title: Banff, Alberta

text: One of the most notable figures of Banff was Norman Luxton, who was known as "Mr. Banff". He published the Crag and Canyon newspaper, built the King Edward Hotel and the Lux Theatre, and founded the Sign of the Goat Curio Shop, which led to the development of the Luxton Museum of Plains Indians, now the Buffalo Nations Museum. He and his family helped organize the Banff Indian Days and the Banff Winter Carnival.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: In 1976, the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (IAU/WGPSN) officially adopted the name Banff for a crater on Mars, after the town in Alberta. The crater is at latitude 17.7° north and longitude 30.8° west. Its diameter is .


title: Banff, Alberta

text: In 1991, Banff hosted the 1991 Winter Deaflympics, the first Deaflympics hosted in Canada, and the only Deaflympics held in Canada since then.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the town chose to temporarily close portions of its main street to vehicle traffic to create a Downtown Pedestrian Zone. The Banff Town Council said the pedestrian zone will stay in effect until at least 2023.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: It is surrounded by mountains, notably Mount Rundle, Sulphur Mountain, Mount Norquay, and Cascade Mountain. The town is above Bow Falls near the confluence of the Bow River and Spray River. Soils are calcareous and usually imperfectly to poorly drained in their natural state with textures from very fine sandy loam to silty clay loam.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: Banff experiences a subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification "Dfc") that borders on a humid continental climate (Köppen "Dfb").


title: Banff, Alberta

text: Winter temperatures range from an average low of to an average high of . Summer temperatures in the warmest month are an average high of and an average low of . Snow has been recorded in all months of the year. The annual snowfall averages .


title: Banff, Alberta

text: The highest temperature ever recorded was on June 29, 2021, during the 2021 Western North America heat wave.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Banff had a population of 8,305 living in 2,930 of its 3,287 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 7,851. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: The population of the Town of Banff according to its 2017 municipal census is 8,875, an increase of from its 2014 municipal census population of 8,421.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: In the Canada 2016 Census conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Banff recorded a population of 7,851 living in 2,543 of its 2,729 total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of 7,584. With a land area of , Banff had a population density of in 2016.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: Parks Canada enforces requirements that individuals must meet to reside in the town, in order "to ensure that a broad supply of housing types are available for those who work and raise families in the community".


title: Banff, Alberta

text: There are several mountains located immediately adjacent to the townsite, including Mount Rundle (); Cascade Mountain (); and Mount Norquay (). Mount Norquay has a ski slope as well as mountain biking trails on the Stoney Squaw portion, and Via Ferrata (an assisted climbing experience). A tourist attraction, the Banff Gondola, is available to ascend Sulphur Mountain () where a boardwalk (Banff Skywalk) beginning from the upper terminal connects to Sanson Peak. Sulphur Mountain is also the location of the Banff Upper Hot Springs.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: Lake Minnewanka located six minutes north of the townsite is a day-use area with a variety of activities. Mountain biking, hiking, and fishing are allowed in this part of the park. A Lake Cruise, motor boat rentals, and a small food concession are available at the marina.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: Tunnel Mountain (formerly known as Sleeping Buffalo Mountain) () is situated within the townsite and has a summit that can be scaled in less than half an hour. It was named Tunnel Mountain because surveyors initially wanted to make a tunnel for the Canadian Pacific Railway right through the mountain, instead of following the Bow River Valley. Located on the side of Tunnel Mountain is the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, which hosts events, including outdoor concerts, dance, opera, and theatre.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: Banff is home to the Banff World Television Festival, Banff Mountain Film Festival, Rocky Mountain Music Festival, and Bike Fest. The town is also the starting point of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, which terminates at Antelope Wells, New Mexico in the United States.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: For several years there has been an annual long-distance relay run between Banff and Jasper, Alberta (formerly known as the Jasper to Banff Relay).


title: Banff, Alberta

text: Banff has a long history of hosting Team Canada hockey training camps, including Canada's 2012 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships team when the event was held in Alberta and the 1984 Canada Cup squad which practiced there, before the start of the tournament.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: In June 2008, the Banff council launched a local bus system called Roam, with three routes connecting the town, Tunnel Mountain, the Banff Springs Hotel, and the Banff Gondola. The service is operated using four hybrid Nova buses, each decorated with scenes from the National Park. There are three separate routes:


title: Banff, Alberta

text: Many bus stops along the routes have screens that tell exactly how many minutes before the next two buses arrive. In December 2012, the bus system was expanded to include the Route 3 hourly service between Banff and Canmore.


title: Banff, Alberta

text: Via Rail's long-distance trains no longer serve Banff, but the Banff railway station remains in use by the Rocky Mountaineer and Royal Canadian Pacific tour trains.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II (; July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) director in the musical theater for almost 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: He is best known for his collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers, as the duo Rodgers and Hammerstein, whose musicals include "Oklahoma!", "Carousel", "South Pacific", "The King and I", and "The Sound of Music". Described by Stephen Sondheim as an "experimental playwright", Hammerstein helped bring the American musical to new maturity by popularizing musicals that focused on stories and character rather than the lighthearted entertainment that the musical had been known for beforehand.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: He also collaborated with Jerome Kern (with whom he wrote "Show Boat"), Vincent Youmans, Rudolf Friml, Richard A. Whiting, and Sigmund Romberg.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was born in New York City, the son of Alice Hammerstein ( Nimmo) and theatrical manager William Hammerstein. His grandfather was the German theater impresario Oscar Hammerstein I. His father was from a Jewish family, and his mother was the daughter of British parents. He attended the Church of the Divine Paternity, now the Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: Although Hammerstein's father managed the Victoria Theatre and was a producer of vaudeville shows, he was opposed to his son's desire to participate in the arts.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: Hammerstein attended Columbia University (1912–1916) and studied at Columbia Law School until 1917. As a student, he maintained high grades and engaged in numerous extracurricular activities. These included playing first base on the baseball team, performing in the Varsity Show and becoming an active member of Pi Lambda Phi, a mostly Jewish fraternity.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: After his father's death, in June 1914, when he was 19, he participated in his first play with the Varsity Show, entitled "On Your Way". Throughout the rest of his college career, Hammerstein wrote and performed in several Varsity Shows.<ref name="PBS-broadway/stars"></ref>


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: After quitting law school to pursue theater, Hammerstein began his first professional collaboration, with Herbert Stothart, Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel. He began as an apprentice and went on to form a 20-year collaboration with Harbach. Out of this collaboration came his first musical, "Always You", for which he wrote the book and lyrics. It opened on Broadway in 1920. In 1921 Hammerstein joined The Lambs club.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: Throughout the next forty years, Hammerstein teamed up with many other composers, including Jerome Kern, with whom Hammerstein enjoyed a highly successful collaboration. In 1927, Kern and Hammerstein wrote their biggest hit based on Edna Ferber's bestselling eponymous novel, "Show Boat", which is often revived, as it is considered one of the masterpieces of American musical theater. "Here we come to a completely new genre—the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. Now ... the play was the thing, and everything else was subservient to that play. Now ... came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity." Many years later, Hammerstein's wife Dorothy bristled when she overheard someone remark that Jerome Kern had written "Ol' Man River". "Indeed not", she retorted. "Jerome Kern wrote 'dum, dum, dum-dum'. My husband wrote 'Ol' Man River'."


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: Other Kern–Hammerstein musicals include "Sunny", "Sweet Adeline", "Music in the Air", "Three Sisters", and "Very Warm for May". Hammerstein also collaborated with Vincent Youmans ("Wildflower"), Rudolf Friml ("Rose-Marie"), and Sigmund Romberg ("The Desert Song" and "The New Moon").


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: Hammerstein's most successful and sustained collaboration began when he teamed up with Richard Rodgers to write a musical adaptation of the play "Green Grow the Lilacs". Rodgers' first partner, Lorenz Hart, originally planned to collaborate with Rodgers on this piece, but his alcoholism had spiraled out of control, rendering him incapacitated. Hart was also not certain that the idea had much merit, and the two therefore separated. The adaptation became the first Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration, entitled "Oklahoma!", which opened on Broadway in 1943. It furthered the revolution begun by "Show Boat", by thoroughly integrating all the aspects of musical theater, with the songs and dances arising out of and further developing the plot and characters.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird wrote that this was a "show, that, like "Show Boat", became a milestone, such that subsequent historians writing about important moments in twentieth-century theater began to identify eras according to their relationship to "Oklahoma!"" After "Oklahoma!", Rodgers and Hammerstein were the most important contributors to the musical-play form—with such masterworks as "Carousel", "The King and I" and "South Pacific". "The examples they set in creating vital plays, often rich with social thought, provided the necessary encouragement for other gifted writers to create musical plays of their own".


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: The partnership went on to produce not only the aforementioned, but also other Broadway musicals such as "Allegro", "Me and Juliet", "Pipe Dream", "Flower Drum Song", and "The Sound of Music", as well as the musical film "State Fair" (and its stage adaptation of the same name), and the television musical "Cinderella", all featured in the revue "A Grand Night for Singing". Hammerstein also wrote the book and lyrics for "Carmen Jones", an adaptation of Georges Bizet's opera "Carmen", with an all-black cast that became a 1943 Broadway musical and a 1954 film, starring Dorothy Dandridge.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: An active advocate for writers' rights within the theater industry, Hammerstein was a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. In 1956, he was elected as the eleventh president of the nonprofit organization. He continued his presidency at the Guild until 1960; he was succeeded by Alan Jay Lerner.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: Hammerstein married his first wife, Myra Finn, in 1917; the couple divorced in 1929. He married his second wife, the Australian-born Dorothy (Blanchard) Jacobson (1899–1987), in 1929. He had three children: William Hammerstein (1918–2001) and Alice Hammerstein Mathias (1922–2015) by his first wife, and James Hammerstein (1931–1999) by his second wife, with whom he also had a stepson, Henry Jacobson, and a stepdaughter, Susan Blanchard.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: Oscar Hammerstein died of stomach cancer on August 23, 1960, at his home Highland Farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, aged 65, nine months after the opening of "The Sound of Music" on Broadway. The final song he wrote was "Edelweiss", which was added near the end of the second act during rehearsal. The lights of Times Square were turned off for one minute, and London's West End lights were dimmed in recognition of his contribution to the musical. He was cremated, and his ashes were buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. A memorial plaque was unveiled at Southwark Cathedral, England, on May 24, 1961.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: After Hammerstein's death, "The Sound of Music" was adapted as a 1965 film, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: Hammerstein was one of the most important "book writers" in Broadway history—he made the story, not the songs or the stars, central to the musical and brought musical theater to full maturity as an art form. According to Stephen Sondheim, "What few people understand is that Oscar's big contribution to the theater was as a theoretician, as a Peter Brook, as an innovator. People don't understand how experimental "Show Boat" and "Oklahoma!" felt at the time they were done. Oscar is not about the 'lark that is learning to pray'—that's easy to make fun of. He's about "Allegro"", Hammerstein's most experimental musical.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: His reputation for being sentimental is based largely on the movie versions of the musicals, especially "The Sound of Music", in which a song sung by those in favor of reaching an accommodation with the Nazis, "No Way to Stop It", was cut. As recent revivals of "Show Boat", "Oklahoma!", "Carousel", and "The King and I" in London and New York show, Hammerstein was one of the more tough-minded and socially conscious American musical theater artists. According to Richard Kislan, "The shows of Rodgers and Hammerstein were the product of sincerity. In the light of criticism directed against them and their universe of sweetness and light, it is important to understand that they believed sincerely in what they wrote." According to Marc Bauch, "The Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals are romantic musical plays. Love is important."


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: According to "The Rodgers and Hammerstein Story" by Stanley Green, "For three minutes, on the night of September first, the entire Times Square area in New York City was blacked out in honor of the man who had done so much to light up that particular part of the world. From 8:57 to 9:00 p.m., every neon sign and every light bulb was turned off and all traffic was halted between 42nd Street and 53rd Street, and between eighth Ave and the Avenue of the Americas. A crowd of 5,000 people, many with heads bowed, assembled at the base of the statue of Father Duffy on Times Square where two trumpeters blew taps. It was the most complete blackout on Broadway since World War II, and the greatest tribute of its kind ever paid to one man."


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: According to "The Complete Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II", edited by Amy Asch, Hammerstein contributed the lyrics to 850 songs, including "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" and "Make Believe" from "Show Boat"; "Indian Love Call" from "Rose-Marie"; "People Will Say We're in Love" and "Oklahoma" (which has been the official state song of Oklahoma since 1953) from "Oklahoma!"; "Some Enchanted Evening", from "South Pacific"; "Getting to Know You" and "Shall We Dance" from "The King and I"; and the title song as well as "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" from "The Sound of Music".


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: Several albums of Hammerstein's musicals were named to the "Songs of the Century" list as compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the National Endowment for the Arts, and Scholastic Corporation:


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: Hammerstein won two Oscars for best original song—in 1941 for "The Last Time I Saw Paris" in the film "Lady Be Good", and in 1945 for "It Might as Well Be Spring" in "State Fair." In 1950, the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York."


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards, six for lyrics or book, and two as producer of the Best Musical ("South Pacific" and "The Sound of Music"). Rodgers and Hammerstein began writing together before the era of the Tonys: "Oklahoma!" opened in 1943 and "Carousel" in 1945, and the Tony Awards were not awarded until 1947. They won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for "Oklahoma!" and, with Joshua Logan, the annual Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950 for "South Pacific". The Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theater Studies at Columbia University was established in 1981 with a $1 million gift from his family.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: His advice and work influenced Stephen Sondheim, a friend of the Hammerstein family from childhood. Sondheim has attributed his success in theater, and especially as a lyricist, directly to Hammerstein's influence and guidance.


title: Oscar Hammerstein II

text: The Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theater is presented annually. The York Theatre Company of New York City is the administrator of the award. Past awardees are composers such as Stephen Sondheim and performers such as Carol Channing.


title: Terry Pegula

text: Terrence Michael Pegula (born March 27, 1951) is an American billionaire businessman and petroleum engineer. He is the owner of Pegula Sports and Entertainment which owns the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL) and, with his wife Kim Pegula, the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). Amassing his fortune via investments in fracking, he has interests in natural gas development, real estate, entertainment, and professional sports. His net worth is over $7 billion.


title: Terry Pegula

text: In February 2011, Pegula purchased Hockey Western New York LLC (the holding company that owns the Buffalo Sabres and the Buffalo Bandits of the National Lacrosse League) from previous owners Tom Golisano, Larry Quinn, and Dan DiPofi for $189 million. Pegula's purchase made an immediate positive impact, with players, fans and alumni invigorated by his investment in the team, the then First Niagara Center and the building of Harborcenter across the street. Pegula was quoted as saying, "Starting today, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence, will be to win a Stanley Cup."


title: Terry Pegula

text: However, in the decade that followed, the Buffalo Sabres posted a 281-354-94 record and held the longest active NHL post-season drought. Pegula and his wife have been heavily criticized for meddling in the Sabres' hockey operations. Many fans and critics alike have attributed the team's firing of six head coaches and three general managers since 2013 to this, as well as other controversial moves such as the trades of Ryan O'Reilly and Jack Eichel.


title: Terry Pegula

text: Included in the Sabres purchase was their National Lacrosse League (NLL) counterpart, the Buffalo Bandits, which have won four NLL championships.


title: Terry Pegula

text: In May 2011, Pegula began negotiations on behalf of the Sabres to re-purchase the Rochester Americans, which had served as the Sabres' American Hockey League affiliate from 1979 to 2008 (and had been owned by the Sabres from 1979 to 1996); the deal was completed in late June 2011. As part of the deal the Americans had to be split off from its NLL counterpart the Rochester Knighthawks since Pegula owned the Bandits due to ownership rules at the time. Along with the purchase of the Americans came upgrades to the team's arena, the Blue Cross Arena.


title: Terry Pegula

text: On September 9, 2014, it was announced that Pegula had placed the winning binding bid to purchase the National Football League's Buffalo Bills, a team that was placed up for sale after the death of the original owner and team founder, Ralph Wilson. Pegula was a favorite among most local Bills fans and local politicians to buy the team due to his commitment to the Western New York area and local connections. He competed against future U.S. President Donald Trump and musician Jon Bon Jovi, the latter of whom was backed by principals of the Toronto-based Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, for purchase of the team. It was reported that the Pegulas made a $1.4 billion bid, all in cash. On September 17, 2014, the Pegulas were unanimously approved by the NFL's finance committee and were then scheduled to be presented at the NFL owners' meeting on October 8, 2014, for final owner approval; the Pegulas received unanimous approval from the league's owners on October 8 and closed the deal on October 10.


title: Terry Pegula

text: Pegula's first major order of business was to end the Bills Toronto Series, which he did in an agreement reached on December 3, 2014.


title: Terry Pegula

text: Upon the purchase of the Bills, Pegula and his wife Kim introduced "One Buffalo", a marketing campaign which has since evolved into a brand used across all of their sports teams and associated products.


title: Terry Pegula

text: On March 28, 2022, it was announced that a deal had been reached between New York State, Erie County and the Pegulas for a 62,000 seat, $1.4 billion new stadium for the Bills in Orchard Park across the street from the current stadium. New York State will contribute $600 million in funding with Erie County contributing $250 million, the Pegulas contributing $350 million and the National football league via a G-4 loan $200 million. In addition the Pegulas signed the Bills to a 30-year iron clad lease. The stadium would be owned by New York State, a change from the current stadium which is owned by Erie County. New York committed to pay the maintenance and repair costs of the stadium. It was set to be the largest taxpayer contribution ever for a National Football League facility. The agreement was released four days before the New York state budget was due to be passed, making it hard for lawmakers to scrutinize the agreement. Critics of the agreement characterized it as corporate welfare.


title: Terry Pegula

text: On December 21, 2017, it was announced that Pegula had acquired the Buffalo Beauts of the league then known as the National Women's Hockey League and now as the Premier Hockey Federation. This made the Beauts the first NWHL team not owned by the league, the first professional women's hockey team in North America owned by the same person that owned the market's NHL team and got Pegula into women's hockey. Pegula divested the Beauts in 2019.


title: Terry Pegula

text: In 2018, Pegula reached an agreement to purchase the intellectual property of the Rochester Knighthawks of the National Lacrosse League in autumn 2019. Curt Styres orchestrated the sale as he planned on moving his staff and roster to a new Halifax NLL team set to debut in the winter of 2020.


title: Terry Pegula

text: After working for a time for Getty Oil and Felmont Oil Co., Pegula founded East Resources a natural gas drilling company, with $7,500 from family and friends in 1983. It profited heavily upon discovery of deep layers of natural gas in the Marcellus Formation and development of the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") recovery process. Pegula eventually sold the Pennsylvania, New York, and Rocky Mountain assets of the company to Royal Dutch Shell for approximately $4.7 billion. He sold the Ohio and West Virginia assets of the company to American Energy Partners, LP for $1.75 billion in 2014. Pegula also owns Greater Rocky Mountain Regional Oil & Gas in Colorado and Wyoming, and JKLM Energy in Pennsylvania.


title: Terry Pegula

text: In 2012, he won a bid for the development rights to the Webster Block on Buffalo's waterfront. The $170 million hockey-themed LECOM Harborcenter building, which is anchored by the two rinks, a large parking garage, retail, restaurants and a hotel, mostly opened in November 2014 with the rinks, restaurants and parking garage fully completed and opened in August 2015 with the completion and opening of the hotel and retail. Pegula is also the operator of KeyBank Center and Blue Cross Arena. In 2017, Pegula purchased 79 Perry Street, near KeyBank Center and teamed up with Labatt USA to redevelop the building into a mixed use facility including a small test brewery called the "Labatt Brew House" and restaurant called "The Draft Room" as well as Labatt's U.S. headquarters, Pegula Sports and Entertainment's headquarters, and residential space.


title: Terry Pegula

text: Pegula also owns a share of Black River Entertainment, an independent country music label. The label features such acts as Kelsea Ballerini, Kellie Pickler and Craig Morgan as well as the related Black River Publishing and Sound Stage Studio all under the Black River label based in Nashville, Tennessee.


title: Terry Pegula

text: Also under the Pegula umbrella is "Impact Sports Performance", two high performance athletic training facilities which are based in Boca Raton, Florida and LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo. Pegula owned "716 Food and Sport", a two floor sports themed restaurant which serves as the main business tenant of LECOM Harborcenter until he sold it to Southern Tier Brewing Company in 2021.


title: Terry Pegula

text: Through a partnership with Southern Tier Brewing Company, Pegula launched a "One Buffalo" branded craft beer that sells at all Pegula-owned properties and elsewhere in the region. The One Buffalo brand has also been extended to a flavor of Perry's Ice Cream (which already licensed Bills and Sabres themed flavors prior to Pegula's purchases of the teams) and premium cupcakes, both formulated by Pegula's wife, a pronounced fan of desserts.


title: Terry Pegula

text: In July 2022, Pegula established Bison Wealth, a back-office consulting service based in Atlanta, Georgia.


title: Terry Pegula

text: An alumnus of Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), Pegula donated $102 million for the construction of the on-campus Pegula Ice Arena in 2010. As a result, the Penn State Nittany Lions, which had fielded club teams in both men's and women's hockey for years, would be able to transition both teams into NCAA Division I starting in the 2012–13 season.


title: Terry Pegula

text: This led to a domino effect across the men's college hockey landscape. Because six Big Ten universities now had Division I men's hockey programs (the minimum number of teams required under Big Ten bylaws for official conference sponsorship, and also the minimum required for a conference to be an automatic postseason qualifier), it was announced that Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State would join Penn State in the Big Ten hockey conference starting in the 2013–2014 season. As a result, the CCHA ceased operations, with most schools (save for the three that joined the Big Ten and Notre Dame) joining the WCHA. Miami University and Western Michigan University, also previously in the CCHA, joined the upstart National Collegiate Hockey Conference along with former WCHA members St. Cloud State, Minnesota-Duluth, Denver, Colorado College, Nebraska-Omaha, and North Dakota. Ex-CCHA member Notre Dame joined Hockey East, which then recruited UConn from the Atlantic Hockey Association to begin play in Hockey East in 2014. After the dust settled, the ECAC was the only Division I conference not affected by the major conference realignment. Notre Dame subsequently left Hockey East in 2017 to join the Big Ten for hockey only.


title: Terry Pegula

text: Because Penn State's arrival gave the Big Ten only four varsity women's hockey programs, that conference was unable to add the sport, meaning that the women's hockey landscape did not undergo the radical changes that occurred in the men's game. The Penn State women's team settled in College Hockey America, a league that sponsors only women's hockey.


title: Terry Pegula

text: The Pegulas donated $12 million to Houghton College in Houghton, New York, of which Kim Pegula is an alumna, to build the Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex. The facility includes new baseball and softball stadiums and a 115,000 square-foot field house with an eight-lane 200-meter track, five tennis courts, weight room, cardiac fitness center, and locker rooms. The new facility is mainly targeted toward Houghton College intercollegiate athletics, which recently moved up to Division III Athletics and the Empire 8 Conference. It opened on October 4, 2014.


title: Terry Pegula

text: Pegula was born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. His father worked in truck driving and coal mining. He attended high school at Scranton Preparatory School. From there he attended college at Penn State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in petroleum and natural gas engineering. Beginning in 1985, he was based in Allegany, New York.


title: Terry Pegula

text: He currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida, along with his second wife, Kim Pegula (née Kerr), who grew up in Fairport, New York, and is a graduate of Houghton College. Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, and at age 5 was adopted in 1974 by Ralph and Marilyn Kerr. He has five children, two from a previous marriage (Michael and Laura) and three with Kim (Jessica, Kelly, and Matthew). Jessica Pegula is a top 10 tennis player on the Women's Tennis Association's Pro Circuit. Pegula owns a large yacht, christened "Top Five".


title: Terry Pegula

text: Though Pegula has been identified as a Republican, he does not speak publicly about his specific political views. Pegula and his wife have made political donations to politicians of both parties, generally to incumbents. In 2010, Pegula and his wife donated $305,000 to Republican Tom Corbett's campaign during the Pennsylvania governor's race; they were the largest contributors to the then Pennsylvania Attorney General. In New York, Pegula and his wife donated $25,000 to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's campaign during the 2014 elections and also donated $12,000 to Buffalo mayor Byron Brown, $2,500 to U.S. senator Chuck Schumer, and $250 to state senator Tim Kennedy, all Democrats. Pegula expressed support for legalizing ridesharing companies in upstate New York, the only area where it at the time remained illegal (as of 2017, New York State had only legalized it in New York City) and announced intent to partner with Uber to provide transportation to Pegula's sporting events.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: The Bangladesh Army is the land warfare branch and the largest component of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The primary mission of the Army is to provide necessary forces and capabilities to deliver the Bangladeshi government's security and defence strategies and defending the nation's territorial integrity against external attack. Control of personnel and operations is administered by the Army Headquarters, Dhaka. The Bangladesh Army is also constitutionally obligated to assist the government and its civilian agencies during times of domestic national emergency. This additional role is commonly referred to as "aid to civil administration".


title: Bangladesh Army

text: The martial tradition of Bengal has its roots in the army of Kings and their chiefs who were called Senapati or Mahasenapati. Armies were composed of infantry, cavalry, war elephants and war boats. The arrival of Muslims and the establishment of the Bengal Sultanate further strengthened the military. The sultanate had well organised disciplined armies. During Mughal rule cannons and artillery were introduced to Bengal. During the Colonial Rule of the British, Bengal was principally a bulwark of British power and trade in the South Asian region. The British under Robert Clive defeated a 50,000 strong Bengal Army of Nawab Siraj-ud-daullah in the Palashi(Plassey) in 1757 and later the forces of Nawab Mir Qasim at the Battle of Buxar in 1764. The Army of Bengal was formed, which later became part of a united British Indian Army from 1895 to 1947. The eastern part of the British India was a prominent place for military and police recruitment, with entire horse-mounted cavalry and lancer units being recruited there prior to the Bengal Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Post-mutiny, units with the epithet "Bengal" in their name, such as Bengal Sappers and Bengal Cavalry, were largely recruited from non-Bengali peoples from Bihar, Varanasi and Uttar Pradesh which were technically still part of Bengal Presidency at that time. During the First World War, the Bangali Paltan was formed to recruit soldiers from Bengal. In 1916, the British Government created Bengali Double Company. The soldiers were trained in Karachi and shipped to the Bagdad. They fought in the war and after the war helped crush a rebellion by Kurds in 1919.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: During the Second World War, British Armed Forces Eastern Command created an auxiliary force who were part engineers and part infantry named as Indian Pioneer Corps. Most of the soldiers were recruited from both West and East Bengal. This force assisted the main war effort by building roads, airfields, fortifications and, when needed, fought the Japanese in an infantry role. This force was organised in company groups attached to various regiments of Indian Army in direct support role. Captain Abdul Gani was a Company Commander in the Burma front and led his troops in battle. After the war these Pioneer Troops were concentrated in Jalna, India, waiting to be demobilised and return home. In 1946 Captain Ghani the then Adjutant and Quartermaster of Indian Pioneer Corps Centre at Jalna envisioned and generated the idea of forming an Infantry regiment out of the Pioneer soldiers from East Bengal who would be returning home demobilised, to the Centre Commander. After receiving permission from the Chief of Staff of Pakistan Army General Sir Frank Messervy, he organised his men to form the nucleus of an Infantry Regiment, the Bangali Paltan (Platoon).


title: Bangladesh Army

text: At the time of the creation of Pakistan Ghani got the approval of the then newly appointed Commander in Chief to Pakistan Army General Messervey to form the East Bengal Regiment composed solely of youths from East Bengal, would be East Pakistan. On 17 August 1947 General Messervey while bidding farewell to the Pioneer Corps soldiers from Bombay the General endorsed the views of Captain Ghani and said' you will prove to the world that Bengali soldiers are equally competent as other nations of the world.' With these inspiring words Captain Ghani moved to Dhaka in September 1947 with two Pioneer Companies and was temporarily located in Pilkhana now the Headquarters of Border Guards Bangladesh. He was later told by the administration to find a suitable place to accommodate the soldiers. He moved to the north of the Capital and found Kurmitola as the perfect place for a cantonment. Toiling day in and day out the barracks were constructed and jungles cleared, parade ground prepared.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: On 15 February 1948 the flag of First East Bengal Regiment the pioneer of Bangladesh Army was raised with Captain Ghani on the lead of all the affairs though the first commanding officer was British Lt Col V J E Patterson. after the raising of the first battalion the second battalion was approved Captain Gani began to recruit the personnel for the regiment. On 7 February 1949, the flag of the Second East Bengal was raised with the newly recruited soldiers and from personnel from First East Bengal. Before the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, a total of 8 battalions of the East Bengal Regiment were formed.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: In 1970 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman lead Bangladesh Awami League to win the General Elections of Pakistan. The Pakistan Army which was then in power refused to handover power and unrest broke out. On 25 March 1971 Pakistan Armed Forces cracked down on the civilian population of East Pakistan through the start of Operation Searchlight and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the independence of Bangladesh. The Pakistan Army and allied paramilitaries killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and uniformed personnel. As a result, in March 1971, Bengali soldiers in East Pakistan revolted and the Bangladesh Liberation War started. There was a Bangladesh Army Sector Commanders Conference during 11–17 July 1971. The conference was held three months after the oath of the newly formed Bangladesh Government at Meherpur, Kushtia. During this conference, the structure and formation as well as resolving issues surrounding the organisation of the various sectors, strategy and reinforcements of the Bangladeshi forces was determined. It was of considerable historical importance from a tactical point of view, as it determined the command structure of the Bangladeshi forces throughout Bangladesh Liberation War.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: This conference was presided over by the Bangladesh interim government in exile, headed by then Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed and Colonel (Retd.) M. A. G. Osmani was made the chairman of the "Joint Chiefs of Staff" of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. M. A. G. Osmani was reinstated into active duty from his retirement. Principal participants of this conference included: Squadron Leader M. Hamidullah Khan, Major Ziaur Rahman, Major Abdul Jalil, Captain ATM Haider, Lt. Col. MA Rab and Major Khaled Mosharraf.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: As a result of this meeting, Bangladesh was divided into eleven sectors. These sectors were placed under the control of Sector Commanders, who would direct the guerilla war against Pakistani occupation forces. For better efficiency in military operations each of the sectors were also divided into a number of sub-sectors. As a point of note, the 10th Sector was under direct command of the Commander-in-Chief and included the Naval Commando Unit as a C-in-C's special force.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Following the conference a period of prolonged guerrilla warfare was launched by Bangladesh Forces, which continued for a number of months. A further restructuring was undertaken and the Bangladesh Forces were organised into three brigade size combat groups:


title: Bangladesh Army

text: During the sensitive and formative years after the end of the war, personnel of the Mukti Bahini were absorbed into different branches of Bangladesh Army. In 1974 Bangladeshi soldiers and officers repatriated from Pakistan after the Bangladesh Liberation war were absorbed into Bangladesh Army.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: During the 1972-73 tenure, engineers, signals, army services, ordnance, military police, remount veterinary and farm and medical corps was established in Bangladesh Army. Bangladesh military academy was established in Cumilla cantonment in 1974. On 11 January 1975, the passing out parade of the first Bangladesh Army short course took place. In 1975 the President Guard Regiment (PGR) was established.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: There were suspicion among the army personnel of the formation of the paramilitary Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini and the addition of civilian Mukti Bahini members in it. These suspicions and misconceptions laid the foundation and formed the bedrock of disputes between professional army officers and the ruling administration which led to a very bloody chapter in the history of newly independent Bangladesh.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: On 15 August 1975 a few sacked army officers, disgruntled junior officers and NCOs secretly planned and assassinated President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his entire family at his personal residence in Dhanmondi, Dhaka, except for his two daughters (Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana) who were abroad. Five of those responsible officers were executed in January 2010 while others are still absconding and are outside Bangladesh. After the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman a new government, led by Khandkar Mushtaq Ahmed and supported by the coup plotters, was set in place. Khandakar Mushtaq passed the Indemnity ordinance which provided immunity to the assassins of Sheikh Muibur Rahman.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Three months later on 3 November 1975, several senior officers and NCO's led by Maj. Gen. Khaled Mosharraf and Colonel Shafaat Jamil led their own forces to remove Khandakar Mushtaq's government from power who they believed was an unlawful government in the first place. That same day the same group of disgruntled army personnel who assassinated Sheikh Mujib and had jailed politicians involved with the Bangladesh Liberation war, assassinated Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Muhammad Mansur Ali and AHM Qamaruzzaman in Dhaka Central Jail. Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ziaur Rahman was placed under house arrest.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: On 7 November 1975, a short but highly organised uprising concentrated only in Dhaka, formed by members of the Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal (National Socialist Party) and members of enlisted personnel led by Lt. Col. (Retd.) Abu Taher also resulted in the killing of several army and air force officers and soldiers including Major General Khaled Mosharraf, Major ATM Haider. Colonel Shafaat Jamil was arrested and forcibly retired. Colonel Abu Taher released Major General Ziaur Rahman who was imprisoned by Khaled Mosharraf. Ziaur Rahman took promotion to Lieutenant General and appointed himself as the Chief of Army Staff and Deputy Chief Martial Law Administrator. He then executed Lt. Col. Taher for his role in the coup on 7 November. Later, in 1977 under a public referendum of a yes no vote he took the helm as president. On 30 May 1981 President Ziaur Rahman was assassinated in the Chattogram Circuit House in a military coup.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Less than a year later, the then Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Hussein Muhammad Ershad on 24 March 1982 took power in a silent coup at dawn, suspended the constitution and imposed martial law and remained in power through farce elections and corruption. He remained in power until 6 December 1990.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: The Chattogram Hill Tracts Conflict was the political and military conflict between the Government of Bangladesh and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (United People's Party of the Chattogram Hill Tracts) and its armed wing, the Shanti Bahini over the issue of autonomy and the rights of the tribes of the Chattogram Hill Tracts. The Shanti Bahini launched an insurgency against government forces in 1977, and the conflict continued for twenty years until the Bangladesh government and the PCJSS signed the Chattogram Hill Tracts Peace Accord in 1997.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: At the outbreak of the insurgency, the Government of Bangladesh deployed the army to begin counter-insurgency operations. The then-President of Bangladesh Major General Ziaur Rahman created a Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board under an army general to address the socio-economic needs of the region, but the entity proved unpopular and became a source of antagonism and mistrust among the local tribes against the government. The government failed to address the long-standing issue of the displacement of tribal people, numbering an estimated 100,000 caused by the construction of the Kaptai Dam by the then Pakistan government in 1962. Displaced tribesmen did not receive compensation and more than 40,000 Chakma tribals had fled to India. In the 1980s, the government began settling Bengalis in the region, causing the eviction of many tribesmen and a significant alteration of demographics. Having constituted only 11.6% of the regional population in 1974, the number of Bangalis grew by 1991 to constitute 48.5% of the regional population.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Peace negotiations were initiated after the restoration of democracy in Bangladesh in 1991, but little progress was made with the government of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Fresh rounds of talks began in 1996 with the newly elected prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed of the Awami League. The Chattogram Hill Tracts Peace Accord was finalised and formally signed on 2 December 1997.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Following the 1975 coup, additional personnel were absorbed into the regular army when the martial law government abolished the Jatiyo Rakkhi Bahini. Under Zia's rule, Bangladesh was divided into five military regions. When Ershad assumed power in 1982, army strength had stabilised at about 70,000 troops. Starting in 1985, the army had experienced another spurt in growth. As of mid-1988, it had about 90,000 troops (although some observers believed the number was closer to 80,000), triple the 1975 figure.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Bangladesh Armed Forces participated in the Gulf war in 1991 Operation Desert Storm alongside other multinational forces under Allied Command. The Bangladesh Army brought in a contingent of Engineers and undertook the task of clearing mines and bombs in Kuwait. This assistance took place under the operational code name "Operation Kuwait Punargathan (OKP)" in English "Operation Rebuilding Kuwait (ORK)".


title: Bangladesh Army

text: The Bangladesh Army structure is similar to the armies of the Commonwealth Nations. However, major changes have taken place following the adoption of US Army tactical planning procedures, training management techniques and noncommissioned officer educational systems.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Bangladesh armed forces are going through a long term modernization plan named Forces Goal 2030. Bangladesh army is under a massive expansion and modernization drive as per the plan. The force is being divided into three corps — Central, Eastern and Western. Three new infantry divisions have been raised, the 17th infantry division at Sylhet, 10th infantry division at Ramu in Cox's Bazar and 7th infantry division at Barishal-Patuakhali to make the number of total infantry divisions ten. The soldiers are being equipped with modern gear like Night Vision Goggles (NVG), Ballistic helmets, Eye protective gear, Bulletproof vest, person to person communicators, palmtop GPS device and BD-08 assault rifles with Collimator sight.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: To increase special operation capabilities, 2nd Commando Battalion has been raised. The two battalions formed sole the para-commando brigade of the country. Bangladesh Army procured 44 MBT-2000 tanks from China in 2011. Bangladesh army engineers have completed the upgrade of Type 69 tanks to "Type 69IIG" standard. They are now upgrading 174 Type 59 tanks to Type 59G Durjoy standard. To increase the mobility of the infantry forces, 300 armoured vehicles such as BTR-80 APC, Otokar Cobra LAV and BOV M11 ARV have been procured.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: To modernize the artillery forces, Nora B-52 K2 self-propelled artillery system have been procured from Serbia. Their firepower is further increased by the addition of two regiment of WS-22 Guided Multiple Rocket Launcher System. For anti-tank role Metis-M missile systems and PF-98 rocket systems were procured. Two regiments of FM 90 surface to air missile were added in 2016 to enhance air defence capabilities. The army aviation wing is also being modernized. Two Eurocopter AS365 Dauphins were put into service in 2012. Six Mil Mi-171Sh were procured in 2016. One C-295W transport aircraft was ordered from Spain which was delivered in 2017. Bangladesh Army also procured 36 "Bramor C4EYE" battlefield reconnaissance UAV from Slovenia in 2017.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: The Bangladesh Army has been actively involved in a number of United Nations Peace Support Operations (UNPSO) since its formation in the 1970s. Its first deployments came in 1988, when it participated in two operations – UNIIMOG in Iraq and UNTAG in Namibia President HM Ershad initiated these deployments for the first time, starting with the contribution to UNIIMOG in Iraq.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Later, as part of the UNIKOM force deployed to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia following the Gulf War the Bangladesh Army sent a mechanised infantry battalion (approx. 2,193 personnel). Since then, the Bangladesh Army has been involved in up to thirty different UNPKOs in as many as twenty five countries. This has included activities in Angola, Namibia, Cambodia, Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, Uganda, Rwanda, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Mozambique, former Yugoslavia, Liberia, Haiti, Tajikistan, Western Sahara, Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Georgia, East Timor, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire and Ethiopia.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: As a result of its contributions to various UN peacekeeping operations, up to 88 Bangladesh soldiers have lost their lives (as of February 2009). However, the performance of Bangladesh's contingents has been described as being of the "highest order" and the appointment of several senior Bangladesh military officers as the Commander of UN peacekeeping missions and Senior Military Liaison Officers, may be seen as further recognition of the Bangladesh Army's growing esteem in the peacekeeping community. In January 2004, BBC described the Bangladeshi UN Force as "Cream of UN Peacekeepers".


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Bangladesh Army has specialised its peacekeeping operation capabilities around the world through participation in numerous peacekeeping and nation building operations. It has created BIPSOT (Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operation Training) which specialises in the training of peacekeepers for employment in all types of UNPSO (UN Peace Support Operations). This institute fulfills the requirement of UNDPKO as per U.N. General Assembly resolution which outlines 'the necessity and responsibility of every nation to train their armed forces before any deployment.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Bangladeshi women can join the army as ordinary soldiers since 2013; however in the officer ranks women can join since the early part of the 2000s decade while women are joining in the medical corps since the army's inception and in the Bangladesh liberation war, Captain Sitara Begum of army medical corps was a noted woman. On 1 October 2018 Bangladesh army got its first female major-general and the person was Susane Giti (commissioned in 1980s) and she was from the medical corps. Female soldiers can also get United Nations peacekeeping duties like male soldiers. On 25 January 2019 Bangladesh Army appointed four lady battalion commanders for the first time.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: The Army Headquarters consists of Chief of Army Staff & his seven Principal Staff Officers & several Directors & Staff Officers who support, advice & assist the Chief of Army Staff for the smooth functioning of the Army. The Branches & Directorates of Army Headquarters are given below-


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Commissioned officers from the Bangladesh Military Academy are honoured as 'first class gazetted officer' by the Bangladesh government.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: NCO rank starts from Lance Corporal. Sergeants holds key appointments in companies, batteries (company equivalent of artillery), infantry battalions and artillery regiments, e.g. Company Quartermaster Sergeant (CQMS), Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM), persons holding these appointments have separate rank insignias though these are not actually ranks.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Bangladesh has made a long term modernisation plan for its Armed Forces named Forces Goal 2030. As per the plan, Bangladesh Army will be divided into three corps — Central, Eastern and Western. A riverine brigade is being formed at Mithamain of Kishoreganj district. Government has a plan to add 97 new units within 2021. Of them, 19 units will be formed for the Sylhet Cantonment, 22 for the Ramu Cantonment and 56 units for the Sheikh Hasina Cantonment in Lebukhali. A Riverine Engineer Battalion is also going to be formed under a proposed cantonment at Mithamoine in Kishorganj. Formation of two new tank regiments is under consideration. Process of converting some regular infantry battalions into para infantry battalions and mechanized infantry battalions is also going on.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Bangladesh Army has started an ambitious modernisation program for its infantry soldiers named "Infantry Soldier System". This system includes equipping all of its soldiers with modern equipment like Night Vision Goggles (NVG), Ballistic helmets, Eye protective gear, Bulletproof vest, person to person communicators, palmtop GPS device and BD-08 assault rifles with Collimator sight. In April 2018, a RFI was published for procurement of assault rifles and submachine guns. Evaluation notice for medium range Anti-tank guided missile was also published in April 2017. In March 2018, Bangladesh Army issued tender for the procurement of 220 anti-tank weapons. The models shortlisted are Russian RPG-7V2 and Chinese "Type 69-1".


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Evaluation process of 155mm howitzer also started in September 2017. In November 2017, Bangladesh army started the evaluation process of 122 mm field artillery howitzers. Later on in November 2017, the Bangladesh Army published the tender for the procurement of 105mm towed field artillery systems. In 2019, army signed contract to procure one regiment of T-300 Kasirga Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) system from Turkey.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Bangladesh Army signed contract with China for 44 VT-5 light tanks. The tanks were scheduled to be delivered within 2020.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: In March 2018, tender was floated for two local warning radars. The models shortlisted for the tender are Ground Master 400 of Thales, "TRML-3D/32" of Hensoldt and "KRONOS Land" of Leonardo. Army also issued tender for procuring 181 Man-portable air-defense systems. Here, Chinese FN-16, Russian Igla-S and Swedish RBS 70 systems has been shortlisted.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Army Aviation has plan to add one more EADS CASA C-295 transport aircraft to its fleet soon. Besides, process is going on to procure six more Mil Mi-171Sh helicopters. They also have a plan to add attack helicopters to the fleet in the near future.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: Tender was floated for procurement of a command ship in 2017. The vessel will be used as a floating command centre during different operations. Several tenders were floated to procure a total of six Landing craft tank for the army between 2017 and 2018. Bangladesh army issued tender for procuring two "Troops Carrier Vessel (TCV)" in January 2018. The vessels will be able to carry 200 personnel.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: On 29 June 2021, Government to Government (G2G) defence memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Bangladesh and Turkey. According to Dr. İsmail Demir, president of Presidency of Defense Industries, the export agreement of various products of Roketsan has been signed with Bangladesh. Roketsan already delivered TRG-300 Tiger MLRS to the Bangladesh Army in June 2021 from a separate agreement.


title: Bangladesh Army

text: In a ceremony on 27 October 2021, Prime Minister discussed about the ongoing modernization plan of the Bangladesh Army and its upcoming equipment. She states that one regiment of 105 mm and 155 mm each artillery guns have been procured to increase the artillery power. She added that process of procuring one battery of Oerlikon GDF-009 was going on. Government had signed a contract to procure Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD)system and two battery of radar controlled air defence guns. Government also procured six MALE UAV and tactical missile system for Bangladesh Army.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: Ruth Ellis (née Neilson; 9 October 1926 – 13 July 1955) was a British nightclub hostess and convicted murderer who became the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom following the fatal shooting of her lover, David Blakely.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: In her teens, Ellis had entered the world of nightclub hostessing, which led to a chaotic life that included various relationships with men. One of these men was David Blakely, a racing driver engaged to another woman. On Easter Sunday, 10 April 1955, Ellis shot Blakely dead outside The Magdala public house in Hampstead, London, and she was immediately arrested by an off-duty policeman. At her trial in June 1955, she was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to death; on 13 July she was hanged at HMP Holloway.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: Ruth Ellis was born Ruth Neilson in Rhyl, Denbighshire, Wales, on 9 October 1926, the fifth of six children. She moved to Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, with her family during her childhood. Her mother, Elisaberta (Bertha) Goethals, was a Belgian war refugee; her father, Arthur Hornby, was a cellist from Manchester. The Register of Marriages gives Arthur Hornby as marrying Elisa B. Goethals at Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1920. Arthur had changed his surname to Neilson after the birth of Ruth's older sister Muriel in 1925.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: In 1928, when Ruth was aged 2, Arthur's twin brother Charles was killed when his bicycle collided with a steam wagon. According to Muriel, Arthur became physically and sexually abusive shortly after his brother's death, with Bertha being aware of the abuse but taking no action. The sexual abuse eventually resulted in Muriel conceiving a child by her father at age 14, which led to Arthur being questioned, and ultimately released, by police; the child, a son, was brought up as a sibling to the other children. Arthur turned his attention towards Ruth after Muriel reached puberty, but Ruth continually resisted the abuse.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: Ruth briefly attended Fairfields Senior Girls' School in Basingstoke, leaving when she was aged 14. She found work as an usherette at a cinema in Reading, Berkshire. Shortly afterwards, in 1940, Arthur moved to London after being offered the live-in position of caretaker-chauffeur for Porn & Dunwoody Ltd, a lift manufacturer. The following year, while her older brother Julian was on leave from service in the Royal Navy, Ruth befriended his girlfriend, Edna Turvey, who introduced her to what Muriel later called "the fast life." Ruth and Edna eventually moved to London and lodged with Ruth's father. He continued his abuse of Ruth while engaging in an affair with Edna, which ended when Bertha made an unannounced visit and caught the pair in bed. Bertha herself moved to London soon afterward.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: In 1944, 17-year-old Ruth became pregnant by a married Canadian soldier named Clare Andrea McCallum. She was subsequently forced to move to a nursing hospital in Gilsland, Cumberland, where she gave birth to a son named Clare Andria Neilson, also known as "Andy", on September 15. The father sent money for about a year, then stopped. Andy eventually went to live with Bertha, while Ruth supported the child by working in several factory and clerical jobs.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: By the end of the 1940s, Ruth had become a nightclub hostess in Hampstead through nude-modelling work, which paid significantly more than her previous jobs. Morris Conley, her manager at the Court Club in Duke Street, blackmailed his hostess employees into sleeping with him. By early 1950, Ruth was making money as a full-service escort, and became pregnant by one of her regular clients. She had this pregnancy terminated (illegally) in the third month and returned to work as soon as she could.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: On 8 November 1950, Ruth married 41-year-old George Johnston Ellis, a divorced dentist with two sons, at the register office in Tonbridge, Kent. A regular customer at the Court Club, George was a violent and possessive alcoholic who became convinced that his new wife was having an affair. Ruth left him several times but always returned. When she gave birth to a daughter, Georgina, in 1951, George refused to acknowledge paternity; they separated shortly afterwards and later divorced.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: In 1951, while she had been four months pregnant, Ruth appeared, uncredited, as a beauty queen in the Rank film "Lady Godiva Rides Again". She returned to sex work following her divorce from Ellis, having moved into her parents' residence with her daughter.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: In 1953, Ruth became the manager of the Little Club, a nightclub in Knightsbridge. At this time, she was lavished with expensive gifts by admirers and had a number of celebrity friends. Ellis met David Blakely, three years her junior, through racing driver Mike Hawthorn. Blakely was a former public school boy who was educated at Shrewsbury School and Sandhurst, but was also a hard-drinking racer. Within weeks, he moved into Ruth's flat above the club despite being engaged to another woman, Mary Dawson. Ruth became pregnant for a fourth time but had her second termination, feeling she could not reciprocate the level of commitment Blakely showed towards their relationship.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: Ruth then began seeing Desmond Cussen, a former Royal Air Force pilot who had flown Lancaster bombers during the Second World War, and who had taken up accountancy after leaving the service. He was appointed a director of the family business Cussen & Co., a wholesale and retail tobacconist with outlets in London and South Wales. Ruth eventually moved in with Cussen at 20 Goodward Court, Devonshire Street, north of Oxford Street. The relationship with Blakely continued, however, and became increasingly violent as he and Ruth continued to see other people. Blakely offered to marry Ruth; she consented, but in January 1955 she had another miscarriage after he punched her in the stomach during an argument.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: On Easter Sunday, 10 April 1955, Ruth took a taxi from Cussen's home to a second-floor flat at 29 Tanza Road, Hampstead, the home of Anthony and Carole Findlater, where she suspected Blakely might be. As she arrived, Blakely's car drove off, so she paid off the taxi and walked the to The Magdala, a pub in South Hill Park where she found Blakely's car parked outside.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: At around 9:30 pm, Blakely and his friend Clive Gunnell emerged. Blakely passed Ruth waiting on the pavement when she stepped out of the doorway of Henshaw's, a newsagent next to The Magdala. As Blakely searched for the keys to his car, Ruth took a .38 calibre Smith & Wesson Victory Model revolver from her handbag and fired five shots at Blakely. The first shot missed. Ruth pursued Blakely as he started to run around the car, firing a second shot which caused him to collapse onto the pavement. She then stood over him and fired three more bullets, with one fired less than half an inch from his back, leaving powder burns on his skin.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: Ruth was seen to stand over Blakely as she repeatedly tried to fire the revolver's sixth shot, finally firing it into the ground. This bullet ricocheted off the road and injured Gladys Yule, a bystander, who lost the use of her right thumb.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: Ruth, in apparent shock, asked Gunnell, "Will you call the police, Clive?" She was arrested immediately by an off-duty policeman, who heard her say, "I am guilty, I'm a little confused." Blakely's body was taken to hospital with multiple fatal wounds to the intestines, liver, lung, aorta and trachea. Originally taken in as evidence, the revolver is now in the Metropolitan Police's Crime Museum.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: At Hampstead police station, Ruth appeared to be calm and not obviously under the influence of drink or drugs. She made her first appearance at a magistrates' court on 11 April 1955, and was ordered to be held on remand. Ruth was twice examined by principal Medical Officer, M. R. Penry Williams, who failed to find evidence of mental illness; an electroencephalograph examination on 3 May found no abnormality. While on remand, Ruth was examined by psychiatrist Duncan Whittaker for the defence and by Alexander Dalzell on behalf of the Home Office. Neither found evidence of insanity.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: On 20 June 1955, Ruth appeared in the Number One Court at the Old Bailey, London, before Mr Justice Havers. She was dressed in a black suit and white silk blouse with freshly bleached and coiffured blonde hair. Her defending counsel, Aubrey Melford Stevenson, supported by Sebag Shaw and Peter Rawlinson, expressed concern about her appearance (and dyed blonde hair) but she did not alter it to appear less striking.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: The only question put to Ruth by prosecutor Christmas Humphreys was, "When you fired the revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely, what did you intend to do?"; her answer was, "It's obvious when I shot him I intended to kill him." This reply guaranteed a guilty verdict and the mandatory death sentence. The jury took twenty minutes to convict her.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: Ruth remained at Holloway Prison while awaiting execution. She told her mother that she did not want a petition to reprieve her from the death sentence and took no part in the campaign. However, at her relatives' urging her solicitor, John Bickford, wrote a seven-page letter to Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George setting out the grounds for reprieve. Lloyd George denied the request. Ruth dismissed Bickford (who had been chosen by Cussen) and asked to see Leon Simmons, the clerk to solicitor Victor Mishcon (whose law firm had previously represented her in her divorce proceedings). Before going to see her, Simmons and Mishcon visited Bickford, who urged them to ask her where she had obtained the gun.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: On 12 July 1955, the day before her execution, Mishcon and Simmons saw Ruth, who wanted to make her will. When they pressed Ellis for the full story, she asked them to promise not to use what she said to try to secure a reprieve; Mishcon refused. Ruth divulged that Cussen had given her the gun and taught her how to use it on the weekend prior to the murder. She also revealed that Cussen had also driven her to the murder scene. Following a two-hour interview, Mishcon and Simmons went to the Home Office; the Permanent Secretary, Sir Frank Newsam, was summoned back to London and ordered the head of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to check the story. Lloyd George later said that the police were able to make considerable enquiries but that it made no difference to his decision, and in fact, made Ruth's guilt greater showing the murder was premeditated. He also said that the injury to the bystander was decisive in his decision: "We cannot have people shooting off firearms in the street!"


title: Ruth Ellis

text: In a final letter to Blakely's parents from her prison cell, Ruth wrote, "I have always loved your son, and I shall die still loving him."


title: Ruth Ellis

text: The Bishop of Stepney, Joost de Blank, visited Ruth prior to her execution. Just before 9 am on 13 July, the hangman Albert Pierrepoint and his assistant entered her cell, and took her to the adjacent execution room where she was hanged. As was customary in British executions, Ruth was buried in an unmarked grave within the walls of Holloway Prison. In the early 1970s, the remains of executed women were exhumed for reburial elsewhere; in Ellis's case, directed by her next of kin, son Andy, her remains were reburied in the churchyard of St Mary's Church in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, some from where Blakely was buried. Her headstone was inscribed "Ruth Hornby 1926–1955". Andy destroyed the headstone shortly before he committed suicide in 1982.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: Ruth's case caused widespread controversy at the time, evoking exceptionally intense press and public interest to the point that it was discussed by the Cabinet. Then-Prime Minister Anthony Eden made no reference to the case in his memoirs, nor is there any mention in his papers. He accepted that the decision was the responsibility of the Home Secretary, but there are indications that he was troubled by it. A petition to the Home Office asking for clemency was signed by 50,000 people, but was rejected.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: On the day of Ruth's execution, columnist Cassandra of the "Daily Mirror" attacked her sentence, writing: "The one thing that brings stature and dignity to mankind and raises us above the beasts will have been denied her — pity and the hope of ultimate redemption". The British Pathé newsreel reporting the execution openly questioned whether capital punishment—of a woman or of anyone—had a place in the 20th century. The novelist Raymond Chandler, then living in Britain, wrote a scathing letter to the "Evening Standard" referring to what he described as "the medieval savagery of the law".


title: Ruth Ellis

text: Though the execution was on the whole supported by the British public, it helped strengthen support for the abolition of the death penalty, which was halted in practice for murder in Britain ten years later (the last execution in the UK occurred in 1964). Reprieve was by then commonplace, according to one statistical account, between 1926 and 1954, 677 men and 60 women had been sentenced to death in England and Wales, but only 375 men and seven women had been executed.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: In the early 1970s, Bickford told Scotland Yard that Cussen had told him, in 1955, that Ellis lied at the trial. A police investigation followed but no further action regarding Cussen was taken.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: Ruth's former husband, George Ellis, committed suicide by hanging at a Jersey hotel on 2 August 1958. In 1969, Ellis's mother, Bertha Neilson, was found unconscious in a gas-filled room in her flat in Hemel Hempstead; she never fully recovered and did not speak coherently again.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: Ruth's son Andy, who was aged 10 at the time of his mother's execution, took his life in a bedsit in 1982 shortly after desecrating her grave. The trial judge, Sir Cecil Havers, had sent money every year for Andy's upkeep, and Christmas Humphreys, the prosecution counsel at Ruth's trial, paid for his funeral. Her daughter Georgina, who was aged 3 when her mother was executed, was fostered when her father killed himself three years later. She died of cancer in 2001 at age 50.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: The Ellis case continues to have a strong grip on the British imagination and in 2003 was referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). The Court firmly rejected the appeal, although it made clear that it could rule only on the conviction based on the law as it stood in 1955, and not on whether she should have been executed. The court was critical of the fact that it had been obliged to consider the appeal:


title: Ruth Ellis

text: In July 2007 a petition was published on the 10 Downing Street website asking Prime Minister Gordon Brown to reconsider the Ellis case and grant her a pardon in the light of new evidence that the jury at her trial was not asked to consider. It expired on 4 July 2008.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: In 1980, the third episode of the first series of the ITV drama series "Lady Killers" recreated the court case, with Ellis played by Georgina Hale.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: The first cinema portrayal of Ellis came with the release of the 1985 film "Dance with a Stranger", directed by Mike Newell and featuring Miranda Richardson as Ellis.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: Both Ellis's story and the story of Albert Pierrepoint are retold in the stage play "Follow Me", written by Ross Gurney-Randall and Dave Mounfield and directed by Guy Masterson. It premiered at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh as part of the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: Diana Dors, who had starred in "Lady Godiva Rides Again", in which Ellis had a minor, uncredited role, played a character resembling (though not based on) Ellis in the 1956 British film "Yield to the Night", directed by J. Lee Thompson.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: The case was the basis for Amanda Whittington's play "The Thrill of Love". It premiered at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, in February 2013 and subsequently played at St James Theatre London with Faye Castelow in the main role. Maxine Peake played Ellis in an adaptation of Whittington's play, broadcast on 5 November 2016 by BBC Radio 4.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: The life of Ellis was the inspiration behind a musical play by Lucy Rivers, "Sinners Club". A co-production with Theatr Clwyd, it premiered at The Other Room Theatre in Cardiff, in February 2017.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: The Ruth Ellis story was dramatized in the Murder Maps series of documentaries on the Yesterday Channel on 2 November 2017. It featured Monica Weller, ghostwriter of "Ruth Ellis: My Sister's Secret Life".


title: Ruth Ellis

text: The case was re-examined by film-maker Gillian Pachter in the 2018 BBC Four documentary series "The Ruth Ellis Files: A Very British Crime Story". Part I examined a tape recording made by Andria and found in his flat after his death and suggested that Ellis may have been the victim of domestic abuse by Blakely, that the gun used may have been supplied by Cussen and that the taxi taken by Ellis to the Magdala pub may have been driven by Cussen.


title: Ruth Ellis

text: In the season 1 finale of "Deadly Women", Ruth Ellis is portrayed by Carissa Singleton while murder victim David Blakely is played by Jimmy Aschner.


title: Krating Daeng

text: Krating Daeng (, , ; 'red bull' or 'red gaur') is a sweetened, non-carbonated energy drink developed by Chaleo Yoovidhya. The drink is marketed and sold primarily in Southeast and East Asia; its derivative, Red Bull, is available worldwide in 165 countries.


title: Krating Daeng

text: Chaleo took the name from the gaur (Thai: ), a large wild bovine of Southeast Asia. The logo of the drink underlies its branding, with two red gaurs charging at each other backdropped by a sun.


title: Krating Daeng

text: Krating Daeng was first devised in 1975. It contains water, cane sugar, caffeine, taurine, inositol and B-vitamins. It was introduced in Thailand in 1976 as a refreshment for rural Thai labourers. "At first it was not very popular...", says current CEO Saravoot Yoovidhya. "It was quite different from others in the market, and Chaleo focused first on upcountry markets rather than in the cities where other competitors concentrated."


title: Krating Daeng

text: The working class image was boosted by sponsorship of Thai boxing matches, where the logo of two red bulls charging each other was often on display.


title: Krating Daeng

text: Krating Daeng has lost its leadership position in its home market of Thailand to M-150 and is now third in the country's energy drinks market, down to possibly only 7 percent market share in 2014.


title: Krating Daeng

text: The Thai product is a different company from the global brand Red Bull as formulated by Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian entrepreneur. Mateschitz was the international marketing director for Blendax, a German toothpaste company, when he visited Thailand in 1982 and discovered that Krating Daeng helped to cure his jet lag. He worked in partnership with Chaleo's T.C. Pharmaceuticals to adapt the formula and composition to Western tastes. Red Bull was launched in 1987. The two companies are often mistaken for each other, but they are separate entities focusing on different target markets running in conjunction with one another. Today, Red Bull GmbH is 51 percent controlled by the Yoovidhya family, who own the trademark for the drink in Europe and the United States of America.


title: Krating Daeng

text: By volume, Krating Daeng contains 33% less caffeine than Red Bull; Krating Daeng contains 32 mg caffeine per 150 ml bottle, while Red Bull contains 80 mg per 250 ml bottle.


title: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

text: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (known as Daniel Tiger's Neighbourhood in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and often abbreviated to Daniel Tiger) is a Flash-animated (photographs-influenced) musical television series aimed for preschool children ages 2 to 4.


title: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

text: It was produced by Fred Rogers Productions, 9 Story Media Group and 9 Story USA (which also produces "Blue's Room" and "Super Why!"). It debuted on September 3, 2012 on PBS Kids, eleven years after the end of production for "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and nine years after Fred Rogers' death. The program is based on the Neighborhood of Make-Believe from "Mister Rogers", the long-running family-oriented television series created and hosted by Fred Rogers that aired from 1968 to 2001. In 2019, the series was renewed for a fifth season, which premiered on August 17, 2020 with "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: Won't You Sing Along with Me?", a musical special that deals with the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 20, 2021, the series was renewed for a sixth season, which premiered on September 5, 2022. A one-hour television movie titled "Daniel Visits a New Neighborhood" aired on June 20, 2022.


title: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

text: The series centers around Daniel Tiger (son of Mom Tiger and Dad Tiger). The series also features other children of the characters from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, such as Katerina Kittycat (daughter of Henrietta Pussycat), Miss Elaina (daughter of Lady Elaine Fairchilde and Music Man Stan), O the Owl (nephew of X the Owl) and Prince Wednesday (King Friday and Queen Sara Saturday's youngest son and Prince Tuesday's little brother). Two 11-minute segments are linked by a common socio-emotional theme, such as disappointment and sadness or anger and thankfulness. The theme also uses a musical motif phrase, which the show calls "strategy songs," to reinforce the theme and help children remember the life lessons. Many of the "strategy songs" are available in albums or as singles under the artist name "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood." The program is targeted at preschool-aged children; it teaches emotional intelligence, kindness, and human respect. Its content follows a curriculum based on Fred Rogers' teaching and new research into child development.


title: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

text: Characters from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood include Daniel Tiger, his little sister Margaret and their parents Mr. and Mrs. Tiger. Teacher Harriet is his kindergarten teacher and his classmates are Miss Elaina, O the Owl, Katerina, and Prince Wednesday. They ride a semi-sentient trolley known as "Trolley" retaining the design from "Mister Rogers".


title: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

text: The series is co-produced by the Pittsburgh-based Fred Rogers Productions (formerly the Fred Rogers Company and Family Communications), New York City-based Out of the Blue Enterprises and with animation produced in Toronto by 9 Story Media Group with Adobe Animate (formerly Adobe Flash Professional) and music created at Voodoo Highway Music & Post.


title: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

text: In 2006, three years after Fred Rogers' death and after the end of production of "Blue's Clues," The Fred Rogers Company contacted Angela Santomero to ask what type of show she would create to promote Rogers' legacy. That conversation led to the creation of "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood." PBS initially ordered 40 episodes, which were broadcast between September 3, 2012 and February 21, 2014. PBS Kids renewed the series for a second season of 20 episodes, which premiered on August 18, 2014. On July 7, 2015, the series was renewed for a third season of 25 episodes, which premiered on September 5, 2016. On October 11, 2017, the series was renewed for a fourth season of 20 episodes and a one-hour special "Won't You Be Our Neighbor," which premiered on July 11, 2018. Cartoon Network UK's sister pre-school channel Cartoonito premiered "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" on March 1, 2016. The series had previously been available for streaming on Netflix before July 1, 2016, when a multi-year agreement for the catalog of many of PBS' children's series with Amazon Prime Video went into effect. A smaller selection of current episodes is also available through the PBS Kids app on several digital media player and tablet/smartphone platforms. It also now airs on international CBeebies channels around the world.


title: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

text: "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" has won and been nominated for several awards in children's broadcasting. It won Silver Parents' Choice Awards in 2013 and 2014, was nominated for the Television Critics' Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming in 2013 and 2014 and was a 2014 Prix Jeunesse International Selection. In 2019, it won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Pre-School Children's Animated Program.


title: Mobile country code

text: The ITU-T Recommendation E.212 defines mobile country codes (MCC) as well as mobile network codes (MNC).


title: Mobile country code

text: The mobile country code consists of three decimal digits and the mobile network code consists of two or three decimal digits (for example: MNC of 001 is not the same as MNC of 01). The first digit of the mobile country code identifies the geographic region as follows (the digits 1 and 8 are not used):


title: Mobile country code

text: An MCC is used in combination with an MNC (a combination known as an "MCC/MNC tuple") to uniquely identify a mobile network operator (carrier) using the GSM (including GSM-R), UMTS, LTE, and 5G public land mobile networks. Some but not all CDMA, iDEN, and satellite mobile networks are identified with an MCC/MNC tuple as well. For WiMAX networks, a globally unique Broadband Operator ID can be derived from the MCC/MNC tuple. TETRA networks use the mobile country code from ITU-T Recommendation E.212 together with a 10-bit binary mobile network code. However, a TETRA network may be assigned an E.212 network code as well. Some network operators do not have their own radio access network at all. These are called mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) and are marked in the tables as such. Note that MVNOs without their own MCC/MNC (that is, they share the MCC/MNC of their host network) are not listed here.


title: Mobile country code

text: The following tables attempt to provide a complete list of mobile network operators. Country information, including ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes is provided for completeness. Mostly for historical reasons, one E.212 MCC may correspond to multiple ISO country codes (e.g., MCC 362 corresponds to BQ, CW, and SX). Some operators also choose to use an MCC outside the geographic area that it was assigned to (e.g. Digicel uses the Jamaica MCC throughout the Caribbean). ITU-T updates an official list of mobile network codes in its Operational Bulletins which are published twice a month. ITU-T also publishes complete lists: as of January 2019 list issued on 15 December 2018 was current, having all MCC/MNC before 15 December 2018. Unfortunately, the official list is often incomplete as national MNC authorities do not forward changes to the ITU in a timely manner. The official list does not provide additional details such as bands and technologies and may not list disputed territories such as Abkhazia or Kosovo.


title: Google Duo

text: Google Duo is a proprietary voice over IP (VoIP) and videotelephony service developed by Google, available for Android, iOS and web browsers. It lets users make and receive one-to-one and group audio and video calls with other Duo users in high definition, using end-to-end encryption by default. Duo can be used either with a phone number or a Google account, allowing users to call someone from their contact list.


title: Google Duo

text: Google Duo was announced at Google's developer conference on May 18, 2016, and began its worldwide release on August 16, 2016.


title: Google Duo

text: As of December 2022, the service is being discontinued and slated for closure by the end of 2022, with features gradually merged into Google Meet. The Google Duo mobile app has been renamed Meet and the original Meet app is scheduled to be phased out.


title: Google Duo

text: In December 2016, Google Duo replaced Hangouts within the suite of Google apps device manufacturers must install in order to gain access to the Google Play Store, with Hangouts instead becoming optional.


title: Google Duo

text: In August 2020, it was reported that Google was planning to eventually merge Google Duo with the business-oriented Google Meet. In December 2021 this objective had been dropped, but Duo continued to be available and updated. In June 2022, Google reversed course and announced that Duo and Meet would, in fact, be merged. The merger began in August, with the Duo mobile app being renamed to Meet, while the original Meet is called Meet Original and will be phased out. The Google Duo web app will also be redirected to the Google Meet web app.


title: Google Duo

text: Google Duo is optimized for low-bandwidth mobile networks through WebRTC and uses QUIC over UDP. Optimization is further achieved through the degradation of video quality through monitoring network quality. For packet loss concealment Duo uses WaveNetEQ.


title: Google Duo

text: In February 2021, Google announced a new very low-bitrate codec for speech compression called "Lyra" that can operate with network speeds as low as 3kbps that avoids robotic voice audio and that was to be rolled out to Duo.


title: Google Duo

text: According to a technical study commissioned by Google from Signals Research Group in 2017 that compared degradation time over 3G, LTE, and Wi-Fi, Duo provided the highest voice and video quality of any service or app.


title: Google Duo

text: "Knock Knock" shows a live preview of the caller before the recipient picks up, which Google says is to "make calls feel more like an invitation rather than an interruption".


title: Google Duo

text: In March 2017, it was announced that Google Duo would let users make audio-only calls. The feature was first launched in Brazil, with a global rollout in April.


title: Google Duo

text: A year later in March 2018, video and voice messages were added to Duo. Users can leave messages up to 30 seconds long for contacts who are unavailable.


title: Google Duo

text: Support for eight-person video calls in both the iOS and Android versions of the app was added in May 2019. In line with similar group calling offerings from FaceTime, WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger, participants can join or leave the conversation at any time. Google Duo increased maximum group size to twelve at the end of March 2020, and to 32 by May 2022.


title: Navaratri

text: Navaratri is an annual Hindu festival observed in the honour of the goddess Durga. It spans over nine nights (and ten days), first in the month of Chaitra (March/April of the Gregorian calendar), and again in the month of Sharada. It is observed for different reasons and celebrated differently in various parts of the Hindu Indian cultural sphere.


title: Navaratri

text: Theoretically, there are four seasonal "Navaratri". However, in practice, it is the post-monsoon autumn festival called Sharada Navaratri. The festival is celebrated in the bright half of the Hindu calendar month Ashvin, which typically falls in the Gregorian months of September and October.


title: Navaratri

text: The word "Navaratri" means 'nine nights' in Sanskrit, "nava" meaning nine and "ratri" meaning nights.


title: Navaratri

text: In the eastern and northeastern states of India, the Durga Puja is synonymous with "Navaratri", wherein goddess Durga battles and emerges victorious over the buffalo demon Mahishasura to help restore dharma. In southern states, the victory of Durga or Kali is celebrated. In all cases, the common theme is the battle and victory of good over evil based on a regionally famous epic or legend such as the "Devi Mahatmya".


title: Navaratri

text: Celebrations include worshipping nine goddesses during nine days, stage decorations, recital of the legend, enacting of the story, and chanting of the scriptures of Hinduism. The nine days are also a major crop season cultural event, such as competitive design and staging of "pandals", a family visit to these "pandals," and the public celebration of classical and folk dances of Hindu culture. Hindu devotees often celebrate Navaratri by fasting. On the final day, called Vijayadashami, the statues are either immersed in a water body such as a river or ocean, or the statue symbolising the evil is burnt with fireworks, marking the destruction of evil. During this time preparations also take place for Deepavali (the festival of lights) which is celebrated twenty days after Vijayadashami.


title: Navaratri

text: According to some Hindu texts such as the Shakta and Vaishnava Puranas, Navaratri theoretically falls twice or four times in a year. Of these, the Sharada Navaratri near autumn equinox (September–October) is the most celebrated and the Vasanta Navaratri near spring equinox (March–April) is the next most significant to the culture of the Indian subcontinent. In all cases, Navaratri falls in the bright half of the Hindu lunisolar months. The celebrations vary by region, leaving much to the creativity and preferences of the Hindu.


title: Navaratri

text: Sharada Navaratri is the most celebrated of the four Navaratri, named after "Sharada" which means autumn. It commences on the first day ("pratipada") of the bright fortnight of the lunar month of Ashvini. The festival is celebrated for nine nights once every year during this month, which typically falls in the Gregorian months of September and October. The exact dates of the festival are determined according to the Hindu lunisolar calendar, and sometimes the festival may be held for a day more or a day less depending on the adjustments for sun and moon movements and the leap year. In many regions, the festival falls after the autumn harvest, and in others, during harvest.


title: Navaratri

text: The festivities extend beyond goddess Durga and various other goddesses such as Saraswati and Lakshmi. Deities such as Ganesha, Kartikeya, Shiva, and Parvati are regionally revered. For example, a notable pan-Hindu tradition during Navaratri is the adoration of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, learning, music, and arts, through Ayudha Puja. On this day, which typically falls on the ninth day of Navaratri, peace and knowledge is celebrated. Warriors thank, decorate, and worship their weapons, offering prayers to Saraswati. Musicians upkeep, play, and pray their musical instruments. Farmers, carpenters, smiths, pottery makers, shopkeepers, and all sorts of tradespeople similarly decorate and worship their equipment, machinery, and tools of trade. Students visit their teachers, express respect, and seek their blessings. This tradition is particularly strong in South India, but is observed elsewhere too.


title: Navaratri

text: "Chaitra Navaratri", also called "Vasantha Navaratri", is the second most celebrated Navaratri, named after "vasanta" which means spring. It is observed during the lunar month of Chaitra (March–April). The festival is devoted to goddess Durga, whose nine forms are worshipped on nine days. The last day is also Rama Navami, the birthday of Rama. For this reason, it is also called "Rama Navaratri" by some people.


title: Navaratri

text: In many regions, the festival falls after spring harvest, and in others, during harvest. It also marks the first day of the Hindu lunisolar calendar, also known as the Hindu Lunar New Year, according to the Vikram Samvat calendar.


title: Navaratri

text: Magha Navaratri is observed during the lunar month of Magha (January–February). This Navaratri is also known as Gupt (secret) Navaratri. The fifth day of this festival is often independently observed as "Vasant Panchami" or "Basant Panchami", the official start of spring in the Hindu tradition, wherein goddess Saraswati is revered through arts, music, writing, and kite flying. In some regions, the Hindu god of love, "Kama" is revered. "Magha Navaratri" is observed regionally or by individuals.


title: Navaratri

text: Ashada Navaratri, also known as Gupta Navaratri, is observed during the lunar month of Ashadha (June–July), during the start of the monsoon season. "Ashada Navaratri" is observed regionally or by individuals.


title: Navaratri

text: The festival is associated to the prominent battle that took place between Durga and the demon Mahishasura to celebrate the victory of good over evil. These nine days are solely dedicated to Durga and her nine avatars – the Navadurga. Each day is associated to an incarnation of the goddess:


title: Navaratri

text: Known as Pratipada (first day), this day is associated with Shailaputri ("Daughter of Mountain"), an incarnation of Parvati. It is in this form that Durga is worshipped as the daughter of Himavan (the Guardian God of Himalaya); she is depicted as riding the bull, Nandi, with a trishula in her right hand and lotus in her left. Shailaputri is considered to be the direct incarnation of Mahakali. The colour of the day is yellow, which depicts action and vigor. She is also considered to be a reincarnation of Sati (Shiva’s first wife, who then reincarnates as Parvati) and is also known as Hemavati.


title: Navaratri

text: On Dwitiya (second day), Goddess Brahmacharini, another incarnation of Parvati, is worshipped. In this form, Parvati became Yogini, her unmarried self. Brahmacharini is worshipped for emancipation or moksha and endowment of peace and prosperity. Depicted as walking bare feet and holding a "japamala" (rosary) and a "kamandala" (pot) in her hands, she symbolizes bliss and calm. Green is the colour code of this day. The orange colour which depicts tranquility is sometimes used so that strong energy flows everywhere.


title: Navaratri

text: Tritiya (third day) commemorates the worship of Chandraghanta – the name derived from the fact that after marrying Shiva, Parvati adorned her forehead with the "ardhachandra" (lit. half-moon). She is the embodiment of beauty and is also symbolic of bravery. Grey is the colour of the third day, which is a vivacious colour and can cheer up everyone's mood.


title: Navaratri

text: Goddess Kushmanda is worshipped on Chaturthi (fourth day). Believed to be the creative power of the universe, Kushmanda is associated with the endowment of vegetation on earth, and hence, the colour of the day is orange. She is depicted as having eight arms and sits on a Tiger.


title: Navaratri

text: Skandamata, the goddess worshipped on Panchami (fifth day), is the mother of Skanda (or Kartikeya). The white colour is symbolic of the transforming strength of a mother when her child is confronted with danger. She is depicted riding a ferocious lion, having four arms, and holding her baby.


title: Navaratri

text: Born to sage Katyayana, she is an incarnation of Durga and is shown to exhibit courage which is symbolized by the colour red. Known as the warrior goddess, she is considered one of the most violent forms of Devi. In this avatar, Katyayani rides a lion and has four hands. She is a form of Parvati, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati. She is celebrated on Shashtami (sixth day). In eastern India, Maha Shashti is observed on this day and starting of shardiya Durga Puja.


title: Navaratri

text: Considered the most ferocious form of Goddess Durga, Kalaratri is revered on Saptami. It is believed that Parvati removed her pale skin to kill the demons Sumbha and Nisumbha. The colour of the day is royal blue. The Goddess appears in a red-coloured attire or tiger skin with a lot of rage in her fiery eyes, her skin turns dark. The red colour portrays prayer and assures the devotees that the Goddess will protect them from harm. She is celebrated on Saptami (seventh day). In eastern India, Maha Saptami is observed on this day and Bodhon of shardiya Durga Puja.


title: Navaratri

text: Mahagauri symbolizes intelligence and peace. It is believed when Kaalaratri took a bath in the Ganga river, she gained a warmer complexion. The colour associated with this day is pink which depicts optimism. She is celebrated on Ashtami (eighth day). In eastern India, Maha Astami is observed on this day and starting with pushpanjali, kumari puja etc. It's a very important tithi and considered as birth day of Mahishasura mardini rupa of Chandi.


title: Navaratri

text: On the last day of the festival also known as Navami (ninth day), people pray to Siddhidhatri. Sitting on a lotus, she is believed to possess and bestows all types of Siddhis. Here she has four hands. Also known as Mahalakshmi, The purple colour of the day portrays an admiration towards nature's beauty. Siddhidatri is Parvati, the wife of Lord Shiva. Siddhidhatri is also seen as the Ardhanarishvara form of Shiva and Shakti. It is believed that one side of Lord Shiva’s body is that of Goddess Siddhidatri. Therefore, he is also known by the name of Ardhanarishwara. According to Vedic scriptures, Lord Shiva attained all the siddhis by worshipping this Goddess.


title: Navaratri

text: In most parts of India, tools and weapons are worshiped in a ritual called Ayudha Puja. Many businesses also grant a holiday to their employees on this day.


title: Navaratri

text: Navaratri is celebrated in different ways throughout India. Certain people revere different aspects of Durga and some people fast while others feast. The Chaitra Navaratri culminates in Ram Navami and the Sharada Navaratri culminates in Durga Puja and Vijayadashami.