguilera recites The Lord's Prayer during the song which was called "awkward but nice". Wales Online called it one of "the absolute worst Christmas songs of all time". "O Holy Night" is followed by Aguilera's cover of Celine Dion's "These Are the Special Times" from her album of the same name. Aguilera then covers Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas", which received praise for its originality. "The Christmas Song", previously released in late-1999 was also included in the album. This was followed by an interlude titled "Xtina's Xmas". The album ends with "The Christmas Song (Holiday Remix)" which was Aguilera's version of "The Christmas Song" remade as a dance-styled number by Thunderpuss who set the song to "a kicking dance beat". ## Promotion The album was released on October 24, 2000, by RCA Records as Aguilera's third studio album in the United States, following her two first albums Christina Aguilera (1999) and Mi Reflejo (2000). It was released as two formats: CD and cassette. In order to promote the album, Aguilera promoted the album on a number of shows, including The Rosie O'Donnell Show, The Early Show, and David Letterman Show. On December 10, 2000, Aguilera performed "The Christmas Song", "Genie in a Bottle" and "What a Girl Wants" during a concert at Franklin High in Milwaukee, being watched by 1,300 students. She also performed during an ABC special concert later in December; the set list included songs from her three first studio albums, including a song from My Kind of Christmas, "Have Yourself A Little Merry Christmas". There, she performed the track with Brian McKnight. The concert was filmed and released as a DVD entitled My Reflection (2001). ### Singles "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)" was the only song released as a single from the album. It was sent to Hot adult contemporary and adult contemporary radio stations on November 15, 1999, as well as receiving a commercial release on a compact disc. It was released alongside the "Thunderpuss 2000 Holiday Remix" and the Eddie Arroyo Rhythm Mix of "Genie in a Bottle". "The Christmas Song" became Aguilera's fifth top-twenty hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 18 on the chart. Aguilera's version became the second highest position for the song in the chart after the original. "Christmas Time" was released in December 2000 on a compact disc as a single. RCA released the song in the United States and BMG distributed it throughout Europe. A promotional live video was released as well. ## Reception ### Critical reception The album garnered mixed reviews from music critics who criticized the production and Aguilera's vocal delivery. AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that "none of the new songs are knockouts" but the album was an "entertaining seasonal dance-pop" that "may not add too much to Christina's catalog" but "suggest that she may not be a mere one-album wonder." Chris Willman from Entertainment Weekly thought that "Aguilera oversings so wildly that there wouldn't have been enough oxygen in the booth to sustain another life form", and that Aguilera "is out of control here, spoiling some nifty modern arrangements with her exhausting insistence on making every other syllable an octave spanning tour de force." Jaan Uhelszki from Rolling Stone criticized the album as being "chilly, forced and overdone", and claimed that the album "is just another forum to showcase Aguilera’s formidable bag of vocal gymnastics and posturing without a shred of sincerity or warmth". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was not impressed toward Aguilera's vocal ability on the album, giving it a mixed review. The Austin Chronicle writer Christopher Gray gave the album two stars noting that "Aguilera certainly has the pipes to outlast such jejune nonsense, but she's got to learn some subtlety first, and Christmas songs aren't exactly the best material to be practicing on". ### Retrospective reception In an ex post facto review, Billboard writer Taylor Weatherby noted in 2016 that "for some reason, Aguilera's album is not really one that gets circulated annually when local radio stations go into full-on Christmas mode, even despite reaching number-one on the Billboard Holiday Albums chart". However, some musicians, including Fifth Harmony, have gone on the record praising My Kind of Christmas. In his 2018 Rolling Stone interview Ty Dolla Sign named it "one of the greatest albums ever made". Emily Marcus of Us Weekly ranked it among the top ten best Christmas albums ever and called it an "unforgettable holiday album" that "will always remain an all-time favorite". PopCrush writer Alexandra Capotorto noted that "thanks to [Aguilera's] beautiful pipes, we still believe it's one of the best Christmas albums to impact within the pop genre". ## Commercial performance My Kind of Christmas debuted at number 38 on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of about 25,000. It reached its peak at number 28. It eventually peaked atop the Billboard Holiday Albums. Due to its chart success, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album platinum, having sold more than 1,015,000 copies in the country. ## Track listing ## Personnel - Lead vocals, background vocals – Christina Aguilera, E. Dawk, Dr. John, Kim Johnson, Miari - Keyboard – Alex Alessandroni, BabyBoy, E. Dawk, The Matrix - Trumpet – Wayne Bergeron - Bass – Chuck Berghofer - Saxophone – Pete Christlieb, Gene Cipriano, Dan Higgins, Sal Lozano - Drums – Vinnie Colaiuta, Peter Erskine - Violin – Mario de Leon, Joel Derouin, Assa Drori, Kirstin Fife, Armen Garabedian, Galina Golovin, Agnes Gottschewski, Endre Granat, Lily Ho-Chen, Tiffany Ju, Joe Ketendjian, Johana Krejci, Gary Kuo, Natalie Leggett, Kathleen Lenski, Alan Mautner, Francis Moore, Katia Popov, Barbara Porter - Guitar – John Goux, Ashley Ingram - Piano – Dr. John, Tom Ranier, Bob Sanov, Billy Preston - Trumpet – Warren Luening - Organ – Myron McKinley, Billy Preston - Producers – Ron Fair, The Matrix - Executive producer – Ron Fair - Engineers – Brad Haehnel, The Matrix, Michael C. Ross, Sol Survivor - Assistant engineers – Howard Karp, Chris Wonzer - Mixing – Peter Mokran, Dave Pensado, Michael C. Ross - Mastering – Eddy Schreyer - Assistants – Chad Brown, Bobby Butler, Brian Dixon, Tony Flores, Paul Forgues, David Guerrero, Michael Huff, Ed Krautner, Charles Paakkari, Howard Risson, Chris Shepherd, Jason Stasium, Bradley Yost - Digital editing – Tal Herzberg - Vocal recording – Michael C. Ross - Programming – ChakDaddy, The Matrix, Sol Survivor - Arrangers – Ron Fair, The Matrix, Don Sebesky - String arrangements – Ron Fair - Vocal arrangement – ChakDaddy, Eric Dawkins, Ron Fair - Orchestration – Don Sebesky - Art direction – Brett Kilroe - Design – Vivian Ng - Photography – Norman Jean Roy ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ## Certifications and sales ## See also - List of Billboard Top Holiday Albums number ones of the 2000s
37,708,163	Chase Anderson	1,173,730,141	American baseball player (born 1987)	[ "1987 births", "Albuquerque Isotopes players", "Arizona Diamondbacks players", "Baseball players from Texas", "Cincinnati Reds players", "Colorado Rockies players", "Colorado Springs Sky Sox players", "Durham Bulls players", "Living people", "Major League Baseball pitchers", "Milwaukee Brewers players", "Missoula Osprey players", "Mobile BayBears players", "NCTC Lions baseball players", "Oklahoma Sooners baseball players", "Philadelphia Phillies players", "Reno Aces players", "Round Rock Express players", "Salt River Rafters players", "San Antonio Missions players", "South Bend Silver Hawks players", "Sportspeople from Wichita Falls, Texas", "Tampa Bay Rays players", "Toronto Blue Jays players", "Visalia Rawhide players", "Wisconsin Timber Rattlers players" ]	Robert Chase Anderson (born November 30, 1987) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds, and Tampa Bay Rays. Anderson was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, and helped his father with the family business following his parents' divorce. He was a standout pitcher at S. H. Rider High School, pitching three no-hitters as a senior in 2006 and setting a school record for career strikeouts, but his slender build limited attention from college baseball recruiters. He spent two seasons with North Central Texas College before transferring to the University of Oklahoma for the 2009 season. The Diamondbacks selected Anderson in the ninth round of the 2009 MLB Draft. He spent the next several years rising through the team's farm system, suffering a setback in 2011 when an elbow injury caused him to miss nearly the entire season. Anderson made his major league debut for the Diamondbacks in 2014. During the 2016 offseason, Anderson was part of a major five-player trade between the Diamondbacks and Brewers. His performance continued to improve, setting career highs in wins in 2017 and innings pitched in 2018. Going into 2020, the Brewers traded Anderson to the Toronto Blue Jays, where his performance suffered amidst a shortened season. He spent most of the 2021 season on a one-year contract for the Phillies, but closed out the year in the Texas Rangers minor league system. ## Early life Anderson was born on November 30, 1987, in Wichita Falls, Texas. His parents, Michelle and Robert Anderson, divorced when their son was 12 years old. Anderson went to live with his father, helping with the family lawn care and firewood businesses. In their free time, Anderson and his father would play catch in their backyard, which sparked Anderson's love for baseball. Anderson also wanted to play gridiron football, but his mother was afraid that he would suffer an injury that would hinder his baseball career. While attending S. H. Rider High School in Wichita Falls, Anderson caught the attention of coach Kerry Hargrove, who purposely selected Anderson to pitch on the hottest games of the year. Hargrove told KAUZ-TV in 2018, "He was such a hard worker, mowed yards in his high school days to earn extra money. So we would pitch him on days when it was going to be 104, 105 degrees, and we knew we had an advantage because we knew he had the stamina to last on those type of days". In his senior season with Rider, Anderson pitched three no-hitters, including one against division rivals Wichita Falls High School. He finished his senior season in 2006 with a 12–1 win–loss record and was named to the Texas All-State team as both a pitcher and a shortstop. Anderson also set a school record with 291 career strikeouts. ## College career Anderson graduated from Rider in 2006. As he was smaller than many of his peers, standing at 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) and weighing 140 pounds (64 kg), he did not receive many recruitment offers from college baseball teams. Instead, he committed to attend North Central Texas College. In the 2006–07 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) season, Anderson led North Central Texas pitchers in strikeouts, with 67 in 61+1⁄3 innings pitched. He spent two seasons there before transferring to the University of Oklahoma. Anderson became a critical member of the Oklahoma Sooners' bullpen, with a crucial long reliever performance against Wichita State in the 2009 NCAA regional playoffs. Leading the Oklahoma pitching rotation with 26 appearances in 2009, Anderson posted a 3–1 record with a 4.97 ERA, striking out 60 batters in 50+2⁄3 innings. ## Professional career ### Minor leagues The Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball (MLB) selected Anderson in the ninth round of the 2009 MLB Draft. He spent the season with the Rookie Missoula Osprey of the Pioneer League, helping pitch the team reach the 2009 playoffs. The Osprey used Anderson as both a starting pitcher and reliever, and he went 3–1 for the season with a 2.38 earned run average (ERA) and 49 strikeouts in 45+1⁄3 innings. Anderson began the 2010 season with the Class A South Bend Silver Hawks, with whom he was named the Midwest League Pitcher of the Week for the week ending May 9. The honor came after a seven-inning complete game shutout against the Dayton Dragons. He was soon promoted to the Class A-Advanced Visalia Rawhide of the California League. He won Pitcher of the Week honors once again on June 7 after striking out 11 batters and allowing only one run against the Stockton Ports. Between the two teams, Anderson posted a 7–7 record for the season, with a 3.32 ERA and 114 strikeouts in 108+1⁄3 innings. Anderson began the 2011 season with the Rawhide as well but pitched in only three games before a flexor muscle strain in his right elbow ended his season. Returning in 2012, Anderson was assigned to the Double A Mobile BayBears. Anderson's father died shortly after spring training, and the pitcher decided to use the news to push himself harder, telling reporters, "I try to use things like obstacles in life as opportunities to grow, to get better, to learn something from." He led the Southern League with a 2.08 ERA in the early part of the season. In May, Anderson left a game against the Jackson Generals after only two innings and spent seven days on the disabled list. He went 5–4 for the season in 21 starts and posted a 2.86 ERA. He also recorded 97 strikeouts and helped take the BayBears to their second consecutive Southern League championship. That same year, Anderson played in the Arizona Fall League with the Salt River Rafters, going 3–1 with a 3.47 ERA and recording 26 strikeouts in 23+1⁄3 innings. Anderson began the 2013 season with the Triple A Reno Aces. Although he was placed on the disabled list twice with an injury to the right triceps, he appeared in 26 games, including 13 starts, and went 4–7 with a 5.73 ERA. He was moved back down to the BayBears in 2014, where he began the season strongly, going 4–2 with a 0.69 ERA in his first six starts. ### Arizona Diamondbacks #### 2014 Anderson was recalled to the Diamondbacks on May 6, 2014, as pitcher Mike Bolsinger was optioned to Triple A. He was credited with the win in his major league debut on May 11, giving up only two hits and one run in 5+1⁄3 innings of a 5–1 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Anderson continued to dominate in the first part of the season, becoming the first pitcher since Jered Weaver to start his major league career with five consecutive wins. Sports journalists considered Anderson's consistent performance to be a bright spot amidst the Diamondbacks' disappointing 2014 season. Anderson finished his rookie season with a 9–7 record, a 4.01 ERA, and 105 strikeouts in 114+1⁄3 innings. #### 2015 Going into the 2015 season, Anderson was named as part of a five-man starting rotation for the Diamondbacks that also consisted of Josh Collmenter, Jeremy Hellickson, Rubby De La Rosa, and Trevor Cahill. On June 13, Anderson pitched 6+1⁄3 hitless innings against the San Francisco Giants before giving up a hit to catcher Buster Posey. Although he posted a 2.82 ERA in his first 12-season starts, a lack of offensive performance from the Diamondbacks meant that he only took the win in three of those matches. Anderson struggled by the middle of the season, with his poor performance reaching its crest on July 18, when he was taken out of a game against the Giants in the fourth inning after allowing seven runs on 10 hits. This outing came after he had given up a cumulative 19 runs in his prior four starts. The following day, he was placed on the 15-day disabled list with inflammation in his right triceps. In August, Anderson spent a brief stint in the minor leagues before Hellickson was placed on the disabled list with a hamstring injury. Anderson posted a 6–6 record in 2016, with a 4.30 ERA and 111 strikeouts in 27 starts and 152+2⁄3 innings. ### Milwaukee Brewers #### 2016 On January 30, 2016, Anderson was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers alongside infielder Aaron Hill and shortstop prospect Isan Diaz in exchange for shortstop Jean Segura and pitching prospect Tyler Wagner. The Brewers also received cash considerations due to Hill's large contract. On May 17, 2016, Anderson pitched seven hitless innings against the Chicago Cubs before Ben Zobrist hit a double on the first pitch of the eighth inning. After solo home runs from Jason Heyward and Kris Bryant in the ninth, Anderson was taken out of the game with one out remaining, and Jeremy Jeffress got the save to preserve his win. In the middle of the season, Anderson struggled with both run control and longevity: between June 8 and July 24, he did not win a single game for the Brewers, and he routinely did not pitch through the end of the fifth inning. He improved towards the end of the season, cutting his ERA from 5.44 in the first half to 3.02 in the second half. Anderson made 30 starts and one relief appearance for the Brewers in 2016, posting a 9–11 record and a 4.39 ERA. #### 2017 Anderson's contract went to arbitration during the offseason when he and the Brewers could not reach an agreement on his salary. Anderson lost the hearing and was paid \$2.45 million for the 2017 season. On May 27, while playing against his old team, Anderson once again took a no-hitter bid into the eighth inning. His hitless streak was broken by a single from Diamondbacks batter Nick Ahmed, but the Brewers went on to win the game 6–1. On June 28, Anderson left a game against the Reds in the second inning after suddenly grabbing his left side. He was placed on the 10-day disabled list with an oblique strain, but was expected to miss closer to four to six weeks. At the time of the injury, Anderson was having the best season of his career, with a 2.89 ERA and 8.5 strikeouts per nine innings pitched (K/9). Following a series of rehab assignments with the Class A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and the Triple-A Colorado Springs Sky Sox, Anderson returned to the rotation on August 20 for a game against the Colorado Rockies. Despite missing six weeks of the season due to injury, Anderson dominated in the 2017 season, going 12–4 with a 2.74 ERA, 133 strikeouts, and a 1.090 WHIP in 25 starts and 141+1⁄3 innings. #### 2018 Following his strong performance in 2017, the Brewers signed Anderson to a two-year, \$11.75 million contract on October 26, 2017. He also got the nod to start the Brewers' Opening Day game against the San Diego Padres on March 29, 2018. Anderson allowed one hit in six innings, but Jeffress was credited with the 2–1 win in extra innings. Early into the season, it was predicted that Anderson would become the Brewers' ace. In his first four starts, he held to a 2.82 ERA and managed to break the New York Mets' nine-game winning streak. However, he was unable to retain the momentum that he had built in 2017, as he went on to lead the National League (NL) with 30 home runs allowed. After allowing three runs in 3+2⁄3 innings on September 18, Anderson was removed from the Brewers' starting rotation, and he was left off of the postseason roster entirely. He pitched to a 9–8 record in 2018, with a 3.93 ERA and 128 strikeouts in 158 innings and 30 starts. #### 2019 Following his lackluster 2018 performance, Anderson began the 2019 season in the Brewers' bullpen, where he went 1–0 with a 4.50 ERA in five appearances. After a series of injuries and disappointments befell the starting rotation, however, he was moved back into the role, where he went 7–4 with a 4.19 ERA in 27 appearances. Critical to his newfound success was the utilization of a cut fastball, which he used 14.5 percent of the time in 2019. FanGraphs ranked Anderson's cutter as the second-best in the MLB that year, behind that of Jeff Samardzija. Anderson's season ERA was 4.21 in 2019, with 124 strikeouts in 139 innings. ### Toronto Blue Jays #### 2020 On November 4, 2019, the Brewers traded Anderson to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for prospect Chad Spanberger. The previous season, the Jays had suffered a series of trades and injuries that had destabilized their starting rotation, and they were in search of a consistent veteran pitcher. Anderson struggled in the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened 2020 MLB season, posting a 1–2 record and a 7.22 ERA in only 10 appearances for the Blue Jays. His worst start of the season came on September 17, 2020, when Anderson gave up five home runs in one inning against the New York Yankees, three of which came from consecutive pitches against Brett Gardner, DJ LeMahieu, and Luke Voit. Anderson became a free agent after the season. ### Philadelphia Phillies #### 2021 On February 3, 2021, Anderson signed a one-year, \$4 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies, placing him in competition with prospect Spencer Howard, veteran Vince Velasquez, and other offseason acquisition Matt Moore for the fourth or fifth position in the Phillies' starting rotation. Moore and Anderson were named to the starting rotation at the beginning of the season following injuries to Howard and Velasquez. After Anderson had a disappointing performance in his first eight starts, with a 6.96 ERA and no outs recorded past the fifth inning, the Phillies moved him to the bullpen on May 21. Anderson missed the following two months of the season: at the start of June, he was placed on the COVID-19 injured list, and he spent the month of July on a minor league rehab assignment. On July 25, with starting pitcher Zach Eflin suffering knee tendinitis, Anderson was called back up from his rehab assignment to help the thinned-out pitching staff. Anderson made 14 appearances for the Phillies, including nine starts, and posted a 6.75 ERA in the process. When Eflin rejoined the rotation on August 26, Anderson was designated for assignment, drawing his release the following day. ### Texas Rangers Two days after being released from the Phillies, Anderson signed a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers, his hometown team. He was assigned to the Triple-A Round Rock Express. In five appearances there (three starts), Anderson went 0–1 with a 4.20 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 15 innings. ### Detroit Tigers #### 2022 On March 14, 2022, the Detroit Tigers signed Anderson to a minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training. On April 10, Anderson was released by the Tigers organization. On April 12, Anderson re-signed with Detroit on a new minor league contract. He opted out of his contract and became a free agent on July 16, 2022. ### Tampa Bay Rays On July 25, 2022, Anderson signed a minor league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays organization and was assigned to the Triple-A Durham Bulls. He opted out of his contract and became a free agent on August 25. ### Cincinnati Reds On August 27, 2022, Anderson signed a minor league deal with the Cincinnati Reds. He was selected to the major league roster on August 29, and made his first start as a Red against the St. Louis Cardinals the same day. He pitched 1+1⁄3 innings, allowing five earned runs. He appeared in 9 games (7 starts) for the Reds down the stretch, posting a 2–4 record and 6.38 ERA with 23 strikeouts in 24.0 innings pitched. #### 2023 On February 18, 2023, Anderson re-signed with the Reds on a minor league contract, but did not receive an invite to major league Spring Training On March 7, Anderson was added to the big-league camp. He made 5 starts for the Triple-A Louisville Bats to start the year, posting a 2-1 record and 4.30 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 23.0 innings pitched. ### Tampa Bay Rays (second stint) On May 3, 2023, Anderson was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for cash, and was subsequently selected to the active roster. That same day, he got the first save of his career against the Pittsburgh Pirates. In two appearances for Tampa Bay, Anderson logged 5.0 scoreless innings, allowing only 3 baserunners. He was designated for assignment on May 10, following the signing of Jake Diekman. ### Colorado Rockies On May 12, 2023, Anderson was claimed off waivers by the Colorado Rockies. On June 24, 2023, in a game against the Los Angeles Angels, Anderson gave up home runs on three consecutive pitches, to Mike Trout, Brandon Drury, and Matt Thaiss, for the second time in his career. ## Pitcher profile Early in his MLB career, Anderson gained a reputation as a dependable, consistent pitcher for the back of the starting rotation. This consistent pitching approach has caused Anderson trouble, as his propensity for throwing fastballs down the middle of the plate has led to too many home runs by opposing batters. Going into the 2019 season, Anderson found that his pitch delivery had been hindered by poor placement of his lower body, and he revamped his pitching mechanics to assert better control over the ball. Part of this process included watching videos of aces Max Scherzer and Nathan Eovaldi. Anderson noted the idiosyncrasies they took to ensure that they were properly aligned with home plate before each pitch. As a prospect within the Diamondbacks organization, Anderson's changeup received attention from sports journalists. He was taught the pitch at age 13 by the head coach at Rider. For the first three seasons of his major league career, Anderson leaned heavily on a two-pitch repertoire consisting of the changeup and a four-seam fastball. In 2017, however, he decided to diversify his repertoire by adding a cut fastball and a curveball to increase his strike rate. As he developed his curveball further, Anderson stopped utilizing a sinker that had made up a critical piece of his early repertoire. Anderson has cited fellow Texan pitchers Nolan Ryan and Josh Beckett as inspirations. ## Personal life Anderson's father died in 2012 of a heart attack at the age of 58. Since then, Anderson has worn an outfit that belonged to his father while en route to every home start, and writes his father's initials in the dirt of the pitcher's mound before beginning play. He married his wife Anna in 2013. The following year, she gave up her job as a realtor in Dallas in order to follow her husband's baseball career. Chase and Anna's oldest son, Robert Hunter Anderson, was born in November 2016, and was named after Anderson's late father and his wife's maiden name. Their second child, Elliana, was born in March 2019. Anderson is a Baptist. He became a Christian through the influence of his grandmother, Annette Anderson, with whom he attended both Baptist and United Methodist churches. He attends The Village Church in Dallas. Annette's battle with melanoma, as well as several cancer deaths in his wife's family, led Anderson to begin charity work with Cancer Knows No Borders. In 2017, Anderson worked with Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo to increase cancer awareness and raise money for medical programs in Wisconsin and Illinois.
4,358,920	Jeff Tambellini	1,171,142,896	Canadian ice hockey player	[ "1984 births", "AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans", "Bridgeport Sound Tigers players", "Canadian ice hockey left wingers", "Canadian sportspeople of Italian descent", "Chilliwack Chiefs players", "Djurgårdens IF Hockey players", "HC Fribourg-Gottéron players", "Ice hockey people from Calgary", "Living people", "Los Angeles Kings draft picks", "Los Angeles Kings players", "Manchester Monarchs (AHL) players", "Manitoba Moose players", "Michigan Wolverines men's ice hockey players", "Modo Hockey players", "National Hockey League first-round draft picks", "New York Islanders players", "People from Port Moody", "Seattle Kraken scouts", "Syracuse Crunch players", "Tampa Bay Lightning scouts", "Vancouver Canucks players", "Växjö Lakers players", "ZSC Lions players" ]	Jeff Tambellini (born April 13, 1984) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger and current Director of Player Development for the Seattle Kraken of the NHL. Originally selected 27th overall by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, he joined the National Hockey League in 2005. During his rookie season, he was traded to the New York Islanders. He split his first three professional seasons between the NHL and his clubs' American Hockey League (AHL) affiliates, the Manchester Monarchs (Los Angeles) and Bridgeport Sound Tigers (New York). In July 2010, Tambellini signed with the Vancouver Canucks and spent a season with the organization. During his junior career, Tambellini earned MVP honours in the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL), while also leading the Chilliwack Chiefs to a Fred Page Cup as league champions and a Doyle Cup as Pacific regional champions. In 2002, he joined the college ranks with the Michigan Wolverines of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA). Over three seasons, he won two Mason Cups with Michigan as CCHA champions, while earning several individual honours, including league rookie of the year in 2003 and playoff MVP in 2005. Internationally, he competed for Canada's under-20 team at the 2004 World Junior Championships, earning a silver medal. ## Playing career ### Junior and college Tambellini played one season in the third-tier Pacific International Junior Hockey League (PIJHL) with the Port Coquitlam Buckaroos in 1999–2000. He scored 31 goals and 64 points over 41 games, earning PIJHL First Team All-Star and Rookie of the Year honours. The following season, he joined the Junior A ranks with the Chilliwack Chiefs of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL), recording 51 points over 54 games in his rookie season. In 2001–02, he improved to 117 points (46 goals and 71 points), receiving the Brett Hull Trophy as the league's leading scorer along with Matt Ellison of the Cowichan Valley Capitals, who also scored 117 points. He was further distinguished with the Verne Dye Memorial Trophy as the Coastal Conference's most valuable player. Tambellini went on to help the Chiefs to a Fred Page Cup as league champions, defeating the Vernon Vipers four games to two in the finals. Advancing to the Doyle Cup, the Chiefs beat the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) champion Drayton Valley Thunder by the same series score to capture the regional title. Competing for the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) title, Chilliwack lost in the Royal Bank Cup semifinals. During the tournament, Tambellini was chosen as the CJHL player of the year, beating out Jade Galbraith of the Drayton Valley Thunder and Tim Vokey of the Cornwall Colts. Tambellini left the Chiefs after two seasons to play college hockey with the Michigan Wolverines of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA), where he served as an alternate captain. After scoring 45 points over 43 games in his freshman year, he received All-Rookie Team, Second All-Star Team and Rookie of the Year honours in the CCHA. In the playoffs, Tambellini helped the Wolverines to his first of two Mason Cups in his college career as CCHA champions. Going into the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, he was ranked 21st among North American skaters by the NHL Central Scouting Bureau. Scouts listed him as a superior skater and defensively responsible with leadership qualities. He went on to be selected in the first round, 27th overall, by the Los Angeles Kings. Returning to Michigan following his draft, his offensive production declined to 27 points over 39 games. The Wolverines returned to the CCHA finals, but were defeated by the Ohio State Buckeyes. Returning to form in 2004–05, Tambellini notched 24 goals and 57 points over 42 games, earning CCHA First All-Star Team honours. He led the Wolverines to a second Mason Cup championship in three years and was chosen as the CCHA Tournament MVP. Competing in the NCAA tournament, Tambellini was named to the NCAA Midwest Regional All-Tournament and NCAA West Second All-Star Teams. ### Professional On August 15, 2005, Tambellini signed an entry-level contract with the Kings, foregoing his senior year with Michigan. In late-September, he was assigned to their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs, following his training camp with Los Angeles. Two months into the season, Tambellini was called up to the Kings, making his NHL debut on November 30, 2005, against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Kings lost the game 3–2, while Tambellini earned nine minutes of ice time. After four pointless NHL games, he was sent back down to Manchester. On March 8, 2006, Tambellini was traded by the Kings, along with defenceman Denis Grebeshkov, to the New York Islanders, in exchange for forward Mark Parrish and defenceman Brent Sopel. Upon being dealt, he was called up from the AHL and played the remainder of the season with New York. He left Manchester with 25 goals and 56 points in 56 games, which finished the 2005–06 AHL season ranked as the third-best points-per-game rate among league rookies. Playing in his third game with the Islanders, he scored his first NHL goal against Martin Brodeur in a 6–1 win against the New Jersey Devils on March 14, 2006. He finished the campaign with a goal and four points in 21 games with New York. As the Islanders failed to qualify for the playoffs, they assigned Tambellini to their AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, for their Calder Cup playoffs. Over seven post-season games, he recorded three points as Bridgeport was eliminated by the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the first round. Tambellini split the 2006–07 season between the Islanders and Sound Tigers. Called up from the AHL on three separate occasions, he recorded two goals and nine points over 23 games with New York. Over 50 AHL games, he led the Sound Tigers with 30 goals and 59 points. The following season, Tambellini set the Sound Tigers single-season scoring record with 76 points in 57 games. His 38 goals ranked second in the league, while his points total was seventh. He was called up to the NHL five times, scoring a goal and four points over 31 games. In the off-season, he was re-signed to a two-year, US\$1.175 million contract on July 16, 2008. In 2008–09, he began the campaign in the NHL. With the exception of a two-week assignment with Bridgeport in December 2008, he spent the entire season with the Islanders. Over 65 NHL games, he scored seven goals and 15 points, while recording three goals in six games with the Sound Tigers. The following season, Tambellini recorded his first NHL hat trick with his father in attendance on October 31, 2009, against the Buffalo Sabres. Often made a healthy scratch, he completed the season with 14 points over 36 games, while leading the Islanders in shootout percentage with three goals in five attempts. Becoming an unrestricted free agent in the off-season, Tambellini joined the Vancouver Canucks on July 1, 2010. He signed a one-year, two-way deal paying the league-minimum \$500,000 at the NHL-level and \$105,000 at the minor-league level. He had received interest from other teams, but was quick to accept an offer from his hometown NHL team, commenting that he "grew up want[ing] to be part of the Vancouver Canucks from age six." Tambellini scored his first goal as a Canuck on October 22, 2010, in a 5–1 win against the Minnesota Wild. While earning some time on the team's second line, he played the majority of the season on the fourth unit, finishing with 9 goals and 17 points over 62 games. Assigned to the team's AHL affiliate for brief periods in October and November 2010, he recorded 7 points over 7 games with the Manitoba Moose. A healthy scratch for the majority of the 2011 playoffs, he made his NHL post-season debut in Game 6 of the second round against the Nashville Predators. In total, he dressed in six games with no points during the playoffs as the Canucks advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals for the third time in team history, losing in Game 7 to the Boston Bruins. Tambellini was the last player to wear sweater \#10 for the Canucks, prior to it being retired in honor of Pavel Bure. After becoming an unrestricted free agent once more in the off-season, Tambellini signed for the ZSC Lions of the National League A (NLA) in Switzerland. By joining Zurich, he followed after his father and grandfather, who both played for the team during their careers. He was recruited to play overseas by the Lions' Bob Hartley, who previously coached in the NHL for the Colorado Avalanche and Atlanta Thrashers. Tambellini became the team's premiere player in his first season with Zurich, leading the team in scoring and averaging more than 25 minutes a game. He described the Swiss league as a competitive level between the AHL and NHL. In his first season in Zurich, he won the Swiss Championship. Upon completion of an injury plagued second season with the Lions, Tambellini left as a free agent and signed a one-year contract in Sweden with Modo Hockey of the Swedish Hockey League on March 25, 2013. In the 2014–15 season, Tambellini skated in 30 games with Fribourg-Gotteron of the Swiss-A league, registering five goals and 13 points. He also played in 20 games with Växjö Lakers in the Swedish Hockey League, recording six goals and nine points. On July 5, 2015, the Tampa Bay Lightning signed Tambellini to a one-year, two-way contract. After spending the 2015–16 season with the Lightning's AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, in which he contributed with 49 points in 65 games, Tambellini returned to Sweden in securing a one-year contract with Djurgårdens IF of the SHL on June 10, 2016. Tambellini left Djurgården in February, 2017, having failed to make a significant impact at Djurgården by producing only 4 goals and 5 assists in 41 games. He subsequently rejoined his former team Växjö Lakers, with whom he had won the Le Mat Trophy in 2015. At the conclusion of the 2016–17 season, Tambellini ended his 12-year professional career, announcing his retirement while returning as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan to complete his degree. He was also announced as the Wolverines' assistant coach. ## International play Tambellini competed for the Canadian national junior team at the 2004 World Junior Championships, held in Finland. He was the lone NCAA player on Canada's roster. Playing against Ukraine in the round-robin, he scored his first international goal in a 10–0 win. Helping Canada reach the gold medal game, they lost to the United States by a 4–3 score, earning silver. In six games, Tambellini recorded two goals and five points, ranking sixth in team scoring. ## Personal life Tambellini was born in Calgary, Alberta. His brother Adam Tambellini also plays ice hockey. His father Steve Tambellini, a former ice hockey player and former general manager of the Edmonton Oilers, was playing for the Calgary Flames at the time. Steve also played in the NHL with the New York Islanders, Colorado Rockies, New Jersey Devils and Vancouver Canucks. Tambellini's grandfather, Addie Tambellini, was a member of the Trail Smoke Eaters who were the last Canadian amateur team to win the World Championships in 1961. Tambellini became the second member of his family to serve as the head coach and general manager of the Trail Smoke Eaters. While his father became involved with the Canucks first as a player, then as an executive later in his career, Jeff lived in suburban Port Moody, British Columbia, gaining exposure to the NHL environment. ## Career statistics ### Regular season and playoffs ### International ## Awards ### Junior ### College ## Coaching career Tambellini was hired for the 2017–18 season as an assistant coach for the University of Michigan. From 2018 to 2020, he acted as the General Manager and Head coach of the BCHL Trail Smoke Eaters. In August 2022, he was hired by the Seattle Kraken as the Director of Player Development.
69,961,546	Karma Man	1,162,307,089	Song by David Bowie	[ "1967 songs", "Buddhism in music", "David Bowie songs", "Song recordings produced by Tony Visconti", "Songs written by David Bowie" ]	"Karma Man" is a song written and recorded by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was recorded on 1 September 1967 at Advision Studios in London and marked the beginning of Bowie's working relationship with producer Tony Visconti, which would last for the rest of the artist's career. The song expresses Bowie's growing interest in Tibetan Buddhism, concerning a character who is put on display as a "freak" in a carnival tent. The music reflects the Buddhist themes and was likened to the works of the Beatles. Initially proposed as a B-side, it remained unreleased until The World of David Bowie compilation in March 1970. Bowie performed the song during two of his BBC radio sessions, one of which was released on the 2000 compilation Bowie at the Beeb. Suede used "Karma Man" as an influence for their singles "The Drowners" and "Beautiful Ones". Bowie remade the song during the sessions for the Toy project in mid-2000, along with other tracks he wrote and recorded during the mid-1960s, including the song's original intended A-side "Let Me Sleep Beside You". The remake saw an official release in 2021 with the entire project as part of the Brilliant Adventure (1992–2001) box set. ## Background and recording After the commercial failure of his self-titled debut album (1967) and singles for Deram Records, David Bowie's manager Kenneth Pitt proposed he change producers. Denny Cordell turned the offer down but suggested his assistant Tony Visconti, a New Yorker who had worked with the Move and Manfred Mann. Bowie and Visconti became immediate friends, which the former attributed in 1976 to their mutual interests in Tibetan Buddhism. Visconti agreed to produce and arrange his next prospective single for Deram, marking the beginning of a working relationship that would last for the rest of Bowie's career. According to biographer Chris O'Leary, Bowie needed a producer who shared similar interests and working methods rather than established producers he had worked with previously, such as Tony Hatch and Mike Vernon. According to biographer Nicholas Pegg, Bowie reportedly wrote "Karma Man", along with "Let Me Sleep Beside You", after he had a desire to write "some top ten rubbish". With Visconti producing and playing bass, the two tracks were recorded on 1 September 1967 at London's Advision Studios. The session took six hours to complete. Personnel hired for the session included guitarist John McLaughlin, who later found fame with the Mahavishnu Orchestra; guitarist Big Jim Sullivan, who previously contributed to David Bowie; drummer Andy White; and Tony's then-wife Siegrid, who sang backing vocals. Tony Visconti later expressed disappointment in the finished tracks, stating in 1977, "I think these tracks were the reason David was thrown off Deram. They really were terrible." ## Composition Like "Silly Boy Blue" from David Bowie, "Karma Man" displays Bowie's growing interest in Tibetan Buddhism, which eventually led him and Visconti to join the Tibet Society. According to O'Leary, the song is a tribute to monks in exile such as Chime Rinpoche. The song's main character is presented as a "freak" and is left praying in a carnival tent as an exhibit, living in isolation away from his companions. Featuring a homage to Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man (1951), More positive in tone than "Silly Boy Blue", O'Leary analyses the track as a metaphor for "the lama in the West" or a "freak" residing in a faraway area. Bowie described Buddhist monks as "super-human", claiming to Melody Maker that they "could go days without eating, spend months living underground and they could live for centuries", a theme he would revisit for 1977's "Sons of the Silent Age". O'Leary compares these beliefs to the Marvel Comics' character Doctor Strange. The Buddhist themes are reflected in the music, which O'Leary compares to "Eastern" music. The "syllable-stuffed" verses are in D major while the "richly-harmonized" refrains are in B major. Bowie moves up and down in sharps in the refrains, going from F-D-C-B on "slow down, slow down", to B-D-F on "Karma Man". The song is mostly set in common time, with the bars before the refrains in half time. Author Peter Doggett likens Visconti's string arrangement to the orchestration of George Martin on the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" (1966). Alex Henderson of AllMusic similarly considered the track "Beatlesque". Doggett considers the song Bowie's "most creative marriages of words and music" up to that point. ## Release and aftermath "Karma Man" was intended for release as a B-side to the proposed singles "Let Me Sleep Beside You" and "When I Live My Dream". After Deram's parent company Decca Records rejected both for release as singles, "Karma Man" remained unreleased until The World of David Bowie compilation, which was issued by Decca on 6 March 1970 to cash-in on Bowie's success with "Space Oddity". Bowie himself approved the tracklisting for the compilation. Before its release, Bowie had played the track for two of his BBC radio sessions on 13 May 1968 and 5 February 1970. The first, which appeared on the Bowie at the Beeb compilation in 2000, featured a lush string arrangement and backing vocals from Visconti and Steve Peregrin Took. O'Leary considers this version superior to the studio recording. Bowie also offered the song as a potential cover to Manfred Mann, who declined it. A previously unreleased stereo mix of the song was later released on the 2010 deluxe edition of David Bowie. Pegg notes that the song's "slow down, slow down" chorus provided inspiration for English rock band Suede's 1992 single "The Drowners", which starts its chorus with the same words and is sung to the melody of Bowie's "Starman" (1972). He also finds a "melodic echo" of "Karma Man" in Suede's later single "Beautiful Ones" (1996). The band acknowledged Bowie's influence in interviews, which led to an NME interview with Bowie and lead singer Brett Anderson shortly before the release of Bowie's Black Tie White Noise and Suede's self-titled debut album in 1993; this generated publicity for the two artists in the United Kingdom. ## Toy version Bowie re-recorded "Karma Man" during the sessions for the Toy project between July and October 2000, along with other tracks he wrote and recorded in the mid-1960s, including "Let Me Sleep Beside You". The lineup consisted of the members of Bowie's then-touring band: guitarist Earl Slick, bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, pianist Mike Garson, musician Mark Plati and drummer Sterling Campbell. With co-production from Bowie and Plati, the band rehearsed the songs at Sear Sound Studios in New York City before recording them as live tracks. Plati stated that he refused to listen to Bowie's original recordings of the tracks, as so to prevent the originals from influencing his playing on the new versions. Overdubs were recorded at New York's Looking Glass Studios. Toy was initially intended for release in March 2001, before it was shelved by EMI/Virgin due to financial issues. So, Bowie departed the label and recorded his next album Heathen (2002). On 29 September 2021, Warner Music Group announced that Toy would get an official release on 26 November as part of the box set Brilliant Adventure (1992–2001) through ISO and Parlophone. "Karma Man" and an "alternative ending mix" of "Silly Boy Blue" were released as a single ahead of the release on 15 October. Plati said about the release: > 'Karma Man' is notable for Cuong Vu's opening and closing lines, and especially the glorious backing vocals from Holly Palmer, Emm Gryner, and Lisa Germano. [...] When I re-listened to these tracks, the sound of fall 2000 came flooding out of the speakers, from a song I'd not heard since then. I'm not too proud to say I shed a bit of a tear, something that happened a few times while mixing it. A separate deluxe edition, titled Toy:Box, was released on 7 January 2022, which contains two new mixes of the song: an "alternative mix" and an "Unplugged and Somewhat Slightly Electric" mix, featuring new guitar parts by Plati and Slick. Reviewing Toy, The Independent's Helen Brown wrote that the remake has the "same attitude" as the original, although it "nods affectionately back at its [musical and lyrical] roots". ## Personnel According to Chris O'Leary: Original version - David Bowie – vocals - John McLaughlin – lead guitar - Big Jim Sullivan – acoustic guitar - Tony Visconti – bass, producer - Andy White – drums - Siegrid Visconti – backing vocals - Unknown musicians – celli Toy version - David Bowie – vocals, producer - Earl Slick – lead guitar - Gerry Leonard – rhythm guitar - Gail Ann Dorsey – bass, backing vocals - Mike Garson – keyboards - Mark Plati – rhythm guitar, producer - Sterling Campbell – drums - Holly Palmer – backing vocals - Emm Gryner – backing vocals - Unknown musicians – violins, violas, celli
4,200,899	Momentos Intimos	1,153,518,632	null	[ "2004 compilation albums", "Albums produced by A.B. Quintanilla", "Albums recorded at Q-Productions", "Compilation albums published posthumously", "EMI Latin compilation albums", "Selena compilation albums" ]	Momentos Intimos is a compilation album by American singer Selena and released posthumously on March 23, 2004, through EMI Latin. The album contains 24 tracks, though the last eight are spoken liner notes provided by the singer's family, friends, and her Los Dinos band. The songs on the album range from "Como Te Quiero Yo A Ti" (1988), a re-recorded version modernized and remixed on the album, to "Puede Ser", an unreleased duet with Nando "Guero" Dominguez, recorded two weeks before Selena was shot and killed in March 1995. Following Selena's death, her father Abraham Quintanilla expressed his interest in persevering his daughter's memory through her works. Selena's family has been criticized by fans and the media for exploiting the singer and cannibalizing her murder by commercializing her repertoire. The album has received a mixed response from music critics, Ramiro Burr called it "another new collection", while a reporter from El Norte, believed fans of the singer would enjoy the release. The album yielded strong sales and was reported to be popular by consumers. Momentos Intinmos peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard Top Latin Albums chart and number seven on the US Regional Mexican Albums chart. "Como Te Quiero Yo a Ti" was released as the lead single of the album. In 2017, Momentos Intimos was certified Gold (Latin) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting 30,000 units consisting of sales and on-demand streaming. ## Background On March 31, 1995, American Tejano music singer Selena was shot and killed by Yolanda Saldívar, her friend and former manager of the singer's boutiques. At the time of her death the singer was working on a crossover album that would have propelled her into the American pop market. The impact of the singer's death had a negative impact on Latin music, her genre—which she catapulted into the mainstream market—suffered and its popularity waned following Selena's death. The crossover-planned album Dreaming of You was released posthumously on July 18, 1995, debuting and peaking atop the United States Billboard 200 albums chart, the first majority Spanish-language recording to do so in the chart's history. The album's release started a "buying frenzy" for anything related or containing Selena among Hispanic and Latino Americans. The releases of Selena's works continue a promise Abraham Quintanilla told his family following his daughter's death, that he will continue to keep Selena's memory alive through her music. According to A. B. Quintanilla, Suzette Quintanilla, and Selena collectively agreed that if anything were to happen to any one of them, their wish would be to continue on with their music. A.B. said that one of Selena's wishes was for her to "never go away". Since Selena's death, her family has been criticized by fans and the media for exploiting the singer and cannibalizing on her murder by commercializing her repertoire. ## Composition The album contains 24 tracks, of which the last eight are spoken liner notes provided by Selena's family, friends, and her Los Dinos band members. Momentos Intimos contains songs ranging from Selena's Preciosa (1988) album to an unreleased demo track taped a few days before she died. The recording starts off with "Amor Prohibido", penned by Selena, A. B., and her backup dancer/vocalist Pete Astudillo. The song is followed by "Missing My Baby", originally on Entre a Mi Mundo, the song includes Full Force as backing vocalist. The third track, "Fotos y Recuerdos" samples the 1983 single "Back on the Chain Gang" by the Pretenders. "Fotos y Recuerdos" originally appeared on Amor Prohibido (1994), though Chrissie Hynde initially prevented Selena from releasing the song until keyboardist Ricky Vela provided Hynde an English-language translation of the lyrics. This is followed by "Dreaming of You" which was among a selection of songs Selena was provided with from Capitol Records to choose from, the label vehemently controlled the entire crossover project and only allowed Selena to choose one song of her choice from this selection. The fifth song, "Buenos Amigos", is a duet with Salvadoran singer Álvaro Torres and was originally on his album Nada Se Compara Contigo (1991). The next song, "I'm Getting Used to You" was written by Diane Warren and produced by Rhett Lawrence. Writing for Newsday, Ira Robbins found the track's arrangement to be "slightly outdated" that masked any indications of Selena's Hispanic background. This was dramatized by Christian Serratos in the Netflix two-part limited drama Selena: The Series (2020–21), where the singer felt a sense of dissociation with the song. Warren commented that the scene was not how she recalls her time with Selena, who in reality loved the song. Track number seven, "Donde Quiera Que Estes" is a duet with New York-based the Barrio Boyzz. This is followed by "Only Love", which was originally recorded in 1990 for the crossover market but was shelved. Abraham told music critic Mario Taradell of The Dallas Morning News how the song was "too adult contemporary and we wanted to go with something more pop." The mariachi track "Tú Sólo Tú", was originally intended for the Don Juan DeMarco soundtrack, though was shelved by music producers. The tenth song on the album, "I Could Fall in Love" was previously on the planned crossover album Dreaming of You. The eleventh song, "Si Una Vez" was originally on Amor Prohibido. Writing for The Miami Herald, Tarradell described "Si Una Vez" as having a more traditional Tejano sound than the rest of the tracks on Amor Prohibido but found it to be riddled with synthesizers and digital processing. "Where Did the Feeling Go?" is the twelfth song on Momentos Intimos, and originally appeared on the Selena movie soundtrack (1997). The thirteenth track, "No Me Queda Más", was penned by Vela, who had romantic inclinations toward the drummer of the group, Suzette, which he kept private from her. After hearing of her wedding to Bill Arriaga in September 1993, Vela wrote of his feelings of betrayal and unrequited love and hid the lyrics that he wrote based on these feelings. Vela eventually provided Selena with the lyrics and she recorded the song for Amor Prohibido. According to Abraham, Selena provided an emotional delivery while recording the track and was seen sobbing in the recording studio because "she knew how [Vela] felt" about Suzette. Track number fourteen, "Como Te Quiero Yo a Ti", originally titled "Como Te Quiero" in its original form on Preciosa (1988), is re-recorded, modernized, and remixed into a sentimental ballad along with the proceeding track "No Llores Mas Corazon". "Puede Ser", a duet with Nando "Guero" Dominguez, closes the vocal recordings of Momentos Intimos. In mid-March 1995, Selena's husband and guitarist of the group, Chris Pérez, was in his and Selena's in-house studio and recording demos for a Corpus Christi, Texas musician that Abraham was interested in promoting on his Q-Productions label. After Dominguez left the house, Selena, who was eavesdropping, told Pérez that he should have instructed Dominguez to record the song "with more soul". Selena requested to sing the song and Pérez replayed and began recording it. At this point, Pérez noticed that Selena had listened to the entire session as she began singing the lyrics. Selena recorded the song unrehearsed and spontaneously. "Puede Ser" remained unreleased until Pérez rediscovered the demo tape in October 2001 and provided a copy to Abraham for the family to listen to since they had not heard it since April 1995. "Puede Ser" ended up becoming the last recording Selena had done before she was killed two weeks later. ## Reception Momentos Intimos not only proceeds the majority Spanish-language album, Ones (2002), but also Greatest Hits (2003), a collection of English-language songs. Selena continued to outsell living musicians with her releases. Her Ones album remained on the Top Latin Albums chart for 77 consecutive weeks by the time Momentos Intimos was released. Music critic for the San Antonio Express-News, Ramiro Burr called the release "another new collection". In a recap of new releases for the week, Roel Jiménez of El Norte, called Momentos Intimos a tribute album, and believed fans of the singer would enjoy. "Como Te Quiero Yo a Ti" was released as the lead single in March 2004. Momentos Intimos was released on March 23, 2004, and was widely popular and yielded "high sales". It debuted at number 25 on the Top Latin Albums chart and number 14 on the Regional Mexican Albums chart on the issue dated April 10, 2004. Momentos Intimos was the second best-selling regional Mexican debut album for the tracking week, behind Grupo Montez de Durango's En Vivo Desde Chicago. Following its release, Selena's family participated in a televised press conference on Univision's Primer Impacto to discuss preparations for the benefit concert Selena ¡VIVE! (2005). Momentos Intimos jumped to number 11 on the Top Latin Albums chart and number seven on the Regional Mexican Albums chart, receiving the greatest jump in sales for any album during the tracking week. It re-entered the Top Latin Albums chart at number 46 following the live premiere of Selena ¡VIVE! on the issue dated April 23, 2005, and fell off the chart the following week bringing its total weeks on the Top Latin Albums chart to 15 weeks. In 2017, Momentos Intimos was certified Gold (Latin) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting 30,000 units consisting of sales and on-demand streaming. ## Track listing Credits adapted from the liner notes of Momentos Intimos by EMI Latin. Notes - spoken liner notes provided by Selena's family, friends, and her Los Dinos band. ## Personnel Credits are adapted of Momentos Intimos liner notes. Musicians - Selena – lead vocals - The Barrio Boyzz – guest artist - Nando "Guero" Dominguez – guest artist - Álvaro Torres – guest artist - Ricky Vela – keyboardist - Joe Ojeda – keyboardist - Chris Pérez – guitarist Production - Guillermo J. Page – executive producer - A. B. Quintanilla – producer, arranger, remixer - Suzette Quintanilla – spoken liner notes producer, drums - Abraham Quintanilla – spoken liner notes post-production ## Charts ## Certification
5,410,453	Tropical Storm Larry (2003)	1,171,842,643	Atlantic tropical storm in 2003	[ "2003 Atlantic hurricane season", "2003 in Mexico", "Atlantic hurricanes in Mexico", "Atlantic tropical storms", "Tropical cyclones in 2003" ]	Tropical Storm Larry was the twelfth named tropical storm in the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season. It was one of eight storms to impact Mexico from either the Pacific or Atlantic oceans in the season. Larry formed in early October from an extratropical storm in the Bay of Campeche, and reached a peak intensity of 65 mph (105 km/h). Due to weak steering currents, the storm moved southward, which resulted in the storm making landfall on the Tabasco coastline. It was the first tropical storm to strike the region since Tropical Storm Brenda in 1973. Larry drifted across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, dropping heavy rainfall of over 9 in (230 mm) in places. The rainfall led to flooding and mudslides, causing damage to thousands of houses. The flooding killed five people and resulted in \$53.6 million (2003 USD) in damage. Larry was one of three tropical cyclones to hit Mexico in a short period of time, including Tropical Depression Nora and Tropical Storm Olaf in the eastern Pacific Ocean. ## Meteorological history A tropical wave moved off the coast of Africa on September 17. It moved across the shear-ridden Atlantic Ocean without development, and remained disorganized until reaching the western Caribbean Sea on September 26. There, the wave situated itself beneath an upper-level anticyclone, allowing for favorable upper-level outflow and for deep convection to develop. On the September 27, a low pressure area developed while the system was located a few hundred miles to the east of the Yucatán Peninsula. The system continued to organize, and nearly developed into a tropical depression before moving ashore on the Yucatán Peninsula on September 29. Dry air and land weakened the tropical wave, and when it entered the area of the Bay of Campeche, it merged with a stationary frontal boundary. Cool, dry air around the system caused the system to develop a cold core, and the area organized into an extratropical low on September 30. A large high pressure system over the northern Gulf of Mexico forced the system southward, where it developed significant convection. The system developed a warm core, and on October 1 the storm organized into Tropical Storm Larry while located 300 mi (480 km) east-southeast of Tampico, Mexico. Weak steering currents allowed for Larry to drift westward at about two mph (3 km/h) while marginally favorable conditions allowed the storm to strengthen to a peak of 65 mph (105 km/h) on October 3. A mid-level ridge forced the storm more to the south-southeast, where after remaining a 60 mph (97 km/h) storm for three days, Larry made landfall at Paraíso, Tabasco, on October 5. It steadily weakened over land, and degenerated into a remnant low on October 6 while midway through the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The remnant low turned to the southwest, and reached the eastern Pacific Ocean on the October 7. The remnants of Larry re-organized somewhat in the eastern Pacific, with the National Hurricane Center indicating for the possibility of redevelopment into a tropical depression on October 9. However, the convection diminished, and further development was no longer anticipated. ## Preparations Due to its erratic motion, the Mexican government issued a Tropical Storm Warning and a Hurricane Watch early in Larry's lifetime from Veracruz to Campeche. The watches and warnings were extended westward to Tuxpan on the 4th and extended eastward to Ciudad del Carmen on October 5. Due to the threat of the storm, officials closed three Pemex oil ports. The company used its reserves to make sure profits weren't disrupted. In addition, the storm closed shipping ports in Dos Bocas [es] in Tabasco, Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz, and Cayo Arcas in Campeche. The Mexican government placed six coastal states on maximum alert, while authorities set up 75 evacuation shelters for around 1,500 people. Because of the storm, the government declared much of eastern Mexico a state of emergency. ## Impact Tropical Storm Larry was one of eight storms to hit Mexico from either the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean, the highest since the record of nine in 1971. The National Hurricane Center expected the storm to produce a storm surge of 3 to 5 feet (0.91 to 1.52 m), with high waves on top, though no official surge readings were reported. The highest recorded winds on land were 59 mph (95 km/h) in El Alacrán in Tabasco. The worst of Larry's effects came from its rainfall, peaking at 24.77 inches (629 mm) in Upper Juarez in southeastern Mexico. The highest 24-hour rainfall total was 9.6 inches (240 mm) in Tortuguero, Chiapas, while several other locations reported over 4 inches (100 mm) in 24 hours. The flooding damaged more than 21,000 houses across Mexico, in combination with the damage from Eastern Pacific Hurricanes Nora and Olaf. Damage was greatest around the Chiapas capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, where over 9,000 houses were affected. The rainfall caused mudslides across the country, hospitalizing two individuals in central Hidalgo. The flooding also caused severe crop damage along Larry's path. Strong wind gusts caused outages to telephone and power services. In all, Larry caused five deaths and \$53.6 million in damage (2003 USD, \$59 million 2005 USD). In El Salvador, rainfall from the remnants of Larry—combined with previous rainfall—caused mudslides and flooding, forcing several thousand people to evacuate in San Salvador. The flooding destroyed or damaged hundreds of houses. ## Aftermath Tropical Storm Larry hit Mexico at around the same time as two other tropical storms. The Mexican Red Cross provided aid for 6,587 families throughout the country, while the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an international appeal for aid. The appeal raised \$284,472.8 (2003 USD). The Mexican Red Cross distributed 4,000 food and hygiene packets to various places, and delivered 2,750 family packets and over 4,300 mattresses to citizens in Chiapas, as well as 5,000 school kits. A total of 38,750 people benefited from the operation. ## See also - Other tropical cyclones of the same name - 2003 Atlantic hurricane season - Timeline of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season - 2003 Pacific hurricane season
2,906,379	Svetlana-class cruiser	1,169,096,548	Class of Russian light cruisers	[ "Cruiser classes", "Cruisers of the Imperial Russian Navy", "Svetlana-class cruisers" ]	The Svetlana-class cruiser''' was the first class of light cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy (IRN) during the 1910s. Construction was interrupted by World War I, the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War. Only Svetlana of the quartet was completed by the Soviet Union as a cruiser, two were converted to oil tankers, and the remaining ship was scrapped without being completed. Svetlana, now renamed Profintern, became fully operational in 1928 and was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet the following year. The ship was renamed Krasnyi Krim in 1939 and supported Soviet troops during the Black Sea Campaigns during World War II. After the war, she became a training ship until the ship was decommissioned in 1958 and broken up two years later. ## Background and design The State Duma had earlier approved construction of modern dreadnought battleships, but the IRN lacked modern cruisers and destroyers. Several years after the first Gangut-class battleships were ordered, the navy finally gained approval for four light cruisers as part of the 1912–1916 shipbuilding program to scout for the capital ships and to lead destroyer flotillas. Design work for the ships had begun as back as 1907, but it took the IRN several iterations between alternating specifications and designs to decide what was feasible. In early 1912 it conducted a design contest for a 4,100–5,100-metric-ton (4,000–5,000-long-ton) ship armed with a dozen 55-caliber 130-millimeter (5.1 in) Pattern 1913 guns, capable of a speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph), and protected by some side armor. Other important requirements were a strong resemblance to the dreadnoughts under construction and the ability to lay mines. None of the submissions were entirely satisfactory, and the shipyards were asked for new, larger, designs. The navy combined the submissions from the Russo-Baltic and Putilov Shipyards for a 6,700-metric-ton (6,600-long-ton) design in November. In February 1913, the IRN needed to divert some money from the cruisers to pay for the Borodino-class battlecruisers and the shipyards agreed to reduce the price from 9,660,000 rubles, excluding guns and armor, to 8,300,000 rubles in exchange for reducing the speed to 29.5 knots (54.6 km/h; 33.9 mph); the navy then ordered two ships from each yard on 13 February. Late changes to the design, including the addition of Frahm anti-roll tanks and provision for a seaplane, added several hundred extra tons to the displacement. The Svetlana-class ships had an overall length of 158.4 meters (519 ft 8 in), a beam of 15.3 meters (50 ft 2 in), and a draft of 5.56 meters (18 ft 3 in). The ships displaced 6,860 metric tons (6,750 long tons) at normal load. They were powered by four direct-drive Curtis-AEG-Vulkan steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by 13 Yarrow boilers. The turbines were designed to produce 50,000 shaft horsepower (37,000 kW), which would propel the ship at 29.5 knots; those for Svetlana and Admiral Greig were ordered from AG Vulcan Stettin in Germany (Admiral Greig subcontracted to Blohm+Voss). These were not delivered owing to the outbreak of World War I, and those intended for Svetlana were used to engine the German Brummer-class cruisers. As a result, new engines had to be ordered from the UK; this delayed Svetlana, and probably prevented Greigs completion as a cruiser. The ships carried 1,167 long tons (1,186 t) of fuel oil. Their crew consisted of approximately 630 officers and crewmen. The increase in size of the Svetlanas during the design process allowed their main armament to be increased from 12 to 15 Pattern 1913 guns in single mounts. Six of the 10 guns on the main deck were positioned in casemates and all were difficult to work in bad weather. The guns had a range of 15,364 meters (16,802 yd) at an elevation of +20° and fired 36.86-kilogram (81.3 lb) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 823 m/s (2,700 ft/s). The maximum rate of fire was eight rounds per minute. The ships were also armed with four 38-caliber 63.3 mm (2.5 in) anti-aircraft (AA) guns, although their maximum elevation was limited to +75°, two submerged 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes and could carry 100 mines. During construction, Svetlana's AA guns were replaced by 30-caliber 76.2-millimetre (3.00 in) Lender AA guns and the rest of the ships were intended to receive 102-millimetre (4.0 in) AA guns. The waterline belt of the Svetlana-class ships was 76 millimeters thick. It extended the whole length of the hull and covered from the lower deck to 0.91 meters (3 ft) below the waterline. Above it was a 25-millimeter (0.98 in) strake of armor that covered the area between the lower and main decks. Those decks were each 20 millimeters (0.79 in) thick and the funnel uptakes were protected by 25 millimeters of armor. The walls of the conning tower were 76 millimeters thick while the gun shields protecting the 130-millimeter guns were 25 millimeters thick. ## Ships ## Service Svetlana and her sister ships were evacuated to Petrograd when the Germans approached Reval in late 1917 and were laid up incomplete during the Russian Revolution. The Soviets renamed Svetlana as Profintern in 1922, and removed her original torpedo tubes in exchange for a pair of triple 533-millimeter (21 in) torpedo tubes on the main deck. The ship was completed in 1925, although she required several more years' work to be fully operational. Initially assigned to the Baltic Fleet, Profintern was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet in 1929. She was extensively overhauled in the late 1930s and her anti-aircraft armament was greatly augmented. The ship was renamed Krasnyi Krym upon the completion of her overhaul in 1939. During World War II, she supported Soviet troops during the Siege of Odessa, the Siege of Sevastopol, and the Kerch-Feodosiya Operation in the winter of 1941–1942. The ship was reclassified as a training ship in 1945 and was decommissioned in 1958 before being scrapped in 1960. Admiral Spiridov and Admiral Greig were converted into diesel-powered oil tankers during the 1920s and were renamed Grozneft and Azneft respectively. They were subsequently transferred to the Black Sea where the latter ship parted her moorings during a storm in Tuapse on 23 December 1938. She was blown onto a mole and capsized. Grozneft was renamed Groznyy in 1935 and was captured by the Germans on 8 October 1941. The ship was scuttled at Mariupol on 20 September 1943 and was refloated after the war. Groznyy was transferred back to the Baltic in 1946. Admiral Butakov was renamed Voroshilov'' in 1928, but was never completed. Her hull was used as a breakwater at the mouth of the Neva River at Saint Petersburg before being broken up in 1952.
7,727,448	Cyprus at the 2002 Winter Olympics	1,172,596,731	null	[ "2002 in Cypriot sport", "Cyprus at the Winter Olympics by year", "Nations at the 2002 Winter Olympics" ]	Cyprus sent a delegation to compete at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, United States from 8–24 February 2002. This was Cyprus' seventh consecutive appearance at a Winter Olympic Games after their debut at the 1980 Winter Olympics. The delegation consisted of one athlete, Theodoros Christodoulou, an alpine skier. He finished 54th in the giant slalom and failed to complete the slalom. ## Background The Cyprus Olympic Committee was first recognised by the International Olympic Committee in 1978, and the nation has participated in every Summer Olympics and Winter Olympic Games since their debut in 1980. At the time of the Salt Lake City Olympics, no Cypriot athlete had ever won a medal. They would win their first medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. This was their seventh appearance at a Winter Olympic Games. The 2002 Winter Olympics were held from 8–24 February 2002; a total of 2,399 athletes representing 77 National Olympic Committees took part. The only athlete sent by Cyprus to Salt Lake City was an alpine skier, Theodoros Christodoulou. He was the flag bearer for both the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony. ## Alpine skiing Theodoros Christodoulou was 24 years old at the time of the Salt Lake City Olympics, and he was making his Olympic debut. On 21 February, he participated in the men's giant slalom, finishing the first run in a time of 1 minute and 21.67 seconds, and the second in 1 minute and 19.92 seconds. This made his total time for the competition to be 2 minutes and 41.59 seconds, and placed him 54th, out of 57 competitors who finished the race, the gold medal was won by Stephan Eberharter of Austria in a time of 2 minutes and 23.28 seconds. Three days later, on 24 February, Christodoulou took part in the slalom, where he completed the first run in 59.74 seconds and was in 46th place. However, he failed to finish the second run, and went unranked for the competition. Christodoulou would later go on to represent Cyprus at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
64,623,003	Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings	1,170,647,952	Theme of environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien	[ "Environmental fiction books", "Environmentalism", "Themes of The Lord of the Rings" ]	The theme of environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings has been remarked upon by critics since the 1970s. The Hobbits' visions of Saruman's industrial hell of Isengard and Sauron's desolate polluted land of Mordor have been interpreted as comments on modern society, while the destruction of Isengard by the tree-giant Ents, and "The Scouring of the Shire" by the Hobbits, have a strong theme of restoration of the natural environment after such industrial pollution and degradation. However, Tolkien's love of trees and unspoilt nature is apparent throughout the novel. ## Context J. R. R. Tolkien was brought up as a boy first in rural Warwickshire at Sarehole, at that time just outside Birmingham, and then inside that industrial city. An art exhibition entitled "The Making of Mordor" at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery (2014) claimed that the steelworks and blast furnaces of the West Midlands near Tolkien's childhood home inspired his vision of Mordor, and the name that he gave it, meaning "Black Land" in his invented Elvish language of Sindarin. This industrialized area has long been known as "the Black Country". Philip Womack, writing in The Independent, likened Tolkien's move from rural Warwickshire to urban Birmingham as "exile from a rural idyll to Mordor-like forges and fires", The critic Chris Baratta notes the contrasting environments of the well-tended leafy Shire, the home of the Hobbits, and "the industrial wastelands of Isengard and Mordor." Baratta comments that Tolkien clearly intended the reader to "identify with some of the problems of environmental destruction, rampant industrial invasion, and the corrupting and damaging effects these have on mankind." Tolkien was acutely sensitive to encroachments on the English countryside; during the Second World War, he was, like W. G. Hoskins, horrified by how much land was taken up by aerodromes. Later in life, Tolkien became obsessed with the growing threat to the countryside as cities grew and roads cut across fields and woods. ## Pristine creation ### Wild nature Tolkien makes use of wild nature in the form of forests in Middle-earth, from the Trollshaws and Mirkwood in The Hobbit, reappearing in The Lord of the Rings, to the Old Forest, Lothlórien, and Fangorn forest which each occupy whole chapters of The Lord of the Rings, not to mention the great forests of Beleriand and Valinor of The Silmarillion. Indeed, while Middle-earth was still "in a twilight under the stars", the "oldest living things had arisen: ... on earth, the shadows of great trees". For the Tolkien critic Tom Shippey, the mention of Mirkwood is an echo of the Norse mythology of the Elder Edda, with the pathless forests of the North over the Misty Mountains described in one of the poems in the Edda, the Skirnismal. Tolkien believed that the primeval human understanding was, as he wrote in Tree and Leaf, "communion with other living things", now lost. The Tolkien critic Paul Kocher stated that Middle-earth was meant to be the Earth itself in the distant past, when the primeval forests still existed, and with them, a wholeness that is also now lost. ### Harmony with the land The free peoples of the West of Middle-earth, including the Hobbits of the Shire, live in definite harmony with their land; Lucas Niiler describes the whole area as "a largely pastoral setting with an agriculturally-based economy", and the Hobbits as "caring farmers, green-thumbs; beer-barley, rich tobacco and beautiful flowers spring up out of their fields and gardens with just the gentle prod of a hoe." ## Environmental devastation In the foreword to the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien wrote that while the work had no "allegorical significance ... whatsoever", it did have a basis in his personal experience. He stated that "The country in which I lived in childhood was being shabbily destroyed before I was ten", as Birmingham grew and spread houses, roads and suburban railways across the Warwickshire countryside, and he lamented "the last decrepitude of the once-thriving corn-mill beside its pool that long ago seemed to me so important". Tolkien describes the shattering impact of industrialisation at Saruman's Isengard and in Sauron's dead land of Mordor. Tolkien's feelings about nature fit into a more general pattern of decline, the belief that while evil may be countered, the losses will not quite be made up. As Kocher writes "Ents may still be there in our forests, but what forests have we left? The process of extermination is already well under way in the Third Age, and in works outside the epic Tolkien bitterly deplores its climax today." ### Saruman's Isengard Tolkien has the Treebeard, leader of the tree-giants, the Ents, say of the Wizard Saruman: > He is plotting to become a Power. He has a mind of metal and wheels; and he does not care for growing things ... He has taken up with foul folk, with the Orcs. ... Worse than that: he has been doing something to them; something dangerous. For these Isengarders are more like wicked Men. It is a mark of evil things that came in the Great Darkness that they cannot abide the Sun; but Saruman's Orcs can endure it, even if they hate it. I wonder what he has done? ... > > Down on the borders they are felling trees — good trees. Some of the trees they just cut down and leave to rot — orc-mischief that; but most are hewn up and carried off to feed the fires of Orthanc. There is always a smoke rising from Isengard these days. Saruman's Isengard is industrial in several ways: it produces weapons and machinery made of iron, smelted and forged using trees as fuel; an unusually large and powerful breed of Orcs, able as Treebeard says to fight in daylight, produced rapidly, apparently by some kind of cloning; and a gunpowder-like explosive. The underground factories, and the contrast with how the area was before Saruman's day, are described by the narrator in "The Road to Isengard": > Once it had been green and filled with avenues, and groves of fruitful trees, watered by streams that flowed from the mountains to a lake. But no green thing grew there in the latter days of Saruman.... > > The shafts ran down by many slopes and spiral stairs to caverns far under; there Saruman had treasuries, store-houses, armouries, smithies, and great furnaces. Iron wheels revolved there endlessly, and hammers thudded. At night plumes of vapour steamed from the vents, lit from beneath with red light, or blue, or venomous green. Saruman thus stands for the exact opposite of the sympathetic stewardship of Middle-earth shown by the Hobbits of the Shire and by Treebeard of Fangorn forest. ### Industrial hell The scholar of English literature Charles A. Huttar describes Isengard as an "industrial hell". He quotes Tolkien's description of Isengard, supplying his own emphasis on Tolkien's words: "tunneled .. circle .. dark .. deep .. graveyard of unquiet dead .. the ground trembled .. treasuries .. furnaces .. iron wheels .. endlessly .. lit from beneath .. venomous." Huttar comments: "The imagery is familiar, its connotations plain. This is yet another hell [after Moria and Mordor]." Dickerson writes that Saruman's "evil ways" are revealed exactly by his "wanton destruction" of Fangorn's trees, and notes that Treebeard calls Saruman an "accursed tree-slayer". Kocher notes that Treebeard says that Ents have a far closer sympathy for trees than shepherds do for their sheep, because "Ents are 'good at getting inside other things'". He also cites Treebeard's statement that he is "not altogether on anybody's side, because nobody is altogether on my side ... nobody cares for the woods as I care for them", but notes that all the same, Treebeard is driven by the knowledge that Saruman has taken sides in the War of the Ring to take action against him. Treebeard's Ents destroy Saruman's industrial Isengard, whose factories Saruman was fuelling by cutting down Treebeard's trees. After the destruction of the One Ring, Aragorn gives wide lands for new forest; but, Kocher writes, Tolkien gives "ominous hints that the wild wood will not prosper in the expanding Age of Man" that will follow. ## A longed-for restoration ### Trees marching to war > Macbeth: I will not be afraid of death and bane, till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. In The Lord of the Rings, on the morning after the long night of the Battle of Helm's Deep, in which Saruman tried to destroy Rohan, both armies saw that a forest of angry, tree-like Huorns now filled the valley, trapping Saruman's army of Orcs. The Orcs fled into the Huorn forest and were destroyed. Tolkien noted in a letter that he had created walking tree-creatures [Ents and Huorns] partly in response to his "bitter disappointment and disgust from schooldays with the shabby use made in Shakespeare's Macbeth of the coming of 'Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill': I longed to devise a setting in which the trees might really march to war". Critics note that it is a shock that the battle, the Orcs, and Saruman's hopes of conquest should end this way. They also observe that it represented Tolkien's wish-fulfilment to reverse the harm he could see being done to the English countryside. ### The Scouring of the Shire Critics since the 1970s have commented on Tolkien's environmentalism as seen in The Lord of the Rings, especially in the chapter "The Scouring of the Shire". One of the first to note this was Paul H. Kocher, who wrote "Tolkien was an ecologist, champion of the extraordinary, hater of 'progress', lover of handicrafts, detester of war long before such attitudes became fashionable." Nicholas Birns calls the chapter "as much conservationist as it is traditionalist", writing that it presents a strong pro-environmentalist argument in addition to its other themes. Plank describes the chapter's emphasis on the "deterioration of the environment" "quite unusual for its time", with the Hobbits returning to the England-like Shire finding needless destruction of the old and beautiful, and its replacement by the new and ugly; pollution of air and water; neglect; "and above all, trees wantonly destroyed". The chapter has been seen as something of a call to arms, a wish to rouse people to environmental action in their "own backyard".
431,226	Sawfly	1,167,688,658	Suborder of insects	[ "Articles containing video clips", "Extant Triassic first appearances", "Insect pests of ornamental plants", "Insect pests of temperate forests", "Paraphyletic groups", "Sawflies", "Taxa named by Carl Eduard Adolph Gerstaecker" ]	Sawflies are the insects of the suborder Symphyta within the order Hymenoptera, alongside ants, bees, and wasps. The common name comes from the saw-like appearance of the ovipositor, which the females use to cut into the plants where they lay their eggs. The name is associated especially with the Tenthredinoidea, by far the largest superfamily in the suborder, with about 7,000 known species; in the entire suborder, there are 8,000 described species in more than 800 genera. Symphyta is paraphyletic, consisting of several basal groups within the order Hymenoptera, each one rooted inside the previous group, ending with the Apocrita which are not sawflies. The primary distinction between sawflies and the Apocrita – the ants, bees, and wasps – is that the adults lack a "wasp waist", and instead have a broad connection between the abdomen and the thorax. Some sawflies are Batesian mimics of wasps and bees, and the ovipositor can be mistaken for a stinger. Sawflies vary in length, most measuring 2.5 to 20 millimetres (3⁄32 to 25⁄32 inch); the largest known sawfly measured 55 mm (2+1⁄4 in). The larvae are caterpillar-like, but can be distinguished by the number of prolegs and the absence of crochets in sawfly larvae. The great majority of sawflies are plant-eating, though the members of the superfamily Orussoidea are parasitic. Predators include birds, insects and small animals. The larvae of some species have anti-predator adaptations such as regurgitating irritating liquid and clustering together for safety in numbers. Sawflies are hosts to many parasitoids, most of which are Hymenoptera, the rest being Diptera. Adult sawflies are short-lived, with a life expectancy of 7–9 days, though the larval stage can last from months to years, depending on the species. Parthenogenetic females, which do not need to mate to produce fertilised eggs, are common in the suborder, though many species have males. The adults feed on pollen, nectar, honeydew, sap, other insects, including hemolymph of the larvae hosts; they have mouth pieces adapted to these types of feeding. Sawflies go through a complete metamorphosis with four distinct life stages – egg, larva, pupa and adult. The female uses her ovipositor to drill into plant material (or, in the case of Orussoidea, other insects) and then lays eggs in groups called rafts or pods. After hatching, larvae feed on plants, often in groups. As they approach adulthood, the larvae seek a protected spot to pupate, typically in bark or the soil. Large populations of species such as the pine sawfly can cause substantial damage to economic forestry, while others such as the iris sawfly are major pests in horticulture. Outbreaks of sawfly larvae can defoliate trees and may cause dieback, stunting or death. Sawflies can be controlled through the use of insecticides, natural predators and parasitoids, or mechanical methods. Sawflies first appeared 250 million years ago in the Triassic. The oldest superfamily, the Xyeloidea, has existed into the presents. Over 200 million years ago, a lineage of sawflies evolved a parasitoid lifestyle, with carnivorous larvae that ate the eggs or larvae of other insects. Sawflies are distributed globally, though they are more diverse in the northernmost hemispheres ## Etymology The suborder name "Symphyta" derives from the Greek word symphyton, meaning "grown together", referring to the group's distinctive lack of a wasp waist between prostomium and peristomium. Its common name, "sawfly", derives from the saw-like ovipositor that is used for egg-laying, in which a female makes a slit in either a stem or plant leaf to deposit the eggs. The first known use of this name was in 1773. Sawflies are also known as "wood-wasps". ## Phylogeny In his original description of Hymenoptera in 1863, German zoologist Carl Gerstaecker divided them into three groups, Hymenoptera aculeata, Hymenoptera apocrita and Hymenoptera phytophaga. But four years later in 1867, he described just two groups, H. apocrita syn. genuina and H. symphyta syn. phytophaga. Consequently, the name Symphyta is given to Gerstaecker as the zoological authority. In his description, Gerstaecker distinguished the two groups by the transfer of the first abdominal segment to the thorax in the Apocrita, compared to the Symphyta. Consequently, there are only eight dorsal half segments in the Apocrita, against nine in the Symphyta. The larvae are distinguished in a similar way. The Symphyta have therefore traditionally been considered, alongside the Apocrita, to form one of two suborders of Hymenoptera. Symphyta are the more primitive group, with comparatively complete venation, larvae that are largely phytophagous, and without a "wasp-waist", a symplesiomorphic feature. Together, the Symphyta make up less than 10% of hymenopteran species. While the terms sawfly and Symphyta have been used synonymously, the Symphyta have also been divided into three groups, true sawflies (phyllophaga), woodwasps or xylophaga (Siricidae), and Orussidae. The three groupings have been distinguished by the true sawflies' ventral serrated or saw-like ovipositor for sawing holes in vegetation to deposit eggs, while the woodwasp ovipositor penetrates wood and the Orussidae behave as external parasitoids of wood-boring beetles. The woodwasps themselves are a paraphyletic ancestral grade. Despite these limitations, the terms have utility and are common in the literature. While most hymenopteran superfamilies are monophyletic, as is Hymenoptera, the Symphyta has long been seen to be paraphyletic. Cladistic methods and molecular phylogenetics are improving the understanding of relationships between the superfamilies, resulting in revisions at the level of superfamily and family. The Symphyta are the most primitive (basal) taxa within the Hymenoptera (some going back 250 million years), and one of the taxa within the Symphyta gave rise to the monophyletic suborder Apocrita (wasps, bees, and ants). In cladistic analyses the Orussoidea are consistently the sister group to the Apocrita. The oldest unambiguous sawfly fossils date back to the Middle or Late Triassic. These fossils, from the family Xyelidae, are the oldest of all Hymenoptera. One fossil, Archexyela ipswichensis from Queensland is between 205.6 and 221.5 million years of age, making it among the oldest of all sawfly fossils. More Xyelid fossils have been discovered from the Middle Jurassic and the Cretaceous, but the family was less diverse then than during the Mesozoic and Tertiary. The subfamily Xyelinae were plentiful during these time periods, in which Tertiary faunas were dominated by the tribe Xyelini; these are indicative of a humid and warm climate. The cladogram is based on Schulmeister 2003. ### Taxonomy There are approximately 8,000 species of sawfly in more than 800 genera, although new species continue to be discovered. However, earlier studies indicated that 10,000 species grouped into about 1,000 genera were known. Early phylogenies such as that of Alexandr Rasnitsyn, based on morphology and behaviour, identified nine clades which did not reflect the historical superfamilies. Such classifications were replaced by those using molecular methods, starting with Dowton and Austin (1994). As of 2013, the Symphyta are treated as nine superfamilies (one extinct) and 25 families. Most sawflies belong to the Tenthredinoidea superfamily, with about 7,000 species worldwide. Tenthredinoidea has six families, of which Tenthredinidae is by far the largest with some 5,500 species. Extinct taxa are indicated by a dagger (†). Superfamilies and families - Superfamily Anaxyeloidea Martynov, 1925 - Family Anaxyelidae Martynov, 1925 (1 species) & †12 genera - Superfamily Cephoidea Newman, 1834 (1 & †1family) - Family Cephidae Newman, 1834 (21 genera, 160 spp. & †3 genera - †Superfamily Karatavitoidea Rasnitsyn, 1963 (1 family) - Superfamily Orussoidea Newman, 1834 (1 & †1 family) - Family Orussidae Newman, 1834 (16 genera, 82 spp.) & †3 genera - Superfamily Pamphilioidea Cameron, 1890 (2 & †1 families) (syn. Megalodontoidea) - Family Megalodontesidae Konow, 1897 (1 genera, 42 spp.) & †1 genus - Family Pamphiliidae Cameron, 1890 (10 genera, 291 spp.) & †3 genera - Superfamily Siricoidea Billberg, 1820 (2 & †5 families) - Family Siricidae Billberg, 1820 (11 genera, 111 spp.) & †9 genera - Superfamily Tenthredinoidea Latreille, 1803 (6 & †2 families) - Family Argidae Konow, 1890 (58 genera, 897 spp.) and †1 genus - Family Blasticotomidae Thomson, 1871 (2 genera, 12 spp.) & †1 genus - Family Cimbicidae W. Kirby, 1837 (16 genera, 182 spp.) & †6 genera - Family Diprionidae Rohwer, 1910 (11 genera, 136 spp.) & †2 genera - Family Pergidae Rohwer, 1911 (60 genera, 442 spp.) - Family Tenthredinidae Latreille, 1803 (400 genera, 5,500 spp.) & †14 genera - Superfamily Xiphydrioidea Leach, 1819 - Family Xiphydriidae Leach, 1819 (28 genera, 146 spp.) - Superfamily Xyeloidea Newman, 1834 - Family Xyelidae Newman, 1834 (5 genera, 63 spp.) & †47genera ## Description Many species of sawfly have retained their ancestral attributes throughout time, specifically their plant-eating habits, wing veins and the unmodified abdomen, where the first two segments appear like the succeeding segments. The absence of the narrow wasp waist distinguishes sawflies from other members of hymenoptera, although some are Batesian mimics with coloration similar to wasps and bees, and the ovipositor can be mistaken for a stinger. Most sawflies are stubby and soft-bodied, and fly weakly. Sawflies vary in length: Urocerus gigas, which can be mistaken as a wasp due to its black-and-yellow striped body, can grow up to 20 mm (3⁄4 in) in length, but among the largest sawflies ever discovered was Hoplitolyda duolunica from the Mesozoic, with a body length of 55 mm (2+1⁄4 in) and a wingspan of 92 mm (3+1⁄2 in). The smaller species only reach lengths of 2.5 mm (3⁄32 in). Heads of sawflies vary in size, shape and sturdiness, as well as the positions of the eyes and antennae. They are characterised in four head types: open head, maxapontal head, closed head and genapontal head. The open head is simplistic, whereas all the other heads are derived. The head is also hypognathous, meaning that the lower mouthparts are directed downwards. When in use, the mouthparts may be directed forwards, but this is only caused when the sawfly swings its entire head forward in a pendulum motion. Unlike most primitive insects, the sutures (rigid joints between two or more hard elements on an organism) and sclerites (hardened body parts) are obsolescent or absent. The clypeus (a sclerite that makes up an insects "face") is not divided into a pre- and postclypeus, but rather separated from the front. The antennal sclerites are fused with the surrounding head capsule, but these are sometimes separated by a suture. The number of segments in the antennae vary from six in the Accorduleceridae to 30 or more in the Pamphiliidae. The compound eyes are large with a number of facets, and there are three ocelli between the dorsal portions of the compound eyes. The tentorium comprises the whole inner skeleton of the head. Three segments make up the thorax: the mesothorax, metathorax and prothorax, as well as the exoskeletal plates that connect with these segments. The legs have spurs on their fourth segments, the tibiae. Sawflies have two pairs of translucent wings. The fore and hind wings are locked together with hooks. Parallel development in sawfly wings is most frequent in the anal veins. In all sawflies, 2A & 3A tend to fuse with the first anal vein. This occurs in several families including Argidae, Diprionidae and Cimbicidae. The larvae of sawflies are easily mistaken for lepidopteran larvae (caterpillars). However, several morphological differences can distinguish the two: while both larvae share three pairs of thoracic legs and an apical pair of abdominal prolegs, lepidopteran caterpillars have four pairs of prolegs on abdominal segments 3–6 while sawfly larvae have five pairs of prolegs located on abdominal segments 2–6; crochets are present on lepidopteran larvae, whereas on sawfly larvae they are not; the prolegs of both larvae gradually disappear by the time they burrow into the ground, therefore making it difficult to distinguish the two; and sawfly larvae only have a single pair of minute eyes, whereas lepidopteran larvae have four to six eyes on each side of the head. Sawfly larvae behave like lepidopteran larvae, walking about and eating foliage. Some groups have larvae that are eyeless and almost legless; these larvae make tunnels in plant tissues including wood. Many species of sawfly larvae are strikingly coloured, exhibiting colour combinations such as black and white while others are black and yellow. This is a warning colouration because some larvae can secrete irritating fluids from glands located on their undersides. ## Distribution Sawflies are widely distributed throughout the world. The largest family, the Tenthredinidae, with some 5,000 species, are found on all continents except Antarctica, though they are most abundant and diverse in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere; they are absent from New Zealand and there are few of them in Australia. The next largest family, the Argidae, with some 800 species, is also worldwide, but is most common in the tropics, especially in Africa, where they feed on woody and herbaceous angiosperms. Of the other families, the Blasticotomidae and Megalodontidae are Palearctic; the Xyelidae, Pamphilidae, Diprionidae, Cimbicidae, and Cephidae are Holarctic, while the Siricidae are mainly Holarctic with some tropical species. The parasitic Orussidae are found worldwide, mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The wood-boring Xiphydriidae are worldwide, but most species live in the subtropical parts of Asia. ## Behaviour and ecology Sawflies are mostly herbivores, feeding on plants that have a high concentration of chemical defences. These insects are either resistant to the chemical substances, or they avoid areas of the plant that have high concentrations of chemicals. The larvae primarily feed in groups; they are folivores, eating plants and fruits on native trees and shrubs, though some are parasitic. However, this is not always the case; Monterey pine sawfly (Itycorsia) larvae are solitary web-spinners that feed on Monterey pine trees inside a silken web. The adults feed on pollen and nectar. Sawflies are eaten by a wide variety of predators. While many birds find the larvae distasteful, some such as the currawong (Strepera) and stonechats (Saxicola) eat both adults and larvae. The larvae are an important food source for the chicks of several birds, including partridges. Sawfly and moth larvae form one third of the diet of nestling corn buntings (Emberiza calandra), with sawfly larvae being eaten more frequently on cool days. Black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) chicks show a strong preference for sawfly larvae. Sawfly larvae formed 43% of the diet of chestnut-backed chickadees (Poecile rufescens). Small carnivorous mammals such as the masked shrew (Sorex cinereus), the northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) and the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) predate heavily on sawfly cocoons. Insects such as ants and certain species of predatory wasps (Vespula vulgaris) eat adult sawflies and the larvae, as do lizards and frogs. Pardalotes, honeyeaters and fantails (Rhipidura) occasionally consume laid eggs, and several species of beetle larvae prey on the pupae. The larvae have several anti-predator adaptations. While adults are unable to sting, the larvae of species such as the spitfire sawfly regurgitate a distasteful irritating liquid, which makes predators such as ants avoid the larvae. In some species, the larvae cluster together, reducing their chances of being killed, and in some cases form together with their heads pointing outwards or tap their abdomens up and down. Some adults bear black and yellow markings that mimic wasps. ### Parasites Sawflies are hosts to many parasitoids, most of which are parasitic Hymenoptera; more than 40 species are known to attack them. However, information regarding these species is minimal, and fewer than 10 of these species actually cause a significant impact on sawfly populations. Many of these species attack their hosts in the grass or in other parasitoids. Well known and important parasitoids include Braconidae, Eulophidae and Ichneumonidae. Braconid wasps attack sawflies in many regions throughout the world, in which they are ectoparasitoids, meaning that the larvae live and feed outside of the hosts body; braconids have more of an impact on sawfly populations in the New World than they do in the Old World, possibly because there are no ichneumonid parasitoids in North America. Some braconid wasps that attack sawflies include Bracon cephi, B. lisogaster, B. terabeila and Heteropilus cephi. Female braconids locate sawfly larvae through the vibrations they produce when feeding, followed by inserting the ovipostior and paralysing the larva before laying eggs inside the host. These eggs hatch inside the larva within a few days, where they feed on the host. The entire host's body may be consumed by the braconid larvae, except for the head capsule and epidermis. The larvae complete their development within two or three weeks. Ten species of wasps in the family Ichneumonidae attack sawfly populations, although these species are usually rare. The most important parasitoids in this family are species in the genus Collyria. Unlike braconids, the larvae are endoparasitoids, meaning that the larvae live and feed inside the hosts body. One well known ichneumonid is Collyria coxator, which is a dominant parasitoid of C. pygmaeus. Recorded parasitism rates in Europe are between 20 – 76%, and as many as eight eggs can be found in a single larva, but only one Collyria individual will emerge from its host. The larva may remain inside of their host until spring, where it emerges and pupates. Several species in the family Eulophidae attack sawflies, although their impact is low. Two species in the genus Pediobius have been studied; the two species are internal larval parasitoids and have only been found in the northern hemisphere. Parasitism of sawflies by eulophids in grass exceeds 50%, but only 5% in wheat. It is unknown as to why the attack rate in wheat is low. Furthermore, some fungal and bacterial diseases are known to infect eggs and pupa in warm wet weather. Outbreaks of certain sawfly species, such as Diprion polytomum, have led scientists to investigate and possibly collect their natural enemies to control them. Parasites of D. polytomum have been extensively investigated, showing that 31 species of hymenopterous and dipterous parasites attack it. These parasites have been used in successful biological control against pest sawflies, including Cephus cinctus throughout the 1930s and 1950s and C. pygmaeus in the 1930s and 1940s. ### Life cycle and reproduction Like all other hymenopteran insects, sawflies go through a complete metamorphosis with four distinct life stages – egg, larva, pupa and adult. Many species are parthenogenetic, meaning that females do not need fertilization to create viable eggs. Unfertilized eggs develop as male, while fertilized eggs develop into females (arrhenotoky). The lifespan of an individual sawfly is two months to two years, though the adult life stage is often very short (approximately 7 – 9 days), only long enough for the females to lay their eggs. The female uses its ovipositor to drill into plant material to lay her eggs (though the family Orussoidea lay their eggs in other insects). Plant-eating sawflies most commonly are associated with leafy material but some specialize on wood, and the ovipositors of these species (such as the family Siricidae) are specially adapted for the task of drilling through bark. Once the incision has been made, the female will lay as many as 30 to 90 eggs. Females avoid the shade when laying their eggs because the larvae develop much slower and may not even survive, and they may not also survive if they are laid on immature and glaucous leaves. Hence, female sawflies search for young adult leaves to lay their eggs on. These eggs hatch in two to eight weeks, but such duration varies by species and also by temperature. Until the eggs have hatched, some species such as the small brown sawfly will remain with them and protects the eggs by buzzing loudly and beating her wings to deter predators. There are six larval stages that sawflies go through, lasting 2 – 4 months, but this also depends on the species. When fully grown, the larvae emerge from the trees en masse and burrow themselves into the soil to pupate. During their time outside, the larvae may link up to form a large colony if many other individuals are present. They gather in large groups during the day which gives them protection from potential enemies, and during the night they disperse to feed. The emergence of adults takes awhile, with some emerging anywhere between a couple months to 2 years. Some will reach the ground to form pupal chambers, but others may spin a cocoon attached to a leaf. Larvae that feed on wood will pupate in the tunnels they have constructed. In one species, the jumping-disc sawfly (Phyllotoma aceris) forms a cocoon which can act like a parachute. The larvae live in sycamore trees and do not damage the upper or lower cuticles of leaves that they feed on. When fully developed, they cut small perforations in the upper cuticle to form a circle. After this, they weave a silk hammocks within the circle; this silk hammock never touches the lower cuticle. Once inside, the upper-cuticle's disc separates and descends towards the surface with the larvae attaching themselves to the hammock. Once they reach the round, the larvae work their way into a sheltered area by jerking their discs along. The majority of sawfly species produce a single generation per year, but others may only have one generation every two years. Most sawflies are also female, making males rare. ## Relationship with humans Sawflies are major economic pests of forestry. Species in the Diprionidae, such as the pine sawflies, Diprion pini and Neodiprion sertifer, cause serious damage to pines in regions such as Scandinavia. D. pini larvae defoliated 500,000 hectares (1,200,000 acres) in the largest outbreak in Finland, between 1998 and 2001. Up to 75% of the trees may die after such outbreaks, as D. pini can remove all the leaves late in the growing season, leaving the trees too weak to survive the winter. Little damage to trees only occurs when the tree is large or when there is minimal presence of larvae. Eucalyptus trees can regenerate quickly from damage inflicted by the larvae; however, they can be substantially damaged from outbreaks, especially if they are young. The trees can be defoliated completely and may cause "dieback", stunting or even death. Sawflies are serious pests in horticulture. Different species prefer different host plants, often being specific to a family or genus of hosts. For example, Iris sawfly larvae, emerging in summer, can quickly defoliate species of Iris including the yellow flag and other freshwater species. Similarly the rose sawflies, Arge pagana and A. ochropus, defoliate rose bushes. The giant woodwasp or horntail, Urocerus gigas, has a long ovipositor, which with its black and yellow colouration make it a good mimic of a hornet. Despite the alarming appearance, the insect cannot sting. The eggs are laid in the wood of conifers such as Douglas fir, pine, spruce, and larch. The larvae eat tunnels in the wood, causing economic damage. Alternative measures to control sawflies can be taken. Mechanical methods include removing larvae from trees and killing them by squishing or dropping them into boiling water or kerosene, although this is not practical in plantations. Predators can also be used to eliminate larvae, as well as parasites which have been previously used in control programs. Small trees can be sprayed with a number of chemicals, including maldison, dimethoate and carbaryl, if removing larvae from trees is not effective enough.
38,291,892	Split Agreement	1,100,823,865	1995 military alliance pact between Croatia and the early Bosnian republic	[ "1995 in Bosnia and Herzegovina", "1995 in Croatia", "20th century in Split, Croatia", "20th-century military alliances", "Bosnia and Herzegovina–Croatia relations", "Bosnian War", "Bosnian peace process", "Croatian War of Independence", "July 1995 events in Europe", "Treaties concluded in 1995", "Treaties of Bosnia and Herzegovina", "Treaties of Croatia" ]	The Split Agreement or Split Declaration (Serbo-Croatian: Splitski sporazum or Splitska deklaracija) was a mutual defence agreement between Croatia, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, signed in Split, Croatia on 22 July 1995. It called on the Croatian Army (HV) to intervene militarily in Bosnia and Herzegovina, primarily in relieving the siege of Bihać. The Split Agreement was a turning point in the Bosnian War as well as an important factor in the Croatian War of Independence. It led to a large-scale deployment of the HV in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the capture of strategic positions in Operation Summer '95. This in turn allowed the quick capture of Knin, the capital of the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK), and the lifting of the siege of Bihać soon thereafter, during Operation Storm. Subsequent HV offensives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, supported by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), as well as NATO air campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina, shifted the military balance in the Bosnian War, contributing to the start of peace talks, leading to the Dayton Agreement. ## Background In November 1994, the Siege of Bihać entered a critical stage as the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS)—the Bosnian Serb military—and forces of the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) (an unrecognized state established following the Serb insurrection in Croatia) came close to capturing the Bosnian town. Bihać was a UN-designated "safe area", controlled by the 5th Corps of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), supported by the Croatian Defence Council (HVO)—the main military force of the Bosnian Croats. It was thought that the capture of Bihać by Serb forces would escalate the war and worsen a growing rift between the United States, France and the United Kingdom, with the U.S. and European powers advocating different approaches to preservation of the area. In addition, it was feared that Bihać would turn into the worst humanitarian disaster of the war. Furthermore, denying Bihać to the RSK or Republika Srpska was strategically important to Croatia, which was fighting the Croatian War of Independence against the RSK. The Chief of the Croatian General Staff Janko Bobetko thought that the possible fall of Bihać would represent the end of Croatia's war effort. It was considered that if the area were captured by Serb forces, it would allow for the consolidation of the territory held by Serb forces in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as redeployment of RSK and VRS troops to reinforce other areas. In a meeting of the Croatian and US Governments and military officials held on 29 November 1994, the Croatian representatives proposed an attack on Serb-held territory from Livno in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to draw off part of the forces besieging Bihać and to prevent its capture by the Serbs. The U.S. officials gave no response to the proposal and Operation Winter '94 was ordered the same day. Besides contributing to the defence of Bihać, the attack advanced positions held by the HV and the HVO nearer to supply routes vital to the RSK. The meeting was one in a series held in Zagreb and Washington, D.C. following the March 1994 Washington Agreement. The agreement ended the Croat–Bosniak War, re-allied the ARBiH and the HVO against the VRS and provided Croatia with US military advisors from the Military Professional Resources Incorporated (MPRI). MPRI was hired because a UN arms embargo was still in place, ostensibly to prepare the HV for NATO Partnership for Peace programme participation. The organization trained HV officers and personnel for 14 weeks from January to April 1995. It was also speculated that the MPRI also provided doctrinal advice, scenario planning and US government satellite information to Croatia. MPRI and Croatian officials dismissed such speculation. In November 1994, the US unilaterally ended the arms embargo against Bosnia and Herzegovina, in effect allowing the HV to supply itself as arms shipments entered through Croatia. The US involvement reflected a new military strategy endorsed by President Bill Clinton since February 1993. ## Call for Croatian intervention On 17 July, the militaries of the RSK and the VRS started a fresh effort to capture Bihać by expanding on gains made during Operation Spider. The offensive, codenamed Operation Sword '95, aimed to capture Cazin—a transportation route hub, situated in the centre of the ARBiH/HVO-controlled Bihać pocket. The attack was spearheaded by the RSK Special Units Corps and supported by the "Pauk" (Spider) operational group of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia (APWB) forces—who had been RSK allies since 1993— advancing from the northwest, with the RSK 39th Banija Corps from the northeast and the VRS 2nd Krajina Corps from the southeast. The effort was also supported by about 500 Yugoslav Army special forces and Željko Ražnatović Arkan's Serb Volunteer Guard—for a total of about 19,000 attacking or sector-holding troops arrayed against the ARBiH 5th Corps. By 21 July, the RSK troops managed a 7-kilometre (4.3 mi) breakthrough, but failed to sever the Bihać–Cazin road. A renewed push by the RSK and APWB troops four days later brought their forces within 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) of Cazin and put them in control or in favourable positions to strike several key passes and dominant points of the battlefield by 26 July. The ARBiH 5th Corps was left in a critical defensive situation, dependent on outside help. As the situation around Bihać deteriorated for the ARBiH, the government of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina realized that it could not hold the area on its own and asked Croatia for military intervention. ARBiH Chief of Staff Rasim Delić appealed to the HV and the HVO to assist the ARBiH 5th Corps on 20 July, proposing HV attacks towards Bosansko Grahovo, Knin and Vojnić. His plea was supported by President of Turkey Süleyman Demirel when he met Croatian President Franjo Tuđman in the Brijuni Islands the next day. This led to signing of the Split Agreement—a mutual defence agreement—by Tuđman and the President of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović in Split on 22 July, permitting large-scale deployments of the HV in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Besides Tuđman and Izetbegović, the agreement was signed by President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Krešimir Zubak, and the Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Haris Silajdžić. It was mediated by Demirel. The agreement specifically stated that Croatia requested urgent military aid, especially for the Bihać area, and that the parties to the agreement intended to coordinate their military activities. The full title of the Split Agreement, or Split Declaration, is Declaration on implementation of the Washington Agreement, joint defence against Serb aggression and achievement of a political solution in accordance with the efforts of the international community (Deklaracija o oživotvorenju Sporazuma iz Washingtona, zajedničkoj obrani od srpske agresije i postizanju političkog rješenja sukladno naporima međunarodne zajednice). The US Ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, and a German ambassador, representing the European Union, were present at the signing ceremony. ## Aftermath The agreement provided the HV with the opportunity to extend its territorial gains from Operation Winter '94 by advancing from the Livanjsko field. The move was expected to relieve pressure on the ARBiH 5th Corps defending Bihać, while positioning the HV in a more favourable position to strike Knin, the RSK capital. The HV and HVO responded quickly through Operation Summer '95 (Ljeto '95). The offensive, commanded by HV Lieutenant General Ante Gotovina, succeeded in capturing Bosansko Grahovo and Glamoč on 28–29 July. The attack drew off some RSK units away from Bihać, but not as many as expected at the outset of the operation. Nevertheless, the offensive put the HV in an excellent position, as it isolated Knin from Republika Srpska and FR Yugoslavia, and led to the capture of Bosansko Grahovo and Glamoč, which sat astride the only direct route between the two. Regardless of the limited scope of Operation Summer '95, the Split Agreement became a fundamental instrument to change the overall strategic situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina where Bosnian Serbs had had the upper hand since the beginning of the Bosnian war, as well as in Croatia, where the front lines had been largely static since the 1992 Sarajevo armistice. As Operation Summer '95 concluded, the RSK and Republika Srpska changed their priority from smashing the Bihać pocket to fending off a possible Croatian offensive to capture Knin (advancing from the recently gained territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina). RSK leaders Milan Martić and Mile Mrkšić agreed with UN Special Representative Yasushi Akashi to withdraw from the Bihać area on 30 July, hoping the move would contribute to averting the Croatian attack. Albeit, the attack materialized days later as Operation Storm, a decisive victory to the HV in the Croatian War of Independence. Success of Operation Storm also represented a strategic victory in the Bosnian War as it lifted the siege of Bihać, and allowed Croatian and Bosnian leaderships to plan a full-scale military intervention in the VRS-held Banja Luka area, based on the Split Agreement—aimed at creating a new balance of power in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a buffer zone along the Croatian border, and contributing to the resolution of the war. In September 1995, the intervention came about as Operation Mistral 2, supported by the ARBiH offensive Operation Sana, combined with a NATO air campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The offensives broke the VRS defences and captured large swathes of territory. The feat was repeated in Operation Southern Move (Operacija Južni potez) carried out in October, advancing within 25 kilometres (16 miles) of Banja Luka, and contributing to the start of peace talks that would result in the Dayton Agreement soon thereafter. Overall, deployment of the HV based on the Split Agreement, proved decisive in the defeat of the VRS in the Bosnian War.
48,989,172	2016 Spanish Grand Prix	1,158,562,825	Formula One motor race held on 15 May 2016	[ "2016 Formula One races", "2016 in Spanish motorsport", "May 2016 sports events in Spain", "Spanish Grand Prix" ]	The 2016 Spanish Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Pirelli 2016) was a Formula One motor race held on 15 May 2016 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain. The race was the fifth round of the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship, and marked the forty-sixth running of the Spanish Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship. It was the twenty-sixth time that the race has been held at the circuit. Nico Rosberg was the defending race winner and entered the round with a forty-three-point lead over teammate Lewis Hamilton in the Drivers' Championship. Their team, Mercedes, held an eighty-one point lead over Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship. Hamilton took pole position during qualifying, ahead of teammate Rosberg and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. Max Verstappen won the race upon his début for his new team Red Bull, having swapped his Toro Rosso seat with Daniil Kvyat ahead of the event. At the age of 18 years and 228 days, Verstappen became the youngest ever winner, the youngest driver to score a podium finish and the youngest ever to lead a lap of a Formula One race, breaking the previous records held by Sebastian Vettel. In the process he also became the first Dutchman to win a Grand Prix and the first Grand Prix winner born in the 1990s. Both Mercedes drivers retired from the race following a collision with each other on the first lap, thus marking the first Mercedes double retirement since the 2011 Australian Grand Prix and the first time the team had not scored a point since the 2012 United States Grand Prix. ## Report ### Background Daniil Kvyat and Max Verstappen traded places ahead of the race. Verstappen joined Red Bull Racing while Kvyat returned to Scuderia Toro Rosso. Red Bull's team principal Christian Horner explained the driver swap with Verstappen's talent, saying that the 18-year-old Dutchman and Daniel Ricciardo had the potential to become Formula One's best driver pairing. Furthermore, he stressed that Verstappen's move to Red Bull would tie him to the team for the foreseeable future. Daniil Kvyat meanwhile expressed surprise at the decision, saying during Thursday's press conference that he was "shocked" by his demotion, stressing that Red Bull did not give him a "real explanation". Following problems with his power unit in both the Chinese and Russian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton received a redesigned MGU-H unit, in a bid to solve the troubles which hampered him earlier. However, Mercedes were unable to guarantee that the problem would not appear again. With Spain being the first race in Western Europe, and a mid-season test coming up after the race, many teams introduced their first major car updates for the Grand Prix. Mercedes ran a new front wing with a "more pointy" nose during first free practice. Other changes were made to the engine cover and the rear wing. McLaren made more significant changes to their MP4-31, most notably on the front wing, which Sky Sports commentator Ted Kravitz called the "most intricate front wing I've ever seen". Force India updated their VJM09 to improve airflow. According to the team, they were looking for improved driveability rather than faster lap times. Renault introduced a new chassis for Jolyon Palmer. More significantly, the French manufacturer debuted a new version of their power unit for both their works team and Red Bull at the two-day test following the race. All other teams except for Sauber also made changes to their cars, with the Swiss team continuing their financial struggles. They also announced that they would be forced to miss the mid-season test, being unable to field a development driver, with regulations demanding that two out of four test days be driven by young driver talents. Both Sauber and Haas were allowed to use the updated version of Ferrari's 2016 power unit, which the works team had already used in Russia two weeks earlier. Going into the weekend, Nico Rosberg led the Drivers' Championship, having taken the maximum number of 100 points from the first four races. Lewis Hamilton followed in second with 57 points, while Kimi Räikkönen was third with 43 points. Daniel Ricciardo followed in fourth, ahead of Sebastian Vettel. In the Constructors' standings, Mercedes was first with 157 points, 81 points clear of second-placed Ferrari. Behind them, Red Bull led fourth-placed Williams by just six points. Sole tyre supplier Pirelli brought the hard, medium and soft tyres to the event, the first time this season to feature the orange hard tyres. As per the regulations of the 2016 season, every driver had to set aside one set each of the two hardest compounds for the race and one set of the soft tyres for Q3 (should they advance). The drivers had freedom of what other compounds they chose for the remaining ten out of thirteen sets. ### Free practice Per the regulations for the 2016 season, two 90-minute practice sessions were held on Friday and another 60-minute session was held before qualifying on Saturday. The Ferrari drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen, set the pace in the first session, both on the soft tyre compound. The Mercedes drivers Rosberg and Hamilton followed, albeit on the medium compound, recording more timed laps than their rivals. Both Red Bull cars followed in fifth and sixth, with Daniel Ricciardo faster than new teammate Max Verstappen. Valtteri Bottas was seventh for Williams, two places ahead of teammate Felipe Massa, who at one point spun out at turn five. Upon his return to Toro Rosso, Daniil Kvyat was unable to match the pace of his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr., ending up half a second behind him. Esteban Ocon made his first free practice appearance of the season for Renault, replacing Jolyon Palmer, but was unable to set a timed lap. He suffered a tyre failure, caused by debris on the track. Force India's Sergio Pérez managed only nine laps as he spent much of the session in the pit lane after smoke emerged from the rear of his car. Mercedes topped the time sheets in the second session, now switching to the soft compound tyres as well, with Nico Rosberg two and a half-tenths of a second clear of Kimi Räikkönen, while Lewis Hamilton was third fastest, more than seven-tenths off Rosberg's time. Räikkönen's running was interrupted for a while when he was called back into the pitlane to investigate a fuel system problem, but was able to get back out. Fernando Alonso was seventh fastest for McLaren, but needed a replacement of his car's plank after running wide over artificial grass surrounding the track. His teammate, Jenson Button, also experienced problems, having to stop at the end of the pitlane early in the session with an electrical issue. Renault's problem from the first session continued: Jolyon Palmer, back in his car in place of Ocon, suffered a tyre failure on the start-finish straight, bringing out red flags in the process. Renault and tyre supplier Pirelli were left puzzled over the failure, as in this incident, no sign of a cut from debris was found. Nico Rosberg was again fastest in the third practice session on Saturday morning, setting a time of 1:23.078 on his first timed run, a time that stood until the end of the session. Hamilton was second, 0.126 seconds off, followed by Sebastian Vettel just two-hundredths of a second behind him. In fourth place, Max Verstappen was faster than teammate Ricciardo for the first time, who finished fifth, ahead of Räikkönen. Upon beginning his preparation laps for qualifying, Rosberg had to come back into the garage, as a sensor on his car was malfunctioning. The team was capable of repairing the damage and he went back out for the final minutes of practice. Sergio Pérez was satisfied with the eighth fastest time, saying that the car had improved "everywhere" following the updates it had received. ### Qualifying Qualifying consisted of three parts, 18, 15 and 12 minutes in length respectively, with six drivers eliminated from competing after each of the first two sessions. In the first part of qualifying (Q1), Nico Rosberg set a time of 1:23.002, the fastest of the weekend up to that point, two-tenths of a second ahead of teammate Hamilton. Manor and Sauber occupied the back rows of the grid. Felipe Massa's first lap was seven-tenths of a second slower than the one from his teammate Bottas and as he was unable to set another timed lap, he became the surprise elimination in Q1, behind Jolyon Palmer, who was dropped into 17th place by a late improvement from Jenson Button. In Q2, it was Hamilton who came out on top, exactly six-tenths of a second ahead of Rosberg. Verstappen was third fastest, ahead of Ricciardo in fifth. Kimi Räikkönen had to abandon his first fast lap after running wide in turn four, but later set a time good enough for fourth. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel recorded just one timed lap, saving a set of tyres and was sixth. On his return to Toro Rosso, Kvyat was eliminated in 13th place, while teammate Sainz went through to Q3. Sergio Pérez advanced as well, demoting his teammate Hülkenberg into elimination in the process, who would line up eleventh on the grid. Joining him on the sidelines for Q3 were Jenson Button in twelfth, with Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Gutiérrez lining up behind Kvyat. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were the first out in Q3. Hamilton's early sector times put him on course to a new fastest lap of the weekend, but a brake lockup at turn ten ruined his lap and tyres. Nico Rosberg made no such mistake and claimed provisional pole position. As the two Ferrari drivers struggled to find pace, Max Verstappen claimed second place for the time being, before the drivers went out for their second laps. Lewis Hamilton's second flying lap bested Rosberg's time by almost three-tenths of a second, and saw him take the fifty-second pole of his career. The two Red Bull cars of Ricciardo and Verstappen followed, with Räikkönen and Vettel for Ferrari in fifth and sixth respectively, both more than a second behind Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas was best of the rest ahead of Sainz, Pérez and Alonso. It was the first appearance in Q3 for McLaren since they resumed their association with Honda in 2015. ### Race At the start, Nico Rosberg got around the outside of Hamilton in turn one, while Räikkönen lost positions due to a slow getaway. Sebastian Vettel got past Verstappen, but was immediately repassed on the approach to turn four. At the front of the race, coming out of turn three, Hamilton tried to retake the position from Rosberg. As the latter defended his position, Hamilton went off the track and spun and they collided at turn 4, ending the race of both Mercedes drivers. The collision resulted in a safety car period, with the order standing: Ricciardo, Verstappen, Sainz, Vettel and Räikkönen. The safety car came in at the end of lap four. Vettel got past Sainz on lap eight and Räikkönen tried to follow suit two laps later, but was forced off track into turn two. He completed the move one lap later at the same spot. Sainz and Button were the first to come into the pit lane for new tyres on lap 12, followed by race leader Ricciardo one lap later, making Verstappen the first Dutchman to lead a Grand Prix, before he came in another lap later. When Vettel made a pit stop on lap 16, he emerged third behind the two Red Bull drivers, all on the medium compound tyre. By lap 20, Sebastian Vettel was closing the gap to the two Red Bulls ahead of him, coming within three seconds of Verstappen. On lap 22, Nico Hülkenberg retired when his power unit caught fire and he had to stop on the sidelines. While Massa had fought from 18th on the grid into tenth, his teammate Bottas was lying fifth by lap 25, ahead of Sainz. On lap 28, Ricciardo was again the first of the front runners to pit, taking on the soft compound. Vettel came in two laps later, making the same choice in tyres. This left Verstappen to lead Kimi Räikkönen, as it emerged that both would run on a different strategy, pitting only twice in contrast to the three stopping Vettel and Ricciardo. On lap 34, the gap between the two leaders was 2.1 seconds, before Verstappen came in on the following lap. Räikkönen responded one lap later, emerging behind Verstappen. On lap 39, Vettel came in for his third and final stop, while Ricciardo stayed out for another four laps. When he returned to the track, he was behind Vettel, but on fresher tyres. While Räikkönen closed on Verstappen at the front, Fernando Alonso's home race ended on lap 47, pulling over to the side of the track at turn three. Räikkönen managed to get into the one-second window to activate the drag reduction system (DRS), as Vettel was eight seconds behind him with Ricciardo closing on him in fourth place. By lap 57, Ricciardo was close enough to use DRS as well, but unable to pass. Three laps later, Ricciardo made an attempt at overtaking into turn one, but braking too late left him running wide, allowing Vettel back through. As the front runners lapped backmarkers, Kvyat, after scoring the first fastest lap for himself and Toro Rosso, overtook Gutiérrez for tenth place. Two laps from finish, Ricciardo suffered a puncture and was forced to pit, but retained fourth place ahead of Bottas. On the last lap, Renault drivers Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer collided, but both made it to the finish. As Verstappen crossed the finish line, he became the youngest ever and first Dutch race winner in Formula One. ### Post-race At the podium interviews, conducted by singer Plácido Domingo, Verstappen expressed delight about a "great race", crediting his team with giving him a good car. Kimi Räikkönen said that while he was happy for Verstappen, he was disappointed not to have won. He blamed the lack of downforce while following as the reason why he had been unable to pass Verstappen. Vettel congratulated the winner as well, but lamented that his different strategy had not worked out in his favour. During the post-race press conference, Räikkönen stressed that had anyone offered the team two podium positions after their poor performance in qualifying, they would have taken it "happily". Fourth placed Ricciardo expressed bitterness over Red Bull's decision to switch him to a three-stop strategy, which eventually lost him a podium position, saying: "I'm a bit devastated. A big part of me is happy the team are on winning form but it's hard to celebrate". His team later explained their decision, declaring that they had focused their strategy on Vettel, who they had considered the biggest threat. In the Grand Prix, Max Verstappen broke several records: apart from being the youngest ever driver to win a race at 18 years and 228 days, he also was the youngest to stand on a Formula One podium, in both instances breaking Sebastian Vettel's record set at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix by more than two years. Vettel had been 21 years and 2 months at the time. Verstappen also became the youngest driver to lead at least one lap of a Grand Prix, again overcoming a record set by Vettel, at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix. Verstappen also was the first driver born in the 1990s to win a Grand Prix. He received considerable praise after the race, with Sky Sports F1's David Croft saying that he "has shown he has everything to be a world champion". His father Jos Verstappen, himself a former Grand Prix driver, declared that he considered his son a better driver than himself, as race wins had eluded him during his own career in the sport. French sport newspaper L'Équipe declared Verstappen to be "already a great" and "in the big leagues". Verstappen was also the first Dutchman to win a race, with the Netherlands becoming the 22nd country to produce a race winner. He was the tenth different winner of the Spanish Grand Prix in as many past editions. Following their collision, Hamilton and Rosberg were summoned to the stewards after the race but neither received a penalty, as the stewards rated their crash as a racing incident, with no driver in particular to blame. It emerged that Rosberg had chosen the wrong engine mode for the start, being down on power which led to Hamilton going for a passing manoeuvre. However, Rosberg remained convinced that he had done nothing wrong, saying: "I made it very clear I wasn't going to leave any space on the inside and I was very surprised he went for the gap". While Hamilton apologised to the team after the incident, he refused to accept blame for it. Opinions about the incident varied: While Mercedes's executive chairman Niki Lauda blamed Hamilton for the crash, former F1 driver Anthony Davidson said on Sky Sports F1 that Rosberg's move was "very aggressive". Three-time world champion Jackie Stewart said after the race that Mercedes should fine Hamilton for the crash: "Hamilton is to blame. Rosberg was allowed to protect himself. You don't go for it on the first lap." Mercedes's head of motorsport Toto Wolff stressed after the race that the team would continue to let their drivers race against each other freely, a decision praised by former world champion Alain Prost. While Rosberg said after the race that he contemplated having a talk with Hamilton about the situation, Mercedes later decided that they did "not need clear-the-air talks". However, it later emerged that the pair did have a conversation about the incident before the next race in Monaco, which, according to Hamilton, was marked by "pure respect". It was Mercedes's first double retirement since the 2011 Australian Grand Prix, and the first time they failed to score a point since the 2012 United States Grand Prix, ending a 62-race long streak, the third longest in Formula One history. For his last lap collision with teammate Jolyon Palmer, Kevin Magnussen received a ten-second time penalty, dropping him one place to 15th. He also received two penalty points to his licence. Carlos Sainz received a reprimand from the stewards for leaving the pit lane one minute before it was allowed. He escaped a more severe penalty because he stopped shortly afterwards, thereby not gaining an advantage. Upon his return to Toro Rosso, Daniil Kvyat recorded the first fastest lap of his career, and the first for the Italian team in their 190th Grand Prix. With 100 points from the first four races, Nico Rosberg remained on top of the Drivers' Championship, while Hamilton's retirement dropped him behind Räikkönen, who now trailed Rosberg by 39 points, four points ahead of Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo were level on points with 48, while Verstappen's victory moved him into sixth on 38. In the Constructors' standings, Mercedes retained their lead on 157 points, but Ferrari closed the gap to 48 points, with Red Bull in third on 94. Toro Rosso moved ahead of Haas into fifth, while Force India took seventh from McLaren. ## Classification ### Qualifying ### Race Notes: - – Kevin Magnussen originally finished 14th but received a ten-second time penalty after the race for causing a collision with Jolyon Palmer. ## Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Constructors' Championship standings - Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. ## See also - 2016 Catalunya GP2 Series round - 2016 Catalunya GP3 Series round
36,437,575	Mortimer Grimshaw	1,088,503,323	English political activist, strike leader and cotton weaver	[ "1826 births", "1869 deaths", "19th-century deaths from tuberculosis", "British weavers", "Date of birth unknown", "English activists", "People from Great Harwood", "Tuberculosis deaths in England" ]	Mortimer Grimshaw (c. 1826 – 22 December 1869) was an English political activist, strike leader and cotton weaver. He briefly attained national fame in the 1850s due to his part in the Preston strike of 1853–54. A large man whose face was marked by smallpox, he was renowned for his oratory, which earned him the nickname of the "Thunderer of Lancashire". The son of a radical public speaker and orator, Grimshaw's early campaigns were centred on the improvement of working conditions for the mill-workers in the village of Royton and enforcement of the Factory Acts. He was an outspoken critic of the Whig Party and an advocate of the Chartist movement, in particular of their anti-Whig alliance with the Tory Party. Strikes among mill-workers began to break out during the early 1850s and Grimshaw was one of the leaders, along with George Cowell, of the strike in Preston in 1853. The strikers were fruitless in their demands for a ten per cent wage increase, and Grimshaw found himself with no further role in the workers' unions. He and his fellow conspirators were charged with conspiring to prevent people working in the mills, although the charges were later dropped. Following the defeat in Preston, Grimshaw emigrated to the United States, where he became a supporter of the Confederacy. In 1861, he and Cowell attempted to intervene in a strike in Clitheroe but were branded "notorious scoundrels" by the weavers there for their parts in the Preston strike. The following year he joined a small group of Lancashire men who unsuccessfully attempted to rally support for the Confederates in northern England. After a period as a freelance industrial mediator, selling his services to mill owners and working against the unions he had once aligned with, he returned to his job as a power-loom weaver until his death from tuberculosis in 1869. Grimshaw and his activities were the basis for two of the author Charles Dickens' characters. ## Early life and career Grimshaw was born in or around Great Harwood, Lancashire into a working-class family and baptised at Church Kirk in 1826. His father, Thomas, had a reputation as a radical public speaker in the early part of the 19th century. Grimshaw initially worked as a cotton weaver before becoming a full-time activist and agitator. He first came to prominence in the village of Royton, near Oldham, in 1852 as a campaigner for the improvement and enforcement of the Factory Acts, to improve the working conditions of those employed in the cotton mills. In the same year he became editor of the anti-Whig broadsheet, the Royton Vindicator. He criticised the suppression of local political activists and supported the alliance of the Chartist movement with the Tories against the Whigs. Mill workers in England became increasingly disenchanted with improper practices by factory owners, long working hours and unsatisfactory conditions. During the early 1850s workers throughout the country began to campaign for higher wages and strikes were held in several towns and cities; brickmakers in Manchester struck in January while woollen mill operatives in the West Riding of Yorkshire went on strike two months later. Grimshaw himself was involved in a strike in Stockport, where workers were demanding a ten percent wage increase, in March 1853. ## Preston strike of 1853–1854 When cotton weavers in Preston struck in September of that year, again demanding a wage increase of ten percent, he and fellow activist George Cowell became the most prominent leaders at the mass meetings of the workers. Grimshaw would often wear a white hat at meetings in the style of politicians Henry Hunt and William Cobbett. According to local journalist Charles Hardwick, he was a strong advocate of the liberation of oppressed "factory slaves" but it was noted that his judgement in arguments could often be overpowered by his enthusiasm and emotions. In the seven months that Grimshaw was involved with the Preston strike he travelled throughout Lancashire and Yorkshire, speaking at more than 60 public meetings. At one meeting in October 1853, he shared the platform with John B. Horsfall and Chartist leader Ernest Jones, whose Labour Parliament Grimshaw was involved in the following year as one of the two delegates from Preston, along with Wallace Beever. The Labour Parliament was partly a response to a lock-out of around 20,000 mill workers by the employers in Preston; its aim was to organise a levy on wages to support operatives who went on strike or were locked out. Those paying the levy were to elect a committee to buy and look after land and factories and the Parliament would meet on a yearly basis. However, the plan did not gain support among all Chartists and the plans never materialised. The Preston strike ended in defeat for Grimshaw, Cowell and the operatives and as a result there were no suitable jobs for him in the unions; his characteristics would not have lent themselves to a secretarial role. In April 1854, Grimshaw spoke at a meeting in Fulwood advocating for the creation of a new mill town outside Preston, where the factories would be owned by the workers; this idea too was unsuccessful. On 10 August 1854, Grimshaw, Cowell and nine other men were indicted for conspiring to "prevent certain persons working in the mills in [Preston]". Although the charges were dropped by the prosecution, the judge presiding implied he would otherwise have felt compelled to pass down a severe sentence and expressed his hope that none of the 11 would engage in such conspiracy again. Two years later, Grimshaw and Horsfall raised funds to enable them to emigrate and he subsequently spent some time living in the northern United States. Upon his return to England, Grimshaw, Cowell and two other weavers were involved in a dispute between mill-owners and workers in Clitheroe, Lancashire, in 1861. However, due to their lack of success in Preston the group were branded a "gang of notorious scoundrels" by strike leader John O'Neil and were treated with hostility by the gathered crowds of weavers. ## Later career During his time in America, Grimshaw had developed pro-Confederacy tendencies. In general, there was some support for the Confederacy among people who were affected by the shortage in cotton from America caused by the American Civil War, such as traders and mill-owners. On a personal level, Grimshaw was opposed to the growth of capitalism in the United States and described the notions of American freedom and liberty as "farce and humbug". In 1862 he became part of a small group of working-class Lancashire men, all of whom had been involved in various strikes in the 1850s, assembled by Liverpool-based tin plate merchant James Spence. The group held meetings with the intention of rallying support for the Confederates within northern England, particularly in Lancashire and Cheshire. However, when a vote regarding the support of British mediation in America was taken at one meeting in Blackburn, only 12 out of more than 4,000 workers voted in favour of Grimshaw. The local Weavers' Association consequently declared themselves in favour of Abraham Lincoln and his Union. Ultimately, the group's efforts were handicapped by an inability to maintain activity throughout the duration of the Civil War; by 1864 only two of the original company remained. By the end of his career, Grimshaw had become a freelance political adventurer, industrial mediator and anti-union agitator selling his services to mill-owners and employers. In an 1864 letter to George Wilson, former president of the Anti-Corn Law League during the 1840s, he described himself as "destitute and pennyless [sic]" and begged the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway chairman for money or employment. This was the last public record of Grimshaw; he returned to work as a power-loom weaver until his death in Rishton from the lung disease tuberculosis on 22 December 1869. He is buried at St Bartholomew's Church in Great Harwood. ## Legacy Two of Charles Dickens' characters were based on Grimshaw. Dickens travelled to Preston in January 1854 to gather information about the strikes for a piece in his weekly magazine Household Words. He attended two meetings where union delegates from nearby towns presented money they had raised in support of the striking Preston workers. In the resulting article On Strike, Dickens describes the general good order of the meetings, which was only disturbed by Grimshaw's oratory; in the article he is given the alias "Gruffshaw". Later in 1854, Dickens used Grimshaw as his inspiration for Slackbridge, the "unscrupulous demagogue" from the novel Hard Times. Like Grimshaw, Slackbridge is a vocal advocate for better conditions for factory workers in the fictional Coketown; in the story, however, the campaign is successful and the workers unionise rather than going on strike. In his Reader's Guide to Charles Dickens, critic Philip Hobsbaum considers Slackbridge to be a somewhat exaggerated, more sentimental and inflammatory, caricature of Grimshaw.
365,342	Red-tailed hawk	1,169,995,059	Species of bird	[ "Apex predators", "Articles containing video clips", "Birds described in 1788", "Birds of North America", "Birds of the Dominican Republic", "Buteo", "Falconry", "Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin" ]	The red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members within the genus of Buteo in North America or worldwide. The red-tailed hawk is one of three species colloquially known in the United States as the "chickenhawk", though it rarely preys on standard-sized chickens. The bird is sometimes also referred to as the red-tail for short, when the meaning is clear in context. Red-tailed hawks can acclimate to all the biomes within their range, occurring on the edges of non-ideal habitats such as dense forests and sandy deserts. The red-tailed hawk occupies a wide range of habitats and altitudes, including deserts, grasslands (from small meadows to the treed fringes of more extensive prairies), coniferous and deciduous forests, agricultural fields, and urban areas. Its latitudinal limits fall around the tree line in the subarctic and it is absent from the high Arctic. Generally it favors varied habitats with open woodland, woodland edge and open terrain. It is legally protected in Canada, Mexico, and the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The 14 recognized subspecies vary in appearance and range, varying most often in color, and in the west of North America, red-tails are particularly often strongly polymorphic, with individuals ranging from almost white to nearly all black. The subspecies Harlan's hawk (B. j. harlani) is sometimes considered a separate species (B. harlani). The red-tailed hawk is one of the largest members of the genus Buteo, typically weighing from 690 to 1,600 g (1.5 to 3.5 lb) and measuring 45–65 cm (18–26 in) in length, with a wingspan from 110–141 cm (3 ft 7 in – 4 ft 8 in). This species displays sexual dimorphism in size, with females averaging about 25% heavier than males. The diet of red-tailed hawks is highly variable and reflects their status as opportunistic generalists, but in North America, they are most often predators of small mammals such as rodents of an immense diversity of families and species. Prey that is terrestrial and at least partially diurnal is preferred, so types such as ground squirrels are preferred where they naturally occur. Over much of the range, smallish rodents such as voles alternated with larger rabbits and hares often collectively form the bulk of the diet. Large numbers of birds and reptiles can occur in the diet in several areas, and can even be the primary foods. Meanwhile, amphibians, fish and invertebrates can seem rare in the hawk’s regular diet, but they are not infrequently taken by immature hawks. Red-tailed hawks may survive on islands absent of native mammals on diets variously including invertebrates such as crabs, as well as lizards or birds. Like many Buteo species, they hunt from a perch most often, but can vary their hunting techniques where prey and habitat demand it. Because they are so common and easily trained as capable hunters, in the United States they are the most commonly captured hawks for falconry. Falconers are permitted to take only passage hawks (which have left the nest, are on their own, but are less than a year old) so as to not affect the breeding population. Passage red-tailed hawks are also preferred by falconers because they have not yet developed the adult behaviors that would make them more difficult to train. ## Taxonomy The red-tailed hawk was formally described in 1788 by German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin under the binomial name Falco jamaicensis. Gmelin based his description on the "cream-coloured buzzard" described in 1781 by John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. The type locality is Jamaica. The red-tailed hawk is now placed in the genus Buteo that was erected by French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799. The red-tailed hawk is a member of the subfamily Buteoninae, which includes about 55 currently recognized species. Unlike many lineages of accipitrids, which seemed to have radiated out of Africa or south Asia, the Buteoninae clearly originated in the Americas based on fossil records and current species distributions (more than 75% of the extant hawks from this lineage are found in the Americas). As a subfamily, the Buteoninae seem to be rather old based on genetic materials, with monophyletic genera bearing several million years of individual evolution. Diverse in plumage appearance, habitat, prey, and nesting preferences, buteonine hawks are nonetheless typically medium- to large-sized hawks with ample wings (while some fossil forms are very large, larger than any eagle alive today). The red-tailed hawk is a member of the genus Buteo, a group of medium-sized raptors with robust bodies and broad wings. Members of this genus are known as "buzzards" in Eurasia, but "hawks" in North America. Under current classification, the genus includes about 29 species, the second-most diverse of all extant accipitrid genera behind only Accipiter. The buzzards of Eurasia and Africa are mostly part of the genus Buteo, although two other small genera within the subfamily Buteoninae occur in Africa. At one time, the rufous-tailed hawk (B. ventralis), distributed in Patagonia and some other areas of southern South America, was considered part of the red-tailed hawk species. With a massive distributional gap consisting of most of South America, the rufous-tailed hawk is considered a separate species now, but the two hawks still compromise a "species pair" or superspecies, as they are clearly closely related. The rufous-tailed hawk, while comparatively little studied, is very similar to the red-tailed hawk, being about the same size and possessing the same wing structure, and having more or less parallel nesting and hunting habits. Physically, however, rufous-tailed hawk adults do not attain a bright brick-red tail as do red-tailed hawks, instead retaining a dark brownish-cinnamon tail with many blackish crossbars similar to juvenile red-tailed hawks. Another, more well-known, close relative to the red-tailed hawk is the common buzzard (B. buteo), which has been considered as its Eurasian "broad ecological counterpart" and may also be within a species complex with red-tailed hawks. The common buzzard, in turn, is also part of a species complex with other Old World buzzards, namely the mountain buzzard (B. oreophilus), the forest buzzard (B. trizonatus ), and the Madagascar buzzard (B. brachypterus). All six species, although varying notably in size and plumage characteristics, in the alleged species complex that contains the red-tailed hawk share with it the feature of the blackish patagium marking, which is missing in most other Buteo spp. ### Subspecies At least 14 recognized subspecies of B. jamaicensis are described, which vary in range and in coloration. Not all authors accept every subspecies, though, particularly some of the insular races of the tropics (which differ only slightly in some cases from the nearest mainland forms) and particularly Krider's hawk, by far the most controversial red-tailed hawk race, as few authors agree on its suitability as a full-fledged subspecies. ## Description Red-tailed hawk plumage can be variable, depending on the subspecies and the region. These color variations are morphs, and are not related to molting. The western North American population, B. j. calurus, is the most variable subspecies and has three main color morphs: light, dark, and intermediate or rufous. The dark and intermediate morphs constitute 10–20% of the population in the Western United States, but seem to constitute only 1–2% of B. j. calurus in western Canada. A whitish underbelly with a dark brown band across the belly, formed by horizontal streaks in feather patterning, is present in most color variations. This feature is variable in eastern hawks and generally absent in some light subspecies (i.e. B. j. fuertesi). Most adult red-tails have a dark-brown nape and upper head, which gives them a somewhat hooded appearance, while the throat can variably present a lighter brown "necklace". Especially in younger birds, the underside may be otherwise covered with dark-brown spotting, and some adults may too manifest this stippling. The back is usually a slightly darker brown than elsewhere with paler scapular feathers, ranging from tawny to white, forming a variable imperfect "V" on the back. The tail of most adults, which gives this species its name, is rufous brick-red above with a variably sized, black subterminal band and generally appears light buff-orange from below. In comparison, the typical pale immatures (i.e. less than two years old) typically have a mildly paler headed and tend to show a darker back than adults with more apparent pale wing-feather edges above (for descriptions of dark morph juveniles from B. j. calurus, which is also generally apt for description of rare dark morphs of other races, see under that subspecies description). In immature red-tailed hawks of all morphs, the tail is a light brown above with numerous small dark brown bars of roughly equal width, but these tend to be much broader on dark morph birds. Even in young red-tails, the tail may be a somewhat rufous tinge of brown. The bill is relatively short and dark, in the hooked shape characteristic of raptors, and the head can sometimes appear small in size against the thick body frame. The cere, the legs, and the feet of the red-tailed hawk are all yellow, as is the color of bare parts in many accipitrids of different lineages. Immature birds can be readily identified at close range by their yellowish irises. As the bird attains full maturity over the course of 3–4 years, the iris slowly darkens into a reddish-brown, which is the adult eye-color in all races. Seen in flight, adults usually have dark brown along the lower edge of the wings, against a mostly pale wing, which bares light brownish barring. Individually, the underwing coverts can range from all dark to off-whitish (most often more heavily streaked with brown) which contrasts with a distinctive black patagium marking. The wing coloring of adults and immatures is similar but for typical pale morph immatures having somewhat heavier brownish markings. Though the markings and color vary across the subspecies, the basic appearance of the red-tailed hawk is relatively consistent. Overall, this species is blocky and broad in shape, often appearing (and being) heavier than other Buteos of similar length. They are the heaviest Buteos on average in eastern North America, albeit scarcely ahead of the larger winged rough-legged buzzard (Buteo lagopus), and second only in size in the west to the ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis). Red-tailed hawks may be anywhere from the fifth to the ninth heaviest Buteo in the world depending on what figures are used. However, in the northwestern United States, ferruginous hawk females are 35% heavier than female red-tails from the same area. On average, western red-tailed hawks are relatively longer winged and lankier proportioned but are slightly less stocky, compact and heavy than eastern red-tailed hawks in North America. Eastern hawks may also have mildly larger talons and bills than western ones. Based on comparisons of morphology and function amongst all accipitrids, these features imply that western red-tails may need to vary their hunting more frequently to on the wing as the habitat diversifies to more open situations and presumably would hunt more variable and faster prey, whereas the birds of the east, which was historically well-wooded, are more dedicated perch hunters and can take somewhat larger prey but are likely more dedicated mammal hunters. In terms of size variation, red-tailed hawks run almost contrary to Bergmann's rule (i.e. that northern animals should be larger in relation than those closer to the Equator within a species) as one of the northernmost subspecies, B. j. alascensis, is the second smallest race based on linear dimensions and that two of the most southerly occurring races in the United States, B. j. fuertesi and B. j. umbrinus, respectively, are the largest proportioned of all red-tailed hawks. Red-tailed hawks tend have a relatively short but broad tails and thick, chunky wings. Although often described as long-winged, the proportional size of the wings is quite small and red-tails have high wing loading for a buteonine hawk. For comparison, two other widespread Buteo hawks in North America were found to weigh: 30 g (1.1 oz) for every square centimeter of wing area in the rough-legged buzzard (B. lagopus) and 44 g (1.6 oz)/cm<sup>2</sup> in the red-shouldered hawk (B. lineatus). In contrast, the red-tailed hawk weighed considerably more for their wing area: 199 g (7.0 oz) per square cm. As is the case with many raptors, the red-tailed hawk displays sexual dimorphism in size, as females are on average 25% larger than males. As is typical in large raptors, frequently reported mean body mass for red-tailed hawks is somewhat higher than expansive research reveals. Part of this weight variation is seasonal fluctuations; hawks tend to be heavier in winter than during migration or especially during the trying summer breeding season, and also due to clinal variation. Furthermore, immature hawks are usually lighter in mass than their adult counterparts despite having somewhat longer wings and tails. Male red-tailed hawks may weigh from 690 to 1,300 g (1.52 to 2.87 lb) and females may weigh 801 to 1,723 g (1.766 to 3.799 lb) (the lowest figure from a migrating female immature from Goshute Mountains, Nevada, the highest from a wintering female in Wisconsin). Some sources claim the largest females can weigh up to 2,000 g (4.4 lb), but whether this is in reference to wild hawks (as opposed to those in captivity or used for falconry) is not clear. The largest known survey of body mass in red-tailed hawks is still credited to Craighead and Craighead (1956), who found 100 males to average 1,028 g (2.266 lb) and 108 females to average 1,244 g (2.743 lb). However, these figures were apparently taken from labels on museum specimens, from natural history collections in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, without note to the region, age, or subspecies of the specimens. However, 16 sources ranging in sample size from the aforementioned 208 specimens to only four hawks in Puerto Rico (with 9 of the 16 studies of migrating red-tails), showed that males weigh a mean of 860.2 g (1.896 lb) and females weigh a mean of 1,036.2 g (2.284 lb), about 15% lighter than prior species-wide published weights. Within the continental United States, typical weights of males can range from 840.8 g (1.854 lb) (for migrating males in Chelan County, Washington) to 1,031 g (2.273 lb) (for male hawks found dead in Massachusetts), and females ranged from 1,057.9 g (2.332 lb) (migrants in the Goshutes) to 1,373 g (3.027 lb) (for females diagnosed as B. j. borealis in western Kansas). Size variation in body mass reveals that the red-tailed hawk typically varies only a modest amount and that size differences are geographically inconsistent. Male red-tailed hawks can measure 45 to 60 cm (18 to 24 in) in total length, females measuring 48 to 65 cm (19 to 26 in) long. Their wingspan typically can range from 105 to 141 cm (3 ft 5 in to 4 ft 8 in), although the largest females may possible span up to 147 cm (4 ft 10 in). In the standard scientific method of measuring wing size, the wing chord is 325.1–444.5 mm (12.80–17.50 in) long. The tail measures 188 to 258.7 mm (7.40 to 10.19 in) in length. The exposed culmen was reported to range from 21.7 to 30.2 mm (0.85 to 1.19 in) and the tarsus averaged 74.7–95.8 mm (2.94–3.77 in) across the races. The middle toe (excluding talon) can range from 38.3 to 53.8 mm (1.51 to 2.12 in), with the hallux-claw (the talon of the rear toe, which has evolved to be the largest in accipitrids) measuring from 24.1 to 33.6 mm (0.95 to 1.32 in) in length. ### Identification Although they overlap in range with most other American diurnal raptors, identifying most mature red-tailed hawks to species is relatively straightforward, particularly if viewing a typical adult at a reasonable distance. The red-tailed hawk is the only North American hawk with a rufous tail and a blackish patagium marking on the leading edge of its wing (which is obscured only on dark morph adults and Harlan’s hawks by similarly dark-colored feathers). Other larger adult Buteo spp. in North America usually have obvious distinct markings that are absent in red-tails, whether the rufous-brown "beard" of Swainson's hawks (B. swainsonii) or the colorful rufous belly and shoulder markings and striking black-and-white mantle of red-shouldered hawks (also the small "windows" seen at the end of their primaries). In perched individuals, even as silhouettes, the shape of large Buteo spp. may be distinctive, such as the wingtips overhanging the tail in several other species, but not in red-tails. North American Buteo spp. range from the dainty, compact builds of much smaller ones, such as broad-winged hawk (B. platypterus) to the heavyset, neckless look of ferruginous hawks or the rough-legged buzzards, which have a compact, smaller appearance than a red-tail in perched birds due to its small bill, short neck, and much shorter tarsi, while the opposite effect occurs in flying rough-legs with their much bigger wing area. In flight, most other large North American Buteo spp. are distinctly longer and more slender-winged than red-tailed hawks, with the much paler ferruginous hawk having peculiarly slender wings in relation to its massive, chunky body. Swainson's hawks are distinctly darker on the wing and ferruginous hawks are much paler-winged than typical red-tailed hawks. Pale morph adult ferruginous hawk can show mildly tawny-pink (but never truly rufous) upper tail, and like red-tails tend to have dark markings on underwing-coverts and can have a dark belly band, but compared to red-tailed hawks have a distinctly broader head, their remiges are much whiter looking with very small, dark primary tips, they lack the red-tail's diagnostic patagial marks and usually also lack the dark subterminal tail-band, and ferruginous hawks have totally feathered tarsi. With its whitish head, the ferruginous hawk is most similar to Krider's red-tailed hawks, especially in immature plumage, but the larger hawk has broader head and narrower wing shape, and the ferruginous immatures are paler underneath and on their legs. Several species share a belly band with the typical red-tailed hawk, but they vary from subtle (as in the ferruginous hawk) to solid blackish, the latter in most light-morph rough-legged buzzards. More difficult to identify among adult red-tails are their darkest variations, as most species of Buteo in North America also have dark morphs. Western dark morph red-tails (i.e. B. j. calurus) adults, however, retain the typical distinctive brick-red tail, which other species lack, and may stand out even more against the otherwise all chocolate-brown to black bird. Standard pale juveniles when perched show a whitish patch in the outer half of the upper surface of the wing, which other juvenile Buteo spp. lack. The most difficult to identify stages and plumage types are dark morph juveniles, Harlan's hawk and some Krider's hawks (the latter mainly with typical ferruginous hawks as mentioned). Some darker juveniles are similar enough to other Buteo juveniles that they "cannot be identified to species with any confidence under various field conditions." However, field identification techniques have advanced in the last few decades and most experienced hawk-watchers can distinguish even the most vexingly plumaged immature hawks, especially as the wing shapes of each species becomes apparent after seeing many. Harlan’s hawks are most similar to dark morph rough-legged buzzards and dark morph ferruginous hawks. Wing shape is the most reliable identification tool for distinguishing Harlan's hawks from these, but also the pale streaking on the breast of Harlan's, which tends to be conspicuous in most individuals, and is lacking in the other hawks. Also, dark morph ferruginous hawks do not have the dark subterminal band of a Harlan's hawk, but do bear a black undertail covert lacking in Harlan's. ### Vocalization The cry of the red-tailed hawk is a 2- to 3-second, hoarse, rasping scream, variously transcribed as kree-eee-ar, tsee-eeee-arrr or sheeeeee, that begins at a high pitch and slurs downward. This cry is often described as sounding similar to a steam whistle. The red-tailed hawk frequently vocalizes while hunting or soaring, but vocalizes loudest and most persistently in defiance or anger, in response to a predator or a rival hawk's intrusion into its territory. At close range, it makes a croaking guh-runk, possibly as a warning sound. Nestlings may give peeping notes with a "soft, sleepy quality" that give way to occasional screams as they develop, but those are more likely to be a soft whistle rather than the harsh screams of the adults. Their latter hunger call, given from 11 days (as recorded in Alaska) to after fledgling (in California), is different, a two-syllabled, wailing klee-uk food cry exerted by the young when parents leave the nest or enter their field of vision. A strange mechanical sound "not very unlike the rush of distant water" has been reported as uttered in the midst of a sky-dance. A modified call of chirp-chwirk is given during courtship, while a low key, duck-like nasal gank may be given by pairs when they are relaxed. The fierce, screaming cry of the adult red-tailed hawk is frequently used as a generic raptor sound effect in television shows and other media, even if the bird featured is not a red-tailed hawk. It is especially used in depictions of the bald eagle, which contributes to the common misconception that it is a bald eagle cry; actual bald eagle vocalizations are far softer and more chirpy than those of a red-tailed hawk. ## Distribution and habitat The red-tailed hawk is one of the most widely distributed of all raptors in the Americas. It occupies the largest breeding range of any diurnal raptor north of the Mexican border, just ahead of the American kestrel (Falco sparverius). While the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) has a greater latitudinal distribution as a nester in North America, its range as a breeding species is far more sporadic and sparse than that of red-tailed hawks. The red-tailed hawk breeds from nearly north-central Alaska, the Yukon, and a considerable portion of the Northwest Territories, there reaching as far as a breeder as Inuvik, Mackenzie River Delta and skirting the southern shores of Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake. Thereafter in northern Canada, breeding red-tails continue to northern Saskatchewan and across to north-central Ontario east to central Quebec and the Maritime Provinces of Canada, and south continuously to Florida. No substantial gaps occur throughout the entire contiguous United States, where breeding red-tailed hawks do not occur. Along the Pacific, their range includes all of Baja California, including Islas Marías, and Socorro Island in the Revillagigedo Islands. On the mainland, breeding red-tails are found continuously to Oaxaca, then experience a brief gap at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec thereafter subsequently continuing from Chiapas through central Guatemala on to northern Nicaragua. To the south, the population in highlands from Costa Rica to central Panama is isolated from breeding birds in Nicaragua. Further east, breeding red-tailed hawks occur in the West Indies in north Bahamas (i.e. Grand Bahama, Abaco and Andros) and all larger islands (such as Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico) and into the northern Lesser Antilles (Virgin Islands, Saint Barthélemy, Saba, Saint Kitts, and Nevis, being rare as a resident on Saint Eustatius and are probably extinct on Saint Martin). Their typical winter range stretches from southern Canada south throughout the remainder of the breeding range. Red-tailed hawks have shown the ability to become habituated to almost any habitat present in North and Central America. Their preferred habitat is mixed forest and field, largely woodland edge with tall trees or alternately high bluffs that may be used as nesting and perching sites. They occupy a wide range of habitats and altitudes, including deserts, grasslands, nearly any coastal or wetland habitat, mountains, foothills, coniferous and deciduous woodlands, and tropical rainforests. Agricultural fields and pastures, which are more often than not varied with groves, ridges, or streamside trees in most parts of America, may make nearly ideal habitat for breeding or wintering red-tails. They also adapt well to suburban areas especially ones with tall trees or any kind of parkland. Some red-tails may survive or even flourish in urban areas, usually hunting and roosting in available urban parks, cemeteries, road verges, and so on, and nesting freely either in trees or virtually any tall man-made structures. One famous urban red-tailed hawk, known as "Pale Male", became the subject of a nonfiction book, Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park, and is the first known red-tail in decades to successfully nest and raise young in the crowded New York City borough of Manhattan. As studied in Syracuse, New York, the highway system has been very beneficial to red-tails as it juxtaposed trees and open areas and blocks human encroachment with fences, with the red-tailed hawks easily becoming acclimated to car traffic. The only practice that has a negative effect on the highway-occupying red-tails is the planting of exotic Phragmites, which may occasionally obscure otherwise ideal highway habitat. In the northern Great Plains, the widespread practices of wildfire suppression and planting of exotic trees by humans has allowed groves of aspen and various other trees to invade what was once vast, almost continuous prairie grasslands, causing grassland obligates such as ferruginous hawks to decline and allowing parkland-favoring red-tails to flourish. To the contrary, clear-cutting of mature woodlands in New England, resulting in only fragmented and isolated stands of trees or low second growth remaining, was recorded to also benefit red-tailed hawks, despite being to the determent of breeding red-shouldered hawks. The red-tailed hawk, as a whole, rivals the peregrine falcon and the great horned owl among raptorial birds in the use of diverse habitats in North America. Beyond the high Arctic (as they discontinue as a breeder at the tree line), few other areas exist where red-tailed hawks are absent or rare in North and Central America. Some areas of unbroken forest, especially lowland tropical forests, rarely host red-tailed hawks, although they can occupy forested tropical highlands surprisingly well. In deserts, they can only occur where some variety of arborescent growth or ample rocky bluffs or canyons occur. ## Behavior The red-tailed hawk is highly conspicuous to humans in much of its daily behavior. Most birds in resident populations, which are well more than half of all red-tailed hawks, usually split nonbreeding-season activity between territorial soaring flight and sitting on a perch. Often, perching is for hunting purposes, but many sit on a tree branch for hours, occasionally stretching on a single wing or leg to keep limber, with no signs of hunting intent. Wintering typical pale-morph hawks in Arkansas were found to perch in open areas near the top of tall, isolated trees, whereas dark morphs more frequently perched in dense groups of trees. For many, and perhaps most, red-tailed hawks being mobbed by various birds is a daily concern and can effectively disrupt many of their daily behaviors. Mostly larger passerines, of multiple families from tyrant flycatchers to icterids, mob red-tails, despite other raptors, such as Accipiter hawks and falcons, being a notably greater danger to them. The most aggressive and dangerous attacker as such is likely to be various crows or other corvids, i.e. American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos), because a mobbing group (or "murder") of them can number up to as many as 75 crows, which may cause grievous physical harm to a solitary hawk, and if the hawks are nesting, separate the parent hawks and endanger the eggs or nestlings within their nest to predation by crows. Birds that mob red-tailed hawks can tell how distended the hawk's crop is (i.e. the upper chest and throat area being puffy versus flat-feathered and sleek), thus mob more often when the hawk is presumably about to hunt. ### Flight In flight, this hawk soars with wings often in a slight dihedral, flapping as little as possible to conserve energy. Soaring is by far the most efficient method of flight for red-tailed hawks, so is used more often than not. Active flight is slow and deliberate, with deep wing beats. Wing beats are somewhat less rapid in active flight than in most other Buteo hawks, even heavier species such as ferruginous hawks tend to flap more swiftly, due to the morphology of the wings. In wind, it occasionally hovers on beating wings and remains stationary above the ground, but this flight method is rarely employed by this species. When soaring or flapping its wings, it typically travels from 32 to 64 km/h (20 to 40 mph), but when diving may exceed 190 km/h (120 mph). Although North American red-tailed hawks will occasionally hunt from flight, a great majority of flight by red-tails in this area is for non-hunting purpose. During nest defense, red-tailed hawks may be capable of surprisingly swift, vigorous flight, while repeatedly diving at perceived threats. ### Migration Red-tailed hawks are considered partial migrants, as in about the northern third of their distribution, which is most of their range in Canada and Alaska, they almost entirely vacate their breeding grounds. In coastal areas of the north, however, such as in the Pacific Northwest to southern Alaska and in Nova Scotia on the Atlantic, red-tailed hawks do not usually migrate. More or less, any area where snow cover is nearly continuous during the winter shows an extended absence of most red-tailed hawks, so some areas as far south as Montana may show strong seasonal vacancies of red-tails. In southern Michigan, immature red-tailed hawks tended to remain in winter only when voles were abundant. During relatively long, harsh winters in Michigan, many more young ones were reported in northeastern Mexico. To the opposite extreme, hawks residing as far north as Fairbanks, Alaska, may persevere through the winter on their home territory, as was recorded with one male over three consecutive years. Birds of any age tend to be territorial during winter but may shift ranges whenever food requirements demand it. Wintering birds tend to perch on inconspicuous tree perches, seeking shelter especially if they have a full crop or are in the midst of poor or overly windy weather. Adult wintering red-tails tend to perch more prominently than immatures do, which select lower or more secluded perches. Immatures are often missed in winter bird counts, unless they are being displaced by dominant adults. Generally, though, immatures can seem to recognize that they are less likely to be attacked by adults during winter and can perch surprisingly close to them. Age is the most significant consideration of wintering hawks' hierarchy, but size does factor in, as larger immatures (presumably usually females) are less likely to displaced than smaller ones. Dark adult red-tailed hawks appear to be harder to locate when perched than other red-tails. In Oklahoma, for example, wintering adult Harlan's hawks were rarely engaged in fights or chased by other red-tails. These hawks tended to gather in regional pockets and frequently the same ones occurred year-to-year. In general, migratory behavior is complex and reliant on each individual hawk's decision-making (i.e. whether prey populations are sufficient to entice the hawk to endure prolonged snow cover). During fall migration, departure may occur as soon as late September, but peak movements occur in late October and all of November in the United States, with migration ceasing after mid-December. The northernmost migrants may pass over resident red-tailed hawks in the contiguous United States, while the latter are still in the midst of brooding fledglings. Not infrequently, several autumn hawk watches in Ontario, Quebec, and the northern United States record 4,500–8,900 red-tailed hawks migrating through each fall, with records of up to 15,000 in a season at Hawk Ridge hawk watch in Duluth, Minnesota. Unlike some other Buteo spp., such as Swainson's hawks and broad-winged hawks, red-tailed hawks do not usually migrate in groups, instead passing by one-by-one, and only migrate on days when winds are favorable. Most migrants do not move past southern Mexico in late autumn, but a few North American migrants may annually move as far south as breeding red-tailed hawks happen to occur, i.e. in Central America to as far south Panama. However, a few records were reported of wintering migrant red-tails turning up in Colombia, the first records of them anywhere in South America. Spring northward movements may commence as early as late February, with peak numbers usually occurring in late March and early April. Seasonal counts may include up to 19,000 red-tails in spring at Derby Hill hawk watch, in Oswego, New York, sometimes more than 5,000 are recorded in a day there. The most northerly migratory individuals may not reach breeding grounds until June, even adults. Immature hawks migrate later than adults in spring on average, but not, generally speaking, in autumn. In the northern Great Lakes, immatures return in late May to early June, when adults are already well into their nesting season and must find unoccupied ranges. In Alaska, adults tend to migrate before immatures in early to mid-September, to the contrary of other areas, probably as heavy snowfall begins. Yearlings that were banded in southwestern Idaho stayed for about 2 months after fledging, and then traveled long distances with a strong directional bias, with 9 of 12 recovered southeast of the study area- six of these moved south to coastal lowlands in Mexico] and as far as Guatemala, 4,205 km (2,613 mi) from their initial banding. In California, 35 hawks were banded as nestlings; 26 were recovered at less than 50 miles away, with multidirectional juvenile dispersals. Nestlings banded in Southern California sometimes actually traveled north as far as 1,190 km (740 mi) to Oregon, ranging to the opposite extreme as far as a banded bird from the Sierra Nevadas that moved 1,700 km (1,100 mi) south to Sinaloa. Nestlings banded in Green County, Wisconsin, did not travel very far comparatively by October–November, but by December, recoveries were found in states including Illinois, Iowa, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. ## Diet The red-tailed hawk is carnivorous, and a highly opportunistic feeder. Nearly any small animal they encounter may be viewed as potential food. Their most common prey are small mammals such as rodents and lagomorphs, but they also consume birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians, and invertebrates. Prey varies considerably with regional and seasonal availability, but usually centers on rodents, accounting for up to 85% of a hawk's diet. In total, nearly 500 prey species have been recorded in their diet, almost as many as great horned owls have been recorded as taking. When 27 North American studies are reviewed, mammals make up 65.3% of the diet by frequency, 20.9% by birds, 10.8% by reptiles, 2.8% by invertebrates, and 0.2% by amphibians and fish. The geometric mean body mass of prey taken by red-tailed hawks in North America is about 187 g (6.6 oz) based on a pair of compilation studies from across the continent, regionally varying at least from 43.4 to 361.4 g (1.53 to 12.75 oz). Staple prey (excluding invertebrates) has been claimed to weigh from 15 to 2,114 g (0.033 to 4.661 lb), ranging roughly from the size of a small mouse or lizard to the size of a black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus). The daily food requirements range from 7 to 11.2% of their own body weight, so that about three voles or the equivalent weight are required daily for a typical range adult. The talons and feet of red-tailed hawks are relatively large for a Buteo hawk; in an average-sized adult red-tail, the "hallux-claw" or rear talon, the largest claw on all accipitrids, averages about 29.7 mm (1.17 in). In fact, the talons of red-tails in some areas averaged of similar size to those of ferruginous hawks which can be considerably heavier and notably larger than those of the only slightly lighter Swainson's hawk. This species may exert an average of about 91 kg/cm<sup>2</sup> (1,290 lbf/in<sup>2</sup>) of pressure through its feet. Owing to its morphology, red-tailed hawks generally can attack larger prey than other Buteo hawks typically can, and are capable of selecting the largest prey of up to their own size available at the time of hunting, though in all likelihood numerically most prey probably weighs on average about 20% of the hawk's own weight (as is typical of many birds of prey). Red-tailed hawks usually hunt by watching for prey activity from a high perch, also known as still hunting. Upon being spotted, prey is dropped down upon by the hawk. Red-tails often select the highest available perches within a given environment, since the greater the height they are at, the less flapping is required and the faster the downward glide they can attain toward nearby prey. If prey is closer than average, the hawk may glide at a steep downward angle with few flaps, if farther than average, it may flap a few swift wingbeats alternating with glides. Perch hunting is the most successful hunting method generally speaking for red-tailed hawks and can account for up to 83% of their daily activities (i.e. in winter). Wintering pairs may join together and aseasonally may join forces to group hunt agile prey that they may have trouble catching by themselves, such as tree squirrels. This may consist of stalking opposites sides of a tree, to surround the squirrel and almost inevitably drive the rodent to be captured by one after being flushed by the other hawk. The most common flighted hunting method for red-tail is to cruise around 10 to 50 m (33 to 164 ft) over the ground with flap-and-glide type flight, interspersed occasionally with harrier-like quarters over the ground. This method is less successful than perch hunting, but seems relatively useful for capturing small birds and may show the best results while hunting in hilly country. Hunting red-tailed hawks readily use trees, bushes, or rocks for concealment before making a surprise attack, even showing a partial ability to dodge among trees in an Accipiter-like fashion. Among thick stands of spruce in Alaska, a dodging hunting flight was thought to be unusually important to red-tails living in extensive areas of conifers, with hawks even coming to the ground and walking hurriedly in prey pursuit especially if the prey was large, a similar behavior to goshawks. Additional surprisingly swift aerial hunting has reported in red-tails that habitually hunt bats in Texas. Here, the bat-hunting specialists stooped with half-closed wings, quite falcon-like, plowing through the huge stream of bats exiting their cave roosts, then zooming upwards with a bat in its talons. These hawks also flew parallel closely to the stream, then veer sharply into it and seize a bat. In the neotropics, red-tails have shown the ability to dodge amongst forest canopy whilst hunting. In Kansas, red-tailed hawks were recorded sailing to catch flying insects, a hunting method more typical of a Swainson's hawk. Alternately, they may drop to the ground to forage for insects like grasshoppers and beetles as well as other invertebrates and probably amphibians and fish (except by water in the latter cases). Hunting afoot seems to be particularly prevalent among immatures. Young red-tailed hawks in northeastern Florida were recorded often extracting earthworms from near the surface of the ground and some had a crop full of earthworms after rains. Ground hunting is also quite common on Socorro Island, where no native land mammals occur, and invertebrates are more significant to their overall diet. A red-tailed hawk was observed to incorporate an unconventional killing method, which was drowning a heron immediately after capture. One red-tailed hawk was seen to try to grab a young ground squirrel and, upon missing it, screamed loudly, which in turn caused another young squirrel to break into a run, wherein it was captured. Whether this was an intentional hunting technique needs investigation. Upon capture, smaller prey is taken to a feeding perch, which is almost always lower than a hunting perch. Among small prey, rodents are often swallowed whole, as are shrews and small snakes, while birds are plucked and beheaded. Even prey as small as chipmunks may take two or three bites to consume. Larger mammals of transportable size are at times beheaded and have part of their fur discarded, then leftovers are either stored in a tree or fall to the ground. Large prey, especially if too heavy to transport on the wing, is often dragged to a secluded spot and dismantled in various ways. If they can successfully carry what remains to a low perch, they tend to feed until full and then discard the rest. ### Mammals Rodents are certainly the type of prey taken most often by frequency, but their contribution to prey biomass at nests can be regionally low, and the type, variety, and importance of rodent prey can be highly variable. In total, well over 100 rodent species have turned up the diet of red-tailed hawks. Rodents of extremely varied sizes may be hunted by red-tails, with species ranging in size from the 8.2 g (0.29 oz) eastern harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys humulis) to full grown muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus). At times, the red-tailed hawk is thought of as a semi-specialized vole-catcher, but voles are a subsistence food that is more or less taken until larger prey such as rabbits and squirrels can be captured. In an area of Michigan, immature hawks took almost entirely voles but adults were diversified feeders. Indeed, the 44.1 g (1.56 oz) meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) was the highest frequency prey species in 27 dietary studies across North America, accounting for up to 54% of the food at nests by frequency. It is quite rare for any one species to make up more than half of the food in any dietary study for red-tailed hawks. In total about 9 Microtus species are known in the overall diet, with 5 other voles and lemmings known to be included in their prey spectrum. Another well-represented species was the 27.9 g (0.98 oz) prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster), which were the primary food, making up 26.4% of a sample of 1322, in eastern Kansas. While crepuscular in primary feeding activity, voles are known to be active both day and night, and so are reliable food for hawks than most non-squirrel rodents, which generally are nocturnal in activity. Indeed, most other microtine rodents are largely inaccessible to red-tailed hawks due to their strongly nocturnal foraging patterns, even though 24 species outside of voles and lemmings are known to be hunted. Woodrats are taken as important supplemental prey in some regions, being considerably larger than most other crictetid rodents, and some numbers of North American deermouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) may turn up. The largest representation of the latter species was contributing 11.9% of the diet in the Great Basin of Utah, making them the second best-represented prey species there. Considering this limited association with nocturnal rodents, the high importance of pocket gophers in the diet of red-tailed hawks is puzzling to many biologists, as these tend to be highly nocturnal and elusive by day, rarely leaving the confines of their burrow. At least 8 species of pocket gopher are included in the prey spectrum (not to mention 5 species of pocket mice). The 110 g (3.9 oz) northern pocket gopher (Thomomys talpoides) is particularly often reported and, by frequency, even turns up as the third most often recorded prey species in 27 American dietary studies. Presumably, hunting of pocket gophers by red-tails, which has possibly never been witnessed, occurs in dim light at first dawn and last light of dusk when they luck upon a gopher out foraging. By far, the most important prey among rodents is squirrels, as they are almost fully diurnal. All told, nearly 50 species from the squirrel family have turned up as food. In particular, where they are distributed, ground squirrels are doubly attractive as a primary food source due to their ground-dwelling habits, as red-tails prefer to attack prey that is terrestrial. There are also many disadvantages to ground squirrels as prey: they can escape quickly to the security of their burrows, they tend to be highly social and they are very effective and fast in response to alarm calls, and a good deal of species enter hibernation that in the coldest climates can range up to a 6 to 9-month period (although those in warmer climates with little to no snowy weather often have brief dormancy and no true hibernation). Nonetheless, red-tailed hawks are devoted predators of ground squirrels, especially catching incautious ones as they go out foraging (which are often younger animals). A multi-year study conducted on San Joaquin Experimental Range in California, seemingly still the largest food study to date done for red-tailed hawks with 4031 items examined, showed that throughout the seasons the 722 g (1.592 lb) California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi) was the most significant prey, accounting for 60.8% of the breeding season diet and about 27.2% of the diet for hawks year-around. Because of the extremely high density of red-tailed hawks on this range, some pairs came to specialize in diverse alternate prey, which consisted variously of kangaroo rats, lizards, snakes or chipmunks. One pair apparently lessened competition by focusing on pocket gophers instead despite being near the center of ground squirrel activity. In Snake River NCA, the primary food of red-tailed hawks was the 203.5 g (7.18 oz) Townsend's ground squirrel (Urocitellus townsendii), which made up nearly 21% of the food in 382 prey items across several years despite sharp spikes and crashes of the ground squirrel population there. The same species was the main food of red-tailed hawks in southeastern Washington, making up 31.2% of 170 items. An even closer predatory relationship was reported in the Centennial valley of Montana and south-central Montana, where 45.4% of 194 prey items and 40.2% of 261 items, respectively, of the food of red-tails consisted of the 455.7 g (1.005 lb) Richardson's ground squirrel (Urocitellus richardsonii). Locally in Rochester, Alberta, Richardson's ground squirrel, estimated to average 444 g (15.7 oz), were secondary in number to unidentified small rodents but red-tails in the region killed an estimated 22–60% of the area’s ground squirrel, a large dent in the squirrel’s population. Further east, ground squirrels are not so reliably distributed, but one study in southern Wisconsin, in one of several quite different dietary studies in that state, the 172.7 g (6.09 oz) thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus) was the main prey species, making up 29.7% of the diet (from a sample of 165). In Kluane Lake, Yukon, 750 g (1.65 lb) Arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii) were the main overall food for Harlan’s red-tailed hawks, making up 30.8% of a sample of 1074 prey items. When these ground squirrels enter their long hibernation, the breeding Harlan’s hawks migrate south for the winter. Nearly as important in Kluane Lake was the 200 g (7.1 oz) American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), which constituted 29.8% of the above sample. Red squirrels are highly agile dwellers on dense spruce stands, which has caused biologists to ponder how the red-tailed hawks are able to routinely catch them. It is possible that the hawks catch them on the ground such as when squirrels are digging their caches, but theoretically, the dark color of the Harlan’s hawks may allow them to ambush the squirrels within the forests locally more effectively. While American red squirrels turn up not infrequently as supplementary prey elsewhere in North America, other tree squirrels seem to be comparatively infrequently caught, at least during the summer breeding season. It is known that pairs of red-tailed hawks will cooperatively hunt tree squirrels at times, probably mostly between late fall and early spring. Fox squirrels (Sciurus niger), the largest of North America’s tree squirrels at 800 g (1.8 lb), are relatively common supplemental prey but the lighter, presumably more agile 533 g (1.175 lb) eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) appears to be seldom caught based on dietary studies. While adult marmot may be difficult for red-tailed hawks to catch, young marmots are readily taken in numbers after weaning, such as a high frequency of yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris) in Boulder, Colorado. Another grouping of squirrels but at the opposite end of the size spectrum for squirrels, the chipmunks are also mostly supplemental prey but are considered more easily caught than tree squirrels, considering that they are more habitual terrestrial foragers. In central Ohio, eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus), the largest species of chipmunk at an average weight of 96 g (3.4 oz), were actually the leading prey by number, making up 12.3% of a sample of 179 items. Outside of rodents, the most important prey for North American red-tailed hawks is rabbits and hares, of which at least 13 species are included in their prey spectrum. By biomass and reproductive success within populations, these are certain to be their most significant food source (at least in North America). Adult Sylvilagus rabbits known to be hunted by red-tails can range from the 700 g (1.5 lb) brush rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani) to the Tres Marias rabbit (Sylvilagus graysoni) at 1,470 g (3.24 lb) while all leporids hunted may range the 421.3 g (14.86 oz) pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) to hares and jackrabbits potentially up twice the hawk’s own weight. While primarily crepuscular in peak activity, rabbits and hares often foraging both during day and night and so face almost constant predatory pressure from a diverse range of predators. Male red-tailed hawks or pairs which are talented rabbit hunters are likely to have higher than average productivity due to the size and nutrition of the meal ensuring healthy, fast-growing offspring. Most widely reported are the cottontails, which the three most common North America varieties softly grading into mostly allopatric ranges, being largely segregated by habitat preferences where they overlap in distribution. Namely, in descending order of reportage were: the eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus), the second most widely reported prey species overall in North America and with maximum percentage known in a given study was 26.4% in Oklahoma (out of 958 prey items), the mountain cottontail (Sylvilagus nuttallii), maximum representation being 17.6% out of a sample of 478 in Kaibab Plateau, Arizona and the desert cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii), maximum representation being 22.4% out of a sample of 326 in west-central Arizona. Black-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus californicus) are even more intensely focused upon as a food source by the hawks found in the west, particularly the Great Basin. With the weight around 2,114 g (4.661 lb), adults of this species is the largest prey routinely hunted by red-tailed hawks. When jackrabbit numbers crash, red-tailed hawk productivity tends to decline as well. In northern Utah, black-tailed jackrabbits made up 55.3% of a sample of 329. Elsewhere, they are usually somewhat secondary by number. In the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska, red-tails are fairly dependent on the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), falling somewhere behind the great horned owl and ahead of the northern goshawk in their regional reliance on this food source. The hunting preferences of red-tails who rely on snowshoe hares are variable. In Rochester, Alberta, 52% of snowshoe hares caught were adults, such prey estimated to average 1,287 g (2.837 lb), and adults, in some years, were six times more often taken than juvenile hares, which averaged an estimated 560 g (1.23 lb). 1.9–7.1% of adults in the regional population of Rochester were taken by red-tails, while only 0.3–0.8 of juvenile hares were taken by them. Despite their reliance on it, only 4% (against 53.4% of the biomass) of the food by frequency here was made up of hares. On the other hand, in Kluane Lake, Yukon, juvenile hares were taken roughly 11 times more often than adults, despite the larger size of adults here, averaging 1,406.6 g (3.101 lb), and that the overall prey base was less diverse at this more northerly clime. In both Rochester and Kluane Lake, the number of snowshoe hares taken was considerably lower than the number of ground squirrels taken. The differences in average characteristics of snowshoe hares that were hunted may be partially due to habitat (extent of bog openings to dense forest) or topography. Another member of the Lagomorpha order has been found in the diet include juvenile white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) and the much smaller American pika (Ochotona princeps), at 150 g (5.3 oz). A diversity of mammals may be consumed opportunistically outside of the main food groups of rodents and leporids, but usually occur in low numbers. At least five species each are taken of shrews and moles, ranging in size from their smallest mammalian prey, the cinereus (Sorex cinereus) and least shrews (Cryptotis parva), which both weigh about 4.4 g (0.16 oz), to Townsend's mole (Scapanus townsendii), which weighs about 126 g (4.4 oz). A respectable number of the 90 g (3.2 oz) eastern mole (Scalopus aquaticus) were recorded in studies from Oklahoma and Kansas. Four species of bat have been recorded in their foods. The red-tailed hawks local to the large cave colonies of 12.3 g (0.43 oz) Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) in Texas can show surprising agility, some of the same hawks spending their early evening and early morning hours in flight patrolling the cave entrances in order to stoop suddenly on these flighted mammals. Larger miscellaneous mammalian prey are either usually taken as juveniles, like the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), or largely as carrion, like the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana). Small carnivorans may be taken, usually consisting of much smaller mustelids, like the least weasels (Mustela nivalis), stoats (Mustela erminea), and long-tailed weasels (Neogale frenata). slightly larger carnivores, such as small Indian mongooses (Herpestes auropunctatus), ringtails (Bassariscus astutus), small American minks (Neovison vison) and even adult striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis), which can be much larger than a fully grown hawk, was reportedly taken by red-tailed hawks. Additionally, red-tailed hawks are considered as potential predators of white-nosed coati (Nasua narica) and kit fox (Vulpes macrotis) Remains of exceptionally large carnivoran species, such as domestic cats (Felis catus), red fox ( Vulpes vulpes) and common raccoon (Procyon lotor) are sometimes found amongst their foods, but most are likely taken as juveniles or consumed only as carrion. [^1] Many of these medium-sized carnivorans are probably visited as roadkill, especially during the sparser winter months, but carrion has turned up more widely than previously thought. Some nests have been found (to the occasional "shock" of researchers) with body parts from large domestic stock like sheep (Ovis aries), pigs (Sus domesticus), horses (Equus caballus ) and cattle (Bos taurus) (not to mention wild varieties like deer), which red-tails must visit when freshly dead out on pastures and take a couple of talonfuls of meat. In one instance, a red-tailed hawk was observed to kill a small but seemingly healthy lamb. These are born heavier than most red-tails at 1,500 g (3.3 lb) but in this case, the hawk was scared away before it could consume its kill by the rifle fire of the shepherd who witnessed the instance. ### Birds Like most (but not all) Buteo hawks, red-tailed hawks do not primarily hunt birds in most areas, but can take them fairly often whenever they opportune upon some that are vulnerable. Birds are, by far, the most diverse class in the red-tailed hawk’s prey spectrum, with well over 200 species known in their foods. In most circumstances where birds become the main food of red-tailed hawks, it is in response to ample local populations of galliforms. As these are meaty, mostly terrestrial birds which usually run rather than fly from danger (although all wild species in North America are capable of flight), galliforms are ideal avian prey for red-tails. Some 23 species of galliforms are known to be taken by red-tailed hawks, about a third of these being species introduced by humans. Native quails of all five North American species may expect occasional losses. All 12 species of grouse native to North America are also occasionally included in their prey spectrum. In the state of Wisconsin, two large studies, from Waupun and Green County, found the main prey species to be the ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), making up 22.7% of a sample of 176 and 33.8% of a sample of 139, respectively. With a body mass averaging 1,135 g (2.502 lb), adult pheasants are among the largest meals that male red-tails are likely to deliver short of adult rabbits and hares and therefore these nests tend to be relatively productive. Despite being not native to North America, pheasants usually live in a wild state. Chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) are also taken throughout North America, with all Wisconsin studies also found large numbers of them, making up as much as 14.4% of the diet. Many studies reflect that free-ranging chickens are vulnerable to red-tailed hawks although somewhat lesser numbers are taken by them overall in comparison to nocturnal predators (i.e. owls and foxes) and goshawks. In Rochester, Alberta, fairly large numbers of ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) were taken but relatively more juveniles were taken of this species than the two other main contributors to biomass here, snowshoe hare and Townsend’s ground squirrel, as they are fairly independent early on and more readily available. Here the adult grouse was estimated to average 550 g (1.21 lb) against the average juvenile which in mid-summer averaged 170 g (6.0 oz). Beyond galliforms, three other quite different families of birds make the most significant contributions to the red-tailed hawk’s avian diet. None of these three families are known as particularly skilled or swift fliers, but are generally small enough that they would generally easily be more nimble in flight. One of these are the woodpeckers, if only for one species, the 131.6 g (4.64 oz) northern flicker (Colaptes auratus), which was the best represented bird species in the diet in 27 North American studies and was even the fourth most often detected prey species of all. Woodpeckers are often a favorite in the diet of large raptors as their relatively slow, undulating flight makes these relatively easy targets. The flicker in particular is a highly numerous species that has similar habitat preferences to red-tailed hawks, preferring fragmented landscapes with trees and openings or parkland-type wooded mosaics, and often forage on the ground for ants, which may make them even more susceptible. Varied other woodpecker species may turn up in their foods, from the smallest to the largest extant in North America, but are much more infrequently detected in dietary studies. Another family relatively often selected prey family are corvids, which despite their relatively large size, formidable mobbing abilities and intelligence are also slower than average fliers for passerines. 14 species of corvid are known to fall prey to red-tailed hawks. In the Kaibab Plateau, the 128 g (4.5 oz) Steller's jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) were the fourth most identified prey species (10.3% of the diet). 453 g (0.999 lb) American crows are also regularly detected supplemental prey in several areas. Even the huge common raven (Corvus corax), at 1,050 g (2.31 lb) at least as large as red-tailed hawk itself, may fall prey to red-tails, albeit very infrequently and only in a well-staged ambush. One of the most surprising heavy contributors are the icterids, despite their slightly smaller size and tendency to travel in large, wary flocks, 12 species are known to be hunted. One species pair, the meadowlarks, are most often selected as they do not flock in the same ways as many other icterids and often come to the ground, throughout their life history, rarely leaving about shrub-height. The 100.7 g (3.55 oz) western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta), in particular, was the third most often detected bird prey species in North America. Red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) which are probably too small, at an average weight of 52.4 g (1.85 oz), and fast for a red-tailed hawk to ever chase on the wing (and do travel in huge flocks, especially in winter) are nonetheless also quite often found in their diet, representing up to 8% of the local diet for red-tails. It is possible that males, which are generally bold and often select lofty perches from which to display, are most regularly ambushed. One bird species that often flocks with red-winged blackbirds in winter is even better represented in the red-tail’s diet, the non-native 78 g (2.8 oz) European starling (Sturnus vulgaris), being the second most numerous avian prey species and seventh overall in North America. Although perhaps most vulnerable when caught unaware while calling atonally on a perch, a few starlings (or various blackbirds) may be caught by red-tails which test the agile, twisting murmurations of birds by flying conspicuously towards the flock, to intentionally disturb them and possibly detect lagging, injured individual birds that can be caught unlike healthy birds. However, this behavior has been implied rather than verified. Over 50 passerine species from various other families beyond corvids, icterids and starlings are included in the red-tailed hawks' prey spectrum but are caught so infrequently as to generally not warrant individual mention. Non-passerine prey taken infrequently may include but are not limited to pigeons and doves, cuckoos, nightjars, kingfishers and parrots. However, of some interest, is the extreme size range of birds that may be preyed upon. Red-tailed hawks in Caribbean islands seem to catch small birds more frequently due to the paucity of vertebrate prey diversity here. Birds as small as the 7.7 g (0.27 oz) elfin woods warbler (Setophaga angelae) and the 10 g (0.35 oz) bananaquit (Coereba flaveola) may turn up not infrequently as food. How red-tails can catch prey this small and nimble is unclear (perhaps mostly the even smaller nestlings or fledglings are depredated). In California, most avian prey was stated to be between the size of a starling and a quail. Numerous water birds may be preyed upon including at least 22 species of shorebirds, at least 17 species of waterfowl, at least 8 species of heron and egrets and at least 8 species of rails, plus a smaller diversity of grebes, shearwaters and ibises. These may range to as small as the tiny, mysterious and "mouse-like" black rail (Laterallus jamaicensis), weighing an average of 32.7 g (1.15 oz), and snowy plover (Charadrius nivosus), weighing an average of 42.3 g (1.49 oz) (how they catch adults of this prey is not known), to some gulls, ducks and geese as heavy or heavier than a red-tailed hawk itself. How large of a duck that red-tailed hawks can capture may be variable. In one instance, a red-tailed hawk failed to kill a healthy drake red-breasted merganser (Mergus serrator), with this duck estimated to weigh 1,100 g (2.4 lb), later the same red-tail was able to dispatch a malnourished red-necked grebe (Podiceps grisegena) (a species usually about as heavy as the merganser), weighing an estimated 657 g (1.448 lb). However, in interior Alaska, locally red-tailed hawks have become habitual predators of adult ducks, ranging from 345 g (12.2 oz) green-winged teal (Anas carolinensis) to 1,141 g (2.515 lb) mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). Even larger, occasionally adult Ross's goose (Chen rossii), weighing on average 1,636 g (3.607 lb), have been killed as well. Also, a non-native Egyptian goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca), in which adults average 1,762 g (3.885 lb), was killed by a red-tail in Texas. There are several known instances of predation on young greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), and predation on an adult female, weighing 1,500 g (3.3 lb) have been reported. Even larger, in at least one case a grown hatch-year bird was caught of the rare, non-native Himalayan snowcock (Tetraogallus himalayensis), this species averaging 2,428 g (5.353 lb) in adults. Red-tailed hawks are a threat to the poults typically of the wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), which weighed up to at least 1,500 g (3.3 lb). In one instance, a red-tailed hawk was observed trying to attack an adult female turkey, but not succeed at dispatching her. Additionally, young domestic turkeys, Other than wild turkeys, other larger birds occasionally lose young to red-tails such as trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator), sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) and great blue herons (Ardea herodias). ### Reptiles Early reports claimed relatively little predation of reptiles by red-tailed hawks but these were regionally biased towards the east coast and the upper Midwest of the United States. However, locally the predation on reptiles can be regionally quite heavy and they may become the primary prey where large, stable numbers of rodents and leporids are not to be found reliably. Nearly 80 species of reptilian prey have been recorded in the diet at this point. Most predation is on snakes, with more than 40 species known in the prey spectrum. The most often found reptilian species in the diet (and sixth overall in 27 North American dietary studies) was the gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer). Red-tails are efficient predators of these large snakes, which average about 532 to 747 g (1.173 to 1.647 lb) in adults, although they also take many small and young gopher snakes. Along the Columbia River in Washington, large colubrid snakes were found to be the primary prey, with the eastern racer (Coluber constrictor), which averages about 556 g (1.226 lb) in mature adults, the most often recorded at 21.3% of 150 prey items, followed by the gopher snake at 18%. This riverine region lacks ground squirrels and has low numbers of leporids. 43.2% of the overall diet here was made up of reptiles, while mammals, made up 40.6%. In the Snake River NCA, the gopher snake was the second most regularly recorded (16.2% of 382 items) prey species over the course of the years and did not appear to be subject to the extreme population fluctuations of mammalian prey here. Good numbers of smaller colubrids can be taken as well, especially garter snakes. Red-tailed hawks may engage in avoidance behavior to some extent with regard to venomous snakes. For example, on the San Joaquin Experimental Range in California, they were recorded taking 225 gopher snakes against 83 western rattlesnakes (Crotalus oreganus). Based on surveys, however, the rattlesnakes were five times more abundant on the range than the gopher snakes. Nonetheless, the red-tailed hawk's diet has recorded at least 15 venomous snakes. Several predation on adult rattlesnakes have reported, including adult eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus) about 126.4 cm (4 ft 2 in) in snout-to-vent length. These rattlesnakes are the heaviest venomous snakes in America, with a mature size of about 2,300 g (5.1 lb), and can be hazardous to hawks, though an immature red-tail was photographed killing a "fairly large" eastern diamondback rattlesnake in one instance. Additionally, eastern indigo snakes (Drymarchon couperi), North America’s longest native snake can be taken as well. While these large snakes are usually dispatched on the ground, red-tailed hawks have been seen flying off with snake prey that may exceed 153 cm (5 ft 0 in) in length in some cases. At the opposite end of the scale in snake prey, the smallest known snake known to be hunted by red-tailed hawks is the 6 g (0.21 oz) redbelly snake (Storeria occipitomaculata). In North America, fewer lizards are typically recorded in the foods of red-tailed hawks than are snakes, probably because snakes are considerably better adapted to cooler, seasonal weather, with an extensive diversity of lizards found only in the southernmost reaches of the contiguous United States. A fair number of lizards were recorded in the diet in southern California. Red-tails can be counted among the primary predatory threats to largish lizards in the United States such as the 245 g (8.6 oz) common chuckawalla (Sauromalus ater). However, the red-tailed hawks ranging into the neotropics regularly take numerous species of lizards. This is especially true of hawks living on islands where small mammals do not naturally colonize. Insular red-tails commonly pluck up mostly tiny anoles, that may average only 1.75 to 43.5 g (0.062 to 1.534 oz) in adult mass, depending on species. Not all tropical lizards taken by red-tailed hawks are so dainty red-tailed hawks can prey on capable of taking lizards as large as Cape spinytail iguanas (Ctenosaura hemilopha) and green iguanas (Iguana iguana) that usually weighs between 700 to 1,000 g (1.5 to 2.2 lb) and around 1,530 g (3.37 lb) respectively. Beyond snakes and lizards, there are a few cases of red-tailed hawks preying on baby or juvenile turtles, i.e. the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus), the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) and the common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina). ### Other prey Records of predation on amphibians is fairly infrequent. It is thought that such prey may be slightly underrepresented, as they are often consumed whole and may not leave a trace in pellets. Their fine bones may dissolve upon consumption. So far as is known, North American red-tailed hawks have preyed upon 9 species of amphibian, four of which are toads. Known amphibian prey has ranged to as small as the 0.75 g (0.026 oz) red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus), the smallest known vertebrate prey for red-tailed hawks, to the 430 g (15 oz) American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus). Invertebrates, mostly represented by insects like beetles and crickets, are better represented in the stomach contents of red-tailed hawks than their pellets or prey remains. It is possible some invertebrate prey is ingested incidentally, as in other various birds of prey, they can in some cases be actually from the stomachs of birds eaten by the raptor. However, some red-tails, especially immatures early in their hunting efforts, often do spend much of the day on the ground grabbing terrestrial insects and spiders. The red-tailed hawks of Puerto Rico frequently consume Puerto Rican freshwater crabs (Epilobocera sinuatifrons), which average 9.4 g (0.33 oz). Other island populations, such as those on Socorro island, also feed often on terrestrial crabs, here often blunting their claws while catching them. Fish are the rarest class of prey based on dietary studies. Among the rare instances of them capturing fish have included captures of wild channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), non-native common carp (Cyprinus carpio) and ornamental koi (Cyprinus rubrofuscus) as well some hawks that were seen scavenging on dead chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta). ### Interspecies predatory relationships As easily one of the most abundant of all American raptorial birds, red-tailed hawks have been recorded as interacting with every other diurnal bird of prey. Due to the extreme dietary plasticity of red-tails, the food habits of other birds of prey regularly overlap considerably with red-tails. Furthermore, due to its ability to nest in varied habitats, home ranges also frequently abut those of other raptor species. The most obvious similar species in their range are other Buteo hawks, especially larger species with a similar ecological niche. Two of the larger, more widespread other Buteos are the Swainson's hawk and the ferruginous hawks and, as with many other birds of prey, red-tailed hawks occur in almost the entirety of these birds' breeding ranges. These species have broadly similar breeding season diets, especially the ferruginous and red-tailed hawks. In some areas, such as Snake River NCA the diets of the two species consist of more than 90% of the same species and body mass of prey taken was similar. Therefore, all three large Buteo hawks defend their territories from each other with almost the same degree of dedication that they defend from others of their own species. In some cases, territorial clashes of Swainson's hawks and red-tailed hawks can last up to 12 hours, however, the birds involved are usually careful to avoid physical contact. Due to the similarities of the foods and their aggressive dispositions towards one another, these Buteos need some degree of partitioning in order to persist alongside one another and this usually is given by habitat preferences. The ferruginous hawk prefers open, practically treeless prairie while of these, the red-tailed hawks prefers the most wooded areas with large trees, while the Swainson's hawk prefer roughly intermediate areas. Where the habitat is more open, such as in Cassia County, Idaho, the Swainson's and ferruginous hawks have the advantage in numbers and red-tails are scarce. However, habitat alterations by humans, such as fire suppression and recovering pasture, usually favor the red-tailed hawk and are to the detriment of the other two species. These practices have caused range expansions of many other species of birds but declines in many others. Of these three Buteo species, the Swainson's hawk is most dissimilar, being a long-distance migrant which travels to South America each winter and, for much of the year, prefers to prey on insects (except for during breeding, when more nutritious food such as ground squirrels are mainly fed to the young). It also breeds notably later than the other two species. Surprisingly, although it's slightly smaller in body mass and has notably smaller (and presumably weaker) feet than ferruginous and red-tailed hawks, the Swainson's is actually usually (but not invariably) dominant in territorial conflicts over the other two. Part of this advantage is that the Swainson's hawk is apparently a superior flier both in long and short-distance flights, with its more pointed wing shape and lower wing loading allowing it more agile, sustained and speedier flight that the bulkier hawks cannot match. Therefore, in north-central Oregon, Swainson's hawks were shown to be more productive, in prairie located trees, and partially displaced prior-breeding red-tails several times, although overall breeding success rates were not perceptibly decreased in the latter hawk. In the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico, Swainson's hawks usually nested in lowlands and red-tails nested in highlands but interspecies conflicts nevertheless were apparently quite frequent. Usually, the habitat preferences of red-tailed hawks and ferruginous hawks are discrepant enough to keep serious territorial conflicts to a minimum. However, red-tailed hawks and ferruginous hawks occasionally engaged in kleptoparasitism towards one another, usually during winter. Red-tails may be somewhat dominant based on prior reports in food conflicts but the ferruginous hawk may also win these. Where they overlap, the hawk species may adjust their daily routine to minimize contact, which tends to be costly of time and energy and may cause the hawks to abandon their nests for long stretches of time, which in turn leaves their young vulnerable to predation. When habitats change rapidly, often due to human interference, and they nest more closely than natural partitioning would allow, in all three nesting success can decline significantly. Beyond the Swainson's and ferruginous hawks, six other Buteos co-occur with red-tailed hawks in different parts of North America. Many of these are substantially smaller than red-tails and most serious territorial conflicts with them are naturally mitigated by nesting in deeper wooded areas. One other larger species, the rough-legged buzzard, mostly nests far north of the breeding range of red-tailed hawks. However, in Alaska they sometimes nest in the same areas. The rough-legged buzzards are both cliff and tree nesters and areas used by the two species are not necessarily mutually exclusive but each seems to avoid the other, in part by differing breeding schedules. Wintering rough-legged buzzards may regularly come into conflict over food with red-tailed hawks and seem to be subordinate to the red-tails, with several records of them being chased off both kills and carrion by the red-tailed hawks. During winter their hunting habits may keep them somewhat separate, the rough-legged being a much more aerial hunter, but rough-legged buzzards usually withdrew if a red-tailed hawk flew towards them. There is at least one case, however, of a rough-legged buzzard being the victor of a conflict over a kill with a red-tailed hawk. Red-tailed hawks are conspicuously more aggressive and tend to be dominant over slenderer, medium-sized Buteos such as red-shouldered hawks and zone-tailed hawks (Buteo albonotatus). In Massachusetts, red-shoulder hawks used mixed forests and hardwoods as nesting habitat while red-tails most often used in pitch pine and stunted oaks on Cape Cod. Nesting range overlap here most often occurred on white pine forests. As habitat has opened over time, red-tailed hawks frequently took over former red-shouldered hawk territories, even using their nests in two cases. In north-central Florida, it was found during winter that red-shouldered and red-tailed hawk habitat usage blurred and, because the local habitat favors red-shouldered hawks, they easily outnumbered the number of red-tailed hawks in the area. Therefore, again with sufficient habitat partitioning, the two species can live near one another without negatively effecting one another. In the American southwest and Texas, two relatively large buteonine hawks also live alongside red-tailed hawks, the Harris's hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus) and the white-tailed hawk (Geranoaetus albicaudatus). Usually, habitat preferences kept conflicts to a minimum, with the red-tailed hawk favoring taller, more isolated saguaro cactus for nesting, whereas the other species outnumbered red-tails in areas that were denser and more shrubby. The Harris's hawk was determined to be a superior aerial hunter over red-tailed hawks, and could take down flying birds more routinely. Hawks and kites from outside the buteonine lineage are usually substantially smaller or at least different enough in diet and habitat to largely avoid heavy conflict with red-tailed hawks. On occasion, northern harriers (Circus hudsonius) which have much lower wing loading, will mob red-tailed hawks out of their home ranges but in winter the red-tails seem to be dominant over them in conflicts over food. Among Accipiter hawks, the most similar to the red-tailed hawk in diet and size is the northern goshawk. In some areas, the prey species of these can be very similar and North American populations of goshawks take many more squirrels and leporids than their Eurasian counterparts do. It was found that the feet and striking force of hunting goshawks was more powerful than that of the red-tailed hawk, despite the red-tails being up to 10% heavier in some parts of North America. Therefore, wild goshawks can dispatch larger prey both on average and at maximum prey size, with some victims of female goshawks such as adult hares and galliforms such as turkey and capercaillie weighing up to or exceeding roughly 4,000 g (8.8 lb). In a comparative study in the Kaibab Plateau of Arizona, however, it was found that red-tailed hawks had several population advantages. Red-tails were more flexible in diet, although there was a very broad overlap in prey species selected, and nesting habitat than the goshawks were. As red-tailed hawks in conflict with other more closely related Buteo hawks rarely (if ever) result in mortality on either side, goshawks and red-tailed hawks do seem to readily kill one another. Adults of both species have been shown to be able to kill adults of the other. The great horned owl occupies a similar ecological niche nocturnally to the red-tailed hawk. There have been many studies that have contrasted the ecology of these two powerful raptors. The great horned owl averages heavier and larger footed, with northern populations averaging up to 26% heavier in the owl than the hawk. However, due in part to the red-tail’s more extensive access to sizable prey such as ground squirrels, several contrasting dietary studies found that the estimated mean prey size of the red-tailed hawk, at 175 g (6.2 oz), was considerably higher than that of the great horned owl, at 76 g (2.7 oz). Also, the diet of red-tailed hawk seems to be more flexible by prey type, as only just over 65% of their diet is made of mammals, whereas great horned owls were more restricted feeders on mammals, selecting them 87.6% of the time. However, the overall prey spectrum of great horned owls includes more species of mammals and birds (but far less reptiles) and the great horned owl can attack prey of a wider size range, including much larger prey items than any taken by red-tailed hawks. Mean prey weights in different areas for great horned owls can vary from 22.5 to 610.4 g (0.79 to 21.53 oz), so is far more variable than that of red-tailed hawks (at 43.4 to 361.4 g (1.53 to 12.75 oz)) and can be much larger (by about 45%) than the largest estimated size known for the red-tailed hawk's mean prey weight but conversely the owl can also subsist on prey communities averaging much smaller in body size than can support the hawk. Some prey killed by great horned owls was estimated to weigh up to 6,800 g (15.0 lb). Great horned owls and red-tailed hawks compete not only for food but more seriously over nesting areas and home ranges. Great horned owls are incapable of constructing nests and readily expropriate existing red-tail nests. The habitat preferences of the two species are quite similar and the owl frequently uses old red-tail nests, but they do seem to prefer more enclosed nest locations where available over the generally open situation around red-tailed hawk nests. Sometimes in warmer areas, the owls may nest sufficiently early to have fledged young by the time red-tails start to lay. However, when there is a temporal overlap in reproductive cycles, the owl sometimes takes over an occupied red-tail nest, causing desertion. Red-tailed hawks have an advantage in staple prey flexibility as aforementioned, while great horned owl populations can be stressed when preferred prey is scarce, especially when they rely on leporids such as hares and jackrabbits. For example, in Alberta, when snowshoe hares were at their population peak, red-tailed hawks did not increase in population despite taking many, with only a slight increase in mean clutch size, whereas the owls fluctuated in much more dramatic ways in accordance with snowshoe hare numbers. The red-tails migratory behavior was considered as the likely cause of this lack of effect, whereas great horned owls remained through the winter and was subject to winter-stress and greater risk of starvation. As a nester, great horned owl has the advantage in terms of flexibility, being somewhat spread more evenly across different habitats whereas in undisturbed areas, red-tailed hawks seem to nest more so in clusters where habitat is favorable. Predatory relationships between red-tailed hawks and great horned owls are quite one-sided, with the great horned owl likely the overall major predator of red-tails. On the other hand, red-tailed hawks are rarely (if ever) a threat to the great horned owl. Occasionally a red-tailed hawk can strike down an owl during the day but only in a few singular cases has this killed an owl. Most predation by the owls on the hawks is directed at nestlings at the point where the red-tails' nestlings are old enough that the parents no longer roost around the nest at night. Up to at least 36% of red-tailed hawk nestlings in a population may be lost to great horned owls. Adult and immature red-tailed hawks are also occasionally preyed upon at night by great horned owls in any season. In one case, a great horned owl seemed to have ambushed, killed and fed upon a full-grown migrating red-tail even in broad daylight. Occasionally, both red-tails and great horned owls will engage each other during the day and, even though the red-tailed hawk has the advantage at this time of day, either may succeed in driving away the other. Despite their contentious relations, the two species may nest quite close to one another. For example, in Saskatchewan, the smallest distance between nests was only 32 to 65 m (105 ft 0 in to 213 ft 3 in). In these close proximity areas all owl nests succeeded while only two red-tail nests were successful. In Waterloo, Wisconsin, the two species were largely segregated by nesting times, as returning red-tailed hawks in April–June were usually able to successfully avoid nesting in groves holding great horned owls, which can begin nesting activities as early as February. In Delaware County, Ohio and in central New York state, divergence of hunting and nesting times usually allowed both species to succeed in nesting. In all three areas, any time the red-tails tried to nest closer to great horned owls, their breeding success rates lowered considerably. It is presumable that sparser habitat and prey resources increased the closeness of nesting habits of the two species, to the detriment of the red-tails. Due to nesting proximity to great horned owls, mature red-tails may have losses ranging from 10 to 26%. Red-tailed hawks may face competition from a very broad range of predatory animals, including birds outside of typically active predatory families, carnivoran mammals and some reptiles such as snakes. Mostly these diverse kinds of predators are segregated by their hunting methods, primary times of activity and habitat preferences. In California, both the red-tails and western diamondback rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox) live mainly on California ground squirrel, but the rattlesnake generally attacks the squirrels in and around their burrows, whereas the hawks must wait until they leave the burrows to capture them. Hawks have been observed following American badgers (Taxidea taxus) to capture prey they flush and the two are considered potential competitors, especially in sparse sub-desert areas where the rodent foods they both favor are scarce. Competition over carcasses may occur with American crows, and several crows, usually about six or more, working together can displace a hawk. Another avian scavenger, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura), is dominated by red-tails and may be followed by red-tails in order to supplant a carcass found by the vulture with their keen sense of smell. In some cases, red-tailed hawks may be considered lessened as food competitors by their lack of specialization. For instance, no serious competition probably occurs between them and Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) despite both living on snowshoe hares. Distinguishing territorial exclusionary behavior and anti-predator behavior is difficult in raptorial birds. However, as opposed to other medium to largish hawks which chase off red-tails most likely as competition, in much smaller raptors such as kestrels and smaller Accipiter hawks, their aggressive reaction to red-tailed hawks is almost certainly an anti-predator behavior. Although less prolific than goshawks, some eagles and, especially, great horned owls, red-tailed hawks can and do prey upon smaller birds of prey. The following species of accipitrid have been known to fall prey to red-tailed hawks, potentially including nestlings, fledglings, immatures and/or adults: swallow-tailed kite (Elanoides forficatus), Mississippi kite (Ictinia mississippiensis), white-tailed kite (Elanus leucurus), northern harrier (Circus hudsonius), sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus), Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperii), goshawks, gray hawk (Buteo plagiatus), red-shouldered hawk and broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus). These species range from the 135.7 g (4.79 oz) sharp-shinned hawk, the smallest North American accipitrid, to the goshawk, which at 956 g (2.108 lb) is nearly red-tailed hawk sized. Additionally, there are records of red-tailed hawks hunting 9 species of owl, ranging in size from the 104.2 g (3.68 oz) northern saw-whet owl (Aegolius acadius) to juveniles of the 1,079 g (2.379 lb) great gray owl (Strix nebulosa) and seemingly adults of the 717 g (1.581 lb) barred owl (Strix varia). Red-tails will also hunt falcons including adult American kestrels (Falco sparverius) and merlins (Falco columbarius) and presumed nestlings of the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus). When hunting other raptorial birds, red-tailed hawks seem to ambush them from a perch, diving suddenly and unexpectedly upon spotting the quarry and tend to have the greatest success when the raptorial prey is distracted, such as those migrating on windy days, feeding on their own prey and tending to their nest. In turn, red-tailed hawks may engage in behavior that straddles territorial exclusion and anti-predator behavior to the two much larger raptors in North America which actively hunt, the eagles. Red-tails are most commonly seen flying towards and aggressively displacing both flying bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), but may also, to the contrary, unobtrusively duck down out of flight to an inconspicuous perch when an eagle is spotted. The behavioral variation is probably related to the activity of hawks, which may feel the need to protect their nests and food resources while actively breeding but are not usually willing to risk their lives in attacking an eagle while migrating or wintering. At times mobbing behavior of smaller raptors may cause both eagles to turn over and present their large talons to their attacker, which can be dangerous for the smaller hawk. Besides the great horned owl, the two eagle species are the only known animals known to regularly threaten red-tailed hawks of any age. In particular, the golden eagle is probably the greatest daytime threat to fledged immature and adult red-tails, as these have turned up in many dietary studies of the powerful eagle. Less efficient as a predator of red-tails, bald eagles nonetheless have been recording killing adults in some cases or, more often, depredating red-tailed hawk nests. On occasion, this may result in the bald eagle bringing the nestling red-tails to their own nest and, for some reason, not killing them. In some cases, the bald eagles inadvertently actually raise the nestling red-tails themselves and the baby red-tailed hawks may successfully fledge. In one case, a red-tailed hawk was observed to kill a bald eagle chick, whether this was predatory or competitive, it quickly abandoned the dead nestling after the eagle’s parents returned. On several tropical islands, which are often shared only with other hawks, owls and falcons of only medium or small size and typically lack larger raptors or carnivorans, the red-tailed hawk may be the largest native predator and will, in these cases, be considered the apex predator. Other than large birds of prey, extensive records of predation on red-tailed hawks is surprisingly poor, in spite of several populations recording nestlings and eggs disappearing through presumed acts of natural predation. The most likely major predator of eggs and nestlings that disappear is the raccoon which, during its nocturnal foraging, is a notorious enemy of nearly any kind of birds nest. It is also known that unidentified large snakes, probably consisting of the same species that the red-tails so readily predate during broad daylight, will prey upon nestling red-tails. In California, common ravens were recorded preying on the downy young of red-tailed hawks. Other corvids, including blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata), California scrub jays (Aphelocoma californica) and crows, are known to feed on eggs and small nestlings either when nest attendance is atypically low by the hawks or when they can successful harass the parent hawks via mobbing so severely that they temporarily leave the nest. Blackflies (Simulium canonicolum) have been recorded as killing several red-tail chicks through blood loss. There are also several cases of possible prey turning the tables on red-tailed hawks and either maiming or killing them. This is especially true of snakes, with some prey species of Pituophis, Pantherophis and Coluber known to overpower and nearly kill, often the hawk survives only if by human intervention. Not infrequently prey such as coral snakes and rattlesnakes may succeed in killing red-tailed hawks with their venom, even if they themselves are also killed and partially consumed. Peregrine falcons are also known to kill red-tailed hawks that have come too close to their nests by stooping upon them. ## Reproduction ### Courtship and pre-laying behaviors Pairs either court for the first time or engage in courtship rituals to strengthen pre-existing pair bonds before going into the breeding. The breeding season usually begins in late February through March, but can commence as early as late December in Arizona and late January in Wisconsin or to the opposite extreme as late as mid-April as in Alberta. In this pre-nesting period, high-circling with much calling will occur. One or both members of a pair may be involved. The courtship display often involves dangling legs, at times the pair will touching each other's wings and male's feet may touch female's back, she may occasionally roll over and present talons. Food passes are rarely reported. High soaring occurs aseasonally. Circling above territory tends to be done noisily and conspicuously, helping insure against possible takeovers. Spring circling of a pair can be a prelude to copulation. A typical sky-dance involves the male hawk climbing high in flight with deep, exaggerated beats and then diving precipitously on half-closed wings at great speed, checking, and shooting back up, or often plunging less steeply and repeating process in a full rollercoaster across the sky. Sky-dances are done on periphery of the pair’s territory and it appears to designate the territory limits, occasionally one male’s sky-dance may also trigger a sky-dance by a neighboring male, who may even run a parallel course in the sky. Sky-dances no longer occur after late incubation. Boundary flight displays may be engaged in by all four birds of 2 adjacent pairs. Cartwheeling with interlocking talons is also seen occasionally in spring, almost always a territorial male expelling an intruding one, the latter often being a second or third year male that is newly mature. A perched display, with fluffed-out breast feathers may too occur at this time. Even males that are in spring migration have been recorded engaging in a separate display: circling at slow speed before partially closing wings, dropping legs with talons spread and tilting from side-to-side. A female hawk is usually around when migrating male does this but she does not engage in this display herself. The area of occupancy of breeding territories by pairs is variable based on regional habitat composition. The highest recorded density of pairs was in California where each pair occurred on 1.3 km<sup>2</sup> (0.50 sq mi), which was actually just ahead of Puerto Rico where pair occupancy averaged 1.56 km<sup>2</sup> (0.60 sq mi) in peak habitat. The largest known average territory sizes were surprisingly in Ohio, where the average area of occupancy by pairs was recorded as 50 km<sup>2</sup> (19 sq mi). In Wisconsin mean ranges for males range from 1.17 to 3.9 km<sup>2</sup> (0.45 to 1.51 sq mi) in males and from 0.85 to 1.67 km<sup>2</sup> (0.33 to 0.64 sq mi) in females, respectively in summer and winter. Here and elsewhere, both members of the pair stay quite close together throughout winter if they are sedentary. On the other hand, migrant populations tend to separate while migrating and return to the same territory to find its prior mate, sometimes before they reach their home range. In Alaska, returning migrant pairs were able to displace lone red-tailed hawks that had stayed on residence, especially lone males but sometimes even lone females. In general, the red-tailed hawk will only take a new mate when its original mate dies. Although pairs often mate for life, replacement of mates can often be quite fast for this common bird species. In one case in Baja California, when a female was shot on 16 May, the male of that pair was seen to have selected a new mate the following day. In copulation, the female, when perched, tilts forward, allowing the male to land with his feet lodged on her horizontal back. The female twists and moves her tail feathers to one side, while the mounted male twists his cloacal opening around the female's cloaca. Copulation lasts 5 to 10 seconds and during pre-nesting courtship in late winter or early spring can occur numerous times each day. ### Nests The pair constructs a stick nest most often in a large tree 4 to 21 m (13 to 69 ft) off the ground. They may too nest on virtually any man-made structures with some variety of ample ledges or surface space and good views of the surrounding environment (i.e. powerline poles, radio transmission towers, skyscraper buildings). Much variation is recorded in nest usage behavior, many red-tails build new nests every year despite prior nests sometimes being in good standing and unoccupied, some may reuse a nest in subsequent years or may leave a nest for a year and then come back to it the following year. A red-tailed hawk nest is typically located in a gradient zone between woods with tall, mature trees, if available, and openings whether this is composed of shrubland, grassland or agricultural areas. Nest sites vary greatly in topography and vegetative composition. While tree nests are largely preferred, occasionally they nest on cliff ledges may be utilized even where other nest sites are presumably available. Cliff nests may be located at 35 m (115 ft) or higher above the nearest flat ground. At times, unlike great horned owls, red-tailed hawks have been recorded nesting in surprisingly unbroken forests. In North Dakota, nest sites tend to be concentrated along wooded river drainages. Compared to Swainson's hawks and ferruginous hawks, red-tailed hawk nests are usually in taller trees and are closer to waterways. In Puerto Rico, nests are most often found in transitional zone between dry lowlands and mountainous cloud forests, with trees typically taller than their neighbors to allow views of more than half of their home ranges. More than 21 tree species were recorded used in Puerto Rico. Tree species is seemingly unimportant to red-tailed hawks. In some parts of Arizona, saguaro cactus were used exclusively as nesting sites. Alternately, old nests of other Buteo hawks, corvids, golden eagles and even leaf nests of tree squirrels have also been used by red-tailed hawks. Both members of the pair will build the nests but the female spends more time forming the bowl, with the greatest activity often in the morning and nest building completed in a week or less. The nest is generally 71 to 97 cm (28 to 38 in) in diameter, with a mean of roughly 76 cm (30 in), and can be up to 96 cm (38 in) tall after several years use. The inner bowl averages about 37 cm (15 in) wide and 13 cm (5.1 in) deep. The nest is constructed of twigs, and lined with bark, pine needles, corn cobs, husks, stalks, aspen catkins, or other plant lining matter. Lining the nest may be for warning other red-tails of the active use of a nest. In moderate to northern climes, red-tailed hawks tend to face to the south or west, presumably to make them less vulnerable to strong northeasterly storm winds. ### Eggs In most of the interior contiguous United States the first egg is laid between mid-March and early April, ranging from 3 to 5 weeks after the nest is constructed, with the clutch completed 2 to 5 days after the initial egg is laid. The average date of the laying the first egg can be variable: peaking mid-January in Puerto Rico, averaging 9 March in Arizona, 26 March in the Front Range Urban Corridor and 1 May in Alberta. The mean initiation of clutches may bump weeks later if 10 cm (3.9 in) or more of snow is still on the ground in Wisconsin during March. A clutch of one to three eggs is laid in March or April, depending upon latitude, with four eggs being uncommon and five and perhaps even six increasingly rare. Clutch size depends almost exclusively on the availability of prey for the adults. At the species level, body size also determines clutch size. For example, while the total clutch weighs up to 18% of the females weight and the clutch size averages 2 to 3, a larger raptor like the golden eagle lays a smaller clutch, usually not more than two, that weighs less than 10% in total of the female’s body mass, whereas a smaller raptor like the kestrel lays a larger clutch averaging five that weighs 50% of the females weight. Average clutch size vary from 1.96 in Alaska when prey populations were low up to 2.96 in Washington. Eggs are laid approximately every other day. Average egg sizes in height and width (each with a sample size of 20) are in the following subspecies- B. j. borealis: 59.53 mm × 47.49 mm (2.344 in × 1.870 in); B. j. calurus: 60.04 mm × 47.1 mm (2.364 in × 1.854 in); B. j. fuertesi: 59.42 mm × 46.99 mm (2.339 in × 1.850 in). The eggs of red-tailed hawks are mostly white, sometimes with a faint buffy wash; at times the eggs manifest a sparsely or heavily marked with blotches of buff, pale reddish-brown, dark brown, or purple. The markings often appear indistinctly and may combine to form a fine speckling. They are incubated primarily by the female, with the male substituting when she leaves to hunt or merely stretch her wings. Rarely do the males incubate more than four hours of daylight. The male brings most food to the female while she incubates. ### Hatching, development and brooding After 28 to 35 days of incubation (averaging about three days longer in the Caribbean as does fledgling as compared to North American red-tails), the eggs hatch over 2 to 4 days. Like most raptorial birds, the nestlings are altricial and nidicolous at hatching. Hatchlings average 58 g (2.0 oz) in body mass with no difference in sizes of the sexes until the young are about 29 days old for mass and 21 days or so for external linear standard measurements such as bill and talon size. The female broods them while the male provides most of the food to the female and the young, which are also known as eyasses (pronounced "EYE-ess-ez"). The female feeds the eyasses after tearing the food into small pieces. The young red-tails are active by the second day when they issue soft peeping calls, bounce, and wave continuously with their wings. By day 7, the bouncing and peeping begin to wane, and young start to peck at prey in their nest. Nestlings emit high whistling notes (usually in response to adults overhead) by day 10, sit up on tarsometatarsi by day 15, become aggressive toward intruders by day 16, strike out with talons and wings by day 21, begin to stretch wings and exercise regularly by day 30. After 42 to 46 days, the eyasses begin to leave the nest and tear apart prey for themselves. The amount of food brought to the nest daily varies considerably, based on brood size and prey availability. In Alberta, an average of 410 to 730 g (14 to 26 oz) is brought each day for 1 to 3 nestlings while in Washington, it was estimated a minimum of 520 g (1.15 lb) per day for 1 surviving nestling and in Wisconsin, an estimated 219 g (7.7 oz) was needed for 1 nestling and 313 g (11.0 oz) for 2. Brooding is strenuous for parent red-tails and both members of the pair usually lose some weight, especially the female. Some females may lose over 100 g (3.5 oz) between hatching and fledging. During brooding the female may become aggressive to intruders, including humans. In the east, red-tailed hawk females rarely defend nests from humans but historically in California and quite often still in Alaska, some female will dive repeatedly and "savagely", sometimes snapping off large branches in her temper, occasionally stunning herself or inadvertently knocking down her own youngster if it is attempting to fledge. Apparently, the less extensive prior exposure they have to humans may make mature females more aggressive towards humans near the nest. Although development is asynchronical in most nests, runting may sometimes be recorded and even siblicide may occur, with the parents feeding the weaker, younger chicks less so and both the siblings and parents occasionally aggressively pecking the "runts" of the nest. Ultimately, the runt in such cases does not usually survive and may be either found crushed in the nest, discarded out of the nest after starvation or consumed by the parents or the siblings. However, as a whole, such killings are fairly rare and only occur when food supplies are extremely low, often this being in sync with poor spring weather (such as overly rainy or cold conditions). If there is too much food, such as California ground squirrels in California, the parents will discard remains after a day or two since decomposition of their prey invites infection, other diseases and blood-sucking insects to the nest that may endanger the nestlings. However, after about four weeks, the female often stops discarding leftover prey and the increased presence of flies may form somewhat of a risk to disease in the young but may also merely get the young to leave the nest sooner. One nest in California had two females and one male attended to; the male performed his usual function but both females would brood and tend to the nest. Additionally, bald eagles have been recorded to occasionally adopt red-tail fledglings into their nests. As recorded in Shoal Harbor Migratory Bird Sanctuary located near Sydney, British Columbia, on 9 June 2017, a juvenile red-tailed hawk was taken by a pair of bald eagles back to their nest, whereupon the chick, originally taken as prey, was accepted into the family by both the parents and the eagles' three fledglings. After surviving six weeks amongst the eagles, the fledgling, nicknamed "Spunky" by birdwatchers, had successfully begun learning to hunt and fly, showing that the aggressive hawk was able to survive amongst a nest of much larger adoptive siblings. ### Fledging and immaturity Young typically leave the nest for the first time and attempt their first flights at about 42–46 days after hatching but usually they stay very near the nest for the first few days. During this period, the fledglings remain fairly sedentary, though they may chase parents and beg for food. Parents deliver food directly or, more commonly, drop it near the young. Short flights are typically undertaken for the first 3 weeks after fledgling and the young red-tails activity level often doubles. About 6 to 7 weeks after fledging, the young begin to capture their own prey, which often consists of insects and frogs that the young hawks can drop down to onto the ground with relative ease. At the point they are 15 weeks old, they may start attempts to hunt more difficult mammal and bird prey in sync with their newly developed skills for sustained flight, and most are efficient mammal predators fairly soon after their first attempts at such prey. Shortly thereafter, when the young are around 4 months of age, they become independent of their parents. In some extreme cases, juvenile red-tails may prolong their association with their parents to as long as they are half a year old, as was recorded in Wisconsin. After dispersing from the parental territory, juveniles from several nests may congregate and interact in a juvenile staging area. Although post-fledgling siblings in their parents care are fairly social, they are rarely seen together post distribution from their parents range. Usually, newly independent young hawks leave the breeding area and migrate, if necessary, earlier than adults do, however the opposite was true in the extreme north of Alaska, where adults were recorded to leave first. Immature hawks in migratory populations tend to distribute further in winter than adults from these populations do. Immatures attempting to settle for the winter often are harassed from territory to territory by older red-tails, settling only in small, marginal areas. In some cases, such as near urban regions, immatures may be driven to a small pockets of urban vegetation with less tree cover and limited food resources. When a distant adult appears, immatures may drop from a prominent perch to a more concealed one. In some cases, hungry immature red-tails have been recorded making attempts at hunting prey beyond their capacities, expending valuable energy, such as healthy adults of larger carnivorans such as coyotes (Canis latrans), foxes and badgers and healthy flying passerines. There are some cases of red-tailed hawks, presumably younger than two years of age, attempting to breed, often with an adult bird of the opposite sex. Such cases have been recorded in Alberta, Arizona and Wisconsin, with about half of these attempts being successful at producing young. However, while adult plumage and technically sexual maturity is attained at two years old, many red-tails do not first successfully breed until they are around 3 years of age. ### Breeding success and longevity Breeding success is variable due to many factors. Estimated nesting success usually falls between 58% and 93%. Nesting success rates are probably drive primarily by prey populations, regional habitat composition, competition levels with other red-tailed hawks, predation rates (often due to great horned owls or perhaps raccoons) and human disturbance levels. In Oregon specifically, nesting success varied primarily based on "dispersion and density of perches" secondarily to ground squirrel abundance and whether the nest of other pairs red-tails was directly visible from a nest. Repeated disturbances at the nest early in the nesting cycle may cause abandonment of eggs or nestlings in some cases, but seemingly pairs are less likely to abandon the young later in the season in cases of human disturbance. 30% of nesting deaths in a study from Wisconsin were from nestlings falling to their death or the nest collapsing. In Puerto Rico, habitat appeared to be the primary driver of breeding success, as in lowland pastures nesting success was 43% producing a mean number of fledglings of 1.5 whereas in cloud forest success was 34% producing a mean of 0.7 fledglings. A modelling study in Puerto Rico showed that, apart from adult survival, nestling survival had the second greatest influence on population growth. In Wyoming, 12 pairs on a 12 square mile tract produced an average of 1.4 young per pair. In comparison, the mean number of fledglings was 0.96 in Michigan, 1.36 in Montana and was 1.4 in the Appalachians. In Wisconsin, the number of young successfully to fledge ranged from 1.1 to 1.8 from year to year probably depending on staple prey numbers. The record lifespan in wild for a red-tailed hawk is 25 years and 5 months from banding studies. In comparison, lifespans of up to 29.5 years have been recorded in captivity. In the wild, other red-tailed hawks have lived for at least 25 years, for example, Pale Male was born in 1990, and in Spring 2014 was still raising eyasses. However, of 5195 banded wild red-tailed hawks in one bander’s recordings, only 31 were reported to have survived to 17 years of age and only 11 survived for 20 years. The average mortality rate at 1 year of age for red-tails is 54% and thereafter is around 20% from banding sources. The estimated average lifespan of red-tailed hawks who attain maturity, per Palmer (1988), was claimed as only 6 to 7 years. The main causes of mortality considered as electrocution on power lines, other collisions, shooting, consumption of poisoned baits set for other animals and collision with vehicles and other crafts. While most mortality of young red-tails is at least mainly due to natural causes, mortality of fledged or older red-tails is now mostly attributable to human killing, accidental or intentional, as well as flying into manmade materials. Hawks in urban areas are threatened by the use of rat traps and poisoned bait to kill rodents. This generally consists of warfarin cookies which induce internal bleeding in rats and mice, and a hawk that ingests rodents who have consumed rat poison can itself be affected. Red-tailed hawks are also vulnerable to fatal bacterial infections include peritonitis, myocarditis, granulamotous, sarcocystosis and mycobateriosis as well as some forms of viral infection, to which immature hawks especially, as they often have less access to coverage in poor weather conditions, are most vulnerable. Neither this nor other Buteo'' hawks were found to be highly susceptible to long-term DDT egg-shell thinning due to being part, generally, of relatively short, terrestrial-based food chains. ## Relationship with humans ### Use in falconry The red-tailed hawk is a popular bird in falconry, particularly in the United States where the sport of falconry is tightly regulated; this type of hawk is widely available and is frequently assigned to apprentice falconers. Red-tailed hawks are highly tameable and trainable, with a more social disposition than all other falcons or hawks other than the Harris's hawk. They are also long lived and fairly disease resistant, allowing a falconer to maintain a red-tailed hawk as a hunting companion for potentially up to two decades. There are fewer than 5,000 falconers in the United States, so despite their popularity any effect on the red-tailed hawk population, estimated to be about one million in the United States, is negligible. Not being as swift as falcons or accipiters, red-tailed hawks are usually used to hunt small game such as rabbits and squirrels, as well as larger quarry such as Hares. However, some individuals may learn to ambush game birds on the ground before they are able to take off and accelerate to full speed, or as they have fly into cover after a chase. Some have even learned to use a falcon-like diving stoop to capture challenging game birds such as pheasants in open country. In the course of a typical hunt, a falconer using a red-tailed hawk most commonly releases the hawk and allows it to perch in a tree or other high vantage point. The falconer, who may be aided by a dog, then attempts to flush prey by stirring up ground cover. A well-trained red-tailed hawk will follow the falconer and dog, realizing that their activities produce opportunities to catch game. Once a raptor catches game, it does not bring it back to the falconer. Instead, the falconer must locate the bird and its captured prey, "make in" (carefully approach) and trade the bird off its kill in exchange for a piece of offered meat. ### Feathers and Native American use The feathers and other parts of the red-tailed hawk are considered sacred to many indigenous people and, like the feathers of the bald eagle and golden eagle, are sometimes used in religious ceremonies and found adorning the regalia of many Native Americans in the United States; these parts, most especially their distinctive tail feathers, are a popular item in the Native American community. As with the other two species, the feathers and parts of the red-tailed hawk are regulated by the eagle feather law, which governs the possession of feathers and parts of migratory birds. ## Cited sources [^1]: Bildstein, K. L. (1987). Behavioral ecology of red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), rough-legged hawks (Buteo lagopus), northern harriers (Circus cyaneus), and American kestrels (Falco sparverius) in south central Ohio (No. 04; USDA, QL696. F3 B5.).
24,999,531	Mathieu Perreault	1,172,257,182	Canadian ice hockey player	[ "1988 births", "Acadie–Bathurst Titan players", "Anaheim Ducks players", "Canadian ice hockey centres", "French Quebecers", "HIFK (ice hockey) players", "Hershey Bears players", "Ice hockey people from Quebec", "Living people", "Montreal Canadiens players", "Sportspeople from Drummondville", "Washington Capitals draft picks", "Washington Capitals players", "Winnipeg Jets players" ]	Mathieu Perreault (born January 5, 1988) is a Canadian former ice hockey winger. He played for the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks, Winnipeg Jets and Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League (NHL), and for HIFK of the SM-liiga (SM-l). Prior to turning professional, Perreault played three seasons of major junior hockey with the Acadie–Bathurst Titan in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). In his final year in the QMJHL, he won the Jean Béliveau Trophy as the league's top point-producer and was named to the Second-Team All-Star. Perreault then began his professional career during the 2007–08 season, playing with the Capitals' American Hockey League affiliate, the Hershey Bears, and helping them clinch the 2009 Calder Cup. Perreault remained with the Capitals organization until the 2013–14 season when he was traded to the Anaheim Ducks. During his one season with the team, Perreault set new career highs in goals, assists, and points. Following the season, he joined the Winnipeg Jets as a free agent. While with the Jets, Perreault became one of three players drafted after the second round in 2006 to reach 600 games. ## Early life Perreault was born on January 5, 1988, in Drummondville, Quebec. He started skating at age 4 with his older brother, and his father took them to outdoor rinks to practice. His mother's brother Daniel Marois was a National Hockey League (NHL) player for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, and New York Islanders. His cousin, Nick Marois, also played for the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). Perreault said while growing up he was inspired by Daniel Brière due to their similar height. ## Playing career ### Amateur Perreault played the entirety of his minor ice hockey career in Drummondville, Quebec. His father coached him while he was playing at the Atom level and he won the Rock Forest novice tournament three years in a row. While playing midget hockey, he was called up to play in the International Midget hockey tournament for Cantonniers de Magog after a player suffered an injury. As a youth, Perreault played in the 2002 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with the Drummondville Voltigeurs minor ice hockey team. Perreault concluded his minor ice hockey career after being drafted second overall by the Acadie–Bathurst Titan in the 2005 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) Entry Draft. He played his first major junior season in 2005–06, recording 18 goals and 34 assists while playing on the Titan's second line. As a result of his play, Perreault was the recipient of a 2006 RDS mid-season rookie excellence award which included an education bursary of \$1,000. As the Titan qualified for the 2006 QMJHL playoffs, Perreault scored 10 goals with 11 assists in 17 games before being eliminated by the Quebec Remparts. After his rookie season, Perreault was drafted in the sixth round, 177th overall, in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft by the Washington Capitals. Perreault returned to the Titan for his sophomore season and recorded a new career-high 41 goals and 78 assists in 67 games. As a result of his play, he was selected to try-out for the Canadian men's national junior ice hockey team but failed to qualify. Upon returning to the QMJHL, he was selected for the QMJHL First-Team All-Star and received the Michel Brière Memorial Trophy as League MVP after finishing third in the overall scoring. As the Titans qualified for the 2007 QMJHL playoffs where Perreault recorded six goals and eight assists before the team was eliminated in their second-round series. Although he had yet to sign a contract with the Capitals, Perreault was invited to attend their 2007 training camp prior to their 2007–08 season. In his final year in the QMJHL, he won the Jean Béliveau Trophy as the league's top point-producer and was named to the league Second-Team All-Star. On March 28, 2008, Perreault signed an entry-level contract with the Washington Capitals for the following season and was re-assigned to their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Hershey Bears. ### Professional #### Washington Capitals Perreault remained with the Bears for the 2008–09 season, helping them win the Calder Cup. While playing on a line with Oskar Osala and Francois Bouchard, he recorded his first career AHL goal in his first regular-season game on October 8, 2008. He finished the season with 11 goals and 39 assists in 77 games, including five power play goals. The following season, Perreault split his time between the AHL and NHL, playing 56 games for the Bears and 21 for the Capitals. Although he was re-assigned to the AHL to begin the season, he was recalled from the Bears as a result of several injuries to the Capitals lineup. At the time of his recall, Perreault had recorded one goal and six assists in 11 games. He made his NHL debut on November 4, 2009, against the New Jersey Devils and recorded two assists in the 3–2 loss. In the third game of his call up, Perreault scored his first NHL goal, which came in the third period against Scott Clemmensen of the Florida Panthers at the Verizon Center. The goal proved to be the spark that the Capitals needed after being down 3–2; the team ended up winning 7–4. Perreault once-again split his time during the 2010–11 season between the AHL and NHL, playing 34 games for the Bears and 35 for the Capitals. In a game against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Perreault recorded a four-goal game in an eventual 9–2 win. While playing on a line with Chris Bourque and Steve Pinizzotto, he recorded two goals in the first period and completed his hat trick with a penalty shot in the second period. His final goal also came during the second period. On July 13, 2011, Perreault signed a one-year, two-way contract extension with the Capitals. After two seasons bouncing back and forth between the AHL and NHL, Perreault made the Capitals' opening night roster out of training camp for the first time in the 2011–12 season. He began the season on the fourth line but was quickly moved to the first as injuries and illness depleted Washington’s depth. During his first game on the first line centering Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin, he recorded two assists. Two days later, in his 86th NHL game, Perreault recorded his first NHL hat trick on January 24, 2012, against Tuukka Rask of the Boston Bruins in Washington's 5–3 victory. Due to the 2012–13 NHL lockout, Perreault began the season with HIFK in the Liiga, recording seven points in seven games. During his time with HIFK, he was on the first power-play unit and played over 20 minutes per game. Upon returning to the NHL, he played an average of 4:28. After complaining about his ice time during the first two games of the season, his time increased along with penalty minutes. As a result, he served as a healthy scratch for five straight games before returning to the lineup against the Florida Panthers. #### Anaheim Ducks Perreault was traded from the Capitals to the Anaheim Ducks on September 29, 2013, in exchange for winger John Mitchell and a fourth-round pick in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. Ducks head coach Bruce Boudreau had pushed for Perreault to join the team because he liked him as a player and wanted to give him a chance. In his first 16 games with the Ducks, he recorded five goals and nine assists. While discussing his scoring prowess, Perreault praised the Ducks for giving him a "fresh start and a new opportunity to play under a familiar coach." Near the conclusion of the season, Perreault suffered an upper-body injury during a 1–0 win over the St. Louis Blues and was listed as day-to-day. He returned to the lineup for the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs and helped the team win their series against the Dallas Stars in six games. Although he was forced to sit out for Game 6 due to a lower-body injury, he had recorded two goals and three assists in the series with 13 penalty minutes. In his one season with the Ducks, he registered 43 points in 69 games played, but Anaheim opted not to sign Perreault following the expiry of his contract. #### Winnipeg Jets On July 1, 2014, Perreault signed a three-year, \$9 million contract with the Winnipeg Jets and made their opening night roster. In the first year of his contract, Perreault scored four goals in an 8–2 Winnipeg win over the Florida Panthers on January 13, 2015. He subsequently became the first NHL player to score four goals in a single game for the Jets/Trashers franchise since Ilya Kovalchuk in 2005. Following this game, Perreault suffered an upper-body injury during a 4–2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks and was expected to possibly miss the remainder of the regular-season. At the time of his injury, he sat fifth in team scoring with 18 goals for 36 points in 56 games. Perreault returned to the Jets' lineup during Game 2 of the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs against his former team, the Anaheim Ducks. He recorded one assist in his return although the Jets would lose 2–1. The following season, Perreault recorded nine goals and 41 points in 71 games before suffering a concussion during a game against the Anaheim Ducks. With one year remaining on his contract, Perreault signed a four-year, \$16.5 million contract extension to remain with the Jets. When discussing the extension, head coach Paul Maurice said: "Mathieu has found his place, found his home." In the final year of his old contract, Perreault recorded 45 points, including 13 goals, in 65 regular-season games. After making the Jets' lineup to start the 2017–18 season, Perreault was placed on injured reserve following a game against the Carolina Hurricanes in mid-October. At the time of his injury, Perreault had recorded a goal and two assists in five games. He missed 11 games before being allowed to return to practice in a no-contact jersey. Perreault finished the regular season with 17 goals and 39 points in 70 games before suffering a second injury during the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs. During the Jets' first-round series against the Minnesota Wild, Perreault endured an upper-body injury following a hit from Mikko Koivu. As a result, he missed the remainder of the series and returned to the Jets' lineup for Game 5 against the Nashville Predators. Perreault began the 2018–19 season skating on a line with Kristian Vesalainen and Jack Roslovic who described him as a mentor. He managed to play a full 82 games for the first time in his NHL career but decreased in scoring, ending the season with 31 points. While the Jets qualified for the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs, he was scratched from Game 2 due to an undisclosed injury that occurred during practice. When Perreault re-joined the Jets for the 2019–20 season, he became only one of two players drafted after the second round in 2006 to reach 600 games. In December 2019, Perreault was placed on concussion protocol after Philadelphia Flyers forward Joel Farabee committed a blindsided hit on him during a 7–3 Jets win. Farabee was subsequently suspended three games by the National Hockey League Department of Player Safety. After being cleared to play, he was hit again during a game against the Vancouver Canucks by Jake Virtanen. Perreault criticized the hit and the lack of suspension saying: "so the next guy that does that to me is going to get my [expletive] stick and I better not get suspended for it." He later apologized for threatening harm but maintained his frustration that no action was taken for the incident. Prior to the beginning of the delayed 2020–21 NHL season, Perreault was placed on waivers alongside Nelson Nogier, Luca Sbisa, and C. J. Suess due to salary cap issues. A few days later, he was called up from the Jets' taxi squad in case Nikolaj Ehlers contracted COVID-19. He competed with the Jets as they swept the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, with him scoring a goal in Game 4 to complete the sweep. During the second round, the Jets were swept by the Montreal Canadiens and eliminated from the playoffs. As he finished the season unsigned to a new contract, Perreault became one of several Jets players remaining an unrestricted free agent. #### Montreal Canadiens On July 29, 2021, Perreault left the Jets after seven seasons and was signed to a one-year, \$950,000 contract with the Montreal Canadiens. In a season where the Canadiens began very poorly, losing five consecutive games at the start and scoring only four goals in the same span, Perreault made headlines by scoring a hat trick in their 6–1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on October 23. It was the first hat trick for a Quebec native playing for the Canadiens in Montreal since Vincent Damphousse in 1998. He remarked afterward that "you don't even dream about moments like that." Perreault struggled with injury thereafter, first missing all of November and then sustaining an injury on December 14 that kept him out of the lineup for ten weeks. He returned on February 26. On March 5, 2022, he played his 700th NHL game, a 5–2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers. On March 16, after playing just 18 regular season games for the Canadiens, he was placed on waivers. At the time, Perreault had accumulated three goals and two assists for five points. After Perreault was not re-signed by the Canadiens following the end of the 2021–22 season, he chose to retire from professional hockey and join the TVA Sports broadcasting team. ## Personal life Perreault and his wife Jennilie have three children together, two daughters and one son. Perreault has two tattoos, one of the Tasmanian Devil on his lower stomach and a matching wristband with his wife. In 2017, Perreault helped financially support the opening of the Parc-en-ciel, an amusement center for children in Drummondville. In honor of his contributions, July 1 was deemed "Mathieu Perreault Day" at the center. ## Career statistics
5,055,529	Nani (footballer)	1,173,282,881	Portuguese footballer (born 1986)	[ "1986 births", "2014 FIFA World Cup players", "2017 FIFA Confederations Cup players", "Black Portuguese sportspeople", "Commanders of the Order of Merit (Portugal)", "Designated Players (MLS)", "Expatriate men's footballers in England", "Expatriate men's footballers in Italy", "Expatriate men's footballers in Spain", "Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey", "FIFA Men's Century Club", "Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers", "Footballers from Lisbon District", "La Liga players", "Living people", "Major League Soccer players", "Manchester United F.C. players", "Marquee players (A-League Men)", "Melbourne Victory FC players", "Men's association football wingers", "Orlando City SC players", "People from Amadora", "Portugal men's B international footballers", "Portugal men's international footballers", "Portugal men's under-21 international footballers", "Portugal men's youth international footballers", "Portuguese expatriate men's footballers", "Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in England", "Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Italy", "Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain", "Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Turkey", "Portuguese men's footballers", "Portuguese people of Cape Verdean descent", "Premier League players", "Primeira Liga players", "Real S.C. players", "SS Lazio players", "Serie A players", "Sporting CP footballers", "Süper Lig players", "UEFA Champions League winning players", "UEFA Euro 2008 players", "UEFA Euro 2012 players", "UEFA Euro 2016 players", "UEFA European Championship-winning players", "Valencia CF players", "Venezia FC players" ]	Luís Carlos Almeida da Cunha ComM (born 17 November 1986), commonly known as Nani (), is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a winger for Süper Lig club Adana Demirspor. He represented Portugal in international football, playing 112 times for the senior national team. Nani began his career with Sporting CP, joining the youth team in 2003 before making his first-team debut in 2005. During his two-year tenure in Portugal, Nani won the Portuguese Cup in the 2006–07 season. Before the 2007–08 season, Nani's performances attracted the attention of English club Manchester United, who secured his services in July 2007. He gained first-team status almost immediately and won four Premier League titles and the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League, along with the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup, two League Cups and three Community Shields. Following a loan back to Sporting, in which he won the Portuguese Cup, he was signed by Turkish side Fenerbahçe in 2015, and a year later he signed for Valencia in Spain. He rejoined Sporting in 2018, winning another Portuguese Cup as well as a Portuguese League Cup, before moving to Major League Soccer side Orlando City, whom he captained for three seasons before leaving at the end of 2021. In January 2022, he moved to Venezia in Italy. Nani made his Portugal international debut in 2006, scoring his first goal soon after and establishing himself as a key member of the side. He represented his country at three European Championships, in 2008, 2012 and 2016, as well as in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Nani started in the final of Euro 2016, and after Cristiano Ronaldo got injured, captained the team to victory. He made 112 appearances and scored 24 goals for his country in total. ## Early life Nani was born on 17 November 1986 in Amadora, Lisbon metropolitan area, Portugal, and is of Cape Verdean descent. He was raised by his aunt Antónia on the Santa Filomena estate in Amadora after being abandoned by his parents. At age five, his father left for a holiday in Cape Verde but never returned, and when he was 12 years old, his mother left Portugal to start a new life in the Netherlands. Nani has nine siblings from his mother, of which he is the youngest, and five from his father. Nani gained his nickname from an elder sister at a young age. Nani's older brother taught him how to play football and he played with his childhood friend, midfielder Manuel Fernandes. When Nani was around the age of 14, his older brother took him to train with Real Massamá. They were Nani's first club and gave him money, food, and helped him obtain an ID card and a passport. At the age of 16, Nani was training on alternate days with Sporting CP and Benfica. Nani sometimes walked miles to and from practice before Sporting offered him pre-season training. Despite growing up in Lisbon, Nani and his brother supported FC Porto as a boy and his footballing hero was Luís Figo. ## Club career ### Sporting CP Nani joined Sporting CP from his first club, Real Massamá. After two seasons in the youth team, where he won the National Junior Championship in 2004–05, Nani was promoted to the first team early in the 2005–06 season. On 10 August 2005, he made his Sporting CP debut, coming on as a substitute for Custódio in the 73rd minute in a 1–0 home defeat to Udinese in their third-round qualifier in the UEFA Champions League. Nani made his Portuguese Liga debut on 28 August, replacing Deivid in the 76th minute of a 1–2 victory over Marítimo at the Estádio dos Barreiros. Nani scored his first Sporting goal on 30 October, opening the scoring in a 2–2 draw away to Boavista. Nani ended the first season of his career with 5 goals from 36 appearances across all competitions. Nani first came into the spotlight after scoring in the UEFA Champions League against Spartak Moscow, scoring Sporting's goal in a 1–1 group stage match on 27 September 2006. Nani helped Sporting win the 2006–07 Taça de Portugal, lifting the trophy after a 1–0 win over Belenenses on 27 May 2007 in the final. He was then named as the SJPF Young Player of the Month for May 2007. Nani's second season with Sporting ended with similar league statistics, with 40 appearances and 6 goals in all competitions. ### Manchester United #### Early years Nani was sold to Manchester United for €25.5 million, five percent of which was paid to Real Massamá, his first professional club. He passed his medical on 6 June 2007, and signed a five-year contract one month later, joining Portuguese compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo, with whom he lived at the start of his Manchester United career. Nani scored on his debut in a pre-season friendly against Shenzhen, scoring the third in a 6–0 win. He also scored in the following match against Guangzhou Pharmaceutical with a chip off the right post from the left side of the penalty area in a 3–0 win. On 5 August 2007, Nani made his competitive debut for United, coming on as a substitute in the Community Shield against Chelsea. He marked his debut with a trophy after they won 3–0 on penalties, following a 1–1 draw during normal time. This was followed up by Nani's third goal for the club three days later, when he scored against Glentoran in another 3–0 pre-season win. Nani's Premier League debut came in United's opening match at home to Reading on 12 August as a substitute for Wayne Rooney, who had suffered a foot injury. Two weeks later, on 26 August, Nani scored his first competitive goal for United, netting a 30-yard goal in the 69th minute against Tottenham Hotspur. Nani also set up crucial goals for Louis Saha and Nemanja Vidić, allowing United to defeat both Sunderland and Everton 1–0, respectively. He returned to face his previous club, Sporting CP, in a Champions League tie in September, though it was teammate and fellow former Sporting player Cristiano Ronaldo who scored the winner in a 0–1 victory. Nani opened the scoring in a 4–1 home victory over Middlesbrough on 27 October. On 16 February 2008, Nani put in a man of the match performance against Arsenal in the FA Cup Fourth Round, his goal and two assists helping United to a 4–0 win over their rivals. During the match, Nani was involved in an altercation with Arsenal captain William Gallas. After the match, Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger was equally displeased, while Gilberto Silva said Nani had a "big head". On 23 March, Nani set up the second and scored the final goal in a 3–0 victory over rivals Liverpool, in the 79th and 81st minutes respectively, after coming onto the pitch as a substitute. On 3 May, towards the end of a 4–1 home win over West Ham United, Nani was sent off for the first time in his United career for a headbutt on West Ham defender Lucas Neill. On 21 May, Nani came on as a substitute for Wayne Rooney in the 2008 UEFA Champions League Final as United defeated Chelsea 6–5 on penalties following a 1–1 draw after extra time. Nani took and scored Manchester United's crucial fifth penalty in the shootout. Nani scored his first goal of the 2008–09 season on 23 September 2008, scoring United's third goal in a 3–1 win over Middlesbrough in the last minute to secure passage to the Fourth Round of the League Cup. On 18 October, he scored from a Wayne Rooney assist to complete the 4–0 rout of West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford. On 20 January 2009, he opened the scoring for United in their 4–2 win at home to Derby County in the second leg of their League Cup semi-final. #### Breakthrough After Cristiano Ronaldo's transfer to Real Madrid in the 2009 close season, the weight of expectation was on Nani to step up from bit part player and replace his compatriot. Nani's first contribution to United's new season was opening the scoring in the tenth minute of the 2009 FA Community Shield, but United eventually lost the match on penalties after a 2–2 draw. Nani suffered a dislocated shoulder during the match, which was originally expected to keep him out of the start of the season. He recovered in time to play 17 minutes for Portugal against Liechtenstein on 12 August, however, and started the match against Birmingham City on 16 August. Although he provided the assist for Wayne Rooney's winning goal in the 34th minute, Nani was replaced by Ryan Giggs at half-time. On 22 August, Nani scored his first league goal of the 2009–10 season, a free-kick against Wigan Athletic in a 0–5 away win. Following several poor performances, Nani criticised Sir Alex Ferguson for his lack of confidence in him. Despite this outburst, Nani was given a chance to shine and provided an assist for Rooney in the 4–0 league win over Hull City. Soon after this positive display, he put in another good performance in their League Cup semi-final victory over derby rivals Manchester City, revealing a heart-to-heart with Ferguson had resulted in a better display of form. On 31 January 2010, Nani scored the first goal and set up Rooney's 100th career Premier League strike in a 1–3 league victory over Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Nani's goal was first thought of as a Manuel Almunia own goal by many sources, but was confirmed as belonging to Nani on 26 March by the Dubious Goals Panel. Following this performance, Nani then set up the second of a 5–0 home win over Portsmouth. However, just four days later, he was sent off for a lunge at Stiliyan Petrov against Aston Villa, which resulted in a three-match ban and ruled him out of the League Cup final. On 10 March, Nani set up Rooney's second in a 4–0 win over Milan, before providing another assist for Rooney four days later, in the 3–0 league victory over Fulham. On 26 March, Nani signed a new four-year contract with United, committing himself until 2014. A day later, Nani took his assist tally in the league for the season to nine as he set up two goals in a 0–4 win over Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium, providing goals for Dimitar Berbatov and Darron Gibson. On 7 April, Nani scored his first ever European goals for United, netting two strikes in a 3–2 victory over Bayern Munich. Despite United winning the match, they were eliminated from the competition due to the away goals rule when the aggregate score was 4–4. On 24 April, Nani scored his first league goal at Old Trafford in 18 months, netting United's second in a 3–1 home victory over Tottenham Hotspur. On 2 May, Nani scored for the second match in a row, netting the only goal in a 0–1 away victory over Sunderland. Nani's third season with Manchester United ended with 34 appearances and seven goals in all competitions. #### 2010–11 season On 22 August 2010, Nani missed a penalty in the 87th minute away to Fulham, and they then equalised two minutes later through Brede Hangeland to end the match 2–2. Six days later, in a 3–0 home victory over West Ham United, Nani scored his first goal of the season and assisted Dimitar Berbatov in a Man of the Match display. Nani scored and assisted Michael Owen in a 2–2 away draw away to Bolton Wanderers on 26 September. On 16 October, Nani scored United's second in a 2–2 home draw against West Bromwich Albion. Four days later, Nani scored his first Champions League goal of the season, scoring the solitary strike in a 1–0 home victory over Bursaspor. On 30 October, Nani scored a controversial second goal as United beat Tottenham Hotspur 2–0 at home. He scored into an empty net after Tottenham goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes rolled the ball out to take a free-kick he thought had been given for handball; however, play was allowed to go on as referee Mark Clattenburg did not blow his whistle. On 27 November, Nani scored United's fifth goal in a 7–1 home win over Blackburn Rovers. Nani netted his first goal of 2011 as he scored the winning strike in a 2–1 home victory over Stoke City on 4 January. On 22 January, Nani scored the final goal of a 5–0 home victory over Birmingham City. Nani scored United's only goal in their first league loss of the season, a 2–1 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers on 5 February. Seven days later Nani scored his first Manchester derby goal, opening the scoring in a 2–1 home victory over Manchester City. On 6 March, during United's 3–1 loss against Liverpool at Anfield, Nani was injured following a challenge from Jamie Carragher just before half-time. Nani shed tears after the challenge and was subsequently taken off the pitch in a stretcher. Following post-match comments to the press from Manchester United, it was believed Nani had suffered a broken leg. However, this was not the case as he started training the following week. It was thought Nani would miss up to three weeks as a result of this tackle and would return in April, but he recovered in time to play 61 minutes of a 2–1 victory over Marseille on 15 March. Nani was revealed as a contender for the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) Young Player of the Year award alongside teammate Javier Hernández on 8 April. However, many people, including Nani, expressed their surprise he was not nominated for the main award. Following this nomination, he assisted both goals in a 2–0 home win over Fulham on 9 April. Nani lost out to Jack Wilshere for the PFA Young Player of the Year award on 18 April but he was included in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year for the first time. He was awarded for his outstanding season as he was voted Players' Player of the Year at the club's awards night on 18 May. #### 2011–12 season Nani began the new season by putting in a man of the match performance and scoring twice against derby rivals Manchester City in the 2011 Community Shield, including a 94th-minute winner, as United came from two goals down to win 3–2 on 7 August 2011. He scored his first league goal of the 2011–12 season by netting United's fifth goal in an 8–2 victory over Arsenal on 28 August. Nani made his 100th Premier League appearance on 18 September as he scored in a 3–1 home win over Chelsea. He scored with a long-range strike after cutting inside from the right wing. He was also awarded with the man of the match. In United's following league match at the Britannia Stadium, Nani scored his third goal of the season in a 1–1 draw with Stoke City. He played a neat one-two with Darren Fletcher before making his way through Stoke's defence and firing a low shot inside the left post. Nani started the match against Manchester City where they fell victim to a 1–6 beating at home to their neighbours. On 1 November, Nani was shortlisted for the prestigious FIFA Ballon d'Or. On 10 December, the first match after United's elimination from the UEFA Champions League, Nani scored a brace in a home match against Wolverhampton Wanderers. He opened the scoring in the 17th minute to put them 1–0 up with a shot into the bottom left corner. He scored his second goal in the 56th minute, tapping in from Antonio Valencia's drilled cross across the six-yard box to extend the lead to 3–1. He was later replaced by winger Ashley Young as the match finished 4–1 to the home side. Nani scored his sixth league goal of the season and provided two assists in a 5–0 away win at Fulham on 21 December. He first advanced on a run down the left flank before crossing for Danny Welbeck to slot home. He then met a Ryan Giggs cross with his head to glance United into a 2–0 lead. He then returned the compliment, squaring for Giggs to put United 3–0 up before half-time. During Manchester United's 2–1 win against Arsenal on 22 January, Nani sustained a foot injury from a tackle by Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny in the 75th minute and was replaced by Ashley Young. After a scan on Nani's foot, he was feared to have suffered a metatarsal injury, thus not being able to play for two months. Nani returned to football on 15 April at United's match against Aston Villa as a substitute, replacing Young on the left wing. He scored a goal in stoppage time (93rd minute) with a low shot past Villa goalkeeper Shay Given from Jonny Evans' through-ball assist, resulting in a 4–0 win over Villa. Nani then followed this with another goal when chipping Tim Howard at his near post in a 4–4 draw at Old Trafford against Everton. #### 2012–13 season During the season Nani scored a single Premier League goal, and three in all competitions, marking significant decrease compared with previous seasons. He played just 11 times in the league, including only seven as a starter, although United ended up winning the league 11 points ahead of second place, to give Nani his fourth Premier League winner's medal. His most memorable appearance in the season came in the second leg of United's UEFA Champions League round of 16 tie with Real Madrid. With Manchester United leading 1—0, Nani was sent off in the 56th minute for a high boot on Álvaro Arbeloa; Real Madrid took advantage of their numerical superiority and scored twice to win the match 2–1, and the tie 3–2 on aggregate. #### 2013–14 season On 5 September 2013, Nani renewed his contract with Manchester United, which was to keep him at the club until 2018. He started his first match of 2013–14 season against Liverpool in the League Cup. Despite this, Nani spent most of the season struggling against injury and trying to find form. He scored only once during the season. #### Loan return to Sporting CP On 19 August 2014, Sporting CP announced the return of Nani to the club on a season-long loan from Manchester United, as part of a deal that brought centre-back Marcos Rojo to United. Nani was given the number 77 shirt. Nani made his comeback at the Estádio José Alvalade in a Primeira Liga match against Arouca, four days after signing. He missed a penalty, received a yellow card and was substituted in the 77th minute as the match ended in a 1–0 win for Sporting. He scored his first goal of this loan on 17 September, opening a 1–1 draw at Maribor in the first match of the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League group stage. He was also voted Man of the Match. Nani scored his first league goal for the club four days later in a 4–0 win against Gil Vicente On 3 January 2015, Nani was sent off for two bookings in a 3–0 win over Estoril. Nani scored in Sporting's penalty shootout victory over Braga in the 2015 Taça de Portugal final, which earned the club their first trophy since 2008. ### Fenerbahçe On 6 July 2015, Nani joined Turkish club Fenerbahçe, signing a three-year deal for a £4.25 million transfer fee. He and his former United teammate Robin van Persie debuted 22 days later in a goalless home draw against Shakhtar Donetsk in the third qualifying round of the season's Champions League, with Nani starting. He scored two goals including the winner, a free-kick in second-half stoppage time, against Antalyaspor on 30 August. On 26 May 2016, Nani was sent off in the Turkish Cup final for sarcastically applauding the referee following a 1–0 loss to rivals Galatasaray. ### Valencia In July 2016, Nani signed for Spanish club Valencia on a three-year contract, with Valencia paying an undisclosed fee – reported at £7.2 million – to complete the transfer. Nani was suspended for Valencia's season opener against Las Palmas as he had not served his suspension from his last game for Fenerbahçe. He debuted on 27 August in the next game, a 1–0 loss at Eibar. On 25 September, in his 500th game as a professional, he opened his Valencia account with his 100th goal to conclude a 2–1 win at Leganés. In his one season at the Mestalla, he suffered four muscular injuries over the course of the campaign – a contrast to his previous year in Turkey, where he played 64 games for club and country. #### Loan to Lazio On 31 August 2017, Lazio announced the signing of Nani on a season-long loan deal. He scored his first goal for Lazio on 29 October, the final goal of a 5–1 away victory over Benevento. ### Return to Sporting CP On 11 July 2018, Sporting CP announced that Nani would be rejoining the club. He scored twice in his second game on 18 August, a 2–1 home win over Vitória Setúbal. In one of his final games on 26 January, the 2019 Taça da Liga Final in Braga, he scored Sporting's last penalty as they defeated Porto following a 1–1 draw. ### Orlando City On 18 February 2019, Nani moved to Orlando City, signing a three-year contract on a Designated Player deal. He made his club debut on 2 March, coming on as a 70th minute substitute in Orlando's season opener at home against New York City FC; the game ended in a 2–2 draw, with Nani registering an assist on Dom Dwyer's equaliser. He scored his first goals for the team on 6 April 2019, when he netted twice in Orlando's 4–3 home win over Colorado Rapids, including the game–winning penalty in the 89th minute. On 31 July 2020, he missed a penalty in regulation time against Los Angeles FC in the quarter-finals of the MLS is Back Tournament but later assisted the last-minute equalizer and scored the winning penalty during an extra-time shootout. In the semi-finals against Minnesota United FC, Nani scored two first-half goals to help his team reach the final with a 3–1 win. However, Orlando City eventually finished runners-up in the tournament, losing to Portland Timbers in the final. On 26 November 2021, Nani announced he was leaving Orlando City following the expiration of his contract. ### Venezia On 14 January 2022, he signed a contract with Italian Serie A club Venezia until the end of the 2022–23 season. The contract was terminated by mutual consent on 8 July 2022. ### Melbourne Victory On 12 July 2022, Nani signed a two-year contract with A-League Men club Melbourne Victory. Three days later, he made his unofficial debut for his new team, coming on as a late substitute in a 4–1 loss to former side Manchester United. On 6 January 2023, during an A-League Men game against Brisbane Roar, he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in an accidental clash with opponent Connor Chapman, and was ruled out for the rest of the season. On 31 May 2023, the club confirmed Nani's departure. ### Adana Demirspor On 13 July 2023, Süper Lig club Adana Demirspor announced the signing of Nani on a one-year contract, with an option for a further year. ## International career ### Portugal under–21 Nani was the youngest member of the Portugal U21 squad at the 2006 UEFA Under-21 Championship, making his debut on 23 May 2006 in a 1–0 defeat to France. He appeared in all three matches, scoring no goals, before Portugal bowed out in group stages. During the 2007 European Under-21 Football Championship, he made four appearances, scoring one goal in a 4–0 victory against Israel U21 in a group stage match on 16 June 2007, and had to be taken off during the match after a right ankle injury. ### Portugal senior team Nani made his first appearance for the senior Portuguese team on 1 September 2006, and marked his debut with a goal in Portugal's 4–2 friendly defeat to Denmark. Nani was omitted from Portugal's 1–1 draw with Armenia, but was recalled for Euro 2008 qualifiers against Poland and Serbia in September. He also provided the assist for Ricardo Quaresma's goal in a friendly against Italy on 6 February 2008. Nani was ruled out of Portugal's friendly with Greece in March 2008 due to injury. #### UEFA Euro 2008 Nani was a regular member of the Portugal squad in Euro 2008 qualification, and scored one of the goals in the 2–1 away win over Belgium on 2 June 2007. Nani received a call-up to Luiz Felipe Scolari's 23-man squad for Euro 2008 alongside Manchester United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo. During the campaign, Nani played three matches and started just one, but did provide the assist for Hélder Postiga's goal during a substitute appearance in the 3–2 quarter-final defeat to Germany on 19 June. #### 2010 FIFA World Cup and Qualification Nani's fourth international goal came in Portugal's final friendly match before their World Cup qualifying campaign started, a 5–0 victory over the Faroe Islands on 20 August 2008. Nani scored the final goal of a 4–0 victory over Malta as Portugal started qualification for the 2010 World Cup on 6 September. He opened the scoring in the 3–2 home loss against Denmark four days later. Nani helped Portugal book a play-off place for the World Cup as he netted in the 4–0 home win over Malta on 14 October 2009. Nani was influential in the play-off against Bosnia and Herzegovina, setting up Bruno Alves for the only goal in the first leg. Raul Meireles' goal in the second-leg sealed Portugal's place at the World Cup in South Africa. On 1 June 2010, Nani netted Portugal's third in a 3–1 victory over Cameroon. Following that game Nani was named in Carlos Queiroz 23-man squad for the tournament, However, on 8 June, Nani was ruled out of the tournament through a shoulder injury and was replaced by Benfica midfielder Rúben Amorim. #### UEFA Euro 2012 Nani scored twice and assisted once in Paulo Bento's first game in charge of Portugal in a 3–1 Euro 2012 qualifying win over Denmark on 8 October 2010. Nani scored twice and set up another again in a 5–3 win over Iceland on 7 October 2011. #### 2014 FIFA World Cup Nani started in the opening match of the 2014 World Cup for Portugal against Germany. After the match, he stated how the team played well despite the loss and how "the referee has discriminated against us, but that's normal, Portugal against big teams never get help". In the team's second fixture, Nani scored the opening goal for Portugal in a 2–2 draw with the United States. #### UEFA Euro 2016 Nani scored Portugal's first goal in the last match of the group stage, a 3–3 draw against Hungary on 22 June, to help the team qualify for the knockout round. He then contributed to the only goal of the match in a 1–0 extra-time victory in the round of 16 against Croatia on 25 June. During their quarter-final match on 30 June against Poland, Nani set up Renato Sanches' goal in regulation time and later scored Portugal's fourth penalty in an eventual 5–3 shoot-out victory, following a 1–1 draw after extra-time. In the semi-finals against Wales on 6 July, he scored the second goal in a 2–0 victory. In the final against host-nation France on 10 July, Nani was awarded the captain's armband after Cristiano Ronaldo was forced off in the opening 25 minutes of the match following a challenge from Dimitri Payet. During extra-time, substitute Eder scored in the 109th minute to earn Portugal a 1–0 victory. #### FIFA 2017 Confederations Cup and 2018 World Cup On 24 June 2017, Nani scored the final goal of a 4–0 win over New Zealand in the FIFA Confederations Cup which saw Portugal finish third. In May 2018 he was named in Portugal's preliminary 35-man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia but did not make the final 23. ## Style of play In the early stages of his career at Manchester United, Nani's ability and playing style often invited comparisons with club and international teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, however Nani's style developed into more that of a traditional winger than Ronaldo's evolution into a centre forward. While being able to play on both wings, Nani is more comfortable on the right side, where he has been known to utilise his pace along with intricate dribbling skills and trickery to create space in wide areas and provide crosses for teammates. Though capable of cutting inside from either wing to strike at goal from distance, Nani scores fewer goals but produces a substantially higher proportion of assists than his compatriot Ronaldo. Due to his potent attacking talents, he can play a variety of additional roles as a forward including as an inverted winger on the left, second striker, or even in a more central position as a main striker, as he has played frequently for Portugal. ## Celebration Nani celebrates a goal with a somersault referred to in Portuguese as a "mortal" ("leap of death"), similar to that of Obafemi Martins and Lomana LuaLua. The celebration derives from Nani's background in capoeira, which he used to practice as a child. For a while, it was reported that United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had banned Nani's celebration due to fear for his safety. However, Nani denounced the reports in August 2007, stating it was "not true" and that "Ferguson has never spoken to me about this subject and I am going to continue to celebrate goals in this way. The conversations he has had with me are normal conversations, like he has with all players". ## Career statistics ### Club ### International Portugal score listed first, score column indicates score after each Nani goal. ## Honours Sporting CP - Taça de Portugal: 2006–07, 2014–15, 2018–19 - Taça da Liga: 2018–19 Manchester United - Premier League: 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2012–13 - Football League Cup: 2008–09, 2009–10 - FA Community Shield: 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 - UEFA Champions League: 2007–08 - FIFA Club World Cup: 2008 Portugal - UEFA European Championship: 2016 Individual - SJPF Young Player of the Month: May 2007 - PFA Team of the Year: 2010–11 Premier League - Manchester United Players' Player of the Year: 2010–11 - SJPF Player of the Month: October/November 2014 - Sporting CP Footballer of the Year: 2015 - MLS All-Star: 2019, 2021 - Premier League most assists: 2010–11 Orders - Commander of the Order of Merit ## See also - List of footballers with 100 or more caps
2,667,815	Michael Dawson (Lost)	1,163,890,145	Fictional character of the TV series Lost	[ "Fictional African-American people", "Fictional characters from New York City", "Fictional construction workers", "Fictional murderers", "Lost (2004 TV series) characters", "Male characters in television", "Television characters introduced in 2004" ]	Michael Dawson is a fictional character played by Harold Perrineau on the ABC television series Lost. Michael is one of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 who crashes on the show's mysterious island. After losing a custody battle with Susan Lloyd (Tamara Taylor), Michael does not see his son Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) for almost ten years. They reunite when she dies, but on their journey home, their plane crashes on a mysterious island in the South Pacific. Here Walt is kidnapped by the Island's previous inhabitants, the Others, and Michael spends his time trying to retrieve him. He is eventually successful, and they leave the Island together, but the guilt over the murders he had to commit to achieve this leads him to an estrangement with his son and a suicide attempt. He returns to the Island on a freighter, but is killed when a bomb on it explodes. Michael reappears as a ghost, and apologizes to Hurley for killing Libby (Cynthia Watros). Although initially skeptical about the role, Perrineau took it after Lost creator J. J. Abrams told him more about it. Much of the first season arc for Michael was rewritten; he was originally going to be part of a love triangle with Korean couple Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), but positive fan reaction to the couple meant this storyline was dropped. After Michael leaves the Island in season two, Perrineau knew he would return to Lost at some point; he felt there was more to tell of Michael's story. Reception for the character has been mixed, but Perrineau's acting was largely praised. While credited for the entire season, Perrineau's character does not return until his cameo in the fourth season episode "Ji Yeon". While Perrineau signed a multi-season return deal, the character was killed off after five further appearances in the season. Perrineau described the storyline as a "weird stereotype" of a Black father abandoning his son that he deemed uninteresting. He admitted to being hesitant about signing on had he known the storyline would have panned out the way it did. In retrospect, Lindelof later expressed regret about the direction of the character's arc in a 2020 podcast interview, defining Michael solely as Walt's father, and how a lack of diversity in the writer's room affected the direction of the character. ## Arc Much of Michael's life before the plane crash is shown in flashbacks during "Special". Susan Lloyd leaves Michael after their son Walt is born, and travels to Amsterdam with Walt. Later, Susan tells him that she intends to get married. Michael becomes enraged, and is hit by a car, leaving him hospitalized for months. Susan tracks him down at the hospital and tries to convince him to give up his parental rights, so that her new husband can adopt Walt. Michael refuses, but in the resulting custody battle Susan convinces him that it is the best decision for Walt. Several years later, Susan dies, and her husband asks Michael to take custody of Walt, who is now living in Australia. Michael agrees, but just before the return flight, calls his mother and asks if she can take Walt instead. Their plane crashes on an island in the South Pacific; Michael, Walt and Walt's Labrador Vincent are among the survivors. After Vincent runs into the jungle, Michael searches for him, but to no avail; it is later that Locke (Terry O'Quinn) returns Vincent to Michael. Despite this gesture, Michael is skeptical about Locke, and does not want Walt spending time with him. After Michael is attacked by a Korean survivor, Jin, over a gold watch Michael has started wearing, Jin's wife Sun approaches him to explain that it is her father's watch, and in doing so reveals that she speaks English. Michael begins constructing a raft, in hope that he and Walt can escape the Island. After witnessing his completed raft burned down, Michael blames Jin, but later Walt confesses that it was him. Although Walt did not want to leave the Island, he has now changed his mind. Michael and Jin bond after Sun reveals her ability to speak English, and the two men begin work on a second raft. They offer the final space on board to Sawyer (Josh Holloway). In the season finale "Exodus", Michael sets sail with Jin, Sawyer and Walt, and not far from the Island, they encounter a small fishing boat. The occupants of the fishing boat are the Others, who have long inhabited the Island. They kidnap Walt and destroy the raft. At the beginning of season two, Michael and Sawyer are stranded in the middle of the ocean, with Jin missing. They wash ashore and discover Jin, then are knocked unconscious by one of the survivors from the tail section of the plane. After convincing the tail section survivors that they were on the same plane, they all return to the beach camp of the fuselage survivors. Later, Michael offers to take a shift in the hatch that the survivors have found. Here, he begins receiving computer messages from someone who he thinks is Walt, who gives him directions to where he is being held. Michael ventures off in search of him, but moments after leaving the camp, two of the Others kidnap him and hold him hostage. Michael is told to retrieve their leader, who is held captive in the hatch, then bring Sawyer, Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Jack (Matthew Fox) and Hurley (Jorge Garcia) to them, and they will return Walt and let them leave the Island. In order to free their leader, Ben (Michael Emerson), Michael convinces Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez), who is guarding Ben, that he will kill Ben on her behalf, but instead kills her when she hands over the gun and the combination to the armory. When Libby (Cynthia Watros) walks in on them, a startled Michael shoots her twice. He succeeds in bringing the four requested survivors to the Others, so Ben reunites him with Walt. Michael and Walt are given a boat and coordinates to freedom, and they sail away from the Island. A flashback during "Meet Kevin Johnson" reveals that they manage to return to New York City, where Michael hands Walt over to Walt's grandmother. Michael then attempts suicide, unable to cope with the guilt of his murders. Tom (M. C. Gainey), one of the Others, arrives, and tells Michael he can redeem himself by saving the other survivors from an imminent threat. Tom gives Michael a passport with the new name of "Kevin Johnson" in order to infiltrate a freighter that is trying to find the Island. On the freighter he receives a call from Ben, who instructs him to send him information on all the crew, then to sabotage the radio room and the boat engines. In his first season four appearance, Michael meets Sayid (Naveen Andrews) and Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), who have managed to get from the Island to the freighter. They tell the freighter's captain of Michael's true identity, who orders him to repair the engines. During the season finale, Michael and Jin attempt to disarm a bomb planted on the freighter. Michael slows the bomb's detonation with liquid nitrogen, then tells Jin to leave, when he is almost out of nitrogen. When the supply of nitrogen runs out, Christian Shephard (John Terry) appears to Michael and tells him he can go now. The bomb detonates, and Michael is killed in the explosion, having achieved the redemption he had been seeking. Michael reappears halfway through the sixth season as a ghost that only Hurley can see. He explains that the whispers on the island are the voices of those who have died on the island. As Hurley turns to depart, Michael stops him and apologizes for the pain he caused for both him and Libby. ## Characteristics During season two, Perrineau stated "[Michael]'s nicer than I expected him to be. Or, he is nicer so far than I expected him to be ... I try to take characters that I think are challenging and a little complicated and hopefully really smart and thoughtful and compassionate. I think Michael is all those things. He seems to have a lot of bad luck." He defends Michael's behavior in season two, saying "[Michael] keeps stepping into more trouble than he actually asked for". Cynthia Littleton of Variety described Michael as "one of the most interesting of the Oceanic 815-ers: flawed, tortured, hard to read, volatile, fighting his innate talents, his own worst enemy, at times, and at others, a totally stand-up guy." IGN's Chris Carabott calls Michael a "natural" father. Michael is known for frequently shouting "Walt!", "Where's my son!" and "Have you seen my boy?". ## Development When the producers were auditioning actors for roles in Lost, Harold Perrineau was in the area. The producers called it a "natural move" to have him audition. Although initially skeptical about the show, he took the role when Lost creator J. J. Abrams explained more about it. Perrineau was attracted to the role because "[Michael]'s a guy that's in a lot of conflict and we're not exactly sure why". In season one, Michael was going to be part of a love triangle with Sun and Jin, however this was dropped after positive fan reaction to Sun and Jin's relationship. The storyline is revisited in the Missing Pieces mobisode "Buried Secrets", which shows Michael and Sun almost kissing. Michael and Jin were going to be enemies throughout all of the season, but the producers felt Perrineau and Daniel Dae Kim had good chemistry, so the storyline was changed to them becoming friends. Perrineau called filming the first season "one of [his] best years as a working actor". Lost writer Elizabeth Sarnoff explained that Michael's storyline in season two is about "what a father will do to save his son"; she noted "there's nothing worse than what he does". The second episode of season two was originally going to be Sawyer centric, however this was rewritten "at the proverbial last minute" and changed to a Michael centric episode. Perrineau received swimming lessons in preparation for this episode. Perrineau was unaware that his character had been captured by the Others until he was told Michael was going to kill Ana Lucia and Libby. Perrineau described shooting the scenes in "Two for the Road" where Michael murders Ana Lucia and Libby as a "tough day". The last scene shot of season two was Michael and Walt sailing away from the Island. As it was a long camera shot, Perrineau had to sail the boat so far from the pier, that by the time he returned, all the equipment had already been packed away. He said, "It felt fitting, actually. Like; that's it". Perrineau knew he would be back one day, but as the producers did not reveal any details to him, he did not know when. He was the first actor that left the show as "part of a grander design to come back", and the only one until Emilie de Ravin. After leaving the Island in the second-season finale "Live Together, Die Alone", Michael was supposed to return in the season three finale, but Perrineau was filming the pilot of Demons, so was unable to return. Instead he returned in the seventh episode of season four, "Ji Yeon". His return was meant to be announced during Lost's slot at the 2007 Comic-Con International, however there were complaints at the Television Critics Association Press Tour when ABC's President of Entertainment Stephen McPherson commented that "some big announcements" would be made at the Lost panel. Some journalists felt that any announcements should be made to them at the press meeting, rather than at a fan convention. After numerous reporters asked about what would be announced, Lost producer Damon Lindelof was contacted, and he gave permission for McPherson to say Harold Perrineau would be returning to Lost. At Comic-Con, Lindelof confirmed Perrineau would be back as a cast member, not just for a flashback. Lost producer Carlton Cuse said "Michael's story is for us one of the most becoming storylines on the show because here's a character who ... undertook some very extreme actions in order to basically get his son off the Island, and then when he sailed off in that boat I think everyone was very curious about what happened to him, what is his fate ... we really feel that Michael's story will be a really compelling part of the season." Perrineau was disappointed that he was brought back to the show only to be killed, and that Michael does not get a chance to reunite with his son, Walt, saying, "there are all these questions about how [the writers] respond to black people on the show ... Walt just winds up being another fatherless child. It plays into a really big, weird stereotype and, being a black person myself, that wasn't so interesting." Cuse responded "We pride ourselves on having a very racially diverse cast. It's painful when any actor's storyline ends on the show. Harold is a fantastic actor whose presence added enormously to Lost". Perrineau later said he should have thought before making a racial comment, and although he felt like that, he never discussed the matter with the producers. Perrineau said that although he would be happy to return to Lost, he would have to know what the storyline would be. ## Reception Michael's first centric episode, "Special", was well received by critics. Chris Carabott of IGN said "Michael's flashback is a heart wrenching look at the relationship, or lack-there-of, between him and his son Walt." He added "As Michael's life crumble around him, it's Harold Perrineau's brilliant performance that really shines through." Kirthana Ramisetti from Entertainment Weekly called it the best episode since "Walkabout" because of Michael's character development. She said "One of my favorite scenes of the entire season ... was Michael and Walt bonding over the letters and the drawing of the sunburned penguin. It was moving to see these two finally relating to each other as father and son after everything they've been through." Michael's first centric episode in season two was less well received. Mac Slocum of Filmfodder.com said "it wasn't all that interesting". Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Jensen called the flashbacks "among the poorest and most clumsily integrated flashbacks we've seen so far", as he felt nothing new was learned. He did not like Michael's on-Island storyline either, noting he "got the sense that the actors and directors weren't quite sure what to make of these scenes". Three episodes later, Jensen thought Michael's "whiny dad act" became "increasingly tedious". When Michael murdered Ana Lucia and Libby in "Two for the Road", Slocum called it the "single biggest shocker in Lost history". C. K. Sample of AOL's TV Squad wrote that although he suspected that Ana Lucia and Libby were going to die, he thought what "was amazing was who shot them". Zap2it's Amy Amatangelo described the double murder as "a brilliant move", because "one of their own [became] one of them". She added it was "one of [the second] season's most jaw-dropping moments". According to Perrineau, it made fans "pissed off" with Michael. Jensen praised Perrineau's acting, saying "Michael's bloody betrayal is hard to swallow, but Harold Perrineau sells it". Many reviewers joked about how frequently Michael shouts "Walt!", such as Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger, Erin Martell of AOL's TV Squad, and Joshua Rich of Entertainment Weekly. Perrineau co-won the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Award for "Best Ensemble – Drama Series. Joshua Rich from Entertainment Weekly had mixed views on the prospect of Michael returning in season four, because although Perrineau was one of his "favorite" actors, he liked how peaceful the series had become without Michael constantly screaming "Walt!". IGN's Chris Carabott called Michael's return "the worst kept secret in Lost history", but still found his reveal "exciting". Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger found "a fine performance from Mr. Perrineau" in "Meet Kevin Johnson". Sepinwall wrote that Michael's "struggle to deal with the guilt from his Faustian bargain to save Walt was another moving example of how the writers this season are really trying to build on the emotional impact of everything that's happened before." Cynthia Littleton of Variety was "really happy" to see Michael again, and wrote "Perrineau plays it just right most of the time—no hysterics or scenery-chewing, just a man trying to do the right thing, most of the time." Digital Spy's Ben Rawson-Jones commented that "[Michael's] suicidal plight was well conveyed and there were plenty of shocks and thrills along the way". Before the fourth season finale aired, Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Jensen ranked Michael being unable to commit suicide as the thirteenth best moment of the season, but did add "This story line didn't match the hype". Oscar Dahl from BuddyTV called Michael's death "the culmination of a fairly lackluster story arc".
37,438,913	Oskar Sundqvist	1,165,036,588	Swedish ice hockey player	[ "1994 births", "Detroit Red Wings players", "Ice hockey people from Norrbotten County", "Living people", "Minnesota Wild players", "People from Boden Municipality", "Pittsburgh Penguins draft picks", "Pittsburgh Penguins players", "San Antonio Rampage players", "Skellefteå AIK players", "St. Louis Blues players", "Stanley Cup champions", "Swedish expatriate ice hockey players in the United States", "Swedish ice hockey centres", "Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins players" ]	Oskar Sundqvist (born 23 March 1994) is a Swedish professional ice hockey centre for the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL). Born in Boden, Sweden, Sundqvist played within the Skellefteå organization at both their club youth and professional levels. After being drafted in the third round, 81st overall, by the Pittsburgh Penguins, Sundqvist won a silver medal with Sweden men's national junior ice hockey team at the 2014 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. Upon moving to North America, Sundqvist spent three seasons within the Penguins organization, with whom he won the 2016 Stanley Cup. Sundqvist was traded to the Blues during the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. While with the Blues, Sundqvist built upon his earlier success and helped the team win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. ## Playing career ### Sweden Sundqvist was born on 23 March 1994 in Boden, Sweden. Growing up in Sweden, Sundqvist played within the Skellefteå organization in their club youth levels. He chose to play for Skellefteå after the hockey gymnasium school in Luleå showed little interest. Sundqvist recorded 22 goals and 54 points in 41 games with the Skellefteå's Junior team before being drafted in the third round, 81st overall, by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. The Penguins were originally skeptical of Sundqvist due to his size and lack of visibility due to his location, but conceded after encouragement from European scout Tommy Westlund. Penguins assistant director of amateur scouting Randy Sexton praised Sundqvist following the draft by saying "He's big, he's rangy, he skates and plays very hard. He's got good hands close to the net and he can finish. He's a Penguin." After his selection, Sundqvist was invited to the Penguins' Prospect Development Camp before returning to his home country where he made his Swedish Elite League (SEL) debut with Skellefteå on 24 October 2012 against Frölunda HC. He scored his first career SHL goal in a game against Frölunda HC on 5 January 2013. He completed his rookie campaign with the team recording one point in 14 games. During the summer prior to the 2013–14 season, Sundqvist was invited to participate in the Penguins' Prospect Development Camp at the Consol Energy Center. He also joined the team for their preseason games, during which head coach Mike Johnston said "He's a very good prospect... He's got size, he's good both ways, he's responsible, so he's going to be a very good player for this organization." Upon returning to his home country for the season, Sundqvist was selected to compete with Sweden men's national junior ice hockey team at the 2014 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. He scored the game winning goal in the third period against Russia to help send Sweden to the gold medal round against Finland, although they ended the tournament with a silver medal. He returned to Skellefteå where he helped them win the 2014 Swedish Championship by recording six points in 13 playoff games. Following the conclusion of the SHL season, the Penguins signed Sundqvist to a three-year, entry-level contract. After attending the Penguins training camp, he was returned to Skellefteå AIK on 7 October 2014 for the 2014–15 season. In his last season in the Swedish league, Sundqvist recorded a career high nine goals and 19 points, but was often recovering from injuries. During a game in December, Sundqvist took a puck to the wrist and was forced to leave a game early. A few months later, Sundqvist took a hit to the face by Janne Jalasvaara during a game and was forced to miss time to recover. Sundqvist said that he had "lost the feeling all over my face, still have no feeling on my nose and under my eye." ### Pittsburgh Penguins On 27 April 2015, following the completion of the 2014–15 SHL season, Sundqvist began his North American professional career after being re-assigned to the Penguins' American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. He played one game with the Penguins during their Calder Cup Playoff run. During the offseason, Sundqvist chose to remain in North America rather than return home to train. When reflecting on his decision, Sundqvist said "It's a big difference....I mean, last year I came here and I played between 6-10 games. Now I came here and haven't played any games, so I feel a big difference." Leading up to the 2015–16 season, Sundqvist was vying for the Penguins' fourth line centre position. Due to a hamstring injury, Sundqvist was unable to participate at the Penguins summer development camp but was healthy enough for their training camp. After attending the Penguins training camp, Sundqvist was shortly assigned to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins before being recalled to the NHL prior to the 2015–16 opening night. The reason for the shortlived promotion was for salary relief for players on their injured reserve list. Upon returning to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the AHL, Sundqvist played on the team's third line alongside Dominik Uher and Tom Kostopoulos. He was recalled to the NHL on 4 February 2016 and made his NHL debut the next day in a loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. He scored his first career NHL goal in a 5–0 win over the New York Islanders on 2 April, scoring the first goal of the first period within the periods first 13 minutes. Sundqvist appeared in 18 games for the team during the regular season, as well as two postseason games, as the Penguins went on to win the Stanley Cup, defeating the San Jose Sharks in six games. Sundqvist did not play in the finals or in enough regular season games to get his name on the Stanley Cup; however, Pittsburgh honored him with a Stanley Cup ring and a day with the Cup. After attending the Penguins training camp prior to the 2016–17 season, Sundqvist was again re-assigned to the AHL. This season proved to be his strongest in the AHL, setting new career highs in both goals and points. Early on in the season, he surpassed his previous career high in goals by his 16th game. While playing in a game against the Hershey Bears on 10 December 2016, Sundqvist became the third Penguin in franchise history to record four goals in a game. He spent the majority of the season in the AHL, earning his first recall on March 10 after 53 games. In order to join the Penguins in Edmonton for their game against the Oilers, he traveled from Wilkes-Barre to New York, to Toronto, to Edmonton, arriving in the city late Thursday. He went pointless during the game but provided a screen for Ian Cole's game winning goal the following night against the Vancouver Canucks. Upon returning to the AHL, his offensive output helped lift the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and they became the first team in the league to reach 100 points, with Sundqvist recording three points during the game for a total of 103 in his career. Following this game, Sundqvist was recalled to the NHL with teammates Jean-Sébastien Dea and Derrick Pouliot to play in the Penguins final game of the season. As a result of his offensive outburst, Sundqvist was one of three Penguins players to surpass 20 goals during the season. He concluded his AHL season with a career-high 20 goals and 46 points despite spending parts of the season in the NHL. ### St. Louis Blues During the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, Sundqvist and the Penguins' first-round pick were traded to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Ryan Reaves and their second-round pick. He signed a one year, \$675,000 contract with the Blues before making their opening night roster for the 2017–18 season. He appeared in 30 games for the team until he was reassigned to their AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage, on 31 January. His stint in the AHL was shortlived and he spent the majority of the 2017–18 season with the Blues, appearing in 42 games altogether. In those 42 games, Sundqvist recorded a career high five points while playing on the fourth line and averaged nearly a minute on the penalty kill. Following his career-best season, Sundqvist and the Blues agreed to another one-year contract worth \$700,000, instead of opting for free agency. While playing with the St. Louis Blues during the 2018 pre-season, Sundqvist suffered a head injury as a result of a hit from Washington Capitals player Tom Wilson, who was subsequently suspended. Sundqvist was immediately placed on the team's injured reserve to recover but returned to the lineup on 25 October after missing eight games. Upon his return, he made an immediate impact on the Blues lineup, matching his career goal total of two during a game against the Vegas Golden Knights and surpassing it a game later. In spite of his hot start, by 2 January 2019, the Blues were in last place around the entire league, which resulted in a coaching and goaltender change. Along with the changes, Sundqvist recorded a career-high 31 points in 71 games to help the Blues qualify for the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs. During their playoff run, coach Craig Berube praised Sundqvist by calling him a "good player and penalty killer" and saying he "does a lot of good things for us on both sides of the puck." Prior to the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals against the Boston Bruins, Sundqvist averaged 15:55 minutes of ice time and recorded nine points in 21 post season games. Throughout the Finals, Sundqvist played with Ivan Barbashev and Alexander Steen on the Blues' fourth line against Patrice Bergeron's line. Following a Game 1 loss, Sundqvist delivered an elbow to the head of Bruins defenceman Matt Grzelcyk, causing him to leave the game. At the time, Sundqvist received a two-minute minor penalty but was later suspended one game by the NHL's department of player safety. Upon returning from his suspension, Sundqvist helped the Blues win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. On 21 July 2019, Sundqvist signed a four-year, \$11 million contract extension with the Blues instead of opting for free agency. During the shortened 2019–20 season, Sundqvist saw limited playing time due to various injuries. On 17 November, Sundqvist was fined \$7,392.47 for charging Anaheim Ducks player John Gibson during a 4–1 loss. A few days later, after appearing in a total of 26 games and recording eight goals, Sundqvist was placed on the team's injured reserve to recover from a lower body injury. He was activated off injured reserve on 13 December, where he recorded a goal and an assist during the Blues' 4–2 win over the Golden Knights. In late January, Sundqvist was again placed on the team's injured reserve to recover from a lower body injury suffered during a game against the Vancouver Canucks. He was activated off injured reserve on 16 February 2020, after missing eight games. Prior to the cancellation of the regular season due to the coronavirus, Sundqvist was fined \$5,000 for roughing Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Adam Boqvist during a game on 8 March. He also suffered a shoulder/AC joint injury during the Blues' final regular season game against the Anaheim Ducks, but used the NHL's pause in play as a time to recover. When asked about his injury in June, Sundqvist said "I feel great. I'm all ready to go and feeling 100 percent. It's been a while since I felt 100 percent during the season, so I would be excited to be back." On 19 March 2021, Sundqvist left a game against the San Jose Sharks with a lower-body injury. The following day, it was announced that Sundqvist had torn his ACL in his left knee, and would miss the remainder of the 2020–21 season. During the 2021–22 season, he recorded four goals and 11 assists in 41 games with the Blues. ### Detroit Red Wings On 21 March 2022, Sundqvist was traded to the Detroit Red Wings, along with Jake Walman, and a second-round pick in 2023 NHL Entry Draft, in exchange for Nick Leddy and Luke Witkowski ### Minnesota Wild On 3 March 2023, the Red Wings traded Sundqvist to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. ### Return to St. Louis As a free agent from the Wild, Sundqvist was signed to a one-year, \$775,000 contract to return to the St. Louis Blues for the season on 12 July 2023. ## Personal life Sundqvist is cousin with television presenter and reporter Jessica Almenäs who represented Sweden in Miss World 1998. ## Career statistics ### Regular season and playoffs ### International ## Awards and honors
37,915,159	Abby Martin	1,169,582,047	American citizen journalist	[ "1984 births", "21st-century American journalists", "21st-century American women", "Activists from Oakland, California", "American left-wing activists", "American opinion journalists", "American people of Irish descent", "American people of Western European descent", "American political commentators", "American political journalists", "American women journalists", "Journalists from California", "Living people", "People from Pleasanton, California", "People from Washington, D.C.", "RT (TV network) people", "San Diego State University alumni" ]	Abigail Suzanne Martin (born September 6, 1984) is an American journalist, TV presenter, and activist. She helped found the citizen journalism website Media Roots and serves on the board of directors for the Media Freedom Foundation which manages Project Censored. Martin appeared in the documentary film Project Censored The Movie: Ending the Reign of Junk Food News (2013), and co-directed 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (2013). She hosted Breaking the Set on the Russian state-funded network RT America from 2012 to 2015, and then launched The Empire Files in that same year as an investigative documentary and interview series on Telesur, later released as a web series. In 2019, she released the film documentary, The Empire Files: Gaza Fights for Freedom. ## Early life Martin grew up in Pleasanton, California, where she attended Amador Valley High School, graduating in 2002. She became interested in journalism when her old high school boyfriend enlisted in the military after the September 11 attacks in 2001. "I didn't want him going to war, let alone fighting in one," she recalls. "I began to critically ask 'What is really going on?'" By the time she was a sophomore at San Diego State University, she began questioning what she called the "selling" of the Iraq War by the media. She received an undergraduate degree in political science and minored in Spanish. In 2004, she campaigned for John Kerry's presidential campaign, but became disillusioned with the left–right paradigm, a concept proposing that societies have a tendency to divide themselves into ideological opposites. Martin worked for a time as an investigative journalist for a San Diego-based online news site until moving back to Northern California. ## 9/11 truth movement In 2008, Martin was active in the 9/11 truth movement, a movement which disputes the consensus regarding the attacks of September 11, 2001. Martin set up her own "truther" group in San Diego, California. That year, Martin said that the attacks of September 11 were "an inside job, and that our government was complicit in what happened". In March 2014, Martin told the Associated Press that she "no longer subscribes" to conspiracy theories regarding the attacks. ## Media Roots In 2009, Martin founded the organization Media Roots, a citizen journalism platform for reporting news. As an independent journalist with Media Roots, Martin covered the Occupy Oakland actions during the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011. Her documentary video footage of Occupy Oakland protests was used by the family of Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old former Marine and Iraq War veteran, in a lawsuit against the Oakland Police Department. Martin's footage was used to argue that the protests were non-violent at the time Olsen was allegedly hit in the head with a police projectile. RT took notice of Martin's work and began using her as a correspondent. In the fall of 2010, she moved to Washington, D.C. ## Breaking the Set and work for RT From 2012 to 2015, Martin hosted her own show, Breaking the Set, on RT America. The program described itself as "a show that cuts through the false left/right paradigm set by the establishment and reports the hard facts". The original opening credits depict Martin applying a sledgehammer to a television tuned to CNN. Martin's show promoted conspiracy theories including the claim that water fluoridation was a government plot to poison unwary Americans. Shortly after beginning her show on RT, Martin stated in an interview with Mark Crispin Miller that "the media dismisses things that are too controversial as conspiracy theory". In 2014, Martin gained attention for her criticism of RT's coverage of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. Martin closed her show on March 3, 2014 with a minute-long statement condemning the Russian military intervention in Ukraine. Glenn Greenwald compared Martin's statement favorably to the unquestioning behavior of the United States media during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Critics of Martin argue that she appeared to be reading from a teleprompter, implying that her remarks were made with the consent of the show's producers. RT issued a statement saying: "Contrary to the popular opinion, RT doesn't beat its journalists into submission, and they are free to express their own opinions, not just in private but on the air." RT added: "[W]e'll be sending her to Crimea to give her an opportunity to make up her own mind from the epicentre of the story." Martin declined the offer, saying "I am not going to Crimea despite the statement RT has made." The New York Times wrote that RT notified Martin that what she had said about Ukraine was "not in line with our editorial policy". Martin left RT in February 2015. Speaking for RT, Anna Belkina told BuzzFeed: "Abby decided that this is the time for her to try something new. We are proud of the great work she has done as the host of Breaking the Set." Martin called the charges of foreign control over her and Tulsi Gabbard "neo-McCarthyist hysteria" typical of the New Cold War. She said that the "campaign to malign RT" by "the corporate media" had resulted in a chilling effect over legitimate dissident reporters. She said that she had "complete editorial control" over her RT show, as did other American RT journalists like Chris Hedges and Lee Camp. She had earlier refused RT's offer to send her on a tour of Crimea, saying she didn't want a "vetted PR experience." ## The Empire Files In September 2015, Martin launched The Empire Files, an interview and documentary series. She has hosted guests including Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Richard D. Wolff, Ralph Nader and Jill Stein. The show was originally hosted by Telesur English, a media outlet sponsored primarily by the government of Venezuela. Martin told Ben Norton writing for AlterNet: "The show is totally independent of Telesur. We merely sell them the content; they have zero control over anything we do". In 2018, Telesur stopped funding The Empire Files due to increasing US sanctions on Venezuela, according to a press release published by Martin's Media Roots website. Martin, her co-producer and husband Michael Prysner, and other Telesur contract journalists had their funding blocked by the application of United States sanctions against Venezuela. Academic Stuart Davis cites the cancellation as an example of how United States sanctions hamper public funding of media production in Venezuela. In August 2018 the show moved to a donation model in order to continue production. The show has since become a web series exclusively, with episodes being uploaded to Martin's website, YouTube and Vimeo. Released in May 2019, her feature film documentary, The Empire Files: Gaza Fights for Freedom, concerns the Gaza–Israel conflict. It was shown in the US, UK and Australia at independent theatres. In May 2021, Martin released the film for free on Youtube. ## Free speech lawsuit In February 2020, Martin's booking to speak at a conference at Georgia Southern University on Critical Media Literacy was canceled when she refused to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel as required by law in the State of Georgia. Martin, represented by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, filed a free-speech lawsuit against the State of Georgia. The conference was later canceled. In May 2021, in a federal court hearing in Georgia, District Judge Mark Cohen ruled in Martin's favor when he found that a law created to discourage the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement was in violation of the First Amendment. Judge Cohen ruled that Georgia's law "prohibits inherently expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment." ## Reception Millennial Magazine said that Martin was an "unfiltered" media representative for the Millennial generation who reports "stories that deserve public recognition". Journalist Michael C. Moynihan states that "Martin's politics are odious and frequently incoherent" for claiming to lament "lost American freedom" while ignoring the multiple brutalities of the Russian government before its invasion of Crimea and her defense of Hugo Chávez against the charge of tyranny. James Kirchick, in a 2015 article for The Daily Beast, commented: "Thanks to her paymasters in the Kremlin, she had three years to use the network's airwaves and wildly popular YouTube channel to broadcast paranoid diatribes that would otherwise have languished in anonymity on the Internet fringe." Regarding her work on Venezuela, libertarian journalist and author John Stossel states that Martin "does government-funded propaganda for Telesur". Martin has been criticized for her past support of the 9/11 truth movement. In 2014 New York Times columnist Robert Mackey contrasted Martin's critical remarks on the Russian annexation of Crimea with her conviction "that the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were part of a government conspiracy." Author and media consultant Chez Pazienza criticized Martin for being a 9/11 Truther. David Cromwell, British media campaigner of and co-editor of Media Lens, states that Martin is a "superb independent journalist ... who has risked her life to report what the corporate media is not telling you about Venezuela". ## Personal life Martin enjoys painting, photography, and making collages. Her themes include politics, nature, and psychedelia. Her works have been exhibited several times around California. She views art as "an amazing outlet" and a "way to interpret the ugly truths in the world and reflect a better future." Martin is married to her Empire Files co-producer, Mike Prysner, an Iraq War veteran. Martin gave birth to their first child on May 31, 2020. They have a second child, born on January 29, 2023. ## Selected work ### Film - Earth's Greatest Enemy (2021) - Gaza Fights For Freedom (2019), director - The Choice Is Ours (2016), as herself - 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (2013), co-director - Project Censored the Movie (2013), as herself ### Books - Martin, Abby. (2011). Framing the Messengers: Junk Food News and News Abuse for Dummies. In Mickey Huff (Ed.) Censored 2012: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2010–11. Seven Stories Press. . - Martin, Abby. (2011). Media Democracy in Action. In Mickey Huff (Ed.) Censored 2012: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2010–11. Seven Stories Press. . - Martin, Abby. (2015). The Unheard Story of Hurricane Katrina, Blackwater, White Militias & Community Empowerment: An interview with scott crow and Malik Rahim. In scott crow (Ed.) Emergency Hearts, Molotov Dreams: A scott crow Reader. GTK Press. . - Martin, Abby (2018) Project Censored. Foreword by Abby Martin. ### Radio - Project Censored, KPFA (94.1 FM), co-host
25,600	Ruthenium	1,171,531,077	null	[ "Chemical elements", "Chemical elements with hexagonal close-packed structure", "Native element minerals", "Noble metals", "Platinum-group metals", "Precious metals", "Ruthenium", "Transition metals" ]	Ruthenium is a chemical element with the symbol Ru and atomic number 44. It is a rare transition metal belonging to the platinum group of the periodic table. Like the other metals of the platinum group, ruthenium is inert to most other chemicals. Russian-born scientist of Baltic-German ancestry Karl Ernst Claus discovered the element in 1844 at Kazan State University and named ruthenium in honor of Russia. Ruthenium is usually found as a minor component of platinum ores; the annual production has risen from about 19 tonnes in 2009 to some 35.5 tonnes in 2017. Most ruthenium produced is used in wear-resistant electrical contacts and thick-film resistors. A minor application for ruthenium is in platinum alloys and as a chemistry catalyst. A new application of ruthenium is as the capping layer for extreme ultraviolet photomasks. Ruthenium is generally found in ores with the other platinum group metals in the Ural Mountains and in North and South America. Small but commercially important quantities are also found in pentlandite extracted from Sudbury, Ontario, and in pyroxenite deposits in South Africa. ## Characteristics ### Physical properties Ruthenium, a polyvalent hard white metal, is a member of the platinum group and is in group 8 of the periodic table: Whereas all other group 8 elements have two electrons in the outermost shell, in ruthenium, the outermost shell has only one electron (the final electron is in a lower shell). This anomaly is observed in the neighboring metals niobium (41), molybdenum (42), and rhodium (45). ### Chemical properties Ruthenium has four crystal modifications and does not tarnish at ambient conditions; it oxidizes upon heating to 800 °C (1,070 K). Ruthenium dissolves in fused alkalis to give ruthenates (RuO<sup>2−</sup> <sub>4</sub>). It is not attacked by acids (even aqua regia) but is attacked by halogens at high temperatures. Indeed, ruthenium is most readily attacked by oxidizing agents. Small amounts of ruthenium can increase the hardness of platinum and palladium. The corrosion resistance of titanium is increased markedly by the addition of a small amount of ruthenium. The metal can be plated by electroplating and by thermal decomposition. A ruthenium–molybdenum alloy is known to be superconductive at temperatures below 10.6 K. Ruthenium is the only 4d transition metal that can assume the group oxidation state +8, and even then it is less stable there than the heavier congener osmium: this is the first group from the left of the table where the second and third-row transition metals display notable differences in chemical behavior. Like iron but unlike osmium, ruthenium can form aqueous cations in its lower oxidation states of +2 and +3. Ruthenium is the first in a downward trend in the melting and boiling points and atomization enthalpy in the 4d transition metals after the maximum seen at molybdenum, because the 4d subshell is more than half full and the electrons are contributing less to metallic bonding. (Technetium, the previous element, has an exceptionally low value that is off the trend due to its half-filled [Kr]4d<sup>5</sup>5s<sup>2</sup> configuration, though it is not as far off the trend in the 4d series as manganese in the 3d transition series.) Unlike the lighter congener iron, ruthenium is paramagnetic at room temperature, as iron also is above its Curie point. The reduction potentials in acidic aqueous solution for some common ruthenium ions are shown below: ### Isotopes Naturally occurring ruthenium is composed of seven stable isotopes. Additionally, 34 radioactive isotopes have been discovered. Of these radioisotopes, the most stable are <sup>106</sup>Ru with a half-life of 373.59 days, <sup>103</sup>Ru with a half-life of 39.26 days and <sup>97</sup>Ru with a half-life of 2.9 days. Fifteen other radioisotopes have been characterized with atomic weights ranging from 89.93 u (<sup>90</sup>Ru) to 114.928 u (<sup>115</sup>Ru). Most of these have half-lives that are less than five minutes except <sup>95</sup>Ru (half-life: 1.643 hours) and <sup>105</sup>Ru (half-life: 4.44 hours). The primary decay mode before the most abundant isotope, <sup>102</sup>Ru, is electron capture and the primary mode after is beta emission. The primary decay product before <sup>102</sup>Ru is technetium and the primary decay product after is rhodium. <sup>106</sup>Ru is a product of fission of a nucleus of uranium or plutonium. High concentrations of detected atmospheric <sup>106</sup>Ru were associated with an alleged undeclared nuclear accident in Russia in 2017. ### Occurrence As the 78th most abundant element in Earth's crust, ruthenium is relatively rare, found in about 100 parts per trillion. This element is generally found in ores with the other platinum group metals in the Ural Mountains and in North and South America. Small but commercially important quantities are also found in pentlandite extracted from Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, and in pyroxenite deposits in South Africa. The native form of ruthenium is a very rare mineral (Ir replaces part of Ru in its structure). Ruthenium has a relatively high fission product yield in nuclear fission and given that its most long lived radioisotope has a half life of "only" around a year, there are often proposals to recover ruthenium in a new kind of nuclear reprocessing from spent fuel. An unusual ruthenium deposit can also be found at the natural nuclear fission reactor that was active in Oklo, Gabon, some two billion years ago. Indeed, the isotope ratio of ruthenium found there was one of several ways used to confirm that a nuclear fission chain reaction had indeed occurred at that site in the geological past. Uranium is no longer mined at Oklo and there have never been serious attempts to recover any of the platinum group metals present there. ## Production Roughly 30 tonnes of ruthenium are mined each year with world reserves estimated at 5,000 tonnes. The composition of the mined platinum group metal (PGM) mixtures varies widely, depending on the geochemical formation. For example, the PGMs mined in South Africa contain on average 11% ruthenium while the PGMs mined in the former USSR contain only 2% (1992). Ruthenium, osmium, and iridium are considered the minor platinum group metals. Ruthenium, like the other platinum group metals, is obtained commercially as a by-product from nickel, and copper, and platinum metals ore processing. During electrorefining of copper and nickel, noble metals such as silver, gold, and the platinum group metals precipitate as anode mud, the feedstock for the extraction. The metals are converted to ionized solutes by any of several methods, depending on the composition of the feedstock. One representative method is fusion with sodium peroxide followed by dissolution in aqua regia, and solution in a mixture of chlorine with hydrochloric acid. Osmium, ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium are insoluble in aqua regia and readily precipitate, leaving the other metals in solution. Rhodium is separated from the residue by treatment with molten sodium bisulfate. The insoluble residue, containing Ru, Os, and Ir is treated with sodium oxide, in which Ir is insoluble, producing dissolved Ru and Os salts. After oxidation to the volatile oxides, RuO <sub>4</sub> is separated from OsO <sub>4</sub> by precipitation of (NH<sub>4</sub>)<sub>3</sub>RuCl<sub>6</sub> with ammonium chloride or by distillation or extraction with organic solvents of the volatile osmium tetroxide. Hydrogen is used to reduce ammonium ruthenium chloride yielding a powder. The product is reduced using hydrogen, yielding the metal as a powder or sponge metal that can be treated with powder metallurgy techniques or argon-arc welding. Ruthenium is contained in spent nuclear fuel both as a direct fission product and as a product of neutron absorption by long-lived fission product <sup>99</sup> Tc. After allowing the unstable isotopes of ruthenium to decay, chemical extraction could yield ruthenium for use or sale in all applications ruthenium is otherwise used for. Ruthenium can also be produced by deliberate nuclear transmutation from <sup>99</sup> Tc. Given the relatively long half life, high fission product yield and high chemical mobility in the environment, <sup>99</sup> Tc is among the most often proposed non-actinides for commercial scale nuclear transmutation. <sup>99</sup> Tc has a relatively big neutron cross section and given that technetium has no stable isotopes, a sample would not run into the problem of neutron activation of stable isotopes. Significant amounts of <sup>99</sup> Tc are produced both by nuclear fission and nuclear medicine which makes ample use of <sup>99m</sup> Tc which decays to <sup>99</sup> Tc. Exposing the <sup>99</sup> Tc target to strong enough neutron radiation will eventually yield appreciable quantities of Ruthenium which can be chemically separated and sold while consuming <sup>99</sup> Tc. ## Chemical compounds The oxidation states of ruthenium range from 0 to +8, and −2. The properties of ruthenium and osmium compounds are often similar. The +2, +3, and +4 states are the most common. The most prevalent precursor is ruthenium trichloride, a red solid that is poorly defined chemically but versatile synthetically. ### Oxides and chalcogenides Ruthenium can be oxidized to ruthenium(IV) oxide (RuO<sub>2</sub>, oxidation state +4), which can, in turn, be oxidized by sodium metaperiodate to the volatile yellow tetrahedral ruthenium tetroxide, RuO<sub>4</sub>, an aggressive, strong oxidizing agent with structure and properties analogous to osmium tetroxide. RuO<sub>4</sub> is mostly used as an intermediate in the purification of ruthenium from ores and radiowastes. Dipotassium ruthenate (K<sub>2</sub>RuO<sub>4</sub>, +6) and potassium perruthenate (KRuO<sub>4</sub>, +7) are also known. Unlike osmium tetroxide, ruthenium tetroxide is less stable, is strong enough as an oxidising agent to oxidise dilute hydrochloric acid and organic solvents like ethanol at room temperature, and is easily reduced to ruthenate (RuO<sup>2−</sup> <sub>4</sub>) in aqueous alkaline solutions; it decomposes to form the dioxide above 100 °C. Unlike iron but like osmium, ruthenium does not form oxides in its lower +2 and +3 oxidation states. Ruthenium forms dichalcogenides, which are diamagnetic semiconductors crystallizing in the pyrite structure. Ruthenium sulfide (RuS<sub>2</sub>) occurs naturally as the mineral laurite. Like iron, ruthenium does not readily form oxoanions and prefers to achieve high coordination numbers with hydroxide ions instead. Ruthenium tetroxide is reduced by cold dilute potassium hydroxide to form black potassium perruthenate, KRuO<sub>4</sub>, with ruthenium in the +7 oxidation state. Potassium perruthenate can also be produced by oxidising potassium ruthenate, K<sub>2</sub>RuO<sub>4</sub>, with chlorine gas. The perruthenate ion is unstable and is reduced by water to form the orange ruthenate. Potassium ruthenate may be synthesized by reacting ruthenium metal with molten potassium hydroxide and potassium nitrate. Some mixed oxides are also known, such as M<sup>II</sup>Ru<sup>IV</sup>O<sub>3</sub>, Na<sub>3</sub>Ru<sup>V</sup>O<sub>4</sub>, NaRuO, and MLnRuO. ### Halides and oxyhalides The highest known ruthenium halide is the hexafluoride, a dark brown solid that melts at 54 °C. It hydrolyzes violently upon contact with water and easily disproportionates to form a mixture of lower ruthenium fluorides, releasing fluorine gas. Ruthenium pentafluoride is a tetrameric dark green solid that is also readily hydrolyzed, melting at 86.5 °C. The yellow ruthenium tetrafluoride is probably also polymeric and can be formed by reducing the pentafluoride with iodine. Among the binary compounds of ruthenium, these high oxidation states are known only in the oxides and fluorides. Ruthenium trichloride is a well-known compound, existing in a black α-form and a dark brown β-form: the trihydrate is red. Of the known trihalides, trifluoride is dark brown and decomposes above 650 °C, tribromide is dark-brown and decomposes above 400 °C, and triiodide is black. Of the dihalides, difluoride is not known, dichloride is brown, dibromide is black, and diiodide is blue. The only known oxyhalide is the pale green ruthenium(VI) oxyfluoride, RuOF<sub>4</sub>. ### Coordination and organometallic complexes Ruthenium forms a variety of coordination complexes. Examples are the many pentaammine derivatives [Ru(NH<sub>3</sub>)<sub>5</sub>L]<sup>n+</sup> that often exist for both Ru(II) and Ru(III). Derivatives of bipyridine and terpyridine are numerous, best known being the luminescent tris(bipyridine)ruthenium(II) chloride. Ruthenium forms a wide range compounds with carbon–ruthenium bonds. Grubbs' catalyst is used for alkene metathesis. Ruthenocene is analogous to ferrocene structurally, but exhibits distinctive redox properties. The colorless liquid ruthenium pentacarbonyl converts in the absence of CO pressure to the dark red solid triruthenium dodecacarbonyl. Ruthenium trichloride reacts with carbon monoxide to give many derivatives including RuHCl(CO)(PPh<sub>3</sub>)<sub>3</sub> and Ru(CO)<sub>2</sub>(PPh<sub>3</sub>)<sub>3</sub> (Roper's complex). Heating solutions of ruthenium trichloride in alcohols with triphenylphosphine gives tris(triphenylphosphine)ruthenium dichloride (RuCl<sub>2</sub>(PPh<sub>3</sub>)<sub>3</sub>), which converts to the hydride complex chlorohydridotris(triphenylphosphine)ruthenium(II) (RuHCl(PPh<sub>3</sub>)<sub>3</sub>). ## History Though naturally occurring platinum alloys containing all six platinum-group metals were used for a long time by pre-Columbian Americans and known as a material to European chemists from the mid-16th century, not until the mid-18th century was platinum identified as a pure element. That natural platinum contained palladium, rhodium, osmium and iridium was discovered in the first decade of the 19th century. Platinum in alluvial sands of Russian rivers gave access to raw material for use in plates and medals and for the minting of ruble coins, starting in 1828. Residues from platinum production for coinage were available in the Russian Empire, and therefore most of the research on them was done in Eastern Europe. It is possible that the Polish chemist Jędrzej Śniadecki isolated element 44 (which he called "vestium" after the asteroid Vesta discovered shortly before) from South American platinum ores in 1807. He published an announcement of his discovery in 1808. His work was never confirmed, however, and he later withdrew his claim of discovery. Jöns Berzelius and Gottfried Osann nearly discovered ruthenium in 1827. They examined residues that were left after dissolving crude platinum from the Ural Mountains in aqua regia. Berzelius did not find any unusual metals, but Osann thought he found three new metals, which he called pluranium, ruthenium, and polinium. This discrepancy led to a long-standing controversy between Berzelius and Osann about the composition of the residues. As Osann was not able to repeat his isolation of ruthenium, he eventually relinquished his claims. The name "ruthenium" was chosen by Osann because the analysed samples stemmed from the Ural Mountains in Russia. The name itself derives from the Latin word Ruthenia; this word was used at the time as the Latin name for Russia. In 1844, Karl Ernst Claus, a Russian scientist of Baltic German descent, showed that the compounds prepared by Gottfried Osann contained small amounts of ruthenium, which Claus had discovered the same year. Claus isolated ruthenium from the platinum residues of rouble production while he was working in Kazan University, Kazan, the same way its heavier congener osmium had been discovered four decades earlier. Claus showed that ruthenium oxide contained a new metal and obtained 6 grams of ruthenium from the part of crude platinum that is insoluble in aqua regia. Choosing the name for the new element, Claus stated: "I named the new body, in honour of my Motherland, ruthenium. I had every right to call it by this name because Mr. Osann relinquished his ruthenium and the word does not yet exist in chemistry." In doing so, Claus started a trend that continues to this day – naming an element after a country. ## Applications Approximately 30.9 tonnes of ruthenium were consumed in 2016, 13.8 of them in electrical applications, 7.7 in catalysis, and 4.6 in electrochemistry. Because it hardens platinum and palladium alloys, ruthenium is used in electrical contacts, where a thin film is sufficient to achieve the desired durability. With its similar properties to and lower cost than rhodium, electric contacts are a major use of ruthenium. The ruthenium plate is applied to the electrical contact and electrode base metal by electroplating or sputtering. Ruthenium dioxide with lead and bismuth ruthenates are used in thick-film chip resistors. These two electronic applications account for 50% of the ruthenium consumption. Ruthenium is seldom alloyed with metals outside the platinum group, where small quantities improve some properties. The added corrosion resistance in titanium alloys led to the development of a special alloy with 0.1% ruthenium. Ruthenium is also used in some advanced high-temperature single-crystal superalloys, with applications that include the turbines in jet engines. Several nickel based superalloy compositions are described, such as EPM-102 (with 3% Ru), TMS-162 (with 6% Ru), TMS-138, and TMS-174, the latter two containing 6% rhenium. Fountain pen nibs are frequently tipped with ruthenium alloy. From 1944 onward, the Parker 51 fountain pen was fitted with the "RU" nib, a 14K gold nib tipped with 96.2% ruthenium and 3.8% iridium. Ruthenium is a component of mixed-metal oxide (MMO) anodes used for cathodic protection of underground and submerged structures, and for electrolytic cells for such processes as generating chlorine from salt water. The fluorescence of some ruthenium complexes is quenched by oxygen, finding use in optode sensors for oxygen. Ruthenium red, [(NH<sub>3</sub>)<sub>5</sub>Ru-O-Ru(NH<sub>3</sub>)<sub>4</sub>-O-Ru(NH<sub>3</sub>)<sub>5</sub>]<sup>6+</sup>, is a biological stain used to stain polyanionic molecules such as pectin and nucleic acids for light microscopy and electron microscopy. The beta-decaying isotope 106 of ruthenium is used in radiotherapy of eye tumors, mainly malignant melanomas of the uvea. Ruthenium-centered complexes are being researched for possible anticancer properties. Compared with platinum complexes, those of ruthenium show greater resistance to hydrolysis and more selective action on tumors. Ruthenium tetroxide exposes latent fingerprints by reacting on contact with fatty oils or fats with sebaceous contaminants and producing brown/black ruthenium dioxide pigment. ### Electronics Electronics is the largest use of ruthenium. Ru metal is particularly nonvolatile, which is advantageous in microelectronic devices. Ru and its main oxide RuO<sub>2</sub> have comparable electrical resistivities. Copper can be directly electroplated onto ruthenium, particular applications include barrier layers, transistor gates, and interconnects. Ru films can be deposited by chemical vapor deposition using volatile complexes such as ruthenium tetroxide and the organoruthenium compound (cyclohexadiene)Ru(CO)<sub>3</sub>. ### Catalysis Many ruthenium-containing compounds exhibit useful catalytic properties. The catalysts are conveniently divided into those that are soluble in the reaction medium, homogeneous catalysts, and those that are not, which are called heterogeneous catalysts. #### Homogeneous catalysis Solutions containing ruthenium trichloride are highly active for olefin metathesis. Such catalysts are used commercially for the production of polynorbornene for example. Well defined ruthenium carbene and alkylidene complexes show similar reactivity but are only used on small-scale. The Grubbs' catalysts for example have been employed in the preparation of drugs and advanced materials. Ruthenium complexes are highly active catalysts for transfer hydrogenations (sometimes referred to as "borrowing hydrogen" reactions). Chiral ruthenium complexes, introduced by Ryoji Noyori, are employed for the enantioselective hydrogenation of ketones, aldehydes, and imines. A typical catalyst is (cymene)Ru(S,S-TsDPEN): A Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 2001 to Ryōji Noyori for contributions to the field of asymmetric hydrogenation. #### Heterogeneous catalysis Ruthenium-promoted cobalt catalysts are used in Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. ### Emerging applications Some ruthenium complexes absorb light throughout the visible spectrum and are being actively researched for solar energy technologies. For example, ruthenium-based compounds have been used for light absorption in dye-sensitized solar cells, a promising new low-cost solar cell system. Many ruthenium-based oxides show very unusual properties, such as a quantum critical point behavior, exotic superconductivity (in its strontium ruthenate form), and high-temperature ferromagnetism. ## Health effects Little is known about the health effects of ruthenium and it is relatively rare for people to encounter ruthenium compounds. Metallic ruthenium is inert (is not chemically reactive). Some compounds such as ruthenium oxide (RuO<sub>4</sub>) are highly toxic and volatile. ## See also - Airborne radioactivity increase in Europe in autumn 2017
24,068,963	Mise of Lewes	1,166,649,159	1264 English settlement of the Second Barons' War	[ "1260s treaties", "1264 in England", "13th-century documents", "Barons' Wars", "Henry III of England", "History of Sussex", "Lewes", "Treaties of medieval England" ]	The Mise of Lewes was a settlement made on 14 May 1264 between King Henry III of England and his rebellious barons, led by Simon de Montfort. The settlement was made on the day of the Battle of Lewes, one of the two major battles of the Second Barons' War. The conflict between king and magnates was caused by dissatisfaction with the influence of foreigners at court and Henry's high level and new methods of taxation. In 1258 Henry had been forced to accept the Provisions of Oxford, which essentially left the royal government in the hands of a council of magnates, but this document went through a long series of revocations and reinstatements. In 1263, as the country was on the brink of civil war, the two parties had agreed to submit the matter to arbitration by the French king Louis IX. Louis was a firm believer in the royal prerogative, and decided clearly in favour of Henry. The outcome was unacceptable for the rebellious barons, and war between the two parties broke out almost immediately. The Mise of Lewes was signed on the day of de Montfort's victory at the Battle of Lewes, though it is not known whether it happened during or after the battle. Neither are the terms of the document known, though it seems clear that they involved conditions for further negotiations. These efforts at a permanent settlement fell through, however, and the support for de Montfort's government gradually eroded. Henry's oldest son, Edward – the later King Edward I – started a military campaign that ended in the Battle of Evesham in August 1265, where de Montfort was defeated and killed. Parts of the baronial resistance still held out, but by the end of 1266 the final besieged garrison at Kenilworth Castle surrendered. The rebels were given pardons according to terms set out in the Dictum of Kenilworth. ## Background By 1264, the reign of Henry III was deeply troubled by disputes between the king and his nobility. The conflict was caused by several factors: the influence of foreigners at court, a wasteful war over the crown of Sicily, and a personal dispute between King Henry and Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. In 1258, Henry was forced to accept the so-called Provisions of Oxford, whereby he effectively surrendered control of royal government to a council of magnates. In 1259 the baronial program of reform was further elaborated upon in the Provisions of Westminster. The provisions remained in effect for three years; it was not until 1261 that Henry was able to move against the opposition. Receiving the papal annulment of the provisions his emissaries had campaigned for, he re-assumed control of government. Over the next two years, however, discontent re-emerged over Henry's style of government. He failed to be reconciled with de Montfort, and he also alienated Gloucester's son and heir Gilbert. In April 1263 de Montfort returned to England after a long stay in France, and reignited the reform movement. On 16 July Henry was surrounded by rebel forces in the Tower of London, and once more forced to accept the conditions of the provisions. Prince Edward – the later King Edward I – now took control of the situation. In October Edward took Windsor Castle, and the baronial alliance started to break up. Cornered, de Montfort had to accept a truce and agree to submit the issue to arbitration by the French king Louis IX. By the Mise of Amiens, Louis decided entirely in favour of Henry, and repudiated the provisions. The settlement did not present a solution to the conflict, but rather a recipe for further problems. The one-sided decision for the king and against the barons left de Montfort with little choice but armed rebellion. Hostilities started already in February, when de Montfort's sons, Henry and Simon the Younger, attacked the possessions of Roger Mortimer in the Marches. Henry summoned the feudal army, and the royal forces won an important victory at Northampton, where the younger Simon was captured. De Montfort was still in control of London, as Henry regained control over Kent and Sussex. De Montfort marched out of London to negotiate, but the terms – involving maintaining the provisions – were rejected by the king. The only option remaining was to fight, and the two forces met at Lewes on 14 May 1264. In spite of inferior numbers, the baronial forces led by Simon de Montfort won the battle. Edward, commanding the right wing, quickly defeated the London forces. When he set out in pursuit of the fleeing soldiers, however, he left the rest of the royal army exposed. The baronial forces took advantage of the situation, and soon won the day. ## Settlement Since no documents exist to confirm the content of the Mise of Lewes, there has been much debate among historians over its content, and the circumstances under which it was written. Noël Denholm-Young, in an article published in 1933, made a conjecture on what the main points of the agreement were. The first point, according to Denholm-Young, was that Prince Edward and his cousin, Henry of Almain, should be given over to the barons as hostages. Secondly, those of the baronial party who had been taken hostage at Northampton were to be released. Thirdly, those who had taken hostages from the royalist party at the Battle of Lewes were to receive ransom. Finally, it was agreed that a committee of French clergy and nobles should arbitrate over a permanent settlement. This interpretation has been largely followed by later historians. One contentious point in Denholm-Young's article was his assertion that there was no mention of the Provisions of Oxford in the Mise of Lewes. This was an idea that John Maddicott strongly contested in a 1983 article. According to Maddicott, the provisions had been at the centre of Montfort's opposition over the last six years, and it was unlikely that he would give them up so easily. Nevertheless, de Montfort showed willingness to negotiate the terms of the provisions. As such, the Mise of Lewes was a moderate document; Montfort wanted to avoid a repetition of the situation after the Mise of Amiens. Rather it was external circumstances outside of de Montfort's control that led to the eventual failure of the negotiations between the royalists and the barons. This interpretation was challenged by David Carpenter two years later, in 1985. De Montfort had no intention to compromise with the royalists at all, according to Carpenter. In Carpenter's version of events, the Mise of Lewes was written while the battle was still ongoing, not after the battle was over, as previously assumed. This put de Montfort in a situation where concessions were necessary, in order to bring hostilities to a halt as soon as possible. Once the battle was over and government in de Montfort's hands, he had no longer any interest in reaching a compromise with the royalists, and that was why hostilities continued. This dating of the document, however, has later been disputed by D. W. Burton, who maintains that the document was in fact signed after the battle was concluded. ## Aftermath The government led by de Montfort soon ran into problems; he faced poor finances, general disorder, and the threat of invasion from exiled royalists in France. It was decided – since the French arbitration committee had come to nothing – to set up a provisional administration, consisting of de Montfort, the young Earl of Gloucester, and the Bishop of Chichester. These three were to elect a council of nine, to govern until a permanent settlement could be reached. By the Peace of Canterbury in August, Henry and Edward were forced to accept even stricter terms than those of the Mise of Lewes. According to this new agreement, the current form of government was to remain in force throughout the reign of King Henry, and into that of Edward. To keep the borders safe, Montfort had been forced to release Roger Mortimer and other royalist Marcher lords after the Battle of Lewes. In December, de Montfort forced Mortimer, Roger de Clifford and Roger de Leybourne to promise to leave the country for Ireland. Then, in January, he summoned a parliament at Leicester which became known as Montfort's Parliament, including representatives from the shires and boroughs; an innovation in English government. Here Montfort secured the support of the community of the realm for his continued rule. De Montfort's success was illusory, however. The terms of the Peace of Canterbury were rejected by a papal legate in negotiations at Boulogne. Meanwhile, the Marcher lords did not leave the country, and remained a thorn in the side of the regime. The triumvirate at the head of government broke up when the Earl of Gloucester defected to the royalist side. In May, Edward was able to escape captivity, with Gloucester's help. Edward started on a campaign of re-conquest, while de Montfort was forced to suppress a rebellion in the Marches. He succeeded only by making large concessions to Llewelyn, and then moved east to join forces with his son Simon. Edward, however, routed the younger Simon at Kenilworth Castle. On 4 August 1265 de Montfort found himself trapped at Evesham, forced to give battle with a much smaller army than the royals. The battle soon turned into a massacre; de Montfort himself was killed and mutilated on the field. Even with Montfort dead resistance remained, particularly at the virtually impregnable Kenilworth Castle. In October 1266 the Dictum of Kenilworth set down terms by which the rebels could obtain pardons, and by the end of the year the garrison surrendered.
20,513	Marrakesh	1,173,863,249	null	[ "1062 establishments", "11th-century establishments in Africa", "Former capitals of Morocco", "Marrakesh", "Populated places established in the 11th century", "Prefecturial capitals in Morocco", "Regional capitals in Morocco" ]	Marrakesh or Marrakech (/məˈrækɛʃ/ or /ˌmærəˈkɛʃ/; Arabic: مراكش, romanized: murrākuš, ; Berber languages: ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, romanized: mṛṛakc) is the fourth largest city in Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and the capital of the Marrakesh-Safi region. It is situated west of the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. The region has been inhabited by Berber farmers since Neolithic times. The city was founded in 1070 by Emir Abu Bakr ibn Umar as the imperial capital of the Almoravid Empire. The Almoravids established the first major structures in the city and shaped its layout for centuries to come. The red walls of the city, built by Ali ibn Yusuf in 1122–1123, and various buildings constructed in red sandstone afterwards, have given the city the nickname of the "Red City" (المدينة الحمراء Almadinat alhamra''') or "Ochre City" (ville ocre). Marrakesh grew rapidly and established itself as a cultural, religious, and trading center for the Maghreb. After a period of decline, the city was surpassed by Fez. Marrakesh gained its preeminence in the early 16th century serving as the capital of the Saadian dynasty, with sultans Abdallah al-Ghalib and Ahmad al-Mansur embellishing the city with sumptuous palaces such as the El Badi Palace (1578) and restoring many ruined monuments. Beginning in the 17th century, the city became popular among Sufi pilgrims for its seven patron saints who are entombed within the city's quarters. In 1912 the French Protectorate in Morocco was established and T'hami El Glaoui became Pasha of Marrakesh and held this position nearly throughout the protectorate until the role was dissolved upon the independence of Morocco and the reestablishment of the monarchy in 1956. Marrakesh comprises an old fortified city packed with vendors and their stalls. This medina quarter is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is one of the busiest in Africa, with Jemaa el-Fnaa being the busiest square in the continent, and serves as a major economic center and tourist destination. Real estate and hotel development in Marrakesh have grown dramatically in the 21st century. Marrakesh is particularly popular with the French, and numerous French celebrities own property in the city. Marrakesh has the largest traditional market (souk) in Morocco, with some 18 souks. Crafts employ a significant percentage of the population, who primarily sell their products to tourists. Marrakesh is served by Ménara International Airport and by Marrakesh railway station, which connects the city to Casablanca and northern Morocco. Marrakesh has several universities and schools, including Cadi Ayyad University. A number of Moroccan football clubs are here, including Najm de Marrakech, KAC Marrakech, Mouloudia de Marrakech and Chez Ali Club de Marrakech. The Marrakesh Street Circuit hosts the World Touring Car Championship, Auto GP and FIA Formula Two Championship races. ## Etymology The exact meaning of the name is debated. One possible origin of the name Marrakesh is from the Berber (Amazigh) words amur (n) akush (ⴰⵎⵓⵔ ⵏ ⴰⴽⵓⵛ), which means "Land of God". According to historian Susan Searight, however, the town's name was first documented in an 11th-century manuscript in the Qarawiyyin library in Fez, where its meaning was given as "country of the sons of Kush". The word mur is used now in Berber mostly in the feminine form tamurt. The same word "mur" appears in Mauretania, the North African kingdom from antiquity, although the link remains controversial as this name possibly originates from μαύρος mavros, the ancient Greek word for black. The common English spelling is "Marrakesh", although "Marrakech" (the French spelling) is also widely used. The name is spelled Mṛṛakc in the Berber Latin alphabet, Marraquexe in Portuguese, Marrakech in Spanish. A typical pronunciation in Moroccan Arabic is marrākesh with stress on the second syllable, while vowels in the other syllables may be barely pronounced. From medieval times until around the beginning of the 20th century, the entire country of Morocco was known as the "Kingdom of Marrakesh", as the kingdom's historic capital city was often Marrakesh. The name for Morocco is still "Marrakesh" () to this day in Persian and Urdu as well as many other South Asian languages. Various European names for Morocco (Marruecos, Marrocos, Maroc, Marokko, etc.) are directly derived from the Berber word Murakush. Conversely, the city itself was in earlier times simply called Marocco City (or similar) by travelers from abroad. The name of the city and the country diverged after the Treaty of Fez divided Morocco into a French protectorate in Morocco and Spanish protectorate in Morocco, and the old interchangeable usage lasted widely until about the interregnum of Mohammed Ben Aarafa (1953–1955). The latter episode set in motion the country's return to independence, when Morocco officially became المملكة المغربية (al-Mamlaka al-Maġribiyya, "The Maghreb Kingdom"), its name no longer referring to the city of Marrakesh. Marrakesh is known by a variety of nicknames, including the "Red City", the "Ochre City" and "the Daughter of the Desert", and has been the focus of poetic analogies such as one comparing the city to "a drum that beats an African identity into the complex soul of Morocco." ## History The Marrakesh area was inhabited by Berber farmers from Neolithic times, and numerous stone implements have been unearthed in the area. Marrakesh was founded by Abu Bakr ibn Umar, chieftain and second cousin of the Almoravid king Yusuf ibn Tashfin (c. 1061–1106). Historical sources cite a variety of dates for this event ranging between 1062 (454 in the Hijri calendar), according to Ibn Abi Zar and Ibn Khaldun, and 1078 (470 AH), according to Muhammad al-Idrisi. The date most commonly used by modern historians is 1070, although 1062 is still cited by some writers. The Almoravids, a Berber dynasty seeking to reform Islamic society, ruled an emirate stretching from the edge of Senegal to the centre of Spain and from the Atlantic coast to Algiers. They used Marrakesh as their capital and established its first structures, including mosques and a fortified residence, the Ksar al-Hajjar, near the present-day Kutubiyya Mosque. These Almoravid foundations also influenced the layout and urban organization of the city for centuries to come. For example, the present-day Jemaa el-Fnaa originated from a public square in front of the Almoravid palace gates, the Rahbat al-Ksar, and the major souks (markets) of the city developed roughly in the area between this square and the city's main mosque, where they remain today. The city developed the community into a trading centre for the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. It grew rapidly and established itself as a cultural and religious centre, supplanting Aghmat, which had long been the capital of Haouz. Andalusi craftsmen from Cordoba and Seville built and decorated numerous monuments, importing the Cordoban Umayyad style characterised by carved domes and cusped arches. This Andalusian influence merged with designs from the Sahara and West Africa, creating a unique style of architecture which was fully adapted to the Marrakesh environment. Yusuf ibn Tashfin built houses, minted coins, and brought gold and silver to the city in caravans. His son and successor, Ali Ibn Yusuf, built the Ben Youssef Mosque, the city's main mosque, between 1120 and 1132. He also fortified the city with city walls for the first time in 1126–1127 and expanded its water supply by creating the underground water system known as the khettara. In 1125, the preacher Ibn Tumart settled in Tin Mal in the mountains to the south of Marrakesh, founding the Almohad movement. This new faction, composed mainly of Masmuda tribesmen, followed a doctrine of radical reform with Ibn Tumart as the mahdi, a messianic figure. He preached against the Almoravids and influenced a revolt which succeeded in bringing about the fall of nearby Aghmat, but stopped short of bringing down Marrakesh following an unsuccessful siege in 1130. Ibn Tumart died shortly after in the same year, but his successor Abd al-Mu'min took over the political leadership of the movement and captured Marrakesh in 1147 after a siege of several months. The Almohads purged the Almoravid population over three days and established the city as their new capital. They went on to take over much of the Almoravids' former territory in Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. In 1147, shortly after the city's conquest, Abd al-Mu'min founded the Kutubiyya Mosque (or Koutoubia Mosque), next to the former Almoravid palace, to serve as the city's new main mosque. The Almoravid mosques were either demolished or abandoned as the Almohads enacted their religious reforms. Abd al-Mu'min was also responsible for establishing the Menara Gardens in 1157, while his successor Abu Ya'qub Yusuf (r. 1163–1184) began the Agdal Gardens. Ya'qub al-Mansur (r. 1184–1199), possibly on the orders of his father Abu Ya'qub Yusuf, was responsible for building the Kasbah, a citadel and palace district on the south side of the city. The Kasbah housed the center of government and the residence of the caliph, a title borne by the Almohad rulers to rival the eastern Abbasid Caliphate. In part because of these various additions, the Almohads also improved the water supply system and created water reservoirs to irrigate their gardens. Thanks to its economic, political, and cultural importance, Marrakesh hosted many writers, artists, and intellectuals, many of them from Al-Andalus, including the famous philosopher Averroes of Cordoba. The death of Yusuf II in 1224 began a period of instability. Marrakesh became the stronghold of the Almohad tribal sheikhs and the ahl ad-dar (descendants of Ibn Tumart), who sought to claw power back from the ruling Almohad family. Marrakesh was taken, lost and retaken by force multiple times by a stream of caliphs and pretenders, such as during the brutal seizure of Marrakesh by the Sevillan caliph Abd al-Wahid II al-Ma'mun in 1226, which was followed by a massacre of the Almohad tribal sheikhs and their families and a public denunciation of Ibn Tumart's doctrines by the caliph from the pulpit of the Kasbah Mosque. After al-Ma'mun's death in 1232, his widow attempted to forcibly install her son, acquiring the support of the Almohad army chiefs and Spanish mercenaries with the promise to hand Marrakesh over to them for the sack. Hearing of the terms, the people of Marrakesh sought to make an agreement with the military captains and saved the city from destruction with a sizable payoff of 500,000 dinars. In 1269, Marrakesh was conquered by nomadic Zenata tribes who overran the last of the Almohads. The city then fell into a state of decline, which soon led to the loss of its status as capital to rival city Fez. In the early 16th century, Marrakesh again became the capital of Morocco, after a period when it was the seat of the Hintata emirs. It quickly reestablished its status, especially during the reigns of the Saadian sultans Abdallah al-Ghalib and Ahmad al-Mansur. Thanks to the wealth amassed by the Sultans, Marrakesh was embellished with sumptuous palaces while its ruined monuments were restored. El Badi Palace, begun by Ahmad al-Mansur in 1578, was made with costly materials including marble from Italy. The palace was intended primarily for hosting lavish receptions for ambassadors from Spain, England, and the Ottoman Empire, showcasing Saadian Morocco as a nation whose power and influence reached as far as the borders of Niger and Mali. Under the Saadian dynasty, Marrakesh experienced a golden age, and regained its former position as a point of contact for caravan routes from the Maghreb, the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa. For centuries Marrakesh has been known as the location of the tombs of Morocco's seven patron saints (sebaatou rizjel). When sufism was at the height of its popularity during the late 17th-century reign of Moulay Ismail, the festival of these saints was founded by Abu Ali al-Hassan al-Yusi at the request of the sultan. The tombs of several renowned figures were moved to Marrakesh to attract pilgrims, and the pilgrimage associated with the seven saints is now a firmly established institution. Pilgrims visit the tombs of the saints in a specific order, as follows: Sidi Yusuf Ali Sanhaji (1196–97), a leper; Qadi Iyyad or qadi of Ceuta (1083–1149), a theologian and author of Ash-Shifa (treatises on the virtues of Muhammad); Sidi Bel Abbas (1130–1204), known as the patron saint of the city and most revered in the region; Sidi Muhammad al-Jazuli (1465), a well known Sufi who founded the Jazuli brotherhood; Abdelaziz al-Tebaa (1508), a student of al-Jazuli; Abdallah al-Ghazwani (1528), known as Moulay al-Ksour; and Sidi Abu al-Qasim Al-Suhayli, (1185), also known as Imam al-Suhayli. Until 1867, European Christians were not authorized to enter the city unless they acquired special permission from the sultan; east European Jews were permitted. During the early 20th century, Marrakesh underwent several years of unrest. After the premature death in 1900 of the grand vizier Ba Ahmed, who had been designated regent until the designated sultan Abd al-Aziz became of age, the country was plagued by anarchy, tribal revolts, the plotting of feudal lords, and European intrigues. In 1907, Marrakesh caliph Moulay Abd al-Hafid was proclaimed sultan by the powerful tribes of the High Atlas and by Ulama scholars who denied the legitimacy of his brother, Abd al-Aziz. It was also in 1907 that Dr. Mauchamp, a French doctor, was murdered in Marrakesh, suspected of spying for his country. France used the event as a pretext for sending its troops from the eastern Moroccan town of Oujda to the major metropolitan center of Casablanca in the west. The French colonial army encountered strong resistance from Ahmed al-Hiba, a son of Sheikh Ma al-'Aynayn, who arrived from the Sahara accompanied by his nomadic Reguibat tribal warriors. On 30 March 1912, the French Protectorate in Morocco was established. After the Battle of Sidi Bou Othman, which saw the victory of the French Mangin column over the al-Hiba forces in September 1912, the French seized Marrakesh. The conquest was facilitated by the rallying of the Imzwarn tribes and their leaders from the powerful Glaoui family, leading to a massacre of Marrakesh citizens in the resulting turmoil. T'hami El Glaoui, known as "Lord of the Atlas", became Pasha of Marrakesh, a post he held virtually throughout the 44-year duration of the Protectorate (1912–1956). Glaoui dominated the city and became famous for his collaboration with the general residence authorities, culminating in a plot to dethrone Mohammed Ben Youssef (Mohammed V) and replace him with the Sultan's cousin, Ben Arafa. Glaoui, already known for his amorous adventures and lavish lifestyle, became a symbol of Morocco's colonial order. He could not, however, subdue the rise of nationalist sentiment, nor the hostility of a growing proportion of the inhabitants. Nor could he resist pressure from France, who agreed to terminate its Moroccan Protectorate in 1956 due to the launch of the Algerian War (1954–1962) immediately following the end of the war in Indochina (1946–1954), in which Moroccans had been conscripted to fight in Vietnam on behalf of the French Army. After two successive exiles to Corsica and Madagascar, Mohammed Ben Youssef was allowed to return to Morocco in November 1955, bringing an end to the despotic rule of Glaoui over Marrakesh and the surrounding region. A protocol giving independence to Morocco was then signed on 2 March 1956 between French Foreign Minister Christian Pineau and M’Barek Ben Bakkai. Since the independence of Morocco, Marrakesh has thrived as a tourist destination. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the city became a trendy "hippie mecca". It attracted numerous western rock stars and musicians, artists, film directors and actors, models, and fashion divas, leading tourism revenues to double in Morocco between 1965 and 1970. Yves Saint Laurent, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Jean-Paul Getty all spent significant time in the city; Laurent bought a property here and renovated the Majorelle Gardens. Expatriates, especially those from France, have invested heavily in Marrakesh since the 1960s and developed many of the riads and palaces. Old buildings were renovated in the Old Medina, new residences and commuter villages were built in the suburbs, and new hotels began to spring up. United Nations agencies became active in Marrakesh beginning in the 1970s, and the city's international political presence has subsequently grown. In 1985, UNESCO declared the old town area of Marrakesh a UNESCO World Heritage Site, raising international awareness of the cultural heritage of the city. In the 1980s, Patrick Guerand-Hermes purchased the 30 acres (12 ha) Ain el Quassimou, built by the family of Leo Tolstoy. On 15 April 1994, the Marrakesh Agreement was signed here to establish the World Trade Organisation, and in March 1997 Marrakesh served as the site of the World Water Council's first World Water Forum, which was attended by over 500 international participants. In the 21st century, property and real estate development in the city has boomed, with a dramatic increase in new hotels and shopping centres, fuelled by the policies of Mohammed VI of Morocco, who aims to increase the number of tourists annually visiting Morocco to 20 million by 2020. In 2010, a major gas explosion occurred in the city. On 28 April 2011, a bomb attack took place in the Jemaa el-Fnaa square, killing 15 people, mainly foreigners. The blast destroyed the nearby Argana Cafe. Police sources arrested three suspects and claimed the chief suspect was loyal to Al-Qaeda, although Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb denied involvement. In November 2016 the city hosted the 2016 United Nations Climate Change Conference. ## Geography By road, Marrakesh is 580 kilometres (360 mi) southwest of Tangier, 327 kilometres (203 mi) southwest of the Moroccan capital of Rabat, 239 kilometres (149 mi) southwest of Casablanca, 196 kilometres (122 mi) southwest of Beni Mellal, 177 kilometres (110 mi) east of Essaouira, and 246 kilometres (153 mi) northeast of Agadir. The city has expanded north from the old centre with suburbs such as Daoudiat, Diour El Massakine, Sidi Abbad, Sakar and Amerchich, to the southeast with Sidi Youssef Ben Ali, to the west with Massira and Targa, and southwest to M'hamid beyond the airport. On the P2017 road leading south out of the city are large villages such as Douar Lahna, Touggana, Lagouassem, and Lahebichate, leading eventually through desert to the town of Tahnaout at the edge of the High Atlas, the highest mountainous barrier in North Africa. The average elevation of the snow-covered High Atlas lies above 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). It is mainly composed of Jurassic limestone. The mountain range runs along the Atlantic coast, then rises to the east of Agadir and extends northeast into Algeria before disappearing into Tunisia. The city is located in the Tensift River valley, with the Tensift River passing along the northern edge of the city. The Ourika River valley is about 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Marrakesh. The "silvery valley of the Ourika river curving north towards Marrakesh", and the "red heights of Jebel Yagour still capped with snow" to the south are sights in this area. David Prescott Barrows, who describes Marrakesh as Morocco's "strangest city", describes the landscape in the following terms: "The city lies some fifteen or twenty miles [25–30 km] from the foot of the Atlas mountains, which here rise to their grandest proportions. The spectacle of the mountains is superb. Through the clear desert air the eye can follow the rugged contours of the range for great distances to the north and eastward. The winter snows mantle them with white, and the turquoise sky gives a setting for their grey rocks and gleaming caps that is of unrivaled beauty." With 130,000 hectares of greenery and over 180,000 palm trees in its Palmeraie, Marrakesh is an oasis of rich plant variety. Throughout the seasons, fragrant orange, fig, pomegranate and olive trees display their color and fruits in Agdal Garden, Menara Garden and other gardens in the city. The city's gardens feature numerous native plants alongside other species that have been imported over the course of the centuries, including giant bamboos, yuccas, papyrus, palm trees, banana trees, cypress, philodendrons, rose bushes, bougainvilleas, pines and various kinds of cactus plants. ### Climate A hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSh) predominates at Marrakesh. Average temperatures range from 12 °C (54 °F) in the winter to 26–30 °C (79–86 °F) in the summer. The relatively wet winter and dry summer precipitation pattern of Marrakesh mirrors precipitation patterns found in Mediterranean climates. However, the city receives less rain than is typically found in a Mediterranean climate, resulting in a semi-arid climate classification. Between 1961 and 1990 the city averaged 281.3 millimetres (11.1 in) of precipitation annually. Barrows says of the climate, "The region of Marrakesh is frequently described as desert in character, but, to one familiar with the southwestern parts of the United States, the locality does not suggest the desert, rather an area of seasonal rainfall, where moisture moves underground rather than by surface streams, and where low brush takes the place of the forests of more heavily watered regions. The location of Marrakesh on the north side of the Atlas, rather than the south, prevents it from being described as a desert city, and it remains the northern focus of the Saharan lines of communication, and its history, its types of dwellers, and its commerce and arts, are all related to the great south Atlas spaces that reach further into the Sahara desert." #### Climate change A 2019 paper published in PLOS One estimated that under Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5, a "moderate" scenario of climate change where global warming reaches \~2.5–3 °C (4.5–5.4 °F) by 2100, the climate of Marrakesh in the year 2050 would most closely resemble the current climate of Bir Lehlou in Western Sahara. The annual temperature would increase by 2.9 °C (5.2 °F), and the temperature of the coldest month by 1.6 °C (2.9 °F), while the temperature of the warmest month would increase by 7 °C (13 °F). According to Climate Action Tracker, the current warming trajectory appears consistent with 2.7 °C (4.9 °F), which closely matches RCP 4.5. ### Water Marrakesh's water supply relies partly on groundwater resources, which have lowered gradually over the last 40 years, attaining an acute decline in the early 2000s. Since 2002, groundwater levels have dropped by an average of 0.9 m per year in 80% of Marrakesh and its surrounding area. The most affected area experienced a drop of 37 m (more than 2 m per year). ## Demographics According to the 2014 census, the population of Marrakesh was 928,850 against 843,575 in 2004. The number of households in 2014 was 217,245 against 173,603 in 2004. ## Economy Marrakesh is a vital component of the economy and culture of Morocco. Improvements to the highways from Marrakesh to Casablanca, Agadir and the local airport have led to a dramatic increase in tourism in the city, which now attracts over two million tourists annually. Because of the importance of tourism to Morocco's economy, King Mohammed VI vowed in 2012 to double the number of tourists, attracting 20 million a year to Morocco by 2020. The city is popular with the French, and many French celebrities have bought property in the city, including fashion moguls Yves St Laurent and Jean-Paul Gaultier. In the 1990s very few foreigners lived in the city, and real estate developments have dramatically increased in the last 15 years; by 2005 over 3,000 foreigners had purchased properties in the city, lured by its culture and the relatively cheap house prices. It has been cited in French weekly magazine Le Point as the second St Tropez: "No longer simply a destination for a scattering of adventurous elites, bohemians or backpackers seeking Arabian Nights fantasies, Marrakech is becoming a desirable stopover for the European jet set." However, despite the tourism boom, the majority of the city's inhabitants are still poor, and as of 2010, some 20,000 households still have no access to water or electricity. Many enterprises in the city are facing colossal debt problems. Despite the global economic crisis that began in 2007, investments in real estate progressed substantially in 2011 both in the area of tourist accommodation and social housing. The main developments have been in facilities for tourists including hotels and leisure centres such as golf courses and health spas, with investments of 10.9 billion dirham (US\$1.28 billion) in 2011. The hotel infrastructure in recent years has experienced rapid growth. In 2012, alone, 19 new hotels were scheduled to open, a development boom often compared to Dubai. Royal Ranches Marrakech, one of Gulf Finance House's flagship projects in Morocco, is a 380 hectares (940 acres) resort under development in the suburbs and one of the world's first five star Equestrian Resorts. The resort is expected to make a significant contribution to the local and national economy, creating many jobs and attracting thousands of visitors annually; as of April 2012 it was about 45% complete. The Avenue Mohammed VI, formerly Avenue de France, is a major city thoroughfare. It has seen rapid development of residential complexes and many luxury hotels. Avenue Mohammed VI contains what is claimed to be Africa's largest nightclub: Pacha Marrakech, a trendy club that plays house and electro house music. It also has two large cinema complexes, Le Colisée à Gueliz and Cinéma Rif, and a new shopping precinct, Al Mazar. Trade and crafts are extremely important to the local tourism-fueled economy. There are 18 souks in Marrakesh, employing over 40,000 people in pottery, copperware, leather and other crafts. The souks contain a massive range of items from plastic sandals to Palestinian-style scarves imported from India or China. Local boutiques are adept at making western-style clothes using Moroccan materials. The Birmingham Post comments: "The souk offers an incredible shopping experience with a myriad of narrow winding streets that lead through a series of smaller markets clustered by trade. Through the squawking chaos of the poultry market, the gory fascination of the open-air butchers' shops and the uncountable number of small and specialist traders, just wandering around the streets can pass an entire day." Marrakesh has several supermarkets including Marjane Acima, Asswak Salam and Carrefour, and three major shopping centres, Al Mazar Mall, Plaza Marrakech and Marjane Square; a branch of Carrefour opened in Al Mazar Mall in 2010. Industrial production in the city is centred in the neighbourhood of Sidi Ghanem Al Massar, containing large factories, workshops, storage depots and showrooms. Ciments Morocco, a subsidiary of a major Italian cement firm, has a factory in Marrakech. The AeroExpo Marrakech International Exhibition of aeronautical industries and services is held here, as is the Riad Art Expo. Marrakesh is one of North Africa's largest centers of wildlife trade, despite the illegality of most of this trade. Much of this trade can be found in the medina and adjacent squares. Tortoises are particularly popular for sale as pets, and Barbary macaques and snakes can also be seen. The majority of these animals suffer from poor welfare conditions in these stalls. ## Politics Marrakesh, the regional capital, constitutes a prefecture-level administrative unit of Morocco, Marrakech Prefecture, forming part of the region of Marrakech-Safi. Marrakesh is a major centre for law and jurisdiction in Morocco and most of the major courts of the region are here. These include the regional Court of Appeal, the Commercial Court, the Administrative Court, the Court of First Instance, the Court of Appeal of Commerce, and the Administrative Court of Appeal. Numerous organizations of the region are based here, including the regional government administrative offices, the Regional Council of Tourism office, and regional public maintenance organisations such as the Governed Autonomous Water Supply and Electricity and Maroc Telecom. Testament to Marrakesh's development as a modern city, on 12 June 2009, Fatima-Zahra Mansouri, a then 33-year-old lawyer and daughter of a former assistant to the local authority chief in Marrakesh, was elected the first female mayor of the city, defeating outgoing Mayor Omar Jazouli by 54 votes to 35 in a municipal council vote. Mansouri became the second woman in the history of Morocco to obtain a mayoral position, after Asma Chaabi, mayor of Essaouira and was elected to serve as Marrakech's mayor for a second term in September 2021. Since the legislative elections in November 2011, the ruling political party in Marrakesh has, for the first time, been the Justice and Development Party or PDJ which also rules at the national level. The party, which advocates Islamism and Islamic democracy, won five seats; the National Rally of Independents (RNI) took one seat, while the PAM won three. In the partial legislative elections for the Guéliz Ennakhil constituency in October 2012, the PDJ under the leadership of Ahmed El Moutassadik was again declared the winner with 10,452 votes. The PAM, largely consisting of friends of King Mohammed VI, came in second place with 9,794 votes. ## Landmarks ### Jemaa el-Fnaa The Jemaa el-Fnaa is one of the best-known squares in Africa and is the center of city activity and trade. It has been described as a "world-famous square", "a metaphorical urban icon, a bridge between the past and the present, the place where (spectacularized) Moroccan tradition encounters modernity." It has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage site since 1985. The square's name has several possible meanings; the most plausible etymology endorsed by historians is that it meant "ruined mosque" or "mosque of annihilation", referring to the construction of a mosque within the square in the late 16th century that was left unfinished and fell into ruin. The square was originally an open space for markets located on the east side of the Ksar el-Hajjar, the main fortress and palace of the Almoravid dynasty who founded Marrakesh. Following the takeover of the city by the Almohads, a new royal palace complex was founded to the south of the city (the Kasbah) and the old Almoravid palace was abandoned, but the market square remained. Subsequently, with the fluctuating fortunes of the city, Jemaa el-Fnaa saw periods of decline and renewal. Historically this square was used for public executions by rulers who sought to maintain their power by frightening the public. The square attracted dwellers from the surrounding desert and mountains to trade here, and stalls were raised in the square from early in its history. The square attracted tradesmen, snake charmers ("wild, dark, frenzied men with long disheveled hair falling over their naked shoulders"), dancing boys of the Chleuh Atlas tribe, and musicians playing pipes, tambourines and African drums. Today the square attracts people from a diversity of social and ethnic backgrounds and tourists from all around the world. Snake charmers, acrobats, magicians, mystics, musicians, monkey trainers, herb sellers, story-tellers, dentists, pickpockets, and entertainers in medieval garb still populate the square. ### Souks Marrakesh has the largest traditional market in Morocco and the image of the city is closely associated with its souks. Historically the souks of Marrakesh were divided into retail areas for particular goods such as leather, carpets, metalwork and pottery. These divisions still roughly exist with significant overlap. Many of the souks sell items like carpets and rugs, traditional Muslim attire, leather bags, and lanterns. Haggling is still a very important part of trade in the souks. One of the largest souks is Souk Semmarine, which sells everything from brightly coloured bejewelled sandals and slippers and leather pouffes to jewellery and kaftans. Souk Ableuh contains stalls which specialize in lemons, chilis, capers, pickles, green, red, and black olives, and mint, a common ingredient of Moroccan cuisine and tea. Similarly, Souk Kchacha specializes in dried fruit and nuts, including dates, figs, walnuts, cashews and apricots. Rahba Qedima contains stalls selling hand-woven baskets, natural perfumes, knitted hats, scarves, tee shirts, Ramadan tea, ginseng, and alligator and iguana skins. The Criée Berbère, to the northeast of this market, is noted for its dark Berber carpets and rugs. Souk Siyyaghin is known for its jewellery, and Souk Smata nearby is noted for its extensive collection of babouches and belts. Souk Cherratine specializes in leatherware, and Souk Belaarif sells modern consumer goods. Souk Haddadine specializes in ironware and lanterns. The Medina is also famous for its street food. Mechoui Alley is particularly famous for selling slow-roasted lamb dishes. The Ensemble Artisanal, located near the Koutoubia Mosque, is a government-run complex of small arts and crafts which offers a range of leather goods, textiles and carpets. Young apprentices are taught a range of crafts in the workshop at the back of this complex. ### City walls and gates The ramparts of Marrakesh, which stretch for some 19 kilometres (12 mi) around the medina of the city, were built by the Almoravids in the 12th century as protective fortifications. The walls are made of a distinct orange-red clay and chalk, giving the city its nickname as the "red city"; they stand up to 19 feet (5.8 m) high and have 20 gates and 200 towers along them.Of the city's gates, one of the best-known is Bab Agnaou, built in the late 12th century by the Almohad caliph Ya'qub al-Mansur as the main public entrance to the new Kasbah. The Berber name Agnaou, like Gnaoua, refers to people of Sub-Saharan African origin (cf. Akal-n-iguinawen – land of the black). The gate was called Bab al Kohl (the word kohl also meaning "black") or Bab al Qsar (palace gate) in some historical sources. The corner-pieces are embellished with floral decorations. This ornamentation is framed by three panels marked with an inscription from the Quran in Maghrebi script using foliated Kufic letters, which were also used in Al-Andalus. Bab Agnaou was renovated and its opening reduced in size during the rule of sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah. The medina has at least eight main historic gates: Bab Doukkala, Bab el-Khemis, Bab ad-Debbagh, Bab Aylan, Bab Aghmat, Bab er-Robb, Bab el-Makhzen and Bab el-'Arissa. These date back to the 12th century during the Almoravid period and many have them have been modified since. Bab Doukkala (in the northwestern part of the city wall) is in general more massive and less ornamented than the other gates; it takes its name from Doukkala area on the Atlantic coast, well to the north of Marrakesh. Bab el-Khemis is in the medina's northeastern corner and is named for the open-air Thursday market (Souq el Khemis). It is one of the city's main gates and features a man-made spring. Bab ad-Debbagh, to the east, has one of the most complex layouts of any gate, with an interior passage that turns multiple times. Bab Aylan is located slightly further south of it. Bab Aghmat is one of the city's main southern gates, located east of the Jewish and Muslim cemeteries and near the tomb of Ali ibn Yusuf. Bab er Robb is the other main southern exit from the city, located near Bab Agnaou. It has a curious position and layout which may be the result of multiple modifications to the surrounding area over the years. It provides access to roads leading to the mountain towns of Amizmiz and Asni. ### Gardens The city is home to a number of gardens, both historical and modern. The largest and oldest gardens in the city are the Menara gardens to the west and the Agdal Gardens to the south. The Menara Gardens were established in 1157 by the Almohad ruler Abd al-Mu'min. They are centered around a large water reservoir surrounded by orchards and olive groves. A 19th-century pavilion stands at the edge of the reservoir. The Agdal Gardens were established during the reign of Abu Ya'qub Yusuf (r. 1163–1184) and extend over a larger area today, containing several water basins and palace structures. The Agdal Gardens cover about 340 hectares (1.3 sq mi) and are surrounded by a circuit of pisé walls, while the Menara Gardens cover around 96 hectares (0.37 sq mi). The water reservoirs for both gardens were supplied with water through an old hydraulic system known as khettaras, which conveyed water from the foothills of the nearby Atlas Mountains. The Majorelle Garden, on Avenue Yacoub el Mansour, was at one time the home of the landscape painter Jacques Majorelle. Famed designer Yves Saint Laurent bought and restored the property, which features a stele erected in his memory, and the Museum of Islamic Art, which is housed in a dark blue building. The garden, open to the public since 1947, has a large collection of plants from five continents including cacti, palms and bamboo. The Koutoubia Mosque is also flanked by another set of gardens, the Koutoubia Gardens. They feature orange and palm trees, and are frequented by storks. The Mamounia Gardens, more than 100 years old and named after Prince Moulay Mamoun, have olive and orange trees as well as a variety of floral displays. In 2016, artist André Heller opened the acclaimed garden ANIMA near Ourika, which combines a large collection of plants, palms, bamboo and cacti as well as works by Keith Haring, Auguste Rodin, Hans Werner Geerdts and other artists. ### Palaces and Riads The historic wealth of the city is manifested in palaces, mansions and other lavish residences. The best-known palaces today are the El Badi Palace and the Bahia Palace, as well as the main Royal Palace which is still in use as one of the official residences of the King of Morocco. Riads (Moroccan mansions, historically designating a type of garden) are common in Marrakesh. Based on the design of the Roman villa, they are characterized by an open central garden courtyard surrounded by high walls. This construction provided the occupants with privacy and lowered the temperature within the building. Numerous riads and historic residences exist through the old city, with the oldest documented examples dating back to the Saadian period (16th-17th centuries), while many others date from the 19th and 20th centuries. ### Mosques The Koutoubia Mosque is one of the largest and most famous mosques in the city, located southwest of Jemaa el-Fnaa. The mosque was founded in 1147 by the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min. A second version of the mosque was entirely rebuilt by Abd al-Mu'min around 1158, with Ya'qub al-Mansur possibly finalizing construction of the minaret around 1195. This second mosque is the structure that stands today. It is considered a major example of Almohad architecture and of Moroccan mosque architecture generally. Its minaret tower, the tallest in the city at 77 metres (253 ft) in height, is considered an important landmark and symbol of Marrakesh. It likely influenced other buildings such as the Giralda of Seville and the Hassan Tower of Rabat. Ben Youssef Mosque is named after the Almoravid sultan Ali ibn Yusuf, who built the original mosque in the 12th century to serve as the city's main Friday mosque. After being abandoned during the Almohad period and falling into ruin, it was rebuilt in the 1560s by Abdallah al-Ghalib and then completely rebuilt again Moulay Sliman at the beginning of the 19th century. The 16th-century Ben Youssef Madrasa is located next to it. Also next to it is the Koubba Ba’adiyn or Almoravid Koubba, a rare architectural remnant of the Almoravid period which was excavated and restored in the 20th century. The Koubba, a domed kiosk structure, demonstrates a sophisticated style and is an important indication of the art and architecture of the period. The Kasbah Mosque overlooks Place Moulay Yazid in the Kasbah district of Marrakesh, close to the El Badi Palace. It was built by the Almohad caliph Yaqub al-Mansour in the late 12th century to serve as the main mosque of the kasbah (citadel) where he and his high officials resided. It contended with the Koutoubia Mosque for prestige and the decoration of its minaret was highly influential in subsequent Moroccan architecture. The mosque was repaired by the Saadi sultan Moulay Abdallah al-Ghalib following a devastating explosion at a nearby gunpowder reserve in the second half of the 16th century. Notably, the Saadian Tombs were built just outside its southern wall in this period. Among the other notable mosques of the city is the 14th-century Ben Salah Mosque, located east of the medina centre. It is one of the only major Marinid-era monuments in the city. The Mouassine Mosque (also known as the Al Ashraf Mosque) was built by the Saadian sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib between 1562–63 and 1572–73. It was part of a larger architectural complex which included a library, hammam (public bathhouse), and a madrasa (school). The complex also included a large ornate street fountain known as the Mouassine Fountain, which still exists today. The Bab Doukkala Mosque, built around the same time further west, has a similar layout and style as the Mouassine Mosque. Both the Mouassine and Bab Doukkala mosques appear to have been originally designed to anchor the development of new neighbourhoods after the relocation of the Jewish district from this area to the new mellah near the Kasbah. ### Tombs One of the most famous funerary monuments in the city is the Saadian Tombs, which were built in the 16th century as a royal necropolis for the Saadian Dynasty. It is located next to the south wall of the Kasbah Mosque. The necropolis contains the tombs of many Saadian rulers including Muhammad al-Shaykh, Abdallah al-Ghalib, and Ahmad al-Mansur, as well as various family members and later sultans. It consists of two main structures, each with several rooms, standing within a garden enclosure. The most important graves are marked by horizontal tombstones of finely carved marble, while others are merely covered in colorful zellij tiles. Al-Mansur's mausoleum chamber is especially rich in decoration, with a roof of carved and painted cedar wood supported on twelve columns of carrara marble, and with walls decorated with geometric patterns in zellij tilework and vegetal motifs in carved stucco. The chamber next to it, originally a prayer room equipped with a mihrab, was later repurposed as a mausoleum for members of the Alaouite dynasty. The city also holds the tombs of many Sufi figures. Of these, there are seven patron saints of the city, which are visited every year by pilgrims during the seven-day ziara pilgrimage. During this time pilgrims visit the tombs in the following order: Sidi Yusuf ibn Ali Sanhaji, Sidi al-Qadi Iyyad al-Yahsubi, Sidi Bel Abbas, Sidi Mohamed ibn Sulayman al-Jazouli, Sidi Abdellaziz Tabba'a, Sidi Abdellah al-Ghazwani, and lastly, Sidi Abderrahman al-Suhayli. Many of these mausoleums also serve as the focus of their own zawiyas (Sufi religious complexes with mosques), including: the Zawiya and mosque of Sidi Bel Abbes (the most important of them), the Zawiya of al-Jazuli, the Zawiya of Sidi Abdellaziz, the Zawiya of Sidi Yusuf ibn Ali, and the Zawiya of Sidi al-Ghazwani (also known as Moulay el-Ksour). ### Mellah The Mellah of Marrakesh is the old Jewish Quarter (Mellah) of the city, and is located in the kasbah area of the city's medina, east of Place des Ferblantiers. It was created in 1558 by the Saadians at the site where the sultan's stables were. At the time, the Jewish community consisted of a large portion of the city's tailors, metalworkers, bankers, jewelers, and sugar traders. During the 16th century, the Mellah had its own fountains, gardens, synagogues and souks. Until the arrival of the French in 1912, Jews could not own property outside of the Mellah; all growth was consequently contained within the limits of the neighborhood, resulting in narrow streets, small shops and higher residential buildings. The Mellah, today reconfigured as a mainly residential zone renamed Hay Essalam, currently occupies an area smaller than its historic limits and has an almost entirely Muslim population. The Slat al-Azama Synagogue (or Lazama Synagogue), built around a central courtyard, is in the Mellah. The Jewish cemetery here is the largest of its kind in Morocco. Characterized by white-washed tombs and sandy graves, the cemetery is within the Medina on land adjacent to the Mellah. According to the World Jewish Congress there were only 250 Moroccan Jews remaining in Marakesh. ### Hotels As one of the principal tourist cities in Africa, Marrakesh has over 400 hotels. Mamounia Hotel is a five-star hotel in the Art Deco-Moroccan fusion style, built in 1925 by Henri Prost and A. Marchis. It is considered the most eminent hotel of the city and has been described as the "grand dame of Marrakesh hotels." The hotel has hosted numerous internationally renowned people including Winston Churchill, Prince Charles and Mick Jagger. Churchill used to relax within the gardens of the hotel and paint there. The 231-room hotel, which contains a casino, was refurbished in 1986 and again in 2007 by French designer Jacques Garcia. Other hotels include Eden Andalou Hotel, Hotel Marrakech, Sofitel Marrakech, Palm Plaza Hotel & Spa, Royal Mirage Hotel, Piscina del Hotel, and Palmeraie Palace at the Palmeraie Rotana Resort. In March 2012, Accor opened its first Pullman-branded hotel in Marrakech, Pullman Marrakech Palmeraie Resort & Spa. Set in a 17 hectares (42 acres) olive grove at La Palmeraie, the hotel has 252 rooms, 16 suites, six restaurants and a 535 square metres (5,760 sq ft) conference room. ## Culture ### Museums #### Marrakech Museum The Marrakech Museum, housed in the Dar Menebhi Palace in the old city centre, was built at the beginning of the 20th century by Mehdi Menebhi. The palace was carefully restored by the Omar Benjelloun Foundation and converted into a museum in 1997. The house itself represents an example of classical Andalusian architecture, with fountains in the central courtyard, traditional seating areas, a hammam and intricate tilework and carvings. It has been cited as having "an orgy of stalactite stucco-work" which "drips from the ceiling and combines with a mind-boggling excess of zellij work." The museum holds exhibits of both modern and traditional Moroccan art together with fine examples of historical books, coins and pottery produced by Moroccan Jewish, Berber and Arab peoples. #### Dar Si Said Museum Dar Si Said Museum, also known as the Museum of Moroccan Arts is to the north of the Bahia Palace. It was the mansion of Si Said, brother to Grand Vizier Ba Ahmad, and was constructed at the same time as Ahmad's own Bahia Palace. The collection of the museum is considered to be one of the finest in Morocco, with "jewellery from the High Atlas, the Anti Atlas and the extreme south; carpets from the Haouz and the High Atlas; oil lamps from Taroudannt; blue pottery from Safi and green pottery from Tamegroute; and leatherwork from Marrakesh." Among its oldest and most significant artifacts is an early 11th-century marble basin from the late caliphal period of Cordoba, Spain. #### Berber Museum The former home and villa of Jacques Majorelle, a blue-coloured building within the Majorelle Gardens, was converted into the Berber Museum (Musée Pierre Bergé des Arts Berbères) in 2011, after previously serving as a museum of Islamic art. It exhibits a variety of objects of Amazigh (Berber) culture from across different regions of Morocco. #### Other museums The House of Photography of Marrakech, opened by Patrick Menac’h and Hamid Mergani in 2009, holds exhibits of vintage Moroccan photography from the 1870s to 1950s. It is housed in a renovated traditional house in the medina. The Mouassine Museum, by the same owners, consists of a historic 16th–17th-century house in the Mouassine neighbourhood, formerly inhabited by the family of painter Abdelhay Mellakh [fr], which was opened as a museum and cultural venue in 2014 and since 2020 has also served a museum of Moroccan music (Musée de la Musique), in addition to hosting musical performances. Elsewhere in the medina, the Dar El Bacha hosts the Musée des Confluences, which opened in 2017. The museum holds temporary exhibits highlighting different facets of Moroccan culture as well as various art objects from different cultures across the world. The Tiskiwin Museum is housed in another restored medina mansion and features a collection of artifacts from across the former the trans-Saharan trade routes that were connected to the city. Various other small and often privately owned museums also exist in the medina, such as the Musée Boucharouite and the Perfume Museum (Musée du Parfum). Dar Bellarj, an arts center located in a former mansion next to the Ben Youssef Mosque, also occasionally hosts art exhibits. A number of art galleries and museums are also found outside the medina, in Gueliz and its surrounding districts in the new city. The Museum of Art and Culture of Marrakesh (MACMA), opened in 2016, houses a collection of Moroccan art objects and photography from the 1870s to 1970s. Since 2019, its collection of Orientalist paintings are now housed at its sister museum, the Orientalist Museum in the medina. The Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL) is a non-profit art gallery that exhibits contemporary Moroccan and African art. The Yves Saint Laurent Museum, opened in 2017 in a new building near the Jardin Majorelle, displays a collection of work spanning the career of French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. It is a sister museum to the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Paris. ### Music, theatre and dance Two types of music are traditionally associated with Marrakesh. Berber music is influenced by Andalusian classical music and typified by its oud accompaniment. By contrast, Gnaoua music is loud and funky with a sound reminiscent of the Blues. It is performed on handmade instruments such as castanets, ribabs (three-stringed banjos) and deffs (handheld drums). Gnaoua music's rhythm and crescendo take the audience into a mood of trance; the style is said to have emerged in Marrakesh and Essaouira as a ritual of deliverance from slavery. More recently, several Marrakesh female music groups have also risen to popularity. The Théâtre Royal de Marrakesh, the Institut Français and Dar Chérifa are major performing arts institutions in the city. The Théâtre Royal, built by Tunisian architect Charles Boccara, puts on theatrical performances of comedy, opera, and dance in French and Arabic. A greater number of theatrical troupes perform outdoors and entertain tourists on the main square and the streets, especially at night. ### Crafts The arts and crafts of Marrakesh have had a wide and enduring impact on Moroccan handicrafts to the present day. Riad décor is widely used in carpets and textiles, ceramics, woodwork, metal work and zelij. Carpets and textiles are weaved, sewn or embroidered, sometimes used for upholstering. Moroccan women who practice craftsmanship are known as Maalems (expert craftspeople) and make such fine products as Berber carpets and shawls made of sabra (another name for rayon, also sometimes called cactus silk). Ceramics are in monochrome Berber-style only, a limited tradition depicting bold forms and decorations. Wood crafts are generally made of cedar, including the riad doors and palace ceilings. Orange wood is used for making ladles known as harira (lentil soup ladles). Thuya craft products are made of caramel coloured thuya, a conifer indigenous to Morocco. Since this species is almost extinct, these trees are being replanted and promoted by the artists' cooperative Femmes de Marrakech. Metalwork made in Marrakesh includes brass lamps, iron lanterns, candle holders made from recycled sardine tins, and engraved brass teapots and tea trays used in the traditional serving of tea. Contemporary art includes sculpture and figurative paintings. Blue veiled Tuareg figurines and calligraphy paintings are also popular. ### Festivals Festivals, both national and Islamic, are celebrated in Marrakesh and throughout the country, and some of them are observed as national holidays. Cultural festivals of note held in Marrakesh include the National Folklore Festival, the Marrakech Festival of Popular Arts (in which a variety of famous Moroccan musicians and artists participate), international folklore festival Marrakech Folklore Days and the Berber Festival. The International Film Festival of Marrakech, which aspires to be the North African version of the Cannes Film Festival, was established in 2001. The festival, which showcases over 100 films from around the world annually, has attracted Hollywood stars such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Susan Sarandon, Jeremy Irons, Roman Polanski and many European, Arab and Indian film stars. The Marrakech Bienniale was established in 2004 by Vanessa Branson as a cultural festival in various disciplines, including visual arts, cinema, video, literature, performing arts, and architecture. ### Food Surrounded by lemon, orange, and olive groves, the city's culinary characteristics are rich and heavily spiced but not hot, using various preparations of Ras el hanout (which means "Head of the shop"), a blend of dozens of spices which include ash berries, chilli, cinnamon, grains of paradise, monk's pepper, nutmeg, and turmeric. A specialty of the city and the symbol of its cuisine is tanjia marrakshia, affectionately referred to as bint ar-rimad (بنت الرماد "daughter of the ash"), a local meal prepared with beef meat, spices, and smen and slow-cooked in a ceramic pot in traditional oven in hot ashes. Tajines can be prepared with chicken, lamb, beef or fish, adding fruit, olives and preserved lemon, vegetables and spices, including cumin, peppers, saffron, turmeric, and ras el hanout. The meal is prepared in a tajine pot and slow-cooked with steam. Another version of tajine includes vegetables and chickpeas seasoned with flower petals. Tajines may also be basted with "smen" Moroccan ghee that has a flavour similar to blue cheese. Shrimp, chicken and lemon-filled briouats are another traditional specialty of Marrakesh. Rice is cooked with saffron, raisins, spices, and almonds, while couscous may have added vegetables. A pastilla is a filo-wrapped pie stuffed with minced chicken or pigeon that has been prepared with almonds, cinnamon, spices and sugar. Harira soup in Marrakesh typically includes lamb with a blend of chickpeas, lentils, vermicelli, and tomato paste, seasoned with coriander, spices and parsley. Kefta (mince meat), liver in crépinette, merguez and tripe stew are commonly sold at the stalls of Jemaa el-Fnaa. The desserts of Marrakesh include chebakia (sesame spice cookies usually prepared and served during Ramadan), tartlets of filo dough with dried fruit, or cheesecake with dates. The Moroccan tea culture is practiced in Marrakesh; green tea with mint is served with sugar from a curved teapot spout into small glasses. Another popular non-alcoholic drink is orange juice. Under the Almoravids, alcohol consumption was common; historically, hundreds of Jews produced and sold alcohol in the city. In the present day, alcohol is sold in some hotel bars and restaurants. ## Education Marrakesh has several universities and schools, including Cadi Ayyad University (also known as the University of Marrakech), and its component, the École nationale des sciences appliquées de Marrakech (ENSA Marrakech), which was created in 2000 by the Ministry of Higher Education and specializes in engineering and scientific research, and the La faculté des sciences et techniques-gueliz which known to be number one in Morocco in its kind of faculties. Cadi Ayyad University was established in 1978 and operates 13 institutions in the Marrakech Tensift Elhaouz and Abda Doukkala regions of Morocco in four main cities, including Kalaa of Sraghna, Essaouira and Safi in addition to Marrakech. Sup de Co Marrakech, also known as the École Supérieure de Commerce de Marrakech, is a private four-year college that was founded in 1987 by Ahmed Bennis. The school is affiliated with the École Supérieure de Commerce of Toulouse, France; since 1995 the school has built partnership programs with numerous American universities including the University of Delaware, University of St. Thomas, Oklahoma State University, National-Louis University, and Temple University. ### Ben Youssef Madrasa The Ben Youssef Madrasa, north of the Medina, was an Islamic college in Marrakesh named after the Almoravid sultan Ali ibn Yusuf (1106–1142) who expanded the city and its influence considerably. It is the largest madrasa in all of Morocco and was one of the largest theological colleges in North Africa, at one time housing as many as 900 students. This education complex specialized in Quranic law and was linked to similar institutions in Fez, Taza, Salé, and Meknes. The Madrasa was constructed by the Saadian Sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib (1557–1574) in 1564 as the largest and most prestigious madrasa in Morocco. The construction ordered by Abdallah al-Ghalib was completed in 1565, as attested by the inscription in the prayer room. Its 130 student dormitory cells cluster around a courtyard richly carved in cedar, marble and stucco. In accordance with Islam, the carvings contain no representation of humans or animals, consisting entirely of inscriptions and geometric patterns. One of the school's best known teachers was Mohammed al-Ifrani (1670–1745). After a temporary closure beginning in 1960, the building was refurbished and reopened to the public as a historical site in 1982. ## Sports Football clubs based in Marrakesh include Najm de Marrakech, KAC Marrakech, Mouloudia de Marrakech and Chez Ali Club de Marrakech. The city contains the Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan a race track which hosts the World Touring Car Championship and from 2017 FIA Formula E. The Marrakech Marathon is also held here. Roughly 5000 runners turn out for the event annually. Also, here takes place Grand Prix Hassan II tennis tournament (on clay) part of ATP World Tour series. Golf is a popular sport in Marrakech. The city has three golf courses just outside the city limits and played almost through the year. The three main courses are the Golf de Amelikis on the road to Ourazazate, the Palmeraie Golf Palace near the Palmeraie, and the Royal Golf Club, the oldest of the three courses. Jnan Amar Polo Club is located in Tameslouht, near Marrakech. ## Transport ### Bus BRT Marrakesh, a bus rapid transit system using trolleybuses was opened in 2017. ### Rail The Marrakesh railway station is linked by several trains running daily to other major cities in Morocco such as Casablanca, Tangiers, Fez, Meknes and Rabat. The Casablanca–Tangier high-speed rail line opened in November 2018. In 2015, a tramway was proposed. ### Road The main road network within and around Marrakesh is well paved. The major highway connecting Marrakesh with Casablanca to the south is A7, a toll expressway, 210 km (130 mi) in length. The road from Marrakesh to Settat, a 146 km (91 mi) stretch, was inaugurated by King Mohammed VI in April 2007, completing the 558 km (347 mi) highway to Tangiers. Highway A7 connects also Marrakesh to Agadir, 233 km (145 mi) to the south-west. ### Air The Marrakesh-Menara Airport (RAK) is 3 km (1.9 mi) southwest of the city centre. It is an international facility that receives several European flights as well as flights from Casablanca and several Arab nations. The airport is at an elevation of 471 metres (1,545 ft) at . It has two formal passenger terminals; these are more or less combined into one large terminal. A third terminal is being built. The existing T1 and T2 terminals offer a space of 42,000 m<sup>2</sup> (450,000 sq ft) and have a capacity of 4.5 million passengers per year. The blacktopped runway is 4.5 km (2.8 mi) long and 45 m (148 ft) wide. The airport has parking space for 14 Boeing 737 and four Boeing 747 aircraft. The separate freight terminal has 340 m<sup>2</sup> (3,700 sq ft) of covered space. ## Healthcare Marrakesh has long been an important centre for healthcare in Morocco, and the regional rural and urban populations alike are reliant upon hospitals in the city. The psychiatric hospital installed by the Merinid Caliph Ya'qub al-Mansur in the 16th century was described by the historian 'Abd al-Wahfd al- Marrakushi as one of the greatest in the world at the time. A strong Andalusian influence was evident in the hospital, and many of the physicians to the Caliphs came from places such as Seville, Zaragoza and Denia in eastern Spain. A severe strain has been placed upon the healthcare facilities of the city in the last decade as the city population has grown dramatically. Ibn Tofail University Hospital is one of the major hospitals of the city. In February 2001, the Moroccan government signed a loan agreement worth eight million U.S. dollars with The OPEC Fund for International Development to help improve medical services in and around Marrakesh, which led to expansions of the Ibn Tofail and Ibn Nafess hospitals. Seven new buildings were constructed, with a total floor area of 43,000 square metres (460,000 sq ft). New radiotherapy and medical equipment was provided and 29,000 square metres (310,000 sq ft) of existing hospital space was rehabilitated. In 2009, king Mohammed VI inaugurated a regional psychiatric hospital in Marrakesh, built by the Mohammed V Foundation for Solidarity, costing 22 million dirhams'' (approximately 2.7 million U.S. dollars). The hospital has 194 beds, covering an area of 3 hectares (7.4 acres). Mohammed VI has also announced plans for the construction of a 450 million dirham military hospital in Marrakesh. ## International relations Marrakesh is twinned with: - Granada, Spain - Marseille, France - Ningbo, China - Scottsdale, United States - Sousse, Tunisia - Timbuktu, Mali ## Notable people - Ahmed Bahja - Former footballer - Hasna Benhassi - Former middle-distance runner - Tahar El Khalej - Former footballer - Étienne Hubert (1567–1614) - Arabist - Abdellah Jlaidi - footballer - Abdelali Mhamdi - footballer - Adil Ramzi - Former footballer - Salaheddine Saidi - footballer - Tahar Tamsamani - Former boxer ## See also - Arab Astronomical Society (2016) - List of people from Marrakesh - Marrakesh in popular culture
8,773,379	Chris Sheridan (writer)	1,172,029,783	American screenwriter (born 1967)	[ "1967 births", "American male screenwriters", "American male television writers", "American male voice actors", "American screenwriters", "American television writers", "Filipino emigrants to the United States", "Living people", "People from Gilford, New Hampshire", "Screenwriters from Connecticut", "Screenwriters from New Hampshire", "Screenwriters from New York (state)", "Union College (New York) alumni" ]	Christopher Sheridan (born September 19, 1967) is an American television writer, producer, and occasional voice actor. Born in the Philippines, Sheridan grew up in New Hampshire. He attended Gilford High School, where he decided that he wanted to become a writer. After graduating from Union College, he moved back to his home, where he worked at several short-term jobs before relocating to California to start his career. His first job came in 1992 when he was hired as a writers' assistant for the Fox sitcom Shaky Ground. Following that, he was hired as an assistant on Living Single, a Fox sitcom, where he was eventually promoted to writer. He stayed with the show until its cancellation in 1998. After the show was cancelled and Sheridan became unemployed, he began writing for the animated television series Family Guy. Although initially skeptical, he accepted the job as he did not have other options. Sheridan was one of the first writers hired, and has continued to write for the show through its eleventh season. For his work on Family Guy, he has been nominated for five Primetime Emmy Awards, a British Academy Television Award, and has won a DVD Exclusive Award. Sheridan has also written episodes of Titus and Yes, Dear. He has one daughter. ## Early life Christopher Sheridan was born on September 19, 1967, in the Philippines. He grew up in New Hampshire and attended Gilford High School. While there, Sheridan discovered he enjoyed writing, but had not considered a career in it. After graduating from the school in 1985, Sheridan went to Union College, where he majored in English and took every creative writing class available. After he met a person who had written a screenplay, Sheridan decided that he wanted to have a career in screenwriting. After receiving his college degree in 1989, Sheridan returned to his home. He held various jobs, including substitute teaching, bartending, and working in his father's variety store. Sheridan eventually decided that if he wanted to establish a career, he had to relocate, so he moved to California in 1992. Sheridan stayed at a friend's house, and as he did not own a cell phone, he used a payphone located on Sunset Boulevard to call interested employers. ## Career and later life In 1992, Sheridan was hired as an assistant writer for the sitcom Shaky Ground. During his time on the show, he also worked elsewhere as a freelance writer. Following that show's cancellation in 1993, Sheridan was hired as an assistant on the show Living Single, where he wrote four episodes. Sheridan was promoted to writer, and worked on the show until it was cancelled in 1998. Shortly after, Sheridan received a call from his agent, where he was told that the only show with an open spot was Family Guy, which Sheridan did not want to do, thinking that writing for an animated show would end his career. After meeting series creator Seth MacFarlane, Sheridan was hired as one of the series' first writers. The first episode he wrote was "I Never Met the Dead Man", the second episode of the first season, which premiered on April 11, 1999. Sheridan also wrote the second season premiere "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater." He later went on to write the episodes "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar", "If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'", "He's Too Sexy for His Fat", and "Lethal Weapons". Due to low ratings, Family Guy was cancelled at the end of its second season. While the show was on hiatus, Sheridan became a writer for the sitcom Titus and also wrote several episodes for the sitcom Yes, Dear. He returned to the show after it was revived for a fourth season, writing "The Fat Guy Strangler". Sheridan would later write the episodes "Peter's Daughter", "Peter-assment" and "Burning Down the Bayit". He penned the Road to... episode "Road to the North Pole" along with Danny Smith, and wrote the episode "Save the Clam". Sheridan continues to write for the show, with his most recent credit being the seventeenth season episode "Dead Dog Walking". Sheridan also infrequently provides voices for several small characters on the show, such as recurring character James William Bottomtooth III. In 2011, Sheridan wrote a television pilot entitled Lovelives for NBC. It was to star Ryan Hansen. Although a pilot was ordered and filmed, it did not continue. Sheridan has received several nominations for awards for his work on Family Guy. At the 52nd Primetime Emmy Awards, Sheridan was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for writing the song "We Only Live to Kiss Your Ass." He wrote that "It was a strange experience at the Emmys ... my song was called, 'We Only Live to Kiss Your Ass.' I laughed out loud when the presenter had to list that song as one of the nominations alongside normal songs written by people like Marvin Hamlisch." Along with the other producers of the series, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 2005 for "North by North Quahog" at the 57th Primetime Emmy Awards, and again in 2006 for "PTV" at the 58th. Also in 2006, Sheridan won a DVD Exclusive Award for writing the "Stewie B. Goode" segment of the Family Guy direct to video film Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. He shared the award with writer Gary Janetti. 2008 saw Sheridan receive another Outstanding Animated Program nomination, for "Blue Harvest", at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards. 2008 also saw him receive a nomination for a British Academy Television Award for Best International and in 2009 he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards; both awards were for Family Guy in general. Sheridan splits his time between Los Angeles and Connecticut, and has a daughter. When asked if being a parent affected his style of humor, Sheridan responded that he found himself "a little less forgiving of pedophile jokes." He created the show Resident Alien - Duguay, Rob (March 11, 2021). "Brown Bird's music lives on in Syfy series 'Resident Alien'". The Providence Journal. Retrieved March 15, 2021. ## Filmography ## Awards and nominations
25,548,200	Reunion (30 Rock)	1,148,294,705	null	[ "2008 American television episodes", "30 Rock (season 3) episodes", "Emmy Award-winning episodes", "Television shows directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller" ]	"Reunion" is the fifth episode of the third season of American television comedy series 30 Rock, and the 41st episode of the series overall. It was written by supervising producer Matt Hubbard and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller. The episode originally aired on NBC in the United States on December 4, 2008. Guest stars in this episode include Susan Barrett, Marceline Hugot, Robyn Lively, Janel Moloney, Diane Neal, Rip Torn, and Steve Witting. In the episode, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) is opposed to going to her high school reunion, but her boss, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), manages to convince her otherwise. Meanwhile, Don Geiss (Rip Torn) wakes up from his coma only to inform Jack of his decision to remain CEO of General Electric (GE). At the same time, Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) feel threatened by NBC page Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) when he gets more laughs than they do in the elevator. "Reunion" has received generally positive reception from television critics. According to the Nielsen ratings system, it was watched by 7.2 million households during its original broadcast. Matt Hubbard won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, while Beth McCarthy-Miller received a nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series. ## Plot Liz receives an invitation to her upcoming high school reunion in White Haven, Pennsylvania. She is reluctant to attend as she was a lonely nerd but is persuaded to go by her boss, Jack. Don Geiss wakes up from his diabetic coma and tells Jack he will remain CEO of General Electric (GE). Distraught by the revelation, as Don had chosen Jack as the CEO to run GE, Jack decides to fly to Miami for a vacation, and offers to drop Liz off on the way to her reunion. When they land in White Haven after a major snowstorm, Jack is stranded with her. Liz goes to the reunion but learns that she was not the quiet, lonely nerd she thought, but the spiteful mean girl whose passive-aggressive comments to everyone were taken as bullying. Jack in search of a drink ends up at the reunion as well, and is mistaken for a former popular student Larry Braverman and still unhappy with Geiss' decision, takes on the persona. Liz tries to regain the friendship of her classmates—Kelsey Winthrop (Robyn Lively), Erin O'Neil (Diane Neal), Rob Sussman (Steve Witting), and Diane (Susan Barrett)—without success. Jack, as Larry Braverman, persuades them to like Liz, until an ex-girlfriend (Janel Moloney) of Larry's reveals he has a son, at which point Jack confesses he is not Larry and Liz and Jack both make a quick escape whilst being booed off stage; Liz happily going back to mistreating her former classmates after they attempt to reenact the pig's blood scene from Carrie on her. Meanwhile, at the 30 Rock studios, Tracy is shocked when Kenneth gets more laughs than he does in the elevator, compelling him to go to Jenna for help. The same thing happens to Jenna and in retaliation, she starts singing "Wind Beneath My Wings", prompting Kenneth to start singing "99 Bottles of Beer", to which everyone in the elevator joins in. As revenge for upstaging them, Tracy and Jenna start doing his page duties which confuses Kenneth. After Tracy explains what Kenneth was doing, Kenneth feels terrible about it and swears never to upstage them again. ## Production "Reunion" was written by 30 Rock supervising producer Matt Hubbard, making it his fifth writing credit after "The Rural Juror", "Hard Ball", "The Collection", and "MILF Island". The episode was directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller, making it her fourth for the series. "Reunion" originally aired in the United States on December 4, 2008, on NBC as the fifth episode of the show's third season and the 41st overall episode of the series. Actor Rip Torn made his sixth appearance on the show as GE CEO Don Geiss, after appearing in the episodes "The C Word", "Corporate Crush", "Jack Gets in the Game", "Succession", and "Sandwich Day". This was actress Marceline Hugot's sixth guest spot in the series as Kathy Geiss, the daughter of Don Geiss. St. Cecilia's Catholic Church served as the high school where Liz Lemon attends her high school reunion. In September 2008, it was reported that actresses Blake Lively and Leighton Meester, who star on Gossip Girl, were set to guest star on the show as former high school classmates of Liz's in a flashback sequence, but the appearances fell through. 30 Rock and Gossip Girl are shot next to each other at Silvercup Studios in Queens, New York. Actress Robyn Lively, the half-sister of Blake Lively, guest starred in "Reunion" as Kelsey Winthrop, a former classmate of Liz's. In this episode, Liz says the line "I want to go to there", twice, which according to series creator, executive producer and lead actress Tina Fey was "coined" by her daughter, Alice. In an interview with the New York Daily News, Jane Krakowski, who portrays Jenna Maroney, revealed "Some of the great catchphrases of 30 Rock have come from Alice. Like, 'I want to go [to] there!' – that's Alice. It's so funny because I hear people say it on the street, and that was [Tina's] daughter!" ## Cultural references Jack, believing that Don Geiss will give him the CEO job, and after learning about Liz's high school reunion, says "I wish I had a Princeton reunion right now. I'd wipe the smug smile off Michelle Obama's face", a reference to Michelle Obama who graduated from Princeton, and to her husband, Barack Obama, who won the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election. At the reunion, Rob Sussman, a past classmate of Liz's, complains that Liz said he was gayer than the volleyball scene in the 1986 action film Top Gun. During the reunion, Liz's former classmates play Seven minutes in heaven, a game in which two people are selected to go into a closet or other dark enclosed space and do whatever they like for seven minutes, often kissing. Later, Liz's classmates plan to "Carrie" her on stage as revenge for her being mean to them, but is stopped by Jack saying "we cannot Carrie Liz Lemon". This is a reference to the 1976 horror film Carrie in which the title character is drenched with pig's blood. ## Reception In its original American broadcast, "Reunion" was watched by 7.2 million households, according to the Nielsen ratings system. It received a 3.4 rating/8 share among viewers in the 18–49 demographic, meaning that 3.4 percent of all people in that group, and 8 percent of all people from that group watching television at the time, watched the episode. "Reunion" finished in ninth place in the weekly ratings for the week of December 1–7, 2008. Matt Hubbard won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, while Beth McCarthy-Miller received a nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards. This episode was submitted for consideration on the behalf of Tina Fey for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series at the same awards show, but lost it to actress Toni Collette. Hubbard was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for "Reunion", but lost it in a tie to fellow 30 Rock writer Robert Carlock for the episode "Apollo, Apollo" and Modern Family's Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd for the pilot episode. IGN contributor Robert Canning gave the episode an 8.9 rating out of 10 and wrote "...the real reason to watch, as always, was Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin and their fantastic comedic performances." Canning responded favorably to the episode with the exception of the Tracy, Jenna, and Kenneth storyline, calling it "silly". Television columnist Alan Sepinwall for The Star-Ledger wrote that Jack taking on the Larry Braverman persona "gave Baldwin a chance to play a delightfully goofy strain of those occasional glimpses we get of a happy Jack." Like Sepinwall, Bob Sassone of AOL's TV Squad was favorable to Jack going to the reunion, but most enjoyed the character impersonating Larry Braverman, observing it was a "well-used plot device" as Baldwin "made it believable". TV Guide's Matt Mitovich was positive about "Reunion", calling it a "nice" episode. Jeff Labrecque for Entertainment Weekly enjoyed the episode, and said that "Reunion" was the first episode of the season that "I think the show benefited from the refocused attention on its core characters. The reunion plot was so strong, and the Carrie finale so inspired, that I hope the viewership ratings reflect positively and encourage a continuance of this creative trend." The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin wrote that he was "much more amused" by Rob Sussman's "still-simmering rage" against Liz, because he "scored many of the show's biggest laughs." He said that he found the second plot "a little underwhelming though I thought there was a neat meta-textual element to it", but wrote that it "scored some nice shots at the vapid narcissism of actors but it promised more than it could deliver." Rick Porter of Zap2it said that despite the "super-capital-A-list guest stars" that guest starred at the beginning of the season, "Reunion" got back "to the show's core cast ... [and] the show gave us probably the best episode of the season." Time contributor James Poniewozik opined that this episode was "pretty good" and "funny in most of the usual 30 Rock ways." Not all reviews were positive. Jeremy Medina of Paste wrote that "Reunion" was "essentially unremarkable (especially in its portrayal of Liz)". Medina disliked that Tina Fey's Liz was portrayed in "unlikable light", and after insulting her former classmates at the high school reunion it "seemed a bit uncharacteristic and unflattering to her character."
45,673,357	Himari Noihara	1,050,640,917	Fictional character from Omamori Himari	[ "Catgirls", "Comics characters introduced in 2006", "Female characters in anime and manga", "Omamori Himari" ]	Himari Noihara (野井原緋鞠, Noihara Himari) or Himari for short, is a fictional character in the manga series Omamori Himari, created by Milan Matra. She also appears in the anime adaptation where she is voiced by Ami Koshimizu. Himari's character design was created simply, but Matra became bogged down on other things such as naming of the main heroine. In the story, Himari is shown to be a bakeneko or demon cat, a type of Japanese spirit known as a yōkai. Reception of her character by English-language media has been mostly positive with writers often calling her a good lead character based on her traits. In both the anime and manga series she is the descendant of a yōkai that was spared rather than being killed by a demon slayer family. As a result, she and her ancestors have sworn to protect its members. Yuto Amakawa, being the current heir to the family, is thus under her care. As the series progresses she shows that she deeply cares for and loves Yuto, but struggles with demons within herself. At the end of the series, Yuto saves Himari and confesses his love back to her. The anime differs from the manga when it comes to the final battle at the end. ## Creation and conception When creating Himari, author Milan Matra opted to go for an easily drawn character. He soon came up with her design, but became stuck in regards to her name and her style of speech. Eventually he decided on the name Himari and an old-fashioned speech style. Himari was originally going to have short hair in the final chapter but Matra decided to go with long hair, and use the short haired designs for her evil side, Black Himari, which appears earlier in the series. Matra describes Himari's appearance on the cover of the first volume as the "first he had ever done". In order to attract readers, Matra stated that he drew Himari in a way that was unusual for her character whom is usually serious. He described her smile as "gentle" which is something that would never be seen in the story itself. Himari also has a sister named Hime who was originally going to be a male character. Matra made the change saying that he did not want his readers to wrap their hearts around two different male characters which would have also impacted Himari's storyline. When asked at a book fair in Taiwan why he chose a cat to represent the main character, Matra replied that he thinks that cats in general are cute. In the story, Himari states that her mother died while giving birth to her while her father might have been another species of demon cat, or possibly a stray. Himari's character is voiced by Ami Koshimizu in the anime adaptation. She was chosen for the role during a series of interviews, then was photographed along with the other chosen cast for promotional shots. Koshimizu described her feelings about Himari in another interview when asked what she liked best. She said that while Himari has great mental abilities and can fight, she is still a girl who cares about various things. Koshimizu went on to say that it was difficult to "add or subtract" Himari's feelings about being a yōkai. In addition to voicing Himari, Koshimizu also sings the ending song called BEAM my BEAM after each episode. ## Appearances ### In the manga Himari first appears in chapter one of the manga "The Cat, The Girl, and The Allergy". After saving Yuto from an ayakashi, she later introduces herself to him and explains that he comes from a family of demon slayers. She goes on to say that at some point one of the members of his family spared and tamed one of her ancestors, choosing compassion rather than reward, and as a result she vows to protect him. Himari soon takes on the last name "Noihara" in order to blend in more, Yuto comments that the name is the area from where his grandparents were from. Aside from the ancestor reasoning, Himari shows strong feelings towards Yuta, asking him out on a date and letting him choose her clothing among other things. It is later revealed that Himari was an important person to Yuto during his childhood which helps their relationship grow. Being a yōkai, Himari finds herself torn between her desire to protect Yuto, and her nature as a bloodthirsty demon cat. Through research, Shizuku informs Yuto that Himari's ancestors were the type of evil yōkai that killed and ate humans, saying that Himari takes pleasure in the hunt and loses herself to the bloodlust. Initially, Himari does not realize when she loses control, describing it as if her heart was swallowed up into a black pool. Himari eventually acknowledges that she is a beast after a fight with Kuesu, but she is tended to by Yuto. In response Himari kisses him, saying that it is a "gift of mercy" for letting her stay by his side. Towards the end of the series in the fight against Tamamo-no-Mae, Himari bites her, absorbing most of her demonic powers. This results in Himari losing control of her darker demonic half, which eventually becomes visible to those around her. The series ends after Yuto enters into Himari's subconscious, and saves her before her darker half takes full control of her heart. ### In the anime Himari's appearance in the anime follows that of the manga with the difference being the ending. She first appears in episode one "Cat and Girl and Allergy", where, as in the manga, she saves Yuto from an ayakashi and explains to him who she is and why she is protecting him. The ending of the anime differs from the manga when it comes to the final battle. Tama the nine-tailed fox is defeated by Himari, who chose to give in to her darkness (her vicious ayakashi side/energy) while fighting her. Yuto hugs Himari, turning her back to her good self, and uses his light ferry to turn her into "Super Himari". With this added power, Himari goes to defeat Shuten-douji and wins, ending the anime after a characters reunion. When referring to Himari in the anime, distributor Kadokawa describes her character as old-fashioned with a demonic nature, who likes to snuggle. ## Reception Reception of Himari's character in English-language media has been mostly positive. T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews called Himari an okay character when she is not threatening Yuto or getting upset at the other girls that he has around him. While referencing the anime adaptation, Erin Finnegan from Anime News Network called the character designs in general "solid", aside from Yuto. Paul Jensen, also from Anime News Network said that Himari is a good "demon girl with a dark side" heroine character. Jensen did say though that the overall character designs are starting to show their age seven years after the series' first release. Chris Beveridge from Mania reviewed the third volume of the manga series which included a glimpse into her character. In the review he describes Himari's kiss scene in which she wants to experience what a kiss is like for the first time. Chris commented; "There's a pleasant innocence about her as she works through it and finds the situation turning to her favor for actually trying it". In contrast, Ross Liversidge of UK Anime Network reviewed the first volume of the manga in which he called Himari's character overly "stereotyped". Ross also said that although she is "kick-ass" while using her sword, she has no idea about modern life. Chris Kincaid from Japan Powered called Himari's anime appearance "interesting". In his review he compares her character to Inuyasha's manga title character as she has a protector mentality, but is "torn between the human world and her demon nature". ## See also - Ayakashi (yōkai) - Japanese folklore - List of Omamori Himari characters
21,078,598	Max Näther	1,173,066,201	German World War I flying ace	[ "1899 births", "1919 deaths", "Aviators killed by being shot down", "German World War I flying aces", "Luftstreitkräfte personnel", "Military personnel from the Province of Silesia", "People from Ząbkowice Śląskie County", "Prussian Army personnel" ]	Leutnant Max Näther (24 August 1899 – 8 January 1919) HOH, IC, was a German World War I ace fighter pilot who destroyed 26 enemy aircraft. He shot down ten observation balloons and sixteen airplanes, including ten SPAD S.XIII fighters and a Sopwith Dolphin. He was killed in his plane at the border of Germany during the Greater Poland uprising on 8 January 1919. ## Early life and army service Näther was born on 24 August 1899 in Tepliwoda, Silesia, in what was then the eastern part of the Kingdom of Prussia and is now Poland. He joined the German army in 1914, at age 15. He was wounded twice before being commissioned as Leutnant der Reserve on 11 August 1916, just before his 17th birthday. He won both the Second and First Class Iron Crosses during this time, the latter on 1 February 1916. In the summer of 1917, he volunteered for transfer to the Air Service. ## Aerial service Näther took basic flight training in Bucharest. He then progressed to training with Fliegerersatz-Abteilung 7 (Replacement Detachment 7) at Brunswick. His final training was at Jastaschule I (Fighter Training School 1) in Valenciennes, France. He graduated from Jastaschule I and was assigned to Jagdstaffel 62 (Fighter Squadron 62) on 31 March 1918. He flew an all black Albatros D.Va with a personal insignia of a German national flag streaming from a slanted staff imposed on a white square painted on the side of the plane's fuselage just aft of the cockpit. Näther made his first aerial kill on 16 May 1918, over a Spad XIII. Then, in June, he reeled off a string of six more over enemy observation balloons between the 1st and the 28th, becoming an ace on the 16th. Balloons were well defended by surrounding anti-aircraft and nearby patrols of fighter planes, and attacks on them were considered near suicidal. He became Staffelführer (Commander) on 7 July 1918, just before his 19th birthday. Näther took leave from 28 July to 21 August; he probably waited to change planes to a Fokker D.VII until after his return. In September, he was awarded the Knight's Cross with Swords of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern. He shot down another six that month, including two more balloons. On 26 September, he downed a Spad S.XIII in the morning and a balloon and another Spad S.XIII in the afternoon. He was slightly wounded the following day. He began October with back-to-back kills on the 9th and 10th. After another on the 18th, he incinerated his tenth and final balloon on the 23rd. As he returned from this mission, Näther was shot down by Jacques Swaab, but survived a fiery crash-landing. His final three kills were scored on 29 October. Coincidentally, although he had become eligible with his 20th and 21st on 10 October, he was nominated for the Pour le Mérite on 29 October. His was one of several nominations that was not approved because of the war's end. Näther's 26 kills comprised over half those of his entire squadron. These included ten observation balloons and eleven fighters—ten SPAD S.XIIIs and a Sopwith Dolphin. ## Death in Greater Poland uprising Näther was killed on 8 January 1919 during the Greater Poland uprising after World War I, by Polish ground fire while flying over Kolmar (now Chodziez) in the Province of Posen (now Poland).
3,656,285	Mi Chico Latino	1,173,013,612	Geri Halliwell single	[ "1999 singles", "1999 songs", "EMI Records singles", "Geri Halliwell songs", "Latin pop songs", "Number-one singles in Scotland", "Song recordings produced by Absolute (production team)", "Songs involved in plagiarism controversies", "Songs written by Andy Watkins", "Songs written by Geri Halliwell", "Songs written by Paul Wilson (songwriter)", "Spanglish songs", "UK Singles Chart number-one singles" ]	"Mi Chico Latino" (English: "My Latin Boy"), is a song recorded by English singer Geri Halliwell for her debut solo album Schizophonic (1999). It was written by Halliwell, Andy Watkins and Paul Wilson, whilst produced by the latter two, who are known collectively as Absolute. "Mi Chico Latino" was released as the album's second single on 16 August 1999 by EMI Records. It is a Latin pop song which is centred on a lost love theme. The song was written by Halliwell in order to pay homage to her mother, who has Spanish background, whilst it also has a number of Spanish lyrics. "Mi Chico Latino" received mixed reviews from music critics, who noted it was a contribution to the Latin pop phenom at the time, while others criticized Halliwell's Spanish pronunciation. The song was a commercial success in the United Kingdom, debuting at number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Halliwell's first number-one solo single in the country. The song also attracted some moderate success worldwide. "Mi Chico Latino"'s accompanying music video was directed by Doug Nichol and filmed on the island of Sardinia. It depicts the singer wearing a black bikini and dancing with semi-nude male dancers on a boat. In order to promote the single, Halliwell performed the song on Top of the Pops and Party in the Park in 1999. ## Background and development "Mi Chico Latino" was written by Halliwell, Andy Watkins and Paul Wilson in late 1998. The singer wanted to make a song with Spanish influences, in order to pay homage for her Spanish mother. During a day in the studio, they came up with a melody but did not have any words. Then she called her mother for help. Halliwell recalled asking her, "Mum, what do you say to a bloke in Spanish if you fancy him and are being romantic?" Her mother then said she did not remember that. So she asked her look at her library of Spanish language romances, and she read the titles out to Halliwell. Eventually she came out with "¿Dónde está el hombre con fuego en la sangre?" ("Where is the man with fire in his blood?" in English), and she liked the way it sounded and included the line at the beginning of the song. After "Look at Me" peaked at number two, her record company wanted her to release "Lift Me Up", while the Absolute team wanted "Bag It Up", but she chose to release "Mi Chico Latino" after receiving good reception from children. She also thought, > "First and foremost I thought it was a good record. It was poppy and catchy and perfect for the summer. I think my core audience is young teenage girls and gay guys. Both of those groups tend to like pure pop music and I think that's what 'Chico' was. It was very different from the slightly leftfield style of 'Look at Me'. [...] The other thing that 'Chico' had going for it was that the music was Latin-based, I had written the song back in 1998 but by the time the summer of 1999 came around Latin-influenced music was ruling the charts. Ricky Martin had recently had a number one and there were others on the way. So it was a strange example of synchronicity that I should be ready to go with a Latin track which I had written almost a year before". ## Composition "Mi Chico Latino" is a Latin pop song which moves at a moderate tempo of 104 beats per minute. At the beginning of the song, Halliwell chants the spoken word line "¿Dónde está el hombre con fuego en la sangre?" (which translates to Where is the man with fire in the blood?). The lyrics to the song are centred on a lost love theme, with castanets in the background. During the song, the singer also sings in Italian on its chorus, when everything else is Spanish. According to biographer David Sinclair in his book Spice Girls Revisited: How The Spice Girls Reinvented Pop, Halliwell continued to explore the Riviera-pop theme of her former group's song, "Viva Forever", whilst "murmuring sweet nothings in a peculiar brand of estuary Spanish while castanets and timbales clattered alongside a cod-flamenco guitar". ### Controversy In 1999 Ishtar, the Israeli lead singer of Alabina, said "Mi Chico Latino" was plagiarized from her song "Alabina (De La Noche A La Manana)", released the year before. A spokesman for Alabina's French record label Atal said that they were "anxiously contacting" Halliwell's record label about the songs' similarities. However, no legal actions were made. ## Critical reception "Mi Chico Latino" received mixed reviews from music critics. Jon Perks, whilst reviewing Schizophonic for Sunday Mercury, gave a positive review, stating, "Okay, so it sounds like a hybrid of La Vida Loca and Madonna's La Isla Bonita, but with a swimming-costumed Geri on the cover and a summery tune, it's a winning combination". Chris Charles from BBC News commented that "Mi Chico Latino" could be mistaken with "Spice Up Your Life", Halliwell's previous hit with the Spice Girls. The Daily Vault's Christopher Thelen felt that it "is an odd selection for a single". Jonathan O'Brien from Hot Press magazine was negative, stating that "Mi Chico Latino" was "a dreadful pastiche of Madonna's 'La Isla Bonita'". For Russell Baillie from The New Zealand Herald, Halliwell spends time on the album "flashing her eyelashes at [menfolk], especially if they're foreign", calling the song "glutinous". According to Rolling Stone, "Mi Chico Latino" was her "impeccably timed contribution to the Latin-pop phenom, complete with awkwardly pronounced Spanglish". ## Release and chart performance "Mi Chico Latino" was released in the United Kingdom on 16 August 1999 as two CD singles and a cassette single. The song debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart on 22 August 1999, selling 132,000 copies in its first week, becoming Halliwell's first number-one solo single in the country. It also was the beginning of a sequence of four consecutive Halliwell singles reaching number one in the United Kingdom. It spent fifteen weeks in the charts, and went on to sell over 400,000 copies in the UK and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). "Mi Chico Latino" experienced moderate success in other European markets. In Austria, it entered the singles chart at number 34, eventually peaking at number 27 and spending a total of eight weeks on the chart. In France, the song peaked at number 40, remaining on the chart for ten weeks in total. On the Swiss Singles Chart dated 19 September 1999, it peaked at number 26. In Australia, "Mi Chico Latino" was released on 23 August 1999 and debuted at its peak of number 43 on the ARIA Singles Chart on the issue dated 5 September 1999. In the United States, the song was serviced to contemporary hit radio on 21 September 1999 and peaked at number 19 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. ## Music video The accompanying music video for "Mi Chico Latino" was directed by Doug Nichol and filmed in Sardinia from 5–8 July 1999. Halliwell wanted the video for the song to be very different in style to her previous single "Look at Me", as that one was filmed in Prague in the freezing cold, and she wanted something to connect with her fans. According to her, the video was also pretty easy to get: "a yacht, a girl in a bikini and some wicked boy dancers to keep both sets of fans [gay guys and teenage girls] happy". After the video was released, the singer got a huge amount of attention from it. "People came up to me and told me how great and how sexy it was. They also told me I looked really healthy, but how wrong they were. I wasn't healthy because I wasn't eating properly and although I was slim at the time, that was a mirage too because the tough regime of the diet was always going to lead me to binge and put the weight back on", and later, she began taking recovery meetings for bulimia. ## Live performances Halliwell first performed "Mi Chico Latino" as the opening number at her show held at G-A-Y nightclub. According to Brian Logan from The Guardian, the performance "served only to stress" her certain brand of pop, referring to it as "Madonna-lite." Halliwell also performed the single in front of 100,000 fans at Party in the Park event in early July 1999. On 26 August 1999, the singer performed the song on Top of the Pops. On 8 July 2001, whist promoting her second album Scream If You Wanna Go Faster, she performed the song again on Party in the Park. ## Formats and track listings UK CD1 and European maxi-CD single 1. "Mi Chico Latino" – 3:16 2. "G.A.Y." – 3:22 3. "Summertime" – 3:35 4. "Mi Chico Latino" (Enhanced Video) – 3:10 UK CD2 single 1. "Mi Chico Latino" – 3:16 2. "Mi Chico Latino" (Junior Vasquez Main Pass Edit) – 6:00 3. "Mi Chico Latino" (Charlie Rapino and Merv de Peyer 12" Version) – 5:14 4. "Mi Chico Latino" (Claudio Coccoluto The Coco Club Mix) – 5:22 European CD single 1. "Mi Chico Latino" – 3:16 2. "G.A.Y." – 3:22 3. "Mi Chico Latino" (Enhanced Video) – 3:10 Australian maxi-CD single 1. "Mi Chico Latino" – 3:16 2. "G.A.Y." – 3:22 3. "Summertime" – 3:35 French CD single 1. "Mi Chico Latino" (JB Saudray Mix) – 3:28 2. "Mi Chico Latino" – 3:16 3. "Summertime" – 3:35 Italian 12-inch single 1. "Mi Chico Latino" – 3:16 2. "Mi Chico Latino" (The Coco Club – Claudio Coccoluto) – 5:22 3. "Mi Chico Latino" (The DubDuo Dub – Claudio Coccoluto) – 7:24 ## Credits and personnel Credits and personnel are adapted from Schizophonic album liner notes. - Geri Halliwell – songwriter - Absolute – songwriters, producers, instruments - Tracey Ackerman – backing vocalist - Milton Mcdonald – guitar - Karlos Edwards – percussion - Mike Higham – programming - Paul "P" Dub Walton – audio engineer - Mark "Spike" Stent – mixing - Wayne Wilkins – mixing assistant - Stylorouge – design, art direction - Dean Freeman – photographer ## Charts and certifications ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ### Certifications
26,833,475	Ruislip Woods	1,162,369,806	Woodland in Ruislip, London	[ "Districts of the London Borough of Hillingdon", "Forests and woodlands of London", "Local nature reserves in Greater London", "National nature reserves in London", "Nature reserves in the London Borough of Hillingdon", "Sites of Special Scientific Interest in London", "Woodland Sites of Special Scientific Interest" ]	Ruislip Woods is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and national nature reserve covering 726 acres (294 ha) in Ruislip in the London Borough of Hillingdon. The woods became London's first national nature reserve in May 1997. Ruislip Local Nature Reserve at is part of the national nature reserve. Evidence of Bronze Age settlements has been found within the woods during archaeological excavations. Timber from the woods has been used in the building of several nationally significant buildings, as well as locally; the Great Barn at Manor Farm was built from oak from the woods. Ownership of the woods passed with the manor from Ernulf de Hesdin to Bec Abbey and on to King's College, Cambridge over the years, until Park Wood was sold to the local authority. The remaining woods were purchased from other owners and Ruislip Woods was formed. ## History Use of the wood has been dated back to the Bronze Age, after a barbed spearhead was discovered by a metal detector user. During an excavation of the findspot in 1984 the spearhead, measuring 4.75 inches (121 mm) in length, was found to have been lying in an oval pit with fragments of pottery, indicating it to be the collection of domestic waste from a settlement. The woods are the remains of the dense woodland which would have covered the county of Middlesex from prehistoric times. Woodland was cleared over time for farming and housing. Following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Ernulf de Hesdin was given the manor of Ruislip, which included the woods, in recognition of his service to William the Conqueror. In 1087, Ernulf de Hesdin passed the manor to the Bec Abbey. During the Abbey's ownership, timber from the woods was used in the construction of the Tower of London in 1339, Windsor Castle in 1344, the Palace of Westminster in 1346 and the manor of the Black Prince in Kennington. Locally, the Great Barn on the Manor Farm site was constructed of oak from the woods. King's College, Cambridge became lords of the manor in 1451. The manor of Ruislip became part of the Ruislip-Northwood Urban District, though it remained under the ownership of King's College, Cambridge. A town-planning competition led to a design being chosen that envisaged the clearance of much of the woods and historic sites in Ruislip to make way for 7,642 homes, enough for 35,000 residents, across the manor. A planning scheme adapted from the original was presented to the public in February 1913 and was approved by the Local Government Board in September 1914. The outbreak of the First World War halted all construction work, by which time only three new roads had been completed. It did not resume again until 1919. In February 1931, the woods were included in a sale by King's College to the urban district council. Park Wood was sold for £28,100, with Manor Farm and the old Post Office included as a gift to the people of Ruislip. King's had also wished to present the wood as a gift but was required by the University and College's Act to receive payment as it was the trustee of the land. Middlesex County Council contributed 75% of the cost, as the urban district council argued that many of those who would make use of the land would be recreational day-trippers from outside the district. Under a 999-year lease, the council agreed to maintain the wood and ensure no new building was constructed without the permission of the county council. An area of the wood to the south was not included in the lease agreement and three residential roads were later constructed on it. Copse Wood was purchased by Middlesex County Council and London County Council in 1936 for £23,250, being joined by Mad Bess Wood in the same year. The urban district council, together with Middlesex and London County Councils, purchased the 186 acres (75 ha) wood for £28,000 in a compulsory purchase from Sir Howard Stransom Button. In 1984, Battle of Britain House, which had been built in Copse Wood in 1905 by Josef Conn, was destroyed by fire and the ruins demolished. The house was originally a private home, but during the Second World War was used by the United States military to train saboteur agents for missions in occupied France. On 21 May 1997, the woods became a national nature reserve, the first in an urban area of England. The Ruislip Woods Trust was established that year as a charity dedicated to the conservation of the woods, while encouraging greater public interaction with them. In June 2008, a new off-road cycle trail was unveiled in Bayhurst Wood, named after the former head of democratic services at Hillingdon Council in recognition of his long service to the borough. The "David Brough Cycle Trail", covering 2 kilometres (1.2 mi), was officially opened on 24 June. ## Flora and fauna The main species of trees in the woods include English oak, sessile oak, hornbeam, beech, silver birch, wild service tree, aspen, rowan, field maple, crack willow, wild cherry, hazel and holly. Wild flowers are also in abundance around the woods, and include common knapweed, harebell, rosebay willowherb, heather, bluebell, woodanemone, yellow archangel, snowdrops and honeysuckle. According to the London Borough of Hillingdon, the most common species' of birds found within the woods are mute swan, Canada goose, robin, green woodpecker, jay, nuthatch, lesser spotted woodpecker, greater spotted woodpecker, cuckoo, sparrowhawk, tree creeper, tawny owl, willow tit and woodcock. Cattle are grazed in Poor's Field each year to maintain the level of the vegetation. Wild mammals include foxes, hedgehogs, stoats, weasels, mink, grey squirrels and badgers. Several species of bat also live in the woods. ## Management The reserve covers four woods: Park Wood, Mad Bess Wood and Copse Wood in Ruislip, with Bayhurst Wood in Harefield. Poor's Field and Tartleton's Lake in Ruislip are also part of the reserve. There is no definitive explanation as to why Mad Bess Wood received its name, although one theory is that it was named after a female landowner who patrolled the wood looking for poachers. The woods are managed by the London Borough of Hillingdon, which inherited them from the former Ruislip-Northwood Urban District. The council maintains the volunteer-run Ruislip Woodlands Centre in the grounds of Ruislip Lido, a reservoir within Park Wood. Ruislip Woods received the Green Flag Award in 2006. The woods were coppiced on rotation throughout the years with the timber being sold to local tanneries. By the time King's College took ownership of the manor, the woods were let out for pheasant shooting. Coppicing of the woods continues today, under a 20-year rotation to aid in the natural growth of the woodland. Ducks Hill Road and Breakspear Road North pass through the woods in Ruislip and Harefield respectively. ## See also - List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Greater London - Hillingdon parks and open spaces
1,859,079	Glenn Anderson	1,163,398,202	Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1960)	[ "1960 births", "Augsburger Panther players", "Battle of the Blades participants", "Bellingham Blazers players", "Bolzano HC players", "Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States", "Canadian ice hockey right wingers", "Canadian people of Norwegian descent", "Canadian people of Swedish descent", "Canadian people of Ukrainian descent", "Denver Pioneers men's ice hockey players", "Edmonton Oilers draft picks", "Edmonton Oilers players", "HC La Chaux-de-Fonds players", "Hockey Hall of Fame inductees", "Ice hockey people from Vancouver", "Ice hockey players at the 1980 Winter Olympics", "Living people", "Lukko players", "National Hockey League players with retired numbers", "New Westminster Bruins players", "New York Rangers players", "Olympic ice hockey players for Canada", "Seattle Breakers players", "St. Louis Blues players", "Stanley Cup champions", "Toronto Maple Leafs players" ]	Glenn Christopher "Andy" Anderson (born October 2, 1960) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, and St. Louis Blues. Anderson was known for performing especially well in important games, which garnered him the reputation of a "money" player. His five playoff overtime goals rank third in NHL history, while his 17 playoff game-winning goals put him fifth all-time. During the playoffs, Anderson accumulated 93 goals, 121 assists, and 214 points, the fourth, ninth, and fourth most in NHL history. Anderson is also first all-time in regular season game winning goals in Oilers history with 72. At a young age, Anderson admired the European aspects of the game. He was known to have a liking for participating in international tournaments, more so than his NHL contemporaries. When he was drafted by the Oilers in 1979, he chose to play for Team Canada at the 1980 Winter Olympics instead of immediately joining the Oilers. Anderson won gold at the 1984 and the 1987 Canada Cup and he was a silver medalist at the 1989 Ice Hockey World Championships. During his NHL career, Anderson was part of six Stanley Cup winning teams (he won five as a member of the Oilers and one as a member of the Rangers) and he was a participant at four All-Star Games. He is one of only seven Oilers players to have won all five Cups in franchise history. In 1996 he played for Team Canada in the Spengler Cup Tournament, often referred to as the Stanley Cup of Europe. Despite having the flu with a high fever Glenn rallied as soon as his skates were laced and was voted unanimously as the MVP of the tournament. They hoisted the Cup for Canada and took the lounging photo on the ice surrounding the Spengler Cup which was Glenn’s idea when the Oilers won their first cup and has since become a tradition. Anderson was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November 10, 2008 and his jersey number, 9, was retired by the Oilers on January 18, 2009. ## Background Anderson was born in Vancouver and raised in Burnaby, British Columbia. His father, Magnus, was a Norwegian immigrant, and his mother, Anne, was of Ukrainian origin. He has two brothers (Allan and David) and a sister (Pam). He is married to Susan Anderson and together they have a daughter, Autumn Anderson. As a young child, Glenn did not enjoy the game of ice hockey. His first ever goal was in his own net. However, as he grew older, and developed his skills, Anderson's love of the game increased over time. As a youth, he and teammate Ken Berry played in the 1972 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team from Burnaby. Growing up, Anderson played hockey with his childhood friends, the Berry boys, Andy Hill and Mike Fox, (who became an award winning actor). Anderson's hockey idol was his favourite player, Russian Alexander Yakushev, whom he had watched play during the 1972 Summit Series. Glenn eventually produced the one hour acclaimed documentary "To Russia With Love", released in September 2012, about the way Russia changed the Canadian ice hockey game. ## Playing career ### Early career Anderson began his junior hockey career with the Bellingham Blazers of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League (BCJHL) during the 1977–78 season. In 64 games, Anderson recorded 62 goals, 69 assists, and 131 points, the third most goals and eighth most points in the league. To top off his lone season in the BCJHL, he was named to the league's Second All-Star Team. In 1978–79, Anderson was recruited to play for the hockey team of the University of Denver in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) by Marshall Johnston, the University team's head coach. Anderson played in 41 games, and led the team in points with 55. In the 1979 NHL Entry Draft Anderson was drafted 69th overall by the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He opted to play for Team Canada during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Father David Bauer, in charge of the national team program, accepted Anderson. Father Bauer's influence on Anderson was significant as he would cite him as a major reason for his later success. The team toured the world playing different opponents in preparation for the Olympics. The practice Anderson received during this time helped "greatly improve" his skills. Anderson scored four points in six games during the tournament. ### Edmonton Oilers (1980–1991) The Canadian National Team program was discontinued in the Fall of 1980. Facing a choice of whether to rejoin the University of Denver, or to join the Oilers, Anderson chose the latter. Making his professional debut with the Oilers, Anderson recorded 30 goals, 23 assists, and 53 points in 58 games in his first season. The Oilers made the playoffs that year and defeated the Montreal Canadiens in the preliminary round, three games to none. This was deemed a huge upset since the Canadiens had finished eleven spots higher than the Oilers in the overall standings. The Oilers moved on to the quarter-finals where they were defeated in six games by the eventual Stanley Cup champions, New York Islanders. During the playoff run, Anderson scored 12 points in 9 games, establishing himself as a "fierce" playoff performer. Anderson's sophomore season saw him record career highs in both assists and points with 67 and 105, respectively. His team jumped from fourth place to first place in the Smythe Division. In the playoffs, the Oilers were the victims of one of the biggest upsets in hockey history. The following season, Anderson tallied 48 goals and 56 assists for a total of 104 points to help the Oilers remain atop their division. In the playoffs, the Oilers managed to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history. Anderson and his team were matched up against the Islanders who were looking for a fourth consecutive Stanley Cup victory. During the Finals, Anderson had several noted run-ins with Islanders goaltender Billy Smith. During game one, a slash on Anderson's knee earned Smith a two-minute slashing penalty. In game four, when the two crashed into each other, Smith's dive resulted in referee Andy Van Hellemond handing a five-minute penalty to Anderson. The season ended in disappointment for the Oilers as they were defeated in four games in a best of seven series. Anderson's team would cite the loss as a valuable lesson in their quest for their first Stanley Cup. The Oilers again repeated as division champions in 1983–84. Anderson set a career high in goals with 54 and he made his first All-Star Game appearance. In the playoffs, the Oilers made their second consecutive Finals appearance. Once again, Anderson and his team faced the Islanders who were now looking to become the second team in NHL history to win five consecutive Stanley Cups. This time though, the Oilers emerged victorious in five games. This marked the ending of the Islanders' dynasty and the beginning of the Oilers' dynasty. Anderson scored 17 points in the playoffs. At the beginning of the 1984–85 season, Anderson signed an eight-year contract with the Oilers. Anderson recorded 42 goals and 81 points and once more his team were the division champions. Anderson was also selected to play in the All-Star Game. For the third straight season, the Oilers reached the Finals. The Oilers defeated their opponent, the Philadelphia Flyers, in five games. Anderson set a career high in assists with 16 during the playoff run. The 1985–86 season saw Anderson score 54 goals, 48 assists, adding up to 102 points. This was the second time Anderson had reached the 50 goal plateau in his career and the third time he had reached the 100 point plateau. He was also selected to play in his third consecutive All-Star Game. For the fifth consecutive season, the Oilers sat atop the Smythe Division. However, the Oilers were eliminated in the division finals by the Calgary Flames on an own goal by defenceman Steve Smith. The loss did not seem to faze Anderson and his team, as they won their third Cup the next season by beating the Flyers once again, but this time in seven games. Anderson set career highs in goals (14), points (27) and PIM (59) during the playoff run. The Oilers failed to win the division title in 1987–88 for the first time since the 1981–82 season, as they finished runner-up to the Calgary Flames. Anderson scored 88 points during the season, and he was selected to play in the All-Star Game. In the midst of the 1988 playoffs, Anderson's friend, George Varvis, died after having a heart attack in Anderson's pool. His friend's death inspired his on-ice production. He scored 9 goals, and 16 assists for a total of 25 points to help the Oilers win their fourth Cup. His 16 assists tied a career high. After being eliminated from the playoffs, Anderson chose to play for Team Canada at the World Championships in Sweden. Looking to rebound after a disappointing season, Anderson and his team made a surprise appearance in the Finals. The Oilers defeated their opponents, the Boston Bruins, in five games to win their fifth Stanley Cup. Anderson scored 22 points and became one of only seven players to be a part of the entire Oilers dynasty. Wanting to rebuild the team with a younger core, the Oilers were involved in a blockbuster trade at the end of the 1991–92 season with the Toronto Maple Leafs that included seven players. Anderson, along with Grant Fuhr and Craig Berube, were sent to Toronto in exchange for Scott Thornton, Vincent Damphousse, Luke Richardson, Peter Ing and future considerations. During his time with the Oilers, Anderson scored 417 goals, 489 assists, and 906 points, ranking him third, fourth, and fourth most respectively in franchise history. His 183 playoff points are fourth all-time in franchise history and his 126 powerplay goals are the most in franchise history. ### Late career (1991–1997) Anderson spent two seasons and part of another with the Maple Leafs. He recorded consecutive 20-goal seasons, and he reached the career milestone of 1000 points with them. During the Maple Leafs playoff run in 1992–93, Anderson recorded 18 points in 21 games, including an overtime goal in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals against the Kings, which gave the Leafs a 3–2 series lead but turned out to be their last win of the season. In 1993–94, Anderson played 73 games with the Maple Leafs before being traded to the New York Rangers for Mike Gartner. In New York, Anderson was reunited with many of his former teammates from his days in Edmonton. The Rangers featured six former Oilers, including future Hall of Famer and Anderson's long-time friend and linemate Mark Messier. The Rangers qualified for the playoffs and were able to advance to the Finals. Matched up against the Vancouver Canucks, the Rangers defeated them in seven games. This was the Rangers' first Stanley Cup victory since 1940. After being held scoreless in the previous rounds, Anderson scored three playoff goals in the Finals, two of them being game-winners. This would be Anderson's sixth Stanley Cup victory. Due to the 1994–95 NHL lock-out, Anderson went to Europe to play hockey. He played with the Augsburger Panther of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in Germany and the Lukko Rauma of the SM-liiga in Finland, as well as the Canadian National Team. After the lock-out was resolved, Anderson signed as a free agent with the St. Louis Blues and played 42 regular season and playoff games combined. At the end of the season, Anderson did not re-sign with the Blues. After playing part of the next season with Augsburger and the National Team again, Anderson signed with the Canucks as a free agent. His reasons for joining the team were because of former Oiler teammate Esa Tikkanen already playing there, and a desire to finish his career in his hometown. However, Anderson never played for the Canucks as the Oilers picked him up on re-entry waivers. Anderson expressed his disappointment at these turn of events, as he wanted to play in Vancouver instead. He spent 17 games with the Oilers, before being put on waivers that same season. The Blues claimed him, and he spent his last days in the NHL with them. The 1996–97 season saw Anderson return to Europe and play with HC La Chaux-de-Fonds of the National League A in Switzerland and with Bolzano HC of the Alpenliga in Italy. ## International career Anderson was known to have a liking for participating in international competitions. His first test at the international stage was during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Canada finished sixth in the tournament while Anderson scored four points in six games. Later on, Anderson credited the practice he received in preparation for the Olympics as a key to his future success in the NHL. Anderson was chosen to participate in the 1984 Canada Cup. The roster included eight of Anderson's teammates from the Edmonton Oilers. Canada advanced to the finals and defeated Sweden 2–0 in a best of three series to win the Cup. Anderson scored five points during the tournament. The 1987 Canada Cup also saw Anderson participate. Once more, Canada reached the finals, but this time they were up against the Soviet Union. The finals required all three games as Canada defeated the Soviet Union. The first two games needed overtime and all three had a final score of 6–5. Anderson recorded three points during the tournament. In 1989, Anderson played at the Ice Hockey World Championships for the first time. With four points in six games, Anderson helped Canada win the silver medal, as the Soviets took home the gold. Three years later, Anderson made his second and final appearance at the World Ice Hockey Championships, this time in Czechoslovakia. Canada was eliminated by Finland in the quarterfinals by a score of 4–3. Anderson registered three points during the tournament. Wanting to participate in the Olympics again, Anderson did what he could to play at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. He negotiated a clause with his team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, to grant him the right to play for Team Canada. The league instituted a new policy, later stating, only players with less than one year of National Hockey League experience could join the Olympics and therefore Anderson was told on his way to Norway, he would not play in the NHL if he chose to play in the Olympics. He did not get in the plane. The league's decision caused an outrage in Canada. Canada won silver as they lost the gold medal game to Sweden. The following Olympics allowed pro players to join the games for their countries. ## Playing style Anderson was noted for his aggressive "to the net" playing style, typifying the NHL power forward in the early 1980s. He credits coach Clare Drake's drills during his time with the Olympic team for his love of driving the net. He also liked to stay behind the net and pass to his teammates in front of the goal for scoring chances. Noted as a "money" player, Anderson was able to elevate his game in high pressure situations. He scored five playoff overtime goals and 17 playoff game-winning goals, good for third and fifth all-time in NHL history. During the playoffs, Anderson accumulated 93 goals, 121 assists, and 214 points, the fourth, ninth, and fourth most in NHL history. In addition, his 72 regular season game-winning goals with the Oilers put him first all time in franchise history. Anderson was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November 10, 2008 in the players category. His jersey number 9 was retired on January 18, 2009, by the Oilers, before a game against the Phoenix Coyotes. The date for Anderson's number retirement was specifically selected because his former Oilers teammates, Wayne Gretzky and Grant Fuhr, were serving as the Coyotes' head coach and goaltending coach respectively at the time. Anderson resides in Manhattan, New York with his wife Susan, and their daughter, Autumn. He is retired, but teaches and runs fantasy camps, which give fans a chance to play hockey alongside him. Anderson also appears as a commentator and analyst for many programs as well as the New York Rangers. Anderson was a participant in season one of Battle of the Blades. Anderson and his partner, Isabelle Brasseur, were the second pair to be eliminated from the competition. For their efforts, Brasseur's charity, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and Anderson's charity, the Cross Cancer Institute, each received a \$12,500 donation. Anderson or “Andy” as his hockey team brothers call him, did not shave the toe pick down on the figure skates as most of the hockey players had done and he tripped on it trying to be authentic despite never having skated on figure skates. ## Career statistics ### Regular season and playoffs ### International 1996 Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland ## Awards BCJHL NHL
35,071,938	1991–92 Arsenal F.C. season	1,088,466,599	106th season in existence of Arsenal F.C.	[ "1991–92 Football League First Division by team", "Arsenal F.C. seasons" ]	The 1991–92 season was the 94th season of competitive football played by Arsenal. ## Season summary The club, managed by George Graham, entered the season as Football League First Division champions, with only one defeat in the previous campaign. In spite of scoring the most goals in the division, Arsenal ended the season in fourth position, ten points behind league champions Leeds United. The club exited the FA Cup after defeat by Fourth Division opponents Wrexham and fell at the same stage of the Football League Cup to fellow First Division club Coventry City. Arsenal represented England in the European Cup; the club was the first to do so since the ban on English teams from playing in European club competitions. Their time in the competition was brief however as Portuguese team Benfica eliminated them in the second round. Arsenal signed striker Ian Wright for a club record fee of £2.5 million in September 1991. Defender Pål Lydersen and midfielder Jimmy Carter later joined the club. Stuart Young moved to Hull City, whereas Michael Thomas joined Liverpool. After undertaking a series of friendlies, Arsenal played Tottenham Hotspur in the Charity Shield and drew 0–0 to share the honour. Defeats by Everton and Aston Villa set the tone for the league season as the team were left with much to do; a poor run of form during the Christmas and New Year period effectively ruled the team out of retaining the championship. Arsenal finished the season strongly however – unbeaten in 16 matches, to end the campaign in fourth place. Wright was Arsenal's top goalscorer with 26 goals. ## Background Arsenal's failure to retain the league championship in the 1989–90 season prompted manager George Graham to make changes to improve his side; he signed goalkeeper David Seaman and Swedish winger Anders Limpar in the close season. Arsenal made a good start to the league campaign, but had two points deducted in October 1990, after ten of their players were involved in a brawl with Manchester United players, in a match at Old Trafford. In December, captain Tony Adams was sentenced to four months' imprisonment for drink driving. Despite these setbacks, Arsenal lost only one league match all season (away to Chelsea) and finished on 83 points, seven ahead of runners-up Liverpool. They also reached the FA Cup semi-finals, where they faced Tottenham Hotspur. Midfielder Paul Gascoigne scored from a free kick after just five minutes and Tottenham went on to win 3–1, ending hopes of a second Double. Nevertheless, the impressive league form prompted Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson to comment that Arsenal had the platform to "do really well next season", particularly in Europe. It was the last season that Arsenal played in front of their famous North Bank terrace, which was being demolished over the summer of 1992 to make way for a new all-seater stand which was scheduled for completion during 1993, by which time Highbury was set to have an all-seater capacity of just under 40,000. These changes were necessary due to the Taylor Report, which required all clubs in the highest two divisions of English football to have an all-seater stadium by August 1994. ### Transfers Striker Ian Wright moved from Crystal Palace to Arsenal a month into the season; at £2.5 million he became the club's most expensive signing yet. Palace chairman Ron Noades revealed the club had offered the player a new deal, but "Ian was hankering for a move. He wanted to play in Europe and Arsenal was the club he wanted to join." Arsenal paid £500,000 each for midfielder Jimmy Carter and Pål Lydersen, a Norwegian defender. Graham and Lydersen were in attendance for Norway's international match against the Soviet Union in September 1991; he later agreed personal terms to join Arsenal. In December 1991, Michael Thomas left Arsenal and moved to Liverpool, the club he famously scored against to win the league title for Arsenal in 1989. In Out Loan out ## Pre-season and friendlies In preparation for the forthcoming season, Arsenal played a series of friendlies. The tour of Sweden was a success, with three wins in the space of a week. Arsenal then travelled back to England and beat Plymouth Argyle, before hosting Celtic, Panathinaikos and Sampdoria at Highbury. Arsenal ended their pre-season with a 3–1 victory against Watford, who staged their centenary match. Three further friendlies were played in 1992, one of which was a testimonial for Barry Fry, the manager of Barnet. Colour key: Green = Arsenal win; Yellow = draw; Red = opponents win. Arsenal score ordered first. Source: ## FA Charity Shield As league champions, Arsenal contested the 1991 FA Charity Shield against local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, who had beaten Nottingham Forest to win the 1991 FA Cup Final. Anders Limpar was absent for Arsenal, as he had sustained a knee injury while on duty for Sweden. David O'Leary started in place of the injured Steve Bould and midfielder David Hillier was picked ahead of Michael Thomas in midfield. In spite of dominating territorial advantage, Arsenal were held to a 0–0 draw, meaning each team held the trophy for six months. Graham commentated that Arsenal played below their usual standard and accepted that his team needed to work on their finishing, in order to make use of their possession. ## Football League First Division A total of 22 teams competed in the First Division in the 1991–92 season. Each team played 42 matches; two against every other team and one match at each club's stadium. Three points were awarded for each win, one point per draw, and none for defeats. This was Arsenal's final season in the Football League; in 1992 they and 21 other clubs joined the newly formed Premier League, which became the top division of English football from the 1992–93 season onwards. ### August–October Arsenal started their defence of the league championship at home to Queens Park Rangers on 17 August 1991. It was the visitors who had led the match right from the 15th minute, but for Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson to earn his side a point after equalising well into stoppage time. The draw according to The Independent showcased the need for reinforcements: "... not just to improve the squad, but also to cause a buzz in the dressing room". Arsenal were beaten 3–1 by Everton at Goodison Park three days after and lost to Aston Villa by the same scoreline. Graham dismissed any talk of crisis, saying "I have been in football too long to think it is going to be nice and comfortable every season" and felt the performance at Villa showed signs of improvement compared to the earlier league fixtures. A 2–0 win at home to Luton Town was followed by victory against Manchester City, where Alan Smith and Limpar scored a goal apiece. September began with a trip to Elland Road to face Leeds United. Arsenal's two-goal lead was overturned by the opposition, who secured a draw after Lee Chapman equalised in injury time. Had this been the winning goal, "it would have been a gross injustice for Arsenal" opined John Roberts of The Independent. Lee Dixon scored an "amazing" own goal against Coventry City on 7 September 1991, which set Arsenal on their way to their third defeat of the season. The team responded by defeating Crystal Palace 4–1; Kevin Campbell scored his first two goals of the league season. Arsenal scored four first half goals against Sheffield United on 21 September 1991 – the game ended 5–2, which moved them into seventh position – three places up from the previous weekend. By the time Campbell scored Arsenal's fourth "... the North Bank was entitled to sound the ironic chant, 'Boring, boring, Arsenal'," said reporter Jasper Rees. Wright scored three league goals for Arsenal on his league debut, away to Southampton. Arsenal defeated Chelsea at home in the first weekend of October. The team found themselves two goals down after 20 minutes, but a converted Dixon penalty and goals from Wright and Campbell turned the score around in their favour. Arsenal came away from Old Trafford with a point against league leaders Manchester United on 19 October 1991. After a midweek European football match, Arsenal beat Notts County by two goals, a result which moved them fourth in the table. ### November–February The visit of West Ham United to Highbury produced a 1–0 defeat for Arsenal; the winning goal scored by Mike Small came in the 76th minute. Arsenal's conserved performance was attributed to their upcoming European Cup match, something Graham categorically denied: "I'm not even thinking about next Wednesday." Arsenal drew away to Oldham Athletic and then Sheffield Wednesday, extending a winless run of five games in all competitions. The team beat Tottenham on 1 December 1991 to go fourth in the league table, 10 points behind the leaders. Arsenal's aspiration to defend the league title suffered to Nottingham Forest; though the team scored twice in the second half they were unable to overturn the home side's three-goal lead and collected no points. David Hillier opined that his team "should have done better in the first half – that's when we really lost it." Wright scored all of Arsenal's four goals against Everton, but scored none in the team's Boxing Day defeat by Luton Town. Graham called it Arsenal's worst performance of the season and was critical of his players' attitude. Although the team's concentration and effort improved according to Peter Ball of The Times in their next game – away to Manchester City, Arsenal lost for the second consecutive league match. They ended the calendar year in seventh position, 16 points behind the leaders Manchester United. January saw Arsenal's title challenge falter; the team went on a four-match winless run. At home, they only merited draws to Wimbledon, Aston Villa and QPR – the latter two were scoreless. Arsenal were beaten 2–0 by Liverpool on 29 January 1992; journalist Derek Hodgson said this was in spite of playing "crisper" and more confident football. A draw against Manchester United on 1 February 1992 came before a win away to Notts County. A crowd of 22,352 witnessed Arsenal draw once more at home, this time against Norwich City. Rockets were launched on the pitch during the match by Arsenal supporters, in protest of the club's bond scheme. Arsenal recorded their biggest win of the season, scoring seven past Sheffield Wednesday, on 15 February 1992. Campbell, who began the match as a substitute, came on and scored two goals; six of Arsenal's goals came in the second half. Arsenal ended February with a 1–1 draw away to Tottenham. After 30 games, the team were in sixth position, 18 points behind Manchester United in first. ### March–May After a fortnight of inactivity in all competitions Arsenal faced Oldham Athletic at Highbury. The team won 2–1 on a day where O'Leary registered his 700th league appearance. Wright scored both of Arsenal's goals against West Ham on 14 March 1992, which inflicted a fifth consecutive league defeat on his opponents. Merson's late equaliser against Leeds United the following week earned Arsenal a point. Against Wimbledon Ray Parlour scored inside the first minute, which set Arsenal on to a 3–1 victory. The third win in four league matches moved Arsenal to fifth position and left journalist Ball to opine: "How the champions must be regretting earlier inconsistency." March ended with a "highly entertaining game" so said match reporter Dennis Signy between Arsenal and Nottingham Forest at Highbury. Arsenal took the lead after five minutes when Dixon converted a penalty kick – it was awarded after Ian Woan was adjudged to have fouled Limpar in the 18-yard box. Forest equalised in the 41st minute, and made it 2–1 moments before the interval. They extend their lead through Roy Keane in the 71st minute, but Arsenal scored twice in the final five minutes to draw. A 1–0 victory against Coventry City meant Arsenal were five points behind Sheffield Wednesday, who lay in third spot. Arsenal continued their strong finish to the season by scoring seven goals in the space of three days – three away to Norwich City and four at home to Crystal Palace. The team, without the suspended Wright for the trip to Sheffield United came away from Bramall Lane with a point. Arsenal beat Liverpool 4–0 on 21 April 1992, which marked the opposition's biggest defeat in nine years. A draw at Chelsea ended Arsenal's chances of finishing in a UEFA Cup place. Arsenal ended the league campaign with a 5–1 win against Southampton at home. Wright overtook Tottenham striker Gary Lineker as the league's top goalscorer by scoring three on the day which took his total to 29 (24 of those scored for Arsenal) – one more than Lineker. ### Results Colour key: Green = Arsenal win; Yellow = draw; Red = opponents win. Arsenal score ordered first. ### Classification #### Results summary #### League position ## FA Cup Arsenal entered the FA Cup in the third round (last 64), in which they were drawn to face Wrexham of the Football League Fourth Division away from home. Smith's goal had given Arsenal the lead just before half time, but Wrexham equalised through a Mickey Thomas free kick with eight minutes of the match remaining. Steve Watkin scored the winning goal two minutes after, once Adams failed to clear the ball in the penalty box. The cup exit did not prompt Graham to criticise his players; he bluntly said: "I thought they played very well. We just didn't finish them off." The result was described by BBC Sport in 2011 as "one of the greatest FA Cup giant-killings of all time". Colour key: Green = Arsenal win; Yellow = draw; Red = opponents win. Arsenal score ordered first. ## Football League Cup Arsenal entered the Football League Cup in the second round, where they were drawn against Leicester City in a two-legged tie. The first match ended 1–1; Wright scored 44 minutes into his debut. Wright and Merson each scored for Arsenal in the second leg which ensured progress into the third round. It was there the team exited the competition following a 1–0 defeat, away to Coventry City. Colour key: Green = Arsenal win; Yellow = draw; Red = opponents win. Arsenal score ordered first. ## European Cup As league champions, Arsenal participated in the European Cup, where they were drawn to face Austria Wien in the first round. This marked the first time that England was represented in Europe's premier competition since the Heysel disaster in 1985. In the first leg, Arsenal were awarded a penalty after 24 minutes, which Dixon missed. Linighan opened the scoring seven minutes before the interval, when goalkeeper Iliya Valov failed to deal with a cross. Smith then scored four goals for the team in the space of 16 minutes – "The England striker responded resoundingly to Graham Taylor's criticism of his ineffective performance against Germany a week earlier," said The Guardian correspondent David Lacey. Andreas Ogris reduced Arsenal's lead, before Limpar added a sixth, taking the ball on unchallenged and shooting from a narrow angle. Arsenal lost the second leg 1–0 at the Franz Horr Stadium on 2 October 1991, but progressed as they won 6–2 on aggregate. In spite of earning a draw against Benfica away from home the following round, first leg, Arsenal were eliminated from the tournament, in extra time at home on 6 November 1991. Graham offered no complaints in witnessing his side going out, by saying: "Benfica played very well once we went 1–0 up. Their attack was superb. We could have done with more anticipation in the box." Colour key: Green = Arsenal win; Yellow = draw; Red = opponents win. Arsenal score ordered first. ## Squad statistics Arsenal used a total of 24 players during the 1991–92 season and there were 16 different goalscorers. There were also two squad members who did not make a first-team appearance in the campaign. Merson featured in 50 matches – the most of any Arsenal outfield player in the campaign. Seaman started in all 42 league matches. The team scored a total of 92 goals in all competitions. The top goalscorer was Wright, with 26 goals – 24 of which were scored in the league. Key No. = Squad number Pos = Playing position Nat. = Nationality Apps = Appearances GK = Goalkeeper DF = Defender MF = Midfielder FW = Forward Numbers in parentheses denote appearances as substitute. Players with name struck through and marked left the club during the playing season. Source: ## See also - 1991–92 in English football - List of Arsenal F.C. seasons
27,369,301	Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall/Chambers Street station	1,173,417,674	New York City Subway station complex in Manhattan	[ "1904 establishments in New York City", "1913 establishments in New York City", "BMT Nassau Street Line stations", "Beaux-Arts architecture in New York City", "Brooklyn Bridge", "Civic Center, Manhattan", "IRT Lexington Avenue Line stations", "New York City Subway stations in Manhattan", "New York City Subway terminals", "New York City Subway transfer stations", "Railway and subway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan", "Railway stations in the United States opened in 1904", "Railway stations in the United States opened in 1913" ]	The Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall/Chambers Street station is a New York City Subway station complex in Lower Manhattan. The complex is served by trains of the IRT Lexington Avenue Line and the BMT Nassau Street Line. The station is served by the 4, 6, and J trains at all times; the 5 train at all times except late nights; the train during weekdays in the peak direction; and the Z train during rush hours in the peak direction. The complex comprises two stations, Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall and Chambers Street. The Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall station was built for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), and was an express station on the city's first subway line. The station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway. The Chambers Street station was built for the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (later the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, or BMT) as part of the Dual Contracts. The Nassau Street Line station opened on August 4, 1913. Over the years, several modifications have been made to both stations, which were connected within a single fare control area in 1948. The Lexington Avenue Line's Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall station, under Centre Street, has two island platforms, two side platforms, and four tracks; the side platforms are not in use. The Nassau Street Line's Chambers Street station, under the Manhattan Municipal Building, has three island platforms, one side platform, and four tracks; only the outer tracks and two of the island platforms are in use. The complex contains elevators that make it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. ## History The two adjacent stations on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line and BMT Nassau Street Line are connected by two passageways. The south one opened in 1914 and was placed inside fare control on July 1, 1948. A second passageway, at the north end of the stations, was opened in the evening of September 1, 1962, when the Lexington Avenue Line platforms were extended and the Worth Street station was closed. Originally, the stations were operated by separate companies: the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). The city government took over the BMT's operations on June 1, 1940, and the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. Both sections of the station complex were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. ### IRT Lexington Avenue Line #### Construction and opening Planning for a subway line in New York City dates to 1864. However, development of what would become the city's first subway line did not start until 1894, when the New York State Legislature passed the Rapid Transit Act. The subway plans were drawn up by a team of engineers led by William Barclay Parsons, the Rapid Transit Commission's chief engineer. It called for a subway line from New York City Hall in Lower Manhattan to the Upper West Side, where two branches would lead north into the Bronx. A plan was formally adopted in 1897, and all legal conflicts concerning the route alignment were resolved near the end of 1899. The Rapid Transit Construction Company, organized by John B. McDonald and funded by August Belmont Jr., signed the initial Contract 1 with the Rapid Transit Commission in February 1900, in which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line. In 1901, the firm of Heins & LaFarge was hired to design the underground stations. Belmont incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in April 1902 to operate the subway. The Brooklyn Bridge station was constructed as part of the IRT's original line south of Great Jones Street. The Degnon-McLean Contracting Company was awarded the contract for Section 1, from the City Hall loop to Chambers Street, and the contract for Section 2, from Chambers Street to Great Jones Street. Work began on Section 1 on March 24, 1900, and work began on Section 2 on July 10, 1900. Initially, Parsons was unsure whether to connect the new subway to the existing Brooklyn Bridge, the under-construction Manhattan Bridge, or the newly-completed Williamsburg Bridge. As such, no plans had been drawn up for the eastern portion of the Brooklyn Bridge station or its approaches by early 1903, which caused delays in ordering steel. By late 1903, the subway was nearly complete, but the IRT Powerhouse and the system's electrical substations were still under construction, delaying the system's opening. In addition, the Brooklyn Bridge station itself remained unfinished as late as February 1904. The Brooklyn Bridge station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway from City Hall to 145th Street on the West Side Branch. The station's first-ever passenger was described by Newsday as an "anonymous middle-aged Brooklyn woman who picked up her skirt and raced down the rubber-covered stairs three at a time to beat out the rest of the crowd". Express trains were extended south on January 16, 1905, when a 0.3-mile (0.48 km)-long extension to Fulton Street opened. #### 1900s to 1920s The station was originally placed on a sharp curve, requiring the installation of platform gap fillers. Initially, the Brooklyn Bridge station was served by local and express trains along both the West Side (now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line to Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street) and East Side (now the Lenox Avenue Line). West Side local trains had their southern terminus at City Hall during rush hours and South Ferry at other times, and had their northern terminus at 242nd Street. East Side local trains ran from City Hall to Lenox Avenue (145th Street). Express trains had their southern terminus at South Ferry or Atlantic Avenue and had their northern terminus at 242nd Street, Lenox Avenue (145th Street), or West Farms (180th Street). Express trains to 145th Street were later eliminated, and West Farms express trains and rush-hour Broadway express trains operated through to Brooklyn. One of the station's entrances was closed in 1905 because the Rapid Transit Commission had not authorized the entrance's construction. As part of an experiment to improve the subway line's ventilation, the commission installed ventilation fans at the station in June 1905. Two large cooling fans were installed at the station the next month; this was later increased to four fans. The Rapid Transit Commission added a refrigeration plant to the station in August 1906. The plant consisted of four pumps at the northern end of the station, which could draw up to 300 or 400 U.S. gallons per minute (19 or 25 L/s) of groundwater; the water was then chilled and sent through ducts above the platforms. To address overcrowding, in 1909, the New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway. As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains. In addition to \$1.5 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) spent on platform lengthening, \$500,000 (equivalent to \$ million in ) was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent. At the Brooklyn Bridge station, the northbound island platform was extended 15 feet (4.6 m) north and 135 feet (41 m) south, while the southbound island platform was extended 165 feet (50 m) south, necessitating the relocation of some tracks. Six-car local trains began operating in October 1910. On January 23, 1911, ten-car express trains began running on the Lenox Avenue Line, and the following day, ten-car express trains were inaugurated on the West Side Line. By 1914, city engineers had prepared plans for the construction of five additional entrances to the Brooklyn Bridge station: three to the street and two to nearby buildings. At that point, nearly two-fifths of commuters entered the station through a single entrance below the bridge. In 1918, the Lexington Avenue Line opened north of Grand Central–42nd Street, and the original line was divided into an "H"-shaped system. All trains were sent via the Lexington Avenue Line. In 1922, the Rapid Transit Commission awarded a contract to the Wagner Engineering Company for the installation of navigational signs at the Brooklyn Bridge station and several other major subway stations. The IRT platforms received blue-and-white signs. #### 1930s to 1960s The Transit Commission requested in 1938 that the IRT spend \$70,000 () to add platform gap fillers to the northbound platform; the absence of gap fillers had resulted in passenger injuries 26 times in the preceding two years. The same year, as part of a remodeling of City Hall Park, city parks commissioner Robert Moses proposed removing two of the station's exit stairways and relocating two entrance stairs. With the closure of the City Hall station at the end of 1945, the Brooklyn Bridge station became the southernmost station for local services that formerly terminated at City Hall. As part of a reconstruction of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1951, the city planned to build a subway entrance just south of the bridge approach. The New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) also announced plans in 1956 to add fluorescent lights above the edges of the station's platforms. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the NYCTA undertook a \$138 million (equivalent to \$ in ) modernization project for the Lexington Avenue Line. As part of the modernization program, the NYCTA announced in early 1957 that the Brooklyn Bridge station would be extended about 250 feet (76 m) to the north and that the platforms would be widened and straightened to remove the need for gap fillers. At the time, the island platforms narrowed at their northern ends to 5 feet (1.5 m), while the local side platforms could only accommodate four cars, resulting in delays. In addition, the express platforms could not accommodate 10-car trains because of the gap fillers at the southern end of the station. Since the northern end of the expanded station would be only about 600 feet (180 m) from the Worth Street station, the latter station was to be closed. The NYCTA allocated \$6 million to the station's renovation in January 1959. Harold Sandifer of the NYCTA designed the renovation in conjunction with the planned redevelopment of the Civic Center neighborhood. Work started on May 18, 1959. The project lengthened the platforms from 295 feet (90 m) to 523 feet (159 m) and widened them. The platforms were extended northward by 220 feet (67 m) to just south of Reade Street. In addition, a new exit was provided at Reade Street and Lafayette Street, and a new passageway under Reade Street was built connecting to the Chambers Street station on the BMT Nassau Street Line. At the center of the enlarged platforms, a new overpass was built, providing more direct access to the Municipal Building. The tile walls on the unused eastern side platform were completed in December 1959, and a signal tower, maintainers' rooms, relay rooms, and tile walls on the unused western side platform were completed in May 1960. A temporary transfer passageway to the Chambers Street station opened in June 1961, while the old passageway was being demolished. The downtown platform's extension opened in 1961, and the uptown platform's extension opened on August 31, 1962. The overpass and the permanent passageway to the Chambers Street station opened in June 1963, and the platform extension project was substantially completed by the end of 1963. The old platform extensions at the southern end of the station, which were used for express service and had gap fillers, were abandoned. The project cost \$6 million; it allowed trains on the 6 route to be lengthened to nine cars, and allowed ten-car express trains to open all doors at the station (previously, only the doors of eight cars had opened). Upon the completion of the renovation, the Brooklyn Bridge station was renamed Brooklyn Bridge–Worth Street. #### 1970s to present The American Society of Mechanical Engineers and American Society of Civil Engineers dedicated a plaque at the Brooklyn Bridge station in 1978, recognizing the original IRT line as "the first fully electrically signaled railroad in the United States and the first practical subway in New York City". This plaque was removed before 2005. The MTA announced in late 1978 that it would modernize the Brooklyn Bridge station. The improvements included new finishes on the walls and floors; acoustical, signage, and lighting improvements; replacement of old mechanical equipment; and new handrails. In 1983, the MTA added funding for a renovation of the Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall station to its 1980–1984 capital plan. In addition, to speed up passenger flow, dozens of platform conductors were assigned to direct crowds on the Lexington Avenue Line platforms during the late 1980s. In April 1993, the New York State Legislature agreed to give the MTA \$9.6 billion for capital improvements. Some of the funds would be used to renovate nearly one hundred New York City Subway stations, including Brooklyn Bridge. Three elevators opened in 1992, making the station compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). The elevators cost \$3.4 million (equivalent to \$ million in ) and connected the mezzanine to the street and to each platform. The station was renamed Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall by the mid-1990s. The renovation was completed in 1996; the station was one of thirteen citywide whose renovations were completed that year at a total cost of \$127 million (equivalent to \$ million in ). ### BMT Nassau Street Line #### Construction and opening After the original IRT opened, the city began planning new lines. The Centre Street Loop (later the Nassau Street Line) was approved on January 25, 1907, as a four-track line; it was to connect the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and Williamsburg Bridge via Centre Street, Canal Street, and Delancey Street. Unlike previous subway contracts that the city government had issued, the BRT was responsible only for constructing the Centre Street Loop and installing equipment, not for operating the loop. Construction contracts for the Nassau Street Line were awarded in early 1907. A proposed Tri-borough system was adopted in early 1908, incorporating the Nassau Street Line. Operation of the line was assigned to the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT; after 1923, the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation or BMT) in the Dual Contracts, adopted on March 4, 1913. The Chambers Street station was built as part of contract 9-O-1, which cost \$1.226 million (). It was to sit under the Manhattan Municipal Building, a large office structure being planned for the city government. One of the conditions of an architectural design competition for the Municipal Building was that its foundation could not block train tracks, stairways, or platforms. As such, the caissons in the building's foundation were positioned to avoid the station's platforms. Although McKim, Mead & White were selected for the building's construction, their original plans were rejected by the city's buildings superintendent because he felt that the underlying layer of soil and sand was not strong enough to carry the building. Uncertainty over the building's design resulted in delays in the construction of the proposed Brooklyn loop station underneath it, even as the rest of the line was nearly completed by early 1909. Furthermore, the BRT did not originally want to operate the loop. The Public Service Commission proposed in February 1909 to expand the station to six tracks, which would allow the station to serve a proposed subway under Third Avenue, in addition to the Williamsburg Bridge and Manhattan Bridge lines. The commission estimated that the change would cost \$600,000, not including land-acquisition costs of \$1.055 million. The New York City Board of Estimate approved \$875,000 for the station's widening that July, excluding funds for land acquisition. By April 1910, the Public Service Commission sought to downsize the station to four tracks, as it would have been not only very difficult but also extremely expensive to modify the Municipal Building's foundation to accommodate the expanded station. Ultimately, the BRT's Chambers Street station was built with five platforms and four tracks. The BRT tunnel under Centre Street was completed by 1910, except for the section under the Municipal Building, but the tunnel remained unused for several years. In March 1913, the Public Service Commission authorized the BRT to lay tracks, install signals, and operate the loop. The Bradley Construction Company was hired to install station finishes; by June 1913, the firm had completed the installation of tile and marble, and it was working on plastering. The BRT's Chambers Street station opened on August 4, 1913, relieving traffic on elevated lines that had used the Brooklyn Bridge. Originally, trains arrived from the north via either the Williamsburg Bridge or the Manhattan Bridge, as the connection to the Montague Street Tunnel had not yet been completed. The loop configuration permitted trains arriving in either direction from the Fourth Avenue Line in Brooklyn to pass through Chambers Street and return to Fourth Avenue without having to reverse direction. Chambers Street was designed to be the BRT's Manhattan hub near City Hall, as the business and population center of the city was still near Manhattan island's southern end at the time. Initially, trains only used the western two tracks of the Centre Street tunnel, and the station was not served by Manhattan Bridge trains. The station remained incomplete for more than a year after it had opened, and workers temporarily suspended construction at the station from November 1913 to March 1914. The remaining work, which included installation of staircases and completion of ceilings, was completed on September 14, 1914. #### 1920s to 1950s A track connection between the Brooklyn Bridge's elevated-railroad tracks and the Centre Street tunnel was planned in the station's design. The BRT had agreed to build the loops in September 1913, and, according to a 1916 report, the connection had been completed for just over \$740,000 (). However, the connection was never opened because the BRT did not want to pay the annual rental fee that was mandated for the usage of the connection. The overpass across William Street was closed in 1913 to make way for the proposed connection. In 1929, the overpass was reopened after it became clear that the connection would not be built. The finished portions of the tunnel to the Brooklyn Bridge led directly to wine vaults under the bridge. The masonry and steel ramp connecting to the Brooklyn Bridge was demolished in the early 1950s when the bridge's elevated tracks were removed. Three years after the Chambers Street station opened, its platforms were so overcrowded that one New York Times article described them as "more dangerous during the rush hours than at the Grand Central or the Fourteenth Street Stations", in part because more space was devoted to stairways than to platforms. In 1921, the BRT added a first-aid room at the northern end of the Chambers Street station's center island platform; at the time, the IRT's Brooklyn Bridge station also had a first-aid room. The next year, the Wagner Engineering Company installed red-white-and-green navigational signs at the BMT station, in conjunction with the addition of navigational signs to the IRT station. The station's platforms originally could only fit six 67-foot-long (20 m) cars. In April 1926, the New York City Board of Transportation (BOT) received bids for the lengthening of platforms at three stations on the Centre Street Loop, including the Chambers Street station, to accommodate eight-car trains. The Board of Estimate approved funds for the project in July 1926, and the extensions were completed in 1927, bringing the length of the platforms to 535 feet (163 m). By the mid-1920s, the subway itself was pushing the city's population north and leaving Chambers Street behind. Nonetheless, the city government agreed in 1927 to extend the Nassau Street Line from the Chambers Street station south to the Montague Street Tunnel to Brooklyn, as was required under the Dual Contracts. The extension would permit trains from southern Brooklyn to loop through Lower Manhattan without reversing direction (a service pattern known as the Nassau Street Loop), rather than using the Manhattan Bridge and terminating at Chambers Street. The line was completed in 1931, and the Chambers Street station became a through station. At this point, the BMT's center island platform and the two side platforms were closed. A new northern mezzanine was built in 1938 when the entrances under the north side of the Municipal Building were closed. This mezzanine was built by the Cayuga Construction Company. #### 1960s to present The western side platform was demolished with the expansion of the IRT station between 1960 and 1962. The Chrystie Street Connection, opened in 1967, severed the Nassau Street Line's connection to the Manhattan Bridge, so that the bridge tracks could connect instead to the uptown IND Sixth Avenue Line. The new connection preserved Nassau Street service via the Montague Street Tunnel, but trains were no longer able to run in a loop. In 1990, all weekend service on the Nassau Street Line was eliminated south of Chambers Street; this continued until 2015. By 2000, the MTA had announced plans to make the Chambers Street station ADA-accessible. The agency had been required in 1994 to create a list of 100 "key stations" that it planned to make ADA-accessible, and the Chambers Street station was one of the last "key stations" to be selected. The Chambers Street station, having fallen into disuse over the years, was voted the ugliest station in the system in a 2003 poll of railfans. The station's token booths were shuttered in May 2005, after fare tokens were replaced with MetroCards; station agents were deployed elsewhere in the station to answer passengers' queries. This was part of a pilot program that was tested at seven other stations. The MTA announced in May 2018 that it would start renovating the Chambers Street station that August. At the time, local news station NY1 said: "It is easily one of the most decrepit stations in the city's entire system", and a writer for The Village Voice said that the station "was the undisputed poster station of the system’s decay". A contract for the elevators' construction was awarded in August 2018. The station received two elevators to the platforms, as well as three new ramps in the mezzanine: one in the corridor between the IRT and BMT stations, and one from the BMT mezzanine to each platform elevators. The station platforms were modified to reduce the gap between trains and the platform edges, and a pedestrian bridge was installed above the tracks, connecting both of the open platforms. To accommodate the ramps, elevators, and pedestrian bridge, portions of the station and mezzanine were removed or reconfigured. These improvements made the station compliant with the ADA, and were funded as part of the 2015–2019 MTA Capital Program. The project was to take at least 24 months to be completed. The elevators had opened by September 1, 2020. ## Station layout The IRT and BMT platforms both run in a north–south direction, with the BMT platforms to the east of the IRT platforms. Just below street level, there are two overpasses above the IRT platforms, one at the center of the station and another near the south end. There is also an underpass at the extreme north end of the station. The underpass and northern overpass date from the 1962 renovation while the southern overpass is part of the original circulation plan. The overpasses connect each platform with the exits and the BMT's southern mezzanine, and contain wrought iron balustrades. A pedestrian corridor runs above the eastern side of the IRT station. The BMT mezzanine level, slightly lower than the IRT mezzanine level, is split into north and south sections, with various offices and service rooms in the unused portions of both mezzanines. The connection to the IRT is within the southern mezzanine. The mezzanines contain tiled piers and walls, with pink wainscoting. Along the tops of the walls are yellow mosaic-tile bands with white-and-red surrounds and blue rectangular panels. The north mezzanine has a section of rectangular yellow tiled wall dating to the 1962 renovation. There is a doorway in the south mezzanine, topped by a stone lintel reading "Women", which formerly led to a women's restroom. ### Exits At the north end of the complex, two stairs extend from the IRT underpass to the northwestern corner of Reade and Centre Streets. The IRT underpass continues to the northern BMT mezzanine, where a stair rises to the southern end of Foley Square. At the center of the complex, a wide stair under the southern side of the Manhattan Municipal Building, just southeast of the intersection of Centre and Chambers Streets, serves the southern BMT mezzanine, and was one of the original BMT entrances. The wide stair has a bronze latticed balustrade, as well as plaques with the words svbway entrance. This stair measures 64 feet (20 m) wide and, at the time of the BMT station's construction, could accommodate 1,280 passengers per minute. Two stairs and an elevator rise from the western side of the IRT mezzanine to City Hall Park, just southwest of the intersection of Centre and Chambers Streets, in front of the Tweed Courthouse. The stairs are part of the IRT station's original entrance. The elevator, a replica of an original IRT subway entrance kiosk, opened in 1992 and was designed by Urbahn Associates. A long passageway at the eastern side of the IRT mezzanine leads to a stair within a plaza just south of the Manhattan Municipal Building. This exit is smaller and faces the large BMT entrance under the building. At the far south end, two stairs rise to the south side of Frankfort Street, in front of Pace University's One Pace Plaza building. Several entrances have been closed and slabbed over. One stair from the IRT mezzanine led directly to the Brooklyn Bridge walkway, and was removed by August 2000 as part of a project to widen the bridge walkway. Another stair rose from the northern BMT mezzanine to the northwestern corner of Centre Street and Duane Street (east of the current Foley Square entrance), though this was also sealed by 1992 to reduce the maintenance costs associated with maintaining two adjacent staircases. The northern BMT mezzanine contained bronze doors on the east wall, now sealed, which led to the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse. Under the northern side of the Manhattan Municipal Building were additional subway staircases, although this entrance area was closed by 1938. The largest staircase under the Municipal Building's northern section was 43 feet (13 m) wide and could originally accommodate 800 passengers per minute. ## BMT Nassau Street Line platforms The Chambers Street station on the BMT Nassau Street Line is beneath the Manhattan Municipal Building, stretching from Duane Street in the north to a point just south of Chambers Street to the south. The J stops here at all times and the Z stops here during rush hours in the peak direction. The station is between Canal Street to the north and Fulton Street to the south. The Chambers Street station has four tracks, three island platforms, and one side platform (originally two); the westernmost side platform has been demolished, while the center island platform and the easternmost side platform are unused. Terminating trains use the inner tracks while through trains use the outer tracks. From the BMT station, there are stairs and elevators leading to the mezzanines above. The easternmost side platform had seven stairs, while the center island platform and the westernmost side platform had six stairs. The eastern island platform has five stairs and the western island platform has four stairs. The elevators are at the southern ends of the western and eastern island platforms. The station is approximately 537 feet (164 m) long and 120 feet (37 m) wide. Both of the platforms in revenue service are 23 feet (7.0 m) wide; the northbound platform is 534 feet (163 m) long, while the southbound platform is 520 feet (160 m) long. The southbound platform is slightly higher at the southern end of the station because, south of the station, the line becomes a bi-level tunnel with the southbound track stacked above the northbound one. ### Design Like the IRT station, the tunnel is covered by a "U"-shaped trough that contains utility pipes and wires. The bottom of this trough contains a foundation of concrete no less than 4 inches (100 mm) thick. Each platform consists of 3-inch-thick (76 mm) concrete slabs, beneath which are drainage basins. The platforms contain double-height, tile-clad columns spaced every 15 feet (4.6 m), which support the jack-arched concrete station roofs. There is a 1-inch (25 mm) gap between the trough wall and the platform walls, which are made of 4-inch (100 mm)-thick brick covered over by a tiled finish. The ceiling is double-height above much of the station's length, but drops beneath the south mezzanine and the original north mezzanine. The westernmost side platform was tiled over during the 1962 renovation; it contains yellow tiles and a cream trim line with chambers st written on it in black sans-serif font at regular intervals. The easternmost side platform retains most of its original decoration, with pink marble wainscoting, as well as pink marble pilasters spaced every 15 feet (4.6 m). Between the pilasters and above the wainscoting are panels made of white tile, with gold-tiled borders. A maroon, blue, and gold tile frieze runs atop each panel, interrupted by T-shaped ceramic plaques with depictions of the Brooklyn Bridge, which are situated atop each pilaster. The Brooklyn Bridge ceramic tiles display the bridge's vertical cables but do not depict its diagonal cables. At intervals of every three panels, there are tile plaques with the station's name in place of the frieze. Sections of the original design, including the ceiling and walls, are heavily damaged or deteriorated. ### Track layout The two "express" tracks, currently unused in regular revenue service, merge into a single tail track south of the station. The tail track is 620 feet (190 m) long from the switch points to the bumper block, where an emergency exit is available. Before the extension to Broad Street opened, the two westernmost (now southbound) tracks ramped up to just before the portal from the Brooklyn Bridge, ending at a wooden gate. These tracks did not have any third rails and were never used. North of this station, there are numerous switches connecting all four tracks. The easternmost two tracks are stubs that end behind the now-closed Queens-bound side platform. These tracks were formerly connected to the south tracks of the Manhattan Bridge, until they were disconnected in 1967 as part of the Chrystie Street Connection, with the BMT Broadway Line being connected to the south tracks instead. Also north of this station, the former southbound express track (now the northbound track) splits into two tracks just south of Canal Street: the former northbound local track, and the former southbound express track (the current northbound track). ## IRT Lexington Avenue Line platforms The Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall station is an express station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, beneath Centre Street. It stretches between a point just south of Duane Street, to the north, and Park Row, to the south. The 4 and 6 trains stop here at all times; the 5 train stops here at all times except late nights; and the \<6\> train stops here during weekdays in the peak direction. The 5 train always makes express stops, and the 6 and \<6\> trains always make local stops; the 4 train makes express stops during the day and local stops at night. The next station to the north is Canal Street for local trains and 14th Street–Union Square for express trains. The next station to the south for trains is Fulton Street. The station is the southern terminus for trains, which turn via the City Hall Loop to head back uptown. When the subway opened, the next local stop to the north was Worth Street, and the next local stop to the south was City Hall; both of these stations were closed in the mid-20th century. The Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall station contains four tracks, two island platforms, and two unused side platforms. From each island platform, one elevator and one stair lead to the station's southern overpass, two stairs lead to the northern overpass, and one stair leads to the north-end underpass. The island platforms allow for cross-platform interchanges between local and express trains heading in the same direction. Terminating trains use the outer tracks while through trains use the inner tracks. The station is approximately 537 feet (164 m) long and 85 feet (26 m) wide. The island platforms were originally 295 feet (90 m) long but were lengthened to about 523 feet (159 m) during the 1962 renovation. The northbound platform ranges from 18 to 21 feet (5.5 to 6.4 m) wide, while the southbound platform ranges from 16 to 20 feet (4.9 to 6.1 m) wide. Platform extensions are at both ends of the original platforms. The ones at the south end are closed off, but contain gap fillers and original mosaic tiles. The 1962 platform extensions are at the north end; it was deemed easier to lengthen the express platform northward, as the curves at the south end were extremely difficult to reconstruct. There are two unused side platforms, one beside either local track. A combination of island and side platforms was also used at 14th Street–Union Square on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line and 96th Street on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. These side platforms were built to accommodate extra passenger volume and were built to the five-car length of the original IRT local trains. When trains were lengthened, the side platforms were deemed obsolete, and they were closed and walled off in 1962. The side platforms house electrical equipment and are blocked off with metal grates. A staircase from the western side of the mezzanine leads to the original western side platform. A sliding grate was installed on the bottom of the deck leading to the eastern side platform, which was used to prevent access to that platform when it was not in service. ### Design As with other stations built as part of the original IRT, the station was constructed using a cut-and-cover method. The tunnel is covered by a "U"-shaped trough that contains utility pipes and wires. The bottom of this trough contains a foundation of concrete no less than 4 inches (100 mm) thick. Each platform consists of 3-inch-thick (76 mm) concrete slabs, beneath which are drainage basins. The platforms contain I-beam columns spaced every 15 feet (4.6 m). Additional columns between the tracks, spaced every 5 feet (1.5 m), support the jack-arched concrete station roofs. There is a 1-inch (25 mm) gap between the trough wall and the platform walls, which are made of 4-inch (100 mm)-thick brick covered over by a tiled finish. The westernmost side platform retains ten faience plaques of eagles, made by the Grueby Faience Company, which are not visible to the public. The easternmost side platform also has eagle faience plaques and mosaic tablets, also not visible to the public. These plaques and tablets were in the original design, but they had been concealed behind a wall of beige tiles by the late 20th century. The walls adjacent to the tracks are decorated with modern white tiles, surrounded near the top and bottom by red tile bands. The bands wrap around alcoves that are placed at regular intervals on the walls. The spaces above the alcoves contain black-on-green plaques with back-to-back "B"s, which alternate with white-on-green tablets with the words brooklyn bridge in Arial font. Smaller white-on-green plaques with the words "City Hall" are above the brooklyn bridge tablets. The back-to-back "B"s, and the white walls with red tile bands, are also used in the design of the mezzanine. However, the wall of the eastern corridor retains some original design, with brick wainscoting, marble pilasters, and original cream-on-olive plaques with back-to-back "B"s. The mosaic tiles at all original IRT stations were manufactured by the American Encaustic Tile Company, which subcontracted the installations at each station. As part of the MTA Arts & Design program, Mark Gibian created a sculpture for the station, titled Cable Crossing, in 1996. The sculpture consists of numerous cables in the fare control area of the IRT mezzanine, a reference to the nearby Brooklyn Bridge. Some of the cables are placed under a glass skylight; this part of the artwork measures 11 inches (280 mm) thick and 28.42 by 13.33 feet (8.66 by 4.06 m) across. Additional cables are installed on a triptych next to the turnstiles, separating the portions of the mezzanine that are inside and outside of fare control. In creating the sculpture, Gibian said he wanted it to represent "the controlled power of the subway and its network of metal and concrete that undergirds the city". ### Track layout In New York City Subway chaining, the south end of the station is milepost 0 for the IRT East Side chain; all distances on the line are measured from this point. Just north of the station are crossovers that allow trains to switch between the local and express tracks, which allow Lexington Avenue local trains to continue south via the express tracks if necessary (rather than using the City Hall loop). South of the station, the downtown local track splits into three tracks. The westernmost track loops around to the northbound local track through the City Hall station. The other two are layup tracks parallel to the downtown express track. Until 1963, they merged into the downtown express track north of Fulton Street. Since then, they have ended at bumper blocks a little north of Fulton Street and are occasionally used for train storage. ## Ridership As a major hub for the IRT and BMT, the Brooklyn Bridge and Chambers Street complex was the subway system's busiest station when it was built. The opening of the IRT station relieved congestion at Park Row Terminal and the City Hall station, two nearby elevated stations. The Brooklyn Bridge station served 18 million passengers a year during the 1910s, amounting to about 50,000 passengers a day. When the Chambers Street station opened, it also suffered from overcrowding. The Brooklyn Bridge/Chambers Street complex was surpassed as the network's busiest station by the Times Square complex in 1923. Even so, the complex recorded nearly 30 million annual passengers in the mid-1920s, while the nearby elevated stations counted another 20 million. Comparatively few passengers transferred at the Brooklyn Bridge/Chambers Street station, in part because it was easier for BMT passengers to transfer to the IRT at the Canal Street station. By 1930, the Brooklyn Bridge station had 16 million passengers, compared to 12 million at the Chambers Street station. The high ridership at the complex contributed to the closure of the IRT's City Hall Loop in 1945, when the Brooklyn Bridge station still had 14 million annual passengers. By contrast, ridership at the Chambers Street station declined significantly as development in Manhattan moved further northward. The number of passengers entering the Brooklyn Bridge/Chambers Street station declined to about 7.2 million in 1963 and remained almost unchanged in 1973. By 2011, the Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall/Chambers Street station was the 29th-busiest in the system; at the time, an average of 36,350 riders entered the station every weekday. In 2019, the station had 9,065,146 boardings, making it the 32nd most-used station in the -station system. This amounted to an average of 30,961 passengers per weekday. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, ridership dropped drastically in 2020, with 2,710,023 passengers entering the station that year. The station had 3,147,136 passengers in 2021.
782,055	1974 Atlantic hurricane season	1,162,098,508	Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean	[ "1974 Atlantic hurricane season" ]	The 1974 Atlantic hurricane season was a near average hurricane season in terms of overall activity, with eleven named storms, of which four became hurricanes. Two of those four became major hurricanes, which are Category 3 (130 mph (209 km/h) sustained winds) or higher systems on the Saffir–Simpson scale. The season officially began on June 1 and lasted until November 30. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic Ocean. The first system, a tropical depression, developed over the Bay of Campeche on June 22 and dissipated by June 26. The most intense storm of the season was Hurricane Carmen, which struck the Yucatán Peninsula at Category 4 intensity and Louisiana at Category 3 intensity. Carmen caused about \$162 million in damage, mostly in Louisiana, and 12 deaths. Also highly notable was Hurricane Fifi, the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since the 1900 Galveston hurricane, which dropped torrential rain in Central America, especially Honduras. The hurricane left more than \$1.8 billion in damage and at least 8,210 fatalities. Fifi crossed over into the eastern Pacific and was renamed Orlene. In August, poor weather conditions produced by Tropical Storm Alma caused a plane crash in Venezuela, which killed 49 people. Alma caused two additional deaths in Trinidad. Collectively, the tropical cyclones of this year resulted in at least 8,277 deaths and just under \$2 billion in damage. ## Season summary The hurricane season officially began on June 1, with the first tropical cyclone developing on June 22. A total of 20 tropical and subtropical cyclones formed, but just 11 of them intensified into nameable storm systems. This was about average compared to the 1950–2000 average of 9.6 named storms. Four of these reached hurricane status, below the 1950–2000 average of 5.9. Furthermore, two storms reached major hurricane status; near the 1950–2000 average of 2.3. Collectively, the cyclones of this season caused at least 8,277 deaths and just under \$2 billion in damage. The Atlantic hurricane season officially ended on November 30, with the final cyclone dissipating on November 12. Similar to the previous two seasons, much of the tropics were dominated by extensive upper-level westerlies and colder than normal sea surface temperatures, producing unfavorable conditions, though to a lesser extent than in 1972 and 1973. Wind shear generated by the westerlies covered a smaller area, while sea surface temperatures in the tropics were generally above the threshold for tropical cyclogenesis. All named storms developed in regions with ocean temperatures exceeding 80 °F (27 °C). Tropical cyclogenesis began in June, with a tropical depression developing over the Bay of Campeche on June 22, followed by Subtropical Storm One over the Gulf of Mexico two days later. Three cyclones formed in July – two tropical depressions and a subtropical storm. August featured five systems, including Alma, Becky, Carmen, a subtropical storm, and a tropical depression. September was the most active month, with Dolly, Elaine, Hurricane Fifi, Gertrude, and three tropical depressions forming. Subtropical Storm Four and a tropical depression developed in October. The season's final system, a tropical depression, formed on November 10 and dissipated by November 12. The season's activity was reflected with an accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) rating of 61. ACE is a metric used to express the energy used by a tropical cyclone during its lifetime. Therefore, a storm with a longer duration will have high values of ACE. It is only calculated at six-hour increments in which specific tropical and subtropical systems are either at or above sustained wind speeds of 39 mph (63 km/h), which is the threshold for tropical storm intensity. ## Systems ### Tropical Depression One A low-pressure formed over the Bay of Campeche near Veracruz by June 1. Although a reconnaissance aircraft flight failed to locate a closed circulation early on June 22, surface observations in Mexico showed evidence of a circulation later that day. A tropical depression was estimated to have formed at 12:00 UTC on June 22 while situated just offshore Montepío, Veracruz. Initially, the depression moved northeastward and appeared well-organized. However, by the following day, convection associated with the depression began weakening after an upper low pressure trough intensified over the eastern United States. Convection flared over the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but a second circulation had developed by June 24, with that system becoming Subtropical Storm One. The depression, now moving slowly northeastward, redeveloped well-organized convection by June 25. However, shortly thereafter, the depression began to lose tropical characteristics due to interaction with atmospheric trough of low pressure. By June 26, the depression completed its extratropical transition over the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The remnants of the depression accelerated to the northeast and moved across Florida, before moving along the East Coast of the United States and then dissipating over New England by June 30. The remnants of the depression brought mostly light rainfall to East Coast states, with a peak total of 7.2 in (180 mm) in Avon Park, Florida. ### Subtropical Storm One Tropical Depression One formed over the Bay of Campeche on June 22. As shower and thunderstorm activity associated with the depression diminished, convection flared over the eastern Gulf of Mexico on June 24, while a reconnaissance aircraft flight revealed that a closed circulation had developed over the south-central Gulf of Mexico. Therefore, it is estimated that a subtropical depression formed around 18:00 UTC on June 24. Early the following day, the subtropical depression intensified into a subtropical storm. Accelerating northeastward, the subtropical storm strengthened slightly further before making landfall near Clearwater, Florida, just after 06:00 UTC with winds of 50 mph (85 km/h). Although centered over Florida, the system intensified further, peaking with winds of 65 mph (100 km/h) around 12:00 UTC on June 25. After exiting Florida, the cyclone quickly began extratropical later that day, with the remnants dissipating offshore North Carolina on June 27. Portions of Florida experienced heavy precipitation, particularly the Tampa Bay Area. A peak rainfall total of 11.38 in (289 mm) was observed at the St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport. The storm brought flooding and erosion to parts of west Central Florida. Overall, approximately \$24.8 million in damage occurred in Florida, with roughly half of that total incurred to beaches, bridges, drainage systems, roads, sewers, and utilities. Three deaths were reported in the state, all due to drowning. ### Subtropical Storm Two A convective area of cloudiness existed northeast of the Bahamas in mid July in response to a stationary frontal boundary. On July 15, satellite imagery suggested the presence of a weak circulation within the system. Around 00:00 UTC on the following day, a subtropical depression formed about 210 mi (340 km) northeast of the Bahamas. Moving northeastward, the cyclone slowly strengthened, becoming a subtropical storm at about 12:00 UTC on July 17. Late on the next day, the ship Export Adventurer observed winds of 54 mph (87 km/h) and a barometric pressure of 1,006 mbar (29.7 inHg). Based on these observations, the storm peaked with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 km/h) on July 18. By the next day, the cyclone began weakening. Around 00:00 UTC on July 20, the subtropical storm was absorbed a large extratropical low, which dissipated well east of Newfoundland several hours later. ### Subtropical Storm Three A frontal wave formed along a stationary front which ended from near Cape Hatteras northeastward. At 12:00 UTC on August 10, a subtropical storm developed between Bermuda and New England. The storm moved southeastward and then northeastward, before turning northward early on August 12. Drifting northward, the cyclone continued to intensify. Around 12:00 UTC on August 14, the system peaked with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 992 mbar (29.3 inHg), based on ship observations. Later that day, the cyclone curved east-northeastward and accelerated, while its circulation became increasingly ill-defined, resembling that of a front, near Sable Island at about 00:00 UTC on August 15. The remnants of the storm were last noted passing over Cape Race several hours later. ### Tropical Storm Alma A vigorous tropical wave emerged off the western coast of Africa on August 9, developing into a tropical depression by 12:00 UTC on August 12 while located about 545 mi (875 km) east-southeast of Barbados. Steered rapidly west by an abnormally strong subtropical ridge, the depression intensified into Tropical Storm Alma by noon UTC the next day. Six hours later, Alma attained peak winds of 65 mph (100 km/h) in accordance with data from a reconnaissance aircraft. Early on August 14, Alma made landfall in Trinidad as a minimal tropical storm, becoming the southernmost-landfalling system on the island in 41 years. The system's circulation entered Venezuela and interacted with mountainous terrain, where it dissipated by 12:00 UTC on August 15. The storm produced a wind gust as high as 91 mph (146 km/h) on Trinidad at Savonetta. Alma left heavy damage in Trinidad, amounting to approximately \$5 million, making it the most destructive cyclone of the 20th century on the island at that time. The storm damaged about 5,000 buildings, leaving roughly 500 people homeless. Additionally, the cyclone ruined about 17,750 acres (7,180 ha) of crop fields. Two fatalities occurred in Trinidad, including one person who was struck by flying debris. Alma's heavy rainfall was responsible for a plane crash on Isla Margarita off the Venezuelan coast, killing the 49 people on board. ### Tropical Depression Five Around 12:00 UTC on August 24, a tropical depression developed in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico. Moving northwestward, the depression organized further, peaking with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 km/h). It was on the verge of attaining tropical storm status, but made landfall in Texas between Galveston and Freeport on August 26. The depression promptly dissipated. The depression produced heavy rainfall in Texas, especially in the central parts of the state, with a peak total of 10.75 in (273 mm) in Burnet. A weak cold front, combined with the depression, brought flooding portions of Texas, especially Bell County. In Killeen and Harker Heights, more than 100 people fled their homes, as well as about 50 people from a mobile home park in Nolanville. Flooding damaged 47 homes, 37 mobile homes, and a number of cars. Damage in Bell County was estimated at \$100,000. A pickup truck was swept off a low-water crossing at Fort Hood, drowning one occupant of the vehicle. The depression and its remnants also produced rainfall in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Oklahoma. ### Hurricane Becky The National Hurricane Center first began monitoring an area of shower and thunderstorm activity northeast of the Leeward Islands on August 20. After five days, a circulation became visible on satellite imagery. The disturbance tracked northwest, and both ships observations and satellite imagery indicated the formation of a tropical depression by 12:00 UTC on August 26; at the time, it was centered about 440 mi (710 km) south-southwest of Bermuda. Following designation, the depression curved north and then northeast as it rounded the western periphery of a ridge near the Azores. A light shear environment allowed it to intensify into Tropical Storm Becky by 06:00 UTC on August 28 and further into a hurricane by 18:00 UTC that day. Around 12:00 UTC on August 29, Becky intensified into a Category 2 hurricane. Early on August 30, the system intensified into a Category 3, and by 12:00 UTC, the storm attained its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure 977 mbar (28.9 inHg), based on observations by a reconnaissance aircraft. Thereafter, Becky accelerated eastward and weaken weakening, falling to tropical storm intensity early on September 2. Later that day, the cyclone merged with a frontal zone northwest of the Azores. Although Becky never posed a threat to land, the storm crossed several major shipping routes. ### Hurricane Carmen A tropical wave crossed the western coast of Africa on August 23, organizing into a tropical depression by 06:00 UTC on August 29 about 365 mi (585 km) east of Guadeloupe. The newly-designated cyclone was slow to intensify initially, with limited inflow and a majority of its circulation over the Greater Antilles. It strengthened into Tropical Storm Carmen early on August 30 and further into a hurricane by 12:00 UTC on August 31. Upon entering the western Caribbean Sea and amid a low wind shear environment, Carmen began a period of rapid intensification and attained peak winds of 150 mph (240 km/h) before moving ashore just north of Chetumal, Quintana Roo. Carmen weakened significantly over the Yucatán Peninsula, falling to tropical storm intensity by 00:00 UTC on September 3. Carmen emerged into the Bay of Campeche late on September 3 and almost immediately executed a turn toward the north in response to falling pressures over the Southern United States. The cyclone steadily re-intensified over the Gulf of Mexico, and a reconnaissance aircraft into the storm around 00:00 UTC on September 8 found that maximum winds had again increased to 150 mph (240 km/h). As Carmen approaching the coastline of Louisiana, radar indicated the presence of drier air entering the eastern semicircle of the circulation, and the cyclone moved ashore south of Morgan City with winds of 120 mph (195 km/h). It turned northwest and then west-northwest after landfall and was last monitored as a tropical depression southeast of Waco, Texas, at 06:00 UTC on September 10. Carmen brought heavy rainfall and a tornado to Puerto Rico, causing about \$2 million in damage. Flooding in Jamaica resulted in three people drowning. In Mexico, the storm left hundreds of people homeless in Chetumal and damaged the homes and assets of more than 5,000 people. Four deaths and about \$10 million in damage occurred in Mexico. In Louisiana, the storm produced sustained winds up to 110 mph (180 km/h) near Amelia. Along the coast, tides ranged from 4–6 ft (1.2–1.8 m) mean sea level, flooding homes with up to 4 ft (1.2 m) of water or sweeping away some of them into the swamp. Throughout the state, the hurricane inflicted minor damage to 1,015 homes, major damage to 722 homes, and complete destruction to 14 homes. Additionally, 697 mobile homes suffered major damage, while 41 other suffered destruction. However, much of the damage in the state was incurred to crops. Cotton, soybean, sugarcane, and rice crops collectively experienced about \$116.8 million in damage. Overall, Carmen caused about \$150 million in Louisiana and five deaths in the state. Freshwater and tidal flooding to a lesser degree occurred in the other Gulf Coast states. ### Tropical Storm Dolly An area of shower and thunderstorm activity became concentrated underneath an upper-level low in the west Atlantic on August 30. The disturbance drifted west-northwest while steadily organizing, and a ship report around 18:00 UTC on September 2 indicated the formation of a tropical depression about 395 mi (635 km) south-southwest of Bermuda. Although the cyclone was embedded within a high wind shear environment, a reconnaissance mission into the storm the next afternoon found that it had intensified into Tropical Storm Dolly and attained its peak winds of 50 mph (85 km/h). The storm recurved northeast ahead of an approaching trough and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone by 12:00 UTC on September 5 offshore the coastline of Nova Scotia. ### Tropical Storm Elaine A tropical wave moved off the western coast of Africa on August 30 and acquired sufficient organization to be declared a tropical depression by 18:00 UTC on September 4 roughly 715 mi (1,150 km) east of Guadeloupe. The newly-formed cyclone moved northwest for several days, maintaining its status as a tropical depression despite the absence of a closed low-level circulation in several reconnaissance missions. It eventually intensified into Tropical Storm Elaine east of North Carolina by 18:00 UTC on September 9, and with the aid of light upper-level winds, reached peak winds of 70 mph (110 km/h) early the next morning. Steered northeast by an approaching trough, Elaine interacted with a cold front and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone by 00:00 UTC on September 14 over the northern Atlantic. ### Hurricane Fifi A west-northwestward-moving tropical wave developed into a tropical depression over the eastern Caribbean on September 14. Two days later, the depression intensified into Tropical Storm Fifi just off the coast of Jamaica. The storm quickly intensified into a hurricane the following afternoon and attained its peak intensity on September 18 as a strong Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (175 km/h). Maintaining hurricane intensity, Fifi brushed the northern coast of Honduras before making landfall in Belize with winds of 105 mph (165 km/h) the following day. The storm quickly weakened after landfall, becoming a depression late on September 20. Continuing westward, the former hurricane began to interact with another system in the eastern Pacific. Early on September 22, Fifi re-attained tropical storm status before fully regenerating into a new tropical cyclone, Tropical Storm Orlene. The storm traveled in an arcuate path offshore Mexico and intensified into a Category 2 hurricane before making landfall in Sinaloa on September 24 and then quickly dissipating. Fifi brought heavy rainfall to some of the Greater Antilles, especially Jamaica, which recorded precipitation totals exceeding 8 in (200 mm). Parts of the capital city of Kingston were inundated with about 2 ft (0.61 m). The storm caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage in Jamaica. While moving westward along the north coast of Honduras, Fifi lashed the country with strong winds and torrential, unrelenting rainfall. Many coastal cities were more than 80% destroyed, while at least 150,000 people were left homeless. The storm also completely destroyed the country's banana crops. Fifi caused at least 8,000 deaths and nearly \$1.8 billion in damage in Honduras. Other Central American countries were also affected, especially Guatemala. Torrential rainfall in Guatemala caused flooding which washed away or destroyed numerous bridges, roads, and homes. At least 200 people were killed, making Fifi the deadliest in the country in nearly 20 years. In El Salvador, heavy rainfall from the outer bands of the storm led to flooding which killed 10 people. Flooding in Nicaragua left hundreds of people homeless in some villages including in Jinotega, while communities such as La Conquista, Dulce Nombre, San Gregorio, and San Vicente were left isolated after roads washed away. In Belize, winds and rainfall combined to damage or demolish hundreds of homes. The country's banana crop was completely destroyed. ### Hurricane Gertrude A disturbance developed within the Intertropical Convergence Zone just off the western coast of Africa on September 22. The system moved west-northwest and steadily coalesced, organizing into a tropical depression by 12:00 UTC on September 27 about 985 mi (1,585 km) east-southeast of Barbados. The storm was slow to develop at first, intensifying into Tropical Storm Gertude by 18:00 UTC on September 28. However, a reconnaissance aircraft flight six hours later indicated Gertude had intensified into a hurricane and attained peak winds of 75 mph (120 km/h), although its winds were transient and the storm featured an abnormally high surface pressure. After temporarily stalling, Gertude resumed its west-northwest motion while steadily weakening under the influence of strong upper-level winds. It passed through the southern Leeward Islands on October 2 and dissipated over the eastern Caribbean by 00:00 UTC on October 4. ### Subtropical Storm Four A low-pressure area developed near just north of eastern Cuba along the axis of a quasi-stationary cold front. The low became a subtropical depression on October 4. Shortly before striking Andros Island on October 6, the system strengthened into a subtropical storm. The storm made its closest approach to Florida early on October 7. Peaking with sustained winds of 50 mph (85 km/h), the system veered northward and then northeastward, but nonetheless caused heavy rainfall and coastal flooding on land in Florida. While paralleling offshore North Carolina and South Carolina, the storm began to slowly weaken. By late on October 8, the subtropical cyclone merged with a cold front while well east of Cape Hatteras. The extratropical remnants persisted for several more hours, before dissipating on October 9. Gale force winds were observed by ships and land stations in the Bahamas. The storm and a stationary high pressure system over the Eastern United States resulted in strong winds and rough seas along the coast of Florida for several days, especially on October 6. Many coastal areas observed sustained winds of 25 to 40 mph (40 to 64 km/h), with higher gusts. The storm also produced isolated pockets of heavy rainfall, including 14 in (360 mm) of precipitation in Boca Raton. Dozens of homes were flooded in Boca Raton and Pompano Beach. The heavy rainfall destroyed about 50% of winter vegetable crops in Broward County and about 25% of the eggplant crop and about 5%-10% of other crops in Palm Beach County. The storm also brought rainfall and abnormally high tides to Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Bermuda. Damage totaled at least \$600,000. ### Other systems In addition to the other tropical depressions and the named storms, several more tropical cyclones developed, but failed to reach tropical storm status. The first such system developed just offshore the east coast of Africa on June 30. The depression moved westward for a few days, until dissipating on July 2. Another system formed over the northeastern Gulf of Mexico on July 13. Tracking west-southwestward, the depression curved northward on July 16. Late the following day, it made landfall near Caplen, Texas, and promptly dissipated. Another cyclone, classified as Tropical Depression Nine, formed offshore Guinea on September 2. The depression was long-lasting and moved west-northwestward across the Atlantic for several days. Passing north of Puerto Rico on September 9, light to moderate rainfall totals were reported on the island and in the United States Virgin Islands, with a peak total of 5.38 in (137 mm) at a substation in Corozal, Puerto Rico. The depression dissipated near Inagua island in the Bahamas on September 1. A tropical depression formed over the western Atlantic on September 18. The depression remained weak and moved in a semi-circular path near Bermuda, before dissipating on September 20. The next tropical depression originated over the northwestern Caribbean on September 23. Moving northwestward, the storm grazed the northeastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula on the following day and then entered the Gulf of Mexico. By September 25, the depression turned to the northeast. It weakened and dissipated just offshore the west coast of Florida near Cedar Key on September 27. Another depression developed well northeast of the Lesser Antilles on October 30. Moving quickly north-northeastward, the depression remained weak and then dissipated well to the southwest of the Azores on November 2. The final minor depression, and last tropical cyclone, of the season formed north of Hispaniola on November 10. Moving slowly northward for a few days, the depression dissipated by November 12. ## Storm names The following names were used for named storms (tropical storms and hurricanes) that formed in the North Atlantic in 1974. Storms were named Carmen, Elaine and Gertrude for the first time in 1974. The names Alma, Dolly, Linda, Olga, Roxanne, and Wilma would later be put on the modern naming lists (Alma and Linda being on the Eastern North Pacific lists). Names that were not assigned are marked in . ### Retirement The names Carmen and Fifi were later retired. ## Season effects This is a table of all of the storms that formed in the 1974 Atlantic hurricane season. It includes their duration, names, landfall(s) – denoted by bold location names – damages, and death totals. Deaths in parentheses will be additional and indirect (an example of an indirect death would be a traffic accident), but are still related to that storm. Damage and deaths will include totals while the storm was extratropical or a wave or low, and all of the damage figures are in 1974 USD. ## See also - 1974 Pacific hurricane season - 1974 Pacific typhoon season - 1974 North Indian Ocean cyclone season - Australian cyclone seasons: 1973–74, 1974–75 - South Pacific cyclone seasons: 1973–74, 1974–75 - South-West Indian Ocean cyclone seasons: 1973–74, 1974–75 - South Atlantic tropical cyclone - Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone
30,175,038	Emilia Clarke	1,173,293,518	British actress (born 1986)	[ "1986 births", "21st-century English actresses", "Actresses from Berkshire", "Actresses from London", "Actresses from Oxfordshire", "Alumni of the Drama Centre London", "British people of Anglo-Indian descent", "English contraltos", "English film actresses", "English stage actresses", "English television actresses", "English voice actresses", "Living people", "People educated at Rye St Antony School", "People educated at St Edward's School, Oxford" ]	Emilia Isobel Euphemia Rose Clarke (born 23 October 1986) is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones (2011–2019), for which she received nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards. Clarke studied at Drama Centre London, appearing in a number of stage productions. Her television debut was a guest appearance in the BBC One medical soap opera Doctors in 2009, at age 22. Clarke made her Broadway debut as Holly Golightly in the 2013 play Breakfast at Tiffany's, and played Nina in a West End production of The Seagull that was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her film roles include Sarah Connor in the science fiction film Terminator Genisys (2015), Qi'ra in the Star Wars film Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), and the romance films Me Before You (2016) and Last Christmas (2019). She starred as G'iah in the Marvel Cinematic Universe miniseries Secret Invasion (2023). ## Early life Emilia Isobel Euphemia Rose Clarke was born on 23 October 1986 in London. She grew up in Oxfordshire. Her father, Peter Clarke, was a theatre sound engineer from Wolverhampton. Her mother, Jennifer, was a businesswoman and is the vice-president for marketing at a global management consultancy firm as of 2020. Clarke has Indian ancestry on her mother's side of the family; her maternal grandmother was the child of a secret affair between Clarke's great-grandmother and a man from the Indian subcontinent, and wore light make-up to conceal the darker complexion she had inherited from her father. She credits this background for her family's having a "history of fighters", stating, "The fact that [my grandmother] had to hide her skin colour, essentially, and try desperately to fit in with everyone else must've been incredibly difficult." She stated that her grandmother "loved India more than she loved England" and as such, when she died, sixteen-year-old Clarke travelled to India to scatter her ashes. She has an older brother, Bennett, who works in the entertainment industry and was part of the camera department on Game of Thrones. Clarke became interested in acting at age three after seeing a production of the musical Show Boat. When she was ten, her father took her to a West End audition for The Goodbye Girl, a musical by Neil Simon. Clarke was educated at Rye St Antony School in Headington and St Edward's School, Oxford, which she left in 2005. In a 2016 interview with Time Out, she stated "I went to posh boarding schools, but I wasn't the posh girl at the posh boarding schools." She also stated that most of the people at her boarding school in Oxford were from Conservative backgrounds, which meant she and some of her friends often felt like outsiders. After graduation, Clarke unsuccessfully applied to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She worked and travelled before enrolling at Drama Centre London, where she graduated in 2009. ## Career ### 2000–2010: Beginnings Clarke started to act in stage productions while attending school. She appeared in student productions of Twelfth Night and West Side Story while attending St Edward's School. After taking a sabbatical year, she was accepted into Drama Centre London. Clarke also appeared the 2009 production of Sense, co-produced by theatre company Company of Angels and Drama Centre London. One of her first film roles was in Drop the Dog, a University of London student short film. She graduated from drama school in 2009. She worked at various non-acting jobs after graduating while auditioning for roles. She starred in two commercials for the charity Samaritans, portraying a domestic abuse victim. Her first credited television role was a bit part in a 2009 episode of the British soap opera Doctors. Clarke was cast in her first professional film role, playing Savannah in the 2010 television film Triassic Attack. The film was released in November 2010 on the Syfy channel in the United States where it received negative reviews. Despite the film's reviews, she was named a "UK Star of Tomorrow" by the film magazine Screen International. ### 2011–2019: Game of Thrones and worldwide recognition Clarke was cast in her third professional role in 2010, as Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones. It is based on the fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. Daenerys is one of the last surviving members of House Targaryen who had ruled Westeros from the Iron Throne for nearly three hundred years prior to being ousted. Actress Tamzin Merchant was originally cast for the part of Daenerys. When the pilot episode was re-shot in early 2010, Merchant was replaced by Clarke. The show ran from April 2011 until May 2019, with Clarke portraying Daenerys throughout all eight seasons. Clarke received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Daenerys, which traces an arc from frightened girl to powerful woman. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe called her scenes "mesmerising", adding that "Clarke doesn't have a lot of emotional variety to work with as Daenerys, aside from fierce determination, and yet she is riveting." Emily VanDerWerff for The A.V. Club commented on the difficulty of adapting such an evolution from page to screen, but concluded that Clarke "more than seal[s] the deal here." Clarke said by being cast as Daenerys, she had avoided the "typical bonnet duty that you have to go through as a young British actress". In 2017, she reportedly became one of the highest-paid actors on television, earning between £1.2 and £2 million per episode of Game of Thrones. In 2019, she said she had been uncomfortable acting nude in her first experience at age 23 of a large film set, but had since become "a lot more savvy" about what level of nudity is needed for a scene. Clarke received multiple award nominations and wins for her role of Daenerys. After the first season, Clarke won Best Supporting Actress in a Drama at the 2011 EWwy Awards. She was also nominated three times for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2013, 2015, and 2016. At the 2019 Emmys, she was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, her first nomination in the category. In addition to the television show, she lent her voice and likeness to the 2014 video game of the same name. She also made a cameo appearance during Kit Harington's monologue on Saturday Night Live in April 2019. She said in a November 2019 NPR interview that if she "were to get stereotyped as the mother of dragons, I could ask for worse. It's really quite wonderful." In a 2021 interview with theSkimm, Clarke stated that she would change the way her character died. ### 2012–2021: Varied roles, franchise films, and publishing Clarke's first film role was in the short film Shackled (2012). The film was featured in the 2020 Amazon Prime Video horror anthology series Murder Manual. The same year, she starred alongside Elliott Tittensor in the comedy film Spike Island. It details a group of friends who try to get to the namesake island of The Stone Roses 1990 concert. The movie was originally distributed only in the United Kingdom but was subsequently picked up by Level 33 Entertainment for North American distribution in March 2015. From March to April 2013, she played Holly Golightly in a Broadway production of Breakfast at Tiffany's, a role requiring her to perform a nude scene. The production, along with her performance, received mixed reviews from critics. Later that year, she also starred in the black comedy-crime drama film Dom Hemingway alongside Jude Law. In May 2013 Clarke was cast in a film adaptation of the novel The Garden of Last Days. James Franco was set to direct and star in the film however he left the project two weeks before filming after creative differences with the film distributor Millennium Entertainment. In an 2019 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Clarke said she was offered the role of Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey. She said she turned down the part because of the nudity required. In 2013, she was cast as Sarah Connor in the science fiction action film Terminator Genisys (2015). The film, which also stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jai Courtney, and Jason Clarke, received unfavourable reviews from critics but was a box office success, grossing over \$440 million worldwide. Clarke was nominated for Teen Choice Award for Choice Summer Movie Star – Female and Best International Actress at the 2016 Jupiter Awards for her performance. She starred as the female lead, opposite Sam Claflin, in the film adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name, Me Before You. The film which was released on 3 June 2016 and directed by Thea Sharrock, received mixed critical reviews. The film was a box office success with worldwide revenues of \$200 million. For her role as Louisa "Lou" Clark, she shared nominations with Sam Claflin for the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liplock and the MTV Television Tearjerker Award. In 2017, she played the lead as Nurse Verena in the supernatural psychological thriller film Voice from the Stone. The film was released in April 2017 for a limited theatre run, followed by video on demand and digital HD. She was cast as the female lead in Solo: A Star Wars Story in November 2016. The movie, which was directed by Ron Howard and premiered in May 2018, details the origins of Star Wars characters Han Solo and Chewbacca. Clarke played Qi'ra, Han's childhood friend and love interest. The film received favourable critical reviews despite being the second-lowest grossing Star Wars film. The film was released worldwide on 25 May 2018. Her performance received positive critical reviews with many calling her one of the standouts of the film. Clarke, along with Jack Huston, was cast in 2016 as leads in the film Above Suspicion (2019). The film is based on a thriller novel by Joe Sharkey and directed by Phillip Noyce, and was announced at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The film received generally favourable reviews with Clarke's performance being highly praised by critics. It also had a turbulent release which left it vulnerable to piracy. In late 2019, Clarke starred opposite Henry Golding in the romantic comedy Last Christmas. The film was written by Emma Thompson and directed by Paul Feig. In a January 2020 interview with Bustle magazine, Clarke stated she was inspired by Will Ferrell's character in the 2003 comedy film Elf. Despite its unfavourable reviews, critics praised Clarke's performance, and the film went on to become a box office success grossing over \$121 million worldwide. Clarke starred as Nina in the West End production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, directed by Jamie Lloyd, which began previews on 11 March 2020 at the Playhouse Theatre. The production was suspended on 16 March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The play was Clarke's first West End production. It resumed two years later in July 2022 and was broadcast internationally via National Theatre Live. In 2021, Clarke published the first in a series of comic books titled M.O.M.: Mother of Madness that she co-wrote with Marguerite Bennett. ### 2022–present In 2022, Clarke was cast in the animation film The Amazing Maurice. The film, which is an adaptation of The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett, was released in the United Kingdom on 16 December 2022 and in the United States on 3 February 2023. In January 2023, Clarke starred in and executive produced The Pod Generation. The film had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and was directed by Sophie Barthes. Clarke was cast as the lead in the English language adaptation of the 2015 Korean romantic comedy The Beauty Inside. As of October 2019, the film was yet to begin production. It was announced in May 2019 that Clarke is set to play the English poet Elizabeth Barrett in the film Let Me Count the Ways, which The Wife director Björn Runge is set to direct. In April 2021, Clarke joined the cast of Secret Invasion for Disney+, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The show premiered on 21 June 2023. In October 2021, Clarke was cast to portray Jean Kerr, wife of Joseph McCarthy, in a biopic titled McCarthy. In October 2022, it was announced that Clarke is set to play Irish author Constance Lloyd in director Sophie Hyde’s film, An Ideal Wife. ## Other ventures ### Advertising and endorsements In 2015, luxury goods company Dior signed Clarke to be the face of the Rose des Vents jewellery collection. In 2018, Dolce & Gabbana announced she would be the brand ambassador for the fragrance "The Only One". She starred in an advertisement, which was directed by Matteo Garrone for the perfume. Cosmetics company Clinique announced Clarke as their first global ambassador in early 2020. ### Philanthropy Clarke has lent her support to various charitable organisations. In September 2011, she joined the SMA UK Trust Team as their celebrity ambassador. The SMA Trust raises funds for research into spinal muscular atrophy. In August 2017, she became a patron of Open Door, a nonprofit that aims to help young people gain access to drama school auditions. She auctioned a chance to watch an episode of Game of Thrones with her at the 2018 Sean Penn Charity Gala, which raised over \$120,000 benefiting the J/P HRO & Disaster Relief Organizations. In February 2018, she introduced the award recipients at London's Centrepoint Awards, which celebrates the courage shown by homeless young people. In April 2018, she was named the sole ambassador to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). As the RCN's ambassador, Clarke pledged to use her voice to fight for greater investment in nursing and to challenge misconceptions. Clarke also pledged to join nurses and healthcare workers to tackle the issues affecting the profession, including a falling number in training and shortages in the current workforce. Clarke was also one of the numerous UK-based actresses to lend her voice to the Time's Up initiative, aimed at exposing sexual harassment and abuse, and creating a society free of gender-based discrimination in the workplace. In August 2018, Clarke, as well as Gemma Arterton, Lena Headey, Tom Hiddleston, Felicity Jones, Wunmi Mosaku, Florence Pugh, Gemma Chan, and Catherine Tate, featured in the short film titled Leading Lady Parts which took aim at the film industry's issue of gender inequality during the casting process. In 2019, upon revealing the brain aneurysms she suffered in 2011 and 2013, Clarke launched her own charity named SameYou. The organisation aims to broaden neurorehabilitation access for young people after a brain injury or stroke. On 26 September 2019, she co-hosted a YouTube live stream with Irish YouTuber Jacksepticeye that raised over £200,000 for SameYou. After the conclusion of the final season of Game of Thrones, a fundraiser called "Justice for Daenerys" was started in which fans of the series raised over £83,000 for her charity. According to the fundraiser creator, the purpose was to collectively show their appreciation for both Clarke and the character of Daenerys Targaryen. In 2020, Clarke was presented with the Public Leadership in Neurology award by the American Brain Foundation for her efforts in raising awareness about neurorehabilitation. In April 2020, Clarke began a fundraiser to help raise funds for her charity's COVID-19 fund. The fundraiser, which aimed to raise £250,000, would support both the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and the University College Hospital in London. The organisation's new initiative aims to make a larger portion of beds available to coronavirus patients by providing a virtual rehabilitation clinic for people recovering from brain injuries and strokes. In a further response to the coronavirus pandemic, Clarke announced the launch of an Instagram series of poetry readings. The readings derive from a collection called The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul. She began the series by reading a poem about loneliness, which she dedicated to her charity SameYou and announced that other performers would be joining the initiative, stating that every performer would dedicate their reading to a charity of their choosing. In September 2020, she joined Emma Thompson, Sanjeev Bhaskar, and Robert Lindsay in a virtual reading of the play Private Lives by English playwright Noël Coward. It was announced that all funds raised from the performance would be used as a crisis grant to support those in the theatre industry who were struggling financially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. ## Personal life and public image Clarke lives in the London Borough of Islington. She also owned a house in the Venice Beach neighbourhood of Los Angeles, which she purchased in 2016 and sold in December 2020. In a 2013 interview with Allure, Clarke stated that her mother had rules when she was growing up: "Don't do drugs, don't have sex, and don't touch your eyebrows." She stated that she was bullied as a child for "having ridiculous eyebrows". In an essay she wrote for The New Yorker in 2019, Clarke revealed that she had suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage caused by a ruptured aneurysm in February 2011. She underwent urgent endovascular coiling surgery and subsequently suffered from aphasia, at one point being unable to recall her own name. She had a second aneurysm surgically treated in 2013. Clarke was voted the most desirable woman in the world by AskMen readers in 2014. In 2015, she was named Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive and was also recognised with the GQ Woman of the Year Award. Clarke appeared on FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World list in 2015, 2016, and 2017. She was also included on Glamour's list of Best Dressed Women in 2017. Once filming wrapped on the final season of Game of Thrones, Clarke, as a tribute to her role as Daenerys Targaryen, celebrated her time on the show with a wrist tattoo featuring a trio of flying dragons. ## Filmography ### Film ### Television ### Discography ## Theatre ## Accolades Clarke has been nominated for numerous awards throughout her career. She was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2019, for her role in Game of Thrones. She has received several Critics' Choice Awards nominations, the most recent in 2018. She also received the BAFTA Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year at the 2018 ceremony. In 2018, Clarke was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in 2019. Clarke has also been honoured for her charitable work. In 2019, she won a Shorty Award for a video that was made to raise awareness for her charity SameYou and the Royal College of Nursing.
25,379,956	Adrian Crowley	1,163,293,254	Irish singer-songwriter	[ "1979 births", "21st-century Irish singer-songwriters", "Chemikal Underground artists", "Date of birth missing (living people)", "Irish male singer-songwriters", "Living people", "Musicians from County Galway", "People from Sliema" ]	Adrian Crowley is a singer, composer, songwriter, lyricist from Galway, based in Dublin and was born in Sliema, Malta. Crowley has released eight albums to date, with his debut A Strange Kind arriving in 1999. He followed this with When You Are Here You Are Family (2002), A Northern Country (2004), Long Distance Swimmer (2007), Season of the Sparks (2009) and "I See Three Birds Flying" (2012) In a 2005 Rolling Stone interview, Ryan Adams cited Crowley when asked "Who's the best songwriter that no one's heard of". The Irish Times placed this artist at number eight in a list of "The 50 Best Irish Acts Right Now" published in April 2009. Crowley has won the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year on one occasion for Season of the Sparks and been nominated on two another occasion for Long Distance Swimmer and "I See Tree Birds Flying". ## Early life Crowley is from a multicultural background, (his father is Irish and mother is Maltese) He was born in Sliema in Malta but reared in Galway. Crowley's parents met in Africa and the family spent time in Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Malta. After his birth his family departed Malta for Cameroon. Crowley has been based in Dublin since the 1990s but has also spent time living in France. ## Career Before his life as a musician, Crowley originally spent time on other pursuits, such as studying architecture, illustration, painting and photography. Crowley released his debut album A Strange Kind independently in 1999. The song "Capricorn" was played regularly on No Disco that year. When You Are Here You Are Family followed in 2002, being recorded at the Electrical Audio studios of one of his heroes, Steve Albini, in Chicago. This successful spell in the United States inspired him to begin communicating with American record labels. He joined the label Ba Da Bing who were keen to produce his next two albums. A Northern Country was due for release in on 2 July 2004, though was delayed before appearing on a smaller label with little publicity. Crowley later referred to A Northern Country as "the least ceremonious album of them all". Long Distance Swimmer was released as soon as it was recorded as, according to Crowley, he became "fed up waiting". It was recorded with engineer Stephen Shannon. The record received positive reviews and was nominated for the Choice Music Prize. The NME said it was "a lo-furnished, snug, auburn-tinged folk album which calls to mind Bill Callahan, Johnny Cash, and Edwyn Collins". The Irish Independent's John Meagher named it his favourite album of 2007 and sixteenth best Irish album of the decade, while his colleague Eamon Sweeney suggested Crowley's record was one of the few Irish albums preventing that year from being "an absolute stinker". It was around this time that Crowley began working with The Fence Collective and members of Halfset. He featured on the edition of 12 March 2008 of the sixth series of Other Voices. Also that month, he performed a residency at Whelan's. Season of the Sparks was released on 24 April 2009 and featured an expanded palette of instruments including marxophone, shruti box, upright harmonium, viola de gamba, baroque viola. It was generally well received by critics in both and Ireland and the UK, and, so pleased was the reviewer with the French magazine Les Inrockuptibles that he wrote a letter of thanks to Crowley. He was also one of the first acts to be announced for Electric Picnic 2010. Adrian Crowley's eighth album, 'Dark Eyed Messenger' was recorded in New York and was produced by and features Thomas Bartlett who has also worked with Sufjan Stevens, Anna Calvi, Sam Amidon and Laurie Anderson. ## Other work 'The Scotsman\\|access-date=4 March 2010\\|quote=Fife singer-songwriter James Yorkston and Dubliner Adrian Crowley opened with a special performance of the songs of American lo-fi legend Daniel Johnston, an artist whose battle with mental health demons has been well documented. They gave his tunes delicate and sparse arrangements, even singing some a cappella. The pair have recorded an eight track mini-album as a tribute to Daniel Johnston. Crowley also curates the Homelights Festival in Dublin. He is also interested in film and has composed a number of scores. He is responsible for scoring the Irish feature film, 'Where The Sea Used To Be' directed by Paul Farren. His song, 'The Wishing Seat' prominently features in the award-winning feature film, 'Love Eternal' (2014) directed by Brendan Muldowney and stars Pollyanna Mackintosh and Robert de Hoog. Adrian Crowley appears in a feature-length alternative documentary entitled 'The Science Of Ghosts' – directed by Niall Mc Cann (2018) The Science Of Ghosts premieres at Dublin International Film Festival at the IFI, February 26, 2018. Director Niall McCann's observational drama centres on a well-known Irish musician, Adrian Crowley. While being interviewed by a film crew for his latest album, an interruption causes Adrian to ponder – what would a film about his life be like? Could it ever really reflect who he is? His imagination takes him – and the audience – on a journey as he becomes a ghost visiting his own life, past and future. What emerges is a humorous and original take on the power of storytelling. ## Style Crowley's style has been compared to that of Bill Callahan, Nick Drake and Tim Buckley, while Irish Independent reviewer Eamon Sweeney has said the singer is "a master of understatement". The vocals of Noah and the Whale's Charlie Fink are said to be reminiscent of Crowley's. As well as singing Crowley plays the electric guitar and the Rhodes piano; he never plays the acoustic guitar. He experiences music while he sleeps: > Since I started doing music full time, I actually hear it in my sleep and sometimes wake up and wonder who left the stereo on – and it's really in my head. It's unbelievable. I think it's a kind of natural aural hallucination. I'll hear it as I'm waking – it might wake me. I'll be dreaming music but then it might take me out of my dream. Once I'm wide awake it's gone. ## Discography Adrian Crowley has released nine albums. - A Strange Kind (1999) - When You Are Here You Are Family (2002) - A Northern Country (2004) - Long Distance Swimmer (2007) - Season of the Sparks (2009) - I See Three Birds Flying (2012) - Some Blue Morning (2014) - Dark Eyed Messenger (2017) - The Watchful Eye Of The Stars (2021) ## Band members The following have performed with Crowley. - Mary Barnecutt -Cello - Katie Kim – vocals - Jeff Martin – Guitar - Steven Shannon – Bass guitar - Cillian Mc Donnell – Drums - Kevin Murphy – Cello - Marja Tuhkanen Gaynor – Viola, violin, viola de gamba, viol - Adem Ilhan – Harmonium, vocals, percussion - Kate Ellis – Cello - Thomas Haugh – Drums, zither - Andrew Bushe – Drums - Sarah Fox – Bass guitar, double bass, vocals - Emma Smith – Violin, vocals - Vince Sipprell – Viola - Cameron Miller – Bass guitar, double bass, vocals - Sarah Jones – Drums - Christopher Mayo – Bass guitar - James Yorkston – Concertina, guitar, vocals - Alex Neilson – Drums - Otto Hauser – Drums - Jesse Sparhawk – Bass guitar - Viking Moses - Dave Hingerty – drums - Bill Blackmore – flugelhorn, trumpet ## Awards The Irish Times placed Crowley at number eight in a list of "The 50 Best Irish Acts Right Now" published in April 2009, noting his "majestic songs, rich voice and subtle blend of atmospherics and master-level wordplay". In a 2005 Rolling Stone interview, Ryan Adams cited Crowley when asked "Who's the best songwriter that no one's heard of". ### Choice Music Prize Long Distance Swimmer was nominated for the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year 2007 but lost to Super Extra Bonus Party's Super Extra Bonus Party LP. Season of the Sparks won the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year 2009. Crowley received a prize of €10,000 cheque. He described himself as "totally flabbergasted", adding "I didn't really think it was the sort of record that was going to win awards". Crowley promised to use the money to fund his music. He was one of eight nominees who performed at the awards ceremony. He is a friend of fellow nominee Valerie Francis. \\|- \\| 2008 \\|\\| Long Distance Swimmer \\|\\| Irish Album of the Year 2007 \\|\\| \\|- \\| 2010 \\|\\| Season of the Sparks'' \\|\\| Irish Album of the Year 2009 \\|\\| \\|- \\| 2013 \\|\\| "I See Three Birds Flying" \\|\\| Irish album of the year 2012 \\|\\| \\|-
32,263,093	Box Cutter (Breaking Bad)	1,150,123,053	null	[ "2011 American television episodes", "Breaking Bad (season 4) episodes", "Television episodes written by Vince Gilligan" ]	"Box Cutter" is the fourth season premiere of the American television drama series Breaking Bad, and its 34th episode overall. Written by series creator Vince Gilligan and directed by Adam Bernstein, "Box Cutter" originally aired on AMC in the United States on July 17, 2011. The narrative follows protagonist Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and his partner Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) as they face repercussions from drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) for killing Gale Boetticher at the end of the previous season. Meanwhile, Skyler White (Anna Gunn) breaks into her husband Walter's condominium to investigate his sudden disappearance, and Marie Schrader (Betsy Brandt) struggles to help Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) recover from his injuries. The episode marked the final regular performances of actors David Costabile and Jeremiah Bitsui as Gale and Victor. Gilligan considered changing the episode based on audience responses to the third-season finale, "Full Measure", on whether Gale would be killed or not, but ultimately decided against it. During a twist scene in "Box Cutter", Gus slices his loyal henchman Victor's throat with Gale's utility knife right before Walt and Jesse's eyes. Esposito said he was concerned about filming the scene "without really hurting my spirit and my soul", and he concentrated so hard that he remained silent and focused during filming, rarely speaking to others on set. The scene was so bloody it made Cranston's daughter faint during a screening. A major theme of "Box Cutter", and the entire fourth season, involved Walter's gradual change into a darker character who becomes more proactively violent and dangerous. The episode also illustrates Jesse's moral decline and feelings of guilt over his killing of Gale, and Skyler's growing involvement in Walter's illegal activities. The episode was watched by 2.58 million households according to Nielsen Media Research. Until the fifth-season premiere, "Box Cutter" was the most watched Breaking Bad episode in the series' history and the third-highest-rated season premiere for any AMC show, after the first two seasons' premieres of The Walking Dead. In 2012, Gilligan received the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Episodic Drama for his work on this episode. This marked his second win for individual work on Breaking Bad, along with his award from the pilot episode in 2009. ## Plot In a flashback, methamphetamine manufacturer Gale Boetticher excitedly sets up equipment in an underground meth superlab for Gus Fring. Gale asks Gus about the blue meth being produced by chemist Walter White. Gus explains he has reservations about hiring Walt, but Gale insists Gus hire him because of his superior product. In the present, following Walt's order, Jesse Pinkman has killed Gale to foil Gus' plot to kill them. Gus' henchman Victor arrives at Gale's apartment and finds him dead, surrounded by neighbors who have called the police. Victor finds Jesse sitting in his car and forces him to return to the lab, where Mike Ehrmantraut is holding Walt. Mike is concerned that Victor was seen at Gale's apartment and calls to inform Gus. Victor realizes his own position is precarious and reveals he observed Walt and Jesse's work by starting to cook meth himself, hoping to prove his value to Gus. Skyler White observes Walt's car in her driveway and moves it a few blocks away so Walter White Jr. will not see it. She calls Saul Goodman to ask where Walt is, but Saul is paranoid because of Walt's falling out with Gus and is busy checking his office for listening devices. Skyler breaks into Walt's condominium with the aid of a locksmith but finds little of interest. Marie Schrader struggles to maintain her composure while caring for a belligerent Hank Schrader, who is still bedridden after the attempt on his life. Gus arrives at the lab but says nothing. Walt launches into a rambling monologue, hoping to convince Gus he needs Walt and Jesse alive. Gus maintains his silence while changing into hazmat gear and picking up the box cutter Gale used during the lab setup. He startles everyone by slicing Victor's throat, then coldly eyes Walt and Jesse to ensure his message was received. He quietly returns to his street clothes, then walks out, pausing only to say, "Get back to work." Walt and Jesse use hydrofluoric acid to dispose of Victor's body, the gun that killed Gale, and the box cutter. During breakfast, Walt insists Gale's death was necessary, but expresses concern that Gus will kill them at his next opportunity. Jesse believes it will be too much trouble for Gus to find another drug manufacturer, though Gus might make them wish they were dead. Police investigate Gale's apartment but overlook his lab notes. ## Production "Box Cutter", the fourth season premiere of Breaking Bad, was directed by Adam Bernstein and written by series creator Vince Gilligan. Filmed in January 2011, the episode was edited by Skip Macdonald, one of a handful of editors who have regularly worked on the series. It was broadcast on July 17, 2011, and was the first original Breaking Bad episode in 13 months, since the third season finale episode "Full Measure" aired in June 2010. AMC officials delayed the fourth-season premiere until July because they felt the Nielsen ratings would be better during the summer. While Breaking Bad scripts are generally 50 pages long, the screenplay to "Box Cutter" was 43 pages long, and Gilligan was originally concerned because he did not want to stretch out the episode simply to pad the running time. "Full Measure" ended with Jesse's pulling a gun on Gale and firing directly into the screen, with Gale's death not visibly revealed on-screen. This led to wide speculation among fans and reviewers that Jesse did not actually kill Gale, but rather aimed away from him and fired the gun. This speculation continued up until the original broadcast of "Box Cutter", which confirmed Jesse indeed killed Gale. Gilligan said he never intended for that scene to be a cliffhanger and he thought it clearly conveyed that Gale had died. "Box Cutter" featured the final regular appearances of recurring Breaking Bad actors David Costabile and Jeremiah Bitsui who, respectively, played Gale Boetticher and Victor. Stand-up comedian Lavell Crawford also made his first of several guest appearances in "Box Cutter" as Huell, Saul's new bodyguard. Gilligan stated that he named the episode "Box Cutter" mainly because "it just sounded like a cool title", but also because he was concerned that the climax of the episode took so long to build to that, by calling it "Box Cutter", "Perhaps I was thinking on some level, 'We'd better let the audience know that there's something at the end of this.'" Although the Breaking Bad staff always intended for Gale to be killed, the audience reaction to "Full Measure" made Gilligan and the Breaking Bad writing staff reconsider whether their plans were the best ones. However, Gilligan said they instead decided to follow their original plan, saying "At the end of the day, the choice we made for how to press forward was the choice we felt was the most honest, and the one that would best continue the story." Giancarlo Esposito said that when he first read the script for "Box Cutter", he was so shocked that he had to put it down and walk away from it. Esposito said he did not want to "take any of [the scene] home with me" and had "some deep concern about being able to do it and coming out of it unscathed, without really hurting my spirit and my soul". He worked through these concerns by justifying Gus' actions in that, by killing Victor, he was protecting everyone else who works for him. Nevertheless, he said it was "a difficult moment for me" to slit Victor's throat, and that during one take he tried to hush the character to make him die more calmly. That scene took two days to film, and Esposito remained silent and focused during filming, rarely speaking to the others on set. The boots he was originally given were too large and he was concerned that he would slip, which would be out of character for Gus, who was otherwise completely calm and in control. A costume designer quickly procured the right-sized boots for him. In writing the script, the Breaking Bad staff decided early on that Gus would not speak much during the scene because they felt it was more dramatic that way and more appropriate for his character. Esposito felt the scene was a pivotal moment not only for his character, but for Gus' relationship with Walter, and a warning that Walter should continue to operate Gus' way or risk death. Regarding his character's murder of Victor, Esposito said: "This had to be done. Someone did something, they got seen. ... It was about survival. This had to be done, but I could do it in a way that also sent a message to the people who weren't listening." Bryan Cranston said he was not expecting the episode to take the direction it did. He called the scene "painful, but beautifully crafted, and reasonably so", and commented on the contrast between Gus' calm demeanor and Walter's "tap-dancing to stay alive". Cranston said of Esposito's performance, "When he plays that bad character, his eyes go dead, and all it takes is to look into his eyes." Gilligan said although Gus' actions in the scene were scripted, "You'd be surprised how little I talked to Giancarlo about how he played that part ... This is a man with amazing instincts." Jeremiah Bitsui sprained his ankle during filming of the scene when Walter and Jesse shoved his character's corpse into a barrel to dispose of it with hydrofluoric acid. Following that scene, Jesse lifts the barrel with a forklift and it is lit in a way that the barrel can be seen through. This was accomplished by back-lighting the barrel and tying monofilament to the bottom of it, which staff members then moved and twisted outside of the view of the camera to create the lighting effect. ## Analysis A major theme of "Box Cutter" involves Walter's gradual change from an unwitting participant in a drug-dealing enterprise into a man more comfortable with a life of crime who embraces his darker side and becomes more proactively violent and dangerous. This development began during the latter episodes of the third season and would continue to be a major theme throughout the fourth season. The episode also introduced the ongoing theme of Jesse's moral decline and self guilt over his killing of Gale. Aaron Paul said of this, "Jesse's much more raw this season. He's very distant, and he's turned to just utter chaos and destruction to keep his mind busy. When he's left alone in his own thoughts, that's when things can get kind of dangerous and scary for Jesse." The scene when Walter pleads with Gus demonstrates the paternal sense of protectiveness Walter has developed for Jesse. During that scene, Walter tells Gus, "You kill me, you have nothing. You kill Jesse, you don't have me." Jesse is visibly moved by the statement, which Aaron Paul described as "the first moment that Jesse realizes that Walt's loyalty is to Jesse." "Box Cutter" also illustrated Skyler's growing involvement in Walter's illegal activities through the subplot in which she lies to a locksmith to break into Walter's house, going so far as to use her baby as a prop in her facade. After Skyler breaks into Walter's apartment, she finds the plastic eyeball of a teddy bear that has been part of the series since the second season. The eye has long been used as a symbol to identify Walter's gradual descent into a life of crime, and Skyler's discovery of it symbolizes her own similar descent. ### Cultural references During a scene when Gale's neighbor calls police to report his murder, a clock in Gale's apartment reads 10:13. This is a deliberate reference to the number 1013, which frequently appeared in The X-Files, where Vince Gilligan worked as a writer and producer and Bryan Cranston as an actor. It refers to the name of X-Files creator Chris Carter's production company Ten Thirteen Productions, which in turn is a reference to Chris Carter's birthday, October 13. A copy of Everything's Eventual, a collection of short stories by Stephen King, can be seen in Gale's apartment. After Walter and Jesse are released by Gus, they eat lunch at Denny's, a coffee shop and family restaurant chain. During this scene, they are wearing matching T-shirts with country music singer Kenny Rogers on them. The T-shirts are deliberately not explained in the episode, but Vince Gilligan said he believed Mike simply bought the first articles of clean clothing he could find for Walter and Jesse after their clothes were soaked with Victor's blood. During the final scene of "Box Cutter", when Walter walks back to his car, the Alex Ebert song "Truth" plays in the background. ## Reception ### Initial screening and ratings "Box Cutter" was first publicly shown on June 28, 2011, at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. During the scene when Gus killed Victor, Bryan Cranston's daughter Taylor fainted in her seat inside the theater at the sight of all the blood. This prompted theater officials to briefly interrupt the screening and ask for a doctor in the audience, causing a brief panic among the crowd. The violent scenes in "Box Cutter" proved so bloody that AMC included a disclaimer warning about the violence at the start of the episode and after the commercial break halfway through the episode. In its original American broadcast, "Box Cutter" was seen by an estimated 2.58 million household viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. It was the most watched Breaking Bad episode in the series and the second highest rated season premiere for any AMC show, falling behind only the series premiere of The Walking Dead, which drew 5.3 million household viewers. It was also a 32 percent increase in viewership compared to the third-season premiere, "No Más". "Box Cutter" performed especially strong with men between ages 18 and 34, among whom viewership was up 67 percent compared to the third-season premiere. The episode was seen by 1.4 million household viewers in both the 18 to 49 and the 25 to 54 age groups, a 21 percent increase in the former group and a 26 percent increase in the latter. ### Reviews Alan Sepinwall of HitFix said the episode demonstrated how effective the creators of Breaking Bad are at manipulating the emotions of their viewers. Sepinwall described the story as "remarkably simple" but the execution as extremely effective, and he called the amount of screen time dedicated to Gus calmly changing his clothes before and after killing Victor "a move so ballsy and so brilliant I actually started giggling the second time they did it". Time magazine writer James Poniewozik said the episode demonstrated how effective Breaking Bad can be even with a minimal amount of dialogue, such as Gus' silence during his scene in the lab, and Jesse's wordlessness throughout the episode as he processed what he had done to Gale. He also praised the color scheme of the blood-red meth lab as an illustrator of Walter and Jesse's descent into hell. Entertainment Weekly writer Ken Tucker said of the episode, "Its eloquent silences, its breath-taking pictorial compositions ... these are pleasures that transcend 98% of television's usual attempts at dirty realism or fashionable pessimism". Kim Potts of TV Squad called Gus' killing of Victor "one of the more jarring scenes in Breaking Bad history". The Faster Times writer Craig McQuinn called it "one of the most intense episodes I've ever seen", and said it solidified Gus' standing as "one of the greatest TV antagonists I've ever seen". Matt Zoller Seitz of Salon.com compared the filmmaking in "Box Cutter" to that of works by Alfred Hitchcock and the Coen brothers, and called the best example of television's ability to "take an elastic approach to narrative and let certain incidents or moments expand to fill up most or all of an episode" since "The Suitcase", an episode of the television series Mad Men. Seth Amitin of IGN called it a minimalist, deliberately paced episode but said it was never boring due to the excellent acting, dialogue, and suspense which illustrates "just how quickly this show lost its innocence". He also said the subplots involving Skyler, Hank, and Marie kept the episode's pace well. Los Angeles Times writer Emily VanDerWerff praised the performance of Aaron Paul despite his almost complete lack of dialogue throughout the episode and felt the script raised interesting contrasts between Walt, who acts impulsively and rash while captured, and Gus, who seems calm and in control. However, she said it felt like Victor was killed rather than Walter or Jesse simply because the writers could not kill the two main protagonists. Michael Arbeiter of Hollywood.com called it a "great and intriguing way to start the season" and particularly praised Aaron Paul, who he said was "phenomenal" despite barely speaking any dialogue in the episode. However, he had "mixed feelings" about the Gus character's evolution from a behind-the-scenes criminal to a hands-on killer. Jessica Johnson of Time Out Chicago called it an "exquisite exercise in tension" that builds a "slow crescendo of what looks to be an impressively strong season". Andy Vineberg of the Bucks County Courier Times called it "a great start for a show that just keeps getting better". He praised the dark humor that kept the tension of the show balanced and particularly complimented the pre-credits scene and the ramifications it had for the show and its characters. RedEye writer Curt Wagner found that the cinematography, pacing and tension were so effective in "Box Cutter", that "I think I broke a sweat just watching". Paste magazine writer Brent Koepp praised the transformation of Walter, and said few other shows would risk making their protagonist so unlikeable. Koepp called the climactic scene with Gus "brilliant" and complimented the script for taking its time in building the tension. Matt Richenthal of TV Fanatic praised the episode for its effectiveness in scenes featuring little dialogue, particularly with Jesse and Gus, claiming, "No show does silence like Breaking Bad." He also complimented Cranston's desperate monologue while trying to convince Gus not to kill him, claiming it provided a deep insight into Walt's character and his inability to accept responsibility for his actions. Zap2it writer Rick Porter called the scene with Gus killing Victor a "master class in building tension" due to the strong writing, direction and acting, particularly by Esposito. Scott Wampler of Collider.com called it "a fantastic, bloody, shocking season premiere, one of the best in the show's history". He particularly praised Esposito's performance and suggested it could make the actor worthy of contention for an Emmy Award. BlackBook magazine writer Chris Mohney strongly praised Esposito's performance, and described his silence and calm during the climactic scene as "one of the great recent moments of TV menace". June Thomas of Slate magazine called it a "fine opening episode" that did not advance the plot significantly but "served as an artful reminder of where the characters stand psychologically". Thomas said she believed the episode demonstrated that Walter is in fact a weak man, comparing his useless pleas to Gus to his ineffective attempts to mislead Skyler about his drug-manufacturing activities in earlier seasons. Not all reviews were positive. Jessica Grose, also of Slate magazine, said while she prefers episodes that mixed its darker aspects with black humor, "Box Cutter" was "all claustrophobia and fear". The Philadelphia Inquirer columnist David Hiltbrand condemned the violent scene with Victor's death, which he called "totally gratuitous ... serv[ing] no plot or character purpose". In 2019 The Ringer ranked "Box Cutter" as the 5th best out of the 62 total Breaking Bad episodes.
72,159,599	2022 Bahamas Bowl	1,170,719,015	Postseason college football bowl game	[ "2022 in Bahamian sport", "2022–23 NCAA football bowl games", "Bahamas Bowl", "Miami RedHawks football bowl games", "UAB Blazers football bowl games" ]	The 2022 Bahamas Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 16, 2022, at Thomas Robinson Stadium in Nassau, Bahamas. The eighth annual Bahamas Bowl, the game featured the UAB Blazers, from Conference USA, and the Miami RedHawks, from the Mid-American Conference. The game began at 11:35 a.m. EST and aired on ESPN. It was the first of the 2022–23 bowl games concluding the 2022 FBS football season. Sponsored by mortgage lender HomeTown Lenders, it was officially known as the HomeTown Lenders Bahamas Bowl. UAB's offense started the game well, scoring on both of their first two drives with a 10-yard touchdown pass on the first and a 42-yard field goal on the second. Miami, after punting on three of their first four drives, put together a 65-yard touchdown drive that concluded with 34 seconds remaining in the second quarter, though they trailed by four points at the half due to a blocked extra point. After forcing UAB's offense into a turnover on downs to begin the third quarter, Miami went three-and-out and punted but recovered the ball on the UAB 4-yard-line after the punt was muffed by UAB, allowing them to score on their next play. The teams traded touchdowns to begin the fourth quarter, and Miami missed a field goal after recovering a UAB fumble on UAB's 28-yard-line. UAB scored a touchdown on their ensuing drive, and Miami was unable to respond, as they came up two yards short of the end zone on the game's final play, securing a 24–20 win for UAB. ## Teams The Bahamas Bowl featured the UAB Blazers, from Conference USA (C–USA), and the Miami RedHawks, from the Mid-American Conference (MAC). This was the first meeting between UAB and Miami. ### UAB After six years leading the UAB football program, head coach Bill Clark resigned in June 2022, leading the university to elevate offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Bryant Vincent to the role of interim head coach for the 2022 season. Vincent's first game in charge saw the Blazers host Alabama A&M, whom they defeated in a 59–0 shutout. UAB fell to Liberty in their first road game but returned home to beat Georgia Southern by two scores the following week. After a bye week, the Blazers began conference play with a road trip to Rice but fell by four points. The Blazers responded with their first two conference wins, both at home: against Middle Tennessee, by 27 points, and over Charlotte, by 14 points. UAB then lost consecutive road games against Western Kentucky and Florida Atlantic, each by a field goal. Their losing skid continued as they lost to UTSA by six points in double overtime, though they rebounded the following week with a win against North Texas. After suffering a 31-point loss in their final non-conference game at No. 6 LSU, UAB earned their sixth win and bowl eligibility in their final regular season contest at Louisiana Tech. They accepted their Bahamas Bowl bid on November 26; they entered the game with a record of 6–6 and a 4–4 mark in C–USA play. This was the sixth bowl appearance for UAB, who were 2–3 in prior appearances. It was the second Bahamas Bowl appearance for the Blazers after losing the 2017 edition to Ohio by a score of 41–6; the Blazers will join Middle Tennessee and Toledo as the only teams to play in multiple Bahamas Bowls. In addition, this bowl was UAB's final game as a member of Conference USA before moving to the American Athletic Conference in 2023. ### Miami The Miami RedHawks began head coach Chuck Martin's ninth season at the helm with all four of their non-conference games played consecutively, starting with a road trip to Kentucky that resulted in a loss for Miami by 24 points. They defeated FCS Robert Morris in their home opener before traveling to rivals Cincinnati, where they lost by three touchdowns. The RedHawks returned to .500 to close out non-conference play with a defeat of Northwestern on the road by three points. They continued their pattern of alternating wins and losses as they entered MAC play to begin the month of October, falling to Buffalo before returning home to defeat Kent State. Miami lost two consecutive games for the first time starting the next week, as both Bowling Green and Western Michigan got the best of the RedHawks, dropping them to 3–5. They earned a second conference win at Akron to finish October but dropped their sixth game at home to Ohio following a bye week. Needing two wins in their final two games in order to make a bowl game, they defeated Northern Illinois and entered the game against Ball State with an identical record to that of the Cardinals. It was announced prior to the start of the game that the winner would receive a bid to the Bahamas Bowl, and Miami won 18–17 in a 4th quarter comeback to achieve bowl eligibility. Miami entered the game with a record of 6–6, and a 4–4 mark in MAC play. This was the fourteenth bowl appearance for Miami, who were 8–5 in prior appearances; their last bowl game was the 2021 Frisco Football Classic. It was their fourth bowl appearance under Chuck Martin, under whom the RedHawks had won one bowl and lost two. It was the first Bahamas Bowl appearance for the RedHawks. ## Game summary The Bahamas Bowl was televised by ESPN, and had a commentary team of Steve Levy, Joey Galloway, and Kris Budden. The ESPN Radio broadcast featured commentators Kevin Winter and Freddie Coleman. The game's Mountain West Conference officiating crew was led by referee Tim Davis and umpire Rico Orsot. Played at Thomas Robinson Stadium in Nassau, Bahamas, the game's weather at kickoff was sunny with a temperature of 81 °F (27 °C). ### First half Scheduled for an 11:30 a.m. EST start, the Bahamas Bowl began at 11:35 a.m. with Reese Burkhardt's opening kickoff resulting in a touchback, and Miami began their first possession at their own 25-yard-line. They gained a first down on their first play, as quarterback Aveon Smith passed to wide receiver Jack Coldiron for a 15-yard gain, and the RedHawks converted a third down with another 15-yard pass a few plays later. This gave them 1st & 10 at the UAB 40-yard-line, but a trio of rushes gaining a total of eight yards forced a decision by the coaching staff on 4th & 2. They opted to go for it but were unsuccessful after Smith's pass to Kevin Davis was incomplete. This turnover on downs gave UAB the ball at their own 32-yard-line, and the Blazers started their first drive with a 46-yard pass from Dylan Hopkins to Trea Shropshire. They entered the red zone on the next play with a 4-yard pass to the Miami 18-yard-line. Several plays later, on 2nd & Goal, Hopkins passed to Shropshire again for a 10-yard-touchdown, giving the Blazers the first points of the game. Placekicker Matt Quinn converted the extra point to make it 7–0 UAB. Another touchback gave Miami the ball at their own 25-yard-line to begin again, but their offense was less successful this time around as they gained only four yards and went three-and-out, with Dom Dzioban's punt fair caught at the UAB 30-yard-line. The Blazers offense saw success again on their first play; despite only gaining five yards, another fifteen were added due to an unnecessary roughness penalty called against Miami's Ja'Von Kimpson. This put the ball at midfield, and UAB picked up two first downs within the next five plays. They reached the Miami 26-yard-line before facing 3rd & 9, which they did not convert; Quinn made a 42-yard field goal on fourth down to conclude the drive and push UAB's lead to ten points. Miami's third drive of the game started with a pair of rushes for four and three yards, respectively, but a sack by Nikia Eason Jr. on Smith lost the RedHawks seven yards and forced their second punt of the game on 4th & 10. A return of no gain put the ball on the UAB 32-yard-line. The Blazers offense started quickly again, with back-to-back first downs to begin the drive on a 16-yard pass and a defensive holding penalty, putting them in Miami territory. A 2-yard rush by Lee Witherspoon put the ball on the Miami 40-yard-line and ended the game's first quarter. UAB converted 3rd & 2 with a 3-yard Hopkins rush within the first few plays of the second quarter. They faced 2nd & 7 from the Miami 28-yard-line after the next play but turned the ball over on downs after three consecutive incomplete passes from Hopkins. Miami moved the ball into UAB territory, reaching the Blazers 45-yard-line, before two sacks in the next three plays set them at 4th & 16 from their own 49-yard-line. The punt resulted in a touchback, giving UAB the ball at their own 20-yard-line, though a false start immediately set them back to the 15-yard-line. They were pushed back further when quarterback Jacob Zeno was sacked by Nolan Johnson for a loss of six yards, though UAB converted 3rd & 19 a few plays later with a 48-yard pass from Zeno to Shropshire. A pair of incomplete passes made it 3rd & 10, and a sack then forced a punt by Kyle Greenwell, which was returned to the Miami 35-yard-line. Miami's ensuing drive proved to be their most successful to that point; after earning a first down on the drive's second play, they faced a 4th & 1 but converted it with a 2-yard rush from Smith. After reaching the UAB 35-yard-line, they faced another 4th & 1 four plays later and converted this one with another Smith 2-yard rush. On the following play, Smith passed to Mac Hippenhammer for a 33-yard touchdown, though Graham Nicholson's extra point attempt was blocked. Inheriting possession with 34 seconds left in the first half, UAB moved the ball 21 yards before attempting a Hail Mary pass with three seconds left. The pass was intercepted by Rowan Zolman, ending the half. ### Second half UAB started the third quarter with possession of the ball on their own 25-yard-line. A 15-yard pass from Hopkins to Dexter Boykin on their second play gave them a first down, and a 14-yard Hopkins-to-Shropshire three plays later converted a 3rd & 12 and put the ball in Miami territory. An unsportsmanlike conduct foul on Shropshire moved the ball back to the UAB 38-yard-line on the next play, though an offside penalty on Miami and a 6-yard rush by Jermaine Brown Jr. gave the Blazers a first down at the UAB 49-yard-line. They crossed midfield on the next play, but stalled from there on as an incomplete pass on 4th & 7 resulted in a turnover on downs. Inheriting possession on their own 38-yard-line, Miami's offense was unable to find success after a sack on second down and punted on 4th & 6; however, the punt was muffed by UAB's Starling Thomas V and recovered by Miami's Ambe' Caldwell on the UAB 4-yard-line. Kevin Davis scored on the next play, giving Miami their first lead of the game. The ensuing kickoff resulted in a touchback, and UAB took over on the 25-yard-line. Two rushes by Brown earned the Blazers a first down, and they gained another three plays later with a pass from Hopkins to Fred Farrier II. Two more first downs followed as UAB drove down the field, and they reached the Miami 16-yard-line before a loss of two yards on a Brown rush ended the third quarter. The fourth quarter started with a 12-yard pass from Hopkins to Farrier, putting UAB inside the Miami 10-yard-line. Two 3-yard rushes by Brown got the Blazers into the end zone with thirteen and a half minutes to play, and Matt Quinn's extra point bumped their lead to four points. Miami moved the ball into UAB territory in three plays on their ensuing drive, with a pair of passes by Smith and a rush by Tyre Shelton. A Keyon Mozee rush gained the RedHawks an additional ten yards, and Smith rushed for two yards on 3rd & 1 a few plays later to earn another first down for Miami. A Shelton rush for nine yards got Miami into the red zone, and Smith passed to Kenny Tracy for a 10-yard touchdown three plays later to give the RedHawks the lead by three points. UAB's next drive was cut short; after a 2-yard rush on first down, Brown fumbled on second down and the ball was recovered by Miami's Matthew Salopek at the UAB 28-yard-line with 5:45 remaining in the game. The RedHawks started on the ground with a Kevin Davis rush, though it was stopped for a loss of two yards, and they were unable to gain yards on their next two plays. This set up a 47-yard field goal attempt by Nicholson, which was missed wide right, giving the ball back to UAB at their own 30-yard-line with four minutes remaining. UAB took immediate advantage of this miscue as Hopkins passed to Shropshire for a 49-yard gain on the next play, advancing the ball to the Miami 21-yard-line. Three Jermaine Brown Jr. rushes in a row gained a total of nine yards, and Brown rushed up the middle for a 12-yard touchdown on 4th & 1. Along with Quinn's extra point that followed, this put UAB in the lead by four points with 91 seconds on the clock. Miami quickly faced a fourth down in their ensuing drive, having gained only five yards in their first three plays, but a 7-yard Smith rush gave Miami a first down at their own 37-yard-line. After a gain of six on their next play, Miami's offense again stalled and faced 4th & 4 several plays later. They converted this as well, with a 12-yard pass, and made it to the UAB 30-yard-line with one second remaining, giving them the opportunity to run one final play. A facemask penalty moved the ball spot up to the UAB 15-yard-line, but a pass from Smith to Jalen Walker came up two yards short of the end zone as time ran out. The game ended at 2:54 p.m., after a total duration of three hours and 18 minutes, with UAB having won 24–20. ### Scoring summary ## Statistics
39,033,961	Frank Tarr	1,133,912,729	English rugby union footballer	[ "1887 births", "1915 deaths", "Alumni of University College, Oxford", "British Army personnel of World War I", "British military personnel killed in World War I", "Burials at Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm) Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery", "England international rugby union players", "Leicester Tigers players", "Military personnel from Derbyshire", "Oxford University RFC players", "People from Ironville", "Richmond F.C. players", "Royal Leicestershire Regiment officers", "Rugby union centres", "Rugby union players from Derbyshire", "Rugby union players from Leicester" ]	Francis Nathaniel Tarr (14 August 1887 – 18 July 1915) was an English international rugby union player. He played centre for the Leicester Tigers and, between 1909 and 1913, won four caps for England, scoring two tries. He also earned three Blues while reading law at Oxford. He later became a solicitor in Leicester before volunteering for overseas service during the First World War. He was killed in July 1915 near Ypres on the Western Front, after being hit by a shell splinter while serving as a lieutenant in the 1/4th Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment. Tarr was one of 27 former England internationals killed in the war. ## Early life Born on 14 August 1887 at Ironville, near Belper, Derbyshire, Frank Tarr was the only son of Frederick and Emma Tarr. His father was a coal merchant. He was educated at Stoneygate School, Leicester, where he began playing rugby, before moving up to Uppingham School in 1902, where he was Captain of Games and played three-quarter in the rugby team for two years, encountering a future Oxford and England teammate Ronald Poulton-Palmer playing for Rugby School. From 1906 to 1910 he read law at University College, Oxford. ## Rugby career In his first season at Oxford, Tarr played for the 'A' team, which also included another future England player Anthony Henniker-Gotley. He was later selected for the senior team and gained three Blues from 1907 to 1909. He won his first Blue in the 1907 Varsity Match on 10 December, alongside Henry Vassall. Cambridge, with some notable international players on the team, were the clear favourites on the day. After they won the toss and elected to kick off with the wind behind them, the majority of the first 40 minutes was played in Oxford's half, much of it in their 25. Yet Cambridge failed to break through Oxford's defence, chiefly that of the centres Vassall and Tarr. Just before half time, with a scrum deep in Oxford's half, Rupert Williamson fed George Cunningham. The ball came to Tarr, who drew his opposite man, K. G. Macleod, and timed his pass to Vassall so that he, in turn, drew the Cambridge left wing near the half-way line and put H. Martin to run in a try from there. Oxford went on to win 16–0. With Oxford having won the Varsity Match in 1906 and again in 1907, Harold Hodges, the Oxford captain, was inclined to keep the winning three-quarter line for 1908, including the centre combination of Vassall and Tarr. One of that year's freshers was Tennant Sloan, a capped Scottish centre, who chose to try out for full back, realising that he was unlikely to be picked ahead of either of the incumbent centres. Vassall and Tarr had excellent ball handling skills, were quick around the field and fine decision makers; Tarr was also a formidable tackler. Ronnie Poulton played several games for Oxford ahead of the Varsity Match but it was clear that Hodges preferred the Vassall-Tarr pairing and Poulton only played when Vassall was injured, as he did in the 20–0 defeat of Richmond RFC. On 12 December, the 1908 Varsity Match resulted in a hard-fought 5–5 draw, the Cambridge pack having improved considerably since the previous year. As it turned out, Vassall's persistent ankle injury rendered him useless just five minutes into the game. The Times noted Tarr's performance saying: "FN Tarr, at left centre three-quarter, gave a magnificent display of defensive play." Tarr earned his first England cap on 9 January 1909 against the touring Australians at Rectory Field, Blackheath. His opportunity came up with both Vassall and John Birkett injured. Also earning their first caps that day were Edgar Mobbs on the right wing and Alex Ashcroft, of Cambridge University, at fly-half. England took an early lead, when Tarr put Mobbs in for a try in the opening stages. That try has been described by his contemporary, rugby journalist and author E. H. D. Sewell, as being "one of the very best ever scored, being perfect in execution from the moment Tarr first received the ball to the moment Mobbs touched it down for a try." However, Australia took control of the game to win 9–3. Tarr was selected to play Wales the following week in Cardiff. Although England played better than expected, Wales were favourites to win and beat the visitors 8–0. Two weeks later, on 30 January, England played France with a half back combination of Frank Hutchinson, earning his first cap, and Williamson; Poulton making his debut at centre alongside Tarr; and Mobbs and Tom Simpson on the wings. France was not yet part of what was to become the Five Nations tournament (now the Six Nations) and was a relatively easy side to play. England won the game comfortably 22–0, with Tarr scoring two tries, one through good interplay with Mobbs and the other, a fine individual run. Despite the tries, Tarr was dropped from the England squad. For the 1909 Varsity Match, Cunningham announced his choice of Poulton at a meeting on 2 December which Vassall was unable to attend. Cunningham sent him a letter by hand informing him of the decision. When the note returned undelivered, Cunningham hesitated, at which point Tarr offered to give up his own place for Poulton but Cunningham stuck to his initial selection. The game was played on 11 December, with Oxford at the start having the worse of it until one moment turned the game around: after the Oxford forwards got the ball back, Gotley, at scrum-half, sent the ball to Cunningham, who passed on to Tarr and he to his fellow centre Colin Gilray. He fed the ball to Poulton on the left wing still inside the Oxford half. Poulton then broke through the defence to score under the posts. With Oxford eight points ahead at the end of the first quarter, Tarr was forced off the field after breaking his collarbone making a tackle, and missed much of what was described by referee F.C. Potter-Irwin as "the fastest and most spectacular Varsity Match he had ever witnessed". Oxford beat Cambridge 23–3, Poulton scoring five tries. After graduating a Bachelor of Arts, Tarr was articled to the solicitors firm of Owston, Dickinson, Simpson, and Bigg in Leicester, and also joined the Leicester Tigers, then as now considered one of the strongest clubs in the country. He scored 72 points in 94 appearances. In 1913, having been dropped by England four years earlier, he was surprised to be called up again to play Scotland on 15 March at Twickenham. Tarr was not at his best and it was to be his last international appearance. England, meanwhile, only managed a 3–0 victory, but it was enough to regain the Calcutta Cup and earn its first Grand Slam. Although Tarr spent the majority of his rugby career with Oxford and Leicester, he is recorded as representing club teams Headingley and Richmond F.C. and also Midland Counties. ### International appearances ## Military service and death While at Oxford, Tarr had served in the Officers' Training Corps, reaching the rank of cadet sergeant. In 1911, he joined the Territorial Force, serving with the 1/4th Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment, as a second lieutenant. In 1913, he was promoted to lieutenant and when war was declared the following year, Tarr enlisted almost immediately, becoming the regiment machine-gun officer. His battalion was deployed to the Western Front with the 46th (North Midland) Division and landed at le Havre, France, on 3 March 1915. Following the Second Battle of Ypres, the battalion's dugouts were located between Lake Zillebeke and the Ypres–Comines railway line south-east of Ypres, Belgium. On the afternoon of 18 July 1915, Tarr, who was the acting adjutant of his battalion and whose name had been put forward for promotion to captain, had gone to the dugouts of the 5th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, towards Zillebeke, to liaise with the adjutant. While the Germans were shelling the position, Tarr put his head out to tell some men to remain under cover when a splinter from a shell struck him in the face, killing him. If it had struck any other part of his body, he would have survived. Tarr was buried in the Railway Dugouts Burial Ground that night, not far from where he was killed. Captain John Milne, in Footprints of the 1/4th Leicestershire Regiment, described Tarr as > "...the most attractive personality in the battalion, young, good-looking, full of charm, with an eye that always had a twinkle in it, a born leader, yet the kindest person possible, a Rugger international, the idol of the machine-gun section, which he commanded before he became adjutant. Everybody was heartbroken, for everybody would miss him they would not look upon his like again...." Tarr was one of 27 England rugby players killed in the First World War. There are memorials to him on the family headstone in Welford Road Cemetery, at Uppingham School, University College, Oxford, the Oxford University rugby club and the Richmond Athletic Ground. ## See also - List of international rugby union players killed in action during the First World War
34,093,650	Hurricane Joanne (1972)	1,171,955,653	Category 2 Pacific hurricane in 1972	[ "1972 Pacific hurricane season", "1972 in Mexico", "1972 natural disasters in the United States", "Category 2 Pacific hurricanes", "Hurricanes in Arizona", "Hurricanes in Baja California", "Hurricanes in Baja California Sur", "Hurricanes in California", "Hurricanes in New Mexico", "Hurricanes in Sonora" ]	Hurricane Joanne was one of four tropical cyclones to bring gale-force winds to the Southwestern United States in the 20th century. A tropical depression developed on September 30, 1972. It then moved west northwest and intensified into a hurricane on October 1. Hurricane Joanne peaked as a Category 2 hurricane, as measured by the modern Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS), October 2. Joanne then slowed and began to re-curve. Joanne made landfall along the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula as a tropical storm. The tropical storm moved inland over Sonora on October 6 and was believed to have survived into Arizona as a tropical storm. In Arizona, many roads were closed and some water rescues had to be performed due to a prolonged period of heavy rains. One person was reportedly killed while another was electrocuted. A few weeks after the hurricane, Arizona would sustain additional flooding and eight additional deaths. ## Meteorological history On September 26, ship reports and satellite imagery indicated an area of squally weather about 300 mi (485 km) south of Guatemala. During September 27 and September 28, the disturbance moved westward. On September 29, the disturbance developed a closed low-level atmospheric circulation. The following day, the system was designated as a tropical storm after a ship reported winds of 45 mph (70 km/h). A Hurricane Hunter aircraft investigated the growing storm on October 1 and estimated maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 km/h), making Joanne a Category 1 hurricane. However, very few ships reported winds greater than 30 mph (50 km/h) at that time. On October 2, the EPHC classified Joanne as a Category 2 system on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Furthermore, Joanne was estimated to have attained its peak intensity of 100 mph (160 km/h). On October 4, Joanne began to recurve, and developed winds of 90 mph (145 km/h). Later that day, the Eastern Pacific Hurricane Center (EPHC) downgraded Joanne into a tropical storm as the system weakened. Accelerating north and later northeast, Joanne made landfall near Laguna Chapala on Baja California while a tropical storm late on October 5 and moved inland over Sonora on the next day. At the time of its second landfall, the EPHC suddenly stopped tracking the storm altogether, although the Weather Prediction Center believes that Joanne moved northeast into western Pima County while still a minimal tropical storm. Thereafter, Joanne was estimated to have weakened to a depression near Ajo and dissipated near Flagstaff. ## Impact The initial disturbance to Joanne brought squally weather to Guatemala. Upon making landfall in Mexico, the highest rainfall total was 9.45 in (240 mm) in San Felipe/Mexicali. Puerto Penasco recorded winds of 50 mph (80 km/h). Further north, Joanne caused heavy surf in California, and brought tropical storm-force winds to the state. Prior to landfall, flash flood watches were issued for the southern portion of the state. Heavy rainfall was reported throughout Arizona. Over 5 inches (100 mm) was measured at the Mogollon Rim. Many areas of the state received between 1 and 3 inches (25 and 76 mm) of rainfall, with isolated locations receiving over 5 inches (130 mm). In Phoenix, .78 in (20 mm) of rain fell in a four-hour period, compared to the October average of .46 in (12 mm). The Nogales Highway Bridge over the Santa Cruz River was washed away by the flooding. Some secondary roads near Tucson were flooded. Numerous water rescues were conducted in central Tucson since several major streets turned into rivers. Severe flooding was recorded in Clifton, Duncan, and Safford. An official in Maricopa County lost track on the exact number of roads that were closed because of the hurricane. Many neighborhoods in northern Phoenix were evacuated early on October 7 when a canal overflowed its banks due to prolonged rainfall. Downtown, a young man was electrocuted when he tried to remove a downed power line that was on his car. Another person was also killed in the city. Following the storm, heavy rain from Joanne set the stage for additional flooding in mid-to late October from a Gulf of Alaska extratropical cyclone that brought more moisture to the area, causing \$10 million (1972 USD) in property damage and eight deaths. Further west in New Mexico, the hurricane produced 2.48 in (63 mm) of precipitation. Hurricane Joanne was one of only four known Pacific hurricanes to bring gale-force winds to the Continental United States in the 20th century, and was the first since the 1939 California tropical storm. According to the National Weather Service, it was the first time in recorded history that a tropical cyclone had brought gale-force winds to Arizona. ## See also - 1939 California tropical storm - Hurricane Kathleen (1976) - Hurricane Nora (1997) - Hurricane Rosa (2018) - Hurricane Hilary (2023)
1,349,037	Kurama (YuYu Hakusho)	1,172,320,218	Fictional character from YuYu Hakusho	[ "Anime and manga characters who can move at superhuman speeds", "Anime and manga characters with superhuman durability or invulnerability", "Anime and manga characters with superhuman strength", "Anime and manga sidekicks", "Anthropomorphic foxes", "Comics characters introduced in 1991", "Fictional Japanese people in anime and manga", "Fictional androgynes", "Fictional blade and dart throwers", "Fictional characters based on real people", "Fictional characters with alter egos", "Fictional characters with energy-manipulation abilities", "Fictional characters with evocation or summoning abilities", "Fictional characters with extrasensory perception", "Fictional characters with plant powers", "Fictional characters with slowed ageing", "Fictional fist-load fighters", "Fictional high school students", "Fictional male martial artists", "Fictional professional thieves", "Fictional whip users", "Fictional yōkai", "Male characters in anime and manga", "Martial artist characters in anime and manga", "Merged fictional characters", "Shapeshifter characters in comics", "Teenage characters in anime and manga", "YuYu Hakusho characters" ]	error: : Japanese or romaji text required (help) is a fictional character from the manga YuYu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi. A Fox Demon (妖狐, Yōko) reborn as the human Shuichi Minamino (南野秀一, Minamino Shūichi) in modern life, is introduced as a thief who stole a supernatural mirror to save his dying mother from death. Although Kurama is initially portrayed as a villain, he becomes a supporting character to aid the protagonist Yusuke Urameshi in the next arc. Across his fights are revealed events from his past life as a demon, into which he becomes able to transform for a limited time. The character has also appeared in the anime adaptation, the two movies, and other related works. Kurama was modeled after a friend that Togashi found interesting. Already during his introduction Togashi planned to have him become an ally to the main characters despite being a villain. As the next arcs, which primarily relieve on action, Kurama became a prominent fighter much to Togashi's pressure since he was not used to writing fighting series. He was voiced by Megumi Ogata in Japanese and Shigeru Nakahara in his demon persona. Several voice actors have voiced Kurama in English. The character was well received by the media often due to his sex appeal and prominent role in the series as a supporting character. Ogata's performance was also the subject of positive response despite early negative backlash by viewers of the anime. ## Creation Kurama was modeled after a friend that manga author Yoshihiro Togashi has. Togashi was impressed by such a person for claiming to be a French aristocrat even though he was Japanese. His name was rumored to be from Mount Kurama. However, Togashi denied it, claiming he applied the kanji to the sounds he chose "based on my senses". In his characterization, Togashi labeled him as "the typical "desu ne (ですね, lit. "It's right")" archetype who is usually polite, but scary when he gets angry. The surname, Minamino, comes from the singer Youko Minamino.There were other surname candidates such as the Japanese celebrities whose first names are also Youko. Meanwhile, the name Kurama's name came to Togashi on the spur of the moment. Although Kurama and Hiei were introduced as enemies that the protagonist Yusuke Urameshi had to fight, Togashi planned from the beginning to turn Kurama into a supporting character afterwards. According to editors from the magazine, Kurama went on to become one of the most popular characters in the series, which Togashi intended due to the way he drew him. As the YuYu Hakusho transitioned from a comedy to a fighting series, Togashi expressed pressure when incorporating Kurama and Hiei as main characters. For the Four Holy Beasts story arc, Togashi made four enemies on impulse, but the only humans were Yusuke and Kuwabara. When it became clear that they were not strong enough to take on two demons each, Hiei and Kurama appeared on the scene, making their introductions as protagonists. There were also many instances where Togashi would create nearly entire manuscripts by himself, such as the battle between Kurama and Karasu. Mari Kitayama finds Kurama to be the easiest of the main characters to design due to his well-proportioned features. ### Casting Kurama was Megumi Ogata's first voice-acting role. She stated that while auditioning it was a requirement by the anime's production company that the character's voice sound like a 17-year-old male but also like that of a member of Takarazuka Revue, an all-female musical theatre group that portrays both men and women. Shigeru Nakahara takes over the role of Kurama for his demon form. For the English adaptation, John Burgmeier voices Kurama in the TV series and first film from the Funimation dubs, Candice Moore in the TV Series from the Animax Asia dub, Chris Orbach for the second film in Central Park Media dub, and David Hayter in the first film from the Anime Works dub. Kurama was also portrayed by Hiroki Suzuki and Jun Shison in the TV drama. ## Appearances ### In YuYu Hakusho Fifteen years before the series began, Kurama is a demon who is badly injured and escapes and enteres an embryo in a pregnant human woman, becoming Shuichi Minamino (南野秀一, Minamino Shūichi) at birth. Kurama comes to love his now-single human mother, and when she becomes gravely ill he cannot bear to leave her all alone and remains as Shuichi. Having teamed up with two other demons named Hiei and Goki to steal three treasures, Kurama becomes a target of the protagonist detective Yusuke Urameshi. However, he betrays his partners and takes the a treasure known as the Mirror of Darkness (暗黒鏡, Ankoku-Kyō, known as the "Forlorn Hope" in the English anime dub), a mirror capable of granting the user's desire at the cost of the user's life, to cure his mother of her deadly illness. Yusuke saves Kurama's life with both of them giving some of their lifeforces, therefore they both survive. In the anime, the mirror cancels the sacrifice due to Yusuke's kindness. He begins assisting Yusuke in defeating the entities known as The Four Beasts in exchange for a reduced sentence for his crime. For associating with humans, Kurama and Hiei are invited to take part in the Dark Tournament on Yusuke and Kuwabara's team. Kurama uses his demonic powers to control plants, including his signature weapon the error: : Japanese or romaji text required (help), a rose he turns into a whip of thorns capable of cutting through steel. During the Dark Tournament story arc, Kurama is able to temporarily revert to his original form; Fox Demon Kurama ("Yoko Kurama" in the English anime). As Demon Kurama, his powers are far greater and he is capable of creating demonic plants which possess various attributes and highly formidable powers. Following their victory against Toguro's team, Kurama becomes intrigued by a video that consists of mankind's crimes stolen by the rebellious Shinobu Sensui. After watching Yusuke's death by Sensui, Kurama's old demon powers awaken. He is invited to the Demon Plane to join his old partner Yomi and becomes his second in command. He takes part in the Demon Plane Unification Tournament, losing in the third round. At the end of the series, he is shown working at his stepfather's company. ### In other media Kurama appears as a supporting character in Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie on a mission to rescue Koenma who was taken by the demons Koashura and Garuga. The second film, Yu Yu Hakusho the Movie: Poltergeist Report, Kurama battles the Netherworld's forces. Kurama faces one of Yakumo's servants who impersonates one of his deceased friends Kuronue. On finding out about the impersonation and that henchman had tried to pervert the friendship between him and Kuronue, an enraged Kurama summons a whole forest of sharp-edged bamboo which pierces the imposter and kills him. Kurama later assists Yusuke in his final battle against Yakumo, restoring order they destroyed in the process. A spin-off was also written which shows the first meeting of Kurama and Hiei and how they become allies before the series' start. The character is also playable in multiple video games including Yu Yu Hakusho Makyō Tōitsusen, Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament and Yu Yu Hakusho: Tournament Tactics. ## Reception Kurama is a popular character with fans, coming in third and second place in the series' first two popularity polls. He came in second in the American Shonen Jump poll. In Animage's Anime Grand Prix, he was ranked as the third most popular male anime character of 1993 and the most popular male character in both 1994 and 1995. His alternate demon form was ranked sixteenth in 1994. Demon Kurama additionally won About.com's "Best Supporting Character" in its 2005 Anime Award Show. Kurama was also ranked the third best male anime character of the 1990s by Newtype. In an "Anime! Anime!" poll, Kurama was rated as the most popular character voiced by Megumi Ogata. In Japanese website goo poll, Kurama was voted as the fourth most sexually appealing character in Shonen Jump. In another poll from Goo, Kurama was voted as the most beautiful of men with long hair. Manga author Masashi Kishimoto was mainly inspired to create the Naruto character with the same name, Kurama, based on Togashi's character. Kurama and Hiei's popularity in the series led to demand to introduce their characters earlier in the anime. However, the fact that Kurama was voiced by woman rather than a man generated controversy in Japan when the series first aired. Director Noriyuki Abe said it must have been a lot of pressure on Ogata. However, as the anime went on, the actor's charms were brought out and more fans were born rather those who disliked it. Animerica's Justin Kovalsky found Kurama and the others as suitable supporting characters for a fighting anime. THEM Anime Reviews found Kurama appealing especially when interacting with Hiei. Comic Book Resources also enjoyed Kurama's characterization most notably when fighting in the Dark Tournament due to his darker side being exposed when becoming his past demon persona as well as his several styles of fighting. Anime News Network favorited Kurama's tactics in the early episodes of the Black Chapter arc for standing out as one of the most intelligent characters. Despite the Three Kings arc being panned for being the series' worst story arc, Anime News Network praised it for exploring more of Kurama's dark characterization. DVD Talk agreed for the bigger focus on Kurama's character that was briefly explored in previous arcs. Fandom Post liked the balance that both Kurama and Hiei's sidestories bring to Yusuke's in the final arc but felt they were overshadowed by Hiei's side as the series had not properly explored his backstory before.
37,730,674	Revolt of the Lash	1,173,169,988	1910 naval incident that occurred in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	[ "1910 in Brazil", "Conflicts in 1910", "First Brazilian Republic", "Maritime incidents in Brazil", "Military discipline", "Military history of Brazil", "Naval mutinies", "November 1910 events", "Rebellions in Brazil" ]	The Revolt of the Lash (Portuguese: Revolta da Chibata) was a naval mutiny in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in late November 1910. It was the direct result of the use of whips ("lashes") by white naval officers when punishing Afro-Brazilian and mixed-race enlisted sailors. At the beginning of the new century rising demand for coffee and rubber enabled Brazilian politicians to attempt to transform their country into an international power. A key part of this would come from modernizing the Brazilian Navy, which had been neglected since the coup, by purchasing battleships of the new "dreadnought" type. Social conditions in the Brazilian Navy, however, did not keep pace with this new technology. Elite white officers were in charge of mostly black and mixed-race crewmen, many of whom had been forced into the navy on long-term contracts. These officers frequently inflicted corporal punishment on the crewmen for major and minor offenses alike despite the practice's ban in most other countries and in the rest of Brazil. As a result of this violence, sailors launched a carefully planned and executed mutiny in Rio de Janeiro on 22 November 1910. Led by João Cândido Felisberto, these men managed to take control of both dreadnoughts, one brand-new cruiser, and an older coastal-defense ship, giving them firepower that dwarfed the rest of the navy. To capitalize on the threat these ships posed to the Brazilian capital, the mutineers sent a letter to the government that demanded an end to what they called the "slavery" being practiced by the navy. While the executive branch of the government plotted to retake or sink the rebelling warships, they were hampered by personnel distrust and equipment problems; historians have since cast doubt on their chances of successfully accomplishing either. At the same time, Congress—led by Senator Rui Barbosa—pursued a route of amnesty, appointing a former navy captain as their liaison to the rebels. This latter route was successful, and a bill granting amnesty to all involved and ending the use of corporal punishment passed the lower house by a veto-proof margin. However, many of the sailors involved were quickly discharged from the navy, and many of the original mutineers were later thrown into jail or sent to rubber collecting regions in the Brazilian Amazon. ## Background In the years preceding the revolt, the Brazilian populace saw frequent changes in the country's political, economic, and social climate. For example, in May 1888, slavery in Brazil was abolished with the enactment into law of the Lei Áurea, a law vehemently opposed by the Brazilian upper class and plantation owners. This discontent among the social elite directly led to a peaceful coup spearheaded by the army and led by Benjamin Constant and Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca. Emperor Pedro II and his family were quickly and quietly sent into exile in Europe; they were replaced with a titular republic with Fonseca as president. The next decade was marked by several rebellions against the new political order, including naval revolts (1891, 1893–94), the Federalist Rebellion (1893–95), the War of Canudos (1896–97), and the Vaccine Revolt (1904), during which the quality of the Brazilian Navy severely declined relative to its neighbors thanks to an Argentine–Chilean naval arms race. By the turn of the twentieth century, an antiquated Brazilian naval fleet with just forty-five percent of its authorized personnel (in 1896) and only two modern armored warships could be faced by Argentine and Chilean navies filled with ships ordered in the last decade. However, at the dawn of the new century, rising demand for coffee and rubber gave the Brazilian government an influx of revenue. Contemporary writers estimated that seventy-five to eighty percent of the world's coffee supply was grown in Brazil. Prominent Brazilian politicians, most notably Pinheiro Machado and the Baron of Rio Branco, moved to have the country recognized as an international power, as they believed that the short-term windfall would continue. A strong navy was seen as crucial to this goal. The National Congress of Brazil drew up and passed a large naval acquisition program in late 1904, but it was two years before any ships were ordered. While they first ordered three small battleships, the launch of the revolutionary British HMS Dreadnought—which heralded a new and powerful type of warship—caused the Brazilians to cancel their order in favor of two dreadnoughts. These ships would be named Minas Geraes and São Paulo, and would be accompanied by two smaller cruisers, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul, and ten destroyers of the Pará class. ### Conditions in the navy This technological modernization in the Brazilian Navy was not matched by social change, and tensions between the navy's officer corps versus the regular crewmembers kindled much unrest. A quote from the Baron of Rio Branco, the esteemed politician and professional diplomat, shows one of the sources of tension: "For the recruitment of marines and enlisted men, we bring aboard the dregs of our urban centers, the most worthless lumpen, without preparation of any sort. Ex-slaves and the sons of slaves make up our ships' crews, most of them dark-skinned or dark-skinned mulattos." Racial differences in the Brazilian Navy would have been immediately apparent to an observer at the time: the officers in charge of the ship were nearly all white, while the crews were heavily black or, to a lesser extent, mixed-race. The visual differences belied deeper distinctions: darker-skinned crewmen, who by the time of the revolt would have been older slaves freed under the Lei Áurea (or sons born free under the 1871 Law of the Free Womb), were almost universally less educated than their white overseers. The navy, along with other military branches, served as dumping grounds for thousands of young, poverty-stricken, sometimes orphaned black individuals who were stuck in the 'dregs' of Brazil's cities. Many had committed or were suspected of committing crimes—though those not in legal trouble were far from safe, as some recruits were seized off the streets or simply on the losing end of settling a personal score. Such measures served as a "perfect marriage of punishment and reform": people who had or were likely to commit crimes would be removed from society and trained in skills that would benefit the country. These men were commonly sent to the navy, apprenticed around the age of 14, and bound to the navy for fifteen years. João Cândido Felisberto, a leader in the later Revolt of the Lash, was apprenticed at age 13 and joined the navy at 16. Individuals forced into the navy served for twelve years. Volunteers, who perhaps unsurprisingly made up a very low percentage of recruits, signed on for nine years. Another point of contention came from the navy's heavy use of corporal punishment for even minor offenses. While such measures had been banned in the general population since the Imperial Constitution of 1824 and in the army since 1874, the navy was only affected in November 1889, when the new republic's legislature forbade such discipline. They rescinded the law less than a year later amid widespread noncompliance. Instead, corporal punishment would only be allowed in a Companhia Correcional (Correctional Company). The legislature envisioned this as a curb on the practice, as only sailors with violent or subversive histories would face the lash. The reality was very different: because the companies existed anywhere on the ships, any sailor could be theoretically transferred to the Companhia Correcional but not have any change in their daily routines. Most of the Brazilian Navy's officer corps believed that corporal punishment was an essential tool in maintaining discipline on their ships. An anonymous Brazilian admiral, representative of his time, wrote in 1961 that "... our seamen of that time, lacking the moral and intellectual requirements for appreciating the debasing aspects of the punishment [whipping], accepted it naturally, as an opportunity to show their physical and moral superiority. ... All this is ... understandable in the face of the backward mentality and ignorance of the personnel that composed the ship's crews." ## Rebellion ### Preparations and prelude Crewmen aboard Minas Geraes began planning for a revolt years before 1910, according to João Cândido Felisberto, an experienced sailor who would later become the leader of the Revolt of the Lash. The conspirators were motivated by the treatment of enlisted men in the Brazilian Navy, extending beyond the lash to even their substandard food, which led to not-uncommon outbreaks of beriberi. Some had formed a committee and had been meeting secretly for years in Rio de Janeiro. This semi-formal organization was only expanded when they were sent to Newcastle in the United Kingdom for training—the operation of such large and complex warships required specific skills. When interviewed years after the mutiny, Felisberto said that they "maintained the committees in the very hotels where we were residing, awaiting the construction of the ships. Almost two years paid by the Brazilian government, we sent messengers to sound out the situation here [in Brazil]. We did this so that when we arrive, we would be prepared to act"—they were just "waiting for a date and for power," referring to the brand-new warships. The experience of these crewmen in the United Kingdom was such that historian Zachary Morgan believes that it was a pivotal formative period in shaping the later mutiny. The sailors were paid on time, in cash, and received extra money because they had to buy their own meals; during their time there they faced little if any discrimination; and the Armstrong shipyard workers unionized and even successfully went on strike in the meantime, delaying the completion of the new Brazilian warships. Moreover, they were able to observe their British Royal Navy counterparts—an experience that Morgan says would have been "jarring" because these sailors "were no longer impressed, no longer lashed, [and] were accepted as citizens." The revolt started shortly after the brutal 250 lashes given to Marcelino Rodrigues Menezes, a regular Afro-Brazilian enlisted sailor, for deliberately injuring a fellow seaman with a shaving razor. There is some scholarly disagreement on if this number is correct and exactly when this sentence was carried out, but all agree that it was the immediate catalyst. A later Brazilian government observer, former navy captain José Carlos de Carvalho, told the president of Brazil that Menezes' back looked like "a mullet sliced open for salting." ### Mutiny A significant percentage of the naval crewmen stationed in Rio de Janeiro, perhaps 1,500 to 2,000 out of 4,000, revolted at around 10 pm on 22 November. They began on Minas Geraes, where the ship's commander and several loyal crewmen were killed, and the gunfire on board the dreadnought alerted the other ships in the harbor that the revolt had begun. By midnight, the rebels had São Paulo, the new cruiser Bahia, and the coast-defense ship Deodoro all under control, with the "Admiral" João Cândido Felisberto in overall command. The crews of the smaller minelayer República, the training ship Benjamin Constant, and the torpedo boats Tamoio and Tymbira all revolted as well, but they made up only two percent of the overall mutineers. The majority of República's crew left to bolster São Paulo and Deodoro; those aboard the other ships either joined with the rebels or fled ashore. While most officers were allowed to peacefully leave their ships after the uprisings began, there were notable exceptions: on Minas Geraes, for instance, officers on board had time to draw their weapons and defend themselves. The ship's captain, , was killed in the fighting along with several loyal and rebel crewmen. Other bloodshed was much more limited: on the cruiser Bahia, the only officer present was killed after he shot a rebel crewman, and one lieutenant on São Paulo killed himself. Civilian technicians (some of them British), machinists, and other personnel integral to the warships were kept aboard without violence. By the end of the evening, key warships that remained in government hands included Bahia's sister Rio Grande do Sul, the aging cruiser Almirante Barroso, and the new destroyers of the Pará class. Their potential power, however, was dwarfed by the dreadnoughts—each of which outgunned all of the warships alone—and was severely tempered by personnel issues. First, naval officers were suspicious of even the enlisted men who remained loyal to the government. Officers took over all of the positions that would be involved in direct combat, and the numbers of enlisted men were reduced wherever possible. Further complicating matters were missing weapon components, such as firing caps for the destroyers' torpedoes, without which they could not be fired. When caps were finally located and delivered, they did not fit the newer torpedoes carried by the destroyers. The correct caps were only fitted two days after the revolt began. Before midnight on 22 November, the rebels sent a telegraph to the president, reading "We do not want the return of the chibata [lash]. This we ask the President of the republic and the Minister of the Navy. We want an immediate response. If we do not receive such a response, we will destroy the city and the ships that are not revolting." Fonseca, however, refused to allow any direct contact between himself and the mutineers. Instead, the rebel force moved to Ilha do Viana at 1 am on 23 November to coal and take on supplies to guard against the possibility of an extended siege. After the sun rose, the bodies of the dead sailors from Minas Geraes were sent on a launch to Ilha das Cobras, along with a letter from João Cândido Felisberto—who was in command of the rebel armada—and his fellow sailors to the Brazilian president Hermes da Fonseca, the nephew of the first president who had been in office for only one week. It included a demand for the end of the 'slavery' being practiced by the navy—most notably the continued use of the lash despite its ban in every other Western nation: > We, as sailors, Brazilian citizens, and supporters of the republic, can no longer accept the slavery as practiced in the Brazilian Navy, we do not receive—and have never received—the protection guaranteed us by this Nation, we are tearing away the black veil which covers the eyes of this patriotic but misled population. With all the ships under our control, with the officers prisoners, those same officers who made the Brazilian Navy weak by continuing, twenty years after the founding of the Republic, to withhold the treatment we have earned, that of citizens working in defense of our country. We are sending this message in order that his honor the president can grant Brazilian sailors the sacred rights guaranteed us by the laws of the Republic, end the disorder, and grant us some favors to better our Brazilian Navy: such as, to remove incompetent and indignant officers from serving the Brazilian nation. Reform the immoral and shameful code under which we serve, end the use of the whip, the bôlo [the beating of the hand with a ferule] and other similar punishments, raise our pay according to the plan of Dep. José Carlos de Carvalho, educate those seamen who lack the competence to wear our proud uniform, and put a limit on our daily service and see that it is respected. Your Excellency has the pleasure of 12 hours in order to send us a satisfactory response, or else you will see the nation annihilated. > > Sent from the Battleship São Paulo on November 22, 1910 > > Note: The comings and goings of the messengers shall not be interrupted. > > Marinheiros During the same morning, the rebel ships fired on several army forts located around Guanabara Bay, along with the naval arsenal and bases on Ilha das Cobras and Villegagnon Island, Niterói, and the presidential palace. One shell hit a home on Castello Hill, killing two children; while there may have been other casualties, the deaths of these children clearly weighed on the rebels' consciences. Felisberto still remembered them decades later, where in an interview he stated that he and his crewmen collected money from their "miserable pay" to pay to bury the children. Broadly speaking, however, it appears that the ships were well-handled and commanded. Contemporary observers were surprised to note that the crewmen, despite lacking white officers, had complete control of their warships and were able to stay in good formation as they circled around the bay. The rebels favored firing over the city or around government-controlled military targets rather than outright destruction, something that Zachary Morgan believes was motivated by either humanitarian concerns or (at the very least) pragmatism—by limiting the actual damage, they could gain support among legislators, the press, and general population. This has, however, caused a historiographical argument among scholars that persists to this day. Onshore, civilians woke on the morning of 23 November to find that the most powerful ships in their navy, crewed by the lowest of the underclass, were firing on the city. Thousands quickly fled, although nearly all were unable to. The press initially stoked these peoples' fears, although they later flipped to lionizing the rebels, portraying them as heroes. Fonseca and the navy's high command were faced with two extremely unpalatable choices. They could use the government-controlled ships to attack and possibly destroy the rebel ships, but doing so would mean destroying three incredibly expensive ships that had received significant global attention and were—in their eyes—a crucial part of refashioning Brazil as a serious international power. Worse, there was a significant chance that the remaining Brazilian ships, all of which were smaller and much older than the ships controlled by the mutineers, would lose if it came to open combat. But by folding and giving into the rebel's list of demands—that is, demands from the underclass and broadly black naval crews—the elites would suffer an incredible embarrassment. Fonseca chose both. First, the Brazilian Congress began negotiating with the mutineers, although this was not Fonseca's preferred solution—he and the Minister of the Navy Marques Leão began plotting a military solution. At the behest of Congress, José Carlos de Carvalho was appointed as a liaison to the rebels. Carvalho, a federal deputy and former naval captain, talked with the crew on all four ships and reported to Congress that the rebels were well led and organized—and their main armament was fully functional. His report showed that the sailor's complaints, especially about the lash, were well justified and that a military option would be unlikely to succeed. By the afternoon on 23 November, the Brazilian Congress had begun work on a bill that would grant amnesty to all involved and end the use of corporal punishment in the navy. Pressed by his navy minister, Forseca did not yet give up on the military option. On the same afternoon, the rebels received an illicit telegram warning from the government-held destroyer Paraíba that they were planning to attack. In response, the rebels moved outside of the bay for the evening in an attempt to make any torpedo-led assault more difficult. They returned on 24 November at 10 am, a day where Correio da Manhã was the first press source to refer to Felisberto as the "admiral" of the rebel fleet. They later noted: > [It had] become evident that, in express opposition to the determination of Brazil's highest law, the general use and abuse of corporeal punishment continues aboard our ships. That, as in the time of the slave quarters and the plantation overseer, the chibata cuts the skin of our sailors, consonant with the whims of more or less vitriolic officers. It is also verified, by the laments of the revolting men, that the meals offered in the sailors mess halls are pernicious, prepared with adulterated and rotten produce, not suitable for dogs. These facts constitute abundant motivation for the government to energetically and firmly proceed in establishing a respect for the equity and justice that is now demanded. In Congress, the influential senator and losing presidential candidate Rui Barbosa championed the rebels' cause. Barbosa used the navy officials' rhetoric against them in arguing for a diplomatic solution, noting that if the new dreadnoughts were as unsinkable as they claimed, the remaining warships in government hands would certainly not be able to force a military victory. Furthermore, he argued, if such an attack had the support of Congress and failed, any resulting destruction of Rio de Janeiro would be considered their fault. These arguments won Barbosa much support in the Senate, so much that the body began working on an amnesty that would absolve the mutineers of all criminal charges once the ships were turned back over to the government. After hours of debate, the bill was passed unanimously that day and sent to the lower Chamber of Deputies on 25 November. Naval leaders disagreed and continued planning for a military confrontation. Zachary Morgan writes that "naval leaders believed that only a military confrontation with the rebels would restore their lost honor," and that any such action would have to take place before an amnesty was approved. That left very little time. The aforementioned armament and personnel problems handicapped the government ships; an attempt to procure the necessary torpedoes was foiled by Deodoro's guns. When night fell on 23 November, radio messages about available torpedoes to the government destroyers, huddled for protection, did not reach the ships. They were only able to obtain these weapons on 24 November, and during that night, Fonseca ordered them to attack the rebel ships. However, they were not given the chance to attack, as the rebel armada did not return to Guanabara Bay until the amnesty was passed by Congress. It is not known if the rebels were warned or were simply taking defensive precautions. The amnesty was passed by the Chamber of Deputies by a vote of 125–23. Under the threat of having a veto overridden, Fonseca signed the amnesty. The rebels returned on 26 November after a short period of consternation—additional demands, such as an increase in salary, had yet to be proposed in Congress, much less passed—with their ships in formation, Minas Geraes leading São Paulo, with Bahia and Deodoro to each side. By 7 pm, the mutineers officially accepted the amnesty provisions. ## Aftermath In the aftermath of the revolt, the two Brazilian dreadnoughts were disarmed by the removal of their guns' breechblocks. The revolt and consequent state of the navy, which was essentially unable to operate for fear of another rebellion, caused many leading Brazilians, including the president, prominent politicians like Barbosa and the Baron of Rio Branco, and the editor of the most respected newspaper in Brazil, Jornal do Commercio, to question the use of the new ships and support their sale to a foreign country. The British ambassador to Brazil, W.H.D. Haggard, was ecstatic at Rio Branco's about-face, saying "This is indeed a wonderful surrender on the part of the man who was answerable for the purchase and who looked upon them as the most cherished offspring of his policy." Rui Barbosa was emphatic in his opposition to the ships in a speech given shortly before the vote on the amnesty bill: > Let me, in conclusion, point out two profound lessons of the bitter situation in which we find ourselves. The first is that a military government is not one whit more able to save the country from the vicissitudes of war nor any braver or resourceful in meeting them than a civil government. The second is that the policy of great armaments has no place on the American continent. At least on our part and the part of the nations which surround us, the policy which we ought to follow with joy and hope is that of drawing closer international ties through the development of commercial relations, the peace and friendship of all the peoples who inhabit the countries of America. > > The experience of Brazil in this respect is decisive. All of the forces employed for twenty years in the perfecting of the means of our national defense have served, after all, to turn upon our own breasts these successive attempts at revolt. International war has not yet come to the doors of our republic. Civil war has come many times, armed by these very weapons which we have so vainly prepared for our defense against a foreign enemy. Let us do away with these ridiculous and perilous great armaments, securing international peace by means rather of just and equitable relations with our neighbors. On the American continent, at least, it is not necessary to maintain a 'peace armada'; that hideous cancer which is devouring continuously the vitals of the nations of Europe. In the end, the president and cabinet decided against selling the ships because of a fear of a consequent negative effect in domestic politics—even though they agreed that the ships should be disposed of, possibly to fund smaller warships capable of traversing Brazil's many rivers. The executive's apprehension was heightened by Barbosa's speech given before the revolt's end, as he also used the occasion to attack the government—what he called the "brutal militaristic regime." Still, the Brazilians ordered Armstrong to cease working towards laying down a third Minas Geraes-class dreadnought, which induced the Argentine government to not pick up their contractual option for a third dreadnought. The United States' ambassador to Brazil cabled home to state that the Brazilian desire for naval preeminence in Latin America was quelled, although this proved to be short-lived. ### Imprisonment Meanwhile, the decision to extend an amnesty to the mutineer sailors engendered much criticism from Brazil's upper classes. As historian Zachary Morgan put it, "for the elite, the intention of the naval renovation itself was to fix their institution, propelling Brazil to the front of a South American arms race, and to make their navy competitive with that of any Western nation. Instead, enlisted men had used those very ships to humiliate the naval elite. The ships were saved, but at what cost?" These sailors were given shore leave on the day the revolt ended (26 November). In the next days, the ships were disarmed to prevent a recurrence of events, and many of those seen as rebels were discharged from the navy as threats to the service's discipline. The resulting unplanned loss of nearly 1,300 sailors forced the Brazilian Navy to hire Portuguese merchant crewmen to fill the gaps. The government later claimed that over 1,000 of the dismissed sailors were given tickets to their home states to get them out of the capital. These rapid changes raised tensions between officers and their charges, and over thirty sailors were arrested in early December and accused of planning a new rebellion—which led to that feared second rebellion. On 9 December, crewmen onboard Rio Grande do Sul, the only one of Brazil's major new warships to not take part in the Revolt of the Lash, mutinied but did not gain enough traction to take the ship. Shortly after, the marine infantry battalion at the naval facilities on Ilha das Cobras revolted. The government acted quickly and put down both rebellions, but they caused the Brazilian Congress to declare that Rio de Janeiro was in a state of siege, thereby giving President Fonseca a suite of tools to combat the unrest. The vote was nearly unanimous; the only vote against came from Rui Barbosa.Historians now hold that there was likely no cross-pollination between the Revolt of the Lash and these subsequent revolts. The formerly mutinous Minas Geraes, under the command of João Cândido after the officers abandoned the ship, used a hidden-away gun (as the ship had otherwise been disarmed after the Revolt of the Lash) to fire on the marine infantry and demonstrate their loyalty. Even so, the government and navy, fueled by anger over their lost honor, used this opportunity to round up the remaining amnestied sailors and put them in prison. Sailors that did not escape, over 600 of them, were imprisoned on Ilha das Cobras. There, João Cândido and seventeen others were transferred to an isolation cell; by the next morning, only two were left alive. The rest were victims of a heat-producing chemical reaction between quicklime, used to disinfect the cell, and carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, a steamship named Satelite left Rio de Janeiro for the rubber collecting regions in the Amazon with over a hundred former sailors and nearly three hundred so-called "vagabonds" on board. Nine were executed by the crew along the way, and many of the rest died shortly after while working on the collecting regions in the hot tropical climate, conditions described by Rui Barbosa as "a place where one only dies." Meanwhile, João Cândido—stricken by hallucinations from his traumatic night—was sentenced to a mental hospital. It took eighteen months before he and nine other sailors faced trial for their supposed anti-government actions taken during the December 9–10 revolts. The judges found them not guilty, and all were discharged from the navy. For the sailors that remained in or were joining the navy, conditions did not immediately change. Sailors, including in the maligned naval apprenticeship schools, did begin graduating with basic literacy—a large step above previous practices. However, these did not include the sailors already in the navy, and a program to change that was shelved when a new administration was put into place in 1912. The navy was instead left to fall into disrepair for a time, not unlike what had happened in 1893. "Rather than starting over by raising the level of sailors and officers to that of their technically advanced warships," Morgan writes, "the ships that offered the promise of modernity to the Brazilian nation were allowed to deteriorate—as did the navy alongside them." ## See also - Russian battleship Potemkin, site of a major rebellion by enlisted sailors against their officers in 1905 and one of the first steps towards the Russian Revolutions of 1917 ## Endnotes ## Further learning ### Books ### Audiovisual [First Brazilian Republic](Category:First_Brazilian_Republic "wikilink") [Rebellions in Brazil](Category:Rebellions_in_Brazil "wikilink") [1910 in Brazil](Category:1910_in_Brazil "wikilink") [Military history of Brazil](Category:Military_history_of_Brazil "wikilink") [Maritime incidents in Brazil](Category:Maritime_incidents_in_Brazil "wikilink") [Naval mutinies](Category:Naval_mutinies "wikilink") [Military discipline](Category:Military_discipline "wikilink") [Conflicts in 1910](Category:Conflicts_in_1910 "wikilink") [November 1910 events](Category:November_1910_events "wikilink")
68,987,468	Vella Pillay	1,153,831,417	Economist and anti-apartheid activist (1923–2004)	[ "1923 births", "2004 deaths", "20th-century South African economists", "Alumni of the London School of Economics", "Anti-apartheid activists", "Members of the South African Communist Party", "People from Johannesburg", "South African people of Tamil descent", "University of the Witwatersrand alumni" ]	Vella Pillay (8 October 1923 – 29 July 2004) was a South African international economist and a founding member of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement. He was a member of the South African Communist Party and coordinated the party's overseas activities from London when it was banned by the South African government. As a chairman of the editorial committee of Anti-Apartheid News, he wrote extensively on the South African economy under the apartheid regime. Pillay studied at the University of the Witwatersrand before receiving graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and University of London. He returned to South Africa in 1992 before the first non-racial elections in 1994 and coordinated with other economists as a part of the African National Congress's (ANC) Macroeconomic Research Group (MERG) to produce a forward looking framework for South Africa's macroeconomic policies. The report, Making Democracy Work: A Framework for Macroeconomic Policy in South Africa (1993), however, was rejected by the African National Congress. ## Early life and education Vella Pillay was born on 8 October 1923 in Johannesburg into a family with six children and a low income. Pillay was of Tamil descent and later classified as an Indian by the South African Population Registration Act, 1950. In his early childhood, he went to a racially segregated school that was designated for Indians and Coloureds. During this time, he would help his mother sell vegetables to meet their financial needs. In 1948, Pillay was awarded a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of the Witwatersrand. He was enrolled as a part-time student while working as a bookkeeper for an Indian company. He moved to London in 1949 and enrolled in the London School of Economics (LSE) for an international economics honors degree. During this time, he worked with Bank of China as a research officer. While studying part-time at the LSE, Pillay relied on his wife for financial support. At the LSE, Pillay was supervised by Nobel laureate James Meade, who had been a director at the Cabinet Office Economic Section and a contributor to Keynes' General Theory of Employment. He visited the People's Republic of China several times and met Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other leaders. ## Activism During Pillay's time at the University of the Witwatersrand, he was a member of the Federation of Progressive Students and was a participant in the Transvaal Indian Congress. Early on, he led a protest of municipal tenants to the Johannesburg City Council, when their water supply was disconnected because of their inability to pay the required fees. His protest resulted in the restoration of the water supply to the municipal tenants. He was a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and became involved with the leadership of the South African Indian Congress. At the SACP he met influential African leaders including Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and the then President of the African National Congress, Alfred Bitini Xuma. During the 1940s Pillay joined the resistance to the Pegging Act, 1943, later to be incorporated in apartheid legislation, which included the Group Areas Act that discriminated against Indians. He campaigned against the act, which limited the ability of Indians to hold residence and own property outside of designated regions, and led a protest against the South African pass laws that restricted movement of black and coloured South Africans. Operating out of London, Pillay was involved in the South African Communist Party's overseas operations, even after the South African government banned the SACP in 1950. He was the fund manager of the party, and a part of the team that produced the party's periodical, African Communist. He supervised arrangements for the party's operatives to receive military training in China and the Soviet Union. During this time, Pillay's house in North London was also a place for students and other South Africans moving to Britain to meet and discuss the applicability of Marxist ideas to the freedom struggle in South Africa. As a result of the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s, Pillay's position at the Bank of China was viewed with suspicion by the SACP, which remained loyal to the Soviet Communist Party. In 1960 or 1961, Pillay was confronted by a representative of the SACP (possibly Michael Alan Harmel (1915–1974), a political mentor and friend of Mandela) on a boat on a river in Moscow and told to leave the Bank of China or face expulsion from the SACP. Pillay refused and was side-lined by the SACP. He had declined an offer of an equivalent position at a proposed Soviet bank thinking his job with the Chinese was more secure. In 1960, Pillay was the founding member of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, after organising a boycott of South African goods in 1959, and worked closely with the British Communist Party. He served in several roles within the organisation up until 1994. He was the organisation's vice-chairman between 1980 and 1986, and had served as the treasurer of the organisation. As the chairman of the editorial committee of the Anti-Apartheid News, he wrote extensively on the economy under the apartheid regime, labour and trade policies, and operations of the South African administration. In 1978, Pillay was awarded an MSc in economics by the University of London. During his time in London, Pillay published widely on South African economics, and often used the pseudonym "P. Tlale" when writing for the African Communist. ## Economic research and advisory Pillay was inducted into the Greater London Enterprise Board of Ken Livingstone's Greater London Council (GLC) in 1981. The board was tasked with driving investments from GLC into the local economy, and drive employment and opportunities for minorities including black people. He served as an assistant general manager with the Bank of China between 1978 and his retirement in 1988. During this time he contributed to the bank's international finance including the managing of China's foreign exchange reserves. He was the bank's economic adviser and continued to serve in a part time capacity after his retirement until 2002. Pillay returned to Johannesburg in 1992 before the first non-racial elections in 1994, to coordinate the work amongst multiple economists as a part of the African National Congress's (ANC) Macroeconomic Research Group (MERG). As a part of the group's report in December 1993, Making Democracy Work: A Framework for Macroeconomic Policy in South Africa, the group recommended social and economic liberation in an attempt to boost living conditions within the country. However, the MERG report was rejected by the ANC's Department of Economic Planning (DEP), and the government focused on investments into large-scale housebuilding programs. Pillay had secured a foreword to the report by Mandela, however, the report was vetoed by the DEP. Pillay received an honorary doctorate, for his contributions with the MERG, from the University of Natal in 1995. On the occasion of Pillay's 80th birthday President Thabo Mbeki sent him a message which, in part, read "your outstanding contribution to the liberation of our people will always be remembered with fondness – particularly your role in establishing one of the greatest solidarity movements of our time, the British Anti-Apartheid Movement". ## Personal life Pillay married Patricia (Patsy) Truebig (1925 – 2021) in June 1948. Truebig was of Austro-German descent. He had met her earlier during his time with the SACP. The couple married in Mahikeng in the Cape, where marriage was permitted across races at the time. The couple had two sons including mathematician Anand Pillay. During their early years in London in the 1950s, when Pillay was enrolled in the London School of Economics, Patsy supported the family while working at the Indian High Commission in London working for V. K. Krishna Menon, Indian civil servant and aide to the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. Pillay died on 29 July 2004 at Whittington Hospital, in Highgate, London at the age of 80.
57,768,934	2019 24 Hours of Le Mans	1,170,967,218	87th 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race	[ "2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship season", "2019 in French motorsport", "2019 in motorsport", "24 Hours of Le Mans races", "June 2019 sports events in France" ]	The 87th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: 87<sup>e</sup> 24 Heures du Mans) was an 24 hour automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars entered by teams of three drivers each held from 15 to 16 June 2019 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, close to Le Mans, France before approximately 252,500 people. It was the 87th running of the event, as organised by the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since . The round was the last race in the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship and the second time in the season that the series had visited Le Mans. A test day was held two weeks prior to the race on 2 June. A Toyota TS050 Hybrid shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López started from pole position after Kobayashi set the overall fastest lap time in the second qualifying session. The race was won by the Toyota trio of Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima after López slowed in the 23rd hour due to a wired tyre pressure sensor system, which incorrectly indicated a puncture on a tyre that was later found not to have any issues. It was Alonso, Buemi, Nakajima and Toyota's second consecutive Le Mans win. The No. 7 Toyota finished almost 17 seconds behind in second position. The No. 11 SMP Racing BR1 of Mikhail Aleshin, Vitaly Petrov and Stoffel Vandoorne was the highest-placed non-hybrid LMP1 car in third place. The Signatech Alpine team of Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrão and Pierre Thiriet won the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category with the Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 07 car of Ho-Pin Tung, Gabriel Aubry and Stéphane Richelmi second. On the 70th anniversary of Ferrari's first overall Le Mans victory the AF Corse team won the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) class with James Calado's, Alessandro Pier Guidi's and Daniel Serra's 488 GTE Evo from a Porsche 911 RSR driven by Richard Lietz, Gianmaria Bruni and Frédéric Makowiecki. The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was led for most of the time by Keating Motorsports' Ford GT of Jeroen Bleekemolen, Felipe Fraga and Ben Keating which was the first to finish the race. It was later disqualified for an oversized fuel tank and Project 1 Racing's Porsche of Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Lindsey and Egidio Perfetti inherited the class win. The result won Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima the LMP Drivers' Championship by 41 points over Conway, Kobayashi and López. Thomas Laurent and Gustavo Menezes of the Rebellion Racing team finished third ahead of Aleshin and Petrov in fourth and the Rebellion duo of Neel Jani and André Lotterer in fifth. Porsche's Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre finished tenth in LMGTE Pro to claim the GTE Drivers' Championship with 155 points. LMGTE Pro class race winners Calado and Pier Guidi passed Bruni and Lietz to end the season in second place. ## Background The dates for the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans were confirmed at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on 19 June 2017. It was the 87th Le Mans race, the final automobile endurance event of the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC), and was the second visit to Le Mans during the season. After winning the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Toyota drivers Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima led the LMP Drivers' Championship with 160 points, 31 ahead of their teammates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López in second. 38 points were available for the final race, which meant Conway, Kobayashi and López could win the LMP Drivers' Championship if they won and Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima finished eighth or lower. With 140 points, Porsche's Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre led the GTE Drivers' Championship by 36 points over their second-placed teammates Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz. Christensen and Estre needed to finish eighth or better to claim the title as Bruni and Lietz needed to win at Le Mans and their teammates to attain a sub-par result. The LMP1 Teams' Championship and the GTE Manufacturers' Championship had already been won by Toyota and Porsche, respectively. ## Regulation changes Following a two-lap victory for Porsche in the Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) category in , the ACO revised Le Mans' safety implementation system after team managers raised procedural concerns. Full course yellow flags mandating cars to slow to 80 km/h (50 mph) in the event of an accident were implemented for the first time at Le Mans. The system became the preferred method of slowing the race as opposed to deploying three safety cars and enforcing slow zones. The ACO also permitted drivers to enter the pit lane during safety car conditions and exit it before a second safety car passed by so that they could remain in the same group of vehicles when racing resumed. ## Entries The ACO Selection Committee received 75 applications for entries between the LMP1 (Le Mans Prototype 1), LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype 2), LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am (Le Mans Grand Touring Amateur) categories from 20 December 2018 to 30 January 2019. The automotive group initially planned to accept 60 cars into the race but wishing to not exclude applications of a "high standard" they allowed 62 to race. The ten-panel Selection Committee took steps to ensure that the two additional required pits would be operational in time for the 2019 edition. ### Automatic entries Automatic entry invitations were earned by teams that won their class in the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans. Teams who won championships in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS), Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS), and the Michelin Le Mans Cup (MLMC) were also invited. The second-place finisher in the ELMS LMGTE championship also earned an automatic invitation. The ACO chose two IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA) teams to be automatic entries regardless of their performance or category. As invitations were granted to teams, they were allowed to change their cars from the previous year to the next, but not their category. The LMGTE class invitations from the ELMS and ALMS were allowed to choose between the Pro and Am categories. ELMS' LMP3 (Le Mans Prototype 3) champion was required to field an entry in LMP2 while the ALMS LMP3 champion was permitted to choose between LMP2 or LMGTE Am. The MLMC GT3 champion was limited to the LMGTE Am category. On 11 February 2019, the ACO announced the initial list of automatic entries. Driver Misha Goikhberg, who was invited to the race by winning the Jim Trueman Award for being "the top-placed gentleman driver" in IMSA's Daytona Prototype International category, transferred his automatic entry to WeatherTech Racing per an agreement. ### Entry list and reserves For the 2019 event, the list of race entries was revealed in two stages: the first 42 cars were announced on 11 February with the rest of the field and 10 reserve cars in the LMP2 class and the two LMGTE categories announced on 1 March. The ACO attributed the 2018–19 FIA WEC's format as a reason for the alteration. In addition from the 34 guaranteed entries from the FIA WEC, 15 came from the ELMS, nine from IMSA, five from the ALMS and a solitary one-off Le Mans specific entry. In addition to the 62 entries given invitations for the race, 10 were put on a reserve list to replace any withdrawn or ungranted invitations. Reserve entries were ordered with the first replacing the first withdrawal from the race, regardless of the class and entry. The Spirit of Race team announced the withdrawal of their Ferrari 488 GTE Evo on 21 March, citing "an unavoidable family commitment" as the reason. Duqueine Engineering's Oreca 07-Gibson car was promoted to the race entry as a result. That same day, Michael Shank Racing withdrew its Algarve Pro Racing-run Oreca 07 car from the reserve list because the team was ninth in that list. On 16 April, on the day that the ACO announced that two additional temporary pit garages would be constructed to raise the number of cars for the event to 62, the No. 32 United Autosports Ligier JS P217-Gibson and High Class Racing's No. 20 Oreca 07 were the two cars promoted from the reserve list to the race entry. With the subsequent withdrawal of the Ebimotors LMGTE Am car from the reserve entries, five reserves remained on the list: the Eurasia Motorsport, Panis-Barthez Compétition, IDEC Sport, Team Project 1 and TF Sport teams. ## Pre-race balance of performance changes The FIA Endurance Committee altered the LMP equivalence of technology and the LMGTE balance of performance to try to create parity within each category. All non-hybrid LMP1 cars had their maximum fuel flow increased from 108 kg/h (240 lb/h) to 115 kg/h (250 lb/h) with the Toyota TS050 Hybrid's unchanged at 80 kg/h (180 lb/h). The Toyota's minimum weight was set at 888 kg (1,958 lb), the turbocharged non-hybrid LMP1 vehicles at 833 kg (1,836 lb) and the non-turbocharged privateer LMP1 cars at 816 kg (1,799 lb). For the LMGTE Pro class, the Porsche 911 RSR and BMW M8 GTE had respective ballast increases of 2 kg (4.4 lb) and 9 kg (20 lb) and less turbocharger boost curve for lower performance. The Ford GT's weight was increased by 12 kg (26 lb) and its turbocharger boost curve altered to raise its top speed. Conversely, the Aston Martin Vantage, the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, and the Ferrari 488 Evo had 7 kg (15 lb) of ballast removed and the Ferrari's turbocharger boost curve was made more powerful. In LMGTE Am, the Ford was made 13 kg (29 lb) heavier than the Ferrari 488 GTE. The 2017-specification Aston Martin Vantage had 4 kg (8.8 lb) of weight deducted while Porsche had no performance changes. ## Testing A test day held on 2 June required all race entrants to participate in eight hours of driving divided into two sessions. Toyota led the morning session with a lap of 3 minutes, 21.875 seconds from Buemi. His teammate López was second and led until Buemi's lap. Gustavo Menezes' No. 3 Rebellion R13 car followed in third, with Vitaly Petrov and Stéphane Sarrazin's SMP Racing BR1 cars fourth and fifth. Filipe Albuquerque's No. 22 United Autosports Ligier car led in LMP2 with a 3 minutes, 32.245 seconds lap, ahead of Pastor Maldonado's No. 31 DragonSpeed, the Graff of Tristan Gommendy and Nyck de Vries' Racing Team Nederland Dallara P217 cars. Billy Johnson's No. 66 Ford led LMGTE Pro for most of the session until Antonio García's No. 63 Corvette overtook him. Francesco Castellacci's Spirit of Race Ferrari was the fastest car in LMGTE Am from Jeff Segal's JMW Motorsport Ferrari. Mechanical issues on Jordan King's No. 37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca and Marco Sørensen's No. 95 Aston Martin and Paul-Loup Chatin's crash into a tyre barrier at Indianapolis corner disrupted the session. Buemi was fastest early in the second session with a lap of 3 minutes, 20.068 seconds, which he later improved to a 3 minutes, 19.440 seconds to lead all entries. Conway improved the No. 7 Toyota's best lap for second. The fastest non-hybrid LMP1 entry was André Lotterer's No. 1 Rebellion in third, followed by Stoffel Vandoorne's No. 11 SMP BR1 and Nathanaël Berthon's No. 3 Rebellion cars. With a time of 3 minutes, 28.504 seconds, Ho-Pin Tung improved the fastest time in LMP2, moving Jackie Chan past Maldonado and Nicolas Lapierre's No. 36 Signatech Alpine car. The No. 63 Corvette continued to lead in LMGTE Pro with a 3 minutes, 54.001 seconds lap from Mike Rockenfeller, three-hundredths of a second faster than Harry Tincknell's No. 66 Ford and Tommy Milner's No. 64 Corvette. Toni Vilander's No. 62 WeatherTech Ferrari was fastest in LMGTE Am. ### Post-testing balance of performance changes Following testing, the ACO again altered the LMP1 equivalence of technology. All normally aspirated cars had a maximum fuel level per stint of 50.8 kg (112 lb) and a limit of 48.4 kg (107 lb) for turbocharged cars. Toyota had a one-lap per stint advantage of fuel load from the 2018 race reinstated with pit stop fuel flow rate changes. The FIA changed the balance of performance to dictate all LMGTE vehicles have a fuel tank 1 L (0.22 imp gal; 0.26 US gal) larger than in testing. ## Practice A single, four-hour free practice session on 13 June was available to the teams and saw variable weather throughout as several cars spun. Vandoorne led from the final half-hour before Kobayashi went fastest with a lap of 3 minutes, 18.091 seconds with less than two minutes left of practice. The Rebellion team was third with a lap from Menezes, Alonso was fourth and Bruno Senna's No. 1 car fifth. Four Oreca vehicles led in LMP2, with Chatin's IDEC entry ahead of Maldonado's No. 31 DragonSpeed and Jean-Éric Vergne's No. 26 G-Drive cars. Two Porsches led in LMGTE Pro; Christensen's No. 92 911 RSR was fastest with a lap of 3 minutes, 52.149 seconds. Mathieu Jaminet's No. 94 car was second and the fastest Ferrari was Sam Bird's third-placed No. 71 AF Corse car. Matt Campbell of the Dempsey-Proton team helped Porsche to be fastest in LMGTE Am ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella's Spirit of Race Ferrari and Pedro Lamy's No. 98 Aston Martin. Satoshi Hoshino slid through a gravel trap in the Porsche Curves and crashed the No. 88 Dempsey-Proton car against a barrier, which necessitated a full course yellow flag to recover it to the pit lane. Tracy Krohn had an accident in the sister No. 99 car on the Mulsanne Straight and stopped the session for 3⁄4 of an hour to clear debris and repair a barrier. Krohn was transported to The Centre Hospitalier Du Mans for observation and FIA medical personnel advised him to desist from racing for one week. The No. 99 Dempsey-Proton Porsche was later withdrawn because the team did not wish to elevate the car to the LMGTE Pro class with Krohn's co-drivers Patrick Long and Niclas Jönsson as a duo. ## Qualifying The first of three qualifying sessions to set the race's starting order with the quickest lap times set by each team's fastest driver began late on Wednesday night under clear conditions and on a dry track. Toyota again led early on with a 3 minutes, 17.161 seconds lap from Kobayashi. The fastest two non-hybrid LMP1 vehicles were Egor Orudzhev's No. 17 SMP and Thomas Laurent's No. 3 Rebellion car in second and third. Alonso's No. 8 Toyota and Ben Hanley's No. 10 DragonSpeed car were fourth and fifth. Maldonado took provisional pole position for the DragonSpeed team in LMP2 with a 3 minutes, 26.804 seconds lap. Lapierre and Albuquerque were second and third in class. With 46 minutes to go, Roberto González spun the DragonSpeed car at the entry to the Ford Chicane. As he restarted the car to return to the pit lane, he and the left-hand side of Conway's unsighted Toyota collided, sending Conway airborne and over González's front bodywork. Both drivers were unhurt as debris littered the track. Repairs to the Toyota in the garage took 20 minutes to complete. Tincknell's No. 66 Ford led LMGTE Pro with a 3 minutes, 49.530 seconds time after a faster lap from García's No. 64 Corvette was disallowed because he improved it under yellow flag conditions. Nick Tandy's No. 93 Porsche was 0.028 seconds slower in second and Alex Lynn's No. 97 Aston Martin was third. The No. 66 Ford had an earlier excursion when driver Olivier Pla spun into the gravel trap at the exit to the Porsche Curves and hit a tyre barrier. Recovery vehicles extricated the car and Pla drove slowly to the pit lane. Porsches took the first three places in LMGTE Am, with Matteo Cairoli's No. 77 Dempsey-Proton vehicle fastest from Jörg Bergmeister's No. 56 Project 1 and Julien Andlauer's sister Dempsey-Proton cars. After the session, the No. 7 Toyota's monocoque was replaced due to a deep crack discovered during an inspection; Conway and González shared responsibility for the crash and the former incurred a suspended three-minute stop-and-go penalty. Thursday's first qualifying session saw faster lap times in every class. Kobayashi improved provisional pole position to a 3 minutes, 15.497 seconds lap and his teammate Nakajima moved to second. Mikhail Aleshin moved the No. 11 SMP car to third and Neel Jani set a lap that put the No. 1 Rebellion car fourth after its best time from the first session was deleted due to an incorrect fuel flow meter. Sarrazin could not improve and SMP's No. 17 car fell to fifth. Early in the session, Laurent's engine failed on the Mulsanne Straight and laid a large amount of oil on the track. The session was stopped for 20 minutes for track marshals to extricate the No. 3 Rebellion car from the side of the exit to Mulsanne corner and dry the oil. Maldonado improved his best lap to 3 minutes, 26.490 seconds to keep the DragonSpeed team ahead in LMP2. Jackie Chan's No. 38 car of Stéphane Richelmi went faster to go second and Lapierre fell to third after his electrical system was repaired. In LMGTE Pro, Christensen's lap of 3 minutes, 49.388 in the final ten minutes moved the No. 92 Porsche to the class lead. García moved the No. 63 Corvette to second as Ticknell fell to third. Cairoli and Bergmeister retained the first two positions in LMGTE Am as Fisichella moved the Spirit of Racing team to third place. As temperatures cooled in the final session, over half of the field improved their fastest laps, but Kobayashi's pole position lap went unchallenged. It was Toyota's third pole in a row at Le Mans since the 2017 race; Conway and Kobayashi's second and López's first. Orudzhev led the session with a 3 minutes and 16.159 seconds lap for third. Menezes took fourth and Vandoorne fifth. Senna's engine failed and he stopped at Arnage corner after an hour. In LMP2, Oreca cars took the first six positions as Gommendy gave the Graff team pole position with a 3 minutes, 25.073 seconds lap. Loïc Duval was 0.282 seconds slower in second as Maldonado fell to third. Porsche, and later Ford, led in LMGTE Pro before Sørensen earned the 2018 Aston Martin Vantage its second class pole with a 3 minutes, 48 seconds lap. Tincknell and García were second and third in class, respectively. Cairoli improved the No. 88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche's provisional pole lap in LMGTE Am to a 3 minutes, 51.439 seconds ahead of his teammate Campbell. Thomas Preining moved the No. 86 Gulf car to third in class. Lamy's No. 98 Aston Martin's got beached in a Mulsanne Straight chicane gravel trap and stopped the session for 25 minutes as it was extricated. ### Post-qualifying Following qualifying, the stewards deleted all of the Graff team's fastest lap times from the third session after driver Vincent Capillaire failed to stop at the scrutineering stand at the entry to the pit lane for a weight check. The team incurred a €1000 fine and fell from pole position to 14th in LMP2, elevating the IDEC squad to the class pole and the Signatech team to second place. The ACO altered the balance of performance in both of the LMGTE categories. The Aston Martin's turbocharger boost was reduced and its fuel capacity lowered by 2 L (0.44 imp gal; 0.53 US gal) to reduce its performance. Every car bar the Chevrolet Corvette received a weight decrease of 5 kg (11 lb). In LMGTE Am Porsche had 10 kg (22 lb) of ballast added to their cars and the same amount removed from the Fords. The Ferrari and Aston Martin LMGTE Am cars had no performance changes. ### Qualifying results Pole positions in each class are denoted in bold. The fastest time set by each entry is denoted with a gray background. ## Warm-up A 45-minute warm-up session on Saturday morning took place in dry and sunny weather. Kobayashi set the fastest lap late on at 3 minutes, 19.647 seconds with his teammate Buemi in second. Laurent's No. 3 Rebellion was the fastest non-hybrid LMP1 car in third. SMP's two cars of Petrov and Sarrazin were fourth and fifth. Vergne recorded the fastest LMP2 lap at 3 minutes, 28.763 seconds, which was 1.4 seconds faster than Duval. Estre's No. 92 Porsche was the quickest car in LMGTE Pro while Ben Barker helped the marque to be fastest in LMGTE Am. While the session passed without a major incident, a brief full course yellow flag procedure was used to clear debris on the circuit. ## Race ### Start and opening hours The weather was dry and sunny before the race; the air temperature was between 14.5 to 21.2 °C (58.1 to 70.2 °F) and the track temperature 18.8 to 25.5 °C (65.8 to 77.9 °F). Approximately 252,500 spectators attended the event. The French tricolour was waved at 15:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00) by Charlene, Princess of Monaco to start the race, led by the starting pole sitter Conway. Menezes overtook Buemi and Petrov to move into second place on the first lap and held it until Buemi demoted him to third soon after. Conway reset the race track lap record on the fourth lap with a 3 minutes, 17.297 seconds time to lead his teammate Buemi by 15.5 seconds. At the close of the hour, García, in Corvette's No. 63 car, took the lead of LMGTE Pro from Nicki Thiim's No. 95 Aston Martin on the inside before Indianapolis corner, as Lapierre and Fisichella moved to the front of LMP2 and LMGTE Am on pit stop rotation respectively. Senna's No. 1 Rebellion was forced to drive slowly to the pit lane to replace a puncture and the car fell down the race order. In the second hour, Conway continued to pull away from his teammate Buemi. Vergne ran in clear air to be less than a second behind Lapierre's LMP2 leading No. 36 Signatech car. Spirit of Race's No. 54 Ferrari, now driven by Thomas Flohr in lieu of Fisichella, relinquished its lead of LMGTE Am to Andlauer's No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche and was behind Jeroen Bleekemolen's No. 85 Keating Ford after a second sequence of pit stops. A full course yellow flag was activated 3 hours, 42 minutes in after the left-front tyre was punctured on de Vries' Racing Team Nederland Dallara car. This moved González's No. 31 DragonSpeed vehicle to third in LMP2 which he later lost to King's No. 37 Jackie Chan car at Mulsanne Corner. Job van Uitert's G-Drive entry, which had taken the lead of LMP2 from Lapierre's Signatech car, incurred a ten-second stop-and-go penalty taken at its next pit stop because his co-driver Vergne was observed speeding during the full course yellow flag. Van Uitert recovered the lost time he had lost in the pit lane and retook the lead from the Signatech car, now driven by Pierre Thiriet, into the first Mulsanne Straight chicane. The LMGTE Pro class lead became a multi-car battle between representatives of four of the five manufacturers, with the first five positions separated by less than ten seconds. During the fifth hour, Berthon's No. 3 car fell behind the SMP duo of Aleshin and Sergey Sirotkin because of a two-minute pit stop. Further down the field, Daniel Serra's No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari passed Rockenfeller's LMGTE Pro class-leading No. 63 Corvette. Porsche sought to conserve tyre wear and fuel usage rather than challenge for the lead in LMGTE Pro, promoting Laurens Vanthoor's No. 92 Porsche to the class lead from Serra on pit stop strategy. Felipe Fraga's No. 85 Keating car overtook Christian Ried's No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche to lead LMGTE Am. Not long after, John Farano crashed the No. 43 RLR MSport car at Tetre Rouge corner and the safety cars were deployed to slow the race. When racing resumed, André Negrão's Signatech car overtook Roman Rusinov's G-Drive car into the second Mulsanne Straight chicane for the LMP2 lead. Serra duelled Vanthoor and retook the lead of LMGTE Pro into Indianapolis corner. Earl Bamber moved the No. 93 Porsche past Rockenfeller for third in class. Shortly after, the right-rear corner of Marcel Fässler's No. 64 Corvette and the left-front corner of Satoshi Hoshino's No. 88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche made contact in slower traffic in the Porsche Curves. Fässler veered into an outside concrete barrier and his car was retired due to heavy damage. Hoshino brought his car into the garage for repairs to its front but it was later retired for safety reasons. Fässler was unhurt and FIA personnel performed a precautionary CT scan on him at the circuit's medical centre. The safety cars were required once again as track marshals worked for 16 minutes to clear debris. As the safety cars were recalled, the gap to López and Nakajima had fallen to ten seconds and Bleekemolen had extended the lead over Jeff Segal's No. 84 JMW Ferrari in LMGTE Am to three minutes. ### Sunset to night At the start of the seventh hour, Laurent's No. 3 Rebellion overtook Aleshin's No. 11 SMP car on the outside in the Porsche Curves for third. Light rain began to fall soon after, catching out Laurent who spun after braking for the second Mulsanne Straight chicane and veered right into a barrier. The impact removed the front bodywork from the No. 3 Rebellion and a small chunk landed on the No. 11 SMP vehicle. The accident led to a third safety car intervention to clear debris, during which repairs to the No. 3 Rebellion car took 3 minutes, 38 seconds, later rejoining in fifth position, behind the SMP entries. After racing resumed, López used slower traffic through the second Mulsanne Straight chicane to pass his teammate Nakajima for the overall lead. The lead of LMGTE Pro changed to Estre's No. 92 Porsche from Alessandro Pier Guidi's No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari after a sequence of pit stops. In LMP2, Vergne used his newer tyres to reclaim the lead of the class from Negrão into Indianapolis corner. López was forced to relinquish the overall lead to Nakajima in the eighth hour when he ran wide into the Mulsanne corner gravel trap. García's No. 63 Corvette took second place in LMGTE Pro with successive passes on Tincknell's No. 67 Ford and Per Guidi's No. 51 Ferrari on the outside at Indianapolis corner. Conway's No. 7 Toyota retook the race lead from Buemi's No. 8 after pit stops. James Calado moved the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari past Christensen's No. 92 Porsche for the LMGTE Pro lead during the ninth hour. Wei Lu lost control of the No. 84 JMW Ferrari at the second Mulsanne Straight chicane but continued without losing second position in LMGTE Am. During hour ten, Lynn damaged the No. 97 Aston Martin's spoiler in the Porsche Curves and a local slow zone was employed to check for damage to the barriers. Lynn returned to the pit lane and the car rejoined the race after half an hour of repairs. Not long after, Sørensen's No. 95 Aston Martin spun across a gravel trap and sustained heavy rear-end damage in an impact against the barrier at Indianapolis turn. Safety cars were required for the fourth time and caused the lead of multiple classes to grow. Conway increased his lead over Buemi to more than a minute and Van Uitert's G-Drive car was 1 minute, 21 seconds ahead of Thiriet's Signatech entry. The safety cars separated the LMGTE Pro field, leaving the No. 51 Ferrari and the No. 92 Porsche one minute ahead of the No. 93 Porsche, which passed the No. 63 Corvette for third in class. Orudzhev's third-placed SMP BR1 lost control on the exit to the Porsche Curves and crashed rearward into an outside tyre barrier at high speed. He was unhurt; the accident necessitated the car's retirement and a fifth safety car period. During the slow period, Conway relinquished the lead to his teammate Buemi because he made a pit stop and was required to stop at the exit of the pit lane until the nearest safety car passed by. After the safety cars were withdrawn, Berthon's No. 3 Rebellion vehicle took third overall, while the lead of LMGTE Pro switched from Serra's No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari to Vanthoor's No. 92 Porsche. As the race approached its halfway point, Kobayashi relieved Conway in the No. 7 Toyota and a faster pit stop than Buemi returned him to the overall lead. Henning Enqvist went wide at Indianapolis corner and crashed the No. 49 ARC Bratislava Ligier car against a tyre barrier. The car was extricated from a gravel trap by a crane before he crashed for a second time, against an outside barrier entering the Porsche Curves. The damage to the car's front-right bodywork forced its retirement and the sixth deployment of the safety cars until the close of the 12th hour. When racing resumed, the two Toyota cars were less than two seconds from each other and Estre's lead over Serra in LMGTE Pro fell to 2.2 seconds. The No. 92 Porsche subsequently entered the garage for repairs to a defective exhaust system and a change of brakes. Repairs took 20 minutes to complete and Estre resumed in ninth position in LMGTE Pro. Serra's No. 51 Ferrari retook the lead of LMGTE Pro 90 seconds ahead of the No. 93 and No. 91 Porsches of Tandy and Bruni. The No. 4 ByKolles CLM P1/01 car of Tom Dillmann stopped after Arnage corner with a broken gear selection mechanism that necessitated its retirement, requiring a slow zone extending to the exit of the Porsche Curves as the car was extricated by recovery vehicles to behind a trackside wall. Kobayashi increased the No. 7 Toyota's lead over Alonso to more than a minute due to minor underbody damage to the No. 8 car. The two lead Porsche cars in LMGTE Pro drew to near half a minute behind Pier Guidi's Ferrari. ### Morning to early afternoon In the early morning, some LMGTE cars took the opportunity to change brake discs to ensure that they completed the race. Michael Wainwright crashed the No. 86 Gulf Porsche against a wall at Indianapolis corner and Sergio Pianezzola's No. 60 Kessel Racing Ferrari got beached in a gravel trap in the Porsche Curves at the same time. Both incidents promoted the activation of a full course yellow flag procedure. Recovery by track marshals allowed both cars to return to the race. Kobayashi and later López extended the lead over their teammates Alonso and then Buemi to 1 minute and 20 seconds. Calado's LMGTE Pro leading No. 51 car made a scheduled pit stop and ceded the class lead to Lietz's No. 91 Porsche as Serra relieved him. Not long after, Maldonado lost control of DragonSpeed's No. 31 car leaving Tetre Rouge corner and hit a barrier frontward. Maldonado was unhurt but the damage to the car necessitated its retirement. The safety cars were deployed for more than half an hour. Serra was able to retake the lead of LMGTE Pro with a one-minute lead because the three cars ahead of him made pit stops and were required to stop at the exit of the pit lane. After the safety cars were withdrawn, Ben Keating's Ford ran into a gravel trap at the first Mulsanne Straight chicane, from which he escaped without damage to the car and retained the lead of LMGTE Am. Menezes' No. 3 Rebellion car incurred a three-minute stop-and-go penalty for a procedural error on the team's usage of tyre compounds, promoting Vandoorne's No. 11 SMP car to third overall. Just after Menezes rejoined the race, he spun into a gravel trap in the Porsche Curves and returned to the garage after vehicular assistance. 17 hours and 25 minutes in, Tung's No. 38 Jackie Chan car slowed with a puncture and returned to the pit lane to retain third position in LMP2 from François Perrodo's No. 28 TDS car. The G-Drive team continued to lead in LMP2 until Rusinov relinquished the position it had held for 171 consecutive laps to the Signatech car, when he could not start the car due to a starter motor problem that required the removal of the rear bodywork covering its engine. The team lost 20 minutes in the garage and four laps to fall to seventh in class. Two lengthy pit stops to rectify braking issues on Berthon's No. 3 Rebellion car dropped him to sixth and elevated the LMP2 leading Signatech car of Lapierre to fifth overall. In LMGTE Pro, diverging strategies for AF Corse's No. 51 Ferrari and the No. 63 Corvette created a difference of around five laps between both cars and changed the category lead several times. De Vries' Racing Team Nederland Dallara car had a straightline crash against a barrier on the entry to Indianapolis corner due to a possible broken right-front suspension arm. It damaged the car's front bodywork and de Vries required repairs in the garage. The safety cars were deployed for the eighth time as track marshals took 25 minutes to clear debris. In LMGTE Pro, the safety cars had again separated the field, leaving Calado's No. 51 Ferrari three minutes ahead of Jan Magnussen's No. 63 Corvette after the latter made a pit stop and had to stop at the exit to the pit lane. After the safety cars were recalled, Magnussen spun and damaged the left-front corner of his car in the Porsche Curves. Repairs in the garage lasted six minutes and he returned to the circuit eighth in LMGTE Pro. The crash elevated the No. 91 and No. 93 Porsche cars of Lietz and Tandy to second and third in class and provided Calado with a 1 minute lead. ### Finish Almost 23 hours into the event, the race leading No. 7 Toyota of López slowed on course due to a wiring fault with the antenna on the car's tyre pressure sensor system, which indicated to the team that it had a front-right puncture. As it occurred late on the track, he was able to make a pit stop; Toyota switched only one tyre to lessen the time lost in the pit lane. Lopez rejoined the track ahead of Nakajima's No. 8 car. However, the sensors on his car continued to notify Toyota that its front-right tyre was punctured, prompting the team to ask an tyre engineer from Michelin, to check its pressure; no issues were discovered. López yielded the lead that the No. 7 car had held for 191 consecutive laps to Nakajima. Toyota had discussed and decided against invoking team orders to switch the positions of both vehicles. López entered the pit lane for a second time to replace all four tyres. It transpired that the left-rear tyre was the punctured wheel. Nakajima achieved victory for the No. 8 Toyota, completing 385 laps, 16.972 seconds ahead of the No. 7 car. SMP, unable to equal Toyota's pace, were six laps behind in third position with its No. 11 car. The Rebellion team were fourth and fifth with the No. 1 and No. 3 entries. It was Alonso, Buemi, Nakajima and Toyota's second successive Le Mans win. The trio won the LMP Drivers' Championship; it was Buemi's second endurance championship since 2014, Alonso's third motor racing world championship and Nakajima became the first Japanese driver to win an FIA-sanctioned world title. Signatech's Lapierre, Negrão and Thiriet was unchallenged for the rest of the race to win in LMP2, earning the team and drivers the LMP2 Championships and Lapierre his fourth class win. The No. 38 Jackie Chan car finished 2 minutes, 22 seconds later in second position and the TDS team were third. On the 70th anniversary of Ferrari's first overall Le Mans victory, AF Corse won in LMGTE Pro, giving Calado and Guidi their first class victories and Serra's second. The car finished 49 seconds ahead of Porsche's No. 91 entry and its No. 93 car took third in class. Porsche's Christensen and Estre finished tenth in class to win the GTE World Drivers' Championship. The Keating Ford of Bleekemoen, Felipe Fraga and Ben Keating led for 273 consecutive laps in LMGTE Am to finish first in the category. Project 1's Bergmeister, Patrick Lindsey and Egidio Perfetti followed 44 seconds later to finish second in class and win the Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Am Drivers and Teams. JMW's Ferrari completed the class podium in third. There were eleven outright lead changes amongst two cars during the race. The No. 7 Toyota's 339 laps led was the most of any car. The No. 8 Toyota led six times for a total of 46 laps. ## Post-race The top three teams in each of the four classes appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in a later press conference. Alonso and Buemi agreed that the No. 7 crew deserved to win the race. Buemi added, "I was really happy to finish second but what happened to them is really hard. When [the mechanical issues] happened to me and Kazuki in '16, it was really hard too. I am really sorry for them. It's motorsport." Alonso likened the No. 7 car's issue to its lost win on the final lap in and him finishing second in the Formula One World Championship three times, "When you arrive at the last moment and you are unable to finish the job, you feel bad and I feel sad. I feel for my teammates because they are not only teammates but friends as well. They deserve it today." López said that he was emotional driving to the pit lane to replace the Toyota's supposed puncture and that it was painful. One day after the event, the FIA imposed a penalty of 55.2 seconds on the LMGTE Am winning No. 85 Keating Ford for transgressing a regulation that dictated the minimum refuelling time at a pit stop be no less than 45 seconds. ACO scrutineers discovered that the car's refuelling pit stops were completed in 44.4 seconds, with a discrepancy of six-tenths of a second multiplied by its 23 pit stops, and further multiplied by four to give a number of 55.2 seconds. The car was later disqualified because its fuel tank was discovered to be 0.1 L (0.022 imp gal; 0.026 US gal) larger than the LMGTE Am maximum mandated capacity of 96 L (21 imp gal; 25 US gal). Keating Motorsports did not appeal the disqualification. The No. 59 Project 1 Porsche was promoted to the class victory, the No. 84 JMW Ferrari to second and the No. 62 WeatherTech Ferrari to third. Keating stated that a rubber bladder inside a fuel cell expanded by 0.4 L (0.088 imp gal; 0.11 US gal) during the race and the team's refuelling rig was made more efficient by six-tenths of a second. The stewards deemed Fässler responsible for the accident between the No. 64 Corvette and the No. 88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche in the Porsche Curves and issued a fine of €7,000 and six penalty points were added to his race licence. His co-driver, Oliver Gavin, said that Hoshino put Fässler in a position to hit the barrier by unexpectedly changing his direction after allowing faster cars to pass him and called for such manoeuvres to be reviewed. Vergne said he felt disappointed due to his car's unreliability and noted that made the race interesting. Estre stated his belief that the No. 92 Porsche team could have challenged for the victory in LMGTE Pro had car issues not intervened. The role of the safety cars affecting LMGTE Pro received a mixed response. Andy Priaulx of the Ford team stated that the safety cars should have been used to close up the field, "If you've just pitted, which we needed to pit, it just messes it up so much. It just neutralizes the race and then you end up with this huge separation. For the second year in a row, it's kind of taken away the spectacle at the end." Lietz stated his belief that all of the safety car periods were correctly deployed for safety reasons. The Corvette Racing team manager, Ben Johnson, said he was unsure why some safety car periods were deployed in lieu of full course yellow flags to slow the race and called for clarity on when to use the procedure. Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima took the LMP Drivers' Championship with 198 points. They were 41 points ahead of their teammates Conway, Kobayashi and López in second position. Laurent and Menezes followed in third place with 114 points, ahead of Aleshin and Petrov in fourth with 94 points and Neel Jani and Lotterer in fifth with 91 points. With 155 points, Estre and Christensen won the GTE Drivers' Championship, 18 ahead of Calado and Pier Guidi in second. Bruni and Lietz followed in third position with 131 points and Tincknell and Priaulx were fourth with 90 points. ## Race results The minimum number of laps for classification (70 per cent of the overall winning car's race distance) was 270 laps. Class winners are in bold. ## Championship standings after the race - Note: Only the top five positions are included for Drivers' Championship standings. - Note: Only the top five positions are included for the Drivers' Championship standings. ## See also - 2019 Road to Le Mans
21,573,151	Tropical Storm Wukong (2006)	1,164,647,429	Pacific severe tropical storm in 2006	[ "2006 Pacific typhoon season", "2006 in Japan", "Tropical cyclones in 2006", "Typhoons in Japan", "Western Pacific severe tropical storms" ]	Severe Tropical Storm Wukong was a slow-moving tropical cyclone which produced torrential rains over Japan. The tenth named storm of the 2006 Pacific typhoon season, Wukong developed out of a tropical depression over the open waters of the western Pacific Ocean. On August 13, both the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) classified the depression as a tropical storm. The storm traveled along a curving path south of Japan, absorbing the remnants of Tropical Storm Sonamu on August 15 before turning towards the west. Wukong made landfall at peak intensity late on August 17 near Miyazaki City in southern Kyūshū. The cyclone remained over land for about 24 hours before moving out over the Sea of Japan. The storm weakened to a tropical depression before dissipating on August 21. Due to the slow movement of the storm, it produced heavy rains, peaking at 516 mm (20.3 in). Two people were killed due to rough seas produced by the storm and three others were injured. ## Meteorological history On August 12, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) began monitoring a tropical depression located to the south of Chichi-jima island. The depression formed within a monsoonal gyre which also spawned Tropical Storm Sonamu. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) classified the system as Tropical Depression 11W several hours after the JMA while the system was located about 140 km (85 mi) south of Iwo Jima. The depression gradually strengthened as it moved towards the northwest. Early on August 13, it was upgraded to a tropical storm and given the name Wukong; a name which was contributed by China. The names means "the king of the monkeys" and was featured in the novel Journey to the West. The storm slowed significantly as a ridge built eastward over Japan. On August 14, Wukong turned towards the northeast and reached its peak intensity with winds of 95 km/h (60 mph 10-minute winds) as a severe tropical storm. At the same time, the JTWC assessed Wukong to have reached its initial peak intensity with winds of 95 km/h (60 mph 1-minute winds). The next day, the storm began to accelerate due to an interaction with the nearby Tropical Storm Sonamu. Wukong absorbed the weakening Sonamu later in the day before turning towards the west. On August 16, the storm turned towards the northwest due to a weakness in the ridge near Japan. Wukong made landfall late on August 17 near Miyazaki City in southern Kyūshū. As the storm made landfall, the JTWC assessed Wukong to have winds of 100 km/h (65 mph 1-minute winds). The cyclone slowly traveled across land, entering the Sea of Japan about 24 hours after landfall. Several hours after entering the Sea of Japan, the JMA downgraded Wukong to a tropical depression. The depression persisted for two more days before dissipating near the Russian coastline. ## Preparations and impact According to Japanese weather officials, heavy rain, flood, storm and high wave warnings were put into effect for all of Kyūshū and adjacent areas in Honshū. The two largest air carriers in Japan, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, cancelled at least 36 domestic flights ahead of the storm. Several of the largest oil refineries halted oil product shipments from three refineries. Kyushu Railways postponed services on five lines, one of which crossed the entire prefecture. Long distance ferries were also shut down. Iwakuni, Yamaguchi was placed under Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 3 and Sasebo, Nagasaki was placed under Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness Storm Watch. Wukong produced torrential rains over Japan, peaking at 516 mm (20.3 in) in Hinokage, Miyazaki Prefecture. Flooding in Kyūshū and the Yamaguchi Prefecture caused the evacuation of about 300 households. At least 200 residences were left without power in Kyūshū. Two people were killed by rough seas produced by Wukong, and three others were injured in storm-related accidents. A total of seven landslides occurred, one of which damaged several homes. As the storm brushed the Korean Peninsula, it produced heavy rains, but caused no known damage. ## See also - Other tropical cyclones named Wukong - Timeline of the 2006 Pacific typhoon season
62,881,553	Flag of Spokane, Washington	1,154,390,908	Municipal flag of Spokane, Washington, US	[ "Flags adopted through competition", "Flags introduced in 1912", "Flags introduced in 1958", "Flags introduced in 1975", "Flags introduced in 2021", "Flags of cities in Washington (state)", "Spokane, Washington" ]	The flag of Spokane, Washington, is the official municipal flag of Spokane, Washington, United States. Its design comprises a sun in the canton on a white-and-green field separated by a stylized blue river. The flag was adopted in 2021 and is the fourth to be used by the city government. Spokane's first city flag, a navy blue field with a white stripe, was adopted in 1912 following a public contest with more than 500 entries. It was replaced in 1958 with a new lilac flag designed by a local businessman. A third flag was adopted in October 1975, shortly after Spokane hosted the World's Fair and was named an All-American City; its design included a simple black ring and two bands of chartreuse green and aqua blue running diagonally across a white field. The third flag was rarely used and was replaced in 2021 following a public contest and vote overseen by a city-appointed flag commission. ## Design The Spokane flag comprises a split field of white and green, the latter representing the land, separated by a series of blue lines that reference the Spokane River and Spokane Falls. A stylized yellow sun sits in the canton to represent the city's name, originally sp̓q̓n̓iʔ in the Salish language (meaning "sun"), and the indigenous Spokane people. The flag was designed by graphic designer Derek Landers, initially for a 2019 contest hosted by the Inlander, and omitted visible landmarks due to his personal preference for a simple and versatile design. ## History ### First flag: 1912–1958 Spokane's first city flag was created through a public contest held by the Spokane Ad Club in July 1912, following the creation of a flag commission by the city government. The contest was opened to residents of Spokane and the Inland Empire and offered a \$25 prize for the winning design. More than 500 entries were submitted during the month-long contest, including drawings, sewn flags, and pennants. Ad Club president R. E. Bigelow had desired a rectangular design that would complement the national flag's shape and colors, but said that any design would be accepted for consideration by the judges. The winning entry, designed by Spokane residents W. J. Kommers, J. Frank Robbins, and Mrs. Herman Peterson, was unveiled on August 1, 1912. It consisted of a navy blue field with a white stripe that splits into a triangle at the left side, where a sixteen-pointed sun with a blue "S" was placed. The first flag was produced by John Graham & Company and displayed at the 1912 Interstate Fair. The flag was used unofficially by the Ad Club to represent Spokane at national conventions and for viewings by other cities interested in designing their own flags, including Chicago. It was officially adopted by the city government in 1915, following a lobbying campaign by the Ad Club. The last remaining reproduction of the city flag is stored in the collections of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. ### Second flag: 1958–1975 A new city flag was proposed in 1958 by local businessman S. Luther Essick, who also served as president of the Spokane chamber of commerce and the Lilac Festival Association. Essick was inspired during his work in Vienna after World War II, where he saw citizens using their city flag as a source of civic pride. His design was adopted by the city council on July 25, 1958, to celebrate the Lilac Festival, and installed at the city hall on September 9. The first flag was later donated to the Expo '74 organizing committee in 1974 after being used as part of the World's Fair ceremonies. The second city flag consisted of a lilac purple field with four white lines extending from the corners towards the center, where several images were displayed. The center's design included the city skyline, the Monroe Street Bridge above Spokane Falls, and a spray of lilac blossoms. The outline of Mount Spokane sits above the center skyline and below a yellow sun, referencing the city's namesake, the Spokane people. An evergreen tree in blue sits to the left side and a five-pointed star sits opposite to the right. The text "Spokane" is written below in stylized script between two sections of an arrow. ### Third flag: 1975–2021 At a city council briefing in June 1975, mayor David H. Rodgers displayed the then-current lilac flag and requested a new design. He described the lilac flag as being a "good design for its day", but "not suitable for Spokane's new status as an All-American City". The city adopted a new flag on October 6, 1975, which was designed by art director Lloyd L. Carlson of a local advertising company that had previously worked on the Expo '74 logo. The first flag to be produced with the new design was completed in March 1976 by two members of the St. John's Episcopal Church and presented two months later to a delegation from Nishinomiya, Spokane's sister city in Japan. A second flag was made by members of the Spokane Falls Needlework Guild over a two-month period before an annual stitchery convention in March 1977. The city flag was rarely displayed for several decades, with occasional use at city hall and at the Avista headquarters in the 1990s. A banner with the flag and a secondary design for the city's centennial was taken in 1981 to Mount Everest by Chris Kopczynski, who was the first Spokanite to climb the mountain. The city flag was moved from storage to the city hall's conference room in 2012 by Spokane mayor David Condon shortly after he took office. The 1975 flag consisted of a white field with diagonal bands of chartreuse green and aqua blue that run from the hoist to bottom center. The two colors were derived from the Expo '74 logo and are unusual in flags, according to the North American Vexillological Association. At the center is a black ring with four children, rendered as stick figures, captioned with "Children of the Sun", the meaning of "Spokane" in the indigenous Salish language. The center ring is joined by a golden sun in the top right corner, and the text "City of Spokane" is to the bottom right in all capital letters. ### Fourth flag: 2021–present In a 2004 survey of city flags in the United States by members of the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA), the Spokane flag ranked 111th out of 150 overall, with an average score of 3.15 out of 10 points. A resolution sponsored by city councilmember Kate Burke proposing the creation of a task force for designing a new flag was passed unanimously by the city council in June 2019. The Spokane Flag Commission was formed in December 2019 and consists of ten local residents representing the city government, Spokane tribal government, arts commission, and vexillologists. In September 2020, the Spokane Flag Commission began a month-long contest to solicit flag designs from the public for review and a later public vote among selected finalists. The contest allowed for three submissions per person and required a simple design meeting basic criteria set by vexillologists on the flag commission. Over 400 designs were submitted during the contest, which were ranked by the public in a December 2020 survey, and a field of 12 finalists were selected by the Flag Commission. The finalists were announced in March 2021 and a month-long online ranked-choice vote was opened the following month for Spokane Public Library cardholders and members of the Spokane Tribe of Indians. The winning design, announced by the Spokane Flag Commission on May 10, was submitted by local graphic designer Derek Landers and features white and green field separated by a representation of the Spokane River. A total of 2,110 votes were cast in the online vote, which took ten rounds until the winning design earned a 56 percent majority. The city council passed a resolution to adopt the new flag on June 14 (Flag Day) ahead of an official unveiling the following day.
56,469,844	Say Less (Ashanti song)	1,163,046,544	null	[ "2017 singles", "2017 songs", "Ashanti (singer) songs", "Song recordings produced by Mustard (record producer)", "Songs written by Ashanti (singer)", "Songs written by Ty Dolla Sign", "Ty Dolla Sign songs" ]	"Say Less" is a song recorded by American singer Ashanti that features fellow American singer Ty Dolla \$ign. It was released on November 6, 2017. Media outlets reported that it was the lead single from Ashanti's upcoming sixth album. The single was produced by DJ Mustard, and was written by two said artists. It is an R&B, club, and West Coast hip hop song whose lyrics are about someone telling critics to mind their own businesses; Ashanti and Ty Dolla \$ign also flirt with one another on the track. "Say Less" was praised by critics following its release; its vocals were frequently cited as the highlights, though commentators were divided over the production. The song was used in a commercial for Cîroc vodka, and Ashanti further promoted it with live performances. A music video was released on April 6, 2018 on Ashanti's Vevo account. In the video, Ashanti confronts rumors around her career and experiences media scrutiny. ## Recording and release Ashanti wrote "Say Less" with Ty Dolla \$ign while working with him in a recording studio; the song was produced by DJ Mustard. Ty Dolla \$ign provided collaborative verses for the song. Ty Dolla \$ign and Ashanti had agreed to work together after talking on a group text started by Ashanti's brother; they first met in Los Angeles. Ashanti said she thought his melody and cadence fit her music. "Say Less" was recorded in Tyrese Gibson's recording studio in Miami and was mixed in Atlanta. "Say Less" was made available through her record label Written Entertainment. Media outlets reported that it was the lead single from Ashanti's upcoming sixth album, and referred to it as her comeback single. In a Billboard interview, Ashanti said that she considered releasing one or two other songs from her upcoming album instead of "Say Less". She picked it as a single since it was featured in an advertisement for Cîroc vodka. The song was released on November 6, 2017, as a digital download. Ashanti first announced it during a conversation with a TMZ cameraman. Clean and explicit versions of the song were made available. The cover art shows Ashanti naked and covered only with an oversized checkered purse. The day following its release, the track was uploaded to WorldStarHipHop's YouTube account. ## Composition and lyrics "Say Less" is an R&B, club and West Coast hip hop song, that lasts three minutes and 14 seconds. Carl Lamarre of Billboard wrote that the composition featured Mustard's "signature flavor", while Trevor Smith of HotNewHipHop identified it as having a West-Coast hip hop sound. Glenn Gamboa of Newsweek described it as an R&B take on Demi Lovato's pop music. Brooke Marine of W wrote that "Say Less" is an example of the album's "slew of fun party bops that fit in with Ashanti's idea of empowerment". Several music critics called the track "bouncy". The song revolves around Ashanti telling critics to stay out of her business, and lyrics include "bitch, say less". Ashanti said about the song's lyrics: "I think nowadays we have to make it very clear that if it's B.S., say less, I'm a New Yorker. It's a very New York term. And I think it's just about being bold and getting to the point. I don't have time for you to waste it." During the song, Ashanti and Ty Dolla \$ign flirt with one another. In the single edit, she sings: "This is your body/ Ain't no way I could hide it/ I wanna be your top supplier/ Cause I'll provide this all to you". She also talks about acting like a boss: "If it ain't about the money, say less". Ty Dolla \$ign boasts about his wealth in the verses: "Young n---a got the pool with me / Make it rain, got a budget on me". He brags about stealing a man's girlfriend by rapping: "Pull up to the party / Jewels all on my body / Your chick on my body / And they can't tell me nothin'". ## Critical reception "Say Less" received primarily positive reviews from music critics. Praising the song's composition and Mustard's production as "catchy", Carl Lamarre wrote "Ashanti's dulcet vocals are sweeter than ever". Emmanuel C.M. of XXL called it "a fun club record", and Claire Valentine of Paper praised Ashanti's confidence. Sydney Gore of MTV said the single "will definitely spark the fire of your desire this winter". A reviewer from Rap-Up praised Mustard's production and Ashanti's vocals, and referred to Ty Dolla \$ign's contributions as "soothing vocals". Trevor Smith described Ty Dolla \$ign and Mustard as "a proven hitmaking team", and wrote that they acted as "a strong support section" for Ashanti. Other critics responded negatively to the song's composition. D-Money of SoulBounce.com praised "Say Less" as "the kind of frothy, club-ready R&B aimed straight for the mainstream", but criticized it for lacking "substance, memorability or staying power". Tom Breihan of Stereogum was more critical of the single, writing that it was stuck in "the hot sound of four years ago" and does not sound like an Ashanti song. ## Music video and promotion ### Promotion and live performances On November 21, 2017, "Say Less" was featured in a 20-second advertisement for Cîroc vodka, in which Ashanti wears a bikini. She promoted the commercial with images posted to her Instagram account. Sean Combs had asked Ashanti to appear in the commercial during a meeting at a Las Vegas party. During the filming, Combs told her to create a "Bo Derek moment" for the video. According to Glenn Gamboa, Ashanti collaborated with Cîroc "to empower women by offering her keys to a successful career". Ashanti explained: "I think I always try to just give the message of being an empowered woman and being able to empower women". When discussing the wardrobe for the video, she said: "Women should just be proud without having to feel any pressure." Ashanti performed "Say Less" as part of a co-headlining concert tour with Ja Rule. Victor D. Infante of Telegram & Gazette wrote that she "delivered with equal measures sass and style". She sang the track at Billboard Live as part of medley with her previous songs; Bryan Kess of Billboard included it in his list of the top 20 Billboard Live performances of 2017. Ashanti also appeared on Genius' YouTube channel to explain the song's meaning and lyrics. On May 21, 2018, she performed "Say Less" on Good Day L.A.. ### Music video In a 2017 interview with Billboard, Ashanti said a music video for the single was planned, and a preview clip was scheduled to be shown on Total Request Live. The video, directed by Noyz and LT Hutton, was released on April 6, 2018 on Ashanti's Vevo account. Throughout the video, Ashanti is confronted by media scrutiny, and Ty Dolla \$ign makes minor appearances in several scenes. Abby Jones of Billboard described the video as including "theatrical elements". In the opening scene, Ashanti narrates: "Sometimes I feel like, 'Is it really all worth it, for people to attack you and judge you, without even knowing what kind of pain and suffering you might be going through behind closed doors?'". In the video, Ashanti reflects on her life while a television presenter discusses previous scandals involving her career. The reports include her interview with Joe Budden about a fan throwing money at her during a live performance, the indictment of Murder, Inc., and allegations of a hit and run. Ashanti also watches television host Wendy Williams on her daytime talk show and looks at gossip websites. According to the media, Ashanti pushed a fan into a pool; this is later proven untrue because the fan had accidentally fallen into the water. Ashanti responds to the media by saying: "Honestly, people need to just say less." The video ends with "to be continued". ## Track listing ## Credits and personnel - Production – DJ Mustard - Songwriting – Ashanti, Ty Dolla \$ign ## Release history
41,104,145	Swingin Party	1,143,979,894	1985 song by The Replacements	[ "1980s ballads", "1985 songs", "2009 singles", "American indie rock songs", "Lorde songs", "Rock ballads", "Rock-and-roll songs", "Song recordings produced by Tommy Ramone", "Songs written by Paul Westerberg", "The Replacements (band) songs" ]	"Swingin Party" is a song written by Paul Westerberg and recorded by his band The Replacements for their fourth studio album Tim (1985). The song is an indie rock and rock and roll ballad with influences from jazz, country and new wave. Lyrically, it portrays the protagonist's "feigned nonchalance". It was well received by music critics, who praised Westerberg's songwriting talent. The song has been covered by other artists, notably Kindness in 2009 and Lorde in 2013. ## Composition "Swingin Party" was written by Paul Westerberg and produced by Tommy Ramone, and was recorded by The Replacements. It is an indie rock and rock and roll ballad with influences from jazz, country and new wave. It features staccato chords instrumented by electric guitar. Paul Westerberg was inspired to write the song after listening to a live bootleg of Buffalo Springfield's “Flying on the Ground is Wrong” (1966) on a communal Walkman. According to Bill Janovitz from AllMusic, the song climbs scales in a way reminiscent of "Somethin' Stupid" (1967) by Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra. The lyrics are introspective, and portray the protagonist's "feigned nonchalance". Writing for Spin, editor J.D. opined that the song's theme is "literary reflections" as Westerberg sings, "Quittin' school and goin' to work and never goin' fishin'". According to Tim Holmes of Rolling Stone, the song's theme is that "life is a lilting series of ultimately empty, but nonetheless compulsory, soirees", while Robert Hilburn from the Los Angeles Times wrote that the song is "about loneliness and youthful insecurity". In an interview for the Los Angeles Times, Westerberg said: "One of the reasons we used to drink so much is that it was scary going up on stage. That's one of the things 'Swingin' Party' is all about on the album ... how it is a little frightening to put yourself on display all the time." ## Critical reception "Swingin Party" received positive reviews from music critics, most of whom praised Westerberg's songwriting credits for the track. PopMatters' Michael Keefe lauded Westerberg's songwriting ability on "Swingin Party". Craig Rosen writing for Billboard opined that the song showcased Westerberg's "capable" songwriting for the band. In a separate journal for the same publication, Braoley Bambarger named "Swingin Party" a "bittersweeet" ballad that "won the hearts of a generation of college radio fans". Craig Marks from Spin shared that the song's line "Bring your own lampshade/ Somewhere there's a party" is the third best lyric written by Westerberg for The Replacements. Tim Nelson from BBC Music selected "Swingin Party" as one of the outstanding tracks from Tim. ## Other versions ### Popland version In 2000, Singaporean power pop band Popland covered "Swingin Party" for the tribute album Left of the Dial: A Pop Tribute to The Replacements. ### The Weakerthans version Canadian band The Weakerthans performed "Swingin Party" at the 2005 Winnipeg Folk Festival. American musician Annie Hayden included a cover on her 2005 album, The Enemy of Love. British musician Kindness released a house rendition of "Swingin Party" as his first single in 2009, which was later used for the soundtrack of the 2015 drama film Paper Towns. It was released as a 7-inch vinyl via Moshi Moshi Records, with an original song "Gee Up" as the B-side. It was included on his debut studio album World, You Need a Change of Mind (2012). A music video comprising clips from educational films and travel videos was released in August 2009. ### Lorde version New Zealand singer Lorde covered "Swingin Party" as the B-side to her second single, "Tennis Court" (2013). It was also included on Tennis Court EP and later on the US iTunes Store version of The Love Club EP (2013). Lorde's cover of "Swingin Party" entered the New Zealand Singles Chart on June 17, 2013, at number ten, and dropped off the chart the following week. A live rendition was included on her EP Live in Concert. In December 2013, the cover was included in Lorde's extended edition of her debut studio album Pure Heroine. Brittany Spanos from The Village Voice praised the cover and wrote that it helps Lorde express her "rich voice in all its glory".
44,496,609	Hanover Expedition	1,173,364,798	1805–1806 expedition during the War of the Third Coalition	[ "Amphibious operations involving the United Kingdom", "Battles of the War of the Third Coalition", "Campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars", "Conflicts in 1805", "Electorate of Hanover", "Military campaigns involving France" ]	The Hanover Expedition, also known as the Weser Expedition, was a British invasion of the Electorate of Hanover during the Napoleonic Wars. Coordinated as part of an attack on France by the nations of the Third Coalition against Napoleon by William Pitt the Younger and Lord Castlereagh, planning began for an invasion of French territories in July 1805. Hanover, previously a British possession, was chosen as the goal of the expedition, with Swedish and Russian forces under Gustav IV Adolf and Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann-Tolstoy brought in to support the endeavour. Key to the success of the invasion was the support of Prussia, a nation poised to threaten France but not as yet openly hostile to the country. Sir George Don commanded the British expedition and he arrived with an army of around 14,000 men at Cuxhaven in November. To bolster the expedition and to strengthen the resolve of Prussia, Don's army was reinforced by 12,000, with Lord Cathcart taking over command. Coordination between the British, Swedes, and Russians in Hanover was so poor that by December very little past the occupation of Hanover had been achieved. Cathcart grouped his force around the Weser, and soon after learned of the Austro-Russian defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz, which forced the Austrians to surrender and the Russians to retreat into Poland. With no large armies now protecting Cathcart's force from French attack, the situation was exacerbated when Prussia signed the Treaty of Schönbrunn with France, which created an alliance between the two nations and agreed that Prussia should control Hanover. With French and Prussian forces moving against Hanover, Cathcart's army was recalled in January 1806. The evacuation was completed on 15 February, and Hanover was left to the occupation of a Prussian army. The expedition, while a total failure, had little effect on the British position because of the lack of combat. Its method of quick amphibious transportation and landings of troops on a foreign shore would go on to be imitated in the Walcheren Expedition in 1809. ## Background In the first years of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars Britain found increased difficulty in engaging France in land battles. With British control of the seas and with many of the French colonies already taken because of this, France provided little opportunity for Britain to attack her apart from at sea. The small British Army was not equipped to engage in an invasion of the highly defended French mainland, and so continued to rely on the Royal Navy's blockade of Brest as the best way to impact the French at home. This outlook changed in 1803 when Austria and Russia allied themselves to Britain as part of the Third Coalition. With more militarily impressive allies now available to take the war to France on land, the British Army would be able to do the same, safe in the knowledge that it would not be engaging the French armies alone. This combined with the creation of the King's German Legion in 1804 produced an opportunity for new British Army operations. In around October 1805 Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom was called off and the French army left its encampments at Boulogne to march towards the Russians and Austrians. With the largest portions of the French army gone, an opening was created for a British incursion into North-West Germany, with particular interest in the re-taking of the Electorate of Hanover, which George III had controlled until 1803, and which had only 4,000 French troops remaining in it. The British Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, and his Secretary of State for War and the Colonies Lord Castlereagh, were strong supporters of the enterprise, having championed it from as early as July. They envisaged an amphibious army that could be landed at points across Napoleonic Europe, making "pinprick" attacks against enemy targets while avoiding large battles with the French that could result in "crippling defeat". With news of the French withdrawal having reached Britain before its culmination, Castlereagh began planning in September. By taking Hanover, Britain could restore the country to its rightful rulers while also gaining a useful springboard for further operations in Europe. Not all of the establishment was in favour of the endeavour, with the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, the Duke of York, relying on his experience in the Flanders campaign, arguing that expeditions that relied too much on the allies' actions would be difficult. ## Planning Castlereagh estimated that the retirement of the French armies from the Channel coast had freed up between 40,000 and 60,000 British soldiers for service abroad. With this in mind, original estimates for an expedition planned for a large "disposable force" commanded by Lieutenant-General Lord Cathcart. This would have included two divisions of cavalry, one of light dragoons and the other of heavy cavalry, consisting of 9,600 men. Alongside the cavalry plans called for seven divisions of infantry, including four battalions of Foot Guards and forty of line infantry. These divisions would have each had around 5,000 men, and would have been supported by a light infantry brigade of four more infantry battalions, six brigades of Royal Horse Artillery, and ten brigades of Royal Artillery. Military historian C. T. Atkinson suggests that this force, if it had come to fruition, would have been "a really formidable effort". This large army, while viable on paper, would have been very difficult to form up and transport in reality, and so on 10 October a much smaller army was hastily brought together to cross the North Sea under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir George Don, who was expected to also instigate diplomatic connections with the allied nations. While the original plan had expected the creation of multiple divisions, Don's force was instead made up of two cavalry and six infantry regiments of the King's German Legion (KGL) which were controlled by Brigadier-General Friedrich von der Decken, a brigade of Foot Guards under Major-General Edward Finch, and a brigade of line infantry under Major-General Edward Paget. This totalled between 12,000 and 14,000 men, and Don received his final orders on 16 October. Von der Decken planned the operation, ensuring that the force would be transported quickly to avoid the coming of the harsh northern winter that would freeze the ports and rivers necessary in disembarking the troops. It was initially planned that Don would go ahead of his force to ensure that they would receive a positive welcome upon their landing, but this duty was instead taken by the politician Lord Harrowby on 25 October. Harrowby's mission was to Berlin and the court of Prussia, with the intention of enticing that nation into joining the Third Coalition. He was authorised to offer a gift of £2,500,000 to ensure this. Castlereagh believed that only the wavering support of Prussia could stop Don's expedition from being successful, and by the end of October it was thought that Prussia's entry into the conflict was imminent. Pitt, in turn, was of the mind that success could bring about "Bonaparte's army either cut off or driven back to France". ## Expedition ### Initial landing It was expected that Don's force would sail immediately, but with the wind against them their troopships only succeeded in arriving at Cuxhaven on 19 November. The crossing was difficult, and at least five ships did not complete it, spending seventeen days at sea before returning to Harwich with a portion of the KGL cavalry still on board. The expedition went on despite this loss. A Swedish force of 10,000 men paid for by Britain was poised to attack from Stralsund, and they were joined by 20,000 Russians under Lieutenant-General Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann-Tolstoy. The British were not the first part of the Third Coalition to enter Hanover, as a Russian force had earlier arrived to blockade Hamelin, still garrisoned by the French and the only position left to them. Despite this Don's army received a warm welcome, and they quickly secured lines of supplies, while the KGL took advantage of being back in Germany to increase their numbers with local recruits. Four infantry battalions, two of the KGL and two of line infantry, were sent to join the Russians at Hamelin, while other portions of the force were split off to go to the Ems and Weser rivers. The neutral Prussian army had also entered French-controlled lands, south of Hanover, commanded by the Duke of Brunswick, but quickly looked for their forces to be replaced by those of the coalition. Don's position on the continent was tenuous but not immediately threatened. Napoleon had beaten an Austrian army, that did not wait for Russian assistance before advancing, at the Battle of Ulm, but in doing so had stretched his lines of communication too far and was unable to advance further, giving time for Britain's allies to reinforce their armies. When fully organised, Don's force stretched in a line between the Weser and Verden, supported with Tolstoy's Russians to the right of him. While still not part of the Third Coalition, Prussia was on increasingly poor terms with France because of incursions made by the French into Ansbach, and Pitt hoped that Prussia would join the Coalition because of this. With Napoleon placed just to the south of Prussian lands, an advance by a Prussian army would put him in a very precarious situation. Realising this, Pitt decided to strengthen the British expeditionary force, hoping this would entice Prussia into more warlike actions. The diplomatic situation was complicated because Prussia also coveted Hanover, and Napoleon had offered it to Prussia in return for aggression towards Austria. Despite this difficulty, Pitt and Castlereagh were encouraged by the absence of the expected harsh winter weather and continued to move forward with their plans. ### Expedition expanded While Pitt decided on his next actions, Don began to plan an attack into Holland alongside Tolstoy. Their plan was slowed by the reticence of the Swedish force and the continuing confusion surrounding the intentions of the Prussians. Tolstoy eventually decided that he could not invest enough men into an invasion and ensure the continued blockade of Hamelin, and no attack took place. It was afterwards decided that Don's force, then spread about, would be brought together as one field army. On 27 November this new command was given to Cathcart, who would bring 12,000 reinforcements with him to bolster his army. Don was superseded, but continued with the army as its second in command. Cathcart, who had been preparing to serve as ambassador-extraordinary to Russia and Prussia, was titled "Commander-in-Chief of British Forces in Northern Europe", and was given control over Russian, Swedish, or Prussian troops as well. Harrowby began reporting that the Prussians were inclining towards neutrality in the conflict. Cathcart was issued his orders on 5 December, which expected him to work to the best of his abilities with the armies of the allied nations, but not endanger Hanover. Despite this aggressive step, Cathcart was also warned to take caution in his warlike manoeuvres; even if he put his army under the command of another force, such as that of Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden at Stralsund, he was allowed to refuse action if he deemed it too dangerous. Castlereagh even suggested that Cathcart attempt to link up with the main Russian army advancing from the east, but this was a logistically difficult proposition. Cathcart arrived at Cuxhaven on 15 December, making his headquarters at Bremen. He began to prepare for the upcoming campaign, discussing how to communicate if the rivers of Heligoland should freeze over, considering whether to advance on Holland or the Lower Rhine, and bringing his army together around the Weser. Before being withdrawn, the units stationed at Hamelin briefly skirmished with the defending French on 22 December, marking the only combat engaged by any of the force. Word of the Battle of Austerlitz threw Cathcart's plans into confusion. There on 2 December a Russo-Austrian army had been soundly defeated by Napoleon, and Austria had surrendered in consequence, with both allied armies all but destroyed. The chance of Prussia entering the conflict was heavily diminished, and the remaining Russian forces began to withdraw towards Poland. ### Offensive breaks down Cathcart had come ahead of his reinforcements, and their ships only arrived in the Weser on 27 December, with two divisions under Lieutenant-Generals Francis Dundas and George Ludlow. In these were four infantry brigades, commanded by Major-Generals Rowland Hill, Sir Arthur Wellesley, Alexander Mackenzie Fraser, and John Coape Sherbrooke, with three companies of Royal Artillery and some Royal Engineers attached. The news of Austerlitz reached Britain on 28 December, but it was still hoped that Prussia would not cease fighting against France, and that Russia might hold on in the west. Without the larger Russian and Austrian armies standing as a buffer between the French forces and Cathcart's army, the latter's position in Hanover became untenable. Despite its now increasingly precarious position, Cathcart's force was kept in Hanover in the hope that its presence might still encourage the Prussians, and an uneasy cooperation with the Prussian General Count von Kalckreuth continued. The reinforcements in the Weser landed and joined Cathcart's army, despite there being no clear view of what they might be used for. This injection of new troops was not the boon it might have been for Cathcart, because on top of the decaying strategic situation, the troopships had sailed through rough weather in the North Sea. Hardly any of the battalions embarked succeeded in reaching Cathcart whole; the troopship Ariadne, carrying the headquarters party and 300 men of the 9th Regiment of Foot, was wrecked near Calais and all on board were taken as prisoners of war. The same happened to half of the 5th Regiment of Foot, while losses were also encountered in the 3rd, 30th, and 89th Regiments of Foot, the latter of which lost 150 men killed and a further 150 captured. The 26th Regiment of Foot was the hardest hit in the crossing, with one troopship being wrecked on the Goodwin Sands with the loss of all on board, and another wrecked off the coast of Holland, totalling between them 500 deaths. Other units were also depleted, but not by shipwrecks, with over 1,000 men returning to Britain when ships were unable to reach their destination. Only the 28th and 36th Regiments of Foot succeeded in arriving substantially intact, but large portions of Cathcart's reinforcements were so badly depleted that they were incapable of further operations, with over 1,000 people having been killed. Cathcart could do little with his new troops, and had further problems with the local intelligence. On 28 December Castlereagh complained that the situation in Hanover was almost unknown to him, being reliant on French and Dutch newspapers more than anything. In some ways, Cathcart's army knew less than him; Wellesley reported around the same time that "they appear to have very little intelligence in this place, except what they receive from England". ### Evacuation Prussian troops were still present in Hanover, dating from the period before Austerlitz when Prussia was considering more offensive actions against France. Despite Prussia being the reason for Cathcart's continued presence on the continent, he was unimpressed with them, writing that they were "strong numerically, but not in quality". Cathcart kept his army in Hanover in the hope that Russia would continue to fight and that Prussia would finally officially enter the conflict, but he also began to plan routes of retreat, expecting that if the rivers froze and they were not able to sail home, that the army could march towards Swedish Pomerania. The army continued in its positions, awaiting official instructions from Britain. By 29 December the state of Cathcart's allies was so poor that Castlereagh admitted to him that the possibility of supporting them with the British force was now completely gone. Castlereagh was aware of Cathcart's difficulties, writing to him that he should continue to support the Russians and Prussians where possible, but that the Prussians were untrustworthy and he should not go on the offensive unless Prussian assistance was guaranteed. Prussia was also suspected of plotting to force Cathcart to leave the German soldiers of the KGL in Hanover under Prussian command. Castlereagh and Cathcart were both heavily resistant to this, and the latter ensured that in the case of an evacuation the KGL would leave first. Pitt's health was severely declining and he had retired to Bath; with the prime minister unavailable, the Cabinet began to send troopships to Cathcart in preparation for an evacuation. The remaining troopships at Ramsgate waiting to make the voyage to Hanover had their men disembarked on 30 December, and were instead sent as part of this force. On 5 January 1806 it was decided that no more troops would be sent to Hanover. Two days later it was discovered that on 14 December Prussia had ratified the Treaty of Schönbrunn, a defensive and offensive alliance with France in which Prussia was given leave to occupy Hanover. Prussia also began to withdraw Tolstoy's force, which had been left under its auspices by the retreating Alexander I of Russia. With Prussia now advancing to occupy Hanover with 50,000 men and with rumours growing that a French force of three divisions was preparing to attack from Holland, orders were sent for Cathcart to evacuate on 19 January. Cathcart received his instructions at the end of the month, and quickly put them into effect. His army by this time had grown to 26,643 men because of recruitment by the KGL which resulted in it returning to Britain with more battalions and depots than it had left with; only around 14,000 were British infantry. The first to leave were the KGL and the four British battalions that had been most weakened in the crossings of the North Sea. By 12 February the last of the army had been embarked, and Cathcart left Hanover on 15 February. Von der Decken, who had served the expedition as quartermaster general to both the British and Russian forces, stayed behind to ensure that all British debts were paid. He finally returned in May. ## Aftermath With the British force gone and the Russians under Prussian control, Hanover was occupied by Prussia. In Britain, the remains of Cathcart's force were split up along the south coast of England to serve as a deterrent to invasion. Prussia was forced by France to close all its north German ports to British traffic, and this caused Britain to declare war on Prussia on 21 April. The expedition was the last military endeavour planned and orchestrated by Pitt. It had achieved nothing, but had not been a great loss of men or material, and Castlereagh would later write that he was well satisfied with Cathcart's actions, war-related losses having been minor. Some senior generals in the army were angered by the failure of the expedition, feeling that its control by civilian politicians trying to be military experts had caused its failure. Critics suggested that if the expedition had been sent to join Lieutenant-General Sir James Craig's Anglo-Russian occupation of Naples then Britain might have had one successful expedition instead of two failures. Positively, however, Hanover had shown that the navy could transport large groups of soldiers across seas at short notice, and in relatively good order barring bad weather. Lessons were, however, not fully learned. Pitt died on 23 January, having been further weakened by the knowledge that Britain was alone in war against France, her allies defeated and the British once more pushed from the continent. His government was replaced, and future expeditions with equally poor results, such as the Walcheren Expedition, would be launched in imitation of the Hanover Expedition. Castlereagh's disposable force of 30,000 men remained in existence, but by March 1807 it had dwindled to 12,000 men, with the fleet of troopships created to assist in transporting it dispersed for other uses. Opinions on the expedition have been varied. Atkinson argues that the failure of the expedition was the fault of Britain's allies on the continent, rather than the politicians who had ordered the endeavour. Pitt and Castlereagh had reacted quickly to the opportunity to attack Germany, and Atkinson says that the Austrians and Russians made enough mistakes that Napoleon was able to take advantage and defeat them; without them Cathcart's army could do, and did, nothing. On the other hand, military historian Sir John Fortescue is more critical of the expedition, describing it as an "egregious farce". However, he agrees that the plan behind the expedition was sound in theory, its execution being let down by the rulers of the allied nations; while complimentary to Pitt's attempts to strike a blow against France, he is derisory of the other leaders, calling those of Russia and Sweden "insane", that of Prussia "contemptible", and Austria "weak". This need to rely on the actions of Britain's allies in order to succeed has been echoed by historian Alexander Mikaberidze. Glover writes succinctly that "[The British] had enlisted a few hundred recruits for the King's German Legion, they had offended the King of Prussia, but they had not caused Napoleon a moment's worry". The Third Coalition completed its final collapse in July 1806. ## British Expeditionary Force ## Notes and citations
21,781,578	Law & Order: Criminal Intent (season 1)	1,171,202,138	Season of television series	[ "2001 American television seasons", "2002 American television seasons", "Law & Order: Criminal Intent episodes", "Works about the Serbian Mafia" ]	The first season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, an American police procedural television series, was developed by Dick Wolf and René Balcer. It began airing on September 30, 2001, on NBC, a national broadcast television network in the United States. It is the second spin-off of the long-running crime drama Law & Order. Law & Order: Criminal Intent follows the New York City Police Department's fictional Major Case Squad, which investigates high-profile murder cases. The first season of twenty-two episodes concluded its initial airing on May 10, 2002. Four actors received star billing in the first season: Vincent D'Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, Jamey Sheridan, and Courtney B. Vance. Episodes depict Detectives Robert Goren (D'Onofrio) and Alexandra Eames (Erbe) as the squad's lead investigators. Captain James Deakins (Sheridan) is the detectives' direct supervisor and head of the Major Case Squad. Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver (Vance) often attempts to obtain confessions from the suspects, rather than taking them to trial. Law & Order: Criminal Intent focuses on the actions and motives of the criminals, and it divides screen time equally between the suspects and victims and the police's investigation. The season was filmed on location in New York City. Scenes set inside the Major Case Squad department were filmed in a studio at Chelsea Piers, Manhattan. The season was nominated for four awards and was described by some reviewers as the most impressive of all the Law & Order series. It was sold to numerous television stations around the world, and it has been adapted into localized foreign versions in Russia and France. It has been syndicated in the US on a number of cable channels. A DVD box set of Season 1 was released in America on October 21, 2003, and episodes are available for purchase at the US iTunes Store and Amazon Video on Demand. ## Production Law & Order: Criminal Intent is the third series in the Law & Order crime drama franchise, which was created by Dick Wolf in 1990. He developed it with René Balcer, who began working on the original series during its first season. During his time on Law & Order, Balcer was promoted to head writer, show runner, and executive producer before leaving in 2000. News first broke of a new series in late 2000, when it was reported that NBC, broadcaster of Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, approached Wolf Films and Studios USA about a second spin-off. Balcer and Wolf conceived Law & Order: Criminal Intent as a police procedural crime drama that follows a distinct division of the New York City Police Department: the 'Major Case Squad', and its investigations in to high-profile murder cases, such as those involving VIPs, local government officials and employees, and people working in the financial industry and the arts and entertainment world. Unlike the other series in the Law & Order franchise, Law & Order: Criminal Intent gives significant attention to the actions and motives of the criminals, rather than primarily focusing on the police investigation and trial prosecution. Episodes do not contain trials, and end in confessions rather than plea bargains or verdicts. Production began in January 2001, shooting on location in and around New York City using local color. The main set of One Police Plaza is located at Pier 62, Chelsea Piers, Manhattan. Thirteen episodes were initially ordered, and were completed by April 2001, so that production would not be halted by a potential strike from the Writers Guild of America. Balcer was the show runner, executive producer and head writer on the first season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Wolf was also credited as an executive producer, as with all other Law & Order series. The first season gave co-executive producers credits to Peter Jankowski, Fred Berner, Geoffrey Neigher, and Arthur W. Forney. John L. Roman, Roz Weinman, and Eric Overmyer were named producers, with Michael Kewley a co-producer. Theresa Rebeck and Marlane Meyer were consulting producers. Twelve people directed, and nine people wrote the twenty-two episodes; Constantine Makris directed four episodes, and Balcer wrote or co-wrote ten episodes. ## Cast Law & Order: Criminal Intent is not an ensemble series, and therefore differs from Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit which respectively featured six and eight actors receiving star billing during the same broadcast season. Movie actor Vincent D'Onofrio was offered the lead role of Detective Robert Goren, a hyper-intuitive contemporary Sherlock Holmes-type investigator who used to work for the US Military Police. Other than a 1998 guest role on Homicide: Life on the Street that earned him an Emmy nomination, this was D'Onofrio's first major television role. Goren's partner, former vice squad detective Alexandra Eames, was played by Kathryn Erbe who had just completed a role on Oz as convicted murderer Shirley Bellinger. Balcer stated Eames was cast because "she just looked like a real cop." Courtney B. Vance plays Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver, a graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Jamey Sheridan was the last actor to be cast in a main role, taking the part of James Deakins, a "seasoned" NYPD Captain. In a recurring role, Leslie Hendrix appeared as Assistant Chief Medical Examiner Elizabeth Rodgers, the same character she had played in the other two series. Steve Zirnkilton provides a voice-over at the beginning of each episode's opening credits, saying "In New York City's war on crime, the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the detectives of the Major Case Squad. These are their stories." There were several guest stars in the episodes of this series, such as: - Jake Weber as Karl Atwood, a professional thief and murderer - Lenny Venito as Jake Nathan, an accomplice of Karl Atwood - Dianne Wiest as Intern D.A. Nora Lewin - Elizabeth Marvel as Sylvia Moon, an artist and at the same time a triple murderer and a forger - Lynn Cohen as Mina Cohen, employee of the Holocaust Foundation - Michael O'Keefe as Father Michael McShale, the church father St. Justin and the murderer of Kevin Donovan - Alex Feldman as Kevin Donovan, Father McShale's drug-addicted son and Morris Abernathy's killer - Peter McRobbie as Father Capanna - Stephen Henderson as Morris Abernathy, the sacristan of St. Justin church who is assassinated by Donovan - Roy Thinnes as Sheridan Beckworth - Griffin Dunne as Henry Talbott, a corrupt lawyer and a serial killer - Karen Young as Denise Talbott, Henry's credulous wife - Thomas G. Waites as Mo Turman, the owner of Mo's Diner cafeteria - Eric Thal as Denis Dupont / Didier Foucault, a Swiss swindler and murderer - John Doman as Roy Markham - Terry Serpico as Leslie Roche - Steven Marcus as Tom Santini - Jerry Orbach as Det. Lennie Briscoe - Jesse L. Martin as Det. Ed Green - John Heard as Larry Wiegert - Robert Hogan as Judge Van Vliet - Kate Burton as Stephanie Uffland - Robert Lyle Knepper as Dr. Peter Kelmer, a plastic surgeon who murdered his wife - David Aaron Baker as Edward Sternman - Lothaire Bluteau as Rick Zainer, a nurse and at the same time, a facilitator of assassinations - Robert Stanton as Dennis Griscom, a Christian fanatic and at the same time, a sniper and murderer who killed Leo Cavella, an abortion doctor - Michael Gross as Dr. Charles Webb, a psychiatrist and at the same time, a murderer - J. K. Simmons as Dr. Emil Skoda - Jenna Stern as Julie Feldman, a murder suspect, but later found innocent - Ritchie Coster as Simon Matic, a former Serb Volunteer Guard soldier, muscle mafia, kidnapper and rapist - Frank Pellegrino as Carl Pettijohn - Michael Murphy as Judge Peter Blakemore, a corrupt judge - George DiCenzo as Judge Raoul Sabatelli, a book author and supreme court judge who murdered Emily Trudeau - Michael Emerson as Gerry Rankin, a con man and double murderer posing as a United Nations economist - David Thornton as Kenneth Strick, a real estate heir who murdered his friend IIana Yushka - Alla Kliouka Schaffer as Ilana Yushka, a book author and daughter of a prominent Russian mobster, murdered by her friend Kenneth Strick - Viola Davis as Sergeant Terry Randolph, Lieutenant Van Buren's student who became a dirty cop, serial killer, and family annihilator - S. Epatha Merkerson as Lt. Anita Van Buren - Mia Dillon as Barb Windemere, a woman who claims to be Erica Windemere's adoptive mother, but later, was false - Remak Ramsay as Douglas Lafferty, a reporter who was interested in the story of Erica Windemere, when he discovered that it was a "house of cards", was going to make it public, but was killed by the book editor, Christine Wilkes - Polly Draper as Christine Wilkes, a book editor who became famous for her book Through the Darkness, which recounted the story of Erica Widemere, a girl who was raped. When reporter Douglas Lafferty discovered that the story was false and was used to steal people's money, Wilkes murdered him so that he would not expose the truth - Bruce Altman as Jack Crawley, a con artist, conspirator, and power assassin who acts as the chief financial officer of Mattawin Corporation, a company dedicated to the sale of water and land ## Distribution The first season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent premiered during the 2001–2002 television season on the American terrestrial television network NBC. The pilot episode, titled "One", aired on Sunday September 30, 2001 at 9:00 p.m. EST. Episodes aired weekly until December, when the show took a brief hiatus until January, and took another hiatus during February. The final episode of the season aired at 9:00 p.m. on Friday May 10, 2002. Under a \$100,000-per-episode shared or second window syndication agreement that cable channel USA Network made with NBC, USA Network was allowed to broadcast episodes out of primetime a week after their premiere on NBC. The season is also under a regular off-network syndication deal at USA Networks and Bravo. The two channels teamed up late 2004 to pay \$2 million per episode for the syndication rights to the series, allowing USA Network to air episodes during the week, and Bravo to air episodes at the weekend. In 2007, Fox Television Stations, a group of Fox Broadcasting Company owned-and-operated stations, entered a syndication deal to broadcast episodes as part of its daytime schedule. From late 2009, MyNetworkTV will broadcast Law & Order: Criminal Intent, including episodes from season one, having changed their business model from a network broadcaster to a syndication programming service. The series has also been distributed to international broadcasters. It aired in Canada on CTV, in France on TF1, in the United Kingdom on Hallmark Channel and Five, in Australia on Network Ten, and in New Zealand on TV3. Episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent's first season have been adapted into localized foreign versions. Russian: Закон и порядок: Преступный умысел (lit. Law & Order: Criminal Mind), premiered in 2007 on NTV (Russia) and is produced by Global American Television, Studio2B and NTV, Wolf Films and NBC Universal. On May 3, 2007, the French Law & Order: Criminal Intent broadcaster, TF1, began airing Paris enquêtes criminelles, a co-production from TF1 and ALMA, Wolf Films and NBC Universal. All eight episodes of Paris enquêtes criminelles's first season, two episodes from the second season, and one third-season episode were adapted from Law & Order: Criminal Intent first-season episodes. Wolf stated that Law & Order: Criminal Intent has been sold to foreign networks because it is easier to adapt into local legal systems than Law & Order, where half of each episode occurs in the courtroom. The season is available in a number of new media formats. Universal Studios Home Entertainment released it in a 6-disc DVD box set on October 21, 2003, in Region 1, titled Law & Order: Criminal Intent – The First Year. The pilot episode was also released on a separate DVD on June 3, 2003. Consumers in the US can purchase and download episodes from the iTunes Store and Amazon Video on Demand. ## Reception Laura Fries of Variety commented on the difference between this series and Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: "By scrutinizing motive and intent, Criminal Intent utilizes a more personal style that sets it apart from its brethren. Wolf's characters are notoriously devoid of detailed personal lives, but debut [episode] hints at a little more introspection on the part of the characters". In Entertainment Weekly, Ken Tucker wrote that Law & Order: Criminal Intent was the best series of the year from the Law & Order franchise and that while Law & Order suffered from tired, wooden performances from actors with poor chemistry, the acting on Law & Order: Criminal Intent was at "the other end of the spectrum." Both writers commented on the overpowering screen presence that D'Onofrio commands in the first episode: "Criminal Intent so far is a one-man show with Vincent D'Onofrio at its center. [He] commands the most attention, tending to overshadow Erbe, who is reduced in the pilot to following Goren with an awe-struck look," wrote Fries, while Tucker also stated, "D'Onofrio is so eccentrically entertaining, even his costar Kathryn Erbe seems fascinated", but complained that Erbe's role was smaller than D'Onofrio's, which "jibes with the subtle range she showed on [HBO's] Oz and proves her professional generosity." He also said Sheridan "is similarly nonplussed and under-utilized," but "Vance is terrific [as Carver], who makes defendants wither in the face of his elegantly reasoned cross-examinations." Law & Order: Criminal Intent's first season received four nominations from three award ceremonies. "The Faithful" and "Smothered" were given commendations at the Prism Awards in the category for Best TV Drama Series Episode. Vance was nominated in the Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series category at the 2002 NAACP Image Awards. René Balcer received an Edgar Award nomination for "Tuxedo Hill". Casting director Lynn Kressel was nominated at the Casting Society of America Artios Awards in the category for Best Casting for TV in a Dramatic Pilot. ## Episodes
2,255,266	British Birds Rarities Committee	1,128,250,912	Official adjudicator of rare bird records in Britain	[ "1959 establishments in the United Kingdom", "Bird rarities committees", "Organizations established in 1959", "Ornithological organisations in the United Kingdom" ]	The British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC), established in 1959, is the national bird rarities committee for Britain. It assesses claimed sightings of bird species that are rarely seen in Britain, based on descriptions, photographs and video recordings submitted by observers. Its findings are published in an annual report in the journal British Birds. The BBRC covers around 280 species whose annually recorded sightings in Britain fall below a threshold deemed to signify rarity. Since the establishment of the committee, some previously included species have become more common—or at least better recorded; this has resulted in their removal from the committee's list and their reclassification as "scarce migrants". The committee has a chairman, a secretary, and ten voting members, and is supported by others who serve in an advisory capacity. Since its inception, a total of 69 people have served on the committee as assessors. In addition to assessing annual records of rare birds, the committee conducts regular reviews of batches of previously accepted records on a species-by-species basis, to ensure that only those consistent with advances in knowledge of bird identification are retained, and to determine the subspecies of accepted records. Several species have been problematic for assessment, and extreme examples have taken more than 20 years from initial observation to acceptance. The committee has been criticised for its approach to assessing records where only one observer was present, for not publishing reasons for rejecting the validity of records, and for placing undue weight on descriptive detail when assessing record submissions. Seabird identification has proved particularly difficult, leading some observers to suggest that the committee sets too high a standard. ## Role and status The "Rarity Records Committee" (as it was originally known) was established in 1959 by the editors of the journal British Birds. Its original purpose was to provide a means whereby uniform assessment standards could be applied to all rare bird records across Britain. Prior to the establishment of the committee, records were assessed by local bird recording organisations using varying standards. The most recent statement of the British Birds Rarities Committee's role is given in Bradshaw, Harvey and Steele (2004): > BBRC aims to maintain an accurate database of the occurrence of rare taxa in Britain, in order to enable individuals or organisations to assess the current status of, and any changes in, the patterns of occurrence and distribution of these taxa in Britain. Contradictory information has been published on the exact nature of the committee's status. On its website, BBRC describes itself as the "official adjudicator of rare bird records in Britain" (although it does not say on what basis it has this status). In Birders: Tales of a Tribe, author Mark Cocker erroneously describes the committee as a "statutory vetting body" (i.e. one established by an Act of Parliament). BBRC's constitution states that it "has no automatic or legal expectation that birders submit records". The committee does not assess records of birds from Ireland; that task is carried out by the Irish Rare Birds Committee, which publishes its decisions in Irish Birds. Records of IRBC-assessed rarities were included in BBRC annual reports for many years, although this ceased in 2002 at the request of IRBC. Although the British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee does not regard records from the Isle of Man as contributing towards their British list, BBRC does include records from there in its totals. BBRC has had an ongoing sponsor in the German optical equipment manufacturer Carl Zeiss since 1983. ## Species covered Over 580 bird species have been recorded in Britain; some 250 have regular breeding or wintering populations, or are common migrants, and a further 50 are "scarce migrants". The BBRC assesses the remaining species. A list of the species the committee assesses (known as "British Birds rarities", or "BB rarities" for short) is on its website, although the list has not been updated to account for the most recent changes. The committee generally considers only the records of species rare enough to meet its criteria for inclusion on the BBRC rarities list, based on a numerical threshold. In addition to considering full species, records of some rare subspecies are considered and, in a few cases, the committee considers indeterminate records (birds that belong to a pair or group of rare species that are particularly difficult to separate, such as frigatebirds). The committee keeps the list of species it considers under review and, from time to time, makes changes. These are usually because species have increased in frequency and no longer meet the numerical criteria for inclusion. A species is removed if it has more than 150 records in the preceding ten years, with ten or more in at least eight of those years. Different criteria were used in a review in 2006 (see below). There have been three major "purges" of species since the committee's formation. The first was soon after the committee's formation, in 1963, when 16 species were removed: red-crested pochard, snow goose, pectoral sandpiper, Mediterranean gull, Sabine's gull, melodious warbler, icterine warbler, yellow-browed warbler, northern goshawk, golden eagle, red kite, Kentish plover, crested tit, bearded tit, marsh warbler and Dartford warbler. Records of the last eight species had been considered only outside their "normal" British range (e.g. crested tits outside Scotland, and red kites outside Wales). Kentish Plover was readmitted in 2020 following the loss of breeding populations in both the UK and nearby continental Europe leading to a massive decline in records. The second was in 1982, when ten further species were removed: Cory's shearwater, purple heron, white stork, buff-breasted sandpiper, Richard's pipit, tawny pipit, Savi's warbler, aquatic warbler, serin and common rosefinch. Savi's warbler was re-admitted to the committee's list in 1998, due to declining numbers of occurrences, with Tawny Pipit and Aquatic Warbler being reinstated in 2015. Thirdly, in 2006, a further 17 species were dropped from the list: ferruginous duck, Wilson’s petrel, great white egret, black kite, red-footed falcon, American golden plover, white-rumped sandpiper, white-winged black tern, alpine swift, red-rumped swallow, red-throated pipit, subalpine warbler, greenish warbler, dusky warbler, Radde's warbler, Arctic redpoll and rustic bunting. Their selection was based on different criteria from those previously used: more than 200 records in Britain ever, and more than 100 occasions in the last decade. Of the 17 species that were removed in the 2006 purge, three have been reinstated - Ferruginous Duck in 2017, and Red-throated Pipit and Rustic Bunting in 2015. Many other species and subspecies have been removed over the years: Cetti's warbler (in 1976); long-tailed skua (in 1979); common crane and ring-billed gull (in 1987); surf scoter, little egret, European bee-eater, Pallas's warbler and woodchat shrike (in 1990); green-winged teal (in 1992); ring-necked duck, greater short-toed lark and little bunting (in 1993); white-tailed eagle and Kumlien's gull (in 1998); American wigeon, black-crowned night heron and rose-coloured starling (in 2001); and black brant (in 2005). Until 2009, the parrot crossbill was an anomaly, in that it was on the committee's list of species, even though a breeding population existed in Scotland. In 2009, this species was removed, along with white-billed diver and cattle egret. Latter removals included Glossy Ibis and Olive-backed Pipit in 2013, Lesser Scaup, Citrine Wagtail and Blyth's Reed Warbler in 2015 (although Lesser Scaup was reinstated in 2020), Black-winged Stilt and Red-flanked Bluetail in 2017, and Lesser Yellowlegs and Arctic Warbler in 2019. In 2021, for the first time, White-spotted Bluethroat became the first taxon to be added to the BBRC list that hadn't previously been removed (except British firsts). Once removed, a species is classed as a "scarce migrant": British Birds publishes a separate annual report summarising the occurrence of these species, and the data is also presented on the Scarce Migrants website. Aside from breeding species, Cetti's warbler, little egret, long-tailed skua, Mediterranean gull, Cattle Egret, Great White Egret and Yellow-browed Warbler have become so common that they no longer qualify even as scarce migrants. ## Structure and personnel The committee has ten voting members, a chairman (who may be one of the ten, or may be another, non-voting individual) and a non-voting secretary. BBRC was assisted in its assessment of seabird records by a Seabirds Advisory Panel from 1987 to 1996. In 1999, the BBRC set up the "RIACT" (Racial Identification Amongst Changing Taxonomy) group to advise on how records of rare subspecies should be treated. RIACT published its first report in 2006, setting out the subspecies it believed were sufficiently diagnosable, and that occurred infrequently enough to justify being assessed by the rarities committee. Prior to this, a partial selection of rare subspecies had been routinely included in BBRC reports; the RIACT report aimed to bring consistency to the selection for future years. When a record is of a species not previously recorded in Britain in a wild state, BBRC deals with assessment of the bird's identification, then passes the record to the British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee, which decides whether the species should be included on the BOU's British Bird list. The committee has two permanent posts, a Chairman and a Secretary: they are appointed by the board of British Birds. There had been no fixed term for these appointments before 2008, however, a three-year fixed term, with a limit of ten years, was introduced with the change of chairman in that year. The current chairman, the committee's seventh, is Adam Rowlands; the six previous chairmen were Philip Hollom (1959–72), Ian Wallace (1972–76), Peter J. Grant (1976–86), Peter Lansdown (1986–93), Rob Hume (1993–97) and Colin Bradshaw (1997–2008). The committee's secretary is Nigel Hudson, appointed in 2007. Its previous secretaries were G. A. Pyman (1959–61), Christopher M. Swaine (1961–63), Denzil D. Harber (1963–66), F. R. Smith (1966–75), J. N. Dymond (1975–77), J. O'Sullivan (1977–78) and Mike Rogers (1978–2006). At least one (usually the longest-serving) record-assessing member retires every year, to balance experience with "new blood". The committee usually nominates its own replacement candidate, but also invites nominations from others, and if any are received, holds an election among county bird recorders and the bird observatory network. A set of criteria for membership has been developed—currently, these are "a widely acknowledged expertise in identification, proven reliability in the field, a track record of high quality submissions of descriptions of scarce and rare birds to county records committees and BBRC, considerable experience of record assessment, the capacity to handle the considerable volume of work involved in assessing upwards of 1,000 records per year and the capacity to work quickly and efficiently". The following 69 individuals have served on BBRC in a records assessment capacity: A number of other individuals have served as the committee's statisticians, museum consultants, archivists and avicultural consultants, or on the Seabirds Advisory Panel or RIACT. The committee has stated that it has a desire to be made up of members of "all age ranges and both sexes"; however, all BBRC members to date have been male, a fact reflected in the nickname "the ten rare men". Measures exist to ensure that the committee has a geographic balance amongst its membership—BBRC's constitution states that it "should attempt to provide a reasonable geographical spread with members having a detailed knowledge of each of the following areas: Wales, Scotland, Northern England, the Midlands, the Southwest and the Southeast of England". Documentation of records, including the members' deliberations, are kept in the committee’s archives, which are deposited with the British Trust for Ornithology. Some older data is missing, as the committee's files were originally held by the editors of British Birds, and they were not transferred to the new owners of the magazine when it was sold in the 1960s. ## Annual report and other publications The committee publishes an annual report on the rare birds occurring each year, in British Birds. This has usually been in the issue published in November of the following year, although the 2007 Report appeared in the October 2008 issue, and the committee has said that it plans to keep to this new timescale in future years. The report typically begins with an introduction, summarising the most significant birds occurring during the year, and discussing any current issues relating to the committee's work. This is followed by a list of accepted records in taxonomic sequence. Records for each taxon are listed by county, followed by comments about its occurrence during the year. Late-accepted records and decisions to reject a previously identified record are included. This section of the report contains painted illustrations and photographs of some of the birds. The report lists records that have not been accepted, often noting the most significant that remain under consideration. The committee also publishes frequent "Rarities Committee news" items (previously called "Rarities Committee news and announcements") in British Birds. ## Record reviews BBRC reviews 1200 to 1500 records each year (when it was first set up, the figure was around 200 per year). Of these, approximately 85% are accepted: this acceptance rate has remained steady for many years. Species that have caused particular problems include black kite, great snipe, gyrfalcon, gull-billed tern, and North Atlantic little shearwater. Peter Grant estimated that, during his tenure as chairman, approximately 2% of accepted records are incorrectly accepted, and 5% are incorrectly rejected. Wallace (1973) addressed a number of criticisms of the committee including that it provides too little information on the reasons for rarity rejection. Alan Vittery and Sara McMahon have both argued that the committee should inform observers whose records are rejected of the committee's reasons for doing so. This view also has the support of the editor of Birdwatch, Dominic Mitchell, who has made this the topic of editorials on a number of occasions. BBRC has from time to time published material illustrating its assessment process in an attempt to explain to a wider audience how it arrives at its decisions. Much of these have appeared in a series called "From the Rarities Committees files" in British Birds magazine. Another short series was published in Birdwatch magazine: entitled "You: The Jury", it featured six fictitious rarity accounts, with, in the subsequent issue, accounts from two rarities committee members stating how they would vote. ### Re-reviews From time to time, BBRC has re-reviewed records that it previously accepted, to ensure they are acceptable in the light of improved knowledge of the species in question. These reviews are carried out on a species-by-species basis. Old World warblers have proved particularly in need of re-review. A review of greenish warbler records was initiated in 1983. The purpose of this review was to establish whether records, particular those in late autumn and winter, of drab grey Phylloscopus warblers, which had previously been accepted as greenish warbler, were in fact this species, or were common chiffchaffs of the Siberian race tristis. 48 records between 1958 and 1970 were examined. Of these, 20 were rejected. A review of Arctic warbler records was begun in 1991, with the aim of determining whether any greenish warblers had been mistakenly accepted as Arctics. The review was completed in 1994, although as of 2009, the results had not been published. A review of spectacled warbler records was initiated in 1984. This review resulted in the species being removed from the British list; of the three accepted records, one, at Spurn, Yorkshire in 1968, was re-identified as a first-year female subalpine warbler, while descriptions of the other two, at Porthgwarra, Cornwall in October 1969 and on Fair Isle in June 1979, were not considered sufficiently watertight to permit their continued acceptance. Spectacled warbler has since been re-added to the British list following an individual at Filey, Yorkshire in 1992, and there have been further subsequent records. In the late 1990s, BBRC reviewed some of the accepted records of moustached warbler, and concluded that one, from Sussex in 1979, was unacceptable, but that one other, from Buckinghamshire in 1965, should stand. Two further records, from Hampshire in 1951 and Kent in 1952, were reviewed as part of the 1950–1957 review (see below), and found to be unacceptable. Following these rejections, the Buckinghamshire record, and the remaining record, a breeding pair in Cambridgeshire in 1946, previously accepted as Britain's first, were scrutinised by the BOURC and found to be unacceptable, leading to the removal of moustached warbler from the British list; it has not re-occurred. A review of olivaceous warbler records commenced in 1986, and continued through the 1990s. The results of this review were published in 1999: six of the previously accepted records were rejected as not meeting modern identification standards. In 2003, following the split of olivaceous warbler into two species, the accepted records were all reviewed again to ascertain which of the two they were—all nine proved to be eastern olivaceous warblers. Following the split of Bonelli's warbler into two species, the committee reviewed all the 121 accepted records, and concluded that 51 were western and two were eastern; for the remainder, not enough evidence was available to make a firm decision. The committee had previously stated that it would regard as western Bonelli's warbler all except proven eastern Bonelli's warblers, however, this announcement rescinded that decision. In 2003–04, all desert warbler records were reviewed, and it was concluded that all were referable to the newly split Asian desert warbler, rather than African desert warbler. A review of American and Pacific golden plover records was begun in 1991, with the purpose of evaluating whether any individuals previously accepted as "either American or Pacific" could now be definitely assigned to one species or the other (and vice versa). The results (a small decrease in the number of accepted American golden plovers, and a small increase in the number of accepted Pacifics) were published in the committee's report for 1996, with a comment that a detailed paper on the subject was being prepared, although as of 2009, this has not been published. A review of isabelline shrike records commenced in 1986. This review, the results of which were published in 1989, established a racial identification for a number of adult isabelline shrikes previously accepted to species level. A further review, with the same aim, was begun in the late 1990s. A preliminary set of results of this review was published in 2003; four previously accepted individuals were rejected, including one, in Cambridgeshire in 1978, which is now thought have been a hybrid with red-backed shrike. The full results of this second review were published in 2007; some of the previous racial attributions were withdrawn, but the committee felt able to confidently assign a race for a number of more recent individuals, although it stressed that this could only be done with adult birds (the committee's 2005 report mentions that a further article is in preparation). A review of black-eared wheatears was conducted in 2002–04, with the aim of assigning individuals to the eastern and western races where possible; this was possible with nine records; both western hispanica and eastern melanoleuca were shown to have occurred. A review of semipalmated sandpiper records took place in the 1970s, resulting in seven of the twelve records being rejected. A review of black-headed wagtail records was initiated in 1983. The results were published in 1994 and 1995, and nine previously accepted records were judged to be unsound, due to possible confusion with grey-headed wagtail. A review of rufous turtle dove records took place in 1994, and concluded that three of the eight accepted records should no longer stand. A review of lesser kestrel records, begun in 1994, and completed in 1995, concluded that six accepted records of this species should no longer be regarded as acceptable. Five of the six were from autumn, whereas the overwhelming majority of records the committee continued to accept are from the spring/summer period. All 24 spring records of Siberian stonechat were reconsidered in 2002–04, in the light of new information on the variability in appearance of European stonechats in spring; the committee decided that all but five should remain accepted. In 2003, the committee revised its assessment criteria for male pine buntings, redefining some birds previously considered hybrids as acceptable, but requiring an overall greater level of precision in descriptions, and reviewed past records in the light of these changes. As of 2017, the following reviews are underway: a review of past records of Macaronesian shearwaters, reviews of all claimed Nearctic cackling goose records, a review of great white egrets to establish if any are of the Nearctic race, a review of sandplovers, a review of records of the eastern race of common redstart, a review of Orphean warbler records aimed at determining the race of each, and a review of subalpine warblers to determine which individuals are ascribable to the race albistriata. It has also been suggested that reviews should be conducted of records of great snipe, as older records show a very different temporal occurrence pattern than more recent birds, the large numbers of gull-billed tern records from the English south coast from the 1960s, and desert wheatears, to establish racial identifications. ### Problematic records Most records received by the committee are processed within a year and published in its annual report in British Birds. Some records prove problematic, and for some species, it has taken the committee many years to come to a decision. This has particularly been the case where the species or subspecies in question was new to Britain—examples include northern harrier (Britain's first, in Scilly in 1982, accepted in 2007), long-toed stint (Britain's first, in Cornwall in 1970, accepted in 1994), least tern (Britain's first, and to date only record, accepted in 2005, after first occurring in 1983), black lark (Britain's first, from Spurn, Yorkshire in 1984, accepted in 2004 after a second set of notes came to light), Sykes's warbler (the first three records, from 1959, 1977, and 1993, accepted in 2003), Iberian chiffchaff (the first two records, from 1972 and 1992, accepted in 2000), and Hume's leaf warbler (the first 27 records, the earliest from 1966, accepted in 1998). Occasionally, decisions have been delayed due to non-ornithological factors, such as the loss by the Royal Mail of a file on Britain's first lesser short-toed lark. The first three field records of Blyth's pipit, including an atypical pale individual on the Isles of Scilly, proved difficult, but following the occurrence of trapped individuals, on Fair Isle in 1993 and Suffolk in 1994, these were accepted. Some records of citrine wagtail and short-toed treecreeper were accepted only after prolonged consideration. Prior to the publication in 1984 of Jonsson and Grant's stint identification paper, a number of stints (Calidris) proved difficult to assess; a paper covering four such cases was published in 1986. It included accounts of a bird on Fair Isle, originally thought Britain's first red-necked stint that turned out to be a sanderling; and a bird in Suffolk, The "Felixstowe stint", which most observers at the time believed was a western sandpiper, but was in fact a semipalmated sandpiper. A previous paper details four early claims of red-necked stint, none of which were acceptable. As of 2007, records of Wilson's snipe (from 1985 and 1998), elegant terns (from 2002), a number of eastern whitethroats and lesser whitethroats, and several apparent North African common chaffinches, are still under consideration. #### Problematic seabird records BBRC has had particular problems with a number of rare seabirds. The "Chalice petrel", a dark-rumped storm petrel seen and photographed in the Southwest Approaches in 1988, and believed by its observers to be a Matsudaira's storm petrel, was eventually rejected as other similar species could not be ruled out. Martin Garner and Killian Mullarney subsequently wrote a critical review of this decision, arguing that the evidence points to the bird having been a Swinhoe's storm petrel, the only dark-rumped storm petrel species otherwise recorded in the North Atlantic. They argued that the Seabirds Advisory Panel's assessment of the record was at fault, and a critical reappraisal of the evidence should have been prompted by the (then relatively recent) discovery in the North Atlantic of Swinhoe's storm petrel, and that the committee was instead too heavily swayed by the views of a single expert. A petrel seen from Dungeness, Kent and believed by its observers to be Britain's first herald petrel was rejected, although the committee noted that the bird was clearly "an amazing seabird". This decision sparked a number of letters to British Birds questioning whether the committee's stance is too strict. Fea's petrel is now officially accepted as having occurred, but for many years, the identification of these birds was accepted only as Fea's/Zino's/soft-plumaged petrel, followed by a period where they were referred to Fea's or Zino's; however, following BOURC acceptance of two birds in Scilly waters as Fea's petrels, BBRC published a paper arguing that all birds are likely to have been Fea's. The occurrence in Britain of southern (i.e. south polar/brown) skuas is also unresolved. A series of reports of south polar skua, from 1982 to 1993, were all eventually rejected after being assessed for several years. Two other birds (from the Isles of Scilly in 2001, and Glamorgan in 2002 have been accepted (by the BOURC) as belonging to one or other of these two species, while a bird from Dorset in 1996 remains under consideration. #### Criticisms of level of detail required and approach to single-observer records In 1996, Alan Vittery raised the question of whether the level of detail required by the committee for a description to be acceptable was too high. Similar points were made by Keith Vinicombe and Mike Pennington in 2001. In the light of the rejection of a record of Blyth's reed warbler in Shetland in 1997, Vinicombe and Pennington wrote to British Birds to question the decision. They suggested that the committee was becoming too focussed on minutiae in assessing bird descriptions, ignoring more obvious evidence, Vinicombe saying that "the Committee has prevaricated to the point where it 'cannot see the wood for the trees'". David Walker and Owen Leyshon, David Ferguson, and Andrew Duff have criticised the committee on similar grounds in relation to its approach to the assessment of rare seabirds, citing the Dungeness herald petrel claim as an example. Vittery, and Moss Taylor both expressed concern that BBRC was adopting too strict an approach for records of birds seen only by their finder. In 1998, BBRC explained its approach to the assessment of single-observer records. The committee explained that while it understood that geographical and social circumstances make it likely that some people are more likely to find rare birds on their own, it is "very cautious about observers with a high proportion of single-observer records" and that its policy is to watch patterns closely and review those observers' past records on a regular basis. This approach has attracted criticism. Former BBRC chairman Ian Wallace and others have written about the subject in Birdwatch magazine. Wallace believes that the committee has a blacklist of observers, from whom it automatically rejects records unless there are other observers able to corroborate the sighting. He mentions two specific observers, both of whom live in remote parts of northern Scotland. Ken Shaw, a former BBRC member, has claimed that BBRC would not accept a single-observer record of a species new to Britain without photographic evidence, regardless of the track record of the observer. Graham Bell, another former member, writing in response to Shaw's article, has accused the committee of adopted unfounded suspicions, arguing that just because a competent observer moves to an underwatched part of the country, their abilities do not change. One of the observers who Wallace claimed was blacklisted, Alan Vittery, also contributed to the debate, stating that he had been informed by the BBRC that they would not consider any single-observer record he submitted, unless supported by a photograph. Vittery contrasted the BBRC's attitude with that of other national rarities committees, arguing that the result of the approach is to distort rarity statistics. Vittery invited the BBRC to reply in public, but this request was declined. ### The Druridge Bay curlew The BBRC conducted a detailed review into the controversial identification of a curlew seen at Druridge Bay in Northumberland in 1998, coming to the conclusion that it was, as had been believed by many observers, a first-summer slender-billed curlew. This identification was accepted by the British Ornithologists Union's Records Committee, leading to the addition of this species to the British List. The record was reviewed in 2014, and, after a split decision by both the BBRC and the BOURC, the record was found not proven and subsequently removed from the British List. ### Review of 1950–57 records including an Ascension frigatebird sighting A subcommittee was set up in 1997 to undertake a review of rare bird records from the years immediately prior to BBRC's establishment. The purpose of the review was to ensure that all records from 1950 onwards (the cut-off date for Category A of the BOU British List of birds) have been subjected to a similar level of scrutiny. Not all of the 1,100 records of species considered to be rarities at that time were assessed, but only those related to species not recorded more than 100 times by 1997, as well as a few records of less rare species under particularly unusual circumstances, which were termed "sore thumbs". Much of the original documentation was unavailable for the review, as it had been lost, and so for many records, the review was based solely on published accounts of the birds. The most notable outcome of this review was the reidentification of a frigatebird record from Tiree in 1953. Previously identified as a magnificent frigatebird, the BBRC review concluded that the bird was in fact an Ascension frigatebird, the only individual of this species ever identified in Europe (Walbridge, Small & McGowan 2003). The full results of the review were published in 2006. Of the 126 records reviewed, 37 were rejected as unacceptable. These included a claimed white-tailed eagle, which broke into a chicken-run in a garden and stole a chicken, three little crakes, three Eurasian scops owls, the only late December record of tawny pipit, three black-eared wheatears, a record of two White's thrushes together in April, a spring lanceolated warbler, two moustached warblers and a pine grosbeak. Furthermore, issues were found with the identification of Britain's first western sandpiper, on Fair Isle in 1956, and these led the BOURC to reject this record. The western sandpiper has been recorded several times subsequently in Britain however, and remains on the national list. The subcommittee's final report also hints at the prospect that some records from immediately prior to 1950 may be incorrect; because these fell outside the timeframes of the review they were not reassessed. ### The Chipping Ongar hermit thrush Only a single known hoax involving a record submitted to BBRC has become public. In autumn 1994, Nigel Pepper, a birdwatcher from Essex, claimed to have recorded a hermit thrush in a garden in Chipping Ongar. Doubts about the record were raised in Birdwatch and BBRC reviewed the record in 2002, but decided that it should stand. In 2009, Nigel Pepper came clean and revealed in Birdwatch magazine (Birdwatch 204: 46-47) that the record was actually a hoax, made in protest at perceived suppression of rare bird records in the county. He revealed that the Hermit Thrush in question was actually photographed in Canada on a recent birdwatching trip. ## See also - The Hastings Rarities - The Rare Breeding Birds Panel ## Footnotes and references
37,156,425	SMS Zieten	1,163,206,912	Aviso of the German Imperial Navy	[ "1876 ships", "Avisos of the Imperial German Navy", "Ships built by the Blackwall Yard" ]	SMS Zieten was the first torpedo-armed aviso built for the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine). She was built in Britain in 1875–1876, and was the last major warship built for Germany by a foreign shipyard. Ordered as a testbed for the new Whitehead torpedo, Zieten was armed with a pair of 38 cm (15 in) torpedo tubes, and was capable of a top speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph), making her the fastest ship in the German fleet at the time. Zieten was the first torpedo-armed vessel in a series of avisos that ultimately developed into the first light cruisers. In addition to her impact in German warship design, Zieten also influenced numerous other navies, who built dozens of similar avisos and torpedo vessels of their own. Zieten served for the first two decades of her career with the torpedo boat flotilla. In 1878–1880, she was captained by Alfred von Tirpitz, the future architect of the High Seas Fleet. In 1882, she cruised the Mediterranean Sea with several other German warships, and was present during the British bombardment of Alexandria, where she protected German interests. Zieten was used as a fishery protection ship from 1899 until 1914, when the outbreak of World War I necessitated her mobilization as a coastal patrol ship. She served in this capacity for the duration of the war, and was stricken from the naval register in December 1919. The ship was finally sold for scrapping in August 1921, after forty-five years of service. ## Design In 1869, the Prussian Navy sent then-Korvettenkapitän (KK) Alexander von Monts to Austria to examine the new Whitehead torpedoes then being developed there. Albrecht von Stosch, the commander in chief of the new Imperial German Navy, approved a plan to develop a torpedo arm for the German fleet a part of his fleet plan of 1872. Stosch envisioned a variety of torpedo craft, including small torpedo boats for use in coastal areas and larger vessels capable of operating at sea. He placed Monts in charge of the program in 1873. That year, Stosch's naval construction program called for a tender for the new torpedo boats. Because German firms had no experience building a ship of this type, the navy placed an order from the British firm the Thames Iron Works, which was to be built to the firm's design. The new vessel, named Zieten after the 18th century cavalry commander Hans Joachim von Zieten, was to be the last major warship purchased by the German navy from a foreign shipyard. In addition to the planned role as a tender for torpedo boats, she was also intended to serve as a test platform for the new self-propelled torpedo. Up to the mid-1870s, the German navy had only experimented with a handful of torpedo ships, all of which were equipped with the old spar torpedo. Zieten spent much of her early career taking part in experiments with early torpedoes and as a tender for torpedo boats. The ship's design provided the basis for both later German avisos—the Blitz class—and all subsequent light cruisers, but also inspired numerous foreign designs, such as several classes of French, Italian, and Austrian avisos and torpedo craft. ### General characteristics Zieten was 69.5 meters (228 ft) long at the waterline and 79.4 m (260 ft 6 in) long overall. She had a beam of 8.56 m (28 ft 1 in) and a draft of 3.8 m (12 ft 6 in) forward. She displaced 1,001 metric tons (985 long tons; 1,103 short tons) as designed and up to 1,170 t (1,150 long tons; 1,290 short tons) at full load. The hull was constructed with transverse iron frames and contained eight watertight compartments. Initially, Zieten had only a small bridge forward, but in 1899, a new superstructure was built; it included a conning tower with a compass platform. A chart house was also added forward of the funnel. Zieten was a good sea boat with a gentle motion, but she was very crank. She was very maneuverable, but she handled poorly in a head sea. In bad weather, she took on considerable amounts of water and was very dangerous. The ship had a crew of 6 officers and 88 enlisted men, though later in her career the figure rose to 7 and 99, respectively. During her career as a fishery protection ship, the number of enlisted sailors rose further, to 104. Zieten carried a number of smaller boats: one picket boat, one cutter, two yawls, and one dinghy. Later in her career, the picket boat was removed and two barges were added. ### Machinery The ship's propulsion system consisted of two horizontal 2-cylinder double-expansion steam engines manufactured by John Penn and Sons. The engines drove two 3-bladed propellers that were 3.05 m (10 ft) wide in diameter. Steam was provided by six coal-fired, cylindrical fire-tube boilers, also manufactured by John Penn and Sons, which were vented through a single funnel amidships. The boilers were replaced with new models in 1891 during a refit at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel. As built, Zieten was fitted with a schooner rig with a sail area of 355 square meters (3,820 sq ft) to supplement her steam engines, but this was later reduced to only an auxiliary gaff sail. The engines were rated at 2,000 metric horsepower (1,970 ihp), but only managed to reach 1,807 metric horsepower (1,782 ihp) at maximum power. With the new boilers, the engines reached 2,376 metric horsepower (2,343 ihp). Her top speed as designed was to have been 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph), but with her original boilers, she could make 15.9 knots (29.4 km/h; 18.3 mph) at full power. This speed nevertheless made Zieten the fastest ship in the German fleet. With the new boilers, she could steam at up to 16.3 knots (30.2 km/h; 18.8 mph). Zieten could carry up to 130 t (130 long tons; 140 short tons) of coal, which allowed her to steam for 1,770 nautical miles (3,280 km; 2,040 mi) at a cruising speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph). During the refit, she also had one electricity generator, with an output of 10 kilowatts (13 hp) at 67 volts, installed. ### Armament Zieten's primary armament consisted of a pair of 38-centimeter (15 in) torpedo tubes. Both were submerged in the hull, one in the bow and one in the stern. They were supplied with a total of ten Whitehead torpedoes. These powerful weapons, coupled with the ship's high speed and maneuverability, made her a formidable vessel for the period. In 1878, the forward torpedo tube was relocated to a swivel launched mounted on the deck, and two 12 cm (4.7 in) guns were installed. She was also equipped with six machine guns. Later in her career, the torpedo tubes were removed, due to their obsolescence, and she was rearmed with six 5 cm (1.97 in) SK L/40 guns, though two were later removed. The guns were supplied with a total of 864 rounds of ammunition, and could engage targets out to 6,200 m (6,800 yd). She was also equipped to lay naval mines, and she could carry 49 of them. ## Service history ### Construction and torpedo testing Zieten was built by the Thames Iron Works in London. She was laid down in 1875 and was launched on 9 March 1876. She was completed on 15 July 1876, and commissioned into the German fleet on 1 August. KK Franz Mensing took command of the ship. Zieten arrived at the German naval base at Wilhelmshaven ten days later. On the way to Wilhelmshaven, the ship conducted sea trials in the North Sea; upon her arrival, she was taken into the shipyard for fitting-out work. At the time of the ship's commissioning, Otto von Diederichs served aboard Zieten as her executive officer in her first crew. Diederichs supervised the installation of the ship's torpedo tubes, along with the magazine for storing the torpedoes. The work lasted until September, which prevented Zieten from participating in the annual August–September fleet exercises. Instead, she was sent to the torpedo training school at Friedrichsort in mid-September. She remained there until she was moved to Kiel to be decommissioned for the winter on 17 November. In March 1877, Diederichs returned to the ship and prepared her for service in the training season that year. The ship was ready for active duty by 11 June and thereafter conducted further sea trials and torpedo training. After Zieten entered service in June 1877, Diederichs was replaced by Kapitänleutnant (KL) Alfred von Tirpitz, who took over torpedo testing while he was assigned to the Torpedo School at Kiel. Diederichs meanwhile readied the old gunboat Scorpion as a tender for Zieten. On 18 September, Zieten and Scorpion participated in the first major test of the new Whitehead torpedoes in the German navy, which was observed by Stosch. During the exercises, Zieten scored three hits on a stationary target, one of which at a distance of 730 m (800 yd), which was deemed a great success. After the conclusion of the maneuvers, Zieten was placed in reserve on 2 October for the winter. The analysis of the testing showed that the bow-mounted torpedo tube was not satisfactory, and so Diederichs was tasked with redesigning her armament in January 1878. Diederichs moved the bow tube to a swivel mount on her deck, and added two 12 cm guns to improve her defense against small warships. The refit work was completed by 16 April 1878, permitting Tirpitz to take command of the ship on 6 May. He served as the ship's commander until August 1880. Tirpitz, as the commander of Germany's torpedo boat flotilla, staunchly advocated the development of torpedo craft rather than a fleet of battleships. After the ship returned to service in May 1878, she carried out experiments in the area off Friedrichsort, and thereafter began training sailors in the use of torpedoes, which the navy intended to install aboard larger vessels. On 13 May, she was present at the launching of the new ironclad Bayern. Zieten thereafter conducted a torpedo demonstration for members of the Reichstag, who observed aboard the aviso Grille. Zieten torpeoed and sank a small shallop, and then carried out tests with larger wooden-hulled vessels, including vessels with iron-reinforced hulls. The demonstrations led to plans to place torpedo-armed launches aboard the fleet's ironclads, though priority was given to development of the torpedoes themselves. Zieten was decommissioned for the winter on 3 October. Zieten was recommissioned on 5 May 1879 for her normal training and experimentation routine. That year, she sank the old aviso Preussischer Adler with a pair of torpedoes. Zieten was decommissioned for the winter again on 7 October. She was recommissioned on 3 May 1880, and on 28 July, during maneuvers with the fleet, Zieten torpedoed and sank the old paddle steamer Barbarossa. The test was carried out off Heikendorf, Zieten steaming at full speed and firing at a range of 400 m (1,300 ft). In August, KL Max von Fischel relieved Tirpitz as the ship's commander. Zieten was once again laid up for the winter on 15 October. The ship was thereafter withdrawn from her role as a torpedo training and test ship, as she was no longer sufficient for the task. The new screw corvette Blücher had recently been completed as a purpose-built torpedo training vessel, and she replaced Zieten in that role. ### Service with the fleet Zieten underwent a major overhaul in 1881 and was recommissioned on 27 June under the command of KL Wilhelm Büchsel; on 16 August, she was reclassified as an aviso. The ship was present for a naval review held for Kaiser Wilhelm I on 17 September, during which she hosted Generalfeldmarschall Helmuth von Moltke. On 1 October, she embarked a commission for a short trip to Alsen. She was again decommissioned on 20 October. She was recommissioned for another period of active service on 14 August 1882, now commanded by KK Carl Barandon. Five days later, Zieten joined a cruising squadron that consisted of the screw corvettes Gneisenau and Nymphe, the steamer Loreley, and the gunboat Cyclop, for operations in the Mediterranean Sea. The ships were present during the British bombardment of Alexandria in August 1882; they sent men ashore to protect the German embassy, along with a German-run hospital. Zieten was at Alexandria on 30 September, where she was replaced by the gunboat Habicht, though Zieten remained in the area until 14 October, by which time the situation had calmed. She departed for Germany that day, but stopped in numerous Mediterranean ports on her way back, arriving in Kiel on 15 November. There, she was again decommissioned ten days later. The ship remained out of service for the following three years, and she was assigned as the aviso for the Reserve Division on 15 November 1885, though she remained out of commission at that time. She was reactivated on 30 July 1886 to take part in the fleet maneuvers that were carried out in the North and Baltic Seas, before being decommissioned again on 29 September. She spent much of 1887 in drydock to have her boilers replaced, and she carried out sea trials from late January 1888 to the end of February. In May, she returned to active service with the Ironclad Training Squadron, now under the command of KK Oscar Klausa. In July, Zieten joined a squadron of ships to take the newly crowned Kaiser Wilhelm II for a tour of Baltic ports, which included a visit to Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Zieten was decommissioned again on 20 September. The ship was next recommissioned on 1 May 1889, and that year she joined the Training Squadron that escorted Wilhelm II on a visit to the United Kingdom. Her active service concluded after that year's fleet exercises, when she was decommissioned on 19 September. The 1890 service period lasted from 2 May to 1 October, during which she took part in routine training exercises with the rest of the fleet. These were interrupted from 9 to 26 July by another cruise in company with Wilhelm II, this time to Norway. Zieten was recommissioned on 1 May 1891 for another training cycle that lasted until 25 September. During this period, KK Louis Riedel served as the ship's captain. On 26 June, the ship was sent to aid the ironclads Kaiser and Deutschland, which had run aground on a shoal in the Putziger Wiek. On the night of 8–9 August, the ship's executive officer and doctor drowned in an accident with a boat off Zoppot. Zieten was reactivated on 30 April 1892 under KK Emil Freiherr von Lyncker's command and was assigned to what was now I Division of the Maneuver Fleet. This service lasted until 30 September, when she was decommissioned once again; this ended her second major period of active service. She remained out of commission for the next five years, during which she was extensively modified again. ### Fishery protection duties Zieten was next recommissioned on 16 March 1897 for service as a fishery protection vessel, replacing the aviso Meteor in that role. She served in this capacity for the next seventeen years, cruising as far north as Iceland, as far west as the English Channel, and into the Skagerrak and Kattegat. She protected German fishermen in disputes with other countries and came to the aid of German and foreign vessels in distress. During the winter months, when fishing vessels did not generally operate, Zieten would be laid up in Wilhelmshaven with a reduced crew. The ship began operations on 6 April 1897, and in early June, she held a training school with the German Maritime Fishing Association to teach sailors maritime law, helmsmanship, and medical procedures to prepare them for life at sea. On 20 June, she was present for a sailing regatta at the mouth of the Elbe. The ship thereafter visited Ostend, Belgium, for a conference with the commanders of fishery protection ships of several other countries that lasted from 30 June to 5 July. Included were the British HMS Hearty, the Belgian Ville D'Ostende, the Danish gunboat Groensund, the Dutch gunboat Bonaire, and the French Ibis. The chief topic of discussion was a standardized signaling system to be used by the vessels in question. On 22 September, Zieten anchored in Wilhelmshaven, remaining there until early October. At that time, the unprotected cruiser Pfeil joined Zieten on fishery patrol duties. Zieten was decommissioned for the winter on 29 November. In 1898, the navy planned a major cruise into the Arctic Ocean, but Zieten was not suitable for the voyage, so her crew was transferred to the screw corvette Olga instead. Zieten was assigned as the dispatch vessel for the Reserve Squadron in the North Sea that year, along with the coastal defense ships Beowulf and Frithjof, though she remained out of service through the rest of the year. She was recommissioned in 16 March 1899 for another stint patrolling the fishing grounds in the North Sea and Atlantic. KK Hartwig von Dassel served as the ship's commander at this time. On 24 May, she stopped the British fishing vessel Prome, which was illegally fishing off Amrum. Zieten's crew arrested an officer and four men from the boat and took them to Wilhelmshaven, where they were handed over to the police. Zieten returned to Wilhelmshaven on 19 August to have her boilers overhauled, after which she joined the fleet maneuvers being carried out in the Baltic. She was thereafter decommissioned again in Wilhelmshaven on 30 November. The ship remained out of service through 1900 for another major reconstruction that significantly altered the vessel's appearance. She was recommissioned on 15 March 1901, and thereafter embarked on a survey off Iceland with a newly built fishing trawler to determine the best fishing grounds and times. Zieten's crew celebrated the ship's 25th anniversary of her first commissioning on 2 August. During large-scale maneuvers held in conjunction with the German Army, Zieten served as a convoy escort for a group of troopships carrying IX Corps to Amrun. Zieten continued in her typical fishery protection duties in 1902, and she was supported by the old gunboat Bremse. During this period, Oberleutnant zur See Paul Boethke commanded the ship. On 27 June, she took part in amphibious landing training in company with the ironclads Baden and Württemberg at the island of Borkum. In September, Zieten participated in the final exercises during the annual fleet maneuvers. The next several years passed relatively uneventfully. Beginning in 1903, several torpedo boats were used to support the ship on fishery patrols. She joined the fleet for its annual training maneuvers in mid-August 1905. From October 1905 to September 1906, KK Carl Wedding commanded the ship. She again participated in the fleet exercises from 25 August to 7 September 1907, this time as part of the Supply Ship Unit. She took part in the 1908 maneuvers as well, which lasted from 31 August to 12 September. Following the conclusion of the exercises, KK Friedrich von Bülow took command of the vessel, serving in that role to September of the following year. On 11 October 1908, during the Gordon Bennett balloon race, several balloons were blown out into the North Sea by unfavorable winds, and Zieten was involved in the rescue effort. She reprised her role with the supply ships during the 1909 fleet maneuvers, which lasted from mid-August to 5 September. On 3 December, she and the torpedo boat S61 searched for several fishing boats that had gone missing in a severe winter storm. She was laid up for 1910 for a major overhaul. After returning to service in 1911, she conducted experiments contacting fishing vessels with a wireless telegraph, beginning on 10 April. She seized several British vessels illegally fishing in German waters in 1912, during which time the ship was commanded by KK Erich von Zeppelin. In May 1914, her crew boarded another British fishing boat. ### World War I and fate Following the start of World War I in late July 1914, Zieten was mobilized as part of the German coastal defense forces. On 1 August, she was assigned to the harbor flotilla that was based in the Jade Bay and the mouth of the Weser. She supported the coastal patrols there for most of the conflict, until July 1918, when she became the flotilla leader for a group of patrol vessels based in the Elbe. In November 1918, Germany agreed to an armistice that ended the war, and the following month Zieten's crew was reduced. She remained in service into 1919, and she made several voyages in the North Sea beginning in January. These included acting as the pilot ship for the lightvessel that was stationed on the south side of the Dogger Bank, and escorting U-boats of the 14th U-boat Group on their way to be surrendered at Harwich, United Kingdom. Zieten was decommissioned on 5 July, nearly forty-three years after her first commissioning; she was the second-longest serving vessel of the Imperial German fleet, after the aviso Grille. Zieten was stricken from the naval register on 6 December 1919. The ship was sold on 18 April 1921 for 655,000 marks and broken up in Wilhelmshaven.
7,397,636	Five Finger Death Punch	1,173,367,783	American heavy metal band	[ "2005 establishments in Nevada", "American alternative metal musical groups", "American groove metal musical groups", "American hard rock musical groups", "Heavy metal musical groups from Nevada", "Musical groups established in 2005", "Musical groups from Las Vegas", "Musical quintets", "Rock music groups from Nevada" ]	Five Finger Death Punch, also abbreviated as 5FDP or FFDP, is an American heavy metal band from Las Vegas, Nevada, formed in 2005. The band originally consisted of vocalist and keyboardist Ivan Moody, rhythm guitarist Zoltan Bathory, lead guitarist Caleb Andrew Bingham, bassist Matt Snell, and drummer Jeremy Spencer. Bingham was replaced by guitarist Darrell Roberts in 2006, who was then replaced by Jason Hook in 2009. Bassist Matt Snell departed from the band in 2010, and was replaced by Chris Kael in 2011. Spencer then departed the band in 2018 due to recurring back issues, and was replaced by Charlie Engen, making rhythm guitarist Bathory the only remaining founding member of the band. In October 2020, British guitarist Andy James became the band's lead guitarist, replacing Jason Hook. Five Finger Death Punch's debut album The Way of the Fist was released in 2007, which achieved rapid success and sold over 500,000 copies in the United States. The 2009 follow-up album War Is the Answer further increased their popularity, selling over 1,000,000 copies and being certified Platinum by the RIAA, the band's third album, American Capitalist, was released on October 11, 2011, and achieved Platinum status. The following four albums—The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 1 (2013), The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 2 (2013), Got Your Six (2015), and And Justice for None (2018)—have all been certified Platinum or Gold, making Five Finger Death Punch one of the most successful heavy metal bands of the decade. The band has played international music festivals including Mayhem Festival in 2008, 2010, and 2013, and Download Festival in 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2017. The band released their eighth studio album, F8, in 2020 and their ninth album AfterLife was released in 2022. Five Finger Death Punch are the recipients of the RadioContraband Rock Radio Awards for "Indie Artist of the Year" in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. They were also honored with the Radio Contraband Rock Radio Award for Album (American Capitalist) and Song of the Year ("Coming Down") in 2012 and "Video of the Year" for "Wrong Side of Heaven" in 2014. To date, Five Finger Death Punch has released nine studio albums, one live album, two compilation albums, one extended play (EP), and 33 singles. ## History ### Formation, The Way of the Fist and Roberts' departure (2005–2009) Five Finger Death Punch was founded in 2005 by former U.P.O. bassist Zoltan Bathory and drummer Jeremy Spencer, Zoltan deriving the band's name from classic martial arts cinema. Bassist Matt Snell joined in early 2006. Later that year, Bathory contacted former Motograter vocalist Ivan Moody, sending him some of the material the band had recorded and asked him to audition for the vocalist position. Moody flew from his home in Denver Colorado to Los Angeles and quickly began recording material with the band. By the end of 2006, their debut album, The Way of the Fist had been recorded and entirely self-produced. The album was recorded with Stevo "Shotgun" Bruno and Mike Sarkisyan and was mixed by guitarist Logan Mader. After searching for a second guitarist, they found Caleb Bingham who played some shows with the band, but was later replaced by Darrell Roberts. Shortly after recording the album, they signed a record deal with Firm Music, a branch of "The Firm". On July 10, 2007, they released an EP, Pre-Emptive Strike exclusively through the American iTunes Store. The album's lead single, "The Bleeding", was released on July 13, 2007. The Way of the Fist was released on July 31, 2007. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number 199 and was certified gold in 2011. From July 30 to September 2, 2007, the band went on their first major tour cycle as one of the supporting acts on Korn's Family Values Tour. They were also a supporting act of the North American leg of Korn's Bitch We Have a Problem Tour from September 22 – October 27, 2007. They were set to tour with Chimaira and All That Remains from January through March 2008, but due to singer Moody developing cysts on his vocal cords they were forced to pull out. He made a full recovery and they began to tour again. They supported Disturbed on their Indestructible US Tour from April through May 2008. The Way of the Fist was re-released on May 13, 2008, with 3 bonus tracks. One of the bonus tracks, "Never Enough" was released as the album's second single on July 15, 2008. Later that year they were a part of the 2008 Mayhem Festival playing the Jägermeister Stage. The third single from The Way of the Fist, "Stranger Than Fiction" was released on September 17, 2008. The Way of the Fist was released through Spinefarm Records in Canada on November 4, 2008, and in Europe on January 19, 2009. In January 2009, Darrell Roberts was rumored to have been fired; the split was confirmed a few days later, and Roberts was replaced by guitarist Jason Hook. They ended their support for their first album playing the main stage at the 2009 Download Festival. ### War Is the Answer (2009–2010) In May 2009, Five Finger Death Punch announced their second studio album, War Is the Answer. The album was produced by Kevin Churko and mixed by Randy Staub. The album debuted at number 7 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. The first single from the album, "Hard to See", was released on July 21, 2009. To promote War Is the Answer, Five Finger Death Punch embarked on "The Shock and Raw" US Tour. Main support on the tour was provided by Shadows Fall, with additional support coming from Otep and 2Cents. Upon completing the US run of the tour, Five Finger Death Punch then brought the Shock and Raw tour to Europe, finishing off with a run of dates in the UK. Main support for these dates was again Shadows Fall, and opening acts for the UK portion of the tour were Rise To Remain and Magnacult. The second single from War Is the Answer, "Walk Away", was released on November 2, 2009. The album also spawned two UK-only singles, "Dying Breed", released on November 16, 2009, and "No One Gets Left Behind", released on March 8, 2010. During March 2010, Five Finger Death Punch traveled to Iraq and played 10 shows for the United States troops. The band's cover of Bad Company's self-titled song was released as the fifth single from War Is the Answer on May 17, 2010. On their way to perform at Rock am Ring and Rock im Park Zoltan Bathory, Matt Snell and Jeremy Spencer were detained by German police for alleged international weapons violations. After recognizing the event as a misunderstanding, German police released the band members and they appeared at both Rock im Park on June 4, 2010, and Rock am Ring June 6, 2010, as scheduled. Five Finger Death Punch also played the Maurice Jones Main Stage at the 2010 Download Festival on June 12, 2010. While playing the song "Dying Breed", their set was cut due to too many people crowd surfing up to the stage. They were allowed to play one final song, "The Bleeding". They played the main stage at Mayhem Festival 2010 with Korn, Rob Zombie and Lamb of God from July 10 until August 14, 2010. On August 17, 2010, they performed the songs "Bad Company" and "Hard to See" on the ABC show Jimmy Kimmel Live!. On September 16, 2010, The band released "Far from Home" as the sixth single from War Is the Answer. They supported Godsmack on their "The Oracle 2010" tour from October 3 – November 4, 2010. The song, "Dying Breed" was featured on the soundtrack for Namco Bandai Games' remake of Splatterhouse, released on November 23, 2010. ### Snell's departure and American Capitalist (2010–2012) The band began to record their third studio album in November 2010 at The Hideout studios in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bassist Matt Snell departed from the band in December 2010, and in June 2011, Chris Kael was announced as Snell's replacement. The band's third album, titled American Capitalist, was released October 11, 2011. Production for the album was handled again by Kevin Churko. The first single from American Capitalist, entitled "Under and Over It", was released on July 27, 2011, following a music video in September 2011. In support of the album, Five Finger Death Punch embarked on their "Share the Welt" tour from October 16 – December 14, 2011 with support from All That Remains, Hatebreed and Rains and their "Furious and Deadly" tour from March 23 – April 12, 2012 with support from Soulfly, Windowpane, and Persist. The song "Back for More" is included on the soundtrack for the video game Madden NFL 12. "Back for More" was released as a digital single on September 13, 2011. "Remember Everything" was released as the second official single for American Capitalist in November 2011, with a music video following in February 2012. "Coming Down" was released as the third official single from American Capitalist in April 2012, with a music video, directed by Nick Peterson, following in June 2012. The song also won the band an Independent Music Award in 2013 for Best Metal/Hardcore Song. From July 13 to August 28, 2012, Five Finger Death Punch took part in Metal Hammer's "Trespass America Festival" with support from Battlecross, God Forbid, Emmure, Pop Evil, Trivium and Killswitch Engage. ### The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell (2013–2014) On February 28, the band posted a picture on Facebook of Moody recording vocals for the album. On March 12, an update video was posted to YouTube. On March 18, the band was announced to be playing Mayhem Festival 2013. On March 18, Five Finger Death Punch posted a promotional video for their next tour with a new song "Here to Die". The band also announced that they were working on a fourth album, due in the summer. On May 1, 2013, the band announced the release of their next two studio albums collectively titled The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell with Volume 1 being released on July 30, and Volume 2 following on November 19. During the fifth annual Golden Gods Awards, Five Finger Death Punch performed a new song with Rob Halford of Judas Priest entitled "Lift Me Up". The song was released as a single on May 14. On June 6, Five Finger Death Punch revealed the artwork for The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 1 and also released a snippet of future single "Dot Your Eyes" Volume 1 reached the No. 2 position on the Billboard 200 with 113,000 copies sold in its first week, making it the band's most successful debut to date. The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell Volume 1 has sold over 210,000 copies as of August 2013. On September 9, 2013, the band released a new single, "Battle Born", in anticipation of their fifth studio album The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 2. It sold 77,000 copies in its first week, and once again landed in the No. 2 position on the Billboard 200. On August 11, 2014, Five Finger Death Punch released a video for the song "Wrong Side of Heaven". The video is about homeless veterans who have post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and depression after serving in the military, and not receiving the help they need for their illnesses. ### Got Your Six (2015–2016) On December 12, 2013, Five Finger Death Punch revealed in a radio interview that they had already begun working on a sixth studio album. On January 14, 2015, Five Finger Death Punch announced US Spring headline tour dates from April 25 to May 9, 2015, and their intention to enter the studio to write and record a new album. On May 2, 2015, the band released the title of their sixth album, Got Your Six as well as a teaser for a new song titled "Ain't My Last Dance" on their official Facebook page. The album, which was slated for release on August 28, 2015, was later pushed back to September 4. On May 19, 2015, the band announced a co-headlining North American Tour with Papa Roach to promote the upcoming album and were accompanied by In This Moment as special guests with support by From Ashes to New for the tour. The band also performed on the main stage as part of Download Festival 2015. ### And Justice for None and Spencer's departure (2016–2019) On April 27, 2016, Billboard reported that Five Finger Death Punch's record label Prospect Park had filed a lawsuit against the band on April 21, 2016, for breaching their contract. The basis of the claim cites that the band began working on a new album without Prospect Park's consent and will be working with Rise Records. In a recent interview, vocalist Ivan Moody has said he will be completing the current tour and leave the band at the end of 2017. The next day however, an announcement was published on the official site of FFDP, where it was revealed, that rumors about Ivan's departure are false. According to the announcement, the vocalist plans to start a side project beside Five Finger Death Punch, which does not mean he has plans on leaving. However, during a concert in the Netherlands, Moody did not show up to perform the first song, which was sung by Tommy Vext, with Moody saying he was running "a little bit late". Vext also sang a second song during the set later in the evening while Moody walked off stage. During the show all of the members left the stage for long periods on several occasions, and Hook also threw his guitar down and walked offstage at one point. During the set, Moody said that "there is no other singer for Five Finger Death Punch", and then later said "This is my last show with Five Finger Death Punch" before making a slit-throat gesture. Bathory shortly after the show tweeted that the events that transpired were "not a publicity stunt." The day after the show in Tilburg, Netherlands, the band announced a headline European tour with In Flames and Of Mice & Men in late 2017. Later that same day, the band released a statement addressing what happened at the show via their Facebook page, stating that bands that tour as heavily as they do will "inevitably have a few derailments, but the train always keeps on moving", implying that all shows would proceed as planned and that Moody would remain as the band's frontman. Ivan Moody subsequently checked himself into rehab and sat out the remainder of the tour. Tommy Vext filled in for Moody while he sought treatment. On August 19, Ivan Moody returned to the stage at the Illinois State Fair, although just days prior it was still unknown if he would be taking the stage. In December 2017, it was announced that the band was working on their seventh studio album. The album, And Justice for None was released May 18, 2018. On December 21, 2017, the band released a video for their cover of "Gone Away" by The Offspring. The cover song was featured on Five Finger Death Punch's greatest hits album, A Decade of Destruction. On April 5, 2018, the band released "Fake" as the lead single from And Justice for None. On April 20, 2018, a second single was released, titled "Sham Pain". A third single "When the Seasons Change" was released on May 4, 2018. For a Fall 2018 tour with Breaking Benjamin, Charlie Engen replaced Jeremy Spencer to allow him to undergo back surgery. On December 18, it was announced that Spencer had departed the band permanently. In June 2019, it was announced that Jeremy Spencer has continued the band's support of first responders and was sworn in as a reserve police officer in Indiana. Five Finger Death Punch have also worked with Brantley Gilbert, Brian May of Queen, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd to re-record a new version of Sheperd's song "Blue on Black". The proceeds from the recording support The Gary Sinise Foundation. While a cover of the song had already appeared on And Justice for None, this new version merged Sheperd's blues rock, Gilbert's country, May's classic rock and Five Finger Death Punch's mainstream rock styles. ### F8 and Hook's departure (2019–2021) On May 9, 2019, the band released a video announcing a "new record in the making". The album, F8 was released on February 28, 2020. The album's lead single, "Inside Out", was released on December 2, 2019. "A Little Bit Off" was released as the second single in June 2020. Both songs topped the Billboard Mainstream Rock songs. On February 4, 2020, it was announced that lead guitarist Jason Hook was forced to miss the remaining shows of the European tour due to health issues. Andy James was named as substitute lead guitarist for the rest of the tour. It was confirmed on October 12, 2020, that Hook officially left the band, with James replacing him permanently. ### AfterLife (2021–2022) In May 2021, it was announced that the band planned on recording their ninth album in 2022. They will also make a 15th anniversary re-recording of their debut album, The Way of the Fist. On April 12, 2022, the band released the title track from their ninth studio album, AfterLife. On the same day, the band announced a U.S. tour with Megadeth, The Hu, and Fire from the Gods, set for August through October 2022. On May 13, 2022, the band released the second single, "IOU". They also announced the release of their ninth studio album, AfterLife, which was released on August 19, 2022. On June 9, 2022, the band released the third single, "Welcome to the Circus". On July 8, 2022, the band released the fourth single, "Times Like These". ### Upcoming tenth studio album (2022–present) In October 2022, Moody announced plans to retire from heavy metal music after releasing the band's tenth studio album to spend more time with his kids. He later retracted his retirement announcement, stating: > "I can't quit...I think I'd die. Maybe not physically die, my but soul would fucking definitely fade, and I didn't come here for that. There is a fucking fire inside of me that will never go out...I ain't going anywhere. I'm not... Maybe I was a little bit impulsive... I hope you all will forgive me." The band subsequently toured across the United States at the end of 2022 with country rock artists Brantley Gilbert and Cory Marks serving as the opening acts. ## Musical style and influences Five Finger Death Punch's musical style has been described as heavy metal, groove metal, alternative metal, hard rock, nu metal, thrash metal, and arena rock. Thom Jurek of AllMusic wrote that Five Finger Death Punch's "instantly recognizable sound is comprised of equal parts melodic and meaty guitar riffs, fat vamps, catchy hooks, tight, flashy solos, and hard-grooving bass and drums". Bathory described Five Finger Death Punch as "a straight-up heavy metal band with a hint of thrash metal—maybe a hint of the Euro stuff in there". Five Finger Death Punch vocalist Ivan Moody's vocals alternate between screaming and clean singing. The band has released successful ballads as well. Bathory cited Pantera, Voivod, Iron Maiden, Accept, W.A.S.P., and Yngwie Malmsteen as influences. Ivan Moody cited vocalists such as Mike Patton, Phil Anselmo, Layne Staley and Lynn Strait as influences. Moody credited the witty lyricism of Tool's Maynard James Keenan and Faith No More's Mike Patton as great inspirations. The singer also said, "Pantera is one of our biggest influences". Jeremy Spencer cited drummers such as Lars Ulrich, Dave Lombardo, Gene Hoglan, Dave Grohl, Buddy Rich and Tommy Aldridge as influences. Spencer also cited Prince and David Bowie as influences. ## Band members Current members - Zoltan Bathory – rhythm guitar (2005–present); lead guitar, bass (2005) - Ivan Moody – lead vocals, keyboards (2006–present) - Chris Kael – bass, backing vocals (2010–present) - Charlie Engen – drums (2018–present) - Andy James – lead guitar, backing vocals (2020–present) Former members - Caleb Andrew Bingham – lead guitar, backing vocals (2005–2006) - Darrell Roberts – lead guitar, backing vocals (2006–2009) - Matt Snell – bass, backing vocals (2005–2010) - Jeremy Spencer – drums (2005–2018); lead vocals, keyboards (2005–2006) - Jason Hook – lead guitar, backing vocals (2009–2020) Former touring musicians - Philip Labonte – lead vocals (2016) - Tommy Vext – lead vocals (2017) ### Timeline ## Discography Studio albums - The Way of the Fist (2007) - War Is the Answer (2009) - American Capitalist (2011) - The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 1 (2013) - The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 2 (2013) - Got Your Six (2015) - And Justice for None (2018) - F8 (2020) - AfterLife (2022) ## Awards and nominations Revolver Golden Gods Awards \\|- \\|2012 \\|\\|Zoltan Bathory, Jason Hook \\|\\|Best Guitarist \\|\\| \\|- \\|2012 \\|\\|Ivan Moody \\|\\|Best Vocalist \\|\\| \\|- \\|2012 \\|\\|Jeremy Spencer \\|\\|Best Drummer \\|\\| \\|- \\|2012 \\|\\| American Capitalist \\|\\| Album of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|2013 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Best Live Band \\|\\| \\|- \\|2014 \\|\\| The Wrong Side of Heaven... \\|\\| Album of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|2014 \\|\\| Ivan Moody \\|\\| Best Vocalist \\|\\| \\|- \\|2014 \\|\\| Zoltan Bathory, Jason Hook \\|\\| Best Guitarist \\|\\| \\|- \\|2014 \\|\\| Chris Kael \\|\\| Best Bassist \\|\\| \\|- \\|2014 \\|\\| Lift Me Up \\|\\| Song of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|2014 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Most Dedicated Fans \\|\\| Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards \\|- \\|2009 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Best New Band \\|\\| \\|- \\|2010 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Best Breakthrough Band \\|\\| \\|- \\|2010 \\|\\| Zoltan Bathory \\|\\| Best Shredder \\|\\| \\|- \\|2012 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Best International Band \\|\\| \\|- \\|2012 \\|\\| Zoltan Bathory \\|\\| Metal As Fuck \\|\\| \\|- \\|2013 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Best International Band \\|\\| \\|- \\|2014 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Best Live Band \\|\\| Kerrang! Awards \\|- \\|2009 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Best International Newcomer \\|\\| Radio Contraband Rock Radio Awards \\|- \\|2011 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Indie Artist of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|2012 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Indie Artist of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|2012 \\|\\| American Capitalist \\|\\| Album of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|2012 \\|\\| Coming Down \\|\\| Song of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|2013 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Indie Artist of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|2014 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Indie Artist of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|2014 \\|\\| Wrong Side of Heaven \\|\\| Video of the Year \\|\\| Bandit Rock Awards \\|- \\|2014 \\|\\| The Wrong Side of Heaven... \\|\\| Best International Album \\|\\| \\|- \\|2014 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Best International Group \\|\\| \\|- \\|2016 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Best International Artist \\|\\| \\|- \\|rowspan="2" \\|2019 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Best International Artist \\|\\| \\|- \\|And Justice For None \\|\\| Best International Album \\|\\| Loudwire Music Awards \\|- \\|2013 \\|\\| The Wrong Side of Heaven... \\|\\| Rock Album of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|2013 \\|\\| Lift Me Up \\|\\| Rock Song of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|2013 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Rock Band of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|2013 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Most Devoted Fans \\|\\| \\|- \\|2013 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Best Live Act \\|\\| \\|- \\|2014 \\|\\| Wrong Side of Heaven \\|\\| Best Rock Video \\|\\| \\|- \\|2015 \\|\\| Got Your Six \\|\\| Best Rock Album \\|\\| \\|- \\|2015 \\|\\| Wash It All Away \\|\\| Best Rock Song \\|\\| \\|- \\|2015 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Best Rock Band \\|\\| \\|- \\|2015 \\|\\| Zoltan Bathory, Jason Hook \\|\\| Best Guitarist \\|\\| \\|- \\|2015 \\|\\| Jeremy Spencer \\|\\| Best Drummer \\|\\| SiriusXM Octane Music Awards \\|- \\|2014 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Best Live Band \\|\\| \\|- \\|2015 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Artist of the Year \\|\\| iHeartRadio Music Awards \\|- \\|2016 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Rock Artist of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|rowspan="2" \\|2020 \\|\\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Rock Artist of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\| "Blue on Black" \\|\\| Rock Song of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\|rowspan="2" \\|2022 \\|\\| "Living the Dream" \\|\\| Rock Song of the Year \\|\\| \\|- \\| Five Finger Death Punch \\|\\| Rock Artist of the Year \\|\\|
15,401,889	Hunter: The Vigil	1,127,870,655	Tabletop role-playing game	[ "2008 books", "Chronicles of Darkness", "Kickstarter-funded tabletop games", "Role-playing games introduced in 2008", "White Wolf Publishing games" ]	Hunter: The Vigil is a tabletop role-playing game originally published by White Wolf Publishing on August 14, 2008, and is the sixth game in their game series Chronicles of Darkness – a reboot of the World of Darkness series. Led by a storyteller, players take the roles of people who have learned of the existence of the supernatural, and fight back against monsters as groups of hunters. The game was originally designed by Justin Achilli, Rich Thomas, and Chuck Wendig, who based it on the earlier game Hunter: The Reckoning; Monica Valentinelli designed a second edition with updates to the game rules, which was released by Onyx Path Publishing in 2022. Both White Wolf Publishing and Onyx Path Publishing have supported the game with supplementary game books including adventure modules; the latter has also released the Dark Eras line of books describing the setting in other time periods. The game line was commercially successful and well received critically. ## Overview Hunter: The Vigil is a horror tabletop role-playing game with a modern-day setting. Players take the roles of groups of people called hunters, who are aware of the supernatural and fight back against it, but do not necessarily have any special powers, and may not have much knowledge of the monsters they fight. To fight the supernatural, hunters adopt "the vigil", a morality code that gradually erodes their humanity. The monsters the players fight include creatures from other Chronicles of Darkness games, including the protagonists thereof, such as the vampires of the game Vampire: The Requiem or the prometheans of Promethean: The Created. Although the game has a setting with several named organizations and actors, it does unlike the original World of Darkness series not have an ongoing publisher-made narrative. The game has three types of gameplay: in tier one, the group of hunters – a "cell" – has little support; in tier two, the hunters have the support of a larger organization called a compact; and in tier three, they are at the mercy of large groups called conspiracies, which may control governments. The tier affects the hunters' abilities; additionally, lower tiers give the hunters more freedom whereas higher tiers give access to more resources. Players create their characters in a similar way to other Chronicles of Darkness games, assigning values to different attributes, represented by the filling in of dots on a character sheet. One of these is the willpower attribute, which reflects the hunters' moral conflicts, and can be spent to resist social pressure. Games are led by a storyteller, and outcomes of attempted actions are determined based on characters' statistics and the rolling of dice pools. ## Production Hunter: The Vigil was originally produced by White Wolf Publishing as the sixth game in the Chronicles of Darkness series, which is a reboot of their series World of Darkness. Like many games in the series, it is based on an earlier World of Darkness game – Hunter: The Reckoning (1999) – but it also expands on the basic human characters described in the Chronicles of Darkness rulebook, and takes inspiration from Dark Ages: Inquisitor (2002) and The Hunters Hunted (1992). The first edition of Hunter: The Vigil was developed by Chuck Wendig; although he had written many books for White Wolf Publishing, it was only his second time developing one, which he considered the most difficult aspect of the project for him. He designed it together with Justin Achilli and Rich Thomas; Monica Valentinelli was the lead designer for the second edition. Wendig described the game's main theme as "light in shadows", with hunter characters fighting against the supernatural as underdogs; a secondary theme to him was the simultaneous fragility and power of humanity, and how the pressure of necessary sacrifices affects the hunters. Valentinelli did not want to drastically change the game for its second edition, but to improve on and clarify the core, including updating the game rules to bring them in line with the other second-edition Chronicles of Darkness games. She also wanted to work with writers of many different backgrounds due to the game's global scope. ### Release White Wolf Publishing announced Hunter: The Vigil in January 2008, and released the first edition on August 14, 2008, at the Gen Con game convention. In the following years, they supported the game with supplementary game books, including several adventure modules. Many of these were created as part of White Wolf Publishing's SAS line ("Storytelling Adventure System") of ebooks, and only released digitally, but the game line has also seen several print releases. The second edition was announced in 2015 by Onyx Path Publishing, a company formed by ex–White Wolf Publishing staff. It was financed through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, and was released on March 2, 2022. In addition to the game and the supplementary books, Onyx Path Publishing has released a line of Dark Eras books, which describe the setting of Hunter: The Vigil and other Chronicles of Darkness games during other time periods. ## Books ### First edition (2008–2017) ### Second edition (2022–present) ## Reception Hunter: The Vigil performed better commercially than expected, leading to the initially limited game line getting expanded with further supplementary books, and more of those getting released as printed books. The second edition was also commercially successful, quickly exceeding its crowdfunding goal. The game has also been generally well received critically, with Flames Rising considering the first edition a stand-out among the publisher's games around that time. Critics liked the gameplay and the ease and speed of creating characters; Fenix found the dot-based attribute system superior to and easier to read than other role-playing games that use number-based systems, and appreciated the willpower rules for encouraging players to take risks for potential rewards. Flames Rising found the tactics rules too complex for a game intended to focus on storytelling, but thought that the game overall worked well both for one-shots and longer campaigns. The writing saw mixed opinions: Fenix liked the game's "dark and mature" tone, but criticized its portrayal of women, describing it as adhering too strictly to gender roles and mostly portraying women as victims, exemplifying this with how only one of the game's twelve compacts and conspiracies is visually represented by a female character, who they found under-dressed for a hunter. Both Fenix and Flames Rising additionally criticized the writing for at times being choppy; Fenix called it sometimes "pompous" and tedious, something they found unusual for White Wolf Publishing's games. The game's visuals also saw varying responses: Fenix found the quality to be uneven throughout the book, whereas Rue Morgue found the artwork "excellent", and Flames Rising considered the book almost entirely graphically pleasing, with the cover art being one exception.

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