title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Sportsmax TV and Cleeng offered the fight via PPV in 19 Caribbean countries, including Barbados, Jamaica, Surinam, and Trinidad and Tobago.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Due to the high profile of the event and the high price of the PPV, there were significant concerns surrounding piracy of the fight's telecast by either bars (which were required to purchase a higher-priced commercial license to televise the event, and were not legally allowed to purchase it through their television provider) or by online streaming services, with "TorrentFreak" going on to report that Mayweather vs. Pacquiao was "destined to become the most pirated live sports event in history". Organizers were especially concerned about the mobile broadcasting apps Meerkat and Periscope due to their relative ease of use and accessibility, as viewers could simply film their television screen with their phones to make a stream available.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Alongside monitoring activities during the event, actions were also preemptively taken against several sites that advertised plans to illegally stream the fight. In the Philippines, the Philippine National Police's Anti-Cybercrime Group arrested the operator of a streaming service after a complaint by ABS-CBN and was granted a temporary restraining order in a Florida court for its infringements of copyrights and trademarks. HBO and Showtime filed a similar lawsuit against two other streaming services that advertised an intent to offer the fight under (which allows for preemptive claims of copyright infringement against those conspiring to infringe the copyrights of a broadcast) and a court issued a restraining order against the sites and all parties in "active concert or participation with any of them, including any and all service providers who receive notice of this order". The Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized the wide reach of the order, arguing that the clause of "any and all service providers who receive notice of this order" was comparable to the provisions of the previously proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, theorizing that other parties not originally named could become subject to the injunction by merely receiving notice of the order.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: A large number of Periscope streams were used to broadcast the fight, either indirectly with a focus on reactions from viewing parties, or simply rebroadcasting television feeds of the fight. One stream reportedly peaked at around 10,000 viewers, although these streams had inconsistent uptime due either to connection issues or to being reported and taken down by the service. Representatives of both Meerkat and Periscope reported that they acted upon takedown notices received throughout the evening. ESPN's Ryan McGee dubbed Periscope the "winner" of the fight due to the prominence it received through this manner. Dick Costolo, CEO of microblogging service and Periscope parent company Twitter, made a similar remark; although it was initially assumed to be in reference to the illegal streams, he clarified that it was actually in reference to HBO's usage of the service to stream behind-the-scenes from the fighters' locker rooms.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: The winner of the fight received a newly created belt by the WBC. The belt, valued at $1 million, is an exact replica of the current belt, except it has thousands of emeralds in place of the gold plating for the center logo. The belt also contains the faces of both Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, along with the faces of the former WBC President, José Sulaimán and boxing legend Muhammad Ali. Two belts were initially made for the fight. The green emerald belt won the public fan vote over the black onyx belt with a vote of 53% to 47%.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Both fighters wore eight-ounce (230 g) gloves with brands of their choosing. Mayweather wore custom Grant gloves with a multicolored paisley pattern, red & purple trim and the letters TBE (The Best Ever) on the cuff. Pacquiao wore standard red Cleto Reyes gloves with black & white trim. In Pacquiao's third professional loss to Érik Morales, he was forced to use Winning brand gloves the first time around. Pacquiao's complaints were that the gloves felt like "pillows" and they did not give him the same power as his Reyes "puncher's gloves." More recently, Mayweather had glove issues in his first bout with Marcos Maidana, stating that Maidana's Everlast MX gloves did not provide sufficient padding for the knuckles. The issue was later resolved with Marcos Maidana resorting to using Everlast Powerlock type gloves, leaving Maidana's trainer, Robert Garcia, unhappy with the negotiation.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Mayweather's trunks were designed by Dapper Dan, a Harlem-based hip-hop fashion designer. At least five possible outfits were created for the fight. FanDuel, a daily fantasy sports website, acquired sponsorship rights to have their logo appear on his waistband. Pacquiao's gear was provided by Nike.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Mayweather commissioned specially-designed mouthguards for the fight by Dr. Lee Gause, owner of Iceberg Guards, costing $25,000. Along with "subtle" clear pairs, some of them contained gold leaf, diamond dust and an embedded $100 bill. Iceberg Guards also released a limited-edition TMT-branded mouthguard to tie in with the fight. Pacquiao's mouthguard was designed by Dr. Ed Dela Vega of Canoga Park, Los Angeles, who has custom-fit mouthguards for Pacquiao and other Philippine boxers. It featured a multi-colored design with a blend of the colors from the flag of the Philippines, meant to represent the different ethnic groups that support him. Unlike Mayweather's, this mouthguard was supplied as a gift to Pacquiao; Vega argued that Mayweather's high-cost mouthguard was simply "hype" meant to "rub it in the face of boxers who can't afford it".


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: A bidding war ensued between Corona and Tecate—which had respectively served as prominent sponsors of previous Mayweather and Pacquiao fights—for lead sponsorship rights to the fight. Tecate won the sponsorship deal with a bid of $5.6 million, beating a bid of $5.2 million by Corona. As part of the deal, Tecate's logo was visible on all promotional material for the fight. Pacquiao was expected to feature a number of major sponsorships on his gear, providing an estimated $2.25 million in additional revenue. Among them were long-time sponsors, such as Air Asia, Cafe Puro, and Motolite. Daily fantasy sports service FanDuel acquired sponsorship rights for Mayweather, including waistband branding and a block of tickets that were given away through an on-site sweepstakes. The King, a mascot of fast food chain Burger King, was among Mayweather's entourage entering the arena.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Prior to the fight, Nike launched a line of Pacquiao-oriented merchandise carrying his logo and the slogans "Do What They Say You Can't" and "#MannyDoes". Demand for Mayweather merchandise was also heavy, including apparel branded under the Mayweather Promotions and The Money Team (TMT) labels amongst others.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: From April 24, 2015, through the day of the fight, a MayPac pop-up store operated on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street. It sold merchandise for both fighters and featured interactive displays and fan-oriented events.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: In round one, both boxers were aggressive, Mayweather unusually so. Pacquiao attempted to score early points from body shots. However, Mayweather escaped his attack and landed a solid counter strike under Pacquiao's right side. All three judges gave the round to Mayweather. In the second round, Pacquiao repeatedly forced Mayweather toward the ropes, but Mayweather was able to escape or wrap Pacquiao up each time. Pacquiao's jabs mostly missed, but he landed a solid left hand hit late in the round. Mayweather increased his aggression late. Although Harold Lederman of HBO scored this round for Pacquiao, all three judges scored the round in favor of Mayweather.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Early in round three, Mayweather hit Pacquiao low. Pacquiao reacted angrily to the hit, perceiving it as illegal. The fighters exchanged big hits late in the round, energizing the crowd. For the third consecutive round, all three judges scored it in favor of Mayweather. In the fourth round, Pacquiao chased Mayweather around the ring, throwing punches at a rapid pace. Pacquiao scored a big left handed hit, causing Mayweather to put his high guard up against the ropes. Pacquiao took the round on all three scorecards.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Having recovered from Pacquiao's big hit in the previous round, Mayweather won the early exchanges of the fifth round. Pacquiao remained on the offensive, but was unable to land any big punches. Mayweather upped his activity and won the round in the eyes of the three judges. Pacquiao came out aggressive in the sixth, forcing Mayweather to the ropes. Pacquiao successfully landed a couple of combinations, but Mayweather appeared to be unfazed. All the judges gave the round to Pacquiao, making the overall score Mayweather 58–56 (4–2 by rounds) on all cards.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Mayweather changed tactics at the start of the seventh round, becoming the aggressor for a second and forcing Pacquiao on to the ropes. He threw a double jab, then a right-handed punch, landing none, before Pacquiao counterattacked with an unsuccessful combo. Mayweather stayed aggressive in the eighth round, landing jabs that kept Pacquiao off balance. Pacquiao went on the attack, opening up and landing some bigger punches. The round went to Mayweather on the official scorecards.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: In the ninth round, Pacquiao was again on the offensive. He effectively landed several punches, but Mayweather also landed on his counters. Both parties landed a number of hits in a late flurry of action that excited the crowd. Pacquiao was active, while Floyd picked his counters. Two of the three judges gave the round to Pacquiao, while the other saw it for Mayweather. The tenth round saw Pacquiao on the attack. Again, two judges saw it for Pacquiao and one for Mayweather. Mayweather led 96–94 (6–4) on two cards and 98–92 (8–2) on the other with two rounds remaining.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Mayweather came out swinging in the eleventh round, landing just below his highest volume of the fight. The action then stalled as Pacquiao struggled to land much on a defensive-minded Mayweather, who ducked the attacks. Pacquiao forced Mayweather to the corner, but Mayweather landed a clean hit on Pacquiao's chin. However, Pacquiao still managed to hit solid punches in a fast pace. The judges unanimously scored the round in favor of Mayweather. In the final round, Pacquiao attempted to attack with Mayweather mostly looking to avoid his punches by running across the ring. Mayweather kept the fight in the center of the ring, but Pacquiao did land some inside counters. All three judges gave the round to Mayweather.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated Manny Pacquiao after 12 rounds by unanimous decision, 118–110, 116–112, 116–112, to remain undefeated in his career. According to CompuBox, Mayweather landed 67 more punches throughout the match, connecting with his punches 34 percent of the time, while limiting Pacquiao to only 19 percent. Only three times did Pacquiao land double figure punches in a round. Pacquiao himself thought he won the fight and continues to maintain that he deserved the decision.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: The fight lived up to revenue expectations, generating somewhere between $300 million and $400 million in gross revenue according to early estimates (including announced ticket sales totalling $72,198,500), which would surpass Super Bowl XLIX. Due to the possibility of high demand, viewers were encouraged to pre-order the PPV: an HBO representative reported that the fight had attracted more pre-orders than any other PPV event in the broadcaster's history. Despite the guidance, a high volume of last-minute orders overwhelmed the systems of several major U.S. television providers and resulted in various technical issues, such as difficulties ordering or viewing the PPV and outages that affected unrelated channels as well for some viewers. To address these issues, the main event was pushed back 45 minutes from its originally projected start time of 8:15 p.m. PT (11:15 p.m. ET), to 9:00 p.m PT (12:00 a.m. ET).


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: The fight broke PPV viewership records in the United States, with 4.6 million buys and over $410 million in revenue, surpassing the previous $150 million revenue record set by Floyd Mayweather vs. Canelo Álvarez, the 2.48 million buy record set by 2007's Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. and a pre-fight estimate of $270 million from three million households. In the Philippines, Kantar ratings estimated that the fight was watched across the three-network consortium by 46.9% of Filipino households; of the three networks simulcasting the fight, ABS-CBN had the largest number of viewers, with a rating share of 24%.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Due to hundreds of business jets filling up the stands, McCarran International Airport was closed for non-airline flights during the event days. By contrast, the typically bustling streets of the Philippine capital Manila were nearly empty during the fight.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: After the fight, Mayweather remarked "[Pacquiao] definitely had his moments in the fight. As long as I moved on the outside, I was able to stay away from those. He’s a really smart fighter ... My dad wanted me to do more, but I had to take my time. Because Manny Pacquiao is a competitor, and he’s extremely dangerous." Mayweather said he would retire after his next fight, the opponent of which is not yet decided. Pacquiao said "I thought I won the fight. He’s moving around. It’s not easy to throw punches when he’s moving around so much ... I thought I caught him many more times than he caught me." Citing the stats that showed he possibly should have won the fight, Pacquiao has continued to maintain he should have been awarded the decision. On the possibility of a rematch, Mayweather stated on May 9, 2015, that he had no plans to fight Pacquiao again "at this particular time", referring to him as being a "sore loser" and a "coward".


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: Hours after the fight, Pacquiao's team disclosed that he had injured his right shoulder in April during a training exercise. The injury was partially healed, but Pacquiao requested and was denied an injection of legal painkillers before the fight. Pacquiao said he re-injured the shoulder in the fourth round of the fight and was ineffective after that. On May 4, a representative of the Nevada State Athletic Commission said that it was looking into why Pacquiao had stated he had no shoulder injuries on pre-fight questionnaire and was considering fining or suspending him for the deception. Pacquiao's team responded with a statement saying the United States Anti-Doping Agency had been informed of the injury, but USADA head Travis Tygart said Pacquiao's team had only asked about the legality of certain substances for use on an unspecified shoulder injury and had provided "no medical information, no MRIs, no documents". Mayweather initially stated that he would be open to the possibility of a rematch with Pacquiao once he had recovered from his shoulder injury, but he changed his mind before talks of a rematch were in the works. Pacquiao later underwent surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and was out of action for nine months to one year.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: After weighing in for the fight on May 1, Mayweather received an intravenous injection for the stated purpose of pre-bout re-hydration. The two IV infusions were administered at his home, amounted to 16% of the total average male blood quantity, and contained saline, multivitamins and vitamin C. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) forbids such a large amount of fluids entering the body before competition as a preventive step against the possible masking of performance-enhancing drug use. Bob Bennett, the executive director of the NSAC, stated that unless the IV was administered at a hospital, it needs to be cleared by filing a therapeutic-use exemption, and supporting documents through the Nevada commission and authorized by the commission’s medical expert. The Pacquiao camp had requested an injection of the anti-inflammatory Toradol for Pacquiao's injured shoulder before the fight, but was denied authorization by the NSAC. USADA authorized both of Mayweather's IV injections, but the NSAC was not informed of them until after the fight.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: The fight itself left many fans disappointed. Forbes.com contributor Brian Goff called it "arguably, the least entertaining 'mega fight' in memory", attributing the disappointment to Mayweather's defense-oriented strategy, which is atypical of top boxers. "The New York Times" felt that the bout was "far from electrifying and had some fans grumbling about Mayweather’s methodical defensive style". "Los Angeles Times" columnist Bill Dwyre felt that the fight was "as compelling as the 405 freeway at 8 a.m.". Regarding Pacquiao's undisclosed shoulder injury, he called the entire situation very damaging to boxing, accusing the fight's promoters of allowing the fight to go on for monetary reasons, and potentially alienating fans. Dwyre went on to say that "This was billed the Fight of the Century. As "The Wall Street Journal" so aptly put it, it's good that we have 85 years left to top it." Former heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield, who thought that Pacquiao should have been awarded the decision, questioned the judging of not just this fight but recent prize fights in general in an essay in "The Players' Tribune".


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: On May 5, 2015, two Las Vegas residents filed a class-action lawsuit against Pacquiao, his manager and Top Rank, for failing to disclose Pacquiao's injury before the fight. The plaintiffs felt that their actions deceived those who bought tickets for the PPV or bet on the fight and violated the rules of the NSAC. In August 2017 a Los Angeles judge threw out the suit alongside other fan suits relating to the injury, though he stated he felt sympathy for fans who felt deceived that Pacquiao didn't disclose his injury. The case was later appealed and in November 2019 the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3–0 to throw out the suit.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: In May 2016, Showtime Networks also sued Top Rank over the injury, claiming that the promoter violated an indemnification agreement.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: On September 15, 2018, both Mayweather and Pacquiao posted videos on Instagram depicting an encounter between the two at Ultra Japan, speculating the possibility of a rematch. Mayweather's stated in his posting of the video that the fight would happen "this year" and described it as "another nine-figure pay day on the way" and was heard remarking to Pacquiao that he was going to "take [the belt] from you like I did before". In Pacquiao's video (posted with the comment "50–1 #NoExcuses"), Mayweather was heard mentioning the "second of December". It is unknown if any formal negotiations have actually occurred.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: On September 19, 2018, Mayweather clarified his calls for a rematch, stating that he planned to hold a fight in Japan first before any possible rematch.


title: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao

text: On November 4, 2018, it was announced that Mayweather would fight undefeated Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa on New Year's Eve, in a three-round exhibition boxing match. In the one-sided fight, Nasukawa was knocked down three times in the first round and his corner subsequently threw the towel in.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: The Yeomen Warders of His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary, popularly known as the Beefeaters, are ceremonial guardians of the Tower of London. In principle they are responsible for looking after any prisoners in the Tower and safeguarding the British crown jewels. They have also conducted guided tours of the Tower since the Victorian era.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: All warders are retired from the British Armed Forces and must be former warrant officers with at least 22 years of service. They must also hold the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. The garrison consists of 32 (formerly 37) Yeomen Warders and one Chief Warder.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: Although the Yeomen Warders are often referred to as Yeomen of the Guard, a distinct corps of Royal Bodyguards of the British monarch, they are in fact a separate entity within this guard.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: The name "Beefeater" is of uncertain origin, with various proposed derivations. The term was common as early as the 17th century as a slang term for the English in general. The earliest connection to the Royal Household came as a reference to the Yeomen of the Guard by Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who frequented the Court in 1669. In referring to the Yeomen of the Guard, he stated, "A very large ration of beef is given to them daily at the court, and they might be called Beef-eaters". The "Beefeater" name was carried over to the Yeomen Warders, due to the two corps' outward similarities and the Yeoman Warders' more public presence. "Beefeaters" also commonly produced and consumed broths made of beef, which were described as rich and hearty. These broths were known, at the time, as "bef" or "beffy".


title: Yeomen Warders

text: While this is the most-cited etymology, including by the Corps themselves, some etymologists have noted the term's similarity to ', the Old English term for a menial servant, lit. "loaf-eater", the counterpart of hlaford "loaf-warden" and hlæfdige, which became "lord" and "lady" respectively. Claims that the name derives from ' (an Old French term meaning "a waiter or servant" at a sideboard) are often mentioned, since one role of Beefeaters was to attend the king at meals. However, Skeat in "An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language" (published 1879–1882), concludes that there is "not the faintest tittle of evidence" for this conjecture. Other reliable sources also indicate that "" is unlikely to have been the source of the word.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: The Yeomen Warders were formed in 1485 by the new King Henry VII, the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The Tudor rose, a heraldic badge of the dynasty, is part of the badge of the Yeomen Warders to this day. Founded after the Battle of Bosworth, it is the UK's oldest existing military corps and the oldest of the royal bodyguards.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: In 1509 Henry VIII moved his official residence from the Tower of London. The Tower retained the formal status of a royal palace and to mark this a party of twelve Yeomen of the Guard was left in place as a token garrison. The title of this detachment was subsequently changed to that of Tower warders as a more accurate reflection of their duties. As warders without any ceremonial state functions they forfeited the right to wear the scarlet royal livery of the now separate Yeoman of the Guard. This was, however, restored to them during the reign of Edward VI (1547–1553), reportedly at the request of a high court official who had been briefly imprisoned in the Tower and was impressed by the behaviour of the warders.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: The original Tudor guard was split into two categories: the ordinary (i.e., permanent) guard and the additional troops of the extraordinary. In 1550, for example, the ordinary mustered 105 men, with an additional 300 extraordinary yeomen. Until 1549, the guards at the Tower were numbered among the extraordinary but in that year were raised to the status of ordinary yeomen. There was a considerable wage difference between the two groups. In 1562, a yeoman of the ordinary received 16d per day, whereas an extraordinary yeoman was paid the same as a common infantryman (4d or 6d). In 1551, the ordinary was expanded to 200 men, of whom 100 were to be archers and 100 halberdiers, but these numbers were not maintained. Uniform at this time was a velvet coat trimmed with silver gilt, worn over armour.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: The Yeomen Warders provided the permanent garrison of the Tower, but the Constable of the Tower could call upon the men of the Tower Hamlets to supplement them when necessary. The Tower Hamlets was an area significantly larger than the modern London Borough of the same name, which owed military service to the Constable in his "ex officio" role as Lord Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: In 2018, there were 37 Yeomen Warders and one Chief Warder. At one time, they were primarily guards but more recently, their role is mainly ceremonial; they have become greeters and guides for visitors, as part of their 21 duties.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: All Yeoman Warders are retired members of the armed services. To be appointed, one must be "a former Warrant Officer, class 1 or 2, (or the equivalent rank in other services) and in exceptional circumstances, a Staff Sergeant" from the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force, or Royal Marines; must have earned the Medal for Long Service and Good Conduct (or the Naval or RAF equivalent); and must have served for 22 years in the regular armed services. Until 2009, sailors were ineligible to become Yeomen Warders. This was because sailors of the Royal Navy—unlike soldiers, marines, and airmen—swear an oath of allegiance to the Admiralty rather than the monarch personally. In 2009, sailors became eligible to join the Yeoman Warders after Queen Elizabeth II consented to a petition from the Governor of the Tower to allow Royal Navy senior ratings to serve.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: The Yeomen Warders and their families live in tied accommodation inside the fortress, paying council taxes and rent. Most also have a home outside the grounds in order to have a break from their work environment. The Yeoman Warders Club is a pub exclusively for the Warders and for their invited guests. They must own a home outside the fortress to occupy when they retire. Some of the accommodation dates back to the 13th century. The community of the Tower of London is made up of Yeoman Warders and their families, the Resident Governor and officers, a chaplain and a doctor.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: On 1 July 2007, Moira Cameron became the first female Yeoman Warder. In 2009, three male warders were suspended, accused of bullying Cameron; two were dismissed and one was re-instated following the month-long investigation.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: In December 2018, the yeomen, members of the GMB union, staged walkouts of several hours in protest of planned changes to their pension benefit scheme, the first such action since 1963.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: In July 2020, Historic Royal Palaces (HRP), the charity that looks after the Tower of London, announced a compulsory redundancy order following losses in tourist revenue from the COVID-19 lockdown. This included the first ever Yeomen Warder redundancies. Compulsory redundancies were avoided, but five warders took voluntary redundancy.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: The Yeomen Warders normally wear an "undress" uniform of dark blue with red trimmings. For senior warders from "serjeant" up, the upper edges of the "undress" uniform's red collar and cuffs are trimmed with gold braid. When the sovereign visits the Tower, or the warders are on duty at a state occasion, they wear red and gold uniforms similar to those of the Yeomen of the Guard. These uniforms are referred to by the Yeoman Warders as the "Tudor State Dress".


title: Yeomen Warders

text: The Yeomen Warders are often confused with The Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard, the original "Beefeaters", a similar but distinct body. On ceremonial occasions, the Yeoman Warders wear the Yeomen of the Guard's distinctive uniform, that consists of a royal red tunic with purple facings and stripes and gold lace ornaments, red knee-breeches and red stockings, flat hat, and black shoes with red, white and blue rosettes. The gold-embroidered emblems on the back and front of the coats consist of the crowned Tudor Rose, the shamrock and the thistle, the motto "Dieu et mon droit", and the royal cypher of the reigning sovereign. Uniforms currently still read ER for "Elizabeth Regina", but will gradually change to read CR for "Charles Rex". The State Dress is often worn without a ruff, which is reserved for highly official occasions.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: The item of uniform that distinguishes The Yeomen of the Guard from the Tower Warders is the red cross-belt or baldric, worn from the left shoulder. This is a relic from the time when the Guard, and not the Warders, carried the harquebus. Paradoxically, the Yeoman Warders wear like the Yeomen of the Guard a black shoulder strap on the back, below the left shoulder, originally intended to hold the harquebus bandolier in place.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: The rank chevrons point down and are worn on the right upper arm. The Ravenmaster's badge is worn on the right lower arm. When wearing State dress, the Chief Yeoman Warder has a black cane as additional sign of his dignity. Instead, on special or highly official occasions, he carries a ceremonial staff topped by a miniature of the White Tower. The Yeoman Gaoler is the Chief Yeoman Warder's second-in-command. When wearing State dress, he is armed with a Dane axe, a long-handed battle-axe that had originated with the Vikings. In State dress, all Yeoman Warders are armed with saber-hilted swords, with the ordinary Warders and Serjeants also armed with partisans.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: Yeoman Warder Ravenmaster (also known as the Ravenmaster for short) is an appointment, not a rank, of that Yeomen Warder responsible for the welfare of the Tower of London ravens. The official title has been in use since the 1960s.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: It is not known how long the ravens have been living in the Tower of London, but they were resident by the time of King Charles II. Legend maintains that should the ravens ever leave the Tower, the White Tower will fall and disaster will befall the kingdom. When John Flamsteed, the "astronomical observator", complained that the ravens interfered with observatory work, Charles initially ordered them destroyed, but reminded of the legend, the story goes that he decided to instead relocate the Royal Observatory to Greenwich. He decreed that at least six ravens must always remain at the Tower. The presence of captive ravens probably goes back only to the late 19th century. According to one source, a picture of captive ravens from 1883 is the first known reference to the birds.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: As of 2018, the Yeoman Warder Ravenmaster of the Tower of London was retired Staff Sergeant Christopher Skaife (a former Drum Major with the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment), who took over from Derrick Coyle. and has written a memoir of his experiences in the role.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: To prevent the ravens flying away, their flight feathers have traditionally been trimmed so that they are unable to fly in a straight line for any appreciable distance. The ravens are free, however, to roam the Tower grounds. More recently, the Ravenmaster has been clipping less of the wings and feathers, to allow them to fly, instead of merely hopping or gliding, and they can reach the top of the buildings. One of the birds, Merlina, was allowed to fly to the wharf on the Thames but she always returned due to the bonding with her keeper. During Skaife's tenure to date, only one raven, Munin, escaped but was captured by a member of the public.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: The Ravenmaster releases the birds from their cages and prepares breakfast for them at dawn each day. The warders have commented that the "real beefeaters" at the Tower are the ravens. Traditionally, they were fed raw beef bought at Smithfield Meat Market by the Ravenmaster. Recently, other foods have been introduced to their diet, such as chicks, lamb, mice and pig hearts, as well as peanuts and dog biscuits soaked in blood and fish, in hope that this tactic would reduce the amount of scavenging from the rubbish bins.


title: Yeomen Warders

text: The Tower Warders are featured in an 1888 Savoy Opera written by Gilbert and Sullivan. "The Yeomen of the Guard" is set in the Tower of London during the 16th century, before the two corps were split apart; it concerns what are today the Yeomen Warders.


title: Gandhism

text: Gandhism is a body of ideas that describes the inspiration, vision, and the life work of M.K. Gandhi. It is particularly associated with his contributions to the idea of nonviolent resistance, sometimes also called civil resistance.


title: Gandhism

text: The term "Gandhism" also encompasses what Gandhi's ideas, words, and actions mean to people around the world and how they used them for guidance in building their own future. Gandhism also permeates into the realm of the individual human being, non-political and non-social. A can mean either an individual who follows, or a specific philosophy which is attributed to, Gandhism.


title: Gandhism

text: In the absence of a "Gandhism" approved by Gandhi himself, there is a school of thought that one has to derive what Gandhism stands for, from his life and works. One such deduction is a philosophy based on "truth" and "non-violence" in the following sense. First, one should acknowledge and accept the truth that people are different at all levels ("truth"). Second, one should never resort to violence to settle inherent differences between human beings at any level: from between two people to two nations to two races or two religions ("non-violence").


title: Gandhism

text: Although Gandhi's thought is unique in its own right, it is not without ideological parents. Gandhi has in his own writings specified the inspiration for his saying certain things. It can be said that it is his exposure to the West, during his time in London, that compelled him to look at his position on various religious, social, and political affairs.


title: Gandhism

text: Soon after his arrival in London, he came under the influence of Henry Stephens Salt, who was not yet the famous campaigner and social reformer that he would later become. Salt's first work, "A plea for vegetarianism" turned Gandhi towards the question of vegetarianism and food habits. It was also around this time that Gandhi joined vegetarian societies in London. Salt eventually became Gandhi's friend too. Talking of the significance of Salt's work, historian Ramachandra Guha said in his work "Gandhi before India": "For our visiting Indian, however, the Vegetarian Society was a shelter that saved him. The young Gandhi had little interest in the two great popular passions of late nineteenth-century London, the theatre and sport. Imperial and socialist politics left him cold. However, in the weekly meetings of the vegetarians of London he found a cause, and his first English friends." Salt's work allowed Gandhi for the first time to take part in collective action. Salt later went on to write a biography of Henry David Thoreau, who had a profound impact on Gandhi. Although Thoreau's 1854 book "Walden" could as well have moved Gandhi, it was his 1849 essay "Civil Disobedience" that was of greater importance. Gandhi was already in the midst of a form of civil disobedience in South Africa when he read Thoreau. Not only did he adopt the name for the kind of struggle that he would become a champion of, but also adopted the means of breaking laws in order to call for their reform. In 1907, Thoreau's name first appeared in the journal that Gandhi was then editing, "Indian Opinion", where Gandhi called Thoreau's logic 'incisive' and 'unanswerable'.


title: Gandhism

text: Gandhi's residence in South Africa itself sought inspiration from another Western literary figure - Leo Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy's critique of institutional Christianity and faith in the love of the spirit greatly moved him. He would after becoming a popular political activist write the foreword to Tolstoy's essay, "A letter to a Hindu". Gandhi exchanged letters with Tolstoy and named his ashram Tolstoy Farm. In Gandhian thought, Tolstoy's 1894 book "The Kingdom of God Is Within You" sits alongside "A plea" and "Civil Disobedience".


title: Gandhism

text: Tolstoy Farm was Gandhi's experiment of his utopian political economy - later to be called 'Gram Swaraj'. One key source of this concept was John Ruskin's 1862 book "Unto This Last" in which Ruskin critiques the 'economic man' (this was written after Ruskin's retreat from Art criticism for which he was well-known). Gandhi tried in all his Ashrams a system of self-sufficiency and decentralised economies. Gandhi was gifted this book by his close associate Henry Polak in South Africa. The philosophy of Ruskin urged Gandhi to translate this work into Gujarati.


title: Gandhism

text: In "Indian Opinion" there is mention of Giuseppe Mazzini, Edward Carpenter, Sir Henry Maine, and Helena Blavatsky. Gandhi's first exploration of pluralism can be said to have begun with his association with the Jain guru near home, Raychandbhai Mehta.


title: Gandhism

text: Satyagraha is formed by two Sanskrit words Satya (truth) and Agraha (seek/desire). The term was popularised during the Indian Independence Movement, and is used in many Indian languages including Hindi.


title: Gandhism

text: The pivotal and defining element of Gandhism is satya, a Sanskrit word for truth. It also refers to a virtue in Indian religions, referring to being truthful in one's thought, speech and action. Satya is also called as truth.


title: Gandhism

text: The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonviolent resistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Jain contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography, "The Story of My Experiments with Truth". He was quoted as saying that:


title: Gandhism

text: In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi issued two public appeals for Indians to enlist in the British Indian Army to fight in the First World War. He asserted that fighting in the war would provide Indians necessary self-defense skills that had been eroded by the deep-seated influence of India's ascetic culture, which he disdained.


title: Gandhism

text: This advocacy of violence led some of his staunchest supporters, including his nephew, Maganlal Gandhi, to question whether Gandhi was forsaking his non-violent ideals. In a July 1918 letter replying to his nephew, Gandhi stated that any conception of non-violence that prohibited self-defense was erroneous. To support this argument, Gandhi criticized the ethics of love and absolute ahimsa (non-violence) he observed in the teachings of Swaminarayan and Vallabhacharya. According to Gandhi, this love was mere "sentimentalism", and its concomitant absolute ahimsa "robbed us of our manliness" and "made the people incapable of self-defence". Gandhi wrote that Swaminarayan and Vallabhacharya had not grasped the essence of non-violence. Instead Gandhi argued for a non-violence that would "permit [our offspring] to commit violence, to use their strength to fight", since that capacity for violence could be used for the benefit of society, like in "restraining a drunkard from doing evil" or "killing a dog…infected with rabies".


title: Gandhism

text: By 1924, however, Gandhi's criticism of Swaminarayan and his ethical teachings had turned into admiration. While arguing in a Navjivan newspaper editorial that it was a duty to resort to violence for self-defense against Afghani terrorists, Gandhi admitted that he could not personally adopt this approach because he had chosen the path of love even against his enemies. Gandhi explained that, according to the Hindu scriptures, a single such self-controlled person could eradicate violence from the hearts of one's opposition. It was through this power of love that Gandhi asserted, "what was accomplished in Gujarat by one person, Sahajanand [Swaminarayan], could not be accomplished by the power of the State". Moreover, he said that "The Age of Sahajanand has not come to an end. It is only devotion and self-control like his that are wanted". Ultimately, Gandhi said that while he was attempting Swaminarayan's approach himself, he did "not have the strength of heart to act upon" it the way that Swaminarayan had successfully done.


title: Gandhism

text: Over time, Gandhi's religious thought showed a further influence of Swaminarayan's teachings, as, by 1930, he had included many hymns composed by Swaminarayan poets in his "Ashram Bhajanavali", a book of prayers which were used in his twice-daily prayer service. In his writings, he often drew inspiration from the spiritual teachings of Swaminarayan saint-poets Nishkulanand Swami and Muktanand Swami, the latter being the author of his most frequently used prayer. Indian sociologist and Gandhian contemporary, N. A. Thoothi, had argued by 1935 that Mahatma Gandhi was "most influenced in his inner-most being… by the teachings of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya above all". Thoothi concluded that "most of [Gandhi’s] thought, activities, and even methods of most of the institutions which he has been building up and serving, have the flavor of Swaminarayan, more than that of any other sect of Hinduism".


title: Gandhism

text: On 6 July 1940, Gandhi published an article in "Harijan" which applied these philosophies to the question of British involvement in the Second World War. Homer Jack notes in his reprint of this article, "To Every Briton" ("The Gandhi Reader") that, "to Gandhi, all war was wrong, and suddenly it 'came to him like a flash' to appeal to the British to adopt the method of non-violence." In this article, Gandhi stated,


title: Gandhism

text: Gandhi espoused an economic theory of simple living and self-sufficiency/import substitution, rather than generating exports like Japan and South Korea did. He envisioned a more agrarian India upon independence that would focus on meeting the material needs of its citizenry prior to generating wealth and industrialising.


title: Gandhism

text: Gandhi also adopted the clothing style of most Indians in the early 20th century. His adoption of khadi, or homespun cloth, was intended to help eradicate the evils of poverty, as well as social and economic discrimination. It was also aimed as a challenge to the contrast that he saw between most Indians, who were poor and traditional, and the richer classes of educated, liberal-minded Indians who had adopted Western mannerisms, clothing and practices.


title: Gandhism

text: The clothing policy was designed as a protest against the economic policies of the colonial government. Ever since the direct establishment of Crown control in 1857, Indians were forced to purchase clothing at artificially inflated prices since the colonial authorities would purchase cotton from Indian mill owners and ship them to Britain, where it was processed into clothing which was shipped back to India. Gandhi targeted foreign-made clothing imports to demonstrate his vision of an independent India which did not rely on foreign influence. He focused on persuading all members of the Indian National Congress to spend some time each day hand-spinning on their charkhas (spinning wheel). In addition to its purpose as an economic campaign, the drive for hand-spinning was an attempt to connect the privileged Indian brahmins and lawyers in Congress with the mass of Indian peasantry.


title: Gandhism

text: Many prominent figures of the Indian independence movement, including Motilal Nehru, were persuaded by Gandhi to renounce their Western style-dress in favour of khadi.


title: Gandhism

text: To Gandhi, fasting was an important method of exerting mental control over base desires. In his autobiography, Gandhi analyses the need to fast to eradicate his desire for delicious, spicy food. He believed that abstention would diminish his sensual faculties, bringing the body increasingly under the mind's absolute control. Gandhi was opposed to the partaking of meat, alcohol, stimulants, salt and most spices, and also eliminated different types of cooking from the food he ate.


title: Gandhism

text: Fasting would also put the body through unusual hardship, which Gandhi believed would cleanse the spirit by stimulating the courage to withstand all impulses and pain. Gandhi undertook a "Fast Unto Death" on three notable occasions:


title: Gandhism

text: In all three cases, Gandhi was able to abandon his fast before death. There was some controversy over the 1932 fast, which brought him into conflict with the other great leader B.R. Ambedkar. In the end, Gandhi and Ambedkar both made some concessions to negotiate the Poona Pact, which abandoned the call for separate electorates in turn for voluntary representation and a commitment to abolish untouchability.


title: Gandhism

text: Gandhi also used the fasts as a penance, blaming himself for inciting Chauri Chaura and the divisive communal politics of both 1932 and 1947, especially the Partition of India. Gandhi sought to purify his soul and expiate his sins, in what he saw as his role in allowing terrible tragedies to happen. It took a heavy toll on his physical health and often brought him close to death.


title: Gandhism

text: He professed the philosophy of Hindu Universalism (also see Universalism), which maintains that all religions contain truth and therefore worthy of toleration and respect. It was articulated by Gandhi:


title: Gandhism

text: Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was truth (satya), non-violence (ahimsa) and the Golden Rule.


title: Gandhism

text: Despite his belief in Hinduism, Gandhi was also critical of many of the social practices of Hindus and sought to reform the religion.


title: Gandhism

text: Gandhi was critical of the hypocrisy in organised religion, rather than the principles on which they were based.


title: Gandhism

text: Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, but his teachings and philosophy would play a major role in India's economic and social development and foreign relations for decades to come.


title: Gandhism

text: "Sarvodaya" is a term meaning 'universal uplift' or 'progress of all'. It was coined by Gandhi in 1908 as a title for his translation of John Ruskin's "Unto This Last". Later, nonviolence leader Vinoba Bhave used the term to refer to the struggle of post-independence Gandhians to ensure that self-determination and equality reached the masses and the downtrodden. Sarvodaya workers associated with Vinoba, including Jaya Prakash Narayan and Dada Dharmadhikari, undertook various projects aimed at encouraging popular self-organisation during the 1950s and 1960s. Many groups descended from these networks continue to function locally in India today.


title: Gandhism

text: The Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, was often considered Gandhi's successor, although he was not religious and often disagreed with Gandhi. He was, however, deeply influenced by Gandhi personally as well as politically, and used his premiership to pursue ideological policies based on Gandhi's principles. In fact, on 15 January 1942, in the AICC session Gandhi openly proclaimed Nehru as his successor.


title: Gandhism

text: Nehru's foreign policy was staunchly anti-colonialism and neutral in the Cold War. Nehru backed the independence movement in Tanzania and other African nations, as well as the Civil rights movement in the United States and the anti-apartheid struggle of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress in South Africa. Nehru refused to align with either the United States or the Soviet Union, and helped found the Non-Aligned Movement.


title: Gandhism

text: Nehru also pushed through major legislation that granted legal rights and freedoms to Indian women, and outlawed untouchability and many different kinds of social discrimination, in the face of strong opposition from orthodox Hindus.


title: Gandhism

text: Not all of Nehru's policies were Gandhian. Nehru refused to condemn the USSR's 1956–57 invasion of Hungary to put down an anti-communist, popular revolt. Some of his economic policies were criticised for removing the right of property and freedoms from the landowning peasants of Gujarat for whom Gandhi had fought in the early 1920s. India's economic policies under Nehru were highly different from Gandhi's with Nehru following a socialist model. Nehru also brought Goa and Hyderabad into the Indian union through military invasion.


title: Gandhism

text: At this point it is important to note that Gandhi believed in a kind of socialism but one that was very different from Nehru's. In praise of socialism, Gandhi once said, "... socialism is as pure as a crystal. It therefore requires crystal-like means to achieve it." Moreover Gandhi was conscious of the fact that Nehru's ideology differed from his but did not object to that as he was aware that this was a well-thought-out standpoint. He called this a difference in emphasis, his being on 'means' while Nehru's being on ends.


title: Gandhism

text: Nehru's two biggest failures are thought to be: The Partition of India which he described and justified as "a necessary evil" and which would lead to the bloody and deadly Partition riots; and the Sino-Indian War of 1962, though his wartime policy is said to have been influenced by Gandhian pacifism. In this instance, it led to the defeat of the Indian Army against a surprise Chinese invasion. Nehru had neglected the defence budget and disallowed the Army to prepare, which caught the soldiers in India's north eastern frontier off-guard with lack of supplies and reinforcements.


title: Gandhism

text: Gandhi's deep commitment and disciplined belief in non-violent civil disobedience as a way to oppose forms of oppression or injustice has inspired many subsequent political figures, including Martin Luther King Jr. of the United States, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko of South Africa, Lech Wałęsa of Poland and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar.


title: Gandhism

text: Gandhi's early life work in South Africa between the years 1910 and 1915, for the improved rights of Indian residents living under the white minority South African government inspired the later work of the African National Congress (ANC). From the 1950s, the ANC organised non-violent civil disobedience akin to the campaign advanced by the Indian National Congress under the inspiration of Gandhi between the 1920s and 1940s. ANC activists braved the harsh tactics of the police to protest against the oppressive South African government. Many, especially Mandela, languished for decades in jail, while the world outside was divided in its effort to remove apartheid. Steve Biko, perhaps the most vocal adherent to non-violent civil resistance, was allegedly murdered in 1977 by agents of the government.


title: Gandhism

text: When the first universal, free elections were held in South Africa in 1994, the ANC was elected and Mandela became president. Mandela made a special visit to India and publicly honoured Gandhi as the man who inspired the freedom struggle of black South Africans. Statues of Gandhi have been erected in Natal, Pretoria and Johannesburg.


title: Gandhism

text: Martin Luther King Jr., a young Christian minister and a leader of the civil rights movement seeking the emancipation of African Americans from racial segregation in the American South, and also from economic and social injustice and political disenfranchisement, traveled to India in 1962 to meet Jawaharlal Nehru. The two discussed Gandhi's teachings, and the methodology of organising peaceful resistance. The graphic imagery of black protesters being hounded by police, beaten and brutalised, evoked admiration for King and the protesters across America and the world, and precipitated the 1964 Civil Rights Act.


title: Gandhism

text: The non-violent Solidarity movement of Lech Wałęsa of Poland overthrew a Soviet-backed communist government after two decades of peaceful resistance and strikes in 1989, precipitating the downfall of the Soviet Union.


title: Gandhism

text: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest, and her National League for Democracy suppressed in their non-violent quest for democracy and freedom in military-controlled Myanmar. This struggle was inaugurated when the military dismissed the results of the 1991 democratic elections and imposed military rule. She was released in November 2010, when free elections were to be held.


title: Gandhism

text: Mohandas Gandhi's early life was a series of personal struggles to decipher the truth about life's important issues and discover the true way of living. He admitted in his autobiography to hitting his wife when he was young, and indulging in carnal pleasures out of lust, jealousy and possessiveness, not genuine love. He had eaten meat, smoked a cigarette, and almost visited a hustler. It was only after much personal turmoil and repeated failures that Gandhi developed his philosophy.


title: Gandhism

text: Gandhi disliked having a cult following, and was averse to being addressed as "Mahatma", claiming that he was not a perfect human being.


title: Gandhism

text: In 1942, while he had already condemned Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and the Japanese militarists, Gandhi took on an offensive in civil resistance, called the Quit India Movement.


title: Gandhism

text: There have been Muslim Gandhians, such as Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known as the "Frontier Gandhi"; under the influence of Gandhi, he organised the Pathans of the Northwest Frontier as early as 1919 to support the independence movement. Christian Gandhians include the Briton Horace Alexander and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Jewish Gandhians include Gandhi's close associate Hermann Kallenbach. Atheist Gandhians include Jawaharlal Nehru. Bangladeshi writer, columnist Syed Abul Maksud is a notable Gandhian in Bangladesh.


title: Gandhism

text: Several journals have also been published to promote Gandhian ideas. One of the most well-known is "Gandhi Marg",


title: Gandhism

text: Harold Dwight Lasswell, a political scientist and communications theorist, defined propaganda as the management of eclectic attitudes by manipulation of significant symbols. Based on this definition of Propaganda, Gandhi made use of significant symbols to drive his ideal of an independent Indian nation.


title: Gandhism

text: His ideas, symbolized in propaganda, stated that India was a nation capable of economic self-sufficiency without the British, a unity transcending religion would make for a stronger nation, and that the most effective method of protest was through passive resistance, including non-violence and the principle of satyagraha. In the "Quit India" speeches, Gandhi says "the proposal for the withdrawal of British power is to enable India to play its due part at the present critical juncture. It is not a happy position for a big country like India to be merely helping with money and material obtained willy-nilly from her while the United Nations are conducting the war. We cannot evoke the true spirit of sacrifice and velour, so long as we are not free." On his ideas towards a unified India he said: "Thousands of Mussalmans have told me, that if Hindu-Muslim question was to be solved satisfactorily, it must be done in my lifetime. I should feel flattered at this; but how can I agree to proposal which does not appeal to my reason? Hindu-Muslim unity is not a new thing. Millions of Hindus and Mussalmans have sought after it. I consciously strove for its achievement from my boyhood. While at school, I made it a point to cultivate the friendship of Muslims and Parsi co-students. I believed even at that tender age that the Hindus in India, if they wished to live in peace and amity with the other communities, should assiduously cultivate the virtue of neighbourliness. It did not matter, I felt, if I made no special effort to cultivate the friendship with Hindus, but I must make friends with at least a few Mussalmans. In India too I continued my efforts and left no stone unturned to achieve that unity. It was my life-long aspiration for it that made me offer my fullest co-operation to the Mussalmans in the Khilafat movement. Muslims throughout the country accepted me as their true friend." Gandhi's belief in the effectiveness of passive, non-violent resistance has been quoted as being the "belief that non-violence alone will lead men to do right under all circumstances."


title: Gandhism

text: These ideas were symbolized by Gandhi through the use of significant symbols, an important proponent in the acceptance of the ideals he expounded in his speeches and movements. On 3 November 1930, Gandhi gave a speech before the Dandi March which possibly could have been one of Gandhi's last speeches, in which the significant symbol of the march itself demonstrated the exclusively nonviolent struggle to empower a self-sufficient India. Beginning in Ahmedabad and concluding in Dandi, Gujarat, the march saw Gandhi and his supporters directly disobey the Rowlatt Act which imposed taxes on salt production and enforced the colonial monopoly on the salt market.


title: Gandhism

text: The Khadi movement, which formed part of the larger swadeshi movement, employed the symbol of burning British-made cloth imports in order to manipulate attitudes towards boycotting British goods and rejecting Western culture and urging the return to ancient, precolonial Indian culture. Gandhi obtained a wheel and engaged his disciples in spinning their own cloth called Khadi; this commitment to hand spinning was an essential element to Gandhi's philosophy and politics.


title: Gandhism

text: On 1 December 1948, Gandhi dictated his speech on the eve of the last fast. Using the fast as a form of significant symbolism, he justifies it as "a fast which a votary of non-violence sometimes feels impelled to undertake by way of protest against some wrong done by society, and this he does when as a votary of Ahimsa has no other remedy left. Such an occasion has come my way." This fast was conducted in line with his idea of a nation's communities and religions brought together. Gandhi's fast was only to end when he was satisfied with the reunion of hearts of all the communities brought about without any outside pressure, but from an awakened sense of duty.


title: Gandhism

text: Gandhi's rigid ahimsa implies pacifism, and is thus a source of criticism from across the political spectrum.


title: Gandhism

text: As a rule, Gandhi was opposed to the concept of partition as it contradicted his vision of religious unity. Of the partition of India to create Pakistan, he wrote in "Harijan" on 6 October 1946:


title: Gandhism

text: However, as Homer Jack notes of Gandhi's long correspondence with Jinnah on the topic of Pakistan: "Although Gandhi was personally opposed to the partition of India, he proposed an agreement [...] which provided that the Congress and the Muslim League would cooperate to attain independence under a provisional government, after which the question of partition would be decided by a plebiscite in the districts having a Muslim majority."


title: Gandhism

text: These dual positions on the topic of the partition of India opened Gandhi up to criticism from both Hindus and Muslims. Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his contemporary fellow-travelers condemned Gandhi for undermining Muslim political rights. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and his allies condemned Gandhi, accusing him of politically appeasing Muslims while turning a blind eye to their atrocities against Hindus, and for allowing the creation of Pakistan (despite having publicly declared that "before partitioning India, my body will have to be cut into two pieces").


title: Gandhism

text: His refusal to protest against the execution of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Udham Singh and Rajguru by the colonial government was a source of condemnation and intense anger for many Indians. Economists, such as Jagdish Bhagwati, have criticized Gandhi's ideas of swadeshi.


title: Gandhism

text: Of this criticism, Gandhi stated, "There was a time when people listened to me because I showed them how to give fight to the British without arms when they had no arms [...] but today I am told that my non-violence can be of no avail against the Hindu-Moslem riots and, therefore, people should arm themselves for self-defense."


title: Shriya Saran filmography

text: Shriya Saran is an Indian actress and model who has appeared mostly in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi language films. She made her acting debut with the Telugu film "Ishtam" (2001) and had her first commercial success with "Santosham" (2002). The following year, she made her Hindi cinema debut with a supporting role in "Tujhe Meri Kasam", alongside Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia D'Souza. It was followed by the commercially successful crime drama "Tagore" (2003), in which she was paired opposite Chiranjeevi. The same year, she played a supporting role in the Tamil-Telugu bilingual film "Enakku 20 Unakku 18", which marked her debut in Tamil cinema. In 2005, she had ten releases including "Mazhai", S. S. Rajamouli's "Chatrapathi", and "Mogudu Pellam O Dongodu", in which she was among the only three characters of the film. Saran's solitary release as a lead actress in 2006 was the Tamil film "Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam".


title: Shriya Saran filmography

text: In 2007, Saran was paired opposite Rajinikanth in S. Shankar's "". It was the most expensive film in Indian cinema and went on to become the highest grossing Tamil film to that point. The same year, she made a comeback to Hindi cinema with Mohit Suri's "Awarapan", where she played a Muslim woman. Following that, she made her American cinema debut with James Dodson's "The Other End of the Line" (2008), in which she played an Indian woman who works in a call centre. Her subsequent releases include the Tamil films "Kanthaswamy" (2009) and "Kutty" (2010), and "Pokkiri Raja" (2010), which marked her debut in Malayalam cinema.


title: Shriya Saran filmography

text: In 2012, Saran starred in Deepa Mehta's "Midnight's Children", an English adaptation of Salman Rushdie's novel of the same name. The following years, she played a princess in Roopa Iyer's period fantasy drama "Chandra"; the film was shot simultaneously in Kannada and Tamil. In 2014, she played dual roles in the Telugu drama film "Manam". Saran received critical acclaim for her performance and was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress – Telugu Award at the 62nd Filmfare Awards South. The following year, she appeared opposite Ajay Devgn in "Drishyam", the Hindi remake of the Malayalam film of the same name, which became a box office success.


title: Abu Salem

text: Abu Salem ( ; born Abu Salem Abdul Qayoom Ansari), also known as Aqil Ahmed Azmi and Abu Samaan, is an Indian criminal gangster and terrorist from Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh, Central India. Abu Salem worked in the D-Company (Dawood Ibrahim gang) as a driver transporting artillery and contraband. Later he rose among the ranks after he introduced a new strategy of hiring unemployed youths from his hometown Azamgarh to come to Mumbai, execute shoot-outs and return the next day remaining untraced by the Mumbai police. He is currently serving a life sentence in India.


title: Abu Salem

text: Salem is infamous for terrorizing the Bollywood film industry by extorting money from film producers and usurping the overseas distribution rights. It is believed that Salem was the mastermind behind threatening Bollywood film producers Gulshan Kumar, Subhash Ghai, Rajiv Rai and Rakesh Roshan. While his gang members assassinated Gulshan Kumar in 1997, they failed in their attempt to assassinate Rajiv Rai and Rakesh Roshan. He was also involved in several murders and extortion, among other crimes. He was later arrested in 2002 in Portugal on charges of using a fake passport and extradited to India. He was tried and convicted in some cases and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2015.


title: Abu Salem

text: Abu Salem was born in 1969 (according to the CBI; although the Mumbai police says, 1962; some reports suggest 1968) into a lower-middle-class family in Sarai Mir village of Azamgarh district, Uttar Pradesh. He was the second youngest amongst four brothers, though some reports maintain that he was the eldest of four brothers. His father was a lawyer by profession who was killed in a road accident. He started a small mechanic shop in his home town to support his family. He studied in a primary school in Azamgarh and left the village after completing his inter college. He moved to Delhi, where he worked as a taxi driver. In 1985, he came to Bombay to earn a livelihood. He worked as a bread delivery boy between Bandra and Andheri and worked at a garment shop in Andheri West in 1986. Later, he became a real estate broker who operated from Arasa Market in Andheri West in 1987. In 1988, he assaulted a colleague over a monetary issue, resulting in the first case against him registered at Andheri police station. In the meantime, he married Samira Jumani from Jogeshwari, whom he divorced later. He has two sons from her. He loved film and reportedly named his sons after Bollywood actors. His elder brother Abu Hatim, also known as "Chunchun Miyan", owns a shop in his native village.


title: Abu Salem

text: In the 1980s, he started working for his cousin Akthar who had a cheap electronics shop near Andheri railway station. Akhtar also worked for Sayyed Topi, a Dawood Ibrahim gang leader in the Andheri area. Later Abu Salem started a travel agency at Santa Cruz with J K Ibrahim who worked for the Dawood gang. From 1989 to 1993, Salem worked as a driver for the D-Company (Dawood Ibrahim gang) and he delivered weapons, illegal cash and goods to different gang members in Bombay. His proficiency at delivering goods at the right time and place earned him the nickname Abu Samaan. In 1992, he supplied weapons to film actor Sanjay Dutt. He played an active role in March 1993 Bombay serial bomb blasts which killed over 250 people, left 700 injured and damaged property worth Rs 270 million. In 1993, he left the country and moved to Dubai, United Arab Emirates when the police started rounding up suspects in serial blasts case. He had a business establishment there called Kings of Car Trading.


title: Abu Salem

text: In the mid-nineties, many sharp shooters from D-company were killed either by the Chhota Rajan gang or in police encounters.


title: Abu Salem

text: Salem successfully introduced a new strategy of hiring unemployed Muslim youths from his hometown Azamgarh to come to Mumbai, carry off the shooting and return to Azamgarh the next day. Those youths were paid a paltry sum compared to sharp shooters and the Mumbai police also could not track them as the youths had no criminal record with the Bombay police.


title: Abu Salem

text: Soon Abu Salem got the support of Anees Ibrahim (Dawood's brother) and he rose to prominence within the gang.


title: Abu Salem

text: Because of his smooth talking skills, Salem was given the responsibility to manage the Bollywood deals and film financing for Dawood.


title: Abu Salem

text: He organised stage shows where he invited actors. He was involved in extorting from the Hindi film industry, channelling illicit money into film production, forcibly getting the dates of stars, and usurping overseas rights. Salem first worked under Chhota Shakeel but later split and took to threatening film personalities for extortion. In mid-1997, reportedly went to Pakistan to make arrangements for the marriage of Dawood's brother Humayun. Salem is believed to be the mastermind behind the murder of music baron Gulshan Kumar on 12 August 1997 without Dawood's consent.


title: Abu Salem

text: His gang members also attempted to shoot at Bollywood film directors, Rajiv Rai and Rakesh Roshan when they refused to yield to his extortion demands. Salem fled Dubai, fearing Dawood's wrath. He finally parted ways with Dawood after being sidelined in 1998. His friction with Shakeel and Dawood's favouring of Shakeel is believed to be the reason behind Salem's split from the D-Company. In 2000, he planned kidnapping of Milton Plastics owner for ransom of Rs 30 million. In January 2001, his men shot Ajit Diwani, personal secretary to film actress Manisha Koirala. In October 2001, four members of his gang were shot in Bandra before they could target film personalities Aamir Khan, Ashutosh Gowarikar and Jhamu Sughand. In July 2002, two shooters of Salem's gang opened fire on film director Lawrence D'souza who survived. He also attempted to kill cine figures Rajiv Rai, Rakesh Roshan and Manmohan Shetty.


title: Abu Salem

text: He was convicted for the 1993 Bombay serial blasts case, and murder of music baron Gulshan Kumar in 1996, shooting at Indian actress Manisha's secretary, murdering a property builder and more than 50 other cases.


title: Abu Salem

text: On 20 September 2002, he was arrested along with Monica Bedi by Interpol in Lisbon, Portugal. His satellite phone was tracked using GPS technology. Monica Bedi was a film actress who reportedly had relationship with him. In February 2004, a Portugal court cleared his extradition to India to face trial in the 1993 Bombay bomb blasts case. In November 2005, Portuguese authorities handed him over to India on the assurance by the Government of India that the death penalty would not be handed out. When Salem was in Lisbon fighting India's extradition attempt, the only proof that he was indeed Salem was provided by the fingerprint and photographs taken after his arrest in 1991. Monica Bedi was also extradited to India and later convicted of passport forgery in 2006 and served her imprisonment but she was not involved in any of the businesses operated by Abu Salem.


title: Abu Salem

text: In March 2006, a special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court filed eight charges against him and his alleged associate Riaz Siddiqui for his role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. He stands accused of ferrying and distributing weapons.


title: Abu Salem

text: A lower court in Portugal cancelled his extradition to India for violation of deportation rules by Indian authorities by instituting fresh cases against him that attracted the death penalty. In July 2012, the Portuguese Supreme Court of Justice


title: Abu Salem

text: On 27 June 2013, Salem was shot by Devendra Jagtap, an accused person in the Shahid Azmi murder case inside Taloja Central Jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, the police said. Salem sustained injury to his hand as Jagtap fired one round.


title: Abu Salem

text: Abu Salem was convicted in Pradeep Jain murder case on 16 February 2015. Jain, a city-based builder, was shot dead outside his Juhu bungalow on 7 March 1995. Nameem Khan, an accused in the case had turned approver. Riyaz Siddiqui, another accused in the case had turned approver then retracted and is being tried separately. He was sentenced life imprisonment in Pradeep Jain murder case on 25 February 2015.


title: Abu Salem

text: Abu Salem, Mustafa Dossa, and 4 others were convicted by a Special CBI court in Mumbai on 16 June 2017 in connection with the 1993 Bombay blasts case. Salem is currently lodged in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail. Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act Court Gives Life Imprisonment To Abu Salem in Mumbai 1993 Blast Case.


title: Abu Salem

text: In 2010, a violent clash broke out between the gangster Abu Salem and Mustafa Dossa, which let to Salem's face being slashed with a sharpened spoon.


title: Abu Salem

text: On 7 June 2018, A Delhi court held him guilty for extorting Delhi businessman Ashok Gupta and sentenced him to seven years in prison. In 2002, Salem called Gupta asking him to call a number in Dubai. Salem had threatened Gupta and his family.


title: Abu Salem

text: In August 2013, Punjabi singer Sukhwinder Singh Maan alias Sukha Delhi wala revealed that he would release a song composed by Abu Salem while lodged in Tihar Jail, in his next Music Album. The Music Album shall also feature many other celebrities like Rahul Mahajan and Vindu Dara Singh.


title: Abu Salem

text: Abu Salem is said to be a billionaire gangster worth Rs. 55 billion (Approx $0.67 billion). His cash and property have been valued at least Rs 10 billion, which is divided between him and his wife, Samira Jumani. While Salem stakes a claim to Rs 2 billion, his wife possess Rs 8 billion in cash and property. Salem's investments in Bollywood and hawala rackets are estimated to be at least another Rs 30 billion. The CBI arrived at the figures on the basis of one-years transactions (2000–2001), and are said to be a conservative estimate.


title: Abu Salem

text: Salem possessed a non-immigrant work visa in the US, where he was employed as a maintenance manager for a marine engineering company. As he operated under different names, he could buy property worth crores, despite his employment background. Preliminary calculations by the CBI reveal transactions worth Rs 2 billion were carried out by Salem in the year 2000 itself. Details of his earlier transactions were not known as his whereabouts are not known. Police sources say that his benami but legal businesses in the Middle East are run by his close associates.


title: Abu Salem

text: He married Samira Jumani, a 17-year-old college girl, in 1991 with whom he has a son. Samira currently lives in Duluth, Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. Post Salem's arrest in Portugal, she told interviewers that he was a "violent psychotic man" and she was forced into marriage.


title: Abu Salem

text: In September 2002, Abu Salem and his partner Monica Bedi, were arrested and later served prison sentences in Portugal for entering the country on forged documents. In 2006, an Indian Court convicted Bedi for procuring a passport on a fictitious name. In November 2010, the Supreme Court of India upheld her conviction but reduced the prison sentence to the period that she had already served.


title: Pablo Marí

text: Pablo Marí Villar (born 31 August 1993) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Monza, on loan from club Arsenal.


title: Pablo Marí

text: Marí graduated from Mallorca's youth academy and played for various clubs throughout his career, in Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil, England and Italy. He won the Copa Libertadores and Série A in 2019 with Flamengo, and was included in the Série A Team of the Year that year.


title: Pablo Marí

text: Born in Almussafes, Valencian Community, Marí was a product of RCD Mallorca's youth system. He made his debut as a senior with the reserves at the age of just 17, going on to spend several seasons in the third division.


title: Pablo Marí

text: Marí made his first appearance with the first team on 7 December 2011, playing 30 minutes in a 2–2 draw against Granada CF after coming off the bench for fellow youth graduate Pedro Bigas. On 5 May 2012 he played his second La Liga game, again acting as a substitute in a 1–0 home win over Levante UD.


title: Pablo Marí

text: Marí continued to be almost exclusively associated with the B-side until the end of his spell in the Balearic Islands.


title: Pablo Marí

text: On 2 September 2013, Marí signed a contract with Gimnàstic de Tarragona also in the third level. He made his debut for the Catalans on 12 October, starting and conceding a penalty in a 2–2 draw at CD Olímpic de Xàtiva.


title: Pablo Marí

text: Marí scored his first goal for "Nàstic" on 1 December 2013, the winner in a 2–1 home victory against Levante UD B. On 25 June 2015, after achieving promotion to Segunda División, he signed a new three-year deal with the club.


title: Pablo Marí

text: Marí scored his first professional goal on 30 August 2015, netting his team's first in a 2–1 away defeat of CD Tenerife.


title: Pablo Marí

text: On 15 August 2016, Marí was transferred to Premier League side Manchester City. A day later, he was loaned to Girona FC in a season-long deal.


title: Pablo Marí

text: In the following two campaigns, still owned by City, Marí played with NAC Breda (Dutch Eredivisie, where he was team captain) and Deportivo de La Coruña (Spanish second tier).


title: Pablo Marí

text: On 11 July 2019, Marí signed with Flamengo on a contract through 2022, for an approximate fee of €1.3 million (or R$5.5 million). He became the third Spanish player for the Brazilian club, after goalkeeper Talladas in the late 1930s and forward José Ufarte in the 1960s. He made his debut as a starter on 28 July in a Série A match against Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas at the Maracanã Stadium, a 3–2 win; he quickly established himself in the first team, with manager Jorge Jesus pairing him with Rodrigo Caio.


title: Pablo Marí

text: Marí scored his first goal for "Mengão" on 25 August 2019, with a volley inside the box in a 3–0 away victory over Ceará Sporting Club. His second in the league came on 7 September, this time with a header against Avaí FC in a 3–0 win at Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha. In November, he became the first Spaniard to win the Copa Libertadores, the major South American club competition. Marí made headlines for wearing the number 24 in the Copa Libertadores, as the number is subject to a homophobic taboo in Brazil.


title: Pablo Marí

text: On 29 January 2020, Marí joined English Premier League club Arsenal on loan until the end of the season, with an option for Arsenal to make the deal permanent in the summer. Arsenal's technical director Edu said: "Pablo is an experienced player who will provide us with additional defensive quality. We have been monitoring Pablo’s career for a while and we are very pleased to have reached agreement with Flamengo for him to join us initially until the end of our season." Marí made two appearances for Arsenal, a 2–0 FA Cup win at Portsmouth and a 1–0 Premier League win at home to West Ham, before the season was suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Pablo Marí

text: On 17 June 2020, Marí was injured playing in a 3–0 defeat at Manchester City, in the first game of the league restart. Arsenal confirmed post-match he would miss the remainder of the season with a "significant" ankle injury. Despite this injury, Arsenal announced on 24 June that Marí would join the club permanently for an undisclosed fee on 1 July, upon the opening of the summer transfer window.


title: Pablo Marí

text: On 3 December 2020, Marí scored his first goal for Arsenal in a 4–1 home win over Rapid Wien in the UEFA Europa League.


title: Pablo Marí

text: On 11 August, he was loaned to newly-promoted Serie A side Monza. Marì made his debut for Monza on 14 August, as a starter in a 2–1 Serie A defeat to Torino.


title: Pablo Marí

text: On 27 October 2022, Marí was stabbed and injured at a Carrefour supermarket in Assago, Metropolitan City of Milan. He was taken to hospital conscious and not in a serious condition. Monza's CEO Adriano Galliani stated: "His life is not in danger, he should recover quickly". A man was killed during the attack and four others were injured. The perpetrator was a man with mental health problems.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade in New York City presented by the U.S.-based department store chain Macy's. The Parade first took place in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit (with both parades being four years younger than Philadelphia's Thanksgiving Day Parade). The three-hour parade is held in Manhattan, ending outside Macy's Herald Square, takes place from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thanksgiving Day, and has been televised nationally on NBC since 1953. The Parade's workforce is made up of Macy's employees and their friends and family, all of whom work as volunteers.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: In 1924, store employees marched to Macy's Herald Square, the flagship store on 34th Street, dressed in vibrant costumes. There were floats, professional bands and live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo. At the end of that first parade, Santa Claus was welcomed into Herald Square. At this first parade, Santa was enthroned on the Macy's balcony at the 34th Street store entrance, where he was then crowned "King of the Kiddies". With an audience of over 250,000 people, the parade was such a success that Macy's declared it would become an annual event, despite media reports only barely covering the first parade.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: The Macy's parade was enough of a success to push Ragamuffin Day, the typical children's Thanksgiving Day activity from 1870 into the 1920s, into obscurity. Ragamuffin Day featured children going around and performing a primitive version of trick-or-treating, a practice that by the 1920s had come to annoy most adults. The public backlash against such begging in the 1930s (when most Americans were struggling in the midst of the Great Depression) led to promotion of alternatives, including Macy's parade. While ragamuffin parades that competed with Macy's would continue into the 1930s, the competition from Macy's would overwhelm the practice, and the last ragamuffin parade in New York City would take place in 1956.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: Anthony "Tony" Frederick Sarg loved to work with marionettes from an early age. After moving to London to start his own marionette business, Sarg moved to New York City to perform with his puppets on the street. Macy's heard about Sarg's talents and asked him to design a window display of a parade for the store.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: Through the 1930s, the parade continued to grow, with crowds of over one million people lining the parade route in 1933. The first Mickey Mouse balloon entered the parade in 1934. The annual festivities were broadcast on local radio stations in New York City from 1932 to 1941 and resumed in 1945, running through 1951.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: The parade was suspended from 1942 to 1944 as a result of World War II because rubber and helium were needed for the war effort. The parade resumed in 1945 and became known nationwide shortly afterwards, having been prominently featured in the 1947 film "Miracle on 34th Street", which included footage of the 1946 festivities. The event had its first broadcast on network television in 1948 (see ). From 1984 to 2019, the balloons were made by Raven Industries of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, through its Raven Aerostar division.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: Since 1985, the parade was traditionally led by the New York City Police Department Highway Patrol. In 2019, the cast of Sesame Street led the parade in honor of the show's 50th anniversary.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: Following an incident in 2005 where a balloon knocked over a street light and injured spectators (see ), new safety measures were incorporated in 2006 to prevent accidents and balloon-related injuries. One measure taken was the installation of wind measurement devices to alert parade organizers to any unsafe conditions that could cause the balloons to behave erratically. In addition, parade officials implemented a measure to keep the balloons closer to the ground during windy conditions. New York City law prohibits Macy's from flying the full-size balloons if sustained winds exceed or wind gusts exceed ; New York's tall buildings and mostly uniform grid plan can amplify wind velocity on city streets. This law, imposed in 1997, has never been activated, despite several close calls; the only time the parade balloons were ever grounded was in 1971. Each balloon has a risk profile to determine handling in windy conditions; taller, upright balloons are rotated to appear horizontal and face downward in such situations (as was the case in 2019, when a grounding was narrowly averted). The remaining floats and performances will continue as scheduled should the balloons be grounded.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: The 2018 parade was the coldest to date, with the temperature at 19 °F (-7.2 °C) during the event. The warmest was in 1933 at 69 °F (20.5 °C). The 2006 parade was the wettest with 1.72" (49 mm) of rain. Actresses Caitlin Kinnunen and Isabelle McCalla's kiss during "The Prom"'s performance at the 2018 parade received significant media attention for being the first broadcast of a same-sex kiss in the parade's history.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, the 2020 parade was downsized and closed to the public—being filmed as a broadcast-only event in the Herald Square area. There were 88% fewer participants, and social distancing was enforced. The event did not include college and high school marching bands (with the affected bands having been reinvited for 2021), nor any participant under 18 years of age. Balloons were tethered to a "specially rigged anchor vehicle framework of five specialty vehicles" rather than carried by handlers. Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio stated that it will "[not be] a live parade, but something that will really give us that warmth and that great feeling we have on Thanksgiving day." In 2021, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade returned to its traditional in-person procession with 6,500 participants marching in the Parade.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: The balloons were introduced in 1928, replacing live zoo animals. Sarg's large animal-shaped balloons were produced by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio from the 1920s through 1980. That year there was no procedure to deflate the balloons, and they were simply released. In 1928 five of the giant balloons were designed and filled with helium to rise above and slowly deflate for whoever was lucky enough to capture "the contestants" in Macy's "balloon race[s]" and return them for a reward of $100 (equivalent to more than $1,600 with inflation as of 2021), this lasted until 1932.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: The balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade have had several varieties. The oldest is the novelty balloon class, consisting of smaller balloons ranging widely in size and handled by between one and thirty people (the smallest balloons are shaped like human heads and fit on the heads of the handlers). The larger and more popular class is the character balloons, primarily consisting of licensed pop-culture characters; each of these (16 in 2019) is handled by exactly 90 people. From 2005 to 2012, a third balloon class, the "Blue Sky Gallery", transformed the works of contemporary artists into full-size balloons; after a five-year hiatus, the Blue Sky Gallery returned in 2018.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: A falloon, a portmanteau of "float" and "balloon", is a float-based balloon. They were introduced in 1986.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: A balloonicle, a portmanteau of "balloon" and "vehicle", is a self-powered balloon vehicle. They were introduced in 2004.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: A "floalloonicle", a portmanteau of "float", "balloon" and "vehicle", is a self-powered balloon vehicle structured around a float. They were introduced in 2021.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: "Heritage Balloons" are mid-sized helium balloons that have a sponsor other than Macy's. They were introduced in 2016.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: In addition to the well-known balloons and floats, the parade also features live music and other performances. College and high school marching bands from across the country participate in the parade. The television broadcasts feature performances by established and up-and-coming singers and bands. The Rockettes of Radio City Music Hall are a classic performance (having performed annually since 1957 as the last pre-parade act to perform, followed by a commercial break), as are cheerleaders and dancers chosen by the National Cheerleaders Association from various high schools across the country. The parade always concludes with the arrival of Santa Claus to ring in the Christmas and holiday season (except for the 1932 parade, when Santa led the parade). Since 2017, the Macy's Singing Christmas Tree choir precedes Santa Claus as the final performer of the parade.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: On the NBC telecast from in front of the flagship Macy's store on Broadway and 34th Street, the marching bands perform live music. Most "live" performances by musicals and individual artists lip-sync to the studio, soundtrack or cast recordings of their songs, due to the technical difficulties of attempting to sing into a wireless microphone while in a moving vehicle (performers themselves typically perform on the floats); the NBC-flagged microphones used by performers on floats are almost always non-functioning props. Although rare, recent parade broadcasts have featured at least one live performance with no use of recorded vocals.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: Every year, cast members from some Broadway shows (usually shows that debuted that year) perform either in the parade or immediately preceding the parade in front of Macy's and before The Rockettes' performance (since NBC broadcasts the parade's start, the performances are shown during the wait for the parade itself). The 2007 parade was notable as it took place during a strike by the I.A.T.S.E. (a stagehands' union)". Legally Blonde", the one performing musical affected by the strike, performed in show logo shirts, with makeshift props and no sets. The other three shows that year performed in theaters that were not affected by the strike.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: For the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks in 2011, the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade invited family members from Tuesday's Children (a nonprofit organization that benefits families directly impacted by terrorism) to cut the ribbon at the start of the parade with NBC's Al Roker and led the parade with Amy Kule, the Parade's executive producer.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: More than 44 million people typically watch the parade on television on an annual basis. It was first televised locally in New York City in 1939 as an experimental broadcast on NBC's W2XBS (now WNBC). No television stations broadcast the parade in 1940 or 1941, but local broadcasts resumed when the parade returned in 1945 after the wartime suspension. The parade began its network television appearances on CBS in 1948, the year that major, regular television network programming began. NBC has been the official broadcaster of the event since 1953. However, CBS (which has a studio in Times Square) also carries unauthorized coverage as "The Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS". The parade committee can endorse an official broadcaster as the parade takes place in public (however, they cannot award exclusive rights as other events, such as sporting events, which take place inside restricted-access stadiums, have the authority to do so). The rerouting of the parade starting from 2012 (see below) moved the parade out of the view of CBS's cameras and thus made it significantly more difficult for the network to cover the parade. However, the route now passes along the west side of the network's Black Rock headquarters building along Sixth Avenue (with the hosts stationed on a temporary tower platform at the Sixth/W. 53rd St. corner of the building), and CBS nevertheless continues to cover the parade as before.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: Since 2003, the parade has been broadcast in Spanish on the sister network of NBCUniversal (Telemundo) hosted by María Celeste Arrarás from 2003 to 2006. The parade won nine Emmy Awards for outstanding achievements in special event coverage since 1979. Since 2020, the parade also provided audio description via a second audio program channel.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: At first, the telecasts were only an hour long. The telecast then expanded to two hours in 1961, reduced to 90 minutes in 1962, reverted to two hours in 1965, and expanded to all three hours of the parade in 1969. The event began to be broadcast in color in 1960. NBC airs the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade live in the Eastern Time Zone as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as the network uses broadcast feeds from that time zone (which due to time differences starts at 10:00 a.m. AST), but tape delays the telecast elsewhere in the continental U.S. and territories from the Central Time Zone westward to allow the program to air in the same 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. timeslot across its owned-and-operated and affiliated stations (except for Guam, which airs it the day after Thanksgiving at 9:00 a.m. local time, as the territory is located west of the International Date Line and therefore a day ahead from the rest of the United States); since the morning program's expansion to three hours in 2000 (it eventually expanded to four hours in 2007), NBC's "Today" only airs for two hours on Thanksgiving morning, pre-empting the last two talk-focused hours of the show for the day. NBC began airing a same-day afternoon rebroadcast of the parade in 2009 (replacing the annual broadcast of "Miracle on 34th Street", which NBC had lost the broadcast television rights to that year). CBS's unauthorized coverage airs live in most time zones, allowing viewers to see the parade as much as two hours before the official NBC coverage airs in their area; CBS still broadcasts the parade on delay on the West Coast, immediately after the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving game in even-numbered years when CBS carries it, or at 9:00 a.m. local time in odd-numbered years when they carry the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving game.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: From 1963 to 1972, NBC's coverage was hosted by Lorne Greene (who was then appearing on NBC's "Bonanza") and Betty White. David Hartman and Karen Grassle hosted the parade in 1974, With Ed McMahon serving as a man on the street host, He would become a main host in 1977, until 1981. Since 1982, NBC has appointed at least one of the hosts of "Today" to emcee the television broadcast, starting with Bryant Gumbel, who hosted the parade until 1984. From 1987 to 1997, NBC's coverage was hosted by longtime "Today" weather anchor Willard Scott. During that period, their co-hosts included Mary Hart, Sandy Duncan, and "Today" colleagues Deborah Norville and Katie Couric. In recent years, NBC's coverage has been hosted by "Today" anchors Matt Lauer (from 1998 to 2017), Meredith Vieira (from 2006 to 2010), Ann Curry (2011), Savannah Guthrie (since 2012) and Hoda Kotb (since 2018) as well as "Today" weather anchor Al Roker who usually joins the producers of the parade or the CEO of Macy's and special guests in the ribbon cutting ceremony. In 2022, Dylan Dreyer filled in for Roker, who was recovering due to health complications involving blood clots, while Kotb hosted the ribbon cutting ceremony segment when the parade reached Herald Square, rather than when it usually takes place in the Upper West Side.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: From the early 1970s until 1993, the television broadcast was produced and directed by Dick Schneider; since 1994, it has been executive produced by Brad Lachman (who has otherwise been known for producing reality television series), produced by Bill Bracken and directed by veteran sitcom director Gary Halvorson. Announcements during the telecast were first provided by Bill McCord, then followed in succession by Bill Wendell, Lynda Lopez (the telecast's only female announcer), and longtime "Saturday Night Live" and NBC staff announcer Don Pardo; from circa 2000 to 2010, announcer duties were helmed by Joel Godard (who also served as the announcer for "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" for much of that period), and then were assumed by "Today" announcer Les Marshak with the 2011 telecast. Milton DeLugg served as the telecast's music director until his death in 2015.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: CBS's coverage was originally part of the "All-American Thanksgiving Day Parade", a broadcast that included footage from multiple parades across North America, including parades at Detroit, Philadelphia and Disneyland (the latter was later replaced by Opryland USA in 1997 and after that Miami Beach), and taped footage of the Toronto Santa Claus Parade (taped usually the second or third weekend of November) and the Aloha Floral Parade in Honolulu (which usually took place in September). Beginning in 2004, however, CBS has focused exclusively on the Macy's parade, but avoids using the Macy's name due to the lack of an official license. To compensate for the fact that the Broadway and music performances can only appear on NBC, CBS adds their own pre-recorded performances (also including Broadway shows, although different from the ones that are part of the official parade and recorded off-site) to fill out the special. With the lack of a live parade for 2020, CBS aired "The CBS Thanksgiving Day Celebration"—which was hosted by Kevin Frazier and Keltie Knight of "Entertainment Tonight", and featured highlights and new performances.


title: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

text: For the 1997 parade, MTV guest reporters, Beavis and Butt-head, with host Kurt Loder, provided their usual style of commentary on aspects of the parade, and of their take on Thanksgiving in general. The special, titled "Beavis and Butt-head Do Thanksgiving", included a balloon of Beavis and Butt-head spectating from their couch. The balloon was not participating in the parade, but stationed on top of a building alongside the parade route.