title: Corpus Juris Civilis

text: Justinian's "Corpus Juris Civilis" was distributed in the West and went into effect in those areas regained under Justinian's wars of reconquest (Pragmatic Sanction of 554), including the Exarchate of Ravenna. Accordingly, the "Institutes" were made the textbook at the law school in Rome, and later in Ravenna when the school relocated there. However, after the loss of most of these areas, only the Catepanate (southern Italy) maintained a Byzantine legal tradition, but there the "Corpus" was superseded by the "Ecloga" and "Basilika". Only the "Corpus"'s provisions regulating the church still had any effect, but the Catholic church's "de facto" autonomy and the Great Schism made even that irrelevant. In Western Europe, the "Corpus" may have spurred a slew of Romano-Germanic law codes in the successor Germanic kingdoms, but these were heavily based on the older "Theodosian Code", not the "Corpus".


title: Corpus Juris Civilis

text: Historians disagree on the precise way the "Corpus" was recovered in Northern Italy about 1070: legal studies were undertaken on behalf of papal authority central to the Gregorian Reform of Pope Gregory VII, which may have led to its accidental rediscovery. Aside from the "Littera Florentina" (a complete 6th-century copy of the "Digest" preserved in Amalfi and later moved to Pisa) and the "Epitome Codicis" (c. 1050; incomplete manuscript preserving most of the "Codex"), there may have been other manuscript sources for the text that began to be taught at Bologna, by Pepo and then by Irnerius. Irnerius' technique was to read a passage aloud, which permitted his students to copy it, then to deliver an excursus explaining and illuminating Justinian's text, in the form of glosses. Irnerius' pupils, the so-called Four Doctors of Bologna, were among the first of the "glossators" who established the curriculum of medieval Roman law. The tradition was carried on by French lawyers, known as the Ultramontani, in the 13th century.


title: Corpus Juris Civilis

text: The merchant classes of Italian communes required law with a concept of equity, and law that covered situations inherent in urban life better than the primitive Germanic oral traditions. The provenance of the Code appealed to scholars who saw in the Holy Roman Empire a revival of venerable precedents from the classical heritage. The new class of lawyers staffed the bureaucracies that were beginning to be required by the princes of Europe. The University of Bologna, where Justinian's Code was first taught, remained the dominant centre for the study of law through the High Middle Ages.


title: Corpus Juris Civilis

text: A two-volume edition of the Digest was published in Paris in 1549 and 1550, translated by Antonio Agustín, Bishop of Tarragona, who was well known for other legal works. The full title of the Digest was "Digestorum Seu Pandectarum tomus alter", and it was published by "Apud Carolam Guillards". Vol. 1 of the Digest has 2934 pages, while Vol. 2 has 2754 pages. Referring to Justinian's Code as "Corpus Juris Civilis" was only adopted in the 16th century, when it was printed in 1583 by Dionysius Gothofredus under this title. The legal thinking behind the "Corpus Juris Civilis" served as the backbone of the single largest legal reform of the modern age, the Napoleonic Code, which marked the abolition of feudalism. Napoleon wanted to see these principles introduced to the whole of Europe because he saw them as an effective form of rule that created a more equal society and thus creating a more friendly relationship between the ruling class and the rest of the peoples of Europe.


title: Corpus Juris Civilis

text: The "Corpus Juris Civilis" was translated into French, German, Italian, and Spanish in the 19th century. However, no English translation of the entire "Corpus Juris Civilis "existed until 1932 when Samuel Parsons Scott published his version "The Civil Law". Scott did not base his translation on the best available Latin versions, and his work was severely criticized.Fred. H. Blume used the best-regarded Latin editions for his translations of the Code and of the Novels. A new English translation of the Code, based on Blume's, was published in October 2016. In 2018, the Cambridge University Press also published a new English translation of the Novels, based primarily on the Greek text.


title: Yusra Mardini

text: Yusra Mardini OLY (; born 5 March 1998) is a Syrian former competition swimmer and refugee of the Syrian civil war. She was a member of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team (ROT) that competed under the Olympic flag at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. On 27 April 2017, Mardini was appointed a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. She also competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo with the Refugee Olympic Team (EOR).


title: Yusra Mardini

text: Growing up in Darayya, a suburb of Damascus, Mardini trained in swimming with the support of the Syrian Olympic Committee. In 2012, she represented Syria in the 2012 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) 200 metre individual medley, 200 metre freestyle and 400 metre freestyle events.


title: Yusra Mardini

text: Mardini's house was destroyed in the Syrian Civil War. Mardini and her sister Sarah decided to flee Syria in August 2015. They reached Lebanon, and then Turkey, where they arranged to be smuggled into Greece by boat with 18 other migrants, though the boat was meant to be used by no more than 6 or 7 people. After the motor stopped working and the dinghy began to take on water in the Aegean Sea, Yusra, Sarah, and two other people who were able to swim jumped into the water and pushed and pulled the boat through the water for over 3 hours until the group reached the island of Lesbos. They then traveled on foot through Europe to Germany, where they settled in Berlin in September 2015. Her parents and younger sister, Shahed, also fled Syria and live in Germany.


title: Yusra Mardini

text: On arrival in Germany, Mardini continued her training with her coach Sven Spannenkrebs from Wasserfreunde Spandau 04 in Berlin, in hopes of qualifying for the Olympics. She attempted to qualify in the 200 metres freestyle swimming event. In June 2016, Mardini was one of ten athletes selected for the EOR. Mardini competed in the 100 metres freestyle and the 100 metres butterfly at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. At the Rio Olympics, Mardini won a 100m butterfly heat against four other swimmers, with a time of 1:09.21 and a rank of 41st among 45 entrants.


title: Yusra Mardini

text: International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said of the refugee athletes, "We help them to make their dream of sporting excellence come true, even when they have to flee war and violence."


title: Yusra Mardini

text: As of October 2017, Mardini has been the latest addition to a team of international athletes to represent the Under Armour sports brand. Chris Bate, Under Armour managing director in Europe, has said: "We are inspired by her drive and accomplishments, both as a person and as an athlete."


title: Yusra Mardini

text: Mardini competed at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. She carried the flag of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team in the athletes’ parade in the opening ceremony. In the women’s 100m butterfly, she swam a time of 1:06.78 in the heats, and was eliminated from the next rounds for which only the top 16 women qualified.


title: Yusra Mardini

text: After having been granted political asylum in Germany, Yusra's sister Sarah Mardini returned to the island of Lesbos in autumn 2016. She joined a Greek non-governmental organization supporting refugees like herself as a lifeguard and human rights activist. On 17 February 2018, Sarah Mardini and Seán Binder, a trained rescue diver and volunteer for the same NGO, were accused of being members of a criminal organization, human trafficking, money laundering and fraud by Greek authorities. After more than three months of pre-trial detention, they were released on bail and could leave Greece for Berlin. On the first hearing in November 2021, the Greek court in Lesbos adjourned the proceedings and referred the case to a higher court.


title: Yusra Mardini

text: Mardini's story is told in the short story collection "Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls", by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo. The story is illustrated by JM Cooper, and when the story was released as a podcast episode it was narrated by American journalist and long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad. Further, Irish musician Declan O'Rourke penned the song "Olympian" to recall Yusra's story.


title: Yusra Mardini

text: On 3 May 2018, her autobiography "Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian - My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph" was published. In November 2022, a biographical film, inspired by Mardini's life and titled "The Swimmers," was theatrically released and distributed on Netflix later the same month. The film stars Manal Issa, Nathalie Issa, Ahmed Malek.


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga () is an Indian fantasy television series based on the "Arabian Nights" character Aladdin. The series premiered on 21 August 2018 on Sony SAB. The series involves Aladdin, a kind-hearted thief, as he falls in love with Princess Yasmine, befriends a wish-granting Genie of the Lamp, and battles Zafar and later the evil enchantress Mallika, and again with Sultan Aiyyar Zafar after his rebirth.


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: Mallika, an evil enchantress, tries to take over the world, but her servant Hassan betrays her and turns her into a stone statue. Before becoming a statue, Mallika turns Hassan into a genie and captures him in a lamp (chiraag).


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: Five hundred years later, Aladdin is born in Baghdad as the only son of ruksaar and omar, the once royal guard of Baghdad, now regarded as a traitor. Though a thief, young Aladdin is a kind-hearted, funny, brave, courageous, and hopelessly romantic poet. His biggest dream is to meet Princess Yasmine of Baghdad, with whom he fell in love at first sight (when he was seven years old). He brings a magical lamp in exchange for ten thousand gold coins for the wazir of Baghdad, Zafar but gets confined in a cave. He rubs the lamp and becomes the master of the Genie of the Lamp (Hassan), (also called Chiraag ka jinn) . He names him Ginu.


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: Zafar tries to steal the lamp from Aladdin but fails. Aladdin strolls freely in Baghdad's streets. Princess Yasmine is forbidden to roam in Baghdad by her mother, Queen Mallika. Still, Yasmine disguises herself, wandering around Baghdad in common clothes to address the citizens' welfare. Aladdin and Yasmine often bump into each other. Yasmine dislikes that Aladdin (Kalachor) only likes (Shehzaadi) Yasmine because of her title. As such, she introduces herself as Sana. Initially, they do not get along. Over time, they become friends and fall in love.


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: Zafar finds Anguthi ka Jinn (Genie of Ring) in Misr. He captures Ginu, turns him into evil, and erases all of his memories of Aladdin with the help of Anguthi ke Jinn. He kills Sultan, i.e., Yasmine's father, frames Aladdin for the murder, and betrays Genie of the Ring by taking away all his powers. A heartbroken Yasmine reveals her truth to a shocked and perplexed Aladdin and orders them to bury him alive in a short square closed room without any opening and sand-filled in it. Everyone scorns Rukhsaar as earlier her husband, and now her son, both are termed as traitors.


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: One year later, Aladdin is still alive, living in Misr (Egypt). His father Omar and Bulbul Chacha saved him. In the process, Omar was killed. Aladdin finds Anguthi ka Jinn (whom he calls Anguthi Chaap)(Genie of the Ring) and discovers Zafar's crimes. Aladdin vows to seek revenge. The duo finds two more genies – an uncle and a niece duo, Genie Meanie (Genie of the Bottle) and Chand Changezi (who is called ChaCha) (Genie of the Pendant).


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: They take up the names Ali (Aladdin), a merchant from Ankara, his siblings Sara (Genie Meanie), Chand Changezi (ChaCha), and their servant Jhumru (Anguthi Chaap) to foil Zafar's evil intentions. Gulbadan (Aladdin's cousin) recognizes Aladdin's innocence and decides to help him. He first disguises himself as Aladdin ki rooh (Aladdin's ghost) and captures his innocence in Anguthi Chaap's ring. The plan fails when Ginu's magic changes the entire recording and Aladdin couldn't prove his innocence. Later, Yasmine finds out about Aladdin's innocence and breaks down out of guilt. Soon she realizes Ali is Aladdin disguised and confesses her love to him. Aladdin reciprocates her love. Together, they turn Ginu back to his good form, and Aladdin is reunited with his mother.


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: Zafar intends to reach Mallika, the evil enchantress, with the Sonminar's help. He wants to rule the entire world, but Aladdin stops him. Zafar, with the help of his sister, Zeher, finds out Ali and Ginu's truth. Aladdin and his group consisted of Yasmine, Rukhsaar, Gulbadan, Ginu, Anguthi Chaap, Genie Meanie, and Chand Changezi (the Toli), bring Zafar's offenses in front of Baghdad. Zafar dies, and Zeher escapes from Baghdad. Before his death, Zafar revived Mallika with the help of Magical Mercury (Jaadui Para). Aladdin and his companions buried Zafar's body.


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: On the occasion of Jashn-e-Dilbar, Aladdin proposes marriage to Yasmine, and they plan their engagement. A disguised Mallika arrives and plans for destruction by using Shaitaan ka Khanjar (Dagger of the Devil). She turns Aladdin's mother into a genie with a bracelet and persuades Aladdin to bring the three parts of the Shaitaan ka Khanjar. In a fight with Zafar's sister Zeher, Aladdin unknowingly opens a prison from which a lookalike of Zafar comes out and helps Aladdin. He introduces himself as Faraz, Zafar and Zeher's younger brother, who was imprisoned by the brother-sister duo for about 10 years. Together they collect all three parts of Shaitaan ka Khanjar by which Aladdin kills Mallika, and his mother is brought back to human form.


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: Faraz is revealed to be Zafar, who returned to take revenge on Aladdin and Zeher, killing the real Faraz. Using the khanjar, which is now very powerful because of Mallika's blood, Zafar becomes Aiyyar Zafar (Devil's true friend). Aladdin and Yasmine decide to go to Hell to save Omar, now an angel from punishment because he had given Aladdin a piece of the khanjar. After they reach Hell, they give the Lal Sanduk (Red Box) to Zafar, which he wants, and in return, he frees Omar from punishment. Aladdin tells Omar that the real Lal Sanduk is with them, not with Zafar. Omar sends the real Sanduk to a safer place. Omar, knowing Aladdin and Yasmine can bring the Sanduk, pushes them into lava, killing them, so the Sanduk cannot be brought back. Then he jumps into the lava to punish himself. Zafar uses a spell that erases Aladdin and Yasmine's memories from the minds of Baghdad's citizens, and he becomes the Sultan. He traps Ginu in his lamp, throws him away, and makes Anguthi Chaap his servant. Chacha and Geanie Meanie die in the world of Genie. Aladdin and Yasmine are reborn in Turkistan.


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: 18-years-later, Aladdin is shown as the spoilt, lazy prince of Turkistan and Yasmine as a kind-hearted, ordinary thief. After Aladdin manages to catch her, they are banished from Turkistan and reach Baghdad after finding Ginu (Anguthi Chaap guides them.) They start taking lessons from Rukhsaar, the principal of Baghdad's school (Badi Ustaad). All four have no memory of their past life. Gradually, Aladdin regains his memory of his previous life.


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: Aladdin tricks Zafar to make him reveal where he has kept the memories and makes Zafar turn against Zeher. As time passes, Aladdin falls for Yasmine and always speaks about her, for which Ginu and Anguthi Chaap tease him. Aladdin is shocked that Yasmine was the Sultana of Baghdad. When he saves her, he realizes Yasmine is his one true love.


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: Aladdin tells Yasmine about Zafar and his wicked plans. He brings Zarina, a scorpion, to finish Zafar's powers and restore Baghdad's citizens' memories once and for all. Zarina stings Zafar, and all the memories he had taken away are restored while she gets killed. Aladdin is reunited with his mother Rukhsaar, his brothers Anguthi Chaap and Ginu, and his love Yasmine. After many hurdles, Zafar and Zeher are captured and jailed. Yasmine is proclaimed Sultana-e-Baghdad while Zafar and Zeher plot against Rukhsaar. Zafar and Zeher manage to escape. Later, Yasmine confesses her love to Aladdin, and both get engaged. Zafar performs a ritual and tells them a meteoroid will soon crash on Earth, and the Black Lamp (Kala Chiraag), which is present in the Lal Sanduk, can only stop that. Aladdin, Yasmine, and Zafar travel to Marakkesh to get the lamp. After a series of incidents, Zafar takes over the Black Lamp (Kala Chiraag) and its genie and becomes the master of the Black Genie (Kala Jinn). On the other side, Zeher makes Anguthi Chaap her slave, but he sacrifices himself.


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: Anguthi Chaap, before his death, tells Rukhsaar that Zafar can't be killed. He locked his soul in a locket hidden in Hell. Anguthi Chaap helps her to get there, and Rukhsaar gets the locket. She goes to Marakkesh to kill Zafar. Rukhsaar frees the soul from the locket, and Aladdin kills him. The Black Genie gets captured in his lamp again. He vows to escape to take revenge for his Master's death. Everything in Baghdad is well, and Aladdin and Yasmine get married. Anguthi Chaap's soul happily looks over them. But someone releases the Black Genie, and Ginu senses danger. The series ends with Aladdin and Yasmine ready to fight the evils of the world once again.


title: Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga

text: "Aladdin – Naam Toh Suna Hoga" did a Crossover with the series "Baalveer Returns" for 5 episodes from 27 January 2020 to 31 January 2020.


title: Spencer House, London

text: Spencer House is a historic mansion located at 27 St James's Place in the St James's area of London, England. The house is Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England.


title: Spencer House, London

text: The house was commissioned in 1756 by John Spencer (who later became the first Earl Spencer), as he required a large townhouse in London to augment his position and status. The architect he chose was John Vardy, who had studied under William Kent. Vardy is responsible for the facades of the mansion that we see today.


title: Spencer House, London

text: In 1758, James "Athenian" Stuart, who had studied the arcadian values of Ancient Greek architecture, replaced Vardy as the architect of the project. As a direct result of this, Spencer House was to have authentic Greek details in the internal decoration, and thus it became one of the first examples in London of the neoclassical style, which was to sweep the country.


title: Spencer House, London

text: As the home of successive Earls and Countesses Spencer, the staterooms of the house became a theatre for the pageant that was London high society. Members of the Spencer family occupied the mansion continuously until 1895, when the house was let out. The Spencers returned for a brief time during the first quarter of the 20th century, after which the house was let at various times as either a club or offices. During the Blitz of the Second World War, it was stripped of its few remaining authentic treasures, specially made furniture, and fireplaces.


title: Spencer House, London

text: Spencer House remains in the ownership of the Earls Spencer, the current freeholder being Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, brother of Diana, Princess of Wales. However, since the Second World War, the house has been continuously let out. In 1948 it was leased to Christie's auctioneers, in 1956 to the British Oxygen Company, and in 1963 to the Economist Intelligence Unit.


title: Spencer House, London

text: On the 25th December 1986, RIT Capital Partners, the family company of Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, secured a 96-year lease (with an additional 24-year option) with an annual rent of £85,000.


title: Spencer House, London

text: In a restoration, the state rooms and garden were returned to their original appearance. The lease of Spencer House was valued at £35 million in the 2017 annual report of RIT Capital Partners.


title: Spencer House, London

text: Together with Lancaster House, Bridgewater House, Dudley House and Apsley House, Spencer House is one of the last of the many aristocratic townhouses which once adorned central London.


title: Garrison

text: A garrison (from the French "garnison", itself from the verb "garnir", "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters.


title: Garrison

text: A garrison is usually in a city, town, fort, castle, ship, or similar site. "Garrison town" is a common expression for any town that has a military base nearby.


title: Garrison

text: "Garrison towns" () were used during the Arab Islamic conquests of Middle Eastern lands by Arab-Muslim armies to increase their dominance over indigenous populations. In order to occupy non-Arab, non-Islamic areas, nomadic Arab tribesmen were taken from the desert by the ruling Arab elite, conscripted into Islamic armies, and settled into garrison towns as well as given a share in the spoils of war. The primary utility of the Arab-Islamic garrisons was to control the indigenous non-Arab peoples of these conquered and occupied territories, and to serve as garrison bases to launch further Islamic military campaigns into yet-undominated lands. A secondary aspect of the Arab-Islamic garrisons was the uprooting of the aforementioned nomadic Arab tribesmen from their original home regions in the Arabian Peninsula in order to proactively avert these tribal peoples, and particularly their young men, from revolting against the Islamic state established in their midst.


title: Garrison

text: In the United Kingdom, "Garrison" also specifically refers to any of the major military stations such as Aldershot, Catterick, Colchester, Tidworth, Bulford, and London, which have more than one barracks or camp and their own military headquarters, usually commanded by a colonel, brigadier or major-general, assisted by a garrison sergeant major. In Ireland, Association football (as distinct from Gaelic football) has historically been termed the "garrison game" or the "garrison sport" for its connections with British military serving in Irish cities and towns.


title: Marvin Gaye discography

text: American music artist Marvin Gaye released 25 studio albums, four live albums, one soundtrack album, 24 compilation albums, and 83 singles. In 1961 Gaye signed a recording contract with Tamla Records, owned by Motown. The first release under the label was "The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye". Gaye's first album to chart was a duet album with Mary Wells titled "Together", peaking at number forty-two on the "Billboard" pop album chart. His 1965 album, "Moods of Marvin Gaye", became his first album to reach the top ten of the R&B album charts and spawned four hit singles. Gaye recorded more than thirty hit singles for Motown throughout the 1960s, becoming established as "the Prince of Motown". Gaye topped the charts in 1968 with his rendition of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", while his 1969 album, "M.P.G.", became his first number one R&B album. Gaye's landmark album, 1971's "What's Going On" became the first album by a solo artist to launch three top ten singles, including the title track. His 1973 single, "Let's Get It On", topped the charts while its subsequent album reached number two on the charts becoming his most successful Motown album to date. In 1982, after 21 years with Motown, Gaye signed with Columbia Records and issued "Midnight Love", which included his most successful single to date, "Sexual Healing". Following his death in 1984, three albums were released posthumously while some of Gaye's landmark works were re-issued.


title: Marvin Gaye discography

text: Gaye recorded sixty seven charted singles on the "Billboard" charts, with forty-one reaching the top forty, eighteen reaching the top ten and three peaking at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Sixty of his singles reached the top forty of the R&B charts, with thirty-eight of those reaching the top ten and thirteen peaking at number one. Gaye also had success in international charts, his biggest success in sales and chart positions peaking in the UK while achieving modest success in other countries.


title: Marvin Gaye discography

text: There has been over 300 official and unofficial compilation albums released across the world for Marvin Gaye. Below is a selected discography of compilation albums with chart history.


title: Thomas Cook

text: Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) was an English businessman. He is best known for founding the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son. He was also one of the initial developers of the "package tour" including travel, accommodations, and the like.


title: Thomas Cook

text: Thomas Cook was born on 22 November 1808, to John and Elizabeth Cook, who lived at 9 Quick Close in the village of Melbourne, Derbyshire. At the age of 10, Cook started working as an assistant to a local market gardener on Lord Melbourne's estate. In 1828, he became a Baptist missionary and toured the region as a village evangelist and distributing pamphlets and, in the 1830s, he became involved in the temperance movement.


title: Thomas Cook

text: On 2 March 1833, Cook married Marianne Mason (1807–1884) at the parish church in Barrowden in Rutland. A son, John Mason Cook, was born on 13 January 1834. A daughter, Annie Elizabeth, born on 21 June 1845, died in a bath aged 35 after inhaling poisonous fumes from a faulty water heater.


title: Thomas Cook

text: With the opening of the extended Midland Counties Railway, he arranged to take a group of temperance campaigners from Leicester Campbell Street railway station to a teetotal rally in Loughborough, eleven miles away. On 5 July 1841, Thomas Cook escorted around 485 people, who paid one shilling each for the return train journey, on his first excursion. This is sometimes reported as the world's first railway excursion; however this is incorrect as Grosmont church (Whitby) had already organised an excursion as a fund raiser in 1839.


title: Thomas Cook

text: On 4 August 1845 he arranged for a party to travel from Leicester to Liverpool. In 1846, he took 350 people from Leicester on a tour of Scotland. In 1851 he arranged for 150,000 people to travel to the Great Exhibition in London. Four years later, he planned his first excursion abroad, when he took two groups on a 'grand circular tour' of Belgium, Germany and France, ending in Paris for the Exhibition.


title: Thomas Cook

text: The Thomas Cook statue outside Leicester Railway Station, London Road, Leicester was unveiled on 14 January 1994 by his great-great-grandson Thomas Cook. It was sculpted by James Butler RA.


title: Thomas Cook

text: Thomas Cook acquired business premises on Fleet Street, London in 1865. The office also contained a shop which sold essential travel accessories, including guide books, luggage, telescopes and footwear. In 1872, he formed a partnership with his son, John Mason Andrew Cook, and renamed the travel agency as "Thomas Cook & Son".


title: Thomas Cook

text: In accordance with his beliefs, he and his wife also ran a small temperance hotel above the office. Their business model was refined by the introduction of the 'hotel coupon' in 1868. Detachable coupons in a counterfoil book were issued to the traveller. These were valid for either a restaurant meal or an overnight hotel stay provided they were on Cook's list.


title: Thomas Cook

text: Conflicts between father and son were resolved when the son persuaded his father, Thomas Cook, to retire at the end of 1878. Thomas Cook moved back at Thorncroft, Knighton, Leicester, where he died on 18 July 1892, having been afflicted with blindness in his declining years. He was buried there on 22 July 1892.


title: Thomas Cook

text: Thomas Cook was a frontrunner of establishing tourism systems and thus made mass tourism possible in Italy. First, the circular tickets could be used on almost all Italian railways. These tickets allowed travel by train for a preset number of days along predetermined routes. Second, Cook designed a series of hotel coupons to complement circular tickets, which could be exchanged for lodging and meals at designated accommodations. Last, he introduced the circular notes which could be changed at designated hotels, banks, and tickets agents for Italian lira at a predetermined exchange rate. Cook's introduction of tourism-specific currency facilitated easier and effective trips within Italy. Also, by introducing a widely dispersed coupon system, Cook "helped to stabilize the burgeoning Italian economy not only by increasing the revenues from tourism but also by expanding the circulation of Italy's new currency, the lira." The coupon system spread rapidly and was well accepted throughout Italian cities. Furthermore, thanks to this system, middle class Italians could afford to travel more frequently and more easily.


title: Roberta Williams

text: Roberta Lynn Williams (; born February 16, 1953) is an American video game designer and writer, who co-founded Sierra On-Line with her husband, game developer Ken Williams. In 1980, her first game, "Mystery House", became a modest commercial success; it is credited as the first graphic adventure game. She is also known for creating and maintaining the "King's Quest" series, as well as designing the full motion video game "Phantasmagoria" in 1995.


title: Roberta Williams

text: Sierra was acquired by CUC International in 1996, leading to layoffs and management changes. Williams took a brief sabbatical, and returned to the company in a game design role, but grew increasingly frustrated with CUC's creative and business decisions. After the release of "" in 1998, she left the game industry in 1999 and focused her retirement on traveling and writing historical fiction. In 2021 she released her historical novel, "Farewell to Tara". Soon after, she announced her return to game development, intending to create a 3D remake of the classic adventure game "Colossal Cave Adventure".


title: Roberta Williams

text: Several publications have named Roberta Williams as one of the best or most influential creators in the video game industry, for co-founding Sierra, pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, and creating the "King's Quest" series. Several publications have called her the "Queen of adventure games". She has received the Industry Icon Award from The Game Awards, and the Pioneer Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards.


title: Roberta Williams

text: Born in Los Angeles, Roberta Heuer grew up in rural Southern California as the daughter of an agricultural inspector. A shy child with a vivid imagination, she often created fairy-tale adventure stories to entertain her family. She would lie in bed and imagine fantastical situations, which she sometimes described as her "movies". She met her future husband Ken Williams when they were both teenagers, and the two began dating. After high school she became a clerk at the Los Angeles County Welfare Department, in part thanks to her father's connections working in local government. In late 1972 Roberta married Ken just a few days after his eighteenth birthday, and gave birth to their first son in November 1973. The couple briefly moved to Illinois, where she was employed as a computer operator, soon moving back to Los Angeles where she took a job at Lawry's Foods as a computer programmer working in COBOL.


title: Roberta Williams

text: By 1979 the couple had two children. Ken was employed as a computer programmer and consultant, working on large IBM mainframe machines. They wanted to leave Los Angeles to fulfill their dream of living in the woods. As Ken brainstormed ideas for a technology business that could become viable outside of a major city, Roberta purchased an AppleII computer for the family, which strained their expenses. Roberta's love of computers grew as she played several text adventure games.


title: Roberta Williams

text: Around 1979, Roberta Williams was an avid player of text adventures on her teletype machine, particularly as a fan of "Colossal Cave Adventure". She was inspired to speak to her husband Ken Williams about her vision for what a video game could be, drawing influence from Agatha Christie's story "And Then There Were None", and the board game "Clue". Roberta convinced Ken to provide the technical knowledge to program the game, while she contributed her experience with fiction and storytelling. Roberta drew the pictures using her Apple II and a Versawriter, a graphics tablet that could be used to hand-trace a piece of paper and input the image into a computer. Since no programs existed to read the Versawriter image, Ken had to write one, eventually compressing nearly seventy images onto a disk.


title: Roberta Williams

text: The result was "Mystery House", an adventure game with black and white graphics for the Apple II computer. Released in 1980, the game was distributed by mail order, advertised in computer magazines under the name of Ken's consulting company, On-Line Systems. The game soon sold ten thousand copies, with Roberta personally packing the disks and supporting materials in Ziploc bags, and answering her home phone to provide hints for the game's puzzles. Ken began to personally distribute copies of the game to computer stores. He quit his consulting job, with hopes that it would allow the couple to eventually move out of the city.


title: Roberta Williams

text: They released the "Wizard and the Princess" later that year, improving on their previous title with color graphics and dithering. The game sold 60,000 copies, leading them to hire more employees for distribution and programming. Encouraged by the success of their first two games, On-Line Systems switched its focus from consulting to game development. Roberta's ambitions grew with the design of "Time Zone", a time-travelling game spanning thousands of years, which was released on twelve disks in 1982. Around this time, Roberta's parents retired and moved to Oakhurst, California, and she hoped to move close by. With their company expanding, the couple was finally able to move On-Line Systems from Simi Valley, California to Coarsegold. They also changed their company name to Sierra On-Line, based on its location near the Sierra Nevada mountains.


title: Roberta Williams

text: After just two years Sierra had grown to nearly a hundred employees with $10million in revenue. Sierra's success started to attract investors, including venture capitalists. Around this time, Jim Henson approached Ken Williams to create a game adaptation of "The Dark Crystal", before the film's release. Roberta was excited by the project, believing video games to be a facet of entertainment as much as film. She designed much of the game adaptation on paper; it was finalized and released in 1983. The high-profile game caused the company to attract mainstream media attention, and Roberta hoped that the entertainment industry would not just recognize the value of games, but also the value of the artists who created them.


title: Roberta Williams

text: By 1983 Sierra's new investors pushed the company to diversify into video game cartridges for platforms such as the Atari. The video game industry soon experienced a crash, and Sierra's board of directors began to push a merger with Spinnaker Software, an educational software company. When Spinnaker presented their proposal to the Sierra board, Roberta proclaimed, "These guys are a joke. No one in the industry respects them. Can't we talk about something productive?" Although Ken Williams was amenable to the deal, Roberta strongly opposed it, and the merger did not proceed. Sierra was forced to downsize to 30 employees, and the Williams family mortgaged their home to pay their remaining employees.


title: Roberta Williams

text: Sierra had cultivated a strong relationship with IBM as the IBM PC was being developed, and "Wizard and the Princess" was one of the first games released for the computer under the title "Adventure in Serenia". Around the time of Sierra's financial difficulties, IBM offered to invest in the struggling company, with hopes of creating a game that could showcase the technical capabilities of their upcoming IBM PCjr. Roberta had wanted to build on her experience with "The Wizard and the Princess" with a fully animated adventure game, in a pseudo-3D world. This led to the 1984 release of "King's Quest", conceived as a blend of common fairy tales that could be directly experienced as a game. Although the PCjr was considered a failure, "King's Quest" was ported to many other platforms and quickly rose to bestseller status. The game was considered revolutionary for its pseudo-3D elements, becoming the first adventure game to allow the player character to move in front of, behind, or over other objects on the screen. It was also the first computer game to support the 16-color EGA standard, setting a new standard for future graphic adventure games.


title: Roberta Williams

text: Meanwhile, Roberta continued her role as designer of the "King's Quest" series, which earned a reputation for its unique style of storytelling, as well as its increasingly advanced graphics and technology. The 1986 release of "King's Quest III: To Heir is Human" was larger and longer than previous games in the series, and earned a ranking on Time's list of 50 Best Video Games of All Time. When "King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella" was released in 1988, it was one of the first games to receive sound card support, and one of the first adventure games to support a mouse. It was also one of the first games to feature a female protagonist, a creative decision that Williams seeded by introducing the character in the previous game. Some of her peers cautioned that this might deter men from playing the game, but it was even more commercially successful than previous installments. A post-release survey revealed that most men did not mind playing as a female protagonist, whereas many female players preferred the experience. Sierra received registration cards for the game with a near 40% female audience, leading journalists to credit Williams with expanding the player base for personal computer games. "King's Quest IV" has been considered one of the most influential video games of all time, impacting the design of games such as "Maniac Mansion" and other LucasArts adventure games.


title: Roberta Williams

text: Williams continued to design other titles, such as the educational title "Mixed-Up Mother Goose". The game went on to sell more than 500,000 copies, and the CD-ROM version earned the Software Publishers Association Excellence in Software Award for Best Early Education Program. In 1989 Williams released another mystery adventure game called "The Colonel's Bequest", which iterated on ideas from her original "Mystery House" game with more detailed graphics and improved text parsing. The game was still rare for featuring a female protagonist, and deviated from the traditional adventure game formula to become more of an interactive mystery, putting more onus on the player to discover the plot. The 1990 release of "King's Quest V" became the first game to use an icon-based interface, continuing the series' innovations in game design. The game was critically acclaimed, winning several awards upon release, with "Computer Gaming World" including it in their 1996 list of greatest games of all time.


title: Roberta Williams

text: By the early 1990s Sierra was a publicly traded company, generating $100million per year in revenue. The company released "The Dagger of Amon Ra" in 1991, a sequel to "The Colonel's Bequest" based on characters and concepts created by Williams. Meanwhile, Williams worked with Jane Jensen to design "King's Quest VI." Released in 1992, it was recognized by several publications as one of the best adventure games, if not one of the best games overall. By the mid 1990s, Williams was considered the company's most popular game designer, particularly for her success with the "King's Quest" series. The saga is still remembered as the only video game series created and maintained by a female designer.


title: Roberta Williams

text: Williams branched out from her work on "King's Quest" by designing "Phantasmagoria", a realistic horror adventure game. As a long time fan of the novels of Stephen King, she had often contemplated whether it was possible to create a terrifying video game. Because she believed it would be difficult to make a truly frightening game without live actors, the game was created entirely in full-motion video. The production ultimately cost $4million, with a team of nearly two hundred people and a script of more than five hundred pages. Designed as a mature title for adults, The game was marketed as an interactive film, and published on seven CD-ROMs. Although "Phantasmagoria" received a mixed critical reception, it was one of the most commercially successful adventure games and Sierra's bestselling game, selling more than a million copies upon its release in 1995. Williams recalls the game as her favorite achievement.


title: Roberta Williams

text: In 1996 Sierra was sold to CUC International for more than a billion dollars in stock. Roberta had opposed the deal, and several other high-ranking Sierra employees had felt there was something suspicious about CUC's financials. Roberta ultimately acquiesced, recognizing that the terms of the deal were too favorable to refuse, and that she could be sued by their shareholders if she failed to maximize their value. The company's management and decision-making dramatically changed under CUC, leading Ken Williams to leave his role at Sierra and work directly for their new parent company. The CUC restructuring also led to lay-offs. Roberta Williams took a sabbatical from the game industry, as the company released "The Roberta Williams Anthology", a compilation of 14 games.


title: Roberta Williams

text: Roberta Williams returned to game development in early 1997 to work on "". She hoped to re-introduce some interactivity absent in "Phantasmagoria", and to embrace the advances in 3D graphics technology. Sierra had changed significantly as a company, and its new management insisted on adding elements from popular role-playing games such as "Diablo", while straying from the game's traditional adventure elements. When she removed certain role-playing elements, the team would re-add them, leading to a power struggle with management. Roberta's frustrations with her lack of control were coupled with suspicions of CUC, after allegations of financial fraud had surfaced about the company. Worried about the company's future, she talked to Ken about selling their stock. The couple soon divested from the company, Ken resigning at the end of 1997, and Roberta staying to finish "Mask of Eternity". Released in 1998, the game was considered a commercial and critical disappointment, leading to further layoffs, and the sale of Sierra to Vivendi. That year, CUC was convicted of financial fraud, having exaggerated their revenues by more than half a billion dollars (equivalent to $million in ). The decline of Sierra had an emotional impact on Roberta, who left the company in 1999. By the 2000s, Sierra's assets were held by Activision Blizzard, after a merger between Activision and Vivendi.


title: Roberta Williams

text: After the release of "King's Quest: Mask of Eternity", Roberta Williams described herself as taking a sabbatical from the game industry in 1999. In actuality, both she and Ken had signed a non-compete clause with CUC that prevented them from working in the game industry for five years. According to Ken, "By the time the five years were up, we had moved on to other ventures," thus ending Roberta's career in the game industry after 18 years and 20 games. At that time, she stayed away from the public eye and rarely spoke to the press. In a rare 2006 interview she said her greatest achievement was creating "Phantasmagoria", though she expressed her love of the "King's Quest" series for its influence on her early career. Williams said that her role as a game designer was in the past, and that she was focused on writing a historical novel. She has also focused on travel, becoming an avid sailor with her husband.


title: Roberta Williams

text: In 2011 the video game website Gamezebo reported that she had returned from her sabbatical as a design consultant on the social network game "Odd Manor", for Facebook. By 2012, Replay Games had recruited Sierra veterans Al Lowe and Paul Trowe to return to the "Leisure Suit Larry" adventure game series, which led Trowe to try to persuade the Williamses to return to the game industry. Activision hired Telltale Games to develop a new entry in the "King's Quest" series. Williams declined to work on the game, but did offer some advice. The game was later canceled in 2013. Activision attempted to revive the Sierra brand in 2014, leading developer The Odd Gentlemen to create "King's Quest: A Knight to Remember". According to the studio, they consulted with Roberta Williams "to make a game like they would make if they had continued making adventure games".


title: Roberta Williams

text: In 2019 Vancouver Film School announced The Roberta Williams Women in Game Design Scholarship, in partnership with game studios The Coalition and Blackbird Interactive. In 2021, Williams self-published her first novel "Farewell to Tara", set in mid-1800s Ireland during the time of the Great Famine.


title: Roberta Williams

text: Roberta and Ken announced plans to return to game development in June 2021, in collaboration with artist Marcus Maximus Mera. In an interview that same year, she expressed caution that a veteran game designer could successfully return to the industry after an extended break, saying there are merits to ending one's career at its peak. In 2022 the team revealed that their new studio Cygnus Entertainment was creating a remake of "Colossal Cave Adventure" titled "Colossal Cave 3D Adventure". Roberta explained that this pioneering game from the 1970s had inspired her career, and she was excited to re-imagine it as an interactive 3D experience.


title: Roberta Williams

text: In 1995 "Next Generation" included Roberta Williams among their list of 75 power players in the game industry. "Computer Gaming World" also ranked her as tenth on their 1997 list of the most influential people in computer gaming, praising her impact on the design of adventure games. GameSpot likewise ranked her number ten on their 1999 list of "the most influential people in computer gaming of all time" for "pushing the envelope of graphic adventures" and being "especially proactive in creating games from a woman's point of view and titles that appealed to the mainstream market, all the while integrating the latest technologies in graphics and sound wherever possible". In 2009 "IGN" included both her and Ken in the 23rd position on the list of top game creators of all time, highlighting their role in co-founding Sierra as "the company behind some of the best and most well known adventure games of the '80s and '90s".


title: Roberta Williams

text: "Computer Gaming World" inducted Roberta Williams into their Hall of Fame in 2011. Both Roberta and Ken were given an Industry Icon Award at The Game Awards in 2014. She also earned the Pioneer Award at the 20th Game Developers Choice Awards in March 2020, for her influential work in the graphical adventure game genre with "Mystery House", as well as her role in creating the "King's Quest" series and co-founding Sierra.


title: Roberta Williams

text: Ken Williams has described her as a perfectionist, "extremely smart, intuitive and usually right. She can't be managed." "Ars Technica" has called her "one of the more iconic figures in adventure gaming", noting her as one of the first well-known female game designers, and praising her writing and design work on "Phantasmagoria" and the "King's Quest" series. The Smithsonian Magazine has noted her as a pioneer of graphic adventure games, for creating the first home computer game to include graphics. Several publications have referred to her as "the Queen of adventure games".