title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: "Inflexible" took part in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, bombarding the port of Alexandria as part of Admiral Seymour's fleet. Fisher was placed in charge of a landing party which was quartered in the Khedive's palace. Lacking means of reconnaissance, he devised a plan to armour a train with iron plates, machine gun and cannon. This became celebrated and widely reported by correspondents, so that its inventor, Fisher, came to the attention of the public for the first time as a hero. Shore duty had the unfortunate effect that Fisher became seriously ill with dysentery and malaria. He refused to take sick leave, but eventually was ordered home by Lord Northbrook, who commented, 'the Admiralty could build another "Inflexible", but not another Fisher'.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: During this time he became a close friend of the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. He was appointed a Companion of the Bath (CB) in 1882.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: From January to April 1883 Fisher was on half pay recovering from his illness. In January he was invited to visit Osborne House for a fortnight by Queen Victoria, concerned about the charming Captain Fisher. Fisher, having entered the navy penniless and unknown, was delighted.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: In April 1883 Fisher had recovered sufficiently to return to duty and was appointed commander of . He remained with "Excellent" for two years until June 1885, where he gained a following of officers concerned with the poor offensive capabilities of the fleet, including John Jellicoe and Percy Scott. For the next 15 months he had no naval command and still suffered the effects of his illness. He took to visiting Marienbad, which was famous amongst notable society for its restoring climate, and went there regularly in later years.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: During June–July 1885 Fisher served a short posting to in the Baltic under Admiral Hornby, following the Panjdeh Incident, which led to fear of war with Russia.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: From November 1886 to 1890, he was Director of Naval Ordnance, responsible for weapons and munitions. He was responsible for the development of quick-firing guns to be used against the growing threat from torpedo boats, and particularly claimed responsibility for removing wooden boarding pikes from navy ships. The Navy did not have responsibility for manufacture and supply of weapons and ammunition, which was in the hands of the War Office. Fisher began a long campaign to return this responsibility to the Admiralty, but did not finally succeed until he later became First Sea Lord. He was appointed Aide-de-Camp to the Queen in 1887, and promoted Rear-Admiral in August 1890.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: From May 1891 to February 1892, Fisher was Admiral Superintendent of the dockyard at Portsmouth, where he concerned himself with improving the speed of operations. was built in two years rather than three, while changing a barbette gun on a ship was reduced from a two-day operation to two hours. His example obliged all shipyards, both navy and private, to reduce the time they took to complete a ship, making savings in cost and allowing new designs to enter service more rapidly. He used all the tricks he could devise: an official who refused to step outside his office to personally supervise the work was offered a promotion to the tropics; he would find out the name of one or two men amongst a work crew and then make a point of complimenting them on their work and using their names, giving the impression he knew everyone personally; he took a chair and table into the yard where some operation was to be carried out and declared his intention to stay there until the operation was completed. He observed, "When you are told a thing is impossible, that there are insuperable objections, then is the time to fight like the devil".


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: His next appointment was Third Naval Lord and Controller of the Navy, the naval officer with overall responsibility for provision of ships and equipment. He presided over the development of torpedo boat destroyers armed with quick-firing small-calibre guns (called destroyers at Fisher's suggestion). A suggestion for the boats was brought to the Admiralty in 1892 by Alfred Yarrow of shipbuilders Thornycroft and Yarrow, who reported that he had obtained plans of new torpedo boats being built by the French, and he could build a faster boat to defend against them. Torpedo boats had become a major threat, as they were cheap but potentially able to sink the largest battleships, and France had built large numbers of them. The first destroyers were considered a success and more were ordered, but Fisher immediately ran into trouble by insisting that all shipbuilders, not just Yarrow's, should be invited to build boats to Yarrow's design. A similar (though opposite) difficulty with vested interests arose over the introduction of water tube boilers into navy ships, which held out the promise of improved fuel efficiency and greater speed. The first examples were used by Thornycroft and Yarrow in 1892, and then were trialled in the gunboat . However, an attempt to specify similar boilers for new cruisers in 1894 led to questions in the House of Commons, and opposition from shipbuilders who did not want to invest in the new technology. The matter continued for several years after Fisher moved on to a new posting, with a parliamentary enquiry rejecting the new boilers. Eventually the new design was adopted, but only after another eighteen ships had been built using the older design, with consequent poorer performance than necessary.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Fisher was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1894 as a Knight Commander of the Bath, promoted to vice-admiral in 1896, and put in charge of the North America and West Indies Station in 1897. In 1898 the Fashoda Crisis brought the threat of war with France, to which Fisher responded with plans to raid the French West Indies including Devil's Island prison, and return the "infamous" Alfred Dreyfus to France to foment trouble within the French army. It was Fisher's policy to conduct all manoeuvres at full speed while training the fleet, and to expect the best from his crews. He would socialise with junior officers so that they were not afraid to approach him with ideas, or disagree with him when the occasion demanded.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Fisher was chosen by Prime Minister Lord Salisbury as British naval delegate to the First Hague Peace Convention in 1899. The peace conference had been called by Russia to agree to limits on armaments, but the British position was to reject any proposal which might restrict use of the navy. Fisher's style was to say little in formal meetings, but to lobby determinedly at all informal gatherings. He impressed many by his affability and style, combined with a serious determination to press the British case with everyone he met. The conference ended successfully with limitations only upon dumdum bullets, poison gas and bombings from balloons, and Fisher was rewarded with appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, "'the tip-top appointment of the fleet' ". The German delegation summarised Britain's position: English world position depended upon the navy, the navy was sufficiently powerful to overcome any combination of states, and England reserved the right to employ that fleet any way it chose.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Unlike the North America and West Indies station, the Mediterranean Fleet was a vital British command operating from Alexandria and Gibraltar. The important shipping route between India and Britain passed through the Suez Canal, and was considered threatened by France. France was concerned with the route north–south to its colonies in Northern Africa. Fisher retained his flagship from the North American Squadron, , rather than choosing a more powerful but slower traditional battleship, despite criticism from other officers.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: His strategy emphasised the importance of striking the first blow, but with an awareness that sunk ships could not easily be replaced, and would replace any officer who could not keep up with the standards he demanded. He gave lectures on naval strategy to which all officers were invited and once again encouraged his officers to bring ideas to him. He offered prizes for essays on tactics and maintained a large tabletop map room with models of all ships in the fleet, where all officers could come to develop tactics. A particular concern was the threat of torpedoes, which Germany had boasted would dispose of the British fleet, and the numerous French torpedo boats. Fisher's innovations were not universally approved, with some senior officers resenting the attention he paid to their juniors, or the pressure he placed on all to improve efficiency.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: A programme of realistic exercises was adopted including simulated French raids, defensive manoeuvres, night attacks and blockades, all carried out at maximum speed. He introduced a gold cup for the ship which performed best at gunnery, and insisted upon shooting at greater range and from battle formations. He found that he too was learning some of the complications and difficulties of controlling a large fleet in complex situations, and immensely enjoyed it.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Notes from his lectures indicate that, at the start of his time in the Mediterranean, useful working ranges for heavy guns without telescopic sights were considered to be only 2000 yards, or 3000–4000 yards with such sights, whereas by the end of his time discussion centred on how to shoot effectively at 5000 yards. This was driven by the increasing range of the torpedo, which had now risen to 3000–4000 yards, necessitating ships fighting effectively at greater ranges. At this time he advocated relatively small main armaments on capital ships (some had 15 inch or greater), because the improved technical design of the relatively small (10 inch) modern guns allowed a much greater firing rate and greater overall weight of broadside. The potentially much greater ranges of large guns was not an issue, because no one knew how to aim them effectively at such ranges. He argued that "the design of fighting ships must follow the mode of fighting instead of fighting being subsidiary to and dependent on the design of ships." As regards how officers needed to behave, he commented, " "Think and act for yourself" is the motto for the future, not "Let us wait for orders"."


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Lord Hankey, then a marine officer serving under Fisher, later commented, "It is difficult for anyone who had not lived under the previous regime to realize what a change Fisher brought about in the Mediterranean fleet. ... Before his arrival, the topics and arguments of the officers messes ... were mainly confined to such matters as the cleaning of paint and brasswork. ... These were forgotten and replaced by incessant controversies on tactics, strategy, gunnery, torpedo warfare, blockade, etc. It was a veritable renaissance and affected every officer in the navy." Lord Charles Beresford, later to become a severe critic of Fisher, gave up a plan to return to Britain and enter parliament, because he had "learnt more in the last week than in the last forty years."


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Fisher implemented a program of banquets and balls for important dignitaries to improve diplomatic relations. The fleet visited Constantinople, where he had three meetings with the sultan and was awarded the Grand Cordon, Order of Osmanieh in November 1900, and the following year he was promoted to full Admiral on 5 November 1901. He lobbied hard with the Admiralty to obtain additional ships and supplies for the Mediterranean squadron. Beresford, who had established a career in politics alongside his naval one, continued a public campaign for greater funding of the fleet, which caused him to come into conflict with the Admiralty. While Fisher agreed with him as to the need for greater funding and instant readiness for war, he chose to stay out of the public debate. However, he maintained a steady confidential correspondence with the journalist Arnold White, providing him with information and advice for a newspaper campaign promoting the needs of the navy. During the course of the correspondence in 1902, Fisher noted that although France was Britain's historical enemy, Britain had considerable common interest with France as a possible ally, whereas growing German activity abroad made her a much more likely enemy.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: The correspondence revealed that Fisher remained uncertain how his views were being received at the Admiralty and an uncertainty on his part whether he would receive further promotions. He had already received approaches to become a director of Armstrong Whitworth, of Elswick (then Britain's largest armaments firm), at a considerably larger salary than that of an admiral and with the possibility of building privately new designs of ship which he believed would be needed to maintain the strength of the fleet.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: In early June 1902 Fisher handed over the command of the Mediterranean Squadron to Admiral Sir Compton Domvile, and returned to the UK to take up the appointment as Second Naval Lord in charge of personnel. He was "read in" at the Admiralty on 9 June, and took up his duties the following day.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: At this time engineering officers, who had become increasingly important in the fleet as it became steadily more dependent upon machinery, were still largely looked down upon by executive (command) officers. Fisher considered it would be better for the navy if the two branches could be merged, as had been done in the past with navigation officers who had similarly once been a completely separate speciality. His solution was to merge the cadet training of ordinary and engineer officers and revise the curriculum so that it provided a suitable grounding to later go on to either path. The proposal was initially resisted by the remainder of the Board of Admiralty, but Fisher convinced them of the benefits of the changes. Objections within the navy as a whole were harder to quell and a campaign once again broke out in newspapers. Fisher was thoroughly aware of the benefits of getting the press on his side and continued to leak information to friendly journalists. Beresford was approached by officers objecting to the changes to act as champion of their cause, but sided with Fisher on this issue.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Training was extended from under two years to four, with the resulting need for more accommodation for cadets. A second cadet establishment, the Royal Naval College, Osborne, was constructed at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight for the first two years of training, with the last two remaining at Dartmouth. All cadets now received an education in science and technology as it related to life on board a ship as well as navigation and seamanship. Those who went on to be command officers would now have the benefit of improved understanding of their ships while those who became engineers would be better equipped for command. Physical education and sport were to be taught, not only for the benefit of the cadets but also for the future training of ships' crews which were expected to produce sporting teams on good-will visits in foreign ports. Entrance by examination, which biased the intake to those who could obtain special tuition, was replaced with an interview committee tasked with determining the general knowledge of candidates and their reaction to the questions as much as their answers. After the four years, cadets were posted to special training ships for final practical experience before being posted to real command positions. The results of the final examination affected the seniority allotted to each cadet and his chance of future early promotion.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Fisher had described his Selborne-Fisher scheme as "unstoppable by prejudice, Parliament, Satan or even, beyond all these, the Treasury itself". However his original inclusion of the Royal Marines caused a drastic fall in the number of cadets opting to become officers in that branch of the service. Fisher accordingly was obliged to modify his reforms to exclude the Royal Marines in 1912.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list on 26 June 1902, and invested as such by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: After spending September and the first half of October on the continent Fisher took office as First Sea Lord on 20 October 1904. The appointment came with a house in Queen Anne's Gate, but Fisher also leased Langham House, Ham where the family lived until his retirement. In June 1905 he was appointed to the Order of Merit (OM), in December he was promoted Admiral of the Fleet.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Fisher was brought into the Admiralty to reduce naval budgets, and to reform the navy for modern war. Amidst massive public controversy, he ruthlessly sold off 90 obsolete and small ships and put a further 64 into reserve, describing them as "too weak to fight and too slow to run away", and "a miser's hoard of useless junk". This freed up crews and money to increase the number of large modern ships in home waters. The navy estimate for 1905 was reduced by £3.5 million on the previous year's total of £36.8 million despite new building programs and greatly increased effectiveness. Naval expenditure fell from 1905 to 1907, before rising again. By the end of Fisher's tenure as First Sea Lord expenditure had returned to 1904 levels.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: He was a driving force behind the development of the fast, all-big-gun battleship, and chaired the Committee on Designs which produced the outline design for the first modern battleship, . His committee also produced a new type of cruiser in a similar style to "Dreadnought" with a high speed achieved at the expense of armour protection. This became the battlecruiser, the first being . He also encouraged the introduction of submarines into the Royal Navy, and the conversion from a largely coal-fuelled navy to an oil-fuelled one. He had a long-running public feud with another admiral, Charles Beresford.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: In his capacity as First Sea Lord, Fisher proposed multiple times to King Edward VII that Britain should take advantage of its naval superiority to "Copenhagen" the German fleet at Kiel – that is, to destroy it with a pre-emptive surprise attack without declaration of war, as the Royal Navy had done against the Danish Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. In his memoirs, Fisher records a conversation where he was informed that "by all from the German Emperor downwards [he] was the most hated man in Germany", as the Emperor "had heard of [Fisher's] idea for the "Copenhagening" of the German Fleet." Fisher further added that he doubted that the suggestion had leaked out, and believed that "[the Emperor] only said it because he knew it was what [the British] ought to have done."


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: In 1908, he predicted that war between Britain and Germany would occur in October 1914, which later proved accurate, basing his statement on the projected completion of the widening of the Kiel Canal, which would allow Germany to move its large warships safely from the Baltic to the North Sea. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) that year.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: On 7 December 1909, he was created Baron Fisher. He took the punning motto "Fear God and dread nought" on his coat of arms as a reference to "Dreadnought".


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: In 1912, Fisher was appointed chairman of the Royal Commission on Fuel and Engines, with a view to converting the entire fleet to oil. Classified "Secret", Fisher's Commission reported in on 27 November 1912, with two follow-up reports on 27 February 1913 and 10 February 1914.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Once the First World War broke out in August 1914, Fisher was a 'constant' visitor to Churchill at the Admiralty.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: In October 1914 Lord Fisher was recalled as First Sea Lord, after Prince Louis of Battenberg had been forced to resign because of his German name. "The Times" reported that Fisher "was now entering the close of his 74th year but he was never younger or more vigorous". He resigned on 15 May 1915 amidst bitter arguments with the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, over Gallipoli, causing Churchill's resignation too. Fisher was never entirely enthusiastic about the campaign—going back and forth in his support, to the consternation and frustration of members of the cabinet—and all in all preferred an amphibious attack on the German Baltic Sea coastline (the Baltic Project), even having the shallow-draft battlecruisers , and constructed for the purpose. As the Gallipoli campaign failed, relations with Churchill became increasingly acrimonious. One of Fisher's last contributions to naval construction was the projected , a mammoth battlecruiser which took the principles of the "Courageous" class another step further; mounting 20-inch guns, but still with minimal armour, "Incomparable" was never approved for construction.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Fisher's resignation was initially not taken seriously: "Fisher is always resigning" commented the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. However, when Fisher vacated his room at the Admiralty with the announced intention of retiring to Scotland, the Prime Minister sent him an order in the King's name to continue his duties. Senior naval officers and the press made appeals to the now elderly (74) First Sea Lord to remain in his position. Fisher responded with an eccentric letter to Asquith setting out six demands that would "guarantee the successful termination of the war". These would have given him unprecedented sole authority over the fleet, including all promotions and construction. After commenting that Fisher's behaviour indicated signs of mental aberration, Asquith responded with a brusque acceptance of Fisher's original resignation.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Fisher was made chairman of the Government's Board of Invention and Research, serving in that post until the end of the war. In 1917 he was awarded the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers, Grand Cordon, the highest of eight classes associated with the award. Notice of the King's permission to accept and to display this honour was duly published in "The London Gazette".


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Admiral Fisher's wife, Frances, died in July 1918. She was cremated and her ashes were interred in St Andrew's churchyard, adjacent to Kilverstone Hall, on 22 July. Her coffin was draped with Fisher's flag as Admiral of the Fleet and topped by a coronet.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: Fisher died of cancer at St James Square, London, on 10 July 1920, aged 79, and he was given a national funeral at Westminster Abbey.


title: John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher

text: His coffin was drawn on a gun-carriage through the streets of London to Westminster Abbey by bluejackets, with six admirals as pall-bearers and an escort of Royal Marines, their arms reversed, to the slow beat of muffled drums. That evening the body was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium. The following day, Fisher's ashes were taken by train to Kilverstone, escorted by a Royal Navy guard of honour, and were placed in the grave of his wife, underneath a chestnut tree, overlooking the figurehead of his first seagoing ship, .


title: Tobias Wolff

text: Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff (born June 19, 1945) is an American short story writer, memoirist, novelist, and teacher of creative writing. He is known for his memoirs, particularly "This Boy's Life" (1989) and "In Pharaoh's Army" (1994). He has written four short story collections and two novels including "The Barracks Thief" (1984), which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Wolff received a National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in September 2015.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: His academic career began at Syracuse University (1982–1997) and, since 1997, he has taught at Stanford University, where he is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: Wolff was born in 1945 in Birmingham, Alabama, the second son of Rosemary (Loftus) from Hartford, Connecticut, and Arthur Samuels Wolff, an aeronautical engineer who was a son of a Jewish doctor and his wife. The father had become Episcopalian, and Wolff did not learn about his father's Jewish roots until he was an adult. (Wolff was raised and identifies as Catholic, like his mother).


title: Tobias Wolff

text: His parents separated when Wolff was five and his elder brother Geoffrey was twelve; he lived with his mother in a variety of places, including Seattle, Washington when he was an adolescent. After she remarried, they lived in Newhalem, a small company town in the North Cascade Mountains, where his stepfather, Robert Thompson, worked at Seattle City Light. His father and brother lived on the East Coast during this period. Geoffrey knew nothing about where his brother was until he entered Princeton.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: As a child, Wolff had a local paper route and was a Boy Scout. After attending Concrete High School in Concrete, also in the North Cascades, Wolff applied to and was accepted by The Hill School, located 35 miles from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had applied under the self-embellished name "Tobias Jonathan von Ansell-Wolff III", adopting part of one of his father's personas, Saunders Ansell-Wolff 3d. When Wolff was found to have forged his transcripts and recommendation letters, he was later expelled.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: Wolff served in the U.S. Army from 1964 to 1968, when he trained for Special Forces, learned Vietnamese, and served as an adviser in Vietnam. He holds a First Class Honours degree in English from Hertford College, Oxford (1972). After returning to the United States, in 1975, he was awarded a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Creative Writing at Stanford University, where he earned an M.A.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: While continuing to write, Wolff taught at Syracuse University from 1980 to 1997. He published his first short story collection in 1981. At Syracuse he served on the faculty with Raymond Carver and was an instructor in the graduate writing program. Authors who had studied with Wolff as students at Syracuse include Jay McInerney, Tom Perrotta, George Saunders, Alice Sebold, William Tester, Paul Griner, Ken Garcia, Dana C. Kabel, Jan-Marie Spanard, and Paul Watkins.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: In 1997, Wolff transferred to Stanford, where he is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences. He has taught classes in English and creative writing, and also served as the director of the Creative Writing Program at Stanford from 2000 to 2002.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: Wolff is best known for his work in two genres: the short story and the memoir. His first short story collection, "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs", was published in 1981. The collection was well received and several of its stories have since been published in a number of anthologies. Its publication coincided with a period in which several American authors who worked almost exclusively in the short story form were receiving wider recognition. As writers such as Wolff, Raymond Carver and Andre Dubus became better known, the United States was said to be having a renaissance of the short story. (Their 20th-century North American version of realism was often labelled as "Dirty realism" for its gritty veracity.)


title: Tobias Wolff

text: Wolff repudiated this characterization. In 1994, in the introduction to "The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories", he wrote:


title: Tobias Wolff

text: Wolff's 1984 novella "The Barracks Thief" won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for 1985. Most of the action takes place at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Three recent paratrooper training graduates are temporarily attached to an airborne infantry company as they await orders to report to Vietnam. Because most of the men in the company fought together in Vietnam, the three newcomers are treated as outsiders and ignored. When money and personal property are discovered missing from the barracks, suspicion falls on the three newcomers. The narrative structure of the book contains several shifts of tone and point of view as the story unfolds.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: In 1985, Wolff's second short story collection, "Back in the World", was published. Several of the stories in this collection, such as "The Missing Person," are significantly longer than the stories in his first collection.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: Wolff chronicled his early life in two memoirs. "This Boy's Life" (1989), winner of the "Los Angeles Times" Book Award for Biography, is devoted to the author's adolescence in Seattle and Newhalem, a remote company town in the North Cascade mountains of Washington. The memoir describes the nomadic and uncertain life Wolff and his mother led after his parents divorced. His mother's subsequent marriage to a man who was revealed as an abusive husband and stepfather deeply affected their lives. "In Pharaoh's Army" (1994) records Wolff's U.S. Army tour of duty in Vietnam.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: He published a third collection of stories, "The Night in Question", in 1997. His fourth short-story book, "Our Story Begins" (2008), includes both new and previously published stories.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: Whether he is writing fiction or non-fiction, Wolff's prose is characterized by an exploration of personal/biographical and existential terrain. As Wyatt Mason wrote in the "London Review of Books", "Typically, his protagonists face an acute moral dilemma, unable to reconcile what they know to be true with what they feel to be true. Duplicity is their great failing, and Wolff's main theme."


title: Tobias Wolff

text: Elsewhere Wolff said of the personal nature of his work: "I have to be able, with a straight face, to tell myself that something is nonfiction if I say it's nonfiction. That's why, although there are autobiographical elements in some of my stories, I still call them fiction because that's what they are. Even though they may have been set into motion by some catalyst of memory."


title: Tobias Wolff

text: In 1989, Wolff was chosen as recipient of the Rea Award for the Short Story. Wolff has received the O. Henry Award on three occasions, for the stories "In the Garden of North American Martyrs" (1981), "Next Door" (1982), and "Sister" (1985). In 2008, he was awarded The Story Prize for "Our Story Begins".


title: Tobias Wolff

text: Some of Wolff's work has been adapted to film. "This Boy's Life" was adapted as a feature film directed by Michael Caton-Jones in 1993. It starred Leonardo DiCaprio as the teenage Wolff, Robert De Niro as Wolff's abusive step-father Dwight, and Ellen Barkin, as Wolff's mother Rosemary.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: In 2001, Wolff's acclaimed short story "Bullet in the Brain" (from "The Night in Question") was adapted as a short film by David Von Ancken and CJ Follini; it starred Tom Noonan and Dean Winters.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: Tobias Wolff's older brother is the author Geoffrey Wolff. A decade before Tobias Wolff published "This Boy's Life," his brother wrote a memoir of his own about the boys' biological father, entitled "The Duke of Deception" (in which he alleges his younger brother was named after the Toby Jug). Wolff's mother later settled in Washington, D.C. There she became president of the League of Women Voters.


title: Tobias Wolff

text: Tobias Wolff is married and lives with his wife, Catherine Dolores Spohn, and three children in California.


title: The Petersens

text: The Petersens are an American bluegrass family band from Branson, Missouri. Since the group's inception, they have been a regular feature on Country Music and Bluegrass television specials.


title: The Petersens

text: The Petersen children grew up playing music together, but first heard bluegrass in 2003 at the Gettysburg bluegrass festival. The band was formed and had their first performance in 2005 at their mother's hometown church First Christian Church of Mountain Grove, Missouri.


title: The Petersens

text: The band was originally siblings Katie (on fiddle), Ellen (on banjo), their brother Matt (on bass), and their youngest sister Julianne (sings and dance), accompanied by their mother Karen (on mandolin) and father Jon (on guitar). But over time, Julianne took the mandolin part and Karen switched to bass. Matt took the guitar part and their father, Jon, played the piano on some of the gospel songs. These early performances were mostly held initially in local festivals, churches and cafes.


title: The Petersens

text: In 2010 the band won the CAM Gospel Sing-Off competition at the Sight & Sound Theatre in Branson, which performance caught the attention of the IMAX Entertainment Complex and where they were invited to play regularly at the Little Opry Theater for the entertainment of local and state residents. In 2015, the band received international recognition when banjo player, Ellen Petersen, competed in the singing reality TV show, American Idol, placing in the top 48. In 2017, Emmett Franz joined the band as their dobro player.


title: The Petersens

text: Katie, vocal and composer, has composed several original songs of her own, the most popular being "California." Julianne is a multi-talented performer with a history of buck-dancing whilst playing the violin at the same time.


title: The Petersens

text: The band, although young and upcoming, has garnered praise from top music professionals in the United Kingdom, who see the group as being unique in the field of bluegrass music.


title: The Petersens

text: The band has also frequently covered songs composed by other musicians, such as Dolly Parton's "Jolene," which has received more than 17 million views on YouTube, and "Take Me Home, Country Roads" which received 20 million views in just twelve months.


title: The Petersens

text: Prior to 2019, The Petersens had performed to audiences throughout the continental United States, in Canada, and Ireland. In early 2019, they toured Ireland again, as well as the United Kingdom. In late 2019, The Petersens went on additional singing tours to Finland and to Ireland, the trip to Ireland being the group's fourth tour of that country. Social media platforms are often used to document their performances and recordings.


title: The Petersens

text: Several of the group's newer releases, as well as covers of other artists, have been made available on Spotify and iTunes.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Boss is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language action-comedy film directed by Anthony D'Souza and written by Farhad-Sajid. It was produced by Cape of Good Films and Ashwin Varde Productions and features Akshay Kumar in the lead role, along with Mithun Chakraborty, Shiv Panditt, Ronit Roy and Aditi Rao Hydari. It is a remake of the Malayalam film "Pokkiri Raja". The film released worldwide on 16 October 2013.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: The film starts with school teacher Satyakant Acharya Shastri who has two children: Surya and Shiv. After Surya picks up brawls with another child multiple times and eventually kills him, Satyakant kicks him out and disowns him. Years later, Shiv grows up as the only son to his father. It is revealed that, after being disowned, Surya had saved the life of a transport businessman Tauji a.k.a. Big Boss who had taken him in and raised him like a son for 15 years. Now, Surya has transformed himself into Boss, a suave, tough transport businessman who fights for justice.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Shiv falls in love with Ankita, an early college acquaintance, who turns out to be sister of the corrupt Assistant Commissioner of Police Ayushman Thakur. Ayushman is in cahoots with the corrupt and power-hungry Home Minister, Shoorvar Pradhan. Pradhan suggests to Ayushman that he should get Ankita married to his son Vishal. Ayushman agrees and decides that Ankita will marry him whether she wants to or not. Upon finding out she is in love with Shiv, he has Shiv arrested and convicted for crimes he hasn't committed. It is also revealed that Surya didn't murder his classmate. Instead, Satyakant accidentally impaled him when he shoved them into a room so that they would learn to deal with each other.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Satyakant then tries to bail Shiv out and calmly explains to Ayushman. He is instead humiliated and thrown out of the police station. Without any choice, Satyakant turns to his other son for help, visits Boss and gives him a photograph of Shiv, which convinces Surya that Shiv's life is in danger.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Boss meets Ayushman and Vishal convinces him to free Shiv from all charges, telling him that Boss would kill Shiv when he is released from the police custody. Boss, however, helps Shiv escape from custody. Pradhan sends his cops to capture Boss and take him to Ayushman's farmhouse. Boss escapes from the goons and reaches Ayushman's farm house. Pradhan calls Tauji there to complain about Boss. In front of Tauji, Pradhan cancels his contract of killing Shiv with Tauji. After noticing Ankita, Surya asks her whether she loves Shiv — she replies positively. He takes the responsibility of getting Ankita married to Shiv in front of Tauji and her brother Ayushman. Satyakant and Shiv are attacked by a contract killer, Jabbar Bhai, and his goons, sent by Pradhan. Surya decapitates Jabbar Bhai and his gang, saving his father and brother.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Twenty-five of the MLAs of Pradhan's political party are caught red-handed at a brothel with prostitutes by the media with the help of an unknown informer, later revealed to be Boss. Ayushman sets a trap against Shiv by setting up Ankita's friend Dimple and arrests Shiv in a fake rape case. Surya then tortures Vishal and sets a fake time bomb in his bum to get him ask his father to get Shiv freed from police custody. Tauji informs Satyakant that Surya did not kill his schoolmate and that it was an accident. Satyakant rushes to meet Surya along with Tauji, but their car is hit by a truck sent by Ayushman. Tauji survives the accident; Satyakant is injured and hospitalized. Finally, Boss brutally defeats Ayushman followed by a long fight. In the end, Satyakant with Shiv is shown opening his arms calling Boss to hug and they reunite.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: The director, Anthony D'Souza, and the script writers during the scripting stages were searching for a magnanimous character who could do justice to the role of Akshay Kumar – Boss in the film – who is portrayed as a gangster who is ever-ready to help the needy and a larger-than-life character. They chose veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan as the narrator who would introduce Boss.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: According to reports Amitabh Bachchan was sent the script in advance and journalist-turned-producer Ashwin Varde (for whom the film marks his first project as a producer) offered Bachchan the role personally over a phone call which he readily accepted. Bachchan, in spite of his hectic schedule, completed the dubbing session at the earliest, on 31 August 2013 at 8:30 pm IST in Juhu's BR Dubbing Theater in 30 minutes. To the crew's pleasant surprise he improvised his lines as well.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Akshay Kumar played a kind-hearted Haryanvi hero, known as 'Boss', and Mithun Chakraborty enacted the role of his father. Shiv Panditt portrayed Akshay Kumar's younger brother's role and Aditi Rao Hydari is paired opposite him. Danny Denzongpa played Boss's mentor and Ronit Roy played a ruthless police officer who is pitted against Kumar. Ronit Roy plays the role of a police officer up against the titular character, Boss, marking the first instance where he is the antagonist of a film. It is also the second consecutive instance where his role is that of a police officer, with "Shootout at Wadala" being the last one, in which he played Inspector Raja Ambat, based on real-life encounter specialist Raja Tambat. Roy and Akshay Kumar have an action sequence at the climax of the film, one its highlights, shot in temperatures exceeding 47 degrees Celsius in Thailand and involving high-octane stunts that both actors performed successfully. Ronit Roy and Akshay Kumar acted in a movie after 20 years, "Sainik" (1993).


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Promotional video for the first and title track of the film was released on YouTube on 30 August 2013 on the official channel of T-Series, the music label that has purchased the music rights of the film and subsequently for legal purchase as a soundtrack single on digital music platform, iTunes.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: "Boss Title Song" as composed by Meet Bros Anjjan, sung by Anjjan Bhatacharya, Harmeet Singh & Manmeet Singh consists of rap verses performed by Yo Yo Honey Singh with lyrics penned by Kumaar. The promotional video for the second song of the film composed and sung by noted Punjabi singer and rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh and lyrics by Sahil Kaushal was touted to be the costliest music video produced in Bollywood with a production cost of around (). It was released on 6 September 2013, after an effective promotional strategy of building hype around it by releasing two teasers named "Aunty Police Bulalegi" and "Bajatey Raho". The teasers containing snippets of the song of length 12 and 10 seconds respectively were released on 5 September 2013.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: The song "Party All Night" being marketed as a 'party anthem', earlier reported by Indian Media to be 'Sari Raat Party' was made on a budget in excess of (), with the fee of Sonakshi Sinha being (), thus making it the more expensive Bollywood music video ever shot.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: For Sonakshi Sinha it marks her third special appearance in a song since she had featured in "Go Go Govinda" and "Thank God Its Friday" from the 2012 film "OMG – Oh My God!" and 2013 film "Himmatwala" respectively. In the former she appeared alongside Prabhu Deva; it also starred Akshay Kumar in a supporting role. Akshay Kumar, who portrays the title character, Boss, and Yo Yo Honey Singh appear in the track with 600 foreign models hired to perform as background dancers. The dance moves were choreographed by the rising star of choreography Mudassar Khan, with Mudassar having earlier choreographed songs like "Desi Beat," "Dhinka Chika" and "Character Dheela" from the 2011 films "Bodyguard" and "Ready" respectively.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: The song "Party All Night" was launched on television during the grand finale of "Dance India Dance Super Moms", a reality TV series. The reason for choosing the stage being Mithun Chakrabarty's or 'Mithunda' (as he is fondly referred to by Akshay Kumar) involvement in both the film and the TV show. He plays the role of Akshay Kumar's character, Boss's father in the former and is a judge in the latter. The ninth track of the music album titled "Boss Ganpati – Mix" was added to the soundtrack later on request of Akshay Kumar and was recorded two days before the release owing to the huge appreciation of the title track which released 10 days earlier. This is a version of the song with lyrics crediting the Hindu elephant God Ganesh as the boss or king of all gods. The lyrics are written by Kumaar while the song was composed by Meet Bros Anjjan. This version differs from the original one in respect of lyrics pertaining to the Lord and use of Dhols and Lejhim beats. The track will be distributed free of cost across the Ganesh pandals across the city of Mumbai and the state of Maharashtra on the first day of Ganesh Chaturthi which will be visited Kumar to offer prayers.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: The song "Hum Na Tode" was composed by first-time composer P. A. Deepak, who had previously mixed sound most notably for A. R. Rahman in the Academy Award-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" and consequently won a Grammy Award for it. "Hum Na Tode" is an adapted version of the immensely popular Tamil song "Appadi Podu" from the Vijay starred 2004 film "Ghilli", composed by Vidyasagar. Its adapted version "Hum Na Tode" is sung by Vishal Dadlani. The song "Har Kisi Ko Nahi Milta" composed by Kalyanji Anandji for the 1986 film "Janbaaz" was re-adapted for the soundtrack by Chirantan Bhatt and has two versions. One is sung by Nikhil D'Souza and the other by Arijit Singh.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: The soundtrack CD containing the songs was released on 9 September 2013 to coincide with Akshay Kumar's birthday along with the auspicious festival of Ganesh Chaturthi with lyrics by penned by Kumaar, Manoj Yadav and Sahil Kaushal consisting of nine tracks with Meet Bros Anjjan composing five of them and P. A. Deepak and Chirantan Bhatt composing the rest.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Mohar Basu reviewed the soundtrack for Koimoi. Flagging off the review acknowledging the appreciation the soundtrack has drawn from its audiences – owing to its high entertainment quotient and energy that is making its presence felt in each and every track – stated that having four music directors (Meet Bros Anjjan, P. A. Deepak, Chirantan Bhatt and Yo Yo Honey Singh) did not have a negative effect. The songs with their lyrics and vibrant flavour "command an attractive fervor mostly". She reviewed each song individually. The reviewer concluded the review saying though the album is not a musical masterpiece in composition it will ensure that the audience will have a good time owing largely to the "powerful entertaining zing." The album resonates more so with "Hum Na Tode" and title track being the best among the tracks as a whole.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Joginder Tuteja reviewed the soundtrack album for Rediff. He started the review building on the fact the title and setting of a masala or entertainer film needed an album without a single dull moment for its audience and it delivered just that. Commenting on the title song he credited it to be extremely impressive and the same time groovy at first listen. The mix of hip hop, Indian and Western sounds with a tad of Hariyanvi flavour and lyrics by Kumaar with the entertainment of masses being its foci working in the songs tremendous recall value. This is extended by the addition of another 'remix' version of the song and a theme version with vocals by Sonu Kakkar and Khushboo Grewal. The second song, "Hum Na Tode," is an adapted track of hugely popular Tamil song composed by Vidyasagar, Appadi Podu. A fast-paced addictive track – boasting of ferocious and aggressive vocals by Vishal Dadlani, adapted by P.A. Deepak and lyrics by Kumaar – consolidates the album's positive impact on its audiences. The next track Pitah Se Naam Tera a soft and subtle track after two fast faced ones. The track emphasises a father's importance and comparing him to be no less than God. The reviewer appreciated the choice of Sonu Nigam as the singer, the backing vocals of Meet Bros Anjjan and "alaps" by Sanjay Misra along with the devotional appeal the song commands. The next song Party All Night composed and sung by Honey Singh according to the reviewer is the "pick of the album" and in spite of non-sensical lyrics manages to be an appeasing affair with a strong connect factor and at the same time maintains to hold the audiences attention from beginning till the end. Thus he upheld the track to be played at Discothèques "till the New Year's Eve" at least. The next track Har Kisi Ko a recomposed version by Chirantan Bhatt of the song of the same name originally composed by Kalyanji Anandji from the 1986 film Janbaaz. The song belonging to soft rock genre scores with the fact that it is not among the "umpteen remixes or re-arranged versions that flood the music stands" but one that creates makes its own presence felt by reaching out to its audiences more so with Nikhil D'Souza behind the mike in the solo version.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: The pre-look poster was released on 12 August 2013, and the first look was released on 13 August 2013. Akshay Kumar released the official teaser of "Boss" on 14 August 2013, and was premiered with "Once Upon ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara!" Theatrical trailer was launched on 28 August 2013, coinciding with Krishna Janmashtami.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: The star cast of "Boss", Akshay Kumar, Aditi and Shiv promoted the film on the show Comedy Nights with Kapil. Akshay Kumar and comedian-actor Johnny Lever made appearance on the longest running comedy show Comedy Circus to promote their film. Akshay Kumar promoted the film on Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah. Akshay will promote the film by jumping from the tallest building in Mumbai.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Boss entered the Guinness World Records for the largest poster after beating Michael Jackson's This Is It. The poster, 58.87 metres wide and 54.94 metres high, was unveiled at Little Gransden Airfield, UK, on 3 October 2013. Macro Arts (UK) did the manufacturing; they had also made the previous Guinness record-holding poster.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: An objectionable word in Honey Singh song "Party All Night" was muted, after a public interest litigation seeking a stay on release of "Boss" was filed in Delhi High Court.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: "Boss" was released on 16 October 2013 in 2750 screens worldwide. It was given an U/A certificate by the Censor Board for its action sequences and bikini scenes. "Boss" was the first Indian movie released in Latin America. It was distributed in Panama, Peru, Denmark and France in addition to the 400 screens already announced across Europe, North America, Southeast Asia and Australia. It was also released in Pakistan on the occasion of Eid al-Adha.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: On its first day, they had an 85–95% occupancy and collected 14.75 crore, but ticket sales dropped to 8 crore on the second day. The film collected 452.5 million at the Indian box office in its five-day-extended first weekend.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Collections further dropped next week, with "Boss" failing to cross the Rs 500 million mark in the domestic market in the nine-day-extended first week.


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: "Boss" had a disappointing second weekend at the domestic box office. The film after gathering income from its 2nd Friday, Saturday and Sunday, managed to make collections of 45 million only. Overall Boss was declared "Flop".


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it 4 out of 5 stars, saying that the film was "designed to magnetize lovers of "desi" commercial cinema and woo the BO", especially for viewers who like "old-school "masaledaar" entertainers".


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Mohar Basu of Koimoi gave it 2.5 out of 5 and stated that "Akshay Kumar single handedly saves the film from being a sore bore and that is reason enough why Boss deserves a definite shot".


title: Boss (2013 Hindi film)

text: Mohammad Kamran Jawaid of "Dawn" gave a positive review, calling it "an idiosyncratic masala fare" where "some of the (film's) in-your-face flagrancy works (and) some doesn't."


title: Brandon Aiyuk

text: Brandon Aiyuk (; born March 17, 1998) is an American football wide receiver and return specialist for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Sierra College and Arizona State and was drafted by the 49ers in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.


title: Brandon Aiyuk

text: Aiyuk was born in Rocklin, California and grew up in Reno, Nevada. He attended Robert McQueen High School. He played wide receiver, defensive back and returned kicks for the McQueen high school football team and was named first-team All-Northern Nevada and honorable mention All-State as a senior.


title: Brandon Aiyuk

text: Aiyuk began his collegiate football career at Sierra College. As a freshman, he caught 29 passes for 573 yards and five touchdowns and was named All-Big 8 Conference. He was named a Junior College All-American in his sophomore season after recording 60 receptions for 960 yards and 14 touchdowns while also returning 11 kickoffs for 418 yards and two touchdowns and 14 punts for 313 yards and a touchdown. He finished his junior college career with 2,499 all-purpose yards and 21 touchdowns. Aiyuk committed to transfer to Arizona State for the final two years of his NCAA eligibility over offers from Colorado State, Kansas, Tennessee, and Alabama. He chose Arizona State because it was one of the few schools that recruited him to play wide receiver, instead as only a return specialist or planned to move him to the defensive side of the ball.


title: Brandon Aiyuk

text: In his first year with the Sun Devils, Aiyuk had 33 catches for 474 yards and three touchdowns with an additional 381 total return yards. Aiyuk was named third-team preseason All-Pac-12 Conference going into his senior season. He was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week after catching seven passes for 196 yards and three touchdowns in a 38–34 win over Washington State on October 12, 2019. Aiyuk was also named the conference Special Teams Player of the Week after posting 44 kickoff return yards and 76 punt return yards, 63 of which came on his first return for a touchdown at ASU, against Oregon State on November 16. He also had a career high 10 receptions for 173 receiving yards and a touchdown in the game and his 293 all-purpose yards were the fifth-most in a single game in school history. Aiyuk finished the season with 65 receptions for 1,192 yards and eight touchdowns, returned 14 punts for 226 yards and one touchdown and 14 kickoffs for 446 yards, and was named first-team All-Pac-12 as both a wide receiver and as a return specialist.


title: Brandon Aiyuk

text: Aiyuk was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the first round with the 25th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft after they acquired the pick from the Minnesota Vikings in a trade. On June 26, 2020, Aiyuk signed a four-year $12.5 million contract with the team, with a $6.6 million signing bonus. On August 23, 2020, Aiyuk sustained a hamstring injury in training camp, resulting in him being inactive in Week 1. He made his NFL debut in Week 2 against the New York Jets and recorded two receptions for 21 yards in the 31–13 victory. In Week 3 against the New York Giants, Aiyuk recorded 101 yards from scrimmage and his first career rushing touchdown during the 36–9 win. He became the franchise's first wide receiver since 1970 to have a rushing touchdown be their first career score. In Week 4, against the Philadelphia Eagles on "NBC Sunday Night Football", he had a 38-yard rushing touchdown in the 25–20 loss. He became the first wide receiver since the NFL-AFL merger to record two rushing touchdowns in his first three professional games. He recorded his first professional 100-yard game with six receptions for 115 yards in a 33–6 victory over the New England Patriots in Week 7.


title: Brandon Aiyuk

text: Aiyuk was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list by the team on November 4, 2020, and activated two days later. He was placed back on the COVID-19 list on November 20, and activated again on December 2. In Week 14 against the Washington Football Team, Aiyuk recorded 10 catches for 119 yards during the 23–15 loss. The following week in a road game against the Dallas Cowboys, Aiyuk hauled in 9 catches for 73 yards and a touchdown in the 41–33 loss.


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (, former German name – FWB) is the world's 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. It has operations from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm (German time).


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: Located in Frankfurt, Germany, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is owned and operated by Deutsche Börse AG and Börse Frankfurt Zertifikate AG. It is located in the district of Innenstadt and within the central business district known as Bankenviertel.


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: With 90 percent of its turnover generated in Germany, namely at the two trading venues Xetra and Börse Frankfurt, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the largest of the seven regional securities exchanges in Germany.


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: Through its Deutsche Börse Cash Market business section, Deutsche Börse AG now operates two trading venues at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: Trading at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is governed by clear rules, which apply equally for all trading participants. Independent market surveillance is made up of the Trading Surveillance Office (HÜSt), the Exchange Supervisory Authority attached to the Hessian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Transportation, and Regional Development, and the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: With a view to improving the continuity of prices and to avoid mistrades, several protective mechanisms are in place for the trading venues Xetra and Börse Frankfurt. These include volatility interruption, market order interruption, and liquidity interruption measures.


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: The origins of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange go back to medieval trade fairs in the 11th century. By the 16th century Frankfurt developed into a wealthy and busy city with an economy based on trade and financial services.


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: In 1585 a bourse was established to set up fixed currency exchange rates, which is considered to mark the 'birth' of the stock exchange. During the following centuries Frankfurt developed into one of the world's first stock exchanges – next to Amsterdam, London and Paris. Bankers like Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Max Warburg had substantial influence on Frankfurt's financial trade.


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: In 1879 Frankfurt Stock Exchange moved into its new building at Börsenplatz. During the final third of the 19th century, Frankfurt was a major financial center in the Atlantic world.


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: It was only in 1949 after World War II that the Frankfurt Stock Exchange finally established as the leading stock exchange in Germany with consequently incoming national and international investments.


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: During the 1990s the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was also bourse for the Neuer Markt (New Market) as part of the worldwide dot-com boom.


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: In 1993 the "Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse" (Frankfurt Stock Exchange) became Deutsche Börse AG, operating businesses for the exchange.


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: From the early 1960s onwards the Frankfurt Stock Exchange took advantage of the close by Bundesbank which effectively decided on financial policies in Europe until the introduction of the euro in 2002. Since then the exchange profits from the presence of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt.


title: Frankfurt Stock Exchange

text: In 2002 and 2004 Deutsche Börse was in advanced negotiations to take over London Stock Exchange, which were broken off in 2005. A further merger bid was blocked by the European Commission in 2017.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Ranavalona I (born Rabodoandrianampoinimerina (also called Ramavo); 1778 – 16 August 1861), also known as Ranavalo-Manjaka I and the “Mad Monarch of Madagascar” was sovereign of the Kingdom of Madagascar from 1828 to 1861. After positioning herself as queen following the death of her young husband, Radama I, Ranavalona pursued a policy of isolationism and self-sufficiency, reducing economic and political ties with European powers, repelling a French attack on the coastal town of Foulpointe, and taking vigorous measures to eradicate the small but growing Malagasy Christian movement initiated under Radama I by members of the London Missionary Society. She made heavy use of the traditional practice of "fanompoana" (forced labor as tax payment) to complete public works projects and develop a standing army of between 20,000 and 30,000 Merina soldiers, whom she deployed to pacify outlying regions of the island and further expand the realm. The combination of regular warfare, disease, difficult forced labor and harsh trials by ordeal using a poisonous nut from the Tangena shrub resulted in a high mortality rate among both soldiers and civilians during her 33-year reign, with Madagascar's population reducing from 5 million in 1833 to 2.5 million in 1839.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Although greatly obstructed by Ranavalona's policies, foreign political interests in Madagascar remained undiminished. Divisions between traditionalist and pro-European factions at the queen's court created opportunities that European intermediaries leveraged in an attempt to hasten the succession of her son, Radama II. The young prince disagreed with many of his mother's policies and was amenable to French proposals for the exploitation of the island's resources, as expressed in the Lambert Charter he concluded with a French representative in 1855. These plans were never successful, however, and Radama II did not take the throne until Ranavalona's death in 1861 at the age of 83.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Ranavalona's European contemporaries generally condemned her policies and characterized her as a tyrant at best and insane at worst. These negative characterizations persisted in Western scholarly literature until the mid-1970s. Later academic research recast Ranavalona's actions as those of a queen attempting to expand her empire while protecting Malagasy sovereignty against the encroachment of European cultural and political influence.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Princess Ramavo was born in 1778 at the royal residence at Ambatomanoina, about east of Antananarivo, to Prince Andriantsalamanjaka and Princess Rabodonandriantompo. When Ramavo was still a young girl, her father alerted King Andrianampoinimerina (1787–1810) to an assassination plot planned by Andrianjafy, the king's uncle, whom Andrianampoinimerina had forced from the throne at the royal city of Ambohimanga. In return for saving his life, Andrianampoinimerina betrothed Ramavo to his son, Prince Radama, whom the king designated as his heir. He furthermore declared that any child from this union would be first in the line of succession after Radama.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Despite her elevated rank among the royal wives, Ramavo was not the preferred wife of Radama and did not bear him any children. Upon Andrianampoinimerina's death in 1810, Radama succeeded his father as king and followed royal custom by executing a number of potential opponents among Ramavo's relatives, an act that may have strained their relationship. Unable to find satisfaction in her loveless marriage, the neglected Ramavo and other court ladies spent most days socializing and drinking rum with David Griffiths and his fellow missionaries in Griffiths' home. These visits established a deep friendship between Ramavo and Griffiths that endured for three decades.


title: Ranavalona I

text: When Radama died without leaving any descendants on 27 July 1828, according to local custom, the rightful heir was Rakotobe, the eldest son of Radama's eldest sister. An intelligent and amiable young man, Rakotobe was the first pupil to have studied at the first school established by the London Missionary Society in Antananarivo on the grounds of the royal palace. Radama died in the company of two trusted courtiers who were favorable to the succession of Rakotobe. However, they hesitated to report the news of Radama's death for several days, fearing possible reprisals against them for having been involved in denouncing one of the king's rivals, whose family had a stake in the succession after Radama. During this time, another courtier, a high-ranking military officer named Andriamamba, discovered the truth and collaborated with other powerful officers – Andriamihaja, Rainijohary and Ravalontsalama – to support Ramavo's claim to the throne.


title: Ranavalona I

text: These officers hid Ramavo and one of her friends in a safe location, then secured the support of several influential power-brokers, including judges and the keepers of the "sampy" (royal idols). The officers then rallied the army behind Ramavo, so that on 11 August 1828, when she declared herself the successor to Radama on the pretence that he himself had decreed it, there could be no immediate resistance. Ramavo took the throne name Ranavalona ("folded", "kept aside"), then followed royal custom by systematically capturing and putting to death her political rivals, including Rakotobe, his family, and other members of Radama's family, much as Radama had done to the queen's own family upon his succession to the throne. Her coronation ceremony took place on 12 June 1829.


title: Ranavalona I

text: By succeeding her husband, Ranavalona became the first female sovereign of the Kingdom of Imerina since its founding in 1540. Her rise to power occurred in a cultural milieu that favored men over women in the political sphere. In the traditional culture of Imerina, rulers were specially endowed with the power to innovate in circumvention of established norms and customs. Sovereigns often mobilized innovation through the creation of new forms of kinship, the traditional basis of the political order. Women, however, were associated with the household, a rigid kinship unit in opposition to the innovating role and power of the sovereign, and so were not viewed as suited to rule. Although female rulers had once been common among the "Vazimba", described in oral histories as the original inhabitants of Madagascar, this tradition ended in the central highlands with the reign of Andriamanelo (1540–1575), founder of the Kingdom of Imerina and successor to his Vazimba mother, Queen Rafohy (1530–1540).


title: Ranavalona I

text: Ranavalona's 33-year reign was characterized by her effort to strengthen the domestic authority of the Kingdom of Imerina over subjugated provinces and preserve the political and cultural sovereignty of Madagascar. These policies were enacted in a context of increasing European influence within her kingdom and competing European bids for domination over the island. Early in her reign, the queen took incremental steps to distance Madagascar from the purview of European powers, first putting an end to a friendship treaty with Britain, then placing increasing restrictions on the activities of the missionaries of the London Missionary Society, who operated schools where basic education and trade skills were taught in addition to the Christian religion. In 1835 she forbade the practice of Christianity among the Malagasy population, and within a year nearly all foreigners had left her territory.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Putting an end to most foreign trade relationships, the queen pursued a policy of self-reliance, made possible through frequent use of the long-standing tradition of "fanompoana"—forced labor in lieu of tax payments in money or goods. Ranavalona continued the wars of expansion conducted by her predecessor, Radama I, in an effort to extend her realm over the entire island, and imposed strict punishments on those who were judged as having acted in opposition to her will. Due in large part to loss of life throughout the years of military campaigns, high death rates among "fanompoana" workers, and harsh traditions of justice under her rule, the population of Madagascar is estimated to have declined from around 5 million to 2.5 million between 1833 and 1839, and the population of Imerina from 750,000 to 130,000 between 1829 and 1842. These statistics have contributed to a strongly unfavorable view of Ranavalona's rule in historical accounts.


title: Ranavalona I

text: In the tradition of many of her royal Merina predecessors, the queen ruled from the royal Rova compound in Antananarivo. Between 1839 and 1842, Jean Laborde built the queen a new residence called Manjakamiadana, which became the largest structure on the Rova grounds. The residence was made entirely from wood and bore most of the features of a traditional home of the Merina "andriana" (aristocratic class), including a central pillar ("andry") to support the roof. In other ways it showcased distinctly European innovations, as it contained three floors entirely surrounded by wooden verandas and incorporated dormers in the shingled roof. The palace was eventually encased in stone in 1867 by James Cameron of the London Missionary Society during the reign of Ranavalona II. The original wooden palace of Ranavalona and virtually all other structures of the historic Rova compound were destroyed in a 1995 fire, leaving only the stone shell to mark where her palace had once stood.


title: Ranavalona I

text: In many respects, Ranavalona's rule was a continuation of precedent established under Radama I. Both monarchs encouraged the introduction of new technologies and forms of knowledge from abroad, supported the establishment of an industrialized economy, and adopted measures to professionalize the army. Both viewed foreigners with ambivalence, establishing close personal relationships and drawing upon their expertise while enforcing restrictions on their activities to avert destabilizing changes to existing cultural and political systems. In addition, both contributed to the further development of a complex political bureaucracy that enabled the Merina court to govern remote provinces across an island larger than metropolitan France.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Ranavalona maintained the tradition of ruling with the support of advisers drawn largely from the aristocratic class. The queen's most powerful ministers were also her consorts. Her first chief adviser was a young army officer from Namehana named Andriamihaja, who served as first minister from 1829 to 1830. Major-General Andriamihaja most likely fathered the queen's only son, Prince Rakoto (later King Radama II), who was born eleven months after the death of his official father, King Radama I. In the early years of Ranavalona's reign, Andriamihaja was the leader of her court's progressive faction, who favored maintaining the relations with Europe initiated under Radama. The conservative faction was led by the brothers Rainimaharo and Rainiharo, the latter being the official guardian of one of the most powerful royal "sampy". These talismans were believed to embody and channel the supernatural powers of the kingship and had played a major role in the spiritual life of the Merina people since at least the 16th century reign of Ralambo. The conservative faction conspired to reduce Andriamahaja's progressive influence over the queen, and in September 1830 they managed to persuade her while highly intoxicated to sign his death warrant for charges of witchcraft and treason. He was immediately captured in his home and killed.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Following Andriamihaja's death, the influence of Radama's old guard of progressives was eclipsed by that of conservative advisers at court, who grew ever closer to the queen, eventually resulting in Ranavalona's marriage to "sampy" guardian and conservative figurehead Field Marshal Rainiharo (also called Ravoninahitriniarivo) of Ilafy in 1833. Rainiharo gained initial access to the court through his father, Andriantsilavonandriana, a "hova" (commoner) who had exceptionally been accorded the privilege of joining King Andrianampoinimerina's inner circle of noble advisers. Field Marshal Rainiharo served as the queen's First Minister from 1830 to 1832, then Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief from 1832 to 1852. Upon Rainiharo's death, the queen wed another conservative, Field Marshal Andrianisa (also called Rainijohary), who remained Ranavalona's husband until her death in 1861. He served as Prime Minister from 1852 to 1862 before being exiled to the royal city of Ambohimanga for his part in a plot against the queen's son, Radama II.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Traditionally, Merina sovereigns relied on the pronouncement of "kabary" (oratory) in public gatherings to communicate policy and reaffirm the relationship between sovereign and public. Due in part to her lack of experience in public speaking and politics, Ranavalona preferred to direct and inform her subordinates through letters that she dictated to missionary-educated court scribes. She strengthened her relationship with the public through occasional kabary and fulfilled the traditional role of the Merina sovereign as bestower of "hasina" (ancestral blessings) by enacting traditional rituals, including the "fandroana" (new year ritual of renewal), tributes to the royal idols, and offerings of "vodiondry" and "jaka beef" at customary occasions. Ranavalona innovated on these traditional rituals by increasing their complexity and symbolism to imbue them with added significance.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Queen Ranavalona continued the military incursions initiated under Radama I to pacify neighboring kingdoms and maintain their submission to Merina rule. These policies had a strongly negative effect on economic and population growth during her reign. "Fanompoana" labor among the population of Imerina could include conscription into the military, enabling the queen to raise a standing army that was estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers. This army, which was sent on repeated expeditions into neighboring provinces, exacted harsh penalties against communities resistant to Merina domination. Mass executions were common, and those who were spared were commonly brought back to Imerina as slaves ("andevo"), and their valuables seized as booty to increase the wealth of the Crown. Approximately one million slaves entered Imerina from coastal areas between 1820 and 1853, constituting one-third of the total population in the central highlands and two-thirds of all residents in Antananarivo.


title: Ranavalona I

text: According to Madagascar historian Gwyn Campbell, the number of non-Merina who died in violent conflict during the military campaigns of Ranavalona and her predecessor Radama from 1816 to 1853 was estimated at about 60,000. Additionally, a considerable proportion of the population not killed in battle in the subjugated provinces eventually died from famine as a consequence of scorched earth policies. Deaths among the Merina soldiers engaged in military actions were also high, estimated at about 160,000 for the period 1820–1853. A further 25–50% of the queen's soldiers stationed in lowland areas were estimated to have died each year due to diseases such as malaria. Although prevalent in the coastal parts of the island, malaria was uncommon in the high-altitude zone around Antananarivo, and Merina soldiers possessed little natural resistance against it. An average of 4,500 soldiers died each year for the greater part of Ranavalona's reign, contributing to severe depopulation in Imerina.


title: Ranavalona I

text: One of the chief measures by which Ranavalona maintained order within her realm was through the traditional practice of trial by the ordeal of "tangena". A poison was extracted from the nut of the native "tangena" ("Cerbera manghas") shrub and ingested, with the outcome determining innocence or guilt. If nobles or freemen were compelled to undergo the ordeal, the poison was typically administered to the accused only after dog and rooster stand-ins had already died from the poison's effects, while among members of the slave class ("andevo"), the ordeal required them to immediately ingest the poison themselves. The accused would be fed the poison along with three pieces of chicken skin: if all three pieces of skin were vomited up then innocence was declared, but death or a failure to regurgitate all three pieces of skin indicated guilt. According to 19th-century Malagasy historian Raombana, in the eyes of the greater populace, the "tangena" ordeal was believed to represent a sort of celestial justice in which the public placed their unquestioning faith, even to the point of accepting a verdict of guilt in a case of innocence as a just but unknowable divine mystery.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Residents of Madagascar could accuse one another of various crimes, including theft, Christianity and especially witchcraft, for which the ordeal of "tangena" was routinely obligatory. On average, an estimated 20 to 50 percent of those who underwent the ordeal died. In the 1820s, the "tangena" ordeal caused about 1,000 deaths annually. This average rose to around 3,000 annual deaths between 1828 and 1861. In 1838, it was estimated that as many as 100,000 people—about 20 percent of the population—in Imerina had died as a result of the "tangena" ordeal. Although outlawed in 1863, the ordeal continued to be practised secretly in Imerina and openly in other parts of the island.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Following a visit by Radama I to Madagascar's first formal school, established in Toamasina in 1818 by members of the London Missionary Society (LMS), the king invited the first Christian artisan missionaries to the capital city to share their knowledge. Beginning in December 1820, LMS missionaries established workshops in Antananarivo to teach brick-making, European carpentry and other practical skills, and developed a network of public schools where numeracy and English were taught alongside literacy using portions of the Malagasy language Bible. Despite high attendance at the schools, the LMS were initially unsuccessful in converting pupils to Christianity. Near the end of Radama's reign, the king came to regard the few Malagasy who had been converted as irreverent toward royal authority. He forbade Malagasy people from being baptized or attending Christian services.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Ranavalona's succession initially resulted in a relaxation of state control over Christianity. A printing press, which was imported by LMS missionaries at the end of Radama's reign, was only effectively put into operation in 1828. The press was in heaviest use during the first several years of Ranavalona's reign, when thousands of hymnals and other materials were transcribed and printed. Translation of the New Testament was completed in the second year of her reign, and 3,000 copies were printed and distributed between 1829 and 1830. From the beginning of her reign, Ranavalona forbade the distribution of books within the military to prevent subversion and preserve discipline. She allowed missionaries free rein in operating the printing press, however, and exempted from military service all Malagasy personnel trained to operate the press. In 1835, translation of the Old Testament was completed and the first copies were printed. The freedom allowed to LMS and Malagasy Christians to print religious materials and teach religion in the state schools during the first six years of Ranavalona's reign allowed the religion to become firmly established among a small but growing group of converts in and around the capital. In 1831 Ranavalona authorized Malagasy attendance at church services, administration of the sacrament, and baptism of her subjects. Within a year, hundreds of Malagasies were baptized; these converts were drawn from all social classes, including slaves, commoners, respected elders, court officials and even sampy guardians, who were considered the bulwarks of traditional culture.


title: Ranavalona I

text: The conversion of major religious, political and social leaders sparked a backlash that led Ranavalona to become increasingly wary of the political and cultural effects of Christianity, which she saw as leading the Malagasy to forsake the ancestors and their traditions. In October and November 1831 the queen enacted a ban on Christian marriages, baptisms, and church services for soldiers and members of government studying in the Missionary schools, and in December extended the ban on church service attendance to all Malagasy. From 1832 to 1834, baptisms and church services continued, increasingly in secret. During this time, several Christians each year were charged with witchcraft and exiled or made to undergo the tangena ordeal, and Ranavalona requested the departure of three missionaries, retaining only those whose particular technical skills she viewed as valuable to the state. In 1835, the queen attempted to shut down the press without directly targeting the LMS by banning Malagasy personnel from working at the printing house. The LMS missionaries, capitalizing on the absence of legal decrees against their own work at the press, managed to continue independently printing and distributing materials.


title: Ranavalona I

text: In a kabary speech on 26 February 1835, Queen Ranavalona formally forbade the practice of Christianity among her subjects. In her discourse, she was careful to differentiate between her own people, for whom the new religion was forbidden and its practice a capital offense, and foreigners, to whom she permitted freedom of religion and conscience. She furthermore acknowledged the valuable intellectual and technological contributions that European missionaries had made to the advancement of her country, and invited them to continue working to that end on the condition that their proselytizing would cease:


title: Ranavalona I

text: James Cameron and other key missionaries preferred to leave rather than remain on the island without authorization to proselytize; most of the London Missionary Society missionaries, whose primary activity was teaching Christian theology and literacy at their newly established schools using the Bible as the principal Malagasy-language text, departed the island. The last two remaining missionaries chose to continue teaching practical skills in the hope that the restrictions might loosen, but one year later, after receiving indirect information that the government desired their departure, they closed the LMS mission and left Madagascar.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Pursuant to the 26 February decree, those who possessed a Bible, worshiped in congregation or continued to profess adherence to Christianity were fined, jailed, manacled, subjected to trial by ordeal, or executed. Lurid accounts of the execution and torture of Christians were reported by missionaries with informants on the island who placed emphasis on what they perceived as the savagery of the Queen's actions. For instance, they reported the public execution of 15 Christian leaders near the Queen's palace who were dangled on ropes 150 feet above a rock-filled ravine before the ropes were cut upon their refusal to renounce Christianity. The Andohalo cathedral was later constructed on this outcropping to commemorate early Malagasy Christians martyred at the site. The precise number of Malagasy citizens put to death for religious reasons during Ranavalona's reign is difficult to state with certainty. British missionary to Madagascar W.E. Cummins (1878) places the number executed at between 60 and 80. Far more were required to undergo the "tangena" ordeal, condemned to hard labor, or stripped of their land and property, and many of these died. Persecution of Christians intensified in 1840, 1849 and 1857; in 1849, deemed the worst of these years by Cummins, 1,900 people were fined, jailed or otherwise punished for their Christian faith, and 18 were executed.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Ranavalona's reign was marked by a struggle between France and Britain to increase their influence in Madagascar. The French, who held several small islands off Madagascar, were interested in gaining control over the main island but this move was opposed by the British who had an interest in maintaining a secure passage to India. Ranavalona pursued a policy of self-reliance to limit the influence of foreign powers.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Shortly after taking the throne, Ranavalona annulled the Anglo-Merina treaty that had been concluded between Radama and British envoys, and refused to continue receiving annual payments from Britain in exchange for adherence to the stipulations of the treaty. The most significant of these conditions was the kingdom's non-participation in the international slave trade, which had historically been a major source of revenue for the kingdoms of Imerina, Betsimisaraka, Sakalava and others across the island. One consequence of the termination of the Anglo-Merina friendship treaty was an end to the delivery of modern weaponry, which rendered the queen vulnerable to designs against her from foreign powers and pockets of local resistance. This vulnerability was underscored in 1829 when a fleet of six French ships launched an unprovoked attack against the fort of Foulpointe and the nearby town of Ivondro on the eastern coast of Madagascar. The queen's army successfully repelled the French at the next port, forcing the ships to Île Sainte-Marie, where they engaged a diplomatic envoy sent from Antananarivo by Ranavalona. The protracted negotiations ensured the French suffered from the malaria prevalent in coastal areas, until the increasing casualties forced the ships' withdrawal from Ranavalona's territory.


title: Ranavalona I

text: It came to the Queen's attention that Frenchman Jean Laborde, who had been shipwrecked off Madagascar in 1832, was knowledgeable in the production of cannons, muskets and gunpowder. Ranavalona provided him with the labor and materials to establish factories that met the material needs of her army, thereby ending the kingdom's dependence on Europe for modern weaponry.


title: Ranavalona I

text: The French were eager to hasten Radama II's succession in the interest of capitalizing on the Lambert Charter, an 1855 agreement between French representative Joseph-François Lambert and Radama that could only come into effect upon the prince's succession. The charter guaranteed Lambert and his business associates first rights to the exploitation of many of the island's commodities and natural resources. According to a British account, Lambert conspired with Jean Laborde and local leaders to persuade Radama II to sign a document written in French—a language in which the prince was not fluent—which Lambert orally translated as containing only an account of the excessive pressures the Queen's policies were placing on her subjects. Radama, who was sympathetic toward the commoners and interested in easing their burden but suspicious about the letter's true purpose, reluctantly signed the document under intense pressure from the French. He was not told the letter included a request for French military intervention that could have potentially brought Madagascar under French rule. France did not however intend to take such an action without the accord of Britain, whose influence had been well-established on the island, and refused to intercede on behalf of the prince. In the meantime, Radama, who had been made to swear on the Bible not to speak of the letter to anyone, had grown concerned enough to contact a British diplomat, thereby revealing the true circumstances under which the letter had been signed. The British refused to cooperate in the French plot, and an attack was averted. According to Lambert, however, the prince had indeed been an enthusiastic partner in the bid to end Ranavalona's reign, and his own true feelings about the endeavor had been misrepresented by the British diplomats.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Having failed to gain the backing of a European state power to place Radama on the throne and bring the treaty into effect, Lambert decided to instigate a "coup d'état" independently. He traveled to Ranavalona's court in May 1857 in the company of the celebrated 19th-century Austrian globetrotter Ida Pfeiffer, who became an unwitting participant in the plot. She documented her perspective on these events in one of her late works. According to Pfeiffer, Radama and Lambert had planned to dethrone the queen on 20 June, when ministers and soldiers loyal to Radama would infiltrate the Rova grounds and declare loyalty to the prince and support for a political transition. Pfeiffer blamed the failure of the plot on Rainilaiarivony, then Commander-in-Chief of the army who reportedly had been unable to ensure the presence of soldiers in the courtyard who were loyal to Radama. According to a British account, however, Radama himself was credited with warning the queen of the plot, in which his cooperation was merely a ploy to entrap the conspirators. The account claimed that Ranavalona deliberately allowed the plot to unfold almost to its conclusion in order to ascertain the loyalties of her members of government. After the plot's discovery, the Europeans were largely confined to their houses on the palace grounds and prohibited from receiving visitors, until an order was issued to immediately and permanently quit the queen's territory in late July.


title: Ranavalona I

text: While the queen had designated her son, Radama II, as her successor, Rainimaharo and the conservative faction knew of his progressive leanings and tried instead to ensure the queen's nephew, Ramboasalama, would come to power and maintain loyalties to them and their political agenda. The progressive brothers Rainivoninahitriniony and Rainilaiarivony, who were the queen's co-prime minister and head of the army respectively at the time of her death, supported the succession of Radama and were able to exercise greater influence than Ramboasalama, particularly in ensuring the support of the army for the prince's claim to the throne. As Ranavalona lay on her death bed, Radama took precautions to ensure his succession would be uncontested, surrounding his residence at the Rova of Antananarivo with several hundred soldiers and sending a member of Ramboasalama's family to bring him to the Rova to swear a public oath of allegiance to the new king, to whom he submitted.


title: Ranavalona I

text: On 16 August 1861, Ranavalona died in her sleep at the Manjakamiadana palace in the Rova of Antananarivo. Twelve thousand zebu were slaughtered and their meat distributed to the populace in her honor, and the official mourning period lasted nine months. Her body was laid in a coffin made of silver piastres in a tomb at the royal city of Ambohimanga. During her funeral, a spark accidentally ignited a nearby barrel of gunpowder destined for use in the ceremony, causing an explosion and fire that killed a number of bystanders and destroyed three historic royal residences in the Nanjakana section of the compound where the event was held. In 1897, French colonial authorities disinterred and moved the queen's body and the remains of other Merina sovereigns to the tombs at the Rova of Antananarivo in an attempt to desanctify Ambohimanga. Her bones were placed within the tomb of Queen Rasoherina. Her son, Prince Rakoto, succeeded her as King Radama II.


title: Ranavalona I

text: Ranavalona's traditionalist policies were abruptly reversed under the reign of her son, King Radama II. A widespread epidemic of "spirit possession" throughout Imerina followed Radama's public conversion to Christianity and was popularly attributed to the outraged spirit of Ranavalona I.


title: Ranavalona I

text: The queen's foreign contemporaries strongly condemned her policies and viewed them as the actions of a tyrant or even a madwoman, a characterization that persisted in Western historical literature until the 1970s. Although Ranavalona has traditionally been depicted as a cruel and xenophobic tyrant, in more recent historical analyses she is commonly viewed as an astute politician who effectively protected the political and cultural sovereignty of her nation from European encroachment. In Madagascar today, the Malagasy of the central highlands hold complex and diverse views ranging across this spectrum. Most condemn her reign, in line with negative depictions of Ranavalona in current Malagasy history textbooks; this view is most common among Malagasy Christians. Others admire her effort to preserve Malagasy traditions and independence. The majority, regardless of their feelings toward her domestic policies, consider her a remarkable figure in Malagasy history and commend her strength as a ruler in a period of tension with European powers.


title: Ranavalona I

text: A fictionalized account of Ranavalona and her court appears in the novel "Flashman's Lady" by George MacDonald Fraser. The main character, a soldier and secret agent named Harry Paget Flashman, becomes Ranavalona's military adviser and lover.


title: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs

text: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs is a list of the top 100 songs in American cinema of the 20th century. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 22, 2004, in a CBS television special hosted by John Travolta, who appeared in two films honored by the list, "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease". The list was created by a panel of jurors selected by AFI, who voted from a list of 400 nominated songs.


title: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs

text: "Singin' in the Rain", "The Sound of Music", and "West Side Story" each have three songs on the list, while


title: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs

text: Judy Garland (also listed in first place for "Over the Rainbow") and Gene Kelly are tied with five songs each; all of Garland's songs and two of Kelly's are solos. Julie Andrews, Fred Astaire, Marni Nixon, and Barbra Streisand follow Garland and Kelly with four songs each. All of the songs performed by Astaire and Streisand are ranked within the top half of the list. Astaire was co-credited for three out of his four songs listed, while Streisand performed all four of her songs by herself.


title: Starbucks Reserve

text: Starbucks Reserve is a program by the international coffeehouse chain Starbucks. The program involves operation of worldwide roasteries; currently six are in operation. Also part of the program are 28 coffee bars preparing Starbucks Reserve products, what Starbucks considers its rarest and best-quality coffees, usually single-origin coffees. Some Starbucks Reserve coffee is also sold in about 1,500 of the chain's traditional outlets.


title: Starbucks Reserve

text: The program began as Starbucks desired to compete in the high-end coffee market, competing against premium coffee retailers like Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Dillanos Coffee Roasters and Blue Bottle Coffee.


title: Starbucks Reserve

text: Starbucks began its Starbucks Reserve program in 2010 through online sales and a small number of its retail locations, selling small-batch arabica coffees. Later, the company opened its first Reserve location, a three-story store in Latin America, solely selling Colombian coffee. The first Starbucks Reserve roastery opened in December 2014 in Seattle.


title: Starbucks Reserve

text: Starbucks Reserve includes three different types of locations: the "Starbucks Reserve Roastery", the "Reserve Bar", and the "Reserve Store". The roasteries, usually tens of thousands of square feet (thousands of square meters), are often described as a theme park experience, including coffee bars with tastings, cocktail bars, areas to observe the roasting and brewing processes, areas to purchase food, and local artwork throughout. The facilities also roast, package, and ship coffee to stores in their regions.


title: Starbucks Reserve

text: The company currently operates a total of six roasteries in Seattle (opened 2014), Shanghai (2017), Milan (2018), New York City (2018), Tokyo (2019), and Chicago, Illinois (2019). The company initially planned to open at least 20 roasteries, though it announced in 2019 that it would be scaling back its plans, with Chicago being the last roastery to be built at the moment.


title: Starbucks Reserve

text: Reserve Bars are traditional Starbucks locations that sell some Starbucks Reserve products, supplied by a regional roastery. There are 43 locations, all of which include the regular Starbucks menu, and also have a coffee bar for a similar experience to the coffee bars in the roasteries.


title: Starbucks Reserve

text: There are currently five Reserve Stores in operation, with one located in Starbucks' headquarters, Starbucks Center, in Seattle. The remaining four stores are located in New York, Naperville, Mumbai, and Shanghai. These stores sell merchandise, food and drink such as Reserve Coffee, Princi food items, and locally-unique merchandise similar to that of the roasteries.


title: Starbucks Reserve

text: The first Starbucks Reserve roastery opened in December 2014 in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. It has and is rumored to have cost about $20 million. The roastery includes a split-flap display, a departure board style common in 20th century railway stations. The board was created by Solari di Udine and displays the coffees being roasted.


title: Starbucks Reserve

text: The roastery in Shanghai, China, is located in the HKRI Taikoo Hui mixed-use development, on the luxury shopping strip Nanjing Road. It opened in December 2017 and was the largest Starbucks location in the world at that time, since surpassed by the Chicago roastery. The Shanghai roastery has between two stories. It is typically fully packed with customers, with lines out the door typical in peak times.