title: Birdemic: Shock and Terror

text: A RiffTrax for "Birdemic" was released on February 22, 2011, featuring commentary by Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" fame. The release of their commentary was quickly followed up by recreations of seven humorous scenes from the film. On October 25, 2012, Fathom hosted a RiffTrax Live event featuring "Birdemic". A physical DVD as well as a digital download of the show was released on November 25, 2014.


title: Birdemic: Shock and Terror

text: On August 4, 2016 an episode of Vice Media's filmmaker documentary series "Outsider" featured the history of film's production, discovery, and release, as well James Nguyen's future ambitions.


title: Birdemic: Shock and Terror

text: The film was also mentioned and had a scene shown on Ellentube by comedian Howie Mandel who jokingly asked if Martin Scorsese directed the film.


title: Birdemic: Shock and Terror

text: A sequel, "", which was also written and directed by James Nguyen, finished filming in March 2012, and was released in April 2013 with a special screening in Los Angeles followed by a tour to select theaters in the United States, and released online on April 16, 2013. The plot centers around a struggling Hollywood filmmaker named Bill (Thomas Favaloro), who casts an aspiring actress named Gloria (Chelsea Turnbo) in his upcoming film before eagles and vultures attack. Alan Bagh and Whitney Moore reprised their roles for the sequel, as did Colton Osborne, Rick Camp, Stephen Gustavson, Eric Swartz, Patsy van Ettinger, and Damien Carter.


title: Birdemic: Shock and Terror

text: In a 2016 "Vice" interview, Nguyen said that he was hoping to eventually make "Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle", which would be his next instalment in the franchise. In October 2016, an Indiegogo campaign was raised in order to finance the third film of the series. The funding was eventually closed, with only roughly $596 out of the desired $500,000 raised. Despite this, it was announced in March 2021 that production on the third installment had begun, and is scheduled for release in late 2022. The poster for the film was released on November 9, 2021 on the Moviehead Pictures Twitter Page.


title: Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland

text: Ralph George Algernon Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland, (born 16 November 1956), styled Lord Ralph Percy until 1995, is a British hereditary peer and rural landowner and current head of the House of Percy.


text: Ralph Percy was born the second son (and one of seven children) of Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland, and his wife, Elizabeth, née Lady Elizabeth Montagu Douglas Scott.


text: Percy attended Eton College, studied history at the University of Oxford, and then land management at Reading University and worked in the Arundel Castle estate office for seven years, before moving back to Northumberland to manage the Alnwick estate for his elder brother Henry, the 11th Duke.


text: He succeeded in the dukedom in 1995 on the death of the 11th Duke, who had no offspring. As such, he was a member of the House of Lords until the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999 ended the right of hereditary peers to sit in the House. Hansard records no contributions to House of Lords work by Northumberland.


text: The Duke assists in managing Northumberland Estates (the corporation holding the ducal assets) which has many venture subsidiaries and associated trusts, which altogether own land and property in Northumberland, Scotland and to a lesser extent London, Surrey and Tyneside. Ralph Percy was ranked at number 248 in the Sunday Times Rich List 2011, with an estimated wealth of £315 million. He or the corporation is the owner of Alnwick Castle, an ancestral ducal seat, as well as Warkworth Castle and Prudhoe Castle in Northumberland; Syon House and Syon Park in London; Hulne Park and Hulne Priory at Alnwick; Albury Park in Surrey, and other listed buildings such as Brizlee Tower. Northumberland Estates manages : directly managing of forestry and of farmland, with approximately 100 tenant farmers managing the remaining bulk of the land.


text: The 12th Duke's sale on the open market, rather than at a lower price to The National Gallery, of Raphael's "Madonna of the Pinks" in 2003 was subject to some criticism. At much the same time, in response to a foot-and-mouth disease crisis, the Duke cut the rents of tenant farmers by 10 percent. The Duke has showed opposition to certain wind farms. However, he adopted renewable energy in the restoration of a hydroelectric power generator. The Duke is a sponsor of the NCEA Duke's Secondary School.


text: On 8 April 2014, the estate's management announced the date of a new art sale to raise £15 million to cover the costs of the Newburn flood caused by the failure of a culvert for which it was responsible on 25 September 2012. The sales were completed by Sotheby's in July 2014.


text: In October 2021, the Duke was unsuccessful in his bid to build houses on the site of 37 allotments on his land, after over 900 people signed a petition to save the allotments, which are over a century old, and the local authority's planning committee voted to block the development. This came after the Duke had written to the allotment holders to tell them that if the development was blocked as a result of press coverage, then he would deny them access to the land.


text: Northumberland married Jane Richard on 21 July 1979 at Traquair Parish Church. They have four children:


title: T-26

text: The T-26 tank was a Soviet light tank used during many conflicts of the Interwar period and in World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and was one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s until its light armour became vulnerable to newer anti-tank guns. It was produced in greater numbers than any other tank of the period, with more than 11,000 units manufactured. During the 1930s, the USSR developed 53 variants of the T-26, including flame-throwing tanks, combat engineer vehicles, remotely controlled tanks, self-propelled guns, artillery tractors, and armoured carriers. Twenty-three of these were series-produced, others were experimental models.


title: T-26

text: The T-26 and BT were the main tanks of the Red Army's armoured forces during the interwar period. The T-26 was the most important tank of the Spanish Civil War and played a significant role during the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938, as well as in the Winter War in 1939–40. Though nearly obsolete by the beginning of World War II, the T-26 was the most numerous tank in the Red Army's armoured force during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. The T-26 fought the Germans and their allies during the Battle of Moscow in 1941–42, the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of the Caucasus in 1942–1943; some tank units of the Leningrad Front used their T-26s until 1944. Soviet T-26 light tanks last saw use in August 1945, during the defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria.


title: T-26

text: The T-26 was exported and used extensively by Spain, China and Turkey. Captured T-26s were used by the Finnish, German, Romanian and Hungarian armies. The tank was reliable and simple to maintain, and its design was continually modernised between 1931 and 1941. No new models of the T-26 were developed after 1940.


title: T-26

text: The T-26 (along with the Polish 7TP) was a Soviet development of the British Vickers 6-Ton (Vickers Mk.E variant) tank, which was designed by the Vickers-Armstrongs company in 1928–29. The simple and easy-to-maintain Vickers 6-Ton was intended for export to less technically advanced countries: the Soviet Union, Poland, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Thailand, China, and many others. Vickers advertised the tank in military publications, and both the Soviet Union and Poland expressed interest in the Vickers design.


title: T-26

text: In early 1930, the Soviet buying committee, under the direction of Semyon Ginzburg, arrived in Great Britain to select tanks, tractors, and cars for use in the Red Army. The Vickers 6-Ton was among four tank models selected by Soviet representatives during their visit to Vickers-Armstrongs. Under the contract signed on 28 May 1930, the company delivered to the USSR 15 twin-turreted Vickers Mk.E (Type A, armed with two .303 in (7.71 mm) water-cooled Vickers machine guns) tanks together with full technical documentation to enable series production of the tank in the USSR. The ability of the two turrets of the Type A to turn independently made it possible to fire to both the left and right at once, which was considered advantageous for breakthroughs of field entrenchments. Several Soviet engineers participated in assembly of the tanks at the Vickers factory in 1930.


title: T-26

text: The first four Vickers 6-Ton tanks arrived in the USSR at the end of 1930. The last tanks arrived in 1932, when series production of the T-26 was already in progress. The British tanks were sent to Soviet factories for study in preparation for series production and to military educational institutions and training units. Later, some tanks were given to military supply depots and proving grounds. The Vickers-built 6-Ton tanks were called V-26 in the USSR. Three British tanks were tested for cross-country ability at the small proving ground near Moscow on Poklonnaya Hill in January 1931. Kliment Voroshilov ordered the creation of the "Special Commission for the Red Army (RKKA) new tanks" under the direction of S. Ginzburg to define the tank type suitable for the Red Army. The T-19 8-ton light infantry tank, developed by S. Ginzburg under that programme at the "Bolshevik" Plant in Leningrad, was a competitor to the British Vickers 6-Ton. The first prototype of the complex and expensive T-19 was finished in August 1931. Because both tanks had advantages and disadvantages, S. Ginzburg suggested developing a more powerful, hybrid tank (the so-called "improved" T-19) with the hull, home-developed engine and armament from the native T-19, and the transmission and chassis from the British Vickers 6-Ton.


title: T-26

text: On 26 January 1931, I. Khalepsky, Head of the Department of Mechanisation and Motorisation of the RKKA, wrote a letter to S. Ginzburg with information obtained via the intelligence service that the Polish government had decided to purchase Vickers 6-Ton light infantry tanks as well as Christie "M1931" cavalry tanks and to mass-produce them with the assistance of both the British and French. Because Poland was then considered, in Soviet military doctrine, to be the USSR's main enemy, the Soviet Revolutionary Military Council decided to pass the foreign tanks into Red Army service, starting their production immediately without waiting for the completion of development works, in order to counter possible aggression. At that time, the RKKA had only several dozen outdated Mark V heavy tanks and Medium Mk.A and Renault FT tanks, captured during the Russian Civil War, together with various armoured cars and obsolescent domestic MS-1 (T-18) light infantry tanks. On 13 February 1931, the Vickers 6-Ton light infantry tank, under the designator T-26, officially entered service in the Red Army as the "main tank for close support of combined arms units and tank units of High Command Reserve".


title: T-26

text: One of the Vickers 6-Ton tanks (equipped with Soviet-made turrets for the pilot batch of T-26 tanks) was tested for gunfire resistance in August 1931. The hull was subjected to rifle and Maxim machine gun fire with the use of normal and armour-piercing bullets at a range of . It was found that the armour withstood gunfire with minimal damage (only some rivets were damaged). Chemical analysis showed that the front armour plates were made from high-quality cemented armour ("S.t.a Plat" according to Vickers-Armstrongs classification), whereas the homogenous roof and bottom armour plates were made from mediocre steel. Even so, the British armour was better than armour produced by Izhora Factory for the first T-26s because of a shortage of modern metallurgical equipment in the USSR at that time.


title: T-26

text: At the same time, the Faculty of Mechanisation and Motorisation of the Military Technical Academy named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky developed two tank models (TMM-1 and TMM-2) based on the Vickers 6-Ton tank design but with an American Hercules six-cylinder water-cooled engine, improved front armour (to 15–20 mm), and a driver's position on the left side. TMM stands for "tank maloy moshchnosti" or "tank of low power". The TMM-1 was equipped with transmission details from the native and a ball mount for the DT tank machine gun in front of the hull, whereas the TMM-2 was equipped with an improved gearbox, a clutchless steering device and a 37 mm Hotchkiss gun in the right turret. Representatives from the main Soviet tank manufacturers together with officials from the RKKA Mobilization Department considered the Hercules engine to be too difficult to produce, and the engine tended to overheat inside the engine compartment. Tests of TMM-1 and TMM-2 prototypes performed in the beginning of 1932 demonstrated no advantage over the Vickers 6-Ton and the T-26 (the TMM-2's maneuverability was found to be even worse).


title: T-26

text: The Soviets did not simply replicate the Vickers 6-Ton. However, like its British counterpart, the T-26 mod. 1931 had a twin-turreted configuration and was designed to carry two machine guns, mounting one in each turret. A major difference was that the Soviet T-26 mod. 1931 had higher turrets (with an observation slit) than the British 6-Ton. Soviet turrets had a round firing port for the Degtyarev light machine gun, as opposed to the rectangular ports used by the original British design for the Vickers machine gun. The front part of the hull was also slightly modified.


title: T-26

text: Hulls of twin-turreted T-26s were assembled using armoured plates riveted to a frame from metal angles. Some tanks, produced in 1931, had sealing zinc shims at the hull bottom between armoured plates for fording water obstacles. After problems with rain entering the engine compartment, a special cover was installed over an air outlet window after March 1932. Some T-26s produced at the end of 1932–1933 had a riveted and welded hull. The T-26 mod. 1931 had two cylindrical turrets mounted on ball bearings; each turret turned independently through 240°. Both turrets could provide common fire in front and rear arcs of fire (100° each). The disadvantage of such a configuration was that not all of the tank's firepower could be used at once on the same side. Four turret modifications existed, and they were mounted on tanks in different combinations (for instance, a tank with a riveted hull could have riveted and welded turrets).


title: T-26

text: The hull and turrets of the T-26 mod. 1931 had a maximum armour thickness of 13–15 mm (until 1938, see below), which was sufficient to withstand light machine gun fire. Many twin-turreted tanks of the first series had 10 mm armour plates of low quality, which could be penetrated by 7.62 mm armour-piercing bullets from


title: T-26

text: In 1933, the Soviets unveiled the T-26 mod. 1933. This model, which had a new single cylindrical turret carrying one 45-mm cannon L46 (length in calibre, which meant quite high initial velocity, over 700–800 m/s depending on ammunition) and one 7.62 mm machine gun, became the most common T-26 variant. The 45 mm 20K tank gun was based on the Soviet 45 mm anti-tank gun M1932 (19-K) and it was one of the most powerful anti-tank guns of its time. The T-26 could carry up to three secondary DT 7.62 mm machine guns in coaxial, rear, and anti-aircraft mounts. This increased firepower was intended to aid crews in defeating dedicated anti-tank teams, as the original machine gun armament had been found insufficient. The turret rear ball mounting for the additional DT tank machine gun was installed on the T-26 tanks from the end of 1935 until 1939.


title: T-26

text: The T-26 Model 1933 carried 122 rounds of 45 mm ammunition, firing armour-piercing 45 mm rounds with a muzzle velocity of , or lower-velocity high-explosive munitions. Tanks intended for company commanders were equipped with a radio set and a hand-rail radio antenna on the turret (so called "radio tanks"). Later the hand-rail antenna was replaced with a whip antenna, because experience in the Spanish Civil War and Battle of Lake Khasan showed that the hand-rail antenna drew fire onto commander tanks.


title: T-26

text: The tank was powered by a T-26 flat row 4-cylinder air-cooled petrol engine, which was a complete Soviet copy of the Armstrong Siddeley engine used in the Vickers 6-Ton. The engine was located in the rear part of the hull. Early Soviet-made tank engines were of bad quality but they became better beginning in 1934. The GAZ T-26 (a copy of the Armstrong Siddeley Puma) engine did not have an over-speed limiter, which often resulted in overheating and engine valve breakage, especially in summer. A fuel tank for and an oil box for were placed alongside the engine. The engine required top-grade petrol; the use of second-rate petrol could cause damage to the valve units because of engine detonation. From mid-1932, a more capacious fuel tank — instead of — and a simplified oil box were introduced. An engine cooling fan was mounted over the engine in a special shroud. From early 1932, the exhaust silencer was affixed by three clamps instead of two.


title: T-26

text: The transmission of the T-26 consisted of single-disc main dry clutch connected to a gearbox, with five gears, in the front part of the vehicle by drive shaft passing through the vehicle. Steering was through steering clutches and band brakes. The gear change lever was mounted directly on the gearbox.


title: T-26

text: Suspension (for each side) consisted of two bogies, four rubber-covered return rollers, a track driving wheel and a track idler. Each bogie consisted of a cast box with four twin rubber-covered road wheels connected by balancing levers and two one-quarter elliptic leaf springs. The cast track driving wheel with removable sprocket ring was located in front, and the track idler with a crank lever tightener was located at the rear of the vehicle. The track was made from chrome-nickel steel wide and consisted of 108–109 links.


title: T-26

text: The T-26 mod. 1931 did not have a radio set. The tank commander communicated with the driver by speaking tube, which was replaced with a signalling lamp in 1932. The T-26 was equipped with a fire extinguisher, a kit of spare parts tools and accessories (including a tank jack), canvas stowage, and a tow chain fixed on the rear of the hull.


title: T-26

text: The T-26 could cross -high vertical obstacles and -wide trenches, ford -deep water, cut -thick trees, and climb 40° gradients. Needless to say, it was easy to drive.


title: T-26

text: Beginning in 1937, there was an effort to equip many tanks with a second machine gun in the rear of the turret and an anti-aircraft machine gun on top of it, as well as the addition of two searchlights above the gun for night gunnery, a new VKU-3 command system, and a TPU-3 intercom. Some tanks had a vertically stabilised TOP-1 gun telescopic sight. Ammunition stowage for the main gun was increased from 122 rounds to 147. In 1938, the cylindrical turret was replaced with a conical turret, with the same 45 mm model 1934 gun. Some T-26s mod. 1938/1939, equipped with radio set, had a PTK commander's panoramic sight.


title: T-26

text: In 1938, the T-26 was upgraded to the model 1938 version, which had a new conical turret with better anti-bullet resistance but the same welded hull as the T-26 mod. 1933 produced in 1935–1936. This proved insufficient in the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938, so the tank was upgraded once more in February 1939 to have an underturret box with sloped (23°) 20 mm side armoured plates. The turret featured an increase to 20 mm at 18 degrees sloping. This time it was designated T-26-1 (known as the T-26 mod. 1939 in modern sources). There were subsequent attempts to thicken the front plate, but T-26 production soon ended in favour of other designs, such as the T-34.


title: T-26

text: In 1931, the only Soviet factory suitable for T-26 production was the "Bolshevik" Factory in Leningrad, which had had experience of manufacturing the MS-1 (T-18) light tanks since 1927. It was also planned to use the Stalingrad Tractor Factory, which was under construction at that time. But the production of the T-26 proved to be much more complicated than the semi-handicraft assembly of the MS-1, so the planned production of 500 T-26s in 1931 proved to be impossible. The "Bolshevik" Factory needed to convert all tank drawings from imperial units into metric, in order to develop a production technology, special tools, and equipment. The first 10 T-26s were assembled in July 1931 – they were identical to British Vickers 6-Ton tanks except for their armament. Soviet tanks were armed with the 37 mm Hotchkiss (PS-1) gun in the right turret and the 7.62 mm DT tank machine gun in the left turret. These T-26s from the development batch were of low quality and made from mild steel, but it was an important test of the new tank production technology.


title: T-26

text: The series production of the T-26, equipped with new higher turrets with observation window, began in August 1931. Such turrets proved to be more suitable for mass production. The production of the T-26 encountered many problems: a lot of armoured hulls and turrets supplied by the Izhora Factory were of low quality (with cracks) and were 10 mm thick instead of the planned 13 mm. Poor production standards were the reason behind the frequent failures of tank engines, gear boxes, springs in suspension, tracks and rubber-covered road wheels of early T-26s. Thirty-five of the 100 T-26s produced by the "Bolshevik" Factory in 1931 had hulls and turrets made from mild steel. Later, it was planned to replace these hulls with ones built of armour plate as well as to mount engines of better quality. The business plan for 1932 called for 3,000 T-26s. For this, the tank workshop of the "Bolshevik" Factory was reorganised into the Factory No. 174 named after K.E. Voroshilov in February 1932. The director of the tank factory became K. Sirken and the chief engineer was S. Ginzburg. The problems with organizing the complicated new technological processes, poor production planning of parts suppliers, a great shortage of qualified engineers and technicians as well as of necessary equipment still resulted in many of the tanks being flawed, and they were not accepted by army representatives. On 26 October 1932, the Trust of Special Machine Industry, consisting of four factories, was established to solve the problem of tank production in the USSR. The planned production of T-26s for 1932 was decreased significantly and special attention was given to increasing the quality of the tanks. A production run of the new model single-turreted T-26 armed with the 45 mm gun was launched in mid-1933.


title: T-26

text: Factory No. 174 also manufactured a few T-26s for military educational institutions. These were dissected tanks to demonstrate the relative position and function of tank components during tank crew training.


title: T-26

text: The Stalingrad Tractor Factory (STZ) was considered as one of the factories for production of the T-26 from 1932, but production in Stalingrad did not start until August 1933. This process went very slowly, with great difficulties because of delays with deliveries of machining equipment and press tools for the newly built factory. In 1936–1939 the Design Office of the STZ developed several experimental tanks (6 TK, 4 TG, STZ-25, STZ-35) based on the T-26 tank and the STZ-5 transport tractor. For instance, the STZ-25 (T-25) had the turret, rear part of the hull, engine and some transmission details from the T-26 mod. 1938, but the STZ-25 wheeled-tracked tank weighed and had 16–24 mm sloped armour. Factory managers tried to promote tanks of their own design rather than producing T-26s. As a result, the STZ failed to organise the series production of the T-26, but this experience helped to bring the T-34 into production in Stalingrad in 1941. The T-26s produced by STZ had no visual differences from other T-26s, but Stalingrad tanks were less reliable and more expensive.


title: T-26

text: Some early T-26 tanks were repaired in tank units or factories with the use of later production parts. This meant replacing the all-rubber road wheels (except the front wheels) and track idlers with new strengthened ones. Armour was added for the headlight, the armour thickness of the driver's hatch lower door of the twin-turreted tanks was increased from 6 to 10 mm and armoured PT-1 or PTK observation devices were installed. A common hatch above the engine, oil tank, and fuel tank was mounted starting in May 1940. In 1940, 255 T-26s were modernised in this way and in the first half of 1941 another 85 tanks were improved. A central factory responsible for the T-26's repair and modernisation was the Factory of Carrying-and-Conveying Machines named after S. Kirov in Leningrad, and Factory No. 105 named after L. Kaganovich in Khabarovsk from the beginning of the Great Patriotic War until 1945.


title: T-26

text: Factory No. 174 produced its last T-26 tanks in February 1941. After that, the factory began retooling to produce the new and much more complex T-50 light tank. This work was slowed by delays in the delivery of new equipment and series production of the T-50 did not begin on schedule (planned for 1 June 1941). As a result, factory management decided to resume the production of the T-26, using T-26 hulls, turrets, and other parts already in stock. About 47 T-26 tanks were assembled and 77 were repaired in July–August 1941 before the factory was relocated from Leningrad to Chelyabinsk in the end of August 1941, and then to Chkalov in September 1941. Factory No. 174 produced engines and spare parts for the T-26, installed additional armour plates on some T-26s, replaced flame-throwers with 45 mm tank guns in turrets of 130 KhT-133 flame-throwing tanks, repaired tanks in army units (846 T-26s since the beginning of 1941) and mounted about 75 turrets from the T-26 and the T-50 as bunkers for the defence of Leningrad.


title: T-26

text: The T-26 entered active service for the Red Army (RKKA) in 1932; it was used in many conflicts of the 1930s as well as during World War II. The T-26 together with the BT was the main tank of the RKKA armoured forces during the interwar period.


title: T-26

text: In the 1930s, T-26 light tanks were delivered to Spain (281 mod. 1933), China (82) and Turkey (60 mod. 1933 and 4 mod. 1931).


title: T-26

text: The T-26 first saw action in the Spanish Civil War. T-26s were used in almost all Spanish Civil War military operations against the Nationalists from 1936 to 1939 and demonstrated superiority over the German Panzer I light tanks and the Italian CV-33 tankettes, both of which were armed only with machine guns. During the battle of Guadalajara, T-26s outclassed the Italian tankettes, inspiring the design of the first Italian medium tank, the Fiat M13/40. During the war, Nationalist forces would attack the tanks with petrol bombs, the first time such weapons were used in war.


title: T-26

text: They were used in the Second Sino-Japanese War by the Chinese from 1938 to 1944, especially in the Battle of Kunlun Pass.


title: T-26

text: The next military operation the T-26 light tank participated in was the Soviet-Japanese border conflict, commencing with the Battle of Lake Khasan, in July 1938. The 2nd Mechanised Brigade together with the 32nd and the 40th Independent Tank Battalions had 257 T-26s, from which 76 tanks were damaged and 9 burnt towards the end of battle action. A small number of T-26 tanks, as well as some flame-throwing tanks based on the T-26 chassis, participated in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol against Japanese forces in 1939. The T-26 was vulnerable to Japanese tank-killing teams armed with Molotov cocktails; poor quality welds left gaps in the armour plate, and flaming petrol easily seeped into the fighting compartment and engine compartment. The 37 mm gun on the Japanese Type 95 light tank, despite its mediocre performance, was also effective against the T-26. Portions of the armour plating on earlier models of the T-26 used riveted construction and were very vulnerable to both types of attacks. The use of riveted armour on some older T-26 models led to "spalling", when the impact of enemy shells, even if they failed to disable the tank or kill the crew on their own, caused the rivets to break off and become projectiles inside the tank.


title: T-26

text: On the eve of World War II, T-26s served mainly in separate light tank brigades (each brigade had 256–267 T-26s) and in separate tank battalions of the rifle divisions (one company of T-26s consisted of 10–15 tanks). These were the type of tank units that participated in the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939 and in the Winter War from December 1939 – March 1940. The Winter War proved that the T-26 was obsolete and its design reserve was totally depleted. Finnish 37 mm antitank guns and even 20 mm antitank rifles easily penetrated the T-26's thin anti-bullet armour and tank units equipped with the T-26 suffered significant losses during the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line, in which the flame-throwing tanks based on the T-26 chassis played a significant role.


title: T-26

text: By mid-1941, most of the Red Army's vast numbers of tanks were suffering from serious wear and tear. Poor quality roads, the vulnerabilities of track design in the early 1930s and inadequate maintenance, recovery and repair services all took their toll. In some of the front line armoured units, up to half of the T-26, T-28 and BT tanks had major drive train components (engine, drive train or suspension) that were broken down or worn out and these disabled tanks were parked and cannibalised for spare parts to keep the rest running. Tanks damaged during the 1939 Winter War with Finland were also cannibalised for parts.


title: T-26

text: On 1 June 1941, the Red Army had 10,268 T-26 light tanks of all models on their inventories, including armoured combat vehicles based on the T-26 chassis. T-26s composed the majority of the fighting vehicles in the Soviet mechanised corps of the border military districts. For instance, the Western Special Military District had 1,136 T-26 tanks on 22 June 1941 (52 percent of all tanks in the district). The T-26 (mod. 1938/39, especially) could withstand most German tanks in 1941 but were inferior to the Panzer III and Panzer IV participating in Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 and all of the Red Army's tank models suffered severe losses due to the air supremacy of the German "Luftwaffe". The majority of the Red Army's T-26s were lost in the first months of the German-Soviet War, mainly to enemy artillery and air attacks. Many tanks broke down for technical reasons and lack of spare parts.


title: T-26

text: As the war progressed and Germany's lighter tanks were replaced by the Panzer III, Panzer IV and heavier tanks, such as the Panther, the T-26 was gradually replaced through attrition by the vastly superior T-34. The remaining T-26s participated in battles with the Germans and their allies during the Battle of Moscow from 1941 to 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of the Caucasus from 1942 to 1943. Some tank units of the Leningrad Front used their T-26 tanks until 1944.


title: T-26

text: The defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria in August 1945 was the last military operation in which Soviet T-26s were used.


title: T-26

text: The Finnish Army used captured T-26s of different models during the Continuation War and some tanks served in Finland for various non-combat purposes until 1961. Captured T-26s were also used by the German, Romanian and Hungarian armies. The Romanian-captured vehicles saw some modifications (see below).


title: T-26

text: As the series production of the PS-2 gun was delayed, the Main Artillery Agency of the RKKA gave preference to a new gun. It was developed by the Artillery Design Office of the "Bolshevik" Factory, constructed from parts taken from the previously purchased German 37 mm anti-tank gun developed by Rheinmetall and the PS-2 gun. This system was successfully tested and the Artillery Factory No. 8 named after M. Kalinin started its series production under the designator B-3 (5K). The B-3 gun had less recoil and a smaller breech compared to the PS-2, so it could be easily mounted in the normal machine gun turret of the T-26. The first twin-turreted T-26 was armed with a B-3 gun in the right turret in late 1931. Unfortunately, series production of the B-3 gun proceeded slowly due to poor production standards (none of 225 guns produced in 1931 were accepted by army representatives; it took until 1933 to complete the original order for 300 guns placed in August 1931). Completed B-3 guns were mounted on BT-2 light tanks after mid-1932. This meant that twin-turreted T-26 tanks continued to be equipped with old 37 mm Hotchkiss (PS-1) guns. As production of the PS-1 gun had ended, some guns were taken from military supply depots and scrapped MS-1(T-18) tanks.


title: T-26

text: The initial plan was to arm every fifth T-26 with the 37 mm gun in the right turret, but the final proportion was somewhat higher. About 450 twin-turreted T-26 mod. 1931 tanks mounting the 37 mm gun in the right turret were produced in 1931–1933 (including only 20–30 tanks with the B-3 gun). There were 392 T-26 mod. 1931 tanks with gun plus machine gun armament in the Red Army on 1 April 1933.


title: T-26

text: One twin-turreted T-26 was given to the Research Institute of Communication in March 1932 to develop special tank communication devices. The plan was to equip each tank with a keyphone, while a platoon commander's tank would be equipped with a telephone switch for 6 subscribers (four for the tanks in the platoon, one for communication with infantry and one for contacting headquarters). A special terminal block was mounted on the rear of the tank so that communication wires could be connected. The work remained experimental.


title: T-26

text: The T-26 mod. 1939 with appliqué armour weighed , which caused an overload of the chassis, transmission, and engine of the light tank. Drivers were advised to use low gears only.


title: T-26

text: During the Great Patriotic War, a mounting of 15–40 mm appliqué armour on about a hundred different T-26s was performed by local factories in Leningrad in 1941–1942, during the Siege of Odessa (1941), the Battle for Moscow and the Siege of Sevastopol (1941–1942). A cutting of armoured plates was more rough than developed during the Winter War; the majority of these modified tanks did not have a moving armoured gun mask as seen in Factory No. 174's original design, and some tanks had front appliqué armour only.


title: T-26

text: It was found that the A-43 turret was very tight for two crewmembers; it had insufficient observation field; there was no turret ventilation, which made continuous gunfire difficult; and it was hard to rotate the turret manually. At the beginning of 1933, a new 76 mm KT tank gun mod. 1927/32 with reduced (from 900 mm to 500 mm) recoil length was installed into the A-43 turret. The turret was still a very tight place for crew members. The ammunition stowage for 54 rounds was unsuccessful, and the military refused the A-43 turret.


title: T-26

text: The T-26-4 with the KT tank gun passed tests successfully and five vehicles were built in 1933–1934 as pilot batch. Initially it was planned to arm three of these T-26-4 with the 76.2 mm KT tank gun mod. 1927/32 and the other two tanks with the 76.2 mm PS-3 tank gun. The PS-3 tank gun was developed at the Experimental Engineering-Mechanical Department (OKMO) of the Factory No. 174 by engineer P. Syachentov. The PS-3 had better specifications in comparison with the series-produced KT tank gun and also had several technical innovations (foot firing switch, original training gear, travelling position fixing, binocular optical sight). The T-26-4 armed with the PS-3 tank gun was tested in October 1933 but it was found that the PS-3 was too powerful for the T-26 light tank—turret's race ring and hull roof were deformed during gun fire, and the suspension springs were damaged. It was decided to arm the T-26-4 with the 76.2 mm KT tank gun only. All five experimental T-26-4 artillery tanks were tested during military exercises near Leningrad in September 1934 before scheduled series production of 50 such vehicles in 1935. But on 19 September 1934 an incident with a T-26-4 took place: a blow-back because of shell case destruction during gun fire. Despite the fact that this defect was unrelated to turret design, the military representatives cancelled the order to produce the T-26-4. Also the work to design turretless AT-1 artillery tanks armed with the powerful 76.2 mm PS-3 tank gun started at that time. The T-26-4's turret construction was the design used in the series-produced BT-7A artillery tank.


title: T-26

text: In 1939, the Armoured Directorate of the Red Army (ABTU RKKA) ordered the development of a new conical turret for the T-26 similar to the BT-7's turret and to arm it with the 76.2 mm L-10 tank gun. Engineers of the Factory No. 174 felt it was impossible to implement this project because it would lead to a significant overload of T-26's chassis.


title: T-26

text: A large variety of different armoured combat vehicles were developed on the T-26 chassis in the 1930s. Among them were KhT-26, KhT-130 and KhT-133 flame-throwing (chemical) tanks (552, 401 and 269 vehicles were produced, respectively); T-26T artillery tractors (197 were produced); TT-26 and TU-26 remotely controlled tanks (162 teletanks of all models were produced); ST-26 bridge-laying tanks (71 were produced); SU-5 self-propelled guns (33 were produced); experimental armoured cargo/personnel carriers, reconnaissance vehicles, and many others. The majority of these vehicles were developed at the Leningrad Factory of Experimental Mechanical Engineering (from 1935 known as the Factory No. 185 named after S.M. Kirov) by talented Soviet engineers P.N. Syachentov, S.A. Ginzburg, L.S. Troyanov, N.V. Tseits, B.A. Andryhevich, M.P. Zigel and others. Various vehicle-mounted equipment was developed for the T-26, including mine-clearing attachments, inflatable pontoons and a snorkel system for fording water obstacles, devices for overcoming obstacles and many others. T-26 light tanks were also modified into different armoured combat vehicles in the field during wartime.


title: T-26

text: There are about 45 T-26 tanks of various models preserved in different museums and military schools (mainly Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Finnish). The most notable of them are:


title: John Coltrane discography

text: This article presents the discography of the American jazz saxophonist and bandleader John Coltrane (1926–1967).


title: John Coltrane discography

text: Coltrane participated in his first recording sessions while enlisted in the Navy from August 6, 1945, to August 11, 1946. He performed eight numbers in a pickup band that included trumpeter Dexter Culbertson. These were private recordings not made for official release. However, one track from the session, "Hot House", eventually appeared on the 1992 compilation "."


title: John Coltrane discography

text: There are conflicting sources as to whether he made his first professional recording session with Dinah Washington: Jazzdisco.org lists the session as September 27, 1949 in New York City, but Lewis Porter's "John Coltrane: His Life and Music" states that he was on tour with the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band during that time. Most sources confirm that he recorded with Billy Valentine on November 7 in Los Angeles for Mercury Records. In subsequent years, Coltrane sat in on recording sessions with Gillespie, Johnny Hodges, Earl Bostic, and Gay Crosse.


title: John Coltrane discography

text: In September 1955, Coltrane joined the Miles Davis Quintet and appeared on several Miles Davis-led recordings, including "'Round About Midnight" and "Milestones". He briefly joined Thelonious Monk in May 1957, and their handful of recordings together have been collected on albums such as 1961's "Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane". In 1958, he rejoined Davis' band and stayed until April 1960; during that time he participated in the 1959 "Kind of Blue" sessions.


title: John Coltrane discography

text: In April 1957, he signed a contract with Prestige Records; it is unclear if this was a two-year deal or a one-year contract plus a one-year option. Many of Coltrane's recordings for Prestige could be classified as "sideman" recordings and informal jam sessions (or "blowing sessions", in the then-current terminology). He also made his first albums as a group leader, including his 1957 debut, "Coltrane". That same year, Prestige allowed him to fulfill a promise that he would make an album for Blue Note, leading to 1957's "Blue Train". After Coltrane gained prominence in the early 1960s, Prestige reissued a number of Coltrane's sideman and jam sessions under his name to capitalize on his success. "The Prestige Recordings" collects all of Coltrane's recordings for Prestige with the exception of his sideman work with Davis.


title: John Coltrane discography

text: When his Prestige contract expired, Coltrane signed a two-year contract (one year, plus a one-year option) with Atlantic Records in April 1959. He was the leader of all of these sessions except "Bags & Trane" and "The Avant-Garde", where he was featured with Milt Jackson and Don Cherry respectively. Albums from this period include "Giant Steps" and "My Favorite Things". The "" box collects his recordings for Atlantic, including all known outtakes.


title: John Coltrane discography

text: Coltrane became the first artist to sign with the new Impulse! Records when it bought out his Atlantic contract in April 1961. He would record for the label until the end of his life, and his success earned Impulse! a reputation as "The House That Trane Built". Albums from this final period include the live album "Live at Birdland", "A Love Supreme", and "Ascension".


title: John Coltrane discography

text: All of the companies Coltrane worked with during his lifetime have compiled and reissued his material. In addition, Impulse! has issued several previously unreleased live recordings, including "Live in Japan" and "The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording". Coltrane's concert, television and radio performances generated dozens of unauthorized and bootleg recordings. Pablo Records, a label that specializes in live recordings, purchased rights to several tapes of his performances, and is therefore considered a legitimate source despite never signing him to its label.


title: Carson McCullers

text: Carson McCullers (February 19, 1917 – September 29, 1967) was an American novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet. Her first novel, "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" (1940), explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts in a small town of the Southern United States. Her other novels have similar themes and most are set in the deep South.


title: Carson McCullers

text: McCullers's work is often described as Southern Gothic and indicative of her Southern roots. Critics also describe her writing and eccentric characters as universal in scope. Her stories have been adapted to stage and film. A stage adaptation of her novel "The Member of the Wedding" (1946), which captures a young girl's feelings at her brother's wedding, made a successful Broadway run in 1950–51.


title: Carson McCullers

text: McCullers was born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia, in 1917 to Lamar Smith, a jeweller, and Marguerite Waters. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Lula Carson Waters. She had a younger brother, Lamar, Jr. and a younger sister, Marguerite. Her mother's grandfather was a planter and Confederate soldier. Her father was a watchmaker and jeweler of French Huguenot descent. From the age of ten, she took piano lessons; when she was fifteen, her father gave her a typewriter to encourage her story writing.


title: Carson McCullers

text: Smith graduated from Columbus High School. In September 1934, at age 17, she left home on a steamship bound for New York City, planning to study piano at the Juilliard School of Music. After losing the money she was going to use to study at Juilliard on the subway, she decided instead to work, take night classes, and write. She worked several odd jobs, including as a waitress and a dog walker. After falling ill with rheumatic fever, she returned to Columbus to recuperate, and she changed her mind about studying music. Returning to New York, she worked in menial jobs while pursuing a writing career; she attended night classes at Columbia University and studied creative writing under Texas writer Dorothy Scarborough and with Sylvia Chatfield Bates at Washington Square College of New York University. In 1936, she published her first work. "Wunderkind", an autobiographical piece that Bates admired, depicted a music prodigy's adolescent insecurity and losses. It first appeared in "Story" magazine and is collected in "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe."


title: Carson McCullers

text: From 1935 to 1937, as her studies and health dictated, she divided her time between Columbus and New York. In September 1937, aged 20, she married an ex-soldier and aspiring writer, Reeves McCullers. A "New Yorker" profile described her husband as "…a dreamer attracted to big, capable women." They began their married life in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Reeves had found work. The couple made a pact to take alternating turns as writer then breadwinner, starting with Reeves's taking a salaried position while McCullers wrote. Her eventual success as a writer precluded his literary ambitions.


title: Carson McCullers

text: Maxim Lieber was McCullers's literary agent in 1938 and intermittently thereafter. In 1940, at the age of 23, writing in the Southern Gothic or perhaps Southern realist traditions, McCullers completed her first novel, "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter". (The title was suggested by her editor and was taken from a Fiona MacLeod poem, "The Lonely Hunter"). At the time the novel was thought to suggest an anti-Fascist message.


title: Carson McCullers

text: After completing "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" in 1939 (then titled "The Mute"), McCullers and her husband moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she completed "Reflections in a Golden Eye" (then titled "Army Post") in the span of two months. She sold the book to "Harper's Bazaar" for five hundred dollars in August 1940. It was published in two parts in the magazine in October and November.


title: Carson McCullers

text: With influences such as Isak Dinesen, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, and Tolstoy, she published eight books; the best known are "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" (1940), "Reflections in a Golden Eye" (1941) and "The Member of the Wedding" (1946). The novella "The Ballad of the Sad Café" (1951) depicts loneliness and the pain of unrequited love; at the time of its writing, McCullers was a resident at Yaddo, the artists' colony in Saratoga Springs, New York.


title: Carson McCullers

text: In "The Member of the Wedding", McCullers describes the feelings of a young girl at her brother's wedding. The Broadway stage adaptation of the novel had a successful run in 1950–51 and was produced by the Young Vic in London in September 2007. The original production won the New York Drama Critics'Circle Award for the best play of the season.


title: Carson McCullers

text: Many know her works largely by their film adaptations, neither of which she lived to see. "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" was adapted as a film with the same title in 1968, with Alan Arkin in the lead role. "Reflections in a Golden Eye" was directed by John Huston (1967) and starred Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor. McCullers died a fortnight before that film's premiere in October 1967. Huston, in his autobiography, "An Open Book" (1980), wrote of her:


title: Carson McCullers

text: I first met Carson McCullers during the war when I was visiting Paulette Goddard and Burgess Meredith in upstate New York. Carson lived nearby, and one day when Buzz and I were out for a walk she hailed us from her doorway. She was then in her early 20s, and had already suffered the first of a series of strokes. I remember her as a fragile thing with great shining eyes, and a tremor in her hand as she placed it in mine. It wasn't palsy, rather a quiver of animal timidity. But there was nothing timid or frail about the manner in which Carson McCullers faced life. And as her afflictions multiplied, she only grew stronger.


title: Carson McCullers

text: Richard Wright, the author of "Black Boy", reviewed her first novel, published in 1940 at the age of 22, and said she was the first white writer to create fully human black characters. In his review 'Hugo: Secrets of The Inner Landscape,' he stated:


title: Carson McCullers

text: Carson and Reeves McCullers divorced in 1941. After separating from Reeves she moved to New York to live with George Davis, the editor of "Harper's Bazaar". She became a member of February House, an art commune in Brooklyn. Among her friends were W. H. Auden, Benjamin Britten, Gypsy Rose Lee and the writer couple Paul Bowles and Jane Bowles. After World War II McCullers lived mostly in Paris. Her close friends during these years included Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. During this period of separation, Reeves had a love relationship with the composer David Diamond, and the two lived together in Rochester, New York.


title: Carson McCullers

text: McCullers fell in love with a number of women and pursued them sexually with great determination. Love letters written to McCullers from Annemarie Clarac-Schwarzenbach are at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Her most documented and extended love obsession was with Annemarie Schwarzenbach, of whom she once wrote "She had a face that I knew would haunt me for the rest of my life." In her autobiography, McCullers reports that the two shared one kiss. McCullers's passion, however, was not reciprocated, and the two remained friends with McCullers dedicating her next novel, "Reflections in a Golden Eye", to her. Sarah Schulman writes:There is the infamous obsession with Katherine Anne Porter and a much-implied ongoing “friendship” with Gypsy Rose Lee. But if Carson ever actually had sex with a woman, even Tennessee [Williams] didn't hear of it. According to McCullers's brilliant biographer, Virginia Spencer Carr, Carson did brag to her male cousin that she'd had sex with Gypsy once. But if that was the case, she never mentioned it to any of her gay friends. In the absence of reciprocated lesbian love and the inability to consummate lesbian sex, McCullers still wore a lesbian persona in literature and in life. She clearly wrote against the grain of heterosexual convention, wore men's clothes, was outrageously aggressive in her consistently failed search for sex and love with another woman, and formed primary friendships with other gay people.In 1945, Carson and Reeves McCullers remarried. Three years later, while severely depressed, she attempted suicide. In 1953, Reeves tried to persuade her to commit suicide with him, but she fled and Reeves killed himself in their Paris hotel with an overdose of sleeping pills. Her bittersweet play "The Square Root of Wonderful" (1957) drew upon these traumatic experiences. The potential suicide of Carson's father may have foreshadowed if not influenced these events. In the 1950s, McCullers was in therapy for a variety of reasons, and discussed the possibility of being a lesbian with her therapist Dr. Mary A. Mercer.


title: Carson McCullers

text: This break from the reported story of his sudden death by heart attack was first published in 2003 by Virginia Spencer Carr in the preface to her updated biography, "The Lonely Hunter". The suggestion was further explored in "A Member of the Family," an article on Lamar Smith, by Daniel Bellware in the Fall 2017 issue of "Muscogiana" published by Columbus State University.


title: Carson McCullers

text: McCullers dictated her unfinished autobiography, "Illumination and Night Glare" (1999), during the final months of her life. Her home from 1945 to 1967 in South Nyack, New York, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.


title: Carson McCullers

text: McCullers suffered throughout her life from several illnesses and from alcoholism. At age of 15, she contracted rheumatic fever, which resulted in rheumatic heart disease. As a result of the heart damage sustained, McCullers suffered from strokes that began in her youth. She lived the last twenty years of her life in Nyack, New York, where she died on September 29, 1967, at the age of 50, after a brain hemorrhage. She is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.


title: Carson McCullers

text: McCullers's style is often described as Southern Gothic, as the majority of her works take place in the Southern United States and feature eccentric characters suffering from loneliness interspersed by moments of deep empathy. In a discussion with the Irish critic and writer Terence de Vere White, McCullers said, "Writing, for me, is a search for God". Other critics have variously detected tragicomic or political elements in her writing.


title: Carson McCullers

text: The most recent scholarly collection of commentaries on her work is "Carson McCullers in the Twenty-First Century" (2016), edited by Graham-Bertolini and Kayser.


title: Carson McCullers

text: McCullers's childhood home in Columbus, Georgia, is now owned by Columbus State University and is the central location of the university's Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians. The center is dedicated to preserving the legacy of McCullers; to nurturing American writers and musicians; to educating young people; and to fostering the literary and musical life of Columbus, the state of Georgia, and the American South. To that end, the center operates a museum in the Smith–McCullers' home, presents extensive educational and cultural programs for the community, maintains an ever-growing archive of materials related to the life and work of McCullers, and offers fellowships for writers and composers who live for periods of time in the Smith-McCullers home in Columbus.


title: Carson McCullers

text: While the center operates out of the Smith–McCullers house, the writer's childhood home and museum is open to the public.


title: Carson McCullers

text: In 1944, when McCullers's father died, her mother left Columbus and moved to Nyack, New York, where she bought her daughter's famed Nyack home. McCullers lived with her mother and sister off and on in this house for a number of years, eventually buying the house from her mother. McCullers was living in this house when she died in 1967. In December 2006 the house in Nyack was added to the National Register of Historic Places.


title: Carson McCullers

text: McCullers's therapist and longtime friend, Dr. Mary E. Mercer, bequeathed the house in Nyack to Columbus State University's Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians, the same center that owns and operates out of McCullers's childhood home in Columbus, Georgia. At Dr. Mercer's death in late April 2013, the McCullers Center inherited not only the house but also many artifacts and documents that shed light on the last ten years of McCullers's life.


title: Carson McCullers

text: The two former McCullers houses now owned by Columbus State University together contain the world's most extensive research collection on the author.


title: Carson McCullers

text: The Rainey-McCullers School of the Arts in Columbus, Georgia, is named in honor of McCullers and fellow Columbus native Ma Rainey.


title: Carson McCullers

text: In 2020, American writer Jenn Shapland published M"y Autobiography of Carson McCullers", which recounts Shapland's discovery of McCullers' letters to Swiss writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach. Shapland's book contends McCullers was queer, or closeted. Other critics have noted that "McCullers camouflaged her love for women in her fiction, [and] gay and lesbian themes are inarguably present in her work."


title: John Arne Riise

text: John Arne Semundseth Riise (born 24 September 1980) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who played as a left back and a left midfielder. He is currently the manager of Toppserien club Avaldsnes.


title: John Arne Riise

text: With 110 caps, Riise is the most capped player for the Norway national team. He was named in the Norway squad for UEFA Euro 2000 but did not play in the tournament. Riise scored 16 goals before his retirement from international duty in 2013. He spent seven years playing for Premier League side Liverpool, in which he won many honours, including the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League, before moving to Roma in 2008.


title: John Arne Riise

text: Riise began his career in his homeland with Aalesund. After a single season as a senior player for the club, he moved abroad in 1998, playing the formative years of his professional career with French club Monaco. When Aalesund opened their new stadium in April 2005, businessman Olav Nils Sunde donated a statue to the club, which was erected in front of the stadium. While Sunde denied it, the statue bore a very strong resemblance to Riise. In 2007, when Riise played in the Champions League Final, a Norwegian commentator demanded the statue officially carry his name. Riise himself has said, "[The name change] is not for me to decide. Everyone sees who it is, and I know that it was made for me."


title: John Arne Riise

text: Riise was a regular member of the 1999–2000 Ligue 1 championship-winning side, however, he fell out of favour with coach Claude Puel after admitting his desire to leave. Riise was a subject of interest from Premier League clubs, especially Fulham and Leeds United that both offered £4 million bids in 2000, though both came to nothing as Monaco wanted £6 million for him.


title: John Arne Riise

text: He made his debut for Liverpool on 24 August 2001 2001 UEFA Super Cup game against Bayern Munich played at the Stade Louis II. He scored as Liverpool went on to win the game 3–2. He also scored important goals throughout the Premier League season against teams such as Arsenal, Everton, Newcastle United and Manchester United. Riise initially wore the number 18 shirt but changed to the number 6 shirt in 2004–05 season, which had been vacated by defender Markus Babbel. He scored 8 goals in his first season with Liverpool.


title: John Arne Riise

text: Riise endured what were considered below-average seasons by most in the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons, but he rediscovered his form in 2004–05 following the appointment of Rafael Benítez as manager. He won a UEFA Champions League winner's medal, providing the assist for Liverpool's first goal of the final, although his attempt in the penalty shoot-out against Milan was saved. In the 2005 Football League Cup Final, he scored 45 seconds into the game, the fastest goal in the fixture history, according to the official Liverpool homepage; however, Chelsea eventually prevailed 3–2 after extra time.


title: John Arne Riise

text: In January 2006, Riise signed a new contract at Anfield to keep him at the club until 2009. In February 2008, Riise announced his desire to stay at Liverpool for the rest of his career.


title: John Arne Riise

text: Riise helped the club to win the 2005–06 FA Cup, scoring in the semi-final against Chelsea and successfully converting his attempt in the penalty shoot-out against West Ham in the final.


title: John Arne Riise

text: After a poor run of form in Liverpool's away games in the autumn of 2006, Riise reacted to comments made by teammates Pepe Reina and Jamie Carragher that Liverpool could effectively write off their chances of winning the league, saying, "We never give up. Cowards give up."


title: John Arne Riise

text: Riise made it into the list of the top 50 Liverpool appearance-makers of all time when he played in the 5–0 victory over Luton Town on 15 January 2008.


title: John Arne Riise

text: On 22 April 2008, in Liverpool's Champions League semi-final first leg against Chelsea at Anfield, Riise scored an own goal in the 95th minute to equalise. Liverpool went on to lose 3–2 after extra time in the away match and were eliminated from the tournament 4–3 on aggregate.


title: John Arne Riise

text: Throughout the 2007–08 season, Riise's natural place in the side was often taken by Fábio Aurélio, the Brazilian establishing himself as the club's first choice left-back. On 18 June 2008, after being linked with moves to other English clubs, Riise signed a four-year contract with Italian Serie A club Roma. The club paid €5 million total (which could go up to €5.5 million), including €2.8 million per year. Riise soon became a fan favourite with his hard working spirit which drove Roma to several important victories. In fact, Riise's first goal for the club was against league leaders Internazionale in a pivotal top of the table game. Two months later, he scored again in the same stadium against Milan with a free kick into the top right corner, also providing an assist for Roma's second goal of the game. Riise was named the Man of the Match for the game, which ended 3–2 in favour of Roma. On 24 January 2010, Riise scored a late header three minutes into injury time in Roma's 2–1 away win over Juventus. He was also responsible for the dismissal of influential goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon in the same game after making a terrific run leaving Buffon no choice but to foul the full-back. Given the nature of the game, it is seen as one of Riise's most memorable moments in a Roma jersey.


title: John Arne Riise

text: On 13 July 2011, Fulham announced that Riise had signed a three-year-deal with the club for an undisclosed fee. Riise joined his brother, Bjørn Helge Riise, at Fulham who signed for the club in 2009. Riise made his Fulham debut on 21 July 2011, playing in the UEFA Europa League against Crusaders at Craven Cottage.


title: John Arne Riise

text: On 1 September 2014, John Arne Riise signed a one-year contract, with the option of a further season with Cypriot side APOEL. He made his official debut on 20 September 2014, playing the full 90 minutes and providing two assists in APOEL's 3–1 away victory against Ayia Napa for the Cypriot First Division. He made his only 2014–15 UEFA Champions League group stage appearance with APOEL on 21 October 2014, coming on as a 41st-minute substitute in his team's 0–1 home defeat to Paris Saint-Germain. He scored his first official goal for APOEL on 11 January 2015, opening the scoreline in his team's 1–2 defeat at AEL Limassol for the Cypriot First Division. On 20 May 2015, Riise played a key role in APOEL's 4–2 win over AEL in the final of the Cypriot Cup, scoring his side's decisive fourth goal with a trademark blistering 30-metre free-kick and lifted his first trophy with APOEL in Cyprus. On 24 May 2015, APOEL secured their third consecutive Cypriot league title after beating Ermis Aradippou 4–2, and Riise celebrated the second championship trophy of his career, 15 years after winning the French league with Monaco. On 25 May 2015, one day after winning the double with APOEL, the team announced that Riise's contract was terminated by mutual consent.


title: John Arne Riise

text: On 24 August 2015, Indian Super League side Delhi Dynamos confirmed the signing of Riise for the upcoming 2015 tournament.


title: John Arne Riise

text: On 11 March 2016, Riise announced on his Twitter page that he had signed for Aalesunds FK, marking his return to the club at which he began his career. Not too long after signing the contract, Riise decided to take a break from professional football, stating a loss of motivation fuelled the decision. He stated that he would return to football before officially retiring.


title: John Arne Riise

text: On 18 August 2016, Riise returned from retirement to play for Indian Super League club Chennaiyin. on a two-month contract, as a marquee signing for the Indian club. Co-owner Vita Dani said that he was "delighted" at the signing, and praised Riise's "exceptional" experience as a player. He played ten matches for the club and also scored a goal in the season.


title: John Arne Riise

text: Riise made his debut for the Norway national team against Iceland on 31 January 2000. His first international goals came against Turkey in a Friendly match on 23 February 2000, a game Norway won 2–0. Later that year, he made the only international tournament appearance of his career at UEFA Euro 2000, but was an unused substitute in all three of the team's Group C matches. Through the next decade, Riise was Norway's first-choice left-back, and on 12 November 2011, he played his 100th international match when Norway lost 4–1 against Wales. On 15 August 2012, Riise played his 104th match for Norway and equalled Thorbjørn Svenssen's record as the most capped Norwegian player, eventually surpassing it before retiring from international football in 2013.


title: John Arne Riise

text: According to his profile on Fulham FC's website, Riise was "renowned for his unrivalled stamina and powerful shooting ... impressing both as an accomplished defender and as a marauding full-back." He also was a threat from set pieces. While primarily a left back, he often also played as a left midfielder whilst at Liverpool.


title: John Arne Riise

text: On 4 January 2019, Riise joined Maltese club Birkirkara as a sports director but resigned after less than three months due to personal reasons.


title: John Arne Riise

text: On 5 November 2019, Riise was announced as the new manager of Norwegian Third Division club Flint Tønsberg. He left the club at the end of the 2021 season which ended with relegation to the Norwegian Fourth Division. On 8 December 2021, he was presented as the new manager of Toppserien club Avaldsnes on a two-year contract.


title: John Arne Riise

text: Riise has a younger brother named Bjørn Helge Riise who was also a Norwegian international. The two both played for Fulham in the 2011–12 season.


title: John Arne Riise

text: Riise was married to his childhood sweetheart, the Norwegian model Guri Havnevik, from 2003 until they divorced in 2004. He has one daughter with Guri named Ariana, born in January 2001. He has Ariana's name tattooed on his right arm.


title: John Arne Riise

text: Riise got engaged to Maria Elvegard in 2007. The couple were due to be married in the summer of 2008 but had to postpone the day after moving to Rome. They married on 21 June 2010 in a private ceremony in New York City, inviting only their family and close friends. Maria decided to have a double-barrelled surname, Elvegard-Riise. With Maria, he has one daughter named Emma born on 4 August 2009 and one son named Patrick born in November 2011. He has Emma's name and date of birth tattooed on his left arm. He also has Patrick's name tattooed on his left arm. In February 2012, they announced that they would divorce.


title: John Arne Riise

text: Since retiring as a player Riise has been involved in various bankruptcies, either by him directly or by companies owned or managed by him. He was sued by his ex-wife for allegedly for removing funds illegally from an account belonging to their child. He also received publicized financial assistance from Silje Sandmæl, one of the main economists from the popular TV-show "Luksusfellen", which is a reality-like show that explores the hardships of people in helpless financial situations.


The Trinidad and Tobago national football team, nicknamed the "Soca Warriors", represents the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in international football. It is controlled by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, which is a member of CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football), the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), and the global jurisdiction of FIFA.


title: Trinidad and Tobago national football team

text: The national team competes in the World Cup, Gold Cup, and the Nations League, as well as other competitions by invitation. The Soca Warriors lone appearance at the FIFA World Cup came in 2006, after the team defeated Bahrain 2–1 on aggregate in the CONCACAF–AFC intercontinental play-off. The team has qualified for the CONCACAF Gold Cup on 16 occasions with their best performance in 2000, after reaching the semi-finals, finishing third. However, the national team did experience great success at the defunct Caribbean Cup, having won the sub-continental competition ten times and runners-up on seven occasions.


text: The separate Trinidad and Tobago national football teams are not related to the national team and are not directly affiliated with the game's governing bodies of FIFA or CONCACAF, but are affiliated with the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association.


text: At the 1973 CONCACAF Championship, Trinidad and Tobago fell two points short of qualifying for the 1974 World Cup in controversial fashion. Trinidad and Tobago lost a crucial game on 4 December 1973 against hosts Haiti 2–1 after being denied five goals. The referee, José Roberto Henríquez of El Salvador, and Canadian linesman James Higuet were subsequently banned for life by FIFA for the dubious events of the match.


text: Trinidad and Tobago came within one game of qualifying for the 1990 World Cup in Italy. Nicknamed the "Strike Squad" during the qualifying campaign, Trinidad and Tobago needed only a draw to qualify in their final game played at home against the United States on 19 November 1989. In front of an over-capacity crowd of more than 30,000 at the National Stadium on "Red Day", Paul Caligiuri of the United States scored the only goal of the game in the 38th minute dashing Trinidad and Tobago's qualification hopes. For the good behaviour of the crowd at the stadium, despite the devastating loss and overcrowded stands, the spectators of Trinidad and Tobago were awarded the FIFA Fair Play Award in 1989.


text: Trinidad and Tobago qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, its first-ever qualification for the tournament. During their qualifying campaign, they sat at the bottom of the table in the final round of qualifying with one point from three. However, after the arrival of Leo Beenhakker as team coach and the recalling of veteran players Dwight Yorke and Russell Latapy, Trinidad and Tobago reversed its fortunes and placed fourth in the group. They qualified via a play-off against Bahrain, recovering from a 1–1 draw at home to win 1–0 in Manama, Bahrain to book a place in the finals. As a result, Trinidad and Tobago became the smallest country to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, a record they held until Iceland reached their first World Cup in 2018.


text: In Germany, Trinidad and Tobago were grouped with England, Sweden and Paraguay in Group B. They drew their first game 0–0 against Sweden despite going down to ten men early in the second half. They lost both their remaining matches against England and Paraguay by a 2–0 margin.


text: Trinidad and Tobago began their campaign in the second round against Bermuda. Trinidad and Tobago lost the first match 2–1 at home, but bounced back to win the away leg 2–0 to progress to the third round 3–2 on aggregate. The Soca Warriors entered Group 1 alongside the United States, Guatemala, and Cuba. They then progressed to the Hexagonal round, finishing second in the group with eleven points from six games. There they faced Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and the United States. The group began badly for Trinidad and Tobago as they drew 2–2 with El Salvador after leading 2–0, and then drew 1–1 with Honduras. Three consecutive losses, to the United States, Costa Rica and Mexico, put the Soca Warriors in last place with two points from five matches. After defeating El Salvador 1–0, they suffered further losses to Honduras and the United States the following month, ending their hopes of qualifying, and they eventually finished bottom of the group.


text: Trinidad and Tobago entered qualification for the 2014 World Cup in the second round as a seeded team, with Guyana, Bermuda and Barbados also drawn in Group B. The Soca Warriors defeated Bermuda (1–0) and Barbados (2–0) in their first two matches. However, on 7 October 2011, they lost away to Bermuda in Devonshire Parish 2–1. The team recovered four days later by defeating Barbados 4–0 in the Hasely Crawford Stadium with a hat-trick from Lester Peltier. Entering the final two matches in the Second Round, Trinidad and Tobago were in second place, behind Guyana by one point. As only the group winners would advance to the third round, the Soca Warriors needed to take four points in the two matches against Guyana to advance. Trinidad and Tobago first traveled to Providence, Guyana to face the Golden Jaguars on 11 November 2011. With an early goal from Ricky Shakes and another from Leon Cort in the 81st minute, Trinidad and Tobago trailed 2–0 and faced elimination. Kenwyne Jones pull a goal back in the 93rd minute, but the match ended 2–1 to Guyana. On 12 January 2012, Otto Pfister was sacked after the country's earliest exit from World Cup qualification since 1994.


text: Trinidad and Tobago entered qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in the fourth round and were drawn into Group C with Guatemala, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the United States. The team finished second in the group with 11 points to qualify for the Hexagonal. However, they finished in sixth place in the final round with only six points, even though they eliminated the United States from World Cup contention with a 2–1 victory in the final match.


text: For the first eighty years of their existence, Trinidad and Tobago played their home matches all around the country with Queen's Park Oval, generally thought of as the most picturesque and largest of the old cricket grounds in the West Indies, as the most often used venue. The cricket ground served as the country's largest stadium until the new National Stadium was built in Mucurapo, Port of Spain, to host the nation's athletics competitions and international football matches.


text: The stadium later was renovated and renamed after Hasely Crawford, the first person from Trinidad and Tobago to win an Olympic gold medal, prior to Trinidad and Tobago hosting the 2001 FIFA U-17 World Championship. The stadium currently has a seating capacity of 23,000 and is owned by the Trinidad and Tobago government and managed through the Ministry of Sport via its special purpose state agency called SporTT.


text: In recent years, the TTFA have hosted matches at the smaller 10,000 seat Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva, citing a problem with the lighting system at Hasely Crawford Stadium, lower expenses for matches at Ato Boldon, and fans being seated closer to the pitch. Trinidad and Tobago hosted two games during "The Hex" in late 2017. They lost to Honduras 1–2 on 1 September 2017. On 10 October 2017, Trinidad and Tobago defeated the United States 2–1, causing the United States to fail to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986. Ato Boldon Stadium has since hosted friendlies against Grenada, Guyana, and Panama.


text: The major supporters' group for the national team is the Soca Warriors Supporters Club or the "Warrior Nation". The group is a non-profit organisation that is independent of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association. Formed shortly after Trinidad and Tobago secured qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the supporters' club was organised by Soca Warriors Online founder Inshan Mohammed and Nigel Myers.


text: The group's activities include promoting teams locally and globally, lobbying the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association as representatives of football fans, advocating fair pricing and allocation of event tickets, organising travel for fans to home and away matches, providing a family-oriented fans' organisation, and promoting football among the young people of Trinidad and Tobago.


text: The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.


text: Trinidad and Tobago first appeared at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The Soca Warriors finished bottom of the group with one point from the team's three matches. Even though the team did not advance in the competition, Trinidad and Tobago recorded its first point from the FIFA World Cup after a 0–0 draw to Sweden in its first match.


text: Trinidad and Tobago failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup between 1966 and 2002, then again from 2010 to 2022.


title: Landing page

text: In online marketing, a landing page, sometimes known as a "lead capture page", "single property page", "static page", "squeeze page" or a "destination page", is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized search result, marketing promotion, marketing email or an online advertisement. The landing page will usually display directed sales copy that is a logical extension of the advertisement, search result or link. Landing pages are used for lead generation. The actions that a visitor takes on a landing page is what determines an advertiser's conversion rate. A landing page may be part of a microsite or a single page within an organization's main web site.


title: Landing page

text: Landing pages are often linked to social media, e-mail campaigns, search engine marketing campaigns, high quality articles or "affiliate account" in order to enhance the effectiveness of the advertisements. The general goal of a landing page is to convert site visitors into sales or leads. If the goal is to obtain a lead, the landing page will include some method for the visitor to get into contact with the company, usually a phone number or an inquiry form. If a sale is required, the landing page will usually have a link for the visitor to click, which will then send them to a shopping cart or a checkout area. By analyzing activity generated by the linked URL, marketers can use click-through rates and conversion rate to determine the success of an advertisement.


title: Landing page

text: A "reference" landing page presents information that is relevant to the visitor. These can display text, images, dynamic compilations of relevant links or other elements. The idea is to isolate the visitor in this landing page from any other distractions, like full website menu or "similar products", and surround the visitor with all available information about the targeted product to convince him to take action and get captured.


title: Landing page

text: The "References" landing page type should be a transitional stage before the second type which is the "Transactional" Type.


title: Landing page

text: The purpose of the "transactional" landing page is to persuade a visitor to take action by completing a transaction. This is accomplished by providing a form that needs to be filled out. The visitor information is obtained in order to add the visitor's email address to a mailing list as a prospect. An email campaign can then be developed based on responses to transactional landing pages. The goal is to capture as much information about the visitor as possible. The ultimate goal is to convert the visitor into a customer.


title: Landing page

text: Landing pages originated with the IT departments of Microsoft in late 2003 in response to poor online sales of Office. The process was tedious and time-consuming. As a result, in 2009, several startups, including Unbounce, were formed to simplify and streamline the process. The rise of cloud computing and e-commerce around 2009 provided ideal conditions for these startups to flourish. Since then the customer requirements changed, requesting integrations with other solutions such as email marketing, lead nurturing and customer relationship management systems.


title: Landing page

text: Landing pages often contain clear, concise action-oriented headlines. A good landing page explains the product offer in a clear manner and places visual emphasis on the value of the product or service presented.


title: Landing page

text: Marketing experts recommend websites remove the navigation menu and limit internal and external links on the page. Any signup forms on the landing page should reflect the value of the offer. For example, a free offer or newsletter sign up form may only request an email address, whereas high value offers may have longer forms with more details required. They may also include a relevant image, animation or short video. These pages also tend to contain small icons (i.e. of Facebook or Twitter) to facilitate social media sharing.


title: Landing page

text: With the proliferation of competing social media and music distribution platforms a minimal landing page referred to as a "smart link" has appeared. These are a short url, typically shared to existing fans, which leads to a landing page which only has links to the same content on multiple different platforms - enabling customers to choose where they complete their transaction.


title: Landing page

text: "Landing page optimization" (LPO) is one part of a broader Internet marketing process called conversion optimization or conversion rate optimization (CRO), with the goal of improving the percentage of visitors to the website that becomes sales leads and customers. A landing page is a webpage that is displayed when a potential customer clicks an advertisement or a search engine result link. This webpage typically displays content that is a relevant extension of the advertisement or link. LPO aims to provide page content and appearance that makes the webpage more appealing to target audiences.


title: Landing page

text: Experimentation-based LPO can be achieved using A/B testing, multivariate LPO and total-experience testing. These methodologies are applicable to both closed- and open-ended experimentation.


title: Landing page

text: A/B testing, or "A/B split testing", is a method for testing two versions of a webpage: version "A" and version "B". The goal is to test multiple versions of webpages (e.g. home page, product page or FAQ) or one specific element that changes between variation A and variation B (such as having a lead form on the left-hand side or having it placed on the right-hand side), to determine which version is most appealing/effective. This testing method may also be known as "A/B/n split testing"; the "n" denoting more than 2 tests being measured and compared. The data for A/B testing is usually measured via click-through rate or an alternative conversion tracking method.


title: Landing page

text: Testing can be conducted sequentially or in parallel. In sequential testing, often the easiest to implement, the various versions of the webpages are made available online for a specified time period. In parallel (split) testing, both versions are made available and the traffic is divided between the two. The results of sequential split testing can be skewed by differing time periods and traffic patterns in which the different tests are run.


title: Landing page

text: Multivariate landing page optimization (MVLPO) accounts for multiple variations of visual elements (e.g., graphics, text) on a page. For example, a given page may have "k" choices for the title, "m" choices for the featured image or graphic and "n" choices for the company logo. This example yields "k×m×n" landing page configurations.


title: Landing page

text: Significant improvements can be seen through testing different copy text, form layouts, landing page images and background colours. However, not all elements produce the same improvements in conversions and by looking at the results from different tests, it is possible to identify the elements that consistently tend to produce the greatest increase in conversions.


title: Landing page

text: The first application of experimental design for MVLPO was performed by Moskowitz Jacobs Inc. in 1998 as a simulation/demonstration project for Lego. MVLPO did not become a mainstream approach until 2003 or 2004.


title: Landing page

text: Total-experience testing, or "experience testing", is a type of experiment-based testing in which the entire website experience of the visitor is examined using technical capabilities of the website platform (e.g., ATG, Blue Martini Software, etc.). Rather than creating multiple websites, total-experience testing uses the website platform to create several persistent experiences and monitors which one is preferred by the customers.


title: Landing page

text: An advantage of total-experience testing is that it reflects the customer's total website experience, not just the experience with a single page. Two disadvantages are that total-experience testing requires a website platform that supports experience testing, and it takes longer to obtain results than A/B testing and MVLPO.


title: Landing page

text: Various eye tracking tools have proven that people scan webpages in various patterns, but one of the most common for both desktop and mobile being the letter F shape. This means that most website visitors see the top and left side of the screen in the first place and only then they move to other parts of the screen line by line. As the result, web developers are including the most important website content into first lines and first words of the website text to improve visitors understanding of overall content.


title: Landing page

text: Message Matching is the idea of matching the pre-click message to the post-click message on the landing page. The goal of message matching is to create a landing page that directs individuals to a page on a product or subject they are expecting.


title: Landing page

text: This could be done by displaying a statement to the visitors using the same keywords and the right images on the landing page that was found in the advertisement they clicked on.


title: Landing page

text: The messaging on the page reinforces the reason for their click, reducing or removing confusion and therefore increasing conversion rates. This improves overall user experience and reduces the bounce rate (individuals leaving the site without converting or navigating to another portion of the site) for the page. Good message matching can increase conversion by up to 50% in many cases.


title: Landing page

text: Design Matching takes the design on the display ad and repeats it on the landing page. Ensuring the look, feel and sentiment is the same in order to smooth the transition between clicking the ad and completing a conversion.


title: Judith Quiney

text: Judith Quiney (baptised 2 February 1585 – 9 February 1662), , was the younger daughter of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway and the fraternal twin of their only son Hamnet Shakespeare. She married Thomas Quiney, a vintner of Stratford-upon-Avon. The circumstances of the marriage, including Quiney's misconduct, may have prompted the rewriting of Shakespeare's will. Thomas was struck out, while Judith's inheritance was attached with provisions to safeguard it from her husband. The bulk of Shakespeare's estate was left, in an elaborate fee tail, to his elder daughter Susanna and her male heirs.


title: Judith Quiney

text: Judith and Thomas Quiney had three children. By the time of Judith Quiney's death, she had outlived her children by many years. She has been depicted in several works of fiction as part of an attempt to piece together unknown portions of her father's life.


title: Judith Quiney

text: Judith Shakespeare was the daughter of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway. She was the younger sister of Susanna and the twin sister of Hamnet. Hamnet, however, died at the age of eleven. Her baptism on 2 February 1585 was recorded as "Judeth Shakespeare" by the vicar, Richard Barton of Coventry, in the parish register for Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. The twins were named after a husband and wife, Hamnet and Judith Sadler, who were friends of the parents. Hamnet Sadler was a baker in Stratford.


title: Judith Quiney

text: Unlike her father and her husband, Judith Shakespeare was probably illiterate. In 1611, she witnessed the deed of sale of a house for £131 () to William Mountford, a wheelwright of Stratford, from Elizabeth Quiney, her future mother-in-law, and Elizabeth's eldest son, Adrian. Judith signed twice with a mark instead of her name.


title: Judith Quiney

text: On 10 February 1616, Judith Shakespeare married Thomas Quiney, a vintner of Stratford, in Holy Trinity Church. The assistant vicar, Richard Watts, who later married Quiney's sister Mary, probably officiated. The wedding took place during the pre-Lenten season of Shrovetide, which was a prohibitive time for marriages. In 1616, the period in which marriages were banned without dispensation from the church, including Ash Wednesday and Lent, started on 23 January, Septuagesima Sunday and ended on 7 April, the Sunday after Easter. Hence the marriage required a special licence issued by the Bishop of Worcester, which the couple had failed to obtain. Presumably they had posted the required banns in church, since Walter Wright of Stratford was cited for marrying without banns or licence, but this was not considered sufficient. The infraction was a minor one apparently caused by the minister, as three other couples were also wed that February. Quiney was nevertheless summoned by Walter Nixon to appear before the consistory court in Worcester. (This same Walter Nixon was later involved in a Star Chamber case and was found guilty of forging signatures and taking bribes.) Quiney failed to appear by the required date. The register recorded the judgement, which was excommunication, on or about 12 March 1616. It is unknown if Judith was also excommunicated, but in any case the punishment did not last long. In November of the same year, they were back in church for the baptism of their firstborn child.


title: Judith Quiney

text: The marriage did not begin well. Quiney had recently impregnated another woman, Margaret Wheeler, who died in childbirth along with her child; both were buried on 15 March 1616. A few days later, on 26 March, Quiney appeared before the Bawdy Court, which dealt, among other things, with "whoredom and uncleanliness." Confessing in open court to "carnal copulation" with Margaret Wheeler, he submitted himself for correction and was sentenced to open penance "in a white sheet (according to custom)" before the Congregation on three Sundays. He also had to admit to his crime, this time wearing ordinary clothes, before the Minister of Bishopton in Warwickshire. The first part of the sentence was remitted, essentially letting him off with a five-shilling fine to be given to the parish's poor. As Bishopton had no church, but only a chapel, he was spared any public humiliation.


title: Judith Quiney

text: Where the Quineys lived after their marriage is unknown. Judith owned her father's cottage on Chapel Lane, Stratford; while Thomas had held, since 1611, the lease on a tavern called "Atwood's" on High Street. The cottage later passed from Judith to her sister as part of the settlement in their father's will. In July 1616 Thomas swapped houses with his brother-in-law, William Chandler, moving his vintner's shop to the upper half of a house at the corner of High Street and Bridge Street. This house was known as "The Cage" and is the house traditionally associated with Judith Quiney. In the 20th century The Cage was for a time a Wimpy Bar before being turned into the Stratford Information Office.


title: Judith Quiney

text: The Cage provides further insight into why Shakespeare would not have trusted Judith's husband. Around 1630 Quiney tried to sell the lease on the house but was prevented by his kinsmen. In 1633, to protect the interests of Judith and the children, the lease was signed over to the trust of John Hall, Susanna's husband, Thomas Nash, the husband of Judith's niece, and Richard Watts, vicar of nearby Harbury, who was Quiney's brother-in-law and who had officiated at Thomas and Judith's wedding. Eventually, in November 1652, the lease to The Cage ended up in the hands of Thomas' eldest brother, Richard Quiney, a grocer in London.


title: Judith Quiney

text: The inauspicious beginnings of Judith's marriage, in spite of her husband and his family being otherwise unexceptional, has led to speculation that this was the cause for William Shakespeare's hastily altered last will and testament. He first summoned his lawyer, Francis Collins, in January 1616. On 25 March, he made further alterations, probably because he was dying and because of his concerns about Quiney. In the first bequest of the will, there had been a provision ""vnto my sonne in L[aw]""; but "sonne in L[aw]" was then struck out, with Judith's name inserted in its stead. To this daughter he bequeathed £100 () "in discharge of her marriage porcion"; another £50 (£ in ) if she were to relinquish the Chapel Lane cottage; and, if she or any of her children were still alive at the end of three years following the date of the will, a further £150 (£ in ), of which she was to receive the interest but not the principal. This money was explicitly denied to Thomas Quiney unless he were to bestow on Judith lands of equal value. In a separate bequest, Judith was given "my broad silver gilt bole."


title: Judith Quiney

text: Finally, for the bulk of his estate, which included his main house, New Place, his two houses on Henley Street and various lands in and around Stratford, Shakespeare had set up an entail. His estate was bequeathed, in descending order of choice, to the following: 1) his daughter, Susanna Hall; 2) upon Susanna's death, "to the first sonne of her bodie lawfullie yssueing & to the heires Males of the bodie of the saied first Sonne lawfullie yssueing"; 3) to Susanna's second son and his male heirs; 4) to Susanna's third son and his male heirs; 5) to Susanna's "ffourth ... ffyfth sixte & Seaventh sonnes" and their male heirs; 6) to Elizabeth Hall, Susanna and John Hall's firstborn, and her male heirs; 7) to Judith and her male heirs; or 8) to whatever heirs the law would normally recognise. This elaborate entail is usually taken to indicate that Thomas Quiney was not to be entrusted with Shakespeare's inheritance, although some have speculated that it might simply indicate that Susanna was the favoured child.


title: Judith Quiney

text: Shakespeare was named for his grandfather. Richard's name was common among the Quineys: his paternal grandfather and an uncle were named Richard.


title: Judith Quiney

text: Shakespeare Quiney died at six months of age. Richard and Thomas Quiney were buried within one month of each other, 21 and 19 years old, respectively. The cause of death of her two elder sons is not known for certain. The deaths of all of Judith's children resulted in new legal consequences. The entail on her father's inheritance led Susanna, along with her daughter and son-in-law, to make a settlement using a rather elaborate legal device for the inheritance of her own branch of the family. Legal wrangling continued for another thirteen years, until 1652.


title: Judith Quiney

text: Judith Quiney was buried on 9 February 1662, a week after her 77th birthday. She outlived her last surviving child by 23 years. She was buried in the grounds of Holy Trinity Church, but the exact location of her grave is unknown. Of her husband, the records show some of his later years. It has been speculated that he may have died in 1662 or 1663, when the parish burial records are incomplete, or that he may have left Stratford-upon-Avon. He is known to have had a nephew, living in London, who by this time was holding the lease to The Cage.


title: Judith Quiney

text: Judith is portrayed in William Black's "Judith Shakespeare: Her Love Affairs and Other Adventures", published serially in "Harper's Magazine" in 1884. She is one of the main characters in Edward Bond's 1973 play "Bingo", which portrays the last years of her father, in retirement in Stratford on Avon. She also appears in one of the final stories in Neil Gaiman's graphic novel, "The Sandman". Gaiman compared Judith with the character Miranda from Shakespeare's "The Tempest." She is the subject of the 2003 novel "My Father Had a Daughter: Judith Shakespeare's Tale" by Grace Tiffany. The radio play "Judith Shakespeare" by Nan Woodhouse portrays her as "a loner, yearning to be a part of her playwright father's life". She travels to London to join him and has a troubling affair with a young aristocrat. "Shakespeare's Daughter" is the title of a short story by Mary Burke that was short-listed for a 2007 Hennessy/"Sunday Tribune" Irish Writer prize.


title: Judith Quiney

text: In "A Room of One's Own," Virginia Woolf created a character, "Judith Shakespeare", although she is supposed to be Shakespeare's sister rather than his daughter. Besides the similar names and setting, there is no other direct connection between Judith, Shakespeare's daughter, and Woolf's creation, and in fact Shakespeare's sister was named Joan. In Woolf's story Shakespeare's sister is denied the education of her brother despite her obvious talent. When her father tries to marry her off, she runs away to join a theatre company but is ultimately rejected because of her gender. She becomes pregnant, is abandoned by her partner, and commits suicide. Woolf's Judith was created in an attempt to fill a historical gap. Woolf was making a point about the struggle that a female poet and playwright would have had in the Elizabethan age. Woolf speculated as to why there were so few talented women from that time. "What I find deplorable," she observed, "is that nothing is known about women before the eighteenth century."


title: Judith Quiney

text: Judith's childhood, and the death of her twin brother, are portrayed in Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel, "Hamnet".


title: Judith Quiney

text: In Kenneth Branagh's 2018 Sony Pictures release "All Is True", Kathryn Wilder plays Judith as a rebellious and angry young woman who resents her father's love for her dead twin.


title: Amniotic fluid

text: The amniotic fluid is the protective liquid contained by the amniotic sac of a gravid amniote. This fluid serves as a cushion for the growing fetus, but also serves to facilitate the exchange of nutrients, water, and biochemical products between mother and fetus.