title: Stork Club

text: From the physical layout of the club, as described by Ed Sullivan in a 1939 column, the Stork should have been doomed to failure, since it was strangely shaped and far from roomy in places. The club's ladies' room was on the second floor of the structure and the men's room was on the third; only the dining room, bar, and later the Cub Room were on the first floor. Despite this, the club could hold 1,000 guests. A feature of the club was a solid 14-karat gold chain at its entrance; patrons were allowed entry through it by the doorman. When the East 53rd Street building came down to make way for Paley Park, one of the artifacts found in it was a still. The New York Historical Society displayed that along with other "Stork Club" items and memorabilia in an exhibit in 2000.


title: Stork Club

text: Billingsley's hospitality with food, drink, and gifts overcame the structural deficits to keep his patrons returning time after time. He maintained order through a series of hand signals; without saying a word he could order complimentary drinks and gifts for a party at any given table. Billingsley was also able to summon the club's private limousine to whisk favored customers away to a theater date or a ballgame after drinks or dining at the Stork. He changed the meaning of the hand signals frequently to avoid regular patrons' being able to read them. Guests dined on the finest wines and cuisine, and it was known for its Champagne and caviar. The club gained worldwide attention for its cocktails, made by chief barman Nathaniel "Cookie" Cook, who invented dozens of cocktails at the bar, including the signature "Stork Club Cocktail". The ornamental bar of the Stork Club was subsequently relocated to Jim Brady's Bar on Maiden Lane, which acquired the bar at auction in the mid-1970s and continued to operate until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The dining room featured live bands for dancing; the Benny Goodman orchestra were frequent performers. According to a 1960 Services Labor Report, the kitchen and dining room employees working in the Stork Club did "not enjoy the same wages, hours and working conditions" as the others, a primary factor which led the majority of them to the strike in January 1957.


title: Stork Club

text: Besides the Cub Room, the Main Dining Room, and the bar, the club contained a room for parties, the "Blessed Event Room", a large private room on the second floor with its own kitchen and bar, the "Loner's Room", which was just past the Cub Room and much like a men's club, and a private barber shop. When the Blessed Event Room was added to the Stork Club, its walls were entirely mirrored. Patrons who had rented the room for poker parties complained that the mirrors allowed players to see everyone's hand of cards; the mirrors were then removed from the walls.


title: Stork Club

text: Billingsley's original plan for the Cub Room was for it to be a private place for playing gin rummy with his friends. The room was added to the club during World War II. Billingsley broke out a wall in the bar to create this private space, but it was Walter Winchell who began to call it the Cub Room. The Cub Room had no windows and was described in a Louis Sobol column as a "lopsided oval". The room was lit with pink tones. On the wood-paneled walls were paintings of beautiful women; Billingsley also had similar portraits by the same artist in the ladies' powder room. After the club's labor problems began in 1957, Billingsley redecorated the entire club, choosing emerald green for the carpet and chairs, and a pinkish-red for the banquettes. The Cub Room's wood panels were replaced by beige burlap and the portraits of beautiful women were replaced by paintings of noted 19th-century race horses. As a concession to those who wanted to have a business lunch at The Stork, the Cub Room was for men only during lunch time. The "sanctum sanctorum", the Cub Room ("the snub room"), was guarded by a captain called "Saint Peter" (for the saint who guards the gates of Heaven).


title: Stork Club

text: The most famous of the Cub Room's headwaiters was John "Jack" Spooner, who was well known to many celebrities from his previous duties at LaHiff's. Billingsley recruited him in 1934 after the death of Billy Lahiff and the subsequent closure of his club. Spooner began an autograph book for his daughter, Amelia, while working at LaHiff's. Billingsley encouraged him to bring "The Book" to the Stork Club, where stars continued to sign it. Some who were famous illustrators or cartoonists such as E. C. Segar ("Popeye"), Chic Young ("Blondie"), and Theodor Geisel ("Dr. Seuss") would add personalized doodles or drawings for Spooner's young daughter. Billingsley's rule of thumb for his help, "If you know them, they don't belong in here," did not apply to Spooner. It was Spooner's knowing the patrons and socializing with them away from the job that helped make the Stork Club so successful with attracting celebrity clients. At Christmas, Spooner dressed as Santa Claus, posing for photos with old and young alike.


title: Stork Club

text: Author T. C. McNult has referred to the Stork Club during its existence as "the most celebrated nightspot in the world"; while author Ed McMahon has called it the "most realistic nightclub of all", a name "synonymous with fame, class, and money, in no particular order". Society writer Lucius Beebe wrote in 1946: "To millions and millions of people all of over the world the Stork symbolizes and epitomizes the "de luxe" upholstery of quintessentially urban existence. It means fame; it means wealth; it means an elegant way of life among celebrated folk". The club was a prime example of the flourishing cafe society at the time, but the real purpose of the Stork Club, according to journalist Ed Sullivan, was people watching other people, particularly non-celebrities watching celebrities. Author Mearl L. Allen, however, highlights that the club was more than a celebrity playground, and that "many decisions of tremendous social and economic importance regarding world affairs were made in the Stork Club during this time", and the likes of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball could often be seen conversing with executive types. Mark Bernardo, author of "Mad Men's Manhattan: The Insider's Guide", has said: "In some ways, the Stork Club was ahead of its time—courting celebrities by picking up their tabs, hiring a house photographer who sent candid shots of guests to the tabloids, and offering a private enclave called the Cub Room, where stars could huddle away from the prying eyes of fans, all hallmarks of modern clubs that cater to boldface names". The venue was usually packed with luminaries during its golden years, and dining orders could take a long time to be dealt with.


title: Stork Club

text: Notable guests through the years included Lucille Ball, Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Blondell, Charlie Chaplin, Frank Costello, Bing Crosby, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Brenda Frazier, Ava Gardner, Artie Shaw, Dorothy Frooks, Carmen Miranda, Dana Andrews, Michael O'Shea, Judy Garland, the Harrimans, Ernest Hemingway, Judy Holliday, J. Edgar Hoover, Grace Kelly, the Kennedys, Dorothy Kilgallen, Dorothy Lamour, Robert M. McBride, Vincent Price, Marilyn Monroe, the Nordstrom Sisters, Erik Rhodes, the Roosevelts, Elaine Stritch, Ramón Rivero, J. D. Salinger, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Gene Tierney, Mike Todd, and Gloria Vanderbilt.


title: Stork Club

text: The main room of the club was also frequented by many of the prominent figures that had fled Europe, from royals to businessmen, debutantes, sportsmen and military dignitaries, who often, upon departing, took with them the signature ashtrays of the club as souvenirs. The news of Grace Kelly's engagement to Prince Rainier of Monaco broke at the Stork. The couple was at the club on Tuesday, January 3, 1956, as the rumors flew. Veteran columnist Jack O'Brian passed Kelly a note, saying that reliable sources indicated she was about to become engaged to the Prince. Kelly replied she could not answer the question posed by O'Brian until Friday. Socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, owner of the Hope Diamond, wore the gem as if it was costume jewelry. It disappeared at the Stork Club one night during McLean's visit there. Actress Beatrice Lillie found it under one of the club's tables. Actor Warren Oates once worked at the club as a dishwasher.


title: Stork Club

text: Guests were expected to dress to high standards, with men wearing evening suits and the women wearing "gowns with silk gloves reaching the elbow". All women in full evening dress received an orchid or gardenia corsage, compliments of the Stork Club. A requirement for all men was a necktie; those who were not wearing one were either lent one or had to buy one to gain admittance. Although African Americans were not explicitly barred from entry, there was a mutual understanding that they were not welcome. Billingsley insisted on orderly conduct for all of his Stork Club guests; fighting, drunkenness, or rowdiness were prohibited. He ran the club on the principle of it being a place where people could have a good time and that it was somewhere he could bring his own family without worrying that they would see or hear something he did not want them to. Billingsley closely controlled the seating placement system in the club. Unescorted women were not allowed to enter the club after 6:00 p.m; this was a protective measure for men who may have been out with someone other than their wives.


title: Stork Club

text: Several celebrities did not abide by the rules and were banned from the club. Humphrey Bogart was banned after a prolonged "shouting match" with Billingsley. Milton Berle was officially barred for too much table-hopping, shouting, and doing handsprings in the club; Berle contended that the real reason was because of a Stork Club satire he had recently performed on his television program. Elliott Roosevelt, the so-called "black sheep of the club", became unwelcome at the club through an apparent misunderstanding. Billingsley had planned an engagement party for Roosevelt and his girlfriend, vocalist Gigi Durston, on the basis of the couple's friends' statements that they were going to be married. Durston had once worked at the Stork Club as a singer and Roosevelt was a longtime customer of the club. Billingsley sent out publicity notices about the party; the couple told him that they had no plans to announce their engagement at that time. Roosevelt was banned from the Stork and the party was canceled. Jackie Gleason, who was a frequent guest of the club with his two daughters, was being seated with a female companion when the couple was asked to leave the premises in March 1957. Billingsley claimed that Gleason's conversation became loud and off-color when he arrived at a table and barred Gleason from the Stork Club for life. Gleason said that he had done nothing wrong. He wondered if the problem was because he was a member of the Musicians' Union, since the club's wait and kitchen staff had been on strike since January of that year.


title: Stork Club

text: Despite the rules and banishments, there were incidents which made their way into newspapers. Billingsley associate Steve Hannagan believed that one "good fight" a year was permissible for a respectable night club. Johnny Weissmuller accused a Navy lieutenant of using a lit cigarette to burn the clothing of dancers as they passed his table. The lieutenant advised Weissmuller to get a haircut; his wife told Weissmuller to go back to Hollywood with the other ape-men. The Navy man suffered two black eyes and complained that Weissmuller's friends held him as he was punched by Weissmuller. Ernest Hemingway once took issue with a stranger who slapped him on the back; knocking him into three chairs and a table as he brushed him away. Billingsley contended that many of the incidents that appeared in print were minor disagreements which were inflated by the press.


title: Stork Club

text: Jack Benny invited longtime friend, writer, and performer Goodman Ace to lunch with him at the Stork. Ace arrived at the club first and received the "cold shoulder" because he was not recognized by the staff. When Benny arrived and asked for Ace, he was told that Ace became tired of waiting and left. Soon Ace began to receive mail from the Stork, which he proceeded to answer in his tongue in cheek style. Ace's response to the message about the club having wonderful air conditioning was that after having received the cold shoulder there, he was well aware of the climate. Bilingsley responded to Ace with a gift of some Stork Club bow ties. Ace then asked for some matching socks so he might be in style to be turned away again. Ace and his wife became regulars at the club after the issue was resolved.


title: Stork Club

text: Owner Billingsley was well known for his extravagant gifts presented to his favorite patrons, spending an average of $100,000 a year on them. They included compacts studded with diamonds and rubies, French perfumes, Champagne and liquor, and even automobiles. Many of the gifts were specially made for the Stork Club, with the club's name and logo on them. Some of the best known examples were the gifts of "Sortilège" perfume by Le Galion, which became known as the "fragrance of the Stork Club". Billingsley convinced Arthur Godfrey, Morton Downey, and his own assistant, Steve Hannigan, to form an investment group with him to obtain the United States distributorship of the fragrance. The partners expanded into the sale of soap, cosmetics and other sundries under the Stork Club name. They called the business Cigogne—the French word for stork; the line was carried by various drug and department stores in the United States. Every female guest of the club received a small vial of perfume and a tube of Stork Club lipstick as souvenirs of her visit. It was also Billingsley's standard practice to send every regular club patron a case of Champagne at Christmas.


title: Stork Club

text: Sunday night was "Balloon Night". As is common with New Year's celebrations, balloons were held on the ceiling of the Main Dining Room by a net and the net would open at the stroke of midnight. As the balloons came down, the ladies would begin frantically trying to catch them. Each contained a number and a drawing would be held for the prizes, which ranged from charms for bracelets to automobiles; there were also at least three $100 bills folded and placed randomly in the balloons.


title: Stork Club

text: Billingsley's generosity was not confined to those who were always at the club. He received the following letter in 1955: "I am grateful to you for your thoughtful kindness in sending me such a generous selection of attractive neckties. At the same time may I once again thank you for the cigars that you regularly send to the White House." It was signed by Dwight D. Eisenhower. During World War II, three bomber planes were christened with the name of the Stork Club. Billingsley commissioned Tiffany & Co. to produce sterling silver Stork Club logo Victory pins as gifts for their crew members. Patrons were not always on the receiving end; Billingsley's writings claimed that one of his waiters received a $20,000 tip. A bartender received a new Cadillac from a grateful patron, and a headwaiter received a $10,000 tip from tennis star Fred Perry. It was necessary for Billingsley to give the expensive gifts and to provide some or all of a celebrity's Stork Club services for free to bring the stars to the club and keep them coming back. The notables were what brought people from all over the country in all walks of life to visit the Stork Club.


title: Stork Club

text: Billingley hosted the television series "The Stork Club", in which he circulated among the tables, interviewing guests at the club. Originally sponsored by Fatima cigarettes, the series ran from 1950 to 1955. The show was directed by Yul Brynner, who was a television director before he became a well-known actor. The program began on CBS Television with the network having built a replica of the Cub Room on the Stork Club's sixth floor to serve as the set for the show. Billingsley was paid $12,000 each week as its host, but he was never really comfortable on camera and it was noticeable. The television show moved to ABC by 1955.


title: Stork Club

text: During the broadcast of May 8, 1955, Billingsley made some remarks about fellow New York restaurateur Bernard "Toots" Shor's financial solvency and honesty. Shor responded by suing for a million dollars. He collected just under $50,000 as a settlement in March 1959. "The Stork Club" television show ended in the same year the statements were made.


title: Stork Club

text: A "Philco Television Playhouse" presentation, "Murder at the Stork Club", was aired on NBC Television on January 15, 1950. Franchot Tone and Billingsley had cameo roles in the television drama. The television show was an adaptation of Vera Caspary's 1946 mystery novel, "The Murder in the Stork Club", where the action took place in and around the famous nightclub, with Sherman Billingsley and other real-life characters appearing in the plot.


title: Stork Club

text: The Stork Club was also featured in several movies, including "The Stork Club" (1945), "Executive Suite" (1954), "Artists and Models" (1955), and "My Favorite Year" (1982). Billingsley received $100,000 for the use of the club's name in the 1945 film. In "All About Eve" (1950), the characters played by Bette Davis, Gary Merrill, Anne Baxter and George Sanders are shown in the Cub Room of the Stork Club. The Alfred Hitchcock film "The Wrong Man" (1957) starred Henry Fonda as real-life Stork Club bassist Christopher Emanuel Balestrero ("Manny"), who was falsely accused of committing robberies around New York City. Scenes involving Balestrero playing the bass were actually shot at the club. The film's screenplay, written by Maxwell Anderson, was based on a true story originally published in "Life".


title: Jermaine Crawford

text: Jermaine Crawford (born October 28, 1992) is an actor best known for appearing on the HBO original series "The Wire" as Dukie Weems. He is a second cousin to fellow "The Wire" cast member and actor Tristan Wilds.


title: Jermaine Crawford

text: Crawford started performing at the age of three. He has had prominent roles in the theatrical productions of "Children of Eden" at the Ford Theatre directed by David Bell; "Carousel" and "The Miracle Worker" at the Olney Theatre, as directed by Bill Pasquanti; and, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the historic Shakespeare Theatre Company, as directed by Mark Lamos. He was also a youth spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association.


title: Jermaine Crawford

text: Crawford starred in the 2009 film adaptation of the Alvin Moore Jr. stage play "A Mother's Prayer", which also features Johnny Gill, Robin Givens and Shirley Murdock, and more recently in the 2010 Joel Schumacher film "Twelve".


title: Ray Santiago

text: Raymond "Ray" Santiago (born June 15, 1984 in South Bronx, New York) is an American actor of Puerto Rican descent.


title: Ray Santiago

text: Raymond Santiago played Jorge Villalobos in the film "Meet the Fockers", and had minor roles in 2005's "Dirty Deeds" and 2006's "Accepted". He also starred as Michelle Rodriguez's brother, Tiny Guzman in the 2000 film "Girlfight", as Lardo in 2009's "Endless Bummer" and as Alberto in Suburban Gothic.


title: Ray Santiago

text: He also played in the 2006 film "The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang" (also known as "The Sasquatch Gang"), alongside Justin Long, and in "American Son" along Nick Cannon. He also appeared in the 2011 film "In Time". Santiago appeared in episodes of the television series "My Name is Earl", "Crossing Jordan", "" and "Dexter". In the "Ash vs. Evil Dead" television series from 2015-2018, he portrayed Pablo Simon Bolivar, an immigrant co-worker who becomes Ash's sidekick.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Henry Norman Bethune (; March 4, 1890 – November 12, 1939; ) was a Canadian thoracic surgeon, early advocate of socialized medicine, and member of the Communist Party of Canada. Bethune came to international prominence first for his service as a frontline trauma surgeon supporting the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War, and later supporting the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Eighth Route Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Bethune helped bring modern medicine to rural China, treating both sick villagers and wounded soldiers.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Bethune was responsible for developing a mobile blood-transfusion service for frontline operations in the Spanish Civil War. He later died of blood poisoning after accidentally cutting his finger while operating on wounded Chinese soldiers.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Bethune's service to the CCP earned him the respect of Mao Zedong, who wrote a eulogy dedicated to Bethune when he died in 1939. His name is honored in China to this day.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Bethune came from a prominent Scottish Canadian family, whose origins can be traced back to the Bethune/Beaton medical kindred who practised medicine in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era. His great-great-grandfather, the Reverend Doctor John Bethune (1751–1815), the family patriarch, established the first Presbyterian congregation in Montreal, the first five Presbyterian churches in Ontario and was one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church of Canada.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Bethune's great-grandfather, Angus Bethune (1783–1858), joined the North West Company (NWC) at an early age and travelled extensively throughout what was the North West of Canada at that time, exploring and trading for furs. Angus Bethune married Louise McKenzie (1793-1833), a Métis woman. Louise McKenzie was the daughter of the Hon. Roderick McKenzie, a prominent NWC partner, and his country wife. Bethune and McKenzie were both stationed at the Fort William fur trade post at the head of Lake Superior. He eventually reached the Pacific at Fort Astoria, Oregon. He became chief factor of the Lake Huron district for the Hudson's Bay Company after the merger of the rival companies. Upon retirement from the HBC in 1839, he successfully ran for a post as an alderman on Toronto City Council.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Bethune's grandfather, Norman Bethune, Sr. (1822–92), was educated as a doctor at King's College, University of Toronto, and in London, England at Guy's Hospital, graduating in 1848 as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. He went on to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1860 and practised in Edinburgh until 1869. Upon his return to Canada, he became one of the founders of the Upper Canada School of Medicine, which was incorporated into Trinity College, Toronto and eventually the University of Toronto.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Bethune's father, the Rev. Malcolm Nicolson Bethune, led an uneventful life as a small-town pastor, initially at Gravenhurst, Ontario, from 1889 to 1892. His mother was Elizabeth Ann Goodwin, an English immigrant to Canada. Both his parents were very religious, though Bethune himself was an atheist. Bethune grew up with a "fear of being mediocre", instilled into him by his emotionally strict father and domineering mother.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Bethune was born in Gravenhurst, Ontario, on March 4, 1890. His birth certificate erroneously stated March 3. His siblings were his sister Janet and brother Malcolm.


title: Norman Bethune

text: As a youth, Bethune attended Owen Sound Collegiate Institute, graduating in 1907. After a brief period as a primary school teacher in Edgeley, in 1909, he enrolled at the University of Toronto to study physiology and biochemistry. He interrupted his studies for one year in 1911 to be a volunteer labourer-teacher with the Reading Camp Association (later Frontier College) at a remote lumber camp near Whitefish, Sudbury. He returned to the University of Toronto in the fall of 1912, this time in the faculty of medicine.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In 1914, when World War I was declared in Europe, he once again suspended his medical studies after being accepted into the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. Bethune joined the Canadian Army's No. 2 Field Ambulance to serve as a stretcher-bearer in France. He was wounded by shrapnel at the Second Battle of Ypres and sent to an English hospital to recover, repatriating to Canada in October 1915. When he had recuperated from his injuries, he returned to Toronto to complete his medical degree. He received his M.D. in 1916.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In 1917, with the war still in progress, Bethune joined the Royal Navy as a Surgeon-Lieutenant at the Chatham Hospital in England. In 1919, he began an internship specializing in children's diseases at The Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street, London. Later he went to Edinburgh, where he earned the FRCS qualification at the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1920 he met Frances Penney whom he married in 1923. After a one-year "Grand Tour" of Europe, during which they spent much of her inheritance, they moved to Detroit, Michigan, where Bethune took up private practice and also took a part-time job as an instructor at the Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In 1926 Bethune contracted tuberculosis. He sought treatment at the Trudeau Sanatorium in Saranac Lake, New York. At this time, Frances divorced Bethune and returned to her home in Scotland.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In the 1920s the established treatment for TB was total bed rest in a sanatorium. While convalescing Bethune read about a radical new treatment for tuberculosis called pneumothorax. This involved artificially collapsing the tubercular (diseased) lung, thus allowing it to rest and heal itself. The physicians at the Trudeau thought this procedure was too new and risky. But Bethune insisted. He had the operation performed and made a full and complete recovery.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In 1929 Bethune remarried Frances; the best man at the wedding was his friend and colleague, Dr. Graham Ross. They divorced again, for the final time, in 1933.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In 1928 Bethune joined the thoracic surgical pioneer, Dr. Edward William Archibald, surgeon-in-chief of the McGill University's Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. From 1928 to 1936 Bethune perfected his skills in thoracic surgery and developed or modified more than a dozen new surgical tools. His most famous instrument was the Bethune Rib Shears, which remain in use today.


title: Norman Bethune

text: He published 14 articles describing his innovations in thoracic technique. He started his career in surgery at the Toronto General Hospital in 1921.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Bethune became increasingly concerned with the socio-economic aspects of disease. As a concerned doctor in Montreal during the economic depression years of the 1930s, Bethune frequently sought out the poor and gave them free medical care. He challenged his professional colleagues and agitated, without success, for the government to make radical reforms of medical care and health services in Canada.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Bethune was an early proponent of socialized medicine and formed the Montreal Group for the Security of People's Health. In 1935 Bethune travelled to the Soviet Union to observe firsthand their system of universal free health care. During this year he became a committed Communist and joined the Communist Party of Canada. When returning from the Spanish Civil War to raise support for the Loyalist cause, he openly identified with the Communist cause.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, with the financial backing of the committee to Aid Spanish Democracy, Bethune went to Spain to offer his services to the government (Loyalist) forces. He arrived in Madrid on November 3.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Unable to find a place where he could be used as a surgeon, he seized on an idea which may have been inspired by his limited experience of administering blood transfusions as Head of Thoracic Surgery at the Sacred Heart Hospital in Montreal between 1932 and 1936. The idea was to set up a mobile blood transfusion service by which he could take blood donated by civilians in bottles to wounded soldiers near the front lines. The unit was officially presented to the Republicans in 1937 by Alexander Albert MacLeod under Bethune's direction. Though this unit, the "Servicio canadiense de transfusión de sangre", was not the first of its kind—a similar service had been set up in Barcelona by a Spanish haematologist, Dr. Frederic Durán-Jordà, and had been functioning since September—Bethune's Madrid-based unit covered a far wider area of operation.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Bethune returned to Canada on June 6, 1937, where he went on a speaking tour to raise money and volunteers for the Spanish Civil War.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Shortly before leaving for Spain, Bethune wrote the following poem, published in the July 1937 edition of "The Canadian Forum":


title: Norman Bethune

text: In January 1938 Bethune travelled to Yan'an in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province in China. There he joined the Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedong. The Lebanese-American doctor George Hatem, who had come to Yan'an earlier, was instrumental in helping Bethune get started at his task of organizing medical services for the front and the region.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In China, Bethune performed emergency battlefield surgical operations on war casualties and established training for doctors, nurses, and orderlies. He did not distinguish between sides in treating casualties.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In the summer of 1939 Bethune was appointed medical advisor to the Jin-Cha-Ji (Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei) Border Region Military District, under the direction of General Nie Rongzhen.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Stationed with the Communist Party of China's Eighth Route Army in the midst of the Japanese invasion of China during the WWII, Bethune cut his left middle finger on October 29, 1939, while retrieving bony fragments from a soldier with a wounded leg. Three days later on November 1, while operating on another soldier with neck erysipelas, his finger wound reopened and was infected. Probably due to malnourishment, which gave him a weakened state, he contracted septicaemia and died on November 12, 1939.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Dear Commander Nie,Today I feel really unwell. Probably I have to say farewell to you forever! Please send a letter to Tim Buck the General Secretary of the Canadian Communist Party. The address is No.10, Wellington Street, Toronto, Canada. Please also make a copy for Committee on International Aid to China and Democratic Alliance of Canada, tell them, I am very happy here ... Please give my Kodak Retina II camera to comrade Sha Fei.— Norman Bethune, 04:20pm, November 11th, 1939.


title: Norman Bethune

text: The Government of Canada purchased in 1973 the manse of Presbyterian Church in which he was born in Gravenhurst following the visit of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to China. The previous year, Dr. Bethune had been declared a Person of National Historic Significance. In 1976, the restored building was opened to the public as Bethune Memorial House. In 2012, the Government of Canada opened a new visitor centre, to enhance the experience of visitors to the site. The house is operated as a National Historic Site of Canada by Parks Canada.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In 1998, Bethune was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame located in London, Ontario. In 2000, the University of Toronto inaugurated the annual Bethune Round Table on International Surgery, an annual surgical conference named in his honour.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In August 2000, then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, who is of Chinese descent, visited Gravenhurst and unveiled a bronze statue of him erected by the town. It stands in front of the Opera House on the town's main street, Muskoka Road.


title: Norman Bethune

text: The city of Montreal, Quebec, has created a public square and erected a statue of him in his honour, located near the Guy-Concordia Metro station. His archives are held at McGill University in the Osler Library of the History of Medicine.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In March 1990, to commemorate the centenary of his birth, Canada and China each issued two postage stamps of the same design in his honour.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Banners with a stylized photo of him titled Local Heroes, hang in the River District of Owen Sound with his birthdate and death and listing his accomplishments as "Surgeon, Inventor, Political Activist, Artist, Writer, Poet"


title: Norman Bethune

text: During the time when Bethune was in China and the Chinese people were suffering, many Canadian Christian missionaries were engaged in medical education in China. According to an article, there were many Canadian doctors and nurses serving in hospitals across China in the first half of the 20th century. Up to two hundred people. This large group of white-clothed soldiers from distant countries, no matter what their beliefs, have left behind the peaceful life in their hometown, Anshi, and silently cared for and cared for this suffering land in the most severe era in modern Chinese history. of the disabled. Their dedication and noble deeds have jointly written one of the most magnificent and moving chapters in the history of Canada and China. There is a Canadian documentary about these medical Christian missionaries around the world. I think they don't dedicate their lives for the national interests of Canada, but for the love of all mankind. Most of these Canadian health care workers were in the Nationalist Government and the Japanese occupation zone. Due to well-known reasons, their love and stories have not been told to the Chinese people like Bethune's story. The Chinese people should commemorate their great contributions to China's medical cause, and should not only commemorate Dr. Bethune for some political needs.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Halifax, Canada-based artist Cathy Busby spent two months as an artist-in-residence at Red Gate Gallery in Beijing, China during the Beijing Olympics. She said proudly: "Bethune lived in China for 18 months, my grandfather lived in China for 25 years, and my great-grandfather lived in China for 50 years." In fact, the length of time is not important. What we see in these Christian doctors is a long-standing and extremely valuable thread of Canadian humanism and moral values. Cathy's great-grandfather was named Doctor Luo Weiling (William McClure, also translated as Luo William), and her maternal grandfather was named Dr. Luo Mingyuan (Robert Baird McClure). After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Luo Mingyuan took up the post of the general manager of the International Red Cross in China. And organize rescue work in the front line of Zhengzhou. It was during this time that Luo Mingyuan met Bethune. When Luo Mingyuan passed through Tongguan once, a Chinese military officer told him that a Canadian doctor they escorted disappeared. Luo Mingyuan immediately looked around on his bicycle. Finally, he found Bethune, who was drunk as mud. Luo Mingyuan handed Bethune over to the escort, and the two parted ways. A year later, Dr. Bethune died in Jinchaji. Doctor Luo Mingyuan also moved to the Southwest with the Nationalist Government. After the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia, he also participated in the establishment of air supply lines from India across the Himalayas to China. He is also responsible for helping survivors of frequent air crashes on this route. Sometimes even have to parachute in person to the untouched mountainous area for on-site first aid. According to his recollection, during these years, he risked his life to work almost every day. He always carries a pistol, a little serum and morphine for self-rescue. In such an unstable environment, he actually experimented and proposed a medical network system suitable for rural China. Dr. Luo Mingyuan was the only medical missionary in India and China who could use radium therapy to treat cancer at that time. He had a serious dispute with Chiang Kai-shek’s wife Song Meiling over the care of wounded soldiers of the Eighth Route Army in a mission hospital, which led to a breakdown in relations with the Nationalist Government. After Dr. Luo Mingyuan returned to Canada in 1948. Energetic energy and strong belief drove him to continue his journey to relieve human suffering. He has traveled throughout India, Borneo, Egypt, the Gaza Strip, Peru, the Caribbean and Zaire. He was elected as the 23rd Moderator of the United Church of Canada from 1968 to 1971, then the largest Christian denomination in Canada. After the next generation grew up in the 1990s, the faith of the United Church gradually deviated and became theological liberalism. After that, it gradually lost the life and love of Christ, and then the church declined. It is no longer one of the main Christian denominations in Canada.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Dr. Isabelle McTavish (Dr. Isabelle McTavish, 1881-1953 Chinese name Mei Xiuying) was sent to China from Manitoba by the Canadian Presbyterian Church at the age of 24. This young female doctor bid farewell to her mother and siblings, and went to Henan, China as a church medical staff. She worked in Weihui, Zhangde (now Anyang) and other places for more than 30 years, and was never married. Serving the Chinese people more than ten times longer than Dr. Bethune. According to Li Wenren, who has worked in Guangsheng Hospital (now Puyang City Anyang District Hospital) for many years, most people were poor at that time, and when they came to see a doctor, their bodies were dirty, and some people had lice all over their heads and bodies. Dr. Mei didn't dislike them at all, and even washed the patients' feet, cut their nails, and helped them catch lice. Mr. Li said that he had witnessed these things with his own eyes. He was very moved that a foreigner could take such care of our ordinary people. One day, Dr. Mei was treating a wounded member of the Communist Party when a series of bullets shot in from outside. Many employees of the hospital quickly hid in the basement. Dr. Mei later told them: We doctors and nurses are there to save lives and heal the wounded. No matter what the situation is, we must never leave our patients, and we must not put the patients aside and only care about ourselves. In the late period of the Anti-Japanese War, Dr. Mei was brutally imprisoned by the Japanese army. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, she was released and returned to Canada.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In addition, there was a Doctor Dou (Jean Dow) who graduated from the University of Toronto Medical School in Anyang, Henan Province at that time. He once treated kala-azar patients who were considered terminally ill at that time. During the Great Famine in the early 1920s, she saved the lives of 400 mothers and children, and was honored by the local government. Unfortunately, she herself contracted an unknown disease and died later, and was buried in Anyang where she had worked for 33 years. Guangsheng Hospital in Anyang, Henan Province was managed by Canadian Christian missionaries and Christian physicians for 53 years, and it was not taken over by Chinese Christians until 1947. The Enci Hospital, Boji Hospital, Huimin Hospital and other medical institutions in Henan at that time were also founded by Canadian Christian doctors.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In Sichuan, Canadian Christian doctors successively established 16 Renji Hospitals, which spread all over Bashu. The doctors not only opened the first Western medicine clinic in western China in Chengdu, but also established West China Union University, which focuses on medicine and dentistry, and emphasizes both arts and sciences, making it the birthplace of modern stomatology in my country.


title: Norman Bethune

text: The first female doctor of Chinese descent in Canada, Dr. Victoria Cheung (Dr. Victoria Cheung, 1897-1966), was sent by the Canadian Presbyterian Women's Missionary Society to work in the Barclays Women's and Children's Hospital (also known as Renji Hospital, the predecessor of Jiangmen Central Hospital) in Jiangmen, Guangdong. People in Jiangmen still remember her vividly, especially those in the medical system. Her love and deeds are widely spread among the people in Jiangmen, Guangdong. Fortunately, Zhang Xiaobai did not live to the ten-year catastrophic days of the Cultural Revolution. Guangdong Province was one of the provinces where massacres were worst during the Cultural Revolution. On the day of her funeral on the eve of the Cultural Revolution, people from four townships in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province spontaneously came to attend the funeral, and the funeral procession stretched for several kilometers.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Dr. Richard Brown, a Canadian missionary doctor, used to work in a Christian church hospital in Wuhan. When Bethune led the Canadian medical team to China to Wuhan, he was mobilized and went to Yan'an with Bethune's medical team to serve the wounded and sick of the Eighth Route Army meticulously. Later, he followed Bethune and others to go deep into the front line of North China, and went to the Wutai Mountain area to treat the wounded and sick of the Eighth Route Army. The newspapers in the base area made special reports on his deeds. Zhu De was also very moved when he saw the report about Brown in the newspaper. He sent a letter to Brown to thank him and hoped that he would continue to work in the Eighth Route Army. Zhu De said in the letter: "The Eighth Route Army is very grateful for the sympathy and assistance given to China by foreign missionaries in China's war against Japanese aggression, especially those doctors and nurses who worked in very difficult and dangerous situations." He also introduced to Brown CCP's religious policy: "The Eighth Route Army has no prejudice against missionaries. On the contrary, we welcome them and are willing to cooperate with them. Because our war of resistance is not only fighting for the independence and freedom of the Chinese country, but also fighting for world peace .At this point, our goals are the same."


title: Norman Bethune

text: Virtually unknown in his homeland during his lifetime, Bethune received international recognition when Chairman Mao Zedong of the People's Republic of China published his eulogy entitled "In Memory of Norman Bethune" (), which documented the final months of the doctor's life in China. Almost the entire Chinese population knew about the essay, which became required reading in China's elementary schools in the 1960s. The standard elementary school text book still has the essay today:


title: Norman Bethune

text: Bethune is one of the few Westerners to whom China has dedicated statues, of which many have been erected in his honour throughout the country. He is buried in the Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China, where his tomb and memorial hall lie opposite the tomb of Dwarkanath Kotnis, an Indian doctor also honoured for his humanitarian efforts in China.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Elsewhere in China, the Norman Bethune University of Medical Sciences () in Changchun, Jilin province, was one of the eleven national medical universities directly subordinated to Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China. The predecessor of this university was the Hygiene School of of the Eighth Route Army (八路军晋察冀军区卫生学校 in Chinese) founded in 1939 by Bethune's advocacy. The school developed with Bethune Hygiene School (February 16, 1940), Bethune Medical School (Jan 1946), Bethune Medical University (June 1946), (1948), (1951 in Tianjin), moved to Changchun in 1954, Medical College of Changchun (July 1958), Medical University of Jilin (June 1959), Norman Bethune University of Medical Sciences (March 1978), merged into Jilin University as in 2000. There are at least three dedicated statues of Bethune in this university: in the west square of College of Basic Medicine, in the Second Affiliated Hospital and in the Third Affiliated Hospital.


title: Norman Bethune

text: He is also commemorated at three institutions in Shijiazhuang – Bethune Military Medical College, Bethune Specialized Medical College and Bethune International Peace Hospital. In Canada, Norman Bethune College at York University, and Dr. Norman Bethune Collegiate Institute (a secondary school) in Scarborough, Ontario, are named after him.


title: Norman Bethune

text: The biannually awarded (), established in 1991, is the highest medical honour in China, bestowed to up to seven individuals by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Personnel of China, to recognize outstanding contribution, heroic spirit and great humanitarianism in the medical field.


title: Norman Bethune

text: The 2007 Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival featured as its central theme a memorial to Bethune.


title: Norman Bethune

text: On February 7, 2006, the city of Málaga, Spain, opened the Walk of Canadians in his memory. This avenue, which runs parallel to the beach "Crow Rock" direction to Almeria, paid tribute to the solidarity action of Dr. Norman Bethune and his colleagues who helped the population of Málaga during the Spanish Civil War. During the ceremony, a commemorative plaque was unveiled with the inscription: "Walk of Canadians – In memory of aid from the people of Canada at the hands of Norman Bethune, provided to the refugees of Málaga in February 1937". The ceremony also included a planting of an olive tree and a maple tree representative of Spain and Canada as a symbol of friendship.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Bethune was the subject of a 1964 National Film Board of Canada documentary "Bethune," directed by Donald Brittain. The film includes interviews with many people close to Bethune, including his biographer Ted Allan.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Donald Sutherland played Bethune in the 1974–75 television show "Witness to Yesterday" hosted by Patrick Watson.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Sutherland's portrayal of Bethune in "Witness to Yesterday" probably led to him securing the role of Bethune in two biographical films: "Bethune" (1977), made for television on a low budget, and "" (1990). The latter, based on a 1952 book "The Scalpel, The Sword; The Story Of Doctor Norman Bethune" by Ted Allan and Sydney Gordon, was a co-production of Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, FR3 TV France and China Film Co-production.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In the CBC's "The Greatest Canadian" program in 2004, he was voted the 26th Greatest Canadian by viewers.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In 2006 China Central Television produced a 20-part drama series, "Norman Bethune" (诺尔曼·白求恩), documenting his life, which with a budget of yuan 30 million (US$3.75 million) was the most expensive Chinese TV series to date. The series is directed by Yang Yang and starred Canadian actor Trevor Hayes.


title: Norman Bethune

text: The 2006 novel "The Communist's Daughter," by Dennis Bock, is a fictionalized account of Bethune's life.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Adrienne Clarkson, a Chinese-Canadian and former Governor General, wrote a biography of Bethune and tells his story in the companion documentary 'Adrienne Clarkson on Norman Bethune.


title: Norman Bethune

text: The Bethune biographer, Roderick Stewart, has produced five books on Norman Bethune, including "Bethune" (1973), "The Canadians: Norman Bethune" (1974), and "The Mind of Norman Bethune" (1990). In 2011, he co-authored with Sharon Stewart, "Phoenix: The Life of Norman Bethune", a book which Canadian author Michael Bliss, in his review in "The Globe and Mail", said, "should become the definitive basis for all serious discussion of Bethune". In 2014 "Bethune in Spain", written by Stewart and co-author Jesus Majada, was published by Oberon Press.


title: Norman Bethune

text: The television miniseries "", by CBC Television, briefly mentioned Bethune's story during the episode describing Canadians in the Spanish Civil War.


title: Norman Bethune

text: When the CBC decided to produce a film version of Rod Langley's 1973 play "Bethune", they offered the leading role to Donald Sutherland. After accepting, Sutherland persuaded the CBC to allow Thomas Rickman to rework the Langley script. Rickman's script, based on Roderick Stewart's 1973 biography "Bethune", was used in "Bethune", the 1977 CBC film production.


title: Norman Bethune

text: The character Jerome Martell in Hugh MacLennan's novel "The Watch That Ends the Night" is generally thought to have been inspired by Bethune, a claim MacLennan denied, though they were known to one another and MacLennan based much of his writing off his own life experiences. Canadian rock group The Tragically Hip wrote their 1992 hit Courage (for Hugh MacLennan) in tribute to the author and in reference to "The Watch" in particular. The song's refrain 'Courage, it couldn't have come at a worse time' is a reference to the novel's climax, in which the 'Bethunian' qualities of Jerome Martell are at their peak.


title: Norman Bethune

text: Saskatchewan playwright Ken Mitchell's one-man play, "Gone The Burning Sun" (1991), is about Bethune's life and time in China.


title: Norman Bethune

text: "The Secret History of the Intrepids", by D. K. Latta, is an alternate-history fantasy story imagining Norman Bethune, William Stephenson, Grey Owl and others as 1940s superheroes. It was published in the 2013 anthology, "Masked Mosaic: Canadian Super Stories".


title: Norman Bethune

text: The book "Dr. Bethune's Angel – The Life of Kathleen Hall" by Tom Newnham (published 2002) tells the story of the work of the two in China. Published in New Zealand; Hall was a New Zealander.


title: Norman Bethune

text: In the science fiction novel "The Three-Body Problem" by Cixin Liu, a foreigner named Mike Evans is given the nickname "Bethune" by the inhabitants of a remote area in northwestern China.


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: Min Kyung-hoon (; born October 6, 1984) is a South Korean singer and television personality. He is the lead vocalist of the rock band Buzz and one-half of the duo Universe Cowards with Kim Hee-chul. His first solo album, "Im·pres·sive", was released on December 5, 2007. His second solo album, "Picnic", was released on June 27, 2011. He is a regular cast member of South Korean variety show Knowing Brothers (JTBC) and Problem Child in the House (KBS).


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: During his early childhood, Min never thought that he would become an entertainer. Once he entered high school, he worked with a group of peers who liked to sing. While continuing to sing and perform, Min realized that being a singer who sang in a café next to the Han River suited him better than becoming a famous celebrity. In his third year of high school, Min was recommended to audition for an entertainment company as he was famous among students for both his strong vocals and "flower boy" visuals.


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: Min went to the audition for AYON Entertainment along with a friend without thinking seriously about it. He auditioned for the company, which would later become Buzz's first agency, in a karaoke room. Once the company heard him sing, they liked him and wanted to immediately sign a contract with him. Min would then record songs under this agency and become a singer.


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: He signed a contract with a company in late spring 2002 and gave up on both sports and school to focus on singing. Min joined Buzz in June 2002 as the group's vocalist. The band's members practiced instruments together for two years. Min, having been added to the band later, often had to stay up at night and practice his vocals without rest.


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: Buzz made their official debut with "Morning Of Buzz" on October 11, 2003. Their second studio album "Effect" included songs like "Coward", "Thorn", and "Travel to Me" that gained extreme popularity. In their third album "Perfect", the song "You Don't Know Men" was well received. He was given the nickname "Ssamja" because he made a mistake singing this song. On May 17, 2007, Buzz disbanded temporarily as the members, with the exception of Min, began their mandatory military service. Min was confirmed to continue solo activities while the members are serving the military. On June 25, 2007, Buzz released the single "Love Is My Heart, Part 2".


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: On December 4, 2007, Min released his first solo album "Im · pres · sive", with the advice of Buzz members and the solicitation of his former agency. The album received a lukewarm reception. On December 12, 2008, he released the digital single, "Day", which was also not received very well. Until 2009, Min and Buzz took a hiatus. During this time, Min hardly left his house and suffered from severe depression and weight gain. He claims that during this "slump", he drank alcohol as soon as he woke up, and drank again to fall asleep.


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: Min was able to get back on his feet and return to music thanks to help from a fellow acquaintance. On February 4, 2010, the mini album "Reunion" was announced officially. The title song "I Love You" is one of his most popular solo songs. Min released the digital single "It's Alright" on March 29, 2010 and the soap opera "My Life Is Beautiful" OST "My Eternal Love", but there was no follow-up activity. In October and November 2010, he participated as a guest vocalist by singing his digital single "Wounded" and "Buzz 2" album "Fuzz-Buzz".


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: On June 27, 2011, Min released his 2nd solo album "Picnic". The album had many new attempts, including fast tempo and lively songs, a change from rock ballads, a genre Min is known for. However, controversies involving artists from the same company, namely Shin Jung-hwan's gambling in the Philippines, and MC Mong's military enlistment evasion had an adverse effect on the album promotion. The controversies lead to existing fans leaving the fandom, resulting in lower album sales compared to the previous album.


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: On March 6, 2012, after the release of his digital single "Look Back" on March 2, Min suddenly began his military service. He joined the Uijeongbu 306 supporters and served for 21 months. While Min was serving in the military band, he performed military band performances and concert train performances. Min finished his military service on December 5, 2013, and fans and Buzz members gathered and congratulated him.


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: In December 2015, he joined JTBC's new variety show, "Knowing Bros", as a cast member. Fellow cast members include comedians Kang Ho-dong and Lee Soo-geun and Super Junior member Kim Hee-chul. Min's unique personality, a persona that was fresh in Korean entertainment at the time, enabled him to see a resurgence of popularity.


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: In fall 2016, Min and Kim Hee-chul released a duet titled "Sweet Dream". The two stars are known as "Universe Cowards" when they promote their music. The song proved successful, topping the South Korean Gaon Digital Chart, an achievement known as an "all-kill". In 2017, "Sweet Dream" won the Best Rock Song award at the MelOn Music Awards.


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: Following the success of "Sweet Dream", in February 2018, Universe Cowards returned with "Falling Blossoms". It was composed by Lee Sang-joon and Cha Jil-won and features lyrics written by Min, and peaked at number 15 on Gaon Digital Chart. "Billboard" described it as "soft pop-rock tune that grows to a soaring, emotional cacophony" and complimented how their music video was one of the most inclusive music videos South Korea's seen in some time.


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: Starting from November 2018, Min became a fixed cast member of the weekly variety show "Problem Child in House" after successful pilot episodes.


title: Min Kyung-hoon

text: In December 2020, Universal Cowards collaborated with producer DinDin and Bibi to produce the traditional hip-hop track 'Hanryang'


title: Flags of the Soviet Republics

text: The flags of the Soviet Socialist Republics were all defaced versions of the flag of the Soviet Union, which featured a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star (the only exception being the Georgian SSR, which used a red hammer and sickle and a fully red star) on a red field.


title: Flags of the Soviet Republics

text: When Byelorussia and Ukraine were the founding members of the United Nations in 1945, all of their flags were red with only small markings in upper left corners and needed distinct flags for each other.


title: Flags of the Soviet Republics

text: In February 1947, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a resolution calling for the Soviet republics to adopt new flags, which each of its republics were recommended to develop and adopt new national flags. So they expressed the idea of a union state, asked to use the symbols of the State flag of the Soviet Union, such as the gold hammer and sickle and the red star, as well as maintain the predominance of red color on the flag of the Union republics. National, historical and cultural features of each republic was instructed to express the other colors and the order of their location, as well as the location based on the national emblem or coat of arms. After competitions for the best projects from 1949–1954 the new flags of the 16 republics were developed and adopted. The authorities in Ukraine and Byelorussia were the first to adopt the flags on 5 July 1950, and 25 December 1951, respectively. All others followed suit between 1952 and 1953 with the last republic, the Russian SFSR, adopted the flag on 9 January 1954.


title: Flags of the Soviet Republics

text: Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991, only Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan (without hammer and sickle), Turkmenistan and Ukraine retained their Soviet republic flags as independent states until the new official flags were adopted in 1992. Since 1995 (current version adopted in 2012) Belarus retains its old Soviet flag with only minor changes.


title: Flags of the Soviet Republics

text: Other Union Republics and autonomous republics existed within the Soviet Union, mostly using flags on a similar pattern, or the flag of their "parent" Union Republic, further defaced. Today, the only former Soviet Union territories that use modified versions of their original Soviet flag are the republic of Transnistria (a state of limited recognition, formerly part of the Moldavian SSR) and Belarus (since 1995).


title: Flags of the Soviet Republics

text: The official flags of the ASSRs were seldom used, and were generally the flag of the republic to which the ASSR belonged, defaced with the ASSR name in its own language(s) and the official language of the SSR; flags matching this pattern are not displayed in the gallery below:


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: The Airbus BelugaXL (A330-743L) is a large transport aircraft based on the Airbus A330-200F built by Airbus to replace the original Airbus Beluga to move oversized aircraft components, such as wings. The aircraft made its first flight on 19 July 2018, and received its type certification on 13 November 2019. The BelugaXL entered service with Airbus Transport on 9 January 2020.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: In 2013, the five original Belugas could not cope with production growth, and Airbus evaluated the Antonov An-124 and An-225, Boeing C-17 or Dreamlifter, and A400M, before choosing to modify one of its own aircraft. The programme was launched in November 2014 to build five aircraft to replace the existing five BelugaSTs; the design freeze was announced on 16 September 2015. The program cost is €1 billion for development and production.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: The original BelugaSTs were not to be withdrawn from service when the BelugaXL is introduced; a mixed fleet is to operate for at least five years, as the increased production rate of single-aisle aircraft requires the ability to move more parts.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: The BelugaST fleet flew more than 8000 hours in 2017, doubled from 2014, but the five BelugaST aircraft are only halfway through their planned service life: another operator could use them for civil or military logistic applications.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: The combined Beluga fleet was expected to rise to eight aircraft when three XLs are delivered, as the five originals stay in service before being withdrawn from 2021. The BelugaST fleet was reaching its limits, flying five times daily, and six days per week: 10,000 hours in 2017, while some parts are moved over land. Compared with the time required to move the parts of an A320, a BelugaST requires three times as much time to move the A330 parts and nine times as much for A350 parts.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: After an Airbus A350 production increase, Airbus aimed to deliver 880 aircraft in 2019, and raise A320neo output to 63 per month by 2021; the BelugaXL fleet was expanded with a sixth example in June 2019.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: The BelugaSTs could still have 10–20 years' flying life left, and may be offered for sale or used to serve external customers.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: The aircraft's lower fuselage is assembled on the Airbus A330 final assembly line, and then moved to another facility for the year-long process of assembling the upper fuselage and the lowered nose fuselage. The first section arrived in Toulouse in November 2016. Final assembly started on 8 December 2016. The first large sections: one central and two lateral rear section panels, arrived on 12 April 2017 at the Toulouse Final Assembly facility (L34) from Aernnova's factory in Berantevilla, Spain.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: Constructed by Airbus subsidiary Stelia Aerospace in Meaulte, its , nose section was delivered in May 2017. The wide, long and high, upper front fuselage part, framing the cargo door, was delivered from Stelia Rochefort on 7 July 2017. The , long and high door was delivered by Stelia Rochefort in September 2017.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: In October 2017, 75% of the first BelugaXL structural assembly was done; with systems, mechanical, and electrical integration underway before integration of the tail elements, which had already been received. Its maiden flight was scheduled for summer 2018 before 10 months of flight tests necessary for its certification campaign, and a 2019 service entry. The second aircraft was to enter final assembly line in December 2018, and the three remaining each following year.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: After mating the vertical fin, tail cone and horizontal stabiliser including the outboard vertical surfaces, the main freight door was to be attached from mid-November, before power-on at the end of 2017. The flight test campaign used a single, instrumented aircraft. The front cargo door was attached in December 2017. In January 2018, the second arrived in Toulouse for its transformation, in two months less after lessons learned from the first.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: The first BelugaXL rolled off the assembly line on 4 January 2018, unpainted and without engines. Fewer than 1,000 flight test hours were planned for its certification campaign. After fitting its Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines, it was ground tested for months to assess its systems operation, while bench tests in Toulouse and Hamburg, on flight simulators and in laboratories, simulated flight loads on full-scale copies of specific joints between the upper bubble and the lower fuselage, clearing the aircraft for flight, then type certification.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: In March 2018, the first BelugaXL (MSN1824) was having its engines fitted, while the second (MSN1853) was 30% converted. After successful landing gear and flight-control system checks, MSN1824 was to be fuelled and ground tested. The third was expected to begin its conversion before the end of 2018. MSN1853 was to be first operational in 2019, after proving work in 11 European stations, while MSN1824 flight instrumentation was to be disassembled. It was rolled out with its Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines but no winglets in April 2018.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: It passed the ground vibration test in early June 2018, with Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA) and Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) measuring its dynamic behaviour compared to flight envelope theoretical models. The flight-test programme was expected to last 600 hours. The second aircraft had its lower fuselage completed by mid-June, before upper shell structural work and freight door fitting after summer, for completion by September or October. The first flight was on 19 July 2018, from Blagnac, Toulouse, France. In February 2019, the first aircraft flew to various destinations, including Airbus's wing plants in Bremen, Germany and Broughton, Wales.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: The first BelugaXL to enter service was the second aircraft built, which rolled out on 19 March 2019; the first test aircraft will be retro-fitted after certification.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: The second aircraft (MSN1853) commenced flight-testing on 15 April, and by then, the first (MSN1824) had completed more than 140 test flights over 500 hours, the final stage before certification.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: A third airframe was undergoing conversion, expected to last until the fourth quarter of 2019, for delivery in 2020. Operations were expected to start with two XLs in the second half of 2019.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: After more than 200 flight tests over 700 hours, the BelugaXL received its European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) type certification on 13 November 2019.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: The last two BelugaXLs to be produced are expected to have 180-minute ETOPS approval, allowing them to be used for transatlantic flights, typically to transport satellites to North American launch sites. As of February 2021, tests were being conducted to gain approval for the XL's autoland capacity.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: Airbus started operating the first BelugaXL on 9 January 2020; all six freighters are expected to be operating by the end of 2023, while the previous A300-600STs are to be phased out from 2021.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: With 30% more capacity than the original BelugaST, the BelugaXL can carry two A350 XWB wings instead of one. Its new fuselage is longer and wider than the original BelugaST, and it can lift a payload heavier. Its aft section is based on the A330-300, while its forward is based on the A330-200 for centre of gravity reasons, and the reinforced floor and structure is derived from the A330-200 Freighter. The A330 wings, main landing-gear, central and aft fuselage form a semi-built platform with few systems, without the aft upper fuselage, while the upper central fuselage is cut off, facilitated by the metal construction.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: The unpressurised hold begins with the tail adapted by Spain's Aernnova, and continues by building the upper fuselage with two side panels and a crown for each section, for a maximum diameter of . Produced by Stelia Aerospace, its main freight door has 24 latches, and the nose includes the cockpit, while a four-seat courier section is supplied by Airbus. Its vertical stabiliser is 50% larger; it has auxiliary fins on the horizontal stabiliser, and two ventral fins beneath the empennage.


title: Airbus BelugaXL

text: The BelugaXL operates at Mach 0.69 up to over instead of the original Beluga's . Deharde Aerospace and the P3 group provide the upper fuselage, while Aciturri produces the horizontal tail plane extension, auxiliary and ventral fins.


title: Infidel (film)

text: Infidel is a 2020 American political thriller written, directed, and produced by Cyrus Nowrasteh and starring Jim Caviezel, Claudia Karvan, Hal Ozsan, Stelio Savante, Aly Kassem, Bijan Daneshmand, and Isabelle Adriani. The film's executive producer is Dinesh D'Souza, who aided the film with his production company D'Souza Media.


title: Infidel (film)

text: It is the second collaboration between Nowrasteh and Caviezel, following "The Stoning of Soraya M." (2008). Both films deal with corruption and human rights abuses by the Iranian regime, and center on foreign journalists (played by Caviezel) whose rights are infringed upon and violated by the Iranian antagonists.


title: Infidel (film)

text: The film was theatrically released in the United States by Cloudburst Entertainment on September 18, 2020.


title: Infidel (film)

text: Doug Rawlins, an outspoken Christian American journalist and blogger is kidnapped by members of the Iranian regime while he is in Cairo, Egypt making speeches. He is then taken to the Middle East and put on trial for erroneous and phony spying charges. His wife Liz, a State Department official, tries to use her influence to get the American government involved. She wants the US government to get her husband back. However, she soon realizes that the American government will not get involved. Thus she decides to go to the Middle East to rescue him herself.


title: Infidel (film)

text: "Infidel" was written, directed, and produced by Iranian-American filmmaker Cyrus Nowrasteh. It serves as a spiritual successor to his 2009 film "The Stoning of Soraya M.", which also dealt with abuses and corruption by the Iranian regime and starred Jim Caviezel as a foreign journalist antagonized by the regime. Nowrasteh cited several real world instances of American nationals imprisoned by the Iranian government, including Xiyue Wang and Robert Levinson.


title: Infidel (film)

text: The film was shot on-location in Jordan, where Nowrasteh previously shot "Soraya M." On his website, Nowrasteh stated the Jordanian film commission kept its filming secret for fear of objections from the Iranian government, and the film had heavy security. When the Iranian government did become aware of Nowrasteh being in Amman to film, it voiced its displeasure to the Jordanian government.


title: Infidel (film)

text: The story centers on a Christian underground inside Iran, led primarily by women. They work together in the film with Muslims who are also in opposition to the Iranian regime, by helping the main character, Doug Rawlins (portrayed by Jim Caviezel) and his wife, Liz (played by Claudia Karvan). Another actress was set to play Liz but left the film only weeks before filming due to a conflicting commitment. Karvan was recommended by Caviezel who worked with her on "Long Weekend" (2008).


title: Infidel (film)

text: One of the film’s producers was Dinesh D’Souza. He helped distribute the film with his company D'Souza Media. D'Souza had previously produced several political documentaries including "", "", "Death of a Nation", and "Trump Card". "Infidel" was his first narrative film.


title: Infidel (film)

text: In March 2020, CloudBurst Entertainment acquired the rights to the film, and slated it for a September 11, 2020 release, which was later pushed back a week. "Infidel" was theatrically released in the United States on September 18, 2020.


title: Infidel (film)

text: "Infidel" grossed $1.4 million from 1,724 theaters (an average of $802 per-venue) in its opening weekend, finishing third at the box office; 57% of its audience was male, with 85% being over the age of 25. It fell 45% to $761,136 in its second weekend, then made $460,450 in its third weekend.


title: Infidel (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . According to PostTrak, 86% of audience members gave the film a positive score.


title: Infidel (film)

text: Sheila O'Malley of "RogerEbert.com" gave the film 2.5/4 stars, writing: "Nowrasteh handles the action sequences confidently and there are many legitimately gripping moments. The best moments for me were the small ones, the intimate ones. Caviezel is often a very solemn figure on-screen, and here, Karvan makes him laugh." Writing for "Variety", Peter Debruge said: "Although Caviezel's character is meant to stand in for all Americans unjustly imprisoned by Iran, it would be irresponsible to take the film’s 'inspired by true events' claim too seriously. That doesn't mean it's not satisfying to watch Liz and several co-conspirators raid the facility in an attempt to liberate Doug and all those unjustly detained political prisoners. In this fantasy telling, at least, God is on his side."


title: Alcàsser Girls

text: Miriam García Iborra, Antonia Gómez Rodríguez and Desirée Hernández Folch, known as the Alcàsser Girls (Valencian: "Les xiquetes d'Alcàsser", Spanish: "Las niñas de Alcácer"), were three teenage girls from Alcàsser, Valencia, Spain, who were kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered after hitchhiking to visit a nightclub in the nearby town of Picassent on 13 November 1992. The case became notorious in Spain because of the brutality of the crimes, the highly-criticised police investigation and the resulting media coverage.


title: Alcàsser Girls

text: The autopsies revealed the existence of seven hairs with seven distinct DNA profiles, none of them belonging to any of the girls or either of their alleged murderers, Antonio Anglés and Miguel Ricart. Of the two, Ricart was the only one jailed; the whereabouts of Anglés, still among Interpol's most wanted criminals, remains unknown.


title: Alcàsser Girls

text: On 13 November 1992, Miriam García, Antonia 'Toñi' Gómez, and Desirée Hernández, all from the municipality of Alcàsser, sought to attend a secondary school party that was going to be held at Coolor, a popular discothèque located on the outskirts of Picassent, four kilometres away. Miriam asked her father, Fernando García, to pick them up and drive them to the club, but he was suffering from influenza and was unable to do so. The girls thus resorted to hitchhiking, as they had done the previous summer. A young couple from Alcàsser took the three girls to a petrol station near Picassent, where a resident witnessed them climb into a sedan thought to be a white Opel Corsa carrying a group of men. It was the last time the girls would be seen alive.


title: Alcàsser Girls

text: Miguel Ricart is the only person charged regarding the event. According to Ricart's statement, he and Antonio Anglés picked up the girls at the petrol station. When the men drove past the nightclub and the girls began to scream, Anglés pistol-whipped them with a Star Model BM handgun. They headed to a crumbling abandoned house near a place known as La Romana, in a very isolated and mountainous area close to the Tous dam, where two of the girls were raped. Afterwards, they went to Catadau in search of some food, after which they raped the third girl two hours later. After being tortured for the remainder of the night, the girls were made to walk to a pit the men had previously dug and were assaulted further. According to the autopsy, Hernández suffered a traumatic amputation of the right nipple and areola with a sharp object, and was then stabbed twice in the back. The other girls were beaten with sticks and stones, before finally being shot and buried. García's corpse displayed vaginal wounds caused by an object provided with sharp edges, possibly produced postmortem. The killers picked up spent shell casings and cleaned their car.


title: Alcàsser Girls

text: From the moment the girls were reported missing, an intensive search was conducted to try to find them. Their bodies were found on January 27, 1993, 75 days after their murders, by two beekeepers in a ditch located near "La Romana" ravine. Previous heavy rains softened the land, causing the corpses to appear from their improvised grave. It was soon confirmed that they had apparently been tortured and murdered. At the scene, the Spanish Civil Guard found one of Ricart's gloves, a Social Security referral note on behalf of Anglés' brother Enrique, and a shell casing. Spanish television channels quickly rushed to Alcàsser to cover the grief of the girls' families and the overwhelmed town.


title: Alcàsser Girls

text: Anglés was not at home when the Civil Guard appeared in search of Enrique, leading to a national manhunt. The last sighting of Anglés in Spain was near Minglanilla, Cuenca, after which he went to Lisbon, and stowed away on board the container ship "City of Plymouth". He is assumed to have died when he reportedly jumped overboard off the coast of Ireland, either instantly or from subsequent cold and/or drowning. Alternative theories state that Anglés evaded capture and, as a native of Brazil, is traveling under his Brazilian passport.


title: Alcàsser Girls

text: Miguel Ricart was sentenced to 170 years in prison, but because at the time the maximum effective time a person could be in jail was 30 years, this was the maximum time he was expected to serve. Ricart was released from prison in 2013, after 21 years, following a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union that using the parot doctrine to disallow sentence reduction by good behaviour post conviction was against the principle that a prisoner's sentence cannot be increased retroactively.


title: Alcàsser Girls

text: Shortly after his release, he disappeared from the spotlight. After living for some time in the south of France, he resurfaced in Madrid in 2020 when he was identified by the police while trying to buy drugs in a squat.


title: Alcàsser Girls

text: The controversial trial of the two arrested suspects became a prime time showcase, featuring gruesome pictures of the teenagers' corpses, preceded by standard warnings to viewing audiences.


title: Julius No

text: Dr. Julius No is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1958 "James Bond" novel and its 1962 film adaptation "Dr. No", the first of the series, in which he was portrayed by Joseph Wiseman.


title: Julius No

text: The novel explains that Dr. No was born in Peking to a German Methodist missionary and a Chinese girl, but was raised by his aunt. As an adult, he went to Shanghai, where he was involved with the Tongs, a Chinese crime syndicate. Later he was smuggled to the United States and settled in New York City, where he became a clerk and eventually Treasurer for a Tong in America, called the "Hip-Sings".


title: Julius No

text: In the late 1920s, a mob war broke out in New York, forcing the police to crack down on them. No stole a million dollars in gold from the Tongs and disappeared. But the Tongs tracked him down and tortured him to find the location of the gold. When No refused to tell them, the Tongs cut off his hands, shot him through the left side of the chest and left him for dead. No survived, due to a condition called dextrocardia, in which his heart is on the right side of the body.


title: Julius No

text: No spent a long time in hospital, then enrolled in medical school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He adopted the title of Doctor and changed his name to Julius No, symbolic of his rejection of his father, whose given name was Julius. As in the film, No fits himself with metal manual prostheses, but the book describes them as simple pincers. In physical appearance, Dr. No is tall and very thin. He is described as being at least 6 inches taller than Bond, who is six feet tall, meaning that he's probably around 6 ft 6 inches (198 cm) in height. His head is said to be shaped like a "reverse oil drop", due to his round head, pointed chin and the yellowish tinge of his skin. He also mentions that while in school, he did not make use of his metal hands, replacing them with waxen ones which were less useful but gave himself a more human appearance. In the novel he wears a gunmetal coloured kimono; due to his inability to hold a bell, he uses a walkie-talkie which he carries around his neck. He also wears one of the first ever pair of contact lenses, and has had a lip slice cosmetic surgery, as well as wearing stacked-heel shoes in order to make himself taller. All of these factors were employed by No to conceal his identity from the Tongs.


title: Julius No

text: With the million dollars from the Tong, he purchases rare stamps in order to preserve his money against inflation; he later purchases the island of Crab Key, off the coast of Jamaica, where he restarts a defunct guano business as a cover for his criminal operations. He employs Jamaican and Cuban laborers for his guano business, which is a mixed blessing for them. The workers are brutally supervised by Jamaican "Chigroes" (a portmanteau of 'Chinese' + 'Negroes', referring to their mixed ancestry), however they are paid good wages and given decent accommodations. No one who comes to the island is allowed to leave.


title: Julius No

text: No, with aid from the Soviets, sabotages the nearby tests of American missiles by jamming their signals and making them land and explode on a different target than that planned. This forces the Americans to spend time and money redesigning their missiles. He also recovers unexploded missiles from the ocean and turns them over to the Russians. No also admits there is more to play than the shopworn East-West rivalry; his intent is to create enmity between the USSR and USA in an attempt to make the Cold War hot. This was further revealed in Ernst Stavro Blofeld's master plan using the "three fighting fish" as an analogy; when the Cold War ended, SPECTRE would then engage in sabotage and subversion against the victor, now weakened from the war.


title: Julius No

text: Bond does not actually learn of No's plot until he and Quarrel—with Honeychile Rider, who would trespass to find shells—had infiltrated Crab Key and been captured. Bond had gone there after Commander Strangways had disappeared, murdered by No's henchmen. Bond eventually kills No by suffocating him in a mound of guano.


title: Julius No

text: Dr. No is a brilliant scientist with an implied Napoleon complex, and an example of the mad scientist trope. He is a self-described "unwanted child of a German missionary and a Chinese girl of a good family". He later "became treasurer of the most powerful criminal society in China"; in this case, the Tongs. He then "escaped to America with $10,000,000" of Tong gold bullion. He specialized in radiation, which cost him both of his hands; they were replaced with crude bionic metal ones. No's hands have great strength (he can crush a metal figurine with them) but are lacking in manual dexterity which leads to his demise.


title: Julius No

text: He offered his skills and expertise to the Americans, and then the Soviets, but was rejected by both superpowers. To get revenge, No joined the criminal organization SPECTRE and relocated to his island in Crab Key in Jamaica.


title: Julius No

text: When Bond is sent to investigate the murder of two British agents and any possible connection with recent rocket disasters, No orders several attempts on 007's life. He is particularly displeased with henchman Professor Dent's failures, such as through the chauffeur Jones. He gives Dent a venomous spider, which is released in Bond's room whilst he sleeps; however, Bond wakes up, kills it, and lures Dent to a private house, where Dent is interrogated and then shot twice by Bond.


title: Julius No

text: No fails in his own attempts to kill Bond; first, inadvertently, by locking him in a ventilation shaft, which is variously heated and filled with water; and then, deliberately, by beating him with his metal hands.


title: Julius No

text: No captures Bond and Honey Ryder when they trespass on his island, and they are put through a decontamination shower since No's henchmen detected radiation on them. Inviting them to dinner at his private apartment, he offers Bond a position in his organization, but Bond refuses. Bond escapes through a ventilation shaft (and avoiding the obstacles of heat and flooding), and disguises himself with a radiation suit. Bond enters the control area where No and his assistants are preparing to disrupt the launch of an American rocket. Bond sabotages No's swimming pool reactor, allowing the American missile to launch successfully while No and most of his henchmen do not understand it. When No observes Bond's sabotage, the two men fight while the personnel flee the imminent explosion. They fall onto a small platform that slowly descends into the boiling coolant of the overheating reactor. Bond manages to climb out, but No cannot get a grip on the metal framework, due to his metal hands, and is poached alive. Bond frees Honey from where she has been chained in a room filling with water, and escapes before the reactor explodes.


title: Julius No

text: SPECTRE learned of the death of Dr. No and they vowed revenge on James Bond, which lead to the events in "From Russia with Love". This also set the events of James Bond battling SPECTRE in the future films.


title: Julius No

text: Dr. No made several appearances in the cartoon series "James Bond Jr.". His skin, however, was rendered bright green similar to the Mandarin in "Iron Man" possibly due to the chemicals he was exposed to in the film. (In reality there was a mandate to try and not include too many ethnic characters as villains in cartoons, so quite a few Asian looking characters were given green skin like Dr. No, the Mandarin or Ming the Merciless in "Defenders of the Earth").


title: Julius No

text: Julius No also appeared in the video game "" (almost-completely unrelated, especially in the meaning of the title, to the 1995 film), voiced by Carlos Alazraqui. Despite his death in both the book and film, he appears alongside fellow enemies Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Auric Goldfinger, Francisco Scaramanga and Xenia Onatopp. In the game, Xenia Onatopp works for No and he seems to possess a considerable army of well-equipped henchmen as well as numerous tanks and helicopter gunships that resemble V-22 Ospreys. He also seems to have soldiers placed on countless rooftops and buildings in Hong Kong. He is electrocuted by his own reactor in a fight with the rogue 00 agent "GoldenEye".


title: Julius No

text: Julius No is also a multiplayer character in the video game "" and is a playable multiplayer character in the 2010 video game "GoldenEye 007" for the Wii


title: Julius No

text: The character of Dr. No makes a brief appearance in a 2012 Heineken beer commercial to promote the release of the twenty-third Bond film, "Skyfall".


title: Julius No

text: In "Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe" (Win Scott Eckert, ed., MonkeyBrain Books, 2005), Win Scott Eckert contributes "Who's Going to Take Over the World When I'm Gone?" wherein he posits that No's mother was an agent of Fu Manchu named Madame de Medici, who was in turn the daughter of Fu Xi, from Sax Rohmer's novel "The Golden Scorpion". Likewise in "", No is stated as being a distant relative of Fu Manchu. Later in the book, it is revealed that Bond's mission to stop Dr. No was a fraud, an alibi for Bond to kill a British leader for the Americans — "There was No Doctor."


title: Julius No

text: In the alternate history novel "Dracula Cha Cha Cha", Dr. No (along with Mr. Big) is mentioned as being vampire elders killed and drained by the Diogenes Club agent Hamish Bond.


title: Julius No

text: During the 1981 Ontario general election Progressive Conservative Premier Bill Davis mocked the Liberal leader Dr. Stuart Smith and his critical attitude towards the government by calling him "Dr. No". "Dr. No" was also used as the nickname of Northern Irish unionist politician Ian Paisley, due to his long-standing opposition to making concessions to Northern Ireland's Catholic community and to Irish nationalism. Similarly, American Republican politician and physician Tom Coburn was also known as "Dr. No" for his frequent opposition to legislation in the United States Congress, particularly bills which would increase federal spending. This nickname was also given to Representative Ron Paul for voting similarly against many bills, as well as his background as a medical doctor.


title: Julius No

text: Art critic Lawrence Alloway compared the pessimistic and gory writing of British art critic Robert Melville about artist Francis Bacon to the speech patterns of Dr. No in 'DR. NO'S BACON', "Art News and Review", 9 April 1960.


title: Queen Dowager Zhao

text: Zhao Ji (; –228 BC) was the wife of King Zhuangxiang of Qin and the mother of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. Upon her marriage, she was the Lady Zhao; after the king's death, she was the Queen Dowager ().


title: Queen Dowager Zhao

text: The daughter of a prominent family of Zhao, she was a concubine of the merchant Lü Buwei, who gave her to his protégé, Prince Yiren of Qin. A year later, she gave birth to a son named Zheng; the historian Sima Qian, ill-disposed towards the first emperor, claimed that the pregnancy was especially long and that the child was actually Lü's. The couple were living at the time in Handan, the capital of Zhao, where Yiren was a hostage; when Qin laid siege to the city, Lü was able to bribe the prince's way out of town but Lady Zhao and her infant son were forced to hide among her family. Thanks to Lü's intervention and diplomacy, Prince Yiren subsequently ascended the Qin throne, becoming known to history by his posthumous name King Zhuangxiang.


title: Queen Dowager Zhao

text: When King Zhuangxiang died in 247 BC, Crown Prince Zheng ascended the throne and Lady Zhao became the Queen Dowager. Sima Qian claimed she continued her affair with Lü Buwei but, facing exposure and persecution, he gave her a man named Lao Ai disguised as a eunuch. The couple produced two illegitimate children. After Lao Ai was killed during an attempted "coup d'état", the queen was imprisoned in her palace and the children were killed.


title: Queen Dowager Zhao

text: In 237 BC, a Qi man named Mao Jiao persuaded King Zheng to welcome the Queen Dowager back from Yong to Ganquan Palace in Xianyang, for fear that other regional states would turn against the Qin if they heard that King Zheng exiled his own mother.


title: Queen Dowager Zhao

text: By 221 BC, when King Zheng had unified China and become known as Shi Huangdi, the "First Emperor", the queen-dowager was already deceased. She was posthumously promoted as Empress Dowager (). She was buried with King Zhuangxiang at Zhiyang.


title: Queen Dowager Zhao

text: In the manga and anime "Kingdom", she was described and introduced as a beautiful dancing girl and Lu Buwei's lover, before she was engaged to Zhuangxiang. After getting stranded in Handan and giving birth to Zheng, she was cold to her son, to the point of sadism. She escaped after her son and joined the court as a dowager. She knew Lao Ai due to Lu's schemes and had children with him. In the aftermath of her attempt at a coup, she was imprisoned and her children with Lao Ai were secretly banished instead of killed.


title: Queen Dowager Zhao

text: She is portrayed by Wu Jinyan in the Chinese television series "The Legend of Haolan" (2019) and by Zhu Zhu in the series "Qin Dynasty Epic".


title: Premier League Hall of Fame

text: The Premier League Hall of Fame honours the leading association football players that have played in the Premier League, the top level of the English football league system. Inaugurated in 2020 but delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hall of Fame is intended to recognise and honour players that have achieved great success and made a significant contribution to the league since its founding in 1992.


title: Premier League Hall of Fame

text: As part of the inaugural class of 2021, eight players were inducted; Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry, Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, Frank Lampard, Dennis Bergkamp, Steven Gerrard, and David Beckham. The next year, a further eight players were inducted.


title: Premier League Hall of Fame

text: For players to be eligible for induction into the Premier League Hall of Fame, several criteria are taken into consideration, primarily players who have an "exceptional record of on-pitch success and have shown significant contribution" since the inception of the Premier League in 1992. Other factors are also taken into consideration, with players needing to have retired before the start of the awarding season, and are only judged on their domestic performances in the Premier League with no other competitions considered. Additionally, players must have made 250 appearances in the league, or achieved one of the following:


title: Premier League Hall of Fame

text: Upon the initial announcement of the Hall of Fame in 2020, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said a place in the Hall of Fame is "reserved for the very best", and would allow fans to help celebrate "truly exceptional" careers.


title: Premier League Hall of Fame

text: The first two inductees were originally to be announced in March 2020, but the announcement was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with 2021 inaugural inductees Thierry Henry and Alan Shearer, a fan vote determined additional inductees; the inaugural nominees were:


title: Premier League Hall of Fame

text: Along with 2022 inductees Wayne Rooney and Patrick Vieira, a fan vote took place to determine six additional players to be inducted as part of the 2022 class. The 2022 nominees were:


title: High Bandwidth Memory

text: High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is a high-speed computer memory interface for 3D-stacked synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) initially from Samsung, AMD and SK Hynix. It is used in conjunction with high-performance graphics accelerators, network devices, high-performance datacenter AI ASICs and FPGAs and in some supercomputers (such as the NEC SX-Aurora TSUBASA and Fujitsu A64FX). The first HBM memory chip was produced by SK Hynix in 2013, and the first devices to use HBM were the AMD Fiji GPUs in 2015.


title: High Bandwidth Memory

text: High Bandwidth Memory has been adopted by JEDEC as an industry standard in October 2013. The second generation, HBM2, was accepted by JEDEC in January 2016.


title: High Bandwidth Memory

text: HBM achieves higher bandwidth while using less power in a substantially smaller form factor than DDR4 or GDDR5. This is achieved by stacking up to eight DRAM dies and an optional base die which can include buffer circuitry and test logic. The stack is often connected to the memory controller on a GPU or CPU through a substrate, such as a silicon interposer. Alternatively, the memory die could be stacked directly on the CPU or GPU chip. Within the stack the die are vertically interconnected by through-silicon vias (TSVs) and microbumps. The HBM technology is similar in principle but incompatible with the Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) interface developed by Micron Technology.


title: High Bandwidth Memory

text: HBM memory bus is very wide in comparison to other DRAM memories such as DDR4 or GDDR5. An HBM stack of four DRAM dies (4Hi) has two 128bit channels per die for a total of 8 channels and a width of 1024 bits in total. A graphics card/GPU with four 4Hi HBM stacks would therefore have a memory bus with a width of 4096 bits. In comparison, the bus width of GDDR memories is 32 bits, with 16 channels for a graphics card with a 512bit memory interface. HBM supports up to 4 GB per package.


title: High Bandwidth Memory

text: The larger number of connections to the memory, relative to DDR4 or GDDR5, required a new method of connecting the HBM memory to the GPU (or other processor). AMD and Nvidia have both used purpose-built silicon chips, called "interposers", to connect the memory and GPU. This interposer has the added advantage of requiring the memory and processor to be physically close, decreasing memory paths. However, as semiconductor device fabrication is significantly more expensive than printed circuit board manufacture, this adds cost to the final product.


title: High Bandwidth Memory

text: The HBM DRAM is tightly coupled to the host compute die with a distributed interface. The interface is divided into independent channels. The channels are completely independent of one another and are not necessarily synchronous to each other. The HBM DRAM uses a wide-interface architecture to achieve high-speed, low-power operation. The HBM DRAM uses a 500 MHz differential clock CK_t / CK_c (where the suffix "_t" denotes the "true", or "positive", component of the differential pair, and "_c" stands for the "complementary" one). Commands are registered at the rising edge of CK_t, CK_c. Each channel interface maintains a 128bit data bus operating at double data rate (DDR). HBM supports transfer rates of 1 GT/s per pin (transferring 1 bit), yielding an overall package bandwidth of 128 GB/s.


title: High Bandwidth Memory

text: The second generation of High Bandwidth Memory, HBM2, also specifies up to eight dies per stack and doubles pin transfer rates up to 2 GT/s. Retaining 1024bit wide access, HBM2 is able to reach 256 GB/s memory bandwidth per package. The HBM2 spec allows up to 8 GB per package. HBM2 is predicted to be especially useful for performance-sensitive consumer applications such as virtual reality.


title: High Bandwidth Memory

text: On January 19, 2016, Samsung announced early mass production of HBM2, at up to 8 GB per stack. SK Hynix also announced availability of 4 GB stacks in August 2016.


title: High Bandwidth Memory

text: In late 2018, JEDEC announced an update to the HBM2 specification, providing for increased bandwidth and capacities. Up to 307 GB/s per stack (2.5 Tbit/s effective data rate) is now supported in the official specification, though products operating at this speed had already been available. Additionally, the update added support for 12Hi stacks (12 dies) making capacities of up to 24 GB per stack possible.


title: High Bandwidth Memory

text: On March 20, 2019, Samsung announced their Flashbolt HBM2E, featuring eight dies per stack, a transfer rate of 3.2 GT/s, providing a total of 16 GB and 410 GB/s per stack.


title: High Bandwidth Memory

text: August 12, 2019, SK Hynix announced their HBM2E, featuring eight dies per stack, a transfer rate of 3.6 GT/s, providing a total of 16 GB and 460 GB/s per stack. On 2 July 2020, SK Hynix announced that mass production has begun.


title: High Bandwidth Memory

text: In late 2020, Micron unveiled that the HBM2E standard would be updated and alongside that they unveiled the next standard known as HBMnext (later renamed to HBM3). This was to be a big generational leap from HBM2 and the replacement to HBM2E. This new VRAM would have come to the market in the Q4 of 2022. This would likely introduce a new architecture as the naming suggests.