title: Raúl de Tomás

text: On 13 September 2022, De Tomás returned to Rayo Vallecano on a five-year contract. He only became available for the team's official matches starting January 2023.


title: Raúl de Tomás

text: In November 2021, due to Ansu Fati's injury, De Tomás was called up for the first time to the senior Spain national team, ahead of 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers with Greece and Sweden. He won his first cap against the former, starting in a 1–0 win in Athens.


title: Raúl de Tomás

text: De Tomás' father, also named Raúl (born 1967), was also a footballer and a forward. He spent most of his career in the Spanish third tier. His younger brother, Rubén, came through the youth ranks of Rayo Vallecano.


title: Thom Latimer

text: Thomas Raymond Latimer (born 6 August 1986) is an English professional wrestler and actor. He currently competes for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) as a member of Strictly Business, as well as on the independent circuit. Latimer is known for his work in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the ring name Bram, where he is a former one-time TNA King of the Mountain Champion. Before signing to TNA, he performed under the ring name Kenneth Cameron for WWE's developmental territory NXT as a member of The Ascension.


title: Thom Latimer

text: Although Latimer didn't grow up watching professional wrestling, he then discovered a video recording of WrestleMania VIII and later the 1998 King of the Ring and from then on in he was hooked on wrestling. Latimer initially debuted in wrestling as a referee in 2002 and eventually began to wrestle with only a little prior training. He began wrestling in a small promotion called SCW which later became SWWA in Birmingham where he wrestled as Tom Savage until 2005 when he moved to Harrogate and joined a wrestling school in Leeds run by World of Sport veteran Jeff Kaye. He changed his name to Brendon Fraser at a festival called the Bulldog Bash. Later in 2005 before a squash match WWE wanted him to change his name, therefore he changed Brendon to Brandon and because he was nicknamed T at Jeff Kaye's wrestling school he put the two together to become Brandon T. In said squash match he teamed up with fellow Jeff Kaye wrestling school member, Chris Chaos to take on Snitsky and Tyson Tomko on Heat on 21 November 2005. Latimer debuted for All Star Wrestling on 7 July 2008, losing to Drew McDonald. He would spend most of the remaining decade wrestling for ASW until he signs a contract with the WWE. His last match was tag team over the top rope elimination match when he teamed with Kid Cool, Shadow Phoenix and Tony Spitfire and lost to Dave Mastiff, Mikey Whiplash, Rampage Brown and Spud.


title: Thom Latimer

text: Latimer signed with WWE in late 2010 and debuted at WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) on 20 January 2011 as Kenneth Cameron. He teamed with fellow British debutant Monty Lynch in a losing effort against the FCW Florida Tag Team Champions Damien Sandow and Titus O'Neil in a non-title bout. The pair won their first match in FCW a week later against Jacob Novak and an unknown wrestler. Cameron's first few television appearances came in the form of losing to established FCW talent such as Brodus Clay.


title: Thom Latimer

text: On 28 August 2011, Ricardo Rodriguez announced the formation of a stable called The Ascension, with members including Cameron, Conor O'Brian, Tito Colon, and Raquel Diaz. On 30 September, Cameron and Colon had a shot at the FCW Tag Team Championship but lost to the current champions of CJ Parker and Donny Marlow. By October, however, the Ascension was no longer associated with Rodriguez, as video packages promoting the Ascension in new supernatural dark characters only featured the other four Ascension members. By the end of November, the Ascension had all but disbanded. Cameron continued to use the Ascension gimmick during his appearances. Cameron went on a three-month singles winning streak beating the likes of Jiro and Calvin Raines until he finally lost to Colin Cassady on 23 February 2012. On 15 March 2012 Cameron was accompanied to the ring by the returning Conor O'Brian in his match against Byron Saxton, the match ended in disqualification when O'Brian interfered. Cameron and O'Brian began wrestling as a tag team using the name The Ascension, and on 23 March the two defeated Jason Jordan and Xavier Woods. The Ascension suffered their first loss when the pair lost to the FCW Tag Team Champions, Corey Graves and Jake Carter, in a title bout. After this loss the Ascension went on another winning streak included defeating Adam Mercer and Chad Baxter, Jason Jordan and Mike Dalton, Brad Maddox and Rick Victor in a fatal four-way elimination match.


title: Thom Latimer

text: When WWE rebranded its developmental territory, FCW, into NXT Wrestling, Cameron and O'Brian (wrestling as the Ascension) debuted on the 20 June 2012 episode of the rebooted of "NXT" taped at Full Sail University, where they defeated Mike Dalton and CJ Parker. The Ascension then started a feud with The Usos, defeating them on the 5 September "NXT", and also scored a win over Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd on the 3 October "NXT". Two weeks later, the Ascension teamed up with Kassius Ohno to defeat Richie Steamboat and The Usos.


title: Thom Latimer

text: Latimer was officially released from his NXT contract by the WWE on 30 November 2012 after being charged with battery of a law enforcement officer and disorderly intoxication in St. Petersburg, Florida. Latimer had previously been arrested in January 2011 for driving under the influence.


title: Thom Latimer

text: After his release from his NXT contract by the WWE and his 90-day non-compete clause expired, Latimer began competing on the independent circuit while reusing the Kenneth Cameron ring name and The Ascension gimmick, as he lost to Tommy Taylor at an NWA Florida Underground Wrestling event on 9 February 2013. He made his debut for World Xtreme Wrestling on the 27 February episode of "WXW Rage" where he lost to CJ Doyle. Cameron would wrestle at Full Impact Pro Establish Dominance and defeated Johnny Vandal. After the match, Larry Dallas, who was at ringside with Scott Reed, Trina Michaels and Buggy Nova offered Cameron a spot with The Scene, which Cameron turned down. Vandal then attacked Cameron and asked to join The Scene. On the 3 April episode of "WXW Rage", after defeating Tony Torres, Kenneth came out to the ring and demanded a shot at the recently vacated WXW Television Championship which he got after laying out Doyle. He would go on to lose to Doyle. At FIP Ascension, Cameron would team up with Tommy Taylor to take on new Scene members, the Bravado Brothers (Harlem and Lance), which they lost after interference by the Scene. At FUW Throwdown 2, Cameron took on Bruce Santee in a match for the NWA FUW Bruiserweight Championship, which he would lose. At FUW Throwdown 3, Cameron helped Rule Britannia (Andreas Rossi and Tommy Taylor) defeat JD Maverick and James Alexander after interfering in their match and also becoming the third member of Rule Britannia. On 9 June at an FUW event, Cameron was defeated by Michael Tarver in a NWA FUW Heavyweight Championship match. On 1 September FUW TV tapings, Cameron defeated Tommy Taylor, after the match, both men shook hands in a sign of respect for each other. At FUW Throwdown 7, Cameron took on Kahagas for the NWA North American Heavyweight Championship and lost. On 20 December 2014, Cameron defeated Valkabious to win the EPW World Heavyweight Championship.


title: Thom Latimer

text: On 11 April 2014, Latimer had a TNA tryout before One Night Only: X-Travaganza II. On the 1 May 2014 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Latimer debuted as Bram in a backstage segment with Magnus where he would chastise his kayfabe childhood friend, claiming he had "gone soft." Bram would make his in ring debut on the 15 May episode of "Impact Wrestling", where he and Magnus would lose to Willow in a handicap match. During the match and those that preceded it, Bram would encourage Magnus to let out a more intense side and use weapons but Magnus would refuse. On the 29 May episode of "Impact Wrestling", Bram quickly defeated Tigre Uno in his first singles match and would proceed to beat down Uno after the match only to be stopped by Magnus. On the 5 June episode of "Impact Wrestling", Bram lost to Willow by disqualification following interference by Magnus after he attacked Willow with a steel pry bar. Following Slammiversary XII, Bram and Magnus lost a TNA World Tag Team Championship match against The Wolves after a chair shot from Magnus, on the 19 June episode of "Impact Wrestling"; they continued to beat the champions until Willow and Abyss made the save. On the 26 June episode of "Impact Wrestling", Bram and Magnus defeated Willow and Abyss in a Monster's Ball match. On the 10 July episode of "Impact Wrestling", Bram and Magnus have another chance to win the titles against The Wolves, but were defeated. On 20 August, at Hardcore Justice, Bram defeated Abyss in a Stairway to Janice Match. He then injured his hand during the match and later had surgery to repair it. On the 22 October episode of "Impact Wrestling", Bram declared himself the new "King of Hardcore" and would go on to feud with hardcore legends, including Devon and the "Innovator of Violence" Tommy Dreamer.


title: Thom Latimer

text: On the 23 January 2015 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Bram competed in the Feast or Fired match, after which he argued with his tagteam partner Magnus, who had grabbed the final case later revealed to have contained a TNA World Tag Team Championship match. The following week Bram attacked Magnus backstage, effectively and officially ending their partnership. They would continue to attack each other, with Bram even threatening Mickie James—Magnus' wife. The feud culminated in a No DQ match, which Magnus won. On the 17 April episode of "Impact Wrestling", Bram teamed with Ethan Carter III in a tournament for the vacant TNA World Tag Team Championship. They defeated Tigre Uno and Jay Rios in the first round, but they failed to win the titles in an Ultimate X match, which The Hardys won.


title: Thom Latimer

text: Bram would then appear in vignettes about his hatred of everyone and everything, attacking cameramen and backstage officials. At Destination X, he would then cut a promo stating he would "rewrite history" and challenged any TNA wrestler from the past to a No Holds Barred match. Crimson would answer the challenge and be defeated by Bram. The following week, he defeated Joseph Park. On the 24 June 2015 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Bram lost to Vader by disqualification. After the match, Bram was attacked by a returning Matt Morgan. At Slammiversary XIII, Bram defeated Matt Morgan in a Street Fight. Later he debuted a feud against Mr. Anderson. Bram was defeated twice by Anderson : one time at No Surrender and once again at Turning Point in an Open Mic Challenge, which they officially ended the feud. On 31 August 2015, Bram was suspended indefinitely due to his domestic battery arrest and felony charges of false imprisonment. On the 16 September episode of "Impact Wrestling", Bram was revealed as the final team member for Team TNA in TNA vs GFW's Lethal Lockdown match, which his team won. On the 23 September episode of "Impact Wrestling", Bram lost a five-way match against Drew Galloway, Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards and Lashley, to determine the number one contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Bound for Glory. Bram's suspension was lifted on 19 October when all of the charges against him were dropped. Following his return, Bram took part in the TNA World Title Series and he placed second of his block by defeating Rockstar Spud and Grado and losing to Drew Galloway, receiving 6 points to advance to the round of 16, where he lost to Davey Richards therefore being eliminated from the tournament.


title: Thom Latimer

text: In January 2016, Bram then formed a tag team with Eric Young, by viciously attacking Jeff Hardy during his match against Matt Hardy, on the 26 January episode of "Impact Wrestling". They began feuding with Beer Money, after James Storm saved Bobby Roode from an attack of the duo. At TNA One Night Only, they were defeated by Beer Money. A rematch is officially scheduled at Lockdown, but they were defeated once again, thus ending the feud. On the 23 March episode of "Impact Wrestling", Bram and Eric Young were defeated by The BroMans. On the 12 April episode of "Impact Wrestling", they were defeated by Beer Money, in a match for the TNA World Tag Team Championship, also including Decay and The BroMans. During these match, Bram unintentionally hit Young.


title: Thom Latimer

text: On the 19 April episode of "Impact Wrestling", Young would attack Bram and ending their alliance, turning him into a face in the process. The following week at Sacrifice, Bram defeated Eric Young in a Falls Count Anywhere match to become the new TNA King of the Mountain Champion, claiming his first title win within TNA. He would then lose the title to Eli Drake on 31 May, after an attack of Lashley, ending his reign at 35 days. He had a rematch at Slammiversary, but he was defeated by Eli Drake and failed to become a two-time King of the Mountain Champion. Shortly after losing the title, Bram entered a storyline with Decay, where Rosemary kissed him backstage. At Destination X, Bram defeated Abyss after an interference of Rosemary. The romantic storyline ended after Rosemary lured Bram to a secluded area where he was abducted by Decay.


title: Thom Latimer

text: In October, Bram turned heel once again as a member of Death Crew Council. The DCC made their Impact Zone debut on the 20 October episode of "Impact Wrestling", when they attacked The Tribunal, following the latter's loss to TNA World Tag Team Champions, The Broken Hardys. The DCC continued their assault on TNA wrestlers, attacking Robbie E and Grado on the 27 October episode of "Impact Wrestling". On the 3 November episode of "Impact Wrestling", the DCC attacked the TNA World Tag Team Champions, The Broken Hardys. As the faction was leaving, the Hardy's challenged them to an immediate match and put their titles on the line; whether this was a handicap match or not and what its official result was have never been specified. The match devolved into a backstage fight during which Matt Hardy suffered amnesia after being knocked off a forklift by one of the DCC members. The DCC unmasked themselves the following Impact episode after laying out TNA World Heavyweight Champion Eddie Edwards following his successful title defense against Eli Drake. On the 17 November episode of "Impact Wrestling", the group defeated Edwards and Brother Nero in a No Disqualification 3-on-2 handicap match. The following week on the Thanksgiving episode of "Impact Wrestling", Bram made his singles in-ring return defeating Brother Nero in a No Disqualification match following interference from Storm & Kingston. On the 1 December episode of "Impact Wrestling", Bram and Kingston faced The Broken Hardys for the TNA Tag Team Championship, but were ultimately defeated. On the 5 January 2017 episode of Impact Wrestling, the DCC attacked Decay after their victory over The Helms Dynasty, when Storm and Bram ambushed them by smashing beer bottles over Abyss and Crazzy Steve's heads, with Bram issuing a threat to Rosemary afterwards.[2] On the 6 January One Night Only: Live! PPV, Abyss and Crazzy Steve would ambush the DCC after Storm's victory over Jessie Godderz, misting Storm and Bram, incapacitating them while Abyss laid out Kingston with a chokeslam.


title: Thom Latimer

text: On the 12 January edition of Impact Wrestling, Bram revealed that he joined the DCC to get revenge on Decay for their prior attack and abduction in 2016. Bram and Kingston would face Decay in a losing effort, after James Storm attacked Abyss, resulting in a disqualification. At Genesis, the DCC were defeated by Decay and The Broken Hardys in a three-way tag team, thus not winning their TNA World Tag Team Championship. On the 19 January episode of Impact Wrestling, Bram and Kingston competed in the first ever Race for the Case, capturing the yellow briefcase when Kingston knocked it out of Jessie Godderz's hands and into Bram's, later learning they have the #2 call out spot for the 2 February Open Fight Night episode of Impact Wrestling. On the 2 February episode of Impact Wrestling, the DCC used their Race for the Case briefcase to call out and defeat Decay in a Fall Count Anywhere match. At the end of the show, they would attack Ethan Carter III after his match against Eli Drake, only to attack him and his bodyguard Tyrus after. On the 9 February episode of Impact Wrestling, the DCC defeated Eli Drake and Tyrus in a handicap match. James Storm was interrupted by Kingston and Bram as Kingston spit in Storm's face, and Storm laid both guys out with superkicks, turning him face.


title: Thom Latimer

text: On 7 November 2017, Latimer officially announced on his official Twitter account that he had departed Impact Wrestling.


title: Thom Latimer

text: On 25 March, it was announced that Bram would be taking part in Pro Wrestling Noah's annual Global Tag League, teaming with Robbie E to represent Impact Wrestling. On 26 April, Bram was officially suspended by Pro Wrestling Noah for inappropriate behavior in public, pertaining to an Instagram post.


title: Thom Latimer

text: Bram made his in-ring debut for ICW on Barramania 2015 as part of The 55 defeating Grado, Joe Hendry, Kenny Williams and Noam Dar. At ICW Waynestock, Bram was defeated by Grado. In March 2016 Bram unsuccessfully challenge Big Damo for the ICW World Heavyweight Championship. Bram later joined the stable The Black Label, at Shug's Hoose Party 3 Bram was defeated by DCT. At Fear & Loathing IX, Team Black Label (Bram, Drew Galloway, Jack Jester & Kid Fite) were defeated by Team Dallas (Grado, Chris Renfrew, DCT & Sha Samuels) for the ownership of ICW.


title: Thom Latimer

text: At ICW Eleven, Bram defeated Jody Fleisch. At ICW Fear & Loathing X, Bram won a seven-man ladder match getting an opportunity for the ICW Zero-G Championship and the ICW World Heavyweight Championship, both held by BT Gunn.


title: Thom Latimer

text: On July, Bram and Iestyn Rees unsuccessfully challenged The Kinky Party (Jack Jester & Sha Samuels) for the ICW Tag Team Championships.


title: Thom Latimer

text: On 27 April, at the Crockett Cup, Latimer and Royce Isaacs won a tag team battle royal to qualify to the 2019 Crockett Cup. Later that night they defeated The War Kings (Crimson and Jax Dane) in the first round and Bandido and Flip Gordon in the semi finals before being defeated by Villain Enterprises in the final. On 7 September, Latimer and his partner Royce Isaacs defeated Villain Enterprises for the NWA World Tag Team Championship at Ring of Honors Global Wars event. However, they lost the titles against The Rock N Roll Express during the October 1, 2019 TV tapings. After failing to regain the championships at NWA Into the Fire and NWA Hard Times, Latimer entered to the tournament for the vacant NWA World Television Championship being defeated by Trevor Murdoch in the first round. After this, Latimer formed an alliance with his real life girlfriend Kamille and his former partner the NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis. On the January 2020 tapings of "NWA Powerrr", Latimer defeated former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Tim Storm.


title: Thom Latimer

text: Latimer was formerly married to fellow professional wrestler Ashley Fliehr, who currently performs in WWE as Charlotte Flair. On 30 August 2015, Latimer was arrested in Gulfport, Florida and charged with two felony counts of domestic battery by strangulation and false imprisonment. The incident did not involve Fliehr, but did involve a woman being reported as Latimer's girlfriend. Latimer was released from jail on 1 September 2015, after posting a $5,000 bond. On 19 October 2015, all charges against Latimer were dropped. On 29 October 2015, Latimer and Fliehr officially finalized their divorce. He is currently married to fellow professional wrestler Kamille.


title: Robert Langdon (book series)

text: The "Robert Langdon" book series is named after Robert Langdon, the protagonist of the novels by American author Dan Brown. Langdon is portrayed as a Harvard University professor of religious iconology and symbology, a fictional field related to the study of historic symbols, which is not methodologically connected to the actual discipline of semiotics. Brown's novels that feature the lead character also include historical themes and Christianity as motifs, and as a result have generated controversy. Brown states on his website that his books are not anti-Christian, and that he is on a "constant spiritual journey" himself.


title: Robert Langdon (book series)

text: The novels were a success around the world and became bestsellers, and soon adapted into films in which Ron Howard directed and produced 3 of 5 novels: "The Da Vinci Code" (2006), "Angels & Demons" (2009), and "Inferno" (2016), with Tom Hanks portraying the lead character, Professor Robert Langdon. All three were released by Columbia Pictures.


title: Robert Langdon (book series)

text: The novel "The Lost Symbol" was adapted in 2021 by Peacock with Ashley Zukerman playing the lead character, Professor Robert Langdon. The series has 1 season containing 10 episodes. In January 2022, Peacock canceled the show after only 1 season, which will continue to be available for streaming.


title: Working capital

text: Working capital (WC) is a financial metric which represents operating liquidity available to a business, organisation, or other entity, including governmental entities. Along with fixed assets such as plant and equipment, working capital is considered a part of operating capital. Gross working capital is equal to current assets. Working capital is calculated as current assets minus current liabilities. If current assets are less than current liabilities, an entity has a working capital deficiency, also called a working capital deficit and negative working capital.


title: Working capital

text: A company can be endowed with assets and profitability but may fall short of liquidity if its assets cannot be readily converted into cash. Positive working capital is required to ensure that a firm is able to continue its operations and that it has sufficient funds to satisfy both maturing short-term debt and upcoming operational expenses. The management of working capital involves managing inventories, accounts receivable and payable, and cash.


title: Working capital

text: Working capital is the difference between current assets and current liabilities. It is not to be confused with trade working capital (the latter excludes cash).


title: Working capital

text: Current assets and current liabilities include four accounts which are of special importance. These accounts represent the areas of the business where managers have the most direct impact:


title: Working capital

text: The current portion of debt (payable within 12 months) is critical because it represents a short-term claim to current assets and is often secured by long-term assets. Common types of short-term debt are bank loans and lines of credit.


title: Working capital

text: An increase in net working capital indicates that the business has either increased current assets (that it has increased its receivables or other current assets) or has decreased current liabilities—for example has paid off some short-term creditors, or a combination of both.


title: Working capital

text: The working capital cycle (WCC), also known as the cash conversion cycle, is the amount of time it takes to turn the net current assets and current liabilities into cash. The longer this cycle, the longer a business is tying up capital in its working capital without earning a return on it. Companies strive to reduce their working capital cycle by collecting receivables quicker or sometimes stretching accounts payable. Under certain conditions, minimizing working capital might adversely affect the company's ability to realize profitability, e.g. when unforeseen hikes in demand exceed inventories, or when a shortfall in cash restricts the company's ability to acquire trade or production inputs.


title: Working capital

text: A positive working capital cycle balances incoming and outgoing payments to minimize net working capital and maximize free cash flow. For example, a company that pays its suppliers in 30 days but takes 60 days to collect its receivables has a working capital cycle of 30 days. This 30-day cycle usually needs to be funded through a bank operating line, and the interest on this financing is a carrying cost that reduces the company's profitability. Growing businesses require cash, and being able to free up cash by shortening the working capital cycle is the most inexpensive way to grow. Sophisticated buyers review closely a target's working capital cycle because it provides them with an idea of the management's effectiveness at managing their balance sheet and generating free cash flows.


title: Working capital

text: As an absolute rule of funders, each of them wants to see a positive working capital because positive working capital implies there are sufficient current assets to meet current obligations. In contrast, companies risk being unable to meet current obligations with current assets when working capital is negative. While it's theoretically possible for a company to indefinitely show negative working capital on regularly reported balance sheets (since working capital may actually be positive between reporting periods), working capital will generally need to be non-negative for the business to be sustainable


title: Working capital

text: Reasons why a business may show negative or low working capital over the long term while not indicating financial distress include:


title: Working capital

text: Decisions relating to working capital and short-term financing are referred to as "working capital management". These involve managing the relationship between a firm's short-term assets and its short-term liabilities. The goal of working capital management is to ensure that the firm is able to continue its operations and that it has sufficient cash flow to satisfy both maturing short-term debt and upcoming operational expenses.


title: Working capital

text: A managerial accounting strategy focusing on maintaining efficient levels of both components of working capital, current assets, and current liabilities, in respect to each other. Working capital management ensures a company has sufficient cash flow in order to meet its short-term debt obligations and operating expenses.


title: Working capital

text: By definition, working capital management entails short-term decisions—generally, relating to the next one-year period—which are "reversible". These decisions are therefore not taken on the same basis as capital-investment decisions (NPV or related, as above); rather, they will be based on cash flows, or profitability, or both.


title: Working capital

text: Guided by the above criteria, management will use a combination of policies and techniques for the management of working capital. The policies aim at managing the "current assets" (generally cash and cash equivalents, inventories and debtors) and the short-term financing, such that cash flows and returns are acceptable.


The National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum) is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the oldest and largest military aviation museum in the world, with more than 360 aircraft and missiles on display. The museum draws about a million visitors each year, making it one of the most frequently visited tourist attractions in Ohio.


title: National Museum of the United States Air Force

text: The museum dates to 1923, when the Engineering Division at Dayton's McCook Field first collected technical artifacts for preservation. In 1927, it moved to then-Wright Field in a laboratory building. In 1932, the collection was named the Army Aeronautical Museum and placed in a WPA building from 1935 until World War II. In 1948, the collection remained private as the Air Force Technical Museum. In 1954, the Air Force Museum became public and was housed in its first permanent facility, Building 89 of the former Patterson Field in Fairborn, which had been an engine overhaul hangar. Many of its aircraft were parked outside and exposed to the weather.


text: Through the 1960s, Eugene Kettering, son of Charles F. Kettering, led the project to build a permanent structure to house the collections and became the first chairman of the board of the Air Force Museum Foundation. When he died in 1969, his widow Virginia took over the project. Her "determination, logic and meticulous attention" kept it on track, and the current facility opened in 1971. Not including its annex on Wright Field proper, the museum has more than tripled in square footage since 1971, with the addition of a second hangar in 1988, a third in 2003, and a fourth in 2016.


text: The museum announced a new name for the facility in October 2004. The former name, United States Air Force Museum, changed to National Museum of the United States Air Force.


text: The museum's collection contains many rare aircraft of historical or technological importance, and various memorabilia and artifacts from the history and development of aviation. Among them is the Apollo 15 Command Module "Endeavour" which orbited the Moon 74 times in 1971, one of four surviving Convair B-36 Peacemakers, the only surviving North American XB-70 Valkyrie and "Bockscar"—the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb on Nagasaki during the last days of World War II.


text: In 2010, the museum launched its 360-degree Virtual Tour, allowing most aircraft and exhibits to be viewed online.


text: In 2016, the museum opened its fourth building, bringing its size to . The addition was privately financed by the Air Force Museum Foundation at a cost of $40.8 million (equivalent to $ in ). The building houses more than 70 aircraft, missiles, and space vehicles in four new galleries - Presidential, Research and Development, Space and Global Reach, along with three science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) Learning Nodes.


text: In 2018, the Boeing B-17F "Memphis Belle" was placed on permanent public display in the World War II Gallery. The aircraft and its crew became iconic symbols of the heavy bomber crews and support personnel who helped defeat Nazi Germany.


text: The museum has several Presidential aircraft, including those used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. The centerpiece of the presidential aircraft collection is SAM 26000, a modified Boeing 707 known as a VC-137C, used regularly by presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon. This aircraft took President and Mrs. Kennedy to Dallas on 22 November 1963—the day of the President's assassination. Vice President Johnson was sworn in as president aboard it shortly after the assassination, and the aircraft then carried Kennedy's body back to Washington. It became the backup presidential aircraft after Nixon's first term. It was temporarily removed from display on 5 December 2009, repainted and returned to display on President's Day in 2010.


text: A large section of the museum is dedicated to pioneers of flight, especially the Wright Brothers, who conducted some of their experiments at nearby Huffman Prairie. A replica of the Wrights' 1909 Military Flyer is on display, as well as other Wright brothers artifacts. The building also hosts the National Aviation Hall of Fame, which includes several educational exhibits.


text: The museum has many pieces of U.S. Army Air Forces and U.S. Air Force clothing and uniforms. At any time, more than 50 World War II-vintage A-2 leather flying jackets are on display, many of which belonged to famous figures in Air Force history. Others are painted to depict the air planes and missions flown by their former owners. The displays include the jacket worn by Brigadier General James Stewart, P-38 ace Major Richard I. Bong's sheepskin B-3 jacket and boots, an A-2 jacket worn by one of the few USAAF pilots to leave the ground during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and President Ronald Reagan's USAAF peacoat.


text: The museum completed the construction of a third hangar and hall of missiles in 2004. It now houses post-Cold War era planes such as the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber (test aircraft), the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth ground attack aircraft and others. A fourth hangar was completed in 2016, to house the museum's space collection, presidential planes, and an enlarged educational outreach area. Previously these collections were housed in an annex facility on Area B of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (the former Wright Field). Because the annex was physically located on the base itself, museum guests were required to go through additional security checks before taking museum buses to the hangar.


text: The museum owns other USAF aircraft, including former U.S. Army Air Service, USAAC or USAAF aircraft, that are on loan to other aerospace museums in the United States and overseas, as well as those on permanent static display at various U.S. Air Force installations and tenant activities worldwide, and at Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard installations across the United States. Most of these loaned aircraft duplicate aircraft exhibited by the museum. These other aircraft remain the property of the Department of the Air Force and are typically identified at these locations as being "On Loan from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force." The museum's staff has very high standards for the restoration and quality of care of loaned assets and has, in the past, revoked these loans when it was deemed that these other museums did not have the resources to properly care for an artifact. This happened in the case of the famous Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, "Memphis Belle".


text: For an additional fee, guests can view aviation- and space-oriented films in a large format theater interspersed primarily with other documentaries. In 2013, the Air Force Museum Theater was upgraded from IMAX to digital 3D. The renovation included a new stage, theater seats, and a new theater screen to support a broader range of programming—including educational presentations, live broadcasts and expanded documentary choices. It also included a 7.1 surround-sound system, audio devices for the hearing or visually impaired, and personal closed captioning systems.


text: The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is in the midst of a multi-phase, long-term expansion plan. The Air Force Museum Foundation recently supported a major capital construction program that expanded the museum to the current 1 million square feet of exhibit space with the addition of the fourth building that now houses the Space Gallery, Presidential Aircraft Gallery and Global Reach Gallery. This new fourth building opened to the public on 8 June 2016. With the addition of new space, more than 70 aircraft that were in storage have been put back on display, such as the XB-70 Valkyrie. The Presidential Aircraft collection is also back on site, having been moved to an outside location for some time.


text: The new building's construction was entirely funded via private donations from several different sources.


text: The museum is divided into galleries that cover broad historic trends in military aviation. These are further broken down into exhibits that detail specific historical periods and display aircraft in historical context.


text: The Air Force Museum Foundation is a private, non-profit organization that supports the mission and goals of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.


title: Jansenism

text: Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by the Catholic Church.


title: Jansenism

text: The movement originated in the posthumously published work of the Dutch theologian Cornelius Jansen, who died in 1638. It was first popularized by Jansen's friend, Abbot Jean du Vergier de Hauranne of Saint-Cyran-en-Brenne Abbey, and after du Vergier's death in 1643, the movement was led by Antoine Arnauld. Through the 17th and into the 18th centuries, Jansenism was a distinct movement away from the Catholic Church. The theological center of the movement was Port-Royal-des-Champs Abbey, which was a haven for writers including du Vergier, Arnauld, Pierre Nicole, Blaise Pascal, and Jean Racine.


title: Jansenism

text: Jansenism was opposed by many within the Catholic hierarchy, especially the Jesuits. Although the Jansenists identified themselves only as rigorous followers of Saint Augustine of Hippo's teachings, Jesuits coined the term "Jansenism" to identify them as having Calvinist leanings. The apostolic constitution , promulgated by Pope Innocent X in 1653, condemned five cardinal doctrines of Jansenism as heretical, especially the relationship between human free will and efficacious grace, wherein the teachings of Augustine, as presented by the Jansenists, contradicted Jesuit thought. Jansenist leaders endeavored to accommodate the pope's pronouncements while retaining their uniqueness, and enjoyed a measure of peace in the late 17th century under Pope Clement IX. However, further controversy led to the papal bull of Pope Clement XI in 1713 which condemned further Jansenist teachings. This controversy did not end until Louis Antoine de Noailles, cardinal and archbishop of Paris who had opposed the bull, signed it in 1728.


title: Jansenism

text: The origins of Jansenism lie in the friendship of Jansen and Duvergier, who met in the early 17th century when both were studying Christian theology at the University of Leuven. Duvergier was Jansen's patron for several years, getting Jansen a job as a tutor in Paris in 1606. Two years later, he got Jansen a position teaching at the bishop's college in Duvergier's hometown of Bayonne. The two studied the Church Fathers together, with a special focus on the thought of Augustine of Hippo, until both left Bayonne in 1617.


title: Jansenism

text: Duvergier became abbot of Saint Cyran Abbey in Brenne and was known as the for the rest of his life. Jansen returned to the University of Leuven, where he completed his doctorate in 1619 and was named professor of exegesis. Jansen and Duvergier continued to correspond about Augustine of Hippo, especially in regards to Augustine's teachings on grace. Upon the recommendation of King Philip IV of Spain, Jansen was consecrated as bishop of Ypres in 1636.


title: Jansenism

text: Jansen died in a 1638 epidemic. On his deathbed, he committed a manuscript to his chaplain, ordering him to consult with Libert Froidmont, a theology professor at Leuven, and Henricus Calenus, canon at the metropolitan church, and to publish the manuscript if they agreed it should be published, adding "If, however, the Holy See wishes any change, I am an obedient son, and I submit to that Church in which I have lived to my dying hour. This is my last wish."


title: Jansenism

text: This manuscript, published in 1640 as , expounded Augustine's system and formed the basis for the subsequent Jansenist controversy. The book consisted of three volumes:


title: Jansenism

text: Even before the publication of , Duvergier publicly preached Jansenism. Jansen emphasized a particular reading of Augustine's idea of efficacious grace which stressed that only a certain portion of humanity was predestined to be saved. Jansen insisted that the love of God was fundamental, and that only perfect contrition, and not imperfect contrition (or attrition) could save a person (and that, in turn, only an efficacious grace could tip that person toward God and such contrition). This debate on the respective roles of contrition and attrition, which had not been settled by the Council of Trent (1545–1563), was one of the motives of the imprisonment in May 1638 of Duvergier, the first leader of Port-Royal, by order of Cardinal Richelieu. Duvergier was not released until after Richelieu's death in 1642, and he died shortly thereafter, in 1643.


title: Jansenism

text: Jansen also insisted on justification by faith, although he did not contest the necessity of revering saints, of confession, and of frequent Communion. Jansen's opponents condemned his teachings for their alleged similarities to Calvinism (though, unlike Calvinism, Jansen rejected the doctrine of assurance and taught that even the justified could lose their salvation). Blaise Pascal's , attempted to conciliate the contradictory positions of Molinists and Calvinists by stating that both were partially right: Molinists, who claimed God's choice concerning a person's sin and salvation was and contingent, while Calvinists claimed that it was and necessary. Pascal claimed that Molinists were correct concerning the state of humanity before the Fall, while Calvinists were correct regarding the state of humanity after the Fall.


title: Jansenism

text: The heresy of Jansenism, as stated by subsequent Roman Catholic doctrine, lay in denying the role of free will in the acceptance and use of grace. Jansenism asserts that God's role in the infusion of grace cannot be resisted and does not require human assent. The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" states the orthodox position that "God's free initiative demands man's free response"—that is, humans freely assent or refuse God's gift of grace.


title: Jansenism

text: was widely read in theological circles in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands in 1640, and a new edition quickly appeared in Paris under the approval of ten professors at the College of Sorbonne (the theological college of the University of Paris).


title: Jansenism

text: However, on August 1, 1642, the Holy Office issued a decree condemning and forbidding its reading. In 1642, Pope Urban VIII followed up with a papal bull entitled , which condemned because it was published in violation of the order that no works concerning grace should be published without the prior permission of the Holy See; and renewed the censures by Pope Pius V, in in 1567, and Pope Gregory XIII, of several propositions of Baianism which were repeated in .


title: Jansenism

text: In 1602, Marie Angélique Arnauld became abbess of Port-Royal-des-Champs, a Cistercian convent in Magny-les-Hameaux. There, she reformed discipline after a conversion experience in 1608. In 1625, most of the nuns moved to Paris, forming the convent of , which from then on was commonly known simply as Port-Royal. In 1634, Duvergier had become the spiritual adviser of Port-Royal-des-Champs and good friend of Angélique Arnauld; he convinced her of the rightness of Jansen's opinions. The two convents thus became major strongholds of Jansenism. Under Angélique Arnauld, later with Duvergier's support, Port-Royal-des-Champs developed a series of elementary schools, known as the "Little Schools of Port-Royal" (); the most famous product of these schools was the playwright Jean Racine.


title: Jansenism

text: Through Angélique Arnauld, Duvergier had met her brother, Antoine Arnauld, and brought him to accept Jansen's position in . Following Duvergier's death in 1643, Antoine Arnauld became the chief proponent of Jansenism. That same year he published ("On Frequent Communion") which presented Jansen's ideas in a way more accessible to the public (e.g., it was written in the vernacular, whereas was written in Latin). The book focused on a related topic in the dispute between Jesuits and Jansenists. The Jesuits encouraged Roman Catholics, including those struggling with sin, to receive Holy Communion frequently, arguing that Christ instituted it as a means to holiness for sinners, and stating that the only requirement for receiving Communion (apart from baptism) was that the communicant is free of mortal sin at the time of reception. The Jansenists, in line with their deeply pessimistic theology, discouraged frequent Communion, arguing that a high degree of perfection, including purification from attachment to venial sin, was necessary before approaching the sacrament.


title: Jansenism

text: The faculty of the College of Sorbonne formally accepted the papal bull in 1644, and Cardinal Jean François Paul de Gondi, archbishop of Paris, formally proscribed ; the work nevertheless continued to circulate.


title: Jansenism

text: The Jesuits then designated Nicolas Caussin (former confessor to Louis XIII) to write ("Response to the libel titled Moral Theology of the Jesuits") in 1644. Another Jesuit response was ("The impostures and ignorance of the libel titled Moral Theology of the Jesuits") by François Pinthereau, under the pseudonym of "abbé de Boisic", also in 1644. Pinthereau also wrote a critical history of Jansenism, ("The Birth of Jansenism Revealed to the Chancellor") in 1654.


title: Jansenism

text: During the 1640s, Duvergier's nephew, Martin de Barcos, who was once a theology student under Jansen, wrote several works defending Duvergier.


title: Jansenism

text: In 1649, Nicolas Cornet, syndic of the Sorbonne, frustrated by the continued circulation of , drew up a list of five propositions from and two propositions from and asked the Sorbonne faculty to condemn the propositions. Before the faculty could do so, the Parliament of Paris intervened and forbade the faculty to consider the propositions. The faculty then submitted the propositions to the Assembly of the French clergy in 1650, which submitted the matter to Pope Innocent X. Eleven bishops opposed this and asked Innocent X to appoint a commission similar to the to resolve the situation. Innocent X agreed to the majority's request, but in an attempt to accommodate the view of the minority, appointed an advisory committee consisting of five cardinals and thirteen consultors to report on the situation. Over the next two years, this commission held 36 meetings including 10 presided by Innocent X.


title: Jansenism

text: The supporters of Jansenism on the commission drew up a table with three heads: the first listed the Calvinist position (which were condemned as heretical), the second listed the Pelagian/Semipelagian position (as taught by the Molinists), and the third listed the correct Augustinian position (according to the Jansenists).


title: Jansenism

text: Jansenism's supporters suffered a decisive defeat when the apostolic constitution was promulgated by Innocent X in 1653 which condemned the following five propositions:


title: Jansenism

text: Antoine Arnauld condemned the five propositions listed in . However, he contended that did not argue in favor of the five propositions condemned as heretical in . Rather, he argued that Jansen intended his statements in in the same sense that Augustine of Hippo had offered his opinions, and Arnauld argued that since Innocent X would certainly not have wished to condemn Augustine's opinions, Innocent X had not condemned Jansen's actual opinions.


title: Jansenism

text: Replying to Arnauld, in 1654, 38 French bishops condemned Arnauld's position to the pope. Opponents of Jansenism in the church refused absolution to for his continued protection of the Jansenists. In response to this onslaught, Arnauld articulated a distinction as to how far the Church could bind the mind of a Catholic. He argued that there is a distinction between "de jure" and "de facto": that a Catholic was obliged to accept the Church's opinion as to a matter of law (i.e., as to a matter of doctrine) but not as to a matter of fact. Arnauld argued that, while he agreed with the doctrine propounded in , he was not bound to accept the pope's determination of fact as to what doctrines were contained in Jansen's work.


title: Jansenism

text: In 1656, the theological faculty at the Sorbonne moved against Arnauld. This was the context in which Blaise Pascal wrote his famous in defense of Arnauld's position in the dispute at the Sorbonne, and denouncing the "relaxed morality" of Jesuitism (However, unlike Arnauld, Pascal did not accede to but believed that the condemned doctrines were orthodox. Nevertheless, he emphasized Arnauld's distinction about matters of doctrine vs. matters of fact.) The Letters were also scathing in their critique of the casuistry of the Jesuits, echoing Arnauld's .


title: Jansenism

text: However, Pascal did not convince the Sorbonne's theological faculty, which voted 138–68 to degrade Arnauld together with 60 other theologians from the faculty. Later that year, the French Assembly of the Bishops voted to condemn Arnauld's distinction of the pope's ability to bind the mind of believers in matters of doctrine but not in matters of fact; they asked Pope Alexander VII to condemn Arnauld's proposition as heresy. Alexander VII responded, in the apostolic constitution promulgated in 1656, that "We declare and define that the five propositions have been drawn from the book of Jansenius entitled , and that they have been condemned in the sense of the same Jansenius and we once more condemn them as such."


title: Jansenism

text: In 1657, relying on , the French Assembly of the Clergy drew up a formula of faith condemning Jansenism and declared that subscription to the formula was obligatory. Many Jansenists remained firmly committed to Arnauld's proposition; they condemned the propositions in but disagreed that the propositions were contained in . In retaliation, Gondi interdicted the convent of Port Royal from receiving the sacraments. In 1660, the elementary schools run by Port-Royal-des-Champs were closed by the bull, and in 1661, the monastery at Port-Royal-des-Champs was forbidden to accept new novices, which guaranteed the convent would eventually die out.


title: Jansenism

text: Four bishops sided with Port-Royal, arguing that the Assembly of the French clergy could not command French Catholics to subscribe to something which was not required by the pope. At the urging of several bishops, and at the personal insistence of King Louis XIV, Pope Alexander VII sent to France the apostolic constitution in 1664 which required, according to the , "all ecclesiastical personnel and teachers" to subscribe to an included formulary, the "Formula of Submission for the Jansenists".


title: Jansenism

text: The "Formula of Submission for the Jansenists" was the basis of the Formulary Controversy. Many Jansenists refused to sign it; while some did sign, they made it known that they were agreeing only to the doctrine (questions of law "de jure"), not the allegations asserted by the bull (questions of fact "de facto"). The latter category included the four Jansenist-leaning bishops, who communicated the bull to their flocks along with messages which maintained the distinction between doctrine and fact. This angered both Louis XIV and Alexander VII. Alexander VII commissioned nine French bishops to investigate the situation.


title: Jansenism

text: Alexander VII died in 1667 before the commission concluded its investigation and his successor, Pope Clement IX, initially appeared willing to continue the investigation of the nine Jansenist-leaning bishops. However, in France, Jansenists conducted a campaign arguing that allowing a papal commission of this sort would be ceding the traditional liberties of the Gallican Church, thus playing on traditional French opposition to ultramontanism. They convinced one member of the cabinet (Lyonne) and nineteen bishops of their position, these bishops argued, in a letter to Clement IX, that the infallibility of the Church applied only to matters of revelation, and not to matters of fact. They asserted that this was the position of Caesar Baronius and Robert Bellarmine. They also argued, in a letter to Louis XIV, that allowing the investigation to continue would result in political discord.


title: Jansenism

text: Under these circumstances, the papal nuncio to France recommended that Clement IX accommodate the Jansenists. Clement agreed, and appointed César d'Estrées, bishop of Laon, as a mediator in the matter. D'Estrées convinced the four bishops: Arnauld, Choart de Buzenval, Caulet, and Pavillon, to sign the "Formula of Submission for the Jansenists" (though it seems they may have believed that signing the formulary did not mean assent to the matters of fact it contained). The pope, initially happy that the four bishops had signed, became angry when he was informed that they had done so with reservations. Clement IX ordered his nuncio to conduct a new investigation. Reporting back, the nuncio declared: "they have condemned and caused to be condemned the five propositions with all manner of sincerity, without any exception or restriction whatever, in every sense in which the Church has condemned them". However, he reported that the four bishops continued to be evasive as to whether they agreed with the pope as to the matter of fact. In response, Clement IX appointed a commission of twelve cardinals to further investigate the matter. This commission determined that the four bishops had signed the formula in a less than entirely sincere manner, but recommended that the matter should be dropped to forestall further divisions in the Church. The pope agreed and thus issued four briefs, declaring the four bishops' agreement to the formula was acceptable, thus instituting the "Peace of Clement IX" (1669–1701).


title: Jansenism

text: Although the Peace of Clement IX was a lull in the public theological controversy, several clergies remained attracted to Jansenism. Three major groups were:


title: Jansenism

text: The tensions generated by the continuing presence of these elements in the French church came to a head in the Case of Conscience of 1701. The case involved the question of whether or not absolution should be given to a cleric who refused to affirm the infallibility of the Church in matters of fact (even though he did not preach against it but merely maintained a "respectful silence"). A provincial conference, consisting of forty theology professors from the Sorbonne, headed by Noël Alexandre, declared that the cleric should receive absolution.


title: Jansenism

text: The publication of this "Case of Conscience" provoked outrage among the anti-Jansenist elements in the Catholic Church. The decision given by the scholars was condemned by several French bishops; by Cardinal Louis Antoine de Noailles, archbishop of Paris; by the theological faculties at Leuven, Douai, and eventually Paris; and, finally, in 1703, by Pope Clement XI. The scholars who had signed the Case of Conscience now backed away, and all of the signatories withdrew their signatures and the theologian who had championed the result of the Case of Conscience, , was expelled from the Sorbonne.


title: Jansenism

text: Louis XIV and his grandson, Philip V of Spain, now asked the pope to issue a papal bull condemning the practice of maintaining a respectful silence as to the issue of the infallibility of the Church in matters of the dogmatic fact.


title: Jansenism

text: The pope obliged, issuing the apostolic constitution , dated July 16, 1705. At the subsequent Assembly of the French Clergy, all those present, except P.-Jean-Fr. de Percin de Montgaillard, bishop of Saint-Pons, voted to accept and Louis XIV promulgated it as binding law in France.


title: Jansenism

text: Louis also sought the dissolution of Port-Royal-des-Champs, the stronghold of Jansenist thought, and this was achieved in 1708 when the pope issued a bull dissolving Port-Royal-des-Champs. The remaining nuns were forcibly removed in 1709 and dispersed among various other French convents and the buildings were razed in 1709. The convent of Port-Royal Abbey, Paris, remained in existence until it was closed in the general dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution.


title: Jansenism

text: Pasquier Quesnel had been a member of the Oratory of Jesus in Paris from 1657 until 1681, when he was expelled for Jansenism. He sought the protection of Pierre du Cambout de Coislin, bishop of Orléans, who harbored Quesnel for four years, at which point Quesnel joined Antoine Arnauld in Brussels, Flanders. In 1692, Quesnel published , a devotional guide to the New Testament which laid out the Jansenist position in strong terms. Following Arnauld's death in 1694, Quesnel was widely regarded as the leader of the Jansenists. In 1703, Quesnel was imprisoned by Humbertus Guilielmus de Precipiano, archbishop of Mechelen, but escaped several months later and lived in Amsterdam for the remainder of his life.


title: Jansenism

text: After examining the 101 propositions condemned by , Noailles determined that as set out in and apart from their context in the , some of the propositions condemned by were in fact orthodox. He, therefore, refused to accept the apostolic constitution and instead sought clarifications from the pope.


title: Jansenism

text: In the midst of this dispute, Louis XIV died in 1715, and the government of France was taken over by Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, regent for the five-year-old Louis XV of France. Unlike Louis XIV, who had stood solidly behind , Philippe II expressed ambivalence during the period. With the change in political mood, three theological faculties which had previously voted to accept – Paris, Nantes, and Reims – voted to rescind their acceptance.


title: Jansenism

text: In 1717, four French bishops attempted to appeal to a general council; the bishops were joined by hundreds of French priests, monks, and nuns, and were supported by the . In 1718, Clement XI responded vigorously to this challenge to his authority by issuing the bull by which he excommunicated everyone who had called for an appeal to a general council. Far from disarming the French clergy, many of whom were now advocating conciliarism, the clergy who had appealed to a general council, now appealed to a general council as well. In total, one cardinal, 18 bishops, and 3,000 clergy of France supported an appeal to a general council. However, the majority of clergy in France (four cardinals, 100 bishops, 100,000 clergymen) stood by the pope. The schism carried on for some time, and it was not until 1728 that Louis Antoine de Noailles submitted to the pope and signed .


title: Jansenism

text: Jansenism persisted in France for many years but split "into antagonistic factions" in the late 1720s.


title: Jansenism

text: One faction developed from the of Saint-Médard, who were religious pilgrims who went into frenzied religious ecstasy at the grave of François de Pâris, a Jansenist deacon in the parish cemetery of Saint-Médard in Paris. The connection between the larger French Jansenist movement and the smaller, more radical phenomenon is difficult to state with precision. Brian Strayer noted, in "Suffering Saints", almost all were Jansenists, but very few Jansenists embraced the phenomenon.


title: Jansenism

text: "The format of their seances changed perceptibly after 1732," according to Strayer. "Instead of emphasizing prayer, singing, and healing miracles, believers now participated in 'spiritual marriages' (which occasionally bore earthly children), encouraged violent convulsions [...] and indulged in the (erotic and violent forms of torture), all of which reveals how neurotic the movement was becoming." The movement descended into brutal cruelties that "clearly had sexual overtones" in their practices of penance and mortification of the flesh. In 1735 the regained jurisdiction over the convulsionary movement which changed into an underground movement of clandestine sects. The next year "an alleged plot" by revolutionaries to overthrow the and assassinate Louis XV was thwarted. The "Augustinian " were then absconded from Paris to avoid police surveillance. This "further split the Jansenist movement."


title: Jansenism

text: According to Strayer, by 1741 the leadership was "dead, exiled, or imprisoned," and the movement was divided into three groups. The police role increased and the role decreased "in the social control of Jansenism" but cells continued engaging in seances, torture, and apocalyptic and treasonous rhetoric. By 1755 there were fewer than 800 in France. In 1762 the criminalized some of their practices "as 'potentially dangerous' to human life." The last crucifixion was documented in 1788.


title: Jansenism

text: Jansenists continued to publish anti-Jesuit propaganda through their magazine and played a central role in plotting and promoting the expulsion of the Jesuits from France in 1762–64.


title: Jansenism

text: As noted by Jonathan Israel Jansenism initially had strong support in the Spanish Netherlands, where Jansen himself had been active, supported by such major figures of the Church Hierarchy as Jacobus Boon, Archbishop of Mechelen and Antonie Triest, Bishop of Ghent. Though the Church in the Spanish Netherlands eventually took up persecution of Jansenism – with Jansenist clergy being replaced by their opponents and the monument to Jansen in the Cathedral of Ypres being symbolically demolished in 1656 – the Spanish authorities were less zealous in this persecution than the French ones.


title: Jansenism

text: Where Jansenism persisted longest as a major force among Catholics was in the Dutch Republic, where Jansenism was actively encouraged and supported by the Republic's authorities. Jansenist refugees from France and the Spanish Netherlands were made welcome, increasing the Jansenist influence among Dutch Catholics. Politically, the Dutch Jansenists were more inclined than other Catholics to reach accommodation with the Protestant authorities and sought to make themselves independent of Papal control. Moreover, theologically the Jansenist doctrines were considered to be closer to the dominant Dutch Calvinism. Indeed, Dutch Jansenism (sometimes called "Quesnelism" after Pasquier Quesnel, who emerged as a major proponent of Jansenism in the 1690s) was accused by its opponents of being "Crypto-Calvinism within the Church". The controversy between Jansenists and anti-Jansenists (the latter naturally led by the Jesuits) increasingly tore up the Dutch Catholic Church in the late 17th and early 18th century – with the authorities of the Dutch Republic actively involved on the one side and the Papacy and Kings of France, Spain, Portugal, and Poland – on the other. Moreover, some Dutch Catholics seeking greater independence from Papal control were identified as being "Jansenists", even if not necessarily adhering to the theological doctrines of Jansenism.


title: Jansenism

text: Things came to an open split in April 1723, with the adherents of what would come to be known as the Old Catholic Church breaking away and appointing one of their numbers, the Amsterdammer Cornelis Steenhoven, as Archbishop of Utrecht to rival the Archbishop recognized by the Pope. Throughout the 18th Century, these two rival Catholic Churches were active in competition. The question of whether, and to what degree, this breakaway Church was Jansenist was highly controversial – the Jesuits having a clear polemical interest in emphasizing its identification as such.


title: Jansenism

text: In the 19th century, Jansenists were part of the abolition societies in France. The Janists had criticized Jesuit missions in the New World and advocated for liberation.


title: Jansenism

text: marks the official end of toleration of Jansenism in the Church in France, though quasi-Jansenists would occasionally stir in the following decades. By the mid-18th century, Jansenism proper had totally lost its battle to be a viable theological position within Catholicism. However, certain ideas tinged with Jansenism remained in circulation for much longer; in particular, the Jansenist idea that Holy Communion should be received very infrequently, and that reception required much more than freedom from mortal sin, remained influential until finally condemned by Pope Pius X, who endorsed frequent communion, as long as the communicant was free of mortal sin, in the early 20th century.


title: Jansenism

text: In 1677, a pro-Baianism faction from the theological faculty at Louvain submitted 116 propositions of moral laxity for censure to Pope Innocent XI, who selected 65 propositions from the submission and "limited himself to condemning the deviations of moral doctrine." On the other hand, through the Holy Office, those 65 propositions in 1679, "without naming the probabilism prevalent in Jesuit circles." All 65 propositions were censured and prohibited "as at least scandalous and pernicious in practice."


title: Jansenism

text: Jansenism was a factor in the formation of the independent Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands from 1702 to 1723, and


title: Jansenism

text: In Quebec, Canada, in the 1960s, many people rejected the Church, and many of its institutions were secularized. For instance, Paul-Emile Borduas' 1948 manifesto accused the Church in Quebec as being the result of a "Jansenist colony".


title: Billie McKay

text: Billie McKay (born 11 July 1991) is an Australian cook, known for winning the seventh series and the fourteenth series of MasterChef Australia.


title: Billie McKay

text: McKay was raised on a dairy farm in Bowraville, New South Wales and attended Macksville High School. Prior to competing on "MasterChef", she was a restaurant manager in Ballina, New South Wales.


title: Billie McKay

text: She is best known as the winner of the seventh series of "MasterChef Australia". Her prizes included $250,000, an Alfa Romeo Giulietta, and a monthly column in "Delicious.", an Australian food magazine. Following the final, guest judge Heston Blumenthal offered her a job at his restaurant The Fat Duck, which she accepted.


title: Billie McKay

text: In 2019, McKay returned to "MasterChef Australia"'s eleventh series as a mentor, sharing the position with season eight runner-up Matt Sinclair and the first series' runner up, Poh Ling Yeow.


title: Billie McKay

text: In 2022, McKay returned to compete on the show's fourteenth season, which featured a mix of returning contestants and new contenders. She won the title for the second time defeating Sarah Todd in the Grand Finale.


title: Treatment of slaves in the United States

text: The treatment of slaves in the United States often included sexual abuse and rape, the denial of education, and punishments like whippings. Families were often split up by the sale of one or more members, usually never to see or hear of each other again.


text: In the decades before the American Civil War, defenders of slavery often argued that slavery was a positive good, both for the enslavers and the enslaved people. They defended the legal enslavement of people for their labor as a benevolent, paternalistic institution with social and economic benefits, an important bulwark of civilization, and a divine institution similar or superior to the free labor in the North.


text: Some slavery advocates asserted that many slaves were content with their situation. African-American abolitionist J. Sella Martin countered that apparent "contentment" was in fact a psychological defense to the dehumanizing brutality of having to bear witness to their spouses being sold at auction and daughters raped.


text: After the Civil War and emancipation, White Southerners developed the pseudohistorical Lost Cause mythology in order to justify White supremacy and segregation. This mythology deeply influenced the mindset of White Southerners, influencing textbooks well into the 1970s. One of its tenets was the myth of the faithful slave. In reality, the enslaved people "desperately sought freedom". While 180,000 African-American soldiers fought in the United States Army during the Civil War, no slave fought as a soldier for the Confederacy.


text: Legal regulations of slavery were called slave codes. In the territories and states established after the United States became independent, these slave codes were designed by the politically dominant planter class in order to make "the region safe for slavery".


text: In North Carolina, slaves were entitled to be clothed and fed, and murder of a slave was punishable. But slaves could not give testimony against whites nor could they initiate legal actions. There was no protection against rape. "The entire system worked against protection of slave women from sexual assault and violence".


text: Compiling a variety of historical sources, historian Kenneth M. Stampp identified in his classic work "The Peculiar Institution" reoccurring themes in slavemasters’ efforts to produce the "ideal slave":


text: Slaves were punished by whipping, shackling, hanging, beating, burning, mutilation, branding, rape, and imprisonment. Punishment was often meted out in response to disobedience or perceived infractions, but sometimes abuse was performed to re-assert the dominance of the master (or overseer) over the slave.


text: Pregnancy was not a barrier to punishment; methods were devised to administer lashings without harming the baby. Slave masters would dig a hole big enough for the woman's stomach to lie in and proceed with the lashings.


text: Slave overseers were authorized to whip and punish slaves. One overseer told a visitor, "Some Negroes are determined never to let a white man whip them and will resist you, when you attempt it; of course you must kill them in that case." A former slave describes witnessing females being whipped: "They usually screamed and prayed, though a few never made a sound."


text: The results of harsh punishments are sometimes mentioned in newspaper ads describing runaway slaves. One ad describes a woman of about 18 years, named Patty: “Her back appears to have been used to the whip."


text: A metal collar could be put on a slave. Such collars were thick and heavy; they often had protruding spikes which impeded work as well as rest. Louis Cain, a survivor of slavery, described the punishment of a fellow slave: "One nigger run to the woods to be a jungle nigger, but massa cotched him with the dog and took a hot iron and brands him. Then he put a bell on him, in a wooden frame what slip over the shoulders and under the arms. He made that nigger wear the bell a year and took it off on Christmas for a present to him. It sho' did make a good nigger out of him."


text: The branding of slaves for identification was common during the colonial era; however, by the nineteenth century it was used primarily as punishment. Mutilation of slaves, such as castration of males, removing a front tooth or teeth, and amputation of ears was a relatively common punishment during the colonial era, still used in 1830: it facilitated their identification if they ran away. Any punishment was permitted for runaway slaves, and many bore wounds from shotgun blasts or dog bites inflicted by their captors.


text: Slaves were punished for a number of reasons: working too slowly, breaking a law (for example, running away), leaving the plantation without permission, insubordination, impudence as defined by the owner or overseer, or for no reason, to underscore a threat or to assert the owner's dominance and masculinity. Myers and Massy describe the practices: "The punishment of deviant slaves was decentralized, based on plantations, and crafted so as not to impede their value as laborers." Whites punished slaves publicly to set an example. A man named Harding describes an incident in which a woman assisted several men in a minor rebellion: "The women he hoisted up by the thumbs, whipp'd and slashed her with knives before the other slaves till she died." Men and women were sometimes punished differently; according to the 1789 report of the Virginia Committee of the Privy Council, males were often shackled but women and girls were left free.


text: Wilma Dunaway notes that slaves were often punished for their failure to demonstrate due deference and submission to whites. Demonstrating politeness and humility showed the slave was submitting to the established racial and social order, while failure to follow them demonstrated insolence and a threat to the social hierarchy. Dunway observes that slaves were punished almost as often for symbolic violations of the social order as they were for physical failures; in Appalachia, two-thirds of whippings were done for social offences versus one-third for physical offences such as low productivity or property losses.


text: Slave owners greatly feared slave rebellions. Most of them sought to minimize slaves' exposure to the outside world to reduce the risk. The desired result was to eliminate slaves' dreams and aspirations, restrict access to information about escaped slaves and rebellions, and stifle their mental faculties.


text: Teaching slaves to read was discouraged or (depending upon the state) prohibited, so as to hinder aspirations for escape or rebellion. Slaveowners believed slaves with knowledge would become morose, if not insolent and "uppity". They might learn of the Underground Railroad: that escape was possible, that many would help, and that there were sizeable communities of formerly enslaved Blacks in Northern cities. In response to slave rebellions such as the Haitian Revolution, the 1811 German Coast Uprising, a failed uprising in 1822 organized by Denmark Vesey, and Nat Turner's slave rebellion in 1831, some states prohibited slaves from holding religious gatherings, or any other kind of gathering, without a white person present, for fear that such meetings could facilitate communication and lead to rebellion and escapes.


text: In 1841, Virginia punished violations of this law by 20 lashes to the slave and a $100 fine to the teacher, and North Carolina by 39 lashes to the slave and a $250 fine to the teacher. In Kentucky, education of slaves was legal but almost nonexistent. Some Missouri slaveholders educated their slaves or permitted them to do so themselves.


text: The quality of medical care to slaves is uncertain; some historians conclude that because slaveholders wished to preserve the value of their slaves, they received the same care as whites did. Others conclude that medical care was poor. A majority of plantation owners and doctors balanced a plantation need to coerce as much labor as possible from a slave without causing death, infertility, or a reduction in productivity; the effort by planters and doctors to provide sufficient living resources that enabled their slaves to remain productive and bear many children; the impact of diseases and injury on the social stability of slave communities; the extent to which illness and mortality of sub-populations in slave society reflected their different environmental exposures and living circumstances rather than their alleged racial characteristics. Slaves may have also provided adequate medical care to each other.


text: According to Michael W. Byrd, a dual system of medical care provided poorer care for slaves throughout the South, and slaves were excluded from proper, formal medical training. This meant that slaves were mainly responsible for their own care, a "health subsystem" that persisted long after slavery was abolished.


text: Medical care was usually provided by fellow slaves or by slaveholders and their families, and only rarely by physicians. Care for sick household members was mostly provided by women. Some slaves possessed medical skills, such as knowledge of herbal remedies and midwifery and often treated both slaves and non-slaves. Covey suggests that because slaveholders offered poor treatment, slaves relied on African remedies and adapted them to North American plants. Other examples of improvised health care methods included folk healers, grandmother midwives, and social networks such as churches, and, for pregnant slaves, female networks. Slave-owners would sometimes also seek healing from such methods in times of ill health.


text: Researchers performed medical experiments on slaves, who could not refuse, if their owners permitted it. They frequently displayed slaves to illustrate medical conditions. Southern medical schools advertised the ready supply of corpses of the enslaved, for dissection in anatomy classes, as an incentive to enroll.


text: In the introduction to the oral history project, "Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation", the editors wrote:


text: As masters applied their stamp to the domestic life of the slave quarter, slaves struggled to maintain the integrity of their families. Slaveholders had no legal obligation to respect the sanctity of the slave's marriage bed, and slave women— married or single – had no formal protection against their owners' sexual advances. ...Without legal protection and subject to the master's whim, the slave family was always at risk.


text: Elizabeth Keckley, who grew up enslaved in Virginia and later became Mary Todd Lincoln's personal modiste, gave an account of how she had witnessed Little Joe, the son of the cook, being sold to pay his enslaver's bad debt:


text: Joe’s mother was ordered to dress him in his best Sunday clothes and send him to the house, where he was sold, like the hogs, at so much per pound. When her son started for Petersburgh, ... she pleaded piteously that her boy not be taken from her; but master quieted her by telling that he was going to town with the wagon, and would be back in the morning. Morning came, but little Joe did not return to his mother. Morning after morning passed, and the mother went down to the grave without ever seeing her child again. One day she was whipped for grieving for her lost boy... Burwell never liked to see his slaves wear a sorrowful face, and those who offended in this way were always punished. Alas! the sunny face of the slave is not always an indication of sunshine in the heart.


text: Between 1790 and 1860, about one million enslaved people were forcefully moved from the states on the Atlantic seaboard to the interior in a Second Middle Passage. This normally involved the separation of children from their parents and of husbands from their wives.


text: Owners of enslaved people could legally use them as sexual objects. Therefore, slavery in the United States encompassed wide-ranging rape and sexual abuse, including many forced pregnancies, in order to produce children for sale. Many slaves fought back against sexual attacks, and some died resisting them; others were left with psychological and physical scars. Historian Nell Irvin Painter describes the effects of this abuse as "soul murder".


text: Rape laws in the South embodied a race-based double standard. Black men accused of rape during the colonial period were often punished with castration, and the penalty was increased to death during the Antebellum Period; however, white men could legally rape their female slaves. Men and boys were also sexually abused by slaveholders. Thomas Foster says that although historians have begun to cover sexual abuse during slavery, few focus on sexual abuse of men and boys because of the assumption that only enslaved women were victimized. Foster suggests that men and boys may have also been forced into unwanted sexual activity; one problem in documenting such abuse is that they, of course, did not bear mixed-race children. Both masters and mistresses were thought to have abused male slaves.


text: The mistreatment of slaves frequently included rape and the sexual abuse of women. The sexual abuse of slaves was partially rooted in historical Southern culture and its view of the enslaved as property. Although Southern mores regarded white women as dependent and submissive, black women were often consigned to a life of sexual exploitation. Racial purity was the driving force behind the Southern culture's prohibition of sexual relations between white women and black men; however, the same culture protected sexual relations between white men and black women. The result was a number of mixed-race offspring. Many women were raped, and had little control over their families. Children, free women, indentured servants, and men were not immune from abuse by masters and owners. Children, especially young girls, were often subjected to sexual abuse by their masters, their masters' children, and relatives. Similarly, indentured servants and slave women were often abused. Since these women had no control over where they went or what they did, their masters could manipulate them into situations of high risk, i.e. forcing them into a dark field or making them sleep in their master's bedroom to be available for service. Free or white women could charge their perpetrators with rape, but slave women had no legal recourse; their bodies legally belonged to their owners.


text: After 1662, when Virginia adopted the legal doctrine "partus sequitur ventrem", sexual relations between white men and black women were regulated by classifying children of slave mothers as slaves regardless of their father's race or status. Particularly in the Upper South, a population developed of mixed-race offspring of such unions (see children of the plantation), although white Southern society claimed to abhor miscegenation and punished sexual relations between white women and black men as damaging to racial purity.


text: Slave breeding was the attempt by a slave-owner to influence the reproduction of his slaves for profit. It included forced sexual relations between male and female slaves, encouraging slave pregnancies, sexual relations between master and slave to produce slave children and favoring female slaves who had many children.


text: For instance, Frederick Douglass (who grew up enslaved in Maryland) reported the systematic separation of slave families and widespread rape of slave women to boost slave numbers. With the development of cotton plantations in the Deep South, planters in the Upper South frequently broke up families to sell "surplus" male slaves to other markets. In addition, court cases such as those of Margaret Garner in Ohio or Celia, a slave in 19th-century Missouri, dealt with women slaves who had been sexually abused by their masters.


text: There are many documented instances of "breeding farms" in the United States where slaves were forced to conceive and birth as many new slaves as possible. The largest breeding farms were located in the states of Virginia and Maryland.


text: The evidence of white men raping slave women was obvious in the many mixed-race children who were born into slavery and part of many households. In some areas, such mixed-race families became the core of domestic and household servants, as at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Both his father-in-law and he took mixed-race enslaved women as concubines after being widowed; each man had six children by those enslaved women. Jefferson's young concubine, Sally Hemings, was 3/4 white, the daughter of his father-in-law John Wayles, making her the half-sister of his late wife.


text: Many female slaves (known as "fancy maids") were sold at auction into concubinage or prostitution, which was called the "fancy trade". Concubine slaves were the only female slaves who commanded a higher price than skilled male slaves.


text: By the turn of the 19th century many mixed-race families in Virginia dated to Colonial times; white women (generally indentured servants) had unions with slave and free African-descended men. Because of the mother's status, those children were born free and often married other free people of color.


text: Given the generations of interaction, an increasing number of slaves in the United States during the 19th century were of mixed race. With each generation, the number of mixed-race slaves increased. The 1850, census identified 245,000 slaves as mixed-race (called "mulatto" at the time); by 1860, there were 411,000 slaves classified as mixed-race out of a total slave population of 3,900,000.


text: Notable examples of mostly-white children born into slavery were the children of Sally Hemings, who it has been speculated are the children of Thomas Jefferson. Since 2000 historians have widely accepted Jefferson's paternity, the change in scholarship has been reflected in exhibits at Monticello and in recent books about Jefferson and his era. Some historians, however, continue to disagree with this conclusion.


text: Speculation exists on the reasons George Washington freed his slaves in his will. One theory posits that the slaves included two half-sisters of his wife, Martha Custis. Those mixed-race slaves were born to slave women owned by Martha's father, and were regarded within the family as having been sired by him. Washington became the owner of Martha Custis's slaves under Virginia law when he married her and faced the ethical conundrum of owning his wife's sisters.


text: Planters with mixed-race children sometimes arranged for their education (occasionally in northern schools) or apprenticeship in skilled trades and crafts. Others settled property on them, or otherwise passed on social capital by freeing the children and their mothers. While fewer in number than in the Upper South, free blacks in the Deep South were often mixed-race children of wealthy planters and sometimes benefited from transfers of property and social capital. Wilberforce University, founded by Methodist and African Methodist Episcopal (AME) representatives in Ohio in 1856, for the education of African-American youth, was during its early history largely supported by wealthy southern planters who paid for the education of their mixed-race children. When the American Civil War broke out, the majority of the school's 200 students were of mixed race and from such wealthy Southern families. The college closed for several years before the AME Church bought and operated it.


text: Historian Ty Seidule uses a quote from Frederick Douglass's autobiography "My Bondage and My Freedom" to describe the experience of the average male slave as being "robbed of wife, of children, of his hard earnings, of home, of friends, of society, of knowledge, and of all that makes his life desirable."


text: A quote from a letter by Isabella Gibbons, who had been enslaved by professors at the University of Virginia, is now engraved on the university's Memorial to Enslaved Laborers:


title: Tony Hancock

text: High-profile during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series "Hancock's Half Hour", first broadcast on radio from 1954, then on television from 1956, in which he soon formed a strong professional and personal bond with comic actor Sid James. Although Hancock's decision to cease working with James, when it became known in early 1960, disappointed many at the time, his last BBC series in 1961 contains some of his best-remembered work (including "The Blood Donor" and "The Radio Ham"). After breaking with his scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson later that year, his career declined.


title: Tony Hancock

text: Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham (then in Warwickshire), but, from the age of three, he was brought up in Bournemouth (then in Hampshire), where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in Holdenhurst Road, worked as a comedian and entertainer.


title: Tony Hancock

text: After his father's death in 1934, Hancock and his brothers lived with their mother and stepfather Robert Gordon Walker at a small hotel called Durlston Court, in Gervis Road, Bournemouth. He attended Durlston Court Preparatory School, part of Durlston boarding school near Swanage (the name of which his parents adopted for their hotel) and Bradfield College in Reading, Berkshire, but left school at the age of fifteen.


title: Tony Hancock

text: In 1942, during the Second World War, Hancock joined the RAF Regiment. Following a failed audition for the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), he ended up on the "Ralph Reader Gang Show" touring production of "Wings". After the war, he returned to the stage and eventually worked as resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre, a venue which helped to launch the careers of many comedians at the time. A favourable press review of his work at the Windmill was seen in July 1948. "But mention must made of a new young comedian…who with a piano partner, gives some brilliant thumbnail impressions of a “dud” concert party." He took part in radio shows such as "Workers' Playtime" and "Variety Bandbox". In July 1949, he was praised for his work in the summer presentation of "Flotsam's Follies" at the Esplanade Concert Hall, Bognor Regis. Christmas 1949 saw him in the part of "Buttons" in the Cinderella pantomime at the Royal Artillery, Woolwich. In June 1950, he opened in the "Ocean Revue" at the Ocean, Clacton Pier which ran for three months. At Christmas 1950, Hancock was in the "Red Riding Hood" pantomime at the Theatre Royal Nottingham playing the part of Jolly Jenkins, the Baron's page.


title: Tony Hancock

text: Between 1951–52, for one series beginning on August 3, 1951, Hancock was a cast member of "Educating Archie", in which he mainly played the tutor (or foil) to the nominal star, a ventriloquist's dummy. His appearance in this radio show brought him national recognition, and a catchphrase he used frequently in the show, "Flippin' kids!", became popular parlance. The same year, he began to make regular appearances on BBC Television's light entertainment show "Kaleidoscope", and almost starred in his own series to be written by Larry Stephens, Hancock's best man at his first wedding. In 1954, he was given his own eponymous BBC radio show, "Hancock's Half Hour".


title: Tony Hancock

text: Working with scripts from Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, "Hancock's Half Hour" lasted for seven years and over a hundred episodes in its radio form, and, from 1956, ran concurrently with an equally successful BBC television series with the same name. The show starred Hancock as "Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock", living in the shabby "23 Railway Cuttings" in East Cheam. Most episodes portrayed his everyday life as a struggling comedian with aspirations toward straight acting. Some episodes, however, changed this to show him as being a successful actor and/or comedian, or occasionally as having a different career completely, such as a struggling (and incompetent) barrister. Radio episodes were prone to more surreal storylines, which would have been impractical on television, such as Hancock buying a puppy that grows to be as tall as himself.


title: Tony Hancock

text: Sidney James featured in both the radio and TV versions, while the radio version also included regulars Bill Kerr, Kenneth Williams and, successively, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly and Hattie Jacques. The series rejected the variety format then dominant in British radio comedy and instead used a form drawn more from everyday life: the situation comedy, with the humour coming from the characters and the circumstances in which they find themselves. Owing to a contractual wrangle with producer Jack Hylton, Hancock had an ITV series, "The Tony Hancock Show", during this period, which ran in 1956-57.


title: Tony Hancock

text: During the run of his BBC radio and television series, Hancock became an enormous star in Britain. Unlike most other comedians at the time, he was able to clear the streets while families gathered together to listen to the eagerly awaited episodes. His character changed slightly over the series, but even in the earliest episodes the key facets of "the lad himself" were evident. "Sunday Afternoon at Home" and "The Wild Man of the Woods" were top-rating shows and were later released on an LP record.


title: Tony Hancock

text: As an actor with considerable experience in films, Sidney James became more important to the show when the television version began. The regular cast was reduced to just the two men, allowing the humour to come from the interaction between them. James's character was the realist of the two, puncturing Hancock's pretensions. His character would often be dishonest and exploit Hancock's apparent gullibility during the radio series, but in the television version there appeared to be a more genuine friendship between them. Hancock's highly-strung personality made the demands of live broadcasts a constant worry, with the result that, starting from the autumn 1959 series, all episodes of the series were recorded before transmission. Up until then, every British television comedy show had been performed live, owing to the technical limitations of the time. He was also the first performer to receive a £1,000 fee for his performances in a half-hour show.


title: Tony Hancock

text: Hancock became anxious that his work with James was turning them into a double act, and he told close associates in late 1959, just after the fifth television series had finished being recorded, that he would end his professional association with Sid James after a final series. Hancock left others to tell James. His last BBC series in 1961, retitled simply "Hancock", was without James. Two episodes are among his best-remembered: "The Blood Donor", in which he goes to a clinic to give blood, contains some famous lines, including "I don't mind giving a reasonable amount, but a pint! That's very nearly an armful!"; in "The Radio Ham", Hancock plays an amateur radio enthusiast who receives a mayday call from a yachtsman in distress, but his incompetence prevents him from taking his position. Both of these programmes were re-recorded a few months later for a commercial 1961 LP, produced in the same manner as the radio episodes.


title: Tony Hancock

text: Returning home with his wife from recording "The Bowmans", an episode based around a parody of "The Archers", Hancock was involved in a car accident and was thrown through the windscreen. He was not badly hurt, but suffered concussion and was unable to learn his lines for "The Blood Donor", the next show due to be recorded. The result was that his performance depended on the use of teleprompters, and he is seen looking away from other actors when delivering lines. From this time onwards, Hancock came to rely on teleprompters instead of learning scripts whenever he had career difficulties.


title: Tony Hancock

text: In early 1960, Hancock appeared on the BBC's "Face to Face", a half-hour in-depth interview programme conducted by former Labour MP John Freeman. Freeman asked Hancock many soul-searching questions about his life and work. Hancock, who deeply admired his interviewer, often appeared uncomfortable with the questions, but answered them frankly and honestly. Hancock had always been highly self-critical, and it is often argued that this interview heightened this tendency, contributing to his later difficulties. According to Roger, his brother, "It was the biggest mistake he ever made. I think it all started from that really. ...Self-analysis - that was his killer."


title: Tony Hancock

text: Cited as evidence is his gradual ostracism of those who contributed to his success, such as Sidney James and his scriptwriters, Galton and Simpson. His reasoning was that, to refine his craft, he had to ditch catch-phrases and become realistic. He argued, for example, that whenever an ad-hoc character was needed, such as a policeman, it would be played by someone like Kenneth Williams, who would appear with his well-known oily catchphrase 'Good evening'. Hancock believed the comedy suffered because people did not believe in the policeman, knowing it was just Williams doing a funny voice.


title: Tony Hancock

text: Hancock starred in the film "The Rebel" (1961), in which he plays the role of an office worker-turned-artist who finds himself successful after a move to Paris, but only as the result of mistaken identity. Although a success in Britain, the film was not well received in the United States: owing to a contemporary American television series of the same name, the film had to be retitled, and the new title, "Call Me Genius", inflamed American critics.


title: Tony Hancock

text: His break with Galton and Simpson took place at a meeting held in October 1961, where he also broke with his long-term agent Beryl Vertue. During the previous six months, the writers had developed – without payment and in consultation with the comedian – three scripts for Hancock's second starring film vehicle. Worried that the projects were wrong for him, the first two had been abandoned incomplete; the third was written to completion at the writers' insistence, only for Hancock to reject it. It is believed that he had not read any of the screenplays. The result of the break was that he chose to separately develop something previously discussed, and the writers were ultimately commissioned to write a "Comedy Playhouse" series for the BBC, one of which, "The Offer", emerged as the pilot for "Steptoe and Son". That "something previously discussed" became "The Punch and Judy Man", for which Hancock hired writer Philip Oakes, who moved in with the comedian to co-write the screenplay.


title: Tony Hancock

text: In "The Punch and Judy Man" (1963), Hancock plays a struggling seaside entertainer who dreams of a better life; Sylvia Syms plays his nagging social climber of a wife, and John Le Mesurier a sand sculptor. The extent to which the character played by Hancock had merged with his real personality is clear in the film, which owes much to his memories of his childhood in Bournemouth.


title: Tony Hancock

text: Hancock moved to ATV in 1962 with different writers, though Oakes, retained as an advisor, disagreed over script ideas and the two men severed their professional (but not personal) relationship. The initial writer of Hancock's ATV series, Godfrey Harrison, had scripted the successful George Cole radio series "A Life Of Bliss", and also Hancock's first regular television appearances on "Fools Rush In" (a segment of "Kaleidoscope") more than a decade earlier. Harrison had trouble meeting deadlines, so other writers were commissioned, including Terry Nation.


title: Tony Hancock

text: The ATV series was transmitted in early 1963, on the same evenings as the second series of "Steptoe and Son", written by Hancock's former writers, Galton and Simpson. Critical comparisons did not favour Hancock's series. Around 1965, Hancock made a series of 11 television adverts for the Egg Marketing Board. Hancock starred in the adverts with Patricia Hayes as the character "Mrs Cravatte" in an attempt to revive the Galton and Simpson style of scripts. Slightly earlier, in 1963, he had featured in a spoof "Hancock Report" – hired by Lord Beeching to promote his plan to reduce railway mileage in advertisements. Hancock reportedly wanted to be paid what Beeching was paid annually – £34,000; he was offered half that amount for his services.