title: East Germany

text: Zersetzung methods varied and were tailored depending on the individual being targeted. They are known to have included sending offensive mail to a person's house, the spreading of malicious rumours about them, banning them from traveling, sabotaging their career, breaking into their house and moving objects around etc. These acts could be intensely intimidating and confusing for the person targeted. They frequently led to unemployment, social isolation, and poor mental health. Many people had various forms of mental or nervous breakdown. Similarly to physical imprisonment, Zersetzung methods had the effect of paralysing a person's ability to operate but with the advantage of the source being unknown or at least unprovable. There is ongoing debate as to whether weaponised directed energy devices, such as X-ray transmitters, were used in combination with the psychological warfare methods of Zersetzung. The historian Mike Dennis states that "Between 1985–1988, the Stasi conducted about 4,500 to 5,000 OVs (operational cases) per year." The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims considers that there are between 300,000 and 500,000 victims of direct physical torture, Zersetzung, and gross human rights violations due to the Stasi. In the modern day, victims of historical Zersetzung can draw a special pension from the German state.


title: East Germany

text: Almost all East German highways, railroads, sewage systems and public buildings were in a state of disrepair at the time of reunification, as little was done to maintain infrastructure in the GDR's last decades. Unified German public spending has had to pour more than $2 trillion into the former East Germany, to make up for the region's neglect and malaise and bring it up to a minimal standard.


title: East Germany

text: The Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant closely avoided a Chernobyl-scale meltdown in 1976. All East German nuclear power plants had to be shut down after reunification, because they did not meet Western safety standards.


title: East Germany

text: Many East Germans initially regarded the dissolution of the GDR positively, but this reaction partly turned sour. West Germans often acted as if they had "won" and East Germans had "lost" in unification, leading many East Germans ("Ossis") to resent West Germans ("Wessis"). In 2004, Ascher Barnstone wrote, "East Germans resent the wealth possessed by West Germans; West Germans see the East Germans as lazy opportunists who want something for nothing. East Germans find 'Wessis' arrogant and pushy, West Germans think the 'Ossis' are lazy good-for-nothings."


title: East Germany

text: In addition, many East German women found the west more appealing, and left the region never to return, leaving behind an underclass of poorly educated and jobless men.


title: East Germany

text: For the people who stayed in East Germany, a majority of them (57%) defend the GDR, with 49% of those polled saying that "The GDR had more good sides than bad sides. There were some problems, but life was good there", while 8% oppose all criticism of East Germany and say that "The GDR had, for the most part, good sides. Life there was happier and better than in reunified Germany today".


title: East Germany

text: As of 2014, the vast majority of residents in the former GDR prefer to live in a unified Germany. However, a feeling of nostalgia persists among some, termed "Ostalgie" (a blend of "east" and "nostalgia"). This was depicted in the Wolfgang Becker film "Goodbye Lenin!". According to Klaus Schroeder, a historian and political scientist at the Free University of Berlin, some of the original residents of the GDR "still feel they don't belong or that they're strangers in unified Germany" as life in the GDR was "just more manageable". He warns German society should watch out in case Ostalgie results in a distortion and romanticization of the past.


title: East Germany

text: The divide between the East and the West can be seen in contemporary German elections. The left-wing Die Linke party (which has roots in the SED) continues to have a stronghold and often wins a plurality in the East, such as in the German State of Thuringia where it remains the most popular party. This is in stark distinction from the West where the more centrist parties such as the CDU/CSU and SPD dominate.


title: East Germany

text: Another way the divide between the West and the East can be seen in modern Germany is religion. As of 2009, more Germans are non-believers in Eastern Germany than Western Germany. Eastern Germany, which was historically protestant, is perhaps the least religious region in the world. An explanation for this, popular in other regions, is the aggressive state atheist policies of the German Democratic Republic's Socialist Unity Party of Germany. However, the enforcement of atheism existed only for the first few years. After that, the state allowed churches to have a relatively high level of autonomy. Atheism is embraced by Germans of all ages, though irreligion is particularly common among younger Germans.


title: League of Legends

text: League of Legends (LoL), commonly referred to as League, is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by "Defense of the Ancients", a custom map for , Riot's founders sought to develop a stand-alone game in the same genre. Since its release in October 2009, "League" has been free-to-play and is monetized through purchasable character customization. The game is available for Microsoft Windows and macOS.


title: League of Legends

text: In the game, two teams of five players battle in player-versus-player combat, each team occupying and defending their half of the map. Each of the ten players controls a character, known as a "champion", with unique abilities and differing styles of play. During a match, champions become more powerful by collecting experience points, earning gold, and purchasing items to defeat the opposing team. In "League"s main mode, Summoner's Rift, a team wins by pushing through to the enemy base and destroying their "Nexus", a large structure located within.


title: League of Legends

text: "League of Legends" has received generally positive reviews; critics highlighted its accessibility, character designs, and production value. The game's long lifespan has resulted in a critical reappraisal, with reviews trending positively; the negative and abusive in-game behavior of its players, criticized since early in the game's lifetime, persists despite Riot's attempts to fix the problem. In 2019, "League" regularly peaked at eight million concurrent players, and its popularity has led to tie-ins such as music videos, comic books, short stories, and an animated series, "Arcane". Its success has also spawned several spin-off video games, including a , a digital collectible card game and a , among others. A massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the property is in development.


title: League of Legends

text: Regularly cited as the world's largest esport, the game has an international competitive scene consisting of 12 leagues. These domestic leagues culminate in the annual "League of Legends" World Championship. The 2019 event registered over 100 million unique viewers, peaking at a concurrent viewership of 44 million during the finals. Domestic and international events have been broadcast on livestreaming websites such as Twitch, YouTube, Bilibili, and on cable television sports channel ESPN.


title: League of Legends

text: "League of Legends" is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game in which the player controls a character ("champion") with a set of unique abilities from an isometric perspective. , there are 161 champions available to play. Over the course of a match, champions gain levels by accruing experience points (XP) through killing enemies. Items can be acquired to increase champions' strength, and are bought with gold, which players accrue passively over time and earn actively by defeating the opposing team's minions, champions, or defensive structures. In the main game mode, Summoner's Rift, items are purchased through a shop menu available to players only when their champion is in the team's base. Each match is discrete; levels and items do not transfer from one match to another.


title: League of Legends

text: Summoner's Rift is the flagship game mode of "League of Legends" and the most prominent in professional-level play. The mode has a ranked competitive ladder; a matchmaking system determines a player's skill level and generates a starting rank from which they can climb. There are nine tiers; the least skilled are Iron, Bronze, and Silver, and the highest are Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger.


title: League of Legends

text: Two teams of five players compete to destroy the opposing team's "Nexus", which is guarded by the enemy champions and defensive structures known as "turrets". Each team's Nexus is located in their base, where players start the game and reappear after death. Non-player characters known as minions are generated from each team's Nexus and advance towards the enemy base along three lanes guarded by turrets: top, middle, and bottom. Each team's base contains three "inhibitors", one behind the third tower from the center of each lane. Destroying one of the enemy team's inhibitors causes stronger allied minions to spawn in that lane, and allows the attacking team to damage the enemy Nexus and the two turrets guarding it. The regions in between the lanes are collectively known as the "jungle", which is inhabited by "monsters" that, like minions, respawn at regular intervals. Like minions, monsters provide gold and XP when killed. Another, more powerful class of monster resides within the river that separates each team's jungle. These monsters require multiple players to defeat and grant special abilities to their slayers' team. For example, teams can gain a powerful allied unit after killing the Rift Herald, permanent strength boosts by killing dragons, and stronger, more durable minions by killing Baron Nashor.


title: League of Legends

text: Summoner's Rift matches can last from as little as 15 minutes to over an hour. Although the game does not enforce where players may go, conventions have arisen over the game's lifetime: typically one player goes in the top lane, one in the middle lane, one in the jungle, and two in the bottom lane. Players in a lane kill minions to accumulate gold and XP (termed "farming") and try to prevent their opponent from doing the same. A fifth champion, known as a "jungler", farms the jungle monsters and, when powerful enough, assists their teammates in a lane.


title: League of Legends

text: Besides Summoner's Rift, "League of Legends" has two other permanent game modes. ARAM ("All Random, All Mid") is a five-versus-five mode like Summoner's Rift, but on a map called Howling Abyss with only one long lane, no jungle area, and with champions randomly chosen for players. Given the small size of the map, players must be vigilant in avoiding enemy abilities.


title: League of Legends

text: "Teamfight Tactics" is an auto battler released in June 2019 and made a permanent game mode the following month. As with others in its genre, players build a team and battle to be the last one standing. Players do not directly affect combat but position their units on a board for them to fight automatically against opponents each round. "Teamfight Tactics" is available for iOS and Android and has cross-platform play with the Windows and macOS clients.


title: League of Legends

text: Other game modes have been made available temporarily, typically aligning with in-game events. Ultra Rapid Fire (URF) mode was available for two weeks as a 2014 April Fools Day prank. In the mode, champion abilities have no resource cost, significantly reduced cooldown timers, increased movement speed, reduced healing, and faster attacks. A year later, in April 2015, Riot disclosed that they had not brought the mode back because its unbalanced design resulted in player "burnout". The developer also said the costs associated with maintaining and balancing URF were too high. Other temporary modes include One for All and Nexus Blitz. One for All has players pick a champion for all members of their team to play. In Nexus Blitz, players participate in a series of mini-games on a compressed map.


title: League of Legends

text: Riot Games' founders Brandon Beck and Marc Merill had an idea for a spiritual successor to "Defense of the Ancients", known as "DotA". A mod for "", "DotA" required players to buy "Warcraft III" and install custom software; "The Washington Post" Brian Crecente said the mod "lacked a level of polish and was often hard to find and set up". Phillip Kollar of "Polygon" noted that Blizzard Entertainment supported "Warcraft III" with an expansion pack, then shifted their focus to other projects while the game still had players. Beck and Merill sought to create a game that would be supported over a significantly longer period.


title: League of Legends

text: Beck and Merill held a "DotA" tournament for students at the University of Southern California, with an ulterior goal of recruitment. There they met Jeff Jew, later a producer on "League of Legends". Jew was very familiar with "DotA" and spent much of the tournament teaching others how to play. Beck and Merill invited him to an interview, and he joined Riot Games as an intern. Beck and Merill recruited two figures involved with "DotA:" Steve Feak, one of its designers,"" and Steve Mescon, who ran a support website to assist players. Feak said early development was highly iterative, comparing it to designing "DotA".


title: League of Legends

text: A demonstration of "League of Legends" built in the "Warcraft III" game engine was completed in four months and then shown at the 2007 Game Developers Conference. There, Beck and Merill had little success with potential investors. Publishers were confused by the game's free-to-play business model and lack of a single-player mode. The free-to-play model was untested outside of Asian markets, so publishers were primarily interested in a retail release, and the game's capacity for a sequel. In 2008, Riot reached an agreement with holding company Tencent to oversee the game's launch in China.


title: League of Legends

text: "League of Legends" was announced October 7, 2008, for Microsoft Windows. Closed beta-testing began in April 2009. Upon the launch of the beta, seventeen champions were available. Riot initially aimed to ship the game with 20 champions but doubled the number before the game's full release in North America on October 27, 2009. The game's full name was announced as "League of Legends: Clash of Fates". Riot planned to use the subtitle to signal when future content was available, but decided they were silly and dropped it before launch.""


title: League of Legends

text: "League of Legends" receives regular updates in the form of patches. Although previous games had utilized patches to ensure no one strategy dominated, "League of Legends" patches made keeping pace with the developer's changes a core part of the game. In 2014, Riot standardized their patch cadence to once approximately every two or three weeks.


title: League of Legends

text: The development team includes hundreds of game designers and artists. In 2016, the music team had four full-time composers and a team of producers creating audio for the game and its promotional materials. , the game has over 150 champions, and Riot Games periodically overhauls the visuals and gameplay of the oldest in the roster. Although only available for Microsoft Windows at launch, a Mac version of the game was made available in March 2013.


title: League of Legends

text: "League of Legends" uses a free-to-play business model. Several forms of purely cosmetic customization—for example, "skins" that change the appearance of champions—can be acquired after buying an in-game currency called Riot Points (RP). Skins have five main pricing tiers, ranging from $4 to $25. As virtual goods, they have high profit margins. A loot box system has existed in the game since 2016; these are purchasable virtual "chests" with randomized, cosmetic items. These chests can be bought outright or acquired at a slower rate for free by playing the game. The practice has been criticized as a form of gambling. In 2019, Riot Games' CEO said that he hoped loot boxes would become less prevalent in the industry. Riot has also experimented with other forms of monetization. In August 2019, they announced an achievement system purchasable with Riot Points. The system was widely criticized for its high cost and low value.


title: League of Legends

text: In 2014, Ubisoft analyst Teut Weidemann said that only around 4% of players paid for cosmetics—significantly lower than the industry standard of 15 to 25%. He argued the game was only profitable because of its large player base. In 2017, the game had a revenue of US$2.1 billion; in 2018, a lower figure of still positioned it as one of the highest-grossing games of 2018. In 2019, the number rose to $1.5 billion, and again to $1.75 billion in 2020. According to magazine "Inc.", players collectively played three billion hours every month in 2016.


title: League of Legends

text: Before 2014, players existed in-universe as political leaders, or "Summoners", commanding champions to fight on the Fields of Justice—for example, Summoner's Rift—to avert a catastrophic war. Sociologist Matt Watson said the plot and setting were bereft of the political themes found in other role-playing games, and presented in reductive "good versus evil" terms. In the game's early development, Riot did not hire writers, and designers wrote character biographies only a paragraph long.


title: League of Legends

text: In September 2014, Riot Games rebooted the game's fictional setting, removing summoners from the game's lore to avoid "creative stagnation". Luke Plunkett wrote for "Kotaku" that, although the change would upset long-term fans, it was necessary as the game's player base grew in size. Shortly after the reboot, Riot hired "Warhammer" writer Graham McNeill. Riot's storytellers and artists create flavor text, adding "richness" to the game, but very little of this is seen as a part of normal gameplay. Instead, that work supplies a foundation for the franchise's expansion into other media, such as comic books and spin-off video games. The Fields of Justice were replaced by a new fictional setting—a planet called Runeterra. The setting has elements from several genres—from Lovecraftian horror to traditional sword and sorcery fantasy.


title: League of Legends

text: "League of Legends" received generally favorable reviews on its initial release, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Many publications noted the game's high replay value. "Kotaku" reviewer Brian Crecente admired how items altered champion play styles. Quintin Smith of "Eurogamer" concurred, praising the amount of experimentation offered by champions. Comparing it to "Defense of the Ancients", Rick McCormick of "GamesRadar+" said that playing "League of Legends" was "a vote for choice over refinement".


title: League of Legends

text: Given the game's origins, other reviewers frequently compared aspects of it to "DotA." According to "GamesRadar+" and "GameSpot", "League of Legends" would feel familiar to those who had already played "DotA". The game's inventive character design and lively colors distinguished the game from its competitors. Smith concluded his review by noting that, although there was not "much room for negativity", Riot's goal of refining "DotA" had not yet been realized.


title: League of Legends

text: Although Crecente praised the game's free-to-play model, "GameSpy" Ryan Scott was critical of the grind required for non-paying players to unlock key gameplay elements, calling it unacceptable in a competitive game. Many outlets said the game was underdeveloped. A physical version of the game was available for purchase from retailers; "GameSpot" Kevin VanOrd said it was an inadvisable purchase because the value included $10 of store credit for an unavailable store. German site "GameStar" noted that none of the bonuses in that version were available until the launch period had ended and refused to carry out a full review. "IGN" Steve Butts compared the launch to the poor state of "CrimeCraft" release earlier in 2009; he indicated that features available during "League of Legends" beta were removed for the release, even for those who purchased the retail version. Matches took unnecessarily long to find for players, with long queue times, and "GameRevolution" mentioned frustrating bugs.


title: League of Legends

text: Some reviewers addressed toxicity in the game's early history. Crecente wrote that the community was "insular" and "whiney" when losing. Butts speculated that "League of Legends" inherited many of "DotA" players, who had developed a reputation for being "notoriously hostile" to newcomers.


title: League of Legends

text: Regular updates to the game have resulted in a reappraisal by some outlets; "IGN"'s second reviewer, Leah B. Jackson, explained that the website's original review had become "obsolete". Two publications increased their original scores: "GameSpot" from 6 to 9, and "IGN" from 8 to 9.2. The variety offered by the champion roster was described by Steven Strom of "PC Gamer" as "fascinating"; Jackson pointed to "memorable" characters and abilities. Although the items had originally been praised at release by other outlets such as "Kotaku" Jackson's reassessment criticized the lack of item diversity and viability, noting that the items recommended to the player by the in-game shop were essentially required because of their strength.


title: League of Legends

text: While reviewers were pleased with the diverse array of play styles offered by champions and their abilities, Strom thought that the female characters still resembled those in "horny "Clash of Clans" clones" in 2018. Two years before Strom's review, a champion designer responded to criticism by players that a young, female champion was not conventionally attractive. He argued that limiting female champions to one body type was constraining, and said progress had been made in Riot's recent releases.


title: League of Legends

text: Comparisons persisted between the game and others in the genre. "GameSpot" Tyler Hicks wrote that new players would pick up "League of Legends" quicker than "DotA" and that the removal of randomness-based skills made the game more competitive. Jackson described "League of Legends"' rate of unlock for champions as "a model of generosity", but less than "DotA" sequel, "Dota 2" (2013), produced by Valve, wherein characters are unlocked by default. Strom said the game was fast-paced compared to "Dota 2" "yawning" matches, but slower than those of Blizzard Entertainment's "intentionally accessible" MOBA "Heroes of the Storm" (2015).


title: League of Legends

text: At the first Game Developers Choice Awards in 2010, the game won four major awards: Best Online Technology, Game Design, New Online Game, and Visual Arts. At the 2011 Golden Joystick Awards, it won Best Free-to-Play Game. Music produced for the game won a Shorty Award, and was nominated at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards.


title: League of Legends

text: "League of Legends" has received awards for its contribution to esports. It was nominated for Best Esports Game at The Game Awards in 2017 and 2018, then won in 2019 and 2020. Specific events organized by Riot for esports tournaments have been recognized by awards ceremonies. Also at The Game Awards, the Riot won Best Esports Event for the 2019 and 2020 "League" World Championships. At the 39th Sports Emmy Awards in 2018, "League of Legends" won Outstanding Live Graphic Design for the 2017 world championship; as part of the pre-competition proceedings, Riot used augmented reality technology to have a computer-generated dragon fly across the stage.


title: League of Legends

text: "League of Legends"' player base has a longstanding reputation for "toxicity"—negative and abusive in-game behavior, with a survey by the Anti-Defamation League indicating that 76% of players have experienced in-game harassment. Riot Games has acknowledged the problem and responded that only a small portion of the game's players are consistently toxic. According to Jeffrey Lin, the lead designer of social systems at Riot Games, the majority of negative behavior is committed by players "occasionally acting out". Several major systems have been implemented to tackle the issue. One such measure is basic report functionality; players can report teammates or opponents who violate the game's code of ethics. The in-game chat is also monitored by algorithms that detect several types of abuse. An early system was the "Tribunal"—players who met certain requirements were able to review reports sent to Riot. If enough players determined that the messages were a violation, an automated system would punish them. Lin said that eliminating toxicity was an unrealistic goal, and the focus should be on rewarding good player behavior. To that effect, Riot reworked the "Honor system" in 2017, allowing players to award teammates with virtual medals following games, for one of three positive attributes. Acquiring these medals increases a player's "Honor level", rewarding them with free loot boxes over time.


title: League of Legends

text: "League of Legends" is one of the world's largest esports, described by "The New York Times" as its "main attraction". Online viewership and in-person attendance for the game's esports events outperformed those of the National Basketball Association, the World Series, and the Stanley Cup in 2016. For the 2019 and 2020 "League of Legends" World Championship finals, Riot Games reported 44 and 45 peak million concurrent viewers respectively. "Harvard Business Review" said that "League of Legends" epitomized the birth of the esports industry.


title: League of Legends

text: , Riot Games operates 12 regional leagues internationally, four of which—China, Europe, Korea, and North America—have franchised systems. In 2017, this system comprised 109 teams and 545 players. League games are typically livestreamed on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube. The company sells streaming rights to the game; the North American league playoff is broadcast on cable television by sports network ESPN. In China, the rights to stream international events such as the World Championships and the Mid-Season Invitational were sold to Bilibili in Fall 2020 for a three-year deal reportedly worth US$113 million, while exclusive streaming rights for the domestic and other regional leagues are owned by Huya Live. The game's highest-paid professional players have commanded salaries of above $1 million—over three times the highest-paid players of "Overwatch". The scene has attracted investment from businesspeople otherwise unassociated with esports, such as retired basketball player Rick Fox, who founded his own team. In 2020, his team's slot in the North American league was sold to the Evil Geniuses organization for $33 million.


title: League of Legends

text: For the 10th anniversary of "League of Legends" in 2019, Riot Games announced several games at various stages of production that were directly related to the "League of Legends" intellectual property (IP). A stand-alone version of "Teamfight Tactics" was announced for mobile operating systems iOS and Android at the event and released in March 2020. The game has cross-platform play with the Windows and macOS clients. "Legends of Runeterra," a free-to-play digital collectible card game, launched in April 2020 for Microsoft Windows; the game features characters from "League of Legends". "" is a version of the game for mobile operating systems Android, iOS, and unspecified consoles. Instead of porting the game from "League of Legends", "Wild Rift"'s character models and environments were entirely rebuilt. A single-player, turn-based role-playing game, "", was released in 2021 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Windows. It was the first title released under Riot Games' publishing arm, Riot Forge, wherein non-Riot studios develop games using "League of Legends" characters. In December 2020, Greg Street, vice-president of IP and Entertainment at Riot Games, announced that a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the game is in development. "Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story", a third-person adventure game revolving around the champion Nunu's search for his mother, with the help of the yeti Willump, was announced for a planned release in 2022. It is being developed by Tequila Works, the creators of "Rime".


title: League of Legends

text: Riot Games' first venture into music was in 2014 with the virtual heavy metal band Pentakill, promoting a skin line of the same name. Pentakill is composed of seven champions, and their music was primarily made by Riot Games' in-house music team but featured cameos by Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and Danny Lohner, a former member of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Their second album, "Grasp of the Undying", reached Number 1 on the iTunes metal charts in 2017.


title: League of Legends

text: Pentakill was followed by K/DA, a virtual K-pop girl group composed of four champions. As with Pentakill, K/DA is promotional material for a skin line by the same name. The group's debut single, "Pop/Stars", which premiered at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship, garnered over 400 million views on YouTube and sparked widespread interest from people unfamiliar with "League of Legends". After a two-year hiatus, in August 2020, Riot Games released "The Baddest", the pre-release single for "All Out", the five-track debut EP from K/DA which followed in November that year.


title: League of Legends

text: In 2019, Riot created a virtual hip hop group called True Damage, featuring the champions Akali, Yasuo, Qiyana, Senna, and Ekko. The vocalists—Keke Palmer, Thutmose, Becky G, Duckwrth, and Soyeon—performed a live version of the group's debut song, "Giants", during the opening ceremony of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship, alongside holographic versions of their characters. The in-game cosmetics promoted by the music video featured a collaboration with fashion house Louis Vuitton.


title: League of Legends

text: Riot announced a collaboration with Marvel Comics in 2018. Riot had previously experimented with releasing comics through its website. Shannon Liao of "The Verge" noted that the comic books were "a rare opportunity for Riot to showcase its years of lore that has often appeared as an afterthought". The first comic was "League of Legends: Ashe—Warmother", which debuted in 2018, followed by "League of Legends: Lux" that same year. A print version of the latter was released in 2019.


title: League of Legends

text: In a video posted to celebrate the tenth anniversary of "League of Legends", Riot announced an animated television series, "Arcane", the company's first production for television. "Arcane" was a collaborative effort between Riot Games and animation studio Fortiche Production. In an interview with "The Hollywood Reporter", head of creative development Greg Street said the series is "not a light-hearted show. There are some serious themes that we explore there, so we wouldn't want kids tuning in and expecting something that it's not." The series is set in the utopian city of Piltover and its underground, oppressed sister city, Zaun. The series was set to be released in 2020 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. On November 6, 2021, "Arcane" premiered on Netflix following the 2021 "League of Legends" World Championship, and was available through Tencent Video in China. The series received critical acclaim upon release, with IGN's Rafael Motomayor asking rhetorically if the series marked the end of the "video game adaptation curse". It stars Hailee Steinfeld as Vi, Ella Purnell as Jinx, Kevin Alejandro as Jayce, and Katie Leung as Caitlyn. Following the season one finale, Netflix announced a second season was in development.


title: André the Giant

text: André René Roussimoff (; 19 May 1946 – 28 January 1993), better known by his ring name André the Giant, was a French professional wrestler and actor. Roussimoff was known for his great size, which was a result of gigantism caused by excess growth hormone. It also led to him being called "The Eighth Wonder of the World".


title: André the Giant

text: Beginning his career in 1966, Roussimoff relocated to North America in 1971. From 1973 to the mid-1980s, Roussimoff was booked by World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) promoter Vincent J. McMahon as a roving "special attraction" who wrestled for promotions throughout the United States, as well as in Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. During the 1980s wrestling boom, Roussimoff became a mainstay of the WWWF (by then renamed the World Wrestling Federation), being paired with the villainous manager Bobby Heenan and feuding with Hulk Hogan. The two headlined WrestleMania III in 1987, and in 1988, he defeated Hogan to win the WWF Championship, his sole world heavyweight championship, on the first episode of "The Main Event". As his WWF career wound down after WrestleMania VI in 1990, Roussimoff wrestled primarily for All Japan Pro-Wrestling, usually alongside Giant Baba, until his sudden death.


title: André the Giant

text: After his death in 1993, Roussimoff became the inaugural inductee into the newly created WWF Hall of Fame. He was later a charter member of the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" Hall of Fame and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame; the latter describes him as being "one of the most recognizable figures in the world both as a professional wrestler and as a pop culture icon." Outside of wrestling, Roussimoff is best known for appearing as Fezzik, the giant in the 1987 film "The Princess Bride".


title: André the Giant

text: André René Roussimoff was born on 19 May 1946 in Coulommiers, Seine-et-Marne, the son of immigrants Boris Roussimoff (1907–1993) and Mariann Roussimoff Stoeff (1910–1997); his father was Bulgarian and his mother was Polish. He had two older siblings and two younger. His childhood nickname was Dédé (, ). At birth, André weighed ; as a child, he displayed symptoms of gigantism, and was noted as "a good head taller than other kids", with abnormally long hands. In a 1970s television interview, Roussimoff stated that his mother was 5 feet 2 inches tall and his father 6 feet 2 inches tall, and that according to his father his grandfather was 7 feet 8 inches tall. By the time he was 12, Roussimoff stood .


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff was an average student, though good at mathematics. After finishing school at 14, as he did not think higher education was necessary for a farm laborer, he joined the workforce; contrary to popular legend, he did not drop out of school, as compulsory education in France at the time ended at 14.


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff spent years working on his father's farm in Molien, where, according to his brother Jacques, he could perform the work of three men. He also completed an apprenticeship in woodworking, and next worked in a factory that manufactured engines for hay balers. None of these brought him any satisfaction. While Roussimoff was growing up in the 1950s, the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett was one of several adults who sometimes drove local children to school, including Roussimoff and his siblings. They had a surprising amount of common ground and bonded over their love of cricket, with Roussimoff recalling that the two rarely talked about anything else.


title: André the Giant

text: At the age of 18, Roussimoff moved to Paris and was taught professional wrestling by a local promoter, Robert Lageat, who recognized the earning potential of Roussimoff's size. He trained at night and worked as a mover during the day to pay living expenses. Roussimoff was billed as "Géant Ferré", a name based on the Picardian folk hero , and began wrestling in Paris and nearby areas. Canadian promoter and wrestler Frank Valois met Roussimoff in 1966, years later to become his business manager and adviser. Roussimoff began making a name for himself wrestling in the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa.


title: André the Giant

text: He made his Japanese debut for the International Wrestling Enterprise in 1970, billed as "Monster Roussimoff". Wrestling as both a singles and tag-team competitor, he quickly was made the company's tag-team champion alongside Michael Nador. During his time in Japan, doctors first informed Roussimoff that he suffered from acromegaly.


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff next moved to Montreal, Canada in 1971, where he became an immediate success, regularly selling out the Montreal Forum. Promoters eventually ran out of plausible opponents for him and, as the novelty of his size wore off, the gate receipts dwindled. Roussimoff was defeated by Adnan Al-Kaissie in Baghdad in 1971, and wrestled numerous times in 1971 for Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA) as a special attraction.


title: André the Giant

text: In 1973, Vincent J. McMahon, founder of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), suggested several changes to Roussimoff's booking. He felt Roussimoff should be portrayed as a large, immovable monster, and to enhance the perception of his size, McMahon discouraged Roussimoff from performing maneuvers such as dropkicks (although he was capable of performing such agile maneuvers before his health deteriorated in later life). He also began billing Roussimoff as "André the Giant" and set up a travel-intensive schedule, lending him to wrestling associations around the world, to keep him from becoming overexposed in any area. Promoters had to guarantee Roussimoff a certain amount of money as well as pay McMahon's WWF booking fee.


title: André the Giant

text: On 24 March 1973, Roussimoff debuted in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (later World Wrestling Federation) as a fan favorite, defeating Frank Valois and Bull Pometti in a handicap match in Philadelphia. Two days later he made his debut in New York's Madison Square Garden, defeating Buddy Wolfe.


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff was one of professional wrestling's most beloved babyfaces throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. As such, Gorilla Monsoon often stated that Roussimoff had not been defeated in 15 years by pinfall or submission prior to WrestleMania III. He had lost matches outside of the WWF: pinfall losses to Don Leo Jonathan in Montreal in 1972, two draws and a count out lost to The Sheik in Toronto in 1974 after a fireball was thrown in Andre's face, knockout to Jerry Lawler in Memphis in 1975, draw with Bobo Brazil at a battle royal in Detroit in 1976, Ronnie Garvin in Knoxville in 1978, and Canek in Mexico in 1984 and submission losses in Japan to Strong Kobayashi in 1972 and Antonio Inoki in 1986. He also had sixty-minute time-limit draws with the two major world champions of the day, Harley Race and Nick Bockwinkel.


title: André the Giant

text: In 1976, Roussimoff fought professional boxer Chuck Wepner in an unscripted boxer-versus-wrestler fight. The wild fight was shown via telecast as part of the undercard of the Muhammad Ali versus Antonio Inoki fight and ended when he threw Wepner over the top rope and outside the ring and won via count-out.


title: André the Giant

text: In 1980, he feuded with Hulk Hogan, when, unlike their more famous matches in the late 1980s, Hogan was the villain and Roussimoff was the hero, wrestling him at Shea Stadium's third Showdown at Shea event and in Pennsylvania, where after Roussimoff pinned Hogan to win the match, Hogan bodyslammed him much like their legendary WrestleMania III match in 1987. The feud continued in Japan in 1982 and 1983 with their roles reversed and with Antonio Inoki also involved.


title: André the Giant

text: One of Roussimoff's feuds pitted him against the "Mongolian Giant" Killer Khan. According to the storyline, Khan snapped Roussimoff's ankle during a match on 2 May 1981 in Rochester, New York by leaping off the top rope and crashing down upon it with his knee-drop. In reality, he had broken his ankle getting out of bed the morning before the match. The injury and subsequent rehabilitation was worked into the existing Roussimoff/Khan storyline. After a stay at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Roussimoff returned with payback on his mind. The two battled on 20 July 1981, at Madison Square Garden in a match that resulted in a double disqualification. Their feud continued as fans filled arenas up and down the east coast to witness their matches. On 14 November 1981 at the Philadelphia Spectrum, he decisively defeated Khan in what was billed as a "Mongolian stretcher match", in which the loser must be taken to the dressing room on a stretcher. The same type of match was also held in Toronto. In early 1982 the two also fought in a series of matches in Japan with Arnold Skaaland in Roussimoff's corner.


title: André the Giant

text: In 1982, Vincent J. McMahon sold the World Wide Wrestling Federation to his son, Vince McMahon As McMahon began to expand his newly acquired promotion to the national level, he required his wrestlers to appear exclusively for him. McMahon signed Roussimoff to these terms in 1984, although he still allowed him to work in Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff feuded with Big John Studd over which of the two men was the "true giant" of wrestling. Throughout the early to mid-1980s, Roussimoff and Studd fought all over the world, battling to try to determine who the real giant of wrestling was. In 1984, Studd took the feud to a new level when he and partner Ken Patera knocked out Roussimoff during a televised tag-team match and proceeded to cut off his hair. After gaining revenge on Patera, Roussimoff met Studd in a "body slam challenge" at the first WrestleMania, held 31 March 1985, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Roussimoff slammed Studd to win the match and collect the $15,000 prize, then proceeded to throw cash to the fans before having the bag taken from him by Studd's manager, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.


title: André the Giant

text: At WrestleMania 2 on 7 April 1986, Roussimoff continued to display his dominance by winning a twenty-man battle royal which featured top National Football League stars and wrestlers. He last eliminated Bret Hart to win the contest.


title: André the Giant

text: Following a final tour with New Japan Pro-Wrestling in mid-1986, Roussimoff began appearing exclusively with the World Wrestling Federation.


title: André the Giant

text: After WrestleMania 2, Roussimoff continued his feud with Studd and King Kong Bundy. Around this time, Roussimoff requested a leave of absence to tend to his health, since the effects from his acromegaly were beginning to take their toll, as well as to tour Japan. He had also been cast in the film "The Princess Bride". To explain his absence, a storyline was developed in which Heenan—suggesting that Roussimoff was secretly afraid of Studd and Bundy, whom Heenan bragged were unbeatable—challenged Roussimoff and a partner of his choosing to wrestle Studd and Bundy in a televised tag-team match. When Roussimoff failed to show, WWF president Jack Tunney indefinitely suspended him. Later in the summer of 1986, upon Roussimoff's return to the United States, he began wearing a mask and competing as the "Giant Machine" in a stable known as the Machines. Big Machine and Super Machine were the other members; Hulk Hogan (as "Hulk Machine") and Roddy Piper (as "Piper Machine") were also one-time members. The WWF's television announcers sold the Machines—a gimmick that was copied from the New Japan Pro-Wrestling character "Super Strong Machine", played by Japanese wrestler Junji Hirata, —as "a new tag-team from Japan" and claimed not to know the identities of the wrestlers, even though it was obvious to fans that it was Roussimoff competing as the Giant Machine. Heenan, Studd, and Bundy complained to Tunney, who eventually told Heenan that if it could be proven that Roussimoff and the Giant Machine were the same person, Roussimoff would be fired. Roussimoff thwarted Heenan, Studd, and Bundy at every turn. Then, in late 1986, the Giant Machine "disappeared" and Roussimoff was reinstated. Foreshadowing Roussimoff's heel turn, Heenan expressed his approval of the reinstatement but did not explain why.


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff agreed to turn heel in early 1987 to be the counter to the biggest "babyface" in professional wrestling at that time, Hulk Hogan. On an edition of "Piper's Pit" in 1987, Hogan was presented a trophy for being the WWF World Heavyweight Champion for three years; Roussimoff came out to congratulate him, shaking Hogan's hand with a strong grip, which surprised the Hulkster. On the following week's "Piper's Pit", Roussimoff was presented a slightly smaller trophy for being "the only undefeated wrestler in wrestling history." Although he had suffered a handful of countout and disqualification losses in WWF, he had never been pinned or forced to submit in a WWF ring. Hogan came out to congratulate him and ended up being the focal point of the interview. Apparently annoyed, he walked out in the midst of Hogan's speech. A discussion between Roussimoff and Hogan was scheduled, and on a "Piper's Pit" that aired 7 February 1987, the two met. Hogan was introduced first, followed by Roussimoff, who was led by longtime rival Bobby Heenan.


title: André the Giant

text: Speaking on behalf of his new protégé, Heenan accused Hogan of being Roussimoff's friend only so he would not have to defend his title against him. Hogan tried to reason with Roussimoff, but his pleas were ignored as he challenged Hogan to a match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania III. Hogan was still seemingly in disbelief as to what Roussimoff was doing, prompting Heenan to say "You can't believe it, maybe you'll believe this, Hogan" before Roussimoff ripped off the T-shirt and crucifix from Hogan, with the crucifix scratching Hogan's chest, causing him to bleed.


title: André the Giant

text: Following Hogan's acceptance of his challenge on a later edition of "Piper's Pit", the two were part of a 20-man over-the-top-rope battle-royal on 14 March edition of "Saturday Night's Main Event X" at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Although the battle royal was won by Hercules, Roussimoff claimed to have gained a psychological advantage over Hogan when he threw the WWF World Heavyweight Champion over the top rope. The match, which was actually taped on 21 February 1987, aired only two weeks before WrestleMania III to make it seem like Hogan had met his match in André the Giant.


title: André the Giant

text: At WrestleMania III, he was billed at , and the stress of such immense weight on his bones and joints resulted in constant pain. After recent back surgery, he was also wearing a brace underneath his wrestling singlet. In front of a record crowd, Hogan won the match after body-slamming Roussimoff (later dubbed "the bodyslam heard around the world"), followed by Hogan's running leg drop finisher. Years later, Hogan claimed that Roussimoff was so heavy, he felt more like , and that he tore his latissimus dorsi muscle when slamming him.


title: André the Giant

text: Another myth about the match is that no one, not even WWF owner Vince McMahon, knew until the day of the event whether Roussimoff would lose the match. In reality, he agreed to lose the match sometime before, mostly for health reasons. Contrary to popular belief, it was not the first time that Hogan had successfully body-slammed him in a WWF match. A then-heel Hogan had slammed a then-face Roussimoff following their match at the Showdown at Shea on 9 August 1980, though Roussimoff was somewhat lighter (around ) and more athletic at the time (Hogan also slammed him in a match in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, a month later). This took place in the territorial days of American wrestling three years before WWF began national expansion, so many of those who watched WrestleMania III had never seen the Giant slammed (Roussimoff had also previously allowed Harley Race, El Canek and Stan Hansen, among others, to slam him).


title: André the Giant

text: By the time of WrestleMania III, the WWF went national, giving more meaning to the Roussimoff–Hogan match that took place then. The feud between Roussimoff and Hogan simmered during the summer of 1987, as Roussimoff's health declined. The feud began heating up again when wrestlers were named the captains of rival teams at the inaugural Survivor Series event. During their approximately one minute of battling each other during the match, Hogan dominated Roussimoff and was on the brink of knocking him from the ring, but was tripped up by his partners, Bundy and One Man Gang, and would be counted out. Roussimoff went on to be the sole survivor of the match, pinning Bam Bam Bigelow before Hogan returned to the ring to attack André and knock him out of the ring. Roussimoff later got revenge when, after Hogan won a match against Bundy on "Saturday Night's Main Event", he snuck up from behind and began choking Hogan to the brink of unconsciousness, not letting go even after an army of seven face-aligned wrestlers ran to the ring to try to pull him away; it took Hacksaw Jim Duggan breaking a piece of wood over his back (which he no-sold) for him to let go, after which Hogan was pulled to safety. As was the case with the "SNME" battle royal a year earlier, the series of events was one of the pieces that helped build interest in a possible one-on-one rematch between Hogan and Roussimoff, and to make it seem that Roussimoff was certain to win easily when they did meet.


title: André the Giant

text: In the meantime, the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase failed to persuade Hogan to sell him the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. After failing to defeat Hogan in a subsequent series of matches, DiBiase turned to Roussimoff to win it for him. He and DiBiase had teamed several times in the past, including in Japan and in the WWF in the late 1970s and early 1980s when both were faces, but this was not acknowledged during this new storyline. The earlier attack and DiBiase's insertion into the feud set up the Hogan-Roussimoff rematch on "The Main Event", to air 5 February 1988, on a live broadcast on NBC. Acting as his hired gun, Roussimoff won the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hogan (his first singles title) in a match where it was later revealed that appointed referee Dave Hebner was "detained backstage", and a replacement (whom Hogan afterwards initially accused of having been paid by DiBiase to get plastic surgery to look like Dave, but was revealed to have been his evil twin brother, Earl Hebner), made a three count on Hogan while his shoulders were off the mat.


title: André the Giant

text: After winning, Roussimoff "sold" the title to DiBiase; the transaction was declared invalid by then-WWF president Jack Tunney and the title was declared vacant. This was shown on WWF's NBC program "The Main Event". At WrestleMania IV, Roussimoff and Hulk Hogan fought to a double disqualification in a WWF title tournament match (with the idea in the storyline saying that Roussimoff was again working on DiBiase's behalf in giving DiBiase a clearer path in the tournament). Afterward, Roussimoff and Hogan's feud died down after a steel cage match held at "WrestleFest" on 31 July 1988, in Milwaukee. Hogan was the winner.


title: André the Giant

text: At the inaugural SummerSlam pay-per-view held at Madison Square Garden, Roussimoff and DiBiase (billed as The Mega Bucks) faced Hogan and WWF World Heavyweight Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage (known as The Mega Powers) in the main event, with Jesse "The Body" Ventura as the special guest referee. During the match, the Mega Powers' manager, Miss Elizabeth, distracted the Mega Bucks and Ventura when she climbed up on the ring apron, removed her yellow skirt and walked around in a pair of red panties. This allowed Hogan and Savage time to recover and eventually win the match with Hogan pinning DiBiase. Savage forced Ventura's hand down for the final three-count, due to Ventura's character historically being at odds with Hogan, and his unwillingness to count the fall.


title: André the Giant

text: Concurrent with the developing feud with the Mega Powers, Roussimoff was placed in a feud with Jim Duggan, which began after Duggan knocked out Roussimoff with a two-by-four board during a television taping. Despite Duggan's popularity with fans, Roussimoff regularly got the upper hand in the feud.


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff's next major feud was against Jake "The Snake" Roberts. In this storyline, it was said Roussimoff was afraid of snakes, something Roberts exposed on "Saturday Night's Main Event" when he threw his snake, Damien, on the frightened Roussimoff; as a result, he suffered a kayfabe mild heart attack and vowed revenge. During the next few weeks, Roberts frequently walked to ringside carrying his snake in its bag during Roussimoff's matches, causing the latter to run from the ring in fright. Throughout their feud (which culminated at WrestleMania V), Roberts constantly used Damien to gain a psychological edge over the much larger and stronger Roussimoff.


title: André the Giant

text: In 1989, Roussimoff and the returning Big John Studd briefly reprised their feud, beginning at WrestleMania V, when Studd was the referee in the match with Roberts, this time with Studd as a face and Roussimoff as the heel. During the late summer and Autumn of 1989, he engaged in a brief feud, consisting almost entirely of house shows (non-televised events), and one televised match on October 28, 1989 at Madison Square Garden with then-Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior. The younger Warrior, WWF's rising star, regularly squashed the aging Roussimoff in an attempt to showcase his star quality and promote him as the "next big thing".


title: André the Giant

text: In late 1989, Roussimoff was joined with fellow Heenan Family member Haku to form a new tag team called the Colossal Connection, in part to fill a void left by the departure of Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson (the Brain Busters, who were also members of Heenan's stable) from the WWF, and also to continue to keep the aging Roussimoff in the main event spotlight. His last singles match was a loss to The Ultimate Warrior in 20 seconds at a house show in Cape Girardeau, Missouri on 11 December 1989. The Colossal Connection immediately targeted WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition (who had recently won the belts from the Brain Busters). At a television taping on 13 December 1989, the Colossal Connection defeated Demolition to win the titles. Roussimoff and Haku successfully defended their title, mostly against Demolition, until WrestleMania VI on 1 April 1990, when Demolition took advantage of a mistimed move by the champions to regain the belts. After the match, a furious Heenan blamed Roussimoff for the title loss and after shouting at him, slapped him in the face; an angry Roussimoff responded with a slap of his own that sent Heenan staggering from the ring. Roussimoff also caught Haku's kick attempt, sending him reeling from the ring as well, prompting support for Roussimoff and turning him face for the first time since 1987. Due to his ongoing health issues, Roussimoff was not able to wrestle at the time of Wrestlemania VI and Haku actually wrestled the entire match against Demolition without tagging him in.


title: André the Giant

text: On weekend television shows following WrestleMania VI, Bobby Heenan vowed to spit in Roussimoff's face when he came crawling back to the Heenan Family. He wrestled one more time with Haku, teaming up to face Demolition on a house show in Honolulu on 10 April, Roussimoff was knocked out of the ring and The Colossal Connection lost via count-out. After the match, Roussimoff and Haku would fight each other, marking the end of the team. His final WWF match of 1990 came at a combined WWF/All Japan/New Japan show on 13 April in Tokyo, Japan when he teamed with Giant Baba to defeat Demolition in a non-title match. Roussimoff would win by gaining the pinfall on Smash.


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff returned in the winter of 1990, but it was not to the World Wrestling Federation. Instead, Roussimoff made an interview appearance for Herb Abrams' fledgling Universal Wrestling Federation on 11 October in Reseda, California. (the segment aired in 1991). He appeared in an interview segment with Captain Lou Albano and put over the UWF. The following month on 30 November at a house show in Miami, Florida, the World Wrestling Federation announced his return as a participant in the 1991 Royal Rumble (to be held in Miami two months later). Roussimoff was also mentioned as a participant on television but would ultimately back out due to a leg injury.


title: André the Giant

text: His on-air return finally took place at the WWF's "Super-Stars & Stripes Forever" USA Network special on 17 March 1991, when he came out to shake the hand of Big Boss Man after an altercation with Mr. Perfect. The following week at WrestleMania VII, he came to the aid of the Boss Man in his match against Mr. Perfect. Roussimoff finally returned to action on 26 April 1991, in a six-man tag-team matchup when he teamed with The Rockers in a winning effort against Mr. Fuji and The Orient Express at a house show in Belfast, Northern Ireland. On 11 May 1991 he participated in a 17-man battle-royal at a house show in Detroit, which was won by Kerry Von Erich. This was Andre's final WWF match, although he was involved in several subsequent storylines. His last major WWF storyline following WrestleMania VII had the major heel managers (Bobby Heenan, Sensational Sherri, Slick, and Mr. Fuji) trying to recruit Roussimoff one-by-one, only to be turned down in various humiliating ways (e.g. Heenan had his hand crushed, Sherri received a spanking, Slick got locked in the trunk of the car he was offering to Roussimoff, and Mr. Fuji got a pie in his face). Finally, Jimmy Hart appeared live on "WWF Superstars" to announce that he had successfully signed Roussimoff to tag-team with Earthquake. When asked to confirm this by Gene Okerlund, Roussimoff denied the claims. This led to Earthquake's attacking Roussimoff from behind (injuring his knee). Jimmy Hart would later get revenge for the humiliation by secretly signing Tugboat and forming the Natural Disasters. This led to Roussimoff's final major WWF appearance at SummerSlam 1991, where he seconded the Bushwhackers in their match against the Disasters. Roussimoff was on crutches at ringside, and after the Disasters won the match, they set out to attack him, but the Legion of Doom made their way to ringside and got in between them and the Giant, who was preparing to defend himself with one of his crutches. The Disasters left the ringside area as they were outnumbered by the Legion of Doom, the Bushwhackers and Roussimoff, who struck both Earthquake and Typhoon (the former Tugboat) with the crutch as they left. His final WWF appearance came at a house show in Paris, France, on 9 October 1991. He was in Davey Boy Smith's corner as the Bulldog faced Earthquake; Smith hit Earthquake with Roussimoff's crutch, allowing Smith to win.


title: André the Giant

text: After WrestleMania VI, Roussimoff spent the rest of his in-ring career in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and Mexico's Universal Wrestling Association (UWA), where he performed under the name "André el Gigante". He toured with AJPW three times per year, from 1990 to 1992, usually teaming with Giant Baba in tag-team matches.


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff made a couple of guest appearances for Herb Abrams' Universal Wrestling Federation, in 1991, feuding with Big John Studd, though he never had a match in the promotion.


title: André the Giant

text: In his last U.S. television appearance, Andre appeared on World Championship Wrestling's (WCW) "Clash of the Champions XX" special that aired on TBS on 2 September 1992, where he gave a brief interview. During the same event, he appeared alongside Gordon Solie and was later seen talking with him during the gala celebrating the 20th anniversary of wrestling on TBS.


title: André the Giant

text: He did his final tour of Mexico in 1992 in a selection of six-man tag matches alongside Bam Bam Bigelow and a variety of Lucha Libre stars facing among others Bad News Allen and future WWF Champions Mick Foley & Yokozuna. Roussimoff made his final tour with AJPW from October to December 1992; he wrestled what became the final match of his career on 4 December 1992, teaming with Giant Baba and Rusher Kimura to defeat Haruka Eigen, Masanobu Fuchi, and Motoshi Okuma.


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff branched out into acting again in the 1970s and 1980s, after a 1967 French boxing film, making his USA acting debut playing a Sasquatch ("Bigfoot") in a two-part episode aired in 1976 on the television series "The Six Million Dollar Man". He appeared in other television shows, including "The Greatest American Hero", "B. J. and the Bear", "The Fall Guy" and 1990's "Zorro".


title: André the Giant

text: Towards the end of his career, Roussimoff appeared in several films. He had an uncredited appearance in the 1984 film "Conan the Destroyer" as Dagoth, the resurrected horned giant god who is killed by Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger). That same year, he also made an appearance in "Micki & Maude" (billed as André Rousimmoff). He appeared most notably as Fezzik, his own favorite role, in the 1987 film "The Princess Bride". The fact that Roussimoff found that no one stared at him on set during production was a novel and particularly gratifying experience. Both the film and his performance retain a devoted following. In a short interview with Lanny Poffo, he stated that the movie meant so much to André that he made his wrestling pals watch an advanced copy of the VHS with him over and over again while supplying dinner, drinks, and sweetly asking each time, "Did you like my performance?".


title: André the Giant

text: In his last film, he had a cameo role as a circus giant in the comedy "Trading Mom", which was released in 1994, a year after his death.


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff was mentioned in the "1974 Guinness Book of World Records" as the then-highest paid wrestler in history. He earned an annual salary of approximately $400,000 () at this time.


title: André the Giant

text: Robin Christensen is Roussimoff's only child. Her mother Jean Christensen (who died in 2008) became acquainted with her father through the wrestling business around 1972 or 1973. Christensen had almost no connection with her father and saw him only five times in her life, despite occasional televised and printed news pieces criticizing his absentee fatherhood. While she gave some interviews about the subject in her childhood, Christensen is reportedly reluctant to discuss her father publicly today.


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff has been unofficially crowned "the greatest drunk on Earth" for once consuming 119 beers (in total, over ) in six hours. On Letterman, January 23, 1984, Roussimof told David Letterman he drank 117 beers. When Letterman asked if he was drunk, Roussimoff said he couldn't remember because he passed out. He also said he quit drinking beer 14 months prior to this appearance on Letterman. On an episode of WWE's "Legends of Wrestling", Mike Graham said Roussimoff once drank 156 beers (over ) in one sitting, which was confirmed by Dusty Rhodes. The Fabulous Moolah wrote in her autobiography that Roussimoff drank 127 beers in a Reading, Pennsylvania, hotel bar and later passed out in the lobby. The staff could not move him and had to leave him there until he awoke. In a shoot interview, Ken Patera recalled an occasion where Roussimoff was challenged by Dick Murdoch to a beer drinking contest. After nine or so hours, Roussimoff had drunk 116 beers. A tale recounted by Cary Elwes in his book about the making of "The Princess Bride" has Roussimoff falling on top of somebody while drunk, after which the NYPD sent an undercover officer to follow Roussimoff around whenever he went out drinking in their city to make sure he did not fall on anyone again. Another story also says prior to his famous WrestleMania III match, Roussimoff drank 14 bottles of wine.


title: André the Giant

text: An urban legend exists surrounding Roussimoff's 1987 surgery in which his size made it impossible for the anesthesiologist to estimate a dosage via standard methods; consequently, his alcohol tolerance was used as a guideline instead.


title: André the Giant

text: In 1989, Roussimoff was arrested and charged with assault after he attacked a KCRG-TV cameraman shooting his match with The Ultimate Warrior at Cedar Rapids, Iowa's Five Seasons Center. While acquitted on the assault charge, he was fined $100 () for criminal mischief and ordered to pay KCRG $233 () in damage to its equipment.


title: André the Giant

text: William Goldman, the author of the novel and the screenplay of "The Princess Bride", wrote in his nonfiction work "Which Lie Did I Tell?" that Roussimoff was one of the gentlest and most generous people he ever knew. Whenever Roussimoff ate with someone in a restaurant, he would pay, but he would also insist on paying when he was a guest. On one occasion, after Roussimoff attended a dinner with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Wilt Chamberlain, Schwarzenegger had quietly moved to the cashier to pay before Roussimoff could, but then found himself being physically lifted, carried from his table and deposited on top of his car by Roussimoff and Chamberlain.


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff owned a ranch in Ellerbe, North Carolina, looked after by two of his close friends. When he was not on the road, he loved spending time at the ranch, where he tended to his cattle, played with his dogs, and entertained friends. While there were custom-made chairs and a few other modifications in his home to accommodate his size, tales that everything in his home was custom-made for a large man are said to be exaggerated. Since Roussimoff could not easily go shopping due to his fame and size, he was known to spend hours watching QVC and made frequent purchases from the shopping channel.


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff died at age 46 of congestive heart failure in his sleep at a Paris hotel on the morning of Thursday 28 January 1993. He went to play cards with some friends on the night of Wednesday 27 January. He came back to his hotel room around 1 A.M. CET on 28 January. In the afternoon, he was found dead in his room by hotel management and his chauffeur. He was in Paris to attend his father's funeral. While there, he decided to stay longer to be with his mother on her birthday. He spent the day before his death visiting and playing cards with some of his oldest friends in Molien. In his will, he specified that his remains should be cremated and "disposed of". Upon his death in Paris, his family in France held a funeral for him, intending to bury him near his father. When they learned of his wish to be cremated, his body was flown to the United States, where he was cremated according to his wishes. His ashes were scattered at his ranch () in Ellerbe, North Carolina. In addition, in accordance with his will, he left his estate to his sole beneficiary: his daughter Robin.


title: André the Giant

text: Roussimoff made numerous appearances as himself in video games, starting with "WWF WrestleMania". He also appears posthumously in "Virtual Pro Wrestling 64", "WWF No Mercy", "Legends of Wrestling", "Legends of Wrestling II", "", "WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw", "WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006", "WWE Legends of WrestleMania", "WWE All Stars", "WWE 2K14", "WWE 2K15", "WWE 2K16", "WWE 2K17", "WWE 2K18", "WWE 2K19", "WWE 2K20, WWE 2K22" and many others.


title: André the Giant

text: In January 2005, WWE released "André The Giant", a DVD focusing on the life and career of Roussimoff. The DVD is a reissue of the out-of-print "André The Giant" VHS made by Coliseum Video in 1985, with commentary by Michael Cole and Tazz replacing Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura's commentary on his WrestleMania match with Big John Studd. The video is hosted by Lord Alfred Hayes. Later matches, including his battles against Hulk Hogan while a heel, are not included on this VHS.


title: Rob McElhenney

text: Robert McElhenney III (; born April 14, 1977) is an American actor, producer, writer, podcaster and co-owner of Wrexham A.F.C. He is best known for his role as Ronald "Mac" McDonald on the FX/FXX comedy series "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (2005–present), which he created and co-developed and on which he serves as an executive producer, co-writer, and occasional director. He is also known for his role as Ian Grimm on the Apple TV+ comedy series "Mythic Quest" (2020–present), which he co-created and on which he serves as a co-writer and executive producer. McElhenney is the co-owner of the Welsh association football club Wrexham A.F.C. alongside Ryan Reynolds.


title: Rob McElhenney

text: Robert McElhenney III was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 14, 1977. Both of McElhenney's parents were of Irish descent. He was raised Catholic. Through his father, he is a cousin of Olympic rower Marcus McElhenney. When he was eight years old, his parents divorced after his mother came out as a lesbian. He and his two younger brothers were primarily raised by their father, though their parents remained close after the divorce. His two brothers are gay, and he describes himself as having "always been part of the gay community". Through his father's subsequent marriage, he also has a half-sister and step-sister. He attended Saint Joseph's Preparatory School in Philadelphia. He later briefly attended Temple University and then temporarily lived on the Fordham University campus with friends, but chose not to enroll.


title: Rob McElhenney

text: McElhenney had his first major acting role with a small part in the 1997 film "The Devil's Own", though his role was cut out of the final edit. He followed this with small parts in the films "A Civil Action", "Wonder Boys", and "Thirteen Conversations About One Thing". He later had more substantial parts in the films "Latter Days" and "The Tollbooth", and a guest role in the "Law & Order" episode "Thrill". When he was 21, a screenplay written by McElhenney was optioned with Paul Schrader attached to direct, but the project fell through after a year of edits and rewrites.


title: Rob McElhenney

text: Initially based in New York City after graduation, McElhenney moved to Los Angeles at the age of 25. When he was 27 years old, he was waiting tables between acting jobs and had met Glenn Howerton through his agent, as well as meeting Charlie Day while shooting a horror film in New York City. His idea for a sitcom starring himself, Howerton, and Day came from a suggestion originally made by one of his closest childhood friends. The pilot was filmed on a budget of $200 and pitched to various cable networks. After receiving offers from many of the networks, McElhenney chose to sign with FX as they allowed him more creative freedom, and the show was eventually titled "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". McElhenney was contracted as its showrunner, while both Howerton and Day were listed as executive producers.


title: Rob McElhenney

text: McElhenney has said that 50 weeks per year are taken up by acting, producing, and writing for "It's Always Sunny", though he did find time to appear in the "Lost" episode "Not in Portland". This was a result of him meeting "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof, who is a fan of "It's Always Sunny". He later reprised his "Lost" role in another episode. He is a fan of "Game of Thrones" and said that he was thrilled when the series' creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss asked him if they could write an episode of "It's Always Sunny". He and his co-producers accepted the offer, resulting in the episode "Flowers for Charlie" in 2013. In 2019, he had a cameo appearance as an extra in the "Game of Thrones" episode "Winterfell".


title: Rob McElhenney

text: In July 2015, McElhenney was confirmed by Mojang as the director of the upcoming animated "Minecraft" movie, but he later left the project.


title: Rob McElhenney

text: In 2017, McElhenney appeared in a guest role as a police officer in the acclaimed "Fargo" episode "The Law of Non-Contradiction". He received praise for his performance from critics, who saw many of his character's traits and plot points as references to "It's Always Sunny".


title: Rob McElhenney

text: In 2020, McElhenney co-created the Apple TV+ comedy series "Mythic Quest" alongside Charlie Day and Megan Ganz. He also stars as Ian Grimm on the show and serves as a writer and executive producer. The series has received critical acclaim, with the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes giving the series an 89% approval rating. On June 7, 2022, McElhenney announced the launch of a new entertainment-tech company named Adim, co-founded by himself, Chase Rosenblatt, Melissa Kaspers, Spencer Marell, and Richard Rosenblatt.


title: Rob McElhenney

text: Since November 2021, McElhenney, Day and Howerton have been releasing "The Always Sunny Podcast", originally intending on re-watching the entire series and sharing behind-the-scenes information, before the focus of the podcast naturally shifted to emphasize the banter and dynamic between the three creators.


title: Rob McElhenney

text: On September 23, 2020, it was announced by the Wrexham Supporters Trust that a business partnership had been formed by McElhenney and Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds and that they were in talks to purchase the Welsh football team Wrexham AFC. On November 16, it was confirmed that the two had successfully taken over the club after receiving the backing of the Wrexham Supporters Trust.


title: Rob McElhenney

text: McElhenney hired actress Kaitlin Olson to play Dee Reynolds on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", and became romantically interested in her "around season 2" of the series. He has called her "the funniest woman in show business". They were married in California on September 27, 2008. They have two sons named Axel Lee McElhenney (born on September 1, 2010) and Leo Grey McElhenney (born April 5, 2012). Olson went into labor with their first son while at a Philadelphia Phillies game.


title: Rob McElhenney

text: In 2009, McElhenney and Olson announced their purchase of Skinner's Bar at 226 Market Street in Philadelphia (), which they renamed Mac's Tavern.


title: Rob McElhenney

text: In preparation for the seventh season of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", McElhenney put on 60 lb (27 kg) of fat and let his beard grow out to give extra humor to his character and add a new comedic direction for the season. His co-star Charlie Day described the weight gain as "disgusting" and said that the rest of the cast were "a little on the fence about it for his own personal health and safety". McElhenney subsequently lost 23 lb (10 kg) in a month after the season was finished filming, and lost the rest of the weight later in the year in time to film the next season.


title: Rob McElhenney

text: In preparation for the show's 13th season, he transformed his body again, though this time he became excessively fit and athletic. He later joked in an Instagram post that it was "a super realistic lifestyle and an appropriate body image to compare oneself to".


title: Rob McElhenney

text: McElhenney has named The Marx Brothers, Woody Allen, Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, George Carlin, Gary David Goldberg, Larry David, and David Sedaris as his comedic influences.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial law from 1972 until 1981 and kept most of his martial law powers until he was deposed in 1986, branding his rule as "constitutional authoritarianism" under his Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (New Society Movement). One of the most controversial leaders of the 20th century, Marcos's rule was infamous for its corruption, extravagance, and brutality.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos gained political success by claiming to have been the "most decorated war hero in the Philippines", but many of his claims have been found to be false, with United States Army documents describing his wartime claims as "fraudulent" and "absurd". After World War II, he became a lawyer then served in the Philippine House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the Philippine Senate from 1959 to 1965. He was elected the President of the Philippines in 1965 and presided over an economy that grew during the beginning of his 20-year rule but would end in the loss of livelihood, extreme poverty, and a crushing debt crisis. He pursued an aggressive program of infrastructure development funded by foreign debt, making him popular during his first term, although it triggered an inflationary crisis which led to social unrest in his second term. Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law on September 23, 1972, shortly before the end of his second term. Martial law was ratified in 1973 through a fraudulent referendum. The Constitution was revised, media outlets were silenced, and violence and oppression were used against the political opposition, Muslims, suspected communists, and ordinary citizens.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: After being elected for a third term in the 1981 Philippine presidential election, Marcos's popularity suffered greatly, due to the economic collapse that began in early 1983 and the public outrage over the assassination of opposition leader Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. later that year. This discontent, the resulting resurgence of the opposition in the 1984 Philippine parliamentary election, and the discovery of documents exposing his financial accounts and false war records led Marcos to call the snap election of 1986. Allegations of mass cheating, political turmoil, and human rights abuses led to the People Power Revolution of February 1986, which removed him from power. To avoid what could have been a military confrontation in Manila between pro- and anti-Marcos troops, Marcos was advised by US President Ronald Reagan through Senator Paul Laxalt to "cut and cut cleanly". Marcos then fled with his family to Hawaii. He was succeeded as president by Aquino's widow, Corazon "Cory" Aquino.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: According to source documents provided by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the Marcos family stole US$5 billion–$10 billion from the Central Bank of the Philippines. The PCGG also maintained that the Marcos family enjoyed a decadent lifestyle, taking away billions of dollars from the Philippines between 1965 and 1986. His wife, Imelda Marcos, made infamous in her own right by the excesses that characterized her and her husband's conjugal dictatorship, is the source of the term "Imeldific". Two of their children, Imee Marcos and Bongbong Marcos, are still active in Philippine politics, with Bongbong having been elected president in the 2022 election. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos held the Guinness World Record for the largest-ever theft from a government for decades, although Guinness took the record down from their website while it underwent periodic review a few weeks before the 2022 Philippine presidential election.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos was born on September 11, 1917, in the town of Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, to Mariano Marcos (1897–1945) and Josefa Edralin (1893–1988). Mariano Marcos was a lawyer and congressman from Ilocos Norte, Philippines. He was executed by Filipino guerillas in 1945 for being a Japanese propagandist and collaborator during World War II. Drawn and quartered with the use of carabaos, his remains were left hanging on a tree. Josefa Marcos was a schoolteacher who would far outlive her husband – dying in 1988, two years after the Marcos family left her in Malacañang Palace when they fled into exile after the 1986 People Power Revolution, and only one year before her son Ferdinand's death.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Ferdinand was first baptized and raised into the Philippine Independent Church. He subsequently converted to Catholicism to marry Imelda Trinidad Romualdez.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos lived with a common-law wife, Carmen Ortega, an Ilocana mestiza who was 1949 Miss Press Photography. They had three children and resided for about two years at 204 Ortega Street in San Juan. In August 1953, their engagement was announced in Manila dailies.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Not much is known about what happened to Ortega and their children after, but Marcos married Imelda Trinidad Romualdez on April 17, 1954, only 11 days after they first met. They had three biological children: Ferdinand, Imee, and Irene Marcos. Marcos's fourth child with Ortega was born after his marriage to Imelda. Marcos and Imelda later adopted a daughter, Aimee. Marcos had an affair with American actress Dovie Beams from 1968 to 1970. According to reports by the "Sydney Morning Herald", Marcos also had an affair with former "Playboy" model Evelin Hegyesi around 1970 and sired a child with her, Analisa Josefa.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos claimed that he was a descendant of Antonio Luna, a Filipino general during the Philippine–American War, a claim which has since been debunked by genealogist Mona Magno-Veluz. He also claimed that his ancestor was a 16th-century pirate, Limahong (Chinese: 林阿鳳), who used to raid the coasts of the South China Sea. He is a Chinese mestizo descendant, just like many other presidents.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos studied law at the University of the Philippines in Manila, attending the College of Law. He excelled in both curricular and extra-curricular activities, becoming a member of the university's swimming, boxing, and wrestling teams. He was also an accomplished orator, debater, and writer for the student newspaper. While attending the UP College of Law, he became a member of the Upsilon Sigma Phi, where he met his future colleagues in government and some of his staunchest critics.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: When he sat for the 1939 Bar Examinations, he was a bar topnotcher (top scorer) with a score of 92.35%. He graduated "cum laude". He was elected to the Pi Gamma Mu and the Phi Kappa Phi international honor societies, the latter giving him its Most Distinguished Member Award 37 years later.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Ferdinand Marcos received an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) "(honoris causa)" degree in 1967 from Central Philippine University.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos first shot into national notoriety over the murder of Julio Nalundasan. Nalundasan, Mariano Marcos's political rival, was killed with a single rifle shot at his home in Batac on September 21, 1935, the day after he had defeated Marcos a second time for a seat in the National Assembly.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: In December 1938, Ferdinand Marcos was prosecuted for the murder of Nalundasan. He was not the only accused from the Marcos clan. Also accused were his father, Mariano, and his uncles, Pio Marcos and Quirino Lizardo. According to two witnesses, the four had conspired to assassinate Nalundasan, with Ferdinand Marcos eventually pulling the trigger. In late January 1939, they were finally denied bail.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The evidence was strong against the young Marcos who was a member of the University of the Philippines rifle team and a national rifle champion. Though Marcos's rifle was found in its gun rack in the U.P. ROTC armory, the rifle of team captain Teodoro M. Kalaw Jr. was missing at the time and the National Bureau of Investigation had evidence that it was the one used in the murder of Nalundasan. Of all the accused, only Ferdinand Marcos had access to the U.P. armory.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Later in the year, they were convicted. Ferdinand and Lizardo received the death penalty for premeditated murder, while Mariano and Pio were found guilty of contempt of court. The Marcos family took their appeal to the Supreme Court of the Philippines.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: According to Primitivo Mijares, Justice Jose P. Laurel, who penned the majority decision, saw himself in the young Marcos in that he had figured himself in almost killing a rival during a brawl during his youth, had been convicted by a trial court of frustrated murder, and was acquitted after appealing to the Supreme Court, and saw in Marcos an opportunity to pay forward his debt to society. (Associate Justice George A. Malcolm, dean of the University of the Philippines's College of Law who was Laurel's teacher had been recently appointed to the Supreme Court and had urged his colleagues to acquit the young Laurel because he knew him to be a bright student. Laurel thus reportedly saw in Marcos a mirror of himself and pleaded for his colleagues to acquit.)


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The Supreme Court overturned the lower court's decision on October 22, 1940, acquitting the Marcos family of all charges except contempt.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos's military service during World War II has been the subject of debate and controversy, both in the Philippines and in international military circles.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos, who had received ROTC training, was activated for service in the US Armed Forces in the Philippines (USAFIP) after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served as a 3rd lieutenant during the mobilization in the summer and fall of 1941, continuing until April 1942, after which he was taken prisoner. According to Marcos's account, he was released from prison by the Japanese on August 4, 1942, and US military records show that he rejoined USAFIP forces in December 1944. Marcos's military service then formally ended with his discharge as a major in the 14th Infantry, US Armed Forces, in the Philippines Northern Luzon, in May 1945.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Controversies regarding Marcos's military service revolve around: the reason for his release from the Japanese POW camp; his actions between release from prison in August 1942 and return to the USAFIP in December 1944; his supposed rank upon discharge from USAFIP; and his claims to being the recipient of numerous military decorations, most of which were proven to be fraudulent.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Documents uncovered by "The Washington Post" in 1986 suggested Marcos's release in August 1942 was effected because his father, former congressman and provincial governor Mariano Marcos, had "cooperated with the Japanese military authorities" as publicist.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: After his release, Marcos claimed he had spent much of the period between his August 1942 release and his December 1944 return to USAFIP as the leader of a guerrilla organization called "Ang Mga Mahárlika" (Tagalog, "The Freemen") in Northern Luzon. According to Marcos's claim, this force had a strength of 9,000 men. His account of events was later cast into doubt after a United States military investigation exposed many of his claims as either false or inaccurate.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Another controversy arose in 1947, when Marcos began signing communications with the rank of lieutenant colonel, instead of major. This prompted U.S. officials to note that Marcos was only "recognized as a major in the roster of the 14th Infantry USAFIP, NL as of 12 December 1944 to his date of discharge".


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The biggest controversy arising from Marcos's service during World War II, however, would concern his claims during the 1962 Senatorial Campaign of being "most decorated war hero of the Philippines" He claimed to have been the recipient of 33 war medals and decorations, including the Distinguished Service Cross and the Medal of Honor, but researchers later found that stories about the wartime exploits of Marcos were mostly propaganda, being inaccurate or untrue. Only two of the supposed 33 awards – the Gold Cross and the Distinguished Service Star – were given during the war, and both had been contested by Marcos's superiors.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: After the surrender of the Japanese and the end of World War II, the American government became preoccupied with setting up the Marshall Plan to revive the economies of the western hemisphere, and quickly backtracked from its interests in the Philippines, granting the islands independence on July 4, 1946. After the war, Marcos was one of only eleven lawyers confirmed by the new government as a special prosecutor with the office of the Solicitor General tasked to try by "process of law and justice" all those accused of collaboration with the Japanese. Eventually, Marcos ran for his father's old post as representative of the 2nd district of Ilocos Norte and won three consecutive terms, serving in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos joined the "Liberal Wing" that split from the Nacionalista Party, which eventually became the Liberal Party. He eventually became the Liberal Party's spokesman on economic matters, and was made chairman of the House Neophytes Bloc which included future President Diosdado Macapagal, future Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez and future Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos became chairman of the House Committee on Commerce and Industry and a member of the House Committees on Defense, Ways and Means; Industry; Banks Currency; War Veterans; Civil Service; and on Corporations and Economic Planning. He was also a member of the Special Committee on Import and Price Controls and the Special Committee on Reparations, and of the House Electoral Tribunal.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: After he served as member of the House of Representatives for three terms, Marcos won his senate seat in the elections in 1959 and became the Senate minority floor leader in 1960. He became the executive vice president of the Liberal Party in and served as the party president from 1961 to 1964.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: From 1963 to 1965, he was the Senate President. Thus far, he is the last Senate President to become President of the Philippines. He introduced a number of significant bills, many of which found their way into the Republic statute books.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: During his election campaign in the 1965 presidential election, Marcos's life became the basis of the biographical film "", which starred Luis Gonzales as Marcos.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos's first term began with his inauguration on December 30, 1965, and ended when he was inaugurated for his second term on December 30, 1969.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: By pursuing an aggressive program of infrastructure development funded by foreign loans, he remained popular for most of his first term, with his popularity flagging only after his debt-driven spending during the campaign for his second term triggered an inflationary crisis in November and December 1969, before his second inauguration. Among the major projects of the first term was the construction of the Cultural Center of the Philippines complex, considered one of the earliest examples of what would come to be known as the Marcoses' edifice complex.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Soon after being elected, Marcos developed close relations with the officers of the Philippine military, and began expanding the armed forces by allowing loyal generals to stay in their positions past their retirement age, or giving them civilian government posts. He also gained the support of the Johnson administration in the US by allowing the limited Philippine involvement in the Vietnam war through the Philippine Civic Action Group.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos's first term also saw the Philippine Senate's expose of the Jabidah massacre in March 1968, where a Muslim man named Jibin Arula testified that he had been the lone survivor of a group of Moro army recruits which had been executed en-masse on Corregidor island on March 18, 1968. The allegations in the expose became a major flashpoint which ignited the Moro insurgency in the Philippines.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos ran a populist campaign emphasizing that he was a bemedalled war hero emerging from World War II. In 1962, Marcos would claim to be the "most decorated war hero of the Philippines" by garnering almost every medal and decoration that the Filipino and American governments could give to a soldier. Included in his claim of 27 war medals and decorations are that of the Distinguished Service Cross and the Medal of Honor. According to Primitivo Mijares, author of the book "The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos", the opposition Liberal Party would later confirm that many of his war medals were only acquired in 1962 to aid in his reelection campaign for the Senate, not for his presidential campaign. Marcos won the presidency in 1965.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Ferdinand Marcos was inaugurated to his first term as the 10th president of the Philippines on December 30, 1965, after winning the Philippine presidential election of 1965 against the incumbent president, Diosdado Macapagal. His inauguration marked the beginning of his two-decade long stay in power, even though the 1935 Philippine Constitution had set a limit of only two four-year terms of office.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: One of Marcos's earliest initiatives upon becoming president was to significantly expand the Philippine military. In an unprecedented move, Marcos chose to concurrently serve as his own defense secretary, allowing him to have a direct hand in running the military. He also significantly increased the budget of the armed forces, tapping them in civil projects such as the construction of schools. Generals loyal to Marcos were allowed to stay in their positions past their retirement age, or were rewarded with civilian government posts, leading Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. to accuse Marcos in 1968 of trying to establish "a garrison state".


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Under intense pressure from the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson, Marcos reversed his pre-presidency position of not sending Philippine forces to Vietnam War, and consented to a limited involvement, asking Congress to approve sending a combat engineer unit. Despite opposition to the new plan, the Marcos government gained Congressional approval and Philippine troops were sent from the middle of 1966 as the Philippines Civic Action Group (PHILCAG). PHILCAG reached a strength of some 1,600 troops in 1968 and between 1966 and 1970 over 10,000 Filipino soldiers served in South Vietnam, mainly being involved in civilian infrastructure projects.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: With an eye towards becoming the first president of the third republic to be reelected to a second term, Marcos began taking up massive foreign loans to fund the "rice, roads, and school buildings" he promised in his reelection campaign. With tax revenues unable to fund his administration's 70% increase in infrastructure spending from 1966 to 1970, Marcos began tapping foreign loans, creating a budget deficit 72% higher than the Philippine government's annual deficit from 1961 to 1965.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: This began a pattern of loan-funded spending which the Marcos administration would continue until the Marcoses were deposed in 1986, resulting in economic instability still being felt today, and of debts that experts say the Philippines will have to keep paying well into 2025. The grandest infrastructure projects of Marcos's first term, especially the Cultural Center of the Philippines complex, also marked the beginning of what critics would call Marcos couple's edifice complex, with grand public infrastructures projects prioritized for public funding because of their propaganda value.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: In March 1968 a Muslim man named Jibin Arula was fished out of the waters of Manila Bay, having been shot. He was brought to then-Cavite Governor Delfin N. Montano, to whom he recounted the story of the Jabidah massacre, saying that numerous Moro army recruits had been executed en-masse by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on March 18, 1968. This became the subject of a senate exposé by opposition Senator Benigno Aquino Jr.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Although the lack of living witnesses other than Arula severely hampered the probes on the incident, it became a major flashpoint that ignited the Moro insurgency in the Philippines. Despite undergoing numerous trials and hearings, none of the officers implicated in the massacre were ever convicted, leading many Filipino Muslims to believe that the "Christian" government in Manila had little regard for them.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: This created a furor within the Muslim community in the Philippines, especially among the educated youth, and among Muslim intellectuals, who had no discernible interest in politics prior to the incident. Educated or not, the story of the Jabidah massacre led many Filipino Muslims to believe that all opportunities for integration and accommodation with the Christians were lost and further marginalised.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: This eventually led to the formation of the Mindanao Independence Movement in 1968, the Bangsamoro Liberation Organization (BMLO) in 1969, and the consolidation of these various forces into the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in October 1972.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Ferdinand Marcos's campaign for a second term formally began with his nomination as the presidential candidate of the Nacionalista Party at its July 1969 general meeting. A meeting of the party's ruling junta had met a week earlier to assure that the nomination would be unanimous. Under the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines which was in force at the time, Marcos was supposed to be allowed a maximum of two four-year terms as president.