title: Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

text: Thereafter, Alfonso VIII's grandson Ferdinand III of Castile took Córdoba in 1236, Jaén in 1246, and Seville in 1248; then he took Arcos, Medina-Sidonia, Jerez, and Cádiz. In 1252, Ferdinand was preparing his fleet and army for invasion of the Almohad lands in Africa. But he died in Seville on 30 May 1252, during an outbreak of plague in southern Hispania.


title: Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

text: Only Ferdinand's death prevented the Castilians from taking the war to the Almohad on the Mediterranean coast, James I of Aragon conquered the Balearic Islands (from 1228 over the following four years) and Valencia (the city capitulated on 28 September 1238).


title: Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

text: By 1252 the Almohad empire was almost finished, at the mercy of another emerging Berber power. In 1269 a new association of Berber tribes, the Marinids, took control of Morocco. Later, the Marinids tried to recover the former Almohad territories in Iberia, but they were definitively defeated by Alfonso XI of Castile and Afonso IV of Portugal in the Battle of Río Salado, the last major military encounter between large Christian and Muslim armies in Hispania. So, the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa seems to have been a true turning point in the history of the region, including the western Mediterranean sea.


title: Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

text: In 1292 Sancho IV took Tarifa, key to the control of the Strait of Gibraltar. Granada, Almería, and Málaga were the only major Muslim cities remaining in the Iberian peninsula. These three cities were the core of the Emirate of Granada, ruled by the Nasrid dynasty. Granada was a vassal state of Castile, until finally taken by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492.


title: Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

text: Harry Harrison's 1972 alternate history/science fiction novel "Tunnel Through the Deeps" depicts a history where the Moors won at Las Navas de Tolosa and retained part of Spain into the 20th century.


title: Rick Ducommun

text: Richard Ducommun (July 3, 1952 – June 12, 2015) was a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, writer and producer.


title: Rick Ducommun

text: One of his earliest television appearances was on "Star Search" and as a technician accosted by a scantily-clad dancer near the end of the music video for O'Bryan's song "Lovelite", both in 1984. He finished second in the comedy category behind Brad Garrett.


title: Rick Ducommun

text: His credits include Bart (half of Biff and Bart) in the Canadian children's TV series "Zig Zag", Rick Dukeman in the music video show "Rock 'N' America", Tom Hanks' neighbor Art Weingartner in "The 'Burbs" (1989), the villainous monster "Snik" in the Fred Savage fantasy "Little Monsters" (1989), a barfly in the Bill Murray comedy "Groundhog Day" (1993), and Henry the chauffeur in "Blank Check" (1994).


title: Rick Ducommun

text: Ducommun acted in other films, such as "No Small Affair" (1984), "A Fine Mess" (1986), "Spaceballs" (1987), "Die Hard" (1988), "The Experts" (1989), "The Hunt for Red October" (1990), "" (1990), "The Last Boy Scout" (1991), "Class Act" (1992), "Encino Man" (1992), "Last Action Hero" (1993), "Jury Duty" (1995), "Scary Movie" (2000) and "" (2000).


title: Yoshua Bengio

text: Yoshua Bengio (born March 5, 1964) is a Canadian computer scientist, most noted for his work on artificial neural networks and deep learning. He is a professor at the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at the Université de Montréal and scientific director of the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA).


title: Yoshua Bengio

text: Bengio received the 2018 ACM A.M. Turing Award, together with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun, for their work in deep learning. Bengio, Hinton, and LeCun, are sometimes referred to as the "Godfathers of AI" and "Godfathers of Deep Learning".


title: Yoshua Bengio

text: Bengio was born in France to a Jewish family who immigrated to France from Morocco, and then immigrated again to Canada. He received his BScience (electrical engineering), MEng (computer science) and PhD (computer science) from McGill University.


title: Yoshua Bengio

text: The Bengio brothers lived in Morocco for a year during their father's military service in Morocco. His father, Carlo Bengio, was a pharmacist who wrote theatre pieces and ran a Sephardic theatrical troupe in Montreal that played Judeo-Arabic pieces. His mother, Célia Moreno, is also an artist who played in one of the major theatre scenes of Morocco that was run by Tayeb Seddiki in the 1970s.


title: Yoshua Bengio

text: After his PhD, Bengio was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT (supervised by Michael I. Jordan) and AT&T Bell Labs. Bengio has been a faculty member at the Université de Montréal since 1993, heads the MILA (Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms) and is co-director of the Learning in Machines & Brains project of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.


title: Yoshua Bengio

text: Along with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun, Bengio is considered by Cade Metz as one of the three people most responsible for the advancement of deep learning during the 1990s and 2000s. Among the computer scientists with an h-index of at least 100, Bengio is the one with the most recent citations per day, according to MILA.


title: Yoshua Bengio

text: In October 2016, Bengio co-founded Element AI, a Montreal-based artificial intelligence incubator that turns AI research into real-world business applications. Having failed to develop marketable products and losing several partnerships, by 2020 the company was running out of money and options and announced its sale to American software company ServiceNow in November. The sale will see largely Canadian taxpayer funded intellectual property exported to the United States, contrary to Bengio's desire to found Element AI as a Canadian company to rival the world's tech giants. Bengio will stay employed as an advisor while the vast majority of employees were terminated with their stock options voided and cancelled with no value in lieu provided.


title: Yoshua Bengio

text: In May 2017, Bengio announced that he was joining Montreal-based legal tech startup Botler AI, as a strategy adviser. Bengio currently serves as scientific and technical advisor for Recursion Pharmaceuticals and scientific advisor for Valence Discovery.


title: Yoshua Bengio

text: In 2017, Bengio was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. The same year, he was nominated Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and received the Marie-Victorin Quebec Prize.


title: Yoshua Bengio

text: In 2020 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 2022 he received the Princess of Asturias Award in the category "Scientific Research" with his peers Yann LeCun, Geoffrey Hinton and Demis Hassabis.


title: Barrier troops

text: Barrier troops, blocking units, or anti-retreat forces are military units that are located in the rear or on the front line (behind the main forces) to maintain military discipline, prevent the flight of servicemen from the battlefield, capture spies, saboteurs and deserters, and return troops who flee from the battlefield or lag behind their units.


title: Barrier troops

text: According to research by Jason Lyall, barrier troops are more likely to be used by the militaries of states that discriminate against the ethnic groups that comprise the state's military.


title: Barrier troops

text: During the Battle of Nanking of the Second Sino-Japanese War, a battalion in the New 36th Division of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) was stationed at the Yijiang Gate with orders to guard the gate and "let no one through". On 12 December 1937, the NRA collapsed in the face of an offensive by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), and various units attempted to retreat without orders through the gate. The battalion responded by opening fire on the retreating NRA units, killing several people.


title: Barrier troops

text: In the Red Army of the RSFSR and the Soviet Union the concept of barrier troops first arose in August 1918 with the formation of the заградительные отряды ("zagraditelnye otriady"), translated as "blocking troops" or "anti-retreat detachments" (). The barrier troops comprised personnel drawn from Cheka punitive detachments or from regular Red Army infantry regiments.


title: Barrier troops

text: The first use of the barrier troops by the Red Army occurred in the late summer and fall of 1918 in the Eastern front during the Russian Civil War, when People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs (War Commissar) Leon Trotsky of the Communist Bolshevik government authorized Mikhail Tukhachevsky, the commander of the 1st Army, to station blocking detachments behind unreliable Red Army infantry regiments in the 1st Red Army, with orders to shoot if front-line troops either deserted or retreated without permission.


title: Barrier troops

text: In December 1918 Trotsky ordered that detachments of additional barrier troops be raised for attachment to each infantry formation in the Red Army. On December 18 he cabled: How do things stand with the blocking units? As far as I am aware they have not been included in our establishment and it appears they have no personnel. It is absolutely essential that we have at least an embryonic network of blocking units and that we work out a procedure for bringing them up to strength and deploying them. The barrier troops were also used to enforce Bolshevik control over food supplies in areas controlled by the Red Army, a role which soon earned them the hatred of the Russian civilian population.


title: Barrier troops

text: The concept was re-introduced on a large scale during the Second World War. On June 27, 1941, in response to reports of unit disintegration in battle and desertion from the ranks in the Soviet Red Army, the 3rd Department (military counterintelligence of Soviet Army) of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the Soviet Union (NKO) issued a directive establishing mobile barrier forces composed of NKVD personnel to operate on roads, railways, forests, etc. for the purpose of catching "deserters and suspicious persons".


title: Barrier troops

text: With the continued deterioration of the military situation in the face of the German offensive of 1941, NKVD detachments acquired a new mission: to prevent the unauthorized withdrawal of Red Army forces from the battle line. The first troops of this kind were formed in the Bryansk Front on September 5, 1941.


title: Barrier troops

text: On September 12, 1941 Joseph Stalin issued the Stavka Directive No. 1919 (Директива Ставки ВГК №001919) concerning the creation of barrier troops in rifle divisions of the Southwestern Front, to suppress panic retreats. Each Red Army division was to have an anti-retreat detachment equipped with transport totaling one company for each regiment. Their primary goal was to maintain strict military discipline and to prevent disintegration of the front line by any means. These barrier troops were usually formed from ordinary military units and placed under NKVD command.


title: Barrier troops

text: In 1942, after Stavka Directive No. 227 (Директива Ставки ВГК №227) issued on 28 July 1942, set up penal battalions, anti-retreat detachments were used to prevent withdrawal or desertion by penal units as well. Penal military unit personnel were always rearguarded by NKVD anti-retreat detachments, and not by regular Red Army infantry forces. As per Order No. 227, each Army should have had 3–5 barrier squads of up to 200 persons each.


title: Barrier troops

text: A report to the Commissar General of State Security (NKVD chief) Lavrentiy Beria on October 10, 1941, noted that since the beginning of the war, NKVD anti-retreat troops had detained a total of 657,364 retreating, spies, traitors, instigators and deserting personnel, of which 25,878 were arrested (of which 10,201 were sentenced to death by court martial and the rest were returned to active duty).


title: Barrier troops

text: At times, barrier troops were involved in battle operations along with regular soldiers, as noted by Aleksandr Vasilevsky in his directive N 157338 from October 1, 1942.


title: Barrier troops

text: Order No. 227 also stipulated the capture or shooting of "cowards" and fleeing panicked troops at the rear of the blocking detachments, who in the first three months shot 1,000 penal troops and sent 24,993 more to penal battalions. By October 1942 the idea of regular blocking detachments was quietly dropped, and on 29 October 1944 Stalin officially ordered the disbanding of the units.


title: Barrier troops

text: According to an official letter addressed in October 1941 to Lavrentiy Beria, in the period between the beginning of Operation Barbarossa to early December 1941, NKVD detachments had detained 657,364 servicemen who had fallen behind their lines and fled from the front. Of these detainees, 25,878 were arrested, and the remaining 632,486 were formed in units and sent back to the front. Among those arrested included accused 1505 spies, 308 saboteurs, 2621 traitors, 2643 "cowards and alarmists", 3987 distributors of "provocative rumors", and 4371 others. 10,201 of them were shot, meaning approximately 1.5% of those arrested were sentenced to death.


title: Barrier troops

text: For a thorough check of the Red Army soldiers who were in captivity or surrounded by the enemy, by the decision of the State Defense Committee No. 1069ss of December 27, 1941, army collection and forwarding points were established in each army and special camps of the NKVD were organized. In 1941–1942, 27 special camps were created, but in connection with the inspection and shipment of verified servicemen to the front, they were gradually eliminated (by the beginning of 1943, only 7 special camps were operating). According to official data, in 1942, 177,081 former prisoners of war and surrounding men entered special camps. After checking by special departments of the NKVD, 150,521 people were transferred to the Red Army.


title: Barrier troops

text: On October 29, 1944, Order No. 0349 of the People's Commissar for Defense I. V. Stalin, the barrage detachments were disbanded due to a significant change in the situation at the front. Personnel joined the rifle units.


title: Barrier troops

text: It has been reported that in the initial stages of the Syrian civil war, regular soldiers sent to subdue protesters were surrounded by an outer cordon manned by forces known to be loyal to the regime, with orders to shoot those who refused their orders or attempted to flee.


title: Barrier troops

text: According to Fedir Venislavsky, a member of the Ukrainian parliament's committee on national security and defence, the Russian Ground Forces used Chechen troops from the 141st Special Motorized Regiment during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine as barrier troops to shoot deserters who tried to leave combat zones. In October 2022, Ukrainian intelligence published a purported phone call where a Russian soldier described both his task of killing inmates recruited from prisons by the Wagner Group if they were retreating and how he would be killed by others if he himself retreated. In November, the British Ministry of Defence assessed that Russia was using blocking units.


title: Barrier troops

text: The 2001 film "Enemy at the Gates" shows Soviet Red Army commissars and barrier troops using a PM M1910 alongside their own small arms to gun down the few retreating survivors of a failed charge on a German position during the Battle of Stalingrad. The 2011 South Korean film "My Way" also depicts Soviet blocking troops shooting retreating soldiers during a charge. Both cases are part of fiction in the films.


title: Come Dine with Me

text: Come Dine with Me is a British reality series that has aired on Channel 4 since 10 January 2005 and is narrated by Dave Lamb. As of July 2020, there have been 45 series.


title: Come Dine with Me

text: The show features five amateur chefs who live in the same town or area, who each host a three-course dinner party for the other contestants at their own home. Each competitor then rates the host's food and hosting skills during the taxi journey home, with the highest-scoring chef winning £1,000 cash. The show often features guests with clashing personalities.


title: Come Dine with Me

text: The episodes featuring the same group of chef contestants are broadcast in sequence. Early series included groups of four chefs rather than five.


title: Come Dine with Me

text: Dave Lamb provides a voiceover which sometimes includes sarcastic comments on the chefs' food and interior design.


title: Come Dine with Me

text: A 2016 episode attracted particular attention, when contestant Peter Marsh made ungracious remarks upon losing to the winning contestant Jane. He said to her and the other contestants: "What a sad little life, Jane. Enjoy the money. I hope now you will spend it on getting some lessons in grace and decorum, because you have all the grace of a reversing dump truck without any tyres on."


title: Come Dine with Me

text: Another episode gained attention online, when a clip on video sharing site YouTube of contestant Kev Riley fitting a balloon whisk into his mouth went viral. In an 'ask me anything' session on Reddit in 2022, Kev claimed that this was the result of a "spur of the moment" decision intended to make the producer laugh. This clip has had over 100m views on various threads across social media . This has resulted in the sale of merchandise, flags appearing at Glastonbury and Kev being a regular contributer on Cameo.


title: Come Dine with Me

text: From 2020, due to COVID-19 instead of the contestants visiting each others houses to dine, all five contestants cooked and dined in the same house. The location of the house would vary depending on which city the five episodes were taking place.


title: Come Dine with Me

text: On 7 July 2014, the first episode of the spin-off series - "Couples Come Dine with Me", premiered on Channel 4. The series uses a similar format to the original series but features three couples competing to win £1000.


title: Come Dine with Me

text: On 12 January 2022, Channel 4 commissioned "Come Dine With Me: The Professionals." The series premiered on 27 June 2022 on Channel 4.


title: Murray Walker

text: Graeme Murray Walker (10 October 1923 – 13 March 2021) was an English motorsport commentator and journalist. He provided television commentary of live Formula One coverage for the BBC between 1976 and 1996, and for ITV between 1997 and 2001.


title: Murray Walker

text: During his 23-year run as full-time commentator, Walker became known for his animated enthusiasm, authoritative voice and comical blunders – dubbed "Murrayisms" by fans – during live races. His commentary voice has been likened to a "screech and resembles a 500cc engine being revved up". He retired from full-time commentary after the 2001 United States Grand Prix, but returned to broadcasting part-time in 2005 and made occasional appearances on the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky Sports F1.


title: Murray Walker

text: Graeme Murray Walker was born at 214 Reddings Lane in Hall Green, Birmingham, England, on 10 October 1923. His family is of Scottish descent. His father Graham Walker was a despatch rider and works motorcyclist for the Norton Motorcycle Company who participated in the Isle of Man TT. His mother, Elsie Spratt, was the daughter of Harry Spratt, a businessman from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. Walker was an only child. In 1925 Walker and his family moved to Wolverhampton when Graham became the Competition Manager for Sunbeam. The family later moved to Coventry in 1928, when Graham worked as the Sales and Competition Director for Rudge-Whitworth.


title: Murray Walker

text: Walker's education began with a governess at the family home, followed by spells at preparatory schools around the country. He attended Highgate School, gaining a Distinction in Divinity. While at Highgate he joined the School Bugles, learning to play the bugle. Walker was at a trials event with his father in Austria when the outbreak of the Second World War occurred in September 1939. Upon returning to Britain, the Highgate School governors became concerned about the possible extent of bombing raids on London, and so Walker and his fellow pupils were evacuated to Westward Ho! in Devon, staying there until 1941. During this time, Walker rose to the rank of Company Sergeant Major of the School Corps.


title: Murray Walker

text: Walker was later conscripted into the armed forces and applied to volunteer for tanks, but was required to wait until a training place became available. In the meantime, he worked with the Dunlop Rubber Company, which offered 12 scholarships annually and was based at Fort Dunlop in Erdington, Birmingham. Walker had been evacuated to Erdington and lived with the Bellamy family at 58 Holly Lane. On 1 October 1942 he travelled to Wool in Dorset, where he reported to the 30th Primary Training Wing at Bovington, the headquarters of the Royal Armoured Corps.


title: Murray Walker

text: Walker later attended and graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Scots Greys on 16 April 1944. The salute at his commissioning parade was taken by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander for the upcoming Allied invasion of Normandy. Walker went on to command a Sherman tank and to participate in the Battle of the Reichswald with the 4th Armoured Brigade. He left the Army in 1946, having attained the rank of captain.


title: Murray Walker

text: Following the war, Walker briefly followed in his father's footsteps by taking up motorcycle racing, competing against, among others, a young John Surtees. After limited success, he switched to competing in motorcycle trials, where he made a greater mark, including taking a gold at the International Six Days Trial and winning a first-class award at the Scottish Six Days Trial.


title: Murray Walker

text: After briefly attending Roehampton Technical Institute to study shipping management, Walker worked in advertising for Dunlop and Aspro. He was then headhunted by McCann Erickson, where he worked on the firm's account with Esso. Following this, he was employed as an accounts director by the Masius advertising agency, with clients including British Rail, Vauxhall and Mars, for whom they created the slogan "A Mars a day helps you work rest and play"; Walker repeatedly denied the attribution of the slogan to himself, saying that he was only an administrator on the project. He did not retire from this until the age of 59, long after he had gained fame as a commentator.


title: Murray Walker

text: Walker created the slogan "Trill makes budgies bounce with health" – an advertising slogan for bird seed in the 1960s – as well as the slogan "Opal Fruits, made to make your mouth water." He is credited with the naming of the late 1960s Vauxhall Ventora, with the car's original proposed name, Ventura, being rejected by General Motors.


title: Murray Walker

text: Walker made his first public broadcast at Shelsley Walsh hillclimb in 1948. He was given a recorded audition for the BBC at the 1949 Easter Monday Goodwood race. Walker later commentated on races alongside the tennis commentator Max Robertson, with his first radio broadcasting coming at the 1949 British Grand Prix for the BBC. He and Robertson were positioned at Stowe corner for the event. His debut television broadcast came in the same year when he commentated on hill-climbing at the Knatts Valley motorcycle venue in Kent. His first regular broadcasting work was on radio coverage of the Isle of Man annual Tourist Trophy motorcycle race alongside his father. Walker and his father were the single father and son sports commentary pair within the BBC from 1949 to 1962. After the death of his father in 1962, he became the BBC's chief motorcycling commentator.


title: Murray Walker

text: He did occasional Formula 1 commentaries during the 1970s before going full-time for the 1978 season. Walker was asked by the head of BBC Sport Paul Fox to commentate on the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Bristol, and he asked the weightlifter Oscar Slate to educate him on the sport. He covered motocross (initially for ITV and BBC) during the 1960s and rallycross in the 1970s and early 1980s. He occasionally commentated on scrambling (now motocross) motorcycle racing and rallying during the 1960s through to the 1980s. Walker covered the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) for the BBC between 1969 and 1971 and also 1988 and 1997, and the Macau Grand Prix for Hong Kong TV on nine occasions. He joined the Channel 7 commentary team of the Bathurst 1000 Australian touring car race in 1997 and 1998. As the BBC began to broadcast additional forms of motor racing, he commented on Formula 3, Formula Ford and truck racing.


title: Murray Walker

text: On Formula One coverage from the 1980 Monaco Grand Prix to the 1993 Canadian Grand Prix, Walker struck up a surprisingly successful, and extremely popular, double act with World Champion James Hunt. Initially, they did not get on, as Hunt's interests, personality and private life appeared to have little in common with Walker's. However, the pair eventually became good friends. Walker and Hunt were to work together for more than a decade at the BBC, until Hunt's death from a heart attack two days after the 1993 Canadian Grand Prix, aged 45.


title: Murray Walker

text: When in the commentary booth together, Walker would provide his animated descriptions of the action, with Hunt bringing in his expert knowledge, which included inside information from the pit lane, typically from his former team McLaren, and often opinionated nature, in his co-commentary role. The pair did not always get along in the commentary box. Typically, they had to share one microphone which meant passing it back and forth to each other. On one occasion early in their partnership, Walker would not hand the microphone over after repeated requests by Hunt for him to do so. In frustration, Hunt stood and grabbed the microphone from him, which caused the normally cool Walker to grab the former World Champion by the collar and raise his fist to hit his partner before a producer intervened.


title: Murray Walker

text: After Hunt died, former F1 driver and BBC pit lane reporter Jonathan Palmer joined Walker in the commentary box until the end of 1996, though in individuals such as three-time world champion Jackie Stewart took the role as Walker's partner for the 1993 British Grand Prix and World Champion Alan Jones commented alongside Walker in Australia at the end of the season following a request by "Nine's Wide World of Sports". The following year, the television rights of the UK television coverage transferred to ITV, and Walker followed. His co-commentator from the 1997 season until his retirement from commentating was another former F1 driver, Martin Brundle.


title: Murray Walker

text: Jonathan Martin, the head of BBC Sport, retained Walker's services for the corporation's coverage of the BTCC after the latter's rolling contract expired with them in May 1997. Walker opted not to renew his contract with the BBC in 1998 to focus on ITV's broadcasting on Formula One and he did not want to frequently commute to London to record commentary of the BTCC. There were a few Grands Prix between 1978 and 1996 that Walker did not commentate on while employed by the BBC, usually as a result of his commentating elsewhere. Some of these included the 1979 Belgian Grand Prix and 1988 Hungarian Grand Prix (when Simon Taylor deputised for him), the German Grands Prix of 1981 and 1984 (both commentated on by Barrie Gill), and the 1985 German Grand Prix (Tony Jardine).


title: Murray Walker

text: In 1988, Walker appeared in two television advertisements opposite actor Eric Idle, who played the part of a salesman attempting to persuade Walker and racing driver Nigel Mansell to purchase an Austin Metro. In 1996, as part of Pizza Hut's global advertising strategy using celebrities, he and Formula One driver Damon Hill advertised the chain's new stuffed-crust pizza. Walker also wrote a series of annuals for the Grand Prix season, "Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year". He presented a six-part radio series called "Murray Walker's Grand Prix World" on BBC Radio 5 Live from May to June 1997, detailing the history and development of Formula One.


title: Murray Walker

text: He broke his hip at the 2000 Goodwood Festival of Speed and was replaced for the French Grand Prix by pit lane reporter James Allen. At the 2000 German Grand Prix, Walker erroneously said that Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello had crashed when it actually was his teammate Michael Schumacher. This led to criticism about his frequent errors in an article published by the "Daily Mail" on the following day, and it prompted Walker to speak to his bosses at ITV Sport about his future. He told the broadcaster's head of sport Brian Barwick that he would retire. Barwick told Walker he did not believe that retirement was ideal and suggested to Walker he commentate for another season to wind down his career. Walker announced to the press his retirement from Formula One commentary in December 2000. He would commentate on 12 Grands Prix before continuing to work for ITV in a reduced role entering . Bernie Ecclestone, the owner of Formula One's commercial rights, had suggested to Walker that he commentate on his world feed television coverage, which was declined. His final full-time Formula One television commentary was the 2001 United States Grand Prix and he was awarded an original brick from "The Brickyard" by track president Tony George.


title: Murray Walker

text: He was appointed an OBE in the 1996 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting and motor sports. In November 1997, Walker was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Bournemouth University. He was later honoured, in July 2005, with an honorary doctorate from the Middlesex University, London. He was the subject of "This Is Your Life" in 1997 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel during a promotional video launch at the Sports Cafe in London's Lower Regent Street. Walker was named the winner of the Gregor Grant Award from the motor racing magazine Autosport in 1993. In 2000, he won the Royal Television Society Lifetime Achievement Award, and was named the recipient of the BAFTA Special Award for Contribution to Television in 2002.


title: Murray Walker

text: He was retained by ITV on a part-time role reviewing the 2002 season at various points. Walker's autobiography, "Unless I'm Very Much Mistaken", was published in late 2002. He had eight publishers who wanted to put out the book, and he began to compose it in early 2001. Walker negotiated payment of the book sales with the publishers HarperCollins, and he ventured to various worldwide locations to promote it. He competed in Australia's Targa Tasmania tarmac rally road race as navigator to driver Colin Bond in a Toyota Team Racing-entered Toyota Camry Sportivo in May 2003, finishing second in their class and 44th overall. Walker navigated former Grand Prix competitor Chris Amon in a Toyota Camry Sportivo at the Targa New Zealand that took place five months later, where they finished eighth in their class and 114th outright.


title: Murray Walker

text: In October 2005, it was announced that he would be returning to the microphone as the BBC's voice of the new Grand Prix Masters series. After providing the commentary for the inaugural race in South Africa, in January 2006 BBC Radio 5 Live announced that Walker would be part of their team for their coverage of subsequent races. He also conducted interviews and special features for the radio station throughout the 2006 Formula One World Championship.


title: Murray Walker

text: Years of exposure to loud engines and age-related hearing problems had left Walker with hearing loss in both ears. In 2006 he became chief ambassador for David Ormerod Hearing Centres, a high-street audiology chain that fitted his hearing aids.


title: Murray Walker

text: In March 2006, the Honda Racing F1 Team, formerly British American Racing, announced that Walker would become its team ambassador for half of the 2006 season's 18 Grands Prix, starting with the San Marino Grand Prix in April. Walker welcomed Honda Racing's VIP guests and entertained them with his F1 commentary. He was Sky Sports' commentator for their coverage of Grand Prix Masters, performed commentary duties of the Australian Grand Prix for the Australian television broadcaster Network Ten in 2006 and 2007, and voiced the Clipsal 500 V8 Supercars race in Adelaide.


title: Murray Walker

text: In June 2007, Walker visited the Isle of Man to celebrate the Centenary of the Isle of Man TT, and work on a DVD documentary about the event, "TT: Centenary Celebration with Murray Walker". In July 2007, Walker commentated on the European Grand Prix for BBC Radio 5 Live. This was a one-off in lieu of regular commentator David Croft who was on paternity leave. He commented on the qualifying session, the race and presented the phone-in programme "606" to answer listeners' questions.


title: Murray Walker

text: He and writer Philip Porter authored a book called "Murray Walker Scrapbook" on his memories and photographic memorabilia concerning his career with contributions from members of the Formula One community, which was published on 2 May 2008. On 28 June 2008, Walker was honoured by the people of his hometown and presented with a "Star" on the Walk of Stars on Broad Street, Birmingham.


title: Murray Walker

text: Walker became a freelance website columnist for the BBC's recovered coverage of Formula One in 2009. He voiced the part of his own character in two episodes of the Five children's television programme "Roary the Racing Car" in late 2009. Walker made a further appearance on the programme as a professional skateboarder the following year. In early 2011, he lent his voice as a racing commentator to the touring theatre production of "Roary the Racing Car" entitled "Champion of Champions" in an animated portion of the programme. A television documentary called "Life in the Fast Lane" centred on Walker's life and advertising and commentary career was broadcast on BBC Two on 5 June 2011.


title: Murray Walker

text: In May 2013, while on holiday, he had a fall, breaking his pelvis. During treatment for the fall, Walker was diagnosed with the early stages of lymphatic system cancer. His condition was mild and treatable. In June 2013, it was reported that Walker was to receive chemotherapy in the coming months, and had cancelled plans to attend the 2013 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Walker did not need chemotherapy anymore by July 2013. He was the guest star on BBC Radio 4's "Desert Island Discs" on 16 March 2014, where he selected Chris McNab's "How to Survive Anything, Anywhere: A Handbook of Survival Skills for Every Scenario and Environment" as his choice of book, and a hammock and pillow as his luxury items.


title: Murray Walker

text: In 2015 it was announced Walker would present a new Formula One programme for BBC Two with Suzi Perry. The show called "Formula 1 Rewind" involved Walker looking back at some of the BBC's archives. In November 2015 he appeared on BBC's game show "Pointless", paired with Nigel Mansell.


title: Murray Walker

text: In 2016 Walker moved with many other BBC F1 staff to Channel 4 to present a series of interviews with the sport's key players. Walker also provided continuity announcements to Formula One programming and races. Walker withdrew from Channel 4's commentary for the 2018 British Grand Prix due to ill health but appeared in recorded features.


title: Murray Walker

text: Walker chose to stand while commentating during races rather than sitting down, allowing him to speak louder due to his lungs being inflated and his shoulders pushed back. He was uncritical of drivers who had made errors, preferring to let that judgement pass to his co-commentators. Walker was articulate in his speech, and he was a good reader of mood after an on-track incident. He sometimes made humorous verbal errors known as "Murrayisms" that ranged from "simple misidentifications" to "lovely, labyrinthian, effortlessly complex acrobatic displays of linguistic virtuosity." According to Stephen Moss of "The Guardian", they were "the hallmark of his commentary over the years" and noted that they made him "the fan who happened to have been given the keys to the commentary box: he couldn't control his enthusiasm and that seemed naturally to lead to catastrophe." Moss likened Walker's commentary voice to a "screech and resembles a 500cc engine being revved up" because he required "a harsh, aggressive, noisy, fast-moving voice" to comment on a constantly changing landscape.


title: Murray Walker

text: He prepared himself for every piece of commentary work by meticulously researching facts and statistics on every driver and race track, updating and rewriting them for the following event. George Tamayo described Walker as having an "encyclopedic" knowledge of Grand Prix racing, and one who held enough authority amongst the press that members of the Formula One community would rarely decline to be interviewed by him. Before the introduction of reliable satellite broadcast equipment, he was obliged by his superiors at the BBC to prepare for television broadcasts by venturing to a circuit two days before a race to prepare for a broadcast in London, where he would watch the day's events on a satellite feed and then commentate on it during the evening highlights programme. Walker was voted "the greatest sports commentator of all time" in a poll conducted by British sports fans in late 2009.


title: Murray Walker

text: Despite his love of cars, Walker never took a driving test. He was given a tank driving licence in the British Army and that was considered valid to qualify for a civilian driving licence. He married his wife Elizabeth in 1955; the couple had no children. In June 2013 Walker was diagnosed with the blood cancer lymphoma and underwent six months of intensive chemotherapy.


title: Murray Walker

text: Walker died on 13 March 2021, aged 97. He was memorialised by the Williams team at the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix, where a sticker on the car's halo featured a quote from Walker's commentary of the 1996 Japanese Grand Prix, when Damon Hill secured the Drivers' Championship.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: On November 8, 1957, the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser 10-29 serving the flight, named "Clipper Romance of the Skies", crashed in the Pacific Ocean enroute to Honolulu International Airport from San Francisco. The crash killed all 36 passengers and 8 crew members.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: The flight's fate was not known until about nine hours after its last known radio transmission, by which point the plane would have run out of fuel. No radio reports of any emergencies were received from the flight crew. Under the assumption that the plane could have survived a controlled landing on the ocean surface, the United States Coast Guard launched an extensive search for the plane and any survivors. The week-long hunt became the largest search and rescue operation in the Pacific Ocean up to that date. The bodies of 19 of the victims and pieces of the plane were eventually recovered about northeast of Honolulu.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: Investigations into the cause of the crash were inconclusive. Despite theories that the plane may have been the victim of sabotage, poor maintenance, or in-flight fire, investigators could not find enough evidence to support any definite conclusion. The final report from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), which conducted the investigation, concluded that the board did not have enough evidence to determine the cause of the accident.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: In 1947, Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) offered the first regularly scheduled round-the-world flights, westbound from the west coast of the United States or eastbound from the east coast. The flights stopped in multiple cities over the course of several days before ending the trip on the opposite coast. Passengers on these flights had the option to include extended stopovers in any of the cities along the way until a later flight departed the city. In November 1957, Flight 7 was the flight number assigned to one of the company's westbound round-the-world flights, which departed San Francisco International Airport on Friday morning and included 15 intermediate stops before eventually arriving at Philadelphia International Airport on the following Wednesday.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: At 11:30a.m. on November 8, 1957, Flight 7 left San Francisco on the first leg of the trip, to Honolulu International Airport. Flight 7 carried 36 passengers and 8 crew members, and was expected to take ten hours and fifteen minutes. The plane was one of Pan Am's long-range double-decker Boeing 377 Stratocruisers, named "Clipper Romance of the Skies". It had enough fuel for approximately thirteen hours of flight, and was loaded to its maximum takeoff weight of . The flight plan called for a cruising altitude of and an airspeed of .


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: At 5:04p.m., the captain made a routine position report while the flight was east of Hawaii. He said the plane was cruising at an altitude of and was encountering headwinds of approximately . He was due to make his next position report at around 6:00p.m., but there were no further communications. At 6:42p.m., Pan Am notified the United States Coast Guard that it had not heard from the plane in more than 90 minutes, which was considered unusual, but not necessarily alarming. After another 90 minutes had passed without word from the flight, the Coast Guard dispatched the first search planes.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: Four surface vessels, submarines and , and a number of aircraft from Honolulu conducted the search on the first day. Military authorities were asked to prepare additional planes and ships to join the search at dawn. The searchers were unable to locate the missing flight; authorities held on to the hope that the flight's radio was malfunctioning. To address the possibility that Flight 7's navigation equipment had failed, the Coast Guard ordered all ships at Pearl Harbor to shine their lights into the sky so they could be seen by the flight and used as beacons. A military air transport plane reported spotting lights on the water, which caused a burst of activity, but it was later determined to be only the lights of a ship. At 3:00a.m. on November 9, when all of the fuel aboard the plane would have been consumed, Robert Murray, Pan Am's executive vice president of the Pacific Alaska Division, declared that the plane was presumed to be "down" somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: By the next day, the search party had been expanded to at least 30 aircraft and 14 surface vessels. USS "Philippine Sea" joined the search from Long Beach, California, with its helicopters and radar-equipped anti-submarine planes. A few hours later, USS "John R. Craig" and USS "Orleck" left San Diego to join the search. The Coast Guard enlarged the search area to of the Pacific Ocean east of Hawaii. Pan Am dispatched a sister Stratocruiser from San Francisco, loaded with supplies that it could drop to the ocean surface if needed, and sent a Douglas DC-7 to the search area with enough fuel to stay airborne for 16 hours. The week-long search for the missing plane eventually became the largest search in the Pacific Ocean to that date. Pan Am officials expressed confidence that the craft could stay afloat "almost indefinitely" if it had been forced to land in the ocean and its fuselage had not been punctured.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: During the search, three pilots reported that they had heard faint radio distress signals from a hand-operated emergency radio similar to the type that would have been taken aboard life rafts. The signals were heard on the 500 kilohertz distress frequency at the Coast Guard station at ʻUpolu Point on the island of Hawaii. There were ten such broadcasts, over a period of 45 minutes. One pilot reported hearing a series of numbers after the distress signals that he thought ended in the numbers "four four", the last two numbers of the missing aircraft's tail number, N90944. The Coast Guard concluded that the signal was a false alarm and might have come from the mainland or from an unknown party testing their equipment. Pan Am pilots who were personal friends of the lost crew listened to recordings of the radio transmissions and said it was unlikely that the messages had originated from the missing flight. A Pan Am pilot en route between San Francisco and Honolulu also reported seeing a yellow, cylindrical object about , with a dye marker nearby. Three submarines, eight Coast Guard vessels, and five merchant ships converged on the area, but found nothing.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: On November 14, the crew of a Navy search plane observed wreckage and bodies in the water, about northeast of Honolulu, and about north of the flight's intended track. One of the victims was still strapped in a seat. A total of 19 victims were pulled from the water; 14 of them were wearing life jackets, and none of them had shoes on, suggesting that the passengers had received some advance warning before the crash. Three of the victims had watches that had stopped at 5:27, 23 minutes after the plane's last radio report. The Navy reported that all of the victims had external injuries and multiple fractures, and concluded that the plane had probably struck the water with tremendous force. The bodies and debris were recovered from a area of the ocean. Rear Admiral T. A. Ahroon, commander of "Philippine Sea", reported that there was no evidence that a midair explosion had occurred, but the Navy also found that many of the pieces of debris bore distinct evidence of fire damage. Searchers were unable to recover any of the major components of the airliner; the depth of the ocean in that area was around , which meant that any wreckage on the bottom would be too deep to locate or recover.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: The missing aircraft was a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser 10-29 with serial number 15960 and registered with tail number N90944. It first flew on August 30, 1949, as "Flagship Ireland" for American Overseas Airlines (AOA), and was transferred to Pan Am on September 28, 1950, after Pan Am's acquisition of AOA.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: At the time of the accident, the airframe had accumulated a total of 23,690 logged flying hours. The four engines of the aircraft had total times ranging from 13,459 hours to 16,961 hours, and had been overhauled within the last 1,249 hours of flight. Investigations by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) found that "the aircraft, engines, and propellers had been maintained as prescribed and were within their time limitations."


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: The accident was the second worst accident involving the Stratocruiser. The aircraft type had a long history of mechanical problems. Several of the aircraft had experienced runaway propellers, a situation where the pilots were unable to control the pitch of the propellers. In those situations, centrifugal force caused the blades to adjust to the lowest pitch, leading to aerodynamic instability. In 1952, Pan Am Flight 202 crashed in the Amazon basin after its engine and propeller failed in flight. In 1955, Pan Am Flight 845/26 ditched in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Oregon with four fatalities after one of the aircraft's propellers failed and caused the engine to separate from the wing.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: The aircraft assigned to Flight 7 had experienced two incidents shortly before its final flight. On June 18, 1957, it had suffered a runaway propeller as it departed San Francisco. The crew was unable to resolve the situation in the air, turned around, and performed an emergency landing back at the airport. On September 19, 1957, during a flight between San Francisco and Honolulu, the crew heard a loud noise that they described as "similar to dropping the navigation stool on the flight deck". In-flight inspections were performed and the plane landed without incident after the crew found no abnormalities. A Pan Am inspector later investigated and found nothing out of the ordinary, arguing in his report that similar noises could be produced during normal activities.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: The aircraft that had been built immediately before the plane assigned to Flight 7 had also crashed the year before. Named the "Sovereign of the Skies", with serial number 15959, it was assigned to Pan Am Flight 6. The plane encountered mechanical problems and had ditched in the Pacific Ocean on October 16, 1956, after two of its engines had failed. All 31 people aboard on Flight 6 had been rescued, but the tail broke off on impact and the plane sank only 22 minutes after the forced landing, preventing a detailed investigation into the cause of the engine failures.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: The flight carried 36 passengers and 8 crew members on the flight to Honolulu. Upon arrival, 20 of the passengers were scheduled to disembark, while 16 would have continued onward at least as far as Tokyo. Thirty-two of the passengers were from the United States, one was from Australia, one was from Japan, one was from Turkey, and one was from Indonesia. At Honolulu, 17 passengers were waiting to board the plane for the next segment of the flight.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: The captain of the flight was Gordon H. Brown, age 40, who had been flying for Pan Am since his 1942 graduation from Northeastern University. At the time of Flight 7, he had accumulated 11,314 hours of flight experience, including 674 hours in the Stratocruiser. The first officer of the flight, William P. Wygant, was 37 and had been employed with the company since 1946. He had a total of 7,355 flying hours, including 4,018 on the Stratocruiser. Second officer William H. Fortenberry, acting as pilot-navigator on the flight, had worked for Pan Am since graduating from Spartanburg Community College in 1951. He had a total of 2,683 flight hours, including 1,552 in the Stratocruiser. Flight engineer Albert F. Pinataro, 26 years old, had been employed with the company since 1955, and had a total of 1,596 hours of flight experience, all in the Stratocruiser.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: Investigators from the CAB initiated an investigation as soon as Flight 7's fuel supplies were presumed to be exhausted, and began combing through maintenance and operations records of the plane and its equipment. When the wreckage had been located and had been recovered to "Philippine Sea", which was still en route to Long Beach, CAB investigators and pathologists of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology were flown to the carrier to begin their investigation. By the time it returned to port on November 18, four of the victims had been identified. Another six had been tentatively identified from their fingerprints and papers recovered from the bodies. None of the victims showed any evidence of being burned.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: CAB investigators moved all of the recovered pieces of wreckage to a restricted area at the Pan Am overhaul station in San Francisco. The of recovered material mainly consisted of the fuselage's secondary structure, interior trim and equipment, and numerous packages of mail. The only non-fuselage part recovered was a section of an engine cowl support ring, which had been found embedded in a pillow that was found floating on the water. Representatives from Pan Am, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Boeing were invited to assist with the investigation. Some of the material bore evidence of fire damage. CAB investigators determined that the burns had occurred on the portions that had floated on the surface of the water, as each piece had a definite waterline below which burn marks were not found. Investigators found no evidence of an in-flight fire, and laboratory tests of the charred pieces did not find any traces of prohibited or explosive material.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: In their investigation, CAB investigators considered the hazardous materials that were known to be in the plane's cargo hold. The forward cargo compartment contained a shipment of of sodium sulfide, which is a chemically reactive flammable solid material that would release hydrogen sulfide gas if exposed to moisture. Investigators concluded that the material was securely packaged in sealed glass containers within a wooden crate. The gas, which has a strong, foul odor, would have been detectable by the crew well before its concentration would have become dangerous. All tests for its presence on the recovered debris were negative. The cargo also contained several shipments of cellulose acetate film and a package containing a small amount of radioactive medicine packaged according to regulations. Although none of the cargo was recovered, investigators concluded that there was no reason to believe that any of the items had contributed to the accident.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: CAB investigators also probed the maintenance history of the aircraft. Earlier in the year of the accident, the plane had been involved in two separate "hard" landings that were reported by crews. In the first incident, certificated mechanics performed a visual inspection of the aircraft. However, the maintenance records showed that one of the most time-consuming steps of the inspection, the inspection of the wing spar webs, had been skipped. In the second incident, the inspecting mechanics did not make a written report of the inspection. The CAB concluded that the somewhat cursory investigations performed by airline mechanics in these and other cases suggested that "the maintenance and airworthiness of the aircraft cannot be accepted as being normal in all respects," and recommended a reassessment of the airline's maintenance practices in the future.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: Pathological examination of the victims revealed "possibly disabling" levels of carbon monoxide in 14 of the 19 recovered bodies. CAB investigators conducted a study to determine how high concentrations of the gas could have occurred in the fuselage, and identified several possible causes. Pathologists were uncertain whether the presence of the gas in the bodies could have been a result of decomposition that had occurred after the crash. Investigators concluded that one probable source of the gas was an unexpected failure in one of the engines, such as one that released a propeller or turbocharger disk into the fuselage. Such a failure could have easily caused a fire, disabled the radios, and caused serious flight control difficulties. Investigators concluded that the scenario fit the known circumstances better than any of the other hypotheses. One scenario considered was the malicious introduction of pure carbon monoxide into the flight cabin; the gas would have been undetectable and could have incapacitated the crew, resulting in the crash. Another possibility was that the acetate film in the cargo hold could have released carbon monoxide if it had been subjected to extreme heat. Investigators determined that five of the victims died from physical injuries received when the aircraft crashed, and most of the others died from drowning, possibly after being knocked unconscious or stunned by the crash.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: Contrary to initial assumptions, CAB investigators concluded that the aircraft did not strike the water at a steep angle, but that it was almost a successful ocean landing that led to a crash only when the starboard wing dragged in the water.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: Ultimately, the investigators could not determine the cause of the crash with any certainty, stating in their final report:


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: Insurance officials also conducted an investigation to determine whether any of the passengers had purchased large insurance policies before boarding the flight. In 1949, Albert Guay had planted a bomb aboard Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 108 in a plot to kill his wife and collect the insurance money. In 1955, Jack Gilbert Graham had planted a bomb in his mother's suitcase aboard United Airlines Flight 629 after purchasing a life insurance policy at the airport. With those incidents in mind, investigators searched for any unusual insurance purchases by the passengers of Flight 7. Mercury Insurance reported that it had carried a total of $230,000 in insurance policies for the flight's passengers, and said that the amount was not unusual. CAB investigators dismissed the possibility of insurance-motivated sabotage, reporting that "no untoward amount" of life insurance had been taken out on any of the occupants of the plane.


title: Pan Am Flight 7

text: In 1958, a year after the crash, news reports revealed that the Western Life Insurance Company of Helena, Montana, had refused to pay out a $20,000 life insurance policy purchased shortly before the flight for one of the passengers. The passenger, a 41-year-old man from Scott Bar, California, named William Payne, had also purchased two air trip policies at the airport totaling $125,000. Payne's body was not one of the 19 recovered from the crash scene and the insurance company contended that there was no evidence that he was actually a passenger on the flight or that he had died. At the time of the crash, Payne was heavily in debt; the company claimed that the reasons he gave for his trip to Honolulu did not justify the expense involved. Payne was an honorably discharged Navy veteran with 22 years of service and was an explosives expert. His widow, Harriet Payne, had also filed a $300,000 damage suit against Pan Am earlier that year, and denied the claim that her husband was not aboard Flight 7 when it went down. She filed a lawsuit against the insurance company to compel it to pay off the policy. CAB investigators said that laboratory examination of the plane's wreckage had ruled out the possibility of a bomb explosion of any kind aboard the aircraft. Pan Am investigators later admitted that they had investigated Payne because of his past explosives experience, the amount of insurance purchased, and the fact that he purchased a one-way ticket to Honolulu when he was heavily in debt. The judge in the Western Life Insurance Company lawsuit was critical of the company's efforts to avoid paying the insurance claim. The court ordered the company to pay the full amount of the policy, and to refund the additional premiums Western Life Insurance forced the widow to continue paying after refusing to honor the claim.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (; November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687), was a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico; there, on 9 April 1682, he claimed the Mississippi River basin for France after giving it the name "La Louisiane". One source states that "he acquired for France the most fertile half of the North American continent".


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: La Salle is sometimes credited with being the first European to traverse the Ohio River, and sometimes the Mississippi as well. Although Joliet and Marquette preceded him on the upper Mississippi in their journey of 1673–74, La Salle extended exploration, and France's claims, all the way to the river's mouth, while the existing historical evidence does not indicate that La Salle ever reached the Ohio/Allegheny Valley.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: Robert Cavelier was born on November 22, 1643, into a comfortably well-off family in Rouen, France, in the parish Saint-Herbland. His parents were Jean Cavelier and Catherine Geest. His older brother, Jean Cavelier, became a Sulpician priest. When Robert was young, he enjoyed science and nature. In his teens, he studied with the Jesuit religious order and became a member after taking initial vows in 1660.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: Required to reject his father's legacy when he joined the Jesuits, La Salle was nearly destitute when he traveled as a prospective colonist to North America. He sailed for New France in the spring of 1666. His brother Jean, had moved there the year before. At La Salle's request on March 27, 1667, after he was in Canada, he was released from the Society of Jesus after citing "moral weaknesses". Although he left the order, never took final vows in it, and later became hostile to it, historians have sometimes described him incorrectly as a priest or a leader.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: La Salle was granted a "seigneurie" on land at the western end of the Island of Montreal, which became known as "Lachine". La Salle immediately began to issue land grants, set up a village and learn the languages of the Native people, several tribes of Iroquois in this area.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: "Sieur de La Salle" is a French title roughly translating to "Lord of the manor", from the old French "sal(e)" (modern "salle"), "hall", a manor house. "Sieur" is a French title of nobility, similar to the English "Sir," but under the French signeurial system, the title is purchased rather than earned, and does not imply military duty. Robert Cavelier received the title with his signeurial purchase of Lachine from the Sulpician order at Ville Marie around 1667. However, the phrase "La Salle" has become iconic, and associated with the person as if it were his name; he is therefore often called Robert La Salle, or simply "La Salle".


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: The Seneca told La Salle of a great river, called the Ohio, which flowed into the sea, the "Vermilion Sea". He began to plan for expeditions to find a western passage to China. He sought and received permission from Governor Daniel Courcelle and Intendant Jean Talon to embark on the enterprise. He sold his interests in Lachine to finance the venture.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: La Salle left Lachine by the St. Lawrence on July 6, 1669, with a flotilla of nine canoes and 24 men, an unknown number of Seneca guides: himself and 14 hired men in four canoes, the two Sulpicians Dollier de Casson and Abbé René de Bréhan de Galinée with seven new recruits in three canoes, and two canoes of Natives. Having travelled up the St. Lawrence and across Lake Ontario for 35 days, they arrived at what is called today Irondequoit Bay on the southern shore of Lake Ontario at the mouth of Irondequoit Creek, a place now commemorated as La Salle's Landing.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: There they were greeted by a party of Natives, who escorted them starting the next day to a village some leagues distant, a journey of a few days. At the village, the Seneca vehemently attempted to dissuade the party from proceeding into the lands of their enemies, the Algonquins, telling of the dire fate awaiting them. The necessity of securing guides for the further part of the journey, and the refusal of the Seneca to provide them, delayed the expedition a month. A fortuitous capture by the Natives in the lands to the south of a Dutchman who spoke Iroquois well but French ill, and was to be burned at the stake for transgressions unknown, provided an opportunity to obtain a guide. The Dutchman's freedom was purchased by the party in exchange for wampum.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: While at the Native village in September 1669, La Salle was seized with a violent fever and expressed the intention of returning to Ville Marie.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: At this juncture, he parted from his company and the narrative of the Jesuits, who continued on to upper Lake Erie. The missionaries continued on to the upper lakes, to the land of the Potawatomies.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: Beyond that, the factual record of La Salle's first expedition ends, and what prevails is obscurity and fabrication. It is likely that he spent the winter in Ville Marie. The next confirmed sighting of La Salle was by Nicolas Perrot on the Ottawa River near the Rapide des Chats in early summer, 1670, hunting with a party of Iroquois. That would be 700 miles as the crow flies from the Falls of the Ohio, the point supposed by some that he reached on the Ohio River.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: La Salle's own journal of the expedition was lost in 1756. Two indirect historical accounts exist. The one, "Récit d’un ami de l’abbé de Galliné", purported to be a recitation by La Salle himself to an unknown writer during his visit to Paris in 1678, and the other "Mémoire sur le projet du sieur de la Salle pour la descouverte de la partie occidentale de l’Amérique septentrionale entre la Nouvelle-France, la Floride et le Mexique". A letter from Madeleine Cavelier, his now elderly niece, written in 1746, commenting on the journal of La Salle in her possession may also shed some light on the issue.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: La Salle himself never claimed to have discovered the Ohio River. In a letter to the intendent Talon in 1677, he claimed "discovery" of a river, the Baudrane, flowing southwesterly with its mouth on Lake Erie and emptying into the Saint Louis (i.e. the Mississippi), a hydrography which was non-existent. In those days, maps as well as descriptions were based part on observation and part on hearsay, of necessity. This confounded courses, mouths and confluences among the rivers. At various times, La Salle invented such rivers as the Chucagoa, Baudrane, Louisiane (Anglicized "Saint Louis"), and Ouabanchi-Aramoni.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: Confounding fact with fiction started with publication in 1876 of Pierre Margry's "Découvertes et Établissements des Français". Margry was a French archivist and partisan who had private access to the French archives. He came to be the agent of the American historian Francis Parkman. Margry's work, a massive nine volumes, encompassed an assemblage of documents some previously published, but many not. In it, he sometimes published a reproduction of the whole document, and sometimes only an extract, or summary, not distinguishing the one from the other.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: He also used in some cases one or another copies of original documents previously edited, extracted or altered by others, without specifying which transcriptions were original, and which were copies, or whether the copy was dated earlier or later. Reproductions were scattered in fragments across chapters, so that it was impossible to ascertain the integrity of the document from its fragments. Chapter headings were oblique and sensational, so as to obfuscate the content therein. English and American scholars were immediately skeptical of the work, since full and faithful publication of some of the original documents had previously existed. The situation was so fraught with doubt, that the United States Congress appropriated $10,000 in 1873, which Margry wanted as an advance, to have the original documents photostated, witnessed by uninvolved parties as to veracity.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: On July 12, 1673, the Governor of New France, Louis de Buade de Frontenac, arrived at the mouth of the Cataraqui River to meet with leaders of the Five Nations of the Iroquois to encourage them to trade with the French. While the groups met and exchanged gifts, Frontenac's men, led by La Salle, hastily constructed a rough wooden palisade on a point of land by a shallow, sheltered bay. Originally the fort was named Fort Cataraqui but was later renamed Fort Frontenac by La Salle in honor of his patron. The purpose of Fort Frontenac was to control the lucrative fur trade in the Great Lakes Basin to the west. The fort was also meant to be a bulwark against the English and Dutch, who were competing with the French for control of the fur trade. La Salle was left in command of the fort in 1673.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: Thanks to his powerful protector, the discoverer managed, during a voyage to France in 1674–75, to secure for himself the grant of Fort Cataraqui and acquired letters of nobility for himself and his descendants. With Frontenac's support, he received not only a fur trade concession, with permission to establish frontier forts, but also a title of nobility. He returned and rebuilt Frontenac in stone. An Ontario Heritage Trust plaque describes La Salle at Cataraqui as "[a] major figure in the expansion of the French fur trade into the Lake Ontario region, Using the fort as a base, he undertook expeditions to the west and southwest in the interest of developing a vast fur-trading empire." Henri de Tonti joined his explorations as his lieutenant.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: After leaving Lower Canada in 1678, de La Salle and Henri de Tonti travelled to Fort Frontenac (now in Kingston, Ontario) and then to Niagara where, in December 1678, they were the first Europeans to view Niagara Falls; they built Fort Conti at the mouth of the Niagara River.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: There they loaded supplies into smaller boats (canoes or bateaux), so they could continue up the shallow and swiftly flowing lower Niagara River to what is now the location of Lewiston, New York.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: There the Iroquois had a well-established portage route which bypassed the rapids and the cataract later known as Niagara Falls.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: The first ship built by La Salle, called the "Frontenac", a 10-ton single-decked brigantine or barque was lost in Lake Ontario, on January 8, 1679. Afterward, La Salle built "Le Griffon", a seven-cannon, 45-ton barque, on the upper Niagara River at or near Cayuga Creek. She was launched on August 7, 1679.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: La Salle sailed in "Le Griffon" up Lake Erie to Lake Huron, then up Huron to Michilimackinac and on to present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin. "Le Griffon" left for Niagara with a load of furs, but was never seen again. He continued with his men in canoes down the western shore of Lake Michigan, rounding the southern end to the mouth of the Miami River (now St. Joseph River), where they built a stockade in January 1680. They called it Fort Miami (now known as St. Joseph, Michigan). There they waited for Tonti and his party, who had crossed the Lower Michigan peninsula on foot.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: On 3 December 1679, with a group of 40, La Salle and Henri de Tonti headed south from Fort Conti in Niagara. They canoed up the St. Joseph and followed it to a portage at present-day South Bend, Indiana. They crossed to the Kankakee River and followed it to the Illinois River. In January 1680, they reached an area that is near the current city of Peoria, Illinois. In order to help the local Peoria tribe defend themselves against the Iroquois, La Salle and his group built a stockade and named it Fort Crèvecoeur.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: La Salle set off on foot for Fort Frontenac for supplies. While he was gone, the soldiers at Ft. Crevecoeur, led by Martin Chartier, mutinied, destroyed the fort, and exiled Tonti, whom he had left in charge.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: The group later travelled along the Illinois River and arrived at the Mississippi River in February 1682; they built canoes here. The exploration reached an area that is now Memphis, Tennessee, where La Salle built a small fort, named Fort Prudhomme. Fort Prudhomme was the first structure built by the French in Tennessee.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: In April 1682, the expedition reached the Gulf of Mexico. There, La Salle named the Mississippi basin "La Louisiane" in honor of Louis XIV and claimed it for France.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: During 1682–83, La Salle, with Henry de Tonti, established Fort Saint-Louis of Illinois at Starved Rock on the Illinois River to protect and hold the region for France. La Salle then returned to Montreal and later, to France.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: On July 24, 1684, he departed France and returned to America with a large expedition designed to establish a French colony on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. They had four ships and 300 colonists. The expedition was plagued by pirates, Natives defending their land, and poor navigation. One ship was lost to pirates in the West Indies, a second sank in the inlets of Matagorda Bay. They founded a settlement, near the bay which they called the Bay of Saint Louis, on Garcitas Creek in the vicinity of present-day Victoria, Texas. La Salle led a group eastward on foot on three occasions to try to locate the mouth of the Mississippi. In the meantime, the flagship "La Belle", the only remaining ship, ran aground and sank into the mud, stranding the colony on the Texas coast.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: During a final search for the Mississippi River in 1687, La Salle got lost and for "two years he wandered, without maps, in the marshes of the Mississippi delta".


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: On March 19, 1687, La Salle was slain by Pierre Duhaut during an ambush while talking to Duhaut's decoy, Jean L'Archevêque. They were "six leagues" from the westernmost village of the Hasinai (Tejas) Indians. One source states that Duhaut was a "disenchanted follower". Duhaut was shot and killed by James Hiems to avenge La Salle. Over the following week, others were killed; confusion followed as to who killed whom.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: The colony lasted only until 1688, when Karankawa-speaking Natives killed the 20 remaining adults and took five children as captives. Tonti sent out search missions in 1689 when he learned of the colonizers' fate, but failed to find survivors.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: La Salle never married, but has been linked to Madeleine de Roybon d'Allonne, an early colonizer of New France.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: In addition to the forts, which also served as authorized agencies for the extensive fur trade, La Salle's visits to Illinois and other Natives cemented the French policy of alliance with Natives in the common causes of containing both Iroquois influence and Anglo-American colonization. He also gave the name Louisiana ("La Louisiane") to the interior North American territory he claimed for France, which lives on in the name of a U.S. state.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: The "Encyclopædia Britannica" provides this summary of La Salle's achievements: "His claim of Louisiana for France, though but a vain boast at the time, pointed the way to the French colonial empire that was eventually built by other men".


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: Pierre Berton wrote, "no other man had crammed so much adventure, so much excitement, so many triumphs, and so many heartbreaks into a single career. Though he died at the hands of some of his quarrelling followers in the mud of reeds of the Gulf of Mexico lowlands, he was essentially a man of the lakes, of Ontario and Erie, Huron and Michigan..."


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: A sculpture of de La Salle is located on the south facade of the Knute Rockne Memorial on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: In 1995, La Salle's primary ship "La Belle" was discovered in the muck of Matagorda Bay. It has been the subject of archeological research. A search of the wreck and surrounding area during 1996 to 1997 yielded numerous artifacts from the 17th century. Through an international treaty, the artifacts excavated from La Belle are owned by France and held in trust by the Texas Historical Commission. The collection is held by the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History. Artifacts from "La Belle" are shown at nine museums across Texas.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: The wreckage of his ship "L'Aimable" has yet to be located. In 1998, The National Underwater and Marine Agency claimed that it had found the wreck in Matagorda Bay but the Texas Historical Commission stated that the wreck was much more recent.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: The possible remains of "Le Griffon" were found in 1898 by lighthouse keeper Albert Cullis, on a beach on the western edge of Manitoulin Island in northern Lake Huron. Results of testing some of the artifacts were disputed. Many of the recovered artifacts were lost and the wreck was washed away in 1942. A possible shipwreck of "Le Griffon" near Poverty Island at the entrance to Green Bay in northern Lake Michigan was located by Steve Libert of the Great Lakes Exploration Group in 2001. The organization prevailed in a lawsuit against the state of Michigan over ownership of artifacts in 2012, and in 2013 was issued a permit to excavate the wreck. Only one artifact, a wood pole, was recovered, and it is indeterminate whether it was from a shipwreck. In 2019, the Discovery Channel featured the story of the ship; divers who were involved in the investigation were convinced that "Le Griffon" sank in the Mississagi Strait.


title: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

text: Historians debated the site of La Salle's "Fort St Louis" colony, which had been said to be near Lavaca Bay at Garcitas Creek, and was a significant part of the history of French colonization of Texas. A June 1996 dig at the site that was believed to be the correct location revealed eight French cannon. This led archeologists to excavate the Keeran Ranch site in the area, during 1996–2002; they concluded that the Spanish Presidio La Bahía fort "was built on the La Salle settlement". Some 10 percent of the artifacts recovered are believed to have originated in France.


title: Pankhuri Awasthy Rode

text: Pankhuri Awasthy Rode (born 31 March 1991) is an Indian actress who mainly works in Hindi television. She made her acting debut in 2014 with "Yeh Hai Aashiqui" portraying Saima. Awasthy Rode is best known for her portrayal of Razia Sultan in "Razia Sultan" and Draupadi in "Suryaputra Karn".


title: Pankhuri Awasthy Rode

text: Awasthy's other notable include portraying Vedika in "Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai" and Kajal Bhatt Khurana in "Gud Se Meetha Ishq". She made her film debut with "Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan" in 2021.


title: Pankhuri Awasthy Rode

text: Awasthy Rode was born on 31 March 1991 in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. She grew up in Delhi but moved to Bangalore for a job in marketing. In 2014, she ultimately moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in acting.


title: Pankhuri Awasthy Rode

text: In October 2017, Awasthy got engaged to actor Gautam Rode. Awasthy and Rode got married on 5 February 2018 in Alwar.


title: Pankhuri Awasthy Rode

text: Awasthy Rode played the role of Seher in "MTV Fanaah Season 2". After that, she played the role of "Razia Sultan" in &TV’s historical drama "Razia Sultan". She also played "Draupadi" in the mythological drama "Suryaputra Karn". In 2017, she played the lead role of "Amla" in Star Plus’s show Kya Qusoor Hai Amala Ka?, which is an Indian adaptation of famous Turkish show "Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?".


title: Pankhuri Awasthy Rode

text: In 2019, she played an episodic role in the Colors TV's show "Kaun Hai?" as Pauloma / Anvesha and also appeared in the & TV's show "Laal Ishq". From June 2019 to January 2020 she played the role of Vedika Agarwal in Star Plus's drama "Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai".


title: Pankhuri Awasthy Rode

text: Rode made her debut in Hindi cinema with "Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan", which was released on 21 February 2020. In 2022, she portrayed Kajal Bhatt Khurana in "Gud Se Meetha Ishq".


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: Ositadimma "Osi" Umenyiora (born November 16, 1981) is a former American football defensive end. He played college football for Troy University and was drafted by the New York Giants in the second round of the 2003 NFL Draft. Umenyiora was a two-time Pro Bowl selection and holds the Giants franchise record for most sacks in one game. He is one of five British-born players to have won a Super Bowl, joining Marvin Allen, Scott McCready, former Giants teammate Lawrence Tynes and Jay Ajayi. He also played for the Atlanta Falcons.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: Umenyiora was born in Golders Green, London to Nigerian parents. He is of Igbo descent, a native of Ogbunike town in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra state in Nigeria. His full first name means in Igbo "from today on, things will be good."


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: Umenyiora's family moved from London to Nigeria when he was seven years old. At fourteen years old, Umenyiora moved to Auburn, Alabama to live with his sister. Umenyiora played only two years of high school football at Auburn High School where he was sixteen years old as a senior. Umenyiora was high school friends and teammates with fellow future NFL defensive lineman DeMarcus Ware, who was two years behind him and would follow Umenyiora to Troy.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: He finished his high school football career with no scholarship offers. After the season, while Umenyiora was serving an in-school suspension, his team’s running back coach called his former college teammate Tracy Rocker, then the defensive line coach at Troy State, to tell him about Umenyiora. Rocker happened to be in town, stopped by the school, and offered Umenyiora a scholarship the same day.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: Umenyiora played college football for the Troy State Trojans, the only program to offer him an athletic scholarship. At Troy, Umenyiora was moved from nose guard to defensive end. In 2002, he set school records in tackles for loss in a single season (20.5) and sacks in a single game (four against Florida A&M). He finished the 2002 season with 15 sacks, the second-most in NCAA Division I. He was inducted into the Troy University Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: Despite not being invited to the 2003 NFL Draft Combine, Umenyiora was drafted in the 2nd round (56th pick overall) of the 2003 NFL Draft by the New York Giants out of Troy University.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: Umenyiora established himself as a premier pass rusher in 2005, his first year as a starter. His stellar play earned All-Pro recognition and a trip to the Pro Bowl. Umenyiora achieved 14.5 sacks and 70 tackles, second only to the sixteen sacks obtained by Derrick Burgess of the Oakland Raiders.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: On December 23, 2005, the Giants signed Umenyiora to a six-year contract extension for $41 million with $15 million guaranteed.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: In the fourth game of the 2007 season, he set a Giants franchise record by recording six sacks against the Philadelphia Eagles. At that point in the season, the Giants had 12 sacks, tying the NFL record. He recorded his first career touchdown on October 21 against the San Francisco 49ers when he sacked Trent Dilfer, forced a fumble, recovered the fumble, and ran 75 yards for the score.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: By the end of the season, Umenyiora's 13 sacks helped the Giants to an NFL regular season-leading 53 sacks. The Giants had a surprise victory in Super Bowl XLII over the New England Patriots, in part because of their strong pass rush performance. Umenyiora had four tackles in that game, three of which were solos.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: During a preseason game against the New York Jets, Umenyiora suffered cartilage damage in his left knee and was required to undergo season-ending surgery. The finding by team physician Russell Warren was that Umenyiora suffered a torn lateral meniscus.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: In week 1 of the 2009 season against the Washington Redskins, Umenyiora recorded his second and final career touchdown, also on a sack, forced fumble, and recovery.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: On November 5, 2010, Umenyiora was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Month after recording 18 tackles (10 solo), 7.0 sacks, and six forced fumbles in the Giants' four October wins. Umenyiora and teammate Justin Tuck recorded 11.5 sacks for the year, and combined for 16 forced fumbles.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: On July 29, 2011, Umenyiora did not report on the opening day of the Giants' training camp. As a result, the Giants placed him on Reserve/Did Not Report. He reported to camp late the following day. Umenyiora has claimed that general manager Jerry Reese promised to renegotiate his contract after the 2010 season, but failed to do so.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: Umenyiora began practicing with his teammates on August 15, but after three practices he had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. The team expected him to miss the season opener against the Washington Redskins on September 11.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: In June 2012 Umenyiora agreed to a one-year contract with the Giants, after terminating his working relationship with agent Tony Agnone.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: On August 26, 2015, he announced his retirement. He signed a ceremonial one-day deal with the Giants to officially retire as a member of the team.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: After retiring in 2015, he joined BBC Sport as a pundit for their NFL coverage working on the NFL International Series matches from London and the Super Bowl. He has worked alongside Match of the Day 2 host Mark Chapman, Jason Bell, Nat Coombs, Mike Carlson and Dan Walker and their coverage has gained rave reviews from NFL fans in the UK. He also worked on the BBC's NFL weekly highlights shows ("The NFL Show/NFL This Week") which were on every week of the season.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: His pundit work has been recognized with two Royal Television Society Performance Awards for Best Sports Presenter, Commentator or Pundit in 2017 and 2019 (he was also on the three person shortlist in 2018) and the 2018 Sports Journalists' Association British Sports Pundit of the Year award.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: Umenyiora formerly resided in Cleveland, Georgia and Edgewater, New Jersey. In 2008, he made a cameo appearance in the music video "I Luv Your Girl" by The-Dream.


title: Osi Umenyiora

text: In February 2013, he became engaged to Miss Universe 2011, Leila Lopes. They married May 29, 2015 in Luanda, Angola, the bride's home country. They have two children together.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: Jitendra Singh (born 6 November 1956) is an Indian physician and politician. He is the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Science and Technology and Minister of state (Independent Charge) ministry of earth science and Minister of State for Prime Minister's Office; Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: He is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive member and was the chief spokesperson for the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. He won the Udhampur seat in the Indian general election, 2014 and 2019 with highest ever margin of votes for the 16th Lok Sabha and 17th Lok Sabha.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: He was a professor of diabetes and endocrinology, Life Patron, Research Society for Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI); Founder Executive Member, Diabetes in Pregnancy Study  India, a consultant, clinical practitioner, author of eight books, and a newspaper columnist. He is the ex-chairman for the National Scientific Committee Diabetes and the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: Singh was born on 6 November 1956 in Jammu, in the erstwhile Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir into a Hindu Dogra family to parents Rajinder Singh and Shanti Devi. His family belongs to Marmat area in Doda district. Jitendra is the eldest of three brothers.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: Besides being a doctor, Singh has also worked as a newspaper columnist. Initially he wrote for "Kashmir Times". However, he was unhappy about how the newspaper covered events related to Kashmir. Subsequently, he switched to "Daily Excelsior", which is the largest circulated newspaper of Jammu and Kashmir. His weekly column 'Tales of Travesty' used to feature in the editorial section of the newspaper until his election to the Lok Sabha in 2014.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: In 2008, Singh was appointed spokesperson of the Shri Amarnathji Sangharsh Samiti, an umbrella organisation of right wing parties during the Amarnath land transfer controversy. During his stint with the organisation, he took premature retirement as a professor of endocrinology in the Government Medical College, Jammu to join the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2012. However, the party refused to make him a candidate for the 2009 Indian general election.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: In March 2014, the party announced that Singh would contest the upcoming general election from Udhampur constituency in his native Jammu. His primary competitor was Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Indian National Congress party who was a former chief minister of the state. Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha after defeating Azad by a margin of 60,976 votes. Singh was polled votes while Azad was polled votes.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: On 27 May 2014, Singh was appointed Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Minister of State for Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space. He also became the Union Minister of State (Independent charge) in the Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: In March 2019, the party renominated Singh as its candidate from the Udhampur constituency for the upcoming general election. His main rival was Vikramaditya Singh of the Congress party and supported by Jammu and Kashmir National Conference party. He is also the grandson of Hari Singh, the last monarch of the former princely state. Jitendra Singh fought the election on his "development report card". Notable campaigners for him included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Ram Madhav and cricketer Gautam Gambhir. Jitendra Singh was re-elected to the Lok Sabha after defeating Vikramaditya Singh by approximately 350,000 votes. Jitendra Singh was polled 7,15,406 votes compared to his rival's 3,66,123 votes.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: As a minister of science and technology, Singh launched India's first indigenously made research vessel named "Sindhu Sadhana" on 14 July 2014 from Mormugao harbour in Goa. In a written response to the Lok Sabha on 31 July, he announced that India had signed cooperative arrangements with 33 countries for "peaceful use of outer space". He further added that areas of co-operation included remote sensing of earth, launch services, satellite communication, telemetry, space exploration and space law. He further launched India's first home-made broad spectrum confocal microscope on 7 October at New Delhi. He announced that the government was considering increasing the retirement age of scientists to 62 years. The ministry increased the stipend of researchers by 50% at the end of the month. On 8 November 2014, Singh was replaced by Harsh Vardhan, another doctor as the minister of science and technology and earth sciences.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: During Singh's ministership, the fourth Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System was launched by ISRO in April 2015 which would provide "navigation and communication facility to all the surrounding countries". On 29 April 2018, he along with ISRO chairman K. Sivan confirmed that India would send a manned mission to moon by 2022 as proposed by Prime Minister Modi.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: During Singh's tenure as the minister of personnel, public grievances and pension, the Union Public Service Commission refused to count the marks of English comprehension in the Civil Services Aptitude Test. This violated the status quo of the question paper as suggested by the Arvind Varma committee. Interviews were discontinued for lower tier government jobs as well the need of attestation by a gazetted officer was also discontinued. On 20 March 2019, Pinaki Chandra Ghose, a former Supreme Court judge was appointed as India's first Lokpal.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: On 8 November 2014, in a cabinet reshuffle, Singh was appointed Minister of State (Independent charge) in the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and replaced V.K. Singh. In the ministry, he introduced the use of satellite imaging for surveying and building roads and for "preparation of utilisation certificates with fool-proof accuracy". He advised Sarbananda Sonowal, the Chief Minister of Assam to utilise the Assam Remote Sensing Application Centre to construct smart cities and in urban development. On 23 November 2015, Singh announced that the central government has decided to make Mizoram a "bamboo state" and the ministry proposed steps for the commercial utilisation of the state's bamboo potential.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: In January 2016, he said that the Northeast India was "emerging destination for new Startups". In the Startup India scheme launched by Modi, the ministry added an additional incentive, "venture"funds. This fund would provide the aspiring entrepreneurs "relief from financial liabilities" and thus according to Singh, youth from other parts of India would "participate in the development of the North-Eastern States".


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: In September 2018, Pakyong Airport, Sikkim's first greenfield airport was inaugurated by Modi. Previously, Singh had set up a deadline of 2017. In the same month, he announced that an airport would also be built in Arunachal Pradesh.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: On 17 November 2014, the party announced that Singh was appointed the head of the 18 member Election Campaign Committee for the upcoming legislative assembly election in his native state. He formulated the strategy for the party. However, no party managed to get a majority in the election. The media speculated that Singh might become the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir as he had the support of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah and was popular amongst the Hindus of Jammu. The party negotiated with Jammu and Kashmir National Conference party in order to form a coalition government. However, talks fell flat when the National Conference rejected the demand of a Hindu chief minister for which Singh was a front runner.


title: Jitendra Singh (politician, born 1956)

text: Singh said that the Article 370 of the Constitution of India, which gave a special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir was temporary in nature and quoted India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the same. He alleged that Congress and National Conference parties had fooled the people of the state "in the name of Article 370". He further criticised former chief minister Sheikh Abdullah for misusing the article to lengthen the term of the assembly.


title: Jai Shri Ram

text: Jai Shri Ram (IAST: ) is an expression in Indic languages, translating as "Glory to Lord Rama" or "Victory to Lord Rama". The proclamation has been used by Hindus as an informal greeting, as a symbol of adhering to Hindu faith, or for projection of varied faith-centered emotions.


title: Jai Shri Ram

text: The expression was used by the Indian Hindu nationalist organisations Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and their allies, which embraced the slogan in the late 20th century as a tool of increasing the visibility of Hinduism in public spaces and went on to use it as a battle cry. The slogan has since then been employed for perpetration of communal violence against people of other faiths.


title: Jai Shri Ram

text: Photojournalist Prashant Panjiar wrote about how in the city Ayodhya female pilgrims always chant "Sita-Ram-Sita-Ram", while the older male pilgrims prefer not to use Rama's name at all. The traditional usage of "Jai" in a slogan was with ""Siyavar Ramchandraji ki jai"" ("Victory to Sita's husband Rama"). A popular greeting invoking Ram is "Jai Ram ji ki" and "Ram-Ram".


title: Jai Shri Ram

text: The worship of Rama increased significantly in the 12th century, following the invasions of Muslim Turks. The Ramayana became widely popular in the 16th century. It is argued that the story of Rama offers a "very powerful imaginative formulation of the divine king as the only being capable of combating evil". The concept of Ramrajya, "the rule of Ram", was used by Gandhi to describe the ideal country free from the British.


title: Jai Shri Ram

text: The most widely known political use of Ram began with Baba Ram Chandra's peasant movement in Awadh in the 1920s. He encouraged the use of "Sita-Ram" as opposed to the then widely used "Salaam" as a greeting, since the latter implied social inferiority. "Sita-Ram" soon became a rallying cry.


title: Jai Shri Ram

text: In the late 1980's, the slogan "Jai Shri Ram" was popularised by Ramanand Sagar's television series "Ramayan", where it was used by Hanuman and the "Vaanar Sena" (monkey army) as a war cry when they fought the demon army of Ravan in order to free Sita.