title: Pumice

text: Pumice has been used as a material in personal care for thousands of years. It is an abrasive material that can be used in powdered form or as a stone to remove unwanted hair or skin. In ancient Egypt, it was common to remove all hair on the body to control lice and as a form of ritual purification, using creams, razors, and pumice stones. Pumice in powdered form was an ingredient in toothpastes in ancient Rome. Nail care was very important in ancient China; nails were kept groomed with pumice stones, and pumice stones were also used to remove calluses. It was discovered in a Roman poem that pumice was used to remove dead skin as far back as 100 BC, and likely before then. It has been used throughout many eras since then, including the Victorian Era. Today, many of these techniques are still used; pumice is widely used as a skin exfoliant. Even though hair removal techniques have evolved over the centuries, abrasive material like pumice stones is also still used. "Pumice stones" are often used in beauty salons during the pedicure process to remove dry and excess skin from the bottom of the foot as well as calluses. Finely ground pumice has been added to some toothpastes as a polish, similar to Roman use, and easily removes dental plaque build up. Such toothpaste is too abrasive for daily use. Pumice is also added to heavy-duty hand cleaners (such as lava soap) as a mild abrasive. Some brands of chinchilla dust bath are formulated with powdered pumice. Old beauty techniques using pumice are still employed today but newer substitutes are easier to obtain.


title: Pumice

text: Pumice stone, sometimes attached to a handle, is an effective scrubbing tool for removal of limescale, rust, hard water rings, and other stains on porcelain fixtures in households (e.g., bathrooms). It is a quick method compared to alternatives like chemicals or vinegar and baking soda or borax.


title: Pumice

text: Good soil requires sufficient water and nutrient loading as well as little compaction to allow easy exchange of gases. The roots of plants require continuous transportation of carbon dioxide and oxygen to and from the surface. Pumice improves the quality of soil because of its porous properties, water and gases can be transported easily through the pores and nutrients can be stored in the microscopic holes. Pumice rock fragments are inorganic therefore no decomposition and little compaction occur. Another benefit of this inorganic rock is that it does not attract or host fungi or insects. Drainage is very important in horticulture, with the presence of pumice tillage is much easier. Pumice usage also creates ideal conditions for growing plants like cacti and succulents as it increases the water retention in sandy soils and reduces the density of clayey soils to allow more transportation of gases and water. The addition of pumice to soil improves and increases vegetative cover as the roots of plants make slopes more stable therefore it helps reduce erosion. It is often used on roadsides and ditches and commonly used in turf and golf courses to maintain grass cover and flatness that can degrade due to large amounts of traffic and compaction. With regard to chemical properties pumice is pH neutral, it is not acidic or alkaline. In 2011, 16% of pumice mined in the United States was used for horticultural purposes.


title: Pumice

text: Pumice contributes to soil fertility in areas where it is naturally present in the soil due to volcanic activity. For example, in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico, the Ancestral Puebloans settled on "pumice patches" of the El Cajete Pumice which likely retained a greater amount of moisture and was ideal for farming.


title: Pumice

text: Pumice is widely used to make lightweight concrete and insulative low-density cinder blocks. The air-filled vesicles in this porous rock serves as a good insulator. A fine-grained version of pumice called pozzolan is used as an additive in cement and is mixed with lime to form a light-weight, smooth, plaster-like concrete. This form of concrete was used as far back as Roman times. Roman engineers utilized it to build the huge dome of the Pantheon with increasing amounts of pumice added to concrete for higher elevations of the structure. It was also commonly used as a construction material for many aqueducts. One of the main uses of pumice currently in the United States is manufacturing concrete. This rock has been used in concrete mixtures for thousands of years and continues to be used in producing concrete, especially in regions close to where this volcanic material is deposited.


title: Pumice

text: New studies prove a broader application of pumice powder in the concrete industry. Pumice can act as a cementitious material in concrete and researchers have shown that concrete made with up to 50% pumice powder can significantly improve durability yet reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel consumption.


title: Rohini (actress)

text: Rohini Molleti, known professionally as Rohini, is an Indian actress, screenwriter, and lyricist. She has mainly acted in Malayalam,Telugu, Tamil films along with few Kannada films. Having started her acting career at five, she has about 130 south Indian films to her credit. She received National Award of Special Mention and Andhra Pradesh state Nandi Special Jury Award for Best Performance in 1995 for the film "Stri".


title: Rohini (actress)

text: A native of Anakapalli, Andhra Pradesh, Rohini spent all her childhood in Chennai. Her father Appa Rao Naidu was a panchyat officer and mother Radha was a housewife. Her father always wanted to become an actor, though he couldn't be an actor he encouraged his daughter to become an actress and he fulfilled his ambition through his daughter. Her mother died when she was five years old and father remarried later.


title: Rohini (actress)

text: She was married to actor Raghuvaran in 1996. The couple have a son Rishi Varan, born in 2000. The couple divorced in 2004.


title: Rohini (actress)

text: She started her career in 1976 as a child actress. She was first seen as a wide-eyed five year old in "Yashoda Krishna", a Telugu film.


title: Rohini (actress)

text: She is also a popular dubbing artist in the Telugu and Tamil industries. She has voiced six characters in five of Mani Ratnam's films. She lent her voice to actresses like Jyothika ("Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu"), Aishwarya Rai ("Iruvar" and "Raavanan"), Manisha Koirala ("Bombay") and Amala ("Shiva"). She has also dubbed for Girija Shettar in "Geethanjali".


title: Rohini (actress)

text: She wrote lyrics for the Tamil film "Pachaikili Muthucharam", before ending another hiatus by writing all songs in the album, "Maalai Pozhudhin Mayakathilaey". Her acting skills were recognized and she was given the Kalaimamani award recently.


title: Rohini (actress)

text: She writes episodes for Tamil TV serials. She started writing scripts for TV series way back in 1996, and has adapted the Sahithya Academy Award winning novel "Verukku Neer" for a tele film in 2005. She hosted the live TV talk show "Kelvigal Aayiram" for Vijay TV, which she said "dealt with issues close to my heart". She moderated the Tamil programme "Azhagiya Tamizh Magal" on Kalaignar TV and has worked as the anchor of Raj TV's show, "Rohini's Box Office" in which she reviewed the latest releases.


title: Rohini (actress)

text: Being an activist for AIDS awareness, Rohini has also directed short films for M.G.R. Medical University and Tamil Nadu Aids Control Society. In 2008, Rohini had directed a 50-minute documentary "Silent Hues" about film industry's Child actresss, she being one herself. In 2013, she has directed a feature film "Appavin Meesai" which is yet to be released.


title: Rohini (actress)

text: Rohini has mainly acted in malayalam,Telugu, Tamil, films along with few Kannada films. Having started her acting career at five, she has about 130 south Indian films to her credit.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue and the physical size of its rail network, spanning Canada from the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia to the Pacific coast in British Columbia across approximately of track. In the late 20th century, CN gained extensive capacity in the United States by taking over such railroads as the Illinois Central.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN is a public company with 22,600 employees, and it has a market cap of approximately CA$90 billion. CN was government-owned, having been a Canadian Crown corporation from its founding in 1919 until being privatized in 1995. , Bill Gates is the largest single shareholder of CN stock, owning a 14.2% interest through Cascade Investment and his own Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: The Canadian National Railways (CNR) was incorporated on June 6, 1919, comprising several railways that had become bankrupt and fallen into Government of Canada hands, along with some railways already owned by the government. Primarily a freight railway, CN also operated passenger services until 1978, when they were assumed by Via Rail. The only passenger services run by CN after 1978 were several mixed trains (freight and passenger) in Newfoundland, and several commuter trains both on CN's electrified routes and towards the South Shore in the Montreal area (the latter lasted without any public subsidy until 1986). The Newfoundland mixed trains lasted until 1988, while the Montreal commuter trains are now operated by Montreal's EXO.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: On November 17, 1995, the Government of Canada privatized CN. Over the next decade, the company expanded significantly into the United States, purchasing Illinois Central Railroad and Wisconsin Central Transportation, among others.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: The excessive construction of railway lines in Canada led to significant financial difficulties striking many of them, in the years leading up to 1920:


title: Canadian National Railway

text: GTR management and shareholders opposed to nationalization took legal action, but after several years of arbitration, the GTR was finally absorbed into the CNR on January 30, 1923. Although several smaller independent railways would be added to the CNR in subsequent years as they went bankrupt or it became politically expedient to do so, the system was more or less finalized at that point. However, certain related lawsuits were not resolved until as late as 1936.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Canadian National Railways was born out of both wartime and domestic urgency. Until the rise of the personal automobile and creation of taxpayer-funded all-weather highways, railways were the only viable long-distance land transportation available in Canada. As such, their operation consumed a great deal of public and political attention. Canada was one of many nations to engage in railway nationalization in order to safeguard critical transportation infrastructure during the First World War.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In the early 20th century, many governments were taking a more interventionist role in the economy, foreshadowing the influence of economists like John Maynard Keynes. This political trend, combined with broader geo-political events, made nationalization an appealing choice for Canada. The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and allied involvement in the Russian Revolution seemed to validate the continuing process. The need for a viable rail system was paramount in a time of civil unrest and foreign military action.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: On December 1, 2006, CN announced that it had purchased Savage Alberta Railway for $25 million and that it had begun operating the railway the same day.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In 2006, CN acquired Mackenzie Northern Railway, previously purchased by RailAmerica. This purchase allowed CN to increase their network footprint and hold the northernmost trackage of the contiguous North American railway network. Since being purchased by CN in 2006, it has been officially known as the Meander River Subdivision.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: The DM&IR was purchased by Great Lakes Transportation and in 2011 the DM&IR was merged into CN's Wisconsin Central Subsidiary. The DM&IR was acquired at the same time as the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: The DWP was nationalized with CN in 1918 and became a part of CN's Grand Trunk Corporation in 1971. In 2011 the DWP was merged into the larger Wisconsin Central Subsidiary of CN.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In 2007 CN acquired the EJ&E to assist with traffic congestion in Chicago and the surrounding area. In 2013 EJ&E was merged into the greater Wisconsin Central Subsidiary of CN.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: The GTW was merged with Central Vermont in 1971 with the creation of the Grand Trunk Corporation. In 1991 the GTW was merged with CN under the "North America" consolidation program. Many of GTWs locomotives and rolling stock would be repainted and the motive power would get the new CN scheme.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Central Vermont was nationalized in 1918 and consolidated into the Grand Trunk Western in 1971 with the creation of the Grand Trunk Corporation.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In 2018 CN acquired the Winnipeg-based TransX Group of Companies. Transx continues to operate independently.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Regardless of the political and economic importance of railway transportation in Canada, there were many critics of the Canadian government's policies in maintaining CNR as a Crown corporation from its inception in 1918 until its privatization in 1995. Some of the most scathing criticism came from the railway industry itself—namely the commercially successful Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), which argued its taxes should not be used to fund a competitor.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: As a result of history and geography, the CPR served larger population centres in the southern Prairies, while the CNR's merged system served as a de facto government colonization railway to serve remote and underdeveloped regions of Western Canada, northern Ontario and Quebec, and the Maritimes.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN was also disadvantaged by being formed from a collection of insolvent rail systems that were not intrinsically viable, as they seldom had the shortest route between any major cities or industrial centres; to this day, CN has many division points far from significant industries or traffic sources. The only notable exception is the former Grand Trunk mainline between Montreal and Chicago.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: The company was also used as an instrument of Government of Canada policy, from the operation of ferries in Atlantic Canada, to assuming the operation of the narrow-gauge Newfoundland Railway following that province's entry into Confederation, and the partnership with CPR in purchasing and operating the Northern Alberta Railways.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CNR was considered competitive with CPR in several areas, notably in Central Canada, prior to the age of the automobile and the dense highway network that grew in Ontario and Quebec. The former GTR's superior track network in the Montreal–Chicago corridor has always been a more direct route with higher capacity than CPR's. CNR was also considered a railway industry leader throughout its time as a Crown corporation in terms of research and development into railway safety systems, logistics management, and in terms of its relationship with labour unions.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: From the creation of CNR in 1918 until its recapitalization in 1978, whenever the company posted a deficit, the Government of Canada would assume those costs in the government budget. The result of various governments using CNR as a vehicle for various social and economic policies was a subsidization running into billions of dollars over successive decades. Following its 1978 recapitalization and changes in management, CN (name changed to Canadian National Railway, using the shortened acronym CN in 1960) started to operate much more efficiently, by assuming its own debt, improving accounting practices to allow depreciation of assets and to access financial markets for further capital. Now operating as a for-profit Crown corporation, CN reported a profit in 11 of the 15 years from 1978 to 1992, paying million in cash dividends (profit) to the Government of Canada in this time.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN's rise to profitability was assisted when the company started to remove itself from non-core freight rail transportation starting in 1977 when subsidiary Air Canada (created in 1937 as Trans-Canada Air Lines) became a separate federal Crown corporation. That same year saw CN move its ferry operations into a separate Crown corporation named CN Marine, followed similarly by the grouping of passenger rail services (for marketing purposes) under the name "Via-CN". The following year (1978), the Government of Canada decided to create Via Rail as a separate Crown corporation to take over passenger services previously offered by both CN and CPR, including CN's flagship transcontinental train the "Super Continental" and its eastern counterpart the "Ocean". CN Marine was renamed Marine Atlantic in 1986 to remove any references to its former parent organization. CN also grouped its money-losing Newfoundland operations into a separate subsidiary called Terra Transport so federal subsidies for this service would be more visible in company statements.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN also divested itself in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s of several non-rail transportation activities such as trucking subsidiaries, a hotel chain (sold to CPR), real estate, and telecommunications companies. The biggest telecommunications property was a company co-owned by CN and CP (CNCP Telecommunications) that originated from a joint venture involving the railways' respective telegraph services. On its sale in the 1980s, it was successively renamed Unitel (United Telecommunications), AT&T Canada, and Allstream as it went through various owners and branding agreements. CN sold Terra Nova Tel to Newfoundland Telephone in 1988. Another telecommunications property wholly owned and built by CN was the CN Tower in Toronto, which still keeps its original name but was divested by the railway company in the mid-1990s. All proceeds from such sales were used to pay down CN's accumulated debt. At the time of their divestitures, all of these subsidiaries required considerable subsidies, which partly explained CN's financial problems prior to recapitalization.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN also was given free rein by the Government of Canada following deregulation of the railway industry in the 1970s, as well as in 1987, when railway companies began to make tough business decisions by removing themselves from operating money-losing branch lines. In CN's case, some of these branch lines were those it had been forced to absorb through Government of Canada policies and outright patronage, while others were from the heady expansion era of rural branch lines in the 1920s and early 1930s and were considered obsolete following the development of local road networks.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In the period starting in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, thousands of kilometres of railway lines were abandoned, including the complete track networks on Newfoundland (CN subsidiary Terra Transport, the former Newfoundland Railway ended railway freight operations and mixed freight-passenger trains in 1988. Mainline Passenger rail service in Newfoundland ended in 1969.) and Prince Edward Island (the former PEIR), as well as numerous branch lines in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Southern Ontario, throughout the Prairie provinces, in the British Columbia interior, and on Vancouver Island. Virtually every rural area served by CN in some form was affected, creating resentment for the company and the Government of Canada. Many of these now-abandoned rights-of-way were divested by CN and the Government of Canada and have since been converted into recreational trails by local municipalities and provincial governments.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN's railway network in the late 1980s consisted of the company's Canadian trackage, along with the following U.S. subsidiary lines: Grand Trunk Western Railroad (GTW) operating in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois; Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific Railway (DWP) operating in Minnesota; Central Vermont Railway (CV) operating down the Connecticut River valley from Quebec to Long Island Sound; and the Berlin subdivision to Portland, Maine, known informally as the "Grand Trunk Eastern", sold to a short-line operator in 1989.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In 1992, a new management team led by ex-federal government bureaucrats, Paul Tellier and Michael Sabia, started preparing CN for privatization by emphasizing increased productivity. This was achieved largely through aggressive cuts to the company's management structure, widescale layoffs in its workforce and continued abandonment or sale of its branch lines. In 1993 and 1994, the company experimented with a rebranding that saw the names "CN", "Grand Trunk Western", and "Duluth, Winnipeg, and Pacific" replaced under a collective CN North America moniker. In this time, CPR and CN entered into negotiations regarding a possible merger of the two companies. This was later rejected by the Government of Canada, whereupon CPR offered to purchase outright all of CN's lines from Ontario to Nova Scotia, while an unidentified U.S. railroad (rumoured to have been Burlington Northern Railroad) would purchase CN's lines in western Canada. This too was rejected. In 1995, the entire company including its U.S. subsidiaries reverted to using CN exclusively.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: The "CN Commercialization Act" was enacted into law on July 13, 1995, and by November 28, 1995, the Government of Canada had completed an initial public offering (IPO) and transferred all of its shares to private investors. Two key prohibitions in this legislation include, 1) that no individual or corporate shareholder may own more than 15% of CN, and 2) that the company's headquarters must remain in Montreal, thus maintaining CN as a Canadian corporation.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Following the successful IPO, CN has recorded impressive gains in its stock price, largely through an aggressive network rationalization and purchase of newer more fuel-efficient locomotives. Numerous branch lines were shed in the late 1990s across Canada, resulting in dozens of independent short line railway companies being established to operate former CN track that had been considered marginal. This network rationalization resulted in a core east–west freight railway stretching from Halifax to Chicago and Toronto to Vancouver and Prince Rupert. The railway also operated trains from Winnipeg to Chicago using trackage rights for part of the route south of Duluth.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In addition to the rationalization in Canada, the company also expanded in a strategic north–south direction in the central United States. In 1998, in an era of mergers in the U.S. rail industry, CN bought the Illinois Central Railroad (IC), which connected the already existing lines from Vancouver, British Columbia to Halifax, Nova Scotia with a line running from Chicago, Illinois to New Orleans, Louisiana. This single purchase of IC transformed CN's entire corporate focus from being an east–west uniting presence within Canada (sometimes to the detriment of logical business models) into a north–south "NAFTA" railway (in reference to the North American Free Trade Agreement). CN is now feeding Canadian raw material exports into the U.S. heartland and beyond to Mexico through a strategic alliance with Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS).


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In 1999, CN and BNSF Railway, the second largest rail system in the U.S., announced their intent to merge, forming a new corporate entity "North American Railways", headquartered in Montreal to conform to the "CN Commercialization Act" of 1995. The merger announcement by CN's Paul Tellier and BNSF's Robert Krebs was greeted with skepticism by the U.S. government's Surface Transportation Board (STB), and protested by other major North American rail companies, namely CPR and Union Pacific Railroad (UP). Rail customers also denounced the proposed merger, following the confusion and poor service sustained in southeastern Texas in 1998 following UP's purchase of Southern Pacific Railroad two years earlier. In response to the rail industry, shippers, and political pressure, the STB placed a 15-month moratorium on all rail-industry mergers, effectively scuttling CN-BNSF plans. Both companies dropped their merger applications and have never refiled.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: After the STB moratorium expired, CN purchased Wisconsin Central (WC) in 2001, which allowed the company's rail network to encircle Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, permitting more efficient connections from Chicago to western Canada. The deal also included Canadian WC subsidiary Algoma Central Railway (ACR), giving access to Sault Ste. Marie and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The purchase of Wisconsin Central also made CN the owner of EWS, the principal freight train operator in the United Kingdom.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: On May 13, 2003, the provincial government of British Columbia announced the provincial Crown corporation, BC Rail (BCR), would be sold with the winning bidder receiving BCR's surface operating assets (locomotives, cars, and service facilities). The provincial government is retaining ownership of the tracks and right-of-way. On November 25, 2003, it was announced CN's bid of billion would be accepted over those of CPR and several U.S. companies. The transaction was closed effective July 15, 2004. Many opponents – including CPR – accused the government and CN of rigging the bidding process, though this has been denied by the government. Documents relating to the case are under court seal, as they are connected to a parallel marijuana grow-op investigation connected with two senior government aides also involved in the sale of BC Rail.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Also contested was the economic stimulus package the government gave cities along the BC Rail route. Some saw it as a buy-off to get the municipalities to cooperate with the lease, though the government asserted the package was intended to promote economic development along the corridor. Passenger service along the route had been ended by BC Rail a few years earlier due to ongoing losses resulting from deteriorating service. The cancelled passenger service has subsequently been replaced by a blue-plate tourist service, the Rocky Mountaineer, with fares well over double what the BCR coach fares had been.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN also announced in October 2003 an agreement to purchase Great Lakes Transportation (GLT), a holding company owned by Blackstone Group for US$380 million. GLT was the owner of Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad, Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&I), and the Pittsburgh & Conneaut Dock Company. The key instigator for the deal was the fact that since the Wisconsin Central purchase, CN was required to use DM&I trackage rights for a short "gap" near Duluth, Minnesota, on the route between Chicago and Winnipeg. To purchase this short section, CN was told by GLT it would have to purchase the entire company. Also included in GLT's portfolio were eight Great Lakes vessels for transporting bulk commodities such as coal and iron ore as well as various port facilities. Following Surface Transportation Board approval for the transaction, CN completed the purchase of GLT on May 10, 2004.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: On December 24, 2008, the STB approved CN's purchase for $300 million of the principal lines of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Company (EJ&E) ( EJE) from the U.S. Steel Corporation, originally announced on September 27, 2007. The STB's decision was to become effective on January 23, 2009, with a closure of the transaction shortly thereafter. The EJ&E lines create a bypass around the western side of heavily congested Chicago-area rail hub and its conversion to use for mainline freight traffic is expected to alleviate substantial bottlenecks for both regional and intercontinental rail traffic subject to lengthy delays entering and exiting Chicago freight yards. The purchase of the lightly used EJ&E corridor was positioned by CN as a boon not only for its own business but for the efficiency of the entire U.S. rail system.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: On December 31, 2011, CN completed the merger of DM&I, DWP, and WC into its Wisconsin Central Ltd. subsidiary.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In March 2021, CN subsidiary WCL reached a deal to sell roughly of non-core rail lines and assets in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ontario to short-line operator Watco.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In April 2021, CN bid nearly $30 billion for Kansas City Southern (KCS), ostensibly creating a bidding war between itself and CPR, who had placed a $25 billion bid for the company in March. CN's offer represented a 21% premium to the one made by Canadian Pacific, offering $325 for each share and including $200 in cash. The move by CN was influenced by the projected economic upturn once the world began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, with KCS's railroad network reaching from Canada, through the United States, and running along the Panama Canal. On May 21, CN and KCS agreed to merge, but lengthy regulatory approvals are required to put it into effect. However, on August 31, the US Surface Transportation Board (STB) denied a voting trust between CN and KCS. With the decision by the STB, KCS re-engaged with CP on CP's original offer.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Since the company operates in two countries, CN maintains some corporate distinction by having its U.S. lines incorporated under the Delaware-domiciled Grand Trunk Corporation for legal purposes; however, the entire company in both Canada and the U.S. operates under CN, as can be seen in its locomotive and rail car repainting programs.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Since the Illinois Central purchase in 1998 CN has been increasingly focused on running a "scheduled freight railroad/railway." This has resulted in improved shipper relations, as well as reduced the need for maintaining pools of surplus locomotives and freight cars. CN has also undertaken a rationalization of its existing track network by removing double track sections in some areas and extending passing sidings in other areas.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN is also a rail industry leader in the employment of radio-control (R/C) for switching locomotives in yards, resulting in reductions to the number of yard workers required. CN has frequently been touted in recent years within North American rail industry circles as being the "most-improved railroad" in terms of productivity and the lowering of its operating ratio, acknowledging the fact the company is becoming increasingly profitable. Due to the rising popularity of ethanol, shuttle trains, and mineral commodities, CN Rail Service is increasing in popularity.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In April 2012 a plan was announced to build an railway that would run north from Sept-Îles, Quebec; the railway would support mining and other resource extraction in the Labrador Trough.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In September 2012, CN announced the trial of locomotives fuelled by natural gas as a potential alternative to conventional diesel fuel. Two EMD SD40 diesel-electric locomotives fuelled with 90% natural gas and 10% diesel were tested in service between Edmonton and Fort McMurray, Alberta.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN Telegraph originated as the Great North West Telegraph Company in 1880 to connect Ontario and Manitoba and became a subsidiary of Western Union in 1881. In 1915, facing bankruptcy, GNWTC was acquired by the Canadian Northern Railway's telegraph company. When Canadian Northern was nationalized in 1918 and amalgamated into Canadian National Railways in 1921, its telegraph arm was renamed the Canadian National Telegraph Company. CN Telegraphs began co-operating with its Canadian Pacific-owned rival CPR Telegraphs in the 1930s, sharing telegraph networks and co-founding a teleprinter system in 1957. In 1967 the two services were amalgamated into a joint venture CNCP Telecommunications which evolved into a telecoms company. CN sold its stake of the company to CP in 1984.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In 1923 CNR's second president, Sir Henry Thornton who succeeded David Blyth Hanna (1919–1922), created the CNR Radio Department to provide passengers with entertainment radio reception and give the railway a competitive advantage over its rival, CP. This led to the creation of a network of CNR radio stations across the country, North America's first radio network. As anyone in the vicinity of a station could hear its broadcasts the network's audience extended far beyond train passengers to the public at large.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Claims of unfair competition from CP as well as pressure on the government to create a public broadcasting system similar to the British Broadcasting Corporation led the government of R.B. Bennett (who had been a corporate lawyer with Canadian Pacific as a client prior to entering politics) to pressure CNR into ending its on-train radio service in 1931 and then withdrawing from the radio business entirely in 1933. CNR's radio assets were sold for $50,000 to a new public broadcaster, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, which in turn became the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1936.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Canadian railways built and operated their own resort hotels, ostensibly to provide rail passengers travelling long distances a place to sleep overnight. These hotels became attractions in and of themselves – a place for a rail passenger to go for a holiday. As each railway company sought to be more attractive than its competitors, they made their hotels more attractive and luxurious.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Canadian National Hotels was the CNRs chain of hotels and was a combination of hotels inherited by the CNR when it acquired various railways and structures built by the CNR itself. The chain's principal rival was Canadian Pacific Hotels.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Canadian National operated a fleet of passenger and cargo vessels on both the West Coast and East Coast of Canada which operated under a branch of the company known as Canadian National Steamships, later CN Marine.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson of Wallsend, England, built and for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1910. In 1930 Cammell Laird of Birkenhead, England, built , "Prince Henry" and "Prince Robert". "Prince Henry" was sold in 1937. "Prince George" was destroyed by fire in 1945. "Prince David" and "Prince Robert" were requisitioned in 1939 as Royal Canadian Navy armed merchant cruisers, converted into landing ships in 1943, and sold in 1948. In 1948 a second "Prince George" was built by Yarrows Limited, becoming CN's sole remaining Pacific Coast passenger liner. She was switched from scheduled routes to pleasure cruises, and was the last CN ship that served the west coast. After a fire in 1975 she was sold in 1976 (first to British Columbia Steamship Company and finally Wong Brother Enterprises) before finally being sold to Chinese breakers in 1995 (and sank on her way to China in 1996 in Unimak Pass).


title: Canadian National Railway

text: These ships served the Pacific coast with GTP until Canadian National took possession of them in 1925:


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Ships specially built for CN for the West Coast. After the Second World War steamship service had dropped and by the 1950s the ships were withdrawn. "Prince George" (II) stayed in service, but to do cruises on the West Coast. By 1975 "Prince George" (II) was retired, ending CN's steamship era on the West Coast.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In 1928–29 Cammell Laird built a set of five ships for CN to carry mail, passengers and freight between eastern Canada and the Caribbean via Bermuda. Each ship was named after the wife of an English or British admiral who was noted for his actions in the Caribbean, and who had been knighted or ennobled. They were therefore nicknamed the "Lady"-liners or "Lady"-boats. along with and were designed for service to eastern islands of the British West Indies and had larger passenger capacity but lesser cargo capacity than and who were built for service to western islands. In the Second World War "Lady Somers" was requisitioned as an ocean boarding vessel while her four sister ships continued in CN service. The sank Lady Somers in 1941. and "Lady Drake" were sunk by German U-boats in 1942. "Lady Nelson" was torpedoed in 1942 but refloated and converted to a hospital ship, while "Lady Rodney" survived the war unscathed. The two surviving Lady Boats, Nelson and Rodney, were sold in 1952 after declining passenger traffic and rising labour costs made them too expensive to run.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In 1928 CN took over most of the fleet of Canadian Government Merchant Marine Ltd, giving it a fleet of about 45 cargo ships. When France surrendered to Germany in June 1940 the Canadian Government seized CGT's MV "Maurienne" and contracted CN to manage her.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN operated a rail barge service between Prince Rupert, British Columbia to Whittier, Alaska, from 1963 to 2021.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Robert Pace is the chair of the CNR board. The other board members are Donald J. Carty, V. Maureen Kempston Darkes, Gordon D. Giffin, Edith E. Holiday, Luc Jobin, Denis Losier, Kevin G. Lynch, James E. O'Connor, Robert L. Phillips, and Laura Stein.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: When CNR was first created, it inherited a large number of routes from its constituent railways, but eventually pieced its passenger network into one coherent network. For example, on December 3, 1920, CNR inaugurated the "Continental Limited", which operated over four of its predecessors, as well as the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway. The 1920s saw growth in passenger travel, and CNR inaugurated several new routes and introduced new services, such as radio, on its trains. However, the growth in passenger travel ended with the Great Depression, which lasted between 1929 and 1939, but picked up somewhat in World War II. By the end of World War II, many of CNR's passenger cars were old and worn down. Accidents at Dugald, Manitoba, in 1947 and Canoe River, British Columbia, in 1950, wherein extra passenger trains composed of older, wooden equipment collided with transcontinental passenger trains composed of newer, all-steel equipment, demonstrated the dangers inherent in the older cars. In 1953, CNR ordered 359 lightweight passenger cars, allowing them to re-equip their major routes.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: On April 24, 1955, the same day that the CPR introduced its transcontinental train "The Canadian", CNR introduced its own new transcontinental passenger train, the "Super Continental", which used new streamlined rolling stock. However, the "Super Continental" was never considered as glamorous as the "Canadian". For example, it did not include dome cars. Dome cars would be added in the early 1960s with the purchase of six former Milwaukee Road "Super Domes". They were used on the "Super Continental" in the summer tourist season.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Rail passenger traffic in Canada declined significantly between World War II and 1960 due to automobiles and airplanes. In the 1960s CN's privately owned rival CPR reduced its passenger services significantly. However, the government-owned CN continued much of its passenger services and marketed new schemes. One, introduced on 5 April 1962, was the "Red, White and Blue" fare structure, which offered deep discounts on off-peak days ("red") and were credited with increasing passenger numbers on some routes as much as 600%. Another exercise was the rebranding of the express trains in the Ontario–Quebec corridor with the Rapido label.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In 1968, CN introduced a new high-speed train, the United Aircraft Turbo, which was powered by gas turbines instead of diesel engines. It made the trip between Toronto and Montreal in four hours, but was not entirely successful because it was somewhat uneconomical and not always reliable. The trainsets were retired in 1982 and later scrapped at Metrecy, in Laval, Quebec.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: On CN's narrow gauge lines in Newfoundland, CN also operated a main line passenger train that ran from St. John's to Port aux Basques called the "Caribou". Nicknamed the "Newfie Bullett", this train ran until June 1969. It was replaced by the CN Roadcruiser Buses. The CN Roadcruiser service was started in fall 1968 and was run in direct competition with the company's own passenger train. Travellers saw that the buses could travel between St. John's and Port aux Basques in 14 hours versus the train's 22 hours. After the demise of the "Caribou", the only passenger train service run by CN on the island were the mixed (freight and passenger) trains that ran on the Bonavista, Carbonear and Argentia branch lines. The only passenger service surviving on the main line was between Bishop's Falls and Corner Brook.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In 1976, CN created an entity called "Via-CN" as a separate operating unit for its passenger services. Via evolved into a coordinated marketing effort with CP Rail for rail passenger services, and later into a separate Crown corporation responsible for inter-city passenger services in Canada. Via Rail took over CN's passenger services on April 1, 1978.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN continued to fund its commuter rail services in Montreal until 1982, when the Montreal Urban Community Transit Commission (MUCTC) assumed financial responsibility for them; operation was contracted out to CN, which eventually spun off a separate subsidiary, Montrain, for this purpose. When the Montreal–Deux-Montagnes line was completely rebuilt in 1994–1995, the new rolling stock came under the ownership of the MUCTC, until a separate government agency, the Agence métropolitaine de transport (now AMT), was set up to consolidate all suburban transit administration around Montreal. Since then, suburban service has resumed to Saint-Hilaire, and a new line to Mascouche opened in December 2014.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In Newfoundland, Terra Transport would continue to operate the mixed trains on the branch lines until 1984. The main line run between Corner Brook and Bishop's Falls made its last run on September 30, 1988. Terra Transport/CN would run the Roadcruiser bus service until March 29, 1996, whereupon the bus service was sold off to DRL Coachlines of Triton, Newfoundland.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: From the acquisition of the Algoma Central Railway in 2001 until service cancellation in July 2015, CN operated passenger service between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst, Ontario. The passenger service operated three days per week and provided year-round access to remote tourist camps and resorts.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In January 2014, CN announced it was cutting the service, blaming the Government of Canada for cutting a subsidy necessary to keep the service running. It was argued as an essential service; however, the service had always been deemed financially uneconomic, and despite an extension of funding in April 2014, Algoma Central service was suspended as of July 2015.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN operates the Agawa Canyon Tour excursion, an excursion that runs from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, north to the Agawa Canyon. The canyon tour train consists of up to 28 passenger cars and 2 dining cars, the majority of which were built for CN by Canadian Car and Foundry in 1953–54. These cars were transferred to the D&RGW Ski Train and bought back by CN in 2009.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: After CN acquired BC Rail in 2004, it started operating a railbus service between Seton Portage and Lillooet, British Columbia called the Kaoham Shuttle.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN crews used to operate commuter trains on behalf of GO Transit in the Toronto and the surrounding vicinity. This changed in 2008 when a deal was reached with Bombardier Transportation that switched all CN crews for Bombardier crews.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: The CNR acquired its first 4-8-4 "Confederation" locomotives in 1927. Over the next 20 years, it ordered over 200 for passenger and heavy freight service. The CNR also used several 4-8-2 "Mountain" locomotives, almost exclusively for passenger service. No. 6060, a streamlined 4-8-2, was the last CN steam locomotive, running in excursion service in the 1970s. CNR also used several 2-8-2 "Mikado" locomotives.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN inherited from the Canadian Northern Railway several boxcab electrics used through the Mount Royal Tunnel. Those were built between 1914 and 1918 by General Electric in Schenectady, New York. To operate the new Montreal Central Station, which opened in 1943 and was to be kept free of locomotive smoke, they were supplemented by nearly identical locomotives from the National Harbours Board; those engines were built in 1924 by Beyer, Peacock & Company and English Electric. In 1950, three General Electric centre-cab electric locomotives were added to the fleet. In 1952 CN added electric multiple units built by Canadian Car and Foundry.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Electrification was restricted to Montreal, and went from Central Station to Saint-Lambert (south), Turcot (west), Montréal-Nord (east) and Saint-Eustache-sur-le-lac, later renamed Deux-Montagnes, (north). But as steam locomotives gave way to diesels, engine changeovers were no longer necessary, and catenary was eventually pulled from the west, east and from the south. However, until the end of the original electrification, CN's electric locomotives pulled Via Rail's trains, including its diesel electric locomotives, to and from Central Station.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: The last 2,400 V DC CN electric locomotive ran on June 6, 1995, the very same locomotive that pulled the inaugural train through the Mount Royal Tunnel back in 1918. Later in 1995 the AMT's Electric Multiple Units began operating under 25 kV AC 60 Hz electrification, and in 2014, dual-power locomotives entered service on the Mascouche line.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In May 1966, CN ordered five seven-car UAC TurboTrain for the Montreal–Toronto service. It planned to operate them in tandem, connecting two trains together into a larger fourteen-car arrangement with a total capacity of 644 passengers. The Canadian trains were built by Montreal Locomotive Works, with their ST6 engines supplied by UAC's Canadian division (now Pratt & Whitney Canada) in Longueuil, Quebec.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN and their ad agency wanted to promote the new service as an entirely new form of transit, so they dropped the "train" from the name. In CN's marketing literature the train was referred to simply as the "Turbo", although it retained the full TurboTrain name in CN's own documentation and communication with UAC. A goal of CN's marketing campaign was to get the train into service for Expo '67, and the Turbo was rushed through its trials. It was late for Expo, a disappointment to all involved, but the hectic pace did not let up and it was cleared for service after only one year of testing.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: The Turbo's first demonstration run in December 1968 with Conductor James Abbey of Toronto in command, included a large press contingent. An hour into its debut run, the Turbo collided with a truck at a highway crossing near Kingston.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CNR's first foray into diesel motive power was with self-propelled railcars. In November 1925, Railcar No. 15820 completed a 72-hour journey from Montreal to Vancouver with the diesel engine in nearly continuous operation for the entire trip. Railcars were used on marginal economic routes instead of the more-expensive-to-operate steam locomotives used for busier routes.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: In 1929, the CNR made its first experiment with mainline diesel electric locomotives, acquiring two engines from Westinghouse, numbered 9000 and 9001. It was the first North American railway to use diesels in mainline service. These early units proved the feasibility of the diesel concept, but were not always reliable. No. 9000 served until 1939, and No. 9001 until 1947. The difficulties of the Great Depression precluded much further progress towards diesel locomotives. The CNR began its conversion to diesel locomotives after World War II, and had fully dieselized by 1960. Most of the CNR's first-generation diesel locomotives were made by General Motors Diesel (GMD) and Montreal Locomotive Works.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: For its narrow-gauge lines in Newfoundland CN acquired from GMD the 900 series, Models NF110 (road numbers 900–908) and NF210 (road numbers 909–946). For use on the branch lines, CN purchased the EMD G8 (road numbers 800–805).


title: Canadian National Railway

text: For passenger service the CNR acquired GMD FP9 diesels, as well as CLC CPA16-5, ALCO MLW FPA-2 and FPA-4 diesels. These locomotives made up most of the CNR's passenger fleet, although CN also owned some 60 RailLiners (Budd Rail Diesel Cars), some dual-purpose diesel freight locomotives (freight locomotives equipped with passenger train apparatus, such as steam generators) as well as the locomotives for the Turbo trainsets. Via acquired most of CN's passenger fleet when it took over CN passenger service in 1978.The CN fleet consists of 1,548 locomotives, most of which are products of either General Motors' Electro-Motive Division (EMD), or General Electric/GE Transportation Systems. Some locomotives more than 30 years old remain in service.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Much of the current roster is made up of EMD SD70I and EMD SD75I locomotives and GE C44-9W locomotives. Recently acquired are the new EMD SD70M-2 and GE ES44DC. Since 2015 the GE ES44AC & GE ET44AC are the latest units.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Beginning in the early summer months of 2010, CN purchased a small order of GE C40-8's and GE C40-8W's from Union Pacific and BNSF Railway, respectively. The intent was to use them as a cheaper power alternative. CN currently have 65 GE ES44ACs on its roster and all 65 were ordered and delivered from December 2012 – December 2013. They are CN's first AC-powered locomotives. In 2015, CN started ordering more GE units, the ET44AC. On November 17, 2020, CN revealed five heritage units to mark the 25th anniversary of becoming a publicly traded company. They had originally been spotted a month earlier, but were not yet formally announced by the company. The locomotives were repainted into various schemes of railroads CN had previously acquired, and included four GE ET44ACs painted in IC, EJ&E, WC, and BC Rail paint, and an EMD SD70M-2 painted in GTW paint.


title: Canadian National Railway

text: CN owns a large number of large yards and repair shops across their system. They are used for many operations, ranging from intermodal terminals to classification yards. Examples include:


title: Canadian National Railway

text: Hump yards work by using a small hill over which cars are pushed before being released down a slope and switched automatically into cuts of cars, ready to join into outbound trains. CN's active humps include:


title: Bonham Carter family

text: The Bonham-Carter family is a British family that has included several prominent people active in various spheres in the United Kingdom.


title: Bonham Carter family

text: The Bonham-Carter family are the descendants of John Bonham-Carter (1788–1838), who was the first to use the double-barreled surname. He was the son of Sir John Carter (born before 20 December 1741 – 18 May 1808, sometime Mayor of Portsmouth, himself a son of John Carter, a merchant). He assumed the additional surname Bonham by Royal Licence when he inherited the estates of his cousin Thomas Bonham. Most of the Bonham-Carters have belonged to Unitarian churches.


title: Bonham Carter family

text: The first John Bonham-Carter was a British Member of Parliament and barrister. His wife Joanna Maria Smith was the daughter of William Smith, the abolitionist MP; her sister Frances was the mother of Florence Nightingale, and her brother Benjamin was the father of Barbara Bodichon and Benjamin Leigh Smith.


title: Bonham Carter family

text: John and Joanna had a daughter, (Joanna) Hilary Bonham-Carter (d. 1865), who was an artist and friend of political journalist Harriet Martineau. Hilary's portraits of her cousin Florence Nightingale are held in the National Portrait Gallery.


title: Bonham Carter family

text: John and Joanna had a son, the fourth generation named John (1817–1884), and also an MP. This John Bonham-Carter briefly served as a Lord of the Treasury in 1866.


title: Bonham Carter family

text: His third son by his second wife, The Hon. Mary Baring (a daughter of The 1st Baron Northbrook), was Arthur Thomas Bonham-Carter, KC (1869–1916), who was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Cambridge. A.T. Bonham-Carter was a soldier and barrister, eventually serving as a Justice of the bench of His Majesty's High Court of East Africa, which was based in Mombasa. Mr Justice Bonham-Carter was still a judge on the bench of this court when the First World War broke out in 1914. He later resigned from the colonial bench in British East Africa and joined, as an officer, The 1st Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment, eventually being promoted to the rank of captain. He was killed serving with this regiment on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916, and was later buried in Serre Road Military Cemetery No. 2, near Beaumont-Hamel in northern France. Captain Bonham-Carter's name appears on the war memorial at the Muthaiga Country Club in Nairobi.


title: Bonham Carter family

text: The Bonham Carter family, as descended from Sir Maurice Bonham Carter and The Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury, is the only example so far where three generations have received Life Peerages under the Life Peerages Act 1958: Violet, Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury; her son, Mark Raymond Bonham Carter; and her granddaughter, Jane Bonham Carter, were all separately made life peers of Yarnbury in the County of Wiltshire.


title: Bonham Carter family

text: One of the most famous members of the Bonham Carter family is Hollywood actress Helena Bonham Carter, a two-time Academy Award nominee and British Academy Film Award winner.


title: Bonham Carter family

text: "Living descendants are omitted, unless they are notable or have a separate Wikipedia entry. Each indentation indicates a generation."


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: The rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri), also known as the ring-necked parakeet (more commonly known as the Indian ringneck parrot), is a medium-sized parrot in the genus Psittacula, of the family Psittacidae. It has disjunct native ranges in Africa and the Indian Subcontinent, and is now introduced into many other parts of the world where feral populations have established themselves and are bred for the exotic pet trade.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: One of the few parrot species that have successfully adapted to living in disturbed habitats, it has withstood the onslaught of urbanisation and deforestation. As a popular pet species, escaped birds have colonised a number of cities around the world, including populations in Northern and Western Europe. These parakeets have also proven themselves capable of living in a variety of climates outside their native range, and are able to survive low winter temperatures in Northern Europe. The species is listed as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) because its population appears to be increasing, but its popularity as a pet and unpopularity with farmers have reduced its numbers in some parts of its native range.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: The genus name "Psittacula" is a diminutive of Latin "psittacus", "parrot", and the specific "krameri" commemorates the Austrian naturalist Wilhelm Heinrich Kramer.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: In 2019, a genetic study revived the genus "Alexandrinus", formerly viewed as a synonym of the current genus "Psittacula". Some organisations, including the IUCN, have accepted the new taxonomy.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: The rose-ringed parakeet is sexually dimorphic. The adult male sports a red and black neck ring, and the hen and immature birds of both sexes either show no neck rings, or display shadow-like pale to dark grey neck rings. Both sexes have a distinctive green colour in the wild, and captive bred ringnecks have multiple colour mutations which include turquoise, cinnamon, olive, white, blue, violet, grey and yellow. Rose-ringed parakeets measure on average in length, including the tail feathers, a large portion of their total length. Their average single-wing length is about . In the wild, this is a noisy species with an unmistakable squawking call. Captive individuals can be taught to speak. They are a herbivorous and non-migratory species.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: Since the 19th century, the rose-ringed parakeet has successfully colonised many other countries. It breeds further north than any other parrot species. It has established itself on a large scale in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and especially the UK. See Feral Birds section below.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: In the wild, rose-ringed parakeets usually feed on buds, fruits, vegetables, nuts, berries, and seeds. Wild flocks also fly several miles to forage in farmlands and orchards, causing extensive damage. Feral parakeets will regularly visit gardens and other locations near human habitation, taking food from bird feeders.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: In India, they feed on cereal grains, and during winter also on pigeon peas. In Egypt during the spring, they feed on mulberry and in summer they feed on dates and nest inside palm trees and eat from sunflower and corn fields.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: In captivity, rose-ringed parakeets will take a large variety of food and can be fed on a number of fruits, vegetables, pellets, seeds, and even small amounts of cooked meat for protein. Oils, salts, chocolate, alcohol, and other preservatives should be avoided.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: In north-west India, Indian rose-ringed parakeets form pairs from September to December. They do not have life mates and often breed with another partner during the following breeding season. During this cold season, they select and defend nest sites, thus avoiding competition for sites with other birds. Feeding on winter pea crops provides the female with nutrients necessary for egg production. From April to June, they care for their young. Fledglings are ready to leave the nest before monsoon.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: Rose-ringed parakeets are popular as pets and they have a long history in aviculture. The ancient Greeks kept the Indian subspecies "P. krameri manillensis", and the ancient Romans kept the African subspecies "P. krameri krameri". Colour mutations of the Indian rose-ringed parakeet subspecies have become widely available in recent years. A blue colour morph mutation of the rose-ringed parakeet is also commonly kept in aviculture. Birds that display this mutation have solid light blue feathers instead of green, and lack the rings of their normal counterparts.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: Both males and females have the ability to mimic human speech. First, the bird listens to its surroundings, and then it copies the voice of the human speaker. Some people hand-raise rose-ringed parakeet chicks for this purpose. Such parrots then become quite tame and receptive to learning. They have extremely clear speech and are one of the best talking parrots.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: A popular pet, the rose-ringed parakeet has been released in a wide range of cities around the world, giving it an environment with few predators where their preferred diet of seeds, nuts, fruits, and berries is available from suburban gardens and bird feeders. Its adaptations to cold winters in the Himalayan foothills allow it to easily withstand European winter conditions. It has established feral populations in a number of European cities, South Africa and Japan. There are also apparently stable populations in the US (Florida, California and Hawaii) and small self-sustaining populations in Ankara, İzmir, Istanbul (concentrated in parks), Tunis, Tripoli and Tehran (concentrated in the north side of the city). It is also found throughout Lebanon, Israel, Iran, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman. A small number of escaped birds are present in Australia.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: The European populations became established during the mid-to-late 20th century. There is a burgeoning population of feral parakeets in Great Britain which is centred around suburban London and the Home Counties of South-East England. Parakeet numbers have been highest in the south-west of London, although the population has since spread rapidly, and large flocks of birds can be observed in places such as Crystal Palace Park, Battersea Park, Buckhurst Hill, Richmond Park, Wimbledon Common, Greenwich Park, and Hampstead Heath, as well as Surrey and Berkshire. Feral parakeets have also been observed in Abbey Wood, Bostall Heath, Bostall Woods and Plumstead Common. The winter of 2006 had three separate roosts of about 6000 birds around London. A smaller population occurs around Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate, Kent. There is also an established population to the North East of London in Essex at Loughton and Theydon Bois by Epping Forest. Elsewhere in Britain, smaller feral populations have become established from time to time throughout the Midlands, Northern England and even as far north as Edinburgh. It has been suggested that feral parrots could endanger populations of native British birds, and that the rose-ringed parakeet should be culled as a result, although this is not currently recommended by conservation organisations. A major agricultural pest in locations such as India, as of 2011 the rose-ringed parakeet population was growing rapidly, but is generally limited to urban areas in southern England.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: A Europe-wide count was held in 2015 and found 85,220 rose-ringed parakeets in 10 European countries.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: In the Netherlands, the feral population in the four largest urban areas (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague) was estimated at 20,000 birds in 2021, double the number of birds estimated in 2010. There also exists a feral population in Belgium, with as many as 5,000 pairs estimated in Brussels. These originate from an original population that was set free in 1974 by the owner of the Meli Zoo and Attraction Park near the Atomium who wanted to make Brussels more colourful. In Germany, these birds are found along the Rhine in all major urban areas such as Cologne, Düsseldorf (about 800 birds), Bonn, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg and Speyer, Wiesbaden and Mainz, and Worms. Other populations are found around Paris, Rome—notably in the gardens of the Palatine Hill, the trees of the Trastevere and Janiculum and at Villa Borghese, in the Orto Botanico di Palermo in Palermo, in Genoa, in Barcelona and in Lisbon.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: The specimens in these naturalised populations often represent intra-specific hybrids, originally between varying numbers (according to locality) of the subspecies "manillensis", "borealis", and/or (to a lesser extent) "krameri" along with some inter-specific hybrids with naturalised "Psittacula eupatria" (Alexandrine parakeet).


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: Where introduced, rose-ringed parakeets may affect native biodiversity and human economy and wellness.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: Rose-ringed parakeets are a direct threat to populations of Europe's largest bat, the greater noctule, as parakeets compete with the bats for nesting sites, and will attack and kill adults before colonising their habitat.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: In the United Kingdom and especially within London, parakeets face predation by native birds of prey and owls, including the peregrine falcon ("Falco peregrinus"), Eurasian hobby ("F. subbuteo") and tawny owl ("Strix aluco").


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: There is a feral population of the birds in Japan. In the 1960s many Japanese people became pet owners for the first time and the parakeet was widely imported as a pet. Some escaped or were released and formed populations around the country. By the 1980s groups could be found in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Niigata and Kyushu. Some groups since died out, but as of 2009 there was a large population residing at the Tokyo Institute of Technology's main campus at Ookayama, along with small groups in Maebashi and Chiba city.


title: Rose-ringed parakeet

text: Feral ring-necked parakeets have sporadically been observed around New Zealand, and are treated as a major potential threat to the country's native bird populations due to their potential to outcompete native parakeet species, and introduce diseases.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The Hartford Whalers were a professional ice hockey team based for most of its existence in Hartford, Connecticut. The club played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1972 until 1979, and in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1979 to 1997. Originally based in Boston, the team joined the WHA in the league's inaugural season, and was known as the New England Whalers throughout its time in the WHA. The Whalers moved to Hartford in 1974 and joined the NHL in the NHL–WHA merger of 1979.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The Whalers franchise was created in November 1971 when the World Hockey Association (WHA) awarded a franchise to New England businessmen Howard Baldwin, W. Godfrey Wood, John Coburn and William Edward Barnes to begin play in Boston. The team began auspiciously, signing former Detroit Red Wings star Tom Webster, hard rock Boston Bruins' defenseman Ted Green (the team's inaugural captain), Toronto Maple Leafs' defensemen Rick Ley, Jim Dorey and Brad Selwood, and former Pittsburgh Penguins' goaltender Al Smith.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: New England signed an unusually large number of American players, including Massachusetts natives and former U.S. Olympic hockey team members Larry Pleau (who had been a regular with the Montreal Canadiens the previous season), Kevin Ahearn, John Cunniff and Paul Hurley. Two other ex-U.S. Olympians on the Whalers' roster (Minnesotans Timothy Sheehy and Tommy Williams) had spent a significant part of their careers in Boston with Boston College and the Bruins, respectively.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The Whalers had the WHA's best regular season record in the 1972–73 season. Webster led the team in scoring and through the playoffs. Behind legendary ex-Boston University head coach Jack Kelley, the team defeated the Winnipeg Jets to win the inaugural WHA championship.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The club played its first season's home games at Boston Garden and Boston Arena. However, the Arena was too small and antiquated to sustain a WHA team while the Garden was owned by the rival NHL Bruins in which the Whalers found themselves fourth in priority for dates behind the Bruins, Boston Celtics and even the American Hockey League's Boston Braves. Fed up with the situation, Baldwin decided to move elsewhere.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: Hartford was about to open a new, modern downtown arena and convention center, the Hartford Civic Center. The city had hoped to get an American Basketball Association team as the main tenant, but when that fell through, city leaders got in touch with the Whalers. Aside from various minor league teams in New Haven, the area had been largely bereft of professional hockey until the Whalers' arrival. The Civic Center was still being finished when the 1974–75 season began, so the Whalers played the first part of the 1974–75 season at The Big E Coliseum in West Springfield, Massachusetts.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: On January 11, 1975, the team played its first game at the Hartford Civic Center in front of a sellout crowd. The franchise remained in Hartford until it relocated to North Carolina for the 1997–98 season, save for a temporary relocation to the nearby Springfield Civic Center in the late 1970s while their Hartford arena was being rebuilt after heavy snow followed by heavy rain caused the roof, which suffered from several engineering and construction shortcomings, to collapse.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: Though they never again won the WHA championship, the New England Whalers were a successful team, never missing the playoffs in league history, and finishing first in their division three times. They had a more stable roster than most WHA teams: Ley, Webster, Selwood, Pleau, and Tommy Earl played over 350 games each with the club. The team scored a major coup when it signed legend Gordie Howe and his sons Mark and Marty from the Houston Aeros in 1977.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The Whalers recorded losing records in their first two full seasons in Hartford, their final two WHA seasons saw more success. They went to the finals again in 1978, with a veteran team spearheaded by the Howes—50-year-old Gordie led the team in scoring—future NHL stars Gordie Roberts and Mike Rogers, All-Star defenseman Ron Plumb, and forwards John McKenzie, Dave Keon and Mike Antonovich, and possessed the league's best defense. The next season was not so fine, however, but while age finally caught up with Gordie Howe, the slack was picked up by Andre Lacroix, the WHA's all-time leading scorer, acquired from the Aeros.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: As the Whalers were one of the most stable WHA teams, the club was one of the four franchises admitted to the NHL when the rival leagues merged in 1979. Unlike the other former WHA teams, the Whalers were not stripped of most of their players. The Howes, Rogers, Ley, Keon, Smith, Roberts and Lacroix are the New England Whalers players who stayed on the team as it made the transition to the NHL and became the Hartford Whalers. (In the case of the Howes, Detroit intentionally turned down their option to re-sign longtime Red Wing Gordie, out of respect for his legacy already in place there.) Only Selwood, George Lyle and Warren Miller were reclaimed by their former NHL teams. The Whalers were the only American-based WHA team to join the NHL.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The New England Whalers renamed themselves the Hartford Whalers in May 1979, at the insistence of the Boston Bruins who objected to the team naming themselves for New England. Connecticut-based graphic designer Peter Good was hired by the Jack Lardis Associates advertising agency to design a new logo for the team. Good put a whale's tail over a "W", allowing the negative space between the two shapes to create an "H". Good also helped design the team's new uniforms for the 1979–80 season in the team's new colors of green and blue.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The Whalers were never as successful in the NHL as they had been in the WHA. They recorded only three winning seasons in their 18 years in the NHL, made the Stanley Cup playoffs eight times and won only one playoff series, earning the nickname "The Forever .500s" in mocking jest of their winning percentage. Whenever they did make the playoffs, they faced the near-certainty of having to get past the Boston Bruins or Montreal Canadiens to make it to the Conference Finals. The team developed a heated rivalry with the Bruins because they were based only 100 miles northeast of Hartford and the fact they used to play in the same arena. Home games against the Bruins usually attracted the Whalers' largest crowds, as many Bruins fans followed their team to Hartford. The Whalers had an all-time head-to-head record of 37–69–12 against Boston.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The Whalers were hampered by numerous off-ice factors. Hartford was the smallest American market in the NHL and was located on the traditional dividing line between the home territories for Boston and New York area teams. This limited the team's marketability. Additionally, for most of the Whalers' tenure as an NHL team, the Hartford Civic Center was one of the smallest arenas in the league. At its maximum, it seated just 15,635 for hockey. The team averaged over 14,000 fans only twice in its 15 years at the Civic Center. They averaged only 13,867 from 1980 to 1997. Most of their sellouts came when either the Bruins, the New York Islanders, or the New York Rangers played in Hartford, bringing thousands of their own fans with them.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: Upon joining the NHL, the Whalers were placed in the Norris Division of the Wales Conference. Their first NHL season in 1979–80 looked somewhat promising. They were led by Mike Rogers, Blaine Stoughton, Dave Keon, Mark Howe, Rick Ley, NHL legend Gordie Howe and the all-time WHA leading scorer, Andre Lacroix, along with the franchise's first starting goaltender, Al Smith. The Whalers also acquired another NHL legend, Bobby Hull, near the NHL trade deadline in 1980. They finished the season with 73 points and a playoff berth and had the best record of the four former WHA franchises that entered the NHL in 1979–80. The Whalers remained the most recent first year expansion franchise to make the playoffs in their inaugural season, along with the 1979–80 Edmonton Oilers, until the 2017–18 Vegas Golden Knights accomplished the feat. In the first round of the playoffs, the Whalers were swept by the Montreal Canadiens three games to none. Following this season, Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull and Andre Lacroix all announced their retirements from professional hockey.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: Following the 1979–80 season, the Whalers had many aging veterans left over from their WHA days. To make matters worse, the Whalers reputation of making disastrous trades began to unfold, as the team began to trade away stars for mediocre players in an attempt to gain depth. For instance, they traded star defenseman Mark Howe and their first NHL scoring leader, Mike Rogers, in separate deals for players and draft picks which never panned out, and also swapped defensive-defenseman Gordie Roberts, who would go on to play 15 remaining professional seasons, for the remaining half of the season of Mike Fidler's NHL career. For the 1981–82 season, the NHL realigned its divisions and the Whalers were resituated in the Adams Division of the Wales Conference. The Whalers bottomed out in the 1982–83 season with a record of 19–54–7 (45 points), ranked 20th out of 21 teams in the NHL standings. On May 2, 1983, the Whalers hired Emile Francis as their new general manager to rebuild the team. About two months later, on July 7, Francis hired Jack Evans to be the Whalers' new head coach. By the end of the 1986–87 season, Francis had cut or traded away every player from the 1982–83 Whalers' roster save for Ron Francis, Paul MacDermid, and Paul Lawless.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The team had a brief period of success in the 1985–86 and 1986–87 seasons. The Whalers began 1985–86 looking like a playoff contender. By the end of January, they had a record of 26–20–1 for 53 points after 47 games. At this time, however, the Whalers began to struggle when they lost their franchise player Ron Francis and star goal scorer Kevin Dineen to injuries. As a result, the Whalers struggled through February, winning just two games in the month and in danger of missing the playoffs for the sixth year in a row. In March, Francis and Dineen returned from their injuries and the Whalers put up a record of 12–4–2 in the months of March and April. The Whalers finished fourth in the Adams Division in the 1985–86 regular season, earning themselves a playoff berth for the first time since 1980. The Whalers went on to eliminate the first-place Quebec Nordiques in a three-game sweep in the first round, winning their first, and only, NHL playoff series in Hartford. The Whalers then pushed the division finals to seven games, losing the final game 2–1 in overtime to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens disposed of both the Rangers and Calgary Flames in five games in the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals, respectively.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The following season, 1986–87, the Whalers won their lone division championship, led by centers Ron Francis and Ray Ferraro, emerging winger Kevin Dineen, defenseman Ulf Samuelsson, superstar goaltender Mike Liut and scorer Sylvain Turgeon. The 93 points earned that season were the most they would earn as an NHL team in Hartford; however, they were quickly eliminated in the first round by the Nordiques. The Whalers started the series strongly, winning the first two games at home, but, beginning in Game 3, the Nordiques were able to successfully take the Whalers off their game by playing a tough, chippy style of hockey. As a result, both teams broke NHL records in penalty minutes for an individual playoff game and a whole playoff series. The Nordiques won the next four games and thus the series, four games to two. While Hartford would make the playoffs for the next five seasons in a row, they never came close to duplicating their previous success, with one exception in the 1989–90 season.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: In 1989–90, the Whalers finished seventh overall in the NHL standings and fourth overall in the Wales Conference, with 85 points. This was the franchise's second-highest point total in the NHL while located in Hartford. The regular season was highlighted by captain Ron Francis putting up career highs in goals (32), assists (69) and points (101). Later in his career, Francis was only able to exceed 101 points once (in 1995–96) and never again exceeded 32 goals in a single season. At the trade deadline, the Whalers first year general manager Eddie Johnston made the first in a series of destructive trades by sending franchise goaltender Mike Liut to the Washington Capitals in exchange for center Yvon Corriveau. Liut was having a career year during the 1989–90 season and this trade left the Whalers with sophomore goaltender Peter Sidorkiewicz as their starter, with rookie Kay Whitmore as the backup.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The Whalers went on to face the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs. In Game 4, the Whalers were in front of their home crowd with a two games to one series lead and a 5–2 lead in the game entering the third period. Bruins starting goaltender Reggie Lemelin was struggling throughout the series and was replaced by backup Andy Moog in the third period. At the same time, Peter Sidorkiewicz began struggling in goal for the Whalers, and the Bruins scored four unanswered goals in the third period, winning the game 6–5. Sidorkiewicz struggled for the rest of the series and Moog was spectacular for the Bruins. Without Liut, the Whalers had to either stick with Sidorkiewicz, which they did, or use the unproven rookie, Kay Whitmore, in goal. Goaltending turned out to be one of the big differences in this series and the Bruins won it in seven games. The Bruins went on to dispose of the Canadiens in five games, then sweep the Capitals in the Wales Conference Finals before losing in the Stanley Cup finals to the Edmonton Oilers.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: On March 4, 1991, Francis was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, along with Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings, in exchange for John Cullen, Zarley Zalapski and Jeff Parker. Francis was one of the most popular players on the team, and held nearly every significant offensive record in the franchise's history, both in the WHA and NHL. The trade was savagely condemned by Whalers fans, few of whom believed "The Hockey News" assessment that the Whalers had actually come out on the better end of the trade. Parker would only play four games in Hartford before suffering a concussion and a knee injury within two weeks of each other, effectively ending his NHL career. The Francis trade was made all the more painful when Francis and Samuelsson promptly helped lead the Penguins to two consecutive Stanley Cup titles. Coincidentally, Eddie Johnston, the Hartford general manager who had orchestrated the Francis trade, would follow him to Pittsburgh as the Penguins' head coach two years later.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The trades that Johnston made, particularly the Ron Francis trade, proved to be disastrous for the Whalers, since the players acquired did not meet the team's expectations, leaving the Whalers depleted of talent and costing them substantial goodwill in Hartford. The links below show all of the trades and transactions Ed Johnston made as the general manager of the Whalers.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The Whalers went to the playoffs for the final time in 1992 behind Jimmy Roberts' coaching, despite winning only 26 games. In those days, however, the top four teams in each division made the playoffs, regardless of record. They faced the heavily-favored Montreal Canadiens in the Adams Division Semi-finals. The Whalers lost Game 1 by a score of 2–0 and Game 2 by a score of 5–2, creating the expectation that the Canadiens would sweep the Whalers out of the first round, as they did in the 1989 playoffs. However, the Whalers came back home to win Games 3 and 4 by scores of 5–2 and 3–1, respectively. The main turning point in the series came in the second period of Game 5 — the Whalers had a 3–1 lead midway through the second period, where the Canadiens began rushing the crease and getting in the face of Whalers goaltender Frank Pietrangelo to distract him. The strategy worked, as the Canadiens scored four unanswered goals in the final five minutes of the second period. These goals were not called back, since this was before the time when the NHL began strictly enforcing crease infractions on goals. The Whalers lost Game 5 by a score of 7–4. The Whalers came back to win Game 6 by a score of 2–1 just 24 seconds into overtime on a goal by Yvon Corriveau. The series went back to Montreal for game 7 and the Whalers lost a dramatic double overtime game by a score of 3–2, as Russ Courtnall scored on a turn-around shot against Pietrangelo. Corriveau had an excellent chance for a second consecutive overtime winner in the first overtime period on a breakaway, but his shot missed the net. It was the last time the Whalers would qualify for the playoffs for the rest of their time in Hartford.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: Roberts was fired thereafter, along with general manager Eddie Johnston. At the end of the three-year Johnston era, only seven players remained from the Whalers' active roster prior to Johnston taking over as general manager. Those players were forwards Ed Kastelic and Terry Yake; defensemen Randy Ladouceur, Brad Shaw and Adam Burt; and goaltenders Peter Sidorkiewicz and Kay Whitmore. During the summer of 1992, following Johnston's departure, Shaw and Whitmore were traded away, Kastelic left via free agency and Sidorkiewicz was lost to the Ottawa Senators in the expansion draft.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: In the summer of 1992, the Whalers hired Brian Burke to replace Eddie Johnston as general manager to rebuild the Whalers. Burke had worked for the Vancouver Canucks, helping them build the team that eventually went to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1994. Burke hired Paul Holmgren to be the Whalers' new head coach. Holmgren had been the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. Holmgren immediately named Pat Verbeek the new captain and he ended up playing on a line with young stars Andrew Cassels and Geoff Sanderson. The Whalers also acquired goaltender Sean Burke in exchange for former first-round draft pick Bobby Holik. Cassels, Sanderson and Sean Burke remained star players for the Whalers through their final season in Hartford. In addition, future NHL star Michael Nylander began his NHL career with the Whalers during the 1992–93 season. Since the 1992–93 season was a rebuilding year for the Whalers, they finished the season with only 58 points, the second-worst point total in franchise history, and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1985.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The Whalers entered the 1993–94 season as members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference, and with high hopes from a core of young talented players. The Whalers were also able to draft defenseman Chris Pronger, who began his career with the Whalers, playing alongside veteran defenseman Brad McCrimmon, and later became an NHL star. However, problems began at the management level when general manager Brian Burke announced he would resign when the season began to take an executive position with the NHL. In addition, Burke had some disagreements with Whalers Owner Richard Gordon. After Burke left, Holmgren took over as both the head coach and general manager. The Whalers started off the season poorly. Holmgren felt he was unable to handle the job of general manager and head coach, so he made Pierre McGuire the new head coach. The coaching change did not help the Whalers, however, since McGuire was not popular with the players; the Whalers continued to struggle. The Whalers reached a low point in the season when six players and two assistant coaches were arrested in Buffalo, New York, after being involved in a bar room brawl. Pronger was one of the players arrested; he was 19 years of age at the time, two years below than the legal drinking age in the State of New York. Around this same time, Paul Holmgren checked himself into rehab for alcohol addiction after being arrested with a DUI in Simsbury. The Whalers finished the season with 63 points, only a five-point improvement from the previous season. One bright spot for the Whalers was the emergence of Sean Burke as their franchise and star goaltender. Another highlight of the 1993–94 season was when Brian Propp scored his 1,000th career NHL point with the Whalers. Propp announced his retirement after the season.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: In the summer of 1994, the Whalers were purchased, in a deal brokered by the Connecticut Development Authority, by Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos, along with partners Thomas Thewes and Jim Rutherford. Rutherford became the team's new general manager and Holmgren returned as the head coach. The new ownership wanted to turn the team into a winner for the lockout-shortened 1994–95 season, so Rutherford went out to the free agent market and signed Jimmy Carson and Steven Rice. On draft day, the Whalers selected the highly rated Jeff O'Neill in the first round. Rutherford also acquired defenseman Glen Wesley from the Boston Bruins in exchange for three first-round draft picks (Kyle McLaren, Johnathan Aitken and Sergei Samsonov). Despite these acquisitions, the Whalers struggled at the beginning of the season, starting off with a record of 2–7–2. In mid-February, the Whalers began improving, led by their top line of Sanderson, Cassels and Verbeek, along with franchise goaltender Sean Burke. For the next 30 games, the Whalers put up a record of 16–11–3 and it appeared as if the Whalers were on their way to their first playoff berth since 1992. Unfortunately, the Whalers played poorly down the stretch, winning only one game in the last seven and missed the playoffs by four points.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: Before the beginning of the 1995–96 season, the Whalers management became frustrated with the slow development of highly rated prospect Chris Pronger. As a result, Pronger was sent to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Brendan Shanahan. Shanahan was not happy with the trade even before playing a single game in Hartford. However, he was immediately made the team's new captain. The Whalers won their first four games of the season, but then struggled for the rest of the calendar year of 1995. As a result, Paul Maurice replaced Holmgren as head coach in November. On December 28, 1995, the Whalers received a morale boost when they reacquired one of their most popular players from the 1980s, Kevin Dineen. His skills and leadership had an immediate impact on the team, as the Whalers began playing significantly better in January. Despite the strong finish in the second half of the season, the Whalers were unable to recover from their poor start and they missed the playoffs for the fourth year in a row.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: Before the beginning of the 1996–97 season, Brendan Shanahan ended his silence about his displeasure about playing in Hartford. He demanded a trade out of Hartford because he claimed he did not want to play in a small market for a team with an uncertain future about its location. Whalers fans and local media condemned Shanahan for his comments and he was immediately stripped of his captaincy; Kevin Dineen took over the role. After the second game of the season, Shanahan was traded (along with Brian Glynn) to the Detroit Red Wings for Keith Primeau, Paul Coffey and a first-round draft pick. Despite these problems, the Whalers got off to a very good start, with a 14–7–6 record after the first 27 games, sitting in first in their division. They were led by a strong first line of Sanderson, Cassels and Dineen along with a solid second line of Primeau, O'Neill and Sami Kapanen. During the calendar year of 1996, the Whalers achieved a record of 41–30–10 in 81 games. In 1997, following the good start, the Whalers' season began to slip away. This included a nine-game losing streak in January and a six-game losing streak in March. Despite the poor performance down the stretch, the Whalers still had an opportunity to make the playoffs in the final week of the season. However, the Whalers lost two games on the road to Ottawa and the New York Islanders, which eliminated them from the playoffs before their final regular season game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: Owner Peter Karmanos pledged to keep the Whalers in the city of Hartford for four years when he purchased the team in 1994. However, two years later, frustrated with lackluster attendance and little corporate support, he announced that if the Whalers were unable to sell at least 11,000 season tickets for the 1996–97 season, he would likely move the team. Furthermore, ownership only made season tickets available in full-season (41-game) packages, eliminating the popular six-, 9-, 10- and 20-game mini-plans in a strategy largely designed to spur purchases from corporations and wealthier individuals. Sales were underwhelming at the beginning of the campaign, and at the end of the 1995–96 season, it was still unknown whether the Whalers would stay in Connecticut past 1998 or move elsewhere. However, thanks to an aggressive civic campaign and the efforts of many fans, the Whalers announced that they would stay in Connecticut through at least 1997. The "Save the Whale" campaign netted season ticket sales totaling 8,563 in less than a 45-day span, despite the Whalers raising ticket prices by an average of 20 percent, eliminating partial ticket plans and increasing the deposit amount for season tickets by 750 percent. This represented an expansion of over 3,500 tickets from the existing base.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: In early 1997, Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland stated that he did not want to spend Connecticut taxpayer dollars to fund a new arena in Hartford. Despite this, negotiations between the Whalers and Rowland to build a new $147.5 million arena seemed to be going well. Talks fell apart when Karmanos wanted an additional $45 million to cover losses during the three years the new arena was to be built. The Whalers ultimately announced that they would be leaving Hartford after the 1996–97 season. This marks one of the few times that a team announced it would leave its current city without having already announced an agreement with a new one. Karmanos had discussed relocating the Whalers to Norfolk, Virginia (which would have been the first major sports team for that market) as the Hampton Roads Rhinos, but the failure of a season-ticket drive in Norfolk, coupled with a lack of an adequate arena, led to those plans being canceled. Karmanos stated that Rowland had no intention making a serious offer to keep the Whalers in Connecticut since Rowland harbored hopes to bring a National Football League (NFL) franchise to the State. Rowland went on to negotiate a tentative deal that would bring the New England Patriots to Connecticut, but those talks also fell apart after the state and Patriots ownership failed to reach an agreement on a new stadium, instead choosing to stay in Foxborough to build what would become Gillette Stadium.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: On April 13, 1997, the Whalers played their last game in Hartford, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2–1. Team captain Kevin Dineen, who had returned to Hartford midway through the 1995–96 season after a brief stint with the Philadelphia Flyers, scored the final goal in Whalers history. On May 6, 1997, Karmanos announced the team would move to Raleigh, North Carolina, to become the Carolina Hurricanes, playing its first two seasons in North Carolina at the Greensboro Coliseum while awaiting arena construction in Raleigh, a year earlier than planned. Talks with Nashville, Columbus, and even Suburban Detroit were discussed before bringing the Whalers to North Carolina.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: The following summer in 1997, the Binghamton Rangers, the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the New York Rangers, relocated to the Hartford market to take the place of the Whalers, renaming themselves the Hartford Wolf Pack. Former Whalers owner Howard Baldwin acquired the right to manage the team in 2010 and announced that the Wolf Pack were changing their name to the Connecticut Whale in the middle of the 2010–11 season, adopting the Whalers' old green-blue-white palette. The team changed back to the Hartford Wolf Pack after the Rangers terminated the relationship following the 2012–2013 season.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: Glen Wesley was the last Whaler still active with the Hartford/Carolina franchise, upon his retirement on June 5, 2008, though his stint was not continuous, playing seven games for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2003 after a deadline deal before re-signing in Carolina in the 2003 off-season. Craig Adams was the last player drafted in Whalers' history. However, Adams did not become a member of the team until 2000, after the team had already moved to North Carolina, and he retired in 2015.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: Goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere was the final former Hartford Whalers player still playing in the NHL; he retired after the end of the 2013–14 season. Robert Petrovicky was the last former Whaler active in professional hockey, playing in European leagues through the end of the 2015–16 season.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: In 2018, the Hurricanes announced they would wear Hartford Whalers throwback uniforms during two games against the Boston Bruins, first on December 23, 2018, at home and again on March 5, 2019, in Boston. The announcement was generally viewed as positive recognition of the roots of the Hurricane franchise, although not all former Whalers' fans approved of the use. The Hurricanes again wore the Whalers uniforms for a home game against the Los Angeles Kings, on January 11, 2020. Its fourth appearance came on January 29, 2022, against the New Jersey Devils.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: Adidas' "Reverse Retro" program in 2021 saw the Hurricanes wear silver versions of the classic Whalers uniform, bridging both Whalers eras in the design.


title: Hartford Whalers

text: Unlike most sports teams at any level the Whalers' had an official theme song entitled "Brass Bonanza", a tune composed and arranged by Jacques Ysaye (under the pseudonym of Jack Say) and originally called "Evening Beat". The song was a big hit with the team, Whalers fans, and even fans of other NHL teams and was played at home games when the Whalers entered the rink for warmups and also after they scored a goal. It was introduced in the mid-1970s on the B side of a souvenir record of team radio-broadcast highlights while they were still named the New England Whalers and playing in the WHA. However, in 1992, then-general manager Brian Burke cancelled the use of the song because he said "there were players who were embarrassed by it", and replaced it with a goal horn and the song "Hot, Hot, Hot" by Buster Poindexter, then a year later, "Rock and Roll Part 2" by Gary Glitter. While the goal horn is still used by the Hurricanes today, "Brass Bonanza" was quickly reintroduced after Burke left the team the following year.