title: Raylan Givens

text: Givens is a Deputy U.S. Marshal and initially appeared in the novels "Pronto" and "Riding the Rap". ("Pronto" was adapted as a TV movie in 1997 with James LeGros as Givens.) Leonard later penned the short story "Fire in the Hole", which became the basis for the television series "Justified" starring Timothy Olyphant. In April 2011, Leonard revealed in an interview that the success of "Justified" had inspired him to begin work on a new novel about the character. The novel, titled "Raylan", came out in 2012, and was Leonard's last work to be published before his death.


title: Raylan Givens

text: Author Elmore Leonard has stated names are important in the creation of his characters. For Raylan Givens, it was an introduction at a lunch during a book distributor convention which provided the character's name.


title: Raylan Givens

text: In the novel "Pronto", Givens is described as about forty years old, thin and rangy, and perpetually wearing a cowboy hat. He is a native of Harlan County, Kentucky. Raylan likes ice cream as mentioned on "Justified". He has an intuition about people and their criminal intentions which usually leads to him shooting them despite his best efforts to resolve things peacefully. While Raylan mostly attempts to act righteously, he has cornered certain adversaries with every intention to kill them. This is the very thing that lands Raylan back in Harlan at the start of season one of "Justified". In the novels, his hat is described as a flat-brimmed hat akin to the kind worn by the police officers in the photo of Lee Harvey Oswald's murder. According to the novel "Pronto", before he became a Deputy Marshal, Givens served in the Marines. After being given the slip by a federal grand jury witness, Harry Arno, at Atlanta Airport, Givens was appointed as a Firearms instructor at the U.S. Marshals Service Basic Training Academy in Glynco, Georgia. Givens, who was an expert marksman with a handgun and an expert at the fast draw with any pistol as well as an expert with other weaponry, perceived this appointment as a demotion or reprimand for losing his witness.


title: Raylan Givens

text: Raylan uses several handguns throughout his appearances. In the novel "Pronto", Raylan carries a Colt Python revolver with a 6-inch barrel, which fits his "cowboy" personality. On the show "Justified", Raylan carries a SIG Sauer P226 for the shooting of Tommy Bucks, which he draws faster despite Bucks using the faster-drawing Glock 19. Raylan carries a small customized Colt Officers ACP .45 Handgun during his first case in Harlan and uses this to shoot Boyd Crowder. He then upgrades to a ".45 Glock" (presumably meaning a Glock 21 but the actual pistol shown is a 9mm Glock 17).


title: Raylan Givens

text: Raylan Givens was first portrayed by actor James LeGros in a 1997 television adaptation of "Pronto". In early 2010, the FX Network premiered the television show "Justified" starring Timothy Olyphant in the role of Givens.


title: Raylan Givens

text: On the official Elmore Leonard website, some trepidation was expressed about the television show getting the correct hat for the character.


title: Raylan Givens

text: While the show "Justified" does not get the hat exactly correct, Leonard considers the show's portrayal of Givens to be perfect.


title: Raylan Givens

text: Givens is native to the rural eastern Kentucky mining area of Harlan County but is assigned to Miami Beach, Florida in the novels "Pronto" and "Riding the Rap". For the short story "Fire in the Hole", Leonard has Givens returning to his roots and being assigned to Kentucky as a punishment for his actions in the previous novels.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Andrea Dovizioso (born 23 March 1986) is an Italian former professional motorcycle racer. He raced with WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team for the 2022 season but announced his intended-retirement after the Misano round in September.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovizioso was the 125cc World Champion, but is best known for his time with the Ducati Team in the MotoGP class, finishing championship runner-up to Marc Márquez for three consecutive seasons in , and .


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovizioso first came to prominence by winning the 125 cc World Championship in . He then finished third in the 250 cc World Championship in and was twice a runner-up to Jorge Lorenzo in and . He made his debut in MotoGP in 2008 and immediately finished 5th in the standings as the top satellite rider earning a move to the Factory Honda team in 2009. In his three seasons with Repsol Honda, he scored 15 podiums, including a maiden MotoGP win at Donington Park, and had a highest championship position of 3rd in . He moved to Monster Yamaha Tech 3 in and finished in 4th position getting six podiums which earned him a move to Factory Ducati team in 2013. In Doviziozo recorded his first win in seven years in Malaysia. In 2017, he found the extra pace needed to challenge for the title with six wins throughout the season, but Marc Marquez, who also had six wins, clinched the title in the final round in Valencia. The subsequent 2018 and 2019 seasons proved less successful, even though he managed to win six combined races and finished runner-up yet again to Marquez. Dovizioso left Ducati after the 2020 season due to a breakdown in relations with the team.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovizioso finished within the top five in 10 of his first 13 MotoGP seasons and is considered one of the best MotoGP riders to not win the MotoGP World Championship. He is the only rider in history to win a MotoGP race in three different decades – 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. He is nicknamed 'the Professor' due to his calculated riding approach.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Born in Forlimpopoli, son of Antonio Dovizioso, a Sicilian motorcycle racer, Dovizioso won the 125cc Italian Aprilia Challenge in 2000. In 2001 Dovizioso won the 125cc European Championship and also competed in his first World Championship race at Mugello, in which he retired. During that year he worked with Guido Mancini, a former rider and mechanic who, in the past, had worked with Valentino Rossi and Loris Capirossi. A documentary film about Mancini's career, released in 2016 by director Jeffrey Zani, tells the story of that racing season.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: In 2002, Dovizioso competed in the 125cc World Championship with Team Scot Honda, finishing 16th in the final standings. His best results were two 9th places in Le Mans and Donington. He continued with the team in 2003, finishing 5th in the final standings and achieving four podium finishes. The 2004 season saw him pick up five victories and six other podium finishes on his way to winning the championship with 293 points.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: In 2005 Dovizioso moved to the 250cc class, continuing with Team Scot Honda. The season included five podium finishes and 3rd place in the overall standings. He also won the Rookie of the Year award. In 2006 he remained with the team, who were now renamed as Humangest Racing. He won two races in Barcelona and Estoril and finished on the podium 11 times. He fought for the championship until the final race of the season, but had to settle for 2nd place behind Jorge Lorenzo. The 2007 season saw him win two races in Istanbul and Donington and challenge once again for the championship, but he finished in 2nd place once again.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: On 15 September 2007, Dovizioso announced that he would be making the move up to the MotoGP class with his existing team in 2008. On his premier class debut, Dovizioso achieved a highly credible fourth place, at the season opener in Qatar, passing Valentino Rossi on the final lap. Throughout the season, Dovi was one of the most consistent Honda riders, placing 4th and 5th several times, and achieving a 3rd place podium finish at the Malaysian MotoGP at Sepang. Dovizioso finished 5th in the final standings.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: For the season, Dovizioso became an official Repsol Honda rider replacing Nicky Hayden and partnering Spain's Dani Pedrosa. In July 2009, Dovizioso won his first race in MotoGP at the British Grand Prix in wet conditions at Donington Park. Despite otherwise consistent points finishes, Dovizioso ended up with fewer points than in his début season in the class, finishing sixth in the final standings.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovizioso had a strong start to his second season with the Repsol Honda team, picking up a podium in the season-opening race in Qatar. Three more podiums followed early in the year before his results tailed off mid-season. Despite this, Dovizioso consistently collected points finishes and claimed his first pole position in MotoGP at the Japanese Grand Prix at Twin Ring Motegi. He went on to finish second in the race after challenging for the race win, equalling his result from the British Grand Prix. Dovizioso again finished second in the following race in Malaysia. Dovizioso retired in Australia, and concluded the season with third in Portugal and fifth in Valencia to finish fifth in the final championship standings.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovizioso remained with Repsol Honda for a third consecutive season in , riding in a three-bike team alongside Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa. Dovizioso started the season well, with a fourth place in Qatar after a race-long battle with Marco Simoncelli. At Jerez, Dovizioso experienced severe tyre wear and had to make a tyre change on his way to 12th place in the damp conditions. He took fourth place in Portugal, with a late-race pass on Valentino Rossi, before Le Mans saw Dovizioso's best performance of the season to that point. Having circulated in sixth for a portion of the race, he was helped by the collision between Pedrosa and Simoncelli, which saw Pedrosa crash out and Simoncelli given a ride-through penalty. He then passed Jorge Lorenzo and Rossi en route to a second-place finish. Fourth place followed in Catalunya, before another second place in Great Britain, having started fifth and led the first few laps before being overtaken by teammate Stoner. Dovizioso extended his podium run to four races after third in the Netherlands and second at his home race at Mugello.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: He finished second for the fourth time in 2011, in the Czech Republic; holding off pressure from Simoncelli. Two fifth places followed, before Dovizioso's only retirement of the season in Aragon, after crashing out. Dovizioso finished fifth in Japan, despite a ride-through penalty for jumping the start. Dovizioso finished third in Australia and Valencia, while the Malaysian race was cancelled after the death of Simoncelli in the first attempt to run the race.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: He ended the season third behind Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner, but decided to move to the Tech3 Yamaha team for the season, alongside Cal Crutchlow on a one-year deal. Dovizioso moved to the team after rejecting the offer of a satellite Honda bike, after Repsol Honda reverted to two bikes – for Stoner and Pedrosa – for the 2012 season.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovizioso achieved top-five placings in each of his first three starts for Tech3, with fifth places in Qatar and at Jerez, as well as a fourth place at the Portuguese Grand Prix. A seventh place followed at Le Mans, before his first podium of the season – a third place – at the Catalan Grand Prix. After missing out on points at the British Grand Prix due to a crash, Dovizioso finished third or fourth in each of the next six races – with four podiums – to maintain fourth place in the championship ahead of teammate Crutchlow.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: He won the Supermoto-Race on SIC Supermoto Day together with Mauno Hermunen, a race in honour of the memory of his compatriot Marco Simoncelli, who died in a race crash in 2011.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Following Valentino Rossi's move back to the factory Yamaha team, Dovizioso was signed by Ducati to replace Rossi in their factory team. Dovizioso had a difficult season on an under-performing Ducati Desmosedici, with a best place of fourth in wet conditions at the French Grand Prix. He ended the season eighth, behind Stefan Bradl and just ahead of teammate Nicky Hayden.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovizioso was joined at Ducati by his former Tech3 teammate Cal Crutchlow, reuniting the riders that raced with Tech3 in . The season started in a positive way for Dovizioso, as he obtained three top-five results in the first four races, including a third place in the Grand Prix of the Americas in Texas and claimed his first pole position with Ducati in Japan, his first pole position since . He ended the season fifth in the riders' championship.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovizioso remained at Ducati for a third successive season, where he was joined by fellow Italian rider, Andrea Iannone, who moved from Pramac Racing. He took the first pole position of the season in Qatar, out-qualifying the rest of the field by 0.2 seconds. In the race, he started well and battled with the factory Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. He finished in second place behind Rossi, taking his first podium since the Dutch TT in June 2014. Teammate Iannone finished just behind in third place, giving the factory team their first double podium finish since the 2010 Aragon Grand Prix. In the following two races, he finished in second position. However, Dovizioso's form took a huge dip as he struggled with mechanical and crashes. Having scored 4 podiums from the first 5 races, he only added 1 more to his total for the rest of the season. He finished seventh in the championship.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovizioso started the season strongly in Qatar again, finishing 2nd, but was taken out by his teammate in the Argentine Grand Prix when he was 2nd, he ultimately limped over to finish 13th. He was taken out by Pedrosa in Austin while 3rd and had a water pump failure in Jerez to leave him well down the standings. Around this time it was announced that Jorge Lorenzo would be joining Ducati for 2017. A few weeks later Ducati announced that Dovizioso was to stay at Ducati to partner Lorenzo, while Iannone signed a contract with the Suzuki team. In the inaugural Austrian Grand Prix, where Ducati were favourites to win, he finished 2nd to his teammate Iannone, which left disappointed. However he finished the season strongly and took only his 2nd MotoGP win in the Malaysian Grand Prix ahead of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, his first win in 7 years. He finished the season fifth in the championship.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Once again, Dovizioso started the season by finishing 2nd in Qatar, this time to new factory Yamaha rider, Maverick Vinales. He was taken out again in Argentina, this time by Aleix Espargaro, before finishing 6th, 5th, and 4th in Austin, Jerez and Le Mans, however Ducati was pretty far behind the winner in those races. At the Italian Grand Prix, Dovizioso looked strong throughout practice and qualified 3rd behind Vinales and Rossi. He controlled the pace in the race, didn't let Vinales get away and ultimately passed him and opened up a gap to win the race, becoming the first Italian rider to win the Italian Grand Prix on a Ducati motorcycle. It was also his first dry MotoGP victory. 7 days later in Catalunya, he astonishingly managed to win the race again, having started 7th, ahead of Marquez, Pedrosa and his teammate. Back to back wins for Dovizioso put him only 7 points behind Vinales at the top of the standings, though he had talked down the possibility of a title fight. With Vinales crashing in Assen, he took the lead of the championship. However, a series of mediocre results in Assen, Sachsenring and Brno put him down to 3rd in the standings. He again took back-to-back wins in Austria and Great Britain, retaking the lead as Marquez retired due to blown engine. At the San Marino grand prix, he finished third and a 7th position at Aragon saw him lose the title lead to Marc Marquez once again. At the Japanese GP however, he took his fifth win of the season after passing Marquez on the final lap, reducing the deficit to 11 points. In the final round in Valencia Dovizioso struggled, qualifying only 9th. Despite getting a tow from teammate Jorge Lorenzo, he ultimately crashed out of the race from 4th place with 5 laps remaining. He finished the season 2nd, losing the world championship battle to Marc Marquez, with total of 6 wins.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovizioso took victory in the season opener in Qatar, beating Marc Márquez to the line. In total, he won 4 races in the 2018 MotoGP season (Qatar, Czech Republic, San Marino, and Valencia) with a total of 9 podium finishes, ultimately finishing the championship as runner-up to Márquez for the second season in a row, with 245 points.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovizioso won at Qatar for the second year in a row and in Austria with a final corner overtake on Marc Márquez. He suffered a large accident at the British Grand Prix, where he was unable to avoid the low-siding Fabio Quartararo in front of him, running over the French rider's bike, sending Dovizioso airborne and falling head-first to the ground heavily. The accident caused him to have memory loss temporarily, which he would fully recover from. He scored 9 podium finishes in the season, equalling his tally from the previous season. With 269 points – his highest career tally to date – Dovizioso finished 2nd to Márquez for the third consecutive season.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: In 2020, Dovizioso remained with Ducati. He achieved a third place podium finish at the season opener in Spain. Citing the deterioration of the working relationship between himself and Ducati – particularly team principal Gigi Dall'Igna – and Ducati's lack of commitment to a new contract, Dovizioso made a surprise announcement ahead of qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix that he would leave Ducati at the end of the season. He went on to win the race the following day, in what would turn out to be his 14th and final victory with the Italian manufacturer. He finished the season in fourth place overall with 135 points, as the top Ducati rider for the fifth consecutive season.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: By the end of 2020, with no other immediate prospects, Dovizioso elected to take a sabbatical year in 2021 with his sights set on returning to racing for 2022. In early 2021, he was announced as a test rider for Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, with hopes of a potential race seat with the manufacturer for the following season, and he completed a number of test days.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Ultimately, the 2022 seat went to Spanish rider Maverick Viñales, who started with Aprilia early in September 2021, closing the door for Dovizioso with the Noale manufacturer.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovizioso was reported to have joined Petronas Yamaha by the British GP weekend, after Maverick Viñales left the Factory Yamaha Team and went to Aprilia Racing Team Gresini for the rest of 2021. That was later confirmed in the week leading up to the San Marino Grand Prix. Dovizioso will join Valentino Rossi for the rest of 2021, replacing Franco Morbidelli who moves up to the Factory team.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovisioso returned to the rebranded WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP satellite team, partnering with Darryn Binder. He was replaced by Cal Crutchlow after retiring from MotoGP at the end of the San Marino Grand Prix.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: Dovizioso made his debut in auto racing when he participated in 2016 Lamborghini Super Trofeo at Circuit Ricardo Tormo round, driving a Lamborghini Huracán. He finished 4th in the first race in the Pro-Am class and won the second race.


title: Andrea Dovizioso

text: It was announced in May 2019 that Dovizioso would take part in the Misano round of the 2019 DTM championship, driving an Audi RS5 Turbo DTM for W Racing Team (WRT). He raced as a substitute driver for Pietro Fittipaldi, who was briefly loaned to Team Rosberg from WRT as Jamie Green was absent due to appendicitis recovery. He qualified 15th for the first race and finished 12th, and started from 14th to finish 15th in the second race.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: Lewis Renard Baker (born 25 April 1995) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for EFL Championship club Stoke City.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: Baker joined Chelsea from Luton Town at a young age progressing through the youth teams, making his first team debut in January 2014. He gained experience out on loan at Sheffield Wednesday and Milton Keynes Dons before spending a two year loan at Dutch club Vitesse. Baker continued to go out on loan playing for Middlesbrough, Leeds United, Reading, German side Fortuna Düsseldorf and Turkish club Trabzonspor. After briefly returning to the Chelsea first team in January 2022, Baker signed for Stoke City on a permanent basis.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: Baker joined Chelsea as a nine-year-old in 2005, having previously attended Luton Town's centre of excellence and attracted the attention of Queens Park Rangers, Charlton Athletic, Aston Villa, Derby County, Wimbledon, and Arsenal. He subsequently progressed through Chelsea's academy and reserve teams.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: On 5 January 2014, Baker made his professional debut as an 87th-minute substitute for Oscar in a 2–0 FA Cup third round win over Derby County at Pride Park. On 24 April 2014, Baker scored a goal against Arsenal Under 21 in the Professional U21 Development League, which was voted to be the goal of the season.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: Baker became a permanent member of Chelsea's first team squad at the beginning of the 2014–15 season. He was named on the bench for Chelsea's games against Bolton Wanderers and Shrewsbury Town in the League Cup, but he did not make an appearance in either match. Although Baker did not make a single appearance before his loan moves, Mourinho stated that he would receive a winner's medal for his contributions that season.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: On 8 January 2015, Baker was loaned to Sheffield Wednesday until 2 May 2015. He made his league debut as a second-half substitute, replacing Jacques Maghoma in the Owls' 2–0 away win at Nottingham Forest two days later. On 27 January 2015, he made his first start against Birmingham City which ended 0–0 draw. On 10 February 2015, he was recalled by his parent club after spending a month in Sheffield and making four appearances.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: On 25 February 2015, Baker joined Milton Keynes Dons on loan until the end of the season. After making his debut in a 2–1 loss to Coventry City, he scored his first senior goal on his second appearance for the club, in a 2–1 defeat at home to Chesterfield. On 21 March, he scored his second goal for the club during a 4–1 win at home to Notts County, keeping alive the club's chances of automatic promotion. He was earned the praise of MK Dons's manager, Karl Robinson; in his interview, Robinson stated that "he's very fortunate to have him playing for him" and that he is "one of the hardest working players he's ever worked with". On 14 April 2015 during the game against Fleetwood Town, Baker hit the crossbar in the first half; but in the second half, he scored the opening goal as MK Dons went on to win 3–0. His form, playing alongside Dele Alli in midfield, helped MK Dons gain promoted from League One by finishing the 2014–15 season as runners-Up.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: On 26 June 2015, Baker joined Dutch club Vitesse on a season-long loan to gain first team experience abroad. On 4 July 2015, he made his debut for Vitesse in a friendly against KV Oostende, playing the first half. He made his competitive debut 26 days later in a UEFA Europa League third qualifying round first leg against Southampton at St. Mary's, playing the full 90 minutes of a 3–0 defeat and giving away the ball to Shane Long to score the final goal. On 9 August, he made his Eredivisie debut in a 1–1 draw against Willem II where he played the full 90 minutes; five days later he scored a penalty after Ard van Peppen's handball to open a 3–0 home victory over Roda JC. On 30 August, he scored the opener of a 4–1 victory over SC Cambuur, he also had another goal ruled out. On 18 October, he again scored the opener in a 5–1 victory over PEC Zwolle. On 21 February 2016, he scored late in the game against De Graafschap, saving Vitesse from a loss to their local rivals. At the end of the season, this goal was voted Goal of the Season at the Dutch club. On 3 April he set a record for the season creating 9 chances in a single game; he also scored a magnificent free-kick from 27 yards, but his performance was not enough to save Vitesse from a 2–1 loss against NEC Nijmegen.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: On 24 June 2016, Baker's loan at Vitesse was extended for the 2016–17 campaign. Baker continued his role in the three-man midfield in the first match of the season against Willem II in a 4–1 win. On 20 August 2016, Baker scored his first goal of the season in a 1–0 win against Roda JC. On 14 December 2016, Baker scored his 10th goal of the season in a KNVB Cup tie against fifth tier side, Jodan Boys. The game resulted in a 4–0 victory for Vitesse, with Baker slotting home a penalty in the 52nd minute. On 28 December 2016, "The Guardian" named Baker as one of 10 rising stars to watch in 2017. On 15 January 2017, Baker was sent off in a controversial decision in Vitesse's 3–1 victory over Twente, in which he also scored his side's first goal. On 1 March 2017, Baker scored twice in a 2–1 victory over Sparta Rotterdam to send Vitesse to the KNVB Cup final for the first time in twenty-seven years.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: He played as Vitesse won the final of the KNVB Beker 2–0 against AZ Alkmaar on 30 April 2017 to lead the club, 3-time runners up, to the title for the first time in its 125-year history.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: On 11 August 2017, after signing a new five-year deal with Chelsea, Baker joined Championship side Middlesbrough on a season-long loan. He scored his first goal for Middlesbrough in an EFL Cup tie against Scunthorpe United on 22 August 2017. He scored his first in the league for Middlesbrough in a 3–2 win against Queens Park Rangers on 16 September 2017. After featuring more regularly under then manager Garry Monk, making 12 appearances in all competition by the end of October, with Monk's dismissal, Baker only featured twice under new manager Tony Pulis during the remainder of the season. Making 14 appearances in all competitions.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: On 30 June 2018, Baker joined Leeds United on loan for the 2018–19 season. With Baker becoming new head coach Marcelo Bielsa's first signing for Leeds. He made his debut for Leeds in the opening game of the season on 5 August 2018, as a substitute against Stoke City at Elland Road in a 3–1 win. On 14 August, Baker made his first start for Leeds, starting for Leeds in an EFL Cup match against Bolton Wanderers. After making all his prior league appearances as a substitute, on 27 November 2018 Baker made his first start in the league for Leeds in a 1–0 win against Reading. After making 14 appearances for Leeds in the first half of the season he was recalled by Chelsea.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: On 9 January 2019, Baker was recalled from Leeds United and sent on loan to Reading until the end of the 2018–19 season. Baker played more regularly with the Royals, making 19 appearances, scoring once against Hull City.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: On 24 July 2019, Baker joined Bundesliga club Fortuna Düsseldorf on loan for the 2019–20 season His loan with Fortuna Düsseldorf was cancelled in January 2020, after making nine appearances.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: On 18 September 2020, Baker continued his loan journey this time with the Turkish side Trabzonspor until the end of 2020–21 season. One day later, on 19 September, he made his club debut as a starter in a 0–0 draw against Denizlispor. Baker was a regular at Trabzonspor, playing 36 times and helped them to beat İstanbul Başakşehir in the 2020 Turkish Super Cup.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: After failing to gain a move away from Chelsea in the 2021 summer transfer window Baker played for Chelsea U23s in the EFL Trophy. On 8 January 2022, Baker made his second appearance for Chelsea, his first since 2014, as a substitute in an 5–1 FA Cup win over Chesterfield.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: On 15 January 2022, Baker joined EFL Championship side Stoke City on a two-and-a-half year contract. On 16 January, he made his debut for the club as a substitute in a 2–0 win over Hull City. He scored his first goal for Stoke on 22 January 2022 in a 3–2 defeat against Fulham. Baker had a productive start to his Stoke career, scoring eight goals in 21 appearances in the second half of the 2021–22 season. In June 2022, Baker signed a new three-year contract with the club. Baker was appointed club captain for the 2022–23 season.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: Baker was born in England and is of Jamaican descent. Baker has represented England at under-17, under-19 and England under-20 levels. In August 2014, he was called up to the England under-20 squad and named as captain of the side for the forthcoming season, making a goalscoring debut against Romania on 5 September. In September 2014, he was called up to the England under-21 squad for the first time for a two legged 2015 European U21 Championship play-off tie against Croatia.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: In 2016, Baker was part of the England squad for the Toulon Tournament and scored the opening goal in the 2–1 victory over France in the final. His tally of four goals throughout the competition also earned him the Golden Boot award.


title: Lewis Baker (footballer)

text: Baker's father Audley, is a six-time world powerlifting champion and was the first powerlifter to win four consecutive world titles.


title: Piano sonatas (Beethoven)

text: Ludwig van Beethoven wrote 32 mature piano sonatas between 1795 and 1822. (He also wrote 3 juvenile sonatas at the age of 13 and one unfinished sonata, WoO. 51.) Although originally not intended to be a meaningful whole, as a set they comprise one of the most important collections of works in the history of music. Hans von Bülow called them "The New Testament" of piano literature (Johann Sebastian Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier" being "The Old Testament").


title: Piano sonatas (Beethoven)

text: Beethoven's piano sonatas came to be seen as the first cycle of major piano pieces suited to both private and public performance. They form "a bridge between the worlds of the salon and the concert hall". The first person to play them all in a single concert cycle was Hans von Bülow; the first complete recording is Artur Schnabel's for the label His Master's Voice.


title: Piano sonatas (Beethoven)

text: The first three sonatas, written in 1782–1783, are usually not acknowledged as part of the complete set of piano sonatas because Beethoven was 13 when they were published.


title: Piano sonatas (Beethoven)

text: Beethoven's early sonatas were highly influenced by those of Haydn and Mozart. Piano Sonatas No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 11, 12, 13, and 15 are four movements long, which was rather uncommon in his time.


title: Piano sonatas (Beethoven)

text: After he wrote his first 15 sonatas, he wrote to Wenzel Krumpholz, "From now on, I'm going to take a new path." Beethoven's sonatas from this period are very different from his earlier ones. His experimentation in modifications to the common sonata form of Haydn and Mozart became more daring, as did the depth of expression. Most Romantic period sonatas were highly influenced by those of Beethoven. After his 20th sonata, published in 1805, Beethoven ceased to publish sonatas in sets and published all his subsequent sonatas each as a single whole opus. It is unclear why he did so.


title: Piano sonatas (Beethoven)

text: Beethoven's late sonatas were some of his most difficult works and some of today's most difficult repertoire. Yet again, his music found a new path, often incorporating fugal technique and displaying radical departure from conventional sonata form. The "Hammerklavier" was deemed to be Beethoven's most difficult sonata yet. In fact, it was considered unplayable until almost 15 years later, when Liszt played it in a concert.


title: Piano sonatas (Beethoven)

text: In a single concert cycle, the whole 32 sonatas were first performed by Hans von Bülow. A number of other pianists have emulated this feat, including Artur Schnabel (the first since Bülow to play the complete cycle in concert from memory), Roger Woodward, Rudolf Buchbinder and Michael Houstoun, who has performed the full sonata cycle twice; first at the age of 40, and then 20 years later in 2013. Claudio Arrau performed the cycle several times.


title: Piano sonatas (Beethoven)

text: The first pianist to make a complete recording was Artur Schnabel, who recorded them for the British recording label His Master's Voice (HMV) between 1932 and 1935. Other pianists to make complete recordings include Claudio Arrau, Paul Lewis, Daniel Barenboim, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Mari Kodama, Alfred Brendel, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Maurizio Pollini, Richard Goode, Igor Levit, Anton Kuerti, Eduardo del Pueyo, Konstantin Scherbakov, Boris Giltburg and others.


title: John Carney (director)

text: John Carney (born 1972) is an Irish film director, producer, screenwriter and lyricist who specialises in musical drama films. He is best known as the showrunner and executive producer of "Modern Love" on Amazon Prime Video, for his 2007 movie "Once" and the film "Sing Street". He is also a co-creator of the Irish TV drama series "Bachelors Walk".


title: John Carney (director)

text: Carney was born in Dublin and was educated at De La Salle College Churchtown and at Synge Street CBS.


title: John Carney (director)

text: He was bassist for the Irish rock band The Frames between 1991 and 1993 and also directed some of their music videos.


title: John Carney (director)

text: In addition to shooting music videos, Carney also wrote and directed two award-winning short films ("Shining Star" and "Hotel") before making his first feature. With fellow film-maker Tom Hall, Carney wrote and directed "November Afternoon", his first feature film, in 1996. Despite a limited release, it was acclaimed as the "Film of the Year" by the "Irish Times". The low-budget drama, shot in black and white, tells the story of two couples whose relationships begin to crumble over an eventful weekend. Carney himself provided a jazz score for the soundtrack.


title: John Carney (director)

text: After making a one-hour TV companion piece for the film entitled "Just in Time", Carney's next film was the edgy drama "Park", which premiered at the Dublin Film Festival. Written and co-directed by Carney and Tom Hall once again, the drama about a girl who is abused by a pedophile was released in 1999. It did not secure a wide release.


title: John Carney (director)

text: Two years later, in 2001, he co-wrote and directed "On the Edge". The film starred Cillian Murphy and Stephen Rea and was released through Universal Studios. He was awarded the Silver Hitchcock Award for "On the Edge" at the 2001 Dinard Festival of British Cinema. The film, which was co-written by Daniel James, was released in the US with the title "Catch the Sun".


title: John Carney (director)

text: Carney returned to TV writing and directing during the same year. He co-wrote and co-directed (with his brother Kieran Carney and Tom Hall) the hugely successful RTÉ TV series "Bachelors Walk". The independently produced TV series proved the most successful in Irish television history. The series ran for three seasons. He also directs "The Modest Adventures of David O Doherty" for RTÉ, starring Irish comedian O'Doherty and performed on the single "Orange", released by O'Doherty during the making of one of the series' episodes.


title: John Carney (director)

text: In 2003, he co-directed and co-wrote "Zonad" with Kieran Carney and Tom Hall. A story about an escaped convict who fools a whole Irish village into thinking he's a visitor from outer space, the film starred Simon Delaney and Cillian Murphy, "Zonad" was extremely low-budget and was never released.


title: John Carney (director)

text: In 2006, Carney directed the feature movie "Once". A music drama, the movie stars The Frames frontman Glen Hansard and Czech musician Markéta Irglová. First released at the Galway Film Fleadh, "Once" had its official world release at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007 and won the World Cinema Audience Award in the category Dramatic. A low-budget affair shot for only $160,000, "Once" was hugely successful, grossing $7 million worldwide in its first 3 months of release. Steven Spielberg is quoted as saying, ""Once" gave me enough inspiration to last the rest of the year." When told of this during an interview with Sky News, Carney replied, "In the end of the day, he's just a man with a beard." Carney was wearing a beard at the time. As writer and director of "Once", Carney won the Most Promising Newcomer award in the Evening Standard British Film Awards 2007.


title: John Carney (director)

text: On the heels of "Once"'s success, Carney was able to work on a full-fledged version of "Zonad", which was released in March 2010.


title: John Carney (director)

text: In 2016, he wrote and directed the musical film "Sing Street", which was released to critical acclaim.


title: John Carney (director)

text: Carney attracted criticism in 2016 when he referred to Keira Knightley in an interview with the UK's independent newspaper, stating “I’ll never make a film with supermodels again.” Knightley, who has amassed multiple accolades throughout her career, including Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG Award nominations, worked with Carney on the film "Begin Again", alongside Mark Ruffalo and Adam Levine. While Carney praised Ruffalo as a “fantastic” actor and Levine for not being “a bit scared of exposing himself on camera,” he said “Keira’s thing is to hide who you are and I don’t think you can be an actor and do that.” “I don’t want to rubbish Keira, but you know it’s hard being a film actor and it requires a certain level of honesty and self-analysis that I don’t think she’s ready for yet and I certainly don’t think she was ready for on that film,” Carney said. The director later issued an apology, which included the following 'I'm ashamed of myself that I could say such things and I’ve been trying to account for what they say about me. In trying to pick holes in my own work, I ended up blaming someone else. That's not only bad directing, that's shoddy behaviour, that I am not in any way proud of. It's arrogant and disrespectful'.


title: John Carney (director)

text: Carney developed the 2019 romantic comedy anthology series "Modern Love", also writing and directing several episodes.


title: John Carney (director)

text: In March 2022, it was announced that Carney will replace Kenneth Branagh as the director of the untitled Bee Gees biopic. The film was removed from its scheduled date on the same day.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: Tuba Skinny is a traditional jazz street band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The band's instrumentation includes cornet, clarinet, trombone, tuba, tenor banjo, guitar, frottoir, and vocals. The ensemble draws its inspiration from the early jazz, ragtime, and blues music of the 1920s and 1930s. The group began as an itinerant busking band and has performed around the world, including at music festivals in Mexico, Sweden, Australia, Italy, France, Switzerland, and Spain.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: For over a decade, Tuba Skinny "has grown steadily in popularity, releasing [ten] albums, frequently touring, and attracting high-profile fans from R. Crumb to Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman. They've garnered fans from all over the world—young and old, and niche-enthusiasts." Their albums have garnered multiple awards, and they have been hailed by "Offbeat" magazine, "The Syncopated Times", and other publications as one of the best traditional early jazz bands performing today.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: The band is popular on YouTube with "more than 500 videos, many with 100,000-plus views, in a variety of languages." However, the ensemble does not have an official YouTube page, and nearly all of the recorded footage is fan-made. The band's fan base has been described as possessing a "lighthearted, fun, flapper vibe," a reflection of the Jazz Age time period evoked by their music. Despite the band's global fame and frequent performances in nightclubs and at jazz festivals, they have continued to perform on the streets of New Orleans and other cities in order to maintain their intimate connection with audiences.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: The nucleus of Tuba Skinny began coalescing in the Crescent City circa 2003 to 2005, just prior to Hurricane Katrina. Several of its musicians played together in a handful of other bands on the streets of New Orleans. None of them are native to the city. The band's orchestrator and cornetist Shaye Cohn—the granddaughter of jazz saxophonist Al Cohn—is a Bostonian. Trombonist Barnabus Jones is a Virginian. Todd Burdick, the eponymous tuba of Tuba Skinny who also plays the banjo and guitar, is a Chicagoan. Guitarist Max Bien-Kahn is from Oregon. Vocalist and bass drummer Erika Lewis is from New York's Hudson River Valley and resides in Tennessee. Clarinetist Craig Flory and frottoirist Robin Rapuzzi are from Seattle.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: In 2005, Shaye Cohn, Barnabus Jones, Todd Burdick, Kiowa Wells, and other itinerant street musicians who would eventually comprise Tuba Skinny formed a busking string band called the Dead Man Street Orchestra and often played in the hurricane-ravaged city. Subsisting in modest circumstances, they "played for tips in Jackson Square out of necessity more than choice." Cohn played the accordion, Jones played the fiddle, Burdick played the banjo, and Wells played the guitar. Alynda Segarra—future band leader of Hurray for the Riff Raff—played the mini-washboard. Their tramp band played Cajun folk music, gypsy music, and Balkan melodies, as well as "old-time mountain music in the fashion of Old Crow Medicine Show, the Avett Brothers, and Uncle Earl." A surviving 2005 recording of their Balkan melody interpretation of "You Are My Sunshine" illustrates the band's inchoate style during this period.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: At least one of the band members was arrested for "bumming for money on Bourbon Street" in the heart of the French Quarter and had learned to play a musical instrument in order to no longer have to beg for spare change. As itinerant musicians, they frequently undertook boxcar tours as far away as the East Coast and West Coast. At the time, the Dead Man Street Orchestra was described by "The New Yorker" as a motley collection of New Orleans street people belonging to "a subculture of rail-riding, outdoor-living hobos." They were known to "sleep out in the open, look for food in trash cans, indulge themselves with excessive drinking and drugs and play great music." A gritty photo-essay chronicling the hardscrabble perambulatory band, "The Ballad of the Hobo" by photographer James Heil, was published in "Time" magazine in 2006.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: While playing as the Dead Man Street Orchestra, the seeds for a brass band began to germinate in their minds. "We had this talk one day when we were with Dead Man Street Orchestra," recalled Barnabus Jones, "I remember Shaye said, 'Wouldn't it be great if one day we had a brass band?'" When the Dead Man Street Orchestra informally dissolved, Cohn, Jones, Burdick, Wells, Segarra, and other instrumentalists joined the Loose Marbles led by trumpeter Ben Polcer and clarinetist Michael Magro.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: By performing with the Loose Marbles, the budding musicians who would later comprise Tuba Skinny learned to play traditional jazz. Polcer's and Magro's Loose Marbles was "a sort of amalgamated jazz corporation that creates subsidiaries around the city, to maximize tips and minimize boredom. The fifteen musicians play clarinet, trumpet, banjo, washboard, accordion, trombone, guitars, tuba, standup bass, and guitars, but you're likely to see only seven or eight performers at any given gig." The ever-changing impromptu line-up sometimes included jazz vocalist Tamar Korn and trumpeter Marla Dixon.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: Cohn initially played jazz piano with the Loose Marbles. This reflected her training as a classical pianist. However, she had "burned out on classical piano" due to spending "many, many hours practicing in a tiny rehearsal room going over the same four measures again and again." One day in New Orleans, while residing in a dilapidated building where there was an assortment of "abandoned" instruments, Cohn salvaged a flood-damaged trumpet and became a devotee of the instrument. "Barnabus [Jones] and I were trying to figure out scales on the trumpet together, and it was just so fun. I just got really hooked. I had never played a wind instrument before and it just felt really powerful, so I got to play second trumpet with [the Loose Marbles], sometimes they'd invite me to play with them."


title: Tuba Skinny

text: Todd Burdick likewise began his musical background on different instruments. He had played punk rock and experimental music as a percussionist, but he was introduced to the banjo, guitar, and other instruments by busking with the ensemble: "It was like learning from the ground up with them." Over time, as various musicians rolled in and out of the Loose Marbles, new ensembles were born such as chanteuse Meschiya Lake's Little Big Horns Jazz Band and, later, Tuba Skinny.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: Shaye Cohn, Barnabus Jones, Kiowa Wells, and Todd Burdick had been frequently playing jazz on Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans while learning an array of various instruments. They selected hot jazz because—in their estimation—it was the most accessible form of music. "People bump into you and say, ‘What kind of music is that? I never heard that kind of jazz,'" Cohn explained, "which I can relate to because, at one point, I had never heard this kind of jazz either." Since "Bourbon Street's loud bars and drunken crowds make busking, or street performances, all but impossible," Tuba Skinny often performed on Royal Street with its quieter "art galleries, antique and jewelry shops and restaurants."


title: Tuba Skinny

text: The band's name, Tuba Skinny, was purportedly acquired by happenstance and was a sarcastic remark by a passerby. Whenever the band's slender sousaphone player, Todd Burdick, would cycle down a street with his iconic instrument in Faubourg Marigny, a random heckler would repeatedly shout: "Hey, look, it's Tuba Skinny!" This remark was a reference to Jackson Square musician Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen, a "folk hero" who fought for the rights of street musicians and who died in 2004. Burdick recounted this incident to his friends and band mates. The band decided to run with the incident and christened themselves, "Tuba Skinny." Other than the happenstance name, the band has neither official ties to Tuba Fats nor was named in his honor.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: In their early years, the band drew extensively upon the Loose Marbles' repertoire. As time passed, they began resurrecting forgotten tunes by "Louis Armstrong's Hot 5 and Hot 7, Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers, Bunk Johnson, George Lewis, Jim Robinson, the Mississippi Sheiks, Sam Morgan's Jazz Band, Johnny and Baby Dodds, Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller, the Memphis Jug Band, King Oliver, Bessie Smith" and others. They became a popular ensemble among local traditional jazz haunts because of their historical fidelity to the traditional 1920s jazz, which is an era that is often overlooked in the New Orleans music scene. Unlike revival or pre-revival bands, Tuba Skinny attempts to imitate the sound of traditional jazz in the days "before phonographs were widely available."


title: Tuba Skinny

text: Tuba Skinny began globally touring as a band in July 2009 when they flew to France. An acquaintance had invited the band to the coastal town of Meschers-sur-Gironde where they played music in the streets and at a local tavern. They purchased used bicycles in Meschers and embarked upon a bicycle tour visiting the picturesque seaside towns along the southwest coast of France. They camped overnight to reduce expenses.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: Over the years, the band has continued their celebrated busking tradition. They played as a busking band in Hobart, Tasmania—where they recorded their fifth album "Pyramid Strut" in 2013—and in old town centers throughout mainland Europe such as France, Italy, and Spain. Reportedly, their least pleasant experience while busking occurred at a flea market in San Severo, Italy, where not a single person lingered to listen to them. The band also toured in their native homeland of the United States. To do so, they squeezed their eight members, primary instruments, secondary instruments, and several pets—including Barnabus' pet dog Tupelo—into a six-seat van.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: Over the years, Tuba Skinny has released ten albums containing more than a hundred tracks. In September 2016, Cohn and Lewis released a country album "Waiting For Stars" for their other lesser-known band, The Lonesome Doves. The album, described as "original country from Chattanooga by way of New Orleans," consisted entirely of songs composed by Lewis. On the album, both Cohn and Lewis sang vocals, with Lewis playing the guitar and Cohn playing the fiddle.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: During Summer 2018, the band was invited to the Netherlands where they performed five nights a week for several months with the "Ashton Brothers" circus. Their performances included Lewis' vocals accompanying trapeze acts and Cohn playing ragtime solos. When not performing with the circus, the band members bicycled into Utrecht where they busked on the city streets. The circus invited them back the following year, but the band declined due to their commitment to seeking out new experiences. "We're jazz musicians and seek improvisation all the time," frottoirist Rapuzzi explained, "We can't fix ourselves to the same set list of songs let alone the same acts and show routine for another season, all very untrue to the nature of our band."


title: Tuba Skinny

text: In April 2019, the peripatetic band released their tenth album "Some Kind-a-Shake" which was recorded at The Living Room Studio in New Orleans and featured nine instrumentalists. In addition to traditional jazz and blues songs, the album featured two original compositions, "Some Kind-a-Shake" by Cohn, and "Berlin Rag" by noted clarinetist Ewan Bleach. The jazz-centric publication "The Syncopated Times" reviewed the album and declared that the band's "tenth album, as unbelievable as this will sound, is their best." The publication further observed that Tuba Skinny's "method is to rehearse on the street, fine tune in performance, and nail it in the studio." Particular praise was given to the album's throwback emphasis on an ensemble sound as opposed to solos.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: Tuba Skinny's repertoire, while it includes some original material they have composed, is drawn from the lesser-known compositions of the early jazz era and has been documented to include over 400 songs. Their selection of deserving tunes has garnered praise and the following is especially noteworthy: "New Orleans Bump," "Cushion Foot Stomp," "You Can Have My Husband," "Jackson Stomp," "Deep Henderson," "Banjoreno," "Treasures Untold," "Russian Rag," "Oriental Strut," "Minor Drag," "Michigander Blues," "In Harlem's Araby," "Me and My Chauffeur," "A Jazz Battle," "Droppin' Shucks," "Fourth Street Mess Around," and "Carpet Alley Breakdown."


title: Tuba Skinny

text: The singers and composers whose material they favor include Victoria Spivey, Jelly Roll Morton, Lucille Bogan, Memphis Minnie, Jabbo Smith, Georgia White, Skip James, Merline Johnson, Ma Rainey, Hattie Hart, Blind Blake and Clara Smith. Some of the bands whose material Tuba Skinny has interpreted in its own manner are the Memphis Jug Band, the Dixieland Jug Blowers and the Mississippi Mud Steppers.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: While hailed as outstanding performers of traditional jazz, Tuba Skinny have not restricted their selection of material exclusively to what is permitted in the traditional repertoire. In fact, their goal is not to be circumscribed by rigid genres. The ensemble began playing predominantly early jazz and, as time passed, they transitioned "towards jug band music, country blues, string band music and ragtime." They briefly incorporated folk-country songs and New Orleans rhythm and blues into their performances before returning to their early jazz roots.


title: Tuba Skinny

text: Their music has been praised by music critics for its originality and technical competence. One review of their 2014 performance at the Melbourne Music Festival captured the quality of their music well:


title: Tuba Skinny

text: Although the band's members have varied somewhat since their début in 2009, the ensemble as of 2018 includes the following musicians.


title: Chandini Chowdary

text: Chandini Chowdary is an Indian actress who works in Telugu films. She appeared as a lead in "Kundanapu Bomma", "Howrah Bridge," "Colour Photo," "Bombhaat", "Super Over" and Sammathame"."


title: Chandini Chowdary

text: Chandini Chowdary was born as Ranjani in a Telugu-speaking family in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. She graduated in mechanical engineering from a college in Bangalore.


title: Chandini Chowdary

text: Before making her film debut, Chowdary acted in a many short films while studying in Bangalore. Some of the short films are Prema Prema, Love at First Sight, True Love, Approach, Proposal, Madhuram, Sambar Idli, Lucky, Two Side Love, Fall in Love, and "Romeo and Juliet." One of her short films with actor Raj Tarun, 'The Blind Date,' brought her recognition.


title: Chandini Chowdary

text: Chowdary played the lead in "Ketugadu" (2015), "Kundanapu Bomma" (2016), "Shamanthakamani" (2017) and "Howrah Bridge" (2018). Her performance in the web series Masti's was critically acclaimed. She garnered acclaim for her role in "Manu" (2018). In 2020, she starred in "Colour Photo" opposite Suhas in which she received praise for her acting skills. Her final release in 2022 was "Sammathame".


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: The Pinta Island tortoise ("Chelonoidis niger "), also known as the Pinta giant tortoise, Abingdon Island tortoise, or Abingdon Island giant tortoise, was a subspecies of Galápagos tortoise native to Ecuador's Pinta Island.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: The subspecies was described by Albert Günther in 1877 after specimens arrived in London. By the end of the 19th century, most of the Pinta Island tortoises had been wiped out due to hunting. By the mid-20th century, the subspecies was assumed to be extinct until a single male was discovered on the island in 1971. Efforts were made to mate the male, named Lonesome George, with other subspecies, but no viable eggs resulted. Lonesome George died on 24 June 2012, and the subspecies was believed to have become extinct with his death. However, 17 first-generation hybrids were reported in 2012 from Wolf Volcano on Isabela Island during a trip by Yale University researchers. As these specimens were juveniles, their parents might still be alive. The subspecies is classified as extinct on the IUCN Red List.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: Lonesome George, along with other of the tortoises on Pinta Island, belonged to a species of 15 subspecies. Giant tortoises were once found on all of the continents except Australia and Antarctica. The Galápagos tortoises remain the largest living tortoises.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: The Pinta Island tortoise was originally described in 1877 by German-born British herpetologist Albert Günther, who named it "Testudo abingdonii" in his book "The Gigantic Land-tortoises (Living and Extinct) in the Collection of the British Museum". The name "abingdonii" derives from Abingdon Island, now more commonly known as Pinta Island. The knowledge of its existence was derived from short statements of the voyages of Captain James Colnett in 1798 and Basil Hall in 1822. In 1876, Commander William Cookson brought three male specimens (along with other subspecies of Galápagos tortoise) to London aboard the Royal Navy ship HMS "Peterel".


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: Synonyms of "Chelonoidis abingdonii" include "Testudo abingdonii" Günther, 1877; "Testudo elephantopus abingdonii" Mertens & Wermuth, 1955; "Geochelone elephantopus abingdonii" Pritchard, 1967; "Geochelone nigra abingdonii" Iverson, 1992; and "Geochelone abingdonii" Valverde, 2004.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: The origin and systematic relationships are still unresolved today; they captivated Charles Darwin himself. DNA sequencing results indicate that the three best candidates for the closest living relative of the Galápagos tortoises all come from South America. They are the yellow-footed tortoise ("Geochelone denticulata"), the red-footed tortoise ("Geochelone carbonaria"), and the Chaco tortoise ("Geochelone chilensis").


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: In the wild, Galápagos tortoises, including the Pinta Island subspecies, rest about 16 hours a day. Galápagos tortoises are herbivores, feeding primarily on greens, grasses, native fruit, and cactus pads. They drink large quantities of water, which they can then store in their bodies for long periods of time for later use. They can reportedly survive up to six months without food or water.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: For breeding, the tortoises were most active during the hot season (January to May). During the cool season (June to November), female tortoises migrated to nesting zones to lay their eggs.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: Galápagos giant tortoises represent the top herbivores in the Galápagos, and as such they shape the entire island ecosystem. They provide critical ecosystem services by dispersing seeds and by acting as ecological engineers through herbivory and nutrient cycling. The extinction of the Pinta Island tortoise has diminished the functioning of the island ecosystem.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: Several of the surviving subspecies of Galápagos tortoises are endangered. The decline of the population began in the 17th century as a result of visits by buccaneers and whalers. They hunted tortoises as a source of fresh meat, taking about 200,000 tortoises altogether.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: In 1958, goats were brought to Pinta Island and began eating much of the vegetation, to the detriment of the natural habitat.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: A prolonged effort to exterminate the goats was begun. As the goat populations declined, the vegetation recovered. Small trees began regenerating from the stumps left by the goats. Highland shrub subspecies, forest tree seedlings, "Opuntia" cactus, and other endemic subspecies increased. In 2003, Pinta Island was declared goat-free.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: In addition to conservation efforts such as the elimination of goat populations in the Galápagos, there has been an effort to revive a number of subspecies of Galápagos tortoise through captive breeding. Future efforts may aim to recreate a population genetically similar to the original Pinta Island tortoise by breeding the first-generation hybrids discovered on Wolf Volcano.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: The last known individual of the subspecies was a male named Lonesome George (), who died on 24 June 2012. In his last years, he was known as the rarest creature in the world. George served as a potent symbol for conservation efforts in the Galápagos and internationally.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: George was first seen on the island of Pinta on 1 December 1971 by Hungarian malacologist József Vágvölgyi. Relocated for his safety to the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island, George was penned with two females of different subspecies. Although the females laid eggs, none hatched. The Pinta tortoise was pronounced functionally extinct.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: Over the decades, all attempts at mating Lonesome George were unsuccessful, possibly because his subspecies was not cross-fertile with the other subspecies.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: On 24 June 2012, at 8:00 am local time, Director of the Galápagos National Park Edwin Naula announced that Lonesome George had been found dead by his caretaker of 40 years, Fausto Llerena. Naula suspects that the cause of death was heart failure consistent with the end of the natural life of a tortoise.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: In 2006, Peter Pritchard, one of the world's foremost authorities on Galápagos tortoises, suggested that a male tortoise residing in the Prague Zoo might be a Pinta Island tortoise due to his shell structure. Subsequent DNA analysis, however, revealed that it was more likely to be from Pinzón Island, home of the subspecies "C. duncanensis".


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: Whalers and pirates in the past used Isabela Island, the central and largest of the Galápagos Islands, as a tortoise dumping ground. Today, the remaining tortoises that live around Wolf Volcano have combined genetic markers from several subspecies.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: In May 2007, analysis of genomic microsatellites (DNA sequences) suggested that individuals from a translocated group of "C. abingdonii" may still exist in the wild on Isabela. Researchers identified one male tortoise from the Wolf Volcano region that had half its genes in common with George's subspecies. This animal is believed to be a first-generation hybrid between the subspecies of the islands Isabela and Pinta. This suggests the possibility of a pure Pinta tortoise among the 2,000 tortoises on Isabela.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: A subsequent trip to Isabela by Yale University researchers found 17 first-generation hybrids living at Wolf Volcano. The researchers planned to return to Isabela in the spring of 2013 to look for surviving Pinta tortoises and to try to collect hybrids in an effort to start a captive selective-breeding program and to hopefully reintroduce Pintas back to their native island.


title: Pinta Island tortoise

text: In 2020, the Galápagos national park and Galápagos Conservancy announced that they had discovered one young female with a direct line of descent from the Chelonoidis abingdonii subspecies of Pinta island.


title: El Paso (song)

text: "El Paso" is a western ballad written and originally recorded by Marty Robbins, and first released on "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs" in September 1959. It was released as a single the following month, and became a major hit on both the country and pop music charts, reaching No. 1 in both at the start of 1960 (the first No. 1 hit of the 1960s). It won the Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording in 1961. It is widely considered a genre classic for its gripping narrative which ends in the death of its protagonist, its shift from past to present tense, haunting harmonies by vocalists Bobby Sykes and Jim Glaser (of the Glaser Brothers) and the eloquent and varied Spanish guitar accompaniment by Grady Martin that lends the recording a distinctive Tex-Mex feel. The name of the character Feleena was based upon a schoolmate of Robbins in the fifth grade, Fidelina Martinez.


title: El Paso (song)

text: Members of the Western Writers of America chose "El Paso" as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.


title: El Paso (song)

text: The song is a first-person narrative told by a cowboy in El Paso, Texas, in the days of the Wild West. The singer recalls how he frequented "Rosa's Cantina", where he became smitten with a young Mexican dancer named Feleena. When the singer notices another cowboy sharing a drink with "wicked Feleena", out of jealousy he challenges the newcomer to a gunfight. The singer kills the newcomer, then flees. In the act of escaping, the singer commits the additional hanging offense of horse theft. Departing the town, the singer hides out in the "badlands of New Mexico."


title: El Paso (song)

text: The song then fast-forwards to an undisclosed time later – the lyrics at this point change from past to present tense – when the singer describes the yearning for Feleena that drives him to return, without regard for his own life, to El Paso. He states that his "love is stronger than [his] fear of death." Upon arriving, the singer races for the cantina, but is chased and fatally wounded by a posse. Feleena rushes to his side, and he dies in her arms after "one little kiss".


title: El Paso (song)

text: There have been three versions of Robbins' original recording of "El Paso": the original full-length version, the edited version, and the abbreviated version, which is an alternate take in stereo that can be found on the "Gunfighter Ballads" album. The original version, released on a 45 single record, is in mono and is around 4 minutes and 38 seconds in duration, far longer than most contemporary singles at the time, especially in the country genre. Robbins' longtime record company, Columbia Records, was unsure whether radio stations would play such a long song, so it released two versions of the song on a promo 45: the full-length version on one side, and an edited version on the other which was nearer to the three-minute mark. This version omitted a verse describing the cowboy's remorse over the "foul evil deed [he] had done" before his flight from El Paso. The record-buying public, as well as most disc jockeys, overwhelmingly preferred the full-length version.


title: El Paso (song)

text: "El Paso" frequently was performed by the Grateful Dead in concert. The song entered the band's repertoire in 1969, and remained there until the band's demise in 1995; in total, it was performed 389 times. It was sung by rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, with Jerry Garcia contributing harmony vocals. On the album "Ladies and Gentlemen... the Grateful Dead", Bob Weir introduces the song as the Dead's "most requested number". Later post-Garcia groups such as Furthur, The Other Ones, and Dead & Company also performed the song, though not as often.


title: El Paso (song)

text: After Lolita and her Western Trio had a hit in the US with Seemann (Deine Heimat ist das Meer) she recorded a German version of El Paso which contributed to a long series of bi-national songs such as "Wenn der Sommer Kommt" and two songs which would top the U.S. country charts thirteen years later as performed by Marie Osmond "Lieber Jonny, Komm doch Wieder" and "Das einsame Haus in Waikiki".


title: El Paso (song)

text: A parody version, "El Pizza" by H.B. Barnum, was a radio hit in 1960. It moved the action to Azusa, California, where Rosa's Cantina became a pizza place where Feleena worked as a waitress.


title: El Paso (song)

text: Homer and Jethro also parodied the song in their "El Paso - Numero Dos". When the singer asks for directions to Rosa's Cantina, a cab driver tells him to "ask Marty Robbins, 'cause he's the hombre who made up the song". The singer encounters a woman named "Velveeta" and asks her where she had been all his life; "she answered, 'Most of it I wasn't born'".


title: El Paso (song)

text: In the late 1980s a version for marching band (called "El Paso" (Miners Fight)) became the official fight song of the University of Texas at El Paso Miners.


title: El Paso (song)

text: In 1966, Robbins recorded "Feleena (From El Paso)", telling the life story of Feleena, the "Mexican girl" from "El Paso", in a third-person narrative. This track was over eight minutes long. Robbins wrote most of it in Phoenix, Arizona, but went to El Paso seeking inspiration for the conclusion.


title: El Paso (song)

text: Born in a desert shack in New Mexico during a thunderstorm, Feleena runs away from home at 17, living off her charms for a year in Santa Fe, New Mexico, before moving to the brighter lights of El Paso to become a paid dancer. After another year, the narrator of "El Paso" arrives, the first man she did not have contempt for. He spends six weeks romancing her and then, in a retelling of the key moment in the original song, beset by "insane jealousy", he shoots another man with whom she was flirting.


title: El Paso (song)

text: Her lover's return to El Paso comes only a day after his flight (the original song suggests a longer time frame before his return) and as she goes to run to him, the cowboy motions to her to stay out of the line of fire and is shot; immediately after his dying kiss, Feleena shoots herself with his gun. Their ghosts are heard to this day in the wind blowing around El Paso: "It's only the young cowboy showing Feleena the town".


title: El Paso (song)

text: In 1976 Robbins released another reworking, "El Paso City", in which the present-day singer is a passenger on a flight over El Paso, which reminds him of a song he had heard "long ago", proceeding to summarize the original "El Paso" story. "I don't recall who sang the song," he sings, but he feels a supernatural connection to the story: "Could it be that I could be the cowboy in this mystery...," he asks, suggesting a past life. This song reached No. 1 on the country charts. The arrangement includes riffs and themes from the previous two El Paso songs. Robbins wrote it while flying over El Paso in, he reported, the same amount of time it takes to sing—four minutes and 14 seconds. It was only the second time that ever happened to him; the first time was when he composed the original "El Paso" as fast as he could write it down. Robbins intended to do one more sequel, “The Mystery of Old El Paso", but he died in late 1982 before he could finish the final song.


title: Bernard Boursicot

text: Bernard Boursicot (born on 12 August 1944) is a French diplomat who was caught in a honeypot trap (seducing him to participate in Chinese espionage) by Shi Pei Pu, a male Peking opera singer who performed female roles, whom Boursicot believed to be female. This espionage case became something of a cause célèbre in France in 1986, as Boursicot and Shi were brought to trial, owing to the nature of the unusual sexual subterfuge alleged.


title: Bernard Boursicot

text: The case was again back under a public spotlight when a play loosely based on this affair, "M. Butterfly" by David Henry Hwang, premiered in 1988 and yet again as the film adaptation of the play directed by David Cronenberg was released in 1993. Periodic restagings of the play and television airings of the film based on it continue to spark interest in the espionage case at the heart of the fictional works of art.


title: Bernard Boursicot

text: Boursicot was born in 1944. He attended boarding schools as a youth, where he engaged in multiple homosexual affairs with other students; upon graduation, Boursicot became determined to have sex with a woman for the first time, believing that institutionalized homosexuality among boarding students was merely a rite of passage. He first met Shi Pei Pu in China while posted to the French Embassy in Peking as an accountant in 1964. He was 20 years old and Shi was 26. They met at an embassy reception and shortly began a relationship. Reporter Joyce Wadler, who wrote the book "Liaison" about the affair, would later attribute Boursicot's belief that Shi was a woman to Shi's unique ability to retract his own testicles, which, combined with the manipulation of his own penis, created the illusion of labial lips and a clitoris and allowed for shallow penetration.


title: Bernard Boursicot

text: In 1965, Shi claimed to be pregnant and was able to use a baby boy called Shi Du Du (later called Bertrand by Boursicot and his family) who had been bought from a doctor in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. Over the next decade, they continued their on-again off-again affair as Boursicot moved from posting to posting in Southeast Asia. During this period Boursicot embraced his own bisexuality, having multiple liaisons with women while also engaged in a long term relationship with a Frenchman named Thierry, with whom he one day hoped to form a family including Shi Pei Pu and Bertrand. Boursicot has stated that he began passing documents to Shi when the Chinese Cultural Revolution made it difficult for him to see her. He was approached by Kang Sheng, a member of the Chinese secret service who offered him access to Shi in exchange for his passing documents. He believed Shi's safety was at risk if he failed to participate.


title: Bernard Boursicot

text: Boursicot returned to France in 1979 and lost contact with Shi. In 1982, Boursicot was able to get the now 16-year-old Shi Du Du out of China and to Paris, where they lived as a family. Boursicot was questioned by authorities and confessed to having passed at least 150 classified documents to Shi. In 1983, Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu were arrested for spying for China. The prosecution then dramatically revealed Shi's real sex to Boursicot. He refused to believe it until he was permitted to see proof in the form of Shi's body. Not long after, he attempted suicide while in prison but was unsuccessful. In 1986, after a two-day trial, Boursicot and Shi were convicted of spying against the French government. Each received a sentence of six years in prison.


title: Bernard Boursicot

text: Shi was pardoned in 1987. After his release, Shi remained in Paris, where he enjoyed his notoriety and performed as an opera singer. Boursicot, released four months after Shi, was last reported to be living contentedly with Thierry and has apparently made peace with the nature of his relationship with Shi. Shi Pei Pu and Shi Du Du had no contact with Boursicot until Shi's death in 2009. In Shi's obituary, it was reported that Shi Du Du was living in Paris and believed by Boursicot to have a family with three sons.


title: Bernard Boursicot

text: Boursicot cooperated fully with reporter Joyce Wadler, who was seeking information for her book on the espionage case and affair, "Liaison", granting her lengthy interviews about deeply personal subjects as well as access to all records and his closest family members. He is frequently quoted in the book.


title: Bernard Boursicot

text: In a separate but lengthy article published in "The New York Times Magazine" in 1993, titled "The True Story of M. Butterfly; The Spy Who Fell in Love with a Shadow", Wadler reveals in intimate detail how Boursicot came to believe the fiction that Shi Pei Pu was a woman despite having first come to know him socially and in a close friendship as a man.


title: Bernard Boursicot

text: Boursicot related through Wadler that Shi first told him the story of an opera about a Chinese girl who swaps clothing with her brother so she may be educated. She falls in love with another student but is called home to participate in an arranged marriage. The male student is driven to suicide and eventually the girl does the same at the grave of her true love. The opera is called the "Story of the Butterfly".


title: Bernard Boursicot

text: Boursicot reported that it is only when he had the opportunity to leave his dull job that Shi Pei Pu told him the "Story of the Butterfly" again with an added twist that he, Shi Pei Pu, had been a woman masquerading as a man all his life to prevent her father from taking a second wife and shaming her mother who had two older daughters. Upon Shi's birth, this fiction was created. Boursicot accepted the lie, their affair began, and all that came after ensued.


title: Bernard Boursicot

text: In his obituary, it was reported that Shi Pei Pu disliked answering questions about the sexual specifics of the affair; in 1988 he was quoted in an interview as having said, "I used to fascinate both men and women. What I was and what they were didn't matter."


title: Bernard Boursicot

text: About the affair, Boursicot is quoted as saying, "When I believed it, it was a beautiful story." However, when Boursicot was notified at a French nursing home of Shi's death, Boursicot said, "He did so many things against me that he had no pity for, I think it is stupid to play another game now and say I am sad. The plate is clean now. I am free."


title: Twenty One Pilots discography

text: American musical duo Twenty One Pilots have released six studio albums, three live albums, 9 extended plays, 25 singles and 33 music videos. The band was formed in 2009 and currently consists of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun. After two self-released albums, "Twenty One Pilots" in 2009 and "Regional at Best" in 2011, they were signed by Fueled by Ramen in 2012, which released their following studio albums, as well as "Blurryface Live", a three-LP, tri-gatefold picture disc vinyl.


title: Twenty One Pilots discography

text: The duo achieved breakthrough success with their fourth album "Blurryface" in 2015, which produced the successful singles "Stressed Out" and "Ride". In addition, the single "Heathens", recorded for the soundtrack of the film "Suicide Squad", made the group the first alternative artist to have two concurrent top ten singles in the United States.


title: Twenty One Pilots discography

text: The duo's fifth studio album, "Trench", was released on October 5, 2018, followed by their sixth, "Scaled and Icy", on May 21, 2021. They are the first and currently only artist in history to have each song from two separate albums ("Vessel" and "Blurryface") certified at least gold by the RIAA. They have won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, and frontman Tyler Joseph has been nominated for six Grammy Awards in total.


title: Twenty One Pilots discography

text: 114. ^https://www.riaa.com/twenty-one-pilots-garner-four-new-riaa-certifications-including-second-career-diamond-award/ retrieved September 25, 2022


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: The Russo-Swedish War of 1788–1790 was fought between Sweden and Russia from June 1788 to August 1790. The war was ended by the Treaty of Värälä on 14 August 1790 and took place concomitantly with both the Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791), Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792) and Theatre War. The war was, overall, mostly insignificant for the parties involved.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: The conflict was initiated by King Gustav III of Sweden for domestic political reasons, as he believed that a short war would leave the opposition with no recourse but to support him. Despite establishing himself as an autocrat in a bloodless "coup d'état" that ended parliamentary rule in 1772, his political powers did not give him the right to start a war. Also he was becoming increasingly unpopular, an issue which became obvious during the parliament session of 1786. This unpopularity was also encouraged by Russia, which believed an autocratic king to be a threat to its interests. However, Russian support for his opposition did not go unnoticed by Gustav III, and was one of the reasons why he thought of the war as inevitable. The Western powers — such as Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Prussia — were alarmed by a string of Russian victories in the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792) and lobbied for the war in the north, which would have diverted the attention of Catherine II of Russia from the Southern theatre. It was at their instigation that Gustav concluded an alliance with the Ottoman Empire in the summer of 1788. However, only the Ottoman Empire was willing to ally with Sweden while Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Prussia rejected efforts to form an alliance.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: Before the grand opening of the Riksdag in 1789, King Gustav III had the Riksdag Music commissioned. The Parliament then decided on the creation of a National Debt Office to raise funds and finance the war, a move that gave rise to a wave of inflation of the Swedish riksdaler.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: The Swedes initially planned a naval assault on Saint Petersburg. One Swedish army was to advance through Finland; a second army, accompanied by the Swedish coastal flotilla, was to advance along the Finnish coast into the Gulf of Finland; while a third army sailed with the Swedish battlefleet in order to land at Oranienbaum to advance on Saint Petersburg. The goal was to instigate a "coup de état" in Russia and depose Empress Catherine II. Sveaborg was set as the forward base of operations for the campaign. However, the whole concept was based on the assumption that the Swedish open sea fleet would be able to decisively defeat its Russian counterpart. Incidentally, Russian forces were not totally unprepared for the war since the bulk of the Russian Baltic Fleet was planned to be transferred against the Ottoman Empire and had made preparations of its own for war.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: War was far from popular, even less so in the eastern part of Sweden (Finland). Even senior military leaders voiced their opposition to the plans to go to war. Especially amongst the officers of the army, unrest spread widely. This could partly be explained by the still remaining supporters of Georg Magnus Sprengtporten's plans for Finnish independence.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: In 1788, a head tailor of the Royal Swedish Opera received an order to sew a number of Russian military uniforms that later were used in an exchange of gunfire at Puumala, a Swedish outpost on the Russo-Swedish border, on 27 June 1788. The staged attack, which caused outrage in Stockholm, was to convince the Riksdag of the Estates and to provide Gustav with an excuse to declare a "defensive war" on Russia. This was important since Gustav III did not have the constitutional right to start an offensive war without the agreement of the estates, who had already made clear that their acceptance would not be forthcoming.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: The Swedish open sea fleet sailed from Karlskrona on 9 June 1788, with Duke Charles of Södermanland as its commander. On 21 June the fleet met a Russian squadron off Saaremaa island and after chasing the Russians down tried to provoke a conflict by demanding Russians render honours to the Swedes from which Russians had been exempted in the previous peace treaties. Vice Admiral Wilhelm von Dessin who commanded the small Russian squadron agreed to render honours to Duke Charles but not to the Swedish flag and managed to dissolve the threatening situation and continue towards Copenhagen. Since the Swedish wanted to avoid initiating the conflict they had lost their chance to provoke the Russians into war and were left empty-handed.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: On 7 July the Swedish fleet was notified that a state of war with Russia was in effect, and already on 8 July surprised two unprepared Russian frigates – 32-gun "Jaroslavets" ("Jarislawits") and 24-gun "Hektor" ("Gektor") – which were promptly captured together with their crew of 450 men. The Swedish fleet met a Russian fleet sailing under the command of Admiral Samuel Greig and fought an engagement, the Battle of Hogland, in which neither side managed to gain advantage. Upon return to Sveaborg to repair and resupply Duke Charles' fleet, the Swedes found that Sveaborg had been stocked only with coastal fleet in mind, which amongst other things meant that it did not store ammunition for the heavy cannons of the open sea fleet and lacked suitable stocks of equipment required to repair large sailing ships.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: The coastal fleet's Stockholm's squadron departed for Finland on 25 June, carrying over 9,000 troops. It reached its destination of Sveaborg on 2 July and started constructing an encampment on the island of Sandhamn, next to Helsingfors. The coastal fleet's Sveaborg squadron under Colonel Michael Anckarsvärd had been readied for action already by mid-June. On 26 July, the coastal fleet under Colonel Anckarsvärd departed for Frederikshamn, carrying 6,000 men, while a 4,000-strong unit advanced on land under General Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt. The Swedish coastal fleet clashed briefly with a group of Russian galleys outside Frederikshamn on 28 July, and forced them to retire within the protection of the fortifications. Initial Swedish landing attempts began on 2 August but bad weather prevented the main force from landing and a Russian counterattack forced the 300-man Swedish landing party to return to their ships. On 3 August, landings were successful, some 10 km south-east of the town, and by the evening Swedish forces were advancing towards Frederikshamn. However, inspired Russian resistance in the early hours of 4 August convinced the Swedish landing force to return to its ships. Attempts to swiftly capture Frederikshamn ended in total failure for several reasons, one of the most glaring being the increasing unrest against the king amongst the officers.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: Attempts by Colonel 's 1,700-man-strong to storm Nyslott by surprise on 2 July ended in a siege which, given the besiegers' total lack of siege artillery, caused the Swedish advance to bog down. The siege had to be abandoned on 21 August. General 's 4,000 men were to support the coastal fleet's capture of Frederikshamn and crossed the border on 18 July, reaching its staging ground just north of Frederikshamn on 20 July. A further 1,100 men were under the command of Colonel Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt. When the failure at Frederikshamn became apparent, the Swedish troops were pulled back to the border. The war being perceived illegal as it did not have the support of the estates, along with its lack of success, contributed to rising unrest. Already on 9 August, a group of officers had pleaded for peace with Russia, and on 12 August had signed what became known as the Anjala declaration, with the whole matter being later known as the Anjala conspiracy. King Gustav III's position, surrounded by rebellious officers, was greatly improved when news of a threat of war from Denmark–Norway became known and he could head back to Sweden on 25 August without being accused of deserting his troops.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: The Swedish attack on Russia caused Denmark–Norway to declare war on Sweden in August, in accordance with its treaty obligations to Russia. A Norwegian army briefly invaded Sweden and won the Battle of Kvistrum Bridge, before peace was signed on 9 July 1789, following the diplomatic intervention of Great Britain and Prussia. Under their pressure, Denmark–Norway declared itself neutral in the conflict, bringing the Theatre War to an end.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: The Russian fleet had already in early August, soon after the Battle of Hogland, moved to blockade the Swedish open sea fleet in Sveaborg, as the Swedes were unable to get their fleet ready for battle. A small detachment, under command of James Travene, from the Russian fleet cut the safe coastal sea route past Hangö in late August 1788. This caused severe supply troubles for the Swedish fleets and armies, which were mostly east of the cape. A small coastal fleet detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel sortied to drive off the Russians, but lacked the strength to do so. After receiving reinforcements, the Swedes managed on 17 October to engage large Russian units for long enough for the small gunboats to slip past the blockade and protect the transports west of the cape, which probably saved the transports containing army and fleet supplies from capture. A few days later, the Russians abandoned their position, allowing Swedish transports to deliver supplies unhindered. Since Sveaborg could not repair and refit the ships of the open sea fleet, it had to set sail for Karlskrona. However, preparations and unsuitable weather delayed departure until 20 November, when the sea at Sveaborg was already frozen over and some ships had to be freed by sawing the ice open for them. The fleet, however, reached Karlskrona one week later without any losses, just days before that port also froze over.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: In an attempt to prevent Russian ships from cutting off coastal sea routes, the Swedes built several fortifications at Hangö and on its surrounding islands during the winter of 1788/1789. Additional fortifications were constructed west of Hangö, near Korpo. However, Porkala cape was left without fortifications. The bulk of the Swedish army in Finland, consisting of 13,000 men under General Johan August Meijerfeldt the Younger, was placed at the Kymmene river, with a further 5,000 men in Savolax. While the troops still lacked supplies, their discipline and morale had been greatly improved from what it had been in 1788. On the naval front, Sweden had not been so lucky; the crews of the open sea fleet based at Karlskrona suffered heavily from fever, making both fitting and manning the ships very difficult, and it took until 6 July before the fleet was able to set sail, under command of Duke Charles of Södermanland, who had the experienced naval officer Admiral as his flag-captain.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: In stark contrast to Swedish troubles, the Russian open sea fleet had set sail already in mid-May; by 22 May a few ships reconnoitered the Swedish defences at Hangö, but after a short engagement the Russian ships chose to break off. The main body of the Russian fleet under Admiral Vasily Chichagov met the Swedish fleet on 26 July, and engaged it in what became known as the Battle of Öland. As in the previous year, the battle was indecisive, with the Swedes heading to Karlskrona and the Russian fleet joining up with a Russian squadron from Danish waters. The raging epidemic then confined the Swedish fleet to Karlskrona for most of the year.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: The Swedish coastal fleet had been unable to sail for Sweden for the winter and had to be fitted out in Finland. In addition to the problems, the commander of the coastal fleet Colonel Anckarsvärd was arrested for being involved with the Anjala conspiracy and replaced with Admiral Carl August Ehrensvärd. The Swedish coastal fleet was able to sail from Sveaborg in late May and moved to the vicinity of Frederikshamn. However, after Hangö had been fortified, the Russians had moved in to blockade the coastal sea route at Porkala on 10 June. This effectively split the Swedish coastal fleet, as reinforcements from Sweden were unable to join with the main body, putting the coastal fleet at a severe disadvantage against the Russian coastal fleet.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: In mid-June 1789, the Russians attacked Savolax from three different directions, with total forces of roughly 10,000 men against 4,000 Swedish defenders. Despite a clear victory at the Battle of Porrassalmi, the Swedish army was forced to withdraw, leaving the important Puumala straits to the Russians. Meanwhile, King Gustav III had assumed control of the main body of the Swedish army and started an offensive towards Villmanstrand on 25 June. The Swedes won a resounding victory at Utti on 28 June, but instead of advancing to Villmanstrand, the king headed for Frederikshamn. Once again, however, the Swedish offensive was bogged down. It took until 18 July for Russian defences outside Frederikshamn to be cleared, and during this time the Russian army had kept moving its forces south from Savolax. Small detachments (roughly 2,000 men) sent to stop the Russians were defeated at Kaipiainen and the Swedish army had to withdraw to the border once again. The Russian departure from Savolax enabled Swedish units in the area under the command of Colonel Curt von Stedingk to go onto the offensive. His forces advanced towards Nyslott and won several engagements against the Russians, first at Parkuinmäki Hill and later at Laitaatsilta. When forces moved to their winter encampments, very little had changed from the spring, with the Savolax Brigade having recaptured lost land, and only Puumala had remaining in Russian control.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: The Russian coastal fleet under Karl Heinrich von Nassau-Siegen started attacking the Swedish coastal fleet on 15 August, by driving away the Swedish squadron which was scouting the area near Frederikshamn. This was followed by an attack against the main staging ground of the Swedish coastal fleet at Svensksund, leading to the first Battle of Svensksund. The Russians tried to take advantage of their victory over the Swedes with a co-ordinated offensive of both the coastal fleet and the army, which managed to drive the remaining Swedes beyond the Kymmene river. The battered Swedish coastal fleet was soon reinforced with ships from Sveaborg, while its commander Admiral Carl August Ehrensvärd was replaced, first by Colonel , who oversaw the repairs, and later by Lieutenant-Colonel .


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: The Russian blockade caused considerable trouble to the Swedes. Starting already in early July, Swedish gunboats engaged the much larger Russians on a daily basis, under the command of Admiral Salomon von Rajalin, who was in overall command of the Swedish coastal fleet in the Porkala region. Since von Rajalin's forces lacked the strength to overpower the Russian blockade, they instead covered the Swedish transports in their passage through the Barösund strait. The Swedish forces were repeatedly reinforced during the summer and already in mid-July consisted of 2 frigates, 10 galleys and several gunboats. Several artillery batteries were constructed to protect the area. Fighting at sea near Porkala cape continued until September. The Russian blockade at Porkala was after 24 August 1789 under the command of Captain James Trevenen, who started the effort to break the Swedish hold on Barösund. The Russian attack against Barösund started on 18 September. The attacking force consisted of 4 ships of the line, 1 frigate and 6 cutters. Fighting continued for two hours and cost the Swedes a single galley and the Russians one ship of the line ("Severny Oryol") and several others damaged, but it gained the Russians the control of the Barösund strait. Sporadic fighting in the archipelago near Porkala continued and on 23 September the Russians captured the island of Älgsjön from the Swedes, but lost it on 30 September when Swedish reinforcements under Colonel Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt arrived. The Russian fleet left the area suddenly on 23 October, possibly due to the news that the Swedish open sea fleet had set sail, which it had done on 13 October, only to return to Karlskrona on 22 October. The Russian departure opened the safe coastal sea route to Swedish transports.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: In 1790, King Gustav III revived the plan for a landing close to Saint Petersburg, this time near Vyborg. In addition, a determined effort was made to bolster the strength of the fleets as much as possible so as to be able to get them under sail as soon as possible. The coastal fleet especially was being reinforced with new and stronger ships, some of them donated by the various Swedish towns. The first action took place on 17 March 1790, when two Swedish frigates plundered the Russian-controlled port of Rågersvik (Baltiyskiy Port). Swedish squadrons from Stockholm started towards Sveaborg on 21 April and also from Pommern on 3 May. Even though the Swedish main effort was on the sea, they attacked also on land, where Swedes led by Colonel Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt defeated Russian defenders on 15 April in southern Savolax, while the army led by King Gustav III and Colonel Gustaf Wachtmeister won another victory in the Battle of Valkeala. A Russian attack on 5 May close to the Kymmene river gained some success, capturing Anjala, but was thrown back before the end of the month. Fighting on land, however, reached stalemate, and already in June had turned into static warfare.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: The Swedish open sea fleet under Duke Charles arrived on 10 May at Hangö and moved on 12 May to the vicinity of Reval. As some ships of the fleet were still separated from the main body, Duke Charles refused to carry out the attack on 12 May, when favourable winds still existed, and instead chose to attack on 13 May, leading to the Swedish failure at the Battle of Reval. The Swedish fleet stayed near Reval until late May, when it set sail to protect the flank of the coastal fleet; this led to another naval engagement, at the Battle of Kronstadt. Failing to inflict a decisive defeat on the Russians, or to prevent separate Russian squadrons from joining together, the open sea fleet sailed to Vyborg Bay.


title: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)

text: The coastal fleet started its offensive on 8 May, under command of King Gustav III with de Frese as his flag-captain, without waiting for the coastal fleet's squadrons from Sweden or Pommern. The Swedish coastal fleet attacked the Russian fleet at Frederikshamn on 15 May, winning a clear victory over the defenders in the Battle of Fredrikshamn. However, attempts to capture the town and its fortifications failed. Instead of blockading the town, the Swedes chose to continue further towards Vyborg while raiding Russian supplies along the coast, and reached the Beryozovye Islands on 2 June, from where it attempted to support the open sea fleet in the Battle of Kronstadt.