title: Republic Airways

text: American had awarded the flying of 44-seat regional jets to Chautauqua Airlines, then the main operating subsidiary of Republic Airways Holdings. However, Chautauqua later started to operate 70-seat regional jets on behalf of United Airlines, and this caused American to be in violation of its pilot union scope clause, which prevented an airline from operating on behalf of American if that airline was operating jet aircraft of more than 50 seats, even if such aircraft were operating on behalf of a carrier other than American. To repair the situation, Republic Airways Holdings activated Republic Airline, and upon Part 121 certification in 2005 allowing Republic Airline to operate commercial service. Republic Airways Holdings then transferred the offending 70-seat regional jets from Chautauqua to Republic Airline. American was then no longer in violation of its pilot union scope clause. Republic Airways Holdings paid $6.6 million to the pilot union of American Airlines to settle the issue.


title: Republic Airways

text: US Airways' pilots had a scope clause prohibiting the airline from operating large regional jets such as the Embraer E170. The airline negotiated around this clause by offering flight deck jobs to laid-off US Airways pilots, in a program known as "Jets for Jobs". This agreement created a subsidiary, MidAtlantic Airways. As part of US Airways' bankruptcy restructuring, the 25 Embraer E170s delivered to MidAtlantic were bought by Republic to help US Airways come out of bankruptcy; Republic operates them along with additional newly delivered aircraft.


title: Republic Airways

text: In 2007, Frontier Airlines signed an 11-year service agreement with Republic Airways. Under the agreement, Republic would operate 17 Embraer E170 aircraft for the Frontier Airlines operation. The first aircraft was placed into service in March 2007, and the last aircraft was expected to be placed into service by December 2008. On April 23, 2008, Republic Airways Holdings (parent of Republic Airline) terminated its service agreement with Frontier Airlines, which entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early April 2008. Subsequently, Republic Air Holdings purchased Frontier Airlines in bankruptcy. Frontier-branded Republic Airways E190 aircraft provided regional capacity support. In September 2013, Republic Airways Holdings sold Frontier Airlines. As part of the sale, Republic Airways terminated the Frontier branded E190 from flying.


title: Republic Airways

text: On February 1, 2008, Republic Airways opened a base at Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio.


title: Republic Airways

text: On September 3, 2008, Republic signed a new 10-year codeshare agreement with Midwest Airlines. The aircraft would be based at Kansas City International Airport beginning October 1, 2008. Twelve aircraft would be placed in service with Midwest. On June 23, 2009, Republic announced it would acquire Midwest Airlines for $31 million.


title: Republic Airways

text: In January 2013, Republic Airways Holdings reached a capacity purchase agreement with American Airlines to operate Embraer E175 airplanes under the American Eagle brand beginning in mid-2013. Republic began service as an American Eagle affiliate on August 1, 2013, from Chicago to New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Albuquerque.


title: Republic Airways

text: On February 25, 2016, the airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The airline was hit hard because of pilot shortages, but a new contract ratified in October 2015 helped restructure the airline. At the time of filing, Republic Holdings claimed $2.97 billion in liabilities and $3.56 billion in assets. On November 16, 2016, Republic Airways Holdings filed their Plan of Reorganization with intentions to emerge from Chapter 11 during the first quarter of 2017.


title: Republic Airways

text: It was announced that parent company Republic Airways Holdings would merge subsidiaries Shuttle America and Republic Airways into one company, with Republic Airways being chosen as the surviving company. On January 31, 2017, Shuttle America merged with Republic Airways. In December 2018, the operating division was renamed Republic Airways to match its parent company.


title: Republic Airways

text: As of January 31, 2017, Republic Airways has the largest fleet of Embraer E170 and Embraer E175 aircraft in the world.


title: Republic Airways

text: As of October 2022, Republic operates for United Express, American Eagle, and Delta Connection; below are the United Express destinations.


title: Republic Airways

text: The Embraer E175 made its United States domestic debut when the first aircraft was delivered to Republic Airways in March 2007. Total orders were for 36 aircraft, which were operated in an 80-seat configuration under the US Airways Express brand name.


title: Republic Airways

text: In May 2012, Republic Airways agreed to fly the 28 Bombardier Q400s for United Express that bankrupt Pinnacle Airlines planned to return to its lessors. The Q400 fleet was retired in 2017.


title: Republic Airways

text: Republic Airways Holdings signed a three-year contract in October 2012 with Caesars Entertainment Corporation where its Republic Airways subsidiary would operate five Embraer E190 aircraft to provide more than 1,500 charter flights annually for Caesars. Service began in January 2013. This contract ended in August 2015 and all E190 aircraft were sold or returned to the lease holders.


title: Republic Airways

text: In January 2013, Republic Airways Holdings reached a capacity purchase agreement with American Airlines to operate 47 Embraer E175 airplanes under the American Eagle brand beginning in mid-2013. The regional jets would be deployed out of American's Chicago hub. In addition, Republic would have options to purchase an additional 47 Embraer aircraft beginning in 2015. Republic took first delivery of the E175 jets in July 2013 and service began August 1, 2013, from Chicago to New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Albuquerque. Republic began using Miami as an American Eagle hub in October 2014 and in New York-JFK in May 2015.


title: Republic Airways

text: In late 2015, it was announced Republic Airways achieved approval from the FAA for Extended Overwater Operations (EOW), which allows Republic to operate up to 162 nautical miles from shore. As of January 31, 2017, only Republic E175 aircraft operating for American Airlines are equipped to operate as an EOW aircraft. American Airlines uses Republic to operate aircraft out of Miami International Airport to various Caribbean and Central American destinations, including the Bahamas, Mexico, Panama, Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica, Turks & Caicos, Cuba, Guadeloupe, and the French West Indies.


title: Republic Airways

text: In late 2016 it was announced, due to the impending merger with Shuttle America, that the 80-seat Embraer E175s operated for American Eagle (previously US Airways Express) would have the last row of seats removed (4 in total) to conform with Delta's scope clause, which limits all regional jets to a maximum of 76 seats. These aircraft were retrofitted to American's standard Embraer E175 layout.


title: Republic Airways

text: On January 31, 2017, all existing aircraft operating under the Shuttle America operating certificate were transferred to the Republic Airline Inc. operating certificate, thus ceasing operations for Shuttle America, and completing the merger process of both subsidiaries. The move made Republic the largest operator of Embraer E170 and Embraer E175 aircraft in the world.


title: Republic Airways

text: On December 20, 2018, Republic Airways announced that it had finalized a firm order for 100 Embraer E175 aircraft, stating that deliveries for the new aircraft would start in the second half of 2020


title: Republic Airways

text: In October 2019, Republic received the first of 30 E175s to be transferred from Compass Airlines upon the cancellation of their contract with Delta.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: The First Anglo-Maratha War (1775–1782) was the first of three Anglo-Maratha Wars fought between the British East India Company and Maratha Empire in India. The war began with the Treaty of Surat and ended with the Treaty of Salbai. The war was fought in between Surat and Pune Kingdom saw British defeat and restoration of positions of both the parties before the war. Warren Hastings, the first President and Governor-General of East India Company's provinces in India decided not to attack Poona directly.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: After the death of Madhavrao Peshwa in 1772, his brother Narayanrao became peshwa (prime minister) of the Maratha Empire. Narayanrao was murdered by his palace guards in August 1773, and his uncle Raghunathrao (Raghoba) became Peshwa. However, Narayanrao's wife, Gangabai, gave birth to a posthumous son, who was the legal heir to the throne. The newborn infant was named 'Sawai' Madhavrao ("Sawai" means "One and a Quarter"). Twelve Maratha chiefs, known as the Baarbhai and led by Nana Phadnavis, directed an effort to install the infant as the new Peshwa and to rule in his name as regents.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: Raghunathrao, unwilling to give up his position of power, sought help from the British at Bombay and signed the Treaty of Surat on 6 March 1775. According to the treaty, Raghunathrao ceded the territories of Salsette and Bassein (Vasai) to the British, along with part of the revenues from Surat and Bharuch districts. In return, the British promised to provide Raghunathrao with 2,500 soldiers.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: The British Calcutta Council condemned the Treaty of Surat, sending Colonel Upton to Pune to annul it and make a new treaty with the regency. The Treaty of Purandhar (1 March 1776) annulled that of Surat, Raghunathrao was pensioned and his cause abandoned, but the revenues of Salsette and Broach districts were retained by the British. The Bombay government rejected this new treaty and gave refuge to Raghunathrao. In 1777, Nana Phadnavis violated his treaty with the Calcutta Council by granting the French a port on the West coast. The English retaliated by sending a force towards Pune.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: British troops under the command of Colonel Keating, left Surat on 15 March 1775, for Pune. But they were checked by Haripant Phadke at Adas and were totally defeated on 18 May 1775. Casualties for Keating's force, accompanied by Raghunathrao, included 96 killed. The Marathas casualties in the Battle of Adas (Gujarat) included 150 killed.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: Warren Hastings estimated that direct actions against Pune would be detrimental. Therefore, the Supreme Council of Bengal condemned the Treaty of Surat, sending Colonel Upton to Pune to annul it and make a new treaty with the regency. An agreement between Upton and the ministers of Pune called Treaty of Purandar was signed on 1 March 1776.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: The Treaty of Purandhar (1 March 1776) annulled that of Surat, Raghunath Rao was pensioned and his cause abandoned, but the revenues of Salsette and Broach districts were retained by the British.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: Following a treaty between France and the Poona Government in 1776, the Bombay Government decided to invade and reinstate Raghoba. They sent a force under Col. Egerton reached Khopoli and made its way through the Western Ghats at Bhor Ghat and onwards toward Karla, which was reached on 4 January 1779 while under Maratha attacks. Finally the British were forced to retreat back to Wadgaon, but were soon surrounded. The British surrendered and were forced to sign the Treaty of Wadgaon on 16 January 1779, a victory for the Marathas.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: Reinforcements from northern India, commanded by Colonel (later General) Thomas Wyndham Goddard, arrived too late to save the Bombay force. The British Governor-General in Bengal, Warren Hastings, rejected the treaty on the grounds that the Bombay officials had no legal power to sign it, and ordered Goddard to secure British interests in the area.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: Goddard with 6,000 troops stormed Bhadra Fort and captured Ahmedabad on 15 February 1779. There was a garrison of 6,000 Arab and Sindhi infantry and 2,000 horses. Losses in the fight totalled 108, including two British. Goddard also captured Bassein on 11 December 1780. Another Bengal detachment led by Captain Popham and assisted by the Rana of Gohad, captured Gwalior on 4 August 1780, before Mahadji Scindia could make preparations. Skirmishes took place between Mahadji Scindia and General Goddard in Gujarat, but indecisively. Hastings sent yet another force to harass Mahadji Shinde, commanded by Major Camac.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: After capturing Bassein, Goddard marched towards Pune. But he was routed in the Battle of Bhor Ghat in April 1781 by Parshurambha, Haripant Phadke and Tukoji Holkar.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: In central India, Mahadji stationed himself at Malwa to challenge Camac. Initially, Mahadji had an upper hand and British forces under Camac, being harassed and reduced, had to retreat to Hadur.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: In February 1781 the British beat Shinde to the town of Sipri, but every move they made after that was shadowed by his much larger army, and their supplies were cut off, until they made a desperate night raid in late March, capturing not only supplies, but even guns and elephants. Thereafter, the military threat from Shinde's forces to the British was much reduced.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: The contest was equally balanced now. Where Mahadji scored a significant victory over Camac at Sironj, the British avenged the loss through the Battle of Durdah on 24 March 1781.


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: Colonel Murre arrived with fresh forces in April 1781 to assist Popham and Camac. After his defeat at Sipri, Mahadji Shinde got alarmed. Therefore, Shinde proposed a new treaty


title: First Anglo-Maratha War

text: This treaty, known as the Treaty of Salbai, was signed on 17 May 1782, and was ratified by Hastings in June 1782 and by Nana Phadnavis in February 1783. The treaty ended the First Anglo-Maratha War, restored the status quo, and established peace between the two parties for 20 years.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Maria Faustyna Kowalska, OLM (born Helena Kowalska; 25 August 1905 – 5 October 1938), also known as "Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament", Faustyna popularly spelled "Faustina", was a Polish Catholic religious sister and mystic. Her apparitions of Jesus Christ inspired the Roman Catholic devotion to the Divine Mercy and earned her the title of "Secretary of Divine Mercy".


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Throughout her life, Kowalska reported having visions of Jesus and conversations with him, which she noted in her diary, later published as "". Her biography, submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, quoted some of the conversations with Jesus regarding the Divine Mercy devotion.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: At the age of 20 years, she joined a convent in Warsaw. She was later transferred to Płock and then to Vilnius, where she met Father Michał Sopoćko, who was to be her confessor and spiritual director, and who supported her devotion to the Divine Mercy. With this priest's help, Kowalska commissioned an artist to paint the first Divine Mercy image, based on her vision of Jesus. Father Sopoćko celebrated Mass in the presence of this painting on Low Sunday, also known as the Second Sunday of Easter or (as established by Pope John Paul II), Divine Mercy Sunday.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: The Catholic Church canonized Kowalska as a saint on 30 April 2000. The mystic is classified in the liturgy as a virgin and is venerated within the church as the "Apostle of Divine Mercy". Her tomb is in Divine Sanctuary, Kraków-Łagiewniki, where she spent the end of her life and met confessor Józef Andrasz, who also supported the message of mercy.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: She was born Helena Kowalska on 25 August 1905 in Głogowiec, Łęczyca County, northwest of Łódź, in Poland. She was the third of ten children of Stanisław Kowalski and Marianna Kowalska. Her father was a carpenter and a peasant, and the family was poor and religious.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: She later stated that she first felt a calling to the religious life while she attended the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at the age of seven. She wanted to enter the convent after she had completed her time at school, but her parents would not give her permission. When she was 16, she went to work as a housekeeper, first in Aleksandrów Łódzki, where she received the Sacrament of Confirmation, then in Łódź, to support herself and to help her parents.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In 1924, at the age of 18 and a half, Kowalska went with her sister Natalia to a dance in a park in Łódź. Kowalska said that at the dance, she had a vision of a suffering Jesus, who she believed asked her: 'How long shall I put up with you and how long will you keep putting Me off?" She then went to the Łódź Cathedral, where, as she later said, Jesus instructed her to depart for Warsaw immediately and to enter a convent. She took a train for Warsaw, some away, without asking her parents' permission and despite the fact that she knew nobody in Warsaw. The only belongings she took were the dress that she was wearing. Upon arrival, she entered the first church that she saw (Saint James Church, in the Ochota district) and attended Mass. She asked the priest, Father Dąbrowski, for suggestions, and he recommended staying with Mrs. Lipszycowa, a local woman whom he considered trustworthy, until she found a convent.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: The girl approached several convents in Warsaw but was turned down each time, in one case being told that "we do not accept maids here", a reference to her evident poverty. Kowalska could read and write and had three or four years of education. After several weeks of searching, the Mother Superior at the convent of "Zgromadzenie Sióstr Matki Bożej Miłosierdzia" (Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy) decided to give Kowalska a chance and accepted her under the condition that she pay for her religious habit. Kowalska knew nothing of the convent that she was entering except that she believed she was being led there.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In 1925, Kowalska worked as a housemaid to save the money she needed, making deposits at the convent throughout the year and was finally accepted, as the Mother Superior had promised. On 30 April 1926, at the age of 20 years, she was clothed in the habit and received the religious name of Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament. Richard Torretto sees it as the feminine form of the name of a Roman martyr Faustinus, who was killed in AD 120. In April 1928, having completed the novitiate, she took her first religious vows as a nun, with her parents attending the rite. She was to be a nun for the rest of her short life.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: From February to April 1929, she was posted to the convent in Wilno, then in Poland, now known as Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where she served as a cook. Although her first posting to Vilnius was short, she returned there later and met the priest Michael Sopoćko, who supported her mission. A year after her first return from Vilnius, in May 1930, she was transferred to the convent in Płock, Poland, for almost two years.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Kowalska arrived in Płock in May 1930. That year, the first signs of her illness, which was later thought to be tuberculosis, appeared, and she was sent to rest for several months in a nearby farm owned by her religious order. After her recovery, she returned to the convent, and by February 1931, she had been in the Płock area for about nine months.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Kowalska wrote that on the night of Sunday, 22 February 1931, while she was in her cell in Płock, Jesus appeared wearing a white garment with red and pale rays emanating from his heart. In her diary (Notebook I, Items 47 and 48), she wrote that Jesus told her:


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: "Jesus, I trust in You" (in Polish: "Jezu, ufam Tobie"). I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and then throughout the world. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Not knowing how to paint, Kowalska approached some other nuns at the convent in Płock for help, but she received no assistance. Three years later, after her assignment to Vilnius, the first artistic rendering of the image was produced under her direction.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In the same 22 February 1931 message about the Divine Mercy image, as Kowalska also wrote in (Notebook I, item 49), Jesus told her that he wanted the Divine Mercy image to be "solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter Sunday; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy."


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In November 1932, Kowalska returned to Warsaw to prepare to take her final vows as a nun, by which she would become in perpetuity a sister of Our Lady of Mercy. The ceremony took place on 1 May 1933, in Łagiewniki.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In late May 1933, Kowalska was transferred to Vilnius to work as the gardener; her tasks including growing vegetables. She remained in Vilnius for about three years, until March 1936. The convent in Vilnius then had only 18 sisters and was housed in a few scattered small houses, rather than a large building.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Shortly after arriving in Vilnius, Kowalska met the priest Michael Sopoćko, the newly appointed confessor to the nuns. He was also a professor of pastoral theology at Stefan Batory University, now called Vilnius University.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: When Kowalska went for the first time to this priest for confession, she told him that she had been conversing with Jesus, who had a plan for her. After some time, Sopoćko insisted on a complete psychiatric evaluation of Kowalska by Helena Maciejewska, a psychiatrist and a physician associated with the convent. This took place in 1933 and Kowalska passed the required tests and was declared of sound mind.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Sopoćko then began to have confidence in Kowalska and supported her efforts. Kowalska told Sopoćko about the Divine Mercy image, and in January 1934, Sopoćko introduced her to the artist Eugene Kazimierowski, who was also a professor at the university.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: By June 1934, Kazimierowski had finished painting the image, based on the direction of Kowalska and Sopoćko, the only Divine Mercy painting that Kowalska saw. According to Catholic author Urszula Gregorczyk, a superimposition of the face of Jesus in the Image of the Divine Mercy upon that in the already-famous Shroud of Turin shows great similarity.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Kowalska wrote in her diary (Notebook I, Item 414) that on Good Friday, 19 April 1935, Jesus told her that he wanted the Divine Mercy image to be publicly honoured. A week later, on 26 April 1935, Sopoćko delivered the first sermon ever on the Divine Mercy, and Kowalska attended the sermon.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: The first Mass during which the Divine Mercy image was displayed occurred on 28 April 1935, the second Sunday of Easter, and was attended by Kowalska. It was also the celebration of the end of the Jubilee of the Redemption by Pope Pius XI.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: On 13 September 1935, while still in Vilnius, Kowalska wrote of a vision about the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in her diary (Notebook I, Item 476). The chaplet is about a third of the length of the Rosary. Kowalska wrote that the purpose for the chaplet's prayers for mercy is threefold: to obtain mercy, to trust in Christ's mercy, and to show mercy to others.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In November 1935, Kowalska wrote the rules for a new contemplative religious congregation devoted to the Divine Mercy. In December, she visited a house in Vilnius that she said she had seen in a vision as the first convent for the congregation.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In January 1936, Kowalska went to see Jałbrzykowski to discuss a new congregation for Divine Mercy. However, he reminded her that she was perpetually vowed to her current order. In March 1936, Kowalska told her superiors that she was thinking of leaving the order to start a new one that was specifically devoted to Divine Mercy, but she was transferred to Walendów, southwest of Warsaw. She reported that Jesus had said to her: "My Daughter, do whatever is within your power to spread devotion to My Divine Mercy, I will make up for what you lack."


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In 1936, Sopoćko wrote the first brochure on the Divine Mercy devotion, and Jałbrzykowski provided his "imprimatur" for it. The brochure carried the Divine Mercy image on the cover. Sopoćko sent copies of the brochure to Kowalska in Warsaw. Eventually he became the main promoter of her revelations.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Later in 1936, Faustina became ill with what has since been speculated to be tuberculosis. She was moved to the sanatorium in Prądnik, Kraków. She continued to spend much time in prayer in reciting the chaplet and praying for the conversion of sinners. The last two years of her life were spent praying and keeping her diary.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: On 23 March 1937, Kowalska wrote in her diary (Notebook III, Item 1044) that she had a vision that the feast of the Divine Mercy would be celebrated in her local chapel and would be attended by large crowds and also that the same celebration would be held in Rome, attended by the pope.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In July 1937, the first holy cards with the Divine Mercy image were printed. In August, Sopoćko asked Kowalska to write the instructions for the Novena of Divine Mercy, which she had reported as a message from Jesus on Good Friday 1937.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Throughout 1937, progress was made in promoting the Divine Mercy, and in November 1937, a pamphlet was published with the title "Christ, King of Mercy". The pamphlet included the chaplet, the novena and the litany of the Divine Mercy. The Divine Mercy image appeared on the cover, with the signature "Jesus I Trust in You". On 10 November 1937, Mother Irene, Kowalska's superior, showed her the booklets while Kowalska rested in her bed.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: As her health deteriorated at the end of 1937, Kowalska's reported visions intensified, and she was said to be looking forward to an end to her life. In April 1938, her illness had progressed, and she was sent to rest in the sanatorium in Prądnik for what was to be her final stay there.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In September 1938, Sopoćko visited her at the sanatorium and found her very ill but in ecstasy, as she was praying. Later that month, she was taken back home to Kraków to await her death there. Sopoćko visited her at the convent for the last time on 26 September 1938.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Kowalska died at the age of 33, on 5 October 1938, in Kraków. She was buried on 7 October and now rests at Kraków's Basilica of Divine Mercy.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: "Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul" is a book by Faustyna Kowalska, now a Roman Catholic saint. The book is based on the contents of her diary from 1925 until her death in 1938.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: It was while assigned to Vilnius that Kowalska was advised by her confessor, Michael Sopoćko, to keep a diary and record her apparitions. Faustina’s diary is the only mystical text composed in Polish.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: The handwritten pages of Kowalska's diary turned into about 700 printed pages, published as the book "Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul". It reflects her thoughts, prayers and reported visions and conversations with Jesus on Divine Mercy. Kowalska's Vatican biography quotes some of her reported conversations with Jesus from her diary.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In March 1959, the Holy Office issued a notification, signed by Hugh O'Flaherty as notary, that forbade circulation of "images and writings that promote devotion to Divine Mercy "in the forms proposed by Sister Faustina"" (emphasis in the original). Since at least 2002, it is claimed the negative judgement of the Holy Office was based on misunderstanding due to the latter's use of a faulty French or Italian translation of the diary. However, at the time, the ban was due to "serious theological reservations and what Vatican evaluators felt to be an excessive focus on Faustina herself."


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: The ban on her work remained in place for almost two decades, but was reversed in 1978. On 15 April 1978, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a new notification that rescinded the previous one and reversed the ban on circulation of Kowalska's work. It decreed: "This Sacred Congregation, in view of the many original documents that were unknown in 1959, giving consideration to the profoundly changed circumstances, and taking into account the view of many Polish ordinaries, declares no longer binding the prohibitions contained in the cited 'notification.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Before her death, Kowalska predicted that "there will be a war, a terrible, terrible war" and asked the nuns to pray for Poland. In 1939, a year after Kowalska's death, Romuald Jałbrzykowski noticed that her predictions about the war had taken place and allowed public access to the Divine Mercy image, which resulted in large crowds that led to the spread of the Divine Mercy devotion. The devotion became a source of strength and inspiration for many people in Poland. By 1941, the devotion had reached the United States, and millions of copies of Divine Mercy prayer cards had been printed and distributed worldwide.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In 1942, Jałbrzykowski was arrested by the Nazis, and Sopoćko and other professors went into hiding near Vilnius for about two years. During that period, Sopoćko used his time to prepare for the establishment of a new religious congregation, based on the Divine Mercy messages reported by Kowalska. After the war, Sopoćko wrote the constitution for the congregation and helped the formation of what is now the Congregation of the Sisters of the Divine Mercy. By 1951, 13 years after Kowalska's death, there were 150 Divine Mercy centers in Poland.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: On 24 June 1956, Pope Pius XII blessed an Image of the Divine Mercy in Rome, the only one blessed by a pope before the Second Vatican Council. In 1955, under Pope Pius XII, the Bishop of Gorzów founded a religious order, the Congregation of the Most Holy Lord Jesus Christ, Merciful Redeemer, to spread devotion to the Divine Mercy. Under both Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII, writings on devotion to the Divine Mercy were given imprimaturs by many bishops, making it an approved devotion. Cardinals Adam Stefan Sapieha and August Hlond were among those who gave their approval. During the papacy of Pope Pius XII, Vatican Radio broadcast several times about the Divine Mercy.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: Archbishop Karol Wojtyła later became Pope John Paul II and beatified and canonized Kowalska. He died in April 2005, on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday, and was himself beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, on Divine Mercy Sunday, 1 May 2011, and was canonized by Pope Francis on Divine Mercy Sunday, 27 April 2014. Divine Mercy Sunday is celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter, the Sunday after Easter Sunday.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In 1965, with the approval of the Holy Office, Karol Wojtyła, then Archbishop of Kraków and later Pope John Paul II, opened the initial informative process into Kowalska's life and virtues, interviewed witnesses and, in 1967, submitted a number of documents about Kowalska to the Vatican and requested the start of the official process of her beatification. That was begun in 1968 and concluded with her beatification on 18 April 1993. She was canonised on 30 April 2000, and her feast day is 5 October.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: The Holy See's Press Office biography provided on the occasion of her canonization quotes some of her reputed conversations with Jesus. The author and priest Benedict Groeschel considers a modest estimate of the following of the Divine Mercy devotion in 2010 to be over 100 million Catholics. Pope John Paul II said, "The message she brought is the appropriate and incisive answer that God wanted to offer to the questions and expectations of human beings in our time, marked by terrible tragedies. Jesus said to Sr. Faustina one day: 'Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to the Divine Mercy.'"


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: In October 2011, a group of cardinals and bishops sent a petition to Pope Benedict XVI for Kowalska to be made a Doctor of the Church.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pope John Paul II, 18 May 2020, Faustina was added by Pope Francis to the General Roman Calendar as an optional memorial. The decree, issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, allows her memorial to be celebrated around the world during Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.


title: Faustina Kowalska

text: The formal beatification of Kowalska involved the case of Maureen Digan of Massachusetts. In March 1981 Digan reported a healing, while she was praying at the tomb of Kowalska. Digan had suffered from lymphedema, a disease that causes significant swelling from fluid retention, for decades and had undergone ten operations, including a leg amputation. Digan reported that while she prayed at Kowalska's tomb, she heard a voice saying "ask for my help and I will help you", and her constant pain stopped. After two days, Digan reported that her foot, which had previously been too large for her shoe because of her body's liquid retention, was healed. Upon her return to the United States, five Boston-area physicians said that she was healed, and the case was declared miraculous by the Vatican in 1992 based on the additional testimony of over 20 witnesses about her prior condition.


title: Order of Lenin

text: The Order of Lenin (, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union. The order was awarded to:


title: Order of Lenin

text: From 1944 to 1957, before the institution of a specific length of service medals, the Order of Lenin was also used to reward 25 years of conspicuous military service. Those who were awarded the titles "Hero of the Soviet Union" and "Hero of Socialist Labour" were also given the order as part of the award. It was also bestowed on cities, companies, factories, regions, military units, and ships. Various educational institutions and military units who received the said Order applied the full name of the order into their official titles.


title: Order of Lenin

text: The first design of the Order of Lenin was sculpted by Pyotr Tayozhny and Ivan Shadr based on sketches by Ivan Dubasov. It was made by Goznak of silver with some lightly gold-plated features. It was a round badge with a central disc featuring Vladimir Lenin's profile surrounded by smokestacks, a tractor and a building, possibly a power plant. A thin red-enamelled border and a circle of wheat panicles surrounded the disc. At the top was a gold-plated "hammer and sickle" emblem, and at the bottom were the Russian initials for "USSR" () in red enamel. Only about 800 of this design were minted. It was awarded between 1930–1932.


title: Order of Lenin

text: The second design was awarded from 1934 until 1936. This was a solid gold badge, featuring a silver plated disc bearing Lenin's portrait. The disc is surrounded by two golden panicles of wheat, and a red flag with "LENIN" in Cyrillic script (). A red star is placed on the left and the "hammer and sickle" emblem at the bottom, both in red enamel.


title: Order of Lenin

text: The third design was awarded from 1936 until 1943. The design was the same as previous, but the central disc was gray enamelled and Lenin's portrait was a separate piece made of platinum fixed by rivets.


title: Order of Lenin

text: The fourth design was awarded from 1943 until 1991. Design was the same as previous, but was worn as a medal suspended from a ribbon (all previous were screwback).


title: Order of Lenin

text: The badge was originally worn by screwback on the left chest without a ribbon. Later it was worn as a medal suspended from a red ribbon with pairs of yellow stripes at the edges (see image above). The ribbon bar is of the same design.


title: Order of Lenin

text: The portrait of Lenin was originally a riveted silver piece. For a time it was incorporated into a one-piece gold badge, but finally returned as a separate platinum piece until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.


title: Order of Lenin

text: The first Order of Lenin was awarded to the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" on 23 May 1930. Also among the first ten recipients were five industrial companies, three pilots, and the Secretary to the Central Executive Committee Avel Enukidze. The first person to be awarded a second Order of Lenin was the pilot Valery Chkalov in 1936. Another pilot, Vladimir Kokkinaki, became the first to receive a third Order in 1939.


title: Order of Lenin

text: The first five foreign recipients – who were presented with the Order on May 17, 1932 – comprised a German and four US citizens, one of whom was Frank Bruno Honey. They received the award for helping in the reconstruction of Soviet industry and agriculture, during 1931–1934.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: The Washington Redskins name controversy involved the name and logo previously used by the Washington Commanders, a National Football League (NFL) franchise located in the Washington metropolitan area. In the 1960s, the team's longtime name—the Redskins—and the associated logo began to draw criticism from Native American groups and individuals. The topic, part of the larger Native American mascot controversy, began receiving widespread public attention in the 1990s. In 2020, the team responded to economic pressure in the wake of widespread recognition of systemic racism by retiring the name and logo. The team called itself the "Washington Football Team" before rebranding as the Commanders in 2022.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: "Redskin" is a slang term for Native Americans in the United States and First Nations in Canada. The term "redskin" underwent pejoration through the 19th to early 20th centuries and in contemporary dictionaries of American English it is labeled as offensive, disparaging, or insulting.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: For several decades, the team's owners and management, NFL commissioners, and most fans sought to keep the Redskins name, claiming that it honored the achievements and virtues of Native Americans and that it was not intended in a negative manner. Then-team president Bruce Allen noted that three high schools with a Native American-majority student body used the name. Supporters also pointed to a national poll taken in 2004 by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, which found that a majority of Native Americans were not offended by the name. The use of public opinion polling methods to measure the opinions of a small, diverse population was criticized by scholars, in particular the use of self-identification to select the individuals surveyed. The name was opposed by the National Congress of American Indians, which said in 2013 that it represented 1.2 million people in its member tribes.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In July 2020, amid the removal of many names and images as part of the George Floyd protests, a group of investors worth $620 billion wrote letters to major sponsors Nike, FedEx, and PepsiCo encouraging pressure on the Redskins to change their name. FedEx called on the team to change its name on July 2, 2020. The same day, Nike removed Redskins apparel from its website.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: On July 3, the league and the franchise announced that it was "undergoing a thorough review of the team name." On July 7, it was acknowledged that the Redskins were not in contact with a group of Native Americans who petitioned the NFL to force a name change and that Redskins head coach Ron Rivera also stated the team wanted to continue “honoring and supporting Native Americans and our Military.” The team initiated a review which resulted in the decision to retire its name and logo, playing as the Washington Football Team pending adoption of a more permanent name.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Team president Jason Wright announced on July 12, 2021, that the new name will not include any ties to Native Americans, including the name "Warriors"; research having shown that anything other than a clean break with the past is a slippery slope. While the team expects fans to continue to wear their jerseys with the former name and logo, Native American inspired headdresses or face paint will not be allowed in the stadium.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In January 2022, the team announced that it would choose between Armada, Presidents, Brigade, Red Hogs, Commanders, RedWolves, Defenders and the then-current "Football Team". The new name, the Washington Commanders, was announced on February 2, 2022. In its press release, the team made no mention of the racial controversy, instead emphasizing the military symbolism of the graphic elements in the redesigned "W" primary logo that goes along with the new name. The design of the new "crest" combines elements of the team's history and its connection to the city of Washington.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Amanda Blackhorse responded that the change is an empty gesture, the team's owner and management having made no substantial effort to acknowledge or repair the effects of decades of insults, nor advocate that other teams with offensive mascots also change.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In 1933, the football team that shared both the name and playing field with the Boston Braves baseball team moved to Fenway Park, already home to the Boston Red Sox. Co-owner George Preston Marshall changed the name to the Redskins, more likely to avoid confusion while retaining the Native American imagery of the team than to honor coach William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz, whose identity as a Native American was debated. The logo for the NFL Braves was similar to the Redskins logo, a Native American head in profile with braids and trailing feathers. A redesigned logo introduced in 1972 was proposed by Walter Wetzel, a former Blackfoot tribal chairman and past president of the National Congress of American Indians, and was modeled after the likeness on the Buffalo nickel. Members of the Blackfoot tribe express a range of opinions, from support to indifference to strong opposition to the Redskins name based upon their personal experiences.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Advocates of changing the team's name said that stereotypes of Native Americans had to be understood in the context of a history that includes conquest, forced relocation, and organized efforts by federal and state governments to eradicate native cultures, such as the boarding schools of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: "Since the first Europeans made landfall in North America, native peoples have suffered under a weltering array of stereotypes, misconceptions and caricatures. Whether portrayed as "noble savages", "ignoble savages", "teary-eyed environmentalists" or, most recently, simply as "casino-rich", native peoples find their efforts to be treated with a measure of respect and integrity undermined by images that flatten complex tribal, historical and personal experience into one-dimensional representations that tells us more about the depicters than about the depicted."


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: The historical context for the emergence in the Americas of racial identities based upon skin color was the establishment of colonies which developed a plantation economy dependent upon slave labor. Prior to the colonial era, many Europeans identified themselves as Christians rather than white. "At the start of the eighteenth century, Indians and Europeans rarely mentioned the color of each other's skins. By midcentury, remarks about skin color and the categorization of peoples by simple color-coded labels (red, white, black) had become commonplace."


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Documents from the colonial period indicate that the use of "red" as an identifier by Native Americans for themselves emerged in the context of Indian-European diplomacy in the southeastern region of North America, before later being adopted by Europeans and becoming a generic label for all Native Americans. Linguistic evidence indicates that, while some tribes may have used red to refer to themselves during the Pre-Columbian era based upon their origin stories, the general use of the term was in response to meeting people who called themselves "white" and their slaves "black". The choice of red rather than other colors may have been due to cultural associations, rather than skin color.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In the debate over the meaning of the word "redskin", team supporters frequently cite a paper by Ives Goddard, a Smithsonian Institution senior linguist and curator emeritus, who asserts that the term was a direct translation of words used by Native Americans to refer to themselves and was benign in its original meaning. In an interview Goddard admits that it is impossible to verify if the native words were accurately translated. Darren R. Reid, a history lecturer at Coventry University, contends that Native American usage was generally attributed to them by European writers. Reid states that the team logo works together with the name to reinforce an unrealistic stereotype: "It is not up to non-Indians to define an idealized image of what it is to a Native American." The "positive" stereotypes allow fans and supporters to honestly state that they are honoring Native Americans, but this is "forcing your idea of what it is to honour those people onto them and that, fundamentally, is disrespectful." Sociologist James V. Fenelon makes a more explicit statement that Goddard's article is poor scholarship, given that the conclusion of the origin and usage by Natives as "entirely benign" is divorced from the socio-historical realities of hostility and racism from which it emerged.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Advocates of changing the name emphasize current meanings in dictionaries of American English, which include "usually offensive", "disparaging", "insulting", and "taboo". Such meanings are consistent with the usage found in books in the period between 1875 and 1930, which is after that studied by Goddard. John McWhorter, an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, compares "redskin" becoming a slur to other racial terms, such as "Oriental", which acquired implied meanings associated with contempt.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: A controversial etymological claim is that the term emerged from the practice of paying a bounty for Indians, and that "redskin" refers to the bloody scalp of Native Americans. Although official documents do not use the word in this way, a historical association between the use of "redskin" and the paying of bounties can be made. In 1863, a Winona, Minnesota, newspaper, the "Daily Republican", printed an announcement: "The state reward for dead Indians has been increased to $200 for every red-skin sent to Purgatory. This sum is more than the dead bodies of all the Indians east of the Red River are worth." A news story published by the "Atchison Daily Champion" in Atchison, Kansas, on October 9, 1885, tells of the settlers "hunt for redskins, with a view of obtaining their scalps" valued at $250. For sociologist C. Richard King the lack of direct evidence does not mean that contemporary Native people are wrong to draw an association between a term that emphasizes an identity based upon skin color and a history that commodified Native American body parts.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: The meaning of the term "redskin" was addressed in two cases challenging the trademark registrations held by Pro-Football, Inc., the team's corporate entity. The challenge was based upon a provision of the Lanham Act which prohibited the registration of any mark that "may disparage persons, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute." The first case, filed in 1992 by Suzan Shown Harjo and six other Native American leaders resulted in the cancellation of the federal registrations for the Redskins marks by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB); however in 2005 the United States District Court for the District of Columbia reversed the TTAB's decision on the grounds of insufficient evidence of disparagement. Subsequent appeals were also rejected on the basis of "laches," that the Native American petitioners had pursued their rights in an untimely manner.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: A second case was filed with younger plaintiffs not affected by laches, led by Amanda Blackhorse. The linguistic expert for the petitioners, Geoffrey Nunberg, successfully argued that whatever its origins, "redskins" was a slur at the time of the trademark registrations, based upon the passages from books and newspapers and the movie clips in which the word is inevitably associated with contempt, derision, condescension, or sentimental paeans to the noble savage. "Nigger" also began as a benign reference to skin color, only to become a racial slur through disparaging use. On June 18, 2014, the TTAB again voted to cancel the trademarks in a two to one decision that held that the term "redskins" is disparaging to a "substantial composite of Native Americans." Evidence of disparagement include the frequent references to "scalping" made by sportswriters for sixty years when reporting the Redskins loss of a game, and passages from movies made from the 1940s to the 1960s using "redskin" to refer to Native Americans as a savage enemy. The TTAB majority held that the NCAI represented about 30 percent of Native Americans during the time in question, which the Board found satisfied the substantial composite test of the trademark law.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In December 2015, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the disparagement prohibition in the trademark law in a case (Matal v. Tam) involving a denial of trademark registration to the Asian-American band The Slants. The majority opinion stated, in part, that "[w]hatever our personal feelings about the mark at issue here, or other disparaging marks, the First Amendment forbids government regulators to deny registration because they find speech likely to offend others." On June 19, 2017, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of Tam, stating "The disparagement clause violates the First Amendment's Free Speech Clause. Contrary to the Government's contention, trademarks are private, not government speech." On June 29, 2017, both the Native American petitioners and the Justice Department withdrew from any further litigation now that the Supreme Court has rendered the legal issue moot. While team owner Daniel Snyder expresses the opinion that the court decision is a victory for the team, the executive director of the NCAI asserts that the name remains a slur, and the decision that grants it First Amendment protection does not alter any of the arguments against its continued use.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Supporters of the Redskins name note that three predominantly Native American high schools use the name for their sports teams, suggesting that it can be acceptable. However, in 2013, the principal of one of these, Red Mesa High School in Teec Nos Pos, Arizona, said that use of the word outside American Indian communities should be avoided because it could perpetuate "the legacy of negativity that the term has created". Teec Nos Pos, on the Navajo Nation, is 96.5% Native American. Wellpinit, Washington, a town within a reservation of the Spokane people, is 79.3% Native American. In 2014, Wellpinit High School voted to keep the Redskins name. The third school, Kingston High School in Kingston, Oklahoma is 57.69% Native American.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Native American writer and attorney Gyasi Ross compares Native American use of variations of the word "redskin" with African-American use of variations of the word "nigger"; specifically Natives calling each other "skins" as analogous to "nigga". Ross argues that the use of terms by some members of minority communities does not mean that the same may be used by outsiders; this is generally recognized by white people with regard to black expressions, yet whites feel free to say how Natives should feel about "redskin". Ross also notes that there is no consensus among Natives regarding either opposition to the Washington team's use of the name, or the importance of the issue compared to more immediate concerns. However, in response to the argument that Native Americans ought to focus on social issues larger than a team name, Ross stated that "Native people shouldn't be forced to choose between living or racial discrimination. Those are false binaries."


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In February 2013 a symposium on the topic was held at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Subsequently, the Oneida Indian Nation of New York sponsored a series of radio ads in each city to coincide with games of the 2013 season, each featuring a targeted message. A broader range of persons spoke in favor of change or open discussion, including local government leaders, members of Congress, and President Barack Obama. Statements in support of a name change by academic, civil rights and religious organizations were added to those that Native American groups have been making for decades.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In 2017, when professional sports dealt with a number of racial issues, from individual acts by players to widespread protests during the National Anthem, some commentators speculated why there had been no action to address the stereotyping of Native Americans, including the decision to have the Washington Redskins host a game on Thanksgiving.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: The issue is often discussed in the media in terms of offensiveness or political correctness, which reduces it to feelings and opinions, and prevents full understanding of the historical, psychological and sociological context provided by academic research on the negative effects of the use of Native American names and images by sports teams. The effect of stereotyping on high or low expectations, confidence, and academic performance has been well-established. This effect is enhanced due to the invisibility of Native Americans in mainstream society and media, leaving stereotypes as the primary basis for thinking about the abilities and traits associated with Natives, including the roles and opportunities Natives Americans envision for themselves. Furthermore, even when stereotypes are positive (e.g. "Native Americans are spiritual"), they may have a limiting, detrimental effect on individuals. Stereotyping may directly affect the academic performance and self-esteem of Native American youth, whose people face high rates of suicide, unemployment, and poverty. Euro-Americans exposed to mascots may be more likely to believe not only that such stereotypes are true, but that Native Americans have no identity beyond these stereotypes. Research indicates that exposure to any stereotypes increased the likelihood of stereotypical thinking with regard to other minority groups in addition to the target of the stereotype, a "spreading effect".


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Native Americans opposed to mascots point to the oversimplification of their culture by fans "playing Indian" with no understanding of the deeper meaning of feathers, face paint, chants, and dancing. Richard Lapchick, director emeritus of Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society, wrote: "Could you imagine people mocking African Americans in black face at a game? Yet go to a game where there is a team with an Indian name and you will see fans with war paint on their faces. Is this not the equivalent to black face?" The unofficial mascot of the Redskins team was Zema Williams (aka Chief Zee), an African American man who attended games for 38 years beginning in 1978 dressed in a red faux "Indian" costume, complete with feathered war bonnet and rubber tomahawk. Other fans dress in similar costumes for games.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In a report published by the Center for American Progress summarizing the research on "The Real Impact of Native Mascots and Team Names on American Indian and Alaska Native Youth", a case is made that the public debate misses the point, since individual opinions on either side do not matter given the measurable effects on the mental health of Native American young people exposed to such misrepresentations of their ethnic identity, and the often hostile or insulting behavior of non-natives that occur when teams with such names and mascots play. Clinical Psychologist Michael Friedman writes that the use of Native imagery, in particular the use of a dictionary defined slur, is a form of bullying, the negative impact of which is magnified by its being officially sanctioned.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: The majority of scholars argue that the use of any stereotype, whether positive or negative, is a hindrance to the advancement of the targeted group. The national organizations representing several academic disciplines, after reviewing the research done on the issue, have passed resolutions calling for the end of all Native American mascots and images in sports. These include the Society of Indian Psychologists (1999), the American Counseling Association (2001), the American Psychological Association (2005), the American Sociological Association (2007). and the American Anthropological Association (2015). The executive board of the nation's leading organization of scholars of U.S. history approved a resolution in April 2015: "The Organization of American Historians hereby adds its voice to the growing demands by Native American organizations, our sister disciplines, and conscientious people of all ethnic backgrounds, to change the name and logo of the Washington 'Redskins'."


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In the 1940s the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) created a campaign to eliminate negative stereotyping of Native American people in the media. Over time, the campaign began to focus on Indian names and mascots in sports. The NCAI maintains that teams with mascots such as the Braves and the Redskins perpetuate negative stereotypes of Native American people, and demean their native traditions and rituals. The NCAI issued a new report in 2013 summarizing opposition to Indian mascots and team names generally, and the Washington Redskins in particular. In the trademark case, the TTAB placed significance on the NCAI opposition, estimating that the organization represented about 30% of the Native American population at the time the trademarks were granted, which met their criteria for a "substantial composite" of Native Americans finding the name disparaging. In its amicus brief filed in the case, the NCAI states that the combined enrollment of its member tribes in 2013 was 1.2 million individuals.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Many tribal councils have passed resolutions or issued statements regarding their opposition to the name of the Washington Redskins, including the Cherokee and Comanche Nations of Oklahoma, the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes, the Oneida Indian Nation (New York), the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (North Dakota) and the United South and Eastern Tribes (USET). In April 2014, Navajo Nation Council voted in favor of a statement opposing the name of the Washington team, as well as other disparaging references to American Indians by other professional sports franchises. Other Native American groups advocating change include: the Native American Bar Association of DC, the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators, and the Society of American Indian Government Employees.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: At its 2013 annual conference, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LCCHR), which includes the NAACP and the ACLU as members, passed a unanimous resolution of the 85 representatives present that, while recognizing that a business has the First Amendment right to use any name that it chooses, others need not be complicit in the use of a pejorative and insulting name; and calling upon all Federal, state and local government entities "to end any preferential tax, zoning, or policy treatment that could be viewed as supporting the franchise as long as it retains its current team name". The resolution also commended the "current and former government officials, media outlets, and other entities that have encouraged the Washington Redskins franchise to change its team name or that have refused to be complicit in promoting the current team name". In response, the team released a brief statement reiterating their previous position, and quoting two individuals as being both Native American and Redskins fans who do not want the name to change. The LCCHR also issued a press release in 2014 applauding the decision to cancel the trademark protection for the team's name. The NAACP issued their own press release supporting the TTAB decision stating "The NAACP has called specifically for this name change since 1992, and will continue to stand with the Native Indian community until the derogatory moniker has been changed."


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: The Fritz Pollard Alliance, a non-profit organization closely allied with the NFL on civil rights issues, announced its support of a name change in 2015 after repeated attempts to discuss the issue with the team owner and representatives. An attorney for the Alliance, N. Jeremi Duru, an American University law professor, made a study of the controversy in which he concluded that Native Americans are justified in finding the name offensive.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In 1992, the Central Conference of American Rabbis issued a resolution calling for the end of sports teams names that promote racism, in particular the Atlanta Braves and the Washington Redskins. The Anti-Defamation League was one of the organizations signing a letter to broadcasters urging them to avoid using the name. The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism also advocates a name change.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In 2013 a group of 61 religious leaders in Washington, D.C., sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and team owner Dan Snyder stating their moral obligation to join the Change the Mascot movement due to the offensive and inappropriate nature of the name which causes pain whether or not that is intended.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In June 2015, the United Church of Christ General Synod passed a resolution calling for a stop to using images or mascots that could be demeaning to the Native American community.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In June 2016; Sidwell Friends School, affiliated with the Quakers, amended its dress code to ban apparel with the Redskins name or logo as "offensive and antithetical to the values of the community". In August 2017; another private school in Montgomery County, Maryland, adopted a similar policy.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In 2018 a Native American employee filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy claiming that the agency racially discriminated against her by allowing other employees to discuss the Washington Redskins football team and display Redskins paraphernalia at work. She also alleges that the Department of Energy retaliated against her after she raised concerns about the Redskins following in the office. The United States District Court, District of Columbia dismissed the discrimination claim on the basis that the derogatory nature of the team name is in dispute, and that the law does not require employers to take sides in that dispute. In addition, while accepting that the name is hurtful to the employee, discussion of a local football team by co-workers is not equivalent to the use of a hurtful term directed toward an individual. However, the court did not dismiss the claim that the agency retaliated against the employee for bringing up the issue.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In response to the possibility that the team could return to the District of Columbia in a new stadium, a coalition of nine civil rights organizations issued a statement in August 2018 that such a move should not be made "unless the team agrees to drop the 'R-word' racial slur as its mascot."


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Although often assumed to be a debate of recent origins, local Washington, D.C. newspapers published news items on the controversy many times since at least 1971, all in response to Native American individuals or organizations asking for the name to be changed. National protests began in 1988, after the team's Super Bowl XXII victory, prompting numerous Native Americans to write letters to Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke; others boycotted Redskins products and protested, but Cooke rejected the possibility of change. There was a protest of about 2,000 people at the 1992 Super Bowl between the Redskins and the Buffalo Bills; the American Indian Movement's (AIM) Vernon Bellecourt was one of the main organizers of the protest.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: From 2013 to 2019, picketing at stadiums occurred occasionally when the Redskins played, particularly in cities with a significant population of Native Americans, such as Dallas, Denver and Minneapolis. The latter protest was supported by several Minnesota politicians and was through documented by two films: Dodging Bullets—Stories from Survivors of Historical Trauma and More Than A Word. Picketing resumed for the 2014 season in Glendale, Arizona, when the team played the Arizona Cardinals, and again the largest rally was in Minneapolis, where estimates of the number of protestors was between 3,500 and 5,000. At a protest in Philadelphia in 2017, Native Americans pointed out the irony of NFL players making a statement opposing racial injustice by "taking a knee" for the National Anthem while one of the teams taking the field continues to use a racially offensive name and logo. Playing in Minnesota for the first time since 2014, hundreds of Native Americans protested against the team name outside of U.S. Bank Stadium during the game on October 24, 2019. On December 8, 2019, members of the Wisconsin Indian Education Association's Indian Mascot and Logo Task Force led a protest at Lambeau Field in Wisconsin. The Oneida Nation sponsored a video shown on the Jumbotron during the game expressing pride in being Native American as the antithesis of the message sent by the Redskins name and logo.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: FedEx owns the naming rights to the team's stadium, FedExField, through 2026, and had been the only corporate sponsor officially subject to boycotts by Native Americans: the Osage Nation, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), and the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes, the largest tribe of Native Alaskan peoples.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: On December 13, 2017, a Native American group, Rising Hearts, created a Twitter campaign and several parody web sites including one for the team that made it appear that the Redskins had agreed to change its name to the Washington Redhawks for the 2018 season. The organizers stated that their intention was to stimulate debate that would eventually lead to an actual name change.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Following the February 2013 symposium "Racist Stereotypes and Cultural Appropriation in American Sports" at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, 10 members of Congress sent a letter to the Redskins' owner and the NFL Commissioner requesting that the name be changed since it is offensive to Native Americans. In response, Daniel Snyder told "USA Today": "We'll never change the name. ... It's that simple. NEVER—you can use caps." Snyder addressed an open letter to fans that was published in "The Washington Post" on October 9, 2013; in which he stated that the most important meaning of the name is the association that fans have with memories of their personal history with the team. Snyder also states that the name was chosen in 1933 to honor Native Americans in general and the coach and four players at that time who were Native American; and that in 1971 coach George Allen consulted with the Red Cloud Indian Fund on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation when designing the logo. In 2013, the Red Cloud Athletic Fund sent a letter to the "Washington Post" stating that "As an organization, Red Cloud Indian School has never—and will never—endorse the use of the name 'Redskins'. Like many Native American organizations across the country, members of our staff and extended community find the name offensive."


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In June 2013, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell defended the name by citing its origins, traditions and polls that support its popularity. In February 2018, following the announcement by MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred that the Cleveland Indians would remove their Chief Wahoo logo from the stadium and uniforms, Goodell stated that the Redskins name and logo would remain, primarily citing the 2016 Washington Post opinion poll.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: On their website the team stated that a 2014 annual NFL poll showing 71 percent support for the name, "along with the poll taken among Native Americans by the Annenberg Institute, demonstrates continued, widespread and deep opposition to the Redskins changing our name... We respect the point of view of the small number of people who seek a name change, but it is important to recognize very few people agree with the case they are making."


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Bruce Allen addressed a letter dated May 23, 2014, to then Senate majority leader Harry Reid repeating the position that the name was originated by Native Americans to refer to themselves, that the logo was also designed and approved by Native American leaders, and that the vast majority of both Native Americans and the public do not find the name offensive.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Conservative columnists George Will and Pat Buchanan stated that opponents of the team name are being oversensitive, although Charles Krauthammer drew a parallel between the evolution of "Negro" and "Redskin" from being in common use to being condescending and insulting. W. James Antle III, Rich Lowry, and Dennis Prager wrote that outrage over mascots is manufactured by white liberals, rather than being the authentic voice of Native Americans.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: From 2013 to 2014, national opinion polls consistently indicated that some majority of the general public opposed changing the name of the team: 79 percent (April 2013), 60 percent (June 2014), and 71 percent (September 2014).


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Opinion polling was also part of the discussion about whether Native Americans found the term redskin insulting. Two national political polls, the first in 2004 by the National Annenberg Election Survey and another in 2016 by The Washington Post. were particularly influential. When a respondent identified themselves as Native American, both polls asked, "The professional football team in Washington calls itself the Washington Redskins. As a Native American, do you find that name offensive or doesn’t it bother you?". In both polls, 90% responded that they were not bothered, 9% that they were offended, and 1% gave no response. These polls were widely cited by teams, fans, and mainstream media as evidence that there was no need to change the name of the Washington football team.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In a commentary published soon after the 2004 poll, 15 Native American scholars collaborated on a critique that stated that there were so many flaws in the Annenberg study that rather than being a measure of Native American opinion, it was an expression of white privilege and colonialism. A 2019 poll by University of California, Berkeley surveyed 1,021 Native Americans, twice as many as in any previous polls. 38% of self-identified Native Americans said they were not bothered by the Washington Redskins name. But 49% overall said it was offensive, along with 67% of respondents who were heavily engaged in their native or tribal cultures, 60% of young people, and 52% of those with tribal affiliations.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Three Virginia Indian leaders said in 2013 that they are not offended by the name Redskins but are more concerned about other issues such as the lack of Federal recognition for any Virginia tribe. Robert "Two Eagles" Green, retired chief of the Fredericksburg area Patawomeck Tribe, stated on a radio talk show he would be offended if the team changed its name. In an article in "The American Spectator", the chief of the Patawomeck Tribe, John Lightner, said that while he was not offended by the current name, he would support changing the team to the Washington Potomacs.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: On November 25, 2013, as part of the NFL's "Salute to Service" month and Native American Heritage month, the Washington Redskins recognized four members of the Navajo Code Talkers Association briefly during a commercial break. One of them, Roy Hawthorne, has stated, "My opinion is that's a name that not only the team should keep, but that's a name that's American." This action was criticized by Amanda Blackhorse, also Navajo, who described it as a publicity stunt. In April 2014, Navajo Nation Council voted in favor of a statement opposing the name of the Washington team, as well as other disparaging references to American Indians by other professional sports franchises. Later that year, members of the Navajo and Zuni Tribes and students from the Red Mesa Redskins High School attended a Redskins vs. Cardinals game as guests of the Washington team.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In 2014, the Redskins released a two-minute video on YouTube entitled "Redskins is a Powerful Name" in which several Native Americans express their support for the team. Of the fourteen individuals, five are members of the Chippewa Cree tribe on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in Montana and are associated with the Team Redskins Rodeo club. Two are Mike Wetzel and Don Wetzel, Jr. (Blackfoot), descendants of the logo designer, and the six others are members of diverse tribes and state that they are fans of the team and find nothing wrong with the name, or think it is positive. One of the individuals in the video is Mark One Wolf, who was reported as being born Mark E. Yancey in Washington, D.C., of African-American and Japanese descent.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In July, 2020, the Board of Supervisors of Loudoun County, Virginia, which is the location of the corporate headquarters of the team, sent a letter to the owner urging a change.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In the mid-2010s, the majority of those advocating a name change were Democrats, though there was no indication that the issue is of any real significance in electoral decisions given that Native Americans are such a small percentage of the electorate and are not likely to influence the outcome of any election. There are only eight states where Natives make up greater than 2 percent of the population: Alaska, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming. However, polls during that period showed a definite political difference in the opinion of the general public, with only 58% of Democrats opposing a name change versus 89% of Republicans. Statements by political figures have generally been expressions of personal opinion rather than recommendations for government action. There have also been non-binding resolutions advocating name change proposed in New Jersey and passed in Minneapolis, New York State and California.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In November 2015, President Barack Obama, speaking at the White House Tribal Nations Conference, stated "Names and mascots of sports teams like the Washington Redskins perpetuate negative stereotypes of Native Americans" and praised Adidas for a new initiative to help schools change names and mascots by designing new logos and paying for part of the cost of new uniforms. On May 22, 2014, fifty U.S. Senators, forty-eight Democrats and two Independents, sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Goodell asking the league, referencing the Donald Sterling case, to "send the same clear message as the NBA did: that racism and bigotry have no place in professional sports." Five Democratic Senators declined to sign the letter, and Republicans were not invited to do so. During his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump defended the name.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: The team headquarters is in Ashburn, Virginia and its home stadium, FedExField, is in Landover, Maryland. Much of the local political discussion has been about the location of a stadium, beginning in the 1990s. The mayors of Washington asserted that a return to the District of Columbia was contingent upon a name change, a possibility the team had rejected. In 2018 the NAACP also opposed the return of the team to the District unless the name where changed.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: For many years, beginning with the departure of the Baltimore Colts, the Redskins were the only NFL team in a large area from Maryland into the southern states. This is slowly changing as Maryland NFL fans move to the Baltimore Ravens. Virginia fans were the more numerous and dedicated supporters of the Redskins, and the state and local governments used economic incentives to encourage the team's relocation of its facilities there, and maintain that the name is entirely a business decision for the team to make. Several Maryland politicians stated that the name should change, but governor Larry Hogan at that time opposed any change, also citing the desire to keep the stadium in Maryland.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In addition to several direct sponsors advocating change in 2020, retailers Amazon, Nike, Target and Walmart withdrew Redskins merchandise from their stores and websites. By the end of June 2020, during protests after the murder of George Floyd, sponsors increased pressure; FedEx threatened to take its name off of FedEx Field. Investment firms representing $620B demanded corporate sponsors, including Nike, PepsiCo, and Bank of America, to terminate their relationship with the team until it made a name change.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: Two professors at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University summarized their research into the financial repercussions of removing offensive team names in a 2014 "New York Times" editorial. They found that studies of college teams that have changed their names and mascots indicate that doing so had a long-term financial benefit. While vocal opponents of change often threatened withdrawal of support, their research showed this had never materialized. Their comparison of NFL teams showed the highest negative trend in brand equity affected the Washington Redskins and the Kansas City Chiefs, which called into question the business logic of retaining Native American names or logos that are offensive to even a minority.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: In the immediate wake of the February 2022 announcement of the name change, four Commanders merchandise items were the bestsellers for Fanatics.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: The number of high schools using the Redskins name has been in steady decline, 40% having had local efforts to change the name. Between 1988 and April 2013, 28 high schools in 18 states had done so. By December 2017, the number of high school "Redskins" had continued to decline from 62 to 49, including four affected by a 2015 California law. Following the Washington NFL decision, changes by high schools have accelerated, with only 38 remaining, the most recent change being April 2022 by Sandusky High School in Michigan.


title: Washington Redskins name controversy

text: College teams that had been Redskins changed their names voluntarily decades ago, including: the University of Utah became the Utah Utes in 1972; Miami University became the RedHawks in 1997; and the Southern Nazarene University became the Crimson Storm in 1998.


title: A Most Wanted Man (film)

text: A Most Wanted Man is a 2014 espionage thriller film based on the 2008 novel of the same name by John le Carré, directed by Anton Corbijn and written by Andrew Bovell. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Homayoun Ershadi, Daniel Brühl and Nina Hoss. It premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and competed in the main competition section of the 36th Moscow International Film Festival and the 40th Deauville American Film Festival. It was the last of Hoffman's films to be finished and premiered before his death.


title: A Most Wanted Man (film)

text: Issa Karpov, a political refugee from Chechnya who has been tortured by Russian security forces, illegally enters Hamburg, Germany.


title: A Most Wanted Man (film)

text: Günther Bachmann leads a covert German government team that seeks to recruit local informants with ties to Islamic terrorist organizations. The disheveled Günther's polar opposite is his efficient right-hand associate, Irna Frey. The team learns of Karpov's presence and his suspected links to Chechen terrorists.


title: A Most Wanted Man (film)

text: Bachmann's team is also tracking the activities of a local, respected, Muslim philanthropist, Dr. Abdullah, whom the team suspects is funnelling a small portion of his legitimate funds to al-Qaeda, though the team is unable to prove this. High-ranking German security official Mohr and American diplomatic attaché Sullivan both learn of these investigations and take an interest.


title: A Most Wanted Man (film)

text: Bachmann is interested in watching suspects and "turning" informants higher and higher up the chain, while protecting the naïve who are caught up in the nefarious affairs of others. Mohr and Sullivan appear single-minded and interested in merely capturing suspects, regardless of guilt or future usefulness. Bachmann had been disgraced in the past for an apparently serious failure and shows signs of self-neglect, but is a sophisticated operative who understands Islamic terrorism, and distrusts politicians and American intelligence agents.


title: A Most Wanted Man (film)

text: Karpov contacts an immigration lawyer, Annabel Richter, who helps put him in contact with Tommy Brue, a wealthy banker whose father had long ago done a favor for Karpov's father. Karpov shows Brue a letter from Brue's father to Karpov's, along with the key to a safe deposit box, and asks for Brue's help. The favour Brue's father did for Karpov's, a member of the Russian mafia, is revealed to be money laundering. Karpov is informed that he is the legal heir to a multi-million-euro account long held by Brue's bank. Karpov identifies with his maternal Chechen and Muslim heritage, considers the money unclean, and indicates that he does not want it.


title: A Most Wanted Man (film)

text: Bachmann's team is able to turn Brue and Richter to their cause. At the behest of Bachmann, Richter convinces Karpov to donate the funds to Abdullah's organization, in the hope that Abdullah will reroute some of the funds to a shipping company acting as a front for al-Qaeda. Bachmann plans to use this proof of guilt to turn Abdullah and ensnare those higher up in the terrorist organization. The plan is approved by the interior minister and supported by Sullivan, who has become an apparent ally of Bachmann. Bachmann secures asylum for the innocent Karpov.


title: A Most Wanted Man (film)

text: During the fund transfer at Brue's bank, Abdullah does indeed route funds to the shipping company. Bachmann, posing as a taxi driver, picks up Abdullah with the goal of turning him into an informant without disrupting his life or family. As Bachmann is about to drive away, he is ambushed by agents reporting to Mohr and Sullivan, who handcuff Abdullah and Karpov and whisk them away. Bachmann yells in anger as Frey, Richter, and Brue look on in shock. Bachmann drives off, defeated.


title: A Most Wanted Man (film)

text: In July 2013, Lionsgate acquired the US distribution rights to the film. On 11 April 2014, the first trailer for the film was released. A new trailer for the UK was revealed on 30 June. On 25 July 2014, the film received a limited release in the United States, beginning with 361 theatres and later expanding wider. It earned US$36,233,517 worldwide.


title: A Most Wanted Man (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Smart, subtle, and steadily absorbing, "A Most Wanted Man" proves once again that John le Carré books make for sharp, thoughtful thrillers." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: A Most Wanted Man (film)

text: Many critics praised Hoffman's performance, which was his last leading role before his death in February 2014. Richard Roeper called the film one of the best spy thrillers in recent years, and called it the seventh best film of 2014. Critic Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" called it a "crackerjack thriller" and praised the performance of the entire cast but Hoffman in particular. He wrote that "A Most Wanted Man" is "a fitting film for him to leave on, not only because it is so expertly done but because his role was so challenging."


title: British Overseas Airways Corporation

text: British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state-owned airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II. After the passing of the Civil Aviation Act 1946, European and South American services passed to two further state-owned airlines, British European Airways (BEA) and British South American Airways (BSAA). BOAC absorbed BSAA in 1949, but BEA continued to operate British domestic and European routes for the next quarter century. A 1971 Act of Parliament merged BOAC and BEA, effective 31 March 1974, forming today's British Airways. For most of its history its main rival was Pan Am.


title: British Overseas Airways Corporation

text: On 24 November 1939, BOAC was created by Act of Parliament to become the British state airline, formed from the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. The companies had been operating together since war was declared on 3 September 1939, when their operations were evacuated from the London area to Bristol. On 1 April 1940, BOAC started operations as a single company. Following the Fall of France (22 June 1940), BOAC aircraft kept wartime Britain connected with its colonies and the allied world, often under enemy fire, and initially with desperate shortages of long-range aircraft. During the war, the airline was sometimes loosely referred to as 'British Airways', and aircraft and equipment were marked with combinations of that title and/or the Speedbird symbol and/or the Union Flag.


title: British Overseas Airways Corporation

text: BOAC inherited Imperial Airways' flying boat services to British colonies in Africa and Asia, but with the wartime loss of the route over Italy and France to Cairo these were replaced by the expatriate 'Horseshoe Route', with Cairo as a hub, and Sydney and Durban as end destinations. Linking Britain to the Horseshoe Route taxed the resources of BOAC. Although Spain denied access, Portugal welcomed BOAC's civilian aircraft at Lisbon. However, the Mediterranean route from Lisbon or Gibraltar to Egypt via Malta risked enemy attack, so the long West Africa route had to be employed (over-water via Lisbon, Bathurst, Freetown, Lagos), then by landplane to Khartoum on the Horseshoe Route. The Empire routes had contained landplane sectors, but the Armstrong Whitworth Ensign and de Havilland Albatross ordered to replace the Handley Page HP.42 'Heracles' biplanes had proved disappointing, leaving the Short Empire flying boats as the backbone of the wartime fleet. (Only a handful of these had long range tanks but many were eventually upgraded with larger tankage and operated at overload weights.)


title: British Overseas Airways Corporation

text: The Empire flying-boats were at their limit on the 1,900-mile Lisbon-Bathurst sector. Refuelling at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands was permitted by Spain for some Empire flying-boat flights in 1940 and 1941. In 1941 longer range Consolidated Catalinas, Boeing 314As (and later converted Short Sunderlands) were introduced to guarantee non-stop Lisbon to Bathurst sectors (thus eliminating the need to refuel at Las Palmas). BOAC's flying-boat base for Britain was shifted from Southampton to Poole, Dorset, but many flights used Foynes in Éire (Ireland), reached by shuttle flight from Whitchurch. Use of Foynes reduced the chance of enemy interception or friendly fire incidents over the English Channel. BOAC had large bases at Durban, Asmara, Alexandria and a pilots' school at Soroti, Uganda.


title: British Overseas Airways Corporation

text: Experimental flights had been made across the North Atlantic pre-war by Imperial Airways Empire flying-boats with improved fuel capacity, some using in flight refuelling, culminating in a series of mail/courier flights made by BOAC's "Clare" and "Clyde" to La Guardia in camouflage during the Battle of Britain. These were BOAC's first New York services. In 1941, BOAC was tasked with operating a 'Return Ferry Service' from Prestwick to Montreal to reposition ferry pilots who had flown American-built bombers from Canada, and they were provided with RAF Consolidated Liberators with a very basic passenger conversion. This was the first sustained North Atlantic landplane service.


title: British Overseas Airways Corporation

text: In late 1942, the new hard-surface airport at Lisbon permitted the use of civil registered Liberators to North and West Africa and Egypt.


title: British Overseas Airways Corporation

text: Arguably, BOAC's most famous wartime route was the 'Ball-bearing Run' from Leuchars to Stockholm (Bromma) in neutral Sweden. Initially flown with Lockheed 14s and Lockheed Hudson transports, the unsuitable Armstrong Whitworth Whitley "civilianised" bombers were also used between 9 August and 24 October 1942 ("Civilianised" meant that all the armaments and unnecessary guns and turrets had been removed, a legal requirement for operating a commercial civilian service to a neutral country). The much faster civilian registered de Havilland Mosquitoes were introduced by BOAC in 1943. The significance of the ball-bearings is debatable, but these night flights were an important diplomatic gesture of support for neutral Sweden which had two DC-3s shot down on its own service to Britain. Other types used to Sweden included Lockheed Lodestars, Consolidated Liberators, and the sole Curtiss CW-20 (C-46 prototype) which BOAC had purchased; these types had more payload, and some had the range to avoid the German-controlled Skagerrak direct route.


title: British Overseas Airways Corporation

text: At the end of the war, BOAC's fleet consisted of Lockheed Lodestars, lend-lease Douglas DC-3s, Liberators, converted Sunderlands, and the first Avro Lancastrians, Avro Yorks, and Handley Page Haltons. The Short Empire, Short S.26 and Boeing 314A flying boats, plus the AW Ensigns, were due to be withdrawn. The corporation's aircraft, bases and personnel were scattered around the world, and it took a decade to reorganise it into an efficient unit at Heathrow. In 1943, the Brabazon Committee had laid down a set of civil aircraft transport types for the British aircraft industry to produce, but these were to be several years in coming, and particularly in the case of the tailwheel Avro Tudor, not what BOAC wanted.


title: British Overseas Airways Corporation

text: Since 1941, the advanced pressurised Lockheed Constellation had been under development, and in 1946 BOAC was permitted to use dollars to purchase an initial fleet of five for the prestigious North Atlantic route (there were no equivalent British types available). Throughout the whole of BOAC's existence, the argument over buying American or (often delayed) British products continued, and Parliament, the press, British manufacturers and the unions accused BOAC management of only wanting American aircraft. Whilst the major world airlines abandoned flying-boats at the end of WWII, BOAC continued with theirs until 1950, and even introduced the new Short Solent on the leisurely Nile route to South Africa. In 1948, the unpressurised Yorks were still operating passenger services as far afield as Nairobi (Kenya), Accra (Gold Coast, later Ghana), Delhi and Calcutta (India), and the type continued to operate freight schedules until late 1957.


title: British Overseas Airways Corporation

text: After its first six Lockheed 049 Constellations, BOAC had to use some ingenuity to increase its Constellation fleet. In 1947, Aerlínte Éireann in Ireland bought five new Lockheed 749 Constellations, and prepared to launch a transatlantic service with assistance and crew-training from Captains O. P. Jones and J. C. Kelly-Rogers of BOAC. The project was abandoned in February 1948, and BOAC were able to buy the almost new 749s without dollar expenditure four months later. This enabled BOAC to serve Australia with Constellations from 1949. A total of 25 Constellations passed through the BOAC fleet, including 12 749As obtained from Capital Airlines in the mid-1950s, with BOAC's older 049s in part exchange.


title: British Overseas Airways Corporation

text: BOAC was also permitted to spend dollars on six new Boeing 377 Stratocruisers for its key transatlantic routes from October 1949, offering a double-deck non-stop eastbound service from New York City to London Airport (later Heathrow). However, because of the prevailing westerly winds, the westbound flights needed re-fuelling at Shannon and Gander before reaching New York. Another four Stratocruisers were taken over from a frustrated SAS order and seven were bought secondhand in the mid-1950s. The Handley Page Hermes and Canadair DC-4M "Argonaut" joined the BOAC fleet between 1949 and 1950, replacing the last of the non-pressurised types on passenger services. When service entry of the Bristol Britannia was delayed in late 1956, BOAC was permitted to purchase ten new Douglas DC-7Cs. These long-range aircraft enabled BOAC to operate non-stop westbound flights from London and Manchester to New York and other US East Coast destinations, in competition with DC-7Cs of Pan Am and Lockheed Super Constellations of Trans World Airlines (TWA). This was the first purchase of aircraft direct from the Douglas Aircraft Company in BOAC's history.


title: British Overseas Airways Corporation

text: In May 1952 BOAC was the first airline to introduce a passenger jet into airline service. This was the de Havilland Comet which flew via Nairobi to Johannesburg and via the Far East to Tokyo. All Comet 1 aircraft were grounded in April 1954 after four Comets crashed, the second last being a BOAC aircraft at altitude. Examination of the wreckage recovered from the Mediterranean sea-bed and observation of a sample fuselage in a pressurisation test-tank at Farnborough revealed that the repeated pressurisation / depressurisation cycles of airline operation could cause fatigue cracks in the thin aluminium alloy skin of the Comet leading to the skins ripping away explosively at altitude and disintegration of the aircraft.


title: British Overseas Airways Corporation

text: Later jet airliners including the revised Comet 4 were designed to be fail-safe: in the event of, for example, a skin-failure due to cracking the damage would be localised and not catastrophic. In October 1958 BOAC operated the first transatlantic jet service with the larger and longer-range Comet 4. In the 1950s turbine powered airliners were developing rapidly, and the Comet and the seriously delayed Bristol Britannia were soon rendered obsolescent by the flight of the swept-wing Boeing 367–80 (707 prototype) in 1954.