title: Fake Love (BTS song)

text: In a "Billboard" publication, Caitlin Kelley cited it as one of the best songs of the band and wrote, "this is BTS at their angstiest, wallowing in the heartache of changing yourself so much for someone that your love is fake." Writing for "The Malaysia Star", Chester Chin praised the song for "its explosive hook-heavy glory." Taylor Glasby from "Dazed" appreciated the "poignant rawness of the pre-choruses" while also complimenting the song's lyrical content. She also wrote an article for "Clash", where she viewed the track "brittle pinnacle of deception." In another review for "Vogue", she described the song as a "moody emo anthem." Salva Mubarak, of the same magazine, deemed the track as "iconic," citing its "unexpectedly complex music arrangement and lyrics." "Billboard" ranked "Fake Love" at number 22 on their list of 2018's best songs. Other publications that included the track among their lists of the best songs of 2018 were "The Dong-a Ilbo", "The Guardian", "The New York Times", and "Rolling Stone". The latter also ranked "Fake Love" as one of the greatest boy band songs of all time. "Consequence of Sound" and "NME" placed it on their decade-end list of the 100 best songs of the 2010s. "Fake Love" won the Song of the Year and Best Pop Song awards at the Korean Music Awards in 2019. It also won the Best Rap / Hip Hop song at the 2018 Melon Music Awards. The song also achieved the top spot on various South Korean music programs, garnering a total of 12 awards including "triple-crowns" (three consecutive wins) on "Music Bank", "Show! Music Core" and "Inkigayo". It also achieved five consecutive Melon Weekly Popularity Awards due to its substantial success on digital platforms.


title: Fake Love (BTS song)

text: "Fake Love" was a commercial success in South Korea. It debuted at number six on the Gaon Digital Chart for issue date of May 19, 2018. The following week, it climbed to number one and also peaked at number one on the component Download Chart. The single remained in the top five of the digital chart for five consecutive weeks before falling for the week of June 30, 2018. "Fake Love" was the third best-performing song of the June 2018 issue of the Gaon Monthly Digital Chart based on digital sales, streaming, and background music (instrumental track) downloads. It was eventually the 19th best-selling song of 2018 in South Korea, selling over 680,480,472 digital units. In addition, the song peaked at number one on the "Billboard" K-pop Hot 100 on the chart issue dated May 26, 2018. "Fake Love" received platinum certifications, for both streaming and download, from the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA), denoting over 100 million streams and 2.5 million digital download sales, respectively.


title: Fake Love (BTS song)

text: "Fake Love" debuted and peaked at number 10 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 on the issue date of June 2, 2018, selling 29,000 digital copies, which was the highest debut on the chart for that week. It became BTS' first top-ten entry on the chart and the highest-charting song by a Korean band in the United States, surpassing their own record achieved with 2017 song "Mic Drop" at number 28. BTS also became the second K-pop act to chart a top-ten song in the country after Psy achieved it with "Gangnam Style" and "Gentleman" in 2012 and 2013, respectively. The single appeared at number seven on the "Billboard" Streaming Songs chart with 27.8 million streams in its opening week, becoming their first top-ten on the chart. It also became their fifth number one on the US World Digital Songs chart. On the Pop Songs chart, the single peaked at number 34 in the week of July 21, 2018. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for track equivalent sales of 500,000 units becoming BTS' third song to do so. "Fake Love" debuted and peaked at number 22 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart. In the United Kingdom, it debuted at number 42 on the Singles Chart, and reached number 3 on the Indie Chart. "Fake Love" appeared on the Australian Singles Chart at number 36, which later became its peak. It was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for track-equivalent sales of 35,000. The song peaked at number one in both Malaysia and Singapore, and also made a top-ten debut on the South African music chart. Additionally, it made top 40 appearances in Austria, New Zealand, Russia, Scotland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Flemish region of Belgium.


title: Fake Love (BTS song)

text: Following the release of the song as a single album in Japan, "Fake Love / Airplane Pt.2" topped the Oricon Daily Singles Chart on its first day of release, selling 327,342 copies. The single remained at number one on the daily chart for the next six days, selling 454,829 physical copies in its first week. By doing so, the band became the first foreign artist to surpass 400,000 copies in a week. "Fake Love / Airplane Pt. 2" peaked at number one on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart for the chart issue dated November 5–11, 2018. It sold 481,000 copies in the month of November 2018, achieving higher sales than their previous Japanese single album "Mic Drop / DNA / Crystal Snow". For the year end chart, it was the 12th best-selling single of 2018 in the country. It additionally charted at number one on the "Billboard Japan" Hot 100 on the issue date of November 19, 2018. On December 9, 2018, the single album received double platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), denoting shipments of 500,000 copies. On June 26, 2020, "Fake Love" received a silver streaming certification from the RIAJ for 30 million digital streams. It received gold certification the following year, on February 23, 2021, for surpassing 50 million streams.


title: Fake Love (BTS song)

text: The music video for "Fake Love" was directed by YongSeok Choi of Lumpens. HyunWoo Nam of GDW was credited as the director of photography, while HyunSuk Song served as the gaffer. The video premiered on Big Hit's YouTube channel at 18:00 KST (08:00 UTC) on May 18, 2018; it was preceded by two teasers released on the same platform on May 14 and 16. The "high-production" visual is almost five-minutes long and features a darker atmosphere compared to that of the previous single, "DNA" (2017). It continues the extended story-line of BTS' fictional narrative universe by connecting "fantasy and reality, past and present" with multiple Easter eggs, and symbolisms. The video opens with a flower trapped inside a glass and then switches to show close-up shots of band members Jin and Jungkook. The clip then blacks out briefly before showing silhouettes of the seven members who start performing choreography as the opening line of the song plays. As the light brightens, the members are seen dressed in black leather outfits. The visual then rewinds to show Jin standing inside a room painted in bleak colours and filled with shattered glass. Jungkook plays the protagonist of the visual, as he runs through a hallway as floorboards collapse beneath his feet. Throughout the video, he searches for his band-mates on his own inside a maze-like manor. The video alternates with scenes which show the members reflecting their own personal struggles in several decaying rooms and group-shots of the band performing furious and tight choreography in an "imposing collection of sets". In some scenes, they are also seen staring blankly at the camera. Over the course of the clip, Jin tries to protect a flower as everything around him falls apart. As the flower crumbles to ashes, "annihilation" follows. Thematically, the entire visual correlates with the song's message. Scenes with sand slipping and rooms filled with abandoned toys and candy bars suggest themes of "dishonesty" and "disillusionment." In another scene, fire bursts in front of Suga, as he smirks in amusement and sits calmly while the fire grows. Jimin stands and stares ahead as water storms around him. The choreography depicted in the video consists of "sharp movements" and "dramatic poses" which portrays each member exhibiting the anguish of the song's lyrics. The clip also references to the band's previous thematic eras. A scene featuring V standing in front of a wall with the words "Save Me" written on it bears testimony to their "Wings" era. The visual ends with Jungkook returning eventually to a masked figure.


title: Fake Love (BTS song)

text: Papadatos of "Digital Journal" called the video "compelling from start to finish." In his review for "Cosmopolitan", Alex Reed cited the clip as "wonderful" and said, "The styling is perfect, the vocals are on point, the choreography is exceptional, and the visuals are beyond." Anna Gaca from "Spin" deemed the visual as "glossy" and praised the "dramatic, CGI-enhanced" shots and the band's choreography. Reviewing for "Celebmix", Ellie Nicholas labelled the video "intense, artistic and addicting," adding that it is "a masterpiece of a music video that you cannot help but replay." The clip broke the record for most-watched music video on YouTube within 24 hours, achieving 35.9 million views on the platform on its first day, surpassing their own record of 22.3 million views with "DNA". It also became the third most watched music video within the first 24 hours in 2018. Within 8 days, "Fake Love" surpassed 100 million views besting the group's previous record with "DNA", which achieved the same in 24 days. As of September 2021, the visual has garnered over 1 billion views.


title: Fake Love (BTS song)

text: An accompanying music video for the remix version of "Fake Love", also directed by YongSeok Choi, was uploaded to Big Hit's YouTube channel on June 1, 2018. The visual introduces some "extended footage" while retaining the content of the original video. For its conclusion, Jungkook is joined by six hooded figures and closes out with the seven being crushed together by a wall.


title: Fake Love (BTS song)

text: BTS performed "Fake Love" live for the first time at the 2018 "Billboard" Music Awards on May 20, 2018. The performance was acclaimed in the media. Taylor Weatherby of "The Hollywood Reporter" deemed the choreography as "intense" and "flawless" adding, "From high kicks to synchronized waves, BTS hit every move perfectly while singing their latest jam." Writing for "Elle", Alyssa Bailey praised the performance writing, "the perfectly-synched dancing that was truly next-level." Jennifer Drysdale of "Entertainment Tonight" wrote that the band "slayed the performance with their intricate dance moves in front of a stunning display, completely stealing the show." The band performed the song on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on May 25, alongside "Airplane Pt. 2". On June 12, they gave a pre-recorded performance of the song on "The Late Late Show with James Corden".


title: Fake Love (BTS song)

text: Following the release of "Love Yourself: Tear", BTS appeared on several Korean music programs, including Mnet's "M! Countdown", KBS's "Music Bank", SBS's "Inkigayo" and MBC's "Show! Music Core" to promote "Fake Love" and the album. On December 1, 2018, BTS performed the song at the Melon Music Awards. The rock version of the song was promoted at the 2018 Mnet Asian Music Awards on December 12. They performed it again at the "KBS Song Festival" on December 29. On January 15, 2019, BTS performed the song at the Seoul Music Awards. "Fake Love" was included on the setlist of BTS' Love Yourself World Tour (2018–19).


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The siege of Cawnpore was a key episode in the Indian rebellion of 1857. The besieged East India Company forces and civilians in Cawnpore (now Kanpur) were unprepared for an extended siege and surrendered to rebel forces under Nana Sahib in return for a safe passage to Allahabad. However, their evacuation from Cawnpore turned into a massacre, and most of the men were killed. As an East India Company rescue force from Allahabad approached Cawnpore, 120 British women and children captured by the Sepoy forces were killed in what came to be known as the Bibighar Massacre, their remains being thrown down a nearby well in an attempt to hide the evidence. Following the recapture of Cawnpore and the discovery of the massacre, the angry Company forces engaged in widespread retaliation against captured rebel soldiers and local civilians. The murders greatly embittered the British rank-and-file against the Sepoy rebels and inspired the war cry ""Remember Cawnpore!"".


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Cawnpore was an important garrison town for the East India Company forces. Located on the Grand Trunk Road, it was directly connected to the Sindh (Sind), Punjab and Awadh (Oudh) regions.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: By June 1857, the Indian rebellion had spread to several areas near Cawnpore, namely Meerut, Agra, Mathura, and Lucknow. However, the Indian sepoys at Cawnpore initially remained loyal. The British General at Cawnpore, Hugh Wheeler, knew the local language, had adopted local customs, and was married to an Indian woman. He was confident that the sepoys at Cawnpore would remain loyal to him, and sent two British companies (one each of the 84th and 32nd Regiments) to besieged Lucknow.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The British contingent in Cawnpore consisted of around nine hundred people, including around three hundred military men, around three hundred women and children, and about one hundred and fifty merchants, business owners, drummers (salesman), engineers and others. The rest were the native servants, who left soon after the commencement of the siege.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: In the case of a rebellion by the sepoys in Cawnpore, the most suitable defensive location for the British was the magazine located in the north of the city. It had thick walls, ample ammunition and stores, and also hosted the local treasury. However, General Wheeler decided to take refuge in the south of the city, in an entrenchment composed of two barracks surrounded by a mud wall. There was a military building site to the south of Cawnpore, where nine barracks were being constructed at the dragoon barracks. The British soldiers found it difficult to dig deep trenches, as it was hot summer season. The area also lacked good sanitary facilities, and there was only one well (which would be exposed to enemy fire in case of an attack). Also, there were several buildings overlooking the entrenchment that would provide cover for the attackers, allowing them to easily shoot down on the defenders.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: General Wheeler's choice of this location to make a stand remains controversial, given the availability of safer and more defensible places in Cawnpore. It is believed that he was expecting reinforcements to come from the southern part of the city. He also assumed that, in case of a rebellion, the Indian troops would probably collect their arms, ammunition and money, and would head to Delhi and therefore, he did not expect a long siege.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The first sign of the rebellion at Cawnpore came in the form of a rebellion at Fatehgarh (or Futteghur), a military station on the banks of the Ganges. To disperse the Indian troops away from Cawnpore, and lessen the chances of a rebellion, General Wheeler decided to send them on various "missions". On one such mission, he sent the 2nd Oudh Irregulars to Fatehgarh. On the way to Fatehgarh, General Wheeler's forces under the command of Fletcher Hayes and Lieutenant Barbour met two more Englishmen, Mr Fayrer and Lieutenant T. Carey.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: On the night of 31 May 1857, Hayes and Carey departed to a nearby town to confer with the local magistrate. After their departure, the Indian troops rebelled and decapitated Fayrer. Barbour was also killed, as he tried to escape. When Hayes and Carey came back the next morning, an older Indian officer galloped towards them and advised them to run away. However, as the Indian officer explained the situation to them, the rebel Indian sowars (cavalry troopers) raced towards them. Hayes was killed as he tried to ride away, while Carey escaped to safety.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: There were four Indian regiments in Cawnpore: the 1st, 53rd and 56th Native Infantry, and the 2nd Bengal Cavalry. Although the sepoys in Cawnpore had not rebelled, the European families began to drift into the entrenchment as the news of rebellion in the nearby areas reached them. The entrenchment was fortified, and the Indian sepoys were asked to collect their pay one by one, so as to avoid an armed mob.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The Indian soldiers considered the fortification, and the artillery being primed, as a threat. On the night of 2 June 1857, a British officer named Lieutenant Cox fired on his Indian guard while drunk. Cox missed his target, and was thrown into the jail for a night. The very next day, a hastily convened court acquitted him, which led to discontent among the Indian soldiers. There were also rumours that the Indian troops were to be summoned to a parade, where they were to be massacred. All these factors influenced them to rebel against the East India Company rule.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The rebellion began at 1:30 AM on 5 June 1857, with three pistol shots from the rebel soldiers of the 2nd Bengal Cavalry. Elderly Risaldar-Major Bhowani Singh, who chose not to hand over the regimental colours and join the rebel sepoys, was subsequently cut down by his subordinates. The 53rd and 56th Native Infantry, which were apparently the most loyal units in the area, were awoken by the shootings. Some soldiers of the 56th attempted to leave. The European artillery assumed that they were also rebelling, and opened fire on them. The soldiers of the 53rd were also caught in the crossfire.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The 1st N.I. rebelled and left in the early morning of 6 June 1857. On the same day, the 53rd N.I. also went off, taking with them the regimental treasure and as much ammunition as they could carry. Around 150 sepoys remained loyal to General Wheeler.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: After obtaining arms, ammunition and money, the rebel troops started marching towards Delhi to seek further orders from Bahadur Shah II, who had been proclaimed the "Badshah-e-Hind" ("Emperor of India"). The British officers were relieved, thinking that they would not face a long siege.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Nana Sahib was the adopted heir to Baji Rao II, the former peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy. The East India Company had decided that the pension and honours of the lineage would not be passed on to Nana Sahib, as he was not a natural born heir. Nana Sahib had sent his envoy Dewan Azimullah Khan to London, to petition the Queen against the Company's decision, but failed to evoke a favourable response. In May 1857, Nana Sahib arrived in Cawnpore with 300 soldiers, stating that he intended to support the British: Wheeler asked him to take charge of the government treasury in the Nawabganj area.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Amid the chaos in Cawnpore in 1857, Nana Sahib entered the British magazine with his contingent. The soldiers of the 53rd Native Infantry, which was guarding the magazine, were not fully aware of the situation in the rest of the city. They assumed that Nana Sahib had come to guard the magazine on behalf of the British, as he had earlier declared his loyalty to the British, and had even sent some volunteers to be at the disposal of General Wheeler. However, Nana Sahib joined the rebels.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: After taking possession of the treasury, Nana Sahib advanced up the Grand Trunk Road. His aim was to restore the Maratha Confederacy under Peshwa tradition, and he decided to attempt to capture Cawnpore. On his way, Nana Sahib met with rebel soldiers at Kalyanpur. The soldiers were on their way to Delhi, to meet Bahadur Shah II. Nana Sahib initially decided to march to Delhi and fight the British as a Mughal subordinate, but Azimullah Khan advised him that leading the rebels in Kanpur would increase his prestige more than serving a weak Muslim king.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Nana Sahib asked the rebel soldiers to go back to Cawnpore, and help him in defeating the British. The rebels were reluctant at first, but decided to join Nana Sahib, when he promised to double their pay and reward them with gold, if they were to destroy the British entrenchment.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: On 5 June 1857, Nana Sahib sent a polite note to General Wheeler, informing him that he intended to attack on the following morning, at 10 AM. On 6 June Nana Sahib's forces (including the rebel soldiers) attacked the British entrenchment at 10:30 AM. The British were not adequately prepared for the attack, but managed to defend themselves for a long time, as the attacking forces were reluctant to enter the entrenchment. Nana Sahib's forces had been led to falsely believe that the entrenchment had gunpowder-filled trenches that would explode if they got closer.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: As the news of Nana Sahib's advances against the British garrison spread, several of the rebel sepoys joined him. By 10 June, he was believed to be leading around twelve to fifteen thousand Indian soldiers.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The British held out in their makeshift fort for three weeks with little water and food supplies. Many died as a result of sunstroke and lack of water. As the ground was too hard to dig graves, the British would pile the dead bodies outside the buildings, and drag and dump them inside a dried well during the night. The lack of sanitation facilities led to the spread of diseases such as dysentery and cholera, further weakening the defenders. There was also a small outbreak of smallpox, although this was relatively confined.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: During the first week of the siege, Nana Sahib's forces encircled the entrenchment, created loopholes and established firing positions in the surrounding buildings. Captain John Moore of the 32nd (Cornwall) Light Infantry countered this by launching night-time sorties. Nana Sahib withdrew his headquarters to Savada House (or Savada "Kothi"), situated about two miles away. In response to Moore's sorties, Nana Sahib decided to attempt a direct assault on the British entrenchment, but the rebel soldiers displayed a lack of enthusiasm.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: On 11 June, Nana Sahib's forces changed their tactics. They started concentrated firing on specific buildings, firing endless salvos of round shot into the entrenchment. They successfully damaged some of the smaller barrack buildings, and also tried to set fire to the buildings.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The first major assault by Nana Sahib's side took place on the evening of 12 June. However, the attacking soldiers were still convinced that the British had laid out gunpowder-filled trenches, and did not enter the area. On 13 June, the British lost their hospital building to a fire, which destroyed most of their medical supplies and caused the deaths of a number of wounded and sick artillerymen who burned alive in the inferno. The loss of the hospital was a major blow to the defenders. Nana Sahib's forces gathered for an attack, but were repulsed by canister shots from the artillery under the command of Lieutenant George Ashe. By 21 June, the British had lost around a third of their numbers.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Wheeler's repeated messages to Henry Lawrence, the commanding officer in Lucknow, could not be answered as that garrison was itself under siege.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The sniper fire and the bombardment continued until 23 June 1857, the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Plassey, which took place on 23 June 1757 and was one of the pivotal battles leading to the expansion of British rule in India. One of the driving forces of the sepoy rebellion was a prophecy which predicted the downfall of East India Company rule in India exactly one hundred years after the Battle of Plassey. This prompted the rebel soldiers under Nana Sahib to launch a major attack on the British entrenchment on 23 June 1857.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The rebel soldiers of the 2nd Bengal Cavalry led the charge, but were repulsed with canister shot when they approached within 50 yards of the British entrenchment. After the cavalry assault, the soldiers of the 1st Native Infantry launched an attack on the British, advancing behind cotton bales and parapets. They lost their commanding officer, Radhay Singh, to the opening volley from the British. They had hoped to get protection from cotton bales; however, the bales caught fire from the canister shot, and became a hazard to them. On the other side of the entrenchment, some of the rebel soldiers engaged in a hand-to-hand combat against 17 British men led by Lieutenant Mowbray Thomson. By the end of the day, the attackers were unable to gain entry into the entrenchment. The attack left over 25 rebel soldiers dead, with very few casualties on the British side.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The British garrison had taken heavy losses as a result of successive bombardments, sniper fire, and assaults. It was also suffering from disease and low supplies of food, water and medicine. General Wheeler's personal morale had been low, after his son Lieutenant Gordon Wheeler was decapitated by a roundshot. With approval of General Wheeler, a Eurasian civil servant called Jonah Shepherd slipped out of the entrenchment in disguise to ascertain the condition of Nana Sahib's forces. He was quickly imprisoned by the rebel soldiers.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: At the same time, Nana Sahib's forces were wary of entering the entrenchment, as they believed that it had gunpowder-filled trenches. Nana Sahib and his advisers came up with a plan to end the deadlock. On 24 June, they sent a female European prisoner, Mrs Rose Greenway, to the entrenchment with their message. In return for surrender, Nana Sahib promised the safe passage of the British to the Satichaura Ghat, a landing on the Ganges from which they could depart for Allahabad. General Wheeler rejected the offer, because it had not been signed, and there was no guarantee that the offer was made by Nana Sahib himself.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The next day, 25 June, Nana Sahib sent a second note, signed by himself, through another elderly female prisoner, Mrs Jacobi. The British camp divided into two groups – one in favour of continuing the defence, while the second group was willing to trust Nana Sahib. During the next 24 hours, there was no bombardment by Nana Sahib's forces. Finally, General Wheeler decided to surrender, in return for a safe passage to Allahabad. After a day of preparation, and burying their dead, the British decided to leave for Allahabad on the morning of 27 June 1857.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: On the morning of the 27 June, a large British column led by General Wheeler emerged from the entrenchment. Nana Sahib sent a number of carts, dolis and elephants to enable the women, the children and the sick to proceed to the river banks. The British officers and military men were allowed to take their arms and ammunition with them, and were escorted by nearly the whole of the rebel army. The British reached the Satichaura Ghat by 8 AM. Nana Sahib had arranged around forty boats, belonging to a boatman called Hardev Mallah, for their departure to Allahabad.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The Ganges river was unusually dry at the Satichaura Ghat, and the British found it difficult to drift the boats away. General Wheeler and his party were the first aboard and the first to manage to set their boat off. There was some confusion, as the Indian boatmen jumped overboard after hearing bugles from the banks, and started swimming toward the shore. As they jumped, some fires on the boats were knocked over, setting a few of the boats ablaze.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Though controversy surrounds what exactly happened next at the Satichaura Ghat, and who fired the first shot, soon afterwards, the departing British were attacked by the rebel sepoys, and were either killed or captured.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Some of the British officers later claimed that the rebels had placed the boats as high in the mud as possible, on purpose to cause delay. They also claimed that Nana Sahib's camp had previously arranged for the rebels to fire upon and kill all the British. Although the East India Company later accused Nana Sahib of the betrayal and murder of innocent people, no evidence has ever been found to prove that Nana Sahib had pre-planned or ordered the massacre. Some historians believe that the Satichaura Ghat massacre was the result of confusion, and not of any plan implemented by Nana Sahib and his associates. Lieutenant Mowbray Thomson, one of the four male survivors of the massacre, believed that the rank-and-file sepoys who spoke to him did not know of the killing to come.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: After the fighting began, Nana Sahib's general Tatya Tope allegedly ordered the 2nd Bengal Cavalry unit and some artillery units to open fire on the British. The rebel cavalry sowars moved into the water, to kill the remaining British soldiers with swords and pistols. The surviving men were killed, while the women and children were taken into captivity, as Nana Sahib did not approve of their killing. Around 120 women and children were taken prisoner and escorted to Savada House, Nana Sahib's headquarters during the siege.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: By this time, two of the boats had been able to drift away: General Wheeler's boat, and a second boat which was holed beneath the waterline by a round shot fired from the bank. The British people in the second boat panicked and attempted to make it to General Wheeler's boat, which was slowly drifting to safer waters.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: General Wheeler's boat had around sixty people aboard, and was being pursued down the riverbanks by the rebel soldiers. The boat frequently grounded on the sandbanks. On one such sandbank, Lieutenant Thomson led a charge against the rebel soldiers, and was able to capture some ammunition. Next morning, the boat again stuck on a sandbank, resulting in another charge by Thomson and eleven British soldiers. After a fierce fight on shore, Thomson and his men decided to return to the boat, but did not find it where they expected to.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Meanwhile, the rebels had launched an attack on the boat from the opposite bank. After some firing, the British men on the boat decided to fly the white flag. They were escorted off the boat and taken back to Savada house. The surviving British men were sat on the ground, and Nana Sahib's soldiers got ready to fire on them. Their wives insisted that they would die with their husbands, but were pulled away. Nana Sahib granted the British chaplain Moncrieff's request to read prayers before they died. The British were initially wounded by the guns, and then killed with swords. The women and children were confined to Savada House, to be reunited later with their remaining colleagues, who had been captured earlier, at Bibighar.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Being unable to find the boat, Thomson's party decided to run barefoot to evade the rebel soldiers. The party took refuge in a small shrine, where Thomson led a last charge. Six of the British soldiers were killed, while the rest managed to escape to the riverbank, where they tried to escape by jumping into the river and swimming to safety. However, a group of rebels from the village started clubbing them as they reached the bank. One of the soldiers was killed, while the other four, including Thomson, swam back to the centre of the river. After swimming downstream for a few hours, they reached shore, where they were discovered by some Rajput matchlockmen, who worked for Raja Dirigibijah Singh, a British loyalist. These carried the British soldiers to the Raja's palace. These four British soldiers were the only male survivors from the British side, apart from Jonah Shepherd (who had been captured by Nana Sahib before the surrender). The four men included two privates named Murphey and Sullivan, Lieutenant Delafosse, and Lieutenant (later Captain) Mowbray Thomson. The men spent several weeks recuperating, eventually making their way back to Cawnpore which was, by that time, back under British control. Murphey and Sullivan both died shortly after from cholera, Delafosse went on to join the defending garrison during the Siege of Lucknow, and Thomson took part in rebuilding and defending the entrenchment a second time under General Windham, eventually writing a firsthand account of his experiences entitled "The Story of Cawnpore" (London, 1859).


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Another survivor of the Satichaura Ghat massacre was Amy Horne, a 17-year-old Anglo-Indian girl. She had fallen from her boat and had been swept downstream during the riverside massacre. Soon after scrambling ashore she met Wheeler's youngest daughter, Margaret. The two girls hid in the undergrowth for a number of hours until they were discovered by a group of rebels. Margaret was taken away on horseback, never to be seen again (it was later rumoured that she survived and was married to a Muslim soldier) and Amy was led to a nearby village where she was taken under the protection of a Muslim rebel leader in exchange for converting to Islam. Just over six months later, she was rescued by Highlanders from Sir Colin Campbell's column on their way to relieve Lucknow.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The surviving British women and children were moved from the Savada House to Bibighar ("The House of the Ladies"), a villa-type house in Cawnpore. Initially, around 120 women and children were confined to Bibighar. They were later joined by some other women and children, the survivors from General Wheeler's boat. Another group of British women and children from Fatehgarh, and some other captive European women were also confined to Bibighar. In total, there were around 200 women and children in Bibighar.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Nana Sahib placed the care of these survivors under a sex worker called Hussaini Khanum (also known as Hussaini Begum). She put the captives to grinding corn for "chapatis". Poor sanitary conditions at Bibighar led to deaths from cholera and dysentery.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Nana Sahib decided to use these prisoners for bargaining with the East India Company. The Company forces, consisting of around 1,000 British, 150 Sikh soldiers and 30 irregular cavalry, had set out from Allahabad, under the command of General Henry Havelock, to retake Cawnpore and Lucknow. The first relief force assembled under Havelock included 64th Regiment of Foot and 78th Highlanders (brought back from the Anglo-Persian War), the first arrivals of the diverted China expedition, 5th Fusiliers, part of the 90th Light Infantry (seven companies), the 84th (York and Lancaster) from Burma, and EIC Madras European Fusiliers, brought up to Calcutta from Madras. Havelock's initial forces were later joined by the forces under the command of Major Renaud and Colonel James Neill, which had arrived from Calcutta to Allahabad on 11 June. Nana Sahib demanded that the East India Company forces under General Havelock and Colonel Neill retreat to Allahabad. However, the Company forces advanced relentlessly towards Cawnpore. Nana Sahib sent an army to check their advance. The two armies met at Fatehpur on 12 July, where General Havelock's forces emerged victorious and captured the town.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Nana Sahib then sent another force under the command of his brother, Bala Rao. On 15 July, the British forces under General Havelock defeated Bala Rao's army in the Battle of Aong, just outside the Aong village. On 16 July, Havelock's forces started advancing to Cawnpore. During the Battle of Aong, Havelock was able to capture some of the rebel soldiers, who informed him that there was an army of 5,000 rebel soldiers with 8 artillery pieces further up the road. Havelock decided to launch a flank attack on this army, but the rebel soldiers spotted the flanking manoeuvre and opened fire. The battle resulted in heavy casualties on both sides, but cleared the road to Cawnpore for the British.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: By this time, it became clear that Sahib's bargaining attempts had failed and the Company forces were approaching Cawnpore. Nana Sahib was informed that the British troops led by Havelock and Neill were indulging in violence against the Indian villagers. Pramod Nayar believes that the ensuing Bibighar massacre was a reaction to the news of violence being perpetrated by the advancing British troops. Other suggestions are that there was a fear of future identification of key ring leaders if the prisoners were liberated.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Nana Sahib, and his associates, including Tatya Tope and Azimullah Khan, debated about what to do with the captives at Bibighar. Some of Nana Sahib's advisors had already decided to kill the captives at Bibighar, as revenge for the executions of Indians by the advancing British forces. The women of Nana Sahib's household opposed the decision and went on a hunger strike, but their efforts went in vain.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Finally, on 15 July, an order was given to murder the women and children imprisoned at Bibighar. The details of the incident, such as who ordered the massacre, are not clear.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The rebel sepoys executed the four surviving male hostages from Fatehghar, one of them a 14-year-old boy. But they refused to obey the order to kill women and the other children. Some of the sepoys agreed to remove the women and children from the courtyard, when Tatya Tope threatened to execute them for dereliction of duty. Nana Sahib left the building because he didn't want to be a witness to the unfolding massacre.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The British women and children were ordered to come out of the assembly rooms, but they refused to do so and clung to each other. They barricaded themselves in, tying the door handles with clothing. At first, around twenty rebel soldiers opened fire from the outside of the Bibighar, firing through holes in the boarded windows. The soldiers of the squad that was supposed to fire the next round were disturbed by the scene, and discharged their shots into the air. Soon after, upon hearing the screams and groans inside, the rebel soldiers threw down their weapons and declared that they were not going to kill any more women and children.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: An angry Begum Hussaini Khanum denounced the sepoys' act as cowardice, and asked her aide to finish the job of killing the captives. Her lover hired butchers, who murdered the captives with cleavers; the butchers left when it seemed that all the captives had been killed. However, a few women and children had managed to survive by hiding under the other dead bodies. It was agreed that the bodies of the victims would be thrown down a dry well by some sweepers. The next morning the rebels arrived to dispose of the bodies and they found that three women who were still alive, and also three children aged between four and seven years old . The surviving women were cast into the well by the sweepers, who had also been told to strip the corpses. The sweepers then threw the three little boys into the well one at a time, the youngest first. Some victims, among them small children, were therefore buried alive in a heap of butchered corpses. None survived.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The Company forces reached Cawnpore on 16 July, and captured the city. A group of British officers and soldiers set out to the Bibighar, to rescue the captives, assuming that they were still alive. However, when they reached the site, they found it empty and blood-splattered, with the bodies of most of the 200 women and children having already been dismembered and thrown down the courtyard well or into the Ganges river. Piles of children's clothing and severed women's hair blew on the wind and lodged in tree branches around the compound; the tree in the courtyard nearest the well was smeared with the brains of numerous children and infants who had been dashed headfirst against the trunk and thrown down the well.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The British troops were horrified and enraged. Upon learning of the massacre, the infuriated British garrison engaged in a surge of violence against the local population of Cawnpore, including looting and burning of houses, with the justification that none of the local noncombatants had done anything to stop the massacre. Brigadier General Neill, who took the command at Cawnpore, immediately began a program of swift and vicious drumhead military justice (culminating in summary execution) for any sepoy rebel captured from the city who was unable to prove he was not involved in the massacre. Rebels confessing to or believed to be involved in the massacre were forced to lick the floor of the Bibighar compound, after it had been wetted with water by low caste people, while being whipped. The sepoys were then religiously disgraced by being forced to eat (or force fed) beef (if Hindu) or pork (if Muslim). The Muslim sepoys were sewn into pig skins before being hanged, and low-caste Hindu street sweepers were employed to execute the high-caste Brahmin rebels to add additional religious disgrace to their punishment. Some were also forced by the British to lick clean buildings stained with the blood of the recently deceased, before being publicly hanged.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Most of the prisoners were hanged within direct view of the well at the Bibighar and buried in shallow ditches by the roadside. Others were shot or bayonetted, while some were also tied across cannons that were then fired, an execution method initially used by the rebels, and the earlier Indian powers, such as the Marathas and the Mughals. It is unclear whether this method of execution was reserved for special prisoners, or whether it was merely done in the retributive spirit of the moment.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The massacre disgusted and embittered the British troops in India, with "Remember Cawnpore!" becoming a war cry for the British soldiers for the rest of the conflict. Acts of summary violence against towns and cities believed to harbour or support the rebellion also increased. In one of the villages, a detachment of Highlanders caught around 140 men, women and children. Ten men were hanged without any evidence or trial. Another sixty men were forced to build the gallows of wooden logs, while others were flogged and beaten. In another village, when around 2,000 villagers came out in protest brandishing lathis, the Highlanders surrounded them and set the village on fire. Villagers trying to escape were summarily executed by the Highlanders.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: On 19 July, General Havelock resumed operations at Bithoor. Major Stevenson led a group of Madras Fusiliers and Sikh soldiers to Bithoor and occupied Nana Sahib's palace without any resistance. The British troops seized guns, elephants and camels, and set Nana Sahib's palace on fire.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: In November 1857, Tatya Tope gathered an army, mainly consisting of the rebel soldiers from the Gwalior contingent, to recapture Cawnpore. By 19 November, his 6,000-strong force had taken control of all the routes west and north-west of Cawnpore. However, his forces were defeated by the Company forces under Colin Campbell in the Second Battle of Cawnpore, marking the end of the rebellion in the Cawnpore area. Tatya Tope then joined Rani Lakshmibai.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Nana Sahib disappeared and, by 1859, he had reportedly fled to Nepal. His ultimate fate was never determined. Up until 1888, there were rumours and reports that he had been captured and a number of individuals turned themselves in to the British claiming to be the aged Nana. As the majority of these reports turned out to be untrue, further attempts at apprehending him were abandoned.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: British civil servant Jonah Shepherd, who had been rescued by Havelock's army, spent the next few years after the rebellion attempting to put together a list of those killed in the entrenchment. He had lost his entire family during the siege. He eventually retired to a small estate north of Cawnpore in the late 1860s.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: After the revolt was suppressed, the British dismantled Bibighar. They raised a memorial railing and cross at the site of the well in which the bodies of the British women and children had been dumped. Meanwhile, the British conducted a retaliatory action under the command of Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet by demolishing Nana Sahib's palace in Bithoor with cannon-fire. In addition, the inhabitants of Cawnpore were forced to pay £30,000 for the creation of the memorial as a 'punishment' for not coming to the aid of the British women and children in Bibighar. "The Angel of the Resurrection" was created by Baron Carlo Marochetti and completed in 1865. It has been called by various names throughout the centuries and came to be the most visited statue of British India. The chief proponent and private funder was Charlotte, Countess Canning, wife of the first Viceroy of India, Earl Canning. She approached her childhood friend, Marochetti, for models. In turn, Marochetti suggested that other sculptors be invited. Following the Countess's death, Earl Canning took over the commission. Canning rejected a number of designs accepting, in the end, a version of Marochetti's Crimean War memorial at Scutari, Turkey. The understated figure is an angel holding two branches of palm fronds across her chest. Despite assurances, 'The Angel' had some damage during the Independence celebrations of 1947 and she was later moved from her original site over the Bibi Ghar well to a garden at the side of All Soul's Church, Kanpore (Kanpur Memorial Church).


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The remains of a circular ridge of the well can still be seen at the Nana Rao Park, built after Indian independence. The British also erected the All Souls Memorial Church, in memory of the victims. An enclosed pavement outside the church marks the graves of over 70 British men captured and executed on 1 July 1857, four days after the Satichaura Ghat massacre. The marble Gothic screen with "mournful seraph" was transferred to the churchyard of the All Souls Church after Indian independence in 1947. There were originally plans to replace the memorial to the British victims with a bust of Tatya Tope but the local British community objected strongly to the plans, and the bust was eventually installed some distance away from the site.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: There is a plaque to Capt. W Morphy and Lieut. Thomas Mackinnon who were killed on 28 November 1857 in Lichfield Cathedral.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: An additional memorial detailing the losses suffered by the 32nd Cornwall Regiment Light Infantry is located inside the west entrance to Exeter Cathedral.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Many references to the event were made in later novels and films. Julian Rathbone describes the brutality of both British and Indian forces during the siege of Cawnpore in his novel "The Mutiny". In the novel, the Indian nurse Lavanya rescues an English child, Stephen, during the Satichaura Ghat massacre. In "Massacre at Cawnpore", V. A. Stuart describes the siege and the British defence through the eyes of the characters Sheridan, and his wife Emmy. George MacDonald Fraser's "Flashman in the Great Game" also contains lengthy scenes set in the entrenchment during the siege and also during the ensuing escape.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: Tom Williams' novel, "Cawnpore", is also set against the background of the siege and massacre, which is seen from both the European and the Indian perspective.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The contemporary Indian report by Kalpi devi in the local journal Hindupanch covered the incident of the punitive action by the British and burning down of Nana Sahib's palace along with his young daughter Mainavati in a prose.


title: Siege of Cawnpore

text: The British press used it to describe the brutality involved in the public feeding of reptiles at the London zoological garden. In 1876, the Editor of the Animal World drew Dr. P L Sclater's attention to this and the press charged the Zoological Society of London with encouraging cruelty, "pandering to public brutality" while one writer in the Whitehall Review (27 April 1878), protested against "the Cawnpore Massacre enacted diurnally," and headed his article, "Sepoyism at the Zoo."


title: Interim championship

text: An interim championship is an alternate title that is awarded by the sanctioning bodies of professional boxing, and in other combat sports such as kickboxing, professional wrestling, and mixed martial arts.


title: Interim championship

text: Occasionally, the champion of a particular weight division is temporarily unable to defend his championship because of medical, legal, or other reasons beyond the competitor's control. When this case occurs, two highly ranked contenders may fight for an interim championship of the same weight division – leading to two champions existing in the same weight division simultaneously. Once the original champion can return, at the discretion of the sanctioning body or promotion concerned, they must defend their title against the interim champion - who will relinquish their interim title to fight for the full world title. If the original champion cannot return, refuses to defend their title, or transfers to a different weight division, the interim champion is promoted to full championship status. The WBC, however, has begun awarding interim titles to the winners of final eliminator fights, effectively signifying a mandatory challenger position for the full world title. Recent examples include the winners of Dillian Whyte vs. Oscar Rivas and Devin Haney vs. Zaur Abdullaev.


title: Interim championship

text: In the case of professional wrestling, due to the entertainment and scripted nature of the sport, an interim championship is rarely used as most reasons – while similar to the ones in combat sports that are sometimes beyond the wrestler's control – usually lead to the champion being stripped of the title and a new champion is determined. One example of an interim champion was on WWE's NXT brand, where NXT Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin could not travel to the United States to defend the title due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, rendering him only able to defend the title on NXT's UK brand at the time. Therefore, in the United States, an interim Cruiserweight Championship was created and won in a tournament by Santos Escobar. Once travel restrictions eased up, Devlin and Escobar fought in a unification match at to determine the sole champion, which Escobar won. Recent examples include the winners of Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Toni Storm vs. Britt Baker vs. Jamie Hayter vs. Hikaru Shida.


title: Mr. Popo

text: Mr. Popo's design and humanoid appearance has been criticized as an offensive racist stereotype by some commentators, such as children's book author Carole Boston Weatherford. As a result of the controversy, Mr. Popo's appearance had been modified in some media depictions of the character: his lips are downsized digitally in the American release of the "Dragon Ball" manga by Viz Media, and his skin is recoloured blue from his original black colour in the CW4Kids TV broadcast of "Dragon Ball Kai".


title: Mr. Popo

text: Mr. Popo was initially envisioned by series creator Akira Toriyama as a reptilian humanoid with a chicken-like beak that had several variant designs, including one sketch with curly hair, though all of which were ultimately discarded. Later concept art by Toriyama depict him as a slender man dressed in a manner reminiscent of Namu, an Indian yogi-inspired character who fights series protagonist Goku in a martial arts tournament early in the series. Toriyama ultimately settled on the current design, a portly humanoid with bright facial expressions whose clothing resembles stereotypical depictions of Jinns, supernatural beings from Arabian mythology and Islamic theology. The early concept art sketches of Mr. Popo are included in the "30th Anniversary Dragon Ball Super History Book" published in 2016.


title: Mr. Popo

text: According to Toriyama, Mr. Popo has served as an assistant to successive generations of gods who preside over Earth in the "Dragon Ball" universe, suggesting that he existed long before the "Nameless Namekian" arrived on Earth and subsequently serve as the world's guardian deity. Besides being a skilled practitioner of martial arts, Toriyama noted that Mr. Popo is also responsible for crafting the physical appearance of the wish-granting dragon Shenron, originally created by the Namekian Kami" and summoned from Earth's seven Dragon Balls, as it is derived from a figurine modeled by Mr. Popo.


title: Mr. Popo

text: The North American English releases of the manga series by Viz Media, which saw its first publication in March 2003, reduced the size of Mr. Popo's lips by shading them in completely. In 2009, the CW4Kids airing of "Dragon Ball Z Kai" recoloured Mr. Popo's black skin to be blue and his lips orange-yellow in hue.


title: Mr. Popo

text: Mr. Popo is voiced by Toku Nishio in the original series and Yasuhiko Kawazu in "Kai". Prior to Kawazu, Dai Matsumoto voiced him in "" and "". In English, he was voiced by Alvin Sanders in the Ocean dub, and by Chris Cason and Christopher Sabat in the Funimation dubs. Cason's lines as Popo in the original airings of "Dragon Ball Z" were dubbed over by Sabat by the time the remastered DVDs were released, only for Cason to take over again as Mr. Popo in "Kai". Other English voice actors include Doug Rand, who voiced Mr. Popo in the AB Groupe dub of the ; Apollo Abraham, who was heard in the obscure Philippine dub of said film by Creative Products Corp.; and David Alan Pettitt, who lent his voice in the Blue Water dubs of "Dragon Ball" and "Dragon Ball GT". Sabat in particular is fond of the character, and was hopeful that the character would eventually be added into the roster of the popular fighting game "Dragon Ball FighterZ" as part of future downloadable content.


title: Mr. Popo

text: A supporting character who has few overall appearances within the series, Mr. Popo's duties consist of looking after Kami, tending to his residence, and reconstructing Shenron if the dragon's physical form is destroyed. He also tends to an ancient butterfly garden that he cultivated thousands of years prior to the events of the series. In "Dragon Ball", Popo is far stronger than Son Goku when he first arrives at Kami's Palace. He trains Goku for three years until the boy learns everything he knows. Some of the techniques Goku developed under the tutelage of Mr. Popo include the Chou Kamehameha, a more lethal version of his signature attack. In "Dragon Ball Z", he helps Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan by divulging the location of Kami's old starship to facilitate their journey to Planet Namek. He then serves Dende as his attendant upon the latter's ascension as Earth's new guardian deity later in the narrative.


title: Mr. Popo

text: Mr. Popo has demonstrated the ability to magically create objects from seemingly out of thin air, for example a flying carpet which he uses as transportation in the anime story arc Garlic Junior Saga, though the character is also depicted as capable of flight or levitation using ki. Unlike series protagonist Goku, Mr. Popo can teleport instantly to a desired location without requiring the use of an energy signature to home in on. In the "Dragon Ball Z" anime, Mr. Popo has a brief match with Son Goten and Trunks who have transformed into Super Saiyan form where he holds his own, blocking or dodging several hits and even appearing unfazed after being struck by a kick.


title: Mr. Popo

text: The "Dragon Ball" media franchise, particularly the anime adaptation of "Dragon Ball Z", has long been popular with black communities around the world, as well as hip hop culture and art movement. For many African Americans who grew up watching "Dragon Ball" anime, Mr. Popo is regarded as the only notable example of black representation in the series. Nevertheless, by the early 2000s some commentators began referring to Mr. Popo as a derogatory stereotype in the style of blackface, a controversial form of makeup historically associated with stage and film caricatures of African Americans, or a representation of the antiquated racial term sambo. In her article written for "The Christian Science Monitor" in May 2000, Weatherford alleged that Mr. Popo represent a depiction of individuals with African heritage from a white supremacist perspective, and that characters like him are known to a far-reaching audience of children through cartoons and product tie-ins. She suggested that such stereotypical characters could adversely affect the malleable self-image of black children, and noted to her bemusement that "racist stereotypes that would shock Americans don't raise an eyebrow in much of Asia". In 2001, the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University declared that Mr. Popo is an example of a racist caricature in modern fiction. The Jim Crow Museum later published on their official website a letter written in response to their article from a reader who disagreed with their assertion that characters like Mr. Popo are deliberately anti-black in design.


title: Mr. Popo

text: In a retrospective discussion about the character, Ramsey Isler from IGN suggested that it is easy to label Mr. Popo as a racist caricature if the character is described simply as "the black-skinned, red-lipped, turban-wearing servant of Kami". On one hand, he questioned the likelihood of whether Toriyama intentionally made a racist joke through Mr. Popo, acknowledging an argument from some quarters that Mr. Popo's appearance may have been "a little artistic license for an imaginary character", on the basis that "Japanese animation has a history of exaggerating non-Japanese characters because the Japanese population is not very diverse" and that Japanese society "does not have the kinds of racial sensitivities that the Western world has". On the other hand, he also raised questions as to whether a controversial topic which is not intended to be offensive make it any less so, as well as whether explanations like "it's only a joke" or "they don't know any better" absolve wrongful conduct. Jack Gardner from "Screen Rant" assessed Mr. Popo as a relic of blackface portrayal which persisted in the manga and animation industries of Japan and the wider Asian world, long after it became a taboo subject in North America following the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. While Gardner acknowledged the subsequent and substantial changes to the highly divisive character, he found it shocking that Mr. Popo would even appear unaltered in an internationally popular syndicated television show in the 1990s.


title: Mr. Popo

text: Regarding the alteration of Mr. Popo's skin colour in some media depictions, Jemima Sebastian from IGN noted that the change was made for reasons that could never be fully explained, but that many fans would connect it to perceptions of racism. Cecilia D'Anastasio from "Kotaku" observed that while there is awareness that the character was not intended to be African-American or inspired by any people with African descents or origins, Mr. Popo's appearance still evokes the image of a "dark-skinned slave with puffy red lips" and the decision to recolour him for American television is indicative of his potentially offensive reception.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: Crazy for You is a romantic comedy musical with a book by Ken Ludwig, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. Billed as "The New Gershwin Musical Comedy", it is largely based on the songwriting team's 1930 musical "Girl Crazy", but also incorporates songs from several other productions. It won the 1992 Tony Award (Broadway), the 1993 Olivier Award (London), and the 1994 Dora Award (Toronto) for Best Musical.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: Roger Horchow and Elizabeth Williams had been wanting to produce a new version of "Girl Crazy". They engaged Ken Ludwig to write the book, Mike Ockrent to direct, and Susan Stroman to do the choreography, and obtained permission from the Gershwin family. Richard Godwin, and Valerie Gordon were the associate producers. The production soon changed to become a new show, using various Gershwin songs from different times. Six songs from "Girl Crazy" were selected: "Bidin' My Time", "Could You Use Me?", "Embraceable You" , "I Got Rhythm", "But Not For Me", and part of "Bronco Busters"). "Tonight's the Night" was previously unpublished, having originally been written for "Show Girl" but ultimately not included. "What Causes That?" came from "Treasure Girl", but was considered lost until 1982, when a copy was found in a Warner Brothers warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey. "K-ra-zy for You" also originated from "Treasure Girl". "The Real American Folk Song (Is a Rag)" was the Gershwins' first song performed on Broadway; on the other hand, "Naughty Baby" was making its debut, having been in "Primrose", which only played in London and Australia. Other songs came from the musical films "Shall We Dance" ("Slap That Bass" and "They Can't Take That Away From Me") and "A Damsel in Distress", both of which were released in the year of George's death.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: After a Washington, D.C. tryout and 10 previews, it opened at the Shubert Theatre on February 19, 1992, and ran for 1,622 performances. The cast included Jodi Benson as Polly, Harry Groener as Bobby Child, Bruce Adler as Bela Zangler, John Hillner as Lank Hawkins, Michele Pawk as Irene Roth, Jane Connell as Mother, Beth Leavel as Tess (Leavel also understudied Benson), Ronn Carroll as Everett Baker, and Stephen Temperley and Amelia White as Eugene and Patricia Fodor. The Manhattan Rhythm Kings played cowboys Mingo, Moose, and Sam, singing in their trademark close harmony.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: In his review in "The New York Times", Frank Rich wrote, "When future historians try to find the exact moment at which Broadway finally rose up to grab the musical back from the British, they just may conclude that the revolution began last night. The shot was fired at the Shubert Theater, where a riotously entertaining show called "Crazy for You" uncorked the American musical’s classic blend of music, laughter, dancing, sentiment and showmanship with a freshness and confidence rarely seen during the "Cats" decade. The miracle has been worked here most ingeniously, though not exclusively, by an extraordinary choreographer named Susan Stroman and the playwright Ken Ludwig . . . "Crazy for You" scrapes away decades of cabaret and jazz and variety-show interpretations to reclaim the Gershwins’ standards, in all their glorious youth, for the dynamism of the stage."


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: The West End production, directed by Ockrent, choreographed by Stroman, and starring Ruthie Henshall, Kirby Ward, and Chris Langham, opened at the Prince Edward Theatre on March 3, 1993 and ran for nearly three years.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: A Toronto production directed by Ockrent, choreographed by Stroman, and starring Jim Walton and Camilla Scott opened at the Royal Alexandra Theatre on December 1, 1993 and closed December 31, 1995.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: On October 20, 1999, the PBS series "Great Performances" broadcast a production directed by Matthew Diamond, who was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Direction of a Variety or Music Program.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: On October 18, 2009, a showtime challenge, charity gala performance of "Crazy for You", directed by Katherine Hare and choreographed by Racky Plews was staged by Eyebrow Productions at the London Palladium. Eyebrow are well known for their unique Showtime Challenges, where all aspects of the show are rehearsed and performed in 48 hours. All proceeds went to Cecily's Fund.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: In 2011, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre did a revival of "Crazy for You" as part of the 2011 Summer Season. The production moved to the West End, at the Novello Theatre where it ran from October 8, 2011 to March 17, 2012.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: The Off-West End premiere of "Crazy For You", directed by John Plews, choreographed by Grant Murphy and musically directed by Oliver John Ruthven, ran at Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate from December 13, 2012 to January 27, 2013. The production made use of a smaller ensemble with cast doubling, and a six-piece band.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: In summer 2016 a UK revival opened at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury starring Tom Chambers as Bobby and Caroline Sheen as Polly. The production began touring the UK from August 2017 to June 2018 starring Chambers reprising his role as Bobby, Caroline Flack as Irene and Charlotte Wakefield as Polly. Claire Sweeney replaced Flack as Irene halfway through the tour.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: In the 2017 concert production of Crazy for You at the Lincoln Center, the cast was joined by choirs across the world including Denver School of the Arts.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: As part of the 2022 Chichester Festival, a new production staged as part of a limited summer run; Charlie Stemp plays the role of Bobby Child with Carly Anderson as Polly Baker. The direction and choreography are by Susan Stroman. The production is scheduled to transfer to the West End's Gillian Lynne Theatre for a limited 30-week West End engagement beginning 24 June 2023, prior to an official opening July 3.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: "Note: While Eugene Fodor was the real-life founder of Fodor's Travel Guides, the character in the musical is highly fictionalized. The real Eugene Fodor was Hungarian-American, not British, and his first travel book was about Europe.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: Backstage at the Zangler Theater in New York in the 1930s, the last performance of the Zangler Follies is wrapping up for the season, and Tess, the Dance Director, is dodging the advances of the married Bela Zangler. Bobby Child, the rich son of a banking family, is backstage hoping for an audition with Mr. Zangler. Bobby performs "K-ra-zy for You," but fails to impress Zangler, having landed on Zangler's foot during the final flourish of his dance routine. Dejected, Bobby heads outside.


title: Crazy for You (musical)

text: In Lank's saloon Bobby is professing his love to Polly. Unfortunately, she is still in love with the man who she thinks is Zangler. Bobby is about to convince Polly that he has been impersonating "Zangler" when the real Zangler stumbles into the saloon looking for Tess.


title: Walter Camp

text: Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system of downs. With John Heisman, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Pop Warner, Fielding H. Yost, and George Halas, Camp was one of the most accomplished persons in the early history of American football. He attended Yale College, where he played and coached college football. Camp's Yale teams of 1888, 1891, and 1892 have been recognized as national champions. Camp was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach during 1951.


title: Walter Camp

text: Camp wrote articles and books on the gridiron and sports in general, annually publishing an "All-American" team. By the time of his death, he had written nearly 30 books and more than 250 magazine articles.


title: Walter Camp

text: Camp was born in New Britain, Connecticut, the son of Leverett Camp and Ellen Sophia (Cornwell) Camp. Walter Camp was of English descent. His first immigrant ancestor was the English colonist Nicholas Camp, who came from Nazeing, Essex, England and arrived in colonial New England in 1630, arriving first in Massachusetts and then moving to Connecticut that same year. Walter attended Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, entered Yale College in 1875, and graduated in 1880. At Yale he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, the Linonian Society, and Skull and Bones. He attended Yale Medical School from 1880 to 1883, where his studies were interrupted first by an outbreak of typhoid fever and then by work for the Manhattan Watch Company. Camp worked for the New Haven Clock Company beginning in 1883, working his way up to chairman of the board of directors.


title: Walter Camp

text: In 1873, Camp attended a meeting where representatives from Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton, and Yale universities created the Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA). The representatives created the rule that each team is only allowed 15 plays per drive. Camp played as a halfback at Yale from 1876 to 1882. Harvard player Nathaniel Curtis took one look at Camp, then only 156 pounds, and told Yale captain Gene Baker "You don't mean to let that child play, do you? ... He will get hurt."


title: Walter Camp

text: On June 30, 1888, Camp married Alice Graham Sumner, sister of sociologist William Graham Sumner. They had two children: Walter Camp, Jr. (1891-1940), who attended Yale as well and was elected as a member of Scroll and Key in 1912, and Janet Camp Troxell (1897-1987). Camp is buried with his wife and children in Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven. He was an Episcopalian.


title: Walter Camp

text: Camp served as the head football coach at Yale from 1888 to 1892. In his time with Yale, the team won 67 games and lost just 2 games. He then moved on to Stanford University, where he coached in December 1892 and in 1894 and 1895. On Christmas Day, 1894, Amos Alonzo Stagg and his University of Chicago Maroons defeated Camp's Stanford team 24–4 at San Francisco in an early intersectional contest.


title: Walter Camp

text: Camp was on the various collegiate football rules committees that developed the American game from his time as a player at Yale until his death. English rugby football rules at the time required a tackled player, when the ball was "fairly held," to put the ball down immediately for scrummage. Camp proposed at the U.S. College Football 1880 rules convention that the contested scrum be replaced with a "line of scrimmage" where the team with the ball started with uncontested possession. This change effectively created the evolution of the modern game of American football from its rugby football origins.


title: Walter Camp

text: He is credited with innovations such as the snap-back from center, the system of downs, and the points system as well as the introduction of what became a standard offensive arrangement of players—a seven-man line and a four-man backfield consisting of a quarterback, two halfbacks, and a fullback. Camp was also responsible for introducing the "safety," the awarding of two points to the defensive side for tackling a ball carrier in his own end zone followed by a free kick by the offense from its own 20-yard line to restart play. This is significant as rugby union has no point value award for this action, but instead awards a scrum to the attacking side five meters from the goal line.


title: Walter Camp

text: In 2011, reviewing Camp's role in the founding of the sport and of the NCAA, Taylor Branch also credited Camp with cutting the number of players on a football team from 15 to 11 and adding measuring lines to the field. However, Branch noted that the revelation in a contemporaneous "McClure's" magazine story of "Camp's $100,000 slush fund," along with concern about the violence of the growing sport, helped lead to President Theodore Roosevelt's intervention in the sport. The NCAA emerged from the national talks, but worked to Yale's disadvantage relative to rival (and Roosevelt's "alma mater") Harvard, according to Branch.


title: Walter Camp

text: Despite having a full-time job at the New Haven Clock Company, a Camp family business, and being an unpaid yet very involved adviser to the Yale football team, Camp wrote articles and books on the gridiron and sports in general. By the time of his death, he had written nearly 30 books and more than 250 magazine articles. His articles appeared in national periodicals such as "Harper's Weekly", "Collier's", "Outing", "Outlook", and "The Independent", and in juvenile magazines such as "St. Nicholas", "Youth's Companion", and "Boys' Magazine". His stories also appeared in major daily newspapers throughout the United States. He also selected an annual "All-American" team.


title: Walter Camp

text: By the age of 33, twelve years after graduating from Yale, Walter Camp had already become known as the "Father of Football." In a column in the popular magazine "Harper's Weekly", sports columnist Caspar Whitney had applied the nickname; the sobriquet was appropriate because, by 1892, Camp had almost single-handedly fashioned the game of modern American football.


title: Walter Camp

text: The dominance of Ivy League players on Camp's All-America teams led to criticism over the years that his selections were biased against players from the leading Western universities, including Chicago, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Notre Dame. Many selectors picked only Eastern players. For example, Wilton S. Farnsworth's 1910 All-American eleven for the "New York Evening Journal" was made up of five players from Harvard, two from West Point, and one each from Yale, Princeton, Penn, and Brown.


title: Walter Camp

text: The selectors were typically Eastern writers and former players who attended only games in the East. In December 1910, "The Mansfield News", an Ohio newspaper, ran an article headlined: "All-American Teams of East Are Jokes: Critics Who Never Saw Western Teams Play to Name Best in Country -- Forget About Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois." The article noted:


title: Walter Camp

text: Camp was a proponent of exercise, and not just for the athletes he coached. While working as an adviser to the United States military during World War I, he devised a program to help servicemen become more physically fit.


title: Walter Camp

text: Walter Camp has just developed for the Naval of setting up exercises that seems to fill the bill; a system designed to give a man a running jump start for the serious work of the day. It is called the "daily dozen set-up", meaning thereby twelve very simple exercises.


title: Walter Camp

text: The names of the exercises in the original Daily Dozen, as the whole set became known, were hands, grind, crawl, wave, hips, grate, curl, weave, head, grasp, crouch, and wing. As the name indicates, there were twelve exercises, and they could be completed in about eight minutes. A prolific writer, Camp wrote a book explaining the exercises and extolling their benefits. During the 1920s, a number of newspapers and magazines used the term "Daily Dozen" to refer to exercise in general.


title: Walter Camp

text: Starting in 1921 with the "Musical Health Builder" record sets, Camp began offering morning setting-up exercises to a wider market. In 1922, the initiative reached the new medium of radio.


title: Makal

text: Makal ( Daughter) is a 2022 Indian Malayalam-language family drama film directed by Sathyan Anthikkad and written by Iqbal Kuttippuram. The film stars Jayaram, Meera Jasmine, Devika Sanjay, Sreenivasan, Innocent, and Naslen K. Gafoor. The film is produced by Central Pictures, the company that previously produced Anthikad's "Kudumbapuranam", "Kalikkalam" and "Oru Indian Pranayakatha." This marks Meera Jasmine's comeback film after a six-year hiatus and also her 25th Malayalam film. The film also marks Jayaram's return to mollywood after a 3 year gap


title: Makal

text: Mother and daughter duo Juliet and Aparna have been living together for the best part of their lives, enjoying their freedom and level of understanding. After Aparna's father Nandan returns from the Gulf and Juliet gets a government job in another district, Nandan has to figure out being a father to his daughter. While the generation gap leads to a series of misunderstandings and squabbles, the entry of an unexpected stranger in their lives changes the father and daughter dynamics, and the stranger's presence become a reason for them to connect meaningfully.


title: Makal

text: Movie filming commenced in October 2021 in Kerala, with Jayaram joining the sets on October 21. On December 12, actor Jayaram informed via a tweet that he is in the final leg of filming. The shoot was wrapped in late-December.


title: Makal

text: The film score is composed, orchestrated and produced by Rahul Raj, while the songs featured in the film are composed by Vishnu Vijay.


title: Makal

text: The digital rights of the film were acquired by ManoramaMAX. The satellite rights of the film are owned by Mazhavil Manorama.


title: Makal

text: The film received mixed to positive reviews, praising the performances, direction and humour but criticised its plot, writing and climax.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: Stars in Their Eyes is a British television talent series, based on Joop van den Ende's Dutch format "Soundmixshow". It featured a singing contest in which members of the public impersonate showbiz stars.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: The show premiered on 21 July 1990 and initially ran until 23 December 2006. It was produced by Granada for ITV and originally presented by Leslie Crowther. Matthew Kelly took over in May 1993, before he was replaced by Cat Deeley in April 2004. An Elvis Presley special hosted by Russ Abbot aired in January 1993, as well as 2003 specials hosted by Davina McCall. A number of celebrity specials and a children's spin-off series were also aired during the original run.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: A six-part revival hosted by Harry Hill aired from 10 January 2015 to 14 February 2015, but it was later axed by ITV due to low ratings and poor reviews.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: A series of non-televised pilots were filmed in 1989 hosted by Chris Tarrant. However, in February 1990, Leslie Crowther was chosen as the host of the show which began airing on 21 July 1990. Crowther hosted the first three series, and a Christmas Special in 1991. At the time of his car accident in October 1992, he was booked to record an Elvis Presley special (which was later hosted by Russ Abbot) and a fourth series (later hosted by Matthew Kelly) in 1993.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: It then became clear that Crowther would not be able to return. He announced his retirement from showbusiness in November 1994 and died 2 years later. Therefore, Kelly hosted the show until the live grand final of the 15th series on 13 March 2004. Kelly announced a few days earlier that he would quit the show in order to pursue his acting career full-time. Kelly also hosted the 2001 pilot episode, and first series of the kids version in 2002.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: In January 2003, Kelly was arrested by police over allegations of child sex abuse resulting in Davina McCall temporarily guest hosting the show for three celebrity specials that were broadcast the following month. Kelly returned after the charges were dropped.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: Cat Deeley, who previously took over as host of the kids' version in 2003, was Kelly's replacement for the final adult series in 2005. Deeley also hosted several celebrity specials in 2004. In June 2006, ITV denied reports that the series was facing the axe although admitted that the future of the show was being discussed. Deeley hosted the show until its final episode in December 2006; the show was then axed by ITV.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: The most impersonated stars are Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Cher, George Michael, Celine Dion, Kylie Minogue and Madonna.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: Harry Hill took over as host on 10 January 2015, with all episodes pre-recorded and the winner of each show again voted for by the studio audience.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: The revival proved divisive – fans of the original format were critical of it, saying that Harry Hill had made the show about him rather than the contestants; while others acknowledged that the revival was a post-modern parody of the original, with its knowing ridicule of talent show cliches such as terrible performances being overpraised, and the actions of the presenter receiving high editorial focus to distract from the outdated performance element being thinly stretched. Each episode features Harry being pursued by Adele (really a look-alike) for being in possession of her baby and she would comically chase him until she got the baby back.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: In April 2015, it was announced that due to poor viewing figures, ITV would not be renewing the show for another series, and it was axed.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: "Stars in Their Eyes" is a talent show where contestants get the chance to appear and sing live as a famous singer. The show is most importantly a 'soundalike' show, but they are also dressed up to look as close as possible to the singer they are impersonating, often with wigs and heavy makeup. Each contestant would walk through 'smoky' doors before instantly reappearing dressed up as their chosen star.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: The contestants appear firstly as themselves, talking briefly to the host about their lives and giving clues as to who they are going to be performing as, finishing with the now famous catchphrase 'Tonight [presenter name] I'm going to be...' The contestants then disappear through the equally famous doors and reappear as the famous singer they are going to impersonate, seemingly instantly.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: At the end of the show, the studio audience vote for their favourite, and the winner is announced. The winners from each show in the series return for the grand final to perform once more.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: In the original Leslie Crowther version and 2015 revival, the grand finals were pre-recorded, and the winner of the whole series was voted for by the studio audience at the end of the show. The first series final in 1990 also had a celebrity panel, consisting of Joe Longthorne, Sally Dynevor and Pete Waterman, who gave their opinions after each performance.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: When Matthew Kelly took over, the grand finals were broadcast live, and the winner of the whole series was voted for by the viewing public through the phone lines and in later years online as well. The winner was announced later that same evening in a separate broadcast.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: A number of different specials were aired during the course of the show's original run, the majority of which featured celebrities as the contestants.


title: Stars in Their Eyes

text: It is still one of Britain's most successful shows of all time, attracting around 13 million viewers for the live grand final at the end of each series. It has one of the most memorable catchphrases in TV history: 'Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be...’ and was named Most Popular Entertainment Programme at the National Television Awards in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000. The show was nominated for the same award again in 1997, 2001 and 2002 but lost out to other ITV shows ("An Evening With Lily Savage" in 1997, "My Kind of Music" in 2001 and "Pop Idol" in 2002).


title: Night Attack at Târgoviște

text: The Night Attack at Târgoviște (, ) was a battle fought between forces of Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, and Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire on Thursday, June 17, 1462. The battle started after Mehmed, who already had tense relations with Vlad, discovered his alliance with Hungary's king Matthias Corvinus and ordered his forces to ambush him. Vlad foiled the attack and invaded Bulgaria. In response, Mehmed raised a great army with the objective to conquer Wallachia and annex it to his empire. The two leaders fought a series of skirmishes, the most notable one being the Night Attack where Vlad attacked the Turkish camp in the night in an attempt to kill Mehmed. The assassination attempt failed and Mehmed marched to the Wallachian capital of Târgoviște, where he found a few men with cannons. After leaving the capital, Mehmed discovered 23,844 impaled Turks whom Vlad had killed during his invasion of Bulgaria. The number is mentioned by Vlad himself in a letter to Matthias Corvinus. The sultan and his troops then sailed to Brăila and burned it to the ground before retreating to Adrianople. Both sides claimed victory in the campaign and Mehmed's forces returned home with many captured slaves, horses, and cattle.


title: Night Attack at Târgoviște

text: After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, Mehmed set his sights on other campaigns. In Anatolia, the Greek Empire of Trebizond was still resisting the Ottomans, and to the East the White Sheep Turkomans of Uzun Hasan, together with other smaller states, threatened the Ottomans. In the West, Skanderbeg in Albania continued to trouble the Sultan, while Bosnia was sometimes reluctant in paying the jizya. Wallachia controlled the left bank of the Danube, and Mehmed wanted to have control over the river, as naval attacks could be launched against his empire all the way from the Holy Roman Empire. On September 26, 1459, Pope Pius II called for a new crusade against the Ottomans and on January 14, 1460, at the Congress of Mantua, the Pope proclaimed the official crusade that was to last for three years. His plan, however, failed and the only European leader that showed enthusiasm for the crusade was Vlad Țepeș, whom the Pope held in high regard. Because of a lack of enthusiasm shown by Europeans for the crusade, Mehmed took the opportunity to take an offensive stand. Later that same year (1460), he captured the last independent Serbian city, Smederevo, and in 1461, he convinced the Greek despot of Morea to give up his stronghold; soon thereafter, its capital, Mistra, and Corinth followed suit and surrendered themselves without struggle.


title: Night Attack at Târgoviște

text: Vlad Țepeș's only ally, Mihály Szilágyi, was captured in 1460 by the Turks while traversing Bulgaria. Szilágyi's men were tortured to death, while Szilágyi was sawed in half. Later that year, Mehmed sent envoys to Vlad to urge him to pay the delayed jizya. Vlad Țepeș provoked Mehmed by having the envoys killed and in a letter dated September 10, 1460, addressed to the Transylvanian Saxons of Kronstadt (today: Brașov), he warned them of Mehmed's invasion plans and asked for their support. Vlad Țepeș had not paid the annual jizya of 10,000 ducats since 1459. In addition to this, Mehmed asked him for 1,000 boys that were to be trained as janissaries. Vlad Țepeș refused the demand, and the Turks crossed the Danube and started to do their own recruiting, to which Vlad reacted by capturing the Turks and impaling them. The conflict continued until 1461, when Mehmed asked the Prince to come to Constantinople and negotiate with him.


title: Night Attack at Târgoviște

text: At the end of November 1461, Vlad Țepeș wrote to Mehmed that he could not afford to pay the jizya, as his war against the Saxons of Transylvania had emptied his resources, and that he could not leave Wallachia and risk having the Hungarian king take over his domains. He further promised to send the Sultan plenty of gold when he could afford to and that he would go to Constantinople if the Sultan would send him a pasha to rule over Wallachia in his absence. Meanwhile, the Sultan received intelligence reports that revealed Vlad's alliance with Hungarian king, Matthias Corvinus. He sent the bey of Nicopolis, Hamza Pasha, to stage a diplomatic meeting with Vlad at Giurgiu, but with orders to ambush him there; and thereafter, take him to Constantinople. Vlad was forewarned about the ambush and planned to set an ambush of his own. Hamza brought with him 1,000 cavalry and when passing through a narrow pass north of Giurgiu, Vlad launched a surprise-attack. The Wallachians had the Turks surrounded and fired with their handgunners until the entire expedition-force was killed. Historians credit Vlad Țepeș as one of the first European crusaders to use gunpowder in a "deadly artistic way". In a letter to Corvinus, dated February 11, 1462, he wrote that Hamza Pasha was captured close to the former Wallachian fortress of Giurgiu. He then disguised himself as a Turk and advanced with his cavalry towards the fortress where he ordered the guards in Turkish to have the gates open. This they did and Vlad Țepeș attacked and destroyed the fortress. In his next move, he went on a campaign and slaughtered enemy soldiers and population that might have sympathized with the Turks; first in southern Wallachia, then, in Bulgaria by crossing the frozen Danube. While in Bulgaria, he divided his army into several smaller groups and covered "some 800 kilometers in two weeks", as they killed over 23,000 Turks. In a letter to Corvinus, dated February 11, 1462, he stated:


title: Night Attack at Târgoviște

text: I have killed peasants men and women, old and young, who lived at Oblucitza and Novoselo, where the Danube flows into the sea, up to Rahova, which is located near Chilia, from the lower Danube up to such places as Samovit and Ghighen. We killed 23,884 Turks without counting those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers...Thus, your highness, you must know that I have broken the peace with him (Sultan Mehmet II).


title: Night Attack at Târgoviște

text: The Christian Bulgarians were spared and many of them were settled in Wallachia. His precise numbers were counted as such: At Giurgiu there were 6,414 victims; at Eni Sala, 1,350; at Durostor 6,840; at Orsova, 343; at Hârsova, 840; at Marotin, 210; at Turtucaia, 630; at Turnu, Batin, and Novograd, 384; at Sistov, 410; at Nicopolis and Ghighen, 1,138; at Rahova, 1,460. When hearing about the devastation, Mehmed — who was busy besieging a fortress in Corinth — sent his grand vizier, Mahmud, with an army of 18,000 to destroy the Wallachian port of Brăila. Vlad Țepeș turned back and defeated the army, and according to the "Historia Turchesca" of Giovanni Maria Angiolello, sometimes attributed to an Italian chronicler Donado da Lezze, only 8,000 Turks survived. Vlad Țepeș's campaign was celebrated among the Saxon cities of Transylvania, the Italian states, and the Pope. A Venetian envoy, upon hearing about the news at the court of Corvinus on March 4, expressed great joy and said that the whole of Christianity should celebrate Vlad Țepeș's successful campaign. An English pilgrim to the Holy Land, William Wey, passing through the island of Rhodes while on his way home, wrote that "the military men of Rhodes, upon hearing of Vlad Țepeș's campaign, had Te Deum sung in praise and honour of God who had granted such victories...The lord mayor of Rhodes convened his brother soldiers and the whole citizenry feasted on fruit and wine." The Genoese from Caffa thanked Vlad Țepeș, for his campaign had saved them from an attack of some 300 ships that the sultan planned to send against them. Many Turks were now frightened of Vlad and left the European side of their empire and moved into Anatolia. Mehmed, when hearing about the events, abandoned his siege at Corinth and decided to go against Vlad Țepeș himself.


title: Night Attack at Târgoviște

text: Mehmed sent messengers in all directions to assemble an army, "which in numbers and armaments must have been equal to that which he had employed on the siege of Constantinople." On April 26 or May 17, 1462, the sultan moved with his army from Constantinople with the objective of conquering Wallachia and annexing the land to his empire. The Sultan himself wrote in a letter addressed to one of his grand viziers, that he took 150,000 men with him. The Greek historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles wrote of Mehmed's army as "huge, second in size only to the one that this sultan had led against Constantinople." He estimated the force at 250,000, while the Turkish historian Tursun Bey mentioned 300,000. The same numbers were put by an anonymous Italian chronicle found in Verona, believed to have been written by a certain merchant named Cristoforo Schiappa. A letter of a Leonardo Tocco to Francesco I Sforza, duke of Milan, wrote that Mehmed had recruited 400,000 men from Rumelia and Anatolia, with 40,000 being constructors of bridges armed with axes. A smaller estimate of the size of the Turkish forces was made by the Venetian envoy at Buda, Tommasi, who mentioned a regular force of 60,000 and some 30,000 irregulars. These consisted of the janissaries (the elite slave troops); infantry soldiers; sipâhis (the feudal cavalry); saiales (the sacrificial units composed of slaves who would win their freedom if they survived); Akinji (the archers); silahdârs (the custodians of the sultan's weapons who also protected the flanks); azabs (the pikemen); beshlis (who handled the firearms) and the sultan's personal bodyguards. Vlad's half-brother, Radu the Handsome, who willingly served the sultan, commanded 4,000 horsemen. In addition to this, the Turks brought with them 120 cannon, engineers and workers that would build roads and bridges, priests of Islam (ulema) and muezzin, who called the troops to prayer, astrologers who consulted Mehmed and helped him make military decisions; and women "reserved for the night pleasures of the men." Chalcocondyles reported that the Danube shipowners were paid 300,000 gold pieces to transport the army. In addition to this, the Ottomans used their own fleet that consisted of 25 triremes and 150 smaller vessels.


title: Night Attack at Târgoviște

text: Vlad Țepeș asked the Hungarian king for assistance. He received no support despite promises made by Corvinus and instead called for a mobilization that included "not only men of military age, but also of women and of children from the age of twelve up; and included Gypsy slave contingents." Various sources mention the strength of his army to be between 22,000 and 30,900, with the most popular accepted number set at 30,000. The letter of Leonardo Tocco which put the numbers of the Turkish army at an exaggerated strength of 400,000, exaggerated also the Wallachian strength which was estimated at 200,000. The majority of the army consisted of peasants and shepherds, while the boyars on horseback—who were few in numbers—were armed with lances, swords, and daggers and wore chainmail as armour. Vlad's personal guard consisted of mercenaries from many countries and some Gypsies. Before battle, it is believed that Vlad told his men that "it would be better that those who think of death should not follow me".


title: Night Attack at Târgoviște

text: The Turks first tried to disembark at Vidin, but were pushed back by an archery attack. On June 4, a contingent of janissaries landed in the night, at Turnu Severin, where 300 of them died from Wallachian attacks. The Serbian-born janissary, Konstantin Mihailović, recounted their encounter with Vlad Țepeș:


title: Night Attack at Târgoviște

text: When night began to fall, we climbed into our boats and floated down the Danube and crossed over to the other side several miles below the place where Vlad's army was stationed. There we dug ourselves trenches, so that cavalry could not harm us. After that we crossed back over to the other side and transported other janissaries over the Danube, and when the entire infantry had crossed over, then we prepared and set out gradually against Vlad's army, together with the artillery and other equipment that we had brought with us. Having halted, we set up the cannon, but not in time to stop three hundred janissaries from being killed ... Seeing that our side was greatly weakening, we defended ourselves with the 120 guns which we had brought over and fired so often that we repelled the prince's army and greatly strengthened our position ... Vlad, seeing that he could not prevent the crossing, withdrew. After that the emperor crossed the Danube with his entire army and gave us 30,000 coins to be distributed among us.


title: Night Attack at Târgoviște

text: The Ottoman army managed to advance as Vlad Țepeș instituted a policy of scorched earth, poisoned the waters, and also created marshes by diverting the waters of small rivers. Traps were created by the digging of pits, and then covered with timber and leaves. The population and animals were evacuated to the mountains and as Mehmed advanced for seven days, his army suffered from fatigue as "he found no man, nor any significant animal, and nothing to eat or drink." Vlad adopted guerrilla tactics as his cavalry made several hit-and-run attacks. He would also send ill people suffering from lethal diseases, such as leprosy, tuberculosis — and in more significant numbers – those who suffered from the bubonic plague, to intermix with the Turks and infect them. The bubonic plague managed to spread in the Ottoman army. The Ottoman fleet launched a few minor attacks on Brăila and Chilia, but without being able to do much damage, as Vlad Țepeș had destroyed most of the ports in Bulgaria. Chalkokondyles writes that the Sultan managed to capture a Wallachian soldier and at first tried to bribe him for information; when that didn't work, he threatened him with torture, to no avail. Mehmed was said to have commended the soldier by saying, "if your master had many soldiers like yourself, in a short time he could conquer the world!"