title: German invasion of Belgium (1940)

text: The Belgian surrender came into effect at 04:00 on 28 May. Recriminations abounded with the British and French claiming the Belgians had betrayed the alliance. In Paris, the French Premier Paul Reynaud denounced Leopold's surrender, and the Belgian Premier Hubert Pierlot informed the people that Leopold had taken action against the unanimous advice of the government. As a result, the king was no longer in a position to govern and the Belgian government in exile that was located in Paris (later moved to London following the fall of France) would continue the struggle. The chief complaint was that the Belgians had not given any prior warning that their situation was so serious as to capitulate. Such claims were largely unjust. The Allies had known, and admitted it privately on 25 May through contact with the Belgians, that the latter were on the verge of collapse.


title: German invasion of Belgium (1940)

text: Churchill's and the British response was officially restrained. This was due to the strong-willed defence of the Belgian defensive campaign presented to the cabinet by Sir Roger Keyes at 11:30 am 28 May. The French and Belgian ministers had referred to Leopold's actions as treacherous, but they were unaware of the true events: Leopold had not signed an agreement with Hitler in order to form a collaborative government, but an unconditional surrender as Commander-in-Chief of the Belgian Armed Forces.


title: German invasion of Belgium (1940)

text: The casualty reports include total losses at this point in the campaign. The figures for the Battle of Belgium, 10–28 May 1940, cannot be known with any certainty.


title: German invasion of Belgium (1940)

text: Numbers for the Battle of Belgium are unknown, but the French suffered the following losses throughout the entire western campaign, 10 May – 22 June:


title: German invasion of Belgium (1940)

text: Numbers for the Battle of Belgium are unknown, but the British suffered the following losses throughout the entire campaign, 10 May – 22 June:


title: German invasion of Belgium (1940)

text: The consolidated report of the "Oberkommando der Wehrmacht" regarding the operations in the west from 10 May to 4 June (German: "Zusammenfassender Bericht des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht über die Operationen im Westen vom 10. Mai bis 4. Juni") reports:


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: Matterhorn Bobsleds are a pair of intertwined steel roller coasters at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. It is modeled after the Matterhorn, a mountain in the Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy. It is the first known tubular steel track roller coaster. Located on the border between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, it employs forced perspective to seem larger.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: During the construction of the park, dirt from the excavation of Sleeping Beauty Castle's moat was piled in an area between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. When the park opened, the area, dubbed Holiday Hill (and later Lookout Mountain), was improved with benches and pathways to encourage its use as a picnic area. After the opening of the Disneyland Skyway in 1956, Walt Disney conceived the idea of a toboggan ride on the mountain with real snow, but the logistics caused vehement objections by Disneyland construction chief Joe Fowler. In this period, the hill began to be known as Snow Hill. By now, instead of being a place for picnicking, the hill had come to be used primarily as a nighttime lovers' lane, much to Disney's dismay. New wild mouse-style roller coasters got the attention of Disneyland executives, who began to consider applying this emerging technology to the creation of a toboggan-themed coaster ride on an artificial mountain at the site.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The Matterhorn Bobsleds have a striking resemblance to "one of the oldest rollercoasters in the world, Rutschebanen, also known as Bjergbanen (the Mountain Coaster, which opened in 1914 and still operates with a rider on each train braking the car on each hill)." Similar to Rutschebanen (at the Tivoli in Copenhagen, Denmark), which predated it by nearly half a century, the top of the Matterhorn Bobsleds ride is also an icy scene, and the snowbirds and the interior featuring the Abominable Snowman are also quite similar in design.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The structure was also intended to act as a decorative overlay to camouflage the central pylon of the Skyway. Use of the Matterhorn, both in style and name, grew from Walt Disney's extended vacation in Switzerland while filming "Third Man on the Mountain". In a moment of inspiration, impressed by the beauty of the real Matterhorn, Walt grabbed a postcard of the mountain from a souvenir stand and sent it back to Imagineer (architect) Vic Greene with the message, "Vic. Build This. Walt." This resulted in the merger of the toboggan-ride concept with the idea for a bobsled coaster ride that would run around and through the structure. The peak was first shown in a conceptual drawing that was once on display at the Disney Gallery.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: Imagineer Bob Gurr was responsible for designing the track plan and has said that it was the hardest project that he has ever worked on. He began working on the attraction in mid-1958 after finishing preliminary work on the Submarine Voyage.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: American Bridge Company was responsible for constructing the steel structure inside the Matterhorn. In 1936, they built the Bay Bridge that connects Oakland to San Francisco in California.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The view to the northwest shows a corner of the now-defunct Junior Autopia, which would be replaced by both the Matterhorn and the Submarine Voyage attraction the following year. The Matterhorn opened on June 14, 1959, one of three major new Tomorrowland attractions to open that year. Built by coaster builder Arrow Development and WED Imagineering, it was the world's first tubular steel roller coaster. It consisted of a wood and steel infrastructure surrounded by man-made rock. Starting with the 1961 holiday season, a revolving star stood atop it.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: Trees could be seen on its sides; by making the trees at higher altitudes smaller, the Imagineers used forced perspective to augment the mountain's height. Waterfalls cascaded down its sides and frequently sprayed riders. Inside was a large, open space through which the bobsleds traveled. The peak had numerous holes in its exterior through which the bobsleds exited and re-entered, though the space within was not elaborately themed, with the infrastructure only minimally disguised as rock. The Skyway passed through the center of the mountain via a pair of openings on the Fantasyland and Tomorrowland sides. Skyway riders could see down into the Matterhorn's interior as they glided through.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: In the early 1970s, the ride was officially made a part of Fantasyland, but this was merely a prelude to far more significant changes. In 1973, the revolving star at its top was removed, in part because of the 1973 oil crisis that had hit the US.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: In 1978, the Matterhorn received a major refurbishment. Most notably, the hollow interior space was broken up into a number of small, icy caves and tunnels with far more convincing theming. A grotto filled with glimmering crystals was added near the top of the lift hill. Some holes in the mountain's skin were filled in as well, including the two large openings at the top of the lift hill that had allowed guests to briefly glimpse the entire southern part of the park. Artificial screams were placed at the top of the lift hill. Another major addition was an Abominable Snowman, whom the Imagineers dubbed "Harold". It appears as three similar Audio-Animatronic figures that roar at the bobsledders. The first is visible from both tracks, at the point where they diverge; the other two are visible only from their respective tracks. Each track also features a pair of red eyes that glow in the dark shortly after the lift hill while the Snowman's roar is heard. The roars can be heard from ground level as well, even over the recorded howling of the Alpine wind. The bobsleds themselves were also changed from the original flat, luge-like, multi-colored two-seaters to rounder, white cars decorated with orange and red stripes, and from single cars to two connected cars.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The Skyway continued to travel through the mountain, but its passageway was now enclosed in similarly themed ice caves. Following the closure of the Skyway in 1994, the cavernous holes through which the Skyway buckets had traveled were partially filled in. The holes in the Tomorrowland face remained mostly intact, and an abandoned crate labeled "Wells Expedition" was also added in the crystal scene as a tribute to Frank Wells, who had died earlier that year. (Wells had climbed six of the Seven Summits, with only Mount Everest remaining at the time of his death.) At the end of the lift chain, a projection of snowfall was added. With the exception of the filling of certain holes, the mountain's original external structure remained largely unchanged.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: Several small refurbishments accrued between 2004-2005. In 2004, the safety spiel, formerly heard on the lift, was moved to the brake where cast members inspect seatbelts. The original spiel recorded by Jack Wagner was re-recorded by an actor with a German accent, but Wagner's Spanish spiel is still heard. The unloading spiel was also changed in 2005, from “Remain seated please” to “Please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened”, which was used in breakdown spiels. The loading station was revamped with new decorations, including new flowers, and new loading gates. Additional fences were added to the catwalks.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The Matterhorn was closed on January 9, 2012 for a six-month refurbishment. The mountain was renovated, receiving new paint externally and some repairs internally. The vehicle seating arrangement was also modified to accommodate a single passenger in each seat rather than a lap-sitting arrangement of two riders. This resulted in three individual seats within each bobsled, with two cars linked for a total of six guests, similar to the configuration of the trains at Walt Disney World's version of Space Mountain. The new bobsleds were painted red, blue and green, and the ride reopened on June 15, 2012. As a result of the new trains, the height requirement was raised to 42 in (107 cm) from the original 35 in (89 cm). Other smaller changes were made, including the addition of wooden fences on the catwalks and a single-rider lane. The main Abominable Snowman animatronic at the top was given a moveable jaw, and the main roar was now much louder. It was toned back down around October of that year.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The entire mountain exterior received a facelift. For only the second time—the first since when the attraction was originally built—scaffolding was erected all the way from the base of the mountain to the top. The mountain had been repeatedly repainted through the years, resulting in a mostly white Matterhorn mountain with the appearance of snow; but in 2012, the entire mountain was made bare again and carefully painted in a style more faithful to the look of the real Matterhorn, with more "snow" places on the northern side and less on the southern. For the first time since the Matterhorn's early days, the mountain's base was mostly snowless. In the past, the "snow" on the mountain's surface was merely white paint; for the refurbished ride, glass beads were mixed into the paint to reflect sunlight like real snow. Imagineer Jim Crouch was the rehab's art director. The "mountain climber" performers also returned after the refurbishment.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: On January 5, 2015, the attraction was closed for an extended refurbishment to prepare for the park's 60th anniversary. It reopened on May 22, 2015, with new special effects and updated animatronics. On the lift hills, the snowfall projection was replaced with the Abominable Snowman peering through a sheet of ice as the bobsleds ascend. The artificial screaming at the top of the lift was also removed. The red eyes were removed, and replaced with the Snowman roaring with the sound that he’s pursuing the bobsleds. A newer animatronic version of the Snowman appears at the top, while improved sound effects help create the illusion that it is in pursuit as the train descends down the mountain. Disney's FastPass ride system was added to the attraction in April 2017.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The Matterhorn once again closed on July 30, 2018, to redesign the waiting queue, and reopened on November 16, 2018. The front of the old Matterhorn entrance was reworked to accommodate a larger queue area.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The ride consists of two separate tracks that run roughly parallel to each other for much of the ride, intertwining and eventually deviating from each other at the loading areas. They are the Fantasyland track and Tomorrowland track, named for the side of the mountains where their loading lines begin. The vehicles originally held up to four passengers each, seated single-file. After the 1978 upgrade, the individual vehicles were joined into pairs, with lap seating increasing the capacity per train to eight. In 2012, the cars were replaced with new vehicles as part of a six-month ride closure, and it currently features two cars paired together with three single-file seats per car. The safety restraints consist of a car seat belt. There are hand grips inside the cars, but there are no longer hand grips on the outside of the bobsled. Padding in the car is limited, and the winding track has many sharp turns, leading to a bone-shaking ride, reminiscent of an actual bobsled.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: There is one lift hill on each track. Bobsleds ascend parallel to each other at the start of the ride, climbing past walls featuring snow-like special effects. The top of this lift hill constitutes the highest point of the ride itself, though the mountain continues upward for several more stories. The rest of the ride is a mostly unpowered coast through the Matterhorn's many caverns and passageways.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The splash-down pools at the end of each track serve dual purposes. They not only cool off the braking pads mounted on the underside of the bobsleds, but the impact into the water itself acts as a braking mechanism. Because of their constant exposure to water, the fiberglass bodies are regularly waxed.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: For many years, a basketball half-court existed inside the structure above the coaster, near the top of the mountain, where the mountain climbers could play between climbs. As internal access to the mountain was locked for safety reasons, the court was accessible only to the climbers. The court was relocated slightly during the installation of the Tinkerbell flight equipment prior to the 50th-anniversary celebration; the hoop and playing area remain intact. There is a cast member break room inside the mountain at the base. The court is said by many cast members and the mountain's climbers to remain in existence today.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: At the end of the attraction, guests hear the now-famous "Remain seated please; Permanecer sentados por favor" safety announcement; it is one of many recordings by the former "Voice of Disneyland," Jack Wagner. The recording was changed in 2005 to say "Remain seated with your seat belt fastened; Permanecer sentados por favor." The changed English dialogue is still in the voice of Jack Wagner, as it was borrowed from the attraction's breakdown announcement. This recording also introduces the Tomorrowland segment of the "Remember... Dreams Come True" fireworks show. The safety announcement was featured in the title track of the 1995 No Doubt album "Tragic Kingdom", and the line was spoken by Barbie in the film "Toy Story 2". The ride's safety message is


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: "For your safety, remain seated with your seat belts fastened, keeping your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the bobsled. And be sure to watch your children. Auf Wiedersehen!"


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: "For your safety, remain seated with your seat belt fastened, keeping your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the bobsled. And please, watch your kids. Thank you!"


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: After this saying, riders enter the cavern and climb the lift hill, with the shadow of the Abominable Snowman peering onto guests behind a sheet of ice. Once the bobsled car has disengaged from the chain, riders pass through a dark tunnel. The Abominable Snowman continues to growl and roar as the bobsleds continue. The trains emerge into a cavern filled with destroyed bobsleds, skyway buckets, some mountain equipment, and a crate stamped with "Wells Expedition" may also be seen. Both tracks take a left-hand turn, then split off before they can crash into the first animatronic. The cars swirl around the mountain, dipping under tunnels and by the waterfalls. Each track then passes another animatronic of the Snowman. Soon after the second encounter, riders plunge into the alpine lake and return to the station. No on-ride photo is available for this ride.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: Disneyland in California is the only Disney theme park with a Matterhorn Bobsled ride. The tracks of Space Mountain at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom were based on the designs of the Matterhorn but are not identical to them. The Matterhorn's newer bobsleds, added in 1978, were based on the other ride's rockets, which had debuted in 1975. When Space Mountain was built at Disneyland, it was a completely new design with a single track and vehicles that seated riders side by side rather than behind one another. Various proposals to bring the Matterhorn to Walt Disney World existed over the years, but none came to fruition. The most detailed concept was for the Matterhorn to be the main attraction of a Switzerland Pavilion for the World Showcase at Epcot, but this failed when Disney could not secure a sponsor.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: Disney's Animal Kingdom contains a roller coaster with a similar theme: Expedition Everest. It is a railway adventure to the top of an abstract version of the Himalayan mountain where riders encounter another fictional mountain beast, the Yeti.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: In the 1980s, the Matterhorn Ski Club (ride operators led by Chuck Abbott) began buying seeing eye dogs from Guide Dogs of the Desert with the unclaimed coins and knives that fell out of pockets during the ride. This soon expanded to collecting cans from every employee break area. At one time, the bottom floor of the Matterhorn was filled with bags of aluminum cans. The adopting dog owners were treated like royalty whenever they visited the park.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: After the original 1978 Audio-Animatronic Abominable Snowman figures were removed in 2015, one was placed at the queue area of Disney California Adventure's attraction, which opened on May 27, 2017. The figure is portrayed as one of the Collector's many artifacts on exhibition.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The music video for Randy Newman's song "I Love L.A." shows the mountain when he sings "look at that mountain".


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The song "Disney's Dream Debased" by the Fall (from the album "The Wonderful and Frightening World Of...") was inspired by the 1984 decapitation accident that happened on the Matterhorn very shortly after band members Mark and Brix Smith had been on the ride themselves.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The video game "Epic Mickey" has its own version of the Matterhorn named Mickeyjunk Mountain, where old Mickey memorabilia goes when it is forgotten.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The Abominable Snowman from the attraction appears in the 2013 "Mickey Mouse" short "Yodelberg", in which Mickey encounters the creature while climbing a mountain to see Minnie. The bobsled ride vehicles from the attraction litter the entrance of the beast's ice-cavern home.


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: Disney announced in 2011 that it would make a movie based on this attraction called "The Hill", about five teenagers who go on a journey up the mountain and encounter a yeti. The company announced in 2021 that it would produce a film based on the attraction for their streaming service Disney+, with the working title "Matterhorn."


title: Matterhorn Bobsleds

text: The Water Coaster Aqua Mouse on the Disney cruise ship Wish features the yeti in the storyline “Swiss Meltdown” where Mickey and Minnie are chased by the creature when trying to prevent a catastrophic meltdown.


title: Conwy Castle

text: Conwy Castle (; ) is a fortification in Conwy, located in North Wales. It was built by Edward I, during his conquest of Wales, between 1283 and 1287. Constructed as part of a wider project to create the walled town of Conwy, the combined defences cost around £15,000, a huge sum for the period. Over the next few centuries, the castle played an important part in several wars. It withstood the siege of Madog ap Llywelyn in the winter of 1294–95, acted as a temporary haven for Richard II in 1399 and was held for several months by forces loyal to Owain Glyndŵr in 1401.


title: Conwy Castle

text: Following the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, the castle was held by forces loyal to Charles I, holding out until 1646 when it surrendered to the Parliamentary armies. In the aftermath, the castle was partially slighted by Parliament to prevent it being used in any further revolt, and was finally completely ruined in 1665 when its remaining iron and lead was stripped and sold off. Conwy Castle became an attractive destination for painters in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Visitor numbers grew and initial restoration work was carried out in the second half of the 19th century. In the 21st century, the ruined castle is managed by Cadw as a tourist attraction.


title: Conwy Castle

text: UNESCO considers Conwy to be one of "the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe", and it is classed as a World Heritage Site. The rectangular castle is built from local and imported stone and occupies a coastal ridge, originally overlooking an important crossing point over the River Conwy. Divided into an Inner and an Outer Ward, it is defended by eight large towers and two barbicans, with a postern gate leading down to the river, allowing the castle to be resupplied from the sea. It retains the earliest surviving stone machicolations in Britain and what historian Jeremy Ashbee has described as the "best preserved suite of medieval private royal chambers in England and Wales". In keeping with other Edwardian castles in North Wales, the architecture of Conwy has close links to that found in the Kingdom of Savoy during the same period, an influence probably derived from the Savoy origins of the main architect, James of Saint George.


title: Conwy Castle

text: Before the English built the town of Conwy, Aberconwy Abbey, the site was occupied by a Cistercian monastery favoured by the Welsh princes, as well as the location of one of the palaces (called llys) of the Welsh princes. From Conwy: "the oldest structure is part of the town walls, at the southern end of the east side. Here one wall and the tower of a llys [palace/court house] belonging to Llywelyn the Great and his grandson Llywelyn ap Gruffydd have been incorporated into the wall. Built on a rocky outcrop, with an apsidal tower, it is a classic, native, Welsh build and stands out from the rest of the town walls, due to the presence of four window openings. It dates from the early 13th century and is the most complete remnant of any of his Llys."


title: Conwy Castle

text: The location also controlled an important crossing point over the River Conwy between the coastal and inland areas of North Wales, that Deganwy Castle for many years had defended. The kings of England and the Welsh princes had vied for control of the region since the 1070s and the conflict had resumed during the 13th century, leading to Edward I intervening in North Wales for the second time during his reign in 1282.


title: Conwy Castle

text: Edward invaded with a huge army, pushing north from Carmarthen and westwards from Montgomery and Chester. Edward captured Aberconwy in March 1283 and decided that the location would form the centre of a new county: he would relocate the abbey eight miles up the Conwy valley to a new site at Maenan, establishing Maenan Abbey, and build a new English castle and walled town on the monastery's former site. The ruined castle of Deganwy was abandoned and never rebuilt. Edward's plan was a colonial enterprise and placing the new town and walls on top of such a high-status native Welsh site was in part a symbolic act to demonstrate English power.


title: Conwy Castle

text: Work began on cutting the ditch around Conwy Castle within days of Edward's decision. The work was controlled by Sir John Bonvillars and overseen by master mason James of St. George, and the first phase of work between 1283 and 1284 focused on creating the exterior curtain walls and towers. In the second phase, from 1284 and 1286, the interior buildings were erected, while work began on the walls for the neighbouring town. By 1287, the castle was complete. The builders recruited huge numbers of labourers from across England for the task. At each summer building season, the labourers massed at Chester and then walked into Wales. Edward's accountants did not separate the costs of the town walls from that of the castle, but the total cost of the two projects came to around £15,000, a huge sum for the period.


title: Conwy Castle

text: The castle's constable was, by a royal charter of 1284, also the mayor of the new town of Conwy (to this day, the Mayor is ex-officio Constable of the Castle), and oversaw a castle garrison of 30 soldiers, including 15 crossbowmen, supported by a carpenter, chaplain, blacksmith, engineer and a stonemason. The first constable of the castle was Sir William de Cicon who had previously been the first constable of Rhuddlan Castle. In 1294 Madog ap Llywelyn rebelled against English rule. Edward was besieged at Conwy by the Welsh between December and January 1295, supplied only by sea, before forces arrived to relieve him in February. Chronicler Walter of Guisborough suggested that given the austere conditions Edward refused to drink his own private supply of wine, and instead had it shared out amongst the garrison. For some years afterwards, the castle formed the main residence for visiting senior figures, and hosted Edward's son, the future Edward II in 1301 when he visited the region to receive homage from the Welsh leaders.


title: Conwy Castle

text: Conwy Castle was not well maintained during the early 14th century and by 1321 a survey reported it was poorly equipped, with limited stores and suffering from leaking roofs and rotten timbers. These problems persisted until Edward, the Black Prince, took over control of the castle in 1343. Sir John Weston, his chamberlain, conducted repairs, building new stone support arches for the great hall and other parts of the castle. After the death of the Black Prince, however, Conwy fell into neglect again.


title: Conwy Castle

text: At the end of the 14th century, the castle was used as a refuge by Richard II from the forces of his rival, Henry Bolingbroke. On 12 August 1399, after returning from Ireland, Richard made his way to the castle where he met Bolingbroke's emissary, Henry Percy, for negotiations. Percy swore in the chapel he would not harm the king. On 19 August, Richard surrendered to Percy at Flint Castle, promising to abdicate if his life were spared. The king was then taken to London and died later in captivity at Pontefract Castle.


title: Conwy Castle

text: Henry Bolingbroke took the English throne to rule as Henry IV in 1400, but rebellion broke out in North Wales shortly afterwards under the leadership of Owain Glyndŵr. In March 1401, Rhys ap Tudur and his brother Gwilym, cousins of Owain Glyndŵr, undertook a surprise attack on Conwy Castle. Pretending to be carpenters repairing the castle, the two gained entry, killed the two watchmen on duty and took control of the fortress. Welsh rebels then attacked and captured the rest of the walled town. The brothers held out for around three months, before negotiating a surrender; as part of this agreement the pair were given a royal pardon by Henry.


title: Conwy Castle

text: During the War of the Roses between 1455 and 1485, fought by the rival factions of the Lancastrians and the Yorkists, Conwy was reinforced but played little part in the fighting. Henry VIII conducted restoration work in the 1520s and 1530s, during which time the castle was being used as a prison, a depot and as a potential residence for visitors.


title: Conwy Castle

text: Conwy Castle fell into disrepair again by the early 17th century. Charles I sold it to Edward Conway in 1627 for £100, and Edward's son, also called Edward, inherited the ruin in 1631. In 1642 the English Civil War broke out between the Charles' royalist supporters and Parliament. John Williams, the Archbishop of York, took charge of the castle on behalf of the king, and set about repairing and garrisoning it at his own expense. In 1645, Sir John Owen was appointed governor of the castle instead, however, leading to a bitter dispute between the two men. The Archbishop defected to Parliament, the town of Conwy fell in August 1646 and in November General Thomas Mytton finally took the castle itself after a substantial siege. The Trevor family petitioned Mytton for the return of property in the castle that they had lent to the Archbishop.


title: Conwy Castle

text: In the aftermath of the siege, Colonel John Carter was appointed governor of the castle and fresh repairs were carried out. In 1655 the Council of State appointed by Parliament ordered the castle to be slighted, or put beyond military use: the Bakehouse tower was probably deliberately partially pulled down at this time as part of the slighting. With the restoration of Charles II in 1660, Conway was returned to Edward Conway, the Earl of Conway, but five years later Edward decided to strip the remaining iron and lead from the castle and sell it off. The work was completed under the supervision of Edward Conway's overseer William Milward, despite opposition from the leading citizens of Conwy, and turned the castle into a total ruin.


title: Conwy Castle

text: By the end of the 18th century, the ruins were considered picturesque and sublime, attracting visitors and artists, and paintings of the castle were made by Thomas Girtin, Moses Griffith, Julius Caesar Ibbetson, Paul Sandby and J. M. W. Turner. Several bridges were built across the River Conwy linking the town and Llandudno during the 19th century, including a road bridge in 1826 and a rail bridge in 1848. These improved communication links with the castle and further increased tourist numbers. In 1865 Conwy Castle passed from the Holland family, who had leased it from the descendants of the Conways to the civic leadership of Conwy town. Restoration work on the ruins then began, including the reconstruction of the damaged Bakehouse tower. In 1953 the castle was leased to the Ministry of Works and Arnold Taylor undertook a wide range of repairs and extensive research into the castle's history. An additional road bridge was built to the castle in 1958. Already protected as a scheduled monument, in 1986 it was also declared part of the World Heritage Site of the "Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd".


title: Conwy Castle

text: In the 21st century the castle is managed by Cadw as a tourist attraction and 186,897 tourists visited the castle in 2010; a new visitor centre was opened in 2012. The castle requires ongoing maintenance and repairs cost £30,000 over the 2002–03 financial year.


title: Conwy Castle

text: Conwy Castle was twinned with Himeji Castle, Hyogo prefecture, Japan at a formal ceremony in Himeji on 29 October 2019.


title: Conwy Castle

text: The castle hugs a rocky coastal ridge of grey sandstone and limestone, and much of the stone from the castle is largely taken from the ridge itself, probably when the site was first cleared. The local stone was not of sufficient quality to be used for carving details such as windows, however, and accordingly sandstone was brought in from the Creuddyn peninsula, Chester and the Wirral. This sandstone was more colourful than the local grey stone, and was probably deliberately chosen for its appearance.


title: Conwy Castle

text: The castle has a rectangular plan and is divided into an Inner and Outer Ward, separated by a cross-wall, with four large, tall towers on each side; originally the castle would have been white-washed using a lime render. The outside of the towers still have the putlog holes from their original construction, where timbers were inserted to create a spiralling ramp for the builders. Although now somewhat decayed, the battlements originally sported triple finial designs and featured a sequence of square holes running along the outside of the walls. It is uncertain what these holes were used for – they may have been drainage holes, supports for defensive hoarding or for displaying ornamental shields.


title: Conwy Castle

text: The main entrance to the castle is through the western barbican, an exterior defence in front of the main gate. When first built, the barbican was reached over a drawbridge and a masonry ramp that came up sharply from the town below; the modern path cuts east along the outside of the walls. The barbican features the earliest surviving stone machicolations in Britain, and the gate would originally have been protected by a portcullis.


title: Conwy Castle

text: The gate leads through to the Outer Ward which, when first built, would have been full of various administrative and service buildings. The north-west tower was reached through the porter's lodge and contained limited accommodation and space for stores. The south-west tower may have been used either by the castle's constable, or by the castle's garrison, and also contained a bakehouse. On the south side of the ward is a range of buildings that included the great hall and chapel, sitting on top of the cellars, which are now exposed. The stubs and one surviving stone arches from the 1340s can still be seen. Behind the great hall was the tower used by the constable for detaining prisoners; this included a special room for holding prisoners, called the "dettors chambre" ("debtors' chamber") in the 16th century, and an underground dungeon. On the north side of the ward was a range of service buildings, including a kitchen, brewhouse and bakehouse, backed onto by the kitchen tower, containing accommodation and storerooms.


title: Conwy Castle

text: The Inner Ward was originally separated from the Outer Ward by an internal wall, a drawbridge and a gate, protected by a ditch cut into the rock. The ditch was filled in during the 16th century and the drawbridge removed. The spring-fed castle well built alongside the gate survives, and today is deep. Inside, the ward contained the chambers for the royal household, their immediate staff and service facilities; today, historian Jeremy Ashbee considers them to be the "best-preserved suite of medieval private royal chambers in England and Wales". They were designed to form a royal palace in miniature, that could, if necessary, be sealed off from the rest of the castle and supplied from the eastern gate by sea almost indefinitely, although in practice they were rarely used by the royal family.


title: Conwy Castle

text: The royal rooms were positioned on the first floor of a range of buildings that ran around the outside of the ward, facing onto a courtyard. The four towers that protected the Inner Ward contained service facilities, with the Chapel Tower containing the private royal chapel. Each tower has an additional watchtower turret, probably intended both for security and to allow the prominent display of the royal flag. The arrangement was originally similar to that of the 13th century "Gloriette" at Corfe Castle, and provided a combination of privacy for the king while providing extensive personal security. The two sets of apartments were later unified into a single set of rooms, including a great chamber, outer chamber and inner chamber.


title: Conwy Castle

text: On the east side of the Inner Ward is another barbican, enclosing the castle garden. This was overlooked by the royal apartments, and changed in style over the years: in the early 14th century there was a lawn, in the late 14th century vines, in the 16th century crab-apple trees and a lawn and in the 17th century formal ornamental flowers. A postern gate originally led down to the river where a small dock was built, allowing key visitors to enter the castle in private and for the fortress to be resupplied by boat, although this gate is now concealed by the later bridges built on the site.


title: Conwy Castle

text: The architecture of Conwy has close to links to that found in the County of Savoy in the same period. These include window styles, the type of crenellation used on the towers and positioning of putlog holes, and are usually ascribed to the influence of the Savoy architect Master James. Notably the three pinnacled merlons are a feature seen at the Savoyard Castello San Giorio di Susa which had been visited by Edward on his way back from crusade in 1273.


title: Conwy Castle

text: The official roles of the Constable were - Governor of the castle, governor of the fortified borough, keeper of the castle gaol (prison), Mayor () and extraordinary duties.


title: Conwy Castle

text: During 1283 the castle was recorded to have a garrison of : 30 men (), 15 cross-bowmen (), 1 superintendent at arms (), 1 Chaplain (), 1 Stone mason (), 1 Carpenter (), 1 Artisan (), 10 residents (), William De Sikun was the constable with a yearly fee of £190 ().


title: Conwy Castle

text: This is the list of the constables of Conwy (Conway) castle and their reigning Monarchs from the Principality of Wales, the Kingdom of England and then the Commonwealth of England without hiatus until today's monarchy of Great Britain.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: The Evangelical Church in Germany (, abbreviated EKD) is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and United (e.g. Prussian Union) Protestant regional churches and denominations in Germany, which collectively encompasses the vast majority of Protestants in that country. In 2020, the EKD had a membership of 20,236,000 members, or 24.3% of the German population. It constitutes one of the largest national Protestant bodies in the world. Church offices managing the federation are located in Hannover-Herrenhausen, Lower Saxony. Many of its members consider themselves Lutherans.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: Historically, the first formal attempt to unify German Protestantism occurred during the Weimar Republic era in the form of the German Evangelical Church Confederation, which existed from 1922 until 1933. Earlier, there had been successful royal efforts at unity in various German states, beginning with Prussia and several minor German states (e.g. Duchy of Nassau) in 1817. These unions resulted in the first united and uniting churches, a new development within Protestantism which later spread to other parts of the world.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, his administration tried to reorganize the old confederation into a unified German Evangelical Church as Hitler wanted to use a single Protestant church to further his own ambitions. However, a division emerged between the Reichskirche, led by the pro-government German Christians, and the Confessing Church, which opposed state control of the church. Other Protestant churches aligned themselves with one of these groups, or stayed neutral in this church strife.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: The postwar church council issued the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt on 19 October 1945, confessing guilt and declaring remorse for indifference and inaction of German Protestants in the face of atrocities committed by Hitler's regime. In 1948, the Evangelical Church in Germany was organized in the aftermath of World War II to function as a new umbrella organization for German Protestant churches. As a result of tensions between West and East Germany, the regional churches in East Germany broke away from the EKD in 1969. In 1991, following German reunification, the East German churches rejoined the EKD.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: The member churches ("Gliedkirchen"), while being independent and having their own theological and formal organisation, share full pulpit and altar fellowship, and are united in the EKD synod, but they act as individual members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE). Boundaries of EKD churches within Germany partially resemble those of the states of the Holy Roman Empire and successor forms of German statehood (to the most part 1815 borders), due to the historically close relationship between individual German states and churches.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: As for church governance, the Lutheran churches typically practise an episcopal polity, while the Reformed and the United ones a mixture of presbyterian and congregationalist polities. Most member churches are led by a (state) bishop. Only one member church, the Evangelical Reformed Church in Germany, is not restricted to a certain territory. In some ways, the other member churches resemble dioceses of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, from an organisational point of view.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: The German term here more accurately corresponds to the broad English term "Protestant" rather than to the narrower "evangelical" (in German called ), although the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England use the term in the same way as the German church. Literally, means "of the Gospel", denoting a Protestant Reformation emphasis on , "by scripture alone". Martin Luther encouraged the use of this term alongside "Christian".


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: From the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 to the end of the First World War and the collapse of the German Empire, some Protestant churches were state churches. Each (state or regional church) was the official church of one of the states of Germany, while the respective ruler was the church's formal head (e.g. the King of Prussia headed the Evangelical Church of Prussia's older Provinces as supreme governor), similar to the British monarch's role as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: This changed somewhat with growing religious freedom in the 19th century, especially in the republican states of Bremen, Frankfurt (1857), Lübeck, and Hamburg (1860). The greatest change came after the German Revolution, with the formation of the Weimar Republic and the abdication of the princes of the German states. The system of state churches disappeared with the Weimar Constitution (1919), which brought about disestablishment by the separation of church and state, and there was a desire for the Protestant churches to merge. In fact, a merger was permanently under discussion but never materialised due to strong regional self-confidence and traditions as well as the denominational fragmentation into Lutheran, Reformed, and United and uniting churches.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: During the Revolution, when the old church governments lost power, the People's Church Union () was formed and advocated unification without respect to theological tradition and also increasing input from laymen. However, the People's Church Union quickly split along territorial lines after the churches' relationship with the new governments improved.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: It was realised that one mainstream Protestant church for all of Germany was impossible and that any union would need a federal model. The churches met in Dresden in 1919 and created a plan for federation, and this plan was adopted in 1921 at Stuttgart. Then in 1922 the then 28 territorially defined Protestant churches founded the German Evangelical Church Confederation (, DEK). At the time, the federation was the largest Protestant church federation in Europe with around 40 million members. Because it was a federation of independent bodies, the Church Union's work was limited to foreign missions and relations with Protestant churches outside Germany, especially German Protestants in other countries.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: In July 1933, the German Evangelical Church (, DEK) was formed under the influence of the German Christians, a pro-Nazi religious movement. They had much influence over the decisions of the first National Synod, via their unambiguous partisanship in successfully backing Ludwig Müller for the office of Reich bishop. He did not manage, however, to prevail over the in the long term. The Confessing Church arose in resistance to the Nazi regime's ideology. After the installation of Hanns Kerrl as minister for church matters in a Führer-directive of 16 July 1935 and the foundation of the – in the end not materialising – Protestant Reich Church, the DEK played more or less no further role.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: In 1948, freed from the German Christians' influence, the Lutheran, Reformed and United churches came together as the Evangelical Church in Germany at the Conference of Eisenach. In 1969, the regional Protestant churches in East Germany and East Berlin broke away from the EKD and formed the (, BEK), in 1970 also joined by the Moravian Herrnhut District. In June 1991, following German reunification, the BEK merged with the EKD.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: While the members are no longer state churches, they enjoy constitutional protection as statutory corporations, and they are still called , and some have this term in their official names. A modern English translation, however, would be "regional church". Apart from some minor changes, the territories of the member churches today reflect Germany's political organisation in the year 1848, with regional churches for states or provinces that often no longer exist or whose borders changed since. For example, between 1945 and 1948, the remaining six ecclesiastical provinces (), each territorially comprising one of the Old Prussia provinces, within the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union assumed independence as a consequence of the estrangement among them during the Nazi struggle of the churches. This turned the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union into a mere umbrella, being itself a member of EKD (and the BEK, 1969–1991) but covering some regional church bodies, which were again themselves members of EKD (and the BEK, 1969–1991).


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: Since 1973, when many Protestant churches in Europe, including the EKD members, concluded the Leuenberg Agreement, also the then 21 EKD members introduced full communion for their parishioners and ministry among each other.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: Since also the regional Protestant churches in East Germany had signed the Leuenberg Agreement, thus the then ten members of the Federation of Protestant Churches in the German Democratic Republic practised full communion with the EKD members too. Ordination of women is practised in all 20 member churches with many women having been ordained in recent years. There are also several women serving as bishops. Margot Käßmann, former bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover and Chairperson of the Council of the EKD from 2009 until February 2010, was the first woman to head the EKD. Blessings of same-sex marriages is practised and allowed in 14 of 20 and Blessing of same-sex unions are allowed in all other member churches.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: The EKD has undergone a split in the 20th century and lost a bulk of its adherents in East Germany due to state atheist policies of the former East German government. After 1990, membership was counted and amounted to around the same number as the Roman Catholic Church. In the 21st century, membership in both the Evangelical Church and the Roman Catholic Church stagnates as more people are becoming religious nones.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: Protestantism is the major religion in Northern, Eastern and Middle Germany, with the Reformed branch predominating in the extreme northwest and Lippe, the Lutheran branch in the north and south, and the United branch in Middle and Western Germany. While the majority of Christians in Southern Germany are Roman Catholic, some areas in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria are predominantly Protestant, e.g. Middle Franconia and the government region of Stuttgart. The vast majority of German Protestants belong to a member church of the EKD. With 20,236,000 members in 2020, around 24.3 percent of all Germans belong to a member church of the EKD. Average church attendance is lower, however, with only around a million people attending a service on Sunday.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: The regional Protestant church bodies accept each other as equals, despite denominational differences. No member church runs congregations or churches in the area of another member church, thus preventing competing with each other for parishioners. The only exception is the Evangelical Reformed Church, which combines Reformed congregations within the ambits of usually Lutheran member churches, which themselves do not include the eventual local Reformed congregations. Thus, for example, a Lutheran moving from a place where their parish belongs to a Lutheran member church, would be accepted in their new place of domicile by the locally competent congregation within another member church, even if this church and its local parish are Reformed or of united Protestant confession, with Lutheran being exchangeable with the two other respective Protestant confessions within the EKD. This is due to full pulpit and altar fellowship between all EKD member churches.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: In this the ambits of the member churches resemble dioceses of the Anglican or Roman Catholic churches, however, else there is no common hierarchy supervising the member churches, who are legally independent equals with the EKD being their umbrella. Members of congregations within the member churches – like those of parishes within Catholic dioceses and those enrolled in Jewish congregations also enjoying statutory corporation status – are required to pay a church tax, a surcharge on their normal income tax collected by the states of Germany and passed on to the respective religious body.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: The structure of the EKD is based on federal principles. Each regional church is responsible for Christian life in its own area while each regional church has its own special characteristics and retains its independence. The EKD carries out joint tasks with which its members have entrusted it. For the execution of these tasks, the Church has the following governing bodies, all organised and elected on democratic lines:


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: The Synod is the legislature of the EKD. It has 126 members: 106 elected by "Landeskirchen" synods and 20 appointed by the council. These 20 are appointed for their importance in the life of the Church and its agencies. Members serve six year terms and the synod meets annually.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: The EKD Council is the representative and governing body of the Evangelical Church in Germany. The Council of the EKD has 15 members jointly elected by the Synod and Church Conference who serve terms of six years.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: The Church Conference is where member churches, through the representatives of their governing boards, can directly participate in the work of the EKD.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: The Church Office is the administration of the EKD and shall the business of the Synod, Council and Conference of the EKD.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: The EKD holds various charities ("Hilfswerke") under its auspices. The Gustav-Adolf-Werk (GAW) (Gustaphus Adolphus Union formerly) was founded 1832 in Leipzig as the first and eldest such organization and is responsible to aid feeble sister churches, especially in Roman Catholic countries and the Protestant diaspora. It has separate branches internationally, the organization in Austria is still called the Gustav-Adolf-Verein. is responsible for international development aid.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: These bodies are termed "Landeskirchen" ("Regional Churches") though in most cases, their territories do not correspond to the current federal states, but rather to former duchies, electorates and provinces or mergers thereof.


title: Evangelical Church in Germany

text: The Moravian Church ("Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine") and the Federation of Evangelical Reformed Congregations are associate members.


title: Morlun

text: Morlun () is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr., the character first appeared in "The Amazing Spider-Man" vol. 2 #30 (June 2001).


title: Morlun

text: Morlun is a central foe of all the themed versions of Spider-Man, being one of their most powerful and dangerous adversaries. He is an entity from Earth-001 that hunts all the Spider-Totems by traveling to the many multiverses of Marvel Comics. He is best known as the temporary killer of the Earth-616 version of Spider-Man in the storyline "", and is also the main antagonist of the "Spider-Verse" storyline in which he and his estranged family, the Inheritors, attempt to kill all the versions of Spider-Man, as prophesied by him.


title: Morlun

text: Morlun first appeared in "The Amazing Spider-Man" vol. 2 #30 (June 2001), created by writer J. Michael Straczynski and penciler John Romita Jr. The collection of these comic books is called The Amazing Spider-Man Coming Home.


title: Morlun

text: When Spider-Man met a similarly powered man named Ezekiel, Ezekiel explained to him that Spider-Man's powers were not an accident, and that the spider that had bitten him did so voluntarily to pass its abilities onto Peter before it died. This made Spider-Man a "totem", a bridge between man and beast, with the properties of both. Ezekiel then warned Spider-Man that as a totem, he was in danger from those who would seek to destroy such beings. One of those, who showed up soon after, was Morlun.


title: Morlun

text: Little is known about exactly what Morlun is and where he comes from. According to Ezekiel, as long as totemistic forces have walked the earth, there have also been those who have fed on them. While Morlun and his brothers (it is not known how many there are in existence, but Morlun is not the only one) can subsist on the life forces of normal humans and non-totemistic superhumans for a time, they always crave a pure host and Peter fits the bill perfectly.


title: Morlun

text: After Peter's meeting with Ezekiel, Morlun and his hapless minion Dex subtly began tormenting Peter from the shadows, stalking him and wreaking havoc with his spider-sense. Morlun finally revealed himself when Spider-Man was investigating a fire at the wharfs, punching him with what Spider-Man claimed was the hardest punch he had ever felt. Morlun then told Spider-Man that he would eventually kill him, and now that they had made physical contact, he could find Spider-Man wherever he went. Though Spider-Man fought back, Morlun continually regained the upper hand. Peter tried to flee, but Morlun was able to find him easily and resume the fight. Spider-Man finally got away after Morlun burned down the building they were fighting in, but Ezekiel told him it was no use. Morlun would find him once again, and kill him.


title: Morlun

text: Morlun continually attacked Spider-Man over the next few days, endangering the lives of innocent citizens if Peter tried to flee. With Ezekiel's help, Peter managed to briefly escape with a sample of Morlun's blood, which he discovered contained the DNA of every genus in the animal kingdom. Realizing that Morlun's DNA was pure, Peter found a weakness he could exploit. Luring Morlun to a nuclear power plant, Spider-Man injected himself with a dose of radiation that would kill a normal human being, but was only enough to weaken him due to the radiation already in his blood. When Morlun arrived, he prepared to feed, only to be burned instead by the radiation in Peter's blood. Peter explained that he was not a pure spider totem as Morlun had guessed due to the spider that bit him having been previously subjected to a dose of radiation, and that while Morlun could feed on the spider, he could not digest the radiation. Absorbing the radiation rather than his spider-powers with every punch Peter threw at him, Morlun began to disintegrate, and he negotiated with Spider-Man to spare his life, saying he was merely doing what was necessary for his survival, and that it was nothing personal. While Peter debated whether or not to let a monster like Morlun walk free, Dex suddenly appeared and shot Morlun, causing him to crumble to dust.


title: Morlun

text: In the "" storyline Morlun plagues Spider-Man by sudden and mysterious appearances, warning him that he is going to finish him. Spider-Man, for a reason not explainable by science, was dying, and Morlun wished to watch the causes and effects of his ailment. In a climactic battle, Morlun beats Spider-Man badly, ripping out one of his eyeballs, but leaves when the police arrive, opting for a more appropriate time to absorb Spider-Man's life force, leaving the web slinger on the verge of death.


title: Morlun

text: Returning soon thereafter, Morlun enters Spider-Man's room in the Emergency Ward and prepares to feast, apparently unconcerned about the presence of the Avengers in the hospital. Mary Jane, who arrives at Peter's room just as Morlun is about to feed, tries to stop him, but he casually breaks her forearm and throws her off to one side. Spider-Man suddenly springs to life in a ferocious display of new powers, including stingers sprouting from his arms that he used to pin Morlun down, and fangs that he uses to rip Morlun's throat out. Morlun apparently dies once again, crumbling to dust.


title: Morlun

text: During the "Dark Reign" storyline, a secret group resurrects Morlun so that he can devour the Panther totem in danger with the Black Panther gravely injured and in turn weaken the nation of Wakanda. As a start, Morlun slays the long-term Panther adversary Man-Ape. He was defeated by the new Black Panther Shuri, who, with the help of a witch-doctor, sent Morlun into limbo as a sacrifice to ensure that T'Challa could be safely restored to health, where he was forced to battle the endless hordes of Death.


title: Morlun

text: During the "Original Sin" storyline, Morlun senses the opening of the vault into which a girl named Cindy Moon was imprisoned, following her being bitten by the same spider that gave Spider-Man his superhuman abilities. Morlun refers to Moon as the Spider-Bride and the spinner at the center of the web.


title: Morlun

text: In the 2014 book "Spider-Man: Staging Ground", Morlun later appears alive, as he travels to Earth-311 and kills and drains the life essence of that universe's Spider-Man, Peter Parquagh.


title: Morlun

text: During the "Spider-Verse" storyline, Morlun's mysterious past was revealed that he is from a universe designated Earth-001 and that Morlun and his estranged family known as the Inheritors took part in a battle against the Master Weaver and succeeded in capturing it at the cost of the life of the Inheritors unnamed matriarch. With the power of the Master Weaver, they use its power to conquer Earth-001. They then used the Master Weaver's powers to travel between dimensions and hunt all Spider-Totem avatars. Morlun, along with the Inheritors, have been shown killing several alternate universe versions of Spider-Man, some of which are witnessed by Spider-UK, a spider-themed member of the Captain Britain Corps. Spider-UK sets out to travel through the web of life in order to save all the remaining Spider-Men from the Inheritors. Later, Morlun kills Spider-Man 2099's counterpart, and as he tries to arrive on Earth-616, the portal closes and Morlun expresses fear of the Earth-616 Spider-Man following their last fight. Spider-Man 2099 leaves and warns Peter Parker to let him know what happened. Meanwhile, the Inheritors massive dinner-table laden with crippled Spider-Totems are waiting for Morlun as he returns carrying Spider-Totem. Morlun is furious with his brother, Daemos had hunting on Earth-616 tells him it is his Spider-Totem as they fight until their father, Solus, intimidates them. Solus reminds them that he has known all along where the Bride, the Other, and the Scion are located, and about a prophecy that will bring the downfall of the Inheritors. He asks his son what is his desire. Morlun responds that his wish is to be his father's chosen heir, the Great Web is his legacy and obligation. Solus corrects him stating that the Web is all things and everywhere and that it is their kingdom making them the Inheritors of all creation.


title: Morlun

text: Morlun and the Inheritors invade Earth-13 where a large group of Spider-Men are gathered to battle. The Inheritors cannot face the power of Captain Universe's version Spider-Man, who destroys the Inheritors members, but reveal that all the Inheritors members can regenerate from a cloning process on alternate universe Earth-802, which explains Morlun's mysterious resurrections from the dead twice. When his father, Solus, depowered, kills Captain Universe, the safe zone is eventually compromised, Morlun then grabs Spider-Girl's infant brother, Benjy and proclaims him as the Spider-Scion.


title: Morlun

text: While Morlun is heading toward the teleporter with Benjy, Solus attacks the Spider-Men on Earth-13 while all Spider-Men flee to find the new safe zone. Later, Morlun asks his twins Bora and Brix to hold Benjy as he had other work to do. Morlun, expected at the dinner-table with his servant version of Jessica Drew, was unaware that she is actually Earth-616's Spider-Woman and had infiltrated and was permanently in Earth-001. Spider-Woman confronts the Master Weaver in prison and he gives the scroll of prophecy to her that may hold the key to stopping the instigated Inheritors. She then teleports the scroll to the Spider-Men. Kaine and Spider-Man's clone versions destroy the clone facility on Earth-802 so that the Inheritors cannot revive from clones again. The Inheritors sense that Silk and Kaine arrived on Earth-001 as they pursue Spider-Totems for the ritual. Morlun and the Inheritors battle Kaine and transforms into a spider monster of the Other and kills their father, Solus. Morlun and Daemos look on in horror as they manage to subdue him and then take him to the ritual.


title: Morlun

text: In the final confrontation, the Spider-Men had overpowered the Inheritors and stop the ritual to end them all, although Superior Spider-Man kills the Master Weaver so that the Inheritors cannot travel between dimensions with their powers. Enraged, Morlun tries to attack Peter Parker of Earth-616, but he uses the teleporter to trap Morlun on Earth-3145, a world decimated by a nuclear explosion arguing that he is not killing Morlun as he is prepared to die there as well and Morlun could reach a nearby fallout bunker erected by the local Ezekiel to keep the local Spider-Totem safe for protection. However, Peter is subsequently rescued by Silk, leaving Morlun and the other Inheritors trapped on Earth-3145. Before all Spider-Men can return to their home dimensions, Silk asks Karn (who became the new Master Weaver) if Morlun and the Inheritors will be able to survive without Spider-Totems. The Master Weaver remarks that Morlun and the Inheritors are feeding on only surviving life-forms on Earth-3145 which happens to be mutated spiders.


title: Morlun

text: As the Master Weaver and Spider-Man UK monitored from the former Loomworld (Earth-001), they realized that providing robots to check in on the Inheritors have allowed Jennix to generate an inter-dimensional transmitter and that the simultaneous detection of a clone generation engine with personality transference has appeared on Earth-616 enabling the potential for the Inheritors to escape. The clone generation engine was designed by Dr. Octopus of Earth-616, who perfected both Earth-616 Miles Warren's cloning technology with the Ultimate Template (that created his new body at the end of the Clone Conspiracy) and Jennix of the Inheritors' clone engine.


title: Morlun

text: After sending in the Web Warriors consisting of Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man UK, Spider-Man Noir, Miles Morales/Spider-Man of Earth-616 and Octavia Otto of Earth-1104 to confront Superior Octopus, it became apparent that Jennix bested Doc Ock by creating an endless loop monitoring the clone generator enabling a mutagen to override the clone templates that were initially infused with Doctor Octopus and Peter Parker's current genetic make-up. The transmission allowed Morlun to escape from Earth-3145 and to regenerate his new body on Earth-616. Morlun immediately drained the life force and killed Spider-Man Noir, before Jennix and their sister Verna also appeared through the clone regeneration engine onto Earth-616 where Verna killed Spider-UK. The Inheritors declared that they plan to make Earth-616, as the new epicentre of their empire. Rather than rebuild, Morlun's immediate focus is to avenge his three losses to Earth-616 Peter Parker much to the dismay of Jennix. Verna tells Jennix to let Morlun have his fun.


title: Morlun

text: Morlun travels to Earth-616, where he attacks Spider-Man when he's tired. While fighting, Spider-Man calls J. Jonah Jameson to get a wrist watch that will signal reinforcements. Morlun catches up to Spider-Man, and is about to kill him when Miles Morales arrives, and helps fend off Morlun. Spider-Man tells Miles to go away, and that he will meet him soon. After Miles leaves, Spider-Man tricks Morlun into entering a cage and shoots him with tranquilizer darts. With Morlun defeated, Spider-Man tells Morlun that he lost because he is too arrogant, and will never beat him. At the end of "Spider-Geddon", Morlun is the only Inheritor left.


title: Morlun

text: During the "Last Remains" storyline, Morlun has escaped from his imprisonment and is feeding off the spiders in the sewers. After stealing the spider-virus that Spider-Queen once used to turn Manhattan into Spider-Island, Sin-Eater exposes some of his remaining followers with the Spider-Virus turning them into Man-Spiders. This was enough to attract Morlun to their location.


title: Morlun

text: During the "Sinister War" storyline, Kindred revived Sin-Eater again and one of the demonic centipedes that emerged from his body took possession of Morlun making him one of the members of the Sinful Six.


title: Morlun

text: Morlun has the ability to drain the life force from other beings through physical contact. Depending on the power of the individual he drains, his powers and vitality can increase substantially.


title: Morlun

text: The character possesses superhuman attributes, such as superhuman strength, speed, durability, stamina, agility, and reflexes. Spider-Man states that Morlun hits harder than any foe he had ever battled. When facing the Black Panther, Morlun survived vibranium-core nuclear-tipped shells fired at him and tore through an adamantium net, while in his fight with Spider-Man he survived being inside an exploding building with the only sign he had been present at the explosion being that his clothing and hair were incinerated, his hair returning to its usual length by the time the sun rose a few hours later. Morlun's physical speed, stamina, agility, and reflexes are sufficiently heightened to enable him to keep up with Spider-Man, as well as allowing him to climb several flights of stairs and cover several blocks in only slightly more time than it takes Spider-Man to reach the same destination by web-swinging.


title: Morlun

text: Morlun has walked the earth for centuries, if not longer, and is a relentless and remorseless stalker. Once Morlun has physically touched somebody, that person is forever "imprinted" in Morlun's senses, allowing him to track his quarry down from anywhere on Earth.


title: 1985 (SR-71 song)

text: "1985" is a 2004 song that was written and recorded by SR-71 for their album "Here We Go Again". Mitch Allan, SR-71's frontman, gave the song to American rock band Bowling for Soup, who recorded a cover version. The cover version reached number 23 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and was featured on the band's album "A Hangover You Don't Deserve".


title: 1985 (SR-71 song)

text: The song is about a middle-aged woman who is stuck in the 1980s due to being in denial that her life is zooming by so fast and the fact that she never got to live out her ideal life before settling down and starting a family.


title: 1985 (SR-71 song)

text: The song was originally written by SR-71 frontman Mitch Allan and drummer John Allen for the band's third album "Here We Go Again." The album was initially only made available in Japan.


title: 1985 (SR-71 song)

text: There are conflicting stories on how Bowling for Soup came to record a cover version of the track. According to SR-71's website, Bowling for Soup's Jaret Reddick heard the song and asked for permission to record a cover. However, according to Bowling for Soup's website, it was Allan that called Reddick to suggest the possible cover. In a 2010 interview with "Songfacts", Reddick said that the cover materialized through the two bands’ association with producer Butch Walker.


title: 1985 (SR-71 song)

text: Bowling for Soup made some changes to the lyrics of the original song. In the second verse, the reference to the film "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" is replaced by "St. Elmo's Fire". The line "Never knew George was gay/hoped they'd hook up one day" is changed to "Thought she'd get a hand/on a member of Duran Duran."


title: 1985 (SR-71 song)

text: The ending lines "Where's her fairytale? Where's her dream?/Where's the quarterback from her high school football team?/How many times will she ask herself 'What happened to me?'" are changed to "Where's the mini-skirt made of snake skin?/And who's the other guy that's singing in Van Halen?/When did reality become TV?/Whatever happened to sitcoms, game shows? (on the radio?)". Bowling for Soup's lines reference Sammy Hagar joining Van Halen in 1985 and the advent of reality television. The line "(The rubber broke!)" after "'What happened?'" is omitted.


title: 1985 (SR-71 song)

text: Bowling for Soup added the line "And when did Ozzy become an actor?" to the bridge, referencing rock singer Ozzy Osbourne's appearance in the reality TV show "The Osbournes".


title: 1985 (SR-71 song)

text: Released on July 26, 2004, the song climbed to the number 23 spot on the Billboard 200 chart and debuted at number 1 on the Hot Digital Tracks chart, with 15,500 paid downloads.


title: 1985 (SR-71 song)

text: The music video is directed by Smith n' Borin (Ryan Smith and Frank Borin). It takes place on a neighborhood street where the character of Debbie, played by actress Joey House, fixes up the cluttered lawn of her house but gets distracted by Bowling for Soup playing music in their garage across the street. The band parodies the music videos for Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" and George Michael's "Faith", as well as the acts Run-DMC and Mötley Crüe. At the end of the video, Debbie walks across the street to the band, lets her hair down, and in a nod to Whitesnake's video for "Here I Go Again", writhes around on top of a car. She continues to do this even after the song ends, until her husband calls out to ask her what she’s doing. Mitch Allan from SR-71 appears in the video as a passersby who gives the band a look of contempt.


title: 1985 (SR-71 song)

text: Christian parody band ApologetiX released a parody titled "None Too Ladylike" on the group's "Wordplay" album, about Jezebel from the Bible.


title: 1985 (SR-71 song)

text: The Bowling for Soup version has been covered by Richard Thompson on the live album "1000 Years of Popular Music".


title: IFunny

text: iFunny is a humor-based website and mobile application developed by Cyprus-based FunCorp that consists of memes in the form of images, videos, and animated GIFs submitted by its users. The mobile version of the site once featured a built-in meme creator tool. The app describes itself as a "community for meme lovers and viral memes around the internet."


title: IFunny

text: The application first launched on April 26, 2011, for iOS devices, and on November 25, 2011, on Android. On April 11, 2013, iFunny.co went up as the desktop alternative to the application.


title: IFunny

text: According to VICE News in November 2019, the neo-Nazi hate group "The Base" was posting recruitment propaganda on iFunny. One user "MemeMercenary" who posted QR codes to encourage users to contact the extremist group.


title: IFunny

text: On January 12, 2018, 20-year-old Samuel Woodward was arrested and charged with first-degree murder for the stabbing of Blaze Bernstein. Woodward is a member of the neo-Nazi terrorist group Atomwaffen Division. Woodward had a large following on iFunny under the moniker "Saboteur", and often posted content that was racist, violent, or related to white supremacy. iFunny users subsequently turned Bernstein’s death into a meme and showed support for Woodward.


title: IFunny

text: On August 7, 2019, 18-year-old Justin Olsen from Boardman, Ohio, was arrested for making posts on iFunny under his username ArmyOfChrist that supported mass shootings of Planned Parenthood. The FBI found over 10,000 rounds of ammunition and 25 guns at his home. He told authorities that the posts he made were in a joking manner.


title: IFunny

text: On August 16, 2019, the FBI arrested 19-year-old Farhan Sheikh for iFunny posts threatening to murder people at a women's health clinic that was less than 5 miles away from his home. On a post, he wrote that he would "proceed to slaughter and murder any doctor, patient or visitor." He made it clear on his account that the posts were not satirical by writing that it's "NOT a satirical account. I post what I mean, and i WILL carry out what I post ".


title: IFunny

text: On May 28, 2020, 19-year-old Alexander Treisman was initially arrested for carrying concealed weapons and was separately indicted for possession of child pornography, but was later discovered to have made posts on Reddit and iFunny threatening to assassinate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. In one iFunny post, he said, "Should I kill Joe Biden?". He was found in a van with four rifles, a 9mm handgun, explosive materials, and books on bomb making. Police subsequently found 6,721 images and 1,248 videos of child pornography on eight different digital devices.


title: IFunny

text: On March 12, 2021, 21-year-old Joshua Doctor from Holland, Michigan, was arrested and charged with terrorism for making death threats towards Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Gretchen Whitmer on iFunny. In the posts, he wrote that he would "be the catalyst" for a revolution. Bomb-making instructions were found on his smartphone as well.


title: Johnny Ace

text: John Marshall Alexander Jr. (June 9, 1929 – December 25, 1954), known by the stage name Johnny Ace, was an American rhythm-and-blues singer. He had a string of hit singles in the mid 1950s. Alexander died of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 25.


title: Johnny Ace

text: John Alexander was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of preacher John Marshall Alexander and Leslie Newsome, and grew up near LeMoyne-Owen College. He dropped out of high school to join the United States Navy. Alexander was reportedly AWOL for much of his duty. After he was discharged, Alexander joined Adolph Duncan's Band as a pianist, playing around Beale Street in Memphis. The network of local musicians became known as the Beale Streeters, which included B. B. King, Bobby Bland, Junior Parker, Earl Forest, and Roscoe Gordon. Initially, they weren't an official band, but at times there was a leader and they played on each other's records.


title: Johnny Ace

text: In 1951 Ike Turner, who was a talent scout and producer for Modern Records, arranged for Alexander and other Beale Streeters to record for Turner's label. Alexander played piano on some of King's records for RPM Records and backed King during broadcasts on WDIA in Memphis. When King departed for Los Angeles and Bland left the group, Alexander took over both Bland's vocal duties and King's radio show on WDIA.


title: Johnny Ace

text: David James Mattis, program director at WDIA and founder of Duke Records, claimed that he gave Alexander the stage name of Johnny Ace: "Johnny" for Johnny Ray and "Ace" for the Four Aces. However, Alexander's younger brother, St. Clair Alexander, claimed that the singer himself came up with the name Ace when Mattis changed his first name from John to Johnny.


title: Johnny Ace

text: Ace signed to Duke in 1952 and released his first recording, "My Song", an urbane "heart ballad" which topped the R&B chart for nine weeks beginning in September. He began heavy touring, often with Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton. In the next two years, Ace had eight hits in a row, including "Cross My Heart", "Please Forgive Me", "The Clock", "Yes, Baby", "Saving My Love for You" and "Never Let Me Go".


title: Johnny Ace

text: After Ace had success as a solo artist, the Biharis brothers at Modern released the single "Mid Night Hours Journey" on their subsidiary label Flair Records in September 1953. The flip side was "Trouble and Me" by Forest.


title: Johnny Ace

text: In November 1954, Ace ranked No. 16 on the "Billboard" 1954 Disk Jockey Poll for R&B Favorite Artists. In December 1954, he was named the Most Programmed Artist of 1954, according to the results of a national poll of disc jockeys conducted by the U.S. trade weekly "Cash Box". Ace's recordings sold very well during those times. Early in 1955, Duke Records announced that three of his 1954 recordings, along with Thornton's "Hound Dog", had sold more than 1,750,000 copies.


title: Johnny Ace

text: Ace met Lois Jean Palmer, a freshman at Booker T. Washington High School, in 1949. His parents did not know they were dating until she became pregnant. Ace and Palmer were married in Earle, Arkansas, on July 17, 1950; She was 16 and he was 21. Their son, Glenn Alexander, was born later that year. Ace moved Palmer into his parents' home in Memphis. Ace was barred from the home for playing blues music, so he mostly took residence at the Mitchell Hotel, owned by Sunbeam Mitchell, in Memphis. He had another child with his wife, a daughter named Janet Alexander, but the couple were rarely together due to his womanizing lifestyle, and by 1953 he had abandoned his family.


title: Johnny Ace

text: After touring for a year, Ace had been performing at the City Auditorium in Houston, Texas, on Christmas Day 1954. During a break between sets, he was playing with a .32 caliber revolver. Members of Ace's band said he did this often, sometimes shooting at roadside signs from their car.


title: Johnny Ace

text: It was widely reported that Ace killed himself playing Russian roulette. However, Thornton's bass player, Curtis Tillman, who witnessed the event, said, "I will tell you exactly what happened! Johnny Ace had been drinking and he had this little pistol he was waving around the table and someone said ‘Be careful with that thing…’ and he said ‘It’s okay! Gun’s not loaded… see?’ and pointed it at himself with a smile on his face and ‘Bang!’ — sad, sad thing. Big Mama ran out of the dressing room yelling ‘Johnny Ace just killed himself!'"


title: Johnny Ace

text: Big Mama Thornton said in a written statement (included in the book "The Late Great Johnny Ace") that Ace had been playing with the gun but not playing Russian roulette. According to Thornton, Ace pointed the gun at his girlfriend and another woman who were sitting nearby but did not fire. He then pointed the gun toward himself, bragging that he knew which chamber was loaded. The gun went off, shooting him in the side of the head. According to his biographer Nick Tosches, Ace shot himself with a .32 pistol, not a .22, and it happened little more than an hour after he had bought a new 1955 Oldsmobile.


title: Johnny Ace

text: Ace's funeral was held on January 2, 1955, at Clayborn Temple AME church in Memphis. It was attended by an estimated 5,000 people. His remains were buried at New Park Cemetery in Memphis.


title: Johnny Ace

text: "Pledging My Love" was a posthumous R&B number 1 hit for ten weeks beginning February 12, 1955. As "Billboard" bluntly put it, Ace's death "created one of the biggest demands for a record that has occurred since the death of Hank Williams just over two years ago." Thus Johnny Ace became the first act to reach the "Billboard" pop charts only after death. His single recordings were compiled and released as "The Johnny Ace Memorial Album".


title: Johnny Ace

text: Rock-and-roll historian Harry Hepcat noted that, "Johnny Ace was a crooner who sounded like Johnny Mathis with soul... Soon after the death of Johnny Ace, Varetta Dillard recorded 'Johnny Has Gone' for Savoy Records in early 1955. She incorporated many of Ace's song titles in the lyrics. This was the first of the many teen tragedy records that were to follow in the later 50s and early 1960s."


title: Johnny Ace

text: In addition to Dillard's "Johnny Has Gone", at least four other tribute records to Ace were released in 1955: Frankie Ervin's "Johnny Ace's Last Letter"; The Rovers' "Salute To Johnny Ace"; Linda Hayes' "Why, Johnny, Why?"; and The Five Wings’ "Johnny's Still Singing".


title: Johnny Ace

text: Bob Dylan and Joan Baez performed "Never Let Me Go" on tour with the Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975. The same song would also be covered by Luther Vandross in 1993, as the title track to his eighth studio album. Elvis Presley recorded "Pledging My Love" in his last studio session, in 1976. The song appeared on the album "Moody Blue" in 1977.


title: Johnny Ace

text: Paul Simon wrote and performed the song "The Late Great Johnny Ace" (1983), in which a boy, upon hearing of the death of Ace, orders a photograph of the deceased singer: "It came all the way from Texas / With a sad and simple face / And they signed it on the bottom / From the Late Great Johnny Ace." The song develops a touching counterpoint with the death of two other Johnnies – John Lennon and John F. Kennedy. Simon also performed "Pledging My Love" on his tour of Europe and North America in 2000.


title: Johnny Ace

text: David Allan Coe covered "Pledging My Love", introducing the song with his own recollections of hearing the news of Ace's death.


title: Johnny Ace

text: Ace is mentioned in "House Band in Hell", by Root Boy Slim, and in the song "Johnny Ace", by Dash Rip Rock.


title: Johnny Ace

text: "Pledging My Love" was used in the 1973 film "Mean Streets", directed by Martin Scorsese; the 1983 film "Christine", directed by John Carpenter; the 1985 film "Back to the Future", directed by Robert Zemeckis; and the 1992 film "Bad Lieutenant", directed by Abel Ferrara.


title: Johnny Ace

text: The Teen Queens' song "Eddie My Love", originally entitled "Johnny My Love", was written in memory of Ace.


title: Johnny Ace

text: The Swiss singer Polo Hofer and the Schmetterband wrote the song "Johnny Ace" in 1985; it was released on the album "Giggerig".


title: Johnny Ace

text: Will Oldham noted Ace's death in the lyrics of his song "Let the Wires Ring", on his 2000 album "Guarapero/Lost Blues 2".


title: Johnny Ace

text: The Squirrel Nut Zippers' Christmas album, "Christmas Caravan" (1998), contains the song "A Johnny Ace Christmas", a love song about Ace killing himself on Christmas.


title: Vijay Raghavendra

text: Vijay Raghavendra is an Indian actor who appears predominantly in Kannada films. Referred to popularly as "Chinnari Mutha", Vijay is the son of producer S. A. Chinne Gowda and nephew of actor Dr.Rajkumar.


title: Vijay Raghavendra

text: Vijay started his career as a child artist through the film "Chalisuva Modagalu" (1982) and won critical acclaims for his performances in "Chinnari Mutha" (1993) and "Kotreshi Kanasu" (1994). The latter film won him the National Film Award for Best Child Artist. His first Hero lead role was in Ramoji Rao's production titled "Ninagagi" in 2002, which was a commercial success and one of the highest-grossing films of the year. However, his subsequent projects under-performed at the box office until he was noticed for his role in the T. S. Nagabharana's period drama "Kallarali Hoovagi" in 2006, followed by his home production film "Sevanthi Sevanthi" in the same year. For playing the role of Puttaraj Gawai in the biographical film "Shivayogi Sri Puttayyajja" in 2016, Vijay won the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor. In 2018, he made his directorial debut in "Kismath" (2018).


title: Vijay Raghavendra

text: In 2013, by public vote, Vijay won the first season of the game show Bigg Boss – the Indian version of Celebrity Big Brother, currently produced by Endemol India.


title: Vijay Raghavendra

text: Vijay Raghavendra was born in Bangalore, India to a family of film personalities. He began to act in films featuring his uncle Rajkumar in the lead. After having acted in about eight films as a bad artist, Vijay underwent a formal training in acting at Chennai.


title: Vijay Raghavendra

text: In 1982, Vijay appeared in a small role as a child in Singeetham Srinivasa Rao's romantic drama "Chalisuva Modagalu", starring his uncle Rajkumar, Ambika and his cousin Puneeth Rajkumar, credited as Master Lohith. He went on to appear in the 1989 movie "Parashuram", alongside his cousin Puneeth Rajkumar in a song. After a brief gap, in 1991 he appeared in "Aralida Hoovugalu", a remake of the Hindi film "Jawani Diwani" (1971), directed by Chi. Dattaraj and co-starred Shiva Rajkumar. His next movie "Chinnari Mutha" became a huge success and he became a household name in Karnataka. After that, he acted in many movies, including "Kotreshi Kanasu", for which he won a National Award for his performance.


title: Vijay Raghavendra

text: In 1993, Vijay, in his teens, appeared in three films: H. R. Bhargava's novel-based drama "Jaga Mechida Huduga", Renuka Sharma's devotional "Kollura Sri Mookambika", where he played the role of young Shankaracharya and the lead protagonist in the T. S. Nagabharana's Children's film "Chinnari Mutha". The film won multiple laurels and awards upon release both at the state and national level. Vijay won the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Child Actor (Male) for his portrayal of an innocent Mutha who rises to great popularity through his good deeds. His popularity further rose in 1995 with the Nagathihalli Chandrashekar's film adaption of the novel "Kotra Highschoolige Seriddu", titled "Kotreshi Kanasu". Vijay played the titular role of Kotreshi and went on to win the National Film Award for Best Child Artist for the year 1994–95. The other film he featured in was the biographical "Sangeetha Sagara Ganayogi Panchakshara Gavai", directed by Chindodi Bangaresh. He again played the titular role as the young and blind reformer Gawai and also portrayed the younger part of Narendra in the Hindi film "Swami Vivekananda". Following this, he took a break from films and concentrated on his studies.


title: Vijay Raghavendra

text: His first adult role as an actor was in "Ninagagi" (2002), a box office blockbuster which brought him success on his first role opposite the debutant Radhika. The film was a remake of the Telugu hit "Nuvve Kavali", which screened for over 100 days and created a record. Following this success, he signed two more movies in the same year, which could not succeed at the box office. He has acted in many movies since then. His notable movies are "Kallarali Hoovagi", "Rishi", "Khushi" and "Kaaranji".


title: Vijay Raghavendra

text: Vijay did not have a single release in 2010. His much delayed films "Shraavana", "Vinayaka Geleyara Balaga" and the multi-starrer "Kalla Malla Sulla" released in 2011 with the latter two films earning favourable reviews. In 2012, he starred again in a multi-starrer comedy "Snehitaru", which received a mixed response at the box office. In 2015, he starred in the biographical "Shivayogi Sri Puttayyajja" and won the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor.


title: Vijay Raghavendra

text: In 2013, Vijay was a contestant and winner in the much talked about Kannada version of the reality show "Bigg Boss" in its first season, which started with 13 contestants. Vijay has been reportedly paid Rs. 5 million prize money.


title: Vijay Raghavendra

text: Vijay is the eldest child of producer S. A. Chinne Gowda and his wife Jayamma. His younger brother Sriimurali is a popular Kannada film actor. His paternal aunt Parvathamma Rajkumar was a prominent film producer and distributor in Kannada cinema. He is the cousin of actors Shiva Rajkumar, Raghavendra Rajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar. On 26 August 2007, he married a Tulu girl Spandana, the daughter of Assistant Commissioner of Police, B. K. Shivaram. The couple has a son named Shourya.


title: Vijay Raghavendra

text: In 2013, it was announced that he had joined other Bollywood and international celebrities in the TeachAids initiative, a state-of-the-art approach to worldwide HIV prevention, developed at Stanford University.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: Louis Buchalter, known as Louis Lepke or Lepke Buchalter, (February 6, 1897March 4, 1944) was an American mobster and head of the Mafia hit squad Murder, Inc., during the 1930s. Buchalter was one of the premier labor racketeers in New York City during that era.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: Charles Birger and Buchalter are the only American mob bosses to be executed after being convicted of murder. Louis Buchalter was executed using the infamous "Old Sparky" electric chair after being sent "up the river" to Sing Sing Correctional Facility.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: Buchalter was born in the Lower East Side neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York in February 1897. His mother, Rose Buchalter, called him "lepkeleh" ("little Louis" in Yiddish), which later became "Lepke". Louis Buchalter had one sister and three brothers; one brother eventually became a dentist, another brother a college professor and rabbi, and the third brother a pharmacist. His father, Barnett Buchalter, was a Russian immigrant who operated a hardware store on the Lower East Side. The family was Jewish.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: In 1909, when Buchalter was 12, his father died. In 1910, Buchalter finished elementary school and started a job selling theatrical goods. Reportedly, on the Lower East Side, he attended the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School, where he was an "honor roll" student. Soon after, his mother moved to Arizona for health reasons, leaving Buchalter in the care of his sister, Sarah. However, Buchalter was beyond her control.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: On September 2, 1915, Buchalter was arrested in New York for the first time for burglary and assault, but the case was discharged.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: In late 1915 or early 1916, Buchalter went to live with his uncle in Bridgeport, Connecticut. On February 29, 1916, Buchalter was arrested in Bridgeport on burglary charges and was sent to the Cheshire Reformatory for juvenile offenders in Cheshire, Connecticut, until July 12, 1917. After a dispute with his uncle over wages, Buchalter moved back to New York City.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: On September 28, 1917, Buchalter was sentenced in New York to 18 months in state prison at Sing Sing in Ossining, New York, on a grand larceny conviction. After a transfer to Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York, Buchalter was released on January 27, 1919. On January 22, 1920, Buchalter returned to Sing Sing on a 30-month sentence for attempted burglary. He was released on March 16, 1922.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: Upon Buchalter's 1922 release from prison, he started working with his childhood friend, mobster Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro. Through force and fear, they began gaining control of the garment industry unions. Buchalter then used the unions to threaten strikes and demand weekly payments from factory owners while dipping into union bank accounts. Buchalter's control of the unions evolved into a protection racket, extending into areas such as bakery trucking. The unions were profitable for him and he kept a hold over them even after becoming an important figure in organized crime. Buchalter later formed an alliance with Tommy Lucchese, a leader of the Lucchese crime family, and together they controlled the garment district.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: Buchalter and Shapiro moved into new and fashionable luxury buildings on Eastern Parkway (135) with family who were active synagogue goers (Union Temple and Kol Israel Synagogue of Brooklyn). In later years, Buchalter and his family lived in a penthouse in the exclusive Central Park West section of Manhattan.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: In 1927, Buchalter and Shapiro were arrested for the murder of Jacob Orgen (Little Augie) and the attempted murder of Irish-American bootlegger Jack Diamond, a criminal rival. However, the charges were later dropped due to a lack of evidence.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: Buchalter was described as a quiet man who for years managed to avoid the public spotlight. In conversations with his criminal associates, Buchalter preferred listening over talking. Buchalter generously compensated his gang members and took them to hockey games, boxing matches, and even winter cruises. On August 20, 1931, Buchalter married Betty Wasserman, a British-born widow of Russian descent, at New York City Hall. Buchalter adopted Betty's child from her previous marriage.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: In the early 1930s, Buchalter created an effective process for performing contract killings for Cosa Nostra mobsters; it had no name, but the press 10 years later called it Murder, Inc. The Cosa Nostra mobsters wanted to insulate themselves from any connection to these murders. Buchalter's partner, mobster Albert Anastasia, would relay a contract request from the Cosa Nostra to Buchalter. In turn, Buchalter would assign the job to Jewish and Italian street gang members from Brooklyn.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: None of these contract killers had any connections with the major crime families. If they were caught, they could not implicate their Cosa Nostra employers in the crimes. Buchalter used the same killers for his own murder contracts. The Murder, Inc., killers were soon completing jobs all over the country for their mobster bosses.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: In 1935, Buchalter arranged his most significant murder: the powerful New York gangster Dutch Schultz. Schultz had proposed to the National Crime Syndicate, a confederation of mobsters, that New York District Attorney Thomas Dewey be murdered. Luciano argued that a Dewey assassination would precipitate a massive law enforcement crackdown. An enraged Schultz said he would kill Dewey anyway and walked out of the meeting. After six hours of deliberations The Commission ordered Buchalter to eliminate Schultz. On October 23, 1935, Schultz was shot in a Newark, New Jersey tavern, and succumbed to his injuries the following day. In 1941, Buchalter killer Charles "The Bug" Workman was charged in the Schultz murder.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: In 1935, law enforcement estimated that Buchalter and Shapiro had 250 men working for them, and that Buchalter was grossing over $1 million ($ in current dollar terms) per year. They controlled rackets in the trucking, baking, and garment industries throughout New York. Buchalter also owned the Riobamba, a posh nightclub in Manhattan.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: On September 13, 1936, Murder, Inc. killers, acting on Buchalter's orders, gunned down Joseph Rosen, a Brooklyn candy store owner. Rosen was a former garment industry trucker whose union Buchalter took over. Rosen had angered Buchalter by refusing to leave town as Buchalter demanded when, despite the absence of proof, Buchalter believed Rosen was cooperating with District Attorney Thomas Dewey. At the time, no one was indicted in the Rosen murder.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: On November 8, 1936, Buchalter and Shapiro were convicted of violating federal anti-trust laws in the rabbit-skin fur industry in New York. While out on bail, both Buchalter and Shapiro disappeared. On November 13, both men were sentenced while absent to two years in federal prison. The two men later appealed the verdict, but in June 1937 both convictions were upheld.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: Before they could be taken into custody, both Buchalter and Shapiro disappeared. On November 9, 1937, the federal government offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to Buchalter's capture.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: On December 1, 1937, the fugitive Buchalter was indicted in federal court on conspiracy to smuggle heroin into the United States. The scheme involved heroin hidden in the trunks of young women and couples traveling by ocean liner from China to France, then to New York City. Lepke bribed U.S. customs agents not to inspect the trunks.


title: Lepke Buchalter

text: On April 14, 1938, Shapiro surrendered to authorities in New York. However, Buchalter remained a fugitive.