title: McCartney (album)

text: Writing for "Rolling Stone", Langdon Winner found the songs "distinctly second rate" relative to McCartney's best compositions as a Beatle, with only "Maybe I'm Amazed" "even com[ing] close" to matching that high standard, but he admired McCartney's vocals and added: "if one can accept the album in its own terms, "McCartney" stands as a very good, although not astounding, piece of work." Winner admitted to being repelled by the "tawdry propaganda" surrounding the release, however, about which he emphasised: "Remember, this is all stuff that Paul himself deliberately included [in the album's press kit], not just some idle comments he let slip to a probing journalist." The reviewer concluded: "I like "McCartney" very much. But I remember that the people of Troy also liked that wooden horse they wheeled through their gates until they discovered that it was hollow inside and full of hostile warriors."


title: McCartney (album)

text: In the 2004 edition of "The Rolling Stone Album Guide", Greg Kot deems the album "so modest it barely registers" in comparison with Lennon's "Plastic Ono Band", adding: "Only the white soul of 'Maybe I'm Amazed' distinguishes otherwise unbearably slight confections such as 'Lovely Linda.'" Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic writes that "McCartney" possesses "an endearingly ragged, homemade quality", with "That Would Be Something", "Every Night", "Teddy Boy" and "Maybe I'm Amazed" all "full-fledged McCartney classics". Although he notes that "the throwaway nature of much of the material ... has become charming in retrospect", Erlewine adds: "Unfortunately, in retrospect it also appears as a harbinger of the nagging mediocrity that would plague McCartney's entire solo career." "Record Collector" has highlighted "Every Night", "Junk" and "Maybe I'm Amazed" as songs that "still sound absolutely effortless and demonstrate the man's natural genius with a melody".


title: McCartney (album)

text: Among Beatle biographers, Robert Rodriguez includes "McCartney" in his chapter covering the worst solo albums issued by the former band members between 1970 and 1980, saying: "For anyone wanting to get to the root of the most common rap against Paul's solo output, look no further …" While bemoaning the lack of quality control that allowed "charmless ditties" such as "Teddy Boy" to go under-developed, Rodriguez writes: "What made "McCartney" so frustrating a listen was not the absence of compelling musical ideas; it was the abundance of them. Had melodies like 'Momma Miss America' been teased out into compositions with a beginning, middle, end, and point, "McCartney" could have ended up as highly regarded in its own way as "Plastic Ono Band": a full slate of focused, listener-friendly pop confections that might very well have given fans far less cause for bitterness at the Beatles' breakup."


title: McCartney (album)

text: In 1999, Neil Young inducted McCartney into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and praised "McCartney", saying: "I loved that record because it was so simple. And there was so much to see and to hear. It was just Paul. There was no adornment at all ... There was no attempt made to compete with the things he had already done. And so out he stepped from the shadow of the Beatles." McCartney subsequently told "Rolling Stone" that, given the album's homemade qualities, he considered it to be rock music's first indie album, adding: "Y'know, it's now what would be called an 'indie' thing. To me, then, it was just ... knockin' around experimentin' with some sounds and not "worrying" how it was gonna turn out. I think that was one of the secrets." Citing its home recording and mixing, Brent Day of "Paste" felt that "McCartney" was arguably "one of the first big lo-fi records of its day." It was one of McCartney's two post-Beatle albums that was included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".


title: McCartney (album)

text: "McCartney" was released on CD on 7 June 1993, along with six other studio albums McCartney made during the 1970s, including "Ram" (with Linda) and "Band on the Run" (with their band Wings).


title: McCartney (album)

text: On 13 June 2011, the album and McCartney's second official solo work, "McCartney II", were reissued together by Hear Music/Concord Music Group as part of The "Paul McCartney Archive Collection". The album re-entered the charts in the UK, the Netherlands, France and Japan. On 17 November 2017, "McCartney" was re-released by Capitol/UMe without bonus tracks as part of McCartney's 2016 return to Capitol Records and a catalogue service agreement taking over from Concord Records and Hear Music.


title: McCartney (album)

text: "McCartney" received a special 50th anniversary release in a limited edition half-speed mastered vinyl pressing for Record Store Day on 26 September 2020.


title: McCartney (album)

text: The album was reissued on 5 August 2022 in a boxset entitled "McCartney I II III", consisting of 3 LPs or 3 CDs, along with the second and third albums of the trilogy.


title: NBC News

text: NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations report to the president of NBC News, Noah Oppenheim. The NBCUniversal News Group also comprises MSNBC, the network's 24-hour general news channel, business and consumer news channels CNBC and CNBC World, the Spanish language Noticias Telemundo and United Kingdom–based Sky News.


title: NBC News

text: NBC News aired the first regularly scheduled news program in American broadcast television history on February 21, 1940. The group's broadcasts are produced and aired from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, NBCUniversal's headquarters in New York City.


title: NBC News

text: The division presides over America's number-one-rated newscast, "NBC Nightly News", the world's first of its genre morning television program, "Today", and the longest-running television series in American history, "Meet the Press", the Sunday morning program of newsmakers interviews. NBC News also offers 70 years of rare historic footage from the NBCUniversal Archives online.


title: NBC News

text: The first regularly scheduled American television newscast in history was made by NBC News on February 21, 1940, anchored by Lowell Thomas (1892–1981), and airing weeknights at 6:45 p.m. It was simply Lowell Thomas in front of a television camera while doing his NBC network radio broadcast, the television simulcast seen only in New York. In June 1940, NBC, through its flagship station in New York City, W2XBS (renamed commercial WNBT in 1941, now WNBC) operating on channel one, televised 30¼ hours of coverage of the Republican National Convention live and direct from Philadelphia. The station used a series of relays from Philadelphia to New York and on to upper New York State, for rebroadcast on W2XB in Schenectady (now WRGB), making this among the first "network" programs of NBC Television. Due to wartime and technical restrictions, there were no live telecasts of the 1944 conventions, although films of the events were reportedly shown over WNBT the next day.


title: NBC News

text: About this time, there were irregularly scheduled, quasi-network newscasts originating from NBC's WNBT in New York City, (WNBC), and reportedly fed to WPTZ (now KYW-TV) in Philadelphia and WRGB in Schenectady, NY. Such as, Esso sponsored news features a well as The War As It Happens in the final days of World War II, another irregularly scheduled NBC television newsreel program which was also seen in New York, Philadelphia and Schenectady on the relatively few (roughly 5000) television sets which existed at the time. After the war, "NBC Television Newsreel" aired filmed news highlights with narration. Later in 1948, when sponsored by Camel Cigarettes, "NBC Television Newsreel" was renamed "Camel Newsreel Theatre" and then, when John Cameron Swayze was added as an on-camera anchor in 1949, the program was renamed "Camel News Caravan".


title: NBC News

text: In 1948, NBC teamed up with "Life" magazine to provide election night coverage of President Harry S. Truman's surprising victory over New York governor Thomas E. Dewey. The television audience was small, but NBC's share in New York was double that of any other outlet. The following year, the "Camel News Caravan", anchored by John Cameron Swayze, debuted on NBC. Lacking the graphics and technology of later years, it nonetheless contained many of the elements of modern newscasts. NBC hired its own film crews and in the program's early years, it dominated CBS's competing program, which did not hire its own film crews until 1953. (by contrast, CBS spent lavishly on Edward R. Murrow's weekly series, "See It Now"). In 1950, David Brinkley began serving as the program's Washington correspondent, but attracted little attention outside the network until paired with Chet Huntley in 1956. In 1955, the "Camel News Caravan" fell behind CBS's "Douglas Edwards with the News", and Swayze lost the already tepid support of NBC executives. The following year, NBC replaced the program with the "Huntley-Brinkley Report".


title: NBC News

text: Beginning in 1951, NBC News was managed by Director of News Bill McAndrew, who reported to Vice President of News and Public Affairs J. Davidson Taylor.


title: NBC News

text: Television assumed an increasingly prominent role in American family life in the late 1950s, and NBC News was called television's "champion of news coverage." NBC president Robert Kintner provided the news division with ample amounts of both financial resources and air time. In 1956, the network paired anchors Chet Huntley and David Brinkley and the two became celebrities, supported by reporters including John Chancellor, Frank McGee, Edwin Newman, Sander Vanocur, Nancy Dickerson, Tom Pettit, and Ray Scherer.


title: NBC News

text: Created by Producer Reuven Frank, NBC's "The Huntley–Brinkley Report" had its debut on October 29, 1956. During much of its 14-year run, it exceeded the viewership levels of its CBS News competition, anchored initially by Douglas Edwards and, beginning in April 1962, by Walter Cronkite.


title: NBC News

text: NBC's Vice President of News and Public Affairs, J. Davidson Taylor, was a Southerner who, with Producer Reuven Frank, was determined that NBC would lead television's coverage of the civil rights movement. In 1955, NBC provided national coverage of Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership of the Montgomery bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, airing reports from Frank McGee, then News Director of NBC's Montgomery affiliate WSFA-TV, who would later join the network. A year later, John Chancellor's coverage of the admission of black students to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas was the first occasion when the key news story came from television rather than print and prompted a prominent U.S. senator to observe later, "When I think of Little Rock, I think of John Chancellor." Other reporters who covered the movement for the network included Sander Vanocur, Herbert Kaplow, Charles Quinn, and Richard Valeriani, who was hit with an ax handle at a demonstration in Marion, Alabama in 1965.


title: NBC News

text: While Walter Cronkite's enthusiasm for the space race eventually won the anchorman viewers for CBS and NBC News, with the work of correspondents such as Frank McGee, Roy Neal, Jay Barbree, and Peter Hackes, also provided ample coverage of American manned space missions in the Project Mercury, Project Gemini, and Project Apollo programs. In an era when space missions rated continuous coverage, NBC configured its largest studio, Studio 8H, for space coverage. It utilized models and mockups of rockets and spacecraft, maps of the earth and moon to show orbital trackage, and stages on which animated figures created by puppeteer Bil Baird were used to depict movements of astronauts before on-board spacecraft television cameras were feasible. (Studio 8H had been home to the NBC Symphony Orchestra and is now the home of "Saturday Night Live.") NBC's coverage of the first moon landing in 1969 earned the network an Emmy Award.


title: NBC News

text: In the late 1950s, Kintner reorganized the chain of command at the network, making Bill McAndrew president of NBC News, reporting directly to Kintner. McAndrew served in that position until his death in 1968. McAndrew was succeeded by his Executive Vice President, Producer Reuven Frank, who held the position until 1973.


title: NBC News

text: On November 22, 1963, NBC interrupted various programs on its affiliate stations at 1:45 p.m. to announce that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas. Eight minutes later, at 1:53:12 p.m., NBC broke into programming with a network bumper slide and Chet Huntley, Bill Ryan and Frank McGee informing the viewers what was going on as it happened; but since a camera was not in service, the reports were audio-only. However, NBC did not begin broadcasting over the air until 1:57 p.m. ET. About 40 minutes later, after word came that JFK was pronounced dead, NBC suspended regular programming and carried 71 hours of uninterrupted news coverage of the assassination and the funeral of the president—including the only live broadcast of the fatal shooting of Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, by Jack Ruby as Oswald was being led in handcuffs by law-enforcement officials through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters.


title: NBC News

text: NBC's ratings lead began to slip toward the end of the 1960s and fell sharply when Chet Huntley retired in 1970 (Huntley died of cancer in 1974). The loss of Huntley, along with a reluctance by RCA to fund NBC News at a similar level as CBS was funding its news division, left NBC News in the doldrums. NBC's primary news show gained its present title, "NBC Nightly News", on August 3, 1970.


title: NBC News

text: The network tried a platoon of anchors (Brinkley, McGee, and John Chancellor) during the early months of "Nightly News". Despite the efforts of the network's eventual lead anchor, the articulate, even-toned Chancellor, and an occasional first-place finish in the Nielsens, "Nightly News" in the 1970s was primarily a strong second. By the end of the decade, NBC had to contend not only with a powerful CBS but also a surging ABC, led by Roone Arledge. Tom Brokaw became sole anchor in 1983, after co-anchoring with Roger Mudd for a year, and began leading NBC's efforts. In 1986 and 1987, NBC won the top spot in the Nielsens for the first time in years, only to fall back when Nielsen's ratings methodology changed. In late 1996, "Nightly News" again moved into first place, a spot it has held onto in most of the succeeding years. Brian Williams assumed primary anchor duties when Brokaw retired in December 2004. In February 2015, NBC suspended Williams for six months for telling an inaccurate story about his experience in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He was replaced by Lester Holt on an interim basis. On June 18, 2015, it was announced that Holt would become the permanent anchor and Williams would be moved to MSNBC as an anchor of breaking news and special reports beginning in August.


title: NBC News

text: In 1993, "Dateline NBC" broadcast an investigative report about the safety of General Motors (GM) trucks. GM discovered the "actual footage" utilized in the broadcast had been rigged by the inclusion of explosive incendiaries attached to the gas tanks and the use of improper sealants for those tanks. GM subsequently filed an anti-defamation lawsuit against NBC, which publicly admitted the results of the tests were rigged and settled the lawsuit with GM on the very same day.


title: NBC News

text: On October 22, 2007, "Nightly News" moved into its new high definition studios, at Studio 3C at NBC Studios in 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. The network's 24-hour cable network, MSNBC, joined the network in New York on that day as well. The new studios/headquarters for NBC News and MSNBC are now located in one area.


title: NBC News

text: During the financial crisis of 2007–2008, NBC News was urged to save $500 million by NBC Universal. On that occasion, NBC News laid off several of its in-house reporters such as Kevin Corke, Jeannie Ohm and Don Teague. This was the largest layoff in NBC News history.


title: NBC News

text: After the sudden death of the influential moderator Tim Russert of "Meet the Press" in June 2008, Tom Brokaw took over as an interim host; and on December 14, 2008, David Gregory became the new moderator of the show until August 14, 2014, when NBC announced that NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd would take over as the 12th moderator of Meet the Press starting September 7, 2014. David Gregory's last broadcast was August 10, 2014.


title: NBC News

text: By 2009, NBC had established leadership in network news, airing the highest-rated morning, evening, and Sunday interview news programs. Its ability to share costs with MSNBC and share in the cable network's advertising and subscriber revenue made it far more profitable than its network rivals.


title: NBC News

text: On March 27, 2012, NBC News broadcast an edited segment from a 911 call placed by George Zimmerman before he shot Trayvon Martin. The editing made it appear that Zimmerman volunteered that Martin was black, rather than merely responding to the dispatcher's inquiry, which would support a view that the shooting was racially motivated. A media watchdog organization accused NBC News of engaging in "an all-out falsehood." While NBC News initially declined to comment, the news agency did issue an apology to viewers. "The Washington Post" called the statement "skimpy on the details on just how the mistake unfolded."


title: NBC News

text: On December 13, 2012, NBC News reporter Richard Engel and his five crew members, Aziz Akyavaş, Ghazi Balkiz, John Kooistra, Ian Rivers and Ammar Cheikh Omar, were kidnapped in Syria. Having escaped after five days in captivity, Engel said he believed that a Shabiha group loyal to al-Assad was behind the abduction, and that the crew was freed by the Ahrar al-Sham group five days later. Engel's account was however challenged from early on. In April 2015, NBC had to revise the kidnapping account, following further investigations by "The New York Times", which suggested that the NBC team "was almost certainly taken by a Sunni criminal element affiliated with the Free Syrian Army," rather than by a loyalist Shia group.


title: NBC News

text: In 2013, John Lapinski was Director of Elections, replacing Sheldon Gawiser. In 2015, the election team's decision desk group was given its first permanent space at 30 Rockefeller, replacing the News Sales Archives that had occupied the space previously.


title: NBC News

text: The NBC News Division was the first news team to possess the tape of Donald Trump recorded by "Access Hollywood", after a producer of the NBC show had made the News Division aware of it; the News Division internally debated publishing it for three days, and then an unidentified source gave a copy of the tape to "The Washington Post" Reporter David Fahrenthold, who contacted NBC for comment, notified the Trump campaign that he had the video, obtained confirmation of its authenticity, and released a story and the tape itself, scooping NBC. Alerted that the "Post" might release the story immediately, NBC News released its own story shortly after the "Post" story was published.


title: NBC News

text: On November 29, 2017, NBC News announced that Matt Lauer's employment had been terminated after an unidentified female NBC employee reported that Lauer had sexually harassed her during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and that the harassment continued after they returned to New York. NBC News management said it had been aware that "The New York Times" and "Variety" had been conducting independent investigations of Lauer's behavior, but that management had been unaware of previous allegations against Lauer. Linda Vester, a former NBC News correspondent, disputed the claims that management knew nothing, saying that "everybody knew" that Lauer was dangerous. According to Ronan Farrow, multiple sources have stated that NBC News was not only aware of Lauer's misconduct beforehand, but that Harvey Weinstein used this knowledge to pressure them into killing a story that would have outed his own sexual misconduct. "Variety" reported allegations by at least ten of Lauer's current and former colleagues. Additional accusations went public in the ensuing days.


title: NBC News

text: NBC News President Noah Oppenheim suggested an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein after NBC contributor Ronan Farrow pitched a general idea to report on sexual harassment in Hollywood. After a 10-month investigation by Farrow and NBC Producer Rich McHugh, NBC chose not to publish it. The story, with very few changes, was published a few weeks later in the "New Yorker Magazine" instead. A story on the subject of Weinstein's alleged behavior also appeared several days earlier in "The New York Times". Following criticism for missing a major story it had initiated, NBC News defended the decision, saying that at the time Farrow was at NBC, the early reporting still had important missing necessary elements. Farrow later disputed this characterization, saying that he had multiple named accusers willing to come forward and that the version ultimately published in the "New Yorker" had very few changes from the version that NBC News rejected. This version went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in April 2018. A former NBC News executive has said that the story on Weinstein was killed because NBC News was aware of the sexual misconduct by Lauer; in , Ronan Farrow cites two sources within American Media, Inc. stating that the story was killed in response to an overt threat from Weinstein to out Lauer.


title: NBC News

text: Twelve people have served as president of NBC News during its history: William R. McAndrew (managed since 1951, named president, 1965-1968), Reuven Frank (1968–73, 1981–85), Richard Wald (1973–77), Lester Crystal (1977–79), William J. Small (1979–81), Lawrence Grossman (1985–88), Michael Gartner (1988–93), Andrew Lack (1993–2001), Neal Shapiro (2001–05), and Steve Capus (2005–March 5, 2013). In August 2013, Deborah Turness assumed the role as President of NBC News, becoming the first woman to head the division. In February 2017, "Today Show" Producer and Executive Noah Oppenheim was named President of NBC News. Cesar Conde Present


title: NBC News

text: NBC News provides content for the Internet, as well as cable-only news networks CNBC and MSNBC. It produces a daily (formerly twice-daily show) called "Stay Tuned" for Snapchat's Discover platform. It also produced programming for Quibi called "The Report". The "Stay Tuned" team launched "The Overview" on Peacock in 2021.


title: NBC News

text: In November 2016, NBC News Group chairman Andy Lack announced NBCUniversal intended to purchase a 25% stake in Euronews, a European news organization competing against the likes of BBC News and ITV News The transaction was completed at the end of May 2017; Deborah Turness, former President of NBC News, was appointed to run "NBC News International," to perform NBC's role in the partnership, in which each network would contribute reporting to the other.


title: NBC News

text: In April 2020, NBCUniversal sold its stake in Euronews to focus all resources on the launch of NBC Sky World News, which was scheduled to launch later in 2020. However, the proposed new service was scrapped in August 2020, resulting in layoffs of 60 employees.


title: NBC News

text: NBC News Radio is an All-news radio service produced by iHeartMedia through its TTWN Networks subsidiary, in partnership with NBCU's news division. It has been available on iHeartRadio, iHeartMedia's online live audio and podcasting platform, on different supports (Web and smartphone apps) since July 2016. It can be heard around the clock in 15-minute cycles with the latest news, sports and other features. It uses the slogan "The news you want, when you want it." It also supplies hourly newscasts to subscribing radio stations.


title: NBC News

text: While it is not owned by NBCUniversal itself, NBC News Radio features reports from NBC News correspondents, presented by anchors who are iHeartMedia employees. It is also provided to NBC's 24/7 News Source radio station affiliates as a service, including one-minute and two-minute hourly newscasts along with other audio content, such as features on money, health, politics and sports, heard on over 1,000 radio stations. WOR in New York City serves as NBC News Radio's flagship.


title: NBC News

text: The current NBC News Radio digital station is NBC's first step into the all-news radio format since the closure of its ephemeral NBC News & Information Service (NIS) was heard on radio stations across the U.S. from 1975 to 1977. The service was not profitable for NBC and was discontinued after two years. The original major NBC Radio Network was purchased by Westwood One a decade later, in 1987, as General Electric, which had acquired NBC's parent company RCA, divested most properties not pertaining to the NBC television network, thus ending its direct participation in the radio business. NBC Radio Network's news operation was merged into the Mutual Broadcasting System, then into Westwood One's then-corporate sibling CBS Radio, and eventually assimilated into the syndicator itself.


title: NBC News

text: For years, Westwood One has carried on syndicating several NBC-branded shows to affiliate radio stations, including audio versions of current-affairs NBC TV shows such as "Meet the Press", a practice that continues to date. As for "hard news" programming, Westwood One used to provide an homonymous "NBC News Radio" service, which was initially limited to a feed of one-hour reports updated from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET offered to subscriber local stations. Dial Global –which has branded itself "Westwood One" since 2013– announced on March 5, 2012, its aim to expand NBC News Radio to a full-time 24-hour radio news network, replacing CNN Radio (that itself replaced both NBC Radio and Mutual in 1999). The original NBC News Radio service was eventually discontinued on December 14, 2014. That coincided with the launch of the new, white-label Westwood One News service. It used content from WarnerMedia's CNN but was discontinued in 2019.


title: NBC News

text: In addition to NBC News Radio, the audio portions of NBC News cable networks MSNBC and CNBC are available as Internet radio stations through the TuneIn podcasting service as well as the SiriusXM satellite radio platform.


title: NBC News

text: In 1982, NBC News began production on "NBC News Overnight" with anchors Linda Ellerbee, Lloyd Dobyns, and Bill Schechner. It usually aired at 1:35 a.m. E.T., following "The Tonight Show" and "Late Night with David Letterman".


title: NBC News

text: NBC News Overnight was cancelled in December 1983, but in 1991, NBC News launched another overnight news show called "NBC Nightside". During its run, the show's anchors included Sara James, Bruce Hall, Antonio Mora, Tom Miller, Campbell Brown, Kim Hindrew, Tom Donavan, and Tonya Strong. It was based at NBC Network affiliate WCNC-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina. It provided an overnight news service which NBC affiliates could air until early morning programming began, in effect providing programming to help them stay on the air 24/7. At the time, a few NBC affiliates had begun using CNN's Headline News service to provide overnight programming, and NBC decided to offer the network's own overnight news service. CBS and ABC also began their own overnight news programming, as well. In addition, the facility produced a 24-hour news service aimed to Latin American viewers called "Canal de Noticias, NBC. The serviced closed in 1997 and five years later, the network bought Telemundo.


title: NBC News

text: "NBC Nightside" lasted until 1998 and was replaced by "NBC All Night," composed of reruns of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", and later from January 1, 2007, to September 23, 2011, "Poker After Dark". NBC now airs same day repeats of the fourth hour of "Today" and CNBC's "Mad Money" on weekdays, LXTV programs on early Sunday mornings, and "Meet the Press" and "Dateline" encores on early Monday mornings.


title: NBC News

text: NBC News got the first American news interviews from two Russian presidents (Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Gorbachev), and Brokaw was the only American television news correspondent to witness the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.


title: NBC News

text: MSNBC is not shown outside the Americas on a channel in its own right. However, both NBC News and MSNBC are shown for a few hours a day on OSN News in MENA Region.


title: NBC News

text: In the 2000s MSNBC was shown on sister network CNBC Europe, both in scheduled slots and during breaking news, although rebroadcasts of MSNBC have stopped. However "NBC Nightly News" and "Meet the Press" are shown on the channel. In the Philippines, "NBC Nightly News" and "Today" is previously both shown on 9TV (formerly Talk TV and Solar News Channel), while "Early Today" was officially dropped from the network in December 2013, but they replaced by the repeats of Inside Edition, while "Today" dropped it in September 2014 to make room for the weekend children's programming and "NBC Nightly News" was the last to dropped it in March 2015, due to the firing of Brian Williams as anchor and the move of Lester Holt to main anchor position as well as the anticipation of rebranding of the said network to CNN Philippines in March of the same year (both "Nightly News" and "Today" were both previously aired on ETC from 2004 to 2005 and the now defunct 2nd Avenue from 2005 to 2007; "Nightly News" was later moved to C/S 9 (later Solar TV) from 2008 to 2011, while "Today" retains it separately on 2nd Avenue until 2011). After 5 years of not airing it in the Philippine airwaves, both "NBC Nightly News" and "Today" returned in November 2020 as the launch programs of TAP TV ("NBC Nightly News" was later moved to its sister network TAP Edge from January to October 2021, until they returned it to the said network in October 2021). TAP TV may also occasionally aired special coverage from NBC News, including the U.S. Elections every 2 years and the U.S. Presidential Inauguration every 4 years, as well as breaking news during regular broadcasts of "Today". "NBC Nightly News", along with the full program lineup of NBC, was carried by affiliate VSB-TV in Bermuda.


title: NBC News

text: The Seven Network in Australia has close ties with NBC and has used a majority of the network's imaging and slogans since the 1970s. "Seven News" has featured "The Mission" as its news theme since the mid-1980s. Local newscasts were named "Seven Nightly News" from the mid-1980s until around 2000. NBC and Seven will often share news recourses between the two countries. NBC News has been known to use Seven News reporters for live reports on a developing news story in Australia. Seven News will sometimes also incorporate an NBC News report into its national bulletins. "Today", "Weekend Today" and "Meet The Press" are all broadcast on the Seven Network during the early morning hours from 3-5 a.m., just before Seven's own morning show "Sunrise".


title: NBC News

text: In Hong Kong, "NBC Nightly News" is live digital television broadcast transmission (or delayed) on TVB Pearl daily from 7:00 AM until 8:00 AM Hong Kong Time (6:00 PM until 7:00 PM New York City Time).


title: NBC News

text: In the United Kingdom, the ITV network used to air segments from "NBC Nightly News" on their "" morning newscast before it was cancelled in December 2012. NBC News share facilities and crew in the UK with ITN, which is the news provider for ITV. NBC News Now is shown as a linear channel on both the Sky and Virgin Media platforms in the UK.


title: NBC News

text: Most of NBC's news television programs use "The Mission" by John Williams as their theme. The composition was first used by NBC in 1985 and was updated in 2004.


title: Douche

text: A douche is a device used to introduce a stream of water into the body for medical or hygienic reasons, or the stream of water itself. Douche usually refers to vaginal irrigation, the rinsing of the vagina, but it can also refer to the rinsing of any body cavity. A douche bag is a piece of equipment for douching—a bag for holding the fluid used in douching. To avoid transferring intestinal bacteria into the vagina, the same bag must not be used for an enema and a vaginal douche.


title: Douche

text: Douching after sexual intercourse is not an effective form of birth control. Additionally, douching is associated with a number of health problems, including cervical cancer, pelvic inflammatory disease, endometritis, and increased risk of sexually transmitted infections. Thus, its use is not recommended.


title: Douche

text: The word's first known use is in 1766. "Douche" came into English via French, from "conduit pipe" and "docciare" "pour by drops" to douche, from "doccia" water pipe, probably back-formation from "doccione" conduit, from , "ductio" means of conveying water, from "ducere" to lead. In French today it means "shower", as it does in many non-English European languages.


title: Douche

text: Vaginal douches may consist of water, water mixed with vinegar, or even antiseptic chemicals. Douching has been touted as having a number of supposed but unproven benefits. In addition to promising to clean the vagina of unwanted odors, it can also be used by women who wish to avoid smearing a sexual partner's penis with menstrual blood while having sexual intercourse during menstruation. In the past, douching was also used after intercourse as a method of birth control, though it is not effective (see below).


title: Douche

text: Many health-care professionals state that douching is dangerous, as it interferes with both the vagina's normal self-cleaning and with the natural bacterial culture of the vagina, and it might spread or introduce infections. Douching is implicated in a wide variety of dangers, including: adverse pregnancy outcomes including ectopic pregnancy, low birth weight, preterm labor, preterm birth, and chorioamnionitis; serious gynecologic outcomes, including increased risk of cervical cancer, pelvic inflammatory disease, endometritis, and increased risk for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV; it also predisposes women to develop bacterial vaginosis (BV), which is further associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes and increased risk of sexually transmitted infections. Due to this, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services strongly discourages douching, citing the risks of irritation, bacterial vaginosis, and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Frequent douching with water may result in an imbalance of the pH of the vagina, and thus may put women at risk for possible vaginal infections, especially yeast infections.


title: Douche

text: In May 2003, a randomized, controlled, multi-center study was conducted with 1827 women ages 18–44 who were regular users of a douche product and who had been treated recently for a sexually transmitted bacterial infection or bacterial vaginosis. Women were randomly assigned to use either a newly designed and marketed douche product or a soft cloth towelette. There was little or no indication of a greater risk of PID among women assigned to use the douche product (versus soft cloth towelette).


title: Douche

text: Antiseptics used during douching disturb the natural balance of bacteria in the vagina and can cause infections. Unclean douching equipment may introduce foreign bodies into the vagina. Douching may also wash bacteria into the uterus and Fallopian tubes, causing fertility problems. For these reasons, the practice of douching is now strongly discouraged except when ordered by a physician for medical reasons.


title: Douche

text: Douching after intercourse is estimated to reduce the chances of conception by only about 30%. In comparison, proper male condom use reduces the chance of conception by as much as 98%. In some cases douching may force the ejaculate further into the vagina, increasing the chance of pregnancy. A review of studies by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (N.Y.) showed that women who douched regularly and later became pregnant had higher rates of ectopic pregnancy, infections, and low birth weight infants than women who only douched occasionally or who never douched.


title: Douche

text: A 1995 survey quoted in the University of Rochester study found that 27% of U.S. women age 15 to 44 douched regularly, but that douching was more common among African-American women (over 50%) than among white women (21%), and frequent douching contributes to more frequent bacterial vaginosis among African-American women than the average.


title: Douche

text: Medical doctor Harriet Hall writes that not only can douching change the pH of the vagina and lead to infections, "There is no need ... to cleanse the vagina. It cleanses itself".


title: Douche

text: "Douchebag" and its variants, or simply "douche", are pejorative terms referring to an arrogant, obnoxious, or despicable person. The slang usage of the term originated in the 1960s.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Sir Henry Morton Stanley (born John Rowlands; 28 January 1841 – 10 May 1904) was a Welsh-American explorer, journalist, soldier, colonial administrator, author and politician who was famous for his exploration of Central Africa and his search for missionary and explorer David Livingstone, whom he later claimed to have greeted with the now-famous line: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?". Besides his discovery of Livingstone, he is mainly known for his search for the sources of the Nile and Congo rivers, the work he undertook as an agent of King Leopold II of the Belgians which enabled the occupation of the Congo Basin region, and his command of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. He was knighted in 1897, and served in Parliament as a Liberal Unionist member for Lambeth North from 1895 to 1900.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: More than a century after his death, Stanley's legacy remains the subject of enduring controversy. Although he personally had high regard for many of the native African people who accompanied him on his expeditions, the exaggerated accounts of corporal punishment and brutality in his books fostered a public reputation as a hard-driving, cruel leader, in contrast to the supposedly more humanitarian Livingstone. His contemporary image in Britain also suffered from the inaccurate perception that he was American. In the 20th century, his reputation was also seriously damaged by his role in establishing the Congo Free State for King Leopold II. Nevertheless, he is recognized for his important contributions to Western knowledge of the geography of Central Africa and for his resolute opposition to the slave trade in East Africa.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Henry Stanley was born as John Rowlands in Denbigh, Denbighshire, Wales. His mother Elizabeth Parry was 18 years old at the time of his birth. She abandoned him as a very young baby and cut off all communication. Stanley never knew his father, who died within a few weeks of his birth. There is some doubt as to his true parentage. As his parents were unmarried, his birth certificate describes him as a bastard; he was baptised in the parish of Denbigh on 19 February 1841, the register recording that he had been born on 28 January of that year. The entry states that he was the bastard son of John Rowland of Llys Llanrhaidr and Elizabeth Parry of Castle. The stigma of illegitimacy weighed heavily upon him all his life.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: The boy was given his father's surname of Rowlands and brought up by his grandfather Moses Parry, a once-prosperous butcher who was living in reduced circumstances. He cared for the boy until he died, when John was five. Rowlands stayed with families of cousins and nieces for a short time, but he was eventually sent to the St. Asaph Union Workhouse for the Poor. The overcrowding and lack of supervision resulted in his being frequently abused by older boys. Historian Robert Aldrich has alleged that the headmaster of the workhouse raped or sexually assaulted Rowlands, and that the older Rowlands was "incontrovertibly bisexual". When Rowlands was ten, his mother and two half-siblings stayed for a short while in this workhouse, but he did not recognize them until the headmaster told him who they were.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Rowlands emigrated to the United States in 1859 at age 18. He disembarked at New Orleans and, according to his own declarations, became friends by accident with Henry Hope Stanley, a wealthy trader. He saw Stanley sitting on a chair outside his store and asked him if he had any job openings. He did so in the British style: "Do you need a boy, sir?" The childless man had indeed been wishing he had a son, and the inquiry led to a job and a close relationship between them. Out of admiration, John took Stanley's name. Later, he wrote that his adoptive parent died two years after their meeting, but in fact the elder Stanley did not die until 1878. This and other discrepancies led John Bierman to argue that no adoption took place. Tim Jeal goes further, and, in Chapter Two of his biography, subjects Stanley's account in his posthumously published "Autobiography" to detailed analysis. Because Stanley got so many basic facts wrong about his purported adoptive family, Jeal concludes that it is very unlikely that he ever met rich Henry Hope Stanley, and that an ordinary grocer, James Speake, was Rowlands' true benefactor until his (Speake's) sudden death in October 1859.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Stanley reluctantly joined in the American Civil War, first enrolling in the Confederate States Army's 6th Arkansas Infantry Regiment and fighting in the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. After being taken prisoner at Shiloh, he was recruited at Camp Douglas, Illinois, by its commander Colonel James A. Mulligan as a "Galvanized Yankee." He joined the Union Army on 4 June 1862 but was discharged 18 days later because of severe illness. After recovering, he served on several merchant ships before joining the US Navy in July 1864. He became a record keeper on board the , and participated in the First Battle of Fort Fisher and the Second Battle of Fort Fisher, which led him into freelance journalism. Stanley and a junior colleague jumped ship on 10 February 1865 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in search of greater adventures. Stanley was possibly the only man to serve in all three of the Confederate Army, the Union Army, and the Union Navy.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Following the American Civil War, Stanley became a journalist in the days of frontier expansion in the American West. He then organised an expedition to the Ottoman Empire that ended catastrophically when he was imprisoned. He eventually talked his way out of jail and received restitution for damaged expedition equipment.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: In 1867, the emperor of Ethiopia, Tewodros II, held a British envoy and others hostage, and a force was sent to effect the release of the hostages. Stanley accompanied that force as a special correspondent of the "New York Herald". Stanley's report on the Battle of Magdala in 1868 was the first to be published. Subsequently, he was assigned to report on Spain's Glorious Revolution in 1868. In 1870, Stanley undertook several assignments for the "Herald" in the Middle East and the Black Sea region, visiting Egypt, Jerusalem, Constantinople, the Crimea, the Caucasus, Persia and India, during which time he apparently carved his name into the stones of the ancient palace at Persepolis in Persia.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Stanley travelled to Zanzibar in March 1871, later claiming that he outfitted an expedition with 192 porters. In his first dispatch to the "New York Herald", however, he stated that his expedition numbered only 111. This was in line with figures in his diaries. James Gordon Bennett Jr., publisher of the "New York Herald" and funder of the expedition, had delayed sending to Stanley the money he had promised, so Stanley borrowed money from the United States Consul.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: During the expedition through the tropical forest, his thoroughbred stallion died within a few days after a bite from a tsetse fly, many of his porters deserted, and the rest were decimated by tropical diseases.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Stanley found David Livingstone on 10 November 1871 in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika in present-day Tanzania. He later claimed to have greeted him with the now-famous line, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" However, this line does not appear in his journal from the time—the two pages directly following the recording of his initial spotting of Livingstone were torn out of the journal at some point—and it is likely that Stanley simply embellished the pithy line sometime afterwards. Neither man mentioned it in any of the letters they wrote at this time, and Livingstone tended to instead recount the reaction of his servant, Susi, who cried out: "An Englishman coming! I see him!" The phrase is first quoted in a summary of Stanley's letters published by "The New York Times" on 2 July 1872. Stanley biographer Tim Jeal argued that the explorer invented it afterwards to help raise his standing because of "insecurity about his background", though ironically the phrase was mocked in the press for being absurdly formal for the situation.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Preserving a calmness of exterior before the Arabs which was hard to simulate as he reached the group, Mr. Stanley said: – "Doctor Livingstone, I presume?" A smile lit up the features of the pale white man as he answered: "Yes, and I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you."


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Stanley joined Livingstone in exploring the region, finding that there was no connection between Lake Tanganyika and the Nile. On his return, he wrote a book about his experiences: "How I Found Livingstone; travels, adventures, and discoveries in Central Africa".


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: In 1874, the "New York Herald" and the "Daily Telegraph" financed Stanley on another expedition to Africa. His ambitious objective was to complete the exploration and mapping of the Central African Great Lakes and rivers, in the process circumnavigating Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika and locating the source of the Nile. Between 1875 and 1876 Stanley succeeded in the first part of his objective, establishing that Lake Victoria had only a single outlet – the one discovered by John Hanning Speke on 21 July 1862 and named Ripon Falls. If this was not the Nile's source, then the separate massive northward flowing river called by Livingstone, the Lualaba, and mapped by him in its upper reaches, might flow on north to connect with the Nile via Lake Albert and thus be the primary source.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: It was therefore essential that Stanley should trace the course of the Lualaba downstream (northward) from Nyangwe, the point where Livingstone had left it in July 1871. Between November 1876 and August 1877, Stanley and his men navigated the Lualaba up to and beyond the point where it turned sharply westward, away from the Nile, identifying itself as the Congo River. Having succeeded with this second objective, they then traced the river to the sea. During this expedition, Stanley used sectional boats and dug-out canoes to pass the large cataracts that separated the Congo into distinct tracts. These boats were transported around the rapids before being rebuilt to travel on the next section of river. In passing the rapids many of his men were drowned, including his last white colleague, Frank Pocock. Stanley and his men reached the Portuguese outpost of Boma, around from the mouth of the Congo River on the Atlantic Ocean, after 999 days on 9 August 1877. Muster lists and Stanley's diary (12 November 1874) show that he started with 228 people and reached Boma with 114 survivors, with he being the only European left alive out of four. In Stanley's "Through the Dark Continent" (1878) (in which he coined the term "Dark Continent" for Africa), Stanley said that his expedition had numbered 356, the exaggeration detracting from his achievement.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Stanley attributed his success to his leading African porters, saying that his success was "all due to the pluck and intrinsic goodness of 20 men ... take the 20 out and I could not have proceeded beyond a few days' journey". Professor James Newman has written that "establishing the connection between the Lualaba and Congo Rivers and locating the source of the Victoria Nile" justified him (Newman) in stating that: "In terms of exploration and discovery as defined in nineteenth-century Europe, he (Stanley) clearly stands at the top."


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Stanley was approached by King Leopold II of the Belgians, the monarch who had already established the International African Association (a front organization for the later International Association of the Congo) at the Brussels Geographic Conference of 1876. Stanley first hoped to continue his pioneering work in Africa under the British flag. But neither the Foreign Office nor Edward, the Prince of Wales, felt called to receive Stanley after the many rumors of his looting and killing in the interior of the African continent. Leopold II eagerly received a disenchanted Stanley at his palace in June 1878, and signed a contract with him.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Stanley, much more familiar with the rigors of the African climate and the complexities of local politics than Leopold (who never in his whole life set foot in the Congo), persuaded his patron that the first step should be the construction of a wagon trail around the Congo rapids and a chain of trading stations on the river. Leopold agreed, and in deepest secrecy, Stanley signed a five-year contract at a salary of £1,000 a year and set off to Zanzibar under an assumed name. To avoid discovery, materials and workers were shipped in by various roundabout routes, and communications between Stanley and Leopold were entrusted to Colonel Maximilien Strauch.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: In 1879, Stanley left for Africa for his first mission under Leopold's orders. King Leopold II gave Stanley clear instructions: ""It is not about Belgian colonies. It is about establishing a new state that is as large as possible and about its governance. It should be clear that in this project there can be no question of granting the Negroes the slightest form of political power. That would be ridiculous. The whites, who lead the posts, have all the power.""


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Stanley described in writings his dismay with the terrible scenes taking place in Congo. He also reported of atrocities and cannibalism come in. At the same time, his 'findings' conveyed an idea that the dark continent must submit, willingly or otherwise. Stanley's writings show that he, too, held this view. ""Only by proving that we are superior to the savages, not only through our power to kill them but through our entire way of life, can we control them as they are now, in their present stage; it is necessary for their own well-being, even more than ours.""


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Unexpectedly, France sent its own expedition to the Congo Basin. Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza undermined Stanley's mission by concluding contracts himself with native heads of state. The creation of a station that would later be called Brazzaville could not be prevented. King Leopold was furious writing angrily to Strauch: ""The terms of the treaties Stanley has made with native chiefs do not satisfy me. There must at least be an added article to the effect that they delegate to us their sovereign rights ... the treaties must be as brief as possible and in a couple of articles must grant us everything.""


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Since everything in Central Africa was about the balance of power between the superpowers, Leopold thought about his next moves and sent an envoy to Berlin to press for a conference. Leopold wanted the International Association of the Congo boundaries drawn by Stanley to be officially confirmed, thus giving the Association an official status.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: On 26 February 1885, the Berlin Act was signed. The Act regulated an immense free trade zone in the Congo Basin and made it a neutral territory. Furthermore, the Act declared war on slavery. The act contained only one article that Leopold disliked: Article 17 gave the superpowers the right to establish an international commission to supervise the freedom of trade and navigation in Congo. As a result, Leopold wouldn't be able to collect customs duties on the Congo River


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: In 1890, on the 25th anniversary of Leopold's reign as Belgian monarch, Stanley was taken from one banquet hall to another, proclaimed a hero. Leopold honored him with the Order of Leopold. Together they examined the entire Congolese situation. The key question was how the Free State could become profitable. Stanley pointed out to the monarch, among other things, the potential of rubber mining. Stanley wrote: ""You can find it on almost any tree. As we made our way through the forest, it was literally raining rubber juice. Our clothes were full of it. The Congo has so many tributaries that a well-organized company can easily extract a few tons of rubber per year here. You only have to sail up such a river and the branches with rubber hang almost up to your ship.""


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: In 1891, rubber extraction was divided among concessionaires. This soon led to abuses, when the switch was made to "forced labour".


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: In later years, Stanley would write that the most vexing part of his duties was not the work itself but was keeping order in the ill-assorted collection of white men he had brought with him as overseers and officers, who squabbled constantly over small matters of rank or status. "Almost all of them", he wrote, "clamored for expenses of all kinds, which included ... wine, tobacco, cigars, clothes, shoes, board and lodging, and certain nameless extravagances."


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Tippu Tip, the most powerful of Zanzibar's slave traders of the 19th century, was well known to Stanley, as was the social chaos and devastation brought by slave-hunting. It had only been through Tippu Tip's help that Stanley had found Livingstone, who had survived years on the Lualaba under Tippu Tip's friendship. Now, Stanley discovered that Tippu Tip's men had reached still further west in search of fresh populations to enslave.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Four years earlier, the Zanzibaris had thought the Congo deadly and impassable and warned Stanley not to attempt to go there, but when Tippu Tip learned in Zanzibar that Stanley had survived, he was quick to act. Villages throughout the region had been burned and depopulated. Tippu Tip had raided 118 villages, killed 4,000 Africans, and, when Stanley reached his camp, had 2,300 slaves, mostly young women and children, in chains ready to transport halfway across the continent to the markets of Zanzibar.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Having found the new ruler of the Upper Congo, Stanley had no choice but to negotiate an agreement with him, to stop Tip coming further downstream and attacking Leopoldville, Kinshasa and other stations. To achieve this, he had to allow Tip to build his final river station just below Stanley Falls, which prevented vessels from sailing further upstream. At the end of his physical resources, Stanley returned home, to be replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Francis de Winton, a former British Army officer.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: In 1886, Stanley led the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition to "rescue" Emin Pasha, the governor of Equatoria in the southern Sudan, who was threatened by Mahdist forces. King Leopold II demanded that Stanley take the longer route via the Congo River, hoping to acquire more territory and perhaps even Equatoria After immense hardships and great loss of life, Stanley met Emin in 1888, charted the Ruwenzori Range and Lake Edward, and emerged from the interior with Emin and his surviving followers at the end of 1890. But this expedition tarnished Stanley's name because of the conduct of the other Europeans on the expedition. Army Major Edmund Musgrave Barttelot was killed by an African porter after behaving with extreme cruelty. James Sligo Jameson, heir to Irish whiskey manufacturer Jameson's, bought an 11-year-old girl and offered her to cannibals to document and sketch how she was cooked and eaten. Stanley found out only when Jameson had died of fever.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: The spread of sleeping sickness across areas of central and eastern Africa that were previously free of the disease has been attributed to this expedition, but this hypothesis has been disputed. Sleeping sickness had been endemic in these regions for generations and then flared into epidemics as colonial trade increased trade throughout Africa during the ensuing decades.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: In a number of publications made after the expedition, Stanley asserts that the purpose of the effort was singular; to offer relief to Emin Pasha. For example, he writes the following while explaining the final route decision.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: The advantages of the Congo route were about five hundred miles shorter land journey, and less opportunities for deserting. It also quieted the fears of the French and Germans that, behind this professedly humanitarian quest, we might have annexation projects.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: However, Stanley's other writings point to a secondary goal which was precisely territorial annexation. He writes in his book on the expedition about his meeting with the Sultan of Zanzibar, when he arrived there at the start of the expedition, and a certain matter that was discussed at that meeting. At first, he is not explicit on the agenda but it is clear enough.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: We then entered heartily into our business; how absolutely necessary it was that he should promptly enter into an agreement with the English within the limits assigned by Anglo-German treaty. It would take too long to describe the details of the conversation, but I obtained from him the answer needed.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: A few pages further in the same book, Stanley explains what the matter was about and this time, he makes it clear that indeed, it had to do with annexation.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: I have settled several little commissions at Zanzibar satisfactorily. One was to get the Sultan to sign the concessions which Mackinnon tried to obtain a long time ago. As the Germans have magnificent territory east of Zanzibar, it was but fair that England should have some portion for the protection she has accorded to Zanzibar since 1841 . ... The concession that we wished to obtain embraced a portion of East African coast, of which Mombasa and Malindi were the principal towns. For eight years, to my knowledge, the matter had been placed before His Highness, but the Sultan's signature was difficult to obtain.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: The records at the National Archives at Kew, London, offer an even deeper insight and show that annexation was a purpose he had been aware of for the expedition. This is because there are a number of treaties curated there (and gathered by Stanley himself from what is present-day Uganda during the Emin Pasha Expedition), ostensibly gaining British protection for a number of African chiefs. Amongst these were a number that have long been identified as possible frauds. A good example is treaty number 56, supposedly agreed upon between Stanley and the people of "Mazamboni, Katto, and Kalenge". These people had signed over to Stanley, "the Sovereign Right and Right of Government over our country for ever in consideration of value received and for the protection he has accorded us and our Neighbours against KabbaRega and his Warasura."


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: On his return to Europe, Stanley married Welsh artist Dorothy Tennant. They adopted a child named Denzil, who was the son of one of Stanley's first cousins, though Stanley concealed this fact from the public and possibly even from Dorothy. Denzil later donated around 300 items to the Stanley archives at the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium in 1954. He died in 1959.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Mainly at his wife's behest, Stanley entered Parliament as a Liberal Unionist member for Lambeth North, serving from 1895 to 1900. He disliked politics and made little impression on Parliament. He became Sir Henry Morton Stanley when he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 1899 Birthday Honours, in recognition of his service to the British Empire in Africa. In 1890, he was given the Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold by King Leopold II.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Stanley died at his home at 2 Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, London on 10 May 1904. At his funeral, he was eulogised by Daniel P. Virmar. His grave is in the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels' Church in Pirbright, Surrey, marked by a large piece of granite inscribed with the words "Henry Morton Stanley, Bula Matari, 1841–1904, Africa". Bula Matari translates as "Breaker of Rocks" or "Breakstones" in Kongo and was Stanley's name among locals in Congo. It can be translated as a term of endearment for, as the leader of Leopold's expedition, he commonly worked with the labourers breaking rocks with which they built the first modern road along the Congo River. Author Adam Hochschild suggested that Stanley understood it as a heroic epithet, but there is evidence that Nsakala, the man who coined it, had meant it humorously.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Having survived for ten years of his childhood in the workhouse at St Asaph, it is postulated that he needed as a young man to be thought of as harder and more formidable than other explorers. This made him exaggerate punishments and hostile encounters. It was a serious error of judgement for which his reputation continues to pay a heavy price. In the conclusion to his account of a fight with a fellow boy while in the workhouse, Stanley remarked, "Often since have I learned how necessary is the application of force for the establishment of order. There comes a time when pleading is of no avail." He was accused of indiscriminate cruelty against Africans by contemporaries, which included men who served under him or otherwise had first-hand information. Stanley himself acknowledged, "Many people have called me hard, but they are always those whose presence a field of work could best dispense with, and whose nobility is too nice to be stained with toil".


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: About society women, Stanley wrote that they were "toys to while slow time" and "trifling human beings". When he met the American journalist and traveller May Sheldon, he was attracted because she was a modern woman who insisted on serious conversation and not social chit-chat. "She soon lets you know that chaff won't do", he wrote. The authors of the book "The Congo: Plunder and Resistance" tried to argue that Stanley had "a pathological fear of women, an inability to work with talented co-workers, and an obsequious love of the aristocratic rich", This is not only at odds with his opinions about society women, but Stanley's intimate correspondence in the Royal Museum of Central Africa, between him and his two fiancées, Katie Gough Roberts and Alice Pike, as well as between him and the American journalist May Sheldon, and between him and his wife Dorothy Tennant, shows that he enjoyed close relationships with those women, but both Roberts and Pike ultimately rejected him when he refused to abandon his protracted travels.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: When Stanley married Dorothy, he invited his friend, Arthur Mounteney Jephson, to visit while they were on their honeymoon. Dr. Thomas Parke also came because Stanley was seriously ill at the time. Stanley's good relations with these two colleagues from the Emin Pasha Expedition could possibly be seen as demonstrating that he could get along with colleagues.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: In "Through the Dark Continent", Stanley observed the peoples of the region, and wrote that "the savage only respects force, power, boldness, and decision". Stanley further wrote: 'If Europeans will only ... study human nature in the vicinity of Stanley Pool (Kinshasa), they will go home thoughtful men, and may return again to this land to put to good use the wisdom they should have gained ... during their peaceful sojourn.'


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: In "How I Found Livingstone", he wrote that he was "prepared to admit any black man possessing the attributes of true manhood, or any good qualities ... to a brotherhood with myself."


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Stanley insulted and shouted at William Grant Stairs and Arthur Jephson for mistreating the Wangwana. He described the history of Boma as "two centuries of pitiless persecution of black men by sordid whites". He also wrote about what he thought was the superior beauty of black people in comparison with whites. According to Jeal, Stanley was not a racist, unlike his contemporaries Sir Richard Burton and Sir Samuel Baker.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: The Wangwana of Zanzibar were of mixed Arabian and African ancestry: "Africanized Arabs", in Stanley's words. They became the backbone of all his major expeditions and were referred to as "his dear pets" by sceptical young officers on the Emin Pasha Expedition, who resented their leader for favouring the Wangwana above themselves. "All are dear to me", Stanley told William Grant Stairs and Arthur Jephson, "who do their duty and the Zanzibaris have quite satisfied me on this and on previous expeditions." Stanley came to think of an individual Wangwana as "superior in proportion to his wages to ten Europeans". When Stanley first met a group of his Wangwana assistants, he was surprised: "They were an exceedingly fine looking body of men, far more intelligent in appearance than I could ever have believed African barbarians could be".


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: On the other hand, in one of his books, Stanley said about mixed Afro-Arab people: "For the half-castes I have great contempt. They are neither black nor white, neither good nor bad, neither to be admired nor hated. They are all things, at all times. ... If I saw a miserable, half-starved negro, I was always sure to be told, he belonged to a half-caste. Cringing and hypocritical, cowardly and debased, treacherous and mean ... this syphilitic, blear-eyed, pallid-skinned, abortion of an Africanized Arab."


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: The British House of Commons appointed a committee to investigate missionary reports of Stanley's mistreatment of native populations in 1871, which was likely secured by Horace Waller, a member on the committee of the Anti-slavery Society and fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. The British vice consul in Zanzibar, John Kirk (Waller's brother-in-law) conducted the investigation. Stanley was charged with excessive violence, wanton destruction, the selling of labourers into slavery, the sexual exploitation of native women and the plundering of villages for ivory and canoes. Kirk's report to the British Foreign Office was never published, but in it, he claimed: "If the story of this expedition were known it would stand in the annals of African discovery unequalled for the reckless use of power that modern weapons placed in his hands over natives who never before heard a gun fired." When Kirk was appointed to investigate reports of brutality against Stanley, he was delighted because he had hated Stanley for almost a decade. Firstly, for having publicly exposed him (Kirk) for having failed to send provisions to Dr Livingstone from Zanzibar during the late 1860s; secondly, because Stanley had revealed in the press that Kirk had sent slaves to David Livingstone as porters, rather than the free men Livingstone had made very plain he wanted. Kirk was related to Horace Waller by marriage; and so Waller also hated Stanley on Kirk's behalf. He used his membership of the executive committee of the Universities Mission to Central Africa to persuade the Rev. J.P. Farler (a missionary in East Africa) to name Stanley's assistants who might provide evidence against the explorer and be prepared to be interviewed by Dr Kirk in Zanzibar. An American merchant in Zanzibar, Augustus Sparhawk, wrote that several of Stanley's African assistants, including Manwa Sera –– "a big rascal and too fond of money" –– had been bribed to tell Kirk what he wanted to hear. Stanley was accused, in Kirk's report, of cruelty to his Wangwana carriers and guards whom he idolized and who re-enlisted with him again and again. He wrote to the owner of the "Daily Telegraph", insisting that he (Lawson) force the British government to send a warship to take the Wangwana home to Zanzibar and to pay all their back wages. If a ship was not sent, they would die on their overland journey home. The ship was sent. Stanley's hatred of the promiscuity that had caused his illegitimacy and his legendary shyness with women, made the Kirk report's claim that he had accepted an African mistress offered to him by Kabaka Mutesa exceedingly implausible. Both Stanley and his colleague, Frank Pocock, loathed slavery and the slave trade and wrote about this loathing in letters and diaries at this time, which speaks against the likelihood that they sold their own men. The report was never shown to Stanley, so he had been unable to defend himself.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: In a letter to the Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society in the 1870s, Conservative MP and treasurer of the Aborigines' Protection Society, Sir Robert Fowler, who believed Kirk's report and refused to "whitewash Stanley", insisted that his "heartless butchery of unfortunate natives has brought dishonour on the British flag and must have rendered the course of future travellers more perilous and difficult."


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: General Charles George Gordon remarked in a letter to Richard Francis Burton that Stanley shared Samuel Baker's tendency to write openly about deploying firearms against Africans in self-defense: "These things may be done, but not advertised", Burton himself wrote that Stanley "shoots negros as if they were monkeys" in an October 1876 letter to John Kirk. He also loathed Stanley for disproving his long-held theory that Lake Tanganyika, which he was the first European to discover, was the true source of the Nile, which may have influenced Burton to misrepresent Stanley's activities in Africa.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: In 1877, not long after one of Stanley's expeditions, Reverend J. P. Farler met with African porters who had been part of the expedition and wrote, "Stanley's followers give dreadful accounts to their friends of the killing of inoffensive natives, stealing their ivory and goods, selling their captives, and so on. I do think a commission ought to inquire into these charges, because if they are true, it will do untold harm to the great cause of emancipating Africa. ... I cannot understand all the killing that Stanley has found necessary". Stanley, when reporting the American Indian Wars as a young reporter, had been encouraged by his editors to exaggerate the number of Indians killed by the US Army. The legacy for Stanley, of being a helpless illegitimate boy, deserted by both parents, was a deep sense of inferiority that could only be kept at bay by claims of being much more powerful and feared than he was. Tim Jeal, in his biography of Stanley, has shown by a study of Stanley's diary and his colleague Frank Pocock's diary that on almost every occasion when there was conflict with Africans on the Congo in 1875–76, Stanley exaggerated the scale of the conflict and the deaths on both sides. On 14 February 1877, according to his colleague, Frank Pocock's diary, Stanley's nine canoes, and his sectional boat the "Lady Alice", were attacked and followed by eight canoes, crewed by Africans with firearms. In Stanley's book, "Through the Dark Continent", Stanley inflated this incident into a major battle, by increasing the number of hostile canoes to 60 and adjusting the casualties accordingly.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Stanley wrote with some measure of satisfaction when describing how Captain John Hanning Speke, the first European to visit Uganda, had been punched in the teeth for disobedience to Sidi Mubarak Bombay, a caravan leader also employed by Stanley, which made Stanley claim that he would never allow Bombay to have the audacity to stand up for a boxing match with him. In the same paragraph, Stanley described how he several months later administered punishment to the African.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: William Grant Stairs found Stanley during the Emina Pasha expedition to be cruel, secretive and selfish. John Rose Troup, in his book about the Emin Pasha expedition, said that he saw Stanley's self-serving and vindictive side: "In the forgoing letter he brings forward disgraceful charges, that really do not refer to me at all, although he blames me for what happened. The injustice of his accusations, made as they are without documentary or, as far as I can learn, any evidence, can hardly be made clear to the public, but they must be aware, when they read what has preceded this correspondence, that he has acted as no one in his position should have acted".


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: By way of counterpoint, it may be noted that, in later in life, Stanley rebuked subordinates for inflicting needless corporal punishment. For beating one of his most trusted African's servants, he told Lieutenant Carlos Branconnier "that cruelty was not permissible" and that he would dismiss him for a future offense, and he did. Stanley was admired by Arthur Jephson, whom William Bonny, the acerbic medical assistant, described as the "most honourable" officer on the expedition. Jephson wrote, "Stanley never fights where there is the smallest chance of making friends with the natives and he is wonderfully patient & long suffering with them". Writer Tim Jeal has argued that during Stanley's 1871 expedition, he treated his indigenous porters well under "contemporary standards."


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: The legacy of death and destruction in the Congo region during the Free State period and the fact that Stanley had worked for Leopold are considered by author Norman Sherry to have made him an inspiration for Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Conrad, however, had spent six months of 1890 as a steamship captain on the Congo, years after Stanley had been there (1879–1884) and five years after Stanley had been recalled to Europe and ceased to be Leopold's chief agent in Africa.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: A former hospital in St Asaph, north Wales, was named after Stanley in honour of his birth in the area. It was formerly the workhouse in which he spent much of his early life. Memorials to Stanley were erected in St Asaph and in Denbigh (a statue of Stanley with an outstretched hand) in 2011. A working party was set up in 2020 to consider new wording for a plaque on the St Asaph obelisk, and a public consultation and vote was held in 2021 over a proposal to remove the Denbigh statue, which resulted in an 80% majority for retaining the statue.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: The mineral stanleyite is named in his honor, as the describer of the mineral was surnamed Livingstone but a mineral named livingstonite (named for David Livingstone) already existed.


title: Henry Morton Stanley

text: Stanley Electric, a major Japanese supplier of automotive lighting, was named by founder Takaharu Kitano after Stanley in admiration of his "perseverance and pioneering spirit".


title: Sinterklaas

text: Sinterklaas () or Sint-Nicolaas () is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Other Dutch names for the figure include "De Sint" ("The Saint"), "De Goede Sint" ("The Good Saint") and "De Goedheiligman" ("The Good Holy Man"). Many descendants and cognates of "Sinterklaas" or "Saint Nicholas" in other languages are also used in the Low Countries, nearby regions, and former Dutch colonies.


title: Sinterklaas

text: The feast of Sinterklaas celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas on 6 December. The feast is celebrated annually with the giving of gifts on St. Nicholas' Eve (5 December) in the Netherlands and on the morning of 6 December, Saint Nicholas Day, Belgium, Luxembourg, western Germany, northern France (French Flanders, Lorraine, Alsace and Artois), and Hungary. The tradition is also celebrated in some territories of the former Dutch Empire, including Aruba.


title: Sinterklaas

text: "Sinterklaas" is based on the historical figure of Saint Nicholas (270–343), a Greek bishop of Myra in present-day Turkey. He is depicted as an elderly, stately and serious man with white hair and a long, full beard. He wears a long red cape or chasuble over a traditional white bishop's alb and a sometimes-red stole, dons a red mitre and ruby ring, and holds a gold-coloured crosier, a long ceremonial shepherd's staff with a fancy curled top.


title: Sinterklaas

text: He traditionally rides a white horse. In the Netherlands, the last horse was called "Amerigo", but he was "pensioned" (i.e., died) in 2019 and replaced with a new horse called "Ozosnel" ("oh so fast"), after a passage in a well-known Sinterklaas song. In Belgium, the horse is named "Slecht weer vandaag", meaning "bad weather today" or "Mooi weer vandaag" ("nice weather today").


title: Sinterklaas

text: Sinterklaas carries a big, red book which records whether each child has been good or naughty in the past year.


title: Sinterklaas

text: Sinterklaas is assisted by "Zwarte Piet" ("Black Pete"), a helper dressed in Moorish attire and in blackface. Zwarte Piet first appeared in print as the nameless servant of Saint Nicholas in "Sint-Nikolaas en zijn knecht" ("St. Nicholas and His Servant"), published in 1850 by Amsterdam schoolteacher Jan Schenkman; however, the tradition appears to date back at least as far as the early 19th century. Zwarte Piet's colourful dress is based on 16th-century noble attire, with a ruff (lace collar) and a feathered cap. He is typically depicted carrying a bag which contains candy for the children, which he tosses around, a tradition supposedly originating in the story of Saint Nicholas saving three young girls from prostitution by tossing golden coins through their window at night to pay their dowries.


title: Sinterklaas

text: Traditionally, he would also carry a birch rod (Dutch: "roe"), a chimney sweep's broom made of willow branches, used to spank children who had been naughty. Some of the older Sinterklaas songs make mention of naughty children being put in Zwarte Piet's bag and being taken back to Spain. This part of the legend refers to the times that the Moors raided the European coasts, and as far as Iceland, to abduct the local people into slavery. This quality can be found in other companions of Saint Nicholas such as Krampus and Père Fouettard. In modern versions of the Sinterklaas feast, however, Zwarte Piet no longer carries the "roe" and children are no longer told that they will be taken back to Spain in Zwarte Piet's bag if they have been naughty.


title: Sinterklaas

text: Over the years many stories have been added, and Zwarte Piet has developed into a valuable assistant to the absent-minded saint. In modern adaptations for television, Sinterklaas has developed a Zwarte Piet for every function, such as a Head Piet ("Hoofdpiet"), a Navigation Piet ("Wegwijspiet") to navigate the steamboat from Spain to the Netherlands, a Presents Piet ("Pakjespiet") to wrap all the gifts, and Acrobatic Piet to climb roofs and chimneys. Traditionally Zwarte Piet's face is said to be black because he is a Moor from Spain. Today, some children are told that his face is blackened with soot because he has to climb through chimneys to deliver gifts for Sinterklaas.


title: Sinterklaas

text: Since the 2010s, the traditions surrounding the holiday of Sinterklaas have been the subject of a growing number of editorials, debates, documentaries, protests and even violent clashes at festivals. Some large cities and television channels now only display Zwarte Piet characters with some soot smudges on the face rather than full blackface, so-called "roetveegpieten" ("soot-smudge Petes") or "schoorsteenpieten" ("chimney Petes").


title: Sinterklaas

text: In a 2013 survey, 92 per cent of the Dutch public did not perceive Zwarte Piet as racist or associate him with slavery, and 91 per cent were opposed to altering the character's appearance. In a similar survey in 2018, between 80 and 88 per cent of the Dutch public did not perceive Zwarte Piet as racist, and between 41 and 54 per cent were happy with the character's modernised appearance (a mix of "roetveegpieten" and blackface).


title: Sinterklaas

text: A June 2020 survey saw a drop in support for leaving the character's appearance unaltered: 47 per cent of those surveyed supported the traditional appearance, compared to 71 per cent in a similar survey held in November 2019. Prime Minister Mark Rutte stated in a parliamentary debate on 5 June 2020 that he had changed his opinion on the issue and now has more understanding for people who consider the character's appearance to be racist.


title: Sinterklaas

text: The festivities traditionally begin each year in mid-November (the first Saturday after 11 November), when Sinterklaas "arrives" by a steamboat at a designated seaside town, supposedly from Spain. In the Netherlands this takes place in a different port each year, whereas in Belgium it always takes place in the city of Antwerp. The steamboat anchors, then Sinterklaas disembarks and parades through the streets on his horse, welcomed by children cheering and singing traditional Sinterklaas songs. His "Zwarte Piet" assistants throw candy and small, round, gingerbread-like cookies, either "kruidnoten" or "pepernoten", into the crowd. The event is broadcast live on national television in the Netherlands and Belgium.


title: Sinterklaas

text: Following this national arrival, other towns celebrate their own "intocht van Sinterklaas" (arrival of Sinterklaas). Local arrivals usually take place later on the same Saturday of the national arrival, the next day (Sunday), or one weekend after the national arrival. In places a boat cannot reach, Sinterklaas arrives by train, horse, horse-drawn carriage or even a fire truck.


title: Sinterklaas

text: Sinterklaas is said to come from Spain, possibly because in 1087, half of Saint Nicholas' relics were transported to the Italian city of Bari, which later formed part of the Spanish Kingdom of Naples. Others suggest that mandarin oranges, traditionally gifts associated with St. Nicholas, led to the misconception that he must have been from Spain. This theory is backed by a Dutch poem documented in 1810 in New York and provided with an English translation:


title: Sinterklaas

text: The text presented here comes from a pamphlet that John Pintard released in New York in 1810. It is the earliest source mentioning Spain in connection to "Sinterklaas". Pintard wanted St. Nicholas to become patron saint of New York and hoped to establish a "Sinterklaas" tradition. Apparently he got help from the Dutch community in New York, that provided him with the original Dutch "Sinterklaas" poem. Strictly speaking, the poem does not state that Sinterklaas "comes" from Spain, but that he needs to "go" to Spain to pick up the oranges and pomegranates. So the link between Sinterklaas and Spain goes through the oranges, a much appreciated treat in the 19th century. Later the connection with the oranges got lost, and Spain became his home.


title: Sinterklaas

text: In the weeks between his arrival and 5 December, Sinterklaas visits schools, hospitals, and shopping centers. He is said to ride his white-grey horse over the rooftops at night, delivering gifts through the chimney to the well-behaved children. Traditionally, naughty children risked being caught by Black Pete, who carried a jute bag and willow cane for that purpose.


title: Sinterklaas

text: Before going to bed, children each leave a single shoe next to the fireplace chimney of the coal-fired stove or fireplace (or in modern times close to the central heating radiator, or a door). They leave the shoe with a carrot or some hay in it and a bowl of water nearby "for Sinterklaas' horse", and the children sing a Sinterklaas song. The next day they find some candy or a small present in their shoes.


title: Sinterklaas

text: Typical Sinterklaas treats traditionally include mandarin oranges, "pepernoten", "speculaas" (sometimes filled with almond paste), banketletter (pastry filled with almond paste) or a chocolate letter (the first letter of the child's name made out of chocolate), chocolate coins, "suikerbeest" (animal-shaped figures made of sugary confection), and "marzipan" figures. Newer treats include gingerbread biscuits or and a figurine of Sinterklaas made of chocolate and wrapped in coloured aluminium foil.


title: Sinterklaas

text: In the Netherlands, Saint Nicholas' Eve, 5 December, became the chief occasion for gift-giving during the winter holiday season. The evening is called "Sinterklaasavond" ("Sinterklaas evening") or "Pakjesavond" ("gifts evening", or literally "packages evening").


title: Sinterklaas

text: On the evening of 5 December, parents, family, friends or acquaintances pretend to act on behalf of "Sinterklaas", or his helpers, and fool the children into thinking that "Sinterklaas" has really given them presents. This may be done through a note that is "found", explaining where the presents are hidden, as though Zwarte Piet visited them and left a burlap sack of presents with them. Sometimes a neighbour will knock on the door (pretending to be a Zwarte Piet) and leave the sack outside for the children to retrieve; this varies per family. When the presents arrive, the living room is decked out with them, much as on Christmas Day in English-speaking countries. On 6 December "Sinterklaas" departs without any ado, and all festivities are over.


title: Sinterklaas

text: In the Southern Netherlands and Belgium, most children have to wait until the morning of 6 December to receive their gifts, and Sinterklaas is seen as a festivity almost exclusively for children. The shoes are filled with a poem or wish list for Sinterklaas and carrots, hay or sugar cubes for the horse on the evening of the fifth and in Belgium often a bottle of beer for Zwarte Piet and a cup of coffee for Sinterklaas are placed next to them. Also in some areas, when it is time for children to give up their pacifier, they place it into his or her shoe ("safekeeping by Sinterklaas") and it is replaced with chocolate the next morning.


title: Sinterklaas

text: The present is often creatively disguised by being packaged in a humorous, unusual or personalised way. This is called a "surprise" (from the French ).


title: Sinterklaas

text: Poems from Sinterklaas usually accompany gifts, bearing a personal message for the receiver. It is usually a humorous poem which often teases the recipient for well-known bad habits or other character deficiencies.


title: Sinterklaas

text: In recent years, influenced by North-American media and the Anglo-Saxon Christmas tradition, when the children reach the age where they get told "the big secret of Sinterklaas", some people will shift to Christmas Eve or Christmas Day for the present giving. Older children in Dutch families where the children are too old to believe in Sinterklaas any more, also often celebrate Christmas with presents instead of "pakjesavond". Instead of such gifts being brought by Sinterklaas, family members ordinarily draw names for an event comparable to Secret Santa. Because of the popularity of his "older cousin" Sinterklaas, Santa Claus is however not commonly seen in the Netherlands and Belgium.


title: Sinterklaas

text: Jacob Grimm, Hélène Adeline Guerber and others have drawn parallels between "Sinterklaas" and his helpers and the Wild Hunt of Wodan or Odin, a major god among the Germanic peoples, who was worshipped in Northern and Western Europe prior to Christianization. Riding the white horse Sleipnir he flew through the air as the leader of the Wild Hunt, always accompanied by two black ravens, Huginn and Muninn. Those helpers would listen, just like Zwarte Piet, at the chimney – which was just a hole in the roof at that time – to tell Wodan about the good and bad behaviour of the mortals. Historian Rita Ghesquiere asserts that it is likely that certain pre-christian elements survived in the honouring of Saint Nicholas. Indeed, it seems clear that the tradition contains a number of elements that are not ecclesiastical in origin.


title: Sinterklaas

text: The "Sinterklaasfeest" arose during the Middle Ages. The feast was both an occasion to help the poor, by putting money in their shoes (which evolved into putting presents in children's shoes) and a wild feast, similar to Carnival, that often led to costumes, a "topsy-turvy" overturning of daily roles, and mass public drunkenness.


title: Sinterklaas

text: In early traditions, students elected one of their classmates as "bishop" on St. Nicholas Day, who would rule until 28 December (Innocents Day), and they sometimes acted out events from the bishop's life. As the festival moved to city streets, it became more lively.


title: Sinterklaas

text: During the Reformation in 16th- and 17th-century Europe, Protestant reformers like Martin Luther changed the Saint gift bringer to the Christ Child or "Christkindl" and moved the date for giving presents from 6 December to Christmas Eve. Certain Protestant municipalities and clerics forbade Saint Nicholas festivities, as the Protestants wanted to abolish the cult of saints and saint adoration, while keeping the midwinter gift-bringing feast alive.


title: Sinterklaas

text: After the successful revolt of the largely Protestant northern provinces of the Low Countries against the rule of Roman Catholic king Philip II of Spain, the new Calvinist regents, ministers and clericals prohibited celebration of Saint Nicholas. The newly independent Dutch Republic officially became a Protestant country and abolished public Catholic celebrations. Nevertheless, the Saint Nicholas feast never completely disappeared in the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, where the public Saint Nicholas festivities were very popular, main events like street markets and fairs were kept alive with persons impersonating Nicholas dressed in red clothes instead of a bishop's tabard and mitre. The Dutch government eventually tolerated private family celebrations of Saint Nicholas' Day, as can be seen on Jan Steen's painting "The Feast of Saint Nicholas".


title: Sinterklaas

text: In the 19th century, the saint emerged from hiding and the feast became more secularised at the same time. The modern tradition of "Sinterklaas" as a children's feast was likely confirmed with the illustrated children's book "Sint-Nicolaas en zijn knecht" ('Saint Nicholas and his servant'), written in 1850 by the teacher Jan Schenkman (1806–1863). Some say he introduced the images of Sinterklaas' delivering presents by the chimney, riding over the roofs of houses on a grey horse, and arriving from Spain by steamboat, which at that time was an exciting modern invention. Perhaps building on the fact that Saint Nicholas historically is the patron saint of the sailors (many churches dedicated to him have been built near harbours), Schenkman could have been inspired by the Spanish customs and ideas about the saint when he portrayed him arriving via the water in his book. Schenkman introduced the song "Zie ginds komt de stoomboot" ("Look over yonder, the steamboat is arriving"), which is still popular in the Netherlands.


title: Sinterklaas

text: In Schenkman's version, the medieval figures of the mock devil, which later changed to Oriental or Moorish helpers, was portrayed for the first time as black African and called "Zwarte Piet" (Black Pete).


title: Sinterklaas

text: During the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945) many of the traditional "Sinterklaas" rhymes were rewritten to reflect current events. The Royal Air Force (RAF) was often celebrated. In 1941, for instance, the RAF dropped boxes of candy over the occupied Netherlands. One classical poem turned contemporary was the following:


title: Sinterklaas

text: This is a variation of one of the best-known traditional Sinterklaas rhymes, with "RAF" replacing "Sinterklaas" in the first line (the two expressions have the same metrical characteristics in the first and second, and in the third and fourth lines). The Dutch word "kapoentje" (little rascal) is traditional to the rhyme, but in this case it also alludes to a capon. The second line is straight from the original rhyme, but in the third and fourth line the RAF is encouraged to drop bombs on the "Moffen" (slur for Germans, like "krauts" in English) and candy over the Netherlands. Many of the "Sinterklaas" poems of this time noted the lack of food and basic necessities, and the German occupiers having taken everything of value; others expressed admiration for the Dutch Resistance.


title: Sinterklaas

text: Originally "Sinterklaas" was only accompanied by one (or sometimes two) "Zwarte Pieten", but just after the liberation of the Netherlands, Canadian soldiers organised a Sinterklaas party with many Zwarte Pieten, and ever since this has been the custom, each Piet normally having his own dedicated task.


title: Sinterklaas

text: In Curaçao, Dutch-style Sinterklaas events were organised until 2020. The Zwarte Piet costumes were purple, gold, blue, yellow and orange but especially black and dark black. Prime Minister Ivar Asjes has spoken negatively of the tradition. In 2011, the government of Gerrit Schotte threatened to withdraw the grant for the Dutch tradition after the Curaçaoan activist Quinsy Gario was arrested, when he protested in Dordrecht against the use of Zwarte Piet. Since 2020, the Sinterklaas feast is no longer nationally celebrated in Curaçao and has been replaced by Children's Day on 20 November.


title: Sinterklaas

text: Dutch-style Sinterklaas events were also organised in Suriname. In 1970 the Surinamese playwright Eugène Drenthe envisioned the character of "Gudu Ppa" ("Father of Riches" in Sranantongo) as a postcolonial replacement of Sinterklaas. Instead of a white man, Gudu Ppa was black. His helpers symbolised Suriname's different ethnic groups, replacing Zwarte Piet. Although promoted by the military regime in the eighties, Gudu Ppa never really caught on. In 2011, opposition member of parliament and former president Ronald Venetiaan called for an official ban on Sinterklaas because he considered Zwarte Piet to be a racist element. Since 2013, the Sinterklaas feast on 5 December has been replaced by "Kinderdag" ("Children's Day") in Suriname.


title: Sinterklaas

text: The Saint Nicholas Society of New York celebrates a feast on 6 December to this day. In the Hudson Valley region of New York, Sinterklaas is celebrated annually in the towns of Rhinebeck and Kingston because of the region's Dutch heritage. It includes Sinterklaas' crossing the Hudson River and then a parade.


title: Sinterklaas

text: "Sinterklaas" is the basis for the North American figure of Santa Claus. It is often claimed that during the American War of Independence, the inhabitants of New York City, a former Dutch colonial town (New Amsterdam), reinvented their "Sinterklaas" tradition, as Saint Nicholas was a symbol of the city's non-English past. In the 1770s the "New York Gazetteer" noted that the feast day of "St. a Claus" was celebrated "by the descendants of the ancient Dutch families, with their usual festivities." In a study of the "children's books, periodicals and journals" of New Amsterdam, the scholar Charles Jones did not find references to Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas. Not all scholars agree with Jones' findings, which he reiterated in a book in 1978. Howard G. Hageman, of New Brunswick Theological Seminary, maintains that the tradition of celebrating Sinterklaas in New York existed in the early settlement of the Hudson Valley. He agrees that "there can be no question that by the time the revival of St. Nicholas came with Washington Irving, the traditional New Netherlands observance had completely disappeared." However, Irving's stories prominently featured legends of the early Dutch settlers, so while the traditional practice may have died out, Irving's St. Nicholas may have been a revival of that dormant Dutch strand of folklore. In his 1812 revisions to "A History of New York", Irving inserted a dream sequence featuring St. Nicholas soaring over treetops in a flying wagon a creation others would later dress up as Santa Claus.


title: Sinterklaas

text: In New York, two years earlier John Pintard published a pamphlet with illustrations of Alexander Anderson in which he calls for making Saint Nicholas the patron Saint of New York and starting a Sinterklaas tradition. He was apparently assisted by the Dutch because in his pamphlet he included an old Dutch Sinterklaas poem with an English translation. In the Dutch poem, Saint Nicholas is referred to as 'Sancta Claus'. Ultimately, his initiative helped "Sinterklaas" to pop up as Santa Claus in the Christmas celebration, which returned freed of episcopal dignity and ties via England and later Germany to Europe again.


title: Sinterklaas

text: During the Reformation in 16th–17th-century Europe, many Protestants changed the gift bringer from Sinterklaas to the Christ Child or "Christkindl" (corrupted in English to Kris Kringle). Similarly, the date of giving gifts changed from 5 or 6 December to Christmas Eve.


title: Sinterklaas

text: In a scene in the 1947 film "Miracle on 34th Street", a Dutch girl recognises Macy's department store Santa as Sinterklaas. They converse in Dutch and sing a Sinterklaas song while she sits on his lap.