title: Allegheny Mountains

text: The bedrock of the Alleghenies is mostly sandstone and metamorphosed sandstone, quartzite, which is extremely resistant to weathering. Prominent beds of resistant conglomerate can be found in some areas, such as the Dolly Sods. When it weathers, it leaves behind a pure white quartzite gravel. The rock layers of the Alleghenies were formed during the Appalachian orogeny.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: Because of intense freeze-thaw cycles in the higher Alleghenies, there is little native bedrock exposed in most areas. The ground surface usually rests on a massive jumble of sandstone rocks, with air space between them, that are gradually moving down-slope. The crest of the Allegheny Front is an exception, where high bluffs are often exposed.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: Mineral springs in the High Alleghenies attracted Native Americans and 18th century white settlers and provided a modest incentive to the local economy. The spas developing around these geological features include celebrated resorts that continue to cater to an exclusive clientele, such as The Greenbrier (White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia; hotel built 1858) and The Homestead (Hot Springs, Virginia; original lodge built 1766).


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: The High Alleghenies are noted for their forests of red spruce, balsam fir, and mountain ash, trees typically found much farther north. Hardwood forests also include yellow birch, sugar and red maple, eastern hemlock, and black cherry. American beech, pine and hickory can also be found. The forests of the entire region are now almost all second- or third-growth forests, the original trees having been removed in the late 19th and (in West Virginia) early 20th centuries. The wild onion known as the ramp ("Allium tricoccum") is also present in the deeper forests.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: Certain isolated areas in the High Alleghenies are well known for their open expanses of sphagnum bogs and heath shrubs (e.g., Dolly Sods, Cranberry Glades). Many plant communities are indeed similar to those of sea-level eastern Canada. But the ecosystems within the Alleghenies are remarkably varied. In recent decades, the many stages of ecologic succession throughout the area have made the region one of enduring interest to botanists.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: The larger megafauna which once inhabited the High Alleghenies—elk, bison, mountain lion—were all exterminated during the 19th century. They survived longer in this area, however, than in other parts of the eastern United States. Naturalist John James Audubon reported that by 1851 a few eastern elk ("Cervus canadensis canadiensis") could still be found in the Alleghany Mountains but that by then they were virtually gone from the remainder of their range. Mammals in the Allegheny region today include whitetail deer, chipmunk, raccoon, skunk, groundhog, opossum, weasel, field mouse, flying squirrel, cottontail rabbit, gray foxes, red foxes, gray squirrels, red squirrels and a cave bat. Bobcat, snowshoe hare, wild boar and black bear and coyote are also found in the forests and parks of the Alleghenies. Mink and beaver are much less often seen.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: These mountains and plateau have over 20 species of reptiles represented as lizard, skink, turtle and snake. Some of the icterid birds visit the mountains as well as the hermit thrush and wood thrush. North American migrant birds live throughout the mountains during the warmer seasons. Occasionally, osprey and eagles can be found nesting along the streams. The hawks and owls are the most common birds of prey.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: The water habitats of the Alleghenies hold 24 families of fish. Amphibian species number about 21, among them hellbenders, lungless salamanders, and various toads and frogs. The Alleghenies provide habitat for about 54 species of common invertebrate. These include Gastropoda, slugs, leech, earthworms and grub worm. Cave crayfish ("Cambarus nerterius") live alongside a little over seven dozen cave invertebrates.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: The indigenous people inhabiting the Allegheny Mountains emerged from the greater region's archaic and mound building cultures, particularly the Adena and Eastern Woodland peoples with a later Hopewellian influence. These Late Middle Woodland culture people have been called the Montaine (c. A.D. 500 to 1000) culture. Their neighbors, the woodland Buck Garden culture, lived in the western valleys of the central Allegheny range. The Montaine sites extend from the tributaries of the upper Potomac River region south to the New River tributaries. These also were influenced by the earlier Armstrong culture of the more southwestern portions northern sub-range of the Ouasioto (Cumberland) Mountains and by the more easterly Virginia Woodland people. The Late Woodland Montaine were less influenced by Hopewellian trade from Ohio, although similarly polished stone tools have been found among the Montaine sites in the Tygart Valley. Small groups of Montaine people appear to have lingered much beyond their classically defined period in parts of the most mountainous valleys.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: The watershed of the Monongahela River is within the northwestern Alleghenies, and it is from it that the Monongahela culture takes its name. The Godwin-Portman site (36AL39) located in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, had a possible Fort Ancient (c. AD 850 to 1680) presence during the 15th century. Washington Boro ceramics have been found on the Barton (18AG3) and Llewellyn (18AG26) sites in Maryland on the northeastern slopes of the late Susquehannock sequence. The early Monongahela (c. AD 900 to 1630) are called the Drew Tradition in Pennsylvania. According to archeologist Richard L. George: "I believe that some of the Monongahela were of Algonquin origin... Other scholars have suggested that Iroquoian speakers were interacting with Late Monongahela people, and additional evidence is presented to confirm this. I conclude that the archaeologically conceived term, Monongahela, likely encompasses speakers of several languages, including Siouan." According to Dr Maslowski of West Virginia in 2009: "The New River Drainage and upper Potomac represents the range of the Huffman Phase (Page) hunting and gathering area or when it is found in small amounts on village sites, trade ware or Page women being assimulated into another village (tribe)." Finally, according to Prof Potter of Virginia, they [the people represented by the Huffman Phase of Page pottery] had occupied the eastern slopes of the Alleghenies on the upper Potomac to the northern, lower Shenandoah Valley region before the A.D. 1300 Luray phase (Algonquian) peoples' "invasion". It is thought that these ancient Alleghenians were pushed from the classic Huffman Phase of the eastern slopes of the Alleghenies to the Blue Ridge Mountains in western Virginia, which was eastern Siouan territory.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: In 1669, John Lederer and members of his party became the first Europeans to crest the Blue Ridge Mountains and the first to see the Shenandoah Valley and the Allegheny Mountains beyond.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: The proto-historic Alleghenies can be exampled by the earliest journals of the colonists. According to Batts and Fallows' September, 1671 Expedition, they found Mehetan Indians of Mountain "Cherokee-Iroquois" mix on the New River tributaries. This journal does not identify the "Salt Village", but, that the "Mehetan" were associated with these and today thought to be "Monetons", Siouans. However, this journal does not identify the "Salt Village" below the Kanawha Falls, but, that simply the "Mehetan" were associated with these. He explained, below the "Salt Villages", a mass of hostile Indians had, implied, arrived and some believe these to be "Shanwans" of Vielles Expedition of 1692~94, ancient Shawnee. In 1669, John Lederer of Maryland for the Virginia Colony and the Tennessee Cherokee had visited the mouth of the Kanawha and reported no hostilities on the lower streams of the Alleghenies. The Mohetan representative through a Siouan translator explained to Mr Batts and Mr Fallon, Colonel Abraham Woods explorers 1671–2, that he (Moheton Native American) could not say much about the people below the "Salt Village" because they (Mountain Cherokee) were not associated with them. The Mohetan was armed by this time of 1671 for the Mohetan Representative was given several pouches of ammunition for his and the other's weapons as a token of friendship. Somebody had already been trading within the central Alleghenies before the Virginians historical record begins in the Allegheny Mountains. Some earlier scholars found evidence these Proto-historics were either Cistercians of Spanish Ajacan Occuquan outpost on the Potomac River or Jesuits and their Kahnawake Praying Indians (Mohawk) on the Riviere de la Ronceverte. The "Kanawha Madonna" may date from this period or earlier. Where the New River breaks through Peters' Mountain, near Pearisburg Virginia the 1671 journal mentions the "Moketans had formerly lived".


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: According to a number of early 17th century maps, the Messawomeake or "Mincquas" (Dutch) occupied the northern Allegheny Mountains. The "Shatteras" (an ancient Tutelo) occupied the Ouasioto Mountains and the earliest term Canaraguy (Kanawhans otherwise Canawest) on the 1671 French map occupied the southerly Alleghenies. They were associated with the Allegheny "Cherokee" and Eastern Siouan as trade-movers and canoe transporters. The Calicuas, an ancient most northern Cherokee, migrated or was pushed from the Central Ohio Valley onto the north eastern slopes of the Alleghenies of the ancient Messawomeake, Iroquois tradesmen to 1630s Kent Island, by 1710 maps. Sometime before 1712, the Canawest ("Kanawhans"-"Canallaway"-"Canaragay") had moved to the upper Potomac and made a Treaty with the newly established trading post of Fort Conolloway which would become a part of western Maryland during the 1740s.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: Prior to European exploration and settlement, trails through the Alleghenies had been transited for many generations by American Indian tribes such as the Iroquois, Shawnee, Delaware, Catawba and others, for purposes of trade, hunting and, especially, warfare. Western Virginia "Cherokee" were reported at Cherokee Falls, today's Valley Falls of the Tygart Valley. Indian trader Charles Poke's trading post dates from 1731 with the Calicuas of Cherokee Falls still in the region from the previous century.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: The "London Scribes" (The Crown's taxation records) vaguely mentions the colonial Alleghenian location of only a few other early colonial trading locations. A general knowledge of these few outposts are more of traditional telling of some local people. However, an example is the "Van Metre" trading house mentioned in an earlier edition of the "Wonderful West Virginia Magazine" being on the South Branches of the upper reaches of the Potomac. Another very early trading house appears on a lower Greenbrier Valley map during the earlier decades of the 18th century.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: As early as 1719, new arrivals from Europe began to cross the lower Susquehanna River and settle illegally in defiance of the Board of Property in Pennsylvania, on un-warranted land of the northeastern drainage rivers of the Allegheny Mountains. Several Indian Nations requested the removal of "Maryland Intruders". Some of these moved onward as territory opened up beyond the Alleghenies.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: The first permanent European settlers "west" of the Alleghenies have traditionally been considered to have been two New Englanders: Jacob Marlin and Stephen Sewell, who arrived in the Greenbrier Valley in 1749. They built a cabin together at what would become Marlinton, West Virginia, but after disputing over religion, Sewell moved into a nearby hollowed-out sycamore tree. In 1751, surveyor John Lewis (father of Andrew Lewis) discovered the pair. Sewell eventually settled on the eastern side of Sewell Mountain, near present-day Rainelle, West Virginia. They may well have been the first to settle what was then called the "western waters"—"i.e.", in the regions where streams flowed westward to the Gulf of Mexico rather than eastward to the Atlantic.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: Among the first whites to penetrate into the Allegheny Mountains were surveyors attempting to settle a dispute over the extent of lands belonging to either Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron or to the English Privy Council. An expedition of 1736 by John Savage established the location of the source of the North Branch Potomac River. In March 1742, a frontiersman named John Howard—along with his son and others—had been commissioned by Governor Gooch to explore the southwest of Virginia as far as the Mississippi River. Following Cedar Creek through the Natural Bridge, they floated in buffalo-skin boats down the New, Coal, Kanawha, and Ohio Rivers to the Mississippi. Although captured by the French before he reached Natchez, Howard was eventually released and (in 1745) was interviewed by Fairfax. Howard's description of the South Branch Potomac River resulted in the definite decision by Fairfax to secure his lands in the region. An expedition under Peter Jefferson and Thomas Lewis in the following year emplaced the "Fairfax Stone" at the source of the North Branch and established a line of demarcation (the "Fairfax Line") extending from the stone south-east to the headwaters of the Rappahannock River. Lewis' journal of that expedition provides a valuable view of the Allegheny country before its settlement. Jefferson and Joshua Fry's "Fry-Jefferson Map" of 1751 accurately depicted the Alleghenies for the first time. In the following decades, pioneer settlers arrived in the Alleghenies, especially during Colonial Virginia's Robert Dinwiddie era (1751–58). These included squatters by the Quit-rent Law. Some had preceded the official surveyors using a "hack on the tree and field of corn" marking land ownership approved by the Virginia Colonial Governor who had to be replaced with Governor John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: Trans-Allegheny travel had been facilitated when a military trail—Braddock Road—was blazed and opened by the Ohio Company in 1751. (It followed an earlier Indian and pioneer trail known as Nemacolin's Path.) Braddock Road connected Cumberland, Maryland (the upper limit of navigation on the Potomac River) and the forks of the Ohio River (the future Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). It received its name from the British leader of the French and Indian War (1754–63), General Edward Braddock, who led the ill-fated Braddock expedition four years later.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: In addition to the war, hunting and trading with Indians were primary motivations for white movement across the mountains. Permanent white settlement of the northern Alleghenies was facilitated by the explorations and stories of such noted Marylanders as the Indian fighter and trader Thomas Cresap (1702–90) and the backwoodsman and hunter Meshach Browning (1781–1859). In the late 18th century, a massive migration to the Monongahela River basin took place over three main routes: along the old Braddock Road via Winchester, Virginia; through the Shenandoah Valley to the head of the Cheat River and from there to the Monongahela; and along the Lincoln Highway to Ligonier, Pennsylvania, and thence along Jacob's Creek to the Monongahela. These immigrants were predominantly Scotch-Irish, German, and, to a lesser extent, British stock.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: The Braddock Road was superseded by the Cumberland Road—also called the National Road—one of the first major improved highways in the United States to be built by the federal government. Construction began in 1811 at Cumberland and the road reached Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia) on the Ohio River in 1818. Just to the south, the state-funded Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike was constructed to provide a direct route for the settlements of the Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River by way of the Tygart Valley and Little Kanawha Rivers. Planned and approved in 1826 and completed in 1848, the Staunton and Parkersburg was maintained by fees (tolls) collected at toll houses placed at regular intervals.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: Construction on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began at Baltimore in 1828; the B&O traversed the Alleghenies, changing the economy and society of the Mountains forever. The B&O had reached Martinsburg, (West) Virginia by May 1842, Hancock, (West) Virginia, by June, Cumberland, Maryland, on November 5, 1842, Piedmont, (West) Virginia on July 21, 1851, and Fairmont, (West) Virginia on June 22, 1852. (It finally reached its Ohio River terminus at Wheeling, (West) Virginia on January 1, 1853.)


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal—also begun in 1828, but at Georgetown—was also a public work of enormous economic and social significance for the Alleghenies. It approached Hancock, Maryland, by 1839. From the beginning, the B&O Railroad and the C&O Canal operated in bitter legal and commercial competition with one another as they vied for rights to the narrow strips of land along the Potomac. When the Canal finally reached Cumberland in 1850, the Railroad had already arrived eight years before. Debt-ridden, the Canal company dropped its plan to continue construction of the next of the Canal into the Ohio Valley. The company had long realized—especially with the difficult experience of digging the Paw Paw Tunnel—that the original plan of construction over the mountains and all the way down the Youghiogheny River to Pittsburgh was "wildly unrealistic".


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: Public works financed at the state level were not lacking during this period. The Main Line of Public Works was a railroad and canal system across southern Pennsylvania between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Built between 1826 and 1834 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it included the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, the Allegheny Portage Railroad and the Pennsylvania Canal system.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: Lying astride the border separating the Union and Confederacy, the Alleghenies were among the areas most directly affected by the American Civil War (1861–1865). One of the earliest campaigns of the War was fought for control of the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike and for the access it provided to the B&O Railroad. The Battle of Rich Mountain (July 11, 1861) gave the Federals control of the turnpike, of Tygart's Valley, and of all of the territory of western Virginia to the north and west, including the railroad. (Union General George McClellan's victory in this theater would ultimately bring him promotion to commander the Army of the Potomac.) The Federals fortified at Cheat Summit, and the Confederates established strongholds at Camp Bartow and Camp Allegheny. Here they faced each other warily through the fall of 1861 and the following winter. General Robert E. Lee's attempt to attack Cheat Summit Fort (September 12–15, 1861) and Federal attempts to attack Bartow and Allegheny, all failed to change the strategic stalemate. Finally, the harsh, high elevation winter achieved what the troops had failed to accomplish, and in the spring of 1862 both armies moved on down the pike to the Battle of McDowell (May 8, 1862), and then on to fight what became General Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign (spring 1862). Two years later, much of this contested area (along with much else) became part of the new state of West Virginia. The very rugged terrain of the Alleghenies was not at all amenable to a large-scale maneuver war and so the actions that the area witnessed for the remainder of the conflict were generally guerrilla in nature.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: With the further spread of the railroad networks in the 1890s and early 1900s, many new towns developed and thrived in the Alleghenies. The lumbering and coal industries that boomed in the wake of the railroads brought a measure of prosperity to the region, but most of the revenues flowed out of the mountains to the cities of the eastern seaboard where the captains of industry were headquartered. This inequity created a bitter legacy that would last for generations and form the foundation of the mountaineers' poverty and the area's immense environmental degradation.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: The most momentous disaster to afflict the people of the Alleghenies was the Johnstown Flood—locally known as the "Great Flood of 1889"—which occurred on May 31 of that year after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The dam broke after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, unleashing 20 million tons of water (18 million cubic meters) from the reservoir known as Lake Conemaugh. (This body of water had been built as part of the Main Line of Public Works, then abandoned.) With a flow rate that temporarily equalled that of the Mississippi River, the flood killed 2,209 people and caused US$17 million of damage (about $425 million in 2012 dollars). The American Red Cross, led by Clara Barton and with 50 volunteers, undertook a major disaster relief effort. Support for victims came from all over the United States and 18 foreign countries. After the flood, survivors suffered a series of legal defeats in their attempts to recover damages from the dam's owners. Public indignation at that failure prompted the development in American law changing a fault-based regime to strict liability.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: From the 1950s to 1992, the United States government maintained a top secret continuity program known as Project Greek Island at The Greenbrier hotel in the Alleghenies of southern West Virginia.


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: In August 1963, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. referenced the Allegheniesamong several in an evocative list of mountainsin his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, when he said "Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!"


title: Allegheny Mountains

text: The Flight 93 National Memorial is located at the site of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93—which was hijacked in the September 11 attacks—in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania, about north of Shanksville. The memorial honors the passengers and crew of Flight 93, who stopped Al-Qaeda terrorists from reaching their intended target.


title: Pescara

text: Pescara (; ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 119,217 (2018) residents (and approximately 350,000 including the surrounding metropolitan area). Located on the Adriatic coast at the mouth of the Aterno-Pescara River, the present-day municipality was formed in 1927 joining the municipalities of the old Pescara fortress, the part of the city to the south of the river, and Castellamare Adriatico, the part of the city to the north of the river. The surrounding area was formed into the province of Pescara.


title: Pescara

text: The main commercial street of the city is Corso Umberto I, which runs between two squares, starting from "Piazza della Repubblica" and reaching the seacoast in "Piazza Primo Maggio". The rectangle that it forms with Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and Via Nicola Fabrizi is home of the main shopping district, enclosed in a driving restriction zone, where several of the best fashion shops are located. Corso Manthoné, the course of the old Pescara, has, for many years, been the center of the nightlife of the city. City hall and the administration of the province are in Piazza Italia, near the river, and in the area between here and the D'Annunzio University campus to the south, a business district has grown up over the years, while the Marina is situated to the immediate south of the mouth of the river. Pescara is also served by an important international airport, the Abruzzo Airport, and one of the major touristic ports of Adriatic Sea and Italy, the Port of Pescara.


title: Pescara

text: Pescara is situated at sea level on the Adriatic coast and has developed from some centuries BC onwards at the strategic position around the mouth of the Aterno-Pescara River. The coast is low and sandy and the beach extends, unbroken for some distance to both the north and the south of the river, reaching a width of approximately in the area around a "pineta" (a small pine forest) to the north. To the south the pine forest that once gave shade to bathers along much of the Adriatic coast, has almost disappeared near the beach, but remains within the Nature Reserve Pineta Dannunziana.


title: Pescara

text: The urban fabric of the city spreads over a flat T-shaped area, which occupies the valley around the river and the coastal strip. To the northwest and the southwest, the city is also expanding into the surrounding hills which were first occupied in the Neolithic period.


title: Pescara

text: The whole city is affected by the presence of groundwater, the level of which varies by up to a metre, being at its highest in spring due to snow melting in the mountains inland.


title: Pescara

text: The city is very close to the mountains, and the ski slopes of Passo Lanciano it only takes a 30 minutes drive.


title: Pescara

text: Pescara has a borderline Mediterranean climate (Csa) and humid subtropical climate (Cfa) with hot summers and cool winters. Since its driest month has of precipitation, the city cannot be solely classified as Mediterranean. Not to mention, although there is a dry tendency in early summer, August (late summer) is wetter than the winter month of February, which is unusual for the Mediterranean pattern.


title: Pescara

text: The average temperature is around in the coldest month (January) and in the warmest month (July). The lowest temperature recorded in the city was on 4 January 1979. The highest was registered on 30 August 2007 at . Precipitation is low (around per annum) and concentrated mainly in the late autumn.


title: Pescara

text: Pescara is a coastal city, but its climate is influenced by the surrounding mountains (the Maiella and the chain of Gran Sasso). When the wind is southwesterly, Pescara experiences a Foehn wind that often reaches , causing a sudden increase in temperature and decrease in relative humidity, and for that reason winters with temperatures that exceed almost daily are not unknown.


title: Pescara

text: Under northeasterly winds Pescara suffers precipitation which is generally weak, but can be much more intense if accompanied by a depression. Also from the north east comes winter weather from Siberia that, on average, brings abundant snowfalls every 3–4 years. In summer the weather is mostly stable and sunny with temperatures that, thanks to the sea breeze, rarely exceed 35 degrees unless a southwesterly Libeccio is blowing. Particularly in summer, but also in winter, the high humidity leads to morning and evening mist or haze.


title: Pescara

text: Pescara's origins precede the Roman conquest. It was founded to be the port of Vestini and Marrucini tribes to trade with the peoples of the Orient, a supporting role that was held for centuries. The name of both the town and the river was Aternum (in Greek "Άτερνος"), it was connected to Rome through the Via Claudia Valeria and the Via Tiburtina. The main building was the temple of "Jovis Aternium". The town was an important port for trade with the Eastern provinces of the Empire.


title: Pescara

text: In the Middle Ages it was destroyed by the Lombards (597). Saint Cetteus, the town's patron saint, was a bishop of the 6th century, elected to the see of Amiternum in Sabina (today the city of San Vittorino) in 590, during the pontificate of Gregory the Great. His legend goes that he was executed by the Lombards at Amiternum by being thrown off a bridge with a stone tied around his neck; his body floated to Pescara.In 1095 Pescara was a fishing village enriched with monuments and churches. In 1140 Roger of Sicily conquered the town, giving rise to a period in which it was destroyed by armies ravaging the Kingdom of Sicily. The name of "Piscaria" ("abounding with fish") is mentioned for the first time in this period. Several seignors ruled over Pescara afterwards, including Rainaldo Orsini, Louis of Savoy and Francesco del Borgo, the vicar of king Ladislaus of Naples, who had the fortress and the tower built. The subsequent rulers were the D'Avalos. In 1424 the famous condottiero Muzio Attendolo died here. Another adventurer, Jacopo Caldora, conquered the town in 1435 and 1439. In the following years Pescara was repeatedly attacked by the Venetians, and later, as part of the Spanish Kingdom of Naples, it was turned into a massive fortress.


title: Pescara

text: In 1566 it was besieged by 105 Turk galleys. It resisted fiercely and the Ottomans only managed to ravage the surrounding territory.


title: Pescara

text: At the beginning of the 18th century Pescara had some 3,000 inhabitants, half of them living in Castellammare, a small frazione of the fortress. In 1707 it was attacked by Austrian troops under the command of the Count of Wallis: the town, led by Giovanni Girolamo II Acquaviva, resisted for two months before capitulating.


title: Pescara

text: Pescara was always part of the Kingdom of Naples, apart from the brief age of the Republic of Naples of 1798–99. The town was therefore attacked by the pro-Bourbon Giuseppe Pronio. In 1800 Pescara fell to French troops, becoming an important military stronghold of Joseph Bonaparte's reign. Castellammare, which now had 3,000 inhabitants of its own, became a separate municipality.


title: Pescara

text: In 1814, Pescara's Carboneria revolted against Joachim Murat. There, on 15 May 1815, the king undersigned one of the first constitutions of the Italian Risorgimento. In the following years Pescara became a symbol of the Bourbon's violent restoration as it housed one of the most notorious Bourbon jails. After a devastating flood in 1853, Pescara was liberated by Giuseppe Garibaldi's collaborator Clemente De Caesaris in 1860. Seven years later the fortress was dismantled.


title: Pescara

text: In the sixty following years Pescara was included in the Province of Chieti and then merged with the adjacent town of Castellammare Adriatico and eventually became the largest city of its region. The new city suffered heavy civilian casualties when it was who were attempting to cut German supply lines during World War II. It has since been massively rebuilt, becoming a very modern coastal city of Italy.


title: Pescara

text: The historic city center is located on the south shore, where once stood the Piazzaforte (fortified town), a military bulwark of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. There is the Bagno Borbonico (the old prison of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, built starting in 1510 by order of Charles V, which incorporated inside the remains of the Norman and Byzantine city walls). Today it houses the Museum of the Abruzzi people: the institution traces, through 13 halls dedicated to aspects of life, traditions and economy, 4,000 years of history of the Abruzzo people.


title: Pescara

text: In the historic city center are the birthplace houses of Gabriele D'Annunzio and Ennio Flaiano, and the San Cetteo Cathedral, built between 1933 and 1938.


title: Pescara

text: On the north shore of the river there's Piazza Italia (Italy Square), overlooked by the City Hall and the Government Building (which houses the headquarters of the Province of Pescara), both built during the Fascist era according to the fascist rationalist style and designed by the architect Vincenzo Pilotti. Mr. Pilotti designed the majority of the public buildings of the city, including the seat of the local Chamber of Commerce, of the Liceo Classico "G. D'Annunzio" high school, and the old seat of the court (which now houses a museum).


title: Pescara

text: In the far southern part of the city, between the Nature Reserve Pineta Dannunziana and the beach, there is an elegant Art Nouveau villas district designed in 1912 by Antonino Liberi (an engineer brother-in-law of D'Annunzio). There is also the Aurum, first headquarters of a social club (called the Kursaal), then liquor factory, and today public multipurpose space.


title: Pescara

text: On the northern waterfront, close to the "Salotto Square", the main square of the city, there is the "Nave" (trad. the ship), a sculpture by Pietro Cascella.


title: Pescara

text: Pescara is the most populous city in the Abruzzo region, and is one of the top ten economic, commercial, and tourist centers on the Adriatic coast. Featuring a shoreline that extends for more than , Pescara is a popular seaside resort on the Adriatic coast during summer. Situated in the sea at a short distance from the waterline there are many breakwaters made with large rocks, that were placed to preserve the shore from water-flood erosion.


title: Pescara

text: In the city there are the administrative headquarters of De Cecco company and the Fater S.p.a., an equal joint venture partner with the Angelini Group and Procter & Gamble.


title: Pescara

text: Every July Pescara holds an international jazz festival: Pescara Jazz was the first Italian summer festival dedicated to jazz music. Since 1969, it has been one of the most important jazz festivals in Europe, as reported by the main dedicated international magazines.


title: Pescara

text: Every year (between June and July) the city also holds the Flaiano Prizes, one of Italy's International Film Festivals.


title: Pescara

text: Pescara was the birthplace of Gabriele D'Annunzio and Ennio Flaiano. Vittoria Colonna was the marchioness of Pescara.


title: Pescara

text: Pescara and Chieti are the homes of the G. d'Annunzio University. Pescara is home to the Departments of Architecture, Economics, Business Administration, Quantitative Economics, Social and Legal Sciences, Modern Languages Literatures and Cultures, as Chieti, together with the Rector and Academic Senate, is home to the Departments of Medicine and Science of Aging, Experimental and Clinical Sciences, Neuroscience and Imaging, Oral Health Sciences and Biotechnology, Pharmacy, Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Humanities Psychological Sciences, Engineering and Geology for a total of about 31,257 students in the 2011 .


title: Pescara

text: Since 2009, Rome ISIA has a subsidiary in Pescara, training students in the field of industrial design.


title: Pescara

text: In the city center is located the headquarters of ICRANet, the International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics Network, an international organization promoting research activities in relativistic astrophysics and related areas.


title: Pescara

text: The city has a football team, Delfino Pescara 1936, which in June 2012 was promoted to Serie A, the highest league in Italy. Pescara Calcio, who have played 38 seasons in the cadet championship, have spent 7 previous seasons in Serie A, especially in the 1980s–90s.


title: Pescara

text: Pescara hosted the 2009 Mediterranean Games, having defeated Rijeka, Croatia and Patras, Greece for the privilege. In 2015, from 28 August to 6 September, the first edition of the Mediterranean Beach Games was held in the city in 2015.


title: Pescara

text: Between 1924 and 1961, Pescara hosted the Coppa Acerbo automobile race, which in 1957 formed the penultimate round of the World Championship of Drivers.


title: Pescara

text: Since 2011 the Italian edition of the Ironman 70.3 takes place in the city of Pescara, chosen for the characteristics of the territory, for the possibility of building a competition that starts from the sea, continue towards the mountains and ends in the city center.


title: Pescara

text: As regards public transport Pescara has a wide assortment of services, the city benefits from it a very favourable position with regard to roads.


title: Pescara

text: The territory between Pescara and Chieti is crossed by two pan-European roads, autostrada A14 (Italy) Bologna – Taranto and autostrada A25 (Italy) Torano – Pescara, connected with the local bypass road system.


title: Pescara

text: Pescara is served from an international airport called Abruzzo Airport (Aeroporto di Pescara) that connects the entire region with many Italian and European destinations like Barcelona-Girona, Brussels-Charleroi, Frankfurt-Hahn, Kraków, London-Stansted, Paris-Beauvais, Milan-Bergamo, Copenhagen, Weeze, Milan Linate, Tirana, Bucarest, Palermo, Catania and Olbia.


title: Pescara

text: From the bus stop in front of the railway station there has been a daily connection of ITA Airways by bus, to and from Rome Fiumicino Airport since 1 December 2022, allowing a connection with the airline's hub.


title: Pescara

text: Pescara is served by the Port of Pescara for fishing, yachting, cargo docking and commercial passenger services. In summer season ferries and hydrofoils to Croatia run primarily by SNAV to Split and islands in central Dalmatia, but often they set out from the larger and better equipped Port of Ortona.


title: Pescara

text: The city has four railway stations, Pescara Centrale railway station is the main and largest in Abruzzo, as well as one of the larger railway stations without train terminal in Italy, connecting with some of the major Italian cities like Rome, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Bari, Ancona, Trieste and many other cities. The other stations are Pescara Porta Nuova, Pescara Tribunale and Pescara San Marco.


title: Pescara

text: Pescara is served from several bus lines (operated by TUA, Società unica abruzzese di trasporto). There is a direct bus line to Roma Tiburtina (Rome) via Pescara Centrale (about a two and a half hour ride).


title: Pescara

text: A trolleybus automatic steering system line connecting the city center with its strategic points like Pescara Centrale railway station and the Abruzzo International Airport and other nearby cities is being built.


title: Philip Testa

text: Philip Charles Testa (April 21, 1924 – March 15, 1981), also known as "The Chicken Man", was an Italian-American mobster known for his brief leadership of the Philadelphia crime family of the Italian-American Mafia. He became boss of the Philadelphia crime family after the previous boss and his close friend, Angelo Bruno, was murdered by Bruno’s own "consigliere", Antonio Caponigro, who, in turn, was ordered killed by The Commission for murdering a boss without permission. Testa's nickname came from his involvement in a poultry business. About a year after Bruno's death, Testa was killed by the blast of a nail bomb at his home in South Philadelphia. The assassination was allegedly ordered by Testa’s own underboss, Peter Casella, as part of the first Philadelphia Mafia War.


title: Philip Testa

text: Testa was born to Sicilian immigrants in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and lived in South Philadelphia with his family in his teenage years. In South Philadelphia he met and befriended future mob boss Angelo Bruno. He later married Alfia Arcidiacono (records show her family owned a farm in Salem County, New Jersey). In early police dossiers on Testa, he was identified by law enforcement as not having a legitimate source of income and was solely dependent from winnings as a "common gambler."


title: Philip Testa

text: Testa and his wife had a son who also became involved in organized crime, Salvatore Testa, and was killed three years after his father.


title: Philip Testa

text: In 1970, Testa became underboss of Angelo Bruno. When Bruno was murdered in 1980, Testa became boss, appointing Nicodemo Scarfo as "consigliere".


title: Philip Testa

text: One month before Testa was murdered, he, Frank Narducci Sr., Harold and Mario Riccobene, Pasquale Spirito, Joseph Ciancaglini, and several associates were indicted in a federal racketeering case that centered on gambling and loansharking operations run by the mob. The case was based on an investigation called Operation Gangplank and was one of the first built on the RICO Act by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia. On March 15, 1981, Testa returned to his home in South Philadelphia that was across the street from Stephen Girard Park. As he was opening the door to his twin home at 2117 Porter Street, a nail bomb exploded under his front porch. His death was allegedly ordered by his underboss and drug trafficker Peter Casella and capo Frank Narducci Sr., which later resulted in Narducci being gunned down and Casella being banished from the Mob and fleeing to Florida.


title: Philip Testa

text: Testa's murder sparked a war within the family. Nicodemo Scarfo seized the top position for himself, promoting his long time friend Chuckie Merlino as his underboss and Testa loyalist Frank Monte as his "consigliere". Scarfo would go on to lead the family for a decade with a bloody rampage, fueled by paranoia and aggression.


title: Philip Testa

text: Testa's violent death is referenced in the opening lines of musician Bruce Springsteen's song "Atlantic City". Springsteen sings "Well, they blew up the Chicken Man in Philly last night/Now they blew up his house too". The following lines refer to the ensuing gang violence in Atlantic City: "Now, the boys on the boardwalk are getting ready for a fight".


title: We Can Work It Out

text: "We Can Work It Out" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. It was first issued as a double A-side single with "Day Tripper" in December 1965. It also appeared on the 1966 US release "Yesterday and Today". The release marked the first time in Britain that both tracks on an artist's single were promoted as joint A-sides.<ref name="White/OCC"></ref> The song was recorded during the sessions for the band's "Rubber Soul" album. The single was number 1 in Britain (where it won the Ivor Novello Award for the top-selling A-side of 1965), the United States, Australia, Canada and Ireland. In the UK, it was the seventh highest selling single of the 1960s.


title: We Can Work It Out

text: "We Can Work It Out" is a comparatively rare example of a Lennon–McCartney collaboration from this period in the Beatles' career, in that it recalls the level of collaboration the two songwriters had shared when writing the group's hit singles of 1963. This song, "A Day in the Life", "Baby, You're a Rich Man" and "I've Got a Feeling", are among the notable exceptions.


title: We Can Work It Out

text: McCartney wrote the words and music to the verses and the chorus, with lyrics that "might have been personal", probably a reference to his relationship with Jane Asher. McCartney then took the song to Lennon, who contributed the middle 8:


title: We Can Work It Out

text: With its intimations of mortality, Lennon's contribution to the twelve-bar bridge contrasts typically with what Lennon saw as McCartney's cajoling optimism, a contrast also seen in other collaborations by the pair, such as "Getting Better" and "I've Got a Feeling". As Lennon told "Playboy" in 1980:


title: We Can Work It Out

text: In author Ian MacDonald's view, some critics have overemphasised the extent of McCartney's optimism in the song and neglect the toughness in passages written by McCartney, such as "Do I have to keep on talking until I can't go on?" Lennon's middle shifts focus from McCartney's concrete reality to a philosophical perspective in B minor, illustrating this with the waltz-like passage suggested by Harrison that leads back to the verse, possibly meant to suggest tiresome struggle. Rather than a formal change to time, the waltz effect is created by the use of quarter note triplets within the regular rhythm.


title: We Can Work It Out

text: The Beatles recorded "We Can Work It Out" at EMI Studios (later Abbey Road Studios) in London on 20 October 1965, during the sessions for their "Rubber Soul" album. Along with Lennon's "Day Tripper", the song was earmarked for the non-album single that would accompany the release of the new LP. The band taped a satisfactory basic track in just two takes. With nearly eleven hours dedicated to the song, however, it was by far their longest expenditure of studio time up to that point. A vocal overdubbing session took place on 29 October.


title: We Can Work It Out

text: No record exists of the band members' exact contributions to the recording, leading to uncertainty regarding the playing of some of the instruments. Reduced to a single track in the final mix, where it was placed hard left in the stereo image, the group's initial performance consisted of acoustic guitar, bass, tambourine and drums. While musicologist Walter Everett credits these parts to Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Ringo Starr, respectively, authors Jean-Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin suggest that McCartney, as the song's main composer, was the acoustic guitarist and Lennon instead played bass. Two harmonium parts were overdubbed, using EMI's Mannborg harmonium.


title: We Can Work It Out

text: For the first time for one of their singles, the Beatles filmed promotional clips for "We Can Work It Out" and "Day Tripper". Subsequently, known as the "Intertel Promos", these clips were intended as a way to save the band having to appear in person on popular British television shows such as "Ready Steady Go!" and "Top of the Pops", and also ensured that the Beatles reached their large international audience.


title: We Can Work It Out

text: Filming took place at Twickenham Film Studios in south-west London on 23 November 1965, with Joe McGrath as director. The Beatles made a total of ten black-and-white promos that day, filming clips for the new songs as well as for their previous hit singles "I Feel Fine", "Ticket to Ride" and "Help!" Three of the films were mimed performances of "We Can Work It Out", in all of which Lennon was seated at a harmonium.


title: We Can Work It Out

text: The most frequently broadcast of the three was a straightforward performance piece with the group wearing black suits. In the description of "Rolling Stone" journalist Rob Sheffield: "At first, they're playing it all straight in their suits, until John sets out to make Paul crack up on camera. He makes it impossible for anyone else to keep a straight face – by the end, he's playing the organ with his feet." Another clip shows the group wearing the stage suits from their Shea Stadium performance on 15 August. The third clip opens with a still photograph of Lennon with a sunflower in front of his eye.


title: We Can Work It Out

text: One of the November 1965 promo films was included in the Beatles' 2015 video compilation "1", and the third promo clip was included in the three-disc versions of the compilation, titled "1+".


title: We Can Work It Out

text: In a discussion about which of the two songs should be the A-side of the new single, Lennon had argued for "Day Tripper", differing with the majority view that "We Can Work It Out" was a more commercial song. On 15 November, EMI announced that the A-side would be "We Can Work It Out", only for Lennon to publicly contradict this two days later. As a result, the single was marketed as the first-ever "double A-side". Lennon's championing of "Day Tripper", for which he was the principal writer, was based on his belief that the Beatles' rock sound should be favoured over the softer style of "We Can Work It Out". Airplay and point-of-sale requests soon proved "We Can Work It Out" to be the more popular of the two sides.


title: We Can Work It Out

text: The single was released on EMI's Parlophone label in Britain (as Parlophone R 5389) on 3 December 1965, the same day as "Rubber Soul". The two releases coincided with speculation in the UK press that the Beatles' supremacy in the pop world since 1963 might be coming to an end, given the customary two or three years that most acts could expect to remain at the peak of their popularity. "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work It Out" entered the UK Singles Chart (at the time, the "Record Retailer" chart) on 15 December, at number 2, before holding the top position for five consecutive weeks. The single also failed to top the national chart published by "Melody Maker" in its first week – marking the first occasion since December 1963 that a new Beatles single had not immediately entered at number 1. Although the single was an immediate number 1 on the "NME"s chart, the "Daily Mirror" and "Daily Express" newspapers both published articles highlighting the apparent decline. The record was the Beatles' ninth consecutive chart-topping single in the UK and the band's fastest-selling single there since "Can't Buy Me Love", their previous McCartney-led A-side. At the following year's Ivor Novello Awards, "We Can Work It Out" was acknowledged as the best-selling single of 1965, ahead of "Help!" By November 2012, it had sold 1.39 million copies in the UK, making it the group's fifth million-seller in that country. As of December 2018, the double A-side was the 54th best-selling single of all time in the UK – one of six Beatles songs included on the top sales rankings published by the Official Charts Company.<ref name="Myers/OCC"></ref>


title: We Can Work It Out

text: In the United States, where the single was issued by Capitol Records on 6 December (as Capitol 5555), both songs entered the "Billboard" Hot 100 on the week ending 18 December. On 8 January 1966, "We Can Work It Out" hit number 1 on the chart, while "Day Tripper" entered the top ten at number 10. "We Can Work It Out" spent three non-consecutive weeks at number 1, while "Day Tripper" peaked at number 5. The song was the band's eleventh US number 1, accomplished in just under two years since their debut on the Hot 100. It was their sixth consecutive number 1 single on the American charts, a record at the time. The single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, for sales of 1 million or over, on 6 January 1966.


title: We Can Work It Out

text: Author Andrew Grant Jackson writes that the Beatles' six US chart-toppers over the year from January 1965 reflected the nation's changing mood with regard to the Vietnam War and youth-driven social upheaval. With "We Can Work It Out", he continues, the Beatles conveyed the "fussing and fighting" that had replaced the post-Kennedy rebirth from the start of the year. The song was referenced by Cecil Kellaway's character in the 1967 film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", which focused on the then controversial issue of biracial relationships in the context of US civil rights.


title: We Can Work It Out

text: The Beatles performed "We Can Work It Out" on their final UK tour, which took place on 3–12 December 1965. In 1991, McCartney played an acoustic version of the song for his "MTV Unplugged" performance, later released on "Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)", and "The Unplugged Collection, Volume One".


title: We Can Work It Out

text: Deep Purple covered it on their second album "The Book of Taliesyn", from 1968. The band drastically reworked it, as they always did with covers. The first three minutes of the song is a fast, progressive instrumental jam incorporating themes from classical music (notably Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet") called "Exposition", which drifts over into the Beatles song.


title: We Can Work It Out

text: Such overblown arrangements and attempts at making a rather simple song sound epic was normal for Deep Purple in this period, and they had already followed the same structure on their covers on the debut album (such as The Leaves' "Hey Joe"). Reportedly, the band recorded their version of the song because McCartney had stated that he was impressed with their previous Beatles cover, "Help!", which was featured on "Shades of Deep Purple".


title: We Can Work It Out

text: In 1970, Stevie Wonder covered the song on his album "Signed, Sealed & Delivered", and released it as a single in 1971. The single reached number 13 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Wonder's version earned him his fifth Grammy Award nomination in 1972, for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. "Cash Box" described this version as a "spectacular dance track" which "returns Wonder to his earlier straight-ahead teen self complete with harmonica solo."


title: We Can Work It Out

text: Wonder performed the song for McCartney after the latter was presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990. In 2010, after McCartney was awarded the Gershwin Prize by the Library of Congress, Wonder again performed his arrangement of "We Can Work It Out" at a White House ceremony held in McCartney's honour. Wonder performed it a third time in January 2014, at the 50th anniversary tribute of the Beatles' appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show".


title: We Can Work It Out

text: In his discussion of the various cover versions of "We Can Work It Out", John Kruth describes Petula Clark's recording, released on her 1966 album "My Love", as "too perky for its own good". He highlights Humble Pie's blues version, from their 1975 album "Street Rats", as a "bold" reading in which the band dispensed with the song's melody to fashion "a worried blues ... more Sonny Boy Williamson than Fab Four".


title: We Can Work It Out

text: In 1976, the song was the Four Seasons' contribution to the soundtrack of "All This and World War II", a musical documentary that author Nicholas Schaffner described as "the most bizarre" of several film and television works that capitalised on EMI, now free of its contractual obligations to the Beatles, flooding the market with re-packaged Beatles singles. Schaffner included this heavily orchestrated version, produced by Lou Reizner, among the interpretations that "[succeed] in making Lennon–McCartney's greatest songs sound, at best, like the Beatles' rendition of 'Good Night'".


title: We Can Work It Out

text: Other artists who have covered the song include Dionne Warwick, Valerie Simpson, Melanie, Chaka Khan, Maxine Brown, Brass Construction, King Missile, Johnny Mathis, Judy Collins, Big Youth, Tesla, Plain White T's, Tom Jones, Heather Nova, Steel Pulse, and Rick Wakeman.<ref name="Fontenot/About"></ref>


title: We Can Work It Out

text: In his personnel list for the song, MacDonald notes that some sources attribute the tambourine part to Harrison, yet he considers it more likely that Starr played the instrument. Everett credits Harrison, citing the tambourine's placement in the stereo image with the three other instruments recorded as part of the basic track. Guesdon and Margotin also credit Harrison.


title: This Is England '86

text: This Is England '86 is a 2010 British drama miniseries written by Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne, a spin-off from the 2006 film "This Is England". Set three years later, it focuses on the mod revival scene rather than the skinhead subculture, with the gang variously adopting an eclectic mix of clothing styles.


title: This Is England '86

text: Like the film version previously, Thomas Turgoose stars as Shaun, with central roles played by Joe Gilgun as Woody, now a scooter-riding mod, although girlfriend Lol (Vicky McClure) and her friend Trev stay loyal to their roots and still wear the skinhead garb. Lol's sister Kelly has gone new wave/punk, while other gang members adopt psychobilly, early chav and mohican influences.


title: This Is England '86

text: The story takes place during the 1986 FIFA World Cup. As Shaun completes his last school exam, he realises he will have to find his way in the world. His now-estranged friends including Woody, Lol, Smell, Gadget and Meggy, are still around the area, looking for love, entertainment and employment.


title: This Is England '86

text: On 26 August 2009, Channel 4 promised that it would fund a four-part television drama, "This Is England '86", to be written by Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne. Meadows said:When I finished "This Is England", I had a wealth of material and unused ideas that I felt very keen to take further – audiences seemed to really respond to the characters we created and out of my longstanding relationship with Film4 and Channel 4 the idea for a television serial developed. Not only did I want to take the story of the gang broader and deeper, I also saw in the experiences of the young in 1986 many resonances to now – recession, lack of jobs, sense of the world at a turning point. Whereas the film told part of the story, the TV series will tell the rest.


title: This Is England '86

text: Meadows said that Combo (Stephen Graham) would return, that the fate of Milky would be revealed, and that a wedding between Woody and Lol would be called off. He said if the series succeeded, he would follow it with another series. He said Milky was alive and that Woody has a factory job and was about to marry Lol. He said that scooters, including Vespas and Lambrettas, would be used in the series - reflecting the scooterboy subculture of the mid to late 1980s.


title: This Is England '86

text: Channel 4's terms for the series was that the original gang had to be slimmed down. This resulted in the removal of a few characters that were in the feature film: Kez (Kieran Hardcastle) and Pob (Sophie Ellerby) were cut, while Pukey (Jack O'Connell) had to be cut as the actor had other commitments. Pukey's dialogue and story was given to the returning character Harvey (Michael Socha), who had a bit-part in the film as a school-bully; the series does not explain how he joined the gang or got on friendly terms with Shaun. A new bully, Flip, takes Harvey's place as Shaun's tormentor and leads a moped gang (Harvey is the first person to hit Flip for threatening Shaun in episode 3).


title: This Is England '86

text: Much of the series was filmed around the sprawling, down-at-heel Gleadless Valley area of Sheffield, with most of the drama centring on Ironside Road and the large, concrete-sided maisonettes are a prominent feature across either side of Blackstock Road, the estate's main artery. The estate of Lowedges (Lowedges Crescent) is also used, although it is portrayed as being part of the same area in the storyline. Many residents are of the opinion Gleadless Valley has not changed much in the 50 years since it was built, and this possibly influenced Meadows choice to film there. Other notable local venues for filming include Leighton Road, Gaunt Road, Blackstock Road Shopping Precinct and Norton Lane. The school in which Shaun sits his history exam is Gladys Buxton school in Dronfield as nearby Gleadless Valley Comprehensive School was closed and demolished in the 1990s. Gladys Buxton School is disused, and its mid-1980s design suited the time period. Students in years 10 and 11 of local secondary school Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School were used as extras, playing Shaun's classmates who are also sitting the exam, that were shown within the first eight minutes of the first episode. Sheffield landmarks such as the Park Hill Flats and Neepsend Gasholder are also seen.


title: This Is England '86

text: As in the film, the exact setting is unclear. The setting in the film was implied to be a coastal town in the English East Midlands (Grimsby was used in filming the coastal scenes). In the first episode, Woody and Lol ride on a Yorkshire Rider bus to their wedding from a bus stop in Gaunt Road, a bus company which operated in West Yorkshire in the 1980s. This now-preserved bus was supplied by Transport Yorkshire Preservation Group of Leeds.


title: This Is England '86

text: In the prologue, Combo and 13-year-old Shaun sit alone in Combo's blood-stained car, having just rushed Milky to the hospital (after Combo snapped and beat him into unconsciousness in the original film). Following a moment of silence, Shaun bids Combo farewell and leaves.


title: This Is England '86

text: Going forward three years, Woody and Lol's wedding ends disastrously by Woody's reluctance to marry Lol, and Meggy suffers a near-fatal heart attack in the toilets of the licensed private wedding venue. After Shaun sits his final exam in history, he gets hassled by Flip (Perry Fitzpatrick) and his gang of moped-riding casuals. Flip orders Shaun to help him stage Flip defending his crush Gemma from a staged insult from Shaun. Gemma sees through this act and Flip, in his anger, assaults Shaun, leaving him bloodied. He is found by Lol's mother and taken to the same hospital as Meggy, where he reunites with Smell, but does not join the rest of the gang in Meggy's room. After urging from his mother, Shaun later gets a job working in a video rentals shop owned by Mr. Sandhu, the Indian shopkeeper with whom Shaun had a feud in the first film but is now close friends with both Shaun and his mother.


title: This Is England '86

text: Woody and the gang stop by Shaun's house and welcome him back into their group. Meanwhile, Lol finds out that her father, Mick, has returned to the family home; she insinuates that she was sexually abused by him as a young girl. Lol tries to warn her mother and Kelly that people like Mick cannot change, but her mother responds by telling her to "fuck off out of [my] house". Feeling betrayed by her mother and neglected by Woody, Lol confides in Milky, with whom she starts having casual sex. Gadget, meanwhile, learns of his feelings for Lol's sister, Kelly but after he sees Kelly kissing another boy and is devastated, he starts to go out with Trudy the wedding receptionist, and discovers that she has a son, Winston, with Meggy from a previous affair (something she has callously kept secret from Meggy so that she won't have to share custody of Winston with him). Meanwhile, Shaun finds out that his mother has been having a secret relationship with Mr. Sandhu, who plans him to move in with them. Insinuating that his mother slept with Mr. Sandhu in order to get him a job and disgusted at her actions, Shaun angrily leaves home. Feeling guilty, Mr. Sandhu leaves the household in hopes that Shaun will go back home.


title: This Is England '86

text: Lol continues her casual affair with Milky, but Milky starts to feel guilty when an upset Woody confides in him about his failing relationship with Lol. Gadget is bullied and isolated from his friends by a controlling, sexually charged Trudy, so he decides to end their unusual eight-day relationship after urging from Harvey, who tells him that Trudy has had sex with Woody, Milky, Meggy, Gadget and himself, and also realises that Winston is Meggy's son after seeing them playing on the Commodore 64 together (Meggy himself fails to notice Winston's resemblance to him, due to Winston being dressed up as Dogtanian).


title: This Is England '86

text: Later, during an improvised football session on a large residential estate (the iconic Park Hill Flats in Sheffield were used for this scene), the gang are confronted by Flip and his moped gang, who want to beat Shaun up as revenge for the incident with Gemma. Lambretta-riding Woody mockingly refers to the mopeds as "hairdryers", and, as the tension escalates, it breaks out into a fight between Woody's and Flip's gangs, resulting in Police intervention.


title: This Is England '86

text: Shaun, meanwhile, reunites with Smell, and on her advice, returns home to apologise to his mother and give his blessing on her relationship with Mr. Sandhu. Lol starts to drown her sorrows and distances herself away from both of her lovers, especially when Milky fearfully does not defend Lol against Mick when he visits her to deny her allegations of sexual abuse. Meanwhile, Trev stops by Lol's parents' house to meet up with Kelly, and she awkwardly watches the football match with Mick. Mick violently rapes Trev and immediately after tells her to leave. Meanwhile, as Shaun, his mother and Smell watch the football match, a drunken and bloodied Combo stumbles into the living room and collapses on the floor.


title: This Is England '86

text: After waking, Combo informs Shaun and Smell that his mother is dying. Shaun takes him to see his mother, but when they get there they discover she has already died. Combo says goodbye to his mother's body. Meanwhile, Milky teases Woody about the fact that he left Lol at the altar. In response, Woody tells him they will get married that day. Woody and Milky go around inviting all their friends to their wedding, which is going to be a surprise to Lol.


title: This Is England '86

text: After much deliberation, Trev tells Lol that she was raped by Mick. Lol tells her go to sleep. She then goes to Mick's house, armed with a hammer to confront him, just as Mick is in the process of abandoning the household again. Lol accuses Mick of raping Trev and presents the hammer, indicating that she intends to kill him with it, and he responds by attacking her. He pulls off her underwear and attempts to rape her, but Lol defends herself by swinging the hammer against Mick's head several times which stuns him. With Mick lying prone on the floor, Lol decides to strike him again, killing him. Combo then arrives at the house, finding the scene of Mick dead and Lol sobbing.


title: This Is England '86

text: Combo, who as a teenager once tried to beat Mick up for molesting Lol only for Mick to beat him and send him to the hospital, decides to "do a good thing," smearing his and Mick's fingerprints over the hammer and injuring himself with Mick's hand to make it look as if he fought and killed Mick in Lol's defence, knowing that Lol will likely be sent to prison even if the truth is proven. The episode ends with Combo arriving in prison, after being charged with manslaughter. Most of the cast sit in the pub watching the England v Argentina World Cup game, which England goes on to lose, due to Maradona's infamous "Hand of God" and famous Goal of the Century. Shaun also has sex with Smell in the pub toilets. Meanwhile, Lol, Kelly, Trev, Milky and Woody sit alone together, listening to the game on the radio whilst playing cards. Kelly cries and Woody and Lol kiss as Combo peacefully enters his cell.


title: This Is England '86

text: The miniseries had an average rating of 2.93 million viewers, 2.5 million of which watched the first episode, leading to the commissioning of sequels. These ratings were up 38% on the average figures for Channel 4's 11PM timeslot.


title: This Is England '86

text: "The Guardian"'s Sam Wollaston said that the first episode "breathed life into [Meadows'] characters again... it's still bleak, as you'd expect. At times touching, at others funny".


title: This Is England '86

text: The rape scene in episode 3 provoked a strong reaction on online forums and social networking sites, with many viewers finding it a difficult scene to watch. Channel 4 broadcast the number for a rape crisis helpline at the end of the episode.


title: VanossGaming

text: Evan Fong (born 31 May 1992), known online as VanossGaming (or simply Vanoss), is a Canadian internet personality, video game commentator, music producer, and DJ. He posts montage-style videos on YouTube of him and other creators playing various video games, such as "Grand Theft Auto V" and "Garry's Mod". Aside from this, he produces music and performs as a DJ under the name Rynx, and served as a creative director for the video game "Dead Realm", and as a voice actor for the YouTube Premium series "Paranormal Action Squad" and the animated series "Alpha Betas".


title: VanossGaming

text: Fong was born on 31 May 1992 and raised in Toronto, Ontario. Fong is of Asian descent, his mother being Korean, and father Chinese. Fong graduated from Richmond Hill High School and studied economics in college, but he later dropped out in his second year to focus on his YouTube channel as a full-time commitment. Fong claimed that his parents were initially concerned that he was neglecting his studies in favor of producing content for his YouTube channel, admitting that "Even though there's a lot of potential for somebody starting a YouTube channel it's obviously not a guaranteed path.".


title: VanossGaming

text: During his early years on YouTube, he met several other creators who would eventually become frequently featured in his videos. His channel achieved popularity soon after, and by 2014 it had surpassed 10 million subscribers. In the same year, he appeared at PAX East and signed a contract with Jetpak. His logo, an owl in the shape of the letter "V", modeled after his character in "Grand Theft Auto V", is one of his most recognizable symbols.


title: VanossGaming

text: Fong claimed that he was not introduced to video games at a young age, but that he played games "here and there" which included children's adventure and puzzle titles such as "Freddi Fish" and "Pajama Sam".


title: VanossGaming

text: Outside of his YouTube career, Fong continues to play ice hockey recreationally, plays airsoft or other tournaments, and also plays the guitar as another hobby.


title: VanossGaming

text: On 30 April 2015, Fong announced on Twitter that he had signed with Jetpak, a multi-channel network founded by Adam Montoya and Tom Cassell.


title: VanossGaming

text: On 26 November 2015, Fong announced that he was releasing a new logo for the VanossGaming brand. He released the logo later that day along with limited edition merchandise released the day after. The logo was a white minimalistic design of an owl on a black background. There is also a diagonal cut through the design, creating a black letter "V". The owl design represented the owl mask on Fong's character model in "Grand Theft Auto Online".


title: VanossGaming

text: Fong's content has earned him two award nominations, including a Shorty Award for Tech and Innovation, under the category of Gaming. He has been recognized as a central figure in the subculture of video game commentary, with publications attributing his massive popularity to his sense of authenticity. As of April 2020, Fong's channel has over 12 billion views and 25.0 million subscribers, making it the 95th most subscribed channel on YouTube.


title: VanossGaming

text: Fong created the VanossGaming channel on YouTube on 15 September 2011. The name "Vanoss" comes from VANOS, a variable valve timing system produced by German automobile company BMW; Fong's father used the alias "vanoss62" (which referred to the S62 engine used in the E39 generation BMW M5) on the PlayStation 3, which his son later adopted for his own.


title: VanossGaming

text: In January 2015, Fong began to receive mainstream media attention as he approached 11 million subscribers and a ranking within the top 25 most subscribed channels on YouTube, with commentators identifying him as a central figure in the growing video game commentary subculture. Speaking at the time, he suggested that his success could be credited to the fact that "Viewers really like the authentic type of content from regular people just playing games because they can relate to that". In March 2015, he appeared on the "YouTube Gaming Evolution" panel at PAX East in Boston, Massachusetts, alongside collaborators I Am Wildcat, Lui Calibre, and Mini Ladd.


title: VanossGaming

text: The majority of VanossGaming videos take the format of a montage or compilation, featuring various clips from a particular game session, usually featuring other video game commentators. The Canadian Press described "a typical Vanoss video" as one that features "Vanoss and a group of friends chatting, laughing and making jokes over gameplay from popular titles such as "Grand Theft Auto V" or ""."


title: VanossGaming

text: On 25 July 2015, Fong announced that he had been working on a game called "Dead Realm" for "the last six or seven months" as a creative director, alongside collaborators David Nagle (Daithi De Nogla), Brian Hanby (The Terroriser), Craig "Mini Ladd" Thompson, and Tom "Syndicate". It was released via Steam as an early release on 30 July 2015; it was later fully released on May 23, 2017. However, on August 27, 2020; after 3 years since its official release, 3BLACKDOT; the publisher of that game, ended its support amidst negative reviews the game received around the time after its official release, shutting down all of its servers, effectively discontinuing the game.


title: VanossGaming

text: On 2 November 2016, Fong, Adam Montoya, and Scott Robinson announced that a computer-animated series of videos entitled "Paranormal Action Squad" starring the three and written by Michael Rowe would air on YouTube Red, beginning on November 24.


title: VanossGaming

text: On June 25, 2020, Fong announced that another computer animated series titled "Alpha Betas" is in production starring Fong, Brian "Terroriser" Hanby, Marcel "BasicallyIDoWrk" Cunningham and Tyler "WILDCAT" Wine, who are also credited as executive producers. It is created by Chris Bruno and David Howard Lee with production led by 3BlackDot and Starburns Industries. The pilot episode premiered on Fong's channel on March 13, 2021 and gained over 5 million views as June 2021. While they got offers from many networks, none of them were willing to give the showrunners the creative freedom, which led them to launch a Kickstarter on July 20, 2021. On October 18, 2022, it was announced new episodes of Alpha Betas would premiere on October 31, 2022 on the Alpha Betas YouTube channel.


title: VanossGaming

text: On 25 August 2017, Fong released a remix of "U-Rite" by hip-hop group They under the name Rynx. Fong released his debut single "Want You" featuring Miranda Glory on 12 December 2017 under his record label, Avant Garden.


title: VanossGaming

text: On 18 April 2018, Fong released the official music video for "Want You". On June 27, he released the music video for his second single "I'm Alright" featuring Jimi Ono.


title: VanossGaming

text: On 16 November 2018, he released a remix of the Gallant song “Doesn’t Matter.” On 19 December 2018, he and Jaykode released a remix of the Sasha Sloan song “Normal.”


title: VanossGaming

text: On 8 March 2019, he released a remix of the Olivia O'Brien song, “Love Myself”, and on 3 May 2019, he released a remix of “Contra La Pared” by Jamaican singer Sean Paul and Colombian singer J Balvin.


title: VanossGaming

text: His fourth single “Read my Mind” featuring Mainland was released on 22 May 2019. His fifth single, “Club Poor”, with Tiny Meat Gang, was released on 10 July 2019.


title: VanossGaming

text: His sixth single "All For You" featuring Kiesza was released on 31 July 2019. On 17 September 2019, he announced on his Instagram account that he is going to be releasing his debut project, "In Pieces", in October. On the same day, he announced that he would be going on tour in October and November 2019 in the United States and Canada, and possibly releasing merchandise in the tour. On October 15, Rynx stated on Twitter that "He was ruining his health" and that he wanted his set to be the best for his tour for his fans. He also stated he wanted "to feel something while on the stage that'll make it all worth it." On November 5, he announced on YouTube that his tour was delayed (except the San Francisco trip) until February.


title: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

text: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire (born Lady Elizabeth Howard; c. 1480 – 3 April 1538) was an English noblewoman, noted for being the mother of Anne Boleyn and as such the maternal grandmother of Elizabeth I of England. The eldest daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and his first wife Elizabeth Tilney, she married Thomas Boleyn sometime in the later 15th century. Elizabeth became Viscountess Rochford in 1525 when her husband was elevated to the peerage, subsequently becoming Countess of Ormond in 1527 and Countess of Wiltshire in 1529.


title: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

text: Elizabeth was born c. 1480 into the wealthy and influential Howard family, as the elder of the two daughters of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and his first wife Elizabeth Tilney. Her paternal grandfather, John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, was created Duke of Norfolk in 1483 following the death of John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk with no legitimate male heirs.


title: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

text: Her family managed to survive the fall of their patron, King Richard III, who was killed at Bosworth in 1485 and supplanted by the victor, King Henry VII, when she was about five years old. Elizabeth became a part of the royal court as a young girl.


title: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

text: It was while she was at court, that she wed Thomas Boleyn, an ambitious young courtier, sometime before 1500, probably in 1498. According to Thomas, his wife was pregnant many times in the next few years but only three children lived to adulthood. The three children were:


title: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

text: Throughout this time, Elizabeth was a lady-in-waiting at the royal court; first to Elizabeth of York, and then to Catherine of Aragon. Based on later gossip, Elizabeth Boleyn must have been a highly attractive woman. Rumours circulated when Henry was involved with Anne Boleyn that Elizabeth had once been his mistress, with the suggestion even being made that Anne Boleyn might be the daughter of Henry VIII. However, despite recent attempts by one or two historians to rehabilitate this myth, it was denied by Henry and never mentioned in the dispensation he sought in order to make his union with Anne lawful. Most historians believe it is likely that this rumour began by confusing Elizabeth with Henry's more famous mistress Elizabeth Blount, or from the growing unpopularity of the Boleyn family after 1527.


title: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

text: In 1519, Elizabeth's daughters, Anne and Mary, were living in the French royal court as Ladies-in-waiting to the French Queen consort Claude. According to the papal nuncio in France fifteen years later, the French King Francis I had referred to Mary as "my English mare", and later in his life described her as "a great whore, the most infamous of all".


title: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

text: In the words of historian M.L. Bruce, both Thomas and Elizabeth "developed feelings of dislike" for their daughter Mary. In later years, Mary's romantic involvements would only further strain this relationship. Around 1520, the Boleyns managed to arrange Mary's marriage to William Carey, a respected and popular man at court. It was sometime after the wedding that Mary became mistress to Henry VIII (the exact dates as to when the affair started and ended are unknown), although she never held the title of "official royal mistress," as the post did not exist in England. It has long been rumoured that one or both of Mary Boleyn's children were fathered by Henry and not Carey. Some historians, such as Alison Weir, now question whether Henry Carey was fathered by the King. Few of Henry's mistresses were ever publicly honoured, except Elizabeth Blount, who was mentioned in Parliament and whose son, Henry Fitzroy, was created Duke of Richmond and Somerset in an elaborate public ceremony in 1525. Henry's relationship with Mary was so discreet that within ten years, some observers were wondering if it had ever taken place.


title: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

text: In contrast to Mary, Elizabeth's other daughter, Anne, is thought to have had a close relationship with her mother. Elizabeth had been in charge of her children's early education, including Anne's, and she had taught her to play on various musical instruments, to sing and to dance, as well as embroidery, poetry, good manners, arithmetic, reading, writing and some French. In 1525, Henry VIII fell in love with Anne, and Elizabeth became her protective chaperone. She accompanied Anne to Court, since Anne was attempting to avoid a sexual relationship with the King. Elizabeth travelled with Anne to view York Place after the fall of the Boleyn family's great political opponent, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey – an intrigue which had given Anne her first real taste of political power. She was crowned queen four years later.


title: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

text: Elizabeth remained in her daughter's household throughout her time as queen consort. Tradition has it that Anne's daughter, Elizabeth I, was named after her maternal grandmother. However, it is more likely that she was named after Henry's mother, Elizabeth of York, although the possibility that she was named after both grandmothers cannot be ruled out.


title: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

text: Elizabeth Boleyn sided with the rest of the family when her eldest daughter, Mary, was banished in 1535 for eloping with a commoner, William Stafford. Mary had initially expected her sister's support (Anne had been Mary's only confidante within the Boleyn family since 1529), but Anne was furious at the breach of etiquette and refused to receive her.


title: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

text: Only a year later, the family was overtaken by a greater scandal. Elizabeth's younger daughter, Anne, and her only living son, George, were executed on charges of treason, adultery, and incest. Anne's two chief biographers, Eric Ives and Retha Warnicke, both concluded that these charges were fabricated. They also agree that the King wanted to marry Jane Seymour. Beyond this obvious fact, the sequence of events is unclear and historians are divided about whether the key motivation for Anne's downfall was her husband's hatred of her or her political ambitions. Despite the claims of several recent novels, academic historians agree that Anne was innocent and faithful to her husband. Nonetheless, the judges obeyed the King, condemning Anne, George Boleyn and four others to death. Elizabeth's husband Thomas Boleyn and brother Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk provided no help to the condemned. The accused men were beheaded by the axe on 17 May 1536 and Anne was executed by a French swordsman two days later.


title: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

text: Following the annihilation of the family's ambitions, Elizabeth retired to the countryside. She died only two years after her two younger children and her husband died the following year. Elizabeth is buried in the Howard family chapel at St Mary's Church, Lambeth. The church, decommissioned in 1972, is now the Garden Museum.


title: Invisible Cities

text: Invisible Cities () is a novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino. It was published in Italy in 1972 by Giulio Einaudi Editore.


title: Invisible Cities

text: The book explores imagination and the imaginable through the descriptions of cities by an explorer, Marco Polo. The book is framed as a conversation between the elderly and busy emperor Kublai Khan, who constantly has merchants coming to describe the state of his expanding and vast empire, and Polo. The majority of the book consists of brief prose poems describing 55 fictitious cities that are narrated by Polo, many of which can be read as parables or meditations on culture, language, time, memory, death, or the general nature of human experience.


title: Invisible Cities

text: Short dialogues between Kublai and Polo are interspersed every five to ten cities discussing these topics. These interludes between the two characters are no less poetically constructed than the cities, and form a framing device that plays with the natural complexity of language and stories. In one key exchange in the middle of the book, Kublai prods Polo to tell him of the one city he has never mentioned directly—his hometown. Polo's response: "Every time I describe a city I am saying something about Venice."


title: Invisible Cities

text: "Invisible Cities" deconstructs an archetypal example of the travel literature genre, "The Travels of Marco Polo," which depicts the journey of the famed Venetian merchant across Asia and in Yuan China (Mongol Empire). The original 13th-century travelogue shares with Calvino's novel the brief, often fantastic accounts of the cities Polo claimed to have visited, along with descriptions of the city's inhabitants, notable imports and exports, and whatever interesting tales Polo had heard about the region.


title: Invisible Cities

text: "Invisible Cities" is an example of Calvino's use of combinatory literature, and shows clear influences of semiotics and structuralism. In the novel, the reader finds themselves playing a game with the author, wherein they must find the patterns hidden in the book. The book has nine chapters, but there are also hidden divisions within the book: each of the 55 cities belongs to one of eleven thematic groups (explained below). The reader can therefore play with the book's structure, and choose to follow one group or another, rather than reading the book in chronological chapters. At a 1983 conference held at Columbia University, Calvino himself stated that there is no definite end to "Invisible Cities" because "this book was made as a polyhedron, and it has conclusions everywhere, written along all of its edges."


title: Invisible Cities

text: Over the nine chapters, Marco describes a total of fifty-five cities, all women's names. The cities are divided into eleven thematic groups of five each:


title: Invisible Cities

text: He moves back and forth between the groups, while moving down the list, in a rigorous mathematical structure. The table below lists the cities in order of appearance, along with the group they belong to:


title: Invisible Cities

text: In each of the nine chapters, there is an opening section and a closing section, narrating dialogues between the Khan and Marco. The descriptions of the cities lie between these two sections.


title: Invisible Cities

text: The matrix of eleven column themes and fifty-five subchapters (ten rows in chapters 1 and 9, five in all others) shows some interesting properties. Each column has five entries, rows only one, so there are fifty-five cities in all. The matrix of cities has a central element (Baucis). The pattern of cities is symmetric with respect to inversion about that center. Equivalently, it is symmetric against 180 degree rotations about Baucis. Inner chapters (2-8 inclusive) have diagonal cascades of five cities (e.g. Maurila through Euphemia in chapter 2). These five-city cascades are displaced by one theme column to the right as one proceeds to the next chapter. In order that the cascade sequence terminate (the book of cities is not infinite!) Calvino, in chapter 9, truncates the diagonal cascades in steps: Laudomia through Raissa is a cascade of four cities, followed by cascades of three, two, and one, necessitating ten cities in the final chapter. The same pattern is used in reverse in chapter 1 as the diagonal cascade of cities is born. This strict adherence to a mathematical pattern is characteristic of the Oulipo literary group to which Calvino belonged.


title: Invisible Cities

text: "Invisible Cities" (and in particular the chapters about Isidora, Armilla, and Adelma) is the basis for an opera by composer Christopher Cerrone, first produced by The Industry in October 2013 as an experimental production at Union Station in Los Angeles. In this site-specific production directed by Yuval Sharon, the performers, including eleven musicians, eight singers, and eight dancers, were located in (or moved through) different parts of the train station, while the station remained open and operating as usual. The performance could be heard by about 200 audience members, who wore wireless headphones and were allowed to move through the station at will. An audio recording of the opera was released in November 2014. The opera was named a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music.


title: Hastein

text: Hastein (Old Norse: "Hásteinn", also recorded as "Hastingus", "Anstign", "Haesten", "Hæsten", "Hæstenn" or "Hæsting" and alias "Alsting") was a notable Viking chieftain of the late 9th century who made several raiding voyages.


title: Hastein

text: Hastein is credited with being involved with various raids on the Frankish Empire. He also led a great raid into the Mediterranean in 859.


title: Hastein

text: For indeed the Frankish nation, which was crushed by the avenger Anstign [Hastein], was very full of filthy uncleanness. Treasonous and oath-breaking, they were deservedly condemned; unbelievers and faithless, they were justly punished ... "Dudo of St. Quentin's. Gesta Normannorum. Book 1. Chapter 3."


title: Hastein

text: During 859–862, Hastein jointly led an expedition with Björn Ironside. A fleet of 62 ships sailed from the Loire to raid countries in the Mediterranean.


title: Hastein

text: At first the raiding did not go well, with Hastein being defeated by the Asturians and later the Muslims of the Umayyad emirate of Córdoba at Niebla in 859. Success followed with the sacking of Algeciras, where the mosque was burned, and then the ravaging of Mazimma in the Idrisid Caliphate on the north coast of Africa, followed by further raids into the Umayyad Caliphate at Orihuela, the Balearic Islands and Roussillon. They occupied Nekor for 8 days.


title: Hastein

text: Hastein and Björn wintered at Camargue island on the mouth of the Rhone before ravaging Narbonne, Nîmes and Arles, then as far north as Valence, before moving onto Italy. There they attacked the city of Luna. Believing it to be Rome, Hastein had his men carry him to the gate and tell the guards he was dying and wished to convert to Christianity. Once inside, he was taken to the town's church where he received the sacraments, before jumping from his stretcher and leading his men in a sack of the town. Another account has him claiming to want to convert before he died, and then feigning death on the following day. Luna then allowed his body and 50 of his men clad in robes enter for his burial. Hastein's men had concealed swords under their robes, and once inside Hastein leaped from his coffin, decapitated the priest and sacked the city. However, the veracity of this is much debated. He sailed down the coast and sacked Pisa and, sailing on the River Arno, ravaged Fiesole. The fleet then possibly raided the Byzantine Empire's territories in the eastern Mediterranean.


title: Hastein

text: On the way back to the Loire, he stopped off in North Africa where he bought several African slaves (known to the Vikings as 'blámenn', "blue men", possibly Soussians or Tuaregs) whom he later sold in Ireland. They were presumed to have lost 40 ships in a storm, and lost 2 more at the Straits of Gibraltar on their way home, near Medina-Sidonia, but still managed to ravage Pamplona before returning home to the Loire with 20 ships.


title: Hastein

text: Settled back in Brittany, Hastein allied himself with Salomon, King of Brittany against the Franks in 866, and as part of a Viking-Breton army he killed Robert the Strong at the Battle of Brissarthe near Châteauneuf-sur-Sarthe. In 867 he went on to ravage Bourges and a year later attacked Orléans. Peace lasted until spring 872 when the Viking fleet sailed up the Maine and occupied Angers, which led to a siege by the Frankish king Charles the Bald and a peace being agreed in October 873.


title: Hastein

text: Hastein remained in the Loire country until 882, when he was finally expelled by Charles and then relocated his army north to the Seine. There he stayed until the Franks besieged Paris and his territory in the Picardy was threatened. It was at this point he became one of many experienced Vikings to look to England for riches and plunder.


title: Hastein

text: Hastein crossed to England from Boulogne in 892 leading one of two great companies. His army, the smaller of the two, landed in 80 ships and occupied the royal village of Milton Regis near Sittingbourne in Kent, whilst his allies landed at Appledore with 250 ships. Alfred the Great positioned the West Saxon army between them to keep them from uniting, the result of which was that Hastein agreed terms, including allowing his two sons to be baptised, and left Kent for Essex. The larger army attempted to reunite with Hastein after raiding Hampshire and Berkshire in the late spring of 893, but was defeated at Farnham by an army under Edward, Alfred's son. The survivors eventually reached Hastein's army at Mersea Island, after a combined West Saxon and Mercian army failed to dislodge them from their fortress at Thorney.


title: Hastein

text: As a result, Hastein combined his forces from Appledore and Milton and withdrew them to a fortified camp at Benfleet, Essex. He used this camp as a base to raid Mercia. However, while his main force was out raiding those left in the fort were defeated by the bolstered militia of eastern Wessex. The West Saxons captured the fort, along with the ships, booty, women and children. This included Hastein's own wife and sons. Hastein re-established his combined force at a new fort at Shoebury further east in Essex, and received reinforcements from the settled Danes of East Anglia and York. Shortly after, according to the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", Hastein held talks with Alfred, possibly to discuss terms for the release of his family.


title: Hastein

text: Whatever the discussion, it seems Hastein had his two sons returned to him. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" tells us that it was because


title: Hastein

text: Alfred and Alfred's son-in-law Aethelred of Mercia, had stood sponsor to Hastein's sons at their baptism in early 893, before Hastein had arrived at Benfleet. Thus Alfred was godfather to one boy and Aethelred godfather to the other


title: Hastein

text: If Alfred's strategy was to create peace then it was a failure as shortly after, Hastein launched a second raid along the Thames valley and from there along the River Severn. Hastein was pursued all the way by Aethelred and a combined Mercian and West Saxon army, reinforced by a contingent of warriors from the Welsh kingdoms. Eventually the Viking army was trapped at Buttington—this was possibly the island of Buttington on the Severn near Welshpool, Powys—then at the resulting Battle of Buttington several weeks later they fought their way out, and lost many men, and returned to the fortress at Shoebury. According to the annals:


title: Hastein

text: ..after many weeks had passed, some of the heathen [Vikings] died of hunger, but some, having by then eaten their horses, broke out of the fortress, and joined battle with those who were on the east bank of the river. But, when many thousands of pagans had been slain, and all the others had been put to flight, the Christians [English] were masters of the place of death. In that battle the most noble Ordheah and many of the king's thegns were killed ...


title: Hastein

text: In late summer 893, Hastein's men struck out again. They moved all their booty, women and ships, from East Anglia, to the ruined Roman fortress at Chester. The plan was to rebuild the fortifications and use it as a base for raiding northern Mercia. However, the Mercians had other ideas, they laid siege to the fortress and attempted to starve the Danes out by removing or retrieving any livestock and destroying any crops in the area.


title: Hastein

text: In the autumn the besieged army left Chester, marched down to the south of Wales and devastated the Welsh kingdoms of Brycheiniog, Gwent and Glywysing until the summer of 894. They came back via Northumbria, the Danish-held midlands of the Five Burghs, and East Anglia to return to the fort at Mersea Island. In the autumn of 894, the army towed their ships up the Thames to a new fort on the River Lea. In the summer of 895 Alfred arrived with the West Saxon army, and obstructed the course of the Lea with a fort either side of the river. The Danes abandoned their camp, returned their women to East Anglia and made another great march across the Midlands to a site on the Severn (where Bridgnorth now stands), followed all the way by hostile forces. There they stayed until the spring of 896 when the army finally dispersed into East Anglia, Northumbria and according to the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", those that were penniless found themselves ships and went south across the sea to the Seine.


title: Hastein

text: Hastein disappeared from history in around 896, by then an old man having already been described as "the lusty and terrifying old warrior of the Loire and the Somme", when he arrived in England several years earlier. He was one of the most notorious and successful Vikings of all time, having raided dozens of cities across many kingdoms in Europe and North Africa.


title: Hastein

text: This was a man accursed: fierce, mightily cruel, and savage, pestilent, hostile, sombre, truculent, given to outrage, pestilent and untrustworthy, insolent, fickle and lawless. Death-dealing, uncouth, fertile in ruses, warmonger-general, traitor, fomenter of evil, and double-dyed dissimulator ... "Dudo of St. Quentin's. Gesta Normannorum. Book 1. Chapter 3."


title: Hastein

text: Some scholars have suggested that the Hastings area of Sussex in England may have been founded by a forebear of Hastein.


title: Hastein

text: Jarl Hastein is a recurring character in Bernard Cornwell's "The Saxon Stories" novels, as a former ally and then opponent of Uhtred of Bebbanburg. In the television adaptation "The Last Kingdom" he is played by Norwegian actor Jeppe Beck Laursen.


title: Hastein

text: Jarl Hastein is the main protagonist in C.J. Adrien's popular trilogy of novels titled The Saga of Hasting the Avenger, about Hastein's supposed early life (using the French spelling of the name, 'Hasting').


title: Hastein

text: Jarl Hastein appears in the popular "Crusader Kings" video game series, first appearing in Crusader Kings II The Old Gods DLC "Viking Age" era and again in Crusader Kings III as a highlighted character to play during "The Great Adventurers" start.


title: Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones

text: Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones is a remix album by American singer Madonna, released through Warner Records. Its abridged 16-track edition, simply titled Finally Enough Love, had a pre-release on streaming services on June 24, 2022, while the full 50-track edition and all physical formats were released on August 19, 2022. The album marks Madonna achieving a record 50 number ones on the US "Billboard" Dance Club Songs chart, the most number ones of any artist on any single "Billboard" chart. The title derives from the lyrics of her 50th number one, "I Don't Search I Find". It is also the first release in a multi-year reissue campaign with Warner, commemorating the 40th anniversary of Madonna's recording career.