title: Merida (Brave)

text: Merida has long, wild, curly, red hair, blue eyes, pale skin and a slender body. Her main outfit is a dark teal-emerald green traditional gown, made of wool, with stylish slits for movement during archery. When the Lords arrive for the games, she is dressed in a Medieval-style turquoise silk gown with long arms, gold trimmings, and gold beading, teamed with a white wimple and crown to hold in her hair. She also appears in scenes wearing a navy/black cape with a gold buckle. Merida's bow is slung onto her back, over her shoulder, with arrows in a brown leather quiver around her waist. In the final scene, Merida is seen wearing a dark blue gown with light green patterns.


title: Merida (Brave)

text: Merida appeared as the main character in the "endless running" video game, "Temple Run: Brave", a spinoff of the game "Temple Run". The game was released on June 14, 2012, a week before the movie was released. Merida & her father King Fergus are the only playable characters in the game. The developers of the game, Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova noted, "We definitely had some surreal moments while working with them. They're Pixar! They do such a fantastic job of appealing to young audiences as well as adults. Their movies always span the whole range of emotions, from happiness to sadness, to everything in-between. Working with them, I think there was a couple of times where we just had to pinch ourselves and, you know, ask is this really happening?" The game received positive reviews from critics.


title: Merida (Brave)

text: MacDonald reprised the role as Merida for the video game version of the film. Merida is also a playable character in "Disney Infinity 2.0", "Lego The Incredibles", and "Disney Magic Kingdoms".


title: Merida (Brave)

text: Merida appears in young adult novel Bravely written by author Maggie Stiefvater, published by Disney Press on 3 May, 2022. The story picks up a year after events of Brave where DunBroch is about to be demolished by god of destruction, Feradach, while the ancient entity of creation known as Cailleach informs Merida about a way to save her people.


title: Merida (Brave)

text: Merida is a very common character to meet and greet at the various Disney parks and can usually be found in Fantasyland. At Disneyland Park, she meets guests near the It's a Small World attraction near a gate used as a parade terminus. She is also seen sometimes at the World Showcase in Epcot.


title: Merida (Brave)

text: In 2016, Merida would begin meet-and-greet sessions at Hong Kong Disneyland, as part of the park's 10th anniversary celebration.


title: Merida (Brave)

text: On July 11, 2015, the producers of "Once Upon a Time" announced that Merida will be a recurring character in the series' fifth season. Scottish actress Amy Manson was cast as Merida.


title: Merida (Brave)

text: In episode 6 "The Bear and the Bow", Merida rescues her brothers with the help of Belle. In episode 9, "The Bear King", Merida is revealed to have been tutored in the finer points of combat by Mulan and later teamed up with Mulan and Ruby against King Arthur and Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West on the eve of her coronation as DunBroch's queen, Fergus having been killed by Arthur a few years earlier.


title: Merida (Brave)

text: Merida appears in the third-season episode "The Secret Library," where she's called to aid Sofia via the amulet of Avalor.


title: Merida (Brave)

text: Merida appeared in the film "Ralph Breaks the Internet" alongside other Disney princesses, as was announced at the 2017 D23 Expo, with Kelly Macdonald reprising her role. The other princesses did not understand her as “she’s from the other studio”.


title: Merida (Brave)

text: The character of Merida has been well received by critics, as well as Macdonald's performance. The decision of Pixar to introduce a lead female heroine was praised by "The Guardian". "Empire" described Merida as "feisty" and as "a modern girl in an ancient world." Merida was included on CNN's list of "Top Female Animated Heroines". She has been described as "a fairy-tale feminist", and has been praised for not needing to be rescued by a male love interest. She has been noted and applauded by feminists and critics for not needing a love interest. "Entertainment Weekly" called Merida, "A spunky Scottish princess with wild red hair, and clearly a lass built to entertain the audience for "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games"." Critics have also noted Merida's hair and how it is symbolic of her wild and independent spirit. "Entertainment Weekly" also referred to Merida as a "headstrong heroine".


title: Merida (Brave)

text: "Ophelia's Place", a charity dedicated to helping young girls, celebrated Merida for being a body image role model. The organization noted that, "Merida exemplifies strength in women because she is brave and independent. She isn’t the typical Disney princess or damsel-in-distress as portrayed by many female characters throughout children’s films." "Time", however, criticized the movie and Merida for not fully embracing the concept of female empowerment. Author of the piece, Mary Pols also harshly criticized Pixar for firing Chapman, their first female director, halfway through production and for making Merida a traditional princess.


title: Merida (Brave)

text: In May 2013, Disney released a traditional animation-style redesign of Merida in preparation for her coronation as Disney's 11th princess. The redesign of the character featured a slimmer waist, more revealing neckline, larger eyes and a sparkly dress. Feminist groups criticized the makeover for allegedly disempowering Merida, sparking outrage from mothers and feminist groups who saw the new Merida as "an overly sexualized pin-up version of her former self." Critics were also very critical of the makeover, saying it turned Merida into "just another princess". Creator and co-director Brenda Chapman fiercely criticized the change, calling it 'atrocious' and added that "Merida was created to break that mould." A Change.org petition was created to protest the Merida redesign, with female empowerment website "A Mighty Girl" arguing that "by making her skinnier, sexier and more mature in appearance, you are sending a message to girls that the original... version of Merida is inferior; that for girls and women to have value... they must conform to a narrow definition of beauty." The petition received over 20,000 signatures in seven days.


title: Merida (Brave)

text: Shortly after the petition appeared, Disney removed the redesigned image from their official website, in favor of Merida's original film appearance. Disney later clarified the situation, assuring that Merida would remain in her original form. Disney also released the statement, "The artwork used on Merida’s official social media sites has always been the imagery from the movie – there have been no changes. We routinely use different art styles with our characters and this rendition of Merida in her party dress was a special one-time effort to commemorate her coronation. Merida exemplifies what it means to be a Disney Princess through being brave, passionate and confident and she remains the same strong and determined Merida from the movie whose inner qualities have inspired moms and daughters around the world."


title: Merida (Brave)

text: Disney would later release 2D artworks of Merida that have a closer resemblance to her original form.


title: Bruno Mars discography

text: American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars has released three studio albums, one collaborative studio album, one EP, 30 singles (seven as a featured artist) and four promotional singles. With estimated sales of over 26 million albums and 200 million singles worldwide, Mars is one of the best-selling artists of all time. Six of his singles are among the best-selling singles of all time: in order of release date, "Just the Way You Are", "Grenade", "The Lazy Song", "When I Was Your Man", "Uptown Funk" and "That's What I Like". According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), he has sold 91.5 million copies in the United States. His first two albums have sold 5.04 million copies in the US alone. In 2012, Mars was named 2011's best selling music artist worldwide. In 2022, he became the first artist to receive six diamond certified songs in the United States.


title: Bruno Mars discography

text: After he signed with Atlantic Records in 2009, he composed (as part of production group the Smeezingtons) and sang guest vocals on the debut singles of American rappers B.o.B ("Nothin' on You") (2009) and Travie McCoy ("Billionaire") (2010). Both singles topped the Netherlands' singles chart, while the former also peaked at number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and in the United Kingdom. That year Mars released his debut album "Doo-Wops & Hooligans". Its singles "Just the Way You Are" and "Grenade" topped the charts in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK, and have been certified 13 times platinum and diamond, respectively, by the RIAA. They were both certified seven and six times platinum, respectively, by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), with the former being certified diamond and the latter six times platinum by Music Canada (MC). "The Lazy Song" topped the charts in Denmark and the UK and was certified seven times platinum by the RIAA. "Doo-Wops & Hooligans" topped the charts in Canada, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, and the UK.


title: Bruno Mars discography

text: In 2011, Mars recorded "It Will Rain" for the of "" and appeared on a number of collaborative singles, including "Young, Wild & Free" by Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa, which was certified six times platinum by the RIAA. Mars's second album, "Unorthodox Jukebox" (2012), reached number one in the US, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, and the UK. The album's first two singles, "Locked Out of Heaven", certified diamond by the RIAA and seven times by ARIA, and "When I Was Your Man", certified eleven times platinum by the RIAA, six times platinum by ARIA and nine times platinum by MC, topped the "Billboard" Hot 100. In 2014, Mars provided vocals on Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk", which topped the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and UK music charts. It was certified 11 times platinum by the RIAA, 22 times platinum by the ARIA and diamond by MC.


title: Bruno Mars discography

text: His third studio album, "24K Magic" (2016) peaked within the top five in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK. It spawned the internationally successful singles "24K Magic", "That's What I Like" and "Finesse", with "24K Magic" reaching number-one in New Zealand and being certified six times platinum by MC. "That's What I Like" topped the charts in the United States and was certified diamond by the RIAA and seven times platinum by MC. In 2021, Mars and Anderson .Paak, as Silk Sonic, released the collaborative album "An Evening with Silk Sonic". The album reached the top five in the US, Australia, Canada, Denmark and New Zealand. Two of its singles, "Leave the Door Open" and "Smokin out the Window", both reached the top ten on several charts with the former peaking at number one in the United States and New Zealand.


title: Fontainebleau

text: Fontainebleau (; ) is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the "arrondissement" of Fontainebleau. The commune has the largest land area in the Île-de-France region; it is the only one to cover a larger area than Paris itself. The commune is closest to Seine-et-Marne Prefecture, Melun.


title: Fontainebleau

text: Fontainebleau, together with the neighbouring commune of Avon and three other smaller communes, form an urban area of 36,724 inhabitants (2018). This urban area is a satellite of Paris.


title: Fontainebleau

text: Fontainebleau is renowned for the large and scenic forest of Fontainebleau, a favourite weekend getaway for Parisians, as well as for the historic Château de Fontainebleau, which once belonged to the kings of France. It is also the home of INSEAD, one of the world's most elite business schools.


title: Fontainebleau

text: Fontainebleau was recorded in the Latinised forms "Fons Bleaudi", "Fons Bliaudi", and "Fons Blaadi" in the 12th and 13th centuries, as "Fontem blahaud" in 1137, as "Fontaine belle eau" (folk etymology "fountain of beautiful water") in the 16th century, as "Fontainebleau" and "Fontaine belle eau" in 1630, and as the invented, fanciful Latin "Fons Bellaqueus" in the 17th century, which is the origin of the fanciful name "Bellifontains" of the inhabitants. Contrary to the folk etymology, the name comes from the medieval compound noun of "fontaine", meaning spring (fountainhead) and fountain, and "blitwald", consisting of the Germanic personal name Blit and the Germanic word for forest.


title: Fontainebleau

text: This hamlet was endowed with a royal hunting lodge and a chapel by Louis VII in the middle of the twelfth century. A century later, Louis IX, also called Saint Louis, who held Fontainebleau in high esteem and referred to it as "his wilderness", had a country house and a hospital constructed there.


title: Fontainebleau

text: Philip the Fair was born there in 1268 and died there in 1314. In all, thirty-four sovereigns, from Louis VI, the Fat, (1081–1137) to Napoleon III (1808–1873), spent time at Fontainebleau.


title: Fontainebleau

text: The connection between the town of Fontainebleau and the French monarchy was reinforced with the transformation of the royal country house into a true royal palace, the Palace of Fontainebleau. This was accomplished by the great builder-king, Francis I (1494–1547), who, in the largest of his many construction projects, reconstructed, expanded, and transformed the royal château at Fontainebleau into a residence that became his favourite, as well as the residence of his mistress, Anne, duchess of Étampes.


title: Fontainebleau

text: From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, every monarch, from Francis I to Louis XV, made important renovations at the Palace of Fontainebleau, including demolitions, reconstructions, additions, and embellishments of various descriptions, all of which endowed it with a character that is a bit heterogeneous, but harmonious nonetheless.


title: Fontainebleau

text: On 18 October 1685, Louis XIV signed the "Edict of Fontainebleau" there. Also known as the "Revocation of the Edict of Nantes", this royal fiat reversed the permission granted to the Huguenots in 1598 to worship publicly in specified locations and hold certain other privileges. The result was that a large number of Protestants were forced to convert to the Catholic faith, killed, or forced into exile, mainly in the Low Countries, Prussia and in England.


title: Fontainebleau

text: The 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau, a secret agreement between France and Spain concerning the Louisiana territory in North America, was concluded here. Also, preliminary negotiations, held before the 1763 Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Seven Years' War, were at Fontainebleau.


title: Fontainebleau

text: During the French Revolution, Fontainebleau was temporarily renamed Fontaine-la-Montagne, meaning "Fountain by the Mountain". (The mountain referred to is the series of rocky formations located in the forest of Fontainebleau.)


title: Fontainebleau

text: On 29 October 1807, Manuel Godoy, chancellor to the Spanish king, Charles IV and Napoleon signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau, which authorized the passage of French troops through Spanish territories so that they might invade Portugal.


title: Fontainebleau

text: On 20 June 1812, Pope Pius VII arrived at the château of Fontainebleau, after a secret transfer from Savona, accompanied by his personal physician, Balthazard Claraz. In poor health, the Pope was the prisoner of Napoleon, and he remained in his genteel prison at Fontainebleau for nineteen months. From June 1812 until 23 January 1814, the Pope never left his apartments.


title: Fontainebleau

text: On 20 April 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte, shortly before his first abdication, bid farewell to the Old Guard, the renowned "grognards" (gripers) who had served with him since his first campaigns, in the "White Horse Courtyard" (la cour du Cheval Blanc) at the Palace of Fontainebleau. (The courtyard has since been renamed the "Courtyard of Goodbyes".) According to contemporary sources, the occasion was very moving. The 1814 Treaty of Fontainebleau stripped Napoleon of his powers (but not his title as Emperor of the French) and sent him into exile on Elba.


title: Fontainebleau

text: Until the 19th century, Fontainebleau was a village and a suburb of Avon. Later, it developed as an independent residential city.


title: Fontainebleau

text: For the 1924 Summer Olympics, the town played host to the riding portion of the modern pentathlon event. This event took place near a golf course.


title: Fontainebleau

text: In July and August 1946, the town hosted the Franco-Vietnamese Conference, intended to find a solution to the long-contested struggle for Vietnam's independence from France, but the conference ended in failure.


title: Fontainebleau

text: Fontainebleau also hosted the general staff of the Allied Forces in Central Europe (Allied Forces Center or AFCENT) and the land forces command (LANDCENT); the air forces command (AIRCENT) was located nearby at Camp Guynemer. These facilities were in place from the inception of NATO until France's partial withdrawal from NATO in 1967 when the United States returned those bases to French control. NATO moved AFCENT to Brunssum in the Netherlands and AIRCENT to Ramstein in West Germany. (Note that the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, also known as SHAPE, was located at Rocquencourt, west of Paris, quite a distance from Fontainebleau).


title: Fontainebleau

text: In 2008, the men's World Championship of Real Tennis (Jeu de Paume) was held in the tennis court of the Chateau. The real tennis World Championship is the oldest in sport and Fontainebleau has one of only two active courts in France.


title: Fontainebleau

text: Fontainebleau is a popular tourist destination; each year, 300,000 people visit the palace and more than 13 million people visit the forest.


title: Fontainebleau

text: The forest of Fontainebleau surrounds the town and dozens of nearby villages. It is protected by France's "Office National des Forêts", and it is recognised as a French national park. It is managed in order that its wild plants and trees, such as the rare service tree of Fontainebleau, and its populations of birds, mammals, and butterflies, can be conserved. It is a former royal hunting park often visited by hikers and horse riders. The forest is also well regarded for bouldering and is particularly popular among climbers, as it is the biggest developed area of that kind in the world.


title: Fontainebleau

text: The Royal Château de Fontainebleau is a large palace where the kings of France took their ease. It is also the site where the French royal court, from 1528 onwards, entertained the body of new ideas that became known as the Renaissance.


title: Fontainebleau

text: The European (and historic) campus of the INSEAD business school is located at the edge of Fontainebleau, by the Lycee Francois Couperin. INSEAD students live in local accommodations around the Fontainebleau area, and especially in the surrounding towns.


title: Fontainebleau

text: Fontainebleau is served by two stations on the Transilien Paris–Lyon rail line: Fontainebleau–Avon and Thomery. Fontainebleau–Avon station, the station closest to the centre of Fontainebleau, is located near the dividing-line between the commune of Fontainebleau and the commune of Avon, on the Avon side of the border.


title: IO Interactive

text: IO Interactive A/S (IOI) is a Danish video game developer based in Copenhagen, best known for creating and developing the "Hitman" and "Kane and Lynch" franchises. IO Interactive's most recent game is "Hitman 3", which was released in January 2021.


title: IO Interactive

text: The company was founded in September 1998 as a joint venture between the seven-man development team of Reto-Moto and film studio Nordisk Film. IO Interactive was acquired by publisher Eidos Interactive for in March 2004, which saw itself acquired by Square Enix and renamed as Square Enix Europe in 2009. In May 2017, Square Enix ceased funding for IO Interactive and started seeking a buyer for the studio. IO Interactive performed a management buyout in June 2017, becoming independent and regaining the rights to their "Hitman" and "Freedom Fighters" franchises. IO Interactive employs 200 people as of January 2021 and operates two subsidiary studios: IOI Malmö in Malmö, Sweden; and IOI Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain.


title: IO Interactive

text: In 1997, Reto-Moto was founded as a video game developer in Copenhagen. Before the studio finished any games, they struck a partnership with Danish film studio Nordisk Film in 1998 that would lead to the creation of a developer jointly owned by the two companies. The resulting company, IO Interactive, was established on 16 September 1998, with Reto-Moto's seven employees—Jesper Vorsholt Jørgensen, Rasmus Guldberg-Kjær, Martin Munk Pollas, Karsten Lemann Hvidberg, Jacob Andersen, Janos Flösser, and David Guldbrandsen—serving as the founders and initial staff of IO Interactive. Nordisk Film and the seven founders each held a 50% stake in the venture. By March 2004, Nordisk Film owned 40.3% in IO Interactive.


title: IO Interactive

text: Early on, IO Interactive conceptualised a fantasy massively multiplayer online game (MMO) entitled "Rex Dominus", however, Nordisk Film staff asked the development team to cease production on "Rex Dominus" and "test [themselves]" by developing a "simple shooter" instead. As such, the team opted for a run-and-gun action game, as it took less time to develop compared to an MMO, drawing inspiration from John Woo films, such as "Hard Boiled" and "The Killer". They turned to develop for personal computers (PCs), because they were unable to acquire development kits for consoles, and had also found interest in the steady increase of PCs' 3D graphics capabilities.


title: IO Interactive

text: A part of the development on the game, which would later become "", was the creation of the Glacier, the studio's proprietary game engine that fit their needs; co-founder Andersen stated: "Since killing was the main theme of the game, we wanted to do something special. [...] Standard 'death animations' just looked too static so some of the coders tried to see if they could use real-time inverse kinematics for the falling bodies. The first versions ran terribly slowly until one of the programmers figured out a way to fake the whole calculation." This led to the first use of advanced ragdoll physics in a video game. This physics system caught the eyes of British publisher Eidos Interactive, and especially staff member Jonas Eneroth, who thought that the system could greatly benefit "Codename 47" gameplay. Following six months of negotiations, a publishing deal was signed between IO Interactive and Eidos Interactive. Eneroth became executive producer on the project.


title: IO Interactive

text: As executive producer, Eneroth encouraged the development team to stray away from the run-and-gun gameplay, and instead focus on a "methodical experience", including dragging dead bodies around the scene to create tension. He had previously worked on "Deus Ex" and "", which had heavily exposed him to the stealth game mechanics he wished to see in "Codename 47". The game was released on 19 November 2000, with reception mixed due to the difficulty of the game.


title: IO Interactive

text: In October 2001, Eidos Interactive announced "", a sequel to "Codename 47". Following a slight delay in March 2002, it was released in October 2002, this time for Microsoft Windows, as well as PlayStation 2 and Xbox. To more easily overcome the challenge of bringing the game to consoles, IO Interactive grew "considerably" in headcount. The game was received well by critics; according to Greg Kasavin in his review for "GameSpot", ""Hitman 2" fixes virtually all of the problems of its predecessor". The success of "Silent Assassin" came as a surprise to the team, and was swiftly followed up with by porting the game to GameCube the following year.


title: IO Interactive

text: In 2003, IO Interactive decided to open a Hungarian offshoot, named IO Interactive Hungary. To properly establish the studio, 50 Hungarian staff were hired and brought to the company's Copenhagen headquarters for a six-month training programme. However, after the training had been finished, IO Interactive realised that there were 50 people with talent but no leadership that could guide them when in Hungary. Instead of fulfilling the Hungarian subsidiary, IO Interactive opted to offer all 50 people jobs at their headquarters, to which most of them agreed. In October that year, Electronic Arts released "Freedom Fighters", an IO Interactive-developed third-person shooter which was previously announced as "Freedom: The Battle for Liberty Island" in May 2002. Although a sequel to "Freedom Fighters" has been anticipated, IO Interactive has been unable to comment on whether such a game was in development.


title: IO Interactive

text: On 3 March 2004, Eidos Interactive announced that they were acquiring IO Interactive for in cash and stock, plus another linked to the studio's performance in the following four years. The deal closed on 31 March that year. At the time, IO Interactive was Europe's 10th largest video game developer, with 140 staff members employed at their offices. The sale was primarily negotiated by founding member Flösser.


title: IO Interactive

text: The first game to release under Eidos Interactive's management was "", the third game in the "Hitman" franchise, which was announced and released in April that year. The game was developed in about nine months, from concept stage to console submission, but was under the influence of "crunch time" throughout the entire development. "Contracts" received positive reception. The next game, "", was announced shortly afterwards, in November 2004. Released in May 2006, the game was praised by critics and retrospectively multiply referred to as the best game in the "Hitman" series.


title: IO Interactive

text: IO Interactive announced their next game, "", in August 2006. Unlike their "Hitman" games, "Kane & Lynch: Dead Men" played as a linear, cooperative gameplay-focused third-person shooter, as opposed to "Hitman" sandbox solo stealth gameplay. Released in November 2007, the game gained mixed reviews, wherein some reviewers felt like the game had a disconnect with modern gameplay styles. On 11 April 2008, four of IO Interactive's co-founders, Vorsholt Jørgensen, Pollas, Andersen and Guldbrandsen, announced that they had, together with former Eidos Interactive executive producer Neil Donnell, reformed Reto-Moto as an active developer. Guldbrandsen and Donnell became chief technology officer and chief executive officer, respectively. Six further IO Interactive employees followed to Reto-Moto in December that year. Co-founder and at the time managing director Flösser left the company in April 2008, and was succeeded by Niels Jørgensen, who had joined the company in 2002.


title: IO Interactive

text: In January 2009, Eidos Interactive announced IO Interactive-developed "Mini Ninjas", a family-friendly game, as opposed to all of the studio's previous titles. Jørgensen explained that, using "Mini Ninjas", the studio wanted to reach a broader demographic in the gaming market. Shortly after the announcement of "Mini Ninjas", in April 2009, Eidos Interactive was acquired by Japanese video game conglomerate Square Enix for . Eidos Interactive was reorganised over the course of 2009 and became known as Square Enix Europe in November that year. Square Enix Europe continued to oversee their previously owned development studios, including IO Interactive. Speaking for IO Interactive, Karsten Lund stated that the studio experienced "no loss of freedom" following the buyout.


title: IO Interactive

text: A sequel to "Kane & Lynch: Dead Men", titled "", was announced in November 2009, and released in August 2010. Critics found that most elements in the game had deliberately been made "ugly" to better fit into the well-told story of the game. In a November 2009 interview with gaming website "Gamasutra", Jørgensen revealed that, due to the high costs associated with living in Scandinavia, much of the company's graphic department had been outsourced to Shanghai. The Chinese office had been set up by two Danish representatives from IO Interactive, with one Dane permanently residing in Shanghai to look over the outsourcing progress. In March 2010, 35 of previously 200 employees were let go from the company. A further 30 people were laid off in November that year, supposedly due to the cancellation of a project that was in development for Microsoft.


title: IO Interactive

text: In May 2011, IO Interactive and Square Enix announced that they would be returning to the "Hitman" franchise through a new entry, "". A spin-off demo, "", was released in May 2012. "Absolution" was released in November that year, and, like "Blood Money", saw highly positive reception from critics. However, many fans of the series, including the developers at IO Interactive, felt like "Absolution" was leaning too far into the mainstream, as a result of which they were losing their core player base. In February 2012, Square Enix opened a new Copenhagen office under the IO Interactive name. The following March, this new office was announced to be Hapti.co, a subsidiary studio focused on mobile games. Hapti.co was sold to Wargaming Mobile, the mobile games division of publisher Wargaming, in September 2017, and was renamed as Wargaming Copenhagen.


title: IO Interactive

text: In June 2013, 70 staff members, half of IO Interactive's workforce at the time, were made redundant due to "internal adjustments to face the challenges of today's market". Square Enix announced that, from that point on, IO Interactive would exclusively focus on the development of new entries in the "Hitman" franchise. At the same time, Hannes Seifert, who for the past three years had held the position of production director at IO Interactive, took over the company's management as studio head. At a June 2015 press conference, Sony announced that a new game in the "Hitman" series, simply titled "Hitman", had been slated for a December 2015 release. The game was shortly delayed to March 2016, and later announced to be released in an episodic model. As such, starting in March 2016, the first season for the game was released through six episodes, the last of which was released in October 2016. Around the same time, Ryan Barnard, previously director of the game "The Division", left Massive Entertainment to join IO Interactive. At the time, IO Interactive had 170 employees, and was the largest video game developer in Denmark.


title: IO Interactive

text: Seifert announced in February 2017 that he had left IO Interactive to return to his home country of Austria to pursue an unannounced project. Hakan B. Abrak, also formerly production director for the studio, took over his duties, becoming chief executive officer.


title: IO Interactive

text: In May 2017, Square Enix announced that they had withdrawn funding from IO Interactive and would begin negotiating with potential investors that would want to purchase the studio. Several jobs were cut at IO Interactive shortly following that announcement. On 16 June 2017, IO Interactive announced that it had performed a management buyout, as a result of which they became independent. Square Enix retained a minor financial stake in IO Interactive. The buyout also included the intellectual property (IP) for "Hitman" and "Freedom Fighters", but lacked that of "Kane & Lynch" and "Mini Ninjas". Yosuke Matsuda, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix at the time, stated that the company's decision to divest itself of IO Interactive, alongside "Hitman", was made because they felt like the series needed to go on, but would be in better hands with another partner or with IO Interactive itself. IO Interactive's associate director, Eskil Mohl, said that, when Square Enix decided to withdraw from the studio, they were already working on "Hitman 2", and the job cuts were a necessary step to make sure that the studio would remain viable without Square Enix's backing; Mohl felt that this helped harden the studio to make "Hitman 2" a stronger game.


title: IO Interactive

text: IO Interactive confirmed shortly after the split that all profits from 2016's "Hitman" would from that point go directly to the studio. In August that year, the studio confirmed that another "Hitman" game was in development. In April 2018, IO Interactive partnered with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) to distribute a "Definitive Edition" of 2016's "Hitman", which was released in the following month. In June 2018, IO Interactive announced "Hitman 2". Unlike 2016's "Hitman", "Hitman 2" does not feature an episodic release format. Published by WBIE, "Hitman 2" was released in November that year. On 16 January 2019, IO Interactive opened a subsidiary studio, IOI Malmö, in Malmö, Sweden. IO Interactive continued its partnership with WBIE and, by October 2019, had turned it into a multi-IP deal.


title: IO Interactive

text: In June 2020, IO Interactive announced "Hitman 3", the conclusion to their World of Assassination trilogy, which was released on 20 January 2021 for Windows computers and current and next-gen consoles, with IO publishing the game themselves.


title: IO Interactive

text: In November 2020, the company announced "Project 007", an original "James Bond" video game, working closely with licensors MGM and Eon Productions. IO studio director Hakan Abrak said they had spent about two years in preparing a pitch to the "Bond" license holders, knowing that the current rights holders, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson were dissatisfied with the amount of violence in past "Bond" video games. IO's Bond will be a wholly original character and not use any of the film actors' likenesses, and Abrak anticipates that this game would be the start of a trilogy of "Bond" games. Abrak expected that the game would require them to double their current staff of 200 employees to 400 by the time the first "Bond" game is released.


title: IO Interactive

text: IOI Barcelona, based in Barcelona, Spain, was announced in April 2021. The studio is to assist IOI on its active projects, including "Hitman" and "Project 007" game.


title: IO Interactive

text: Glacier is a proprietary in-house game engine developed for the "Hitman" series, "Freedom Fighters", the "" series and "Mini Ninjas". Glacier supports DLSS, XeSS and FSR simultaneously. The engine supports ray tracing in "Hitman 3". Square Enix licensed Glacier for their own in-house engine, Dawn Engine.


title: Scrimshaw

text: Scrimshaw is scrollwork, engravings, and carvings done in bone or ivory. Typically it refers to the artwork created by whalers, engraved on the byproducts of whales, such as bones or cartilage. It is most commonly made out of the bones and teeth of sperm whales, the baleen of other whales, and the tusks of walruses.


title: Scrimshaw

text: It takes the form of elaborate engravings in the form of pictures and lettering on the surface of the bone or tooth, with the engraving highlighted using a pigment, or, less often, small sculptures made from the same material. However, the latter really fall into the categories of ivory carving, for all carved teeth and tusks, or bone carving. The making of scrimshaw probably began on whaling ships in the late 18th century and survived until the ban on commercial whaling. The practice survives as a hobby and as a trade for commercial artisans. A maker of scrimshaw is known as a "scrimshander". The word first appeared in the logbook of the brig "By Chance" in 1826, but the etymology is uncertain.


title: Scrimshaw

text: Scrimshaw developed from the practice of sailors on whaling ships creating common tools, where the byproducts of whales were readily available. The term originally referred to the making of these tools, only later referring to works of art created by whalers in their spare time. Whale bone was ideally suited for the task, as it is easy to work and was plentiful.


title: Scrimshaw

text: The widespread carving of scrimshaw was enabled when the 1815 publication of the journal of U.S. Navy Captain David Porter disclosed both the market and the source of the whale teeth, causing a surplus of whale teeth that greatly diminished their value and made them available as a material for ordinary seamen. Around this time is the earliest authenticated pictorial piece of sperm whale scrimshaw (1817). The tooth was inscribed: "This is the tooth of a sperm whale that was caught near the Galápagos Islands by the crew of the ship Adam [of London], and made 100 barrels of oil in the year 1817."


title: Scrimshaw

text: Other sea animal ivories were used as alternatives to the rarer whale teeth. Walrus tusks, for example, may have been acquired in trade from indigenous walrus hunters.


title: Scrimshaw

text: Scrimshaw was a leisure activity for creative whalers. Because the work of whaling was very dangerous at the best of times, whalers were unable to work at night. This gave them a great deal more free time than other sailors. A lot of scrimshaw was unsigned, and a great many of the pieces are anonymous. Early scrimshaw was done with crude sailing needles, and the movement of the ship, as well as the skill of the artist, produced drawings of varying levels of detail and artistry. Originally, candle black, soot or tobacco juice would have been used to bring the etched design into view. Also, ink was used that the sailors would bring on before the voyage. Today's artists use finer tools in various sizes, mostly borrowed from the dental industry. Some scrimshanders ink their work with more than one color, and restrained polychromed examples of this art are now popular.


title: Scrimshaw

text: Originating in an era when sperm whales were plentiful, only to be hunted to near collapse, scrimshaw is no longer an artform utilizing an easily renewable animal resource, but one that is susceptible to contraband. The Endangered Species Act and international conventions restricted the harvest and sale of ivory in an effort to bolster populations of ivory-bearing animals.


title: Scrimshaw

text: Scrimshanders and collectors acquire legal whale teeth and marine tusks through estate sales, auctions and antique dealers. To avoid illegal ivory, collectors and artists check provenance and deal only with established and reputable dealers. Scrimshaw that is found to have been illegally sourced may be seized by customs officials worldwide, dramatically loses value and is very hard to re-sell, as the limited channels through which collectible scrimshaw passes serves as a check on unscrupulous persons. As with any other fine art form, it is possible for experienced museums, auction houses or other experts to detect a fake.


title: Scrimshaw

text: Scrimshaw can also be practical tools that are hand carved by the scrimshander. They carved useful tools such as the jagging wheel. which is a multi-purpose tool used to pierce and trim a pie crust. Corset busks were carved from bone or ivory.


title: Scrimshaw

text: Ivory is a fragile medium; many 19th-century pieces were preserved because they were kept in a barrel of oil on board ship. Gary Kiracofe, a scrimshander in Nantucket, Massachusetts, advises collectors that if a piece looks dry, one should fill the center of the tooth with unscented baby oil and allow it to remain until as much oil as possible is soaked into the microscopic pores of the ivory. Clear paste wax or high-end car wax will seal the surface after oiling. Bone items are even more fragile (more fibrous and porous) and may be treated the same way: with a light clear mineral oil. Organic oils are inadvisable, as they will eventually hasten discoloration, as on old piano keys subjected to the natural oils in one's hands.


title: Scrimshaw

text: Professional conservators of art and historic artifacts generally recommend against applying any type of dressing (like oil or wax) to organic objects such as whale ivory. Sensible choices regarding storage and display preserve whale ivory best: keep out of direct sunlight, handle with cotton gloves or freshly washed hands, and avoid keeping in places with shifting humidity and temperature. Coating organic objects can induce eventual cracking.


title: Scrimshaw

text: Whale teeth and bones were a highly variable medium, used to produce both practical pieces, such as hand tools, toys and kitchen utensils, and highly decorative pieces, which were purely ornamental. The designs on the pieces varied greatly as well, though they often had whaling scenes on them. For example, Herman Melville, in "Moby-Dick", refers to "lively sketches of whales and whaling-scenes, graven by the fishermen themselves on Sperm Whale-teeth, or ladies' busks wrought out of the Right Whale-bone, and other skrimshander articles". Most engravings were adapted from books and papers.


title: Scrimshaw

text: A significant amount of the original scrimshaw created by whalers is currently held by museums. Museums with significant collections include:


title: Scrimshaw

text: While scrimshaw artists rarely use whale bone anymore, it is still employed by a few. Common modern materials are micarta, ivory (elephant, fossil, walrus), hippo tusk, warthog ivory, buffalo horn, giraffe bone, mother of pearl, and camel bone. Modern scrimshaw typically retains the nautical themes of historical scrimshaw, but can also extend well beyond the traditional motifs.


title: Scrimshaw

text: Contemporary trade and carving techniques have led to more advanced, but fewer unique scrimshaw carvings. Collectors are advised to be aware of fakes.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: The Castle of Otranto is a novel by Horace Walpole. First published in 1764, it is generally regarded as the first gothic novel. In the second edition, Walpole applied the word 'Gothic' to the novel in the subtitle – A Gothic Story. Set in a haunted castle, the novel merged medievalism and terror in a style that has endured ever since. The aesthetic of the book has shaped modern-day gothic books, films, art, music, and the goth subculture.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: Walpole was inspired to write the story after a nightmare he had at his Gothic Revival home, Strawberry Hill House, in southwest London. The novel initiated a literary genre that would become extremely popular in the later 18th and early 19th century, with authors such as Clara Reeve, Ann Radcliffe, William Thomas Beckford, Matthew Lewis, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson and George du Maurier.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: "The Castle of Otranto" was written in 1764 during Horace Walpole's tenure as MP for King's Lynn. Walpole was fascinated with medieval history, in 1749 building a fake gothic castle, Strawberry Hill House.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: The initial edition was titled in full: "The Castle of Otranto, A Story. Translated by William Marshal, Gent. From the Original Italian of Onuphrio Muralto, Canon of the Church of St. Nicholas at Otranto". This first edition purported to be a translation based on a manuscript written at Naples in 1529 and recently rediscovered in the library of "an ancient Catholic family in the north of England". He employed an archaic style of writing to reinforce this conceit.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: The Italian manuscript's story, it was claimed, derived from a story still older, dating back perhaps as far as the Crusades. This Italian manuscript, along with alleged author "Onuphrio Muralto", were Walpole's fictional creations, and "William Marshal" his pseudonym.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: In the second and subsequent editions, Walpole acknowledged authorship of the work, writing: "The favourable manner in which this little piece has been received by the public, calls upon the author to explain the grounds on which he composed it" as "an attempt to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern. In the former all was imagination and improbability: in the latter, nature is always intended to be, and sometimes has been, copied with success..." There was some debate at the time about the function of literature; that is, whether works of fiction should be representative of life or more purely imaginative (i.e., natural vs. romantic). The first edition was well received by some reviewers who understood the novel as belonging to medieval fiction, "between 1095, the era of the First Crusade, and 1243, the date of the last", as the first preface states; and some referred to Walpole as an "ingenious translator". Following Walpole's admission of authorship, however, many critics were loath to lavish much praise on the work and dismissed it as absurd, fluffy, romantic fiction, or even unsavory or immoral.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: In his 1924 edition of "The Castle of Otranto", Montague Summers showed that the life story of Manfred of Sicily inspired some details of the plot. The real medieval castle of Otranto was among Manfred's possessions.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: "The Castle of Otranto" tells the story of Manfred, lord of the castle, and his family. The book begins on the wedding day of his sickly son Conrad and princess Isabella. Shortly before the wedding, however, Conrad is crushed to death by a gigantic helmet that falls on him from above. This inexplicable event is particularly ominous in light of an ancient prophecy, "that the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it". Manfred, terrified that Conrad's death signals the beginning of the end for his line, resolves to avert destruction by marrying Isabella himself, while divorcing his current wife, Hippolita, who he feels has failed to bear him a proper heir in light of the sickly condition of Conrad before his untimely death.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: However, as Manfred attempts to marry Isabella, she escapes to a church with the aid of a peasant named Theodore. Manfred orders Theodore's death while talking to the friar Jerome, who ensured Isabella's safety at the church. When Theodore removes his shirt to be killed, Jerome recognizes a marking below his shoulder and identifies Theodore as his own son. Jerome begs for his son's life, but Manfred says Jerome must either give up the princess or his son's life. They are interrupted by a trumpet and the entrance of knights from another kingdom, who want to deliver Isabella to her father, Fredric, along with the castle, as Fredric has a stronger claim to it (another reason Manfred wishes to wed Isabella). This leads the knights and Manfred to race to find Isabella.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: Theodore, having been locked in a tower by Manfred, is freed by Manfred's daughter, Matilda. He races to the underground church and finds Isabella. He hides her in a cave and blocks it to protect her from Manfred and ends up fighting one of the mysterious knights. Theodore badly injures the knight, who turns out to be Isabella's father, Frederic. With that, they all go up to the castle to work things out. Frederic falls in love with Matilda, and he and Manfred make a deal to marry each other's daughters. Frederic backs out after being warned by an apparition of a skeleton.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: Manfred, suspecting that Isabella is meeting Theodore in a tryst in the church, takes a knife into the church, where Matilda is meeting Theodore. Thinking his own daughter is Isabella, he stabs her. Theodore is then revealed to be the true prince of Otranto as Matilda dies, leaving Manfred to repent. A giant ghostly form appears, declares the prophecy fulfilled and shatters the castle walls.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: Manfred abdicates the principality and retires to religion along with Hippolita. Theodore becomes prince of the remains of the castle and is married to Isabella, for she is the only one who can truly understand his sorrow.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: In the preface of the second edition, Walpole claims the novel is "an attempt to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern." He defines the "ancient" romance by its fantastic nature ("its imagination and improbability") while defining the "modern" romance as more deeply rooted in literary realism ("a strict adherence to common life," in his words). By combining fantastic situations (helmets falling from the sky, walking portraits, etc.) with supposedly real people acting in a "natural" manner, Walpole created a new and distinct style of literary fiction, which has frequently been cited as a template for all subsequent gothic novels. "The Monthly Review" stated that for "[t]hose who can digest the absurdities of Gothic fiction" "Otranto" offered "considerable entertainment".


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: The "Castle of Otranto" is the first supernatural English novel and is a singularly influential work of Gothic fiction. It blends elements of realist fiction with the supernatural and fantastical, establishing many of the plot devices and character types that would become typical of the Gothic novel: secret passages, clanging trapdoors, pictures beginning to move, and doors closing by themselves. The poet Thomas Gray told Walpole that the novel made "some of us cry a little, and all in general afraid to go to bed o’nights."


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: Symbolism in "Castle of Otranto" is perceived by some as homoerotic and the novel seen as an externalization of the author's grappling with sexuality. Max Fincher has written that Manfred is preoccupied with the threat of his identity being discovered in a way that parallels the fear of homoerotic desire being discovered. He argues that misogyny in the novel is an attempt to project manliness, overcompensating for the author's or character's fears of queerness or weakness. Because of these fears, the book presents non-heteronormative behavior as "unnatural and demonic," according to Fincher.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: The first and most obvious connection to William Shakespeare is presented by Horace Walpole himself, in the preface to the second edition of "Otranto", in which he "praises Shakespeare as a truly original genius and the exemplar of imaginative liberty, as a part of a defense of "Otranto"s design". Elsewhere than in the preface, Walpole's several allusions to works by Shakespeare further emphasize the connection he wishes to draw between his own work and Shakespeare's. For example, in "Hamlet", "Hamlet's encounter with the Ghost becomes for Walpole a template for terror".


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: Walpole presents a "more fragmented recasting" of the Ghost in "Hamlet", which had served as a representation of the "now unsanctioned, but still popular Catholic view of ghosts as speakers of truth" for Shakespeare. The Catholic elements at play within both "Hamlet" and "Otranto" are invoked to represent a further sense of wonder and mystery to the Protestant audiences of both works. The Catholic element was a necessary facet of the "template of terror" that Walpole meant to invoke.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: The allusion to Hamlet's experience with the Ghost is meant not only as a "template of terror," but also to make readers feel as if they are watching the play itself, and Walpole does this on three occasions. First, he posits Manfred's encounter with the animated portrait of Ricardo as a connection to the Ghost's initial appearance to Hamlet. Second, when Friar Jerome informs Theodore of the dangers to be found in Otranto and he calls for him to take revenge, this is a direct allusion to the Ghost's demand to Hamlet to "remember [him]". Third, Frederic's encounter with the skeletal apparition parallels the final appearance of the Ghost in "Hamlet".


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: The violent question of bloodlines and succession serves as a key element in many of Shakespeare's plays, from "Hamlet" to "Richard II" and "Macbeth", and it is clearly one of the major concerns of "Otranto". The link to "Hamlet" is strengthened even more because of the incest that is also at play in "Otranto". "In "Otranto", the castle and its labyrinths become grounds for incest that signal the dissolution of familial bonds", which is also a major point of issue in "Hamlet" since Hamlet's mother (Gertrude) and his uncle (Claudius) were, in a way, related before their marriage. Both "Hamlet" and "Otranto" are literary springboards for discussion of the questions of marriage, as the question of Henry VIII's annulment of his marriage and later marriage to Anne Boleyn were still heated topics of controversy. Henry VIII had married his brother's wife Catherine of Aragon and later dissolved that marriage due to Catherine's inability to produce a male heir who lived to adulthood. Similarly, "Otranto" revolves around "a larger sexual contest to secure lineage".


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: The final connection between "Otranto" and Shakespeare lies in the role that the servants play. Like Shakespeare, Walpole aims to create a "mixture of comedy and tragedy," and one of the ways he does so is by using the minor, servant characters (such as Bianca) as comic relief. This is a trope that Walpole takes from Shakespeare as, for example, Shakespeare's mechanicals from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" also serve as the key comic element in the play.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: "Otranto" is generally credited with creating the entire Gothic novel genre. It was a smash hit in its day, until the author revealed that it was purely satirical fiction rather than an actual adaptation of medieval text. At that point, the critics and populace who had praised it turned on the book, claiming it was superficial, and other pejoratives generally assigned to romantic novels, which were seen as inferior in Britain at that time. But its impact was dramatic. The novelist Clara Reeve wrote "The Old English Baron" (1777) as a response, claiming she was taking Walpole's plot and adapting it to the demands of the time by balancing fantastic elements with 18th-century realism. She explained:


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: After a number of other novels were added to the budding Gothic genre, the teenage author Matthew Lewis published "The Monk" (1796), a novel that directly imitated the formula of "Otranto", but took it to such an extreme that some have interpreted the novel as parody.


title: The Castle of Otranto

text: Jan Švankmajer directed the surrealist short film "Castle of Otranto" (1977) based on the novel. It takes the form of a pseudo-documentary frame story in live action with an abridged adaptation of the story itself presented in cut-out animation in the style of Gothic art.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes and Wayne counties to the city's west and southwest. As of the 2020 Census, the population of Canton was 70,872, making Canton eighth among Ohio cities in population. It is the largest municipality in the Canton–Massillon metropolitan area, which includes all of Stark and Carroll counties, and was home to 401,574 residents in 2020.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Founded in 1805 alongside the Middle and West Branches of Nimishillen Creek, Canton became a heavy manufacturing center because of its numerous railroad lines. However, its status in that regard began to decline during the late 20th century, as shifts in the manufacturing industry led to the relocation or downsizing of many factories and workers. After this decline, the city's industry diversified into the service economy, including retailing, education, finance and healthcare.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton is chiefly notable for being the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the birthplace of the National Football League. 25th U.S. President William McKinley conducted the famed front porch campaign, which won him the presidency of the United States in the 1896 election, from his home in Canton. The McKinley National Memorial and the William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum commemorate his life and presidency. Canton was also chosen as the site of the First Ladies National Historic Site largely in honor of his wife, Ida Saxton McKinley.Canton is also home to the rapper "Jarvis Jarquavious" who has won 66 grammys


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Beginning in 2015, Canton began experiencing an urban renaissance, anchored by its growing and thriving arts district centrally located in the downtown area. Several historic buildings have been rehabilitated and converted into upscale lofts, attracting hundreds of new downtown residents into the city. Furthering this downtown development, in June 2016, Canton became one of the first cities in Ohio to allow the open consumption of alcoholic beverages in a "designated outdoor refreshment area" pursuant to a state law enacted in 2015 (Sub. H.B. No. 47).


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton was founded in 1805, incorporated as a village in 1822, and re-incorporated as a city in 1838. The plat of Canton was recorded at New Lisbon, Ohio, on November 15, 1805, by Bezaleel Wells, a surveyor and devout Episcopalian from Maryland born January 28, 1763. Canton was likely named as a memorial to Captain John O'Donnell, an Irish merchant marine with the British East India Trading Company whom Wells admired. O'Donnell named his estate in Maryland after the Chinese city Canton (a traditional English name for Guangzhou) as he had been the first person to transport goods from there to Baltimore. The name selected by Wells may also have been influenced by the Huguenot use of the word "canton," which meant a division of a district containing several communes. Through Wells' efforts and promotion, Canton was designated the county seat of Stark County upon its division from Columbiana County on January 1, 1809.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: For most of his adult life, Canton was the home of William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States. Born in Niles, Ohio, McKinley first practiced law in Canton around 1867, and was prosecuting attorney of Stark County from 1869 to 1871. The city was his home during his successful campaign for Ohio governor, the site of his front-porch presidential campaign of 1896 and the campaign of 1900. Canton is now the site of the William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum and the McKinley National Memorial, dedicated in 1907.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: On June 16, 1918, Eugene V. Debs delivered the keynote speech at the annual Ohio Socialist Convention held in Canton's Nimisilla Park. At the time, Debs had been a four-time candidate for president and was considered the country's leading socialist and labor organizer. During his speech he decried America's involvement in the First World War, saying, “They have always taught you that it is your patriotic duty to go to war and slaughter yourselves at their command. You have never had a voice in the war. The working class who make the sacrifices, who shed the blood, have never yet had a voice in declaring war.” Among Debs' audience at Nimisilla Park were agents of the U.S. Department of Justice. The year before his speech, and a month following the American entry into the First World War, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act of 1917 into law. This Act made it a federal crime to interfere with, among other things, the Selective Service Act or military draft.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: On June 30, 1918, Debs was arrested and charged with, among other things, “unlawfully, willfully and feloniously cause and attempt to cause and incite and attempt to incite, insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny and refusal of duty, in the military and naval forces of the United States.” Debs' trial began on September 10, 1918, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. On September 12, 1918, a jury found Debs guilty. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. On March 10, 1919, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of Debs' conviction in "Debs v. United States". Debs began serving his prison sentence on April 13, 1919. He remained incarcerated until September 25, 1921, when he was released after President Warren Harding commuted his sentence to time served.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision affirming Debs' conviction was sharply criticized by legal scholars at the time and is generally regarded as a low-point in First Amendment jurisprudence. While Debs’ speech in Canton and subsequent conviction ultimately aided Debs in delivering the Socialist Party's anti-war platform, his age and the deleterious effects of prison exhausted his ability as an orator. Debs died of heart failure on October 20, 1926. In June 2017 Canton applied for and received a historic marker from the Ohio History Connection, formerly the Ohio Historical Society, to commemorate Debs' speech at Nimisilla Park and other historic events reflecting the park's importance as a gathering place for the community.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The Dueber-Hampden Watch Company was an important employer in Canton during the early 1920s. It formally organized in 1923, having previously consisted of two separate companies: the Dueber Watch Case Company and the Hampden Watch Company. In 1886, John Dueber, the owner of the Dueber Watch Case Company, purchased a controlling interest in the Hampden Watch Company. In 1888, he relocated the Hampden Watch Company from Springfield, Massachusetts and the Dueber Watch Case Company from Newport, Kentucky to Canton, Ohio. These two companies shared manufacturing facilities in Canton but remained two separate companies. The Dueber Watch Case Company and the Hampden Watch Company quickly became two of Canton's largest employers. In 1888, the companies' first year in Canton, they employed 2,300 Canton residents. In 1890, Canton's population was 26,337. Thanks to these two companies, Canton became an important center for watch manufacturing in the United States. In 1927 the company went bankrupt, finally ceasing operations in the city in 1930. The machinery and tools were sold to the Amtorg Trading Corporation, one of Soviet Russia's buying agencies in the US, for $329.000. The company's massive brick factories, which covered more than 20 acres and included an ornate 150-foot clock tower, were demolished to accommodate the construction of Interstate 77.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The Timken Company has been among the largest employers in Canton for nearly 100 years. In 1898, Henry Timken obtained a patent for the tapered roller bearing, and in 1899 incorporated as the Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company in St. Louis. In 1901, the company moved to Canton as the automobile industry began to overtake the carriage industry. Timken and his two sons chose this location because of its proximity to the American car manufacturing centers of Detroit and Cleveland and the American steel-making centers of Pittsburgh and Cleveland. By 1960, Timken had operations in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, France, South Africa, Australia and Brazil. The company changed its corporate structure in 2014; the roller bearing-producing part of the company was separated from the steel-producing part of the company, resulting in two separate companies. The Timken Company continues to manufacture roller bearings, while TimkenSteel produces steel.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Today, TimkenSteel remains headquartered in Canton and employs 2,800 people, most of them in Northeast Ohio. The company makes special bar quality steel, used in applications all over the world. The Timken Co. is now headquartered in Jackson Township, a suburb of Canton, and employs 14,000 people around the world. The company designs, engineers, manufactures and sells bearings, transmissions, gearboxes, chain and related products, and offers a spectrum of power system rebuild and repair services around the globe.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: On September 17, 1920, a meeting was held at the Hupmobile showroom in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Building in Canton to found the American Professional Football Association (renamed the National Football League in 1922). The attendees included Ralph Hay, owner of the Hupmobile showroom and the hometown Canton Bulldogs, and George Halas, owner of the Decatur Staleys. Jim Thorpe of the Bulldogs was the league's first president. In 2014 a sculpture titled "Birth of the NFL" was erected in downtown Canton marking the exact location in the Hupmobile showroom where the NFL was created in 1920.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: On December 6, 1959, the "Canton Repository", a local newspaper, called for city officials to lobby the National Football League to create a football hall of fame in the community. Canton officials formally proposed their city as site for the hall of fame in 1961. The NFL quickly agreed to the city's proposal. To help convince NFL officials to locate the hall of fame in Canton, city officials donated several acres of land on Canton's north side to the project. Local residents also raised almost $400,000 to help construct the hall of fame.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The Pro Football Hall of Fame formally opened on September 7, 1963. Initially the museum consisted of two buildings, but in 1971, 1978, 1995, and 2013, the Pro Football Hall of Fame experienced several expansions. As of 2013, the museum consisted of five buildings, covering 118,000 square feet. Since its founding, over 10 million people have visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "Welcome to Canton" is the official way of saying congratulations to a new enshrinee.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The Ridgewood Historic District is a historic residential neighborhood in Canton that, due to its architectural significance, was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on December 19, 1982. The neighborhood consists of preserved, architect-designed Revival style buildings of the Tudor, Georgian, and French-Norman styles built in the early 20th century with amenities such as original brick streets and locally produced street lighting standards. The District features homes designed by several distinguished architects, including Charles Firestone, Herman Albrecht, and Louis Hoicowitz.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton is located at an elevation of . Nimishillen Creek and its East, Middle and West Branches flow through the city.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton is bordered by Plain Township and North Canton to the north, Meyers Lake and Perry Township to the west, Canton Township to the South, and Nimishillen Township, Osnaburg Township and East Canton to the east. Annexations were approved in December 2006 extending Canton's eastern boundary to East Canton's border.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification "Dfa"), typical of much of the Midwestern United States, with warm, humid summers and cold winters. Winters tend to be cold, with average January high temperatures of , and average lows of , with considerable variation in temperatures. During a typical January, high temperatures of over are just as common as low temperatures of below . Snowfall is lighter than the snow belt areas to the north. Akron-Canton Airport generally averages of snow per season. Springs are short with rapid transition from hard winter to summer weather. Summers tend to be warm, sometimes hot, with average July high temperatures of , and average July low of . Summer weather is more stable, generally humid with thunderstorms fairly common. Temperatures reach or exceed about 10 times each summer, on average. Fall usually is the driest season with many clear, warm days and cool nights. The all-time record high in the Akron-Canton area of was established on August 6, 1918, and the all-time record low of was set on January 19, 1994.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton's street layout forms the basis for the system of addresses in Stark County. Canton proper is divided into address quadrants (NW, NE, SW, SE) by Tuscarawas Street (dividing N and S) and Market Avenue (dividing E and W). Due to shifts in the street layout, the E–W divider becomes Cleveland Avenue south of the city, merging onto Ridge Road farther out. The directionals are noted as suffixes to the street name (e.g. Tuscarawas St W, 55th Street NE). Typically within the city numbered streets run east and west and radiate from the Tuscarawas Street baseline, while named avenues run north and south.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: This system extends into Stark County but is not shared by the cities of Massillon, Louisville, East Canton, Minerva or North Canton, which have their own internal address grids.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton is the largest principal city of the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan area that covers Carroll and Stark counties and had a combined population of 404,422 at the 2010 census.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 80,806 people, 32,489 households, and 19,785 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,932.1 people per square mile (1,518.2/km). There were 35,502 housing units at an average density of 1,728.0 per square mile (667.0/km). The racial makeup of the city was 74.45% White, 21.04% African American, 0.49% Native American, 0.32% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.61% from other races, and 3.06% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 1.24% of the population.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: There were 32,489 households, out of which 30.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.1% were married couples living together, 19.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.1% were non-families. 33.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 3.04.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: In the city the age distribution of the population shows 26.6% under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 29.1% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, and 14.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.9 males.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The median income for a household in the city was $28,730, and the median income for a family was $35,680. Males had a median income of $30.628 versus $21,581 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,544. About 15.4% of families and 19.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 27.4% of those under age 18 and 11.3% of those age 65 or over.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 73,007 people, 29,705 households, and 17,127 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 34,571 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 69.1% White, 24.2% African American, 0.5% Native American, 0.3% Asian, 1.0% from other races, and 4.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 2.6% of the population.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: There were 29,705 households, of which 31.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 30.8% were married couples living together, 21.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 42.3% were non-families. 35.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 3.04.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The median age in the city was 35.6 years. 25.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 10.8% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 25.6% were from 25 to 44; 25.6% were from 45 to 64; and 12.8% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 47.4% male and 52.6% female.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: "Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race."


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton has a mayor–council government and is the largest city in Ohio to operate without a charter. The city council is divided among nine wards with three at-large seats and the council president.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The Canton area's economy is primarily industrial, with significant health care and agricultural segments. The city is home to the TimkenSteel Corporation, a major manufacturer of specialty steel. Several other large companies operate in the greater-Canton area, including Timken Company a maker of tapered roller bearings; Belden Brick Company, a brick and masonry producer; Diebold, a maker of ATMs, electronic voting devices, and bank vaults, and Medline Industries, a manufacturer and distributor of health care supplies. The area is also home to several regional food producers, including Nickles Bakery (baked goods), Case Farms (poultry), and Shearer's Foods (snack foods). Poultry production and dairy farming are also important segments of the Canton area's economy.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Since 2000, Canton has experienced a very low unemployment rate. The healthcare sector is particularly strong, with Aultman Hospital and Mercy Medical Center among its largest employers. Nevertheless, as in many industrial areas of the United States, employment in the manufacturing sector is in a state of decline. LTV Steel (formerly Republic Steel) suffered bankruptcy in 2000. Republic Steel emerged and continues to maintain operations in Canton. Hoover Company, a major employer for decades in the region, reached an agreement to sell Hoover to Hong Kong-based Techtronic Industries. The main plant in nearby North Canton closed its doors in September 2007 due to classified reasons. On June 30, 2014, the Timken Company and TimkenSteel split, forming two separate companies at the urging of shareholders. The Timken Company relocated to neighboring Jackson Township, while TimkenSteel remains headquartered in Canton. In response to this changing manufacturing landscape, the city is undergoing a transition to a retail and service-based economy.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Beginning in the 1970s, Canton, like many mid-size American cities, lost most of its downtown retail business to the suburbs. The majority of the Canton area's "box store" retail is located in the general vicinity of the Belden Village Mall in Jackson Township. However, in recent years, the downtown area has seen significant rejuvenation, with cafes, restaurants, and the establishment of an arts district. A few retail centers remain in Canton at or near the city limits. Tuscarawas Street (Lincoln Way), a leg of the Lincoln Highway connecting Canton with nearby Massillon, is home to the Canton Centre mall and several retail outlets of varying size. A vein of commerce runs along Whipple Avenue, connecting the Canton Centre area with the Belden Village area. A similar vein runs north from the downtown area, along Cleveland and Market avenues. Connecting Cleveland and Market avenues is a small shopping district on 30th Street NW, and retail lines the Route 62 corridor leading from Canton to Louisville and Alliance.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: During the past century Canton has come to experience a renaissance. At the heart of this transformation is the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with its multimillion-dollar "Hall of Fame Village" expansion project. This project has been complemented with significant investments by city leaders in urban redevelopment, which continued with the transformation of the Hotel Onesto into the Historic Onesto Lofts. Other urban renewal plans are underway, which include the redevelopment of the downtown Market Square area. Private investment has furthered Canton's transformation, which is illustrated by the multimillion-dollar creation of the Gervasi Vineyard, which draws patrons throughout the region. In furtherance of these development initiatives, Canton was one of the first cities in Ohio to create a "designated outdoor refreshment area" legalizing the possession and consumption of "open container" alcoholic beverages in its downtown area.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The Canton Museum of Art, founded in 1935, is a broad-based community arts organization designed to encourage and promote the fine arts in Canton. The museum focuses on 19th- and 20th-century American artists, specifically works on paper, and on American ceramics, beginning in the 1950s. The museum sponsors annual shows of work of high school students in Canton and Stark County, and financial scholarships are awarded. Educational outreach programs take the museum off-site to libraries, parochial schools, area public schools, five inner city schools and a school for students with behavioral disorders. The city's Arts District, located downtown, is the site of monthly First Friday arts celebrations.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton's K-12 students are primarily served by the Plain Local School District, although students north of 17th Street NW have an overlap with Canton Local School District. Canton Local School District serves the better part of Canton South.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Malone University, a private, four-year liberal arts college affiliated with the Evangelical Friends Church, is located on 25th Street NW. Catholic-run Walsh University is located nearby in North Canton. Stark State College and a branch of Kent State University are also nearby, in Jackson Township. Also, in downtown Canton, there is a small annex for Stark State College to be used by the early college high school students who are located on the Timken Campus.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Catholic grade schools within the city limits of Canton are St. Peter, St. Joseph, and Our Lady of Peace. Additional Catholic schools in the Canton area include Canton St. Michael School, ranked first in the Power of the Pen state tournament in 2010, and Canton St. Joan of Arc School. There is also Heritage Christian School (K-12), a Christian grade school and high school. Canton Country Day School is a private PreK-8 school located just outside city limits in nearby Plain Township. Within the city limits is the private Canton Montessori School, which teaches according to the Montessori Plan for education proposed by Maria Montessori in the early 20th century.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton is part of the Cleveland/Akron/Canton television media market. Four stations are licensed to Canton – full-power WDLI (Court TV) and WRLM (TCT), and low-power WOHZ-CD (CBS/CW - WOIO/WUAB simulcast) and WIVM-LD (Independent). The two full-power stations identify as "Canton/Akron/Cleveland", serving the entire market, while the two low-power stations specifically serve Canton.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton also has a cable Public-access television channel, Canton City Schools TV 11. The content varies based on the viewer's location. Citizens located in North Canton will see North Canton's programming instead of Canton City's. Those within the borders of Plain Local Schools will see Eagle Television's programming.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: On the radio side, Canton is served by WKRW 89.3 (NPR - WKSU simulcast), WDJQ 92.5 (Contemporary hits), WHBC-FM 94.1 (Hot AC), WHOF 101.7 (Classic hits), WRQK 106.9 (Rock), WTIG 990 (Sports), WILB 1060 (Catholic), WDPN 1310 (Soft AC), WHBC 1480 (News/Talk), and WINW 1530 (Gospel).


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton is home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The American Professional Football Association, the forerunner of the NFL, was founded in a Canton car dealership on September 17, 1920.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The Canton Bulldogs were an NFL football team that played from 1920 to 1923, skipped the 1924 season, then played 1925 to 1926 before folding.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton is the home of the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival, which includes a hot air balloon festival, ribs burn-off, fashion show, community parade, Sunday morning race, enshrinee dinner, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame Grand Parade. The festival culminates in the enshrinement of the new inductees and the NFL/Hall of Fame Game, a pre-season exhibition between teams representing the AFC and NFC at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, used during the regular season by Canton McKinley High School (as well as some other area schools and colleges), was rated the number one high school football venue in America by the "Sporting News" in 2002. This may be partly attributable to the Bulldogs' rivalry with the nearby Massillon Washington High School Tigers, which is regarded as one of the best rivalries in all of high school football. All seven of the Ohio High School Athletic Association state final football games are hosted in Canton at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The Canton Legends played in the American Indoor Football Association at the Canton Civic Center. Operations were suspended in 2009. The Continental Indoor Football League also has offices in Canton.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The first official female bodybuilding competition was held in Canton in November 1977 and was called the Ohio Regional Women's Physique Championship.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: For ten seasons, Canton was home to an NBA G League team, the Canton Charge, which started play with the 2011–12 season and home games at the Canton Memorial Civic Center. The Cleveland Cavaliers had full control over the franchise and relocated the franchise in to Cleveland in 2021 when the ten-year lease ended.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The Canton Invaders of the National Professional Soccer League II and American Indoor Soccer Association played home games at the Canton Memorial Civic Center from 1984 until 1996, winning five league championships. In 2009, the Ohio Vortex became an expansion team in the Professional Arena Soccer League. Operations have since been suspended.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton has been home to professional baseball on several occasions. A number of minor league teams called Canton home in the early 1900s, including the Canton Terriers in the 1920s and 1930s. The Canton–Akron Indians were the AA affiliate of the major league Cleveland Indians for nine years, playing at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium until the team relocated north to Akron following the 1996 season. Two independent minor league teams, the Canton Crocodiles and the Canton Coyotes, both members of the Frontier League, called Munson Stadium home for several years afterward. The Crocodiles, who won the league championship in their inaugural season in 1997, moved to Washington, Pennsylvania, in 2002, and the Coyotes moved to Columbia, Missouri, in 2003, after just one season in Canton.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton is home to the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps, a world-class competitor in Drum Corps International. The Bluecoats have been a part of the "top five" finalists in the DCI World Championships since 2013, and took home the Founders' Trophy in 2016, with their show entitled "Down Side Up".


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Canton is connected to the Interstate Highway System via Interstate 77 which connects Canton to Marietta, Ohio, and points south, and to Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, to the north.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: U.S. Route 30 connects Canton to Wooster, Ohio, and points west, and to East Liverpool, Ohio, and points east. U.S. Route 62 connects Canton to Millersburg, Ohio, and points southwest, and to Youngstown, Ohio, and points northeast.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: The city has several arterial roads. Ohio 43 (Market Avenue, Walnut Avenue and Cherry Avenue), Ohio 153 (12th Street and Mahoning Road), Ohio 172 (Tuscarawas Street) / The Lincoln Highway, Ohio 297 (Whipple Avenue and Raff Avenue), Ohio 627 (Faircrest Street), Ohio 687 (Fulton Drive), and Ohio 800 (Cleveland Avenue) / A.K.A. Old Route 8.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Until 1990, Amtrak's passenger trains "Broadway Limited" and the "Capitol Limited" made stops at Canton station. Norfolk Southern and the Wheeling-Lake Erie railroads provide freight service in Canton.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: Stark Area Regional Transit Authority (SARTA) provides public transit bus service within the county, including service to Massillon, the Akron-Canton Regional Airport. Amtrak's "Capitol Limited" makes stops in Alliance station, to the northeast.


title: Canton, Ohio

text: In February 2022, it was reported that SARTA had hired a consultant group to study the feasibility of a light rail line from the Pro Football Hall of Fame to downtown Canton, with possible expansion to other locations around the county in the future. In June of that same year, the full plan was released, calling for a nine mile line from Akron-Canton Airport to downtown, where it would run down 3rd street in a separated lane from traffic. It would connect to existing bus services near Belden Village Mall and Cornerstone Transit Center. A first round of public meetings was held.


title: Brodie helmet

text: The Brodie helmet is a steel combat helmet designed and patented in London in 1915 by Latvian inventor John Leopold Brodie (). A modified form of it became the Helmet, Steel, Mark I in Britain and the M1917 Helmet in the US. Colloquially, it was called the shrapnel helmet, battle bowler, Tommy helmet, tin hat, and in the United States the doughboy helmet. It was also known as the dishpan hat, tin pan hat, washbasin and Kelly helmet. The German Army called it the "Salatschüssel" (salad bowl). The term "Brodie" is often misused. It is correctly applied only to the original 1915 "Brodie's Steel Helmet, War Office Pattern".


title: Brodie helmet

text: At the outbreak of World War I, none of the combatants provided steel helmets to their troops. Soldiers of most nations went into battle wearing cloth, felt, or leather headgear that offered no protection from modern weapons.


title: Brodie helmet

text: The huge number of lethal head wounds that modern artillery weapons inflicted upon the French Army led them to introduce the first modern steel helmets in the summer of 1915. The first French helmets were bowl-shaped steel "skullcaps" worn under the cloth caps. These rudimentary helmets were soon replaced by the Model 1915 Adrian helmet, designed by August-Louis Adrian. The idea was later adopted by most other combatant nations.


title: Brodie helmet

text: At about the same time, the British War Office had seen a similar need for steel helmets. The War Office Invention Department was ordered to evaluate the French design. They decided that it was not strong enough and too complex to be swiftly manufactured. British industry was not geared up to an all-out effort of war production in the early days of World War I, which also led to the shell shortage of 1915.


title: Brodie helmet

text: John Leopold Brodie (1873–1945), born Leopold Janno Braude in Riga, was an entrepreneur and inventor who had made a fortune in the gold and diamond mines of South Africa, but was working in London at that time. A design patented by him in August 1915 offered advantages over the French helmet. It was constructed in one piece that could be pressed from a single thick sheet of steel, giving it added strength and making it simple to manufacture. Brodie's patent deals mainly with the innovative lining arrangements; an engineer called Alfred Bates of the firm of Willis & Bates of Halifax, Yorkshire, manufacturer of Vapalux paraffin pressure lamps, claimed that he was asked by the War Office to find a method of manufacturing an anti-shrapnel helmet and that it was he who had devised the basic shape of the steel shell. Aside from some newspaper articles, there is nothing to substantiate Bates's claim.


title: Brodie helmet

text: Brodie's helmet resembled designs from past eras in particular the medieval infantry kettle hat or "chapel-de-fer" and the samurai/ashigaru jingasa helmet, unlike the German "Stahlhelm", which resembled the medieval sallet. The Brodie had a shallow circular crown with a wide brim around the edge, a leather liner and a leather chinstrap. The helmet's "soup bowl" shape was designed to protect the wearer's head and shoulders from shrapnel shell projectiles bursting from above the trenches. The design allowed the use of relatively thick steel that could be formed in a single pressing while maintaining the helmet's thickness. This made it more resistant to projectiles but it offered less protection to the lower head and neck than other helmets.


title: Brodie helmet

text: The original design (Type A) was made of mild steel with a brim wide. The Type A was in production for just a few weeks before the specification was changed and the Type B was introduced in October 1915. The specification was altered at the suggestion of Sir Robert Hadfield to a harder steel with 12% manganese content, which became known as "Hadfield steel", which was virtually impervious to shrapnel hitting from above. Ballistically this increased protection for the wearer by 10 per cent. It also had a narrower brim and a more domed crown.


title: Brodie helmet

text: The original paint scheme, suggested by Brodie, was a mottled light green, blue, and orange camouflage but they were also painted in green or blue-grey.


title: Brodie helmet

text: The first delivery of the Brodie to British Army troops took place in September 1915, at the rate of 50 per battalion. Initially, there were far from enough helmets to equip every man, so they were designated as "trench stores", to be kept in the front line and used by each unit that occupied the sector. By early 1916, about a quarter of a million had been made, and the first action in which the Brodie was worn by all ranks was the Battle of St Eloi, in April.


title: Brodie helmet

text: Although the helmet's benefits were recognised, there was criticism from several quarters, including General Herbert Plumer, who said that the helmet was too shallow and too light-reflective, its rim was too sharp, and its lining was too slippery. It was decided to introduce a number of improvements, and from May, supplies of the modified helmet, designated the Mark I, began to arrive. It had a separate, folded rim, a two-part liner, and matte khaki paint finished with sand, sawdust, or crushed cork to give a dull, non-reflective appearance.


title: Brodie helmet

text: By the summer of 1916 the first million helmets had been produced, and they were issued to all troops.


title: Brodie helmet

text: Troops from other countries also used the Brodie helmet, including the United States Armed Forces, when they began to deploy in France late in 1917. The United States government initially purchased some 400,000 helmets from Britain. From January 1918 the U.S. Army began to use helmets manufactured in the U.S. and these helmets were designated M1917. The steel helmet was known to the troops as a "tin hat", or, for the officers, a "battle bowler" (from bowler hat). British soldiers soon identified with their helmets, much like French and German soldiers.


title: Brodie helmet

text: By the end of the war some 7.5 million Brodie helmets had been produced, including 1.5 million M1917 helmets, for use by American forces.


title: Brodie helmet

text: From 1936, the Mark I Brodie helmet was fitted with an improved liner and an elasticated (actually, sprung) webbing chin strap. This final variant served until late 1940, when it was superseded by the slightly modified Mk II, which served the British and Commonwealth forces throughout World War II. British paratroopers and airborne forces used the Helmet Steel Airborne Troop.


title: Brodie helmet

text: Several Commonwealth nations, such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, produced local versions of the Mk II, which can be distinguished from those made in Britain.


title: Brodie helmet

text: During this period, the helmet was also used by the police, the fire brigade and ARP wardens in Britain. The helmets for the ARP wardens came in two principal variants, black with a white "W" for wardens and white with a black "W" for senior ranks (additional black stripes denoted seniority within the warden service); however numerous different patterns were used. A civilian pattern was also available for private purchase, known as the Zuckerman helmet, which was a little deeper but made from ordinary mild steel.


title: Brodie helmet

text: The Norwegian Army adopted the Mark I helmet in 1915, eventually importing a total of 10,000 examples. Some of the imported helmets had a helmet plate with the Norwegian coat of arms affixed to the front. The Mark I remained in Norwegian service throughout the interwar period, alongside Swedish helmets acquired in the 1930s. The helmets were among the equipment issued to Norwegian forces in World War II, seeing service in the 1940 Norwegian Campaign against invading German forces. In the first post-war years, the Mark I helmet remained in service with the Norwegian Army, alongside the American M1 helmet, Swedish helmets, and Stahlhelms left behind by the capitulated German occupation forces.


title: Brodie helmet

text: In 1944, the British supplemented it with a significantly modified design, known as the Mk III "Turtle" helmet.


title: Brodie helmet

text: The U.S. Army used the basic Brodie-patterned M1917 helmet until 1942 with some modifications, which included a totally new liner and canvas chin strap. It was finally superseded by the M1 helmet in 1942 and passed down to civil defence.


title: Brodie helmet

text: The helmet was the inspiration for the name of the Memorable Order of Tin Hats (or the MOTH), a brotherhood of ex-front-line soldiers founded in 1927 by Charles Evenden.


title: Brodie helmet

text: In May 2014, the UK's Health and Safety Executive, in consultation with the Imperial War Museum, advised that World War I-era helmets were not safe to handle, owing to the likelihood of their containing asbestos. It advised that schools should not allow pupils to handle such artefacts, but should instead ensure that the objects were either safely disposed of, have the asbestos removed from the object or safely display the object.


title: Vergil (Devil May Cry)

text: Vergil was originally portrayed as Nelo Angelo—Dante's rival in terms of moves and appearance—in the 2001 game. Despite the character's apparent death as a child, "Devil May Cry" director Hideki Kamiya allowed "Devil May Cry 3" writer Bingo Morihashi to change this event so Vergil could be featured as a young adult in the prequel game. Many of the series' characters were named after characters in Italian poet Dante Alighieri's poem "Divine Comedy"; Vergil was named after Virgil.


title: Vergil (Devil May Cry)

text: The character has been well received by video game publications, several of which praised his role as a boss, and his playable inclusion in the special editions of "Devil May Cry". His redesign for Ninja Theory's reboot was the subject of praise, finding him more appealing than Dante.


title: Vergil (Devil May Cry)

text: Vergil's name was taken from Dante Alighieri's poem the "Divine Comedy". The alias Nelo Angelo is a mis-translation of "Nero Angelo" ("Black Angel" in Italian). The misspelling has been maintained throughout the series, including in the novels, due to its popularity. In the original "Devil May Cry" game, Vergil is said to have been killed by demons early in his life, and his soul is controlled by Mundus. Capcom staff writer Bingo Morihashi wanted to create an alternate scenario in which Vergil was alive, and he was given freedom by Hideki Kamiya to adjust the character's backstory and make Vergil a living teenager for the events of "Devil May Cry 3". While his character was designed by Daigo Ikeno for "Devil May Cry 3", his Devil Trigger form was created by Kazuma Kaneko. Because no design for Vergil except that of his alter-ego Nelo Angelo existed, Morihashi was put in charge of designing his appearance. Most of Capcom's staff believed Vergil was Morihashi's favorite character. Morihashi stated that the idea of Vergil wielding a Japanese sword, called a Yamato, existed in a previous design. Vergil does not wield guns, unlike Dante; Morihashi said that Vergil's characterization was challenging because, being the older twin brother, he was intended to be more likable than Dante.


title: Vergil (Devil May Cry)

text: The character was made playable in "" due to extra time the team had after the making of the game. Capcom had to remove some of his moves due to space limitations, but tried keeping the moves he uses when faced as a boss. His move set was made to reflect his calm personality, contrasting with Dante's brash confidence. Vergil was made stronger than Dante, but harder to control, with the player having to learn more moves. Vergil became a popular character among the game's development team; Hideaki Itsuno stated that he was also well received in the United States because several characters from Hollywood films wield a katana. Vergil's popularity resulted in Itsuno discussing ideas for a game focused on Vergil. The team also wanted to add alternate skins for him, such as a Nelo Angelo outfit. Itsuno also planned to add Vergil to "Devil May Cry 4", just as in the previous game. When reconsidering whether Vergil could be reskinned, however, the staff thought the fanbase would not like it.