title: Zoom Video Communications

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, usage of Zoom increased due to an increase in remote work, distance education, which was used by thousands of schools, and online social relations. The company offered its services free to K–12 schools in many countries. By February 2020, Zoom had gained 2.22million users in 2020 – more users than it amassed in the entirety of 2019. On one day in March 2020, the Zoom app was downloaded 2.13million times. Daily meeting participants rose from about 10million in December 2019 to more than 300million daily meeting participants in April 2020.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: On May 7, 2020, Zoom announced that it had acquired Keybase, a company specializing in end-to-end encryption. In June 2020, the company hired its first chief diversity officer, Damien Hooper-Campbell.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: In July 2020, Zoom announced its first hardware as a service products, bundling its videoconferencing software with third-party hardware by DTEN, Neat, Poly, and Yealink, and running on the ServiceNow platform. It began with Zoom Rooms and Zoom Phone offerings, with those services available to US customers, who can acquire hardware from Zoom for a fixed monthly cost. On July 15, 2020, the company announced Zoom for Home, a line of products for home use, designed for remote workers. The first product, Zoom for Home - DTEN ME, includes software by Zoom and hardware by DTEN. It consists of a 27-inch screen with three wide-angle cameras and eight microphones, with Zoom software preloaded on the device. It became available in August 2020.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: On July 3–4, using Zoom Webinar, the International Association of Constitutional Law organized the first "round-the-clock and round-the-globe" event that traveled through time zones, featuring 52 speakers from 28 countries. Soon after, a format of conferences which "virtually travel the globe with the sun from East to West", became common, some of them running for several days.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: In June 2021, Zoom acquired Kites (Karlsruhe Information Technology Solutions), an artificial intelligence-based language translation company with an aim to reduce language barriers in video calls. In September 2021, Zoom's attempt to acquire contact center company Five9 for $14.7billion was turned down by Five9's shareholders.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: Zoom has been criticized for "security lapses and poor design choices" that have resulted in heightened scrutiny of its software. The company has also been criticized for its privacy and corporate data sharing policies. Security researchers and reporters have criticized the company for its lack of transparency and poor encryption practices. Zoom initially claimed to use "end-to-end encryption" in its marketing materials, but later clarified it meant "from Zoom end point to Zoom end point" (meaning effectively between Zoom servers and Zoom clients), which "The Intercept" described as misleading and "dishonest".


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: In March 2020, New York State Attorney General Letitia James launched an inquiry into Zoom's privacy and security practices; the inquiry was closed on May 7, 2020, with Zoom not admitting wrongdoing, but agreeing to take added security measures. In the same month, a class-action lawsuit against Zoom was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. According to the lawsuit, Zoom violated the privacy of its users by sharing personal data with Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn, did not prevent hackers from disrupting Zoom sessions, and erroneously claimed to offer end-to-end encryption on Zoom sessions. Zoom settled this lawsuit for $86 million.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: On April 1, 2020, Zoom announced a 90-day freeze on releasing new features, to focus on fixing privacy and security issues on Zoom. On July 1, 2020, Yuan wrote a blog post detailing efforts taken by the company to address security and privacy concerns, stating that they released 100 new safety features over the 90-day period. Those efforts include end-to-end encryption for all users, turning on meeting passwords by default, giving users the ability to choose which data centers calls are routed from, consulting with security experts, forming a CISO council, an improved bug bounty program, and working with third parties to help test security. Yuan also stated that Zoom would be releasing a transparency report later in 2020.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: In May 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it was looking into Zoom's privacy practices. The FTC alleged that since at least 2016, "Zoom maintained the cryptographic keys that could allow Zoom to access the content of its customers’ meetings, and secured its Zoom Meetings, in part, with a lower level of encryption than promised." On November 9, 2020, a settlement was reached, requiring the company to implement additional security measures.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: In December 2020, Zoom announced that it was under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California and that it had received a subpoena in June 2020 from the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York requesting information on the company's interactions with foreign governments and political parties. Both federal prosecutors also sought information and documentation about security and privacy matters regarding Zoom's practices.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: On December 19, 2020, a former Zoom executive was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with conspiracy to commit interstate harassment and unlawful conspiracy to transfer a means of identification. The charges are related to the alleged disruptions to video meetings commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, said that Xinjiang "Julien" Jin, then 39, was a San Jose, California–based company's main liaison with intelligence and law enforcement agencies of China. Zoom later acknowledged it was the company in question. It said in a statement that it had terminated Jin's employment for violating company policies and was cooperating with the prosecutors. Jin is not in custody because he is based in China.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: In February 2021, Zoom announced a new feature called Kiosk Mode, which will allow people visiting offices to check in with a receptionist virtually on a kiosk, without any physical contact.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: In March 2021, Zoom announced that from August 23, 2021, Zoom will stop selling new and upgraded products directly to customers in mainland China.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: In April 2020, Citizen Lab warned that having much of Zoom's research and development in China could "open up Zoom to pressure from Chinese authorities." In June 2020, Zoom was criticized for closing multiple accounts of U.S. and Hong Kong–based groups, including that of Zhou Fengsuo and two other human rights activists, who were commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. The accounts were later re-opened, with the company stating that in the future it "will have a new process for handling similar situations." Zoom responded that it has to "comply with local laws," even "the laws of governments opposed to free speech." Zoom subsequently admitted to shutting down activist accounts at the request of the Chinese government. In response, a bi-partisan group of U.S. senators requested clarification of the incident from the company. Partially in response to criticisms of its blocking of the activists accounts as well as expressions of concern by the United States Justice Department, Zoom moved to cease direct sale of its product in mainland China in late August 2020.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: In September 2020, following protests and legal concerns raised by the Jewish coalition group #EndJewHatred, Zoom prevented San Francisco State University from using its video conferencing software to host former Palestinian militant and hijacker Leila Khaled, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In justifying its decision, Zoom cited the PFLP's designation as a terrorist organization by the United States Government and its efforts to comply with U.S. export control, sanctions, and anti-terrorism laws. Facebook and YouTube also joined Zoom in denying their platforms to the conference organizers. Professor Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi, one of the conference organizers, criticized Zoom, Google's YouTube and Facebook for censoring Palestinian voices.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: In January 2020, Zoom had over 2,500 employees, with 1,396 in the United States and 1,136 in international locations. It is reported that 700 employees within a subsidiary work in China and develop Zoom software. In May 2020, Zoom announced plans to open new research and development centers in Pittsburgh and Phoenix, with plans to hire up to 500 engineers between the two cities over the next few years. In July 2020, Zoom announced the opening of a new technology center in Bangalore, India, to host engineering, IT, and business operations roles. In August 2020, Zoom opened a new data center in Singapore. The company ranked second place in Glassdoor's 2019 "Best Places to Work" survey.


title: Zoom Video Communications

text: Part of Zoom's product development team is based in China, where an average entry-level tech salary is one-third of American salaries, which is a key driver of its profitability. Zoom's research and development costs are 10 percent of its total revenue and less than half of the median percentage among its peers.


title: Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act

text: The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.


text: RICO was enacted by section 901(a) of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 () and is codified at as . G. Robert Blakey, an adviser to the United States Senate Government Operations Committee, drafted the law under the close supervision of the committee's chairman, Senator John Little McClellan. It was enacted as Title IX of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, and signed into law by US President Richard M. Nixon. While its original use in the 1970s was to prosecute the Mafia as well as others who were actively engaged in organized crime, its later application has been more widespread.


text: Beginning in 1972, thirty-three states adopted state RICO laws to be able to prosecute similar conduct.


text: Under RICO, a person who has committed "at least two acts of racketeering activity" drawn from a list of 35 crimes (27 federal crimes and eight state crimes) within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering if such acts are related in one of four specified ways to an "enterprise." Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $25,000 and sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count. In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of "racketeering activity."


text: A US Attorney who decides to indict someone under RICO has the option of seeking a pre-trial restraining order or injunction to temporarily seize a defendant's assets and prevent the transfer of potentially forfeitable property and to require the defendant to put up a performance bond. That provision was placed in the law because the owners of Mafia-related shell corporations often absconded with the assets. An injunction or performance bond ensures that there is something to seize in the event of a guilty verdict.


text: In many cases, the threat of a RICO indictment can force defendants to plead guilty to lesser charges, in part because the seizure of assets would make it difficult to pay a defense attorney. Despite its harsh provisions, a RICO-related charge is considered easy to prove in court since it focuses on patterns of behavior, as opposed to criminal acts.


text: RICO also permits a private individual "damaged in his business or property" by a "racketeer" to file a civil suit. The plaintiff must prove the existence of an "enterprise." The defendant(s) are not the enterprise; in other words, the defendant(s) and the enterprise are not one and the same. There must be one of four specified relationships between the defendant(s) and the enterprise: either the defendant(s) invested the proceeds of the pattern of racketeering activity into the enterprise (18 U.S.C. § 1962(a)); or the defendant(s) acquired or maintained an interest in, or control of, the enterprise through the pattern of racketeering activity (subsection (b)); or the defendant(s) conducted or participated in the affairs of the enterprise "through" the pattern of racketeering activity (subsection (c)); or the defendant(s) conspired to do one of the above (subsection (d)). In essence, the enterprise is either the 'prize', 'instrument', 'victim', or 'perpetrator' of the racketeers. A civil RICO action can be filed in state or federal court.


text: Both the criminal and the civil components allow the recovery of treble damages (triple the amount of actual/compensatory damages).


text: Although its primary intent was to deal with organized crime, Blakey said that Congress never intended it merely to apply to the Mob. He once told "Time", "We don't want one set of rules for people whose collars are blue or whose names end in vowels, and another set for those whose collars are white and have Ivy League diplomas."


text: The first-ever RICO trial was conducted in May 1979 in "United States v. Sam Bailey Gang" by Prosecutor Mark L. Webb in San Francisco, California, Northern District of California. The case was tried successfully by use of the RICO statute in alleging that a gang of postal burglars and a Nevada fence collaborated criminally in an organized crime fashion. The case did not involve a Mafia crime family. Subsequently, the RICO Act was first used by the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York on September 18, 1979, in "United States v. Scotto". Scotto, who was convicted on charges of racketeering, accepting unlawful labor payments, and income tax evasion, headed the International Longshoremen's Association. During the 1980s and the 1990s, federal prosecutors used the law to bring charges against several Mafia figures. The second major success was the Mafia Commission Trial, which ran from February 25, 1985, through November 19, 1986. Rudy Giuliani indicted 11 organized crime figures, including the heads of New York's so-called "Five Families," under the RICO Act on charges including extortion, labor racketeering, and murder for hire. "Time" magazine called the "Case of Cases" possibly "the most significant assault on the infrastructure of organized crime since the high command of the Chicago Mafia was swept away in 1943" and quoted Giuliani's stated intention: "Our approach is to wipe out the five families." The Gambino crime family boss Paul Castellano evaded conviction when he and his underboss, Thomas Bilotti, were murdered on the streets of Midtown Manhattan on December 16, 1985. However, three heads of the Five Families were sentenced to 100 years in prison on January 13, 1987. The Genovese and Colombo leaders, Tony Salerno and Carmine Persico received additional sentences in separate trials, with 70-year and 39-year sentences to run consecutively. He was assisted by three Assistant United States Attorneys: Michael Chertoff, the eventual second United States Secretary of Homeland Security and co-author of the Patriot Act; John Savarese, later a partner at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz; and Gil Childers, a later deputy chief of the criminal division for the Southern District of New York and later managing director in the legal department at Goldman Sachs.


text: Beginning in 1972, thirty-three states, as well as Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, adopted state RICO laws to cover additional state offenses under a similar scheme.


text: Under the law, the meaning of racketeering activity is set out at . As currently amended it includes:


text: Pattern of racketeering activity requires at least two acts of racketeering activity, one of which occurred after the effective date of this chapter and the last of which occurred within ten years (excluding any period of imprisonment) after the commission of a prior act of racketeering activity. The US Supreme Court has instructed federal courts to follow the continuity-plus-relationship test in order to determine whether the facts of a specific case give rise to an established pattern. The illegal acts comprising a pattern are called "predicate" offenses. Predicate acts are related if they "have the same or similar purposes, results, participants, victims, or methods of commission, or otherwise are interrelated by distinguishing characteristics and are not isolated events." Continuity is both a closed and open ended concept, referring to either a closed period of conduct, or to past conduct that by its nature projects into the future with a threat of repetition.


text: Although some of the RICO predicate acts are extortion and blackmail, one of the most successful applications of the RICO laws has been the ability to indict and or sanction individuals for their behavior and actions committed against witnesses and victims in alleged retaliation or retribution for cooperating with federal law enforcement or intelligence agencies.


text: Violations of the RICO laws can be alleged in civil lawsuit cases or for criminal charges. In these instances, charges can be brought against individuals or corporations in retaliation for said individuals or corporations working with law enforcement. Further, charges can also be brought against individuals or corporations who have sued or filed criminal charges against a defendant.


text: Anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) laws can be applied in an attempt to curb alleged abuses of the legal system by individuals or corporations who use the courts as a weapon to retaliate against whistle blowers or victims or to silence another's speech. RICO could be alleged if it can be shown that lawyers or their clients conspired and collaborated to concoct fictitious legal complaints solely in retribution and retaliation for themselves having been brought before the courts.


text: Although the RICO laws may cover drug trafficking crimes in addition to other more traditional RICO predicate acts such as extortion, blackmail, and racketeering, large-scale and organized drug networks are now commonly prosecuted under the Continuing Criminal Enterprise Statute, also known as the "Kingpin Statute". The CCE laws target only traffickers who are responsible for long-term and elaborate conspiracies, whereas the RICO law covers a variety of organized criminal behaviors.


text: The RICO statute contains a provision that allows for the commencement of a civil action by a private party to recover damages sustained as a result of the commission of a RICO predicate offense.


text: RICO was instrumental in indicting members of The Cowboy Mafia from Texas, Tennessee and Florida. During 1977 and 1978, this group imported over 106 tons of marijuana. Using the shrimp boats "Agnes Pauline", "Monkey", "Jubilee", and "Bayou Blues", the group made six trips from Colombia to Texas. The group was arrested in 1978 after the federal government seized the "Agnes Pauline" when they were unloading their cargo in Port Arthur, Texas. In 1979, twenty-six members of the smuggling ring were convicted. Charles "Muscles" Foster, a ranch foreman and the head of the operation, pleaded innocent by reason of insanity and was acquitted in 1980. In August 1981, Rex Cauble was indicted by a grand jury, as the government believed he was the financial backer of the smugglers. Foster was the foreman for his ranches, and the drugs were transported to Cauble's ranches throughout Texas. Cauble was a multi-millionaire, the former chairman of the Texas Aeronautics Commission, and an honorary Texas Ranger. He was also the owner of Cutter Bill, a famous cutting horse. Cauble was convicted in January 1982 on ten counts: two counts of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act statute (RICO), conspiracy to violate RICO, three violations of the Interstate Commerce Travel Act, and four counts of misapplication of bank funds. He was sentenced to ten concurrent terms of five years. He completed his prison term, and was released in September 1987, and died in 2003.


text: Three books about the group were published: "The Cowboy Mafia" (2003) by Cauble's personal jet pilot Roy Graham; "Catching the Katy" (2017) by Barker Milford; and "A Conspiracy Revealed" by DEA agent Daniel Wedeman, Sr.


text: As a result of the RICO conviction, Cauble forfeited his 31% interest in Cauble Enterprises, including two Cutter Bill Western World stores, three Texas banks (Western State Bank in Denton, Dallas International Bank and South Main Bank of Houston), six ranches, a welding supply company, and oil and gas holdings. The company's worth was estimated at $80 million. However, the government sold their interest back to the other partners (Cauble's wife and son) for an estimated $12 million.


text: In 1979, the United States Federal Government went after Sonny Barger and several members and associates of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels using RICO. In "United States vs. Barger", the prosecution team attempted to demonstrate a pattern of behavior to convict Barger and other members of the club of RICO offenses related to guns and illegal drugs. The jury acquitted Barger on the RICO charges with a hung jury on the predicate acts: "There was no proof it was part of club policy, and as much as they tried, the government could not come up with any incriminating minutes from any of our meetings mentioning drugs and guns."


text: Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Gil Dozier, in office from 1976 to 1980, faced indictment with violations of both the Hobbs and the RICO laws. He was accused of compelling companies doing business with his department to make campaign contributions on his behalf. On September 23, 1980, the Baton Rouge-based United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana convicted Dozier of five counts of extortion and racketeering. The sentence of ten years imprisonment, later upgraded to eighteen when other offenses were determined, and a $25,000 fine was suspended pending appeal, and Dozier remained free on bail. He eventually served nearly four years until a presidential commutation freed him in 1986.


text: Around June 1984, the Key West Police Department located in Monroe County, Florida, was declared a criminal enterprise under the federal RICO statutes after a lengthy United States Department of Justice investigation. Several high-ranking officers of the department, including Deputy Police Chief Raymond Cassamayor, were arrested on federal charges of running a protection racket for illegal cocaine smugglers. At trial, a witness testified he routinely delivered bags of cocaine to the Deputy Chief's office at City Hall.


text: On March 29, 1989, American financier Michael Milken was indicted on 98 counts of racketeering and fraud relating to an investigation into an allegation of insider trading and other offenses. Milken was accused of using a wide-ranging network of contacts to manipulate stock and bond prices. It was one of the first occasions that a RICO indictment was brought against an individual with no ties to organized crime. Milken pleaded guilty to six lesser felonies of securities fraud and tax evasion, rather than risk spending the rest of his life in prison and ended up serving 22 months in prison. Milken was also ordered banned for life from the securities industry.


text: On September 7, 1988, Milken's employer, Drexel Burnham Lambert, was threatened with RICO charges under "respondeat superior", the legal doctrine that corporations are responsible for their employees' crimes. Drexel avoided RICO charges by entering an Alford plea to lesser felonies of stock parking and stock manipulation. In a carefully worded plea, Drexel said it was "not in a position to dispute the allegations" made by the Government. If Drexel had been indicted under RICO statutes, it would have had to post a performance bond of up to $1 billion to avoid having its assets frozen. That would have taken precedence over all of the firm's other obligations, including the loans that provided 96 percent of its capital base. If the bond ever had to be paid, its shareholders would have been practically wiped out. Since banks will not extend credit to a firm indicted under RICO, an indictment would have likely put Drexel out of business. By at least one estimate, a RICO indictment would have destroyed the firm within a month. Years later, Drexel President and CEO Fred Joseph said that Drexel had no choice but to plead guilty because "a financial institution cannot survive a RICO indictment."


text: In 2001, Major League Baseball team owners voted to eliminate two teams, presumably the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos. In 2002, the former minority owners of the Expos filed charges under the RICO Act against MLB commissioner Bud Selig and former Expos owner Jeffrey Loria, claiming that Selig and Loria deliberately conspired to devalue the team for personal benefit in preparation for a move. If found liable, Major League Baseball could have been responsible for up to $300 million in punitive damages. The case lasted two years, successfully stalling the Expos' move to Washington or contraction during that time. It was eventually sent to arbitration, where the arbiters ruled in favor of Major League Baseball, permitting the move to Washington to take place.


text: In April 2000, federal judge William J. Rea in Los Angeles, ruling in one Rampart scandal case, said that the plaintiffs could pursue RICO claims against the LAPD, an unprecedented finding. In July 2001, US District Judge Gary A. Feess said that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue the LAPD under RICO, because they were alleging personal injuries rather than economic or property damage.


text: On April 26, 2006, the Supreme Court heard "Mohawk Industries, Inc. v. Williams", , which concerned what sort of corporations fell under the scope of RICO. Mohawk Industries had allegedly hired illegal aliens, in violation of RICO. The court was asked to decide whether Mohawk Industries, along with recruiting agencies, constituted an "enterprise" that could be prosecuted under RICO. However, in June of that year, the court dismissed the case and remanded it to the US Court of Appeals.


text: John Gotti and Frank Locascio were convicted on April 2, 1992, under the RICO Act and later sentenced to life in prison.


text: In Tampa, on October 16, 2006, four members of the Gambino crime family (Capo Ronald Trucchio, Terry Scaglione, Steven Catallono, and Anthony Mucciarone and associate Kevin McMahon) were tried under RICO statutes, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison.


text: In the mid-1990s, prosecuting attorneys Gregory O'Connell and Charles Rose used RICO charges to bring down the Lucchese family within an 18-month period. Dismantling the Lucchese family had a profound financial impact on previously Mafia held businesses such as construction, garment, and garbage hauling. Here they dominated and extorted money through taxes, dues, and fees. An example of this extortion was through the garbage business. Hauling of garbage from the World Trade Center cost the building owners $1.2 million per year to be removed when the Mafia monopolized the business, as compared to $150,000 per year when competitive bids could be sought.


text: Bonanno crime family boss Joseph Massino's trial began on May 24, 2004, with judge Nicholas Garaufis presiding and Greg D. Andres and Robert Henoch heading the prosecution. He now faced 11 RICO counts for seven murders (due to the prospect of prosecutors seeking the death penalty for the Sciascia murder, that case was severed to be tried separately), arson, extortion, loansharking, illegal gambling, and money laundering. After deliberating for five days, the jury found Massino guilty of all 11 counts on July 30, 2004. His sentencing was initially scheduled for October 12, and he was expected to receive a sentence of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. The jury also approved the prosecutors' recommended $10 million forfeiture of the proceeds of his reign as Bonanno boss on the day of the verdict.


text: Immediately after his July 30 conviction, as court was adjourned, Massino requested a meeting with Judge Garaufis, where he made his first offer to cooperate. He did so in hopes of sparing his life; he was facing the death penalty if found guilty of Sciascia's murder. Indeed, one of John Ashcroft's final acts as Attorney General was to order federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Massino. Massino thus stood to be the first Mafia boss to be executed for his crimes, and the first mob boss to face the death penalty since Lepke Buchalter was executed in 1944. Massino was the first sitting boss of a New York crime family to turn state's evidence, and the second in the history of the American Mafia to do so (Philadelphia crime family boss Ralph Natale had flipped in 1999 when facing drug charges).


text: In 2005, the US Department of Justice's Operation Family Secrets indicted 14 Chicago Outfit (also known as the Outfit, the Chicago Mafia, the Chicago Mob, or the Organization) members and associates under RICO predicates. Five defendants were convicted of RICO violations and other crimes. Six pleaded guilty, two died before trial, and one was too sick to be tried.


text: A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Pennsylvania handed down a 48-count indictment against former Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella. The judges were charged with RICO after allegedly committing acts of mail and wire fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and honest services fraud. The judges were accused of taking kickbacks for housing juveniles, that the judges convicted of mostly petty crimes, at a private detention center. The incident was dubbed by many local and national newspapers as the "kids for cash scandal". On February 18, 2011, a federal jury found Mark Ciavarella guilty of racketeering because of his involvement in accepting illegal payments from Robert Mericle, the developer of PA Child Care, and Attorney Robert Powell, a co-owner of the facility. Ciavarella is facing 38 other counts in federal court.


text: Scott W. Rothstein is a disbarred lawyer and the former managing shareholder, chairman, and chief executive officer of the now-defunct Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm. He was accused of funding his philanthropy, political contributions, law firm salaries, and an extravagant lifestyle with a massive 1.2 billion dollar Ponzi scheme. On December 1, 2009, Rothstein turned himself in to federal authorities and was subsequently arrested on charges related to RICO. Although his arraignment plea was not guilty, Rothstein cooperated with the government and reversed his plea to guilty of five federal crimes on January 27, 2010. Bond was denied by US Magistrate Judge Robin Rosenbaum, who ruled that due to his ability to forge documents, he was considered a flight risk. On June 9, 2010, Rothstein received a 50-year prison sentence after a hearing in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.


text: Eleven defendants were indicted on RICO charges for allegedly assisting AccessHealthSource, a local health care provider, in obtaining and maintaining lucrative contracts with local and state government entities in the city of El Paso, Texas, "through bribery of and kickbacks to elected officials or himself and others, extortion under color of authority, fraudulent schemes and artifices, false pretenses, promises and representations and deprivation of the right of citizens to the honest services of their elected local officials" (see indictment).


text: Fourteen defendants affiliated with FIFA were indicted under the RICO act on 47 counts for "racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies, among other offenses, in connection with the defendants' participation in a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer". The defendants include many current and former high-ranking officers of FIFA and its affiliate CONCACAF. The defendants had allegedly used the enterprise as a front to collect millions of dollars in bribes, which may have influenced Russia and Qatar's winning bids to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018 and 2022, respectively.


text: In 2015, the Drummond Company sued attorneys Terrence P. Collingsworth and William R. Scherer, the advocacy group International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates), and Dutch businessman Albert van Bilderbeek, one of the owners of Llanos Oil, accusing them of violating RICO by alleging that Drummond had worked alongside Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia to murder labor union leaders within proximity of their Colombian coal mines, which Drummond denies.


text: In 2005, a federal jury ordered Fasano to pay $500,000 under RICO for illegally helping a client hide their assets in a bankruptcy case.


text: In the North Georgia case "Lechter v. Aprio", an Atlanta, Georgia accounting firm named Aprio, LLP was sued by clients for involving them in a tax avoidance scheme using conservation easements. In the complaint, David Deary, an attorney for the plaintiff, stated, "This is the exact kind of conduct that the civil RICO statute was designed to remedy, where you have a bunch of professional advisers that put together a scheme in secret manipulating a bunch of technical rules that laymen don't understand to deprive people of their money." Specifically, the claim cites violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO"), 18 U.S.C. §§1961–1968, violations of the Georgia RICO statute, O.C.G.A. § 16-4-1, et seq.


text: The case is being followed for its implications regarding the use of conservation easements as tax shelters. An article in Bloomberg Tax states: "A class-action claiming that the promoters of syndicated conservation easements knew from the outset that their deals violated tax laws is a new legal avenue for aggrieved investors as the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department grind through their own crackdowns."


text: On May 9, 2022, rappers Young Thug, Gunna, and 28 other people were arrested on RICO charges stemming from a grand jury indictment filed in Georgia's Fulton County Courts. On May 14, 2022, only a few days later, a YSL member, Lil Keed died due to kidney and liver failure.


text: Bagchi, Aysha. Bloomberg Tax. "Participants in IRS-Targeted Land Deals Sue Alleged Promoters". March 27, 2020.


title: Falling Down

text: Falling Down is a 1993 American action film directed by Joel Schumacher, written by Ebbe Roe Smith and released by Warner Bros. in the United States on February 26, 1993. The film stars Michael Douglas in the lead role of William Foster, a divorced and unemployed former defense engineer. The film centers on Foster as he treks on foot across the city of Los Angeles, trying to reach the house of his estranged ex-wife in time for his daughter's birthday. Along the way, a series of encounters, both trivial and provocative, causes him to react with increasing violence and make sardonic observations on life, poverty, the economy, and commercialism. Robert Duvall co-stars as Martin Prendergast, an aging Los Angeles Police Department sergeant on the day of his retirement, who faces his own frustrations even as he tracks down Foster.


title: Falling Down

text: William Foster is stuck in traffic on a hot day. After his air conditioning fails, he abandons his car and begins walking home across Los Angeles, carrying his briefcase.


title: Falling Down

text: At a convenience store, the Korean owner refuses to give change for a telephone call. Foster begins ranting about the high prices. The owner grabs a baseball bat and demands Foster leave. Foster takes the bat and destroys much of the merchandise before leaving. Later, while resting on a hill, he is accosted by two gang members, who threaten him with a knife and demand his briefcase. Foster attacks them and takes their knife.


title: Falling Down

text: The gang members, now in a car with two friends, find Foster using a pay phone. They open fire, hitting several bystanders but not Foster. The driver crashes. Foster picks up a gun, shoots the one surviving gang member, and then leaves with their bag of weapons. Foster encounters a panhandler and gives him the briefcase, which only contains his lunch.


title: Falling Down

text: At a fast-food restaurant, Foster attempts to order breakfast, but they have switched to the lunch menu. After an argument with the manager, Foster pulls a gun and fires into the ceiling accidentally. After trying to reassure the frightened employees and customers, he orders lunch, but is annoyed when the burger looks nothing like the one on the menu. He leaves, tries to call from a phone booth, then shoots the booth to pieces after being hassled by someone who was waiting to use the phone. After Foster calls "home" again and states his intention to attend his daughter Adele's birthday party, his ex-wife Beth notifies the police because she has a restraining order.


title: Falling Down

text: Sergeant Prendergast, who is on his last day before retirement, insists on investigating. Interviews with witnesses lead Prendergast to suspect that the same person is responsible. Foster's vanity license plate proves to be an important lead, because Prendergast remembers being in the same traffic jam as Foster earlier that day. Prendergast and his partner, Detective Torres, visit Foster's mother, who is surprised to learn that Foster lost his job. They realize Foster is heading toward his former family's home in Venice, California and rush to intercept him.


title: Falling Down

text: Foster passes a bank where a black man is protesting after being rejected for a loan. The man exchanges a glance with Foster and says, "Don't forget me," as he is escorted away by police. Foster stops at a military surplus store to buy boots. The owner, a white supremacist, diverts Torres's attention when she comes in. After Torres leaves, he offers Foster a rocket launcher and congratulates him for shooting "a bunch of niggers" at the restaurant. When Foster expresses distaste for the store owner's racism, the man attempts to turn him over to the police, but Foster stabs him then shoots him dead. Foster changes into army clothes, takes the rocket launcher, and leaves.


title: Falling Down

text: Foster encounters a road repair crew who are not working and accuses them of doing unnecessary repairs to justify their budget. He pulls out the rocket launcher but struggles to use it, until a boy explains how it works. Foster accidentally fires the launcher, blowing up the construction site. By the time Foster reaches Beth’s house, she has already fled with Adele. He realizes that they may have gone to nearby Venice Pier, but Prendergast and Torres arrive before he can pursue them. Foster shoots Torres, injuring her, and flees with Prendergast in pursuit.


title: Falling Down

text: At the pier, Foster confronts his ex-wife and daughter. Adele is happy to see him, but Beth is frightened. Prendergast arrives and acknowledges Foster's complaints about being ill-treated by society, but does not accept that excuses his rampage. With Foster distracted, Beth throws his gun into the sea as Prendergast draws his revolver, insisting that Foster give himself up. With nothing left for him, Foster tricks Prendergast into shooting him dead. Having asserted himself, Prendergast decides to hold off retirement.


title: Falling Down

text: "Falling Down" was being shot on locations in Lynwood, California, when the 1992 Los Angeles riots began. By April 30, the riots were sufficiently disruptive to force filming to stop early that day. Film crews produced more footage inside of Warner Bros. Studio, in Burbank, as the riots continued. By May 4, when the crew intended to resume in Pasadena, initial requests to do so were denied, causing delays. Filming wrapped in late June 1992. Production designer Barbara Ling said, "We mapped this so that you really were going across [Los Angeles] from Silver Lake down to mid-city to Koreatown."


title: Falling Down

text: In an interview less than a week before "Falling Down"s release, screenwriter Ebbe Roe Smith gave his interpretation of what the movie was about. "To me, even though the movie deals with complicated urban issues, it really is just about one basic thing: The main character represents the old power structure of the U.S. that has now become archaic, and hopelessly lost. For both of them, it's adjust-or-die time..."


title: Falling Down

text: Foster's signature haircut was the idea of Joel Schumacher and the movie's hairstylist, Lynda Gurasich. Douglas commented on how it helped him get into the character of a veteran of the military or defense industry, "It gave me the feeling of the late '50s and the early '60s, and somehow my character you kinda have the feeling that he came from another time, or he wished or he hoped for another time when things made sense." Douglas would add concerning the character, "There's a lot of people who are a paycheck away from being on the streets and being out of work who did everything right, they've been responsible, they tried hard, [and] they don't know what went wrong! We won the war, where's it all at?"


title: Falling Down

text: The film grossed $96 million against a $25 million budget. It took the top spot at the United States box office in its first two weeks of release (February 26–28 and March 5–7, 1993). "Falling Down" pushed the previous top movie, "Groundhog Day", into the second place box-office spot for both those weeks. It grossed $40.9 million in the United States and Canada and $55.1 million internationally.


title: Falling Down

text: "Falling Down" holds an approval rating of 75% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 6.80/10. The site's consensus states: ""Falling Down"s popcorn-friendly take on its complex themes proves disquieting—and ultimately fitting for a bleakly entertaining picture of one man's angry break with reality." However, the film also has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Falling Down

text: Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" called it "the most interesting, all-out commercial American film of the year to date, and one that will function much like a Rorschach test to expose the secrets of those who watch it." Philip Thomas of "Empire" magazine wrote in his review of the film, "While the morality of D-Fens's methods are questionable, there's a resonance about his reaction to everyday annoyances, and Michael Douglas' hypnotic performance makes it memorable." James Berardinelli wrote: ""Falling Down" is replete with gallows humor, almost to the point where it could be classified as a 'black comedy'." John Truby calls the film "an anti-Odyssey story" about "the lie of the American Dream". He adds, "I can't remember laughing so hard in a movie." Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that ""Falling Down" encourages a gloating sense that we the long-suffering victims are finally getting our splendid revenge. The ultimate hollowness of that kind of triumph reflects the shallowness of a film all too eager to serve it up."


title: Falling Down

text: Some will even find it racist because the targets of the film's hero are African American, Latino, and Korean—with a few Whites thrown in for balance. Both of these approaches represent a facile reading of the film, which is actually about a great sadness, which turns into madness, and which can afflict anyone who is told, after many years of hard work, that he is unnecessary and irrelevant... What is fascinating about the Douglas character, as written and played, is the core of sadness in his soul. Yes, by the time we meet him, he has gone over the edge. But there is no exhilaration in his rampage, no release. He seems weary and confused, and in his actions he unconsciously follows scripts that he may have learned from the movies, or on the news, where other frustrated misfits vent their rage on innocent bystanders.


title: Falling Down

text: This guy is you, the movie suggests, and if not you exactly, then maybe the guy you're one or two bad breaks from becoming. At one time or another, we've all thought these thoughts, and so when this downtrodden, laid-off, teed-off L.A. defense worker gets out of his car on a sweltering day in the middle of rush hour and decides he's not going to take any more, it comes as no surprise", adding "as he did in "Fatal Attraction" and "Wall Street", Douglas again takes on the symbolic mantle of the Zeitgeist. But in "Falling Down", he and Schumacher want to have their cake and eat it too; they want him to be a hero and a villain, and it just won't work.


title: Falling Down

text: There's no denying the power of the tale or of Douglas's riveting performance—his best and riskiest since "Wall Street". Douglas neither demonizes nor canonizes this flawed character. Marching across a violent urban landscape toward an illusory home, this shattered Everyman is never less than real ... ""I'm the bad guy?"" he asks in disbelief. Douglas speaks the line with a searing poignancy that illuminates uncomfortable truths without excusing the character. Schumacher could have exploited those tabloid headlines about solid citizens going berserk. Instead, the timely, gripping "Falling Down" puts a human face on a cold statistic and then dares us to look away.


title: Falling Down

text: A few times every year, Hollywood makes a mistake, violates formula, and actually makes a great picture. "Falling Down" is one of the great mistakes of 1993, a film too good and too original to win any Oscars, but one bound to be remembered in years to come as a true and ironic statement about life in our time.


title: Falling Down

text: At the time of its release, Douglas's father, actor Kirk Douglas, declared, "He played it brilliantly. I think it is his best piece of work to date." He also defended the film against critics who claimed that it glorifies lawbreaking: "Michael's character is not the 'hero' or 'newest urban icon'. He is the villain and the victim. Of course, we see many elements of our society that contributed to his madness. We even pity him. But the movie never condones his actions."


title: Falling Down

text: "Falling Down" was released in theatres less than one year after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, during which Korean Americans and their businesses were targeted by rioters. The Korean American Coalition and Korean Grocers Association protested the film for its treatment of minorities, especially the Korean grocer. Warner Bros. Korea cancelled the release of "Falling Down" in South Korea following boycott threats. The outcry by the Grocers Association led to Michael Douglas meeting with the organization's members at the Warner Bros. Studio because they "were there and they were pissed. So we had a conversation and I told them, 'Look, I'm very sorry, but there's a reason the screenwriter picked certain things to put in the film.'" Unemployed defense workers were also angered at their portrayal in the film.


title: Falling Down

text: The character of D‑FENS was featured on magazine covers, including the March 29, 1993 issue of "Newsweek" magazine, and reported upon as an embodiment of the "angry white man" stereotype.


title: Falling Down

text: On the 25th anniversary of the film's release in 2017, film critic April Wolfe of "LA Weekly" wrote that it "remains one of Hollywood's most overt yet morally complex depictions of the modern white-victimization narrative, one both adored and reviled by the extreme right". Wolfe said "Today, we might see D-Fens and the white supremacist as the infighting sides of the far right — one couches racism in coded words like "thug," while the other wants an outright ethnic cleanse. Ultimately, what both want is to return to their idea of a purer America, unburdened by the concerns of minorities and women". Wolfe suggested that Rupert Murdoch would "go on to bottle that fury and package it as patriotism" in creating Fox News.


title: Falling Down

text: In 2012, Tasha Robinson of The A.V. Club was critical of the '90s film "that most stands out for me from that era, because it's such a ham-handed, wrong-headed, self-congratulatory attempt to encapsulate its era's spirit". Robinson added, "the film treats virtually everyone around him [D-FENS] as worthless, and presents his violence as the comedic payoff, turns it into a tone-deaf, self-pitying lament about the terrible persecution facing the oppressed majority in an era of political correctness and increasing multiculturalism." She finishes her short review with, "It's a profoundly hateful film disguised alternately (and erratically) as either tragedy or humor." An earlier 2008 review on the site was positive, saying, "Heat used as a metaphor for simmering rage is nothing new, but few films execute sweaty psychosis as well."


title: Falling Down

text: "Falling Down" has been the inspiration of musical artists such as Iron Maiden, Foo Fighters, Front Line Assembly, and Heart Attack Man. The Iron Maiden song "Man on the Edge" is a basic summary of "Falling Down", beginning with describing the opening traffic jam, and ending with describing the birthday present Foster buys for his daughter. The Foo Fighters' song "Walk" has a music video that is a recreation of scenes from "Falling Down". The Front Line Assembly album "Millennium" contains several samples from various scenes from "Falling Down". The Heart Attack Man song "Out For Blood" was inspired by the anger and frustration weaved through "Falling Down" which weaves through the rest of their album "Fake Blood".


title: Falling Down

text: In the video game "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland", a character resembling Foster recreates the rocket launcher scene in a cutscene, blowing up a construction site before walking away with a duffel bag.


title: Falling Down

text: An episode of the animated series "Duckman" titled "A Room with a Bellevue" (episode six of season three), is loosely based on the plot of "Falling Down". Duckman has to pick up his new suit from the dry cleaner to be presentable on his children's birthday, but huge traffic and the law are going to stop him.


title: Falling Down

text: Frank Grimes, a one-off character on "The Simpsons" episode "Homer's Enemy", is modeled after Foster, having the same flat-top haircut and white shirt and briefcase.


title: Falling Down

text: The band Slipknot sampled the famous "Freedom of Speech" clip in two songs - some earlier versions of "Gently", and "Interloper".


title: Falling Down

text: In the song "I'm in It", Kanye West references the film when he raps "Time to take it too far now/Michael Douglas out the car now".


title: Falling Down

text: Finnish band Beats and Styles referenced the movie poster with DJ Control holding a baseball bat instead of a shotgun for the cover of their 2009 album Schizosonics.


title: Swiss Army Man

text: Swiss Army Man is a 2016 American absurdist black comedy film written and directed by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (in their respective feature directorial debuts). The film stars Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.


title: Swiss Army Man

text: "Swiss Army Man" premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, and began a theatrical limited release in the United States on June 24, 2016, before opening wide on July 1, 2016. The film was positively received by critics.


title: Swiss Army Man

text: Hank Thompson, a man marooned on an island, is on the verge of hanging himself, but sees a corpse wash up on the beach. He tries to resuscitate it, but the corpse bemuses him with its incessant flatulence. As the tide begins to wash the corpse away, Hank watches as its farts propel it around on the water. Hank immediately mounts the corpse and rides it across the ocean like a jet ski, landing on a mainland shore but far from civilization. That night, the two of them hide in a cave from a rainstorm, and after the runoff pours into the corpse's mouth, Hank realizes the next morning that the corpse has yet another power: it can be used like a well for a seemingly infinite source of drinkable water. The corpse also begins a slow transition into speaking and acquires a grasp of the English language, adopting the name Manny. Hank and Manny continue their quest, using Manny's erections (fueled by a swimsuit magazine they find) as a compass. Manny has forgotten everything about his former life, and Hank tries to teach him various concepts about life, but Manny's childlike and shameless interpretations of these concepts conflict with what Hank considers socially acceptable behavior.


title: Swiss Army Man

text: Over the course of their journey, Hank teaches Manny the joys of eating out, going to movies, and partying, using crudely-constructed props and sets made from plants and garbage they find. Using these, Hank leads Manny to believe that Manny is in love with a woman named Sarah, who rides the bus alone every day. Manny falls in love with Sarah, and it is this love that motivates him to try to find civilization with Hank. In reality, Hank is very much in love with Sarah, having seen her riding the bus every day but never talking to her due to his own shyness. He has a photo of her that he took secretly while on the bus set as the wallpaper on his phone and follows her on social media. As he looks through photos, it is revealed that Sarah is happily married and has a child.


title: Swiss Army Man

text: Hank impersonates Sarah to help Manny learn how to talk to women, but they end up connecting and kiss. They have a falling out after Hank reveals that Manny never knew Sarah during his life. Feeling betrayed over Hank's hypocrisy and self-restraint, Manny states he wishes to be fully dead again. At this time, Hank experiences strange mental flashes of surreal images recalling his journey and suggests that one of Manny's powers is to affect his mind. Despite the tension between them, when Hank is attacked by a bear, Manny moves under his own power for the first time, crawling after his injured friend and igniting one of his farts from their campfire to scare the bear away. Hank loses consciousness and wakes up to Manny carrying him to Sarah's house, despite Hank's protests.


title: Swiss Army Man

text: While Sarah is in the house, Manny talks to Sarah's daughter, Crissie. Expecting her to be impressed, he demonstrates several of his powers, inadvertently frightening her with his compass-erection, which Hank quickly slaps down. Sarah is alerted by her daughter's crying and calls the police at the sight of Hank and Manny's once-again inanimate corpse. Hank is soon patched up, but the cops discover the photos of Sarah on his phone and become suspicious. Hank's father also appears, mistaking Manny's corpse for Hank when asked by the paramedics to confirm his identity. After being interviewed by the local television news and deliriously professing on air his gratitude for Manny and his magical powers, Hank runs away with Manny's body. Hank's pursuers discover the structures he built which in actuality seem to be quite close to Sarah's house, as if he had been there some time instead of journeying through the forest. The police, Sarah, her husband, her daughter, a reporter, a camera man, and Hank's father all follow him to the beach. Cornered, Hank lets out a long fart and he is taken away by the police. Manny then begins to fart violently. To everyone's shock, horror, and in Crissie and Hank's father's case, amusement, Manny floats back into the ocean and skims quickly away, propelled by his own flatulence, as he and Hank share one last smile.


title: Swiss Army Man

text: In June 2015, Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe and Mary Elizabeth Winstead joined the cast of the film, with Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert set to direct from a screenplay written by the two. Principal photography began on July 14, 2015, and ended on August 7, 2015. Filming took place over the course of 22 days throughout California, including in San Pedro and Humboldt County for underwater work and wide vistas, respectively. Daniel Radcliffe said that music from the film was played on set: "Robert composed music before the shoot started which never ever happens in film. We could hear the music on set for certain scenes."


title: Swiss Army Man

text: "Swiss Army Man" had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2016. Shortly after, A24 acquired U.S rights to the film, and later acquired global rights to the film, partnering with distributors who had already acquired global rights. The film was originally scheduled to be released on June 17, 2016, but was later pushed back a week to June 24, in a limited bow. It opened in a wide release on July 1.


title: Swiss Army Man

text: "Swiss Army Man" has received generally positive reviews from film critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 72% approval rating, based on reviews from 209 critics, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's critical consensus states: "Disarmingly odd and thoroughly well-acted, "Swiss Army Man" offers adventurous viewers an experience as rewarding as it is impossible to categorize." Metacritic gives the film a rating of 64 out of 100, based on reviews from 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Swiss Army Man

text: During the film's world premiere at Sundance, some audience members walked out, alienated by the film's bizarre premise.


title: Swiss Army Man

text: Peter Debruge of "Variety" gave the film a positive review, writing, "On one hand the most singularly unique competition title to debut at Sundance in ages, while on the other, a project still in drastic need of development (despite a tour through five different Sundance Institute labs, including one for mixing all those fart effects in Dolby Atmos), this movie wears its weirdness as a badge of honor—as well it should." Leslie Felperin of "The Hollywood Reporter" felt that "forming a counterpoint to all the bodily function knockabout, Dano and Radcliffe, both fully committing with delectable zeal, project a certain tragic fragility that adds heft to the proceedings."


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 2021–22 season. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their home games at Carrow Road and have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with East Anglian rivals Ipswich Town, with whom they have contested the East Anglian derby 134 times since 1902.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Norwich have won the League Cup twice, in 1962 and 1985. The club's highest ever league finish came in the 1992–93 season when they finished third in the Premier League. Norwich have featured in the UEFA Cup once, in the 1993–94 season, where they were defeated in the third round, but en route became the only English club to defeat German side Bayern Munich at the Olympic Stadium in Munich.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: The club is nicknamed "The Canaries" after the history of breeding the birds in the area, which is represented in the team's yellow-and-green kits. The fans' song "On the Ball, City" is the oldest football chant in the world, written in the 1890s and still sung today.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Norwich City F.C. was formed after a meeting at the Criterion Café in Norwich on 17 June 1902 and played their first competitive match, against Harwich & Parkeston, at Newmarket Road on 6 September 1902. They joined the Norfolk & Suffolk League for the 1902–03 season, but following a FA commission, the club was ousted from the amateur game in 1905, as it was deemed a professional organisation. Later that year Norwich were elected to play in the Southern League. With increasing crowds, they were forced to leave Newmarket Road in 1908 and moved to The Nest, a disused chalk pit. The club's original nickname was the Citizens, but this was superseded by 1907 by the Canaries after the club's chairman (who was a keen breeder of canaries) dubbed his boys "The Canaries" and changed their strip to yellow and green. During the First World War, with football suspended and facing spiralling debts, City went into voluntary liquidation on 10 December 1917.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: The club was officially reformed on 15 February 1919 – a key figure in the event was Charles Frederick Watling, future lord mayor of Norwich and the father of future club chairman, Geoffrey Watling. When the Football League formed a third Division in May 1920, Norwich joined the Third Division for the following season. Their first league fixture, against Plymouth Argyle, on 28 August 1920, ended in a 1–1 draw. The club went on to endure a mediocre decade, finishing no higher than eighth but no lower than 18th. The following decade proved more successful for the club with a club-record victory, 10–2, over Coventry City. Norwich were promoted as champions to the Second Division in the 1933–34 season under the management of Tom Parker.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: With crowds continuing to rise, and with the Football Association raising concerns over the suitability of The Nest, the club considered renovation of the ground, but ultimately decided on a move to Carrow Road. The inaugural match, on 31 August 1935 against West Ham United, ended in a 4–3 victory for the home team and set a new record attendance of 29,779. The biggest highlight of the following four seasons was the visit of King George VI to Carrow Road on 29 October 1938. However the club was relegated to the Third Division at the end of the season.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: The league was suspended the following season due to the Second World War, and did not resume until the 1946–47 season. City finished this and the following season in 21st place, the poor results forcing the club to apply for re-election to the league. The club narrowly missed out on promotion under the guidance of manager Norman Low in the early 1950s, but following the return of Tom Parker as manager, Norwich finished bottom of the football league in the 1956–57 season.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Events off the field were to overshadow the team's performances as the club faced financial difficulties severe enough to render them non-viable. With debts amounting to more than £20,000, the club was rescued by the formation of a new board, chaired by Geoffrey Watling and the creation of an appeal fund chaired by the Lord Mayor of Norwich, Arthur South, which raised more than £20,000. For these and other services to the club, both men (now deceased) were later honoured by having stands named after them at Carrow Road.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Archie Macaulay became manager when the club was reformed and he oversaw one of the club's greatest achievements, its run to the semi-final of the 1958–59 FA Cup. Competing as a Third Division side, Norwich defeated two First Division opponents along the way, notably a 3–0 win against the Manchester United "Busby Babes". City lost the semi-final only after a replay against another First Division side, Luton Town. The team of 1958–59 – including Terry Bly who scored seven goals in the run, and Ken Nethercott who played most of the second half of one match in goal despite a dislocated shoulder – is today well represented in the club Hall of Fame. The "59 Cup Run" as it is now known locally, "remains as one of the truly great periods in Norwich City's history". Norwich were the third-ever Third Division team to reach the FA Cup semi-final.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: In the 1959–60 season, Norwich were promoted to the Second Division after finishing second to Southampton, and achieved a fourth-place finish in the 1960–61 season. In 1962 Ron Ashman guided Norwich to their first trophy, defeating Rochdale 4–0 on aggregate in a two-legged final to win the League Cup.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Sixth place in the league was the closest the club came to promotion to the First Division again during the 1960s, but after winning the division in the 1971–72 season under manager Ron Saunders, Norwich City reached the highest level of English football for the first time. They made their first appearance at Wembley Stadium in 1973, losing the League Cup final 1–0 to Tottenham Hotspur.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Relegation to the Second Division in 1974 came after Saunders had departed and been succeeded by John Bond, but the board of directors kept faith in Bond and were quickly rewarded. A highly successful first season saw promotion back to the First Division, and another visit to Wembley, again in the League Cup final, this time losing 1–0 to Aston Villa.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Bond departed to Manchester City in autumn 1980, and the club were relegated six months later, but bounced back the following season after finishing third under Bond's successor Ken Brown. In August 1981, Norwich City striker Justin Fashanu became the first black footballer to command a £1m transfer fee when he moved to Nottingham Forest.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: The 1984–85 season was of mixed fortunes for the club; under Brown's guidance, they reached the final of the Football League Cup at Wembley Stadium, having defeated Ipswich Town in the semi-final. In the final, they beat Sunderland 1–0, but in the league, both Norwich and Sunderland were relegated to the second tier of English football. This made Norwich the first English club to win a major trophy and suffer relegation in the same season; something which was not matched until Birmingham City also suffered relegation the season they won the League Cup 26 years later.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Norwich were also denied their first foray into Europe with the ban on English clubs after the Heysel Stadium disaster. City bounced back to the top flight by winning the Second Division championship in the 1985–86 season. This was the start a club-record nine consecutive seasons in the top division of English football. High league placing in the First Division in 1988–89 would have been enough for UEFA Cup qualification, but the ban on English clubs remained. They also had good cup runs during this period, reaching the FA Cup semi-finals in 1989 and again in 1992.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: During 1992–93, the inaugural season of the Premier League, Norwich City quickly emerged as surprise title contenders, before faltering in the final weeks to finish third behind the champions, Manchester United, and runners-up Aston Villa. The following season Norwich participated in the UEFA Cup for the first (and only) time, losing in the third round to Inter Milan, but defeating Bayern Munich. Winning 2–1, Norwich were the first British team to beat Bayern Munich in the Olympic Stadium.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Mike Walker quit as Norwich City manager in January 1994, to take charge of Everton and was replaced by first team coach John Deehan who led the club to 12th place in the 1993–94 season in the Premier League. Norwich began the 1994–95 season well, despite the pre-season departure of top scorer Chris Sutton to Blackburn Rovers for a British record fee of £5 million, and by Christmas they were seventh in the league. Norwich then won only one of their final 20 league games, and slumped to 20th place and relegation, ending a nine-season run in the top flight.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Shortly before relegation, Deehan resigned as manager and his assistant Gary Megson took over until the end of the season. Martin O'Neill, who had taken Wycombe Wanderers from the Conference to the Second Division with successive promotions, was appointed as Norwich City manager in summer 1995. He lasted just six months in the job before resigning after a dispute with chairman Robert Chase over money to strengthen the squad. Soon after, Chase stepped down after protests from supporters, who complained that he kept selling the club's best players and was to blame for their relegation. Chase's majority stakeholding was bought by Geoffrey Watling.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: English television cook Delia Smith and husband Michael Wynn-Jones took over the majority of Norwich City's shares from Watling in 1996, and Mike Walker was re-appointed as the club's manager. He was unable to repeat the success achieved during his first spell and was sacked two seasons later with Norwich mid-table in Division One. Nigel Worthington took over as Norwich City manager in December 2000 following an unsuccessful two years for the club under Bruce Rioch and then Bryan Hamilton. He had been on the coaching staff under Hamilton who resigned with the club 20th in the First Division and in real danger of relegation to the third tier of English football for the first time since the 1960s. Worthington avoided the threat of relegation and, the following season, led City to a playoff final at the Millennium Stadium, which Norwich lost against Birmingham City on penalties.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: The 2003–04 campaign saw the club win the First Division title, finishing eight points clear of second-placed West Bromwich Albion and returned to the top flight for the first time since 1995. For much of the 2004–05 season, the club struggled and a last day 6–0 defeat away to Fulham condemned them to relegation. The club finished in ninth place in The Championship in the 2005–06 season and, as results in the 2006–07 season went against City, Worthington was sacked in October 2006, directly after a 4–1 defeat by Burnley.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: On 16 October 2006, Norwich announced that former City player Peter Grant had left West Ham United to become the new manager, and in February 2007, Grant replaced assistant Doug Livermore with his fellow Scot, Jim Duffy.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Grant's side struggled for most of the season and made a poor start to the 2007–08 season, with only two wins by mid October; following a 1–0 defeat at fellow-strugglers Queens Park Rangers, Grant left the club by "mutual consent" on 9 October 2007. On 30 October 2007, former Newcastle United manager Glenn Roeder was confirmed as Grant's replacement.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Roeder kept Norwich in the Championship with a 3–0 win over Queens Park Rangers, Norwich's penultimate game of the season.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: On 14 January 2009 it was announced that Roeder had been relieved of his first team duties. A week later, former Norwich goalkeeper Bryan Gunn was appointed as manager until the end of the season, but he was unable to prevent the club from being relegated on 3 May 2009, after a 4–2 defeat away at already relegated Charlton Athletic. Following their relegation, their first game of the season resulted in a shock 7–1 home defeat against East Anglian rivals Colchester United. This was the club's heaviest ever home defeat and Gunn was sacked six days later.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: On 18 August 2009, Paul Lambert was announced as the new manager, leaving his post at Colchester, and nine months later led Norwich to promotion back to the Championship as League One Champions, after a single season in League One. The following season saw Norwich promoted to the Premier League, finishing second in the table and completing the first back-to-back promotions from the third tier to the first since Manchester City in 2000.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: The club finished in 12th place in their first season back in the Premier League. However, Lambert resigned within a month of the season's close to take up the vacant managerial spot at league rivals Aston Villa and was replaced by Chris Hughton. Hughton led Norwich to an 11th-place finish, including a ten-game unbeaten run in the league, but they were relegated back to the Championship after the 2013–14 season. Hughton was sacked to be replaced by former Norwich player Neil Adams.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: After a mediocre first half of the 2014–15 season, Adams resigned in January 2015 and then-Hamilton Academical manager Alex Neil was appointed as Norwich manager four days later. The appointment reinvigorated Norwich's season, and victory in the 2015 Championship playoff final secured an immediate return to the top division of English football. This was only temporary relief, as at the end of the next season they were relegated again to play the 2016–17 season in the Football League Championship.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: The following season started successfully, with the club sitting top of the Championship in mid-October. However, a poor run of form and results followed and on 10 March 2017, Alex Neil was sacked by the club. First-team coach Alan Irvine was placed in caretaker charge for the remainder of the season, ultimately finishing in eighth.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: On 25 May 2017, the club appointed German coach Daniel Farke as head coach, becoming the first head coach of the club in its 114-year history that was not from the British Isles. In Farke's first season, Norwich finished in 14th place. The following season was far more successful; helped by top scorer Teemu Pukki, the club was promoted back to the Premier League after a three-year absence as Championship winners. However, Norwich were once again relegated back to the Championship after just a single season back in the top flight, becoming the first team in Premier League history to be relegated five times from the division. The yo-yo effect continued unabated: in May 2021, Norwich were crowned winners of the Championship, securing promotion back to the top flight at the first time of asking, but they failed to win a match in their first nine games back in Premier League in the 2021–2022 season, and Farke was sacked by the club in November. On 14 November 2021, the club appointed former Walsall, Brentford and Aston Villa manager Dean Smith as their new head coach. but Norwich completed a record sixth relegation from the Premier League,


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Norwich City's nickname, "The Canaries", has long influenced the team's colours and badge. Originally, the club was nicknamed the Citizens ("Cits" for short), and played in light blue and white halved shirts, although the halves were inconsistent: the blue was on the left on some shirts, and on the right for others.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: The earliest known recorded link between the club and canaries comes in an interview recorded in the "Eastern Daily Press" with the newly appointed manager, John Bowman in April 1905. The paper quotes him saying "Well I knew of the City's existence... I have... heard of the canaries." "This as far as we can tell is the first time that the popular pastime of the day ie... rearing ... canaries was linked with Norwich City FC... the club still played in blue and white, and would continue to do so for another two seasons" wrote one history of the club.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: By February 1907, the nickname "Canaries" had come more into vogue; thoughts that an FA Cup tie against West Bromwich Albion (nicknamed "Throstles" after a bird) was "a bird -singing contest" were dismissed by the polymath C. B. Fry as "humbug" but the national press increasingly referred to the team as Canaries. The following season, to match the nickname, City played for the first time in Canary livery; "yellow shirts with green collars and cuffs. One paper produced the quote 'The Cits are dead but the Canaries are very much alive'." While the home colours of yellow and green remain to this day, the away colours have varied since introduction. For example, the away kit for the 2012–13 season was black shirts and shorts.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: A simple canary badge was first adopted in 1922. The current club badge consists of a canary resting on a football with a stylised version of the City of Norwich arms in the top left corner. For the club's centenary celebrations in 2002, a special badge was designed, featuring two canaries looking left and right, plus a ribbon noting the centenary.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: In November 2021, the club unveiled a new club badge that officially replaced the previous badge on all club branding from June 2022 and that would appear on club shirts from the 2022–23 season. It is a modernised version of its predecessor that removed black keylines around the badge, a redesigned version of the city's coat of arms that more closely resembles a lion and Norwich Castle, and a redesigned canary on a ball that's more centralised in the badge than its predecessor.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Norwich City played at Newmarket Road from 1902 to 1908, with a record attendance of 10,366 against Sheffield Wednesday in a second round FA Cup match in 1908. Following a dispute over the conditions of renting the Newmarket Road ground, in 1908 the club moved to a new home in a converted disused chalk pit in Rosary Road which became known as "The Nest".


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: By the 1930s, the ground was too small for the growing crowds, and in 1935 the club moved to its current home in Carrow Road. The original stadium, "the largest construction job in the city since the building of Norwich Castle... was "miraculously" built in just 82 days... it was referred to [by club officials] as 'The eighth wonder of the world'" An aerial photograph from August 1935 shows three sides of open terracing and a covered stand, with a Colman's Mustard advertisement painted on its roof, visible only from the air. Another photograph, taken on a match day that same season, shows that a parking area was provided at the ground.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Floodlights were erected at the ground in 1956, but their cost of £9,000 nearly sent the club into bankruptcy. The success in the 1959 FA Cup secured the financial status of the club and allowed a cover to be built over the South Stand. This was itself replaced in 2003 when a new 7,000 seat South stand was built in its place and subsequently renamed the Jarrold Stand.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: 1963 saw the record attendance for Carrow Road, with a crowd of 43,984 for a 6th round FA Cup match against Leicester City. After the Ibrox disaster in 1971, safety licences were required by clubs and this drastically reduced the ground's capacity to around 20,000. A two-tier terrace was built at the River End, and seats began to replace the terraces. By 1979 the stadium had a capacity of 28,392 with seats for 12,675. A fire in 1984 partially destroyed one of the stands, which eventually led to its complete demolition and replacement by 1987 of a new City Stand, which chairman Robert Chase described as "Coming to a football match within the City Stand is very much like going to the theatre – the only difference being that our stage is covered with grass". After the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 and the subsequent outcome of the Taylor Report in 1990, the stadium was converted to all-seater. It has a capacity of 27,359.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: While much of the support that the club enjoys is local, there are a number of expatriate fan clubs, notably in London and stretching from Scandinavia to countries further afield such as the United Arab Emirates, Bermuda, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia and the United States.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: The fans' song, "On the Ball, City", is the oldest football song in the world still in use today; the song is older than the club itself, having probably been penned for Norwich Teachers or Caley's FC in the 1890s and adapted for Norwich City. Although the first use of the tune and song is disputed, it had been adopted by 1902 and it remains in use today in part if not the whole. The chorus is:


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Locally, much is made of the informal title "Pride of Anglia". Fans variously claim the title for either winning the East Anglian Derby, finishing highest in the league, having the better current league position, having the more successful club history or for reasons without any apparent logical basis. The club's main local rival is Ipswich Town. When Norwich and Ipswich meet it is known as the 'East Anglian Derby', or, informally, as the 'Old Farm Derby' – a comic reference to the 'Old Firm Derby' played between Scottish teams Celtic and Rangers. Norwich are currently unbeaten against Ipswich since .


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: The club also maintains a healthy celebrity support with celebrity cook Delia Smith and comedian Stephen Fry both having moved from being fans of the club to running it. Actor Hugh Jackman is also a fan of the club, having been taken to Carrow Road as a child by his English mother, though he turned down an opportunity to become an investor in the club in 2010. BT Sport Presenter Jake Humphrey, who was born in Peterborough but moved to Norwich with his family at the age of nine, is another celebrity supporter. Other well-known supporters include Sky Sports presenter Simon Thomas, who is vice-president of the Norwich City Supporters Trust, Norfolk-born musician, model and media personality Myleene Klass, fiction author Philip Pullman, and Labour ex-politician Ed Balls. Journalist and broadcaster Sir David Frost also declared his love for The Canaries during his lifetime.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: In March 2018, supporters helped the club raise £5m through a mini-bond investment scheme. The purpose of the mini-bond, called the Canaries Bond was to raise money to fund new academy facilities at Colney Training Ground for the Norwich City F.C. Under-23s and Academy.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Norwich City F.C. is a public limited company that, in 2003, comprised approximately 8,000 individual shareholdings. , Delia Smith and husband Michael Wynn-Jones are the joint majority shareholders.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: In September 2022, a general meeting of shareholders took place to discuss and voted for Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio to be appointed as a director at the club. Attanasio is expected to buy the 15.9% stake in the club currently owned by Michael Foulger.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Ashman holds the record for Norwich league appearances, having played 592 first-team matches between 1947 and 1964. Ralph Hunt holds the record for the most goals scored in a season, 31 in the 1955–56 season in Division Three (South), with Johnny Gavin the top scorer over a career – 122 between 1948 and 1955.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: The club's widest victory margin in the league was their 10–2 win against Coventry City in the Division Three (South) in 1930. Their heaviest defeat in the league was 10–2 against Swindon Town in 1908 in the Southern Football League.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Norwich's record home attendance is 43,984 for a sixth-round FA Cup match against Leicester City on 30 March 1963. In the wake of the Ibrox stadium disaster in 1971, government regulations resulted in the capacity being drastically reduced to around 20,000. After the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 and the subsequent Taylor Report in 1990, the stadium was converted to all-seater. As of July 2020, the capacity is 27,359.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: The highest transfer fee received for a Norwich player is £33 million from Aston Villa for Emiliano Buendía in June 2021, while the most confirmed spent by the club on a player was the signing of Christos Tzolis for £11.0 million from PAOK FC in August 2021.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: The club's highest league finish was third in the FA Premier League in 1992–93. The 2021–22 season was Norwich's 27th in the top flight of English football. The club has won the League Cup twice (most recently in 1985) and reached the FA Cup semi-final three times, most recently in 1992. Norwich have taken part in European competition just once, reaching the third round of the UEFA Cup in 1993–94 and are the only English side to beat Bayern Munich in the Olympic Stadium.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: This team is made up of under-23 and academy players and is effectively Norwich City's second-string side, but is limited to three outfield players and one goalkeeper over the age of 23 per game.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: In March 2018, the public mini-bond investment scheme mentioned above raised £5,000,000. With this investment, the club installed new pitches at its Category 1 Academy, as well as a new irrigation system, cameras for analysis and floodlights, a new main building, with a gym, classrooms, physios room, changing rooms and offices. A stand was also installed next to the main Academy pitch.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: During the club's centenary season, a "Hall of Fame" was created, honouring 100 former players chosen by fan vote. Further players have since been inducted into the Norwich City Hall of Fame.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Each time they meet, Norwich and Sunderland contest the Friendship Trophy, a game dating back to the camaraderie forged between fans of the two clubs at the time of the 1985 League Cup final that they contested. Norwich are the current holders having beaten Sunderland 0–1 at the Stadium of Light on 27 August 2022 in the 2022–23 EFL Championship.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: In the 2001 film "", the eponymous hero, played by Ricky Tomlinson, rises to prominence as a result of success as manager of Norwich City, having won the 'Mr Clutch Cup'. The celebratory scenes of the open-top bus ride around the city were actually shot in St Albans, Hertfordshire, rather than Norwich.


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: In a 2015 episode of the Channel 4 sitcom "Peep Show", character Super Hans encourages Mark to pursue his love interest, no matter the odds, because "Norwich are never going to win the league, but they still turn up every week, don't they? The pricks."


title: Norwich City F.C.

text: Norwich City Women is the women's football club affiliated to Norwich City. Since 2022, they have been managed by Flo Allen, and currently compete in Division One South East, in the third tier of English women's football. Norwich City Women play their home games at The Nest, a site at Horsford.


title: Manitoba

text: Manitoba ( ) is a province of Canada at the longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's fifth-most populous province, with a population of 1,342,153 as of 2021, of widely varied landscape, from arctic tundra and the Hudson Bay coastline in the north to dense boreal forest, large freshwater lakes, and prairie grassland in the central and southern regions.


title: Manitoba

text: Indigenous peoples have inhabited what is now Manitoba for thousands of years. In the early 17th century, British and French fur traders began arriving in the area and establishing settlements. The Kingdom of England secured control of the region in 1673 and created a territory named Rupert's Land, which was placed under the administration of the Hudson's Bay Company. Rupert's Land, which included all of present-day Manitoba, grew and evolved from 1673 until 1869 with significant settlements of Indigenous and Métis people in the Red River Colony. In 1869, negotiations with the Government of Canada for the creation of the province of Manitoba commenced. During the negotiations, several factors led to an armed uprising of the Métis people against the Government of Canada, a conflict known as the Red River Rebellion. The resolution of the conflict and further negotiations led to Manitoba becoming the fifth province to join Canadian Confederation, when the Parliament of Canada passed the "Manitoba Act" on July 15, 1870.


title: Manitoba

text: Manitoba's capital and largest city is Winnipeg, the seventh most populous municipality in Canada. Winnipeg is the seat of government, home to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and the Provincial Court. Four of the province's five universities, all four of its professional sports teams, and most of its cultural activities (including Festival du Voyageur and Folklorama) are located in Winnipeg. The city has train and bus stations and an international airport; a Canadian Forces base, CFB Winnipeg, operates from the airport and is the regional headquarters of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.


title: Manitoba

text: The name "Manitoba" possibly derives from either Cree "manitou-wapow" or Ojibwe "manidoobaa", both meaning "straits of Manitou, the Great Spirit." Alternatively, it may be from the Assiniboine "minnetoba," meaning "Lake of the Prairie" (the lake was known to French explorers as "Lac des Prairies"). The name was chosen by Thomas Spence for the new republic he proposed for the area south of the lake. Métis leader Louis Riel preferred the name over the proposed alternative of "Assiniboia." It was accepted in Ottawa under the "Manitoba Act" of 1870.


title: Manitoba

text: Modern-day Manitoba was inhabited by the First Nations people shortly after the last ice age glaciers retreated in the southwest about 10,000 years ago; the first exposed land was the Turtle Mountain area. The Ojibwe, Cree, Dene, Sioux, Mandan, and Assiniboine peoples founded settlements, and other tribes entered the area to trade. In Northern Manitoba, quartz was mined to make arrowheads. The first farming in Manitoba was along the Red River, where corn and other seed crops were planted before contact with Europeans.


title: Manitoba

text: In 1611, Henry Hudson was one of the first Europeans to sail into what is now known as Hudson Bay, where he was abandoned by his crew. Thomas Button travelled this area in 1612 in an unsuccessful attempt to find and rescue Hudson. When the British ship "Nonsuch" sailed into Hudson Bay in 1668–1669, she became the first trading vessel to reach the area; that voyage led to the formation of the Hudson's Bay Company, to which the British government gave absolute control of the entire Hudson Bay watershed. This watershed was named Rupert's Land, after Prince Rupert, who helped to subsidize the Hudson's Bay Company. York Factory was founded in 1684 after the original fort of the Hudson's Bay Company, Fort Nelson (built in 1682), was destroyed by rival French traders.


title: Manitoba

text: Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, visited the Red River Valley in the 1730s to help open the area for French exploration and trade. As French explorers entered the area, a Montreal-based company, the North West Company, began trading with the local Indigenous people. Both the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company built fur-trading forts; the two companies competed in southern Manitoba, occasionally resulting in violence, until they merged in 1821 (the Hudson's Bay Company Archives in Winnipeg preserve the history of this era).


title: Manitoba

text: Great Britain secured the territory in 1763 after their victory over France in the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War, better known as the French and Indian War in North America; lasting from 1754 to 1763. The founding of the first agricultural community and settlements in 1812 by Lord Selkirk, north of the area which is now downtown Winnipeg, led to conflict between British colonists and the Métis. Twenty colonists, including the governor, and one Métis were killed in the Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816.


title: Manitoba

text: Rupert's Land was ceded to Canada by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869 and incorporated into the Northwest Territories; a lack of attention to Métis concerns caused Métis leader Louis Riel to establish a local provisional government which formed into the Convention of Forty and the subsequent elected Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia on 9 March 1870. This assembly subsequently sent three delegates to Ottawa to negotiate with the Canadian government. This resulted in the "Manitoba Act" and that province's entry into the Canadian Confederation. Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald introduced the "Manitoba Act" in the House of Commons of Canada, the bill was given Royal Assent and Manitoba was brought into Canada as a province in 1870. Louis Riel was pursued by British army officer Garnet Wolseley because of the rebellion, and Riel fled into exile. The Canadian government blocked the Métis' attempts to obtain land promised to them as part of Manitoba's entry into confederation. Facing racism from the new flood of white settlers from Ontario, large numbers of Métis moved to what would become Saskatchewan and Alberta.


title: Manitoba

text: Numbered Treaties were signed in the late 19th century with the chiefs of First Nations that lived in the area. They made specific promises of land for every family. As a result, a reserve system was established under the jurisdiction of the federal government. The prescribed amount of land promised to the native peoples was not always given; this led Indigenous groups to assert rights to the land through land claims, many of which are still ongoing.


title: Manitoba

text: The original province of Manitoba was a square one-eighteenth of its current size, and was known colloquially as the "postage stamp province". Its borders were expanded in 1881, taking land from the Northwest Territories and the District of Keewatin, but Ontario claimed a large portion of the land; the disputed portion was awarded to Ontario in 1889. Manitoba grew to its current size in 1912, absorbing land from the Northwest Territories to reach 60°N, uniform with the northern reach of its western neighbours Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.


title: Manitoba

text: The Manitoba Schools Question showed the deep divergence of cultural values in the territory. The Catholic Franco-Manitobans had been guaranteed a state-supported separate school system in the original constitution of Manitoba, but a grassroots political movement among English Protestants from 1888 to 1890 demanded the end of French schools. In 1890, the Manitoba legislature passed a law removing funding for French Catholic schools. The French Catholic minority asked the federal government for support; however, the Orange Order and other anti-Catholic forces mobilized nationwide to oppose them. The federal Conservatives proposed remedial legislation to override Manitoba, but they were blocked by the Liberals, led by Wilfrid Laurier. Once elected Prime Minister in 1896, Laurier implemented a compromise stating Catholics in Manitoba could have their own religious instruction for 30 minutes at the end of the day if there were enough students to warrant it, implemented on a school-by-school basis.


title: Manitoba

text: By 1911, Winnipeg was the third largest city in Canada, and remained so until overtaken by Vancouver in the 1920s. A boomtown, it grew quickly around the start of the 20th century, with outside investors and immigrants contributing to its success. The drop in growth in the second half of the decade was a result of the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, which reduced reliance on transcontinental railways for trade, as well as a decrease in immigration due to the outbreak of the First World War. Over 18,000 Manitoba residents enlisted in the first year of the war; by the end of the war, 14 Manitobans had received the Victoria Cross.


title: Manitoba

text: During the First World War, Nellie McClung started the campaign for women's votes. On January 28, 1916, the vote for women was legalized. Manitoba was the first province to allow women to vote in provincial elections. This was two years before Canada as a country granted women the right to vote.


title: Manitoba

text: After the First World War ended, severe discontent among farmers (over wheat prices) and union members (over wage rates) resulted in an upsurge of radicalism, coupled with a polarization over the rise of Bolshevism in Russia. The most dramatic result was the Winnipeg general strike of 1919. It began on 15 May and collapsed on 25 June 1919; as the workers gradually returned to their jobs, the Central Strike Committee decided to end the movement. Government efforts to violently crush the strike, including a Royal North-West Mounted Police charge into a crowd of protesters that resulted in multiple casualties and one death, had led to the arrest of the movement's leaders. In the aftermath, eight leaders went on trial, and most were convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy, illegal combinations, and seditious libel; four were deported under the "Canadian Immigration Act".


title: Manitoba

text: The Great Depression (1929–c. 1939) hit especially hard in Western Canada, including Manitoba. The collapse of the world market combined with a steep drop in agricultural production due to drought led to economic diversification, moving away from a reliance on wheat production. The Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, forerunner to the New Democratic Party of Manitoba (NDP), was founded in 1932.


title: Manitoba

text: Canada entered the Second World War in 1939. Winnipeg was one of the major commands for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan to train fighter pilots, and there were air training schools throughout Manitoba. Several Manitoba-based regiments were deployed overseas, including Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. In an effort to raise money for the war effort, the Victory Loan campaign organized "If Day" in 1942. The event featured a simulated Nazi invasion and occupation of Manitoba, and eventually raised over C$65 million.


title: Manitoba

text: Winnipeg was inundated during the 1950 Red River Flood and had to be partially evacuated. In that year, the Red River reached its highest level since 1861 and flooded most of the Red River Valley. The damage caused by the flood led then-Premier Duff Roblin to advocate for the construction of the Red River Floodway; it was completed in 1968 after six years of excavation. Permanent dikes were erected in eight towns south of Winnipeg, and clay dikes and diversion dams were built in the Winnipeg area. In 1997, the "Flood of the Century" caused over in damages in Manitoba, but the floodway prevented Winnipeg from flooding.