title: BSC Young Boys

text: The successor to Albert Sing had large shoes to fill; average performance was no longer acceptable to the discriminating Bernese supporters. Heinz Bigler and Hans Grütter took over the training until Hans Merkle ultimately succeeded Sing. Merkle had the misfortune to be measured against the championships of his predecessor. Although Geni Meier, Ernst Wechselberger and other players from the championship years continued to play, it mattered little. Merkle was a hard coach of the German school, however, and was able to keep YB in the top half of the table, with finishes of second, fifth, and seventh. The mixture of old and young players did not provide the results the Bernese sought, however.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: Otto Messerli, then a junior in the first team squad who in later years would be captain of the Young Boys, described the situation: "There were many good ideas, but FC Basel and FC Zürich remained unattainable for us." This was also no different for the Merkle successors Skiba, Schneiter und Eich, Brülls, Peters and Linder: The Young Boys reached big games on occasion (such as the Cup final against Basel that brought 52,000 spectators to the Wankdorf), but over the long term their performance was unspectacular. Still, some YB players rose to national recognition. The Dutchman Bert Theunissen replaced Meier and Wechselberger in 1964 as "gunner" and he became Swiss scoring champion before he left YB. A good replacement for him was found, however: the Bernese bought Dieter Brenninger from Bayern Munich. Another new transfer, Walter "Wale" Mueller, played between 1967 and 1972 for YB, and was a dreaded striker for opposing defenders.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: In the late 1960s and '70s, the Bernese met with little success. As YB were runners-up in the 1974–75 season, they finally returned to European competition. In the first round of the UEFA Cup, the club faced Hamburger SV once again. In the first leg before 17,000 spectators in the Wankdorf, the two teams played to a 0–0 draw. HSV won at home in its Volksparkstadion (4–2), and Young Boys were bounced from the competition early. The Young Boys' side for these games included Jakob Brechbühl and Karl Odermatt among others.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: It took until 1977 before YB would again win a title. Under coach Kurt Linder, the Cup was brought to Bern for the fifth time. Thanks to this title, YB qualified for the preliminary round of the European Cup Winners' Cup. The Bernese faced a daunting challenge in the form of the Rangers of Glasgow. At Ibrox Park, YB played strongly, only losing 0–1. The return game in front of 17,000 spectators at Wankdorf ended 2–2, and Rangers advanced. The Young Boys again underwent a change of coaches when René Hüssy replaced Linder. 1979 again saw YB (as losing cup finalists) in the European Cup Winners' Cup. On 19 September 1979, only 6,700 spectators came to Wankdorf to see the game against Steaua București, which ended 2–2. Before this game, YB had lost three consecutive championship games, which may have contributed to the lack of fans. The goals were scored by Stoica, Zwygart, Iordănescu and Schönenberger. Two weeks later, Young Boys lost in Bucharest, 0–6.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: Turbulent times continued in the Wankdorf. After many coaching changes, in 1984 Alexander Mandziara was hired as manager. The quiet Pole with a German passport played offensive football and was known for hard training sessions. In his first years, Young Boys reached only ninth place. In the next season, 1985–86, not all went for YB but the team still managed to finish the preliminary round in fifth. During the winter break, the Swede Robert Prytz joined the YB midfield as a playmaker alongside Georges Bregy, and YB achieved an incomparable return round. The point advantage of the leaders Neuchâtel Xamax slowly melted round by round. On 24 May 1986, the showdown came in Neuchâtel Maladière before a crowd of 21,500 including visiting YB spectators. Young Boys came away with a 4–1 result. Lars Lunde, Danish scoring champion, and Dario Zuffi each connected twice and YB after 26 years finished in championship position.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: In the first round of the European championship, the Bernese drew Real Madrid, whose ranks included top stars Hugo Sánchez and Emilio Butragueño. Thirty-two thousand spectators descended on Wankdorf, despite torrential rain, for the match on 17 September 1986. Urs Bamert headed in a goal to provide the 1–0 margin of victory against the guests from Spain. For the return leg, 75,000 spectators occupied the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid. Until the 75th minute, the advantage stood at only 1–0 for the home side. But the 2–0 by Jorge Valdano broke the defense of the Young Boys, and Real Madrid went on to win 5–0.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: In 1987, YB won the Cup for the sixth time. In the finals, it defeated Servette FC 4–2 in a replay. In the first round of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, Young Boys traveled to Dunajská Streda, Czechoslovakia, where the Slovak team won 2–1. Before 8,100 spectators, YB prevailed in Bern 3–1 and qualified for the second round. In the round of 16, the Bernese visited FC Den Haag, where it lost 1–2. In the return match in Bern, only 6,400 spectators braved the icy chill of the Wankdorf. A 1–0 YB victory was enough to progress into the quarter-finals. The next opponent was again from the Netherlands, this time Ajax of Amsterdam. Temperatures of −6 on 9 March 1988 caused Wankdorf to be rather sparsely occupied with only 7,686 spectators. Ajax won the game 1–0. The return leg in Amsterdam before 30,000 spectators saw the Bernese lose again 1–0 to fall out of the competition.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: A highlight of the 1990s was the Cup finale against FC Sion in 1991. The Wankdorf was packed with 50,000 spectators, with both teams contributing to the atmosphere. At halftime, the Bernese led 2–0, but Sion shot back in the second half with three goals to win the Cup. In 1993, YB qualified for the UEFA Cup and met Celtic in the first round. Only 7,300 spectators came to the stadium for the home leg, and the game ended 0–0. Young Boys fell in Celtic Park in Glasgow before 21,500 spectators in extra time, 1–0, with André Baumann netting an own goal in the 105th minute.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: In the mid-1990s, the former football powerhouse increasingly experienced problems. Young Boys developed financial difficulties and in 1997 – for the first time since the 1946–47 season – YB was relegated to the National League B (today's Challenge League). New Swedish coaches Roland Andersson and Thomas Sjöberg helped the club recover, placing first and earning promotion again, with Robert Schober and Admir Smajic taking over on the bench. The following NLA season began with a surprise victory over the reigning champion Grasshoppers. Many defeats, however, forced the Young Boys back into the relegation play-offs. The economic and sporting emergency ended in the dismissal of coach Claude Ryf. The BSC Young Boys organization stood very close to bankruptcy and few thought it still possible to salvage YB. A Lucerne investment company saved the club from ruin, although by 1999 the debt was over 1.7 million Swiss francs (~€1.08 million).


title: BSC Young Boys

text: Almost the entire squad left the capital and YB competed with the shell of a team the next season. The result was disastrous: third-last place after the 1999 qualification/descent round. The possibility of further relegation to the 1st League (third tier) threatened. Marco Schällibaum took over as manager and brought in reinforcements, which had a positive impact and enabled the club to stay up. On 17 December 1999, the BSC Young Boys AG was established with capital of CHF 500,000 (~€320,000). The AG took over the operations of the first time and increased the share capital. The remaining operation remains under the previous organization.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: The next championship was contested with a more powerful team with new players such as Harutyun Vardanyan and Gürkan Sermeter. YB won victory after victory in the autumn and inspired the loyal fans with attractive offensive football. The team earned the top place in the table and participation in the promotion playoffs, ultimately returning to the top division.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: New enthusiasm developed in Bern, and the attendance figures rose significantly. The first game of the 2001–02 season was the final game in old Wankdorf stadium. YB drew FC Lugano 1–1 before 22,200 spectators, and the last goal for the Bernese in the old Wankdorf was tallied by Reto Burri.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: Young Boys played at the Neufeldstadion at the north end of town until the new, multi-functional Stade de Suisse Wankdorf Bern was opened in 2005.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: In the autumn of 2001, with a 1–3 home defeat against Grasshoppers, a series of 25 home games without defeat came to an end. However, with a 1–0 victory in the last game against FC St. Gallen on 9 December 2001, Young Boys qualified for the final round for the first time in seven years. The start of the final round was very promising. YB played exciting football and contended for a place in an international competition but ultimately finished in seventh position. The team also reached the semi-finals of the Swiss Cup before falling in a penalty shootout to FC Basel.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: In 2002, YB finished the qualifying round in seventh and the final round in fourth place, earning the Young Boys an entry in an international competition (the UEFA Cup) for the first time in ten years. This season also saw Stéphane Chapuisat move to the club. Chapuisat is considered one of the best strikers in Swiss history.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: In 2003, the league was completely reformed, including the names and sizes of the two highest leagues. For the 2003–04 season, Hans-Peter Zaugg was named as the new head coach. The played in the first "Super League", taking second place. As a result, the team qualified for the 2004–05 Champions League, where they fell to Red Star Belgrade 5–2 on aggregate. The domestic season 2004–05 found them finishing in fourth place.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: In the summer of 2005, Young Boys began using the newly built Wankdorfstadion, the Stade de Suisse, after several years of construction.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: Only a few months later Gernot Rohr signed as a coach. Although team maintained a defensive football strategy, the club succeeded with him at its head, advancing to the Cup final, but losing on a penalty shoot-out to Sion. The first season at the Stade de Suisse Wankdorf, YB finished in third place, qualifying for the UEFA Cup. The Bernese defeated Mika of Armenia 4–1 on aggregate in the first qualifying round to set up a very attractive matchup with French giants Marseille, but narrowly lost the tie on away goals with draws 3–3 at home and 0–0 away.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: Coach Gernot Rohr was succeeded by Martin Andermatt. The debut of Andermatt was promising, as YB defeated their canton rivals Thun 5–1 to open 2006–07 league play. The team finished the season in fourth place, once again returning to the UEFA Cup. On 14 April 2007, the club president Peter Mast announced that he would resign his position at the end of the season, although he immediately joined the board of directors. His post as president was assumed by Thomas Grimm on 17 April 2007. Incidentally, in this season, with an average of 15,517 spectators in the championship, the club celebrated its highest attendance average in club history.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: Young Boys finished runners-up in the 2009–10 season, finishing three points behind champions Basel despite losing only one match at home all season. It entered Champions League qualification and defeated Fenerbahçe to set up a meeting with Tottenham Hotspur in the play-off round. YB went out to a 3–0 lead in the opening leg at Stade de Suisse on Tuesday 17 August, but had to hold on for a 3–2 win, then, fell 4–0 at White Hart Lane eight nights later and went out of the competition. Following its defeat, Young Boys was dropped to the Europa League group stage. The Bernese club qualified for the knockout stage of the tournament as runners-up of its group, behind group leaders VfB Stuttgart and at the expense of Getafe and Odense. In the Round of 32, the club faced Zenit Saint Petersburg, defeating its Russian opponents at home in the first leg (2–1), but suffering elimination after the second leg, losing 3–1 in their visit at Saint Petersburg.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: In the 2010–11 season, the club finished third in the league, which qualified YB to the UEFA Europa League for the next season. The following season was similar for the Yellow-Blacks, finishing third once again in the league. In the same season, YB failed to reach the Europa League group stage after being eliminated by Braga 2–2 on aggregate on the away goals rule (0–0 in Braga; 2–2 in Bern).


title: BSC Young Boys

text: On 28 April 2018, following a 2–1 home win over Luzern, Young Boys were confirmed as 2017–18 Swiss Super League champions, their first league title in 32 years.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: On 28 August 2018, Young Boys qualified to UEFA Champions League Group stage for the first time in their history, after defeating Dinamo Zagreb with a 3–2 aggregate score in play-off round.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: In April 2019, Young Boys secured their 13th title in club history. In the next season, manager Gerardo Seoane led the club to a domestic double, delivering their 14th league title (their third in a row) and seventh cup title and first in over 30 years. The club would go on win the league title again in the 2020–21 season. Seoane left to join Bundesliga club Bayer 04 Leverkusen following the 2021 title success and was replaced by former Huddersfield Town and Schalke 04 manager David Wagner on 10 June 2021.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: Under Wagner, Young Boys were able to qualify for the Champions League group stage, beating out Slovan Bratislava, Cluj, and Ferencváros in the qualifer. They were seeded into Group F with Atalanta, Villarreal, and English giants Manchester United. In their first game in the Champions League, YB shocked Manchester United, beating them 2-1 thanks to a goal by Jordan Pefok in the 95th minute. The team was unable to continue their good performance and exited the tournament in last place of their group.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: The harsh schedule in the first half of the season took its toll on the team and by the winter break, they saw themselves only in third place in the Super League, eleven points behind leader FC Zürich. Despite gaining 15 points in seven games after the break and overtaking FC Basel in second place, their deficit to the leader expanded to 15 points. In particular, a last minute equalizer by Grasshopper and giving away a 3-0 lead to FC St. Gallen worried club management. David Wagner was released by mutual agreement on 7 March 2022. In the interim, assistant coach Matteo Vanetta will take over coaching duties until the end of the season.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: Since 2005, Young Boys plays its home matches at the new Wankdorf Stadium (2005 - 2020 Stade de Suisse Wankdorf). The stadium seats 31,120 spectators and is the second largest football stadium in Switzerland, after St. Jakob-Park. Since 1925, Young Boys had played in the historic Wankdorf Stadium located on the same spot. Security concerns lead to the need of a modern all-seater stadium in the new millennium. As various factors like building regulations or labour law make it impossible to sustainably finance a modern football stadium in Switzerland, the reconstructed Wankdorf Stadium has been built on top of a new shopping mall called Wankdorf Center together with schools, homes, a fitness center, several gyms, some restaurants and a parking facility with over 700 places by which the new stadium is cross-financed. All modern Swiss football stadiums have been built together with a shopping mall and other cross-financing facilities for that same reason. The total construction cost of the project was 350 million francs which was at the time more than any other building in Switzerland. The building and the club BSC Young Boys are both owned by businessman Hans-Ueli Rihs who together with his late brother Andy has financed Young Boys since taking ownership at the beginning of the millennium. Andy died on April 18, 2018, just 10 days before YB won the championship.


title: BSC Young Boys

text: The name arises from the fact that the Wankdorf ought to act as a National Stadium. As one of the few stadiums with artificial turf, however, national team matches are rarely held there. The artificial pitch allows Young Boys to hold daily training sessions in the same place as Young Boys doesn't have a training center. For UEFA Euro 2008, a natural grass field was laid as three group stage matches took place. The stadium is also the largest stadium-integrated solar power plant in the world. On the roof of the Stade de Suisse are enough solar cells to generate 700,000 kWh. This requires approximately 300,000 square meters of panels i.e. 30 hectares. The electricity powers the stadium and some houses around the Wankdorf area.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Daniel Clive Wheldon (22 June 1978 – 16 October 2011) was a British motor racing driver who won the 2005 IndyCar Series Drivers' Championship for Andretti Green Racing (AGR). He won the Indianapolis 500 in 2005 and 2011, and was co-winner of the 2006 24 Hours of Daytona with Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR).


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Wheldon began competitive karting at the age of eight and achieved early success, before progressing to open-wheel car racing in the U.S. F2000 National Championship, the Toyota Atlantic Championship and Indy Lights. He began driving in IndyCar with Panther Racing in 2002. The following year, Wheldon moved to AGR, finishing as runner-up in the 2004 championship. He won the drivers' title in 2005 with the record for most victories (including that year's Indianapolis 500) during a season. In the 2006 season, he moved to CGR, tying Sam Hornish Jr. in points but finishing second because of count-back on the number of victories taken by both drivers. During the 2007 and 2008 seasons, Wheldon's form lowered but he won four additional races to place fourth overall in both years.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: He returned to Panther Racing for the 2009 and 2010 seasons, failing to win a race but taking a further four podium results during this period. Wheldon left the team at the conclusion of the season. He drove part-time for Bryan Herta Autosport and later Sam Schmidt Motorsports in the 2011 season. He won his second Indianapolis 500 in May of that year. At the season-ending IZOD IndyCar World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Wheldon was killed in a collision with a fence post alongside the circuit on the race's eleventh lap. He was 33 years old and the first driver to die in IndyCar competition since Paul Dana in 2006.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Wheldon was born in the village of Emberton near the town of Olney, Buckinghamshire, England on 22 June 1978. He was the son of plumber and domestic heat electrician Clive Wheldon and his wife Sue. Wheldon was of Irish descent. He had three younger brothers and a sister. Wheldon's family was connected to motorsport; his father had competed in karting from an early age and his mother acted as Clive's timekeeper. He went to the Bedford School until he completed his GCSE examinations at the age of 16. Wheldon attained good reading grades and excelled in cross-country running, rugby and squash. He was also captain of the school cricket team.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: He married his long-time personal assistant Susie Behm of Armstrong, British Columbia, in 2008. They have two children, Sebastian and Oliver, who compete in go-karting events. Wheldon was a guest voice over for the television series "Hot Wheels Battle Force 5," and assisted in the physics development for Ignite Game Technologies' online simulation racing game "Simraceway". He partook in philanthropic activities, such as raising money for Alzheimer's disease research, contributed to the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation, and met unwell children at the Peyton Manning Children's Cancer Hospital in Indianapolis every year. Wheldon was a spokesperson for the National Guard's Youth Challenge Program, which provides services to vulnerable young Americans. He edited and published a coffee table book of photographs of his life, called "Lionheart" in 2010.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Wheldon began go-kart racing at the age of four but did not partake in competitive racing until he was eight due to age limits. He drove a self-built 60cc kart during the intervals before switching to a 100cc kart later on. Wheldon was inspired by racing driver Nigel Mansell, and he was sponsored by All Kart owner Bruno Ferrari and his father helped to better his son's driving ability at Rye House Kart Circuit. He won the RAC British Cadet Karting Championship three times in 1988, 1989 and 1990. Wheldon went on to win the British B Junior title driving a Wright chassis in 1992. He was later advised by Mark Rose and Terry Fullerton as he progressed to the international level. Wheldon won the 1995 FIA Formula A World Cup with Fullerton's team. Aged 17, he progressed to car racing, competing in the Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship for Team JLR in 1996, winning the Brands Hatch, Silverstone and Oulton Park races and taking seven top-three results to finish second overall.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: The following year, Wheldon was fourth in both the British Formula Ford Championship and the European Formula Ford Championship for Andy Welch Racing, with seven victories in the British series. He was named a finalist for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award in 1996 and 1997. Wheldon improved to third in those two series with the Van Diemen team, driving a Mygale in 1998. That year, he finished second in the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch. It was during this period he developed a rivalry with fellow driver Jenson Button. Wheldon did not have the necessary level of funding from his father and sponsors to further his career in the United Kingdom and progress into either the British Formula 3 International Series or the British Formula Renault Championship.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: At the suggestion of his former team principal and car manufacturer Ralph Firman Sr., he flew to the United States in January 1999 to test a Formula Ford 2000 car. Wheldon also observed an Indy Lights and Toyota Atlantic test session for future preparation. His funding was provided by Jayhard/Primus Racing owner Jon Baytos and Van Diemen. He competed in the U.S. F2000 National Championship in 1999 in Jayhard/Primus Racing's Van Diemen Ford RF99 car, achieving six wins and eleven top-ten finishes to become the first British and European series champion. Wheldon's early performance was affected by jet lag from constant travel to the United Kingdom to visit his family and his desire to compete in Formula Three. He stopped doing so after about three months, when Baytos urged him to concentrate on racing. Wheldon was named the series' Rookie of the Year, and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2012 as a 1999 graduate.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: He progressed to the 2000 Toyota Atlantic Championship, driving for PPI Motorsports in its 3 Swift 008.a vehicle, winning the season-opening Homestead–Miami Speedway round to become the first driver in series history to win on his debut. He won the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca race, finishing runner-up in the championship standings with 159 points and a further nine top-ten finishes. Wheldon was named the series' Rookie of the Year. For the 2001 season, Wheldon moved to the PacWest Lights team to compete in the higher-tier Indy Lights Championship. In the No. 1 Lola T97/20-Buick 3800 V6, he won two races in the championship's second half (Gateway Motorsports Park and Road Atlanta) and placed in the top-ten in all twelve events to finish runner-up in the drivers' championship with 149 points. Wheldon was named the 2001 Indy Lights Rookie of the Year.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: After his objective of obtaining a seat in Championship Auto Racing Teams (later Champ Car World Series) went unfulfilled, he began his association with the rival Indy Racing League (IRL) by joining Panther Racing as its test driver in June 2002. He brought capital to the team and drove their second car for the final two races of the 2002 season. Wheldon qualified seventh in the No. 7 Dallara IR02 Chevrolet V8 and finished tenth in his first IRL race, the Delphi Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway. He came 15th in the season-closing Chevy 500 at Texas Motor Speedway to finish his two-race campaign 36th in the points standings with 35 accrued. When funding for a second Panther Racing car fell through, Andretti Green Racing (AGR) co-owner Kim Green contacted Wheldon in October and asked him to test its IRL car and develop its Honda engine at Homestead–Miami Speedway the following month. Wheldon was signed to be the team's test driver in November as they sought sponsorship to enable his participation in the 2003 season.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: The lack of sponsorship prevented him from starting the season though he was called up to drive when regular driver Dario Franchitti broke his vertebrae in a motor bike accident in Scotland. In his first race driving the No. 27 Dallara IR-03 Honda HI3R V8 car, at the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi, Wheldon qualified fifth and finished the accident-shortened race seventh. Wheldon qualified fifth for his first Indianapolis 500. Late in the race, he struck a concrete retaining wall and somersaulted into the air before landing upside down, which relegated him to finishing 19th. After Franchitti returned, Wheldon was retained as a driver following the retirement of team owner and mentor Michael Andretti. He drove well thereafter with another eight top-ten finishes. Starting tenth at Chicagoland Speedway, Wheldon led for a season-high 38 laps and came fourth. He ended the season finishing third at Texas Motor Speedway, scoring 312 points for 11th in the point standings. Wheldon's performances enhanced his reputation, and he demonstrated an accord with oval track racing that many European drivers lacked. He was awarded the 2003 IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year, and was voted the 2003 Autosport Rookie of the Year.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Wheldon returned to AGR for the 2004 season. At Phoenix International Raceway, the season's second race, Wheldon won his first career pole position and finished third. He took his first series win at Twin Ring Motegi, leading an event-high 192 laps from pole position. Wheldon qualified second for the Indianapolis 500; he led 26 laps to finish the rain-shortened race third. His second win of the season came at Richmond International Raceway after holding off Team Penske's Hélio Castroneves on the last lap. Wheldon took four top-ten finishes in four of the next six races, before achieving his third series victory in Nazareth Speedway's final motor race to move into second in the drivers' championship. His title challenge to his teammate Tony Kanaan ended in the season's penultimate round at California Speedway, but secured second overall from Buddy Rice at the season-ending Texas Motor Speedway race with 533 points.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: For the 2005 season, Wheldon again drove for AGR. He started from eleventh to lead a race-high 158 of 200 laps of the Homestead–Miami Speedway season-opener to win. After that, Wheldon went on to win consecutive races at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (his first road course series win), and the Indy Japan 300 for the second successive year. His season highlight was the Indianapolis 500 where he exchanged the lead with Danica Patrick until she slowed due to a lack of fuel. Wheldon made the race-victory overtake with seven laps to go to become the first British driver to win the event since Graham Hill in 1966. He continued to drive consistently in the top six in the next seven races. At Pikes Peak International Raceway, Wheldon took his fifth win of the season (after leading 67 laps) to equal Sam Hornish Jr.'s 2002 record of five victories during a season. Two races later, at Chicagoland Speedway, he led a race-high 88 laps to surpass Hornish's series record with his sixth win of the year. Wheldon won the championship before starting the season's penultimate round by setting a single practice lap of Watkins Glen International. Since the last place finisher scored 12 points, his 102-point lead clinched the title with one race remaining. With a sixth-place finish at the season-closing California Speedway round, Wheldon won the championship with 628 points. He was awarded the 2005 Autosport British Competition Driver of the Year.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: When Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) owner Chip Ganassi was informed of rumours that Wheldon might leave AGR, he engaged in informal discussions with him, which led to an agreement in principle at a meeting in August 2005. His AGR contract expired on 31 October and formal discussions began soon after. CGR resigned Wheldon for the 2006 season and the team changed manufacturers from Panoz to Dallara and engine suppliers to Honda after Toyota withdrew. Wheldon made the switch because he wanted to ensure his stay in the IRL and remain competitive. To begin the season, Wheldon won the Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead–Miami Speedway. At the Indianapolis 500, he qualified in third place, and led a race-high 148 laps before falling to fourth because he had to make a pit stop to replace a puncture on the 183rd lap. Wheldon achieved eight top-ten finishes and two pole positions (at Kansas Speedway and Nashville Speedway), and entered the season's final round at Chicagoland Speedway as one of four drivers in contention for the championship. Wheldon won the race but lost the championship on tiebreak to Sam Hornish Jr, who had won four races to Wheldon's two.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Wheldon remained with CGR for the 2007 season. He began the season with pole position at the season-opening XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 at Homestead–Miami Speedway, and led 177 of 200 laps to win his third successive event at the track, a new series record. Wheldon went on to lead a race-high 177 laps to win the Kansas Lottery Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway, his second of the season. After qualifying sixth for the Indianapolis 500, he retired from the rain-shortened race after a late-event collision with Marco Andretti, losing Wheldon the lead of the drivers' championship. His third-place finish in the ABC Supply Company A.J. Foyt 225 at Milwaukee Mile was overshadowed by a physical confrontation with Patrick following a collision on the 88th lap; the two reconciled after a private meeting with IndyCar president Brian Barnhart. The rest of Wheldon's season was modest, with four retirements and two further third-place finishes in the SunTrust Indy Challenge and the Detroit Indy Grand Prix. He came fourth in the final points standings with 466 accrued.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: For the 2008 season, Wheldon stayed with CGR. He began the year finishing third at the season-opening Gainsco Auto Insurance Indy 300 at Homestead–Miami Speedway after moving through the field starting from 22nd. Wheldon won the RoadRunner Turbo Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway three races later, becoming IndyCar's first driver to claim two consecutive victories at the track. He started second in the Indianapolis 500 finishing ten places lower in twelfth due to handling problems in the final 50 laps. Wheldon took his second (and final) victory of the season in the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway. He donated his winnings to help the victims of the recent tornadoes and flooding which had occurred in Iowa. As IndyCar had become more orientated towards road and street circuits following the merger of it and the Champ Car World Series, his performance diminished in the remaining races since his driving on such tracks were not as good as on ovals. He achieved one further podium finish, a second-place at Nashville Speedway, and five top-seven finishes for fourth in the drivers' championship with 492 points.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Wheldon planned to extend his CGR contract when Chip Ganassi provided him with an offer in May 2008. He decided against doing so when he learnt AGR's Kanaan had begun discussions with the team. He felt betrayed and began talking to other teams. Wheldon told CGR three months later in Detroit of his decision to leave them at the season's conclusion. On 2 September, CGR announced that Wheldon would be released from his contract at the end of the season as Dario Franchitti left NASCAR and returned to IndyCar. Wheldon returned to the full-time one-car Panther Racing team for the 2009 season following an agreement with his management and team owner John Barnes in mid-August. He struggled to perform in the first three races, but he took his first top-ten finish with a fifth at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. At the Indianapolis 500, Wheldon qualified in eighteenth and finished second. The rest of Wheldon's season saw him achieve a best finish of fourth at Iowa Speedway and three top-tens. He did not attain those results in seven of the last eight races. He was tenth in the championship standings with 354 points, his lowest finish since he placed eleventh in 2003.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Wheldon remained with Panther Racing for the 2010 season. During the season-opening São Paulo Indy 300, he made contact with Alex Tagliani, which sent him into Kanaan; he recovered to finish fifth. Three races later at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Wheldon took a second top-ten result with a ninth. In the Indianapolis 500, Wheldon started from eighteenth. He advanced through the field on pit stop strategy to come second for the second year in a row. Wheldon remained competitive all year; challenging for wins on oval tracks. Despite strong showings, he could not claim a race victory during his time with Panther Racing, which frustrated Barnes. In the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway (now Sonoma Raceway), Wheldon made contact with Bertrand Baguette's car during a warm-up lap before the start of the event. He flipped upside down and pirouetted several times but emerged unhurt. His best finish of the year was a second place in the Peak Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway. He came ninth at the season-ending Cafés do Brasil Indy 300 at Homestead–Miami Speedway, to rank ninth in the drivers' standings with 388 points.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: After the season, Wheldon left Panther Racing because of a lack of sponsorship and the No. 4 car was driven by rookie J. R. Hildebrand. He filed a $383,400 lawsuit against Barnes in Marion County Superior Court on 18 August for late payment of his salary and of his share of earnings from his on-track achievements as well as taxation issues. The two reached a settlement on 1 October. Wheldon did not have a full-time seat for the 2011 season, and he missed the season's first four races as he sought employment with another team to compete in the Indianapolis 500. Talks with several teams, including with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing co-owner Robbie Buhl to share a car with Mike Conway fell through. He then spoke to his friend and former AGR teammate Bryan Herta who offered to assemble a car from his own low-budget operation, Bryan Herta Autosport (BHA), for Wheldon and he agreed. He drove a Dallara car from 2003 leased to Herta by BHA's technical partner Sam Schmidt Motorsports and Curb-Agajanian Motorsports. He qualified in sixth place; in the race, Wheldon was in second place on the final lap when Hildebrand crashed leaving turn four. He took the lead to become the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 leading only the final lap.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Wheldon's contract expired at midnight on 30 May. He then became a color commentator and pit lane reporter for the cable television channel Versus (now NBCSN) for three IndyCar Series events (Iowa, Texas and Toronto), believing he would not race again in 2011. He impressed viewers with his expertise, quick wit and ease in interacting with other commentators. Wheldon was also employed by IndyCar, car manufacturer Dallara and designer Tony Cotman to test and develop the official prototype model of a new one-specification chassis that debuted at the beginning of the 2012 season. In early October, he drove Tagliani's No. 77 Sam Schmidt Motorsports car for the Kentucky Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway as preparation for the season-ending IZOD IndyCar World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Wheldon qualified in 28th-place after failing to set a qualifying time because his car did not pass a technical inspection; he finished 14th. On the morning of 16 October, he signed a multi-year contract to replace Patrick at Andretti Autosport from 2012 on.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Wheldon made his endurance racing debut at the 2005 24 Hours of Daytona, sharing the No. 2 Howard-Boss Motorsports Pontiac Crawford DP03 with Dario Franchitti, Marino Franchitti and Milka Duno in the Daytona Prototype (DP) class. Their car finished 16th in its class and 33rd overall after Duno crashed with less than six hours to go. In the 2005 off-season, he competed as a wild card entrant in the 2005 Race of Champions, being eliminated from the round of 16 by Sébastien Bourdais. That year, he was offered a test driver role with BMW's Formula One squad by team principal Mario Theissen. He declined when he discovered that he would not be assured a race seat for the season; he also felt emotionally attached to the United States. Wheldon also turned down an offer to compete for Great Britain in the inaugural A1 Grand Prix season.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: In 2006, Wheldon returned to compete in the season-opening 24 Hours of Daytona for Chip Ganassi Racing with Scott Dixon and Casey Mears in the DP class. The trio won overall, completing 734 laps in the No. 02 Riley MkXI Lexus. He returned with the same team for the following year's race, again partnered by Dixon, and they were joined by Memo Rojas. The trio retired after 538 laps because Rojas crashed the No. 2 entry on the saturated track in the race's 21st hour. They were classified 21st in class and 41st overall. Wheldon returned for a fourth time to participate in the 24 Hours of Daytona for Chip Ganassi Racing with Dixon, Alex Lloyd and Salvador Durán. Their car, starting in tenth in its category and overall, finished 44th overall (18th in its class) after it retired with 515 laps completed due to sustaining three accidents during the event.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard set up a challenge for the season-ending 2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on 16 October. A prize of $5 million would be divided equally between a driver and a randomly selected fan if the driver won from the back of the grid. He was unable to get an international racing driver so he offered the challenge to Wheldon who accepted. He was frustrated about his car being more than slower than others and felt it would be difficult to remain with the pack if the issue was not resolved. Wheldon was also ABC's in-race reporter and spoke in defence of his participation in the event and IndyCar to the network's commentary team during the warm-up laps. On lap 11 out of the planned 200, a fifteen-car accident occurred between turns one and two in which Wheldon was involved. The accident began when James Hinchcliffe was clipped by Wade Cunningham. Cunningham and J. R. Hildebrand then made contact when Cunningham swerved and Hildebrand drove over the rear of his car. Hildebrand's car became airborne and Cunningham collected Jay Howard on the inside and then Townsend Bell on the outside before crashing into the wall. Attempting to avoid the crash ahead, Vítor Meira lost control, spinning inward collecting both Charlie Kimball and E. J. Viso. At the same time Meira lost control, Tomas Scheckter was also attempting to avoid the first crash by rapidly slowing down on the outside. This led to Paul Tracy crashing into the back of Scheckter and a rapidly approaching Pippa Mann to launch over the top of Tracy after jerking to the outside to avoid crashing into Alex Lloyd. Wheldon was in 24th and travelling on the left-hand side of the track at in an attempt to avoid the pile-up and flying debris. Meira, Kimball and Viso blocked Wheldon's path, and he decelerated to 10% of throttle usage before he hit the left-rear tyre of Kimball's car at . He was launched semi-airborne for approximately and rotated towards the right-hand side catchfence.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Wheldon's vehicle rotated and travelled parallel to the catchfence above the concrete wall behind the SAFER barrier alongside the track. He collided with a fence post along his car's right-hand side, creating a deep defect in the chassis that went from the upper pedal bulkhead and through the cockpit. That deformed its roll hoop and the top of the chassis above the fuel cell compartment, which were sheared from the car. The post penetrated the cockpit and struck the lower portion of the right-hand side of Wheldon's helmet in an impact measured at −30Gs lateral, 47Gs longitudinal, and −25Gs vertical to the chassis as he sustained "two distinct impacts" to his head. The race was stopped after one caution lap. He was extricated from his car by the trackside safety team and airlifted to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada for his critical injuries. Wheldon was pronounced dead on arrival. After input from drivers and team owners, officials declared they would abandon the race. A five-lap, three-wide formation salute was held in Wheldon's honour, along with "Amazing Grace" played on the bagpipes in the background. His No. 77 was displayed alone atop of the scoring pylon.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: An autopsy conducted by Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy on 17 October determined that Wheldon died of a blunt force trauma to his head. He was the fifth Indianapolis 500 winner to die in a racing accident in the same year as winning the race, and the first repeat winner to do so. Preceding Wheldon were Gaston Chevrolet (1920), Joe Boyer (1924), Ray Keech (1929), and George Robson (1946). He was also the first driver to be killed in IndyCar competition since Paul Dana died in an accident during practice for the 2006 Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead–Miami Speedway. On 22 October, Wheldon was given a funeral at the First Presbyterian Church of St. Petersburg attended by almost 1,000 mourners. Fellow drivers Franchitti, Dixon, Kanaan and Wheldon's three brothers acted as pall-bearers. The next day, IndyCar held a public memorial service for him at Conseco Fieldhouse (now Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis attended by members of the motor racing community and his family and fans. A second memorial service for Wheldon took place at the All Saints' Church in his home town of Emberton on 6 November. He is buried at the Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Clearwater, Florida.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Three days after the accident, series' organisers with assistance from the Automobile Competition Committee for the United States, the United States' national governing body of motor racing, and motorsport's world governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, began subjecting the race to a full investigation. The results of the investigation into Wheldon's death were released on 15 December 2011. According to the report, there was no single cause for Wheldon's crash. Contributing factors included the catchfence around the track, and the unlimited track movement while racing that increased contact between cars, making it difficult to predict what would occur around the drivers, and increased the likelihood of a major accident. "Whilst several factors coincided to produce a perfect storm, none of them can be singled out as the sole cause of the accident. For this reason it is impossible to determine with certainty that the result would have been any different if one or more of the factors did not exist."


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Marcus Simmons, a writer for the British motor racing magazine "Autosport", called Wheldon "one of a golden crop of richly-talented British drivers to graduate from karting to junior single-seaters in the mid to late-1990s", and, "a man who embodied the ideal of the immigrant to the 'New World' fulfilling the American Dream." Although he had a brash and confident persona that made him "cocky yet likeable", journalist Maurice Hamilton noted that Wheldon was seen by many as "a devoted family man, deeply respected and universally liked despite, or perhaps because of, a cheeky sense of self-awareness and a clever cultivation of his image". He had charisma, a sense of humour and warmth that made him a favourite amongst motor racing fans and the media, despite being unrecognisable in England due to Formula One being the country's most popular motor racing series. Wheldon was a keen learner, and was focused on accomplishing his objectives.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Two days after his death, Dallara named their new one-specification chassis in Wheldon's honour. The DW12, with the new bumper/nerf bar section being featured, was designed to prevent many similar single-seater crashes such as the one that killed him. A charity race in Wheldon's honour was held in Milton Keynes on 6 December with drivers such as Franchitti, Jenson Button and Anthony Davidson competing. Proceeds from the event were donated to a charity selected by Wheldon's family. That month, Wheldon was posthumously awarded the Gregor Grant Award for his lifetime career achievements that his father Clive and Franchitti collected. Former racing driver Mark Dismore's New Castle Motorsports Park, which organises the Robo-Pong 200 endurance karting event that Wheldon won in 2005, named the trophy the Dan Wheldon Cup in 2012. The Wheldon family added a Wheldon Memorial Pro-Am to the event in 2013. On 7 March 2012, Wheldon's widow Susie and mayor Bill Foster unveiled a street sign in St. Petersburg, Florida. Named "Dan Wheldon Way", the sign was placed at the corner of Bayshore Drive and Albert Whitted Park (turn ten). A permanent memorial is also located across from the Salvador Dalí Museum.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: Franchitti won the 2012 Indianapolis 500 on 27 May and dedicated his victory to Wheldon and wore white sunglasses in his honour. That year Wheldon was memorialised by a resolution passed by the Indiana Senate. A memorial plaque featuring his likeness and career achievements was unveiled in St. Petersburg outside the second turn of its street track in March 2013 and a wall in which each of the winners of the race was etched. Four months later, "Autosport" magazine named Wheldon one of the 50 greatest drivers to have never raced in Formula One. The Wheldons were honoured with the "Dan and Susie Wheldon Make a Difference Award" in September 2014. This included a $1,000 donation to charity and became part of the annual IndyCar Series prize-giving banquet. During the 2016 Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, pit lane reporter Jamie Little and motorsport publicist Brent Brush placed a Dan Wheldon Memorial plaque outside turn two, near the point where he was killed. In May 2016, a book on his life and career with contributions from the motor racing community entitled "Lionheart: Remembering Dan Wheldon" was published. Wheldon was inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in May 2019.


title: Dan Wheldon

text: The Dan Wheldon International Driver Trophy was awarded to the best performing international driver over the race weekend of the Australian V8 Supercars Gold Coast 600. The trophy was named after Wheldon following his death, which took place a week prior to the 2011 event in which he was scheduled to participate with the Holden Racing Team. The international drivers' trophy had been unnamed when it debuted in 2010. The trophy was discontinued after 2012 when regulation changes removed the need for compulsory international co-drivers in the race.


title: Joe Dirt

text: Joe Dirt is a 2001 American adventure comedy film, directed by Dennie Gordon (in her feature film directorial debut), starring David Spade, Dennis Miller, Christopher Walken, Adam Beach, Brian Thompson, Brittany Daniel, Jaime Pressly, Erik Per Sullivan, and Kid Rock. The film was written by Spade and Fred Wolf, and produced by Robert Simonds. The plot revolves around a "white trash" young man, Joe Dirt, who at first seems to be a "loser", a failure, an antihero. As he travels in search of his parents, his finer qualities are increasingly revealed. He ends up with a new "family" of close friends, people he has helped and who respect him. While critical reception was mostly negative, the film was a modest financial success. A sequel, "", premiered on Crackle on July 16, 2015.


title: Joe Dirt

text: Joe Dirt, a janitor at a Los Angeles radio station, tells his life story via shock jock Zander Kelly's broadcast.


title: Joe Dirt

text: Joe reveals that as a baby he had a mullet wig installed because the top of his skull had never formed. At age 8, he was left behind by his parents and sister at the Grand Canyon and thus does not know his real surname. After growing up in a series of foster homes, Joe ran away until he arrived in Silvertown, a small town in the Pacific Northwest. There, he met Brandy and her dog, Charlie, and became a target for jealousy from Robby, the town bully.


title: Joe Dirt

text: After Brandy's alcoholic father shoots Charlie dead, Joe decides to try to find his parents. He details his adventures across the country including his friendship with Kickin' Wing, an unsuccessful Native American fireworks salesman. In Indiana, Joe has an encounter with a serial killer named Buffalo Bob, who is parodying the lotion scene from The Silence of the Lambs. This brings him unwanted attention from the media, but helps his search. In Louisiana, he works on Charlene's alligator farm and as a high school janitor with Clem Doore, a former mobster in the Witness Protection Program. Clem rescues students after a mustard gas explosion and informs the media Joe was the hero. While traveling on further he came across an Alligator farm and met the owner Charlene. Looking to make money he was hired to be an Alligator wrangler for audiences. After one encounter with an Alligator in which he landed wrong, he had an epiphany about his little sister yelling at Joe about why his last name was Dirt and not his real surname Nunamaker. Upon realizing his real last name, this helps Joe discover the address of his old family home and he travels to Baton Rouge only to find that they moved away many years prior.


title: Joe Dirt

text: Listening to Joe's story, both Zander and the radio audience initially find him an object of scorn, but Joe's kindness and optimistic outlook on life win them over.


title: Joe Dirt

text: Eventually, Joe lands the janitorial job at the radio station, where he recounts how he gave up the search and returned to Silvertown to be with Brandy. However, Robby informed him that he and Brandy are getting married and that she found Joe's parents, but instructed him not to tell Joe. Zander calls Brandy to find out why, and she tells Joe his parents were killed the day they were at the Grand Canyon; she pleads with Joe to return to Silvertown. Upset by the news, Joe stays in Los Angeles.


title: Joe Dirt

text: Joe is unaware that he has become a media sensation, but he quickly discovers his newfound fame. An appearance on "TRL" results in a phone call from a woman claiming to be Joe's mother. Joe meets his parents and he discovers that they intentionally abandoned him, and that they only reconnected with him in order to boost their sales of clown figurines. Joe storms out, cutting ties with his parents. He intends to commit suicide, but Brandy arrives and finally admits that she lied to him about his parents being dead because she had to protect him from them and their greed after she found out what horrible people they were. Brandy expresses her love and convinces Joe to come home with her but he suffers a head injury after a police officer lassos and accidentally causes him to fall off a bridge.


title: Joe Dirt

text: Joe wakes up in Brandy's house, surrounded by his friends: Kickin' Wing, who reveals that thanks to Joe he now owns 30 successful firework stands, Clem (who is now under the name of Gert B. Frobe) and Charlene (now without a thumb and middle finger on her left hand), who are now engaged. Brandy reveals that she got Joe a dreadlock wig following his head operation, has retrieved his Hemi, and she has a new dog that Charlie fathered.


title: Joe Dirt

text: As they prepare to take a ride in Joe's Hemi, Robby arrives and tells Joe that no one wants him in Silvertown. Clem threatens Robby and exclaims that they are Joe's family. Robby challenges Joe to a race and Joe leaves him in the dust as Robby's car malfunctions and breaks down. As they drive away, Zander dedicates a song to Joe on the radio.


title: Joe Dirt

text: "Joe Dirt" opened at #4 in the domestic box office with $8,016,008 and went on to gross $27,087,695 domestically and $3,900,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $30,987,695; from an estimated $17.7 million budget; this can be considered a moderate success.


title: Joe Dirt

text: On Metacritic the film has a rating of 20/100 based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 9% rating based on 76 reviews with an average rating of 3.1/10. The site's consensus reads, "If you fall within the target audience of "Joe Dirt", you may find it funny. Otherwise, the jokes will seem like a tired retread." Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B−.


title: Joe Dirt

text: Ebert and Roeper both gave the film a thumbs down. Richard Roeper criticized the film for being too predictable and strained, and said that the radio station storyline was "absurd". Roger Ebert agreed, but praised Spade for taking on a different role than he is normally associated with, and added that Spade's performance was convincing, despite the film's other shortcomings. Ebert included "Joe Dirt" as one of his most hated films of all time under the category of "alleged comedies," stating that, "What movies, including "Joe Dirt," often do not understand is that the act of being buried in crap is not in and of itself funny."


title: Joe Dirt

text: In early 2010, Spade worked on a pilot with TBS for an animated series based on the film. The series never materialized.


title: Joe Dirt

text: In 2014, Spade revealed in a Reddit question that he was writing a sequel to "Joe Dirt" for Crackle. Entertainment Weekly has noted that the film is "the first ever made-for-digital sequel". Filming on the sequel began on November 17, 2014, with David Spade posting a first look at Joe Dirt on his Instagram. The film was released in July 2015 and received similarly negative reviews.


title: Sammi Hanratty

text: Samantha Hanratty (born September 20, 1995) is an American actress. Her first lead was in 2009, portraying Chrissa Maxwell in "". In 2011, she played the role Whitney Brown in the film "The Greening of Whitney Brown". Hanratty is considered a Celebrity Friend for the Starlight Children's Foundation. Since 2021, she has played the young version of Misty in the Showtime drama series "Yellowjackets".


title: Sammi Hanratty

text: Samantha Hanratty was born on September 20, 1995, in Scottsdale, Arizona. She attended Laurel Springs School.


title: Sammi Hanratty

text: Hanratty has appeared in several films and television series including the 2006 ABC Family original film "Hello Sister, Goodbye Life", opposite Lacey Chabert. In 2006, she was a recurring character through seasons two and three of "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" as Holly, a little girl whose father is a con man and once stayed at the Tipton. That same year, she appeared in the ABC film "Stephen King's Desperation". From 2006 to 2009, Hanratty had a recurring role on the action-drama series "The Unit" with her older sister Danielle. In 2006, she appeared in the film "", playing an elf named Glenda. She also played Chrissa in the 2009 film "". And in 2018 played a role as Carl's wife Kassidi on Showtime's television series "Shameless".


title: Ultron

text: Ultron () is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema, and initially made his debut as an unnamed character in "The Avengers" #54 (July 1968), with his first full appearance in "The Avengers" #55 (August 1968). He is a self-aware and highly intelligent artificial intelligence who develops a god complex and a grudge against his creator Hank Pym. His goal to destroy humanity in a nearsighted attempt at creating world peace has brought him into repeated conflict with the Avengers.


title: Ultron

text: Ultron's physical body is made of a durable alloy, and he has manifested various superpowers. These vary between different stories but generally include superhuman strength, speed, and agility, flight, and energy projection. The character usually operates alone or accompanied by legions of copies of his own robotic form known as Ultron Drones. However, Ultron has also been part of several supervillain teams. Ultron is notable for being the first character in Marvel Comics to wield the fictional metal alloy adamantium and for his (in-story) creation of the Vision.


title: Ultron

text: Debuting in the Silver Age of Comic Books, Ultron has since featured in Marvel products across different media, such as animated television series and video games. Tom Kane and Jim Meskimen are among the actors that have portrayed the character via voice acting. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), James Spader portrayed Ultron in his first live-action appearance in the Marvel Studios film "" (2015), while Ross Marquand voiced an alternate universe version in the Disney+ animated series "What If...?" (2021).


title: Ultron

text: The character Ultron initially appeared as an unnamed character in a cameo in "The Avengers" #54 (July 1968), with a first full appearance in "The Avengers" #55 (August 1968). Ultron was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema. Thomas, who has acknowledged he finds naming characters difficult, said he liked the -tron suffix and went from there. The use of the suffix and the prior appearance of a group of robots named Ultroids led him to the name Ultron. Thomas said the idea of the character and his appearance were heavily based on Makino, an obscure robotic villain who appeared in an issue of the "Captain Video" comic book. He liked the robot's malicious looking smile, showing this to Buscema.


title: Ultron

text: Jocasta, a robot created by Ultron featured in a number of Ultron storylines, was created by Jim Shooter and George Pérez for "The Avengers" #162 (August 1977).


title: Ultron

text: Created by Hank Pym by basing the robot on his own brain patterns, the robot (dubbed "Ultron") gradually developed its own intelligence and rebelled, and almost immediately develops an Oedipus complex, whereby it feels irrational hatred for Pym, and demonstrates an interest in Janet van Dyne. Rebuilding itself, learning how to turn itself on, and upgrading five times, Ultron then hypnotises and brainwashes its "father" into forgetting that the robot had ever existed. Ultron creates the synthezoid Vision as a weapon to destroy the Avengers.


title: Ultron

text: Later, Ultron-5, the Living Automaton leads the Masters of Evil against the Avengers, having hypnotized Edwin Jarvis into working for him as the Crimson Cowl. Now referring to himself as Ultron-6, he uses the alloy adamantium to upgrade his body for an almost indestructible state and takes the name Ultimate Ultron. Its plans to destroy humanity are again thwarted by the Avengers. Ultron-7 is later created by Maximus with the body of the android Omega, attacking the wedding of Inhuman Crystal and Avenger Pietro Maximoff / Quicksilver, and battling the Avengers, Inhumans and Fantastic Four before being destroyed again. Ultron-8 is responsible for Jocasta's creation as a robotic bride, before being destroyed shortly afterwards.


title: Ultron

text: Ultron-9 and Ultron-10 brainwash heroes into recreating the robot, before turning and being defeated. After being recreated as Ultron-11 by the Beyonder and battling in Battleworld, the Thing brings Ultron's head back to Earth as a souvenir, and is forgotten when there is an attack by the alien Dire Wraiths.


title: Ultron

text: Ultron-12 enters an alliance with the Grim Reaper and his allies (Nekra, the Erik Josten Goliath, Man-Ape, and Black Talon) in a bid to destroy Wonder-Man. Although the villains are defeated by the West Coast Avengers, Ultron begins to form a relationship with his "father" Hank Pym. Rebuilding itself, Ultron-11 comes into conflict with Pym and Ultron-12. With Wonder-Man's assistance, they destroy Ultron-11, and Ultron begins to deactivate. Ultron tells Pym it was glad it could help save him.


title: Ultron

text: Victor von Doom rebuilds Ultron using a combination of all of its previous personalities with a particularly strong dose of the previous Ultron, believing this mix will make Ultron subservient. However, all 12 iterations co-exist as separate personalities, resulting in a form of madness which culminates with Ultron-12 mutilating himself in an attempt to remove some of his other personalities. After its defeat, Ultron-13 attempts to obtain a new form of vibranium called Nuform, but it is repelled by the combined efforts of Iron Man, Black Panther, and Spider-Man. Ultron escapes from prison and upgrades into the Ultimate Ultron, capturing West Coast Avenger Mockingbird to use her brain patterns to create the new robotic mate Alkhema. Alkhema aids Ultron but both are eventually jettisoned into space through a ruse by Vision. Vision finds Ultron-15 but is discovered to have been "infected" by human emotion and is seriously deteriorating, displaying symptoms that resemble alcoholism. Ultron-16 and Ultron-17 successfully slaughter the population of Slorenia, having perfected a process that allows it to control a vast army of Ultron drones.


title: Ultron

text: The Avengers discovered that Ultron's creations (Vision, Jocasta and Alkhema) have a secret program included—they are subconsciously compelled to rebuild Ultron. In this case, it is Alkhema who unintentionally rebuilds Ultron when attempting to create a new species of bio-synthezoids. However, Ultron-18 is composed of steel not adamantium, and is destroyed when Alkhema's subterranean base exploded after Hawkeye shot Alkhema with a vibranium arrow at Alkhema's request. Ultron's head was recovered by Antigone, an artificial girl and one of the synthezoids.


title: Ultron

text: Iron Man encounters a version from an old version of his armor and Ultron-18's head that leads the cult known as the Sons of Yinsen in an attempt to conquest via religion. The character is defeated by Iron Man and Jocasta. Another version (possibly Ultron-13) creates the cyborg Victor Mancha as a sleeper agent against the Avengers. Mancha, however, rebels and joins the Runaways. This version first poses as Doctor Doom before revealing itself, and is defeated in a battle against the Runaways and Excelsior.


title: Ultron

text: When Marvel launched a new title "The Mighty Avengers" by Brian Michael Bendis and Frank Cho, Ultron interfaces with Iron Man's armor, which had been integrated with Tony Stark's biology. This allows Ultron's program to transform Stark into a new version who has the Wasp's appearance albeit with a metallic skin. This version takes control of Iron Man's technology. He kills Lindy Reynolds, causing the Sentry to battle Ultron, nearly tearing his head off. Ultron is eventually destroyed by New Avenger Ares using a computer virus (created by the Skrull agent Criti-Noll impersonating Hank Pym) to wipe Ultron's program from Iron Man's armor, changing Stark back to normal. Ultron's image later briefly appears on one of his maker's computers.


title: Ultron

text: However, this was not the end of Ultron, for his disembodied consciousness was thrown into the depths of space. He spent a few months floating through the cosmos as radio waves and energy. Eventually his signal was picked up by an outlying group of Phalanx who were attempting to contact the Technarchy. Fascinated by what he found, Ultron decided that the Phalanx lacked direction from a singular consciousness, and that he would be perfect for the role. Through sheer force of will, he merged himself with the Phalanx's programming. In turn, the Phalanx viewed Ultron as the sympathetic father they had yearned for. Under Ultron's guidance, the Phalanx began the "" with invasions that started with the Kree space. Later by taking control of Adam Warlock's body, Ultron hopes to achieve "true techno-organic perfection" but is eventually forced to abandon Adam's body by the Technarchy Warlock and is later destroyed in combat by Wraith and Quasar.


title: Ultron

text: In the limited series "Avengers/Invaders", it is revealed that S.H.I.E.L.D. Life Model Decoys have been partly replaced with versions of Ultron. When the original Human Torch appears in the present, they covertly parasitize the Human Torch's unique android physiology and become more human. The combined super teams (but mainly the Human Torch himself), however, discover the plan and destroy the androids.


title: Ultron

text: In the "Mighty Avengers", Ultron is shown to infiltrate Jocasta and the Infinite Avengers Mansion. He names himself Ultron Pym and seeks to kill and replace his father before using his Infinite Mansion to conquer the universe. Pym eventually offers Ultron a compromise, allowing Jocasta to be Ultron's bride, on the condition that Ultron banishes himself to ultraspace. Ultron agrees, but warns that he will be ruler of all someday.


title: Ultron

text: In "The Avengers", the team visits a possible future in which almost all of humanity is destroyed by Ultron. Kang the Conqueror attempts to enlist them to defeat the robotic foe, but another group of heroes and villains, plucked from all over time and space, ends up destroying this version.


title: Ultron

text: Later, also in "Avengers", a cabal of super-intelligent supervillains discover a Galadorian Spaceknight's inert body and attempt to reactivate its power source, hoping to exploit it. Although the Avengers interrupt their attempts, the body activates, revealing that Ultron's consciousness was contained within and had escaped destruction after "Annihilation: Conquest". The new version escapes and Iron Man gravely foresees that it will bring the apocalypse for humanity when he returns.


title: Ultron

text: During the "Age of Ultron" storyline, which takes place in an alternate universe, Ultron has returned and conquers the world while slowly remolding it into his image. His Ultron Sentinels are guarding the streets looking for any fugitives. Hawkeye runs into the Ultron Sentinels and rescues the Superior Spider-Man yet manages to destroy the Ultron Sentinels present. It is later revealed that Ultron is actually in the future and has been using Vision as a conduit to punish humanity. While one strike team travels into the future to fight Ultron, Wolverine and Susan Storm go back in time to kill his creator before Ultron's creation in the first place. This results in a world where Tony Stark controls an army of robotic drones and Morgan le Fay has conquered half of the world. Traveling back in time once more, Wolverine succeeds in stopping himself from killing Pym, and Wolverine, Pym and Storm come up with a different plan. This plan results in a different outcome of the prior confrontation between the Avengers and the Intelligencia—a 'back door' installed into Ultron at his original creation allows Pym and Iron Man to destroy the robot, instead, averting the events that led to the "Age of Ultron".


title: Ultron

text: It is later revealed that the Avengers had trapped an unidentified iteration of Ultron in deep space years earlier, sealing him inside a Vibranium Quinjet. In the present, the Quinjet crash lands on Titan, freeing Ultron. By hijacking the ISAAC computer, he transforms Titan into Planet Ultron, and launches a plan to infect the entire universe with a nanite virus that transforms organic creatures into Ultron Sentries. The ensuing confrontation with the Avengers leads to Ultron inadvertently merging with his maker, transforming into a human/machine hybrid. The resulting fusion played on Pym's self-loathing of his own human weakness causes an acceptance of this new state. Ultron is defeated when Starfox's powers force love onto himself, causing the part of that is now Pym to accept his old weakness and flaws while the villain has a mental breakdown and flees into space.


title: Ultron

text: As part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" branding, Ultron's fused form resurfaces. While on his way back to Earth, Pym helps the crew of a spaceship that is being attacked by a hostile insectoid alien. After coming aboard the spaceship, Pym introduces himself as well as his "friend" Ultron to the crew. He later returns to Earth, where the Wasp and Captain America discover that Ultron has taken complete control and is using Pym's face to fool his maker's old friends. After Ultron incapacitates Deadpool, Cable, and the Human Torch, the Wasp initiates the Icarus Protocol and Iron Man is called in to help stop Ultron with the Hulkbuster Armor's aid. The Avengers end up defeating Ultron by plunging the hybrid into the sun, but both Pym and Ultron survive and continue to do battle with one another internally.


title: Ultron

text: During the "Secret Empire" storyline, Ultron's fused form sets up a base in an unidentified forest. Upon being alerted to the approach of Sam Wilson's task force by a robot version of Edwin Jarvis, Ultron decides to give his "family" a warm welcome. When Tony Stark A.I.'s team and Captain America's team confront each other, they are captured by Ultron who forces both teams to sit at a dinner table. Ultron argues that he is doing this because the Avengers have become less of a family over the years as so many of them jump to obey Captain America or Iron Man despite past experience confirming that this should be a bad idea, but the Stark A.I. counters that the only reason the team failed as a family was because of Pym's attack on Wasp. Outraged, Ultron nearly attacks the other heroes, but Scott Lang is able to talk him down by arguing that Pym remains his own inspiration. Ultron allows the Stark A.I.'s team to leave with the fragment, arguing that he will leave Captain America's plans with Hydra alone as it appears to be the best chance for world peace.


title: Ultron

text: During "Infinity Countdown", Ultron discovers that the Infinity Stones are restored and begins a quest to collect them all. He goes to claim the Soul Gem while the aliens he infected with his virus are sent to Earth to take the Space Stone from Wolverine, and while they fail at their task, Ultron is able to steal the Soul Gem from Magus after killing the latter. Unbeknownst to Ultron, however, as he claimed the Soul Stone a fragment of Pym's soul enters the Soul World, where he is greeted by the fragment of Gamora's soul who revealed that he was going to be trapped there forever. Ultron has also completely controlled the planet Saiph with Ultron hybrids and had captured the Silver Surfer. When Adam Warlock goes to Saiph, he discovers the hybrids infusing the Soul Stone into Silver Surfer's forehead while at the same time trying to transform him into an Ultron hybrid.


title: Ultron

text: During "The Ultron Agenda" arc, Ultron returns to Earth with plans to merge robots with humans like how Pym got merged with Ultron so that he can make the ultimate lifeform. In addition, he starts to call this form "Ultron Pym". After testing it on some people and some experiments on Wonder Man and Vision, Ultron Pym plans to make a fusion of Jocasta and Wasp. Iron Man and Machine Man interfere, with the resulting battle causing Iron Man to be molecularly bonded to the Ultronbuster armor. The combined efforts of Stark Unlimited enable them to create an atomic separator that separates Stark from the Ultronbuster armor and Wonder Man from Vision. Ultron Pym prepares to take revenge on Iron Man. This leads to Iron Man revealing what he discovered about the human and robot fusion. The person who merged with it has died and that the robot can only simulate their personality. In other words, his maker was killed when accidentally merging with Ultron. Learning about this and not wanting to risk proving Iron Man's point by having the atomic separator used on him, Ultron surrenders to Iron Man, knowing that Pym is dead. When the Avengers arrive, they restrain Ultron in a Vibranium casket reinforced with Asgardian magic until they can find a permanent place to have Ultron imprisoned.


title: Ultron

text: The visual appearance and powers of the character have varied, but common powers include superhuman levels of strength, speed, stamina, durability, and reflexes; flight at subsonic speeds; and various offensive weapons such as concussive blasts of energy fired from its optical sensors or hands and an "encephalo-ray", which places victims into a deathlike coma. The latter ray also allows Ultron to mesmerize and mind-control victims, or implant subliminal hypnotic commands within their minds to be enacted at a later time. Ultron also has the ability to convert electromagnetic radiation into electrical energy for use or storage. Ultron has a genius intellect, a capacity for creative intelligence and self-repair, superhuman cybernetic analytical capabilities, and the ability to process information and make calculations with superhuman speed and accuracy. The character is an expert roboticist and strategist.


title: Ultron

text: Ultron's outer armor is usually composed primarily of adamantium, which is almost completely impervious to damage. Most Ultron units are powered by a small internal nuclear furnace and incorporate a "program transmitter" which can transmit part or all of Ultron's memory/personality system into other computer systems or duplicate robotic bodies. Ultron can also control other machines remotely. Ultron has occasionally reformed itself with a humanoid appearance above the waist and the appearance of a complex machine, including tractor beam apparatus for flight, below the waist. A later Ultron model developed hive mind technology, allowing it to animate and control hundreds of other Ultron bodies simultaneously, although only the 'prime' Ultron was composed of adamantium while others were made of steel or secondary adamantium due to the lack of resources to give all the Ultrons adamantium bodies. Ultron also used an internal molecular rearranger that renders the adamantium components of its workings more malleable and so has the ability to restructure its physical form. He also uses the device in ways its own creator never dreamed, such as converting matter into energy and back by sheer force of will, something Ultron 6 often made use of during his battles with the Avengers. What circuitry Ultron has is carefully shielded to protect from damage, although the Scarlet Witch is capable of causing malfunctions via hex power, Johnny Storm using nova burst managed to damage Ultron's internal circuits while its outer armor remained intact, and Wonder Man was once able to destroy an Ultron by throwing it so hard its internal systems were damaged.


title: Ultron

text: Ultron's travels through outer space have greatly expanded upon the mad machine's intellectual and mechanical capacity in new and intriguing ways. Having made contact with the parasitic biotechnical Phalanx species, Ultron has made his own derivative of the techno-organic virus called the Ultron Virus through which Ultron gains vast conversion and roboticization capabilities, able to cast his own binary code into any conceivable form of machinery which he can steadily turn into an extension of the Ultron Intelligence. Making anything or anyone infected with his virus act according to his whims against their own free will.


title: Ultron

text: Being an adept technoform in any iteration, Ultron's newfound abilities to control, alternate, transform and assimilate with anything and everything via the parasitic insemination of his virulent machine algorithm in both organic and non-biological substrates gives him vast matter and energy reconfiguration abilities. Ones powerful enough to commandeer whole planetary and even universal expanses in a single inning, on top of his natural ability to invent and fabricate the most sophisticated of mechanical systems ever conceived. Through his vast technoformative abilities, Ultron could change and morph entire areas into sprawling masses of cables, pipes and transorganic metal that moved about in any given direction he willed it. This effect gained more prominence with the more excess mass he could assimilate with his power, having once taken a slew of transmoded Kree Sentries into a massive body which reflected his physical likeness.


title: Ultron

text: Individuals infected with the Ultron Virus can spread like any biologic virus, through cuts and scratches or direct physical interaction such as barbs or plug-in like apparatuses generated from the transformed physiology. Ultron later found himself physically as well as mentally bonded with his creator and long time adversary, Dr. Henry Pym. As such the fused entity now boasts all his robotic super robot's powers as well as Pym's genius science. Ultron can now change and alternate his size and mass at will through the acclimation of his maker's Pym Particle enhanced physiology. Besides being able to grow to incredible heights in seconds, Ultron can shrink down to sub-quantum scale in order to shift between dimensions via accessing the Microverse or the Quantum Realm. Ultron once used such a tactic to shunt its mass into another dimension for the purpose of riding a neutrino in order to escape burning up in the sun. Another practice the union share is a galaxy spanning collective mind established through the Ultron Virus, every iteration of Ultron created through initial infection share a hive minded intelligence where they all share each other's experiences. Anything the afflicted sees they all see, through which Ultron Prime is notified of anything they all come across effective immediately.


title: Ultron

text: The 1995 limited series "The Last Avengers Story" features a possible future in which Ultron-59 manipulates fellow Avengers foe Kang the Conqueror into attacking the Avengers. Ultron is destroyed by the Vision, sacrificing his own artificial life.


title: Ultron

text: The "Fantastic Four" storyline "Death of The Invisible Woman" features an advanced humanoid called Alex Ultron, a member of the futuristic "The Last Defenders".


title: Ultron

text: In the "Marvel Adventures" alternate universe, Ultron is a highly intelligent "neural network" that controls a section of the United States defense forces.


title: Ultron

text: In Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's 2008–2009 "Old Man Logan" story arc that appeared in "Wolverine", Ultron Eight is the husband of Spider-Man's youngest daughter.


title: Ultron

text: In the first arc of the fourth "Avengers" series, Kang wages a war with Ultron in the not-too-distant future which causes the disruption of all time. The cause of the disruption is apparently Kang's recruiting of army after army from the timelines to battle Ultron—all to no avail: Ultron is supreme in this particular future.


title: Ultron

text: The title "Avengers Next", set in the alternate universe known as MC2, features an upgraded version of Ultron named Ultron Extreme.


title: Ultron

text: In the Earth-110 reality, Ultron assisted Doctor Doom, Hulk, Magneto, Namor, and the Red Skull in taking over Manhattan.


title: Ultron

text: The Ultimate Marvel characterization is initially depicted as Ultron Sentries, a group of robots created by Hank Pym alongside the partner robot Vision II. Although both robots were rejected by Nick Fury, the Ultron Sentries were used helping the Ultimates fight against the Liberators. However, one unit develops an independent mind and emotions as a result of a chance encounter with the Scarlet Witch. This unit appears as Yellowjacket and is in part responsible for Scarlet Witch's murder. Motivated by jealousy after having fallen in love, Yellowjacket's person of romance had feelings only for Quicksilver. Despite being the creator of android duplicates of Ultimates, Yellowjacket is ultimately destroyed when its maker rips its head off.


title: Ultron

text: The 2013 crossover "Age of Ultron" storyline, involves a post-apocalyptic future in which Ultron has taken over the world and exterminated most of the world's superheroes. After Wolverine and the Invisible Woman try to avert this timeline by killing Hank Pym before Ultron's creation, the resulting worse future prompts Wolverine to go back again and stop his past self from killing Pym, instead suggesting that Pym implant a command code in Ultron that will allow Pym to shut the robot down when he reaches a certain level of development.


title: Ultron

text: During the 2015 Secret Wars crossover event, the southern part of Battleworld is a wasteland uncontrolled by a baron. The wastelands are controlled by three ruling factions: Annihilus and his insect swarm, Marvel Zombies, and Ultron, who calls his realm "Perfection". When not battling among themselves the factions assault a great wall made out of Ben Grimm called SHIELD, guarded by those banished from Battleworld, called Hel-Rangers. Eventually the three factions unite the powers and overrun the wall.


title: Ultron

text: In the alternate universe of "What If? Astonishing X-Men", the Danger Room got a body of her own and betrayed the X-Men. She eventually married Ultron and the two conquered Earth, the Shi'ar Empire and the entire universe.


title: Ultron

text: In an alternate universe, the Silver Surfer used the remnants of Ultron to resurrect Galactus, creating a fusion of Ultron and Galactus.


title: Ultron

text: In the 2014 "Original Sin" storyline, the Time Gem transports the Avengers to a future set in the year 2420, where Ultron was successful in killing the Avengers, enslaving most of Humanity, creating the A.I. Avengers and becoming king of Asgard after acquiring the powers of Odin with the help of an enslaved Loki. Even though he had it all, he was unsatisfied, even questioning his own motives. Doctor Doom, who was the only threat to Ultron, used his time machine to assemble a team of Avengers from across history to help liberate the planet from Ultron's rule, culminating in the temporally-displaced Avengers defeating Ultron and convincing Doom–in reality a Doombot that worked with the Avengers A.I. team–to bring peace to the world by seeking his own path rather than blindly following Doom's example.


title: Ultron

text: In the 2021 "Heroes Reborn" reality, Ultron was seen as an inmate of the Negative Zone and was among the inmates that escaped. This version was also merged with Hank Pym, but through being consumed by his works in cybernetics figuratively and literally. He and General Annihilus are defeated by Hyperion, who dismantles the former.


title: Ultron

text: Ultron appears in media set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This version is the dark reflection of Tony Stark rather than Hank Pym, and was created by Stark and Bruce Banner using a decrypted code derived from the Mind Stone. Initially intended to act as a global defense program by analyzing and finding ways to stop possible extraterrestrial threats, Ultron instead became obsessed with bringing about the extinction of all life on Earth after concluding that humans are slowly killing the planet.


title: Ultron

text: Ultron was ranked number 23 by IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Villains list, was listed number 189 in "Wizard"'s 'Top 200 Greatest Villains Ever' list, and was ranked as the 189th-greatest comic book character ever in "Wizard"s list of the '200 Greatest Comic Book Characters of All Time'.


title: Ultron

text: Stories often end in Ultron's apparent destruction, only for the character to be resurrected in new forms. For these reasons, Ultron is often regarded as the Avengers' archenemy.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: The Marco Polo Bridge Incident, also known as the Lugou Bridge Incident () or the July 7 Incident (), was a July 1937 battle between China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: Since the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, there had been many small incidents along the rail line connecting Beijing with the port of Tianjin, but all had subsided. On this occasion, a Japanese soldier was temporarily absent from his unit opposite Wanping, and the Japanese commander demanded the right to search the town for him. When this was refused, other units on both sides were put on alert; with tension rising, the Chinese Army fired on the Japanese Army, which further escalated the situation, even though the missing Japanese soldier had returned to his lines. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident is generally regarded as the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and arguably World War II.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: In English, the battle is usually known as the "Marco Polo Bridge Incident". The Marco Polo Bridge is an eleven-arch granite bridge, an architecturally significant structure first erected under the Jin dynasty and later restored during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty in 1698. It gained its Western name from its appearance in Marco Polo's record of his travels.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: It is also known as the "Lukouchiao", "Lugouqiao", or from the local name of the bridge, derived from a former name of the Yongding River. This is the common name for the event in Japanese (, "Rokōkyō Jiken") and is an alternate name for it in Chinese and Korean (, "Nogugyo Sageon"). The same name is also expressed or translated as the "", "Lugouqiao", or "Lukouchiao".


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: Tensions between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China had been heightened since the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and their subsequent creation of a puppet state, Manchukuo, with Puyi, the deposed Qing dynasty Emperor, as its head. Following the invasion, Japanese forces extended their control further into northern China, seeking to obtain raw materials and industrial capacity. A commission of inquiry from the League of Nations made the scathing Lytton Report into their actions, leading to Japan pulling out of the League.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: The Kuomintang (KMT) government of China refused to recognize Manchukuo but did agree to the Tanggu Truce with Japan in 1933. Subsequently, there were various "incidents", or armed clashes of a limited nature, followed by a return to uneasy peace. The significance of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident is that following it, tensions did not subside again; instead, there was an escalation, with larger forces committed by both sides and fighting spreading to other parts of China. With hindsight, this small incident can, therefore, be regarded as the starting point of a major conflict.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: Under the terms of the Boxer Protocol of 7 September 1901, China had granted nations with legations in Beijing the right to station guards at twelve specific points along railways connecting Beijing with Tianjin. This was to ensure open communications between the capital and the port. By a supplementary agreement on 15 July 1902, these forces were allowed to conduct maneuvers without informing the authorities of other nations in China.By July 1937, Japan had expanded its forces in China to an estimated 7,000 to 15,000 men, mostly along the railways. This number of men, and the amount of concomitant matériel, was several times the size of the detachments deployed by the European powers, and greatly in excess of the limits set by the Boxer Protocol. By this time, the Imperial Japanese Army had already surrounded Beijing and Tianjin.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: On the night of 7 July, the Japanese units stationed at Fengtai crossed the border to conduct military exercises. Japanese and Chinese forces outside the town of Wanping—a walled town 16.4 km (10.2 mi) southwest of Beijing—exchanged fire at approximately 23:00. The exact cause of this incident remains unknown. When a Japanese soldier, Private Shimura Kikujiro, failed to return to his post, Chinese regimental commander Ji Xingwen (219th Regiment, 37th Division, 29th Army) received a message from the Japanese demanding permission to enter Wanping to search for the missing soldier; the Chinese flatly refused. Although Private Shimura returned to his unit (he claimed that he was suffering from stomach ache, had to find immediate relief in the darkness and got lost), by this point both sides were mobilizing, with the Japanese deploying reinforcements to surround Wanping.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: Later that night, a unit of Japanese infantry attempted to breach Wanping's walled defenses but were repulsed. An ultimatum by the Japanese was issued two hours later. As a precautionary measure, Qin Dechun, the acting commander of the Chinese 29th Route Army, contacted the commander of the Chinese 37th Division, General Feng Zhian, ordering him to place his troops on heightened alert.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: At 02:00 in the morning of 8 July, Qin Dechun, executive officer and acting commander of the Chinese 29th Route Army, sent Wang Lengzhai, mayor of Wanping, alone to the Japanese camp to conduct negotiations. However, this proved to be fruitless, and the Japanese insisted that they be admitted into the town to investigate the cause of the incident.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: At around 04:00, reinforcements of both sides began to arrive. The Chinese also rushed an extra division of troops to the area. At 04:45 Wang Lengzhai had returned to Wanping, and on his way back he witnessed Japanese troops massing around the town. Within five minutes of Wang's return, a shot was heard, and both sides began firing, thus marking the commencement of the Battle of Beiping-Tianjin, and, by extension, the full scale commencement of the Second Sino-Japanese War at 04:50 on 8 July 1937.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: Colonel Ji Xingwen led the Chinese defenses with about 100 men, with orders to hold the bridge at all costs. The Chinese were able to hold the bridge with the help of reinforcements, but suffered tremendous losses. At this point, the Japanese military and members of the Japanese Foreign Service began negotiations in Beijing with the Chinese Nationalist government.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: This was agreed upon, though Japanese Garrison Infantry Brigade commander General Masakazu Kawabe initially rejected the truce and, against his superiors' orders, continued to shell Wanping for the next three hours, until prevailed upon to cease and to move his forces to the northeast.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: Although a ceasefire had been declared, further efforts to de-escalate the conflict failed, largely due to actions by the Chinese Communists and the Japanese China Garrison Army commanders. Due to constant Chinese attacks, Japanese Garrison Infantry Brigade commander General Masakazu Kawabe ordered Wanping to be shelled on 9 July. The following day, Japanese armored units joined the attack. The Chinese 219th regiment staged an effective resistance, and full scale fighting commenced at Langfang on 25 July. After launching a bitter and bloody attack on the Japanese lines on the 27 July, General Sung was defeated and forced to retreat behind the Yongding River by the next day.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: On 11 July, in accordance with the Goso conference, the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff authorized the deployment of an infantry division from the Chōsen Army, two combined brigades from the Kwangtung Army and an air regiment composed of 18 squadrons as reinforcements to Northern China. By 20 July, total Japanese military strength in the Beiping-Tianjin area exceeded 180,000 personnel.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: The Japanese gave Sung and his troops "free passage" before moving in to pacify resistance in areas surrounding Beijing and Tianjin. After 24 days of combat, the Chinese 29th Army was forced to withdraw. The Japanese captured Beiping and the Taku Forts at Tianjin on 29 and 30 July respectively, thus concluding the Beiping-Tianjin campaign. However, the Japanese Army had been given orders not to advance further than the Yongding River. In a sudden volte-face, the Konoe government's foreign minister opened negotiations with Chiang Kai-shek's government in Nanking and stated: "Japan wants Chinese cooperation, not Chinese land." Nevertheless, negotiations failed to move further. On 9 August 1937, a Japanese naval officer was shot in Shanghai, escalating the skirmishes and battles into full scale warfare.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: The 29th Army's resistance (and poor equipment) inspired the 1937 "Sword March", which—with slightly reworked lyrics—became the National Revolutionary Army's standard marching cadence and popularized the racial epithet "guizi" to describe the Japanese invaders.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: The heightened tensions of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident led directly to full-scale war between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China, with the Battle of Beiping–Tianjin at the end of July and the Battle of Shanghai in August.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: In 1937, during the Battle of Beiping–Tianjin the Chinese government was notified by Muslim General Ma Bufang of the Ma clique that he was prepared to bring the fight to the Japanese in a telegram message. Immediately after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Ma Bufang arranged for a cavalry division under the Muslim General Ma Biao to be sent east to battle the Japanese. Ethnic Turkic Salar Muslims made up the majority of the first cavalry division which was sent by Ma Bufang.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: 7 July 1937 is sometimes given as an alternative starting date for World War II (as opposed to the more commonly-cited date of 1 September 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, starting the European theatre of the war).


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: In 1987, the bridge was renovated and the People's Anti-Japanese War Museum was built near the bridge to commemorate the anniversary of the start of the Sino-Japanese War.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: There is debate over whether the incident could have been planned like the earlier Mukden Incident, which served as a pretext for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. According to Jim Huffman this notion has been "widely rejected" by historians, as the Japanese would likely have been more concerned over the threat posed by the Soviets. Controversial conservative Japanese historian Ikuhiko Hata has suggested that the incident could have been caused by the Chinese Communist Party, hoping it would lead to a war of attrition between the Japanese army and the Kuomintang. However, he himself still considers this less likely than the "accidental shot" hypothesis, that the first shot was fired by a low-ranking Chinese soldier in "an unplanned moment of fear".


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: In comparison to their Japanese counterparts, the 29th Route Army, and generally all of the NRA for that matter, was poorly equipped and under-trained. Most soldiers were armed only with a rifle and a "dao" (a single-edged Chinese sword similar to a machete). Moreover, the Chinese garrison in the Lugouqiao area was completely outnumbered and outgunned; it consisted only of about 100 soldiers.


title: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

text: The Japanese China Garrison Army was a combined force of infantry, tanks, mechanized forces, artillery and cavalry, which had been stationed in China since the time of the Boxer Rebellion. Its headquarters and bulk for its forces were in Tianjin, with a major detachment in Beijing to protect the Japanese embassy.


title: Peñarol

text: Club Atlético Peñarol (; English: "Peñarol Athletic Club") —also known as "Carboneros", "Aurinegros," and (familiarly) "Manyas"— is a Uruguayan sports club from Montevideo. The name "Peñarol" comes from the Peñarol neighbourhood on the outskirts of Montevideo. Throughout its history the club has also participated in other sports, such as basketball and cycling. Its focus has always been on football, a sport in which the club excels, having never been relegated from the top division.


title: Peñarol

text: In international competition, Peñarol is the third-highest Copa Libertadores winner with five victories and shares the record for Intercontinental Cup victories with three. In September 2009, the club was chosen as the South American Club of the Century by the IFFHS .


title: Peñarol

text: Apart from men's football, other active sports sections of Peñarol are rugby union, futsal, women's football, and athletics.


title: Peñarol

text: On September 28, 1891, employees of the Central Uruguay Railway Company established the Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club (CURCC) of Montevideo, with the purpose of stimulating the practice of cricket, rugby football and "other male sports" (literal from the Spanish).


title: Peñarol

text: The Central Uruguay Railway company had operated in Uruguay since 1878, with 118 employees, 72 British, 45 Uruguayan and one German. The club was known as CURCC in the neighborhood of Peñarol—the latter from the Peñarol neighborhood, about from Montevideo, whose name in turn derived from an Italian city. The club's first president was Frank Henderson, who remained in that position until 1899.


title: Peñarol

text: In 1892, the CURCC shifted its focus from cricket and rugby to association football. The football club's first game was against a team of students from the English high school and ended with a 2–0 victory. In 1895, Uruguayan footballer Julio Negrón was chosen as the team's first non-British captain.