title: Aceh Sultanate

text: The sultanate was founded by Ali Mughayat Syah, who began campaigns to extend his control over northern Sumatra in 1520. His conquests included Deli, Pedir, and Pasai, and he attacked Aru. His son Alauddin al-Kahar (d. 1571) extended the domains farther south into Sumatra, but was less successful in his attempts to gain a foothold across the strait, though he made several attacks on both Johor and Malacca, with the support along with men and firearms from Suleiman the Magnificent's Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire sent a relief force of 15 Xebecs commanded by Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis.


title: Aceh Sultanate

text: Aceh formed the northern tip of Sumatra at the southeast corner of the Bay of Bengal. Ships from the Bengal Sultanate transported diplomats from Sumatra and Brunei to Ming China.


title: Aceh Sultanate

text: On 21 June 1599 a Dutch captain, Cornelius de Houtman, arrived at "Acheen" aboard the "Lioness" as the first of three planned voyages to the East Indies. The crew stayed for three months acquiring pepper and other spices. British crew member John Davis claims the party was subsequently attacked by the local warlord with the loss of 68 dead and captured. After they arrived, they were permitted by the sultan to purchase pepper, during the same year as representatives of the English East India Company under the command of James Lancaster arrived. He returned in 1602 bearing a letter from English queen Elizabeth I.


title: Aceh Sultanate

text: The sultan from 1589 to 1604 was Alauddin Riayat Shah ibn Firman Shah. Internal dissension in the sultanate prevented another powerful sultan from appearing until 1607 when Iskandar Muda came to the position. He extended the sultanate's control over most of Sumatra. He also conquered Pahang, a tin-producing region of the Malayan Peninsula, and was able to force the sultans of Johor to recognise his overlordship, if temporarily. During his reign, he created a code of laws known as "Adat Meukuta Alam" (Adat meaning "customs", or "customary rules"). The strength of his formidable fleet was brought to an end with a disastrous campaign against Malacca in 1629 when the combined Portuguese and Johor forces managed to destroy all his ships and 19,000 troops according to Portuguese account. Aceh's forces were not destroyed, however, as Aceh was able to conquer Kedah within the same year and taking many of its citizens to Aceh. The sultan's son-in-law, Iskandar Thani, former prince of Pahang later became his successor. During his reign, Aceh focused on internal consolidation and religious unity.


title: Aceh Sultanate

text: After the reign of Sultan Iskandar Thani, Aceh was ruled by a series of female sultana. Aceh's previous policy of taking hostages from conquered kingdoms' population made them eager to seek independence, the results were Aceh's control weakened while regional rulers gained effective power. The sultan ultimately became a largely symbolic title. By the 1680s, a Persian visitor could describe a northern Sumatra where "every corner shelters a separate king or governor and all the local rulers maintain themselves independently and do not pay tribute to any higher authority."


title: Aceh Sultanate

text: In 1699 Sultan Badr al-alam Syarif Hasyim Jamal ad-din ascended to the throne, the first male to rule in almost 60 years. He was succeeded by several short-lived rulers, and in 1727 a member of the Buginese dynasty, Sultan Ala ad-din Ahmad Shah took power. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Koh Lay Huan – the first Kapitan Cina of Penang, had good contacts with the English-and-French-speaking sultan of Aceh, Jauhar al-Alam. The sultan allowed Koh to gather pepper plants in Aceh to begin pepper cultivation in Penang. Later, about 1819, Koh helped Sultan Jauhar al-Alam put down a rebellion by Acehnese territorial chiefs.


title: Aceh Sultanate

text: In the 1820s, as Aceh produced over half the world's supply of pepper, a new leader, Tuanku Ibrahim, was able to restore some authority to the sultanate and gain control over the "pepper rajas" who were nominal vassals of the sultan by playing them off against each other. He rose to power during the sultanate of his brother, Muhammad Syah, and was able to dominate the reign of his successor Sulaiman Syah (r. 1838–1857), before taking the sultanate himself, under the title Sultan Ali Alauddin Mansur Syah (1857–1870). He extended Aceh's effective control southward at just the time when the Dutch were consolidating their holdings northward.


title: Aceh Sultanate

text: Britain, heretofore guarding the independence of Aceh to keep it out of Dutch hands, re-evaluated its policy and concluded the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of Sumatra, which allowed for Dutch control throughout Sumatra in exchange for concessions in the Gold Coast and equal trading rights in northern Aceh. The treaty was tantamount to a declaration of war on Aceh, and the Aceh War followed soon after in 1873, with the Dutch making the unfounded excuses that Aceh was sponsoring piracy and preparing to conclude a treaty with the United States. As the Dutch prepared for war, Mahmud Syah (1870–1874) appealed for international help, but no one was willing or able to assist.


title: Aceh Sultanate

text: In early 1874 the sultan abandoned the capital after the palace was captured on 31 January, withdrawing to the hills, while the Dutch announced the annexation of Aceh. He would die of cholera, as did many combatants on both sides, but the Acehnese proclaimed a grandson of Tuanku Ibrahim sultan. The local rulers of Acehnese ports nominally submitted to Dutch authority to avoid a blockade, but they used their income to support the resistance.


title: Aceh Sultanate

text: During this time, many Acehan politicians sought aid from the Ottoman Empire. Their efforts were futile, but they did serve to inspire resistance movements across south-east Asia. Local resistance in northern Sumatra then passed to the local lords and potentates, and then to the religious leaders. However, an adviser of the sultan, Abd al-Rahman al-Zahir, soon returned to take command of the independence movement, fell out with the revolutionary leaders, and promptly agreed to surrender himself to the Dutch in exchange for a lifetime pension in Mecca.


title: Aceh Sultanate

text: The Dutch, now hounded by locals and cholera alike, fortified their coastal positions and began a slow siege of the entire country, conducted by General van Pel. The capital, in particular, was surrounded by forts connected by railways. The Dutch made another serious attempt to finally pacify the country in 1884, but it quickly slowed and suffered from popular criticism. Dutch armies were finally able to make progress between 1898 and 1903, with each local potentate in occupied territories being forced to sign "The Short Declaration", a pledge of allegiance to the Dutch colonial overlords. Because of their co-operation, the Dutch were able to establish a fairly stable government in Aceh and get the sultan to surrender in 1903. After his exile in 1907, no successor was named, but the resistance continued to fight for some time, until 1912.


title: Aceh Sultanate

text: During the reign of Iskandar Muda (c.1538–1636), state centralization was carried out. This was done by removing or exterminating the present nobility and creating new ones that were friendly to the state. Besides this, the policy carried out the division of plots of land within the sultanate by "mukim" (similar to Christian parishes subdivisions), each of these "mukims" would be headed by an "uleebalang" (leader) who was responsible for security. Some regions of Aceh, especially of the western-producing pepper regions, were controlled by appointed "panglima" (governors) whose duty was to report on events and were rotated every three years.


title: Aceh Sultanate

text: Aceh saw itself as heir to Pasai, the first Islamic state in Southeast Asia, and succeeded the role of Islamic missionary work of Malacca after it was conquered by the Catholic Portuguese. It was called the "porch of Mecca", and became a center of Islamic scholarship, where the Qur'an and other Islamic texts were translated into Malay. Its notable scholars included Hamzah Fansuri, Syamsuddin of Pasai, Abdurrauf of Singkil, and the Indian Nuruddin ar-Raniri.


title: Aceh Sultanate

text: Aceh gained wealth from its export of pepper, nutmeg, cloves, betel nuts, and also tin once it conquered Pahang in 1617. Low-interest rates and the use of gold currency strengthened its economy. It was always somewhat fragile economically, however, because of the difficulty in providing enough surplus food to support the military and commercial adventures of the state. As Aceh lost political cohesion in the 17th century, it saw its trading importance yielded to the Dutch East India Company, who became the dominant military and economic power in the region following the successful siege of Malacca in 1641.


title: Out of Africa

text: Out of Africa is a memoir by the Danish author Karen Blixen. The book, first published in 1937, recounts events of the seventeen years when Blixen made her home in Kenya, then called British East Africa. The book is a lyrical meditation on Blixen's life on her coffee plantation, as well as a tribute to some of the people who touched her life there. It provides a vivid snapshot of African colonial life in the last decades of the British Empire. Blixen wrote the book in English and then rewrote it in Danish. The book has sometimes been published under the author's pen name, Isak Dinesen.


title: Out of Africa

text: Karen Blixen moved to British East Africa in late 1913, at the age of 28, to marry her second cousin, the Swedish Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, and make a life in the British colony known today as Kenya. The young Baron and Baroness bought farmland below the Ngong Hills about ten miles (16 km) southwest of Nairobi, which at the time was still shaking off its rough origins as a supply depot on the Uganda Railway.


title: Out of Africa

text: The Blixens had planned to raise dairy cattle, but Bror developed their farm as a coffee plantation instead. It was managed by Europeans, including, at the start, Karen's brother Thomas – but most of the labour was provided by “squatters.” This was the colonial term for local Kikuyu tribespeople who guaranteed the owners 180 days of labour in exchange for wages and the right to live and farm on the uncultivated lands.


title: Out of Africa

text: When the First World War drove coffee prices up, the Blixen family invested in the business, and in 1917 Karen and Bror expanded their holdings to six thousand acres (24 km²). The new acquisitions included the site of the house which features so prominently in "Out of Africa".


title: Out of Africa

text: The Blixens’ marriage started well – Karen and Bror went on hunting safaris which Karen later remembered as paradisiacal. But it was not ultimately successful: Bror, a talented hunter and a well liked companion, was an unfaithful husband and a poor businessman who squandered much of the money to be invested in the farm. In 1921 the couple separated, and in 1925 they were divorced; Karen took over the management of the farm on her own.


title: Out of Africa

text: She was well suited to the work – fiercely independent and capable, she loved the land and liked her native workers. But the climate and soil of her particular tract were not ideal for coffee-raising; the farm endured several unexpected dry years with low yields as well as a pestilence of grasshoppers one season - and the falling market price of coffee was no help. The farm sank further and further into debt until, in 1931, the family corporation forced her to sell it. The buyer, Remi Martin, who planned to carve it into residential plots, offered to allow Blixen to stay in the house. She declined, and returned to Denmark.


title: Out of Africa

text: Blixen moved back to the family's estate of Rungstedlund (in Rungsted, Denmark), and lived with her mother; there she took up again the writing career that she had begun, but abandoned, in her youth. In 1934 she published a fiction collection, "Seven Gothic Tales", and in 1937 she published her Kenyan memoir, "Out of Africa". The book's title was likely derived from the title of a poem, ""Ex Africa"," she had written in 1915, while recuperating in a Danish hospital from her fight with syphilis. The poem's title is probably an abbreviation of the famous ancient Latin adage (credited to sages from Aristotle to Pliny to Erasmus) "Ex Africa semper aliquid novi", which translates as “Out of Africa, always something new.”


title: Out of Africa

text: "Out of Africa" is divided into five sections, most of which are non-linear and seem to reflect no particular chronology. The first two focus primarily on Africans who lived or had business on the farm, and include close observations of native ideas about justice and punishment in the wake of a gruesome accidental shooting. The third section, called “Visitors to the Farm,” describes some of the more colourful local characters who considered Blixen's farm to be a safe haven. The fourth, “From an Immigrant’s Notebook,” is a collection of short sub-chapters in which Blixen reflects on the life of a white African colonist.


title: Out of Africa

text: In the fifth and final section, “Farewell to the Farm,” the book begins to take on a more linear shape, as Blixen details the farm's financial failure, and the untimely deaths of several of her closest friends in Kenya. The book ends with the farm sold, and with Blixen on the Uganda Railway, heading toward the steamer on the coast, looking back and watching her beloved Ngong Hills diminish behind her.


title: Out of Africa

text: "Out of Africa" has been noted for its melancholy and elegiac style – Blixen biographer Judith Thurman employs an African tribal phrase to describe it: “clear darkness.” It is not an insignificant fact that Blixen's tales encompass the deaths of at least five of the important people in the book. As the chapters proceed, Blixen begins to meditate more plainly on her feelings of loss and nostalgia for her days in Africa. As she describes the economic realities of her failed business closing in on her, she comments wryly on her mixture of despair and denial, until the last days are upon her and she gives in to the inevitable.


title: Out of Africa

text: But Blixen's wistfulness is fueled and informed by a loss greater than her own farm: the loss of Kenya itself. In the first two decades of the 20th century, many of Kenya's European settlers saw their colonial home as a kind of timeless paradise. One frequent explorer referred to the atmosphere as a “tropical, neo-lithic slumber.” U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who explored the region in 1909, compared it to “the late Pleistocene.”


title: Out of Africa

text: Settlement was sparse; life followed the slow, dreamy rhythms of annual dry and rainy seasons. A few thousand European colonists, many of them well-educated Britons from the landed gentry, held dominion over vast plantation estates covering tens of thousands of acres. Their farms were home to herds of elephants and zebra, and dozens of giraffes, lions, hippos, leopards – to a culture accustomed to the traditional pleasures of European aristocrats, Kenya was a hunter's dream. Blixen herself commented in 1960 that when she arrived in Kenya in 1914, “the highlands were in very truth the Happy Hunting Grounds… while the pioneers lived in guileless harmony with the children of the land.”


title: Out of Africa

text: This belief in Kenya as a pre-historic Utopia left its mark on its inhabitants (and remained an idealised world of the imagination even for generations that came after). But by the time that Blixen was finishing the manuscript for "Out of Africa" at the age of 51, the Kenya protectorate of her younger years was a thing of the past. Aggressive agricultural development had spread the colony's human footprint far out into the game country; many of the new farmers were middle class retired Army officers recruited by a government settlement programme after the First World War. The popularity of hunting safaris, especially after Roosevelt's world-famous journey in 1909, had depleted the big herds precipitously. And as the clouds of war threatened Europe once again, the colony became as famous (or infamous) for the misbehaviour of the wife-swapping, hard-partying Happy Valley set as it was for being a dreamy horizon of Empire.


title: Out of Africa

text: In Baroness Blixen's descriptions of the Africa she knew, a note of mourning for this irretrievably lost world frequently colours her stories of magnificent isolation and the redemptive qualities of a life lived in partnership with nature.


title: Out of Africa

text: At first glance much of the book, especially the section titled “From an Immigrant’s Notebook", seems to be a string of loosely related episodes organised from Blixen's memory, or perhaps from notes she made while in Africa (indeed, in one of the early chapters she describes discussing the beginning of her work on the book with her young cook Kamante).


title: Out of Africa

text: Blixen examines the details and ethical implications of two separate “trials". The first is African: a gathering of tribesmen on her farm to adjudicate the case of a Kikuyu child who accidentally killed one playmate and maimed another with a shotgun. This process seems largely devoid of Western-style moral or ethical considerations: most of the energy expended in deliberations is directed at determining the proper amount of reparation the perpetrator's father must pay, in livestock, to the families of the victims. Later, Blixen describes a British colonial criminal trial in Nairobi: the defendant is European settler Jasper Abraham who is accused of causing, by intention or indifference, the death of a disobedient African servant named Kitosch. Blixen does not directly compare the two proceedings, but the contrasts are stark.


title: Out of Africa

text: These two trials, separated by most of the book, may also be part of a deeper exploration by Blixen into one of her pet notions: the “Unity” of contrasts. Perhaps her greatest elucidation of this idea comes in "Shadows on the Grass", which she wrote thirty years after leaving Kenya:


title: Out of Africa

text: Her life in Africa offered her no shortage of such contrasting dualities: town and country, dry season and rainy season, Muslim and Christian. Her most constant theme is the contrast of African and European.


title: Out of Africa

text: Much of Blixen's energy in "Out of Africa" is spent trying to capture for the reader the character of the Africans who lived on or near her farm, and the efforts of European colonists (herself included) to co-exist with them.


title: Out of Africa

text: Although she was unavoidably in the position of landholder, and wielded great power over her tenants, Blixen was known in her day for her respectful and admiring relationships with Africans – a connection that made her increasingly suspect among the other colonists as tensions grew between Europeans and Africans. “We were good friends,” she writes about her staff and workers. “I reconciled myself to the fact that while I should never quite know or understand them, they knew me through and through.”


title: Out of Africa

text: But Blixen does understand – and thoughtfully delineates – the differences between the culture of the Kikuyu who work her farm and who raise and trade their own sheep and cattle, and that of the Maasai, a volatile warrior culture of nomadic cattle-drovers who live on a designated tribal reservation south of the farm's property. Blixen also describes in some detail the lives of the Somali Muslims who emigrated south from Somaliland to work in Kenya, and a few members of the substantial Indian merchant minority which played a large role in the colony's early development.


title: Out of Africa

text: Her descriptions of Africans and their behaviour or customs sometimes employ some of the racial language of her time, deemed now to be abrasive, but her portraits are frank and accepting, and are generally free of perceptions of Africans as savages or simpletons. She transmits a sense of logic and dignity of ancient tribal customs. Some of those customs, such as the valuation of daughters based on the dowry they will bring at marriage, are perceived as ugly to Western eyes; Blixen's voice in describing these traditions is largely free of judgment.


title: Out of Africa

text: She was admired in return by many of her African employees and acquaintances, who saw her as a thoughtful and wise figure, and turned to her for the resolution of many disputes and conflicts.


title: Out of Africa

text: The other characters who populate "Out of Africa" are the Europeans – colonists as well as some of the wanderers who stopped in Kenya. Foremost among them is Denys Finch Hatton, who was for a time Blixen's lover after her separation and then her divorce from her husband. Finch Hatton, like Blixen herself, was known to feel close to his African acquaintances – as, indeed, do virtually all of the Europeans for whom Blixen expresses real regard in "Out of Africa".


title: Out of Africa

text: Blixen limits most of her reflections to those Europeans who were her frequent or favourite guests, such as a man she identifies only as “Old Knudsen”, a down-and-out Danish fisherman who invites himself to take up residence on her farm, and then dies there several months later.


title: Out of Africa

text: Edward, Prince of Wales, also makes an appearance; his 1928 visit to the colony was an event of the utmost importance in Kenya's aristocratic social circles (the Governor of the colony ordered the streets of Nairobi repaved for the occasion).


title: Out of Africa

text: Conspicuously absent from the stories in "Out of Africa" is any explicit appearance by Blixen's husband, Bror von Blixen-Finecke. Blixen refers to her younger days on shooting safaris, safaris which she is known to have taken with Bror, but doesn't mention him in that context. There is a reference or two to “my husband", but she never uses his first name. Although the Blixens remained friendly through their separation and divorce, Bror's associations with other women caused Karen embarrassment. Decorum drove her to withdraw from social events where Bror would be present with a mistress (one of whom became his next wife), and she was, privately, resentful of these social strictures.


title: Out of Africa

text: In 1960, at the age of 76, Blixen published "Shadows on the Grass", a short compendium of further recollections about her days in Africa. Many of the people and the events from "Out of Africa" appear again on these pages. Due to its brevity and its closely related content, "Shadows on the Grass" has in recent years been published as a combined volume with "Out of Africa".


title: Out of Africa

text: Sydney Pollack directed a film adaptation in 1985, starring Meryl Streep, Robert Redford and Klaus Maria Brandauer. The film received heavily mixed reviews from critics but, nonetheless, won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Pollack and Best Adapted Screenplay


title: Out of Africa

text: The film is less a direct adaptation of the book than it is a love story. Written by Kurt Luedtke and drawing heavily on two biographies of Blixen, it is a compressed chronological recounting of Blixen's Kenyan years that focuses particularly on her troubled marriage and her affair with Finch Hatton. Some of Blixen's more poetic narration and a few episodes from the book do appear in the film, such as Blixen's work running supply waggons during the war, the farm's fire and its financial troubles, and her struggles to find a home for her Kikuyu squatters. Most of the main characters are identified by their real names, though substantial liberties are taken with some of the details.


title: Out of Africa

text: An earlier screenplay was written for Universal Studios in 1969 by the playwright, screenwriter and science writer Robert Ardrey, but the script was never produced. In February 2017, NBCUniversal International Studios announced a joint venture with "Harry Potter" and "Gravity" producer David Heyman to develop the memoir as a drama TV series with "The Night Manager"'s director/executive producer Susanne Bier set to direct and executive produce.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: Mercedes de Acosta (March 1, 1892 – May 9, 1968) was an American poet, playwright, and novelist. Although she failed to achieve artistic and professional distinction, de Acosta is known for her many lesbian affairs with celebrated Broadway and Hollywood personalities including Alla Nazimova, Isadora Duncan, Eva Le Gallienne, and Marlene Dietrich. Her best-known involvement was with Greta Garbo with whom, in 1931, she began a sporadic and volatile romance. Her 1960 memoir, "Here Lies the Heart", is considered part of LGBT history insofar that it hints at the lesbian element in some of her relationships.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: She was born in New York City on March 1, 1892. Her father, Ricardo de Acosta, was born in Cuba to Spanish parents, and later emigrated to the United States. Her mother, Micaela Hernández de Alba y de Alba, was Spanish and allegedly a descendant of the Spanish Dukes of Alba. De Acosta had five siblings: Aida, Ricardo Jr., Angela, Maria, and Rita. Maria married the socially prominent landscape architect A. Robeson Sargent, son of Harvard botanist Charles Sprague Sargent. Rita became a famous beauty known as Rita Lydig. De Acosta attended elementary


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: school at the Convent of the Blessed Sacrament on West 79th Street in Manhattan where Dorothy Parker was a classmate.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: She was described in 1955 by Garbo biographer, John Bainbridge, as "a woman of courtly manners, impeccable decorative taste and great personal elegance... a woman with a passionate and intense devotion to the art of living... and endowed with a high spirit, energy, eclectic curiosity and a varied interest in the arts."


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: De Acosta was involved in numerous lesbian relationships with Broadway's and Hollywood's elite and she did not attempt to hide her sexuality; her uncloseted existence was very rare and daring in her generation. In 1916 she began an affair with actress Alla Nazimova and later with dancer Isadora Duncan. Shortly after marrying Abram Poole in 1920, de Acosta became involved in a five-year relationship with actress Eva Le Gallienne. De Acosta wrote two plays for Le Gallienne, "Sandro Botticelli" and "Jehanne de Arc". After the financial failures of both plays they ended their relationship.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: Over the next decade she was involved with several famous actresses and dancers including Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Ona Munson, and Russian ballerina Tamara Platonovna Karsavina.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: Additional unsubstantiated rumors include affairs with Tallulah Bankhead, Pola Negri, Eleonora Duse, Katherine Cornell, and Alice B. Toklas, with an annoyed Bankhead regularly dubbing de Acosta as "Countess Dracula" following their alleged affair.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: It has often been said that she once stated, "I can get any woman away from any man," but there is no evidence to substantiate this claim.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: An ardent liberal, de Acosta was committed to several political causes. Concerned about the Spanish Civil War, which began in 1936, for example, she supported the Republican government that opposed the Nationalist faction. A tireless advocate for women's rights, she wrote in her memoir, "I believed...in every form of independence for women and I was...an enrolled worker for women's suffrage."


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: De Acosta's best-known relationship was with Greta Garbo. When Garbo's close friend, author Salka Viertel, introduced them in 1931, they quickly became involved. As their relationship developed, it became erratic and volatile with Garbo always in control. The two were very close sporadically and then apart for lengthy periods when Garbo, annoyed by Mercedes' obsessive behavior, coupled with her own neuroses, ignored her. In any case, they remained friends for thirty years during which time Garbo wrote de Acosta 181 letters, cards, and telegrams. About their friendship, Cecil Beaton, who was close to both women, recorded in his 1958 memoir, "Mercedes is [Garbo's] very best friend and for 30 years has stood by her, willing to devote her life to her".


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: Although it has been argued that an intimate relationship between them cannot be proved, de Acosta states they were lovers. Contrary to legend, she did not do so in her memoir. In 1959, when she was destitute, de Acosta sold her papers to the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia and claims to have reluctantly included romantic letters from Garbo. "I would not have had the heart or courage to have burned these letters", she wrote William McCarthy, curator of the museum. "I mean, of course, Eva ["sic"], Greta's and Marlene's who were lovers... I only hope... they will be respected and protected from the eyes of vulgar people". All of Garbo's and de Acosta's recent biographers, moreover, discuss their involvement. Per de Acosta's request, Garbo's letters were made available to the public in 2000, ten years after her death, and none were explicitly romantic. However, Garbo's family, which controls her estate, has permitted only 87 of 181 letters to be made public.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: In the early 1930s de Acosta developed an interest in Hinduism and was encouraged to seek out Indian mystic Meher Baba when he arrived in Hollywood. For several years she was captivated by his philosophy and methods and he often gave her advice about ways to address her problems. Later, she studied the philosophy of Hindu sage Ramana Maharishi who introduced her to yoga, meditation, and other spiritual practices she hoped would help ease her suffering. In 1938, she met Hindu dancer Ram Gopal in Hollywood. They immediately established a rapport and became close lifelong friends. Later that year they traveled to India to meet Maharishi.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: When asked about religion, de Acosta once said that although she had grown up Catholic, she would be, if she had to be anything, a Buddhist.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: In 1960, when de Acosta was seriously ill with a brain tumor and in need of money, she published her memoir, "Here Lies the Heart". The book was well-received by the critics and many close friends praised the book.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: But its implied homosexuality resulted in the severance of several friendships with women who felt she had betrayed their sexuality. Garbo ended their friendship at this time. Eva Le Gallienne in particular was furious, denouncing de Acosta as a liar and stating that she invented the stories for fame. This characterization is inaccurate since many of her affairs and relationships with women, including that with Le Gallienne, are confirmed in personal correspondence.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: An exception to this was Marlene Dietrich, who continued to correspond with her and loved the book. According to critic Patricia White, "If she craved being seen, MdA was more careful about what she said than she is given credit for. She wrote a name-dropping memoir, but for something attacked for exaggeration, it barely alludes to homosexuality". In any case, she gained a reputation that was not appreciated by everyone. But as Alice B. Toklas, lover of Gertrude Stein and de Acosta's long-term friend, wrote to a disapproving critic, "Say what you will about Mercedes, she's had the most important women of the twentieth century".


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: De Acosta died at age 76 in poverty in New York City. She is buried at Trinity Cemetery in Washington Heights, New York City.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: De Acosta has usually been described disparagingly, dismissed as a "notorious lesbian" who was a dishonest nuisance to her lovers and who consistently "stalked" Garbo. Garbo's biographers, for example, assess their relationship from Garbo's perspective in which Garbo is fundamentally blameless in their difficult relationship, a perpetual victim of de Acosta's alleged irksome behavior. But Robert A. Schanke, de Acosta's recent biographer, attempts, on the basis of extensive research, to provide an accurate picture of her. She was, Schanke acknowledges, flawed and imperfect, a complex woman who impaired several of her relationships and failed to achieve her professional and romantic aspirations. But he reveals her to have been an exceptionally lively, intelligent, and dynamic person who had many devoted friends. She was, he argues, a brave lesbian of her times and a person of integrity who remained kind and loyal to most everyone with whom she crossed paths. He suggests that the many denigrating portrayals of her may derive from the deep homophobia of her generation.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: She has been accused of fabricating incidents in her memoir and lacing it with half-truths and fantasies. She herself confessed, "I may have made mistakes in some dates or minor incidents but…I feel I have held to the spirit of my statement if not to the letter". Nevertheless, Karen Swenson, a Garbo biographer, and Schanke identified and corrected significant errors in de Acosta's account. While the memoir was initially unsuccessful, it was rediscovered in the late 1960s and widely read in the underground gay community. In spite of its inaccuracies, it is now recognized as an important contribution to gay and lesbian history.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: Her poetic work consists mainly of three books published during her life: "Moods" (prose poems) (1919), "Archways of Life" (1921), and "Streets and Shadows" (1922). A comprehensive compilation of these three books appeared, for the first time, in Spanish translation under the title "Imposeída (46 poemas)" (Las Cruces, NM: Eds. La Mirada, 2016, ), edited by Jesús J. Barquet and Carlota Caulfield. Barquet and Caulfield wrote the introduction to the book ("Mercedes de Acosta en traje de poeta") and, along with Joaquín Badajoz, authored the Spanish translations. In 2017, "Imposeida" was republished by Ediciones Holguin (), in Cuba; and in 2018 an expanded and revised version appeared in bilingual (English/Spanish) format in Ediciones Torremozas (), in Madrid.


title: Mercedes de Acosta

text: Composer Joseph Hallman memorialized de Acosta in the song cycle "Raving Beauty" for flute, harp, cello, and soprano. The song cycle was based on the correspondence and ephemera held in the de Acosta collection at the Rosenbach Museum. The work deals with her relationships and correspondences with Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Isadora Duncan, Igor Stravinsky, and others. Commissioned by the Philadelphia International Festival for the Arts, it has been performed many times, including by the Secret Opera.


title: Compressibility

text: In thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, the compressibility (also known as the coefficient of compressibility or, if the temperature is held constant, the isothermal compressibility) is a measure of the instantaneous relative volume change of a fluid or solid as a response to a pressure (or mean stress) change. In its simple form, the compressibility formula_1 (denoted in some fields) may be expressed as


title: Compressibility

text: where is volume and is pressure. The choice to define compressibility as the negative of the fraction makes compressibility positive in the (usual) case that an increase in pressure induces a reduction in volume. The reciprocal of compressibility at fixed temperature is called the isothermal bulk modulus.


title: Compressibility

text: The specification above is incomplete, because for any object or system the magnitude of the compressibility depends strongly on whether the process is isentropic or isothermal. Accordingly, isothermal compressibility is defined:


title: Compressibility

text: Since the density of a material is inversely proportional to its volume, it can be shown that in both cases


title: Compressibility

text: It follows, by replacing partial derivatives, that the isentropic compressibility can be expressed as:


title: Compressibility

text: The inverse of the compressibility is called the bulk modulus, often denoted (sometimes or formula_8).).


title: Compressibility

text: The compressibility equation relates the isothermal compressibility (and indirectly the pressure) to the structure of the liquid.


title: Compressibility

text: The isothermal compressibility is generally related to the isentropic (or adiabatic) compressibility by a few relations:


title: Compressibility

text: where is the heat capacity ratio, is the volumetric coefficient of thermal expansion, is the particle density, and formula_12 is the thermal pressure coefficient.


title: Compressibility

text: In an extensive thermodynamic system, the application of statistical mechanics shows that the isothermal compressibility is also related to the relative size of fluctuations in particle density:


title: Compressibility

text: The term "compressibility" is also used in thermodynamics to describe deviations of the thermodynamic properties of a real gas from those expected from an ideal gas.


title: Compressibility

text: where is the pressure of the gas, is its temperature, and formula_15 is its molar volume, all measured independently of one another. In the case of an ideal gas, the compressibility factor is equal to unity, and the familiar ideal gas law is recovered:


title: Compressibility

text: The deviation from ideal gas behavior tends to become particularly significant (or, equivalently, the compressibility factor strays far from unity) near the critical point, or in the case of high pressure or low temperature. In these cases, a generalized compressibility chart or an alternative equation of state better suited to the problem must be utilized to produce accurate results.


title: Compressibility

text: The Earth sciences use "compressibility" to quantify the ability of a soil or rock to reduce in volume under applied pressure. This concept is important for specific storage, when estimating groundwater reserves in confined aquifers. Geologic materials are made up of two portions: solids and voids (or same as porosity). The void space can be full of liquid or gas. Geologic materials reduce in volume only when the void spaces are reduced, which expel the liquid or gas from the voids. This can happen over a period of time, resulting in settlement.


title: Compressibility

text: It is an important concept in geotechnical engineering in the design of certain structural foundations. For example, the construction of high-rise structures over underlying layers of highly compressible bay mud poses a considerable design constraint, and often leads to use of driven piles or other innovative techniques.


title: Compressibility

text: The degree of compressibility of a fluid has strong implications for its dynamics. Most notably, the propagation of sound is dependent on the compressibility of the medium.


title: Compressibility

text: Compressibility is an important factor in aerodynamics. At low speeds, the compressibility of air is not significant in relation to aircraft design, but as the airflow nears and exceeds the speed of sound, a host of new aerodynamic effects become important in the design of aircraft. These effects, often several of them at a time, made it very difficult for World War II era aircraft to reach speeds much beyond .


title: Compressibility

text: Many effects are often mentioned in conjunction with the term "compressibility", but regularly have little to do with the compressible nature of air. From a strictly aerodynamic point of view, the term should refer only to those side-effects arising as a result of the changes in airflow from an incompressible fluid (similar in effect to water) to a compressible fluid (acting as a gas) as the speed of sound is approached. There are two effects in particular, wave drag and critical mach.


title: Compressibility

text: One complication occurs in hypersonic aerodynamics, where dissociation causes an increase in the “notional” molar volume because a mole of oxygen, as O, becomes 2 moles of monatomic oxygen and N similarly dissociates to 2 N. Since this occurs dynamically as air flows over the aerospace object, it is convenient to alter the compressibility factor , defined for an initial 30 gram moles of air, rather than track the varying mean molecular weight, millisecond by millisecond. This pressure dependent transition occurs for atmospheric oxygen in the 2,500–4,000 K temperature range, and in the 5,000–10,000 K range for nitrogen.


title: Compressibility

text: In transition regions, where this pressure dependent dissociation is incomplete, both beta (the volume/pressure differential ratio) and the differential, constant pressure heat capacity greatly increases. For moderate pressures, above 10,000 K the gas further dissociates into free electrons and ions. for the resulting plasma can similarly be computed for a mole of initial air, producing values between 2 and 4 for partially or singly ionized gas. Each dissociation absorbs a great deal of energy in a reversible process and this greatly reduces the thermodynamic temperature of hypersonic gas decelerated near the aerospace object. Ions or free radicals transported to the object surface by diffusion may release this extra (nonthermal) energy if the surface catalyzes the slower recombination process.


title: Compressibility

text: For ordinary materials, the bulk compressibility (sum of the linear compressibilities on the three axes) is positive, that is, an increase in pressure squeezes the material to a smaller volume. This condition is required for mechanical stability. However, under very specific conditions, materials can exhibit a compressibility that can be negative.


title: Blackboard

text: A blackboard (also known as a chalkboard) is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Blackboards were originally made of smooth, thin sheets of black or dark grey slate stone.


title: Blackboard

text: A blackboard can simply be a board painted with a dark matte paint (usually black, occasionally dark green). Matte black plastic sign material (known as closed-cell PVC foamboard) is also used to create custom chalkboard art. Blackboards on an A-frame are used by restaurants and bars to advertise daily specials.


title: Blackboard

text: A more modern variation consists of a coiled sheet of plastic drawn across two parallel rollers, which can be scrolled to create additional writing space while saving what has been written. The highest grade blackboards are made of a rougher version porcelain enamelled steel (black, green, blue or sometimes other colours). Porcelain is very hard wearing, and blackboards made of porcelain usually last 10–20 years in intensive use.


title: Blackboard

text: Lecture theatres may contain a number of blackboards in a grid arrangement. The lecturer then moves boards into reach for writing and then moves them out of reach, allowing a large amount of material to be shown simultaneously.


title: Blackboard

text: The chalk marks can be easily wiped off with a damp cloth, a sponge or a special blackboard eraser usually consisting of a block of wood covered by a felt pad. However, chalk marks made on some types of wet blackboard can be difficult to remove. Blackboard manufacturers often advise that a new or newly resurfaced blackboard be completely covered using the side of a stick of chalk and then that chalk brushed off as normal to prepare it for use.


title: Blackboard

text: Sticks of processed "chalk" are produced especially for use with blackboards in white and also in various colours. White chalk sticks are made mainly from calcium carbonate derived from mineral chalk rock or limestone, while coloured or pastel chalks are made from calcium sulphate in its dihydrate form, CaSO·2HO, derived from gypsum. Chalk sticks containing calcium carbonate typically contain 40–60% of CaCO (calcite).


title: Blackboard

text: On the other hand, chalk produces dust, the amount depending on the quality of chalk used. Some people find this uncomfortable or may be allergic to it, and according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI), there are links between chalk dust and allergy and asthma problems. The dust also precludes the use of chalk in areas shared with dust-sensitive equipment such as computers. The writing on blackboards is difficult to read in the dark. Chalk sticks shrink through use, and are notorious for breaking in half unless inserted in a writing utensil designed for chalk. Blackboards can suffer from ghosting. Ghosting occurs when old coloured chalk, pastels or chalkpen ink absorbs into the black finish of the board, making it impossible to remove.


title: Blackboard

text: The scratching of fingernails on a blackboard, as well as other pointed, especially metal objects against blackboards, produces a sound that is well known for being extremely irritating to most people. According to a study run by Michael Oehler, a professor at the University of Cologne, Germany, humans are "predisposed to detest" the sound of nails on a blackboard. The findings of the study were presented at the Acoustical Society of America conference and support earlier findings from a 1986 study by Vanderbilt psychologist Randolph Blake and two colleagues found that the sound of nails on a chalkboard annoyed people even when the high-pitch frequencies were removed. The study earned Blake a 2006 Ig Nobel Prize.


title: Blackboard

text: The writing slate was in use in Indian schools as mentioned in Alberuni's "Indica" ("Tarikh Al-Hind"), written in the early 11th century:


title: Blackboard

text: They use black tablets for the children in the schools, and write upon them along the long side, not the broadside, writing with a white material from the left to the right.


title: Blackboard

text: The first classroom uses of large blackboards are difficult to date, but they were used for music education and composition in Europe as far back as the 16th century. The term "blackboard" is attested in English from the mid-18th century; the "Oxford English Dictionary" provides a citation from 1739, to write "with Chalk on a black-Board". The first attested use of chalk on blackboard in the United States dates to September 21, 1801, in a lecture course in mathematics given by George Baron. James Pillans has been credited with the invention of coloured chalk (1814); he had a recipe with ground chalk, dyes and porridge.


title: Blackboard

text: The use of blackboard did change methods of education and testing, as found in the Conic Sections Rebellion of 1830 in Yale.


title: Blackboard

text: Manufacturing of slate blackboards began by the 1840s. Green porcelain enamel surface, was first used in 1930, and as this type of boards became popular, the word "chalkboard" appeared. In the US green porcelain enamelled boards started to appear at schools in 1950s.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: Andrea Barzagli (; born 8 May 1981) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: A four-time member of the Serie A Team of the Year, Barzagli is regarded as one of the best and most consistent defenders in Italian football history.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: After playing for several smaller Italian clubs in the lower divisions of Italian football in his early career, he made his Serie A debut with Chievo in 2003, and eventually came to prominence while playing for Palermo. In 2008, he was signed by German side VfL Wolfsburg, where he remained for two and a half seasons, winning a Bundesliga title in 2009. In 2011, he returned to Italy, joining Juventus, where he later won eight consecutive Serie A titles between 2012 and 2019, among other trophies, including a record of four consecutive Coppa Italia titles between 2015 and 2018; having also played two UEFA Champions League finals between 2015 and 2017.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: At international level, he represented the Italian national football team on 73 occasions between 2004 and 2017, taking part at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games where he obtained a bronze medal, at two FIFA World Cups (2006 and 2014), three UEFA European Championships (2008, 2012, and 2016), and at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, where himself and the team also won bronze. He was most notably a member of the Italian 2006 World Cup winning squad, as well as a starting member of the Italian squad that reached the UEFA Euro 2012 final.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: In the 1998–99 season, Barzagli made his first professional football appearance with semi-professional Rondinella Calcio before moving to Serie B side A.C. Pistoiese in 2000–01, in a co-ownership deal. He initially played as a midfielder, before being moved to defence by manager Giuseppe Pillon. A year later he rejoined Rondinella Calcio in Serie C2. He then signed for Ascoli for the 2001–02 season (from Piacenza, a Serie A side from 2001 to 2003) and helped them gain promotion to Serie B. He remained in Ascoli for another year without further success. In July 2003 he was sold by Piacenza in another co-ownership deal. He made his Serie A debut with Chievo in a 1–1 draw at Brescia on 31 August 2003.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: On 20 July 2004, Barzagli was signed by Serie A outfit Palermo, helping the club to an UEFA Cup spot during his first season with the club. He was bestowed with the captain's armband after Eugenio Corini controversially left the Sicilian club in the summer of the 2007–08 season.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: In 2008, Barzagli was in contract negotiations with Fiorentina and was widely expected to sign. To everyone's surprise the deal fell through as Barzagli, a native Florentine, had already stated his eagerness to join. Barzagli's agent spoke to media saying: "The difference between what we were asking and what they offered was minimal – it amounted to £100,000. Andrea was willing to give up a lot of money to play for Fiorentina, but they didn’t take our requests into consideration". Instead Barzagli choose to join VfL Wolfsburg and the Bundesliga following fellow Italian and teammate Cristian Zaccardo. He was given the number 43. It was later reported that the Italian international snubbed Fiorentina's five-year £1.2 million contract for VfL Wolfsburg's three-year offer of £2.5 million. The official transfer fee was €12.95 million. Barzagli played every minute of the 2008–09 Bundesliga championship winning season for Wolfsburg. He later credited his Wolfsburg coach during the 2008–09 season, Felix Magath, for having helped him to improve as a footballer and for instilling a stronger mentality and work ethic in him. On 15 September 2009, he made his UEFA Champions League debut in Wolfsburg's 3–1 home win over CSKA Moscow. He scored his first goal for Wolfsburg in a 4–0 win over TSG Hoffenheim on 4 April 2010. He closed his second season at Wolfsburg with two appearances in the Champions League and three in the Europa League, as well as 1 goal in 24 league appearances. In his third season with the German club, he collected 17 league appearances before moving to Juventus in January.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: On 26 January 2011, Barzagli left Wolfsburg to return to Italy, joining Serie A giants Juventus for a contract of €300,000 fixed and €300,000 variable, which would keep him at the club until 2013. Barzagli's contract with Wolfsburg was due to expire on 30 June 2011. He made his debut with the Turin club in a 2–1 away defeat against his former team Palermo, on the 23rd match-day of the season on 2 February 2011. His first six months with the Bianconeri coincided with the second half of a terribly disappointing 2010–11 campaign under Luigi Delneri, which saw the club finish only seventh in Serie A, with Barzagli making 15 appearances in the league that season.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: With the arrival of Antonio Conte as the new Juventus coach, Barzagli became an integral part of the Juventus backline, and was one of the club's most consistent performers, culminating in a recall to the national team. Juventus finished the 2011–12 season with the best defence in Italy and in Europe, only conceding 20 goals in 38 appearances. Barzagli scored his first goal for Juventus on 13 May 2012, scoring a penalty against Atalanta in the last league match of the season, in a 3–1 home win. He helped Juventus win the 2011–12 scudetto undefeated, and the 2012 Supercoppa Italiana; Juventus also made the final of the Coppa Italia that season. His stellar season earned him a place in the Serie A Team of the Year. At the end of the season, he renewed his contract with Juventus until 2015.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: During the 2012–13 season, Barzagli made a total of 45 appearances in all competitions for Juventus, his highest personal tally since his first season at Wolfsburg. Most of these were made alongside Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini in Antonio Conte's now typical three-man backline and 3–5–2 formation, as the club again prevailed in Serie A, winning their second consecutive title, and made their way to the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia; due to their performances together, the three-man defence earned the nickname "BBC", a reference to the players' initials, and soon the trio established themselves as one of the best defences in world football during the following seasons. Although Barzagli did not score during the 2012–13 season, he impressed, however, in the home fixture against Roma in September 2012, when he won the ball in his own half, ran past an opponent with a "sombrero", and made a lung-bursting run that culminated in a through-ball assist for Sebastian Giovinco, as Juventus won the match 4–1.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: In the 2013–14 season, Barzagli's consistent performances continued for Juventus, despite having dealt with injury problems throughout the season. Juventus won the 2013 Supercoppa Italiana and their third consecutive Serie A title, their thirtieth overall, with a record 102 points, finishing again with the best defence in the League. Juventus disappointed in Europe, however, and were eliminated in the group stage of the Champion's League, although they managed to reach the semi-finals of the Europa League that season.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: After the 2014 World Cup, Barzagli endured an injury and was operated in Finland on 1 July 2014, being ruled out for three months. Barzagli missed the entire first half of the 2014–15 season, and only returned to the starting line-up in a friendly match with the youth side. He was called up for the first leg of Juventus's semi-final match-up against Fiorentina in the Coppa Italia. He made his first appearance for Juventus since his injury 8 months before, coming on as a substitute in Juventus's 1–0 home win over Sassuolo on 9 March 2015. Barzagli started the next league game on 14 March 2015, helping Juventus to keep a clean sheet in a 1–0 away win over Palermo.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: On 2 May 2015, Barzagli helped Juventus keep a clean sheet in a 1–0 away victory over Sampdoria, which allowed the Turin club to clinch the Serie A title for a fourth consecutive season. On 20 May, he featured in Juventus's 2–1 victory over Lazio in the 2015 Coppa Italia Final, as Juventus completed a domestic double that season; this was also the club's record tenth Coppa Italia title. On 6 June, Barzagli started for Juventus in the 2015 UEFA Champions League Final, ahead of his injured defensive teammate Chiellini, but were defeated 3–1 by Barcelona at Berlin's Olympiastadion.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: On 25 July, Barzagli sustained a thigh strain, and was initially ruled out for three weeks, meaning that he would miss the 2015 Supercoppa Italiana; however, he was able to recover in time to start the match as Juventus defeated Lazio 2–0 on 8 August to claim a record seventh Supercoppa Italiana title.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: During the beginning of the 2015–16 season, Barzagli demonstrated his versatility by filling in for the recovering Stephan Lichtsteiner as a rightback; in this position, he made a series of impressive performances, including an assist for Álvaro Morata's opening goal in a 2–0 home win over Sevilla in the Champions League group stage on 30 September, which earned him the Juventus Player of the Month Award for October. On 8 November, Barzagli made his 300th Serie A appearance in a 3–1 away win over Empoli. On 6 March 2016, Barzagli scored his second ever goal for the club since the 2011–12 season in a 2–0 away win over Atalanta; coincidentally, his first goal for the club also came against Atalanta, 91 games earlier. On 8 May, he made his 150th Serie A appearance for Juventus in a 2–1 away defeat to Verona; this was his 30th league appearance of the season, and his 40th in all competitions, the most he had totalled since the 2012–13 season. After helping Juventus to a fifth consecutive Serie A title, on 11 May, Barzagli extended his contract with the club until the end of the 2017–18 season.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: On 6 November 2016, Barzagli dislocated his shoulder in the 5th minute of play against Chievo after falling awkwardly and was stretchered off the pitch and taken to hospital. Tests the following day estimated he would be out for two months. He returned to action sooner than expected on 17 December, coming on as a substitute in the 68th minute of a 1–0 home win over Roma.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: On 3 June 2017, Barzagli started in his second Champions League Final in three years with Juventus, but they were defeated 4–1 by defending champions Real Madrid.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: On 29 June 2018, Barzagli extended his contract with Juventus for one season. After initially struggling with injuries early on in the season, he returned to the starting line-up for the club's league fixture on 26 September, and made his 200th Serie A appearance with Juventus during the match, captaining the team in a 2–0 home win over Bologna. On 23 October, he made his 50th UEFA Champions League appearance (excluding qualifying rounds), coming on as a late substitute for Juan Cuadrado in a 1–0 away win over Manchester United.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: On 13 April 2019, after appearing in a 2–1 away defeat to SPAL, Barzagli announced he would retire at the end of the season. On 19 May, in Juventus's final home game of the 2018–19 Serie A season, a 1–1 draw against Atalanta, Barzagli made his final appearance of his career, and was given a send-off as Juventus celebrated winning the Serie A title. In the 61st minute, he came off for Mario Mandžukić and was given a standing ovation by the crowd.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: Barzagli was a member of the Italian under-21 side that conquered the 2004 UEFA European Under-21 Championship under the guidance of manager Claudio Gentile, and he also appeared at the Summer Olympics in Athens that year, winning a bronze medal.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: He won his first senior international cap for Italy on 17 November 2004, in 1–0 friendly home win against Finland under Italian coach Marcello Lippi. He was called up for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and, while not expecting to play at all, was deployed as a substitute in a 1–0 victory against Australia in the second round, following Marco Materazzi's sending-off. He subsequently appeared again, starting in his side's 3–0 victory over Ukraine in the quarter-finals following Materazzi's suspension and Alessandro Nesta's injury; he appeared for the full 90 minutes in this fixture, and kept clean sheets in both matches. Italy went on to win the World Cup final that year on penalties over France.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: A key member of Italy's defence under new Italy manager Roberto Donadoni, Barzagli was deployed six times in UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying matches, and appeared in the crucial 2–1 victory over Scotland. He was selected to Italy's UEFA Euro 2008 squad, and partnered alongside Materazzi in the heavy 0–3 defeat against the Netherlands, after Italian skipper Fabio Cannavaro on 2 June suffered an injury in training. Barzagli later suffered an injury in training on 19 June, which kept him out for the rest of the tournament, as Italy were eliminated on penalties in the quarter-finals by the eventual champions Spain.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: Because of the fallout from Italy's heavy opening loss of the tournament, Barzagli subsequently appeared for the Azzurri only one time during the following three years, in Italy's 2–1 World Cup qualifier away win against Cyprus after Alessandro Gamberini fell injured after 60 seconds. In spite of winning the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg in 2009, he was not picked by Marcello Lippi for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, or for the 2010 World Cup tournaments, in South Africa.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: On 2 October 2011, after three years of absence, he was again called up to the national team by manager Cesare Prandelli, due to his consistent and excellent performances for Juventus; on 11 October, he started in Italy's Euro 2012 qualifier away match against Serbia, and also subsequently started in the European qualifier against Northern Ireland.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: On 13 May 2012, Barzagli was selected by Prandelli for the 32-man shortlist for Italy's Euro 2012 squad; he was named as one of the final 23 members of Italy's squad on 29 May. On 1 June 2012, in a preparation match for Euro 2012 against Russia, he captained the team for the first time after Gianluigi Buffon was taken off to be replaced by Morgan De Sanctis. On 4 June, Barzagli suffered an injury during training, which put his place at Euro 2012 in jeopardy; despite initial concerns that he would be unable to participate in the tournament, he was kept in the squad by Prandelli in place of his back-up, Davide Astori, after it was stated that he would only miss Italy's opening group matches against Spain and Croatia.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: On 18 June 2012, after recovering from his injury, Barzagli was picked over Leonardo Bonucci to play against Ireland alongside Juventus teammate Chiellini in Italy's last match of the Euro 2012 group stage. In his first match of the tournament, he aided the team to keep a clean sheet in a 2–0 win over Ireland, which allowed Italy to qualify for the knock-out round. On 24 June 2012, Barzagli started in Italy's Euro 2012 quarter-final match against England, which also resulted in an Italian victory on penalties, after the match had finished 0–0 following extra time. On 28 June 2012, Barzagli continued his success in Euro 2012 by aiding Italy in a 2–1 victory against Germany. Italy were eventually defeated by defending European and World Champions Spain in the Final of the tournament; although they were defeated 4–0, their place in the final automatically qualified them for the 2013 Confederations Cup.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: Barzagli retained his place in the starting lineup throughout the 2014 World Cup Qualifying campaign, as Italy qualified for the tournament undefeated, with two matches to spare. On 16 May 2013, Barzagli was named to Prandelli's 31-man short-list for Italy's 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup squad; he was eventually called up to the final 23-man Italy squad for the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil on 3 June, and he went on to appear in three of Italy's five matches throughout the tournament, starting in Italy's two opening group wins against Mexico and Japan, whilst he was rested in Italy's defeat to hosts and eventual champions Brazil; after picking up an injury in the semi-final penalty shoot-out defeat against Spain, he missed Italy's penalty shoot-out victory over Uruguay in the bronze medal match, which allowed them to finish the tournament in third place, their best ever finish in the Confederations Cup. Barzagli was also named to Prandelli's 30-man short-list for the 2014 World Cup on 13 May 2014, and he was also later called up as one of Italy's starting centrebacks for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil on 1 June. He appeared in all three of Italy's group matches throughout the World Cup, also making his 50th cap in the final group match defeat against Uruguay, as they were knocked out in the first round of the tournament with three points.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: After featuring for Italy in defence during their successful UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying campaign under manager Antonio Conte, Barzagli stated in October 2015 that he would retire from international football after Euro 2016. On 31 May 2016, he was officially named to Conte's 23-man Italy squad for the tournament. Barzagli started in every match of the tournament, helping his nation to keep three clean sheets alongside Bonucci and Chiellini, as Italy reached the quarter-finals, only to be eliminated by Germany 6–5 on penalties on 2 July, despite successfully converting his penalty in the resulting shoot-out against the reigning World Cup champions. Following the defeat in what was initially thought to be the final international match of his career, a visibly emotional Barzagli stated in a press conference with RAI Sport: "We really did give everything. Unfortunately what we’re left with is defeat and in my view nothing will remain of all the good things we did. All that remains is disappointment and in a few years nobody will remember anything about this Nazionale that truly gave everything. We really enjoyed our time together and wanted it to continue. We’re sad."


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: Following the tournament, new national team manager Gian Piero Ventura communicated his decision to attempt to convince Barzagli to remain with the national team, even though the defender had previously stated that he would be retiring from international football after the competition. After speaking to Ventura, Barzagli stated in an interview in early August that he would consider continuing to play for the Italy national team if he were to receive a call-up; on 27 August, he was officially called up to the national team once again for a friendly match against France on 1 September, and for Italy's first 2018 World Cup qualification match on 5 September, against Israel. He made his return to international football in Italy's 3–1 friendly home defeat to France.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: Italy finished in Group G in second place behind Spain, and advanced to the play-off against Sweden. Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup after a 1–0 aggregate loss to Sweden in November 2017. Immediately following the second leg on 13 November, a 0–0 home draw which ultimately proved to be his 73rd and final international appearance, Barzagli announced his retirement from the national team.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: Following his retirement from professional football, Barzagli was appointed as a member of Juventus's defensive coaching staff under the club's new manager Maurizio Sarri in 2019. He stepped down from his position in May 2020, citing personal reasons as his motivation for leaving the club. On 2 August 2021 it was confirmed, that Barzagli had been hired by the Italian Football Federation where he would have a general role helping the coaches at the various men’s national youth teams up to age Under-20.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: Regarded as one of the best defenders of his generation, Barzagli is known for his strong, commanding and powerful physical build as a centre-back, and for being "strong in terms of anticipation, concentration and positional sense."


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: Considered a "late-bloomer", he has stood out in Italy and in Europe in recent years, due to his marking, intelligence, aerial prowess, and precise tackling ability, as well as his correct behaviour, capacity to read the game, and his adeptness in one on one situations; these attributes have enabled him to establish himself as one of the best defenders in the world, and be voted to the Serie A Team of the Year for three consecutive seasons, also making him an important member of both his club and national sides. His calm composure, tactical awareness, consistency, technique, vision, and ball playing ability have recently enabled him to be regarded as one of the best and most complete defenders in the world. Despite not being the quickest defender over short distances, he is also known for his pace, in addition to his anticipation, timing, and ability to read the game, and is a fast sprinter. Although he is usually deployed as a centre-back in a three or four-man defence, he is also capable of playing as a full-back on the right flank.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: Due to his highly consistent defensive performances in recent years, he has been given the nicknames "The Wall" and "La Roccia" (the rock) by fans. In addition to his ability as a defender, he is also highly regarded for his work-rate, discipline, mentality, and dedication in training, as well as his longevity.


title: Andrea Barzagli

text: Barzagli and his wife Maddalena were married in July 2013 and have a son Mattia and a daughter Camilla.


title: Maya Dolas

text: Maya Dolas (born Mahindra Dolas; 15 October 1966 — 16 November 1991) was an Indian underworld gangster who used to work for the D-Company don, Dawood Ibrahim. He was killed in an encounter at the 1991 Lokhandwala Complex shootout by the then Additional Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Aftab Ahmed Khan, at the age of 25.


title: Maya Dolas

text: Dolas' story was made into a 2007 movie titled "Shootout at Lokhandwala", with Vivek Oberoi playing the role of Maya, and Amrita Singh acting as his mother Ratna Prabha Dolas.


title: Maya Dolas

text: Dolas was born in 1966 to Vithoba and Ratna Prabha Dolas in the slums of Bombay. He was one of their six children. Dolas joined the Ashok Joshi Gang in 1980 and rose quickly through the ranks in the outfit. He ran several successful extortion rackets for the criminal - politician Ashok Joshi's gang at Kanjur village which was also affiliated with the Byculla Company.


title: Maya Dolas

text: The Lokhandwala Complex is an upper end middle-class housing area in Andheri (Swati A wing Flat no. 002 and 003), Bombay, where Shiv Sena criminal-politician Gopal Rajwani had purchased a flat for mega-mobster Dawood Ibrahim. In 1991, Ibrahim's henchmen Dolas and Dilip Buwa, along with four others, were in this apartment when they were surrounded by a group of the Bombay Police led by ACP A. A. Khan; it was later alleged that Khan had been tipped off by Ibrahim who wanted the police to kill them. During the encounter, Dolas was hit by 100 bullets.


title: Maya Dolas

text: The ensuing four-hour shootout, much of it publicised live on news channels, made Dolas infamous, and the police officer Khan a household name. After the encounter, it was alleged that the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which had participated in the encounter, had made off with Rs. 70 lakh (Rs. 70,00,000) cash which was with Dolas. A number of inquiries conducted by the Bombay Police failed to turn up any concrete evidence.


title: Maya Dolas

text: Dolas' mother Ratna Prabha had appealed to the court to ban the movie "Shootout at Lokhandwala" (2007) stating that the movie presents her son falsely. For example, the movie shows that he had killed his abusive father at age nine, whereas in reality, his father outlived Dolas and died in 1997. She also claimed that he was an ITI passout (Industrial Training Institute). Taking note of the fact that the movie also portrays Ratna as encouraging the criminal tendencies in her son, the suit wanted the producer to re-do the film. Chhota Rajan also objected to the film, saying that it "grossly distorts the facts". In response, Khan (the cop who led up front the team which gunned down Dolas) rubbished Rajan's claim, saying that the operation was videographed and it was conducted in full view of the public.


title: Maya Dolas

text: The directors claim that the movie is highly fictionalised, although it uses the real names, and the movie opens with an apology to the real characters. A Mumbai sessions court refused to stay the film release based on the case in May 2012.


title: Shin Tae-yong

text: Shin Tae-yong (, Hanja: 申台龍; born on 11 May 1970) is a South Korean former professional footballer and manager who is currently coaching the Indonesia national football team. He is the first man to win the Asian Club Championship/AFC Champions League as both player and manager, having won the 1995 Asian Club Championship and the 2010 AFC Champions League with Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma.


title: Shin Tae-yong

text: After graduating from Yeungnam University, Shin spent 12 seasons playing for Ilhwa Chunma. He won the K League Young Player of the Year Award in 1992, the first year of his professional career. He was a key player for Ilhwa Chunma when they won the K League for three consecutive years from 1993 to 1995. Especially in 1995, he became the Most Valuable Player of the K League, and also won the Asian Club Championship in the end of the year. Afterwards, Ilhwa Chunma faltered for a while, but they succeeded in conquering the league again under Shin's contribution. They once again won the league for three consecutive years from 2001 to 2003, and he also won his second MVP Award in 2001. He scored 99 goals and provided 68 assists in 401 matches in the K League, as well as the Korean League Cup. He could become a one-club man, but came to Australia to play for the Queensland Roar in the A-League. He is regarded as one of the greatest K League players of all time, and was selected for the K League 30th Anniversary Best XI in 2013.


title: Shin Tae-yong

text: Drafted by the Queensland Roar in the Australian A-League in 2005, he retired due to an ankle problem. He accepted an assistant coaching role at the club, assisting Miron Bleiberg primarily with technical skills.


title: Shin Tae-yong

text: He played 23 international matches including at the 1996 AFC Asian Cup for the South Korea national team.


title: Shin Tae-yong

text: As a player, he was an attacking midfielder. He earned the nickname "Fox of the Ground" by clearly distinguishing when passing and dribbling with sensual and intelligent play.


title: Shin Tae-yong

text: In 2009, Shin became the caretaker manager of Seongnam, leading the team to second place in both the 2009 K League and the 2009 Korean FA Cup, though suffered from a lack of funds. He signed a permanent contract the next year and immediately brought success, winning the 2010 AFC Champions League and the 2011 Korean FA Cup. He became the first man to win the AFC Champions League as both player and manager. However, the team's performance declined in the 2012 season, aggravated by the death of Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church which owned the club, in the middle of the season. He eventually resigned from Seongnam after finishing the season.


title: Shin Tae-yong

text: In August 2014, he became the assistant coach of the South Korea national team. Under Shin, South Korea reached the Asian Cup final for the first time in 27 years. South Korea's manager at that time was Uli Stielike, but the actual coaching role was performed by Shin, who took charge of the tactics and training of the team.


title: Shin Tae-yong

text: Shin also managed the South Korea under-23 team at the same time and participated in the 2016 Summer Olympics. South Korea won their group by acquiring 7 points against Germany, Mexico, and Fiji, but they were surprisingly elimininated by Honduras in the quarter-finals.


title: Shin Tae-yong

text: On 22 November 2016, Shin was appointed manager of the South Korea under-20 team to prepare for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup on home soil. Therefore, he left the senior team to concentrate on the under-20 team. At the World Cup, South Korea finished second in their group with 6 points and advanced to the knockout stage, but lost to Portugal in the round of 16.


title: Shin Tae-yong

text: After Shin left the South Korean senior team, Stielike made poor results in qualifiers of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and was eventually fired by the Korea Football Association. On 4 July 2017, Shin became the manager of the senior team to replace Stielike. In December, he won the 2017 EAFF E-1 Football Championship, beating arch-rivals Japan in the final fixture 4-1. Despite two goalless draws, South Korea under Shin also obtained qualification to the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. They were drawn in the same group against Sweden, Mexico and defending champions Germany. South Korea lost 0–1 to Sweden and 1–2 to Mexico, but surprised everyone by defeating Germany 2–0.


title: Shin Tae-yong

text: On 28 December 2019, the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) confirmed the appointment of Shin as the Indonesian national team's manager, replacing Simon McMenemy. He was handed a 4-year contract.


title: Shin Tae-yong

text: After a bad start to his tenure in the second round of 2022 World Cup qualification, he led Indonesia with an average squad age of 23.8 years to the final of the 2020 AFF Championship. In June 2022, he led Indonesia to qualify for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, ending Indonesia's 16-year absence from the competition, following a 2-1 win against Kuwait and a thumping 7-0 victory against Nepal on the final matchday to clinch qualification.


title: Georgia Taylor

text: Georgia Taylor (born Claire Jackson; 26 February 1980) is an English actress. Her TV roles include Toyah Battersby in the ITV soap opera "Coronation Street" (1997–2003, 2016–present), Ruth Winters in the BBC One medical drama series "Casualty" (2007–2011), and Kate Barker in the ITV crime series "" (2013–2014).


title: Georgia Taylor

text: Taylor was born Claire Jackson on 26 February 1980 in Wigan, Greater Manchester. She attended the Willpower Youth Theatre in Wigan as a teenager.


title: Georgia Taylor

text: In 1997, Taylor began playing Toyah Battersby in "Coronation Street". In 2001, she won the Best Dramatic Performance British Soap Award for playing Toyah. She quit the show in 2003 and has since appeared in episodes of "Where the Heart Is", "New Street Law", "Lilies", "Red Cap", the BBC's "The Afternoon Play" series and "Life on Mars".


title: Georgia Taylor

text: In September 2016 it was announced that Taylor would return to "Coronation Street" as Toyah Battersby. She resumed her role in the episode aired on Christmas Day 2016.


title: Georgia Taylor

text: In 2003, she appeared with Duncan Bannatyne in the Tyne Tees Television comedy pilot "Girls' Club". In 2004 and 2006, Taylor played a recurring role in the Golden Globe award nominated series "Blackpool" and its follow up "Viva Blackpool" for BBC One.


title: Georgia Taylor

text: In May 2005, Taylor appeared in "The Woman Before" at the Royal Court opposite Helen Baxendale. In the same year, she received rave reviews for her role in "Christmas is Miles Away" at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.


title: Georgia Taylor

text: In 2006, Taylor played Fiona in the film version of the transatlantic stage hit "The History Boys". She appeared in an independent short film "Soul Shutter" in 2008, and also had a small role in the 2008 feature film "The Bank Job". Her radio credits include "Dakota of the White Flats" by Phillip Ridley.


title: Georgia Taylor

text: Taylor joined the cast of the BBC One medical drama "Casualty" as series regular Ruth Winters in September 2007.


title: Georgia Taylor

text: She left "Casualty" in December 2011, along with co-star Ben Turner, who played her main love interest in the show.


title: Georgia Taylor

text: In 2003 Taylor was in a relationship with musician Mark Eyden, and was planning marriage and children. As of 2013, she was living in Bristol with her partner, actor Mark Letheren, whom she met on the set of "Casualty".


title: Evan Engram

text: Evan Michael Engram (born September 2, 1994) is an American football tight end for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Ole Miss and was drafted by the New York Giants with the 23rd pick in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft.


title: Evan Engram

text: Engram was a consensus first-team All-SEC selection. In his four-year career at Ole Miss, he made 162 receptions for 2,320 yards, a 14.3 yard average. He had 15 career touchdowns. He netted five catches for 176 yards, including an 83-yard reception, in the 2014 Egg Bowl. In his last year at Ole Miss, on 65 receptions, Engram netted 926 yards and eight touchdowns, a performance that earned him the Conerly Trophy.


title: Evan Engram

text: Engram received an invitation to the Senior Bowl and practiced well during the week. He helped the South defeat the North 16–15 and made one catch for ten yards. He attended the NFL Scouting Combine and completed all the required combine drills. On April 3, 2017, he participated in Ole Miss's pro day and chose to only perform positional drills and stand on his combine performance. NFL draft experts and analysts projected him to be a first or second round pick in the draft. He was ranked the second best tight end in the draft by "Sports Illustrated" and was ranked the third best tight end prospect by ESPN, NFLDraftScout.com, Mike Mayock, and Bucky Brooks.


title: Evan Engram

text: The New York Giants selected Engram in the first round (23rd overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft. He was the second tight end to be selected in the draft, after O. J. Howard was selected 19th overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Engram was selected to upgrade a Giants tight end core that only had three touchdown receptions the previous year. On June 15, 2017, the Giants signed Engram to a four-year, $10.71 million contract that includes a signing bonus of $5.93 million and is fully guaranteed.


title: Evan Engram

text: Throughout training camp, he was slated to take the vacant starting tight end role that used to belong to Larry Donnell. Head coach Ben McAdoo officially named him the starting tight end to start the 2017 regular season.


title: Evan Engram

text: He made his professional regular season debut and first career start in the New York Giants' season-opener against the Dallas Cowboys and made four receptions for 44 yards in their 19–3 loss. His first career reception came on a three-yard pass by Eli Manning on the first pass of the game in the first quarter before being tackled by Cowboys' linebacker Sean Lee. On September 18, 2017, Engram caught four passes for 49 yards and a touchdown in a 24–10 loss to the Detroit Lions on "Monday Night Football". His first career touchdown reception came in the second quarter on an 18-yard pass from Eli Manning. On December 3, 2017, Engram caught seven passes for a season-high 99 receiving yards and a touchdown during a 24–17 loss at the Oakland Raiders. This marked his sixth and last touchdown of the season. Head coach Ben McAdoo was fired after the game due to the Giants posting a 2–10 record. In Week 15, he made a season-high eight receptions for 87 yards and had his first carry of his career for a 14-yard gain as the Giants lost 34–29 to the Philadelphia Eagles. He was inactive for the Giants' 18–10 victory over the Washington Redskins in Week 17 after he suffered a rib injury the previous week. He finished the season with 64 receptions for 722 receiving yards and six touchdowns in 11 starts and 15 games.


title: Evan Engram

text: In his second professional season, Engram finished with 45 receptions for 577 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns in 11 games. He missed some time due to a MCL injury and foot injury.


title: Evan Engram

text: Engram recorded his first career 100-yard game in a Week 1 35–17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys with 11 receptions, 116 yards, and a touchdown. In Week 3 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Engram caught six passes for 113 yards and a 75-yard touchdown as the Giants won 32–31, catching the first career NFL touchdown from rookie Daniel Jones. On December 17, Engram was placed on injured reserve with a foot injury after missing the last five games. He finished the season with 44 catches for 467 yards and three touchdowns through eight games.


title: Evan Engram

text: On April 29, 2020, the Giants picked up the fifth-year option on Engram's contract., worth $6.013 million fully guaranteed for the 2021 season.


title: Evan Engram

text: On October 22, 2020 against the Philadelphia Eagles, Engram dropped a critical pass from Daniel Jones on third-and-six at the Eagles 25 yard line ahead of the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter. This forced the Giants to punt and lose 21–22 despite the Giants leading 21–16 at the time of Engram's drop. In Week 12 against the Cincinnati Bengals, he had six receptions for 129 receiving yards in the 19–17 victory.


title: Evan Engram

text: Despite being named to his first career Pro Bowl with 63 receptions for 654 yards and a touchdown, Engram struggled during the season with eleven drops which led to three turnovers and cost the Giants a pair of touchdowns.


title: Evan Engram

text: After missing the first two games of the season due to a calf injury, Engram struggled in 2021, and finished the season with 46 receptions for 408 yards and scored three touchdowns in 15 games. Towards the end of the season, he was utilized more as a blocking tight end than a receiver.


title: Evan Engram

text: On March 16, 2022, Engram signed a one-year, $9 million contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars. In Week 8, Engram scored his first touchdown as a Jacksonville Jaguar in a 21-17 loss to the Denver Broncos. In a 36-22 win in week 14 against the Tennessee Titans, Engram caught a career-high 162 yards on eleven catches with two of those catches going for touchdowns.


title: Evan Engram

text: Engram's sister, Mackenzie Engram, is a player for the University of Georgia Lady Bulldogs basketball team.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: Maple Leaf Gardens is a historic building located at the northwest corner of Carlton Street and Church Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building was initially constructed in 1931 as an arena to host ice hockey games, though it has since been reconstructed for other uses.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: Today, Maple Leaf Gardens is a multi-purpose facility, with Loblaws occupying retail space on the lower floors and an arena for Toronto Metropolitan University, known as Mattamy Athletic Centre at the Gardens, occupying the top level.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: Considered one of the "cathedrals" of hockey, it was home to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League from 1931 to 1999. The Leafs won the Stanley Cup 11 times from 1932 to 1967 while playing at the Gardens. The first NHL All-Star Game, albeit an unofficial one, was held at the Gardens in 1934 as a benefit for Leafs forward Ace Bailey, who had suffered a career-ending head injury. The first official annual National Hockey League All-Star Game was also held at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1947.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: It was home to the Toronto Huskies (1946–1947) in their single season in the Basketball Association of America (a forerunner of the National Basketball Association), the Toronto Marlboros of the Ontario Hockey League, the Toronto Toros of the World Hockey Association (1974–1976), the Toronto Blizzard of the North American Soccer League (1980–1982 indoor seasons), the Toronto Shooting Stars of the National Professional Soccer League (1996–1997), and the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League (1999–2000). The NBA's Buffalo Braves played a total of 16 regular season games at Maple Leaf Gardens from 1971 to 1975. The NBA's Toronto Raptors played six games at the Gardens from 1997 to 1999, mostly when SkyDome was unavailable.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: It was also one of the few venues outside the United States where Elvis Presley performed in concert (April 2, 1957). In 1972, Maple Leaf Gardens hosted game 2 of the famous Summit Series between Team Canada and the USSR. Team Canada won the game 4–1.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: The Toronto Maple Leafs had been playing in the Arena Gardens on Mutual Street. It was built in 1912 and held 7,500 spectators for hockey. By 1930, Leafs managing director Conn Smythe decided the Arena was too small and he wanted to build a new arena, larger and more impressive. After considering various sites, the site at the corner of Carlton and Church was purchased from The T. Eaton Co. Ltd. for $350,000, ($ in dollars), a price said to be $150,000 below market value. The new 12,473 seat (14,550 including standing room) arena was designed by the architectural firm of Ross and Macdonald.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: To finance the construction, Smythe launched Maple Leaf Gardens Limited, (MLGL) a management company that would own the arena and the Maple Leafs. A public offering of shares in MLGL was made at C$10 each ($ in dollars), with a free common share for each five preferred shares purchased. Ownership of the hockey team was transferred to MLGL in return for shares. Intending right from the start the Gardens would host other events, W. A. Hewitt, sports editor of the "Toronto Star", was hired as general manager of Maple Leaf Gardens to oversee all events other than professional hockey. His son, Foster Hewitt, was hired to run the radio broadcasts, and oversaw the construction of the radio broadcast facilities.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: The contract to construct the building was awarded to Thomson Brothers Construction of Port Credit in Toronto Township. Thomson Bros bid just under $990,000 for the project, the lowest of ten tenders received, mainly due to the fact that amongst the Thomson Brothers' various enterprises they had much of the sub contract work covered (Thomson Lumber, Thomson Bros. Excavation), and others could not compete in this manner. That price did not include steel work, which was estimated at an additional $100,000. Additional savings were made through deals with labour unions, in exchange for shares in MLGL. Construction began at midnight on June 1, 1931. In what is to this day considered to be a remarkable accomplishment, the Gardens was constructed in five months and two weeks at a cost of C$1.5 million ($ in dollars).


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: The Gardens opened on November 12, 1931, with the Maple Leafs losing 2–1 to the Chicago Blackhawks. Reported attendance on opening night was 13,542. The Leafs would go on to win their first Stanley Cup as the Maple Leafs that season (they had already won two previously—one as the Toronto Arenas and one as the Toronto St. Patricks).


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: The first professional wrestling show at the Gardens was held on November 19, 1931, and attracted 15,800 people to see world champion Jim Londos in the main event. The show was promoted by Jack Corcoran, who passed the reins to Frank Tunney and his Maple Leaf Wrestling promotion in 1939. Under Tunney, Toronto and the Gardens was for decades a thriving centre for professional wrestling. Local hero Whipper Billy Watson became the city's top wrestling attraction in the 1940s and 1950s. The last WWE-promoted event to be held at Maple Leaf Gardens was on September 17, 1995. Boxing was also a regular offering at the Gardens for many years. The first world title bout in the building was on September 19, 1932, with bantamweight champion Panama Al Brown knocking out challenger Émile Pladner in the first round.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: Winston Churchill addressed a large audience at the Gardens in March 1932; when the arena's loudspeaker system broke down he tossed the microphone to one side, declared "Now that we have exhausted the resources of science we shall fall back upon Mother Nature and do our best", and continued.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) secretary W. A. Hewitt served as the managing-director of Maple Leaf Gardens from 1931 to 1948. When the Gardens opened, it served as the home rink for all Toronto-based teams in the OHA, except for the University of Toronto. The OHA regularly renewed lease agreements to keep the same arrangement.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: On November 1, 1946, Maple Leaf Gardens was the site of the first game in the history of the Basketball Association of America (later to become the NBA), with the Toronto Huskies playing the New York Knickerbockers. The Huskies played their last game at the Gardens on March 28, 1947, and the franchise folded shortly thereafter. In the 1946–47 NHL season, Maple Leaf Gardens was the first arena in the NHL to have Plexiglas inserted in the end zones of the rink.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: Smythe became the majority owner of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. in 1947, following a power struggle between directors who supported him as president and those who wanted him replaced with Frank J. Selke. Toronto stock broker Percy Gardiner lent Smythe the money he needed to take control of the corporation. The loan was paid off in 1960.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: Beginning with the Canadian Grand Opera's production of "Faust" in 1936, the Gardens became home to more highbrow forms of entertainment. The Metropolitan Opera staged a number of its visiting productions there between 1952 and 1960. The first rock and roll concert at the Gardens was held in 1956, featuring Bill Haley & His Comets. Elvis Presley's shows at the Gardens on April 2, 1957, were his first-ever concerts outside the United States. The Gardens also hosted evangelist Billy Graham during his Canadian Crusade, in 1955.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: In 1961, Smythe sold most of his shares to a three-person partnership formed by his son, Stafford Smythe, with Harold Ballard and John Bassett. The new ownership added 962 new seats to the Gardens in 1962 and added a private club, The Hot Stove Club, the following year. Even more seats were added in 1965 and new mezzanine galleries were constructed in 1966 and 1967. By 1968, seating capacity for hockey had grown to 16,485. This was achieved, in part, by making the seats narrower, so that—in the words of founder Conn Smythe—"only a young man could sit in them and only a fat old rich man could afford them." A large portrait of Queen Elizabeth II was removed to make room for more seats. When asked why he removed the picture, Ballard replied, "She doesn't pay me, I pay her. Besides, what the hell position can a queen play?"


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: The Leafs were so popular the team sold out every game from 1946 to 1999. It was often called the "Carlton Street Cashbox" in sports reporting. Advertising was sold and placed throughout the building.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: On November 8, 1963: Maple Leaf Gardens would be the first arena in the NHL to have separate penalty boxes. The Beatles made a stop at Maple Leaf Gardens during each of their three North American tours: September 7, 1964, August 17, 1965, and August 17, 1966. It was the only venue to host the group on each tour.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: In March 1966, Conn Smythe resigned from the board of directors after a Muhammad Ali boxing match was scheduled for the Gardens. He found Ali's comments about the Vietnam War to be offensive and said that by accepting the fight, Gardens owners had "put cash ahead of class."


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: Also in 1966, a new centre-hung scoreboard with a digital clock was installed replacing the SporTimer which was an analog clock. One of the designers of the new scoreboard, Paul Morris, was by this time the arena's public address announcer, a job he would hold until the Leafs left the arena.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: Ballard and the younger Smythe were accused in 1969 of stealing money from the corporation and avoiding income taxes by having Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. pay for many of their personal expenses. The controversy created a rift between the two and Bassett, which led to Smythe and Ballard being fired from their management positions in 1969, only to win back control the following year. In September 1971, Bassett sold his shares to Stafford Smythe and Ballard. Just six weeks later, Smythe died. His brother and son tried to keep the shares within the Smythe family, but in February 1972 all of Smythe's shares were purchased by Ballard, leaving him with majority ownership of the building and the Leafs.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: On July 7, 1974, the arena was the host of a Professional wrestling tournament which was called World Cup Wrestling. Various International stars competed in like Dara Singh, Pat Roach, Danny Lynch, Tiger Jeet Singh, Prince Mann Singh, Randhawa, Than Yen Chang, Majid Ackra, Kashmir Singh, Tony Parisi, Chris Tolos, Golden Boy Apollo, and Terry Yorkston etc. In the main event match, world champion Dara Singh defeated Danny Lynch and retained his title.


title: Maple Leaf Gardens

text: Concert Promotions International was founded in 1973, by Bill Ballard, with Michael Cohl and David Wolinksy and brought many big-name music acts to the Gardens. The arena played host to The Rolling Thunder Revue Tour, with two consecutive shows, on December 1–2, 1975, headed by Bob Dylan. Bob Marley and The Wailers performed here on June 9, 1978, and November 1, 1979, in support of his Kaya Tour 1978 and Survival Tour 1979 respectively. The Bee Gees performed here on August 31, 1979. ABBA played here on Sunday, October 7, 1979, their last ever concert appearance in North America. The Who performed at the Gardens on October 21, 1976, marking their final concert with drummer Keith Moon with a paying audience. The Who returned to the venue in December 1982 for the final show of what was originally intended to be their farewell tour. The Jacksons performed here on August 5, 1981, during their Triumph Tour. The video for "The Reflex" by Duran Duran was shot at Maple Leaf Gardens in March 1984. Toronto rock trio Rush recorded a live video for their Grace Under Pressure Tour at Maple Leaf Gardens. The arena played host to Amnesty International's legendary Human Rights Now! Benefit Concert on September 15, 1988. The show was headlined by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band and also featured Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, Youssou N'Dour and k.d. lang. Pearl Jam performed at the arena on September 21, 1996 (the only Canadian date on the tour). From 1973 until the closing of Maple Leaf Gardens CPI brought the top rock and pop acts to Maple Leaf Gardens.